Is there any point in calling up to the Torah a person who doesn’t understand it at all? Is this not a dishonor for the Torah?
category: Prayer
Is there any point in calling up to the Torah a person who doesn’t understand it at all? Is this not a dishonor for the Torah?
In one of his talks, the Lubavitcher Rebbe refers to a discourse of his father-in-law, the Previous Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, who explains that when a person is called up to the Torah, he experiences a spiritual elevation in all five levels of his soul (Nefesh, Ruach, Neshamah, Chayah, and Yechidah), up to the point of connecting with G-d’s very essence. Therefore he makes a blessing because even though on a worldly level he doesn’t understand, on the soul level, due to the elevation he is receiving in this experience of being called up to the Torah, he does understand, and he is connected to G-d’s essence.
Therefore, it is clear that there is a case for calling him up to the Torah, and the inherent holy light of the Torah can influence him to come closer to it.
ליקוטי שיחות חלק א’ שיחה לפרשת בראשית
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