The Kabbalah of Colored Sheep

 I’m in the mood for some Kabbalah.  Don’t worry, I’ll make it relatable.  (This is inspired by the JLI Kabbalah course I am teaching now on Wednesdays, and the Sunday night Chassidus class on Zoom.)

The Torah is not a story book.  This is a fundamental principle that our Sages taught.  The purpose of Torah is to teach, which is the literal translation of the word.  So what’s all this stuff about our father Yaakov raising sheep?  It would seem to suffice if the Torah had told us that while living at Lavan’s house, Yaakov tended the sheep.  Perhaps another couple of verses about how Lavan tried to cheat him and he nevertheless prospered.  

But the Torah goes into great length discussing the deal that Yaakov made with Lavan, and the lengths that Yaakov had to go to protect himself.  It was the first recorded case of genetic engineering.  Yaakov was supposed to receive all the spotted, striped and multicolored sheep as payment for his work.  Lavan had removed all of those from the herd and left Yaakov with only plain white ones, assuming all the newborns would be born that way.  So Yaakov came up with an elaborate scheme to put colored sticks in front of the sheep as they were drinking, and it worked.  They gave birth to sheep that were “Akudim, nekudim and berudim” - translated loosely as bound (meaning with stripes on their feet), spotted and striped.  

Now all of that detail seems to be completely superfluous, and what lesson is the Torah teaching us?  Should this all perhaps have been recorded in the Midrash, rather than the written Torah?  So here’s a taste of a kabbalistic insight, that shows how deep each part of the Torah is.

A little background.  Hashem cannot be defined.  His essence is a pure “existence” with no definition, no limitations and no division.  All that exists on that level is Hashem.   He decided to create a world that is the exact opposite.  In our world there is limitation and division.  Everything is measured in space and time.  And the existence of Hashem is completely hidden.  This was done intentionally, of course in order for us to have to choose to do good, even though it is not necessarily our natural tendency.  As Chassidus puts it, to bring light into the darkness.

How do you get from a singular existence to such division and concealment?  Step by step.  Hashem created ten dimensions, known as sefirot, that divide His energy (usually referred to as “light”) so that it can be contained in finite expressions in the world.  There is a progression - a gradual devolution of the light from one “world” to the next, the light gradually becoming more and more concealed and limited as it goes from world to world.

The purpose of all of this is not for Hashem’s light to remain completely hidden, but for us to reveal it in the world.  “Bringing light into the darkness,” by following Hashem’s will through Torah and Mitzvot.  In other words, while Hashem hid His light to create this world, He also gave us the opportunity to reveal it through our actions.

This process of breaking through the darkness and revealing the light, which culminated in the Giving of the Torah at Sinai, was started by our forefathers.  Avraham and Sarah and Yitzchak and Rivkah each had their part in preparing the world for revelation.  In this week’s Parsha we read about Yaakov’s role in this process. 

Let’s take another look at the three kinds of sheep Yaakov raised:  Akudim - bound, Nekudim - spotted, and Berudim - striped.  Kabbalah tells us that each of these represents another world - another step in the devolution of Hashem's light to make it possible for our world to exist.  First comes Akudim - bound.  That world is so close to Hashem that the ten dimensions are not even definable as finite parts.  They are all “bound” together.  Like the light before it goes through a prism, where you can't see the individual colors because they are all together as one light.  

Then comes the next world, Nekudim - spots.  In this world each of the ten dimensions was clearly defined as a separate dimension.  (This world could not survive because of its division, and is referred to as Tohu - chaos.  Tohu is a whole other subject that is way beyond the scope of this discussion.)  

Then came Berudim - striped.  In this world There are ten individual dimensions, sefirot, that exist in harmony with each other.  This is the world that eventually formed into the world in which we live.

So what Yaakov was doing was much more than genetic engineering of sheep.  His physical work in this world was actually affecting the spiritual worlds above in a profound way.  Yaakov, in his saintliness and extreme devotion to Hashem, enabled the light of Akudim, the source of light that is still beyond division or individual definition, to be drawn down and revealed in Berudim, affecting our world.  The stripes that Yaakov made in the wooden poles were the precursors to Tefillin, the straps that form black and white stripes on our arms.

What our forefathers did was not just a one-time thing.  Their holy work set the tone for us.  Today when we put on Tefillin or do other Mitzvot, we are bringing the Divine energy from Hashem’s essence into the world.  Yes, there is still a lot of evil in the world and we may not see the Divine light with our eyes.  The time has not yet come for it to be physically revealed.  But it will soon.  And every Mitzvah we do today, especially in a dark world, is increasing the light of Hashem throughout the worlds.  

Meanwhile we continue to pray for our people, our soldiers, our hostages and the world.  May Hashem protect us all and bless us with true peace.