One of the best- known concepts in Judaism is Maimonides 13 Principles of Faith, which originally appear in his commentary on the Mishnah and which are recited daily in many congregations. Many are also familiar with the 13 Principles of Divine Mercy that were revealed to Moses by God to assist in bringing about God’s forgiveness. The Zohar makes a direct link between the two sets of 13.
Less known is the 9 Principles of Divine Mercy found in our parashah of Shelach. These principles were invoked by Moses after the Sin of the Spies, once again to beseech God for forgiveness. In this first installment of a series of articles, we will explore the 9 Principles of Faith that this second set of Principles of Divine Faith allude to and how they constitute a Messianic level of faith that can bring the heavens down to earth.
The contents of this series first appeared in Hebrew, in HaRav Ginsburgh’s book, Emunah VeMuda’ut (Faith and Consciousness). It is being translated here for the first time.
Click here for Part 2 of this series
The Thirteen and Nine Principles of Divine Mercy
Parashat Shelach centers on the episode involving the spies sent to survey the Land of Canaan, their negative report that concluded that it would not be possible to conquer the Land, and its aftermath. Initially, God’s response was that He would strike the Israelites with an epidemic and annihilate them, creating a new nation out of the descendants of Moses. However, Moses invoked the Principles of Divine Mercy he had been taught by God Himself following the Sin of the Golden Calf,[1] which led to God’s forgiveness. Still, all the people above the age of 20 would not be allowed to enter the Land and the Israelites would now be wandering the wilderness for 38 more years.
The Thirteen Principles of Mercy God revealed to Moses in the Book of Exodus are[2]:
Havayah passed by before him [Moses] and proclaimed: “Havayah, Havayah [1] is a benevolent God; [2] compassionate and [3] gracious; [4-5] slow to [demonstrate His] anger [both upon the righteous and upon the wicked]; [6] abounding in kindness [even toward those who do not have enough merits of their own]; [7] and truth [faithfully rewarding those who obey Him]. [8] He preserves [the merit of the] acts of kindness [9] for 2000 generations; [10] He forgives premeditated sins, [11] as well as rebellious sins, and [12] unintentional sins; [13] And He acquits [those who repent]….
At first, it might seem that the Principles of Mercy that Moses invokes after the Sin of the Spies (in our parashah) are identical. However, a careful reading reveals that Moses called only upon a subset of the thirteen Principles of Divine Mercy. He said,
Havayah is [1-2] slow to demonstrate His anger, [3] abounding in kindness, [4] forgiving of premeditated and [5] of rebellious sins, [6] acquitting [those who repent] [7] but not acquitting [those who do not repent], [8] remembers the premeditated sins of the fathers on the children, [9] only up to the third and fourth generation.
Only six of the thirteen principles seem to be explicitly identical.[3] But in fact, Moses adds three principles that were not counted among the thirteen in Exodus. They are: “[7] not acquitting [those who do not repent],” and “[8] remembers the premeditated sins of the fathers on the children, [9] only up to the third and fourth generation.”[4]
Recognizing the second set of Principles of Divine Mercy in our parashah leads us to conclude that altogether, there are 22 such principles, corresponding to the 22 letters of the Hebrew alephbet.
The Thirteen Principles of Faith
In a seemingly unrelated source, Maimonides enumerated 13 Principles of Torah Faith. They are[5]:
- Belief in the existence of the Creator, who is perfect in every manner of existence and is the Primary Cause of all that exists.
- The belief in God’s absolute and unparalleled unity.
- The belief in God’s non-corporeality, nor that He will be affected by any physical occurrences, such as movement, or rest, or dwelling.
- The belief in God’s eternity.
- The imperative to worship G‑d exclusively and no foreign false gods.
- The belief that God communicates with man through prophecy.
- The belief in the primacy of the prophecy of Moses our teacher.
- The belief in the Divine origin of the Torah.
- The belief in the immutability of the Torah.
- The belief in God's omniscience and providence.
- The belief in Divine reward and retribution.
