Chasidut על קידושין 163:19
Kedushat Levi
Our sages in Yuma 28 express this thought when they said that Avraham kept all the commandments of the Torah down to the minutest detail such as ערובי תבשילין, a rabbinic ordinance enabling us to cook and bake on the festival in preparation for the Sabbath on the next day, something ordinarily forbidden as it appears as if one used a holy day to prepare for the mundane day following, by having made appropriate preparation for the observance of this very festival on the eve of the festival in question by having prepared basic meals for it. To the question how one could “fulfill” commandments of the Torah at a time when the Torah had not been revealed yet, the answer is that when man endeavours through intense mental concentration to divine what is pleasing to his Creator, he can tune in to the appropriate “wavelength.” Avraham was the first individual who succeeded in doing this. Avraham had succeed in placing all his 248 limbs at G’d’s disposal, so that he was inspired with divining the will of his Creator.
[Once the Torah had been given this feat could not be repeated, just as the akeydah, Avraham’s offering his son as a sacrifice to G’d in response to G’d’s request, could not ever be repeated. Ed.]
According to tradition each of our limbs has a function to perform for the 248 positive commandments of the Torah. In fact, unless these limbs were used to perform G’d’s commandments, they have no claim to life on this earth (or at least in the Land of Israel). In a descending order, the head fulfils the commandment of wearing tefillin. As long as Avram did not live in the Holy Land, he had not had an opportunity to fulfill any of these מצות, “as yet unrevealed commandments,” as there would be many commandments that could not be fulfilled even after the Torah had been given, since they are not inextricably tied to the soil of Land of Israel. He was therefore “missing” a considerable number of limbs in his body, limbs that could not perform their real tasks until he had settled in the Holy Land.
Avraham was aware of this; this is why he had served the Lord by the first method that we described earlier, i.e. by selfless devotion to G’d, negating any claim to the comforts life on this earth affords the creature living it, serving Him exclusively from the אין aspect of the universe. This helps explain why he allowed himself to be thrown into a fiery furnace by Nimrod in order to demonstrate his utter devotion to the Creator. Once he moved to the Holy Land, there was no more need for him to demonstrate his loyalty to G’d by such negation of his entire body.
If the reader were to ask that Yitzchok’s being offered as a potential sacrifice to G’d occurred in the Holy Land, something that does not appear to conform to the principle just described, the answer is quite simple. Yitzchok’s being offered as a sacrifice was the fulfillment of an express command by G’d, whereas G’d had never told Avram to put his life on the line in his theological confrontation with Nimrod. [In fact some commentators, especially Rabbi Yitzchak Arama in his Akeydat Yitzchok, are extremely critical of Avraham for having done what he did without express permission from G’d. Ed.]
Since Avraham’s service to the Lord was based on his attachment to the אין, the purely metaphysical domains of the universe, it is clear that he could not draw down some of G’d’s largesse to the earth, the domain of the יש, the primarily physical, material domain of the universe.
[Once the Torah had been given this feat could not be repeated, just as the akeydah, Avraham’s offering his son as a sacrifice to G’d in response to G’d’s request, could not ever be repeated. Ed.]
According to tradition each of our limbs has a function to perform for the 248 positive commandments of the Torah. In fact, unless these limbs were used to perform G’d’s commandments, they have no claim to life on this earth (or at least in the Land of Israel). In a descending order, the head fulfils the commandment of wearing tefillin. As long as Avram did not live in the Holy Land, he had not had an opportunity to fulfill any of these מצות, “as yet unrevealed commandments,” as there would be many commandments that could not be fulfilled even after the Torah had been given, since they are not inextricably tied to the soil of Land of Israel. He was therefore “missing” a considerable number of limbs in his body, limbs that could not perform their real tasks until he had settled in the Holy Land.
Avraham was aware of this; this is why he had served the Lord by the first method that we described earlier, i.e. by selfless devotion to G’d, negating any claim to the comforts life on this earth affords the creature living it, serving Him exclusively from the אין aspect of the universe. This helps explain why he allowed himself to be thrown into a fiery furnace by Nimrod in order to demonstrate his utter devotion to the Creator. Once he moved to the Holy Land, there was no more need for him to demonstrate his loyalty to G’d by such negation of his entire body.
If the reader were to ask that Yitzchok’s being offered as a potential sacrifice to G’d occurred in the Holy Land, something that does not appear to conform to the principle just described, the answer is quite simple. Yitzchok’s being offered as a sacrifice was the fulfillment of an express command by G’d, whereas G’d had never told Avram to put his life on the line in his theological confrontation with Nimrod. [In fact some commentators, especially Rabbi Yitzchak Arama in his Akeydat Yitzchok, are extremely critical of Avraham for having done what he did without express permission from G’d. Ed.]
Since Avraham’s service to the Lord was based on his attachment to the אין, the purely metaphysical domains of the universe, it is clear that he could not draw down some of G’d’s largesse to the earth, the domain of the יש, the primarily physical, material domain of the universe.
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