Perfection4

We are conditioned to believe in imperfection. That is true for one who lives with an exile mindset. In the liberated world of the future we will enjoy: perfect faith, Torah, healing, and Redemption. The initials of these four entities form the word Esrog—the perfect fruit.

Esrog: The Perfect Fruit

According to the Midrash, the Tree of Knowledge was an Esrog tree, from which we take the Esrog, the fruit we use on the Holiday of Sukkot. This tree/fruit is also known to us by another name, the one used in the Torah: “pri eitz hadar-the fruit of a beautiful (or: goodly) tree.”

The definition of hadar is something that is beautiful or goodly because it is unblemished, something that is perfect.

It has been suggested that the word Esrog, is an acronym for four Hebrew words: Emunah (faith), Torah, Refuah (recovery from illness) and Geulah (Redemption). The one theme that unites these four apparently disparate concepts is that they are all frequently followed by the word “shleimah,” which means complete or perfect.

An Esrog personality is one who embodies the four values of faith, Torah, healing and redemption in their perfected state.

Adam was Too Perfect

Commentators point out that the word Esrog is also an acronym for the four words that appear in the Psalms (36:12): “Al t’voeini regel Ga’avah-Do not lead me to the feet of conceit.” Because the Esrog represents the four aforementioned values in their most ideal form, the danger of pride, arrogance and conceit for the person who is an Esrog becomes a distinct possibility.

The perfect fruit and individual has to therefore be reminded that one is wholly imperfect if they think they have achieved perfection.

Adam was the most perfect human specimen. Shaped by G-d Himself, endowed with the highest soul. The Sages of Kabbalah assert that Adam’s soul (not his prophecy or piety) was higher than that of Moses. Adam’s sensing his own singular importance was vulnerable; and that is what brought him to sin.

Thus we find that in the Biblical book of Chronicles, then name Adam is written with an enlarged letter aleph, to indicate the way he viewed himself—larger than life perfect. By contrast, when G-d’s speaks to Moses and shows him the high regard in which he was held by G-d, a miniature size aleph is used. Moses, with all of his unparalleled qualities was exceedingly humble.

Perfect Faith

In this essay, we will focus on each of these four concepts and how they can exist on two planes: the imperfect and the perfect.

Faith is the foundation of Judaism. Without it, one can theoretically observe all the commandments, but it will not endure.

But there is faith and there is faith.

When a Jew was willing to die rather than pay mere lip-service to someone who tried to get the Jew to profess belief in another religion; that was an expression of perfect faith.

When Jews, on their way to the gas chambers, sung the words “Ani ma’amin b’emunah shleimah b’vias haMoshiach-I believe with perfect faith in the coming of Moshiach”—that was perfect faith!

Perfect faith is not shaken during difficult times and is not suppressed in affluent times.

Deep down, we all have this perfect faith, but there are times that it is covered by layers of intellectualism, obsession with material matters, collapsing under the weight of difficult times etc. But when we are jolted by certain events—incredibly painful or good— we awaken that pure, unadulterated and perfect faith Perfect Torah Torah is Divine wisdom. In His infinite kindness, G-d gave us the ability to study Torah and thereby breach the gap between the finite created mind and infinite mind of the Creator.

But because Torah can be, and must be, subjected to rigorous study, the student of Torah might forget its Divine character.

“Perfect Torah” means, first and foremost, that we appreciate the Divine character of Torah and we do not strip the Torah of its true source and nature. To view the Torah as a beautiful piece of literature or a brilliant system of logic is to embrace a compromised and truly imperfect Torah.

A corollary of this understanding of a “Perfect Torah” is that Torah, like its Divine Author, is endless. There is no limit to its depth and scope, and is therefore impossible to fathom. To think that we have plumbed the depths of Torah and reached its deepest point is to deny the “Perfect Torah” ideal.

A third connotation of a “perfect Torah” is the belief and understanding that all parts of Torah are equally Divine. As Maimonides points out, if anyone denies the authenticity of even one verse of the Torah, or one teaching of the Oral tradition, it is as if they denied the entire Torah.

