מוסר אויף מלאכי 2:6

The commentator Tolaat Yaakov puts it in the following words: "Know that the written Torah is the mystique of תפארת ישראל, i.e. Israel is compared to a king (who walks) in his splendour, beheld by your eyes (Isaiah 33,17). It is called תורת אמת, since Micha 7,20 has said: תתן אמת ליעקב and it is also written תורת אמת היתה בפיהו (Maleachi 2,6), "that a Torah of truth was in his mouth." The oral Torah on the other hand, is considered like the bride mentioned in the Song of Songs. The reason that we refer to the written Torah as תורה ש-בכתב and not תורה שב-על כתב as we would expect, seeing that it is parallel to the תורה שב-על פה is, that the Torah of the "higher" world is a written Torah that is essentially concealed from us mortals, and only a small part of which has been revealed. This תורה עליונה is kept in the Celestial Sanctuary in total isolation. The written Torah revealed to us is only a small part of the writings kept in the higher regions. When G–d tells Moses in Exodus 24,12 that He has written the stone tablets, the Torah and the Mitzvah, להורותם, "to teach them," the meaning is that Torah and Mitzvah (the operative legislative clauses of Torah), are the only ones that have been released to our world. The expression תורה ש-בכתב, the Torah which is part of the "Writing," or" Supreme Book," is therefore singularly appropriate. The concept discussed above is alluded to in Song of Songs in the words על שבאתיו אל בית אמי ואל חדר הורתי where Solomon speaks about the origin of Torah in the hidden recesses of heaven (Song of Songs 3,4). The Kabbalists compare the emanation בינה in which these "writings" are kept, to old wine that has been preserved within the grapes it is made of.

The two words "לאמר" that we mentioned earlier as apparently superfluous, have something in common. The repeated "דבור" suggests that there was an exoteric (נגלה) as well as an esoteric (נסתר) element in what the Torah tells us here. In 25,10 the exoteric meaning is to inform the people of the noble lineage Pinchas was descended from, whereas in 25,12 they are to be informed of an additional dimension of Pinchas' greatness, i.e. that he is equated with the prophet Elijah. This is alluded to in the words "because he displayed jealous fervor on behalf of his G–d" (25,13). The letters in the expression “לאל-היו,” are identical with the word “לאליהו,” “to Elijah.” The latter also excelled by displaying jealousy on behalf of G–d, something that he himself is quoted as saying to G–d in Kings I 19,10. He referred to his having slain four hundred Jewish priests who had forsaken the Torah to serve the idol Baal instead. Elijah's performance on Mount Carmel was similar to that of Pinchas at Shittim. The name אליהו (which in the Bible is frequently spelled without the letter Vav at the end) contains two names of G–d, i.e. El and Ya-h. In his encounter with Zimri Pinchas restored the honor of the name El, since the Israelites at the time had been guilty of insulting that name of G–d by serving the El of the Moabites and Midianites, "וישתחוו לאלהיהן" (Numbers 24,2). The second of the Ten Commandments specifically prohibits a Jew prostrating himself before an alien deity (Exodus 20,4). Pinchas' deed restored the relations between G–d and Israel which the people's behaviour had upset. His deed, when analysed, consisted of discrediting a man and a woman who respectively were leaders of their tribes, or, in the case of Cozbi, whose father was an ancestral tribal head. The Torah emphasizes the word איש and אשה, when referring to these two both in 25,8, and in 26,14-15, although there is no need for this. We have mentioned repeatedly that the letters "י and ה" in the Hebrew for "man" and "woman" teach us that only when they remain aware of G–d's Presence in this world are they safe from burning up in the passion of their sexuality, seeing that without those letters of G–d's name their names would signal merely masculine and feminine "fire" respectively. The name of G–d contained in those two people whom Pinchas slew was Ya-h. These two had disgraced the name of G–d by their conduct. The Torah in order to draw our attention to all this repeats: …. ושם … איש … ושם האשה, (26,14, 26,15). Rashi already explained that at the count of the people after this episode the peculiarly worded names of the tribes i.e. ה-ראובנ-י, and not simply ראובן demonstrated that the name of each tribe contained the name of G–d. G–d thus personally testified-that the members of all these tribes were conceived while their respective parents maintained absolute chastity. This too is the meaning of Psalms 122,4: שבטי י-ה עדות לישראל, "Israel are G–d's tribes, as per G–d's personal testimony." The letter ו in the word שלום, is "amputated" in 25,12. Baal Haturim points out that the numerical value of that word equals זהו משיח, "this is the Messiah." By diminishing the size of that letter, it is as if one had not thought about the last letter in the name of אליהו. Elijah is the prophet who announces the imminent arrival of the Messiah and prepares people for that. Removing part of the letter ו is meant to convey to us that Elijah (as alluded to by the absence of the last letter in his name), will materialise when one least thinks of him.. The letters added to the names of the tribes during this count therefore can be viewed as making up the second name of G–d contained in the name אליה, the name Ya-h. The Torah informs us in Exodus 6,25 that Pinchas' father had married one of the daughters of Putiel, who according to Midrash Hagadol fattened (play on word Putiel) all the idols in the world and the other tribes despised him on account of his ancestry. Since the name פוטיאל concludes with the letters of the name of G–d, however, the Torah alerts us to the fact that he converted to monotheism, i.e. El Ya-h. The whole verse is an allusion to Joseph who controlled his desire in his involvement with the wife of his master Potiphar, whose similarly sounding name reminds us of what took place then. Just as Joseph preserved the holy covenant with G–d at that time, so Pinchas, his descendant maternally, restored the holy covenant with G–d by taking G–d's revenge on Zimri. As a result, G–d granted him "My covenant Peace." Targum Yonathan on that verse says that Pinchas was made into an angel who would live until he could announce the final redemption. It is further written (of Pinchas) that G–d's covenant of life and well-being was with him (Malachi 2,5), that "the true Torah was in his mouth. He walked with Me in peace and equity, nothing perverse was on his lips. He served Me with complete loyalty; he held many back from committing iniquity, for the lips of a priest guard knowledge and people seek Torah from his mouth, seeing that he is an angel of the Lord G–d of Hosts" (Ibid 6). This verse clearly alludes to Pinchas, since Pinchas became an angel, as our sages comment on Joshua 2,4, (Tanchuma quoted by Rashi). Since Pinchas held back many from sinning, he is described by the prophet as having the true Torah issuing forth from his mouth. "Truth" is an element that reinforces and strengthens religious belief and practice. It is not something merely personal, but is something that must be demonstrated to the community in order to be capable of convincing such a community to do penitence. Such a result is called אמת, truth. Truth is something of an everlasting nature.

In support of this statement is the verse, "But the Lord God is the true God, He is the living God, and the everlasting King" (Jer. 10:10). And if a man does not speak anything but the truth, he will be free all the days of his life, as it is written, "The law of truth was in his mouth, and unrighteousness was not found in his lips… "For he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts" (Malachi 2:6—7). The angels above are in the form of truth, and they are not in physical form. The souls of men give light like the light that goes from the sun. Now the souls are in bodies, therefore they know only a little of the secret things and then only in the visions of the night. For the souls do not occupy themselves with the needs of the body, and he who knows the secret of the soul will testify to this. Now dreams are very much like thoughts, as it is written, "Thy thoughts came (into thy mind) upon thy bed" (Dan. 2:29). And dreams come about through an angel who accompanies man, and just as all thoughts are not true, so all dreams are not true. And he who accustoms himself that all of his thoughts are true, then even in the night he will see visions of truth, and he will know future things, just as the angels do.