Page 566 - 24107

24107-EYAL - 24107-EYAL | 18 - B | 18-01-28 | 12:12:05 | SR:-- | Cyan
24107-EYAL - 24107-EYAL | 18 - B | 18-01-28 | 12:12:05 | SR:-- | Black
#24107-EYAL - 24107-EYAL | 18 - B | 18-01-28 | 12:12:05 | SR:-- | Yellow
24107-EYAL - 24107-EYAL | 18 - B | 18-01-28 | 12:12:05 | SR:-- | Magenta
#
#24107-EYAL - 24107-EYAL | 18 - B | 18-01-28 | 12:12:05 | SR:-- | Yellow 24107-EYAL - 24107-EYAL | 18 - B | 18-01-28 | 12:12:05 | SR:-- | Magenta 24107-EYAL - 24107-EYAL | 18 - B | 18-01-28 | 12:12:05 | SR:-- | Cyan 24107-EYAL - 24107-EYAL | 18 - B | 18-01-28 | 12:12:05 | SR:-- | Black
#
Orchard of Delights
“and the rain to fall.” People thought he was indicating with these
motions his readiness for God to make the wind blow and the rain to
fall. He explained though that he was sending the following message:
we have spent enough time on praying and spirituality (thus the
hand motion of pushing away); the time has now come to bring all of
these prayers, hopes, and dreams onto the stage of physical reality
(thus the hand motion of forcefully drawing down).
The Ba’al Shem Tov was teaching a very important message:
physicality is not the opposite of spirituality; rather, it is the stage or
state in which spirituality can be truly integrated into our lives in a
real and tangible way. For this reason the Ba’al Shem Tov taught his
closest followers, many who became Rebbes in their own right, to be
concerned not only with the spiritual health of their communities but
with their adherents livelihood, health, and overall living conditions.
One of the Chassidic Rebbes taught that another person’s physical
concerns should be your spiritual concern.
These Chassidic teachings are not suggesting that people take
materialism to the extreme, transforming it into their main focus
in life; rather, they are suggesting that peoples’ basic physical needs
must be taken care of, so that they are not overly burdened by what
they lack, as this will have an extremely detrimental effect on their
spiritual lives. For this reason the Sages taught that “If there is no
flour – there is no Torah” (Pirkei Avot 3:21). The late Lubavitcher
Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, would end his personal
letters with a blessing for both material well-being and spiritual
attainment.
Water’s connection to physicality in the form of rain is balanced
by many biblical and rabbinic references to water as symbolizing
Torah itself, for instance, “There is no water other than Torah”
(Bava Kamma 17a). Indeed, Jewish tradition states that whenever
water is mentioned in the Torah, it is an allusion to Torah itself.
Just as human beings and plants cannot survive without water,
so too the Jewish people cannot survive without Torah. This
correspondence hints on a deeper level to why rainfall in the Land of
Israel is ultimately dependent on the fulfillment of Torah. Rain (and
all it symbolizes) provides the tools for both physical and spiritual
566
Va’etchanan
both provide him with an opportunity for rectification and are an
enormous help to the Jewish people.
£The Voice from SinaiThe Voice from SinaiThe Voice from Sinai
££
The Giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai was a unique historical
event: “These words God spoke to your entire congregation on the
mountain from the midst of the fire, the cloud and the thick cloud, a
great voice, never to be repeated” (Deuteronomy 5:19). Even during
the Messianic era such an event will never be repeated.
Rashi provides two seemingly different approaches to interpreting
the phrase “never to be repeated.” In one explanation he states
that this phrase emphasizes the fact that God never again revealed
Himself in such a public manner. However, in the other, he cites
Onkelos’ enigmatic Aramaic translation of these words: “He did not
cease.” Despite the uniqueness of the experience, its limited time
frame, and its specific geographical location, Onkelos and Rashi are
suggesting that this experience in essence never ceased. There are a
number of other teachings that also treat the Giving of the Torah as
an ongoing experience.
When the Jews arrived in the Sinai desert on the first day of the
third month, the Torah states that they arrived “on this day.” Since
the rest of the sentence is in the past tense Rashi points out that the
phrase “on this day” should have been written “on that day.” It was
written in the present tense, he comments, to teach us that when we
learn Torah it should feel as new and exciting to us as if we had just
received it today (Rashi on Exodus 19:1).
As discussed in “The Heart of Heaven,” the Tabernacle in the
desert and the Temple in Jerusalem were both attempts to recreate
the Sinai experience in a framework that could be repeatedly accessed.
Since the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, every synagogue
555