This Is the ‘Light’ of Mussar You’re Sad About Missing…
A translation attempt of the first chapter of “Ohr Hatzafun”
Existence and Void in Creation
1.
From a superficial view of creation, heavens and earth seem to be two separate forces; that is, a spiritual force in the heavens and everything above, and a physical force on the earth and everything below. From this view, our service to HaShem could also seem to be divided between the physical actions of our hands and feet, for example, and the spiritual movements of our heart and mind. However, a deeper look reveals that this premise is flawed, for, one can see in even the most physical matter, that its spiritual force is the foundation of its existence and essence. Notice that there is no way to point to any given substance and identify one of its components as the essence of the substance, for, even its most basic component could be divided into tinier elements in order to behold its own ingredients and intraconnections; and even those elements are composed of tinier, infinitesimal particles which there is no way for our eyes or other senses to see or discern, due to their virtual non-existence.
Clearly, therefore, everything which appears before us on earth is composed of a certain spiritual, celestial force that is beyond our grasp—a hidden, incomprehensible force which comprises and binds all physical particles to make them into unified compounds and forms, and this common force is invariably the foundation and essence of all matter.
What is this common force, and what do we call it? The verse states: HaShem founded the earth with wisdom (Proverbs 3:19). That is, the earth’s foundation, that which binds and permanently maintains it, is wisdom—a spiritual force that is beyond our grasp. Another verse states: and wisdom resides in ‘ein’[1] (Job 28:12). Ein is that spiritual, eternal, hidden and inscrutable force, the seat of that wisdom which is the foundation of the earth and all its fullness, and which defines every aspect of its existence.
And that is what is written in the Holy Torah: In the beginning of God’s creating the heavens and the earth—when the earth was astonishingly empty (Bereishis 1:1). All of creation is formed from astonishing emptiness, and its essential foundation is therefore in ein, that is, the eternal spiritual, hidden, inscrutable force. This common force eternally gives life and to, and binds, the earth, and supports it on its axis, as it states, HaShem founded the earth with wisdom, and wisdom resides in ein.
And if those matters which we perceive as solid substances are nothing but ein, mustn’t spiritual matters certainly contain this inscrutable force that is beyond our grasp? For all man’s inclination to gaze into the sky and direct his attention heavenward, he should instead come to recognize that all the celestial bodies are sustained on this common inscrutable foundation called ein, and find in it the G-dly force which imbues all of Creation with an aspect of formation from ein. From this, one is left wondering about those intelligent scientists who recognize and understand the solar system and its orbits: Shouldn’t they be better fitted than most people—who know only their immediate surroundings—to observe the spiritual forces in Creation, and come to true recognition about the foundation and maintenance of all the galaxies, and to know HaShem YisborachH? Why is it they do not understand this and pay no attention to the workings of HaShem?
Indeed, the reason for this is simple. Granted that an intelligent person would be expected to see the spiritual reality, the ein, the hidden spiritual force, that is present in all matter. But since physicality obstructs their vision, most people do not recognize this truth and imagine that they are in the presence of pure physicality and substance. In this way, they become accustomed to seeing the substance and physicality even in spiritual entities such as the heavens in all their loftiness and perceive even these matters in concrete physical terms. Thus, even intelligent scientists never go beyond this mind frame, and their eyes are obstructed from objective vision.
This type of misperception also applies to learning Torah and upholding its commandments. Certainly, anyone can appreciate that learning and observing Torah are abstract forms of spirituality and that they are understood only by a hidden process to which there is no comparable notion within the confines of physicality. Despite this awareness, if we are presented with two individuals, one of them raising his voice and swaying hard in his prayer and Torah learning, and a second one praying and reading the text without external movement, we tend to value the first more than the second. And likewise in similar matters. Indeed, we materialize everything, and in our narrow-minded vision we notice and give preference to physical efforts more than to the internal, spiritual, hidden and unknown qualities within the depths of the heart.
Our sages teach us:
How do we understand the verse: Who is the wise man who will understand [the reason for the exile] (Jeremiah 9:11)? This question was asked of the sages and the prophets. But they could not interpret it until HaShem Himself interpreted it. As it says, But HaShem has said: because of their forsaking my Torah (9:12)—because they did not say the blessing before learning Torah (Nedarim 81A).
