BeHa'aloscha 5633 First Ma'amar

This week’s parsha begins with the mitzvah incumbent upon the Kohanim to light the menorah in the Beis HaMikdash each day, “... בְּהַעֲלֹתְךָ אֶת הַנֵרוֹת אֶל מוּל פְּנֵי הַמְּנוֹרָה יָאִירוּ שִׁבְעַת הַנֵרוֹת/When you light the lamps, the seven lamps shall cast their light toward the face of the candelabrum.” Why does the Torah use the word בהעלתך/When you light, which literally translates as, “when you raise up,” instead of bhadlakaskcha/when you light? Rashi explains that the Kohein must hold the taper to the wick until the flame rises of its own accord. Why is the exact way the Kohein lights the lamp significant?

In order to understand the significance of the menorah and the way it must be lit, the Sfas Emes cites and explains a Midrash in this week’s parsha. The Midrash quotes a pasuk in Mishlei, “יְרָא־אֶת־ה' בְּנִי וָמֶלֶךְ .../Fear God my son and the king …” The Midrash is bothered by the last word which seems to be redundant if it is referring to God. If it is not referring to God, then to whom is it referring?

The Midrash gives several related answers. The first is that word, “ומלך/and the king,” is referring to God. This extra word is teaching us the importance of accepting God’s rule in addition to being in awe of Him. The second explanation the Midrash gives is that it is referring to ruling over our evil inclination. The pasuk is teaching us to fear God and make sure that our good inclination rules over our evil one. The third explanation the Midrash gives is that the pasuk is God’s advice to Moshe Rabbeinu. God tells Moshe, “Fear me my son and I will make you a king.”

What is the connection between these explanations? To understand the connection between these explanations we need to know that everything in the physical universe has an inherent spiritual force that gives it existence. Furthermore, Chazal teach us that God created everything for His glory. This means that all components of the Creation have a built in inclination towards revelation of their inherent spirituality – a built in inclination to experience the spiritual, to come close to the Creator. Experiencing God is the best we can do to reveal His glory.

The Midrash is teaching us that a person who accepts the rule of God over himself becomes a conduit for God’s rule to extend to everything with which he has contact. As the Midrash implies, this refers even to the evil inclination. Even the evil inclination wants to subordinate itself to the righteous one whose every action is done for the sake of glorifying God. The evil inclination has no choice. It is built in to his make up. The Sfas Emes explains that the way to make sure that we are ruling over our evil inclination is by subjugating ourselves to God in everything that we do.

The more we accept God’s rule, the more we subordinate ourselves, the better a conduit we become. This is because we ourselves, offer less resistance. Moshe Rabbeinu was the ultimate conduit. His self offered no resistance whatsoever. This is the reason he was able to become a king even though he was not from the tribe of Yehuda. His own kingship was simply a reflection of God’s. The second half of the pasuk in Mishlei alludes to this, “... עִם־שֹׁונִים אַל־תִּתְעָרָב/… Do not mix with those who are inconsistent (in their service to God.)” The Sfas Emes understands this pasuk as referring to the individual and how much he is purely devoted to God. He understands the pasuk as, “Do not allow a mix of different components within yourself.” Be a pure conduit of God.

When a person acts for the sake of Heaven, when his intent is that God should be honored through his action, a certain spirituality is revealed through his action because it is inclined to be revealed.

Now we can understand the significance of the menorah and the procedure for lighting it. The menorah lamps and the flame are metaphors for the physical world and its inherent spirituality respectively. Just like the flame, the spirituality that is innate in the physical world wants to rise towards its source, wants to be revealed. The Kohein is required to hold the taper to the wick until the flame rises of its own accord just as we are required to influence the physical world around us so that the spirituality inherent in it is revealed.

We find this very same concept in the relationship between Shabbos and the days of the week. During the six days of the first week, “... עשה את השמים ואת הארץ .../… He made the heavens and the earth …” The Sfas Emes explains that the heavens in this pasuk are not referring to the physical sky. Rather, the heavens refer to all the spiritual realms. The earth in this pasuk refers to the entire physical universe. During the six days of Creation, there was a separation between the physical and the spiritual. The end of this pasuk states, “... וביום השביעי שבת וינפש/… and on the seventh day He ceased and rested.” What does the Torah mean when it tells us that God rested? God resting suggests that the Creation was in harmony, each component performing its function thus glorifying God. If everything glorifies God, there is a synchronization between the physical universe and the spiritual realms. There is unity between the spiritual and the physical and they are revealed as being one and the same in different forms.

