BASED ON A CLASS GIVEN ON MOTZA'EI SHABBAT SHOFTIM | SEPTEMBER 10TH, 2005 | IN CROWN HEIGHTS
In the portion of Shoftim, we find one of the most important verses of the entire Torah: "You shall be sincere with Havayah, your God." According to Maimonides, this verse is inclusive of all the commandments of the Torah. Many of the problems that we encounter as individuals and as a society today are rooted in our loss of a sincere and innocent belief in God and the Torah. On the one hand, the modern individual is full of cynicism and contempt for anyone who still seems to hold on to his innocence. On the other hand, the same modern person is finding himself more and more drawn to various forms of witchcraft, magic, alternative remedies, psychic readings, etc., all with the hope of finding some comfort, solace, and security from life's difficulties and infirmities. The first part of this article will explain the connection between sincerity and faith, and the central role that sincerity plays in the psyche. This part will center on how occult rituals attack our sincerity and leave us even more frustrated. The second part will be devoted to a renewed explanation of the definition of sincerity and will center on a special form of proactive sincerity, which allows us to regain feelings of trust and simplicity.
Sincerity and Faith
"You shall be sincere with Havayah, your God" is a particularly important verse because of the Rebbe Rashab’s wish that we all be temimim—individuals who are sincere—which is why he named the Lubavitch Yeshivah: Tomchei Temimim. In his serial Chasidic essay known as, Besha'ah Shehikdimu, he explains the inclusiveness of sincerity. Not only is it the experiential aspect of the sefirah of acknowledgment/thanksgiving (hod), it is the inner core of all the sefirot together, from crown down to kingdom.
The first thing that a Jew says when waking up in the morning is: “I thank You, living and eternal King, that You have returned my soul into my body with compassion; Your faithfulness is great.” What these first words recited every day reveal to us is that acknowledgment/thanksgiving is the product of super-rational faith. In Kabbalistic terminology we would say that acknowledgment—the sefirah of hod—is in its essence super-rational and connects us with that which is beyond our conscious life. And, in the language of Chassidut: the source of temimut, acknowledgment’s psychological experience, lies in faith (emunah), the highest aspect of the crown (the consciously manifest form of the internal aspect of the partzuf of Atik). Thus, of all the attributes of the heart, it is specifically acknowledgment that picks up and brings into our consciousness our simple faith in the Almighty.
Temimut can be translated to English in three different ways: 1) sincerity, 2) simplicity, or 3) completeness. In Yiddish it is usually translated as ehrenskeit, which is similar to the English "earnestness," meaning "sincerity." The Rebbe Rashab states that temimut it is the most fundamental of all human attributes, and if a person does not have it naturally it is the hardest attribute to acquire. We might say that temimut is the essence of holistic Judaism. What is meant by "holistic" is that three things in Judaism must be whole: the Torah, the people of Israel, and the Land of Israel, as stressed many times by the Lubavitcher Rebbe. If any letter of a Torah scroll is missing or defective, then the whole scroll is defective and cannot be used to read from. Likewise, if any Jew is still unaware of his connection to the Jewish people, then we are incomplete as a nation. And, if any part of the Land of Israel is missing, then the entire earth is lacking and there is no way to achieve peace and harmony for all.
Rashi’s Earnestness
Many works of Chassidut note that Rashi's commentary on this verse is unique among his commentaries on the Torah. It can certainly be described as the gem of his entire commentary on the Pentateuch. He writes:
Walk with Him with temimut; always look for Him and await Him; do not investigate or think about the future; accept everything that He does with temimut; and then you will be with Him and a part of His portion in the world.
Rashi's commentary naturally divides into five parts, which correspond both to the five worlds from Primordial Man to Action and, in a beautiful example of self-reference, to the five words of the verse itself, as follows:
| letter of Havayah | sefirah | word in verse | Rashi's commentary | |
| tip of yud | crown | תָּמִים | Sincere | Walk with Him with sincerity |
| yud | wisdom | תִּהְיֶה | you shall be | always look for Him and await Him |
| hei | understanding | עִם | with | do not investigate or think about the future |
| vav | loving-kindness thru foundation | 'הוי | Havayah | accept everything that He does with simplicity |
| hei | kingdom | אֱלֹקֶיךָ | your God | and then you will be with Him and a part of His portion in the world |
Let us say a few words about this correspondence:
Walking with God is a clear example of the consciousness associated with Primordial Man (Adam Kadmon, in Hebrew), which corresponds to the crown. This was the particular consciousness that God guided Abraham in attaining by means of the commandment of circumcision, as He said to Abraham, “Walk before me and be sincere,”[1] which literally refers to walking before God after having been circumcised. It serves to awaken our simple faith in God, the quality of faith of the World of Primordial Man.
