Chasidut su Ecclesiaste 9:78

And Adonai spoke to Moses, saying: “Lift up the head of the children of Gershon, them as well, by their fathers’ house [by their families] etc. (Num. 4:21-22). And we must understand what is meant by saying: it presents no problem with respect to mitzvot, since it makes sense to say that the explanation is that Moses should say to Israel; but here, [God’s instruction] is for Moses alone! And furthermore the Torah is eternal and relevant in every time, for otherwise it would be, God forbid, merely stories from past times; and if that were the case why would it be called “Torah” which connotes Instruction and Guidance [hora’at derekh], since it instructs [morah] and teaches us the way of God — but what Instruction and Guidance is here? But it is written, attach to Him (Deut. 11:22), which our Sages of Blessed Memory interpreted: “How is it possible to attach to Blessed God, when He is a Consuming Fire?” and it is written in the Holy Zohar, “A Fire which consumes all the fires in the world” (III:62a); and if so, how is it possible for Flesh and Blood to attach to such a God? Rather, [the verse means] attach to God’s attributes: just as He is merciful, so you should be merciful, etc. (cf. Rashi, loc. cit.). And we must understand: How does this answer his question? While it is true that a person could attach to God’s attributes, in the verse it says, attach to Him! But in truth the answer is that Blessed God gave us the Torah so a person would be able to attach to Blessed God; for how [else] would it be possible for a person who is bounded and limited to attach to Blessed God, who is without limit, since He has no beginning and no end? Therefore Blessed God gave us the Torah and contracted himself (as if it were possible) into our Holy Torah so that in his attaching to the Torah, it happens that he is attached to Blessed God who dwells within the Torah. And this is the statement of our Sages of Blessed Memory, “Attach to God’s attributes,” meaning to the Torah; for the Torah is interpreted through thirteen [methodological] attributes, such as “from one premise to another,” “from a similar phrase,” etc.,1 and these are precisely the thirteen attributes [of God], “merciful and compassionate” etc. So when a person attaches to the Torah he attaches to Blessed God who dwells within the Torah. And so according to this it would be very easy for a person to attach to Blessed God, meaning through his attaching to the letters of the Torah and Prayer which are the Capabilities of the Blessed Creator who dwells within them; but there are Foreign Thoughts which come and confuse him at the time when he is engaged in Torah and Prayer. So what can one do about this? One must ask the advice of the Torah, since the Torah gives us advice about this. For a person must understand the matter of the Foreign Thoughts: are they not Letters which have fallen? For no thought could exist without Letters, and the Foreign Thoughts are also Letters, but they have fallen because of his own actions. And therefore when he comes to attach to Blessed God, they also come so that he can elevate them. But a Foreign Thought does not come, God forbid, to confuse him, and he must elevate them to their Root. And this is what the Torah tells us in pleasant words: Lift up the head, which is to say that your should lift up and elevate א"ת, which are the twenty-two letters from aleph to tav; elevate them to the Head and the First who is the Blessed Creator. For all the words of the Torah and Prayer, they are all combinations of Letters: when you join together vav-yud-dalet-bet-resh it makes the word vayedaber; all the words are all combinations of Letters and one must elevate the Letters to their Roots. And if you do this then the children of Gershon, the Letters which fell and were banished [nitgarshu], they too will rise to their fathers’ house, they being Abraham who was the attribute of Mercy and Love; and the Fear of Isaac, who was the attribute of Reverence; and Israel, in whom I will be glorified (Isaiah 49:3) who was the attribute of Glory. That is, when a person leans and prays with Reverence and Love in order to Glorify his Creator by the Name of His Glorious Sovereignty, then the Letters go up there Above to the Fathers as has been explained. To their families, to their Attachments as in put me, please (1 Sam. 2:36). But how does one do all this? King Solomon, peace be upon him, explained it as Whatever your hand is capable of doing (Ecclesiastes 9:10) which is to say in whatever way you want to do Blessed God’s Will, do it with strength, you must do it with strength; meaning that when you put all your strength and your life-force into the Letters of the Torah and Prayer, through this you will elevate them to their Root, to the Blessed Creator.

While on the subject of the meal Avraham prepared for these ‎heavenly guests, we need to understand why he served them ‎meat instead of fish. The motivation may have been to afford his ‎guests to perform many commandments in short order; in the ‎terrestrial regions, nowadays, before being able to consume a ‎meat meal many more commandments must be fulfilled than ‎before preparing a fish meal. This is in contrast with the world to ‎come, where, according to our tradition, G’d will present the ‎righteous with a meal consisting of the Leviathan. There are ‎many more commandments associated with the preparation of a ‎meaty meal than with the preparation of a “fish meal,” i.e. ‎Leviathan. (Baba Metzia 86) According to the Talmud, Avraham ‎slaughtered three calves in order to be able to offer each of his ‎guests a tongue and mustard (as seasoning), considered the ‎choicest meat of the animal.‎
The Talmud Eyruvin 53 relates that when Rabbi Yossi ‎bar Avion wished to say something that only people familiar with ‎him would understand, he would say: ”‎עשו לי שור במשפט בטור ‏מסכן‎;“ he deliberately used some Hebrew words, ‎שור‎, ‎במשפט‎, ‎which have a different meaning in Aramaic. Similarly, the word ‎חרדל‎ used by our sages for the seasoning Avraham provided for ‎his guests is really a translation of the words ‎הר דל‎, “a low hill.” In ‎short, the Rabbi making excuses for the errors committed by the ‎Jewish people, referred to the evil urge as an almost ‎insurmountable obstacle, a tall mountain, whereas the urge to do ‎good given to every human being, appeared like a low hill, so that ‎it is not surprising that many Jews many times found it difficult ‎to climb over the tall mountain in order to avoid sinning. When ‎the sages spoke of the “seasoning” Avraham served his guests, ‎this is merely a euphemism for saying that he tried to provide his ‎guests with merits by the type of food served that would make it ‎relatively easy to overcome the temptations offered by the evil ‎urge. When the angels would reflect on this, they in turn, in the ‎future, would tone down their accusations against sinful Jews, ‎having realized through their visit on earth how difficult it is to ‎fight these temptations.

