Cure for love

Leo kazin

- They say that you give people the amazing medicines and heal them. So give me the same and a medication that helps to fear Gd! - asked one Jewish Rabbi Abraham from Stratyn.

- For fear of Gd I have no medication, - he answered, but if you want, I can give you a medicine that helps to love Gd.

- That's what I want more! - Jew exclaimed.

- This medicine - the love of the people! - said the righteous ...

... Many people are looking for a way to God, turning to asceticism and meditation, retreat from the world and people. However, Rabbi Abraham of Stratyn argued that seeking Gd should go to the people, for it is only the love of neighbor helps a person to gain the love of Gd. And this is the way of love leads to the temple ...

After the giving of the Torah to the Jews asked Gd calling to build the Mishkan, the portable Temple, who accompanied them during their wanderings in the wilderness of Sinai. Construction of the Church - not only the physical construction of the building, but also the spiritual process of becoming a nation. Sages equated family to the temple, spoke of the soul as a temple of the man himself. Because the construction of the temple teaches us to unite people, to build a family, to improve his soul.

For the construction of the Temple required construction materials. However, God does not obliged the Jews, and called a sacrifice of those whose "heart was filled with good will." For the temple was constructed not only of precious metal, wood and leather, in the spiritual sense it erected goodwill - emanating from the love of the heart.

"And Gd spoke to Moses: Say to the Jews, to take me an offering: of every man whose heart is filled with good will: gold, silver, copper ..." (Exodus 25: 1-3).

Commenting on this place in the Torah, Midrash quotes the parable of King Solomon (4: 2): "The teaching I gave you good, my Torah, do not leave!" Lord calls the Jews did not leave the Torah, because the Torah has it all: "One person buys gold, but silver, the other buys silver, but not gold, - says the Midrash. - However, in the Torah have all the gold, silver ... ".

Why, in speaking of the Temple, the wise men suddenly started talking about the Torah? Because the temple - the continuation of the Sinai revelation, Ramban explains. Temple reminds us that the Torah is always with us. In the Temple kept the tables of the Torah, and in memory of this today in the synagogue Torah scrolls are kept. The Jews not only accepted the Torah at Sinai, but have left it, having gone on the mountains, as stored in the synagogues, Torah remained with the Jews, wherever they were.

Why, in speaking of "the Torah, which has everything: gold, silver," the sages oppose to her a man who is either gold or silver? Unless a man can not buy everything - gold and silver? The greatness of the Torah is that spiritual values are not simply added and combined it into something new single entity, explains Rabbi Gedaliah Shore. Look at the white light that is refracted in a prism with rainbow colors. He reveals to us that the colors of the rainbow, combine to form a new quality. Like a white light, Tora combines all shades of spirituality, creating a new quality of harmony and unity, much more than "arithmetic sum" of all the details.

Jews sacrificed their gold, silver, copper for the construction of the Temple, but it was not only material but also spiritual values. All that is on earth, points to the existence of such phenomena in the heavens. Precious metals in the world point to the existence of the spirit of jewelry in Heaven, in the Torah or in the human soul. Gold, in Hebrew "Zahav", translated as "give it" being the root of the word "love" - "Ahava". Silver - "Kesef", translated as "desire" (nihsafti). The solid metal copper - "nehoshet", translated as "hardness" (nehishut) "immutability", "fidelity". Abraham was a symbol of love and good deeds, Yitzhak - aspirations and prayers, and Jacob - the truth and faithfulness. When their descendants began to build the Temple, each put his heart, sharing the qualities of his soul. Those who were able to fill your heart with love, gave gold - a symbol of love, those who are prayer - silver, but those who truly gave copper. When the Jews gave all that was needed, and completed the building of the Temple, the Torah says, "The temple has become one." The word "one" expresses that all spiritual values, donated by Jews on the Temple building, united in a new quality, because the builders of the Temple reached unity. It is no accident the arithmetic sum of the letters of the words "one" (echad), and "love" (Ahab) is equivalent to (13) and expresses the idea that love leads to unity.

By combining their forces to the service of God, and one person can achieve the integrity and unity of his soul, having received, therefore, to build a temple in his heart.

"Columns its (Temple) of silver, and in his love," - wrote King Solomon ( "Song of Songs"). The temple was built with love, and the spiritual essence of the Temple - is the love invested its builders. The temple is an extension of the Sinai revelation, because everything that happened at the time of construction of the Temple, was a repetition of what happened at a new level at the time of the Torah. When the hearts of the Jews united in love, the "Temple became one", and it has gone down the Divine presence. When the Jews reached unity at Sinai, when it came down to the Torah from Heaven.

"In the third month after the Jews out of Egypt, on that day they came into the wilderness of Sinai ... Israel is located there before the mount (Exodus 19: 1-2).

Thor's well-read description in the plural - "they came", and ends in a single - "Israel is located." Before the giving of the Torah of Israel is located at Mount Sinai, "as one man with one heart" - Rashi explains. Overcoming discord, the Jews honored to receive the Torah as a reward for unity!

The root of the word "located", "vayahan" is read in the same way as a "hen" - mercy, sympathy, and corresponds to the expression "to look with favor, with sympathy." Often we critically look at the others, but we should look at them with love, we cease to notice its shortcomings and find dignity. The love with which the Jews looked at each other at Mount Sinai, was the key to their unity, helping to find the way to the Torah and the Temple.