Chasidut zu Mischlej 8:37

With the beginning — with the Torah, which is called the beginning of his work (Prov. 8:22) — the Holy Blessed One created the world (Zohar 1:5a). We find that every thing was created by way of the Torah and the power of the actor is in that which is acted upon, in which case the power of the Torah is in each thing and in all the worlds, and also in the person as is written, This is the Torah: A person (Num. 19:14) as we will clarify. And the Torah and the Holy Blessed One are one (Zohar 1:24a), so we find in all things the life-force of the Holy Blessed One.

"These are the records of the Tabernacle, the Tabernacle of the Pact, etc." For it is known that Torah is the names of the Holy Blessed One. The Name of the The Blessed One is, "Was, Is, and Will Be - Eternal, Alive, Everlasting for Eternity." And Torah is also this. So what does it mean that this was the time that the Tabernacle was made and what does it teach us about the path today? The Torah should be read in order to teach us to way we should go. Surely at every time and season the Torah is clothed for the needs of that particular time and season. There are those who say: God created the world for the sake of the Torah which is called (Proverbs 8:22) “The beginning (ראשית) of His (God’s) way”, and for the sake of Israel who are called (Jeremiah 2:3) “The beginning (ראשית) of His (God’s) increase’." This is explained by way of a parable: A King who has wise children, capable of running the kingdom bring the King more satisfaction and joy than if he were to run the kingdom himself. We are the children of the Ever-Present, and this explains the phrase "No good comes to the world except through Israel." (Israel) makes a path to bring down the abundant flow to the lower realms. This is "Ascribe might to God, whose majesty is over Israel" (Psalm 68:35) Israel adds strength to the Entourage of Above, and the Angels do not sing praises above until Israel is singing them below. "When the morning stars sang together and all the divine beings shouted for joy" (Job 38:7). Israel is likened to the stars, and thus aroused all of the Heavenly beings there. This is the intention of the Creator that created all that is found because of Torah and because of Israel. The content of this intention of the Holy Blessed One was that each person of Israel would be a "Tabernacle" of the Holy Blessed One. As it is written (Exodus 25:8) "Make for me a Sanctuary and I will dwell within them. Within "it" is not written, rather, I will dwell within the children of Israel. "The Temple of the Lord, the temple of Lord are these. (Jeremiah 7:4). But isn't it impossible for a person to be a Tabernacle of Hashem while the Evil Inclination is within a person? "The couch is too short for stretching out" (Isaiah 28:20). )(Rabbi Yonatan) said: This bed is too short for two counterparts. (Yoma 9b) Thus it is said "Turn from evil" (Psalm 34:15) That a person should burn the evil from within him and thus it could be that Hashem Baruch Hu who is called, "The Lord is good to all" (Psalm 145:9) will reside inside of the person. This happens after a person fulfills "Turn from evil" and thus makes the repair that the "Good of the Lord" will be within you. “All the end-times have passed, and the matter [now] depends only on teshuvah” (Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 97b). And what is teshuvah? For when a person was in his mother’s belly, God’s “candle burned over his head, and he saw from one end of the world to the other… and they taught him the entire Torah” (Niddah 30b); for he was a dwelling-place [mishkan] for Blessed God, and this is [the meaning of] the candle that was over his head. But after he came out of his mother’s belly sin crouches at the door (Gen. 4:7), and an angel comes and slaps him on the mouth and makes him forget so that he will have free will, so he will have reward and punishment. And a person must do teshuvah to bring God back to him as at the beginning. And this is [the meaning of] Then the LORD your God will turn back to your captives (Deut. 30:3) – it does not say “return,” but rather “turn back to,” meaning that after the teshuvah Blessed God will return to dwell [lishkone] within the person. Now, the essence of teshuvah is abandoning sin with a full heart and regret. For what is written in the Books, that fasts correct sin, is because it is impossible for him truly to abandon the sin and truly regret until after he has afflicted himself; and then his uncircumcised heart will surrender and he will be able to regret and abandon the sin truly. And the root of the matter lies in the human’s being created by God’s Word. And he is called “engraving” on account of his being surely hewn in supernal holiness. Now, when a person sins he is made into a corpse; for on account of the sin, Blessed God’s life-force left him. But after verbal confession, along the lines of (incomplete)*

An additional reason why the holy Torah starts with the letter Beis, which the numerical value is two, is to teach that there are two Torahs, there is written and oral.

