“If you walk in My statutes ….” (Vayikra 26:3) It is written in the Midrash (Yalkut Shemoni Mishlei, Ch. 22), (Tehilim, 111:10) “The beginning of wisdom is the fear of God. It is also written (Mishlei 22:4), ‘following humility [on the heel of humility] is the fear of God.’ The same thing that made wisdom a crown for the head, made humility the heel for the sole.” Through contemplation and investigating God’s intentions for all that He created, you may naturally come to the conclusion that there is a Creator and Master of the world. But this is only when he starts to bring himself close to Torah Study, and at that time this wisdom is called Yirah, the fear of God. This is because once you know that there is a Creator and Master, you will listen to God’s voice and experience Yirah before Him. Yet if you achieves the quality of Anavah, humility, then you can attain Yirah in the blink of an eye, with no need to search your soul in order to achieve it. Rather, it is simple and clear. This is, “If you walk in My statutes (chokim).”⁶² in Hebrew, is closely related to the word for carve, Chokek. Then (through this process) God’s statutes will be carved (chakuk) into your hearts.

footnotes: ⁶² “Statute,” Chok

“If you walk in My statutes, and keep My mitzvot, and do them.” (Vayikra, 26:3) All the while that God’s Kedusha is not carved⁶³ and permanently installed into man’s heart, he is called “standing.” In this state he needs to constrict himself for the time being, not extending himself according to his own will. For now it is preferable to refrain from action. And with regards to walking? When a man turns to the Torah to the extent that it is carved in his heart, installed in his being, he can then extend himself and go wherever his desires leads him, for God is with him. This is as it is said in the Midrash (Devarim Rabba, Parsha 2:1), “Is there is a Jewish stranger?!” As the story goes (Yalkut Vaietchanan Rabba, 825 ) there was a ship filled sailors there was one Jew. They sailed across the heart of the sea, and when they reached a port the sailors told the Jew, “go to town and bring us food and drink.” He said to them, “but I am a wayfarer, a stranger. They don’t know me at all and won’t sell me anything.” The sailors said, “Is there such a thing as a Jewish stranger? Wherever you go your God is with you, as the Torah says, (Devarim 4:7), ‘For what great nation is there that has a god so close at hand as is the LORD our God whenever we call upon Him?’” (The wayfarer thought he was standing, but the sailors reminded him that he has the natural ability to walk, i.e. go from place to place without even thinking because he has internalized the Torah to the point where it inseparable from his being.) Similarly we read in the Gemara (Shabbat, 31b), “when it says in the Torah, ‘At the commandment of the Hashem they encamped, and at the commandment of the Hashem they traveled,’ it was like demolishing in order to rebuild on the same site.”

footnotes: ⁶³ See previous note.

