Kabalah of Spirituality
How To Balance Our Dual Composition
By Rabbi Yoseph Kahanov Jax, Fl.
Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi once received a silver snuffbox as gift. But the Rebbe did not want to put it to its intended use, remarking: "There is one part of the body which is not constantly seeking gratification – the nose. Should I train it, too, to be a pleasure-seeker?"
Instead, R’ Schneur Zalman found a more lofty use for the gift: he detached the snuffbox's cover and used it as a mirror to help him center the teffilin on his head.
This incident was once related to R’ Schneur Zalman's grandson, Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Lubavitch. In conveying the incident the person stated that R’ Schneur Zalman "broke off" the cover of the snuffbox. Rabbi Menachem Mendel remarked: "No, no, my grandfather never broke anyone or thing. He merely removed the hinge-pin which connected the upper part to the lower."
There is deep significance in Rabbi Menachem Mendel's clarification, observed the Lubavitcher Rebbe: While R’ Schneur Zalman’s entire life was devoted to sublimating the ordinary and elevating the mundane, still, he taught that the way to deal with the material world is not to repress or crush it, but to gently detach the upper from the lower: to extract, by harmonious and peaceful means, its lofty potential from its lowly enmeshments. Hence the statement: Rabbi Schneur Zalman would never have "broken off" the cover.
From the dawn of time, man has been captivated by the contrast between his mind and body; his spirit and his corporeal existence. On the one hand, he finds expression in a variety of bodily functions – he sees with his eyes, hears with his ears and depends on physical nourishment; but on the other, his mind drifts aflight, exploring horizons far and wide beyond.
It is this dissonance between the tangible and the transcendent that forms the stage upon which the drama of life unfolds. In an effort to achieve a stable and consistent identity, some try to block out their spiritual dimension, others attempt to ignore their physical nature. Which is correct? Or is there a third possibility?
The principal function of our religion, as defined in Torah, is to offer meaning and balance between these dual realities.
Shrouded in Torah narratives of highly corporeal and unbecoming behavior, involving callus and rebellious figures, often lies a delicate lesson regarding man’s higher Divine service – wisdom that can help us understand our complex-selves and unique mission.
The fine ideological insight s and traits, which lie couched in these unassuming narratives, are brought to life through the inner dimension of Torah, known as Kabalah and its sequel, Chassidus.
Last week’s Torah reading, Shlach, and this week’s portion, Korach, contain two such narratives, both of which, according to Chassidic thought, allude to the very tensions between man’s spiritual and the physical existence.
Of the twelve scouts that were sent to spy on the land of Israel, discussed in Parsha’s Shlach, ten returned with a negative report; defaming the Promised Land as “a land that consumes its inhabitants.” They proceeded to implore the Israelites to abandon their mission of conquering the land.
Only Calev and Yehoshua insisted that the Jews can and must proceed with the divine directive. Disappointed with G‑d for having betrayed them, the people of Israel responded with a night of wailing and mourning over their awful plight.
On the surface, this is a simple story about loss of faith and rebellion. In light of the negative report, the Israelites, notwithstanding all the miracles they have experienced, lost faith in G‑d and His ability to conquer the land of Canaan.
Chassidus, however, ascribes to this narrative entirely new meaning. According to the teachings of Chassidus, these people were not a bunch of thankless ingrates. Quite the contrary, they were a highly pious generation, infatuated with divine service. What these spiritual souls feared most was jeopardizing their intense relationship with G‑d, not a physical defeat by the Canaanites.
Sheltered by the Clouds of Glory, fed by Manna from heaven and water from a miracle rock; they experienced an angelic existence, immersed in divine wisdom and service. Given the spiritual existence to which they have become accustomed, the notion of leaving their desert paradise to settle a land and eke earthly bread out of its soil, was inconceivable.
Here in the desert, they argued – sustained by heavenly intervention – our souls are free to ponder the depth of the Divine. There, we shall succumb to the mundanities intrinsic to an earth-bound existence. “It is a land that consumes its inhabitants,” they warned the people. Why abandon our spiritual idyll for a life subsisting off the land?
But man, the apex of G‑d’s creation, is meant to execute the G‑dly purpose of creation – His desire for “a dwelling below,” a home in the physical world. Man’s function is to fuse the spiritual and physical in the service of the divine, for he alone is fashioned of both spirit and matter.
The Spies erred in confining man’s identity and purpose to the realm of the spirit, rejecting in effect, the very essence of Israel’s mission: to conquer and settle the land of Canaan and utilize its potential for holiness and sanctity.
A significant message lies herein enclosed regarding the true identity of man and the age old discord between the physical and spiritual – body and soul.
Man’s essential quality is not to cleave to G‑d by shunning the body, quite the contrary, his true mission is to elevate and refine the world by enlisting the physical in the higher service of the divine. Asceticism is not the Jewish path to self-realization and purpose.
On the heels of the tragic mutiny of the spies came another rebellion lead by Korach, a Levite and a cousin of Moshe. As we read in this week’s portion, Korach, along with 250 followers massed upon Moshe and Aharon, demanding: “The entire community is holy and G‑d is amongst them; why do you raise yourselves above the congregation of G‑d?”
