Keeping Halacha — an Act of Creation

בשעתא דכרא דוד שיתין קפא תהומא ובעי למשטפא עלמא כתב שם אחספא ושדי לתהומא ונחת תהומא וכן אתה מוצא בשעה שבא דוד לחפור תהומות של בית המקדש חפר עשר מאה אמה ולא אשכח תהומא ובסוף אשכח חד אציץ ובעי למקמתיה אמר ליה לית את יכל אמר ליה למה אמר ליה דאנא תקענא כביש על תהומא אמר ליה ומן אימת את הכא אמר ליה משעה דאשמע רחמנא קליה בסיני אנכי ה' אלהיך רעדת ארעא ושקעה ואנא יהיבנא הכא כביש על תהומא אפילו הכי לא שמע ליה כיון דרימיה סליק תהומא ובעי למשטפא עלמא.

So whatever these ma'amarim mean, so again, they contribute to this depiction of destructive forces that are being constrained, destructive forces within the beriyah that are being restrained, and what the tehom mit'aveh

לפרוץ גדר חוק ולבקע את תחומי היצירה המסודרת את התהליך הקוסמי המונהג של עולם העשוי מאפס ואין לשממה וריקנות אטטין ברם נאחז הוא התהום בצבת החוק הענקית ועקרונותיה. כל ספרות הקבלה מדוברת בכוח טומאה זו,

Sitra Achra, klipah, tehoma raba, neshiya, tziyah, arka, mimahalchei hakabbalah, toldot detohu,

מסמנת את תחום התהו והריקנות את רשות האפס המשולל פרצוף ושיעור קומה הנוחמים בהוויה המפוארת שזיוו וקינונו של השכינה חופף עליה.

Again, we tried to demystify this last week maybe with the example of the physical universe in terms of black holes. So what is this idea that somehow or other there are within the world these sinister forces, chaotic forces? השקפה זו המקיפה את מחשבת היהדות כחוט הסיקרא like the chut which encircled the mizbe'ach אינה רק עמדה עיונית מסתורית, not just some mysterious or mystical idea, אלא עיקרון מעשי שימושי, its practical, yesod musari hilchati. כשהאדם גולת הכותרת של הבריאה, the crown of creation, בא לעולם תעודתו בידו תעודת היצירה. His mandate is to engage in yetzirah, creation.

חייב הוא לעמוד על משמר ההוויה הזכה והטהורה ולהשלים את הפגם שבמעשה בראשית את החסר שבפועל.

And the ne'dar, what's missing, shebiyeshut, in existence.

היצור מצווה להשתתף עם היוצר בחידוש מעשה בראשית. יציבה גמורה ושלמה זוהי שאיפת השאיפות של כנסת ישראל.

