Bamidbar 5632 First Ma'amar

This week’s parsha records the census of the nation of Israel that was conducted after the completion of the Mishkan. What was the purpose of this census? What was its significance? The Sfas Emes explains that the census teaches us that each person is unique and has a unique mission to accomplish for God. In fact, the Sfas Emes teaches us that this is a person’s raison d’être.

How can we know what our unique mission is? Although each person’s mission is unique, all the individual tasks lead to a common goal. There is a general purpose that guides us. The general meta-purpose is alluded to in the first Midrash on the parsha.

The Midrash quotes a pasuk in Tehillim, “צִדְקָתְךָ כְּהַרְרֵי־אֵל מִשְׁפָּטֶיךָ תְּהוֹם רַבָּה .../Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains; Your judgments are like the vast deep …” The Midrash says that this pasuk is a metaphor for the abodes of the righteous and the wicked. The righteous believe that God is with us even in this physical world. Their abode is revealed. The wicked do not believe that God sees their actions. Their abode is concealed.

The Chiddushei HaRim explains that the Midrash is teaching us that the entire world is in fact only a metaphor for a spiritual reality. How we, who are living in the metaphor – the physical world – experience the spiritual reality, is directly dependent upon our beliefs and consequent actions. To the extent that we internalize the belief that all existence is from God and desire to experience Him, essentially to reveal Him in everything, we experience Him and He is revealed to us.

This concept applies equally to the wicked who lack this faith. They believe they can do evil and no one sees as the prophet Yeshayah laments, “הוֹי הַמַּעֲמִיקִים מֵה׳ לַסְתִּר עֵצָה וְהָיָה בְמַחְשָךְ מַעֲשֵׂיהֶם וַיֹּאמְרוּ מִי רֹאֵנוּ וּמִי יֹדְעֵנוּ/Woe to those who try to hide deep down to conceal counsel from God, and their deeds are done in darkness; they say, ‘Who sees us, and who knows of us?” Correspondingly, God is not revealed to them. The truth is kept from them as we find in Iyov, “וְיִמָּנַע מֵרְשָׁעִים אוֹרָם .../Light is withheld from the wicked.”

A pasuk in Yeshayah bears out this concept, “אוֹ יַחֲזֵק בְּמָעוּזִּי יַעֲשֶׂה שָׁלוֹם לִי שָׁלוֹם יַעֲשֶׂה־לִּי/If (Israel) would grasp my stronghold, then he would make peace with Me, peace would he make with me.” Why the redundancy? The Sfas Emes understands that the word שָׁלוֹם/peace in this pasuk connotes שְׁלֵימוּת/completeness. The physical can be considered “complete” to the extent that its spiritual underpinnings are revealed. A metaphor is incomplete, meaningless really, unless it relates to the object that it describes. We relate the physical world to the spiritual by believing that it is there. This is a two step process whereby we first recognize the spiritual within the physical so that the physical is then elevated to be more spiritual. It is “completed.”

The idea of elevating the physical to its spiritual roots explains why the Torah mentions the date and place of God’s instruction to Moshe regarding the census. Time and space represent the physical world. Although Torah is beyond time, God’s primary desire is for us to draw the light of the Torah and holiness into time, into the physical thus elevating the physical to its spiritual roots.

This explains our meta-purpose in this world. From this definition, there is the danger of concluding that everyone should do exactly the same thing, that there is no room for individualism. The census taught us that although our general goal is the same, each person’s task leading to that goal is different. Each person had, and has today, a unique role that no one else can fill. We can each relate to God through our own unique actions.

How do we know, though, what our unique path and role is? The Sfas Emes explains that to the extent that we cultivate the belief that our individual actions are important and have ramifications that reach the highest spiritual realms to God Himself, as it were, we can merit understanding our place, role and unique mission. May we merit it!

Bechukosai 5632 First Ma'amar

This week’s parsha begins with, “אִם־בְּחֻקֹתַי תֵּלֵכוּ .../If you follow my statutes …” The pasuk cannot be taken literally because the very next words already enjoin us to keep the commandments, “... וְאֶת־מִצְוֹתַי תִּשְׁמְרוּ .../… and you keep my commandments …” Chazal understand, therefore, that the Torah is instructing us to toil at learning Torah. Why, though, do Chazal say that the pasuk is teaching us to toil at learning Torah and not simply to learn Torah? What is the significance of toiling?

