Zohar Shiur Erev Shabbos — Erev Rosh Hashanah 5787

Opening: The Structure of the Erev Shabbos Shiur

Dear brothers, today is Erev Rosh Hashanah 5787, and I believe this is already at least the tenth time that we are learning this shiur every Erev Shabbos and Erev Yom Tov, and so we hope that we will merit to continue this shiur for at least many more decades. This shiur is a shiur from Sefer HaZohar, and its purpose is to express somewhat more internally — that is, in a more truthful manner — and using the language and expressions of the mekubalim of the Zohar and of the Chassidic sefarim, which reveal chiddush, a light of renewal. And to explain the way how to speak from our being Jewish, and consequently how to be Jewish, for our neshamah is built from these words, from divrei Torah, from divrei tefillah that we speak and that we contemplate in our thoughts.

And thus one must recognize: a new thing begins, a page turns, the order of the cycle of the year and the period of the year turns, and all are expressions of circles that revolve and go. We must remember "from where you came and where you are going" (Mishnah Avos 3), and with whom we are going and with whom we are coming. All the chaveirim, all the rabbanim that we learn from, that we learn with, that they learn from us — this is the part, this is part of the structure, part of divrei Torah themselves, from the light of Torah itself: the chaveirim, the chaveirim who listen, the chaveirim who critique, the chaveirim who listen until the end, and the chaveirim who don't listen until the end, perhaps even them.

Although until now — Am Yisrael, with Hashem's help — we will merit to make a chaburah where we will learn together every Friday morning, and there will be much more vitality and much more taste in it, and may it be His will that this will be fulfilled this year as well. But for now I am learning the shiur privately, and it is only recorded, and there is great reason why it is so. We will overcome this and find a way to do it even in a chaburah.

The Chaveirim as Part of the Yichud

But nevertheless, the chaveirim and the listeners are part, according to the din of Torah itself, for there is always the aspect of yichud zachar u'nekevah, which is the aspect of Kudsha Brich Hu and His Shechinah. Every "two who sit and engage in divrei Torah, the Shechinah is between them" (Mishnah Avos 3), and its explanation is always according to Kabbalah: one of them is a merkavah for the Shechinah, and one of them is a merkavah for the aspect of the one who gives shefa to the Shechinah. And there can be higher levels, that if a rav taught Torah, he is in the aspect of pnimiyus Abba and Imma. And just as a father, "a father of his father who sustained him for the life of this world," this is the aspect of chitzoniyus Abba and Imma, or Yisrael Saba and Tevunah, which is the level of a physical father.

The Structure of Torah Learning and the Reality of the Worlds

The structure of Torah learning is the structure of the reality of the worlds, the reality of the Sefiros, the inner way how the world truly functions. And everyone knows that the foundation of foundations of the structure that we learn from the Zohar is that nothing happens without a mekabel, and everything depends — "everything depends on the Shechinah," "with this shall Aharon come into the holy place" (Vayikra 16:3). This is the Shechinah that is truly hinted at on Rosh Hashanah, which is the day of Malchus. Everything depends on the Shechinah, just as everything depends on the lower ones.

The Pshat of the Ramak: Light Requires a Receiver

And we learn many times in the name of the Ramak, and this is how he understands the holy Zohar, that the upper shefa — that is, from the aspect of what it is in itself — it makes no difference to it regarding students, it makes no difference to it whether it has students at all. Let us illustrate: if there were a person who is a tzaddik for himself alone, it would make no difference who his students are. Seemingly, from the aspect of his state in himself, which we call the aspect of Ein Sof in relation to itself, the aspect of the mashpia in relation to itself.

But the entire essence of light, the entire essence of intellect, is that it is compelled to bring forth and give shefa from the power of "the nature of the Good to do good." And it cannot give shefa unless there is someone who will receive. Even though it is full of all good, full of everything, it cannot bring itself forth, it cannot give its shefa if there is no one who will receive it. This then is the first step in understanding: the lower ones, the Shechinah — everything depends on the action of the Shechinah, on the action of the lower ones, who are hinted at in the Shechinah, who bring the thing to the Shechinah, to the aspect of the mashpia and to the aspect of the mekabel.

The Need of the Receiver: Why Does a Person Write a Book?

And so it is, as I say, that we understand that this is the aspect of the students that emerge from everyone — perhaps not yet emerging from everyone at that level, but the need: if there is no one to speak to, there is nothing, the light does not come into being, the reality does not occur.

And many times, as I said here in the shiur, and so it is in general: when a chacham or tzaddik writes something. For example, sometimes a person speaks directly, and about this it is said "happy are your men, happy are your servants who stand before you always and hear your wisdom" (Melachim I 10:8), as the Queen of Sheba said to King Solomon. This is great happiness, great honor, great joy, that a person has — both for those sitting and for the chacham himself — that they hear his wisdom.

But there are even more hidden ways, more concealed ways, like "send your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will find it" (Koheles 11:1). For there are people who write, and so many of the revelations, so many of the powerful chiddushim — not small chiddushim, for there is always someone to say an explanation on a pasuk or a halachah — but so many of the great chiddushim. I believe that even the holy Zohar, and perhaps other mekubalim, and the Rambam certainly in the Moreh Nevuchim, it is so. That is, many of the great revelations of the secrets of Torah that we have were written by people who did not have students properly who would hear from them, but what did they have? They had a pen, and they wrote sefarim.

What is the meaning of this? Why does a person need to write a sefer, and it is not enough for him what he contemplates for himself? And we will immediately say the second aspect, and from it the matter will be better understood. Rather, the Torah requires a receiver, there must be someone to speak to. And sometimes the receiver is direct, as it is revealed, and then the matter is according to the level of the receiver who is there. And sometimes there is one who grasps things much deeper, who does not have among his generation chaveirim to whom he can explain them clearly, and even if he has — he cannot bring himself out one hundred percent, he does not have students to whom he can properly give shefa, and then he conceals the matter in writing.

The Secret of Writing: Revealed and Concealed

The Writer and the Receiver at the End of the World

Sometimes a person writes something, and it reaches another at the end of the world, to whom he is directing it. And do the matters need to pass through people in between? These become only in the aspect of a conduit, they are not the true receivers, they are not the aspect of the true nekevah for the thing, but they are aspects of a channel through which the thing passes. And thus you will learn sefarim like the Zohar, or other sefarim written in this way.

Rebbi Abba Will Write

There is an aspect in the Zohar called "Rebbi Abba will write." Rebbi Abba is the writer of the Zohar, and Abba is certainly Abba of Atzilus in truth, "Rebbi Abba will write." And this is also the secret of "and write us for life," "and write us in the Book of Life." The writer — the Arizal explains — is lower Chochmah, Chesed and Gevurah, but the source of writing is Chochmah. And the explanation of "Rebbi Abba will write" is that we are speaking to one who will in the future read what we are writing. This is the matter, for in this way it is possible to bring forth things even though the receiver is not before you, and therefore this is in the aspect of concealed.

Revealed Versus Concealed

Revealed means what the people who are here can receive one hundred percent. Concealed is what a person understands between himself and his Creator, the truth that he truly contemplates, but he does not always have to whom to say it, and therefore he brings it out through writing, or brings it out in other ways, or sometimes indeed says it.

There were Chassidic tzaddikim about whom they say that they would say things even though they knew that the listeners did not understand them, because the thing must be in the world. What is the meaning of being in the world? It means that the thing must reach some place; perhaps the chacham who hears and does not understand will return and say the thing to another, and that other will understand it. These are the hidden ways.

Kosveinu L'Chaim: A New Explanation in Dugma D'Le'eila

The Angel Sofriel and Writing Above

And I believe we should say, for everything is dugma d'le'eila. What we say on Rosh Hashanah "kosveinu l'chaim" is a great matter of writing in a sefer. And it is understood that this is a mashal, and we have had shiurim to explain what the nimshal is. But the nimshal for our matter today — what is the difference? They say that Hakadosh Baruch Hu speaks, and that Hakadosh Baruch Hu writes. Hakadosh Baruch Hu, the malachim — there is a malach Sofriel, and we cannot grasp him at all. Malach Sofriel, and he writes. And what is that malach Sofriel? Malach Sofriel is that Rebbi Abba who wrote the Idra, who wrote the Zohar.

Speech: Vayomer Elokim and the Seven Voices

Malach Sofriel means the things that Hakadosh Baruch Hu speaks, and this is what is said in Ma'aseh Bereishis revealed, "Vayomer Elokim" (Bereishis 1), which is as it were generally the seven lower ones, the seven days of Bereishis that Hakadosh Baruch Hu says. Seven voices, as it is said "the voice of Hashem in power, the voice of Hashem in glory" (Tehillim 29:4) and so on. These are things that Hakadosh Baruch Hu says. That is, when Hakadosh Baruch Hu speaks, they always ask a question in Ma'aseh Bereishis: to whom did He say? "For He spoke and it was, He commanded and it stood" (Tehillim 33:9), to whom did He command, and there was nothing yet?

A good answer: there was the aspect of Malchus within Him, it was for the sake of the future. But something that is possible to grasp, that one can picture to himself as it were that there is someone who can understand Him. "Let there be light" (Bereishis 1:3) is such a statement that the world can still understand, the revealed part of it. And since the world can understand it — He said it. This is the explanation of "Vayomer" of Hakadosh Baruch Hu: there is clear revelation, clear speech that Hakadosh Baruch Hu says "let there be light," "let there be a firmament" (Bereishis 1:6), and so on.

Torah That Was Written Before Him in Black Fire on White Fire

And therefore there was an aspect of Torah that was written before Him. This is an interesting matter. As we learn in the Midrash and in the Zohar, that Hakadosh Baruch Hu looked "gazed" at the written Torah "written before Him in black fire on white fire" (see Yerushalmi Shekalim 6), and from it, according to it, He spoke. As it were like one who reads from writing, like a person, just as King David built the Beis HaMikdash, "all in writing from the hand of Hashem upon me He gave understanding" (Divrei HaYamim I 28:19) — he wrote, the prophet gave a written plan for building the Beis HaMikdash, and the listeners and builders looked at that plan, and presumably told the builders how to build. Or a person looks at the Torah and reads, he reads in the Torah, and afterward does. For this is the purpose of reading the Torah, "to learn in order to do" (see Mishnah Avos), afterward he does.

And the Midrash says that so as it were Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the world, that before what went out and was said, there was the aspect of writing, Torah that was written before Him. And you will ask: if there is no world yet, how is there writing? Therefore they say that it is "in black fire," for the fire comes to say that you should not understand the thing. For it is impossible to write in fire; one can picture to oneself that one writes in fire, but this is a mashal. And the mashal of fire expresses exactly this, that the thing is not written literally as it appears.

But what is the explanation of "written"? The explanation is that before there was a world, and also afterward in truth, there is writing. And writing is as it were what Hakadosh Baruch Hu records for Himself. There is speech in a person, and they always think that the speaker speaks to another; and writing is also to another, and this requires explanation. Thought alone — that is, before there is a sefer, for Hakadosh Baruch Hu desired to create the world "with sefer and sofer and sippur" (Sefer Yetzirah), and before there is a sefer there is nothing. There is thought, there is what He truly contemplates, but speech is one level after that. There are things that He speaks, and there are things that He understands, and understands that He must reveal them as well, but their time has not yet arrived.

Twenty-Six Generations Until Avraham Avinu

As Hakadosh Baruch Hu waited as it were twenty-six generations until Avraham Avinu would come, so that He would have someone to speak with. Hakadosh Baruch Hu spoke with Adam, and spoke with Kayin, and they did not understand Him. In those weeks after the sin there was not His friend; He had to speak with them. To them He said as it were "let there be light," "let there be a firmament," to them He said. But He did not understand with them, there were no conversations.

Avraham Avinu came, and Hakadosh Baruch Hu said to him, and gave him the Torah. And afterward He gave Moshe Rabbeinu the Torah, "and the writing was the writing of God" (Shemos 32:16). And the Mishnah in Avos says that the writing is among the things that were created on Erev Shabbos at twilight. This is one explanation of the writing of the Luchos. That Avraham Avinu already spoke a little, and in any case there was also such a thing as writing.

Writing for the Sake of the Future

Now, finally, He found someone to say to him — Moshe, Avraham. And everything that He spoke with each one, all is good and beautiful. But there is the thing that I wrote, and I wrote it because I understood that I must bring it out, that if there were not one for the sake of the future — "the thought of Israel preceded everything" (see Bereishis Rabbah) — there would not be writing either at all. But now there is someone who can read my writings. You can read it, and you will see the things that are the inner intention, you will see the meaning of the world that Hakadosh Baruch Hu had to write.

And thus "for after many days you will find it" (Koheles 11:1), from afar, later they will be able to read this writing, to open the letter, and to understand that this is the secret of Torah, and this is the difference between Ma'aseh Bereishis and Torah.

Kosveinu L'Chaim: Remember Us in Torah

And when we say on Rosh Hashanah "kosveinu l'chaim" — there is writing, and after it on Yom Kippur the sealing — the explanation of "kosveinu l'chaim" is remember us in Torah. And therefore they say about everything on Rosh Hashanah, in Malchiyos Zichronos and Shofros, "as it is written and said," as it is written in the Torah, "and through Your servants the prophets it is written," everything is "written." For the writing comes to say: indeed we can speak with You, and speech is what everyone can understand. But there are aspects that from afar as it were are better. We ask to hear what Hakadosh Baruch Hu wrote, we ask to read, to open our eyes and read what Hakadosh Baruch Hu wrote. This is an entirely different level, a much deeper level in understanding reality, in understanding the will of creation, the intention of creation, the intention of existence. This is the "kosveinu l'chaim."

Kosveinu B'Sifrecha: The Hidden Yichud

An entirely new explanation: write us in Your book. When we say "kosveinu," the intention is not simply that Hakadosh Baruch Hu has a book in which He says "who will live and who will die" (Musaf Rosh Hashanah). The intention is that we should be written, not in speech alone, not as His spoken word as it is for everyone. For "judgment for the God of Yaakov" (Tehillim 81:5), for everyone He makes judgment, and judgment before the King is generally by mouth, and there is a scribe who writes. And when they say "kosveinu," they say this to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and not to the scribe. It is possible that He does this through a scribe, some angel, I don't know. But the idea is that they say this to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. They say "kosveinu" in the primordial Torah, in the Torah written before Him, which You can only write.

And therefore there must be the aspect of distance, for what a person writes is something he does for himself, alone. The writer writes, and afterward the thing reaches another. It is not that there is no yichud here, but rather a more hidden yichud. He writes to one; one does not write into the world, and one does not write to oneself, for to oneself there is no need to write, and he can contemplate. But this is a hidden yichud. And this is the hidden yichud called writing, which we intend on Rosh Hashanah. Even though it appears that it is a time of separation, a time that is not of yichud but of separation — its meaning is that they seek to find the writing. And the writing is on a body, as it were on the body of the nukva, which is as it were when they cut, where they write. And this is already for one who understands the secrets.

Return to the Foundation: Two Modes of Speech and Writing

Revealed and Hidden, Speech and Writing

Let us return to the place from which we began. We understand that always the mekubalim, the listeners, are part of the thing, but there are two modes in it: there is the revealed mode, which we now call speech; and there is the more hidden mode, which we call writing. And if I record a video, this too is an aspect of writing. And the avodah of Rosh Hashanah is to reveal both things. And one must conceal a little, and it is important to conceal, as something whose time has not arrived for revelation, as the Zohar writes it and knows that they will not read it today, and perhaps "after many days you will find it," that at the end of days — as it is written in the Zohar — the sefer will be revealed. That is, the one who wrote the Zohar understood that he is not writing for his time. And why did he write specifically? Because he did not have to whom to speak; and once there will be to whom to speak. Once a generation will come, once people will come who will be ready to hear the words, to read the writings.

V'Hofa B'Hadar Gaon Uzecha: We Have Learned the Secrets of Torah

And the revelation of the secret, the revelation that we request on Rosh Hashanah, "v'hofa b'hadar gaon uzecha" (Musaf Rosh Hashanah) — its meaning is: teach us the secrets of Torah. That we should already understand what You wrote in Your plan before You created the world, and not only hear what You said afterward. And this is the parshah of the thirteen attributes of mercy, that after Moshe Rabbeinu requested "erase me now from Your book that You have written" (Shemos 32:32), Hakadosh Baruch Hu said to him: I have even greater books that you do not know. "And Hashem passed before him and called" (Shemos 34:6) — He also essentially read, and it is possible that "vayikra" means that He read to him from His book. Moshe Rabbeinu thought that in Hakadosh Baruch Hu's book is written only "a jealous and vengeful God" (see Nachum 1:2), "visiting the iniquity of fathers upon children" (Shemos 34:7). Hakadosh Baruch Hu showed him a greater book, a deeper book, the book of the thirteen attributes of mercy.

The Receivers Awaken the Giver

The Purpose of Light: To Give to the Lower Ones

There is another level in that the receivers awaken the mashpia. Perhaps it is connected to the deep level of yichud that we are now speaking about — what is writing? Perhaps not, and one must contemplate this. But this is what we say, that everyone who gives shefa, who is a rav, the rav also has pleasure from this. He can speak to another, or at least he has to whom to write, and certainly to whom to speak.

That is, since the purpose of the light, the purpose of the shefa that the upper ones receive, that the rabbanim and the upper levels receive, is in order to give to the lower ones, if there is no one who will receive, he too becomes dark. This is the principle of the matter. And just as when a rav has no students, what will he say? — as I said before, he is a tzaddik, he is a chacham, he knows for himself what we call according to his own need, what is necessary for him for the tikkun of his neshamah, this he knows. But there is much more to know. And in a certain sense even this is for the tikkun of his neshamah, for his neshamah is to be a rav, his neshamah is to be a mashpia. But if he has no one who will receive, he will not have this, and he will have only some little bit as is sufficient for him.

Important from the Side of Vessels and Talents

And know that in general it is important. Sometimes there is a person, and you would think it is important to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, to the Shechinah, that there should be a great chacham? Not so important. It is important because he has the talents, he has the vessels, he can speak with many more people — therefore it is important, and they give him the vessels, they give him the insights, they give him the wisdom to speak with others. But if there will not be others, he will not have even for himself.

He Gives Himself

And one cannot say that even if he will not have the part that he gives to another, as it were he is that part. For one cannot give in this way, and we will understand. When I divide this, one must understand that one cannot divide so nicely and say that what the lower ones influence upon the upper ones, that they determine how much light the upper ones will receive — that this does not touch the part, which we call the yichud. The constant yichud that is for the sake of the lower ones.

One must therefore understand that it is not so simple, for everyone understands that "words that come from the heart enter the heart." Something that a person speaks, and it is not his, it does not touch him. The rav is not something that just says things, he is not in the aspect of a transmitter, as we spoke. The aspect of a transmitter is a very weak aspect. He is not a channel, that it is said about rabbanim that they are only a channel. Rather the way in which he is a channel is itself that he internalizes for himself, understands for himself the things that he teaches. If these are not things that take his neshamah, that take his nefesh and make him greater and clearer, he will not be able to teach them to another; he is not playing, he is not a mailbox, he is a person.

And thus, when one divides between the aspect of yichud and shefa for their own sake and the shefa for the sake of giving shefa, one must understand that the two types of shefa change the thing, change the upper one, change the mashpia. And therefore if there is no mekabel, if the mekabel is not capable, it is not only that the upper one does not have as it were an additional part, as if one could divide it into two parts. For one cannot divide into two parts. "He gives himself" — a true rav, the true measure of Chochmah, the beginning of the upper ones, the upper Sefiros, give themselves, they do not give something else. This is the characteristic of all shefa of Chochmah. A rav who teaches his student, he does not send him information that he took from another place, but gives him himself. He gives himself, just as Hakadosh Baruch Hu gives to the neshamos of Israel — Hakadosh Baruch Hu is the rav of all Israel, ultimately, and He gives Himself.

