This Shabat we read that shortly after the creation of the first man; Adam G-d brought all the animals before him to give them names.
This, at first glance, was very nice of G-d to let Adam participate and make up names... something like a mayor allowing his citizens to name their streets of their town.
But if we look more deeply, we will see it wasn't so simple.
According to Kabala the name of a thing comes from the essence of its being. That is why calling a person's name can awaken them from unconsciousness because names connect the soul to the body.
And according to the Midrash (B'reshes Rabba chap. 17:4) when the angels complained to G-d about creating man, G-d answered "You will see that his wisdom is greater than yours" G-d brought out the animals, the Angels couldn't name them, Adam did, and they retracted their complaint.
So we see that names are very deep and spiritual things.
Now we can ask two questions: Why didn't the angels, who are certainly more spiritual than man, know the names of the animals? 2) What was so important about giving them names? If the name connects the soul to the body then the animals must have had names already before Adam gave them, if not how could they keep living?
To understand this here is a story.
The Maggid of Mezeritz (the successor of the Baal Shem Tov) was such an unusually gifted Talmudic scholar that there was no book in Judaism that he had not set to memory. But on Shabbat he would only speak and teach spiritual ideas of Chassidut and not Talmud.
One Shabbat, however, he unexpectedly gave a long and complicated Talmudic dissertation unifying several apparently contradicting legal passages. This was a great wonder to his pupils who nonetheless dutifully repeated and memorized every word.
The day after Shabbat the Maggid told one of his pupils, Rabbi Zusia of Annipoli, to set off on a journey without giving him any destination or even telling him in which direction to travel. Rab Zusia dutifully packed a small knapsack and set off, certain that his feet would take him on the right path.
A week later he stopped for the night at a small inn near the city of Hamburg only to find that "Well," said the owner of the inn wincing at Rab Zusia's dusty garments, "there is one bed available but you can't have it. The room is being occupied by the great (Talmudic genius) Rabbi Refoel and I can't put you together with him."
This Rabbi Refoel, a devoted follower of the foremost opposer (Mitnaged) of the Chassidic movement; the 'Gaon of Vilna' (a grandmaster of Talmud and the undisputed leader of Lithuanian Jewry), was on his way to Hamburg to vie for the position of chief Rabbi of the city which became vacant when the previous rabbi died some weeks ago.
The rules were that every candidate had to present a 'Pilpul' (Talmudic dissertation) before the elder scholars of the city and then answer all their questions satisfactorily; the one that most found favor in their eyes would be chosen as the next chief Rabbi.
Rabbi Refoel was a sure thing. His genius and erudition were almost unmatched as were his credentials, especially his closeness to the Vilna Gaon. Now he was sitting in this simple hotel room repeating the Pilpul to one last time before he went to sleep. It was very long and complex and he wanted to make sure it would go smoothly tomorrow in Hamburg.
Meanwhile, in the lobby, Rab Zusia was trying desperately to convince the owner to just let him have a peek at the great Rabbi Refoel; he felt that this certainly had something to do with his mysterious mission, and finally the owner agreed... but only for a moment.
Rav Zusia quietly opened the door, and was startled to hear that Rabbi Refoel was reciting was the same exact subject that the Maggid had unexplainably spoken about that previous Shabbat!
Then suddenly Rabbi Refoel stopped. He remembered a commentary in the Talmud; a Tosefot which he had overlooked that completely destroyed the entire line of reasoning of his presentation! Not only would his 'Pilpul' not succeed, even worse... it was wrong... he was wrong!! He let out a groan "OY! The Tosefot in Ksuvos!! It wrecks the entire thing!!" He was talking aloud to himself.
Rab Zusia immediately offered his help. Rabbi Refoel, turned around surprised to see this beggarly looking Jew and his first instinct was to refuse, but then again... he was desperate! He agreed.
"But only on one condition," said Rab Zusia. "The answer I'm giving you now I heard from my master, the Maggid of Mezeritz, I want you to promise that after you are chosen tomorrow, you will go to visit him."
Rabbi Refoel shuddered. The Maggid?! The head of the ... heretics!!! But something made him hesitate. After all, there really was no evidence for these charges. Perhaps they were empty. Not only that, but this was his only chance ... he agreed.
