Highest/Lowest

4 Tishrei 5782

“In the evolving and descending chainlike progression called Hishtalshelut, the lowest link remains connected — i.e., retains some qualitative relationship — to the highest link.” (Lessons in Tanya, Iggeret HaKodesh Epistle 20)

The last thought in creation actually came first. The entire order of contractions, ilah (“causes”) and alah (“effects”), was set up only so that we should be able to build a dwelling place for Hashem in this world, specifically through the mitzvot involving action.

“Be strong and courageous! For you shall bring the children of Israel to the land that I have sworn to them, and I will be with you.” (Devarim 31:23)

Had Moses led the Jewish people into the Holy Land, its conquest would have been effortless. His holiness would have neutralized any opposition. Our “conquest” of the world’s materiality similarly would then also have been virtually effortless. This is why Joshua had to lead the Jewish people into the Holy Land. By making our conquest of the Holy Land happen in the “natural” order He forced us to “earn” His infinite goodness with our own efforts. This, specifically, is done through the mitzvot involving physical action, uplifting the corporeal to the holy, the lowest link to the highest. When we do this our success will be guaranteed because “I will be with you.”

“I love the shelter of Your House, O Lord, and the place where Your glory resides.” (Tehillim 26:8)

The Holy Temple represents the complete harmony between physical and spiritual. By doing mitzvot in the physical world, our deepest desire is to reinstate this House as a place where Hashem’s glory resides in the physical world, greater and in a completely different state of revelation than it ever was before.