Furthermore, (Prov. 16:20 -- Rashi) one who gives heart to contemplate his words (to forge his way), will find good -- true advice how to guard one's self from any particular vice, through making sure to be safe from the vice which is close (in the set up of the book, and it thus revealed that they are associated) to, for they are neighbors to each other, and each one guards her friend, as (this is) explained subsequently in the introduction that I heard from his holy mouth. The importance of this book, there is no need to explain, to anyone honest, who desires truth, and longs with cherishing to grasp the ways of propriety, certainly he will find in it a repose for his soul. Fortunate is he who takes hold of it, then it will be good for him in this (world) and in the coming (world), because this entire book is founded on verses of the Bible (Torah, Prophets, Scriptures) and on the words of Our Sages OB”M, all of them cogent to the understanding and straight, for those who have found cognizance (Proverbs 8:9).

And behold, seven other cows etc. (Gen. 41:3), for the Evil Inclination comes to induce him to sin in the seven characteristics: to love the desire for money and other pleasures; to be in awe of punishment; to glorify himself; to triumph over his enemies; to praise himself; to be attached to all these things; and to take dominion for himself. And the cows swallowed etc. (cf. Gen. 41:4), for with all of the mitzvot he performs, he gives power to the Shell, God save us; and that is [the meaning of] swallowed, that is to say that the Shell swallows the Torah and the mitzvot. But no one would have known that they had eaten them etc. (Gen. 41:21), therefore when the person does teshuvah “His sins become good deeds” (Yoma 86b), meaning he extracts the good deeds that he performed from under the Shell’s hand. And Pharaoh awoke, and behold, it was a dream (Gen. 41:7), when a person awakes from a sleeping time and behold, it was a dream [halom], which suggests “He returned and healed [halim].” Based on this reason, we read the Torah portion in question on Hanukkah, because the Torah is advice as is written, I have advice [and sound wisdom; I am insight, I have strength] (Proverbs 8:14) – it advises a person how to serve God and to return to [God] (omitted)[*The notation נשמט ("omitted") appears in the Hebrew text in all editions.]. Therefore it is forbidden to use [the Hanukkah candles’] light, since a person can turn in no direction other than to God alone – not for the sake of this world and also not for the sake of the next world.

Going back to Rashi’s first commentary on the first word in the Torah, where he quoted ‎Rabbi Yitzchok saying that the reason that the Torah does not commence with the first verse in ‎Exodus chapter12, is that the Torah wanted to allude from the beginning by teaching the concept ‎כח מעשיו הגיד לעמו לתת להם נחלת גויים‎, “He revealed to His people His powerful works by giving ‎them the heritage of (other) nations.” (Psalms 111,6) This is important to know in the event that ‎the nations will dispute the Jewish people’s claim to the Land of Israel as being their heritage. As ‎the Creator and hence, owner, of the entire universe, G’d has the right to allocate parts of it to ‎whoever He chooses.
Expressed differently, since in the words of the introduction to the Zohar, page 5, (based ‎on Proverbs 8,30 (Torah speaking) “then I was with Him (G’d) as an artisan,” i.e. G’d ‎used the Torah and its letters as the tool with which to create the universe; it follows that every ‎part of the universe is imbued with some letter of the Torah.
Just as man is charged to perform the Torah’s commandments with the various limbs of his body, ‎‎(248), so earth is also charged with the task of performing “commandments” appropriate to its ‎composition. The expressions ‎פי הארץ‎, ”the earth’s mouth,” or ‎עין הארץ‎, “the earth’s eye,” are ‎more than just figures of speech. Each of our limbs exudes the living essence of the letter of the ‎Torah that corresponds to a specific commandment that limb is supposed to perform. Joshua was ‎able to conquer seven lands (of the Canaanites) because he understood what it was that enabled ‎each specific land to remain “alive.” Similarly, every city in those countries had been charged since ‎creation with performing certain duties vis a vis its Creator. Joshua’s knowledge of ‎these duties enabled him to “conquer” these towns and countries with a minimum of Jewish blood ‎being shed in the process.‎
According to the introduction of the Zohar page 5, there is no part of the physical ‎universe that does not in some way reflect the meaning of one of the letters in the Torah. If any of ‎these cities were to confront the invading Jewish armies by calling them “robbers,” Joshua was ‎able to remind them that the previous residents in these towns had only leased the land, but had ‎never owned it, as it is G’d’s property. What could be more natural than that the Jewish people, ‎who by definition serve their Creator by observing the commandments of the Torah, should now ‎make their home on this part of the earth. This is what the psalmist meant when he quoted G’d as ‎having revealed to His people the inherent strength of all His works, ‎כח מעשיו הגיד לעמו‎. Wish that ‎G’d were to grant each one of us the wisdom and the purity of heart to be conversant with the ‎specific commandment that is incumbent upon each limb in our body to perform.‎

