Chasidut sobre Deuteronômio 33:2
וַיֹּאמַ֗ר יְהוָ֞ה מִסִּינַ֥י בָּא֙ וְזָרַ֤ח מִשֵּׂעִיר֙ לָ֔מוֹ הוֹפִ֙יעַ֙ מֵהַ֣ר פָּארָ֔ן וְאָתָ֖ה מֵרִבְבֹ֣ת קֹ֑דֶשׁ מִֽימִינ֕וֹ אשדת [אֵ֥שׁ] [דָּ֖ת] לָֽמוֹ׃
Disse ele: <span class="x" onmousemove="Show('perush','Principiou suas bênçãos com enaltecimento a Deus. (Sifrê)');" onmouseout="Hide('perush');">O SENHOR veio do Sinai, e de Seir raiou sobre nós</span>; resplandeceu <span class="x" onmousemove="Show('perush','Todos estes lugares são próximos uns dos outros. O deserto de Paran, a terra de Se’ir e o Sinai são praticamente o mesmo. Assim, escreve r. Sa’ádia Gaon em seu livro “Emunôt vede’ôt” que os três nomes referem-se ao Sinai, e r. Abraham Ibn-’Ezrá também escrevera similarmente');" onmouseout="Hide('perush');">desde o monte Parã</span>, e veio das <span class="x" onmousemove="Show('perush','Segundo Rabi Chelomô Itsĥaqi: miríades de anjos. Segundo rab Sa’ádia Gaon, as miríades são o próprio povo de Israel.');" onmouseout="Hide('perush');">miríades de santos</span>; à sua direita havia para eles o fogo da lei.
Kedushat Levi
This was portrayed in the passage at the beginning of Tikkuney Hazohar (based on Zohar chadash 59, column 3) where the prophet Elijah appeared to Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai and his son Eleazar in the cave where they were in hiding from the Romans and Elijah planted a carob tree and provided a well of spring water from which the two men ate and drank during the 12 years they spent in hiding. Elijah would visit them twice daily and teach them, enabling them to escape prosecution by the Romans. Among the lessons Elijah taught them was the fact that in order to make use of G’d’s input into the physical parts of the universe, G’d had to “clothe Himself,” i.e. conceal His essence, by restricting the holiness He radiated, or this would have been too overwhelming for the recipients thereof. Ari zal, sums this up as: “all parts of the universe require that G’d’s essence reduces its natural radiations, as all creatures in varying degrees are unable to withstand the brilliance of the emanations from G’d’s essence unless they had first been screened to some extent.” According to the Ari zal, any part of any universe, by definition contains a degree of substance, as opposed to G’d, Who is entirely abstract, spiritual. According to this view even the purest and holiest thought entertained by a living creature contains an element of physicality, since only G’d can be pure spirit.
It follows that before G’d could undertake the creation of a physical universe He had to surround His essence with “garments” shielding His creatures from this overwhelming spiritual radiance emanating from Him. In order to achieve this, G’d “clothed” Himself in garments radiating light. If I understand this correctly, the closer G’d came to the eventual physical world, the more subdued was the brilliance exuded from His “garments,” which He changed from stage to stage so as to enable the creatures in each world to tolerate it without coming to harm through being blinded.
All of these “worlds” (regions inhabited by spiritual beings of varying degrees of holiness) are extremely bright, Isaiah 58,11 referring to them as והשביע בצחצחות נפשך “He will satiate your soul with brightness.”
It follows that before G’d could undertake the creation of a physical universe He had to surround His essence with “garments” shielding His creatures from this overwhelming spiritual radiance emanating from Him. In order to achieve this, G’d “clothed” Himself in garments radiating light. If I understand this correctly, the closer G’d came to the eventual physical world, the more subdued was the brilliance exuded from His “garments,” which He changed from stage to stage so as to enable the creatures in each world to tolerate it without coming to harm through being blinded.
