The Entire Giving of the Torah is Here Every Year Completely – The Fiftieth Gate | Zohar Erev Shavuos 5786 (Auto Translated)

Erev Shavuos: The Secret of “Sheva Shabbosos Temimos” – Cycles of Nature versus the Uniqueness of History

Introduction: The Capstone of the Seven-Week Series

Rabbosai, it’s erev Shavuos. Let’s now carry out a piece, the capstone piece of the small series that we’ve been learning these last seven weeks, which is the secret of “sheva shabbosos temimos” [sheva shabbosos temimos: seven complete weeks, the counting of the Omer between Pesach and Shavuos].

We learned that this is the secret of “kol yemos olam” [kol yemos olam: all the days of the world], as the Ramban [Ramban: Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman, Nachmanides, 1194-1270] said. We learned that this is the secret of the order, the wheel, the circuit, the cycle that the world turns, that the world turns whether in general, in the greatest world, which is the essence of understanding the entire world, the greatest circles of the world, that the world turns and it always returns to the beginning. And this is the entire order of history, of kol yemos olam.

And how there is in each day, or in each week, or in each day that represents an entirely different week, more generally, an entire sphere, an entire world that one can open to understand an entirely new way to understand everything.

The Fiftieth Day: Mincha Chadasha LaHashem

So finally we arrive toward tonight, comes “sheva shabbosos temimos tiheyena” [sheva shabbosos temimos tiheyena: seven complete weeks shall be], yes. It’s an interesting explanation that one must wait for a complete day, not wait bein hashmashos [bein hashmashos: between sunset and night], which will be complete seven weeks, not miss, and arrive at “ad mimochoras hashabbos hashevi’is” [ad mimochoras hashabbos hashevi’is: until the day after the seventh Shabbos], which is the fiftieth day, when then “vehikravtem mincha chadasha laHashem” [vehikravtem mincha chadasha laHashem: and you shall bring a new meal-offering to Hashem], one brings a new mincha, the mincha of shtei halechem [shtei halechem: the two loaves], the bread of the new tevuah [tevuah: grain, produce]. One makes it chametz [chametz: leavened], one makes tenufah [tenufah: waving, a type of service in the Beis HaMikdash] with it, one brings a new korban, a chiddush [chiddush: something new], a new chiddush, a davar chadash [davar chadash: a new thing].

One already brought a small chiddush already on Pesach, yes, “uvkutzrechem es omer reishis ketzirchem” [uvkutzrechem es omer reishis ketzirchem: and when you cut the omer, the first of your harvest], the beginning of the katzir [katzir: harvest], like the eshkolos hakatzir [eshkolos hakatzir: the bundles of the harvest], zecher la’avodas hakatzir [zecher la’avodas hakatzir: a remembrance of the work of the harvest], one brought a piece of omer se’orim [omer se’orim: an omer-measure of barley], one also made from it a tenufah lifnei Hashem [tenufah lifnei Hashem: waving before Hashem].

And now on the fiftieth day one brings truly, it’s called truly chadash [chadash: new], the Gemara [Gemara: the Talmud] calls it that this is matir chadash lamizbe’ach [matir chadash lamizbe’ach: permits new grain for the altar], one brings from the new tevuah that has newly grown and one makes from it a complete bread, and this one brings bayom hachamishim [bayom hachamishim: on the fiftieth day].

The Contradiction: Chadash versus Torah Shelo Tishtaneh

Everyone knows that the yom hachamishim is also the yom matan Torah [yom matan Torah: the day of the giving of the Torah], the day when one ascends [oleh: goes up] to Har Sinai [Har Sinai: Mount Sinai] and receives the Torah, which also has a connection to something of chiddush.

There is like a bit of a stirah [stirah: contradiction] between the two inyanim [inyanim: topics, themes] apparently [lech’orah: at first glance]. Of course everyone will easily jump and say the answer [teiruts: answer], but one must be very deep here. There is apparently a stirah between the two inyanim of the yom tov [yom tov: holiday].

Inyan A: Yom HaBikkurim – Mincha Chadasha

Simply, the inyan, the day, the essence is yom habikkurim [yom habikkurim: the day of the first fruits]. Yes, bikkurim [bikkurim: first fruits] is a translation of reishis [reishis: first, beginning], one begins to bring bikkurim from all fruits etc., but primarily bikkurim means itself the shtei halechem, one brings bikkurei ma’asecha [bikkurei ma’asecha: the first of your works], and one brings the beginning, the first bread that has grown, the first wheat, the first tevuah from which one brings a korban mincha [korban mincha: a meal-offering] for the Almighty in the Beis HaMikdash [Beis HaMikdash: the Holy Temple]. But this is, the word is called chadash, the primary name that this has is chadash, mincha chadasha.

Inyan B: Zman Matan Toraseinu – Chukas Olam

And on this day one celebrates the Torah, that which the Jews received [mekabel gevein: accepted], zman matan Toraseinu [zman matan Toraseinu: the time of the giving of our Torah] as it says in the siddur [siddur: prayer book], that which the Jews received the Torah on this day. And this is the Torah achas [Torah achas: one Torah], chukah achas yiheyeh lachem [chukah achas yiheyeh lachem: one law shall be for you], chukas olam [chukas olam: an eternal statute], as the Rambam [Rambam: Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, Maimonides, 1138-1204] brings in Yesodei HaTorah Perek Tes [Yesodei HaTorah: Foundations of the Torah], chukas olam, davar barur umefurash baTorah shehi mitzvah la’ad ul’olmei olamim [davar barur umefurash baTorah shehi mitzvah la’ad ul’olmei olamim: a clear and explicit thing in the Torah that it is a commandment forever and for all eternity], a very old Torah, it’s la’ad ul’olmei olamim. It’s the Torah, this is, on this day the Torah began, one celebrates the day, one makes a situation from it, one speaks about it, that this is the opposite of chadash.

Yes, bipshitus [bipshitus: in the simple understanding], the simple meaning of matan Torah is that this is the Torah, it doesn’t change, lo sosif alav velo sigra mimenu [lo sosif alav velo sigra mimenu: you shall not add to it and not subtract from it], one doesn’t add and one doesn’t subtract, this is the Torah, and it’s not a new Torah every year.

The Sharp Formulation of the Contradiction

In other words, let’s be clear, in other words, when one wants to formulate [menasach zein: formulate] the question in the language of the discussions we’ve had about the cycles of the world, Torah is not in the cycle.

By matan Torah there is a cycle, every year comes the same winter and the same summer comes fresh, yes, one can call it the same, but one can call it new. Mincha chadasha simply means there comes a new wind, a new summer, a new time of harvest, a new time when there comes a new tevuah, from this new one brings it over.

The Foundation: Cycles of Nature versus the Uniqueness of History

Teva = Cycle = Understandable

This is in the cycle that one calls teva [teva: nature], yes, this is the wheel of teva of seven times seven, this is indeed the meaning, yes, seven times seven it goes with a cycle, and the cycle is called seven, yes, one can think concretely how the cycle of the tevuah is seven, but in any case [al kol panim: in any case], cycle means seven, so the cycle of the world, sheshes yamim veyom hashevi’i [sheshes yamim veyom hashevi’i: six days and the seventh day], and it comes back every week, every year, the same, but entirely new one can say it, it’s a new chiddush ha’olam [chiddush ha’olam: renewal of the world], as mechadesh betuvo bechol yom ma’aseh bereishis [mechadesh betuvo bechol yom ma’aseh bereishis: He renews in His goodness every day the work of Creation].

What is the simple meaning of the statement [ma’amar: saying] that one says in Birchos Yotzer [Birchos Yotzer: the blessings of “Yotzer Ohr”]? That every day comes in the morning again the cycle, the sun rose the first time in sheshes yemei bereishis [sheshes yemei bereishis: the six days of Creation] bayom harevi’i [bayom harevi’i: on the fourth day], and every day it rises, the same thing is there by tekufos hashanah [tekufos hashanah: the seasons of the year], which this is a chiddush ma’aseh bereishis. The same every year comes from fresh the tevuah, the first tevuah comes from fresh every year, it’s new every year.

