Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 20:08 — 18.6MB)
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | Podchaser | Email | RSS
This piece of Zohar is traditionally read studied during the night of Shavuot when we stay up in the night studying the Torah in order to prepare for the Receiving of the Torah on the festival of Shavuot.
“Rabbi Shimon was sitting learning Torah throughout the night. This is the night when the Bride (that is the Malchut) joins with her Husband (God). All the companions who belong to the Bride’s house need to be present during that night. The following day is the day of Shavuot when the Bride is appointed to be under the wedding canopy with her husband since He was with Her all through the night. The companions rejoice with the bride and with her Tikkun with which she is rectified. They study and practice all aspects of the Torah: the five books of Moses, the prophets, the writings, and the Midrash, and the Kabbalah. Because these constitute Her rectification and are Her jewelry. And she, the Bride, comes with her maidens and stands above the companions, and She is rectified by them and is happy with them all through the night.
On the following day, She only comes to the wedding canopy with them. And they, the companions who occupy themselves all through the night with the Torah are called the sons of the wedding canopy. And when they come to the canopy, the Holy Blessed One asks after them and blesses them and adorns them with the jewelry of the Bride, Happy is their portion.” Zohar
Rabbi Ashlag teaches us that this paragraph of Zohar is actually talking about two situations simultaneously. This is because they both share the same essence.:
1 ) The complete redemption, when all the correction of creation will be finished and
2) The festival of Shavuot, when we received the Torah on Mount Sinai.
The Shechinah, the indwelling presence of God, is called in the Zohar “the Bride.” Her destiny is to stand under the wedding canopy, the chuppah, with her husband, the Holy Blessed One. But this she can only do with the help of the companions, those who work to fulfill the Torah and mitzvot through the long years in which God’s light is concealed. Nevertheless, it is in exactly those times when the Bride is prepared for her Husband.
Shavuot, the day on which all Israel stood as one and experienced the voice of God directly has all the elements of the final redemption too. It is the day on which we received the Torah then and we renew our receiving now. For the Torah is not just a way, it is also a destination.
This podcast is dedicated to the ilui nishmat of Feiga bat Rivka z”l and Aharon and Sara Kotler z”l
{ 0 comments… add one now }