Listen "Year: 5771 - Tzav - audio"
Episode Synopsis
Awkward Alternatives - We recognized zechira as a simple mechanism of remembrance (which would be the link of Vayikra to Zachor), and moved to a description of the human condition as experiencing existence as a Tzav. On the simple level, that Tzav provides an enthusiasm, giving the fullness of human activity a particular goal, so that it can respond to tzivui (which Amalek lacks). More profoundly, Tzav means understanding the mutuality of the predator/prey relationship, in which the development of Yisrael is profoundly intertwined with that of Amalek (ze l’umat ze).
We also examined the development of Yisrael as being the victims of a צעקה gedolah, which comes to the forefront, for the first time, on Purim. That צעקה gave birth to an Amalek that insists on the ultimate meaninglessness of the human condition. They view it as being pure text, while everything else exists in the explanations and added values that we place in our own minds. Here, that view is brought to a new level, in understanding the nature of din as being pure awkwardness. With such a humor of awkwardness, all things are reduced to having no real place and no viable alternatives. It leads one to laugh only in the bitterness and exhaustive strain of having to witness the excruciating situations that reveal the awkwardness of the human condition. Finally, we found the ability to tolerate what appears to be the farce of the human condition in Yisrael itself, turning it into the nehapachu which is ultimately meaningful, and powerfully humorous—the ultimate expression of Yitzchak and his comments about creation.
In the end, the mizbeach itself is open to alternative Tzavs (in which Tzav can be loshon avodah zarah, or hokar raglecha, where the very relationship with G-d becomes keri), which are addressed not only by the yakar of the Megillah, but by “lo davar rek hu”. Therefore, Tzav becomes the one fundamental differentiation between living life as an expression of the glory of all that it can be (so that in burning the animal, and its potentiality for tumah, we are left with a vision of what the human condition might become), and living life only within the confines of your own head, believing that your brain is the reduction of all of existence (what Einstein called “a sort of optical delusion”).Shabbat as a contextual reality, an integrative reality, exactly as it was in בריאה of כ"ל אשר עשה, violated through any detailed מלאכה that is specific to itself, which is what מחשבת means, not part of the כ"ל which is the שבת and the קהילה, the love of זכו"ר instead of the fear of שמור, as Ramban puts it. That is precisely משכן as a collective reality, which is why it is כנסת ישראל-כלה-בית-בת זוגו של ישראל which is a rock concert/mob reality, overwhelming in its primal beat, the same sexuality that motivated עגל – להתיר עריות becomes effectively the essence of עונג שבת, the element of fun in בריאה which is expressed in the הות"ר as opposed to the דים, the מתרחב והולך as opposed to the גערה. This is the true קהילת המשכן as כפרה for the קהילת העגל and is noted by רבינו בחיי in the sexual relationship of בכל-כל as part of זכור=זכר. This is the danger of destroying Shabbat through making it dependent upon its ethnic elements, confusing the קהל per se with Shabbat, rather than making it the driving force of ethnicity and creativity, much as שמע ישראל defines the bottom line concerns and thus identity of a בן ישראל.
שבת is meant to be replacement for עגל in the most profound way in its relationship to הקהלה itself! The ויקהל of the עגל represents the essence of the עגל as the primal energies of the mob – much as the ויקהל here in בניין המשכן must somehow make use of the very same energies just as it made use of the need for graven images need for place זהב etc.
We trace that idea in the way that מעשה בראשית is paralleled here through מרבים העם להביא and the vicious reaction to that –and the גערה that משה רבינו gives, similar to the גערה that הקב"ה gives to His own בריאה that is מתרחב והולך and recognized that this means that we must have a substitute of the positive עשייה: everyone is connected in some level – at least in the הבאה which should not be defined directly as מלאכת מחשבת, in exactly the same way that the universe cannot be defined as a place of efficiency (which would have been the meaning of מעשה בראשית i only as מלאכת מחשבת) rather becomes שבת particularly because וירא אלקי"ם את כל אשר עשה והנה טוב מאוד which is only a function of והותר – only because the universe continued to produce!
We therefore recognize that the הקהל aspect that relates to שבת is the same הקהל aspect that relates to משכן: the integrative element of all that is produced, that allows something meaningful to come from it but that which also provides the positive of the passion of שבת that is זכור – instead of the negative of the initial שבת previous: ושמרו בני ישראל את השבת which led directly to the מעשה עגל And allows for שמירת שבת מחללו that should be מחובר to מכבדו כראוי לו just as מחנה living far away from the משכן nonetheless provides משכן at the center of life that engages an individual and his passions at any moment where it becomes time to act in life in a way that is Meaningful and Real, i.e. at a time of war or a time in which we are able to escape the moment into what is meaningful in Life
Much as שמע ישראל provides for an undercurrent of ישראל's centrality for every individual בן ישראל beyond the implications for one's own personal life – so too is שבת meant to extend beyond into a שבת meant to be מחבר you to מעשה בראשית and true Meaning and is also a חיבור to משכו and מקור העבודה even if in one's individual life there is very little actual עבודה
We then notice the delicate balance between the forces of עגל ומשכן – understood until now in all types of ways, but only now in terms of the very delicate balance of the connection to קהילה, ethnicity and one's modes of worship as expressed in terms of the mob – particularly in terms of שבת and the traditions of שבת, and the elements of שבת which are constantly new and part of מעשה בראשית itself, that which provides me place and passion and desire to create (YL)
What has been achieved by Yisrael is specifically achieved because of the threat of Amalek in the deepest sense…What it is that is incorporated into the nature of Yisrael – and the ability to see maybe for the first time in history the clarity of what it means to be Yisrael, as opposed to be non-Yisrael – is itself an outgrowth of greater and greater pressure of selecting what it means to be Yisrael…Those who survive being the prey in that little game end up with a completely different level of appreciation of what Yisrael consists of. For the first time in history, it can be appreciated what the zeh l’umat zeh means – it’s a predator-prey relationship.
