Chasidut su Salmi 33:78

Deuteronomy 26,17. “this day you have guaranteed that ‎the Lord will forever be your G’d;” as a general rule the ‎largesse dispensed by G’d for mankind is known as ‎דבור‎, as we ‎know from psalms 33,6: ‎בדבר ה' שמים נעשו וברוח פיו כל צבאם‎, “by ‎the word of G’d the heavens were made and by the breath of His ‎mouth all their host.” Whenever the Jewish people are on a ‎spiritually lofty plateau, it is as if they cause G’d to dispense His ‎largesse for them, whereas if, G’d forbid, they have fallen from ‎that level the Talmud (Gittin 56) likens them to Exodus ‎‎15,11 ‎מי כמך באלם ה'‏‎, which according to the Talmud should be ‎read as ‎מי כמך באלמים‎, “who is like You amongst the “dumb, i.e. ‎silent ones, O Lord?”
‎[The Talmud arrives at this interpretation because the ‎word ‎אלים‎ is written defectively, without the letter ‎י‎ which would ‎indicate the plural mode, Ed.]
This is the allusion in ‎our verse where the Torah speaks –in a complimentary fashion- ‎of Israel as causing G’d to “speak,” i.e. dispense His largesse. ‎Moses adds the word ‎היום‎, “this day,” to indicate that as far as ‎Israel’s status is concerned, each day is viewed as a separate unit, ‎so that they can be credited with their spiritual accomplishments ‎anew each day.‎

This shall be the Torah concerning the one struck with skin blanch [metzora] on the day he becomes clean. He shall be brought to the priest (Lev. 14:2), and our Sages of Blessed Memory interpreted metzora as one who speaks evil [motzi ra], for afflictions come through the sin of evil speech. But the matter is according to what is written, When God began to create etc. (Gen. 1:1), and our Sages of Blessed Memory interpreted: “For the sake of Torah and for the sake of Israel” (cf. Rashi, ad. loc.); so we find that Israel is something very important to Blessed God, since for their sake all of the Worlds and all the Creations were created. And Blessed God takes pleasure from each one of Israel, even from a greatly wicked person: “Your temples [rakatekh] are like a pomegranate (Song of Songs 6:7) – even the empty ones [reykanim] among you are as full of mitzvot as a pomegranate” (Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 57a). And when a person speaks evil about one of Israel, even if he speaks truth, he nullifies the Blessed Creator’s pleasure (if it were possible) and causes Him sadness (if it were possible) as is stated, [And the Lord …] was saddened in to His heart (Gen. 6:6), and inverts the pleasure [oneg] into affliction [nega]; therefore his “wage” is measure for measure, affliction comes upon him. And our Sages of Blessed Memory said: “Evil speech is as great as idolatry, sexual immorality, and murder” (Babylonian Talmud, Arakhin 15b). But we must be precise: what connection does idolatry have to evil speech? But the matter is according to what is written, By the word of ADONAI were the heavens made (Psalm 33:6), that all of the Worlds and all of the Creations were created through speech comprised of the 22 letters of the Torah, which is called Heavenly Sovereignty. For when the Sovereign does not speak, no one knows how to do His Will; and when he speaks His Will is revealed, and that is Heavenly Sovereignty whose Sovereignty is in all jurisdictions. And we find in Sefer Yetzirah that [the letters] are established in the mouth, that Blessed God established the 22 letters: the World of Speech, Heavenly Sovereignty, the Attribute of ADONAI-ness, ADONAI, open my lips (Psalm 51:17), were established in the human mouth.

The Talmud in Rosh Hashanah 18A states: "Rav Naḥman bar Yitzḥak said: We, too, learn this in the Baraita: The verse states: “He who fashions their hearts alike, who considers all their deeds” (Psalms 33:15). What is this verse saying? If we say this is what it is saying: That He created everyone and unites all their hearts together, there is a difficulty since don’t we see that it is not so, as the hearts of people are not united and are not similar to one another? Rather, is this not what it is saying: The Creator sees their hearts together and considers all their deeds with a single scan." The original assumption of the Talmud is that there can only be one way of all people to have this level of unity, and that is through seeing their hearts (see above) through which he can place light in their hearts, as we see that the Jewish people all camped as one before Mount Sinai.

Delightful Love is sometimes symbolized in the Torah by lovebirds or doves, which delight in each other and stare at one another continuously (see Song of Songs 1:15, “your eyes are doves’ [eyes].”) It is as though the two lovers “cannot take their eyes off of one another,” and gaze at each other with total rapture until their eyes become bloodshot and red. This is also what is meant by the parallel verses (Psalms 25:15), “my eyes are constantly upon G-d,” and (Psalms 33:18), “the eye of G-d is upon those who fear Him.” Our verse, too, referring to “eyes bloodshot from wine,” is speaking of the degree of Delightful Love which results after one has succeeded, through the wine of Torah, in bringing out the Great Love “hidden” within one’s soul. (This is also the level of love meant by the Kabbalistic expression, “to gaze at the glory of the King [G-d].”)

