Chasidut sur Les Nombres 1:55
Noam Elimelech
Raise the head of the children of Gershon, them too, etc - we have to explain for praise the reason why sometimes it is written "according to their families" before "according to their ancestral houses" and vice-versa. This is according to the verse "raise the head of the [all the congregation of the] children of Israel [according to their skulls] legulgelotam and according to their families etc (Numbers 1:2). The tzaddik elevates the entire world and raises them through the tzaddik's clinging and holiness, and through this the tzaddik brings them close to the service of the Holy Blessed Creator, and this is called "raising the head"and therefore the Name commanded that the raising of the head be in accordance to the reincarnations [gilgulim], since the tzaddik that knows the reincarnation of the souls is able to know which individual has a holy soul, or from which world was the individual's soul taken, and Moshe and Aharon were in a such a level, and they knew the reincarnation of souls, therefore the Holy Blessed Name commanded them "raise the head of the children of Israel according to their skulls", meaning, according to the reincarnation of the souls you shall elevate them towards Above, however, the simple folk among the humans whose souls are not in such high level, they too need elevation and raising of the head, and why should they be lessened, and through what can they be raised since they are below? For that, the tzaddik needs to bind them to their holy ancestors that are included in the general [frame] of Israel, and then they can be raised through the ancestors, and this is why sometimes it is written "according to their ancestral houses" before "according to their families", due to the fact that one needs to bind them to their ancestors first, so as to raise them among the rest of the families of Israel, and regarding those who are tzaddikim whose souls come from the Upper Worlds it is switched, that one raises them according to the order of low to high, beginning with their families and afterwards their ancestor houses, to bind them with the level of their ancestors, that too, and if you think about this, it will become clear to you.
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Kedushat Levi
Numbers 1,2. “take a census of the whole community of the Children of Israel by their families according to their ancestral houses, etc;” Deuteronomy 1,18. “and on the first day of the second month they convoked the whole community who were registered by families and their ancestral houses;”
According to Rashi the word ויתילדו means that each male brought a document confirming his birth date and the name of his father.
Personally, I am inclined to accept the word ויתילדו at face value, a word derived from לידה, “birth,” and that the Torah emphasizes the difference between how gentiles identify themselves and how Israelites identify themselves. Gentiles identify themselves only according to their mothers, as one can never be certain who the father is, seeing that gentiles do not observe the rules of marital fidelity, and even when they do, they engage in extra marital relationships that produce children. The Torah’s emphasis on the Israelites being able to identify themselves according to their “families” as meaning according to their “father’s houses,” is one of the greatest compliments the Torah could pay the Jewish people. The very commandment to arrange a census being addressed to the “heads” of the Children of Israel, i.e. their male family heads, shows that after having constructed G’d’s residence on earth, the Tabernacle, they were now allowed to conduct the census based on paternity rather than on maternity.
According to Rashi the word ויתילדו means that each male brought a document confirming his birth date and the name of his father.
Personally, I am inclined to accept the word ויתילדו at face value, a word derived from לידה, “birth,” and that the Torah emphasizes the difference between how gentiles identify themselves and how Israelites identify themselves. Gentiles identify themselves only according to their mothers, as one can never be certain who the father is, seeing that gentiles do not observe the rules of marital fidelity, and even when they do, they engage in extra marital relationships that produce children. The Torah’s emphasis on the Israelites being able to identify themselves according to their “families” as meaning according to their “father’s houses,” is one of the greatest compliments the Torah could pay the Jewish people. The very commandment to arrange a census being addressed to the “heads” of the Children of Israel, i.e. their male family heads, shows that after having constructed G’d’s residence on earth, the Tabernacle, they were now allowed to conduct the census based on paternity rather than on maternity.
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Kedushat Levi
Deuteronomy 1,1. “These are the words which Moses spoke to the entire people of Israel in the desert, facing the wilderness near Suph between Paran and between Tophel and Lavan.”
