... Although one grasps [Torah] only in physical terms (i.e. shnayim ochzin batalis -- the law concerning “Two men who clutch a garment...” or “One who trades a cow for a donkey...”), how can it be that through study of such laws, one attains unity with G-dliness?
Yet, the Torah has been likened to “water descending from a high place....” [to a low place.] The water on the lower level is the same as it was on the higher level. Similarly, the laws of Torah, although they have “descended” to deal with ordinary physical situations, still consist of G-d’s will and wisdom.
Thus, in studying Torah, one is united with G-d’s will and wisdom and thereby with G-d Himself...
==== Excerpt of Tanya Perek 37. Lessons in Tanya, P520. Chabad.org
“Shlomo Hamelech said 3,000 Meshalim” -- proverbs. (Melachim Aleph Perek 5, Pasuk 12.) Chassidus explains that when Shlomo Hamelech learned a concept in Torah, he understood how this is just a mashal for a higher and deeper, more spiritual level of learning this concept. He was able to go up 3,000 levels above, so each concept was just a parable for the level above it.
Kabolas HaTorah B’simchah Ub’pnimius
UFARATZTA
[Continued from last week, where R. Jacobson explained that men’s brains are like compartmentalized waffles, as if they have a little filing cabinet for each topic, and women’s brains are like spaghetti – every strand of pasta is intertwined and interconnected with tons of other pieces.]
This is why you will encounter the following scene...
A husband returns home after a day’s work and decides that tonight he is going to be a good husband. After dinner, he sits down with his wife on the sofa and asks how her day went. “Wow!” the wife thinks to herself. “This is wonderful!” She starts sharing her day with him... The cleaners ruined my $150 dress... Meanwhile, the husband is opening up the filing cabinet called “Cleaners.” You can see the wrinkles on his forehead as he concentrates on her every word.
From that crisis, the wife moves to the fact that she doesn’t like her job. Now the husband begins opening another cabinet called “Job.”
Before the Job cabinet is fully opened, the wife moves on to discussing the fact that your sister insulted her at a recent bar mitzvah. Now the husband opens the filing cabinet called bar mitzvah.
But his wife is already discussing how you need more cleaning help... Open file cabinet called cleaning help.
“Yaakov is not happy in third grade,” she says. Close the file cabinet of cleaning help. Open the file cabinet called Yaakov in third grade. The husband’s mind is flying from topic to topic...
By now, his wife has been talking for two minutes and ten seconds, and has already explored 22 topics. And this is just the beginning. Opening, closing, opening, closing, file cabinet after file cabinet... And nothing can touch anything else.
Now after four minutes, close to 100 topics have been discussed. And the husband is shaking his head to help him stay awake and alert. The only logical thing he can think of right now is to fall asleep. Within seconds, he is “snoring.”
The wife, looking at her husband with a stone-walled face, cannot believe that such a romantic experience suddenly turned into a sleeping opportunity. She is hurt.
Little does she know that your snoring is an expression of your deepest love. The only other option he had, in the back of his mind, was to walk away, but he loves you so much, he decided that snoring was better. All he wishes is for his wife to look at him and think to herself, “The love of my life, my dearest and devoted husband...”
If you’ve laughed, or let out a smile once, or twice, there is a reason for that. Remember, Hashem created man and woman and they get married. There are many, many differences. Chazal state that marriage is like Splitting the Sea, no less than a phenomenal miracle. Perhaps now, you can appreciate in one way how that statement is true.