One can call it new and also the old, because it’s the same cycle, it’s chozer chalilah [chozer chalilah: returns around and around] all the time, but it’s a cycle where there is in it ma’aseh chadoshos [ma’aseh chadoshos: new things], there is in it ma’aseh chadoshos in a chazarah [chazarah: repetition], it’s chadoshos that happens from chazarah of a cycle, it becomes again the same wheel, the same cycle becomes again.

History = Unique = Not Understandable

But when we speak even of Yetzias Mitzrayim [Yetzias Mitzrayim: the Exodus from Egypt], of matan Torah, it’s obvious that the entire point of speaking about it is that it’s not in a cycle. One can call it history. One can say history is the contradiction of it. History is a problem to learn. Why? Because one cannot understand it.

What Does “Understand” Mean?

What do I mean to say? I’m saying a fundamental point that all Acharonim [Acharonim: later rabbis and commentators] say, I don’t know how many Jews speak about this, but the modern scholars [chokrim: researchers], meforshim [meforshim: commentators], who bring out the sugya [sugya: topic] of history, they explain [mesbir: explain] this way to the world [alma: the world]. History is the limit of things that one cannot understand. Why? Because it happened only once, velo ya’avor [velo ya’avor: and it doesn’t pass], velo yosif [velo yosif: and it doesn’t add], kol hagadah velo yosif [kol hagadah velo yosif: the entire telling and it doesn’t add]. It doesn’t continue.

What do I mean to say? I mean to say this: The teva, that is what one can understand. As we say, the basic, the first teva, and perhaps the first science, is the science of the seasons. People see that every year returns the sun, the levanah [levanah: moon], the stars, it goes in a cycle, and from this grows every year again. This is a thing that one can understand. One can say one can predict it, one can understand that it comes every year from fresh.

Of course, one must do avodas Hashem [avodas Hashem: service of Hashem], one must do teshuvah [teshuvah: repentance] so that the rains [geshamim: rain] of the year should succeed. There is in this a judgment [din: judgment], beRosh Hashanah kol ba’ei olam nidonin [beRosh Hashanah kol ba’ei olam nidonin: on Rosh Hashanah all who come into the world are judged], everything fine and well. But the judgment is a thing that one understands. It’s not a davar shelemala min hazman [davar shelemala min hazman: a thing that is above time], it’s not a thing that doesn’t have in it any science. Science indeed means one makes rules [klalim: principles]. And what does understand mean? Understand means as we spoke last week. Understand means that one can make from it a rule.

I can say in a general way [be’ofen klali: in a general manner] there is a wisdom [chochmah: wisdom], “od kol yemei ha’aretz zera vekatzir vekor vechom vekayitz vechoref veyom velaylah lo yishbosu” [od kol yemei ha’aretz zera vekatzir vekor vechom vekayitz vechoref veyom velaylah lo yishbosu: yet all the days of the earth, seed and harvest and cold and heat and summer and winter and day and night shall not cease]. There is the cycle, there is an order, I can make a rule. That which you see every time, it’s hischadshus [hischadshus: renewal] indeed, and the details [peratim: particulars, details] is hischadshus, but in a general way there are divrei chochmah [divrei chochmah: words of wisdom], one can understand it according to order [keseder: according to the order].

Teva and Science

This is the meaning of teva, what we call teva, or what we call the natural world, which is a cycle. And consequently [memeilah: consequently] there is in this a science, there is in this knowledge [yedi’ah: knowledge], one can know it, because it repeats itself. As we say, because it repeats itself there is also a new one every year, because it repeats itself. When it repeats itself, that makes a new one, it’s perhaps again, you can call it a copy, I don’t know if it’s a copy, again the same thing, but again, not again like a complete chiddush [chiddush legamrei: a complete novelty], not again unpredictable, again predictable according to an order.

This is the topic [nosa: topic] of nature, of teva, which the cycles, which all science, the many understandings [havanos merubim: many understandings], wisdom in leadership [nesi’us: carrying, leading], is built on observing the patterns, the cycles that are in nature, and understanding it, making from it rules, afterwards one can predict it, afterwards one can understand it, one can ask why it is, what is the cause [gorem: cause] of it, etc.

History Is Not Understandable

When one says history, history is the opposite, history is exactly the thing that one cannot explain [mesbir zein: explain], one cannot say it, one cannot predict it, one cannot say when it will happen, when it happened, why it happened, and there is not in it any explanation [hesber: explanation], there is not in it any rule, there is not any general category [kategori klaliyus: general category] called matan Torah or Yetzias Mitzrayim, that happens once in I don’t know how many years, and consequently, if there is a rule, one knows when it happens, every time that there is such a wind, such a sun, every year in such a type of season it happens? No. It happens once, and from that once one must remember it, because it happens only once, a unique thing.

Unique things are such things that don’t repeat themselves, and are consequently such types of things that one cannot understand, one cannot predict it, no one can tell you when it will happen, it won’t happen again, no one can tell you why it happened then. If one could know why, one would know the rule, one would know what type of thing it is and when such types of things happen.

If one says that it’s history, the meaning is it happened once, it doesn’t repeat itself, and it has no reason [ta’am: reason], it has no science, there is no understanding [havanah: understanding] in it. One can only remember it, one can only know what happened, one can learn history, investigate [choker zein: investigate] whether it happened, yes, one can only investigate if it happened.

The Limits of Historical Research

Let’s say clearly, the one who understands matan Torah as [besoras: as] history, so they say very clearly, one can investigate whether it happened, one can search for proofs [re’ayos: proofs], evidence, know whether it happened, but what happened, to understand is impossible [min hanimna: impossible], one cannot understand what happened, because it’s not such a type of thing that is understandable, in a certain sense all history is not such a type of thing that is understandable. You cannot ask why there was a king such and such [kach vechach: such and such] who conquered [kovesh gevein: conquered] a country [medinah: country] such and such in the year [bishnas: in the year] such and such.

Matan Torah: Teva or History? — The Radical Chiddush of Pnimiyus HaTorah

Chapter 1: The Historical Understanding of Matan Torah and Its Deficiencies

What Does “History” Mean in This Context?

If one could know why something happened, one would know the rule — what type of thing it is, and when such types of things happen.

But if one says that something is history, this means:

– It happened once

– It doesn’t repeat itself

– It has no reason

– It has no science

– There is no understanding in it

One can only remember it, one can only investigate whether it happened — but what happened, to understand, is impossible.

Let’s say clearly: Those who understand matan Torah as history, so they say, this is their rule: One can investigate whether it happened, one can search for proofs, evidence, know whether it happened. But what happened, to understand is impossible. One cannot understand what happened, because it’s not such a type of thing that is understandable.

History in General Is Not Understandable

And in a certain sense, all history is not such a type of thing that is understandable. You cannot ask why there was a king such and such, who ruled in a country such and such in the year such and such. There is not in this any explanation.

Consequently, what do historians do? They don’t seek to understand, they can seek causes, but all causes that they seek is still a piece of history. He can find evidence and search for proofs that it was before. Okay, this caused that, and that caused this. In this sense there is something of an explanation that one calls historical explanations.

But the entire thing — why does the whole thing happen at all, why at that time, why for those people, why in that period, in that manner — this by definition has no explanations, because history, what we now call the word history, is not a thing that is explainable.

Miracle versus Nature — A Precise Definition

Okay, it’s as if, one can say this now, it’s as if a miracle. In the aspect of miracle, which we called a minute ago.