“Look for Him and await Him” corresponds to the quality of anticipation that comes from the World of Emanation. The World of Emanation corresponds to the sefirah of wisdom whose Hebrew name (חָכְמָה) is a permutation of the letters of the word “he is waiting” (מְחַכֶּה). This awaiting specifically refers to the anticipation that one experiences when waiting to see God’s Divine Providence at work, especially in the form of personal Providence.
The middle part of Rashi's commentary, “do not investigate or think about the future,” includes the most literal and direct interpretation of this verse’s meaning. It is with this part that we will be mostly concerned in this article.
In Judaism, thoughts of the future ultimately culminate with thoughts about the World to Come. In the Zohar, the World to Come is associated with the sefirah of understanding and the mother principle; as if to say that our current perspective on reality is limited like a fetus in its mother’s womb, and in the World to Come we will gain the mother’s perspective, as it were. In Hebrew, the word "with" or "together" (עַם) is the outer manifestation of the word "mother" (אֵם).
The fourth part of Rashi’s comment relates to the state of our existence, which is like a point in space. At times we feel that our lives lie comfortably in the middle and at times we feel that we are either at or approaching an extreme. The three dimensions of space, which altogether have six extremities, correspond to the six emotional sefirot from loving-kindness to foundation. The power of temimut mentioned in the fourth part of Rashi’s commentary gives us the ability to meet life’s extremes, its ups and downs, with simple and sincere faith that all is good, even though our limited human perspective cannot always see it. In the 11th epistle of the Tanya, the Alter Rebbe explains that if a person believes that even those things that seem negative are really for the best, they will be transformed so that their good becomes visible.
[A well-known story illustrates the power of this idea: the Lubavitcher Rebbe's father, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak, was sick with Typhus and was hospitalized in a closed ward with other victims of the disease, from which it was not expected that they recover. Day after day, a friend of his came and shouted from outside the hospital ward the contents of the Tanya’s 11th epistle. After a few weeks, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak miraculously emerged healthy from the hospital. He then related that every time he heard the 11th epistle being read, he felt a little bit better until, eventually, he overcame the typhus.]
The fifth and final part of Rashi's commentary on the verse, “and then you will be with Him and part of His portion in the world” expresses the same idea as matrimony between a man and a woman, where the man belongs to his wife, and the woman belongs to her husband. Temimut—sincerity and simplicity—are thus the key ingredients in creating a bi-directional relationship with the Almighty. Becoming a “part of His portion,” is like a woman whose property is included within that of her spouse’s.
The Jewish Antidote to Magic and Sorcery
Let us return to the middle and central part of Rashi's commentary: "do not investigate or think about the future." The wider context of this statement, as well as the wider context of the complete verse we are surveying is that it serves as a concluding statement for a series of prohibitions against performing the pagan practices categorized as Darchei Emori, the customs or ways of the Emorites. The early pagan inhabitants of the Land of Caanan (before it was conquered by the Israelites) practiced abominable rites of sorcery, magic, and witchcraft. The basic tenet of the Chasidic way of studying Torah is that every statement in the Torah is relevant to every person, in all states of being and at all times. Though many of us are under the impression that idolatry and superstitions no longer have a following in the world and that therefore we are all automatically “sincere with God,” this is unfortunately not the case and, in fact, these prohibitions are still very much necessary in today’s world.
According to Rashi, our verse explains that the unifying principle behind all of these pagan rituals of magic and witchcraft was the attempt to reveal the future and seek protection from the unknown. To be sincere and to walk simply and earnestly with God, the Torah not only forbids us from practicing these pagan rituals and customs, but also forbids us from adopting the conscious mind-space of those who are wary of the future and seek protection from the unknown. Thus, the first antidote to sorcery and magic is complete refusal to enter into the mind-space of those who practice it. As the Sages say, they cannot affect those who do not believe, or fear them.
