וַיְבָ֤רֶךְ אֱלֹהִים֙ אֶת־י֣וֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִ֔י וַיְקַדֵּ֖שׁ אֹת֑וֹ כִּ֣י ב֤וֹ שָׁבַת֙ מִכָּל־מְלַאכְתּ֔וֹ אֲשֶׁר־בָּרָ֥א אֱלֹהִ֖ים לַעֲשֽׂוֹת׃ (פ)
און גאָט האָט געבענטשט דעם זיבעטן טאָג, און האָט אים געהײליקט, װאָרום אין אים האָט ער גערוט פֿון זײַן גאַנצער אַרבעט װאָס גאָט האָט באַשאַפֿנדיק געמאַכט.
Sefat Emet
In the midrash (Shemot Rabbah 5:6) " and I turned to see… that which he already did…” (Ecclesiastes 2:12). For a person should know that every action affects his essence in a place so high that a person’s understanding cannot reach there at all. And because of this, it is necessary that all the intellect and all the desires are nullified to the will of Hashem. Similarly, I heard from my father, my master, my teacher and mentor, the righteous one who should be remembered for life in the World to Come, about what the midrash says, that if Reuven had known that the Torah had written about him “in order to save him” (Genesis 37:22), he would have carried Yosef on his shoulders back to his father (Rus Rabbah 5:6, Vayikra Rabbah 34:8). God forbid that he would have done this because of the honor that the verse would attest to him, but if he had known that the matter affected so much that the verse would write… Until here are the words of my father. And every action of a person is already decreed in heaven. And that is what the verse means, “that which he already did” (Ecclesiastes 2:12). Because on high, every action that a person will do is already decreed before Hashem; if so, it is not pertinent to question Him. And certainly it seemed obvious to King Solomon that his heart would not be led astray. But a person's actions affect that which is above his ability to understand. And consequently, there can be a change in the essence of a person. And if so, a person cannot know this at all. And it is written (Shemot Rabbah 5:6) that the letter yud in the word “yirbeh” (increase) went up before Hashem and said, Solomon is nullifying me! And is it true that someone who performs a sin nullifies a letter? But certainly through sin a person is cut off from clinging. But King Solomon knew that through the power of the Torah that was in him and the life force of Hashem which he was connected to without separation, he said “I will increase and not be led astray [and that's what the verse says, “God is with me and I will prevail” (Proverbs 30:1)]. And therefore, the yud, which signifies thought [which is the essence, as we say “the end is action, the beginning is thought” (Friday night prayers)], went up and said… And similarly by Moshe. He said, “Why did You do evil to Your nation?" (Exodus 5:22). Certainly he was not able to depict, God forbid, the evil of Israel. And Hashem responded to Him, “I am God” (Exodus 6:2), that all existences are through My will; if so, questions and challenges are not pertinent. And He also commanded him to say to the children of Israel, “I am Hashem” (Exodus 6:6), so that they will know that even the exile of Egypt was only through the life force of Hashem, because all existences are from Him. “And they didn’t listen to Moshe because of shortness of breath” (Exodus 6:9), because when they were in exile, this matter was not revealed [the meaning of “shortness of breath” is the life force of Hashem that is in a person, as it is written “and He blew into his nostrils a breath of life” (Genesis 2:7). And in exile the clinging to the essence of the life force is halted] and that is what is written in the midrash, that everything is from the Torah, He established in it positive commandments and negative commandments… (Shemot Rabbah 6:1), meaning that every action of a person of Israel has a life force in Torah and mitzvos that are dependent on action. And therefore the action of a person affects that which is above, and it draws from the life force of Hashem. And similarly what is written about the holy Sabbath, “that Hashem created to make” (Genesis 2:3), meaning that which is done even now through the desire of Hashem at the time of the creation, and on the Sabbath the children of Israel testify about this, that the truth was made clear. And this is what is written “and you should honor it from doing your desires…” (Isaiah 58:13), the Sages explained that all your work should be done. We can say as we said above, that one should know that also that which a person is doing is already done through the will of Hashem, as it is written “a person only injures a finger below if they decree so about him on high” (Chullin 7b), and that is what is written “that which was already done” (Ecclesiastes 2:12), as we said above. And on the Sabbath it is the aspect of nullification and the acceptance of the yoke of heaven, to nullify oneself to the essence of life. And through this, every action is drawn after its essence in heaven. Because it is written, “He did wonders” (Psalms 98:1). And the Rama in Orach Chaim explained “and does wondrous things” (Blessing of Asher Yatzar), that the action has in it an aspect of wonder, (see the Magen Avraham there, Orach Chaim 6:1). And also the wisdom of a person needs to be nullified to the aspect of the essence of wisdom, as it is written “from where is it found…” (Job 28:12). Because a person knows that when he grows and becomes wiser, he sees that that which he did not consider to be a sin beforehand was a mistake, and so too afterwards even more. If so, for true wisdom there is no measure, and all knowledge must be nullified to the word of Hashem, and everything will be drawn to the essence, as we said above.
