ואף על פי כן אמרו רז״ל: לא המדרש עיקר אלא המעשה
Nevertheless, notwithstanding the superior level of unity with G‑dliness attained only by Torah, our Sages have said:11 “The essential thing is not study, but deed.”
והיום לעשותם כתיב, ומבטלין תלמוד תורה לקיום מצוה מעשיית, כשאי אפשר לעשותה על ידי אחרים
It is also written:12 “This day, i.e., during our life in this world, the all-important thing is to do them” (the mitzvot). And the Halachah rules that one must interrupt Torah study to perform a mitzvah of action when it cannot be fulfilled by others.
משום כי זה כל האדם, ותכלית בריאתו וירידתו לעולם הזה
For “this (the active performance of mitzvot) is man’s entire purpose,” the purpose for which he was created and for which [his soul] descended to this world,
להיות לו יתברך דירה בתחתונים דוקא, לאהפכא חשוכא לנהורא
so that G‑d may have an abode precisely in the lowest realms, to turn the darkness of this world into light of holiness,
וימלא כבוד ה׳ את כל הארץ הגשמית דייקא, וראו כל בשר יחדיו, כנ״ל
so that G‑d’s glory fill specifically the entire physical world, and “all flesh will behold [G‑dliness] together,” as was discussed above (ch. 36).
Thus, the goal of making this world an abode for G‑d is achieved primarily through mitzvot of action. Therefore, when presented with the opportunity of performing a mitzvah that others cannot fulfill, one must fulfill this mitzvah even at the cost of interrrupting his Torah studies, so that G‑d’s desire for “an abode in the lower realms” be realized.
If, however, the mitzvah that clashes with one’s Torah study can be fulfilled by others, the choice is no longer between respecting or ignoring G‑d’s desire for “an abode…” — whether he suspends his Torah study to perform the mitzvah, or continues his studies and leaves the mitzvah to others, this objective will be realized regardless. The choice is now between studying Torah and actively performing a mitzvah; and here Torah study prevails because of the superior level of unity that it effects between the Torah student’s soul and G‑d.
In the Alter Rebbe’s words:
מה שאין כן כשאפשר לעשותה על ידי אחרים, אין מבטלין תלמוד תורה, אף שכל התורה אינה אלא פירוש המצות מעשיות
On the other hand, if [the mitzvah] can be performed by others, one does not interrupt Torah study to perform it, even though the whole Torah is, after all, only an explanation of the mitzvot of action.
והיינו משום שהיא בחינת חב״ד של אין סוף ברוך הוא, ובעסקו בה ממשיך עליו אור אין סוף ברוך הוא ביתר שאת והארה גדולה לאין קץ מהארה והמשכה על ידי פקודין, שהן אברים דמלכא
This is because the Torah is the level of ChaBaD of the blessed Ein Sof, and hence, when one is engaged in [studying] it he draws upon himself an infinitely greater illumination of the blessed Ein Sof-light — greater both in its illuminative power and in its higher quality — than the illumination and influence that one draws upon his soul through mitzvot, which are [merely] “organs” of the King.
What emerges from this discussion is that the effect of mitzvot consists primarily of the elevation of one’s body and the physical world in general; the effect of Torah study on the other hand is to unite the soul with G‑d. Accordingly, the Alter Rebbe explains the following Talmudic statement:
וזה שאמר רב ששת: חדאי נפשאי, לך קראי, לך תנאי
This is what Rav Sheshet meant when he said,13 “Rejoice, my soul! For you do I study Scripture; for you do I study Mishnah,”
For the soul, the unity with G‑d attained through Torah (Scripture and Mishnah) is greater than that attained through mitzvot; he therefore addressed these words to it: “For your sake I learn….”
כמו שנתבאר במקום אחר באריכות
as the superiority of the soul’s unity with G‑d through Torah is explained elsewhere at length.14
Until here the Alter Rebbe has discussed the superiority of Torah study over other mitzvot in terms of its greater influence on the soul. He now begins to describe a far greater quality found in Torah study. Of all the mitzvot, only Torah study is described as “calling to G‑d, as one calls to his friend, and as a son calls his father,” as the Alter Rebbe will state shortly. Whereas mitzvot have the effect of drawing the light of G‑d (i.e., of His Will) upon the soul, Torah study “calls” G‑d’s essence to man, as is implied in the analogy of one who calls to his friend: the friend will turn with his entire “essence” to face his caller.
Furthermore: As a means of “calling” G‑d, Torah study is superior even to prayer. For this reason, in the verse, “G‑d is near to all who call Him, to all who call Him in truth,” the first part of the verse refers to prayer and the latter to Torah.
