Torah Ohr · Sefer Bereishis · Shabbos October 30
פרשת בראשית
Parshas Bereishis
11 maamarim of the Alter Rebbe on the parsha, in the Hebrew of the Kehot edition, with every marei makom opened right where it appears. Each small section with a faithful English translation and a short explanation.
Begin with maamar 1 ContinueThe parsha as a PDFPDF · 4.0 MBText onlyThe Hebrew and the translation · PDF · 1.2 MBThe parsha as an EPUBEPUB · 537 KB
Your progress in Parshas Bereishis
The maamarim 11
- השמים כסאי והארץ הדום רגלי אי זה בית וגו׳ “The heavens are My throne and the earth is My footstool” G‑d, who has no body and no place, “sits” on the Torah, rests His “feet” on the Jewish people raised by the mitzvos, and is “housed” in prayer; each is drawn down by a person’s own service, from contemplation and love to deeds and self-nullification.
- כי כאשר השמים החדשים והארץ החדשה וגו׳ “For as the new heavens and the new earth” The world’s heaven and earth are sustained by a spiritual “earth” and “heaven” — the soul’s upward rush of longing (ratzo) and the drawing down of G‑dliness through Torah and mitzvos (shov). In the future, the pulse of ratzo and shov will flow from G‑d’s own essence, heaven first, and Israel’s service will be raised to stand before Him with it.
- ביאור על הנ״ל An Explanation of the Above Torah and mitzvos, though clothed in physical matters, are G‑d’s own wisdom and will, one with Him as no created soul can be; they draw the unity of Atzilus into the lower worlds, and in the Time to Come they will rise even higher, into the World of Akudim revealed in the “new heavens and new earth.”
- להבין הטעם שנשתנה יצירת גוף האדם משאר כל… To understand the reason why the formation of man’s body differs… Plants and animals came forth whole, body and soul at once, because the vegetative and the animal are adjacent levels; man’s body was first made as lifeless dust because the speaking soul, rooted in supernal Chochmah, can join only the lowest, inanimate level (“their beginning is wedged in their end”), and from there it raises all of creation.
- ולהבין בתוס׳ ביאור ענין וייצר ה׳ אלקים את… To understand with further explanation the matter of “And Havayah Elokim formed…” Levels adjacent in the chain of cause and effect come into being together, as the emotive attributes from the intellect and an animal’s or angel’s body with its soul. The inanimate, Malchus and the “letters,” stands outside that chain and is founded directly by Chochmah; so only the highest soul, Adam’s, rooted in supernal Chochmah, could be vested in a body of lifeless dust and transform it.
- לא טוב היות האדם לבדו אעשה לו עזר כנגדו It is not good that the man be alone; I will make him a helper opposite him The concealment of the Name Elokim, which seems to oppose G‑d’s revealed light, is itself the “helper”: like the silver backing of a mirror, it turns the light back upward as reflected light that rises even higher than its source.
- ויאמר ה׳ אלקים הן האדם היה כאחד ממנו… “And the L‑rd G‑d said: Behold, man has become like one of us” Knowing evil is harmless ‘above,’ where knowledge is encompassing and keeps evil apart, but for man, whose knowing is inner, it means becoming mixed with evil; therefore G‑d forbade the Tree of Knowledge, kept man from eternal life once he was mixed with evil, and sent him to refine the world through struggle instead of through sheer light.
- להבין ענין הברכות כי הנה אנשי כנה״ג תקנו… “To understand the matter of the blessings” A blessing’s opening ‘Baruch’ draws G‑d’s hidden Infinite Light into revelation, and its closing ‘Baruch,’ the ‘seal,’ guards that revelation so that it stays in holiness and does not feed the forces of evil; the same structure shapes the wedding blessings, Torah study and the love of G‑d in prayer.
- יבל הוא היה אבי יושב אהל ומקנה “Yaval — he was the father of those who dwell in tents” Every ascent to a higher level comes through “song,” the nullification of one’s existing self, as a seed must rot before it sprouts. Yuval with his harp is that song; Yaval, “father of tent-dwellers and cattle,” is its source, an encompassing light beyond division that can be drawn down even into the lowest things.
- צאינה וראינה וגו׳ Go Forth and Gaze Prayer, the “service of the heart,” is G‑d’s “joy of heart,” gathering the soul’s powers upward as blood returns to the heart; but the Torah, clothed in physical mitzvos, is His “wedding,” for like a seed it draws a truly new light from the Infinite essence, above the whole order of creation.
- בעטרה שעטרה לו אמו כי מצות התורה הן… “With the crown with which his mother crowned him” The mitzvos, done with lowly physical things, become a crown that draws down G‑d’s will and delight; for now that delight is hidden and brings joy, but in the Time to Come it will be seen and bring true delight.
Learn it in seven days Sunday to Shabbos
The Rebbe asked that all the maamarim of the week’s parsha be learned in that week, spread over its seven days. Here is the parsha in seven portions of about equal length.