The beautiful nineteenth century tale from the great Rebbe Nachman of Bratslav, about the garment for the moon holds a profound wisdom for those awakening to the Temple Earth. The story begins with the ancient aggadic legend about how the moon complained about being cold and small and in the dark. The sun decides to attempt to help the moon by finding her a garment. The sun asks the great tailors to create this garment. A poor, not a “great” tailor, named Yankel discovers a precious fabric that a distant village uses for the garment that their queen wears for royal weddings but this garment is becoming frayed and needs to be repaired so the queen’s daughter may be married correctly. The poor tailor discovers that it is the light of the full moon that causes the garment to grow and weave itself correctly. The original reason that a group of “great tailors” could not make the garment for the moon was that it would need to stretch and shrink with the changing size of the moon and they could not figure out how to meet this need with a fabric. The magic material of the queen’s gown was made of the moonlight itself which would shrink and expand as needed. The tailor Yankel not only repaired the Queen’s gown with the light of the full moon but was also able to have a small piece of the material to create a garment for the moon herself. And it is said that the moon has kept that very garment to this very day, to her great joy, made out of her own light. The Sepher haZohar on this weeks Torah parsha Vayehi sings to us about the delight of the moon. “Rabbi Jose discoursed here on the verse: ‘He made the moon for seasons(Ps.civ,19)HaShem he said, made the moon for us to sanctify by it new moons and new years. Now the moon never shines except from the reflection of the sun, and when the sun is aloft the moon does not appear, but only when the sun is gathered in does the moon rule the heavens, and the moon is of no account save when the sun is gathered in. HaShem made both of them to give light and also “for signs”, to wit, Sabbaths, “and for seasons”. to wit, festivals…so that the gentiles should reckon by the sun and Yisrael by the moon. This accords with R.Eleazar’s exposition of the verse: ‘Thou hast multiplied the nation, thou hast increased its joy”(Is.ix,2), where he refers “nation” to Yisrael and “it” to the moon, which gained accession of light for the sake of Yisrael. …Assuredly, the moon is highest, and the sun of the “Gentiles” is under this moon, and this sun derives light from this moon. See, then, the difference between Yisrael and the nations. Yisrael cling to the moon and are linked to the supernal sun, as it is written:” But ye who cleave to haShem, are alive every one of you this day”(Deut.iv,4)Zohar I-236b-237a)Transl. after Sperling. In this weeks Torah parsha Jacob goes into the ‘exile with the seventy souls that is a remez/hint to the nations of the entire Earth. As we end the book of genesis with the exile we begin the book of Shemot/Exodus, the book of geulah/redemption. The gathering in of all these 70 “nations” has been the great work of the long exile so that the entire earth would be on fire with the joy of the moon. The lunar month of Tevet, the month of deep choseck/darkness is now being lit by the fire and light of the sacred Earth which is the third temple enwrapped fully in the light of the garment of the moon. Yankel made good.Good Shabbos
(the events of the story "A Garment for the Moon" are taken from the book "Miriam's Tambourine" Oxford University Press compiled by Howard Schwartz)
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