Friday night of Parashat Ki Tavo, the night of 15 Elul
The Ramban, in his commentary on Parashat Ki Teitzei (on the section of the bird's nest), after citing the Rambam's view on the reasons for the mitzvot, writes: "But these aggadot that were difficult for the Rav, in my opinion, all have one intent: to say that the benefit of the mitzvot is not for the Holy One, Blessed be He, Himself, but for man himself—to prevent him from harm or false belief, or to remember the miracles and wonders of the Creator, and to know God, and this is to refine them, like refined silver... And likewise, the mitzvot come to remove from our hearts every false belief and to inform us of the truth and to remember it always. And the language of this aggadah itself is mentioned in Yelamdenu on Parashat Zot HaChayah: 'And what does it matter to the Holy One, Blessed be He, whether one slaughters an animal and eats or strangles and eats? Do you benefit Him or harm Him?... If you are wise, you are wise for yourself. The mitzvot were given only to refine the creatures.' Behold, it is explicit here that they did not come to say anything other than that there is no benefit to Him, may He be blessed, as if He needs the light of the menorah or needs to eat the sacrifices and smell the incense, as it appears from their plain meaning." Later, the Ramban brings a Yerushalmi that even the lulav, sukkah, and tefillin are not for the honor of the Holy One, Blessed be He, but to have mercy on our souls—the intention in all of them is for our good and not for Him, may He be blessed.
Here we have a great foundation in all the mitzvot and in all our service: everything is directed toward the perfection of man. According to this foundation, we must contemplate the two mitzvot of today's parashah—what is their meaning: the recitation of Parashat HaBikkurim and Vidui Ma'aser. On these two mitzvot, wonderful things are found in Sefer HaChinuch, based on the Ramban's foundation above. Thus he writes in mitzvah 91 (on the recitation of Parashat HaBikkurim): "Because man arouses his thoughts and depicts truth in his heart through the power of the words of his mouth, therefore when God, blessed be He, does good to him and blesses him and his land to produce fruits, and he merits to bring them to the house of our God, it is fitting for him to arouse his heart and think that everything came to him from the Master of the world."
And on Vidui Ma'aser he writes in mitzvah 91: "Because the special quality of man and his great praise is speech, in which he surpasses all other creatures... And therefore many people fear invalidating their speech—which is their great glory—more than sinning in action. And since the matter of tithes and terumot is great, and the livelihood of those who serve God depends on them, out of His kindness to us so that we not sin in them—He warned us regarding them to separate them..."
We have learned great things from here—both regarding the special quality of the power of speech itself, and its influence on man! Awakening to thought and depictions of truth in the heart come through the power of speech! Every speech of a mitzvah adds to man a measure of perfection—this is the matter of the mitzvah of reciting Parashat HaBikkurim.
Until now we learned that the power of speech is the connection, and through it the Shechinah dwells—from now we see that speech acts on man himself and brings him to perfection. In this vein, regarding Keriat Shema, prayer, and blessings, the halachah is that thought is not like speech, and if a person recites Shema or a blessing in his heart, he has not fulfilled it and must repeat it verbally. The sefarim ha-kedoshim write on this that the soul is holy and does not need rectification for itself through mitzvot, but the body needs rectification, and holiness must be drawn to it through speech and active mitzvot. Thought does not make an impression on the body; therefore thought is not like speech regarding prayers and blessings—they must be said aloud.
With this we can explain the Gemara in Sanhedrin 106b: "Rabbi Ami said: The Torah of Doeg was only from the lips and outward." The question is piercing: Doeg was very great in Torah, head of the Sanhedrin, yet he remained wicked until they applied to him the verse "But to the wicked God says: What right have you to recite My laws...?" They answered that his Torah was from the lips and outward—the words did not make an impression on his heart. This is exactly what we learned from the Chinuch above: from speech in words of Torah, depictions of truth must be formed in the heart, and apparently man must intend this—that his Torah be "from the lips and inward!" This does not happen automatically; if it happened automatically, certainly Doeg's words of Torah would have influenced him automatically. Rather, it does not happen automatically—the impression is not made on the heart.
