Closer to the King

And Abraham was old, advanced in days, and G‑d blessed Abraham in all things." (Gen 24:1) Rabbi Yehuda began [his discourse by] citing: "Fortunate is the man You choose, and cause to approach to You that he may dwell in Your courts". (Psalms 65:5) This verse has already been explained. Nevertheless [we shall explain it again now] citing: Fortunate is the man whose ways are welcome and acceptable to G‑d, Who chooses to bring him nearer to Him.

Come and see! Abraham drew closer to G‑d by constantly desiring that [spiritual work that would enable the attribute of kindness to be strengthened and become a vehicle for the aspect of chesed of Zeir Anpin of Atzilut in this physical world]. Abraham did not come closer in one day or at one time, but his deeds brought him closer every day as he moved from one level to another [from chesed of malchut to chesed of yesod to chesed of hod, and so on up the Tree of Life] until his level was elevated [to the level of chesed in Zeir Anpin of the world of Atzilut] when he was old.

Then [in his old age] he was elevated to supernal levels as he deserved, as it is written: "And Abraham was old" and then "advanced in days." [lit. coming with days] This refers to the supernal days [the lower 7 sefirot of Zeir Anpin, thus until he elevated to the first day, called Supernal chesed], those known days, [first entering into] the secret of faith [i.e. the secret of malchut, therefore it says:] "And G‑d blessed Abraham in all," [he merited to be blessed by the attribute of malchut and he drew bounty on to himself from yesod called "all"]. That is where blessings and all goodness [i.e. all chasadim] come from.

Fortunate are those who do teshuvah, who in one hour [when one abandons sin, and regrets from the depths of his heart], one day [Yom Kippur] , one moment [the moment of death] , get closer to G‑d than do the righteous come to Him over several years. Abraham did not come into the supernal days [the chasadim of the 7 lower sefirot of Zeir Anpin] until he was old, as has been explained. Neither did David, as it is written: "Now King David was old, advanced in years (lit. 'coming with days')". (I Kings 1:1) But one who does teshuvah comes right in and cleaves to G‑d.

Rabbi Yosi said, we learned that the wholly righteous have no permission to be in that place where the one who does teshuvah stands. They [who do teshuvah] are closer to the King than everyone else and draw plenty from above with a more intent heart and greater force in order to come closer to the King. [When one has many sins that multiply in the depths of the kelipot, he therefore has a great battle to get himself out of his tight straits. He must break his heart much more than the rest of the righteous in order to approach G‑d.]

Come and see! G‑d has several places in that world [the levels of Beriya Yetzira and Asiya]. In them all, there are apartments for the righteous, each according to his deserved level.

It is written, "Fortunate is the man whom You choose, and cause to approach You, that he may dwell in Your courts". (Psalms 65:5) This verse refers to those whom G‑d causes to approach Him, as these are the souls that ascend to join the inheritance prepared for them. "That he may dwell in Your courts" alludes to the outer halls and the levels outside [of the “house”/world of Beriyah into the halls of the world of Yetzirah]. To whom does it refer? The hint here is as written: "Then I will give you free access among these who stand..." (Zachariah 3:7) This is a specific level assigned among the supernal angelic holy beings [who stand in place, as opposed to men who advance or reduce their level].

All those who merit this level [amongst the angels] become messengers of the Master of the universe like the angels. They always do the errands according to their Master's wish, for they are forever in holiness and are never defiled.

Similarly, whoever is defiled in this world draws the spirit of unholiness to himself. When his soul leaves him, he is defiled, and his dwelling is with the unclean, with the fiends of the world. As a man draws upon himself in this world, his dwelling will likewise be determined. The defiled spirits defile him and bring him into Purgatory.

Come and see! Whoever sanctifies himself and is on guard against defilement in this world will find his dwelling in the next world among the supernal holy beings [the angels] who eternally carry forth the missions of G‑d. They stand by in the court, as it is written: "The court of the tabernacle". (Ex. 27:9)

BeRahamim LeHayyim:
Above we learn about the spiritual significance of "days." We know we are to do teshuvah the day before we die. And we ask G‑d to "teach us to number our days, so we may acquire a heart of wisdom." How do we do this?

With sincere mindfulness. Each day, each hour, each minute, each second. Each is different. So too with each breath in, we live, and with each breath out, we die. To get to where we are holding right now —namely to find a mystical commentary on the Torah interesting enough to spend precious time on — we all obviously appreciate to some extent sanctifying moments in time. And most of us were not always like this; we have come far.

But it is not enough. We have been promised that we are all "tzaddikim." Yet still it is our job to move from level to level each and every day! Only then, by living in the moment as much as we can, seeing life with our inner vision on the template of the Tree of Life, we will acquire the promised heart of wisdom. Bon voyage!

Bracketed annotations from Metok Midevash and Sulam commentaries
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