With this week’s parasha begins the discussion which occupies most of the rest of the Book of Exodus: The specifications, materials and construction of the Mishkan.
At the center of the Mishkan lay the Qodesh ha-Qodashim, the most sacred (qadosh) precinct of the Mishkan in which were located the aron ha-qodesh, the gold-plated wooden box which held the second set of tablets and the fragments of the first, with Moshe’s séfer Torah alongside, and the mënorath ha-zahav, the great golden lamp, וששה קנים יצאים מצדי' שלשה קני מנרה מצדה האחד ושלשה קני מנרה מצדה השני (“and six branches coming out of its sides, three mënora branches from its one side and three mënora branches from its second side”; XXV, 32). What is the significance of these features, specified by G-d in such fine detail?
B.
The great Rabbi S. R. Hirsch provides a brilliant insight.
He begins by noting that the words nér and or, “light-source” and “light,” respectively (mënora shares a root with nér), recur continually in Tanach as metaphors for knowledge and wisdom. To cite just a few examples: נר לרגלי דברך ואור לנתיבתי, “A light-source for my foot is Your word, and light for my path” (Psalms CXIX, 105); פתח דבריך יאיר מבין פתיים, “The entrance-way of Your words enlightens, making the ignorant understand”; ibid.,130); מצות ד' ברה מאירת עינים, “Ha-Shem’s mitzva is clear, enlightening the eyes”; כי נר מצוה ותורה אור, “For a mitzva is a light-source and Torah, light” (Proverbs VI, 23).
Israel was granted the light of Torah for a purpose. Before Mattan Torah, the bënei Yisra’él learnt that they were to be a ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש (“kingdom of kohanim and holy nation”; Exodus XIX, 6) – just as the kohanim and Lëviyyim were to be the chief repository of Torah authority amongst Israel, so were Israel to be for the world at large: אני ד' קראתיך בצדק ואחזק בידך ואצרך ואתנך לברית עם לאור גוים, “I, Ha-Shem have called you in justice and held your hand, and kept you and placed you as a national covenant as the light of the nations” (Isaiah XLII, 6); כי תורה מאתי תצא ומשפטי לאור עמים ארגיע, “For Torah comes forth from Me, and with My judgment as the light of peoples shall I make peace”; (ibid., LI, 4); כי הנה החשך יכסה ארץ וערפל לאמים ועליך יזרח ד' וכבודו עליך יראה: והלכו גוים לאורך ומלכים לנוגה זרחך , “For behold, darkness covers the earth and fog, the nations; and over you shines forth Ha-Shem, and His glory is seen over you. And nations will go by your light, and kings by the brightness of your shining”; ibid., LX, 2). However, המה היו במרדי אור לא הכירו דרכיו ולא ישבו בנתיבתיו, “They [the nations] were amongst those rebelling against the light; they did not recognize His ways, and did not settle in His paths”; Job XXIV, 13). The gift of Biblical morality has been resisted tooth and claw, and תחת אהבתי ישטנוני, “instead of my love they have opposed me”; Psalms CIX, 4).
Thus, concludes R’ Hirsch, this metaphor of light connotes both illumination and dynamic movement, knowledge and action; it requires application of the knowledge, and impels one to act.
When he looks for another word in the Holy Language which appears to embrace two similar meanings (i.e., one for which light can be a metaphor), he finds רוח, ruah. Thus, Yoséf’s superior insight and knowledge caused Pharaoh to see in him the ruah Eloqim (“spirit of G-d”; Genesis XLI, 38); Bëtzal’él, tasked with overseeing the construction of the Mishkan and all its accoutrements, is filled with a רוח חכמה, “spirit of wisdom” (Exodus XXXV, 31); Yëhoshua‘, Moshe’s successor, was an איש אשר רוח בו, “man in whom there was spirit” (Numbers XXVII, 19), possessed of רוח חכמה. like Bëtzal’él (Deuteronomy, XXXIV, 9).
On the other hand, we also find such passages as ובאו כל איש כו' אשר נדבה רוחו אתו וגו' (“And they came, every man... whose spirit urged him...”; Exodus XXV, 21); ולא אבה סיחון מלך חשבון העבירנו כי הקשה ד' אלקיך את רוחו וגו', “And Sihon, king of Heshbon, did not wish us to pass through [his country] for Ha-Shem your G-d had hardened his spirit” (Deuteronomy II, 30); ותהי על יפתח רוח ד' ויעבר את הגלעד וגו' , “And Ha-Shem’s spirit was upon Yiftah and he crossed the Gil‘ad....” (Judges XI, 29); ותחל רוח ד' לפעמו במחנה דן וגו', “And Ha-Shem’s spirit began to move him in the camp of Dan....”; (ibid., XIII, 25); הנני נתן בו רוח ושמע שמועה ושב לארצו ודו', “Behold, I am placing in him a spirit, and he will hear a rumor and will return to his country....” (II Kings XIX, 7); and so on.
Hence, concludes R’ Hirsch, or is a metaphor for ruah.
He finds confirmation of his thesis in a prophecy of Zëcharya concerning Israel’s final redemption. The navi’ is shown a vision of the seven-branched mënora fully lit; when he asks what it means, the mal’ach presenting the vision tells him זה דבר ד' אל זרובבל לאמר לא בחיל ולא בכח כי אם ברוחי אמר ד' צב-אות (“This is Ha-Shem’s word to Zërubbavel, to say, 'Not by force and not by power but by My spirit,' says Ha-Shem of Hosts”; Zechariah IV, 6). Israel’s melech ha-mashiah, her “anointed king,” is here called Zërubbavel, because his line of descent from King David would be through the line of Zërubbavel ben Shë’alti’él (cf. I Chronicles III, 1-18).