This is the knowledge. And therefore when the lower ones do not have, and when they do not have a vessel of reception, and they are not ready to receive, he does not have himself as it were. And you will ask: from his own side? From his own side that is in himself, amen may it be His will. But that "himself" may not be so interesting. His entire essence can be in clarification among people whose function is to be a rav. If he will not be a rav, he will not be a wicked evildoer, he will not even be perhaps just an empty vessel — he will not be himself. But because he has someone who will hear, and because he approaches in the way of revelation or in the way of concealment, he has to whom, and he does for another, and then he himself becomes something else as well.

Tenu Oz L'Elokim: Everything Depends on the Actions of the Lower Ones

This will be a deeper understanding of what we say "everything depends on the Shechinah," everything depends on the actions of the lower ones. And therefore we say as it were "give strength to God" (Tehillim 68:35), that what we do depends on Him — that as it were the upper Sefiros themselves, the holy Names themselves, depend on our actions. Not only if one could divide, but rather that what they give is in themselves, and if they do not have someone who will receive it, they will not have even for themselves.

To Magnify the Name

It emerges therefore, that besides the aspect of writing, in which we seek to bring out the yichud that exists specifically through writing, there is also the matter that we say that we seek to magnify the Name, to magnify the name of the mashpia, the name of the father, the name of the rav. And how do we magnify? Not because something is lacking to him, but we magnify through this — that there is to whom to speak, and then he himself will be what he needs to be.

This is the intention here, both for everyone toward what he gives shefa, and toward what he receives. A person needs to be sacrificing his place, everyone, and certainly every male, "every male shall appear" (Shemos 23:17). And in truth even every woman has an aspect of giving shefa. Every person in the world, except perhaps a small infant, literally a day-old infant, but at every age and every stage that he is already five or six years old, and he has younger siblings than him — in short, everyone that I speak with, I and my chaveirim, we are all in the aspect of givers of shefa and in the aspect of receivers.

And in order to find the shidduch, to find the proper connection, that there will be to whom to speak, and if not — that we can remember the secret of writing and try to express it. And also that according to how much he is my giver of shefa, I will direct toward the thing. Even the mashpia needs to direct toward the mekabel, if he is not contemplating this.

The Paradox of Shaar HaHakdamos

And it is very interesting that the way — this is like a contradiction that they learn in Shaar HaHakdamos — that according to how much the mashpia looks at himself, looks at what is above him, recognizes his place toward what is above him, which is the aspect of yirah, then he receives for himself, but he does not give to another, and as it were his side facing downward is dark. And if he faces downward, it will be as it were dark on the other side. This is like a paradox that one must deal with, and conduct a little this way and a little that way.

But one of the foundations is in order to rise above the paradox: that the way in which he receives what is above him is through the arousal of what is below him. The way in which the Shechinah receives light is that we arouse to her, and through this she receives from Z"A. The way in which Z"A receives light is that the Shechinah turns to him, and afterward he receives mochin from Abba and Imma, and so on, and so upward and upward. This is the normal way, the correct way. And in subtlety there are times either this or that, and the subtlety relates to the times that we speak about, which are like separation, because he needs to conduct this way or the opposite. But the tikkun of this, the avodah, is to show that it is the same thing.

Everything Is Not for Itself: The General and the Particular

Until here is Torah that comes from the heart, according to the reality, according to the situation that we are in in this shiur of Erev Rosh Hashanah. And we must mention, and as "Erev Rosh Hashanah" we have never forgotten this, as we are speaking now — that the reality of everything is not for itself. There is nothing in the world that is for itself alone, that stands before itself. Everything has things above it and things below it. Everything has things toward which it is a son, and things toward which it is a father, like the egg. There is no such thing absolutely, that something is disconnected from another.

The Mighty System: Ma'aseh Olam

And all that we do on Rosh Hashanah and throughout the year is to grasp where we are in the mighty system, in the system called ma'aseh olam, "You remember the work of the world" (Musaf Rosh Hashanah), and He gives each one his matter. But how much does a person understand exactly where he belongs, and he has to whom to speak, and he has from whom to receive, and he has with whom to receive.

Chaveirim: Mekablin Din Min Din

And there is the aspect of chaveirim, who are on the same level as him. But even the chaveirim — the matter is somewhat complex. People think that chaveirim means equal to equal, but equal to equal is not reality; if they were equal to equal, it would be the same thing. A true chaver is "and you shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Vayikra 19:18), he is like you. But almost in physicality, in this world there is no such thing. Always the chaveirim are as it is written "and they give permission to each other with love," and the Targum says "mekablin din min din." "And one calls to another" (Yeshayahu 6:3), the Targum says, "mekablin din min din." In a hasty literal translation: I received from you and you receive

from me. We alternate, one moment this way and one moment that way, and perhaps at the same moment both can be. The thing can be very subtle and very complex, but the chaveirim in a general way are people who are like on my level.

Bishvili Nivra HaOlam: A Part, Not Disconnected

And one must remember this, the greater reality, the greater level in which we are placed, that everyone does his part, his function. There is an entire world, and part of the function of every Jew is to be a giver of shefa to the entire world, "a person is obligated to say for my sake the world was created" (Mishnah Sanhedrin 4). And what will be imaginary — that I will pray and the entire world will change? About this one must understand clearly, recognize his place. In a certain sense yes, and even though I don't know in what manner, and even though it is only a little, and all the other people need to pray as well, all the other people need to do — very good. But it is impossible that a person should feel that he is disconnected, impossible. There is not even one person, not even one Jew, who does not change something toward the entire world. It can be that he is a very small part, it can be that he is only... there are a billion people, and he is a billionth of a percent, you say. Very good. But he is a percent of the... not a percent disconnected from the thing.

The world is a system, a system built to receive shefa from above and to give it onward. And whoever is beneath the world, you should know. Somewhere are found the broken parts of the world, the parts of the breaking that still exist. So it is with every complete world. And therefore there are so many people. "A single person was created," that he should say "for my sake the world was created." But what is "the world was created"? It means all the other people. And why are there so many people? Because the world cannot be what it needs to be without every person, without all the people. Not in a disconnected way. Everyone has his part, but not everyone separately. This is an important distinction. They speak many times conversations, that everyone has his individuality, and he thinks that he can act separately from the entire world. But everyone can act specifically because he is somewhere between his father and his children. This is the reality of every person, both toward himself — as we call avodas Hashem, and to understand and to learn and to pray — and toward the rest of the world, toward everything.

Every Occupation Is Connected to the Entire World

Just as a person has an occupation, and simply he does — he takes some input that he receives, and takes some intellect that he also received from somewhere, and makes it a little better and gives it onward. This is part of the entire world. There is not one occupation in the world that is not connected to all the rest of the world.

B'Soch Ami Anochi Yosheves: Private Requests on Rosh Hashanah

The Mistake of Not Praying for Oneself

The matter of Rosh Hashanah, as we speak from the Zohar, "b'soch ami anochi yosheves" (Melachim II 4:13). "B'soch ami anochi yosheves" does not mean that people should not have private requests — a complete mistake, a complete mistake. People say that one should not pray for oneself. What kind of thing is this? How will I begin? I am not from myself. Impossible. A complete mistake. "B'soch ami anochi yosheves" means that the man of God says to Elisha: I do not need protection. For there is a king or a minister of the army, a kingdom forever with its hosts, Hashem Tzevakos.

The Prayer of Chanah: Hashem Tzevakos and a Private Request

What does Chanah say "Hashem Tzevakos" (Shmuel I 1:11)? Hakadosh Baruch Hu is King over all the hosts, upper and lower, over all the angels, over all the ministers, over all parts of nature, over everything in the world. And what does she say, what is its meaning? The Gemara deliberates: she is the first who said "Hashem Tzevakos," and what is its relevance here? What Chanah says is a private request. How can one say that one should not request a private request on Rosh Hashanah, when Chanah stands on Rosh Hashanah, and sings the song of Torah, and requests? "And give to Your maidservant seed of men" (Shmuel I 1:11), that He should give her a son. And it is understood, whoever learns further in the sefer sees that that son is not for her, for she said clearly "and I will give him to Hashem all the days of his life" (Shmuel I 1:11), she gave him to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. And Shmuel HaNavi was equal to Moshe and Aharon, he revived all of Israel as it were, just as the redeemer redeemed Israel as it were from the distress of the period of the Judges, from the brokenness that they had, and he established the monarchy. Shmuel HaNavi — without him there is no Judaism.

And it all began with Chanah, and we see that the prayer of Chanah, which is the subject of the Haftarah that they say, speaks of the entire world, "and He will raise the horn of His anointed" (Shmuel I 2:10). And what is "His anointed"? His anointed is the king, the leader, this is not simple.

You Are Not Born from the Air

And the simple meaning is very simple, and I believe there is no confusion. There is no such thing. Certainly a person needs to begin from himself, but he understands that he is not alone, that he is not born from the air, and he is not going to the air. He belongs to his father, belongs to his family, belongs to his people, belongs to the entire world in the most general way. He belongs, we say, to the families of man. For there are animals, "man and beast You save, Hashem" (Tehillim 36:7), for there are trees, everything exists. He belongs — we belong a little to all these, everyone belongs to all these things, and a little he receives from them, and a little he gives shefa to them. This is the system in which the world operates.

Vatispalel Al Hashem: Olam HaTikkun

And when Chanah sees that something is lacking in the world, the meaning of the thing is a lack. "And she was bitter of soul and she prayed to Hashem" (Shmuel I 1:10). She saw, as the Chassidic sefarim explain "and she prayed to Hashem," that she needed to request for Hakadosh Baruch Hu. What is "and she was bitter of soul and she prayed to Hashem"? For it is written "and she was bitter of soul," she is broken, she has no children, and she also has matters of shalom bayis, matters of troubles, "and she prayed to Hashem." Very simple: she says, come here Master of the Universe, Hashem Tzevakos, You are the God who does everything. There is an order, we are as it were an army, that is an army. Everyone has his function. And if one soldier is missing a hand, missing a leg, he is broken in some way, he cannot be a soldier, he cannot function. There are greater soldiers, there are ministers of armies, and everyone has his place, it makes no difference. Everyone is necessary. And from the side of Your being Hashem Tzevakos, You must help me.

Do Not Cross the Line

And the Zohar says: do not think that they need to speak, "is there anything to speak for you to the king or to the minister of the army" (Shmuel II 4:13), do not think that they need to make special protection for you, that you should cross the line. You do not need to cross the line from the place where you are, that Hakadosh Baruch Hu as it were will speak with you. Just as you, you are a woman, you need children, and you received children directly exactly according to your place. On the contrary, this is Olam HaTikkun. Olam HaTikkun is Hashem Tzevakos, that everyone in the place where he is, there he receives his shefa that is necessary for him and necessary for those dependent on him, and necessary that he can be a true receiver for those who give shefa to him.

This is the reality of the world. What a person prays for his needs, he prays for the needs of the world, he prays for the honor of the Shechinah — these are not two other things, but two things that are one. A person who is small-minded, this is a lack of da'as, a lack of knowledge. Certainly one needs to understand the Name Tzevakos. This is a lack of knowledge, that they do not know the Name. Until Chanah no one knew the Name, and there was indeed a problem with this. Whoever learns the period of the Judges sees that everyone said to make Shabbos for himself. But if one understands the Name Tzevakos, there is no problem with this.

Elokei Ma'arachos Yisrael

And this is the most important thing to understand. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is "God of the armies of Israel" (Shmuel I 17:45), Hakadosh Baruch Hu is the Name Tzevakos, of all the armies of the world, the host of heaven in the heights and the kings of the earth on the earth. We are part of this. And everyone exactly according to his place where he is. Sometimes a person needs to move, that he himself is part of the thing, but he is not in the right place — like a soldier who is not in the right unit, who is not in the right brigade of the army. Then his prayer is: move me to my place, for You see that here I am not fitting, here I am not integrating, change place — he must change his place. Very good.

But the foundation of the matter: let him not think for one moment that we are private things. We are not private things, but rather a particular from a general. There is no such thing, a particular without a general does not exist. And what we pray, what we do, we do in the name of all Israel, with all the Jews, with all the people of the world, or certainly ma'aseh olam, all the creatures of old, with all the generations that were and that will be. And when we say generations — when a person has children, he contemplates his children, his grandchildren, his father, his grandfather. And this is his place within the greater system, of all the generations that were, until Adam HaRishon, until Noach, until all the ways, until Mashiach, from all the ways.

Adam HaRishon: Neshamos Dependent on Every Limb

And we are created that they have a body like an animal, and they also have the part of the plant like plants, and they have the part of the inanimate like all inanimate, and it truly comes from them. The minerals in the body of man are part of the world, from the order of the quarries in the world. And this is all the more. To pray for the entire world is not different from praying for all of oneself.

And the correct wisdom, the correct prayer of Rosh Hashanah, is like Adam HaRishon, who knew as it were, as it is written in the Midrash, and the Arizal explains this with great strength in his derashos and in Shaar HaGilgulim, that Adam HaRishon knew that there are neshamos dependent on every hair of Adam HaRishon, on every limb. He knew, for to be Adam HaRishon means that a person knows — and this is as a picture, as a mashal: there are parts in the world that belong to my hand, there are those that belong to my fingernail, there are those that belong to my head, there are those that belong to my foot. And through all being included in him, through being included from all, in his place he prays for all, acts upon all, repairs the entire world. This is the second important introduction that we must say, that we are obligated to say before Rosh Hashanah.

The Third Thing: The Order of Avodah and the Private Detail

The General and the Particular in the Order of Tefillos

The third thing is simple matters that exist in the order of avodah of Rosh Hashanah, in the order of tefillos, in the order of customs of Rosh Hashanah and of all the holy days. So many details, so many things that pass, there is no measure to the things. And somewhat as we spoke now about the general and the particular, the thing confuses people very strongly, at least people who have a little intellect in their matters, and they are not only in the aspect of a servant as we spoke. He is not only a servant who does everything, and it does not touch him, and it makes no difference to him what is written in the machzor, but he says: what is he doing? And he seeks some flavor, some understanding.

And here there is an entire list, a mighty order. Here they say Selichos, and here they say Hataras Nedarim, and here they say a small Akdamus, and here they say Shemoneh Esrei, and here they say Malchiyos Zichronos and Shofros, and so on all Pesukei D'Zimra. So many things, when they pray in a shul that lengthens or shortens, in any case so many things that they do.

Al Tifrosh Min HaTzibbur: Two Other Dinim

And what one needs to do: a person, as they say "b'soch ami anochi yosheves," that it is impossible to be separate. There is no other way. There is some separation, there is some Olam HaShevira, this is not the completeness of the nefesh, that a person cannot be at all in any way separate from the beis midrash, from Klal Yisrael and what they do — that they do Kapparos, Selichos, teshuvah and Tashlich on Rosh Hashanah etc. etc. This is a very basic thing that is necessary. But a person cannot be confused, he cannot be just one who does everything that is written, or he seeks that he should have taste, vitality, awakening in the way that they learn — which is called about everything, it too is not relevant.

And what we always say is that it is very simple that there are two other dinim. What they need to be a part, "do not separate from the community" (Mishnah Avos 2), this is the aspect of the community, as much as the community requires. If one is the baal tefillah, he needs to pass before the ark in everything, and to sing and to do. And if he is not, he needs to participate as much as is necessary, not more than this, but from the side of participation with the community. And what relates to the person himself? What relates to the tikkun of his private nefesh, through which he can include himself in the community truly in the other ways?

One should not go according to that order. And not only should one not go, but it is impossible to go according to that order. The order, what is our machzor, is like the completion of tens and hundreds of generations, that each one added his chiddush in it and made his order, and from this it became. What they customarily practice generally became some process equal for every nefesh in some way. Correct, and I am not saying that it is difficult.

But a person who has a certain feeling, who has a certain request, for example, he understands what he must do. He must find one of the sections, one of the tefillos that speak to him. Or there is a way that they use everything in order to arrive. A person seeks to arrive at a certain spiritual level, at a certain feeling, at a certain thought, at a certain kavanah, and he says the machzor until he arrives there. This is one of the pieces of advice, which is written in the Baal Shem Tov — he does not say exactly this, but this is one of the ways that one can take. Or he makes for himself an order according to what he understands: what is d'Oraisa, what is d'Rabbanan, what is custom. I don't know if specifically the d'Oraisa one needs to emphasize more, but what is more essential, what is more central for him, that he makes an order and that he does. This is the way to do things.

The Mashal of Selichos: Rosh Hashanah Is Not the Day of Selichah

And I believe that one can see this, and it is very interesting, and I ask to emphasize it: I believe that this is exactly what all the Jews in all the generations did. I will give a mashal: today is Erev Rosh Hashanah. Rosh Hashanah is a mitzvah of tekias shofar, they say Malchiyos Zichronos and Shofros, they say the tefillos of Rosh Hashanah — everything is very clear what is the halachah d'Oraisa and d'Rabbanan. And they know that according to Rosh Hashanah it is the day of judgment, "on Rosh Hashanah they will be written" (Musaf Rosh Hashanah, U'Nesaneh Tokef) etc., all these are known things.

But the avodah of Rosh Hashanah is everyone according to his understanding. And we see clearly, at least in our custom — I don't know if perhaps there are other customs — that on Rosh Hashanah they do not say Selichos. Rosh Hashanah is not a time to say Selichos, Rosh Hashanah is not a time to do teshuvah and to be reconciled. Yom Kippur is the time of selichah. I thought before, when they spoke about writing, it is very interesting that in selichah they do not say "may my selichah be written," but they always say "and Hashem said I have forgiven according to your word" (Bamidbar 14:20). And it is possible that the thing relates to... one can continue it with the conversations that we spoke, and one must contemplate how. But in any case, Selichos are not a thing of Rosh Hashanah.

Why Do We Say Selichos on Erev Rosh Hashanah?

With all this, all the Jews say Selichos today before Rosh Hashanah, almost all the Jews. I don't know if this was the custom from always — the Rambam says Selichos only in the Ten Days of Teshuvah — but all the Jews today say Selichos already before Rosh Hashanah, a little more or a little less. And what is the meaning of this? What is its relevance here? Rosh Hashanah is not the day of selichah. And I am certain that the explanation is — whoever examines the Selichos of Erev Rosh Hashanah, for example, can see this very clearly. And there are so many Selichos. I believe that they were not made so that one could say all of them. There is, as the Kotzker Rebbe said, that it is impossible to say Tehillim: King David took seventy years to say Tehillim, how can one say it in one day? A very deep vort, and it is very true.

The custom of the world already made something that is more or less equal for every nefesh, the system operates, and it is good for everyone. But in truth to say selichah — that is, each one of the Selichos was written by a person who was situated somewhat this way. A Jew thought: I desire to approach Rosh Hashanah, I desire to do the avodah of Rosh Hashanah with joy — and one needs to do it with joy, with elevation of mochin, one needs to do Rosh Hashanah. But he cannot, he has a problem, a personal problem, not a general problem. That there is a mitzvah to blow the shofar, and to say Malchiyos with joy — this he does, he has no problem. But he is a person, and he has his own nefesh, he too is a person. He feels that he sinned all year. So he feels. Not everyone is obligated to feel this way, but this is how the Jews felt. No one is obligated to feel this way, but generally a person feels this way, for a person is a person, and during the year he does in small and in large. There is a normal order. I am not saying that they are obligated, but most people feel that...

And he desires on Rosh Hashanah, desires to do the avodah of Rosh Hashanah. This is very real, this is the most real thing. But now he cannot. He feels that he must purify himself a little, that he must be reconciled a little with Hakadosh Baruch Hu, that he must do something so that he can say Rosh Hashanah. What he does — all the Selichos of Erev Rosh Hashanah were written by people who tried in a personal way to be reconciled with themselves, with God, with Torah, with Judaism before Rosh Hashanah, so that on Rosh Hashanah they can do what they must do.

Write Your Own Selichah

And afterward it already became another order, that they already need to say Selichos. Very good, and I say that there is a way that some thing of verter is made, but it is very important to bring out this thing in every Jew. The true thing in avodah is that a person needs to write his own selichah, not a hundred. A person says: I do mine; and will I do five hundred Selichos, I don't know what I said on other days? No! Each one of the Selichos, more or less, was written by one person in one year, because this is what he felt, this is what he needed in order to be reconciled so that he could do the year.

Whoever can write a selichah, writes and does a selichah. Whoever says Tehillim, finds one pasuk in Tehillim, one chapter that does what he must do. Or he does hisbodedus, or he says chiddushei Torah. There are many ways here in which he does things.

