The Light in The Dark
Oct 12th, 2010 by Rabbi Simcha Weinberg in Portion of the Week, Spiritual Growth
He experienced unlimited life and as an astonishing gift, God lifted Abraham above the stars in order to say, “What you experienced was real! You are not limited by the forces of nature or by destiny.”
Abraham’s response was so perfect, that the verse describes God as considering Abraham’s faith as an act of Tzedaka.
This is a human being who is leaping boundlessly up the ladder of spiritual achievement from one verse to the next. He is flying, soaring among the highest angels.
And then a great darkness fell upon him.
Who can imagine that moment of darkness? He soared so high above the stars that all he could see was dark. Why? Why would God thrust Abraham into darkness just as he had experienced such light? God honors Abraham’s faith by calling it an act of Tzedaka and rewards him by placing him in darkness!
Abraham may have asked some questions, human questions, but were his accomplishments so shallow that a question would thrust him into darkness?
This experience was and is not unique to Abraham. Many people, inspired and excited by their relationship with God, soon find themselves in a spiritual darkness, all the heavier because of the great light that preceded it.
Abraham was frightened but not frozen. He immediately began to search for the light in the dark. He understood that his experience was not external, but an expression of something internal that was calling out for attention and repair.
This is what the Sages mean when they describe the darkness as a consequence of his questions. He battled his internal darkness and emerged with the Covenant Between the Pieces – The Brit Bein HaBitarim. Abraham used his own internal light to shine through the darkness and emerge stronger and higher than ever before.
This was Abraham’s greatness and it can be ours as well.
Author Info:
Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone™ is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.
Abraham’s response was so perfect, that the verse describes God as considering Abraham’s faith as an act of Tzedaka.
This is a human being who is leaping boundlessly up the ladder of spiritual achievement from one verse to the next. He is flying, soaring among the highest angels.
And then a great darkness fell upon him.
Who can imagine that moment of darkness? He soared so high above the stars that all he could see was dark. Why? Why would God thrust Abraham into darkness just as he had experienced such light? God honors Abraham’s faith by calling it an act of Tzedaka and rewards him by placing him in darkness!
Abraham may have asked some questions, human questions, but were his accomplishments so shallow that a question would thrust him into darkness?
This experience was and is not unique to Abraham. Many people, inspired and excited by their relationship with God, soon find themselves in a spiritual darkness, all the heavier because of the great light that preceded it.
Abraham was frightened but not frozen. He immediately began to search for the light in the dark. He understood that his experience was not external, but an expression of something internal that was calling out for attention and repair.
This is what the Sages mean when they describe the darkness as a consequence of his questions. He battled his internal darkness and emerged with the Covenant Between the Pieces – The Brit Bein HaBitarim. Abraham used his own internal light to shine through the darkness and emerge stronger and higher than ever before.
This was Abraham’s greatness and it can be ours as well.
Author Info:
Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone™ is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.
The act of Tz’dakah can be likened to the act of Creation – Yeish m’Ayin = someone was lacking something and you come along and take away their lack by giving them something,whether of physical nature or of spiritual/mental nature. (R’Shlomo enjoined us, even if we were out of cash,just a good word and/or a little of our time could pull someone out of their despair.)
The Holy Zohar says there is no light that does not emanate from darkness. G-d’s infinite kindness to us allows us to experience these moments of creation or re-creation when we emerge from darkness into the light.
Everybody knows that a blind from birth person,who is granted the gift of sight,appreciates seeing greater than one who has always seen. On the other hand, someone who was born with sight,lost their sight and had their sight restored can appreciate the gift of sight even more that the formerly blind-from-birth person.
Sometimes, when we go thru different types of crises, we feel we are ‘out of sight’from ourselves, our friends,the world around us and maybe even from G-d (r”l). Hopefully, when we emerge from the crisis, we recover our ‘sight’.If we’re on the level, we may even attain the understanding that the crisis we went thru was an indispensable part of our attaining our current level.
Rebbe Nakhman says that Yosef HaTzaddik, upon being freed from prison was summoned to Par’o. The verse tells us he shaved and changed his clothes. CHaZ”L tell us this day was Rosh HaShanah, and despite languishing the extra 2 years in prison, Yosef understood that all he’d gone through,layer upon layer of trials and tribulations, was necessary for him to arrive at this moment.
The physical place in the sefer Turah, where P’ VaYigash ends and P’ VaY’khi begins, has no extra blank space for demarcation purposes. CHaZ”L call this a “Parshah S’tumah’,colloquially ‘a dead end’.There are no coincidences in our Holy Torah – what’s the reason? A prominent explanation given states that later on in P’ VaY’khi, Ya’akov summons his children and wishes to reveal to them what will happen in the end of days. However, the time was not ripe for this revelation, ‘v’nistahm mi’menu’-it was blocked off from him.
I was privileged to hear from HaRav Amital, that although the details of the revelation were obscured from Ya’akov, and thus he could not transmit that message to his descendants; he was still able to impart a crucial message to them. The message,that is keeping us going until Moshiakh is coming, was that there WILL BE an end of days.As long as we carry this message with us, this message of hope and belief, we will be able to keep on keeping on.
“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers” of G-d’s message in the world.
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