קיצור מהדרוש ע״פ ואתחנן אל ה׳

This short text is a summary (kitzur) of the discourse on Moshe’s plea “And I pleaded with Havayah” (Deuteronomy 3:23), which comes just before it in Likkutei Torah. Its four sections condense, in order, the four sections of that longer discourse.

The first section starts from why man was created. This physical world is the lowest of the worlds, the place where G‑dliness is most hidden, and so G‑d created the human being to bring light into it.

The soul is called “the lamp of Havayah” (Proverbs 20:27): a lamp through which the light of the Name Havayah shines into the darkness of this world. Two other discourses are cited: the explanation of “And the border shall descend” in Parshas Masei, which discusses this “lamp,” and the discourse “And the number of the children of Israel shall be” in Parshas Bamidbar, which explains the verse “He has also set the world in their heart.”

The soul gives light through the Shema and prayer: when a person is stirred from the depths of his heart, the Name Havayah shines in his heart openly. In the full discourse “blessed” (baruch) is read as “drawn down,” so “Blessed are You, Havayah” asks that Havayah, which is hidden, be drawn down and revealed.

Section 2 explains what it means for the Name Havayah to be revealed in a person’s heart. It comes from understanding the words of the morning blessings before the Shema, “In His goodness He renews every day the work of creation”: G‑d creates the world anew each day.

This daily renewal is a truly new creation from nothing, not a chain of descent (hishtalshelus), in which each lower level only reveals what was already hidden in the level above it. The Name Havayah, which speaks of bringing into being, points to exactly this creation from nothing.

Here begins a string of references on the word “good” (tov) in “in His goodness.” The Zohar (Part I, 30b) reads the letters of tov and calls the Tes, the ninth letter, “the ninth of all,” and the Kehot notes explain it as Yesod, the ninth Sefirah. Me’orei Or, a Kabbalistic lexicon, likewise says that tov is the Yesod of Z’eir Anpin: the Tes is the ninth, the Vav Tiferes and the Beis Malchus.

In the Zohar on Noach, “good” is both the Holy One, blessed be He, and the tzaddik, the Righteous One (Yesod), as in “Say of the righteous that he is good”; in Lech Lecha the tzaddik who waters and nourishes everything is called “good.” In Terumah the Zohar reads Chizkiyahu’s words “And I have done what is good in Your eyes” as joining the blessing of redemption to the Amidah prayer.

For the phrase “in His goodness” itself, the reader is sent to the Zohar on Terumah (Part II, 168b), which explains the words of Grace after Meals. He is also sent to the discourse “And you shall eat and be satisfied and bless” in Parshas Eikev, on the blessing “Who nourishes [the whole world] in His goodness.”

More sources follow on hidden goodness. The Talmud in Chagigah (12a) teaches that the light created on the first day, of which it says “G‑d saw the light, that it was good,” was hidden away for the righteous in the future. The Zohar on Pekudei (Part II, 220b) adds that although it is hidden, people in this world exist through it, and the Ramaz (Rabbi Moshe Zacuto) comments there that a glimmer of it shines and is enclothed within the supernal attributes.

The last reference is to the Torah Ohr discourse “I will sing to Havayah,” on “The Good One, for Your mercies have not ceased,” words from the thanksgiving blessing of the Amidah. With this in place, the text reads “And you shall love Havayah” (Deuteronomy 6:5) as a longing that Havayah, the power that creates from nothing, dwell within a person openly.

“With all your heart” is read as two hearts, the inner and the outer: in the full discourse the inner heart is stirred by G‑d’s very essence, while the love of the outer heart spreads out to subdue the sitra achra (the other side) and transform darkness into light. Such love is an arousal from below, a human initiative, and it draws down an arousal from above, so that G‑d’s blessing flows down openly.

Section 3 begins from the Mishnah that “the study of Torah is equal to them all” (Peah 1:1). Torah study draws down an arousal from above, divine initiative, from a level that no arousal from below, no human initiative, can reach. This is what Moshe meant by “You have begun”: the beginning came from G‑d alone.

Even the arousal from below that a person does initiate needs an arousal from above first to make it possible, as explained in the discourse on “These are the journeys.” So Moshe asked to cross over and “see,” to draw this level of “You have begun” into the land, which in the full discourse is the supernal “land,” the community of Israel.

Section 4 explains that what is drawn down from this level of “You have begun” cannot be grasped by the mind; it never becomes understanding enclothed in thought, only a passing glimmer. The text compares it to “His arrow shall go forth like lightning” (Zechariah 9:14): a flash that lights everything for an instant and is gone.

The references explain the image. The Tikkunei Zohar (Tikkun 30) ties the “thunders and lightnings” at the Giving of the Torah to this verse; Iggeres HaKodesh (end of section 15) describes the upper Daas, the first grasp of an idea’s depth, as “like a point and like lightning flashing upon his intellect”; and Me’orei Or (letter Beis, 34) says that “lightning” is a name for Yesod.

This is why Moshe asked to “see” the land: such a level is received only by seeing, a direct glimpse beyond understanding, as in the same verse, “And Havayah shall be seen over them,” and in “Your eyes are doves.” In the same way the Sages, called “the eyes of the congregation,” instituted the blessings before mitzvos, to draw down this glimmer from above before the deed.

After a reference to the discourse on “Go out and see,” the text explains Moshe’s opening word: va’eschanan, “I pleaded,” is linked to Chanun, “Gracious,” the treasury of free gifts that no human arousal reaches. From there Moshe drew down the level of Havayah as an arousal from above.