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AVENGING GOD, AVENGING
ISRAEL.
“AND THEY TRAVELED AND THEY
CAMPED.”
PERMANENCE AND
CHANGE
Rav Ze'ev Haim Lifshitz
Translated from Hebrew by S.
NAthan
l'ilui nishmat Esther bat mordechai
Non-dependent love – “the love that does not hang on something
else” – derives from “I”, that “part of God from above.” This love
does not recognize the limitations of space and time, nor does it
recognize hatred, envy or vengeance. When love is dependent, on the
other hand, when love does “hang on something else”, one is
self-centered. Such egocentric love merely expresses one's own
sensations, that are aroused in oneself by the presence of the subject of
one’s love.
Arabic love songs describe the lover’s feelings of rapture and
suffering. There is no admiring description of the subject of their
love. Their love is a possessive love, and one who harms the object
of their love arouses the animalistic survival mechanisms – hatred,
jealousy, revenge – brute force instincts in all their ugly
nakedness. Fear and anxiety are described, and rage at the threat,
at the imminent sensation of loss of a beloved piece of
property.
Love of this sort can be categorized as “the hesed of the
nations is sin.” Christian love too focuses on the sensations of the
lover, all the while ignoring the object of love. This love ends in
the death of the lover, who reaches a condition of self-nullification,
self-torment, and the agonies of longing – which are eventually
transformed into hatred of the love object, and of the environment
that interferes with love, and that threatens to snatch away the love
object that is perceived as the private property of the lover.
No love exists outside of the human boundary, just as there is no
love that is true, no “love that does not hang on a thing” within the
boundaries of ego. Only “I” can love – through transcending the
boundaries of one’s own abilities. One who loves the “love
that does not hang on a thing” grows greater and rises higher through his
love, which he discovers to be the direct and ultimate expression of the
Godly element within him.
This element is the element of infinite quality. Love is the
expression of the Godly in man. Its source is in the Divine.
Love of God arouses love of man who is created in His image, who is the
Godly Presence found in tangible reality. Therefore the love
of man, when it is sincere and altruistic, leads one on the march toward
the Godly track. Love of man brings to love of God, and love of God
is expressed by love for those who are created “in His image and according
to His likeness.”
This love does not keep bodyguards from survival’s kingdom of
darkness, such as jealousy, revenge, and hatred. One who loves God
may experience sorrow. He will then express his sorrow by jealousy
for God, through jealousy for the people of Israel, who constitute the
real-world expression of the Godly Presence. God’s revenge against
Midian does not deal with Midian at all as a goal. Its goal is
rather the repair of a flaw that has formed – within an otherwise perfect
state of Godly kedusha – as a result of sin.
Involvement in the repair of the Godly Presence is the polar
opposite of involvement in man’s negative dimension, which deals with
cultivating ego’s survival instincts, which is weighted with feelings of
destructiveness such as jealousy, revenge and hatred. Moshe
therefore changed nothing of God’s imperative to avenge Israel against
Midian, in that he saw no substantive difference between avenging God and
avenging Israel. Both draw from the source of sanctity and neither
contains any trace of hate.
In order to teach this lesson, Moshe makes it clear to b’nei
Yisrael that avenging Israel is avenging God. It is
avenging a quality that is all sanctity, drawn from sanctity’s
source. Similar is the difference between a dispute for the sake of
Heaven and a dispute not for the sake of Heaven. The latter is
directed at a person while the former deals with an issue. One
hates and the other is involved in repair.
“And they traveled – and they camped...”
Tractate Brachot 17: “This saying was regularly in the mouths
of the masters of Yavneh: ‘I am a human creature and my friend is a
human creature. I, my work is in the town, and he, his work is in
the field. I rise early to my work and he rises early to his
work. Just as he would not take over my work, so would I not take
over his work. And lest you will say I do much and he does little,
we have taught: It is the same, one who does much and it is the
same, one who does little, as long as he directs his heart to
heaven.’”
Rashi: “And lest you will say, ‘justice is with him that he does
not take over my work, for were he to try to grasp my art, he would not
have a heart open to do much in Torah as I do, and so he would do little
and he would have no reward.’ We have taught: ‘That there is reward
to the one who does little just as to the one who does
much.’”
From the simple meaning of the Gemara it appears that everyone has
his own path in God’s service. One with Torah and another with
activity in some other mitsva – each according to his own talents, as long
as each directs his heart to an awareness that his work is for heaven’s
sake.
