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"From my flesh I will envision the Almighty"
5 Tamuz 5771

Introduction

This is the 2nd part of a class begun the previous evening. There, Harav Ginsburgh began meditating on the verse,¹ “From my flesh, I will envision the Almighty” (וּמִבְּשָׂרִי אֶחֱזֶה אֱ־לוֹהַּ ). He taught and explained a number of different interpretations, beginning with the interpretation offered in Midrash Rabbah, that this verse refers to Abraham’s attainment of a new level of prophecy after having performed God’s commandment of circumcision.

The 5th of Tamuz

In Jewish history, today is the day in which the Divine chariot was revealed to the prophet Ezekiel. The date of Ezekiel’s prophecy is stated in the first verse of his book, “It came to pass, in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day….” We have noted in the past that the fourth and fifth words of this verse are “the fourth” and “the fifth” respectively, a beautiful example of self-reference. Since this is the first verse of Ezekiel’s book, these are also the fourth and fifth words of the entire book.

Job and Abraham

This class is a continuation of the class begun yesterday, during which we talked about the different interpretations of the verse, ”From my flesh I will envision the Almighty,” a verse spoken by Job. We mentioned yesterday that even though this verse appears in the Book of Job and was said by him, the sages interpret it to also refer to Abraham, who through his act of circumcision—a commandment performed in his flesh—merited envisioning the Almighty at a whole new level. Indeed, the association of Abraham with a verse spoken by Job is not unique. There are many statements by the sages that compare and contrast Job and Abraham. Job is documented as heralding from the Land of Ootz, which is where Abraham’s family originated from. Indeed, Rashi states that Job came from the same family as Abraham.
In the story of Job’s suffering, there are 5 that come to talk to him. They are his 3 companions—who spoke poorly—Elihu the son of Berachel (whose name in Hebrew incidentally equals Mashiach) and finally the Almighty Himself who reveals Himself to Job, asking him questions meant to highlight the limits of his own intellect and understanding. But, returning to the connection with Abraham, Elihu is described as being from the family of Ram, which, as the sages explain, refers to Abraham whose original name, Abram, reads ”exalted [ram] father. ”
Every verse in the Book of Job is full of secrets. Even though the rebuke he receives from his three companions was not rightful, every word that they speak is explained according to the secrets of the Torah. The first thing that Eliphaz the Teimani asks Job is, “If one tries to talk to you, will you be grieved”² (הֲנִסָּה דָבָר אֵלֶיךָ תִלְאֶה ). The sages explain that Eliphaz is alluding to the Ten trials of Abraham and is asking whether Job has withstood the same trials experienced by Abraham? The sages are thus explaining that all of this is in order to exalt Abraham. There is an opinion among the sages that Job was greater than Abraham in his service of God, because Job served from fear together with sincerity and honesty³ (תָּם וְיָשָׁר וִירֵא אֱ־לֹהִים וְסָר מֵרָע ), whereas Abraham’s service is described in one place as being only from fear⁴ (יְרֵא אֱ־לֹהִים ).
Another opinion among the sages says that Job received 4 crowns corresponding to these four descriptions of his Divine service, whereas Abraham received 10, corresponding to his 10 trials.
Of the 53 (the gematria of Elihu and the number of letters in the first verse of Job) times that the Name Elokah (אלוה ) appears in the Bible, the Name of the Almighty that appears in the verse ”From my flesh I will envision the Almighty,” 41 are in Job.
The major characters in the book of Job represent and give voice to the 5 levels of Job’s soul. His three companions that come to console him correspond and reflect the first three levels of Job’s soul: psyche (nefesh), spirit (ru’ach), and soul (neshamah). Job himself expresses the words of his own life-force (chayah). Finally, Elihu ben Berachel, the fourth visitor who interjects and answers Job properly, reflects the level of Job’s “singular one” (yechidah). The Almighty, who reveals Himself at the end of the book, corresponds and voices the very essence of Job’s soul, denoted as the soul itself.

The Ramban (Nachmanides) is the first to explain that all of Job's suffering came to rectify an earlier lifetime. His companions did not understand this. But, the Ramban does not identify the person who was reincarnated as Job and required this rectification. The Arizal though makes this identification, based on the verse that appears in Job, and is spoken by Job himself, “Who can bring the pure out of the impure?”⁵ (מִי יִתֵּן טָהוֹר מִטָּמֵא ). The sages explain that this verse too refers to Abraham, in this case to his pedigree. Abraham is the pure soul that comes out of an impure father, Terach. Thus, the Arizal identifies Job as a reincarnation of Terach, Abraham's father.
The same connection is found in regard to Job's wife who is said to be a reincarnation of Amtalai daughter of Kornavo, Abraham's mother (who later reincarnated as Dinah the daughter of Jacob and Leah, Job's wife according to the sages). So here we have another connection between Job and Abraham.
When we look at the numbers, this same connection is revealed. The numerical value of Terach (תֶּרַח ) is 608, which is 32 times the value of Job (אִיּוֹב ), 19. Additionally, Amtalai (אַמְתְּלָאִי ) plus Dinah (דִּינָה ) together equal 551, 29 times 19, Job.