- The belief in the arrival of the Mashiach and the messianic era.
- The belief in the Resurrection of the Dead.
Many have speculated that Maimonides chose the number 13 based on the 13 Principles of Divine Mercy and have even attempted to draw a correspondence between the two sets.[6]
Now that we have seen that parashat Shelach enumerates 9 more Principles of Divine Mercy, we are motivated to seek out 9 additional Principles of Torah Faith, not mentioned by Maimonides.
Division of 22 Into 13 and 9
But first we must understand the meaning of the division of 22 into 13 and 9.
According to the Zohar and the Arizal, the 13 Principles of Mercy are the secret of the the 13 Rectifications of the Beard (tikunei dikna) of Arikh Anpin, called the Long Countenance, while the 9 Principles of Mercy are the secret of the 9 Rectifications of the Beard of Ze'er Anpin, called the Small Countenance.
Now, it is stated in the Zohar[7] that the 13 Rectifications of Arikh Anpin are themselves the 13 Rectifications of Faith and these correspond to the 13 Principles of Faith of the Rambam as mentioned above. The Zohar is stating that the Rectifications of Arikh, which are part of the crown where lie the superconscious faculties of the soul are like principles of faith whose purpose is to act upon the intellect so that we are able to think with a Divine consciousness or rationale. However, these 13 Rectifications are not yet powerful enough to draw Divine light to be revealed below, not just in the intellect, but within the physical reality we inhabit. Thus, Maimonides’ 13 Principles of Faith belong to the revealed (nigleh) dimension of the Torah, and it is they that affect the rectification of the Sin of the Golden Calf (the sin of anthropomorphism and idolatry). Just as the Sin of the Golden Calf anthropomorphized God, substituting Him for an idol, so the overall thrust for rectifying this sin is the removal of all corporeality from God—the central aim of Maimonides’ thought, as is well known.
The 9 Principles of Divine Mercy belong to the concealed (nistar) dimension of the Torah (as revealed in the holy Zohar, the writings of the Arizal, and especially in the teachings of Chasidut), and as such, they affect the rectification of the Sin of the Spies. The Spies sin was to speak ill of the Holyland, of the Land of Israel. They imagined that the abstract God, removed from all physicality, could not contend with the physicality He Himself created; as they claimed, “for it [the inhabitants of the Land] are stronger than Him.”[8]
The overall thrust needed to rectify the Sin of the Spies is the infusion of Divinity into the reality’s physical dimension, sometimes referred to as “drawing the infinite into the finite,” or “to make for Him a dwelling place in the lower realms.” This rectification is more internal and hidden than the first, for what is required here is a union of opposites, a state of paradox that can carry both the infinite and the finite (abstraction and corporeality) as one. It is well known[9] that the essence of the Torah’s concealed dimension is to teach and instruct us about attaining states that unify opposites.
The Nine Principles of Faith of the Torah’s Inner Dimension
Let us now present the Nine Principles of Faith of the Torah’s inner dimension whose purpose is to infuse the Divine into reality’s physical dimension following the principle that opposites can be united. These nine principles are gathered from the Kabbalistic and Chasidic teachings. Since these principles correspond to the nine chambers in Ze’er Anpin, they can be ordered more simply in correspondence to the sefirot from wisdom (chochmah) to kingdom (malchut), as follows:
- Wisdom: A new understanding of Torah will go forth from Me.
- Understanding: Human service is needed by God.
- Loving-kindness: Creation is continually being renewed and personal Divine Providence.
- Might: Every descent is for the purpose of a subsequent ascent, even sin.
- Beauty: God desires having a dwelling place in mundane reality.
- Victory: The tzaddik makes a decree and the Almighty fulfills it.
- Acknowledgment: the Almighty makes a decree and the tzaddik annuls it.
- Foundation: All your people are tzaddikim (righteous).
- Kingdom: The Land of Israel and the Jewish body are sanctified.
Over the next few weeks, we will explain each of these principles in greater depth, beginning with the first.