It is written in the Midrash Rabbah (Bereshit, 4): “And God made the firmament in the midst of the waters” (Bereshit 1:7). This is one of the verses where Ben Zoma’s²⁶²Ben Zoma was considered to be one of the greatest interpreters of the Torah of his day (2nd century, CE). He was one of the four sages who “entered the Orchard” of mystical experience. The other three being Ben Azzai, Elisha ben Abuya, and R. Akiva. Due to the intense nature of the experience, Ben Zoma went mad, Ben Azzai died, and Elisha ben Abuya became a heretic and was subsquently known as Acher – “Other.” Only R. Akiva entered and departed in peace. explanation shook the world and perplexed the sages.²⁶³The following passage from the tractate Hagiga (15a) describes the incident: Our Rabbis taught: Once Rabbi Yehoshua ben Hananiya was standing on a step on the Temple Mount, and Ben Zoma saw him and did not stand up before him. So Rabbi Yehoshua said to him, “What are you contemplating, Ben Zoma?” He replied, “I was gazing between the upper and the lower waters, and there is only three fingerbreadths between them, for it is said (Bereshit 1:6), And the spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters - like a dove which hovers over her young without touching them.” Thereupon Rabbi Yehoshua said to his students, “Ben Zoma is still outside.” See now, when was it that ‘the spirit of God hovered over the face of the water? It was on the first day of Creation. But the division took place on the second day, for it is written: And let it divide the waters from the waters!’ And what is the size of the division? Rabbi Akha ben Yaakov said, “a hair’s breadth.” According to R. Gershon Hanokh, Ben Zoma was attributing the division between G-d and creation to the very roots of reality – to the first day of creation. However, as Rabbi Yehoshua pointed out, the division between G-d and creation only occurred on the second day, with the creation of the firmament. And even in those terms, Ben Zoma was still wrong, as he perceived a significant division between the upper and lower worlds (three fingerbreadths), whereas the division is no more than a hair; meaning to say, the division between G-d and creation is extremely slight, and exists only from the human perspective, as explained above. For further discussion of this see Living Waters: The Mei HaShiloach, (Tr. Betzalel Edwards), Parshat Emor, on the verse, “and you shall not do so in your land.” Wasn’t the creation of the firmament already included in the statement (Tehillim, 33:6), “The heavens were created with God’s word, and the spirit of His breath all their hosts”?²⁶⁴Verse six in the first chapter of Genesis says, “And God said, let there be a firmament.” Verse seven says, “And God made the firmament.” Yet the psalm teaches us, “The heavens were created with God’s word,” meaning, God’s word created the universe immediately. Thus, if the firmament was already created in verse six, why in verse seven does it say, “God made the firmament”? To Ben Zoma, this implied a division between G-d and His actions. Rashi explains to us that Ben Zoma perplexed the sages by saying that he gazed and saw that the distance between the upper and lower waters was three fingerbreadths. The Midrash goes on to say that it was not long after this that he died. Concerning the creation of the firmament and the division of the waters, the Ramban asked why in verse 6 the Torah says, “Let there be a firmament in the waters,” and then again in verse 7 it says, “And God made the firmament.” Wasn’t the firmament already made in verse 6?²⁶⁵According to Ramban, this is the exact problem that bothered Ben Zoma. It was not only on account of the word, “He made” since on the fourth, fifth, and sixth days it also says, “He made.” Rather, Ben Zoma’s problem was that on other days, immediately after God’s utterance (“let there be”), it is written, “and it was so.” This implies that it came into being immediately after the utterance. Yet on the second day, after it says, “and God said, let there be a firmament,” it goes on to say, “and He made.” (before it says, “and it was so.”) The Ramban suggests that Ben Zoma had some secret interpretation of the verse that he did not want to reveal. (See the Ramban for his own reconciliation of this problem.) Truly, both explanations are true and one. The mistake of Ben Zoma was that he posited too great a distance between the upper and the lower waters. This is the meaning of the statement, “Ben Zoma glimpsed and died.”²⁶⁶According to the Babylonian Talmud, Ben Zoma went mad, but Ben Azzai died. According to Palestinian Tamud, Ben Zoma died, and Ben Azzai went mad. The Mei HaShiloach gives a brief explanation of this. The Gemara (Hagiga, 15b) records Ben Zoma saying, “I was gazing between the upper and the lower waters, and there is only three fingerbreadths between them.” Upon hearing this, Rabbi Yehoshua said to his students, “Ben Zoma is still on the outside.”²⁶⁷Simply explained, this means after his mystical experience, Ben Zoma’s perception became damaged, and the sages of his day felt that they could no longer rely upon him. On a deeper level, R. Yehoshua may have been saying that Ben Zoma perception was outside the realm of unity. What was the actual distance between the upper and lower waters? “Rabbi Aha ben Yaakov said a hairbreadth. And the Rabbis said the space between the boards of a narrow bridge. Mar Zutra (or maybe Rav Assi) said as the space between two garments spread one over the other; and others say, the space between two cups fitted one over the other.” The subject of the space between the upper waters and the lower waters is hinted at in the matter of the firmament, which alludes to the separation between the upper and lower worlds. The creation of the firmament made a division between the upper and lower worlds, as it is written in the Zohar (Bereshit, 17a): “And God said, let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters.” (Bereshit, 1:6) This is the secret of the rectification, specifically of the separation between the upper and lower waters, in the secret of the left… A conflict that is arrayed as above,²⁶⁸D. Matt’s translation was partially used in this passage. which rises and does descend,²⁶⁹Meaning, a conflict exists in this world, similar to the conflict above – i.e. the division between heaven and earth; that is the Talmudic debate between Shammai and Hillel, which was a “makhloket l’shem shamayim” – a dispute for the sake of Heaven, and ultimately reconciled (Pirkei Avot, 5:17), just as the division between heaven and earth will ultimately be reconciled. The opposite is the conflict of Korah, which was a a “makhloket sh’lo l’shem shamayim” – not for the sake of heaven, and thus will not endure. It is similar to the false division perceived by Ben Zoma. and which exists on a straight path, is the dispute of Shammai and Hillel. There God separated between the two and reconciled them. Since this was a conflict for the sake of Heaven, the Heavens mediated the conflict, and because of this it endures.²⁷⁰Matt renders, “and upon this conflict the world was established,” based on another version. This is akin to the creation of the world. Korah (in his dispute with Moshe) went against the work of creation. He was in dispute with the heavens. He wanted to contradict the words of Torah. In his dispute he was certainly cleaving to hell, and hell clove to him. This secret is written in the book of Adam. The reason for the separation between the upper and lower realms is in order give man the ability to serve God. The division creates darkness and a concealment of the Divine Presence. Man can then serve God through the power of his own free choice. This is as was mentioned above in the Tikkunei Zohar (Tikkun 70) and is mentioned in the Zohar (Tetsave, 184a): Man only serves God from amidst darkness…²⁷¹G-d’s worship is not complete until it arises out of man’s free will. But in order for many to have free will, he cannot be aware of G-d’s presence. A level of darkness, concealment, or “division” between the upper and lower worlds must exist. Therefore God created the “Tree of Doubt” which is the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.²⁷²The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil represents the consciousness that perceives a separation between heaven and earth. When it is used to bring man closer to G-d, it is called a “controversy (i.e. division) for the sake of heaven.” However, when the dualistic perception is taken to its most negative extreme, it posits an unbridgeable gap, which is the root of all irreconcilable controversies, that are “not for the sake of heaven.” In this way man can serve God out of this very uncertainty. This is as it is said (ibid.): Light is only that which comes out of darkness. When this side is subdued, the Holy One, blessed be He, ascends above, and His Glory is magnified.²⁷³The only true service of God is that which arises from a situation of doubt and confusion. Indeed, from the downward evolutions and concatenations of the branches of the Tree of Doubt, there eventually arises the phenomenon of the dispute which is not for the sake of Heaven, like the dispute of Korah.²⁷⁴The Radziner is presenting a tremendously novel concept, namely that the root of all earthly conflicts lie in the contradiction between God’s omnipresence and His concealment. Though He is everywhere, as the Torah states, “there is none else besides Him,” yet our normal human perceptions contradict this. Similarly, though God directs everything in the world, we still have free choice to do as we please. Yet, it is the concealment of the Divine that provides us with the ability to freely serve Him. When the Zohar says, “The Heavens mediated this conflict, and thus it endures,” it means that only through God’s illumination can the human mind grasp the reconciliation of these paradoxes. This is because the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil also contains separate evil. This is included in the divine utterance of creation, “Let there be a firmament,” – which is separate – and creates a division between the upper and lower realms.