Workings of the chariot

Actually, what is most interesting is when we add Job (אִיּוֹב ) to Abraham (אַבְרָהָם ). Together they equal, "chariot" (מֶרְכָּבָה ), which as we mentioned is particularly related to today, the day on which the Divine chariot was revealed to Ezekiel.
The workings of the chariot are about the construction of the Hebrew letters, one with the other, and their fillings, etc.
So what we have here is an idea that there is a special chariot where Abraham "rides" as it were, on Job. It's not even known if Job was a Jew. The sages teach us that it was Moshe Rabbeinu who wrote the Book of Job. He wrote three works, the Pentateuch (excluding the prophecies of Balaam, which are in this week's Torah portion), the book of Job, and the prophecies of Balaam. These three works correspond to the three books known as the book of the righteous, the book of the intermediates and the book of the wicked.
The idea here is that in order for Abraham's light – his revelation of true monotheism – to shine to the whole world he must connect to the universal soul of Job.

Ripeness

One of the things we mentioned in the previous class on this topic is that in Hebrew the word “flesh,“ בשר , interchanges with the word “unripe,“ בֹּסֶר . Whereas flesh, "From my flesh I will envision the Almighty," represents the rectification of the covenant, man's sexual power, the unripe represents the opposite, as it says in regard to King David, who had relations with Batsheva in an improper manner and this is described by the sages as, "He ate her unripe."
In this same respect there is a statement by the sages that compares Job to Abraham, where Abraham is described as, "he swallowed her ripe, and Job swallowed her unripe." The sages are referring to a similar statement made by Abraham in his dialogue with God regarding the impending destruction of Sodom and Gemorrah. Abraham asks, “Would You kill the righteous together with the wicked?” Abraham is not arguing that God is unjust, but rather that His justice, that the righteous should not even seemingly suffer the same fate as the wicked, should be open and revealed and not left to faith. This is quite different from Job’s rebuke of the Almighty’s justice – "the righteous and the wicked You kill" – implying that he surely does not deserve his fate. So, what is seemingly a similar statement made by both Abraham and Job turns out to be very different, with Abraham’s statement described as “ripe,” i.e., thought out and rectified, while Job’s is “unripe.”

The body’s undoing

Another thing we need to add in this respect is what the Tikunei Zohar says,⁶ that if a person merits rectifying his flesh—his sexual power—then he merits envisioning the Almighty. But, if he does not, then his flesh becomes his undoing, the letters of flesh, בָּשָׂר , permute to become the letters of “shattering,” שֶׁבֶר .
As we know, the Rebbe Rashab actually said the shattering—the breaking of one’s soul that causes him to seek true repentance, that causes him to seek to rectify and put his personality back together again—that occurs because of this fault (improper sexual conduct) is a positive phenomenon. Having this yearning to put oneself back together again, from the deepest point of one’s being, is one of the most important things necessary in order to understand Chassidut, to have a "sense" (חוּשׁ ) in Chassidut.

Breaking one’s head

Though the Tikunei Zohar, only connects flesh with its permutation, שֶׁבֶר , which means “shattering,” there is also a connection as mentioned with the “unripe” (בֹּסֶר )—since the left shin (שׂ ) and the letter samech (ס ) are interchangeable.
Thus “flesh” (בָּשָׂר ) can become סָבַר , which means to contemplate, to have an intellectual understanding or idea. To really have a true opinion in Torah, a svara (סְבָרָא ), as it’s called in Aramaic, a person has to shatter as in “break his head”⁷ (לִשְׁבּוֹר אֶת הָרֹאשׁ ) and he has to break his heart. Not only the intellect needs to go through a shattering process, but the heart too. Breaking the head without breaking the heart is worthless. A person who breaks his head and heart in order to understand is promised that he will become a vessel for God's revelation. The phrase that describes this in the Talmud is סָבַר וְקִבֵּל , which means, “he surmised [thought] and received.” This phrase equals 400. 400 is not only the value of the final letter of the Hebrew alphabet, the tav (ת ), it also represents the four hundred silver coins Abraham paid for the Cave of the Machpelah. In Kabbalah, these coins are symbolic of the 400 worlds of passion (ת עַלְמִין דְכִּסוּפִין ). The Talmud relates that Rabbi Freida had a student who needed things repeated 400 times until he understood what was being taught.

