Torah’s Greatest Role
(The following Devar Torah is from Rabbi Moshe Krieger shlita)
The Gemara in Shabbos (88b) present an interesting dialogue between the malochim and Moshe Rabbeinu, when he ascended to heaven to receive the Torah. The malochim objected to Hashem: “What is man that You should remember him?” What is this earthly being doing here in heaven? How can you give him the Torah? He is material and the Torah is spiritual!
Hashem ordered Moshe to answer the malochim. Moshe answered: What does it state in the Torah? Honor your father and mother. Do you have a father and mother? It states: You shall not steal, you shall not desire your neighbor’s possessions, you shall not kill. Do you malochim have envy? Do you have such desires?
In short, Moshe claimed that you see from the contents of the Torah that it is intended for physical, human beings who possess a yetzer horah.
What did the malochim think at the outset? Didn’t they know that the Torah is addressed toward human beings with a yetzer horah? Couldn’t they see that the Torah was written for people to fulfil mitzvos and abstain from sins — which is not relevant to malochim?
On what grounds could they claim that the Torah should remain with them? They knew that the Torah addresses the yetzer horah, which they do not possess?
Rav Chaim Friedlander answers that the malochim knew that the basic reading of Torah addresses the yetzer horah, but that’s only on the level of peshat. Beyond the basic level, the Torah contains countless secrets, of which Mekubalim only see a small part. Moreover, the Ramban (introduction to Bereishis) states that the entire Torah is Holy Names of Hashem that are beyond our understanding. This means that the vast majority of Torah has no connection to human beings. This was the reasoning of the malochim.
If so, how can we understand Moshe’s answer to the malochim?
Moshe meant that the main purpose of Torah is to control the yetzer horah. That is why it should be given to people, who possess a body and soul, and have to elevate themselves from a lower state to one of perfection, which can only be accomplished through Torah. In Hashem’s eyes, this is the greatest role the Torah has in all the universe.
The Beis Halevi (Parshas Yisro) says this idea is reflected in the Gemara (Pesachim 68b), in which Tanna’im discuss whether there is a mitzvah to hold a seudah [festive
