Walking as Hashem Spoke: Every Mitzvah's Root
Avram went “as Hashem had spoken,” and the journey ran to Shechem and Elon Moreh, the oak of Moreh. Why would the Torah trace his route so precisely? And what has a Mishnah about a traveler choosing a tree for his Shabbos place to do with keeping mitzvos?
Bereishis 12:4
וַיֵּלֶךְ אַבְרָם כַּאֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר אֵלָיו יְהוָה וַיֵּלֶךְ אִתּוֹ לוֹט וְאַבְרָם בֶּן־חָמֵשׁ שָׁנִים וְשִׁבְעִים שָׁנָה בְּצֵאתוֹ מֵחָרָן
So Avram went, as Hashem had spoken to him, and Lot went with him; and Avram was five years and seventy years old when he left Charan.
31Or we may read “So Avram went, as Hashem had spoken to him” as the way a tzaddik keeps the mitzvos. The tzaddik wants to walk in Hashem's ways in just this manner, “as Hashem had spoken,” in the very way that Hashem spoke. That speech was surely in holiness, in purity and in deveikus, cleaving to Hashem; so too, the tzaddik who wants to do and keep Hashem's mitzvos should do them in this same way.
אוֹ יֹאמַר "וַיֵּלֶךְ אַבְרָם כַּאֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר כּוּ׳", ר"ל הַצַּדִּיק רְצוֹנוֹ לֵילֵךְ בְּדַרְכֵי הַשֵּׁם בִּבְחִינָה זֹאת "כַּאֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר ה׳", דְּהַיְינוּ בְּאוֹתָהּ הַבְּחִינָה מַמָּשׁ שֶׁדִּיבֵּר ה׳, בְּוַדַּאי הַדִּיבּוּר הַהוּא בִּקְדוּשָּׁה וּבְטָהֳרָה וּבִדְבֵיקוּת, כֵּן דֶּרֶךְ הַצַּדִּיק הָרוֹצֶה לַעֲשׂוֹת וּלְקַיֵּים מִצְווֹתָיו יִתְבָּרֵךְ שֶׁיַּעֲשֶׂה ג"כ בִּבְחִינָה זוֹ.
Sources here
In shortAvram went “as Hashem had spoken”: the tzaddik wants to keep the mitzvos in the same holiness, purity and deveikus in which Hashem spoke them.
32“And Lot went with him”: this is the evil part in a person. Since the sin of Adam HaRishon a person has been a mixture of good and evil, and this evil part begins to overpower him, to push him off his good path. The remedy that subdues the evil part is for a person to be very low in his own eyes, as if he counted for nothing, only something added on. That is the word ve-Avram, “and Avram”: its “and” marks something secondary, added on. Through this he achieves “five and seventy years old when he left Charan.” For the main years of a person's life, the years in which he serves his Creator, begin at five, the age for Scripture,1 and run to the end of his years, which are seventy. The five years of Scripture hint at great things: the five chassadim, the kindnesses that sweeten the five gevuros, the severities, as those versed in the hidden wisdom know.2 So the verse is saying that by subduing and breaking the power of evil within him, he will be pure in all his years, from five to seventy. That is “when he left Charan”: Charan (חרן) is read as charon (חרון), wrath, so it means when he left the wrath, the evil part within him.
"וַיֵּלֶךְ אִתּוֹ לוֹט", ר"ל הַחֵלֶק הָרַע שֶׁבָּאָדָם הַמְּעוֹרָב בְּטוֹב וְרַע מֵעֵת חֵטְא אָדָם הָרִאשׁוֹן מַתְחִיל לְהִתְגַּבֵּר עָלָיו לַהֲדִיחוֹ מִדַּרְכּוֹ הַטּוֹב, וְהַתַּקָּנָה לְהַכְנִיעַ חֵלֶק הָרַע הוּא שֶׁיִּהְיֶה הָאָדָם שָׁפֵל מְאוֹד בְּעֵינֵי עַצְמוֹ כְּלֹא נֶחְשָׁב רַק כַּדָּבָר הַנּוֹסָף, וְזֶהוּ "וְאַבְרָם", כְּלוֹמַר כְּדָבָר הַטָּפֵל וְהַנּוֹסָף, עי"ז פּוֹעֵל "בֶּן חָמֵשׁ וְשִׁבְעִים שָׁנָה בְּצֵאתוֹ מֵחָרָן", דְּעִיקַּר שְׁנוֹתָיו שֶׁל אָדָם שֶׁעוֹבֵד הָאָדָם אֶת בּוֹרְאוֹ, הַתְחָלָתָם מֵחָמֵשׁ שָׁנִים לַמִּקְרָא עַד סוֹף שְׁנוֹתָיו וְהֵם שִׁבְעִים שָׁנָה, כִּי הֶחָמֵשׁ שָׁנִים שֶׁל מִקְרָא רוֹמְזִים לִדְבָרִים גְּדוֹלִים, לְרַמֵּז ה׳ חֲסָדִים הַמַּמְתִּיקִים ה׳ גְּבוּרוֹת כַּיָּדוּעַ לְיוֹדְעֵי חֵן, וְאָמַר הַכָּתוּב שעי"ז שֶׁיַּכְנִיעַ וִישַׁבֵּר כֹּחַ הָרַע שֶׁבּוֹ, יִהְיֶה טָהוֹר בְּכָל שְׁנוֹתָיו מֵחָמֵשׁ וְעַד שִׁבְעִים, וְזֶהוּ "בְּצֵאתוֹ מֵחָרָן", ר"ל בְּצֵאתוֹ מִן הֶחָרוֹן, הוּא הַחֵלֶק הָרַע שֶׁבּוֹ.