Informing the body

To understand something fully, you not only have to understand it with your Divine soul, you have to understand it with your animal soul. To understand things with your animal soul, you have to break your head, searching for a way to explain things to the intellectual soul, which is an intermediate between them.

Once it reaches the animal soul, it will also penetrate the body. Explaining things to the intellectual soul requires that we build metaphors, parables and models that can reflect the knowledge and outlook of the Torah. This is the particular method of Chabad, which always strives to explain the deepest Kabbalistic and Chassidic concepts, and every topic in Torah for that matter, with parables and metaphors. The critics of this method, those who opposed the Alter Rebbe’s methodology, described the followers of Chabad as metaphorists (מוֹשְׁלֵי מְשָׁלִים ).
Now Rebbe Nachman says that there are two related verses, "From my flesh I will envision the Almighty" and "You shall not ignore your flesh."⁸ The relationship revolves around the word "flesh," which appears only once in the entire Bible in the form מִבְּשָׂרִי  (“my flesh”) and only once in the form, מִבְּשָׂרֶךָ , ("your flesh"). As we explained this is a very good example of how envisioning Godliness, by learning Torah should permeate all the way to one's body, to one's flesh. Rebbe Nachman explains that this is particularly important when there are times that the psyche is down—this even occurs with great tzadikim. If you worked hard to instill the holiness of Torah into your body through the metaphors understood by the intellectual soul, then at times like this, your body will lift your spirits! This is a very difficult passage to understand in Rebbe Nachman if not explained in the way that we just have, which is the Chabad-centered explanation of the relationship between the Divine and animal souls.⁹

Distraction from one’s illness

Now, let us see another intrerpretation of the verse, "From my flesh I will envision the Almighty." The Sefat Emet explains¹⁰ that you should read it as "More than my flesh, I envision the Almighty." When a person feels his body, when something is wrong, the body has a tendency to capture all of our attention. So, says the Sefat Emet, at times like this you should focus so intently on the Almighty, that you can distract your thought from the body. To distract oneself from one's body is something anyone can achieve. There are stories such as about the Modzhitzer Rebbe who was able to go through an entire operation without anesthesia because of his tremendous ability to focus his mind elsewhere. Not everyone can reach this level, but certainly everyone can achieve a basic level which is certainly a very Chabad-centered approach to ailment.
All of what we are saying was meant to be a class given in the recent trip that was cancelled.

Becoming a chariot

Let us give over another introduction to a topic that was meant as part of another class we hoped to teach on our trip.
There are two types of Divine service, clarification (בֵּרוּרִים ) and unification (יִחוּדִים ) and the difference between them is usually well-known.
The Lubavitcher Rebbe once explained that the service of clarification includes bothאִתְכַּפְיָא  and אִתְהַפְּכָא . An example of the first is the escape from Egypt. The Egyptians represent evil that a person cannot transform and therefore can only flee from, or coerce (as in the drowning of the Egyptians in the sea). But, there is also the service of transformation, something that is described later in the same Torah portion (Beshalach) that describes the fleeing from the Egyptians. When the Jewish people came to Marah, the bitter waters were transformed into sweet waters, and God said, "For I am God your Healer," (כִּי אֲנִי י־הוה רֹפְאֶךָ ), which is the special service of the month of Iyar (the initials of the words אֲנִי י־הוה רֹפְאֶךָ spell אִיָּר , Iyar).
But, says the Rebbe, the service of unification is actually neither coercion or transformation of evil. Unification is actually the service that was practiced by the Patriarchs and the Matriarchs, which is the service called being a "chariot (מֶרְכָּבָה ) for God." Obviously since they are male (Patriarchs) and females (Matriarchs), they have to do with the coupling between them, the unifications between them.
How should we understand this? The Rebbe explains that there are three interpretations of the verse, "Refrain from evil and do good," that explain this. The first interpretation is that your main focus in serving God should be to refrain from evil, and as you’re running away from evil, you should do as much good as you can. This is of course the most predominant stance adopted by frum Jews. This is service that is called אִתְכַּפְיָא . Thus, according to this stance, the main thing is fear of Heaven, which is of course true.
There is a second interpretation, that you should capture the evil and turn it into goodness. As you refrain from evil, you actually capture it, but then as it’s in your hand, because you are controlling it, you have power over it, you turn it into something good. This is of course transformation. This is still part of the service of clarification (בֵּרוּרִים ).
Now what about unification, being a chariot? The key is complete distraction from evil. Just forget about evil altogether, in every respect. Even when it comes to your God forbid own suffering, you just have to ignore it altogether and keep your mind only on God (as in the famous story with Rebbe Zusha). By doing so, you simply add more and more goodness into reality. This is the service of unification. We said this because of the Sefat Emet's explanation of the verse, "From my flesh I will envision the Almighty."

