Haazinu

The sicha for parshas Haazinu is in Vol. IV of Likkutei Sichos.

On the posuk “ Haazinu hashamayim v’adaberu….” Hear heavens and I will speak, and listens earth to the words of my mouth, on this verse, the Midrash brings a number of explanations. Firstly, that “ hear heavens ”is a reference to the mitzvas given from heaven, the Torah that was given from heaven, as it says, G-d says, you saw how I spoke to you from heaven. So the Torah was given from heaven, and that’s why Moshe calls on heaven to hear what he had to say. And then Moshe calls on earth to hear the words that Moshe was going to say because it was on the earth that the Jews stood when they said naaseh v’nishma.

Another explanation is that Moshe called on the heavens to testify or inspire the Jews who are not doing the mitzvas that are heavenly, that have to do with the heavens, the mitzvas of establishing the new months, and so on, that are determined by the heavenly bodies, by the sun and the moon. Then he called on the earth, because they were not doing mitzvas that were given in reference to earth, all the mitzvas connected with agriculture, terumah and maaser, shemita and yovel, and so on, with work in the fields, with the earth. That is the second explanation.

The third explanation is that he called on the heavens because the Jews weren’t doing all the mitzvas that were given from heaven, and they weren’t doing all the mitzvas that were given on earth.

The Midrash concludes by saying, that Moshe was asking the heaven and the earth, to be witnesses, that they should testify to the avodah that Jews are doing and they were chosen to be the witnesses because they remain forever, so they are reliable witnesses to always be around to testify to the avodah of the Jew.

Now Rashi quotes only this final statement, the end of the Sifrei, the statement that the heaven and the earth were to serve as witnesses. And yet the statement that they are serving as witnesses, is the conclusion of the previous three explanations that the Midrash gives, and Rashi doesn’t quote it at all. And we know from how the previous Rebbes would extol the importance of Rashi’s commentary, because Rashi in his commentaries reveals the pnimiyus of the Torah. And yet, he brings only this last final version, because that is the summation of all that came before, of all the three explanations.

Now in those explanations, the second and third explanations seem to be saying the same thing. However the difference between them is that in the second explanation, he enumerates what are the mitzvas that are connected to heaven, establishing the calendar and the days of the yom tovim, and so, which are dependent on heavenly bodies, and he enumerates the mitzvas which are dependent on earth, all the agriculture mitzvas.

In the third explanations, he says that the Jews weren’t doing all the mitzvas connected with heaven and all the mitzvas connected with earth, but he doesn’t enumerate what they are. And also he adds the word “all” – all the mitzvas.

So we need to understand the significance and the difference between these two ways of doing mitzvas. We also have to understand according to the second explanation, where the heaven is called upon to testify to the mitzvas that are heavenly, and the earth is called to testify to the mitzvas that are earthy, you need to have two witnesses, and here it seems that each one is testifying separately to that which pertains to it.  But then you don't have two witnesses.

And finally we have to understand why heaven and earth in the first place.  If you want to inspire someone with the importance of mitzvas, tell them that these are the mitzvas of G-d, that G-d needs these mitzvas, that these are G-d’s commandments. That would be much more inspiring than the fact that heaven and earth will testify. And particularly at a time when you are trying to arouse the neshama, the days leading up to Yom Kippur, or those right after Yom Kippur, when you are trying to arouse the essence of the neshama, the inner part of the neshama, you should really use a deeper inspiration than the inspiration of heaven and earth.

The Rebbe explained as follows:

We have already spoken many times that the avodah, the service of G-d, consists of two parts, two extremes. On the one hand we have to serve G-d out of simple, uncomplicated emunah and kabalos ole that comes from the core of the neshama, from the essence of the neshama that is much higher than any reason, than any explanation. While at the same time, this core of the neshama, this essential bond with G-d, has to permeate, reach down and influence all of our behavior including our intelligence and our emotions.

They should all be permeated with G-dliness, and they should all feel and appreciate what the neshama feels.  So the mind should understand
G-dliness and the heart should love G-d, and fear G-d, and so on.

And not only is this true of Torah and mitzvas in general, is particularly true of the mitzva of tshuva, and in the mitzva of tshuva we have these two parts. On the one hand, we seek a connection to G-d that is deeper and greater than any understanding and any reason, and at the same time, the tshuva has to influence our thinking and our understanding, and our emotions.  Which is why there are ten days, asarei yemei tshuva, because we have to bring the tshuva into the ten powers of the soul, from chochma, binah, daas, all the way down to malchus.

And just as it is with the person that he has to bring the core of his neshama into his faculties, into the ten levels of the neshama, that are basically made up of sechel and midos, intelligence and emotions, the same is true also with the Torah itself and with the mitzvas themselves. We start off with “ anochi Hashem Elokecha” G-d says, I am G-d,

I means that part of G-d that doesn’t have a name, it’s higher than a name, and this connection that the Jew has with “ anochi ” is only felt and experienced in the core of his neshama.

