Q1. How can it say in the Zohar that all the love and fear of Hashem that a person receives is just a gift from Hashem who is the spiritual “husband” of every Jewish soul? How does that fit with the concept that we have free will to choose to serve Hashem, which is dependent on our own effort to awaken a love and fear of Him, like it says “Everything is in the hands of Heaven except for the fear of Heaven?”
A1. There are two types of love (and fear) of Hashem: One type is created through our own effort to contemplate on His true Oneness, how He is the ultimate true existence, that everything exists as part of Him. Through lengthy contemplation on His Oneness, we will awaken in ourselves a love for Him.
The second type of love is a gift from Above, a revelation of Hashem to those who truly fear Him and serve Him on a high level. This second type of love (and fear) is really a gift from Above, totally beyond the efforts of the person himself. This is what the Zohar was referring to when it said that all the love and fear of Hashem is just a gift, it meant that the higher level of love and fear that completely transforms the person is just a gift from Hashem. But the love and fear that we need to keep the Mitzvos and overcome the Yetzer Hara are dependent on our own effort.
Q2. How is possible to love Hashem “with all of your life?” This would imply that we should be so bound up in wanting to connect to Hashem that we wouldn’t want to have anything to do with the physical world at all. How is it possible to live in this world and still love Hashem with our entire life, literally?
A2. The word nefesh also means the level of our soul expressed in our thoughts, speech, and actions, and the intention is that through putting all of the above forms of expression into the thought, speech, and action of the Torah and Mitzvos, we become totally bound up with Hashem.
Q3. If the Torah and Mitzvos are expressed in purely physical things, how can they elevate us to Hashem, Who is beyond all physical existence?
A3. This is similar to the idea of hairs that grow from the life they receive from the brain. Even though a person’s hair is totally different than the brain, nonetheless, its life is still connected to the life in the brain. So too, the life and essence of the Torah and Mitzvos are still totally connected to their source in Hashem’s Will and Wisdom even though they look different when manifested physically.
Q4. What is the deeper implication of saying “When you will pick up the number of heads of the Jewish People, according to their count?”
A4. The special souls that are on the level of “head” are rewarded by being spiritually lifted up. This happens through a revelation of the “Great Love of Hashem” that Hashem shines into them as a reward for the intense and lofty service of Him.
Q5. What is the deeper implication of saying, “This is what they shall give all those who pass through the census, a half shekel of the holy shekel?”
A5. Every Jew, even someone who transgressed against the commandments, needs to give his “half shekel” to Hashem. The whole shekel, which is twenty Geira, represents someone who has both types of love for Hashem, each love having ten aspects. Half a shekel, which is ten Geira, represents someone who only has the love that comes from his own effort. By saying that everyone must give a half shekel, the pasuk means that everyone, even someone who has transgressed the commandments of the Torah, can awaken in himself a deep love of Hashem that will permeate his ten soul powers.
