In Parshas Beshalach we find the following story: When Hashem took the Jewish People out of Egypt they didn’t have any food prepared to eat during their journey in the desert. The matza that Hashem commanded them to eat on the night before they left Egypt miraculously lasted for the first thirty days after leaving Egypt, but after those thirty days there was no more food. Then Hashem brought down from heaven miraculous food called “Munn” (also called “Manna” in English).
The way that the Jewish People were required to eat the Munn on Shabbos was the opposite of how they were commanded to eat the Munn during the rest of the week. During the week they were required to eat only the new Munn that fell for that day, and they were not allowed to save Munn from one day for the next. This was true of the first five days of the week, from Sunday through Thursday. On Friday, the Munn they collected measured double the amount that they received the previous five days.
On the first Shabbos morning after the Munn started falling, the Jewish People asked Moshe Rabeinu if they should go out to gather the Munn like they did on previous days. Moshe told them not to go out to gather Munn on Shabbos because it is forbidden to gather things in from outside on Shabbos. No Munn would fall that day and instead they were to eat the extra portion they had gathered the previous day. That afternoon, after the Jewish People finished eating what they had stored, came to ask Moshe if they should go out to gather food for the next day. Moshe told them not to worry about what they will eat tomorrow. Only on the day of Shabbos did the Munn not come down, but it will come down again the next day.
The Mystical Meaning of the Munn
In this maamar the Alter Rebbe will explain the mystical meaning of why the Munn didn’t come down on Shabbos, and what the idea of the Munn is:
“And Moshe said to the Jewish People: eat it (Munn) today because today is Shabbos for Hashem. Today you will not find it in the field (but tomorrow you will.)” (Shemos 16:25)
The Alter Rebbe asks two questions on the verse:
- Why didn’t the Munn come down on Shabbos? All the divine energy that flows into our physical world doesn’t stop flowing on Shabbos. In fact, it can’t because everything in the world is being continually created by a flow of divine energy, so that even a blade of grass can’t exist without constant divine influence from above. So why is the Munn different?
- What does it mean “eat it (the Munn) today”? Didn’t they eat it every day before then, so why are they told to eat it specifically on Shabbos?
The Alter Rebbe will address the first question by explaining the idea of the Munn in general:
“Hashem says: See now that I am going to rain down the Munn for you from heaven... in order to test the Jewish People if they will go in the ways of My Torah or not.” (Shemos 16:4)
Questions on the Purpose of the Munn
- Why did Hashem give them the Munn before giving them the Torah, and say that the reason is “in order to test them” through the Munn to see if they would be able to receive the Torah? What connection is there between this test of eating the Munn as commanded by Hashem and the receiving of the Torah?
- Why use the words “to see if they will go in the ways of My Torah”? It could have said “to see if they will fulfill My Torah.” What is added by the use of “going in the ways”?
The Torah and the Jewish Soul
However, the idea will be understood as follows: The Torah is comprised of “letters”. In the Torah scroll there are 600,000 letters corresponding to the 600,000 root souls of the Jewish People.
To explain: “Letters” in Hebrew are called osios which is an expression of bringing down something, as in the phrase (Yeshaya 21:12) “The morning אָתָ א-came”. We see that אָּתַָּׁא which is related to the word אוֹּת and תֹּו יִּתֹּוא means to come or be brought close. תֹּו יִּתֹּוא which are the “letters” of the Torah represent the idea of bringing down something from above. In our context that means that they (letters) bring down divine energy that “Encompasses all Worlds” into the level of divine energy that “Permeates all Worlds”.
It is for this reason that the letters are called by way of analogy “horses”, like it says in the verse (Chavakuk 3:8) “When You Hashem ‘ride’ on your ‘horses’, your ‘chariots’ bring salvation”.
When Hashem expresses Himself using “letters” (like a person who communicates using letters), those letters are being compared to horses. Just like a horse brings the rider from one place to another, so too the letters of the Torah bring Hashem’s expression from a level totally above our understanding to a level we can access and comprehend.
Divine Energy in Creation
It is known that the divine energy which brings the many worlds into existence from nothing is a reflection of a reflection.