Wisdom: "A New Understanding of Torah Will Go Forth from Me"
The first principle of the Torah’s inner dimension relates to the Torah itself, to Divine wisdom. Like all principles of faith, this one pervades much of the Kabbalistic and Chasidic literature, but there are strong echoes of it in the literature of the Torah’s revealed dimension as well. Still, despite having many sources, the most explicit and well-known source is also the one that has probably been studied and commented upon the most. It appears in the midrash on the verses regarding the kosher and non-kosher animal species in parashat Shemini in the Book of Vayikra (Leviticus). It reads:
“These are the animals [you may eat…].”[10]
Rabbi Yudan ben Rabbi Shimon said: The Behemoth and the Leviathan will engage in an animal fight before the righteous in the future. Anyone who was not a spectator at the animal fights of the nations of the world in this world, will merit to see it in the World to Come.
How will they be slaughtered? The Behemoth gores the Leviathan with its horns and rends it, and the Leviathan strikes the Behemoth with its fins and slaughters it.
The Sages ask: Is this a valid ritual slaughter? Did we not learn: “Everyone slaughters, and one may always slaughter, and one may slaughter with any item, except for the harvest sickle, a saw, the teeth of an animal, and a fingernail, because they strangle”?
Rabbi Avin bar Kahana said: The Holy Blessed One said: “Torah will go forth from Me”[11] (תּוֹרָה מֵאִתִּי תֵּצֵא)—a renewal of Torah [ruling] will emerge from Me[12] (חִדּוּשׁ תּוֹרָה מֵאִתִּי יֵצֵא).
Technically, this interpretation of the prophet’s words is meant to resolve the difficulty of how the Leviathan will slaughter the Behemoth (the wild ox)[13] for the feast of the righteous in the future using a form of slaughter that is not valid under current law.
However, the implications are wider. Elsewhere, the Sages state[14] that the Torah of this world, meaning the depth to which our wisdom can reach in understanding the Torah is like vapor in comparison to the new and deeper understanding of Torah that will be revealed by the Mashiach. In the language of Kabbalah,[15] the Torah of this world is meant for the World of Creation—for states of consciousness where one remains separate or distanced from the Creator. The Torah, in its present understanding strives to rectifies the World of Creation, a world of possessions, of conflict, and sin. However, the wisdom of the Torah that will be taught by the Mashiach is known as the Torah of Emanation. In the World of Emanation (Atzilut), consciousness is nullified to God alone and there is no experience of a separate self, so the interpretation of the Torah the Mashiach will teach us will be an expression of God’s inner world, as it were, revealing God’s true oneness within all of creation. According to the Torah of Emanation, Atzilut, the Leviathan's slaughter of the Behemoth using its fin will be considered kosher, as will be explained.
This principle corresponds to (meaning it adds onto) Maimonides’ ninth Principle of Faith in the immutability of Torah, which means in plain language that the Torah we have shall not be replaced, nor shall there be another Torah from the Creator.
What a Veteran Scholar Is Destined to Innovate
The new and deeper wisdom of Torah that will be revealed in the future by the Mashiach and subsequently in the World to Come is in essence the inner core of the Torah that was revealed to Moses at Sinai. The Torah’s revealed dimension, as it was revealed at Sinai, is the most appropriate expression of that great and infinite revelation that is the Torah’s soul for us, limited beings within Creation. The Torah’s soul and essence itself will be revealed in the future with the so-called New (understanding of) Torah taught by the Mashiach.
The sages hint to this continuity with the statement that, “All that a veteran scholar[16] is destined to innovate [in Torah] was already said to Moses at Sinai,”[17] yet the innovation is a truly novel revelation. When the innovation reveals a new and meaningful insight into Torah, which then illuminates our reality that is low and dark in terms of Divine light, it is considered absolutely new even though, paradoxically, it was already revealed to Moses at Sinai.
