Sayings of the Holy Maagid

 

 

1. Rabbi Yitzchok said, in truth the Torah could have begun from the first law, not the entire story (of creation.)

 

The reason the story of creation was said, is because it is intimately linked – you see, there are two desires – there is what is called my inner will, and then there is my outer will.

 

(For example, if I go to China on business, I wish not to be in China; rather it is my wish to make money – hence the outer will leads me to China; the inner will is to make money, and of-course behind that is a deeper will, say, to support my family; and in that, a deeper will, say, because I love them etc.)

 

Hence the outer will of God is this physical creation; but his inner will are the people who do good.

 

An exact example of this is a parent who plays with his little son – so though he himself is perhaps a great man, but as he loves his son, he coos and plays silly games (so all of creation serves God’s inner will.)

 

2. The Medrash tells us, that in the beginning, the world had no permanence (for from Avrohom came Yishmoel, from Isaac, Aisav, until Yaakov, that all his kids were Tzaddikim (righteous.))

The meaning behind this is as follows – the initial light that God radiated represented by Chessed (love) and coming from God (hence being infinite) was too strong, like a burst dam.

 

It is for this reason, the light need to be contracted – however contraction on its own creates  concealment.

 

Hence there needs to be a third state, in which a more blending of light and darkness to the perfect amount… – this was the task and state of Jacob (Tifferes – In other words, the way a person must be in life is not to be like a naive (liberal) in which one loves unconditionally with no sense of boundaries – on the flip side, one should never be filled with fear, hence boundaries (not letting anyone “in”;) rather, one must be able to judge every situation on its merits (obviously trying to be good and kind.)

 

In addition, it is in the merit of Torah study which creates this primordial light (hence when we study Torah today, the world literally receives its well-balanced light.)

 

 

However the above is generally speaking, how does the personal individual stand? – We know the Jewish people have three innate character traits: compassionate, bashful (reticent / humble) and doers of acts of goodness – these three traits are respectively inherited from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

 

However though we may have these inherent qualities, it is up to us to fan the pilot light into a full blown flame.

 

Why does the Torah only say by light, “And there was light” (whereas normally it just says what God said should be, without using the terminology “and there was” – furthermore, if there was first light, why does it say that “There was first evening and then morning” ?

 

For this light refers to the primordial too strong light (as mentioned,) so then God had to conceal it through tzimtzum (concealments) and only then came a permanent beneficial everlasting daylight.

 

From this we learn a profound lesson, for our sages teach, that whenever it says “And there was,” this refers to some kind of pain, for it is painful when light gets concealed; however the reason God does conceal (and we all can have personal concealments) is because this then creates a further state of an eternal stable “day”light.