Parshas Kedoshim
1. Parshas Kedoshim speaks about the prohibition of orlah (not to eat the fruit of a tree that grows during its first three years). The Mishnah says1: "נטיעה של ערלה כו׳ שנתערבו בנטיעות, הרי זה לא ילקוט, ואם לקט יעלה באחד ומאתים" ("A sapling of orlah etc. that became mixed up with other saplings — one may not harvest [its fruit]; and if one did harvest, it is nullified in two hundred and one"). The law regarding orlah is that when orlah fruit and permitted fruit become mixed together, they are nullified when the permitted fruit is two hundred times as much as the orlah fruit. (Most prohibitions of the Torah are nullified in a majority (or in sixty), while orlah — in two hundred and one.) This law applies only bedieved (after the fact), if the mixture has already taken place. Lechatchilah (from the outset), however, one may not mix orlah fruit into other fruit in order to nullify it — "אין מבטלין איסור לכתחילה" ("One may not nullify a prohibition from the outset")2. The Mishnah says that if a sapling (a plant) which is orlah becomes mixed among two hundred permitted saplings, and one cannot recognize which sapling is the orlah — one may not, lechatchilah, harvest (pick) the fruit of the saplings, because then the orlah fruit would become nullified (since it comes from a sapling that was absorbed in two hundred and one). And the law is that lechatchilah one may not mix a forbidden item into permitted ones in order to nullify the prohibition. But bedieved, it is nullified.
The reason why the orlah fruit becomes nullified only after it is harvested, whereas as long as the fruit is on the saplings the orlah sapling is not nullified among the other saplings, is because "מחובר לא בטל" ("That which is attached [to the ground] is not nullified")3.
2. All matters of the revealed part of Torah (nigleh) are also a lesson in the spiritual service of a Jew:
It is a rule in Torah that a minority is nullified in a majority. A Jew might therefore think: since "אתם המעט מכל העמים" ("You are the fewest of all the nations"), Jews are a minority among all the nations — how is it possible that Jews should have the strength not to become assimilated and not to become nullified among the nations of the world, among whom they have already been living for so many hundreds of years?
On this comes the lesson: since Jews everywhere, wherever they may find themselves, are attached to their Source, to G‑d, they cannot become assimilated; they are always "עם לבדד ישכון ובגוים לא יתחשב" ("a people that dwells alone and is not reckoned among the nations")4 — a nation unto itself.
Just as, so to speak, G‑d is "אני הוי׳ לא שניתי" ("I, the L‑rd, have not changed")5 — in Him there is never any change at all; He was, is, and will be equally6 — so too Jews, through "ואתם הדבקים" ("And you who cleave" [to the L‑rd your G‑d]), their bond with G‑d, are eternally whole, as the verse concludes: "ואתם בני יעקב לא כליתם" ("And you, sons of Yaakov, have not been consumed") — that in them there can be no annihilation, G‑d forbid.
There is another interpretation7: that the verse "I, the L‑rd, etc., and you, sons of Yaakov, etc." is said in wonderment: since "I, the L‑rd, have not changed," why is it that "you, sons of Yaakov, have not been consumed" — why does this knowledge not bring about klos hanefesh (the expiry of the soul in yearning) among Jews?
Since all interpretations of a verse are connected with one another8, there is also an allusion here: even the Jew who finds himself in a state where the knowledge of "I, the L‑rd, have not changed" does not bring about in him klos hanefesh (the second interpretation), even then he is attached to his Source, and consequently there can be no nullification and annihilation for him among the nations of the world, G‑d forbid (the first interpretation).
One must, however, bring this bond out into the open. And when "וראו כל עמי הארץ כי שם הוי׳ נקרא עליך" ("And all the peoples of the earth shall see that the Name of the L‑rd is called upon you")9 — when the G‑dliness within Jews will be visible — then not only will the "peoples of the earth" (which includes all worldly matters) not oppose, but on the contrary, "ויראו ממך" ("and they shall be in awe of you"), and they will help Jews in their service of their Maker. For this is the purpose of all of creation, as the Mishnah says10: "לא נבראו אלא לשמשני, ואני נבראתי לשמש את קוני" ("They were created only to serve me, and I was created to serve my Maker") — everything was created to serve the Jew, and the Jew was created to serve the Creator.
3. The above-mentioned lesson, that what is attached is not nullified, is stated in the Mishnah regarding orlah, for the matter of orlah is a rectification for the sin of the Tree of Knowledge11.
It is stated in Kabbalah and Chassidus12 that the sin of the Tree of Knowledge caused kelipah to become an opponent of holiness. Even before the sin, kelipos existed, but at that time kelipah was not opposed to holiness; on the contrary13, it was like a kelipah (a peel) which guards and protects the fruit. Only through the sin did it become an opponent.
When one will carry out the above-… [Continues on the next page.]
Notes
1) Orlah 1:6 (Gittin 54b).
2) Beitzah 4b. Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh De'ah 99:5.
3) See the commentators on Orlah and Gittin, there. Sdei Chemed, Kelalim, Ma'areches Beis, §83.
4) Bamidbar 23:9.
5) Malachi 3:6.
6) And similarly with regard to space — see Shaar HaYichud VehaEmunah, beginning of ch. 7.
7) Torah Or, Yisro 67a [the source abbreviation is unclear in the OCR]. Likkutei Torah, Derushim for Rosh Hashanah 61d.
8) See above, p. 782.
9) Devarim 28:10.
10) End of Tractate Kiddushin.
11) [The text of this note continues on the next page.]
12) [The text of this note continues on the next page.]
13) [The text of this note continues on the next page.]
Key Lesson
Just as a sapling still attached to the ground cannot be nullified, a Jew who remains bound to G‑d can never be lost among the nations, however few Jews may be. When this bond is brought out into the open, the world not only stops opposing Jews but actively helps them serve their Creator, which is the purpose of all creation.