Trumah: Chapter 97

"And He rode upon a Cherub, and did fly"

Synopsis

Rabbi Yitzchak speaks here of two Cherubs called 'youths, Metatron and Sandalphon, and how God settles upon them. Rabbi Yosi then tells us that if the two Cherubs turn their faces away from each other, there is no peace in the world. This, we learn, is because there is then no pairing above, and Rabbi Yitzchak points out that a similar idea is conveyed in "the nakedness of your father, or the nakedness of your mother, shall you not uncover." He says that in the old days people cared about Torah, but now only a few are left who do, and these few holy ones are those with whom God Himself prays.

Relevance

The verses, "Two Cherubs who turn their faces away from each other" and "The nakedness of your mother or the nakedness of your father" pertain to the disjoining of the Right and Left Columns. This separation creates a dangerous imbalance that inevitably prevents peace in our lives. The root of evil is the Left Column - the Desire to Receive for the Self Alone. Left unchecked, its appetite is unappeasable. Like a black hole in deep space, it consumes everything in its vicinity, leaving blackness in its wake. If the Right Column Force of sharing is left unchecked, it will give ceaselessly. However, lacking any aspect of the Left (Desire to Receive), it will never be replenished. Eventually its resources are depleted, and it ends up empty, feeling a tremendous lack.

The Central Column unites these two opposite forces by resisting the Desire to Receive and transforming it into the Desire to Receive for the Sake of Sharing. Jacob and the righteous souls, past and present, who love Torah, now activate the complete consciousness of Central Column (the will to resist our selfish drives and instead think about the next person), which brings the full compliment of Light and genuine peace to the world.