We also examined the development of Yisrael as being the victims of a צעקה gedolah, which comes to the forefront, for the first time, on Purim. That צעקה gave birth to an Amalek that insists on the ultimate meaninglessness of the human condition. They view it as being pure text, while everything else exists in the explanations and added values that we place in our own minds. Here, that view is brought to a new level, in understanding the nature of din as being pure awkwardness. With such a humor of awkwardness, all things are reduced to having no real place and no viable alternatives. It leads one to laugh only in the bitterness and exhaustive strain of having to witness the excruciating situations that reveal the awkwardness of the human condition. Finally, we found the ability to tolerate what appears to be the farce of the human condition in Yisrael itself, turning it into the nehapachu which is ultimately meaningful, and powerfully humorous—the ultimate expression of Yitzchak and his comments about creation.
In the end, the mizbeach itself is open to alternative Tzavs (in which Tzav can be loshon avodah zarah, or hokar raglecha, where the very relationship with G-d becomes keri), which are addressed not only by the yakar of the Megillah, but by “lo davar rek hu”. Therefore, Tzav becomes the one fundamental differentiation between living life as an expression of the glory of all that it can be (so that in burning the animal, and its potentiality for tumah, we are left with a vision of what the human condition might become), and living life only within the confines of your own head, believing that your brain is the reduction of all of existence (what Einstein called “a sort of optical delusion”).Shabbat as a contextual reality, an integrative reality, exactly as it was in בריאה of כ"ל אשר עשה, violated through any detailed מלאכה that is specific to itself, which is what מחשבת means, not part of the כ"ל which is the שבת and the קהילה, the love of זכו"ר instead of the fear of שמור, as Ramban puts it. That is precisely משכן as a collective reality, which is why it is כנסת ישראל-כלה-בית-בת זוגו של ישראל which is a rock concert/mob reality, overwhelming in its primal beat, the same sexuality that motivated עגל – להתיר עריות becomes effectively the essence of עונג שבת, the element of fun in בריאה which is expressed in the הות"ר as opposed to the דים, the מתרחב והולך as opposed to the גערה. This is the true קהילת המשכן as כפרה for the קהילת העגל and is noted by רבינו בחיי in the sexual relationship of בכל-כל as part of זכור=זכר. This is the danger of destroying Shabbat through making it dependent upon its ethnic elements, confusing the קהל per se with Shabbat, rather than making it the driving force of ethnicity and creativity, much as שמע ישראל defines the bottom line concerns and thus identity of a בן ישראל.
שבת is meant to be replacement for עגל in the most profound way in its relationship to הקהלה itself! The ויקהל of the עגל represents the essence of the עגל as the primal energies of the mob – much as the ויקהל here in בניין המשכן must somehow make use of the very same energies just as it made use of the need for graven images need for place זהב etc.
We trace that idea in the way that מעשה בראשית is paralleled here through מרבים העם להביא and the vicious reaction to that –and the גערה that משה רבינו gives, similar to the גערה that הקב"ה gives to His own בריאה that is מתרחב והולך and recognized that this means that we must have a substitute of the positive עשייה: everyone is connected in some level – at least in the הבאה which should not be defined directly as מלאכת מחשבת, in exactly the same way that the universe cannot be defined as a place of efficiency (which would have been the meaning of מעשה בראשית i only as מלאכת מחשבת) rather becomes שבת particularly because וירא אלקי"ם את כל אשר עשה והנה טוב מאוד which is only a function of והותר – only because the universe continued to produce!
We therefore recognize that the הקהל aspect that relates to שבת is the same הקהל aspect that relates to משכן: the integrative element of all that is produced, that allows something meaningful to come from it but that which also provides the positive of the passion of שבת that is זכור – instead of the negative of the initial שבת previous: ושמרו בני ישראל את השבת which led directly to the מעשה עגל And allows for שמירת שבת מחללו that should be מחובר to מכבדו כראוי לו just as מחנה living far away from the משכן nonetheless provides משכן at the center of life that engages an individual and his passions at any moment where it becomes time to act in life in a way that is Meaningful and Real, i.e. at a time of war or a time in which we are able to escape the moment into what is meaningful in Life
Much as שמע ישראל provides for an undercurrent of ישראל's centrality for every individual בן ישראל beyond the implications for one's own personal life – so too is שבת meant to extend beyond into a שבת meant to be מחבר you to מעשה בראשית and true Meaning and is also a חיבור to משכו and מקור העבודה even if in one's individual life there is very little actual עבודה
We then notice the delicate balance between the forces of עגל ומשכן – understood until now in all types of ways, but only now in terms of the very delicate balance of the connection to קהילה, ethnicity and one's modes of worship as expressed in terms of the mob – particularly in terms of שבת and the traditions of שבת, and the elements of שבת which are constantly new and part of מעשה בראשית itself, that which provides me place and passion and desire to create (YL)
What has been achieved by Yisrael is specifically achieved because of the threat of Amalek in the deepest sense…What it is that is incorporated into the nature of Yisrael – and the ability to see maybe for the first time in history the clarity of what it means to be Yisrael, as opposed to be non-Yisrael – is itself an outgrowth of greater and greater pressure of selecting what it means to be Yisrael…Those who survive being the prey in that little game end up with a completely different level of appreciation of what Yisrael consists of. For the first time in history, it can be appreciated what the zeh l’umat zeh means – it’s a predator-prey relationship.
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