Solomon and the vine at Baal hamon

On this weeks Torah parsha the Sefer HaZohar begins with the difference between the life soul of the Torah called Zeir Anpin, the “Holy One” and the ordinance level only of the Torah by herself which relates to the community. The two must be joined together for a living Torah, the etz chaiim, the tree of life. “And HaShem spake unto Moses and Aaron saying, This/zoth is the statute/chukkat of the law which haShem hath commanded,…..This passage commences simply, “This is the statute of the law(num)”, but in another passage we find, “Now this /ve-zoth is the law which Moses set before the children of Israel(Deut. IV-44)“Why this difference? As we have learnt, because the addition of the vau(6-sephirot/days) indicates the complete union of all, of the Community of Israel(zot) with the Holy One(vav), baruch HaShem,; and such is the essence of the Torah. But where this vau is absent, there we have only the “statute of the Law” and not the Law itself.“Zohar vol.III-179a from Sperling trans. This really gets to the core of how the four levels of Torah interpretation called pardes-peshat,remez,drash and sod, is the key to the wisdom of Torah in the sod, the mystery level. Last weeks parsha Korah, a levite, wanted the priesthood for himself and we are told in the commentary of Zohar that he did not understand his own level and obligations for keeping the consecrated space and got in big trouble. The metals are very involved with this for his incense plates were made of nachoshet/copper. The root here is nachash/serpent and the same letters switched give us the word choshen, the breatplate of the high priest which he coveted. The sepher haZohar tells us that korach did not understand the complimentary divisions(involving four different metals-gold/silver/copper/iron) involved in keeping a consecrated space such as the mishkan. In the esrei devarim/the ten commandments or sayings we have the fifth statement telling us to honor our father and mother and next to these words would be the tenth statement saying,, then we will not covet our neighbors possessions. If we take the imperative “Thou shalt not” form and render it as ancient sages have,- If you honor your father and mother, then you will not covet… we have a whole other understanding of the Decalogue. Here we must understand by father and mother as divisions or aspects of the creator(Chokmah and Binah) with which the entire universe rests upon. For us to heal the temple of the Earth we must understand the balance in the world. The levels of Torah interpretation help lead us to understand how to unit the male and the female as the Zohar says and bring the healing into our world. Again the four special metals have there places in the circle of consecration and Korah represents a person who does not fully understand the work of the holy peoples in healing the temple of Earth.The uniting of the very deepest level of Torah, the soul of the Torah called the sod/mystery with the human world is the essential magnum opus. The word sod/mystery, called the fourth level of Torah interpretation has a value of 70 which is equal to the value of the letter ayin, which means both eye and fount. The essence of Torah is a living fount. The word chumash is from the word chamesh which means five for the five books. The same letters of chamesh/five are simcha which is joy. The fount of Torah is a living joy. Without this connection to this fount we do not have Torah. The five/chamesh is a key for us in our unfolding of the deep mystery of the Shir haShirim, which we have been discussing over the past several weeks. We discussed the 1000/exalted-aleph that is reserved for Solomon as the initiate of the temple wisdom mentioned in the last verses of the Song. The keepers of the fruit we are told in the song get 200. 200 is one fifth of 1000 and here is hidden a secret key. The five=1/5 relates to us -the human world of the five senses, four of which the Zohar explains as being aligned with the four letters of haShems name. . In the ancient Sanskrit the serpent sesha-anant which we discussed is related to the Baal Hamon, the guardian of the vine in the Song, the nachash of gan eden fame, and the Tali dragon of Sepher yetzira. The serpent has three forms. The thousand headed, the seven headed and the five headed. The seven headed is commonly depicted as guarding the Hindu deity Vishnu who rests on the body of the serpent. The Hindu deities that are commonly known about and worshipped are aspects of what the Hebrews call the Elohim-the many powers of the creator/sustainer of the olamim/universes. But where do we have the Eternal HaShem who appeared to Abraham and Sarah and Moses and Miriam? This is the Holy of Holies of this most sacred Song of all Songs. A blessed Rosh Chodesh Tammuz to all!