Impossible is Possible. Acharei 5784

 Once a year, and only once a year on Yom Kippur, the Kohen Gadol (High Priest), and only the Kohen Gadol, would enter the holiest slave in the world, the Kodesh Hakadashim (Holy of Holies). This is the subject of the beginning of this week’s Parsha, which describes at length the order of the service of Yom Kippur by Aaron in the Sanctuary and later by his descendants in the Holy Temple. 

The Holy of Holies was a unique room, the ultimate expression of Hashem’s presence. The entire Holy Temple was a “home for Hashem on earth,” and many visible miracles happened there every day. Examples include the fire on the outdoor altar not being extinguished by rain, the pillar of smoke rising from the burning offerings never being blown by the wind, and several more enumerated by the Sages in Pirkei Avot. 

In the Holy of Holies the miracle was on another whole level. Let me explain. There is nature, and then there is beyond nature, the miraculous. When water covers the sea, that is nature. When water stands up like a wall and the seabed is dry, that is a miracle. 

If you study any Jewish mysticism you know that beyond this universe that is limited and defined by time and space, there are spiritual worlds where these boundaries do not exist. Once in a while the supernatural is revealed in the natural world, and that is when we see miracles. Generally nature runs its course following the rules of time and space, and once in a while there is a beyond nature revelation, and then the rules of time and space are suspended. 

The two worlds are incompatible. Nature is limited and contained, and the miraculous is spiritual and breaks the boundaries of nature. 

The Holy of Holies was a place where these two opposites came together. There was one piece of furniture in the Holy of Holies - the Holy Ark that contained the Tablets. It had physical dimensions - two and a half cubits (a cubit is around 18 inches) by one and a half. The room also had physical measurements - 10 cubits. Yet if you measured the space on each side of the Ark, it was five cubits. This is a physical impossibility, that an item that takes up space does not actually take up space. 

How could this happen?  In a spiritual world nothing takes up physical space. In a physical world everything takes up space. Here the Ark that had physical dimensions did not take up any space on the floor. 

The answer is that Hashem created the rules of the spiritual and the physical. He dictated that nature should be bound by it’s physical rules and that the spiritual world should not. He created the rules and He can break the rules. We think of Hashrm as spiritual, not physical, but the truth is that to define Hashem as spiritual is limiting Him. Because His essence is beyond any description. He created the spiritual just as He created the physical. And that was the message of the Holy of Holies. Everything that exists on any level was created by Hashem. 

When we contemplate this, we realize that nature itself, the sun rising every morning and setting every evening, the rivers flowing and the birds flying, all of it is Hashem’s will. He constantly creates everything, including the rules. Every tiny detail of everything in the world is the way it is because Hashem wills it to be. The natural cycles that we take for granted are that way because Hashem chose them to be that way. 

What follows from this is that there must be a reason and a purpose for every nuance of nature. Because if Hashem willed it, you could have a lot more space in your dining room. The fact that the tabje and chairs limit the space is planned by Hashem. 

It is our job to reveal that. By recognizing it, by contemplating it, by teaching it to our children and others who may not be aware, and by using all of nature as a vehicle to connect to Hashem through Torah. 

The miracle of the Holy of Holies was a preview of what is to come when Moshiach comes. As the prophet Isiah said (40:5): The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh together shall see that the mouth of the Lord spoke.

The physical flesh itself will see the word of Hashem. Because then the essence of Hashem will be revealed and the two opposites of spiritual and physical will combine. 

Every time we use the physical world for a spiritual purpose, we are bringing that moment closer.