In the aspect of teva means:

– What one can predict

– What there is a cycle

– It repeats itself

– One can know when it repeats itself

– There is in this a rule

In the aspect of miracle is:

– What there is not in this a rule

According to how one understands history here, it means that there is no rule in this at all, there is no understanding, you cannot say why, no one understands it, there is no wisdom in it. There is only testimony, there is only, as one can say, only prophecy about it, there are only the details, there is only the fact that it happened this way, it happened once, and therefore one simply counts, one only remembers the one time that the Exodus from Egypt happened, the one time that the Giving of the Torah happened.

How Most People Understand the Giving of the Torah

This is how most people understand the topic of the Exodus from Egypt, according to this, and the topic of the Giving of the Torah, all these historical things upon which the Jewish faith, the Jewish religion, the Jewish Torah is built.

According to this understanding, most people think that it has not a drop of connection back to our initial question, it has not a drop of connection to the sweetness of the new mincha offering, where “new” means it is a novelty, but not a novelty in the sense of history, it is a novelty because every year comes a new novelty, one can plan it, there is a rule in this, because this is the faith, it is not, yes, nature.

Note: “Nature” Does Not Mean Heresy

When I say nature here I don’t mean heresy. Yes, often when one learns books, nature means apostasy, I don’t mean apostasy. I mean the sort of order, the sort of regularity that exists in the world, because this is “mechadesh betuvo” [He renews in His goodness], the Almighty does this, and for this one thanks the Almighty, and with this one serves the Almighty, and with this one praises Him, etc. etc. etc.

It is very religious, it is very faithful, it is absolutely not anti-faith, it is absolutely not anti-Judaism, anti-faith, anti-service of God, this sort of perspective, but it is one sort of perspective.

The Problem: The Giving of the Torah and the New Crop Become Two Separate Things

And most people when one tells them something that is the Giving of the Torah and the like, they only think in terms of history, in terms of miracle, in terms of each time it happened is unique, even what happened twice, is twice that a unique thing happened, one cannot know why it happened, there is no rule in this, one can only know if it happened.

And about this, most people who hold that their Judaism is built upon the Giving of the Torah, they need to strongly establish that it happened, they have proof, there were six hundred thousand people, they have testimony, it happened, but what happened has no introduction in this, and has no understanding in this.

It is by definition a miracle, and by definition miracle I mean to say something that one cannot understand, because one cannot predict it, there is no rule in this.

And if so, the topic of the new crop, people say, this is a natural thing, as if for some reason they have in their head that this is something not religious, this is something natural, as if the Almighty doesn’t do this, as if this is a cycle of nature.

The six days of Creation, they already believe in Shabbos, yes? Shabbos is the meaning of nature, they only believe in Yom Tov which is the meaning of miracle. Okay, in a certain sense, one can understand that Yom Tov is indeed a miracle, and they say that the new crop and the Giving of the Torah are two different things.

The Giving of the Torah is a unique thing, because it remains forever. Precisely because it remains once forever, because there is only one of them. And the new crop is a natural thing, it comes anew every year, there are new processes, it is very pleasant, people are happy, summer comes, harvest comes, which has nothing to do with the Torah at all.

Chapter 2: The Radical Innovation of the Inner Dimension of Torah

Everyone Who Learns the Inner Dimension of Torah Knows This Is Not Correct

Okay. Now, everyone who learns a bit of the inner dimension of Torah, whoever has once opened a Sefer HaZohar [Book of Zohar], or later commentators from the Kabbalists, yes, the Arizal [Rabbi Yitzchak Luria], the Ramak [Rabbi Moshe Cordovero], the Chassidic books, everyone who opens one of these books, the whole thing that he just said, he must immediately say that it is not correct, it doesn’t make sense, it is not true.

That the Giving of the Torah happened once, it is not a unique thing. And when one says that it is not a unique thing, what does that mean to say according to what we have explained? It is not something that one cannot understand, it is not something where one can only ask “did it happen” and one cannot ask “what happened.” It is not that sort of thing.

Everyone who learns Kabbalah, everyone who learns Chassidus, everyone who learns any sort of book of Jewish wisdom, even if he learns Rambam [Maimonides], even if he learns other approaches that exist, I know, almost everyone, except for really some very late books that think the way I just said, almost none of them say that one cannot understand what the Giving of the Torah is.

There is not a single Jewish book that I know, not one exists, there is one, but the normal mainstream path of the Kabbalists, of the Chassidim, of the Rambam, everyone agrees on this, that the Giving of the Torah is indeed something that one can understand.

Of course, no one says that it is simple to understand, no one says that it is on the level that Moshe Rabbeinu [Moses our Teacher] understood, we will speak about this in a minute, but no one says that this is simply a unique thing and one only needs to know if it is.

Note: The Deficiency of Historical Faith — Spiritually

Therefore, I can say this as a note, an important note. There are many Jews that one speaks about now, we are speaking of basics of faith, yes, there are many Jews that one tells them, what is the foundation of faith? That there was the Giving of the Torah, as it says in Rambam, it says in the Kuzari and the like, and he has proofs, yes, it is reasonable that it indeed was, because there was enough evidence and the like.

And I look at this Jew, and I see that his faith has no vitality. It is something dead. He has no vitality. When he speaks of the Giving of the Torah, it is an obligation. Yes, he believed that it was, and therefore one must follow what it says. The Almighty came and told what one must do, and how one will have a good life. Everything is fine and well. He explains that there is good evidence for the gathering at Mount Sinai.

With all due respect, he is a respectable Jew. But with all due respect, I don’t see that about this one dances “elyonim sassu vetachtonim alzu” [the heavenly beings rejoiced and the earthly ones exulted]. I don’t see that about this one writes a ketubah [marriage contract] between Knesset Yisrael [the Assembly of Israel] and HaKadosh Baruch Hu [the Holy One, Blessed be He], which Rabbi Yisrael Najara or another wrote, which one reads in Satmar on the eve of Shavuos. I don’t see what it means. Not about this does one say the Akdamus Milin [liturgical poem] that one sings before one speaks of the Giving of the Torah, that it teaches us that they have proof, the gentiles, “those abundant in intellect and important as masters, man and woman.” The Anakim had only three people who saw the miracles of the Anakim, and we have six hundred thousand people.

With all due respect, perhaps I am the strange person. I don’t see that for this one gets excited. I don’t see that in this there is vitality.

The Foundation of Faith in a Spiritual Sense

The foundation of faith, the foundation of faith must be… let us establish a simple thing. There is something called principles of faith or foundations of faith. Foundations of faith means foundations for a person’s life, yes? You can prove to a gentile, “your wife like a fruitful vine,” “your children like olive shoots,” the answers… okay, very good answers, whatever the arguments that the apologetics say.

But I am speaking here of the foundation of faith in a spiritual sense, yes? The Friday shiur [Torah lecture], the Erev Shabbos and Yom Tov shiur is to speak what truly speaks vitally to the souls of Israel. The foundation of faith means, what is the real thing that makes you alive? What makes you alive in the matter of your Judaism, in the matter of your Torah that you do in your life, that you eat on Shabbos, that you celebrate Shavuos, and so on? What is the living thing?

I know, I don’t believe that one will do like a priest, an autopsy, one will go in and look in a person’s soul and find the most, the thing that makes him the most alive, and one doesn’t find any knowledge, any evidence that there were 600,000 people at the gathering at Mount Sinai, one doesn’t see it on any stone, not even by the people who give the sermons. Certainly one must tell them, in order to settle the hearts of the world, but one doesn’t find this.

And certainly on the other hand, there must lie the gathering at Mount Sinai, there must lie the gathering of prophecy. It can be a person has other sources, give thanks to God for He is good, for His kindness is eternal, but it is certainly a correct thing to understand how there is the vitality, the light, the wedding, the aliveness of the gathering at Mount Sinai. There must be vitality in this, and every Jew identifies with this, he says, “we are those who received the Torah there, we are the receivers of the Torah, and You brought us near, our King, to Your great Name in truth with love,” yes? As one says in Ahavah Rabbah [prayer]. This must be.

