Chasidut do Wyjścia 24:23

Here is the difference [between holy objects and the spirit of prophecy]: Regarding the commandments, even one who does not perceive, but merely believes in, their holiness, and performs the commandments because God has so commanded, has fulfilled the commandment (for the essential thing is in the performance, and indeed he has performed them). This is not the case when it comes to prophecy. For God’s intent when it comes to prophecy was that the person should perceive, and that there should be no separation between him and God. ‘And they beheld God.’²²⁶Exodus 24:11. As a function of consciousness, prophecy must be actively and consciously experienced. If the prophet is unaware of what he is experiencing, the separation between the holy and material remains. Thus, it is only when one sees his Father opposite him and He is not again hidden from him thereafter, that the Father’s will is satisfied. This is why the prophets other than the forty-eight were required for each generation.²²⁷The function of the forty-eight prophets was to act as conduits of divinity, illuminating the material world with divine light. It is this function which R. Shapiro will claim is still necessary and to be performed by those who reach the avodah of the prophetic level—the kabbalists and the true hasidim.

Due to our sins, we no longer have prophets to prepare our generations and we, alongside the world of Asiyah, have descended, and have become further despised within enclothment and concealments, especially after the Destruction, as we cited above the end of the first chapter from Etz Hayyim, on the verse ‘He threw from heaven to earth…”²⁶⁴See above, end of Chapter 1: A. We thus find that the words of the prophets are closed up in in the world of Asiyah. They themselves struggled mightily to draw the illumination of holiness to Asiyah so there too the naked, supernal light should be visible, till their entire generation was prepared by their efforts to see it. Just as Moses, the greatest of the prophets, went up to heaven and brought down the written Torah, the greatest source of light and holiness, to Asiyah. His generation and those after saw supernal lights in Torah and in the world, in the sense of “and they beheld God.”²⁶⁵Exodus 24:11. But now that we do not have those to prepare us as such, we find the light of their prophecy where they left it, in Asiyah, but enclothed and closed, without the light being seen as it is. (All we see is) chastisement on observing the sabbath and idolatry, on justice etc. We see in them only Asiyah [except for the person who arises and prepares himself].²⁶⁶This parenthetical aside is significant. R. Shapiro claims here that there is another way to see the light: self-work. This resonates with his introductory letter to Hovat haTalmidim, when he notes that nowadays, children have to be taught to see themselves as their own teachers.

The holy talmudic sages saw that the prophets had ceased and the world and nation ‘descended appallingly’. ²⁶⁷Lamentations 1:9. The Torah remained closed in Asiyah to the people, and they were as distant from the soul of the Torah as one can be from his own soul, though it indeed is in him, because his body encases it. Though the Torah and commandments descended with them, and in this world, they fulfill the commandments—of the festival booths [sukkah] and fringes [tzitzit] etc. —but the prophecy, that is the revelation that all is holy including Asiyah, was no longer. Thus, these holy ones worked mightily and held fast unto God, and drew the light of prophecy inhering in the Torah to the world and the nation which had descended. Though they were unable to reveal the divine light in the depths of Asiyah, so that this light would be apparent in even a bush and other physical entities, and so that one might even with his depths, his senses and eyes see an angel of God—‘behold the God of Israel sitting, sapphire beneath His feet’²⁶⁸See Exodus 24:9-11.—hearing the voice of God with his [very] ears—nonetheless, he would now be able to receive and grasp the light of God with the Yetzirah and Beriyah within him.

