Va'era

The sicha for parshas Va’era is in Vol. III of Likkutei Sichos, in which the Rebbe addresses the issue of Moshe Rabbeinu’s question to G-d. When Moshe Rabbeinu went to Pharaoh, and Pharaoh was annoyed and increased the workload on the Jews, Moshe came back to G-d and said, why did You do bad to this people? What Moshe was really asking was, how is it possible that through a shlichus, coming from G-d, through Moshe Rabbeinu, should bring a negative result, should bring something bad. How could something bad come out of goodness?

And there are three parts to this goodness. First of all, a shliach like Moshe Rabbeinu. Concerning Moshe Rabbeinu it says, when he was born, his mother saw that he was good, meaning that he was thoroughly good - he was pure goodness immediately at birth. So the shliach Moshe Rabbeinu is the epitome of goodness. Then the meshaleach, the sender, is G-d Himself. It had to be G-d Himself because the Jews were sunk in the forty-ninth level of tumah, into such a low level of unholiness that only G-d Himself could bring them out. And so G-d Himself is certainly the essence of goodness, as it says concerning heaven, that in heaven there is no negative, there is only goodness, and so the question is, since the mission, and the messenger and the sender are all the essence of goodness, how could this result in something bad?

That was Moshe’s question. And what was the answer?

G-d said to him, I am G-d. There was Avraham, to whom I made a promise, and yet to whom I did not fulfill that promise in his lifetime, and still he didn’t ask any questions, he had no complaints. So G-d is saying to Moshe, that there was Avraham, and there was Yitzchak and there was Yakov, and they had reasons to ask questions, and yet they didn’t. Therefore G-d is saying, a pity that the greatness that used to be is no longer - they had this greatness in that they had no questions of G-d, and a pity that that quality, that greatness is lost.

So we need to understand:

a) Why did Moshe ask? If there is a great virtue in not asking, in silent acceptance, then Moshe Rabbeinu should have had that virtue because essentially Moshe Rabbeinu was greater than the Avos, the Patriarchs. We know this because he was the seventh, and the seventh is greater the preceding six, including the first. So if Moshe is greater than them, how is it that they had this virtue of not doubting or not questioning, and Moshe did question?

b) Since G-d in his answer to Moshe is saying that the Avos didn’t have any questions, G-d is emphasizing the greatness of the Avos, so why does he refer to the third of the Avos as Yakov and not Israel? When we are talking about the greatness of Yakov, he has two names: he is called Yakov referring to a condition when Yakov was holding on the heel of Esav, which is not a very complimentary condition, and then he has the other name, when his name was changed to Israel, which is a complimentary name. So why here, when G-d is emphasizing the greatness of the Avos, does he refer to Yakov as Yakov, and not Israel?

c) All the stories in Torah are a message and a lesson for us on how we are to serve G-d. What is the lesson in this story when G-d is telling us something negative about Moshe Rabbeinu? The Torah is careful not even to say something negative about an animal, and here the Torah tells us about a flaw and a fault in Moshe Rabbeinu. So it must be that there is an important lesson that we need to learn from it that justifies this criticism.
And finally how is it that we can learn something from this story - how can we compare ourselves either to the Avos or to Moshe Rabbeinu? So although it is true that in every generation, the Midrash says, there is someone like Avraham, like Moshe, but those are the rare individuals, and the message of Torah has to be to the average person, and to all Jews. What kind of a lesson can we possibly learn, how can we compare ourselves to Moshe, and here we are being told that we should be greater than Moshe in a certain way, that we should have the virtues of the Avos, that Moshe didn’t have.

The Rebbe explains as follows:

The difference between the Avos and Moshe is that the level of Moshe Rabbeinu was the level of chochmah, and that of the Avos was emotions. The prominent faculty of Moshe’s neshama was Divine chochmah, and the nature of chochmah is that it wants to understand. This is why the Torah was given through Moshe. Torah is G-d’s chochmah, and so it was given through the neshama of Moshe, which was essentially chochmah. Whereas the Avos compared to Moshe, their avodah, their virtue was emotions.

Avraham was the emotion of love, as it says, Avraham Ohavi, Avraham served G-d out of love for G-d, and also with other people, his treatment of other people was always with chesed, always with love, and he did them kindness both physical and spiritual.

The avodah of Yitzchak was with fear, with perfection, with gevurah, as it says “ pachad Yitzchak” So Yitzchak served G-d out of awe and pachad of G-d. That’s why he was intolerant of even a subtle evil in the world, because his middah of gevurah doesn’t tolerate anything less than perfection, which is why the smoke of the avodah zarah of Esav’s wives made Yitzchak blind.  He couldn’t tolerate even the smoke of the avodah zarah.