The Ran writes:
From the verse, But HaShem has said: because of their forsaking my Torah, we can infer that they could not respond with the reason—only HaShem Himself could do so. I also found in Tractate Megilla refutations from Rabbeinu Yonah, who interprets the verse as follows: That Israel was lost because they did not say the blessing before learning Torah. For, if you interpret the verse because of their forsaking my Torah in the plain sense—that they gave up Torah and were not toiling in it—then why wouldn’t the sages and prophets be able to interpret it? Wouldn’t they have found it obvious and easy to interpret? Therefore, it must be that Israel was constantly toiling in Torah, and the sages and prophets were thus perplexed until HaShem Himself explained it, for He knew that in the depths of their hearts they were not first blessing the Torah. That is, the Torah was not esteemed in their eyes in a way that would be fitting for its blessing since they were not toiling in it for its own sake. In this way, they were disparaging the blessing and thus did not fulfill the scriptural commandment to learn with the right focus and intention. These are the words of the pious Rabbi Yonah (zt”l). They are delightful words and fitting of the one who wrote them.
Behold, it is an amazing fact that at the time that [Israel] was busy with learning Torah and fulfilling its commandments—including proliferation of Torah by the sages and prophets—they were still charged with abandoning the Torah. We learn from here that the essence of learning and toiling in Torah does not come from its external form, but from its spiritual, internal and hidden struggle, which is a mystery and a wonderment even to the sages and prophets.
This is what King Solomon (a”h) stated at the end of Ecclesiastes: For God will judge every deed—even everything hidden—whether good or evil (12:14). As explained before, the foundations of the world are in their hidden aspects. One of these aspects is the internal workings of a person’s soul, which are accordingly the essence of his existence—for man was chosen by G-d and created in His image. In a like manner, the essence of Torah and its commandments is in their hidden aspects. It follows that all the commandments given to man—to learn Torah and fulfill its precepts—were given for their integral and internal fulfillment. Therefore, when the HaKadosh Baruch Hu Holy One (Blessed is He) brings a man to judgment, He judges every deed, including good deeds, according to their internal aspects. All of a person’s decisions and deeds come under this form of judgment. Accordingly, even a person who seems to be toiling in Torah can sometimes be judged as having abandoned Torah. Indeed, this form of judgment led to the exile from Israel.
Behold, all of the accomplishments of our Forefathers were spiritual, internal accomplishments. Jacob (z”l) struggled with an angel and was victorious. Certainly, this was not a struggle of physical strength, but rather a spiritual, ideological struggle. Jacob overcame the angel on an internal, spiritual level. In the prayer for rain, we declare: he dedicated his heart and rolled a stone off the mouth of a well of water, as when he was wrestled by an angel composed of fire and water. [Jacob’s] rolling of the stone is equated here with his defeat of the angel, for the spiritual means he used to defeat the angel were sufficient also to roll the stone. The size of the stone was such that it would have required the effort of many shepherds to roll, but Jacob did it on his own. According to our sages, he revealed the magnitude of his strength by moving this rock off the well as easily as a cap off a bottle (Bereishis Raba, ibid.). Even this massive feat of physical strength was accomplished purely by spiritual, internal means, just like the defeat of the angel. The prayer for rain mentions that Jacob dedicated his heart to teach that only through this dedication was he able to roll the stone. Even the weight of a massive stone cannot fare against the spiritual power of internal dedication.
And what was Jacob’s dedication of the heart? The explanation is that Jacob was deeply intent on doing a kindness for the shepherds. He was emulating this trait of the Creator Yisborach—giving kindness to others just as He gives to us. For it is written: Forever will your kindness be built (Psalms 89:3). That is, all of the hidden power of the universe is founded and maintained on the basis of the trait of kindness. We can learn from here: If indeed Jacob rolled the stone off the mouth of the well without any effort—as easily as removing a cap from a bottle—then what was the greatness of this accomplishment? The answer is as follows: Jacob moved the stone by dedicating his heart with an internal aspect of kindness, which is the foundation of all creation—including the world of angels. This feat was, therefore, greater than his defeat of the angel. This is what the redactor of the prayer initially states: he dedicated his heart and rolled a stone off the mouth of a well of water, to teach us that the first feat was greater than the second. And we call upon the merit of the kindness of Jacob’s feat in every generation and pray: In this merit, do not hold back water from us!
We see, therefore, that there is no way to estimate the value of a person’s deeds by the conventional means that people use. For sometimes the most meritorious deed can be seen in heaven as a forsaking of Torah, and sometimes a small deed—without labor or effort—can have the value of the foundation of all creation. For everything rests on the heart’s conscience, and what is hidden within.
From here we see how careful a person must be in every small deed, for we do not know the value of a person’s deeds, and which ones are motivated by internal, hidden virtue.
2.
