Anthology of the Teachings of the Baal Shem Tov
Kst 70
"G-d saw that [Moses] went to look, and He called out to him, 'Moses, Moses'."1
The Baal Shem Tov taught:2
Moses was initially concerned that this vision before him was not a holy vision, until G-d called out to him, "Moses, Moses." Only then did Moses respond, "Here I am."
For Moses' soul, as alluded to by his name, encompasses all worlds, which is why Moses could not comprehend his own name, as we shall see. For just as the Divine presence encompasses all worlds - the inanimate, the vegetable, the good and the evil - so does Moses' name: the first letter mem, which alludes to the Divine Malchut/presence, also encompasses all things, while the second letter shin encompasses all spirits, and the last letter heh encompasses all souls. Therefore, Moses' difficulty in comprehending the Menorah, the shekel, and the New Moon (HaChodesh), alludes to his difficulty in comprehending his own name (Moses = Mosheh), his own essence, since his name also encompassed good and evil. Furthermore, his difficulty was also in comprehending how the Divine presence Itself, the Shechinah, is the Ultimate Unity, since It encompasses the antitheses of good and evil, yet remains One Indivisible Unity. Thus, he was confused how he, whose name was Moses, which encompassed these antitheses, could bring about such Unity. Indeed, tradition records that Moses had the tendency to be a kidnapper/gambler.3
However, the truth is that evil is a vehicle for good, as we find in the teaching that Pharaoh brought the Jewish people to repentance by pursuing them,4 or by the fact that beholding the ways of the wicked brings a righteous person satisfaction and pleasure that he is not like that. This arousal of pleasure from contrast to evil exists in all worlds, and evil itself also has a virtual elevation from this, only that when good rises in this way, all evil is dissolved in the process.5 And in the same way, all evil thoughts can be vehicles of elevation.6
Thus, Moses did not answer G-d after the first call of his name, since he did not comprehend how Unity could be achieved, for when the lowest spiritual levels were revealed, as symbolized by the bush, all their higher spiritual sources were also revealed to him. Therefore, Moses could not understand why evil - as represented by the bush - was not "burnt" by those sublime spiritual levels. Then G-d called out to him again, "Moses," alluding that the Ultimate Unity is achieved specifically by the union of the lowest levels with the highest. Only then did Moses say, "Here I am."7
1Exodus 3:4.
2Ben Porath Yoseph 126c.
3Tractate Bekhorot 5a. The two alternatives are given by Rashi and Tosafot, respectively, and neither interpretation is very complementary. Furthermore, there is a Midrash in which a king versed in physiognomy requests to see a portrait of Moses, and upon seeing it remarks that this person possesses all the worst traits in the world. The point is that Moses grew to become Moses not only despite, but because he had to overcome the existential human inner conflict between good and evil tendencies. And the spiritual light that appeared with him at birth, as according to oral tradition, was not a manifestation of his inborn perfection, but of his potential to unify these dichotomous elements within his personality into and towards the singular goal of serving G-d, as in this teaching.
4Zohar I 81b.
5Psalms 92:10.
6This idea is alluded to in #69 and expounded upon in #39.
7As mentioned in n. 2 in #69, there are two ways of dealing with evil: subduing it or transforming it. When Moses first saw the fire of the burning bush, he understood the fire to symbolize that the bush, representing evil, as said in the text, must be "burnt," and subdued. But then he saw that the fire was not consuming the bush - which he understood to mean that all efforts to vanquish evil are doomed to fail. If so, he thought, that evil is an existential reality, does this not point to Duality, to an existence outside of G-d? But then G-d called out to him a second time, "Moses," thereby alluding to him that he, too, was a seeming duality - a "lower" and an "upper" Moses: a very human Moses with all human frailties and weaknesses, but also a "G-dly" Moses, and both were parts of his unique singularity. Then Moses realized that the fire in the bush was not symbolizing destructive power of fire, but its "light" - the potential of transformation. Then Moses realized that both evil and good are really part of the One. Then Moses answered, "Here I am" - an integrated one.
Translation and commentary by Rabbi Yehoshua Starrett.
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