Then it says “ anochi Hashem ” Hashem is a name. But a name of G-d that describes G-d himself and not the behavior of G-d.  This we can understand, with our higher faculties, the faculties of the mind and the heart. Then it says, “anochi Hashem Elokecha,”  Elokecha describes that part of God that is actively involved in the creation, and that is restricted and contracted according to the degree of G-dliness that the created being can tolerate. We understand and connect with that part of G-d through our actions, through our lower faculties. Therefore, when Moshe Rabeinu wanted to arouse the Jews in their commitment to Torah and mitzvas, in their performance of Torah and mitzvas, and this has to influence and affect all the faculties of the person, he starts off by saying that Torah and mitzvas were given through heaven and earth, in order to arouse and inspire the Jews concerning their heaven and earth, their higher faculties - their intelligence and emotions, and their lower faculties - their earthiness, their speech and action.

The Rebbe explained in detail:

The three levels, the core of the neshama, the heaven of the neshama and the earth of the neshama, find expression in three different types of avodah.  The study of Torah is primarily a heavenly activity, because it engages the mind of the heart.  The performance of mitzvas is primarily a level of action, of earth. Then there is tshuva, and the tshuva is primarily backshu panei, seeking the essence of G-d, which comes from the essence of the neshama.

But since in holiness all things interconnected and intertwined, therefore in each of them, there is an element of the other two as well. These three types of avodah are the three levels that the Midrash is talking about on the explanation of the words “ haazinu hashomayim”.

The first explanation that the Sifrei brings, is that because the Torah was given from heaven, and it was given to the people who said “ naaseh v’nishmah” while standing on the earth, this is referring primarily to the study of Torah, which is primarily a heavenly activity, performed with the mind of the heart.  But because all things are connected, so in the study of Torah, you have also the other two, the earthy part of the neshama and the essence of the neshama. The earthy part of the neshama is the speech, when you are studying Torah you have to say the words, to speak the words, which is the earthy part of the study of Torah, and you also had the essence of the neshama involved because in order for the study to be proper, you first have to accept, kabalos ole, and have the emunah peshuta that you are studying G-d’s Torah and that influences how you study. So the study of Torah contains both the earth and the essence, while it is primarily a heavenly level.

The second explanation of the Midrash is that they are mitzvas that are dependent on heavenly bodies and they are the mitzvas that are dependent on earthy events. Here the Midrash is referring to the doing of mitzvas, not the study of Torah. The doing of mitzvas is associated primarily with earth, with doing, which is earthy. But here again, since all things are connected, in the earthy part of Torah and mitzvas, there is also the heavenly part, and also the essential part.  Because in the doing of the mitzvas, you also have to have a heavenly part which is the kavana, the kavana of the mitzva, and of course you have to have the yoke of heaven, the fear of heaven, the essence of the neshama that motivates the fulfillment of the mitzvas.

And here we have both witnesses, heaven and earth, because although we are talking about that which is primarily heaven, the study of Torah, and that which is primarily earth, the doing of mitzvas, yet they are interdependent and each contains an element of the other. So the kavana, which is heaven, and the action, which is earth, are not two separate things, but are testified to by both heaven and earth.

The third explanation that the Midrash brings is talking about the level of tshuva.  And that's why in the third explanation he says it's because the Jews were doing all the mitzvas, all the mitzvas of heaven and all the mitzvas of earth.  Here there are no details, because you are talking about tshuva, and tshuva covers all of Torah and mitzvas.  So the heavenly part, the kavana, and the action part, the earth, are affected by the tshuva.  The tshuva comes from the essence of the neshama and because the essence of the neshama is in some way higher than mitzvas, that's why tshuva can correct and undo the damage that was caused by the failure to perform mitzvas, or the transgression of a commandment.

And although the tshuva is primarily an element of the essence of the neshama, but obviously it has to contain within it also the element of heaven and the element of earth. It is not two separate things, they are all wrapped up in one, because tshuva combines them all and affects them all.

Now through the fact that Moshe Rabbeinu made heaven and earth witnesses for our observance of Torah and mitzvas, this helps a Jew avoid sin and do mitzvas, as Yochanan Ben Zakkai said to his students, that the fear of heaven should be upon you like the fear of man.  And they said, not more than that.  So he said yes, it doesn't need to be more than that, because when a person sins, he sins only on the assumption that he is not being watched, that nobody sees him. So if we hesitate to sin because a human being is watching, how much more so if G-d is watching. So if we had the fear of sin to the degree that we would not sin if a person were present, that itself would make us pretty holy Jews.

