Chasidut על בראשית 2:27

The first thing G’d embarked on when creating the material universe was to create heaven and ‎earth.”
It is an axiom, general principle, that G’d created the entire universe, and having done so, ‎never withdraws from the universe for even a single moment, [unlike sculptors or painters who, ‎once they have completed a sculpture or painting, move on to something else, having “finished” ‎with their previous “creation.” Ed.] This axiom is true both of what He created in the heavens and ‎what He created in the material, three-dimensional part of the universe. We pay tribute to this in ‎our daily prayers when we say ‎יוצר אור ובורא חושך‎, “He creates and fashions (present tense) light, ‎and He creates darkness.” When speaking of any accomplishments of G’d’s creatures however, we ‎speak of them in the past tense, i.e.‎יצר כסא‎, “he shaped a chair,” or ‎עשה מזרון‎, “he made a ‎mattress.” G’d’s creative activity is never completed, as the Torah testified in Genesis 2,3 ‎אשר ברא ‏אלוקים לעשות‎, “which the Lord has created in order to complete it.” This means that G’d is part of ‎every creature He ever created, and once man realizes that he is nothing without G’d Who has ‎created him and Who provides him with all the strength and creative stimuli that he possesses, he ‎will be able to relate to Hashem as an ongoing creative Force in His universe. This is ‎reflected every morning when we get up [after having used the washroom] and we refer to G’d ‎with the words ‎אשר יצר את האדם בחכמה‎, “Who has fashioned man with ‎חכמה‎,” the word ‎חכמה‎ ‎meaning the opposite of ‎אין‎, “nothing.” It is appropriate therefore that in that prayer we refer to ‎the creation of man in the past tense, as opposed to the line we quoted earlier, seeing that we ‎refer to something or somebody who already exists, i.e. ‎יש‎. This explains why the Ari z’al , ‎Rabbi Yitzchak Luria, said that when we refer to G’d as ‎ה' מלך‎, usually translated as “Hashem ‎‎is King,” the reference is to the ‎אין‎, “nothing,” i.e. G’d at any given moment ‎gives us life, -by not withdrawing it from us.- The implied meaning of the expression is that man is ‎‎“nothing” unless he continues to exist as part of G’d’s creative activity. The so-called ‎אין‎, “nothing,” ‎in terms of metaphysical beings, rules supreme in the regions beyond those that are part of the ‎physical universe, the one that we conveniently refer to as “nature.” This so-called ‎אין‎, is not really ‎a “nothing,” in terms of the universe, its “nothingness” is such only vis a vis the ‎physical part of the universe; in the celestial regions this “‎אין‎” rules supreme. [as opposed to the ‎חכמה‎ in our part of the universe. Ed. Although ‎יש‎ and ‎אין‎ are popularly perceived as absolute ‎opposites, not having anything in common, this perception is built on a fallacy; the linkage between ‎יש‎ and ‎אין‎ are the mitzvot, Torah commandments, performed by the Jewish people. The ‎commandments are performed in the section of the universe known as ‎יש‎, as a result of which ‎close contact is maintained between the aforementioned two domains of the universe. Ezekiel 1:14 refers to the “mitzvot” in their capacity as providing the link between the terrestrial ‎and the celestial part of the universe with the words ‎והחיות רצוא ושוב‎, “and the chayot ran ‎to and fro”. According to the Zohar II 288, the mitzvot and the Torah respectively, ‎are viewed as related to one another like the “hidden” is related to the “revealed,” both being part ‎of the same whole. Torah and mitzvot provide the link between these two domains, so that ‎each domain is not completely divorced from the other. This concept is contained in the letters of ‎the word ‎מצוה‎ when we divide it up into ‎מצ‎ and ‎וה‎. The letters ‎מצ‎ when we read the alphabet ‎backwards, starting with the letter ‎ת‎ are equivalent to the letters ‎יה‎, symbolising the totally ‎abstract Divinity, whereas the letters ‎וה‎ symbolize the hidden parts of the universe, ‎יש‎. The first ‎half of the word ‎מצוה‎ being read with the two letters used in reverse order of the aleph ‎‎bet, alludes to the “hidden” part of the universe, the domain exclusive to Divine, abstract ‎forces. Let us explain something about what precisely is “hidden” and what is “revealed,” when it ‎comes to the ‎מצוה‎, “Torah commandment.” When we perform a ‎מצוה‎, we cause G’d to become ‎pleased with having created man, the choicest of His creatures. When we comply with requests ‎made to us by a fellow human being, we can immediately gauge whether he is pleased by our ‎actions or not, either by his face indicating this, or by words of approval, something that is not the ‎case when we comply with G’d’s requests from us. Since He is invisible, and does not speak to us ‎as He did to Moses, “mouth to mouth”, we have no way of knowing if our efforts to please Him ‎have been successful. When we try to perform deeds that are for our (immediate) personal ‎benefit, we are able to determine if our efforts have succeeded. This then is the “hidden” element ‎present whenever we perform any of G’d’s commandments, ‎מצות‎. This is what the Torah had in ‎mind when it wrote (Deuteronomy 29,28) ‎הנסתרות לה' אלוקינו‎, “the hidden aspects of ‎‎mitzvah performance are reserved for the Lord our G’d;” on the other hand, ‎והנגלות לנו ‏ולבנינו עד עולם‎, “the benefits which the performance of the Torah confers upon us will be ‎revealed forever.” This is also the meaning of the words ‎בראשית ברא אלוקים‎, (addressed to us) “at ‎the beginning of G’d’s creative activity G’d created the ‎יש‎, a physical domain of the universe.” ‎Through His creating ‎יש‎, i.e. ‎ראשית‎, a beginning, the creation of heaven and earth came into being, ‎for prior to that there was only the ‎אין‎, the abstract universe. This is the meaning of Targum ‎‎Yerushalmi who renders this verse as‎ 'בראשית בחוכמא ברא ה‎', “at the beginning G’d created ‎by means of using intelligence found in the domain of the abstract regions.” ‎חכמה‎, as we pointed ‎out earlier, is a quality inherent in the terrestrial domain.‎

Exodus 38,21. “These are the accounts of the Tabernacle of ‎the Testimony that were rendered according to the ‎commandment of Moses, etc.;” we have already written ‎previously that the construction of the Tabernacle required holy ‎spirit and the knowledge of how G’d used the aleph bet, i.e. ‎the letters of the Torah and their respective combinations that ‎G’d used when He created heaven and earth. (based on ‎‎Yevamot 47). The subject has been elaborated on further in ‎‎Bereshit Rabbah section 12,14 which quotes the school of ‎Shammai saying that the idea to create the universe crystallized ‎in G’d’s mind at night whereas the execution occurred by day, ‎and that the letter ‎ה‎ written in smaller script in Genesis 2,4 in ‎the word ‎בהבראם‎ is an allusion to the attribute ‎א-ד-נ-י‎, one of G’d’s ‎names, whereas afterwards in the same verse when the Torah ‎writes ‎ביום עשות ה' אלוקים ארץ ושמים‎, “on the day that ‎‎<ihashem< i=""> made earth and heaven,” the apparent repetition is ‎an allusion to the fact that G’d is unique and the exclusive ‎Creator. [Our author must have had a different version of ‎the Bereshit rabbah, as the second comment concerning the ‎attribute ‎א-ד-נ-י‎ is not found in my updated version of that ‎‎Midrash. Ed.]‎
The uniqueness of both Moses and Betzalel paralleled the ‎description of unique attributes possessed by the Creator. ‎Initially, the instructions given by Moses to Betzalel were similar ‎to G’d’s formulating the thought of creating a universe, whereas ‎the execution paralleled the words ‎ביום עשות ה' אלוקים‎, G’d in His ‎capacity as Hashem carrying out His plan to create the ‎universe. The numerical value of the first letters of the opening ‎words in our portion, ‎אלה פקודי המשכן‎ i.e. ‎א'פ'ה'‏‎ have a combined ‎value of 86, equivalent to the letters in the name of G’d when it is ‎spelled ‎א-ל-ה-י-ם‎, i.e. His attribute of ‎א-ד-נ-י‎, the word signifying ‎the attribute of Justice. The respective last letters in the same ‎sequence of words are ‎ה'י'נ‎ equaling 65, or the numerical value of ‎the attribute ‎א-ד-נ-י‎. When we examine the respective first and ‎final letters in the second half of the introductory verse of our ‎portion, i.e. ‎משכן העדות‎, we find that the letters ‎מ'ה‎ correspond to ‎the holy name of G’d consisting of 45 letters, whereas the final ‎letters in these words, i.e. ‎ת'נ‎ or 450 i.e. ten times the value of the ‎opening letters. This suggests that whereas Betzalel was indeed ‎granted great insights, it was Moses, ‎אשר פקד על פי משה‎ who had ‎the highest level of understanding how to manipulate all the ‎letters in the names of G’d‏.