BeHaloscha 5631 First Ma'amar

“... בְּהַעֲלֹתְךָ אֶת־הַנֵּרֹת אֶל־מוּל פְּנֵי הַמְּנוֹרָה יָאִירוּ שִׁבְעַת הַנֵּרוֹת/When you light the lamps, the seven lamps shall cast their light toward the face of the candelabrum.” The menorah is a physical vessel whose purpose is to hold light which symbolizes the spiritual. The mitzvah of the menorah, then, is singularly suited to teach us about the relationship between the physical and spiritual in this world.

Why is there a mitzvah of lighting the menorah? It cannot possibly be for the light. God does not need the light. The Midrash addresses this question. God told Moshe Rabbeinu, “I did not give this commandment because I need the light of man. Rather, I gave this commandment in order to confer merit upon you and to elevate you.” The Midrash learns this from the pasuk, “ה' חָפֵץ לְמַעַן צִדְקוֹ יַגְדִּיל תּוֹרָה וְיַאְדִּיר/For the sake of [Israel’s] righteousness God desired to make the Torah great and to glorify it.” The Midrash is saying that God gave us the mitzvah of lighting the menorah (and according to another Midrash, all mitzvos) in order to make the Torah great and to glorify it.

How does lighting the menorah glorify the Torah? To answer this question, we need to understand the purpose of the mitzvos and their connection to the Torah. God’s desire is for the Torah to be revealed in this world. The Torah is completely spiritual, though, and this world is physical. There must be a mechanism for drawing the spiritual power of the Torah into the physical world. The mitzvos is that mechanism. The mitzvos are the vessels that contain the spiritual light of the Torah.

We see this concept clearly in a pasuk in Mishlei, “... נֵר מִצְוָה וְתוֹרָה אוֹר .../… a commandment is a lamp and the Torah is light …” Just as light needs a lamp to hold it, so too, the light of the Torah needs a vessel to contain it. The vessel that holds the light of the Torah in this world is the mitzvos.

By performing the mitzvos we are glorifying the Torah by bringing its light into this world. The Sfas Emes teaches us that this is an aspect of Torah shebe’al Peh/The Oral Law. The Oral Law, as its name implies, was not written down. In this sense, the Oral Law is hidden. The light of the Torah, then, which is hidden in all things is the light of the hidden Oral Law.

God gave the ability to reveal this light, to activate it, so to speak, to the nation of Israel, just as He gave the Oral Law only to us. We are God’s agents in this world to reveal the Torah’s hidden light. The mechanism for revealing this spiritual light is performance of the mitzvos. In fact, the Zohar says that our 248 limbs parallel the 248 positive commandments. Our very limbs become the conduits through which the light of the Torah is drawn down into this world.

Actually, the light of the Torah is in us in the form of our souls. Our physical body is the vessel that contains the soul. The soul – a spiritual entity – can only function in the physical world through the physical body that contains it. By performing mitzvos we draw the holiness of the soul into the physical world.

In this way we elevate the physical world. This is why the Torah, when referring to lighting lamps of the menorah which, as we’ve said, allude to the mitzvos, uses the word beha’aloscha whose literal translation is, “when you elevate” instead of behadlakascha/when you light.

There was a time when the spiritual light of the Torah was manifest in this world. Chazal teach us that the light that was created on the first day of Creation was a spiritual light that functioned only during the first week of the Creation. After the first Shabbos, God hid that original spiritual light. An inkling of it is revealed on Shabbos, but mainly it is hidden until the ultimate redemption.

The mitzvos are the tool God gave us to reveal that hidden light to some extent. Since the lamps of the menorah represent the mitzvos, when we perform the mitzvos, we are connecting the seven lamps of the menorah with the spiritual light of the first seven days of the creation. We are drawing that original spiritual light into the physical world.

