Letters of Light. Kalonymus Kalman Epstein

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Letters of Light - Kalonymus Kalman Epstein


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its emphatic focus upon the purity or impurity of a person’s inner intent. The Torah, in various places, makes the point that following the commands of God will bring material reward. While the Hasidic masters did not negate that aspect in principle, they went out of their way to emphasize that doing any mitzvah for the purpose or consideration of reward impugns the integrity of one’s very deed. It is this distinction that the homilist located in the wording of a single verse within the episode relating to Abraham and Lot.

      God brought Abram outdoors and said to him, “Count the stars,” and he told him “So shall your offspring be” (Gen 15:5), meaning that they will be similar to the stars which are intelligent beings, as it is written “And the knowledgeable will be radiant (like the bright expense of the sky, and those who lead the many to righteousness will be like the stars forever and ever,” Dan 12:3). For the stars do not receive brightness one from another; rather, each one shines by itself, by its own light, and therefore the light of one star is not similar to that of another. And God promised him, “So shall your offspring be,” in that each one of them will serve God according to that person’s own intelligence (and inner lights), and their mitzvot will not be in the manner of something that one person learns from another. Rather, all will be true (springing from an inner truth of the person). And understand.

      Comment: Just as, echoing the Zohar, Kalonymus Kalman provided a meaning to the words Lekh-l’kha, which directed the listener’s understanding in quite an unexpected direction, so he similarly provided an unexpected suggestion for the reference to the stars in connection with God’s words to Abraham. This is the case even though the Torah-text makes it quite clear that the implication is numerical in nature: Abraham’s descendents will be too numerous to be counted.

      Vayera

      “The Lord appeared (to him) . . . .” (Gen 18:1)

      And this is alluded in the Gemara in reference to the pearl hanging from the neck of our father, Abraham, in that any ill person who would see it was immediately healed, meaning that the sick person was cured through the presence of the Divine situated with the patriarch. And that is the good pearl which alludes to God’s presence.

      . . . And the verse concludes, “. . . he was sitting at the entrance of the tent as the day grew hot” (Gen 18:1), meaning that though Abraham was in a state of inner warmth and exalted enthusiasm, he nevertheless felt very humble in the presence of the blessed Holy One. It always seemed to Abraham that he was situated only at the very opening of the tent and had not entered further to any extent at all.

      In the transformation of the talmudic passage at the hands of the Kraków master, however, the purely magical element gives way to a different kind of theme, namely the effect of t’shuvah (repentance). The cure occurs not via some kind of magic object, but rather as the effect of an awakening of thoughts


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