Zos HaBracha

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

The posuk “ Torah tziva lanu Moshe…” that we find in the week’s parsha, is the first thing we teach a child. As the Gemarrah says, when a child begins to speak, his father teaches him to say “ Torah tziva lanu Moshe..” the Torah which Moshe gave us. This verse speaks about the Torah as it was given to us from Moshe Rabbeinu, and he received it at Sinai from G-d. 

This Torah, which Moshe Rabbeinu teaches us, contains the entire Torah. All that any valid student of Torah will discover in the Torah was all given to Moshe.  The difference is only as to when it was revealed.  They were those parts that were revealed immediately, at the Giving of the Torah, they were those parts that were revealed later on in the course of time, and there are those parts that will be revealed when Moshiach comes.

But all is included in the Torah that “ Torah tziva lanu Moshe” because there will not be another Torah or a giving of the Torah a second time, so everything is contained in the Torah that Moshe gave us.  It is understood that no matter how much we know, and how much we've learned, it is still a tiny drop, an insignificant amount, compared to how much more there is to learn, because the Torah can be learned deep and deeper endlessly.

So the question now is, why is it that such a profound message, that the Torah has an endless potential, such a heavy lesson is the first thing we teach a child, who is first beginning to speak.  You would think that the normal way of teaching is that you start with simple lessons and when that is mastered, you go onto more difficult subjects, and continued to grow in that way until after you've mastered all that you can understand in the concrete, in the empirical, then you go into the areas of the abstract subjects.But here we are told that the first thing we teach a child when he begins speak is this abstract concept of endless potential in the Torah.

The answer is, we are talking here about the essence of Torah. The Torah of “ Torah tziva lanu Moshe ” is not a subject to be studied, to be understood as an academic subject.  The neshama of every Jew, inherits Torah and is connected to Torah, because Torah is not a subject, but rather an expression of G-d himself, where G-d makes Himself available in the Torah.

So when we say “ Torah tziva lanu Moshe..” we are talking about the soul of Torah – G-d’s presence in the Torah, the fact that Torah contains G-d as the Gemarrah says that when we study the Torah, we are receiving G-d Himself. This is not a subject that we study, first the simple part and then go onto the more difficult part, this is something that goes directly to the neshama, that is inherited by every Jew, including even the child is just beginning to speak

This aspect of Torah is given to every Jew without distinction, because as far as a created being is concerned, just as the intelligence of the child is not really capable of understanding the essence of Torah, the same is true also of the intelligence of an adult.  The greatest of all intelligences is not capable of appreciating or containing the essence of Torah. And only because G-d chose us, that's why He gave us His Torah. Because He is infinite and all-powerful, He was able to give away His Torah. And because G-d gives away His Torah, then it makes no difference whether He is giving it to an adult with great intelligence or to a child with little intelligence, because it has nothing to do with the learning and the intelligence of the student. If He can make Himself known, if He can give the Torah to an adult, He can also give it to a child.

And this, the inheritance of Torah, is the meaning of the rest of the verse, “ Torah tziva lanu Moshe morashes kehillas Yaakov ” an inheritance to the congregation of Yaakov. An inheritance applies to child of one day as well as to an adult. A child being that he is a child of the father will inherit everything because he represents the father.  And since Jews are G-d’s children, therefore, we inherit Torah without distinction between the intelligent and the non-intelligent. That's why the posuk says, kehillas Yaakov, the congregation of Yaakov. Yaakov not Israel, Yaakov meaning the heel, talking about the Jew that is on the lowest level, the level of the heel, yet he also inherits the essence of Torah.

We can still ask, although it is true that even a child inherits the essence of Torah, even the most abstract esoteric parts of Torah, why is it necessary to teach the child this verse. What would be wrong with teaching the child the aleph beth, the alphabet, and then when he gets older teaching this esoteric and abstract concept as well, when he will be better able to appreciate it.

The answer is, that a Jew must know, and it must be deeply engraved in his mind and heart that the essence of Torah is not understanding and intelligence, the essence of Torah is that it is G-d’s wisdom, and G-d and His wisdom of the same, that the Torah is G-dliness, is G-d. And this conviction has to be the foundation upon which we build all the study and understanding of Torah.

So the first thing that we need to teach a child is not to understand the understandable parts of Torah, and then grow, and move on to the higher, more difficult parts, the first thing a child has to know is what Torah is, that Torah is G-d Himself.  Then, when he knows that this is the Torah, then he can begin to build the structure on the sound foundation of understanding and knowledge of Torah.

Then another thing.  If he starts to study Torah first, to the degree that he can understand, and only later we will we tell him that this Torah that he is understanding, this Torah that he has now absorbed and mastered, is really in its essence G-d Himself, much higher than intelligence, it will be very hard for him to shift and switch his thinking, because intelligence conceals essence, it becomes a block, that doesn't allow that kind of recognition. But if you start with that awareness and build on that awareness, then he is studying the Torah all along with yirah shamayim and kabalos ole, with the fear of heaven and the yoke of heaven, that that awareness brings so that his study doesn't get in the way, and block out the appreciation for the more subtle and the more G-dly part of Torah.