This idea is hinted at by the pasuk quoted before, “...אֶל־מוּל פְּנֵי הַמְּנוֹרָה יָאִירוּ .../… the lamps shall cast their light toward the candelabrum …” What does this mean? The lamps are part of the menorah. How can they cast their light towards it? Chazal teach us that the three lamps on each side of the center lamp face the center. The middle lamp represents the Shabbos. The six lamps facing it represent the days of the week. When the days of the week are used to perform mitzvos then there is a revelation of that special hidden spiritual light on Shabbos.

With this idea we can explain an enigmatic Midrash. The Midrash says that Aharon HaCohen was upset because his tribe Levi did not participate in the sacrifices brought by the heads of all the other tribes to dedicate the altar. God told Moshe Rabbeinu to console Aharon for he merited the mitzvah of the menorah while they merited bringing sacrifices. Sacrifices may only be brought while the Beis HaMikdash stands whereas the menorah is forever. The obvious question is that the mitzvah of the menorah also applies only while the Beis HaMikdash stands.

However, according to what we’ve said it is clear. The primary reason for lighting the menorah is to draw the spiritual light of the Torah into this world. This is something that lasts forever. The very name of the middle lamp, נֵר הַמַעֲרָבִי/the western lamp, hints at this. מַעֲרָבִי/Western has the same root as לְעַרֵב/to combine. The middle lamp is the ultimate symbol of the coalescence of the spiritual within the physical.

God does not need the light of the menorah. He gave us this mitzvah to confer merit upon us and to elevate us. By performing this mitzvah (and every mitzvah) we draw spiritual light even into the physical darkness.

Shavuos 5646 First Ma'amar

When the nation of Israel left Egypt, we were in a state of deep impurity. Chazal teach us that we had reached the forty-ninth level (out of fifty) of impurity. In a period of a mere fifty days, we made a transformation from this low level to a state in which we were ready to participate in the greatest event in the history of mankind, the receiving of the Torah and direct communication from the Creator.

This transformation is one of the most optimistic and inspiring processes. It teaches us that regardless of the level of our impurity, we should not despair. This process of transformation is enshrined in the counting of the Omer.

How does the transformation work? How can the impure become pure? The answer to this question is based on the concept that everything both pure and impure was created by God and needs God’s constant and continuous attention to exist. Even though the Creation is a mixture of good and bad, of purity and impurity, at the spiritual source there is Unity. In the words of Chazal, there are forty-nine aspects or levels of impurity and purity. Levels implies that there is a mix. At the fiftieth level there is Unity. Of course, the unity, the Godliness is inherent even at the most impure level. It is simply revealed at the fiftieth level. Impurity is a barrier that hides Godliness. For impure to become pure, the barrier needs to be removed.

We find this concept in a Midrash explaining a pasuk in Iyov, “מִי יִתֵּן טָהוֹר מִטָמֵא לֹא אֶחָד/Who produces purity from impurity? No one!” The Midrash translates this pasuk, “Who produces purity from impurity? Is it not the One?” Producing purity from impurity seems impossible. However, it is only impossible if we believe that impurity has an autonomous existence. Once we recognize that impurity is simply God’s concealment, producing purity from impurity is a matter of removing that which conceals God.

We also find this concept in a Zohar explaining the pasuk, “... וְנִטְמֵתֶם בָּם/… and you will become defiled by them” referring to one who eats forbidden foods. The usual spelling of “וְנִטְמֵתֶם/and you will become defiled” includes an א/alef - וְנִטְמֵאתֶם. Why is it spelled here without the alef? The Sfas Emes explains that the alef, meaning one, alludes to the source – God. According to the Zohar the Torah spelled this word without the alef to teach us that one who has eaten forbidden foods and dies before having repented is so defiled that there is nothing that can heal his soul. He has lost his connection with the source, with God.[1]

This, the Sfas Emes teaches us, is the significance of the forty-nine days of counting the Omer culminating in the holiday of Shavuos on the fiftieth day. Counting is a process of sorting and clarification. During the forty-nine days of the Omer the nation of Israel worked to separate the impure from the pure, the evil from the good. This process ended on Shavuos with the receiving of the Torah and the negation of the evil inclination. For this reason, the Zohar teaches, in addition to the regular holiday sacrifices, two loaves of leavened bread, representing the evil inclination were burnt on the altar.

