The weekly portion that we read in the synagogue this Shabbat is a double one: Mattot-Masei (beginning in Bamidbar 30,2 until the end of the book). It begins by stating, "These are the journeys of the Israelites who went out of the land of Egypt." The Sfat Emet gives several reasons why the Torah connects these journeys with the Exodus from Egypt: "It would seem that [it is based on the fact that] the Exodus is mentioned 50 times in the Torah, as the Holy Zohar tells us (Part 1, 261b) – alluding to their having left [on their journeys mentioned here] the 49 Gates of Impurity and entering the 50 Gates of Wisdom."

The Sfat Emet continues: "According to the words of our Sages (Rosh Hashana 21b), the 50 Gates of Wisdom were given over to Moshe Rabbeinu except for one, as is written, "You have made him a bit less than G-d" (Tehillim 8,6)." That is, the 50th gate symbolizes divine perfection, and Moshe Rabbeinu, though he was the highest of the human species (Arvei Nachal, Sh'mot 1), was not perfect, but rather necessarily flawed.

According to Rabbe Nachman of Breslov (Likutei Moharan 1, 89), a literal understanding of this verse indicates the remarkable concept that whatever is missing from a person, whether spiritually or physically, is actually a lack in the Divine Presence.

We are currently in the period of the Three Weeks, known as "Between the Straits," in which we mourn for that which is missing from the world. We grieve over the great lack inherent in both the general reality and our personal circumstances. In actuality, Hashem is telling us of what He is missing. This entire situation of "lacking" stems from the fact that He does not have an abode, a Home, in This World in which to have His Presence dwell in our midst – which will be the "completeness of reality" that we long and strive for.

When the letter nun is missing from a word, this shows that something significant is missing and that a rectification is required. How so? Nun is equivalent to 50, and symbolizes completeness and the highest spiritual level – "above all the Gates," in the words of the above-cited Sfat Emet.  Therefore, when it is missing, something has to be fixed.  

This can help us understand the following teaching from the Zohar and Rabbe Nachman. The Zohar states (Raya Mehemna, Tzav, 27b) that whenever there is a teku, an unresolved Halakhic issue, we must be stringent, as teku is tikun without a nun, i.e., it has no rectification. Rabbe Nachman adds that it is missing the nun of completeness and rectification. We also know that there are two types of nun: One at the end of a word, which is a simple straight line, and one in the middle of a word, which is a bent line, like a backwards L. Rabbe Nachman notes that the nun of tikun is a straight line, and when it is missing, thus forming the word teku, "unresolved," the four letters of teku plus the bent-over replacement nun will then spell the word kinot, songs of sadness like the dirges recited on Tisha B'Av. He concludes: "May G-d redeem us and may the kinot be turned into tikun."

Just like teku refers to unclear situations when we don't know what is G-d's will, so too, there are times when we ourselves face contradictory considerations and don't know how to act or what G-d would like us to do. The solution to this, says Rabbe Nachman (Likutei Halachot, Gittin 3), is "to pray very very much to Hashem, that [we] should merit to receive true counsel so that [we] can return and do the right thing." He explains that the "50^th Gate" is the true counsel that certainly exists for every situation and that will guide us as to what precisely we should do in order to fulfill G-d's will without doubts. And when there is no Beit Mikdash, we are all in a state of deficiency and lack, because it was from the Holy Temple that Torah instruction went out to Israel (Taanit 16a).

When Moshe made one of his final demands on Pharaoh to send the Israelites out, he angrily told him what was going to happen (Sh'mot 11,8): "Your servants will come to me and bow down to me and say, 'Get out! You and all your people that follow you!'" The Hebrew words used here literally mean 'all the people on your feet' – and Rabbe Natan says the following remarkable thought: Shoes symbolize walking along a sure path, where one knows his destination with confidence. On Tisha B'Av we mourn for the Beit HaMikdash, whose absence means that we no longer have a sure guidepost to tell us how and what to do – and this is why on Tisha B'Av we are not allowed to wear [leather] shoes!

The tikun for this state of affairs is to recite kinot. Similarly on Tisha B'Av we recite the Scroll of Eichah (Lamentations), which are the same letter as Ayekah, meaning, "Where are You?!" We cry out to G-d and say, "We are lost, we don't know what to do! Where are You?!"

Rabbe Natan concludes: "In the future, everything will be rectified, the teku will be rectified, and all the doubts will be resolved, and the kinot will once again become tikun."

Translated by Hillel Fendel