The human soul was created in a unique manner. All other creations were formed through command; God declared and the item appeared. For example, of the sky, Scripture states, Bi-dvar Hashem shamayim na’asu, “With the word[s] of God, Heavens were created” (Ps. 33:6).¹⁴³The Hebrew language and the letters of the alphabet have a unique holiness since the world was created through God’s speaking Hebrew. For instance, God said shamayim, and out of the letters shin, mem, yud, mem, the heavens eventually emerged. The Hebrew letters are the spiritual root of the world. A great tzaddik only sees these letters. (See page 82, where a story from the Kamarna Rebbe illustrating this concept is recorded.) When he sees the skies he sees the Hebrew word shamayim since it is the spiritual source of the physical heavens. Perhaps King David referred to this perception when he said in Psalm 29, Kol Hashem ba-koach, kol Hashem be-hadar, “The sound of the Almighty is within strength, the sound of the Divine is within glory.” David was a tzaddik, and he was describing his perception of reality. All strength comes from the Almighty. God gives energy to the powerful. In truth they are impotent, and only God’s force is significant. David also wrote, Shivisi Hashem le-negdi tamid, “I have placed the Almighty before me always.” David only saw the Divine essence. This Divine essence is letter combinations of the holy language. The combinations spell out Divine names; that is why he proclaimed that he constantly had the Divine before his eyes, for he constantly perceived the Divine source. See further the Commentary of Rabbi S.R. Hirsch to Chapter 29 of the Psalms, Bereishis Rabbah 18:4, and R. Tzadok Ha-Cohen in Sichas Malachei Ha-Shareis pg. 44. The soul was not commanded to emerge rather God blew man’s soul into him.¹⁴⁴From Scripture’s account it is clear that man’s body was formed from the earth in a way that resembled the rest of creation; apparently it was formed through a command.