This leads R’ Hirsch to another prophecy concerning ha-melech ha-mashiah: ויצא חטר מגזע ישי ונצר משרשיו יפרה: ונחה עליו רוח ד' רוח חכמה ובינה רוח עצה וגבורה רוח דעת ויראת ד': (“And a shoot [hoter] will come out from the trunk of Yishai [David’s father], and a twig will sprout from his roots. And Ha-Shem’s spirit will rest upon him, the spirit of hochma [wisdom] and bina [understanding], the spirit of ‘étza [counsel] and gëvura [strength], the spirit of da‘ath [knowledge] and yir’ath Ha-Shem [fear of Ha-Shem]”; Isaiah XI, 1-2). Taking these two prophecies together, the association of the mënora with Mashiah, R’ Hirsch constructs a schematic of the mënora, such that the central stand, the hoter, is labeled ruah, from three pairs of arms emanate, the lowest of which are hochma and bina, the middle pair ‘étza and gëvura, and the topmost pair da‘ath and yir’ath Ha-Shem.
But this model raises a question: The message transmitted to Zëcharya was that neither hayil nor koah, “force” or “power,” can prevail, only the ruah Ha-Shem, whilst Yësha‘yahu has gëvura, strength associated with that very ruah Ha-Shem. Why is this not contradictory?
C.
An answer suggests itself from an observation which I have neard attributed to Rabbi Yoséf Dov ha-Lévi Soloveitchik. In the Birchoth ha-Shahar, the blessings recited on arising each morning, we make reference to אוזר ישראל בגבורה, “Who girds Israel in gëvura,” and to הנותן ליעף כח, “He Who gives strength [koah] to the weary.” Obviously, gëvura and koah are not perfect synonyms. Koah, explains R’ Soloveitchik, is physical, bodily strength. One who is weary lacks the strength to carry out his necessary daily tasks; G-d gives koah to the weary. Gëvura, on the other hand, is spiritual strength, the quality which Israel possesses as an inheritance from the eponymous patriarch Yisra’él, whose struggle with the mal’ach, saro shel ‘Ésav (Genesis XXXII, 24-32, Rashi ad loc.), was not a contest of physical strength (since a mal’ach is not a physical being) but rather one of strength of character, determination, will, and courage. Ha-melech ha-mashiah must be aware that his will not be a conventional government of force, brute strength, and coercion, but will emanate from the ruah Ha-Shem, which generates the gëvura necessary to stand up for the truth of Torah in a world populated by hostile nations (ועיי' חגיגה י"ב. רש"י שם דה"מ "כח" ו"גבורה" דכח הוא כח בזרוע וגבורה היא גבורת הלב, וע"ע אבות פ"ד מ,א איזהו גבור הכובש את יצרו דמסתמא הגרי"ד ביסס את עצמו עליהם ).
D.
R’ Hirsch’s observation of the relevance of these prophecies to understanding the mënora puts us on notice that all true science, wisdom, and knowledge (hochma, bina, and da‘ath) stem from one single source, the light of Ha-Shem. For this reason, Moshe was told ועשית את נרתי' שבעה והעלה את נרתי' והאיר אל עבר פני' כפתריהם וקנתם ממנה יהיו כולן מקשה אחת זהב טבור:(“Their knobs and their branches will be all of them a single beaten piece of pure gold. And you will make its lights seven, and elevate its lights and shine toward its face”; ibid., 37). Rashi elucidates: עשה פי ששת הנרות שבראשי הקנים היוצאים מצדי' מסובין כלפי האמצעי כדי שיהיו הנרות כשתדליקם מאירים "אל עבר פני'" מוסב אורם אל צד פני הקנה האמצעי שהוא גוף המנורה (“Make the mouths of the six lights at the heads of the qanim coming out of its sides inclined toward the middle, in order that the lights, when you light them, will be shining ‘towards its face’, their light will be inclined toward the face of the middle qaneh which is the body of the mënora”). All of the lesser lights of science and wisdom, then, properly shine back on the great central light whence they all sprang.
This principle that all knowledge and wisdom spring from Ha-Shem is stated numerous times scripturally, for instance, ראשית חכמה יראת ד' (“The foundation of wisdom is fear of Ha-Shem”; Psalms CXI, 10) or, as Shëlomo ha-melech formulated it, תחילת חכמה יראת ד' (“The beginning of wisdom is fear of Ha-Shem”; Proverbs IX, 10). The Mishna tells us: מי שזכה בדשון המנורה נכנס ומצא שני נרות מזרחיים דולקים מדשן את המזרחי ומניח את המערבי דולק שממנו הי' מדליק את המנורה בין הערבים (“He who won the privilege of removing the ashes and refilling the mënora enters and finds the two easternmost lights burning; he removes the ashes and refills the easternmost [of the two; i.e., the one at the furthest end], and leaves the western [inner] one burning, for from it he lights the mënora at twilight”; תמיד פ"ו מ"א). The very order of lighting proceeds from the center outward and returns thither, presumably to make the same point, that true knowledge and wisdom stems from Ha-Shem, and leads us back to Him, as the navi’ infers when he says: שאו מרום עיניכם וראו מי ברא אלה (“Lift up your eyes and see: Who created these things?”; Isaiah XL, 26).
No comments:
Post a Comment