The Zohar of Parshat Tazria: Section 1... 1. And HaShem spoke to Moses saying, Speak to the Children of Israel, saying, If a woman have conceived seed, and born a man child… (Lev. 12:2). Rabbi Eleazar opened with, By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loves (Song of Songs 3:1). He asks, It says, ‘on my bed,’ while it should have said, ‘in my bed,’ why ‘on my bed?’ And he answers, the Congregation of Israel spoke before the Holy One, blessed be He, and beseeched him concerning the exile, because she is sitting among the other nations with her children, and lying in the dust. And since she is lying in another, defiled land, she said, ‘on my bed’ I beseech, since I am lying in exile, and exile is called ‘Nights.’ Therefore, ‘I sought him whom my soul loves,’ to take me out of it. (Zohar parshat Tazria) My thoughts: This section of the Zohar starts off addressing the Congregation of Israel. To understand this parshat we must define terms. The Congregation of Israel‖symbolizes the sefirah Tiferet (Jacob) on the Tree of Life, and includes the five sefirot that surround Tiferet (Chesed, Gevurah, Netzach, Hod, and Yesod). The twelve tribes of Israel are included in this conformation because they are symbolized by the twelve pathways that extend between these six sefirot. Tiferet (Israel) represents the incarnate Soul and is conjoined with Yesod which is the ego. In this aspect Tiferet is bound to the lower ego and must endure this state of consciousness which is removed from the upper Da’at of expanded awareness of the Creator’s Oneness. Rav Z’ev HaLevi speaks of Tiferet in this light by stating: “At the center of the body Tree is the sefirah Tiferet of the central nervous system. As its position implies it is the focus of many paths. These paths, both on the Tree, and in the body, extend outward and inward. On the Tree the two-way flow relates to the various principles of the sefirot and the two conscious levels of Yesod and Da’at. Yesod, in the body context, is the autonomic consciousness while Da’at, the Yesod of the Yetziratic or psychological Tree, is the knowledge or the knowing of the embodied ego.” (Adam & the Kabbalistic Trees). The decent of consciousness (the Soul) to the level of Tiferet (Congregation of Israel) is in a state of exile which is the absence of the feminine principle of the Upper Shekinah- it having a close association with the sefirah Binah (because of Binah‘s rulership of the twelve Simple letters, and because of the path of Shin in their midst). The sefirah of Tiferet is mitigated by the male principle as represented by Chockmah (opposite Binah). It enters the Congregation of Israel and protrudes out of its top, joining Tiferet to Da’at. There are two covenants involved in this process which regulate Tiferet (consciousness of this level)—the covenant of the ‘circumcision of the male member,’ and the covenant of the ‘circumcision of the tongue.’ These are associated with the sefirot, Yesod and Da‘at respectively. The divine Covenant that has been established between God and Man is called ‘Brit’ (covenant). Symbolically speaking, this covenant refers to a special relationship that exists between the Community of Israel and the Shekinah. This special relationship was established during the Creation (B’reishit- ‘In the beginning‘) and is represented by the insertion of EiSh (i.e. the Hebrew word for ‘Fire’) into the middle of Brit (Covenant) to form B’reishit. Thus, the Covenant is a covenant of Fire. Consider this- When God created the world, it was created only through a covenant, as it is written, B’reishit (brit esh, covenant of fire), God created; and it is further written, ―If my covenant of day and night stand not, if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth‖ (Jer. 33:25), since there is a covenant of union that day and night shall not be separated. The Covenant of Fire is established between the Israel and the lower Shekinah. This holy covenant has existed since the beginning of Creation. Thus the Zohar is speaking of the covenant with Israel (the Soul) and the purpose of creation and the Soul’s subsequent descent into the mundane realm subject to the egoistic principle and the sense of alienation from the Shekinah. The Soul rests upon the bed of the mundane but is not entirely submersed “in” the mundane principle. The Soul still has access to the higher principle of Da’at, meaning the capacity of rise to a higher state of consciousness avails itself to the principle of Israel via the Covenant(s) of fire- fire represents the shin principle that is a pathway rising from Tiferet to Da’at.
Posted on: Tue, 25 Mar 2014 22:27:13 +0000
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