It seems reasonable to see in the word ערבה, wilderness, a reference to the first time the word ערב appears in the story of Creation (Genesis 1,5) where the meaning is “evening,” a transition from day to night. At the time of the creation the evening preceded the first morning, as before the creation of light the universe had been in darkness, as we read there in verse 2, and as the Talmud points out in the beginning of tractate B’rachot, when discussing the times for reciting the keriyat sh’ma. If we take our cue from that paragraph in the Torah, the early years of our lives would be described as ערב. Having this in mind, the Torah, i.e. Moses, alludes here to the need for every human being from his earliest youth to focus all of his activities on the aspect of G’d familiar to us by the name Shechinah, “G’d’s Presence.”
The deeper meaning behind the words: בין פארן, is that this is the site on earth from which the ability for living creatures on earth to become fruitful and to multiply is derived. As to the words: ובין תפל, we follow Rashi, who quotes Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai who claims that no one has ever been able to find these two locations. He therefore concluded that these names are similes, used by Moses to rebuke the Israelites who had spoken derisively of the manna (Numbers 1,7), which was white, לבן. The word תפל, [possibly as root of: תפלה “prayer”. Ed.], according to Rashi, is another word for “speech” (presumably Israel’s accepting the Torah with the words נעשה ונשמע, “we shall do and we shall listen (to instruction).” Moses’ address teaching the Israelites to make G’d their focus at all times, and to observe these covenants meticulously, covers the period between the covenant of circumcision made with Avraham and that of the Ten Commandments made with the assembled Jewish nation at Mount Sinai.
It seems reasonable to see in the word ערבה, wilderness, a reference to the first time the word ערב appears in the story of Creation (Genesis 1,5) where the meaning is “evening,” a transition from day to night. At the time of the creation the evening preceded the first morning, as before the creation of light the universe had been in darkness, as we read there in verse 2, and as the Talmud points out in the beginning of tractate B’rachot, when discussing the times for reciting the keriyat sh’ma. If we take our cue from that paragraph in the Torah, the early years of our lives would be described as ערב. Having this in mind, the Torah, i.e. Moses, alludes here to the need for every human being from his earliest youth to focus all of his activities on the aspect of G’d familiar to us by the name Shechinah, “G’d’s Presence.”
The deeper meaning behind the words: בין פארן, is that this is the site on earth from which the ability for living creatures on earth to become fruitful and to multiply is derived. As to the words: ובין תפל, we follow Rashi, who quotes Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai who claims that no one has ever been able to find these two locations. He therefore concluded that these names are similes, used by Moses to rebuke the Israelites who had spoken derisively of the manna (Numbers 1,7), which was white, לבן. The word תפל, [possibly as root of: תפלה “prayer”. Ed.], according to Rashi, is another word for “speech” (presumably Israel’s accepting the Torah with the words נעשה ונשמע, “we shall do and we shall listen (to instruction).” Moses’ address teaching the Israelites to make G’d their focus at all times, and to observe these covenants meticulously, covers the period between the covenant of circumcision made with Avraham and that of the Ten Commandments made with the assembled Jewish nation at Mount Sinai.
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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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Kedushat Levi
Deuteronomy 2,1. “it is eleven days (march) from Chorev to Kadesh Barnea.”
In order to understand the relevance of this line, it is helpful to understand a verse in Proverbs 27,9 where Solomon says that שמן וקטורת משמח לב, “oil (for anointing) and incense gladden the heart.”
