הִשְׁבַּ֨עְתִּי אֶתְכֶ֜ם בְּנ֤וֹת יְרוּשָׁלִַ֙ם֙ בִּצְבָא֔וֹת א֖וֹ בְּאַיְל֣וֹת הַשָּׂדֶ֑ה אִם־תָּעִ֧ירוּ ׀ וְֽאִם־תְּעֽוֹרְר֛וּ אֶת־הָאַהֲבָ֖ה עַ֥ד שֶׁתֶּחְפָּֽץ׃ (ס)
예루살렘 여자들아 내가 노루와 들사슴으로 너희에게 부탁한다 내 사랑이 원하기 전에는 흔들지 말고 깨우지 말지니라
Hakhsharat HaAvrekhim
One has to work hard at prayer in order to reach the point when he is truly praying from the depth of his heart and nefesh. We quoted the Zohar earlier on which tells us that awakening also comes from the nefesh, but not all awakenings are the same. There is the beginning of awakening, and there is more than this, up to the point where one is worthy of reaching an awakening that is accompanied with true desire from the depths of the heart. But it does not come easily. The Stoliner Rebbe tells us that it repeats “until you desire,” in the Shir HaShirim twice91In Shir HaShirim, 2:7 and 3:5. It actually says it a third time in 8:4. in order to tell us that everyone needs to desire over and over again until the desire comes on its own. In particular, strive to be able to wake up and desire by choice at a time when you need to arouse your soul.
Kedushat Levi
Exodus 19,21.“lest some of the people will break through in their intense desire to see and many of the people will fall victim.”This was the negative commandment G’d had uttered in connection with the giving of the Torah. In his comments on Song of Songs 2,7 אם תעירו ואם תעוררו את האהבה עד שתחפץ, ”do not wake or arouse love until it please!,”
According to our author, Nachmanides comments that when man attains the level of loving the Creator, or being in awe of Him, he will feel the need to immediately express this by performing a commandment. [None of the sources at my disposal have this comment by Nachmanides, especially not in his commentary on Song of Songs, annotated by Rav Chavell and published by Mossad Harav Kook. Ed.]
As a result of this mitzvah performance by the person in the grip of religious enthusiasm either through love for G’d or through awe of Him and reverence for Him, G’d will practice צמצום, a form of condensation of G’d’s Omnipresence to allow for the creatures in the physical world to develop without experiencing constant tension between the good and the evil urge. The commandment performed by the person who had experienced an overwhelming religious impetus may then be seen as a vessel within which the awakening love for G’d reposes. The Talmud in Kidushin 39 states that anyone sitting idle, reposing, and not being guilty of committing a transgression of a law in the Torah is considered as if he had performed a positive commandment. What is meant is not idleness per se, but idleness in face of the evil urge trying to get him to commit a transgression. Seeing that during the days preceding the giving of the Torah the Israelites all restrained themselves by not trying to break down the fence, they acquired the merit of having performed a positive commandment. This is also the reason why one of the names of the Shavuot festival is עצרת, “festival of restraint.” The root of that word, i.e. עצור, means to stop, restrain oneself) (intransitively), There are two types of כבוד, honour, glory. One type is original, i.e. the honour bestowed on His worlds by the Creator, and the reflected glory, כבוד נאצל the reflected glory. The creatures, i.e. the universes who have had bestowed glory on them by the Creator had received this from the Creator in His capacity of limiting Himself, “downsizing” Himself in order to give more “freedom” to them.
