בס"ד
Article for the Month of Kislev - The Key to Jewish Survival
The acronym for מקוה (Mikveh): "ואותנו קדשת מכל העמים - And You Have Sanctified Us of All
the Nations”.
Secrets of Chevron – The Cave of Machpelah - Its Importance and Connection to Every Jew
Chapter 1: In the Holy Temple, the day begins with the mention of
Chevron.
In order to notify of the dawn’s rising, and the time of the
eternal sacrifice’s arrival, הכהנים (the priests) announce: “The entire east
has lit up even to Chevron”. (Yoma 3:1) And this, in spite of Chevron not being
in the East, but South of Jerusalem, why?
“Adam said: If in the case of the tablets (of
stone)[1], where in the future they will be written by the finger of G-d, and
the waters of the Jordan are destined to flee from them; ' how much more so
will this be the case with my body, kneaded by His two hands, and because He
breathed into my nostrils the breath of the spirit of His mouth, after my death
they will take me and my bones, and make them into an image for idolatry; thus
I will place my coffin deep down beneath the cave and within the cave, and
there he is buried: Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rivkah, Jacob
and Leah. Therefore, it is called " Kiryat Arba (4) " because 4
couples were buried there.. It is stated about them: (Isaiah 57:2) “He entereth
into peace, they rest in their beds” (Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer)
Adam was created from dust that the Creator gathered from all
corners of the Earth so that at the time of his demise, wherever he would be,
the land could not refuse to absorb him[2]. The dust for the creation of Adam’s
head, the shelter of the brain and thought was taken from the future Holy Site
in Jerusalem, where he lived most of his life after he was banned from the
Garden of Eden.
Adam and Eve did not merit remaining in the Garden of Eden
for even one night. On the sixth day, the Shabbat eve when they were created:
in the first hour – his dust was gathered. In the second – he was made a Golem.
Third – his limbs were stretched. Fourth – a soul was thrown in. Fifth – he
stood on his legs. Sixth – he gave all the animals names. Seventh – Eve was
created. Eighth – Cane and Abel were born. Ninth – he was commanded not to eat
from the Tree of Knowledge. Tenth – he transgressed the command. Eleventh – He
was judged. Twelfth – he was banned from the Garden of Eden (Sanhedrin 38)
“Man is in his glory but he does not
understand” (Psalms 49) – they were in the Garden of Eden and did not merit
staying there. The Shabbat protected them for 24 hours of peace and light of
the Divine and eased for them the difficult passage from the elite life in the
Garden of Eden to life on Earth. In their honor the sun did not set and they
had day and night full of light, happiness and Shabbat rest. Adam opened his
mouth in song: “A song, for the Shabbat day. It is good to give thanks to G-d,
and to sing praises unto Thy name, O Most
High." (Psalms 92)
At sundown following the Holy Shabbat, darkness enveloped
them and for the first time they felt the shadow of death and the difficult
feeling of failure due to the dizzying fall from the Divine light. With G-d’s
mercy on his creation, “G-d called upon two tiles –flint stones, Adam banged
them together and light came out”. Thus G-d revealed to them the secret of
creating fire, Adam felt comforted and sang to G-d regarding the light and the
fire: “And if I say: Surely the darkness shall envelop me, and the light around
me shall be night” (Psalms 139:11) Therefore, we kindle and renew the fire
every Saturday night following the Shabbat at the same time that it was
revealed to Adam. we thank and bless with Havdalah: “Blessed are thou…..blessed
is the creator of the light of the fire”. (According to Chapters of Rabbi
Eliezer)
On Sunday, Adam noticed his new location, where all the
forest animals were roaring hungrily and he is standing before them alone with
no means of defense. This bitter reality deepened his sense of failure and fear
that he would not be able to survive without the help of G-d. He regretted the
past and accepted upon himself to strictly adhere to the commandments of the
Creator. He entered the upper waters of the Gichon, and immersed in the mikveh
[3] in the waters of the Shiloah spring: “These waters are known for their
elevated virtues of sanctification and holiness because its source comes from
beneath the Holy of Holies”. In order to be alone and stand in prayer and
supplication to the Creator, regarding his wife, Eve, and all of his future
offspring until the end of time.
Submerged in the mikveh, body and soul, he immersed and cried
many times, he fasted and prayed days and nights with hopes to sweeten his
decree. He drew his inner strength to continue the rest of his life from the
message he received from the - מקוה(mikveh,) that there
was still תקוה - (hope.)
Adam sat and cried for 49 days in the waters of the mikveh,
5776 years ago. “Even though the Gates of Prayer locked, the Gates of Tears did
not lock” (Brachot 32). “May it be your will, who hears the sound of crying,
that you place our tears in your sack and save us from all evil, difficult
decrees because we depend on you solely.
In the merit of the immersion and the repentance and the
tears, G-d sweetened the decree and the warning “the day you eat it, you will
surely die” man’s 24-hour day became a 1000 year day of the Creator, as it is
written, “For a thousand years are in Your eyes like yesterday” (Psalms 90:4).