We can now see how this verse actually summarizes the content and moral attitude of the entire Torah. The verse also means that “in order to be tamim”—in order to be sincere, simple, and whole—you must be "with Havayah, your God." God's Name Havayah, is the "Name of mercy," the Name of God's attribute of mercy. "Your God," which is a translation of another of God's Names, Elokim, is the Name of God's severe judgment. In order to be sincere and simple, one must believe that even Elokim, even God's apparent severe and harsh decrees are included within His Name Havayah, within His attribute of mercy. Mercy is the overriding manner in which God rules and guides the world. Indeed, the essential statement of Jewish faith, the Shema, relates this same idea: “Hear O’ Israel, Havayah is our God, HaIvayah is one.” In other words, Havayah alone is God (Elokim).
Why is it that the Jewish people do not need the sorcery, witchcraft, and divination of the gentile nations? The next verse in the Torah answers this question. God promises that in every generation there will be a prophet like Moses: “God will elevate a prophet, like me, who is of your brethren; to him you shall listen.”[2] [In passing, let us note that this verse is one of only three verses in the Five Books of Moses that begins and ends with the letter nun (נ), thus alluding to the fiftieth gate of understanding that Moses acquired at the end of his life and from which his inheritors’ prophecy emanates in each generation.] The Tikkunei Zohar calls this prophet who is like Moses, “the extension of Moses in every generation.” Because the Jewish people always have a prophet who is Moses' extension, they do not need to seek out diviners like the non-Jews.
Every parashah in the Torah is traditionally divided into seven parts, whose content reflects, in order, aspects of each of the seven sefirot from loving-kindness to kingdom. The verse, “You shall be sincere with Havayah your God,” is the concluding verse of the fourth part of the parashah meaning that it reflects an aspect of the sefirah of victory (netzach). We will return later to examine this seeming intertwining of sincerity (the inner experience of acknowledgment) with victory. For now let us merely say that this inter-inclusion of acknowledgment within victory indicates that there is a proactive form of sincerity. The verse promising that there will always be a “Moses” in the generation is situated in the fifth part of the parashah, so it reflects an aspect of acknowledgment. The Zohar indeed identifies the main source of the prophetic experience in the sefirot of victory and acknowledgment.
Maimonides’ Earnestness
Many people think that prophecy is just another form of magic or sorcery. This is of course not true. To highlight the difference between prophecy—the highest form of intellectual achievement—and forbidden magical practices Maimonides’ writes that a wise, intelligent Jew knows that all the magical practices of the nations are superstitious nonsense and are of no utility. Thus, according to Maimonides, a person who is earnest and sincere with God is one who has no use for superstitious mumbo-jumbo. Such a person will always know how to tell the difference between what is nonsense and what is real. Said another way, for Maimonides, sincerity (temimut) has a clearly proactive aspect: being wise and knowing what is and what is not real. Thus, accordingly, sincerity is not dependent on the presence of a prophet. Maimonides’ answer to the question of why Jews do not need sorcery and the like is not because we have prophets, but because magic and the related concepts are simply superstitious nonsense that no rational person would believe in. Elsewhere, we explained that from Rashi’s commentary it is impossible to know if magic and sorcery are mere superstitious nonsense or whether they actually work. Rashi simply states that for a Jew they are forbidden practices.
Superstition as Habit
This discussion brings us to an important question (especially according to Maimonides): What exactly are superstitions? The most general way of defining a “superstition” and understanding the use that people have for it in their lives is that a superstition is a “bad habit” that a person has adopted. Rashi describes a superstition as a “bad omen,” meaning that a particular event, call it X, happens and the superstitious person immediately assumes that something else, call it Y, will also happen. These are chains of cause and effect that seek to “reveal the future” before it has happened. They are an abomination of the natural human tendency to seek order in reality.