Deuteronomy 1,3. “Moses spoke to the Children of ‎Israel in accordance with all that Hashem had ‎commanded him concerning them.”
‎This verse will ‎be better understood when we look at the Zohar III 149.where the ‎‎Baraitha of Rabbi Yishmael at the beginning of Torat ‎Kohanim, states ‎כל דבר שהיה בכלל ויצא מן הכלל וגו'‏‎, “anything ‎that was included in a general statement, but was then singled ‎out to teach something, was not singled out to teach only about ‎itself., but to apply its teaching to the entire generality;” When ‎applied to the Holy Torah, we have to distinguish between ‎matters treated by the Torah as “more profound than ‎immediately visible after a superficial reading of the text, i.e. ‎פנימיוות וסוד‎, “something mystical, buried deep inside,” and ‎between matters that every reader can understand at once, such ‎as references to places, dates, such as when the Torah relates ‎details of the lives of Avraham, Yitzchok and Yaakov. When the ‎Torah reports about their respective dealings with Lavan, or ‎stories told about the matriarchs, Bileam and his ass, these are ‎not to be understood only at face value, but they contain deeply ‎hidden aspects, such as that we are to learn from the excerpts of ‎Avraham’s life how do practice loving kindness with our fellow ‎man. From the details revealed about Yaakov’s life, we are to learn ‎about the righteousness of Yaakov; similarly there are many ‎human attributes practiced by our matriarchs which we are to ‎learn to emulate by immersing ourselves more deeply in the ‎stories of the Torah than one does by reading a novel. Proper ‎reading of these “stories” helps us understand that we are till this ‎day benefiting by the merits accumulated by our forefathers, ‎some of which, we, as their descendants, are being rewarded for. ‎Rachel’s foregoing marriage to her betrothed, Yaakov, in order ‎not to publicly shame her sister Leah, is one of the outstanding ‎examples of selflessness from which we are to learn, according to ‎our sages, when they comment on Jeremiah 31,14 ‎קול ברמה נשמע ‏נהי בכי תמרורים רחל מבכה על בניה מאנה להנחם על בניה כי איננו‎, “a ‎voice is heard in Ramah- wailing, bitter weeping- Rachel weeping ‎for her children she refuses to be comforted for her children who ‎are gone.” In its introduction to megillat eychah, ‎Lamentations, the author, quoting above verse from Jeremiah ‎interprets it as G’d’s promise to bring redemption to Rachel’s ‎descendants on account of her merits.
If the Torah took the trouble to relate fragments from the ‎lives of the patriarchs and matriarchs to teach us to emulate their ‎virtues, it wrote of Bileam’s conduct in order to teach us not to ‎emulate the abuse Bileam had made of his freedom of choice. ‎Anyone reading of how boastful Bileam had made a fool of himself ‎and left Balak after having become totally discredited, will surely ‎learn a lesson from this. Avot 5,9 points to the difference ‎between the disciples of Avraham and the disciples of Bileam. ‎Avraham’s virtues are worth emulating, whereas Bileam’s great ‎intellectual gifts, due to their being abused by their owner, must ‎be shunned. In other words, although we are able to derive much ‎value from just reading the text superficially, what is hidden ‎behind such superficial reading of the text is even more ‎illuminating. Similarly, with the parts of the Torah that on the ‎surface purport to teach G’d’s commandments; although we ‎must, of course use the text in order to know which ‎commandments to perform and when and where, the text ‎contains many hidden nuances that are discovered only when we ‎apply ourselves with the intention to discover them.‎
This is what the author of the Baraitha of Rabbi ‎Yishmael that we quoted earlier meant when it stated that ‎‎“any matter that was part of a general statement, etc,” the ‎general statement is the Torah as a whole, whereas “the ‎statements singled out,” are the specific details about critical ‎moments in our patriarchs’ and matriarchs’ lives, as well as ‎critical details in the lives of other personalities the Torah has ‎singled out from the millions it could have chosen. The words in ‎the Baraitha “but was then singled out from a general ‎statement to teach something only about itself,” refer to specific ‎attributes possessed by the persons mentioned, which are meant ‎either to be emulated or to be shunned. The words: “was not ‎singled out to teach only about itself,” teaches that the attribute ‎emphasized in that example is not to be treated as an exception ‎but is to be applied generally.
That Baraitha also hints ‎by its wording that we must not only look for something beyond ‎the bare text in the stories the Torah tells about outstanding ‎personalities, but search for deeper meaning in the text teaching ‎the commandments. There is a lesson to be learned not only ‎regarding how to perform the commandments, but also regarding ‎moral/ethical lessons to be derived from each ‎commandment.
This latter idea is somewhat elaborated on in ‎the Zohar. It is interesting to note that the fifth Book of the ‎Torah is known also as ‎משנה תורה‎, [loosely translated as ‎‎“review of the Torah,” although it is much more than that, ‎containing commandments that did not appear previously at all. ‎Ed.] In this Book, the emphasis is not so much on the ‎attributes of outstanding human beings, but on the attributes of ‎the Creator, and His relationship to His chosen people under ‎various circumstances.
Knowing the manner in which G’d ‎relates to His people is the key to all the warnings issued by ‎Moses to the people concerning their deviating from the right ‎path and the consequences which this would bring in its wake ‎sooner or later, whenever G’d’s patience in waiting for the people ‎to repent would come to an end. Since the Book of Deuteronomy ‎was addressed (at the time) to the generation of Israelites who ‎had not been adults at the time of the Exodus, or who had not ‎even been born yet at that time, they did not need to have ‎everything spelled out for them by means of the stories in the ‎Torah, i.e. parables, as according to Moses’ own testimony in ‎Deut. 29,3 they had become a generation that could use their ‎eyes and ears (not only physically). This was a generation that ‎was not tainted by the ritual pollution it had taken out with ‎them from Egypt.
This is how we must understand Bereshit ‎Rabbah 12,3 that wherever the Torah commences a paragraph ‎with the words: ‎אלה וגו'‏‎, “these,” etc., it signifies that conditions ‎that had existed prior to this point had become completely ‎irrelevant. In the line in Genesis 2,4 where we find the word ‎אלה‎ ‎for the first time, this signals that anything that the Torah had ‎written about the state of the universe before the creation of ‎light, i.e. the state of ‎תהו ובהו‎, utter chaos, had by now become ‎totally irrelevant. When we apply this Midrash to the Book ‎of Deuteronomy, it means that rules that had been relevant to ‎the people who had left Egypt as adults no longer had any ‎relevance. The present generation was on a spiritually so much ‎higher level that Moses could speak to them without having to ‎use parables. This is also what Rashi had in mind when in his ‎commentary on the words: ‎אחרי הכותו את סיחן וגו'‏‎, “after He had ‎smitten Sichon, etc.” (1,4) he says that Moses waited with his ‎words of rebuke for the people until G’d had begun the ‎fulfillment of His promise to give the land of the Canaanites to ‎Israel by giving them vast territory on the east bank of the ‎Jordan. That important victory had concluded the 40 years of ‎wandering in the desert without meaningful progress. At that ‎point Moses became able to speak to the people in the manner ‎G’d had commanded him to do (end of verse 3).‎

Having understood this concept, we will also ‎understand why the manna was not allowed to descend ‎to earth on the Sabbath, whereas G’d did not interrupt ‎the growth of crops that originated from the ‎‎earth during the Sabbath. Our author refers ‎us to the commentary of Rabbi Moshe Alshich ‎commenting on Exodus 20,11 ‎כי ששת ימים עשה ה' את השמים ‏ואת הארץ‎, “for during six days G’d made the heaven and ‎the earth,‎‏ ‏etc,” that this refers to the ‎אור הישר‎ used by ‎G’d. The seventh day that followed is to be viewed as ‎the response by the creatures to having received such ‎abundant blessings during the preceding six days. In ‎other words, the day is used to show G’d our positive ‎response to His generosity, the response being called ‎the ‎אור החוזר‎ the “reflected light.” The words ‎ויכל אלוקים ‏ביום השביעי‎ (Genesis 2,1) are understood by the ‎‎Midrash as the creatures emulating G’d on the ‎Sabbath in rejoicing and abstaining from “creative” ‎activities, thus “sending back to their Creator the ‎message (reflected light)” that they appreciate the ‎‎“direct light” they had been the beneficiaries of during ‎the preceding six days.‎
‎ We must also consider that the manna having ‎originated in the heavenly spheres, was ‎originally not something tangible, although upon ‎entering the atmosphere, it had to become garbed in a ‎manner compatible with other earthly phenomena. ‎Having it descend on the Sabbath would have negated ‎the concept of the creation which commences with ‎something intangible and converts it into something ‎tangible, but retaining elements of: “direct light.” Earth ‎grown crops never originated in celestial ‎domains in the first place, so that there was no reason ‎to interrupt their growth. On the contrary, according to ‎the Kabbalists, eating and drinking by human beings is ‎not an end itself, but the food is meant to help us to ‎devote more time and effort to spiritual pursuits, i.e. ‎to come closer to the completely disembodied essence ‎of the Creator. On the Sabbath when we are free from ‎the burden of having to secure our livelihood, we ‎return the largesse of G’d experienced during the six ‎preceding days, by commencing a journey in the ‎opposite direction coming closer to the regions from ‎which the manna originated. To summarize: the ‎Sabbath itself is symbolic of the ‎אור החוזר‎, “reflected ‎light.”‎

Having understood this concept, we will also ‎understand why the manna was not allowed to descend ‎to earth on the Sabbath, whereas G’d did not interrupt ‎the growth of crops that originated from the ‎‎earth during the Sabbath. Our author refers ‎us to the commentary of Rabbi Moshe Alshich ‎commenting on Exodus 20,11 ‎כי ששת ימים עשה ה' את השמים ‏ואת הארץ‎, “for during six days G’d made the heaven and ‎the earth,‎‏ ‏etc,” that this refers to the ‎אור הישר‎ used by ‎G’d. The seventh day that followed is to be viewed as ‎the response by the creatures to having received such ‎abundant blessings during the preceding six days. In ‎other words, the day is used to show G’d our positive ‎response to His generosity, the response being called ‎the ‎אור החוזר‎ the “reflected light.” The words ‎ויכל אלוקים ‏ביום השביעי‎ (Genesis 2,1) are understood by the ‎‎Midrash as the creatures emulating G’d on the ‎Sabbath in rejoicing and abstaining from “creative” ‎activities, thus “sending back to their Creator the ‎message (reflected light)” that they appreciate the ‎‎“direct light” they had been the beneficiaries of during ‎the preceding six days.‎
‎ We must also consider that the manna having ‎originated in the heavenly spheres, was ‎originally not something tangible, although upon ‎entering the atmosphere, it had to become garbed in a ‎manner compatible with other earthly phenomena. ‎Having it descend on the Sabbath would have negated ‎the concept of the creation which commences with ‎something intangible and converts it into something ‎tangible, but retaining elements of: “direct light.” Earth ‎grown crops never originated in celestial ‎domains in the first place, so that there was no reason ‎to interrupt their growth. On the contrary, according to ‎the Kabbalists, eating and drinking by human beings is ‎not an end itself, but the food is meant to help us to ‎devote more time and effort to spiritual pursuits, i.e. ‎to come closer to the completely disembodied essence ‎of the Creator. On the Sabbath when we are free from ‎the burden of having to secure our livelihood, we ‎return the largesse of G’d experienced during the six ‎preceding days, by commencing a journey in the ‎opposite direction coming closer to the regions from ‎which the manna originated. To summarize: the ‎Sabbath itself is symbolic of the ‎אור החוזר‎, “reflected ‎light.”‎

But it is known that everything depends on Arousal from Below, which is the aspect of Feminine Water like the Desire of the Feminine for the Masculine. And we, the Nation of the Children of Israel, have the aspect of Feminine with respect to the Holy Blessed One; and when we arouse ourselves to attach to our Blessed Creator from Below to Above, we arouse (as if it were possible) Desire in our Blessed Creator to channel us all Good, selah! And the flow descends from Above to Below with abundance and blessing and compassion and life and peace. So we, the Assembly of Israel, along with the Holy Blessed One are a single complete entity, when we are attached to Blessed God. And one without the other (as if it were possible) is not called “complete,” as in the statement “The Name is not complete nor is the Throne complete” (Tanhuma, Ki Tetze 11). For we are called the Blessed Creator’s Throne, since (as if it were possible) without us the Blessed Creator is not called “complete” and obviously without Blessed God we [are not called “complete”]. Only when we first arouse the Feminine Waters, meaning our Desire from Below to Above to attach to Blessed God, through this we arouse Blessed God’s Desire from Above to Below. And then, when the two Desires come together then it is one complete entity. And this is the meaning of the verse You shall be complete with Adonai your God (Deut. 18:13), which is to say you with Blessed God are called a complete entity. And so the essence of Creation was on this condition, that we would walk to Blessed God by way of Arousal from Below initially. And if not, God forbid, meaning when we do not arouse ourselves through Arousal from Below and need Blessed God to arouse us from Above, then we have done nothing. And so regarding Noah there was no Arousal from Below, [and Noah was saved] only because Blessed God wanted the preservation of the world, which would be preserved through Noah. Therefore Blessed Good needed to arouse him from Above, and needed to channel onto Noah the Desire to attach to Blessed God. And this is [what Rashi meant by] “Noah needed assistance to support him.” But Abraham our Ancestor, peace be upon him, “strengthened himself with his righteousness and walked independently” through Arousal from Below. And now it makes sense that [Noah] was called completely righteous, since he was attached to Blessed God but not through Arousal from Below; and therefore it is written, These are the records of the skies and the earth in their creation [be-hibar’am] (Gen. 2:4), the letters of “Abraham” – meaning, as we have explained, that the Essence of Creation is through this: that the way of walking is like the walk of Abraham our Ancestor, peace be upon him, through Arousal from Below as we have explained.

