קונטרס אחרון

“David! Do you call them songs!”1When David brought the Ark back from the Philistine captivity (II Samuel 6; I Chronicles 13) it was borne in a wagon. David had forgotten the verse. “The sacred service is theirs; on the shoulder shall they bear it” (Numbers 7:9). This forgetfulness was a rebuke for David’s declaring, “Your statutes have been my songs in the house of my wanderings” (Psalms 119:54). This derogation of Torah is the theme of this essay. The opening quotation of this essay is taken from Sotah 35a. Other Chabad references include Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 18a ff., Derech Mitzvotecha 40b ff., and Sefer Hamaamarim 5702, p. 36. In Zohar we find, “The praise of Torah and its song.” We must understand what is the praise of G–d in forbidding or permitting an object.

A similar concept is implicit in “How great are Your works, O G–d, Your thoughts are very deep.”2Psalms 92:10.

It is known that all worlds,3All stages of existence, from the purest spiritual being to the grossly mundane, are called “Worlds” in Kabbalah and Chasidic usage. See Addendum: Glossary to Likkutei Amarim, Part I; Introduction to Likkutei Amarim, Part II. See also Iggeret Hateshuvah, ch. 1, note 3; above, Essay 1, note 3; Translator’s Explanatory Notes to On Learning Chassidus, et al. the exalted and the lowly, are dependent on the precise and meticulous performance of a single mitzvah. For example, if the altar offering was valid then the supernal union4Addendum, Glossary on Yichud defines and lists references. The transcendent and immanent, distinct in the mundane world, are united through the mitzvot. See below, note 7. is effected, and all worlds are elevated to receive their life-force5The covenant with Noah (Genesis 9:16 and 8:22) assured the simple existence of Creation and the dependability of natural processes quite apart from merit. Chasidut interprets the blessings (Leviticus 26:3, Deuteronomy 11:13) conditional on conduct, as referring to supplemental spiritual beneficence—through fulfillment of G–d’s wishes even This World is “illumined” with the radiance of the Infinite. Zohar (II:239a; III:26b) describes the “mystery of the offering” as “rising to the mystery of the Infinite.” All Creation is “elevated” through the proper sacrificial offerings, and the Consonant Divine response of increased Light of the Infinite into finite Creation ensues. Each mitzvah elicits the relevant response. The example of donning tefillin, presented in the forthcoming text, calls forth a revelation of the Divine intellect, and likewise with other mitzvot. and sustenance.

However, if there is an aberration, if the celebrant received the blood of the offering in his left hand, say, or not in the appropriate vessel, or if some foreign body separates the vessel and the blood it contains, then all the elevations of the world are nullified, as is their life-force and sustenance from the Source of Life, the En Sof,6As a result, their continued existence, their life-force, their vivifying power, would emanate from a plane inferior to the ultimate Source of Life, the En Sof (Infinite). In this case, the presence of Creator is concealed behind the facade of nature. blessed is He.

So, too, through valid tefillin there is revealed the supernal intellect of zun,7Z’char v’nukva, masculine and feminine, indicating unity. The mission of man in this universe of the concealment of G–d is to make His presence evident by living according to His commands and utilizing the physical world for the Divine purpose. Each of the names applied to G–d describes a particular aspect of G–d. One name describes His transcendence, G–d before Whom all Creation is naught. Another name indicates power, the creative and sustaining force, G–d Whose hand may be detected in His works. The theme of yichud, unity, recurrent in Kabbalah and Chasidut, is the union of both aspects, that transcendence become immanent, that Creation cease to conceal Him. This unity is effected on different planes, depending on the act which produces that union. Self-immolation, latent or actual, effects one sort of union; Torah study and mitzvah observance causes another. The union called zu’n (noted in our text) is of the latter order. The “Supreme Intellect” in the text refers to the first steps of the revelation of G–d culminating in Creation. In its external aspects, the union of the powers of Intellect is constant, for it is the source of Creation, bringing “something” from “nothing.” A more profound revelation of G–d, a union more than external, is dependent on man’s efforts, as in note 5, above. Man’s neglect of mitzvot, as the paragraph continues, results in obscuring a particular revelation that should have been manifest. the source of life for all worlds. Through the omission of one required detail they are invalidated, and the intellect departs. This applies as well to the requirements of the prohibitions.

The meditation then may take these lines: Consider “How great are the works” of G–d in the multiplicity of worlds and all their hosts. All of these are literally null when compared to one detail of Torah specification, for Torah requirements are the profundity of the supreme thought and His wisdom,8See Likkutei Amarim, Part I, ch. 4, etc., for a discussion of the origin of Torah. blessed be He. Through one minor specification all worlds ascend9I.e., their physical nature is refined, their concealment of the spirit is less pronounced. and receive their life-force and sustenance, or the opposite, G–d forbid. From this we may ponder the magnitude of the profundity of His thoughts, blessed be He, that is boundless and endless, and infinitely transcends the vitality of all Creation. The vivifying power of all worlds issues from a minor requirement of it (G–d’s thought), for each specification is drawn from its source, namely the depth of His thought, blessed be He. Analogously, man’s hair issues from his brain,10The brain is the instrument of man’s supreme faculty. “Hair,” insensitive to pain, is symbolic of man’s lowest faculty, the least evidently living aspect of man. The physical proximity of the two extremes and their qualitative distance is the point made here. All of Creation, in all its impressiveness and magnitude and complexity, issues from a minor detail of Torah and is comparable to Torah roughly as a hair is comparable to the brain. as is known from Tikkunim and Idra Rabbah.

