ב"ה
THEMES of Featured Chasidic Masters Articles
Ultimately, the forces of concealment of G-dliness become subsumed in holiness.
The first sign shown to Pharaoh introduced all the miracles and plagues
that followed. The staff symbolizes the direction and transmission of holiness
throughout the structure of all worlds, whereas the snake is a symbol of the
source of the kelipa of Egypt.
By turning the staff into a snake, Moses and Aaron showed Pharaoh that the "snake" ultimately owes its existence to the "staff" and that miracles "shatter the kelipot". |
Intermediate
Ultimate knowledge is realizing that all is from G-d
The commandment that precedes all others is to know G-d. Ultimately, this means to realize that everything that happens to us in life, and in the world around us, is from G-d.
Wealth, honor, and blessing in his life come from the trait of loving-kindness in the Holy Presence. Poverty and affliction, G-d forbid, come from the trait of strictness in the Holy Presence. If both traits are present, they derive from the trait of mercy, a combination of both loving-kindness and strictness. |
Why did destiny have it that Moses was raised not in a Jewish home, but among non-Jews, in the Egyptian palace?
The first leader of the Jewish people, who would set them free and molded them into a nation, grew up not among his own people, but in the palace of the man who wished to destroy them so that he would not feel lowly and accustomed to a house of slavery. Only thus could he dare dream of liberty and
possess the courage to confront the greatest tyrant of the time.
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Kabbalah says that via the Torah's commandments we connect to the essence of the Divine.
The name Havayah represents not just a specific manifestation of G‑d, but G‑d as He is in Himself, whereas the name Elokim expresses G‑d's attribute of restraint. It is this latter quality which is thus responsible for the world as we know it: everything seeming to follow a natural order, apparently independent of G‑d.
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