Zohar Va'Etchanan Section 1 - Meditating Day and Night

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Zohar Va'Etchanan Section 1 - Meditating Day and Night

SYNOPSIS:

Rabbi Yosi emphasizes the deep importance of meditating constantly on the Torah. He says that people must accept upon themselves the yoke of the kingdom of heaven when they go to sleep since everyone tastes death at night.

Pasook 1. from the Zohar Commentary on Parasha Va'Etchanan

וָאֶתְחַנַּן אֶל יְיָ' בָּעֵת הַהִיא לֵאמֺר. אֲדֺנָ"י יֱדֺוִ"ד אַתָּה הַחִלּוֹתָ לְהַרְאוֹת אֶת עַבְדְּךָ וְגוֹ'. ר' יוֹסֵי פָּתַח, וַיַּסֵּב חִזְקִיָּהוּ פָּנָיו אֶל הַקִּיר וַיִּתְפַּלֵּל אֶל יְיָ'. ת"ח, כַּמָּה הוּא חֵילָא תַּקִּיפָא דְּאוֹרַיְיתָא, וְכַמָּה הוּא עִלָּאָה עַל כֺּלָּא. דְּכָל מַאן דְּאִשְׁתְּדַּל בְּאוֹרַיְיתָא, לָא דָּחִיל מֵעִלָּאֵי וְתַתָּאֵי. וְלָא דָּחִיל מֵעִרְעוּרִין בִּישִׁין דְּעָלְמָא. בְּגִין דְּאִיהוּ אָחִיד בְּאִילָנָא דְּחַיֵּי, וְאָכִיל מִנֵּיהּ בְּכָל יוֹמָא.

"And I besought Hashem at that time, saying, Adonai Elohim, You began to show Your servant" (Devarim 3:23-24). Rabbi Yosi opened with, "Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to Hashem" (Yeshayah 38:2). Come and see how powerful is the force of the Torah and how superior it is to anything else. For whoever is occupied with the Torah does not fear the higher or lower beings, nor fear evil incidents in the work, because he is attached to the Tree of Life, WHICH IS THE TORAH, and eats from it daily.

chanoch's Commentary

The Zohar is explaining that one of the major emphasis of the Torah is Service to HaShem. The word that is translated as service is Avoda spelled אבדה. Within this word is the word eved אבד which means slave. Our sages teach that the highest form of service is prayer. Let us look at this word Avoda. Avoda has a final Hay just like the Name of HaShem. Both of these final Hay's represent the physical world in a metaphorical way. The word Avodah is teaching us that we can either be a slave to the physical world or to the spiritual Name of HaShem. We have free choice in this decision. If we choose to be a slave to HaShem then we will utilize prayer to make changes to ourselves since that is what happens when someone prays. HaShem does not answer our requests with a resounding yes unless we change ourselves. The Sages created the standard Hebrew Prayers which cones mostly from the Tanach in order to allow the Hebrew letters to change us. Each time we serve HaShem with a prayer we change ourselves and then HaShem can recreate the world in the next instant with the answer to our prayer since we have changed and his perfect Creation of the world in the last instant is not correct for the changed us anymore. Learn this well, because it is the answer to the question "How do i get what i want?". That answer is pray AND CHANGE YOURSELF.

Pasook 2. from the Zohar Commentary on Parasha Va'Etchanan

דְּהָא אוֹרַיְיתָא אוֹלִיף לֵיהּ לְב"נ, לְמֵיהַךְ בְּאֺרַח קְשׁוֹט. אוֹלִיף לֵיהּ עֵיטָא הֵיךְ יְתוּב קַמֵּי מָארֵיהּ. וַאֲפִילּוּ יִתְגְּזָר עָלֵיהּ מוֹתָא, כֺּלָּא יִתְבָּטַּל וְיִסְתְּלַּק מִנֵּיהּ, וְלָא שַׁרְיָא עֲלוֹי. וְע"ד בָּעֵי לְאִשְׁתַּדְּלָא בְּאוֹרַיְיתָא יְמָמָא וְלֵילֵי, וְלָא יִתְעֲדֵי מִנַהּ, הה"ד וְהָגִיתָ בּוֹ יוֹמָם וָלַיְלָה. וְאִי אַעְדֵי מִינֵּיהּ אוֹרַיְיתָא, אוֹ אִתְפְּרַשׁ מִנַּהּ, כְּאִלּוּ אִתְפְּרַשׁ מִן חַיֵּי.

