Kuntres Taama DeRachamei (English)

בס"ד

Kuntres

טַעֲמָא דְּרַחֲמֵי

An Extensive Biur of the מאמר הזוהר הקדוש on פרשת מטות

"אֵין הָעוֹלָם מִתְנַהֵג אֶלָּא בִּתְרֵי גַּוְונִין"

on the passuk וְכֹל הַטַּף בַּנָּשִׁים אֲשֶׁר לֹא יָדְעוּ מִשְׁכַּב זָכָר הַחְיוּ לָכֶם (במדבר לא, יח)

Arranged al pi פירוש הסולם and the מפרשי הזוהר, together with divrei חז"ל in Shas and Midrashim,

פירוש רש"י and the מפרשי הפשט, and the sifrei קבלה and חסידות

פתח דבר — Foreword

On פרשת מטות, the heilige Zohar contains no continuous midrash as it does on the other parshiyos of the Torah, for the main body of the Zohar on seder haTorah concludes with פרשת פנחס. A single מאמר has been handed down to us on this parsha — the maamar of אין העולם מתנהג אלא בתרי גוונין, built upon the passuk וכל הטף בנשים אשר לא ידעו משכב זכר החיו לכם. The makor of this maamar is in ספר זוהר חדש (defus Salonika שנ"ז), under the heading זהר מפרשת מטות; from the Kushta printing of תצ"ו and onward it was printed within the Zohar on the Torah as well, to complete the seder, and so it stands before us in the Vilna Zohar, חלק ג' דף רנט ע"ב.[1]

For this very reason the maamar is not treated by the great מפרשי הזוהר — the אור יקר of the Ramak, the אור החמה, the מקדש מלך, the Ramaz, and the ביאורי הגר"א — all of whom wrote on the seder of the early printings, in which this maamar does not appear. It is elucidated in the hagahos ניצוצי אורות of the Chida and in ניצוצי זוהר of R' Reuven Margolies, and in the later doros in פירוש הסולם of the Gaon HaKadosh R' Yehudah Leib Ashlag zt"l and in the מתוק מדבש. And in the derech of Chassidus it was explained b'arichus by the heilige Radziner, R' Gershon Henoch zt"l, in his peirush on the Zohar, תפארת החנוכי.[2]

It is also worth prefacing what is brought b'shem the heilige R' Pinchas Koritzer zt"l as to why no Zohar is found on מטות-מסעי and most of ספר דברים — because these parshiyos always fall in the days of בין המצרים, and the chevraya kadisha did not have the mochin to be oisek in the gadlus of the sodos during the days of aveilus.[3] And according to what will be explained b'ezras Hashem, the matter becomes geshmak indeed: davka the single maamar handed to us for these days — its entire inyan is the sod of being mamtik the dinim with rachamim, טוו בדינא טוו ברחמי, which is mamash the avodah of these very days.

One more hakdamah the maamar requires: the whole maamar is couched in the lashon of תמן תנינן and תנינן — teaching us that its ikar yesodos are not being mechudash here, but are being repeated from what was already established elsewhere in the Zohar.[4] And the shoresh of the entire maamar is in the Zohar on פרשת יתרו (ח"ב פז ע"ב): there R' Chiya asked R' Elazar about the heter of יפת תואר, and the sod of the din that clings to the nashim of the umos was explained b'shem R' Elazar — and from there, the Zohar says, Moshe Rabbeinu declared וכל אשה יודעת איש למשכב זכר הרוגו. When the baal hamaamar arrived at פרשת מטות itself — the makom of parshas nashim of Midyan — he repeated the sod in its place with greater arichus: opening with the תרי גוונין of the hanhagah of מלכות, and closing with the sod of עולם חסד יבנה.[5]

The purpose of this kuntres: first, to set out the kushyos of the מפרשי הפשט on the pesukim of the parsha; then to bring the maamar itself b'seder, with a translation al pi פירוש הסולם; then to show how the derech of the Zohar resolves, from the shoresh, the very difficulties with which the Rishonim and Acharonim grappled; and to close with the derech ha'avodah that emerges from the maamar al pi the sifrei Chassidus.

