(2003/5763)

Towards the end of Parshat Nitzavim, the Torah makes the following remark:  “For this commandment that I command you today is not hidden from you, nor is it far away.  It is not in heaven, that you can say, ‘who shall go up to the heaven and bring it to us, and let us hear it that we can do it?’”(Devarim 30:11).

In other words, Moshe was saying that Bnai Yisrael have no excuse for not knowing Torah.  It is available, accessible, and therefore we are to learn it.  But then, when is the Torah considered inaccessible?  When is it far away? When is it close by?  It doesn’t matter, says Moshe Rabbeinu.  In fact, Rashi says quoting the Talmud (Eiruvin 55a), that if Torah had remained in heaven and had not been brought down by Moshe and recorded for all subsequent generations of Jews, we would have been responsible for devising a way of going "up" there and gaining access to Torah and learning it!

We know from the Talmud (Chagigah 14b), that Torah can be learned on various levels: the simple pshat, hints or “remez”, the more complicated drash, and kabalistic explanations, “sod.”  If you take the first letters of all those words, you come up with the word PaRDeS, (peh, reish, dalet, samech) meaning "garden," or "paradise," as a hint to the Garden of Eden.

What the Torah is hinting to with this word to is the power of a human being rise to greater spiritual realities, upon which the Torah becomes more and more pure, instead of staying on the basic physical human level. Had Moshe not brought the Torah down for us, we would not have been able to learn even the simplest level of Torah without first embarking on an deep intellectual and spiritual journey into the mysteries of creation.

However, Moshe did bring the Torah down for us, which means that on order to achieve the simplest understanding of Torah, we require very little in the way of a spiritual initiation before approaching it. But, on the other hand, the availability of Torah should not stop one from tracing the simplest understanding of Torah to its deepest root, to better and more fully understand its message. This is why the Torah concludes by saying:  “Choose life!  That you and your descendants may live!”  In other words, go deeper and deeper for the more you go the more of paradise you will experience and the more spiritually fulfilling your life will be.

Towards the end of Parshat Nitzavim, the Torah makes the following remark:  “For this commandment that I command you today is not hidden from you, nor is it far away.  It is not in heaven, that you can say, ‘who shall go up to the heaven and bring it to us, and let us hear it that we can do it?’”(Devarim 30:11).

In other words, Moshe was saying that Bnai Yisrael have no excuse for not knowing Torah.  It is available, accessible, and therefore we are to learn it.  But then, when is the Torah considered inaccessible?  When is it far away? When is it close by?  It doesn’t matter, says Moshe Rabbeinu.  In fact, Rashi says quoting the Talmud (Eiruvin 55a), that if Torah had remained in heaven and had not been brought down by Moshe and recorded for all subsequent generations of Jews, we would have been responsible for devising a way of going "up" there and gaining access to Torah and learning it!

We know from the Talmud (Chagigah 14b), that Torah can be learned on various levels: the simple pshat, hints or “remez”, the more complicated drash, and kabalistic explanations, “sod.”  If you take the first letters of all those words, you come up with the word PaRDeS, (peh, reish, dalet, samech) meaning "garden," or "paradise," as a hint to the Garden of Eden.

What the Torah is hinting to with this word to is the power of a human being rise to greater spiritual realities, upon which the Torah becomes more and more pure, instead of staying on the basic physical human level. Had Moshe not brought the Torah down for us, we would not have been able to learn even the simplest level of Torah without first embarking on an deep intellectual and spiritual journey into the mysteries of creation.

However, Moshe did bring the Torah down for us, which means that on order to achieve the simplest understanding of Torah, we require very little in the way of a spiritual initiation before approaching it. But, on the other hand, the availability of Torah should not stop one from tracing the simplest understanding of Torah to its deepest root, to better and more fully understand its message. This is why the Torah concludes by saying:  “Choose life!  That you and your descendants may live!”  In other words, go deeper and deeper for the more you go the more of paradise you will experience and the more spiritually fulfilling your life will be.