Mysteries of the Bahir: Alef and Bet

Sometimes, Torah is so mysterious I don't know where to begin talking about it. But with meditation, sometimes I can find an answer. Here's one thing that stumped me:

What does the Bet (ב) resemble? It is like a man, formed by G-d with wisdom. He is closed on all sides, but open in front.
The Alef (א), however, is open from behind.
This teaches us that the tail of the Bet is open from behind. If not for this, man could not exist.
Likewise, if not for the Bet on the tail of the Alef, the world could not exist. 

~ The Bahir, #15

After an hour or so of thinking about it, an idea dropped in:

Gravity and the Sefiros

It is frequently mentioned in works of Kabbalah that the sefiros are expressions of G‑d, rather than parts of him. But if they are expressions, how can there be so many expressions of an utterly unified and unique being? The question is compounded by the unequivocal statements of the Rambam:

... This G‑d is one. He is not two or more, but one, unified in a manner which [surpasses] any unity that is found in the world; i.e., He is not one in the manner of a general category which includes many individual entities, nor one in the way that the body is divided into different portions and dimensions. Rather, He is unified, and there exists no unity similar to His in this world....

~ Hilchos Yesodei HaTorah 1:7

If He is utterly unified as the Rambam says, what gives rise to His varied "expressions"? How can a single, indivisible Cause have varied effects?

Why Moshe Rabbeinu, Not Moshe Avinu?

Although a teacher is considered like a father (Sanhedrin 119b), and so we have an aspect of Moshe inside all of us, our primary relationship with Moshe is that of a teacher.

When we relate to a "father," it is an expression of closeness and it awakens the father's affection towards the children. With a teacher, however, we are taught that our awe of a teacher must be like the awe of Heaven (Pirkei Avos 4:12). This relationship is expressed in the verse, "From His right hand, a fiery law" (Dev. 33:2). "His right hand" - this is chesed, G-d's love for us, since the right side is associated with kindness and love. "A fiery law" - fire indicates gevurah, or awe and fear, which is how we received the Torah from Sinai, through Moshe Rabbeinu.

When giving is giving

In a home, in a relationship, in any situation where people work together, each side has to give.

What you give is not so important. How you give is.

You have to want to give.

~ R. Tzvi Freeman

There is giving that is real giving, and there is giving that is really taking. This depends on whether the receiver appreciates the gift.

Entering the teivah, entering the word

G-d told Noah, "Go into the ark (teivah)." "Teivah" can also mean "word," and the Lubavitcher Rebbe explains that this means to enter into the words of Torah and prayer. This is a refuge against the tumultuous "waters" of worldly concerns of seeking a livelihood, etc., and also will help reduce those same pressures in their source and root.

It appears to me that there are two ways of "entering into the words" of Torah and prayer: to be "batel bemetzius," and to be "batel bayeish."

People Before G-d

How precious is a human being in the eyes of G-d!

Hashem cares more about how we treat our fellows than how we treat G-d. Aside from the salient examples of the Waters of Noah, and the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, where G-d withheld punishment despite rampant idolatry, until humankind began to wrong each other, we also see how much G-d cares about the honor of human beings from the laws of teshuvah. For when a person wrongs G-d, one needs only to regret the action and resolve to correct it, and one is immediately accepted.

How to achieve the supernatural

"And Hannah said in her heart" (Sam. I 1:13). This means (that He wanted) {that she wanted} to do something supernatural, and she did not want to pray verbally. "For with the word of Hashem were the Heavens created" (Psalms 33:6), and so too the nether worlds, and when we want to do something in opposition to the worlds {another version: not according to the nature of the world}, one must do this thing in thought. For there, all is entirely a single unity, [as in the Talmudic story of R. Chanina ben Dosa, who said] (Ta'anis 25a) "He who commanded the oil and it burned, will command the vinegar and it [too] will burn." [I.e. on the level of Thought, this is consistent, though not on the level of Speech and words, constrained by logic.] Therefore [regarding Hannah] "he did not hear her voice, but her lips moved" (Sam. I 1:13), because she wanted to bring this [level of Thought] to this [physical] world {another version: to understand this in thought}. [Hence] the lips [nevertheless moved], which are the last of the five speech-producing organs [corresponding to the Five Worlds, the last of which corresponds to the physical world].