The divine energy is two stages removed from its source in Hashem, like a reflection in a mirror that reflects another mirror, which is reflecting the original object. What are the two stages between the divine energy and its source?
“Praise the Name of Hashem, for His Name is elevated, it is only for Himself.” His “Name” is a reference to His attribute of Malchus-Kingship, which in its source is the level of the “Original Thought” of Hashem that “I want to be King over creation”. This thought lead to the creation of all worlds.
A name is used by other people to relate to someone. A person doesn’t need a name to relate to himself. So too, Hashem’s “Name” is how He relates to created beings, which are “other” than Himself. This is His aspect of Kingship, a relationship between a ruler and subjects. There are two levels of this relationship with created beings:
- The original thought about having this relationship, which leads to the creation of all beings.
- Hashem’s actual interaction with creations after they were created.
The aspect of Kingship-Malchus referred to here is the first level: How He relates to creations in His thought (that He wants them to exist so He can be their King), which is their ultimate source of existence.
And this aspect of “His Name” is also “only for Himself” since it is still in His “thoughts”. The verse continues (Tehillim 148:13) that only “the radiance” (meaning the glimmer or reflection) from “His Name” (His Kingship-Malchus) is expressed “in the earth and the heavens”.
Thus, we see how the divine energy in creation is two stages removed: The first stage is that the creation is from “His Name”, meaning from His desire to be King over “separate” created beings. It is only the one aspect of Hashem dealing with the idea of creating worlds. The second stage is that it is only a “reflection” of that original thought, a particular implementation of the idea that could have been implemented in many different ways.
Creation vs. Human Action
The creation of the heaven and earth is not similar to the way a mortal person makes something or works on a project:
When a person makes something, his energy is directly invested in what he is working on, and his intellectual investment in his work was never expressed before he started the work. How much more so that the letters that derive from his thought in his project never existed before he started the project.
In other words, when a person is working on something, he uses his imagination to decide exactly how to accomplish his task. These ideas never came to mind before he started working. So if he writes down or explains these ideas, those letters and words didn’t exist before. This means that a person is changed by his work. His energy becomes invested in the work and he has new ideas and new expressions of himself that did not previously exist.
However, regarding Hashem we cannot say that there are any changes through His “work”, like it says in the verse (Malachi 3:6) “I Hashem have not changed”, and like we say in the daily prayers “You are the same from before the world was created as You are after the world was created,” meaning that there is no change in Him through the process of the creation.
Now, this process of drawing down a reflection of a reflection of His Infinite Light comes about because “and He (Hashem) raises the glory of His People, the Jewish People who are close to Him” (Tehillim 148:14), meaning that they (the Jewish People) are the ones who bring down divine energy into this world.
As our Sages have said (Bereishis Raba 8:7): “Who did Hashem ‘ask’ before He decided to create the world? He consulted first with the souls of the righteous, and only then created the world.”
And like our Sages say (Shabbos 114a) they (the Jewish People) are also called “builders”, since they are involved in building the world by revealing Hashem in it.
Therefore, our Sages have said (Taanis 3b) that: “Just like it is impossible for the world to exist without winds, so too it is impossible for the world to exist without the Jewish People.”
The Analogy of Winds and Directions
We need to understand: How is the analogy of winds similar to the Jewish People that they are being compared to?
The idea will be understood as follows:
The word "רו חוֹּת" which can mean “winds” can also mean “directions”. If רו חוֹּת means “winds”, then the statement of the Sages is that just like the world needs רו חוֹּת-winds for air circulation for plants to grow, so too the world needs the Jewish People.
But if רו חוֹּת means “directions” then the statement of the Sages is as follows: Just like the world can only exist in the parameters of physical space that is comprised of six רו חוֹּת-directions (up down, north south, east west), so too the world needs the Jewish People since they bring down divine energy into the limitations of three-dimensional space that has six directions.
The word "רו חוֹּת" can mean the six directions: north and south, east and west, up and down. They are fundamental to the world, since they define physical space.
