Parshat Devarim: All the miracles come from the Kotel

PARSHAT DEVARIM: ALL THE MIRACLES CAN BE FOUND AT THE KOTEL

More secrets of the Torah, with Rav Eliezer Berland, shlita.

The Temple was destroyed two times. Twice, the Sitra Achra (dark side) overcame, and was able to destroy the Temple. But Hashem never, ever deserted the Even HaShtia (the Foundation Stone). Hashem never left the Kotel! The Shechina never moved from the Western Wall.

A PERSON NEEDS TO YEARN FOR THE EVEN HASHTIA. A PERSON NEEDS TO YEARN TO COME TO THE KOTEL, AS IT’S WRITTEN: “MY SOUL YEARNS AND IS HEART-BROKEN FOR THE COURTYARDS OF HASHEM.”

If a person loves someone, then of course they are going to do everything they can to be near them. And the same thing is true if a person loves the Kotel, and feels that this is their root. So then, they will to be at the Kotel as many times as they can.

WHY DON'T MORE JEWS COME TO THE KOTEL?

Why doesn’t a person feel the kedusha (holiness) of the Even HaShtia? Why doesn’t a person feel the holiness of the Kotel? There are people who never come to the Kotel, year after year. There are half a million Jews who live in Jerusalem, and you barely see them at the Kotel.

The Chatam Sofer says: Because we don’t come to the Western Wall and the Even HaShtia, we offend the Kotel, which is the place of the Shechina. This is an insult that can’t be forgiven. When Hashem sees that we’re neglecting Jerusalem, that we’re abandoning the Kotel, and that we don’t make the effort to come, this ‘wakes up’ His burning anger.

THE STONE THAT WAS REJECTED

And this is what is written: “The stone that was rejected by the builders was taken as the cornerstone”. The stone that was rejected – this is the Even HaShtia! This is the Kotel! Because the bigger something is, and the more lofty it is, so the more it’s rejected and hidden.

THE SATAN KNOWS WHAT IS REALLY GOOD FOR A PERSON. HE KNOWS WHAT’S USEFUL FOR HIM. THAT’S WHY HE’S WORKING OVERTIME TO DISTANCE PEOPLE FROM THIS THING.

The stone that was rejected by the builders – everyone is rejecting the Even HaShtia. Nobody knows the secret of the Even HaShtia. All the tzaddikim, who are referred to as the ‘builders’, didn’t merit to know this secret, except for King David, who was the only one who merited to know the secret of the foundation stone.

THE SECRET OF THE FOUNDATION STONE

He merited to know that without the Kotel, without this ‘stone’, without it’s kedusha, it’s impossible to achieve any spiritual avoda (work). No spiritual avoda will be completely accepted. All of David’s effort was only in regard to this stone. “My soul yearns, and is heart-broken for the courtyards of Hashem.”

Everything he was looking for, everything he was yearning for, all that he wanted, everything was related to the Even HaShtia, to the place of the Beit HaMikdash.

Before Hashem created the globe, this world, the world of Asiyah (action), He created this stone! He created the Har HaBeit (the mountain where the Temple was located). He created the Kotel! Rav Natan explains that the Even HaShtia is the root of creation.

The whole world was created from this stone[1], and that is the root of free choice.

Inasmuch as a person goes to the Kotel, just by doing this alone, he can get away from his negative decisions and start to choose the good path.

The Kotel is the crown of all creation. It’s the ‘tenth’ of kedusha![2]

> The Kotel is the sefira of Keter, the crown, which is why free choice is totally nullified there, and we’re only able to choose good.

THE KOTEL IS IN ANOTHER WORLD

When a person goes to the Kotel, he’s not standing in this world at all. He isn’t here, in this world, at all! The Kotel is the holy of holies, it’s a completely different world. Even if they fool you that you’re standing in this world, you should know: from the moment you get to Har HaBeit, the moment you get to the Kotel, you’re already now in the world of Atzilut.[3]

You just went up immediately to the world of Atzilut, and it’s just an illusion that you’re standing here, down in this world, because you’re in such a mist of confusion and imagination. But really, you’re sanding now in the world of Atzilut. Every time that you get to the Kotel, and you give the stones of the Kotel a kiss, then you immediately enter the world of Atzilut.

> When you get to the Kotel, nature completely changes.

Even a person’s body changes, everything changes. A person receives a different temperament, a different body. Every time that a person comes to the Kotel, he merits to immediately be shown all the spiritual ‘lights’ from the world of Atzilut.

THE KOTEL IS THE HOLY OF HOLIES

The Kotel is really the holy of holies, it’s really the foundation stone. When a person goes to the Kotel, he’s really going to Gan Eden! And especially at chatzot (halachic midnight), before the morning.

Because “the river flows from Eden” – it flows out from underneath Har HaBeit, from underneath the Kotel. And so, when a person comes to the Kotel, he truly tastes the taste of the garden of Eden. He sees Gan Eden, he smells Gan Eden, he feels that he’s standing in Gan Eden, just like Adam and Chava were in Gan Eden.

Rav Natan says, “And so, when they left Egypt with miracles and wonders, and the sea was split for them in an awesome, wondrous way, they said in the Song of the Sea: ‘You shall bring them and plant them on the mountain of your heritage,’ which is the Beit HaMikdash, the nub of all the miracles involved in the exodus from Egypt and the splitting of the sea. Because the whole point is that they would come to there (i.e. to the Kotel).”

THE KOTEL IS THE ROOT OF EVERY MIRACLE IN THE WORLD

We need to know that the Kotel is at the root of every miracle in the world! All the miracles that were done from the earliest days of the world started at the Western Wall. Avraham performed miracles, Moshe performed miracles, even the miracles involved in the exodus from Egypt began at the Kotel.

All the miracles that were in Egypt, the 10 plagues, the splitting of the sea, everything came from the holy of holies, everything came from the Kotel. This is the chiddush (new Torah insight) of Rav Natan…

SO HOW CAN A PERSON NOT GO TO THE KOTEL?! ALL THE MIRACLES ARE THERE! THE MIRACLE OF SPLITTING THE SEA, THE MIRACLE OF THE 10 PLAGUES, THE CLOUDS OF GLORY, THE PILLAR OF FIRE, THE MIRACLES OF FLYING IN THE AIR… THE KOTEL IS THE ROOT OF ALL THE MIRACLES AND ALL OF THE WONDERS! IT’S THE ROOT OF ALL THE RESCUES, AND ALL THE HEALINGS AND ALL THE SALVATIONS.

Everything comes from the Kotel.

> If a person goes to the Kotel, he can work any miracle in the world.

Adapted and translated from the Tzama Nafshi Newsletter.

[1] See Tractate Yoma 44b

[2] A reference to the 10 kabbalistic sefirot with which Hashem created the world.

[3] The highest of the four main kabbalistic world. ‘Planet earth’ is usually found in the lowest, the world of Asiyah, or action.