Chasidut for Shabbat 62:1
יראת שמים דומה לגזבר שמסרו לו מפתחות הפנימיות ומפתחות החיצונות לא מסרו לו בהי עייל מכריז רבי ינאי חבל על דלית ליה דרתא ותרעא לדרתא עביד אמר רב יהודה לא ברא הקב"ה את עולמו אלא כדי שייראו מלפניו שנאמר (קהלת ג, יד) והאלהים עשה שייראו מלפניו
the fear of Heaven is like a treasurer who is entrusted with the inner keys but not with the outer: how is he to enter? R. Jannai proclaimed: Woe to him who has no courtyard yet makes a gate for same!<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Learning is a gate whereby one enters the court of piety. Woe to him who prepares the entry without the court itself! ');"><sup>1</sup></span> Rab Judah said, The Holy One, blessed be He, created His world only that men should fear Him,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' By 'fear' not dread but awe and reverence is to be understood, proceeding out of man's realization of God's essential perfection. This reverence, and the attempt to attain something of that perfection which it inculcates, is man's highest aim in life, and that is probably the meaning of this dictum; cf. Maim. (Guide, III, 52. ');"><sup>2</sup></span> for it is said, and God hath done it, that men should fear before Him.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Eccl. III, 14. ');"><sup>3</sup></span>
Kedushat Levi
Numbers 13,2. “send out men for your own satisfaction.”
We have a rule that when an Israelite arrives at a place where he serves the Lord, all the ”sparks” (that had fallen to earth from the Shechinah on account of some misdemeanour) that are scattered around him, feel ashamed in the presence of such people.
[The expression ניצוצות, sparks, occurs both as something material, though not tangible, in the writings of Maimonides for instance, examples hilchot Shabbat 28/25 and hilchot tefillin 4,18, whereas in Yalkut Shimoni, i.e. midrashic exegesis, it occurs as more esoteric, though not as applicable to purely spiritual beings as in kabbalah. Up until this point, our author always used the term for spiritual concepts such as “fallen angels.” At this point I am not quite sure how to understand his reference to it. Ed.]
In the Talmud Shabbat 31 we read that G’d created the universe only in order that His creatures be in awe of Him. (opinion of Rabbi Yehudah) The scriptural “proof” for this opinion quoted is Kohelet 3,14 והאלוקים עשה שייראו מלפניו, “and G’d has acted so that [man] should stand in awe of Him.” Accordingly, it appears that the author understands the word ניצוצות here as negative forces that obstruct man in his quest to fulfill the Creator’s commandments. When these negative forces (commonly called Satan) observe how man goes out of his way to fulfill G’d’s commandments, they become ashamed, and while in that state man can easily overcome their feeble efforts to distract him from serving G’d. (and, according to our author elevate these negative forces to a higher spiritual level in the process of his worshipping Gd.) There is, however, a limitation to the statement expressed in the rule expressed at the beginning of our exegesis, and this is that the rule that the person wishing to worship G’d can overcome external obstacles is based on the premise that he himself has freed himself of subjective, sensually influenced considerations when setting out to perform one of G’d’s commandments.
The choice of the words שלח, at the beginning of our portion is reminiscent of Genesis 37:32 where Onkelos translates the word וישלחו, commonly translated as: “they sent,” as ושלחו, “they stripped” [Joseph of his striped coat, the personification of his earthly aspirations. Ed.]
We have a rule that when an Israelite arrives at a place where he serves the Lord, all the ”sparks” (that had fallen to earth from the Shechinah on account of some misdemeanour) that are scattered around him, feel ashamed in the presence of such people.
[The expression ניצוצות, sparks, occurs both as something material, though not tangible, in the writings of Maimonides for instance, examples hilchot Shabbat 28/25 and hilchot tefillin 4,18, whereas in Yalkut Shimoni, i.e. midrashic exegesis, it occurs as more esoteric, though not as applicable to purely spiritual beings as in kabbalah. Up until this point, our author always used the term for spiritual concepts such as “fallen angels.” At this point I am not quite sure how to understand his reference to it. Ed.]
