Tzav

The sicha for parshas Tzav is in Vol. VII of Likkutei Sichos.

With the mitzvahs that G-d gave to Moshe and told him to repeat them to the Jewish people, we find three expressions of speech used, “daber” speak to the children of Israel, “emor” say to the children of Israel, and  “tzav” command the children of Israel. And although all the mitzvahs, even those that were given in the form of “speak” or “say”, are all called “mitzvah”, from the word “tzav” “tziva”, there must be a difference in their meaning and significance. In those mitzvahs in which the word “tzav” appears and it is stated clearly that this is a commandment, it must mean that in this mitzvah, the tzav is stronger, the commandment is stronger than in the other two.

It says in Torah Kohanim, and in Rashi at the beginning of the parsha, that wherever it says “tzav” it means an urgent command for right away and for all time to come, zrizus m’yad u l’doros. Chassidus says that mitzvah comes from the word “tzavza”, connection, a joining - it joins the Jew who is doing the mitzvah with G-d. In Torah, wherever there are two explanations it means they must be related in some way, therefore these two definitions of mitzvah, that it is a command rather than a statement, and that it is a connection are connected to each other.

The joining of a Jew with G-d comes through the performance of the mitzvah, which is carried out because it is a commandment, instructed by G-d to do. In other words, the mitzvah is not done out of conviction, because it feels right or other such reasons, it is done because this is what G-d  instructed,  this is  what  G-d said. It  is done out of the acceptance of
G-d’s authority, of G-d’s kingdom, of the kingdom of heaven, and so when we do the mitzvah as a “tziviu” as a “tzav” a commandment, then it has the affect of being “tzavza v’hibur” it connects us to G-d. And so those commandments that are given in the form of a “tzav” must also have a greater degree of tzavza v’hibur, of greater connection and joining with G-d.

To understand this, we first have to explain the effect of a mitzvah according to Chassidus.

The Creator and the created being have no essential connection between them. Because they are so distant from each other that there is no point of contact. In fact, relative to the existence of G-d, creation has no existence. Chassidus gives the example of a great chocham, who because of his chochmah, his brilliant mind, his entire reality is that of sechel, of intelligence. To this kind of person, the simple person who is devoid of intelligence has absolutely no existence whatsoever.

To the chocham, the simple person does not exist. This distance, between the creation and the Creator, cannot even be described as a negative relationship, as if to say that the existence of the created being is nothing compared to the existence of G-d. Rather the created being has no existence at all. This is what Chassidus is teaching us with the example of the chocham and the simple person. It is not that the simple person has less wisdom than the chocham, and therefore the chocham doesn’t consider him significant. There is no comparison between them at all, not even enough to say that one is not intelligent compared to the other. To the great chocham the simple person is not only very far, at the opposite end of the spectrum, but they don’t belong to the same universe. And therefore the simple person doesn’t exist in the world of the chocham, not even to the degree where he is excluded from that category.

Now if this is true between a chocham and a simple person, who are both created beings, how much more so is it true concerning the Creator and His creation, where the Creator is completely infinite, the true infinite, and the created being is completely finite. Therefore the distance between them is indescribable, cannot be expressed even in the exclusion of one from the other.

And so what happens when G-d gives a commandment? When the Creator commands the Jew to do a mitzvah, the connection will actually happen when the person fulfills the mitzvah, but even before he does it, the fact that he was commanded already creates a bond and a connection between the Commander and the commanded. And that connection remains even if the person violates the commandment, or fails to fulfill the commandment. Because when the person violates the commandment, he is not out of the realm of this connection, but rather that his connection has taken a negative turn. He is doing the opposite of G-d’s will. But a non-Jew who is not commanded the mitzvah, it can’t be said of a non-Jew that he is doing the opposite of G-d’s will, because he is not in the category of the mitzvahs where  G-d’s  will  applies to  him, even  to the  degree where  he can  deny
G-d’s will or do the opposite of G-d’s will. But when a Jew sins, he is doing the opposite of G-d’s will, because G-d still wants him to do the mitzvah, and he is doing the opposite of what G-d wants. So he is the pursuing the relationship but in a negative manner.

