Chasidut sur Les Nombres 1:19
כַּאֲשֶׁ֛ר צִוָּ֥ה יְהוָ֖ה אֶת־מֹשֶׁ֑ה וַֽיִּפְקְדֵ֖ם בְּמִדְבַּ֥ר סִינָֽי׃ (פ)
ainsi que l’Éternel l’avait prescrit à Moïse. Leur dénombrement eut lieu dans le désert de Sinaï.
Kedushat Levi
Numbers 1,19. “In accordance with G’d’s instructions to Moses; he counted them in the desert of Sinai.”
We must take note that instead of the Torah first writing that Moses had carried out G’d’s command and had counted the people, and then adding that he had done so in accordance with G’d’s instructions, -which would have been the normal syntax,- the Torah first emphasized that Moses did exactly as instructed. Why did the Torah depart from its norm?
We must remember that when G’d gave the Torah to the Jewish people, the collective soul of the Jewish people was considered as the “body” of the Torah, seeing that the Jewish people comprised 600.000 souls equal to the number of letters in the Torah. Each Israelite may be viewed as representing one of the letters of the Torah. [This number, while based on the Zohar, does not correspond to the normal count which is only some 305.000. Ed.] According to the Zohar then, one may allegorically equate Torah and the Jewish people. We may therefore understand Moses’ having “counted” the Jewish people as another way of saying that he had taught the Jewish people the Torah. This has been alluded with the words כאשר צוה ה' את משה, meaning that Moses personally performed this count.
This also explains the Torah writing in Deuteronomy 2,49 “but do not count the members of the tribe of Levi amongst the Israelites;” when the Torah is equated with the Israelites it refers to the 12 tribes exclusive of the tribe of Levi. The Levites were counted על פי ה', by the command of Hashem (3,16).
We must take note that instead of the Torah first writing that Moses had carried out G’d’s command and had counted the people, and then adding that he had done so in accordance with G’d’s instructions, -which would have been the normal syntax,- the Torah first emphasized that Moses did exactly as instructed. Why did the Torah depart from its norm?
We must remember that when G’d gave the Torah to the Jewish people, the collective soul of the Jewish people was considered as the “body” of the Torah, seeing that the Jewish people comprised 600.000 souls equal to the number of letters in the Torah. Each Israelite may be viewed as representing one of the letters of the Torah. [This number, while based on the Zohar, does not correspond to the normal count which is only some 305.000. Ed.] According to the Zohar then, one may allegorically equate Torah and the Jewish people. We may therefore understand Moses’ having “counted” the Jewish people as another way of saying that he had taught the Jewish people the Torah. This has been alluded with the words כאשר צוה ה' את משה, meaning that Moses personally performed this count.
This also explains the Torah writing in Deuteronomy 2,49 “but do not count the members of the tribe of Levi amongst the Israelites;” when the Torah is equated with the Israelites it refers to the 12 tribes exclusive of the tribe of Levi. The Levites were counted על פי ה', by the command of Hashem (3,16).
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Flames of Faith
We have a fundamental nature to see what is essential and not what is secondary. If you shake the gloved hand of a friend, you would not characterize it as “touching Jake’s glove.” Rather you would describe the event as, “I shook Jake’s hand.” Since the glove pales in importance to the hand it covers. Similarly, the body is merely the clothing of the soul. It should pale in importance to the soul. Where there is a conflict between the will of the body (the nefesh ha-bahamis) and that of the soul (the nefesh Elokis), the needs of the soul should come first, and in truth when we think of ourselves we should immediately think of our essence, our soul and not the clothes, the body.132The gematria of the word ahavah, “love,” is 13, the same as for the word echad, “one.” Total love demands singular devotion. One can only truly fully love one spouse or ideal. If so, how did the Torah demand love for fellow Jews once we were already commanded to love God our Lord? If the heart is filled with love for God where will there be room for love of fellow men? The answer is that the Torah demands love to one subject, God. If one sees souls and not bodies, then one sees the Divine in others and that Divinity is what is beloved. If one loves someone he loves that person’s children who are extensions of the beloved. “You are children to God,” according to the Torah, therefore, love of God demands love for the Jewish soul that emerges from Him (Yismach Mosheh).
The gematria of the Biblical verse for love of fellow Jews, Ve-ahavta le-re’acha ka-mocha ani Hashem, equals the verse, Ve-ahavta es Hashem Elokecha, “Love the Lord your God,” for it is all one devotion. The Zohar teaches that God, Torah, and Israel are one. In truth, God clothed himself in the thoughts and words of Torah, and Jewish souls are pieces of the Divine as well; thus Torah, Israel and God are linked in an intrinsic manner, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev (1740-1810) explained a Scriptural ambiguity with this principle:
“As God commanded Moses, He counted them [the Jews] in the Sinai desert” (Num. 1:19): One can ask, it should have written, “He counted them in the Sinai desert as God commanded Moses”? Behold, God gave the Torah to the Jewish people, and the souls of Jews are the essence of the Torah, for there are 600,000 Jewish souls and 600,000 letters in the Torah scroll. In fact, the name Yisrael is an acronym for yesh shishim ribbo osiyos la-torah, “there are 600,000 letters to the Torah.” Therefore, Jews are the Torah, for each Jew is a different letter in the Torah. When Moses counted the Jews he was learning Torah. This is why the verse changed its usual formulation to hint, “As God commanded Moses He counted the people,” like the Torah that God commanded Moses was the [experience of] counting of the nation (Kedushas Levi, Parashas Bemidbar, s.v. ka-asher).
