Torah: G-d’s Revelation on Earth
Manifestations of the Divine in Everything
G-d’s energy comes into this world in many shapes and sizes. When we look at a living being we see G-d.
By extension, Kabbalah teaches us that everything is a manifestation of G-d, because every being - even an inanimate being - has a Divine spark that gives it its ability to exist. By just looking at any aspect of the world we should be able to “see” the presence of its creator.
Nothing can create itself. By the sheer force of logic, then, one should be able to deduce the presence of a Creator. A beautiful sunrise or sunset, a magnificent mountain, an autumn day when all the leaves have turned colors, all instill in us a sense of awe of G-d’s majesty.
The more alive something is, the more pronounced is the presence of G-d.
That is why Judaism considers a person who touches a dead body to be defiled. This does not mean that there is something bad about a dead body or about touching one - if necessary. However, when G-d’s presence is hidden behind the mask of death, we feel the need to reaffirm His presence.
When a vibrant human being has become still as a rock and G-d’s presence has receded, it is time for the mourning relatives to look for ways to increase their connection and commitment to G-d, the Giver of life.
The process of mourning and reciting Kaddish (often referred to as the prayer for the dead) is not simply for therapeutic reasons - to enable us to heal. It is intended, primarily, to give us a chance to reexamine our conception of life; making up for the loss of life/G-dliness by increasing our efforts to bring more life into the world and enhance the life that already exists.
Mourning is a time for the living to rise above the death of a loved one - a temporary diminution of the life sustaining G-dly force in the world.
Obviously, within life itself there are differences between plant, animal and human forms. Human life is more expressive of G-d, because it is intelligent life.
More importantly, human life is more G-dly because humans, and only humans, can make choices to grow spiritually and connect with G-d. Only humans have free choice, which derives from their being created in the “image of G-d.” Just as G-d has absolutely free choice, because nothing can compel G-d to make a choice, so too do we humans have the ability to resist any force in choosing either the wrong or the right thing to do: a very powerful expression of G-d, indeed.
The harder a person toils to make every aspect of his or her life conform to G-d’s will, the more that person’s life becomes an expression of G-d’s presence, the more holy he or she becomes. That is why Judaism, particularly Jewish mysticism, places a great emphasis on our connection to the tzadik, the righteous individual. By connecting to G-dly people we become more G-dly.
Torah: Undiminished G-dliness
Of all the different modes of Divine expression, none is greater than the Torah, G-d’s wisdom. All the other expressions of divinity undergo a long process of diminution and filtering before they are able to find expression in a physical world.
Even our G-dly souls cannot possibly coexist with a physical body without some degree of adjustment on the part of the soul: the soul’s original intensity and G-dly passion must first become greatly diminished. The tzadik is one whose soul has undergone the least amount of change. This can be attributed to any of several factors:
The souls of some tzaddikim, by G-d’s design, experience little filtering in their journey to this world, and therefore, such individuals naturally feel more spiritual, despite the grossness of their bodies. The body and soul of these tzaddikim clash, and they must therefore “break” their bodies to accommodate the intensity of the soul.
Other tzaddikim are created with very refined bodies in the first place. Their souls do not have much of a struggle because the body poses minimal resistance.
There is a third scenario in which the tzadik works hard at refining his or her body and animal desires until they give way to the soul. However the tzadik reaches the point where his soul dominates his body, one thing is clear: the soul’s intensity when it is in the body is always less than it was before it descended into the physical world.
The medium through which the most transcendent G-dly forces come into the world unfiltered and unaltered is Torah. Torah is G-dly energy accessible to the mind. Even the greatest tzadik needs to study Torah to enable his soul to rise above the restrictions of the body, no matter how subtle and minimal.
The Torah serves as the soul’s anchor to another world -the world of undiluted G-dliness which is unimpeded by the constraints of the physical nature of the body.
In Jewish mysticism, therefore, we do not find that the greater the tzadik the less he needs Torah. One might think that since tzaddikim are so spiritual they do not need the Torah. In truth, the more spiritual they are, the more they realize that their potential is inhibited by the existence of the body and its desires and needs. So the true tzadik always seeks to overcome whatever barrier stands in the way of his connection to G-d. And there is only one means to connect: through the teachings of Torah.
Sick with Love? Learn some Torah
The tzadik’s need to connect with G-d sometimes becomes so great that he attains a state that Kabbalah calls Cholat Ahavah, Sick with Love. This phrase, taken from King Solomon’s Song of Songs, refers to a passionate love for G-d so intense that the tzadik becomes ill when he cannot get any closer.
The Hebrew word for sick — “choleh”- itself tells us something about the nature of the tzadik’s unquenched thirst for G-d. The numerical equivalent of choleh is 49. According to the Talmud and Kabbalah, there are fifty gates of Torah understanding, but only forty-nine are In Hebrew, every letter is also a number.
attainable by man. The elusive fiftieth level will only be attained in the Messianic Era.
Now, the tzadik who has reached the pinnacle — the fortyninth level — is choleh sick, because he cannot reach the fiftieth level.
Ironically, the one who has reached the forty-eighth gate is not called choleh even though he is farther away from G- d; only the forty-ninth is called lovesick, because the greater the level of closeness to G-d, the more one’s love intensifies.
The only way a tzadik can quench his thirst or quiet the passion in his heart for more G-dly revelation without leaving this world is through Torah. The greater the tzadik, the more he feels the need to study Torah.
From the book Safe Kabbalah, Part Two: The Fourth Dimension by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
