Chasidut על אבות 2:1
Kedushat Levi
Lviticus 15,18. “when a man has had sexual intercourse with a woman, both of them have to ritually cleanse themselves in a ritual bath, after which they remain ritually impure until evening.” Rashi states that the decree that the woman too remains ritually impure until nightfall is a Divine decree for which no explanation has been offered.
At first glance Rashi’s comments are hard to understand as they appear to defy logic, as the whole idea of ritual defilement being a result of man performing the first commandment in the Torah, to be fruitful and multiply, when he engages in marital relations with his wife should not result in ritual contamination of either party.
We must therefore conclude that it is not the act of engaging in marital relations which causes the ritual defilement. The problem is that the urge to engage in sexual relations is aroused by the evil urge, and this being so, even when the act is performed in order to fulfill the commandment to have children, it is impossible not to derive some physical pleasure from performing this act, and this part of performing the commandment is what accounts for the need to purify oneself subsequently and thus atone for impure thoughts entertained during performance of the commandment, i.e. the act of impregnating one’s partner with one’s sperm.
The matter is comparable to a powerful king who had two servants, both of whom were members of the highest nobility in the kingdom. The King charged both of these noblemen with carrying out a specific task on his behalf. Both of these noblemen carried out their part of the task in accord with their instructions, the only difference between the two being their motivation when carrying out this task. One of the noblemen carried out the task in order to provide the king, his master, with a sense of satisfaction and pleasure, whereas the second one was motivated purely by the fact that it was a task the performance of which was very much to his liking, his having wished that he could have performed it even without having been given the opportunity to so by the king’s command. When the first nobleman carried out the king’s command the effect of his performance was that he “enthroned” the king, i.e. testified to the King’s legitimacy and power, whereas the second nobleman, although he had performed the identical act, had thereby merely indulged his personal desires.
The same distinction applies to husbands who perform the act of marital intercourse with their respective wives, knowing that they thereby fulfill their Creator’s command. A husband who uses the opportunity of marital intercourse with his wife in order to satisfy his sexual urges, cannot lay claim to have done so as a way of “enthroning,” i.e. confirming that he recognizes G’d as his Master. This is what Rashi meant by his comment on the words: וטמאו עד הערב, “they will remain ritually impure until the evening.” When Rashi referred to the fact that seminal emission causes ritual impurity as a “royal decree,” he referred to people fulfilling a royal decree not because they meant thereby to “enthrone” the king.
From all this we learn how careful a person has to be when carrying out Torah commandments that he does so for the correct reasons, primarily to “enthrone” the Creator by his willing observance.
The Talmud (Chagigah 5) relates that Rabbi Iylah once overheard a youngster in school reading aloud a verse from Amos 4,13, where the prophets says: מגיד לו מה שיחו, “(G’d)can quote back to a person every word he uttered, (even words spoken during the intimacy in the conversation with his wife while in bed);”
Rabbi Moses Isserles in his glossary on the Orach Chayim chapter 1,1 explains the importance of the verse in psalms 16,8 where David says that “I am ever mindful of the Lord’s presence,” שויתי ה' לנגדי תמיד וגו'. The simple meaning of this line is that we must never consider ourselves as being “alone,” unobserved wherever we are, as G’d is aware of all our deeds everywhere and of all our thoughts. This must be one of the first thoughts that cross our minds when awakening in the morning. When we keep this verse in mind this will go a long way toward ensuring that both our actions and our thoughts and plans remain within the channels which the Torah encourages us to navigate. Both Jeremiah 23,24 who said, quoting G’d: “if a man enters a hiding place, do I not see him?”, and the Mishnah in Avot 2,1 which concludes with Rabbi Yehudah (the editor) telling us: “know what is above you; a seeing eye and a hearing ear, and that all your deeds are being recorded in The Book, and you will not easily fall into the grip of sin;” have made the same point using slightly different syntax.
Nonetheless Rabbi Yehudah’s words need further analysis, since “how can we know what is above us,” i.e. beyond our powers of perception with our senses? Seeing that Hashem resides not only in the celestial regions which are beyond access to us but even in higher regions than the highest ranking angels, the seraphim, what did Rabbi Yehudah hanassi mean when he used the world דע!? Why did Rabbi Yehudah add the word ממך, “beyond you?”
