| Dvar Torah for Shavuot
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Based on Likutey MoHaran I, 22:1, 4–9 “Naaseh v’nishma” (“We shall do and we
shall hear”). Most of the time we think of tshuvah (repentance) as a personal matter, as something the individual needs to do as a result of his/her sins, for what s/he has done wrong. Even though many of our prayers of confession are in the plural (“We have sinned,” “Forgive us”), we tend to think of them as talking about a collection of individuals rather than about a group. In fact, even if you’ve never done anything wrong in your life you have to do tshuvah. Rebbe Nachman writes (Likutey MoHaran I, #35) that tshuvah means “returning things to their place,” “setting things right.” Ever since the sin of Adam the world has been askew. The sins of Adam’s descendants have only compounded the problem. On that happy day we left Egypt we gained an internal freedom, a freedom to overcome our compulsions and obsessions. We were not yet rid of them though. We were still sunk in the 49th Level of Tumah (Impurity). The mitzvah of the Omer-Count (Leviticus 23:15-16) was, and is, the tool we used to climb out of that deep prison and up to the 49th Level of Kedushah (Holiness), enabling us to receive the pure light that shone on Sinai. However, the counting alone would have left us stranded at the mountain. Though we were ready to receive, there had to be someone who could give, who could tell us what that light was, how it was to be concretized and made meaningful in life. That someone was Moshe Rabbeinu (Moses our Teacher). Moshe Rabbeinu’s job was to advise us and admonish us so that we would return to Hashem (God). He succeeded in this and so, when God asked us if we wanted His Torah we unhesitatingly responded, “Naaseh v’nishma”. At that moment much of the negative effect of Adam’s sin was reversed. Rebbe Nachman teaches that we always have the opportunity to invoke the power of that response. This is especially true on Shavuot, the anniversary of the Torah-Giving. In order to do that, we have to hear the voice of Moshe Rabbeinu, the sage who can effectively teach and rebuke us. “From the sound of my sighing, my bone clings to my flesh” (Psalms 102:6). In Hebrew, “my bone” is ATZMi, which is from the root ¨TZeM, essence. A person’s essence, the “I” to which s/he refers, is the soul s/he possesses. But because the flesh is so brazen and insistent on getting its desires, “bone” and “flesh,” soul and body, are kept apart. Only by combating the body’s brazenness with holy brazenness can they come together. Examples of holy brazenness are sighing (in regret for sins), raising one’s voice in prayer or song, the jingle of coins in the charity box and the sound of the shofar. (The sound of the shofar was integral to the giving of the Torah. See Exodus 19:16, 19.) It is important to unite the flesh with the bone because setting things right within one’s self is the first step in returning things to their place. Rebbe Nachman calls this “having pity on one’s body.” Pity is not shown by pampering the body with the physical stuff it craves, but rather by purifying it, so that in can be informed of all the insights and perceptions that the soul perceives “because the soul of every human being is continuously seeing and comprehending very exalted matters.” And, says Rebbe Nachman, when the soul has its downs, if it has such a body, the body can bring it back up. On a broader scale, the tzadik (saint) is the bone/essence and ordinary folk are the flesh. To perceive what the soul/tzadik does, the body/people must get close to him. This is accomplished by serving the tzadik (e.g., studying his teachings in depth, enabling others to do so) in one case, and by performing mitzvot in the other. So we come to another important reason for bonding the flesh to the bone, the people to the tzadik—so that they will hear his voice, and not an echo. Because any time a person’s holy nature is stirred, his sins gets stirred up too, because “God made one to contrast the other” (Ecclesiastes 7:14). So, even though a person may hear or emit a holy cry, s/he may hear only the echo of past sins. That echo is their demand that the person maintain them and it ends up intensifying one’s pursuit of this worldly distractions. Thus, bonding flesh to soul is crucial. In order to perform the service/mitzvot one needs to counter the brazenness of the body with brazenness of the soul. We strengthen our souls with this brazenness when we are happy because, “Joy in God is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10). This joy is the joy of our proclamation “We shall do and we shall listen” that entitled us to receive the Torah. With the service-induced closeness in effect, we/the body can hear the admonishment of the tzadik/soul as he/she instructs and enlightens us. agutn Shabbos!
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