In fact, in its early stages of development, it is hard to tell science, which is supposed to reveal real physical laws of the universe, apart from magic and sorcery, which seek to find “order” by introducing the existence of extraneous forces or powers that contradict the healthy, logical attitude of a “sincere” person, as per Maimonides’ definition. Furthermore, when science attempts to be all-inclusive, it falls into a sacrilegious abyss that has led many people to lose touch with the Almighty and to exchange the simple and sincere understanding that everything that happens is in the end unified under God’s will, with the “sophisticated” idea that nature is void of Divinity. Thus, we see that Maimonides’ definition of sincerity is very complex. On the one hand it means having an inquisitive and logical mind. On the other hand, it goes hand in hand with a deep belief that everything that comes to pass has its direct origin in the Creator.
Returning to our definition for superstitions, we see that we all carry superstitions at some level, which is why the prohibition against the ways of the Emorites and the Torah’s demand that we be sincere with the Almighty are still very much relevant even in the modern world.
Essentially, superstitions are the applied version of incorrect associations that we make. Our ability to associate two things, whether it be in the manner of cause and effect—X causes Y—or by finding other relationships between X and Y, depends on our powers of imagination (כֹּחַ הַמְּדַמֶּה, in Hebrew). That is why in some Chasidic works, especially those of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, incorrect associations and correspondences are identified with the evil inclination itself. When a person’s associations and correspondences are false, it is a sure sign that his power of imagination is not yet rectified and under the influence of his evil inclination. Accordingly, it is only God’s prophets whose powers of imagination and association are a hundred percent rectified.
One example that we have of rectified omens, i.e., relationships of cause and effect that are permitted and rectified, can be found in the laws of Family Purity. According to halachah, there are certain “omens,” physical premonitions, by which a woman knows that her menstrual cycle is about to begin and that she will shortly be impure to her husband. In practice, this type of Halachically sanctioned premonition is rare today and most women cannot rely on them.
Albeit that there are some correct “omens,” in general associations of this kind are habit-forming and negative. Even performing mitzvot and learning Torah not purely for God's sake can devolve into superstitions. One of the deepest reasons that we have so far failed to break through the exterior level of our lives and bring the Mashiach is that we have been unable to free ourselves from superstitions as such and to truly believe that it is the Almighty alone who is guiding reality. To break through superstitions we need the proactive power of victory. This begins to explain why the commandment to be “sincere with God” appears in the fourth reading of parashat Shoftim, the reading that corresponds with the sefirah of victory.
The Ways of the Emorites
The general name for superstitions and their practice is known in the Talmudic literature as “ways of the Emorites.” That the sages called superstitions “ways” identifies them directly with damage to the sefirot of victory and acknowledgment, which in the human body correspond to the feet. The sefirot of victory and acknowledgment are directly responsible for habituating our actions (together with foundation, they are the habitual powers of the soul). When they are damaged, we have a tendency to take on negative habits. The term “Emorites,” indicates that the superstitions that are most difficult to break free from are those that are part and parcel of the non-Jewish culture within which one is living. The habits, customs, and mannerisms of non-Jewish culture are the result in most cases of superstition. Our inability to live our lives based on purely Jewish, Torah-based culture is what prevents us from inheriting the Land of Israel.
The Partzuf of Defiled Victory and Acknowledgment
In all, the Torah enumerates 9 different types of such forbidden practices:
There shall not be found among you (1) anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, (2) one who uses divination, (3) one who practices witchcraft, or (4) one who interprets omens, or (5) a sorcerer. Or (6) one who casts a spell on animals, or (7) a medium, or (8) a spiritist, or (9) one who calls upon the dead. Rashi divides the practice of witchcraft (מְעוֹנֵן) into two types, making the final tally 10 forbidden practices.
Let us present these forbidden practices in the form of a partzuf, corresponding each of the different superstitions listed in the Torah to a sefirah. As is the case oftentimes, the order in which these practices are listed in the Torah is the order of the sefirot from bottom-up (almost exactly, with understanding preceding knowledge). Since all these superstitions are a corruption of the sefirot of victory and acknowledgment, we may identify the sefirot in this partzuf as the defiled aspects of victory and acknowledgment.
