We've begun the Torah reading cycle. On Simchat Torah, we concluded the reading of the last Sidra in the Torah and began the reading of Bereshit, the first Sidra of the Torah. The first letter of the Torah is a bet. The last letter is a lamed. Reverse the letters and you have lamed, bet, which spells lev (heart). The Torah is the heart of Jewish existence.
The mystics taught, if one would place all of the letters of the Torah side by side, without spacing the separate words, we would know Adonay's true name, for the core of the heart that is Torah is Adonay.
From the beginning when the world was created and the human evolved on the scene, something of Adonay was here on earth in our midst. That something is known as the ruach hakodesh (the sacred spirit, the creative urge, the divine aspect of existence).
The Torah begins with the creative power of God, and it ends according to the Midrash with an illusion to Moses' exceptional power. He broke the luchot (the Tablets on which the Ten Commandments were inscribed) when he descended from Mount Sinai and encountered the worshiping of the Golden Calf. Thus, the Torah begins with Adonay's exceptional power, his creative power, and ends with the individuated human — Moses. He asserted that the people had rejected Adonay's power by denying His existence and worshiping the ultimate idol, the sacred bull of the ancient world. He broke the Tablets on which were written God's words.
As if to say Adonay creates but the one who has reached the pinnacle of human-divine status can dispose even of Adonay's creation.
Our entire life journey evolves around our success or failure in approaching the human-divine status. In psychological terms, it is known as individuation. It implies reaching that level of existence where we are completely at ease and at home with that of this world and that of the world above. When we reach that state of existence, we are living on the level of lev, of heart, of compassion, of being at one — of being at-one-ment with all of creation.
In Deut. 34:9 we read: "Joshua was filled with the spirit of wisdom. Moses had placed his hands upon him." The commentators say in Moses' hands resided divine power, not of his own creation but rather a power he acquired gradually as he evolved from an ordinary human to a divine-human — one who had individuated to the point of discovering and possessing divine power. Moses' life, according to the understanding of the Sages and the Jewish Kabbalists, had evolved to the highest level (madregah) of human-divinity possible. Thus, the Torah ends with Deut. 34:10: "Never again did there arise a prophet like Moses whom Adonay singled out face to face." According to Jewish tradition, various individuals tried to reach Moses' spiritual level (madregah). The prime example was the author of Kohelet — Ecclesiastes. He tried to rule his community by intuition (things of the heart) rather than by codes and laws. Kohelet Ecclesiastes tried to intuit the end of days when the Messiah will arrive, and he was told to cease and desist. Moses was the law giver par excellence, and no one could improve on his teachings.
Yet, the M'kubalim — the Kabbalists — cited incidents where individuals went beyond Moses in their understanding of Torah. For example, Rabbi Akiba taught many rules, laws, insights that went beyond Moses. The Midrash tells us Moses looked into later moments of history and discovered Akiba elaborating on his teachings. He complained to Adonay and Adonay said, "This too is contained in the Torah." Thus others were on the individuation road to achieve modest moments of success.
Thus we see here, as elsewhere, the dynamics of Jewish teaching. There is Moses, who is sui generis — in a class by himself. Yet, there are others who have almost reached Moses' madregah level of insight. As if to say, "Keep on trying. The judgment isn't final." As the moment of the Messiah's appearance draws closer, more and more of us will reach greater levels of individuation. Throughout Jewish history, we have had examples of individuals who reached high levels and of whom it could be said they came close to God. There are numerous stories about the Baal Shem Tov — the founder of modern hassidism — being in the presence of Adonay. As if to say, Adonay spoke to him face to face as he did to Moses. Of course, there were others who claimed this was blasphemy. Yet, in folk teaching this understanding of the Baal Shem Tov was accepted .
What can we say? We can only pray that we may be blessed as Moses and Joshua
were so that we may come closer to Adonay in our life's journey.
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