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Chapter 9
The Book of Deuteronomy
The Torah Koan of the “Secret Matters”
The fifth book of the Five Books of Moses (the Pentateuch) Deuteronomy, known in Hebrew as the Book of Devarim begins:
These are the devarim/words or matters that Moses spoke to the Children of Israel, on the other side of the Jordan, concerning the Wilderness, concerning the Aravah, opposite the Sea of Reeds, between Paran and Tophel, and Lavan, and Hazerot, and Di-Zahav; eleven days from Horev, by way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea.
Much of the content of Devarim is a repetition of what is previously contained in the first four Books. In fact, the fifth Book of the Bible has traditionally also been called Mishneh Torah – the Repetition or Review of the Torah (the root of mishne is sheni—repeated. Deuteron also means to repeat). Traditional consensus in the Talmud and followed by the commentaries is that Moshe is now reviewing during the last five weeks of his life the Torah that he has taught them the previous 40 years.
The commentaries explain that the mitzvos that Moshe had taught earlier to the generation that left Egypt are now repeated to the generation that will be entering Eretz Yisrael. Some are repeated in order to further clarify the way to properly perform the mitzvah. Others are repeated in order to add on a warning that had not been previously mentioned.[1]
The first four books of the Torah were heard directly from the mouth of the Holy One, through the “throat of Moses”. Not so Deuteronomy. Israel heard the words of this Book the same way they heard the words of the prophets who came after Moses. The Holy One, Blessed is He, would speak to the prophet today, and, on a later day, he would go and make the vision known to Israel. Accordingly, at the time the prophet spoke to the people, the word of God had already been removed from him. So, too, the Book of Deuteronomy was heard from the mouth of Moses himself.[2]
The Book of Devarim, in affect, is Moshe’s last will and testament. In the opening passage Moshe begins by rebuking the people and reminded them of their many transgressions and acts of rebellion since they left Egypt. He then lists the names of several locations where the people sinned. What is bizarre is that some of these locations were never visited and two of them are not even mentioned in the entire Torah! Rabbi Yochanan said, “We have reviewed the entirety of Scripture, but we have not found any place with the name Tophel or Lavan”.[3]
Rather, according to the explanation handed down the place names used by Moshe were in order not to embarrass his people. These names are codes that allude to their specific sins by using place names as innuendoes. The Targum Onkelos (authoritative second century literal translation of the Chumash) and Midrash Sifre (quoted on the verse by Rashi) expound that the Wilderness, for example, is an allusion to the Wilderness of Sin where the people complained that they had been brought into the desert to starve (Exodus 16: 1-30) and Di-Zahav, literally, “an abundance of gold” refers to the sin of the Golden Calf that was constructed from the wealth of gold they left Egypt with.
Initially, it appears that the literal meaning of these place names have been distorted and the rabbis are simply making a play on words. According to the rules of drash (or midrash) – the homiletic dimension or moral discourse of Scripture – this is permitted. Additionally, the name Di-Zahav is being used as a mnemonic devise to aid the memory. There are numerous of examples throughout the Oral Torah where words and verses from the Written Torah are used as “pegs” to hang traditions from the Oral Torah on. In fact, the sages explicitly instruct the talmidey chachamim, the disciples of the wise, throughout the pages of the Talmud to construct “signs” and memory aids so as to not forget the vast amount of information.
Yet, even when an independent oral tradition was “attached” to a Scriptural word it was not random. In every one of the hundreds of such homiletic proof-texts there is an aspect of the literal reading that begs closer analysis. The word or verse may appear redundant; the syntax may be awkward or there may be an inconsistency in the text. If the text is a cosmic code of transcendent perfection – “The Torah of the Lord is perfect” -- then every word and letter must be accounted for. If there appears a “broken symmetry” then the Torah herself is, in affect, “calling out” to us to mark the spot with an X and start digging. In the case of Di-Zahav there is a big X and it is virtual gold that we will now uncover. What is the secret? This is the Kabbalah Koan of the [secret] matters (devarim) that Moshe spoke to the Children of Israel.
In the Talmud and separate from the Midrash an additional observation is make. What is 'Di-Zahav’? They said in the school of R. Yannai: Thus spoke Moshe before the Holy One, blessed be He: Sovereign of the Universe, the silver and gold [zahav] which You showered on Israel until they said, 'Enough' [dai], that it was which led to their making the Eigel/Golden Calf.
What is bothering the school of Rabbi Yanai that they asked the question only on the last of the “locations’? A simple answer is that it was well known that the reference to each of these places was not for its physical location, but rather each name is referring to an event that occurred during Israel’s 40-year sojourn in the Sinai desert. It would have been sufficient for the text to have referred to the event simply as “Zahav”/Gold, alluding to the sin of the Golden Calf as in the case with the previous “place names”. “What”, rhetorically asks the school of Rabbi Yanai “is the Torah coming to tell us with the additional prefix “Di’”? Rather, “di” can also be read as dai meaning “Stop, it’s enough already”![4] The implication being that external forces caused them to commit the sin of the Golden Calf and it was not really their fault. Moreover, it was God Himself who orchestrated those external forces to their conclusion.