The Conclusion: The Giving of the Torah Is Nature, Not History

If it must be so, everyone will understand, it must be that our inner faith, the inner dimension of Torah — the inner dimension of Torah means what settles upon the heart, what is correct, and therefore this is also the truth — is not that the gathering at Mount Sinai is history. It is not a unique thing that one cannot understand, that one can only know that it happened and therefore one is obligated to follow it. It is not this.

It is nature. It is something that has an order, one can understand it, there is in this a certain rule even. One says that it is unique, we will speak about this, it is a different sort of unique. There is in this a certain rule, there is in this a certain understanding.

Whoever Learns This Way — Sees Clearly

And whoever learns this way, whoever learns a Chassidic book, whoever learns Ramak and Arizal, sees very clearly, and especially whoever learns the sharper Chassidic books that say this in the sharpest way that can be, sees that the gathering at Mount Sinai is something that one knows how to do, we know how to make it, we know how to do it. It is not something that we don’t know how to make, it is something that we do know. Of course, each according to his understanding, of course, one must believe that there is more than what we understand, but fundamentally it is not the sort of thing that is unique.

In Every Chassidic Book This Is Written

And every Chassidic book says this. Master of the Universe, I wanted one to grasp what a radical thing they are saying, what a novelty they are saying.

In every single Chassidic book in the world it says that presumably this is not a unique thing, it repeats itself every year.

True, it says in every Chassidic book in the world. Whoever knew, whoever once opened, even non-Chassidic books already say it, but the Chassidic books spoke about it very strongly, especially the foundation. It already says in the Arizal, and in the early Kabbalists it must say, someone once spoke with me that it says.

The Deeper Order of the Giving of the Torah: From Nature and Miracle to the Greater Cycles of the World

Chapter 3: The Chassidic Foundation — The Gathering at Mount Sinai Repeats Itself Every Year

The Radical Innovation in Chassidic Books

In every Chassidic book it says, I tell you my teachers, now they begin to grasp what a radical thing they are saying, what a novelty they are saying. In every single Chassidic book in the world it says that the gathering at Mount Sinai is not a unique thing — it repeats itself every year. True? It says in every Chassidic book in the world.

Whoever knew, once opened, even non-Chassidic books already say it, but the Chassidic books spoke about it very strongly — this is a foundation. It already says in the Arizal [Rabbi Yitzchak Luria], and in the early Kabbalists it must say. I once spoke, it must say explicitly, or why it doesn’t say exactly in these words, and so one must struggle, but it is certain that he also believed this way, and the like. And the Ramban [Nachmanides] perhaps it says explicitly, also one must know where to read these words. But certainly in Chassidic books it says explicitly — the gathering at Mount Sinai repeats itself every year.

The Parable of the Harvest — The Yearly Repetition

Just as the harvest is new every year, and it is the same every year, and we know to say the seven types of punishments can come, one must still have the Almighty make a moment, one must still have everything work out — but there is a rule in this, one can understand it. Upon this is built human wisdom, the wisdom of human beings, the wisdom of the Creator, yes? The Creator of the Creator of worlds. This is built upon what comes every year. Just so every year comes Shavuos, it comes every year.

Avraham Avinu and Shavuos Before the Giving of the Torah

The Question: What Was the Sixth of Sivan Before the Exodus from Egypt?

And one will look in certain Chassidic books, they will even ask as a question: and what was the sixth of Sivan, what was in the period before there was the event of the Exodus from Egypt and the Giving of the Torah?

They say explicitly, and it is built upon statements of Chazal [our Sages of blessed memory] that say such a thing: it was already then also Shavuos. “Avraham Avinu kept the entire Torah before it was given,” says the Tzanzer Rav and others — I remember the Tzanzer Rav says it explicitly, and others.

The Parable of Avraham’s Cheesecake

What does it mean? That Avraham Avinu on Shavuos morning ate cheesecake, and he was asked: why are you eating cheesecake? Because the Jews received the Torah today, and I am very pleased with this, and whatever the intention is, and one eats cheesecake.

One will ask: what does it mean the Jews received the Torah? The Jews are your grandchildren who will happen, and the event hasn’t happened yet, they haven’t yet gone into Egypt. What are you saying?

The Answer: There Is an Order in the World

He answered — the answer was a bit spiritual from the physicality, but he said: what does it mean? There is an order in the world, and in this order, at the appointed time, is a time of the Giving of the Torah in itself. Because there is an order that exists, it is a good time to make the Torah, yes?

Just as it is a good time in Nissan to go out from Egypt, it is a good time in Sivan to receive the Torah — according to the order of nature, according to the way the weather works. It must be good weather, as it says in the Midrashim: the time of Pesach, at Pesach in the future, it is the best weather — it is not too hot, not too cold, there is a pleasant time to go outside, to make a great gathering at Mount Sinai.

The Clarity of the Time

And the clarity of the day brings out the clarity of the world — the time of favor to know that Hashem is God, the seven heavens that open, is something that comes out from the clarity of the nature that exists in the season, as it says in the Midrashim, and the Ramban brings it out, and the Zohar brings it out, other books.

The Distinction Between Nature and Miracle — Not What One Thinks

The Question: Is the Giving of the Torah Simply a Natural Thing?

And the Ramban made Shavuos in the Giving of the Torah. We will ask: is it the same thing as nature? Is the Giving of the Torah simply a natural thing, the same level as simply the normal cycles of the year, of the day, of the week, of the month?

Certainly not! What does certainly not mean?!

Two Things

First of all! When we say that there is an order, a process how things mean, I mean it will still be the same thing — I still don’t mean that everything is exactly what one sees, what is visible to the eyes in the first minute. People think that nature is the same thing as superficiality — nature is not the same thing as superficiality.

The Distinction Between Shabbos and Yom Tov

It can certainly be, there is a distinction, there is a true distinction between Shabbos and Yom Tov, because one sees another level of distinction. But the first thing is: there is a true distinction between nature and miracle.

The Categories of Nature and Miracles – Two Different Levels

The categories called nature (teva) and miracle (nes) – although they don’t appear in the Torah explicitly at all, you need to know this: It doesn’t say in the Torah, neither nature nor miracle is written – everything is the same God who does everything. But let’s say, the world has been talking about this for a long time, and there is a true level to it.

Shabbos and Yom Tov – Two Categories

And in the Torah you also see that there are ways of peace (darchei shalom), and there are Shabbos and Yom Tov, which are two different types of things – although Yom Tov is called Shabbos, and Shabbos is called Yom Tov perhaps, moed, mikra kodesh – but they are still two categories.

And the difference is:

Shabbos is something that’s easily seen – every child understands that it’s Shabbos. Yom Tov is a broader system. You can even say simply, yes: Shabbos is that people work six days, rest the seventh day.

Yom Tov is that there is a cycle of nature. It took a few years until Adam HaRishon, yes, caught on that every summer the warmth returns, things grow. That’s one thing.

Yom Tov in the Historical Sense – A Deeper Order

And if you speak of Yom Tov in the historical sense, when we talk about the Exodus from Egypt – here is an even deeper order. There is an even greater order, as we spoke about in previous weeks: there is an even greater order of kol yemos olam (all the days of the world), the world.

Not only is there a cycle every year where the harvest returns, where things grow again every year – but in humanity there is an order. As we spoke about arba me’os shanah (four hundred years), about the ketz (end), all these things. There is a greater order in the world. There is an order when people receive a Torah, there is an order when they go into exile, when they leave exile. True, the order isn’t as precise as what you calculate mathematically, as we spoke about, but there is a greater order, there is a deeper order.

Therefore: A Miracle Is Not One-Time

Therefore, when we say that Yom Tov is a greater thing than Shabbos, that there is a difference between a miracle and nature – we don’t mean to say that the miracle is random, that the miracle is one-time. The miracle is not one-time.

