Matos: 5786 - What is the special quality specifically of the third [one]? Sayings, stories and insights for the festival of the giving of our Torah, presented by Rabbi Shimon Sonnenfeld. Watch:

00:03 Speaker 1 In Tractate Shabbos, there is an entire discussion about the giving of the Torah.

00:07 Speaker 2 What?

00:08 Speaker 1 An entire discussion about the giving of the Torah. When was the Torah given? There is a whole discussion in Tractate Shabbos. The Gemara says there: “A certain Galilean expounded.” Who was he? It doesn’t say. One of the Galileans expounded: “Blessed is the Merciful One, Who gave us a threefold Torah”—Torah, Prophets, and Writings—“in the third month,” the month of Sivan, “through a third-born,” Moshe Rabbeinu, who was the third child born. The Rebbe also adds that the name Moshe has three letters. “And on the third day”—the third day of their separation. We learn from this that there is something special about the number three. What is special about “third,” that the Gemara points out that everything happened in threes? We know that three establishes a presumption of ownership, right? To establish ownership of a house or a field, a person holds it for three years. An ox is established as one that gores after three times. What does the number three have to do with receiving the Torah, and what does it teach us in our service of Hashem? The Torah—the Gemara, the Talmud—emphasizes it. There is something special here: “Blessed is the Merciful One.” We thank Hakadosh Boruch Hu that He gave it to us with everything connected to the number three. What is special about that number? The Rebbe explains it this way: When there is one thing—when something in the world exists on its own—there can be no disagreement, because there is only one thing. There can be no differences, disagreement, or division. But the Torah was given to bring peace, and peace isn’t relevant when there is only one. When there are two, though, something has already been divided into two; there are two separate things. Now there is the possibility of disagreement, even if they aren’t actually in conflict. Because the two things are separate and distinct, they could come into conflict. And then the third

02:29 Speaker 1 is what brings the two together. The Rebbe gives the example of a person. A person is made up of two things: a body and a soul, two separate things. What is a person’s task? To bring body and soul together so that they become one. “You shall surely help along with him”—as the Baal Shem Tov taught, one must work with the body. Bringing the two together creates a third thing, far higher than either of them. It is like what we say: “Two verses contradict one another, until a third verse comes and reconciles them.” That doesn’t mean the third joins one of them so that there is a majority. Rather, the third is higher than both and unites them into one. That is a person’s task: to unite two things. When the soul was above, it was literally a part of G-d above, united with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. But it descended into this world and entered a body, and they became two separate things. A person’s task, specifically through effort and toil, is to unite them and bring the body, the person, and the world into oneness with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. In this connection, there is an interesting story. There was a time when Christians decreed that the Talmud should be burned. They claimed that the Talmud contained things that contradicted and disparaged Christianity, and debates were held with the great Jewish sages of the time about the Talmud. In one of these debates, Rabbi Yonasan Eibeschutz argued with a senior clergyman who was an apostate. The clergyman wanted to prove that the Talmud contained things that were offensive to Christianity—things he called nonsense and evil, with nothing of value in them. As an example, he said: “Look, the Gemara—I think it’s in Tractate Berachos—says that when a person sees various things in a dream, they have a meaning. It says there: ‘One who sees a pot in a dream

04:39 Speaker 1 may expect peace.’ What does a pot have to do with peace?” He offered it as an example of something that made no sense. Rabbi Yonasan said, “What’s difficult to understand? It makes perfect sense. Fire and water aren’t friends. They don’t go together. Fire burns the water; water puts out the fire. If we want to bring fire and water together, we put the water in a pot and place the pot on the fire. What makes peace between them?”

05:10 Speaker 3 The pot.

05:10 Speaker 1 The pot. In other words, the pot is a symbol of peace. So when a person sees a pot in a dream, he may expect peace, because it points to peace. Here, too, we see an example of the third element: it brings two things together and makes them one. That is the special quality of the giving of the Torah: it took place in the third month, through a third-born, and involved a threefold Torah. May it be Hashem’s will that we receive the Torah with joy and inwardly.

05:40 Speaker 3 Amen.