Musar for Deuteronomy 4:36

There is a general concensus among our sages that the Torah was given to the Jewish people on the Sabbath. Torah originated in Heaven, (i.e. the domain of תפארת,) the domain in which the concept of Israel is at home. This domain radiates spiritual values in all six directions. Moses told the Israelites in Deut. 4,36: מן השמים השמיעך את קולו ליסרך, ועל הארץ הראך את אשו הגדולה, ודבריו שמעת מתוך האש. "G–d made you hear His voice from Heaven in order to discipline you, and on the earth He showed you His great fire, and you heard His words out of the fire." The "earth" referred to here is the emanation מלכות. G–d told us that the emanations from תפארת up to and including the emanation מלכות, i.e. 7 emanations, were part of the revelation at Mount Sinai. These are the seven קולות, voices, that David refers to in Psalm 29 which we recite every Friday evening when ushering in the Sabbath. They are also an allusion to the tradition that this universe will continue for 6,000 years before it will experience a metamorphosis of 1,000 years after which the עולם הבא will be ushered in. The 1,000-year interval symbolises the concept of the Sabbath. We have discussed the dimension of "Time" on pages 208-209. When calculating the number of Sabbath days in the 6,000 years and adding the fact that the 1,000-year interval before the advent of עולם הבא is composed only of Sabbath days we get a total of 600,000 Sabbath days, or the same number as the number of the Jewish souls which experienced the Revelation and the building of the Tabernacle. This number also equals the number of letters the Torah is made up of.

G–d informed the Israelites of the fact that His Ineffable Name represents His Essence. They heard His voice via היכלו, His Sanctuary, which is a description of the name א-ד-נ-י. [G–d's Sanctuary or palace, in this case the fire on Mount Sinai, must be perceived of as a "shell" which protects the listener or viewer from being burned by G–d's Essence. Ed.] This "name" or fire, [the אש דת Ed.] is maintained by performance of the 613 commandments on Israel's part. This is what G–d alluded to when He said: זה שמי וזה זכרי. The Zohar has already pointed out that when you pair the word שמי with half the Ineffable name י-ה, you obtain the number 365, i.e. the number of negative commandments in the Torah, whereas when you pair the word זכרי with the other half of the Ineffable name i.e. ו-ה, you obtain the number 248, the number of positive commandments in the Torah. In order to emphasize the division we have outlined further, the Torah (Deut. 4,36) describes the episode of the revelation at Mount Sinai in the following words: מן השמים השמיעך את קולו … ועל הארץ הראך את אשו הגדולה, "From the Heaven He let you hear, etc.,on Earth He showed you His fire." It was because G–d wanted to acquaint Israel with the meaning of His Ineffable Name, that He commenced the Decalogue with the words: אנכי י-ה-ו-ה אלוקיך, and concluded the statement with: אשר הוצאתיך מארץ מצרים. I have already explained on previous occasions that the miracles G–d performed in Egypt had as their objective to bring home to Israel the idea that the Ineffable Name stands for the G–d who was, is, and will be; who is able to renew the world-order at will, and who once before created the whole universe out of nothing. He is the absolute Master, and assigns what He chooses to whom He chooses. This was never more clearly demonstrated than when G–d dealt a fatal blow to the שר של מצרים, the most powerful force in the universe next to Him.

To come back to the statement that all the souls are the root of Torah. There are two תורות. One Torah which was revealed to us from the "two-faced" region (emanation) of תפארת and מלכות, is both the written and the oral Torah. We find an allusion to these two תורות in Deut. 4,36: מן השמים השמיעך את קלו ליסרך ועל הארץ הראך את אשו הגדולה ודבריו שמעת מתוך האש, "From the heavens He let you hear His voice to discipline you; on earth He let you see His great fire; and from amidst the fire you heard His words." Heaven and Earth in this verse are the reference to the "two faces" of Torah [the written and the oral]. There exists, however, an "earlier" Torah which our sages alluded to when they told us that Torah had been created two thousand years prior to Creation. This Torah was "hidden" together with the original light. Kabbalists have explained that each emanation, ספירה, is equated with the number one thousand, [based on multiplying ten by ten by ten, at which point we return to the original number 1, i.e. אלף, representing G–d's unity, seeing that the letter אלף is identical with the word for one thousand, i.e. Eleph. Ed.] Construction of the material world began with the emanation חסד, in descending order. This is the reason why our sages always say עולם חסד יבנה, "the universe is built on חסד.” (Psalms 89,3) If this is so, we understand the two thousand (years) that the "higher" Torah preceded our universe as referring to the emanations חכמה and בינה which preceded the emanation of חסד [in the process of צמצום, the self-imposed limitations, which the Essence of G–d, אין סוף, imposed upon Himself in order to create the universe and for His creations in that universe to be able to relate to Him Ed.].

This is the allusion contained in the words: על הארץ הראך אשו הגדולה, "On the earth He showed you His great fire" (4,36). The Torah (which was given surrounded by a great fire) is best fulfilled by those who humble themselves to be like the earth. "The Mountain was burning right up to the heart, לב, of the heavens." Moses ascended and merited receiving the לב, i.e. the 32 paths of wisdom, the entire Torah. In this way he perfected the erstwhile personality of הבל i.e. ה+לב.