Musar על קידושין 60:25

Man's purpose is to perfect his resemblance to the Divine. It follows that even those aspects of his body which are more mundane by nature should be elevated to a level of חולין שנעשו על טהרת הקודש, "profane matters treated as if all the restrictions of sacred matters applied to them." This includes the act of sexual union with his wife. At first glance the very desire to engage in sexual intercourse is demeaning, reflects the dominance of our physiological impulses over our spiritual impulses. This can be overcome when man sanctifies himself prior to engaging in marital relations with his wife. When he does so he not only models himself on the Divine but the children who will be born as a result of such a physical/spiritual union will reflect the דמות ה' in an intensified measure. We have elaborated on this elsewhere as well as on the fact that there are three partners involved in the making of every human being, G–d having said "Let us make man in Our likeness" (Genesis 1,26). [This refers to G–d's participation in the creation of every human being subsequent to the first. I have found this confirmed in ראשית חכמה, שער קדושה, פרק טז, paragraph 56 in the new edition by Rabbi Joseph Chayim Waldman. Ed.] G–d's participation is conditional on the act of marital union being performed under the aegis of the סטרא דקדושה, the sacred side of the emanations.

For the Creator, blessed be He, who created the evil inclination also created the Torah as its antidote as our sages of blessed memory have stated: "I have created the evil inclination, and I have created the Torah as its antidote" (Kidushin 30b).

So, exactly, is our situation. It is known that the yetzer hara is a man of war, who battles constantly against Israel. Sometimes he defeats us and sometimes we defeat him. And the yetzer says in his heart: "I have no way to defeat Israel. I will see to it to take their shields and weapons with which they fight me (the Torah, which alone defends Israel against the yetzer hara) and it is the weapon with which they fight me" (as Chazal have said [Kiddushin 30b]: "I have created a yetzer hara, and I have created Torah as its antidote," and without it, it is impossible to escape it, as we have written about at length elsewhere.) And so do we see with our own eyes in our time. For this is the way of the yetzer hara, to overcome us by arguments to keep us from learning the holy Torah.

כבד את אביך ואת אמך. Our sages (Kidushin 30) have said that a man is the product of three partners, two of whom are father and mother. It follows that G–d, the third partner, has given some of the honour due to Him to His partners in creating the human being in question. This concludes the description of the plain meaning of the first five of the Ten Commandments.

Another way of explaining this additional dimension of fondness is that it refers to the two "lights," the light of the written Torah, the hidden light, as well as the light of the oral Torah, i.e. the Talmud. The words מימינו אש דת למו, would refer to the dialectics, the sometimes fiery debate employed by the sages in clarifying halachic points in the Talmud. It is interesting to note that the letters in the words דת למו spell תלמוד when re-arranged. The arguments between scholars reported in the Talmud are quarrels for the sake of Heaven, i.e. the "fire" generated by these debates is holy, not destructive. Concerning such arguments David says in Psalms 29,11: "May the Lord give strength to His people, may he bless His nation with harmony." I have written earlier on the meaning of the word שלום. Our sages have explained Numbers 21,14: את והב בסופה as an allusion to the harmony which eventually results from quarrels which are carried on by people who harbor pure motives (Kidushin 30b). Our verse may contain a similar hint; though concerning the subject matter under discussion the Rabbis engaged in the debate were at opposite sides, this had no bearing on their personal relations with one another which remain harmonious. In fact they made a point of emphasizing this at the end of such discussions. This is why they are described as "beloved by G–d. The words אשדת למו also are a hint at what is related in Taanit 4a: Constant apparent anger in certain young scholars has its root in Torah (discussions); this is referred to in Jeremiah 23,29: "Behold! My word is like fire, says the Lord." The fire alluded to in our verse is the fire of anger. It is caused by debate of points of Torah. The young scholars become angry when they observe people making all kinds of excuses for themselves while observing the strict letter of Torah law. Their anger is comparable to the anger and jealousy Pinchas felt on behalf of G–d when he slew Zimri. Most people who find excuses to ignore certain parts of the Torah object to interpretations of the law as stated in the Talmud.