Comes Rashi and overturns the pshat of the Gemara, to move
it from one extreme to the opposite extreme. Meaning: Do not say,
let everyone be satisfied with his own work. Let the gifted alone
deal in Torah, and whoever has not been endowed with gifts of intelligence
is exempt from the study of Torah. Rather, also one who has not been
granted a high intelligence is obligated to study Torah to the best
of his ability.
It is difficult to explain how Rashi overturns the explicit words
of the Gemara. It seems that Rashi means that dealing in Torah is
the permanent occupation of every Jew per se`. Every other
involvement falls into the category of all things fleeting and
temporary. It is an activity appropriate to that moment alone.
Even one who is momentarily exempt from the study of Torah because he is
involved in another mitsvah, let him not imagine that he is free of the
obligation to study Torah. Rather it is fit that pangs of conscience
should torment him, and that he should long to learn as much as he
possibly can. This longing will preserve his connection to
Torah. He will then merit siyata dishmaya, and be granted an
increase of ability, talent, and time, to the point that he will become
capable of actualizing his desire.
The Gemara’s hidush here intends to say that one should not
make his work out of study and neglect the work for which he is suited,
separating himself from it to learn Torah exclusively, but should rather
occupy himself with his work on a regular basis and learn Torah as much as
he possibly can. For in such case, even his limited learning will
enter the category of regular basis, and his work the category of
temporary, as long as he directs his heart to heaven – that is, that he
yearns and longs to learn Torah, and this longing will be counted for him
as though he had learned, and it will be joined to his humble
learning. “Someone who thought how to do a mitsva and then did not
do it, the scripture considers him as if he had done it.” (Brachot
6)
The root of the matter lies in personal connectedness, in a
personal bond that keeps man as a subjective entity – as a ‘micro’ of
inner Godly Presence, as a “miniature universe” – connected constantly and
substantively to the ‘macro’ of the Divine. This connection is make
up of the initiative of free choice that has awakened hashgaha
pratit. Its essence lies in the value of the
kavana. “Anyone who learns the laws of sin offering, it is as
though he has sacrificed a sin offering.” Hence the importance of
anticipation, of longing and yearning for dvaikut to Torah, of
seeing the Torah as the real reality and all the unfolding of events as
merely the expression of the reality of the Torah.
Reality is determined by Torah rules and Torah laws, as in “He
looked into the Torah and created the universe.” Torah is the
creation – reality is only its soap bubble. The human creature in
the fields is required to see himself bound to the Torah no less than the
human creature whose reality is the one of the Torah scholar whose
exclusive occupation is Torah study. If he will see himself tied by
his umbilical chord to the Torah, if he will yearn for it, in the sense of
‘when will this pasuk come to my hand, that I might learn it’ then
“the scripture will consider him as if he had” learned it.
This teaches us that a reality separated from Torah has no
existence whatever. “Whoever ceases from his study, forfeits his
life,” for to cease, to sever from Torah, to make peace with an
involvement separated from Torah, is to sever from the umbilical chord
that is the source of one’s vital existence.
...teaching you that there is no material situation that is
separate from a spiritual situation awaiting actualization. This
actualization is to be found in the framework of Torah, for which it
serves as an expression. Torah endows reality with permanence and
realness. All the rest is ephemeral. The permanence of a
thing is measured by its relationship to the Torah.
Yet, “anyone who says ‘I have nothing else but Torah’ – also Torah
he does not have.” And why was the second temple destroyed?
“Because they supported their views by the law of the Torah.”
Rigidity is the negative side of permanence. Insularity, an
aversion for the new, an inability to see things with an open mind, these
cause atrophy. Routine sets in, with its standardized and mechanical
performance of mitsvot, preventing personal development, progress,
and renewal.
“And they traveled” is the activity that imbues the state of rest,
of Shabat, with currents of vitality. Rest does not mean zero
action, but rather the period of consolidation and molding of the raw
materials that have streamed into it from the days of action. “And
they camped” in order to provide a space between each parasha taught to
Moshe, in order to digest what had been learned. A human being’s
thinking, like his body, requires rest, for digestion and
absorption. People who are mentally obsessed evoke the physical
image of eating without digesting - alternatively ingesting their food and
vomiting it whole.
The Torah and the mitsvot are the containers that bestow meaning
and value on the acts that unfold within their framework. Everything
that is outside of this framework – everything that is done as a response
to the fleeting stimulus of the outside – as it comes, it goes, and it
leaves no mark. The wicked, in their own lifetimes, are called the
dead.
The Torah and mitsvot contain a vitally dynamic aspect that derives
from one’s wondering about them, searching after their meaning, conquering
new horizons and including them within the framework of Torah and
mitsvot. Hence kavana in prayer, the climax of which is the
impenetration of kavana into life itself; life – the self-renewing
fount of difficulties and problems that sprout anew each morning.