For the Torah teaches man to walk the path of truth and gives him counsel how to repent before his Master. Even when he is sentenced to death, everything is repealed and gone from him, not to rest upon him. Therefore he should be occupied with the Torah day and night and not move from it. This is the meaning of, "but you shall meditate therein day and night" (Yehoshua 1:8). If he removed the Torah from himself or separates from it, it is as if he separated from life.

chanoch's Commentary

In the verse quoted from Joshua the word being translated as meditate is Hagit spelled הגית. The word Hagit has the meaning of meditate yet it also means speak, pronounce, utter, articulate, vocalize, mutter, or growl. One can see how the Sages came to understand the idea of prayer being the highest form of service. In my opinion, the various prayer services have a hierarchy in learning the prayers. Eventually everyone will find there way to pray 5 times a day as follows: Morning, Afternoon, Evening, Night time Shema, and Tikun Chazot - Correction of Midnight. i recommend to learn and start doing prayers in the following order. (Each of these 5 prayers have a different ritual and order. i will not teach this in this comment.) Morning Prayers is of primary importance. Night-time Shema is next in importance. Afternoon Prayer is then third in importance, followed by Evening Prayer and Tikune Chatzot.

Pasook 3. from the Zohar Commentary on Parasha Va'Etchanan

ת"ח, עֵיטָא דְּב"נ כַּד אִיהוּ סָלִיק בְּלֵילְיָא עַל עַרְסֵיהּ, בָּעֵי לְקַבְּלָא עָלֵיהּ עוֹל מַלְכוּתָא דִּלְעֵילָּא, בְּלִבָּא שְׁלִים. וּלְאַקְדְמֵי לְמִימְסַר גַּבֵּיהּ פִּקְדּוֹנָא דְּנַפְשֵׁיהּ. וְהָא אוּקְמוּהָ, בְּגִין דְּכָל עָלְמָא טַעֲמִין טַעֲמָא דְּמוֹתָא, דְּהָא אִילָנָא דְּמוֹתָא שַׁרְיָא בְּעָלְמָא, וְכָל רוּחֵי דִּבְנֵי נָשָׁא נָפְקִין, וְסַלְּקִין וְאִתְטַמְּרָן גַּבֵּיהּ. וּבְגִין דְּאִינּוּן בְּפִקְדּוֹנָא, כֻּלְּהוּ תַּיְיבִין לְאַתְרַיְיהוּ.

Come and see, there is advice for man. When he climbs into his bed at night, he should accept upon himself the yoke of the kingdom of heaven wholeheartedly and hasten to give Him the deposit of his Nefesh. It was explained that this is since every man tastes AT NIGHT the taste of death, because the tree of death rests upon the world, WHICH IS MALCHUT. And all the spirits of people come out, rise and hide in it, IN MALCHUT. Since they are GIVEN as a deposit, they all return LATER to their place.

chanoch's Commentary

What is the method to accept the Yoke of Heaven? It is saying the night-time Shema as indicated in my comment to Pasook 2. The night-time Shema consists of 10 stages in the prayer. All 10 stages are designed by the Sages to give your soul direction as it rises during the night and then returns in the morning to your body. There is a stage of Heshbon HaNefesh - Self Calculation and Reflection prior to the saying of the night-time Shema. There is also a process in learning the Cheshbon HaNefesh technique and the 10 Stages of the night-time Shema.