The Secret of "Hevel Havalim": The Power to Transform into a Body Shining Like the Sun at the Giving of the Torah
Shiur (Lesson) No. 194 | Tuesday, Parashat Nasso, the eve of the 4th of Sivan 5759 - A shiur for the 'Shaarei Torah' Yeshiva for youth
This article reveals the secret of the verse "Hevel Havalim" (Vanity of vanities), which alludes to the pure breath (hevel) of the mouths of young schoolchildren studying Torah. Through a wondrous tale from ancient times and the teachings of the Sfas Emes, it is explained how, by guarding one's eyes and studying Torah in holiness, a person can merit a body that shines like the sun, just as it was at the revelation at Mount Sinai.
Within us, the Yetzer Hara (evil inclination) burns like a billion bonfires. A person must realize that the Angel of Death is out on the street, in every house he enters, and in every forbidden sight. In the future to come, during the Resurrection of the Dead brought by Mashiach ben David, the kelipos (spiritual impurities) will be removed, and all bodies will be transformed. Then, we will return to the spiritual level we had before the sin of the Tree of Knowledge, like Adam and Eve, who were like two shining suns rather than physical, materialistic bodies.
Until then, says Rabbi Elya Lopian zt"l, when a person steps outside the door of his home, the Angel of Death is already waiting there to cause him to sin and to burn his mind and his heart. Therefore, before a person leaves the Beis Midrash (study hall) or his home, he must prepare himself as if he is now going out to the front lines of a war.
When a person knows there is shooting outside, he waits for the gunfire to stop. And if he absolutely must go out to get food and water, he flattens himself on the ground and crawls on the floor while bullets fly over his head. This is exactly how a person must go out into the street—bent over and close to the ground, knowing that artillery shells are being fired at him. He must devise a strategy on how to avoid stumbling into any forbidden sight, pause for a moment, wait, and think: "I am going out to war right now; how will I be saved from this Angel of Death?" Only in this way will we merit to receive the Torah with joy, holiness, and purity.
Kefitzas HaDerech (Miraculous Travel) to the Wondrous Cave
Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai relates a story from ancient times about two Torah scholars who were the greatest of their generation. On Friday afternoon, the eve of Shabbos, they were riding swift horses through the desert toward a distant destination, worrying that they might not arrive before Shabbos. Suddenly, they met a man slowly hobbling along on crutches.
He asked them where they were galloping to, and told them: "You will no longer be able to reach that place before Shabbos. Instead, listen to me, and I will bring you to a place that has all the most wonderful delicacies and drinks in the world." The sages were astonished at how a man on crutches could overtake swift horses, but he promised that if they believed in him and repeated his words, they would fly through the air together with him.
They believed him immediately, just as the widow from Zarephath believed Eliyahu HaNavi (Elijah the Prophet) during the years of famine, and in the merit of her emunah (faith), the jar of flour was not depleted and the jug of oil did not lack. Since they believed, he told them to repeat the following prayer:
"Ana b'koach gedulas yemincha, tatir tzerura. Kabel rinas amcha, sagveinu, tahareinu, nora... Shavasenu kabel, u'shma tza'akatenu, yodea ta'alumos. Baruch shem kevod malchuso l'olam va'ed." ("We beg You, with the strength of Your right hand's greatness, untie the bundled sins. Accept the song of Your people, elevate us, purify us, O Awesome One... Accept our cry, and hear our scream, O Knower of hidden things. Blessed is the Name of His glorious kingdom for all eternity.")
Immediately, they began to fly through the air. According to the Chazon Ish zt"l, they flew a distance of 500 parsangs—2,500 kilometers—in a single second. They landed in front of an enormous cave, where they saw a long table in the north, a seven-branched Menorah in the south, and a bed inlaid with precious stones and pearls. Around the table sat 300 students who were studying Torah and eating from all the goodness of the world.