Two Additional Avodahs: A Rich Treasure

There are two additional avodahs, and I believe that a large part, even in the machzor of Yom Tov there are such parts, and we skip over a part, for it seems that they understood that it is not necessary for everyone. They say the Selichos, and there are places that skip over parts, because they understand that... But everyone needs — or he finds, it is a very rich treasure, the Selichos with the machzor, one can find from every aspect, from every point of view. One is not obligated to everything. One can say Torah. Why does one need here this and here this? Each one was written by a person who sought simply — besides what one needs to arrive at the general, to blow the shofar, to say Malchiyos Zichronos and Shofros, to do everything — he needed to find a way in which he seeks to prepare himself toward the thing. And this he did, and this everyone needs to do: either to find a section, or to find a time, or everyone according to his way that he knows that his tikkun operates.

Conclusion

And with this we will finish for today. May they learn with great strength the commandments about Rosh Hashanah and the mitzvah in the Zohar, but I do not believe that I have time now. And the shiur is already long enough, therefore we will finish here and wish each other a good year. For a good year may you be written and sealed immediately for life.

The Secret of the Attribute of Judgment: The Fear of Isaac Against the Judgment of the Kelipah

Two Ways of Looking at the World

There is a person who looks at the world and sees that he is not as he should be, and the world is not as it should be, and consequently becomes a critic and accuser, becomes a ‘kvetcher’ who stands against everything. This is one way of looking.

But we must remember that there is another din (judgment), there is a ‘day’ of din, as the Zohar says that there is another day. And what is its language? Here it doesn’t mention this name, but in other places it mentions, as it says ‘and if with it song before Him’. There is another level, there is another side. Here it doesn’t call it day, but in other places it still calls it day, the lower day, the lowest of all. And this is ‘yom bukah umvulakah’ (a day of emptiness and void) in the language of Isaiah the prophet, as the Zohar expounds in the discourses of Tisha B’Av. There is a day called ‘yom bukah umvulakah’ as the prophet says, and this is not the day of judgment. And what is this? This is the day of the kelipah (husk).

The Judgment of Malchut and the Pursuit of King David

In other words, there is the din of Malchut (Kingship). The din of Malchut says that whoever is righteous will be righteous, and whoever is not righteous will be not righteous. King David always felt that they were pursuing him. And who pursues him? This too is the attribute of din. It is certainly understood that the pursuer is not the attribute of chesed (kindness) but the attribute of din. And indeed there is Saul and there is Doeg, and this is not the place to enter into that matter there, but those people who are not righteous are the aspect of kelipot, the aspect of complete evil, and the kelipot pursue him, the nations, and it says the Philistines pursue King David.

And what does it mean that they pursue King David? According to the secret interpretation of the matter, that the attribute of Malchut becomes pursued by the lower judgment, the judgment of the kelipot, the judgment of this world. And you can call it the Satan. The Satan himself is already a level in simplicity, and the Satan has many agents: the nations, and the illnesses, and the accusations, and the difficulties, and the depression, all kinds of agents that the Satan has, and the Satan is the supervisor over them, if we call it that. So even in this itself there are two levels.

Fear of Punishment is Fear of the Sitra Achra

In any case, all this is not the din of Malchut, and we must not confuse and mix up the matters. The Zohar says many times in the introduction, and this is something connected here, that fear of punishment is a very bad thing, for fear of punishment means that you are afraid of the rod. And the Zohar brings a parable of a teacher who comes to the classroom and places a rod on the wall. Certainly the teacher holds the rod, and the teacher says: if it comes from your side that there should be the din of Malchut, and the din says that it is fitting to strike so-and-so, I will take the rod and strike him, as it says ‘Assyria the rod of My anger’ (Isaiah 10) — the kelipot themselves, the wicked of this world, they are the rod of the Holy One, blessed be He.

But it is forbidden to fear the rod. If you fear the rod, this is literally idolatry. A Jew does not fear any creature. There is a melody, and the father of the Baal Shem Tov left him a will: that one should not fear any creature except the Holy One, blessed be He. And what does it mean that one should not fear except the Holy One, blessed be He, when the Baal Shem Tov says that everything is the Holy One, blessed be He, and when I fear the rod am I not also fearing the Holy One, blessed be He? Rather this is the Holy One, blessed be He through an agent, and it is forbidden to fear the agent. If you fear, fear the Holy One, blessed be He Himself and not the agent, not the rod. So fear of punishment, says the Zohar, is literally fear of the Sitra Achra (Other Side), and this is a very bad thing, for it is an agent.

‘And God Made That They Should Fear Before Him’ — The Fourth Level

And the Holy One, blessed be He, ‘and God made that they should fear before Him’ (Ecclesiastes 3) is written here. The Holy One, blessed be He gave permission, because the Holy One, blessed be He knows — and we will still learn these matters inside, but I am saying this in advance while I am explaining the secret of fear with judgment and all these matters — because the Holy One, blessed be He knows that people do not understand the depth of the demands, and they do not understand the basic attribute of judgment of Malchut, that it does not have such depth of demands but rather a simple attribute of judgment of Malchut, therefore He made a heimish (homey) accuser, a household accuser.

‘And God’ — the name Elokim, the attribute of Malchut — ‘made that they should fear before Him’. What did He make? He made another thing. He made another lower level, a fourth level: Binah, Gevurah, Malchut, Satan. He made a fourth level also from the left side, from the side of the attribute of judgment, from the side of the left-leaners, so that they should fear before Him. And He did not make this so that they should fear the accuser, God forbid, but rather He made it so that they should fear Him. But He made another agent, ‘made’, the aspect of the World of Asiyah (Action), He made so that they should fear before Him. And this is the language of the Zohar explaining here the meaning of the level.

Choosing to Be in Judgment — Not in the Judgment of the Satan

So one must know, and this is very important, to be choosing in judgment, and at the very least in the judgment of Malchut and not in the judgment of the Satan. The judgment of the Satan is that he convinces himself that he is from the root of the angels. He says: yes, I also think that no person is worthy, everyone is evil, each one intends for his own benefit. He holds all kinds of ways to accuse the entire world. But this is not the way at all.

And then, when a person comes to judge, often he should not confuse between the judgment of Isaac our father, the supernal judgment, and the judgment of the Satan, which is a great confusion. The judgment of Isaac our father, this is what gave permission for the perspective of Isaac our father, ‘and the fear of Isaac was with me’ (Genesis 31). Isaac our father could look at the Holy One, blessed be He and understand how nothing is equal before Above. This is a contemplation that is received with joy.

For Isaac is called ‘God has made laughter for me’ (Genesis 21), he laughs at the entire world. He is not broken, he is not angry — he laughs, laughs at the entire world. ‘God has made laughter for me, all who hear will laugh with me’ (Genesis 21). Yitzchak (Isaac) is the language of laughter, Yitzchak is the language of joy. From Yitzchak comes the joy of Simchat Beit HaShoevah, from Yitzchak come the songs and praises of the Levites, from the left side of holiness, which has tremendous joy. This is divine contemplation, something completely abstract, something that belongs entirely to the soul and not to the body, for the body does not understand the matter at all. The body understands something that means divine perfection, that no creature, not the angel Michael, not the sefirah of Keter itself, nothing can be equal to this, and no creature understands this. This is a supernal level.

Esau — The Imitation of Isaac

But what? There is another judgment, a judgment that is like a forgery of Isaac, and it is Esau. So it comes out — it is Esau, the son of Isaac. He thinks that he too is a father, he imitates Isaac, he is a complete imitation. He too says that no person is good, but he does not say this for the reason that Isaac says.

Why is no person good? Because the divine perfection is so great that it is impossible to be equal to it, ‘who can be compared to You and who can be arranged to You’. This is the attribute of the fear of Isaac. But the fear of Esau, the attribute of judgment, the Satan, says: no person is good. And why? You see what they do, see how they behave, see what happens with them. This is the attribute of judgment, and in my opinion it is not fitting at all to hold this attribute of judgment. This is not a matter at all, but rather complete kelipah. And this is our work, to remove this kelipah from the world. And we must not confuse.

Each Person According to His Level — King David and the Clarification of Malchut

And therefore one must know that each person, according to where he stands, has a different level and different work. King David, who is in the attribute of Malchut, and I mean every Jew, the soul of David — King David wrote Psalms for every Jew — King David who stands opposite the attribute of Malchut. There are people who have deeper matters. Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai was not standing only opposite the attribute of Malchut. The Baal Shem Tov always says that one should not leave the attribute of Malchut alone, and this is the main concern that Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai mentioned in his will, not to leave the attribute of Malchut alone. But King David was standing opposite the attribute of Malchut, and his standing opposite the attribute of Malchut means that he still had to deal with discernment. He knew that there are people pursuing him.

‘Many say to my soul there is no salvation for him in God, Selah’ (Psalms 3). There are many, many kelipot that are many, that are not unified, there are always many of them, kelipot of the public domain.

And why do they say ‘there is no salvation for him in God’? God will not help him. And why do they say that God will not help him? Because they say: see, we are the Gevurah, and we know how David sinned, we know the evil that David did, we know that it is not coming to him, and we are only agents of Providence. As that one said: I am the one who brought the calamity, I am simply an agent of Providence, I don’t intend anything.

To Confuse the Satan — Nullifying and Confusing

And all the work of King David was to elevate and confuse, and this is to confuse the Satan, to confuse him. And how does one confuse the Satan? Through the judgment itself. And this is a teaching, but why does it seem confused? Because he nullifies it. And I mean simply and literally that he nullifies it. ‘To confuse his claims’, says the Zohar, and his claims melt. And the explanation in this, as the Arizal explains in the discourse of Rosh Hashanah, that they nullify it from its essence and being, with severe strength.

And when someone comes, one needs to hear this, for the matter also relates to practical halachah. Everyone knows, and many of our friends are busy saying, that there is Rosh Hashanah which is the day of judgment, which is the avenging God. But one must know that the Holy One, blessed be He is loving, as the Zohar says in the weekly portion, that Moses our teacher, with all that he rebuked Israel, b’rachimu havu kol milei (all the words were in love), all the words of rebuke of Moses our teacher were from excessive love, ‘with great love You have loved us, Hashem our God’. And this is what was needed: in Izmir they were accustomed to say ‘Ahavah Rabbah’ three times before the shofar blasts, they say from ‘For the conductor, for the sons of Korach’, and in addition they say ‘Ahavah Rabbah’. This is the fear of Isaac, this is the true love.

Rosh Hashanah — Sweetening Judgment Through Judgment

But lest you think that this is the rectification, that the way of sweetening judgment is through chesed. Indeed it is certainly a good thing, that there is chesed from judgment, but this is not what we do on Rosh Hashanah. Says the Arizal, that on Rosh Hashanah we sweeten judgment through judgment, through the supernal judgment from it. And the Arizal in Kavanot writes literally, that the matter is to draw down new gevurot (severities). After the shofar blast, chesed does not come — with chesed we will speak on Sukkot — but rather new gevurot come, and even on Yom Kippur the same thing, after Kippur come higher gevurot. So higher gevurot come, and this is to confuse the Satan.

And the intention in this, that we do not say: because I think that the Holy One, blessed be He loves each and every one and that everything is good from the side of the Holy One, blessed be He, therefore I am against the Satan. Not so, there is no need to reach this. For what is called the attribute of judgment is that one chooses the correct attribute of Malchut, and we must choose the good. And the attribute of Malchut, says the Zohar, is an attribute in which the poison of death is mixed, and the task of the Levites, of the people of the left line, of the people of King David, was to clarify the correct attribute of Malchut. And this is the clarification of Malchut.

And what does it mean that one clarifies the correct attribute of Malchut? That he says: yes, certainly, there is the day of judgment, the world needs judgment, and there is indeed a judgment that the world cannot withstand, and in that judgment we have no comprehension at all, and we do not speak of it at all. But there is a judgment that is necessary, ‘a king through justice establishes the land’ (Proverbs 29), that without judgment the world is destroyed. For judgment is one of the things that the world stands upon, upon judgment and upon truth and upon peace — judgment is one of the three that the world stands upon.

I Demand Judgment — Not Chesed

But he says: remember, righteous one, you wicked one pursuing me, you think that judgment means that the Holy One, blessed be He will not help me? Judgment means that the Holy One, blessed be He will help me, you wise one! You fool like yourself, you are completely confused. Where? I demand judgment! I do not demand chesed! I am Rosh Hashanah! I am King David! I do not demand any chesed! That the Holy One, blessed be He should not have mercy on me!

And how does King David say? If we are righteous — ‘let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it and trample my life to the earth and lay my honor in the dust, Selah’ (Psalms 7). ‘If I have done this’ (Psalms 7)? If indeed according to your words? As the Satan says? One hundred percent! You are one hundred percent right, Mr. Satan! And if Israel were according to your words, we would sink into the earth.

And how did King David take the permission to say such a thing? Because he knew that the attribute of judgment of the Holy One, blessed be He is not the attribute of judgment of the Satan. There is an attribute of judgment of divinity, and there are even many levels in the attribute of judgment of divinity. And even the lowest level of all, which is the attribute of the King, is not the Gevurah and is not the Binah, but there are more levels, there are also things above the Binah. But even the small level of the divine attribute of judgment says: I am right.

I Intend for Good and He for Evil — A Great Foundation in Torah

And what does it mean that I am right? Look at me and look at him. I intend for good, and sometimes I err, but tomorrow will be good, for I am human. I intend for good, and he intends for evil. Very simple, as simple as possible. There is no need for any Chassidic teachings. I want to say a great foundation in Torah, and this is the choice of King David, which I received from my friend R’ Dvir, and I mention him here for good.

In order to say that we are right, in order that a person should feel that he is good with Hashem — a person needs to know that the Holy One, blessed be He loves him, and this is good. But a person needs to know much more than this: that he is good with Hashem, that the Holy One, blessed be He holds from him from the side of the attribute of judgment and not from the side of the attribute of chesed. For the Holy One, blessed be He loves me, He loves every creature, the Holy One, blessed be He even loves an ant. But what difference is there to the Holy One, blessed be He between an ant and a person, between a person and a righteous person? Everything is one thing? This is very good, but you still have not confused the Satan. You nullified the Satan, but you still have not confused him, and the first ones need to confuse the Satan.

Objectively — A Jew is Right Because He is More Right Than the Other

And one must know that even objectively — there is no need for Chassidic teachings. The Chassidic books strengthen Jews: how is it possible to do teshuvah? Ah, because a Jew is really one hundred percent good, a Jew is really entirely above above, his soul is completely pure, and his body — well, the evil inclination, from the side of the evil inclination — all kinds of excuses. Not so, this is not a good excuse, this is not a good excuse at all, this is not correct at all, and this is not enough.

A person needs to know, a Jew needs to know that the Holy One, blessed be He holds from him because he is right. Very simple. Look how you behave, look how your enemies behave, and you will see that you are right. There is no need for any special Chassidic teachings, there is no need for any matters above understanding. That the truth is that even though we do not see — yes we see, we see. That is, yes we see, certainly. And when we see, the intention is not that we see in complete perfection, for if we saw in complete perfection the Messiah would already have come, and we are not yet standing there, and what we see is proportionally, in a general way.

Look — right, as one is called righteous, as it is written in Tanach, that there is an absolute righteous person and there is a righteous person in his judgment, when Israel goes out in righteousness and in justice. And Rosh Hashanah does not mean an absolute righteous person — on an absolute righteous person we labor; but rather a righteous person in his judgment, between us and the Satan, who is right? Certainly we are right, for the Satan is entirely evil, and he intends only that there should be evil, and wants that the world of the Holy One, blessed be He should explode, whereas we want it to succeed. And without any deep teachings, without anything, without any Chassidic beliefs, in simple terms Israel are right. Right means only more right than the other, and this is sufficient and more.

‘Judge Me, O God’ — A Nation Not Pious

On this King David says: ‘Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation; from the deceitful and unjust man deliver me’ (Psalms 43). The books say that ‘nation’ is not pious and not a Litvak, nothing. ‘An ungodly nation’ — he is a nation and also not pious, he is ‘a man of deceit and injustice’, and everything he says is the opposite.

This is not a deep teaching, but literally as it is, learn the book of Samuel and you will see. This is ‘a man of deceit and injustice’, and he is right? Does it mean that David was perfect? Did King David convince himself that he is perfect? Did he convince himself some conviction that he is perfect? Can a Jew say that he is perfect? Certainly not. When King David related to the Holy One, blessed be He, he said: no problem, certainly the Holy One, blessed be He is always right, ‘that You may be justified in Your words and be clear in Your judgment’ (Psalms 51), You are always right, You will judge me and You will be right. But when they judge me, I am right.

The Attribute of Malchut of Holiness Against the Attribute of Judgment of Sitra Achra

This is the attribute of Malchut of holiness, separated and distinguished from the attribute of Malchut of Sitra Achra, the attribute of judgment of Sitra Achra. The attribute of judgment of Sitra Achra says, when King David fights his enemies, the Philistines, perhaps they are right and perhaps not. The attribute of judgment of holiness says: King David is right. Ah, you want to speak about the fear of Isaac? You want to speak about King David when he stands before the Holy One, blessed be He? No problem, but this is not yours, this does not concern you, this is not your matter at all, may your master live long, you Satan, you do not enter here at all. When I speak with the Holy One, blessed be He, I say confession.

The Great Lashon Hara — Taking Out of Context

For this is one of the great lashon hara (evil speech) that was done. Haman spoke lashon hara about Israel, and in general, all the enemies of Israel speak lashon hara about Israel. And what do they say? They learn the prophets. This is an old Christian method, and everyone does this trick: they look at the prophets, they look at Moses our teacher. Moses our teacher said: ‘You have been rebellious against Hashem from the day I knew you’ (Deuteronomy 9). Moses and all the prophets rebuke Israel, and you go to the kelipot, to the judgment, and this one thinks there is substance in this, and he says: ah, so it comes out, see that you yourselves admit that you are not proper. Haman did this, and everyone caught the trick — these are old tricks.

And what does lashon hara mean? Lashon hara means that one takes something out of its context, this is the meaning of lashon hara. There are things that are private, and the essence of lashon hara is that one tells private things, secrets. And what does secrets mean? The matter is very simple: what the prophets demand from Israel, what the prophets cry out about Israel, it is not acceptable to the mind that they are the worst that ever were — this is of Israel toward the Holy One, blessed be He, and soon we will speak even in greater depth, even toward what Israel truly need to be from their own side. And this is good, but it is forbidden for it to go outside. One should not translate the Torah into Greek in this way. It is forbidden for this to go outside, for this is between Israel and the Holy One, blessed be He.

But between Israel and the nations? Between Israel and the Sitra Achra? The evil nations — I do not know if there is a good gentile, on the contrary, fortunate is his portion — or Israel and the evil nations? Between Israel and their enemies? Is there any doubt that Israel are right? Is there any doubt that Israel are good? But when one speaks lashon hara, one takes out and removes the matter. It is forbidden to speak lashon hara, and the work of Yom Kippur atones for lashon hara. Awesome. And we do not want to confuse between the two things.

Confession Only Before Hashem — Not Before Flesh and Blood

Confession should only be said before Hashem, and one should not say confession before flesh and blood. For this is the truth between people: there are people who go around to married scholars and to young men and say: we know that you sinned. Me toward you? I am a complete righteous person. I toward the entire world am a complete righteous person. And what could be otherwise? Ah, you want to say… you want to enter and interfere between me and the Holy One, blessed be He? To come and be appointed between them? You are a regular person, you want to interfere? You want to hear what I need to say before Hashem, before and within? ‘I have sinned and in my house I have transgressed’, do you want to hear from this? Go go for all length, go to Azazel please, perhaps there is your place. When I say my words before the Holy One, blessed be He, you go to Azazel, you do not enter here at all.