Why Does It Appear One-Time?

But let’s say this: why does it appear one-time to us? You can even say this, let’s say that in our cycle (machzor), as the Ramban would say, in our cycle of shemittah, in our seven thousand years – there was only once the giving of the Torah (matan Torah) that we speak of. True. It’s certainly true in one sense, yes? There is indeed every year, but that’s a small matter. The great matter was only once.

That doesn’t mean there’s no cycle – that only means that we are small people. We only remember a few thousand years of the world. Our Torah, in the plain meaning (peshat) the Torah speaks of only a few thousand years of the world. Still doesn’t mean anything.

The Greater World – What Science and the Mekubalim Say

The World Is Much Greater

Everyone knows today, science has told us that the world is much greater than a few thousand years. And science isn’t new science, as Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan already noted: the mekubalim have long thought that the world is much greater than seven thousand years.

The Foundation of Kabbalah: The Torah Is Greater Than Your Mind

This is of course the foundation of Kabbalah: that what we see of the Torah, yes – not because they don’t believe in the holiness of the Torah, on the contrary, they believe more in the holiness of the Torah, right? They say: how do you see the Torah? What is the combination of letters (tzeiruf osiyos) that the Torah is written in? What is the way that you interpret the Torah? According to the small-mindedness that you are in.

Hashem Lowered Himself

You bring the Torah down to a lowly level – Hashem lowered Himself, speaks a Torah that everyone can understand. A person, a normal person, cannot understand more than a few thousand years, and the Torah speaks of a few thousand years. And the few thousand years that we can grasp begins the cycle of Creation (ma’aseh bereishis), goes through the Patriarchs (avos), to the Exodus from Egypt, to Mashiach – the whole cycle. That’s just one small thing that you can see.

Greater Interpretations of Torah

Hashem is much greater than this, and the Torah is much greater than this. There is an interpretation of the Torah that speaks of much greater cycles, which stands in the way of hint (derech remez), in the way of exposition (derech drash), in the way of secret (derech sod).

And there are even greater interpretations that take from even greater cycles, where the Torah doesn’t speak at all about the World of Action (Olam HaAsiyah), it speaks entirely about angels, about Atzilus (the highest world).

The Zohar’s Strong Rebuke

The Torah that we can see, yes? Whoever says that what is the plain meaning of Scripture (peshuto shel mikra) must be true and that’s the only thing – doesn’t make the Torah greater, he makes the Torah smaller.

Everyone who learns a bit of Kabbalah, everyone who learns a bit of Zohar, sees this: how the Zohar rebukes so strongly the one who says that in the Torah there is nothing but the plain meaning (ein baTorah ela peshat), yes?

The Right Balance

People say: of course, the plain meaning is also – you must believe that the plain meaning isn’t the truth, you need to know that there is a plain meaning of the plain meaning. And whoever says that he knows the plain meaning of the plain meaning, and that’s the whole truth – not only is he a denier of the greatness of the Torah (kofer bigdulas haTorah), he thinks that the Torah is as small as his mind, he is also a tremendous arrogant person (ba’al ga’avah). This plain meaning, that’s the whole plain meaning, and whoever believes otherwise is a heretic. Hello?

But One Must Take One’s Plain Meaning Seriously

Of course a Jew must believe that his plain meaning that he believes in the Torah – that’s his portion (chelek) in the Torah, that’s what Hashem gave him, and he must take it seriously. A person who doesn’t take seriously what he understands is just a sleeper (lulov), he doesn’t take anything seriously. A person must take seriously what he understands, and he must believe.

The Torah Like a Kaleidoscope

The Torah is indeed like a kaleidoscope – it appears to the person according to his understanding. Hashem gave the Torah on this condition (al menas kein), that you, people, should look and see that Hashem created the world in six days, in six thousand years – it fits perfectly, it makes sense in his mind. On this condition there is a true portion in the Torah.

But if a person should say that this is the entire Torah, if a person should say that the Torah is not greater than this – he is simply a heretic, simply a small-minded person who cannot see that there is greater than him.

The Parable of One Person’s Life – How We See Miracle and Nature

The Person Who Sees Only Himself

And therefore, our Torah stands only – and if you look, you have a limited vision, you are a person, you can barely see. “A thousand years in Your eyes” – a person can barely see a few years, a few thousand years. And the few thousand years is indeed a one-time event, the standing at Mount Sinai (ma’amad Har Sinai).

Just as a person should think, yes, think this way: imagine a person lives only once (veigt nor ein gol), let’s take him in a simple cycle, how will we speak of the cycle of a person’s life? A person is born, he grows up, he becomes old, he becomes middle-aged, and later he declines and he dies.

From the Individual Perspective – Everything Is a Miracle

A person who sees only himself, an egoist, one who is like that one who thinks that his plain meaning is the simple plain meaning and everyone must believe this, there is nothing more than this – what does he see? He says: I was born, it was a miracle. No one could have predicted, I didn’t know before I was born, I didn’t exist. He is literally something from nothing (yesh me’ayin).

And when he became bar mitzvah, it’s also a miracle. Who said? He’s already thirteen years old, then he became bar mitzvah, ah, fine, he became bar mitzvah. And afterwards he had a wedding, afterwards he went middle-aged, he had children, and so on the whole order of life (seder hachaim), until he died. Every thing is for me a miracle.

Your Wonders That Are Every Day (Niflosecha Shebechol Yom)

And so it indeed is. From the, one should say “Your wonders that are every day” (niflosecha shebechol yom), from the perspective of one individual, of one particular – every thing that happens to him in his life is a miracle, is a wonder, he cannot predict himself. One indeed cannot predict the particular, right? Exactly when will you get married, when will you have children, when will you become sick, when will you die – a person doesn’t know, right? “The day of death is hidden from man” (yom hamitah ne’elam min ha’adam), it’s a miracle. From the perspective of his particular, if he looks in his narrow world (olam hametzumtzam), it’s a miracle.

But From a Broader View – We See Nature

But if a person is a bit wise, he’s not such an egoist, he’s not so stuck in himself, he looks around at other people – he sees: ah, wait, the particular details, how much, actually when will you die, when will you be born, no one can know. This one perhaps needs prophecy (nevuah) or something else to know. Or perhaps there is a pleasure, who knows.

But there is such a nature, that generally (al pi rov) people in order (keseder) are born, and in order grow up, and in order become greater, and they decline, and they die. This cycle, afterwards returns, resurrection of the dead (techiyas hameisim), whatever the cycle is – the cycle can be seen.

How Does One See It?

How does one see it? Not from one particular, but from looking at a broader view. You look around, you make a generalization, you see all people, every person this happens to. Ah, you’re not the first who was born, you’re not the first who died. There is a rule (klal).

Hashem Runs the World with Wisdom

Hashem runs the world with wisdom (chochmah). Wisdom means with rules, just as we saw understanding (binah) means with rules. There is a rule, there is a natural thing, one can expect that most people are born and grow up and die. Of course, this doesn’t mean that the person has no free choice (bechirah), it doesn’t mean that the person doesn’t need to do what he has to do, as everything we’ve spoken about – but this is still the general principle (klal hadvarim).

On the World-Scale: The Giving of the Torah at Sinai – One-Time Only From Our View

The Same Way on the Entire World

And the same way, and the same way that it’s true about the person, it’s true about the entire world. How we look at our small portion of history that we are part of, our world, our shemittah where we were born – we see, yes, there was once the giving of the Torah at Sinai, once the Exodus from Egypt.

The truth is, even in our world one can already see more times than it seems, but let’s speak of the sense that there is only once, only once. But look a bit greater – we cannot look greater, because that is our truth.