‎[I have decided to omit the balance of this lengthy ‎paragraph as, in my opinion it does not add anything to what the ‎author has previously written about at length. Ed.]‎.

Deuteronomy 12,5. “you are to seek out His residence ‎and go there;” the letters in the word ‎שמה‎ are the same as ‎in the name of ‎משה‎, something that has been explained in the ‎‎Tikkuney Hazohar as well as in Zohar III 273, in ‎connection with psalms 33,14, ‎ממכון שבתו השגיח‎, “from His ‎dwelling place He supervises, etc.” There too, the first letter of ‎each of these three words spells the name ‎משה‎. It is pointed out ‎there that already in Genesis 6,3 the word ‎בשגם‎ alludes to Moses, ‎seeing that the letters‏ ‏‎ ‎ש‎ and ‎מ‎ are directly part of his name, ‎whereas the combined numerical value of the letters ‎ב‎ and ‎ג‎ add ‎up to 5=‎ה‎. According to the Midrash Shir Hashirim rabbah, ‎‎1,64 Moses was equivalent to the entire Jewish people on the one ‎hand, whereas every individual Israelite had to strive to become ‎Moses’ equal. In other words, the word ‎שקול‎ “of equal weight,” is ‎to be understood as “in both directions.” When applied to the ‎verse in psalms 33,14 “G’d supervises the whole earth,” refers to ‎the Israelites, and the words ‎ובאת שמה‎, in our verse above assure ‎Moses that he is the vehicle that enables the individual Israelite to ‎be welcome in G’d’s residence, the Temple or Tabernacle. It was ‎Moses who enabled the Israelites to attain that level of holiness.‎

And with this we can understand [the Gemara’s statement] (Rosh Hashanah 32a), “’In the beginning’ is also considered an utterance, as it is stated (Psalms 33:6), ‘By the word of the Lord the heavens were made’” – and see Rashi’s commentary. For the holy Torah also caused and assisted the Creation, that it be able to exist – and as it is written (Kiddushin 30b), “I created the evil impulse, [and] I created the Torah as a remedy.” And this is the intent of the midrash at the beginning: That because the Holy One, blessed be He, only started using the expression, “And He said,” with, “Let there be light” (Genesis 1:3); but, “And He said” is not said regarding the creation of the heavens and the earth – therefore [we derive that] the heavens and the earth exist on account of the Torah, and did not need an utterance [other than the Torah itself]. And that is why the Torah weakens the strength of the evil impulse. Hence the fools will understand the Torah’s uniqueness, “and they will they will begin with words of Torah.” And this is the meaning of that which is written (Jeremiah 33:20), “Were it not for My covenant […], I would not have made the laws of heaven and earth.” For the heavens and the earth were created by way of the Torah.

