Oral Torah Absorbed Within

בענין שירת הבאר שלא נזכר משה רבינו ע"ה

Concerning the Song of the Well (Shiras HaBe'er), in which Moshe Rabbeinu, peace be upon him, is not mentioned.

The Sfas Emes opens by noting a puzzle: in the Song of the Well later in the parsha, Moshe Rabbeinu is conspicuously absent from the text.

ובשירה הראשונה ישיר משה ובני ישראל

Whereas in the first song it says, 'Then Moshe and Bnei Yisrael sang' (Shemos 15:1).

He contrasts this with the Song at the Sea, where the verse explicitly names Moshe together with Bnei Yisrael as the ones who sang.

דהנה באר היא התורה שבע"פ כמ"ש ז"ל אין מים אלא תורה ויש תורה שבכתב הוא בחי' לחם מן השמים וזהו בחי' מרע"ה שהוריד התורה מן השמים

For behold, the well is the Torah she'be'al peh (the Oral Torah), as Chazal said, 'Water is nothing other than Torah'; and there is the Torah she'biksav (the Written Torah), which is in the aspect of bread from Heaven, and this is the aspect of Moshe Rabbeinu, who brought down the Torah from Heaven.

He lays the foundation: the well represents the Oral Torah (water), while the Written Torah is like bread from Heaven, brought down by Moshe Rabbeinu himself.

וזהו מן בזכות משה שהוא לחם הנ"ל

And this is the meaning of the mann (manna), for it came in the merit of Moshe, who is the aforementioned bread.

The mann that fell in the merit of Moshe corresponds to this 'bread from Heaven,' tying Moshe to the Written Torah given from above.

ובאר בחי' מים תורה שבע"פ

And the well is the aspect of water, namely the Torah she'be'al peh.

The well, by contrast, is water, which is the aspect of the Oral Torah that Bnei Yisrael draw up and develop themselves.

ושמעתי ממורי זקני ז"ל מה שהתורה יש ברכה לפני' ולאחרי' הוא כמו בסעודה שיש ברכה לפני' על מה שהזמין השי"ת לנו האוכל

And I heard from my grandfather and teacher, of blessed memory, that the reason the Torah has a berachah before it and a berachah after it is comparable to a meal, at which there is a berachah before it over the fact that Hashem Yisbarach has provided us the food.

Citing his grandfather, he explains that the berachah before Torah, like the berachah before a meal, thanks Hashem for providing the gift itself.

ולאחרי' על השביעה מה שמקבל האדם מזון וחיות מן המאכל ולכן שיעור זמן ברהמ"ז עובר אחר זמן עיכול המזון

And the berachah afterward is over the satiation, that a person receives nourishment and vitality from the food; and this is why the time-frame for reciting Birkas HaMazon extends until after the food has been digested.

The berachah after a meal, however, is over the actual nourishment absorbed into the body, which is why its window lasts until the food is digested.

כן יש בתורה ברכה לאחרי' על מה שזוכין למשוך חיות מדברי תורה להיות נבלע בנפש האדם כו' עכ"ד ז"ל

So too there is in the Torah a berachah afterward over the fact that one merits to draw vitality from the words of Torah, so that it becomes absorbed within the person's nefesh, and so on. These are the words of my grandfather, of blessed memory.

Likewise the berachah after Torah is over having drawn living vitality from the words of Torah until they are absorbed into one's very nefesh.

וזה ענין תורה שבע"פ שנעשה האדם בן תורה להיות לו דביקות בתורה ז"ש וחיי עולם נטע בתוכנו

And this is the matter of the Torah she'be'al peh, that a person becomes a ben Torah so that he has dveikus (cleaving) to the Torah; and this is the meaning of 'and eternal life He has planted within us' (from the berachah).

This absorbed, internalized Torah is precisely the Oral Torah, by which a person becomes a ben Torah with real dveikus, matching the phrase 'eternal life He planted within us.'

וזה ענין הבאר מים כמ"ש חז"ל ואכלת זו אכילה ושבעת זו שתי' כי השתי' גורם שיתעכל המזון במעיו להיות נשבע מהמאכל

And this is the matter of the well, of water, as Chazal expounded, 'And you shall eat' (Devarim 8:10) refers to eating, 'and you shall be satisfied' refers to drinking, for the drinking is what causes the food to be digested in one's innards, so that one becomes satiated from the food.

Just as drinking water is what enables food to be digested and to satisfy, so the Oral Torah is what allows the Written Torah to be fully internalized.