And this we did on Yom Kippur literally, we sent the goat to Azazel. There it will be, there it will say what it has to say, it did not reach half the mountain until it became limbs limbs. ‘I have sinned and in my house I have transgressed’ is the holiest thing that a Jew says before Hashem. And the intention of the matter, that not toward the first, as the servant of the king said: ‘To You, to You alone have I sinned’ (Psalms 51), only to You have I sinned. And what does it mean that you sinned to Uriah the Hittite? Here one needs to engage in Torah by itself. I toward my enemies, toward those who speak lashon hara about me — only regarding the matter of Uriah the Hittite. But those who speak lashon hara about me, those who say: ah, David is like this, David is like this — they are lashon hara. They take the matter that belongs between me and You, and say that toward this I am righteous, let them sink into the earth. What is their business to speak between me and You? To You have I sinned, not to another.

This is the distinction, and this is the most important distinction between the attribute of judgment of the kelipah and the supernal attribute of judgment. The attribute of judgment that is not supernal, the attribute of judgment of this world. And when we must learn much in order to call, in order to arouse the attribute of judgment — and they are very afraid of it — they taught us to arouse the attribute of judgment, because of the confusion between the supernal attribute of judgment, the most supernal of all from the Gevurah, and perhaps even from the Binah, and the lower attribute of judgment of the Satan. They are two completely different things. The Satan is an imitator, he thinks and imitates everything. He sees that the father is so pious and so upright, and accuses everyone — he also imitates and accuses everyone. Not so, you have nothing to accuse about.

A Story About a Rabbi in Tel Aviv

I saw a story that happened, with a rabbi in his residential area in Tel Aviv where he grew up, who did not hold from Chassidut and was an accuser against Chassidut. But the Chassidic young men said there that he did outreach, and brought many close. One of the congregants came to him and said: what is this? Our Lubavitcher does not hold from Chassidut. He said to him: no, no, you have no right to this. I am a great person in Torah, I understand something, I am permitted to be against Chassidut. But you? For you the thing is good, and not only that for you the thing is good, but you have no right to interfere.

Depression is the Judgment of the Satan

Depression, which says that we are all evil and that each one intends for evil — this is not the matter of any person to say, and one should not say this except on Yom Kippur before and within. This is said between man and the Holy One, blessed be He. Then it will rise to the Binah, then it will rise to the Gevurah, to the Binah — all high levels. But the Satan? He will receive a black blow. Not one — we are right. On the contrary, toward them, we arouse judgment upon them, and on the contrary, let the Holy One, blessed be He see who is right between us and them, let Him see. ‘Judge me, O God’ (Psalms 43), judge me. Not only is it not a problem what we are barking, but we have become so confused in this, that you should not confuse between the judgment of the Satan and the judgment of holiness, the judgment of the attribute of Malchut, the judgment of the Shechinah.

The Root of Judgment — Why There is Judgment

This is the first level. And since I have already learned one line of Zohar, I am already permitted to say further. There are many more things inside that need to be learned in the body of the matters, but I say further thus, that one needs to understand what indeed is the root of judgment. The root of judgment — why indeed is there judgment? Only because the Satan says there is judgment? Not so. It is written, and I now say approximately according to the written order, ‘Blow the shofar at the new moon, at the covering for our festive day’ (Psalms 81), that the Satan becomes covered. And what does it mean that the attribute of judgment becomes in Malchut? For whom do they cover the Satan? Who covers the Satan? Who covers the Malchut? The Satan. And why does he cover the Malchut? Because it says ‘God made that they should fear before Him’ (Ecclesiastes 3).

‘And Isaac Called to Esau’ — The Confusion of Judgment and Kelipah

And the Zohar says, this is the deed of Isaac our father, that the connection and confusion of the kelipah, the kelipah of judgment, with the judgment itself — this is the secret of ‘and Isaac called to Esau’ (Genesis 27). Isaac called to Esau and said ‘hunt game for me’ (Genesis 27). That is, as if he says to the kelipah, ‘and he called Esau his elder son’ (Genesis 27). For Esau is the elder son of Isaac, and is fitting for him, for he is the attribute of judgment. He calls him and says: well, let us hear what lashon hara you have to tell about the world.

And it is written in the Zohar thus, ‘and Rebecca said to Jacob her son’ (Genesis 27). Rebecca came, and Rebecca, apparently, here indicates the Binah. There is counsel. Says the Zohar, this is supernal counsel. The Holy One, blessed be He gave counsel to Israel. Rebecca said: snatch for Jacob, snatch Esau, wear his garments. In other words, you too go with the attribute of Gevurah. You do not go today with the attribute of chesed, but with the garments of Rebecca, with the garments of Esau, with the attribute of chesed. Bring wine, bring wine from the world of Binah, ‘wine that has been preserved in its grapes from the six days of creation’ (Berachot 34). Wine always indicates supernal Binah.

And bring this ‘before’, before Esau comes. And what is the word ‘terem’ (before)? ‘Terem’ always means a supernal level above it. And apparently, so I now interpret, that you should understand the interpretation better.

Rebecca Goes Behind Isaac’s Back

Rebecca, as it were, goes behind Isaac’s back, and this is one of the wondrous deeds of the Torah. She goes against Isaac, goes behind his back, confuses his head and gives the blessings to Jacob. And the secret of the matter, that there is a place, there is a reason and root why there is the Gevurah of Isaac, the fire of Isaac, the binding of Isaac, there is a root why it exists. But Rebecca — Rebecca is perhaps not at all the place of Binah, but she is connected to it. Rebecca understands, Rebecca knows that this is not for its own sake, this is not for its own sake, but for the sake of another thing, for the sake of a higher reason. That is, a cause preceded it, there is a reason why there is in it the judgment of Isaac. And let us understand, the simplest things, and let us say the interpretations, that each one completes the teaching for himself from the deed of Jacob and Esau.

The Question — Why Does the Attribute of Gevurah Exist?

We say that there is a supernal judgment called ‘for no living being will be justified before You’ (Psalms 143), ‘behold, He puts no trust in His holy ones, and the heavens are not pure in His eyes’ (Job 15), ‘behold, He puts error in His angels’ (Job 4). And a question arises, that one needs to understand: everything that the Holy One, blessed be He made, the Holy One, blessed be He made with wisdom, including the attributes themselves. For we say, as Rabbi Chaim Brisker said, that it is written ‘to act His mercies in judgment’ — the Holy One, blessed be He is not mercy from His own side, for the Holy One, blessed be He is Ein Sof (Infinite), above everything, but rather He acts, He makes mercy, as the Rambam says that everything is actions.

And the Kabbalists learn this in greater depth, but they agree that what there are divine attributes, what the Holy One, blessed be He reveals Himself to people in a certain way, all this is intentional. For the Holy One, blessed be He Himself is not in an attribute at all, and the Holy

The Question — Why Does the Attribute of Gevurah Exist? (continued)

One, blessed be He is not against the world and is not for the world, and all these concepts are small, tiny aleph-bet levels that are said so that a person should understand Him, but the Holy One, blessed be He does not have any of these things.

If we say — and let us understand a basic question — if we say that there is such a thing, that there is such a perspective, that it is possible to look, and it is the attribute of the fear of Isaac, that it is possible to look and see that He is Master of the entire world, that there is divine perfection, that there is what the Holy One, blessed be He is, and toward what the Holy One, blessed be He is even an angel, the heavens are not pure in His eyes — a question arises: why? Why is there such an aspect? Why does such an aspect exist at all? What is happening here?

The Holy One, Blessed Be He, is God of the World

Consequently, the Holy One, blessed be He has the attribute of mercy for example, as the author of the Tanya says, ‘for this world in Your great mercy have mercy upon us’. Consequently, when You are not God of the world, what do we care about Your mercy? But because You are God of the world, You are ‘for this world’, and You learned ‘whether chesed whether din You seek in the world’, You must have mercy on us, for You are God of the world, and You are not God against the world, and You do not rise up against the world, God forbid.

So we understand why there is the attribute of chesed, and why there is the lower attribute of justice, let us say — we understand what needs to be ‘a king through justice establishes the land’ (Proverbs 29), that one needs to punish the one worthy of punishment, to limit all kinds of things that cause evil, the evil things that need to be limited, all these are simple things. But the attribute of Gevurah, why does it exist at all? For what purpose was it created? And what is the meaning of the matter? For it is impossible to do anything with it. Yes, there is an attribute, and if one looks from the perspective of the greatness of the Holy One, blessed be He, ah, this is the reality. Not so, this is not the reality. The reality is above all this.

And let us say, not because this is the truth. The absolute truth is reality, and it is not this absolute truth. The absolute truth is not judgment at all. All these words are of small people, even angels. And let us say, even the angels understand what is judgment and chesed, and perhaps not only people. But the Holy One, blessed be He is above the angels, and even from the supernal sefirot the Holy One, blessed be He is above them. And what does it mean that there is judgment and chesed, and that one needs to sweeten the judgment with chesed? Why is there judgment if the world cannot understand it?

And the entire purpose, as the Ramak says in the introduction: why did the Holy One, blessed be He make the world? That is, why did the Holy One, blessed be He reveal Himself in such a way that He is God of the world, that He is a leader, that He is a master of chesed, that He is a master of judgment, that He is a master of order? All these why? ‘In order that they should know Him’, ‘that the light should not spread over every creature and how will they know Him’ (Zohar introduction, Petach Eliyahu). If there will not be the words, they will not be able to understand the Holy One, blessed be He. The Holy One, blessed be He as He is from His own side it is impossible to understand, and therefore He did us a favor, ‘good and good to do good’, and clothed Himself in all these garments. And all this is garments and images and imaginations, ‘and by the hand of the prophets I use similitudes’ (Hosea 12).

Consequently, the things that we understand, that help us, that help the world — I understand. But the attribute that is against the world, for apparently it is against the world — why does it exist at all? What is its function? And I am not now speaking about the Sitra Achra, ‘but He made, He made for this accuser’. Indeed, we understand why an accuser is needed, but the root of the accuser — why does it exist? What is happening here? What is the meaning of the matter? Why do we say such things at all?

Rebecca’s Question — What Does Isaac Have to Do with Esau?

And this is Rebecca’s question. This was Rebecca’s question: why does Isaac call to Esau at all? What does Isaac have to do with Esau? What does the supernal attribute of Gevurah have to do at all, what does it have to do at all, with the Satan, with Esau? Why? What is his business here? And you will say: yes, because he is the attribute of Gevurah. But why is there an attribute of Gevurah that can be such a thing at all?

And the answer Rebecca says thus: the answer is only through Jacob coming first. One needs to go to what precedes this, one needs to bring what Jacob knows how to bring, one needs to blow the shofar, says the Zohar. The blowing of the shofar, this elevates us to the level. One needs to come before Esau comes. ‘Before Esau’ means to understand why there is at all such a thing that can cause there to be Esau.

The Parable of the Mother-in-Law — ‘The Heavens Are Not Pure in the Eyes of Binah’

Now we come and say thus. And what do we do now? Now we say thus, and this is not written here in the Zohar, but it is written in other places in the Zohar explicitly, and the Arizal brings it at length. What is it? Why ‘the heavens are not pure in His eyes’ (Job 15)? He says: ‘in His eyes’ of whom? ‘Heavens’ indicates the attribute of Tiferet, the Zeir Anpin itself, and ‘not pure in His eyes’ means ‘not pure in the eyes of Binah’.

And the explanation is thus: one needs to hear the parable completely differently, and this is the secret of the judgment of the year, and it is possible to say this on Yom Kippur in order to understand that this is what was intended. And they are accustomed to explain a parable of a perfectionist person, that nothing is ever good enough in his eyes, and it always needs to be better. And not so, and this too is a better way to say, that nothing is good in his eyes, that he always sees the deficiency in everything. This is not any matter. One needs to understand the entire thing completely differently. And how does one need to understand it? I will tell you how one needs to understand it.

Imagine that there is a bride, and sometimes we see such a thing. And the bride has a mother, the mother-in-law. And the mother-in-law goes and buys, buys fabric, buys I don’t know what, clothes and garments and wigs and everything that is needed, buys for her daughter the bride, for her son the groom, for the daughter the bride, whoever we want. And they already bought everything in perfection, it was already perfect, they already checked three times everything, if it is sewn well, and if it is made well, and if it is from the important merchandise, and beautiful, and fitting, and everything.

And the nature of the good mother, the true supernal mother, the mother who truly cares that the bride should be as best as possible — stands one day in the morning and says: my dear child, actually this is still not good. And what does it mean that this is still not good? I think that it can be even better, so I think, I think that it can be even better. It is possible to go to another store. I heard that there is somewhere, somewhere in the distance, another store, where they sell even better, a little better, more perfect, the same type of item that they will wear, the same type of garment that they will wear for the wedding, it is possible to make it better.

And this can continue several times, God forbid it repeats. Every year this can continue, God forbid it repeats. I grasped that it is possible to be even better, and for my daughter it needs to be the best, beauty is not enough, it needs to be the best. And this you can call the attribute of judgment. And sometimes from this is indeed born the attribute of judgment, one becomes angry and frustrated and tears, and another comes and says: but, it was already good yesterday, what is with you? But this is not the root of the attribute of judgment, this is the root of the attribute of mercy. This is the root of the attribute that says: I know that you can receive better, I know that you can be the entire thing.

‘The Heavens Are Not Pure in His Eyes’ — Every Year Can Be Better

‘Not pure in His eyes’, says the Zohar means, that every day the supernal one stands and says that the heavens are still not perfect. And what does it mean that this is still not perfect? A new way has occurred to me how it can be better. Tear yesterday’s, we will not use yesterday’s. Yesterday’s was very good before yesterday, and indeed, if the wedding were today, we would already have to use it. But there is still a week until the wedding, let us buy completely new, let us go to a greater professional, completely new clothes.

This is the meaning of ‘the heavens are not pure in His eyes’, and this is the meaning that every year, when a new year comes, the supernal Binah comes and is aroused over the world, and says — and whoever looks at the new newspaper can see this: what was not good about iPhone 17 that we need iPhone 18? The announcement comes and says: indeed it was perfect, nothing was lacking, but I think that it can be even better.

Esau the Fool — To Break Because There is New

Now, from this comes Esau the fool, when he thinks they mean him. When there is indeed Isaac, when there is such a time, they mean him. That is, it will be even better, let us break the old. A better filter is needed, we only need to break the old. There is no need to break anything, but rather one needs to break it after there is new, but one needs to make new. There is one time when they break the old before there is new — then a destruction of the world is made, like the flood, ‘Hashem sat at the flood’ (Psalms 29), and this is never done. First one must make new.

That is, Jacob will go first to make new, and first he will begin to understand, he will go to his mother, and his mother will explain to him: much better is needed. Your father says ‘savory food as I love’ (Genesis 27). And what does ‘savory food as I love’ mean? What was wrong with the dinner I made? He understands that it can be better. Esau says: ah, I also know that mother’s dinner was not good, let us make better. Rebecca says: you think, I know this, I know even more than you, I know that it is possible even better. Bring two kids of goats, ‘bring two kids of goats’ (Genesis 27), we will make even better.

‘And He Brought Him Wine and He Drank’ — A Completely Different World

‘And it was, as soon as Jacob had gone out and Esau his brother came from his hunting’ (Genesis 27). The moment that Jacob already came, already showed Isaac, ‘and he brought him wine and he drank’ (Genesis 27). It is written there with double language, ‘and he brought him’, a complete triple. Says the Zohar, this means ‘what is needed he will bring before Him’. Not just he brought ‘him wine’, but he brought some ‘him wine’, some complete thing he brought. He began to understand, yes, there can be a completely different world.

But certainly, if we had not done teshuvah — what does it mean? If we had not agreed, if we had not equaled ourselves to the level, if we had not said, yes, I also think indeed that the Messiah can come this year. That is, there can be a completely different world, nothing is necessary from what exists. Everything that exists is indeed perfect, and it can be twice as perfect. And this needs to be done. This is the deed of teshuvah that we do with the blowing of the shofar, that we snatch Esau again with this.

The Ten Days of Teshuvah — Making Plans and Dreams

And says the Zohar, with this we go… Jacob flees, as Jacob fled from Esau twenty-two years. In any case, between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, says the Zohar, the ten days of teshuvah. And what do we do in the ten days of teshuvah? We say to Esau: you are right, it can be better, much better, and we prepare the better. We make plans, it is not yet possible to do, a whole year we will do, but we make plans, we make ideas, we make dreams, everything will be better. I have thousands of dreams, about the work that I hold. Indeed, this is indeed real work.

It is impossible to do, and lest you think that it is possible to do teshuvah in the ten days of teshuvah with all kinds of nonsense, that we accept resolutions, that we do not feel bad, and God forbid it repeats after the holiday — this is not the way. Something that is real work, is that it is possible to convince ourselves, it is possible to imagine and picture plans for ourselves. ‘And make me savory food as I love’ (Genesis 27) — you think, you see that the matter is not good with you, that the matter is not good with the world, write yourself a plan, a dream how the thing will look when the Messiah comes. What needs to be done? The ten days of teshuvah.

Esau Becomes Angry — Take, We Are Making Better

And this he does. ‘When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with a great and very bitter cry’ (Genesis 27). Esau becomes very angry. We say to Esau on Yom Kippur: you are angry? You go to a comprehension that you will be angry there? If I gave you comprehension, I gave a gift to Esau his brother, Jacob our father gave four hundred goats, two hundred, twenty he-goats, whatever you want. And you know why I gave you whatever you want? Because I will still make better. For I have the angels of the Land of Israel, ‘and he called the name of that place Machanayim’ (Genesis 32). For a completely new year will come.

All the abundance that was — you think it is not coming to us? You are right. And you know why it is not coming to us? Because to us is coming much better. This year will be a thousand times better than what was. Everything I have, everything I bought ‘with Laban I sojourned’, I am not worthy, as it is written in the Midrash, ‘and I am not worthy of the possessions outside the Land’. Everything I bought at Laban’s, everything I labored there, ‘I was stolen by day and stolen by night’, take it, Esau. And you know what I will do? I will make here ten times better. Do not worry. You can take the entire thing, you are right, it can be better. I already snatched you long ago. Take it, Esau, be happy from this. No problem.

Jacob Builds a Sukkah — The Love of the Holy One, Blessed Be He, for Israel

Jacob goes and builds a sukkah, and says: we are going to be pleased in the sukkah. Esau can go on his way, to the field, with everything that was in the past year. All the sins he can take with him too. As Rabbi Yitzchak of Berditchev said: you can take the sins too, no problem, ‘and he shall send them on the head of the goat’. You can take the sins too, we are going to make new mitzvot, new transgressions, everything will be a completely new level.

This is the love, the love of the people, the love of the Holy One, blessed be He for Israel, the supernal love of His people. Not just. And this is the reason that there is at all an attribute of Gevurah. Now you will understand the attribute of Gevurah, for this expresses: not because it is impossible that the world should be destroyed, but that the world should be twice as good. That is, we sweeten the Gevurah by elevating the Malchut to the Binah. And this we do on Yom Kippur, and this is also the secret of Parashat Haazinu, that each one will be able to understand for himself, and with this may we have a joyous Shabbat, and may we effect all good, and may we make good plans, good dreams.

The Secret of “And You Shall Take” — The Final Commandment in Parashat Pekudei

Introduction: A Brief Pre-Holiday Lecture

Since this is the eve of a holiday, and time is not abundant, we will suffice with a brief lecture. This lecture is being given on the eve of Sukkot concerning the secret of the verse and commandment ‘and you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of a beautiful tree’ (Leviticus 23:40). We have already studied two lectures on this topic more closely aligned with the plain meaning, not according to the way of the Zohar, and now I simply wish to present to you the words of the holy Zohar in Pekudei.

We learned that this is the final commandment. Indeed, there was a section that was omitted in the previous lecture, it seems to me, but in any case this is the final commandment in the Zohar, from among the book of commandments that the Zohar wrote in Parashat Pekudei of the Master of the Universe. The final commandment is the mitzvah of lulav, commandment number 47, for it only counted forty-seven commandments, as we learned.

The Order of Commandments in Parashat Pekudei

The order is as follows: First the Zohar speaks of the primary commandments of each day — the commandment of the unity of God, the existence of God, the commandment of faith, the commandment of reciting the Shema, prayer, tefillin, tzitzit, mezuzah, all the commandments of each and every day, and the priestly blessing is also an important commandment for it. After that it begins with the order of Shabbat, of holidays, and thus the order of the holidays unfolds from Pesach until Tishrei, until Sukkot.

