THE LEADER WHO COUNTS - BY ELEVENS

This year on Shabbos Shira, Jews will sing the redemption song, the powerfully engaging experience of rapture, represented by the number eleven - “You are one but not by counting.”

By Rabbi Boruch Merkur 

 

“There are ten ineffable S’firos.
Ten and not nine.
Ten and not eleven.”
—Seifer Yetzira 1:4

 

 

We count by tens. 10 is perfect and complete. The dark forces of the world play by different rules. 

 

There are Eleven Crowns of the Other Side. 11 overlords descend from Eisav. At Mount Sinai, the final 11 days were spent - following the ways of Eisav[1] - planning the Golden Calf.

 

Yet, the Rebbe - born on the eleventh day, crowned on the eleventh day of the eleventh month of the eleventh year (5711) – leads with an entirely different set of rules. In fact, the Rebbe’s approach, the approach of joy, “breaks boundaries,” not only the barriers and restrictions of exile, but “primarily the boundaries of redemption, the redemption itself being ‘a boundless inheritance,’”[2] bursting out across the globe. 

 

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It says in Michilta: There are ten songs. The first was sung in Egypt … the second, at the sea, as it says, “Then Moshe sang” … The tenth is for the Future Era, as it says, “Sing for G-d a new song” … All the songs are called the feminine term “shiros.” Just as the female gives birth [suffering each time], so the salvations throughout history were followed by subjugation. The salvation of the Future Era, however, is destined to not be followed by another subjugation, thus it is called by the masculine term for song, “shir.”[3]

 

Song in general refers to the journey of the soul, advancing and elevating consciousness. The female aspect of song is its yearning to reach the destination. The masculine song is “the feeling (not so much of yearning but mainly) of cleaving to and being immersed within the awareness of what is Above.”[4] It is more like the destination coming to you, or being inspired to feel the journey itself as the destination.

 

The Maharsha teaches: “Throughout history there were ten songs, each one higher than the other, but this one - Song of Songs - surpasses them all … They are all holy. The tenth, however, is special in that it is inherently holy. In every instance, ten is the highest of all. In this case as well, Song of Songs, the tenth song, is Holy of Holies.”

 

The connection of Song of Songs, which was composed prior to redemption, to the tenth song of the Future Era is that it establishes the perfection of all the songs prior to redemption (all progress accomplished through our efforts) as they are united and bound to the new song of the Future Era[5] (which is not only yearning but the actual experience of d’veikus, rapture, and immersion in what is Above). 

 

Through Song of Songs one attains the new song, “shir chadash,” the masculine song of the Future Era itself,[6] which transcends all ten songs.[7] It is a song whose entire significance is d’veikus and immersion within the being and essence of G-d. This experience is represented by the number eleven - “You are one but not by counting.”[8]

 

The Rebbe guides us how to experience and enjoy Divine rapture, the ecstasy of d’veikus. He teaches us how to listen to and be inspired by the long-awaited response from Above to our ten songs, sung throughout our lengthy and challenging history. The way to get there is through prayer:

 

Regarding serving G-d through prayer … prayer as song … Now there must be (after having completed all the aliyos, all the advancements in our soul’s journey) the song inspired by d’veikus and immersion within what is Above, as a preparation and beginning of “the new song” of the Future Era.

 

This applies especially to prayer for the true and complete redemption[9] … In addition to the feeling of desire and awaiting, yearning for the redemption (done until this time), now there must also be – and primarily there must be - the feeling of joy that the redemption is coming literally this very moment.[10]

 

And the Rebbe connects this with the promised reclaiming not only the seven lands of K’naan, and not only the inheritance of the additional three lands – Keini, K’nizi, and Kadmoni – but also a fourth land, the land of Plishtim, the Philistines:

 

The holy sense of Plishtim is “rejoicing in d’veikusto G-d “b’filush – through and through,” overtly and in boundless expanse.” It means “celebrating G-d’s very core, lacking nothing (the state of consciousness of tzaddikim, the righteous). This state will be (experienced by every Jew) only after the completion of avodas ha’birurim (when the struggle towards spirituality is over),[11] in the Future Era, when joy will be absolutely perfected, as it is said, “Then I shall fill your mouths with laughter.” “Thus the Jewish people will be given the land of Plishtim, taking joy in Elokus (Divinity) “b’filush – through and through.” (Ohr HaTorah B’Shalach, pg. 367 ff.)[12]

 

The Rebbe guides us how to confront and transform everything, even what is beyond the natural order, number eleven, the Other Side. Now we are given the most precious treasures of all to inspire us, the eleventh land, the land of the Philistines, the raw and real desire to celebrate G-d in a way that permeates us thoroughly, through and through, totally one.

 

NOTES:

[1] “The path of Mount Seir”

[2] Seifer HaSichos 5752, pg. 320, FN 142 

[3] Ibid pg. 316

[4] Ibid

[5] Chochma ascending to Kesser, which is called “Holy of Holies” (FN 106)

[6] FN 107: Because, “Song of Songs is the song of the female as well as the male, which is elicited by the initiative from below, our efforts … but the song of the Future Era is a new song, beyond the reach of personal initiative.” (Ohr HaTorah Shir HaShirim, pg. 3 ff.)

[7] Kesser ascends to the blessed Infinite Light, which transcends even the Holy of Holies (FN 108)

[8] Seifer HaSichos 5752, pg. 317

[9] in addition to the individual’s redemption achieved through serving G-d through prayer (Tanya Igeres HaKodesh 4).

[10] Seifer HaSichos 5752, pg. 320

[11] which, the Rebbe has said repeatedly, has already happened.

[12] Ibid 317, FN 109.