חובת הידיעה, היא רק מה שממנו נקח לעבודה, וכל ידיעה שאין יוצא ממנה כח עבודה להשי"ת, על זה אמרו, במופלא ממך אל תדרוש.
The Purpose of Knowledge Having established the centrality of knowledge in the service of God, R. Gershon Henokh now adds another element: True knowledge includes an understanding that God created the world in order to bestow goodness upon man, and that God desires that we make our own efforts in order to receive this goodness. The opposite approach – receiving God’s goodness as an unearned gift – would engender feelings of shame in the receiver. Thus, God gives man a path of action – mitzvot and good deeds – which allow him to deserve His bounty. However, since the greatest gift we can receive from God is further knowledge – which means, in this case, a direct, mystical experience of Divinity – so a circle is formed: intellectual knowledge of God’s Torah and an understanding of His plan for creation leads us on the path to its fulfillment, which ultimately results in a deeper, direct spiritual knowledge of the Giver of the Torah Himself.
2
ובזהר חדש שיר השירים (שם) חכמתא דאיצטריך ליה לבר נש חד למנדע לאסתכלא ברזא דמאריה וחד למנדע ליה לגופיה ולאשתמודע מאן איהו ואיך אתברי ומאן אתי ולאן יהך ותקונא דגופא האיך אתתקן והאיך איהו זמין למיעל בדינא קמיה מלכא דכולא וחד למנדע ולאסתכל ברזא דנשמתין וכו' ולבתר ברזין עלאין דעלמא דלעילא לאשתמודעא למאריה וכל דא יסתכל בר נש מגו רזין דאורייתא. שהאדם צריך לדעת את בוראו ומדותיו, וכל אשר יש לנו רשות לדעת מה שממנו נקח לעבוד אותו. כי כל מה שאינו יוצא מידיעתו כח עבודה להש"י, זה הוא מופלא מן האדם, ועל זה אמרו בגמרא (חגיגה יג) במופלא ממך אל תדרוש ובמכוסה ממך אל תחקור. אכן במה שהורשינו להתבונן, הוא מה שיוצא ממנו ידיעת מציאת הבורא ומדותיו, ואיך ברא וסדר מערכת הבריאה עד תכלית הבריאה, שברא טוב ורע ונתן כח לאדם לבחור בטוב ובחיים, ולזה צריך להתבונן בטוב מה שחפץ הקב"ה לגמול חסד עם בריותיו כמ"ש (תהלים פט) כי אמרתי עולם חסד יבנה. וזה הוא מכוונת הבורא בהבריאה אשר הורשינו להתבונן בה. והכוונה בראשית הבריאה היתה רק מרצון הפשוט הקדום כקדמותו בלי שום התעוררות מצד הבריאה, שלא היה אז מי שיעורר:
It is written in the Zohar (Zohar Chadash, Shir haShirim, 77a): “What kind of wisdom does man need? One kind is the wisdom to know and look into the mystery of his Master. One kind is the wisdom man needs to know himself, to know who he is, how he was created, from where he came and to where he is going, the nature of the rectification of his body, and how in the future he will have to stand in judgment before the Master of all. One kind of wisdom is the ability to know and look into the mysteries of the soul … and after this, the supernal secrets of the upper world, in order to know his Master. Man can see all of these in the secrets of the Torah.” A person needs to know his Creator and his Creator’s attributes. Furthermore, whatever we are permitted to know about Him must be used to serve Him. For any knowledge of Him that does not add to His service is considered “too wondrous” for us to know.25The author is connecting the knowledge of G-d with the worship of Him, and by this, dismissing purely abstract knowledge of the Divinity. There are many sources in the Torah that speak about levels of knowledge and awareness that are above human cognition, and are thus forbidden to delve into. Here, the author defines those levels as those that cannot enrich a person’s religious practice. This is as the Gemara says (Chagiga, 13a), “Do not seek that which is too wondrous for you, and that which is hidden from you do not investigate.”26Following the sages of the Talmud (Hagiga, 13a), Rav Gershon Henokh sees a danger in delving into the outer realms of God’s mysteries. Yehezkel saw, “A form over the heads of the angels, a firmament like the awesome ice.” And the sages warned, “You are permited to speak up until this point. Beyond this point you are not permitted to speak. Thus it is written in the book of Ben Sira, ‘Do not seek that which is too wondrous for you. Do not investigate that which is concealed from you. Contemplate only what you are permitted to contemplate, for you have no business in hidden things.’ “ Rashi explains, “That which is too wondrous for you are matters that are divided and separated from you. God did not want to reveal these matters to you.” However, we are permitted to contemplate matters that lead to the knowledge of God’s existence and attributes. We may meditate upon how He created and arranged the creation to its final ends. How He created good and evil, and gave man the power to choose good and life. For this one needs to contemplate the nature of good and how God desires to bestow benevolence upon His creatures, as it is written (Tehillim, 89:3), “I said, the world shall be established on benevolence.” This is God’s intention for His creation, which we are permitted to contemplate. The intention from the very first moment of creation came forth from His simple will, as primordial as God Himself, with no initiative from the side of the creation at all, for nothing had yet been created that could bring about such an awakening.
