No Filler

Like our DNA and the Torah, there is no filler in the Zohar, everything has a purpose. Ever since discovering DNA our biologists and geneticists have assumed that large chunks of our genetic coding were just junk taking up space to keep the important stuff apart. We now know that not to be true, and while we don’t yet know the full extent of its importance we do know that much of it, like the telomeres at the ends of our DNA strands, control our aging process, and that many other such chucks have hidden genetic encoding that sustains many of the functions necessary for life itself. So in their pursuit to play G-d it’s a good idea for them not to ignore the junk. And by the way, if you add up the initials in the 4 basic building blocks of our DNA (A,C,T and G), they add up to 424, the same numerical value as Moshiach Ben David.

We alone on our site have shown that the Torah is a highly complex mathematical matrix of interlocking algorithms and that changing one letter can and will change everything, which is why the deformation of a single letter by a scribe invalidates the entire Torah.

As for the Zohar, the highly cryptic esoteric passages are often stated as conversations hung on a loose scaffolding of the chance meetings of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai’s students, yet seeing as we know there are no coincidences in life, these chance meetings are not to be overlooked either. They are more than just filler thrown in to make the book read easier; they are powerful lessons in themselves.

A case in point is found in Shemini 10, which corresponds to this week’s Torah portion.

“Rabbi Elazar was traveling along a road, where he met Rabbi Pinchas Ben Yair and his whinnying donkey….When he emerged from under the brow of a hill, he saw Rabbi Elazar coming towards him and said: Assuredly, the omen of the [donkey’s] rejoicing has been fulfilled. Rabbi Elazar then came up to him and kissed him. He said to him: If you would like [to join me] and go the same way, let us go together and if not, go on your way. He replied: Indeed, I was going towards you and since I have found you, I will follow you and we can go together.”

So what just happened here and why is it so important that I’m writing a whole article about it?

Most of us come across friends and acquaintances in our daily journeying, greet them, maybe exchange a little gossip and go on our way. Many of us, even say to ourselves afterwards, “Funny I ran into so and so today; I wonder what it means.” But what Rabbi Elazar did, without thinking twice, was change the direction he was traveling in to join his friend in his journey.

This profound difference in the way he thinks is the message we have to learn. While we perceive a chance encounter as a something to move through and past, he realized that he was traveling (cosmically drawn) to it; it was the true end point (object) of his journey, even though not when he originally had set out. He immediately realized, aided by the sign of his whinnying donkey, that the universe had just opened up a window of opportunity for him. Obviously, (since traveling wasn’t so easy back then) he was originally on a mission of some personal significance to himself, but he unquestionably accepted the new path the universe laid out for him and moved on.

We need to view, as Rabbi Elazar did,  the chance encounters we have as the objectives of our journeys, and not as interruptions (pleasant or otherwise).

To be truly spiritual, we too must view life that way if we want to maximize what the universe wants to give us.  We need to stop telling ourselves that our personally set out paths take precedence over the ones the universe is showing us. Even as we overlook all the encounters of our lives, we so often say to ourselves, “if only G-d would show me the way!”.

Well, thanks to the filler in the Zohar, we now understand that all those chance encounters are there to show us those paths; they are the turning points in our journey, not the pit stops. So if the omens are good, take advantage and walk with your friends and new acquaintances and see what awaits you. Opportunities can only open for us. We don’t make them ourselves, but we can and should take advantage of them when they’re presented to us. And by the same token, we don’t find them sitting at home, but on the road of life, traveling through it.

There’s no such thing as filler in the Torah, our DNA, the Zohar, or life, so don’t treat any aspect of it as such, as junk to be ignored, for that would be selling G-d and ourselves short.