At first glance Rashi’s comments are hard to understand as they appear to defy logic, as the whole idea of ritual defilement being a result of man performing the first commandment in the Torah, to be fruitful and multiply, when he engages in marital relations with his wife should not result in ritual contamination of either party.
We must therefore conclude that it is not the act of engaging in marital relations which causes the ritual defilement. The problem is that the urge to engage in sexual relations is aroused by the evil urge, and this being so, even when the act is performed in order to fulfill the commandment to have children, it is impossible not to derive some physical pleasure from performing this act, and this part of performing the commandment is what accounts for the need to purify oneself subsequently and thus atone for impure thoughts entertained during performance of the commandment, i.e. the act of impregnating one’s partner with one’s sperm.
The matter is comparable to a powerful king who had two servants, both of whom were members of the highest nobility in the kingdom. The King charged both of these noblemen with carrying out a specific task on his behalf. Both of these noblemen carried out their part of the task in accord with their instructions, the only difference between the two being their motivation when carrying out this task. One of the noblemen carried out the task in order to provide the king, his master, with a sense of satisfaction and pleasure, whereas the second one was motivated purely by the fact that it was a task the performance of which was very much to his liking, his having wished that he could have performed it even without having been given the opportunity to so by the king’s command. When the first nobleman carried out the king’s command the effect of his performance was that he “enthroned” the king, i.e. testified to the King’s legitimacy and power, whereas the second nobleman, although he had performed the identical act, had thereby merely indulged his personal desires.
The same distinction applies to husbands who perform the act of marital intercourse with their respective wives, knowing that they thereby fulfill their Creator’s command. A husband who uses the opportunity of marital intercourse with his wife in order to satisfy his sexual urges, cannot lay claim to have done so as a way of “enthroning,” i.e. confirming that he recognizes G’d as his Master. This is what Rashi meant by his comment on the words: וטמאו עד הערב, “they will remain ritually impure until the evening.” When Rashi referred to the fact that seminal emission causes ritual impurity as a “royal decree,” he referred to people fulfilling a royal decree not because they meant thereby to “enthrone” the king.
From all this we learn how careful a person has to be when carrying out Torah commandments that he does so for the correct reasons, primarily to “enthrone” the Creator by his willing observance.
The Talmud (Chagigah 5) relates that Rabbi Iylah once overheard a youngster in school reading aloud a verse from Amos 4,13, where the prophets says: מגיד לו מה שיחו, “(G’d)can quote back to a person every word he uttered, (even words spoken during the intimacy in the conversation with his wife while in bed);”
Rabbi Moses Isserles in his glossary on the Orach Chayim chapter 1,1 explains the importance of the verse in psalms 16,8 where David says that “I am ever mindful of the Lord’s presence,” שויתי ה' לנגדי תמיד וגו'. The simple meaning of this line is that we must never consider ourselves as being “alone,” unobserved wherever we are, as G’d is aware of all our deeds everywhere and of all our thoughts. This must be one of the first thoughts that cross our minds when awakening in the morning. When we keep this verse in mind this will go a long way toward ensuring that both our actions and our thoughts and plans remain within the channels which the Torah encourages us to navigate. Both Jeremiah 23,24 who said, quoting G’d: “if a man enters a hiding place, do I not see him?”, and the Mishnah in Avot 2,1 which concludes with Rabbi Yehudah (the editor) telling us: “know what is above you; a seeing eye and a hearing ear, and that all your deeds are being recorded in The Book, and you will not easily fall into the grip of sin;” have made the same point using slightly different syntax.
Nonetheless Rabbi Yehudah’s words need further analysis, since “how can we know what is above us,” i.e. beyond our powers of perception with our senses? Seeing that Hashem resides not only in the celestial regions which are beyond access to us but even in higher regions than the highest ranking angels, the seraphim, what did Rabbi Yehudah hanassi mean when he used the world דע!? Why did Rabbi Yehudah add the word ממך, “beyond you?”