Truly, from God’s perspective, natural governance is actually miraculous governance, in that God’s providence and governance extends to every detail of creation. The recognition of this governance is from man’s understanding, so that he sees only how the world runs according to nature. However, God relates to the man of perfect faith with individual providence. According to this, if one believes that all of creation runs miraculously, then hidden miracles will be revealed before him, for he views even nature’s law as miraculous. Whereas for a person who does not believe, the miracles will remain hidden. With this in mind, we can see that it was easy for Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa to pray, “May the One who makes the oil burn make the vinegar burn.” He saw how the natural phenomenon of the combustion of oil only happens due to God’s command, and for this reason his prayer was effective. Through faith, man can even arouse the supernal governance to reveal itself in this world. This is as the Zohar states,³⁸⁸I n the previous quote from Parshat Beshalach. that since Israel believed in God, they managed to awaken revealed miracles before the Egyptians. When a person witnesses such miracles, he then sees how two complete opposites can happen at once, as was explained previously. When man is confronted with the impossibility of the simultaneous occurrence of opposites, it is due to the concealment of nature. In fact, God established creation’s normative perception to be through natural governance. However, God fixed permanent faith within the innermost heart of Knesset Yisrael – the Community of Israel – so by means of this faith they may connect to God even above natural governance. This is as it is written in the Zohar (Tikkun 21, 57b): “He is her nurse (oman), and she is His faith (emunah).”³⁸⁹אומן, artist, is the same letters as אמונה, faith. This is explained in the Mei HaShiloach, Parshat Bereshit, on the passage in the Midrash Rabbah: Rabbi Hoshayah began and said (Mishlei, 8:30), “I was a nurse (amon) for him, and I was his delight every day.” Amon means a teacher, amon means covered, amon means hidden. There are those who say, amon means the capitol, amon means artist. According to Rav Mordechai Yosef, this Midrash tells of the development of man’s form from its very first root, hidden in God’s essence, until its revelation in a complete and mature state, signified by man’s ability to reproduce and bring forth a new generation. This process precisely follows the way God created the world. The world was initially hidden in God’s essence, and then emerged in a revealed form where the supernal light breaks forth in every new being. The Zohar says (Terumah, 170b), “This is why man finding a mate is as difficult as the splitting of the Red Sea.” Both cases entail the simultaneous occurrence of opposites.³⁹⁰In both cases the miraculous governance is happening within the natural order. All this occurs at the root of faith, for from God’s perspective, He is the “nurse” of creation, yet from the side of Knesset Yisrael, the matter depends upon faith. A nurse must provide for everything the child needs at all times. For the nurse, everything must be ready, even though the child, with his limited knowledge, does not really know what he will need. For this reason, he must always have faith that the nurse will provide him with whatever he will need. This kind of faith is the connection between the nurse and the infant. For the infant, it is a kind of connection above his ability to comprehend. In this way, we see that emunah in the heart can reach beyond man’s intellectual comprehension and awaken God’s will to open the supernal light, which is beyond time or any border in nature. This relates to the teaching that the redemption from Egypt happened before its proscribed time. God, so to speak, caused His power of redemption act, even though the Children of Israel were not yet ready, as it is written (Shir HaShirim 2:8), “The voice of my beloved! Behold, He comes, leaping over the mountains, skipping over the hills.”³⁹¹Meaning to say, the redemption “skipped” over the natural unfolding of events, which would have demanded the Jewish people to stay slaves in Egypt for two centuries more. The Zohar (Parshat Noah, 61b) also says that the redemption from Egypt happened before its time. So too, the wars fought by Israel in the days of Yehoshafat were also miraculously before their time. We find that the miracle in Egypt was brought about by a cry from the depth of the heart. The Zohar (Shemot, 20b) says that the when the Hebrew word “za’aka – cry” is used, it means that it is coming directly from the heart, as it says in Eicha (2:18), “Their hearts cried out to God.” Such cries are closer to God than prayers. Purely by means of emunah in the heart, as explained above, a person can come before God through the heart’s cries, even though he cannot offer any intelligible prayer. He cannot dress the sorrow of his heart in the letters and words of the prayer, as he cannot find the strength to pray. In this way he can wake up God’s highest will, solely through faith flowing from the depth of his heart. We find it written of Yehoshafat (Divrei HaYamim 2, 20:3), “And Yehoshafat was afraid, and he went to ask God, and called upon all the inhabitants of Yehuda to fast.” He said to God, “we have no power before this great multitude which has set upon us, we do not know what to do, our eyes are only upon You.” And indeed, he was answered by Yahaziel’s prophecy (ibid 20:15), “Do not be afraid of this great multitude, for this battle is not yours, but God’s. You shall not need to fight this battle. Stand still, and witness the salvation of God with you.” And after this, “Yehoshafat stood and said, Hear me, inhabitants of Yehuda and Jerusalem, Believe in Hashem your God. So shall you be established. Believe in His prophets and you shall prosper.” Here we see that the miracle happened due to a great overpowering of emunah. It was then that they saw above nature, as the story continues, “And the people of Yehuda went to the lookout over the desert and turned to the multitude of their enemies, and behold, their carcasses were falling to the ground and they had none to rescue them.” When man prepares faith in his heart, he can effect miracles through his service of God, for the power to make miracles comes from a great surge of service in the depths of the heart. This is as it is said in the Gemara (Megillah, 27a), “All of the wonders that Elisha accomplished, were done through prayer.”³⁹²Note that earlier, in chapter 13, the author said that it is forbidden to pray for miracles, inasmuch as prayer can only reach the dimension that we can grasp, whereas miracles originate from a higher place. Perhaps he means here that it was not the prayers themselves that produced the miracle, but the faith in G-d underlying the prayers; for faith, emunah, transcends the borders of our limited perception. Alternatively (as we will shortly see), Elisha’s prayers did not effect a total transformation of nature, since his perception of G-d was not as clear as that of Moshe or certain other prophets. Thus, G-d performed miracles for him through the nature order, and not above it.

