The sages describe the Torah as the wisdom by which the world was made. But that does not capture its essence. It is far beyond that. Torah is the wisdom by which the world is healed.

To heal a world, you must stand entirely beyond it. You must enter into the very essence of its Creator and sense what He wanted from this world to begin with. In the story of creation, you will find whispers of an unfathomable Author. In its healing, you will discover the Author Himself.

That is why Torah was initially given to survivors, to people who had suffered lives marked by trauma, yanked out of the darkest pits of human existence at the last possible moment. To people who had to be told not to steal, not to murder, not to covet that which belongs to someone else.

Because it is when Torah reaches you at your lowest point and pulls you out of there that you see its very essence and deepest power.

And it is when you have been to the rock bottom of human experience and back that you have the power to grasp the Torah at its essential core. To sense the Author within the command.

See Maamar B’sha’ah Shehikdimu 5732 and Likutei Sichot vol. 3, pp. 823-87.

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