Chapter XXXII · 1 min read
From “Take Me” to “Dwell Here”
Pre-Sinai ascent and post-Sinai sanctification
There are two religious cries.
One says:
Take me out of this world.
The other says:
Come dwell here.
Chanoch embodies the first in an extraordinarily holy form.
"Ki lakach oso Elokim."
Elokim took him.
The Mishkan embodies the second.
"V'shachanti b'socham."
I will dwell among them.
The history of Torah moves from the exceptional human being taken upward toward a people constructing a dwelling below.
The Beis HaMikdash deepens the movement.
חֲסִידוּתChassidusThe Chassidic teaching, and in particular the Chabad discipline of bringing the highest concepts into a form that transforms the person contemplating them.Glossary universalises it into the purpose of creation.
דִּירָה בְּתַחְתּוֹנִיםdirah betachtonim“A dwelling in the lower realms.” The purpose of creation in Chassidic teaching: not that the world ascend, but that the lowest place become a home.Glossary.
This does not cancel Chanoch.
It completes the meaning of his ascent.
The one who once had to be taken can become a teacher for a world learning how not to require removal.
His fire becomes inward.
His fidelity becomes domestic.
His heavenly service becomes human shlichus.
His celestial crown becomes the discipline of carrying responsibility without self-coronation.
Metatron comes home as עֲבוֹדָהavodahService, and the inner work of it. The measurements describe the palace; the avodah tells us why the palace matters.Glossary.