3
ראשית הבריאה היתה בלא התעוררות מצד הנבראים, אבל מהבריאה ואילך, רצה הקב"ה שע"י עבודת-ויגיעת האדם, יקבל שכר פנים בפנים.
From the moment of creation and onward God desires that man receive his reward based on his own efforts
4
אכן מהבריאה ואילך, חפץ הקב"ה שהאדם על ידי עבודתו ויגיע כפיו יקבל שכר, כדאיתא במדרש (קהלת ד) רעותיה דבר נש דמתקרי לעי ונגיס, ולזה ניתן כח הבחירה לאדם. כדאיתא בתקוני הזהר (תקון ע' דף קלז:) ותו נעשה אדם בעינא אדם דיעביד פקודי אורייתא וישתדל באורייתא לעבדה ולשמרה ויהא ליה אגרא טבא ושולטנו עלייכו ודא איהו (ישעיהו ס׳:כ״א) נצר מטעי מעשה ידי להתפאר דהא מלאכי עלאי אע"ג דאינון גבורי כח עושי דברו לא עבדו גבורה בפולחנא דקב"ה דאינון פלחין בהכרח ולית לון ערובא דבשרא ויצרא בישא ובגין דא נעשה אדם וישלוט בכו:
Indeed, from the moment of creation and onward, God desired that man receive reward based upon his own efforts and (what the psalmist calls) “the work of his hands.” This is as it is said in the Midrash,27Midrash Kohelet, 4:6, on the verse, “Better a handful of quietness, than two fistfuls of labor and striving after the wind.” “Man’s efforts are called striving – and then eating.” For this reason man was given free choice. This is as it is written in the Tikunei Zohar (70, page 137b): When the Torah says, “let us make a man,” it means that man needs to fulfill the commandments of the Torah, and exert himself in the Torah, “to work it and to guard it.” From this he will be rewarded and gain mastery over the angels. This is (Yeshayahu, 60), “the bud of My planting, the work of My hands in which to glory.” We find that although the supernal angels are mighty in strength and perform God’s word, still they are not mighty in the service of the Holy One, blessed be He. This is because they are forced to serve Him, and face no obstacles like the physical body or the evil inclination.... For this reason it is said, “let us make a man (who overcomes these obstacles by using his power of choice, to serve God out of his own volition).” For this reason man will rule over the angels.
5
כי הש"י חפץ, שיגיע השכר ע"י יגיע כפיו של האדם ואז יקרא כפיך כי תאכל אשריך וטוב לך, וכדאיתא בירושלמי (ערלה פ"א משנה ג') האי מאן דאכיל מן חבריה בהית לאסתכולי ביה, שהאוכל מתנת חנם אינו יכול לקבל מהנותן פנים בפנים. וזה דאיתא בגמרא פסחים (דף קיח.) הני עשרים וששה כי לעולם חסדו כנגד מי אמרן דוד. כנגד עשרים וששה דורות שברא הקב"ה עד שלא נתן את התורה וזן אותם בחסדו:
God desires that man receive his reward based on his own efforts. Then it will be called (Tehillim, 128:2), “You will eat based on the work of your own hands, fortunate are you, and it will be good for you.” This is as the Jerusalem Talmud states (Orlah, 1:3), “Someone who receives his food from another is ashamed to look his benefactor in the face.” One who receives a free gift cannot receive it face to face. This is as it is said in the Gemara (Pesachim 118a), “What did David have in mind when he said, ‘His mercy endures forever’ twenty-six times?28In Psalm 136. They correspond to the twenty-six generations from the creation of Adam until the giving of the Torah, which were all sustained purely on God’s benevolence.”29In other words, until the generation that the Torah was finally given (the 26th from the creation of Adam), human beings were sustained through G-d’s benevelence, and not in response to their own deeds. This state, however, does not fulfill G-d’s intention for the world, and were the Torah not given, the world would not have been able to continue.
