A guest post by Rabbi Aaron Fink (my father), Dean of Ateres Bais Yaakov on Monsey NY. Part of a weekly Dvar Torah (Torah “Thought”) series.
Lev Tahor, A Pure Heart
So often understudied, the final parsha in the Torah is as its name implies filled with bracha. In his final words, Moshe Rabbeinu offers us the gift of nitzchiyus.
Indeed, included in his closing blessing to his beloved people are the essential words with which we begin and define the paradigm for our chinuch Habanim, Torah tziva lanu Moshe, morasha kehillas Yaakov! All we must do is follow the lessons contained therein. The entire corpus of Torah is ours. We must treat it, study it and live it as a treasure. As such, we conclude the Torah and start it right over again. We celebrate simchas Torah – the joy of Torah. Although much of the blessing and guidance are found overtly in the text, there are many yesodos that are found only by reading between the lines. One incredible insight is derived from not only looking between the lines but by analyzing the first and last letters of the Torah.
We all know that the Torah begins with the letter “bais” (Bereishis). V’zos Habracha concludes with the letter “lamed” (Yisrael) The combination of these two letter spell lev, which means heart. Our chachamim teach us that it is not enough to know Torah; we must feel it – it must be our love. Hashem Yisborach hides this message in the cycle of Torah learning. As we conclude the Torah and begin anew we must give it our heart. Only then will we truly shteig.
However, an even deeper insight was once offered by Rav Yaakov Greenwald, shlita. He noted an interesting anomaly. There are three letters which are used to spell out Hashem Yisborach’s name. They are “yud,” “hay” and “vav.” He asked, which letters of the alef bais can form a two letter word by combining with each letter in the Shem Hashem? The gimmel cannot at all – (gi, gah, go). The daled cannot. While it can form the word daay, there is no word dah or do. Zayin can form two words zeh, and zo but there is no word zey, (zayin yud). This is true of almost the entire alef-bais except for two letters.
In fact, only two letters of the aleph-bais can form words with all three of the letters of the Shem Hashem, the lamed (li, lah, lo) and the bais( bi, bah, bo). The message is profound. The only way to be fully misdabeik with the Shechina is with the heart. This is why we daven v’taher libeinu lavdicha bemes. Yes, to achieve divekus, to become one with the Almighty we need heart. Let us give it to Hashem Yisborach, unconditionally. In so doing we will merit to fully feel and appreciate that His ahava rabba is truly an ahavas olam.
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