It turns out that the final commandment that it counts in total — after it already mentioned perhaps the commandment of dwelling in the sukkah — is among the last three commandments: the commandment of dwelling in the sukkah, and commandment 46 is the commandment of the sacrifices of Sukkot, and after that it speaks a bit about Shemini Atzeret, but it does not count a separate commandment for it here. And the last is the commandment of waving the lulav, taking the lulav, ‘and you shall take for yourselves’ (Leviticus 23:40), taking the lulav on Sukkot.

The Innovation in the Brief Language of the Zohar

And the Zohar, in the manner of Pekudei, repeats and mentions things that it already elaborated upon elsewhere, except that it includes them in one word, and often in that one word a novel insight is hidden. Indeed, I have not yet examined this thoroughly, but it seems to me that in the formulation it states, and even in one word, there is a great innovation, there is great clarity that was not stated before, at least not with that clarity. Therefore it is worthy to study it here, and to sharpen the point somewhat.

The Language of the Zohar: To Take the Lulav on That Day

The Commandment and the Species

Thus says the Zohar: The commandment is to take the lulav on that day, on the first day, on that day. It says, ‘to take the lulav on that day’, on that day, meaning on the first day, as it is stated ‘and you shall take for yourselves on the first day’ (Leviticus 23:40), ‘and these are the species’, the species, the species of the lulav, meaning that one should take the lulav with its species.

And behold, in the verse the species are mentioned simply, it states ‘fruit of a beautiful tree, branches of palm trees’ (Leviticus 23:40) and so forth, but in the Gemara the commandment is regularly called by the name of the commandment of taking the lulav. And although the word lulav is not written at all in the verse — though this word is mentioned in the Chumash — in the Mishnah it calls the whole thing by the name lulav, and all the other parts are called the species of the lulav, as if they belong to it. And so is the language of the Mishnah in Menachot, the four species that are in the lulav, the species that are in the lulav. Thus the entire group, the entire collection, the entire matter — the entire bundle is called lulav, and we wave the lulav, as in the language of the blessing ‘on taking the lulav’. And after the species, the lulav, additional things are added to it. And there are deeper explanations in this, and the Zohar indeed addresses the reason that they are all called by the name lulav, and touched upon this somewhat. But this is the name of the commandment: to take the lulav and its species on that day, on the holiday of Sukkot.

The Verse Itself Is a Secret

The Zohar says in very brief language, and I will read all the words: It says, ‘and this is the secret’, this is the secret — not the secret of the matter that one should take the lulav on that day, but that the verse itself is a secret.

And what does it mean that the verse itself is a secret? Behold, they elaborated on this in the articles they wrote. The verse does not explicitly clarify what one should do with the lulav. And indeed, the verse is like a wondrous midrash: ‘and you shall take for yourselves’ and ‘and you shall rejoice’ (Leviticus 23:40). What, when, how, in what manner does this result in ‘and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God’ (Leviticus 23:40)? What is the meaning of the lulav? It is a secret.

And Before the Companions: We Are All Companions

The Companions of the Zohar and the Sages of the Talmud

The Zohar says, we have already established the secret, as we have already explained, ‘and before the companions’. Its intention is that the Zohar itself already explained it. ‘And before the companions’ — sometimes this language can hint at the companions of the Zohar themselves. But it seems to me that when the Zohar emphasizes that we too spoke of this and the companions also spoke of this, its intention is that this is the way of the Zohar to speak as if everything is from Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and his companions.

The Zohar speaks as if the companions — they include the other Tannaim, the other Amoraim as well, the other sages of the Talmud whom we call our sages of blessed memory, and all our other sages — that all of them explain in their books, each in his place, the matters of the commandments, the laws, the reasons.

How a Jew Should Think: We Are All Students of the Holy One, Blessed Be He

The Zohar says, we have already spoken of this sufficiently, and our companions as well. And this is how a Jew should think: we are all companions of the Gemara, we are all companions of the Tannaim. That is, we are companions, both of us together, receiving at the very same place.

And what is the difference between a teacher and a student and between a companion? When we say ‘our rabbis of blessed memory’, we are saying that they are above us, they are the receivers of the Torah, and from them we receive. But the Zohar stands at a place where it understands that they are our companions. And where do we find such a thing? Shimon bar Yochai and his companions — our companions.

For we are all one. A companion is one. Two people who went to one teacher, both of them are companions, meaning on the same level, both receive. And thus the Zohar thinks: we are all companions. And why? Because we are all students of the Holy One, Blessed Be He, ‘all your children are students of God’ (Isaiah 54:13). All are students of the Holy One, Blessed Be He, all are students of Moses our teacher, who was also a student of the Holy One, Blessed Be He. Moses was the first student, and the Holy One, Blessed Be He, was the first teacher.

And even what we study Torah, we are all students of Moses our teacher. We are all companions — we, the Tannaim, the Amoraim, and what was before the Tannaim, the prophets — we are all companions in the same study hall, in the same yeshiva that is called the yeshiva of Moses our teacher, from the mouth of the Holy One, Blessed Be He, and that same Torah we study. And what they explain, we all struggled with that same difficulty, for even the Tannaim found it difficult: What is the secret of the lulav? We all struggled with that difficulty. Ah, they tell us here the plain meaning, they tell us that the Tannaim already stated the plain meaning, ah, our companions already explained somewhat. The Zohar says, we have already explained ourselves in our book, and our companions have also already explained.

The Midrashim Are Secrets

And the intention of the Zohar here is to say another deep thing. That the midrashim on the lulav have already explained precisely the secrets of the Zohar. It says, everyone knows that all the secrets of the Zohar are built and connected with the ways of the midrashim, except that the midrash speaks in its formulation more in the way of the revealed, meaning, a sefirah is never mentioned in it, matters of divinity itself are never mentioned in it, for as is known the midrash is written in concealment.

Thus the Rambam learned, and thus all the sages received, that the midrashim are not always according to their plain meaning, they are not literal, and the Ramban explained this many times. The Ramban argues many times with Rashi, that when Rashi brings a midrash, the Ramban says, the plain meaning of the verse is not according to your words; and moreover, you do not even understand the midrash, for the intention of the midrash is not to state a simple plain meaning, but its intention is the secret. And the Zohar always goes in this way: the midrashim are secrets.

And sometimes the secret is more hidden, and it is difficult to understand the midrash, and sometimes the midrash is clearer, and one can immediately understand from it what the plain meaning is — and this is the secret. The Zohar says, the secret, the secret of the lulav. The lulav is a secret, and no one understands. You can ask a simple Jew, and although there are simple reasons, but with all due respect they are weak, briefly, feeble stories.

The secret — the lulav certainly has a secret. For it states ‘and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days’ (Leviticus 23:40). Certainly there is meaning in this, that with this lulav we gladden the Holy One, Blessed Be He, and He rejoices with us and we rejoice with Him. We will see further in the Zohar how it establishes this matter. In any case, the lulav certainly has a secret, and the midrashim have already revealed the secret almost close to the way of the Zohar. The word sefirot is not mentioned in the midrash, but the companions have already explained, and one who studies midrash already knows almost what the Zohar is going to say.

The Holy One, Blessed Be He, Takes Israel: The Mirror Image of “And You Shall Take for Yourselves”

The Elevation of the Commandments: What Is Done Above They Do With Us

And what did they say? The Zohar says briefly, thus: ‘Just as the Holy One, Blessed Be He, takes Israel on these days and rejoices with them’ — just as the Holy One, Blessed Be He, takes Israel.

‘And you shall take for yourselves’ (Leviticus 23:40) — it is stated that we shall take. But thus says the Zohar, everyone knows, that every verse in the Torah that tells us to do something is only a reflection, is only a shadow, of something that has already been done above. And we learned there the secret of all the commandments called elevation, the elevation of the commandments. There it is stated the opposite, that what we do is done above, as we have already explained. But this begins with the fact that what is done above they do with us, and we do afterward. ‘What He is, you too’ (Shabbat 133b) — what the Holy One, Blessed Be He, did in the act of creation, He makes us partners in the act of creation; the Holy One, Blessed Be He, does the act of the chariot, He makes us the act of the chariot.

Verses of Taking

Behold, ‘and you shall take for yourselves’ means that we shall take. But one must understand that the matter began from something that the Holy One, Blessed Be He, already took. And thus certainly the midrashim connect here immediately at the beginning of ‘and you shall take for yourselves’ with all kinds of places where taking is mentioned. The midrash also speaks of other verses where it is stated that we shall take, but there are also places where it is stated that the Holy One, Blessed Be He, took.

The Holy One, Blessed Be He, says ‘and they shall take for Me an offering’ (Exodus 25:2), and the midrash says, take Me Myself. And the Holy One, Blessed Be He, took, ‘and I will take you to Me as a people’ (Exodus 6:7). And ‘and I will take you to Me as a people’ is the reflection, the mirror image of ‘and you shall take for yourselves’. And thus indeed the Zohar expounds. It does not bring the verse, but it is thinking of this verse, or of another verse that is a similar matter.

‘And you shall take for yourselves’ means take for yourselves. And what is take for yourselves? Why should a person take? How can a verse come where the Holy One, Blessed Be He, says to a person take for yourselves? The plain meaning is that the Holy One, Blessed Be He, has already taken. And what did the Holy One, Blessed Be He, take? The Zohar says, and it will be stated afterward ‘and you shall rely’. The Zohar says, the Holy One, Blessed Be He, took Israel, ‘and I will take you to Me as a people’.

The Holy One, Blessed Be He, Rejoices in Israel

The Holy One, Blessed Be He, took Israel, and rejoiced with them, as it is stated ‘for the Lord will again rejoice over you for good’ (Deuteronomy 30:9). The Holy One, Blessed Be He, rejoices in Israel, He took Israel. And these are explicit verses, that at the time when it is good for Israel — meaning a holiday, after there were Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and they stood in them, and Israel prevailed — the Holy One, Blessed Be He, takes Israel.

That is, He chooses, ‘and chose His people Israel with love’, ‘and chose His people Israel with joy’. The Holy One, Blessed Be He, rejoices in Israel, He takes them. Behold, ‘and you shall take for yourselves’ begins with the fact that the Holy One, Blessed Be He, takes Israel on these days and rejoices with them.

The Secret of Yom Kippur: That the Holy One, Blessed Be He, Can Take Us

And a very interesting thing the Zohar explained. This is not written in the midrash as far as I know, and I say that the second half is written in the midrash, and the Zohar only explains that the midrash comes from this. The Holy One, Blessed Be He, takes Israel, because He understands that this is the meaning of Yom Kippur, that they offered themselves, ‘for on this day He will atone for you to purify you’ (Leviticus 16:30).

And why must one be purified? Before God. So that we can come before God, so that the Holy One, Blessed Be He, can take us, one must be purified, and the Holy One, Blessed Be He, must forgive all the sins. And this is for Him. And this is the meaning of ‘for My sake I will delay My anger’ (Isaiah 48:9). The Holy One, Blessed Be He, must forgive all the sins for our sake, because He needs to be able to take us, therefore He needs to be able to forgive all the sins, to be able to include all the sins.

The Holy One, Blessed Be He, forgives all the sins, and takes us with joy. The Holy One, Blessed Be He, waves matters with Israel. This is the first thing. The Holy One, Blessed Be He, holds Israel, embraces them, takes them, ‘and I will take you to Me as a people’, this is ‘and I will take for Me’, ‘and I will take you to Me’. The Holy One, Blessed Be He, takes Israel for Himself.

And It Returns in Turn: What a Jew Does Reflects What the Holy One, Blessed Be He, Does

And now, when a person knows that what a Jew does reflects what the Holy One, Blessed Be He, does, again the matter is pleasant, and it returns in turn. After a Jew does, he already arouses the measure that the Holy One, Blessed Be He, already did, already established, for the Holy One, Blessed Be He, established the matter so that it would continue onward.

The Zohar says, just as the Holy One, Blessed Be He, takes Israel on these days and rejoices with them, so too, Israel, ‘Israel take the Holy One, Blessed Be He, as their portion’, take the Holy One, Blessed Be He, as their portion, and therefore ‘and you shall take for yourselves on the first day’ — meaning, take Me. Just as I take you, this is the time, this is the time when the Holy One, Blessed Be He, takes me. And this He mentioned, what was revealed, and to think about this, for the Holy One, Blessed Be He, takes Israel, and Israel take the Holy One, Blessed Be He.

The Midrash: The Fruit of a Beautiful Tree Is the Holy One, Blessed Be He

The Exposition of Rabbi Akiva

And this is written in the midrash, an explicit midrash. And in all the midrashim on the verse ‘and you shall take for yourselves’, Rabbi Akiva says — and it is brought in the Ramban here on the verse, and the Ramban explains it according to Kabbalah, and certainly the Zohar connects with the secret that the Ramban explained according to Kabbalah.

The midrash says, ‘and you shall take for yourselves the fruit of a beautiful tree’, Rabbi Akiva says, the fruit of a beautiful tree is the Holy One, Blessed Be He, as it is stated ‘You are clothed in majesty and splendor’ (Psalms 104:1). Branches of palm trees is the Holy One, Blessed Be He, as it is stated ‘the righteous will flourish like a palm tree’ (Psalms 92:13). And boughs of thick trees is the Holy One, Blessed Be He, as it is stated ‘and He was standing among the myrtle trees’ (Zechariah 1:8). And willows of the brook is the Holy One, Blessed Be He, as it is stated ‘extol Him who rides upon the plains’ (Psalms 68:5).

Each of the verses reveals a secret, why the Holy One, Blessed Be He, is called by those names. And the Ramban explains at length that this hints at the different attributes, the different sefirot of the Holy One, Blessed Be He, that each of them is hinted at in the beautiful tree, branches of palm trees, and boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook. The Zohar in this place does not enter into the details — in other places it enters into this — and we too will not enter into this.

The Lulav of the Holy One, Blessed Be He, and the Lulav of Israel

But what the Zohar clarifies here is, that this is already a reflection. Since this is the time when the Holy One, Blessed Be He, takes Israel, and everyone knows this. And the midrash here, another midrash — this too is a midrash that fewer people know, a deeper kabbalistic midrash, but everyone knows the revealed midrash. The midrash expounds that the fruit of a beautiful tree and its companions are corresponding to the patriarchs, or corresponding to the four types of Jews, and this is a very conceptual midrash.

Thus there are two sides here: what corresponds to Israel and what corresponds to the Holy One, Blessed Be He. The Holy One, Blessed Be He, takes a lulav, just as the Holy One, Blessed Be He, has tefillin that speak of Israel, and Israel have tefillin that speak of the Holy One, Blessed Be He. The same thing — the Holy One, Blessed Be He, has a lulav, in the lulav of the Holy One, Blessed Be He, Israel is spoken of. The lulav of the Holy One, Blessed Be He, is Israel, the four types of Jews, or the four limbs of every Jew, the body of the Jew that we will speak of, or the three patriarchs, all kinds of things. This is the lulav, ‘and I will take for Me’, what the Holy One, Blessed Be He, takes.

The Language of Taking Like Betrothal

The Holy One, Blessed Be He, says, thus Israel shall take ‘for yourselves’. And what shall they take? They shall take the Holy One, Blessed Be He. And the ‘and I will take’, it seems to me that this is a language of taking like betrothal, ‘when a man takes a wife’ (Deuteronomy 24:1), in this language of taking there is a plain meaning here. ‘And you shall take for yourselves’ like ‘when a man takes a wife’. Like a betrothal ring, like the rings that are made on the lulav, as is known.

The Holy One, Blessed Be He, takes Israel, and Israel take essentially in that same very matter. And one can ask the Zohar in another place, where it says that there is an inquiry in the verse ‘for Jacob chose for himself the Lord’ (Psalms 135:4): it is possible to read the verse that the Holy One, Blessed Be He, the Lord, chooses Jacob, or that Jacob chooses the Lord. Which of them? It is both. That is, the same very thing — in the same action in which the Holy One, Blessed Be He, takes Israel, Israel take us. And this is the secret of all the Zohar, that the Zohar says ‘with the arousal from below there is arousal above’, that when we take the Holy One, Blessed Be He, the Holy One, Blessed Be He, takes us. This is the same very thing, and we are not explaining this now at length, but these are known matters.

The Secret of the Stature of Man: The Secret of the Form of Man

Israel Take the Holy One, Blessed Be He, as Their Portion

And further the Zohar says, that on these days the Holy One, Blessed Be He, takes us, and this is the intention of the celebration: just as the Holy One, Blessed Be He, takes Israel and rejoices with them, so Israel take the Holy One, Blessed Be He, and rejoice with Him. That is, they take Him and choose Him as their portion, just as the Holy One, Blessed Be He, took Israel that they should be as it were His, not only according to all the truth, all the length that the matter contains.

And this is the matter, Israel take the Holy One, Blessed Be He, that He should be theirs, in all the length that the matter contains. ‘And we will be distinguished, I and Your people, from all the people that are on the face of the earth’ (Exodus 33:16), Israel request from the Holy One, Blessed Be He, a covenant that He should be theirs. The Zohar says: ‘Certainly a secret’, and concludes, ‘this is a secret, the lulav and its species, this is the secret of the stature of man’. This is the secret of the lulav.

The Stature of Man and the Limbs of the Sefirot

And now we will come somewhat from the general to the particulars. The lulav is species that are the secret of the form of man. And this is further, as everyone knows, that the midrash says that the lulav corresponds to what resembles the mouth, resembles the eye, and so forth, resembles the spine. And therefore the lulav is the main thing, for upon the spine stands the entire person. This is like the stature of man. ‘Your stature is like a palm tree’ (Song of Songs 7:8).

And what does the lulav show? That when one sees a person, one sees his stature. Indeed in the stature there are eyes and there is everything, but everything is the limbs of the person, and what one sees can be called the stature of the person, the lulav. And from this it is called lulav. And this is certainly the intention of what we say that the Holy One, Blessed Be He, takes Israel with all their limbs, but certainly the intention of the Zohar is for something deeper.

As is known, everyone knows that the secret of the Zohar is to understand that the limbs of man are also the limbs of the Shekhinah, like the limbs of the sefirot as it were. The Holy One, Blessed Be He, is not a body, ‘He has no bodily form’ (Yigdal), and this is not our place to explain. But the Holy One, Blessed Be He, also has as it were a body, a stature in which He is revealed in the world, and in His actions and in the modes of His revelation prior to actions, there is as it were a body.

The Double Meaning of the Limbs

And when it is stated that the lulav resembles the mouth and resembles the eye, again there is a double meaning here. The intention is for the mouth and eye of Israel, which shows that the Holy One, Blessed Be He, takes Israel. This is the explanation, the Holy One, Blessed Be He, takes Israel with their mouth, with their eyes, with their lips, and so forth. And this also shows the form of the image of the Creator as it were, the image of God, the image, the form of the Holy One, Blessed Be He.

When one takes the eyes, this resembles the eye, the myrtles that resemble the eye, it shows that the Holy One, Blessed Be He, looks at Israel. And that the willows resemble the mouth shows that the Holy One, Blessed Be He, speaks with Israel, ‘the voice of my beloved, behold he comes, leaping over the mountains, skipping over the hills’ (Song of Songs 2:8). And that the branches of palm trees resemble the spine shows that the Holy One, Blessed Be He, upholds Israel, as it were the spine. The Holy One, Blessed Be He, is the spine of Israel. This is ‘strength and joy are in His place’ (1 Chronicles 16:27), ‘the Lord is my strength and my stronghold’ (Jeremiah 16:19). The Holy One, Blessed Be He, is the strength, the spine. When one speaks of a person’s strength, one says that he has a back, a spine. The strength of Israel, this is the Holy One, Blessed Be He. This is what the spine shows, the lulav.

And the etrog shows that the Holy One, Blessed Be He, is the heart of Israel, the Holy One, Blessed Be He, is our heart. These are all the things that it shows, and this is the plain meaning of the Zohar regarding what we take all the species.

