Parshat Emor: A Necessary Dualism
Friday, May 2, 2014
א וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה אֶל-מֹשֶׁה, אֱמֹר אֶל-הַכֹּהֲנִים בְּנֵי אַהֲרֹן; וְאָמַרְתָּ אֲלֵהֶם, לְנֶפֶשׁ לֹא-יִטַּמָּא בְּעַמָּיו.
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1 And HaShem said unto Moses: Speak unto the priests the sons of Aaron, and say unto them: There shall none defile himself for the dead among his people;
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Our Parshah opens up this week with an admonition to Moses to speak to the Priests the sons of Aaron. In the p’shat (literal sense) of Torah we see a special relationship between the brothers Moses and Aaron. The relationship between the two is an interdependent relationship as can be seen whenever the Divine mandate was given to Moses to approach the Pharoah of Egypt and to speak for the Children of Israel saying all that HaShem revealed unto Moses to say. However, Moses was reluctant as he was “not eloquent” in translating the Divine Imperative into a verbalized manifestation. The solution was that Aaron would be the counter-part to Moses and would translate the Revelations of Moses. Here we see the scheme of the Sefirot corresponding to this relationship. Moses represents Netzach and Aaron represents the counter Sefirah of Hod. These are the roles of prophecy and priesthood manifesting on the level of ordinary man.
Whenever this verse states that HaShem spoke to Moses to speak to the priests the sons of Aaron there is an obvious reference to this Sefirotic relationship. Aaron who corresponds to Hod is the concrete mind within each of us. This aspect of our psyche can be used for either good or evil as when Aaron allowed the people (inner forces) to influence him to make the Golden Calf to worship instead of directing the mind towards HaShem. In other words, the concrete mind (Hod) learns the material or literal of the mundane, sometimes in detriment to our spiritual walk. Aaron is in contrast to Moses who corresponds with Netzach and can be said to represent the Abstract Mind. Notice that Moses could raise himself close to HaShem but could not express himself concretely to the people as Aaron could. Anyone who has made progress on the spiritual path will know what the “knowing-feeling” is that one experiences when one receives illumination from the region of Abstract Thought (Netzach) and while in perfect understanding of the knowledge conveyed, is unable to convey it to another person, since the Moses within realizes the inadequacy of both our language and the physical brain to transmit deeper truths. Therefore what we see here is the Abstract Mind (Netzach) using the Concrete Mind (Hod) as a channel to convey the greater Wisdom in a manner accessible to the mundane person.
The phrase: “There shall none defile himself for the dead amongst the people” refers to the prohibition for a priest to make contact with a corpse or even a certain proximity to a corpse was a violation of the Levitical laws of ritual purity (see Bamidbar 19:14). According to the teachings of P’nimiyut HaTorah (The Inner Torah) the essence of this teaching is that the priest, who corresponds with Hod, must maintain a distance or separation from the “dead” in order to maintain kedusha (holiness) or in other words, a higher consciousness which is attached to and inspired by Netzach. The dead in this context refers to the unconsciousness of Truth (Objective Reality) which is inspired by Netzach. The “people” of this verse refers to “myriads of thoughts.” Therefore the implication is clear that Hod (Concrete Mind) must stay attached to the Divine Inspiration of Netzach by maintaining a separation (kedusha/perush) from the lower unconscious thoughts of the mundane (dead) principles of materialism and sensuality.
This article is argued so well, well condensed, and so well done. It is a delight read it. Very special for this dates.