CHOCHMAS NASHIM: CHUKAT: ARISE O WELL
By: Suri Davis
The Jews are arriving at the end of their 40 year journey in the desert. For almost 40 years now, G-d provided their water, and the Rebbe asks why it is now that the Jews sing the praise of the well. One answer might be that they appreciate it more, in that their wells were in the merit of Miriam, and when Miriam died in this week’s torah portion of Chukat, the wells dried up as well…until G-d restarted them. So they appreciated the wells more.
Another answer is that the well is compared to man’s spiritual soul. For all the years that the Jews were in the desert, they were mostly not involved in material toil, in that G-d provided their food and water without their efforts in producing it, only consuming it.
The Tanya reveals that when G-d created the world, He sent His energy down into the world where it reached the bottom most areas of it, as water seeks the depths, and reach the material objects G-d created. It is only when Jews take the material objects and use them for spiritual purposes, that G-d’s energy is released from those objects into the world.
Says the Rebbe, Ma’amar s.v. Yashir Yisrael, and Ach B’goral 5735, the well going down is analogous to the soul descending from heaven into the physical body, nevertheless, the soul is told to arise, to ascend from the lowly body, by taking that which is material, and using it for spiritual purposes, and was brought to Bamos, the heights. When the Jews went into Israel, they had to work the land, build tools, sow, seed, water and reap from the fields, and in that process started revealing the heights of G-d’s energy imbued and embedded in all physical objects G-d created.
Man’s purpose in life is to take the physical around him and elevate each item by using it to serve G-d.
Have a good Shabbos.
Happy 4th of July.
-Suri