Every custom in Torah is also a Torah itself, a lesson and a teaching, and we find that the minhag, the custom concerning Simchas Torah, is that we rejoice with the Torah in a particular fashion. We take the Torah, while it's wrapped in its mantel, its coat, and we dance with the Torah in a circle. Now you would think that in order to rejoice with the Torah, Torah is a subject that is studied and understood, so you would think that the rejoicing with the Torah on Simchas Torah should consist of an increased learning both quantitatively and qualitatively and this increased understanding and knowledge of Torah will produce the joy and the gladness and the simcha of Simchas Torah.

Instead we find that we celebrate the Torah, not by using our head but by using our feet.  And we dance with the Torah, while it's wrapped up its coat, not only aren't we learning it, but it's wrapped up so that we can't even see what is written there.  And although on Simchas Torah there is time for learning as well, because we have to learn Torah everyday, but there is not a significant difference, an increase, a special study, that would express the simcha's Torah, the joy of Torah on Simchas Torah.

The answer is, that the essence of Torah is not an academic subject that is appreciated through the mind and through understanding, but the kedusha, the holiness of Torah, which even a person who is totally ignorant of Torah acquires through an inheritance, as we said before, and they too, those who have not studied Torah or don't understand Torah, they too rejoice of Simchas Torah - it's because Torah is being celebrated for its holiness, for its essence, and not for its understanding.

And it's only because we want the essence of Torah to permeate and reach into the inner workings of our personalities and of our character, that we are commanded to study and understand the Torah, so the Torah is absorbed into the system, so that its holiness can be appreciated in every part of the mind, heart and body.

And that's why we dance on Simchas Torah with the Torah wrapped up in its coat, to underscore and emphasize the fact that the Torah is greater and higher than our comprehension, and it’s with the Torah itself and not with our understanding of the Torah that we are rejoicing. We are rejoicing not with the fact that we can learn, but we are rejoicing with the fact that we have access to G-d Himself through the Torah; the Torah connects us to G-d Himself. And this is expressed with the dancing with the feet, because the higher something is, the lower is its expression. So the highest appreciation for Torah and for the G-dliness of Torah is expressed in the lowest part of the system, in the feet, when we dance with the Torah

And this dancing, rejoicing with the Torah, by using the feet, we do this at the very beginning of the year. That's like a child beginning his education.  After the tshuva, after we have corrected all the past sins through the preparation of Ellul, Rosh Hashana, the Ten Days of Repentance, Yom Kippur, Sukkos, and Shemini Atzeres, then when we begin our new year, a year of work, a year of effort, then all Jews are like children beginning their education, and as we said before, the beginning of education is “ Torah Tziva Lanu Moshe.” 

Recognizing the true nature of Torah, and accepting the holiness of Torah, that way we are prepared, we are setting off on the right foot, so that for the rest of the year when we study Torah and try to understand Torah, that understanding and study should be permeated with the awareness, with the emunah and the kabalos ole of what Torah really is. This is also the meaning of what the Frierdiker Rebbe said that when a Jew dances with the Torah, he takes the Torah on the hakafa, he goes around the bimah, the table where the Torah is read, because the Torah doesn't have feet, the Jew dancing with the Torah becomes the Torah’s feet, and carries the Torah around the bimah, just like feet carry the head.

So what is the meaning of these words, how is it that we become feet to the Torah? The idea is that the dancing on Simchas Torah expresses the Jew’s resolution for the coming year, that he will accept upon himself to carry out all the instructions of Torah in such a way that he doesn't count at all and it's only what the Torah says that counts – just like feet who obey immediately and instantly the dictates and the instructions of the head. As soon as the head wants to walk, get up or move, the feet immediately do so. If the feet start to have their own agenda, and they hesitate to fulfill or to respond to what the mind says, then the feet are, G-d forbid, not healthy; there is an illness there. A healthy foot responded immediately to the dictates or the desires of the mind.

And that is what is meant that the Jew becomes the feet of the Sefer Torah -that he makes the resolution for the rest of the year, that he will be completely devoted to what the Torah commands, to such a degree that anything that Torah wants, he immediately responds to effortlessly and without question.

And just as it is in the example with the feet and the head, that the feet actually do for the head, what the head can't do for itself, it takes the head where the head can't go, the same is true also with the Jew and Torah – that the Jew by doing mitzvas and by being devoted to the commandments of the Torah, the yoke of heaven, the yoke of Torah and the Simchas Torah, this brings an elevation and the completeness to the Torah. 

This is the meaning of the expression “ zman simchassanu ” which is a plural expression, it implies more than one simcha, more than one joy. That’s because there are two joys – there is the Jew rejoicing with the Torah, and there is the Torah rejoicing with the Jew – our joy and the Torah’s joy.  And both are expressed in one word “ simchassanu” our joy, because they were so interdependent. When a Jew celebrates Torah, when a Jew is rejoicing with the Torah then the Torah rejoices with the Jew. It brings an elevation and completeness to the Torah itself.

