Lesson #16

Rabbi Dennis Beck-Berman

Nature of Revelation: Overview & Terminology
Revelation = God + Torah + Israel (+ Humanity)
How preserve revelation as concrete communication? [seed > sapling > tree]
How effectively & creatively apply revelation to changing circumstances? Inspired writings > Scripture/canon >
authoritative Commentary > expanded Tradition
Why God provides revelation? Reasons for commandments; refine people; Heschel: What does God demands of
humanity?
Chosen People: God chose to reveal to Israel; Jews chose God; Rabbinic universalism - Torah proffered to all
humanity; God revealed paths to other nations
Torah - direction/sacred instruction: (1) Pentateuch/Chumash (Sefer Torah), (2) Bible/TaNaKH = Written
Torah, (3) Talmud (Mishnah & Gemara) = Oral Torah (Rabbinic interpretations /amplifications/additions), (4)
products of Jewish genius, (5) all wisdom, (6) natural law; (7) permutations of God, preexistent blueprint of
creation (cosmic spiritual DNA)
Aspects of Theology
Traditional, rational, mystical approaches
God is suprarational, transcendent (Traditional/Rational) & immanent (Mystic)
Panentheism; ineffable mystery of life; God & Big Bang
Rational proofs of Gods existence; Anthropic Principle; finite/relative human reason cannot prove ultimate reality
Authority of Divine revelation; authority of human experience of revelation
Torah (Pentateuch) is divine Law, Mosaic authorship (all/most/Decalogue); Moses
wrote some (Balaam, Deuteronomy) on his own
Torah speaks in human idiom; anthropomorphism; Day of Creation 1 million years
Documentary hypothesis (J-E, P, D); historical/redaction criticism; complex whole
PaRDeS: Plain meaning (Peshat); allegory [& gematria] (Remez); midrash, deeper meaning [homiletic] (Derash);
mystic [metatext existing within God] (Sod)
Torah miSinai / Matan Torah - Giving Torah is historical event; unbroken chain of prophetic & rabbinic
authorities who elaborate implicit meaning of divine Word
Torah min hashamayim (Ex 20:19) / Kabbalat HaTorah - continuing, creative/inspired, transformative
individual process; dialogue with God
Process: Scripture - prophecy: inspiration/holy spirit (ruach hakodesh); intellectual debate/decisions of
Torah, spiritual connection, mystical guides
Verbal inspiration vs. verbal communication. Ex 19:18 f; cf. I King 19:11 ff.
Maimonides (RaMBaM): Moses interpreted unintelligible divine sound, only first 2 commandments Israel
heard (ideas accessible to human reason).
Content: Decalogue/Ten Pronouncements; Pentateuch (all; minus ending; minus glosses); Mitzvot (sing.
mitzvah = command or connection) > Halakhah/divine legislation, not divine Aggadah (non-legal) [Thou shalt do,
not Thou shalt believe]; Ineffible flash (Aleph) at Sinai; Sefat Emet: divine light, vision of infinite love > hearts
stamp with cultural forms.
Orthodox: enormous range of views; elusive process is divine mystery; not merely human spiritual genius;
direct supernatural communication of content; generally Pentateuch is literal, verbal, Mosaic; crucial element
halakhah (incl. Oral Torah), which is eternal, immutable, but historically develops
Conservative: divinely inspired; non-literal; dynamic, ongoing process; authority in historical acceptance by
Klal Yisrael (Jewish people [not heretics]); immutable not immobile
Reform: non-literal, non-verbal, progressive; only ethical mitzvot divinely revealed; halakhah matter of
personal acceptance insofar as spiritually fulfilling
Reconstructionist: God did not reveal Torah, Torah reveals God to Israel, discovery arising out of natural
religious impulse; record of striving for salvation; Torah is complete Jewish civilization; prophetic discovery of moral
law is principal self-revelation of God; mitzvot are sancta (revered folkways)

