Now, the Torah writes about our forefather Avraham (Bereishis 24:1): “Avraham was ‘זָּקֵּן-old,’ coming along in his days.”
The deeper meaning of ‘זָּקֵּן-old’ is that it is an acronym for ‘זֶַׁהַׁש ֶַׁק ָּנַָּׁהַׁ חָּכְׁמָּהַׁ-this is one who has acquired wisdom.’
As our Sages said on the verse (Iyov 12:12) “In the elderly there is wisdom,” that “as a Torah scholar ages, his mind becomes more settled.” (Kidushin 82b)
This tells us about Avraham’s divine service, it was settled, structured, and consistent. This is the idea of referring to Avraham as ‘זָקֵּן-old,’ meaning that his service of Hashem was in a manner of ‘זֶ ה ש ֶ ָנָ קה חָכְמָה-this is one who has acquired wisdom’ through consistently serving Hashem. This consistency caused him to constantly acquire new levels of wisdom.
This is the lesson we derive: One’s divine service ought to be consistent and performed in a settled and structured manner, (similar to Avraham), not constantly changing.
For all of one’s days must be complete, as interpreted in the Zohar.
The Zohar (vol I, 129a) explains the above verse: “Avraham was old, םיִּמָ יַּב אָּב-coming along in his days.” If the verse says that he was old, then what is it adding by saying that he was ‘םיִּמָ יַּב אָּב-coming along in his days?’ The answer is that these ‘יָ מִּים-days’ represent actions that bring Divine Light, as it says ‘ אָרְקִּ יַו 'ה לָאוֹר יוֹם-and Hashem called Light ‘Day.’” These acts that bring Divine Light are Mitzvos. Thus, the meaning of ‘םיִּמָ יַּב אָּב-coming along in his Days’ is that he came with all the mitzvos that bring Light, which he performed every single day of his life.
Every day of every year of a person’s life that Hashem gives him to live cannot be wasted, since a person is not given even one hour of time that is more than the amount of time needed for him to complete all the Mitzvos connected to his soul.
An intelligent person will think about this well, and realize that he should therefore make himself into someone who constantly evaluates his conduct, to evaluate his thought, speech, and deed every single day.
This daily accounting is needed to make sure that he uses every day to the fullest in the fulfillment of the Torah and Mitzvos in thought, speech, and deed. Since every day of a person’s life is determined by Hashem to fulfill the mission given to him, the person also needs to realize the importance of his actions every day.
Now, these ‘יַָּׁמִים-Days’ are ‘garments’ for the soul, and they are the ‘garments’ of the Torah and Mitzvos that one learns and performs every day.
These ‘garments’ allow one to receive the revelation of Hashem, and to experience an abundance of love and fear of Hashem that emanates from the “Land Above (Malchus of Atzilus),” as mentioned in the beginning of the maamar.
Even someone whose Torah study is on a rather simple level and he does not have feelings of love and fear of Hashem at the time, nonetheless, his Torah study ‘plants a seed of Light’ in the “Land Above (Malchus),” which produces charity from Hashem and His abounding kindness, in the form of shining a great love for Hashem in the souls of the Jewish People, which shines to them through these ‘garments’ of Torah study and Mitzvah performance.
This then is the deeper meaning of the opening verse “אֶתַׁ מִסְׁפ ר-the number of ַׁךיֶמָּי-your days אֲמ ל ֵּא-I will fill.”
The meaning of ‘ַׁךיֶמָּי-your days’ refers to the garments of the Mitzvos that you are required to perform (every day), and the ‘מִסְׁפ ר-number’ of your days refers to the Divine Light that is shining in those ‘Days-garments.’
As it is written in the Zohar (vol I, 8a) on the verse (Tehillim 19:2) “ה ש ָּמ יִם-the Heavens מְׁס פ ְׁרִ ים-recount [the glory of Hashem]”: What is the meaning of saying that the Heavens ‘מְסַפְּרִּ ים-recount’ the glory of Hashem? It means they “shine and glimmer like ‘ס פ ִירִ ין-sapphires,’” i.e., they radiate Hashem’s glory like a sapphire radiates light.
We see from the Zohar that the word ‘מְסַפְּרִּ ים’ can mean to shine and illuminate. Similarly, the word ‘מִּסְפַּר’ in our verse “אֶת מִּסְפַּר-the number of ךיֶמָי-your days אֲמַלֵּּא-I will fill,” means not just the ‘number’ of our days, but also the Light of Hashem shining in each day/garment/mitzvah will be filled by Hashem.
Thus, in our verse Hashem is saying, “This ‘מִסְׁפ ָּר-Light’ of your ‘Days’ (garments of mitzvos) I (Hashem) will fill,” since He will shine into you from the power of growth of “the Land of Life (Malchus).”
Since every Jew does mitzvos, which plant ‘seeds of Light’ in the ‘Land of Life’ (Malchus), this sprouts forth into a revelation of Divine Light from Malchus into the soul of the Jew in this world, shining and illuminating back into the Jew who fulfills those mitzvos, giving him Light and power to experience true love and fear of Hashem.
Hashem says that it is His job to “fill in the illumination” provided by the mitzvos. In other words, it is our job to actually learn Torah and fulfill mitzvos, and the spiritual awakening resulting from that is Hashem’s job. We can only try our best to experience the Light of Hashem in our prayer, but ultimately it depends on Hashem how much Light of our Torah and Mitzvos we experience. This means that it is not our job to worry about how much Light we experience, just to focus on the actual fulfillment of Torah and Mitzvos and trying to connect in contemplation and prayer, regardless of if we always feel the Light or not.
The Mittler Rebbe in Toras Chayim (Shemos vol. II, pp. 603-4) offers an alternative explanation of this passage:
The actual ‘garments’ of Mitzvos are dependent on us to make. However, the Light that shines through them into our soul in Gan Eden is Hashem’s job. In other words, through our Torah and Mitzvah performance in this world, we plant ‘seeds of Light’ in Malchus of Atzilus, which sprout forth into intense Divine revelation to our souls in Gan Eden after we pass away.
Or better yet: The ‘planted Light’ will sprout into intense Divine revelation in our physical world (while physically alive) after Moshiach comes (very soon) and we are able to perceive what each Mitzvah really accomplished. It is up to us to just do as many Mitzvos now as possible, and then Hashem will “fill in” the Light connected to each Mitzvah in the immediate future when Moshiach comes!