On Shavuos we reached the fiftieth level of purity and experienced God as the source of everything. To symbolize harking back to the source, the first wheat of the year was sacrificed on Shavuos. The first fruit Chazal teach us is called רֵאשִׁית/First, alluding to the Creation – בְּרֵאשִׁית – and ultimately to the source of the Creation – God. Shavuos, in fact, is called, “יוֹם הַבִּיכּוּרִים/Day of the first fruit.”

The Kohanim sacrifice the first wheat on behalf of the entire nation of Israel. In addition to this mitzvah, it is incumbent on each member of the nation to bring the first fruit produced by his field to the Beis Hamikdash, “רֵאשִׁית בִּכּוּרֵי אַדְמָתְךָ תָּבִיא בֵּית ה' אֱ-לָהֶיךָ ... /You shall bring the first of the first fruits of your land to the house of God.” The Sfas Emes explains that, when we clarify for ourselves that God is the source of everything, evil no longer represents a barrier that hides Him. If this is true on an individual level, it is certainly true on the national level of the first wheat sacrifice that is brought on Shavuos. The sacrifice of the first wheat represents God’s revelation on Shavuos and provides the nation with protection for the entire year.

The second half of the pasuk instructing us to bring the first fruit to the Beis HaMikdash is, “... לֹא-תְבַשֵׁל גְדִי בַּחֲלֵב אִמּוֹ/… Do not cook a kid in its mother’s milk.” What is the connection between these two seemingly unrelated mitzvos? The Zohar explains that once the source is revealed, there is no longer any possibility of a mix of good and bad. The Sfas Emes explains elsewhere that milk represents a clarification of the good from the bad. Chazal teach us that God turns the mother’s blood, which is impure, into milk which is pure. Chazal learn this from the pasuk in Iyov brought earlier, “מִי יִתֵּן טָהוֹר מִטָמֵא לֹא אֶחָד/Who produces purity from impurity? Is it not the One?” Meat, on the other hand, represents a mix of good and bad. The Sfas Emes notes an allusion to this from the quail that God sent to the nation in the desert. The quail was sent specifically in the evening. The word for evening – עֶרֶב – has the same root as the word for mix – עָרֹב.

Since meat represents the mix whereas milk represents the clarification, milk should not be eaten with meat. For this reason, as well, it is appropriate to eat dairy foods on Shavuos since both dairy and Shavuos represent clarification and a revelation of the source – God.

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[1] The gematria of the word טמא – is fifty. The gematria of טמ is forty-nine representing the forty-nine levels of impurity. א/alef represents the fiftieth level on which there is Unity – God is revealed. Purity is only possible because God underlies the impurity. Therefore, if the alef is removed, reaching purity is impossible. This is the deeper meaning of the pasuk in Iyov, “מי יתן טהור מטמא הלא אחד/Who produces purity from impurity? Is it not the One (alluded to by the alef)?” (Nefesh David – commentary on the Zohar)

Naso 5631 Second Ma'amar

In this week’s parsha we find the law of a person who was accused of stealing and then lied about it under oath. If convicted, this person, must, in addition to returning that which was stolen, bring an asham sacrifice and return a fifth more than he stole. Interestingly, he is only required to bring this sacrifice and pay a fifth more after he admits to his sin as the pasuk states, “וְהִתְוַדוּ אֶת חַטָאתָם אֲשֶׁר עָשׂוּ .../They shall confess their sin that they committed …”

The Chidushei HaRim points out that we learn the general mitzvah of confession and repentance from this pasuk. Why does the mitzvah of confession for all sins appear specifically here, associated with the laws of theft? The Torah is teaching us that every sin has an aspect of theft associated with it. God created the world and keeps it in existence continuously. He owns, as it were, everything. One who uses the world in ways which are against His will is stealing. He is using someone else’s property without permission.

Internalizing this concept is certainly a strong preventative to sinning.

The Annual Tehillimthon

The Annual Tehillimthon is happening this Shavuos.

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Check the website for details and to participate: http://www.tehillimthon.com

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