Michael Berg
MARCH 18, 2020
The spiritual insights concerning the portion of Vayikra are truly inspiring; namely, the revelations that are contained within the first words of it: Vayikra El Moses, “The Creator called to Moses.”
The Midrash uses a parable to explain the relationship between the previous portion of Pekudei, where Moses completed the construction of the Tabernacle as the Creator commanded him to do so, and the beginning of the portion Vayikra, where the Creator calls to Moses. The parable is also used to help signify what the first few words of Vayikra mean to us today. It compares the Creator to a king who commands his servant to build a beautiful palace for him and to write the name of the king on everything that he uses to build it - whether it is a brick he puts in the wall, a table, or a chair.
The servant carries out the king’s orders, and when the palace is completed, the king says, “My servant built this beautiful palace for me, but now I’m sitting inside, while he is outside. Call him and have him come join me in my most inner rooms,” meaning let him come into the palace and be very close to me.
Moses, as he was directing the construction of every part of the Tabernacle, said, “This is from the Creator. This is the way the Creator wants it to be.” He infused the Creator’s energy in everything pertaining to the Tabernacle. Therefore, just as in the parable, once the construction of the Tabernacle was completed, the Creator said, “How can I be inside now, while Moses is outside? Call Moses to come and be with Me in the most internal chambers,” meaning let him come and connect completely to the Light of the Creator.
The Talmud says that a person’s messenger has the same powers he has. For example, say a billionaire makes a poor person his emissary and sends him to purchase a billion-dollar business on his behalf. So, the poor person can now go and buy a billion dollar business for the billionaire even though he, himself, does not have a penny; when someone is given the Power of Attorney, it is legally binding. As such, the two souls become connected because once we imbue a messenger with a task, he can do everything we can do.
The same is true with the Creator. When we become messengers of the Creator, we can do everything the Creator can do. The Midrash explains that while Moses imbued the Creator’s energy into everything as he built the Tabernacle, he did so with his entire essence being that he was nothing but a messenger of the Light. Because of this consciousness, Moses merited the ultimate connection with the Light of the Creator and was, therefore, able to do everything the Creator could do.
Think about this for a moment - if each of us could get to the level of being a messenger for the Light of the Creator, then we could each come to a point where we can do everything the Creator can do. We can heal people. We can give any blessing. And so when we understand this, it becomes a truly life-changing lesson.
The Zohar, in the portion of Behar, says (and it’s not very often it says this), “I am going to reveal a great secret.” It then speaks about a concept called Ol Malchut Shamayim, “to accept the yoke of Heaven,” like an ox accepts his yoke to plow a field. First, the farmer has to take the yoke and connect it to the ox so that as he walks the ox through the field, the ox will be able to plow the field.
However, if you just take an ox and then walk it around a field, the ox won’t accomplish anything. In order for the ox to plough the field properly, first the yoke has to be attached to it in order to do anything. As this relates to us, we have to first accept the yoke of the Creator, accept being a complete messenger of the Light of the Creator… and then we can do everything.
The Zohar is telling us something very clearly here: To the degree that we see ourselves only as messengers of the Light of the Creator, is to the degree that we can do anything. Conversely, to the degree that we do not see ourselves as purely messengers of the Light of the Creator, we can do nothing.
Be careful, though, because when people learn this teaching, they can think it is pretty easy, that all they have to do is go to talk to someone or try to help someone and simply say, “I’m a messenger for the Light of the Creator, and because of this I have the ability to do everything.” But it doesn’t work like that, because being a messenger of the Creator influences what we do and how we think. The Shem MiShmuel says that the beauty of this level of consciousness is that we can achieve the spiritual level of being an angel.
Vayikra, therefore, is a call to each of us to become an angel of the Creator. However, as we have learned previously, as long as we have our anger, our disappointment, and our sadness about what is happening in our lives, we are not complete messengers of the Creator. But when we diminish ourselves completely and see ourselves only as a total messenger of the Light of the Creator, then we will have the ability and power to be an angel of the Creator, with the strength to do everything the Creator can do; which is a level, in the portion of Vayikra, we read that Moses achieves.
When speaking about Moses and the Shabbat of Vayikra, the Midrash quotes the verse: “Angels of the Creator, who have great strength.” One of the great gifts of this Shabbat, therefore, is that we are given an opportunity to begin attaining the highest level of consciousness, of becoming angels of the Creator who have great strength.
Having the ability to become a messenger of the Creator is a great gift of Shabbat Vayikra. And becoming an angel of the Creator actually has nothing to do with our spiritual level; it concerns how pure of a messenger we are. When we achieve the level of consciousness of diminishing our doubts, negative thoughts, and reactions such as anger, we can bring everything into this world. I hope we can all truly comprehend what this means: we can become angels of the Creator with the strength to draw the Light of the Creator and accomplish anything in this world.
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