The Point of the Invitation: How the Lulav Connects the Joy

The Question: How Does the Lulav Connect with the Joy of the Holiday

And I wish to add only the point that we learned, that we learned and wrote, and it seems to me that it is a point of truth: that for everything an invitation is needed, one must understand the joy. It is stated ‘and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days’ (Leviticus 23:40). One does not stand seven complete days with the lulav. Indeed there were the people of Jerusalem who stood all day with the lulav, but we do not practice this way, and this is also not the obligation.

That is, in plain terms the order is that during Hallel one takes the lulav, in the morning, and on Shabbat one does not take it at all. In any case, one takes the lulav in the morning, or all day, for all day is fit for reciting Hallel, but in practice one does not take it all day but part of the day.

And the joy is certainly joy. Joy in plain terms means complete. Joy one makes afterward, one arranges a great feast, one dances. Even the dancing is a great feast. And one can say that there is an explicit obligation to dance on the holiday. It is stated chag, and chag is from the language of chagigah, chag is from the language of dancing, to circle and make circuits with the lulav, or without the lulav, afterward, at night, in the morning. These are all the things that we do.

And behold, all these things are good, very good. But how do they connect with the lulav? It seems to me that this is a question that people have in practice, and therefore I say an intention, I say an intention, I have an intention, in the morning I had a lulav, each person in his way and with his intention, very good. Afterward one goes home, one prays further, one eats a feast, one gathers, one does all the joys of the holiday. How do all these things connect with the lulav?

The Lulav Is the Connection of the Two Joys

I think an intention, and they will already remember the intention at the time of taking the lulav. It seems to me that this is the plain meaning, and I have built the plain meaning somewhat as to why I think so. For the plain meaning is, as the Zohar says, that the lulav is the connection of the two joys. The Holy One, Blessed Be He, takes Israel and rejoices with them, and Israel take the Holy One, Blessed Be He, ‘and I will take you to Me’, Israel say ‘and I will take you to Me’, and the fruit of the side shows the Holy One, Blessed Be He, and shows Israel, shows the image of God, that they are this image of God.

And the plain meaning of the special intention in the lulav is, that through the lulav the days become important. That is, we learned in the Zohar that everything needs an invitation. There is nothing, whether one says ‘behold I am prepared and ready’ — for one who practices this way — and whether one must say it, whether one must think it, whether one must do it: everything needs an invitation.

The Parable of the Wedding

That is, as it were, a person makes a wedding, one must invite. And one can ask a question: will not his grandfather come without an invitation? For he knows that there is a wedding, but it is proper that one send him an invitation. And the invitation, as he says, the physicality may come without it. But the feeling that a person has an important friend or important relative or his teacher, that he wants to call him to his joy — one must call him.

And even if he will come without being called, when he comes without being called, he comes in such a way that he does not come with his heart, he does not come with his will, he does not come — one can call this — with his inwardness, with his spiritual level; he does not come, he comes in externality, he comes with his skin, he does not come with his inwardness. And in order that he come in inwardness a request is required. This is the nature of people.

The Spiritual Nature: An Invitation Is a Matter

And this is also the spiritual nature. The spiritual nature is that when one makes an invitation the Holy One, Blessed Be He, also comes. The Holy One, Blessed Be He, comes of His own accord. And as they say, even a small friend who comes without an invitation, the Holy One, Blessed Be He, comes. To the joys of Israel the Holy One, Blessed Be He, comes, the grandfathers come, everything comes, the ushpizin come.

But why do we invite? For the Zohar says that Rabbi Abba used to invite the ushpizin. And why must one invite them? For they come, in any case. The plain meaning is that they come, but one must invite. A matter of holiness requires an invitation. There is a law, an invitation is a matter for something of holiness, an invitation is required. In idolatry there is no invitation, but for matters of holiness an invitation is required, and the invitation is effective.

And what does the invitation accomplish? It accomplishes that when the holiness descends, when the Holy One, Blessed Be He, comes with us, He comes by invitation. That is, with will, with the will of both, and the matter brings out the will of both, face to face brings this out.

The Joy Must Be Joy Before God

One Cannot Simply Sit Down to a Plate of Meat

Since we want to make joy, we want to rejoice, we want our joy to be joy before God, and we want to understand what the matter means — one must call Him. One cannot simply sit down to a plate of meat and wine and say, this is the joy of God. This is the joy of one’s belly.

And how does the joy of the belly become

The Joy Must Be Joy Before God

One Cannot Simply Sit Down to a Plate of Meat

Since we want to make joy, we want to rejoice, we want our joy to be joy before God, and we want to understand what the matter means — one must call Him. One cannot simply sit down to a plate of meat and wine and say, this is the joy of God. This is the joy of one’s belly.

And how does the joy of the belly become the joy of God? Certainly through giving charity, this is certainly part of all the species. This hints at all of Israel, but perhaps another way is needed to hint at why all the species are thus understood, for it is stated ‘and you shall rejoice in your festival, you and your son and your daughter and your servant and your maidservant and the Levite who is in your gates’ (Deuteronomy 16:14). This is part of the joy, and this accomplishes, as Rashi says, ‘if you gladden Mine I will gladden yours’.

And this is also the main thing, this is the main way to explain the ushpizin, as is explicit, that one must invite actual guests. And if one has no guests, let him send money to one who will have guests, and the like — to give charity on the eve of Sukkot, on the eve of the holiday, to a person, so that Israel will have for the holiday. This is the one main way how one invites the Shekhinah.

How One Calls the Shekhinah: Through the Lulav

But besides this, one must literally invite the Shekhinah. And how does one call the Shekhinah to our holiday joy? Through the lulav. And why through the lulav? We have already spoken, because the lulav shows as it were the body of the sefirot, it shows the way in which the Holy One, Blessed Be He, shows Himself in the world. This is the decree, this is the decree of Scripture.

And why specifically the lulav? This is not our concern now. When one takes the lulav, one approaches the Holy One, Blessed Be He, one goes to the study hall, one says Hallel, one stands with the lulav before God, one says to Him ‘I will thank You for You have answered me’ (Psalms 118:21), one says to Him ‘Give thanks to the Lord for He is good’ (Psalms 118:1), one says to Him ‘Please, O Lord’ (Psalms 118:25), one circles the altar, one circles our platform, one circles as it were the place of the Holy One, Blessed Be He, the place where one reads His Torah, the place where one studies it and prays to Him, one circles — and with this one calls the Holy One, Blessed Be He.

And from the fact that one goes with the lulav in the morning, the Holy One, Blessed Be He, is with our joy at night, the Holy One, Blessed Be He, is with our joy all day, the Holy One, Blessed Be He, is with our joy all year.

Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah in the Holy Zohar: The Secret of the Seventy Bulls and the One Bull

Introduction: The Order of the Shiur

Rabbosai, good evening. Today is the eve of Shemini Atzeret, the afternoon of Hoshana Rabbah, and it’s a busy time for everyone. I too am occupied now, and among my other occupations I am occupied with learning this shiur. We have a fixed schedule every erev Shabbos, and today is also erev Shabbos, erev yom tov, but the main fixture of our shiur is on erev Shabbos, and even when yom tov falls out — and on Sukkos there are always two erev Shabboses somewhere — we continue our order in the holy Zohar, in the order of mitzvos and the order of the moadim, in honor of the day.

And what I wish to explain are about three approaches that stand in the Zohar, or are built upon the foundation of the Zohar, in order to understand the sugya of Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah. In truth it is one sugya, and although there are chiddushim and special points in Hoshana Rabbah that are not of Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah, nevertheless in general it’s all one topic. These are what are called ‘the last days of the chag’, the last days, in which we make two yamim tovim. Hoshana Rabbah itself is also the last day of the entire series of the first days of the chag, the seventh day, the day of the aravah, and all these things are connected to each other.

The Zohar’s View on Shemini Atzeret

Now I wish to expand somewhat on the view of this matter, and why — because in the holy Zohar there is no one place where the entire matter is concentrated. I myself made a collection at one time on the Zohar regarding Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah, and today the tzaddikim sent, Rav Fogel and his colleagues, who send every week from the Ramak, and they also sent the collection from the various places where the Zohar speaks about Shemini Atzeret. All those passages of Zohar that deal with Shemini Atzeret we find like a tail, like the end of other derashos, and generally these are derashos on Sukkos. Sometimes there are derashos that are in a general way about all of Rosh Hashanah, about all of the seventh month, about all of Tishrei.

There is also one derasha that is a continuation of a derasha on Pesach, which mentions Shemini Atzeret, for there is a certain connection and gezeirah shavah of ‘atzeret’. For what is ‘atzeret’? It is the atzeret of Pesach, meaning the seventh day of Pesach, and besides this there is the atzeret of Shavuos, which is also called ‘atzeret’. And there is a connection to the Torah, that both are like Simchat Torah: on Shavuos we rejoice in the Torah that the Holy One, blessed be He, gave us, and on Simchat Torah we rejoice in the Torah that we completed. We spoke last year whether these are two Torahs and what the difference is between them, but in any case there is a connection, and the derasha of the Zohar on Shemini Atzeret always revolves around this conversation.

Two Approaches: The Conclusion of Pesach and the Atzeret of Malchus

At the conclusion of a certain approach that the Zohar explains — let’s say, one approach that is mainly an approach of the seventh month, of the month of Tishrei — the Zohar has a fixed approach that always leads to its climax, to its purpose, to the completion of the matter, and that is Shemini Atzeret. And in another place there is also an approach of the first month, of the month of Nissan, and there too the matter concludes with ‘atzeret’, where there is also an approach of Shemini Atzeret.

In general, these two approaches are directed toward two aspects that exist in Shemini Atzeret. One aspect is from the perspective of it being like the conclusion of Pesach, where we say in it a kind of conclusion with all the moadim; for Nissan is the head of the regalim, and thus the end of the regalim, the tail of all the regalim, is Shemini Atzeret. And regarding this, Shemini Atzeret is called ‘Tiferet’. And so it says in the Zohar in Parshas Emor, that the food of Shemini Atzeret is Yaakov, meaning that all seven days are the seven sefiros that emerge from Binah, and sukkah is Binah — for sukkah is the aspect of ‘and seven days’, the mother with her seven children, ‘the mother of children rejoices’ (Psalms 113:9). And Shemini Atzeret is the aspect of Yaakov, which is the joy of Tiferet itself, rejoicing with his mate, with the Shechinah.

And this is the second point that is generally spoken of in the Zohar regarding the seventh month, regarding Shemini Atzeret, that it is the day of atzeret. ‘Atzeret’ has the connotation of malchus, as it says ‘this one shall rule over my people’ (I Samuel 9:17) — the king is like a ruler; and likewise ‘and there is no ruler’ (Deuteronomy 32:36), for ‘ruler’ or ‘treasure’, which is the same thing with the letter ayin, is a king. And Shemini Atzeret has the connotation of malchus, the day of malchus, the day of Knesses Yisrael.

Simchat Torah: The Great Feast of the Year

Now, almost all the derashos — and I already mentioned that there is a second point in them regarding the atzeret concerning the Simchas Torah in it — are all connected to each other. They are not separate things by themselves, one point, but always one continuation. Meaning that it’s impossible to begin hearing the Torah by a person coming to shul on Simchat Torah; for no one comes to shul on Simchat Torah, and this can be seen with one’s own eyes — no one starts from there.

And although indeed Simchat Torah is the great yom tov, the greatest joy of the entire year, as is known and as is the custom of Israel. Today this custom has weakened somewhat, and it needs to be strengthened with strength; but the custom of Israel throughout all generations was to get drunk twice a year, on Purim and on Simchat Torah, and in most places the custom on Simchat Torah was even more than on Purim. Simchat Torah was a time of feasting and joy, and there is a complete derasha on this in the Aruch LaNer, where he says that there are places where modern people, who didn’t like this, cancelled the drunkenness of Simchat Torah, and the Aruch LaNer proves against this with great sharpness, and the matter is brought in the Mishnah Berurah.

That is, the Mishnah Berurah speaks in the Shulchan Aruch, regarding the matter of birkas kohanim of the Torah reading of Simchat Torah, and it says there that the custom is that they don’t do birkas kohanim at Musaf, because the congregation is already drunk by then. And it’s clear that even every kohen — you won’t find one kohen who isn’t drunk, and a drunk person is not permitted to do birkas kohanim, and therefore the custom is to do birkas kohanim at Shacharis. And so is the custom in most Jewish communities that I know, that they do birkas kohanim at Shacharis of Simchat Torah, and why — because at Musaf they are already drunk.

And from the poskim there are those on one hand who say that certainly there is joy, great joy, but the intention is not to break all boundaries; and indeed there were many places where on Simchat Torah they didn’t hit so much. Everyone knows that at a time of joy, at a party, many times when people don’t behave properly it turns into a fight. I also saw in one person who described that in some city, in some distant town, among the Jews in the mountains of Russia somewhere, he said that there was a town there about which they said that at one time two hundred Jews lived there, but the beatings on Simchat Torah were so numerous, until one killed another, and only one hundred Jews remained in the city. I hope it wasn’t really so. They tended to hit, in the language of the Mishnah Berurah in the name of the earlier poskim, that ‘joy was turned to mourning’, and this should not be done.

But on the other hand, afterward modern people came, and it seems to me that most shuls that exist today are a bit like this — and one needs to stop from this — and they said: if so, we’ll make hakafos and that’s it, and they no longer do it properly, and they fulfilled their obligation in some way. The Mishnah Berurah brings in the name of the Kli Yakar that this is not the way, but rather one must fulfill the feast, in the language of ‘feasting and joy’ of Simchat Torah. The custom of Israel is from many generations, that one must drink and make a great feast, that Simchat Torah is the great party of the year. This is clear.

The Innovation: No One Comes to Simchat Torah

And on the other hand — and this is the innovation — to Simchat Torah no one comes. There are times when Jews come to shul, and this is a very interesting thing. The Chassidic sefarim speak about this, for the Chassidic sefarim believe that what Israel does is with intention. Everyone knows that there are times in the year when a Jew comes to shul: on such a day he comes. For example Kol Nidrei, Ne’ilah, Rosh Hashanah, and perhaps other times in the year. On the night of the Seder they don’t come to shul, but come home, for there a Jew can come, ‘a distant deed is close to him’. From a distant place Jews come, and this is a time when it’s possible to start, possible with teshuvah, possible that a Jew will start from there.

But Simchat Torah — from almost all I see, people travel to their Rebbe on Simchat Torah, but it’s understood that the avodah doesn’t begin then for anyone. To Simchat Torah no one comes to shul, a new Jew. New Jews don’t come on Simchat Torah. Simchat Torah is the second yom tov, and within the second yom tov, according to the true and original custom, in any case in chutz la’aretz — the second day within the second day is ‘V’zos HaBerachah’, Simchat Torah. The last days within the last days. Meaning that Simchat Torah is not something that one can arrive at; there is no one maamar that can be said. And this is the explanation of Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah: you are a Jew all year, and so you arrived at Klal Yisrael, you went down to the beis medrash and arrived; on Hoshana Rabbah, through this and through that, you arrived. Now you can make the siyum of the Torah.

Hoshana Rabbah: A Special ‘Late Yom Kippur’

There is a new pshat in this as to why the congregation exerts itself on Hoshana Rabbah. They make there a kind of state of Yamim Noraim, they wear the kittel, they cry out a bit ‘Hoshana’, and they say a bit of the nusach of Yamim Noraim, in their melody. And people say: what is this? This is a time of joy, and it’s not separated at all from the entire sefer of Hoshana Rabbah. It’s impossible! But it says that this is the day of judgment, the sealing of judgment. How can both be maintained?

And I have a new answer, and one of the answers — and it seems to me that this is in Midrash Tehillim, which is one of the early sources regarding Hoshana Rabbah — says thus: The Jews, the goal is that they should arrive at Shemini Atzeret, and it’s impossible to arrive at Shemini Atzeret. On Shemini Atzeret they dance with the Torah; this is not something one comes to, but rather it’s the end of something — from within something one arrives at it. And so most Jews already arrived already in Elul, at Selichos, like that midrash. The great ones of Israel, the important ones who already went out to greet the King, to greet the messenger, already from Elul they did teshuvah at Selichos; this is the good Jew.

Afterward there are other Jews who arrived on erev Rosh Hashanah. And there are Jews who came only on the holy day, on Yom Kippur, to shul. And for those who didn’t want to — after Yom Kippur comes Simchas Torah; and there are Jews who even then don’t come. So the Jews thought of a plan and said thus: On erev Shemini Atzeret we’ll make a special ‘late Yom Kippur’ for all those Jews who still have some measure left in Yom Kippur, or who didn’t arrive at Yom Kippur at all — for Yom Kippur is too severe. With lulav, with hoshanos, indeed there is some white kittel here, but it’s not that same level of Yom Kippur, and it’s impossible for everyone to convince himself. And then he does come to shul, comes on erev Shemini Atzeret, and cries his cry, and says ‘Hoshana for Your sake our God hoshana’. And now from this Simchas Torah is made, it makes itself. Simchas Torah makes itself.

And if one needs to say a derasha — why do we rejoice? One can say derashos even on Tishah B’Av; why do we cry? I don’t know, and even then I say a derasha that has no reason. But why do we rejoice? There is no logic in it. And so is the reality, everything is a derasha.

And so what? For each person his own aspect, his own point, what he struggled and toiled with on Rosh Hashanah, what he toiled with all year, what he learned in his Torah all year — from this his Simchas Torah is made, the siyum of the Torah, the end, which is different for each and every person.

The Midrash of the Pesikta: ‘You Have Increased the Nation, You Have Made it Honorable’

One point that many derashos speak about, many already in the midrash, and I wish to expand on it somewhat — namely the midrash, the Pesikta, upon which everything is built on this yom tov. The Pesikta of Shemini Atzeret opens with the verse ‘You have increased the nation, Hashem, You have increased the nation, You have made it honorable’ (Isaiah 26:15). The Holy One, blessed be He, added to the nation, He added something to it, ‘You have made it honorable’ — He honored it. And the midrash elaborates in various ways.

And the point that is at the head of all the ways is that the midrash understands that Shemini Atzeret is an addition. They already rejoiced seven days, everything is already there; they already brought lulav, they already offered seventy bulls, they already did — meaning they already did what one can describe as the greatest party that can be, the greatest joy that can be, the greatest celebration, everything that could possibly be they already did. And afterward, ‘and I will add to all Your praise’ (Psalms 71:14), the Torah came and said ‘on the eighth day it shall be an atzeret for you’ (Numbers 29:35), one more piece.

This is the essence: all those Torahs that are built on the basic dynamic, on the basic approach — why is Shemini Atzeret a thing in itself? Because Shemini Atzeret is that He added one more, ‘one more day’, He added one more thing. And what is the pshat? The midrash says, first of all — this is the first point — one needs to understand a simple thing: one needs to be a person of such a type, that when you are given one more time of joy, you know what you want to do with it, and you rejoice in a good thing.

The Story of the Gentile in Radin

The midrash elaborates: The Holy One, blessed be He, gave good things to Pharaoh — what did Pharaoh do? Did he say anything, or dance in hakafos? When the Holy One, blessed be He, gives a yom tov, and they say that today will be the great party of the year — by another person, and even by those Jews who are so many, it’s not that same level.

I told the story: In Radin, in the yeshiva, there was a gentile who worked there in maintenance, in the labors of the yeshiva. On erev Simchas Torah this was the custom, by the way, also in all the yeshivos — it too has weakened greatly until our days, and not so much remained until our days — that they distribute whiskey, complete hakafos, I don’t know if they actually get drunk, but they fulfill the custom of drinking at hakafos. And so was the custom in all of Lithuania and among the Chassidim, that the Rebbe Reb Elimelech wanted to cancel it from the side of abstinence, but in most places this was the custom.

And see — the gentile of Radin, of the yeshiva there, saw what they bought for Simchas Torah, kinds of boxes of food and drink like these. And when they came in the morning to Simchas Torah, the congregation came to shul, and the gentile was supposed to light, and behold the gentile is not there, ‘and the child is not’ (Genesis 37:30). He’s not there, and I had to light myself, I don’t know. After yom tov the gentile returned. They asked him: what happened? You work here, you simply left from your place of work? The gentile said that he doesn’t know: he saw on erev yom tov what they bought there, and he knows that by them, from that type of package, from that order from the liquor stores, people don’t come out alive from such a party. About half of the party comes out dead. He didn’t want to take a risk, and therefore he left.