(]) "The words of the wise are as goads ... they come from one shepherd"(Eccl 12 11 )
What is (the meaning of) "like goads"/kadorbonot? Rabbi Berekhia said:
kadur shel banot, "a girls' ball," like that ball of the maidens which
they intercept, one tossing here and one tossing there. Similarly, the
sages enter into study and are occupied with the Torah, one states his
reason and another his reason, one gives his opinion and another his opinion,
but the words of these and those were all given from the shepherd, Moses,
from what he received from the Unique One of the world - "they come from
one shepherd." Since this one gives one opinion and the other gives another
opinion, lest (you think) there words are floating, the verse teaches "and like firmly fixed nails are (the words of) the masters of the (rabbinic)
collections" (ib.).
Pesikta Rabbati 3.2
~ R. Meir ... would declare clean the ritually unclean and show (plausible)
arguments for it, and declare unclean the ritually clean and show (plausible)
arguments for it . .. It was taught: There was a distinguished student at
Yavneh who could declare a creeping thing clean by 150 reasons .. R. Abba
said in the name of Samuel: For three years the schools of Shammai and Hillel
disputed. These said: The halakhah is according to us; those said: The
halakhah is according to us. A (divine) echo issued saying: These and those
are the words of the living God, but the halakhah is according to Bet Hillel.
But if "These and those are the words of the living God" why did Bet Hillel
merit to have the halakhah fixed according to them? Because they were kind
and humble and studied their words and the words of Bet Shammai; moreover,
they (recorded) the words of Bet Shammai before their own.
TB Erubin 13b
~(R.

Abiathar and R. Jonathan disagreed over the specific cause for the
concubine to flee her husband, the Levite (see JUdges 19), who, according
to rabbinic tradition, was a browbeating martinet.) R. Abiathar met Elijah.
He said to him: What is the Holy One, Blessed be He, doing? He replied:
He is occupied with the (matter of) the concubine in Gibea. And what does
He say? (Elijah) said: My son Abiathar says such-and-such; my son Jonathan
says so-and-so. (Abiathar) said: God forbid! Can there be any doubt before
heaven!? (Elijah) replied: These and those are the words of the living God.
(Both were partially right.)
TB Gittin 6b

QD "Then

the Lord gave me the two stone tablets written with the finger of God,
and upon them (was written) according to all the words the Lord spoke to you
out of the fire upon the mountain" (Deut. 910) - Rabbi Joshua ben Levi said:
(Scripture could simply have stated) 'upon them' (but it states) "and upon them";
'all' (but it states) "according to all"; 'words' (but it states) "the words."
(This teaches that) Scripture, Mishnah, Talmud and aggadah -- even that which
a distinguished student is destined to deduce before his teacher -- it was
already spoken to Moses on Sinai. What is his point? "There is a matter of
which one shall say: See, this is new!" (Eccl 110); his companion responds
saying: "It's been around for ages" (ib.).
TP Peah 2.4

Another interpretation of "And God uttered (instantaneously) all these words

saying" (Ex. 20 1 ) - Rabbi Isaac said: That which the prophets were destined

to prophecy in each and every generation they received from Mount Sinai.
For so Moses says to Israel: "For those who are here standing with us today
before ADONAY our God those who are not here with us today" (Deut. 29 14 ).
It is not written here '(not) standing here with us today' but rather "(not)
here with us today" - These are the souls who are destined to be created,
who have no corporeality, hence 'standing' is not stated regarding them.
Even though they were not there at that time, every single one received his
own (revelation) ... And not only did all the prophets receive their prophecy
from Sinai, but also the sages who stand in each and every generation, every
single one received his own (revelation/Torah) "from Sinai. And so it states:
"These words ADONAY uttered to all your assembly ... in a great voice that
did not continue" (Deut. 5 19 ).
Exodus Rabba 28.6
~ (Discussing whether an oven of a particular construction was liable to
levitical uncleanness) R. Eliezer declares it clean but the sages unclean.
On that day R. Eliezer brought all the proofs in the world, but they would

not accept them. He said to them: If the law is according to me, let this
carob tree prove it! The carob tree was uprooted from its place (and
moved) one hundred cubits; and some say: four hundred cubits. They said to
him: A proof cannot be brought from a carob tree. He retorted: If the law
is according to me, let the aqueduct prove it! The stream of water flowed
backward. They said to him: A proof cannot be brought from an aqueduct.
He retorted: If the law is according to me, let the walls of the House of
Study prove it! The walls of the Bet Midrash began to topple. R. Joshua
reprimanded them: If scholars are prevailing over one another in halakhah,
what business is it of yours!? They did not fall down out of respect for
R. Joshua, and they did not straighten up out of respect for R. Eliezer,
and they still stand inclined. He retorted: If the law is according to me,
let the heaven prove it! A (divine) echo issued saying: What do you have
against Rabbi Eliezer? The law is according to him in every case. R. Joshua
rose to his feet and said: "It is not in heaven" (Deuto 30 12 ).
What does "It is not in heaven" mean? R. Jeremiah said: That the Torah
has already been given on Mount Sinai; we do not consult a (dinine) echo;
for You have already written in the Torah on Mount Sinai: "Incline after the
majority" (Ex 23 2 ).
Rabbi Nathan met Elijah. He said to him: What was the Holy One, Blessed
be He, doing at that moment? He replied: He was smiling and saying: My
children have prevailed over me! My children have prevailed over me!
TB Baba Metzia 59b
Rabbah bar Shila (end 4 c.) met Elijah. He said to him: What is the Holy
One, Blessed be He, doing? He replied: He utters traditions from the mouths
of all the rabbis....
TB Hagigah 15b

