[The Alter Rebbe now focuses on the distinctive quality inherent in the halachot of the Oral Torah.

It is these halachot that reveal the Supernal Will, by defining what it actually requires of us in the performance of the mitzvot, in order thereby to draw down this lofty level of Divinity].

Now, as is known, the Supernal Will as vested in the 613 commandments of the Written Torah, is hidden and covered, secreted and concealed. It is manifest only in the Oral Torah. [53]

For example, the precept of tefillin:

In the Written Torah it is stated, [54] "And you shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes."

This is an indistinct and obscure statement, for Scripture did not explain how and what to bind, nor what frontlets are, nor where is "between your eyes" or "on your hand," until the Oral Torah explicates [55] that one needs to bind a single box on the hand, and four boxes on the head, containing four Scriptural passages.

Moreover, the boxes are to be made of prepared leather, and necessarily square, and to be tied by means of leather straps which need to be black, [56] with all the other detailed rulings governing the making of tefillin, that were stated orally, [i.e., that are found in the Oral Torah].

Also, "on your hand" refers only to the arm, and not to the palm of the hand; [57] and "between your eyes" refers to the scalp, and not to the forehead. [58]

[It is thus only the detailed halachot of the Oral Torah that enable us to perform this mitzvah in keeping with the Supernal Will].

Likewise all the commandments of the Torah, whether they be positive precepts or prohibitory precepts, are not revealed and known and made explicit except through the Oral Torah.

For instance, the prohibitory precept that has been stated with respect to the Sabbath, "You shall do no work": [59] [the Written Torah] does not specify what constitutes work.

In the Oral Torah, however, it is explicated [60] to refer to the well-known 39 forms of work, and not (only) to the carrying of stones or heavy beams, which is only Rabbinically prohibited. [61]

[Though carrying rocks and beams is more tiring than some of the 39 prohibited forms of work, it does not fall into any of the categories of work that the Torah prohibits on Shabbat.

According to the alternative reading of our text ("and not only to the carrying of stones or heavy beams"), this work is prohibited by the Torah.

Thus the Ramban on Parshat Emor [62] states that the term Shabbaton ("a day of rest") that is used with regard to Yom Tov - and the same applies with regard to the commandment tishbot ("you shall rest") of Shabbat - refers also to those activities that do not formally fall within the 39 defined categories of prohibited work, but are nevertheless prohibited by the Torah since they rob a person of his rest and tranquillity.

In the first of his comments on this subject, the Maggid Mishneh argues that the Rambam [63] also holds that "you shall rest" forbids even strenuous work that does not fall within any of the 39 categories governed by the prohibition, "Do not do any work ."

(Though the Lechem Mishneh refutes this argument, this remains the view of the Maggid Mishneh.)

Others hold [64] that both readings are valid.

Each corresponds to one side of a debate in the Yerushalmi [65] as to whether or not the Torah prohibits certain forms of work during the Sabbatical year (and by extension, during Shabbat as well) because it is a time of rest, even when there is no additional specific prohibition].

And as it is with these - [with the above examples of tefillin and Shabbat] - so it is with all the commandments, whether they be positive precepts or prohibitory precepts: they are indistinct, and are explicated and revealed and known only through the Oral Torah.

This is why Scripture says [66] of the Oral Torah, "And you shall not cast off the teaching of your mother," as stated in the Zohar. [67]

Metaphorically speaking, just as all the organs of a child are comprised, very latently, in the sperm of the father, and the mother brings this out into a state of manifestation when giving birth to a child complete with 248 organs and 365 sinews, exactly so, do the 248 positive precepts and the 365 prohibitory precepts emerge from obscurity to manifestation through the Oral Torah, [which is therefore called the "teachings of your mother."

This is an instance of the [68] "superior measure of Binah that was granted to woman," the power to make latent gifts manifest and corporeal].

Whereas the beginning of the verse, "Heed, my son, the admonitions of your father," alludes to the Written Torah, which derives from the Supernal Chochmah which is called "father".

This, then, is the meaning of the verse [quoted at the outset of the present Epistle], "A woman of valor is the crown of her husband."

For the Oral Torah is termed a "woman of valor" who gives birth to, and raises many legions.

As it is written, [69] "and alamot (`maidens') without number": Do not read alamot but olamot (`worlds')," [70] [these innumerable worlds] alluding to the halachot that are without number, as stated in the Tikkunim. [71]

All of these [halachot] are manifestations of the Supernal Will which is hidden in the Written Torah.

[The Oral Torah is thus called a "woman of valor," for it gives birth to multitudinous legions of laws.

The Alter Rebbe will now answer one of his opening questions:

Why is it that specifically halachot are referred to as the "crown of the Torah"? Also, why is the individual who studies specifically halachot every day assured of a share in the World to Come]?

The Supernal Will [which belongs to the Sefirah of Keter, lit., "crown"] is exceedingly more sublime than the level of the Supernal Chochmah, just as a crown or wreath is higher than the brains in the head.

This is why the halachot are referred to as a "crown" and the "crown of the Torah," [for they reveal the Supernal Will, which is at the level of Keter].

Likewise, "Whoever studies [specifically] halachot is assured of a share in the World to Come," by investing his Nefesh, Ruach and Neshamah in the Supernal Will, as stated above - [that the garments for the soul in the World to Come are the mitzvot; these embody the Supernal Will, which is clarified and delineated by the halachot].

   

Notes:

53. (Back to text) In an intricate Kabbalistic analysis (in the Glosses on the Tanya published in Likkutei Levi Yitzchak), R. Levi Yitzchak Schneerson, father of the Rebbe Shlita, relates the above four expressions ("hidden and covered, secreted and concealed") to the correspondence between the 613 mitzvot of the Written Torah and the four letters of the Divine Name Havayah.

    In summary: The Name Havayah is merely written, but not given manifest articulation; it finds expression only through its variant pronunciation of Ad-nai, which, however, contracts it and conceals its Essence.

    In the Written Torah, the Supreme Will underlying the mitzvot is likewise hidden; it becomes revealed ("pronounced") only insofar as it is contracted in the Oral Torah, which corresponds to the Name Ad-nai.

54. (Back to text) Devarim 6:8.

55. (Back to text) See Menachot 34b ff., et al.

56. (Back to text) Note of the Rebbe Shlita: "See Rambam, Hilchot Tefillin 3:14, as well as other codifiers."

57. (Back to text) Note of the Rebbe Shlita: "...as it means in other places."

58. (Back to text) Note of the Rebbe Shlita: "...as was [the position of] the headband [of the High Priest]."

59. (Back to text) Text emended according to Shmot 20:10 and Devarim 16:8.

60. (Back to text) See Shabbat 73a, et al.

61. (Back to text) Rambam, Hilchot Shabbat 24:12.

62. (Back to text) Shmot 23:24.

63. (Back to text) Hilchot Shabbat 21:1.

64. (Back to text) Likkutei Haggahot LeSefer HaTanya on this Epistle, p. 84.

65. (Back to text) Sanhedrin 7:5.

66. (Back to text) Mishlei 1:8.

67. (Back to text) In the Hashmatot to Zohar II, 276b, the phrase "your mother" is related to the Oral Torah, whereas in Kanfei Yonah 1:4 the Written Torah is called the "admonitions of your father" and the Oral Torah is called the "teachings of your mother."

68. (Back to text) Niddah 45b.

69. (Back to text) Shir HaShirim 6:8.

70. (Back to text) See Shir HaShirim Rabbah 6:12; Avodah Zarah 35b.

71. (Back to text) P. 14b (in the Introduction which begins Patach Eliyahu).