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Kedushat Levi
These considerations prompted the Talmud in Sanhedrin 99 to state במקום שבעלי תשובה עומדים צדיקים גמורים אין יכולים לעמוד, “perfectly righteous people, i.e. those who have never tasted sin, cannot take their place next to repentant sinners, as the latter have struggled much harder to rehabilitate themselves after having tasted the immediate benefits in this life of having sinned.” The repentant sinner provided G’d with much greater pleasure when he repented than the צדיק גמור, the unblemished righteous person who had never been exposed to temptation and had conquered it. The repentant sinner had proven that it is possible to break the hold that the evil urge had claimed over him after he had established this hold as a result of his victim having succumbed to temptation the first time.
This is the deeper meaning of the Mishnah in Avot 2,1 where Rabbi Yehudah hanassi described what is a successful course for man to follow in life as being to provide “glory,” תפארת for His maker. The second part of Rabbi Yehudah’s statement that man’s actions should also “confer glory on האדם, “the person having performed these deeds,” our author views as meaning that man should appreciate that his “glory” consists in being able to do what no angel can do, i.e. serve the Lord and provide Him with pleasure due to his having had to overcome obstacles in his desire to serve his Maker. This is the “glory” G’d had bestowed on man. If you were to say that Rabbi Yehudah ascribes this “glory” as emanating from “man,” i.e. מן האדם, what Rabbi Yehudah meant by the word מן, “from,” is “that it originates from,” i.e. man’s glory originates in the very fact that he is “man,” equipped with choices so that making the right choice results in joy in heaven as well as on earth.
This is the deeper meaning of the Mishnah in Avot 2,1 where Rabbi Yehudah hanassi described what is a successful course for man to follow in life as being to provide “glory,” תפארת for His maker. The second part of Rabbi Yehudah’s statement that man’s actions should also “confer glory on האדם, “the person having performed these deeds,” our author views as meaning that man should appreciate that his “glory” consists in being able to do what no angel can do, i.e. serve the Lord and provide Him with pleasure due to his having had to overcome obstacles in his desire to serve his Maker. This is the “glory” G’d had bestowed on man. If you were to say that Rabbi Yehudah ascribes this “glory” as emanating from “man,” i.e. מן האדם, what Rabbi Yehudah meant by the word מן, “from,” is “that it originates from,” i.e. man’s glory originates in the very fact that he is “man,” equipped with choices so that making the right choice results in joy in heaven as well as on earth.
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Kedushat Levi
"A river comes out of Eden to irrigate the garden;” compare on Avot 2,1 הוי זהיר במצוה קלה כבחמורה, “be as meticulous concerning the performance of commandments deemed as inconsequential, as you are with the performance of commandments deemed of great significance, since you do not know the amount of reward in store for any of the commandments.” Our sages explained that the author of this saying referred to the amount of satisfaction that the performance of each commandment gives to the Creator. We mortals have no way of gauging what ranks high in the esteem of the lawgiver. The only thing that we know definitely about this is that as a result of the satisfaction that G’d derived from our mitzvah performance He will give us opportunities to perform more commandments. When a father hears words of wisdom from his son, he encourages him to come up with more wise comments. Similarly, when G’d derived pleasure and satisfaction from the deeds of one of His “children,” He encourages that “child” to continue to come up with intelligent questions and answers.<br>Eden, this describes the pleasure derived by G’d from His children’s words of Torah and performance of His commandments, whereas the word גן, “garden,” is a reference to the various levels at which Torah can be studied, i.e. just as a garden contains many flowers, each of which having a distinct appearance and pleasing aroma. The words of Torah His children speak by means of which they provide spiritual irrigation in all the four directions of the earth, are alluded to by: “the river splitting into four heads,” in our verse.
