The Secret of the Chupah and Guarding the Eyes: The Light Greater Than Yom Kippur

Lesson No. 261 | Cassette 261 (Requires further editing) Sunday morning, Parashas Shoftim, 26 Menachem Av 5760 - at the Yeshiva Sunday night, Parashas Shoftim, eve of 27 Menachem Av 5760 - Sheva Brachos at the home of the Rav

A profound discourse from the lesson of Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a, explaining the spiritual power of the Jewish wedding. The Rav explains how guarding one's eyes and having self-sacrifice in prayer connect to the immense lights of the Chupah (wedding canopy), through which all sins are forgiven and the coming of Mashiach is brought closer.

The Maharal of Prague (in chapter 36) explains that the spiritual level currently considered "the waste of the waste" will, in the time of King Mashiach, be infinitely higher than the highest spiritual levels we have today. When a person understands this, he is willing to sit even in the dirt of a donkey, as long as King Mashiach finally arrives.

This world is so physical that we have absolutely no concept of the true meaning of guarding our eyes. We do not understand what it means to close an eye to worldly sights. If we were privileged to truly guard our eyes, we would reach wondrous, immense, and awe-inspiring spiritual levels. It is told of a tzaddik who merited complete blindness and saw nothing of this world, and through this, he attained the highest spiritual comprehensions of his generation. Yet, even these comprehensions are absolutely nothing compared to what will be revealed when King Mashiach comes.

Mashiach will be completely transcendent, akin to the World of Atzilus (the highest spiritual realm of Divine Emanation) in relation to this world. All the spiritual comprehensions we can attain today are as nothing compared to the immense revelation that will take place in the future to come.

The Danger of the Street and Guarding the Eyes

Everything we acquire through spiritual toil in this generation depends entirely on guarding our eyes. People can stay awake all night from Chatzos (midnight), travel to the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, perform spiritual work in the fields, and pray the sunrise prayer at length until the late morning hours at the tomb of Shimon HaTzaddik — and everything can be burned up in a single moment, by opening one eye in the street.

When a person looks in the street at inappropriate sights, he is not seeing human beings; rather, he is seeing the husks and screens of impurity, the forces of the Sitra Achra (the Other Side) of Lilith and Samael.

The Holiness of the Chupah: A Light Greater Than Yom Kippur

The immense tikkun (rectification) for all of this takes place at the Chupah and the wedding. At a wedding, five Names of "Eheyeh" shine forth, corresponding to the Sefiros (Divine emanations) of Kesser (Crown), Daas (Knowledge), Tiferes (Beauty), Yesod (Foundation), and Malchus (Kingship). The Name Eheyeh ascends from the Kesser of the Sefirah of Binah (Understanding), and it contains eleven times the Name Eheyeh. Through these lights, one merits to subjugate the eleven chieftains of Esau and the forces of impurity (for the gematria of the name Samael equals 131, exactly like the gematria of the word "eleven" when spelled out fully: Yud, Aleph).

Through the holiness of the wedding, we bring King Mashiach, the resurrection of the dead, and the building of the Holy Temple. The five voices of the wedding parallel the five voices of the Giving of the Torah and the five prayers of Yom Kippur. The "Degel Machaneh Ephraim" says that the holiness of the wedding and the seven days of feasting is even greater than Yom Kippur!

During the seven days of feasting, all sins are completely forgiven. The moment the groom appears, he does not need to say Tachanun (prayers of supplication and confession), because at that very moment, everything is forgiven for him.

True Supplication and Self-Sacrifice

The true essence of saying Tachanun and asking for forgiveness for our sins is self-sacrifice. When we say in the reading of the Shema:

"Hear O Israel, Hashem is our God, Hashem is One,"

we must have the intention to sacrifice our souls to die for the sanctification of Hashem's Name, and to accept upon ourselves the four death penalties of the Rabbinical Court. Similarly, during Nefilas Apayim (falling on the face in supplication), Rebbe Nachman of Breslov says that the verse "To You, Hashem, I lift up my soul" expresses a positive commandment of self-sacrifice to the point of death.

If a person says this merely paying lip service, out of rote habit, it can arouse an accusation in Heaven. True Tachanun, as established by King David, requires a person to be ready to die at that very moment for the sanctification of Hashem's Name, and to accept upon himself all the most difficult sufferings and tortures that the Jewish people have endured throughout the generations.

Through this self-sacrifice, a supernal unification of Jacob and Rachel is achieved, all the spiritual comprehensions that a person wanted to attain during the day are revealed, and all sins and transgressions are forgiven. When there is a wedding of a groom and bride in holiness, an immense light is created in the upper worlds. The light is drawn down from the Sefirah of Binah (Understanding), and the lights of the Name Eheyeh shine powerfully in the Kesser (Crown) of Binah. Through this, all sins are forgiven, and from this holiness, we will merit the revelation of King Mashiach and the building of the Holy Temple speedily in our days in the blink of an eye, Amen.

Part 2 of 4 — Lesson No. 261

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