And this corresponds to Rosh Hashanah, to the blowing of the shofar, which is the aspect of arousal from sleep. As is brought in the Kabbalistic texts, Rosh Hashanah corresponds to sleep, and the shofar representes arousal from sleep, since, "The whole world was created in Tishri" (Rosh Hashanah 10b). This is the aspect of disorder, Tav-Shin-Resh-Kuf, and when disorder is aroused, you must submerge yourself completely in sleep, which corresponds to the sleep of night. Rosh Hashanah is the first day of the Ten Days of Repentance, and the essence of repentance is to repent from haughtiness, humbling oneself and truly sensing one's lowliness and unworthiness. As our Sages said, "One self-chastisement is greater than one hundred floggings" (Berachot 7a), and, "He forgives transgression for the remainder" (Micah 7:18) - "to the one who makes himself a remainder" (Rosh Hashanah 17b). Therefore the essence of repentance is humility and humbleness, for all sins arise from disorder, from separating the Malchut and possessing it with haughtiness. That is the source of all judgments, to which the evil inclination and the forces of evil are attached, from which all sins arise. The holy books speak about haughtiness being the cause of all sins, since, "Whoever is haughty is as if he worshiped idols" (Sotah 4b), and, "Whoever acknowledges idolatry is as if he denied the entire Torah" (Chullin 5a). We find, all sins come through haughtiness, G-d forbid, for haughtiness separates disorder from order, which is the cause of all sins. Therefore, the essence of repentance for all sins is humbleness, making yourself as dust to be tread upon, sensing your lowliness and distance from Hashem, lowering yourself and breaking your heart before Hashem. That is how G-d will forgive a person, as written, "G-d will not scorn a broken and oppressed heart" (Ps. 51:19), and "Who forgives transgression for a remainder" - "for one who makes himself as a remainder". This is because humility and humbleness, one makes himself as Mah, as nothing and naught. In this way, one returns to order, represented by Mah, through which all judgments, which correspond to sins, disappear. Therefore, on Rosh Hashanah, which is the first day of the Ten Days of Repentance, the first day of Adam's creation, we must "sleep" - we must completely submerge ourselves as if we have no knowledge at all, but only cry out to G-d and declare Him King, in complete sincerity, without sophistication. On Rosh Hashanah Adam and Eve were created, corresponding to order and disorder. It was their task to rectify all the worlds, representing disorder, into order, to bring 'Eve' into 'Adam'. Had they done that, everything would have been brought into order, without any suffering and judgments, which represent disorder. But they blemished with their sin, and in doing so, they separated disorder from order, for their main sin was haughtiness, 'I shall rule', which was the essence of the Primordial Serpent's enticement, as written, "For G-d knows that on the day you eat of it, your eyes will be open and you shall be like G-d" (Gen. 3:5). As our Sages said, "It told them, 'Every craftsman hates his fellow craftsman - G-d ate from this tree and created all the worlds'" (Genesis Rabbah 19:4). In other words, he aroused jealousy in them and a desire to rule: 'you shall be like G-d' - 'creators of worlds', as if to say, 'Why should you subdue yourselves to Him? If you eat from the Tree of Knowledge, you will be a Gd and a King just like Him!' All this is the aspect of 'I shall rule', in that one desires to draw Malchut/Kingship to oneself, and then everything gets in disorder, for the person himself is in disorder. That is why all generations of mankind became destined to die, for they had blemished order, corresponding to wisdom, the source of all sustenance, as in, "Wisdom sustains life" (Kohelet 7:12), as in, "Mah is our life?". With their blemish, they separated themselves from order, from wisdom, from Mah, the main source of sustenance, and death as opposed to life was the inevitable result. Their blemish also caused everything to become disordered, represented by all the blemishes and decrees that were a result of their sin, as written, "With toil you shall eat of it...thorn and thistle will grow for you" (Gen. 3:17-18), upon which Rashi comments, "When you plant wheat, the earth will give forth thorn and thistle". All this corresponds to the disorder they caused with their sin, which was haughtiness, 'I shall rule', which caused all things to become disordered, since they had evoked disorder upon themselves with their sin. Not only did they not rectify, elevate and refine the world of the judgments that are attached to disorder, bringing everything into order, which is what they were supposed to do on the day they were created - for elevating the entire world to its source, merging disorder into order, was the very purpose for which Adam and Eve were created - but they caused great damage with their sin. The serpent first entices Eve, since she represents disorder, from which the forces of evil derive their power. The rectification should have been by merging disorder into order, by Eve being subservient to Adam, but the serpent overpowered Eve, representing disorder, enticing her to separate 'Eve' from 'Adam', disorder from order, so that Adam would follow Eve's will, so that disorder would rule over order. But they immediately repented and began rectifying everything, a rectification that would not be completed until the coming of the Messiah.

This is the aspect of "And he divided himself against them" (Genesis 14:15) which is said about Abraham at the time he chased after the kings. For Abraham revealed G-d's blessed providence in the world. Therefore, the essence of the fulfillment of the generations of the heavens and earth is through Abraham, as it is written (Genesis 2:4) "These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, בְּהִבָּרְאָם - meaning, through Abraham בְּאַבְרָהָם (Genesis Rabbah 2:4). Abraham revealed His blessed providence to the world; for the essence of the existence of the world is through this. Therefore, Abraham had the power to divide the night, in other words to break the night, which is the aspect of nullification of nature, the aspect of rising at midnight, as explained above. Then {Abraham} overpowered the four kings, which are the aspect of the four Malchuyot, as brought. The essence of their subjugation is through the nullification of nature, as explained above. Therefore, because he erred {by saying} what was written there (Genesis 15:8) "how will I know that I will inherit it?", the exile was decreed because of this, for it was a blemish in knowledge, which is the aspect of divine providence. The essence of knowledge is the aspect of divine providence. And divine providence, this is the aspect of the Land of Israel, the aspect of (Deuteronomy 11:12) "the eyes of Lord your God are always upon it", as Rebbe Nachman wrote in another place. Therefore, because he blemished the da'at/knowledge and blemished the Land of Israel, which is the aspect of divine providence, (Genesis 15:12) "a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and behold, a fright, a great darkness was falling upon him". Because he saw the strength of the exile, which is the aspect of 'a deep sleep', the aspect of darkness, the essence of their subjugation through the natural sciences, through the blemishing of divine providence, as explained above.

God formed man out of dust of the earth, and blew into his nostrils a soul of life, and man became a living creature (Gen. 2:7).

Another word that at first glance appears as unnecessary, is the word ‎את‎, which becomes clearer ‎when we understand it as equivalent to the word ‎אתה‎, as in ‎בא‎, meaning “it came, or He came,” as ‎in Deut.33,2 ‎ה' מסיני בא וזרח משעיר למו הופיע מהר פארן ואתה מרבבות קודש‎, “the Lord came from ‎Sinai, He shone upon them from Seir, He appeared from Paran having come from Ribeboth ‎‎Kodesh.” The word alludes to the fact that the original light of which the Torah said ‎ויהי אור‎ ‎instead of ‎ויהי כן‎, “and so it was,” -the Torah’s standard phrase for nature having complied with any ‎of G’d’s directives,- had been in existence prior to heaven and earth being created, but while prior ‎to that it had existed only in a disembodied celestial world, it had extended its function to light up ‎the newly created physical universe. This light that had previously only served the ‎אין סוף‎, the ‎Creator, directly, now served His creatures also. It did so to the extent that G’d’s creatures could ‎benefit by it and not be blinded by it. When we understand that word in this manner, we can also ‎understand why, at the end of the Torah’s report of the creation (Genesis 2,3) ‎אשר ברא אלוקים ‏לעשות‎, “which G’d had created to do;” the Torah writes the otherwise superfluous word ‎לעשות‎. ‎The Torah thereby also indicates that G’d renews the creative process on a daily basis, both in its ‎spiritual as well as in its profane aspects. On the preceding six “days,” G’d had created worlds that ‎served as the prologue to the physical world.

Yet another interpretation of the opening verse in our ‎portion. We need to consider this verse in conjunction with ‎Exodus 40,18 ‎ויקם משה את המשכן וגו'‏‎, “Moses, (personally) erected ‎the Tabernacle, etc.;”‎
We have a rule expressed in the Zohar that the ‎Tabernacle represented this lower world, as well as the world ‎beyond earth as well as the Torah, in miniature. [Possibly a ‎reference to Zohar Pekudey, 220 where the author of the ‎Zohar uses the word ‎אלה‎ here and in Genesis 2,4 ‎אלה תולדות השמים ‏והארץ‎, as a basis for this comparison. Ed.]‎
Nachmanides quotes Genesis 18,19 ‎כי ידעתיו למען אשר יצוה את ‏בניו....ושמרו דרך ה' לעשות צדקה ומשפט‎, where he explains the ‎expression ‎דרך ה'‏‎ to mean the “attributes that G’d has revealed of ‎Himself.” The Torah credits Avraham in that verse as emulating ‎G’d’s attributes of ‎שלום וחסד‎, “peace and loving kindness, etc.” ‎These attributes are also reflected in the legislation we read in the ‎Torah, as we find commandments that clearly reflect the need for ‎us to be kind even to the undeserving, such as helping one’s ‎enemy to load or unload his donkey, whereas some of the ‎commandments clearly reflect the attribute of Justice, such as to ‎ensure that people convicted of deliberate wrongdoing be ‎punished in accordance with the law. Similarly, other attributes ‎that reflect G’d’s attributes are represented in different parts of ‎Torah legislation. The requirement to wear phylacteries is ‎understood as reflecting the fact that G’d represents ‎תפארת‎, ‎‎“glory,” and that is why we recite a benediction when putting on ‎phylacteries which describes G’d as having distinguished us with ‎glory, i.e. ‎עוטר ישראל בתפארה‎.‎

