חסידות אויף שמות 32:16

In the Mishnah (Taanit 4:8): Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel said, "There were never such [joyous] holidays for Israel as the fifteenth of Av, etc." And afterward in the Gemara, they gave reasons for this, why there were not [other] holidays like this. But where do we find a hint in the Torah about this, that the fifteenth of Av is called a holiday? And it appears to me that it is from that which it is stated (Judges 21:19-21), "Behold, there is the festival of the Lord from year to year in Shilo, etc. behold, if the daughters of Shilo come out to dance in the dances, etc." And it does not specify which festival was from year to year. But the Radak (R. David Kimchi) explains it to be about Youm Kippur, about which the mishnah mentions, "And the daughters of Jerusalem went out and danced in the vineyards." But where have we have found that Yom Kippur is called a festival? Rather it is only called a holy convocation. As only the three pilgrimage festivals - the festival of matzot, etc - are called a festival (chag). As chag is always a term of joy. For that is why in the language of the Sages, may their memory be blessed, [the word,] chag by itself [always refers to] the festival of Sukkot; since it is the time of our joy. And it is like they said (Chagigah 10b), "chogu chaga" - which Rashi explains, "to increase joy." And that which Tosafot said - that "some say that it is a term of dancing, as in, 'they reeled (yachogu) and moved like a drunkard'" (Psalms 107:27) - also there is it a term of joy, since the heart of a drunkard is merry on account of the wine. And so is it written (1 Samuel 30:16), "eating, drinking and celebrating (chogegim) with all the spoils." That [means] that they were rejoicing with the spoils by way of eating and drinking, and dancing was also included. So it is distant to say that it is hinting to Yom Kippur. Hence it appears that the intention of "the festival of the Lord in Shilo, etc." is about the fifteenth of Av. For none of the festivals are called the festival of the Lord. And even [about] Sukkot, which is the time of our joy and on which the commandment of joy is explicit - it is written (Deuteronomy 16:14), "And you shall rejoice in your holiday." [Hence it embodies] the joy of Israel, in commemoration of the exodus from Egypt. And we have only found Aharon saying, about the seventeenth of Tammuz, "It shall be a festival for the Lord tomorrow" (Exodus 32:5). For the forty first days - upon which our teacher Moshe, peace be upon him, was on the mountain - ended then; and he said that he would descend from the mountain then with the two tablets in his hands. So were it not for the debacle (the golden calf), it would have then been the festival of the Lord. For 'the day of the joy of His heart' of the Holy One, blessed be He, was supposed to be then, like at the giving of the Torah. And it is like it was stated in Egypt (Exodus 5:1), "Send My people, so they may celebrate a festival (veyachogu) to Me in the desert." Yet we did not find that the Israelites made a festival in the desert. And if it is about the three pilgrim festivals that they observed - had they not already observed the festival of matzot in Egypt as well? Rather the intended content of, "so they may celebrate a festival to Me in the desert," is about the giving of the Torah (the tablets). And if there had not been the debacle with the calf and the tablets had not been broken, the seventeenth of Tammuz would have then been the festival of the Lord - for it is 'the day of the joy of His heart.' For then, what our Sages, may their memory be blessed, expounded about the verse, "engraved (charut) upon the tablets" (Exodus 32:16), [that the Torah would bring about] freedom (cheirut) from the angel of death and from the subjugation of the nations and that the words of the Torah would be inscribed into the heart of the Israelites, would have then come to pass. However after the debacle, [the less potent section of] the verse, "on the day of his wedding," was expounded about Yom Kippur - since it is the day upon which the second tablets were given. As there was not so much freedom or inscription upon the heart with the second tablets. So, "and upon the day of the joy of his heart," was [resultantly] only expounded about the building of the Temple - may it be built speedily in our days. As only then will everything be fixed.

