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Chabad.org » Learning & Values » Kabbalah & Jewish Mysticism » Chassidic Thought » Anthologies » The Torah: an Anthology » Grab the Clothing
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Grab the Clothing


The words and the stories of Torah are but its clothing; the guidance within them is its body.

And, as with a body, within that guidance breathes a soul that gives life to whoever follows it.

And within that soul breathes a deeper, transcendental soul, the soul of the soul: G‑d Himself within His Torah.

Grasp the clothes alone and you have an empty shell. Grasp straight for the soul—or even the body—and you will come up with nothing. They are not graspable; they are G‑dly wisdom and you are a created being.

Instead, examine those words and those stories, turn them again and again. As fine clothes and jewelry can bring out the beauty of the one who wears them, so these words and stories can lead you to the G‑dliness that dwells within the Torah.

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Based on letters and talks of the Rebbe, Rabbi M. M. Schneerson   More articles...  |   RSS Listing of Newest Articles by this Author


From the wisdom of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, of righteous memory; words and condensation by Rabbi Tzvi Freeman. To order Rabbi Freeman’s book, Bringing Heaven Down to Earth, click here.

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Reader Comments
Latest Comments:
Posted: Feb 27, 2012
very nice
i like it.

An appreciation for clothing style is apt if you mean it to house the G-dly Soul.

And if you don't correlate the two and dress shabbily, it is just as good.

It's personal preference and a matter of where your mind and heart are.

Thanks.
Posted By Anonymous

Posted: Feb 26, 2012
Grab the Clothing
I paraphrase like this but no sure it is in line with the Rebbe.... If one pursues the studying of Torah in itself, all with the zeal of an intellectual endeavor, he would fail because a created being can not touch the infinite G-d. If he realizes those words and stories of the Torah are like the clothing or the jewelry to bring out the beauty of the G-d who wears them then he may be able to grab certain degree of the His essence. Am I in line with the thinking?
Posted By Nancy Duong, Queens, NY/USA

Posted: Feb 26, 2012
examining and grasping
Examining and Grasping the Torah are two different things...And the clothes are actually the reading of the torah.....to me there is no jewel that sparkles in a radiant way....only torah knows its sparkling jewel.....Clothing speads over continents of understanding...one can just open a Torah to speak the truth
Posted By Judith L Witten, Brockton, USA

Posted: June 19, 2009
words and stories
Nothing could be closer to the truth than what you have written here. If only so many fundamentalists would take note.
Posted By Graham, Wellington, New Zealand

Posted: June 19, 2009
edit
Edited today, mainly for readability. This thought doesn't appear in either of the volumes of Bringing Heaven Down To Earth. It came out of learning the Rebbe's maamar, "Gal Einai."
Posted By Rabbi Tzvi Freeman

Posted: Apr 6, 2006
reply
Dear Tzvi Freeman,
I would like to commend you on your outstanding view of life, and your words of wisdom. It is often difficult to grasp the meaning of life, and I feel that you did a wonderful job on that.
Posted By eden, lincolnwood, illinois



 


The Torah: an Anthology
The Spark of all Truths
Reality and Its Shadow
Expand Law, Truth and Peace
Law, Truth and Peace
What Makes a Jew "Jewish"?
Reasoning The Stone
The Mathematics of Marriage
Yes & No
The Day That Nothing Happened
How Do We Know that We Heard G-d at Sinai?
The Torah-Science Debates
Is G-d Religious?
Where the Roads Meet
The Lady, the Tiger and Freedom of Choice
In the Desert
The Breakthrough
Because It Is There
How to Have
Say It in Your Own Words
Our Goodly Tents
Oxen and Cows
Expand The Ten Commandments Series
The Ten Commandments Series
Inner Engravings
Talking to Himself
Torah and the World
Grab the Clothing
Youthful Wisdom
A Cheder in Siberia
Original Ideas
Zaidy Pinchas' Torah
Echoes
The Problem
The Survivor
The Master of Song
The Cat
The Sinai Files
Ethics of the Fathers: Chapter Six
A Marriage of Minds
What Is the Torah?