The revelation at Sinai embraced both what was explicit and what
future generations would consider to be implicit in the Torah given to
Moses at Sinai. As the following midrash dramatically indicates, the Torah communicated to Moses at Sinai transcends what was literally given
at Sinai:
Rav Judah said in the name of Rav: "When Moses ascended on high,
he found the Holy One, blessed be He, engaged in affixing coronets to
the letters [of the Torah]. Said Moses, 'Lord of the Universe, who compels Thee to do that?' He answered, 'There will arise a man, at the end
of many generations, Akiva ben Joseph by name, who will spin out of
each tittle heaps and heaps of la~s.' 'Lord of the Universe,' said Moses,
'permit me to see him.' He replied, 'Turn you round.' Moses went and
sat down at the end of the eighth row [and listened to the discourses
upon the law]. Not being able to follow their arguments, he was ill at
ease, but when they came to a certain subject and the disciples said to
the master, 'Whence do you know it?' and the latter replied, 'It is a law
given to Moses at Sinai,' he was comforted." (Mena!l.Ot 29b)
Although based on divine revelation, the Torah became inseparable
from the vast body of material generated by talmudic interpretation.
The rabbinic scholar rather than the prophet became the mediator of
the Torah; his intellectual skills of analysis and interpretation elevated
him to an unprecedented position of importance in determining the
content of revelation.
This theme has been presented in various formulations. Striking is the
one attributed to Rabbi Isaac, commenting upon Exodus 20: 1, "And God
spoke all these words, saying ... ," i.e., both upon the apparently emphatic
"all these words," and perhaps as well on the word saying, which was sometimes interpreted as "to say later on"):
That which the prophets were later to prophesy in every subsequent age, they
received here at Mount Sinai. For thus did Moses report to Israel [Deut. 29:1314]. "Not with you alone do I make this covenant, ... but with both those who
are standing here among us today, and with those who are not here among us
today." Now "not standing among us today" is not written [in the last clause]. but
only "not among us today"; for these are the souls that were yet to be created,
who have no substance, and of whom "standing" could not be said. For though
they did not exist at the time, every one of these received his portion.... And
not only did all the prophets receive their prophecies from Sinai, but also the
sages who were to arise in every generation-each one of them received his
[teaching] from Sinai, as it is written [Deut. 5: 19]. "These words the Lord spoke
to all your assembly on the mountain amid the fire, the cloud, and the darkness,
with a great noise, and did not cease."
(Ex. R. 28:6:

cr.

Mid. Tan. Vitro 11)

Once I was on a journey, and I came upon a man who went at me after
the way of heretics. Now, he accepted the written, but not the oral law.
He said to me: "The written law was given us from Mount Sinai' the
oral law was not given us from Mount Sinai." I said to him: "But ~ere
not both the written and the oral law spoken by the Omnipresent? Then
what difference is there between the written and the oral law? To what
can this be compared? To a king of flesh and blood who had two servants, and loved them both with a perfect love; and he gave them each
a measure of wheat, and each a bundle of flax. The wise servant what
did he do? He took the flax and spun a cloth. Then he took the 'wheat
and made flour. The flour he cleansed, and ground, and kneaded, and
baked and set on top of the table. Then he spread the cloth over it and
left it so until the king should come. But the foolish servant did no;hing
a: all. After some days, the king returned from a journey and came into
hiS house and said to them: My sons, bring me what I gave you. One
~ervant showed the wheaten bread on the table with a cloth spread over
It, and the other servant showed the wheat still in the box, with a bundle
of flax upon it. Alas for his shame, alas for his disgrace! Now, when the
Holy One, blessed be He, gave the Torah to Israel, he gave it only in
the form of wheat, for us to extract flour from it, and flax, to extract a
garment." (Seder Eliyahu Zuta 2)
.
The intellectual freedom to go beyond the strict literal meaning of
the biblical text, and to develop a viable legal system by reasoning and
the application of hermeneutic principles, expresses the intellectual autonomy of the student to create and innovate and not simply to accept
the past blindly. When students feel sufficiently confident to interpret
the implications of what they have received from their prophets, when
they are not overwhelmed by their teachers' superiority and do not
simply repeat their lessons verbatim, when the content of revelation
develops into an ever-expanding corpus of law and commentary, only
then do covenantal Jews reveal their maturity and full partnership with

God.