When dealing with matters involving holiness, the basic number used is the number 10. Already in the most ancient Kabbalistic text, the sefer yetzirah, the number ten is mentioned repeatedly as a contrast to the number eleven. The ten emanations, ספירות, different levels of holiness, are “matched” by ten levels of spiritually negative levels, the difference between the two being that the גורמים, causes, of the ten levels of holiness and the resulting holiness are viewed as part of something integral, whereas a similar “integrity” of cause and effect is not presumed to exist when spiritually negative forces and their causes are concerned. When we read in the sefer yetzirah about “ten levels of emanations and not eleven,” the author wishes to make the point that the causes of the sefirot and the sefirot themselves are not viewed as separate entities. When Moses speaks of a “distance,” of eleven days [in a spiritual sense, as in: ‘49 levels of ritual pollution,’ Ed.], the word חורב, [as distinct from Sinai. Ed.], is to be understood as symbolizing the סטרא אחרא, the ten spiritually negative forces that are the counterweight of the ten spiritually positive forces. The Israelites (priests) used to offer twice daily an incense offering known as קטורת, consisting of 11 different categories of fragrances. When Moses elaborates by saying that the “11 days” he refers to were in the direction of Mount Seir, the region of the Kingdom of Edom, it becomes clear that he referred to something that took the Israelites away from the spiritually lofty atmosphere of Mount Sinai in the direction of the spiritually totally polluted domain of Esau/Seir. This is a fitting introduction to Moses rebuking the Israelites in this Book. In the parlance of our sages, the evil urge is often referred to as הר, mountain, i.e. representing an almost insurmountable obstacle. It is also called שעיר as we know from Sukkah 52. [None of the seven names mentioned in the Talmud there is שעיר, Ed.] The Talmud there does say that the evil urge appears like a tall mountain to the righteous, whereas it appears as insignificant as a thin hair to the wicked.
In order to understand the relevance of this line, it is helpful to understand a verse in Proverbs 27,9 where Solomon says that שמן וקטורת משמח לב, “oil (for anointing) and incense gladden the heart.”
When dealing with matters involving holiness, the basic number used is the number 10. Already in the most ancient Kabbalistic text, the sefer yetzirah, the number ten is mentioned repeatedly as a contrast to the number eleven. The ten emanations, ספירות, different levels of holiness, are “matched” by ten levels of spiritually negative levels, the difference between the two being that the גורמים, causes, of the ten levels of holiness and the resulting holiness are viewed as part of something integral, whereas a similar “integrity” of cause and effect is not presumed to exist when spiritually negative forces and their causes are concerned. When we read in the sefer yetzirah about “ten levels of emanations and not eleven,” the author wishes to make the point that the causes of the sefirot and the sefirot themselves are not viewed as separate entities. When Moses speaks of a “distance,” of eleven days [in a spiritual sense, as in: ‘49 levels of ritual pollution,’ Ed.], the word חורב, [as distinct from Sinai. Ed.], is to be understood as symbolizing the סטרא אחרא, the ten spiritually negative forces that are the counterweight of the ten spiritually positive forces. The Israelites (priests) used to offer twice daily an incense offering known as קטורת, consisting of 11 different categories of fragrances. When Moses elaborates by saying that the “11 days” he refers to were in the direction of Mount Seir, the region of the Kingdom of Edom, it becomes clear that he referred to something that took the Israelites away from the spiritually lofty atmosphere of Mount Sinai in the direction of the spiritually totally polluted domain of Esau/Seir. This is a fitting introduction to Moses rebuking the Israelites in this Book. In the parlance of our sages, the evil urge is often referred to as הר, mountain, i.e. representing an almost insurmountable obstacle. It is also called שעיר as we know from Sukkah 52. [None of the seven names mentioned in the Talmud there is שעיר, Ed.] The Talmud there does say that the evil urge appears like a tall mountain to the righteous, whereas it appears as insignificant as a thin hair to the wicked.
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Kedushat Levi
Numbers 2,49 , “but do not count the tribe of Levi as an integral part of the Children of Israel.” The Torah consists of 248 positive commandments and 365 negative commandments which between them represent a variety of lights, whereas the Tabernacle represents spiritual lights condensed within it so that they do not harm human beings by blinding them. The Israelites are also each considered as a light seeing that each represents one of the letters in the Torah. We have a rule that whenever 613 physical lights are present they must be matched by an equal number of spiritual lights so that they can combine in the service of the Lord. These latter “lights” are called אברים הרוחניים, “the 248 spiritualized limbs and 365 spiritualized tendons.” When the Creator dispenses of His largesse, He does so via these spiritualized limbs and tendons.
