A LAND OF MOUNTAINS AND VALLEYS
Eikev
Look at the pictures in the top row to the right. Do you see a mountain in picture A and a valley in picture B? But if you invert the picture as seen on the bottom row, you will see picture A as a valley and picture B as a mountain.
Whether you look from the bottom up or from the top down, gives a completely different perspective. The pictures that you see from below to above or from above to below are directly inverse images.
In this week’s Parsha, Eretz Yisrael is described as a land of mountains and valleys.
One of the ideas discussed in Kabbalistic thought is Isarusa Delesata and Isarusa Deleila. Isarusa Delesata refers to the perspective from below and our Avodah down here.
Our Avodah generates a corresponding flow of G-dly light and revelation which come down from above to below. This responsive flow is the Isarusa Deleila.
Eretz Yisroel refers to the Neshamos of the Jewish people. Like Eretz Yisroel, our service of Hashem has mountains and valleys. The Isarusa Deleila that each Avodah arouses is inverse to the nature of the Avodah. Our mountains arouse valleys and our valleys create mountains.
The mountains from below represent the powerful love of the Neshama. In Chassidus, mountains are used a metaphor for love.
This love leads the Neshama to a Ratzo. Like the flame which flickers upwards, the Neshama yearns to escape the confines of the body and limitations of the physical world, to unite in oneness with Hashem. Ratzo lifts the Neshama up like a mountain.
As lofty as this love is, it is ultimately self-serving, expressing the Neshama’s personal desire and craving for spirituality and escapism to connect to Hashem. In a way, this is a subtle form of ‘arrogance’ or focus on self, like the elevated mountain.
The valleys reflect a different type of Avodah, Shov - return. Shov means to put our spiritual cravings aside. Rather than escape the physical world in pursuit of spiritual experience, we ’return’ to this world, to engage and refine its physicality to reveal G-dliness down here.
Whereas the Avodah of Ratzo is motivated by love, the Avodah of Shov is an expression of awe, Bittul and surrender; to put our spiritual cravings aside to fulfil Hashem’s desire for a Dirah Betachtonim. Whereas love lifts us up like a mountain, to surrender means to humble oneself like a valley.
When our Isarusa Delesata is a mountain of love, the Isarusa Deleila from above is a valley. This represents a lower level of G-dly revelation. But when our Isarusa Delesata is a valley of humility and surrender, we draw down a towering mountain of G-dly revelation. The more humble we are, the deeper the level of G-dliness that we draw down will be.
This concept can also be brought out using the analogy of a signet ring. The depressions in a signet ring create protrusions in the wax and the raised protrusions in the ring create indentations or depressions in the wax.
The message of these mountains and valleys is encapsulated in the words of the Novi Yishaya; כה אמר רם ונשא ... מרום וקדוש אשכון ואת דכא ושפל רוח
Thus says the High and Lofty One… ‘I dwell in the High and Holy place (but) and with him who is contrite and of humble spirit’.
Kadosh also means separate or beyond. The deepest and loftiest levels of Hashem’s transcendence on high come down a dwell in the valley of humility, when we put ourselves and our own interests aside, even our spiritual ones, to surrender ourselves completely to live in fulfilment of Hashem’s will.
Whether you look from the bottom up or from the top down, gives a completely different perspective. The pictures that you see from below to above or from above to below are directly inverse images.
In this week’s Parsha, Eretz Yisrael is described as a land of mountains and valleys.
One of the ideas discussed in Kabbalistic thought is Isarusa Delesata and Isarusa Deleila. Isarusa Delesata refers to the perspective from below and our Avodah down here.
Our Avodah generates a corresponding flow of G-dly light and revelation which come down from above to below. This responsive flow is the Isarusa Deleila.
Eretz Yisroel refers to the Neshamos of the Jewish people. Like Eretz Yisroel, our service of Hashem has mountains and valleys. The Isarusa Deleila that each Avodah arouses is inverse to the nature of the Avodah. Our mountains arouse valleys and our valleys create mountains.
The mountains from below represent the powerful love of the Neshama. In Chassidus, mountains are used a metaphor for love.
This love leads the Neshama to a Ratzo. Like the flame which flickers upwards, the Neshama yearns to escape the confines of the body and limitations of the physical world, to unite in oneness with Hashem. Ratzo lifts the Neshama up like a mountain.
As lofty as this love is, it is ultimately self-serving, expressing the Neshama’s personal desire and craving for spirituality and escapism to connect to Hashem. In a way, this is a subtle form of ‘arrogance’ or focus on self, like the elevated mountain.
The valleys reflect a different type of Avodah, Shov - return. Shov means to put our spiritual cravings aside. Rather than escape the physical world in pursuit of spiritual experience, we ’return’ to this world, to engage and refine its physicality to reveal G-dliness down here.
Whereas the Avodah of Ratzo is motivated by love, the Avodah of Shov is an expression of awe, Bittul and surrender; to put our spiritual cravings aside to fulfil Hashem’s desire for a Dirah Betachtonim. Whereas love lifts us up like a mountain, to surrender means to humble oneself like a valley.
When our Isarusa Delesata is a mountain of love, the Isarusa Deleila from above is a valley. This represents a lower level of G-dly revelation. But when our Isarusa Delesata is a valley of humility and surrender, we draw down a towering mountain of G-dly revelation. The more humble we are, the deeper the level of G-dliness that we draw down will be.
This concept can also be brought out using the analogy of a signet ring. The depressions in a signet ring create protrusions in the wax and the raised protrusions in the ring create indentations or depressions in the wax.
The message of these mountains and valleys is encapsulated in the words of the Novi Yishaya; כה אמר רם ונשא ... מרום וקדוש אשכון ואת דכא ושפל רוח
Thus says the High and Lofty One… ‘I dwell in the High and Holy place (but) and with him who is contrite and of humble spirit’.
Kadosh also means separate or beyond. The deepest and loftiest levels of Hashem’s transcendence on high come down a dwell in the valley of humility, when we put ourselves and our own interests aside, even our spiritual ones, to surrender ourselves completely to live in fulfilment of Hashem’s will.