For the shofar of Rosh Hashanah is a ram's horn, the aspect of Isaac's ram, which is the aspect of the sound of the shofar of the giving of the Torah. And it is like that which, on Rosh Hashanah, we remember the sounds of the Shofar of the giving of the Torah, as it is written [in the additional prayer of Rosh Hashanah, "You were revealed, etc." And this sound of the shofar of the giving of the Torah went out with fire and torchefires, etc., as it is written: All the people saw the sounds and the torchfires, etc. (Exodus 20:15). And likewise in many verses. For at the time of the giving of the Torah, the entire Jewish people was in the aspect of converts. For that was the beginning of their being brought close to their Father in Heaven. As they then left the impurity of Egypt into the holiness of Israel, as Rashi explains there. And that is why we read Ruth on Shavuot. Because Shavuot, which is the giving of the Torah, is the aspect of bringing converts and penitents close. And that is why there was the sound of the shofar, fire, and torchfires, with the giving of the Torah. As all of this is the aspect of the fire of judgment mentioned above. It was to burn away the evil that had grasped onto them from the impurity of Egypt. And that is why the Torah was given in fire, meaning with the aspect of the fire of judgment mentioned above. For the Torah itself is called judgment. And since the fire of judgment was fully aroused then at the time of the giving of the Torah — as it is written: and from amidst that fire we [editor's note, the verse reads, you] heard His words, etc. (Deuteronomy 4:36) — they were therefore completely purified from the grasp of the evil. It is as they said (Shemot Rabbah 51:8), "Engraved [charut] on the tablets (Exodus 32:16) — freedom [cherut] from the angel of death, etc." For the impurity of the [primordial] serpent was completely negated. As their impurity left at the time of the giving of the Torah, by way of the aforementioned aspect of the fire of judgment, which was aroused by the sound of the shofar. For it has the power to arouse the fire of judgment, in the aspect of the voice of the Lord kindles flames of fire (alluding to Psalms 29:7). And the main corruption that occurred after that with the sin of the [golden] calf was only through the mixed multitude, who were in the aspect of converts who are forbidden to convert. For the aforementioned fire of judgment does not have the power to subdue the evil within them, as is properly explained in the previous essay at the end. And that is the aspect of [the letters] mem and samech on the tablets mentioned in the previous essay just mentioned. As the tablets — which are the Torah, through which their evil was subdued and their impurity ceased, since it was given from amidst the fire of judgment — are themselves in the aspect of mem and samech previously mentioned, which is the circle and the square mentioned above, which is the aspect of the negation of evil, as mentioned above.

At the time the First Temple stood, in which the Ark and Tables [of the Decalogue] were housed in the Holy of Holies, the Shechinah, i.e. Malchut d'Atzilut, that is, the aspect of the "revealed" light of the blessed En Sof, dwelled there and was clothed in the Ten Commandments, far higher and stronger, and with a greater and mightier revelation, than its revelation in the shrines of the Holy of Holies above in the upper worlds. For the Ten Commandments are the "All-embracing principles of the whole Torah," which comes from the Higher Wisdom, that is far higher than the world of manifestation. In order to engrave them on material tablets of stone it (the Shechinah) did not descend degree by degree, parallel to the order of descent of the worlds down to this material world. For this material world functions through the garment of material nature, while the Tables [of the Decalogue] are "The work of G‑d, and the writing is the writing of G‑d," beyond the nature of this material world which is derived from the effulgence of the Shechinah in the shrine of the Holy of Holies of Asiyah ("Action"), whence issues light and vitality to the world of Asiyah, in which this our world also is contained. But the category of the Higher Wisdom of Atzilut, consisting of the totality of the Torah as it is epitomized in the Decalogue, has clothed itself in Malchut of Atzilut and of Beriah alone, and they alone, united as they are with the light of the blessed En Sof that is within them, are referred to as the "Shechinah" which rested in the Holy of Holies of the First Temple, through its clothing itself in the Ten Commandments, which were engraved in the Tables [reposing] in the Ark, by miraculous means and by the work of the Living G‑d (this being the "hidden" world which nests in the world of Beriah as is known to those familiar with the Esoteric Discipline).