Leviticus 1,1. “He called out to Moses;” the fact that ‎the letter ‎א‎ in this verse is written in smaller script is explained ‎by something we had discussed in Exodus 24,1 on the line: ‎ואל ‏משה אמר עלה אל ה'‏‎, “and to Moses He had said: ‘ascend towards ‎‎Hashem.’” When a person performs one of G’d’s ‎commandments this makes an impression in the celestial spheres ‎and helps to awaken in him the desire to perform additional ‎commandments so that he will constantly be occupied with doing ‎G’d’s will. It had been Moses’ will to continuously perform G’d’s ‎will and to thereby continue to ascend ever higher and come ‎closer to Hashem as stated by the Zohar when ‎explaining the line: ‎ומשה עלה אל האלוקים‎, “and Moses had ‎ascended towards G’d,” (Exodus 19,3). G’d’s invitation recorded in ‎Exodus 24 to ascend (once again) was the result of his having ‎done so in Exodus 19,3 when he had commenced to do so before ‎an invitation had been issued to do so. The Zohar II,69 ‎ascribes the invitation to Moses in our verse to ascend to ‎‎Hashem as a reward for Moses’ initiative in Exodus 19,3. ‎This is reflected here by the letter ‎א‎ being written in small script. ‎It acknowledges the humility of Moses which exceeded anyone ‎else’s humility, i.e. the “small” ‎א‎.
We have a rule when offering a sacrifice to G’d that this ‎offering is to reflect the largesse that G’d has seen fit to bestow ‎upon us, without us in the lower regions of the universe having ‎performed any good deeds to deserve this. This is the reason that ‎the animal sacrifice must be dedicated and consecrated while still ‎alive, as the ultimate gift G’d can bestow us is life itself. Life can ‎only be bestowed by G’d Himself.‎
Libations, i.e. offerings consisting of oil or wine (with ‎additives) are a form of “mini-offering,” but they represent an ‎input by the residents in this lower part of the universe, man ‎having had to seed and plant the earth before eventually ‎producing the product from which oil and wine is made. These ‎libations also reflect G’d’s largesse, i.e. the largesse bestowed upon ‎us as a direct result of our constructive activities on earth. In ‎other words, the Israelites were allowed (only after the affair of ‎the spies) to present such libations in recognition of their good ‎deeds.
While the Israelites were in the desert they were in the ‎position of receiving G’d’s largesse without having made an input ‎of their own as they could not seed or plant orchards or grow ‎grain in the desert. In recognition of their inability to do so, G’d ‎provided heavenly bread, i.e. the manna for them. In lieu of ‎their offering libations to Him, G’d provided them with a ‎travelling well which took care of their daily needs for fresh ‎water.‎
All this has been alluded to in Numbers 15,2 when the Torah ‎begins to describe how the people’s lives will change once they ‎will come to the land of their inheritance, i.e.‎כי תבאו אל ארץ ‏מושבתיכם וגו'‏‎, “when you will come to the land in which you will ‎reside permanently, etc.” The Torah there continues with listing ‎the various kinds of offerings (first animal) and then libations, in ‎that order. The reason why these sacrificial offerings are linked to ‎the people being in possession of their permanent homes in the ‎Holy Land is because the sacrifices are reflections, i.e. acts of ‎acknowledgment and gratitude for G’d’s largesse by giving them ‎an ancestral heritage. This also explains why the sages have ‎decreed ‎אין אומרים שירה אלא על היין‎, “when intoning songs of ‎thanksgiving to G’d one must only do so while saying a blessing ‎over wine (and drinking it) as an acknowledgment of the most ‎precious product that the earth (lower part for the universe) has ‎to offer us by the grace of G’d.” (Compare Rashi on Erchin ‎‎11)‎ ‎‎

