아가 7:11의 Chasidut

There are many details necessary to understand the mystery of faith. The basic idea is to see how God’s light and providence exists in every detail of His creation. All of the details of creation are hinted at in the name, “Elo-him,”⁵¹The name of God, “Elo-him,” is numerically equivalent to the word for nature, “הטבע”. as it is said in the Zohar (Mishpatim 108b), whereas the source of God’s light comes from the name “Havaye” (the Tetragrammaton). One needs to unite the light in the details with the light from the Source, so that both are united in man’s heart and understanding. The more one succeeds in understanding and internalizing, the more he will see how God’s light reaches even the furthermost “garments,”⁵²A term commonly used in Izhbitzer chasidism (particularly, the writings of the Beit Yaakov). It refers to those aspects of reality that conceal the Divine Presence. the places that seem most distant from Godliness. Even these distant places express the Glory of God, as He created them for his Glory. It is written in the Sefer HaBahir (v. “Rav Rahumai’s students asked him”): When discussing God, why do we use the expression, “it ascended in His thought,” and not, “it descended?” This is as we say, “one who glimpses the Merkava (the Chariot of Divine mysteries) first descends, and then ascends.” What is, “Ma’aseh Merkava,” or the study of the secret of God’s conduct of the creation? It is the ability to see how God created everything for His glory, even those “garments” which appear the furthest away from Godliness. This relates to the Zohar’s statement (Shemot, 15b): Rabbi Akiva said to him, what is the meaning of the verse (Shir HaShirim, 7:11), “I descended to the egoz (nut) garden to see the fruits of the brook”? Why does this verse say, “I descended”? It is just like the way we say, “he descended to the Merkava.” (When our sages describe one who is involved with Ma’aseh Merkava ⁵³Or, one who speaking in a prophetic experience (רוח הקודש) (Rav Moshe Cordevero). they refer to it as “descending.” This Zohar compares the Merkava to a nut in a number of ways, one of which is that they both have a kelipa (outer shell or peel). The chariot of Yehezkel was surrounded by the kelipot of the storm wind, cloud, and fire.⁵⁴Yehezkel described the Divine chariot as being surrounded by concentric circles. The outer layers correspond to the four “kelipot,” or “forces of evil.” Three of them – the storm wind, cloud, and fire – are pure evil and can not be rehabilitated for the good. One of them, however, called nogah (or, “brilliant light,”) has the capability of being rehabilitated. Within these four circles of kelipah, are holy, divine entities - the angels. In the center, God Himself resides in His hidden Glory. The meaning is, when one descends, and sees God’s glory even in the lowest of places, this it Ma’aseh Merkava. In this there are different levels. The knowledge one receives the garden of Torah knowledge depends on his ability to receive. Concerning the knowledge that is beyond man’s ability to receive, the Talmud says (Chagiga, 13a), “Do not seek that which is too wondrous for you, and that which is hidden from you do not investigate. These mysteries are not for you,” and other verses that imply his knowledge of lack.

It is written in the Zohar (Yayehi, 223b): Since Shlomo HaMelech inherited the moon in its state of completeness, he needed to inherit it in its state of deficiency. He strove to understand spirits and demons (i.e. the forces of evil) in order to inherit the moon in all its aspects. For this reason, in the days of Shlomo HaMelech the moon shone in all its aspects. And in the Tikkunei Zohar (Tikkun 26, p. 71b): Clearly The Holy One, blessed be He, and His Shekhina have not changed. Yet from an outside perspective, they do change. That is to say, (in this world) they are concealed in layers of garments and shells. This is why Shlomo HaMelech said (Shir HaShirim, 7:11), “I descended to the egoz⁵⁵Egoz means “nut,” in Hebrew. garden.” He had a complete knowledge of the kelipot (impure shells), which gave him a thorough knowledge of all forms of sorcery. The faithful shepherd⁵⁶The faithful shepherd, here, is the Messiah. The Zohar also refers to Moshe Rabeynu as Raya Mehemna which means, “the Faithful Shepherd.” One of the books that is included in the Zohar corpus is also called the “Raya Mehemna.” will break all of the kelipot, bringing forth the essence which the shell conceals, meaning the Tetragrammaton (YHVH).” And in the Zohar (Ta’azria, 47b): “And I saw the superiority of wisdom from folly.” (Kohelet, 2:13) From folly itself emerges something of benefit to wisdom. If it were not for the existence of folly, wisdom and all its extensions would not be known. We have learned that together with wisdom, it is incumbent upon man to learn something of folly, for in knowing it, it serves to benefit his wisdom. In fact, the knowledge of folly or evil is a component of none other than the mystery of faith. It is written in the Zohar (Bo, 34a): It is proper for man to know good and to know evil, and to return himself to the good.⁵⁷Here the Zohar is speaking about King Shlomo, whose great wisdom certainly allowed him to know the good. But how did he “know evil?” Referring to a king, the Torah commands (Devarim, 17:17), “he shall not have too many wives, and his heart shall not turn away.” Yet, of King Solomon, the verse states: “…” The queens of King Solomon encouraged him to study and practice idolatry. When King Shlomo wrote, “I descended into the nut garden,” he was telling us how he had become intimately acquainted with the force of evil in the world. This is the mystery of faith. The more one can find the good hidden in evil, the more he will understand how, “God created one over against the other.” (Kohelet, 7:14)⁵⁸The verse reads, “On a good day, be in the good, and on a bad day, see that also God made one over against the other.” The Biblical commentor, Rashi, explains: “This is the good and its reward, versus the evil and its punishment.” The commentary Metsudat David explains, “Know that the evil itself was sent from God. The degree of evil has a corresponding punishment.” In Kabbalistic writings, the verse generally means that for every force of good, God created a parallel force in the realm of evil. In view of the quote from the Zohar, Parshat Bo, “see” could mean to recognize the evil, but realize that “God made one over against the other” – that we must choose the good in response. Hasidic teachings take an even further, unified approach. They seek to find the good within the evil itself. This is the Baal Shem Tov’s idea that evil actually provides a setting, or “throne,” for the good (רע כסא לטוב). For without a knowledge of evil, it would be impossible to recognize the good. Thus, evil actually plays a role in revealing God’s goodness, and is thus a part of the Divine unity itself. “See that also God made one over against the other,” would mean to see the good within the evil itself. This is as it said in the Zohar (Shemot, 15b): Rabbi Akiva said, why did Shlomo HaMelech say, ‘I descended to the egoz garden.’? This is just as we say, “he descended to the Merkava (Divine chariot).’ Rabbi Akiva asked, what does the dirt that is found in the shell of the egoz represent?”