But after Abraham’s death, these springs of wisdom were stopped up, because they were stopped by the Philistines (Gen. 26:18) who are the aspect of evil which is set in a person, who had overpowered the world; and the element of Earth had overpowered [the others] and in proportion the spiritual and intellectual powers weakened. But when Isaac, his son, came and held to his father’s path, he taught this awareness to the people of his generation as well – to return and dig to the aspect of a well of living water through many types of intelligences and great and concealed counsels – until Isaac dug again the wells of water (Gen. 26:18). All this comes by way of faith, which is the precursor to this: that one believes with complete faith that Blessed God, the whole earth is filled with [God’s] Glory (Isaiah 6:3) and no place is void of [God], there is no other besides [God] (Deut. 4:35). And then, by way of this faith, he yearns for [God] and desires to hold to and attach himself to Blessed God, who has the aspect of valley [nahal] (Gen. 26:19), which is an acronym for Our soul waits for the LORD [nafsheynu hiktah la-ADONAI] (Psalm 33:20), which [means] by way of faith. And then, through this, he comes to his root, which is the spring of the well of living waters that we have described. And that is [the meaning of] when Isaac's servants dug in the valley (Gen. 26:19) – the aspect of valley as we have stated – and found there a well of living water (Gen. 26:19), etc., The herdsmen of Gerar quarreled … so he called the name of the well Esek etc. (Gen. 26:20), Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over that also, so he called its name Sitnah (Gen. 26:21), And he moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So he called its name Rehoboth, saying, “For now [the LORD has made room for us]” etc. (Gen. 26:22).