From here we stand on the innovation of our master the Gaon Rabbi Yisrael Salanter, of blessed memory, in the study of mussar. There is no dispute about the very life of studying mussar; the great ones of all generations wrote about it, as explained in Or Yisrael, Sha'arei Or there. Rabbi Yisrael's entire innovation was the method of study—specifically aloud, "with burning lips," "with feeling of the soul and storm of spirit," not mere silent reading. Reading mussar books does not make an impression on the heart—only study aloud does. Whoever intends in mussar study is creating impressions in the heart, as Rabbi Yisrael wrote in letter 10 in Or Yisrael: "Let not a man's heart fall when he studies mussar and is not moved and no impression is made on his soul to change his ways—know faithfully that even if the impression is not revealed to the physical eye, the eyes of the intellect see: with the passage of time, with abundant study, from the accumulation of hidden impressions, a person will be transformed, his desire will be restrained from bursting forth greatly, and sometimes nullified. Experience testifies that with a light glance at one who studies mussar a little... he rises far above his peers in his thoughts and all his conduct."
If the power of speech perfects man and acts on his bodily powers to receive impressions of truth—what wonder is it that the power of silence is also considered by Chazal as part of bodily perfection! Thus Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel said in Avot chapter 1: "All my days I grew up among the Sages, and I found nothing better for the body than silence"—all that Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel learned from the Sages of his generation taught him mainly this principle: the work is to perfect the body, and the main perfection the body achieves is through silence!
Until now we learned lofty matters in the realm of splendor and the realm of silence, their roots in the higher world and in innerness, and that speech is the chariot for the Shechinah. Today added to us something new: that human perfection—and bodily perfection—are achieved through speech in Torah and prayer—and through silence at the right time. It is clear to every understanding person that both paths are true: both Shechinah and perfection depend on speech and silence!
Shema Yisrael and "Baruch Shem Kevod Malchuto"
When we spoke about the combination between speech and silence in prayer and brought several matters on this, we skipped one topic related to this — that which is taught in Pesachim 56a: "As Resh Lakish said: And Jacob called to his sons and said, Gather together and I will tell you — Jacob sought to reveal to his sons the end [of days], and the Divine Presence departed from him. He said, Heaven forbid, perhaps there is something invalid in my bed, etc. His sons said to him: Shema Yisrael, Hashem our God, Hashem is One. They said: Just as in your heart there is only One, so in our hearts there is only One. At that moment, Jacob opened and said: Baruch Shem Kevod Malchuto Le'Olam Va'ed. The Rabbis said: What shall we do? If we say it — Moshe our teacher did not say it. If we do not say it — Jacob said it. They instituted that it be said quietly. And some say in the school of Rabbi Asi: It is like a king's daughter who smelled the scent of a stew pot. If she says [she wants it], it is a disgrace to her; if she does not say, it is suffering for her — her servants began to bring it to her quietly."
Two great figures of the world explain this passage, each in his own way, and at first glance their words are completely distant from each other, but we will see how both are the words of the living God. However, first we will learn the simple plain meaning of this passage.
We have a commandment to unify the Holy One, Blessed be He. In this commandment there are two levels. Just as we have ascents and descents, so does all creation have ascents and descents. We in our current state perceive creation as physical and as "nature," and the physicality and nature conceal the Creator. In a higher state, such as the state of the Garden of Eden before Adam's sin, creation was not physical like today, and the Creator's conduct was not hidden from what we call "nature" today, and perhaps there are even higher states; behold, we have seen that the Seraphim say "The whole earth is full of His glory," meaning they see nothing here that separates from the Creator, not body nor matter, not nature nor inclination, only His glory, blessed be He, truly "There is none besides Him." This is the unification of Shema Yisrael, Hashem is One. "One" is not as people think, to say that the Holy One, Blessed be He, is one and there are not two, but that nothing exists besides Him, for His Name is exalted alone, and all created beings are merely garments for His glory, blessed be He. This is a very exalted unification. We know this truth and believe in it, but we do not have sensory faith in it, because for us there is an existence of body, physicality, nature, inclination, and action. When we do something, immediately we feel "My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth." When a sick person takes medicine and recovers, he is certain that the medicine helped him recover. Therefore, in our state, we must unify His unity, blessed be He, in this way: Indeed, there are body, nature, action, and inclination, but the Holy One, Blessed be He, is the Lord over them, and no action succeeds without His help, and nature does not act without His will, and the body does not live without His influence, and the inclination is not permitted to desire without the Torah of the Holy One, Blessed be He! This is our "unification"; it is what we intend in "Baruch Shem Kevod Malchuto Le'Olam Va'ed." And we will explain the meaning of the words: "Baruch" — May it be Your will that recognition increase — it is "Shem" — our [recognition] in "Kevod Malchuto," forever and ever, that we always be in a state of this recognition. In this, we express our desire to recognize the Creator within the body and nature, actions and inclination.
