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Shabbat Parashat Lech Lecha 5780

Ein Ayah: The Cause of Unfaithfulness

(condensed from Ein Ayah, Shabbat 9:80-81)

Gemara: Ulla said: Disgraceful is a bride who commits adultery from within her wedding canopy. [This is a metaphor for the sin of the Golden Calf, right after the giving of the Torah.] Rav Mari said: Where is this found in a pasuk? “While the king was still in his party, the spikenard left its smell [for others - Rashi]” (Shir Hashirim 1:12).  

 

Ein Ayah: The tendency toward idol worship stems from the natural lowliness within a person, which is intermingled with the essence of evil and unsightliness within his physicality. As long as the entire world has not been purified from its spirit of impurity, a venom lying in hiding will remain. Even when the light of holiness and goodness increases, evil is not eradicated. Rather, it goes into a state of sleep, from which it can be awoken even during days that the light of truth and goodness is shining. This is a sense of disgrace for people, testimony to the lacking found in the nature of the human spirit. Indeed, the painful impurities were not totally removed from its foundation, as the readiness to do evil remains intact.

Where does the source of evil, which enables the inclination toward idol worship to sprout forth even after the nation reached great spiritual heights, come from? Should it not have been overcome, considering that it comes from man’s low point, and the nation already experienced such light and their hearts were touched with love and purity by Hashem at Sinai?

The foundation of evil was not found in the essence of the Israelite spirit, for this was already pure and went beyond the general lowliness from which the rest of humanity suffered. However, the advantage that they had was stored deep, in hidden elements of the soul. The great spiritual present that Israel received in recognizing Hashem, needed to be hidden in something that found expression in modesty and in personal contemplation. Then, when it would take hold internally, impacting on all life powers, it could emerge to the surface and be seen by all in the actions that the people would carry out.

However, the danger is that there is a strong desire to have the internal spirituality appear immediately in life by connecting the divine content to palpable actions and outward symbols. This desire to be able to publicize the spirituality at the wrong time can prevent the purity and awaken the spiritual filth connected to the venom of the desire for idolatry to raise up its ugly head. This is the secret of the sin of the Golden Calf. It stemmed from the haste of the desire of the masses to publicize its spirituality that stemmed from the light of the revelation at Sinai.

When the “king is still in his party,” even hidden love suffices to fill the soul with excitement. There is no need to spread perfume to all the directions. When the approach was distorted to the point that there was a feeling that the perfume had to be given out, and to publicize that which was hidden within the spirit, then the troubles began. The public element of it united the deterioration that everybody suffered and prevented the recognition of the divine to orchestrate over the nation’s spiritual life and purify the whole world with its clear light.

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Dedication

We daven for a complete and speedy refuah for:

 

Nir Rephael ben Rachel Bracha
Efrat bat Sara

Refael Yitchak ben Chana

Netanel Ilan ben Sheina Tzipora

Netanel ben Sarah Zehava

Yehuda ben Chaya Esther

Meira bat Esther

Yair Menachem ben Yehudit Chana

Rivka Reena bat Gruna Natna

David Chaim ben Rassa

Lillian bat Fortune

Yafa bat Rachel Yente

Eliezer Yosef ben Chana Liba

Ro'i Moshe Elchanan ben Gina Devra

 

Together with all cholei Yisrael

 

Hemdat Yamim is dedicated

to the memory of:

those who fell in wars

for our homeland

 

Eretz Hemdah's beloved friends

and Members of

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Rav Shlomo Merzel z”l
Iyar    10

 

Rav Reuven Aberman z"l

Tishrei 9  5776

 

Mr. Shmuel Shemesh  z"l
Sivan 17 5774

 

R' Eliyahu Carmel z"l

Rav Carmel's father

Iyar 8  5776

 

Mrs. Sara Wengrowsky

bat R’ Moshe Zev a”h.

Tamuz 10    5774

 

Rav Asher Wasserteil z"l

Kislev 9 5769

 

RMeir ben

Yechezkel Shraga Brachfeld z"l

 

RYaakov ben Abraham & Aisha

and

Chana bat Yaish & Simcha

Sebbag, z"l

 

Rav Yisrael Rozen z"l
Cheshvan 13, 5778

 

Rav Benzion Grossman z"l
Tamuz 23 5777

 

Rav Moshe Zvi (Milton)

Polin z"l

Tammuz 19 5778,

 

R' Abraham Klein z"l

Iyar 18

 

George Weinstein,

Gershon ben Yehudah Mayer,

a lover of the

Jewish Nation Torah and Land

 

R’ Eliezer ben R’ Yitzchak Steinberg z”l

 

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in loving memory of
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