Lecture on the Topics of Shabbat Zachor and Purim – Part 1

Topic: The secret of Torah reading, the difference between Torah-level and Rabbinic-level obligations, and the spiritual service of the holiday of Purim

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A. The Nature of the Obligation of Parshat Zachor: Torah-level vs. Rabbinic-level

Gentlemen, it is the eve of Shabbat “Zachor.” One is obligated – at least the custom is to say that one is obligated – from the Torah (mi’d’Oraita) to read Parshat Zachor. If so, one is also obligated from the Torah.

What does a Torah-level obligation mean? It means an obligation that ascends up to Tiferet [the attribute of truth and Torah], a connection that ascends up to Tiferet. This is the meaning: when we say something is “d’Oraita,” it doesn’t mean one is “more” obligated – one must fulfill everything, whether Torah-level or Rabbinic-level. Rather, “d’Oraita” means to say that through this mitzvah, through this action, one can reach up to the level called the world of Tiferet. That is what d’Oraita means.

In contrast, d’Rabbanan (Rabbinic-level) refers to the sefirah of Malkhut, “the words of the scribes” (divrei sofrim), in the aspect of speech. It only touches lower, in the aspect of the attribute of Malkhut and the Shekhinah.

So one is obligated to read on Shabbat Zachor the passage of “Remember what Amalek did to you” (Deuteronomy 25:17), and we read it from the Torah. This means that one is obligated from the Torah – it touches upon the Torah itself.

One must think: what is the meaning of this? Every time we read from the Torah, isn’t it d’Oraita? It is d’Oraita – we are reading the Torah! What could be “more” d’Oraita when one is reading the Torah itself? The question is:

* Is the action itself also a Torah-level action?

* Or is the action that the Rabbis say one should do something Torah-level, meaning one should study the Torah?

But the Torah itself, certainly the mitzvah of Torah study (talmud Torah), is surely d’Oraita. On this point, the distinction is a bit smaller according to what we are saying. Even according to those who say that Zachor is d’Oraita, the distinction is smaller, because every Torah reading is d’Oraita – it is the Torah itself. The question is only whether the time, whether the application regarding the place and the time and the specific portion – whether that is d’Oraita, or d’Rabbanan, or a custom.

B. Megillat Esther: The Aspiration to Become “Torah”

The same thing applies even when one reads Megillat Esther. This is the secret that we learn – that Megillat Esther has a derivation from the Torah that one must read it, “the end of the matter, all is heard.” This means that the entire dispute about “write me for the generations” (Megillah 7a) – this means that Esther wanted, and this is what Esther and Mordechai accomplished with their Megillah – that it should also be d’Oraita.

That when one reads the Megillah, the “Torah” should be present there. This is not merely some new thing, even in the category of Prophets and Writings (Nevi’im u’Ketuvim), which is a different level (Netzach and Hod). No, it is the level of Tiferet. And in the reading of the Megillah (mikra Megillah) there is the level of Tiferet, even a higher level. As the Arizal always teaches, the Torah reading – the Torah refers to the level of “Abba” [Chokhmah/Wisdom], the Yesod of Abba that enters into Ze’ir Anpin, and here [with the Megillah] it is even more revealed.

C. The Secret of Torah Reading: Bringing Vitality into the Vessels

Okay, he says, enough. If so, there is also an obligation to have intention (kavanah), to prepare the intentions for the matter, for the content of the things. What is it with the Torah? What is truly authentic? The mochin (higher consciousness), yes?

We learn every time we do Torah reading. The secret of Torah reading, as written in “Otzrot Chaim,” is:

* The Torah is written without vowel points (nekudot) and cantillation notes (te’amim). In the Torah scroll there are no vowel points and cantillation notes.

* Just as we see that one can even make an error – it says “va’yichar la’melekh” or similar, or “zekher Amalek” or “zakhar Amalek” – as Yoav understood it (Bava Batra 21b). After all, there are no vowel points in the Torah scroll.

* The vowel points are a tradition (mesorah), they are the Oral Torah (Torah she’b’al peh), they are the mesorah. This is not a novelty. Certainly when Moses gave it, there were already vowel points and cantillation notes, as it states that it is a law given to Moses at Sinai (halakhah le’Moshe mi’Sinai). But it is not written in the Torah scroll; the vessel (kli) that we have, the physical “object of the Torah scroll,” does not have vowel points and cantillation notes.

And here the Arizal says that this alludes to the fact that the entire world has no taste (ta’am) in our times. The entire world has no cantillation notes. The world is in the aspect of letters without vowel points and cantillation notes.

It has tagin [crowns on the letters]. Tagin means that there is a certain hint of the taste. This is what the Arizal says – the secret of tagin, which means vessels (kelim). And within the vessels there are sparks (nitzotzot).

* Kelim means letters. The world is entirely vessels, “vessels of various kinds” (Esther 1:7).

* But within the vessels there is sometimes a spark (nitzotz) – that is some touch, some spark, some glimmer, from which one can think that there was once a light here, that there will someday be a light here. But on its own, it is not present. This is what we call “the making of sparks.”

And the meaning is: one must elevate them. And the secret is: one must bring back the vowel points, the cantillation notes, into the vessels.

From this the Arizal says: just as a Jew reads from the Torah, he looks into a Torah scroll that has no vowel points and no cantillation notes, and he brings into the Torah the vowel points and the cantillation notes. This is the intention of the mitzvah of reading the Torah scroll: that one brings taste into the Torah scroll.

D. From Slavery to Freedom: Enlivening the World

This is also a parable; it is the same thing that the “voice of the living” does. The entire service of God – serving God means being a person, experiencing the world, yes? “From slavery to freedom,” “they sing a song,” “from death to life.”

1. From slavery to freedom: This means that the spark that is “captive” (shavui), yes? “And you shall take captive his captivity” (Deuteronomy 21:10). What is captive? It is the potential to be something good, which is “stuck” in the letter, in the vessels – it cannot move. One lets it out, one lets it lead itself as it knows.

