Nachal novea; makor chochma -
A flowing river; the source of wisdom (Mish. 18:4)

Every chapter, paragraph, word, and letter found in the Torah contains the endless light of G-d. Were it not for the existence of the Torah, this world would not be able to tolerate the immense direct light emanating from G-d. Each letter acts as a vessel to hold G-d's infinite light. This acts to reduce and filter the intensity of G-d's great light. Each letter contained in the Torah allows us to utilize G-d's immense light in a safe manner. This is a very great miracle. This is one reason why it is required by Jewish law to write each Torah scroll with black ink. For the black color of the ink spiritually helps dim G-d's great light.  This is one reason why Tefilin are painted black as well.

Originally G-d intended to give the Torah after 1000 generations.  For the verse says: "He [G-d] remembered His covenant forever, the word which He commanded [the Torah] [up] to a thousand generations [He wanted to wait until He revealed it to the world]" (Psalms 105:8). G-d wanted the people of the world to first purify themselves during this period of time. This situation would enable man to tolerate a much greater amount of G-d's light. G-d would then be able to reveal the inner light of the Torah to the world. This type of revelation would have been on a much higher level, than what had occurred at Mount Sinai, which occurred only after the twenty sixth generation.

G-d saw that without the Torah the world could not endure.  The majority of the people who lived during the twenty generations from Adam to Avraham were extremely corrupt and evil. There was a great need for moral instruction. The moral instruction contained in the Torah would have a positive influence on the world. This is why G-d had no choice but to give the Torah at the twenty sixth generation, even though this revelation of the Torah would be on a much lower level.  This lower level revelation of the Torah, resulted in a much lower level of understanding of G-d's teachings. This is why we have such great difficulty in understanding and using the guidance contained in the Torah.  When the Messiah will come, he will purify the world to such an extent, that everyone will be able to comprehend the inner light of the Torah. As the verse says: "The earth shall be full of the knowledge of G-d, as the waters cover the sea" (Isaiah 11:9).

Now we can understand why Adam could not live beyond a thousand years after he had sinned. G-d had warned Adam not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge: "G-d commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden [of Eden] you may eat freely, but of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, you shall not eat of it; for the day that you eat of it you shall surely die" (Genesis 2:16-17). G-d was telling Adam that he would not be able to live eternally in this world if he ate from the tree of knowledge.  If Adam would eat from this tree, he would cause such damage to his soul and body, that eternal life would then be impossible.  By eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, Adam severely damaged his mental faculties. This meant Adam was no longer able to understand G-d in the same way that he was able to before his sin. His diminished capacity to understand G-d, now deprived him from receiving more of the light of G-d. This life-giving light of G-d would have nourished his soul, so that he could live eternally.  It would have provided Adam with the proper understanding to be able to live a totally righteous life devoid of evil, which would provide further nourishment for his soul.  This situation would allow Adam to live forever on this earth in total bliss. As it says, "Wisdom (of G-d] gives life to he who possesses it" (Ecclesiastics 7:12).  Now that Adam sinned, he no longer possessed the mental capacity to receive G-d's life giving light, and therefore had to die before he reached his one thousandth birthday.

Why did G-d limit Adam's life to a thousand years after his sin (deduct from this amount the 70 years Adam gave to King David)? Why could G-d not allow Adam to live beyond this time? Why does the average man live only to the age of seventy today? A the verse says: "The days of our years in them [total] seventy years, and with strength, [they total] eighty years" (Psalms 90:10). The refining that is necessary to receive the power of the inner light of the Torah, requires that the Torah be refined in units of one thousand The Midrash tells us that the Torah was created two thousand years before G-d created the world. As we mentioned above, the verse tells us that G-d originally intended to give the Torah after one thousand generations. After the Torah was given on Mount Sinai, Moses was commanded by G-d to appoint officers of the thousands. One of the functions of these officers of the thousands was to teach the Torah that they had heard from Moses to the officers of the hundreds, fifties, tens, and then to the common people. From these things we see that for people to be able to grasp the inner light of the Torah, the Torah must be refined in units of one thousand.

