Another helpful metaphor is that of a mother giving birth. Through the birth pains, she is giving up of herself so that new birth may take place and new consciousness may come into the world. For all peoples, including the Jewish people, we need to merit that light by undergoing a nullification of our identity with the ego. All the tribulations that were mentioned in these forty-two forays were, in essence, birth pains leading to the birthing and revealing of the divine light. This explains the strange wording in the Torah’s description of that forty-year desert journey: “The Israelites would thus move on at God’s bidding, and at God’s bidding they would remain in one place for as long as the cloud remained on the Tabernacle” (BeMidbar 9:18). God’s bidding is a metaphor for the sephirah of malchut (sovereignty), by which God is revealed in our world as we walk between b’limah and mah. Again, the forty-two sites where the Israelites stopped were, in essence, revelations of the messianic light, revealing malchut at the level of the sovereignty of heaven. Rabbi Gabriel Cousens, MD Torah as a Guide to Enlightenment (Parsha Mase)
Posted on: Sat, 26 Jul 2014 13:50:07 +0000
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