2. From death to life: This means that one has already fully elevated, one has fully brought in vowel points and cantillation notes into the letters. It is a song – meaning it is alive, one sings it. “Its reading is its praise” (kri’ato zo hi hilulo) – it becomes a song.

If so, the main point, the main service of Torah reading – even of hearing the Torah reading, let us say the same thing: one doesn’t look inside but one already hears it with the cantillation, with the vowel points. The essential mitzvah is truly the hearing, yes? There is one person who reads, everyone else listens, they hear the Torah reading.

The meaning is: that one hears that in the letters and vessels that exist in the world, there is also a taste, there is also a vowel point, there is also a direction within it, there is also an understanding within it. Cantillation notes and vowel points – everyone understands – that is the life-force.

* Nekudot (vowel points): The Tikkunim call this “the spirit of the living creature within the wheels” (ru’ach ha’chayah ba’ofanim). These are the vowel points. The spirit that drives – like the energy, the vitality that drives the wheels, that drives the gears, that turns. This is what the world turns on, what drives all things – these are the vowel points. (Nekudot means the light of Binah or the light of Chokhmah.)

* Te’amim (cantillation notes): This is an even greater level of vitality. Yes, te’amim means that it connects the entire verse – one knows how the verse divides, how it works; the melody enters – this is a higher level. Te’amim – the melody enters, the delight, the feeling, the specific type of vitality that is present here. This is the service of the te’amim. (Te’amim means the light of Chokhmah or the light of Keter.)

It depends on how one begins to count: te’amim, nekudot, tagin, otiyot (cantillation, vowels, crowns, letters).

E. Megillat Esther: Strong Lights in Weak Vessels

And sometimes, as we have said, there is a type like Megillat Esther, where it is not entirely [the same]. There is a level of Torah where a certain vitality is lacking in the letters, yes?

The laws of the Megillah are not entirely “solid” – there is a dispute among the Tannaim, meaning there is a weakness in the sanctity of the Megillah itself. We feel this, for example: one touches a Megillah, one doesn’t touch a Torah scroll – it doesn’t have the same sanctity. The script, the parchment of the Megillah – it does say that it requires the sanctity of a Torah scroll, but it doesn’t have the same type of sanctity. This means that the vessels are weaker.

But the melody of the Megillah, and the cantillation notes of the Megillah, and the vowel points of the Megillah – no one has any indication that they are weaker. This is after all the Oral Torah; this is the light of Chokhmah, the light of Keter that lies within it. Regarding this, it may be that it shines even stronger. Everyone loves the melody of the Megillah much more than they love the melody of a regular Torah reading.

Because this is the meaning: the cantillation notes and vowel points shine forth more strongly. Just as the Arizal explains with his parable – when, as it were, the “Yesod of Abba” bursts forth, “And Mordechai went out from before the king” (Esther 8:15) – it goes out from the Malkhut, from the vessels. There is such a type of vitality – not just the spark that exists within the vessel; no, the vitality itself is so strong that it breaks through the vessel.

For this reason, on Purim people dress up in all sorts of garments and various vessels that don’t quite fit. This means the person shines forth, the vitality of the soul, and it seeks the vessel. He doesn’t get “stuck” in his bekishe, in his shtreimel, in his white socks – it comes out. And therefore the vessel has no taste, but the melody has taste.

F. Shabbat Zachor: The Higher Level of Obliterating Amalek

And this is the service of God, and the special service of emphasizing the vitality of Purim, the vitality of Haman-Amalek. We say that before Purim, Megillat Esther is the fulfillment of that which actually sprouts forth. One takes a Megillah without [the same] script, but a Megillah is not a Torah scroll.

And therefore one must hear that the reading of Shabbat Zachor is, in a certain sense, the higher level, the stronger and clearer level of reading the Megillah. Everyone is very happy with the Megillah, and people come in costume, and they bang at Haman’s name. But even deeper and more authentic is the reading of Zachor. Therefore there are Jews who already conduct themselves in a state of intoxication on Shabbat Zachor, and they bang for Haman when they say “Remember what Amalek did to you… do not forget.”

It is essentially the same thing, only in reverse: here it is actually in the Torah-level realm, and we call this d’Oraita and that d’Rabbanan. Although yes, there is an inquiry whether the Megillah is a Rabbinic mitzvah – perhaps Zachor is d’Oraita, which would make it more stringent than the Megillah itself. It doesn’t seem entirely correct to me; I hold that one can fulfill both with either one.

* As a matter of halakhah, the Magen Avraham already says that one can fulfill the obligation with the Torah reading of Purim morning.

* I believe that one can fulfill through the Megillah itself the mitzvah of “remember what Amalek did to you.” I don’t see why it must be a Torah reading.

But one does see the distinction. Zachor is the Torah-level matter, and it takes place on a Shabbat in shul, which is a genuine Torah reading – not such a Purim-like Torah reading from which one reads the Megillah. It is a genuine Torah reading, and there, within that Torah which has no cantillation notes and vowel points, one brings forth the cantillation notes and vowel points through the melody of Shabbat Zachor, through the light.

It appears that one must enter into it. The mitzvah is indeed with the melody, but the melody always brings out the intention that one understands – what a Jew understands in his heart, in his mind, about the subject. Therefore one must immerse oneself, contemplate deeply, think about what it means.

G. Zachor as Preparation of the Heart

So, our lecture yesterday followed the order of what we said – that one can delve deeply into every matter: the revealed (nigleh), the revealed explanation, which brings one up to a higher level, the hidden levels (madregot ha’nistarot), the levels of Kabbalah.

So yesterday we explained how the topic of Zachor is the preparation of the heart (hakhanat ha’lev). The preparation of the heart that is directed toward action, but it is the preparation of the heart for the mitzvah of obliterating Amalek.