| understanding בִּינָה
spiritist וְשֹׁאֵל אוֹב |
wisdom חָכְמָה
calling the dead וְדֹרֵשׁ אֶל הַמֵּתִים |
|
knowledge דַּעַת a medium וְיִדְּענִי |
|
| might גְּבוּרָה
sorcery וּמְכַשֵּׁף |
loving-kindness חֶסֶד
animal hypnotism וְחֹבֵר חָבֶר |
|
beauty תִּפְאֶרֶת interpreting omens וּמְנַחֵשׁ |
|
| thanksgiving הוֹד
witchcraft מְעוֹנֵן |
victory נֶצַח
witchcraft מְעוֹנֵן |
|
foundation יְסוֹד divination קֹסֵם קְסָמִים |
|
|
kingdom מַלְכוּת passing children thru fire מַעֲבִיר בְּנוֹ וּבִתּוֹ בָּאֵשׁ |
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The Image of the Tree
At the end of the Torah portion of Shoftim, the Torah describes the dynamics of the laws of battle. If a siege is placed on a city in the Land of Israel in order to conquer it, the Torah forbids us to destroy its fruit trees. To support this prohibition, the Torah explains (Deuteronomy 20:19): "Man is likened to the tree of the field." In the Torah (Genesis 1:26) we learn that God created man in His image (tzelem). Significantly, the numerical value of the Hebrew word eitz ("tree") is 160, identical to the numerical value of tzelem. The tree of the field is the image of man created in God's image.
Knowledge and the Nervous System
The numerical value of the Hebrew expression eitz hasadeh ("the tree of the field") is 160 (eitz) plus 314 (hasadeh), which equals 474. 474 is the numerical value of da'at ("knowledge"). Da'at is the most central and all inclusive of the sefirot. It is knowledge or consciousness, an all-inclusive state of the soul that unites intelligence and emotion. The power of da'at creates unity within the mind, but its ultimate purpose is to unite all the mental and emotive faculties of the soul.
In Kabbalah and Chassidut, we learn that every physiological system corresponds to a supernal sefirah. The sefirah of da'at corresponds to the nervous system. More than any other physiological system, the nervous system, which conveys the electrical impulses of knowledge throughout the body, can be envisioned as a tree. The trunk is the spinal column, and the branches are the nerves.
The Energy Field
The word hasadeh ("of the field"), spelled hei, shin, dalet, hei, shares two letters, shin and dalet with God's Name, Shakai (shin, dalet, yud). The remaining two letters of hasadeh, the two hei's, each equal 5. When they are combined, they equal 10, equal to the remaining letter of Shakai, yud.
God's holy Name, Shakai, represents energy — the power to project force outward. The tree of the field, representing da'at, the nervous system in man, is an energy field.
God's Name, Shakai, also corresponds to the sefirah complementary to da'at — yesod. The sefirah of yesod is the foundation of all the sexual energies of man. In Kabbalah and Chassidut we learn that there is a close interdependence between the proper function of the nervous system and the proper use of our creative energies, as represented by yesod. When we meditate on the tree of the field, we must consider the field to be an energy field, directing our potent, creative yesod energies, by the means of the force field of da'at.
The Key to the Chambers of the Heart
As above, the phrase eitz hasadeh equals da'at, 474. When we divide 474 by the six letters of eitz hasadeh, we see that the average value of each letter is 79. 79 is the numerical value of dei'ah, which shares a root with da'at. Maimonides, in his Code of Jewish Law, devoted an entire section of his work to the laws of dei'ot, "the attributes of the heart." Thus, there are six expressions of dei'ah in da'at. Da'at, consciousness, is the key that opens the six doors to the six chambers of the heart (dei'ot). Each chamber is an attribute of the heart, an emotive characteristic. Eitz hasadeh, the tree of the field, is the key to all of our emotive characteristics.
Serene Pleasure
The word eitz is also equal to the word noam, (nun, ayin, mem), which means "pleasantness" or "sublime pleasure." Thus, the phrase eitz hasadeh, our consciousness (da'at) can also be understood as noam Shakai, the "serene pleasure of the Almighty." We must see man as a tree of the field, whose nervous system directs his creative energies to manifest as Godly serenity.