The Purpose of the Mystery of Faith
Having established that true knowledge is the knowledge of God’s revelation on earth, the author now shows how this to be the meaning of the Shema Yisrael prayer: “Hashem Elo-heinu, Hashem Echod.” That is, Hashem, the Transcendent God, is also Elo-heinu, the imminent God. In R. Gershon Henokh’s eyes, this defines the mystery of faith, for true faith is the ability to perceive God’s light and providence in each detail of creation. In the chapter following this one, R. Gershon Henokh refers to this knowledge as Ma’aseh HaMerkava, “the Workings of the Chariot.”⁴⁷In Hebrew, merkava is related to the word markiv, meaning “to join or assemble.” Thus, the “Work of the Chariot” means a perception of the union of God and creation. This was a term coined by the Sages of the Talmud in references to Yehezkel’s vision of a supernal throne, carried by angels, on which sat an image of the Divine. Talmudic mystics, who delved into the depths of this topic were known as “Descenders of the Chariot.” However, R. Gershon Henokh defines Ma’aseh HaMerkava in a novel way.⁴⁸In keeping with other teachings from the school of Izhitz. The merkava is not the chariot in Yehezkel’s, but the entirety of creation, which, when viewed through the lens of faith, becomes a dwelling place for the revelation of God in the world.
Concerning the meaning of the Shema Yisrael the Zohar writes (Terumah, 160b): The two words Shema Yisrael (Hear O Israel) express a unification of three sides, which are the three words Hashem Elo-heinu Hashem (Hashem is our God, Hashem), since it is all one. Further in the Zohar, it is written (Terumah, 161a): Rabbi Hiya spoke after him and said (Devarim 4:35), “It was shown to you, so you may know that Hashem is God, there is none other besides Him”; (Devarim 4:39) “And you shall know this day, and take into your heart, that Hashem is God, in the heavens above and on the earth below, there is none other.” The entire mystery of faith depends on these words. From this one can know the secret of all secrets, the most hidden of all mysteries, which is that “Hashem Elo-him,” is one full name, and it is all one. And in the Zohar (Pekudei, 260a): One who knows how to combine similar things (min b’mino) – to make connections, connecting chamber to chamber, level to level⁴⁹Meaning, he possesses the wisdom necessary to unite the effect with its cause. In this way, he unifies this world with the upper worlds. – has a share in the world-to-come, as we have established. Therefore, it is the completeness of all. And when the levels are completed, one joined to the other, then it is all one action, and the completeness that comes out of this combination (min b’mino) is called Ma’aseh Merkava,⁵⁰The root of the word, “to assemble, to combine” (הרכבה)and the word for chariot (מרכבה) is the same. the workings of the Divine Chariot. This is the secret of (Bereshit, 2:7), “and Hashem Elo-him formed man.” “Hashem Elo-him” is one complete name, and the resulting action of combining the two names into one is the formation of man. In this way we say, “Hashem is Elo-him.” This is as the Zohar states above, that the mystery of fatih is found in the commandment: “And you shall know this day, and take into your heart, that Hashem is God (which is the same as saying Hashem is Elo-him), in the heavens above and on the earth below, there is none other.”

Leviticus 23,15. “you shall count for yourselves from ‎the day following the festival, (Passover) etc.;” we need to ‎understand first of all why the festival of Passover is referred to as ‎‎Hashabbat in our verse. This has been explained by our ‎sages, (Tanna de bey Eliyahu 14) where the author interprets ‎the word ‎בראשית‎ as meaning ‎בשביל ישראל‎, “for the sake of Israel.” ‎Granted that this is true, it did however, not come to the ‎attention of the world until G’d redeemed Israel from Egypt when ‎His love for His people manifested itself. As a result, Passover ‎became similar to the Sabbath. The Sabbath is unique as on the ‎Sabbath G’d abstained from His creative activity, whereas, ‎according to the Zohar, on Passover He abstained from ‎entertaining thoughts. When G’d “rested” on the original Sabbath ‎His work during the preceding six days was revealed for the first ‎time. Similarly, His love for the Jewish people was revealed for the ‎first time on the occasion of the redemption from Egypt, i.e. the ‎day of the Exodus. On the first day of Passover it finally became ‎clear why G’d had bothered to create the universe altogether. In ‎other words, Passover may be looked upon as the logical ‎conclusion of what had been set in motion the moment G’d had ‎first thought of the people of Israel as a project for the future. ‎This is also the meaning of a statement of the sages in Shabbat ‎‎118 that if the Israelites were to observe two Sabbath days, i.e. ‎the terrestrial Sabbath as well as the celestial Sabbath, they would ‎be redeemed immediately. The scholar to whom this statement is ‎attributed quoted Isaiah 56,4 in support, where G’d promises ‎redemption to the eunuchs who keep His Sabbaths, following up ‎in verse 7 with: “and I will bring them to the Mountain of My ‎holiness etc,. etc.” The “two” Sabbaths of which the Talmud ‎speaks are not to be understood quantitatively, i.e. 2 separate ‎Sabbath days, but refer to the ‎שבת תחתון‎ and the ‎שבט עליון‎, ‎observance of the Sabbath with our body, i.e. ‎תחתון‎, and at the ‎same time observing it with our hearts and minds, i.e. ‎שבת עליון‎, ‎the Sabbath in our upper regions, our heads. The more the ‎Israelites engage in serving the Lord, the clearer it will become ‎that G’d only created the universe on account of the Israelites. ‎There is an allusion to this in the letters of the words ‎מן פסח‎ ‎when we reverse the order of the aleph bet, i.e. that the ‎letter ‎א=ת, ב-ש, ג=ר‎ etc. [Magen Avraham on the laws ‎of the New Moon chapter 428, subsection 3 deals with this in ‎greater detail, i.e. that certain festivals must occur on the ‎weekdays corresponding to other festivals preceding them during ‎the same year. Ed.] ...

The Gaon of Vilna²⁰²Rabbi Elijah of Vilna was one of the greatest geniuses of the modern era. He was born in 1720 and he passed away in 1797. Due to his brilliance, he is called, the “Gaon,” literally, the “genius.” uses the Talmud’s explanation Barchi nafshi to explain the two instances where the letter heh in the traditional Torah text appears in unusual form. In Gen. 2:14 a small letter heh appears in the word be-hibbaram, “when they [heaven and earth] were created,” and in Deut. 32:6 a large letter heh is written in the word ha-la-Hashem, “for God”:

The soul has qualities that resemble God’s attributes. However, relative to God the soul can never reach holiness that truly resembles Him, for who can be compared to God? That is why in Gen. 2:14 it says be-hibbaram ²⁰³The full verse reads, “These are the genealogies of Heaven and earth when they were created [be-hibbaram], on the day that God made earth and Heavens.” The section then proceeds to detail the story of the creation of the first man. There are two classical interpretations for the unusual word be-hibbaram. One is that God created this world with the letter heh, the other is that He created the world for the sake of Abraham. with a small heh, for the five human qualities are miniscule relative to the Divine’s.²⁰⁴The gematria of the letter heh is five. This explanation corresponds to the interpretation that God created the world with the letter heh.²⁰⁵See further Menachos 29b. There is another explanation to the word be-hibbaram. Its letters spell be-Avraham, and it teaches that God created the world due to Abraham’s merit.²⁰⁶See further Bereishis Rabbah 12. These five qualities [of soul] only existed in Abraham [the small size of the letter reflects the rarity of its attainment]. However the heh in the verse ha-la-Hashem tigmalu zos, “Will you do so before God?” (Deut. 32:6) is enlarged. For the five qualities of God are great in a manner that we cannot fully comprehend.²⁰⁷Imrei Noam, Berachos 10a.

This is as it is said in the Zohar (Pinchas, 216b), “Before the giving of the Torah to Israel, the entire creation was dependant upon the specific constellation that ruled over it. This was true even concerning children, life, and sustenance.⁸⁸It is written in the Gemara (Moed Katan, 28b), “One’s portion in receiving children, life, and sustenance depends not on merit, but on fate (mazal).” But after the Torah was given to Israel, they were no longer subject to the influence of the stars … For this reason, whosoever is involved in the study of Torah is free of the influence of the stars.” Before the giving of the Torah, all the effluence of God’s Divine conduct came into the world through an organized system of cause and effect. Each level would receive from the level above it, and effuse to the level below. The final recipient of this concatenation of effluence was man. Thus man received God’s effluence by way of the stars and constellations. Whether man received good or the opposite was subject to the nature and governance of his star. This was the way in which the entire creation received its effluence. However, when Israel received the Torah, they were raised above the stars and constellations. This was because they were now in possession of the Torah, and the world was created through the Torah.⁸⁹The Rashba notes (Teshuvot, 19) that one who observes the Torah is free from the dominance of the stars, yet one who does not observe the Torah is subject to the dominance of the stars. This is hinted at in the Zohar (ibid): “We learn this from Avraham, since his children would later receive the letter Hei⁹⁰Hei - ה - is the number five. in Avraham’s name, which represents the Five Books of Moses. This was hinted at even in the creation of the world, when it was said, ‘these are the generations of the heavens and the earth as they were created (BeHibaram)⁹¹(Bereshit, 2:4) In the word, as they were created – בהבראם – the letter Hei is traditionally written smaller than the normal size. The sages took this as hinting at many things, among them that God put a condition of the creation of the world that the Children of Israel would accept the Five Books of Moses. , which is the same letters as the phrase, ‘He created them with the letter Hei (beHei - baram). God said to Avraham, since this Hei was added to your name⁹²See Bereshit, 17:5. so will the heavens be placed below you. All of the stars and constellations are illuminated by the Hei.” As it is explained in the Midrash Rabbah (Lech, 44), “and He brought him outside and said, ‘look heavenward ‘. (Bereshit, 15:5) This means the God raised Avraham above the dome of the firmament so that all the goodness he receives will come directly from God.”

"Heaven and earth and all their components were complete; for on that day G’d had ceased from all ‎His work that He had created to be continued; (or, to complete it).”‎
‎ [The last words in the paragraph are especially enigmatic, as the beginning of the paragraph ‎creates the impression that the Torah reports about the conclusion of the work of creation. Ed.]‎
Rabbi Levi Yitzchok understands the words ‎השמים והארץ‎ as referring to the sum total of the ‎tangible universe, reminding us that our sacred texts teach us that prior to the creation of the ‎universe there was only what is known in kabbalistic parlance as ‎אין סוף‎, G’d as an “infinite,” a ‎concept that is beyond our capacity to understand. The story of creation conveys how through the ‎creation of the universe as we know it, this “infinite” became transformed into something finite ‎both in space and in time.

