Questions for today:
We know of the impact of the emotions of Love and Fear, what is the impact of Mercy?
We have been talking about connecting to the Creator with an emotion that we learn from our third patriarch, Jacob, the emotion of mercy.
We trigger this emotion when we think about how the soul has to leave its home, where it's one with the Creator, and come live in this physical world and animate our foolish sins.
What does this mercy accomplish?
There is a story in the Torah that describes when Jacob meets his fiancée, Rachel. The Torah tells us that he gives her a kiss and cries.
Obviously, every story in the Torah happened exactly the way it is described, but the Torah is not a romance novel. There must be a message for us and a reason why this story is recounted.
The message to us from this interaction is that Jacob cried to elicit Divine mercy for Rachel, the mother of all the Jewish people.
Their embrace represented hands that emulate G-d's handiwork, that of kindness, mitzvos, and charity. Their kiss represented the action of mouthing and speaking words of Torah.
Jacob’s mercy lifts us up from being trapped in the physical world and completely reunites us with the spiritual, with our G-dly soul.
138 Tanya Iyar 08 ~ m162b Iyar 3b
Tanya book 1, ch 45, Pt 2
We are working to connect to the Creator through mercy. What does mercy accomplish?
We see in the Torah that Jacob kissed Rachel and cried. The cry represents eliciting Divine mercy.
Through this mercy, we are uplifted from our physical entrapment, and reunited with the Creator.
Study today’s Tanya in full:
https://www.chabadmed.com/dailystudy/tanya.asp?tdate=5/4/2022
See today’s video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qi2Z7V0pG9c&list=PLFZQPK6u-zSBls9Hwx3P5vKIBRnjBvHe&index=137