The Serene Pleasure of Knowing God in all our Ways
The two words of the phrase "noam Shakai" have six letters, three in each word. We will calculate the value of the phrase using a numerical method known as haka'ah pratit, i.e., multiiplying the first letter of the first word by the first letter of the second word, the second letter of the first word by the second letter of the second word, and so on, and then summing the products (this is similar to the dot product in vector algebra). This numerical method allows us to understand deeper implications of the phrase.
| noam (נעם) | Shakai (י-שד) | product |
| nun (נ) = 50 | shin (ש) = 300 | 15000 |
| ayin (ע) = 70 | dalet (ד) = 4 | 280 |
| mem (מ) = 40 | yud (י) = 10 | 400 |
| total | 15680 |
The sum of noam Shakai in haka'ah pratit is thus 15,680 or 10 times 1568, or 10 times 282.
Our sages teach that there is one verse in the Bible that succinctly expresses our service of God as it should be perfected in our consciousness. In Proverbs 3:6 it is written: "In all your ways know Him and He will straighten your paths." (For a deeper understanding of this verse, listen to this audio lecture by Rabbi Ginsburgh)
Integral to this verse is the word da'eihu ("know Him"), from the root of da'at. Our goal must be to know God in all the paths of our lives — whether at war, as in this week's Torah portion, or in times of peace and prosperity — from the summit of the sublime to the monotony of the mundane.
The verse says to know God in all your ways. God's ways are the ways of His commandments. Your ways are all the minute details that weave the fabric of our lives. Whether at work, while eating or even while we sleep, we must know God and be conscious of His presence in our lives and in our every action. If we do so, God promises that He will then straighten all our paths.
The Seven Paths
The numerical value of the verse: "In all your ways know Him and He will straighten your paths" is 1568, or 2 times 282. Thus, the value of "noam Shakai" in haka'ah pratit is ten times the value of this verse. This verse expresses the experience of knowing God in every facet of our lives with all the ten powers of our souls.
If we divide 1568 by 7 we get 224, the numerical value of "path" (דרך). In Kabbalah and Chassidut it is explained that there are 7 paths in which each soul root can properly serve God. The verse "In all your ways, know Him, and He will straighten your paths" encompasses all 7 paths. When we connect to the image of man as a tree of the field, we can direct all of our creative energies to one goal — to know God in all our ways and to spread His consciousness throughout the world
The opening sentence of this week’s Torah portion, Parashat Shoftim, is “You shall place Judges and law enforcers at all of your gates that Havayah, your God gives you to your tribes and they shall judge the people with a just judgment.” Further on in the parashah, we find the verse, “Justice, you shall pursue justice, in order that you live and inherit the land that Havayah, your God gives to you.” Both of these verses allude to the inherent connection between God’s gift of the land and the necessity of enforcing righteous justice. This is also explicit in the verse, “Appoint, you shall appoint upon you a king whom Havayah, your God has chosen for you, from amongst your brethren you shall appoint a king upon you; you will not be able to appoint upon you a foreigner who is not of your brethren.” So, first we have judges and then we have a king and later on in the parashah we find that God will also appoint a prophet, who is also “of your brethren.” Contemplating this parashah, we see that all the official functionaries in the kindgom are described: priests, levites and judges, a prophet, a police force and a king. To these six functions, the Zohar adds the duty of the kingdom’s citizens to testify truthfully in front of the courts. Altogether there are seven different officials who complete the array. As in a musical orchestra that contains different players and instruments, we need a government that is composed of a variety of officials who act together in harmony. The first three, the priest, the levite and the judge, are one unit who represent the sefirot of loving-kindness, might and beauty, respectively. The last four, the prophet, the police officer, the witnesses and finally, the king, represent the sefirot of eternity, acknowledgment, foundation and kingdom, respectively. In order to judge and define who is innocent and who is guilty and to authorize appropriate reward and punishment, one needs to be learned in all the laws of the Torah whose “ways are ways of pleasantness and all its paths are peace.”1 The judge is associated with the sefirah of beauty, which according to the Zohar represents the Torah, to which all of the other categories of officials are subject, including the king. Although we might think that judgment is harsh and corresponds to the sefirah of might, the Zohar teaches2 that true judgment is issued through compassion, the inner motivating force of the sefirah of beauty. From Harav Ginsburgh’s class 2 Elul , 5772
1 Proverbs 17:3. 2 Patach Eliyahu, the introduction to Tikunei Zohar.
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Every year, come the month of Elul, we begin to feel the refreshing breath of teshuvah (return to God) in the air. The New Year is fast approaching, and this is the time to make an accounting of our actions over the past year and to mend our ways. When we delve into our hearts, we find that even if our actions were in accordance with the law, many times our intentions were divorced from God; in other words, we fulfilled our obligations but not out of pure devotion to connecting to God. On Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, we ask God to forgive (סלח), pardon (מחל) and absolve (כפר) us of our sins. The threefold language we use reveals that our relationship with God has three dimensions: He is our Father, He is our King, and He is our Husband.