Exodus 24,1. ,“you will prostrate yourselves from a ‎distance.” When describing His creatures’ relationship to ‎Him, or His relationship to them, the Creator may use two ‎different terms, i.e. “distant,” ‎רחוק‎, or “nearby,” ‎קרוב‎. A “distant” ‎relationship means that we believe in the Existence of the ‎אור‎, ‎original light emanating from the ‎אין סוף‎, the essence of the ‎Creator, as having preceded any other phenomenon in the ‎universe, as a result of which no creature/phenomenon can ‎possibly have a true understanding of His nature. Perceptions ‎arrived at by our intelligence, by a ‎מחשבה‎, “thought,” which is ‎itself a “creature,” cannot possibly reflect a true understanding ‎of the essence of Who has created them. This is also why no ‎category of angel, however “close” it may be to the Creator can ‎possibly have a true understanding of His essence. This inability ‎to comprehend Him objectively, is also described as being ‎רחוק‎, ‎‎“distant” for want of a better word, i.e. this “distance” is not ‎measured in terms of miles or kilometers, but in terms of means ‎of perception. In other words, we must never try and measure ‎our relationship to G’d in terms of physical distance.‎
On the other hand, the term ‎קרוב‎, “nearby”, or “close,” when ‎used in connection with the Creator, implies that we believe that ‎He is omnipresent, fills the whole universe with His Presence, and ‎that there is no place in all the universes that He has created in ‎which His presence is not somehow felt at all times.‎
It is incumbent upon us true believers to firmly believe in ‎these two concepts, i.e. G’d’s simultaneous “distance,” as well as ‎His “nearness.” This is the meaning of Isaiah 17,19 ‎שלום לרחוק ‏ולקרוב אמר ה'‏‎, “welcome to the distant and to the near, says the ‎Lord.” The prophet, speaking in the name of G’d, welcomes those ‎righteous who truly affirm both of these above--mentioned ‎articles of our faith. Due to the belief of these ‎צדיקים‎ in these basic ‎tenets, G’d in His turn supplies His universe with beneficial input ‎to all parts of His universe.
Let us now look at the two categories of faith known as “love ‎for G’d,” ‎אהבה‎, and being in awe of Him, ‎יראה‎. The virtue of being ‎in awe (of G’d) is one that can be practiced only vis a vis; ‎phenomena that are “above” us and which due to their superior ‎position evoke fear in the beholder. ‎This awe is therefore ‎something closely related to the phenomenon we defined earlier ‎as ‎רחוק‎, “distant.” On the other hand, the phenomenon ‎קרוב‎, ‎nearness, is what inspires love. When the Torah, in the verse we ‎quoted above wrote: ‎והשתחוים ‏‎, “you are to prostrate yourselves,” ‎it refers to the awe which accompanies our relationship to ‎something that is ‎רחוק‎ “distant.” The addition of the word ‎מרחוק‎ ‎should therefore not be translated as “from a distance (measured ‎physically),” but “due to your perceptual distance, difficulty, in ‎comprehending the phenomenon known as ‘G’d.’” It is this which ‎evokes the fear/awe relationship to G’d.‎
Alternatively, falling back on words of the Ari’zal, when ‎interpreting the line beginning with the words: ‎ואנחנו כורעים וגו'‏‎ ‎in the ‎עלינו‎ prayer: the word ‎ומשתחוים‎ in that sentence is ‎understood as our drawing nearer to us all the beneficial ‎outpourings of G’d’s largesse from the celestial regions through ‎this form of worship. It is quite possible that in our verse above ‎the purpose of G’d requesting this “prostration” of the elders and ‎sages was to set in motion the outpourings of G’d’s beneficial ‎largesse.‎

Exodus 24,3. “Moses came and told the people all the ‎words of Hashem, and all the “social laws.”
According ‎to the opinion of Rashi, the events recorded in this chapter ‎occurred chronologically before the giving of the Torah on the 6th ‎of Sivan. He adds that the ‎משפטים‎, laws governing inter ‎personal relations, must refer to the 7 Noachide laws that apply ‎to all of mankind and to the laws governing the red heifer and ‎part of the Sabbath legislation revealed to the people at ‎‎Marah, as well as to the law to honour father and mother.‎
Nachmanides questions at least part of Rashi’s ‎commentary, finding it most unlikely that at this time and place ‎Moses told the people about the 7 Noachide laws. He also argues ‎that the expression ‎ויספר‎, “he told,” used in our verse is ‎inappropriate for use with matters that were already known.‎
Personally, I do not see anything wrong with Rashi’s ‎commentary. According to the understanding of the sages in the ‎Talmud, the events described in this chapter preceded the ‎revelation at Mount Sinai as explained in Or Hachayim, see ‎page 751 in this editor’s translation of the Or Hachayim’s ‎commentary, where the author quotes a Mechilta on this ‎subject describing it as “undisputed.” As to the words in ‎‎Rashi referring to what Moses told the people being the ‎seven Noachide commandments, etc., this was not the subject he ‎told them about, i.e. ‎ויספר‎, “he told,” but refers to the altar which ‎Moses had built on the 5th day of Sivan, the day prior to the ‎revelation which the Torah mentions in verse 4 of our chapter. ‎On that day Moses concluded a covenant with the people ‎confirming as law the seven Noachide laws, etc., laws that had ‎first been introduced during the people’s stopover at Marah, ‎where G’d had demonstrated how “bitter” waters could be ‎sweetened. Moses told the people that their having observed the ‎laws given on that occasion was truly a major achievement on ‎their part. He added that G’d had been greatly pleased by this. ‎When the people heard about how pleased G’d had been, they ‎were encouraged to spontaneously promise that any further laws ‎G’d were to instruct them to observe they would honour without ‎hesitation. In other words, they “invited” G’d to inform them of ‎additional laws He had in mind to reveal to them for their own ‎good. This was followed a little while later by the most famous ‎declaration of the people when they proclaimed: ‎נעשה ונשמע‎, “we ‎will do, now let’s hear,” in that order. (verse 7)‎

