ספר בראשית

When the Torah writes at the beginning of chapter 15 that ‎היה דבר ה' אל אברם במחזה לאמור‎, “the word of Hashem came to ‎Avram in a ‘vision,’ proceeding to say, etc.;“ we understand ‎this as a manifestation of G’d’s word to Avram by a vision ‎screened by a veil while he was engaged in serving G’d by the ‎performance of mitzvot with various parts of his body.‎At that point G’d told Avram not to be afraid, ‎אל תירא אברם‎, ‎as he would continue to act as his shield, ‎אנכי מגן לך‎. G’d ‎reassured Avram that the fact that he was now serving Him by ‎performing ‎מצות‎, i.e. under the auspices of the ‎יש‎ instead of the ‎auspices of the ‎אין‎, that this was not a lowering of the standards ‎that he was used to, but that on the contrary, he was in line for ‎a great reward, ‎שכרך הרבה מאד‎. As long as the Torah had not yet been given, fulfilling the ‎‎“commandments” while in Eretz Yisrael was quite different ‎from nowadays when the Torah has been given, and fulfilling the ‎parts of it that are capable of being fulfilled in the Diaspora, is ‎deserving of recognition. When Avram served G’d outside the ‎land of Israel, concentrating on the aspect known as ‎מסירת נפש‎, ‎wholehearted physical and mental devotion to the Lord, he ‎thereby “repaired” the reputation of G’d amongst mankind, ‎which had sustained considerable damage due to the sins of ‎mankind which had apparently been ignored by the Creator, thus ‎giving the impression that He either did not care or was unable to ‎deal with.Tanchuma 8 on Parshat Chukat, relates in ‎the name of Rabbi Yossi bar Chaninah, that at the time when ‎Moses ascended to the celestial regions He found G’d preoccupied ‎with the details of the rules pertaining to the red heifer. He ‎overheard G’d saying that the correct ruling concerning the age ‎of the red heifer when it is to be burnt is according to “my son ‎Rabbi Eliezer,” i.e. when it is one year old. Anyone reading this ‎‎Midrash must surely ask how G’d had been able to say ‎something like that, seeing that Rabbi Eliezer was born more than ‎‎1000 years after Moses died. We have a tradition that man is not ‎programmed, can make his own decisions, so that it is impossible ‎to foretell who will say what tomorrow, never mind 1000 years ‎hence?In answering this justified question, we must consider ‎that the domain we called ‎אין‎, the totally spiritual domains of the ‎universe, included within it all the aspects of wisdom as ‎something potential. While this potential had not yet assumed ‎definitive proportions until someone possessed of both body and ‎soul was able to formulate it, its very existence in “embryonic” ‎form, so to speak, makes it possible for a human being when the ‎time comes to draw upon this “wisdom” and make use of it in the ‎material world of the ‎יש‎. The example of the “red heifer” ‎discussed in the Tanchuma is merely an illustration of the ‎principle that nothing “new” or “original” is produced in the ‎realm of the physical world, the world known as the ‎יש‎ in ‎‎kabbalistic parlance, or “olam hazeh”, in what we are ‎used to refer to when speaking of what goes on the planet we live ‎on. The acquisition of such ‎חכמה‎, wisdom, as is necessary to arrive ‎at the conclusion that the red heifer must be two years old when ‎it is to be burnt, is largely a matter of the will of the individual ‎grappling with this halachic problem. The “freedom of ‎choice,” as we call it, means that we are free to decide if we want ‎to make the effort to acquire such wisdom or not. It is not ‎withheld from anyone who truly labours to acquire it by willing it ‎with all his being. While he was in the celestial regions, Moses ‎heard that there would in due course be a scholar by the name of ‎Rabbi Eliezer who would have attained that particular piece of ‎wisdom enabling him to correctly rule on the problem that was ‎under discussion in the heavenly spheres at that time. ‎Ed.]G’d has two options when dealing with man’s aspirations. ‎He can either decide to grant man’s request in accordance with that ‎person’s expressed wish, or He can decide to be guided by what ‎the overall situation in His universe requires for its good at the time, ‎‎[as frequently, if not most of the time, the desires of an individual ‎do not correspond to, or coincide with what is in the best interests ‎of the world as seen by its Creator.‎‎