When the psalmist, in psalms 111,4 says of G’d: ‎זכר עשה ‏לנפלאותיו‎, “He has made a memory for His wonders,” the question ‎arises why ”wonders” need to be commemorated by a special ‎זכר‎? ‎We would have thought that their very having occurred is their ‎memorial! The psalmist answers this unspoken question in the ‎latter half of the same verse when he says: ‎חנון ורחום ה'‏‎, ‎‎“Hashem is gracious and compassionate.” At the sea of ‎reeds G’d demonstrated that in spite of His being compassionate ‎He deliberately suppressed this attribute by drowning the ‎Egyptians in order to “save” the Israelites. This “canceling” of one ‎of His major attributes on account of the interests of the Jewish ‎people is what are referred to both by the psalmist, and by Moses ‎in the shirat hayam, the song of thanksgiving, as ‎נפלאותיו‎ or ‎פלא‎, “wonderful, amazing.”‎
The second type of ‎ישועה‎, “rescue” is when G’d garbs Himself ‎in the “clothing” worn by nature, i.e. makes use of natural law ‎without disturbing its normal function. A well known example of ‎such an event is the “miracle” of Purim, which according to all ‎that we know about it did not contain any elements that could be ‎described as interference with the natural course of events.‎
Achashverosh married Esther, and due to his jealousy of ‎Haman who he thought had tried to rape his wife Esther, he ‎hanged Haman. A similar “miracle” resulted in the festival of ‎Chanukah, the king or chief general of the Seleucids lusting after ‎Yehudit and trying to rape her, resulting instead in his being ‎killed by her, and his army becoming demoralized. In both the ‎examples mentioned, many thousands of gentiles, antisemites, ‎were killed in due course.
The subject becomes easier to ‎understand by means of a parable. A King built a palace for his ‎son; originally, he had meant for his son to live in that house. ‎After a while, some wicked people expelled the son from this ‎house. It would be appropriate for the house that had served as ‎the protector of its inhabitants to not only protest this action ‎but to take counter measures. However the house, i.e. the stones, ‎are immobile, as pointed put by Chabakuk 2,11. Seeing that the ‎stones of the house are immobile, they are powerless. The world ‎was created for the sake of the Jewish people, i.e. the world is our ‎‎“house,” as G’d has told Pharaoh that the Jewish people are His ‎firstborn son when viewed in terms of the parable. (Exodus 4,22) ‎When the gentile nations dispossess us or kill us, the “world” ‎ought by rights to rise up in our defense. As this is not possible, ‎the owner of the world, G’d, will do this instead. This is why the ‎numerical value of the word ‎טבע‎, nature loosely translated as ‎‎“world,” is the same as the numerical value of the word ‎אלה-ים‎, ‎G’d, i.e. 86. When “nature” smites the gentile nations, it is the ‎same as G’d smiting them. The world is the sum total of the ‎Creator’s creative activity. G’d may be perceived as its father. The ‎expression ‎מעשה בראשית‎, a simile for the 6 days of G’d’s creative ‎activity, contains the word ‎ראשית‎, “beginning,” i.e. that the final ‎product of G’d’s creative activity had been planned from the very ‎beginning, i.e. as a home for the Jewish people, who are the whole ‎purpose of G’d’s beginning the creation of the universe. At the ‎conclusion of this process, ‎אחרית‎, the Creator garbed Himself in ‎what we are fond of calling ‎טבע‎, “nature,” and all that this term ‎entails. When Moses said in Deuteronomy 32,18 ‎צור ילדך תשי‎, “you ‎‎(his people) neglected the Rock that begot you,” his words ‎expressed similar sentiments.‎
Before someone opens his mouth to say something, a person ‎considers if the words he is about to utter are the ones ‎appropriate for expressing his wish. If he wishes to make a ‎request, he thinks about how best to phrase such a request in ‎order that it may be granted. By changing his mode of speech, he ‎becomes a totally new person. When G’d issued directives to ‎create the universe, He created the whole world with these oral ‎directives. (Compare psalms 33,6 ‎בדבר ה' שמים נעשו‎, “the heavens ‎came into existence by a single word of the Lord”.) When it comes ‎to “saving” this world from impending destruction, using the ‎טבע‎, “nature,” as His instrument, He deals with something that is ‎established, and therefore employs a different means than the one ‎He had employed when bringing something into existence. ‎According to our author the word ‎טבע‎ is closely related to the ‎word ‎חנוכה‎, completing a training program, consecration, i.e. ‎establishing a kind of order, norms, imprinting a form on ‎something, as in ‎מטבע‎, coin. G’d no longer needs to resort to ‎something brand new, i.e. miracles.‎
When Esther is described as ‎אילה‎, a strong animal, (feminine ‎of ‎איל‎, ram) i.e. fully mature, our sages referred to the period of ‎overt miracles in Jewish history having come to an end in her ‎time, so that the salvation of the Jewish people in which she was ‎instrumental did not require G’d’s intervention by upsetting the ‎rules of nature through a miracle.
‎[If G’d were forever to have to resort to miracles to ‎achieve His purpose in the universe, this would reflect a basic ‎flaw in that universe. When at the end of the Purim story the ‎Jews are described as voluntarily accepting what they had ‎accepted at Sinai under tremendous pressure, this too is a ‎compliment to G’d, whose children had matured. Ed.]‎
The sages (at the beginning of 40,10) are quoted as seeing in ‎one of the branches which the cup bearer saw in his dream, the ‎young priests, the ones who would perform the sacrificial service ‎in the Temple in due course. If we revert to the allegorical ‎approach that the author has adopted, the ‎פרחי כהונה‎ that the ‎Talmud spoke about are the sacrifices offered in the Temple, ‎which are symbolic of how miracles become converted into ‎norms, ‎טבע‎, seeing that most communal offerings are closely tied ‎to certain days, weeks, months, or years, and these in turn ‎symbolise how what had come into existence as an overt miracle ‎at the creation, had been transformed into what we call natural ‎phenomena, i.e. manifestations in nature that are not only ‎predictable but can be calculated thousands of years in advance.‎
‎[The author tries again to bring the subject of ‎Chanukah into this portion, as the portion is always read around ‎that time of year, draws on the Talmud Shabbat 21 where the ‎subject is Chanukah. Ed.] The Talmud there stipulates ‎that the best time for lighting the Chanukah candles is the period ‎immediately following sunset until it has become so dark that no ‎more pedestrians are about. (There was no street lighting in those ‎days) Our author sees in this a symbol of the gradual switchover ‎from G’d performing overt miracles to working through letting ‎טבע‎ perform most of His intervention in the affairs of man. The ‎expression for complete darkness, used by the Talmud is ‎עד שכלתה ‏רגל מן השוק‎, usually translated as “until the pedestrians have ‎ceased walking in the public domain.” Seeing that the word ‎רגל‎ ‎does not only mean “foot, but is also directly related to ‎רגילות‎, ‎something habitual, he understands the Talmud as hinting at this ‎‎“getting used to seeing no more brilliant miracles,” as the period ‎following “sunset.” The expression used by the Talmud for sunset ‎is ‎שקיעת החמה‎, the word ‎חמה‎, “sun,” referring to something overt, ‎highly visible.‎ ‎