All of these “worlds” (regions inhabited by spiritual beings of varying degrees of holiness) are extremely bright, Isaiah 58,11 referring to them as והשביע בצחצחות נפשך “He will satiate your soul with brightness.”
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Kedushat Levi
Another word that at first glance appears as unnecessary, is the word את, which becomes clearer when we understand it as equivalent to the word אתה, as in בא, meaning “it came, or He came,” as in Deut.33,2 ה' מסיני בא וזרח משעיר למו הופיע מהר פארן ואתה מרבבות קודש, “the Lord came from Sinai, He shone upon them from Seir, He appeared from Paran having come from Ribeboth Kodesh.” The word alludes to the fact that the original light of which the Torah said ויהי אור instead of ויהי כן, “and so it was,” -the Torah’s standard phrase for nature having complied with any of G’d’s directives,- had been in existence prior to heaven and earth being created, but while prior to that it had existed only in a disembodied celestial world, it had extended its function to light up the newly created physical universe. This light that had previously only served the אין סוף, the Creator, directly, now served His creatures also. It did so to the extent that G’d’s creatures could benefit by it and not be blinded by it. When we understand that word in this manner, we can also understand why, at the end of the Torah’s report of the creation (Genesis 2,3) אשר ברא אלוקים לעשות, “which G’d had created to do;” the Torah writes the otherwise superfluous word לעשות. The Torah thereby also indicates that G’d renews the creative process on a daily basis, both in its spiritual as well as in its profane aspects. On the preceding six “days,” G’d had created worlds that served as the prologue to the physical world.
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Kedushat Levi
When Moses, in Deuteronomy 32,2 describes G’d as וזרח משעיר למו הופיע מהר פארן, “the Lord shone upon them from Seir, He appeared from Mount Paran,” every intelligent person must ask that Esau and Yaakov had been separated already prior to their respective births, and that the two represented two totally opposite perceptions of what life and the world is all about, one deciding in favour of worldly goods, whereas Yaakov decided in favour of spiritual values, so what point was there in G’d offering the Torah to the descendants of Esau? At the same time, since when do we the descendants of Yaakov, expect to have a share in G’d’s largesse on this earth? Does the Talmud Kidushin: 39 not teach us not to expect a reward for serving the Lord while we walk on this earth?
The answer to this question is this: Every Israelite is obligated by being part of the covenant between Israel and G’d, to serve the Lord enthusiastically and meticulously with all his soul at all times. Just as G’d supervises his well being every minute of every hour, so, in turn he is obliged to serve the Lord. When G’d on occasion supplies a Jew with material benefits, these are not to be understood as part of the reward for his mitzvah performance. It may be understood as an encouragement to the person concerned, to serve the Lord with even greater devotion and intensity. When Moses speaks of מימינו אש דת למו, “from His right side the fire had turned into law,” he meant that if G’d decided to give the Jewish people, or some of the Jewish people, part of the material comforts that had originally been allocated to Seir, i.e. Esau, He referred to G’d’s “right side”, the side exuding love. G’d intended that by doing so even the ordinary Jew who is not steeped in Torah learning will respond to G’d’s Torah with more enthusiasm when he feels that G’d had singled him out for loving care.
This is one of the reasons why Avraham called his son Yitzchok, the name reflecting the joy he felt at being granted this son by Sarah. If Yitzchok developed into a personality symbolizing יראה, awe, this was because he was rooted in שמחה, joy, and joy‘s root in turn is fire. [If I understand the author correctly, the joy described as “fire” is the enthusiasm, almost ecstasy, with which such a person serves his G’d. Ed]. The characteristic יראה is not one that is manifest in the person who possesses it all the time, as it is in the nature of being a response to certain stimuli, in this instance the external “cause” is G’d Himself. This characteristic becomes manifest in response to external stimulants. This is what Solomon had in mind when he said in Kohelet 7,12 ויתרון דעת חכמה תחיה בעליה, ”and the advantage of knowledge is that it adds an additional dimension to the life of him who possesses it..”