Since Adam had become damaged through his sin, his mind was no longer able to grasp the inner light of the Torah. As we have just shown, the inner light of the Torah requires at least a thousand levels of refinement. Adam's sin caused him to lose the capacity to refine himself to the level that was necessary for him to receive the inner light of the Torah. Even though Adam refined himself for the subsequent one thousand years after his sin, one year for each level of refinement, Adam was unable to reach the level of refinement that is necessary to receive the immense inner light of the Torah. If Adam would have lived beyond his one thousandth birthday, he would have caused the inner light of G-d to come down to the world. Since Adam's body was not properly refined and prepared for this great light, he would have died as a result. Therefore, G-d limited Adam's life to no more than a thousand years to teach and emphasize this lesson.

In the ensuing generations after Adam, the sins of man increased. This situation caused a further deterioration of man's ability to absorb G-d's great light. Therefore, G-d was forced to drastically limit man's life span even more, for the very same reasons we mentioned in the previous paragraph. It got so bad that G-d was forced to destroy the world, by bringing the infamous flood that engulfed the entire world. Due to man's great spiritual deterioration, G-d said the following just prior to the great flood: "And G-d said: My spirit shall not strive [within me] for man's sake [because of all the evil that man does], for he is but flesh (very materialistic and pleasure oriented]; yet his days shall [now] be [limited to) a hundred and twenty years [because man is no longer pure enough to receive G-d's inner light and not even the light on the level of Adam after the sin] (Genesis 6:3). This is why our lives today is so much shorter compared to the generations prior to the great flood.

As we mentioned above G-d designed the world that every aspect associated with the purification of this world must experience refinement in units of one thousand. Therefore,  we can now understand the statement of the Talmud in Sanhedrin. The Talmud says that the six days of creation correspond to the six thousand years that the world will exist as we know it.  At seven thousand years, the period of the one thousand years of the Sabbath will begin. In addition, the Talmud in Sanhedrin also says that the first two thousand years of the existence of the world are known as the era of chaos. The second two thousand year period, which began with Avraham and ended with the destruction of the second Temple, was known as the era of when the Torah     flourished. The era of the final two thousand years is known as the era of the bringing of the Messiah. The Messiah could come at any time during this latter period. The Messiah won't be delayed later than the year six thousand (currently we are in the year 5760 from Adam's creation).

The Talmud is telling us that each one of these eras requires special and intense purification on G-d's standard of one thousand gradations. G-d is not limited by the restrictions of time and space. In the world of truth there is no time or space. However, G-d deals with this world with units of one thousand, in order to affect the maximum level of purity in this world that is possible. Therefore, G-d's association with each day of this world is in units of one thousand. This is why one of G-d's days, as He relates to each day in this world, is referred to as one thousand years. For the verse says: "For a thousand years (in human terms] are in Your [G-d's] eyes like the yesterday [one day] that has just passed" (Psalms 90:4). This is why the seven days of creation correspond to the seven thousand years of existence of this world. (Lekutai Halachot: Choshen Mishpat: Hilchot Aidus 4:4)

As we mentioned above, Adam was unable to receive the lofty understanding of the inner Torah, after he had sinned. Today, there are many individuals who are not even able to understand the Torah on its most basic and simple level. This situation is very far removed from Adam. Even though he didn't merit to know the inner Torah, Adam was still able to know the Torah on the highest possible level for a human after his sin. Today, people don't even hope to reach the level of understanding of Adam, many people wish that they could just know the Torah even on a simple level. Even the simple understanding of the Torah alludes them. They feel very frustrated, discouraged, and broken hearted about this. Rabbi Nachman talks about this very situation.

There are several reasons why a person is unable to study the Torah. He is either unable to study because he is unlearned or because he is traveling in a desert or  the like, where there is no Torah books available to him etc. Even though a person is unable to study, he feels a tremendous longing to study the Torah and serve G-d. In such a case, his heart's desire to study Torah is itself an aspect of learning from a holy book. [The Zohar says, that not even a good thought or intention is ever lost].

Rabbi Nachman learns this teaching out from the following verse: "Then those who fear G-d converse one with his fellow [in Torah study], and G-d heard and listened to it [their Torah conversation]; and a book of remembrance was written before Him [G-d], for those who fear G-d and contemplate His name" (Malachi 3:16).

"Then those who fear G-d conversed one with his fellow." This phrase of our verse refers to two individuals who study the Torah. These two individuals are many miles apart from each other and don't even know each other. One of them happens to raise a question that the other unknowingly provides the answer for. The fact that these two individuals are unaware of each other is apparent from the next phrase of our verse. "G-d heard and listened to it", this part of our verse ref ers to, that G-d alone is the only one who hears their words of Torah. The one who posed the question, might have been hundreds of miles distant from the one who gave the solution. Yet G-d hears both of the Torah conversations of these two unconnected individuals, and connects each one's words together, and writes them into book as a remembrance. This refers to the next phrase: "and a book was written before Him [G-d]." .

