“We Have To Be Rebuilding Our Spiritual Work Everyday” - Weekly Wisdom June 5, 2008
This weeks Parashah, there’s a lot of really amazing concepts.
But one. It says that Moshe Rabeinu, in this weeks Parashah there’s a discussion of the completion of the Tabernacle. When Moses completed the erection of the Mishkan.
Now it says that for the first seven days Moshe would take down the Mishkan and put it up. Take it down, put it up.
And, those of you who’ve been to the grave of the Bal Shem Tov know that there’s one of the people buried next to him is the Ze’ev Kitzes who was one of the great students of the Bal Shem Tov. And he explains, he asks a question.
It says vayehe. The word vayehe in the Torah, when it’s used usually denotes sadness. Usually, and this is something that’s spoken about in the Zohar and in the Midrash. Vayehe is a word that always denotes sadness. It says on the day that Moshe finished the process of putting together the Mishkan, isn’t that, isn’t that a day of joy, a day of happiness?
And he explains that what it’s talking about, it’s talking about the work, the spiritual work that each one of us does. And that the way we have to view our work, and this is not easy, is the work of the first seven days of Moshe. On the eighth day the Mishkan was put together. It was perfect. The job was over.
And what he explains, that there’s two consciousness, two types of consciousness that a person can have in their spiritual work.
One is of the seven days where you build and push down, you take down. You build, you take down. Meaning every day you realize you have to take down the entire edifice you put together the day before. And you have to start brand new.
Another way is . When you look at it all, oh it’s pretty good. Let me make this a little bit better, make this a little bit better.
The idea being that if a person hopes to be a person, we spoke about this on Rosh Chodesh, but this is something that’s spoken about in this week’s Parashah as well. If a person wants to be a person who’s constantly moving and growing then every day he has to be taking down all of his work and starting new. Every day. Or, vayehe. Which denotes sadness.
When is it sad? When a person says . I finished. Or at least I’m close to finishing putting together the framework of my spiritual work.
And that’s the choice that we make. Are we going to be like Moshe in the seven days? Meaning, every morning when we wake up are we realize “wow, I have to start all over”. I have to renew everything. I have to take everything down from the day before and start it new. Then we’re growing.
If we are already on the level of the eighth day, , the building is set, let me make it a little bit more perfect, but it’s pretty good. Vayehe. It’s a day of sadness.
And what he says, is that Moshe, in this week’s Parashah, gives us the ability to have this consciousness.
And to the degree, and this is what he says, the only way, and this is the way we know. The only way to know if we are the part of Moshe that is growing, or the part of Moshe that is diminishing, is how we view our spiritual work every day.
If every day we come to the prayers in the morning, if every day when we come to the Zohar we say wow. The way I did it yesterday was completely, it’s wasn’t completely wrong, but it was not the way it was supposed to be. I have to do it new. I have to do it different today.
If I am like Moshe, and that’s why for the seven days, putting it up, taking it down. Putting it up, taking it down. That’s the right consciousness. Every day I’m looking at the edifice and saying it’s not there. And you take it down. Then you start it up again.
If a person’s on the eighth day, he sees the edifice, it’s pretty good, vayehe. It’s a day of sadness.
Because when a person starts looking at his spiritual work, the framework of his spiritual life, and the framework of his spiritual work, and he says it’s pretty good, that is the complete indication that he is not, certainly not growing, but also not connected to the Light of the Creator.
Because if a person’s connected to the Light of the Creator he’s connected to the first seven days.
And the second thing I want to share, which is not from this week’s Parashah, but it’s a concept that we’ve been talking about. And during this Hallel on Rosh Chodesh I realized something from one of the verses that connected to this concept.
We spoke about, if you remember, I think it was last class or the class before, the idea that our spiritual work needs to be a little bit beyond our comprehension.
You know, most people, both, and this is true, you know, when a teacher is teaching a student, and when a person is doing his own spiritual work, when a person is studying. We like to keep things within our comfort zone; within the levels that we understand. But the reality is that we have to be pushing. Everything that we study has to be a little bit that we don’t understand.
If everything that we read we understand, then we’re not reading the right things. Everything that we study, there has to be something we don’t understand. Every time we teach, we have to try to make sure that there’s to be something that a person won’t, isn’t ready for it yet. That there’s something a little bit above them.
Every time we do spiritual work we have to make sure there’s a little bit that we’re doing of it that is not comfortable for us; that is beyond us. This idea that our entire work needs to be infused with a little bit of beyond. A little bit beyond our comprehension, our understanding.
And this came up a few weeks ago. I was talking to one of the teachers in the Centre how, you know, we always want to make sure the students to understand, that it’s on their level. No.
Yes, we have to make sure. Obviously you don’t want to give a class where nobody understands everything. But you do give something they can understand, but always make sure there’s, there’s something that isn’t left to understand.
And to understand this, at least in a , is that if a person’s comprehension of the wisdom is “oh yes, I can understand that,” then that’s how much Light he receives. Once you open up the gate for him to say well, yes, there’s something I understand, but there’s some that I don’t. Well, how big is that lack of knowledge? And to whatever degree that lack of knowledge is, that opens them up to Endless Light.
We say in Hallel, we say in Hallel, . Literally translated that means, this is from the Creator, it is beyond us. . It is something we can’t comprehend.
And what I think, there’s obviously all levels of understanding, of explanations to this verse. But I think one way to understand this verse is how do you know if the work you’re doing, if the study you’re studying, if what you’re teaching, is from the Creator? Is if (Hebrew), if it’s a little bit beyond your comprehension. It’s a little bit beyond what you can do. It’s a little beyond what the student can understand.
If your work is always a little bit more than you can understand, a little bit more than you can do, a little bit more than the student can understand, . It’s coming from the Creator. If it’s not, (Hebrew). If there’s nothing that you are teaching, if there’s nothing that you’re learning, if there’s nothing that you’re doing that is beyond you, that you can’t understand, that you can’t do, then it’s not from the Creator.
How do you know that your study, that your work, that your teaching, is from the Creator? . If it’s a little bit beyond your comprehension.
And Rav Ashlag would always say, people think that the work that we, that the spiritual work needs to be up until, all the way to the limit of our ability. And he says that’s not true. A person’s spiritual work needs to be beyond their abilities. And that’s when it’s true spiritual work.
And this is the idea. And this is true both in the physical, spiritual work that we do, in the study that we do. If the work that we do, if the study that we study, if the teachings that we teach, are within the realm, even all the way to the edges of what people can understand and what people can do. It’s not from the Creator.
How do you know that our work, that our study, that our teaching is connected to the Light of the Creator? . Is there a part of it that’s too much? Is there a part of it that’s too difficult? Is there a part of it that you can’t understand? Is there a part of it that the student can’t understand? If yes, (Hebrew), it’s coming from the Creator.