And now, for the sake of our brothers and friends, who tremble at the word of God, seeking the Torah and loving its wisdom, I will now say, “Peace unto the lovers of God’s Torah!” Come, House of Yaakov, and you will walk in the light of God,⁴⁸¹Yeshayahu, 2:5. may God be with us as He was with our forefathers, He shall not forsake us and He shall not forget us.⁴⁸²Melachim 1, 8:57 He shall forever lead us by peaceful waters, our rest shall be in our very progression from strength to strength, to ascend the ladder fixed in the ground which rises to Heaven! As for our revilers, who ask why we bother to invest so much contemplation into the Torah until our strength is exhausted? Who claim that the simple explanations of the written and oral Torah is enough. To them, I will offer noble words⁴⁸³See Mishlei, 8:6. which draw the heart of man. Come and consider, see and behold! Taste and see that God is good⁴⁸⁴Tehillim, 34:9 to those who yearn for their souls to be restored by His perfect Torah.⁴⁸⁵See Tehillim, 19:8. Those who contemplate it in the depths of their hearts will see and understand that those who taste its depths will merit life. These are the things that man will do and through them he shall live for eternity. Do you not see now that the house of Yaakov is faithful and the house of Yosef is your provider?⁴⁸⁶Bereshit, 42:6. From the time the house was established, he has been faithful to sustain Israel with every word that comes out of the mouth of God upon which man lives.⁴⁸⁷“…he would make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but rather by all that comes forth from the mouth of G-d” (Devarim, 8:3). Interpreted in hasidic terms, this means that it is not physical sustenance that gives life, but the Divine essence within the food that enlivens. So, too, the author rails against those who neglect or deny the deeper meaning of the Torah, which is like being concerned only with the body and not the soul. On a more personal level, he seems to be attacking those who deny the validity of the unique (and controversial) interpretative approach of his grandfather, R. Mordechai Yosef of Izhbitz, and of his father, R. Yaakov. Those who reject it have “no portion in Yaakov and no inheritance in the house of Yosef.” This shall cast away those who say that they have no portion in Yaakov and no inheritance in the house of Yosef. Their ways are crooked⁴⁸⁸Mishlei, 2:15 and they pervert the explanations of the Torah, hanging their misunderstandings like a lyre, preaching all of their logic which has no basis in God’s Torah, not in the words of the Tanaaim and Amoraim of the oral law, and all that they imagine they hang on a great tree⁴⁸⁹That is, claim that they can based their false interpretation on valid, earlier sources. Here, too, the author may be critiquing those who claim that Maimonides was a rationalist, who did not deal with the secrets of the Torah. The author proved that claim wrong in the first half of this work. asserting, “This is the meaning of the Torah.” For these, the House of Yaakov will be a fire and the House of Yosef like a flame!⁴⁹⁰Ovadia, 1:18. They will see and learn. They will see how to reveal the Torah of God from the plain meaning of the words, for are not His words like fire,⁴⁹¹Yirmiyahu, 23:29. and all who desire its light with truth and faith can come and warm themselves? And likewise, as a flame it will burn all those who learn Torah in order to vex the scholars of the mysteries, and who wear it as a crown and wield it as an axe.⁴⁹²See the Talmud, Pirke Avot, 4:5 And now, House of Yaakov, walk in the light of God and come home. See and understand that all the words of the Torah written in this book are needed for every man of Israel, in every place and every time. And how all of the events recorded in the Torah can illuminate every soul and instruct him how to sustain his life and all that he goes through with justice.⁴⁹³Tehillim 112:5. For the words of the Torah are living and enduring for all eternity. All who contemplate the Torah grasp onto the tree of life, and it is life for those who hold onto it.⁴⁹⁴Mishlei, 3:18. May God illuminate our eyes to His Torah, and place His love and fear in our hearts, in order to do His will, and to serve Him with a whole heart.⁴⁹⁵From the liturgy of the morning prayer, in the blessing before the reading of the Shema Yisrael.