The book of where their words of Torah are transcribed, which our verse is referring to, is called the       spiritual "upper heart."  The verse says: "Inscribe them (the words of Torah] on the tablet of your heart" (Proverbs 3:3). Therefore. when someone whose heart burns with desire, and yearns to study Torah, but s unable to do so because of the reasons we mentioned above, he draws the wisdom of the Torah into his heart. He draws this wisdom from the Torah that was written on the upper heart that is in heaven. He is then literally studying Torah from a book, even though physically he is now unable to do so.

The final phrase of our verse, “Hand a book of remembrance was written before Him [G-d], for those who fear G-d and contemplate [on] His name,",can be explained as follows.  Our Sages expound: "Even if a person thought about performing a commandment (mitzvah) , but through no fault of his own was unable to do it, he is credited as if he had fulfilled it" (Talmud: Brachot 6a). Therefore, the spiritual book of remembrance contains the Torah teachings of those tzaddikim (saints) who we mentioned above. This book of remembrance is activated by the desires of the heart of someone who is unable to study the Torah due to the obstacles they encounter and are under duress and cannot study. Because of the strong yearning of their hearts, they receive from this book. Such people, because of their burning desire for G-d, merit' to receive Torah teachings directly from the book of the Supernal Heart.

It was from this very book that enabled Abraham to f ind G-d. In his early youth Abraham knew nothing about G-d. He yearned so much to discover G-d, that this enabled him to draw spiritually from this book. This spiritual nourishment opened his mind, and was then able to find G-d. The Torah teachings that were contained in this spiritual book in Abraham's time came from such tzaddikim as Adam, Chanoch, Mezushelach, Noach, Shem, Aver, and others. Therefore, no one should ever feel that they are excluded from the Torah. If one yearns often enough, G-d will open up the gates of Torah learning even to those individuals who are far from Torah study -- Amen (I Lekutai Moharan I:142)

When we mentioned about the knowledge of the inner Torah we can get some idea about this concept from the following true story. Once the holy Ari revealed to his students that for every secret of the Torah that was revealed to him from Heaven, he had to cry an endless amount of tears to receive this information. The Ari had purified himself to such an extent that all the fountains of wisdom were opened up to him. Elijah the prophet would regularly be sent from heaven to study and reveal to the Ari the most lofty and hidden secrets of the Torah. When the Ari would go to sleep, his soul would ascend to the heavenly Torah academies. There was an angel that would ask the Ari each time he ascended to heaven, in which academy who would prefer to study. At times the Ari would request to study in the academy of those who wrote the books of the Zohar, Rebbe Hamuna Saba or Rebbe Yaiva Saba. There he would grasp the inner meanings of the Zohar. At other times he would learn in the academies of Betzalel, the one who built the Tabernacle in the desert. There he would learn all about the deep spiritual secrets contained in the Tabernacle's structure. Sometimes the Ari would choose to study in the Yeshiva of Aaron the high priest. There he would learn about the secrets associated with the Temple service. At times he would learn in the schools of the prophets and would be taught the deep secrets behind each prophets prophesies.

The Ari told his students that if they would purify themselves, they too would merit to learn in the heavenly academies like he did. The Ari also said that what he learned in the heavenly academies in one night could not be written in eighty years in this world. (Sepurim May0lan HaEmes p. 28)

One of Rabbi Nachman's closest students, Rabbi Naftali, saw a soul of a deceased person in a dream. The soul asked him, “Which tzadik do you follow?"  He answered, "Rabbi Nachman of Breslov." The soul requested to hear a teaching from Rabbi Nachman. Rabbi Naftali taught the soul one brief teaching. "The main spiritual power to give a person vitality comes through prayer. As the verse says: 'A prayer to G-d is my life” (Psalms 42:9).  "As soon as the soul heard this short teaching, Rabbi Naftali saw the soul shoot up like a rocket to the upper worlds out of sight. When Rabbi Naftali told over to Rabbi Nachman what had happened, Rabbi Nachman commented on this,  "There in the upper worlds they listen to my teachings in a totally different way."