Shabbat Parashat Vayeira 5779

Ein Ayah: Untying as One Is Elevated

Gemara: Where was tying done in the Mishkan [which would make it a melacha on Shabbat]? Rava said: They would tie things to the stakes that held the tent in place. Abaye said: That [is not a melacha,] as it is tying while having in mind to untie it [as the Mishkan was periodically moved]?! Rather, said Abaye: It was when the weavers of the fabric sheets, upon a thread being broken, would tie it up.

Untying as One Is Elevated

(condensed from Ein Ayah, Shabbat 7:4)

Ein Ayah: [The first piece relates to Abaye’s question, and relates to an idea that we saw last time, that one function of tying is to connect something that is not set to something that is set.]

Elevated divine thought purifies all other thoughts. When the thoughts of others are attached to divine thought, they cannot be permanently attached, because divine thought causes man to become elevated from one level to a higher level. Then, that which had at the time seemed to the person to be pure at a given moment, due to the divine light, will turn out to be dark and gloomy when the person already is on a higher level. Therefore, he will need to undo them and retie them at a new place and style them in a new form and with a different quality, which is brighter and grander. This is the idea of a connection to stakes of the tent being tied with the intention to untie.

Tying to Unite One’s Own Thoughts

(condensed from Ein Ayah, Shabbat 7:5)

Ein Ayah: [The second piece relates to Abaye’s answer.]

The second type of tying is when separate components are united into one entity, in a manner that they complement each other. It is not a matter of movable parts being attached to a greater, set object, but it has to do with the connection between two similar movable parts. They must be connected in a manner that unites them, so that each one is not facing in a different direction, and so they will not be opposing and contradicting each other.

This situation has a parallel in the world of human ideas. A person sometimes has thoughts on matters of wisdom, ethics, and philosophies that have different natures. The thoughts, though, should fit one another. If it turns out at times that one of his ideas contradicts another one, so that one is cut off from the other, it is important to fix the contradictory idea. The thought should not be allowed to “fly in the wind.” Therefore, the different ends need to be reattached.

To the extent that the partial thoughts remain, so too that which unites them remains. While a divine thought is connected to a person’s thought in a manner that it cannot remain tied, the different parts of a person’s own thought should remain connected. That is the philosophical idea behind the reattaching of a thread that came up in the weaving process in the production of the fabric for the Mishkan.

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