Not in heaven
On that day Rabbi Eliezer [in dispute with other sages]
brought all the proofs in the world [in support of his
opinion], but the sages would not accept them. 33
He said to them: If the law is according to me, let this locust
tree prove it.
The locust tree moved a hundred cubits. (And some say: four
hundred cubits.)
The sages said to him: The locust tree cannot prove anything.
Then he said to them: If the law is according to me, let this
stream of water prove it.
The stream of water turned and flowed backward.
They said to him: The stream cannot prove anything.
Then he said to them: If the law is according to me, let the
walls of the House of Study prove it.
The walls of the House of Study began to topple.
Rabbi Joshua reprimanded the walls:
If scholars are disputing with one another about the law, what
business is it of yours?
They did not fall down out of respect for Rabbi Joshua, and
did not straighten up out of respect for Rabbi Eliezer,
and they are still inclined.
Then Rabbi Eliezer said to them: If the law is according to
me, let the heaven prove it.
A voice came forth from heaven and said:
Why do you dispute with Rabbi Eliezer? The law is according
to ,him in every case.
Thereupon Rabbi Joshua rose to his feet and said:
"It is not in heaven" (Deut. 30: 12 ) :
the Torah has already been given once and for all from Mount
Sinai;
we do not listen to voices from heaven.
For Thou hast already written in the Torah on Mount Sinai:
"After the majority must one incline" (Exod. 23:2).
[Later on] Rabbi Nathan came upon Elijah [the prophet].34
He said to him: What was the Holy One, blessed be he, doing
at that moment?
.
Elijah said to him:
He was smiling and saying: My children have defeated me,
my children have defeated me!

There is a well-known aggadic story involving a dispute among talmudic sages concerning the ritual status of the "oven of Aknai." Rabbi
Eliezer declared it ritually pure; the sages argued that it was impure.
After failing to convince the sages through rational arguments, Rabbi
Eliezer then invoked supernatural miracles to convince his colleagues
that he was right.
Seeing that the sages were not moved to accept his position as a result
of the miraculous "hints" of divine support, Rabbi Eliezer tried to present what might be considered the final blow in any argument concerning the interpretation of the Torah: he appealed directly to God to
confirm his view.
This rich midrash can be interpreted in many different ways. But it
decidedly favors the orderly procedures of legal adjudication above the
nonrational intrusions of miracles and heavenly voices in the academies
of Torah study. Allowing for such supernatural intrusions would undermine the central role of study and rational debate in the development and elaboration of the law. Apart from the social and institutional
justifications for rejecting supernatural intrusions, one may understand
this text in the light of the covenantal emphasis on human responsibility.
God's defeat-"He laughed, saying: 'My sons have defeated Me, My
sons have defeated Me' "-signifies God's self-limiting love for the sake
of making His human covenantal partners responsible for intellectually
developing the Torah. "The Torah is not in heaven" captures the feeling
of intellectual competence of talmudic rabbis who no longer require
prophecy or divine intervention by signs and wonders in order to discover how to apply the living word of God. II For serious rabbinic scholars, extrarational miraculous signs are unnecessary in order to confirm
the validity and cogency of a legal argument. '

The core of the commandments

Six hundred and thirteen commandments were given to
Moses, three hundred and sixty-five prohibitory laws,
equaling the number of the days of the solar year,
and two hundred and forty-eight mandatory laws,
corresponding to the parts of the body.
David came and brought them down to elev~n;
as it is written:
"Lord, who shall sojourn in Thy tabernacle? : . .
He that walketh uprightly, and worketh nghteousness, and
speaketh truth in his he~rt; tha.t hath no slander upon
his tongue, nor doeth eVil to his fellow, ~or taketh uL
a reproach against his neighbor; in whose eyes a vile
person is despised, but he honoreth them that fear the
Lord; he that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth
not; he that putteth not out his money on interest, nor
taketh a bribe against the innocent" (Ps. 15: 1-5).
Isaiah came and brought them down to six;
as it is written:
.
"He that walketh righteously and speaketh uprightly; he that
despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his
hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears
from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from
looking upon evil" (Isa. 33: 15 ) .
Micah came and brought them down to three;
as it is written:
"It hath been told thee, 0 man, what is good ... : Only to
do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with
thy God" (Mic. 6:8).
Isaiah came again and brought them down to two; .
as it is said:
"Thus saith the Lord,
Keep ye justice, and do righteousness" (Isa. 56: 1) .
Amos came and brought them down to one;
as it is said:
"For thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel:
Seek ye Me, and live" (Amos 5:4).
Or:
Habakkuk came and brought them down to one;
as it is said:
"But the righteous shall live by his faith" (Hab.2:4).