Kedushat Levi
The first thing G’d embarked on when creating the material universe was to create heaven and earth.”
It is an axiom, general principle, that G’d created the entire universe, and having done so, never withdraws from the universe for even a single moment, [unlike sculptors or painters who, once they have completed a sculpture or painting, move on to something else, having “finished” with their previous “creation.” Ed.] This axiom is true both of what He created in the heavens and what He created in the material, three-dimensional part of the universe. We pay tribute to this in our daily prayers when we say יוצר אור ובורא חושך, “He creates and fashions (present tense) light, and He creates darkness.” When speaking of any accomplishments of G’d’s creatures however, we speak of them in the past tense, i.e.יצר כסא, “he shaped a chair,” or עשה מזרון, “he made a mattress.” G’d’s creative activity is never completed, as the Torah testified in Genesis 2,3 אשר ברא אלוקים לעשות, “which the Lord has created in order to complete it.” This means that G’d is part of every creature He ever created, and once man realizes that he is nothing without G’d Who has created him and Who provides him with all the strength and creative stimuli that he possesses, he will be able to relate to Hashem as an ongoing creative Force in His universe. This is reflected every morning when we get up [after having used the washroom] and we refer to G’d with the words אשר יצר את האדם בחכמה, “Who has fashioned man with חכמה,” the word חכמה meaning the opposite of אין, “nothing.” It is appropriate therefore that in that prayer we refer to the creation of man in the past tense, as opposed to the line we quoted earlier, seeing that we refer to something or somebody who already exists, i.e. יש. This explains why the Ari z’al , Rabbi Yitzchak Luria, said that when we refer to G’d as ה' מלך, usually translated as “Hashem is King,” the reference is to the אין, “nothing,” i.e. G’d at any given moment gives us life, -by not withdrawing it from us.- The implied meaning of the expression is that man is “nothing” unless he continues to exist as part of G’d’s creative activity. The so-called אין, “nothing,” in terms of metaphysical beings, rules supreme in the regions beyond those that are part of the physical universe, the one that we conveniently refer to as “nature.” This so-called אין, is not really a “nothing,” in terms of the universe, its “nothingness” is such only vis a vis the physical part of the universe; in the celestial regions this “אין” rules supreme. [as opposed to the חכמה in our part of the universe. Ed. Although יש and אין are popularly perceived as absolute opposites, not having anything in common, this perception is built on a fallacy; the linkage between יש and אין are the mitzvot, Torah commandments, performed by the Jewish people. The commandments are performed in the section of the universe known as יש, as a result of which close contact is maintained between the aforementioned two domains of the universe. Ezekiel 1:14 refers to the “mitzvot” in their capacity as providing the link between the terrestrial and the celestial part of the universe with the words והחיות רצוא ושוב, “and the chayot ran to and fro”. According to the Zohar II 288, the mitzvot and the Torah respectively, are viewed as related to one another like the “hidden” is related to the “revealed,” both being part of the same whole. Torah and mitzvot provide the link between these two domains, so that each domain is not completely divorced from the other. This concept is contained in the letters of the word מצוה when we divide it up into מצ and וה. The letters מצ when we read the alphabet backwards, starting with the letter ת are equivalent to the letters יה, symbolising the totally abstract Divinity, whereas the letters וה symbolize the hidden parts of the universe, יש. The first half of the word מצוה being read with the two letters used in reverse order of the aleph bet, alludes to the “hidden” part of the universe, the domain exclusive to Divine, abstract forces. Let us explain something about what precisely is “hidden” and what is “revealed,” when it comes to the מצוה, “Torah commandment.” When we perform a מצוה, we cause G’d to become pleased with having created man, the choicest of His creatures. When we comply with requests made to us by a fellow human being, we can immediately gauge whether he is pleased by our actions or not, either by his face indicating this, or by words of approval, something that is not the case when we comply with G’d’s requests from us. Since He is invisible, and does not speak to us as He did to Moses, “mouth to mouth”, we have no way of knowing if our efforts to please Him have been successful. When we try to perform deeds that are for our (immediate) personal benefit, we are able to determine if our efforts have succeeded. This then is the “hidden” element present whenever we perform any of G’d’s commandments, מצות. This is what the Torah had in mind when it wrote (Deuteronomy 29,28) הנסתרות לה' אלוקינו, “the hidden aspects of mitzvah performance are reserved for the Lord our G’d;” on the other hand, והנגלות לנו ולבנינו עד עולם, “the benefits which the performance of the Torah confers upon us will be revealed forever.” This is also the meaning of the words בראשית ברא אלוקים, (addressed to us) “at the beginning of G’d’s creative activity G’d created the יש, a physical domain of the universe.” Through His creating יש, i.e. ראשית, a beginning, the creation of heaven and earth came into being, for prior to that there was only the אין, the abstract universe. This is the meaning of Targum Yerushalmi who renders this verse as 'בראשית בחוכמא ברא ה', “at the beginning G’d created by means of using intelligence found in the domain of the abstract regions.” חכמה, as we pointed out earlier, is a quality inherent in the terrestrial domain.