6
ולכן מצינו, שאברהם אבינו קודם שהתחיל במצות התורה בקום ועשה, היינו מצות המילה, לא היה יכול להסתכל בפני שכינה, כדאיתא במדרש תנחומא (לך כ'). ולזה ניתנה התורה לעדת יעקב, כדי להיטיב להם שיעבדו את הש"י בכח בחירתם וירדפו לדעת את ה' ע"י התורה, וזה עצמו הוא שכרם, שיזכו לדעת את ה', ובזה יזכו לחיי עולם ויאכלו יגיע כפיהם ויקבלו אור הש"י פנים בפנים:
For this reason we find that up until the time that Avraham served God through active performance in deed, namely the covenant of circumcision, he could not look face to face at the Shekhina, the Divine presence, as is mentioned in the Midrash Tanchuma (Lech, 20).30On a simple level, R. Gershon Henokh means that Avraham could not behold the Shekhina until he performed some act of commandment: in this case, the ritual of circumcision, which gave him the merit to behold G-d. On a deeper level, the idea is that the removal of the foreskin corresponds to a “spiritual circumcision” of the consciousness, allowing the mind to perceive the previously hidden God, and gain a deeper connection to the Almigthy. In this way, brit milah is a paradigm for all forms of religious devotion. R. Gershon Henokh will make this point below, in chapter 4. See, also, the Chasidic work Ma’or VaShemesh, Vayera. This is why the Torah was given to the community of Yaakov, in order to bestow upon, for by serving God through the power of free choice and running after the knowledge of God through the Torah, they merit knowing God, which is in itself the reward. Then, they will be worthy of eternal life, eating of the fruit of their own efforts and receiving God’s light face to face.31Rav Gershon Henokh is providing the reader with a way to reveal God’s presence in the world and God’s hand in human events. To fulfill a command, one must first defer to a higher wisdom, and then exert one’s own efforts to behave in a way that this wisdom deems worthy. In this way, one then looks at this wisdom, “face to face,” in a sort of “meeting of the minds,” between man and God. Looking at God “face to face” means having some knowledge of the Divine order and concern. In this way, efforts to fulfill God’s commandments, based on an appreciation of God’s wisdom and benevolence, is the key element in fostering a close relationship with the Almighty. As will be stated later, the ability to see God’s goodness, hidden even in the darkest of places, is the mystery of faith.
חובת הידיעה, היא רק מה שממנו נקח לעבודה, וכל ידיעה שאין יוצא ממנה כח עבודה להשי"ת, על זה אמרו, במופלא ממך אל תדרוש.
The Purpose of Knowledge
Having established the centrality of knowledge in the service of God, R. Gershon Henokh now adds another element: True knowledge includes an understanding that God created the world in order to bestow goodness upon man, and that God desires that we make our own efforts in order to receive this goodness. The opposite approach – receiving God’s goodness as an unearned gift – would engender feelings of shame in the receiver. Thus, God gives man a path of action – mitzvot and good deeds – which allow him to deserve His bounty. However, since the greatest gift we can receive from God is further knowledge – which means, in this case, a direct, mystical experience of Divinity – so a circle is formed: intellectual knowledge of God’s Torah and an understanding of His plan for creation leads us on the path to its fulfillment, which ultimately results in a deeper, direct spiritual knowledge of the Giver of the Torah Himself.
