Chodesh Adar, the green comet becomes "visible"

This weeks Torah parsha Mishpatim begins with the slave that does not wish to be set free and remains in bondage. It ends with the 70 elders of Israel, a remez/hint to all the 70 nations of the world/olam actually seeing haShem , “They saw the Elohai Yisrael, and under His feet was the likeness of sapphire brickwork, and it was like the essence of heaven in purity…….they gazed at HaElohim, yet they ate and drank.” Shemot24:11. This is an incredible posuk which leads into the receiving of the luchoth haeben/tablets of stone on the mountain. The parsha begins with slavery and then speaks about many ordinances, commandments dealing with various day to day challenges. These end with the famous injunction to not seethe a kid in it’s mothers milk from which the laws of dietary concerns come. Rabbi Gershon Winkler reminds us in his teachings that this involves the need to allow different essences to remain simply what they are. The milk is the essence of the mother and the flesh of the kid is it’s bodily essence. Let them be what they are in their unique nature, as we let each other be our unique human selves. The Zohar relates much of this parsha to the gilgalim, the reincarnation or transmigration of souls in order to attain a deeper connection to the divine.This really is all about unique essence. The quality of the omakim, the depths of the journey we each pursue in our life path. “Many are the worlds through which they (souls)revolve, and each revolution is wondrous in many hidden ways, but men neither know nor perceive these things! Nor do they know how the souls roll about “like a stone inside a sling”. Now as we have begun to disclose these mysteries, it is opportune to reveal that all souls(neshamah) emanate from a high and mighty Tree, from that “River which goes out of Eden”(Gen.II:10), and all spirits(ruach)from another, smaller Tree - the souls from above and spirits from below- and they unite after the fashion of male and female. And when they unite they shine with a celestial light….”Zohar II99b(trans after Sperling). This Sabbath is the blessing for the new month of Rosh Chodesh Adar whose full moon is the festival of Purim when the light of the soul world shined in the exile of Persia without the standing Holy temple. The people merited the joyous light by their own deeds and living of Torah. The value in gematria of Esther HaMalka/the queen is the same=761=of the last three words of Chumash/Torah- “Leaynai Kol Yisrael”/ before the eyes of all of Yisrael. The Queen is the big Chayah as the Malchut, the Divine Presence and the Zohar tells us at the end of mishpatim; “They saw the Elohai of Yisrael”, that is to say, the Shechinah manifestated Herself to them”Zohar II 126a(trans after Sperling). This parsha moves from slavery through the ordinances and the transmigrations to the freedom of beholding the Divine Presence by connecting to the chayah/life soul of humanity who is before all the eyes of the holy peoples. We are always moving from dinim/judgments and “ordinances” to Chesed, the lovingkindness that is the river who flows from the Tree. Happy new moon of the month of happiness!