The Meor Eynayim of the Chernobyler was the first hasidic text I was ever exposed to, having grown up in Denver, close to the Twerski community. I’ll never forget the first time the Rabbi taught from last week’s parsha, Matot. Today, maybe fifty years later, it remains the best expression of my understanding and practice of Torah and Judaism. Of course, my understanding has evolved with the years of life and experience, as well as further and deeper studies. But, at essence, its pshat, literal meaning remains my guidepost.

It’s very easy to understand the desire to continue a status quo–just imagine the tremendous effort it has already taken to reach our current status. Will any progress be worth the effort to improve things further?

Our current reality as we know it, with all of it’s shortfalls, is the result of the hard-won collaboration between radiating the energy of Creation and then containing each “particle” is just the right place in the universe to allow for stability and a day-to-day continuum we can rely on. Kabbalistically, this can be seen as Shvirat HaKelim, the bursting of vessels inadequate to contain the infinite energy of Ohr Eyn Sof, tjhe 

I often think about cycles. Are they merely spinning in place and what if something does no more than that, endlessly going around and around, can I really condemn it as worthless. Well, maybe it can define a position. Or, maybe, it can establish a sort of gravity, a sense of permanent place and a relationship to that place.

And as an object circles and circles, who am I to say that it’s merely staying place? Perhaps there’s other movement at a scale to small and subtle for me to detect. Maybe repeated circular is very different from the inside than observed from the outside. From the inside one sees an infinite array of vistas, one changing into the next and into the next. And from the outside, perhaps the exterior only appears to be unchanging because, again, our scale is so vastly different, we don’t see in time each individual appearance.

We experience weekly cycles, each marked by a Shabbat, very much like all other Shabatot, but each with its unique parsha. The monthly cycle we experience, also based on the periodic shift in the moon’s brightness and how much of it we can even see on a given night. And these months cycle into a year and each year cycles through it’s Chaggim, Holy Days. And as we cycle from one Pesach to the next to the next, do we merely repeat our actions and thoughts and insights from last year? Is there an inherent need to bring something new each year? Perhaps just the accumulated experience, year after year, is enough.?

Are the words, simply repeated, three times a day in our regular tefilla sufficient to fulfill our obligation to pray, or do we need to innovate something new each time? Can we be required to bring something new every day? Have we neglected something of critical importance if we miss a day? A week? A year? A lifetime?

On Purim and Chanukah we talk about B’Yamim HaHeym B’Zman Hazeh, “at those days in our time”, and at least every other rabbi’s sermon urges us to not just stand still, but to keep moving. Even if one were faultlessly fulfill every mitzvah every day, has one lived a good life? Is that enough? Are we in a circle or a spiral, always rising, staircase or ramp?

Cosmically, we are part of the grand drama of God’s Hiddenness and then Revelation in this world. Less obviously, but perhaps even more importantly, the Kabbala tells the story of the moons diminishment, both once and forever, and monthly as it works itself back to equality with the sun.

(See Kabbalistic Writings On The Nature Of  Masculine And Feminine by Sarah Yehudit Schneider for an in depth study of this process and concept.)

A fundamental concept, perhaps best presented by the Meor Eynayim, as I hinted in the introduction, is that The Holy One, through the phenomenon the Shevirat HaKelim, the Shattering Of The Vessels–God filled them with more light, since any light from the Infinite spectrum of energy is, by definition, infinite and, therefore, more than any vessel can possibly contain, and these shattered remnants, pure energy themselves, also called Netzutzot HaKodesh, Holy Sparks, embedded themselves in the primordial matter. Thus, in a very real way The Holy One seeded all reality, the entire universe as we know it, and beyond, into the ground of Malchut, also known as the Shechinah, the Holy Divine Presence. And our holy task as humans is to retrieve, redeem and return them to their Source, yet another action of seeding and receiving. All this is in order to activate the highest state of being of the Eternity in contemplation of the Infinite.

Do we ever complete a Holy Cycle or do we continue to grow, from one Holy Completion to another, Madrega al Madrega, climbing stepwise? Can we ever actually reach God Himself? That seems an obvious No, but if so what do we make of our traditions of Geula, Redemption, Mashiach and the like?

Perhaps it’s more like our usual experience that one generation finds a perfect equilibrium, a perfect relationship, a perfect conversation, exchange, a seeding and receiving/nurturing, giving birth to a new generation, just as imperfect and out-of-synch as were its parents, who repeat the holy dance towards liberation and equality, containing rupture, repair and realignment, in order to seed and receive/nurture a further ideal of perfection?

Would that imply that The Creator, the Holy One, the Eyn, Norhingness which precedes the Ohr, the Pure Light, which precedes the Ohr Eyn Sof, Infinite Light, is merely playing an unending, pointless game with us, or are we given the opportunity to engage with God in this Infinite Cosmic Dance of simple and familiar steps, the 613 Mitzvotrevealed and generated by the Torah, where we approach, recede, approach and recede the ultimate holiness.

Will the Holy Temple, v3.0, be everlasting? Will we, God-Willing, dance together at this universal House Of Prayer For All Nations or will this goal, which seems so close now, finally, finally, finally……… recede again for yet another year?

We’re told that the keys are in our hands. Can we set them to work in an Ever Growing, Ever Improving, Ever Loving way or will we, once again, let them bring darkness and destruction for another year?

May we have the wisdom to use them wisely.