Some human beings can become only passive recipients of spiritualized light, whereas others are able to “see” how the largesse from G’d progresses from the spiritual domain to the physical domain. These latter people are called prophets. The prophet Samuel I 9,9, describes this process when he wrote: לפנים בישראל כה אמר האיש בלכתו לדרוש אלוקים לכו ונלכה עד הרואה כי לנביא היום יקרא לפנים הרואה, “formerly, in Israel, when a man wanted to seek out the word of G’d, he would say: ‘come let us go to the Seer, for the prophet of today was formerly known as “Seer.’”
We also find an allusion to this in Numbers 8,4 where the Torah writes: וזה מעשה המנורה.....כמראה אשר הראה ה' את משה כן עשה את המנורה, “and this is how the menorah was made:…….according to the pattern that the Lord had shown Moses so he constructed the menorah.” When the Torah wrote in detail about the construction of the menorah in Exodus chapter 25 and chapter 37, no mention was made of G’d having shown Moses a pattern of this lampstand although the Torah provided extensive descriptions of this lampstand in both of these chapters. In both those chapters the menorah was treated as an integral part of the Tabernacle, and the Tabernacle dealt with abstract spiritual concepts. The menorah per se symbolizes a visual impact of the largesse transferred by G’d from His celestial treasure house to the terrestrial part of the universe. This largesse is in constant motion between the celestial and the terrestrial domains of the universe. The Torah bears witness to the fact that G’d showed this to Moses while he had been on Mount Sinai.
Moses was not to count the Levites together with the other Israelites, as the 12 tribes (Israelites) symbolize the abstract spiritual dimension of celestial light, whereas the Levites symbolize transfer of G’d’s largesse from the most high celestial regions to what we have described as the “abstract spiritual” dimension represented by the 12 tribes of Israel.
This is also why, when speaking of the process of purifying the Levites the Torah (Numbers 8,7) the Torah speaks of והעבירו תער על כל בשרם, “they have to shave off all the hair on their flesh with a razor,” the reason being that “hair” symbolizes clothing, and clothing is something that separates between one’s essence and contact with something from the outside. The Levites were to be as receptive to the emanations from the highest celestial regions as possible [as had been Adam and Eve before they had been provided with clothing, as a result of the barrier their sin had created between them and G’d. Ed.]
Some human beings can become only passive recipients of spiritualized light, whereas others are able to “see” how the largesse from G’d progresses from the spiritual domain to the physical domain. These latter people are called prophets. The prophet Samuel I 9,9, describes this process when he wrote: לפנים בישראל כה אמר האיש בלכתו לדרוש אלוקים לכו ונלכה עד הרואה כי לנביא היום יקרא לפנים הרואה, “formerly, in Israel, when a man wanted to seek out the word of G’d, he would say: ‘come let us go to the Seer, for the prophet of today was formerly known as “Seer.’”
We also find an allusion to this in Numbers 8,4 where the Torah writes: וזה מעשה המנורה.....כמראה אשר הראה ה' את משה כן עשה את המנורה, “and this is how the menorah was made:…….according to the pattern that the Lord had shown Moses so he constructed the menorah.” When the Torah wrote in detail about the construction of the menorah in Exodus chapter 25 and chapter 37, no mention was made of G’d having shown Moses a pattern of this lampstand although the Torah provided extensive descriptions of this lampstand in both of these chapters. In both those chapters the menorah was treated as an integral part of the Tabernacle, and the Tabernacle dealt with abstract spiritual concepts. The menorah per se symbolizes a visual impact of the largesse transferred by G’d from His celestial treasure house to the terrestrial part of the universe. This largesse is in constant motion between the celestial and the terrestrial domains of the universe. The Torah bears witness to the fact that G’d showed this to Moses while he had been on Mount Sinai.
