Parashat Ekev
(Translated and prepared by R. Moshe Wishnevsky)
In this portion,
Moses gives the Jewish people the commandment to recite Grace after meals:
“When you have eaten and are full, you shall bless G-d your G-d for the good land He has given you.”1 There are many laws surrounding
the proper performance of this commandment, and the Arizal discusses the
mystical dimension of them in great detail.
One of these laws is that of mayim acharonim (“water after [the
meal]”). Before reciting grace, the individual is required to rinse his fingertips.
Know that the “other
side” hovers over the table, as is described
in the Zohar,2 and can
gain control over an individual then more than it can at other times.
As described in the Zohar, eating and drinking by their
nature bolster a person’s material orientation, thereby desensitizing him to
spirituality and Divinity. He is thus, after having eaten his full,
particularly susceptible to the power of evil (the “other side” of reality).
This is particularly
true if he has eaten by himself, and there are not three to recite Grace
together. For the Invitation to Recite Grace drives away “other side” from there,
as is mentioned in the Zohar3 regarding the incident of the young child.
According to
Jewish law, if three or more men or three or more women have eaten bread
together, they must recite Grace together. One of the party acts as the leader
and formally invites the others to join him in reciting Grace.
In the Zohar, it says that the
young, orphaned son of Rabbi Hamnuna the Elder possessed great spiritual
perception and mystical knowledge of the Torah. One of the teachings he shared
with his guests, two student of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, was that when the
Invitation to Recite Grace is recited, it weakens the power of evil present at the table.
The collective power
of the three individual’s Divine souls and the positive energy generated by
their camaraderie overcomes the negative power of evil. This occurs, however,
only when they consciously join their individual energies together to recite
Grace, that is, to focus on the spiritual dimension of the meal rather than
simply the sensual pleasure of eating. Hence the power
and importance of the Invitation to Recite Grace.
A person must therefore be very
careful to have the proper intentions when rinsing his fingertips after the
meal, in order that [the “other side”] not prosecute against him.
Whenever a person
succumbs to the temptations of evil, the sin he performs acts as a “prosecutor”
against him at the heavenly court.
For by giving it this gift, as
is known, the “other side” departs, leaving [the person alone]. In the
beginning [of the meal] it is just a guest, but if the individual does not
recite Grace with the proper intention and concentration, it becomes the host
and prosecutes against him. As we said, this is particularly true if one dines
by himself, without the [protection offered by the] Invitation to Recite Grace.
1 Deuteronomy 8:10.
2 2:154ab.
3 3:186b.
Rinsing the remains
of the meal off the fingertips is seen as “throwing the dog a bone.” Evil
possesses no intrinsic power; it derives its power solely by virtue of man’s misdeeds.
However, in the present order, it must be present to at least some minimal
extent in order for there to be free choice. If evil receives this minimal
sustenance, it is satisfied, and, realizing that it has nothing more to expect
from this meal, departs.
This is what you should meditate on
[when rinsing the fingertips]:
The
initials of the words for “after-water” [mayim
acharonim] are mem-alef, as are
the initial and final letters of the word for “after” [acharonim] itself. [The numerical value of mem-alef is forty-one.] Align the first mem-alef with the forty- one letters in the Name Ekyeh spelled out with the letter yud, and the second mem- alef with the forty-one letters in this Name spelled out with
the letter alef.
The Name Ekyeh [alef-hei-yud-hei] can be spelled out either with yuds or with alefs. Two iterations of the spelling-out process yield a total of
41 letters in each case (4 for the Name itself, 10 for the first spelling out,
and 27 for the spelling out of the spelling
out):
Intend to remove and banish the
“other side” from the table by means of these two sets of 41, so that it not
take any more than its rightful portion.
Meditate on
this idea in the context of the form of your own hand, as follows: Consider the
four fingers of your right hand together and the thumb by itself. There are ten
letters associated with each finger, and one associated with the thumb. This
gives a total of 41, for the forty-one letters of the Name Ekyeh spelled out with the letter yud. Follow the same pattern with the five fingers of your left
hand for the forty-one letters of the Name Ekyeh
spelled out with the letter alef.
Meditate thus
as your fingers are pointed downward. As is known, when rinsing the fingertips
after the meal one should point the fingers
downward.
I found in my notes
another, slightly different meditation. According to this, you should associate
your right thumb with the four letters of the simple spelling of the Name [Ekyeh]. Since the thumb is the chief and
best finger, the letters of the Name proper are associated with it. Then
associate your other four fingers with the letters of the spelling out and the
spelling out of the spelling out using the letter yud. Associate as well the four letters of the Name Ekyeh and the ten letters of the [first]
spelling out—a total of fourteen letters—with the fourteen joints of the five
fingers of your hand.
Each
of the four fingers has three joints and the thumb has two: (4 x 3) + 2 = 14.