And when you first read, try to learn, try to understand, try to reflect on these lines, they seem A, very abstract, and B, it just seems to be a big gap between what do we get up in the morning, wash negel vasser and get dressed, put on tefillin, daven. It seems like where's the yetzirah, no? It doesn't seem to match halacha as we know it and live it. Okay, so once, but once the Rav steers us, but clearly here he's way beyond that. When he steers us into the Beit Midrash, into the realm of Talmud Torah, you understand how real havana involves creativity in understanding, in developing what the yesodos of the sugya are, what underlies it. In Chazal you have a statement, you have a din, but that's something which is an expression of, an embodiment of, a result of idea, ideas, interaction of ideas, and so I understand the creativity there, but what's it get to do with it doesn't seem to... So we had earlier in the Rav's monograph, he spoke about how one can and should view and understand halacha on an atomic level, maybe even subatomic level, but then halacha also needs to be understood on a broad, holistic level. So here's a mashal. Mashal's like this. Let's say, maybe it's parents with a child, maybe it's a teacher with a student. You have a child and the child is messy, he doesn't pay attention to how he dresses, doesn't dress in a dignified way. And in fact, not consciously so, not the way in the 60s they were mechadesh that you had holes in your clothing. It's not just that it happens when clothing has holes, that was a chiddush of the 1960s that has been sustained and expanded upon in subsequent decades. In school he's an underachiever, he gets by, but unquestionably an underachiever, maybe kind of a little bit of a loner. And the parents, maybe it's the parents, maybe it's the teacher, whoever, so they figure out that maybe the core issue is lack of motivation, maybe the core issue is low self-esteem, whatever the read. on, on, on the, the individual is and, and they're looking to, to, to boost that. So there's a multi-front effort to do that. You know, because of the yesod, the Rambam has it, the Sefer HaChinuch has it, Ramchal has it, I mean it's true, that's why you find it all over the place. You know the way Ramchal says it is that that if a person has the midah of zerizus so he'll run to do a mitzvah. But if he doesn't have the midah of zerizus but he forces himself to run to do a mitzvah again and again, he'll cultivate the midah of zerizus. So the parents begin, you know, in a healthy way to cajole, to push him that he should pay attention to his dress, he should dress nicely, he should dress neatly. And he should take pride in, in himself and, and in his work. And, and maybe, maybe he talks to a therapist about, about low self-esteem. And there's a multi, again, multi-front, and, and it, it's a slow process. But then you see the same individual a year, two, three, however many years later and he carries himself differently. He looks different. He has a sense of healthy self-confidence, he's achieving, he's excelling. So, so what, what, how, how would we sum up our impressions? He's a different person. Different person. So Halacha on its atomic level is not, it's not nothing to do with yetzirah. Put on tefillin, no yetzirah. Get up in the morning, הרוצה שיתקבל עול מלכות שמים. So a, a person person davens and a person puts on tefillin and he davens and somach geula l'tefilla. But what the Rav is commenting on is what the effect of, the aggregate effect of when, when the parents get the, the child to tuck in his shirt, that he shouldn't look like a shlump, that he should and, and they get him to pay attention that, you know, that he should wear nice clothing. Is that, if you look at that isolated, is that an act of yetzirah? No, not an act of yetzirah. But if you look at it in the aggregate combined with everything else with which it's coordinated and then you see from when you have the, you know, the distance to see the cumulative effect of all these different atomic initiatives so then you see that what it adds up to is he's a different person. So that's what the Rav is talking about. He's talking about what, what it means to live a life of Halacha when all the details of Halacha that a person lives by that he implements day in, day out, consistently, what that adds up to. You know when you paint the picture, so each, each stroke of the brush, I don't know, you wouldn't call one stroke of the brush, you wouldn't call that yetzirah, but you would call the, you know, when, when a beautiful painting is complete, so you would refer to that as, as an act of, of yetzirah. Why don't we see this? I don't know, probably for at least two reasons, maybe many more, I don't know. Number one, I don't know, we're a little shortsighted and maybe small-minded and tend to see the atomic picture more than we see the grandeur picture on a more holistic level. It requires gadlus hamochin to see that whereas to see it on the atomic level, one can see even with katnus hamochin. But then the other reason is that for someone to serve for us as a representation of that, an embodiment of that, so it's not enough that the person has improved themselves a lot, he really has to be an adam hashalem. That's when you see it. Meaning when you see in this, again coming back to our mashal of the unhappy, underachieving, lethargic child. Okay, when you see him, I don't know, with improvement but not getting it all together, so you see improvement, but it doesn't rise to the level of yetzira. When you see yetzira when, okay, there's no perfection, אין עוד מלבדו זולתו השם יתברך, so we're not talking about perfection, but when everything comes together, that's when you see yetzira. I don't know how many people rise to that level, so we don't see it that often. You know, on our own, that's reason number one, so we don't necessarily have the gadlus hamochin to understand that's what it's about, and then to sort of have it staring us in the face, I don't know how many examples we're zocha to see, because it's really an adam hashalem who will embody that for us. But it's clear, you know, when we talk about understanding halacha, seeing halacha, Torah, again, not only on its atomic level, but on its ultimate holistic level, that's only achieved because one implements halacha on its atomic level. Number two only happens because of number one. You can't bypass, it happens because, again, in the mashal, they, day in, day out, you know, they're working with the child on so many different ways, and then every one of those little steps propel him forward. That's what people who don't understand, people who I don't know, they don't understand halacha, but they don't understand more than that halacha, I don't think they really understand the people either. You know, so people standing on the outside will ask, why does halacha or the, why does God care whether you do A or B? What difference does it make if A or B? And the answer is that you can't only, even if your goal would only be to care about big things, the way you care about big things is the way that's created is the way you have a person who's a holy person. Is because he pays attention to every, when you isolate it, seemingly minor and moments of and the situations in life. You mentioned something about שבעים שנה ואם בגבורות שמונים שנה. So how do you live a holy life? You don't live a decade at a time. You don't live a year at a time. You don't live an hour at a time. You live every moment at a time. So how does a person live a good, meaningful, productive, hopefully ultimately purposeful life? It's done moment after moment. A person doesn't, we reflect back on, did you have a good zman? But the answer as to whether or not you had a good zman is determined by the decision a person makes every from one moment to the next. Because again in retrospect, we look back at a zman, a year, when you get older you can look back at larger units of time. You can look back at decades, you can look back at a stage of life, you can look back at childhood, you can look back at your years of college. But that's all in retro, but nothing is lived that way. You don't live three years at a time, you live every moment at a time, which is why halacha tells us again, the atomic level, what we're saying is not to denigrate that. It's just to say that that's not the only dimension and the only perspective that one is supposed to have. It's not intended chas veshalom to denigrate that.