Performance of the commandments is perceived as “irrigating” the brain (cranium) that consists of 4 cavities, one of them being a cavity divided into two parts. This “stream” channels this inspiration directly from G’d, and branches out into 4 “rivers,” each channeling inspiration to the four lobes of the brain that fill these cavities. Each branch feeds the appropriate lobe, according to its function. The word עדן describes the region from which תענוג, pleasurable experiences emanate. The word גן in this allegory includes the various disciplines comprising Torah study, commonly known as peshat, plain meaning of the text, drush, allegorical meaning, homily, remez, allusion, hint, and sod, mystical aspects. Keeping this in mind, we can understand why the mishnah quoted began with a warning, i.e. הוי זהיר, “be careful to discern,” seeing that the same mishnah told us that we do not know how the various commandments rate in terms of the reward for those who perform them. Since we do not know, how are we to distinguish between what is weighty, and what is relatively less weighty in the eyes of G’d? Most likely the answer is that the commandments described as קלה are the ones that we can find opportunities to perform, such as studying Torah, whereas the ones described as חמורה, are those that a person may have few opportunities to perform in a lifetime, or no opportunity at all.
[Since mitzvah performance is incumbent both on the individual and the entire nation, we each share in the performance of those who do have an opportunity to perform those, such as the levirate marriage, to name just one. Ed.]
The author of the mishnah warns not to use the fact that some mitzvot can be fulfilled all the time as an excuse to postpone fulfilling same, as we do not know how even these mitzvot rate in terms of the reward in store for us.
Performance of the commandments is perceived as “irrigating” the brain (cranium) that consists of 4 cavities, one of them being a cavity divided into two parts. This “stream” channels this inspiration directly from G’d, and branches out into 4 “rivers,” each channeling inspiration to the four lobes of the brain that fill these cavities. Each branch feeds the appropriate lobe, according to its function. The word עדן describes the region from which תענוג, pleasurable experiences emanate. The word גן in this allegory includes the various disciplines comprising Torah study, commonly known as peshat, plain meaning of the text, drush, allegorical meaning, homily, remez, allusion, hint, and sod, mystical aspects. Keeping this in mind, we can understand why the mishnah quoted began with a warning, i.e. הוי זהיר, “be careful to discern,” seeing that the same mishnah told us that we do not know how the various commandments rate in terms of the reward for those who perform them. Since we do not know, how are we to distinguish between what is weighty, and what is relatively less weighty in the eyes of G’d? Most likely the answer is that the commandments described as קלה are the ones that we can find opportunities to perform, such as studying Torah, whereas the ones described as חמורה, are those that a person may have few opportunities to perform in a lifetime, or no opportunity at all.
[Since mitzvah performance is incumbent both on the individual and the entire nation, we each share in the performance of those who do have an opportunity to perform those, such as the levirate marriage, to name just one. Ed.]
The author of the mishnah warns not to use the fact that some mitzvot can be fulfilled all the time as an excuse to postpone fulfilling same, as we do not know how even these mitzvot rate in terms of the reward in store for us.
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Kedushat Levi
Another approach to the allegory of: “river, garden, and ‘Eden.’” It is well known that every Jew is obligated to acquire and maintain good character traits and to make them second nature. By doing so he provides G’d with satisfaction. When serving his Creator by personifying these positive virtues, he enables the Creator to ”boast” of His creatures, [as for instance we find when G’d “boasted” to Satan about the piety of Job. (Job 1,8) Ed.] These “virtues” are described in Avot 2,1 as ”in the eyes of his peers.” The author of the mishnah, Rabbi Yehudah hanassi, uses the expression תפארת לעושיה, to describe that man’s Creator can use this as “boasting” or justifying His having created the human species. When reading these words superficially we must wonder why G’d is interested i.e. in “need” of our actions, seeing He has myriads of angels ready to do His bidding. However, the very fact that His people, the Jewish people, who have been assigned the “lower” portion of the universe as their habitat with all the disadvantages that are prevalent in that region, distinguish themselves by their loyal service to Him nonetheless, is something extraordinary, that cannot be compared with angels. This is what Rabbi Yehudah hanassi had in mind when he described loyal service to G’d by His free-willed creature, man, as being תפארת לו מן האדם, “something glorious for Him performed by man.” G’d certainly has reason to “boast” about such devotion when telling Satan that in spite of his activities as seducer and spoiler, there are people who have not been deterred in their loyalty to Their Creator. Genesis 2,10-14 describes this whole process of man being encouraged by G’d to develop the appropriate virtues and how having acquired them his Creator derives great satisfaction from that. The simile used by the Torah of describing man’s watering G’d’s “garden” read: “worlds,” as something that He takes pride in, is therefore a well chosen euphemism.
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