And it’s understood that at the Jewish party not only did nothing happen to anyone, but on the contrary — they danced with the Torah, they made all the awakening that Jews make on Simchas Torah. It’s very difficult to grasp even the edges of the matters, and there are many levels in this. A Jew is of such a type, the midrash says, ‘You have increased the nation, You have made it honorable’ (Isaiah 26:15). When the Holy One, blessed be He, adds — it depends on which nation. To a nation, to one who doesn’t understand. And the intention is not specifically to a gentile, but rather to one who doesn’t understand, for this is the essence — one who doesn’t understand what is done at such a joy.

And therefore there are those whose entire joy is strange to certain people, who don’t know what to do on such a day when they get drunk all day; they don’t know what to do. ‘You have increased the nation, You have made it honorable’. And what does a Jew do? In Volozhin the custom was — what do they do on Simchas Torah? They fall prostrate. I don’t know why not; let it be the best day, let me have no more memory. As one can see by us on Purim: this is what a Jew does on Purim in the afternoon, he begins to say Yom Kippur. Indeed I questioned this at a farbrengen the night before, but this shows that one needs to be the type of person who knows what to do with one more day. This is the essence: one more day, one more day, not because something is needed, but one more day. This comes from the power of this. This is the basic dynamic of Shemini Atzeret.

One Thing of the Zohar in Three Ways

Now, clothed upon this dynamic, upon this foundation, upon this skeleton, there are several derashos in the midrashim, and several ways in the Zohar. The Zohar generally takes one thing from among them — in almost all places the Zohar takes this one thing, and I am saying this one thing in three ways. And in truth it would be proper to speak in more ways, but it seems to me that I have already given somewhat expanded matters.

The one thing that the Zohar brings is the midrash that Rashi brings. Rashi brings it in his version, and the congregation knows it in Rashi’s version: that it is a parable of a king who invited all kinds of guests, and he already finished with his guests, the Holy One, blessed be He, or the king, or the host in the parable, said to his children: make me a small party, ‘and let us rejoice, I and you’, ‘your departure is difficult for me’ (Rashi on Numbers 29:36) — we’re still not going, we still need to rejoice a bit. This is the simple pshat that Rashi brings.

And the Zohar understood the language. So is the midrash — it is one midrash, and there are seven, eight, ten midrashim on the same idea, but not on exactly the same idea, but rather on the same dynamic in other Torahs. But the Zohar took this thing very much. This is the Yiddish translation, the simple pshat of the Zohar in this.

The Seventy Bulls Corresponding to the Seventy Nations

And one needs to understand both sides of the matter, the matter is not so simple. I think that the Zohar emphasizes only one side, but one needs to understand. Israel offers seventy bulls. On Sukkos where we don’t offer seventy bulls, I received from a great tzaddik that one needs to have this intention in the wavings, that there needs to be the aspect of decreasing and going. And therefore one who knows that the first day when one waves lulav is very joyful, and afterward it decreases and goes — and people think: “if I were a proper Jew, everything would be equal” — what is this? Even in the Beis HaMikdash it was so: on the first day they offered thirteen bulls, and already they stand at seven. It doesn’t remain the same, and it cannot remain, for this is the order.

And what is the pshat in this? The Gemara says a wonderful thing. Indeed it bothers a person: how is it possible that his awakening in the wavings goes down a bit each day? They say to him: come here, you need to understand this awakening — for whom do they offer seventy bulls? Not corresponding to Israel, but corresponding to the seventy nations. And what does it mean corresponding to the seventy nations? On this the midrash says, ‘in return for my love they oppose me, but I am prayer’ (Psalms 109:4). We love the nations, we pray for them.

A person — and we already spoke about this on Rosh Hashanah — is part of the entire world, and all seventy nations are placed within a person. The Zohar, and the Tikkunei Zohar, and the Shaar HaOros explain that the leaves of the lulav — the lulav has a spine, the spinal column, which is the central soul, but what it has in leaves, and it has other things that are not taken with the lulav, leaves and fruits — this indicates the seventy nations. The branches of the lulav indicate all seventy nations, all the angels, all the princes. And a Jew needs to take responsibility for all of them.

What does a Jew do when he is in a good state? He goes to his Beis HaMikdash, goes on Sukkos to the beis medrash, prays for all seventy nations, that they should all have a good year. And the nations, for some reason — a bit we owe them, a bit they owe us — don’t get along with this. They are not pleased, there is no such thing, they are angry. ‘In return for my love they oppose me’, so says the midrash. And therefore the Holy One, blessed be He, says, ‘and on the eighth day it shall be an atzeret for you’. ‘For you’ — an atzeret shall be for you. On the eighth day you will not bring bulls, thousands of bulls, but rather there remains ‘one bull, one ram’ (Numbers 29:36) corresponding to you.

Second Version: You Forgot to Pray for Yourself

But there are more versions. Another version of the midrash is that Israel says, or the Holy One, blessed be He, says to Israel: “You already prayed for everyone, and you forgot to pray for yourself.” There is such an aspect, and there also needs to be such a perspective. A person comes to a great state, and prays for everything, and in the end one needs to remind him: “Ahh, put to your heart also yourself, also your children”, because he is in the greatness of the mind and is no longer thinking about himself. And this is ‘an atzeret shall be for you’.

The Reality of Israel in Exile

The Zohar emphasized very much in most of the derashos this point, which is everything surrounding it. The simple pshat is that the Zohar understood — and certainly this is the state of Israel in exile, and there is no need to apologize for this. We want — and there is always the conversation, how much one needs to speak and prove to the nations, and to say that the chosenness, ‘You have chosen us from all the nations’, is an investigation that needs to be taken seriously. And one doesn’t need to be ashamed, and one doesn’t need to justify that the reality of Israel as ‘a scattered sheep’ (Jeremiah 50:17) among the seventy nations, which has already been for a long time, and is still so in various ways — this is the reality.

And Israel feel automatically, and so they explain in the midrashim, and the Zohar explains almost everything: As if on Rosh Hashanah there is a din Torah, ‘to do justice with His people’ (I Kings 8:59). And what is the din Torah? There are Israel and there are the nations; who will win? Will Israel win the war this year, or will the nations win. This is the pshat. ‘Victory in battle’ — all this, as if they emerge meritorious in judgment, what is revealed, they win in judgment, that Israel should win this year.

And with all this they offer — and the Zohar has various approaches to understand why, if so, they offer seventy bulls for the seventy nations. But the essence I already said, and there are more matters in this, like the goat to Azazel, on the contrary — that they should have abundance, as it says in the midrash, that the nations should play ball all day, for as long as he plays ball he doesn’t quarrel with Jews. He has nothing to do, problems begin. And this is one thing, that it’s always better this way.

People think that one needs to pray that the nations shouldn’t have money. But when the nations are wealthy, when it’s good for them — it’s better for everyone, and it’s better when we dwell in America, and one needs to pray for this; for when there is a recession in America, and when there is less money, when they lose a war, in everything — Israel are always the victim. This is the reality.

And so, one of the reasons — and perhaps this is already a selfish reason, not as great a level as we said before — but by a Jew this is not the way to pray that it should be good for Israel and bad for the nations. When it’s bad for the nations, it’s also bad for Israel, because they are part of the same world. And on the contrary, it’s worse for Israel when it’s bad for the nations, because they take it out on us. One needs to pray for this.

And after the whole thing — that we pray for them from these reasons and from additional reasons — they say: fine, but there still remains ‘when shall I also make for my own house’ (Genesis 30:30), as Yaakov Avinu said, he takes a bit also for himself. This is the secret of Shemini Atzeret, ‘on the eighth day an atzeret shall be for you’, and then this is like the completion of the victory. As the Zohar speaks about the joy, that it is a time of joy. ‘Time of joy’ means altogether an elevated time, and this is the point — an elevated time in which we rejoice, rejoice, give abundance to the entire world. But one needs to also rejoice with the Holy One, blessed be He, Israel themselves. This is Israel for us. We already took responsibility for everything surrounding us. This is the simple pshat of the Zohar, one pshat, the simplest, the one thing.

The Deep Levels in the Chassidic Sefarim

And it’s understood that the Chassidic sefarim, which always elevate something deeper in the same matter, reveal in it two more levels. And I will say the two levels — and this will be my shiur for today — two more levels in the point, in the point of the seventy nations and one nation, in the seventy bulls and the one bull. There are in this two more hints, two more explanations that are in the Chassidic sefarim, both of them deeper structures of the same thing itself.

First Level: Turn from Evil and Do Good

The first thing, and I’ll say it in the practical way — and I don’t remember where the thing is written, I think this way myself that this is how it fits, but I don’t have a clear source to tell the congregation where to look into the approach — the first pshat according to Chassidus is that there are many avodahs. We spoke a bit on erev Rosh Hashanah, that there is ‘turn from evil and do good’. ‘Turn from evil’ is that we push away the kelippos, ‘do good’ is that we draw down the light of holiness, the light of good. And as a person begins, so is the order, that ‘turn from evil’ is said before ‘and do good’ (Psalms 34:15). And it’s not specifically because this is the order, but rather that this is better, and this is the reality.

When people begin, there is an order. There is the king, ‘an old and foolish king’ (Ecclesiastes 4:13) of the yetzer hara, and a person is ‘a wild donkey of a man is born’ (Job 11:12), and generally they begin with many kelippos. A person begins to know himself, and grasps how many yetzer haras, how many foolishnesses are placed in his head, and tries to shake himself from them. And this is a very large part of the avodah, and this is the avodah of tekias shofar that we spoke about a bit on erev Rosh Hashanah — one avodah, ‘to confuse the Satan’. We fight, we shout at him, we anger the yetzer hara, we learn Torah, we draw him to the beis medrash, in all kinds of ways. But we fight, we deal with the evil, with the negativity, with the gevuros in the world. And so it is at the beginning of the avodah, and this is a very large part of the avodah.

And the meaning of this according to pnimiyus is that we fight with the seventy nations. The seventy nations are seventy types of yetzer hara. These are not the seventy nations of now that are spoken about in the politics of the world, but in pnimiyus — and certainly the thing has a connection, that each one has his own yetzer hara — in pnimiyus there are seventy types of yetzer hara, which we hope will go and become smaller and go and become smaller. And how do the yetzer haras go and become small and small? At first we fight with them directly: we blow shofar at them, we fast and subjugate the body, we subjugate the body on Yom Kippur, and the yetzer hara goes down a bit. But Sukkos — this is the true way of bringing down the yetzer hara — is to offer oneself and to rejoice. And the end of this thing is Shemini Atzeret.

Meaning that instead of going and speaking how bad the thing is, this kelipah and another kelipah, this madness and another madness — we speak how good the thing is, and how good it is for us, and even in the kelippos that we spoke about. Instead of saying how many bad things there are on the internet, one needs to say how good the internet itself is, and how the Holy One, blessed be He, made it possible to learn so much Torah, and artificial intelligence, and in all the ways that there are

and artificial intelligence, and in all the ways that there are more, the technology, and the cars, and the buses, and the airplanes, and the rockets. All this improves life so much, ‘on a good day be in good’ (Ecclesiastes 7:14), how good the thing is.

And the more a person rejoices in this, the evil falls — the Rashba, that the nature of evil is sadness, ‘in all sadness there will be profit’ (Proverbs 14:23), for evil is sadness, ‘their idols are silver and gold’ (Psalms 115:4), their sadness; the reality of evil is a reality of sadness, and the reality of evil is the opposite, ingratitude, the opposite of recognizing the good. And when we rejoice, we rejoice in the gift of Hashem, ‘each man according to the gift of his hand, according to the blessing of Hashem your God which He gave you’ (Deuteronomy 16:17), we rejoice in the blessing of Hashem. The blessing of Hashem is the internet, and the technology, and the money, and the children, everything that a person has — this is the blessing of Hashem.

This is the first thing. And one who has inner comprehension, one who knows a bit something and has understanding, how much more so that he rejoices in this. And the more we rejoice, the thing goes down, and this is the conclusion. Meaning that at first we go directly — in the ten days of teshuvah we deal directly with the gevuros, and afterward, as you grasp a thing, we deal with it by increasing the joy each day, and the more we increase the joy, the kelipah goes down a bit.

Second Level: Good Because It’s Good

Until we arrive at Shemini Atzeret, which is the true and complete way of avodah. Indeed Sukkos is already the way of avodah in truth, but the completion of the matter is the other way of avodah, in which a person says — now, when he prays on Shemini Atzeret, when he dances with the Torah on Shemini Atzeret, when he eats a meal on Shemini Atzeret, when he converses with his friends, when he takes responsibility for his children on Shemini Atzeret, every mitzvah that he does — he doesn’t do it because thereby he will go from a kelipah, because he will go from some crookedness, some ‘to straighten the crookedness in the heart’. He does it simply because it’s good.

This is a joy of such a type that is very difficult to explain, because in order to explain an action one always needs opposition. Everyone knows that an action comes with conflict — there was a bad thing, and now it’s good. Not so: this is not good because it was once bad, but rather this is good because it is good. What is good because it is good — this is the meaning of ‘the unification of the Holy One, blessed be He, and His Shechinah’. Generally the unification that we make is like an exit from exile, the Shechinah exits from exile — good because it was once bad. This is Pesach, and also a bit the first days of Sukkos. But Shemini Atzeret means that it’s good because it is good. The midrash says, ‘on a good day be in good’ (Ecclesiastes 7:14) — when it’s good, it is good. One doesn’t need to add anything to this. This is the second aspect.

Third Level: Within the Good Part — Removing the Garments

The third aspect, even deeper — and this is written in the Bnei Yissaschar at length, and in other Chassidic sefarim, but the Bnei Yissaschar is the one who elaborates most in this way — is an even deeper aspect. We are already speaking within the good part, we are not speaking at all from the evil, but rather we are speaking within the good part: that everything we comprehend, everything in which we do rejoice — we rejoice in Torah, we rejoice in the Shechinah, we rejoice in mitzvos, we rejoice in our comprehensions, we rejoice in our physical abundance — all this is only like parables, we are only grasping garments.

And the parable of the Bnei Yissaschar is like ‘one small meal’, like the parable of a bride: that before the chuppah, around the chuppah, when the friends, the bridesmaids, dress her in beautiful clothes with jewelry, and make a whole situation, and dance around her, and all kinds of external things bring the joy. But at the time of yichud, at the time of the point of yichud, that ‘everyone knows why the bride enters the chuppah’ (Kesubos 8b), at the time of yichud she removes, no friend enters, no person enters, no one comes to dance there, she removes even the clothes, she removes even the jewelry, nothing remains, but rather ‘let us rejoice, I and you’.

And the nimshal of this — and one needs to detail it in our actual avodah, and one needs to think about this, and there are pesukim that say this — the nimshal of this is that one doesn’t need explanations, simple pshat. When one says, “Why are you so happy at the wedding?” he says a Chassidic thing, “This is a garment, this is beautiful jewelry.” ‘The adornments of the bride’, ‘the breaking of the tablets are the adornments of the bride’, when the twenty-four books are the adornments of the bride — the thing is beautiful. But the thing itself is the thing that the adornments are for it, the thing that the explanations are for it, the thing that all that awakening is for it. This is not awakening, this is not joy, this is not Torah, these are not kavanos — this is simple. It’s called naked, it’s called pure, it is stripped. This is the deep pshat in the Chassidic sefarim on the eighth day of atzeret.

The Attribute of Justice and the Attribute of Mercy, Love and Fear — Are They the Same Subject

Introduction: Erev Shabbat Bereishit and the Attribute of Justice

My teachers and rabbis, behold today is erev Shabbat Bereishit. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1), and afterwards it is stated “on the day that Hashem God made earth and heaven” (Genesis 2:4). It is known to all what Rashi brings, that the Holy One, blessed be He, wanted to create the world with the attribute of justice, “it arose in thought to create it with the attribute of justice” (Rashi Genesis 1:1), and afterwards He joined with it the attribute of mercy.

Generally they teach us — and about this we spoke, perhaps, during Rosh Hashanah — that the attribute of justice is the attribute that we call the attribute of fear. That is, when the Holy One, blessed be He, conducts Himself with the attribute of justice, when He performs His actions in the way of justice, then because of this people are afraid, and a person is anxious and fearful. And in contrast, when the Holy One, blessed be He, conducts Himself with the attribute of mercy, people have more love.

And indeed the way of the Chassidic books is, that when the concept of the attribute of justice and the attribute of mercy comes before them, they translate it: from the side of the Holy One, blessed be He, the thing is called the attribute of justice and the attribute of mercy, or chesed and gevurah in the language of Kabbalah, and from our side these attributes are called love and fear. This is the common style in the books of Chassidut, to translate these concepts this way.

The Difficulty: Love and Fear Are Not the Same Subject as Justice and Mercy

But one must delve into the matter and raise a difficulty upon it. The connection between the two things is not entirely clear to me, and one must ask — perhaps the audience knows, perhaps someone ponders this — for the subject of justice and mercy is not the same subject as love and fear. For one must take to heart that there are many other levels and many other structures to the concepts of love and fear.

What does it mean at all, love versus fear? Everyone knows that there is higher love and lower love, higher fear and lower fear, which we call fear of exaltedness versus fear of punishment, and the like. But I think that in every way — in the usual way, let us say in the “default” way of understanding love and fear — love is a positive emotion. Love means that I consider the thing good. Love is a relationship to something that I regard as good.

Fear, generally means that I am afraid of something that is bad. And one cannot say fear toward the Holy One, blessed be He — that a person fears the Holy One, blessed be He, because He is bad — rather fear of bad consequences that occur, bad deeds. And from the deed itself comes fear of sin, and this is not fear of Heaven, for fear of Heaven is another matter. And perhaps that action, which the Holy One, blessed be He, might punish for, is called fear of punishment — and about this they have already spoken, and the matter is not clear, for the Holy One, blessed be He, does not punish. And in any case, fear is dread of something bad. This is its meaning. Love relates to what is good, and fear to what is bad.

The Ramban on Positive and Negative Commandments

As we have already learned, and here I come to speak, so regarding the subject of positive commandments and negative commandments, the Ramban explained that positive commandments relate to love. That is, I want the good, and what is good before the Master, before the King, namely what is truly good.

And many people are confused about this: they say “commandments,” and in their minds commandments mean that I must fulfill because I was commanded. And perhaps indeed a person is obligated to fulfill because the Holy One, blessed be He, commanded, but what the Holy One, blessed be He, commanded is only a way to show that the thing is good. Whether the thing is good because He commanded, or it was already good before He commanded — I do not know. But according to all opinions, even when they say that a person does not understand and does only because it is a commandment, the simple meaning is that he knows: the Holy One, blessed be He, is the true reality, the Holy One, blessed be He, is the true knower of all creation, and He knows that these commandments are good. And this is what the Ramban calls the attribute of love.

And when the Ramban says that positive commandments are in the attribute of love, because one who loves the Master does what the Master loves — this is no different from one who would say that positive commandments are in the attribute of love because positive commandments mean that I do things that are good, that I regard as good, and fulfill them out of love. For positive commandments are a subject of doing good things, that a person loves what is good.

Love of God versus Love of the Commandment

And if we say, not so: the Ramban says that one must love the Holy One, blessed be He. The distinction between love of the Holy One, blessed be He — for they speak of love of God, and as is brought in the Rambam the language of love of the commandment — seems like a contradiction in this. But this is not a true contradiction. The distinction can only be in the question of whether we stand at the level that understands the mind of the Omnipresent, as it were, or we do not understand.

If we do not understand, then — where, they do not understand us — then perhaps the thing seems to us not good, and because we trust in the Holy One, blessed be He, we have faith, and we say that the Holy One, blessed be He, says that the thing is good, and therefore I love it because the Holy One, blessed be He, says it is good, and here the Holy One, blessed be He, enters. But when I understand myself, perhaps I love the thing itself, because I love it because it is good for me, I love the commandments because they are good.

And certainly perhaps even then it is true that there are more levels of benefit, more levels of goodness, that a person should love the commandments that are able to unite with the Holy One, blessed be He. Many times the Chassidim come with a claim against one who says so and ask: Do you love the world? Do you love the Holy One, blessed be He? Know, for the entire world is the work of Hashem, and there is no distinction in this. It is impossible to love a good thing in the world without loving within it the God who commanded them. And one can only speak of levels in this.

