Pekudei: Chapter 22

"Lift up your eyes on high"

Synopsis

Rabbi Shimon asks if anyone who lifts his eyes and looks up could see anything that he wasn't permitted to see. He answers that the title verse means that whoever wants to see and know about God's deeds should look up, and after seeing all the armies and legions of angels then he can ask, "Who created these?" Rabbi Shimon says that 'who' is Binah, and that there is never an answer because Binah is always hidden and concealed and unknown. Next he talks about: "Who brings out their host by number," saying that Binah brings everything out with the sound of the Shofar. This is the secret of the divine faith, which extends through all the levels from Zeir Anpin and downward all the way to Malchut. The armies are then divided up and numbered and named. Rabbi Shimon extends another explanation for, "Lift up your eyes on high," which is that whoever looked at the Tabernacle saw in it both what was above and what was below. All the works of both worlds were contained in it.