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Hanukkah: Soul Union with YHWH
By Rabbi Levi bar Ido - B’nai Avraham
14 Be glad in the day of prosperity, but in the evil day take note that Elohim has also appointed the one as well as the other, so that man should not uncover whatever shall be after him
 . Qoheleth 7:14 
At the beginning of the creation of the universe is a system of opposites. We have day/night, good/evil, exile(sin) and redemption. By allowing both extremes to exist in this creation, Elohim has established a system of free will and choice. Mankind may choose to do good or evil, and to bring light or darkness into this world byhis actions.
•
19 “I have called the heavens and the earth as witnesses today against you: I have set before you lifeand death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore you shall choose life, so that you live, both you and  your seed…
 Devarim
 
30:19
•
7 Do not be led astray: Elohim is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he shall also reap.8Because he who sows to his own flesh shall reap corruption from the flesh, but he who sows to theSpirit shall reap everlasting life from the Spirit. 9And let us not lose heart in doing good,
Gal.6:7-9
In this universe, it is our choices that give power to the darkness and hasatan. Whenever Yisrael has had to bear the yoke of domination from a foreign power, it was because the Torah and its observance was broken.
•
15 “And it shall be, if you do not obey the voice of YHWH your Elohim, to guard to do all Hiscommands and His laws which I command you today, that all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you:
 Devarim
 
28:15
•
18 “Your ways and your deeds have brought this upon you. This is your evil, because it is bitter,because it has reached into your heart.”
Yirmeyahu 4:18
The Four Exiles
Historically there have been four powers that have subjugated the Yisraelite people. These were Babylon,Persia, Greece, and Rome. According to tradition, Edom
1
is represented by the Holy Roman Empire and her children;
Christianity
. The Jewish scholar Ibn Ezra
2
also includes the Islamic powers in the definition of Edom based upon the fact that it was the influence of Rome that established the formation of the Arab and the Turkishempires. Thus, Islam is actually an outgrowth of the Roman Empire and one of her children.Maimonides taught that the tribulation that Yisrael would suffer from the hordes of Islam would increase untilthey were ended by the coming of the Messiah. These periods of exile were punishment upon Yisrael for their lack of Torah observance .But, in the Divine Plan; they are merely vehicles for bringing the Messiah andrevealing the
Shekinah
in this world.
Four Exiles Revealed in Bereshith 1:2
1
Zohar 2:6a
-
It says in the Book of R. Hamnuna the Elder, in connection with the words, “Now there arose a new king over Egypt”,that all the nations of the world and all their kings become powerful only on account of Israel. Egypt, for instance, did not rule over the whole world before Israel settled there. The same is true of Babylon, as well as of Edom (Rome). Before that all these nations wereutterly insignificant and contemptible: Egypt is described as a “house of slaves” (Ex. xx, 2), Babylon as “a people who was not” (Isa.xx, II-13), and of Edom it says, “Behold, I have made thee small among the nations, thou art greatly despised” (Obad. 1, 2). It wasentirely due to Israel that they became great. As soon as Israel was subjected to any of these nations, it immediately became all- powerful, since Israel singly are on a par with all the rest of the world. So when Israel went down to Egypt, straightway that countryrose to supreme power. And this is the meaning of “Now there arose a new king”, i.e. the supernal chieftain of Egypt rose up instrength and gained predominance over the chieftains of the other nations.2 Known as Abu Harun; c. 1055–after 1135
 
The second verse of 
Bereshith
chapter one reveals the secret of the four exiles
3
.
•
 
התָיְהָ ,ץרֶאהָוְהתֹוָהבֹוְ ,ךְשֶחֹםהתְ ינֵפְ-לעַ ,
;
•
-לעַ תֶחֶרַמְ ,םיהִלֹֱ חַרוְםָהַ ינֵפְ
.
•
2
Now the earth was unformed and void 
 
 , and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of  Elohim hovered over the face of the waters.
 Bereshith 1:2
“Without form” (Hebrew
tohu
4
 ) refers to the Babylonian exile according to
Yirmeyahu 4:23
•
23 I looked at the earth, and saw it was formless and empty. And the heavens, they had no light. Bohu or empty refers to the exile of Persia based upon
 Esther chapter six verse 14:
• 
14 While they were still speaking with him, the sovereign’s eunuchs came, and hurried to bring Hamanto the feast which Ester had prepared.
“Darkness” refers to Greece because the Greeks darkened the eyes of Yisrael with all their decrees against theTorah. And “On the face of the depths” gives hints to Edom
5
(Rome
6
and her children), for no one can fathomthe depths of their cruelty to Yisrael.The verse in
Bereshith
continues:
•
 And the Spirit of Elohim was moving on the face of the
 
waters.This verse hints at the Moshiach
7
  for as is written in
Yeshayahu
 
11:2
:
• 
2 The Spirit of YHWH shall rest upon Him the Spirit of wisdom and understanding...
The Grecian Formula
 