Why do we say this unification quietly? Our Sages said "like a king's daughter who smelled the scent of a stew pot." This matter is explained by the Gra"ch in Nefesh HaChaim, Gate 3, Chapter 11 in the gloss, and the Maharal in Netiv HaAvodah, Chapter 7. The words of these two great figures of the world, of blessed memory, will be understood based on our introduction to the upper unification of Shema Yisrael Hashem is One and the lower unification of Baruch Shem Kevod Malchuto Le'Olam Va'ed.
The Gra"ch writes: "And at first glance, their parable is wondrous, for is it not a great praise? And according to the simple meaning, one can say that according to the truth, it is not praise at all. Is it considered praise for a flesh-and-blood king to say that he is king over myriads of ants and mosquitoes, and they accept upon themselves the yoke of his kingship willingly? How much more so and a fortiori, there is no comparison at all that He, blessed be He, whose holiness and the power of His absolute unity have no equal, and all the worlds are considered as nothing before Him, certainly it is not praise at all that we praise Him, blessed be He, that He is blessed and glorified in the glory of His kingship over created worlds that are all lowly and considered as nothing before Him at all, only that He, blessed be He, in the place of His greatness, there you find His humility, that He decreed His will to accept it from us as praise. For this, they likened it, of blessed memory, to a stew pot, and they instituted that at least we say it only quietly."
Behold, thus the Holy One, Blessed be He, desired that we unify Him even though in truth this is not praise at all for Him. It is in the way that we say in detail in Musaf for Yom Kippur: "Whose awe is upon the mighty ones of faith, upon the mighty of strength, upon the blended of ice, upon the scattered of pursuit — and Your fear upon them — and I desired praise from lumps of clod, from bones of the valley, from the impoverished of deed, from the destitute of action, and it is Your praise!"
The Maharal explains: "When the tribes were saying Shema Yisrael Hashem our God Hashem is One, it was fitting for Jacob to say Baruch Shem Kevod Malchuto Le'Olam Va'ed after mentioning His Name. For mentioning His Name is not like other mentions of the Name.
For mentioning this Name which is His complete unity, blessed be He, for this is the kingship of heaven, therefore Jacob would say Baruch Shem Kevod Malchuto Le'Olam Va'ed, and this matter is greater than what the tribes said Shema Yisrael etc., and this blessing is fitting only for one who is not physical... And this blessing is fitting for the upper ones who are without body and they are separate, it is fitting for them this blessing, and for Jacob who was one of the holy Patriarchs, particularly for Jacob who was holy as it is written 'And sanctify the Holy One of Jacob.' And therefore in a holy place like the Temple, they also respond with Baruch Shem Kevod Malchuto Le'Olam Va'ed... And behold, we need to accept upon ourselves the kingship of heaven like Jacob who accepted the kingship of heaven in perfection, and therefore they instituted that it be said quietly, for in truth man, from the aspect that he has a separate soul that dwells in the hidden, and the soul which is holy and separate can say Baruch Shem Kevod Malchuto Le'Olam Va'ed, and therefore they instituted to say it quietly like the soul which is holy dwells in secret, but Jacob would say Baruch Shem Kevod Malchuto Le'Olam Va'ed because he was holy in himself [apparently his intention, of blessed memory, is that therefore he said it aloud], therefore it says in the Gemara 'Shall we say it' this is a disgrace, for there is no man who is not holy who is fitting to say Baruch Shem Kevod Malchuto Le'Olam Va'ed, for it is fitting only for one who is completely holy, 'we shall not say it' there is suffering from the aspect of the soul, for there is here an aspect from the power of the soul to say Baruch Shem Kevod Malchuto Le'Olam Va'ed, and therefore they instituted to say it quietly, for from the aspect of the holy separate soul that is in man, there is to say Baruch Shem Kevod Malchuto Le'Olam Va'ed, for from the aspect of the soul man resembles an angel."