Perek Alef: The Pshat of the Pesukim and the Kushyos of the מפרשים

These are the pesukim (במדבר לא, יד-יח):

"ויקצף משה על פקודי החיל... ויאמר אליהם משה החייתם כל נקבה. הן הנה היו לבני ישראל בדבר בלעם למסר מעל בה' על דבר פעור ותהי המגפה בעדת ה'. ועתה הרגו כל זכר בטף וכל אשה ידעת איש למשכב זכר הרגו. וכל הטף בנשים אשר לא ידעו משכב זכר החיו לכם".

Rashi explains (passuk יז): וכל אשה יודעת איש — ראויה ליבעל, אף על פי שלא נבעלה. ולפני הציץ העבירום, והראויה ליבעל פניה מוריקות — even a girl who was merely ראויה ליבעל, though she was never actually נבעלה, was included; and they were passed before the ציץ, and the face of whoever was ראויה ליבעל would turn pale.[6] And in the Gemara (יבמות ס ע"ב), R' Shimon bar Yochai learns from this very passuk that a giyores under three years old is kosher even לכהונה — שנאמר וכל הטף בנשים אשר לא ידעו משכב זכר החיו לכם, והרי פינחס עמהן — "and Pinchas was among them": the החיו לכם was said even with regard to the kohanim in the machaneh.[7] As for the taam of killing the nashim — the passuk itself states it: הן הנה היו לבני ישראל בדבר בלעם, they were the very ones who were machshil Yisrael at Peor through the eitzah of Bilaam, as the Gemara relates: אלהיהם של אלו שונא זימה הוא.[8]

Whoever looks carefully into these pesukim will be left with several serious tmihos:

(א) If the taam for the killing is הן הנה היו לבני ישראל בדבר בלעם — the Torah should have made the criterion "whoever sinned and was machshil." Why does the passuk hang everything on an entirely different siman — ידעת איש למשכב זכר? And it is all the more shver according to Chazal, that even one who was merely ראויה ליבעל was included though she was never נבעלה — a child of three surely had no shaychus to Peor. What was her aveirah?

(ב) And from the other side — the טף בנשים were not merely spared, החיו לכם, but the Torah is machshir them completely, to the point that Chazal learn from here that they are kosher even לכהונה — והרי פינחס עמהן. Yet Klal Yisrael had just been commanded צרור את המדינים והכיתם אותם — how were the daughters of that very tzoreir nation received into the kedushah with such shleimus?

(ג) The male children were killed — הרגו כל זכר בטף. What is the chiluk between little girls and little boys? Neither sinned, nor could they.

(ד) The lashon החיו לכם — the word לכם requires biur; seemingly החיו alone would have sufficed.

(ה) What is the inyan of the bedikah davka before the ציץ, and what does the turning-pale of the face — פניה מוריקות — have to do with any of this?

With all of these the mefarshim struggled. Now let us see how the maamar of the Zohar, b'derech hasod, cuts through all of them with one stroke — by establishing that the geder of יודעת איש is not an external siman pointing to a past chet, but a definition of mahus itself, as will be explained.

Perek Beis: The Maamar and Its Translation

We now bring the maamar b'seder, os by os (following the chalukah of the Sulam), and alongside each os a translation, arranged al pi פירוש הסולם and, in its footsteps, the מתוק מדבש.

אות א

"וכל הטף בנשים אשר לא ידעו משכב זכר". תמן תנינן, אמר רבי יהודה: אין העולם מתנהג אלא בתרי גוונין, דאתו מסטר אתתא דאשתכחת חכימת לבא. הדא הוא דכתיב: וכל אשה חכמת לב בידיה טוו ויביאו מטוה את התכלת ואת הארגמן. ומאי מתיין — את התכלת ואת הארגמן, גוונין דכלילן בגו גווני.