It was explained above that heavens and earth are not two separate entities—spiritual and physical. Rather, just as HaShem created the heavens as a spiritual entity, He created the earth as essentially spiritual. And this is what the verse states: HaShem founded the earth with wisdom (Proverbs 3:19). That is, the entire foundation of the earth is wisdom, which is spiritual. And likewise, man in his original creation—even his body was effectively a spiritual being, as the verse states: in the image of G-d He created him (Genesis 1:27). After man sinned, he descended from his [spiritual] level and became materialized, and with him all of creation became materialized. Since then, everything has seemed physical and material in the eyes of man—but all of this is merely disguise, and in essence, creation remains completely and absolutely spiritual. Indeed, even our eyes can recognize physical matter as spiritual. The sun, also known as the “fifth physicality[2]”, seems spiritual to us. In fact, all light comes from this very spirituality. And likewise with all creation: even if it seems physical, its existence is only spiritual.
[For instance,] we find that even after Adam became materialized and descended so much in his level, he retained a huge brightness from the sun. The Talmud explains: “Rav Bina was pointing to graves…when he faced the grave of Adam…a voice came out from heaven and said…’do not look at the image of his form.’ And Rav Bina said: ‘I saw his two heels, and they were like fiery planets.’” (Bava Basra 58A). Behold, after Adam sinned, and was removed from the Garden of Eden, and declined in his stature—and even after his soul left him and he returned to the earth—his heels still shone like fiery planets. And if this is true of his heels, which are the lowest of his limbs, how much brighter his more essential limbs must have been—and how much more so the image of his form that Rav Bina was not permitted to see. And how much even more his body must have shone and radiated when he was still alive, and his spirit and soul were still within him. With this in mind, could anyone grasp or measure how vast Adam’s greatness and power was before his sin, as he still stood on the earth with his head reaching to the heavens, surrounded by the Garden of Eden, with angels frying him meat and filtering his wine? Indeed, on this basis, the ministering angels made an error and requested to say the Sanctification before Adam [rather than HaShem] (see Yilkot Remez, 15, 23). It is not clear from the Torah that his body came from the dust of the earth? How did he become so purely spiritual that the ministering angels—who are isolated forms of spiritual wisdom—made such an error about him as to request to say the Sanctification before him? It must be because the world does not contain any of the physicality that we are used to describing, and even the dust of the earth is only spiritual in its essence.
And in the same way that all of creation, which is spiritual, was made in a form that our eyes perceive as physical and material, so too the commandments—even though they are mainly spiritual, they are dressed in material form. Accordingly, the Ten Commandments were written on two stone tablets, and likewise, all the commandments are fulfilled by means of bodily actions. Given that the Torah was created before the world (see Pesachim 54A)—before physicality existed—how could it ever be bound by physicality? We can gather from here that indeed, even after creation, only spirituality has existed—but that we can only grasp it in physical terms.
In fact, this is the duty of man: to elevate himself, and all of creation with him, to the actualization of their true existence, and to the fulfillment of the Torah and its spiritual commandments. This is also the essence of repentance, for our sages taught that repentance was also created before the world, as the verse states: before the mountains were born…and You say, “Repent, O sons of man” (Psalms 90:2-3; Pesachim, ibid). Therefore [repentance] is entirely spiritual. The entire aim of man in his repentance is to return to his true wisdom—to purify his physicality and bring it back to its spiritual source, as it was before [Adam’s] sin.
Once we understand that the essence of the commandments is in their spiritual fulfillment, we can broaden our notions of Torah fulfillment, and we must evaluate them on a different scale. For instance: we think of robbery only in physical terms, whereas we find that our Forefathers viewed robbery in spiritual terms as well. The Torah states: So Sarai said to Abram, “The outrage (robbery[3]) against me is due to you!” (Genesis 16:5). Rashi explains: “Your words were an outrage to me, for you heard my disgrace and were silent” (Rashi, ibid.). Behold, our Father Abraham toiled all of his days in kindness, especially to his wife Sarah, whom he gave only kindness. And even his act of marrying the convert was influenced by his kindness to his wife Sarah, as the verse states: And Sarai said to Abram, “…consort, now, with my maidservant, perhaps I will be built up through her.” And Abram heeded the voice of Sarai (Genesis 16:2). Her only claim against Abraham was that he did not rally for her respect. But in this omission, there was an element of robbery; for robbery applies not only to actual stealing but also to holding back kindness in the form of words. According to Sarah, he should have helped her with words, and by staying silent he robbed her with words. And how much more so if somebody is speaking to his friend and does not look at him in as kind a manner as possible. There is an aspect of robbery in this, for in doing so he holds back the kindness of pleasant speech that is due to his friend.
We can apply this example to all the commandments and all our deeds, and evaluate them using a completely different scale of measure. We can thereby elevate our notions about the commandments, and our deeds, to the highest spiritual level.
[1] Literally: void, nothingness
[2] The physical world contains only four physical elements: fire, water, air, and earth. Calling the sun the “fifth physicality” classifies it as outside of the physical realm.
[3] The Hebrew “chamas” means a wrong or an outrage, or it can be interpreted to mean a robbery.