Rabbi Itche Meyer Morgenstern: Parshas Re'eh

It is well known that the entire Torah of the tzaddikim is a reflection of the verse: "וְזֹאת תּוֹרַת הָאָדָם"—“And this is the teaching of the [great] man.” As the Shelah HaKadosh writes, the word for human being—Adam—is from the Hebrew אדמה לעליון—“I will be like that which is above”—since every person has within him all the supernal worlds and the greatest holiness and purity.

This is the deeper meaning of Moshe’s words רְאֵה אָנֹכִי which can also be read, “Look at me.” Look at the “I”—the tzaddik who is the paradigm of a complete human being, who fully represents the merkavah in all of its aspects through his physical form. This is why the Arizal revealed which exalted spiritual level corresponds to each and every limb of the body—to enable us to “see the I”—to look at the self and see the merkavah. Hashem made us this way so that we can connect every limb to Him through our Divine service—“From my flesh, I see G-d.” It is our task to take every opportunity to remember the spiritual realms that we can access through every limb until we never forget them.

For example, when a person’s hand hurts him he should take this as a hint that he needs to rectify the corresponding spiritual worlds [aspects] which this represents. Through the continuous work of the tzaddik to bind every element of his being to Hashem no matter what he experiences, he connects more and more strongly to the supernal worlds, until he truly lifts up the material to the spiritual. At this level, he connects his physical sight to the higher levels of spiritual hearing and vision, and begins to hear and see the spiritual reality within material existence.

This is the lesson of our parshah: that one can either experience his physical body as a blessing or a curse. But the tzaddikim focus on their bodies through the aspect of spiritual hearing, Binah, which implies deep contemplation of the true state of things. This allows them to attain the aspect of blessing and good through the vehicle of the body.