Translation: There we learned — R' Yehudah said: The world is conducted through nothing but two גוונין — chesed and din, white and red — which come from the side of the אשה who is found to be חכמת לב: the middah of מלכות above, from which all hanhagah of the world flows. This is the meaning of וכל אשה חכמת לב בידיה טוו — "her hands" are the chesed and gevurah within her; and what do they bring? את התכלת ואת הארגמן — colors contained within colors, the din contained within rachamim and the rachamim within din.[9]

אות ב

הדא הוא דכתיב: דרשה צמר ופשתים ותעש בחפץ כפיה. וכתיב: בידיה טוו — מאי טוו? אמר רבי יהודה: טוו בדינא, טוו ברחמי. אמר רבי יצחק: אמאי אתקריא אשה? אמר ליה: דכלילא בדינא וכלילא ברחמי.

Translation: This is the meaning of דרשה צמר ופשתים ותעש בחפץ כפיה[10] — wool from the side of the right and chesed, flax from the side of the left and din. And it says בידיה טוו — what is טוו? Said R' Yehudah: they spin with din and they spin with rachamim — intertwining right into left, until the dinim of the left are sweetened within the chassadim of the right. R' Yitzchak asked: why is she called אשה? He answered: because she is comprised of din and comprised of rachamim — א"ש is din, and the ה"א is rachamim.

אות ג

תא חזי, דאמר רבי אלעזר: כל אתתא בדינא אתקריא, עד דאטעמא טעמא דרחמי. דתניא: מסטרא דבר נש אתי חיוורא, ומסטרא דאתתא אתי סומקא. טעמא אתתא מחיוורא — וחיוורא עדיף.

Translation: Come and see, for R' Elazar said: every אשה is called by the name "din," for her shoresh is from the left kav — until she tastes the taam of rachamim, that is, when she marries a man whose shoresh is in the right kav, in chesed. For we learned: from the side of the man comes the לובן in the child — the bones and gidim, the bechinah of chesed; and from the side of the אשה comes the אודם — the flesh and blood, the bechinah of din. Once the אשה has tasted of the לובן — the לובן prevails within her, even though her own shoresh is the אודם.

אות ד

ותא חזי, אמאי אסירן נשי שאר עמין דידעי משכבי דכורא — משום דתנינן: אית ימינא ואית שמאלא, ישראל ושאר עמין, גן עדן וגיהנם, עלמא דא ועלמא דאתי. ישראל לקבלי דרחמי, ושאר עמין לקבלי דדינא. ותנן: אתתא דאטעמא טעמא דרחמי — רחמי נצחא; אתתא דטעמא טעמא דדינא — דינא בדינא אתדבקת, ועלייהו אתקרי: והכלבים עזי נפש לא ידעו שבעה.

Translation: And come and see why the nashim of the other umos who have known משכב זכר are forbidden: because we learned — there is a right and there is a left: Yisrael and the umos, Gan Eden and Gehinnom, olam hazeh and olam haba; Yisrael correspond to rachamim, and the umos to din. And we learned: an אשה who tasted the taam of rachamim — through cleaving to a man of Yisrael — the rachamim prevail, and she turns entirely to rachamim; but an אשה who tasted the taam of din — through cleaving to a ben neichar who is entirely from the side of din — din cleaves to din, and of such it is said: והכלבים עזי נפש לא ידעו שבעה.

אות ה

ועל דא תנינן: הנבעלת לעכו"ם קשורה בו ככלב. מה כלבא תקיפא ברוחיה חציפא — אוף הכא דינא בדינא, חציפא בכולא. הנבעלת לישראל — תנינן, כתיב: ואתם הדבקים בה' אלהיכם חיים כלכם היום. מאי טעמא? משום דנשמתא דישראל אתיא מרוחא דאלהים חיים, דכתיב: כי רוח מלפני יעטוף — משמע דכתיב מלפני. ובגין כך אתתא דהיא בתולתא, ולא אתדבקת בדינא קשיא דשאר עמין, ואתדבקת בישראל — רחמי נצחא, ואתכשרת.

