5934 —לימוד אגדה בדור עקבתא דמשיחא, הפצת תורת החסידות, וביאור "אמון" שבמדרש רבה כנגד פרד"ס התורה

B"H, 18 Kislev, 5718
Brooklyn.

The Rabbi and Gaon, the veteran Chassid, a G‑d-fearing man, distinguished and honored, engaged in communal affairs, our teacher Rabbi Rafael Chaim, may he live

Shalom u'Vrachah!

I have indeed seen the proof sheets of the book Tiferes Tzion, a commentary on Midrash Rabbah, which your honor is preparing for print, to publish.

May it be G‑d's will that you increase your strength in Torah in comfort, and especially in the Aggadah of the Torah, as in the well-known instruction of our Sages: "If you wish to know the One Who spoke and the world came into being, study Aggadah" (Sifri, Eikev)^[1]. And especially in our generation, the generation of the footsteps of Mashiach^[2], a darkness doubled and redoubled, which demands the study of this part of the Torah more and more, as in the well-known parable of our Sages on this (Sotah 40a; see Rashi there)^[3].

Out of fondness for the matter, although time does not allow me to study the proof sheets as they deserve, I have at least gone over them as time permitted, and at least two or three notes are copied in the margin at the beginning of this commentary, including a point from the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov and the teachings of the Alter Rebbe, author of the Tanya and the Shulchan Aruch. This is timely, for on Yud-Tes Kislev the Alter Rebbe went out to freedom, and the spreading of the wellsprings of his teaching, which is the teaching of the Baal Shem Tov, began in a manner of going forward, growing ever greater. The spreading and publicizing of this teaching is itself the greatest proof that it is the duty of the time and the duty of each person to dedicate some of his time to studying this part of the Torah, as in the well-known words of the Arizal, that in our generation it is a mitzvah to reveal this wisdom^[4], and after him his great disciple R. Chaim Vital, as explained at length in his introduction to Shaar HaHakdamos, based on the words of the holy Zohar.

May it be G‑d's will that through this too the end of our exile will draw near, and that we merit speedily in our days the fulfillment of the promise that knowledge, wisdom and truth will increase, to attain knowledge of their Creator according to human capacity^[5], as it says, "For the earth will be full of the knowledge of G‑d as the waters cover the sea"^[6].

With respect and blessing.

P.S.

Notes: 1:1^[7], and in keeping with the saying of our Sages, there are seventy facets to the Torah^[8].

Questions^[9]: The connection between R. Hoshaya's first interpretation and the second, "Another explanation..." (according to what is written in Tiferes Tzion, he should have brought only the second interpretation); the reason for their order, since the second interpretation is seemingly simpler and should have come first; how can one say "pedagogue," which is a matter of smallness, of what was "with Him" (and according to Tiferes Tzion, "with Him" means only covered and hidden); what is the point of "rabbasa" on its own, since the covered and hidden pedagogue is himself great, except that this is the Oral Torah (as in Shemos Rabbah 47:1, cited in Tiferes Tzion, and to the four [parts of the Torah] in Heaven [apparently: as they were Above, before they came down, when only the Written Torah was written]). And more.

The explanation of all the above^[10]: "Pedagogue" is the training of the nursing infant and the small child, which is only in simple and easy things. "Covered": the whole thing is here, only it is covered in the garment of another matter, like the human body, "reared in scarlet." "Hidden": the thing is in another place, like Mordechai who kept Hadassah hidden. "Rabbasa" means great, not many, as in "Alexandria Rabbasa," one city, but a great one. And R. Hoshaya explains the verse "And I was with Him" as alluding to all the parts of the Torah: pshat, revealed and simple; covered, drush; hidden, remez (only a hint, not the matter itself); sod, which alone is a "great thing," as our Sages made known (Sukkah 28a), and therefore it comes as a division on its own. And the Torah says that all its parts were with Him. And from this follows: "Another explanation... He looks into the Torah and creates" the entire world, the revealed worlds and the hidden worlds that are not revealed, and these too are in general four: Asiyah, Yetzirah, Beriah, Atzilus (which correspond to the PaRDeS of the Torah).

1:2.^[11] The interpretation of the Midrash: "Bereishis" means with the Torah, which is called "reishis," or "for the sake of" the Torah. These are opposites. The first interpretation explains the particular that the world (the creations) is the main thing, as our Sages said (Bereishis Rabbah, beginning of ch. 44): "The mitzvos were given only to refine the creations through them," and here further on: "The thought of Israel preceded the Torah." The second interpretation explains the particular that the Torah is the main thing.

***

As to what was discussed, that alacrity begins not before morning: so it is stated explicitly also in Rashi and Tosafos there (Pesachim 4a)^[12].

Publisher's notes

Our teacher Rabbi Rafael Chaim (מו"ה רפאל חיים): Goldman.

Tiferes Tzion (תפארת ציון): By the Gaon Rabbi Yitzchak Zev Yadler.

Notes

1. "Study Aggadah" (למוד אגדה): Sifri, Eikev, on the verse "and to cleave to Him" (Devarim 11:22). Aggadah brings a person to know the Creator and His ways, and so to cleave to Him.

2. The generation of the footsteps of Mashiach (דרא דעקבתא דמשיחא): The last generation before the Redemption (after the Mishnah at the end of Sotah, "in the footsteps of Mashiach").

