VISION “Visions by Vision, Simile and Dream”
Why is Rabbi
Shimon telling Moses how his prophecy worked?
It is because even those of us who DO see visions or hear messages do
not understand the mechanism.
But is the
mechanism of any importance whatsoever, and why would it be? Surely it is the vision and the message that
carries the importance. And these things
must be interpreted by the individual having the experience because they are
intimately connected with and influenced by the life history and understanding
of that particular person. How can Rabbi Shimon have anything to say about
Moses’ visions? And what does this have
to say to anyone who is living an ordinary life and does not have access to
these higher methods of communication with the divine? In other words, what can we learn from Moses
and Rabbi Shimon that helps us with our daily lives and devotions?
We can begin by
looking at the fire that does not burn — the burning bush that was not
destroyed. Here there is a great power
at work, greater than the incomprehensible power of fire itself; on the surface
it looks like the power that Moses encountered was that power necessary to
sustain the life force of the bush even though it was engulfed in flames. But this surface explanation will not suffice. Moses saw what looked like a burning bush,
but it was not.
What Moses
actually saw was a vision of the interior workings of the holy spirit on earth
– the same spirit that came down upon God’s chosen messengers and allowed them
to speak in tongues and to do miracles.
This is the power of what the kabbalists called the Shechinah and which
is in this particular circumstance the Holy Spirit itself. There was no fire. There was no bush. What there WAS was the mind and spirit of
Moses opening to a greater reality far beyond that of the material world. In his urge to know God and to act for him
and for all his people TO Him, Moses was able to make a connection with
divinity which has seldom been made since.
And what he saw was what Rabbi Shimon understood: this was the great
mercy that God was showing to his people, that no matter how seared they would
be by the harsh world in which they found themselves, they would never be
consumed.
Moses says that
for him the unity within himself of mercy, justice and beauty corresponds to
the Vav in the Holy Name, and he refers to it as the Rod of God. The reference is to the rods with which Moses
and Aaron did miracles in the name of God.
The rod is, like the scepter, the symbol of power derived from a higher
source, and it was through that symbol that Moses was able to draw down the
power of God to use in the material world.
Most significantly, the rod was given to Moses to use in ways that
violated the physical laws of this world and that clearly followed higher laws
not normally accessible to humankind.
The conclusion to be drawn here is that Moses was saying it was his own
ability to unite the right and the left aspects that gave him access to the
power of God. From this we may infer
that such abilities are open to any of us who can make that same union and
connection within himself and between himself and God.
Rabbi Shimon tells
Moses that at first the vision appeared to him, but later he turned aside and
looked for the vision. This indicates a
great progression, as it would for anyone.
To be given a vision is a great thing; to be able to have a vision when
it is needed is a much greater thing.
Rabbi Shimon makes the connection between this ability and the
commandment to keep the 248 positive precepts.
So at this point we are being told that behavior which conforms to the
will of God is also pivotal in the ability to be granted the access to visions.
The voice that
came with the vision told Moses that he was standing on holy ground. What was meant by this? It meant not that
this particular six square feet of ground was holy for any reason. It meant that the connection formed between
God and Moses at that moment partook of the divine, and the earth which
acknowledged the connection and upon which Moses was standing during the
spiritual event was sanctified by the experience. This explains the sanctity of all sacred
places and buildings; we do not enter the temple because it is sanctified; the
temple is sanctified because it is there that we form the spiritual connection
with God through the Holy Spirit. In
this same sense, ANY place where we are when this connection happens is holy
ground.
Moses speaks about
the mirror that comprises ten sefirot, and makes the link between the word
vision and its different manifestations depending on which sefirot is being
accessed. If we think about this, we
come to realize that it means we can have visions on ten different levels. Keter, Chochmah, Binah, Chesed, Gvurah, Tiferet,
Hod, Netzach, Yesod and Malchut. A
vision of power. A vision of beauty. A vision of love. A vision of majesty. A vision of the kingdom on earth. Each of these visions, were we to have them,
would be divinely generated to direct to the heart a particular form of
wisdom. And each of the visions comes in
the form of a simile; each object in a vision is symbolic, each event is
allegorical. The infinite number of ways
that God chooses to communicate His wisdom means that the possibilities for
vision are unlimited. If we are unable
to have such visions ourselves it is wise to look at the visions reported by
others to see what we can glean from them.
If we DO have such visions ourselves it is wise to report them to the
world so that others can glean from them.
However, if we are
thinking that visions are impossible for us, we must know that is absolutely
untrue. Each person dreams, and the
dreams are the visions received with the eyes shut. Paying attention to our own dreams gives us
access to visionary experiences of our own.
Rabbi Shimon says
that it is because of Moses’ connection with the Torah that God and the Holy
Spirit were revealed to him. He is of
course suggesting that study of the scriptures and adherence to the
commandments will lead us to the vision of God we all desire. He likens the Torah to light, and brings the
discussion back again to the five times that light was mentioned in the story
of creation and the five rays that shone on the face of Moses during his
lifetime. We tend to think of light as
something separate from wisdom, though we do use the term ‘to see the light’
when we mean ‘to understand’. But the
reading of this whole passage should make us wonder whether wisdom is not
indeed actual light, and that if we could see that light with the eyes of the
heart we would become as Moses: standing on sacred ground with the light of God
before us and within us.