The good part of the portion of Emor goes through the cycle of the Jewish year and the Torah mandated holidays, beginning with Shabbat and ending with Shmini Atzeret. This is not the first nor the last time the holidays are discussed in the Torah, each time revealing new aspects or laws of these holidays. Yet, this is the only place in the Torah which describes the time period between Pesach and Shavuot and the mitzvah of Sefirat HaOmer, counting the Omer. It begins with a description of the special barley meal offering that is brought after the first day of Pesach and concludes with the various offerings of Shavuot, especially the two loaves of bread from the new wheat harvest.
On Pesach night, according to the Arizal, God not only “passed over” the Israelite houses marked with blood on the doorposts, but also “passed over” the usual (gradual/linear) manner that Divine light descends into the lower worlds. This “quantum” energy is electrically tangible on Seder night for those spiritually attuned. The Arizal then teaches that God takes away or hides that awesome light revealed on the first day of Pesach, and each individual must now through the process of Sefirat HaOmer create the proper vessels to hold such an exalted light. If one does the proper spiritual work during this time period they will merit through their own efforts to experience the light again on Shavuot.
The idea of God revealing a certain light and then hiding it away is actually part of a much bigger paradigm that runs through the Torah, Jewish tradition and history. We will now bring some of those examples in order to appreciate the archetypal dynamic of which the Arizal speaks.
According to tradition (Pirkei Avot 5:1) God created the world with ten utterances (“and God said….”). The first explicit expression of divine speech is the creation of light on the first day of creation: “And God said let there be light and there was light. (Genesis 1: 3).
There is a question however, as to the nature of this light due to the fact that the sun and the moon were not created until the fourth day. Of what light are we then speaking of? Most commentaries speak of this light as a spiritual or Divine light. Rashi brings the teaching that God saw that it was not fitting for evil ones to use this light, therefore He hid this light for the righteous in the future (Chagigah 12a).
Many commentaries discuss where this light is hidden and how to access it in the present. Some of the opinions include that this spiritual light is hidden but can be made accessible when delving deeply into Torah learning. This light is also hidden and can be experienced on Shabbat. Other opinions include in the light of the menorah of the Tabernacle and later in the Temples in Jerusalem, as well as the lights of Chanukah.
It is important to note that the original menorah crafted in the desert for the Tabernacle and which stood in the first Temple in Jerusalem was hidden away before the Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians. According to tradition the menorah along with many other objects of the first Temple will be revealed once again with the coming of the Mashiach. It is also interesting that the story of Chanukah, especially the miracle of one day’s worth of oil which lasted eight days, revolves around the Maccabees finding one container of pure oil that was hidden and thus escaped the desecration of the Temple by the Greeks.
The Talmud relates that Adam and Eve were allowed to experience this light and see from one end of the world to the other, until their exile from the Garden of Eden when it was hidden from mankind (Chagigah 12a).
In another amazing passage, the Talmud describes the pre-natal experience of the fetus in the womb. An angel comes and teaches the baby the entire Torah by the light of a candle that is lit in the womb. As the baby prepares to enter the world the angel touches the baby on the indentation of the upper lip causing the baby to forget the entire experience. The obvious question is: why teach the baby the entire Torah only to make him or her forget it all before entering the world? Commentators have suggested that it is only on the conscious level that the baby forgets; the entire Torah is in fact imprinted eternally upon deeper levels of consciousness, ever ready to be recalled.
An even more primordial example of the dynamic of God’s light being revealed, then hidden and revealed again appears in the process of creation. The Arizal explains the idea of tzimtzum, “contraction,” to explain how God (as it were) withdrew His infinite presence, creating a “vacuum,” a womb-like environment in which creation could take place. The withdrawal of God’s infinite light allowed the possibility of a seemingly independent reality to take form, as it would serve as the “place” for all spiritual worlds, and ultimately our physical world as well. Kabbalah and Chassidut explain that although this vacuum was “empty” of God’s presence, yet paradoxically a reshimu, or “impression” of God’s infinite light remained, for nothing by definition can ever be totally void of God’s presence.
Into this vacuum God then shone a single ray of light which extended to a middle point. From this single ray of light, whose source was the infinite light of God, all creation unfolded through a long and repeating process of contraction followed by expansion, from the most exalted and sublime spiritual worlds and sefirot, till our very material and physical world.
Returning to the subject of Pesach we see that at the fourth stage of the Seder called Yachatz, the three matzot are uncovered and lifted up, following which the middle matzah is broken in half. The larger half is hidden away until the end of the Seder, while the smaller piece remains between the remaining two whole matzot. The act of breaking the middle matzah alludes to the cosmic “breaking of the vessels” when the initial vessels of creation could not hold the original light, as well as the exile, slavery and suffering of the Jewish People in Egypt, and what the exile of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden was to humanity, as well and many other times of breaking during our long and complex history.
Later in the Seder in the step called Tzafun, “hidden,” the broken piece of matzah that was hidden away is brought back to the table and eaten as the Afikomen which replaces partaking of the Pascal lamb which was eaten at this time when the Temple stood. This step of the Seder represents the Messianic Era when there will be a revelation of Godliness in the world and a time when all of the Torah secrets that were previously tzafun, hidden, will be revealed.
The dynamic that we are describing of a state of revelation, followed by a period of hiddenness and revelation once again is intrinsically connected to the ongoing cycles of exile and redemption that have accompanied mankind from the time of Adam and Eve to the present and especially forms the ongoing dynamic of Jewish history which has seen many such cycles on both the national and the more local level.
Further, both of these dynamics reflect on a more archetypal and existential level the manifest energy of what is referred to as “run and return,” an important concept describing the dynamic of all life taken from the prophet Ezekiel’s “Vision of the Chariot” (Ma’aseh Merkavah). The following verses taken from this mystical vision form the basis for this concept:
As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like coals of fire, burning like the appearance of torches; it flashed up and down among the living creatures; and the fire was hot and out of the fire went forth lightning. And the living creatures ran and returned like the appearance of a flash of lightning. (Ezekiel 1:13-14)
The run and return dynamic is found in the teachings of Kabbalah and Chassidut to describe the pulse of life manifest in countless ways throughout creation: from the pulsating energy found in every atom to the pulse of blood running through our veins; from the exhalation and inhalation of breath to the beating of the heart; from the cycles of the seasons to the ebb and flow of the tides; from the give and take of relationships to the cycle of life and death itself.
The Maggid of Mezrich once described all of life and history as an ongoing game of hide and seek. God who is hidden for the ultimate benefit of mankind seeks to be found. The more God is sought out, the greater the revelation. This then brings us back to our discussion regarding the great light of Seder night and how it is hidden. Sefirat HaOmer is a unique time were we not only seek God but we endeavor to uncover the truth of our own souls. Each day of the Omer is an opportunity to rectify, refine and clarify our essential beings and to reveal our hidden potential. By doing the spiritual work of these special days and by searching deeply within one can with God’s grace anticipate the renewal of the light that God has hidden away once again on Shavuot. (For more on Sefirat HaOmer see Sefirat HaOmer: The Significance of the Days between Pesach and Shavuot).