To truly rectify our sins, we must realize where we strayed from our relationship with God. To rectify our father/son relationship with God, we must strive to treat Him and His commandments with honor and respect—just as we are commanded to respect our parents; then God forgives us. To rectify our king/servant relationship with God, we must obediently obey His commandments, meaning that we should strive to perform the commandments out of a sense of true duty to the Almighty, and not for ulterior motives (such as preventing punishment, or seeking reward). Then God pardons us. To rectify our husband/wife relationship with God, we must seek to become sensitive to the Divinity that resides in the world—“God is all and all is God”—and by relating to everything in life as a containing the Divine Presence.
Mind over heart
Shoftim is the 48th parashah of the Pentateuch. The number 48 is the numerical value of the word “mind” which immediately associates us with the ,)מֹח (phrase in the Zohar, “The mind rules over the heart” which in the classic text of ,) בל ל ה יט ע ל מֹח ש (Chassidut, the Tanya forms one of the most profound and fundamental tenets of our service of God. Of the different officials who are enumerated in our parashah, the foremost, mentioned in the opening verse of the parashah, is the judge who represents the lucid mind of Torah study and sanctity. The heart of the nation is represented by the king, who is completely subject to the rulings of the Torah scholars. This is true to such an extent that in certain cases, the judges are referred to as “God” ( ֹיםה אֿל ), because the ability to judge is one of the principal attributes of God, as the verse states, “For God judges; this [individual] He deposes and this one He elevates” (Psalms 74:8). In contrast, the king is referred to as a “prince” (נשיא) and being mortal, he is liable to sin as the verse states, “When a prince sins” (Leviticus4:22). In fact, one of the reasons why the Torah limits the king’s number of wives and horses is, “so that his heart shall not become haughty,” relating in particular to the heart’s proclivity to sin. This is why the king’s special commandment is to carry a Torah scroll against his heart so that the Torah, his judge and his rational mind, will rule over his heart and he won’t become arrogant over his brethren. Obviously, the king needs to be subject to “God,” represented here by the judges. Nonetheless, the king has special privileges that no other Jew has, even the judges. This comes to reveal, as Chassidut innovates, that although the Torah’s rulings must be absolutely abided to even by the king, the heart of the nation, there is a more profound level at which “the innermost point of the heart rules over the mind.” The king in particular bears the paradox of conveying an outer casing of sovereignty, while nurturing an inner sense of profound lowliness and humility. Whereas by studying the Torah’s laws, one can reach a level of knowing the entire Torah, the innermost point of the king’s humility is infinite, “The heart of kings is unfathomable” (Proverbs 25:3). Thus, the king’s external demeanor is subject to the rulings and teachings of the judges, but his innermost core of humility actually rises above their level and rules over them. Within our personal Divine service, this level is that of a completely righteous individual who has refined himself to such an extent that he naturally acts accurately according to the Torah’s principles without having to deduce them rationally from his Torah knowledge. From Harav Ginsburgh’s class, 2 Elul, 5772
Elul equals 67 and so does "understanding" (בינה). Elul, the final month of the year, is the time to understand the past year’s events. In Elul one is inspired with a new understanding of how to rectify the past and create a new and better future. The first step to understanding is dedicated introspection in search of the true motivations behind all of our efforts. The true will and motivating power of a Jew is always good. In Kabbalah rectification begins by the power of will becoming conscious of its own positive inner motivation. Once we understand that our motivations are positive ones, we can begin to actualize our deepest positive desires in practice. Our good will is God-given; actualizing it is the ultimate return to God Wholehearted return to God heals one’s soul and body: "… his heart shall understand and he shall return and be healed" (Isaiah 6:10).
[1]. Genesis 17:1.
[2]. Deuteronomy 18:15.
