Matos: I Pledge Allegiance...

The following is based in part on concepts from the Sfas Emes and Rav Moshe Wolfson. Feel free to print this out and read it over Shabbos, just please not during Tefilos!

In the beginning of this week’s Parsha we are introduced to the concept of Nedarim and Shvuos, oaths and vows. To make a vow, a person invokes God’s Name in a pledge and commits himself to do an action, or, conversely, to refrain from something. For example, “I need to be kinder. Therefore I swear, B’Sheim Hashem, to water my neighbor’s plants.” Or on the side of refrain, “I’m looking out for my health, and in God’s name I pledge not to consume any more energy drinks.”

Something astonishing happens when this pledge is made. Because the Torah now requires of me to uphold that vow, when I am Mekayem, when I fulfill my promise I carry out a Mitzvah Deoraisa – a Torah commandment! Why is this amazing? It’s miraculous because I created a new Mitzvah that’s all my own! This seems striking at first glance, so let’s explain.

Because of my Shvu’a to water it, my neighbor’s plant becomes a Cheftzah Shel Mitzvah – a Mitzvah object. Like we said, the Torah now requires of me to keep that oath. Therefore, in regards to me, those flowers are intrinsically holy. They are the object upon which I carry out the Mitzvah to uphold my vow. With the power of the Torah, I have infused them with Ratzon Hashem – the will of the Creator. They are now part of the framework of the Torah. For me, these plants are now Mitvah #614. Simultaneously (and this is the perplexing part) what is a Cheftzah Shel Mitzvah to me is just an ordinary potted plant to everyone else. There is some level of subjective holiness to them.

What emerges is that through the power of Nedrarim and Shvuos I can create a unique Mitzvah that applies just to me. But we need to understand how the Shvu’a makes this happen. What ocurs when I pledge an oath that all of a sudden a new Mitzvah is brought into the world?

A journey into another teaching of Chazal will shed more light on our subject…

The Pasuk in Koheles tells us, “V’HaNefesh Lo Timaleh” – No matter how many physical pleasures the body encounters and experiences; the soul will never be satisfied with such things. Why is this so? Why can’t I simply calm down my spiritual aspirations via physical avenues. For this, our sages provided us with a parable.

A young and excited mountain dweller attempted to capture the heart of the princess. After much persuasion the mature, sophisticated maiden decided to spend the day with the rural man. He attempted to win her over with a home cooked meal, a trip to the rodeo and all of the rugged-style delights that he was used to. But as nice as it all was the princess just wasn’t satisfied. It was a nice attempt, but simply put she was too refined for his coarse lifestyle.

This is the meaning of “V’HaNefesh Lo Timaleh”. The spiritual essence present within us is an outgrowth of Godliness that is rooted in the loftiest echelons of the metaphysical reality. Our body on the other hand, as we learned in Bereishis, is formed out of dirt. As hard as the body may try to entice the soul with earthly pleasures, it’ll never work – the Soul is a Princess. She has already been satisfied with the sublime joy of closeness to Hashem and nothing else will do.

The Gemara in Messeches Nidah describes what is perhaps the moment of this upmost satisfaction. There we are told that before the fetus leaves the mother, the spiritual consciousness of the unborn child lives in bliss. Chazal describe how the soul of the child is illuminated by a universal awareness where the whole world, with all of its details is seen as one unified energy. The unborn child is granted a perspective where Divine Providence is at the peak of recognition. And with this global meta-perspective the child learns the whole Torah with an Angel. This, in spiritual terms, is as good as it gets. It is at this ripe time that the Angel forces the child to take upon itself an oath. An oath to be a Tzadik - A Shvu’a to keep all of the Mitzvos.

Why do we need to pledge something that we don’t remember? The answer is that it’s not the pledge that is the importance; rather it is the spiritual reality that it affects which is the real focus of a Shvu’a.

We see Shvuos made several times in the Torah. Avraham Avinu made his servant Eliezer take upon himself a Shvu’a before setting out to find a wife for Yitzchak. Yaakov Avinu made Yosef HaTzadik swear to take his body to be buried in Eretz Yisrael. Why was such oaths necessary? What, Eliezer, a faithful servant and a Tzadik in his own right, wasn’t going to listen? Avraham was scared? Similarly, Yaakov didn’t believe that Yosef would obey? Why did they demand promises?

The answer comes from the makeup of the word Shvu’a. There are two main approaches to its meaning that we need to address.

The Chidushei HaRim explains that the word for an oath is deeply rooted in the word Sheva, meaning seven, which is spelled the same way. What is the importance of seven? Says the Maharal, the number seven is nature and man within it. How so? Seven days of the week, seven colors in the rainbow, seven notes in the musical scale. Seven creates a whole picture. At the same time the Kabalists speak of the seven Midos, root character traits that man embodies. Because of this duality, the Shvu’a thrusts the essence of the person into the makeup of reality.