Translation: And regarding this we learned: הנבעלת לנכרי is bound to him like a dog. Just as the dog is fierce in its ruach and chatzuf — so here: din upon din, azus in everything. But one who is נבעלת לישראל — of her we learned the passuk ואתם הדבקים בה' אלקיכם חיים כלכם היום. What is the taam? Because the neshamah of Yisrael comes from רוח אלקים חיים, as it says כי רוח מלפני יעטוף — מלפני davka: from before זעיר אנפין, who is called אלקים חיים.[11] Therefore an אשה who is a besulah — who never became attached to the harsh din of the umos — and who becomes attached to Yisrael: the rachamim prevail, ואתכשרת, and she becomes kosher and mesukan.

אות ו

ותא חזי, כתיב: כי אמרתי עולם חסד יבנה. מאי חסד? הוא חד מכתרי עילאי דמלכא, דנשמתא דישראל קרא לה קודשא בריך הוא חסד — על תנאי דיתבני, ולא ישתיצי חסד מעלמא; משמע דכתיב יבנה. בגין כך תנינן: מאן דשצי חסד מעלמא — אשתיצי הוא לעלמא דאתי. ועל דא כתיב: לא תהיה אשת המת החוצה — בגין למעבד חסד עם מיתא, ואתעביד בנינא, דכתיב: עולם חסד יבנה.

Translation: And come and see — it says כי אמרתי עולם חסד יבנה. What is chesed? It is one of the supernal crowns of the Melech — the first of the seven ספירות הבנין. And the neshamah of Yisrael — HaKadosh Baruch Hu called her "chesed," on condition that she be built, and that chesed never cease from the world; this is the dikduk of יבנה. From here they taught: whoever cuts off chesed from the world — he is cut off from olam haba. Therefore it says לא תהיה אשת המת החוצה לאיש זר — in order to do chesed with the meis, that he be built and endure, as it says עולם חסד יבנה.

Perek Gimmel: תרי גוונין — The Two Colors of Hanhagah

The yesod of the maamar: all hanhagah of the world comes into actuality through the middah of מלכות, called here אשה חכמת לב — and she is comprised of two colors: white and red, chesed and din. As the Zohar states in its opening on כשושנה בין החוחים: מה שושנה אית בה סומק וחוור, אוף כנסת ישראל אית בה דין ורחמי;[12] and as they said: בתרין גוונין אתברי עלמא — בימינא ובשמאלא, and תרין גוונין, חוור וסומק — רחמי ודינא.[13] There is no color and no hanhagah in the world that does not flow from these two shorashim and from their hiskallelus one within the other.

Techeiles and argaman — גוונין דכלילן בגו גווני: The תכלת is the color of din within מלכות, as Chazal say: תכלת דומה לים, וים דומה לרקיע, ורקיע דומה לכסא הכבוד — the end of all madreigos, the makom of din;[14] while the ארגמן is the interweaving of all the colors together. So the Zohar darshens: תכלת וארגמן — חד, לאתקשר בחד, and that the תכלת, whose din is fierce, is sweetened and included within the sod of the ארגמן.[15] It emerges that the wise-hearted women who spin and bring את התכלת ואת הארגמן — their avodah is mamash the sod of including the din within the rachamim, גוונין דכלילן בגו גווני.

Wool and flax: Wool is white and soft — the color of chesed, as the passuk says אם יהיו חטאיכם כשנים כשלג ילבינו, and of the Kavod above it is said לבושה כתלג חִור ושער ראשה כעמר נקא;[16] flax is from the side of din — it is the korban of Kayin, זרע פשתן. For this reason their mixture is assur to the individual — כלאים and שעטנז — for it is not in the hands of a yachid to join them; they are permitted together only in ציצית and in the בגדי כהונה, the makom of hamtakah and hiskallelus.[17] And the אשה חכמת לב — the מלכות — דרשה צמר ופשתים ותעש בחפץ כפיה: she seeks out and joins the two colors, טוו בדינא, טוו ברחמי.

