By Yochanan Gordon
This article is kind of out of order, but for a column called “Inside Out,” I guess that is par for the course. While I have been writing for the 5TJT on and off for the better part of two decades, I have always shied away from establishing a column with a dedicated theme because my submissions have been, until recently, infrequent. However, recently, when the editors suggested that I was writing frequently enough and that it made sense to come up with a moniker for my column, I was hard-pressed to come up with one or two words that I felt best conveyed the message I sought to impart through my articles. Lately, however, really out of nowhere, the name “Inside Out” struck me as being most emblematic of the words and ideas that I will attempt to impart through this space.
It would follow, after starting a column, to spend at least one week at the outset introducing the column and setting the tone for the series of subsequent articles. So I do admit that it is somewhat unconventional and out of order to run an introduction as the third or fourth installment in a series of articles, but the truth is the soul that this column is ostensibly about is also beyond definition and transcendent of the confines of time and space. Furthermore, the Torah, which is one with G-d and the soul of the Jewish people, on some level also defies time, as the famous klal states: “Ein mukdam u’me’uchar baTorah.” At least according to one opinion in Shas the order of the Mishnayos do not follow any specific chronology, expanding this idea with both the written and oral Torah and for all intents and purposes condoning the lack of order set forth in this instance.
Having last week concluded Sefer Bereishis, it would seem that this message is apparent in the saga between Yosef and his brothers as well. It was the perceived presumptuousness of Yosef on his brothers’ part that led to his being sold into slavery, which, as we know, ended up boding well, in the end, for Yosef. But it was the humble way Yosef treated his brothers that allowed Yosef to overlook his brothers’ hostility towards him and to see G-d working in mysterious ways to ensure the perpetuity of the Jewish people throughout the Egyptian exile.
In his Sefer HaTanya, Reb Schneur Zalman, the Ba’al HaTanya, in teaching the secret to loving all Jews as oneself explains that only from the perspective of the body is one Jew different from another. However, from the vantage point of the soul, every Jew is connected — literally like brothers. However, in his Sefer Derech Mitzvosecha, the Tzemach Tzedek takes this idea a step further and teaches how all Jews originate from Adam HaRishon, with each soul being rooted in a different limb in the body of Adam, but the same body nevertheless. It follows then, that if two Jews at are odds with each other it is like the right hand striking the left hand. So while we often tend to view things as they seem to us outwardly as reflecting reality, sometimes we have to take a look inside to see things from an internal level to get an accurate reading of reality.
This very idea is brought out in the movie The Greatest Showman. The song “A Million Dreams” opens with the words: “I close my eyes and I can see …” Certainly P.T. Barnum is referring to seeing an image in his mind’s eye. Often, in order to transport ourselves to a different place and to see an image that is not yet a reality, we will also close our eyes. However, there is a more profound message here, in that the conventional belief is that in order to see someone or something, it’s necessary to have our eyes open. In reality, however — the inner reality, that is — it would be helpful if we’d just close our eyes in order to see.
This is not a new idea. The very world we live in was occupied fully by the light of G-d prior to its creation, necessitating that He withdraw from Himself in order to create space for otherness. If we observe the varying opinions with regard to creation — specifically the precedence of heaven to earth or vice versa — we find that one opinion proves, based on the precedence of the word heaven to earth in the opening verse of creation, that heaven was created before earth. The converse opinion maintains, based on a verse a little later on, “In the day on which G-d made earth and heaven,” that earth was created before heaven. Finally, there is a third opinion that states that heaven and earth were created together, as a pot with its cover.
While these seem like three differing opinions, it seems to me that there is a progression at play. The moment some authority withdraws itself there are a number of forces that will rush in looking to fill that space. This is the stage of awareness where people will assert their autonomy, looking to establish themselves as a driving force. Ultimately, however, creation was meant to work in harmony, and the only way to accomplish that is to fuse into a harmonious whole.
We find this in Torah across the board, with the notion where two Tannaim or Amoraim can argue and instead of choosing sides we say, “Eilu v’eilu divrei Elokim chaim” — both these and those are the word of the living G-d. How can two differing opinions be the words of G-d? When it comes to the soul, there is no tension; therefore, we can express variant positions and they can emanate from the very same source.
My objective is to see events from the vantage point of the soul based on its inner content so that we can discover together the beauty of the world that G-d created and how each of us and the events that transpire in our lives on a daily basis, whether we understand them or not, are all part of a grand Divine tapestry. Welcome to the great indoors.
