Mishpatim: Levels of Meaning

 

Torah is the book of discovery wherein we learn about our relationship to holiness, how it evolved and where it is going.  We also learn what the pinnacle of that relationship can be as described in the present encounter at Sinai.  Then too we also learn what we must refrain from as Mishpatim goes into in detail.  The key element is to keep our focus on Hashem and to not turn away as in...

 

Shemos 23:24. You shall not prostrate yourself before their gods, and you shall not worship them, and you shall not follow their practices, but you shall tear them down and you shall utterly shatter their monuments.

 

Ideas have powerful attractions especially when they have been grooved within the Consciousness of those who decide to remain at a level that goes part of the way but refuses to go all the way.  These other gods spoken of here represent half truths, superstitions and dead ends for true seekers of wisdom.  They are in effect a trap whose only reward is chaos.

 

Now here at Sinai it is the climax of their journey beginning with Abraham on the way back to that state of grace known as Eden.  What goes hand in hand with this state of grace is the communication from above.  Hashem speaks to Moshe and yet Hashem speaks to all however frightening that experience may be for those whose minds have been closed to such a vivid awakening.

 

So it comes to be that there are three levels of approach.  On the lowest level the people hear Hashem and promise to obey his commandments.

 

Shemos 24;2. And Moses alone shall approach the Lord but they shall not approach, and the people shall not ascend with him."

 

It is for Moshe to bring forth the higher wisdom to share with the people.  In return they answer their assent.  

 

Shemos 24:3. So Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the ordinances, and all the people answered in unison and said, "All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do."

 

The second level is for the 70 elders and the priests. 

 

Shemos 24: 9. And Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel ascended,

 

Moshe alone goes on as the Aaron Nabab and Abihu look on.  

Moshe enjoins with Hashem to complete the circuit of higher wisdom being imparted to him marking level three of this sequence.

 

Consider that Consciousness contains these same three levels of intake and that the lowest level are our mundane thoughts that are poised at the bottom of the mountain awaiting further instructions from on high.

 

Next there are those breakthrough thoughts that are the intermediaries in explaining the overall significance of the holiness that is remotely sensed.  

 

Then there is highest point or level of connection where the unification of Consciousness takes place.  It is here that all wisdom is pure in its non distilled state.  What happens however, is not a separation of understanding but rather its synthesis that is simultaneous to the experience itself because once the higher awareness is touched all levels of awareness are surrounded in effect by the holiness that is called forth.  B"H.