Hakitzu VeRanenu #19: The Relationship between Body and Soul in the Nation and their Unification (Part Two)3 min read
This is the great power of the Toras HaSod which crowns Hashem in all of the worlds and demonstrates clearly that there is literally nothing but Him and that He fills and surrounds all worlds; “Your Sovereignty is the sovereignty of all the worlds (Tehillim 145:13), “The entire earth is filled with Your Glory.” (Yeshayahu 6:3)
When this holy Torah illuminates souls, refines spirits, and opens the eyes of the living, paths that truly bind the holy and the mundane will become revealed. On the one hand, the holy will be completely and faithfully committed to the Will of Hashem, wholly, and without any compromise. On the other hand, the arenas of corporeality won’t experience fear, as if they are being pursued by more significant powers that seek exclusivity. On the contrary, the holy light drawn from the streams of Torah will grant a person a wondrous perspective on his occupation, enabling him to recognize the awesome inner import of craftsmanship or construction. This awareness anoints all cross sections of one’s life with depth and happiness, lifting his spirit even when he is toiling in his labor and removing the curse the arrived when the earth, the strata of corporeal life, experienced its descent; “The earth shall be cursed because of you, you shall eat with sadness all the days of your life.” (Bereishis 3:17)
Considering the interpolation between Torah and work as a kind of neighborliness of the two, an attempt at connecting two completely separate and unique worlds, is a mistake that can lead to the denigration of both. The relationship between the holy and the mundane is not like the connection between two trees in a single forest but rather like an awesome soul in a living body, which fills the body with many faithful abilities.
The point of distinction between these two perspectives is extremely clear. Using the analogy of two trees planted in a single field, however much we cut the branches of one of these trees we strengthen the other accordingly, because it will have a greater ability to draw on the earth and more room to spread its branches without being limited in any way. The reverse is also true – any strengthening of one will come at the expense of the other. Therefore, seen through this lens, a person attempts to find avenues of compromise in order to align the world of the holy with his desires for the world of the mundane.
In contrast, using the analogy of the body and soul, the exact opposite is true: the strengthening of one leads to the strengthening of the other. For when the body is vibrant, the soul has many vessels to manifest within, and when the soul is powerful, the body expresses an enormous and effervescent flow of life. Similarly, the clipping of the soul’s wings, the weakening of the categories of the holy and faithfulness to the word of Hashem doesn’t only weaken the world of the holy. Rather, it greatly blemishes the world of the mundane as well, downgrading the living spirit that burns within it and increasing its corporeality, thus turning it toward the realm of the dregs and the negative forces.
In this true and proper way which becomes clear in the works of Penimiyus HaTorah, the holy and the mundane stand together in all of their completion and strength. Not only do they not weaken one another, on the contrary! They strengthen one another, and together cause for the appearance of the complete life-force of the soul of Knesses Yisrael within a vibrant national body, wiser than all the nations, more developed than all coalitions.
Just as we see that the spirit of ethics and righteousness sustains society and the economy, causing pleasantness to rest upon interpersonal relationships and maintaining faithfulness in business transactions, so it will be – immeasurably so – when an awesomely powerful illumination of holiness is added to the equation. It will approach to anoint existence with the light of eternal life, enveloping the world with meaning, causing this purposeful spirit to pulse within corporeal existence and raise their value. Because it is not only the spirit of ethics that is necessary to appear within physicality, but soul, life-essence – they too must become born within the life of the nation. They alone will bind agriculture, business, and construction to the point of holiness in all of its awesome glory, to the Beis HaMikdash, the great and holy house upon which Hashem’s Name is called in closeness with the nation, the spouse of Hakadosh Baruch Hu.
In order for this to occur, we must turn to the streams of Penimiyus haTorah, to reveal her treasures and to magnify her spirit. All the while that our involvement is in the realm of the revealed Torah alone while the Torah’s interiority remains dry, the entire world of holiness will be displayed only within the four cubits of halacha, and one’s entire demand of existence will simply be to consider how it is possible to fulfill the Torah and mitzvos within a world whose entire focus is mundane, without being anointed with the value of holiness like a soul to a body.
This is an essential portion of what we discussed earlier, that the approach of spirit and the appearance of soul depends upon engagement with the secrets of the Torah. For it is only within them that the work of unification and synthesis between body and soul, between holiness and mundanity, between this world and the world to come, is clarified. It is only with their strength that a beauty is revealed which seeks not to threaten mundanity and its realm, but rather on the contrary, which respects it and understands how to elevate it to a place of great honor, as an expression of eternity which reveals, in actuality, a great light.
