Naso

Editorial notes:
The worldly focus of Torah teaches that daily life on earth, with all its trivialities, trials and difficulties, is the realm that is given to us to sanctify and raise up. So, the path to the sublime leads through things we mistakenly take to be ordinary and even obstacles. Suffering really can elevate one to deeper wisdom. Each situation is actually a gateway to God, when seen to be a “synecdoche” or part that stands for the whole. In this way everything becomes symbolic, “The world is a dream within a dream, and all lights mask greater darknesses, which when uncovered reveal greater lights.” Shai gives as examples of blessings and illumination emerging through hurdles, suffering and confusion, several Biblical accounts. For example, there was Jacob’s dream of wrestling with Esau’s angel the night before he meets his brother whom he knows may attempt to kill him (in this encounter, Esau’s angel ends up giving him a divine blessing that reveals him to be “Israel” – one who strives heroically with and for God, and triumphs). Then there was Rivka the little girl who left home and safety to marry an unknown man, in the process getting a blessing from her brother Laban that foreshadows the whole of Jewish history to the end of time (Gen. 24:60: “Our sister, may you come to be the mother of thousands of myriads, and may your offspring inherit the gate of its foes”). There is the Mishnah and Gemara account of the Sotah ordeal of a woman accused of adultery (see Num. 5:11-31 and B.T., Tractate Sotah), in which she must drink the dissolved ink of the written indictment, which includes the blessings and curses that relate to innocence or guilt; she proves her purity by not being poisoned by the drink. So, we learn from these examples that precisely the things that test and pain us and seem so dark, can become the source of great blessings, the gates of enlightenment and joy, and even ways to God. The reference at the end of this essay to “The Leper’s Gate” relates to another such instance, the account in 2 Kings 7:3ff., in which four starving lepers at the gate of a besieged city in Samaria, where there was literally no food for anyone, despairingly decide that since they are close to death anyway they have nothing to lose if they go off to the enemy’s camp to beg for food. So they walk to the enemy’s ramparts that night, and discover that the entire army has fled, leaving all behind. Food, gold, and every other valuable thing are there for the taking. They eat and then gather gold and other riches for themselves, but finally decide to alert the city, and the starving people of the city now have far more than enough food, they plunder the enemy camp and Israel rejoices. [EZ*]. *Many thanks to Dr. Evan Zuesse for providing the commentary for this essay.

Just notes:

Appendix “Stuff thought”

1. The cities are won by seeking paths which are synecdoches to what is sought
   1. [In case I forget why this was hard to see before: E.g. Let’s say I wanted a meaningful friendship, e.g. lamed-zayin-ish, but there were no ways to seek any improvements here, instead it is enough to seek lamed and zayin (e.g. tell someone directions, appreciate compliment), this is like 6 days work followed by Shabat which is like Noah’s flood, or Asher’s treasury which Solomon built. Nb. The world is a dream within a dream, and all lights mask greater darknesses, which when uncovered reveal greater lights.
   2. That sounds mundane, which it also is. But this is the only way to make the Yosef-prison + Merkavah + Yissaschar work at once that I could find.
      1. This dual holy/mundane is seen in bechol levavcha & me’odecha, furthermore, regarding Shavuot as a culmination of promise to be rescued from Egypt, [[?thus purifying the mixed multitudes, which are the Esav within the person who has not subdued their lower soul utterly.]
      2. I argue (re this being right), but with doubts, that Rivka‘s blessing from uncle (?father), is fulfilled by Yaakov receiving Esav‘s gates, which Yosef receives too. And (2) that erasing name for a sota, is like reducing “impression of name’s perfect appearance”, which is like Moshe confusing the length of the exile, because he didn’t know which name was broken for Yosef.
      3. I think v significant that there are many gates, and many ways of counting them, and that their internal mechanisms can be frames of each other. [I saw this elsewhere] [I think the key to their unity is the Torah, cf. Aica, cf. commentary on aleph representing singularity of Torah and Israel]
2. Thus allows getting to anything (real, not anything illusory)
3. Shavuot connects Yitro, which is all that is the not-burning bush, is like Yitro arriving at Har Sinai
4. This is like Torah (house) inside doorway (world) inside a house (Torah), and thus for Yosef allows his blessings, but this is true in general, both mundane and holy
   1. Aka “How to ask for blessings”
   2. Nb. Can incorporate (1) Letter to World/Akeida, (2) Merkavah‘s 4 faces, and (3) Torah/shabat into dal/poor-man, (4) draft for freeing Yosef from prison.
      1. For “The Leper’s Gate”, this allows getting off the boat whilst remaining a faithful (i.e. an innocent Sota) – the path of suffering, but in a holy causal timeline.