כבוד, “honour or glory, exists on two levels. 1) It can be “original” i.e. emanating from the Creator directly, or it can be secondary, נאצל, in the parlance of the Kabbalists. Original “honour” is what the various “worlds” have received from the Creator Who has already downsized Himself in order to give more “freedom” to His creatures. This “downsizing” of G’d vis a vis His creatures occurs both in the celestial spheres as well as in the terrestrial regions. In the celestial spheres G’d did not “downsize” Himself as much relative to the חיות, the highest ranking group of angels, as He did vis a vis the שרפים, a lower raking group of angels. Similarly, on earth, G’d’s “downsizing” is more pronounced vis a vis the common people, and least pronounced vis a vis Moses. This is why we find the Torah (verse 24) allowing Moses to ascend the mountain, the elders and Aaron to accompany him all the way to the base of the mountain, whereas the people at large had to stop a greater distance away from the mountain. Any “honour” shown by His creatures to G’d during the weekdays is perceived as directed at the part of the Creator which has voluntarily “downsized” itself. Secondary “honour,” is the honour bestowed by G’d’s creatures on Him on the Sabbath days or on the festivals when it is aimed at the Creator in His more manifest glory prior to His having downsized Himself. Due to our preoccupations on weekdays with mundane tasks, unavoidably, we cannot bestow the kind of “honour” or “glory” on the Creator that we are able to on days when we are predominantly preoccupied with the needs of ours souls, with spiritual concerns. On the day when G’d gave us the Torah, we were able to give Him this “glory” more so than on any previous or subsequent day, as through the three days of preparation for that revelation we had been transported to a higher spiritual level. This is the meaning of the opening line in the section known as zichronot in the Mussaph prayer on Rosh Hashanah, אתה נגלית בענן כבודך, “You have been revealed in the cloud of Your glory, etc.” The term ענן, “cloud,” describes something that cannot be found, as one cannot locate something shrouded in darkness.
[At this point the author refers to a concept known Iss כ'ד קישוטי כלה, “24 bridal decorations.” (the “bride” alluding to Israel as G’d’s bride when it received the Torah) The subject has been written up by Rabbi Moshe Chayim Luzzato, Pdua, Italy, (1707-to Acco, 1747) author of the world famous mussar sefer מסילת ישרים, “the path of the Just,” and many other books. It appears that the well known book Tikkun leyl Shavuot, read on the night of Shavuot, by many people who spend the whole night studying in preparation for a re-enactment of the day the Torah was given, is patterned on this concept. Briefly, it is a text comprising the first three verses of any of the 24 books of the Bible, as well as the last three verses, also the first and last Mishnah of each tract of the Talmud. It also contains portions of the sefer yetzirah and the Zohar. The number “24” does not only refer to the 24 books of the Bible, but also to the Hebrew alphabet (22 letters) and two vowels that are spelled in different ways, and accordingly may be added as part of the alphabet. (if I understand correctly.) By devoting that whole night to Torah study we are bestowing glory on Hashem in the most appropriate and profound manner, a כבוד that is comparable in quality to the כבוד נברא, “the original” glory bestowed by G’d on His creatures. For more on the subject of these vowels and their deeper significance, see: http://ramhal.net/]
Our author draws our attention to Zecharyah 10,8 where he understands the words ¬אשרקה להם as a derivative of the vowel שורוק, meaning calling out loudly to someone, whereas the vowel kametz, would indicate the reverse, i.e. something withheld, hidden, locked in.? Be that as it may, on the festival of Shavuot, symbolizing the giving of the Torah the Jewish people are on an abnormally high spiritual level, and they demonstrate this by studying the entire holy texts in an abbreviated version.
According to our author, Nachmanides comments that when man attains the level of loving the Creator, or being in awe of Him, he will feel the need to immediately express this by performing a commandment. [None of the sources at my disposal have this comment by Nachmanides, especially not in his commentary on Song of Songs, annotated by Rav Chavell and published by Mossad Harav Kook. Ed.]