Here again, on a simple level Korach was a selfish agitator, who – motivated by jealousy and a desire for power – embarked on a destructive campaign to topple the leadership and structure – the fledgling hierarchy of Israel. Yet, according to the teachings of Chassidus, Korach was no simple rebel; he was in fact a saintly scholar driven by a passionate spiritual ideology, albeit misguided.
Korach took the lesson of the Spies’ error to the opposite extreme. The Spies spurned the mundane; Korach contested the very distinction of spiritual life as loftier and more desirable than the material. As a result of the spies error Korach mistakenly denied the very preeminence of the spiritual.
Korach objected to the concept of “higher” and “lower” realms within life; a notion expressed in the reverence of the leadership, i.e. the priesthood, as well as the institution of the “gifts to the priesthood,” as commanded by G‑d. Korach argued that Moshe had misinterpreted their function and role.
The tribe of Levi received no allotment in the Land of Israel: “G‑d is their lot.” Their material needs were to be provided by their brethren, whom they represented and inspired with their service in the Holy Temple. The tithe of the Jew’s produce was hence given to the Levite, as well as “the twenty-four gifts” to the Kohen.
The Matanot Kehunah (gifts to the priesthood), according to Chassidus, represent the resources that each and every individual reserves for the “Kohen” within himself – the time, energy and possessions he allots for his own spiritual pursuits.
Korach did not object to the Matanot Kehunah per se, he rather refused to accept the notion that the bushel of grain that the Israelite farmer reserves for the Kohen, or the daily hour or two he devotes for study and prayer, are somehow loftier and “Holier” than the rest of his harvest or day.
“It’s enough,” argued Korach, “that we recognize the spiritual as the appropriate avocation for certain individuals, and as a necessary segment of every individual’s life. But must it be defined as the apex of our communal and individual endeavors? The entire community is holy, and G‑d is amongst them and in their every positive effort. Why do you raise yourselves, and the spiritual ideal that you represent above all else? You are repeating the error of the spies!”
In the aftermath of Korach’s mutiny, G‑d reiterated His choice of Aharon as Kohen Gadol, affirming thereby His rejection of Korach’s attempt to redefine, the highest spiritual station. In detailing the laws of several of the Matanot Kehunah, G‑d again endorsed the elevation of the spiritual over the physical, saying to Aharon: “The choicest of the olive oil, the choicest of the wine and grain . . . the fist ripening of all that is in the land, which they shall offer to G‑d, shall be given to you”
“The choicest to the Kohen” represents the Jew’s attitude toward his material life. In the words of Maimonides: “Everything that is for the sake of G‑d should be of the best and most beautiful . . . as it is written, ‘The choicest to G‑d.’” The same applies to that which a person reserves for the Kohen within himself. The best years of one’s life, the prime hours of one’s day, the freshest of one’s energies, the choicest of his talents should be devoted to G‑dly pursuits.
In doing so, the person is, in effect, saying: “Here lies the focus and essence of my life. Quantitatively, this may represent but a small part of what I am and have; but the purpose of everything else I do and possess is to enable this percentile of spirit to rise above my matter-laden life.”
Korach was correct in his contention that our involvement with the material can be no less G‑dly an endeavor than the most transcendent flights of spirit. Indeed, our sages consider man’s sanctification of material life the ultimate objective of creation. “G‑d desired a dwelling in the lowly realms,” states the Midrash; “This,” writes Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi in his Tanya, “is what man is all about; the purpose of his creation, and the creation of all worlds, supernal and terrestrial.”
But Korach erred in his understanding of the nature of this “dwelling in the lowly realms” and the manner in which it is fashioned out of his material-self and world.
When a person spends ninety percent of his life earning a living, eating, sleeping, recreating and otherwise attending to his material needs, yet does so in a way that demonstrates that all this is only to enable the ten percent he devotes to prayer, study, charity and other G‑dly endeavors, he transforms the very nature of the physical. The “I exist” of the physical, which blatantly belies the divine truth, has now become partner to the reality that “There is none else besides Him.” It has acknowledged its subservience to that which is greater than itself.
Korach’s mistake lay in blurring the distinction between the “higher” and “lower,” – the spiritual and the physical. When the “inferiority” of the material is made manifest, when the materially-involved individual orders his priorities so that his every material act is for the sake of the Kohen and the Kohen within himself, then the “lowliest realm” of creation becomes its G‑dliest, its greatest assertion of the divine truth. However, as long as the material is not made to express its subservience to the spiritual, it remains the element of creation that is “furthest” from its divine source.
This is not because the spiritual occupies a more important place in G‑d’s world. On the contrary – the “lowly realm” of the material – that which least expresses the reality of G‑d in any manifest way – is the true arena in which the divine purpose in creation is realized. But its unique ability – the potential to affirm G‑d’s ultimate omnipotence in this world – is only possible when it is harnessed into servitude.
So is man body or soul? The correct answer is that he is body and soul. But he is a true man only when his body is subservient to his soul.
