How Do We Know Moshiach Will Reveal Additional Torah Insights?

 

(NOTE: Hebrew terms are translated at the end of the text.)

To answer the question "How do we know that Moshiach will reveal additional Torah insights?" we must first consider two preceding issues. 

We need to understand what happened to Moshe on Har Sinai. We also need to understand the difference between the first set of luchot that Moshe destroyed when he witnessed the Chet haEgel and the second set.

What happened to Moshe on Har Sinai?

According to the Bible and Jewish tradition, Moshe ascended and descended from meeting with Hashem on Har Sinai multiple times. In Shemot 19, there are multiple ascents mentioned.

For our purposes, we will focus on the three 40-day periods connected to receiving the luchot:

1) Moshe’s first 40-day period to receive the first set of luchot

And the Lord said to Moshe, "Come up to Me to the mountain and remain there, and I will give you the stone tablets and the Torah and the commandment, which I have written to instruct them." (Shemot 24:12)
Moshe came within the cloud and went up to the mountain, and Moshe was upon the mountain forty days and forty nights. (Shemot 24:18)

2) Moshe’s second 40-day period to pray for the Nation of Israel

It came to pass on the next day that Moshe said to the people, "You have committed a grave sin. And now I will ascend to the Lord; perhaps I will be able to atone for your sin." (Shemot 32:20)
So Moshe returned to the Lord and said, "Please! This people has committed a grave sin. They have made themselves a god of gold. (Shemot 32:31)

3) Moshe’s third 40-day period to receive the second set of luchot

So he [Moshe] hewed two stone tablets like the first ones, and Moshe arose early in the morning and ascended Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and he took the two stone tablets in his hand.( Shemot 34:4)
And he was there with the Lord for forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water, and He inscribed on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments. (Shemot 34:28)

What were the differences between the first set of luchot that were destroyed and the second set?

The first set of tablets were carved by God, written by God and given before the rupture of the Chet haEgel.

Now the tablets were God's work, and the inscription was God's inscription, engraved on the tablets. (Shemot 32:16)

The second set of luchot, after the sin, was carved by Moshe, not by God.

And the Lord said to Moshe: "Hew for yourself two stone tablets like the first ones. And I will inscribe upon the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. (Shemot 34:1)

Producing the second set was a joint effort between Hashem and Moshe. Moshe carved the stone himself, though Hashem wrote on them.

The first set were completely Divine. The second set represented a partnership between Divine and human effort.

There is a Talmudic teaching that if the first set of luchot had not been broken, the Nation of Israel would never have forgotten a word of Torah. (Eruvin 54a)

The clear implication is that the first set of luchot contained a higher level of Divine revelation. The first set of luchot represented spiritual perfection given as a gift from Hashem. The second set required human struggle and repentance in order to achieve holiness.  

The first set of luchot was superior because they were entirely Divine, given before the sin and associated with perfect spiritual clarity.

The second luchot came after human failure and required human participation in the process of understanding God’s Word.

How Do We Know Moshiach Will Reveal Additional Torah Teachings?

Having demonstrated that the second set of luchot was fundamentally different in nature, less complete and on a lower spiritual level, now we return to our original question.

Some of what was revealed in the first set of luchot has been obscured throughout human history, since the giving of the Torah. That knowledge will only be revealed at the End of Days, through the teaching of Moshiach.

We are not speaking here of a new Torah that will replace the existing one. We are speaking of teachings that will reveal hidden dimensions and deeper understandings of the Torah we already have, as well as secrets embedded in the Torah that will become readily accessible to all who study it.

The prophet Yeshayahu speaks of the Messianic era as a time when:

...the land shall be full of knowledge of the Lord as water covers the seabed. (Yeshayahu 11:9)

The implication is that Divine wisdom and Torah knowledge will expand dramatically.

Another source, this one from the midrash: 

“The Torah that a person learns in this world is vanity compared to the Torah of Moshiach.” (Kohelet Rabbah 11:8)

The implication is that, once Moshiach is with us and teaches us his Torah insights, our understanding of Torah will be unimaginably greater than what we have now.

In his Mishneh Torah, the Rambam explains that, in the Messianic era, all of Israel will have deeper knowledge of the secrets of Torah and a profound understanding of God.

“In that time… all of Israel will be great sages and know hidden matters, and they will attain knowledge of their Creator according to human capacity.” (Mishneh Torah 12:5)

The Arizal taught that the mystical insights we learn today through kabbalah and Chassidut are preparation for the fuller revelation of Torah that will come to us through the teachings of Moshiach.

In conclusion, the Torah itself is eternal, but humanity’s understanding of it is not complete. Moshiach will reveal the fullness, depth, inner meaning and divine wisdom already contained within Torah from Sinai that has been hidden from us since Moshe smashed the first set of luchot.

Hebrew Terms:

Arizal – Rabbi Isaac Luria, 16^th c. kabbalist from Tzfat
Chet haEgel – the sin of the Golden Calf
Har Sinai – Mt. Sinai
Hashem - God
Luchot – tablets
Midrash - classic, ancient rabbinic commentaries 
Moshe – Moshe
Moshiach – Messiah
Rambam – Rabbi Moses ben Maimon, among the most prolific and influential Torah scholars in the 12^th c.
Shemot – Book of Exodus
Yeshayahu - Isaiah

Seven Arguments for the Oneness of God

 

  

Over the last several weeks, one of my study partners and I have been learning a chapter of Duties of the Heart by R. Bachya ibn Paquda. In this chapter, he makes seven arguments for the Oneness of God which is, of course, a foundational Torah idea.

