We Are Malochim (Adapted from the Torah of Rav Yitzchok Hutner, zt”l, Pachad Yitzchok, Shavuous, Maamar 4)
By Eliakim Willner
Eliakim Willner is author
of a volume of select Pachad Yitzchok Maamorim, in English with commentary, and
of “Nesivos Olam – Nesiv HaTorah: An Appreciation of Torah Study”, a
translation with commentary of a work by the Maharal of Prague, both published
by Artscroll/Mesorah. A continuation of the Nesivos Olam series, “Nesivos Olam
– Nesiv HaAvodah: The Philosophy and Practice of Prayer” awaits publication.
In life, our
possessions can generally be classified as either luxuries or necessities. But
what of wisdom? Is wisdom a luxury or a necessity? Intuitively we might say
that wisdom is a necessity. How can we get along without wisdom?
That is one
perspective on wisdom. But from another perspective, wisdom, and in particular
Torah wisdom, partakes heavily of the character of the most lavish of luxuries.
We explain this apparent paradox.
In general,
necessity surpasses luxury from the standpoint of the degree of pain suffered
in its absence, while on the other hand, luxury surpasses necessity from the
standpoint of the degree of pleasure enjoyed in its presence. For example, the
pleasure obtained from a royal audience – certainly a luxury - is infinitely
greater than the pain suffered from not having a royal audience. Not having
something that most people never have anyway is not a terribly great source of
pain. Conversely, the pain of lacking food to eat or clothing to wear is
infinitely greater than the pleasure of having those necessities. Having
necessities is a state that people take for granted and do not especially
experience great joy from.
The general rule is
that the more an experience makes inroads onto the turf of “luxury”, the more
the pleasure of having it exceeds the pain of not having it. On the other hand,
the more an experience makes inroads onto the turf of “necessity”, the more the
pain of not having it exceeds the pleasure of having it.
However, anyone who
has been fortunate enough to observe the inner life of true servants of Hashem,
knows with certainty that their relationship to their Torah study and to their
service of Hashem partakes of the characteristics of both necessity and luxury,
interwoven. For people such as these, when either Torah or service are lacking,
the pain is akin to the lack of the most vital necessity. However, the joy and
the spiritual pleasure when they are present, is akin to that of the presence
of the most lavish of luxuries, and the most enjoyable of pleasures, as we have
said.
What is the
spiritual source that energizes this remarkable phenomenon?
A Personal Naaseh V’Nishma
This is what Rabbeinu Yonah
taught in Shaarei Teshuva 2:3:
“… For one who accepts upon himself to
do whatever the masters of Torah instruct him, from that day onward… And from
the time that he accepted this in his heart, he acquired merit and reward for
his soul for all of the commandments and ethical acts. And happy is he for
justifying his soul in a short time…
“And it is said in Avos D’Rav
Nosson 22, ‘Anyone whose actions are greater than his wisdom - his wisdom
will endure, as the posuk states (Shmos 24:7), “We will do and we
will take in”, Naaseh V’Nishma’. [The implication of the sequence is
that we are prepared “to do” whatever it is we are told to do regardless of
what the command that “we will take in” will be. The taking in is only
necessary to define the command and enable us to set the action in motion.]
“The reason is that when a man accepts
upon himself with a faithful heart to keep and do according to the ‘Torah that
he was taught, and about the judgement that was told to him’ (Devarim
17:11), from that day, he has the reward for all of the commandments that his
ear heard and that he understood, as well as for all of the things which his
ear has still not heard about…
“And it emerges that the actions of
this man are greater than his wisdom, since he did not know the thing, but the
reward for it is in his possession. And it is of the same nature as the
declaration of the nation Yisroel at Mount Sinai, ‘We will do and we will take
in– they accepted the actions upon themselves before hearing what was required
of them. And in no other way it is possible for the actions of a man to be
greater than what he knows.”
These are the words of Rabbeinu
Yonah.
The Sinai Baseline
The lesson of Rabbeinu Yonah’s words
is this: The Mishna that teaches (Avos 3:9) that the only wisdom
that endures, is the wisdom of a person whose actions are greater than what he
knows, is built on the same principle as Yisroel’s declaration of “We will do
and we will take in”, when the Torah was given.
The implications are earth-shattering.
The Mishna is actually teaching that the heights that Yisroel achieved
at Sinai with that statement, subsequently became the standard against which
the wisdom of every Jew is measured – to the extent that if his wisdom does not
measure up to that standard, it will not endure!
That statement, which, at Sinai, shook
all the worlds in wonderment, and at which an amazed heavenly voice cried out,
“Who revealed to My children this secret formulation used by the malachai
hashares, per the posuk (Tehillim 103:20), ‘Those mighty in
strength, who perform His word, to take in the voice of His word’
(‘perform’ precedes ‘take in)” – that same statement is now the universal
baseline. The only way for any Jew to achieve the wisdom-enduring level of
“actions greater than knowledge” is for him to precede “we will take in” with
“we will do” in his personal service to Hashem.
How are we to understand this?
The Malochim and Us
The explanation is as follows. The
precedence of “we will do” to “we will take in” on the part of the malachai
hashares means that the taking in is not the cause of their fulfilling the
will of Hashem. The taking in merely enables the fulfillment by defining the
required act, but the fulfillment itself is independent of any particular
cause, since the malachai hashares exist only to fulfill the will of
their Creator. Their very name defines their essence; the word for “angel” is malach
and that word means “delegate” or “agent”. Heavenly beings are referred to in
this way because their mission is their existence. The rule is that a single malach
cannot have multiple missions because a malach’s mission is synonymous
with its existence and a single entity cannot have more than one existence.