There are ten terms of song in the book of Psalms. There were ten authors of the Psalms. Each author excelled in one of these ten forms of poetry. Why ten and not seven or eight? The ten types of melody correspond to the ten Sephiros.⁴⁵⁸See further the Sfas Emes to the Psalms. Each type of song can help purify an aspect of the human personality that corresponds to one of the ten Sephiros.⁴⁵⁹Chasidim teach that the misdeed of a man spilling seed is a source of enormous spiritual damage. Maintaining purity in this realm is called shemiras ha-bris, “preserving the covenant.” Rabbi Nachman of Breslov revealed a means of rectifying misdeeds in this realm. He called this healing prayer the Tikkun Ha-Kelali. It is a collection of ten chapters of Psalms, each of which begins with a different type of song. Through recital of the songs that parallel the ten Sephi-ros every aspect of the human personality and the world can be healed.
The following selections from Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan’s commentary to Rabbi Nachman’s stories clarify the lesson of the types of melody: “Ten types of melody Rabbi Nachman himself taught that the Ten Psalms were a ‘General rectification’ [tikkun kelali] for all sins, particularly sexual sins, and especially those involving emitting seed in vain [Likkutei Moharan 205; Likkutei Moharan Tinyana 92]. These involved the ten types of melody found in the Psalms. The Ten Psalms are numbers 16, 32, 41, 42, 59, 77, 90, 105, 137, 150.”
“The Psalms as a whole also contain all ten different types of song [Tikku-nei Zohar 13; Likkutei Moharan Tinyana 92]. King David ended the book with Psalm 150, which contains the expression halelu-hu (“Praise Him”) ten times. The last of these is, “Praise Him with cymbals of teruah” (Ps. 150:5), because the teruah [staccato] also includes all ten types of song” (Likkutei Halachos, Even Ha-Ezer, Peru U-Rvu 3:10).
“Sin and spiritual damage are associated with sadness and depression. The healing is therefore through song, which brings joy” (Cf. Likkutei Moharan 24). “The ten songs were also alluded to in the ten sounds of the shofar. On Rosh Hashanah the shofar is sounded in the following manner: tekiah shevarim teruah tekiah; tekiah shevarim tekiah; tekiah teruah tekiah. Thus, there are a total of ten sounds. These allude to the ten types of song. Furthermore, on Rosh Hashanah, in the Musaf service, ten verses of malchiyos [kingship], ten verses of zichronos [remembrances], and ten verses of shofros [trumpet blasts] are recited. Each set of ten also parallels the ten types of song. Rosh Hashanah is the beginning of the ten days of repentance; therefore it has these ten types of song. Song is the basis of repentance, since song leads to joy and joy brings one to the side of merit (Likkutei Moharan 282). It is only through the ten types of song that those who are far from God can be brought back (Likkutei Halachos, Peru U-Rvu 3:10). “The ten days of repentance also parallel the ten types of song. We begin these ten days with Rosh Hashanah, where all ten types of song are brought into play through the ten sounds of the shofar. Shofar is the rectification of these ten types of song, as it is written, “Make song good with the teruah sound” (Ps. 33:3). The Psalm says, “God will rise in teruah; God will rise in the sound othe shofar. Sing to God sing” (Ps. 47:6) (Likkutei Halachos, Peru U -Rvu 3:10). “The ten days of repentance end with Yom Kippur. This completes the ten types of song” (Likkutei Halachos, Peru U-Rvu 3:11, Rabbi Nachman’s Stories pgs. 418-420).

Moses’ song was inspired by the immensity of the ‎miracle that he and the people had witnessed at the ‎time. They had witnessed the “death” and ‎‎“resurrection” of the universe, albeit in miniature. If ‎the letter ‎ז‎ is symbolic of the ‎עולם העשיה‎, the universe ‎after its completion on the seventh day, the letter ‎א‎ is ‎symbolic of the very beginning of creation, so that ‎Moses alluded to the process of a reversal in the ‎creative process as having occurred as part of the ‎miracle they had witnessed at that time. It is not ‎accidental that in the Torah scroll instead of writing ‎the ‎שירה‎, “song” in the normal fashion, the lines are ‎broken, interrupted so as to convey the manner in ‎which bricks are laid, not one exactly above the other, ‎but in a pattern that enables the wall to survive sudden ‎impacts. This is true even of stone walls that are not ‎joined by cement.‎
At this point the author allegorically describes ‎חיות‎, ‎the essence of “life” as the word of G’d which was the ‎cement that holds together the different parts of the ‎universe, all of which came into existence by His ten ‎oral directives enumerated in the first chapter of ‎Genesis. The empty spaces between the letters (words) ‎are an allusion to the part of the world where this ‎miracle occurred having retreated toward its origin ‎before the definite contours of that universe had been ‎finalized. ‎‎

Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai had our generation in mind when he said the following in the Tikkunei Zohar (Tikkun 69, page 111b), “‘My friends!’ said Rabbi Shimon, ‘certainly God agrees with us, in the upper realms and the lower realms, to be in this fellowship. Fortunate it the future generation who will be worthy of revealing our secret wisdom. Our teachings will be revealed by Moshe in the end of days, in fulfillment of the verse (Kohelet, 1:9), “what has passed is what shall be,”¹⁶⁹The first letters of the verse spell “Moshe” : מַה שֶּׁהָיָה הוּא שֶׁיִּהְיֶה and in it (Tehillim 33:14), “He watches from His dwelling place.”¹⁷⁰The first letters also spell, “Moshe” : מִמְּכוֹן שִׁבְתּוֹ הִשְׁגִּיח The first letters of the words (in Tehillim 144:15), “fortunate is the people for whom it is like this!” is the numerical equivalent of “Moshe.”¹⁷¹In the verse, אַשְׁרֵי הָעָם שֶׁכָּכָה לּוֹ , the word שֶׁכָּכָה is the numerical equivalent of משה, or 345. The same verse continues, “Fortunate is the people for whom Hashem is their God,” and on this it is said (Kohellet 1:4), “a generation comes, and a generation goes,” and there is no generation with less than sixty myriad (600,000). On this it is said, “He commanded His word for a thousand generations,” meaning that that Moshe’s influence is present in the Tsadikim and Torah scholars of every generation, whose efforts in the Torah reaches the level of, “sixty myriad.”¹⁷²The Talmud states that the soul of Moshe Rabeynu was equal to the 600,000 male Israelites who left Egypt during the redemption. The influence of these scholars, bearers of the soul of Moshe, fixes the blemish on the rest of the generation. And in the sixth Tikkun (Tikkunei Zohar, 23b): How many people will derive their spiritual sustenance from the teachings of the Zohar when it is revealed below in the end of days! So in this generation, there is no great worry about revealing the secrets of Kabbalah. In the first place, the Zohar itself predicts its eventual revelation in the sixth millennium. And second, there is no fear that the secret knowledge will be misappropriated and used as an excuse to justify sin. In our days, if one wants to sin, he does not present a proof from Torah ideas to justify his actions. For these reasons, the time has come to seek out the work of God and delve into the secrets of the Torah. In truth, the remnant of the faithful are small in numbers, and many do not feel worthy or confident to study the mysteries of the Torah. Still they may assuage their fears by connecting to the true scholars and recipients of the secret knowledge, those proven in their righteousness, who walk in the straight and honest way.

Go yourself (Gen. 12:1): Rashi explained, “For your pleasure and your benefit.” Now, our Sages of Blessed Memory said, regarding the verse, Do you indeed, who are mute, speak righteousness? (Psalm 58:2): “How should a person act in this world? Let him make himself as a mute. Could this even apply to words of Torah? The verse teaches, speak righteousness” (Hullin 89a). For it is known that it is written, Lord, open my lips (Psalm 51:17), because the Blessed Creator, the whole earth is full of [God’s] glory (Isaiah 6:3), no place is void of [God]; but [God’s] glory connotes cloaking as is known, that Blessed [God] is cloaked in each thing. And this aspect is called Shekhinah because it dwells [shokhein] in each thing; and that is the Blessed Name Lord. And it is also called the world of speech since By the word of YHVH the heavens were made (Psalm 33:6) and “the Holy Blessed One created the world through Torah” (Zohar 1:5a), meaning through the twenty-two letters of the Torah – the world of speech – all the creations were created. And it is stated in Sefer Yetzirah, “They were set in the human mouth” (Sefer Yetzirah [Luria ver.] 2.3), and that is the meaning of Lord, open my lips. And therefore our Sages of Blessed Memory said that “Evil speech is equivalent to idolatry” etc. (Arakhin 15b), for a person who speaks evil speech does not believe that his words are the world of speech, the charateristic of Lordship. And that is [the meaning of the verse], With our tongue we will prevail, our lips are with us; who is master over us? (Psalm 12:5), as we have explained elsewhere. And that is [the meaning of the Talmud’s statement], “Make himself as a mute,” meaning his essence. That is, he should not speak any speech unless he believes that of his own account he is mute, and his only speech is the world of speech, the characteristic of “Lord” as we have explained. And they ask: “Could this even apply to words of Torah,” that a person should not learn unless he believes as we have explained? “The verse teaches, speak righteousness,” it is a mitzvah to learn even if it is not for its own sake. And that is [the meaning of] what our Sages of Blessed Memory said, “Someone who converses meaningless conversation transgresses a positive commandment, as it says, you shall speak of them (Deut. 6:7) and not of meaningless things” (Yoma 19b). And it would seem, how could it be possible that a person should speak no speech other than words of Torah as is implied by the language of you shall speak of them etc.? But the explanation is this: you shall speak of them means to say that whatever you speak, you should believe that you speak with the Torah, whose speech is the world of speech, the twenty-two letters of the Torah as we have explained. And when you speak through world-guiding, do not worry, for the Holy Blessed One created the world through Torah and guides the world through Torah; all the world are led by the twenty-two letters of Torah, the world of speech, but only if you believe this as we have explained. But if you speak not for the sake of world-guiding, that is called “meaningless things.”