לִממַעְׂלָ ה – ֹ
לֶׁ שא יָכוֹ ל נִבְׂרָ א לְׂהַש ִ י ג עַ ל יְׂדֵ י אִתְׂעֲרו תָ א דִ ילֵיה . However, as Moshe continued to say: “Hashem has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see...until this day.” Meaning, they did not yet have the level of a “pure heart” that is given from Above, since no created being can attain this level using only its own initiate.
וְׂזֶׁ ה הָיָה עִנְׂיַן הַמ ָ ן, ד ִ כְׂתִ י ב (עֵקֶׁ ב ח, ג) : ִעְׂרַ יַו ָ ךְׂ נַעְׂיַו"י ָ ךֶׁב ןָ מַה תֶׁא ָ ךְׂלִכֲאַ יַו כו '" – This was the idea of eating the (supernatural food called) Munn, as it is written, “He (Hashem) afflicted you and made you hungry, and He fed you the Munn.”
Even though the Munn was very tasty, it had two discomforting aspects: 1- it looked unappetizing, 2- it couldn’t be stored from one day to the next. Because of this, eating the Munn took away some of the attraction to food and materialism, and promoted trust in Hashem to provide a person each day with his sustenance. The purpose of eating the Munn was thus to humble the people and enable them to connect to Hashem better.
ש ֶׁעַל יְׂדֵי הַמ ָ ן, וְׂעַ ל יְׂדֵ י ִ י ו ניִעים יִפ ו גיִסְׂום זָכו לְׂמַעְׂלָ ה עֶׁלְׂיוֹנָ ה יוֹתֵ ר, לְׂקַב ֵ ל ב ְׂחִינַת לֵ ב־טָהוֹ ר . Meaning, that through the Munn, and through other humbling things and discomfort, they merited to receive a much higher level (of love and fear of Hashem), and were able to receive the level of “a pure heart.”
"(אַת ֶׁם רְׂ אִיתֶׁם .)" ( ש ה ַ מ ןי ֵּ י ַ ע ְ ור ֵּ א ב ְ ת ִ נ ש ר פ ְ בה ֶ ק ֵּ עב, ק וס פ ל ַ ע ִ כ ֲ א ַ י ַ ו"ין מ ַ הה ת ֶ א ך ְ ל 'ו ְ כ"(לְׂעֵי ל יג, ג) ) .
Lessons in Likutay Torah
וְׂכֵ ן הו א הָעִנְׂיָ ן ב ַ עֲש ֶׁרֶׁ ת יְׂמֵ י תְׂש ו בָ ה . This is similar to the concept of “fasting” during the Ten Days of Teshuva.
וְׂלָכֵ ן קוֹרִ ים פ ָרָש ָ ה זוֹ קוֹדֶׁ ם רֹאש ־הַש ָנָה :. This is why we read this Parsha (Torah Portion), i.e., Ki Savo, that contains the passages of “the Curses,” before Rosh Hashana.
Before Rosh Hashana (and Shavuos) we read in the Torah about the punishments Hashem said He will bring upon those who abandon Him and worship idols etc. These passages in the Torah are called “the Curses.” The Gemara (Megilla 31b) says that this is done so that we may “finish off the curses of the year.” Meaning, that if Hashem decreed any bad things in the coming year, it should be fulfilled by reading about it, and not by it actually happening in the physical world.
Tosfos (there) explains that we read the curses the second to last week of the year, which is always Parshas Ki Savo, so that the Parsha right before Rosh Hashana, Parshas Nitzavim, will contain only blessings.
The Alter Rebbe is explaining another idea behind reading the curses before Rosh Hashana. Since on Rosh Hashana we have the opportunity to receive a much deeper connection to Hashem than we ever had before, we need to refine and humble ourselves, so that we will be receptive to this new level of connection. One who feels self-satisfied and complete in himself will not be yearning for a new and deeper connection to Hashem. That is why we read about the punishments: In order to humble us, so that we may grow in our connection to Him.
This is similar to the story of the Jewish People in the Desert. While they were in the Desert, they served Hashem on a certain level, with a certain degree of love and fear of Hashem. But before they came into the Holy Land, they needed to receive from Hashem a totally new level of connection to Him, a deeper level of love and fear of Him. (This deeper connection was needed to empower them to handle the challenges of settling the physical land without getting distracted from their spiritual purpose.) This deeper level could only be given to them as a gift from Above. In order for them to be able to receive this gift from Above, they needed to be humbled and refined. This was accomplished by wandering in the desert for forty years and going wherever Hashem guided them, and by eating only the Munn that Hashem gave them for each day. After forty years of refinement,
they were finally ready to receive a new and deeper level of connection to Hashem, a higher level of love and fear of Hashem.
In other words, during the forty years in the desert, the Jewish People “saw” Hashem’s wonders and inspired themselves with that knowledge to connect to Hashem. However, at the end of the forty years, Hashem gave them “a heart to understand, eyes to see, and ears to hear,” i.e., an awareness and feeling for Hashem, on a totally different level than they would ever be able to attain through only their own effort.
This is similar to how we work the entire year, and especially in Elul and Tishrei, to come to an awareness and feeling for Hashem, and to humble and refine ourselves, so that on Rosh Hashanah and the other Ten Days of Teshuva, we can receive from Hashem an incomparably deeper and higher level of connection with him.
Likutay Torah English translation project: The original text of the maamarim with נקודות and punctuation is presented side by side with a phrase-by-phrase translation and explanation. The translation of the text is in bold whereas the commentary is in regular font. The explanations of general concepts that are not directly relevant to understanding the flow of the maamar are in footnotes.
All of the commentary of the Tzemach Tzedek printed with brackets in the original Likutay Torah have been moved to the Hebrew footnotes and left untranslated.
The Goal
The main purpose of this project is to enable the reader to learn the Likutay Torah in the original. By learning the words, structure, and concepts of the maamarim, eventually they should be able to learn it by themselves in the original.
The Ma’amarim of LIKUTEI TORAH and TORAH OR are copyright by the Kehot Publication Society, a division of Merkos L’inyonei Chinuch Inc., and are reprinted here with special permission. To purchase the original visit www.Kehot.com.
I would like to thank: Kehot for permission to use the text of the maamarim, the administrator of the לקוטי תורה מנוקד project for helping with the נקודות and punctuation, to see any Maamar from Torah Or/Likutay Torah with נקודות go to his website www.ChassidutBehirah.com, to R’ Baruch Katz for creating and managing the website, and Rabbi Yitzchok Miller for editing.