And this is the aspect of (Ex. 13), “Sanctify to Me all the male firstborns, whatsoever opens the womb among the children of Israel,” which is the beginning of the first passage in the tefillin. For the essence of the tefillin are drawn from the sanctity of the firstborn, which is the first birth, which is the aspect of Yetziath Mitzrayim, which is the aspect of birth, as is known, as on account of this we need to sanctify the first birth which is a male firstborn. As written there, “And it came to pass, when Par`oh would hardly let us go... therefore I sacrifice” etc. And all this is in order to draw on oneself the sanctity of birth of the brains which is the essence of birth, that is, to manage to renew ones vitality and brains at all times as if he was born today, as mentioned. Which, this is is the essence of long life, which are the aspect of tefillin as mentioned. And therefore one needs to give the firstborn to the Kohen or redeem him from him, for the Kohen is the aspect of the elder in holiness, in the aspect of (Ps. 133), “It is like the precious oil upon the head, coming down upon the beard; even Aharon's beard” etc., the aspect of the Eight Tikkunim of the Kohen Gadol, as is known. And this is what our Rabbis z”l said (Shabbath 151), “And let your head lack no oil (Eccl. 9:8) — this is head tefillin.” For the essence of tefillin are drawn from the aspect of “like the precious oil upon the head...” of the elder, Aharon, as mentioned. And therefore by means of giving the firstborn, who is the first birth, to the Kohen, we draw the sanctity of the birth of the brains and vitality, to remember to always renew himself as if he was born today, which this is the essence of tefillin, which are the aspect of brains and long life which we receive from the aforementioned Elder in Holiness, who said that he is extremely old and yet has not begun living at all, as if he was born today. For, one needs to each time begin anew as mentioned, and this is the aspect of Mashiach, of whom it is said (Ps. 2), “Today I have borne you.” For Mashiach will attain this aspect perfectly, which is the aforementioned aspect of long life, as each moment he will begin living anew as if he was born today, in the aspect of “I have borne you today.” For Mashiach will attain the aspect of above time, as explained in Rabbeinu z”l's words on this verse, “I have borne you today;” see there [LM II #61]. For this aspect that the blind one boasted of, who is old yet infantile etc. and the whole world does not amount to him so much as an eyeblink etc., all this is the aspect of above time, which this is the aspect of long life that Mashiach will attain, the aspect of (Ps. 21), “He asked life of You; You gave it to him,” which is the aspect of “David King of Yisrael is Alive and Well.” For David is Mashiach. And this is the aspect of tefillin; that is where is the root of the Mashiach's soul, as is brought, as the root of Mashiach's kingship is in the aspect of the tefillin's knot, and as Rabbeinu z”l said (LM #54), which this is the aspect of (Sam. 1 25), “yet the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life,” which is said of David, who is Mashiach. The bundle of life is the aspect of tefillin knot, which are the aspect of life as mentioned, the aforementioned aspect of long life, as mentioned.

In light of the foregoing it is appropriate to explain the words ‎in Song of Songs 1,3 (page 297) in accordance with the words of ‎the Baal Shem Tov of sainted memory. He first explains ‎psalms 48,15 ‎הוא ינהגנו על מות‎, “He will lead us beyond mortality,” ‎by using a parable. A father teaches a very young son how to walk ‎two or three steps at a time. When the little boy has walked a few ‎steps toward his father, his father distances himself from him a ‎little farther in order to encourage his son to “walk the extra ‎mile.” The father repeats this maneuver every time his son is ‎about to catch up with him. G’d encourages us to “catch up with ‎Him” in a similar fashion, by appearing to be more and more out ‎of our reach. The message we (the tzaddikim) are to receive ‎from this maneuver is that we have not yet attained perfection. ‎This is what David meant when he said ‎הוא ינהגנו על מות‎, “in order ‎for G’d to lead us into immortality.” He has to encourage us to ‎‎“catch up with Him,” step by step.
‎[You the reader, may have noticed that the word: ‎עלמות‎ contains the same letters in the same sequence as the two ‎words ‎על מות‎ in psalms 48,15. Ed.]‎
To get back to Song of Songs 1,3 ‎לריח שמניך טובים‎, “for your ‎oils are good as fragrance;” the Hebrew word ‎שמן‎, oil, is used ‎allegorically to describe a person’s good deeds. When Solomon in ‎Kohelet 9,8 warns that ‎ושמן על ראשך אל יחסר‎, “may your head ‎never lack oil (ointment),” he does not refer to perfumed oils, but ‎to the fragrance emanating from a person who has many good ‎deeds to his credit. Under what circumstances are such fragrances ‎compared to ‎שמן תורק שמך‎, “Your name being poured forth like ‎oil?,” when the tzaddik has the feeling again and again after ‎having scaled a rung on the ladder of spiritual ascent, that he is ‎empty and needs to replenish spiritual energies possession of ‎which would bring him closer to perfection. When this is what ‎the tzaddik worries about constantly, his head gives forth ‎the fragrance of the oils mentioned by Solomon in Song of Songs.‎ ‎