Sacrifice was a return to the Source, and Moshe was called to come in.
Weekly study · Monday to Friday
✦ All insights are drawn from articles by Michael Berg published on onehouse.kabbalah.com.
Michael Berg presents the Maharal: the Creator's desire to give is greater than our desire to receive, like the cow that wants to give milk more than the calf wants to drink. The Mishkan expresses the Creator's desire to be with us.
Sacrifice was not the physical act. It was a meditation to remember that nothing exists separate from the Creator and that without the Light we have no existence. The illusion of the world is thinking some things can be separated from it.
Once the Mishkan was finished, the Creator calls Moshe to come in. A messenger has the powers of the one who sent him, and Moshe acted only as a messenger. Michael Berg teaches that to the degree we see ourselves only as messengers of the Light, that is the measure of what we can do.
The Creator wants to give more than we want to receive. The Mishkan was born of that desire.
Sacrifice was reconnecting the effect, us, to the cause, the Light.
What changed was not the animal: it was the awareness that nothing is separate from the Light.
The servant builds the king's palace and is called to come in to the innermost rooms. This is Moshe.
Anger, disappointment and sadness keep us from being complete messengers of the Light.
Vayikra opens with the call to Moshe and with the sacrifices. Michael Berg draws on the Maharal (Gevurot Hashem, chapter 69): between cause and effect there is always a connection, and the Creator's desire to give is greater than our desire to receive. The Mishkan expresses that desire to be with us. Sacrifice, in turn, serves for the effect, us, to return to the cause, the Light.
That is why the act was not physical: it was a meditation to live the clarity that nothing we are or have is separate from the Creator. The lie of the physical world is to say that some things are separate from the Light. Whoever lives the opposite clarity, says Michael Berg, could transform their life and have joy in every moment.
The second article tells the parable of the king and the servant who builds the palace and is called inside. Moshe did everything as a messenger of the Creator, and a messenger has the powers of the one who sends him. To the degree that we diminish ourselves and see ourselves only as messengers of the Light, we become angels of the Creator. Anger, disappointment and sadness are signs we are not yet complete messengers.
Start the day saying: nothing is separate.
On waking, say: "Nothing I am or have exists separate from the Light." Carry the phrase into your first commitment.
Notice where you separate.
Notice a judgment that separates, between you and someone, between good days and bad. Reconnect it to the same Source.
Set ego aside in one task.
Choose one task and do it as a messenger of the Creator, without thinking of credit. Write how it went.
Read anger as a signal.
If anger, disappointment or sadness arises, pause and ask: "Who am I still being, beyond a messenger?"
Enter the innermost rooms.
Write what changed by acting as a messenger. Thank the Light for the call and choose how to continue.
Nothing is separate from the Light.
I am a messenger, and the Light acts through me.
May this week of Vayikra help you live the clarity that nothing is separate from the Light. Shavua Tov!
Nothing Is Separate from the Light, by Michael Berg
Becoming a Messenger of the Creator, by Michael Berg
If someone you love feels separate from the Light, this portion speaks of the call to return.
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