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By Rabbi Nissim Lagziel, Mashpia in Oholei Torah: 

BEGIN WITH A GRIN

What did the doctor say about the tall person who was in a rush to see him?

“I just wish he was a little patient.”

HEIGHT DIFFERENCE

This week, we will read Behar-Bechukosai which completes the book of Vayikra. The main topic of Bechukosai is, definitely, reward and punishment. The parsha opens with numerous promises about the future good the Jewish people will receive in exchange for learning Torah and doing mitzvos – rain in the proper time, plenty of wheat and food, peace and security, etc. This is followed by some “less happy news,” about what will happen if we don’t…

As part of the grand promises of the Geula we read (26:13), “and I will lead you upright.” According to the Gemara (Bava Basra 75a and Sanhedrin 100a) the verse is interpreted as describing the height of people in the Geula. Today, a person who is two meters (six feet) is considered tall, even very tall, but in the Geula, things are going to change, big time!

The Gemara brings a dispute between Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Yehuda about our future height, the gist of which is based on the exact meaning of “upright.” According to Rabbi Meir, a person’s height in the Geula will be 200 amah (about 100 meters according Rabbi Chaim Naeh; 328 feet), double the height of Adam HaRishon who was 100 amah. According to the Maharsha, one of the great expositors of the aggadata, Rabbi Meir learns this from the plural form of the word “komemiyus” which implies two heights, double Adam’s height.

According to Rabbi Yehuda, man’s future height will be (only) 100 amah, the height of the Heichal together with its walls in the second Beis HaMikdash. Rabbi Yehuda proves this from a verse in Tehillim (144:12), “For our sons are like saplings, grown up in their youth; our daughters are like cornerstones, praised as the form of the Temple.”

From this verse we learn another important thing. We might have thought that this strange Geula promise about our giant stature refers just to men. After all, in the era of the Geula, we will return to life as it was before Adam’s sin, with the same spiritual purity and physical perfection, with the same holiness and loftiness and it makes sense that our physical height will revert to what it used to be. But what about women? What was Chava’s height? Was she also so tall?

From this verse in Tehillim we learn that not only “our sons are like saplings” that are grown but that our daughters are like the form of the Heichal! Women and girls will also grow to prodigious heights because it’s hard to picture a wedding between a 100 meter man with a woman a meter and a half tall… We will also have equal rights in the future Geula!

Let’s go back to what the Tannaim say. According to the commentators, it seems that Rabbi Yehuda understood the word “upright” in our parsha to mean one height (written without a ‘vav”) which is why he maintains that man’s height will only be 100 amah, and not 200. As it says in Toras Kohanim on the verse there, “Rabbi Yehuda says 100 amah like Adam HaRishon.”

HEIGHT REQUIREMENT

It’s likely that many of us are surprised to hear about this monstrous size but Chassidus explains the dispute between Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Yehuda in a deeper way. In a fabulous sicha, the Rebbe explains the spiritual dimension and the inner depth of things.

Within the Jewish people there are two types of avodas Hashem. There is the avoda of tzaddikim whose goal it is to draw down elevated lights and revelations to this world. This is an avoda that is categorized as drawing down G-dly light from above to below. The supernal G-dly light is drawn down from above to the lowly world down below. Chassidus calls this avoda “direct light.”

The avoda of baalei teshuva is to raise up physical objects that on their own are not holy, and to transform them into holy, good things. This is avoda which is done from below to above, i.e. the physical world below becomes refined, purified and elevated. Chassidus calls this “reflective light.”

Each of these has an advantage the other one doesn’t have. The advantage of the avoda of tzaddikim is in the level of light. The light which is revealed above is manifestly infinite and includes all the G-dly revelations and holy levels which a person would not be able to attain on his own. The advantage of the avoda of baalei teshuva is in the way the G-dly light permeates the world. The world become refined which is why the light becomes more internalized. It permeates the reality and existence of the world and become inseparable from it. The problem is that these two types of avoda are opposite and both cannot exist in their fullest sense within one person at one time.

The amazing novelty of the Geula is that then, these two types of avoda will unite and every Jew will have both! The dispute between Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Yehuda is merely about how they will unite!

The number 100 represents perfection, the ten soul powers as each one is comprised of ten. Both Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Yehuda agree that every Jewish soul will be fully integrated with both the avoda of tzaddikim (100 amah and 100%) and the avoda of baalei teshuva (100 amah and 100%). The disagreement is about how the synthesis of the two opposites will manifest. According to Rabbi Meir they will unite only within the spiritual soul dimension of man but physically, in man’s body, it won’t be possible to unite these two opposing inclinations which is why each type of avoda will be expressed separately. Each one will expand and spread out over 100 amah which is why man’s height will be 200 amah, a hundred for each type.

Rabbi Yehuda maintains that these two forms of avoda will become totally unified. Every deed a person will do will be a synthesis of both “direct light” and “reflected light.” This unity will penetrate the inner reality of the physical body which is why he maintains that man’s height will be only 100 amah because within those 100 amah will be included two “heights” in the fullest sense, that of the tzaddik and that of the baal teshuva!

This is also the reason that Rabbi Yehuda bases his approach on the height of the Heichal and its walls, because this paradoxical ability to unite two utter opposites is sourced in the Beis HaMikdash, a place where many opposites merged. For example, the Mikdash was built by man, below to above – “and they shall make Me a sanctuary.” On the other hand, the holiness of the Mikdash came from above, “and I will dwell within them.” Another example, “the place of the aron wasn’t part of the measure.” The aron had dimensions, two and a half amos, but it did not take up any space, which goes against everything we know about reality. This is because the Beis HaMikdash was a place which united nature and the supernatural, time and beyond-time, space and beyond-space.

We see this also in the names of the sages. The ability to unite two opposites is sourced in G-d’s essence. All other spiritual levels have a certain limitation (even the infinite light of G-d has a certain limitation in that it is limited by being unlimited). Only G-d’s essence, which cannot be defined by any limitation or categorization, can unite utter opposites. Rabbi Meir, as his name indicates, represents G-dly light. As said above, even the unlimited G-dly light cannot totally unite the avoda of tzaddikim and the avoda of baalei teshuva. Therefore, Rabbi Meir maintains that man’s height in the Geula will be 200 amah.

Rabbi Yehuda represents submission and utter bittul to G-d, bittul by which one “grasps” the Essence, as it were. Therefore, Rabbi Yehuda maintains that man’s height in the Geula will be 100 amah, because he will unite the avoda of tzaddikim and the avoda of baalei teshuva.

TO CONCLUDE WITH A STORY

We will end with a story about a tzaddik and baalei teshuva. A man went to the Baal Shem Tov and cried bitterly. His son was deathly sick and the doctors had given up.

The Baal Shem Tov immediately called for a student and asked him to bring a minyan of ten thieves. “Thieves?” wondered the student. The Baal Shem Tov nodded.

He searched the town and found Moshe the thief and convinced Dovid to come too. After much effort and difficulty he managed to convene a minyan of ten thieves. After talking to the Baal Shem Tov, the thieves prayed and the miracle occurred and the boy recovered.

All were astonished by the miracle. Why did the Baal Shem Tov want thieves and not righteous men or at least ordinary, good people for a minyan? Finally, one student dared to ask.

The Baal Shem Tov explained. The boy’s condition was so dire that the gates in heaven were locked and I figured that only thieves would be capable of breaking in.

The power of a tzaddik and the power of a baal teshuva.

Good Shabbos!

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