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Orchard of Delights
notes by which the Torah is chanted; nekudot, the Hebrew vowels;
and otiyot, the Hebrew letters. In essence, these are the three elements
comprising the biblical text. Since human beings usually want to
take sole credit for their accomplishments, the Torah commanded us
to place the first fruits in a basket, a receptacle that reminds us of the
Torah, so that we reign in our egos and recognize God as the source of
all material and spiritual bounty. The Torah and its system of mitzvot
are designed to constantly remind us of our connection to God, so
that we do not lose the proper perspective on this relationship. The
Ba’al Shem Tov taught that we should learn to take our thoughts,
speech, and action and place them in the letters, vowels, and song
of the Torah, which on a practical level means incorporating the
wisdom of the Torah in all our endeavors.
Placing the first fruits of our labors in the basket of Torah is similar
to wearing “Torah-colored glasses,” so that all our life experiences
are refracted through the lens of Torah. In Shoftim we learned how
in the Messianic era learning Torah will become a perpetual mitzvah
(“Living in Divine Space”). There too we compared this level of
consciousness to seeing the world through “Torah-colored glasses.”
We draw the future into the present by already living the potential
of the future in the here and now.
££For the Sake of the First Fruits
£For the Sake of the First Fruits For the Sake of the First Fruits
God Created the World
God Created the World
God Created the World
The Midrash states that God created the world for the sake of the
mitzvah of the first fruits (Bereishit Rabbah 1:6). This statement
initially appears to be somewhat of an exaggeration, for how can
we even begin to imagine that for the sake of one seemingly minor
mitzvah the whole world was created. Yet if we delve deeply into
this Midrash, the spiritual logic fueling this statement becomes
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Shoftim
later insight that all the mitzvot have eternal relevance, even those
no longer practiced in this day and age.) Rabbi Ginsburgh, based
on various Chassidic concepts, explains that by meditating on
these six perpetual mitzvot we create a conceptual six-sided cube, a
Divine space in which we find safe haven, a virtual city of refuge to
commune with God in and a place to delve into deeper soul levels.
Since the person meditating is in the middle of the meditative cube,
this experience also alludes to the mitzvah of prayer, which longs
to be perpetual, as Rabbi Judah states in the Talmud: “Would it
be that one could pray the whole day” (Berachot 21a; see Living in
Divine Space by Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh and Appendix II at the
end of this book).
The connection between the cities of refuge and the month of
Elul now becomes ever clearer. In Elul, we are urged to examine our
previous year’s thoughts, speech, and actions, through introspection,
meditation, and prayer. The “evil inclination” is like an avenger
seeking to exact retribution for the sins we have committed, so we
all need cities of refuge to escape to where we can rebuild and repair
our lives. Tellingly, Elul, the sixth month of the year, corresponds
numerically to the six cities of refuge and the six perpetual mitzvot,
while the following month, Tishrei, which is the seventh month and
contains Rosh Hashanah, the Ten Days of Repentance, Yom Kippur,
Sukkot, Hoshanah Rabbah, and Shemini Atzeret (Simchat Torah),
corresponds to a person standing in prayer within the Divine space
of the six-sided cube.
In addition to the overall correspondence between the six mitzvot
and the six cities of refuge, each mitzvah corresponds to one of
the cube’s directions or planes. If we add the middle point, which
corresponds to prayer, we arrive at a total of seven, which corresponds
to the seven lower sefirot and the seven biblical personalities who
were the “chariots” for these sefirot, channeling their Divine energy
into the world. These correspondences are rich with meaning and
allusion. Thus, when the Torah states that three more cities of refuge
will be added in the Messianic era, Rabbi Ginsburgh explains that
on the sod level this addition alludes to three more mitzvot which
will become perpetual in the Messianic era. These three mitzvot
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