The entire Torah on one foot

A certain heathen came to Shammai and said to him:
Convert me provided that you teach me the entire Torah
while I stand on one foot.
Shammai drove him away with the builder's cubit which was
in his hand.
He went to Hillel who said to him:
What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor: 5
that is the entire Torah;
the rest is commentary;
go and learn it.

In thy heart
"For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is
not too hard for thee, neither is it far off. It is not in
heaven. . . . Neither is it beyond the sea . . ." (Deut.
3:11-13)
They said to Moses:
Our master, 10, you say to us it is not in heaven and it is not
beyond the sea;
then where is it?
He said to them:
In a place that "is very night unto thee, in thy mouth, and in
thy heart, that thou mayest do it" (v. 14)It is not far from you, it is near to you.

What animals teach

Had the Torah not been given us, we could have learned
modesty from the cat, the command not to rob from
the ant, chastity from the dove, and propriety from
the cock.

M,()(1110J1/IP~/

Cd{JE

The Seventh Fundamental Principle is the prophecy of Moses our

Teacher. We are to believe that he was the chief of all other prophets before and after him, all of whom were his inferiors. He was
the chosen one of all mankind, superior in attaining knowledge of
God to any other person who ever lived or ever will live. He surpassed the normal human condition and attained the angelic. There
remained no veil he did not rend and penetrate behind, nothing
physical to hold him back, no deficiency, great or small, to confuse
him. All his powers of sense and fantasy were repressed, and pure
reason alone remained. This is what is meant by saying that he spoke
to God without angelic mediation.
The Eighth Fundamental Principle is that the Torah came from
God. We are to believe that the whole Torah was given us through
Moses our Teacher entirely from God. When we call the Torah
"God's Word" we speak metaphorically. We do not know exactly
how it reached us, but only that it came to us through Moses who
acted like a secretary taking dictation. He wrote down the events of
the time and the commandments, for which reason he is called
"Lawgiver." There is no distinction between a verse of Scripture like
"The sons of Ham were Cush and Mizraim" (Gen. 10:6), or "His
wife's name was Mehetabel and his concubine was Timna" (Gen.
36:39, 12), and one like "I am the Lord your God" (Ex. 20:2), or
"Hear,
Israel" (Deut. 6:4). All came from God, and all are the
Torah of God, perfect, pure, holy and true. Anyone who says Moses
wrote some passages on his own is regarded by our sages as an atheist
or the worst kind of heretic, because he tries to distinguish essence
from accident in Torah. Such a heretic claims that some historical
passages or stories are trivial inventions of Moses and not Divine
Revelation. But the sages said that if one accepts as Revelation the
whole Torah with the exception of even one verse, which Moses himself and not God composed, he is referred to in the verse, "he has
shamed the Word of the Lord" (Num. 15:31), and is heretical.
Every word of Torah is full of wisdom and wonders for one who
understands it. It is beyond human understanding. It is broader than
the earth and wider than the sea. Each man must follow David,
anointed of the God of Jacob, who prayed: "Open my eyes that I
may behold wonders out of Your Torah" (Ps. 119: 18).
The authoritative commentary on the Torah is also theWord of
God. The sukkah we build today, or the lulav, shofar, fringes, phylacteries, etc. we use, replicate exactly those God showed Moses which
Moses faithfully described for us. This fundamental principle is
taught by the verse: "And Moses said, 'Thus shall you know that the
Lord sent me to do all these things, and that they are not products
of my own mind'" (Num. 16:28).

The Ninth .Fundamental Principle is the authenticity of the Torah,

I.e., that thIS Torah was precisely transcribed from God and no one
the Torah, Oral and Written, nothing must be added nor
else.
anythl~? taken from it, as is said, "You must neither add nor
de~ra:t (Deut. .13: 1). We have already sufficiently explained this
pnnclple In our Introduction to this Commentary on the Mishnah.

'!'O

HOW TO LOOK AT TORAH

said,
to
the
human
being who says
"Woe
that Torah presents mere stories and ordinary words!
If so, we could compose a Torah right now with ordinary
words,
and better than all of them.
To present matters of the world?
Even rulers of the world possess words more sublime.
If so, let us follow them and make a Torah out of them.
Ah, but all the words of Torah are sublime words, sublime
secrets!
RABBI SHIM'ON

"Come and see:

The world above and the world below are perfectly balanced:
Israel below, the angels above.
Of the angels it is written: 'He makes his angels spirits.'
But when they descend, they put on the garment of this
world.
If they did not put on a garment befitting this world,
they could not endure in this world
~ CoNT,
and the world could not endure them.
Zohar 3:152a (thirteenth century); see Matt, Zohar, 43-45, 20 4- 207.
No~r

better than all of them Than all the stories of Torah, than all its ordinary words.
rulers of the world possess words more sublime Apparently referring
to collections of moral fables and wisdom compiled for royal edification; see Matt, Zohar, 204.
all the words of Torah ... secrets A basic hermeneutical principle
of the ZohaI; d. Zohar 2:55b: "There is no word in the Torah that
does not contain many secrets, many reasons, many roots, many
branches."
'He makes his angels spirits' Psalms 104:4, whose plain sense is "He
makes winds his messengers." Rabbi Shim'on reads' the verse hyperliterally to introduce his teaching.
they put on the garment of this world They appear as physical beings, for example, to Abraham; see Genesis 18:1-2.