Another approach to the last paragraph. it is the ‎duty of every Jew to serve his Creator at all times from ‎feelings of awe and fear and to look at fellow Jews with ‎a benevolent attitude, interpreting actions that appear ‎inappropriate in a favourable light, and not to harm ‎any fellow Jew; the first step in serving G’d is always ‎based on fear, awe. Man’s awe when serving G’d ‎results in a mixture of awe and satisfaction, pleasure. ‎Moses had attained this level of possessing wisdom ‎while at the same time remaining in awe of the ‎Creator, as we know from psalms 111,10 ‎ראשית חכמה יראת ‏ה'‏‎, “all wisdom has its beginning in a feeling of awe and ‎respect of G’d,” and is therefore symbolic of ‎יראה‎, while ‎Aaron’s name contains the letters ‎נהר א‎, i.e. the letter ‎אלף‎ of the word ‎יראה‎, and the letters spelling “water” in ‎the sense of a blissful stream, providing irrigation, the ‎first such water that we find in Genesis 2,10 i.e. ‎ונהר יוצא ‏מעדן‎, “and a river originated from Eden, and irrigated, ‎etc.” Awe and fear lead to satisfaction ‎תענוג‎. Seeing that ‎the term ‎יראה‎, awe, cannot be an attribute of the ‎Creator, and ‎תענוג‎, the feeling of pleasurable ‎satisfaction preceded the dispensation by G’d of His ‎largesse to Israel, (the process being comparable to ‎what our sages meant when they said that “the cow is ‎more intent of nursing the calf than the calf is ‎consciously looking for its mother’s milk,”) when it ‎comes to the results of Moses and Aaron intervening in ‎the process of preparing Pharaoh to release the ‎Israelites, Moses is mentioned first when the Torah ‎writes: ‎הם המדברים אל פרעה מלך מצרים להוציא את בני ישראל ‏ממצרים‎, “they were the ones speaking to Pharaoh to ‎permit the Children of Israel to leave ‎Egypt.”[By mentioning Aaron last, the Torah ‎associated him with the execution directly; he was ‎mentioned immediately before the word ‎להוציא‎, “to ‎release,” i.e. the type of largesse about to be dispensed ‎by G’d to the Jewish people. Ed.].‎
I have heard in the name of my revered teacher ‎Rabbi Dov Baer from Mezerich that he explained ‎Proverbs 10,1 ‎בן חכם משמח אב‎, “a wise son brings joy to ‎his father,” as Solomon paraphrasing the relationship ‎between Jews loyal to Torah and their Father in heaven. ‎When a Jew serves his Father in heaven he causes Him ‎satisfaction and joy. Similarly, when someone makes ‎complimentary remarks about fellow Jews, G’d also ‎derives pleasure from such compliments. We are not to ‎serve G’d for selfish reasons at all, such as the reward ‎we have been promised for doing this. We must strive ‎to provide G’d with satisfaction from our service to ‎Him. This is so although there are a few benedictions ‎in the 19 benedictions of the amidah, the ‎central prayer, in which we ask for something for ‎ourselves, such as intelligence to serve G’d properly, ‎the ability to repent our sins, and a cure for our ‎diseases. Seeing that G’d derives pleasure from our ‎prayers, even these benedictions in which we turn to ‎Him for help, also give Him pleasure. G’d derives ‎pleasure from the very fact that we, His people, enjoy ‎our existence on earth. This is what the sages had in ‎mind when they responded to the question ‎‎(Bereshit Rabbah 3,4) ,‎מהיכן נבראת האורה‎ “from ‎where did the light in which G’d garbed Himself ‎originate?” The word for “light” in that ‎‎Midrash is ‎אורה‎ as opposed to ‎אור‎, the light G’d ‎had created on the first day (Genesis 1,3) ‎‎[There the word for “light” was in the ‎masculine mode, whereas in the Midrash it is in the ‎feminine mode, reminding us that it was something ‎passive, received. Ed.] The answer given by ‎Rabbi Shmuel ben Nachman in that Midrash is that it ‎originates from the site on which the Holy Temple was ‎built. The Talmud, pursuing this subject also asked ‎whence the light originated from.‎
‎[I have not been able to authenticate what ‎follows, supposedly in the Talmud. Ed.]‎
The Talmud wonders whence the light in which G’d ‎drapes Himself originates. Seeing that the word ‎אורה‎ ‎used for “light,” is in the feminine mode it must have ‎been created at some time, having been the recipient ‎of input from another source. Seeing that man needs ‎to serve the Lord for the sake of providing Him with ‎pleasurable satisfaction, ‎תענוג‎, as opposed to our ‎receiving blessings and material benefits in the earthly ‎part of the universe, the question is logical. The ‎answer given in the Talmud to the question posed is ‎that G’d derives pleasure from man’s service which ‎enables Him to dispense His largesse to man. He even ‎enjoys prayer when it is offered as a means to secure ‎this largesse. The reason He does so is because the ‎very fact that He has reason to dispense this largesse is ‎a source of satisfaction for Him.‎

Man, the Creator’s most advanced creature, is able to be active not only in the physical but even in ‎more spiritually refined parts of the universe. Nonetheless, he gradually grows further and further ‎apart from his origin, the “infinite,” pure spirituality that is G’d. The expression ‎שבת‎, used in our ‎paragraph, describes that G’d Himself used the Sabbath to “retrace” His steps back to the origin of ‎creation. ‎
It is the function of the Sabbath to help man to similarly emulate G’d by using the Sabbath to ‎retrace the physical material concerns that preoccupied him during the preceding six days, and to ‎return to the spiritual origin of his soul and be inspired to the extent that he sees in the actions he ‎performed during the weekdays something that has been suffused with the loftiest spiritual ‎values.‎
[In this respect the Sabbath is a day that completes a cycle and prevents us from losing contact ‎with our origins. Ed.] ‎

Rabbi Ami and Rabbi Asi, even though there were thirteen synagogues in Tiberias, would only pray between the pillars of where they were learning. And in the Yerushalmi (Brachot, beginning of chapter ein omdin) Rabbi Yochanan says, a covenant has been made - one who tires themself with learning in synagogue will not quickly forget it. That is to say, Torah and prayer are united - Torah only is because of the strength of prayer, and prayer only is because of the strength of Torah. For even if a person understands in their wisdom the Torah, in any case to bring the strength of the Torah on the "clothing" is only due to prayer. As it was at Creation, where it is written "and there was no person to work the ground" (Bereishit 2:5) and it says in the Gemara, "teaching that herbs came out and stood at the opening of the soil, until Primordial Human and prayed for mercy and rains came down and they sprouted" (Chullin 60b). That is to say, even though God planted the Garden of Eden before, which is an allusion to Their intent to create it, They discerned in wisdom and had counsel to see the light, even so these were secured by God only in wisdom understanding and knowledge - this is the matter of the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge. Even to illuminate their light, which would light up the "clothing", that human action would receive wisdom from them, that they will know how to act - this is only by means of prayer, for there is no wholeness for the words of Torah by means of prayer. And so too, the wholeness of prayer is only by means of Torah, for in Themself the Blessed One cannot be accessed by thought at all - therefore, a person is unable to pray before the Blessed God since there is no access of the Blessed God. Therefore, by means of accessing the words of Torah, by this means can they pray before the Blessed God. And like this is written, "I am always with You; You hold me by the right hand, Guide me with Your counsel and afterwards, take me to honour" (Tehillim 73:23-4). When one prays from this side, that one sees that one is attached to the Blessed God, and They hold them always by the right hand: then one prays to be guided with Their counsel, and to have one's eyes enlightened to Above by accessing Them. This is why it says, "and afterwards, take me to honour" (ibid.) - for the honour of the Blessed God goes out in the revelation at the time that the wicked is repaid according to their deeds. And this is why, when one prays, they begin by asking the Blessed God to reveal Their honour and not to delay a moment: only, immediately, take me, and Your honour will be exalted.

"These are the developments of heaven and earth once they had been created;” the author ‎understands the word ‎תולדות‎ to mean “objective, purpose;” when the Torah continues with the ‎words; ‎ביום עשות ה' אלוקים ארץ ושמים‎, “from the day the Lord G’d had completed earth and ‎heaven,” the message is that from now on the Torah is concerned primarily with what happens on ‎earth, as opposed to when what happens on earth, had been the secondary concern up until the ‎human species had been created. The practical significance of this statement is that whereas prior ‎to this point earth had been the “recipient” of celestial input, from this point on it is the task of ‎earth and what occurs on its surface to “kick back” beneficial vibrations to the celestial regions, i.e. ‎the result of man fulfilling his duty on earth. The author bases himself on psalms 148,13 ‎הודו על ארץ ‏ושמים‎, which he translates as “His majesty is above earth and heaven,” earth being mentioned ‎first. This implies that the heavens receive useful input from earth.‎

“The universe was created through ten statements.”³⁴⁸Ethics of the Fathers 5:1. This Mishnah is based on the ten appearances of the word Va-yomer, “and God said,” in the first chapter of the book of Genesis,³⁴⁹In truth, the Talmud teaches that there are nine commands of creation and the tenth was the first word of the Torah, Bereishis, “In the Beginning.” Perhaps this lesson teaches that the first “statement” was the creation of speech, while the other statements were expressions of speech. According to the Zohar, there is a different list of ten. The first statement is “And God said, ‘Let there be light,’” and the final statement is (Gen. 2:18) Va-yomer Hashem Elokim lo tov heyos ha-adam le-vaddo e’eseh lo eizer ke-negdo, “And God, the Lord, said ‘it is not good for man to be alone I will make for him a helpmate opposite him’” (Rav Wolfson). which are the ten Divine decrees that produced the world. What the Mishnah called ten statements, the mystics termed ten Sephiros. Human speech is a limitation of breath, the essence of human life.³⁵⁰The word for soul, neshamah, shares a relationship with the word neshi-mah, “breath,” for respiration is vitality. The ten Sephiros are the limitations of God’s essence; hence they are symbolically called ten statements.

And thus you should eat it: your loins girded, your shoes on your feet... and your staff in your hand, and you should eat it in haste... and that day will be a remembrance for you... seven days... One should pay attention to the reason for this mitzvah, why the eating should be hasty specifically. For wasn't the eating of the paschal lamb before midnight, and they couldn't leave their homes until the morning? We can consider further based on what is said in the Haggadah - "this matzah that we eat, what is it for? For there was not enough... as it is said... 'and also they had not prepared any provisions for the way' (Shemot 12:39)". And this reason still needs explanation. It's possible to explain according to what we said earlier, regarding the verse "from every tree of the garden you may eat, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat..." (Bereishit 2:16) And our rabbis were devided on which tree Adam haRishon ate. One could have asked, how did Adam know which tree was the tree of knowledge of good and evil, if not for the fact that Hashem Yitbarach showed him it. And this isn't according to the sense of the verse, but it's possible to say that the principal of God's commandment is not to be drawn after his cravings to eat food, since it is delicious and good to look at. And the thorn in its lowliness, this only will be your food to sustain your body alone. Since God has not separated in Their eyes between that which is good to look at and that which is not - rather, one's eating should be to satiate themself so they can be established for their service of their Creator. And this is the statement of the verse "from every tree of the garden you may surely eat..." meaning, you are permitted to eat from all of them, just so long as there is no difference in your eyes between eating from this one because you crave it since it is delicious, or the thorn in its lowliness which is disgusting. This difference is forbidden to you, and this is "from the tree of knowledge of good and evil" you shall not eat - it wishes to say that you shouldn't distinguish in your eating between this which is tasty and the thorn which is evil in your eyes. And we can say that "the tree of knowledge" isn't a specific tree, but rather Adam was commanded equally regarding all of them not to distinguish between good and evil with regard to his appetites. And our rabbis of blessed memory were divided on which species he craved with a bodily craving. And for this reason our fathers went down to Egypt, to purify their material selves and to break their appetites by means of the yoke of subjugation, in order to right the sin of Adam haRishon. And for this, we are commanded to eat on Pesach bread of affliction, which is tasteless and without salt or preparation. This is for this intention: to teach that a person should not be drawn after human pleasures, which are illusory. And for this reason the matzah is called 'bread of affliction/poverty' - because the poor person isn't able to choose food that they crave or enjoy, and is forced to eat whatever comes to their hands even if it isn't delicious. So too with us: we eat matzah from dough with no seasonings. It would be the same to us if it were sweet, but there isn't sweetness - it's just to sustain ourselves to serve God and to sanctify ourselves by means of eating matzah for seven days. These correspond to seventy years, a lifespan, to show us that by means of from the need to cast away from opposite all worldly delights and from one's desires. [?] And this is alluded to in the statement "this matzah which we eat, why?... 'for they did not have enough... and they had also not prepared provisions...'". Meaning, we receive instruction from our ancestors who were on this level, that they were not drawn after their cravings to prepare flavourful and pleasant provisions. They ate at their exodus only cakes of matzah, without flavour. So we act according to their deeds. And the explanation of his words is, "this matzah that we eat", meaning, our intent when we eat matzah and say "this matzah which we eat, why?... 'for they did not have enough... and they had also not prepared provisions...'" is that we should intend that, just as our ancestors cast away their bodily cravings, so too we must trend [?] to act thus: by means of eating the matzah, we accustom ourselves to purify our material selves and to break the strength of this craving. And it is for this reason that Hashem Yitbarach commanded us to eat the paschal lamb "in haste" - it's known that even if the food is tasty, hasty eating won't allow one to derive pleasure in the same way as slower eating at a set table. To teach us again, as I have explained, that one should not eat to fulfil their cravings - only in order to sustain life in order to serve Hashem Yitbarach. And it finishes and says, "This day will be a remembrance for you" (Shemot 12:14) - meaning, you should remember this forever, why we're commanded to eat the paschal lamb in haste. For this is to break the strength of craving, and also "seven days matzot you shall eat" (ibid.) - that this should be on your heart forever.

