Musar sobre Pirkei Avot 5:1

We have already explained that the mystical dimension of מעשר is expressed by the three dimensions of the letter י, which expanded into three gifts to the Jewish people, i.e. תורה, ארץ ישראל and עולם הבא. The concept Torah can be summed up by the letter י, i.e. the Ten Commandments which contain allusions to all the 613 commandments of the Torah. The total number of letters in the Ten Commandments is 613. The Ten Commandments are sacred; the tenth of the commandments (when counting from the last one backwards) is the statement: אנכי ה' אלוקיך. Being the tenth, it is even more sacred than the others seeing that it is the ראש, the head. It embraces all the others seeing it stipulates the existence of G–d and His relationship to us. The second gift is ארץ ישראל; the Mishnah Keilim 1,6 describes ten successive stages of sanctity of holy areas, explaining that ארץ ישראל as such is at the bottom of the list of these holy areas. The next higher degree of sanctity is found in walled cities (dating back to the time Joshua conquered the land) within ארץ ישראל, followed by sites within the city wall of Jerusalem, followed by the Temple Mount and so forth, until the Holy of Holies within the Sanctuary, the Holy Temple. The third gift to the Jewish people is the gift of עולם הבא, the world to come, which we know was created with the letter י -as distinct from the present world- which was created with the letter ה. The ארץ ישראל in our world is perceived as "opposite" a similar area in the "higher" world referred to by Isaiah 60,21: ועמך כולם צדיקים, לעולם יירשו ארץ, "Your people (Israel) all are righteous; they will inherit an eternal land." This "eternal" land is the mystical dimension of the ten directives with which G–d created the universe. We know that one single directive was the nucleus of all the other directives, just as the first of the Ten Commandments is the nucleus of all the other commandments. It can therefore be described as קדש קדשים, the holiest of the holy.

Let us now return to the way the Tabernacle corresponded to the act of creation. We know from Avot 5,1 that G–d created the universe with 10 directives. The deeper meaning of the ten directives is well known. When the Tabernacle was constructed we also find the number 10 prominent both when describing part of the walls as well as when describing the coverings forming the ceiling of the Tabernacle. Exodus 26,1 commences with the instruction to make the Tabernacle of ten strips of cloth. Similarly each of the boards used for the walls was to be ten cubits high. The Holy Ark was ten handbreadths high, including one cubit for the thickness of its lid. This may be the reason that in the reference to the Holy Ark in Psalms 132,8: אתה וארון עוזיך the word עוזך is spelled with the extra letter י. [Our texts do not have the extra letter י, neither here nor in Chronicles II 6,41. Ed.] The Talmud Yuma 21 states that the site on which the Holy Ark stood was not included in the measurements of the Temple or Tabernacle. This too is an allusion to the concealed nature of the Ineffable Name of G–d which was present within the Holy of Holies between the wings of the cherubs on the lid of the altar. We allude to this in the קדושה prayer when we recite: ברוך ה' ממקומו, "Blessed the glory of the Lord from its abode." [its invisible site Ed.] The table was also 9 handbreadths high, above which was a golden frame 1 handbreadth high. So here too the number ten was prominent. The candlestick with its seven arms and a knob, cup, and flower on each arm again featured the number ten. Here too we find that the Torah refers to: תיעשה המנורה "the candlestick shall be constructed" (Exodus 26,31) the word תיעשה being unaccountably spelled with an extra letter י. The golden altar was twelve handbreadths high, corresponding to the twelve permutations in which the Ineffable Name can be spelled. The copper altar was square, five cubits long and five cubits deep. This corresponded to the number five mentioned in the ספר היצירה. Its height, however, was ten cubits.

כי בי-ה ה' צור עולמים . This means that the universe, i.e. the עולם הבא, was created with the letter י, whereas the עולם הזה, the material world, was created with the letter ה. The Mishnah in Avot 5,1 already told us that G–d created the universe with ten מאמרות, directives. The first of these was אחדות, Unity, as we will explain later. The term דביקות, attachment, refers to something that is ongoing, everlasting, as we know from Deut.4,4, ואתם הדבקים בה' אלוקיכם, חיים כולכם היום, "you who have been cleaving to the Lord your G–d are all alive this day." The material world was created by five מאמרות, i.e. the letter ה. Our sages in Rosh Hashanah 21b, say that 50 שערי בינה, "gates of understanding," were created, and that Moses was given all of them except one. We know this because it says of Moses "ותחסרהו מעט מאלוקים," that You have made him only a little less than divine" (Psalms 8,6). In the introduction on his commentary on the Torah Nachmanides (Chavell edition page 3) describes this statement as meaning that all parts of creation such as the minerals, the various categories of vegetation, animal life and even human life, each required a special שער בינה by means of which they were brought into existence. This process continued until possession of an advanced שער בינה would enable a person to understand the psyche of fellow human beings, enable him to divine if his counterpart was a thief, an adulterer, etc. and even enable him to know if someone else who was suspected of disobeying the laws of ritual impurity concerning sexual relations with a menstruant woman was in fact guilty of such misconduct. Beyond that, a still higher שער בינה would give such a person access to knowledge about the motions and functions of the stars and planets. The total number of such שערי בינה is fifty, the fiftieth being reserved for the Creator alone, who had not revealed that potential to any creature. The wording in the Talmud, נבראו, "they have been created," suggesting that they had not remained only in the realm of G–d Himself, need not be understood literally, as the Talmud was concerned with describing what happened to the majority of these שערי בינה. So far Nachmanides. I personally, feel that the 50th שער בינה, an all embracing potential called hiyuli, primordial is the creative potential which has been withheld from any human being. Nachmanides possibly has this in mind when he refers to the verse in Psalms 33,9: “הוא אמר ויהי,” He said and it came into being."

When the Torah was given the Ten Commandments corresponded to the ten directives G–d issued when He created the universe (Avot 5,1). You find that the numerical value of כסא, i.e. G–d's "throne," equals that of the word אנכי, the first word in the Decalogue. Both equal 81. When Moses ascended Mount Sinai, he encountered the hostility of the angels who opposed his wanting to take Torah to earth, and when he displayed fear of the angels G–d told him to hold on to His כסא (Shabbat 88). Midrash Tanchuma on Deut 33,2, views the words ואתה מרבבות קודש, as indicating that G–d descended at the time of the revelation at Mount Sinai supported by an entourage of twenty thousand angels.

Let me try and explain part of the mystique of the story of Creation, and in the process reveal part of the mystery of two of G–d's names, namely the ineffable four-lettered name [the author uses the letter ד in his spelling instead of the letter ה] i.e. א-ד-י-ד and the same name i.e. אדי"ד, with the letter ו added. Rabbi Aushiyah had quoted Proverbs 8,30 at the beginning of Bereshit Rabbah in which this name occurs twice: ואהיה אצלו אמון ואהיה שעשועים, יום יום משחקת לפניו בכל עת. Although the acts of creation described in Proverbs in that chapter clearly refer to the creation of the physical universe, the language implies allusions to the spiritual universe. If the Mishnah in Avot 5,1 tells us that the physical universe was created by ten מאמרות, directives issued by G–d, the same applies to the creation of the Spiritual Universe. Already Nachmanides and Ibn Ezra comment on the Torah's description of גן עדן and the four rivers issuing forth from it which preceded it, that the language of the text also implies what went on in the heavenly regions.