There is a mitzvah of executing justice, a part of the system of punishment and retribution – to punish the Amalek who committed the terrible injustice of “who encountered you on the way” (Deuteronomy 25:18). For this one must be stirred up. One cannot do this thing without being stirred up. For this the Almighty gave a mitzvah of “remember the wickedness of Amalek,” to arouse the people. The king or the war-appointed leader (mashiach milchamah) must arouse the people to be stirred up against Amalek, as we have learned.

Lecture 2: The Inner Meaning of Remembering Amalek – From Anger to Love

Summary: In this second part of the lecture, the speaker delves into the deeper, inner meaning of “remember what Amalek did to you.” The lecture presents a fundamental distinction between the “external” aspect of the mitzvah – which demands anger and war against the wicked – and the “inner” aspect of the mitzvah, where the same spiritual forces are transformed into love of Israel (ahavat Yisrael) and cleaving to God (devekut in Hashem).

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H. Review – The Preparation of the Heart of “Zachor”

So, our lecture yesterday followed the order of what we said – that one can delve deeply into every matter: both in the revealed (nigleh), in the revealed explanation, which brings us higher to a higher level, and also in the level of the hidden, the level of Kabbalah.

Yesterday we explained how the topic of “Zachor” is the preparation of the heart. This is the preparation of the heart that is directed toward action, but it is the preparation of the heart for the mitzvah of obliterating Amalek. There is a mitzvah of executing justice, a part of the system of reward and punishment; one punishes the soldiers of Amalek who committed the terrible injustice of “who encountered you on the way” (Deuteronomy 25:18).

For this one must be stirred up. One cannot do this thing without being stirred up. For this the Almighty gave a mitzvah of “Remember what Amalek did to you,” to arouse the people. The king, or the war-appointed leader, must arouse the people to be stirred up against Amalek. So we learned in the name of the Rambam, and we explained the entire topic in this framework.

I. Two Levels of Arousal – Anger and Love

And just as we learned two weeks ago about the topic of “da’at” (knowledge/awareness) – which is the determination of the intellect that sees what the “good” is in every situation – we explained regarding this that there are various levels.

So too one must speak here: in the arousal of the attribute – the arousal of the emotion that we learn is required in order to fulfill the obliteration of Amalek, and every act of true justice and judgment requires one to have a certain feeling for justice, yes, one becomes agitated when there is an injustice – this same arousal-feeling can also be “expanded” a bit. In other words: explained on a deeper level, in the deeper sense of the word, in the deeper sense of the world – what this means and what is its secret.

And this is the true [intention]: whoever studies Kabbalah – in the Zohar, in all the books of Kabbalah and books of Chassidut – they are engaged in this level. Of obliterating Amalek, of remembering the obliteration of Amalek, and of the obliteration of Amalek itself.

So, this is what I want to discuss a bit. Seemingly one must speak about this on two levels, two dimensions of the topic. And I think the second level is easier to discuss; the first level we will have to struggle with a bit and think now about how to bring it out.

J. Why Does Amalek Require a Special “Remembrance”?

What does this mean? I mean as follows. We explained that there is a question: the war against Amalek is different from other wars.

* A normal war does not require such a strong arousal, such excitement, such arousal of anger. Why? Because either a wicked one comes and starts fighting with you – you fight back, it’s self-defense, one doesn’t need any [special] arousal for that.

* Or if it’s a war of conquest of the Land, or if it’s an optional war (milchemet reshut) – generally, the remembrance is not so critically needed.

This is not the case with the war against Amalek, which is truly a mitzvah – it’s not just a mitzvah, it’s a mitzvah of executing justice – one must punish the one who brought evil upon the world. It is human nature to forget – “do not forget” (lo tishkach). As we once brought, it says in the Torah “Remember what Amalek did to you… do not forget.” When the Torah says “do not forget,” it means to say that the Torah acknowledges that you are going to forget. Otherwise, there would be no mitzvah of “do not forget.” “Do not forget” simply means: I know you are going to forget, please don’t forget. And this requires a stronger arousal, a stronger reminder.

K. The Secret of the Ramban – War on the Outside, Peace on the Inside

Now, just as this is true on the simple level – we understand, it was explained simply – so too it is true on the deeper view. What the deeper view depends on entirely is: what is a person? Yes? What is a righteous person (tzaddik) and what is a wicked person (rasha)? Or one can call it: what is a Jew and what is a non-Jew (goy)?

“Righteous and wicked” – when it says many times *tzaddik* and *rasha*, it means a Jew or a non-Jew. And conversely, when one says a Jew or a non-Jew, one means a good person and a bad person. This is “you are called ‘adam’ (human)” (Yevamos 61a). And Amalek, he is the “non-person,” he is the evil nation, the ruler, the embodiment of an evil nation.

And what is the meaning of good and bad? We have made clear that it’s not enough to say it’s a parable with a lesson, or that it’s the same “as it is above, so it is below” – just as a person has various character traits, so too does the Almighty. Or the deeper things that the kabbalists say, that when a person conducts himself with the attributes of kindness (*middos hachesed*), he arouses in the Almighty the attributes of kindness.

The same type of lights (*oros*), if one speaks about them on a higher level, on a Shabbos level, on a Shabbos Zachor level – it is more clothed in vessels of Torah, clearer in the Zohar, the Ramban, and in the Sefer Torah – then the same things come to peace (*shalom*).

This is the secret that the Ramban teaches, bringing from Purim to peace, from Chanukah to peace. It says that externally (*chitzoniyus*) one must wage war, but when one turns to the inner dimension (*penimiyus*) – the same lights bring peace. Let us try to explain this.

12. Penimiyus Means “Among Jews Themselves”

As we say, when one speaks of *penimiyus*, it means – one way of saying *penimiyus* versus *chitzoniyus* means: instead of speaking between Jews and non-Jews, one speaks among Jews, among themselves. This is more relevant, usually, more relevant. Most of us people who are occupied with dealing with their matters are not dealing with non-Jews. I mean, whoever is engaged in the mitzvah of saving Jewish lives and the like from the non-Jews – indeed so; but now we are speaking practically among ourselves, and most of it is among Jews. And there a new thing begins.