Also, Shvu’a is profoundly connected to Save’a – satisfied (also spelled the same way). The Koach, the power of a Shvu’a totally fills a person. Because an oath is made in the Name of Hashem, when a person swears he directs the lifeforce that Hashem sustains the world with into the essence of his being. He becomes spiritually satisfied.

It is the meeting point of these two meanings that we can understand the full ramifications of the Shvu’a. The Shvu’a creates a tremendous alignment of forces. At the dramatic moment were there is a precise placement of man within the world (Sheva), he becomes ripe and ready to serve as the vessel that he needs to be for the incoming energy of Sheim Hashem that fills him (Sove’a).

The oath serves as the precise spiritual boost that he needs to become imbued with an exacting flood of fresh strength; perfect for whatever his new mission may be.

Yosef HaTzadik and Eliezer were made to take oaths not to ensure that they would remain faithful, rather it was in order to empower them to carry out their missions with levels of intensity and inspiration that they previously didn’t know that they could attain. The goal of the Shvu’a was to spin the cosmos in such a way that they would be able to carry out the task in a way that was until that time unimaginable.

So too we say V’HaNefesh Lo Timaleh because at that moment of surreal holiness in the womb, the soul accepts upon itself uniquely magnificent and transcendent concentrations of spiritual capability. Those precious moments that we described above serve as a very special convergence of Sheva and Sove’a. Once that happens, once the Shvu’a takes place, the soul is satisfied, it’s empowered, it feels whole, and therefore it is obvious that any baser animalistic pleasure simply won’t be able to compare.

With one more parable we can understand how this generates the anomalies of Cheftzah Shel Mitzvah.

There is Chinese folk music playing all around you right now. Why don’t you hear it? You don’t hear it because you don’t have the proper tool tuned into the proper frequency that can extract it from the air. But with a radio on the right station you would be able to enjoy the relaxing tones of the paixiao and the yangqin (yes, they are real) as you read this.

This is what Shvu’a does. Through the unique dynamic of the Shvu’a, he who takes the oath attains the exact Kochos to emit the perfect spiritual frequency that transforms a potted plant into a Cheftza Shel Mitzvah. For one person it’s holy, and for another person it’s a potted plant.

And it is the Shvu’a in the womb that makes all the difference in the world between Jew and gentile. Why is it that on Succos a Yid can grab a Lulav and it is holy, and yet Goy holds the exact same thing and for him it serves no particular purpose? Why is that when a Jew wears a combination of wool and linen it serves as a steel block on his soul, and yet when a non-Jew wears the same combination it’s totally fine? It's the same answer as the potted plant, just bigger.

The Shvu’a that we all take in the womb opens us up and tunes us in to the frequency called Ratzon Hashem. There’s a vibration pumping through the universe, there’s ‘Chinese folk music’ blasting everywhere – our souls can hear it and their souls can’t. The oath that each and everyone of us experiences puts us in a place totally incomparable to a soul that has not undergone such an experience. The significance of the oath that we can’t remember is the fact that because of it we stand on a plane above and beyond everything else. Every other Shvu’a taken over the course of history is merely a microcosm of that.

What I need to take out of all of this is that there is a wellspring of tailor-made Kochos inside of me, just waiting to be tapped into. An amazing spiritual calculation has resulted in my unique role in the universe. I can extract Kediusha from the world around me in a way that no one else who ever has does or will exist can. When we have this amazing realization we can begin to find and access those Kochos - and HaKadosh Baruch Hu should give us a Bracha that we will – there is no doubt that we will live lives of Shleimus and Simcha, moving closer to HaKadosh Baruch Hu and ultimately the Geulah Sheleimah!

Pesach: Lovestory (Shir HaShirim)

The festivals of Succos and Pesach are weeklong festivals whose holiest days are those in the start and end in which Halachic work is altogether forbidden. The intervening days between the beginning and end are called Chol HaMoead.

On the Shabbos Kodesh that falls out during Chol HaMoed Pesach, Chazal instituted that we read Shir HaShirim, the ‘Song of Songs’, which is an intricate – and often explicit – poem, written in the style of the intimate discussions between two lovers as a parable to the deep and emotional relationship shared by God and His people, Am Yisrael.

This begs for analysis. What is the connection – if there even is any – between the holiday of Pesach and Shir HaShirim? The answer can’t simply be, “On Pesach Hashem showed us that He loves us very much.” Such a shallow answer is absurd being as all of the holidays are displays of God’s affection. The giving of the Torah, the Divine Shelter of Succos, the dramatic rescue from Haman’s hands are all very close moments with HaKadosh Baruch Hu. So what makes Pesach specifically connected to the intimacy of Shir HaShirim?

With the guidance of HaRav Yitzchak Hutner Zatz’al, hopefully we will be able to reach the depth of this connection. In order to do so we need to explore both sides of the equation. First we need to analyze what is Chazal’s understanding of the role of Shir HaShirim. Secondly we need to clarify what the goal of the exodus really was. Hopefully from the synthesis of these two answers we will walk away with a deeper appreciation of the matching up of Shir HaShirim with Pesach.

