Likutei Moharan (123) 1. The
essence and foundation on which everything depends is one’s binding oneself to
the tzaddik of the generation:accepting his word in whatever he says, “This is
how it is,” in matters small and great; not deviating, God forbid, from his
word “to the right or the left” (Deuteronomy 17:11), as our Sages teach: even
if he tells you that right is left… (Sifri, op. cit.) ;casting off from oneself
all pseudo-wisdoms;and dismissing one’s knowledge as if one had no intelligence
other than what one receives from the tzaddik and rav of the generation,
because as long as one retains some of one’s own intellect, one lacks
completion and is not bound to the tzaddik. 2. When the Jewish people received
the Torah, they possessed great pseudo-wisdoms. For then, the mistakes of those
who served idolatry at that time stemmed from great pseudo-wisdoms and
philosophies, as is known. Had Israel not cast off from themselves the
pseudo-wisdoms, they would not have received the Torah. They might have denied
everything, God forbid. All that Moshe Rabbeinu did with them would have been
of no help to them. Even all the signs and awesome wonders which he performed
before their very eyes would not have helped them. Today, as well, there are
heretics who deny [God] based on the foolishness and error of their
pseudo-wisdoms. 3. But Israel is a holy people. They saw the truth and cast off
the pseudo-wisdoms, and “believed in God and in His servant Moshe” (Exodus
14:31). Through this, they received the Torah. Thus, Onkelos renders “a nation
naval (foolish) and unwise” (Deuteronomy 32:6) as “a nation that received the
Torah and did not act wisely.” They received the Torah primarily because they
“did not act wisely”—i.e., because they cast off from themselves all the
pseudo-wisdoms, as above. 4. This is NaVaL: an acrostic for LeV Netivot
(thirty-two paths). These encompass the entire Torah—the true wisdom, vis-à-vis
which all pseudo-wisdoms are nullified. Thus, NaVaL is an aspect of Torah,
which is called “NoVLot (an incomplete version) of the Upper Wisdom” (Bereishit
Rabbah 17:5). {Come and see that, now, this Aramaic translation is clear and in
place. For it is really surprising, and everyone wonders about this: What
reason is there for naval to be translated as “receiving the Torah”? But now,
how sweet are these words of the Aramaic translation.} 5. Now, the essential
devotion is to be ‘simple and upright, God-fearing and diverted from evil’ (cf.
Job 1:1), without any pseudo-wisdoms. Thus King Shlomo, of blessed memory,
though it was written of him that “he was wisest of all men” (1 Kings 5:11), he
said, “For I am more brutish than a man and have not the understanding of man”
(Proverbs 30:2). Likewise, Asaf said (Psalms 73:22), “I was brutish and
unknowing, like an animal I was with You.” It is also written (Proverbs 21:30),
“There is no wisdom or understanding or counsel against God.”