Let us understand what begins there. In other words: among Jews is the place, if one wants to speak about the inner level of Shabbos Zachor, of the arousal of the heart – what the Ramban says, that one should have anger toward Amalek – that same arousal of anger toward Amalek on Shabbos Zachor means lights of love of Israel (*oros ahavas Yisrael*).

This is what I want to say, this is what I want to say – a very beautiful novel insight (*chiddush*), one must listen. The same level, I say it again, the same level, the same spiritual stage (*madreiga*) that arouses – in the World of Action (*Olam HaAsiyah*), let’s say, the lower level – it means: one becomes angry at Amalek, one hates him, one arouses the heart, one goes to wage war. The same thing in the World of Formation (*Olam HaYetzirah*) or in the World of Emanation (*Olam HaAtzilus*) – I don’t even know which world, one level higher – arouses one to love another Jew.

13. What Is a Person? (Uprightness and Justice)

Why? Because this depends on when one understands what the knowledge (*da’as*) is, what the concept is, what the thought is that causes a person to be so terribly angry at the injustice that Amalek does.

That is, what is this anger when one says he is a wicked person (*rasha*)? The simple meaning: I hold – it’s genuinely personal – I hold that he is a person. A person has within himself a sense of justice (*middas hamishpat*), a sense of righteousness (*middas hatzedek*). Justice (*mishpat*) means in simple words a sense of fairness. He goes against that. He is perhaps a broken person, one must kill him. But such a person, this is a simple person. It’s not a good explanation! They are now arguing against the simple meaning of “person.”

“Person” (*mentsch*) is a type of fairness, and “non-person” is one who does not act with fairness. He is like a comprehensive disease against peace, he is a wicked person, he is a “non-person,” he is deserving of death. Not as an individual person, but as a collective he is deserving of death. Because the injustice he does is not personal, rather the entire society sometimes shows that it is not a proper society. This has the meaning… this is built on a reasoning about what a person is, how people must conduct themselves with other people; this is part of the law of “what is a person,” and consequently whoever conducts himself otherwise is deserving of death.

14. What Is a Jew? (Beauty and Gratitude)

But what is a person truly? What is a Jew truly? What a Jew truly is, is a bit different from what a person truly is, or it is yet another level of what a person truly is, which we have been discussing these past few weeks.

A person is something that certainly needs – the first level must be justice among people, of not killing one another for nothing – “who encountered you on the way” (*asher karcha baderech*). Very good.

But why is this whole thing? Why?

* For a non-Jew, this is for the weekdays (*chol*). And for a Jew, this is for Shabbos.

* A value that we have against this is weekday, plain and simple. But on Shabbos one does not read the weekday remembrance [from Parshas Ki Seitzei], sometimes the [Parshas Beshalach]. On Shabbos one reads the Shabbos remembrance from the plain “Ki Seitzei” time. [Note: The speaker distinguishes between the plain weekday remembrance and the higher Shabbos remembrance.]

What does one read for the Shabbos remembrance? The Shabbos “Zachor” says this: that the Jews were made to come together, as it says in the Ramban (end of Parshas Bo): “The purpose of the gathering in synagogues and the raising of the voice in prayer…” [And they say:] “We are Your people and the flock of Your pasture,” “make it known to You,” “we will never be ashamed, for in You we trust.”

A Jew, the gathering of Jews, was not made merely to survive. A gathering of non-Jews needs to survive, it needs to be a good state for the life of this world, and for that it already requires justice and law. Jews also have that level, the first level.

But that which is a gathering of Jews – that Jews come together in the study hall on Shabbos, come to the Torah reading – is not about that. Why do they come? Because they want to understand, they want to learn the Torah, they want to pray, they want to praise the Almighty, they want to “glorify themselves in Your praise” (*l’hishtabeach b’sehilasecha*), they want to praise themselves with the Almighty’s praise.

This is the meaning of “for He is your praise and He is your God” (Devarim 10:21). We boast, yes? We glorify ourselves, we want to become so included in the *sefirah* of *Tiferes* (Beauty/Glory) of the Almighty, as it were. This is the meaning of: “Israel, in whom I take glory” (*Yisrael asher becha espa’ar*), we are…

Lecture: The Inner Dimension of Amalek and the Levels of Divine Governance

(Part 3)

Topic: The deeper intention of “Remember Amalek” on the higher levels, the distinction between nullifying the *kelipah* (husk/shell) below and above, and the secret of “Is Hashem among us or not?” according to Kabbalah.

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15. The Second Level – “To Glorify Oneself in Your Praise”

(Why Do Jews Come to Shul?)

Why do they [the Jews] come [to shul]?

Because they want to understand, they want to learn the Torah, they want to pray, they want to praise the Almighty. They want to “glorify themselves in Your praise” (*l’hishtabeach b’sehilasecha*), they want to praise themselves with the Almighty’s praise.

This is the meaning of “He is your praise and He is your God” – we boast, yes? We glorify ourselves. We want to become so included in the *sefirah* of *Tiferes* of the Holy One, blessed be He.

This is the meaning of “Israel, in whom I take glory.”

Our greatness is – what we pride ourselves in – is that we have given forth a bit more than another, that we are “His name is called upon us.”

This is an entirely different meaning of “human fellowship” [as mentioned earlier]. This is an entirely different level, “Level 2,” the level of Jews. And Jews who come to shul on Shabbos, this is what they do.

Of course, on Purim one sends *mishloach manos* also for the simple level, but on Shabbos one doesn’t come to shul because of that – or not *only* because of that – but for the pleasure of being such a type of group of people who love each other in purity, and who conduct justice and law in purity. Such people who can praise the Almighty; one can say *Pesukei D’Zimrah*, one can say *Nishmas*, one can hear the Torah reading – all these things one does on Shabbos in shul.