פרשת ויכלו השמים והארץ וכל צבאם בפירושו של התרגום ואשתכללו היא מגילת סתרים של נשמתו ונועם מעשה נפשו של איש אלקים. אידיאה אונטולוגית נשגבה ורוממה מאירת עין החלה על עולם הנצח. וכשאדם ישראל עומד בערב שבת ומקדש על הכוס יין מלא, הרי הוא מעיד לא רק על מציאות יוצר העולמים אלא גם על חובת האדם להיעשות שותף להקדוש ברוך הוא בהמשכת יצירתו ושכלולה.

How so? Because Parshas Vayechulu, we mentioned last time the pshat in אשר ברא אלקים לעשות, because Parshas Vayechulu doesn't only describe Hakadosh Baruch Hu's bria as it were, but either again, just with the idea of as we saw last week that all Torah comes to teach halachos, so halacha is coming to teach us to be engaged in yetzira, whether it's the pasuk itself of אשר ברא אלקים לעשות, or whether it's just that the affirmation of the bria is not only an affirmation of the bria, but it's also a characterization of the bria. When we affirm that Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the world, we affirm that he created a certain type of world. He created a world that he left, as it were, אשר ברא אלקים לעשות, that he left it for us to, again, through the, through human perfection to complete the bria.

כשם שהקדוש ברוך הוא שכלל את תחום ההויה בששת ימי בראשית, כך חייב האדם לגמור את היצירה כולה ולהפוך את התהו ובהו לישות שלמה ויפה. כשאדם ישראל יוצא החוצה ובעולם סחר חליפין מותח חוטי אור הנוגהים. כשאדם ישראל יוצא החוצה

ve'osek besachar chalifin מותח חוטי אור ענוגים bechalalo shel olam and he sees the moon, the pale moon,

הרי הוא מברך עליו. תופעה קוסמית טבעית ומסודרת כזו מעוררת בתודעתו הדתית מחשבות נוגות וגם תקוות מזהירות.

They arouse within him, this cosmic phenomenon arouses within the religious consciousness of a person, both sad, maybe melancholy thoughts, but also shining hopes. The lunar cycle, הוא מסתכל בחיזיון מולד הירח ורואה בצורתו החוקית me'ein pegimah vechidush. Pegimat halevanah vechidushah, pegimat hayetzirah umiluah,

אשר במאמרו ברא שחקים חוק וזמן נתן להם שלא ישנו את תפקידם.

Not talking about a mythos, chas v'shalom, not talking about a sort of ignorant mythic view. It's not that we don't understand that the lunar cycle, the fact that we see the moon getting bigger the first half of the month and then we see the moon getting smaller the second half of the month, of course we understand the physical explanation for that.

אין כאן מיתוס חס ושלום אלא הכרת החוק הטבעי במהלוך צבאות השמיים וידיעה אסטרונומית ברורה.

There's a clear astronomical understanding of what accounts for that phenomenon. Beram, but the point is what Kiddush Levana points to and what the experience of Kiddush Levana is founded upon is שהחוק עצמו והתנועה המסודרת עצמה מסמלים מיסתוריות מופלאה. It's not that we're confounded by the mystery of why the moon goes through that cycle. No, we can explain that. No, but the fact that Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the world with that phenomenon, that's what arouses the reaction.

אותו בית דין שהיה מחשב חשבונות כדרך שמחשבין האצטגנינים שיודעים מקום כל הכוכבים ומהלכם,

who had tremendous expertise in astronomy,

היו יוצאים ומברכים על חידושה של לבנה, וראה כנסת ישראל במהלכה הסביב והחוקי של הירח במסלולו פגימה והתחדשות.

That's why we say the pesukim of דוד מלך ישראל חי וקיים because it symbolizes again pegimah but then renewal. Pegimat haberiah umiluah in a historical sense but also in terms of the whole world.

וילחוש תפילה חרישית מוזרה שתמלא את פגימת הלבנה ולא יהיה בה שום מיעוט והיה אור הלבנה כאור החמה וכאור שבעת ימי בראשית כמו שהיתה קודם מיעוטה כמו שנאמר שני המאורות הגדולים.

