If you walk in My statutes (Vaiykrà 26:3)
The word chok ("statute" or "decree"), which gives the Parshah of Bechukotai its name, literally means "engraved".
The Torah comes in two forms: written and engraved. On the last day
of his life, Moses inscribed the Torah on parchment scrolls. But this
written Torah was preceded by an engraved Torah: the Divine law was
first given to us encapsulated in the Ten Commandments, which were
etched by the hand of G-d in two tablets of stone.
When something is written, the substance of the letters that express
it--the ink--remains a separate entity from the substance upon which
they have been set--the parchment. On the other hand, letters engraved
in stone are forged in it: the words are stone and the stone is words.
By the same token, there is an aspect of Torah that is "inked" on our
soul: we understand it, our emotions are roused by it; it becomes our
"lifestyle" or even our "personality"; but it remains something
additional to ourselves. But there is a dimension of Torah that is chok,
engraved in our being. There is a dimension of Torah which expresses a
bond with G-d that is of the very essence of the Jewish soul.
(Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi)
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