Parshas Shelach is best known for the
story of the Meraglim, the spies who were sent to scout out Eretz Yisrael and
came back with a bad report. Because of this lashon hara, the Bnei Yisrael were
forced to spend a total of 40 years in the desert, one year for each day the Meraglim
spent in the Land.
Following the story of the Meraglim, the
nation was given a series of mitzvos, culminating in the mitzvah of tzitzis. Tzitzis
have an amazing ability, “וּרְאִיתֶם אֹתוֹ וּזְכַרְתֶּם אֶת כָּל
מִצְוֹת יְהֹוָה” “And you will see them (tzitzis), and you will remember all
the mitzvos of Hashem” (Bamidbar 15:39). Simply by looking at your tzitzis,
you can recall all of the mitzvos. The Ramban explains that this is
specifically talking about the Techeiles string, one string on each of the four
fringes, dyed a shade of blue. The gemarah (Menachos 43b) explains that by
looking at the string, you are reminded of the sea, which reminds you of the
sky, which reminds you of Hashem, which reminds you of the Torah and mitzvos.
The Kli Yakar asks a
simple question, how does looking at a blue string remind me of all the
mitzvos? And after reading this gemarah, am I really expected to make this
connection from one thing to another every time I look at my tzitzis?
He brings a medrash
that says that Hashem told Moshe to tell Bnei Yisrael to observe the sky and the
sea, and notice how they have kept their natural order since the beginning of
time, even though they do not receive any reward for their actions. The sun
always rises in the east, the sea has always remained in its place, etc. These
were metaphorical explanations to tell Bnei Yisrael, who are receiving
reward for their actions, that they should always remain faithful to Hashem. The medrash brings pesukim to explain how the sky
represents serving Hashem out of love, and the sea represents serving Hashem
out of fear.
This, explains the Kli Yakar, is how we
should understand the gemarah in Menachos. The first level in avodas Hashem is
serving Him out of fear. The significance of fear is that you do not change one
step from what you are supposed to do. We put a string of techeiles on our
clothing to remind us of the sea, and our obligation to serve Hashem without
changing even the smallest detail.
However, this is not the greatest level
we can reach. Serving Hashem out of fear is nothing compared to serving Him out
of love; the gemarah (Brachos 8a) says this explicitly. The Kli Yakar explains
that when you serve Hashem out of love, you have pleasure from the actual doing
of the mitzvah, as opposed to when the act is done out of fear. Therefore, when
we look at the sea, our next step should be to look at the sky, and see how
much higher we can reach in our avodah; that not only can we do the mitzvos, we
can enjoy them.
But what actual gain do I have from
doing mitzvos out of joy rather than out of fear? This is the next step in the gemarah’s
chain. When you look at the sky, i.e. when you serve Hashem out of love, you
are reminded of Hashem’s presence in the highest heavens, i.e. you can truly
connect to Hashem. Fear ultimately drives a person away; even though you may be
forced to interact with that person, you can never truly connect to them
because you are too afraid. However, when you love someone or something, you
only want to become closer.
When we look at the string of techeiles,
we are reminded of two things: 1) our obligation to serve Hashem without
question and without change 2) our ability to come close to Hashem through the
mitzvos. Both of these steps are necessary. Fear without love will drive us
away from Torah, but love without fear will lead to us deciding our own way of
serving Hashem, resulting in our abandoning the Torah.
The Kli Yakar concludes: the sea is
completely visible to us, while we cannot truly see what is beyond the heavens.
Therefore, the sea, and serving Hashem through fear, represents the visible
rewards we get in this world, and the sky, and serving Hashem out of love,
represents the rewards of the World to Come. It takes both of these to obtain
the full possible rewards of this existence. And it all begins with a single
blue string.
Shabbat Shalom!
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