New Dimensions
In every generation there is a Moses. This is known in Kabbalah as “the extension of Moses into every generation.”[18] This extension of Moses into every generation receives and reveals new dimensions of Torah. This will be particularly true with the coming of the Mashiach. About Moses it says, “he [Moses] is the first redeemer, and he is the final redeemer.”[19] Thus, when Mashiach will come, the essential nature of a “new Torah” will be revealed, even more so than in previous generations.
It is stated in the Zohar that, "Torah emerges from wisdom.”[20] The Torah of this world emerges from the exterior facet of the sefirah of wisdom (which unites with the Mother Principle that sits upon the Throne, the secret of the Torah of the World of Creation, described as “the low-hanging wisdom from above is Torah”[21]). But the Torah of the future emerges from the interior facet of the sefirah of wisdom (which illuminates only within the world of Atzilut— “Abba dwells in Atzilut”[22]—the secret of the Torah of Atzilut), relating to the statement that the interior facet of Abba is the interior facet of Atik.”[23] The exterior facet of wisdom and its revealed dimension represent the capacity to grasp a matter and understand and process it in order to bring it to practical application. But wisdom’s interior facet is precisely the capacity to be completely open, without any obstructing self-consciousness, and to receive the light that glimmers above our limited consciousness. This receptive openness is called self-nullification (or bitul).
Thus, a true “innovation of Torah” or “renewal of Torah” can only come from genuine self-nullification before the Divine light of the world, which is the source of both the Torah and its innovations. When one attempts to innovate a new understanding in Torah without a deep and genuine bitul to God, the Creator of the world and the Giver of the Torah to His people Israel, the source of the innovation flows from the person’s own soul in its disconnected state from its source and from the Creator. Subsequently, the innovation produced is false, bearing no connection to the true Torah—God’s Torah.
The distinction between wisdom’s interior and exterior facets will help us unpack the midrash’s strange image of a battle between animals for the entertainment of spectators. The Leviathan is an ocean creature that will eventually meet its demise.[24] The ocean and its creatures represent the concealed dimension of reality and of the Torah. The Behemoth is a great land creature, and dry land represents the revealed dimension of reality and of the Torah. In the concealed dimension, everything is nullified to the Divine, in the revealed dimension, we find that everything has a consciousness that is separate from the Creator. Thus, the Leviathan symbolizes the sages who are masters of the Torah’s concealed dimension and the Behemoth symbolizes the sages who are masters of the revealed dimension. From its perspective, the Leviathan’s intent is to bring about true self-nullification before the Divine, even in the Behemoth, even in the revealed dimension of Torah. The greater and more genuine the bitul, the more abundant and deep the flow of the infinite that is within wisdom.
“Face to Face”
It would seem to be that the Torah’s eternal status is contradictory to the notion that there can a novelty in Torah. However, the reason these two contradictory propositions can coexist is that, as the Sages state, “The Torah and the Holy Blessed One are entirely one.”[25] God—His essence and being—is eternal and forever, “I Havayah do not change”[26]—and yet, and for that very reason, He changes in His external manifestation, as the Sages say that,[27] “at the sea He appeared as a warrior and at the Giving of the Torah at Mt. Sinai He appeared to the Israelites as “an elder full of compassion,” etc. Likewise, the Torah is eternal and unchanging in essence and yet (and because of that), “everything that a veteran scholar is destined to innovate was already said to Moses at Sinai.” As the Alter Rebbe of Chabad was fond of saying, “another Giving of the Torah there will not be,”[28] yet, in every generation, and especially with the coming of the righteous Mashiach, the Torah’s continuing revelation can be described as “a new facet has arrived.” When God communicates with the Sages of the generation, the continuing revelation is described as “God has spoken to you, face to face,”[29] where the two faces refer to the facet of Mashiach’s Torah within the facet of the Torah as it is in this world.
Click here for Part 2 of this series
[1]. Exodus 34:6-7.
