Created for Reishis: Three Levels of Avodah

1“In the beginning God created …”¹ See Rashi's explanation, which reads Bereishis as “for the sake of reishis”: “Bereishis: for the sake of Israel, who are called reishis, and for the sake of the Torah, which is called reishis.”² The Midrash, too, says: “For the sake of the mitzvah of bikkurim, the first fruits, which are called reishis.”³ We can say that they all meant one and the same thing: one sage said one thing and another said another, and they do not disagree.

2For the Mishnah says, “On three things the world stands: on the Torah, on avodah, the service of the heart, and on gemilus chassadim, acts of kindness.”⁴ And the Mishnah also says, “On three things the world endures: on judgment, on truth and on peace.”⁵ Here too we can say that both meant one and the same thing. Before us are three levels in the service of the Creator, may He be exalted. The first is “Torah”: learning it for its own sake. In truth, Chazal permitted us to learn even not for its own sake, as they said, “A person should always engage in Torah …”⁶ If someone has not yet reached the level of learning for its own sake, at least he should not “let his hand rest”⁷ from this kind of learning. For a person does not quickly come to learn for its own sake; he gets there only through great effort in the service of Hashem, blessed be His Name, in all the good middos.

3The second level is “avodah,” service. This is prayer, which is the essence of the service of the heart, as it is said: “‘To serve Him with all your heart’: this is prayer.”⁸ For the heart understands, and through prayer a person can rise to deveikus, cleaving to the Creator, and bind himself to Him, blessed be He. The very word tefillah means binding: in prayer a person attaches himself to the Creator, blessed be He, with great deveikus. The knot of the tefillin worn on the arm hints at this for us: we are to bind the thought of the heart to Him, may He be exalted.⁹ This level calls for even greater effort. A person must pray to Hashem, blessed be He, constantly, that He help him, so that the yetzer hara not separate him from deveikus with the Creator. For human nature is such that a person's thoughts easily slip into the matters and business of this world.

4This is the meaning of the verse “Hashem saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth”¹⁰: as long as man is on the earth, his wickedness is great. [“And every inclination of the thoughts of his heart”]: because of this, even a person who wants to serve Hashem, blessed be He, and does no evil is still drawn by his thoughts, so that they are “only evil all the day.” “And Hashem regretted”: the word vayinachem here means comfort. Hashem, blessed be He, had comfort in the fact that man has an excuse before Him, “that He had made man.” That is, as Chazal say, “Were it not for three verses …,” and one of them is “and whose heart I have made bad,”¹¹ meaning, “I gave them the yetzer hara.” “And He was grieved to his heart”: Hashem, blessed be He, was grieved over the heart of man, that He had given him such a heart of stone. “And Noach found favor”: Noach was a tzaddik. He turned himself away from his nature, which was prone to separate him from deveikus with the Creator, may He be exalted; he strengthened himself to cleave to the Creator, and so he “found favor.” The letters of Noach (נח) reversed spell chen (חן), favor: he came to have favor in the eyes of Hashem, blessed be He.

5aThe third level is “gemilus chassadim.” In the upper worlds this is called rachamim, compassion, which is love and affection: Hashem, blessed be He, loves the tzaddik according to the holy deeds he has done on earth. But in this world they are called chessed, kindness, for kindness is given even to someone who is not deserving: Hashem, blessed be He, does him a free kindness, to give him whatever he lacks. But there is the tzaddik who has reached the level where he can raise all physical things upward. That is, he raises out of their materiality the holy sparks, the fragments of holiness scattered in the world, that are in them: in his eating, his drinking and the like. All his thoughts while he does physical things are only to raise the holy sparks in them. Such a tzaddik does not need chassadim, that is, free kindness, as we said, to give him what he needs in this world as a kindness. For Hashem, blessed be He, bestows on him all his needs by the measure of justice, as is due him for his good deeds.

5bThis is the meaning of “and on gemilus chassadim”: gemilus is the word used in “the day Yitzchak was weaned.”¹² The tzaddik is weaned from the level of chassadim; he does not need it. Rather, what he needs comes to him through God's love for him, blessed be He. Through this the tzaddik binds himself higher and higher, to eternal life. Even while he is in this world he reaches the delight of the upper world, the delight of eternal life. This is the meaning of the Gemara “You will see your world in your lifetime”¹³: because he does all his deeds and movements in holiness and purity, with deveikus and joy, with love and fear, he will come to the delight of the upper world in this world. We can also say that this is the intent of the verse “And you who cleave to Hashem your God are all alive today”¹⁴: through the deveikus with which you cleave to the Creator, blessed be He, you will have eternal life even “today,” in this world, as we said.

6This is also the meaning of the verse “Moshe commanded us the Torah, an inheritance of the congregation of Yaakov”¹⁵; it too hints at the three levels. “Moshe commanded us the Torah”: all of us were commanded to learn Hashem's Torah, even not for its own sake. That is why it says “us”: each of us according to his level. Second, “an inheritance”: this is the second level we mentioned, raising the holy sparks, which are called “an inheritance of the fathers,”¹⁶ as is known. Hashem, blessed be He, gave us this inheritance, the task of raising the holy sparks on high; that is “an inheritance.” This is also the intent of the words “and He keeps His faith with those who sleep in the dust”¹⁷: the holy sparks have fallen below, and Hashem, blessed be He, keeps His faith with them by raising them from the dust to holiness. The third level is “the congregation of Yaakov”: the complete deveikus of the tzaddik. Through it he brings down every good for all of Klal Yisrael. The tzaddik gathers congregations of Yaakov, who shelter in the shadow of his wings, so that he can bring blessing down to them.

