AlgART / Articles and Books / Tikkun ha-Berit

Why is it only being opened in our time

The Most High directs the movement of the world to perfection. As Omnipotent and Almighty, God was initially able to create the perfect world, but His wisdom has established that when Creating the world, it had only potential to achieve perfection. Every person (often unconsciously) performs his part of the work in the global Repairing the World. The task entrusted to the Jewish people is formulated in Kabbalah language as revealing the Sparks of Holiness. Here is what Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berdichev writes (“Kdushat Levi,” Ch. Pekudei), “We know from the Ba'al Shem Tov what the principle of revealing the Sparks of Holiness from Clipa (Shell) consists of. When a person sees something in the material world (as well as an idea, a cultural or social movement, etc.), which attracts him, this attraction comes from two qualities: Ahava (Love) and Chesed (Mercy), the purpose of which, as with all in the world, is to serve the Creator. Showing this desire, this ‘fallen’ love, the real Love, Love of God, from which it comes, the person thus uses the desire in another direction, toward the Holiness, and raises up the full potential of the holy, laid down here.” [This translation may be incorrect: I don't know the precise English translation of Kdushat Levy! — Daniel Alievsky] In other words, the task of the Jewish people is to show how anything can be used to serve the Creator, cleansing it of vile passions, selfishness and other negatives, called the Shell.

The question arises traditionally. Why did the great saints and sages of the past not reveal all the Sparks of Holiness in the world before us? The answer is simple. Every Spark has a time, scheduled for revealing as King Solomon said, “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven” (Kohelet 3:1). Here are the words of Rabbi Nachman of Braslav, “The Rebbe said that all scientific discoveries and inventions come from on high. Without such inspiration, they could never be discovered. But when the time comes for an idea to be revealed to the world, the necessary inspiration is granted to a researcher from on high. A thought enters his mind, and it is thus revealed. Many people may have previously sought this idea, but it still eluded them. Only when the time comes for it to be revealed can the inspiration be found.” (“Rabbi Nachman's Wisdom,” 5). Only after a Spark is opened in the world and has become well-known, it becomes possible (and necessary) to show its connection with the Divine Source. Thus, in our time a large number of people in the world show an interest in energies in the human body in general and in the sexual energy in particular. The task before us is to show the highest sense of these things and to teach using them for the service of God.

It's also important to note that we are living in an epoch about which it is said in the Book of Zohar (I, 117, 9), “And in the six hundredth year of the sixth millennium (the year 1840) the gates of wisdom above and the sources of wisdom below will open, and the world will repair itself, coming into the seventh millennium.” Rabbi Yoel Schwartz explains that “the sources of wisdom below” are all kinds of scientific discoveries, and “the gates of wisdom above” are discoveries (hidushim) in the Torah, made in our time. The Zohar emphasizes that all this is done for the world to repair itself. It is obvious that bringing the sphere of intimate relations of a human into accord with the Divine plan is one of necessary prerequisites for repairing the world.