The Secret of the Synagogue's Sanctity: Transforming the Body into a Living Torah Scroll

Lesson No. 35 | * Motzaei Shabbos Parashas Devarim, the night of the 10th of Menachem Av (delayed Tisha B'Av) 5755 - the night of the delayed Tisha B'Av in the Yeshiva

When a person enters the synagogue with absolute humility and refrains from mundane speech, he transforms his body into a living Torah scroll. Through the power of song, melody, and recognizing the virtue of every Jew, we can draw down new miracles and nullify all harsh decrees.

It is told of a great tzaddik who was never late to the synagogue, except for one time. The congregation waited for him, and when he finally arrived after the prayer, they asked him: "Rebbe, what happened today? Why were you late?" The tzaddik replied: "I do not come to pray before I practice hisbodedus (secluded prayer) and make a spiritual accounting, until I reach the clear realization that I am the worst of the entire congregation. Today, a man appeared in the synagogue who had become infamous in the city for a shameful act, and he had already been thrown out of all the other synagogues. Since I saw him, I had to go out and practice hisbodedus for another half hour until I reached a true conclusion: After all, if I had failed in such a matter and gained a bad reputation, out of sheer shame I would never have come to the synagogue again. And yet, thank Hashem, this Jew did come to the synagogue! If so, he is certainly greater and better than me."

"King David says in the Midrash Rabbah: I am no better than Doeg, I am no better than Achitophel, but I do come to the synagogue."

When a person merits to nullify all of his physicality, his feelings of honor and selfishness, and comes to the synagogue out of humility—this synagogue becomes holy with the sanctity of the Holy Temple. Regarding the Mishnah, "They stood crowded together, yet prostrated themselves in wide spaces," the Bartenura explains that everyone pushed his friend above himself. When entering the synagogue, a person must see everyone as being above him and feel that he is the smallest of all, as the Ramban explains, that a person should view his own sins as intentional and his friend's sins as unintentional.

The Human Body as a Torah Scroll

Rabbi Nathan of Breslov teaches that when a person enters the synagogue and utters only words of holiness, he transforms his body into the aspect of a Torah scroll. A person is given a hundred and twenty years to live in order to engrave holy letters of Torah into his body. Other than words of holiness, he has no business doing anything else in the synagogue—no politics and no mundane speech. He comes to recite Tehillim (Psalms), Pesukei D'Zimrah (Verses of Praise), Krias Shema, the Korbanos (offerings), and the Shemoneh Esrei prayer.

"Just as the parchment, through the holy letters, is transformed into the sanctity of a Torah scroll, so too, a person who does not utter a single unnecessary word from his mouth becomes the Holy of Holies for all eternity."

In a Torah scroll, if a person adds even one extra letter Yud—he invalidates the entire scroll. So too, a person must be careful that no mundane letter is engraved in his body while inside the synagogue. Furthermore, the person becomes even holier than a Torah scroll, as our Sages of blessed memory said:

"How foolish are the people who stand up before a Torah scroll but do not stand up before a Torah scholar" (Makkos 22b).

A Torah scroll is written with allusions to six hundred thousand letters, but a Jew who speaks words of Torah and brings them to life is the aspect of a Divine soul that contains infinity. The synagogue gives a person the strength, the drive, and the inspiration to continue speaking words of Torah twenty-four hours a day, fulfilling the verse, "And you shall speak of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk on the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up."

The Power of King Solomon and the Nullification of Decrees

We live in an era of terrible decrees where Jews are being killed, and we must know how to nullify these decrees. Rabbi Nathan of Breslov (Hilchos Beis HaKnesses 5) explains that the one who merited to nullify all decrees was King Solomon. In his days there was peace, all the nations bowed their knees, and the claim of the nations of the world, "You are robbers," was nullified.

How did King Solomon merit this? Because he was truly a man of peace, and he held no grievance against any Jew in the world. Therefore, he merited to institute the mitzvah of Eruvin, which signifies the blending and unifying of all domains, perspectives, and opinions.

"King Solomon was not only completely nullified before every Jew, but he was certain that every Jew served Hashem more than him and with greater mesirus nefesh (self-sacrifice) than his own."

To understand the true mesirus nefesh (self-sacrifice) of a Jew, we can look at majestic figures like the pious Rabbi Michel Dorfman zt"l, who sat for many long years in Siberia enduring terrible and horrific trials that no ordinary mortal could withstand, and sacrificed his life for the observance of the Torah and traveling to Uman during the Communist regime. When one merits to see the virtue of every Jew, just as King Solomon saw, one merits to build the Holy Temple and to build every synagogue with such sanctity that it nullifies all the accusers.

As the Meor Einayim says, when a person enters the synagogue, he must feel that he is the smallest of all. If he arrived late, he is certainly the smallest of all. And if he arrived early? He probably slept for twelve hours beforehand, which is why he managed to be early.

The Song of the Levites and the Renewal of the World

The synagogue encompasses all the aspects of the Holy Temple: "The Kohanim in their service, the Levites on their platform, and the Israelites at their posts." Rabbi Nathan explains (Hilchos Beis HaKnesses 6) that the immense power of the synagogue is revealed specifically through song and melodies.

In every song we sing in the synagogue, there are two parts: gratitude for the past, and drawing down new miracles and wonders for the future. Every single day, new miracles occur and a creation takes place that never existed before. To awaken these miracles, which Hashem, may He be blessed, wants to bestow upon us, we need song and melodies, such as reciting Mizmor LeSodah (A Psalm of Thanksgiving), Shirat HaYam (The Song of the Sea), and the Shir Shel Yom (Song of the Day) that the Levites used to sing.

"Ascribe strength to God; His majesty is over Israel, and His strength is in the skies. You are awesome, O God, from Your sanctuaries; the God of Israel, He gives strength and power to the people" (Tehillim 68).

The Shechinah (Divine Presence), so to speak, cries out to us: "Ascribe strength to God! Pray, sing, dance, shout, and cry. You do not know what miracles I will perform for you!"

Even a person who feels he cannot utter a single sound from his mouth, yet still comes to the synagogue and cries out a silent scream from the depths of his heart—he is precisely the one who elevates all the prayers. When Hashem sees that Jews come to the synagogue with such fierce desires, He gives strength and power to the people; the heart and mind open up, and the person receives the strength to shout and cry.

Through song and melody, we merit to reveal the emunah (faith) in the renewal of the world, and we draw down the revealed miracles that we so desperately need today, until we merit the renewal of the world in the Time to Come and the resurrection of the dead, when the verse will be fulfilled: "See now that I, even I, am He, and there is no god with Me; I kill, and I make alive"—without decrees, without wicked rule, only the absolute revelation of Godliness.

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