Moses was not to count the Levites together with the other Israelites, as the 12 tribes (Israelites) symbolize the abstract spiritual dimension of celestial light, whereas the Levites symbolize transfer of G’d’s largesse from the most high celestial regions to what we have described as the “abstract spiritual” dimension represented by the 12 tribes of Israel.
This is also why, when speaking of the process of purifying the Levites the Torah (Numbers 8,7) the Torah speaks of והעבירו תער על כל בשרם, “they have to shave off all the hair on their flesh with a razor,” the reason being that “hair” symbolizes clothing, and clothing is something that separates between one’s essence and contact with something from the outside. The Levites were to be as receptive to the emanations from the highest celestial regions as possible [as had been Adam and Eve before they had been provided with clothing, as a result of the barrier their sin had created between them and G’d. Ed.]
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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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Kedushat Levi
It is important to realize that the tribe of Levi who was singled out by G’d to perform special religious duties on behalf of the whole nation, was appointed twice. The male members of this tribe became distinctive at the time they had completed the first month of their lives. (Numbers 3,15) They were included in the census already at that tender age, whereas the other Israelites had to await their 20th birthday before they could be included in the census. (Numbers 1,3).
The concept of 12 tribes [excluding the Levites, Ed.] alluded to the commandments of the Creator handed down in the Torah, and that is why they had been given the collective name מטות, “staffs,” as the commandments by which Israelites guide themselves, and which are their main support during their lifetime on earth serve as their support, [in the sense of a walking cane.] They draw on this support to maintain and reinforce their faith in G’d. Performance of the commandments refines our intellect. The tribe of Levi is a special example of this as pointed out in Bamidbar Rabbah 1,12 where the author of the Midrash draws our attention to the fact that this tribe had to be counted in the proximity of the Tabernacle, as it had proven during the episode of the golden calf that it had absolute faith in G’d, and although a tiny minority (about 5%) of the nation, had risked their lives on behalf of G’d, by executing idol worshipping members of the nation. (Exodus 32,27-28).
We already explained that there are two levels of faith in G’d, and corresponding to that the Levites were counted on two levels. (at 30 days, and again when they reached the age of 30 years, (compare Numbers 4,23 et al) By that time their intellects had matured to the extent that they could be described as their faith in G’d reflecting the higher level. Their duties in and around the Tabernacle made it mandatory that they had spiritually matured enough to carry them out while thinking the appropriate religious thoughts.
Initially, G’d had commanded Moses to teach the Jewish people first about the Tabernacle, i.e. to instruct them in the ways to have faith in G’d on the basic level, i.e. to believe that He is the Creator of all phenomena perceived by the senses. The visible symbol of that faith was the structure called משכן. Only afterwards was Moses to teach them about the furnishings in the Tabernacle, the variety of attributes of the Creator, as symbolized in the Tabernacle by the various vessels and furnishings, or in the Torah by the various commandments. Moses, believing that the Jewish people as a whole had already attained the second and higher level of faith, considered it appropriate to acquaint them immediately with the details of the vessels to be used in the Tabernacle. Betzalel, having a more realistic view of the spiritual level of his peers, considered that they should first become familiar with more basic aspects of faith in the Lord as symbolized by the structure called משכן, Tabernacle.
Having said this we can also solve the problem raised by Nachmanides in connection with Exodus 19,4 where the Torah writes: אתם ראיתם אשר עשיתי למצרים....ואביא אתכם אלי, “you have seen what I have done to Egypt……. and I have brought you to Me.” Nachmanides questions the wording there as at that point the Jewish people had not yet experienced the revelation at Mount Sinai and had not yet been given the Torah. We may best understand this by remembering that while in Egypt the Jewish people (the generation experiencing the redemption, not the Israelites who had come to Egypt with Yaakov and their children) had not believed in the G’d of Avraham at all, -to wit their failure to circumcise their male children- so that the redemption was the starting point from which their faith in G’d as the Creator and as the G’d of Israel must be counted. True faith of the whole people did not commence until the first day of the month of Sivan, when for the first time, the Torah describes the Jewish people as united, i.e. ויחן ישראל , “Israel encamped,” (singular mode) as opposed to all previous encampments when the Torah always writes: ויחנו ישראל, Israel encamped, (plural mode). At that time they did not know yet how to serve the G’d Whom they all believed in as the Creator and as the G’d of their forefathers. This nuance is also evident in Onkelos’ rendering the end of Exodus 19,4 ואביא אתכם אלי, usually translated as “I have brought you to Me,” as: וקרבית יתכון לפולחני, “I have brought you near to perform service for Me.”