The Giving of the Torah in the Greater Cycles of Shemittos and Yovel: From History to Eternity

Chapter 4: The View of the Shemittos and the Genius of the Mekubalim

World History in Greater Cycles: The Limits of Our View

In the same way, let me say another parable, in the same way that it’s true about the person, it’s true about the entire world. Where we look at our small portion of history, which we are part of in our world, our shemittah, where we were born, we see, yes, there was once the giving of the Torah at Sinai, once the Exodus from Egypt. True, even in our world one can see more times if one understands, but let’s speak of the instance that there is only once, only once.

But look a bit greater, we cannot look greater, because here we are truly limited. Imagine that a person truly couldn’t see another person, because he truly couldn’t see, he would have to say yes, perhaps he can believe that there is a second one, but he doesn’t see the second one. But on this perhaps one may not look forward and backward (meila far un meila okach), we truly cannot, we can speculate.

Revelation of the Secrets of Torah: The World Has Become Greater

Today we have on certain natural things, namely yes science, we have yes, and many secrets of the Torah (sodos haTorah) have been revealed. We know to know more things than the few thousand years that the Torah, according to what our receiving vessels (mekabeldige keilim) could grasp, told us. But and certainly this is called revelation of the secrets of the Torah (giluy sodos haTorah), yes, the world has become much greater for people.

And everyone who learns in the Rambam Laws of the Foundations of Torah (Hilchos Yesodei HaTorah), or even in mathematical books, how great is the world of the stars (olam hakochavim), knows that this was a very limited view, which people is true in a certain sense, and it’s not false, it’s true from a perspective (nekudas mabat), from the perspective as we see, true their calculations fit. But today much more has been revealed which we call the wisdom of Creation (chochmas habriah), much more wonders of the Creator (niflaos haborei), we know that the world is millions of times greater than they could imagine.

The Same Thing for History: Not Everyone Needs to Know This

And the same thing for history. We as well know our agenda is already investigation of details (chakirat pratiyos), but we know that it is much greater than this. And thank God, not all people have a sense (kelum) for this, they all need to continue believing in the simple plain meaning (pashut peshat). But whoever has a sense, whoever can understand that what they tell him in simple plain meaning, is only according to the small sense that he has, that it was said to his great-great-great-grandfather there once in Egypt, and according to what their small mind small vessels could be, the Rishonim literally said so.

Sefer HaTemunah, the Ramban, the Rashba: The Giving of the Torah in the Shemittos

And we have made clear that it’s not enough to say that it’s a parable with an application (mashal im nimshal), or that it’s the same “as it is above so it is below” (kemo shehu lema’alah kein hu lematah), just as by a person there are different character traits (midos), so too by Hashem, or the deeper things that the mekubalim say, that a person who conducts himself in the traits of kindness (midos hachesed) awakens (me’orer) by Hashem the traits of kindness.

Sefer HaTemunah and the Ramban, the Rashba, they all believed that if you want to tell us a story that was in the year 2448 there was the giving of the Torah (matan Torah), that is 2448 of the second shemittah (shel hashemittah hasheniyah), they said. There was already once a whole world with a giving of the Torah before this, and there can still be afterwards, and here there is a certain rule (klal), after two thousand years of a world usually approximately comes a giving of the Torah.

The Analogy of the Cycle of a Person

Because they thought this way, and it makes a lot of sense, of course it’s beyond our knowledge (chutz lidei’ah), we haven’t actually seen the previous shemittos because we cannot, we weren’t born there. But think of the analogy of the cycle of a person, it makes total sense that here there is an order (seder), here there is a thing that one can indeed understand. The plain meaning is just such a great cycle that we see only once of it, therefore (memeilah) it appears to us like a one-time thing.

But if you could look from the perspective of God, if you could look from the perspective of a malach (angel), from something that knows much greater, you would see that matan Torah (the giving of the Torah) also makes sense.

The Genius of the Mekubalim: Matan Torah is a Davar Hahaveh Tamid

And the genius, the perspective that shows us that matan Torah is not a one-time thing, it’s a davar hahaveh tamid (something that is constantly happening), it’s mechudash (it is renewed), just as there is “mechadesh betuvo bechol yom ma’aseh bereishit” (He renews in His goodness every day the work of creation), so there is “bechol yom yihiyu be’einecha kachadashim” (every day they should be in your eyes as new) says the midrash (aggadic interpretations of Chazal), and the mekubalim (kabbalists) and the Chassidic sefarim take this midrash literally, not every midrash is literal, this midrash is literal, the Torah is new every year.

It’s not just new every year, like the tevuah (harvest) is new every year, there is a certain way how the Torah is born, and be’ofen klali (in general) in the tekufat hashanah (the time of year), be’ofen prati (in particular) every day, be’ofen klali yoter (in a more general way) in the life of every person, be’ofen klali yoter in every generation, be’ofen mer klali in every cycle of dorot (generations).

The Structure of the Cycles: From Day to Shemitah

Every generation has a connection one with the other, there are like groups of generations, and each one of them has a bechinat (aspect of) matan Torah that happens at a certain time, after a certain hachanah (preparation) of sheva shavuot (seven weeks), after a certain mahalach (process). The Torah is not the first thing, the Torah always comes late in reality, because it takes time to arrive at it, but there is a cycle, that is the Torah.

The Power of the Mekubalim: Looking from the Perspective of Sha’ar HaChamishim

And this has come to us from the koach (strength) of the mekubalim, from the mit’amkim (those who delve deeply) who dared, perhaps they weren’t allowed to, a person shouldn’t look too much, but they had the yecholes (ability) and had the truth to look at the world as it is, “ke’elef shanim be’einecha” (like a thousand years in Your eyes), they can look at all the shemitot together, kim’at (almost) from the perspective of the sha’ar hachamishim (the fiftieth gate), can see everything at once.

They told us what? That matan Torah is not a one-time thing, it’s a constant thing, it’s something that one can cook in it and one can extract it. Certainly, we don’t have… as we say, we only say beyesod (in foundation), it doesn’t mean that we know every detail, but nevertheless you can also say in your life, nevertheless you can also say in your year, nevertheless you can also say in your nekudah (point), that what?

Laying Down the Larger Cycles into the Smaller Ones: Shavuot Every Year

That every summer, every tekufat Sivan (the time of the month of Sivan) comes a new light of Torah upon the world. Because what? This is the bizhar anpin (in the beauty of the face), the bifratiyut (in detail), the way the cycle works. Just as after seven… I don’t know what, after several generations, after sixty-six generations in the world, in the world, in the cycle of the world that we know, there was a great matan Torah on Har Sinai (Mount Sinai), so every year after chodesh Iyar (the month of Iyar), after seven weeks, which roughly matches the calculation similar to sixty-six generations, comes matan Torah, comes Shavuot (the holiday of Shavuot).

Shavuot is a Natural Thing

And Shavuot is a natural thing. Not natural that not every gentile knows about it, not every fool knows about it, because he doesn’t understand the greater cycles of nature, he can only see what he sees. But one who does, he looks greater. And afterwards, when they saw the greater, they laid it down also in the smaller, and showed that there is a small bechinat matan Torah (aspect of matan Torah), a hitchadshut (renewal) that comes here. This is the yesod (foundation), and I hope it came out clear, because I think it’s tremendously the clarity that he says here.

Chapter 5: Sha’ar HaChamishim and the Understanding of “Above the Cycle”

Going Even Further: The Question of Shabbat and Yom Tov

And now I can go even further. I hope that one won’t get lost and confused if I go even further, but I want to go even further and say another point, and then go even further. I want to go further like this, and I want to tell us another teirutz (answer) to the question that we had.

We asked earlier, that if we say that matan Torah and all these things are also natural things, they repeat themselves every year, as the Arizal Hakadosh (the holy Arizal, Rabbi Yitzchak Luria) taught us, so if so, what is the chiluk (difference) between Shabbat and Yom Tov? What is the chiluk between teva (nature) and nes (miracle)?

First: Nes is a Greater Cycle

First we said that nes is a greater cycle, that’s one thing.