Di-Zahav is used as a mnemonic based upon incongruence in the text. It is used to support and connect to an independent concept -- an oral teaching concerning the mechanics behind the sin of the Golden Calf and about the mystery of free will in general. I will come back to that in a moment. But first we have to remember who we are dealing with – the sages of the Talmud and Midrash are also the masters of the Kabbalah. Even within a mnemonic aid they will conceal secrets of the universe. Ultimately, there are no simple rhetorical questions and there are no mere memorization techniques. So, what else is going on here?
There is a rule in Torah exegesis and it is axiomatic in the Kabbalah that “No verse can be divorced from its literal meaning”. If so, where are these locations, especially “Tophel and Lavan”? The methodology of the Kabbalah is to look for underlying symmetries. There are seven destinations mentioned here:
(1) the Wilderness, (2) the Aravah, (3) opposite the Sea of Reeds, (4) between Paran, (5) between Tophel and Lavan, (6) Hazerot, and (7) Di-Zahav.
I have paired Tophel and Lavan together because syntactically this is how they appear in the text, “between Paran and between Tophel and Lavan”. Momentarily, I will show that these three coordinates constellate a triune structure that is well known in the Kabbalah. Furthermore, this is the manner in which Rabbi Yochanan presented them. Only these two he singled out as names that clearly are never mentioned in the Torah, “we have not found any place with the name Tophel or Lavan”.
Kabbalah is about hidden symmetries and recurring patterns. When these seven place names are mapped onto the seven lower Sefirot an underlying order is revealed.[5]
Seven Lower Sefirot
Gevurah (Power) Chesed (Lovingkindness)
left arm/hand right arm/hand
(2)”Aravah” (1) “Midbar”
Tiferet (Harmony)
Torso
(3) “Opposite the Sea of Reeds”
Hod (Splendor) Netzach (Eternity)
left kidney/gonad/leg right kidney/gonad/leg
5) “Between Paran and Lavan” (4) “Between Paran and Tophel
Yesod (Foundation-Channel)
reproductive organs
(6) “Chatzerot”
Malchut (Kingdom)
Mouth of reproductive channels,
Microcosm replicating the sefirot from above
(7) “Di-Zahav”
When superimposed upon the human form Netzach and Hod represent the right and left legs and/or gonads with the Yesod being the organ of reproduction. Netzach and Hod are known as the trie palgie gufa – the two limbs of the body. Although separate they are considered as one entity, each “half” containing the essence of the other “half”. Yesod is the channel or conduit for the reproductive and creative energy. Malchut, the Kingdom of God, “has nothing of her own” but reveals all that is above her. She is potentially the most powerful aspect of God’s divinity but also the most vulnerable.
With this mapping we can also answer another question. Why does the location of Di-Zahav stands out on its own, i.e. that the school of Rabbi Yanai drew our attention to it and not to any of the other locations? From a kabbalistic perspective it is only necessary to center in on Di-Zahav because it is the seventh sefira, the malchut that contains and reveals all the six sefirot above her. She is a microcosm of all the seven.[6]
Netzach and Hod are the two sefirot that are most difficult to define. They often represent aspects of the Torah that are not explicitly written in the Torah but rather are part of the oral transmission. Apparently this is what Rabbi Yochanan is alluding to when he curiously states, ““We have reviewed the entirety of Scripture, but we have not found any place with the name Tophel or Lavan”. (As if they didn’t already know every single word by heart!).
It is the cosmological nature of the intrinsically paired relationship between Netzach and Hod that explains the syntactical logistics of coupling of the Sea of Reeds between Paran, which, in turn, is between and contains both Tophel and Lavan. In other words, there are two aspects of Paran – the two halves of the singular body. The Sea of Reeds (Tifferet) is between the Tophel aspect of Paran (Netzach) and the Lavan aspect of Paran (Hod).[7]
Now that we have an underlying structure to work with how does this enable us to reinstate the literal meaning of these coordinates as place names? Remember, in the Kabbalah we are bound by the principle that “No verse can be divorced from its literal meaning”.
The answer appears to be this. Every thing in holiness has its counter part in impurity. The sefirot also have their “shadow” or backside that also consist of seven (or ten) sefirot of impurity. It is known in the Kabbalah and explained by the Nefesh HaChayim that every location that Israel camped in the desert was, in fact, a coordinate in the larger, cosmological structure of the Sitra Achara – the forces of the Other Side. Their mission – whether they wanted to accept it or not – was to penetrate into each cosmological crevice, encounter that specific aspect of k’lipa (shells of impurity) and destroy it.
