\u00a0A friend who lived in New Jersey in the 1980s told me the following story.<\/p>\r\n
Once, we invited the devout Chabad scholar Rabbi Yoel Kahn, who was the "chozer" of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, zt"l, to the Chabad house for Israeli students and businessmen that we managed there.<\/p>\r\n
Rabbi Yoel gave a fascinating talk there with a strong and powerful message about the merits of Jews who are circumcised at the age of eight days, as opposed to their cousins \u200b\u200b(Ishmaelites) who are circumcised at the age of thirteen. At the end of the instructive talk, the students presented various questions.<\/p>\r\n
Rabbi Kahn answered all of them with intelligence and firmness, and then one of our important donors, a respected and wealthy Jew, stood up and presented a research thesis stating that most Jews experience trauma following the covenant, which they experienced at the age of eight days...<\/p>\r\n
Rabbi Kahn lost his cool and responded sharply and in an unequivocal manner. He refuted this claim in every way, but when we returned him to New York, we asked him and ourselves with concern what would happen, we had just lost a great donor.<\/p>\r\n
The rabbi dismissed the matter, as if nothing had happened.<\/p>\r\n
In the six months that had passed since that conversation, this Jew had not shown up for the meetings and conferences we had organized. Needless to say, our spirits were greatly dampened by this.<\/p>\r\n
Miraculously, after a while, that Jew came to my husband and told him that after that decisive and powerful speech, he found himself thinking, researching, and reflecting a lot about Judaism and the subject of circumcision. This renewed thinking only made him more committed to his Judaism. The end is not worth telling.<\/p>\r\n
\u2022<\/p>\r\n
In the previous parasha - Lech-Lech - it is narrated that the Lord appeared to Abraham, and Abraham, fearing the Divine Presence appearing to him, "fell on his face." Whereas in our parasha it is written, "And the Lord appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, and he was sitting at the entrance of the tent.".<\/p>\r\n
The difference between God's revelation to Abraham there and here is expressed on two levels: in the level of Godliness (holiness) revealed to Abraham, when here we are talking about a revelation of a very high degree, much more than before, and in Abraham's ability to absorb and contain it.<\/p>\r\n
Here (in our parsha) Abraham Sitting<\/b> And he sees God, whereas previously (in the previous parsha), he was unable to withstand the revelation of God even at a lower level.<\/p>\r\n
The reason for this difference stems from the change that Abraham underwent between the two parshiot... He circumcised himself! Through circumcision, our forefather Abraham reached such a level that the glory of God, in the highest degrees, was revealed to him, and he was able to absorb and contain it.<\/p>\r\n
It is not surprising that it is precisely through the commandment of circumcision that Abraham reaches this ability - to receive more interiorly, to a higher level - the commandment of circumcision itself contains these two opposites: it is the only commandment that penetrates and is revealed in the actual physical body. On the other hand, it is superior to all the commandments of the Torah, for while God made three covenants with us for all the commandments of the Torah, in connection with the commandment of circumcision God made thirteen covenants with us.<\/p>\r\n
Furthermore, through the commandment of circumcision, holiness penetrates not only the physical body itself, but also affects the land - "for your inheritance by this commandment." The meaning is of course to the Land of Israel. That is, the commandment of circumcision is a giving of power to make this physical land, the Land of Canaan, into the "Land of Israel" - the Holy Land.<\/p>\r\n
This is what characterizes the commandment of circumcision: through it, the highest spiritual levels are revealed in the most physical practice.<\/p>\r\n
And this is actually the purpose of all creation: to make the physical earth a dwelling place for God. The truth is that the manifestations of God's light that are revealed in the upper worlds are only "manifestations" from the Shekhinah, while the revelation of God in His own glory is precisely in our lower world, the world that is the purpose of the creation of all the spiritual worlds.<\/p>\r\n
King Solomon also said at the dedication of the Temple: "Behold, the heavens and the heaven of heavens cannot contain you, but this house." This means that the spiritual worlds are indeed incapable of revealing God in His glory and Himself, and it is precisely the Temple, which is found in this physical world, that constitutes the instrument for revealing God in His glory and Himself.<\/p>\r\n
In the book of the Rebbe Rayatz's Sichots it is written that although circumcision is not performed at night, "the vow of 'and circumcise the foreskin of your heart' is also performed...".<\/p>\r\n
How does all this relate to us women? Very simply, we must know that when "the Lord appeared to him" the meaning is To him<\/b>, to God Himself. This knowledge should awaken in us the desire to see this revelation in practice. To do everything in order to be worthy of it by introducing God into everything we do in the world. Even when it comes to material things like cooking, washing, and cleaning.<\/p>\r\n
We must yearn primarily for the wonderful divine revelation that will occur in redemption and do everything in our power to be worthy of this revelation, by having every action we take be in a manner appropriate to redemption.<\/p>\r\n
\u2022 Miri Shneorson \u2013 presenter, lecturer, and media representative. To book a lecture, leave your details: lp.770marketing.com\/miri_shneorson<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What distinguishes the commandment of circumcision from the rest of the Torah commandments and why did Abraham fall on his face in the face of God's revelation? \u2022 A fascinating story of Hasidic firmness and its results \u2022 And a few words about the revelation of God in the kitchen and the laundry room","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[138],"tags":[3237,32348],"class_list":["post-324732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-138","tag-3237","tag-32348"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n