The difference between the two forms of “calling G‑d” is that prayer effects a change in material matters: healing, prosperity, etc., whereas the effect of Torah is in the soul, on the spiritual plane.
In the Alter Rebbe’s words:
והנה המשכה והארה זו שאדם ממשיך ומאיר מהארת אור אין סוף ברוך הוא על נפשו ועל נפשות כל ישראל
This influence and illumination generated by one’s Torah study, which man draws from the radiance of the Ein Sof-light upon his soul and upon the souls of all Israel,
היא השכינה, כנסת ישראל, מקור כל נשמות ישראל, כמו שיתבאר לקמן
(meaning, as will be explained later, that the light is drawn into the spiritual level known as “the Shechinah, Knesset Yisrael” — the source of all the souls of Israel — and thereby the Ein Sof- light reaches not only the soul of the person studying Torah, but also that of every Jew), —
על ידי עסק התורה, נקראת בלשון קריאה
This illumination which one draws through his Torah study is referred to as “calling” [as in the Talmudic expression] (concerning a Torah student)קורא בתורה (usually translated as “One who reads (studies) the Torah,” but reinterpreted here as “One who calls [G‑d] through the Torah”).
Just as calling in its usual sense means that the caller causes the person being called to come to him, to turn to him with his entire being, similarly in the context of “calling through Torah”:
קורא בתורה, פירוש: שעל ידי עסק התורה קורא להקב״ה לבוא אליו, כביכול
This [phrase] means that in Torah study one calls G‑d to come to him, so to speak,
כאדם הקורא לחבירו שיבא אליו, וכבן קטן הקורא לאביו לבא אליו להיות עמו בצוותא חדא ולא ליפרד ממנו ולישאר יחידי, חס ושלום
as a man calls to his friend to come to him, or as a child will call his father to come and join him and not to part from him, leaving him alone, G‑d forbid.
The former analogy pertains to those Jews designated as “brethren and friends” of G‑d; when they study Torah they call their “friend”. The latter analogy pertains to those designed “children of G‑d”; when they study Torah they are calling their “father”.
וזה שכתוב: קרוב ה׳ לכל קוראיו, לכל אשר יקראוהו באמת, ואין אמת אלא תורה, דהיינו שקורא להקב״ה על ידי התורה דוקא
This is the meaning of the verse:15 “G‑d is near (a) to all who call Him, (b) to all who call Him in truth,”16 and17 “There is no truth but Torah,” indicating that [one “calls G‑d with truth”] as opposed to simply “calling G‑d,” only by calling G‑d through Torah study,
לאפוקי מי שקורא אותו שלא על ידי עסק התורה, אלא צועק אבא אבא
in contrast to one who does not call Him through Torah study, but merely cries: “Father, Father!”
This refers to the service of prayer, in which one calls G‑d, out of love for Him, saying “Father…!” Such a call is not considered “calling with truth,” and thus the illumination of G‑dly light generated by this call cannot compare with that generated by Torah, as explained above.
וכמו שקובל עליו הנביא: ואין קורא בשמך כו׳, כמו שכתוב במקום אחר
Over him who thus calls G‑d the prophet laments:18 “There is none who calls by Your Name,” as is written elsewhere.
Since he does not say simply: “There is none who calls You,” his intention must be that although there are indeed those who “call” G‑d, yet they do not do so “by His Name,” meaning through Torah, “whose words throughout are the Names of G‑d” (Ramban, Introduction to his commentary on the Torah, based on the Zohar).
ומזה יתבונן המשכיל להמשיך עליו יראה גדולה בשעת עסק התורה, כמו שנתבאר לעיל פרק כ״ג
By dwelling on this matter, the intelligent person will derive means of drawing upon himself a great awe [of G‑d] when he engages in Torah study, as explained above (in ch. 23).19
There it is stated that one’s Torah study must be permeated with awe of G‑d (despite the apparent incompatibility between the intellectual boldness that characterizes study, and the constraint engendered by awe); this awe, moreover, is the goal of Torah study, while study is merely the “gateway”.
The thought that in Torah study one “calls” G‑d to himself, just as, for example, one calls his friend to come to him, will surely arouse in the student a feeling of intense awe of G‑d.
Footnotes
1.See Shabbat 108a.
2.Tehillim 35:10.
3.Eruvin 54a.
4.The Rebbe asks the following question: We are speaking here of the vital soul’s energy which is clothed in the letters of Torah study, prayer, and the performance of divine commandments. This energy comes from the person’s food and drink, which is under the dominion of kelipat nogah. And it is through the vitalizing soul that the life-force of kelipat nogah is transformed and absorbed into holiness. Moreover, the Alter Rebbe is now about to explain more specifically how the vitalizing soul (and through it the general vitality of this world) is united with G‑d’s Will and infinite light through the performance of both the positive and prohibitive commands of the Torah.