"And a mist would rise up from the earth;” following the allegorical approach, the author reminds ‎the reader that G’d had created the Universe(s) in order to provide Himself with satisfaction, and ‎we find this concept alluded to in His name ‎י-ה-ו-ה‎, the satisfaction being called: ‎אהיה‎, which ‎according to our author refers to the satisfaction the Creator hopes to derive from the positive ‎contributions to spirituality that will emanate from man on earth. [condensed by me. Ed] ‎

Initially the world was created with harshness, as a result, the name of God that is employed in the story of creation is Elokim, the name of restraint. However, in the tale of the first human marriage the name of God is expressed differently: Va-yomer Hashem Elokim lo tov heyos ha- adam le-vaddo e’eseh lo eizer ke-negdo, “And Hashem Elokim said it is not good for man to be alone I will make for him a helpmate opposite him” (Gen. 2:18). Marriage is a display of the harmony emerging from the blend of opposites, which is why it is introduced with a Divine appellation that recalls the attribute of tiferes.

The Gates of Zion
“And brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that would be its name” (Genesis 2:19): This verse is very difficult to understand. For what reason is there for this calling; especially according to that which they said in the Midrash (Bereshit Rabbah 17:4) that the Holy One, blessed be He, exalted Himself over the angels about that which they could not call the animals, names. It is difficult – what wisdom is there in this? And also that which He said, “I am the Lord, since that is the name that the first man (Adam) called me.” And also Rashi had to stretch a great deal to explain the end of the verse. But we shall not be lengthy about the nuances.

Another approach to the allegory of: “river, garden, and ‘Eden.’” It is well known that every Jew is ‎obligated to acquire and maintain good character traits and to make them second nature. By doing ‎so he provides G’d with satisfaction. When serving his Creator by personifying these positive ‎virtues, he enables the Creator to ”boast” of His creatures, [as for instance we find when G’d ‎‎“boasted” to Satan about the piety of Job. (Job 1,8) Ed.] These “virtues” are described in ‎‎Avot 2,1 as ”in the eyes of his peers.” The author of the mishnah, Rabbi ‎‎Yehudah hanassi, uses the expression ‎תפארת לעושיה‎, to describe that man’s ‎Creator can use this as “boasting” or justifying His having created the human species. When ‎reading these words superficially we must wonder why G’d is interested i.e. in “need” of our ‎actions, seeing He has myriads of angels ready to do His bidding. However, the very fact that His ‎people, the Jewish people, who have been assigned the “lower” portion of the universe as their ‎habitat with all the disadvantages that are prevalent in that region, distinguish themselves by their ‎loyal service to Him nonetheless, is something extraordinary, that cannot be compared with ‎angels. This is what Rabbi Yehudah hanassi had in mind when he described loyal service to ‎G’d by His free-willed creature, man, as being ‎תפארת לו מן האדם‎, “something glorious for Him ‎performed by man.” G’d certainly has reason to “boast” about such devotion when telling Satan ‎that in spite of his activities as seducer and spoiler, there are people who have not been deterred ‎in their loyalty to Their Creator. Genesis 2,10-14 describes this whole process of man being ‎encouraged by G’d to develop the appropriate virtues and how having acquired them his Creator ‎derives great satisfaction from that. The simile used by the Torah of describing man’s watering ‎G’d’s “garden” read: “worlds,” as something that He takes pride in, is therefore a well chosen ‎euphemism.‎

Even though it seems that a person follows his wisdom, understanding, and knowledge, still, it is the will within the attributes that truly leads man, and the heart that directs the brain. ⁴⁶⁹By heart, he seems to mean the innermost will of a person, and not just the emotions. A person’s will directs his opinion. This is clearly seen in the way that a person inner character traits influence his opinion and the way he thinks. This will also determine how he teaches his children and all those he seeks to help. Whereas, a person with evil qualities will instill these negative characteristics in his children, since in his mind, this is the correct path to follow. The Zohar puts it this way (Raya Mehamna, Parshat Tsav, 28b): It is written (Bereshit, 2:6), “And a mist went up from the earth,” and immediately afterward it says, “and it watered the entire face of the earth.” In this way, fumes wake up in Binah – Understanding – which is the heart, as we have learned, “The heart understands.” Then the ascends to Hokhmah – Wisdom, which is in the brain. Therefore, when one instills emunah in his heart, the heart then awakens the mind and its thoughts to understand even that which is above its perception.⁴⁷⁰The Sefirah of Keter transcends the “intellectual” Sefirot of Hokhmah, Binah, and Da’at. As such, it is trans-rational, and is connected to the much deeper inclinations of Will and Desire, which arise in a person’s mind spontaneously, from a deep, subterranean level that the conscious mind cannot always identify. This itself is the level of faith, since, in Hasidic terms, faith means the connection and affirmation of a reality that is beyond the mind’s grasp and rationalization. One should not say, “How can I establish faith in my heart, believing in that which transcends my mind, since the human mind can only understand that which the senses perceive, and that which is not based on empirical perception, the mind cannot understand.”

In the words of our author, the brilliance of the “sparks” which had not yet been sufficiently ‎reduced in intensity for man, even an Adam, G’d’s personal handiwork, to be exposed to without ‎being harmed by it, [absorbing it internally, Ed.] was the reason why G’d warned him on pain of ‎death not to eat from it. ‎
The author illustrates all this by means of a parable. A son had become estranged to his father, ‎thereby losing the path he had walked and getting lost in all kinds of dead end alleys which he ‎found difficult to get out of. When, in spite of these detours, he eventually found his way back to ‎his father’s home, the joy of his having returned pleased the father immeasurably more than the ‎satisfaction an obedient son who had never left the parental home in the first place could have ‎afforded him.‎
When considering the relationship between the tree of knowledge and its roots in the celestial ‎spheres, the words of warning issued by G’d, i.e. “on the day when you will eat from it you will ‎die,” will become clearer. The tree of knowledge will remain alluring to its beholders as long as ‎what they see reflects the thinly veiled brilliance of its celestial origin. Only after man violated G’d’s ‎commandment did it cease to be such and assume more earthly proportions so that being exposed ‎to it any further will spell eventual death as man had contaminated it. [“Death” may be perceived ‎as the ultimate contraction of Divine glory on earth, G’d having veiled His spiritually illuminating ‎light with so many veils that none of them reach man, and therefore cannot “revive” his spiritual ‎resources. Ed.]‎
The good deeds performed by the righteous reverse this entire process and, ultimately, when ‎brought to its successful conclusion, will enable a different world from the one we are familiar with ‎to be revealed even on earth.‎
In the dialogue just described by the Torah, the first difficulty is the meaning of the word ‎אף‎ with ‎which the serpent commences. Normally, we understand this word to mean: “although, in spite ‎of,” or something to that effect. Why would the serpent begin the conversation by using this as an ‎introductory word? Furthermore, why did the serpent “quote” G’d as having said ‎פן תמותון‎, “lest ‎you will die,” when in fact G’d had said [concerning a single tree Ed.] ‎כי ביום אכלך ממנו תמות‎ “for ‎on the day you eat from it you will die.”(Genesis 2,17) G’d had made an absolute statement “you ‎will die,” whereas the serpent changed the statement to a warning rather than a threat, i.e. “lest ‎you may die,” describing death as a possible rather than as a definite result of eating from the tree.‎'

Prior to the sin, both Adam and Chavah did not appreciate the concepts of ascent and descent of ‎‎“sparks” of the Shechinah, so that when they heard G’d mention the word “death,” they ‎had understood it as a merely temporary condition, such as unconsciousness. They had not ‎understood it as referring to the “death” of worlds, and that is why the serpent’s argument made ‎sense to them, as they felt that the Creator would be contradicting all that He had created if He ‎were to allow it to disintegrate so easily by a relatively insignificant action such as eating from the ‎fruit of the tree. ‎
When our sages in Chagigah 14 relate that four people “descended” into the pardess, ‎‎(acronym for “peshat, drush, remez, sod) the four disciplines used to explore the ‎depths of the Torah, and that only Rabbi Akiva, returned unscathed, they meant to warn us not to ‎embark on such excursions as they might result in our death. Adam and Chavah entertained ‎doubts about the exact meaning of the result of disobeying G’d’s prohibition and its consequences ‎for anyone disregarding this command. These doubts made them potential victims of the serpent, ‎who phrased the ”threat” in such a manner that Chavah thought there was logic to the serpent’s ‎words, especially when by repeating: ‎לא מות תמותון‎, the serpent claimed that no manner of ‎‎“death” would result from her eating from the fruit of the tree. The serpent implied that creatures ‎who are ranking as high in G’d’s hierarchy as Chavah and her husband, did not have any reason to ‎fear “death.” The serpent implied that the unscreened “light” emanating from the ‎‎Shechinah was not beyond their ability to digest without harm, on the contrary, they would ‎gain additional wisdom, and become able to tolerate even more intense rays of Divine “light.”‎

Novel Understandings of Aggadah for Weddings or a Channukat HaBayit
“Male and female He created them; […] and He called them, Man (Adam)” (Genesis 5:2): We must understand the matter of being called a name – of her first also being called Adam, but afterwards He called her “woman (eeshah), for from man (eesh), was she taken” (Genesis 2:23); and afterwards [Adam] called her, Chava (Genesis 3:20). [This can be understood] according to that which is written (Deuteronomy 22:8), “When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, etc.” For it must be understood why He mentioned specifically a new house, since this law applies even to an old house and in any situation in which one needs to remove a hazard from his home. And [we must] also [understand] that which is written, “if the faller should fall from it” – as Rashi had to stretch. And it appears to me [that it can be explained] according to that which was written in Noam Meggadim on the verse, “Wealth and riches are in his house [and his charity will last forever]” (Psalms 112:3), and by way of further explanation according to that which is written (Avot 4:1), “Who is wealthy? One who is happy with his portion.” I mean to say that the way of most people is to become sad about expenses and happy about that which remains to them. But it is just the opposite! For what remains to him is not his, as it was written about Moonbaz (Bava Batra 11a), “My ancestors stored up [money] in a place where the hand can reach (such that it is not assured).” But [as opposed to them,] he was happy with what he spent on charity and for good deeds, as this is truly one’s portion. And this is the meaning of that which is written, “Wealth and riches are in his house” – meaning to say, and he cannot be certain that there are his – however the charity that he has done is what will last him forever.

