Texts on Shevarim /Broken-ness

The first creation story in the Torah (Genesis 1:1 - 1:10) includes various 'distinctions' or separations. This line is one example of that pattern.

This is the second line of the V'ahavta prayer. The words are phrased 'Al Levavecha' (upon your heart) because the Torah is resting upon ('al') our hearts, ready to be received when the heart opens. The broken heart is an open heart. When the heart breaks, the heart opens and then we are able to receive Torah.

To understand the matter of shofar blowing according to the meditative intention of the Ba’al Shem Tov of blessed memory we have to offer an introduction regarding the matter of voice (kol) and speech (dibbur). Namely […], the true essence of…voice is just a simple sound composed of fire, water, and wind, and it is called just wind (ruach) or air (hevel), and it is not circumscribed by the letters of speech at all. And the aspect of speech pertains specifically to the quality of articulating individualized letters that are drawn forth in different ways and combined together, etc. Thus we find that the essential quality of speech is far from the essential quality of a simple voice, which emerges from the air at the heart center. Nevertheless, we see that voice and speech have a connection and are intertwined with each other, for the simple voice emerges from the five gateways of the mouth and splits into letters of speech. And this is as the Zohar wrote (I:246b), that voice and speech are like kelal uferat (the all-inclusive general and the subsumed detail)—for perat needs kelal, and the kelal needs the perat, etc. - Baal Shem Tov

Table Created by Rabbi Sam Feinsmith, Accompaniment to Commentary by Degel Machaneh Efrayim, on B'halotecha, Numbers 10:7