Small tidbits and Sparks of wisdom

The mystery of the Creator is בחירה חפשית — free choice. Free choice stands at the zenith of Creation because Gd needs nothing. Creation did not come into existence because the Creator lacked something or required something from man. Gd created the heavens, the stars, the moon, the planets, the animals, and finally the human being. But within the human being He placed something fundamentally different: the ability to choose.

This immediately raises an important question. Why did Gd create a world filled with such enormous differences?

Human beings do not have the same appearance, height, weight, intelligence, abilities, temperament, circumstances, or opportunities. The animal world itself contains countless different creatures. The entire physical Creation is built upon differences. Even where two human beings appear almost identical, they are not truly identical.

If everyone had been created completely uniform—the same height, appearance, intelligence, personality, abilities, and circumstances—an essential dimension of human choice would disappear. Instead, every person enters this world as a particular and unique creation and must exercise free choice from within that particular existence.

This creates one of the fundamental struggles of man.

A person can spend his life wishing to be someone other than the person Gd created. The short person wants to be tall. The tall person may want to be shorter. The heavy person wants to be thin. Another person wants someone else’s appearance, intelligence, personality, wealth, family, abilities, or position.

There is, however, a difference between improving oneself and rejecting the fundamental reality of oneself. Man is required to grow, correct himself, and use his free choice. But if he cannot positively accept the basic reality of who he is, he may fail to recognize the particular position from which Gd intended him to exercise that choice.

Every human being is extraordinarily individual. Fingerprints demonstrate this physically. Even identical twins do not have identical fingerprints. The same is true of patterns within the human eye and other identifying characteristics. Two people may appear remarkably similar, yet each remains individually identifiable.

And yet there is an apparent contradiction.

While every human being is unique, the fundamental needs of human beings are remarkably similar. People require food, shelter, security, relationships, dignity, purpose, and belonging. The individual therefore exists simultaneously as a completely unique creation and as a member of humanity.

The same structure exists spiritually.

The Torah establishes common rules. The same Torah and the same fundamental obligations apply to the Jewish people, yet the individuals receiving those obligations are completely different from one another. Uniformity of obligation does not require uniformity of personality.

Therefore, individuality does not mean isolation.

A human being must recognize that he belongs first to the larger body of humanity and then to the particular nation of which he is a part. For the Jew, that nation is עם ישראל — Am Yisrael.

The individual therefore exists within several realities simultaneously. He is a human being sharing the fundamental needs of mankind. He is a member of his nation. And at the same time, he remains an individual creation unlike any other person who has ever existed.

The mystery of free choice exists precisely within this combination: universal rules applied to completely unique individuals.

The Torah does not erase individuality. It provides the framework within which individuality operates. Every Jew receives the same Torah, but no two Jews encounter that Torah with precisely the same circumstances, abilities, struggles, opportunities, or personality.

A person is therefore not being asked to make the choices of another human being. He is being asked to make the choices placed before him, within the particular existence that Gd gave him.

The Cycle of Creation and the Jewish Holidays

This structure can also be seen in the cycle of the Jewish holidays, particularly in the progression from ראש השנה — Rosh Hashanah through שמיני עצרת — Shemini Atzeres and שמחת תורה — Simchas Torah.

Rosh Hashanah occupies a particularly mysterious position.

Unlike the other major holidays, the Torah does not openly identify Rosh Hashanah by the name by which we know it, nor does it explicitly describe its complete purpose. The Torah calls it זכרון תרועה — “a remembrance of the sounding” and יום תרועה — “a day of sounding.” It occurs on the first day of the seventh month, when the moon is concealed or barely visible. Its deeper purpose is itself somewhat concealed.

But the process begins with recognition.

Rosh Hashanah confronts the Jew with the most fundamental question: Who is the Boss?

Who created the world? Who rules it? To whom does man’s ultimate allegiance belong?

