It's Not in Heaven
Had G-d given us the Torah the way the angels would have wanted it, we would have had to become like angels. Our Torah would be a strictly cerebral exercise. It would have been geared to the soul and would not have anything to do with the body. If this is what G-d wanted of us we would have to do it. But, that was not what G-d asked of us. He gave the Torah to us humans because He wanted the Torah to have a human touch. He wanted it to relate to our reality. He wanted us to use the Torah to change the physical world by harnessing it to serve G-d. LIGHT FORM THE FUTURE – PARSHAS NITZAVIM-VAYEILECH LIGHT FORM THE FUTURE – PARSHAS NITZAVIM-VAYEILECH
Traveling to the Heavens
The Torah, in this week’s parsha, describes the accessibility of Torah and its commandments.
“This commandment that I am commanding you today is not elusive or remote from you. It is not in heaven that you should say, ‘Who shall go up to heaven and bring it to us so that we can hear it and keep it.”
Rashi comments:
“If it was in heaven, you would have been compelled to arise there and learn it.”
What exactly does Rashi mean? How are we to travel to the heavens to receive the Torah?
LIGHT FORM THE FUTURE – PARSHAS
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Torah on Two Levels
One way of understanding this matter is to realize that the Torah has two dimensions. There are the actual commandments that address the world the way we know it. It relates to the physical existence that is part of our experience as humans. It teaches us how to live our lives on a daily basis.
But then there is another dimension of Torah. Torah can also be understood on a completely spiritual level. The commandments can be understood to be metaphors that relate to spiritual concepts.
Angel’s Protest
Indeed, the Talmud relates that when Moses went up to Mount Sinai to retrieve the Tablets containing the Ten Commandments, the angels protested to G-d that He should keep the Torah in the heavens.
Of what use was the Torah to angels who are spiritual beings. And that was precisely what Moses told them that the Torah requires a body and a physical world.
The Torah addresses people who went through the crucible of Egyptian bondage, Moses argued to the angels. The Torah was given to people who are born to a physical LIGHT FORM THE FUTURE – PARSHAS NITZAVIM-VAYEILECH father and mother. The Torah was given to people who might harbor a desire to murder, steal or commit adultery. The Torah, Moses argued had no relevance to angels.
What then did the angels have in mind when they asked for the Torah?
The answer is they wanted a Torah the way it can be understood in a totally spiritual fashion. They wanted a Torah that did not need a physical body, but that could nurture the soul. They wanted a Torah that a disembodied spiritual entity could relate to.
Had G-d given us the Torah the way the angels would have wanted it, we would have had to become like angels. Our Torah would be a strictly cerebral exercise. It would have been geared to the soul and would not have anything to do with the body. If the Torah was in heaven, we would have to become ascetics. We would have to fast continually, deny the body and be celibate. We would have to engage in prayer all day and study Torah all night. We would not have a social life and a worldly existence. There would be no commerce for us and a minimal physical existence.
If this is what G-d wanted of us we would have to do it.
LIGHT FORM THE FUTURE – PARSHAS
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Torah for Humans Only
But, that was not what G-d asked of us. He gave the Torah to us humans because He wanted the Torah to have a human touch. He wanted it to relate to our reality. He wanted us to use the Torah to change the physical world by harnessing it to serve G-d. He wanted us to get married, eat and drink and be physically productive individuals.
But the question now arises. If G-d never wanted us to reach the heavens, why is it even mentioned in the Torah as a possibility. Why does the Torah imply, as Rashi claims, that if the Torah was given to us in the heavens we would have to go there?
Climbing to the Heavens with our Feet on the Ground
The answer is that the mere suggestion that G-d would have wanted us to go to the heavens, though overruled by Him, is instructive.
The fact that G-d rejected the notion is not to say that there was no merit in that idea. Indeed, there is much merit to the idea that Torah is a spiritual discipline whose goal it is to rise above the physical plane of existence. It is just that that dimension of Torah cannot exist in solitude; it must be integrated within the dimension of Torah as it LIGHT FORM THE FUTURE – PARSHAS NITZAVIM-VAYEILECH relates to the physical. And that is what makes it accessible to us.
Escape Times
There must be times when we desire to escape the mundane. And Judaism designates specific times for that. Shabbos is a day when we divorce ourselves from our work and other material pursuits.
On a daily basis we have the prayers and times allotted for Torah study, when the concerns of life are no longer in the fore of our consciousness.
Yes, there are times when we have to wax spiritual and look for the mystical side of the Torah. But all these spiritual pursuits and “escapes” are only legitimate when we know how to come back down on earth and invest the spiritual experience into our physical lives.
Will things Change in the Future?
A time will come, however, when we will reach greater spiritual heights in our approach to Torah. In the Messianic Age, we will be taught Torah from Moshiach. Moshiach’s innovative approach to Torah study is that he will show us how all of the conventional teachings of Torah are LIGHT FORM THE FUTURE – PARSHAS NITZAVIM-VAYEILECH reflections of profound G-dly concepts. New vistas of Torah knowledge will be opened for us.
But even in the Messianic Age, we will still have to live our lives in the manner prescribed by the Torah, in the most physical and literal way. We will still rest on the Shabbos, eat kosher, put on Tefillin, the way we do today.
The difference will be that we will also see the deeper, mystical meaning to all of our observances.
Moreover, the Kabbalists tell us, we will know how to practice our Judaism by seeing the deeper spiritual side. Whereas today we first must know the simple practical meaning of the Torah text, and from there we can probe deeper within the text to discover its esoteric meaning, in the days of Moshiach, the process will be reversed. We will derive the practical meaning and application of the Torah from first understanding, or seeing, its spiritual, “heavenly” dimension.
LIGHT FORM THE FUTURE – PARSHAS
NITZAVIM-VAYEILECH
LIGHT FORM THE FUTURE – PARSHAS
NITZAVIM-VAYEILECH
From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Nitzavim by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