Numerical Analyses

Now we come to the very important part of analyzing this phrase, "And from my flesh I will envision the Almighty" (וּמִבְּשָׂרִי אֶחֱזֶה אֱ־לוֹהַּ ) numerically. First of all, the value of the entire phrase is 621, the value of “crown” (כִּתְרָא ) in Aramaic.
In this phrase, the second and third words have a ratio of 1:2, or as we call it, “a whole and a half.” “I shall envision” (אֶחֱזֶה ) equals 21 and “the Almighty” (אֱ־לוֹהַּ ) equals 42. Together they equal 63, which is the sum of the 3 times that the Name Ekyeh (אֶהְיֶה ), whose value is 21, appears in the Torah.¹¹
The value of the phrase, 621 is also 3 times 207, "light" (אור ). Indeed, the crown (כתרא ) contains 3 lights, which in the earliest writings of Kabbalah are described as lights: אוֹר צַח, אוֹר מְצֻחְצָח, אוֹר קַדְמוֹן .¹² The three levels of the crown thus correspond to the three words of the phrase,

Let’s explain this correspondence. An interesting point we learn from this correspondence is that the flesh is an expression of a person's will. It is not the person himself, but rather something more external, but it is through it that a person can envision the Almighty, by rectifying the flesh and purifying it.
To envision (even though this happens in the mind’s eye) is of course related to the eyes. Of all the senses, the eyes and sight are considered the most pleasurable. In this case, we see that envisioning is related to pleasure, the head of nothingness.
Of course the third level, the Almighty is related to the highest head of the crown, the unknowable head, which in the soul manifests as simple and pure faith in the Almighty.
Now, for more complex analysis of the phrase. Looking at the initial and final letters they are, ואא , and יהה . We can denote the pattern that repeats here in an “algebraic” form, like a formula, abb (with regard to the initials: a = ו , and b = א ; with regard to the final letters: a = י , and b = ה ). So this is one level of pattern in the words of this phrase. But, now note that the pattern has two levels to it, because the difference between the two a’s and the two b’s is 4!
Now, let us say something about series. This is a bit technical and is meant for those students that are either teaching these topics in our schools or are writing books on the subject. If a series begins with the form a, b, b (e.g., 2 3 3) then it is a quadratic series (a series of second order) with feminine symmetry. In a series with feminine symmetry, the average value of the first 13 numbers will be the value of the 8th number.
Now in the entire Bible, this pattern repeats only one more time, in a verse that is also from Job (thus this pattern is unique to the Book of Job), “Have I caused the eyes of a widow to fail”¹³ (וְעֵינֵי אַלְמָנָה אֲכַלֶּה ). The initial letters of this phrase are ואא and the final letters are יהה . Interestingly, the value of these three words, “Have I caused the eyes of a widow to fail” (וְעֵינֵי אַלְמָנָה אֲכַלֶּה ) is equal to 328, the value of “darkness” (חֹשֶׁךְ ). Recall that the value of “And from my flesh I will envision the Almighty,” the only other phrase in the Bible that has the same pattern is 621, which is 3 times “light” (אוֹר ), 207.
Now note that the full verse from which the phrase is taken connects the envisioning of God with Job’s skin. Regarding skin and how it symbolizes the expression of inner lights that strike one another and become surrounding light for a partzuf, the Arizal teaches the following. In the case of Ze’er Anpin, the filling of Havayah is יוד הא ואו הא . The yud is the intellect received from father, which enters into the intellect received from mother, thus there is a striking of the filling of these two letters: יוד (20) times הא (6) = 120. The next thing is that the intellect of the mother strikes the emotive faculties, the midot, הא (6) times ואו (13) = 78. Finally the lights of the emotive faculties strike the kingdom, which is ואו (13) times הא (6) = 78 once again. So, altogether, the three acts of striking or multiplication yield a sum of 276, which is the value of "skin" (עוֹר ).
Now let’s go a step back. We know that there is a special relationship between the words “light” (אוֹר ) and “skin” (עוֹר ), especially in relation to the garments of skin God made Adam and Eve, given that the letters alef and ayin have special relationship between them (alef is the inner light of the letter ayin). This special relationship can also be seen numerically, because both “light” and “skin” have a very large common denominator, 69. “Light,” 207 is 3 times 69. “Skin,” 276, is 4 times 69.
Another way of saying 4 times 69 is 12 times 23. But, since 12 is the midpoint of 23 it follows that their product is the triangle of 23, or 276, as we already know. But look at the other products the Arizal mentions in this process. 120 is the triangle of 15 and 78 is the triangle of 12. Since 78 appears twice, twice a triangular number is a diamond number. So this particular meditation from the Arizal yields a beautiful algebraic equation involving figurate numbers:
r15 ┴ 12 = r23
We leave the generalization of this equation for another time.

