תורה 142

Someone who cannot study Torah at all—for example, he is either unlearned or has no holy book or is in a wilderness—but his heart is alight within him and he greatly longs to study Torah and serve God; in such a case, his heart’s desire to study Torah is itself an aspect of learning from a holy book.

For there are two tzaddikim in the world. They speak to each other, though they are separated from one another by many hundreds of miles. That is, one tzaddik raises some difficult question in the Torah and the second tzaddik, there, where he is, says something which is an answer to the difficulty raised by the first tzaddik. And sometimes, this one raises a question and the other one also raises a question. But the question one raises is an answer to his friend’s question. In this way they are conversing with each other, yet no one hears this, just the Holy One Himself.

This is the meaning of: {“Then those who fear God conversed one with his fellow, and God hearkened and heard it; and a book of remembrance was written before Him, for those who fear God and contemplate His name” (Malachi 3:16) .} Then those who fear God conversed one with his fellow—That is, they do not speak to one another, but they in any case converse by virtue of one raising a difficulty and the other providing an answer. Yet, no creature hears this, just the Holy One.

And thus: God hearkened and heard it—For only God hears it. He attaches the words one to the other and ‘writes them into a book as a remembrance’ (cf. Exodus 7:14). This is, and a book of remembrance was written .

Now, this book into which their words are written is an aspect of the heart that exists Above. Their words are inscribed there, as in (Proverbs 3:3), “Inscribe them on the tablet of your heart.” So one whose heart is aflame within him and he yearns to study Torah, only it is impossible for him—he receives heart from the heart of Above, corresponding to a “book of remembrance,” and from there his heart receives its yearning. This is the aspect of studying Torah from a holy book, literally.

Thus, it is written: and a book of remembrance was written before Him, for those who fear God and contemplate His name—As our Sages expounded: Even if he thought about performing a mitzvah but through no fault of his own was unable to do it, he is credited as if he had done it (Berakhot 6a). For this itself that his heart longs and contemplates to do, but he cannot, is considered doing. This is because he receives yearning from the heart of Above/the “book of remembrance.”

This is the meaning of, “and a book of remembrance was written before Him, for those who fear God and contemplate His name.” In other words, this “book of remembrance,” made by the two tzaddikim mentioned above, is for “those who fear God and contemplate His name.” They are the ones who desire and yearn to perform mitzvot and study Torah but encounter obstacles and are under duress and cannot study. Because of the strong yearning of their hearts, they receive from this book, which is an aspect of heart.

Therefore, Avraham, who was the first convert—and thus had no one from whom to learn, but only a heart that greatly yearned for the service of God—also received from this heart of Above, which is called a “book of remembrance.” At that time there were no tzaddikim in the world, and the insights which the souls had originated prior to Creation were written on the heart.

This is why our patriarch Avraham was called “the rock.” As it is written (Isaiah 51:1), “Look to the rock whence you were hewn”—this is Avraham, as Rashi explains there. He was an aspect of “the rock of my heart” (Psalms 73:26), because all he had was a heart that yearned for God.

Therefore, all converts are named after him; they are called “the N’ DiVei (nobles of) the nations… the nation of the God of Avraham” (ibid. 47:10), corresponding to “a N’DiV (generous) heart” (Exodus 35:22). For they have nothing but the longing of their hearts for the Holy One, like Avraham.