Friday, July 6, 2007

Fixing the moon -Gur Aryeh Bamidbar 28:15

The Midrash records that although the moon and sun were originally the same size, and they were told to rule over day and night, the moon had complaint before Hashem, "Two kings cannot rule with one crown." Hashem responded, "You are right, so make yourself smaller." Rashi to Bereshis 1:16. After this Hashem commanded that we bring a sin offering "for Him” because He made the moon smaller. Rashi to Bamidbar 28:15.
The Maharal (Gur Aryeh Bamidbar 28:15) explains, Hashem’s actions are perfect, but they don’t always look that way to us. It is true that a king has to rule in entirety, or he is not a king. However, its not fair that the moon had to be made smaller. The maharal introduces us to the inner idea of what a Korban is. It is brought to repair what's missing things in the world. Any time there is sin, a distance was created, and therefore Korban comes from the word to make close. The Korban repairs this distance, created in the world by the act of making the moon smaller, the "unfairness."
In this lies the story of the Jewish people as a whole, the story of David Hamelech, the story of Moshiach and the story of all of our lives as a whole, especially when things don't look fair...

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