As a result of this mitzvah performance by the person in the grip of religious enthusiasm either through love for G’d or through awe of Him and reverence for Him, G’d will practice צמצום, a form of condensation of G’d’s Omnipresence to allow for the creatures in the physical world to develop without experiencing constant tension between the good and the evil urge. The commandment performed by the person who had experienced an overwhelming religious impetus may then be seen as a vessel within which the awakening love for G’d reposes. The Talmud in Kidushin 39 states that anyone sitting idle, reposing, and not being guilty of committing a transgression of a law in the Torah is considered as if he had performed a positive commandment. What is meant is not idleness per se, but idleness in face of the evil urge trying to get him to commit a transgression. Seeing that during the days preceding the giving of the Torah the Israelites all restrained themselves by not trying to break down the fence, they acquired the merit of having performed a positive commandment. This is also the reason why one of the names of the Shavuot festival is עצרת, “festival of restraint.” The root of that word, i.e. עצור, means to stop, restrain oneself) (intransitively), There are two types of כבוד, honour, glory. One type is original, i.e. the honour bestowed on His worlds by the Creator, and the reflected glory, כבוד נאצל the reflected glory. The creatures, i.e. the universes who have had bestowed glory on them by the Creator had received this from the Creator in His capacity of limiting Himself, “downsizing” Himself in order to give more “freedom” to them.
כבוד, “honour or glory, exists on two levels. 1) It can be “original” i.e. emanating from the Creator directly, or it can be secondary, נאצל, in the parlance of the Kabbalists. Original “honour” is what the various “worlds” have received from the Creator Who has already downsized Himself in order to give more “freedom” to His creatures. This “downsizing” of G’d vis a vis His creatures occurs both in the celestial spheres as well as in the terrestrial regions. In the celestial spheres G’d did not “downsize” Himself as much relative to the חיות, the highest ranking group of angels, as He did vis a vis the שרפים, a lower raking group of angels. Similarly, on earth, G’d’s “downsizing” is more pronounced vis a vis the common people, and least pronounced vis a vis Moses. This is why we find the Torah (verse 24) allowing Moses to ascend the mountain, the elders and Aaron to accompany him all the way to the base of the mountain, whereas the people at large had to stop a greater distance away from the mountain. Any “honour” shown by His creatures to G’d during the weekdays is perceived as directed at the part of the Creator which has voluntarily “downsized” itself. Secondary “honour,” is the honour bestowed by G’d’s creatures on Him on the Sabbath days or on the festivals when it is aimed at the Creator in His more manifest glory prior to His having downsized Himself. Due to our preoccupations on weekdays with mundane tasks, unavoidably, we cannot bestow the kind of “honour” or “glory” on the Creator that we are able to on days when we are predominantly preoccupied with the needs of ours souls, with spiritual concerns. On the day when G’d gave us the Torah, we were able to give Him this “glory” more so than on any previous or subsequent day, as through the three days of preparation for that revelation we had been transported to a higher spiritual level. This is the meaning of the opening line in the section known as zichronot in the Mussaph prayer on Rosh Hashanah, אתה נגלית בענן כבודך, “You have been revealed in the cloud of Your glory, etc.” The term ענן, “cloud,” describes something that cannot be found, as one cannot locate something shrouded in darkness.
[At this point the author refers to a concept known Iss כ'ד קישוטי כלה, “24 bridal decorations.” (the “bride” alluding to Israel as G’d’s bride when it received the Torah) The subject has been written up by Rabbi Moshe Chayim Luzzato, Pdua, Italy, (1707-to Acco, 1747) author of the world famous mussar sefer מסילת ישרים, “the path of the Just,” and many other books. It appears that the well known book Tikkun leyl Shavuot, read on the night of Shavuot, by many people who spend the whole night studying in preparation for a re-enactment of the day the Torah was given, is patterned on this concept. Briefly, it is a text comprising the first three verses of any of the 24 books of the Bible, as well as the last three verses, also the first and last Mishnah of each tract of the Talmud. It also contains portions of the sefer yetzirah and the Zohar. The number “24” does not only refer to the 24 books of the Bible, but also to the Hebrew alphabet (22 letters) and two vowels that are spelled in different ways, and accordingly may be added as part of the alphabet. (if I understand correctly.) By devoting that whole night to Torah study we are bestowing glory on Hashem in the most appropriate and profound manner, a כבוד that is comparable in quality to the כבוד נברא, “the original” glory bestowed by G’d on His creatures. For more on the subject of these vowels and their deeper significance, see: http://ramhal.net/]
Our author draws our attention to Zecharyah 10,8 where he understands the words ¬אשרקה להם as a derivative of the vowel שורוק, meaning calling out loudly to someone, whereas the vowel kametz, would indicate the reverse, i.e. something withheld, hidden, locked in.? Be that as it may, on the festival of Shavuot, symbolizing the giving of the Torah the Jewish people are on an abnormally high spiritual level, and they demonstrate this by studying the entire holy texts in an abbreviated version.