Truly, each one of these seven place names is a metaphor for the sin that was committed there by Israel. Each location, however, is also literally the name and location on another map of reality – the Sitra Achara, the backside of creation, and the lair of the Primordial Serpent. These seven coordinates are a summation of this map. The forty years was literally a mission impossible and for the most part the nation of Israel was far from victorious. It was not a complete loss, however, and the forces of the other side were, in fact, greatly mitigated and subdued. But because the Divine Wisdom chose the Nation of Israel for this mission without really giving us the choice we were, in effect, “set up”. Therefore our ancestors at Mt Sinai had more than valid rational for their catastrophic failures. “Di-Zahav” – “They made me do it”!
Additionally, when we look at the explanation for Di-Zahav, however, Moshe is not chastising the Nation of Israel, but rather he is defending them against God! If anything Moshe is, as much as it is possible to say such a thing, chastising God. This is explicit when we view a larger section of the Talmud from where this quote is taken:
The school of R. Yannai learnt it (that Moshe spoke insolently towards heaven) from here: "And Di-Zahav" (Deut. I, I). What is 'Di-Zahav’? They said in the school of R. Yannai: Thus spoke Moshe before the Holy One, blessed be He: Sovereign of the Universe, the silver and gold [zahav] which You showered on Israel until they said, 'Enough' [dai], that it was which led to their making the Eigel/Calf. They said in the school of R. Yannai: A lion does not roar over a basket of straw but over a basket of flesh. R. Oshaia said: It is like the case of a man who had a lean but large-limbed cow. He gave it lupines (a species of beans) to eat and it commenced to kick him. He said to it: What led you to kick me except the lupines that I fed you with? R. Hiyya b. Abba said: It is like the case of a man who had a son; he bathed him and anointed him and gave him plenty to eat and drink and hung a wallet round his neck and set him down at the door of a brothel. How could the boy help transgressing? R. Samuel b. Nahmani said in the name of R. Jonathan, Whence do we know that the Holy One, in the end admitted that Moshe was right? Because it says, "And multiplied unto her silver and gold, which they used for Baal" (Hos. II, 10).[8]
Moshe is at once rebuking the Nation of Israel and simultaneously turning the entire matter on its head and pointing the cosmic finger at the Creator Himself! He is reading his last will and testament and revealing at the same time the map of the “Other Side”. And it was literally in the territory of that map where, in fact, they had all been forced to travel: in the bowels of the Primordial Serpent!
When referring to the most esoteric secrets of the Torah the sages of the Talmud use the expression, “These are the matters (devarim) that stand in the heights of the Heavens”. It is these very matters that are encoded within the first verse of the Book of Devarim. What is the secret of these matters? This is the Kabbalah Koan of the [secret] matters (devarim) that Moshe spoke to the Children of Israel. [1] Additionally, the Ramban writes, although all of the mitzvos had already been taught to Moshe during the first year of the Exodus, Moshe had not yet divulged all of these mitzvos to Bnei Yisroel . Some wouldn't take effect until we'd enter the land and therefore there was no purpose in teaching them earlier. Others, because they were rarely occurring were only taught to the inheritors of the land. These commandments are introduced for the first time in Devarim.
[2] (The Gaon of Vilna quoted in Ohel Yaakov to 1:1, translated in The Stone Chumash)
[3] Sifre
[4] Torah Temimah, a 20th century Lithuanian commentary.
[5] Although there are Ten Divine Emanations, it is only the lower seven that are accessible in the world. It is the lower “body” of divinity in the mystery of the Seven that is revealed while the “head” remains concealed. Thus, for example, we see seven colors of the rainbow, not ten we experience seven musical notes and not ten and we have a week of seven days and not ten.
[6] It is also possible to say that “Di” is related to the Di of Shadai which is another name for the sefira of Yesod, i.e., the zahav of the malchut is attached to the Yesod and thus to all the other five sefirot as well.
[7] I also noticed that the root of Paran – peh, aleph, resh – is the very three letter root of teferet which means branching, balance and beauty.
[8] Talmud Berachot 32a. Similarily, R. Joshua b. Levi further said: The Nation of Israel made the [golden] calf only in order to place a good argument in the mouth of the penitents, as it is said, O that they had such a heart as this always, to fear Me and keep all My commandments etc. (Deut. V, 26 which shows that they possessed all the self-discipline that could be desired). This last statement accords with what R. Johanan said in the name of R. Shimon bar Yohai: David was not the kind of man to do that act, nor was Israel the kind of people to do that act. David was not the kind of man to do that act, as it is written, My heart is slain within me (Ps. CIX, 22 ); nor was the Nation of Israel the kind of people to commit that act, for it is said, O that they had such a heart as this alway etc. Why, then, did they act thus? [God predestined it so] in order to teach that if an individual has transgressed he could be referred to the individual [David], and if a community commit a sin they should be told: Go to the community [of Israel]. Talmud Avodah Zarah 5a.
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