3 levels of meditation

Now let us end with the commentary on the Mittler Rebbe’s Kuntres Hahitpa'alut—A Treatise on Excitation—written by Rebbe Hilel of Paritch. If we recall, the beginning of the Kuntres is about how to elevate ourselves above excitation from the flesh (spirituality that expressed only through the flesh) to excitation from the purely spiritual. The Mittler Rebbe writes that his father (the Alter Rebbe’s) main focus was to elevate his followers to achieve spiritual excitation from the soul and not from the flesh. One might make the mistake that the verse, "From my flesh I will envision the Almighty," one should seek excitation of the flesh. But, obviously this is not true and to understand this clearly, we need to read Rebbe Hilel.
Rebbe Hilel begins with a teaching that he heard from Rebbe Isaac of Homil which he explains to be very relevant for explaining the meaning of the Mittler Rebbe’s words.
Rebbe Isaac explained that there are not only two types of service, service of excitation from the flesh and service of excitation from the soul. Before the Alter Rebbe there is the world of intellectual metaphors understood by the intellectual soul. A person who meditates upon this comes to an excitation from Godliness, but this excitation is still relatively corporeal. This corresponds to meditation in the sefirah of understanding. Understanding is mother, and this is the place of Jewish meditation. But, if the meditation, the intellectual contemplation only reaches ideas and forms that are related to the flesh it is only at the level of understanding. This existed before the Alter Rebbe. This is still called service of God, and the person seems to experience some light of Godliness from his meditation, but relatively this is still darkness.
Now, the second type of excitation comes from meditation that is centered on the Divine soul. These types of meditation focus on God's Name, Havayah.¹⁴ This is not just looking at how God's Name permeates reality, but how it is above reality. Because of this it is not called merely "meditation" (הִתְבּוֹנְנוּת ), but rather "contemplation" (הִסְתַּכְּלוּת ). We once said that there are young children who have pure eyes and have the ability to see how God recreates the world at every moment, physically. This is a revelation of the Divine soul, about which it says, "Who is wise? He who sees the newborn [world]!" This of course corresponds to the sefirah of wisdom.
The third level is meditation that is centered so much on the Divine itself, that it goes beyond even what the Divine soul is excited by. At this level, the person is excited by the essence of the Divine itself, which is the very essence of the soul. This excitation leads to two opposite states, joy and pleasure, which is the lower level and the second is sorrow and bitterness on being captured within the corporeal realm.
These three levels correspond to the three words in the verse, "From my flesh I will envision the Almighty." And we can summarize it as follows:

This is what Rebbe Hilel heard from Rebbe Isaac, and he writes that this is relevant to the words of the Mittler Rebbe here.
This is what the Alter Rebbe dedicated his life to revealing in his followers, the ability to meditate on the essence of the Divine.
But, after all this, the literal meaning of the verse, "From my flesh I will envision the Almighty," is that even if a person reaches the high level of total unification with the Divine, because we are still a soul in a body, this is not the end. The end has to be to explain things in such a way that the body can be imbued with this Godliness that is contemplated and this can only be achieved through the metaphors discussed earlier. As Rebbe Hilel explains elsewhere, each topic in Torah, each point that one wants to inform the intellectual soul about requires two metaphors. One metaphor based on something in the physical world—a scientific metaphor. And another metaphor or parable based on something in the psychological realm.

One last analysis

Now let us look for a moment at the word "unification," יִחוּד . It is special because it is the letters going backwards from י to ד , skipping one letter each time.
י  ט  ח  ז  ו  ה  ד
If we would continue with the same pattern, we would find that the letters surroundingיִחוּד  are לֵב :
ל כ י  ט  ח  ז  ו  ה  ד ג ב
The value of “unification” together with these two letters לב , ליחודב = 60, which is itself the product of the two surrounding letters, ל times ב .
The letters that we skipped are כטזהג and their value is 44, the value of “blood” (דָּם ). So the heart (לֵב ), the two letters that surround all these letters, is full of unification (יִחוּד ) and blood (דָּם ).