Kedushat Levi
The Talmud in Shabbat 133 urges each one of us to “attach” ourselves to the virtues manifested by Hashem, by emulating them whenever possible, giving as an example: “just as He is merciful, you are to be merciful also.”
The problem with this “moral imperative” posited by the Talmud is that one of the attributes G’d has revealed to Moses in our portion is called א-ל, usually understood as a reference to G’d being omnipotent, תקיף; (compare Shulchan Aruch Orach Chayim 5) how are we to emulate such an attribute? We need to understand this slightly differently, i.e. that G’d has given the tzaddik the power to “compel” Him to carry out the tzaddik’s wishes. This is what the Talmud in Megillah 18 had in mind when it posed the rhetorical question of “how do we know that G’d called Yaakov by the attribute א-ל?” What possible “omnipotence” did Yaakov possess, seeing that all he could do was to abide by rules established in the Torah? Our sages in the Talmud in Ketuvot 111 alluded to this problem when they taught us that G’d made the Jewish people swear three oaths at the time of the destruction of the Temple. One of them was: “do not pressure Me to postpone the date of the coming of the messiah.” [Our author prefers an alternate version of that oath with the word ירחקו being replaced by the word ידחקו, i.e. pressuring G’d to advance the date of the coming of the messiah. Ed.] The root דחק is well known as referring to someone “hastening an event,” the best known example being the saying in B’rachot 64: כל הדוחק את השעה השעה דוחק אותו, “whosoever tries to advance the timetable for events destined to occur later, will find that it proves to have been counterproductive.”
Concerning the appropriate time for the coming of the messiah, the prophet Isaiah had predicted in Isaiah 51,4 כי תורה מאתי תצא , “for a teaching will come forth from Me, etc.” The prophet refers to a teaching which prior to that era could not have been understood at all by man, [as his spiritual horizons had not been sufficiently expanded. Ed.] This “Torah” will be called superior to all.
Besides, how is it possible to hasten the end of the exile, seeing that if all of Israel‘s virtues are the result of emulating G’d’s attributes, it follows that everything the Israelites do is pattered on the Torah, so how could they possibly be able to influence G’d’s timetable for the coming of the Messiah then? The answer is that by conferring on Yaakov the title א-ל, (Genesis 35,10, 33,20), He had conferred on him (and subsequent tzaddikim) some of His powers so that He had to warn them not to abuse these powers by making them take an oath. This complimentary title that G’d bestowed on Yaakov and other zaddikim after him was conditioned on his regarding the Torah and its laws inviolate. G’d had decided on His timetable for the coming of the messiah either at the same time as when He bestowed the title א-ל on Yaakov, or even earlier, so that his “powers” did not extend to overriding this. How could man then interfere with G’d’s decree? If man, i.e. the tzaddik could not interfere, why would the בנות ישראל, “chronologically later generations of Israelites,” have to swear an oath concerning something that was beyond their power to do anyways?
