Now, the Divine service of Aharon in setting-up the lamps and lighting them up, which is through “rejoicing in Miztvos,” is done “Outside the Paroches (the dividing curtain) which is front of the Aron (Holy Ark).” (Vayikra 24:3)
The concept of the dividing curtain is: It is written (Tehillim 84:12) “Like the sun and its covering are Havayah and Elokim.”
The sun has a protective covering, a “shield,” that prevents it from sending more light and heat than the world can handle. So too, Hashem’s power of revelation in Atzilus, which is connected to His Name Havaya, is so strong that the world can’t handle it. If it would shine without any concealment, we would lose our ego and any sense of separation from Hashem. We would then have no accomplishment in serving Him. This higher level of perceiving Hashem in Atzilus is called “Yichuda Ila’ah-the Higher Level of perceiving His Oneness.”
In order for us to choose to serve Him, He conceals this level from us, and allows us to perceive Him from a lower level. This is called “Yichuda Tita’ah-the Lower Level of Percieving His Oneness.” This lower level, connected to Hashem’s Name Elokim, allows us to feel our own ego and existence separate from Him, as it were. The separation between these two levels is the idea of the “Paroches-dividing curtain” between the Aron (in the Kodesh HaKadashim) and the Menorah (in the Heichal).
The Menorah and the Aron
The Menorah is in the Heichal, also called the Kodesh-Holy Area, which is the part of the Mishkan and Beis Hamikdash that also contains the Shulchan and the Mizbei’ach HaZahav. The Aron is in the Kodesh HaKadashim, the Holy of Holies. Between the Kodesh HaKadashim and the Heichal is curtain called the פרוכת - Dividing Curtain. From the perspective of standing inside the Kodesh HaKadashim, the Menorah is “outside” of the Paroches, and slightly on the right.
Meaning: Hashem’s Name of Havaya is the concept of the “Yichudah Ila’ah-the Higher-Level Perception of His Oneness,” which is that “there is no existence besides Him,” (Devarim 4:35), and “all is deemed non-existent before Him.” (Zohar I, 11a)
The name Elokim is that which hides and obscures in order to give the illusion that existence has an independent identity.
Yet, despite that illusion, the reality is, “the world is filled with His glory” (Yeshayah 6:3) in a manner of “Yichudah Tita’ah-The Lowel-Level Perception of His Oneness.”
The name Elokim is a “shield” to the name of Havayah. Meaning, just as a there is a shield for the sun since it is impossible to directly stare at the sun for more than a few moments due to its overwhelming brightness, and therefore a person needs to wear dark-colored glasses to look at the sun, so too we need a concealment on the intensity of Hashem’s Light to be able to perceive it our world.
This shield is the idea of “the dividing curtain shall separate for you between the Holy and the Holy of Holies” (Shemos 26:33).
That is where the lamps of the Menorah are set up and where there is the “joy of Mitzvos” – “on the outer side of the curtain” (ibid. 26:35).
These are performed in a manner of Yichudah Tita’ah, which on this level “your heart will run” to the level of Yichudah Ila’ah. Since the person is outside of the Holy of Holies, outside of Atzilus, he therefore now has a great yearning to ascend to that level.
This joy and yearning in the person’s soul is caused by the actual revelation of the Infinite Light of Hashem in His Mitzvos. That through this revelation a person will have an intense yearning for Hashem “with all of his might,” with great joy.
This experience of joy and yearning is accomplished through Aharon, who empowers the Jewish People to go up spiritually to Hashem in prayer.