It is an axiom, general principle, that G’d created the entire universe, and having done so, never withdraws from the universe for even a single moment, [unlike sculptors or painters who, once they have completed a sculpture or painting, move on to something else, having “finished” with their previous “creation.” Ed.] This axiom is true both of what He created in the heavens and what He created in the material, three-dimensional part of the universe. We pay tribute to this in our daily prayers when we say יוצר אור ובורא חושך, “He creates and fashions (present tense) light, and He creates darkness.” When speaking of any accomplishments of G’d’s creatures however, we speak of them in the past tense, i.e.יצר כסא, “he shaped a chair,” or עשה מזרון, “he made a mattress.” G’d’s creative activity is never completed, as the Torah testified in Genesis 2,3 אשר ברא אלוקים לעשות, “which the Lord has created in order to complete it.” This means that G’d is part of every creature He ever created, and once man realizes that he is nothing without G’d Who has created him and Who provides him with all the strength and creative stimuli that he possesses, he will be able to relate to Hashem as an ongoing creative Force in His universe. This is reflected every morning when we get up [after having used the washroom] and we refer to G’d with the words אשר יצר את האדם בחכמה, “Who has fashioned man with חכמה,” the word חכמה meaning the opposite of אין, “nothing.” It is appropriate therefore that in that prayer we refer to the creation of man in the past tense, as opposed to the line we quoted earlier, seeing that we refer to something or somebody who already exists, i.e. יש. This explains why the Ari z’al , Rabbi Yitzchak Luria, said that when we refer to G’d as ה' מלך, usually translated as “Hashem is King,” the reference is to the אין, “nothing,” i.e. G’d at any given moment gives us life, -by not withdrawing it from us.- The implied meaning of the expression is that man is “nothing” unless he continues to exist as part of G’d’s creative activity. The so-called אין, “nothing,” in terms of metaphysical beings, rules supreme in the regions beyond those that are part of the physical universe, the one that we conveniently refer to as “nature.” This so-called אין, is not really a “nothing,” in terms of the universe, its “nothingness” is such only vis a vis the physical part of the universe; in the celestial regions this “אין” rules supreme. [as opposed to the חכמה in our part of the universe. Ed. Although יש and אין are popularly perceived as absolute opposites, not having anything in common, this perception is built on a fallacy; the linkage between יש and אין are the mitzvot, Torah commandments, performed by the Jewish people. The commandments are performed in the section of the universe known as יש, as a result of which close contact is maintained between the aforementioned two domains of the universe. Ezekiel 1:14 refers to the “mitzvot” in their capacity as providing the link between the terrestrial and the celestial part of the universe with the words והחיות רצוא ושוב, “and the chayot ran to and fro”. According to the Zohar II 288, the mitzvot and the Torah respectively, are viewed as related to one another like the “hidden” is related to the “revealed,” both being part of the same whole. Torah and mitzvot provide the link between these two domains, so that each domain is not completely divorced from the other. This concept is contained in the letters of the word מצוה when we divide it up into מצ and וה. The letters מצ when we read the alphabet backwards, starting with the letter ת are equivalent to the letters יה, symbolising the totally abstract Divinity, whereas the letters וה symbolize the hidden parts of the universe, יש. The first half of the word מצוה being read with the two letters used in reverse order of the aleph bet, alludes to the “hidden” part of the universe, the domain exclusive to Divine, abstract forces. Let us explain something about what precisely is “hidden” and what is “revealed,” when it comes to the מצוה, “Torah commandment.” When we perform a מצוה, we cause G’d to become pleased with having created man, the choicest of His creatures. When we comply with requests made to us by a fellow human being, we can immediately gauge whether he is pleased by our actions or not, either by his face indicating this, or by words of approval, something that is not the case when we comply with G’d’s requests from us. Since He is invisible, and does not speak to us as He did to Moses, “mouth to mouth”, we have no way of knowing if our efforts to please Him have been successful. When we try to perform deeds that are for our (immediate) personal benefit, we are able to determine if our efforts have succeeded. This then is the “hidden” element present whenever we perform any of G’d’s commandments, מצות. This is what the Torah had in mind when it wrote (Deuteronomy 29,28) הנסתרות לה' אלוקינו, “the hidden aspects of mitzvah performance are reserved for the Lord our G’d;” on the other hand, והנגלות לנו ולבנינו עד עולם, “the benefits which the performance of the Torah confers upon us will be revealed forever.” This is also the meaning of the words בראשית ברא אלוקים, (addressed to us) “at the beginning of G’d’s creative activity G’d created the יש, a physical domain of the universe.” Through His creating יש, i.e. ראשית, a beginning, the creation of heaven and earth came into being, for prior to that there was only the אין, the abstract universe. This is the meaning of Targum Yerushalmi who renders this verse as 'בראשית בחוכמא ברא ה', “at the beginning G’d created by means of using intelligence found in the domain of the abstract regions.” חכמה, as we pointed out earlier, is a quality inherent in the terrestrial domain.
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.