This was the delight of King David, may he rest in peace, as he sang to gladden his heart in his Torah study during his time of trouble.

However, his extolling the praise of Torah with this quality, saying, “…have been my songs…” caused his punishment. G–d reproved him saying, “Do you call them songs!” For indeed, this quality—that all worlds are nothingness compared to one detail of it—is of the hinderpart11Indicative of the external aspect, the secondary, as opposed to the “front” or inward, internal aspect, closer to the essential reality. of the profound thought. This is explained elsewhere in the name of the Arizal,12Rabbi Yitzchak Luria Ashkenazi, of blessed memory (1534-1572). on the passage, “The Torah is an attenuated form13Lit., “withered” (see Isaiah 34:4), or “things that fall” (see comment. by Maharzu to Bereishit Rabbah 17:5). A withered plant is an attenuated or weaker form of a healthy plant. Similarly, the Torah is a weaker manifestation of supreme chochmah, but not chochmah as it is itself. of the supernal chochmah.”14Bereishit Rabbah 17:5; 44:17. The Midrash describes several parallels, microcosms to their original: dream to prophecy, Shabbat to the Coming World, the sun to the Light Above, and Torah to the supreme wisdom.

However, the internal aspect of the depth, which is the inner15See On the Teachings of Chassidus, beginning. aspect of Torah—pnimiyut haTorah—is totally united with the Light of the En Sof, blessed is He, that is clothed within Torah. The unity is a perfect one.8 In terms of the En Sof, blessed is He, all Worlds are as absolute naught,16Zohar I:11b. sheer nothingness, nonexistent. For, “You are the same, before the world was created….”17Yalkut Shimoni 836; Liturgy, Morning Prayer.

Hence, the internal aspect of Torah too is not to be lauded as being the vivifying force of all Worlds, for they are reckoned as nothingness itself.

In this inward aspect of Torah there can be no mortal joy and delight, but rather, in a manner of speaking, the heart’s joy and pleasure of the King, the Holy One, blessed is He, Who delights in it. For “G–d understands its way,”18Cf. Job 28:23. and knows its station and quality, through His self-knowledge,19Maimonides, Hilchot Yesodei HaTorah 2:10. as it were.

This, however, is concealed from the mortal eye, as, “My face cannot be seen”20Exodus 33:23. Panai, “My face,” also implies pnimiyut, inwardness. I.e, G–d’s inwardness (the inner part of G–d) cannot be seen, just as His “face” cannot be seen.—i.e., the inwardness, as explained there in the name of the Arizal.

Hence the verse, “I was a pleasure to Him,”21Proverbs 8:30. The verse lauds Wisdom, or Torah, as a delight, but in two contexts. In v. 30 it is G–d’s pristine delight; in v. 31 it is man’s delight, world’s delight. Rabbi Schneur Zalman’s thesis is that the first is G–d’s exclusively, for it is totally beyond man’s ken; mortals can have no comprehension or appreciation of this basic character of Torah. Man’s province is the second, as Torah is expressed in terms of the physical world—study and mitzvot. Even this “inferior” aspect of Torah infinitely transcends “world,” yet is in turn incomparably inferior to what Torah truly is. David lauds Torah in this second aspect, but it is only the “hinderpart” of Torah, and in reality he demeans rather than exalts it. to Him specifically. “Playing before Him,” before Him specifically, meaning the inwardness. “I was reared with Him,” and (the Midrash comments)—“Do not read amon (reared) but uman (craft)….”22Tanchuma, Bereishit, beginning.

In reference to the hinderpart it says, “Playing in the world, His land, and my delights are with mortal men.”23Proverbs 8:31. For the Torah is given in states of inwardness and hinderpart, as written in the “flying scroll” of Zechariah, “And it was written front and back.”24Ezekiel 2:10. The “flying scroll” is found in Zechariah 5:2. Commentators explain that the scrolls are one and the same.

Since David seized upon the hinderpart he was punished with forgetfulness, a product of the state of the hinderpart. Momentarily he was oblivious to the verse, “The sacred service is theirs; on the shoulder shall they carry.”25Numbers 7:9. The purpose is to combine the “shoulder,” the hinderpart, with the sacred service, the supreme wisdom,26The initial, highest revelation. in a manner of inwardness.27A thoroughgoing unity, pervasive and penetrating, not superficial or external. This state is the source of the tablets in the Ark, as we find, “Written on both their sides….”28Exodus 32:15. The Jerusalem Talmud, Shekalim, explains that they did not have any front and back; study that reference.296:1.