I found the density of his words calling out for simplification. Here, I've tried, as best I can, to present ibn Paquda's arguments in more straightforward language. 

The book was written in the 11th c. His original audience was observant Jews living in Spain, which was then a Muslim country. In particular, he was speaking to observant Jews who, while ritually observant, were lax in the attendant "duties of the heart" such as emunah, humility and love of God.  

Here is my summary of his seven arguments for the idea that there could only be One Creator and Sustainer of the world.

1. Everything that exists came into existence by a creator. Pick anything that exists in the world and trace it to its point of origin. At some point, you run out of causes for a thing that exists and you come to a Singular Cause of Causes. That is God.

2. Everything in the world works together. The universe functions like one coordinated system. Every part functions as part of a greater whole. Nothing exists independently. That points to one Creator, not to multiple gods. The patterns and harmony in creation suggest a single wisdom guiding everything. A unified design points to one Designer.

3. Nothing can bring itself into existence. It is impossible to conceive of a world that was brought into existence by a Creator who was less than one. One is the smallest number of Creators it is possible to believe in.

4. If there were more than one Creator, there would be something that differentiated each one from the others. Each would have more or less of some qualities in order to differentiate one from the others. Therefore, if there were more than one Creator, each would necessarily be limited. Whatever is limited is finite. Whatever is finite cannot be the ultimate Creator.

5. The idea of plurality can only exist if there is an idea that there is a quantity that is less than plural. Anyone who asserts that the Creator is more than one has to concede that there is a unit smaller than “more than one”. That unit is one. And One necessarily precedes the idea of plurality.

6. A perfect God cannot be divided. Anything divided into parts is limited and dependent. God is perfect and unlimited, so He cannot be made of parts or separate beings.

7. If there were more than one creator with the power to create the world alone, there would be no need for more than one creator. If creation could not have happened without cooperation among the multiple creators, then none of them alone was perfect, whole and complete. 

Is my summary perfect? Likely not. My goal is to simplify ibn Paquda's ideas and to bolster those who want to believe in a single, unified Creator and Sustainer of the world.

The Seed. The Sprout. The Tree. The Fruit: A Metaphor About Israel

 

 

The Seed. The Sprout. The Tree. The Fruit: A Metaphor About Israel
 
Guest Post by Lisa Cain Hammerman

 

 

For many years,  I have held on to an image of our Nation as the seed which is the tree which ultimately will bear the fruit. This is also borne out by scripture, where we see that G-d compares us to the tree in the field (Deuteronomy 20:19).

Years ago, I learned that at the period of time of the destruction of the Second Temple, it became obvious to those who had clear vision, that we were about to be exiled and dispersed among the other nations, as prophesied. Though flawed in many ways too numerous to count here, the dominant rabbinical figures of the time did what they had refused to do for centuries. They began writing down and cataloguing rabbinical rulings and debates in book form. 
 

Up to then, the knowledge had been passed down faithfully, as an oral tradition. The consequence of their foresight was that, despite the enormous trauma of the exile and dispersion of the Nation, there was a clear path to preserving the observance of of Torah which every community would be able to follow. This came at the expense of Torah being a dynamic and living thing, which is how it had been up to then.

 

Now, here comes the metaphor.

 

I envision the Jewish nation in exile as a seed. By committing Torah knowledge to a written tradition, it became encased in a hard shell, and protected from the abuses of the millennia. The seed did an amazing job of preserving our beloved Torah life, allowed us to communicate with each other and feel a kinship across many continents and countries with many different cultures and languages.

 

We were not ROOTED anywhere, but we were protected very well.

 

When the Nation returned to its Promised Land, it began to root in the soil. And this began a process of germination.

 

What happens to a seed during that process? It actually looks like it is rotting, but it is nothing of the sort. However, the hard shell breaks open, and the seed begins to send out roots and branches. Very tender at first. But growing all the while.

 

We are that seed, and we here in the Land are that tiny sapling. And ultimately, I am 100% sure, we will become the fruitful tree that we are meant to be in our Land.

 

Here’s the thing which blows my mind. The seed, the sapling, the tree and the fruit… all of them share the SAME DNA.

 

Yet they do not appear to resemble one another when observed without that context. 

And here is the lesson; the diaspora Jew and the Torah do not resemble the Jew and the Torah in the Holy Land, even though they share 100% of their DNA. Because the Jew in the Holy Land is a growing, breathing and developing thing, which is no longer encased in a hard shell. The soil nourishes these Jews, and they are evolving and developing in ways which we can not predict because too many centuries have passed since we were that organic, living tree. We lack proper context and perspective.

 

For me, it is important to remember that, since we lack context about how that tree is supposed to actually grow, we can’t judge it by the seed. It cannot, by its nature, resemble that ossified, hard, closed thing. Even if they are, in essence, the same genetically. The same applies to the Torah as it is lived and experienced in the Land. It is breaking out of that shell, and becoming something far more alive and breathing, but ultimately it will not resemble the Torah we have seen.
 

It’s very exciting. But I am sure that for many, it will be bewildering and even off-putting. They will not know how to maneuver in the world of Torah as it lives and breathes in its own Soil. 

I belong to a generation of transition. I think that it is part of my journey to become open minded and hearted so that I will be able to connect with Torah as it evolves in its own Land. It is going to be amazing and it is not going to look like anything we think we know!