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Insights
The Insignificant Coat
by
Yanki Tauber |
The
soul of a law
All the vessels in the Sanctuary required immersion [after each
festival] except for the Golden Altar and the Copper Altar... because
[the altars] were coated... —Talmud Chagigah 26b
In the majority of cases, even the most deficient and sinful of
Jews will sacrifice his life and suffer the harshest tortures rather
than deny the one G-d... as if it were utterly impossible for them
to deny Him... This is because of the divine essence that is enclothed
in each soul's faculty of chachmah, which is beyond any graspable
or understood knowledge... —Tanya, ch. 18
During the three annual pilgrimage festivals (Passover, Shavuot
and Sukkot), when the entire community of Israel would come to the
Holy Temple in Jerusalem, the vessels of the Temple were exposed
to contact with many individuals, including some who
might not have been well-versed in the complex laws of ritual purity.
Thus, following each festival all the vessels of the Temple were
immersed in a mikveh to cleanse them of any possible contamination
by a visitor who might have been ritually impure.
The law is that "wooden vessels that are used only in a fixed
place are not susceptible to contamination."[1] The two altars (the
indoor "Golden Altar" and the outdoor "Copper Altar")[2], which were used only in their fixed
places, were made of wood and covered with gold or copper. This
is the meaning of the above-quoted law that the altars did not require
immersion after the festivals "because they were coated":
although a metal vessel could become impure under such circumstances,
since the altars' metal was only a coating it was batel ("nullified")
in relation to their wooden bodies and they were thus immune to
contamination.
But Torah laws always have more than one meaning.
The Torah, as the human being it comes to instruct and enlighten,
consists of both a "body" and a "soul." Each
law, story or message in Torah also has a deeper, spiritual import;
each legal technicality also addresses the inner world of the human
soul.
The Sanctuary is more than a physical edifice dedicated to the service
of G-d; it is also the model after which man is to construct his
own self and life as a "sanctuary" to house and express
the divine.
G-d commanded that, "They shall make for Me a Sanctuary and
I shall dwell within them";[3] as our sages point out, "The verse does not say
`I shall dwell within it' but `I shall dwell within them,' meaning,
within each and every one of them."[4]
Thus, the Torah describes in great detail[5] the various components
and vessels of the Sanctuary, for they each correspond to another
of the faculties and attributes that comprise the human being.
This is the deeper significance of the immunity of the Sanctuary's
altars.
The other vessels of the human "sanctuary," representing
man's various intellectual and emotional faculties,[6] may, at times, become
tainted by negative influences. But the "altars" of the
soul, her capacity for selfless devotion and sacrifice for her creator,
are not susceptible to contamination.
True, this inner core of purity is not always visible or readily
accessible. The glitter of material life, or, conversely, the despair
of hardship and poverty, may obscure the soul's intrinsic commitment
to her G-d. But these encumbrances, be they of "copper"
or "gold," are mere coatings on her altar.
Coatings that are "nullified" in the face of the incorruptible
well of sacrifice within.
Based on a letter by the Rebbe's, Cheshvan 15, 5711
(October 26, 1950)[7]
Reprinted with permission from The
Week In Review Vol VI No 27
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