אשה — אש ה': Therefore she is called אשה: א"ש from the side of din, and the ה"א from the side of rachamim — al shem the hiskallelus. And Chazal's own drashah precedes this: R' Akiva darshened, איש ואשה — זכו, שכינה ביניהן; לא זכו, אש אוכלתן; and Rava adds there that the אש of the אשה burns and consumes more intensely than that of the איש — for her shoresh is from gevurah.[18] The Zohar here is not being mechadesh a new drashah; it is revealing the penimiyus of Chazal's drashah: the ה"א within אשה is the taste of rachamim — which transforms the אש from a consuming fire into an illuminating one.

Perek Daled: כל אתתא בדינא אתקריא

The ikar chiddush of the maamar lies in the memra of R' Elazar: כל אתתא בדינא אתקריא, עד דאטעמא טעמא דרחמי. The shoresh of the נוקבא is from the left kav and from the gevuros, and her dinim are sweetened only through her chibur with the דכר whose shoresh is chesed; as the Zohar states: בסטרא דדכורא שריא חסד, בסטרא דנוקבא שריא דינא... ובגין לאתבסמא דא בדא — מתקשרן דא בדא.[19]

Its raayah is from divrei Chazal in נדה: שלשה שותפין יש באדם... אביו מזריע הלובן שממנו עצמות וגידים וצפרנים ומוח שבראשו ולובן שבעין; אמו מזרעת אודם שממנו עור ובשר ושערות ושחור שבעין — the לובן, the color of chesed, comes from the father; the אודם, the color of din, from the mother.[20] And when the אשה "tastes of the לובן" — in her nisuin to a man — then חיוורא עדיף: the לובן prevails and is mevasem the shoresh of אודם within her. Indeed the guf itself — white bones within, red flesh without — is built on this very sod: din standing upon a foundation of chesed.

And the lashon טעמא דרחמי is medukdak — it appears nowhere in the entire Zohar except here.[21] For the first taste is the one that determines everything: the first biah is what makes the אשה into a keili, as Chazal say — אין האשה כורתת ברית אלא למי שעשאה כלי;[22] and in the sod of the Zohar — the first baal leaves within her a ruach with the first biah, and all her kabbalah from then on passes through that first keili.[23] It follows that the first taste — of rachamim or of din — fixes the mahus of the entire keili. And this is the whole yesod of the parsha, as will now be explained.

Perek Hei: דינא בדינא אתדבקת — The Sod of the Issur of the Nashim of the Umos

The shoresh of the maamar in זוהר יתרו: R' Elazar was walking on the derech, and R' Chiya was with him. Said R' Chiya: it is written וראית בשביה אשת יפת תאר — what is the taam that the Torah permitted her, when it says לא תתחתן בם? He answered: בעוד דברשותייהו קיימי — the whole issur applies while they still stand within the reshus of the umos and their din; but once she is uprooted, megayeres, and enters the reshus of kedushah — she can become mesukan. And he added there: no אשה among the umos is fully kosher, for the parsha of יפת תואר is placed next to בן סורר ומורה — כל הנושא יפת תואר יש לו בן סורר ומורה — because קשיא למעבר מינה זוהמא; וכל שכן ההיא דאתנסיבת בקדמיתא — דדינא בדינא אתדבק... וקשיא זוהמא למעבר מינה. והיינו דאמר משה: וכל אשה יודעת איש למשכב זכר הרוגו.[24] It is mefurash, then, that the shoresh of the din of the nashim of Midyan lies in this maamar — and the maamar of our parsha is its peirush and its expansion.

ימינא ושמאלא: Yisrael are held in the right — ישראל לקבלי דרחמי — and the umos in the left and in din; Gan Eden in the right and Gehinnom in the left; olam haba in the יו"ד, which is chochmah and the right, and olam hazeh in the ה"א.[25] Therefore: one who cleaves to Yisrael tastes the taam of rachamim — רחמי נצחא — and the din at her shoresh is mevusam and elevated; but one who cleaves to a ben of the umos — din is added upon her din, דינא בדינא אתדבקת, red upon red, and there remains no לובן to sweeten her.

