Musar su Salmi 16:78

The authors of the ethical literature write of a wonderful strategy for avoiding this sin: Let a man envision to himself continually that Hashem’s four-letter name is written before him in black ink upon parchment, in keeping with the verse, “I have placed Hashem (i.e., the four-letter name) before me continually” (Tehillim 16:8). This is the principle that King David alludes to in the verse, “My eyes are always directed towards Hashem, for He will free my feet from the net” (ibid. 25:15). The meaning should be obvious.

[And, in truth, just as we find that the Holy One Blessed be He sanctified the tribe of Levi and exhorted Israel not to forsake it, as it is written (Devarim 16:19): "Take heed unto yourself lest you forsake the Levite all of your days upon your land," so, it is, likewise, the will of the Blessed L-rd that we support men who separate themselves from the affairs of the world in order to serve the L-rd. For this is certainly not inferior to supporting the Levite in this regard. As Rambam writes (Hilchoth Shemitah Veyovel, Chapter 13 Halachah 12 and 13): "Why did the Levite not merit inheritance in Eretz Yisrael and in its spoils with his brothers? For he was singled out to serve the L-rd, to minister unto Him and to teach His just ways and righteous judgments to the people, as it is written (Devarim 33:10): 'They shall teach Your judgments to Jacob and Your Torah to Israel.' Therefore, they were separated from the ways of the world. They do not wage war, as do the rest of Israel, they do not inherit, and they do not merit things for themselves with the strength of their bodies, but they are "the army of the L-rd," as it is written (Ibid. 11): 'The L-rd bless his [Levi's] strength.' And the Holy One Blessed be He bequeaths [things] on them, as it is written (Numbers 18:20): 'I am your [Levi's] portion and your inheritance.' And [this applies] not only to the tribe of Levi alone, but to every man of all those who enter the world, whose spirit moves him, and who understands of himself to be separate, to stand before the L-rd, to minister unto Him and to serve Him, to know the L-rd and to walk justly, as G-d made him. And he divests himself of the many "accountings" that men seek, he is sanctified as "holy of holies," and the L-rd becomes his portion and his inheritance for ever and ever. And He bequeaths to him in this world what suffices him, as He did to the Cohanim and the Levites. As David, may peace be upon him said (Psalms 16:5): 'The L-rd is the portion of my inheritance.'" Until here, his (Rambam's) beautiful language.]

If an outstanding Torah giant such as Moses saw fit to seek elucidation from G–d concerning any doubts he entertained, how much more must we learn how important it is for us – who do not compare to Moses in the slightest degree – to constantly review the text we study in order to be certain that we have not misunderstood any of it. Moses, of course, exhorted the people to be sure to have the right intentions when studying Torah, as we know from 4,39: "Know therefore this day and keep in mind that the Lord alone is G–d in heaven above and on earth below; there is no other."

If a person borrows money or household utensils from a friend, he must remember exactly what he has borrowed and take care to return everything. One who has many business interests and is very busy should be very careful not to borrow money or things from people, since he is liable to forget everything and not remember. If someone has done him a good deed he should make a point of remembering it so that he can reciprocate. Concerning charity, one must remember the poor and constantly keep their distress in mind, and thus he will be able to help them. And if a man comes to give testimony in a court of law concerning what he has seen and what he knows, he must be very careful to remember and he must not diminish from or add to that which he saw. See how the Holy One, Blessed be He, has warned us concerning memory. As it is said, "Beware lest thou forget the Lord thy God, in not keeping His commandments and His ordinances" (Deut. 5:11). And it is very important to remember God in all of one's deeds. And thus did David say, "I have set the Lord always before me" (Ps. 16:8).

And since everything depends upon memory, I must list thirty ^** The idea of organizing one’s wisdom into thirty precepts is based upon the kere of Proverbs 22:20. things that you ought to remember twice a day. And you should place them in the depths of your heart, and in your thoughts. Do not remember them with your mouth alone, but write them on the tablet of your heart. Then your service will be well received by God, Blessed be He, and you will obtain favor and kindnesses before Him.

Consider then that if a man has many differing and dissimilar qualities that each and every quality will tear at the mind of the man. This one pulls him here and this one pulls him there. And in this struggle the evil desire helps a man choose the lowliest one. And this is like a man who walks in the wilderness and bears, lions, leopards, wolves and many other beasts of prey confront him. This man should open his eyes and fight against each one, for if he averts his eyes for one moment, these harmful beasts will tear him to bits. So is it with man. His evil qualities like lust, arrogance, hate, anger and similar ones keep rolling about in his heart always. And, if he blinds himself to them and does not correct them, then he will root out from his heart the light of truth and grope about in thick darkness. And concerning this it is said: "I have set the Lord always before me" (Ps. 16:8).

עמוד האמת . The legislation in 18,10-12 which prohibits resorting to sundry ways to influence one's fate by consulting the occult or sacrificing one's children to the Moloch, is part of what we described as the "pillar of truth" in our opening comment on this פרשה. The Torah describes such activities as abominations and insists on תמים תהיה עם ה' אלוקיך (18,13) "You shall be whole-hearted with the Lord your G–d." The next instalment of legislation which comes under the heading of עמוד האמת, "the pillar of truth," tells us how to deal with false prophets. I have already explained how G–d created a domain whence the false prophets and their ilk derive whatever knowledge they possess. This was part of G–d's system of providing balances in this world. It is necessary in order to give meaning to the freedom of choice we have been granted. The Torah is at pains to point out that whereas we do not dismiss all these phenomena as total deception, yet the wisdom possessed by these media is not true wisdom. This is why the Torah emphasizes in 18,14 that "these nations whose land you are about to dispossess are in the habit of turning to soothsayers, etc." The Torah goes on to say that we, the Jewish nation, do not need to do so. We already have Bileam's assurance (Numbers 23,23) that "Israel does not need to employ snake-charmers, etc." Israel is fortunate that תתן אמת ליעקב, that G–d has given us access to truth, to genuine wisdom (Michah 7,20). We must make a point of always adhering to the attributes on the "right" side of the emanations.