The Palaces of "Hevel Havalim"
The man with the crutches invited them to sit and eat. During their meal, they saw how his body transformed. It turned out that he was not disabled at all; he used crutches because the tzaddikim (righteous ones) do not want the soles of their feet to tread upon this impure earth. They descend from Heaven and reveal themselves to us, but they are careful not to touch the ground.
Suddenly, the tzaddik shed his physical form and took on a body shining like the sun. He sat upon a royal throne, and the 300 students sat around his feet, continuously reciting only one verse from the Book of Koheles (Ecclesiastes):
"Hevel havalim amar Koheles, hakol hevel" ("Vanity of vanities, said Koheles, all is vanity").
They repeated this verse thousands and millions of times, hour after hour, in order to internalize that this world is vanity—a world of poison with nothing worth looking at. The sages, who were the greatest of the generation, were bewildered and asked: "What is going on here? Are there no other verses in the Torah?"
The tzaddik rebuked them for their questions and decided to show them wondrous things. He brought them inside, from one palace to another within the cave, until they emerged into a giant orchard filled with fruit. At the edge of the orchard stood a golden palace. They passed through it from room to room, and upon every door was engraved the verse, "Vanity of vanities, said Koheles, all is vanity."
In the seventh palace, they saw an eagle hovering, holding a golden crown in its beak. Engraved on the crown was the image of a dove, and around it was again the verse, "Hevel havalim." The tzaddik said to them: "Whoever does not know the secret of these 'hevalim' (vanities/breaths) must leave the palace immediately, for the unauthorized person who approaches shall be put to death!" The sages were terrified and left. The tzaddik said to them: "I thought you were the sages of the generation, but if you do not know the awesome secret of this verse and why they repeated it a thousand times, you are not the sages of the generation."
The Infants Saved in Egypt and the Secret of the "Hevalim"
To understand this secret, the Sfas Emes zt"l explains on Parashat Shemos the hermeneutical rule: "Anything that was included in a general statement but was then singled out... was not singled out to teach only about itself, but to teach about the entire general category." This rule was applied to Moshe Rabbeinu (Moses our Teacher), about whom it is said when he descended with the Tablets, "And Moshe did not know that the skin of his face shone."
At Matan Torah (the Giving of the Torah), all the bodies of the Jewish people transformed into shining suns. Even the fetuses in their mothers' wombs heard the Ten Commandments. These were the very same babies who were saved in Egypt. When the Nazis of Egypt stood at the doorways of the houses to smash the babies immediately upon their birth, the mothers went to the fields and gave birth there without pain. When the Egyptians sent an army to search for them, the babies were miraculously swallowed up by the earth.
Rabbi Dessler asks in "Michtav Me'Eliyahu": The Egyptians saw the great miracle of the children being swallowed by the earth, so why did they bring plows? Surely Hashem could just bring them deeper! Rather, this is the way of the wicked; they see miracles and wonders and yet continue in their wickedness. These babies, whom Hashem Himself watched over and nursed with honey and oil from the rocks, are the ones who sprouted like the grass of the earth, arrived at the Splitting of the Red Sea, and were the first to point and declare:
"This is my God, and I will glorify Him!"
They recognized Hashem, who had raised them in the earth. And if at Matan Torah every baby merited that their body would turn into a shining sun together with Moshe Rabbeinu, then this is exactly the "secret of the breaths" that the Torah giants of the generation in that cave did not understand.
The secret of the breaths is the breath of the mouths of the schoolchildren (tinokos shel beis rabban). This is the breath upon which the world stands. Every child and every person can transform into a bright and shining sun by staying awake all night, sitting and learning Torah, and aspiring to be the Torah giant of the generation like Moshe Rabbeinu. Through this pure breath of Torah study, everyone returns in teshuvah (repentance), and in its merit, Mashiach ben David will come and the Holy Temple will be rebuilt speedily in our days, Amen.
Part 3 of 3 — Lesson No. 194