And in a different way, [we can explain it] according to that which is written (Bava Batra 98a), “One who is haughty is not accepted even by the members of his household.” And Rashi explains, “The members of his household, [means] his wife.” And the reason for the thing is that the Divine Presence dwells between a man and his wife, as is well known. But anyone who is haughty pushes away the feet of the Divine Presence, so he does not have a harmonious domestic life. Rather there is a voice of claims, strife and dissension between them. And that is the meaning of that which is written, “When you build a new house” – his house is his wife (Yoma 2a) – then “you shall make a parapet for your roof,” [understood] as mentioned above, that he should not become haughty. For otherwise, “you shall not place damim in your house” – which is an expression of quiet – there will [instead] be yelling, strife and disagreement. And so Adam first called her, Adam, as they were perfectly united – before being split. But when she was separated from him, he called her, woman – since God was still dwelling between them. But then after the sin, when there was no longer peace between them, he called her, Chava – which is an expression of speech, as in, “expresses (yechaveh) knowledge” (Psalms 19:3). And this is as it is written in the Midrash (Bereshit Rabbah 18:4), “’This time (paam)’ (Genesis 2:23), as it says (Exodus 28:34), ‘A golden bell (paamon),’ etc. – that will yell out in the future, etc.” And this is especially with a second marriage, which the Sages, may their memory be blessed, said (Sotah 2a) is [determined] according to his actions. And that is because it is impossible for a first marriage to be according to his actions – for what he will be like is not known before conception (which is when the match is determined). As [while many things are determined before conception,] whether he will be righteous or an evildoer is not (Niddah 16b). But with the second marriage, he is matched according to his deeds. And hence he must improve all of his traits for the sake of Heaven, so that his match will go well.

Everything that has been handed down to us about Avram ‎suggests that he was unwavering in his faith in G’d from his very ‎youth, and certainly did not have any theological relapses. ‎Nachmanides stated with absolute certainty, basing himself on ‎Genesis 25,8 that Avram had always considered anything that ‎happened to him as being G’d’s desire and meant for his own ‎good. Nachmanides understood this as being the meaning of the ‎words: ‎זקן ושבע ימים‎, “of old age, satisfied and satisfied in years.” ‎Contrary to most people, who are described in Kohelet ‎Rabbah, 5,9 as leaving behind many unfulfilled aspirations ‎when they die, Avraham died fully fulfilled. In Baba Batra ‎‎117, as well as in Sanhedrin 91 the meaning of the word ‎מורשה‎ is discussed, there being different opinions of how the ‎distribution of the ancestral plots in the Land of Israel was ‎determined by lottery; if the lottery only applied to the tribal ‎allocations, or to families. The discussion also concerns whether ‎only Jews who partook in the Exodus or their offspring were ‎allocated land, or whether the allocation included Jews who had ‎lived before that period, including Avram, Yitzchok, etc. Avram’s ‎question of ‎במה אדע כי אירשנה‎, meant: “how will I know that I ‎personally will be included in the distribution of the land at that ‎time? He knew that he would not inherit a plot of land in Israel as ‎part of his father Terach’s merit, as he had been the first convert ‎to Judaism, something that was confirmed in Sukkah 49. ‎Since he did not endure slavery in Egypt as did the generation of ‎the Exodus, he was not sure that he would qualify at the time of ‎the distribution.
Avram’s question had been triggered by G’d ‎saying to him:, ‎לתת לך את הארץ הזאת לרשתה‎, “to give to you this ‎land in order to inherit it.” (15,7) Avram wanted to know if he ‎would live long enough to take part in the distribution of the ‎land in Joshua’s time, or how he was to understand the words: ‎לתת לך‎, “to give to you.” The Talmud in Sukkah 49 quotes ‎psalms 47,10 where we encounter the expression ‎עם אלוקי אברהם‎, ‎‎“the nation that worships the G’d of Avraham”; a sage raised ‎question whether G’d perhaps is not also the G’d of the people of ‎Yitzchok and the G’d of the people of Yaakov.” The answer given ‎is that Avraham was the first convert from which the Jewish ‎people developed, so that he enjoys a special status. As a reward, ‎G’d gave the land of Israel especially to him. Avraham wanted to ‎know if, since the land of Israel becomes a ‎מורשה‎, his share would ‎be due to his father bequeathing it to him. The term ‎ירש‎, “to ‎inherit,” always implies that one inherits from a father. If ‎Avram’s question had been ‎במה אדע כי תתן לי‎, “how will I know ‎that You give it to me,” it would have been inappropriate, of ‎course. G’d had spoken about “giving;” Avram asked only about ‎the hereditary aspect, ‎אירשנה‎.
We will deal with the expression ‎במה אדע‎, somewhat later in this paragraph.‎ When G’d introduced His reply to Avram’s question with the ‎words: ‎ידוע תדע כי גר יהיה זרעך‎, “you must truly realize that your ‎descendants will be strangers, etc.,” this can best be understood ‎when referring to a commentary by the Zohar I 87 on the ‎verse: (Genesis 2,4)‎אלה תולדות השמים והארץ בהבראם ‏‎. The letter ‎ה‎ in ‎smaller script in the middle of this word alerts the reader not to ‎read the word as a single word, but as ‎באברהם ברא‎, i.e. G’d created ‎the universe on account of, or with the eventual assistance of ‎Avraham.” Had G’d not foreseen that someone like Avram will be ‎born, He would not have considered it worth His while to create ‎the human race. The fact that Avraham, on his own, without ‎prompting, would proclaim the name of the Creator, made it ‎worth G’d’s while to put up with all the sins man would commit. ‎Avraham would be the one to acquaint his peers with the concept ‎that G’d is One, is unique, is in charge of the universe and yet had ‎granted the creatures he made in His image freedom of choice to ‎choose their own path in life. The fact that this Avraham would ‎sire a Yitzchok, and Yitzchok in turn would sire a Yaakov who ‎raised 12 sons who would form the nucleus of the Jewish nation, a ‎nation of priests, made it all worthwhile for G’d. When the Jewish ‎people collectively accepted G’d’s Torah, without critically ‎examining what was written therein first, this was a crowning ‎moment not only for the Jewish people, but it enabled G’d to ‎converse with a mortal human being, Moses, as if he were on His ‎own level, i.e. ‎פנים אל פנים‎, face to face.‎
When G’d introduced His reply to Avram’s question with the ‎words: ‎ידוע תדע כי גר יהיה זרעך‎, “you must truly realize that your ‎descendants will be strangers, etc.,” this can best be understood ‎when referring to a commentary by the Zohar I 87 on the ‎verse: (Genesis 2,4)‎אלה תולדות השמים והארץ בהבראם ‏‎. The letter ‎ה‎ in ‎smaller script in the middle of this word alerts the reader not to ‎read the word as a single word, but as ‎באברהם ברא‎, i.e. G’d created ‎the universe on account of, or with the eventual assistance of ‎Avraham.” Had G’d not foreseen that someone like Avram will be ‎born, He would not have considered it worth His while to create ‎the human race. The fact that Avraham, on his own, without ‎prompting, would proclaim the name of the Creator, made it ‎worth G’d’s while to put up with all the sins man would commit. ‎Avraham would be the one to acquaint his peers with the concept ‎that G’d is One, is unique, is in charge of the universe and yet had ‎granted the creatures he made in His image freedom of choice to ‎choose their own path in life. The fact that this Avraham would ‎sire a Yitzchok, and Yitzchok in turn would sire a Yaakov who ‎raised 12 sons who would form the nucleus of the Jewish nation, a ‎nation of priests, made it all worthwhile for G’d. When the Jewish ‎people collectively accepted G’d’s Torah, without critically ‎examining what was written therein first, this was a crowning ‎moment not only for the Jewish people, but it enabled G’d to ‎converse with a mortal human being, Moses, as if he were on His ‎own level, i.e. ‎פנים אל פנים‎, face to face.
Moses reminded the people in Deut. 5,4 how 40 years earlier, ‎when most of them had not yet been alive, G’d had addressed the ‎whole nation on the ‎פנים אל פנים‎ “face to face level,” [until the ‎people asked Moses to be their interpreter instead. Ed.] At that ‎time all creatures on earth were in awe of their Creator. When the ‎people had consecrated the Tabernacle in the desert as a “home” ‎for Hashem in the lower parts of the universe, G’d took delight in ‎the world He had created, as we know from Taanit 26 where ‎the Talmud understands Song of Songs 3,11 ‎ביום חתונתו וביום שמחת ‏לבו‎, “on His wedding day, the day when His heart rejoices,” as ‎referring to G’d’s feelings on the day of the revelation at Mount ‎Sinai, and the day when the Tabernacle was consecrated, ‎respectively. This is the kind of ‎נחת רוח‎, “pleasure, satisfaction,” ‎that man in the lower part of the universe can contribute to G’d ‎in the loftier spheres, in heaven. On both of these occasions the ‎joy was reciprocal, G’d showing that He can associate with ‎earthlings and take pleasure from this. The Israelites’ enthusiastic ‎response after the splitting of the sea and their miraculous and ‎escape from Pharaoh’s pursuing armies, was another occasion ‎when the reciprocal nature of the relationship between G’d and ‎His “chosen” people was demonstrated publicly. Nowadays, ‎almost 4000 years later, we recall these events and praise the Lord ‎every week when we pronounce the blessings over wine. Not a ‎day goes by without our giving thanks to the Lord for the Exodus ‎from Egypt‎.
At the time when Avram lived, the world, i.e. the planet earth ‎and man on it, was still in a state of semi-collapse, its continued ‎existence far from assured, until Yitzchok and Yaakov continued ‎the work that Avram had started when he kept proclaiming the ‎power and goodness of the Creator. This assurance of the earth’s ‎continued existence was only confirmed with the creation of the ‎Jewish people, and this people’s leaving Egypt as G’d’s people, ‎after having slaughtered the Passover, and proven that they ‎considered the Creator as their highest authority.
The Tur, commenting on why we mention the Exodus ‎of Egypt in the weekly Kiddush, as opposed to the ‎‎Kiddush on the festivals whose link to the Exodus is self-‎evident, explains that the Sabbath harbours within it the ‎כח ‏המוליד‎, the power that enables creatures to regenerate themselves ‎by producing offspring. This “power” is conditional on the ‎observance of the Sabbath (in some form). Terach, Avram’s ‎father, while able to produce physical offspring, was unable to ‎produce offspring equipped with the kind of soul that would be ‎active in spreading the message that G’d is the one and only ‎Creator. [I have not been able to find where the Tur writes ‎this, although he writes about man as well as most other living ‎creatures becoming endowed with the ability to procreate bodies ‎in his Torah commentary. (Genesis 2,3)

