Musar su Esodo 20:11

The written Torah concludes with the word ישראל and commences with the word בראשית. We may view the end as firmly connected with the beginning and the beginning as firmly connected with the end. We demonstrate this on שמחת תורה by reading from the beginning of פרשת בראשית as soon as we have concluded the last passage in וזאת הברכה. Our sages have provided an allusion for this when they said: בראשית ברא בראשית, i.e. בשביל התורה וישראל שנקראו ראשית. Israel is the whole purpose of the creation of the universe. It is appropriate therefore that the Torah begin with the word בראשית and end with the word ישראל. The Torah commences with the letter ב, which our sages in the Midrash describe as the letter symbolizing ברכה, blessing. The essence of any blessing is the expansion and the intensification of the prevailing abundance provided by G–d. The purpose of the benediction is to ensure the continuance of these abundant blessings by G–d indefinitely. Torah too is eternal, hence it represents the essence of all blessings. This idea is also alluded to in Psalms 29,11: ה' עוז לעמו יתן ה' יברך את עמו בשלום, "May the Lord grant strength to His people; may He bestow well-being on his people." A question is asked in the Sefer Ha-Bahir as well as in the Ziyoni "Whence do we know that the Torah itself is a blessing?" As an answer the authors cite Moses' blessing in 33,23: "And full of the Lord's blessing the West (sea) and the South, conquer it!" We have a tradition that "West" is a hyperbole for Torah because it is written in Job 11,9: "and broader than the West (sea)." Thus far the Tziyoni.

Kabbalists are aware that סדר זמנים, the arrangement in the cosmos of times allocated to certain events or activities, represents a combination of the emanations תפארת and מלכות. These are the mystical domains of the "sun and moon" in the Celestial Regions, the domain of the יוצר אור ובורא חושך, the Creator of light and darkness. The emanation תפארת contains the גוף הבנין, the "torso" as it were, of the Ineffable Name, from which His creative activity radiates, much as in a human torso the arms and legs, etc. perform comparable tasks. The six emanations from תפארת "down" to the emanation יסוד, perform these creative activities (We are discussing the creation of a spiritual as opposed to a physical universe). These six emanations or "branches," are analogous to the six days of Creation and, since they each represent a fusion of the attributes of דין and חסד, they are really twelve. They expand, or radiate in 6 different directions. The number twelve is the total number of possible permutations in writing the 4-lettered Ineffable Name of G–d. The "lowest" emanation מלכות, acts as receptacle of all these radiations. This concept can be understood as analogous to the moon which receives radiations from the sun during twelve separate months of the year. The sun and moon respectively are viewed as 2 "faces." בינה, being the 7th emanation involved, must be viewed like the Sabbath, the day on which all the forces abstain from activity. This is a cycle which repeats itself endlessly.

[And this is the intent of Mishlei 4:7: "The beginning of wisdom is to acquire wisdom," and, the end of the verse: "and with all of your acquisitions, acquire understanding." This is self-explanatory: "Wisdom" connotes what is apparent, first principles, what one learns from others; and "understanding," what one reflects upon thereafter by himself, to understand one thing from another. Therefore, he says that first one must acquire wisdom, and then he must strengthen himself to understand one thing from another. As they said (Shabbath 31a): "At the time of judgment they ask a man: 'Did you discourse in wisdom? Did you understand one thing from another?''' As to "and with all your acquisitions, acquire understanding," this is understood according to Midrash Shir Hashirim 8 in the episode of R. Chiyya b. Abba and R. Yochanan, who were walking on the way and came upon a field, at which R. Yochanan said: "This was mine, but I sold it to toil in Torah," and thus, until the last field. At this, R. Chiyya began to cry, and said to him: "What will you leave over for your old age?" R. Yochanan answered: "Why does this disturb you? I sold something that was created in six days, as it is written (Shemoth 20:11): 'For six days the L-rd made, etc.', and I bought something which was learned in forty days, as it is written (Ibid. 39:28): 'And he was there with the L-rd for forty days.'" And this is what Scripture intimates to us in "and with all of your acquisitions acquire understanding." It is right that one give all he possesses to acquire understanding. That is, that he grow wise in all matters of Torah in order to understand one thing from another.]