Exodus 15,8.“at the blast of Your nostrils ‎the waters piled up;” Onkelos translated the ‎words ‎נערמו מים‎ as: “the waters acted intelligently.” This ‎may be understood with the help of Proverbs 8,12: ‎אני ‏חכמה שכנתי ערמה‎, “I, wisdom, live with prudence;” we have ‎discussed that if a person wishes to gain an ‎understanding of the superior nature of G’d, he must ‎first of all divest himself of all the materialistic ‎‎“garments” that are part of his daily outfits. This is the ‎first step in approaching the degree of awe and ‎reverence. Having reached that degree, he may ‎consider himself as possessing some ‎חכמה‎, wisdom. ‎This is also the meaning of Job 28,28: ‎הן יראת אד-ני היא ‏חכמה‎ ‎וסור מרע בינה‎, ”See fear of the Lord is wisdom ; to ‎shun evil is understanding.” The root of the word ‎נערמו‎ ‎in the verse quoted at the beginning of this paragraph ‎is ‎ערום‎,” intelligent, smart, as in Genesis 3,1 where the ‎serpent is described as the smartest of all the ‎creatures of the field. The sea possessed awe and ‎reverence for G’d, being eager to fulfill the will of the ‎Creator; this is what Onkelos wished to convey when he ‎translated the “sea” as being intelligent, smart. ‎‎[Possibly, as opposed to the earth, which had ‎buried the blood of Hevel, thereby hiding a monstrous ‎sin by Kayin. Ed.]‎