The Gra"ch explains the matter of the king's daughter who smelled the stew pot because the Holy One, Blessed be He, wants this praise even though in truth it is not praise at all after all the worlds are not considered before Him at all, but "And I desired praise from lumps of clod and it is Your praise," and therefore we say Baruch Shem Kevod Malchuto Le'Olam Va'ed quietly. The Maharal explains the matter from the aspect of man that in truth we are not worthy to offer this great praise, and only the soul — which is the "king's daughter" — desires to praise the Holy One, Blessed be He, in this, from the aspect of the soul we can truly praise thus that the soul is holy, and they instituted to say it quietly because the soul "dwells in inner chambers" (Berachot 10a). The disgrace is that to say this praise, the body and its actions also needed to be suited to this great recognition, but behold, the body is not suited to this.
The two explanations are very distant from each other. However, here we must remember the essay from yesterday: It was explained to us that the power of speech is on one hand the connecting power, and therefore two who have words of Torah between them, the Divine Presence dwells between them, for there is here a connection between the two and between the Holy One, Blessed be He, and through this the power of speech becomes the chariot for the Divine Presence, meaning the connection that the Holy One, Blessed be He, connects with us, and on the other hand, speech in matters of commandments creates in the heart images of truth and arouses thought, and in this it brings man to perfection. It turns out that speech on one hand connects with the Divine Presence, and on the other hand brings to perfection, and the understanding one will understand that the two matters are connected to each other, and to the extent that there is here progress to perfection — there is here the indwelling of the Divine Presence. We recall in this the words of the Mesilat Yesharim in the first chapter that perfection is cleaving. See there.
After yesterday's essay, it is explained to us as clear as day that the words of the Gra"ch and the Maharal are both the words of the living God. There is no dispute here but completion. Both explain the lower unification of Baruch Shem Kevod Malchuto Le'Olam Va'ed, which is the unification that we must unify Him, blessed be He, from the aspect of our state, that for us there is existence to body, to matter, to nature, and to inclination, but that we need to crown the Holy One, Blessed be He, over them that He, blessed be He, is the Lord over nature and body, over our actions and our inclination. The Gra"ch explains this unification from the aspect of the Holy One, Blessed be He, that from His aspect in truth this is not praise at all, but "And I desired praise from lumps of clod." The Maharal explains the matter from the aspect of man, that this praise requires complete suitability between soul and body, but behold, we are not in that level. And only Jacob our father, peace be upon him, could say it. But ultimately our soul can and also wants to praise the Creator thus, and therefore they instituted to say it, but quietly, for this is hidden service, service of modesty, and in modesty the body can also be influenced and be modest in going until there is suitability between soul and body. Only in the study hall and in the Temple do they say it aloud, for in the time of sanctity of the body and in the holy place, we too are in the aspect of angels. And as said — both are the words of the living God.
"They say before Me kingships so that you crown Me as king over you" — this is our service in the days of judgment and in the days of preparation for the New Year, and we shall know, therefore, what is before us, and what service is incumbent upon us to crown the Holy One, Blessed be He, in the upper unification of "Hashem is One," and in the lower unification to increase our recognition that He, blessed be He, is the Lord over the body and nature, over our actions and our inclination, and after our recognition of this, the body must also be drawn to be in the level of accepting the kingship of heaven in all that we turn, and how great is this service!