But Truly: Shabbat of Yamim Tovim Versus Sha’ar HaChamishim

But truly, the havanah (understanding) that we have said until now is only the havanah of like the Shabbat of toch hasfirah (within the counting). Sheva Shabbatot (seven Sabbaths), there are seven Sabbaths, and every week there is a bechinat Shabbat, this is the Shabbat shel yamim tovim (of the holidays), shel hasfirah (of the counting).

But, we learned last week that there is also a sha’ar hachamishim. Sha’ar hachamishim was explaining, and this is the perspective, how the whole thing is only one thing, “kol haTorah kulah inyan echad” (the entire Torah is one matter). Yes, the entire Torah goes history from Bereishit (Genesis) to Ezra, very good, but there is only one word, one can say it in one second, one can understand the whole thing lemafre’a (retrospectively).

The Same Way: Torah is Higher Than Teva

And the same way there is here another havanah which explains what we mean when we say that the Torah is higher than teva, that the mitzvot are lema’alah (higher), it says olam hashemini (the eighth world), right? As now comes certainly from here, from shemitah veyovel (shemitah and jubilee), from matan Torah, and matan Torah is the yom hachamishim (the fiftieth day), it’s punctual, and here one can certainly say, it’s punctually the thing that comes after the whole cycle, which is lema’alah from the whole cycle.

No One Says That Everything in Torah is in a Cycle

No one says like it says yes, Torah is historical things, the census of nesi’im (leaders) that we said, only once was it said, once it’s not in a cycle, meaning one can’t understand it.

So it’s understood that the Torah is truly, the simple Torah has here a kesher (connection), as we have already spoken.

Sha’ar HaChamishim According to the Baal Shem Tov: Another Cycle

That when we say that sha’ar hachamishim is lema’alah min hasaykel (above the cycle), according to how the Baal Shem Tov (the Baal Shem Tov, founder of Chassidut) explained, that this means it’s the hasagah (understanding) of another cycle, like yovel. There is a machloket (dispute) whether shenat hayovel olah min haminyan (the year of jubilee counts in the number), which has to do with the yesod, which has to do with the same chakirah (investigation) whether keter is from the first sefirot. It’s all the same idea. Okay.

But Truly: Above Our Understanding

But la’amito shel davar (in truth), when we say it’s lema’alah min hasaykel, we mean to say that it’s lema’alah mehavanatenu (above our understanding). It doesn’t mean that there isn’t truly here a seder, it only means, as the Rambam (Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, Maimonides) says about ta’amei hamitzvot (the reasons for the commandments), there are those who say that the mitzvot have no ta’am (reason), there are those who say that the mitzvot have a ta’am, but it’s bechochmato shel Hakadosh Baruch Hu (in the wisdom of the Holy One Blessed Be He), not our chochmah (wisdom), we are small people, we don’t understand it.

It’s different than saying that it has no ta’am, it’s just random, it’s beyesodo (in its foundation) without a ta’am.

This is Simple Pshat, But in a Deeper Pshat…

This is simple pshat. But in a deeper pshat it’s connected with what we spoke about earlier, what we spoke about last week. When we say that the Torah is sha’ar hachamishim, and we say that the Torah is yes lema’alah min hazman (above time), it’s not a cycle, what do we mean to say?

Chapter 6: Shem Havayah and the Understanding of Eternity

One Must Remember Here: Hayah Hoveh Veyihiyeh

One must remember here, let’s say in the simplest way that one can say it. Sodot verazim yedu’im (secrets and mysteries that are known), everyone knows that it says in Shulchan Aruch that the Almighty is hayah hoveh veyihiyeh (He was, is, and will be), that yud-hei-vav-hei, the mechaven (intention), one of the kavanot of shem Havayah is that He is hoveh, hayah hoveh veyihiyeh, He is always.

The Question: Why Does It Say Primarily Hoveh?

If so there is a question, if so, why is the yud-hei-vav-hei, the shem Havayah, this is the ikar Torah (essence of Torah)? Yes? “Kol haTorah kulah shemotav shel Hakadosh Baruch Hu” (the entire Torah is the names of the Holy One Blessed Be He), “kol haTorah kulah echad” (the entire Torah is one), it says in Sefer Brit Menucha, the entire Torah is the peirush (explanation) on the four otiyot (letters) yud and hei and vav and hei. The Torah brings it out, yes, it’s a peirush, the Torah brings out better the shem.

So, why if the Havayah means hayah hoveh veyihiyeh, “Hashem malach Hashem melech Hashem yimloch” (Hashem reigned, Hashem reigns, Hashem will reign), why does it say primarily hoveh? It doesn’t say with a yud, it doesn’t say with a… It doesn’t begin hayah, it begins with a yud and a hei? It doesn’t say only yihiyeh? It says primarily with a vav, the vav is very important, yes, the vav is the seder ha’olam (order of the world), this is very deep. It says hoveh basically, with a yud. That which is hoveh tamid (constantly is).

The Answer: Eternity Doesn’t Mean “Forever Old”

The answer is, that the world has a bit of a mistake in what the meaning of netzchiyut (eternity) is, and what the meaning of hoveh is. The world, I mean people, the haskalot hasechel shel adam (the understandings of the intellect of man) doesn’t grasp. For us, to say that something is eternal, we mean to say that it means it’s very old, yes? It gets older every day, it was always and it will always be. It was always as if millions of years, I don’t know what, before earlier what it was, and after millions of years in the future, and also now. That’s how we mean is the meaning of a davar nitzchi (an eternal thing), a davar hayah hoveh veyihiyeh. There are three things.

The Truth: Eternity Means Always Hoveh

The truth however is, and this is written in sefarim, this is not a chiddush, everyone who has learned Chabad for example, speaks about the yesod a lot, and whoever has a sechel probably grasps that it’s simple. The truth is that the Havayah, Havayah netzchiyut, a better way of saying it is that it’s always hoveh, that’s why it’s called hoveh and not atid (future) and not avar (past).

In Other Words: Something That Doesn’t Get Old and Doesn’t Get New

In other words, it’s something that doesn’t get old and doesn’t get new. One can call it not chiddush, or one can call it chiddush tamid (constant renewal). It’s only a question of lashon (language), but the kavanah is the same thing.

Netzchiyut = Presence, Not Eternity

Or one, I have a friend who says that one shouldn’t translate netzchiyut or Havayah, hayah hoveh veyihiyeh, as “eternity,” one should translate it as “presence.” And what is the kavanah of this? The kavanah of this is simple. A thing that lies in time, in other words, a thing that is in the cycles that we have now spoken about, in olam ha’asiyah (the world of action) and olam hateva (the world of nature), perhaps even only in our world, which have a cycle in yetzirah and so on, is a thing whose chalakim (parts) of time keviyachol (so to speak) are mechulek zeh mizeh (divided one from the other).

The Unity of Torah: The Eternity of Torah and the Sha’ar HaChamishim

Chapter 7: The Nature of a Davar Nitzchi – The Unity in Torah and Sha’ar HaChamishim

The Difference Between a Davar Shebizman and a Davar Nitzchi

And what is the intention of this? The intention of this is simple. A thing that lies in time – in other words, a thing that is in the cycles that we have now spoken about, in olam ha’asiyah and olam hateva, and perhaps even higher worlds have a cycle in yetzirah and so on – is a thing whose divisions of time keviyachol are mechulek zeh mizeh, right?

He was a bit yesterday, that is after all keviyachol a part of his existence, right? Just as a person’s history is a part of his existence, only it’s over the length of time. Just as a person is divided in place – a bit of me is on the left side, a bit of me is on the right side, I am divided, I have parts, I am not simple, right? I have parts, I have parts in place. The same thing I have parts in time.

