1 On Yud-Beis Tammuz, 5655 (1895), while we were strolling in the country resort of Bolivke, my father told me about the yechidus of 5635 (1875) and about the Simchas Beis HaShoeivah in 5567 (1806), at which my great-grandfather the Tzemach Tzedek gave two [mystical] expositions of a teaching in the Talmud Yerushalmi. There, in TractateTerumos 1:4, it is told that “a certain pious individual once asked Eliyahu, of blessed memory: ‘Does the law allow a naked person to read Kerias Shema?’ ”
Eliyahu answered that the warning that “[G‑d] should see no nakedness (ervas davar) in you”2 conveys a coded message: “[G‑d] should see no naked speech (ervas dibbur) in you.”
The first mystical interpretation understands the key word, ervas (ערות) in the sense of the related word arum (ערום), which also means “crafty,”3 and here means “clever.” The implied question now reads: Should a clever maskil, who is knowledgeable in the mystical teachings, read Kerias Shema, and hold forth on the related Kabbalistic concepts of Yichuda Ilaa and Yesh HaAmiti and Kola kamei kelo chashivei? And Eliyahu’s answer to the pietist now reads: “[G‑d] should see no naked speech (ervas dibbur) in you” – meaning that one should not spout lofty words about a level of spirituality that one has personally not yet toiled to attain.
The second mystical interpretation understands the key word, ervas (ערות) in the ordinary sense of the related word arum (ערום): naked – i.e., stripped of scholarship. It thus alludes to the avodah not of a maskil but of an unlearned oved. The implied question now reads: Should such an oved read Kerias Shema in unlettered simplicity, with tears? And Eliyahu’s answer to the pietist now reads: “[G‑d] should see no naked speech (ervas dibbur) in you” – meaning that it is not seemly that an oved should be stripped of the garments of scholarship. He, too, is obligated to master the concepts underlying the recitation of Shema Yisrael.