Torah, who created them and all the worlds According to the Mishnah (Avot 3:14), Torah is the "precious instrument by which the
world was created." See Harry A. Wolfson, Philo, 4th rev. ed. [Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1968), 1:243-45; and Bereshit
Rabbah 1:1: "The Torah says, 'I was the instrument of the Blessed
Holy One' ... The Blessed Holy One gazed into the Torah and created the world."

CO,NT

rf this is so with the angds, how much more so with Torah,

who created them and all the worlds,
and for whose sake they all exist.
In descending to this world,
if she did not put on the garments of this world,
the world could not endure.

'Open my eyes ... ' Psalms 119:18. According 'to tradition, the
Psalms were composed by King David.
. 'the embodiment of Torah' Hebrew, gufei torah, "bodies of Torah."
In rabbinic literature this term denotes the essential teachings of
Torah; here the category is broadened to include all the commandments.

"So this story of Torah is the garment of Torah.

Whoever thinks that the garment is the real Torah
and not something else-:-may his spirit deflate!
He will have no portion in the world that is coming.
That is why David said:
'Open my eyes, so I can see wonders out of your Torah,'
what is under the garment of Torah.

garments: the stories of this world Several of the Torah's commandments are clothed and conveyed in story; see Genesis 32: 24-32;
Numbers 9:6-14; 15:32-36; 27:1-1 I. Furthermore, biblical narrative
often transmits moral teaching.
do not lo'ok at the garment, but rather at the body. .. Such readers
penetrate the narrative layer and concentrate on the commandments
of Torah.
those who stood at Mount Sinai According to the Midrash (Shemot
Rabbah 28:41, the souls of all those not yet born were present at
Sinai. Here the Zohar implies that only mystical souls were present.
To be a mystic is to remember the primordial revelation.

"Come and see: There is a garment visible to all.

When those fools see someone in a good-looking garment
they look no further.
But the essence of the garment is the body;
the essence of the body is the soul.

look only at the soul, root of all, real Torah The mystics see through
the outer, physical layers of Torah-both her garment of stories and,
her body of commandments-into her soul, real Torah. The nature of
this soul soon becomes clear. The Jewish philosopher Philo, the
Church father Origen, and the Sufi mystic Rumi convey similar
ideas; see Matt, Zohar, 206.

"So it is with Torah.

She has a body: the commandments of Torah,
called 'the embodiment of Torah.'
This body is clothed in garments: the stories of t~is world.
Fools of the world look only at that garment, the story of
Torah;
they know nothing more.
They do not look at what is under that garment.
Those who know more do not look at the garment,
but rather at the body under that garment.
The wise ones, servants of the King on high,
those who stood at Mount Sinai,
look only at the soul, root of all, real Torah.
In the time to come, they are destined to look at the soul of
the soul of Torah.

The Communion of Israel Hebrew, keneset yisra'el, "community of

Israel." In rabbinic literature this phrase denotes the people of Israel,
the Ecclesia of Israel. In the Zohar, keneset yisra'el refers to the sefirah of Shekhinah, the feminine divine presence, the divine counterpart of the people, that aspect of God most intimately connected
with them, with whom they can commune. Here Shekhinah is described as the divine body clothed by the heavens who receives the
soul, a higher sefirah.
the soul, Beauty of Israel The masculine aspect of God is the sefirah
of TiE'eret Yisra'el, "the Beauty of Israel" (d. Lamentations 2:11, the
Holy One, blessed be he. Shekhinah receives him as the body receives the soul.

"Come and see: So it is above.

There is garment, body, soul, and soul of soul.
The heavens and their host are the garment.
The Communion of Israel is the body,
who receives the soul, Beauty of Israel.
So she is the body of the soul.