3. The parable of our Sages (משל חז"ל): Sotah 40a: when money was plentiful, people longed to hear Mishnah and Talmud; now that money is scarce, and still more when people suffer from the government, they long to hear Scripture and Aggadah. In times of hardship and darkness it is Aggadah that revives and gladdens the heart, all the more so in the darkness before Mashiach.

4. A mitzvah to reveal this wisdom (מצוה לגלות זו החכמה): Quoted in Iggeres HaKodesh 26: "As the Arizal wrote, that specifically in these last generations it is permitted and a mitzvah to reveal this wisdom, and not in the earlier generations."

5. Knowledge, wisdom and truth will increase (שתרבה הדיעה, החכמה והאמת): The words of the Rambam, Laws of Teshuvah 9:2: "For in those days knowledge, wisdom and truth will increase, as it says, 'For the earth will be full of the knowledge of G‑d'"; and at the end of the Laws of Kings: "and they will attain knowledge of their Creator according to human capacity, as it says, 'For the earth will be full of the knowledge of G‑d as the waters cover the sea.'" The Rebbe joins the two.

6. "For the earth will be full" (כי מלאה הארץ): Yeshayahu 11:9.

7. 1:1 (א, א): The place in the Midrash that the note is on: Bereishis Rabbah, chapter 1, section 1 ("R. Hoshaya Rabbah opened"). Likewise "1:2" below is the second note, on the continuation of the Midrash.

8. Seventy facets to the Torah (ע' פנים לתורה): Bamidbar Rabbah 13:15. The Rebbe does not come to reject the explanation of Tiferes Tzion, but to add another facet in explaining the Midrash.

9. Questions (שאלות): The difficulties in the Midrash that the explanation below resolves. The Midrash (Bereishis Rabbah 1:1) reads: "R. Hoshaya Rabbah opened: 'And I was with Him an amon, and I was His delight every day' (Mishlei 8:30). Amon means pedagogue; amon means covered; amon means hidden; and some say amon means great (rabbasa). Pedagogue, as it says, 'as the nurse carries the infant' (Bamidbar 11:12); covered, as it says, 'those reared in scarlet' (Eichah 4:5); hidden, as it says, 'and he reared Hadassah' (Esther 2:7); great, as it says, 'Are you better than No-amon?' (Nachum 3:8), which the Targum renders, 'Are you better than Alexandria the great?'... Another explanation: amon means craftsman (uman). The Torah says, 'I was the tool of the craft of the Holy One, blessed be He'... so the Holy One, blessed be He, looked into the Torah and created the world." The Rebbe's questions: (a) what connects the first interpretation (pedagogue, covered, etc.) with the second ("craftsman"), and according to Tiferes Tzion only the second was needed; (b) why this order, when the second seems simpler and should have come first; (c) how "pedagogue," a matter of smallness, can describe the Torah that was "with Him"; (d) what "rabbasa" adds on its own, when the covered and hidden pedagogue is itself great.

10. The explanation of all the above (והפי' בכהנ"ל): The four meanings of "amon" correspond to the four parts of the Torah: "pedagogue" (teaching a child simple things) to pshat; "covered" (the whole matter is here, but clothed) to drush; "hidden" (the matter itself is elsewhere, and here there is only a hint) to remez; "rabbasa," great (not "many"), to sod, the "great thing" of Sukkah 28a ("a great thing is the account of the Chariot, a small thing the debates of Abaye and Rava"), which is why it stands on its own ("some say"). "And I was with Him": all the parts of the Torah were with G‑d. From this follows the second interpretation, "craftsman": G‑d looks into the Torah and creates all the worlds, revealed and hidden, which are also four (Asiyah, Yetzirah, Beriah, Atzilus), corresponding to the PaRDeS (pshat, remez, drush, sod) of the Torah. This answers the questions: the connection and order of the two interpretations, the "smallness" of the pedagogue (it is pshat), and "rabbasa" on its own (it is sod). The prooftexts are those the Midrash brings: "reared in scarlet" (Eichah 4:5), clothed in fine garments as the body is clothed; Mordechai who kept Hadassah, Esther, hidden in his home (Esther 2:7); and the Targum on Nachum 3:8, "Alexandria the great."

11. 1:2 (א, ב): The second note, on the continuation of the Midrash: "The Torah says, 'Bereishis bara Elokim,' and 'reishis' means only Torah." "Bereishis" can mean "with reishis" (the Torah as the tool with which the world was made) or "for the sake of reishis" (the world was made for the Torah). By the first, the world and its creations are the main thing and the Torah the means to refine them (Bereishis Rabbah 44:1, "The mitzvos were given only to refine the creations"; and further on in the same Midrash, 1:4, "The thought of Israel preceded everything"); by the second, the Torah is the main thing and the purpose.

12. Alacrity begins not before morning (זריזות מתחילה לא קודם צפרא): A point that had been discussed (the printed letter does not say where): the time for alacrity in a mitzvah ("the alacritous hurry to do mitzvos") begins in the morning and not before; the Rebbe adds that Rashi and Tosafos say so explicitly on Pesachim 4a.

Summary

In the darkness before Mashiach, Aggadah and the inner Torah are needed more than ever, and the spread of Chassidus since Yud-Tes Kislev proves that every person must give time to them. The four meanings of "amon" in the Midrash are the four levels of Torah, pshat, drush, remez and sod, all of which were "with Him," and through which G‑d created the four worlds.