קשורה בו ככלב: This lashon as such is not found in Chazal before us; it is like a weaving-together of two maamarim: הנבעלת לערל קשה לפרוש — said regarding Dinah bas Yaakov;[26] and the memra of R' Elazar regarding Yosef HaTzaddik: לשכב אצלה — בעולם הזה; להיות עמה — לעולם הבא, that the aveirah is קשורה בו ככלב;[27] And the Zohar revealed that the two leshonos are one: the binding, and the difficulty of tearing away — it is a kesher of din with din.

And what is the inyan of the dog? — דינא חציפא, דינא תקיפא יתיר מכלא, דכתיב: והכלבים עזי נפש.[28] The dog is din standing alone, without hamtakah — brazen, chatzuf, and לא ידעו שבעה: din never knows satisfaction, k'inyan לעלוקה שתי בנות הב הב — and the seforim note the remez that the very bark of the dog, "hav hav," is a demand that is never filled.[29] And in זוהר בשלח it is explained that the klipah of the dog is born davka from a chibur that is not k'tikuno: לא תחרוש בשור ובחמור יחדיו... מבין סטרא דלהון נפיק... דאקרי כלב, ודא חציפא מכלהו[30] — which is mamash the sod of כלאים above: joining din to din, in place of joining din to rachamim, gives birth to the dog.

And k'negdo — ואתם הדבקים: ואתם הדבקים בה' אלקיכם חיים כלכם היום — the neshamah of Yisrael is from רוח אלקים חיים, כי רוח מלפני יעטוף; therefore one who cleaves to Yisrael cleaves, kavyachol, to the Chaim themselves. With this we understand the depth of the issur of ובעל בת אל נכר, which Chazal equated with avodah zarah mamash — כל הבא על הכותית כאילו מתחתן בעבודת כוכבים[31] — for he brings the ברית קודש, the makom of gilui hachesed, into the reshus of din and the sitra achra.

Perek Vov: The Parsha Resolved al pi the Zohar

Alef. The geder of יודעת איש — mahus, not onesh. According to the derech hapshat, the killing of the nashim is a response and an onesh — הן הנה היו לבני ישראל בדבר בלעם — and on this stood all the kushyos above, for the siman the Torah gave is not "whoever sinned" but ידעת איש. But according to the derech of the Zohar the whole picture turns over: ידעת איש למשכב זכר — in a Midyanis — is not an external siman of a past chet, but a definition of present mahus: once she has known משכב זכר of the bnei Midyan, she has tasted טעמא דדינא, and there has been formed within her דינא בדינא — an essential kesher that cannot be undone, קשיא זוהמא למעבר מינה. They were not judged for what was, but for what they now were: it was no longer possible to be machshir them and bring them into Klal Yisrael; they remained bound to the klipah of Midyan "like a dog" — and to leave them within the machaneh would have been to leave the pesach of Peor standing open.[32]

Beis. וכל הטף בנשים... החיו לכם — the koach of hamtakah. From the other side: the besulah who has not yet become attached to din — the full possibility of tasting טעמא דרחמי still stands within her: אתתא דהיא בתולתא ולא אתדבקת בדינא קשיא דשאר עמין, ואתדבקת בישראל — רחמי נצחא, ואתכשרת. And here is a wondrous thing: the very lashon of the Zohar, ואתכשרת, corresponds mamash to the halachah that Chazal derive from this very passuk — a giyores under three is כשרה לכהונה, שנאמר וכל הטף בנשים... החיו לכם, והרי פינחס עמהן.[33] The Torah itself testifies that these girls become kosher b'tachlis hahechsher — up to kehunah, up to Pinchas himself, the mekanei for the bris — for once they were uprooted from the reshus of din before they were bound to it, then again חיוורא עדיף, and the rachamim prevail.

