Friday, February 27, 2009

The Boards Of The Mishkan

I heard from my grandfather [the Baal Shem Tov] that the word keresh (board), alludes to a human being. Now the way to understand this is that the letters in the word keresh (קרש) are the letters of kesher (קשר) - a link - and this alludes to the human being, who connects all the worlds to each other, and unites them. Therefore, a person must connect himself and his thought continuously to his Creator. In this way Hashem and His Shechina become connected, as do all the worlds; they are linked and unified with each other. But if, G-d forbid, he connects himself to the folly of the world's vanities, which have no existence - the things which are finite - this is being connected to falsehood, sheker (שקר), which is also spelled from the letters of keresh.

(Degel Machaneh Ephraim)