So she is the body of the soul This is not redundant. Rabbinic literature (Babylonian Talmud, Yevamot 62al describes a cosmic body containing all souls. In Kabbalah this body is identified with Shekhinah.
By receiving the soul of Tif'eret, she carries all human souls, which
are engendered by the union of these two sefirot.
The soul we have mentioned. .. This refers not only to the immediately preceding lines but to the preceding paragraph: "The wise
ones ... look only at the soul." The mystics gaze into the soul of
Torah, none other than the sefirah of TiE'eret, the Holy One,
blessed be he. One of the names of this sefirah is the written Torah,
while Shekhinah is the oral Torah. The hidden essence of Torah is
God. The ultimate purpose of study is direct experience of the divine, who is real Torah; the search for meaning culminates in revelation.

The soul we have mentioned is Beauty of Israel, real Torah.

,The soul of the soul is the Holy Ancient One.
All is connected, this one to that one.
"Woe to the wicked who say that Torah is merely a story!
They look at this garment and no further.
Happy are the righteous who look at Torah properly!
As wine must sit in a jar, so Torah must sit in this garment.
So look only at what is under the garment.
All those words and all those stories are garments."

The soul of the soul is the Holy Ancient One Aramaic, attiqa qad.
dlsha. The Holy Ancient One is the primal manifestation of Ein Sof
the Infinite, through Keter, its Crown, the first sefirah-beyond botl~
Shekhinah and Tif'eret.

G-J

As wine must sit in a jar. .. C' Mishnah, Avot 4:27: "Do not look
at the jar, but rather at what is inside."
.

Isaiah Horowitz (ca. 1565-1630), who

prese~ted an unexcell~d synopsis of rabbinic and kabbalistic Judaism in his great work, The Two Tables of the Covenant. Drawing
upon the disquisition just quoted, he develops the religious dignity
of the creative tradition by proceeding from the explanation of a
particularly pointed Talmudic saying which states: "The Holy One
blessed be He, speaks Torah out of the mouths of all rabbis."9
Horowitz comments:
"Some interpret this saying in reference to the petition which we
express in the prayer 'Give us our share in Thy Torah,' which is
taken to mean: Give us a share in the Torah which God Himself
studies; or else: May we become worthy of having Him say a
teaching in our name. And this is the situation: the scholars
produce new words [in the understanding of the Torah] or derive
them through the power of their insight. But all of it was contained
in the power of that voice that was heard at the revelation; and now
the time has come for them to bring it from potentiality into
actuality through the efforts of their meditation. But God is great
and mighty in power, and there is no limit to His understanding.
His potentiality permits no interruption [in this voice]; rather, it is
boundless and endless, and all this [that the sages hear in the
voice] is guided by the measure of renewal and the origin of souls
in every generation as well as the ability of man to arouse the
higher power. It thus follows that while we say of God that 'He has
given the Torah' [in the past], He can also be designated at the
same time [in every present time] as 'the One Who gives the
Torah.' At every hour and time the fountain gushes forth without
interruption, and what He gives at any time was potentially contained in what He gave [at Sinai]. Let me explain the essence of
this matter further. We know that the domain of what is made more
stringent [in the law by the rabbis] becomes enlarged in every
generation. In the days of our teacher Moses the only prohibitions
were those which he had expressly received at Sinai. Nevertheless,
he added ordinances here and there for special purposes as they
arose; and so did the prophets after him, and the scribes, and every
generation with its scholars.
"I must reveal further secrets which are related to this matter in
order to make plain that all the words of the wise men are words of
the living God [and thus have religious dignity]. The words of the
Talmud in Tractate 'Erubin (f. I3b) will thereby become understandable: 'Rabbi Akiba said in the name of Rabbi Samuel: For
three years the school of Shammai and the school of Hillel engaged
in argument. The one said the halachah is according to us, and the
other one said the halachah is according to us. A Divine voice then
sounded forth and said: Both these and those are the words of the