So if the essence of Torah is being celebrated and not its study, what is the connection here, what is the relevance of dancing around the bimah and quoting verses of Torah before the hakafa.

The answer is, since Tishrei is the general preparation for the entire year, the month that prepares us for the entire year, it has to contain all elements of the year. Although on Simchas Torah we celebrate the foundation of Torah, the fact that it is G-d’s will, the fact that it connects us to G-d, the essence of Torah, however somewhere in the month of Tishrei, we also have to have the beginnings, the stirrings of that which we are going to be doing the rest of the year. The rest of the year we don't dance with the Torah, but we study it.  So that is suggested by the fact that we dance around the bimah, the table where the Torah is read, which also alludes to the learning of it,  and we quote verses of Torah.

But since it is still Tishrei, and in Tishrei we have to deal with the foundations, with the fundamentals, that's why what is obvious and revealed, is that we are dancing with our feet, and what is being hinted at, what is being suggested, is the reading of the Torah, the use of the head.  But it needs to be there in order to serve as a starting point, as a beginning for the study, which will take place in the course of the year.

Another reason that we quote verses of Torah, and study Torah, even on Simchas Torah, is because the nature of emunah, the nature of belief and kabalos ole, is that it tends to remain separate and distant from the person's behavior, from his inner workings.  But that shows that what the person believes has not really permeated into the person himself, he hasn’t become completely merged with that which he believes, so his belief and he remain two separate things.  And that's why his behavior is not influenced, and his understanding hasn't changed even though he has this belief. But as strongly as he believes it, it remains something separate from him himself.

When is a belief a true belief? Not only a strong belief that, but a true belief? When he and that which he believes merge and become one and the same. When that happens, you will see evidence of it, in the person’s understanding and in his behavior.  His understanding begins to mold itself around the emunah, around the faith, you can see that he understands the Torah with an edelkeit, with a refinement, with a G-dliness that is different then the way he understands other subjects that are secular and not G-dly. And you can also see how his behavior is affected.

So even though the Simchas Torah, the dancing with the feet, is an expression of the essential connection, the emunah and the kabalos ole that a Jew has in reference to Torah, but if it doesn't express itself in the study of Torah, and it doesn't express itself in the behavior of the person, then there is something lacking in the emunah itself, there is something lacking in the foundation.

This idea is expressed in the first verse of the “ ata haraysa.” The first verse reads “ you have been shown, so that you will know that G-d is G-d.” “ Haraysa ” means not that you see, but you are shown. It is effortless thing.  It's not that the Jew makes an effort to see, but that it he is shown from above that G-d is G-d, there is none besides Him. And this is shown, when a person sees something, it is much higher and much greater than his understanding. He is not analyzing the subject, he is seeing it with his own eyes.

So the neshama sees G-dliness effortlessly, and from that seeing, we have to come to “daas”, to know. We are shown G-dliness, in order that we will know. Because if the seeing of G-dliness doesn’t not produce an understanding, an intelligence that is also G-dly then there is something wrong with the seeing itself. There is something wrong with the “haraysa”, if it doesn’t lead to “ l’daas”. It shows that there is something lacking in the oneness, when a person sees something he merges with that thing, they become united, but that is obviously lacking, if it doesn't produce a change in the person’s understanding.  And from the understanding it then develops, it blossoms in all of the aspects of the human being, in all of his neshama faculties, and also in his physical worldly activities.

And we conclude the“ ata haraysa ”, all the verses end, just before we start the hakafa, with the verse “ ki m’Tzion tetze Torah u devar Hashem m’Yerushalayim” that Torah comes from Zion and the word of G-d comes from Jerusalem. Zion and Jerusalem in the literal sense are the names of a physical geographical location.  So what does it mean that from this physical place we derive Torah and the word of G-d?

So here again, the idea is that the accomplishment, the breakthrough that Torah brings, is that it draws the first statement “ ata haraysa ” the seeing of the essence of G-dliness into human intelligence and then it brings it from human intelligence into the physical world so that even a physical location, a place called Tzion, which means a sign or an indication, an indicator, gashmius is only an indicator, it doesn't really have an existence for itself, the physical doesn't exist as an end in itself, it exists as an indication of something spiritual, of something G-dly.

And it is through the physical, that serves as an indicator for something spiritual, that we recognize that “ ein od milvado” that there is nothing besides G-d. And then the physical becomes Yerushalayim, the indicator of G-dliness, becomes a complete G-dliness, yirah shalom, a complete and total fear of heaven, of G-dliness, that even the physical is permeated with the fear of heaven through the Torah when the Torah is perceived in the physical and shows us how the physical is really not an existence for itself and by itself, but that “ein od milvado” that there is really nothing besides Him, there is nothing besides G-dliness and the physical is not a contradiction, does not challenge that oneness, but on the contrary, the physical universe actually testifies and is an indicator to the fact that there is nothing besides G-d.
 

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