This being so, why does the Alter Rebbe interpolate the phrase, “When the whole neshamah, the divine soul in all of Israel,” when we are in reality speaking of the vitalizing soul?
The Rebbe says that the answer may possibly lie in the fact that a certain number of the 613 commandments are carried out through a person’s thought processes. The effect of the vitalizing soul, however, is felt mostly in those matters that relate to speech and action, inasmuch as the vitalizing soul is bound up with the corporeal limbs and organs. These are utilized for those commandments that are performed through action or speech. Conversely, the commandments performed through the person’s thought are for the most part carried out by the divine soul without the intermediacy of the vitalizing soul. The term “divine soul” is therefore used here, for the ultimate source of power that enables a person to perform all the commandments is the divine soul.
5.Zechariah 13:2.
6.Devarim 4:35.
7.The Rebbe explains how “the mystery of ‘the exile of the Shechinah’” relates to the subject at hand.
On the surface, the soul’s descent into this world, and its concomitant suffering, is truly inexplicable. The soul is an entity which is truly a part of G‑d Above, emanating, as it does, from Supernal Wisdom which is wholly at one with G‑d Himself.
That such a holy being should descend into this world merely to rectify the vitalizing soul and the body whose source is in kelipat nogah, strains the bonds of credulity. For even after the divine soul completely rectifies them — as in the divine service of a consummate tzaddik — the body is still unable to harbor the same love of G‑d which the soul felt prior to its descent. Why, then, did the soul descend into this world
The Alter Rebbe addresses this question, writes the Rebbe, by stating that the soul’s descent parallels exactly the mystery of the exile of the Shechinah, whose purpose is to refine the sparks of holiness which fell into the kelipot. We shall soon learn that the Shechinah is the source of the divine soul. Furthermore, all things found within this world were created from the sparks of holiness, including the body and the vitalizing soul. Hence the parallel. The soul, whose source is the Shechinah, descends into this world to refine the body and vitalizing soul, whose source is the holy sparks. And just as the exile of the Shechinah is deemed a mystery, for its descent defies logic, so, too, is the soul’s descent into the body and vitalizing soul a mystery: it defies mortal reason.
8.Bava Batra 9a.
9.Ibid. 10a.
10.Peah 1:1.
11.Avot 1:17.
12.Devarim 7:11.
13.Pesachim 68b.
14.The Rebbe notes: “Possibly this alludes to the discourse in Torah Or, beginning of Parshat Mishpatim.”
15.Tehillim 145:18.
16.The division into (a) and (b) is by the Rebbe, who notes that this accords with the explanation given in Sanhedrin 39b, and in the Siddur [with chassidic commentary] on this verse.
17.Tanna devei Eliyahu Zuta, ch. 21.
18.Yeshayahu 64:6.
19.The Rebbe asks the following question. What reason is there for the Alter Rebbe to refer the reader back to ch. 23, when arousal of great reverence is achieved only by meditating on that which is stated in this chapter, and not in ch. 23? For in this chapter the Alter Rebbe stresses that through his Torah study a person is able to draw down G‑d Himself, as it were, like a person calling his friend to come to him. In ch. 23, however, we find only that Torah study enables the person to draw down the Supernal Will and Light; it mentions nothing of drawing down G‑d Himself. Why, then, does the Alter Rebbe connect ch. 23 to that which is being discussed here?
We must say, writes the Rebbe, that the Alter Rebbe does so in order to stress that great reverence is indispensable during Torah study. Since fear is an emotion that leads to withdrawal and contraction it would seem to be inimical to Torah study, which requires openness and expansiveness. The Alter Rebbe therefore cites ch. 23, wherein he explained that great reverence must be felt during one’s study of Torah. Furthermore, by citing the above-mentioned chapter the Alter Rebbe indicates that one should ponder the statement there — that Torah study is “secondary” to reverence, and serves to arouse it.
This is the meaning of the verse, “And G‑d commanded us [to obey] all these statutes, in order to fear G‑d…” This, explains the Alter Rebbe at the end of ch. 23, implies that (a) the ultimate purpose of the Torah — “commanded us” — is “in order to fear G‑d”; (b) that Torah is called “a gateway to the dwelling” of fear. Thus Torah in relation to fear is a matter of secondary importance, a mere gateway to the house itself.
All the above is discussed in ch. 23, and it is this that the Alter Rebbe intended to convey when he cited that chapter.
