November 21, 2008
Have you ever seen a ches up close? What's a ches? One of these: ח in Hebrew. This one doesn't do it justice because the one I'm really looking for is the Torah one (that font has escaped the standard Word collection). In the Torah, the ches is written with two zions ז ז attached with a tiny chuppah on top (a wedding canopy). Chuppah begins with a ches. The Chuppah makes the ches. A Chuppah is a ches. You see, zion is the seventh letter of the aleph beis. Seven always represents completion in the physical realm - six sides/dimensions to everything corporeal and the seventh dimension correlates to its spiritual source/purpose. For example, a table is the wood in the physical -6- and its use in the spiritual -7. Ches is the eighth letter. The next dimension. That which connects the seven to its spiritual mirror image above. Seven is the spiritual manifest in the physical. Eight is spiritual at its source.
A Chuppah, a Jewish wedding, enjoins two complete and separate entities (man and woman who are physically mature and spiritually whole - if you're not sure of either of those qualifications, see me another time). Miraculously - meaning beyond the laws of nature - they become one, and that "one" is greater than the sum total of its parts, well beyond what either could ever have achieved independently. "One" becomes doubled. Two "sevens" turn to eight - above and beyond the limits of the natural order. This week's Torah portion overflows with ches.
Abraham mourns his beloved Sarah, purchases from the people of CHES the Kever Hamachpaylah (the "doubled cave", otherwise known as the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the heavily contested Hebron) where she is to be buried, and in turn sets the stage for other couples as well, (as it happens, Adam and Eve were already there) Isaac and Rivka, Jacob and Leah. Quite the romantic resting place, no?
The Torah then turns to the journey of Eliezer, Abraham's trusted servant entrusted with finding a wife for Isaac. Rivka's kindness and flawlessness of character win her the role with miraculous fanfare, and Isaac is thus consoled from the death of his mother. A new Ches is born, in place of the old. The Chuppah of the Jewish people continues its legacy intact.
The Cave itself represents more doubling, more "ches". It was the place towards which our patriarchs and matriarchs prayed. It was there where they calibrated their physical existence with their spiritual source. Each of us has an eighth dimension - a purely spiritual "double" which never tars from our physical blemishes. It lays above us in perfection, representing ourselves having achieved 100% of our spiritual potential. Those who achieved their own perfection and simultaneously their marital perfection are forever entombed beneath the earth of the "doubling cave".
Those of us still on the journey can draw strength from its inhabitants and can calibrate our own lives with our spiritual double. We can strive for our own fluid synthesis of body and soul, and hope to find refuge in a marriage of similar caliber, where we finally stand the chance of catapulting ourselves towards transcendence and purpose of being. It ain't easy, I know. But a valiant effort will be well rewarded, and to not try is a crying shame.
Good Shabbos,
Rabbi Lynn
A Chuppah, a Jewish wedding, enjoins two complete and separate entities (man and woman who are physically mature and spiritually whole - if you're not sure of either of those qualifications, see me another time). Miraculously - meaning beyond the laws of nature - they become one, and that "one" is greater than the sum total of its parts, well beyond what either could ever have achieved independently. "One" becomes doubled. Two "sevens" turn to eight - above and beyond the limits of the natural order. This week's Torah portion overflows with ches.
Abraham mourns his beloved Sarah, purchases from the people of CHES the Kever Hamachpaylah (the "doubled cave", otherwise known as the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the heavily contested Hebron) where she is to be buried, and in turn sets the stage for other couples as well, (as it happens, Adam and Eve were already there) Isaac and Rivka, Jacob and Leah. Quite the romantic resting place, no?
The Torah then turns to the journey of Eliezer, Abraham's trusted servant entrusted with finding a wife for Isaac. Rivka's kindness and flawlessness of character win her the role with miraculous fanfare, and Isaac is thus consoled from the death of his mother. A new Ches is born, in place of the old. The Chuppah of the Jewish people continues its legacy intact.
The Cave itself represents more doubling, more "ches". It was the place towards which our patriarchs and matriarchs prayed. It was there where they calibrated their physical existence with their spiritual source. Each of us has an eighth dimension - a purely spiritual "double" which never tars from our physical blemishes. It lays above us in perfection, representing ourselves having achieved 100% of our spiritual potential. Those who achieved their own perfection and simultaneously their marital perfection are forever entombed beneath the earth of the "doubling cave".
Those of us still on the journey can draw strength from its inhabitants and can calibrate our own lives with our spiritual double. We can strive for our own fluid synthesis of body and soul, and hope to find refuge in a marriage of similar caliber, where we finally stand the chance of catapulting ourselves towards transcendence and purpose of being. It ain't easy, I know. But a valiant effort will be well rewarded, and to not try is a crying shame.
Good Shabbos,
Rabbi Lynn
posted by Rabbi Lynn at
3:44 PM
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