Everything that has been handed down to us about Avram ‎suggests that he was unwavering in his faith in G’d from his very ‎youth, and certainly did not have any theological relapses. ‎Nachmanides stated with absolute certainty, basing himself on ‎Genesis 25,8 that Avram had always considered anything that ‎happened to him as being G’d’s desire and meant for his own ‎good. Nachmanides understood this as being the meaning of the ‎words: ‎זקן ושבע ימים‎, “of old age, satisfied and satisfied in years.” ‎Contrary to most people, who are described in Kohelet ‎Rabbah, 5,9 as leaving behind many unfulfilled aspirations ‎when they die, Avraham died fully fulfilled. In Baba Batra ‎‎117, as well as in Sanhedrin 91 the meaning of the word ‎מורשה‎ is discussed, there being different opinions of how the ‎distribution of the ancestral plots in the Land of Israel was ‎determined by lottery; if the lottery only applied to the tribal ‎allocations, or to families. The discussion also concerns whether ‎only Jews who partook in the Exodus or their offspring were ‎allocated land, or whether the allocation included Jews who had ‎lived before that period, including Avram, Yitzchok, etc. Avram’s ‎question of ‎במה אדע כי אירשנה‎, meant: “how will I know that I ‎personally will be included in the distribution of the land at that ‎time? He knew that he would not inherit a plot of land in Israel as ‎part of his father Terach’s merit, as he had been the first convert ‎to Judaism, something that was confirmed in Sukkah 49. ‎Since he did not endure slavery in Egypt as did the generation of ‎the Exodus, he was not sure that he would qualify at the time of ‎the distribution.
Avram’s question had been triggered by G’d ‎saying to him:, ‎לתת לך את הארץ הזאת לרשתה‎, “to give to you this ‎land in order to inherit it.” (15,7) Avram wanted to know if he ‎would live long enough to take part in the distribution of the ‎land in Joshua’s time, or how he was to understand the words: ‎לתת לך‎, “to give to you.” The Talmud in Sukkah 49 quotes ‎psalms 47,10 where we encounter the expression ‎עם אלוקי אברהם‎, ‎‎“the nation that worships the G’d of Avraham”; a sage raised ‎question whether G’d perhaps is not also the G’d of the people of ‎Yitzchok and the G’d of the people of Yaakov.” The answer given ‎is that Avraham was the first convert from which the Jewish ‎people developed, so that he enjoys a special status. As a reward, ‎G’d gave the land of Israel especially to him. Avraham wanted to ‎know if, since the land of Israel becomes a ‎מורשה‎, his share would ‎be due to his father bequeathing it to him. The term ‎ירש‎, “to ‎inherit,” always implies that one inherits from a father. If ‎Avram’s question had been ‎במה אדע כי תתן לי‎, “how will I know ‎that You give it to me,” it would have been inappropriate, of ‎course. G’d had spoken about “giving;” Avram asked only about ‎the hereditary aspect, ‎אירשנה‎.
We will deal with the expression ‎במה אדע‎, somewhat later in this paragraph.‎ When G’d introduced His reply to Avram’s question with the ‎words: ‎ידוע תדע כי גר יהיה זרעך‎, “you must truly realize that your ‎descendants will be strangers, etc.,” this can best be understood ‎when referring to a commentary by the Zohar I 87 on the ‎verse: (Genesis 2,4)‎אלה תולדות השמים והארץ בהבראם ‏‎. The letter ‎ה‎ in ‎smaller script in the middle of this word alerts the reader not to ‎read the word as a single word, but as ‎באברהם ברא‎, i.e. G’d created ‎the universe on account of, or with the eventual assistance of ‎Avraham.” Had G’d not foreseen that someone like Avram will be ‎born, He would not have considered it worth His while to create ‎the human race. The fact that Avraham, on his own, without ‎prompting, would proclaim the name of the Creator, made it ‎worth G’d’s while to put up with all the sins man would commit. ‎Avraham would be the one to acquaint his peers with the concept ‎that G’d is One, is unique, is in charge of the universe and yet had ‎granted the creatures he made in His image freedom of choice to ‎choose their own path in life. The fact that this Avraham would ‎sire a Yitzchok, and Yitzchok in turn would sire a Yaakov who ‎raised 12 sons who would form the nucleus of the Jewish nation, a ‎nation of priests, made it all worthwhile for G’d. When the Jewish ‎people collectively accepted G’d’s Torah, without critically ‎examining what was written therein first, this was a crowning ‎moment not only for the Jewish people, but it enabled G’d to ‎converse with a mortal human being, Moses, as if he were on His ‎own level, i.e. ‎פנים אל פנים‎, face to face.‎
When G’d introduced His reply to Avram’s question with the ‎words: ‎ידוע תדע כי גר יהיה זרעך‎, “you must truly realize that your ‎descendants will be strangers, etc.,” this can best be understood ‎when referring to a commentary by the Zohar I 87 on the ‎verse: (Genesis 2,4)‎אלה תולדות השמים והארץ בהבראם ‏‎. The letter ‎ה‎ in ‎smaller script in the middle of this word alerts the reader not to ‎read the word as a single word, but as ‎באברהם ברא‎, i.e. G’d created ‎the universe on account of, or with the eventual assistance of ‎Avraham.” Had G’d not foreseen that someone like Avram will be ‎born, He would not have considered it worth His while to create ‎the human race. The fact that Avraham, on his own, without ‎prompting, would proclaim the name of the Creator, made it ‎worth G’d’s while to put up with all the sins man would commit. ‎Avraham would be the one to acquaint his peers with the concept ‎that G’d is One, is unique, is in charge of the universe and yet had ‎granted the creatures he made in His image freedom of choice to ‎choose their own path in life. The fact that this Avraham would ‎sire a Yitzchok, and Yitzchok in turn would sire a Yaakov who ‎raised 12 sons who would form the nucleus of the Jewish nation, a ‎nation of priests, made it all worthwhile for G’d. When the Jewish ‎people collectively accepted G’d’s Torah, without critically ‎examining what was written therein first, this was a crowning ‎moment not only for the Jewish people, but it enabled G’d to ‎converse with a mortal human being, Moses, as if he were on His ‎own level, i.e. ‎פנים אל פנים‎, face to face.
Moses reminded the people in Deut. 5,4 how 40 years earlier, ‎when most of them had not yet been alive, G’d had addressed the ‎whole nation on the ‎פנים אל פנים‎ “face to face level,” [until the ‎people asked Moses to be their interpreter instead. Ed.] At that ‎time all creatures on earth were in awe of their Creator. When the ‎people had consecrated the Tabernacle in the desert as a “home” ‎for Hashem in the lower parts of the universe, G’d took delight in ‎the world He had created, as we know from Taanit 26 where ‎the Talmud understands Song of Songs 3,11 ‎ביום חתונתו וביום שמחת ‏לבו‎, “on His wedding day, the day when His heart rejoices,” as ‎referring to G’d’s feelings on the day of the revelation at Mount ‎Sinai, and the day when the Tabernacle was consecrated, ‎respectively. This is the kind of ‎נחת רוח‎, “pleasure, satisfaction,” ‎that man in the lower part of the universe can contribute to G’d ‎in the loftier spheres, in heaven. On both of these occasions the ‎joy was reciprocal, G’d showing that He can associate with ‎earthlings and take pleasure from this. The Israelites’ enthusiastic ‎response after the splitting of the sea and their miraculous and ‎escape from Pharaoh’s pursuing armies, was another occasion ‎when the reciprocal nature of the relationship between G’d and ‎His “chosen” people was demonstrated publicly. Nowadays, ‎almost 4000 years later, we recall these events and praise the Lord ‎every week when we pronounce the blessings over wine. Not a ‎day goes by without our giving thanks to the Lord for the Exodus ‎from Egypt‎.
At the time when Avram lived, the world, i.e. the planet earth ‎and man on it, was still in a state of semi-collapse, its continued ‎existence far from assured, until Yitzchok and Yaakov continued ‎the work that Avram had started when he kept proclaiming the ‎power and goodness of the Creator. This assurance of the earth’s ‎continued existence was only confirmed with the creation of the ‎Jewish people, and this people’s leaving Egypt as G’d’s people, ‎after having slaughtered the Passover, and proven that they ‎considered the Creator as their highest authority.
The Tur, commenting on why we mention the Exodus ‎of Egypt in the weekly Kiddush, as opposed to the ‎‎Kiddush on the festivals whose link to the Exodus is self-‎evident, explains that the Sabbath harbours within it the ‎כח ‏המוליד‎, the power that enables creatures to regenerate themselves ‎by producing offspring. This “power” is conditional on the ‎observance of the Sabbath (in some form). Terach, Avram’s ‎father, while able to produce physical offspring, was unable to ‎produce offspring equipped with the kind of soul that would be ‎active in spreading the message that G’d is the one and only ‎Creator. [I have not been able to find where the Tur writes ‎this, although he writes about man as well as most other living ‎creatures becoming endowed with the ability to procreate bodies ‎in his Torah commentary. (Genesis 2,3)

Contemplate this: in speech, it is the World of Speech that speaks through you; an enormous world by which all worlds were created. This is the meaning of the word (Genesis 2:4) בְּהִבָּרְאָם , "In their creation", which can be read 'created with ה' - referring to the five openings of the mouth. Contemplate further on the greatness of the Blessed One, in that all the life-force of all the worlds is contained in speech. This is the world of Awe, in which it is as if the Shechinah constricts itself and dwells within your words and in your mouth, as it says (Sefer Yetzirah 2:3) "God fixed the letters in the mouth." If speech is so, what is with the World of Thought? Even more brilliant lights, with no end and no way of grasping. When you contemplate such things and say in your heart: this is the contraction of the World of Thought in my mind, in my wisdom and understanding. Before such an enormous world, I should feel in awe.

The essence of unification is not to separate the mind from speech, and not to mix evil into the good. This is the meaning of (Genesis 2:9) "The tree of knowledge of good and evil," and (Proverbs 30:23) "A slave-girl who supplants her mistress -" all hinting at the upper waters.

(215) And he said "and you will see etc if it is strong or weak" (Numbers 13:17-18) - and this is also the aspect that a person is able to check themselves in whatever level they are, as I wrote before regarding the verse in Song of Songs (Songs 8:1-2) " if only it could be as with a brother,as if you had nursed at my mother’s breast: then I could kiss you when I met you etc" and also regarding the verse in Genesis "they were naked and were not ashamed of themselves" (Genesis 2:25), that a person when checking oneself they know whether they are strong and connected in the service of Hashem, and when it never occurs to the person a laughing thought and a bad and dispersive thought, it is because they were able to divest from the physical, which are the husks and the illusions, and they cling to God and are called "naked" and then they are not ashamed. That is not the case when one thinks of a laughing thought, or the other impediments [to prayer] then one knows that "they are lazy, lazy in the work" (Exodus 5:17) of Hashem. And this is what it means "are they strong or weak": one should know from those signs whether one is strong or weak in the service of Hashem.