Exodus 24,10. “and beneath His feet there was something ‎resembling a brick made from sapphire.” There is an ironclad ‎rule that every “spark”, limb, movement, in this physical ‎universe as well as the activity of every angel, i.e. disembodied ‎creature of G’d, needs to be an instrument used in the service of ‎the Lord. Seeing that He is unique and solitary and eternal, ‎anyone serving Him will experience satisfaction and pleasure of a ‎kind that no creature could attain by its own efforts.‎
It is axiomatic that when speaking of the ‎אין סוף‎, the essence ‎of the Creator, concepts such as time, space and quantity, do not ‎apply, seeing that these concepts define limitations, and the ‎Creator, by definition, is “unlimited” i.e. does not suffer from the ‎constraints imposed upon His creatures by time, space and ‎quantity. These concepts become applicable only when the ‎Creator, in order not to destroy His universe and the creatures in ‎it, must impose restraints upon Himself, known as ‎צמצום‎. These ‎restraints that the Creator imposes upon Himself vary with the ‎parts of the universe in which He desires to become manifest at ‎different times. Concepts such as time, space, quantity, are useful ‎in measuring the degree of such constraints G’d imposes upon ‎Himself at different “times,” and in different “spaces.”‎
All living creatures are required to “gaze upon,” i.e. to relate ‎to the ‎אין‎ from within the parts of the universe that is their ‎habitat, to their roots, the cause from which all their ‎חיות‎, life-‎force, draws its animation or vitality. In other words, speaking ‎allegorically, man must keep in contact with its Creator, much ‎like an unborn baby must remain in contact through its navel ‎with its life-giving mother. By maintaining such contact, the life ‎force of the creature keeps being renewed. This “process,” though ‎assuming different forms, is common to all creatures whether ‎mobile, inert, free-willed or “programmed” by its Creator. The ‎means by which these various creatures maintain this contact ‎with their origins are the ‎אותיות‎, “identifying letters,” for want of ‎a better word, which represent the individuality of the various ‎kinds of creatures. In the celestial regions there are “outlets,” ‎marked as appropriate for each type of creature to connect to. ‎When each one “concentrates,” i.e. sees with its mind’s eye this ‎outlet whence they “recharge” their “batteries,” they thus ensure ‎their continued existence and function in the parts of the ‎universe that has been allocated to them.‎
It is important for these creatures to establish a system ‎whereby their contact with their origin remains unbroken, so ‎that their continued existence is not endangered.
According ‎to the Kabbalists, this method or system is known as ‎קמץ‎, like the ‎vowel in the Hebrew alphabet. This method is discussed in the ‎‎Tikkuney Hazohar. According to what is explained there, the ‎אין סוף‎, infinite essence of G’d, is also known as ‎קמץ‎. This ‎אין סוף‎, ‎seeing that it has no colour, is considered in the category of ‎‎“white,” as “white” forms the basis of all other colours. Any other ‎colour may be perceived as having been superimposed on the ‎original white.

And that is [the meaning of] Israel’s saying we will do and we will listen (Ex. 24:7), which is to say we will do the Service and exert [ourselves]; and afterward we will come to the world of pleasure such that it will be considered Service. “A heavenly voice came out and said, ‘Who revealed this secret… the language the ministering angels [use] etc.” – in truth it is a great thing, for it is even so for the angels: first he must arouse his longing for the Holiness and the life-force from the Blessed Creator.