ובזהר חדש שיר השירים (שם) חכמתא דאיצטריך ליה לבר נש חד למנדע לאסתכלא ברזא דמאריה וחד למנדע ליה לגופיה ולאשתמודע מאן איהו ואיך אתברי ומאן אתי ולאן יהך ותקונא דגופא האיך אתתקן והאיך איהו זמין למיעל בדינא קמיה מלכא דכולא וחד למנדע ולאסתכל ברזא דנשמתין וכו' ולבתר ברזין עלאין דעלמא דלעילא לאשתמודעא למאריה וכל דא יסתכל בר נש מגו רזין דאורייתא. שהאדם צריך לדעת את בוראו ומדותיו, וכל אשר יש לנו רשות לדעת מה שממנו נקח לעבוד אותו. כי כל מה שאינו יוצא מידיעתו כח עבודה להש"י, זה הוא מופלא מן האדם, ועל זה אמרו בגמרא (חגיגה יג) במופלא ממך אל תדרוש ובמכוסה ממך אל תחקור. אכן במה שהורשינו להתבונן, הוא מה שיוצא ממנו ידיעת מציאת הבורא ומדותיו, ואיך ברא וסדר מערכת הבריאה עד תכלית הבריאה, שברא טוב ורע ונתן כח לאדם לבחור בטוב ובחיים, ולזה צריך להתבונן בטוב מה שחפץ הקב"ה לגמול חסד עם בריותיו כמ"ש (תהלים פט) כי אמרתי עולם חסד יבנה. וזה הוא מכוונת הבורא בהבריאה אשר הורשינו להתבונן בה. והכוונה בראשית הבריאה היתה רק מרצון הפשוט הקדום כקדמותו בלי שום התעוררות מצד הבריאה, שלא היה אז מי שיעורר:
It is written in the Zohar (Zohar Chadash, Shir haShirim, 77a): “What kind of wisdom does man need? One kind is the wisdom to know and look into the mystery of his Master. One kind is the wisdom man needs to know himself, to know who he is, how he was created, from where he came and to where he is going, the nature of the rectification of his body, and how in the future he will have to stand in judgment before the Master of all. One kind of wisdom is the ability to know and look into the mysteries of the soul … and after this, the supernal secrets of the upper world, in order to know his Master. Man can see all of these in the secrets of the Torah.” A person needs to know his Creator and his Creator’s attributes. Furthermore, whatever we are permitted to know about Him must be used to serve Him. For any knowledge of Him that does not add to His service is considered “too wondrous” for us to know.25The author is connecting the knowledge of G-d with the worship of Him, and by this, dismissing purely abstract knowledge of the Divinity. There are many sources in the Torah that speak about levels of knowledge and awareness that are above human cognition, and are thus forbidden to delve into. Here, the author defines those levels as those that cannot enrich a person’s religious practice. This is as the Gemara says (Chagiga, 13a), “Do not seek that which is too wondrous for you, and that which is hidden from you do not investigate.”26Following the sages of the Talmud (Hagiga, 13a), Rav Gershon Henokh sees a danger in delving into the outer realms of God’s mysteries. Yehezkel saw, “A form over the heads of the angels, a firmament like the awesome ice.” And the sages warned, “You are permited to speak up until this point. Beyond this point you are not permitted to speak. Thus it is written in the book of Ben Sira, ‘Do not seek that which is too wondrous for you. Do not investigate that which is concealed from you. Contemplate only what you are permitted to contemplate, for you have no business in hidden things.’ “ Rashi explains, “That which is too wondrous for you are matters that are divided and separated from you. God did not want to reveal these matters to you.” However, we are permitted to contemplate matters that lead to the knowledge of God’s existence and attributes. We may meditate upon how He created and arranged the creation to its final ends. How He created good and evil, and gave man the power to choose good and life. For this one needs to contemplate the nature of good and how God desires to bestow benevolence upon His creatures, as it is written (Tehillim, 89:3), “I said, the world shall be established on benevolence.” This is God’s intention for His creation, which we are permitted to contemplate. The intention from the very first moment of creation came forth from His simple will, as primordial as God Himself, with no initiative from the side of the creation at all, for nothing had yet been created that could bring about such an awakening.
ראשית הבריאה היתה בלא התעוררות מצד הנבראים, אבל מהבריאה ואילך, רצה הקב"ה שע"י עבודת-ויגיעת האדם, יקבל שכר פנים בפנים.
From the moment of creation and onward God desires that man receive his reward based on his own efforts
אכן מהבריאה ואילך, חפץ הקב"ה שהאדם על ידי עבודתו ויגיע כפיו יקבל שכר, כדאיתא במדרש (קהלת ד) רעותיה דבר נש דמתקרי לעי ונגיס, ולזה ניתן כח הבחירה לאדם. כדאיתא בתקוני הזהר (תקון ע' דף קלז:) ותו נעשה אדם בעינא אדם דיעביד פקודי אורייתא וישתדל באורייתא לעבדה ולשמרה ויהא ליה אגרא טבא ושולטנו עלייכו ודא איהו (ישעיהו ס׳:כ״א) נצר מטעי מעשה ידי להתפאר דהא מלאכי עלאי אע"ג דאינון גבורי כח עושי דברו לא עבדו גבורה בפולחנא דקב"ה דאינון פלחין בהכרח ולית לון ערובא דבשרא ויצרא בישא ובגין דא נעשה אדם וישלוט בכו:
Indeed, from the moment of creation and onward, God desired that man receive reward based upon his own efforts and (what the psalmist calls) “the work of his hands.” This is as it is said in the Midrash,27Midrash Kohelet, 4:6, on the verse, “Better a handful of quietness, than two fistfuls of labor and striving after the wind.” “Man’s efforts are called striving – and then eating.” For this reason man was given free choice. This is as it is written in the Tikunei Zohar (70, page 137b): When the Torah says, “let us make a man,” it means that man needs to fulfill the commandments of the Torah, and exert himself in the Torah, “to work it and to guard it.” From this he will be rewarded and gain mastery over the angels. This is (Yeshayahu, 60), “the bud of My planting, the work of My hands in which to glory.” We find that although the supernal angels are mighty in strength and perform God’s word, still they are not mighty in the service of the Holy One, blessed be He. This is because they are forced to serve Him, and face no obstacles like the physical body or the evil inclination.... For this reason it is said, “let us make a man (who overcomes these obstacles by using his power of choice, to serve God out of his own volition).” For this reason man will rule over the angels.
