Jewish Temperament

This week’s parsha, Shelach, ends with the mitzvah of tzitzit. The Ba’al Shem Tov taught that even the archangel Micha’el, from the greatest of all angels, would gladly trade all of his Divine service and recognition of Divinity for one of the four tzitzit worn by every Jew. It’s intriguing that the Ba’al Shem Tov specifically chose the mitzvah of tzitzit to articulate the advantage of our Divine service over that of the angels. One of the explanations for this:

In Tikunei Zohar it states that the four corners of the tzitzit garment correspond to the four beings of the Divine “chariot”, or throne. Indeed, one who wears tzitzit is regarded as if he himself has prepared a throne for G-d. The four beings on the throne, represented by the four corners of the tzitzit garment, also represent the four temperaments:
The bold Lion represents the audacious Artisan;
the hard-working Ox represents the dependable Guardian;
the emotionally-aware Man represents the empathic Idealist;
and the high-soaring Eagle represents the abstract Rational.

These four beings on the throne are represented by many different symbols, including the major angels: Micha’el on the right, Gavriel on the left, Refa’el in the center, and Uri’el representing Malchus. It turns out, then, that even though the angel Micha’el is himself one of the actual beings of the Divine throne, he would still elect to exchange all that for a single corner of a Jewish person’s tzitzit. But why?

Much as a physical throne is the vehicle for a king to avail himself to his subjects, the Divine “throne” is a metaphor for the manifestation of G-d’s presence. Consequently, the four beings of the throne represent the four general methods that G-d employs to manifest Himself to the world, to keep it in existence. If we were to speculate about where the real manifestation of G-d’s presence occurs, we might conclude it is with the angels, on the Divine throne and its spiritual beings.

The Ba’al Shem Tov teaches us that the real Divine throne, the real manifestation of G-d’s presence, is in a single corner of tzitzit. G-d’s purpose in creating the world is to manifest through this world. And one of the primary ways that is accomplished is through our own “chariot”, our temperament: when G-d’s presence shines through us, when our desires align with G-d’s desires, when our intellect emanates G-dly thought, and when our emotions are inspired by G-dly pursuits, G-d manifests in a manner that is even greater than through the angels.

Interestingly, this is also one of the explanations of how the Jewish People failed so miserably in the episode of the spies, as recorded earlier in the parsha. At the time, the Jewish People were being fed their every desire on a silver platter. They relied on G-d for everything, from their safety to their clothes. Their entire life-experience was based on obedience and dependency, both physically and spiritually: they had heard the commandments from G-d Himself, and they studied Torah from the mouth of its transcriber, Moshe. As a result, it seemed an insurmountable task for them to transform their own base selves, their coarse desires, intellect, and emotion. But that’s exactly what would be demanded of them as soon as they entered the Land of Israel, as soon as the ultimate purpose of creation was to be fulfilled.

Instead, the task was handed to their children, people who hadn’t witnessed G-d, who studied Torah second-hand, and who had to get used to a generally diminished spiritual life. These were people who began recognizing their own selves, their strengths and weaknesses, and summoned the fortitude to align their selves with G-d. And from them, this task was handed down to us, to manifest G-d in His real throne, our own selves.

— Based on the Chumash