Excerpts from the maamar « When you come … the land shall rest » (“Ki Tavou … Ve-Shavta”), printed in “Torat Shmuel” 5627.
Free Translation and Commentary.
Fulfilling mitzvot is often likened to sowing seeds. As we find in the book of Hosheah (10:12): “… Sow righteousness for yourselves”, or in the words of prayer: “Sowing righteousness”. As well as in the Book of Tehillim (97:11): “A light is sown for the righteous”.
So what do mitzvot have in common with seeds?
A seed is usually not something we can eat and enjoy. It should be planted in the ground and produce sprouts. As such, it does not necessarily have a great taste or a pleasant smell. Yet this seed evolves into a beautiful tree which bears sweet delicious fruits.
Some seeds,however, are an exception: possess their own inherent taste and fragrance. Yet even these contain a potential far greater than their current state – the capacity to produce an entire tree overflowing with fruit. As it grows, it will yield many thousands of fruits and seeds like itself.
By way of analogy, the Torah and the mitzvot are like seeds. When we look at the mitzvot as they are revealed to us in this material world we can see that they entail specific physical actions – but we might overlook something which goes totally beyond this material aspect. Even the Torah, which is the wisdom of the Creator Himself, speaks to us in a “language of man” and relates to the material aspects of our lives.
However, if we look beyond the obvious, we’ll know that besides this revealed aspect, the Torah has a concealed aspect shining in the higher realms. The Gemara (Shabbat 88b) says that when Moshe ascended to receive the Torah, this lofty aspect of the Torah was something that the angels wanted to receive instead of the humans.
The angels protested: “Why do you desire to give this beautiful concealed thing (the Torah as it’s revealed in the Above worlds) to someone of flesh and blood? ‘Give Your glory upon the heavens!’ (Tehillim, 8:2)”.
The angels were not interested in the Torah as seen from the perspective of this lower, material world:
- “If two people came to court holding a garment” (Bava Metzia 2a) – the laws of found items,
- Or the four types of domains on Shabbat – the laws of hotzaah (carrying objects on Shabbat).
They were fascinated by these laws the way they exist in the higher worlds, where “reshut ha-yachid” (personal domain) refers to the world of Atzilut…
And yet, precisely because the Torah and the mitzvot are rooted in the physical world, they ‘yield harvest’ – they bring down the concealed aspects revealing them in all the created worlds above it. For example, by putting on a pair of tefillin, one reveals that HaShem Himself wears tefillin and performs this mitzvah (Brachot 6a) …
That’s why fulfilling mitzvot is like sowing seeds. Just as the seed that falls into the ground has no taste or smell, so do the mitzvos that we perform in this world: they seem to be limited to physical actions. But at the same time, sowing causes the growth and blossoming of trees and fruits. And the mitzvot we fulfill have an effect far beyond the limits of the material world.
The spiritual service of the Jewish people in this world brings about the drawing down of G‑d’s essence within all worlds, higher as well as lower. For every mitzvah is an infusion of Divine energy, which will blossom and bear fruit.
Source: לקוטי תורה תורת שמואל – תרכ »ז, עמ’ רפז – רפח.