Before repentance, cleansing, forgiveness, or celebration can have meaning, there must first be recognition of authority. A person must recognize that he did not create himself, does not ultimately control the world, and is not the final authority over his existence.

The first stage is therefore מלכות — Kingship: recognition of Gd as King.

Once that recognition has been established, the next stage becomes possible.

That stage is יום כיפור — Yom Kippur.

After man recognizes the King, the King, in His kindness, provides the possibility of cleansing. The mistakes accumulated through the exercise of free choice do not necessarily have to determine the future. Through repentance and Yom Kippur, the Jew is given the possibility of beginning again with a clean slate.

There is therefore a definite order.

First comes Rosh Hashanah: recognition of the King.

Then comes Yom Kippur: cleansing before the King.

Only afterward comes סוכות — Sukkos: celebration with the King.

The Jew who has passed through recognition and cleansing can now enter the period of joy. Sukkos follows directly from the spiritual process that began on Rosh Hashanah. Recognition produces responsibility. Responsibility makes repentance necessary. Cleansing then makes possible a different level of closeness and celebration.

But the process does not end with the seven days of Sukkos.

Something unusual follows: שמיני עצרת — Shemini Atzeres, the Eighth Day.

Seven and Eight

The number seven represents the structure of the natural world.

There are seven days of Creation. There are seven days in the week. Human existence continuously revolves around this seven-day structure. Seven represents the completed natural cycle—the physical framework within which human beings live.

But then comes eight.

Eight is beyond seven.

The eighth day points beyond the ordinary physical structure of nature toward a reality that cannot be completely contained within it.

This is precisely where שמחת תורה — Simchas Torah enters.

On Simchas Torah, the Jewish people take the Torah and dance with it. This celebration expresses something fundamental: everything described until this point is possible only because there is a Torah.

Without Torah, how would man properly recognize the King?

How would he understand the purpose of free choice?

How would he know what constitutes a correct choice and what constitutes an incorrect choice?

How would he understand repentance, cleansing, closeness, or his relationship with the Creator?

It is all contained within תורה — Torah.

Torah means teaching and instruction. It provides the framework through which a physical human being can relate to a reality beyond the physical.

The Creator cannot be reduced to physical observation. Man, however, lives within a physical world and understands reality through physical senses and concepts. Torah therefore provides the teachings through which man can recognize and relate to something that exists beyond those limitations.

This is the significance of the eighth day.

Man lives within seven. He lives within Creation, time, space, physical needs, limitations, and nature.

But Torah connects him to eight.

The physical world is not necessarily the ultimate reality. The physical is the visible product of an underlying spiritual reality—whatever that spiritual reality ultimately means beyond the limitations of human physical understanding.

The Torah becomes the connection between those two dimensions.

This is why the progression of the holidays forms one continuous structure:

ראש השנה — Rosh Hashanah: recognition of the King.

יום כיפור — Yom Kippur: cleansing and the opportunity to correct the consequences of free choice.

סוכות — Sukkos: joy and closeness following that cleansing.

שמיני עצרת — Shemini Atzeres: the eighth day, beyond the completed seven-day natural cycle.

שמחת תורה — Simchas Torah: celebration of the Torah itself, through which the entire process becomes possible.

The Jew therefore dances with the Torah.

It is not merely a celebration that another annual cycle of Torah reading has been completed. It is a celebration of the Torah through which the Jew can recognize the Creator, understand his obligations, exercise free choice, correct himself after failure, and connect his individual physical existence to a reality beyond the physical world.

The same person who began as a completely unique creation—with his own appearance, abilities, limitations, struggles, circumstances, and choices—is nevertheless connected through one Torah to עם ישראל, and through that Torah to the Creator.

Every individual is different.

The Torah is one.

The obligations provide the common structure, while free choice belongs to each individual.

Seven represents the world in which that choice takes place.

Eight represents what lies beyond it.

And Torah is the connection between the two.