Dvar Torah for Parshat Va'etchanan

Based on Likutey Moharan II, #78

"Va'Etchanan" - I [Moses] pleaded to G-d at that time. (Deuteronomy 3:23)

The term "Va'Etchanan" denotes that Moses pleaded with G-d to give him an unearned gift. Even though the righteous possess many merits of their own, they always plead with G-d to provide an answer to their prayers from His Treasury of Unearned Gifts. (Rashi, loc. cit.)

It was the time ordained for Moses' death. Denied entry into the Holy Land, he persisted in pleading and begging that G-d annul His oath and allow him to enter the Land. Although Moses was a truly righteous man, rather than enumerating his many good deeds and his untiring self-sacrifice for the Jewish Nation, he pleaded with G-d to grant him an unearned gift from His Treasury. Moses thus opened his prayer with the word "Va'Etchanan" - indicating that he was seeking salvation from G-d's Treasury of Unearned Gifts. Based on this one word, "Va'Etchanan" Rebbe Nachman explains how Moses' plea to enter the Holy Land includes the concept of connecting to the tzaddik.

Rebbe Nachman taught:

The verse states (Deuteronomy 30:20), "For it is your life and the length of your days," telling us that the Torah is our very life. Whoever distances himself from Torah distances himself from life (Zohar I, 92a).

This idea is rooted in the Midrash which states that, prior to creating the world, G-d created the Torah. He then used the Torah as a "blueprint" for the creation of the universe and everything in it (Bereishit Rabbah 1:1). The Torah thus represents the vitality of life, meaning eternal life; the Torah existed before Creation and continually sustains the world - since all that transpires in this world can be found in some form in its "blueprint." Human life as well, though of relatively short duration, is also sustained by the Torah, as the verse tells us, "it is your life."

Based on the understanding that the Torah is the essence of life itself, Rebbe Nachman poses the following question:

How can anyone possibly separate himself from Torah for even a moment? Yet it is literally impossible to be attached to Torah continually, day and night, without a second's interruption. Even the most diligent and devoted students of Torah must stop their studies while they tend to their livelihoods and other physical needs. Nevertheless, Torah is life. Tending to one's material needs is tantamount to rejecting life. How can one separate oneself from life even for a second? And since one cannot remain attached to Torah the entire time, from where does he draw life during that time when he is distant from Torah?

Rebbe Nachman expands this concept. Man's physical needs are extensive: one must eat, sleep, tend to one's livelihood and the many other material requirements that occupy one's day. While a person - any person - is involved in the mundane occupations of life and is thus unattached to the Torah, he becomes an "ordinary person."

The concept of the ordinary person applies to everyone: dedicated Torah scholar, part-time student, full-time worker or anyone who fills his day with anything but Torah. He might even be one who denies Torah! But no matter who he or she is, the person must receive his life from the Torah, for "it is your life." Thus, everybody lives on account of the Torah.

The problem is that everyone, even the greatest tzaddik and most dedicated Torah scholar, must interrupt his studies to tend to his material needs. At that moment he is interrupting his connection to life. Certainly this is true of those who have never had the opportunity to study Torah, don't want to study it, or reject it. From where, or from what, do they draw life? There must be some type of "interface" by which an ordinary person can always be attached to Torah, even if indirectly, because without Torah a person would be cut off from life itself.

A very great tzaddik, one who is always attached to Torah, serves as this "interface" for all of humanity. This implies that the tzaddik is always, on some level, attached to Torah, even when tending to his material needs. When he is involved in his mundane affairs, the tzaddik receives his vitality from the Torah in a concealed form. When he must interrupt his Torah study, he also becomes an "ordinary person," but he remains intrinsically bound up with the Torah in a concealed manner.

In this same concealed manner, those who are distant from Torah can also receive their vitality. But as they are distant from Torah to begin with, it is very difficult for them to receive their vitality directly. The tzaddik is attached to Torah, but at the same time he may become an "ordinary person." He therefore acts as a channel: the ordinary people can receive their vitality through him, for he can "interface" both with the Torah and with them. (The whys and wherefores can be learned directly from the lesson upon which the above is based or the book The Treasury of Unearned Gifts from which this piece is taken.)

Agutn Shabbos!
Shabbat Shalom!