“If you walk in My statutes, and keep My mitzvot, and do them.” (Vayikra, 26:3) It is written in the Midrash (Vayikra Rabba, 35:1), “I considered my way, and I turned my feet back to Your testimonies (Tehilim, 119:59). Each day I would plan on going to a certain place, but my feet brought me to the house of prayer and the house of study.” Would it ever occur to you that David haMelech walked around and wasted his time with the mundane and the insignificant!? Furthermore, if his feet would lead him to the house of study and his intention was not for the sake of Heaven, then it would be like the principle “I worked hard and did not succeed,” and there is no success without struggle.⁶⁴ on “I worked hard but didn’t succeed.” A man must struggle in this world. If he brings himself to be purified, yes, (as the Midrash says) he will be helped to find all goodness, but not without a struggle. When you go deeply into one subject in Torah you will find it so incredibly precious that other subjects in the Torah will seem small in comparison. This is as we find in the Gemara (Shabbat, 10a), “Those who occupy themselves with prayer but neglect to study Torah are called abandoning eternal life and occupied with temporary life.” With all subjects in the Torah there are so many levels, higher and higher. With regard to this the Gemara (in Megillah, 15a) tells us, “The way of the Holy One, blessed be He, is not like the way of flesh and blood. Man first prepares the pot on the fire, and then pours the water into it. Hashem first pours the water, and then prepares the pot, as it is written (in Yirmiya, 10:13), ‘with the sound of His gathering a multitude of water in the heavens. (First God set the multitude of waters in place, and then after He created the heavens to hold them.) It is man’s nature that when he wants to do something he first imagines it, considering what benefit he will receive from the action, and then does it. This is called “preparing the pot.” He prepares the vessels of reception, i.e, thinks if and how to receive. Then he receives. In other words his action is the reception of that which he has prepared. The way of the Holy One, blessed be He, is not thus. Rather, He first places the water, and then prepares the pot. With regards to Torah and the mitzvot, He commanded us to learn and do with all our hearts and souls, but not according to the measurement of the boundary of our intellect by estimating the how good the action is. Rather, His will must be fulfilled without any human preparation, just to gaze at His presence and be drawn after His will. Then after, the Holy One, blessed be He, will show man the depth of wisdom and the good hidden within the action. This is called “pouring the water.” That is, man is to first fulfill God’s will with simplicity, and then afterward God “prepares the pot,” showing him the benefits of the action. This is as David haMelech said, “I considered my way. Each day I would plan on going to a certain place.” He feared that he might fulfill God’s will only according to the (human limitation and the) understanding of his intellect. The awesome depth of God’s will is here like a mundane action, because God wants us to fulfill His will without any preparation from our side (see previous section on Vayikra 26:3). This is as it is said, “ ‘I considered my way.’ The way is bothersome, the way is troulbled.” (Berachot, 11a) Even if he goes to perform a mitzvah it is still called “his way,” for when he goes even to do a mitzvah, yet does it only according to the limittions of his intellect, he is troubled. This is not the case when his path is to fulfill God’s will with simplicity, for then he is not at all troubled but rather trusts that God will help him since he is acting with simplicity. “And I turned my feet back to Your testimonies.” Here David haMelech is saying, “even though I thought that perhaps I was not completely fulfilling His will, God showed me that I had not turned away from it even to a hair’s breadth. I was in the houses of prayer and the houses of study.” Thus his desire was only in places inhabited God, (where God’s presence is revealed.) This is the explanation of “and I turned my feet back to Your testimonies.” A testimony is something clear. When man stands firm before God without turning to any human wants, his mind is clear, undisturbed, and strong. He is not afraid. We find (in Devarim Rabba, 2:2) that when Moshe Rabeynu desired to enter the land of Israel, “his desire melted like a moth” (Tehilim 42:12).” The Gemara (in Sotah, 14a) asks, “did he need to enjoy of the fruits of the land?”⁶⁵, 14a) reads: “Why did Moshe Rabeynu desire to enter the land of Israel? Did he want to eat of its fruits or satisfy himself from its produce? But Moshe said, ‘Many precepts were commanded to Israel which can only be fulfilled in the land of Israel. I wish to enter the land so that they may all be fulfilled by me.’ The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him, ‘are you looking only to receive the reward? I will count it as if you performed them.’” He great desire was to fulfill the mitzvot that could only be done in Eretz Yisrael and receive their eternal reward, and still, “his desire melted like a moth.” From the point of view of God’s will Moshe’s heavenly desire was akin to an earthly desire, as the fulfillment of mitzvot and God’s will must be without any kind of external hue. This is the explanation of “if you will walk in my testimonies.” The formulation “If” points to uncertainty. Even if a man goes in the way of the Torah, still he needs to be uncertain if he is completely fulfilling God’s will, for God’s will is so deep and who can fathom it? This is as we find with David haMelech, who feared that perhaps he was not completely fulfilling God’s will. He said (in the Tehilim, 18:12), “God spreads out darkness as His secret place, and His immediate surroundings are His covering, darkness of waters, thick clouds of the heavens.” “He spreads (yashet) darkness as His veil” is to say that man’s darkness is his uncertainty. He fears that he is not completely fulfilling God’s will. Through this the secret place the truth of Torah will be revealed to him. Here, yashet, “He spreads out,” means revelation, as in (Shmuel 1, 2:8), “[for the pillars of the world are God’s] and He has set (yashet) the world revealed upon them.” By means of the very darkness the hidden depth is revealed to him, precisely because it brings about uncertainty over the Torah Study. Through this process (of confronting his uncertainty about the Torah and fulfilling God’s will) he will arrive at their truth. This is as it is written in the Gemara (Baba Metsia, 84a), “Reb Yochanan said that Reish Lakish used to offer him twenty-four difficulties in the law, and then he would give back twenty-four possible solutions. The in depth challenge deepened his understanding of the Law.” Thus when man experiences uncertainty, perhaps he is distanced from God and now knows that he has to bring himself closer. “His immediate surrounding are His covering [literally, succa].” Then God reveals to man that He is surrounding and covering him even in places he cannot reach. And in those places,⁶⁶ God will guard him from deviating from His intentions. “The darkness of waters,” or a man whose lusts and desires bring him into a place of darkness. This frightens him and causes him to question whether he is fulfilling God’s will. Here water symbolizes desire, for the most compelling desire in the world is thirst. “Thick clouds of the heavens.” His desires place him in the darkness, so God reveals to him that he has the power to fulfill mitzvot that seem to contradict one another. “Thick clouds” are practical mitzvot, from the term “thick” (tangible). Shechakim, “the heavens” are subjects that contradict one another, for when two opposing forces meet they will pound (yeshachaku) each other. God will shine into his eyes to the truth of these seemingly contradictory mitzvot. We confront mitzvot like the eradication of Amalek which appears to be extreme cruelty. And of the mesit, a Jew who incites other Jews to abandon of the Torah, the Torah tells us (Devarim, 13:9), “do not be merciful.” And yet we see how Holy One, blessed be He, warns of being ever compassionate. Just as it is easy for man to be compassionate, so too it will be easy for him to do the opposite. He is drawn after God’s will and according to God’s will it is easy for him to do it.⁶⁷ (chariot) for the Shechina, because they are drawn after God’s will. Tashlum Mei HaShiloach. We find an example of this with the war of Avraham Avinu. Even though his main attribute was Chesed (kindness) he stood firm when tested on all sides and routed the kings of Sodom according to God’s will.