7This explains the passage of the Gemara in Shabbos: “The Satan said, ‘The Torah, where is it?’ The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him, ‘Go to the earth.’ The earth said, ‘It is not in me; go to the sea.’ And the sea said, ‘It is not in me; go to the son of Amram.’”¹⁸ We need to understand: how could Hashem, blessed be He, say something that was not so? It seems right to explain it this way. Hashem, blessed be He, said to the Satan, the accuser, “Go to the earth,” meaning: even Torah learned with earthiness and materiality, that is, not for its own sake, is also accepted before Me, and you have no grounds to accuse Israel. The earth said, “It is not in me”: the main purpose does not lie in earthiness, as we said. Rather, “go to the sea”: to the tzaddik who raises the sparks to the upper sea, where they ascend. The tzaddik who has reached this level is the main purpose. This is what the verse says: “All the rivers go to the sea.”¹⁹ Nechalim, rivers, is related to nachalah, inheritance, and raising the holy sparks is called an inheritance, as we said; these go to the upper sea. “And the sea said, ‘It is not in me; go to the son of Amram’”: there is yet a third level above this one, like the level of Moshe Rabbeinu, who reached the heights of deveikus with the Creator, blessed be He, in eternal life.

8Let us return to the first subject. “On three things the world endures: on judgment”: this is Torah, for, as is stated, the Torah too is called judgment, in whatever way it is learned, as we said. “And on truth”: this is the level of Yaakov, the middle attribute, which is rachamim, as it is written, “Give truth to Yaakov.”²⁰ For one who raises the holy sparks awakens rachamim and has no need of chassadim, as we said. “And on peace”: this is deveikus, for he cleaves to the Creator, blessed be He, and the Name of the Holy One, blessed be He, is Shalom, Peace.²¹

9This also explains the holy verses of this parsha: “And Hashem … commanded … ‘Of every tree of the garden you may surely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat of it, for on the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.’”²² There are many fine points to examine here. First, the doubled wording achol tochal, “you may surely eat.” Second, the word mimenu, “of it,” is superfluous. Third, the doubled mos tamus, “you shall surely die.” Fourth, Rashi explains: “Because she added to the command, she came to loss.”²³ This is difficult. Chavah surely knew that Hashem had never forbidden her to touch the tree. If so, the fact that touching did not bring death proved nothing about eating, since about eating she truly was commanded.

10It seems to me that the root of the matter is this. Hashem, blessed be He, said, “Of every tree of the garden achol tochal, you may surely eat.” This hints at the Torah, which is the Tree of Life.²⁴ Achol does not address anyone directly: it is in the form grammar calls nistar, “hidden,” and it means learning for its own sake; this is the root and the main thing that Hashem, blessed be He, urged. But if you have not yet reached learning Torah for its own sake, at least tochal, “you shall eat”: that is, learn for your own benefit, which is not for its own sake. That is why tochal is addressed to “you”: do not move away from My Torah. “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat of it,” precisely “of it.” This means physical things, in which good is also mixed, namely the holy sparks that are in every physical thing. “You shall not eat of it” means that your intention should not be for the materiality and physicality alone; rather, eat from the spirituality in it, that is, the holy sparks in it. “For on the day that you eat of it mos tamus, you shall surely die”: mos means death in the World to Come, in eternal life, for the word mos is also in the “hidden” form, hinting at the World to Come, eternal life; tamus means death in this world.

11Now Chavah heard two levels: learning Torah in whatever way one learns it, as we said, and also raising the sparks. From this she understood on her own that there is one more level, complete deveikus with the Creator, blessed be His Name. That is why she said, “You shall not eat of it, and you shall not touch it.”²⁵ A mere touch means even a mere interruption of deveikus: that too you must not do, “lest you die,” and the death meant here is the interruption of deveikus. For she thought that she had been commanded about the third level, deveikus, as well. But in truth deveikus comes on its own through the two levels we mentioned, and she was not yet at this level. The serpent pushed her until she touched the tree, and said, “Just as there is no death in this touching”: that is, you are not cut off from deveikus by it, “so there is no death in eating”²⁶: that is, even if you do not eat with the intention we described, to raise the spiritual, “you will not surely die.”

12This is the meaning of “Bereishis: He created for the sake of the Torah …,” as we said. “And for the sake of Israel …” hints at deveikus with the Creator, blessed and exalted be He, for a person cleaves to Him through songs and praises. The name Yisrael (ישראל) hints at this: its letters spell yashir El (ישר אל), “he will sing to God.” “And for the sake of bikkurim, which are called reishis” hints at the level of raising the holy sparks, as it is written, “The first of the first fruits of your land you shall bring to the house of Hashem …”²⁷ That is, the sparks that have fallen below “you shall bring to the house of Hashem,” raising them from the dust, as we said. May Hashem guide us on the way of truth, to serve Him completely, in truth and wholeheartedness. Amen, may it be His will.