And that is the meaning of the verse that says that even when a Jew sins, he is still connected to G-d by the very fact that he is commanded and that G-d wants him to do the mitzvah. So when we say that every mitzvah brings about a connection, it means that when the commandment is given, a connection is created, when the commandment is fulfilled, then not only is there a connection but there is actually a significance. Like the example of the chocham and the simple person, when the chocham asks the simple person to run him an errand, that itself makes the simple person exist in the world of the chocham, and then if the simple person does the errand then that makes the simple person significant in the world of the chocham. So first there is an existence and then by the doing the deed significance is attained. Therefore when we say there are certain commandments that were given in the form of a “tzav” that there in those mitzvahs there is a greater amount of connectedness, a greater amount of “tzavza v’hibur”.

The difference between “emor” say, “daber” speak and “tzav” command, is that when  “speak” or “say” is, it is implies that what is being asked depends completely on the choice of the person to respond or not to respond. When  “command” is said, that implies that there is a commander, a certain authority and that this authority is demanding a particular behavior. There is not as much room for the person’s freedom of choice to do or not to do; the authority of the commander is in a sense compelling him to do it.

So wherever it says “emor” or “daber” there is a certain amount of freedom left to the Jew to choose to do or not to do, and so the connection, the “tzavza v’hibur” that results is primarily a result of the doing, not so much of the commanding, or of the instruction. But where it says “tzav”, there even before the doing, even before the mitzvah is fulfilled, there is already a strong connection in the very fact that the person is commanded or in a sense compelled to do the mitzvah because it is almost certain that he will do it.

This needs further explanation.

Every Jew has freedom of choice in all mitzvahs, including those mitzvahs that were worded as a tzav, as a compelling commandment. So how can we say it the tzav mitzvah there is less freedom of choice? Mitzvahs in general are in three columns: the right, the left and the center column. In the right column is  “emor”, “say to the children of Israel”. Emor is lashon raka, a soft command. On the left side is  “daber” “speak to the children of Israel”. Daber is lashon kashe, a harsh statement. In the center column there is tzav, which means a different kind of expression, which is neither right nor left, soft nor harsh.

The middle column according to Kabbalah rises to the inner part of the crown of G-d’s will, whereas the right and left sides reach only the external part of the crown. The external part of the crown means the will itself; the internal part of G-d’s will is G-d Himself, the Baal Haratzon, He who has the will. So the mitzvahs that are in the right and left column reach into the will of G-d, they fulfill G-d’s will or they violate G-d’s will. Those commandments that are in the center column reach G-d Himself; they either fulfill G-d or violate G-d Himself.

And so just as there is a difference between the mitzvahs that are of the right and left sides versus the ones that are in the middle, the difference being that they affect the Commander differently, the same is true also on their affects on the commanded, on the Jew. The mitzvahs that are on the right and left side, they affect the external part of the will of the Jew’s neshama, whereas the mitzvahs that are in the center column, just as they reach into the essence of G-d’s will, to the inner part of G-d’s will, to G-d Himself, similarly they also affect the essence of the neshama not only the will of the neshama. And likewise in the center column, there is a connection between the essence of G-d and the essence of the neshama, pnimiyus of the maalah and the pnimiyus of the matah, of the Jew below.

That is why in these certain mitzvahs, the expression “tzav” is used. Then we are more certain that the mitzvah will be fulfilled because freedom of choice applies only in the external parts of the neshama. The fact that a Jew could choose good or G-d forbid evil is true only of the external part of the neshama, where there can be a tendency towards the evil as well as towards the good. But in the pnimiyus haneshama, in the inner part of the neshama, there is no unholy side; there is no conflict between holy and unholy. Even while a Jew is committing a sin, by force of the external part of the neshama, the inner part of the neshama remains innocent and does not involve itself in the sin at all. As the Rambam says, when a Jew sometimes does what is not allowed, it is imposed on him from the external, because the pnimiyus of his neshama is not capable of sinning.

To understand this, the Rambam himself says that every person can choose to do whatever it is he desires, the good or the bad, and so he is capable of sinning, of doing the opposite of good. Since when he does the opposite of good it is because he chose to do it, how can the Rambam then also say that he is being forced to sin and that it is not his will, it is not his choice to do the sin. The explanation is that the fact that a person can choose to go right or left, do right and wrong, is by virtue of the external part of the neshama. But when the internal part is revealed, then he is incapable of sinning. Therefore when a person is sinning, it is overwhelming the inner part of his neshama, and it is going against the desire of the inner part of his neshama. This is considered as if his yetzer hara forced him.