[2]. The enumeration we have used follows the one taught by the Arizal (Eitz Chaim 13:9), based on the Zohar. Rashi and most other commentaries, based on the Sages in Rosh HaShanah 17b (and see Tosafot s.v. Shelosh Esreh Midot there), enumerate the 13 differently; there are also other enumerations.
[3]. We might be tempted to say that Moses only mentioned six of the thirteen principles. However, a careful reading is required to fully appreciate Moses’ words. He skips over the first five principles out of the thirteen—“[1] Havayah [has mercy on the prospective sinner, helping him resist the urge to sin]; [2] Havayah [has mercy on the actual sinner, allowing him to repent]; [3] is a benevolent God; [4] compassionate and [5] gracious.” He begins with the sixth principle—“slow to demonstrate anger,” two separate types of patience, for the righteous and for the wicked—skips over the seventh and eighth principles—“[7] abounding in kindness; [8] and truth”—continues with, the tenth and eleventh—“forgiving of premeditated and of rebellious sins”—and ends with the final principle— “And He acquits.”
[4]. The final three principles of mercy do not seem to be describing mercy so much. However, since they correspond to Ze’er Anpin (the Small Countenance) which can be a source of judgment, the last three principles limit the amount of judgment administered.
[5]. As translated on chabad.org.
[6]. For an in-depth discussion see Eli Gurfinkel, “13 Principles of Faith and 13 Principles of Mercy,” in Da’at, vol. 84 (2017), pp. 35-81.
[7]. See Sifra DeTzniuta, ch. 2; Zohar 2:177a.
[8]. Numbers 13:31.
[9]. See Rebbe Hillel of Paritch’s commentary titled BeReish Hormanuta DeMalka, p. 6, in the name of the Ramaz.
[10]. Though the midrash is on the verse, “The following are the creatures you may eat” (Leviticus 11:2), it quotes the parallel verse from Deuteronomy (14:4): “The following are the animals you may eat…,” because it the translation of “animals” is Behemoth, which is the topic at hand.
[11]. Isaiah 51:4.
[12]. Yalkut Shimoni, Shemini, §538; see also Vayikra Rabbah 13:3.
[13]. The sum of Leviathan (לִוְיָתָן) and Behemoth (בְּהֵמוֹת) is 949, the product of 13 and 73, or “one” (אֶחָד) and “wisdom” (חָכְמָה). 949 is also the value of “a talent for this world, a talent for the World to Come” (חוּשׁ בָּעוֹלָם הַזֶּה חוּשׁ בָּעוֹלָם הַבָּא).
[14]. Kohelet Rabbah on the second verse of Ecclesiastes.
[15]. Tikkunei Zohar 4b.
[16]. The value of “a veteran scholar” (תַּלְמִיד וָתִיק) is 1000, the same as the value of “Israel, Ba’al Shem Tov” (יִשְׂרָאֵל בַּעַל שֵׁם טוֹב). The number 1000 alludes to the thousand lights that Moses received at Mt. Sinai (Arizal’s Likkutei Torah, Ki Tisa).
[17]. Vayikra Rabbah 22:1.
[18]. Tikkunei Zohar, tikkun 69 (113a).
[19]. See Midrash Shmuel, 14.
[20]. Zohar 2:121a.
[21]. Bereishit Rabbah 17:7; see Torah Or 111d.
[22]. Tikkunei Zohar 6 (23a). See also Ramaz on Zohar vol. 2, beginning of.
[23]. Pri Eitz Chaim, Kri’at Shema, ch. 15.
[24]. Isaiah 27:1, Job 40:25 (and see Bava Batra 74b-75a), Psalms 74:14, and elsewhere.
[25]. See Zohar 1:24a; 2:60a; Tikkunei Zohar, 6 at the beginning and 24; Tanya, ch. 4 and ch. 23; Likkutei Torah, Nitzavim 46a
[26]. Malachi 3:6.
[27]. Mechilta Rabbi Shimon 15:3.
[28]. Likkutei Shichot vol. 4, p. 1166. See “Shuvah Yisrael” 5666.
[29]. Deuteronomy 5:4.