And then there was the avodah of Yakov Aveinu whose main avodah was tiferet, compassion, which is a combination of chesed and gevurah. That’s why Yakov says, that the G-d of Avraham and the G-d of Yitzchak stood by me, meaning that Yakov had both aspects, the G-d of Avraham meaning the love of G-d, and the G-d of Yitzchak meaning the fear of G-d. He had them both. And because he had them both, because he was a combination of both, everything in his life was complete and whole, not to an extreme in either direction. All his children were tzaddikim, and his life in general was complete from all sides. That’s why he was able to serve G-d through a variety of  conditions, from  one extreme to  another. He  was able to  serve
G-d in a state of wealth and contentment, as well as serving G-d in a time of need and a time of pain. He was able to handle both Lavan and Esav equally. As a summary of Yakov’s life, it says, “ and Yakov returned home complete.” It is because of the combination of being in the center, centered between love and fear.

So we see that the Avos served G-d with their emotions, whereas Moshe served G-d through chochmah. Now although it must be true that the Avos also served G-d through chochmah, and it must also be true that Moshe served G-d through his emotions. We find concerning the Avos that since the time of Avraham, they were constantly studying in yeshiva, so there was an emphasis on the learning of Torah and the chochmah of G-dliness. On the other hand we find that Moshe Rabbeinu certainly used emotion in his service of G-d, as we see that when he came out and saw the suffering of the Jewish people, it hurt him deeply. That is the middah of chesed, of love, and then on the other hand, when he saw one Jew raising his hand against another, he was very sharp in criticizing him and not tolerating that kind of behavior, which is an aspect of gevurah.

Yet, although a Jew does all mitzvahs, and serves G-d with all his faculties, for each person there is one faculty or one middah that dominates, and that is their main avodah. Moshe Rabbeinu’s main avodah was chochmah, and that’s why Torah came through him to such a degree that the Torah is referred to as Toras Moshe Avdi, the Torah of Moshe My Servant. He was so united with the Torah, that it came be referred to it by his name. The Avos, their main avodah was their emotion, as it says Avraham Ohavi, that the essence of Avraham was his love for G-d. And that’s what we inherit from them.

So now that we understand that the Avos primarily served G-d with emotion, and Moshe served G-d with chochmah, we will understand why Moshe who is on a higher level than the Avos, did ask the question, “why did You do bad…” and the Avos had no questions, because the nature of chochmah although it is higher than emotion, is that it wants to understand. And  when   it  comes  across   something  that  it  doesn’t  understand  in
G-dliness, in G-d’s behavior, or in His justice, this disturbs the chacham, the wise person, so he can’t move on and continue to grow in his avodah.

This was Moshe’s question. He needed to understand the justice and the Divine providence of what had happened, in order to grow further in his avodah and serve G-d with greater chochmah since chochmah was his main avodah.

But what answer was he given? It was that before Matan Torah, with the Avos, G-d revealed Himself but not on the level of Hashem, the name Hashem - “ I did not make known to them the name Hashem.” And now by Matan Torah, which really began at the beginning of the geulah, which happened when Moshe came to Pharaoh to tell him that the geulah was happening, so at that time the name Hashem was being revealed, as it says, “G-d says to Moshe, I am Hashem.”

What is the special meaning of the name Hashem? The name Elokim refers to creation and to the world, to existence. That’s why the gematria of Elokim is the same as hateva, nature. And in creating nature through the name Elokim, every creature received its limitations, because Elokim means limitation.Elokim refers to the individual, limited, separated creatures that make up this world.

But the name Hashem, Yud Kei Vav Kei, that contains the meaning of was, is and will be, all combined into one word, referring to that part of G-d that is above time, above division, above creation. And that part of G-d that is greater than creation was revealed at the Giving of the Torah, which to some degree began at the beginning of the Exodus. That’s why at the Giving of the Torah, all restrictions were removed, and there was no longer a distinction or a separation between heaven and earth, so that heavenly things can be on earth and earth can be heavenly.

This is what G-d was saying to Moshe Rabbeinu, that now when we are at the stage of geulah, of the receiving the Torah, and breaking down the limits, the separation between heaven and earth, it is now time to also break down and remove the separation between chochmah and emotions. So although it is the teva of chochmah that it wants to understand, and it needs to understand, and it is justified in its desire to understand, yet at this stage, when we are removing all the separations and combining everything into one pure emes, it is now possible for a chacham to have the qualities of the Avos, who served G-d with their emotions, and it is now possible for Moshe to not have to ask.

And this is what the Torah means when it says, I appeared to Avraham, Yitzchak and Yakov, and it doesn’t say Israel, because here G-d is telling Moshe Rabbeinu that by Yakov there were two conditions. There was the level of chochmah, which is referred to by the name Israel – li rosh, the same letters, which is intellect, and then there was yud ekev, the name Yakov, which refers to the heel. The difference between the head and the heel is the head needs to understand, and the heel does what it is told, kabbalas ole. So the emphasis here to Moshe Rabbeinu was that you should be more like the Avos, not like the seichel of the Avos, not like the wisdom of the Avos, not like Israel, but like Yakov, like the ekev, the heel, which has the virtue of being able to continue without having to have answers.

There is another important difference between the nature of emotions and the nature of intelligence. And this was also demanded of Moshe even though seichel was his main avodah. It is the nature of a person who is a chacham that he cannot apply himself to the details of physical activity. The brain doesn’t get involved with giving life to the other parts of the body, unlike the heart, the seat of the emotions, which is busy sending life to all parts of the body.