Exodus 24,10. “they saw the G’d of Israel, and beneath His ‎feet something resembling a brick made of sapphire pure as ‎the heavens.” We are all familiar with the concept of ‎אהבת ‏הבורא‎, “love for the Creator,” after all we have been charged with ‎loving Him in Deuteronomy 6,5 and we recite this verse three ‎times daily. Nonetheless, any thinking person must ask himself ‎how he could describe himself as “loving G’d,” seeing that He is so ‎far above us human beings that a mutual love relationship as we ‎comprehend it seems impossible, and anyone claiming to feel ‎such feelings surely must be guilty of boasting, or something ‎worse, blasphemy!
There is a third “dogma,” that anyone claiming to be a true ‎believer in Judaism must embrace, and that is that the Creator is ‎our Father, we are His children, and that in spite of the fact that ‎G’d like any father is wiser, more experienced, more ‎knowledgeable than his children, this does not preclude Him from ‎enjoying his children, even engaging in the equivalent of “playing ‎games with them.” The fact that the Creator is able to do this is ‎what enables Him to become beloved by His creatures/children.‎
These three “dogmas,” or ‎מידות‎, were prominently displayed ‎in varying degrees by the patriarchs Avraham, Yitzchok, and ‎Yaakov. Avraham excelled in love for his Creator, Yitzchok ‎excelled in his awe of the Creator, and Yaakov excelled in ‎תפארת ‏ואמת‎, “harmony and truth.” Avraham’s level of faith was ‎complemented and thus made complete by his grandson Yaakov, ‎and this is the meaning of Isaiah 29,22 saying ‎בית יעקב אשר פדה את ‏אברהם‎, “the house of Yaakov who redeemed Avraham.” The right ‎hand of a human being, the left hand and the torso, allude to ‎these three virtues, religious “dogmas.”‎
There is another virtue, faith, ‎אמונה‎, i.e. actually a twofold ‎‎“faith” the belief in both the authenticity of the written as well as ‎the oral Torah. What this “faith” involves is the absolute ‎certainty that the Creator guides the universe, according to how ‎He sees fit. This aspect is included in the term ‎תורה שבכתב‎, “the ‎written Torah.” At the same time we must believe that G’d carries ‎out the wishes of the collective soul of the Jewish people. The ‎first mentioned aspect of faith is primarily the faith demonstrated ‎by Moses, whereas the latter aspect, belief in the authenticity of ‎the oral Torah was what Aaron the High Priest, excelled in. In ‎other words, basically what Yaakov excelled in and what Aaron ‎excelled in were similar, the difference being that Yaakov’s “faith” ‎included the belief that G’d is amused and delights in the Jewish ‎people to the point that He “boasts“ about them. However, this is ‎not yet sufficient for Him to fulfill their wish for Him to guide the ‎world according to the wishes of the people of Israel, seeing that ‎even if a father in our world of mortals, just because his son ‎pleases him on occasion or even most of the time, does not re-‎orient his lifestyle on account of that. It requires the additional ‎virtue of Aaron, i.e. Yaakov, in order for Israel to persuade Him to ‎re-orient His manner of guiding the universe so that it coincides ‎with the wishes of the collective soul of the Jewish people.‎
In the event, Yaakov became equivalent to his son Levi who ‎was found worthy to also become the founder of the priesthood ‎in Israel. It was Yaakov who fathered the children who were ‎eventually adorned with the title “Children of Israel.” The reason ‎why the priests wear 4 distinct garments when performing their ‎functions in the Temple, is that they embody the four virtues we ‎have described earlier as being essential for the truly believing ‎Israelite. These 4 virtues, i.e. “dogmas” of Jewish belief, are also ‎represented in the four letters of the holy name of the Lord, the ‎tetragram. The four garments of the priest worn in our “lower” ‎part of the universe, symbolize the letters in the tetragram, ‎reminiscent of the “upper” world. This is one way in which G’d is ‎represented among the Israelites in their world at all times.

The second universe is atzilus. Atzilus means “next to,” “noble,” and “emanated or given off.” This world is “next to” God; it is the first light that God gave off. An atzil is a nobleman;¹⁷⁴See further Exod. 24:11, Ve-el atzilei bnei Yisrael, “And to the noblemen of the Children of Israel….” he has power and importance because of his proximity to the king. Similarly, this universe is next to the King of Kings and that is where its importance stems from.