That’s why these mitzvahs that are given in the form of a tzav, because they are from the center column, which it relates to the pnimiyus haneshama where there really is no choice but to do good, then there is a certainty about the fulfillment of that mitzvah.

Now there is another question.

Since the fulfillment of a mitzvah has to be in the physical, which means that he has to use the external part of his neshama, what difference does it make, and of what significance is it that the inner part of his neshama wants to do the mitzvah? How can we be sure that the person will fulfill these mitzvahs that belong to the center column because of his pnimiyus haneshama, he has to fulfill them with the acts of the external part of his neshama, and that is why we are told that one of the characteristics of the center is that it reaches high to the inner part of the neshama, and it reaches down low to the lowest level, it influences even the external part of the neshama, and causes it to do the mitzvah.

Now it will be understood the connection between the mitzvahs that are given in the form of a tzav and of the zrizus m’yad u l’doros, the urgent command for right away and for all time to come.  Zrizus means urgency and immediacy. What would cause a person to be lacking in zrizus? When a decision has been made in the mind, and before it comes down to affect the person’s behavior, sometimes it gets stuck, because the person starts rationalizing it and therefore it gets stuck in the emotion, in the action part, and even if he does end up doing it, he loses much of the enthusiasm of the original intensity. It is lost in the process, so that by the time he does it, it is without enthusiasm. But when the mind is clear, when there is a direct connection, as there is in the middle column, which is of the highest to the lowest, then as soon as he makes a decision to do something good, it immediately affects his behavior, and the act, the mitzvah is done.

And when a person in his heart makes a resolution in the nefesh powers and it gets expressed immediately in behavior without any limits or restrictions, without losing any of its enthusiasm, because there is no difference to him between the intelligence, the highest of all human faculties, and the action part, the lowest part of the human faculties, he is connected directly from the top to the bottom, he therefore causes the same to happen in the world, that he brings this effect into the world m’yad u l’doros, immediately and for generations to come because he has transcended those restrictions and those limitations that separate past, present and future.

So all parts of time are joined and united immediately and forever. And this is what Reb Shimon bar Yochai says in addition to what we are saying here, particularly when it comes to those mitzvahs, which involve giving money, there greater zrizus is needed. By the mitzvah of tzedaka, here you have to have more zrizus. So even though zrizus in general comes from the middle column, from that which reaches into the core of the neshama and all the way down into the feet to make the behavior happen immediately, but when it comes to tzedaka, in order to give tzedaka properly, here you need an even greater amount of zrizus, which means you need to reach even deeper into the core of the neshama, into the middle column itself you have to go higher and lower, reach up higher and affect down lower.

The mitzvah of tzedaka is connected with “b’chol meodecha”, because when it says you should love G-d with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might, all your heart means emotions, all your soul means with your life, and all your might means with your money, with your possessions. With all your might also means endlessly, without any restrictions. When it comes to the mitzvah of tzedaka, here you have to reach into the “b’chol meodecha”, it is not enough to have with all your heart and with all your soul, it has to be with all your might.

It explains in Tanya that the mitzvah of tzedaka is unique for two reasons. One is that it affects the entire animal soul. Since a person can buy himself food, which will keep his soul alive, when he gives away this money it is as if he is giving his life away to G-d. Secondly when he gives tzedaka, he is bringing to G-d not only himself and his animal soul, but also his physical portion of the world that is his, his possessions.

So according to the principle that the higher something is the lower it can come, when you need to affect not only your animal soul but also the physical objects of your life, for this you need to reach even deeper into the neshama. And with this we will understand why Reb Shimon bar Yochai was the one who said that when it comes to tzedaka you have to have even more zrizus, you have to reach even deeper into your neshama and connect it not only with your animal soul but with the physical material wealth that is the tzedaka. Reb Shimon bar Yochai was the one who excelled in his ability to bring together the highest and the lowest. As is known that he was able to cause it to rain, not by praying for rain, as is usually the case, but by saying Torah, by giving a teaching in Torah. This is the connection of the highest with the lowest. And that is why he was the one who could say that when it comes to the mitzvah of tzedaka, you reach higher into your neshama and affect the mitzvah that involves the lowest of the low, the physical objects of our lives.

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