Let me preface the answer by reminding you that the yardsticks used by G–d are not necessarily those employed by man. G–d proceeds from the hidden to the revealed when it pleases Him. When man wants to find the answer to a problem he proceeds from the elements he knows, the ones that are revealed, to those which are still unknown to him. This is alluded to (Psalms 16,8) in the slogan שויתי ה' לנגדי תמיד, "I am ever mindful of G–d's presence." [in the author's view: "I try to be constantly 'opposite' G–d." Ed.] When someone stands opposite his friend, his own "right " is opposite his friend's "left," and vice versa. Imagine that you introduce some object into a funnel which is closed at the other end. Whatever you insert first can only be retrieved after you have retrieved everything that you inserted subsequently. You must also appreciate that the eventual level of spiritual heights achieved by the תומים exceeds the spiritual level achieved by the אורים, seeing that letters are only part of a whole but words are the whole. The spirituality represented by the words is therefore closer to the source of holiness. The "source," is, of course, in the highest, most hidden domain. From that domain the words and letters spread a degree of holiness into our domain by stages, the letters being akin to the branches of a tree, the words being the tree. This is the holiness represented by the תומים ואורים when viewed from G–d's vantage point. From our vantage point, however, i.e. when the High Priest consults G–d via his breastplate, he first receives an answer from the אורים. This answer becomes clearer when the אורים form themselves into words, i.e. תומים.

Furthermore, he alludes to the exercise of the qualities of prudency and modesty (id., xxxvii. 3), "So shalt thou dwell in the land and feed in faithfulness." His saying, first, "So shalt thou dwell in the land," and then "and feed in faithfulness," shows that long life on earth is the result of cultivating humility and prudency, which he calls "faith," as thou knowest from the saying (Num. xii. 7), "He is faithful in all my house," and that which preceded in the description of modesty. That which we have said of the meriting of life, even long life on earth, corresponds to the expression (Ps. xxxvii. 11), "The meek shall inherit the earth." In saying (id., 4), "Delight thyself also in the Lord," he alludes to the quality of joy, which the righteous exercises in that service of the Lord, wherein he delights. Thus he says elsewhere (Ps. xxxii. 11), "Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, O ye righteous"; again, he says of the season of gladsome tidings (Isa. Ixi. 10), "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord." In saying (Ps. xxxvii. 4), "He shall give thee the desires of thine heart," he alludes to the quality of yearning which is love, for God satisfies the yearning of the righteous, as is promised them in the saying (Ps. xx. 6), "The Lord will fulfill all thy desires."

We therefore perceive that the candlestick symbolised the seven emanations which form the בנין, all of which in turn are nourished from a higher source. When the Torah speaks of אל מול פני המנורה יאירו שבעת הנרות, "The seven lamps shall give light opposite the face of the candlestick" (Numbers 8,2), this means that the candlestick in the Tabernacle corresponded to and was "opposite" its counterpart in the Celestial Sanctuary. We view the candlestick as symbolising man. There are three arms or pipes on either side. The lower ones are longer than the middle ones, and the middle ones are longer than the upper ones which are nearer the centre-shaft. The lights all burned on the same level. The centre-shaft represented the גוף, torso or body of the candlestick. Man is like the candlestick. He has three projections on either side of him, the arms, the legs and the ears. The legs are longer than the arms, and the arms are longer than the ears, just as the lower arms of the candlestick were longer than the middle ones and the upper ones, respectively. The overall height of the candlestick was 18 handbreadths, the equivalent of three cubits, the height of an average-sized man from the ground to the shoulder (Tossaphot Shabbat 92).

The "seven pillars that she has hewn" refers to seven categories of righteous people (Sifri Devarim 1,10). These groups occupy different levels in גן עדן, one above the other. Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai comments on Psalms 16:11: שבע שמחות, "full of joys," [i.e. satisfied, from Sova] that the word should be read as שבע, "seven." It would then refer to the seven facets of the various righteous people who would be similar to the moon, the sun, the firmament, the stars, lightning, שושנים, [a reference to the righteous as per Psalms 45,1, see my translation of the Alshich's commentary page 315. Ed.], and the candlestick in the Temple.

In light of the above I believe we can now understand the statement in Perek Shirah (Chapter 5) that the song recited daily by the ox is the refrain, “I will sing to Hashem because He has exalted Himself over the exalted, etc.” (Shemos 15:1). In other words, the essence of the ox’s acknowledgement and praise of Hashem is that pride and grandeur are fitting only to Him, but not to human beings, as it states, “Hashem has begun His reign, He has clothed Himself with majesty” (Tehillim 93:1). Since the entire month of Nissan is a time of favor, the holy souls make no delay in praying on our behalf. Thus it states, “Due to the holy ones who are in the earth and the mighty, all my desires are [fulfilled] through them” (Tehillim 16:3). They demonstrate their concern for the woes of human beings at all times. For instance, whenever an evil decree is issued, Heaven forbid, they are quick to pray for its rescission. In general, however, they are not permitted to reveal the matter explicitly to human beings. Only on occasion do they come to someone in a dream and reveal it through hints and the like. Thus we find (Shalsheles HaKabbalah, p. 139) that Rabbeinu Yechiel, father of Rabbeinu Asher, had a pious companion whom he loved very much. Both men were elders of the community and both were renowned for their great deeds and their exceptional learning and piety. They swore to one another that whichever of them died first would come to the survivor in a dream and inform him of the ways of death and the subsequent journeys of the soul.