AND YOU SHOULD MAKE THE FESTIVAL OF SHAVUOT FOR HASHEM YOUR G-D, ACCORDING TO THE DONATION OF YOUR HAND WHICH YOU WILL GIVE
One can ask, why the donation of the hand? Surely it is the heart which prompts a person to give a donation, as we see in a similar verse concerning donating to the Sanctuary. So why here is the hand mentioned?
To understand this, let us consider a verse in the Haftorah of the first day of Shavuot, from the vision of Ezekiel. “And on the form of a throne, was a form looking like a man...”
But what does this mean? As the Rambam states in his 13 Principles of Faith, G-d has no image and no form. Midrash Rabbah comments on this verse: ‘great is the power of the prophets, for they compare that which has been created [man] to its Creator [G-d]’ implying that this comparison is something completely exaggerated. However, says the discourse, since this verse from Ezekiel is a verse in the Torah, it must be true and express reality. So we must ask: what does it mean, how can there be any kind of ‘form’ above?
Let us consider another verse, from Proverbs (27:19): ‘as the [image in the] water reflects the face, so the heart of one person reflects that of another’. The simple meaning is that just as the water of a pool reflects the face of someone looking at it, and smiles if that person smiles, so too people respond to each other’s feelings: if A likes B, its is probable the B will like A. Now let us consider the image more carefully, the reflection of the pace in the pool of water. In fact, the reflection of the face is simply a reflection, a virtual image of the face looking at the water. The water itself has not changed, and is simply pure water.
This image is true not only about ordinary water, but also the ‘upper waters’ of the spiritual realms, meaning the pure simplicity of the radiance of the Ein Sof, far beyond any kind of ‘form’. The discourse presents the idea that the pure simplicity of the Ein Sof is ‘reflecting’ something which itself will be the (later) product of the process of Creation.
This is expressed in a Midrashic passage which tells us that before G-d created the world He ‘consulted with the souls of the Tzaddikim’. The Rebbe explains that this means Hashem considered the delight He would have from the service of the Tzaddikim, and from this came the arousal of the Divine Will to create the world. Since G-d is utterly beyond Time, He can consider something which would take place in the future. The righteous acts of the Tzaddikim of the future are the ‘face’ which is reflected in the waters of the Ein Sof. Because of that reflection G-d ‘decided’ to create the universe.
The reflection in the ‘waters’ of the Ein Sof reaches the highest levels, before the Tzimtzum. But the discourse speaks of similar kinds of reflection at different levels. Thus the Sefirot of Atzilut are reflected as the more exalted Hidden Sefirot, which are before the Tzimtzum. Here too a ‘later’ phenomenon – the Sefirot of Atzilut – are reflected by an earlier phenomenon, the Hidden Sefirot.
The discourse speaks of different examples of image and reflection, in which lower levels are paradoxically reflected as higher levels in the downchaining of the spiritual realms. The crucial example is the first mentioned above: the Torah and Mitzvot of the Tzaddikim, the righteous, which are reflected above and thus cause the arousal of the Divine Will to create the universe. This process is the ‘reflection of the face in the water’ in the verse from Proverbs.
Thus the continuation of the verse - ‘so the heart of one person reflects that of another’ – is explained as referring to the intermediary levels in the realms of the Sefirot, from the supreme world of Atzilut to the lower worlds of Creation, Formation and Action, in all of which, lower manifestations are retroactively reflected as higher. But as mentioned above, the essential ‘face’ which initiates the chain of reflections is that of the righteous actions of the Tzaddikim in this physical world.
This also explains the ‘form of a man’ in the prophecy of Ezekiel. The service of the righteous, their love and awe of Divine, is reflected in the Sefirot: Chesed, Kindness, expresses love of the Divine, Gevurah, Severity, expresses Awe of the Divine, and so on. But the actions of the righteous are reflected as a physical form, because the emphasis is on the significance of the practical actions of the righteous.
This is why the focus in the opening verse of this discourse is on the hands, the practical action expressing one’s generosity. The feelings of the heart express a spiritual level which is important in its place, indeed the ‘yearning of the heart’ is very exalted.
But the key to the process of Creation is the practical action of the hands. For this practical action expresses the Divine desire ‘to have a dwelling in the lower worlds’, which is ultimately achieved by the Jewish people keeping the laws of the Torah in practical terms.
This helps us understand the significance of the Giving of the Torah. The Kabbalists explain that on Shavuot the highest levels of Keter (Crown) and the inwardness of Keter were revealed at every level of the system of Sefirot, from the lowest to the highest. This expresses the way at every level, and especially the lowest and simplest level of practical action, we generate the ‘reflection’ in the pure, unchanging simplicity of the Ein Sof, the reflection which initiates and maintains the Creation of all the worlds.
This expresses the boundless significance of our action of the Mitzvot in our practical lives, generating the reflections which lead to the existence of our world, which becomes the dwelling for the Essence of the Divine.
Torah teachings are holy – please treat these pages with care