Our sages (on Numbers 6,23 where the priests are ‎commanded to bless the people), used this parable ‎when commenting on the word ‎להם‎, “to them,” i.e. that ‎the priests are not to include the gentiles in their ‎blessings. [Having already said that they ‎should bless the Children of Israel, the extra words ‎אמור להם‎ would otherwise appear to have been ‎superfluous. Ed.] When G’d tells Moses in our ‎verse here: ‎אל הארץ אשר נשאתי את ידי לתת להם לאברהם וגו'‏‎, “to ‎the land that I have sworn to give to Avraham, etc.;” He ‎had to explain that although up to now this land had ‎enjoyed G’d’s generosity as the people on it had found ‎it a good land to dwell in, from now on, this land ‎would be “good” only for the Jewish people. The term: ‎‎“Jewish people,” presupposes that these Jews keep the ‎commandments they will undertake to observe at ‎Mount Sinai, less than a year later.‎
A different way of understanding G’d’s oath to give ‎the land of the Canaanites to His people, the Jewish ‎people: The author again turns to a parable to ‎illustrate his point. We must analyze the expression ‎נשאתי את ידי‎, “I raised My hand (in an oath).” A prince was ‎engaged in a war against the enemies of his father, the ‎King’s kingdom. When the prince was victorious there ‎was great joy in the King’s palace. As a result of the ‎great joy, the King, who was normally not overly ‎generous, now displayed great generosity to everyone ‎who turned to him with a request. Suddenly, while all ‎these festivities were in progress, an enemy of the ‎king’s son shows up with a request to his father, the ‎king. The king is now faced with a dilemma. If the king ‎ignores the root cause of the joy and the festivities he ‎may G’d forbid also fulfill a request of his son’s arch ‎enemy; on the other hand, if the king keeps the source ‎of all the festivities in mind, i.e. his son’s victory in a ‎life and death struggle, i.e. that his son had just ‎vanquished this arch enemy of his, he will most ‎certainly not pay any heed to the request made by his ‎son’s enemy.‎It is written in Song of Songs 6,3 ‎אני לדודי ודודי לי‎, “I ‎am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine;” in other ‎words: “my beloved yearns for me.” According to ‎‎Bereshit Rabbah ‎1,4 one of the 6 things that ‎G’d contemplated before beginning to create the ‎universe was the concept of a Jewish people and all ‎that this entails. When the Jewish people perform His ‎wishes He takes great delight in this. The joy G’d ‎experiences when the Jewish people live up to His ‎expectations results in His feeling justified in having ‎created the universe, i.e. all the various universes. He ‎therefore dispenses some of His largesse to all other ‎parts of the universe also. In order to dispense some of ‎His largesse to the gentile nations He limits the ‎outpourings of His largesse to the Jewish people. When ‎the sinful creatures in the universe take note of G’d’s ‎being so generous, they line up, so that they too will ‎become beneficiaries of G’d’s “good mood.” At such a ‎time G’d reminds Himself that originally He had only ‎created the universe on account of wishing to see His ‎‎“dream” of a Jewish nation performing all its tasks ‎being realized. As soon as He reminds Himself of this, ‎He will turn off the “taps” i.e. the attribute of largesse ‎that had been allowed to flow to the gentile nations ‎also, and will concentrate all of His largesse on the ‎Jewish people.‎
The “attribute” dispensing this “largesse” is known ‎as ‎יד‎, “hand;” the reason for this is that in our ‎terrestrial world largesse is “handed” out. This explains ‎why G’d used the expression ‎ידי‎, “My hand,” when ‎referring to His oath to “hand over” the land of Canaan ‎to Avraham’s descendants.‎ ‎