Gimmel. לכם davka. With this the dikduk is settled: החיו לכם — their chiyus hangs upon the לכם: through cleaving to you, to Yisrael who cleave to the Elokim Chaim, they will come into life. And it is mamash the passuk that the Zohar itself brings as its raayah: ואתם הדבקים בה' אלקיכם חיים כלכם היום. And note well — this passuk itself is said in the Torah immediately following, and in contrast to, the maaseh of Peor: כי כל האיש אשר הלך אחרי בעל פעור השמידו ה' אלקיך מקרבך, ואתם הדבקים בה' אלקיכם חיים כלכם היום — those who were nitzmad to Peor on one side, and those who are deveikim to Hashem on the other.[34]

Daled. The boys and the girls of the טף. Now the chiluk between the male and female children is also mevuar: the zachar is a mashpia — he carries within himself the essential koach of the nation and its din; there is no "taste" that can transform him, for he does not receive, he gives. But the nekeivah — her whole mahus is mekabel, and her mahus is fixed by what she will taste: a nekeivah who has not yet tasted can be transferred from reshus to reshus, to taste of the לובן and become kosher; in a zachar this tzurah does not exist at all.[35]

Hei. The ציץ and the paling of the face. Along this derech one may add a taam to the bedikah of the ציץ: Chazal teach, ציץ מכפר על עזות פנים — כתיב הכא: והיה על מצח אהרן, וכתיב התם: ומצח אשה זונה היה לך.[36] Now according to the Zohar, one who becomes attached to din becomes חציפא בכולא — like the dog, עז נפש. The ציץ, which stands k'neged azus hametzach, is thus precisely the bodek and the megaleh: when she stands before it, if there is within her any of the deveikus of din and its azus — the din within her is exposed, and פניה מוריקות, for the pallor is the gilui of din and pachad. And with this the kushya of ראויה ליבעל is also settled: the Zohar holds by the pshuto shel mikra — ידעת mamash, that the actual knowing is the shoresh of their din;[37] only that whoever is ראויה ליבעל, standing within a nation steeped in znus l'shem avodah zarah — she already stands at the very threshold of that deveikus, and the tasting of din is near to her like a second nature; and it was the ציץ that decided, for each one, whether the din had already touched her or not — a bedikah from Shamayim, not the umdena of basar v'dam.

Vov. What emerges. The derech of the Zohar thus embraces everything: the siman the Torah gave — ידעת איש — is itself the taam; the chiluk between the nashim and the taf is the chiluk between "already bound to din" and "standing ready to be mesukan"; the לכם reveals the makor hachaim; and the ציץ reveals what is hidden in the heart. And the passuk הן הנה היו לבני ישראל בדבר בלעם is the revealed side of that very same kesher: the same deveikus of din-in-din is what clothed itself in the maaseh of Peor — ויצמד ישראל לבעל פעור, a lashon of tzemidus and deveikus — and the eitzah of Bilaam, who knew that אלהיהם של אלו שונא זימה, was nothing other than to pull Yisrael down from the deveikus in rachamim into the deveikus in din.[38]

Perek Zayin: עולם חסד יבנה — The Maamar Closes with the Sod of יבום

L'chorah one should wonder: why does the maamar close with the inyan of יבום, which is not of the parsha at all? The teretz: after explaining the koach of the Yisrael-man to be mamtik and to build the אשה, the maamar returns to the shoresh of that koach itself — the neshamah of Yisrael is itself called "chesed." The world was created in din and could not stand עד דאושיט ימינא עליה — כי אמרתי עולם חסד יבנה;[39] and the neshamah is called chesed על תנאי דיתבני — for the mahus of chesed is hashpaah and binyan, and a chesed that does not build has lost its very name.

From here to the sod of יבום: ויבן ה' אלקים את הצלע — אתרמזי רזא דיבום... כיון שלא בנה שוב לא יבנה, הדא הוא דכתיב: אשר לא יבנה את בית אחיו.[40] One who dies without children is a chesed that was never built; and the yavam does חסד עם המת and builds him — a binyan mamash. And middah k'neged middah: מאן דשצי חסד מעלמא — אשתיצי הוא לעלמא דאתי — for olam haba is in the יו"ד and in the right, as above, and one who cuts off the chesed cuts himself off from his own shoresh.