living God, but the halachah is to be decided according to the school

of Hillel.' Rabbi Yomtov ben Abraham of Seville reported in his
commentary that the rabbis of France had raised the question: How
is it possible that both are the words of the living God when one
prohibits what the other one permits? Their answer was that when
Moses ascended the heights in order to receive the Torah he was
shown forty-nine reasons for a prohibition and forty-nine reasons
for a permission for every problem. He asked God about this and
was told that this would be left to the sages of Israel of every
generation, and that the decision was theirs to make. And this-so
says the scholar from Seville-is correct according to the Talmud;
but according to the Kabbalah there is a special reason for this.
The verse in Ecclesiastes 12: 11: The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails well
fastened are those that are composed in collections, they are given
from one shepherd' is interpreted in the Tractate Chagiga (f. 3b)
as follows: "Composed in collections, this refers to the Biblical
scholars who sit in assemb,lies and occupy themselves with the
Torah; some declare a matter unclean, and others declare it clean;
some prohibit, others permit; some declare it unusable, and others
declare it usable. Someone might say: If this is so, how can I study
the Law? Therefore Scripture continues: 'They are given by one
shepherd; One God gave them, one spokesman [Moses] said them
out of the mouth of the Lord of all actions, praised be He, as is said'
(Ex. 20:1): 'And God spoke all these words.' You, too, turn your
ear into a funnel and fashion for yourself an understanding heart
in order to understand the words of those who declare as unclean
and the words of those who declare as clean, the words of those who
prohibit and the words of those who permit, the words of those who
declare as unusable and the words of those who declare as usable.
We have here the affirmation that all differences of opinion and
viewpoint that contradict one another were given by one God and
said by one spokesman. This seems to be very alien to human
understanding, and man's nature would be unable to grasp it were
it not for the help given to him by the prepared way of God, the
pathway upon which dwells the light of the Kabbalah."12
In the Jewish conception, therefore, genuine tradition, like everything that is creative, is not the achievement of human productivity
alone. It derives from a bedrock foundation. Vegh's quotation of
Max Scheler is relevant here: "The artist is merely the mother of
the work of art; God is the father." The tradition is one of the great
achievements in which relationship of human life to its foundations
is realized. It is the living contact in which man takes hold of
ancient truth and is bound to it, across all generations, in the
dialogue of giving and taking. The poet's word applies to it:
The truth that long ago was found,
Has all noble spirits bound,
The ancient truth, take hold of it.

"On the day of the first-fruits, as you offer a new gift to the
Lord .. .ff (Num. 28:26).
God created the world through Torah. Therefore, the inner
life of all creatures is the power of beginning that derives from
Torah. Thus the sages taught: "[God created the world] for the
sake of Torah, which is called 'beginning'." Or, as Scripture
says: "He declared to His people the power of His acts" (Ps.
111:6), for Torah is the original power of creation. Creation
was in such a fashion, however, that this inwardness was hidden. Now, with the giving of Torah, it was revealed, and everything became joined to its root.
This is the meaning of "Face to face [or 'Facing inward'] God
spoke to you" (Deut. 5:4). So, too, their statement: "With
every word the whole world filled up with spices." This also
explains [the verse:] "Torah was divided into seventy languages." It is all as we have said, for then the life-force of
Torah was drawn forth and revealed to all creatures.
The Ten Commandments (lit.: "words") are parallel to the
ten utterances [of Creation], as the holy Zohar says. But the
"utterance" is silent and secret, while the "word" is revealed.
"The king's word" is his rule. Then it was revealed that the
power of Torah gives life to all and rules over all that is. The
most essential "receiving of the Torah" was this revelation.
That is why the Targum translates "The Lord descended upon
Mount Sinai" (Ex. 19:20) as "was revealed." God fills the entire world, but until then it was hidden.
That is why this day is called "the day of the first-fruits."
Everything now becomes attached to its beginning and is in
this way renewed. Thus, too, it says: "He renews in His goodness each day the work of Creation." "His goodness," the rabbis explain, is Torah, since the inner life-force of Creation
comes from Torah. Each day, to be sure, Creation is renewed,
but in a hidden way. On Shavu'ot it is more revealed. The evil
urge is negated on this day, since it is revealed that even the
life-force that animates the demonic side comes from that
inner point....
4:22

The real revelation of Torah is the uncovering of the great secret of existence: that everything is animated by the single
life-force that derives from the word of God. We are not given
a Torah that is in any way separate from that which we are
given in Creation itself. Torah is the key that unlocks the hidden meaning of all existence. As such, Torah has to be manifest in seventy languages and accessible to all God's
creatures. While this interpretation of revelation is offered in
a deeply Jewish context, its understanding of revelation's true
meaning gives it an inevitably universalist tone. The Sefat
Bmet shows us once again that these two values do not have
to stand in conflict with each other.
This way of thinking about Torah and revelation should
provide the way for going beyond the challenge to Jewish
faith posed by biblical criticism and historical study. To the
seemingly crucial and vexing question: "Is the Torah of divine or human origin!" the Sefat Bmet encourages us to answer: "Yes!" All the rest proceeds from there.

WITHOUT VOWELS

THE SCROLL of the Torah is written without vowels, so you

can read it variously. Without vowels, the consonants bear
many meanings and splinter into sparks. That is why the
Torah scroll must not be vocalized, for the meaning of each
word accords with its vowels. Once vocalized, a word ~eans
just one thing. Without vowels, you can understand it in
countless, wondrous ways.
Bahya ben Asher (thirteenth-fourteenth centuries), Commentary on the
Torah, Numbers n:ISi see Ide!, Kabbalah: New Perspectives, 21 3- 1 4.
splinter into sparks The words sparkle with new and unforeseen
meanings.