Musar for Menachot 86:3

The mystical dimension of tithes and the mystical dimension of blessings all lead us to the same source. This is all alluded to in the verse telling us that Isaac found מאה שערים, "one hundred gates." The number one hundred is important both allegorically and halachically: Menachot 43 states that everyone is duty bound to recite one hundred ברכות, benedictions, daily. This number is based on the blessings extended by G–d to Isaac here in our פרשה when he reaped one hundred times as much as expected. Rekanati writes about this as follows: Kabbalists have described the "higher" world as consisting of one hundred "gates." Each "gate" is to be perceived as a fountain of blessings. Isaac ינק, suckled, i.e. absorbed from each one of these "gates." When the Tabernacle had one hundred silver sockets (Exodus 35,27), they symbolized these one hundred sources of blessings. Every single אדן, socket, was a בית קבול, receptacle (for heavenly blessing). Thus far the Rekanati.

I have come, further, to awaken ourselves to [the significance of] something we say every day in the section of tzitzith (Bamidbar 15:39): "And you shall see it, and you shall remember all the mitzvoth of the L-rd." Our Rabbis of blessed memory have said concerning this (Menachoth 43b): "Seeing leads to remembering and remembering leads to doing." But when is this of avail? When he studies and knows the mitzvoth but is afraid that he might forget them. Tzitzith avails for this, that he will remember them and not forget them, and, as a matter of course, he will come to fulfill them. But if he does not know the mitzvoth, how will tzitzith avail him? Therefore, it is very desirable that one learn all of the book, Mitzvoth Hashem, or, at least, Kitzur Sefer Charedim which is included in Zichru Torath Mosheh of the Chayeh Adam. He will thereby know the mitzvoth and will fulfill correctly the mitzvah of tzitzith.

The author, Rabbi Horowitz, mentions a book called שערי אורה, from which he quotes the following passage about the relationship of the sockets in the Tabernacle to the source of heavenly blessings and the need to pronounce one hundred benedictions daily, as well as the negative fallout when one fails to do so. This is what he writes: "These one hundred sockets of the beams in the Tabernacle are symbolic of the one hundred blessings which they are filled with from the great בריכה, reservoir [here undoubtedly a double entendre connected with source of ברכה, blessing, Ed]. This בריכה is called א-ד-נ-י [i.e. the attribute called א-ד-נ-י is that source Ed.]. Hence a person must utter one hundred benedictions daily in order to attract to himself all these one hundred different blessings. Should but a single one of these blessings be missing this would result in him injuring himself and becoming blemished. This mystical dimension is called , 1-10-100= ,אי"ק, בכ"ר, or 2-20-200. It is the relationship between כהן-לוי-ישראל, which in turn symbolizes the relationship between נפש-רוח-נשמה.

We have been commanded to perform the above mentioned three commandments in order to achieve a degree of perfection, as our sages have pointed out that anyone who wears the fringes on his garment, the phylacteries on his head and arm, and whose door posts are adorned with mezzuzot, falls under the category of people concerning whom it has been said "that the threefold thread will not break easily" (Kohelet 4,12 quoted in Menachot 43). The ציציות surround a person's body from all four sides, and allude to its being whole. The מזוזה on his house symbolises that all is well with him financially. Whatever a person owns he keeps in his house and closes the door, allowing the presence of the מזוזה to act as his protection. This is why it is called מזוזה, i.e "it prevents it from being moved." It is man's demonstration that he believes that whatever he owns originates from G–d and has to be devoted to His service. The phylacteries on a man's head allude to his serving G–d with his mind, the ones on his arm are positioned opposite the heart, a source of his thought processes. Mental activity is the combined result of brain and heart. This alludes then to the wholeness of his Torah. I have already mentioned that these three areas of "wholeness," are the ones referred to earlier as חכם, גבור, עשיר.

When our sages in Menachot 43 state that a person has to pronounce one hundred benedictions daily, they base this on Deut. 10,12: מה ה' אלוקיך שואל ממך "What does the Lord your G–d ask of you?" They suggest that the word מה should be read as מאה. I have already mentioned elsewhere that when the sages suggest an emendation in the written text of the Torah there must be a very compelling reason to do so. In this particular case I do not feel any need for this since the word מה and the word מאה are essentially the same.