Even More on Beshalach...

Even Rav Kook’s most famous detractors would admit one thing: he was an incredible talmid chacham. When Rav Kook would walk into a room, one commented, the Torah walked into the room. In this dvar Torah from him, we see his powerful mastery of all aspects of Torah, including his knowledge of the Torah that came from great Chassidic minds and ideas in the Gra’s Kabbalah.
This week’s parasha has the story of the Jewish people fighting Amalek. The Torah tells us that Moshe told Yehoshua to go choose men to fight Amalek. Rav Kook asks a very simple question: why didn’t Moshe go on his own to fight Amalek? Why did he have Yehoshua take on the mission?

This, answers Rav Kook, is as result of Moshe’s special level of leadership. He represented a level of leadership that was miraculous. Quoting Rav Aharon of Karlin, a Chassidic master, Rav Kook says that Moshe represented a level of neshama that was before the sin of Adam haRishon. This is the reason why specifically he received the Torah for Am Yisrael, since he was on such a level that represented this purity of mind and heart. This, says Rav Kook, explains why Moshe could not take the Jewish people into the land of Israel. Eretz Yisrael represented the non-miraculous or, in other words, nature. When he “sinned” with the incident of the rock, he used a natural power of hitting a rock instead of speaking, which would have been more miraculous. Seeing that Moshe represented miraculous leadership, he had to perform at that level. If he acted “naturally” (ie hitting a rock instead of speaking to it), then he would be going beneath his own status and that would be considered by him not to be real leadership. The war with Amalek is considered to be connected to the level of kingship in the Jewish people. Says Rav Kook, if Moshe were to have fought Amalek himself, he would have defeated them. A Jewish king is really only a way to express Hakadosh Baruch Hu’s kingship in the World – as such, with Moshe’s victory, G-d’s Kingship would have been readily apparent. This, the World was not prepared for just yet.
This, adds Rav Kook, is found easily in the passages of this week’s parasha. The Torah uses the word “ka” to represent the lack of G-d’s kingship in the World with only half of G-d’s name of yud and the heh being expressed. On this, our Rabbis teach us, that with Amalek’s continued existence in the World, G-d’s kingship is not complete. What does G-d’s name havayah mean? On this, our Rabbis also teach us, that it implies that G-d will be with in times of our exile amongst the nations. Says Rav Kook, this name emphasizes the Jewish people when they are operating under the rules of nature. This is how history is supposed to play out. Jews are supposed to go through exile, history tells us. With a limited essence of havayah, we can only grasp one aspect of G-d’s kingship and the level of the miraculous is lost in the World. That is why specifically Yehoshua had to fight the war and why specifically the Torah tells us that Moshe commanded him “choose for yourself men.” What is the significance of “men”? Men fight normal battles under the conditions of nature and not the miraculous. And why could Yehoshua only weaken Amalek? Again, this represents that Yehoshua could only fight Amalek on the natural level. But Amalek’s erasing as an idea could only come about through the miraculous reappearance of G-d into the World.

Finally, we get to the Gra. Rav Kook quotes that the Gra noted that Moshe received a mask from Hakadosh Baruch Hu after he received the Torah. How do we spell mask in Hebrew? It starts with a “mem” and a “semech.” Those words, teach our Rabbis, represent the miraculous letters that stood on the tablets without anything holding them there. They stood miraculously! This represents Moshe perfectly! And what about the “vav” and the “heh” of the word? What do we do with those letters? Those represent the parts of the name havayah that can only be fulfilled with a leadership like Moshe’s. Which, in other means, the leadership of our future redeemer, Moshiach Sidkeynu! The mask which represents a G-dly intervention in the World at Matan Torah can only be something that completes the process. Rav Kook then is interpreting that Moshe’s leadership was only a one-time experience of the Jewish people. The Jewish people instead would, for the rest of its history until redemption, experience their true service through the vehicle of nature.

In short then, why does Hakadosh Baruch Hu want us to operate in such a fashion? I think the answer is simple. Our job in this World is to bring G-dliness into the World. If we were only to bring G-dliness through the function of the miracle, then it would seemingly be devoid in nature, G-d forbid. In reality, though, the Jew understands that the most physical of our World, which other nations see as unG-dly, is also G-dly. Only through the parameter of nature can we really bring G-dliness into the World. It is then logical to say that the World was not fit for G-dliness because it had not prepared itself! Man needs the space to creatively bring G-dliness into this World through the level of nature, which can only be sanctified by man’s work. This is a powerful idea for ourselves and should reverberate in our homes and community centers.