- Avos 5:21: “At five years old, for Scripture.” ↩
- In the Kabbalah, five measures of kindness and five of severity are drawn down together, and the kindnesses sweeten, that is, temper, the severities. The sefer's phrase for the masters of the hidden wisdom is yod'ei chen, “those who know chen (חן),” the initials of chochmah nistarah, hidden wisdom. ↩
In shortLot is the evil mixed into us since Adam's sin; seeing oneself as a mere addition subdues it and keeps a person pure from five to seventy.
33“Avram passed through the land as far as the place of Shechem”:3 Avraham went on serving and advancing in holiness “as far as the place of Shechem,” which hints at the Torah. He was privileged to grasp the whole Torah, in the spirit of “he bent his shoulder to bear” the yoke of Torah, for Shechem (שכם) is shichmo (שכמו), “his shoulder.”4 “As far as Elon Moreh,” the oak of Moreh: a tree has many, many branches, and all of them are joined to the trunk. So too every single mitzvah has a root and a trunk above, in the upper tree. A person must have the understanding to know the root of the mitzvah, its trunk, and not keep it as “a commandment of men, learned by rote.”5 That is “as far as Elon Moreh”: he grasped every single mitzvah down to its root, the trunk of the tree.
"וַיַּעֲבֹר אַבְרָם בָּאָרֶץ עַד מְקוֹם שְׁכֶם", ר"ל שֶׁאַבְרָהָם הָיָה עוֹבֵד וְהוֹלֵךְ בִּקְדוּשָּׁה "עַד מְקוֹם שְׁכֶם" רֶמֶז לְהַתּוֹרָה, שֶׁזָּכָה לְהַשִּׂיג כָּל הַתּוֹרָה, ע"ד 'וַיֵּט שִׁכְמוֹ לִסְבּוֹל' עוֹל תּוֹרָה, "עַד אֵלוֹן מוֹרֶה", דְּהִנֵּה בָּאִילָן יֵשׁ כַּמָּה וְכַמָּה עֲנָפִים, וְכָל הָעֲנָפִים הֵם מְחוּבָּרִים אֶל הָעִיקָּר הָאִילָן, כֵּן כָּל מִצְוָה וּמִצְוָה יֵשׁ לָהּ שׁוֹרֶשׁ וְעִיקָּר לְמַעְלָה בָּאִילָן הָעֶלְיוֹן, וְצָרִיךְ הָאָדָם לְהַשְׂכִּיל לָדַעַת שׁוֹרֶשׁ הָעִיקָּר שֶׁל הַמִּצְוָה וְלֹא כְּמִצְוַת אֲנָשִׁים מְלוּמָּדָה, וְזֶהוּ "עַד אֵלוֹן מוֹרֶה", שֶׁהִשִּׂיג כָּל מִצְוָה וּמִצְוָה עַד הַשּׁוֹרֶשׁ שֶׁהוּא הָעִיקָּר הָאִילָן.
- Bereishis 12:6. ↩
- Bereishis 49:15, said of Yissachar; Rashi there: “to bear the yoke of Torah.” ↩
- Yeshayahu 29:13. ↩
In shortAvraham reached the whole Torah, the “shoulder” that bears its yoke, and grasped each mitzvah to its root above, as every branch is joined to the trunk.
