By Marco Del Monte
Reality to “Explain”
It is written in our Parashah: “And Moses inquired diligently -darosh darash- concerning the goat of the sin offering” (Lev 10:16).
It is written in the Talmud in Masechet Kiddushin 30,a: “Therefore, because they devoted so much time to the Bible, the early Sages were called Soferim (Those who count), because they counted all the letters of the Torah. The same stated that […] The words “Inquire diligently” -darosh darash-, are the central point of the words in a Torah scroll.
As we know, nothing happens by chance. Why then did Hashem place Darosh Darash as the central words of the Torah, as if to say that the “centrality” of the Torah is enclosed within these terms?
Moreover, it seems strange that two words are used to define a centrality. Ben Ish Chai in his commentary on the Talmud Benayahu ben Yehoyadà (Kiddushin 30,a taken from the book Peninè Haben Ish Chay Parashat Shemini) explains that everything depends on the word Kes-y-a written in Shemot 17:16, referring to the Throne of Hashem and to the war against Amalek, whose name's numerical value is equivalent to Safek-doubt. In other terms, Hashem's war against Amalek is a war against doubt, against uncertainty. If we consider the term
Kes-y-a- as a single word, then the central term is Darosh, otherwise it is Darash. The surprising thing is that the two words share the same root. The three letters דרש according to Artom's dictionary encompass various meanings: To investigate, to ask, to request, to demand, to explain. I believe that the meaning and the “centrality” of the whole Torah is a continuous search for meaning, and where it is not found on the surface, it needs, indeed it “demands” to be investigated and found in its depth. Every event in our lives needs to be interpreted, explained, according to a spiritual vision. As Rabbi Nachman says right at the beginning of his main work Likutè Moharan: “Tzarich Tamid Lehistakel BeHasekhel shel col Davar” (LM 1,2) which is: “One must always look carefully into the intelligence contained in everything”. As if to say that it is forbidden not to think, to let life flow past us without attempting to attribute meaning to events: this would mean not listening to the voice of Hashem who speaks to us continually. Who knows if this is precisely what the Talmud means in Masechet Chaghigah (2,a) by declaring that three categories of people cannot present the sacrifice of Reya, that is, appearing in the Temple before the Eternal One: The deaf person, the madman, and the minor: whoever does not want to listen to Hashem can go mad in failing to find a meaning to life and remains in a condition of littleness. Interesting in this regard is what Haim Ben-Abraham writes in his text “La via delle api” (Giuntina 2023) regarding the root דרש from which the term Midrash also derives. The author states that reading the Midrashic text represents more than a simple method of study and interpretation; it is a form of questioning the Divine. It thus becomes a way of viewing the world and our experiences: “First of all, it is necessary to liberate reality, and the text, from any superficial meaning […]. Reality for the masters of the midrash is not opaque, and is never accepted as it is. Objects and events are signs that point onwards. Through things, and words, one directs oneself beyond. The Torah is not an explanation of a reality preceding the text, but the reality to be explained” (ibid. p. 23)
Perhaps this is the meaning of the eternity of Megillat Esther, not understood as a scroll of Esther but as “Revelation of the Hidden”.
Happy Searching to All!
Shabbat Shalom Umevorach
Translated from the Italian with Google Gemini. The Italian text is the original.