Seventy years of the thousand that Adam received as a gift,
he set aside for David, King of Israel. “This is the book of the generations of
Adam” (Genesis 5:1) “G-d passed all the generations before him, he showed him
David, a life which only had a three-hour allotment. He said to him (Adam to
G-d) is there a present in the heavens? He answered, yes. He said to Him, 70
years of my life will be set aside for on his behalf (David).
David the King, the Moshiach[4] - is intended to repair the
world resulting from the sin of Adam. Therefore, he gifted him from his life, a
natural life span: “The days of our years among them are 70 years” (Psalms
90:10).
Adam lived for 930 years and David lived 70 years.- "מות תמות" “You will surely die” this form of language
is used with Adam after 930 years and with David after 70 years, together, they
equal 1,000 years, with which Adam was blessed (According to the AriZal).
“Adam said I will build a hotel for my remains”
and to prevent his grave from becoming a source for idolatry, he secretly built
his burial place. Adam saw a light in the same place that he left the Garden of
Eden (Zohar Breishis 57:2) there Adam secretly carved the Me’Arat HaMachpelah –
a deeper inner cave under the existing cave in Chevron. And on their 930th
birthday, Adam and Eve secretly entered the cave, they laid in their resting
place and died with the kiss of death, while a permanent candle burns in their
memory. Immediately afterwards, a miraculous earthquake moved cliffs and rocks
and blocked the opening.
Adam and Eve disappeared without any remains, and the
unfruitful searches in every generation afterwards for their burial place was
for naught.
The push for the desperate searches stemmed from the desire
to see, up close the only man in the world who was the creation and the
handiwork of the Creator of the world, and his unique characteristics.
Likewise, his clothes – the leather garment – the unnatural makings that caused
the animals to give in to the hunt. 1241 years after the death of Adam, they
still used his delightful clothing. Esav murdered Nimrod in order to steal the
clothes from him. Jacob used some of the fabric in order to sew Joseph’s coat.
He therefore refused to be comforted and to believe that Joseph was killed by a
wild beast.[5]
The Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge: One of the ideas
encompassed in the prohibition of eating the fruit: In order to test the power
of self-control in Adam and Eve, they were forbidden this fruit for only three
hours prior to sunset on Friday, until the coming of the Shabbat. Had they
withstood the prohibition for those three hours, the Creator would have given
them the coveted fruit to bless and sanctify the Shabbat and afterwards to eat
it to their heart’s desire (According to the AriZal). According to this, Adam
and Eve’s sin was not in eating the fruit, but in eating it at the forbidden
time – before it was permitted, and without making a blessing on it first.
Measure for measure, the observance of the mitzvah of family
purity is an exercise in complete self-control, among others, in order to bring
children into the world at a spiritual level which is most coveted. Parents who
observe this mitzvah carefully, grant their child a precious gift awarded only
once in a lifetime and this elevated holiness is granted to the fetus by the
Creator Himself at the moment of conception, and our sages teach us that this
holiness shines over the child and remains with him his whole life.
________________________________________
[1]The world was created by 10 utterances of the Creator, but
the tablets were written by G-d’s finger. The power of a contract is limited to
the value of the signatory. And in the tablets – the infinite glory and
Holiness of G-d were concentrated in one limited space as the actual letter
from G-d.
The tablets are the only object where one can see the
handiwork and writing of the Creator, but the right and the strength to see
them given only to those who rose to a high spiritual level at Mount Sinai.
Therefore, immediately following the giving of the Torah, they were placed in
the Holy Ark in the Holy of Holies and were never again seen by man. The Rambam
in Mishne Torah, Chapter 4 adds: when Shlomo built the Holy Temple and knew
that it would in the end be destroyed, he built a hidden burial place, an
inaccessible cache deep down, and Yosheahu, the king (400 years later – 10
years prior to the destruction) commanded and the tablets were buried it in the
location that Shlomo built along side with Aaron’s staff and the jar and the
anointing oil, as well.
[2] As the sea does not absorb the body of a human, but spits
it out.
[3] Men’s immersion in the mikveh (we have no intention to
expound on this subject) is totally different in its essence than women’s
immersion. Women’s immersion in the mikveh is the basic and most important
mitzvah in the Torah for family life. In establishing a community, building a
mikveh for women takes priority over building a synagogue or buying a Sefer
Torah. It is permissible to sell a synagogue or Sefer Torah in order to build a
mikveh.
[4] - אדם
= אדם דוד משיח(Adam) The acronym of the word Adam in
Hebrew stands for Adam – David - Moshiach
[5] The brothers also knew that the coat had unnatural
protective qualities. They, therefore, removed the coat from Joseph when they
threw him in the pit.
Published in Memory of R’ Meir ben R’ Mordechai Zvi HaCohen zt”l, compiled and edited from articles of Rav Emanuel Ravad, ©All the rights are protected, October 26, 2016
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