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Yesod: War
or Peace Each one of the sefirot has a pair of opposites related to its
unrectified and rectified states. The pair of opposites related to the two
states of yesod, pegam habrit and tikun habrit, are “war and peace.” This means that the function of yesod in particular is war or peace.
This is because the war is the war over the covenant and peace occurs when
rectification has occurred. One illustration of this is from the world of
marriage, the covenant between man and wife, and the concept of marital peace
and harmony. On the day that God created Adam, He gave him his wife, Eve, “as
a helpmate opposite him.” Our sages explain that this apparently
contradictory phrase means that if a man is worthy, through rectification of
his sexual desires, then his wife acts as his
helpmate and there is peace and mutual cooperation between the couple. The
way to achieve marital harmony is by each partner thinking only of the
other’s best interests, just as we hope that by concentrating totally on
doing God’s will, He in turn will do the best for us.12 However, if he does not merit this state of marital harmony and peace
by his self-rectification, his wife “opposes him in battle.” We have thus
identified the opposing qualities of rectification or remaining unrectified,
of war or peace, in the creation of man and woman on the sixth day of
creation. War and peace are the pair of opposites that relate to the sefirah
of yesod, the sixth sefirah. By taking this example and expanding it to a world-wide scale, we can
see that as long as the world has not yet reached the rectified state of tikun
habrit, there can be no opportunity for peace to prevail. A Week of
Chaotic Energies As stated, the creation of the world preceded the creation of man by
six days, beginning with the twenty-fifth of Elul. What then is the
significance of the days that precede this date? According to the Arizal there is a week of creation that precedes the
week that begins with the twenty-fifth of Elul, the week of creation
as we know it. The week that begins on the twenty-fifth of Elul begins
the creation of the worlds of Emanation and the three worlds that emanate
from it, as they presently exist. However, The Arizal states that there was a
primordial world that preceded this world, called “the World of Chaos.” On
each day that this World of Chaos existed, one king reigned, and on the very
day that he reigned, he died. The names of these seven kings are recorded in
the Torah. In the World of Chaos, kingdoms rise, collapse and die very rapidly,
one after the other. The reason for this rapid rise and fall is since the
energy is so great in the World of Chaos, and the vessels so fragile, that
they cannot contain the energy and they break under the strain. The shattering
of the vessels results in the death of the king. We can illustrate this phenomenon from the history of this world in
which each kingdom may be represented by a political system or philosophy.
For instance, communism rose and subsequentially fell because it is not the
true rectification. This is true of any other political system, whether it be
communism, democracy, or capitalism. (According to this, the world must
advance through seven different political ideologies, each of which desires
to spread world-wide in a supposed attempt to perfect the world. However,
since each ideology is essentially imperfect, they rise, fall, and die.) In
the World of Chaos the energy is so great and the vessels so immature that
the vessels break. The purpose of this world, the World of Tikun, rectification, is to
take the untamed energies of the World of Chaos and contain them in vessels
that are mature enough to hold them without shattering. The first day of the week that precedes twenty-fifth of Elul is
the 18th of Elul, “Chai Elul.” This is the
birthday of the founder of Hassidism in general, the Ba’al Shem Tov and the
founder of Chabad Hassidism, the Alter Rebbe. It is certainly very
significant that the 18th of Elul is the birthday of these
two great Rebbes, because this alludes to their power to rectify the chaotic
energies of the first king by containing them in rectified vessels. [The king
of the 18th of Elul is called Bela ben Beor and he
corresponds to the sefirah of da’at in the World of Chaos. Da’at
is the initial sefirah, from which the seven levels of chesed through
malchut emanate, therefore if da’at is rectified, the rectification of
all the other sefirot will follow.] As such, Hassidism comes to take all the tremendous, infinite energy
and all the spiritual resources that have been lost or wasted, as will be
explained, and bring them back for the service of God. By bringing that power
back, the world will reach its final goal, the coming of the Messiah and true
peace for all of humanity. 12. We recommend Rabbi Ginsburgh’s
book, “The Mystery of Marriage” for an in-depth discussion of how to achieve
true marital harmony. Copyright ©2003 Torah Science
Foundation - All Rights
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