ורמז לדבר דאיתא במד' שיר השירים מ"ח פעמים נזכר באר בתורה נגד מ"ח דברים שהתורה נקנית בהם ע"ש

And an allusion to this is found in the Midrash on Shir HaShirim, that the word 'well' is mentioned forty-eight times in the Torah, corresponding to the forty-eight things through which the Torah is acquired; see there.

He brings a supporting hint from the Midrash: the word 'well' appears forty-eight times in the Torah, paralleling the forty-eight ways through which Torah is acquired.

ופי' זה כי התורה שבכתב מתנה מן השמים לכל מי שירצה אבל להיות נקנית התורה להיות לאדם חלק בתורה להיות נקרא בן תורה להיות דברי תורה נבלע בדמיו הוא בכח מ"ח דברים הנ"ל

And the explanation of this is that the Torah she'biksav is a gift from Heaven to whoever desires it, but for the Torah to be acquired, so that a person should have a portion in the Torah, so that he should be called a ben Torah, so that the words of Torah should be absorbed into his very blood, this comes through the power of the aforementioned forty-eight things.

The lesson is that the Written Torah is freely gifted to anyone, but truly acquiring it as one's own portion, becoming a ben Torah with Torah absorbed into one's blood, requires the labor of those forty-eight qualities.

ולכן שירה הראשונה הי' קודם התורה אז ישיר משה ובנ"י שהרגישו בנפשותם שנעשו עבדי ה' להיות מוכנים לשמוע דבר ה'

And therefore the first song was before the Torah was given; then 'Moshe and Bnei Yisrael sang,' for they felt in their souls that they had become servants of Hashem, prepared to hear the word of Hashem.

The Song at the Sea came before Matan Torah, expressing that Bnei Yisrael had become servants of Hashem, ready and prepared to receive His word.

ושירה זו האחרונה הי' שהרגישו שנבלעו ד"ת בדמיהן כי זה הי' סוף מ' שנה

And this latter song was sung because they felt that the words of Torah had become absorbed into their blood, for this was at the end of the forty years.

The Song of the Well came at the end of the forty years, expressing that by then the words of Torah had become fully absorbed into their very being.

וכענין שאמרו חז"ל כשלמד משה רבינו ע"ה מ' ימים בהר שכח עד שלבסוף נתן לו הקב"ה התורה במתנה

And this is along the lines of what Chazal said, that when Moshe Rabbeinu, peace be upon him, learned for forty days on the mountain he would forget, until at the end the Holy One, Blessed is He, gave him the Torah as a gift.

He draws a parallel from Chazal: Moshe forgot what he learned each of the forty days until Hashem finally granted him the Torah as an outright gift.

כן הי' עבודת בנ"י מ' שנה במדבר שיגעו בתורה עד שלבסוף ניתן להם במתנה

So too was the avodah of Bnei Yisrael for forty years in the wilderness, that they toiled in the Torah until at the end it was given to them as a gift.

So too Bnei Yisrael toiled in Torah throughout their forty years in the wilderness until, at the end, the Torah was given to them as a gift through that toil.

ולכן לא נזכר מרע"ה בשירה זו שהוא למעלה מזו המדריגה והוא הוריד התורה מן השמים:

And therefore Moshe Rabbeinu is not mentioned in this song, for he is above this level, since he was the one who brought down the Torah from Heaven.

Moshe is therefore absent from the Song of the Well because he stands above this level of acquisition, having been the one who brought the Torah down from Heaven in the first place.

Summary: In this piece the Sfas Emes resolves why Moshe Rabbeinu is named in the Song at the Sea yet absent from the Song of the Well. He explains that the Written Torah is like bread from Heaven brought down by Moshe, while the well is the Oral Torah, the aspect of water that Bnei Yisrael themselves draw up and internalize. Drawing on his grandfather's teaching about the berachah after Torah and after a meal, he shows that just as drinking digests food into the body, the Oral Torah is what absorbs Torah into a person's very nefesh, making him a ben Torah through the forty-eight ways Torah is acquired. The Song at the Sea, sung before Matan Torah, marked Bnei Yisrael becoming servants ready to receive Hashem's word, while the Song of the Well at the end of the forty years marked Torah having become absorbed into their blood through their toil, just as Moshe received the Torah as a gift only after forty days of forgetting and laboring. Moshe is therefore absent from this latter song because he stands above the level of acquired-through-toil Oral Torah, being the one who brought the Torah down from Heaven.