The apparent contradiction is resolved by an interesting commentary on Song of Songs 2,10, (a few verses after the verse in which G’d beseeches the “daughters of Jerusalem” to swear the abovementioned oath); we read there, concerning G’d: הנה זה עומד אחר כתלנו משגיח מן החלונות מציץ מחרקים, “here He is standing behind our walls looking down through the windows, peering through the blinds.” This verse describes G’d, Who, on the one hand is לעילא מן כל, “towering high above all,” as also on occasion retreating so far into the background that He only peers through the lattices. The verse alludes to the varying degrees of light that emanates from Him, tailored to what the situation requires. On occasion, if warranted, the tzaddik can override G’d’s plan; seeing that this is so, G’d had to protect His ultimate program for mankind by making the בנות ירושלים swear that they would not interfere with certain of His plans.
The problem with this “moral imperative” posited by the Talmud is that one of the attributes G’d has revealed to Moses in our portion is called א-ל, usually understood as a reference to G’d being omnipotent, תקיף; (compare Shulchan Aruch Orach Chayim 5) how are we to emulate such an attribute? We need to understand this slightly differently, i.e. that G’d has given the tzaddik the power to “compel” Him to carry out the tzaddik’s wishes. This is what the Talmud in Megillah 18 had in mind when it posed the rhetorical question of “how do we know that G’d called Yaakov by the attribute א-ל?” What possible “omnipotence” did Yaakov possess, seeing that all he could do was to abide by rules established in the Torah? Our sages in the Talmud in Ketuvot 111 alluded to this problem when they taught us that G’d made the Jewish people swear three oaths at the time of the destruction of the Temple. One of them was: “do not pressure Me to postpone the date of the coming of the messiah.” [Our author prefers an alternate version of that oath with the word ירחקו being replaced by the word ידחקו, i.e. pressuring G’d to advance the date of the coming of the messiah. Ed.] The root דחק is well known as referring to someone “hastening an event,” the best known example being the saying in B’rachot 64: כל הדוחק את השעה השעה דוחק אותו, “whosoever tries to advance the timetable for events destined to occur later, will find that it proves to have been counterproductive.”
Concerning the appropriate time for the coming of the messiah, the prophet Isaiah had predicted in Isaiah 51,4 כי תורה מאתי תצא , “for a teaching will come forth from Me, etc.” The prophet refers to a teaching which prior to that era could not have been understood at all by man, [as his spiritual horizons had not been sufficiently expanded. Ed.] This “Torah” will be called superior to all.
Besides, how is it possible to hasten the end of the exile, seeing that if all of Israel‘s virtues are the result of emulating G’d’s attributes, it follows that everything the Israelites do is pattered on the Torah, so how could they possibly be able to influence G’d’s timetable for the coming of the Messiah then? The answer is that by conferring on Yaakov the title א-ל, (Genesis 35,10, 33,20), He had conferred on him (and subsequent tzaddikim) some of His powers so that He had to warn them not to abuse these powers by making them take an oath. This complimentary title that G’d bestowed on Yaakov and other zaddikim after him was conditioned on his regarding the Torah and its laws inviolate. G’d had decided on His timetable for the coming of the messiah either at the same time as when He bestowed the title א-ל on Yaakov, or even earlier, so that his “powers” did not extend to overriding this. How could man then interfere with G’d’s decree? If man, i.e. the tzaddik could not interfere, why would the בנות ישראל, “chronologically later generations of Israelites,” have to swear an oath concerning something that was beyond their power to do anyways?
The apparent contradiction is resolved by an interesting commentary on Song of Songs 2,10, (a few verses after the verse in which G’d beseeches the “daughters of Jerusalem” to swear the abovementioned oath); we read there, concerning G’d: הנה זה עומד אחר כתלנו משגיח מן החלונות מציץ מחרקים, “here He is standing behind our walls looking down through the windows, peering through the blinds.” This verse describes G’d, Who, on the one hand is לעילא מן כל, “towering high above all,” as also on occasion retreating so far into the background that He only peers through the lattices. The verse alludes to the varying degrees of light that emanates from Him, tailored to what the situation requires. On occasion, if warranted, the tzaddik can override G’d’s plan; seeing that this is so, G’d had to protect His ultimate program for mankind by making the בנות ירושלים swear that they would not interfere with certain of His plans.