12 Sivan 5768 – Parshas Shelach Lecha 15 June 2008

Yechezkel Perokim 39 – 48

Ok that it is, the last full week of Yechezkel over. I know that we have a few more days till we finish the whole book but please let me bring everything to a close, as my contract for writing ends at the end of Yechezkel. After that it is to the boardroom to see if I get the ‘finger’, ‘cos it might be “Rickman your fired”…

So the whole Sefer in my understanding takes us on a journey, a journey of understanding the Holiness of Hashem and how the world of Holiness affects everything else. The start is of the Holy Throne of Hashem and the angels that surround that. The distance that man feels when reading this is so great, why do we not see this great vision? Why aren’t we able to live a life of pure service to Hashem in such a way? Why do we get stuck on this earth, the trials and tribulations of day-to-day life?

Then life goes from bad to worst. The Navi is shown destruction after destruction. Not just death and punishment. We move from the Temple being made into a place of idol worship, the people of God betraying their God in the House of God. Mixed in with these visions, we keep meeting the angels. Feeling even more now the distance that it’s not just that we don’t see and experience the same as them in the service of Hashem, but we are actively moving away from the service.

So once the House is no longer a place of the revelation of Hashem and the people are no longer servants, the land is introduced and takes part in the separation process.

Then we read about the destruction, the climax of the bad times when the enemy is walking in with a VIP pass and nothing is able to stop them.

Then, slowly slowly do we see the end coming closer, however it is not the end that we might have thought. The Jewish people are not wiped off the face of the earth (God forbid). The people do face more wars but this is part of the love of Hashem. It is necessary to sort the people out for the people to turn back to Hashem. They must return and reunite with the Lord.

And then the light, the bright light that blinds and in contrast nothing seems relevant. Next we receive the news that there will be another Temple and that the people will return and live again like the servants that we so really want to be. The image is so vivid and so real. That to hear the words being read, one can almost walk through that very Temple, see the gates and see the courtyard. Then, not just is the Temple rebuilt, the people are brought back and life is blown back into our bones. The excitement is hard to control you want to put down the Navi and go and see it, but sadly we are still far from the end vision.

But now, how to give the final goodbye for the moment to this Navi? We are told the name of the great city that the revelation is present, the place were the Priests are offering sacrifices, the place the Levites sing their songs and the place the Israelite go to see. That city is called “Hashem is There”. This my friends is the end of the circle, the story is brought full circle. The message that we are being shown is that we have the chance, the honour of serving Hashem in the great way that the angels do and in truth we at times have a better chance than the angels. The angels don’t move, they stand on one level but we grow and can get closer! So we must always remember this, that when we read about the depths that we reached, that however low we went, allows us to go even higher. We can rebuild any connection any sin can be wiped out. The message that I have walked away is that Hashem is always there for us and that the love is always there and that we must never never give up and called it a day, we must always strive to be closer in any way we can.

Thank you and have a great shabbos.

By Natan Rickman