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The Joy of Repentance\Guilt-Free
Based on Tomer Devorah by the Holy Ramak
Authored and Published by the Salant Foundation
Distributed by Feldheim
The Source of Trust in God
An Ever-Expanding River
“The Holy One Conceals Himself” — “Keil Mistateir” — is an allegorical poem, composed by Rabbi Avraham Maimain, a disciple of the Ramak, alluding to the Ten Sefirot (System of Divine Lights). Concerning Binah (Divine Enlightenment) it states: Expanses of the River; Streams of Faith – the man of understanding will draw forth deep waters that exude the Fifty Gates of Binah. Protected by God are the Faithful!
The phrase “Expanses of the River” is an allusion to Binah, which is likened to a river, whose banks continuously widen and fill with ever morewater. Just as every river has a source, so too, our Trust in God must have a source. What is the source of our Trust in God? “Expanses of the River” is paired with “Streams of Faith” because Binah is the very source of our faith in the Creator and in His unbounded compassion, which fills our hearts and flows like an endless stream. The light of Binah continuously strengthens Man’s belief in the Eternal and His wondrous ways, inspiring him to successfully perform Teshuvah Elyonah (Exalted Repentance) and “rectify every flaw.”
Through man merging with the Light of Binah he draws absolute Trust in the Creator into his heart, as the poem states, “The man of understanding will draw forth deep waters that exude the Fifty Gates of Binah.” The Almighty empowers him with new worlds of dynamic Trust that awaken “the Fifty Gates of Binah,” the highest level of Holiness and Knowing the Eternal that Man can attain. Moshe the Father of all the Prophets, attained the lofty spiritual heights of the Fifty Gates of Binah. What’s more, our Trust in the Holy One will awaken His closeness and protection, as the concluding phrase states: “Protected by God are the Faithful!”
The Source of the Fifty Gates of Binah
Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai teaches in the Zohar that the Fifty Gates of Binah allude to the fifty times the Exodus of the Children of Israel from Egypt is mentioned in the Torah. The Fifty Gates of Binah also allude to the passing of fifty days that began with the Exodus, the first day of Passover, and ended with Heaven giving us His Torah on Mount Sinai on Shavuot. The Fifty Gates of Binah symbolize the Fifty individual levels of freedom that each individual Gate revealed, as well as their combined effectiveness.
If not for the combined power of freedom that all Fifty Gates of Binah released, we would still be enslaved to the Egyptians. The collective combination of each level of freedom granted the Children of Israel eternal liberation from the Egyptian bondage. The Fifty Gates of Binah extracted us from the dimensions of impurity and elevated us to Supreme Holiness. (Based on Pardeis Rimonim - The Orchard of the Pomegranates, Gate Thirteen, Chapter One).
Our Merciful Creator
Our Merciful Creator bestowed the Torah upon us, His beloved children, with endless degrees of compassion that were not initially evident. By doing so, He ensured that we will always be forgiven, and thus always be able to fulfill the Torah – whose observance is vital for the continuation of Creation! Thus, the passage of history reveals greater and greater levels of His kindness. For example, after the sin of the Golden Calf, the Creator manifested previously unrevealed dimensions of compassion to Moshe. Generations later, He revealed even greater magnitudes of mercy to the Prophet Michah. With the advent of the Geula Sh’leimah — the Final Redemption — He will reveal even yet new vistas of Divine Compassion, quickly in our days!
Summary: Binah is the source of our Trust in the Almighty.
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