Yom Echad/ Day One and the Birchat HaChamah

This weeks Torah parsha Terumah is all about the portable sanctuary known as the Mishkan. It encapsulates the importance of the secret sacred technology that allows the influx of the divine waters into the Earth olam/world. The Zohar goes into a complex and involved explanation of the work of the holy peoples and the grand design to bring the great Peace who is the Divine, into intimate relationship with our world. We are not a people who wait for a reward in the shamayim/heavens. Our life work and purpose is to lift our physical world into an awesome enbrace with the living waters of the heavens. The Mishkan, the tabernacle where the divine presence dwells is all about this purpose. It is movable and in a sense therefore it can not be destroyed like the first two Holy Temples. Where the mishkan functions the eternal Beith HaMikdash interfaces with the physical world It is a theme of these writings that this is already taking place now. In the Zohar commentary on terumah we have an explanation of the Shema and it’s deeper meaning. “ The word Shema consists of Shem(name) and ayin(seventy), indicating the combination of this name and the other seventy from whence it derives blessing. At the recitation of the Shema, therefore, one must concentrate on the divine names. For these seventy names constitute the mystery of the supernal Chariot from whence that Name receives blessing and in which it is contained. Then comes the word Yisrael, referring, as we have learnt, to “Ancient Israel”(Tifereth), so that this emanation may also be included. So “Hear, O Israel”, signifies union of the Spouse and her Husband(ie Malkuth with Tifereth), so that all is in all, and all is one.”Zohar II 160b(trans. After Sperling). The celebration of the Sabbath is the “place” where the “Spouse” dwells and this union of the seventh day with what is actually the third day is an essential part of the work. We count the seven days down from Chesed(day one=sunday) to geburah(day two-Monday) to Tifereth(day three=Tuesday)netzach(day four=Wednesday)to Hod(day five=Thursday) to Yesod(day six=Friday)and then the Sabbath day. Each day/depth actually has ten names within and hence 7X10=70 names mentioned in Zohar. All these are as seeds in the Omak/depth of Binah who is the upper mother/Sarah. Here is the key to make “so that all is in all, and all is one”. This is the unification of the Name here on earth. Earlier in the text of Zohar Terumah is a key to all this about the personages connected to unifying the name “here below”. The Zohar often does this, she has keys and locks hidden in different parts of the texts. So we have “ a song of degrees for the sake of David, the great king who always praises the Great King. But when Solomon came, he sang a song which is high above even that of David, a song which is the very same as that sung by the great ones of the realms above, the PILLARS OF THE UNIVERSE, in honour of the supernal one who is the lord of peace and harmony.” ZoharII 144b(trans. After Sperling) Please notice the words we have capitalized here. The mishkan and the work that the Rashbi teaches about here involves the very unification of the original Yom v’ Laylah; the day and night that were separated with the firmaments on “Yom Sheni”/Day Two(monday). This “repair” of the light of the moon is also a major theme in Zohar especially this section on Terumah. The Song of Solomon holds the secrets of how to rebuild the tabernacle with the precious substances and allow blessing to flow into the Earth. Yom Echad = Day One is the day which holds the unification of the Names. This involves Abraham Avinu who is as the sun in our tradition. His name originally is Av-Ram, the possessor of Ram, which connects him with the most ancient religion of the priests of Ram, a form of Vishnu(divine beingness) in the ancient Sanskrit. The Zohar also gives us hints to the three “sides” of the Shema in “YHVH(1) -Elokeinu(2) -YHVH(3)” is Echad=one. “The mystery contained in the words, “The Lord our God, the Lord”, the mystery of the unity in three aspects(lit. in three sides), has often been referred to by the Holy Lamp(Rashbi), and we are not permitted to enlarge upon what he has said.“ZoharII160b(trans. After Sperling) Secrets of these three “sides” are found in the three aspects of the divine from the Sanskrit of which Abram’s name gives us a connection. Abraham’s day is Day One of the Omak/depth of Chesed. He is the embodiment of Lovingkindness=Chesed. Gematria of Day One/Yom Echad = 69 which is the very number of our year samech(60) teth(9) this very year when we pronounce the birchat HaChamah, the rare blessing of the sun on the day before the full moon of Nissan. The moon of Adar is now the moon of happiness that we can feel now on our faces. She is coming into her completeness in beauty. This blessing of the original ohr/light of the sun is already flooding our world.