Torah has this incredible tendency where it not only quietly and consistently cross-references itself but also can self-reference itself, in the same few words, and create its own perfect circular logic (and usually, of course, circular logic is a negative but in Torah it helps establish the laws of the universe). Here’s a small sample of it from today’s reading in Devarim 31:19:
And now, write for yourselves this song, and teach it to the Children of Israel. Place it into their mouths, in order that this song will be for Me as a witness for the children of Israel.
My translation: and now, write for you this song and make the Children of Israel study it. Put it in their mouths so that this song will be for Me for a witness in the Children of Israel.
The lawgiver provides the instruction. And such instruction is to write a song which provides reference back to the lawgiver. And then that song is to bear witness for G-d . . . for the children of Israel.
The commandment, apparently, is to write a song, teach it, place it in their mouths, and order that it shall serve as a witness. To so-called circular logic is that the song is to serve as a witness to G-d, but in order to remember the song, they will have to do so in exile, when they have (all but) forgotten the song, in order to remember it, and the Creator who had them write the song. G-d, song, forgotten song, remembered song, G-d.
But in reality, that is actually what Torah comes to do: to close the loop, the make things circular. These things may be eaten because they are holy, and I am holy, and therefore I am the One who can make things, and holy things, and separate them for you, and these things cannot be eaten, because they are not holy, and I am the arbiter of holiness and unholiness, and I made it this way.
Without this frame of reference (the symbol-maker, the symbol, and the meaning of the symbol) everything would just be - random, and in the moment, but not in a good way - in a just trying to survive way. Birth, eat die - no meaning whatsoever. How tragic.
But in entering the circularity of Torah, the meaning is in the objective truth and reality of that circularity. Why do these things? Why meditate on and with G-d? Why study this Torah? Because those things are meaningful and the ultimate meaning is the one and only source of them all - HaKadosh Baruch Hu. And that point is the single point of holiness from which all things emerge; the purpose of life.
And perhaps, finally, this is why we might say that it is not really circular but "spirular" - that, certainly, there is a wholeness to it, but there is also a single point which is the source of all, and that it circles around and around and around and may just reach that home point once again, whatever that looks like. And this point generates it all - the holy and the unholy, the song, the witness, and back to the song again.
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