To answer this question we first need to understand what is meant by toiling. What do Chazal mean when they refer to laboring at Torah? The Sfas Emes explains that when God has hidden Himself we need to toil. When God reveals Himself, by definition, things are clear and easy. There is no toil when we are close to God. Toiling means accepting and believing even against the evidence of our senses.

The Sfas Emes applies this definition to learning Torah. We learn Torah, not for the purpose of gaining new knowledge or reaching greater heights. Rather we are required to learn in order to reach greater and greater levels of subordination to God. We study until we reach a point at which we do not understand. We do not understand because God has concealed Himself. If He were revealed to us, we would understand. Even though we do not understand, and the subject matter may fly in the face of our logical faculty, we are nonetheless required to accept and believe. Accepting as truth that which we do not understand is the height of toil. In the act of submission, we merit understanding. Then we learn deeper and reach a new level at which God conceals Himself and we do not understand. And the cycle continues.

The Sfas Emes understands this cycle from the first Midrash in the parsha. The Midrash quotes a pasuk in Tehillim, “חִשַּׁבְתִי דְרָכָי וְאָשִׁיבָה רַגְלַי אֶל־עֵדֹתֶיךָ׃/I considered my ways, and returned my feet to Your testimonies.” The Midrash says that David HaMelech is telling God, “Each day, I considered and said that I am going to a specific place, a specific house and my feet take me to synagogues and study halls.”

What is the significance of this? What does David HaMelech mean? The Sfas Emes explains that this Midrash is teaching us something very deep. All the components of the physical world enclothe a spiritual Godly life-force. When David HaMelech says that he considers each day going to a specific place, a specific house, he is referring to the physical activities and things that are a physical home, so to speak, to the Godly life-force. The Midrash uses a metaphor of synagogues and study halls to describe the Godly life-force because synagogues and study halls include everyone within them just as the underlying spiritual life-force “includes” all the different and disparate physical components in the world. Although there are many different physical manifestations of the Godly life-force, the life-force itself is always the same. The prophet Zecharia, in fact, calls man a “מְהַלֵךְ/walker” because man goes from place to place, from activity to activity, in order to reveal God’s life-force.

David HaMelech is saying that each day he uses his intelligence to contemplate that even though he performs physical activities, there is a spiritual reality that underlies those activities. In the words of the pasuk, “… my feet return me to Your testimonies.” David HaMelech clarified, in his own mind and told others as well, that everything is from God, that there is more to the physical world than meets the eye.

The Midrash is teaching us that the way to reveal God’s life-force is by first contemplating this very idea before every action, by considering that the action that God’s life-force inheres in the action that I am about to do. This is using one’s intelligence to subordinate that very intelligence to something unseen and undetected.

This is what Chazal refer to as toil. This toil applies to every aspect of life. Applying it to learning Torah, it is a cycle of learning, not understanding, subordination, revelation, etc. May we merit toiling at learning Torah.

BeChukosai 5636 Second Ma'amar

“וָאוֹלֵךְ אֶתְכֶם קוֹמְמִיּוּת/I led you upright.” Rashi, quoting Chazal, explains that they left Egypt with an upright stance – בְּקוֹמָה זְקוּפָה. Walking erect connotes a sense of pride. In fact, Chazal explain further that we left Egypt walking uprightly and we were not afraid of anyone. Although the pasuk is referring to the Exodus, this is a forerunner of every future redemption.

This seems to contradict a different saying of Chazal, though, that in order to have proper awe of God, we may not walk upright because, as the prophet Yeshaya said, His glory fills the entire world. Walking with pride shows a lack of awe for God’s glory. How can we reconcile these two concepts? How can we walk uprightly, with a sense of pride when relating to the world but still feel God’s presence and be in awe of Him?

Chazal give us a clue in the previous pasuk, “וְהִתְהַלַּכְתִּי בְּתוֹכְכֶם/I will walk among you.” Chazal explain that in the future, God will walk among us (i.e. we will feel His presence) and yet, we will not tremble. Even though we will not tremble, Chazal tell us that we will still be in awe of God as the pasuk continues, “וְהָיִיתִי לָכֶם לֵא-לֹהִים/I will be your God.” We see that it is possible to feel God’s presence, be in awe of Him and yet not to tremble. In fact, in another place Chazal teach us that we were created this way. Chazal tell us that one of the ways in which we are comparable to angels is that we walk erect. In the ideal world, we should be able to be in awe of God and still walk uprightly. The Sfas Emes explains, however, that since nowadays we are not yet in the ideal world, because of the distractions of this world, the only way to have proper awe is by physically acting out complete subservience.

