"All that Y-H-W-H has said we will fulfill and hear." (Ex. 24:7)
When Israel said "we will fulfill" before "hear," a heavenly voice came forth and said: "Who revealed this secret to My children, one used by the ministering angels?" (b. Shabbat 88a).
How is it possible to fulfill before obeying, to do the deed before hearing what it is? And why did God take such particular pride in this formulation?
The truth is that human beings cannot remain on a particular rung with constancy, since "the life-force ebbs and flows" (Ezek. 1:14); it comes and disappears. When you are attached to God, you feel the pleasure of that surge of life. But then it vanishes and you fall from your rung.
Why does a person have to fall? The meaning of this contains secrets of Torah. One of these is the possibility of attaining a yet higher rung than one had previously reached. Every being is preceded by non-being. When you want to proceed to a higher rung, you need to lack for something first. Therefore you have to fall from your prior rung.
When you are in such a fallen state, you still need to struggle to rise up to God within your current existence. You need to have faith that "the whole earth is filled with God's glory" (Is. 6:3) and "there is no place devoid of God." God is there in your present state of being, though in highly reduced form...
This is the "doing" or fulfillment that comes before the hearing. Even as we fall from our rung, we cleave to God right where we are. Afterwards we being to hear something, a hearing that really means "understanding." We rise to a higher rung. This is the essence of the Torah that Israel received, and the source of such great divine pride: we attained the great truth that you can be attached to Y-H-W-H always, not being cut off from God even when you fall. This is the essential Jewish path, the way we are to walk.
But how can you come to Y-H-W-H when you are in such a fallen state? Your very awareness and your mental powers have been taken away from you! Nevertheless, you come to know that "the whole earth is filled with God's glory"--even a state that is wholly earthbound, nothing but coarse matter, is filled wth the glory of God. Y-H-W-H is called "the Life of life," meaning that the vitality of all life in the world, including that of beasts, cattle, birds, and humans, is God's own Self, the Life of life. God is the life-force within all that lives. When you are in that fallen state, think of this: Am I not alive? Who is this life-force within me? Is it not the blessed Creator? God is indeed present right here, but in this reduced form.
This is why the blessed Holy One said: "Who revealed this secret to My children?" It is the Who they contemplate when asking, "Who is the life-force within me?" that reveals to them the secret of how to do before they hear...
Of this King Solomon taught: "Do not say that your former days were better than these, for it is not out of wisdom that you inquire" (Eccles. 7:10). Some fools, when they fall from their rung, just lie there in the dust, not rising back up to Y-H-W-H. They say: "Those days were better than these! Then I was serving God, but now I am fallen!" Do not say this, "for it is not out of wisdom." "Wisdom [hokhmah} gives life" (Eccles. 7:12), and "life ebbs and flows." So it is meant to be, and the wisdom of that awareness will bring us back to God.
When Israel said "we will fulfill" before "hear," a heavenly voice came forth and said: "Who revealed this secret to My children, one used by the ministering angels?" (b. Shabbat 88a).
How is it possible to fulfill before obeying, to do the deed before hearing what it is? And why did God take such particular pride in this formulation?
The truth is that human beings cannot remain on a particular rung with constancy, since "the life-force ebbs and flows" (Ezek. 1:14); it comes and disappears. When you are attached to God, you feel the pleasure of that surge of life. But then it vanishes and you fall from your rung.
Why does a person have to fall? The meaning of this contains secrets of Torah. One of these is the possibility of attaining a yet higher rung than one had previously reached. Every being is preceded by non-being. When you want to proceed to a higher rung, you need to lack for something first. Therefore you have to fall from your prior rung.
When you are in such a fallen state, you still need to struggle to rise up to God within your current existence. You need to have faith that "the whole earth is filled with God's glory" (Is. 6:3) and "there is no place devoid of God." God is there in your present state of being, though in highly reduced form...
This is the "doing" or fulfillment that comes before the hearing. Even as we fall from our rung, we cleave to God right where we are. Afterwards we being to hear something, a hearing that really means "understanding." We rise to a higher rung. This is the essence of the Torah that Israel received, and the source of such great divine pride: we attained the great truth that you can be attached to Y-H-W-H always, not being cut off from God even when you fall. This is the essential Jewish path, the way we are to walk.
But how can you come to Y-H-W-H when you are in such a fallen state? Your very awareness and your mental powers have been taken away from you! Nevertheless, you come to know that "the whole earth is filled with God's glory"--even a state that is wholly earthbound, nothing but coarse matter, is filled wth the glory of God. Y-H-W-H is called "the Life of life," meaning that the vitality of all life in the world, including that of beasts, cattle, birds, and humans, is God's own Self, the Life of life. God is the life-force within all that lives. When you are in that fallen state, think of this: Am I not alive? Who is this life-force within me? Is it not the blessed Creator? God is indeed present right here, but in this reduced form.
This is why the blessed Holy One said: "Who revealed this secret to My children?" It is the Who they contemplate when asking, "Who is the life-force within me?" that reveals to them the secret of how to do before they hear...
Of this King Solomon taught: "Do not say that your former days were better than these, for it is not out of wisdom that you inquire" (Eccles. 7:10). Some fools, when they fall from their rung, just lie there in the dust, not rising back up to Y-H-W-H. They say: "Those days were better than these! Then I was serving God, but now I am fallen!" Do not say this, "for it is not out of wisdom." "Wisdom [hokhmah} gives life" (Eccles. 7:12), and "life ebbs and flows." So it is meant to be, and the wisdom of that awareness will bring us back to God.
There is no "place," no inner human state, in which we are utterly cut off from God. To receive Torah is to acknowledge this truth, to know that even in our lowest moments we are filled with the life-giving presence of Y-H-W-H. We only need to pay attention to life itself. This is a message to both the depressed and the doubting--but perhaps most especially to those for whom these two are deeply intertwined.