34This is what the Tanna means: “One who is walking on the road,”6 the road of Hashem, “and recognized a tree”: he recognized the root of the tree of mitzvos. “Or a fence”: he recognized the fences, for a person must make fences for himself in permitted things so as not to come to what is forbidden. “And said, ‘My Shabbos place is beneath it’”: he says he will rest beneath the tree, but he does not have the understanding to reach the root and do the mitzvah at its root; such a one “has said nothing.” “But if he said, ‘My Shabbos place is at its root’”: he has the understanding to do the mitzvah in its essence and root, and so “he has two alafin.” In the Mishnah these are two thousand cubits to walk; here they are two alefs (אלפין), for he makes a complete unification through the alefs, the alef of the Name Adnai (אדני) and the alef of Ehyeh (written אק״י), as those versed in the hidden wisdom know. Understand this.
וְזֶהוּ שֶׁאָמַר הַתַּנָּא "הַהוֹלֵךְ בַּדֶּרֶךְ", פֵּירוּשׁ בְּדֶרֶךְ ה׳, "וְהָיָה מַכִּיר אִילָן", ר"ל שֶׁהָיָה מַכִּיר שׁוֹרֶשׁ הָאִילָן שֶׁל הַמִּצְווֹת, "אוֹ גָּדֵר", פֵּירוּשׁ וְהָיָה מַכִּיר הַגְּדֵרִים, שֶׁצָּרִיךְ הָאָדָם לַעֲשׂוֹת גְּדֵרִים לְעַצְמוֹ בְּדָבָר הַמּוּתָּר כְּדֵי שֶׁלֹּא יָבוֹא אֶל הָאִיסּוּר, "וְאָמַר שְׁבִיתָתִי תַּחְתָּיו", ר"ל שֶׁאוֹמֵר שֶׁיִּשְׁבּוֹת תַּחַת הָאִילָן אֲבָל אֵינוֹ מַשְׂכִּיל לְהַשִּׂיג הַשּׁוֹרֶשׁ לַעֲשׂוֹת הַמִּצְוָה בְּשׁוֹרְשָׁהּ, "לֹא אָמַר כְּלוּם", "וְאִם אָמַר שְׁבִיתָתִי בְּעִיקָּרוֹ", פֵּירוּשׁ שֶׁהוּא מַשְׂכִּיל לָדַעַת לַעֲשׂוֹת הַמִּצְוָה בְּעִיקָּרָהּ וְשׁוֹרְשָׁהּ, "יֵשׁ לוֹ ב׳ אַלְפִין", דְּהַיְינוּ שֶׁעוֹשֶׂה יִחוּד גָּמוּר בָּאַלְפִין, דְּהַיְינוּ אָלֶף שֶׁל אֲדֹנָי ואל"ף שֶׁל אק"י כַּיָּדוּעַ לְיוֹדְעֵי חֵן. וְהָבֵן.
- Mishnah Eruvin 4:7 (Eruvin 49b). The Mishnah speaks of a traveler overtaken by Shabbos who names a tree as his Shabbos place: “beneath it” is too vague and gains him nothing, while “at its root” lets him walk two thousand cubits to the root and two thousand more from it to his home. It opens “One who was coming on the road and darkness fell”; R' Elimelech cites it in his own words. The sefer writes the Name Ehyeh as אק"י, out of reverence. ↩
In shortThe Mishnah's traveler who rests “at the root” of the tree is one who does each mitzvah at its root, uniting the alefs of two Divine Names.
R’ Elimelech reads Avram’s journey as the way of a tzaddik in the mitzvos. He wants to do them “as Hashem had spoken,” in the same holiness, purity and deveikus in which Hashem spoke them. “Lot” is the evil mixed into man since Adam’s sin, and the remedy is to be very low in one’s own eyes, a mere addition, the “and” of ve-Avram; so a person stays pure through all his years of service, from five to seventy. Shechem, the shoulder that bears the yoke, is the whole Torah, and Elon Moreh the tree whose branches are joined to its trunk: every mitzvah has a root above, and one must grasp it and not keep the mitzvah by rote. So the Mishnah’s traveler who rests “at the root” of the tree, not “beneath it,” is one who does the mitzvah at its root.
Takeaway
Before a mitzvah, remember that it has a root above, and do it in the holiness, purity and deveikus in which Hashem spoke it, not by rote. And when the evil within pushes you off your path, see yourself as small, a mere addition; R' Elimelech teaches that this lowliness keeps all a person's years pure.
Learn this in the merit of Rebbe Elimelech of Lizhensk. His yahrzeit and life ›
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