When he had said "the G–d of my father has come to my assistance" (Exodus 18,4), he implied that even his father Amram had become so refined and purified that he qualified as an איש האלוקים. The words "He has saved me from the sword of Pharaoh," in addition to "the G–d of my father came to my help," mean that just as one grants additional wisdom to those who already possess a degree of wisdom, so Moses, seeing he had already possessed basic qualifications, advanced to even higher rank both spiritually and physically, so that even Pharaoh's sword could not harm his neck anymore than it could harm a pillar of marble. This is a hint that marble is incapable of becoming ritually impure. When the four sages entered the פרדס, i.e. the study of esoterics, מעשה מרכבה, Rabbi Akiva warned his colleagues "when you see pure marble, do not say "water, water!" (Chagigah 14)

The death penalty for striking father or mother, or even for only cursing them, is due to the Torah regarding father and mother as G–d's partners, since they contribute two thirds in producing a child. They deserve a degree of respect similar to that due to G–d Himself (21,15, or 17). The reason the Torah inserts the penalty for kidnapping between the penalty for striking and the penalty for cursing father or mother, is to teach us that all these three sins are closely connected; one of these sins usually is the cause for the next one. All three are due to the pollutant man has absorbed since yielding to the serpent's seduction in גן עדן. The Midrash Hagadol Genesis 3,7, says that Adam was a thief, since he ate what did not belong to him. He was גונב דעת עליון, he deceived, or better, tried to deceive G–d. Misrepresentation in order to put oneself in a better light fraudulently is the worst kind of stealing (Mechilta on Mishpatim item 13).

The meaning of Rabbi Shemuel bar Nachmeyni in Sanhedrin must be that Korach claimed that Moses' prophecy was not of a higher level than anyone else's and that he was perfectly within his rights to pursue a normal married life. Korach first wanted to reduce Moses to the level of a person who receives his prophetic inspiration not from G–d Himself but, indirectly. He described Moses as a טירון in his stature as a prophet. This would make Moses like all other prophets, i.e. אשת איש, a wife, someone who is a recipient rather than an initiator. When the Talmud described the accusation levelled against Moses as being that he was חשוד באשת איש, the meaning is not the customary "suspected of consorting with a woman married to someone else," but to his status as a prophet being comparable to the status of any married, lady i.e. passive rather than active. As someone born of woman, he was the product of a man's drop of semen. This is a veiled reference to Exodus 2,1: וילך איש מבית לוי ויקח את בת לוי, "A man from the house of Levi went and married a daughter of Levi." All of this illustrates the beginning of Moses' career as a prophet, when he received indirect inspiration, such as when G–d had to impersonate the voice of Moses' father Amram. The reason that the Midrash tells us this is to indicate that despite the as yet indirect inspiration, there was early on already a tendency towards the male, active, rather than the female, passive. G–d was already hinting that He wanted to disabuse Moses of the fact that he was merely another creature sired by a father and a mother. When G–d told Moses: "I am the G–d of your father," He meant that there were three partners involved in the making of a human being. G–d wanted Moses to appreciate that He had a major share in creating him because He also had a share in creating his father. As to G–d having adopted the voice of Moses' father, this was to remind Moses that he was born of human seed. This accounts for Shemot Rabbah 3,3 reporting G–d as saying as part of the deception: באתי אליך בפתוי, "I have come to you in a deceptive manner." G–d referred to the original seduction practised by the serpent on Eve in Paradise which is the reason that nowadays the origin of man is the proverbial טפה סרוחה, "evil-smelling drop of semen" familiar to us from the saying of Rabbi Akavyah in Avot 3,1. If Adam and Eve had not allowed themselves to be seduced into sinning, all seed would have been holy seed. The whole subject of the covenant, the ברית מילה, which is performed on the reproductive organ, is designed to reconsecrate it to G–d. This ברית is no less holy to G–d than the laying of תפילין which originates in the Celestial Regions. The world, as we have repeatedly explained, is founded on a pillar, on the צדיק, who is the יסוד, foundation, of the universe. The mystique of the covenant of circumcision is that one is thereby able to sire children of a similar spiritual niveau. Ever since the sin, when Adam and Eve became aware that they were naked and became ashamed on that account, and the whole rite of circumcision became connected to ערוה, nakedness and shame, observance of circumcision has become much more crucial. Man's attachment to material values stems from the original sin. This sin is the reason why Moses did not immediately merit prophetic insights without any intermediary and was called a טירון. G–d mentioned Abraham, Isaac and Jacob because all three were examples of תקון, repair-work, performed to the damaged spiritual state of the universe.