According to the prayerbook with the commentary of Rabbi Shabsi of Rashkov:
right hand
|
left hand
|
|
thumb
|
alef-hei-yud-hei
|
alef-hei-yud-hei
|
first finger
|
alef-lamed-pei and the
second iteration of each letter
|
alef-lamed-pei and the
second iteration of each letter
|
second finger
|
hei-yud and the second iteration of each letter
|
hei-alef and the second iteration of each letter
|
third finger
|
yud-vav-dalet and the
second iteration of each letter
|
yud-vav-dalet and the
second iteration of each letter
|
fourth finger
|
hei-yud and the second iteration of each letter
|
hei-alef and the second iteration of each letter
|
In a similar fashion,
associate the [letters of the] Name Ekyeh
spelled out with the letter alef with
the fingers of your left hand.
Based
on this you can understand the statement of our sages that washing the fingertips
after the meal is an obligation, for the numerical value of the word for
“obligation” [chovah,] is the same as
that of the Name Ekyeh.
Chovah: chet-vav-beit-hei,
8 + 6 +2 + 5 = 21; Ekyeh: alef-hei-yud-hei, 1 + 5 + 10 + 5 = 21.
The mystical
meaning of this statement is thus that when washing the fingertips after the
meal one must meditate on the Name Ekyeh [as
we have said].
One should not
make any interruption between rinsing the fingertips and reciting Grace after
meals. I [Chaim Vital] was once with my master [the Arizal] and someone came to
me and said that he had been suffering from severe shoulder pains for two days.
My master looked at him and said that this pain came from his having
interrupted between rinsing the fingertips and reciting Grace after meals by
studying a chapter of the Mishnah. He thus transgressed the instruction of our sages to proceed directly from the rinsing to the
blessing.4 In so doing, he
transmuted the word for “directly” [teikef,
tav-kaf-pei] into the word for “shoulder”
[kateif, kuf-tav-pei], and he felt the pain there. From this we see that one
must not make any interruption between the rinsing and the recital of Grace,
even with words from the Torah. If one wishes to converse [at his table] in the
Torah, as our sages have said one should, he should do so before the rinsing of
the fingertips.
By not allowing any interruption between rinsing the fingertips and the
recitation of Grace, the individual demonstrates that they form one conceptual unit, that is, the spiritual meaning of the former is also that of the latter.
Nonetheless, one should recite the following verses after
rinsing the fingertips, before beginning the Grace after meals: the entire
Psalm 67, and then the verse, “I will
bless G-d at all times; His praise is always in my mouth.”5 This is because the “other side”
hovers over the table, as we have said, and it is called “at all times,” as in
the verse, “He must not come into the sanctuary at all times.”6
The Torah commands
that the high priest not enter the Holy of Holies whenever he wants (“at all
times”), but rather only on the day of Yom
Kippur. In this context, the phrase “at all times” is seen as something
that prevents one from entering the
realm of holiness, i.e., evil. Reciting the verse “I will bless G-d at all
times” is thus seen as a formula that neutralizes the power of evil present at
the table.
It is interesting to note that Yom
Kippur, the one day when the Torah allows the high priest to enter the
inner sanctum of the Temple, is a total fast day. On this day, of course, the
evil that can potentially become empowered through the process of eating is not operative.
To remove [the evil] from there
[i.e., the table], one must recite [the Invitation to Recite Grace, i.e.]
“Bring us [the goblet] and we will bless,” as is stated in the story of the
young child in the Zohar. We
therefore recite the verse “I will bless G-d at all times…” in case a person is
eating by himself and cannot say “Bring us and we will bless.”
One should then say: “Ultimately, all is known: fear G-d and
observe His commandments, for this is the whole purpose of man.”7
Then,
one should say: “My mouth will utter the praise of G-d, and let all flesh
praise His holy Name forever,”8 “And
we will bless G-d from now to all eternity. Praise G-d,”9 and
“And he said to me, this is the table that is before G-d.”10 Only
then should he commence Grace after meals.
The common denominator of all these verses is that the person saying them
is declaring his wish to orient his consciousness toward the Divine dimension
of eating rather than its worldly, material aspects. As such, these verses do not constitute a thematic interruption between the rinsing
of the fingertips and the recitation of Grace.
4 Berachot 42a.
5 Psalms 34:2.
6 Leviticus 15:2.
7 Ecclesiastes 12:13.
8 Psalms 145:21. This verse is not
included in the Arizal’s version of the liturgy as formulated by Rabbi Shneur
Zalman of Liadi.
9 Ibid. 115:18.
10 Ezekiel 41:22. In Rabbi Shneur
Zalman’s formulation of the liturgy,
all the above save this verse is recited before
rinsing the fingertips.
—translated from Sha’ar HaMitzvot
No comments:
Post a Comment