So this is what G-d is saying to Moshe Rabbeinu. Seichel, chochmah, wants to stay be separated from the mundane aspects of life. It clings to wisdom, to what is yet unknown, to what is above it, and it really can’t be bothered to get involved in the mundane affairs of the world. Whereas emotions are much more concerned and much more devoted to the physical act that follows from the emotions. As we find for example by Ben Azzai. Ben Azzai didn’t get married because he said that he was so immersed in the study of Torah, that he couldn’t apply himself  to the physical realities of life and get involved in a marriage and a family, even though in the Torah it says, that the purpose is to inhabit the world, to be involved in the world. He is learning that that’s what needs to be and yet he couldn’t get himself to do it because he was so attached to the wisdom of the issue.

Whereas when it comes to emotions, that which emotions feel, they want to act on, they want to do in the physical. And that’s why we need to be told, the person who says I have only Torah, the Mishnah says that even the Torah won’t be real, he doesn’t have Torah either. Why would a person say, I have only Torah. Because it is the nature of the chacham who gets immersed in the study of Torah, it is the nature of chochmah that it remains enveloped in the chochmah and doesn’t find expression in actual deed.

Therefore a person had to be told, that Torah alone, cleaving to the wisdom of Torah is not acceptable, and he has to go beyond his nature and actually do the mitzvah and get involved in the affairs of the world.

And this explains the statement that Rashi makes when the Torah says, and Hashem appeared to Avraham, Yitzchak and Yakov. Rashi makes the comment that G-d appeared to the Patriarchs,which is a strange statement because we know that Avraham, Yitzchak and Yakov were the Patriarchs, so what is being added here, what is Rashi telling us that we don’t already know. We will now understand that what G-d was trying to tell Moshe, was that he should take and gain the virtues of the Patriarchs. He was telling him not to gain the individual talents of Avraham, which was love, and of Yitzchak, which was fear, and of Yakov, which was the combination, but rather he should attain the virtue of the patriarch aspect of Avraham, Yitzchak and Yakov, of the fact that they are Avos. What does it mean Avos? Avos are Patriarchs, which means that they give birth to children.

So G-d was saying to Moshe, be a patriarch, be an av, give birth to children. And what are children? The children of tzaddikim are their good deeds. In other words, the actual behavior, the application of what you learn in actual deed and in actual performance, those are the children. In order to be a  patriarch you  have to have  children, so Rashi  is telling  us that what
G-d was emphasizing to Moshe is not that he should be like Avraham because Avraham was great, or Yitzchak or Yakov, but rather, be like the Avos, have children, apply yourself to the actual deed without clinging to the seichel and the understanding that is natural to a chacham.

The lesson from all of this is, for us, that the Giving of the Torah removed the restriction that said that heaven is heaven and earth is earth, that since the Giving of the Torah, the heavens can come down and the earth may rise and go up, so that which is above can come down, and that which is below can go up. And that means in practical application, that there are those that are the heads of the people, and there are those that are the wood choppers and the water carriers, and the Giving of the Torah tells us that if you are on a high level, you are above, it is now necessary for you to also come down, and get involved in practical deeds, and if you are from below, from the tachtonim, it is now possible for you to go up, to rise and to study Torah, including also the secrets of Torah, including also Chassidus.

That creates a total combination, a total mixture of top and bottom, so that we reach the true point of emes, the emes that is in the middle. Where do we get the strength to bring together the extremes within us - the highest of the high and the lowest of the low? We are told that before Moshe passed away, he was shown what would happen to the Jewish people until the end of days, which means till the generation of Moshiach. What does it mean that Moshe was shown and he saw in a vision all the generations? That which tzaddik looks at, gives energy from tzaddik to the people he is looking at. By Moshe Rabbeinu looking at us, the generation of Moshiach, through this Moshe gave us his ability so that even in the time of ikvus d’Moshiach, when we are all on the level of heels, we have the ability to rise and connect with the highest of the high.

By Moshe attaining this combination of having the greatest of being the seventh, and at the same time, acquiring also, as G-d demanded that he should acquire the greatness of emotions, of the Patriarchs, by his attaining this combination, he now gives us the ability to do it and through looking at our generation, passed on this koach, so that we too can combine the lowest of the low and the highest of the high.

The Torah says that on Rosh Chodesh Shvat, Moshe began to explain the Torah, and the Gemarrah asks, what does it mean that he explained it? It means that he translated into seventy languages. Before the building of the Tower of Babel, all people spoke lashon  kodesh, the Holy Tongue, but because they rejected the oneness of G-d in the building of the Tower, they were punished in that their language was changed, one person didn’t understand the language of the other, and they were divided into seventy languages.

But Jews are the one people, we are supposed to bring the oneness of G-d into the world. Moshe Rabbeinu combined the highest of the high with the lowest of the low, in that he translated the Torah, the lashon kodesh, into the seventy languages so that all over the world and in all languages there should be an awareness and an understanding of  Hashem Echad through Toras Achas. And this again is the job of Moshe Rabbeinu because he is the highest of the high and combines that with the middos, with the virtue of the Avos, so that he can bring G-dliness from the highest of the high to the lowest of the low.

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