The Torah existed prior to the world. In the eighth chapter of Mishlei, "wisdom", which may be identified as "Torah", speaks of itself as being 'there' before physical reality. However, it is not directly obvious what the form or the content of this wisdom is. It seems likely that the form is not identical to that which we were given at Sinai, on Shavuot. What was the content of this "wisdom"?
We find an insight into the content of this 'wisdom' in a medrash in Bereishit Raba (17:5). The medrash draws analogies between various temporal and spiritual phenomena. Three pairs of parallel phenomena are mentioned: death and sleep, prophesy and dreams, and the world to come and Shabbat. Then, another two pairs are added: the relationship between heavenly light and the sun, and between heavenly wisdom and the Torah. The medrash says that in all these cases the latter is like an unripe fruit in relation to the former. In order to understand what this means, for any one of the cases, we should compare it to the others.
Death, prophesy and the world to come, are ultimate spiritual categories, of which sleep, dreams and the Shabbat are temporal, "unripe", versions. These pairs may be compared. Shabbat is similar to the spiritual existence of the world to come, in the same way that sleep is similar to death, or dreams may be compared to prophesy. In the second group of pairs we saw comparisons between the heavenly light and the sun, and between heavenly wisdom and the Torah. This group is harder to understand, since we do not know what heavenly light and heavenly wisdom are. However, we can deduce that, whatever is meant, there is a relationship between them and their pairs which is similar to the relationship we saw above, between, for example, prophesy and dreams. The light of the sun is an earthly version of the heavenly light, which we can only understand by an appreciation of the comparison. In the same manner that there is a spiritual and ultimate version of dreams: prophesy, there is a spiritual and ultimate version of the light of the sun: heavenly light. If we now move on to the last pair, heavenly wisdom and the Torah, we understand that the medrash is teaching us that there is an absolutely spiritual and ultimate form of the Torah. Heavenly wisdom seems to be an absolutely spiritual wisdom, to which the Torah that God gave us is like an unripe fruit. What does this mean?
The Zohar (Bamidbar 152a) teaches that behind the obvious meaning of the Torah lies a hidden, absolutely spiritual, meaning. The Zohar compares this to how angels, which are actually spiritual beings, are seen to possess physical bodies when sent into our physical world. Similarly, the Torah, becoming revealed in our physical reality, needed to be translated by God into physical terms. Otherwise the world would not be able to withstand its spiritual power. We now appreciate the meaning of heavenly wisdom, and wisdom which existed before the world was created. The Torah is a physical translation of ultimate spiritual wisdom, which we, as mortals, are unable to experience. However, in its physical clothing, we may not just appreciate but take part in it. These are the mitzvot.
Mitzvot are physical actions with spiritual meaning. Some of these meanings are readily accessible, some we are unable to appreciate. It is wrong to try and escape this relationship to the physical. God gave us a physical translation of the ultimate spiritual wisdom precisely because we, as physical beings, would be unable to deal with the original. This translation is precisely what we need, as mortals, to come close to God, and live an immortal life. When God gave us the Torah on Shavuot, there was not just a revelation, but a translation. We commemorate this by both studying Torah, and celebrating in a physical manner. On Shavuot we receive the Torah as human beings. Every year we accept the mitzvot again. We reassert our awareness of our goal in life as physical beings that, through this temporal world, must strive forward, into an immortal existence.
Courtesy of Yeshivat Har Etzion - www.etzion.org.il