I was yesterday, and what was yesterday is not exactly the same as what was today. He has some connection – not that he was completely another crazy person, he had no connection from today with yesterday – he has some connection, he is the same one who was yesterday and today. But on the other hand he is different, he wasn’t completely the same. There are parts, there are divisions, he is divided in time. Yesterday I was a bit like this, today I am like this, tomorrow I will be different still, and so on.

And so is every davar tiv’i (natural thing), every living thing that has a cycle, that has a time – he is born, he dies, he has in between. This is the basic time: hayah, hoveh, veyihiyeh – born, he is, he dies.

The Nature of a Davar Nitzchi: Always Hoveh

A davar nitzchi – like chochmah be’ofen klali, kal vachomer the Almighty, but even chochmah, even the Torah which is only a peirush on God, even the Torah – is a thing that is always hoveh. This is the hagdarah (definition), a better hagdarah: he is always present.

In other words, he is not divided into divisions in time. All his divisions keviyachol – there are no divisions. The hayah is the same as the hoveh, and the yihiyeh is the same as the hoveh. He is always in the hoveh. There is no part of him that goes out.

The Parable of a Person Who is Divided in Time

It’s not pshat when you meet me today – let’s say a better one, right? As the Baal Shem Tov said “lavan chavrei ad sof” (learn with a friend until the end), that the right way of learning Torah – there are many torot from the Baal Shem Tov that go on this point.

Okay, we have now come to – we have a Baal Shem Tov shiur (lesson) that teaches about tefillah (prayer), but one must also learn the Baal Shem Tov that is peshat (the plain meaning) in Torah, which is the same thing, because it’s the same letters, just from above to below. Okay, our shiur is not officially a Baal Shem Tov shiur, but I’m saying, it’s more simple, or more in the old style, that a davar hanitzchi (eternal thing) is a davar hahaveh tamid (thing that is always present).

That means, when you meet me – yes, someone meets me today, talks about my shiur today, hears Yitzchak’s shiur from erev Shavuos 5786. When you don’t meet me completely – it’s not completely me, because a part of me is what was yesterday at the shiur, and you hear the shiur you don’t also hear yesterday’s shiur, and you hear the shiur you also don’t hear tomorrow’s shiur. It’s divided.

And you want to know me – how can one know a person? Someone wants to know his friend? One cannot. One must be born with him until death, be every minute with him. Perhaps then you can say you know him his whole life, because a person’s whole life is divided in time.

You know me – you know a bit of time from me, from the period that you’re involved with me, from the shiur that you hear from me. You hear the half hour from me – what I thought before, what I said later, what I’m going to say – that you don’t know. It’s always lacking.

The haveh (present) within it, the haveh of adam hanivra (created man), adam sheyesh lo zman (man who has time), is always lacking the past and the future. It’s missing, it’s not completely you. I am not – a person says one must be present – I am never completely present with you in the moment, from the side of my body at least, from the side of what I can tell you, from the side of binah (understanding) that counts in time. Why? Because my present is cut off from my past and my future. You don’t know my what I saw yesterday, you don’t know what I’m going to be tomorrow, you only know what is now. It’s very partial, it’s partial.

Divinity, Torah, and Wisdom: Always Completely Present

But Divinity, but the Torah, but chochmah (wisdom) which is not the Almighty Himself, but it’s a spark from the Almighty – yes, it has similarity to the Almighty, it’s also eternal, it always was, it’s kodem l’olam (before the world), it will always be.

So from the side of the true point, certainly in the Torah there is also binah, which is in our understanding which is actually very small, that when it speaks to us it becomes very small divided over time. But the Torah as it is, the chochmas Elokim (wisdom of God) as it is, how it is completely – when you encounter today a davar Torah (Torah matter) and you learn it lishmah (for its own sake), not you learn it practically and how one must understand it, you learn it lishmah, you learn it that you grasp the chochmah within it – you have the nekudas matan Torah (point of the giving of the Torah), the sha’ar hachamishim (fiftieth gate) within it.

Sha’ar Hachamishim: The Place of Union of Chochmah and Binah

This is the sha’ar hachamishim that comes in Kabbalah it says. Sha’ar hachamishim is the place where binah calls into chochmah. Times belong to binah, and the sha’ar hachamishim this is the makom hayichud (place of union) of chochmah and binah.

And the Arizal calls it: “A path no bird knows, and the vulture’s eye has not seen it, the proud beasts have not trodden it, and the lion has not passed over it, and where is wisdom found and what is the place of understanding” [Job 28] – no one can know it. There connect the thirty-two nesivos (paths) [the thirty-two paths of chochmah] with the forty-nine sha’arei binah (gates of binah) [the forty-nine gates of binah]. This is the point.

In Sha’ar Hachamishim There Is No “Once” – The Unity in Torah

There, at this point, there is no “once.” There is no when you learn this davar Torah in the aspect of Divinity within it, in the aspect of truth within it, it is not cut off from all other parts of the Torah.

“One who learns from the intention of the letters of unity” says the Baal Shem Tov – he learns it in the aspect of unity, then he has already learned the entire Torah.

“One who grasps in its part unity” says the Baal Shem Tov a language that he brings from the early kabbalists, “grasps in its entirety.” Unity is such a kind of thing that one cannot grasp a part – it has no divisions, it has no divisions not in place as it were and also not in time.

When you are today in matan Torah (the giving of the Torah), you are the entire matan Torah.

The Parable of Prayer: The Shechinah Does Not Divide

When a person prays to the Almighty, to ask, prays standing before the Shechinah (Divine Presence), and the friend is also standing before the Shechinah – so what is, has the Shechinah divided itself? No. Has the Shechinah become more? Also not.

Both pray before the entire Shechinah, before the entire Divinity. This is “Hashem echad” (God is one). This is one of the basic yesodos ha’emunah (foundations of faith).

Why There Is No Contradiction: The Difference Between Physicality and Spirituality

Ah, you will ask, it’s a contradiction. The contradiction is on physical things, on things of binah and below there is such a contradiction – things that divide in time. Things that are not divided in time are always completely everywhere.

That means, when I am – even I, or my hand – I have a body that takes up space, it’s not completely in all places. That means my hand, in a certain sense my hand is connected to the entire body, but it’s not a complete unity. My hand is only on the right side, and my left hand is here.

But the chochmah – one can even say the general part of the soul – when I am here, is completely everywhere. In the hand of chochmah as it were there is exactly as much chochmah, there is the entire chochmah exactly as much as there is in the foot, exactly as much as there is in the head.

“The Entire Torah of Hashem Is Perfect” – The Entire Torah Is the Names of the Holy One, Blessed Be He

This is the secret that we say that the entire Torah is the names of the Holy One, Blessed Be He. And the language of the Rambam says: “And there is in ‘do not give your yield’ no less holiness than ‘Hear O Israel,’ for the entire Torah of Hashem is perfect and holy and pure” [Laws of the Foundations of the Torah].

This means that if one learns it – but if one learns it as you asked it’s not so, that is only a hint to yesod (foundation), to Kabbalah, to pnimiyus (inner dimension). If one understands the unity in Torah, the sha’ar hachamishim in Torah – the sha’ar hachamishim is that you are not once a part in time, it’s always complete.

Summary: To Have the Torah As It Is

And we have made clear that it’s not enough to say that it’s a parable with a lesson, or that it’s the same “as it is above so it is below” – just as by a person there are different midos (character traits), so too by the Almighty. Or the deeper things that the kabbalists say, that a person conducts himself in the midos of chesed (kindness) he awakens by the Almighty the midos of chesed.

I should have my proper chiddush (novel insight) in Torah. But I have already arrived that it is sha’ar hachamishim. This is the end of Chanukah back into delving deeply into that, but it’s as simple as it has worked itself out until now. It’s a bit refined sides, it’s very refined points, but I think I have brought it out as clearly as I could for today.

Blessing for Conclusion

And may we all merit the Torah, to understand, to have a chochmah, a comprehension in the Torah, to have the Torah as it is, to have the Torah as it is once and always at the same time.