Shlomo HaMelech, King Solomon, - history’s wisest man – authored three books in Tanach, all three were published in his lifetime, one of them being Shir HaShirim. Shlomo HaMelech was also responsible for the construction of the first Beis HaMikdash (the Temple in Jerusalem).

Chazal tell us in Messeches Midos that the whole world was worth creating just for the day on which Shir HaShirim was completed. Why is this piece of information found Messeches Midos? Midos deals with the measurements of the physical structure of Beis HaMikdash - not scripture! The answer given is that Shir HaShirim was presented on the day that construction of the Beis HaMikdash was completed – they were delivered together. And thus the construction goes hand-in-hand with the poem.

The depth of the matter is as follows: The fact that the Shir HaShirim and the Beis HaMikdash arrive simultaneously, is merely a manifestation of the deeper reality that they actually share one root. It therefore emerges that the Beis HaMikdash must be where all of the themes of Shir HaShirim - all of the love, all of the closeness, all of the intimacy is centralized.

It is for this reason that the Kodesh HaKodashim, the inner-most sanctum of the Temple is referred to in scripture as Cheder HaMitos - The Bedroom. And it’s for the same reason that the Kruvim (Cherubs) which were the main visual attraction there - embraced - one another. And perhaps these concepts reach a climax in light of how it is specifically the Beis HaMikdash that Chazal describe as “the place where Heaven and Earth kiss”. The Beis HaMikdash is about an outpouring of love. The Beis HaMikdash embodies the romance of the Jews and HaKadosh Baruch Hu. The Beis HaMikdash is where Shir HaShirim takes on its physical form.

So now we know that the Beis HaMikdash, the Makom of HaShra’as HaShechina (The place where God’s Presence dwells) takes on the identity of Shir HaShirim. But we still need to understand how these concepts relate to Pesach - the holiday of redemption.

The Ramban brings down that the second book of the Torah - Sefer Shemos is also referred to as Sefer HaGeulah: The Book of Redemption. And for good reason too; the first few Parshios deal with God’s redeeming of the Jewish people from Egypt. But this raises a new question. If Shemos is the book that encompasses redemptive themes, then why is it that more Parshios deal with the construction of the Mishkan than those that deal with exodus?

From this question the Ramban lays down a fundamental principle about what it means to be free. Freedom doesn’t simply mean leaving bondage. Exodus to nowhere means being lost. But when we leave oppression and go into service of the Divine – then we can begin to taste real liberty. And therefore, if the Jews were to simply leave Egypt and enter directionless into the desert, we wouldn’t have gotten anywhere productive. It is only because we left Egypt and from there began to build the Mishkan - a Makom of HaShra’as HaShechina that Sefer Shemos can really be Sefer HaGeulah.

With this we can understand the line in the weekly prayer of Lecha Dodi that says Karva El Nafshi Gealah - ‘Come close to my Soul and redeem it’. The Jewish nation doesn’t seek freedom simply by escaping oppression – the collective Jewish soul understands that freedom only comes as a result of a unification with HaKadosh Baruch Hu.

We now understand that Geulah doesn’t simply mean leaving bondage. Geulah means leaving slavery as a means to enter God’s embrace. And any place that serves as a resting place, a point of interaction with the Divine will automatically become a physical embodiment of Shir HaShirim.

If Shir HaShirim is about the inherit romance that comes as a result of interaction with the Divine, and the whole concept of Geulah is meaningless until that interaction occurs - then of course when we celebrate Pesach we also read Shir HaShirim.

The application to my life is clear. If I think I’ll be free simply by doing whatever I want I’m going to quickly find that I’m a slave to many more things that I think. I’ll become a slave to the most popular fad. I’ll become controlled against my will – and perhaps even on a subconscious level – by a band, a magazine, a movie or a Youtube blogger. Simply choosing to do whatever seems good at the time is not freedom – it’s misdirection. The deeper in I go and the more wrapped up I become, the result becomes the shackling of my life to my whims.

Ein L’Cha Ben Chorin Ela Mi She’Osek BaTorah - the only free man is he who is consumed with the will of Hashem. When I make my life a contact point between Heaven and Earth - Bilvavi Mishkan Evneh - the possibility to feel the sweetness of liberation is opened up to me. Only when the goal is Karva El Nafshi will the result be Gealah.

HaKadosh Baruch Hu should give us a Bracha that we see the world for what it is: the backdrop for the greatest lovestory of all time: Between us and Him – the story of Shir HaShirim. If we can live in such a way, if from time to time we can remember that my life is most invigorated at times of closeness with the Divine, then there is no doubt that we will live lives of Sheleimus and Simcha, moving closer to the Creator and ultimately the Geulah Sheleimah!!