Chazal teach us (Chagigah
14a) that there are malochim that sing a single song of praise to
Hashem, and then expire. But can malochim “die”? Death was decreed when
Odom ate from the Aitz HaDaas, but malochim were not included in
that decree. Rather, the malochim expire simply because they have no
existence independent of their mission. The moment their mission is done, they
are themselves, by definition, done. Thus, if a maloch’s mission was a
one-time declaration of Hashem’s sanctity, it will cease to exist once it has
made that declaration.
To put it another way, it is the maloch’s
“we will do” that defines their existence since it establishes their status as
agents of Hashem and therefore it must precede their “we will take in”. Being
an agent of Hashem gives them the capacity to fulfill Hashem’s missions. “We
will take in” enables the mission specifics to be transmitted to them. Once the
mission is complete there is nothing further for that maloch to “do” so
it ceases to exist.
However, the specific maloch-like
behavior of “will do” before “take in”, meaning, no justification for existence
without the “do”, was transplanted into mankind when the Torah was given. From
that point onward, there exists in the physical world an entity such that the
justification for its existence, and the fact of its existence, is to fulfill
the will of its Creator. The identity of that entity? The Jewish nation.
The defining feature of the events
surrounding the giving of the Torah was not that the heavens descended upon the
earth; not the spectacular miracles resulting from that event. It was, rather,
the introduction of the concept of chad hu, “overlapping identities” –
the unity of Hashem, the Jewish nation and the Torah. The implication of
introducing the concept of chad hu is that from that moment onwards it
is not the “take in” that triggers the “will do” but rather, that the “will do”
is a natural outcome of the unity; the “take in” is no more than a means of actualizing the
“will do”. In that model it is inevitable that the “will do” precede the “take
in” just as it does with respect to angels. We are one with the Torah, our
mission, and it defines our identity, just as a maloch’s identity is
defined by its mission. In that way, we, denizens of the lower worlds, partook of
the secret of the denizens of the upper worlds.
As a result, every fresh insight that
enters the mind of every Jew – that is, every “take in” – is guaranteed to have
been preceded by a “will do”, thus maintaining, for every Jew, the constant
equilibrium of the actions of a man being greater than what he knows.
The Ever-Present Mission
Moreover, since, from the moment the
Torah was given and onwards, every Jew’s advancement in Torah knowledge and in
service to Hashem is attained on the basis of chad hu, we must view
these advancements not as new acquisitions obtained from outside his current
sphere, but rather as self-vitalizations, based on a preexisting foundation.
Such a person is, in a manner of speaking, pulling himself up by his own
bootstraps. Since he is one with Hashem and the Torah, his accomplishment is
tantamount to uncovering and activating a novel Torah thought, or a laudable
practice, that was already there as his previously accepted “mission”, albeit
in latent form. Thus, however much he grows, he will always be “greater than
what he knows”.
Torah is Life
We are now prepared to identify the
spiritual origin of the two-sided relationship that true servants of Hashem
have with their Torah and their service. We said that it is a relationship
comprising both necessity and luxury, for, to a true servant of Hashem, the
pain of absence with respect to Torah and service, is as acute as the pain of
someone lacking a vital necessity, while the pleasure of possessing Torah and
service is as intense as the pleasure of enjoying the most extravagant of
luxuries.
This paradox becomes plausible when we
realize that the distinction we drew earlier between luxuries and necessities
applies only to the trappings of life and to the process of seeking them out.
When it comes to life itself, however, this distinction dissolves. The drive to
survive fundamentally outweighs even the combined desires for necessities and
luxuries. A person saved from drowning in a river does not gauge his reaction
to that experience using the same pain versus pleasure yardstick that he would
use to gauge his reaction to necessities or luxuries.
A person facing the prospect of his
imminent demise is struck with a stark realization of what it means to live.
All the pleasures of the world pale into insignificance when measured against
the possibility of a second chance at life itself. Thus, when it comes to a
life-or-death situation, the pain of absence and the pleasure of presence are
equal partners. They are both at their height.
As we stated earlier, all advancements
in Torah and service to Hashem that are worthy of the name take place as
self-vitalizations, based on a pre-existing foundation. They are not new
acquisitions obtained from outside the person’s current sphere, but are
newly-vitalized chunks of potential which themselves derive from his
already-integrated oneness with Hashem and with the Torah. They are above and
beyond the plane in which necessities and luxuries fall into different
categories. These advancements are, in other words, acts which bring life, and
distance death, and as such they both bring joy in their presence and despair
in their absence, akin to the feelings of someone plucked from a raging river.
Only an outside observer, who
pigeonholes the experiences of servants of Hashem into one or the other of
necessity or luxury categories, will be perplexed at the apparent duality of
how they relate to their experiences – as if they were both necessity and
luxury at the same time. But the reality is that there is no duality. In fact,
they are seeing the outcome of unity. Yisroel and the Torah are one.
It All Started at Sinai
We say in birchas kriyas shma, “We
will rejoice in the words of Your Torah and in Your commandments… For they are
our life…”.
The stated reason for the rejoicing seems to be beside
the point. Are there not things that people rejoice about other than the fact
that they are alive? The reference, however, is not to ordinary joy but to the
joy experienced by a person saved from drowning in a river, who rejoices in
life itself. When a person is spared after staring death in the face, he
becomes acutely conscious of the fact of his existence, and there is no joy
more intense than the joy experienced at that moment.
Similarly the Torah and mitzvos
continually awaken us to the very fact of our existence and for that reason “we will rejoice in the words of Your Torah and in
Your commandments, for they are our life”. Thus this is not merely a statement
about one particular thing that we find joyful, it is an explanation of why we
are continually in a state of joy. The Torah and its commandments are unique in
their ability to keep us in a continual state of joy because they are the raison
d'etre for our very existence.
May the yom tov of Shavuous
renew our joy in the Torah, and may that joy last throughout the year!
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