16. Hatred of Amalek on the Spiritual Level

Now, when one arouses the understanding – just as when one arouses the understanding of “what is a proper person” one becomes angry at the one who is not proper – when one arouses the understanding, one becomes angry, one arouses a great anger at the one who is not proper.

For example, Amalek comes and tells us not to go to shul. So many Amaleks, such a *kelipah*, such a non-Jew (externally), or such an evil inclination (*yetzer hara*) (internally) that doesn’t let us come together to say *Nishmas* with other Jews – one is even more angry at him, yes? One must get rid of him.

All Chassidic books speak about the topic of “lovers of Hashem, hate evil” (*ohavei Hashem sin’u ra*). And this is a very refined thing, and I believe it is so refined that it doesn’t even come out as hatred, because the attribute of hatred is not truly present here. Hatred means one is truly angry at a person physically.

But let us contemplate, let us try to articulate the contemplation and show what does come out of it.

When a person contemplates that a person must be a person, one cannot live like that [like an animal], and everyone who enters into the second [level] becomes truly furious, to the point of killing, at the one who doesn’t want to conduct himself this way – the one who constantly seizes the Rosh Hashanah and kills them. Certainly.

The same thing when a person contemplates what a person is: a person is such a thing that praises the Almighty, that becomes a part of the Almighty’s praise. Not only does he praise the Almighty, he becomes a part of the Almighty’s praise, “to praise You” (*l’shabchacha*). Then he also in the same way becomes even more angry at the one who is against this, at the one who is not [like this].

So the conclusion emerges. And truly, so it indeed says in the holy books, so it comes out, that if someone comes and understands, he becomes terribly angry.

But everyone understands that it’s a bit different. Why is it different? Let us explain why it’s different.

17. The Secret of Nullifying the Kelipah – Fighting or Nullifying?

Because there is a distinction – the Ramak states the secret – there is a distinction between nullifying the *kelipah* below and nullifying the *kelipah* above.

* Nullifying the *kelipah* below: One must clothe oneself in the same vessels of *kelipah*. “By your sword you shall live” (*al charbecha tichyeh*). Yes, he comes with our “power of the mouth,” so we will have the same idea – we go kill him with a sword. Why? Because he is in the “world of the sword,” one must kill him with a sword; he is still in the world of the sword. This is all when speaking on “Level 1,” in this world, on the level of the World of Action (*Olam HaAsiyah*), of the simple righteous person.

* Nullifying the *kelipah* above: But when one speaks of what one understands – that a person is such a thing that “His name shall be praised forever” (*yishtabach shemo la’ad*) – this is the meaning of a Jew. And certainly, seemingly, one becomes angry. But at whom does one become angry? Think about it – you become angry, at whom is there to be angry? At another Jew? A Jew is after all “His name shall be praised forever”!

And it depends: if there is a non-Jew – the truth is one doesn’t become angry at the non-Jew either. The non-Jew ceases to exist. The evil inclination – let’s say the evil inclination; the non-Jew is the physical non-Jew, but the evil inclination ceases to exist, it is nullified from existence (*batel b’metzius*).

Therefore it states the distinction that the obliteration of Amalek is a nullification from existence (*bitul b’metzius*), whereas the obliteration of the Seven Nations is not nullified in the same way, yes? There is a distinction. It is obvious that regarding other nations there is not the same level of obliteration.

Why? Because everyone understands that the obliteration of Amalek, as the Ramak says, is “nullification of the *kelipah*” – one demonstrates that there is no *kelipah*. Not that there is a *kelipah* and one fights with it.

Because what is a *kelipah*? A mistaken reasoning. You thought, yes, you thought that a person exists in order to live here and eat the three Shabbos meals (*shalosh seudos*). No! A person exists in order to sing the Shabbos songs (*zemiros*) and to sing during the three meals the cantillation notes and vowel points (*te’amim u’nekudos*), in order to hear the Torah teachings and to recite them during the three meals. That is a person.

So where has the rooster gone now, the one who says that a person exists to gorge himself? Where is he? “Outside hang those brazen dogs” (*l’var nislin ilein hanach kalbin d’chatzipin*)? Where is he? One goes outside and finds the dog?

So yes, the point is not that one goes outside and finds a few mangy dogs there. It means to say that it doesn’t exist, and they are on such a level and understand that this is the matter.

18. Practical Implication for Interpersonal Relations (“Do Not Take Revenge and Do Not Bear a Grudge”)

And what is the practical implication (*nafka minah*)? That the Jew – the Jew is after all the subject of “Do not take revenge and do not bear a grudge against the members of your people” (*lo sikom v’lo sitor es bnei amecha*).

What does the Rambam also write regarding the mitzvah of revenge? “Do not take revenge and do not bear a grudge against the members of your people” means simply: yes, the Jew wronged me, he didn’t want to lend me his hammer yesterday, so he’s a scoundrel. From the perspective of the first way of looking at it, one should indeed be angry at him – it’s even a mitzvah, okay, one must obliterate him.

But one must think: what is a Jew? Is a Jew something for lending hammers? Hammers one needs to lend, why not? A Jew is here to praise the Almighty.

Does this Jew prevent me from praising the Almighty? Does the “grasshopper of David” (*chagavi Dovid*) interfere? He doesn’t interfere either. He only interferes for someone who has no sense, who thinks that praising the Almighty means one must feel good and shout.

Praising the Almighty means: with the fact that this world exists, with the fact that you understand that there is a world and it works, and the Almighty is in the world, and everything is going in the right direction.

This is the difficult [service]. And when one contemplates, the *kelipah* becomes nullified. And consequently, speaking of two Jews who bother you – he doesn’t bother you.

The entire contemplation that I spoke about – of being very angry at Amalek externally – causes that when the Jew is, as it were, in the role of Amalek, he bothers you, God forbid, he is in his “world of externalities.” You grasp that it doesn’t even begin. From the perspective of the soul (*neshamah*), from the perspective of the way of looking at it, the evil doesn’t exist. It doesn’t exist.

