לזכות ישועת כל העולם כולו
Says the pasuk:
וְֽ֠הָיָה מִסְפַּ֚ר בְּנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ כְּח֣וֹל הַיָּ֔ם אֲשֶׁ֥ר לֹֽא־יִמַּ֖ד וְלֹ֣א יִסָּפֵ֑ר וְֽ֠הָיָה בִּמְק֞וֹם אֲשֶׁר־יֵֽאָמֵ֚ר לָהֶם֙ לֹֽא־עַמִּ֣י אַתֶּ֔ם יֵֽאָמֵ֥ר לָהֶ֖ם בְּנֵ֥י אֵֽל־חָֽי:
And the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which shall neither be measured nor counted; and it shall come to pass that, instead of saying to them, "You are not My people," it shall be said to them, "The children of the living G-d." [Hoshea 2-1]
What is מספר and what is לא ימד ולא יספר - not measured or counted?
The Jewish people are the soul of the world and the world and everything in it is the body. All of the condition and rules that apply to the world don't apply to the Jewish people just like all the conditions of the body don't apply to the soul. But still, the conditions of the body limit the soul while the soul itself is unlimited. So too, the Jewish people are unlimited and all limits on them are external, as it say "ופרצת ימה וקדמה צפונה ונגבה" - we spread out in all directions. While the limitations come from the nations of the world - "יצב גבולות עמים למספר בני ישראל" - When the Most High gave nations their lot, when He separated the sons of man, He set up the boundaries of peoples according to the number of the children of Israel. [Devarim 32-8]
So is the matter of בחירה - choice. It would SEEM that choice is only in relation to good and evil, in other words to choose good and despise evil. More than that we have no illustration of the reality of choice. But this CAN'T BE because if it is then it will turn out that all of our great and sublime level and the highlight of our elevated level [מעלה] will be negated from us when the world is rectified and the prophetic vision of Zecharia [13-2] is fulfilled "ורוח הטומאה אעביר מן הארץ" - "The spirit of impurity I will remove from the land". And that CAN'T BE!!!
We must know that on the contrary, the choice in relationship with regard to good and bad is the LOWER SIDE of choice and the choice of the ESSENCE OF GOOD [הבחירה בעצמיות הטוב המוחלט] is much much higher. Higher than high.
This fundamental error flows from the misleading of the cursed SNAKE who said that choice was between good and bad "והייתם כאלקים יודעי טוב ורע" - You will be as G-d knowing good and evil. The snake can't comprehend a choice HIGHER than the realm of good and evil and with that perception he lowered the world from it's level.
At the giving of the Torah the Jewish people were freed from this falling, the impurity of the snake stopped and they were elevated to the highest level of בחירה - choice. For this reason we are called the עם הנבחר - Chosen People, and the Holy Land is called the "Chosen Land" - ארץ הבחירה, and the בית המקדש is called the "Chosen Home" - בית הבחירה. The foundation of all of these choices was not choosing good from bad but rather the choosing of the essence of good.
[עפ"י דברי מרן הרב חרל"פ זצ"ל]
