Seasons of the Moon - Elul 5759
13 August - 10 September1999
When Christopher Columbus set sail for the New World
in 1492, many people thought he would fall off the edge of the
earth and vanish into oblivion. The cosmography of the 15th century
held that the world was a flat disc. Nowadays, this idea seems
childish, however, in one respect, they were right: The physical
world has an end. There is a place where this reality ends and
another begins. Where is it?
We are living in a physical world. The essence of
the physical is that it can exist only within the confines of
space and time. In the worlds above this world, there is no space,
no time. They are spiritual worlds. Between this existence and
its neighbors, however, there exists a place of transition, a
border. Where is the border between this world and the next?
Where is this gateway to eternity? And what would we see there?
In the First Beit Hamikdash (Holy Temple),
in the middle of the Holy of Holies, there sat the Aron HaKodesh
- the Holy Ark. There's an amazing fact about the Aron. It took
up no space. Even though it had physical dimension1, nevertheless it took up no space2.
How was this possible? How was it possible for the
Aron to have measurements and yet occupy no space in this world?
Imagine you're driving from France to Italy. Twenty
kilometers from the border you see signs in French announcing
the approaching Italian border. Closer, you notice that the French
signs have now been joined by the same signs written in Italian:
"Douanes/Dogana" - Customs. On the other side of the
border, you notice the reverse. At first the signs are in both
languages, then after some kilometers they are only written in
Italian.
Wherever there is a border between two entities,
we can expect to see elements of both.
The Aron was the border of two worlds. It sat on
the Even Shesia, the rock from which G-d extruded the entire
Universe. This was the "border post" between two worlds,
thus the characteristics of both this world and the next were
manifest. The Aron occupied no space because it represents the
upper worlds. It contains the Torah, the communication of G-d
to man. On the other hand, from the place of the Aron flows all
Creation, all space and time. This is the place where the physical
world begins. From here, it expands outward.
The Aron was in this world, but it was not of this
world. It was subject to the laws of a higher world where there
is no space and time. The Aron was the threshold between two
worlds. It was the "French/Italian border" between
this world and the next. It had dimensions without occupying
space.
There's a little letter in Hebrew that's like the
Aron. From it too flows all of Creation. The letter yud.
The yud is the smallest letter in the Hebrew language.
It's no more than a dot. But with this little yud,
this little dot, G-d created the Future World3. The ideal dot
has no dimension. However, If you put any yud under the
microscope you'll see that it has length and breadth. It's impossible
to write it any other way, but ideally it should be the smallest
existence capable in this world.
The letter yud exists in this world - you
can read it in any book - but it represents a world beyond this
world. The physical shape of the yud hints to this dichotomy:
It is a notion without dimension. Naturally, when we write a
yud, we are constrained by the laws of this world, we have
to give it dimension or it would be invisible. However, what
the yud represents is a world beyond this one where there
is no space and no time. It is the world of the yud. The
Future World.
The month of Elul was formed by the letter yud.
If G-d used the letter yud to form the month, it means
that the letter itself expresses the essence of the month of Elul.
Maybe, in this smallest of letters, we may find some of the secret
power that is locked into the month of Elul. Let us examine this
"dot matrix."
Not only is the yud an otherworldly letter,
it is also the foundation of all other letters. Just as the Future
World4 is the foundation of this world, so too the letter yud
is the foundation of all other letters. In order to write any
letter, you have to start with a little dot, a little dot called
yud. In other words, the foundation of all language, and
thus all cognition, is the yud, the smallest dot. Our
thoughts are aligned with reality only when we realize why, and
on what, this world is founded. Just as the root of language
is an infinitesimal dot which stands at the gateway between this
world of space/time and the world which is beyond those constraints,
so too the root of all knowledge, its foundation, is to
know that there is a world above this world5. When our thoughts
turn towards that infinitesimal point, we align ourselves with
transcendence.
Two more pieces, and our puzzle will be complete.
Elul in Aramaic means searching6. We only search for something when we see a future for it. No one searches for a lost cause,
a broken camera or a used Coca-Cola can. The essence of searching,
of Elul, is that we believe in two futures: Our own future and
that there is a future. Firstly, we must believe
in our own future. We must believe that we are not forever rat-trapped
in a Skinner's Maze of our own past mistakes. Secondly, we must
believe that there is a future: A Future World
where all is clear and the darkness that surrounds us is lit up
by the great aura of the Presence of the Holy One. A Jew must
know that this world is no more than a dark and narrow corridor
to a great palace of light.
Given this, it will not come as a surprise that the
letter yud is one of the ways that we make the future tense
in the Hebrew language. The yud is the letter of the future.
The letter of the Future World. Elul is the month of the future.
The month where our minds are preoccupied with the anticipation
of Rosh Hashana, that great and awesome day when The Creator scrutinizes
every minute part of His creation, seeing if it corresponds to
His intentions, and judging it accordingly.
The essence of Elul is wanting to go back - back
to the Future - to connect to that Reality which is beyond this
world, beyond space and time, to remake ourselves in the mold
of the maiden.
You said you don't believe
Inside, that same knowing heart
FutureWorld
The World's End
On The Borderline
The Dot Matrix
Elul and the Letter Yud
Back to the Future
Footnotes
The Unquiet Soul
in a world to come,
that we ended like so much meat.
"Prove it to me." you said to me.
"Prove that you're my brother" I replied.
that shares our flesh
wipes the sleep from its eyes
and stirs.
Unquiet is the soul.
SEASONS OF THE MOON is written by Rabbi
Yaakov Asher Sinclair and edited by Rabbi
Moshe Newman.
Designed and Produced by the Office of Communications - Rabbi
Eliezer Shapiro, Director
Production Design: Eli Ballon
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