This week's parsha
Unless otherwise noted, "This week's Parsha" comprises articles taken from contributors to the Chabad.org website. We show the original author's name here, so that proper attribution is given. For the sake of brevity, footnotes cited in the original author's writings are omitted from this website. If you need to see the citations, please refer to the original articles on the Chabad.org website.
Self-Sacrifice
This week's Parshah discusses the concept of sacrifices.
Chassidic thought teaches that there are two components to a person's spiritual make-up: the Nefesh Elokit or "G-dly soul," and the Nefesh Habahamit, the "Animal Soul."
The G-dly soul, as it's name suggests, is the spiritual, "soul" part of a person which is constantly striving to come closer to its' Creator and to elevate the physical and material.
The Animal soul, on the other hand, represents the basest and most animalistic of desires. It is the materialistic drives, the quest for instant gratification.
The Torah tells us (Leviticus 1:2), "When one should offer, of you, a sacrifice to G-d." The "of you" tells us that the sacrifice has to come from within, from the Animal Soul. The Hebrew word for sacrifice, korban, comes from the same verb as karev meaning "to come close."
By "sacrificing" our Animal soul, by channeling its energies into more G-dly pursuits, we can truly "become close" to our Creator. As the verse tells us, of you. It depends on you and you alone. No one else can do it for you. On the other hand, no other person or thing can stand in the way.
Chassidic thought teaches that there are two components to a person's spiritual make-up: the Nefesh Elokit or "G-dly soul," and the Nefesh Habahamit, the "Animal Soul."
The G-dly soul, as it's name suggests, is the spiritual, "soul" part of a person which is constantly striving to come closer to its' Creator and to elevate the physical and material.
The Animal soul, on the other hand, represents the basest and most animalistic of desires. It is the materialistic drives, the quest for instant gratification.
The Torah tells us (Leviticus 1:2), "When one should offer, of you, a sacrifice to G-d." The "of you" tells us that the sacrifice has to come from within, from the Animal Soul. The Hebrew word for sacrifice, korban, comes from the same verb as karev meaning "to come close."
By "sacrificing" our Animal soul, by channeling its energies into more G-dly pursuits, we can truly "become close" to our Creator. As the verse tells us, of you. It depends on you and you alone. No one else can do it for you. On the other hand, no other person or thing can stand in the way.
Wise Emotions
In describing the people qualified to construct the Sanctuary and its instruments, the Torah repeatedly calls them "wise-in-heart" in referring to their skill. The craftsmanship these artisans possessed was more than technical, their wisdom was a special sort -- that of the heart.
Some people are brilliant intellectually, their gifted minds master sciences, their logic and reasoning are unimpeachable. Despite these mind-gifts they may be cold, unsympathetic, unmoved by suffering. Others are kindlier, charitable, more emotional by nature, not particularly given to analysis and profound understanding. They may also be overindulgent, gullible, suspicious of or impatient with reasoning. While each sort has qualities, in extremes, or rather without tempering the initial and dominant characteristic, their deficiencies are grave.
Some people are brilliant intellectually, their gifted minds master sciences, their logic and reasoning are unimpeachable. Despite these mind-gifts they may be cold, unsympathetic, unmoved by suffering. Others are kindlier, charitable, more emotional by nature, not particularly given to analysis and profound understanding. They may also be overindulgent, gullible, suspicious of or impatient with reasoning. While each sort has qualities, in extremes, or rather without tempering the initial and dominant characteristic, their deficiencies are grave.
Two Equal Tablets
Moses comes down from Sinai forty days after G-d proclaimed the Ten Commandments. In his hands are the “two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written by the finger of G-d.". The biblical commentator Rashi, noting the distinctive Hebrew spelling of "tablets," comments that both were of equal proportions.
There are two common attitudes toward religion, neither representing the outlook of Torah. Ethereal religion concerns itself with abstractions like the essence of G-d and the nature of evil. It thrives in the rarefied atmosphere of the seminar on theology and philosophy. Man is little involved in its processes. The mundane world of business, for example, has little place in this religion and faces neither challenge nor guidance from its conclusions. The two worlds are separate. The philosopher and businessman operate independently.
There are two common attitudes toward religion, neither representing the outlook of Torah. Ethereal religion concerns itself with abstractions like the essence of G-d and the nature of evil. It thrives in the rarefied atmosphere of the seminar on theology and philosophy. Man is little involved in its processes. The mundane world of business, for example, has little place in this religion and faces neither challenge nor guidance from its conclusions. The two worlds are separate. The philosopher and businessman operate independently.
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