Identifying with
the Nation of Israel – Key to Serving God in Purity
The first pasuk of our parsha states, “... אמור אל הכהנים ... ואמרת להם .../… say to the the kohanim
… and say to them …” Why the
redundancy? The Sfas Emes explains
according the Midrash[1].
To continue to exist, the physical world needs to constantly
receive spiritual sustenance. The ten
sayings – עשרה מאמרות
– with which God created the world is the mechanism for infusing this life
force into the physical world. The ten
sayings are more than just God’s speech.
They are actual spiritual entities.
When God said, “Let there be light” (Breishis 1:3) , the words
themselves were the spiritual entity that created light. Through the ten
sayings the world receives the spiritual sustenance it needs to continue to exist. A pasuk in Tehillim (19:3) suggests
this, “יוֹם לְיוֹם
יַבִּיעַ אֹמֶר .../Day to day utters speech …”
The plain meaning of this pasuk is that each day the workings of the
universe cause us to utter praises to God for each day the Creation is
renewed. The Sfas Emes explains that the
word אוֹמֶר/speech
in this pasuk alludes to these אמירות/sayings
through which spiritual power comes into the world. According to the Sfas Emes’ understanding,
the translation would be, “Each day expresses a saying.” The Creation is the physical manifestation of
the spiritual sayings.
The chapter in Tehillim continues by comparing the rising of
the sun with a groom who emerges from his chamber in the morning. The Midrash[2]
explains the comparison. Just as a groom
enters in purity and emerges impure so too the sun goes from purity to
impurity. The Midrash refers to the
physical in relation to the spiritual realms as impure because the physical
needs the spiritual to exist much like a body is only alive if it contains a soul. When the spiritual departs, what is left is
impure. Since the groom engaged in the
most physical of acts, the Midrash calls this impure in relation to the
spiritual. So too, the sun manifesting
physically as it rises is called impure.
Each day God renews the workings of the Creation and draws new life from
the source of life to all the creations.
In this context purity represents life that comes from the source of
life whereas impurity is the physical Creation without the spiritual.
We see that אֲמִירָה/saying
connotes a connection with the source of life. How do we connect to the
source? How can we live spiritual pure
lives even in the physical and mundane world?
The answer according to Sfas emes is hinted at in the Midrash which,
explaining the redundancy in the first pasuk of the parsha, teaches us that Israel
needs two אֲמִירוֹת/sayings. The first saying, is God’s imbuing the
physical world with spirituality as we explained above. But this alone is not enough. The spirituality is latent. It is concealed and does not affect us. As the Midrash said before, the physical
without the spiritual is impure.
For us to connect with the spiritual we need to desire to
become pure and to connect with God’s “sayings”, the spiritual embedded in the
physical that gives the physical existence. The way to do this is to identify and feel a
part of the nation of Israel. This is
because the spiritual entity called Knesses Yisrael is the prime conduit
for bringing God’s “sayings”, His spiritual sustenance into the physical world.
This then is the meaning of the second “saying”
in the pasuk. The second saying is each
individual Jew acknowledging God’s spirituality in the physical world by
identifying with the nation of Israel, the conduit for bringing that
spirituality into the world.
Significantly, another Midrash in this week’s parsha states
that slander (may God save us from it!) prevents purity.[3] According to the Sfas Emes, this is because a
person who slanders another Jew is not feeling a part of the nation of
Israel. He is therefore missing the second
“saying.”
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