Perekim 51 and 51a

[Bentzion Meltzer]

Perek 51

“Although these [the academy of Shamai] forbid, and these [the academy
of Hillel] permit, both opinions are the Words of the Living G•d.”1

The Baal Shem Tov taught:

The different opinions are only in the lower worlds of duality, but in
the upper world of Binah, which is referred to as “the Living G•d,”
everything is Unity.2


Perek 51a

If G•d’s presence fills the universe, if there is no place where He is
absent, and if He can be found wherever a person is, then why are
angels required to bring a person’s prayers up to G•d from chamber to
chamber?

The answer is that G•d arranged things this way so that it would seem
to a person that he is extremely distant, and would strive to get
closer.

This can be understood with of the parable the Baal Shem Tov:3

There was once a great and wise king who used optical illusions to
give the impression that he had built walls, towers and gates around
his palace. He then gave the order that whoever comes to him must go
through the gates, and that treasures be scattered at all the gates.
Thus, some people who came to see king found treasures at the first
gate, took it and immediately turned around and went home, while
others continued going through more gates until they could not carry
anymore treasures, at which point they too turned around and went
home. However, the king’s only son was not interested in the
treasures, but only in reaching his father. He then realized that in
reality, there were no walls at all separating him from his father,
and that it was all an optical illusion.4

The analogy of the story is that G•d hides Himself in various veils
and walls. However, His glory fills the universe, and every single
movement or thought is only Him. Thus, even all the angels and
heavenly chambers were all created from His very essence, like the
shell of an insect is an integral part of its body. Hence, there is
absolutely no separation between man and G•d, and with this knowledge,
all evildoers are dispersed.

1 Tractates Yevamoth 13b; Eruvin 13b
2 The Toldoth Yaakov Yoseph in VaYechi #3 and in Mishpatim #9 quote
this in the name of an anonymous sage, but in VaYakhel #3, the Toldoth
writes that he thinks he heard this from the Baal Shem Tov.
3 Ben Porath Yoseph 111a
4 This graphic parable portrays life as one great treasure hunt for
the ultimate treasure – that of finding the One Who is hidden within
all the little treasures and pleasures of life. The “treasures” at the
gates are thus all the material and even spiritual pleasures that one
can enjoy in this world, but none of these, on their own, can be
considered “having found G•d,” which is the goal of the entire scheme.
G•d, indeed, created the world to afford pleasure to His creatures,
but the ultimate treasure can be nothing else and nothing less than He
Himself, and anything else and anything less is nothing but a decoy
for the “Real Thing.” The object of the game, though, is to find G•d
hidden within all of those decoys, to reveal that, in essence, they
are actually a part of the “Nothing Less.”

Translation and Commentary by Rabbi Yehoshua Starrett and reprinted
with the kind permission of the Baal Shem Tov Foundation. Please visit
www.baalshemtov.com

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