Torah: Right and Left
Torah can combine opposite traits and forces and create a beautiful mosaic. Torah is essentially beyond all form. It is G-d’s utter delight that transcends all of existence. It therefore has the power to manifest itself in any number of colors and notes. It can be on the right and it can be on the left.
Water and Fire
On Simchas Torah we conclude the reading of the Torah by concluding the last parsha entitled Beracha. Since this is the very last parsha of the Torah it stands to reason that it would convey to us some of the unique qualities of the Torah. Moreover, since we read this parsha on the day of Simchas Torah, when we dance with the Torah to express our boundless joy and ecstasy for the Torah, it follows that we should discover some of what makes Torah so unique and precious in this Torah reading.
And indeed, at the very beginning of the parsha we read: “From His right He gave them a fiery law.”
Torah is thus described as possessing an element of the “right” as well as the character of fire, which in the lexicon of Kabbalah is identified with the left.
Right and left are metaphors for G-d’s kindness and judgment, respectively.
In other Torah sources, the Torah is likened to water. This is consistent with the description of the Torah here because water is identified with the trait of kindness since it is what sustains all of life. In addition, water flows downward, replicating the downward flow of Divine beneficence to us in our lowly physical existence. And there can be no greater kindness than to allow us to share in is wisdom.
Hence, Torah is said to be unique in that it combines both the right and the left; water and fire.
This combination is further echoed in the Biblical description of the Torah as coming “from shamayim, the heaven,” the simple meaning of which is that the Torah is Divine. However, the Chassidic interpretation of this phrase is that Torah derives from shamayim, which is a composite of the two words aish and mayim, fire and water, left and right.
Synthesis
Why is this synthesis of right and left so significant as to be the way the Torah describes itself at this crucial juncture?
The answer lies in the Talmud’s description of Torah as tiferes. Tiferes or beauty is the idea of synthesis. It represents the beauty that exists in harmony and symphony. It is the mixture of different hues and colors.
The reason Torah can combine opposite traits and forces and create this beautiful mosaic is because Torah is essentially beyond all form. It is G-d’s utter delight that transcends all of existence. It therefore has the power to manifest itself in any number of colors and notes. It can be on the right and it can be on the left.
A Chassidic Story
A student of a Chassidic Yeshivah (advanced academic Torah institution) where the mystical dimension of Torah is accentuated spent time in a Yeshivah where the emphasis was on the more exoteric branches of Torah. When he was asked to compare notes he observed that both systems asked the same basic question concerning Torah and reached the same conclusion, but from totally opposite vantage points.
In the non-Chassidic academy the spiritual mentor asked the question how we can say that the Torah is from Heaven. Isn’t Torah down-to-earth? Doesn’t the Torah deal with mundane affairs of life; utilizing logical arguments to resolve questions, etc.? How can we then say that it is Divine? The rabbi’s conclusion was that notwithstanding the very earthy and rational character of Torah we must concede that within the Torah there is a Divine spark. Torah does indeed come from heaven.
The Chassidic leader asked the “same” question. How can we say that the Torah is from Heaven. Heaven, or Shamayim, is a composite of fire and water, which describe the Divine attributes of chesed-kindnesss and gevurahjudgment. How can we limit and thereby degrade the Torah by applying finite terms of chesed and gevurah to Torah?
How can we possibly “slot” the Torah into any finite category, which limits its transcendent G-dly nature?
His conclusion, much like the other Sage, was that we have to concede, that indeed, Torah, notwithstanding its transcendent nature, does manifest itself within the parameters of the attributes of kindness and judgment, thereby making it accessible to our minds and relevant to our lives. G-d in His infinite kindness allowed His Torah to be accessed by us through the various forms it embodies.
Dancing with a Closed Torah
On Simchas Torah, we do not dance with the open Torah. We do not even open it to the above discussed verse that extols the virtue of Torah that possesses this incredible synthesis. We dance with a closed Torah, Why?
On Simchas Torah we do not even focus on the aspect of Torah that synthesizes right and left. On Simchas Torah we relate to the aspect of Torah that transcends all of its parameters that empowers the synthesis. Simchas Torah connects us to the essence of Torah, which is connected to G-d’s very Essence.
On the Essence of Torah
The Rebbe explains in one of his landmark discourses “On the Essence of Chassidus” that while all of Torah is Divine, there are different levels of Torah that are cloaked in a “garment” that defines it and that is “limited” to that particular form.
Chassidus, however, is the essence of Torah that has no fixed form. It is Divine wisdom revealed in recent times as a preparation for the Torah that Moshiach will reveal. This aspect of Torah defies form and can therefore manifest itself in all of the different forms of Torah.
And it is this dimension of Torah that is most closely identified with the dancing of Simchas Torah and which will be fully revealed by Moshiach.
When we dance with the closed Torah on Simchas Torah, we should imagine that this is a foretaste of the Torah with which we will rejoice when Moshiach reveals to us the hitherto most secret knowledge of Torah—its very essence.
From the book Light from the Future: Simchas Torah by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