True kavana is defined as attributing these to
God’s service, and searching for the element of Godly Presence that is
reflected in them.
Tisha B’Av
“One who does not mourn over the destruction of the Bet HaMikdash –
it is as though it was destroyed in his days.” A connection to the
historical destruction transforms the historical event into a permanent
event of human existence, so that it is not left as a petrified fossil but
rather becomes a living and vital happening. Mourning accompanied by
the “afflictions” according to the mitsvot of the day gives living
tangibility to an idea, which then takes on personal realness clothed in
flesh and bone and sinew. Whoever grants it mere historical
value, through words alone, detached from the mitsvot of the day, has
abandoned it to the bookshelf of history.
“Yaakov sought to dwell in peace. Then pounced upon him the
rage of Yoseph.” Yaakov reasoned that he had completed his
public-historical role, and could return to rest and repose; from “they
traveled” to “they camped.” “Tsadikim sought to dwell in
peace. Says the Holy One to them: ‘Is it not enough for you that you
dwell in peace in the next world? You seek to dwell in peace in this
world?’”
We see from this that the greater one’s quality grows, the more it
prevents one’s splitting into antithetical components, such as private and
public. It blurs such distinctions, to the point that the tsadik
eventually belongs wholly to the public. So with Yaakov, and so with
Moshe who attempts to refuse his appointment as the savior of
Israel. “Send whoever else you would send.” For the great
human being, life is comparable to a long journey that knows no
rest. His private life he hands over to the devoted care of the
Creator of the universe. So with the father of the Jewish people:
“Go for yourself from your land and from your birthplace and from your
father’s house.” Hence the command to offer his one and only son,
his one and only private space. For the sake of the public.
His wanderings prevent every condition of privacy. The road prevents
fame and fortune and cultivation of family, of children. Therefore
the Creator who sent him forth from his house sees to these things.
Avraham does not toil. God’s blessing does what Avraham himself
cannot do because of his duty. Inner rest is attained by Avraham in
merit of this blessing. For the outer rest of atrophy and
stagnation, he has no need.
A Reminder of Mourning, A Dream of Peace,
Teshuva, Bitahon, and Hope
Bitahon is the point of encounter between
past and future. Confidence and faith in the road that one is
traveling, as well as a genuinely felt anticipation for the test of the
result. Rest is the period of consolidation, of taking inventory, of
introspection, of a return to the ideal situation of harmony between inner
and outer – in which outer constitutes the exclusive and direct expression
and actualization of inner, in which no external behavior is motivated by
the passing stimulations of the outside, nor by any dependency upon the
passing winds.
Openness to innovation and change, viewing these as the opportunity
for an expression of creativity deriving from one’s inner being.
This is the dream, opening the confines of the encampment to dimensions
above and beyond limited reality. Hazal direct a worried gaze upon a
man who has not dreamed for seven days. They considered it a sign of
a damaged connection with heaven! Dreaming plays the role of
digesting the new as well. The new is changed changes in order to be
merged with the basic essence of the personality, with the deposits of
being that have settled down to form the foundations of the unique cup
from which one drinks of one’s existence.
The merging of components is essential, else even desirable
components become harmful. Memory, for example, when detached from
the future, becomes the first cause of depression. When one’s past
is not seen as a continuous line into the future, the backward glance
shows one’s past to have been a mistake, a waste of time, an irreparable
distortion – bereft of teshuva.
Teshuva is one of the optimistic foundations of Judaism, giving
human beings the sense of their own ability to control a situation.
A sense that existence has been given over to human hands, a sense that
there is a future, that there is hope in the merit of one’s openness to
new horizons, to a coming forth from the narrow straits of distress.
Openness to new hope, to a better future, to new opportunities, to the
actualization of abilities that have never been given expression in the
past.
A dream as the cultivation of hope, as a new dimension, hovers as
the Spirit of God above the water, an infinity beckoning invitingly to
the stuck present, trapped by space and time. Woe to the one
who has no dream. His lot is doom and despair. The dream is
formed in the flowerbed of confidence and hope. Consolidating
creates the basis for the soaring upward dash – towards the dream, towards
the horizon, towards heaven. “The corner of tsitsit is a
fringe of blue. Blue resembles the sea. The sea resembles
heaven, and heaven the kisei hakavod.”
Dvaikut means identifying with one’s Godly source, with
one’s source of creativity, of renewal. Of a better life – of life
and love as a new creative work, produced by the creative “I”. The
more creative one grows, the further distant one moves from survival’s
stranglehold sorrows.
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