YeshivaThe torah world Gateway
Beit Midrash
- Sections
- Chemdat Yamim
- Ein Ayah
Ein Ayah: When thoughts of the divine are connected properly to purity of the intellect and of morality, it continually increases and ever more draws closer to the eternal light of this world and all of the worlds. However, when purity is missing and when ignorance is prevalent, the coarse materialistic characteristics pollute all of the heart and the spirit. Then, the thought of sanctity and recognition of Hashem is turned into a small idea that does not go beyond his individual understanding of the divine. It contains no more aspiration than the little that he himself presently possesses. It has only a small amount of ability to spiritually fly; some amount must exist because a thought of the divine has at least some measure of spirituality. This is the flying of a fly, which is small and despised. It also resembles the yetzer hara, which is like a fly that sits between the openings of the heart (based on High Holiday prayers).
This lacking form of fear of Hashem, which is unique in regard to scope and form, is a result of the lowliness and coarseness of this type of lowly thought. It is especially connected to the imagination of personal benefit, which can be described as an individual’s pocket. The feelings of longing toward Hashem are capable of elevating the intellect and feeling, the power of both the spirit and the physicality, to an eternal lofty blessing. However, lowly thoughts can turn them into vehicles of despicable idolatry, which lowers a man to the level of an insignificant living thing such as a fly. It can cause him to wallow in waste-like materials, along with his originally positive feelings of spiritual longings. They became like a fly in a pocket, which, in a warped manner, becomes the subject of intense affection, so that people take it out to kiss and hug upon thinking about it.
This ba’al brit (possessor of a covenant) does not so connect with one who has aspiration and an idealistic thought of unification, but rather relates to the low level of prayers for his own personal needs. This occurs when one’s intellect and morality are destroyed.
On the other hand, these problematic feelings, even after they were lowered and defiled, are still destined to be purified and return to their source at the height of the divine embrace of that which is lofty and all-inclusive. This is due to the ability of the Jewish spirit to repent out of a feeling of love, as we are promised. See Zecharia 9:7, which talks about the return of Ekron (possessors of the lowly idol) to be like Yevusi, which is another name for Jerusalem. This is the place where the recognition of Hashem is on the highest and most eternal level. By contrast, we can see how lowly the thought was before it was purified, when it was connected to the form of a fly and found in the very individualistic part of a person, represented by his pocket. When everyone cares about "his pocket," it blinds his spiritual side to the extent that he is lowly enough to take it out of his pocket to kiss it and hug it when he just thinks about it.
Rabbis in Midrash
Lessons
fast navigation
Moreshet Shaul Hashem Is your Shadow – part I
Based on Siach Shaul, Pirkei Machshava V’Hadracha p. 420 – an address from 1941
P'ninat Mishpat A Non-Contractor in Changing Times – part I
(based on ruling 85128 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts)
Moreshet Shaul Our King on Rosh Hashana, Our Father on Yom Kippur.
Based on Aroch Siach, p. 221 (Rav Shaul Yisraeli)
P'ninat Mishpat A Non-Contractor in Changing Times – part II
(based on ruling 85128 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts)
Moreshet Shaul Hashem Is your Shadow – part II
Based on Siach Shaul, Pirkei Machshava V’Hadracha p. 420 – an address from 1941
Parashat Hashavua Happiness for the Right Reasons
[With painful longing, we share these divrei Torah from our co-Rosh Kollel for close to 40 years, Harav Moshe Ehrenreich zt”l.]