And this awareness that heaven and earth are always watching, and they are the witnesses, and they testify to our observance or our failure to observe, this gives us the strength to serve G-d on all three levels of Torah, mitzvas and tshuva.

Since in the month of Tishrei, we have to absorb and fortify ourselves for the entire year of the Torah and mitzvas that we will be studying and doing all year, and since everything begins in Torah and Torah is the source of all energy and strength, that's why we read “ haazinu ” in Tishrei to prepare us for the year and to give us the strength for a year of Torah and mitzvas on all three levels of study, and of doing and of tshuva.

Yud Gimmel Tishrei is the yahrzeit of the Rebbe Maharash. So the Rebbe says in a letter in the back of volume IV of Likkutei Sichos, I will tell you a story related to the Rebbe Maharash , which occurred while he was still young before the printing of the Likkutei Torah.

The Tzemach Tzedek was very fond of the Maharash, his son, and the Maharash would spend a lot of time in the Tzemach Tzedek’s room.  One time it was late at night, after yechidus, which had taken up a lot of time, longer and more than usual, and in the course of the conversation the Tzemach Tzedek bemoaned the fact that the yechidus takes up so much of his time. He said, what do they want from me, I could be studying during that time. The Maharash didn’t say anything, but he went over to the bookcase, in which the Tzemach Tzedek kept his manuscripts, and he pulled the curtain which covered the bookcase aside and he began to count the volumes of manuscripts of Chassidus that were there on the shelves.  He counted more than 30 volumes.

Then he turned to his father and asked, would you have been able to write all of these maamarim even if you were not receiving people in yechidus? And the Tzemach Tzedek answered, yes, you are right.

When the Previous Rebbe related this story, he added that there were three kinds of manuscripts the Tzemach Tzedek had. They were manuscripts where he had recorded the maamarim, the teachings that he had heard, the second type, where he had written explanations to the Chassidus that he heard and the third, are the manuscripts that he himself had written as a Rebbe, original maamarim. Most of the manuscripts in that particular bookcase that the Rebbe Maharash was counting was of the third type, the original maamarim that the Tzemach Tzedek had written himself.

Now it needs to be understood that when the Tzemach Tzedek said I could spend this time studying, he didn’t mean to withhold or even to diminish the influence he had and the benefit that came to the people when they came to see him privately in yechidus. The Rebbe wasn’t saying, why do I have to deal with them, why do I have to help them, when I could be studying for myself. Because there is a halacha that you interrupt the study of Torah in order to do a mitzvah that can’t be done through any one else. And since no one else can do what a Rebbe can do, it is according to halacha consistent that he should interrupt his studies and devote himself to this mitzva.

Also we are guaranteed that by helping a person serve G-d better, our own mind and heart become refined and more receptive a thousand fold. So the intention that the Tzemach Tzedek had when he said, I could be studying during this time, he meant to say, I could influence and inspire the people through my own learning. I could accomplish what the yechidus accomplishes through the study of Torah just like Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai was able to make it rain through his study of Torah.

To this, the Rebbe Maharash answered, that the ability to write maamarim, the third kind, the original maamarim as a Rebbe, which means to be able to reveal the secrets of Torah, this comes through and as a result of, teaching others and being mashpia on others, in a hands-on fashion, not from a distance but from a true involvement with the people. Yechidus meaning revealing the essence, the yechida of the neshama, and that enables a person to then be able to say and to write maamarim. Now this answer had to come of course from his son who would eventually become his successor and be a Rebbe as well, only he could produce this kind of inspiration for his father.

Stories about tzaddikim even the ones that happen in their youth, and particularly the ones that are told to us by a Rebbe, all of these stories are a lesson to us in our avodah. And so it is with this story, in addition to the fact that it shows us the intelligence and the wisdom of the Rebbe Maharash even as a young boy, it also tells us that even while he was young, he was able to find a way to inspire his father and in a way that reflects the respect that he had for his father. His answer came in the form of a question, which according to the halacha, when a son is correcting or teaching his father, he has to do it in the form of a question, rather than in a form of a statement.

So all of this teaches us that through one good deed that a person does, he can tilt the scales of the whole world towards merit, and it brings a purification and a refinement in the whole world. And yet that is not enough, because we have to purify the world by getting involved with it, not from a distance, not from arm’s length, but by immersing ourselves, by throwing ourselves into the project and into the problem and fixing it from within, from up close.

So when we influence another person, when we get involved with another person’s growth and another person’s problems, it has to be with a true involvement and not from a distance and that brings an additional growth and refinement in the teacher as well, as the Gemarrah says, when two people are working together, the student and the teacher, in order to grow in the service of G-d, then the teacher’s eyes are illuminated as well as the students.

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