This is the secret of the obliteration of Amalek on Shabbos, on the second level, the human level.

I hope it’s clear enough. I mean, I’m missing here somewhat of a clear way to express this. I think I’ve expressed it well enough for today; perhaps on Shabbos we will understand better.

19. Level 3 – From the Perspective of Divinity (The Secret of “Is Hashem Among Us or Not?”)

Now, the same thing – we go further back and yet another level higher – Kabbalah. After all, every matter we must learn from the perspective of the soul (meaning souls), and also from the perspective of Divinity, from the level of Godliness. What is the root here, what we understand here, which is truly not human at all.

And this we will learn – the secret that is written in the holy Zohar. Two or three times the Zohar brings the same statement, the Arizal discusses it extensively, and Chassidic books cite it extensively.

He brings that Amalek came – the war of Amalek, the first war – was after the Jews said “Is Hashem among us or not?” (*hayesh Hashem b’kirbeinu im ayin*) – the test of Massah and Merivah, when they said at Refidim that there was no water, and the verse concludes “because they tested Hashem, saying: Is Hashem among us or not?” and the very next verse is “And Amalek came” (*vayavo Amalek*), literally the very next verse.

And I’m already twenty-five minutes into the lecture, I don’t need to elaborate on this at all – one could elaborate greatly just on this point alone – I only want to develop the third point: how it emerges that all of this depends on the apprehension of Godliness (*hasagas Elokus*).

What do I mean to say? We are saying that all these levels – both the vengeance that must be, and the non-vengeance which is the same thing that emerges from a deeper contemplation of the level of souls – everything depends on a certain lack of understanding; it cascades down (*mishtalshal*) from a certain lack of understanding of how Godliness, how the Almighty works.

And if one understands this, one can say from below to above: if one understands the true Godliness that cascades downward, then “and you shall know today” (*v’yadata hayom*), consequently one has also taken vengeance on Amalek on its own, and so forth. Or conversely, first one does this, and then one does the next level, and afterward one understands that these are all true levels of Godliness.

20. The Investigation of “Yesh” (Existence) and “Ayin” (Nothingness)

And the Zohar – the Zohar says as follows. The Zohar asks a question – Rabbi Abba in the Zohar asks a question – he says: What is going on here? Are we talking about babies? I don’t know, does she go with them?

The Ramban says “Is Hashem among us or not?” means: Is there a prophet? Is Moshe a true prophet? That is the meaning of “Is Hashem among us?” – is there among us prophets? Just as one sees in other verses that “the Almighty among us” means prophets.

The Gemara asks: But what do you mean they didn’t see? There hadn’t yet been the Giving of the Torah, but there had been the Splitting of the Sea – “a maidservant at the Sea saw what Yechezkel did not see.” What is this “Is Hashem among us or not?” Yesterday He was there! It’s a good question; one can elaborate on it both on the plain level and on the esoteric level.

The Zohar says, Rabbi Abba says: No, of course, they didn’t ask foolish questions. They didn’t mean to say whether the Almighty exists or the Almighty doesn’t exist.

They meant to ask a very deep inquiry in Kabbalah, in philosophy, in the investigations of divinity. They asked a question – this is how the Ramak explains it in the Idrot, the Idrot bring the same Torah – whether the Almighty is with them (of course the Almighty exists, of course the Almighty runs the world), but they wanted to know whether the Almighty is leading them now, or in a general manner, from the aspect of “yesh” (existence) or from the aspect of “ayin” (nothingness).

* The aspect of “yesh”: means the level of Chochmah (Wisdom) – the Ramak says the level of Chochmah, or as he says, the level of Ze’ir Anpin.

* The aspect of “ayin”: means the level of Atika, the level of Arich Anpin.

Why is this called “yesh” and that called “ayin”?

Yesh means that one can grasp it. “Yesh machshavah tefisa bei” – “thought can grasp it” – in a certain sense, a certain attribute, a certain description. One can say about it: the Almighty is righteousness and justice. Yes, justice is an attribute of being, He conducts Himself with righteousness and justice, kindness (chesed), severity (gevurah), beauty (tiferet) – the attributes that we understand. And from this comes what we call according to Kabbalah “the way of nature” (derech hateva), this is the normal conduct of the world, “nothing interesting.”

“Im ayin” is the conduct about which one says no word. This means “negation of attributes” (shlilat hata’arim), says the Ramak. That is, one says nothing about it, one has no word for it. Only that there is a God – even that one perhaps cannot fully say – only that which has no word for it, that is higher than all words. That which one feels or knows in some refined way that such a reality exists.

Is that what is leading them? That is what they wanted to know.

21. The Blemish of Testing and Separation

He asks: if so, what does one want from them? “And Amalek came.” What does one want from them? They asked a good Kabbalah question! What is it, one isn’t allowed to learn Kabbalah?

So he gave a wonderful answer. He says two things:

1. They made a breach (pirtzah).

2. And they did it by way of testing (nisayon).

And one must understand that this is the same thing. In other words, what he is explaining is: the Jews, why did Amalek come?

It’s not because they asked a good question. It is a good question. Rather, because they did it not in the way of love, [but] in the way of testing. They tested [experimented]. He says: He is the one who was, let Him give us. If they had done it with affection (b’chibuv), there would have been no problem.

Another point he says is that they were separating (mafrid).

This is an edited transcript of the fourth part of the shiur. The text has been divided into chapters and paragraphs for easier readability, with the necessary language improvements, while maintaining the full content of the original speaker.

Shiur: “Remember What Amalek Did to You” – Part 4

Topic: The Contradiction Between “Yesh” and “Ayin,” and the Answer of Affection

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22. Which God Leads Us? Both at Once

Which God leads us? How does the Almighty lead us – from the aspect of “yesh” or from the aspect of “ayin”?

The answer is: Why not both? That is the answer. Both, both at once.

The same God who is above all attributes, who is the negation of attributes [the aspect of “ayin”], He is also the God about whom one says “He loves His people Israel,” “Who chooses His people Israel with love,” who loves every Jew extraordinarily. The same one. There is no difference, no contradiction.