Rab Zusia repeated what he heard from the Magid solving all Rabbi Refoel's problems and the next day Rabbi Refoel appeared in Hamburg, made a perfect impression and was chosen as chief Rabbi!
But he was afraid to keep his part of the bargain.
So he traveled to Vilna to ask the Gaon what to do. "If you gave your word you must keep it." He answered. "You must go to this Maggid. But only on two conditions; first that you come back immediately and report to me everything you hear and see there and second that you swear right now before ten people that you will not tell anyone there who you are."
Early the next morning Rabbi Refoel put on the garments of a wanderer and set off for the Maggid and when he arrived he was very impressed with what he saw. The prayers of the Chassidim had fervor and depth he had never experienced and so it was their Torah learning. But then he saw the Maggid and had to admit that he had never seen anything like him in his life; the man was simply G-dly!
Nevertheless, he kept his head down, spoke to no one and, because Rab Zusia had not yet returned, he was certain beyond any doubt that no one there possibly knew him.
At one point a woman came to ask the Maggid a question. She had bought a chicken but had a doubt if it was Kosher or not. The Maggid called his pupils over to debate the law. The question was a difficult one that had already been dealt with by the Ramba'm, the Ri'f and the Raava'd but the Maggid's pupils concluded that the bird was permissible according to all opinions.
The Magid then explained the entire question according to the Kabalistic views of the Ar'i, the Rama'k and the Chayya't and also concluded that according to Kabala the bird is also kosher.
Then he added. "But standing right there in the corner is Rabbi Refoel, the chief Rabbi of Hamburg, let us hear what he has to say.
When the Magid called his name, Rab Refoel felt something in his soul open up, he looked up at the Maggid in awe and immediately ran out of the room. But his life had been changed.
However when he returned to the Gaon his enthusiasm was not shared. After the Gaon listened to Rab Refoel’s entire report he concluded that it was all done through sorcery.
"But how do you know that your refusal to even speak to the Maggid or listen to my report is not from evil?" Rab Refoel asked the Gaon, and received no answer.
Rabbi Refoel did not dare travel to the Magid again from respect to the Gaon but he left the camp of the Mitnagdim completely and became a clandestine Chassid..
This answers our question. Sometimes calling a thing by its name can change its entire being. That is what the Maggid did with Rabbi Refoel when he called his name and that is what Adam did with the animals.
G-d created man to 'Improve and protect' (2:15) the entire creation. In other words; although the creation was on a very high and pure level (it was called 'Gan Eden' which means 'heaven'; with the same purity as the afterlife does now!) nevertheless it was Adam's job to improve it.
Namely to reveal the truth; that creation is only a transparent facet of G-d's ONEness and there is, in reality, nothing other than G-d.
In short: to reveal G-d in the world.
This was begun by Adam when he called names to the animals and REVEALED the spiritual in the physical.
True, the animals were already alive and their individual names were already conduits for their life force. But all this is part of NATURE where the physical, the spiritual and G-d seem to be three separate 'things'.
Adam's job was to show they are really one; and this the angels couldn't do because they themselves are limited to the spiritual; only Adam had (and we still have) the ability to unite them.
At the giving of the Torah there was even a greater revelation; G-d, the creator of the physical AND spiritual was revealed on Mount Sinai (and afterward in the holy of holies).
But the final step is Moshiach.
The Moshiach will bring the complete and constant revelation of the Creator in the entire creation "On that day G-d will be ONE and His Name ONE".
That is why ADaM is the initials "Adam, Dovid, Moshiach; he began the process that will be completed when we do what the Lubavitcher Rebbe says And not much is lacking.
We are standing on the merits of thousands of years of Jewish self-sacrifice and good deeds. Now it could be that just one more good deed, word or even thought can do the job.
This is the real message of Succot; to do everything possible in joy to bring ... Moshiach NOW!!
Rabbi Tuvia Bolton
Yeshiva Ohr Tmimim
Kfar Chabad, Israel
Please Donate https://www.paypal.com/donate/?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=VS68A3VT3VD7C&source=url
- Join our Daily classes!! Sun – Thurs– (Israeli time) 8:15 a.m.
Chassidut, 9:00 am Dvar Malchut
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81716407325
See past classes:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs94DJEzXWPkMgYV-YtQe