Exodus 24,17. “and the appearance of G’d’s glory was like ‎a consuming fire on the top of the Mountain.” When man ‎serves the Lord through observing the commandments and ‎studying His Torah, he provides the Lord with a great deal of ‎satisfaction. If he wishes to know if his service was really pleasing ‎to the Lord, the test is to look into his own heart. If he notices ‎that his own heart is as if burning with fire in his enthusiasm and ‎that whenever he performs acts of service to the Lord it ‎thoroughly warms his heart and he himself experiences a ‎profound satisfaction and joy at serving his Creator, this is proof ‎that he receives a heavenly assist to continue on the path he has ‎chosen. The meaning of the words ‎ומראה כבד ה'‏‎ therefore is not a ‎description of what was visible on the mountain but rather that ‎G’d’s sign of showing His servants that their service to Him was ‎appreciated was that the person concerned experienced within ‎himself a reflection of what the Jewish people experienced on the ‎day prior to the revelation when they looked at the top of the ‎mountain. When his own heart seems to him to be on “fire,” and ‎he is close to ecstasy, this is proof that G’d takes pleasure in his ‎efforts.‎

When it is said in the Gemara (Avoda Zara, 10b), “Antoninus said to Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, I know that even the smallest among the Jews can revive the dead,” he meant that for men of perfect faith, such miracles are no burden before God. But for a miracle to be shown to the general public, like the story about Rava praying for rain in Ta’anit 24b, including those who have not fixed perfect faith in their hearts and who look at nature as running according to its own order, then miraculous governance is indeed a burden before God.³⁷⁶For G-d must change the natural order, which He originally put into place in order to grant human beings free will. Thus, it is forbidden to pray for a change in nature, as this requires a revelation of supernal governance which is above man’s intellectual grasp. On this, the Zohar of the miracle that happened in Egypt³⁷⁷The Zohar here specifically discusses the splitting of the Red Sea. (Terumah, 170b): “It was difficult for God.” Why was it difficult? Because the miracle in Egypt happened before both believers and nonbelievers alike. It was good for the believers and bad for the nonbelievers, as was explained in the introduction to the subject of miracles. There was a revelation of the level of God’s governance beyond man’s intellectual grasp. Pharaoh did not know of the connection between God and Israel, from which Divine salvation can be aroused, as it exists beyond the grasp of the mortal mind. This is mentioned above, in chapter 12 (Zohar Beshalach 52b), “Pharaoh didn’t see that there was another connection, the connection of faith, which rules over all.” The Zohar calls this kind of connection, “the connection of faith,” because the main kind of connection between Israel and God is through emunah (faith) which reaches beyond the grasp of the human mind. Emunah is the inner aspect, even though it is not dressed in a garment. In the merit of emunah, Israel is worthy of receiving God’s salvation, even though they have no clear good deeds on record. The clear statement of this is written in the Torah where it says (Shemot, 4:32), “And the people believed and they heard.”³⁷⁸This is a foreshadowing of the famous statement of the Jewish people before the giving of the Torah (Shemot 24:7), “We will do, and we will hear (understand)”; meaning to say, the children of Israel had so much faith in God that they accepted the laws of the Torah even before understanding their meaning.

There are many connotations to the term Sephirah. It shares a relation- ship with the word sefar, “border.” It also recalls the words sippur, “story,” and sefer, “book.” Lastly, in the Torah, the word sappir refers to a glittering, light filled, crystal, related to the English word “sapphire” (see Exod. 24:10).

A different explanation of Asher’s blessing; the highest ‎achievement a G’d-serving person can look forward to is to be ‎granted the privilege to contemplate G’d’s greatness visually, i.e. ‎with his mind’s eye. [This editor is reminded of Exodus 24,11 ‎where the spiritual nobility of the Jewish people are described as ‎ויחזו את האלוקים‎, ‘they experienced as intense a revelation of G’d as ‎if they had seen Him with their eyes.’” (my translation) Ed.] It is ‎our experience in life that however powerful and overwhelming ‎an experience we are privy to, this will gradually pale into relative ‎insignificance when we experience that same phenomenon again ‎and again. [The example I quoted illustrates this; ‎according to our sages, seeing that Nadav and Avihu, based on the ‎Torah’s description in Exodus 24, continued their “business as ‎usual” daily routine in spite of having been privileged to witness ‎such revelations. Ed.]‎