כי איש איש אשר יקלל את אביו ואת אמו . Some commentators have difficulty with the word כי at the beginning of this verse. They cannot relate it to what the Torah writes immediately before this verse (20,9). One may view the point the Torah makes as simple logic. If cursing one's biological father or mother is a capital crime, how much more so would cursing one's Heavenly father, one's spiritual origin, be a capital crime! G–d is one of the partners in the creation of every human being. If obedience to one's parents is required, obedience to G–d's statutes (20,8) all the more so. G–d, after all, has contributed the most valuable part of all to every human being. When we find Yonadav instructing his descendants to abstain from wine, building and dwelling in permanent houses, etc. (Jeremiah 35,7), and these descendants adhere strictly to such cumbersome instructions by their ancestor, the prophet contrasts their behavior with the average Jew who ignores even G–d's commands.

The reason Jacob had to be called Israel is to teach us that he had a dual task. First he had to remove the influence of evil. We should not think that tricking Esau was unethical; on the contrary, it was part of the process of neutralizing spiritually negative influences. Next, as Israel, his task was to help positive spiritual forces to assert themselves, and for him personally to achieve ever closer affinity to G–d. The name Jacob was never discarded, not even after he was given the name Israel. The reason for this is that even the name ישראל contains elements of the name יעקב. We have demonstrated that the עקב part equals the number 172, the number of words in the Ten Commandments, whereas the letter י before is the link to them. We have also pointed out that Jacob's function as יעקב is the principle of היום לעשותם, whereas the function of ישראל is the מחר לקבל שכרם, receiving the reward for the מצות in the Celestial Spheres as alluded to in the name ישראל. The name יעקב contains numerous allusions to a variety of moral imperatives, some of which we have already mentioned. When Isaac said to Jacob, in his blessing: הוה גביר לאחיך, "be your brother's superior" (27,29), this was a command to subjugate the אדומי, the evil urge represented by Esau. Jacob was to do this in his capacity of יעקב. This is analogous to the Mishnah in Avot 4,1 we quoted earlier.

The author does not see a duplication in verses 29 and 31 respectively, but views the first verse as addressing itself to removal of impediments to Torah observance, such as the sites of pagan worship still extant in the land of Canaan when the Israelites would invade the land. The words אשר אתה בא שמה לרשתה in verse 29 describe a different reality from the reality referred to by the words לבא לרשת את הארץ in verse 31. The first verse is an introduction to the sources of curse still in that land, whereas the second verse addresses itself to a time when blessings will prevail. At that time there will be all kinds of Heavenly assists, which is not the case when one is guided or driven by the evil urge.

Some introductory comments are necessary in order to comprehend the mystical dimension of the number "ten" in the context of our discussion. Once we have appreciated those, we can come back to the difficulty in understanding Shemot Rabbah 32,6. It will then also become clear how the verse הנה אנכי שולח מלאך לפניך (23,20) fits into the whole sequence. Ten is a number that is present in all ספירות, i.e the emanations, or "downward" developments mentioned amongst the teachers of Kabbalah. Kabbalists have divided the progressive layers of the various "worlds" beginning with the region of עולם האצילות, a dimension immediately beneath the "throne" of G–d. This region contains ten sefirot "spheres," as do the various other "worlds" such as the עולם הבריאה, followed by the עולם היצירה, and lastly the עולם העשיה, the world that we inhabit. The Pardes Rimonim by Rabbi Cordovero elaborates at length on these concepts in the relevant chapter of his book. The respective composition of the "ten" elements in each of these worlds differs; suffice it to say that the number "ten" is essential in each of these "worlds." Since the עולם האצילות, and the עולם הבריאה, are always considered as inseparable (something like the idea of השם אחד ושמו אחד), and each contain "ten spheres," we view those as we did the number "ten" spelled in letters, i.e. יוד, totalling twice "ten", i.e. "twenty." The same is not the case in the other two "worlds," the עולם היצירה, and the עולם העשיה. We may view those "worlds" as if they were mere shadows, i.e. צל, of the "upper" two worlds. The number "ten" then in those "lower" worlds is only like the "half shekel," i.e. ten geyrah. Man who is made in the image of G–d, is equipped with "ten" fingers and "ten" toes," to symbolise the יחוד, union, of the עולם האצילה, and the עולם הבריאה. Our sages have said in Kidushin 30, that 3 partners share in the creation of a human being. They are: 1) G–d, 2) father, 3) mother. They state that G–d contributes ten items all of a spiritual nature, whereas father and mother together contribute another ten items all of a physical nature. The latter contribution is meant to enable man to serve the Lord, i.e. study Torah and perform the commandments recorded in the Torah.