Every day we unite with our Divine core. But if this heightened state of intimacy with G-d is always present and available to all, why don’t we feel it? Why does this spiritual reality not shine through?
By Rabbi Boruch Merkur
Back when people still wondered Doesn’t Anyone Blush Anymore? the model towards a healthy psyche was unveiled: Unwavering boundaries protect us from overfamiliarity, thereby keeping our relationships fresh and pure.
We learn this from the fact that the Holy of Holies was always off bounds, a forbidden space even to the Kohen Gadol, who “is not to come any time into the Shrine behind the curtain … lest he die, for I appear in the cloud [of incense] over the Ark’s cover.”[1]
Approaching the King of Kings is always an exception to the rule, by special invitation only and with great formality. Yet the unique day of Yom Kippur[2] puts the incense-bearing Kohen Gadol front and center in a private audience with G-d.
In fact, at risk of becoming overly familiar with holiness, every day, incense is burned upon the altar in the Outer Sanctum. That daily service - albeit outside the Holy of Holies and performed by even a regular Kohen - was also an intimate encounter with G-d, for which reason at that time,
“No man shall be in the Sanctuary, etc.”[3] By offering incense, the Kohen enters a private audience with the Almighty, alluding to the core bond of the Yechida [the highest dimension of the soul, to its Maker].[4]
Not only that, every Jew is privy to this union with G-d, based on the verse, “And you shall be to Me a nation of Kohanim” - “Kohanim G’dolim.”[5] And as Rambam teaches, “Not only the Tribe of Levi was sanctified; any dedicated individual … is sanctified Holy of Holies.”[6]
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Incense, composed of eleven ingredients, represents our ability to reach even higher than the Ten Commandments. It is the core Divine identity of a Jew, which transcends relative merit or judgement, being higher than the ten powers of the soul.[7]
Every day in the morning prayers we recite the preparation of the incense, symbolizing
“the daily renewal of the general connection and bond of the core of the soul, the Yechida, to G-d Almighty, in virtue of which … ‘I shall dwell among you.’”[8]
And the effect lasts:
The core Jewish identify of the essence of the soul is identifiable in the person as the perfect bond and union with G-d Almighty … which endures and stays strong forever through every circumstance.[9]
Now it sounds more like “two friends who never part,” risking overfamiliarity if anything.
From another angle - an ongoing theme of this column - if this heightened state of connectivity is always present and available to all, why don’t we feel it? Why does this reality not shine through?
The fallback answer to this nagging question is that we are an orphaned people, banished from our Father’s table. Our sensibilities are dull and diminished.
To console ourselves of this darkness, every morning we recite the full order of the Temple service in the name of (the orphan[10]) Abayei, according to the opinion of Abba Shaul:
Beis Yosef writes that Rambam… rules like the Rabbanan, who dispute the ruling of Abba Shaul. They maintain that incense interrupts the preparation of the five lights of the candelabra and the [remaining] two … But since it was discovered (matzu ha’olam, literally “the world found”) that Abayei arranged the order according to Abba Shaul [who holds that the lighting of the candelabra was completed before the incense was offered, indicating that incense is a Temple service that is independent of lighting the candelabra] … they did not want to change that order.[11]
Why would that be? It’s not the order we recite on Yom Kippur, nor is it the way things will be done when the Temple service resumes when Moshiach comes!
The Rebbe’s answer interprets the words of Beis Yosef quoted above:
“(Matzu) ha’olam,” meaning helem (v’hester, concealment), signifying the condition in the time of exile: “children exiled from their father’s table.” In exile, Jews are “orphans,” alluded to by the name “Abayei,” an acronym for “asherbecha yerucham yasom – since in You the orphan finds pity.” They are pitied because their father is elsewhere (as it were), hinted in the name “Abba Shaul,” for it is necessary “to borrow - l’hash’il” (as it were) abba, a father, from another place.
Thus, regarding the daily recital of the Temple order, “they did not want to change that order” arranged by Abayei according to Abba Shaul, whereby “the preparation of even the [final] two lights precedes the incense,”[12] for in the obscurity and concealment of exile, it is not (so) accessible that the Yechida should be manifest and revealed in the service of the inner soul-powers [inspired initiatives, represented by the candelabra, which shines light] …
But in the service of Yom Kippur, since then (even in the time of exile) the Jewish people are at a lofty spiritual height, to the point that every Jew resembles the Kohen Gadol, who goes into the inner chamber … the Yechida is revealed in the Jew’s service within his inner soul-powers, manifest and revealed in the world.[13]
And the mechanism to transcend our pitiable orphaned state and realize this incredible state of unity with G-d - shining the light of our core identity where it counts most, in the real world - is accomplished through joy![14]
NOTES:
[1] Acharei 16:2
[2] Though according to VaYikra Rabba 21:7, as well as other Midrashim, “Any time he wants to enter he may enter, so long as he does it in this order.” That is, the Kohen Gadol may enter the Holy of Holies with incense whenever he wants. (Seifer HaSichos 5752, pg. 422, FN 134)
[3] Acharei 16:17
[4] Seifer HaSichos 5752, pg. 414
[5] Yisro 19:6, commentary of Baal HaTurim.
[6] Laws of Shmita and Yovel, end.
[7] Seifer HaSichos 5752, pg. 414
[8] Ibid 417
[9] Ibid 418. And see FN 95, where it discusses how this connection varies between times of reciting Shma and during Shmoneh Esrei, when one is cognizant of his d’veikus, compared to when one is involved in mundane matters.
[10] See FN 104
[11] Seifer HaSichos 5752, pg. 418
[12] separating the notion of the core G-dly identify, incense, from the ability for that to shine forth and be expressed in all ways, with all one’s soul powers, represented by the golden, seven-branched candelabra.
[13] Ibid 419-420
[14] Ibid 420