The Almighty says that there is a contradiction; He says there is such a God and such a God, there is Tiferet and there is Atik. And one even asks the questions, one asks the questions, one must indeed work out how the One who is “full of compassion” is the same as the “mighty warrior.” That is a good question.

But when one asks the question in a way that implies there is already an answer [of separation], as if there is a separation – that itself is Amalek-ness.

23. The Secret of “Ki Yad Al Kes Y-ah”

One must also understand that “And Amalek came” doesn’t simply mean it’s a punishment. It’s not a punishment. Amalek, he is that [the separation]. This is the secret of why it says – very interestingly – the verse: “Ki yad al kes Y-ah, milchamah la-Hashem ba-Amalek mi-dor dor” – “For a hand is on the throne of Y-ah, the Lord’s war against Amalek from generation to generation” (Exodus 17:16).

Everyone knows this Midrash. And it’s very interesting, the verse is a difficult verse. This is the only place, or the first place in the Torah, where it says that the Almighty has a throne (“kes”). “A hand on the throne of Y-ah.” This is a difficult verse. All the commentators have already struggled [with it]. The Almighty has a throne? What does it mean that the Almighty sits on a throne? He has a body? He sits on a throne? What does it mean? What’s going on here?

And the Midrash says, or the Gemara says, the Midrash: “The Name is not complete until the seed of Amalek is erased” (ein ha-Shem shalem ad she-yimacheh zar’o shel Amalek). What does “the Name is not complete” mean? That there is no unity of the Y-H and the V-H, yes? They learn it this way. This means that the Atik and the Z”A (Ze’ir Anpin), the aspect of “ayin” and the aspect of “yesh,” are not working together, they are working in contradiction.

But in truth they do work together. Only people don’t grasp that they work together, people don’t grasp that the aspect of “yesh” and the aspect of “ayin” go together. And consequently, that is the Amalek. And because of this one doesn’t understand the verse, one doesn’t understand.

The oath means: this is all the same thing. The oath where He says “war for God against Amalek,” and Amalek itself, and the “Name is not complete” – that is what it is. Amalek is the meaning, this is the interpretation of all these things at the highest level. The meaning of this is that it can sometimes appear to a person that there is a separation between Atik and Z”A, and the answer is that there isn’t. Then Amalek ceases to exist, that is the complete Name, “and He will erase the memory of Amalek.”

24. The Incomprehensible Connection of “Ein Sof” and “Friend”

So what does this mean? How does this come in? What he means is very simple. What he means is that we started with this, that there is a world of vessels (kelim), there is a world where every vessel must have righteousness and justice, there must be all the first level that we learned yesterday about the erasure of Amalek – the God who runs the world. And not only that, but above that the second level where we said that everything is the aspect of “the complete Name,” yes? When the Almighty makes peace. The true purpose of war inwardly is peace, not that there should be a quarrelsome war; the true purpose is peace, in order to be praised and glorified with the complete Name that is called upon us in completeness.

But it appears to be a contradiction. People don’t understand that there is a contradiction [truly], people don’t understand that the two things can go together. People also don’t understand – I don’t understand, people, we also don’t properly understand. Not here does the question begin; if one thinks a little deeply one understands. We don’t understand a much simpler thing:

How can it be that the Ein Sof (the Infinite), the aspect of “ayin” about which one cannot say anything at all, that He is the one who is our friend? It’s an incredible, wondrous thing (“funny thing”).

One can say certain answers, one can say now also not just casual answers that resolve the whole thing in a moment, but we don’t understand it. And when we don’t understand, there are itself two ways, a correct way of relating to it.

First of all, we don’t understand it. And why don’t we understand it? Because we are not on that level, because in the world there truly is a certain separation, an aspect of Amalek. And the higher one understands, it ceases, it becomes unity, all these things become one thing.

25. Zachor – Remembering the Unity with Affection

Now, what does one do when one doesn’t understand? Purim itself is a mitzvah of understanding why there is such a contradiction. Why is there such a contradiction? One will yet see, clearly it’s not a contradiction, it’s the same thing. Consequently one must be able to speak clearly about the topic of despair and acquisition of a servant (ye’ush v’kinyan eved), one can speak about this on Purim. Completely we cannot speak about it.

Why? What does one do when it’s the eve of Purim and one doesn’t understand it? “Zachor et asher asah lecha Amalek” – “Remember what Amalek did to you” – here is the remembering. This is the mitzvah of zachor according to the inner dimension. The mitzvah of zachor according to the inner dimension is: remember that “zachor v’shamor b’dibur echad ne’emru” – “remember and observe were said in one utterance.” Remember, don’t forget, just as zachor and shamor, says the Ramak. Remember that it’s the same thing, don’t make that mistake.

What does it mean don’t make that mistake? I see it though! Why does one speak about this? Because there is a despair, there is indeed a problem where it’s hard to understand how it’s the same thing. About this the Torah says: Go with affection (b’chavivut).

What is truly the connection? Practically speaking, as a matter of halachah. In depth, according to Kabbalah, philosophy, one can answer another time. But every Jew is practical. Service (avodah) means how is it practical. How is it practically a principle of knowledge that there is no separation? Practically it is a principle in a love, in an affection, in a certain pleasantness, in a certain harmony. This exists in people, this is an attribute more than an action. It’s an attribute where the attribute itself brings in all the perceptions of Godliness.

And this is, I’ll tell you in one word, also something that whoever learns, whoever looks into these kinds of inquiries in Kabbalah, must always remember, and I will try to say it.

26. Parable – Three Approaches to Contradictions (The Two Rebbes)

There is a way of learning that is external (b’chitzoniyut). We have perhaps spoken in other places about this more. There is a way of learning that is external, that is not with affection. It is through testing, meaning, let’s see if it’s really so. “Wait, there’s an Atik, there’s a Ze’ir Anpin, how do they go together? Yes, it says in Kabbalah that it’s not a contradiction, but what is the contradiction? In practice it is a contradiction. Let’s talk about it, what’s the problem here.”