Rabbi Yitzchok in Bereshit Rabbah 56,2 comments on ‎this as follows: “the only reason that Avraham was able to keep ‎his promise to the lads that he would return from Mount Moriah ‎‎(alive), is that he prostrated himself there before the Lord, ‎‎[something beyond what the Lord had asked of him when He ‎commanded him to offer his son Yitzchok as a burnt offering.” ‎Ed.] This is why hundreds of years later his descendants were ‎redeemed from Egypt, as G’d explained to Moses in Exodus 3,12 ‎and as the Israelites did in Exodus 4,31. This ‎השתחויה‎, ‎‎“prostration before the Lord,” symbolized that the person doing ‎so abandoned any claim that he might have had to the material ‎benefits that life on earth offers. This is also what enables G’d to ‎‎“sweeten” i.e. remove the sting, of any judgments man is ‎subjected to by the attribute of Justice. Avraham’s example of ‎reducing himself to ‎אין‎ or ‎אפס‎, “nothing,” paved the way for his ‎descendants to emulate him and to be redeemed from the yoke of ‎the Egyptians who had effectively reduced them to a similar state ‎of having to negate the attractions this world offered to others.‎
The Torah itself was only given to the Jewish people because ‎they voluntarily repeated this ‎השתחויה‎, prostrating themselves ‎before the Lord, as we know from Exodus 24,1 where all the elite ‎of the Jewish people are reported as having prostrated themselves ‎some distance away from Mount Sinai. [That chapter, though ‎written after the revelation, describes events that occurred before ‎the revelation, Ed.] The elite negating their claims on the material ‎benefits this world has to offer, made it possible for coming so ‎close to G’d during the revelation that He addressed them as if He ‎were speaking to an equal. In psalms 99,9 when Moses (the ‎author of this psalm) says: ‎רוממו ה' אלוקינו והשתחוו להר קדשו‎, ‎‎“Exalt the Lord our G’d and prostrate yourselves at the Mountain ‎of His holiness;” similar verses are found in Isaiah 27,13, and ‎Samuel I 1,19 where the wording is almost identical. Rabbi ‎Yitzchok concludes by saying that the resurrection when it will ‎occur, does so only in recognition of these voluntary prostrations ‎of the Jewish people on various occasions when they ‎demonstrated their absolute submission to G’d and His will. If we ‎needed proof of this we find in in Isaiah 27,13 where we read ‎והיה ‏ביום ההוא יתקע בשופר גדול ובאו האובדים בארץ אשור והנדכים בארץ ‏מצרים והשתחוו לה' בהר הקודש בירושלים‎, “it will be on that Day, ‎when a great ram’s horn will be sounded, and the strayed who are ‎in the land of Assyria, and the expelled who are in the land of ‎Egypt, shall come and prostrate themselves on the holy Mountain ‎in Jerusalem.”

They established [reading of] Ruth on Shavu'ot, to say that, by means of B'nai Yisrael being chosen through the Giving of the Torah, they are instruments to draw near the converts, because B'nai Yisrael are called the First of His Crop which is the fruit for which everything was created. This is as it says (Gen. R.), "B'reishit -- for the sake of Israel which is called 'reishit.'" The meaning is that "reishit" is the beginning and the inner essence, as it says (Prov.), "The 'reishit' of wisdom is the awe of God." Therefore it is called the Day of Bikkurim, when the fruit is ripe. But B'nai Yisrael "are excepted from the generality in order to teach to the entire generality" (Sifra, principles of R' Yishma'el), as it will be in the future (Zeph. 3:9), "For then I will make the peoples pure of speech, etc. [so that they all invoke Adonai by name and serve Him with one accord]." And then (Eccl. 7:8) "The end of a matter is better than the beginning of it" [see Ruth 3:10]. And in truth, according as B'nai Yisrael elevate from the nations, they are themselves exalted even more. And this itself is the meaning of putting "na'aseh" before "nishma," for B'nai Yisrael understood this, that they were chosen in order to draw everyone near, and they said (Ex. 24:7), "Everything that Adonai has spoken we will do." It is written here "na'aseh" and it is written there (Gen. 1:26), "Na'aseh adam," as it says (Gen. 12:5) "the souls that they had made," which Onkelos translated "that they had subjugated to the Torah", and it is through this that "we will hear." As it is with the particular -- as the improvement [tikkun] of the deeds, in order to draw each physical deed close to the spirit so that the soul shines in the person -- so it is in general -- as the improvement [tikkun] of K'lal Yisrael to draw near from the nations, so that the Torah shines in them. It is written (Micah 7:20), "You will give truth to Ya'akov, hesed to Avraham," for B'nai Yisrael are in truth God's portion and His Torah, but it is also part of the aspect of Truth to do hesed, to bring near those who are far off and who come for the sake of Heaven: "truth to Ya'akov" is the Torah, "hesed to Avraham" is that we should draw close also from the descendants of Lot -- Ruth the Moabite....