כי הש"י חפץ, שיגיע השכר ע"י יגיע כפיו של האדם ואז יקרא כפיך כי תאכל אשריך וטוב לך, וכדאיתא בירושלמי (ערלה פ"א משנה ג') האי מאן דאכיל מן חבריה בהית לאסתכולי ביה, שהאוכל מתנת חנם אינו יכול לקבל מהנותן פנים בפנים. וזה דאיתא בגמרא פסחים (דף קיח.) הני עשרים וששה כי לעולם חסדו כנגד מי אמרן דוד. כנגד עשרים וששה דורות שברא הקב"ה עד שלא נתן את התורה וזן אותם בחסדו:
God desires that man receive his reward based on his own efforts. Then it will be called (Tehillim, 128:2), “You will eat based on the work of your own hands, fortunate are you, and it will be good for you.” This is as the Jerusalem Talmud states (Orlah, 1:3), “Someone who receives his food from another is ashamed to look his benefactor in the face.” One who receives a free gift cannot receive it face to face. This is as it is said in the Gemara (Pesachim 118a), “What did David have in mind when he said, ‘His mercy endures forever’ twenty-six times?28In Psalm 136. They correspond to the twenty-six generations from the creation of Adam until the giving of the Torah, which were all sustained purely on God’s benevolence.”29In other words, until the generation that the Torah was finally given (the 26th from the creation of Adam), human beings were sustained through G-d’s benevelence, and not in response to their own deeds. This state, however, does not fulfill G-d’s intention for the world, and were the Torah not given, the world would not have been able to continue.
ולכן מצינו, שאברהם אבינו קודם שהתחיל במצות התורה בקום ועשה, היינו מצות המילה, לא היה יכול להסתכל בפני שכינה, כדאיתא במדרש תנחומא (לך כ'). ולזה ניתנה התורה לעדת יעקב, כדי להיטיב להם שיעבדו את הש"י בכח בחירתם וירדפו לדעת את ה' ע"י התורה, וזה עצמו הוא שכרם, שיזכו לדעת את ה', ובזה יזכו לחיי עולם ויאכלו יגיע כפיהם ויקבלו אור הש"י פנים בפנים:
For this reason we find that up until the time that Avraham served God through active performance in deed, namely the covenant of circumcision, he could not look face to face at the Shekhina, the Divine presence, as is mentioned in the Midrash Tanchuma (Lech, 20).30On a simple level, R. Gershon Henokh means that Avraham could not behold the Shekhina until he performed some act of commandment: in this case, the ritual of circumcision, which gave him the merit to behold G-d. On a deeper level, the idea is that the removal of the foreskin corresponds to a “spiritual circumcision” of the consciousness, allowing the mind to perceive the previously hidden God, and gain a deeper connection to the Almigthy. In this way, brit milah is a paradigm for all forms of religious devotion. R. Gershon Henokh will make this point below, in chapter 4. See, also, the Chasidic work Ma’or VaShemesh, Vayera. This is why the Torah was given to the community of Yaakov, in order to bestow upon, for by serving God through the power of free choice and running after the knowledge of God through the Torah, they merit knowing God, which is in itself the reward. Then, they will be worthy of eternal life, eating of the fruit of their own efforts and receiving God’s light face to face.31Rav Gershon Henokh is providing the reader with a way to reveal God’s presence in the world and God’s hand in human events. To fulfill a command, one must first defer to a higher wisdom, and then exert one’s own efforts to behave in a way that this wisdom deems worthy. In this way, one then looks at this wisdom, “face to face,” in a sort of “meeting of the minds,” between man and God. Looking at God “face to face” means having some knowledge of the Divine order and concern. In this way, efforts to fulfill God’s commandments, based on an appreciation of God’s wisdom and benevolence, is the key element in fostering a close relationship with the Almighty. As will be stated later, the ability to see God’s goodness, hidden even in the darkest of places, is the mystery of faith.