Nobody says there isn’t an answer. An answer means that the world is created in such a way that there is one who doesn’t need any world. But here two people, one can call it one more with a simple measure or less with a simple measure, but it’s not… I don’t like that word. I’ll call it more with love and less with love. There is one who loves.

Like the parable, let’s say a crude parable, a coarse parable, one needs to say coarse parables, a very coarse parable:

You have here a Jew who has two rebbes, or has a father and a mother, and the two rebbes go with different ways, with different approaches. Each one has his point that he emphasizes in Yiddishkeit, his way of understanding things – very different.

1. The investigator/opponent (misnaged):

There is one who is an opponent, he is an investigator, he stands from the outside, he works through tests, he is “they tested God.” He says: “Gevald! It’s clear, this one says this way, that one says that way, it doesn’t go together.” And that person can be a great expert, a good philosopher, a good understander.

2. The fool:

Then there is one who is a fool, he says: “It’s all the same thing, everything is unity, it says ‘One, singular, and unique,’ I have no idea, everything is the same thing, it’s just nonsense.” The Torah of unity cannot be a fool. Perhaps the fool is a little better and has a certain advantage over the wise one, because in practice he is not quarreling with everyone. It’s a way of living, not a way of quarreling. When one learns from him, one doesn’t feel quarrelsome, one feels good. Whoever sees the two types of books knows: when one learns the first type of book, one feels angry the whole time; a second type of book, one feels good. It’s a change, it’s a turned-around head. Ah, but we want to be different.

3. The third type (the correct way):

Here is a third type of Jew. The third type of Jew says: “I don’t know yet. If I would know the Torah completely, if the essence would be engraved and understood clearly – we spoke on Wednesday about how when one understands true things one can understand all contradictions – I’m not there yet. I’m missing some foundations, I’m missing understandings, I don’t understand. But what I do know is that I love both of these Jews. I simply love them. I love not only them, I love their ideas. I love them because I am their student.”

A person can be a student of more than one rebbe, yes? It says in the Gemaras, for a merchant it’s better to be a student of more than one rebbe, one gets a broader understanding. Two rebbes always means one differs from the other, he must have some difference from the second. But I love both of them. I love this one type so much, I love him.

27. The Power of Affection as an Answer

What do I do? I love him. How can one love? I love him, I have a tremendous appreciation for him, I feel a pull toward the one about whom one cannot say anything at all, who is “hidden in the beauty of concealment” (mistater b’shufrir chevyon), I have a tremendous love for him.

I also have a tremendous love for the personal God, for the one with whom one can speak, one can say good morning in the morning and good evening at night, whom one can ask for anything, who is with you, “I am with him in distress” (imo anochi b’tzarah), and the one who makes order in the world, He makes righteousness and justice – I love that one too.

It’s a difficult question, philosophically: “How can both coexist” (eich yitkaymu shneihem), “Is the Lord among us or not” (ha-yesh Hashem b’kirbeinu im ayin) – it’s a difficult question. Perhaps on Purim, I’ll get myself good and drunk, I’ll learn all the books of Kabbalah, all the books of philosophy, all the books of inquiry all at once, I’ll understand the answer clearly, and a fine book of inquiry will come out that will explain, “My dear ones and friends,” I know that you will all see that the question never began, it’s simple distinctions between the two types of knowledge, no problem.

I’m not there yet, I have a few more Purims. But I want to tell you one thing: I love them both. I love them both, “avdu v’chavivuta” – “they are lost and beloved” – I love them both. I can’t say they are quarreling, one needs to understand, no problem, one will learn and understand, but I love them both.

The affection, “a nem b’chavivuta talya milta” – “it depends on affection” – the affection, this is the affection of the sefirot themselves. Truly, one way of describing the answer is to say that the “yesh” loves the “ayin,” and the “ayin” loves the “yesh.” The level of a sefirah, the sefirah of Keter and the sefirah of Chochmah, the sefirah of Keter and the sefirah of Arich Anpin and Ze’ir Anpin – they love each other. They are the same thing, you can already say, but there is between them a love. How one interprets the love, love is a physical thing, okay, but that is one answer.

Just as you can understand that a person can love two approaches that he loves both, in a certain sense, the affection of the sefirot is the answer to the question, truly. The affection that the sefirot have in the World of Tikkun (Rectification), yes, they love each other, “but the matter depends on affection” (chavivuta talya milta).

And the same thing, the kind of affection that he can have, this is also a new perspective now on the fact that he is not quarreling with his fellow whom one must take revenge on or bear a grudge against. He says yes, true, but I still love him, he is still a Jew, he is still a person.

The same affection is also, when it goes all the way down, it comes down to the sword with which one kills Haman the wicked – he loves so much, because everyone says “for the sake of love” (l’shem ahavah), there is in this no jealousy, no anger at the one who blemishes the love. That is called jealousy, yes, “a jealous and avenging God” (Kel kano v’nokem), “a man who is jealous for his wife” (ish kana m’kaneh l’ishto). So he loves her so much, it bothers him terribly that someone goes against this.

Chapter 5: The Highest Level – “B’Atika Talya Milta”

The Sword of Atika

When one speaks of the sword that kills Amalek, it is a sword that is pleasant to look at; it is not frightening. This is the highest level of rectification (tikkun), the highest level of “b’Atika talya milta” – “the matter depends on Atika” – on the Atik, the highest sefirah of Keter, and of the third meal of Shabbat (shalosh seudot), which is the time of “the will of wills” (ra’ava d’ra’avin).

Summary and Conclusion

These are the three levels of Amalek above, the three levels of Amalek – the two levels beyond what we spoke about yesterday – that one can understand a little.

They [the holy books] have said very many deep things, where each thing is a topic in its own right, but I hope it is enough to open the mind a little to understand the intention of Shabbat Zachor.