In parshas Behar, which introduces the concept of the shemittah year and of the yovel year, our Rebbe, shlit’a, teaches in the name of the Shem m’Shmuel, z’t’l, who teaches in the name of his holy father, the Avney Ezer, z’t’l, that a person, to draw the Abishter’s presence near themselves, must be pure in all their 248 limbs, corresponding to the positive precepts. (Why not mention the other quantity, 365? This corresponding to the negative commandments and to the days of the year? The individual may not proceed toward the purity derived from the 248 without first establishing the 365. This nuanced consideration resembles the vort I heard from Rebbe, shlit’a, regarding the dynamic of ‘mishmar.’ The status of being in the state of ‘mishmar,’ is m’ahava, cleaving to and fearing HaShem from a state of great love, rather than from the fear of punishment. A person exercises stringencies, builds fences, to maintain the negative commandments, but this alone will not endow him with an interior elevation, only the capacity for this realization. The 248 positive mitzvos are less than the 365 yet there proper performance comes from love for the Abishter, receiving and returning His “great love,” so that the performer of such acts is k’banim, like His children, who wish to please their parents because of a love and awe for their presence rather than only k’avodim, His servants, whom, like employees, simply want to act according to their reward. Obviously, either is a tremendous blessing and a person must fulfill both dynamics, just as His name is One and He is One. Nonetheless, the light is light and the dark is dark. Though there exists only this One thing, the tov must be sholet the ra.)

If even one limb is lacking this completeness, the vessel contains a contamination and the Shechina is unable to rest on him, G-d forbid! The capacity to receive kedusha as a tzaddik is concealed. This creates a dilemma –similar to my dilemma regarding the first possuk of Tehillim, who is, and can be, the Ashrey, for Koheles 7:20,  teaches, “there is no tzaddik that does only good and never errs.” If this is so, how does Israel merit to receive the Torah in each generation and the blessings and presence of HaShem that such closeness brings? How does a tzaddik reveal himself?

I have heard this, what Rebbe calls, THE secret of life (per our many discussions and the definition of our world being haphooch, what is truly secret does not hide, it is simply not sought after, as the verses in Mishlei state, 26:13, “the slothful say, “there is a lion in the way; a lion is in the streets,” and 22:13, “the lazy say, “there is a lion outside; I will be murdered in the middle of the street.”):

The kernel of the Baal Shem Tov’s, z’t’k’l, teaching, is that the love of Beni Yisrael elevates a person so that  they see no flaws in the nation, Israel is perfect in their eyes, and when they are elevated as such, our shortcomings are hidden in the merit of the nation and love flows out towards our fellow Jews as the Abishter’s love flows out to each and every one of us. This then, just as the holy Tomer Devorah teaches, is the tzaddik revealed and redeemed on the personal level, the holiness of the nation imbuing him with tziddkus as his merits imbue the nation with gadlus, for the whole of the tree is contained within the seed and, as though engaged in a kiss, our eyes shut, do we say, Shema Yisrael, HaShem Elokeinu, HaShem echad. And further, HaShem is One and His name is One.

This and other sections may be inferred from the loshon of parshas Kedoshim, where the language is ‘lechem,’ plural, versus parshas Yisro, where the language is, ‘lecha,’ singular: the blemish of the chet haegel displaced the yachid, the individual, and we were almost lost, G-d forbid, when suddenly the merit of Moshe rebbenu’s love for us revealed the holiness of our nationhood, so that we exist today in a state of grace as a perfect nation comprised of flawed individuals involved in rectifying ourselves through Torah learning, mitzvos, and teshuva. This connects us to the somber reality of parsha v’Eschanan. Imagine, had we, as a nation, prayed for Moshe at the time of his pleading with HaShem, that he be allowed to enter Israel with us, what could have been? For his prayers, that of one man, were sufficient to redeem a nation, but the nation was quiet when one man needed our prayers. We see also, with the example of Hannah, how the prayers of one woman delivered Shmuel, who brought forth Dovid.

We are still left with questions. First we know, as may be inferred and as I received from Rebbe, that a person may be m’sakeyn the world from ‘fixing’ even the smallest flaw in himself. It is only the nature of appearances that create in humanity a desire for large actions which ‘confirm’ through visualization, change, so that we take a simple task and complicate it, as Koheles states, 7:29. “…G-d has made the Adam yashar but they seek out many intrigues.” But what is our motivation?

All is in the proverbial cusp of the Abishter’s grasp and ben Adam is enjoined to not complete the task but only to toil in it, Avos 2:21, “he used to say: It is not incumbent upon you to complete the task; and you are not free to desist from it.” The bechor, the first fruits, the moment that has arrived, per the Toldos Yaakov Yosef, as learnt out with Rabbi Gedaliah Jaffe, shlit’a, this we offer to HaShem, with our efforts.

A person may see the linear quality of his life as one thing and his status as inert, not changing, for he doesn’t perceive the actual growth except over great lengths of time. But the holy author of Tehillim states, 118:24, “this is the day, haYom, the Abishter made, delight and rejoice in it.” What is the meaning of this day, yom, this moment?

We recite in our prayers, the Abishter is renewing creation moment to moment so that His presence is felt and known, and only this interior reality exists. Rabbi Yom Tov Glazer, shlit’a, states, HaShem does not recreate the past, nor is there a future! This resolves the difficult question of free will and HaShem’s “knowing,” though the answer itself is hard enough to comprehend for it is counter our intuition that the past was real and the future is coming. Of course we perceive the worlds as being linear because they exist for our sake and the expanse is such that we cannot experience the borders of reality, like chasing the horizon, where no ground is ever made, so that the moment extends into the perceived past and into the imagined future. But who can grasp the worlds and say this is this or that is that, I know this to be such and such? What the genius says today is refined tomorrow, then made obsolete, and the generations come and go until there is neither consideration or memory of that which preceded.

The Mishna in Avos, 5:7, never once states that the wise person is smart, intelligent, bright, or talented. Instead, Tehillim 19:8 teaches us, HaShem’s Torah fills the simpleton, the humble empty vessel, with wisdom. Where you find these seven traits, there you will find wisdom – go seek it out!

All the created things merge as branches receding into the trunk that is inside of this moment, this day, haYom, this point of time my friend, Rabbi Benyamin ha Cohen H., shlit’a, calls the liminality: An infinite contained within the finite and as this author understands, the “black fire over white fire” of the holy R’M’B’M’s, z’t’k’l, statement in the introduction to his holy commentary on our Torah.

The thing, which is in the heart and mouth to do, this moment, seemingly connected to all other moments, here you find the shoresh, the root of the individual wherein lies your name, our Source.