And the kesher to the parsha is now self-understood: החיו לכם is itself a maaseh of chesed that builds — to take a nefesh standing on the side of din and build her into the binyan of kedushah: עולם חסד יבנה k'pshuto. And the chosem of the whole inyan is Pinchas: he who was mekanei for the bris — בקנאו את קנאתי — through whom the אש זרה was mesukan to become אש-ה"א, and who was zocheh to בריתי שלום; and he stands at the head of milchemes Midyan, וכלי הקדש וחצוצרות התרועה בידו — for this entire milchamah is the milchamah of the bris.[41]

Perek Ches: The Derech HaAvodah — al pi the Sifrei Chassidus

Alef. תפארת החנוכי of the heilige Radziner. The entire maamar was explained b'derech ha'avodah by the Radziner, R' Gershon Henoch zt"l, and the tamtzis of his words: the middah of the אשה within the nefesh is the koach of hotzaah el hapoel — the koach of "that it should actually be." This middah is itself close to din, for nothing comes into actuality without tzimtzum, gevul, and hachraah. The אש of hislahavus in the nefesh — the אשה — when it joins an איש of chesed, gives birth to בנים אתם לה' אלקיכם; when it joins an אש זרה — fire upon fire with neither יו"ד nor ה"א in them — everything is consumed.[42] And on עזי נפש לא ידעו שבעה he explained: the nefesh is a keili of kabbalah without gevul — וגם הנפש לא תמלא — and when it is filled from the side of aveirah, the filling never becomes one with it, and the unslaked tzimaon wraps itself around it "like a dog"; but in kedushah, this same insatiability is itself the maalah of Yisrael in Torah — "in the zechus that the Torah is beloved to Yisrael... for we have never exhausted her taamim, and she is still as beloved to us as in the first hour."[43]

Beis. Being mamtik the dinim at their shoresh. טוו בדינא, טוו ברחמי — this is the klal gadol received b'shem the heilige Baal Shem Tov, that the dinim are sweetened only at their shoresh: one does not push the din away and one does not break it; one raises it and includes it in the shoresh harachamim — גוונין דכלילן בגו גווני. Not the bitul of the אש — but the placing of a ה"א within it.[44]

Gimmel. מדין — מדון. In the sifrei Chabad it is explained that מדין is from the lashon of מדון and merivah — the klipah of pirud and sinas chinam, the exact opposite of chesed and ahavah; and milchemes Midyan, the last milchamah of Moshe Rabbeinu, is the biur of the shoresh of pirud, so that עולם חסד יבנה.[45] According to this, the maamar's closing with chesed is no digression at all — it is the very tachlis of milchemes Midyan: the destruction of דינא בדינא, so that the world may be built in chesed.

Daled. The avodah of בין המצרים. פרשת מטות is always leined in בין המצרים, the days of din. And the one maamar handed down to us in it — teaches precisely the avodah of these days: not to flee from the din, but to spin it together with rachamim; to find within the אש — the ה"א. These are the very words of the Koritzer brought above; and it is the inyan of מטה explained in the Sfas Emes — a branch cut from the tree, hardened and dried, and yet the name מטה remains upon it, a lashon of tokef and memshalah, for the koach of the tree lies hidden within it and its sof is to be renewed; so Yisrael in their galus, and so these very days — which are destined to be turned to sasson and simchah.[46]

סיום — Conclusion

What emerges from the whole maamar: the Torah hung the din of the nashim of Midyan upon ידעת איש למשכב זכר — and the Zohar came and revealed that this is no mere siman but the sibah itself. The אשה, whose shoresh is in din, has her mahus fixed by her first taste: if she tasted of the din of the umos — דינא בדינא אתדבקת, and there is no takanah; and if she had not yet tasted — רחמי נצחא ואתכשרת, to the point of כשרה לכהונה and פינחס עמהן. With this, the siman and the chiluk, the לכם and the ציץ, the boys of the taf and its girls — all are settled, and everything rises toward the chasimah: כי אמרתי עולם חסד יבנה.

May we be zocheh to spin our dinim together with rachamim — טוו בדינא טוו ברחמי — and to see the binyan of the world of chesed, and the turning of these days to sasson and simchah, bimheirah b'yameinu, amen.