August 11, 2023 /24 Av 5783
I will adorn your stones with garnet and lay you on a foundation of sapphires…[Isaiah 54:11]
A teaching of R Moshe Haim Ephraim of Sudlikov (Degel Mahane Ephraim):
[Based on what I taught] in this [last teaching], we can now interpret the haftarah: “Stormy, impoverished one, inconsolable, behold I (anokhi) will adorn your stones with garnet and lay you on a foundation of sapphires. All your borders will become stones of desire” (Is. 54:11). For it is known that “no one is poor except in awareness” (B. Nedarim 41a), which is the opposite of the verse “my servant will be wise” (Is. 55:13). When we are aware and wise […], we rise exceedingly high. Yet when we are poor in awareness, [we are] “stormy […], inconsolable.”
“Behold I (anokhi),” meaning, when Torah study is [carried out] lishmah—the [Torah] being called “anokhi,” which contains the whole Torah in general […]—“I will adorn your stones with garnet,” referring to the letters, that is all our twenty two letters. “And lay you on a foundation of sapphires,” connoting clarity. Namely, all our letters shine, they become pure and polished […]
“All your borders will become stones of desire”—sometimes we desire to be in other places because we imagine that somewhere else is better than where we are right now. The root cause [for this tendency is] that we truly wish to be in awe of the One’s glorious and awesome Name, each of us wishes to do tikkun in this world. But when we do not rectify (metaken) anything, we feel that we are missing something.
We do not know what is truly missing, so we conclude that our place is not good. Yet when we rectify (metaken) all the holy sparks and all our attributes, the divine Presence rests where we are, as it were. (!!!)
Then “the pleasantness of the place is upon its inhabitants” (B. Sot. 47a). This is the meaning of “all your borders will become stones of desire,” meaning, your desire [wherever you are] within your borders will arise on account of the indwelling of divine Presence in that place through your Torah study for its own sake there with love and awe.
Commenting on the Degel’s lesson, my teacher Rabbi Sam Feinsmith explains:
Our teacher does something unusual in this teaching. Instead of focusing on the Torah portion, he turns to the haftarah, the third of seven read between the ninth of Av and Rosh Hashanah. These selections were intentionally chosen by the Rabbis for their theme of consolation and comfort. In this particular haftarah, Isaiah likens Jerusalem destroyed to an agitated, bereft, and inconsolable woman. He goes on to prophesy the future glory and splendor of a Jerusalem rebuilt on a foundation of precious gems. Against that backdrop, we get the sense when reading this teaching that the Degel is reflecting on the causes and conditions that promote destruction and consolation in us.
At times, each of us is the beleaguered, agitated, poor woman, our inner Temple lies in ruins as a direct outgrowth of our mindlessness. At other times, each of us can find our precious inner foundation, our inner Torah (the divine wisdom Mind), supporting us to realize the insight of divine omnipresence. And it is in focusing on divine omnipresence that our teacher lays the foundations for a messianic vision that is not wholly dependent on a central shrine in Jerusalem. When we are aware, we may come to recognize that wherever we are right now is God’s house.
This is a teaching about the habits of study that lead us from mindlessness to mindfulness, enabling us to discover the precious gems of our inner lives (the letters or building blocks of our psyche), to make them transparent and radiant. Yet above all, it is a teaching on restlessness and equanimity, pointing to the roots of dissatisfaction and craving that undercut our inner calm, and providing a map for cultivating a greater sense of contentment and balanced acceptance wherever we may find ourselves.
I add:
R Moshe Ephraim’s teaching feels to me like a beautiful and comforting response to the storminess of our current moment and of the world in which we live. I agree that we do wish to engage in the work of tikkun – repair of ourselves, our relationships, our world – and find great wisdom in the Degel’s claim that “when we do not rectify (metaken) anything, we feel that we are missing something.” (Apparent) powerlessness is profoundly frustrating. Similarly I find great wisdom in his answer: seek it out internally. The work of tikkun truly does begin in our hearts. Elul begins in this coming week; R Moshe Ephraim’s message couldn’t be better timed!
Shabbat Shalom.