In the Talmud Shabbat 31 we read that G’d created the universe only in order that His creatures be in awe of Him. (opinion of Rabbi Yehudah) The scriptural “proof” for this opinion quoted is Kohelet 3,14 והאלוקים עשה שייראו מלפניו, “and G’d has acted so that [man] should stand in awe of Him.” Accordingly, it appears that the author understands the word ניצוצות here as negative forces that obstruct man in his quest to fulfill the Creator’s commandments. When these negative forces (commonly called Satan) observe how man goes out of his way to fulfill G’d’s commandments, they become ashamed, and while in that state man can easily overcome their feeble efforts to distract him from serving G’d. (and, according to our author elevate these negative forces to a higher spiritual level in the process of his worshipping Gd.) There is, however, a limitation to the statement expressed in the rule expressed at the beginning of our exegesis, and this is that the rule that the person wishing to worship G’d can overcome external obstacles is based on the premise that he himself has freed himself of subjective, sensually influenced considerations when setting out to perform one of G’d’s commandments.
The choice of the words שלח, at the beginning of our portion is reminiscent of Genesis 37:32 where Onkelos translates the word וישלחו, commonly translated as: “they sent,” as ושלחו, “they stripped” [Joseph of his striped coat, the personification of his earthly aspirations. Ed.]
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Maor VaShemesh
And he dreamt, etc, and Yaakov woke up from his sleep and said 'Surely H' is present in this place, and I did not know it! etc This is none other than the abode of God, and that is the gateway to heaven.' (Gen. 28:16-17) And there is a midrash that Yaakov awoke from his mishnah (Bereishit Rabbah 69:7). And this is surprising, and it appears to me [that the explanation is] that it is known that the essence of the service of a person, to come to the objective of completeness in their service to the Holy One of Blessing, to attain the Blessed One's Godliness, happens through Torah and Tefilah, and one cannot exist without the other. This is because an Am Haaretz cannot be a Hasid (Pirkei Avot 2:5), and also, Torah alone will not complete one's soul, as the saying of the sages z"l "anyone who says he has nothing other than Torah, has no Torah" (Yevamot 109b:4), since obviously through doing Torah for its own sake one can come to a great holiness when one learns for its own sake, and clings to one's life-force [nefesh], spirit [ruach] and soul [neshamah] through the letters of the Torah. However, one cannot come to the essence of Awe and Love and Longing in one's service to the Holy One of Blessing , and to grasp Godliness [with Torah alone], rather, through Tefilah, with self-sacrifice and enthusiasm as it is know from the sacred books. And behold the saying of the sages z"l is known: "and he encountered the Place, meaning, he fixed the evening prayer" (Brachot 26b:7) - behold he didn't know until that moment the secret of Tefilah, how great it is, and we find that Yaakov hid in the study house of Shem and Ever (Megillah 17a:5) and learned Torah, and we see that he knew the secret of Torah, however he did not discover God's Godliness until this moment, when it was revealed for him after he stood at the secret of Tefilah. And this is the explanation for the midrash "and he awoke from his sleep - from his mishnah" - they wanted to say from his Torah, that was awaken through this Tefilah, and he understood that he had not reached complete understanding through Torah alone, and so he said 'behold, there is Hashem in this place', meaning, through this tefilah he was able to understand more deeply the revelation of Godliness than he had until that moment, which was through Torah alone. "And I didn't know" this secret "this is but the House of Elokim", meaning through Tefilah, self-awakening and enthusiasm a persn can come to Higher Awe, which is called in the language of our sages z"l 'pity on one who has no courtyard etc' (Shabbat 31b:1). "And this is the gate to heaven" that Tefilah is the essence of the gate to heaven, to come to an understanding of Godliness and awe of heaven, a good treasure, since "awe of Hashem is God's treasure" (Isaiah 33:6) and pay attention to this, because it is correct.
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