footnotes: ⁶⁴ See the last selection in Parshat Vayeitse ⁶⁵ The text of the Gemara (Succa ⁶⁶ Places he does not understand. ⁶⁷ Man cannot conceive of two opposites being true. This is because man wants to be at peace without simultaneously fighting two opposites. But indeed, one who is drawn after God’s will is not partial to any one side, and God will shine this knowledge into him. Therefore the Patriarchs are called a merkava

“And you shall eat old store [the obsolete], and you shall take out the old because of the new.” (Vayikra, 26:10) “Old” is a place where man begin to give up on something. “Obsolete” is when he has already given up completely. The Holy One, blessed be He, promises him that he will yet see benefit from these actions, for God will heal and give them for the good. This happens when man takes it upon himself to fulfill God’s words in justice and refrain from transgressing His will. When the verse says, “He will take out the old because of the new,” it hints as man’s resolution to fulfill God’s world with justice and not trust that the Holy One, blessed be He, will be compassionate with him. This is as it is said in the Gemara (Chagiga, 16a), “do not let your evil inclination incite you by saying, ‘sin, and God will forgive you.’”⁶⁸, 16a) reads: “Rabbi Yehuda son of Rabbi Nahmani, the translator of Reish Lakish, expounded: What is the meaning of the verse, “Do not trust in a friend, do not put your confidence in a familiar friend?” If the evil inclination say to you: Sin and the Holy One, blessed be He, will forgive you, do not believe it, for it is said: ‘Do not trust in a friend,’ and ‘friend’ means none other than one’s evil inclination, for it is said: ‘For the inclination of man’s heart is evil.’ And ‘familiar friend’ is none other than the Holy One, blessed be He, for it is said: You are the familiar friend of my youth.” Rather, consider all of your actions carefully. This is as has been explained on the verse, “on the day of Shabbat, on the day of Shabbat you shall arrange,” above in Parshat Emor.