It is significant that the letters in the word מחשבה, “thought,” are the same as in the word בשמחה,”with joy.”מחשבה is an attribute that is both primary and constant. If a person reduces himself to the אין, negating all interest in the physical part of the world, having done this he is able to attach himself to the source of all “Life.” When this has occurred, a new “LIFE” is bestowed on him, a life in a different world, one in which he is elevated to be close to Eternal G’d. This concept is portrayed in the Torah in Leviticus 27,10 where the subject is the person who donates to הקדש, G’d’s representative on earth, his “net worth,” as defined according to his age. Having done so, the Torah there describes him as והיה הוא ותמורתו יהיה קודש, “then both he and his substitute will be holy.” Concerning this procedure the sages in the Jerusalem Talmud B’rachot 2,4 said: the messiah was born on the 9th day of Av, he being the exchange for the Jewish world which had been destroyed on that day (when the Temple was burned). We find an allusion to this negating the physical world and being “reincarnated,” when Avraham before proceeding to offer his son Yitzchok as a total burnt offering, tells the servants attending them, that “we will go, and prostrate ourselves and return to you.” (Genesis 22,5)
The answer to this question is this: Every Israelite is obligated by being part of the covenant between Israel and G’d, to serve the Lord enthusiastically and meticulously with all his soul at all times. Just as G’d supervises his well being every minute of every hour, so, in turn he is obliged to serve the Lord. When G’d on occasion supplies a Jew with material benefits, these are not to be understood as part of the reward for his mitzvah performance. It may be understood as an encouragement to the person concerned, to serve the Lord with even greater devotion and intensity. When Moses speaks of מימינו אש דת למו, “from His right side the fire had turned into law,” he meant that if G’d decided to give the Jewish people, or some of the Jewish people, part of the material comforts that had originally been allocated to Seir, i.e. Esau, He referred to G’d’s “right side”, the side exuding love. G’d intended that by doing so even the ordinary Jew who is not steeped in Torah learning will respond to G’d’s Torah with more enthusiasm when he feels that G’d had singled him out for loving care.
This is one of the reasons why Avraham called his son Yitzchok, the name reflecting the joy he felt at being granted this son by Sarah. If Yitzchok developed into a personality symbolizing יראה, awe, this was because he was rooted in שמחה, joy, and joy‘s root in turn is fire. [If I understand the author correctly, the joy described as “fire” is the enthusiasm, almost ecstasy, with which such a person serves his G’d. Ed]. The characteristic יראה is not one that is manifest in the person who possesses it all the time, as it is in the nature of being a response to certain stimuli, in this instance the external “cause” is G’d Himself. This characteristic becomes manifest in response to external stimulants. This is what Solomon had in mind when he said in Kohelet 7,12 ויתרון דעת חכמה תחיה בעליה, ”and the advantage of knowledge is that it adds an additional dimension to the life of him who possesses it..”
It is significant that the letters in the word מחשבה, “thought,” are the same as in the word בשמחה,”with joy.”מחשבה is an attribute that is both primary and constant. If a person reduces himself to the אין, negating all interest in the physical part of the world, having done this he is able to attach himself to the source of all “Life.” When this has occurred, a new “LIFE” is bestowed on him, a life in a different world, one in which he is elevated to be close to Eternal G’d. This concept is portrayed in the Torah in Leviticus 27,10 where the subject is the person who donates to הקדש, G’d’s representative on earth, his “net worth,” as defined according to his age. Having done so, the Torah there describes him as והיה הוא ותמורתו יהיה קודש, “then both he and his substitute will be holy.” Concerning this procedure the sages in the Jerusalem Talmud B’rachot 2,4 said: the messiah was born on the 9th day of Av, he being the exchange for the Jewish world which had been destroyed on that day (when the Temple was burned). We find an allusion to this negating the physical world and being “reincarnated,” when Avraham before proceeding to offer his son Yitzchok as a total burnt offering, tells the servants attending them, that “we will go, and prostrate ourselves and return to you.” (Genesis 22,5)
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