Joy, Understanding and the Power of the Mitzvot

Today, the discourses of R. Shalom DovBer are better known, and more frequently studied than those of R. Shmuel. But it was the pioneering approach of the father that laid the stylistic and substantive foundation for the intellectual project sustained and perpetuated by the son. At the same time, a close comparison of thematically similar discussions in Vakakhah and Samakh Vov, reveals important differences between them, and indeed further highlights the boldness that so distinguished the earlier hemshekh.1

Both R. Shmuel and R. Shalom DovBer dwell on the rabbinic description of mitzvah-observance as “doing the will of G‑d” (osin retsono shel makom) in their reexamination of the significance of the mitzvot. But where the latter’s interpretive approach is characterized by explanatorily abundance, the former’s approach is characterized by sweeping brevity. Drawing deeply on human psychology and kabbalistic metaphysics, Rabbi Shalom DovBer builds his case step by step, and over the course of six expansive discourses takes us deeper and deeper within the multitiered worlds of the divine psyche; intellect, will, desire, pleasure and delight. R. Shmuel’s teachings are at once more condensed and more striking, more intimate and more transcendent. His most radical insights are not developed incrementally, but ride rapid waves of surging momentum. In the present example, he does not explore the psychic character of will, though his son does so extensively. Instead, the cosmic power of “doing the will of G‑d” is impactfully illuminated through a dramatic recasting of man at the center of the Lurianic tzimtzum narrative:

Man encompasses the upper and lower, meaning all the cosmic realms… and the intention of man’s creation is for the sake of Torah and mitzvot… [However,] on the part of the essence of the infinite light (atzmi’ut ohr ain sof baruch hu) there is no possibility at all for the desire for Torah and mitzvot. As our sages say, ‘What does it matter to the Holy One if you slaughter [an animal] from the nape or from the throat?’ … Accordingly, the meaning of ‘my will is made’ (naseh retsoni) is that we make and draw forth the infinite revelation, which transcends such desire, that it shall have a desire for Torah and mitzvot… Accordingly we can understand the power of physical mitzvah performance specifically… that through the compelling force of the action we cause the primal tzimtzum (tzimtzum ha-rishon), that the infinite revelation should be contracted to enter the specific desires expressed in Torah and mitzvot.2

Playing on the words “osim” and “naseh,” R. Shmuel turns the classical rabbinic formulation, and with it our axiomatic sense of time and history, on its head. “Doing the will of G‑d” now means “making the will of G‑d.” It is the cosmic force of our lowly worship, our physical actions, and ritual performance that awakens the transcendent essence of divine being, inspiring and creating the primal will that drives the cosmic project from its inception. Mitzvah performance is not merely the actualization of a pre-existing commandment, the fulfillment of G‑d’s pre-existing will. Mitzvah performance is the most primal and compelling of all cosmic causes, reaching beyond time and creation to draw the supernal will forth from the transcendent core of divine being. It is our mitzvah performance in the here and now that inspires G‑d’s initial desire for Torah and mitzvot, providing the fundamental motivation for tzimtzum and the emergence of creation.3

R. Shalom DovBer’s discussion partially echoes this passage, explaining at some length that the divine desire vested in the mitzvot transcends the cosmic root of time. The tzimtzum narrative remains as integral to the conceptual frame of his argument though it does not feature as prominently as it does in R. Shmuel’s. What is so strikingly distinctive about the latter’s approach is the swiftness of his delivery and the boldness of his language. R. Shalom DovBer’s explanatory approach is more gradual and systematic. The more radical implications of his discourse are finessed within the more regular contours of incremental reasoning and argumentation. But R. Shmuel directly confronts you with the raw immediacy and drama of the mitzvah as it upends the hierarchy of the cosmic scheme and entirely disrupts its chronology. In rending asunder the placid regularities of conventional thinking, no hesitation is made, and no quarter given.

Another feature of R. Shmuel’s discussion of the joy of mitzvah performance is a discussion of the joy and pleasure experienced by the soul in the world-to-come and in the messianic era. Here he invokes a related dictum attributed in classical rabbinic texts to G‑d himself: “It is pleasurable to me that I spoke and my will was done.” Emphasizing the possessive, “my will,” R. Shmuel argues that the actual observance of mitzvot in the here and now is cause for far greater celebration than the rewards to be received by the human soul in revelatory reciprocation:

If we contemplate this well, we will understand the great stature of this world in which created and limited man is able to create pleasure for his creator, whereas the entirety of life in the world to come is only that man receives pleasure and satisfaction—and there is no comparison between the pleasure of man and the pleasure experienced by G‑d. Considering this, the satisfaction of man too, in this [physical] world (olam hazeh), will be increased far beyond the pleasure of life in the world-to-come.4

It is this understanding of the power of the mitzvah performance in the physical world, R. Shmuel explains, that is cause for the joy with which the Jewish festivals are celebrated. To do a mitzvah is to break free of the confines of time and space, to experience a true moment of redemptive transcendence, to rejoice in the joy of G‑d. But the experience of the mitzvah’s cosmic power, and the joy that such an experience brings, is only available to one who understands the significance of these rituals. Such understanding is attainable and festive joy is accordingly possible. Such is the character of binah, understanding; intellectual lucidity inspires luminous joy.

In this segment of Vekakhah we find two of the central elements of the innovative philosophy of Judaism articulated in the hemshekhim of R. Shmuel and his son, R. Shalom DovBer. The first is the development of theoretical arguments—rooted in the rabbinic and kabbalistic traditions—that explain how mitzvah performance in the physical realm touches the essence of divine being. A radical theurgy emerges that entirely transcends the usual hierarchy of the lower and higher realms. This is not about inspiring G‑d once G‑d has already stepped into a relationship with creation. This is about eliciting the kind of primal joy that inspires G‑d to step beyond the intimacy of divine selfhood and initiate that relationship, triggering the very inception of the cosmic project at its pre-primordial stage.

The second element is the development of specific arguments that explain how each of the different components of Jewish life, as mandated by the Torah, embodies and reveals the essence of divine being via their own specific characteristics. Here, the discussion primarily revolves around the nature of mitzvot generally, but we are also given a specific explanation of why and how the exuberant celebration of the Jewish festivals embodies and reveals the essential joy of G‑d via our own faculties of understanding and experience. Later in the hemshekh, the same analytical paradigm will be applied to the celebration of Shabbat, to the mitzvah of eating matzah on Passover, and to the various mitzvot that mark the celebration of Sukkot. The point here is not simply to explain the spiritual significance of these mitzvot, but to explain how their specific characteristics render them transparent to the very essence of divine being. In Samakh Vav, this paradigm is applied and articulated with even broader scope.5