Torah exists on various planes. Generally speaking, this means that we realize that the Torah is a composite of a body and a soul. The body is the legal aspect of Torah, and the soul of Torah is the spiritual and mystical teachings that were passed down through the masters of Kabbalah and Chassidus.

When one accepts and studies both dimensions of Torah, their approach is one of “Perfect Torah,” a wholly integrated and complete Torah.

Perfect Healing

When Jews wish others a speedy recovery they usually phrase it as a “refuah shleimah-a complete or perfect recovery.”

Healing can also be applied to spiritual matters. When the prophet speaks of how G- d will forgive us he frequently employs the metaphor of healing. In fact, according to the teachings of Kabbalah it is the reverse. Everything physical originates in the spiritual realms. From there they “devolve” into the physical realm. Here too, the idea of healing is patently a spiritual phenomenon, from which the idea of physical healing emerged.

And this is where the idea of a “perfect Healing” comes into the discussion. If a person heals only the physical manifestations of a spiritual malady, they are only experiencing a partial healing. Only when the soul goes through its own healing process can a person be said to enjoy a complete recovery.

On another level, the idea of spiritual illness is relative. Chassidic thought defines spiritual sickness in terms of a person who has achieved the penultimate level of G-dly perception, but finds the highest level elusive. This is extremely painful to the most spiritually sensitive individuals, far more than the person who has just begun his spiritual journey and realizes how much more there is to go.

The Talmud states that there are fifty gates of G-dly understanding and we can humanly only reach the forty-ninth gate. When a person reaches the forty-ninth level they will experience unbearable anguish at not being able to transcend to apprehend the fiftieth level.

It is interesting that the very word for a sick person in Hebrew is choleh. The numerical value of this word is forty nine. The definition of illness in its most spiritual form—from which all other forms emerge— is thus one who has the highest G-dly understanding but has not reached the top.

A refuah shleimah-Perfect Healing in the ultimate sense applies only to one who has achieved this fiftieth level, which can only occur in the Messianic Era.

As long as we are in exile, our ability to achieve complete healing is inherently limited. This translates in the inability for us to find the cures to all illnesses.

The fact that we see new technologies, at least theoretically, that can cure virtually any disease, is an indication that we are so close to the time when we will attain the fiftieth level, complete recovery, with the imminent coming of Moshiach and the Age of Redemption.

Perfect Redemption

Throughout the long and arduous journey through history the Jewish people experienced various forms of liberation. But, every period of liberation was followed by another exile.

According to the teachings of Chassidus, from the day we left Egypt, we haven’t completely left Egypt, and every day we have to re-experience the Exodus.

Moreover, even when we were free, there were always areas of life that impinged on our freedom. Either we were subjected to incessant attacks by our neighbors, or torn asunder by civil strife, with the exception of the brief reign of King Solomon, the Jewish people never experience complete and perfect freedom.

The future Redemption that will be ushered in by Moshiach is when we will finally go out of “Egypt” permanently.

All the Perfections Related

The Esrog, whose acronym is Faith, Torah, Healing and Redemption, is the combination of all four areas of perfection.

When Moshiach will bring about the final and complete Redemption, it will bring complete healing—both physical and spiritual—to the entire world. Not only will we reach the fiftieth, most transcendent level of G-dly awareness, but it will also translate in a world devoid of illness.

How will this process unfold?

According to Maimonides and Chassidic thought, Moshiach’s ultimate objective is to reveal all the deepest dimensions of Torah to all. Moshiach will remove all the impediments and distractions to Torah study and make the Torah’s intrinsic perfection manifest to all.

Once Torah will be revealed in all of its glory, and its perfection will be manifest, the world will experience full recovery and liberation.

But all of this begins with perfect faith in the coming of Moshiach and the other principles of faith, as our Sages declare that it is in the merit of faith that we were liberated from Egypt. And so too will we be liberated from this exile and experience perfection through perfect faith.

From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Breishis by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.