Parallels

22 Adar I 5782

The parallels between today’s Tanya portion and the Rebbe’s explanation of the Parashah in Chassidus are astounding:

“[The artisans made the tapestries out of] linen, turquoise wool, purple wool, and scarlet wool.” (Shemos 36:8)

“These four materials allude to the four bases of our emotional relationship with G‑d.

Scarlet wool is red, alluding to fire. The fire within our soul is the fiery love of G‑d that results from contemplating His infinity. When we realize the extent to which G‑d is beyond creation and that He is the true reality, we are overcome with a passionate desire to escape the limitations of the world in order to know Him and to merge with Him.” (Daily Wisdom, Lubavitcher Rebbe)

“The further I am removed from G‑d, and the more despicable and contemptible, the deeper in exile is my divine soul, and all the more is it to be pitied. Therefore, I will make it my entire aim and desire to extricate it from this exile and to ‘return her to her father’s house i.e., to restore it to its source and its original state as in her youth,’ i.e., as it was before being clothed in my body, when it was completely absorbed in G‑d’s light and united with Him.” (Lessons in Tanya, Likutei Amarim, Chapter 31)

“Turquoise wool is the color of the sky, alluding to our experience of G‑d’s majesty. In this experience, we also contemplate G‑d’s infinity, but focus on our own insignificance in comparison. This fills us with feelings of awe.” (Daily Wisdom, Lubavitcher Rebbe)

“Why then has G‑d done such a thing—to cause the divine soul, a part of His light which fills and encompasses all worlds and before which all is as naught, to descend into the body and be clothed in a ‘serpent’s skin’ and a ‘fetid drop’?” (Lessons in Tanya, Likutei Amarim, Chapter 31)

“Purple wool is a blend of blue and red, of love and awe, alluding to pity, which is compounded of love and anger: love for the ideal, anger over how the ideal goes unfulfilled. Specifically, we pity our Divine soul when we consider its plight, having to live so spiritually distant from its natural home, i.e., in G‑d’s presence.” (Daily Wisdom, Lubavitcher Rebbe)

“It is comparable to the joy of a prince who was taken captive and was subjected to the hard labor of turning the millstone in prison while covered with filth, and who then goes free to the house of his father, the king.” (Lessons in Tanya, Likutei Amarim, Chapter 31)

“Linen is white, alluding to our basic, inherent love of G‑d, a feeling that is above and beyond rationality. This love is what makes us capable of self-sacrifice for G‑d’s honor, as it expresses our invincible bond with G‑d.” (Daily Wisdom, Lubavitcher Rebbe)

“Yet within me, there is a veritable ‘part’ of G‑d, which is present even in the most worthless of my fellows, namely, the divine soul and the spark of G‑dliness itself clothed in it, animating it.” (Lessons in Tanya, Likutei Amarim, Chapter 31)

“Let him who is wise bear these in mind, and then the benevolent acts of the L‑rd will be understood.” (Tehillim 107:43)