Without these directions there would be no physical space. Rather it would be as described in the verse (Shemos 33:21) “Hashem says: See now that space exists within Me.” All space and location are subsumed within Hashem at a single point, and nothing exists as a separate and delimited world.
So just like the world can only exist in three-dimensional space comprised of six directions, “so too it’s impossible for the world to exist without the Jewish People,” because it is the Jewish People who bring down Hashem’s Infinite Light to create physical space.
The Jewish People and the Number Six
The Jewish People draw down Hashem’s Light into the six directions of space because the Jewish People themselves are grouped specifically into the number six. We see this expressed in the following two examples:
- The names of the 12 Tribes (Shevatim) of the Jewish People were written in two groups of six on the two precious stones that the Kohen Gadol wore on the shoulder straps of the garment called the “Aifod”.
- The number of root souls of the Jewish People is 600,000 (the number of adult men who left Egypt), which is the number 6 multiplied by 10 to the fifth power (10⁵), representing the number 6 in the most complete possible level.
The connection of the Jewish People to the number six is that Hashem has six “emotional attributes” that He uses to create the world. These six attributes (Kindness, Severity, Compassion, Victory, Loyalty, Connection) are also called “the six sides”. A three-dimensional object, like a cube, must have six sides (east-west, north-south, up-down) to exist in the physical world. A person’s emotion motivates him to bring his thoughts into words and actions. Similarly, these six attributes cause Hashem’s “thoughts” to result in the creation of physical beings in three-dimensional space. So, for something to exist in the physical world it needs to come through these six attributes.
Since the “emotions”, as it were, of Hashem are primarily focused on His love for the Jewish People and desire to connect with them, therefore His “emotional attributes” correspond in number to that of the Jewish People, who are grouped in numbers of six.
This is through the idea in the verse (Shemos 28:10): “Six of their names (of the Tribes) on one stone, and the six remaining names on the second stone, arranged according to the order of their birth.” We see a connection to the number six.
Which corresponds to the “emotional attributes” referred to as “the six sides” of the world of Atzilus.
In addition, each one of the “six sides” that the Jewish People correspond to is comprised of 10, and each of those 10 are comprised of 10, totaling 600,000, corresponding to the number of root souls of the Jewish People. We see again how the Jewish People essentially correspond to the number 6, as multiplied 100,000 times.
The fact there are 600,000 letters of the Torah is because there are 600,000 root souls, and each soul has a connection to a letter in the Torah, and is able to reveal and draw down that letter into this world.
The Mystical Meaning of the Giving of the Torah
The Alter Rebbe will explain this point with a mystical explanation of the following verse:
“Hashem, when You went out from Sei’ir, when You stepped forward from the field of Edom (to give the Torah to the Jewish People, after Edom refused it), the earth trembled, also the heavens dripped, also the clouds dripped water.” (Shoftim 5:4)
The word "ש ֵּעִיר", besides for being country of the descendants of Eisav and Edom (Se’ir), also can mean “ש ְעָרוֹּת-hairs”, referring to a mere reflection (a hairsbreadth) of divine energy. This is analagous to hairs, in that although they grow from the life-force of the brain, nonetheless, if they are cut, one will not feel pain. Unlike other body parts (e.g. the hands) that receive a greater life-force from the brain and consequently cause pain upon their injury, only a very minute amount of life-force is invested in the hairs. So too, the divine energy that becomes revealed to us is a very minute expression of the original Light and Life-force which are infinite.
The Name of Hashem in this verse which is called "הֲוָיָ" -Havaya refers to how Hashem is constantly giving life and creating everything from nothing. Since the name "הֲוָּיָּ" is related to the word מהוה-Creator, and the prefix יַׁ at the beginning (in the true spelling) conjugates the verb in the imperfect (ongoing) tense, it expresses that Hashem is constantly creating everything.
When it says in our verse “When You Hashem go out” to reveal Yourself at The Giving of the Torah, it is only from the level of a “hairsbreadth” revelation.
The process of drawing energy from Hashem’s Light that Encompasses All Worlds down into this world has is no other comparison or analogy that works as well, besides for the small amount of life-force that is expressed in a person’s hair.
And all this revelation was through the Giving of the Torah.