A classic Chasidic tale tells of Rabbi Moshe Leib Sassov’s devotional midnight prayers. (The Tikkun Chatzos prayers were instituted by the Kabbalists to be recited at midnight in mourning for the loss of the Temple in Jerusalem.) One wintry day Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Zhiditchover decided that he had to witness his teacher’s devotions, so he hid himself under R. Moshe Leib’s bed to observe how R. Moshe Leib recited Tikkun Chatzos.
Shortly before midnight R. Moshe Leib awoke and dressed in the clothes of a Ukrainian peasant and left his house; Rabbi Zvi Hirsch surreptitiously fol-lowed. He walked out into the forest and chopped down a tree, he then carried this tree to a small shack at the edge of the town. He entered the shack, and turning to the poor Jewish widow who was shivering in the cold, he offered to sell her the extra log that he had on his back. The widow related how cold she was but she could not afford to pay for timber. Rabbi Moshe Leib responded that she could pay him at some other time, “Just go to the village square and ask for Ivan the Ukrainian. They will get me, and you will then be able to pay.” While chopping the wood and warming the widow’s home, Rabbi Moshe Leib recited Tikkun Chatzos.
Rabbi Moshe Leib was a transcendent tzaddik. He saw Divinity everywhere. His act of connecting to a fellow Jew through charity was an act of connecting to a soul, to a piece of God. Prayer is also a process of attachment to the Divine. Rabbi Moshe Leib linked his attachment to God through words of Psalms with attachment to Divinity of helping souls, for in truth souls are a piece of the Divine as well. The tzaddik reaches this level; he only sees souls; all he sees is the nefesh Elokis—the Divine within others.133See further Mishbetzos Zahav, Shabbos Ha-Gadol 5753. The Stitchiner Rebbe explains there that Moses saw right through the external body, and always saw the spiritual, Heavenly soul when he interacted with others.
The gematria of the Biblical verse for love of fellow Jews, Ve-ahavta le-re’acha ka-mocha ani Hashem, equals the verse, Ve-ahavta es Hashem Elokecha, “Love the Lord your God,” for it is all one devotion. The Zohar teaches that God, Torah, and Israel are one. In truth, God clothed himself in the thoughts and words of Torah, and Jewish souls are pieces of the Divine as well; thus Torah, Israel and God are linked in an intrinsic manner, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev (1740-1810) explained a Scriptural ambiguity with this principle:
“As God commanded Moses, He counted them [the Jews] in the Sinai desert” (Num. 1:19): One can ask, it should have written, “He counted them in the Sinai desert as God commanded Moses”? Behold, God gave the Torah to the Jewish people, and the souls of Jews are the essence of the Torah, for there are 600,000 Jewish souls and 600,000 letters in the Torah scroll. In fact, the name Yisrael is an acronym for yesh shishim ribbo osiyos la-torah, “there are 600,000 letters to the Torah.” Therefore, Jews are the Torah, for each Jew is a different letter in the Torah. When Moses counted the Jews he was learning Torah. This is why the verse changed its usual formulation to hint, “As God commanded Moses He counted the people,” like the Torah that God commanded Moses was the [experience of] counting of the nation (Kedushas Levi, Parashas Bemidbar, s.v. ka-asher).
A classic Chasidic tale tells of Rabbi Moshe Leib Sassov’s devotional midnight prayers. (The Tikkun Chatzos prayers were instituted by the Kabbalists to be recited at midnight in mourning for the loss of the Temple in Jerusalem.) One wintry day Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Zhiditchover decided that he had to witness his teacher’s devotions, so he hid himself under R. Moshe Leib’s bed to observe how R. Moshe Leib recited Tikkun Chatzos.
Shortly before midnight R. Moshe Leib awoke and dressed in the clothes of a Ukrainian peasant and left his house; Rabbi Zvi Hirsch surreptitiously fol-lowed. He walked out into the forest and chopped down a tree, he then carried this tree to a small shack at the edge of the town. He entered the shack, and turning to the poor Jewish widow who was shivering in the cold, he offered to sell her the extra log that he had on his back. The widow related how cold she was but she could not afford to pay for timber. Rabbi Moshe Leib responded that she could pay him at some other time, “Just go to the village square and ask for Ivan the Ukrainian. They will get me, and you will then be able to pay.” While chopping the wood and warming the widow’s home, Rabbi Moshe Leib recited Tikkun Chatzos.
Rabbi Moshe Leib was a transcendent tzaddik. He saw Divinity everywhere. His act of connecting to a fellow Jew through charity was an act of connecting to a soul, to a piece of God. Prayer is also a process of attachment to the Divine. Rabbi Moshe Leib linked his attachment to God through words of Psalms with attachment to Divinity of helping souls, for in truth souls are a piece of the Divine as well. The tzaddik reaches this level; he only sees souls; all he sees is the nefesh Elokis—the Divine within others.133See further Mishbetzos Zahav, Shabbos Ha-Gadol 5753. The Stitchiner Rebbe explains there that Moses saw right through the external body, and always saw the spiritual, Heavenly soul when he interacted with others.
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