This week we commemorate the yahrzeit of Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk, the first Rebbe of the Land of Israel in modern times. The Vitebsker, as he is commonly known, was the successor of the Maggid of Mezritch and following the yearning of his teachers, the Maggid and the Ba’al Shem Tov, led a group of 200 families from Russia on aliyah to the land of Israel in 5537 (1777)! The most famous collection of his teachings is Pri Ha’aretz (Fruit of the Land).
In his teachings for parashat Kedoshim, he states that a person who is part of Israel, part of the Jewish people, is someone who is willing to nullify himself to sanctify God publicly, like Moses who said to God, “If you will not [forgive the people], please erase me from Your book.”
There is no greater self-nullification than Moses sacrificing himself in this way, by willing to having himself erased from the Torah, all in order to sanctify God’s Name.
The Vitebsker explains that sanctifying God’s Name means to perform some action that will cause Godliness to be revealed upon the Jewish people. A person should be so self-nullified that he or she is willing to be erased from this World and from the World to Come, to become nothing, all so that God be revealed upon the Jewish people.
Holiness and Wisdom: Stripping Corporeality Away
The Vitebsker continues to explain that the name of our parashah, Kedoshim (“you shall be holy”) corresponds to the sefirah of wisdom. Holiness and wisdom are identified with one another in Kabbalah.
Who is a wise person, who is a holy person? The Vitebsker’s answer is that this is an individual who can reach a state of stripping himself corporeally. How does one reach this state? There are many different techniques brought by different authors, but the Vitebsker’s answer demonstrates his connection with the intellectual approach of Chabad.
This connection was discussed by the Lubavitcher Rebbe who said that since the Vitebsker was Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi’s rebbe, it can be argued that the former should be added to the lineage of the Chabad Rebbes. They were both chasidim of the Maggid, but they also had a rebbe-chasid relationship. The Alter Rebbe yearned to join the Vitebsker when he made aliyah to the Land of Israel, but the Vitebsker forced him to stay in Russia, to lead the chasidim there.
In any case, like in many of his teachings, the Vitebsker demonstrates a strongly Chabad-leaning approach. He says that to be holy—to strip oneself of one’s corporeality—one must dedicate his life to wisdom. Wisdom and holiness are interchangeable.
Deep Contemplation of Wisdom
In his book, the Vitebsker utilizes the term “contemplative wisdom” (חֲכָמָה וּנִית עִ י) to describe what he is constantly focused on. This is the inner aspect of wisdom since there is a distinction between wisdom’s interior and its exterior dimensions. Learning the Torah’s revealed wisdom—the body of Torah—is wisdom’s exterior. But contemplating the Torah’s concealed wisdom following the way of the Ba’al Shem Tov and Chasidut—the Torah’s soul—that is wisdom’s interior.
He writes that one should be so engrossed in one’s contemplation of inner wisdom that he should forget whether it is day or night. According to the Vitebsker, the sages of old were able to remain in this contemplative state for three straight days, completely divorced of their corporeal being, clinging to God, not knowing whether it was day nor night. We should all strive to reach this level—the state of “Kedoshim”— “You shall be holy.”
An individual who has not reached this state—contemplation for three straight days without knowing whether it is day or night (it goes without saying that he has not eaten a thing)—has not really visited this world, is certainly not worthy of the title of “sage” (חָ כָ ם ), nor the title of “a holy person” (שֹקָ דו).
Contemplative Wisdom and Chabad Meditation
What Rebbe Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk calls “contemplative wisdom” (חֲכָמָה וּנִית עִ י) is known in Chabad as Divine meditation (נְ נו ּת הִ תְ בּ ו קִ ית אֱ ל), or simply Hitbonenut in Hebrew. Hitbonenut incorporates two aspects related to the sefirah of understanding known as “the Supernal Mother” (אִ מּ ָ א עִ לָּאָ ה) and “contemplation” (תְּ בו ּנָה). Contemplation refers to the mind’s ability to capture a concept internally, to internalize it and is sometimes described as conscious stability.
Rebbe Isaac of Homil explains this best. He writes that Hitbonenut means taking an idea and contemplating it to such an extent that you internalize it, and it reaches a stable state in your mind so that you will not forget it. A person who engages in Hitbonenut is constantly acquiring new ideas, new understanding. This produces great joy in the individual—joy is the inner experience of understanding. This joy is of course positive, but this is not the same as attaining a state of holiness.
The person who attains holiness is totally immersed within the thought he is meditating upon, as Rebbe Isaac describes it. He is so deeply engaged in meditation that he divests himself of his corporeal self and is surrounded by the light of wisdom. This type of Hitbonenut, or Chasidic meditation, is related to the Supernal Mother, which is constantly attached to the Supernal Father principle (אַ בָּא עִ לָּאָ ה ). This is a different state of mind, distinct from the contemplation described above as thinking about an idea until it settles in your mind, is stabilized, and internalized.
An example of contemplation that settles the mind and leads to joy can be found in Rebbe Nachman’s writings. But in Chabad, Hitbonenut is a different matter, as we have discussed many times, and here we have a teaching from the Vitebsker that follows the same path. Reaching a state of being immersed for three days and three nights in the light of wisdom, not knowing if it is day or night, that is the meaning according to the Vitebsker of, “You shall be holy, for I, Havayah your God, am holy.”
Using Hitbonenut to Approach God
One of the most beautiful points the Vitebsker makes in his teaching on Kedoshim and on being “holy,” is that meditating—performing Hitbonenut—on reality can be likened to a physicist who is contemplating nature and considers elementary particles. His thought delves in depth, and he can almost reach a state of divesting his corporeality. The more deeply one thinks about a topic, the more one breaks it up into smaller and smaller pieces, just as a physicist would go deeper into the composition of matter and reach smaller and smaller particles. First there are atoms, then electrons and protons, then quarks, and finally, today, strings. Who knows what will come next. The deeper he reaches the greater the power to resolve tiny elements and yet, one needs to know that this is all like naught compared to the revelation of Godliness. Everything one has attained is completely null and void.
The exact word the Vitebsker uses to describe this power to resolve smaller and smaller elements is “finer and finer” (דַּ ק עַ ל דַּ ק). He meditates on finer and finer elements, as far as the human mind can reach. One needs to realize that all that we can think about is Being—the created being that is like naught before God. All created being is completely nullified before God; it cannot be identified with God at all.
This is the leap that we are expecting science and scientists to eventually make. This will be the redemption of science and the beginning of the light of Mashiach. One needs to reach the finest elements, but realize that regardless of how deeply you reach, how fine the reality you are considering, a leap is still needed to arrive at the revelation of Godliness, which is not material at all. All this is alluded to in the incense prepared for the Temple service, which was ground finer and finer and represents a state of being bound and cleaving to God.
It would seem then that the formula the Vitebsker is giving us is that if one wants to reach true contemplative wisdom and a state of divestment from the corporeal, one needs to study nature on a finer and finer scale until one reaches the conclusion that God “is neither corporeal nor the image of corporeality,” to quote Maimonides.
(from a shiur given on 1 Iyar 5778)
