The Hebrew Name

 Shulchan Aruch: Hilchot Mezuzah

The Shulchan Aruch says at the beginning of Hilchot Mezuza -"You must be very careful with the mitzvah of mezuza. And anyone who is careful with the mitzvah of mezuza will merit "length of days" for himself and his children."

The question is - what does it mean to be "careful with the mitzvah"? To put the mezuza up on the doorpost without delay? Or to be careful to write every letter properly? Or to put the mezuza in the right place?

Says the commentary 'Turei Zahav': 'to be very careful' means to be aware that here, in this doorway between rooms, between inside and outside, between what has been and what will be, in this mezuza, is 'Yichud HaShem' -  G-d's Oneness; השם אחד. And if you can be careful to let the mezuza focus you on this foundation of Jewish reality, then you'll enjoy length (depth) of days.   I find this image particularly powerful.    We're always at a point of moving from one 'room' to another. This is of the essence, and I always bless my students to know that this is what all of our learning is ultimately aiming at. 

Me'or Einayim: Parshat Chayei Sarah

"And Avraham was old, having come into old age, and HaShem blessed Avraham with all ('BaKol')." (Braishit 24:1).

In the Talmud (Bava Basra 16a) there is a disagreement: One says that Avraham had a daughter named "Bakol". The other says he didn't have a daughter.        And Rashi mentions a third opinion: "Bakol" is the gematria of "ben" ( a son) , implying that "bakol" , the 'all'  that HaShem blessed Avraham with, was his son Yitzhak.

Now, to understand what the disagreement is about,  let us first consider the verse, "No longer will your name be Avram, rather Avraham, for I have made you father of all nations."  And the Sages explain (Pesikta d'Rav Kahana),' I am adding the letter 'heh' to your name. Avram will not bring children into the world, but Avraham will. '

And we know, the creation of all the worlds is with the  letters of the Torah ('otiot'), meaning that HaShem hid away His infinity and made Himself manifest in  'otiot', according to the intensity of 'light and life-force' that the worlds could bear.

Alef is the letter of 'Torah b'Atzilus' - Torah - reality itself, in its most pristine, undisguised form. But the worlds couldn't receive the overwhelming brightness of the Torah of Alef , which is 'Elokus' - G-dliness itself.

HaShem then downgraded the Torah of Alef into the letter Bet, a lesser light that the worlds could receive. Bet implies tzimtzum: Bet is 'bayit' - house, shelter.  Afterwards a further tzimtzum, Alef and Bet restricted to fit the lower capacity of Gimmel, and so on, letter after letter.

Every letter closer to Alef is a world of greater revealed manifestation of His reality- brighter, higher, finer. And every letter further from Alef is a greater concealment - dimmer, lower and duller, until the last letter, Tav, the lowest of all the levels, which is the place of 'bechira', the place where one must make a choice between good and evil. Tav is a reality where choosing good over evil is a free choice, ( and not an obvious perceived reality,  as it is in all higher realms of creation.)

Now, the proper functioning of all worlds , from Tav to Bet, is dependent on Yisrael, whose task  is to bring all the worlds towards Alef, the 'Alufo shel Olam', the Supreme One, the ultimate reality upon which all existence depends.  And to bring all of creation , from Tav to Bet, to Alef, is to unite all of creation with its Creator. This 'yichud' brings in its wake life and goodness ('chius v'shefa') down into all the worlds.

And this 'yichud' is what speech is really all about. 'Speech' ("dibbur") is the twenty-two letters mentioned above, the letters of the Torah, the foundation of our verbal capacity.  'Dibbur' also means to direct, to manage, to cause to function. In the act of speech, Yisrael moves all of creation and unites creation with the Creator ('Alufo shel Olam'). All the worlds were created with HaShem's speech, and all worlds are maintained  with the speech of Yisrael.

And when one has made his speaking into pure and holy 'speech', then he draws all manner of G-dliness/goodness into the worlds. The act of true speech is called "bat"- all of the letters- all of creation, from Bet to Tav.

Avraham devoted himself to HaShem with great love. He is "Avraham, My Beloved". Consequently he was given the  'heh' that transformed Avram into Avraham.  The 'heh' suggests pure and holy speech: all the sounds of speech are formed in 5 distinct parts of the mouth (lips, teeth, palette, mouth, throat). 'Heh' is five. (As is well-known and found in Sefer Yetzirah.)

Now we can understand ,"Avraham was old, having come into old age, and HaShem blessed Avraham with all  ('bakol')." [Here a preface is called for: the verse has been translated as "having come into old age", but a more literal translation is "having come into days", and a midrashic, super-literal reading is "he came with days". In the Zohar, "days" are understood as sefirot, the essential spiritual qualities that HaShem created , with which to then construct and maintain creation. (D.L.)]    Because Avraham's old age was the culmination of a life of being united with the higher spiritual reality, ie -"with days" (sefirot), he merited having true 'speech' that directs and maintains all the worlds.

And this is the meaning of the statement  'Avraham had a daughter (bat)', - that all of the worlds of tzimtzum,  from Tav to Bet, ('bat'), had become Avraham's active responsibility.

The Talmud lists "three things that call attention to one's sins", one of them is concentration in prayer (Brachot 55a).  When a person realizes that he has reached significant depth in his prayer and simultaneously is moved to modesty, then he is like Moshe, who had the most sublime perception of reality of any man; Moshe's response was not pride,  but rather, he was " the most humble of all men" (BaMidbar 12:13 ).

This is the meaning of the opinion, 'Avraham  did not have a daughter.'  (The two opinions, in truth, are not a disagreement; there cannot be an argument regarding reality.) The proper understanding is that Avraham came to the lofty level of 'bat' (from Tav to Bet) by not having a 'daughter',- by not valuing his own accomplishment, rather his self-perception was of being unaccomplished ('bat'); as Avraham himself said (in the story of S'dom and Amora, to HaShem, "I am but dust and ashes." (The poverty of a sense of genuine accomplishment is essential to generating his real greatness.)

Finally, the opinion that Rashi mentions, 'BaKol' is equal to the gematria of 'ben' (a son) can be understood in a similar vein. "Ben" is the root of the word "Binyan" (building). As Rashi explains the verse about Lamech , that he fathered Noach,       " and  a son was born"(Braishit 5:28): the verse says "ben' because all of mankind was built up ("nivneh") from Noach.  And regarding our Rashi (Bakol = Ben), the intent is that 'ben' implies building and maintaining all of creation, the task given into Avraham's hands by way of the 'heh' of pure and holy speech (Sod HaDibbur.) "Bakol" then has two meanings: Avraham's elevated speech, and "all", that Avraham became actively responsible for all of creation. And that is why the Pesikta says "Avram will not father children, only Avraham"; as long as he didn't reach the greatness of elevated speech ('dibbur'), Avraham couldn't fulfill that responsibility. But once he received the 'heh', then Avraham could benefit all the worlds, including his own personal world. Consequently Avraham himself could now father the next generation. Baruch HaShem L'Olam. Amen Selah.
Blessed is HaShem eternally. Amen Selah. 

 (Sefer 'Me'Or Einayim' by Rabbi Menachem Nachum of Chernobil, a talmid of Dov Ber, the Maggid of Mezeritch. The 'Me'Or Einayim' was the first generation of one of the greatest Chassidic dynasties. Skver, Tolna, Rachmantzrifka and Hornisteiple all trace direct lineage to the Me'Or Einayim. The illustrious Twerski family are among his descendents.)