The concept of 12 tribes [excluding the Levites, Ed.] alluded to the commandments of the Creator handed down in the Torah, and that is why they had been given the collective name מטות, “staffs,” as the commandments by which Israelites guide themselves, and which are their main support during their lifetime on earth serve as their support, [in the sense of a walking cane.] They draw on this support to maintain and reinforce their faith in G’d. Performance of the commandments refines our intellect. The tribe of Levi is a special example of this as pointed out in Bamidbar Rabbah 1,12 where the author of the Midrash draws our attention to the fact that this tribe had to be counted in the proximity of the Tabernacle, as it had proven during the episode of the golden calf that it had absolute faith in G’d, and although a tiny minority (about 5%) of the nation, had risked their lives on behalf of G’d, by executing idol worshipping members of the nation. (Exodus 32,27-28).
We already explained that there are two levels of faith in G’d, and corresponding to that the Levites were counted on two levels. (at 30 days, and again when they reached the age of 30 years, (compare Numbers 4,23 et al) By that time their intellects had matured to the extent that they could be described as their faith in G’d reflecting the higher level. Their duties in and around the Tabernacle made it mandatory that they had spiritually matured enough to carry them out while thinking the appropriate religious thoughts.
Initially, G’d had commanded Moses to teach the Jewish people first about the Tabernacle, i.e. to instruct them in the ways to have faith in G’d on the basic level, i.e. to believe that He is the Creator of all phenomena perceived by the senses. The visible symbol of that faith was the structure called משכן. Only afterwards was Moses to teach them about the furnishings in the Tabernacle, the variety of attributes of the Creator, as symbolized in the Tabernacle by the various vessels and furnishings, or in the Torah by the various commandments. Moses, believing that the Jewish people as a whole had already attained the second and higher level of faith, considered it appropriate to acquaint them immediately with the details of the vessels to be used in the Tabernacle. Betzalel, having a more realistic view of the spiritual level of his peers, considered that they should first become familiar with more basic aspects of faith in the Lord as symbolized by the structure called משכן, Tabernacle.
Having said this we can also solve the problem raised by Nachmanides in connection with Exodus 19,4 where the Torah writes: אתם ראיתם אשר עשיתי למצרים....ואביא אתכם אלי, “you have seen what I have done to Egypt……. and I have brought you to Me.” Nachmanides questions the wording there as at that point the Jewish people had not yet experienced the revelation at Mount Sinai and had not yet been given the Torah. We may best understand this by remembering that while in Egypt the Jewish people (the generation experiencing the redemption, not the Israelites who had come to Egypt with Yaakov and their children) had not believed in the G’d of Avraham at all, -to wit their failure to circumcise their male children- so that the redemption was the starting point from which their faith in G’d as the Creator and as the G’d of Israel must be counted. True faith of the whole people did not commence until the first day of the month of Sivan, when for the first time, the Torah describes the Jewish people as united, i.e. ויחן ישראל , “Israel encamped,” (singular mode) as opposed to all previous encampments when the Torah always writes: ויחנו ישראל, Israel encamped, (plural mode). At that time they did not know yet how to serve the G’d Whom they all believed in as the Creator and as the G’d of their forefathers. This nuance is also evident in Onkelos’ rendering the end of Exodus 19,4 ואביא אתכם אלי, usually translated as “I have brought you to Me,” as: וקרבית יתכון לפולחני, “I have brought you near to perform service for Me.”
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