Chazal are promising us that there will come a time when we will be so completely rectified that we will be able to accept upon ourselves the yoke of heaven, feel God’s presence and be in awe of Him without the need to manifest this awe by physically showing total subservience (i.e. a bent posture.) God Himself testifies that we were on this level when we left Egypt – “I led you out with an upright stance.”

Behar 5632 First Ma'amar

The Zohar teaches that God used the Torah to create the world. The Zohar is teaching us that the Torah is much more than the physical scrolls that is its physical manifestation. The Torah is a powerful spiritual entity that Chazal metaphorically refer to as “fire.” Since God created the world through the Torah and keeps it in existence continually, it follows that God’s life-force permeates the entire Creation.

This life-force, though, is not apparent in the Creation. The Creation itself acts as a barrier that hides the Godly life-force. When we look around us, we see the physical world, not the spiritual life-force underlying it. Our mission, the Sfas Emes teaches us, is to search and find the light of the Torah in all things. How can we do this?

The Midrash in this week’s parsha teaches us through metaphors on the following pasuk in Mishlei, “מָוֶת וְחַיִּים בְּיַד־לָשׁוֹן .../The tongue (i.e. speech) has the power of death and life …” How does speech have the power of death and life? Speech represents the life-force within us because we use our breath to speak. Breath, the Torah tells us, is life, “וַיִּפַּח בְּאַפָּיו נִשְׁמַת חַיִּים/He blew the breath of life into his nostrils.”

The power of life and death, means the power to reveal or hide the Godliness that is within everything. The Midrash compares this to blowing or spitting on coal. When we blow on a coal, if flames up while spitting on it extinguishes it. The flame in the coal is a metaphor for the spiritual within the physical in this world. When we acknowledge the spiritual within us we can recognize the spiritual in everything. The spiritual within the physical is then revealed. In the words of the metaphor, “Blowing on the coal causes it to flame.”

If, however we do not recognize the spiritual within us, we cannot recognize the spiritual in the physical world around us. Again, in the words of the metaphor, “… spitting on the flame, extinguishes it.”

The Midrash also compares the power of life and death – the power to reveal or hide the Godliness within the physical world – to eating food that has been tithed or not tithed. Eating food before it has been tithed is death through the tongue. Eating food after it has been tithed is the power of life through the tongue.

The Sfas Emes explains the significance of this allegory. Tithing our food to fulfill God’s commandment is a way of expressing our belief that the food, and by extension everything, is from Him. The acknowledgement that the food is from God, reveals the Godliness inherent in the food. Food that is not tithed can be viewed as being wrapped in a shell preventing its spiritual life-force from being experienced.

May we merit acknowledging the Godliness within us and as a result the Godliness that permeates the entire world. Amen!

Behar 5636

At the end of parshas Behar we find, “כִּי־לִי בְנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל עֲבָדִים עֲבָדַי הֵם .../For the children of Israel are servants to me; they are my servants…” Why the repetition? The Sfas Emes explains that first God chooses the children of Israel. Then, the children of Israel choose God by accepting upon themselves the yoke of heaven. This idea is clearly the meaning of two p’sukim in parshas Ki Savo, “אֶת־ה' הֶאֶמַרְתָּ הַיּוֹם/Today you have made God unique.” In the next pasuk we find, “וַה' הֶאֱמִירְךָ הַיּוֹם/And God has made you unique today.”

The Sfas Emes teaches that there is a continuum of acceptance ranging from no acceptance at all to complete acceptance. He alone rules over us to the extent that we subordinate ourselves to Him. We find this concept earlier in this week’s parsha. The pasuk states, “כִּי־עֲבָדַי הֵם ... לֹא יִמָּכְרוּ מִמְכֶּרֶת עָבֶד/For they are my servants … they will not be sold like slaves.” These very same words, “עֲבָדַי הֵם/they are my servants” appear in the pasuk referred to earlier. This pasuk ends with a prohibition against selling a Jew on an auction block in the fashion that slaves are sold, “לֹא יִמָּכְרוּ מִמְכֶּרֶת עָבֶד/ they will not be sold like slaves.” The Sfas Emes teaches us that this prohibition is also a promise. To the extent that we subordinate ourselves to God, we will not be subject to the rule of others. We find this idea in Pirkei Avos as well, “Whoever accepts upon himself the yoke of Torah, the yoke of government is removed from him.” According to the Sfas Emes, this is not all or nothing, black or white. Rather, to the extent that we accept the yoke of Torah, the yoke of government is removed.