The Dreidel
Rebbe Nachman says that the world is like a dreidel - everything turns around, revolving and changing from one thing to the next, from top to bottom and from bottom to top…
Chambers of the Palace, Part 14
The entire world is like a spinning dreidel.
Everything turns around and changes: from man to angel and angel to man; from head to foot and foot to head; everything is revolving and changing from one thing to the next, from top to bottom and from bottom to top.
According to Chassidic tradition, the Baal Shem Tov had a silver dreidel like the one at rightIn truth, everything is in its root one.
There are nivdalim, separate beings—that is, angels, which are totally separated from physicality. And there are galgalim, heavenly beings; these are physical, but very fine. And there is shafel, the low world—that is, our world, which is complete physicality.
Even though each one of these three things is taken from its own place, everything is in its root one.
Therefore, the entire world is a revolving wheel, and everything goes around and changes. Now something is at the top like a head and something else is at the bottom like a foot. Afterwards, the foot becomes a head and the head becomes a foot; man becomes an angel and angel becomes a man. As we find in the Talmud, angels were cast down from the heavens to this world, and they became completely physical, lustful creatures. Other times, angels came to this world and invested themselves in physicality. On the other hand, we find that people were transformed into angels.
This world is a turning wheel (see Shabbat 151b), which is a dreidel, and everything turns around.
In truth, everything is in its root one.
(Besides this, the foot of one thing may be higher than the head of another. The same refers to the spiritual universes. The lowest level of the highest world is higher than the highest level of a world lower than it. But everything is a turning wheel.)
This is why people play with a dreidel on Hanukah. Hanukah is related to the idea of the Temple [for the Jews fought to regain the Temple and when they did so, they lit the menorah, which burned miraculously for eight days].
The essence of the Temple is this idea of the revolving wheel.
The Temple is the level of the upper level coming down below and the lower level rising above (see Bava Batra 10b). God rested His presence on the Tabernacle, and afterwards on the Temple. This is the level of the upper level coming down. The entire form of the tabernacle [and the temple after it] was based on a supernal form. This is idea of the lower level rising up.
This is the idea of a dreidel, a turning wheel, where everything is transformed.
Via philosophy, it is very hard to understand how God, Who is so exalted and higher than all spirituality, could constrict His presence from the highest heavens into the space of the Tabernacle. Nevertheless, God showed that He is the opposite of what philosophers imagine, and He placed His presence in the Tabernacle.
Also, it is very difficult to understand through philosophy that a human being, who is so low, should have the power to make an impression in the upper worlds, or that a low animal should be offered as a sacrifice that will please God. This is God’s will—but how can God have a will?
In truth, however, God demonstrated the opposite of what the philosophers believe. He placed His presence below in the Tabernacle and the Temple, and the animal sacrifices were pleasing to Him.
This is the level of the upper level coming down below and the lower level rising above; the level of a turning wheel; the level of a dreidel.
Philosophical works mention a hyle (primeval). This is a state between the potential and the actual. Everything is at first in potential, and afterwards it becomes actualized. When it leaves potentiality but is not yet actualized, it is at the level of the hyle. This hyle thus is the root of all created beings. All created beings that come from there are in one of three categories: separate beings (nivdal, heavenly beings (galgal) and lower beings (shafel)—all of them revolving and changing from one to the other, for everything is in its root one.
This idea is expressed by the letters on the dreidel: hey, nun, gimel, shin. These letters are the acronym of the following four words: hyle, nivdal (separate being), galgal (heavenly being) and shafel (low being). These words describe the four aspects of creation, all of which revolve and are transformed constantly.
This is hinted at on Hanukah, because Hanukah commemorates the dedication (Hanukah) of the temple, where above was below and below was above, which is the dreidel, the revolving wheel, things changing from one state to another.
These transformations are the level of the redemption.
Therefore, when the Jews were redeemed from Egypt, they sang at the song of the sea, “You will bring them and plant them on the mountain of Your inheritance,” referring to the temple. The essence of redemption is that there will be a temple building, where exists the level of the revolving wheel, of the upper level coming down below and the lower level rising above.
This is the idea of the ultimate.
In truth, all is one. In its source, all is one. (Sichot Haran 40)
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From “Chambers of the Palace”, an anthology of Rebbe Nachman’s writings abridged and translated by Yaacov Dovid Shulman. Writer, translator, and editor Yaacov Dovid Shulman can be contacted at: yacovdavid@gmail.com.
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