3 Why does this not include the exile in Egypt? Egypt represents the root of all evil in Creation, and the four exiles are branches of that tree whose roots are represented by Egypt. Roots of the tree are underground and cannot be seen. Also, see The Book of Daniel:Translation & Commentary by Rabbi Hersh Goldwurm (Mesorah Pub.)4 See Bereshith Rabbah 3:7, 9:2- the flaw in the world of tohu was deliberately formed in order to allow for the possibility of evil andthus provide man with the possibility of choosing between good and evil. See also- Etz Chayim 11:6;Shaar HaHakdamot p.2285 What, then, is the significance of the expression “cometh into Egypt”? Did He have to “come”? Yea, verily, He “came” for the sakeof the Matrona (Shekinah), to take Her, as it were, by the hand and raise Her in glory, as He will also do when Israel's captivity inEdom (Rome) Will come to an end.’ R. Jose remarked: ‘If it was for the sake of the Matrona, why did He not “come” to Babylon,where the Shekinah was also in exile with Israel?’ To this the Jew replied that according to tradition the reason why the Holy One didnot reveal Himself fully by signs and wonders in Babylon was because the Israelites took to themselves foreign wives and profanedthe sign of the holy Covenant. In Egypt, however, it was different: they entered it as pure sons of Israel, and left it as such. When theEdomitic exile comes to an end He shall manifest His glory in fullness and raise up His Spouse from the dust, saying to her: “Shakethyself from the dust; arise, sit down, O Jerusalem, loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion” (Isa. LII, 2).Zohar 2:7a6 R. Eleazar further said: ‘King Solomon, when wisdom was given to him, saw all “in the time of his hebel”, i.e. in the time when themoon (the Holy Spirit) ruled. He saw the Righteous (Tzaddik), the Pillar of the world, “perishing in his righteousness” in the time of the exile, for when Israel is in exile He is with them, and the supernal blessings do not reach Him. Thus “there is a righteous that perisheth in his righteousness” (Eccl. Vll, 15). On the other hand, he saw “a wicked person that prolongeth his life in his evil” (Ibid.),namely Samael, who causes Edom (Rome) to continue in her prosperity through the help of his “Evil”, his spouse, the loathsomeSerpent. And the same applies to the prosperity of all the other kingdoms of this world; until the time when the Holy One, blessed beHe, shall raise up from the dust “the booth of David that is fallen” (Amos IX, 11).Zohar 2:11a7 The Sovereignty of Elohim hovers over the surface of the waters- this is the spirit of Moshiach which hovers over the waters of Torah, and this is immediately followed by the redemption…Hashmatot siman 29-Zohar Vol.1, 263a.
 
The Greek domination is hinted at by “darkness”. During the Greek domination, there was an intenseHellenization
8
 of the Yehudim at that time. Secularization was rampant, and the observant Yehudim had toleave Yerushalayim.The ancient sages compare a blind a man to a dead man, and the people of Yisrael were as one dead due to their spiritual blindness.
•
17 “And I shall bring distress on men, and they shall walk like blind men – because they have sinned against HWHY, and their blood shall be poured out like dust and their flesh like dung.”
 Zeph.1:17 
•
13 It was because of the sins of her prophets, The crookednesses of her priests, Who shed in her midst the blood of the righteous. 14 They staggered, blind, in the streets; They have defiled themselves withblood, So that no one was able to touch their garments.
 Ekah (Lam.) 4:13-14 
•
10 His watchmen are blind, all of them, they have not known. All of them are dumb dogs, unable tobark, dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber.
Yeshayahu 56:10
•
Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. And he who walks in darkness does not knowwhere he is going. 36 “While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you become sons of light.”
Yochanan 12:35-36 
•
45 “And he who sees Me sees Him who sent Me.46 “I have come as a light into the world, so that noone who believes in Me should stay in darkness.
Yochanan 12:45-46 
The Greek domination of Yisrael was different than the exiles of Babylon, Persia, and Rome
9
. These threesought to kill, exile the Yisraelites, and destroy the Temple (
 Bayit 
 
 HaMikdash
). But under the Greeks, theYehudim were allowed to remain in the land of Yisrael, and the Temple remained standing.Those who experienced the miracle of the Lights at Hanukkah had to prostrate themselves thirteen times tothank YHWH for saving Yisrael and the Temple from the Greeks. The number thirteen is representative of thethirteen cracks that the Greeks made in the Temple.
•
“In front of the women’s court was a partition measuring ten handbreadths, and it was marked withthirteen cracks that the Greek rulers made in it.”
Tractate Midot 2:3 Talmud 
 
This partition was the division between the Temple courtyards and no uncircumcised could go beyond this point in the Temple. The cracks represented the Greeks resentment to this barrier. The edict to bow down at this point applied only to the Second Temple. There was no such edict issued for the Babylonian, Persian, or Romanexiles.The Greeks prohibited the Yehudim from sanctifying the New Moon, performing circumcision, and keepingthe Shabbat. The Greeks ordered the Yehudim to, “Carve upon the horn of the ox that you are not connected tothe Elohim of Yisrael.” What does that statement mean? Why did they claim Yisrael was not connected to their Elohim? How does this decree connect to the forbidden
mitzvot 
of that exile?
Separation from the Light
We are taught that Creation came in five stages referred to the “heavenly universes.” At each stage there was agreater contraction of the Light, culminating in the physical world and almost a concealment of the DivineLight.According to the Ari, when creation of the world began, all the souls of Yisrael were already made, attachedto the Foundation from where all Divine Energy flows. In order for these souls to have free will, the Creator hadto disconnect himself from them.There are five levels to the human soul. Three reside in the body-the
nefesh
,
ruach
, and
neshamah
. Two exist beyond the physical world- the
chayah
/Living essence (in which our life force is still within the realm of theDivine) and the
 yechidah
/Unique Essence (where our level of existence is still in the will of Elohim).
8 The Hellenization of the Jews, both in Palestine and the Diaspora, consists in the substitution of the Greek language for Hebrew andAramaic, the adoption of Greek personal names, the adoption of Greek educational institutions, the growth of a Jewish Hellenisticliterature and philosophy, and religious deviation and syncretism as seen in legal institutions and in art.9 and “wherein is no blemish” indicates the Kingdom of Greece (who were near the true faith). “Upon which never came yoke”alludes to the Kingdom of Edom, [Tr. note: i.e. Rome.] which was never under the yoke of any other power. It is written: “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one” (Job. XIV, 4). Zohar 2:237a
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