Knesset Yisrael. So what does that mean that we're asking that nature should be changed? And again it's a natural phenomenon that the moon appears in different stages throughout the course of the month. No, so Knesset Yisrael mitkavenet be'ofen alegori, the intent of this tefillah is בתפילתה זו כלפי שכלול הבריאה ומילוי פגימת מעשה בראשית. When we're asking for or halevanah to be ke'or hachamah, so we're asking in terms of what that symbolizes

כלפי חזון האסכטולוגיה הסמלי הגדול והנורא והיה אור הלבנה כאור החמה. מנקודת מבט סודית זו תופסת כנסת ישראל את גורלה הכרוך בגורל ההוויה כולה הפגומה והשסועה על ידי כוחות שליליים ואיתני האפס. המציאות הפיזית והישות הרוחנית ההיסטורית... שתיהן נתייסרו במידה ידועה בשלטון התוהו ורע התהום. וגורלות אלו מקבילים זה לזה.

And that's what we spoke about last week, that the parallelism. כשיתגשם התהליך ההיסטורי של ישראל ויגיע למרום פסגת השתלמותו, timallena allegoriyot. Again, that there's

אין בין ימות המשיח לעולם הזה אלא שעבוד מלכויות בלבד.

The levana is not going to change, right? That's what the Rav is emphasizing here.

אלגוריות פגימות היצירה כולה. וללבנה אמר שתתחדש עטרת תפארת לעמוסי בטן שהם עתידים להתחדש כמותה ולפאר ליוצרם על שם כבוד מלכותו. האדם חייב להשלים מה שפגם יוצרו.

Amar Reish Lakish,

מה נשתנה שעיר של ראש חודש שנאמר בו לה' אמר הקדוש ברוך הוא הביאו עלי כפרה שמעטתי את הירח. כנסת ישראל מביאה כפרה לקדוש ברוך הוא,

kiveyakhol, שלא השלים את הבריאה כולה. Borei Olam מיעט את דמות היצירה ושיעור קומתה. ha-Kadosh Baruch Hu intentionally minimized כדי להניח מקום ליציר כפיו, to leave the opportunity

ולעטר את האדם בכתר של בורא ויוצר. שכלול היצירה מתבטא על פי השקפתו של איש ההלכה בהתגשמות ההלכה האידיאלית בעולם הריאלי.

As we've seen earlier, the way the creation is perfected is through the realization of ideal halakha in the real world. ושוב מתגלה השניות של ההלכה ותורת הסוד. The contrast, the duality, the contrast between halakha's focus and that of mysticism.

בשעה שחכמת הנסתר משלימה פגימת היצירה על ידי העלאתה למרום למקור ההוויה הזכה והטהורה ההלכה ממלאה החסר בהורדת השכינה למטה לעולם התחתון בצימצום הטרנסצנדנטיות בתוכו של עולמנו הפגום.

When you think about it again, the Rav is going, I'm not sure we're going to have time right now to read to the end of this section, but just a comment that will on the next page or two. I think earlier we discussed why does the Rav structure Ish HaHalakha, first giving us that portrait of the ish hadaas, cognitive man, and the ish hadat, the homo religiosus, when he tells you at the outset that the ish hahalakha is neither this one or that one, but he's an entirely different and unique persona. So why that construct? So I think we explained then that what the Rav is highlighting is how halakha is addressing among other things universal questions, how halakha incorporates many of the natural intellectual spiritual inclinations that a person has and halakha guides us on how to address again the universal questions, it guides us in that. And when you think about it, I don't know if you think about, let's say, forget for a minute, forget for a minute, you know, this focus, if you just think on an even on a very, you know, sort of mundane even even secular level, what what's what's parents' job? So they they have so here you have this neonate, you have this infant in the nursery in the hospital, and I don't know he's going to live with his parents until whatever age and and so what what's their job? Again again not what their job is on the atomic level, you know to pelt cells. But beyond the beyond the the atomic level, so so what's their job? So the job is to take this totally dependent baby, right? At this stage the baby is totally dependent in every again dependent in every by every metric, right? And and nurture and raise the child to being totally independent. Independent financially, that that he should be able to earn a living, independent emotionally, that that he has the the emotional fortitude to to live life. Independent in terms of again I'm not sure if we're staying in the secular realm anymore in terms of his moral and ethical values that will serve as a compass in life. So the truth is that is a type of yetzira, right? That really is a description of a yetzira, to take a helpless dependent infant and you know when he walks out the door at I don't know whatever age 18, 20, 22, 25, whatever whatever age it happens, you know that he walks out, you know not just literally but figuratively on his own two feet. So that that is an act of yetzira. So when the Rav says that that's what halacha is all about, so again it's as we've seen earlier in Ish HaHalacha, it's an example of of halacha instructing us and thereby guiding us, commanding us and thereby giving us the the roadmap towards dealing with universal existential challenges. Okay, we'll stop here. Next time we'll probably begin from section beis here on page 92.