footnotes: ⁶⁸ The Gemara (Chagiga

“And you shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall devour you.” (Vayikra, 26:38) It is written in the Gemara (Makkot, 24),⁶⁹, 24a) reads: Rav said, “I have misgivings about that verse, ‘And you shall perish among the nations’” (Vayikra, 36:38). Rav Papa challenged this, saying, “Could it not perhaps rather be taken in the sense of something lost and searched for (as avad in Hebrew could mean both perished or lost), as it is written, ‘I have gone astray like a lost sheep, seek Your servant’” (Tehilim, 119:176). But it was the latter part of the verse that perplexed Rav, “And the land of your enemies shall eat you up.” Mar Zutra then pointed out a difficulty, saying, “Might it not be understood in the way that cucumbers and pumpkins are eaten? (For they ripen at different times in different parts of the country. This could hint at national schism and strife that would lead to conquest by a foreign nation.)” “‘Rav said, I have misgivings about that verse, ‘And you shall perish among the nations.’ Rav Papa responded, ‘Could it not perhaps be understood as something lost and searched for, as it is written, I have gone astray like a lost sheep. Seek Your servant.’” Rav was perplexed at the sin of a nocturnal emission, where it seems in this case that man is lost and there is no way to rectify the situation. Therefore he was answered with “perhaps it could be understood as something lost and searched for,” meaning that God has the power to return everything to Kedusha,(Sanctity. R. Pinchas of Koretz ztz”l mentions in his work Imrei Pinchas that regardless of the Zohar’s claim that there is no way to repent for wasting seed, this is only from man’s side, but God can be merciful.) After this, the Gemara continues, “what really perplexes me is the second half of the verse, ‘and the land of your enemies shall eat you up.’” This refers to the sin of having relations with an Aramite (i.e. a Gentile) which seems to be even further from the possibility to rectify (as the offspring isn’t Jewish). Thus he was answered, “It is like the way squash and pumpkins are eaten.” It is the nature of squash and pumpkins that once they are plucked from above to ground, they immediately return and sprout again. In the same way, God can fix even this (such as sending the son or daughter the desire to convert back to Judaism), for he will make it clear that no sin existed in Israel at their roots, God forbid.

footnotes: ⁶⁹ The text of the Gemara (Makkot

“Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, a man who makes a vow to give the estimated value of a person to Hashem.” (Vayikra, 27:2) After the verses of stern rebuke, God gave Israel a stronghold in the section dealing with values, namely, that a man can redeem himself from anything. Four kinds of redeeming are mentioned: houses, fields, people, and animals. This corresponds to the four times the word “seven” is written in the verses of rebuke.⁷⁰, 26:28), “and I will chastise you seven times over your sins.” “Seven” represents how God is exacting down to a hair’s breadth. For this, He gave us four ways to redeem ourselves. This is not that the man himself does the redeeming, but rather that if one sees that another needs redeeming, he can redeem him. This is as it is said in the Gemara (Arachin, 20a), “one who says, ‘the value of so is upon me.’” In the section dealing with values for redeeming (Ch. 27), we find thirty-three verses, not counting the verse “and God spoke,” and the final verse “these are the mitzvot,” which do not deal with the subject of values. These correspond exactly to the thirty-three verses of rebuke. Corresponding to the verse (Vayikra, 26:38), “and you shall be destroyed among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall devour you,” which is the greatest of all fears, is the verse (Vayikra, 27:25), “and every estimation shall be according the holy shekel.” In this way, every verse in the section of values for redeeming corresponds to a verse in the Parsha of stern rebuke in order to bring redemption to all that is said there.

footnotes: ⁷⁰ As in (Vayikra