And this is what the Baal Shem Tov always teaches us, that when a person loves a created thing, he should make from it a kal vachomer to the Creator. This is like a mystery: there is a kal vachomer here, and it is within the thing itself, for the created thing is the vitality within it, the existence within it, the source of existence within it. But the intention of the Baal Shem Tov is — do not err, do not separate, do not love the thing, but stand in it at the higher level, because in every thing is truly found the true existence within it, and the source within it is the more true existence of every thing itself.

And in any case, and this he also knows, according to Chassidut perhaps the thing is called love — but not love of the commandment, but love of the Godliness in the commandment, the will of Hashem in the commandment. But whether this way or that way, all these are only levels within that same thing itself. Love means that I know the thing is good, and fear means that I fear something that is not good. This is the simple meaning, and I think the matter is settled, for therefore love is positive commandments and fear is negative commandments, and this is what the Ramban says. And what he says that it is love of the Master and fear of the Master, the matter does not contradict this; and not only does it not contradict, but these are the earlier levels that you seek to explain.

Mercy Is Not Chesed and Is Not Love

And if so, Yitzchak, I do not understand: what did they see to mix with this the attribute of justice and the attribute of mercy? Besides the fact that the attribute of mercy is not the same thing as the attribute of chesed and the attribute of love — as everyone knows. For mercy is tiferet, mercy is the third attribute. Mercy is already a certain decision, and compassion is already a certain decision that comes after the attribute of justice.

So they say according to Kabbalah, but I think that even the simple meaning is so: compassion means that I have compassion on someone, and even though — this is the meaning of the Midrash — and even though the thing is not due to him, nevertheless there is compassion. And what is the nature of compassion? We have spoken of this several times, that it is not something without knowledge, and it is not just an emotion, but there is intellect in it, and it is built — as the Maggid of Mezritch always explains — that the decision is built on a higher level, built on knowledge. It is not a mistake, and the simple meaning is not that without choice one must have compassion; rather it is correct to have compassion. And all this structure and framework of compassion are, that one must have compassion even though it is not according to this attribute of justice. And this is certainly not love at all.

The Attribute of Justice Is a Good Thing That Must Be Loved

One might say, that the attribute of justice, that original “arose in thought” of the attribute of justice, is what causes there to be the bad parts that one must separate from? Why? On the contrary, exactly the opposite, I do not understand. The attribute of justice shows how things should be. The Holy One, blessed be He, is the attribute of justice, and the attribute of justice does not mean that the Holy One, blessed be He, is angry. It does not even say the attribute of anger. Although sometimes it is said that the Holy One, blessed be He, is angry, and this needs explanation, but the attribute of justice stated here is not the attribute of anger. The attribute of justice shows strictness — you can say strictness, or righteousness. Things must be as they should be. And this is the attribute of justice, and it is a good thing, and a person must love the attribute of justice.

The Holy One, blessed be He, Himself is said about Him “loves righteousness and justice” (based on Psalms 33:5). The Holy One, blessed be He, loves the attribute of justice, so that the attribute of justice is a good thing, and one must love it. And in other words, that same thing itself: just as the Holy One, blessed be He, Himself loves the attribute of justice — and this is a metaphor, for the Holy One, blessed be He, does not have love, but the intention is that the attribute of justice is good in His eyes — so that same thing, when a person encounters the attribute of justice of the Holy One, blessed be He, it should also be good in his eyes, and he must love the Holy One, blessed be He, for that goodness.

And here the front is formed: sometimes there is a person whom the attribute of justice strikes. The simple meaning is that the Holy One, blessed be He, said that this is good, that it is true that it is good for him that he should have a lack, that he should have punishment, and it pains him. But if it pains him, it is not the attribute of justice that pains him. On the contrary, the more a person understands that the thing is correct and that it is proper that it should come, he is happy. And therefore one blesses the blessing of “the true Judge,” and even for simple suffering one must bless with joy and accept it with joy. And the intention is not that the person desires this — he does not pray for this, and he would want it to be good for him, that he should have good things — but the attribute of justice from the side of the Holy One, blessed be He, shows that the thing is good for you.

The Attribute of Justice Is Not Punishment: The Blessing of Hagomel Lechayavim Tovot

We say the attribute of justice — but first of all, the attribute of justice is not punishment. And let us preface and clarify this. When one receives reward with the attribute of justice, when a person says Hatov VeHametiv, one does not say Hagomel Lechayavim Tovot. One should know that there is a blessing in which one says “Hagomel Lechayavim Tovot” (Berachot 54b), and this is said by the four who need to give thanks — those who go down to the sea and the like, those four mentioned in the psalm “Hodu” (Psalms 107) — they bless “Hagomel Lechayavim Tovot.”

And from here we see that I am not worthy of this, and even so the Holy One, blessed be He, gives good even to one who is liable. And what is the nature of this? It is simple, and as I saw this week explicitly — I do not remember where, and I say this to clarify — that it happened that a person was in trouble and was saved from it, and the trouble is the attribute of justice. The trouble itself shows that the person was liable, for to a person who is not liable, troubles do not come at all.

A person can be very happy, and certainly a person is happy that a miracle was done for him, that there was trouble and he was saved from it. But more than this a person should be happy when trouble does not come at all, and the thing shows that perhaps it is the attribute of justice, perhaps it is the attribute of mercy, perhaps it is the Holy One, blessed be He… And perhaps a person cannot always know if it is the attribute of justice or the attribute of mercy, but we assume, and one must assume, that all His deeds are with justice.

Question from the Audience: Why Do We Assume It Is with Justice When Something Bad Comes

I do not understand why when something bad comes we immediately assume it is with justice? For I understand that the Holy One, blessed be He, never gets angry. If so, one should not assume it is with justice, but should assume it is with chesed. Why should we not assume it is with justice? Presumably for the most part, most of the world is with justice. That is, I know that I am not worthy of this, we can understand something, a person has some comprehension.

Justice with Good Are Not a Contradiction

That is, I know that a person deserves to be punished for one transgression. I know, we can understand something, a person has some comprehension how much reward is proper for one transgression. When great punishment comes, they immediately say: I cannot imagine that he is wicked. Say to him: And from where do you know what punishment comes for one transgression? And so when great reward comes, when a person suddenly wins a lottery, I do not know, or he has tremendous success in his business and it amounts to more than he planned — presumably he should assume in the natural way that he did something good. And from where do you know? Does he have comprehension of the reward for saying one Amen, “there is one who increases”? What is bad about this?

It is true that there is a technical matter here: chesed can come more without merit, and even that thing can be. It is true that there are different ways that even justice comes without merit, for there are all those matters of… And in short, “there is no righteous person on earth who does good and does not sin” (based on Ecclesiastes 7:20) and there is no generation, and the general overcomes the particular, and all kinds of ways. The thing is not necessary, there is more, the thing is not necessary.

In any case the usual order, and this is what I seek to clarify — justice with good are not a contradiction; and not only are justice with good not a contradiction, but the justice itself is not bad. Justice with justice means that it is good that there should be the attribute of justice. For this purpose the attribute of justice was created, and one must love it. And when a person receives good things with justice, certainly he must love them. And sometimes when justice tells a person that it is good for him — yes, this is the meaning of justice — it is good for you that a bad thing should happen to you. You are not happy, the thing is bad, but it is good. And therefore he says a blessing, “Blessed are You Hashem” with joy, the true Judge: it is good for me, I am Yours, the thing costs me, pains me, but it is good for me.

Fear versus Hatred

And conversely, when it is not so — simply, often a person feels that the thing is not correct, not good, and then hatred is created. Yes, one must understand this reality: then he will call it fear, but essentially it is hatred, and then the person’s reaction becomes hatred, because it is not good for him. He will hate the thing, and will flee from that fear with hatred. Fear perhaps its reaction is hatred, and one must take to heart that when a person has an enemy, he fears him and also hates him.

And in contrast there is another thing in which there is fear without hatred. And one must understand when there is this and when there is that.

Summary: The Connection Is Not Clear

In any case, I do not see where the connection is, why the attribute of justice relates at all to the subject of fear. The attribute of justice relates exactly to the same degree also to the subject of love. And the attribute of justice one can say it is good thus, and that same thing one can say with the attribute of love. And the attribute of chesed is the more fundamental attribute, you can say, because the whole thing is for the sake of good, for the sake of chesed, “the world is built with chesed” (Psalms 89:3).

And certainly, what is the attribute of mercy if not the attribute of chesed? For the attribute of mercy is not the attribute of chesed. The attribute of chesed certainly precedes the attribute of justice, as everyone knows the order, and the attribute of mercy is that which comes after the attribute of justice. And the attribute of chesed is certainly good, without doubt. And on the other hand, even from the side of chesed there are things that one must fear, that it is proper to fear. And certainly not to fear because it is bad, but if one says that there is a fear that is more fear of honor, a certain submission that is generally called fear of exaltedness, the submission that a person has before something greater than him, as I said.

There is a person who fears an enemy, he fears and hates. And in contrast before a father or king standing beside him, he fears — fears in the sense that he knows the other is much stronger than him, knows that he must honor him, and if he transgresses he will be harmed, he will have troubles, including guarding his mouth, he will have troubles. But there is no hatred in him, on the contrary, there is appreciation, and he looks up to the greatness, and this is also called fear. And perhaps this is the usual fear — I do not know what is called fear of bad — perhaps this is the usual thing that is proper to call fear. And this can certainly come even from the attribute of chesed, and not only can it, but this is the usual thing. Yes, a person sees how great chesed is, how human chesed, chesed of flesh and blood, is small compared to the chesed of Hashem, compared to the chesed of all existence, and he will react with fear, with fear of exaltedness, with submission, and even with dread and awe.

And therefore I have no idea why the Chassidic books always say that chesed and justice are the same thing as love and fear. It seems to me that the thing is not connected at all. Perhaps about both there will be chesed, and about both there will be justice, and there is no connection at all between the two things. Not when you say that the Holy One, blessed be He, because He loves us, gives us love, and because He does not love us gives justice — even this is not true. And not when you say that when the Holy One, blessed be He, gives us with His attribute of chesed there should be love, and when He gives us punishment there should be fear. Both of these things seem to us not correct. Perhaps it is only according to derash — does the matter settle?

Whoever will resolve the difficulty for me, I will be very happy. It is a great difficulty. And I think that there is something here that one can learn from it, very strongly, and presumably there are deep secrets that one can learn from here, for I do not understand.

The Rambam’s Approach: From Love and From Fear

Now we will continue further. What I seek to arrive at, and what I want to speak another matter, is that we stood here in the middle of learning the Zohar, the introduction, the beginning of the “Pekudin,” which speaks of the fact that there are positive commandments and negative commandments relating to tiferet and to malchut, which are themselves called the attribute of love and the attribute of fear, the attribute of zachor and the attribute of shamor, day and night, and the like. In every single commandment there are these two things in detail, and in general there are positive commandments and negative commandments, that positive commandments relate to this one and negative commandments relate to this one.

And I seek to say another approach, that I noticed that it is proper to learn in this another approach. The approach was thus: all the time they learned the Zohar according to the Ramban, who learned in it about zachor and shamor. And I noticed that the Rambam has his own approach, that he explains that positive commandments relate to love and negative commandments relate to fear. And perhaps the matter settles better, and perhaps one needs to combine the two approaches. For at least regarding the subject we are now asking, it seems that the matter settles even better if we say the Rambam’s approach, and we will resolve with this somewhat the previous difficulty.

And we remember that the Rambam in Hilchot Teshuva, and in the commentary on the Mishnayot in Sanhedrin, and in many places — perhaps two more places, I do not know — explains the attribute for which our father Abraham was called “My beloved” (Isaiah 41:8). And the Rambam explains that “My beloved” means one who serves from love. And the thing is built on the language of the Sages in many places, that there is one who serves from love, and there is a distinction between one who serves the Omnipresent from love and one who serves from fear. And it is clear in the language of the Gemara in many places where they use this, that love and fear there are not, as they say, that he loved positive commandments more or feared negative commandments more. Rather from love and from fear mean here the same thing called in other places lishmah and shelo lishmah.

From Love: According to Knowledge, From Recognition of the Good

Meaning, from love namely one who has comprehension. Love is according to knowledge. Love means one who has comprehension, who understands. Like our father Abraham — and why is our father Abraham called the greatest of all, “Abraham My beloved”? Because our father Abraham did not have a teacher, and he did not have someone to tell him what to do. And he began, and the Holy One, blessed be He, did not tell him any commandment to do, and did not promise him reward or punishment except afterwards. And he served the Holy One, blessed be He, not in order to receive reward. And what is not in order to receive reward? From recognition of His goodness, from the recognition of what is good and what is correct, he did commandments and did what needs to be done. This is the meaning of from love.

From Fear: From Fear of Reward and Punishment

From fear means from fear of reward and punishment. Fear includes both reward and punishment, and the fear is not from punishment and the love from reward, as they say — the matter does not settle. Fear means when a person does not know, they rebuke him and tell him, “Thus you must do.” This is generally called fear, generally because of punishment, or because of reward and punishment, which is the same thing. Namely that I want it to be good for me and I do not want it to be bad for me, and he does from fear of punishment. This is the meaning of from fear.

The Rambam: Fear Depends on Negative Commandments

And behold the interesting thing, that the Rambam himself says even though the thing depends on positive commandments and on negative commandments. In the commentary on the Mishnayot in Avot, in the place where Antigonus of Socho said, he said thus: “Do not be like servants who serve the master in order to receive reward, but be like servants who serve the master not in order to receive reward” (Avot 1:3), and concludes the Mishnah “and let the fear of Heaven be upon you” (Avot 1:3).

And the Rambam asks, what is the connection of “and let the fear of Heaven be upon you” here? Did you think you would go from love? What is “do not remove”? “That you should not remove at once” means from love, do you think you are completely exempt from fear? The Rambam says, no, do not abandon fear. Still go, still there should be in you a certain fear. And why? Because fear is such an important thing.

And the Rambam brings a midrash or source, that we do not know it properly, and brings that it is said thus: “The lover will not delay a commandment, and the fearer will not transgress a transgression” (Rambam’s commentary on Mishnayot Avot 1:3). This language the Rambam brings. And so he says, this is its meaning: that you need both love not to delay commandments, and also fear not to do transgressions. And therefore he says, that fear is very important and especially for negative commandments.

The First Commandment to Man: Positive and Negative

Now one must understand the matter a bit better. I do not have a clear approach, I can say a certain explanation, a certain illumination in this. I seek to say a very interesting simple meaning that we learn in this week’s parsha, and one must take to heart in this. And I will first say the explanation, the illumination, that all that I say is only illuminations, to awaken the heart, to awaken the intellect, to awaken the spring.

It is known, the first commandment, “And Hashem God commanded the man” (Genesis 2:16), the Holy One, blessed be He, commanded Adam a commandment. And one should ask if it was a positive commandment or a negative commandment. Presumably everyone assumes it was a negative commandment, not to eat from the tree of knowledge. And in fact, one who looks at the verse sees that it is clearly built, that the language of the Scripture is clearly built on a manner of positive and negative. That is, the Holy One, blessed be He, says to him “from every tree of the garden you may surely eat” (Genesis 2:16) — a positive commandment, “and from the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden you shall not eat” (based on Genesis 3:3) — a negative commandment.

It turns out the explanation, that there is both a positive commandment and a negative commandment in the language of the command to the first man. Even though generally we learn that “from every tree of the garden you may surely eat” is permission, as they think that “six days you shall work” (Exodus 20:9) is permission — and even then the thing is not so clear, and perhaps it is “a negative that comes from a positive.” But the thing shows that there is an intention, at least to the language of the Scripture, there is an intention that one does not begin from the negative restriction, one does not begin from the restriction of fear, but begins from the positive commandment, from what one does in practice, and this doing is the limitation to what one does not do.

The Serpent and the Woman

And I further noticed, what does the serpent say? “And the serpent said to the woman, Has God indeed said, You shall not eat from every tree of the garden” (Genesis 3:1). The serpent immediately opened with the negative, “You shall not eat from every tree of the garden.” And Chavah answers him — what does Chavah say? No, it was not said so. She immediately tells him no, the Holy One, blessed be He, said “from the fruit of the tree of the garden we may eat and from the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden God said, You shall not eat” (based on Genesis 3:2-3). And even though she already adds “and you shall not touch it,” it seems that she understood well that the serpent sought to begin from the negative commandment, and the woman says no, one must begin from the positive commandment, and after the positive commandment there is also a negative commandment.

The Wonder: Is It Possible to Do a Negative Commandment Lishmah

And we learn here that there is like a deficiency, that a person might want to do only positive commandments and forget the negative commandment relating to the attribute of fear. And we said that fear means shelo lishmah, that fear means reward and punishment. And this is truly a wonder.

A person can ask such a difficulty, and I think one must ask it: Is there such a thing that it is impossible to do a negative commandment lishmah? And a negative commandment must be shelo lishmah? That is, many times they say a simple thing — and I think one must stop getting used to saying these simple things — that one who goes only from love, namely who does because he has reason and desire in the thing, behold sometimes he has no reason, he has a great evil inclination, namely he has no reason, and this is called a negative commandment, a serpent comes to him and tells him, “there will be a negative commandment,” and then his great comprehension of love does not help him, and then only simple fear of punishment helps.

And this is another thing that is very common to say, books of mussar and Chassidic books love to say it, that they explain thus the Midrash, that the other Midrash shows like the words of Chovot HaLevavot, that you should be fearful, so that when you do the commandment you will do it from love.

Question on This Simple Meaning

And I must say that this is another thing I do not understand. I do not understand on what the thing is based. Is this the reality, that this is how the thing works? I do not know. I do not see that specifically people who have reason — and reason is only a word — one who has true comprehension of good, “good is Hashem” (Psalms 34:9), “taste and see that Hashem is good” (ibid.), that it is harder for him to overcome the evil inclination? It should be easier for him. And if you say, that at the time of the evil inclination he does not forget, that at the time of the evil inclination one does not forget the punishment — I do not know what difference the thing makes.

And what I can understand is a more fundamental thing, that there is such a type of person, perhaps many people who are not at the level, or who does not understand at all the goodness. If he understands the punishment, yes, fear of punishment. This is the meaning of fear of punishment. Fear of punishment was said for one who does not understand, like a father who tells his son, do not go to the street, I will give you a slap. The true reason not to go out to the street is not because of the slap, but the child does not understand this, and they tell him, fear the father’s slap. And so I said, come inside to learn, even though learning is better than that child. This I understand. But this way I do not understand.

And what does this have to do specifically with negative commandments? That same truth itself relates even to positive commandments. A positive commandment is also so: one who does not understand is not at the level of a positive commandment, is not at the level, and he also needs fear of punishment. And so if I understand, I stand in lishmah. Why specifically in negative commandments does fear relate more than in positive commandments? Besides what they will say that a negative commandment is generally in a place where there is temptation. I do not know, perhaps there is an evil inclination even not in negative commandments, but in negative commandments evil inclinations are common. All this thing I understand how the two things settle.

A Bold Innovation: In Truth There Is No Bad at All

But if we say a great innovation, and I think one can think such an innovation, based on what I hinted now in the portion of the tree of knowledge: that always, in truth, there is no such thing as bad. The tree of knowledge of good and bad told man that there is good and bad, and what did he think before? That there is no such thing as bad. For it is said “very good” (Genesis 1:31), and they expounded “good is death,” “good is bad.” There is no such thing as bad. And therefore, in truth, one who understands the world correctly, understands that the entire world the Holy One, blessed be He, made in His goodness, “in His great goodness… we shall not lack and we shall not lack… forever and ever,” “He is good and He does good… and He will do good.” The entire world is good.

If the World Were Rectified

And if the world were rectified, there would be no such thing as negative commandments, there would be no bad things. And if you ask, how could it be that before the sin there was already a negative commandment? The answer, that one should have understood that essentially it is a positive commandment, “from every tree of the garden you may surely eat.”

And there are such bold expositions that say, that if man had done now, fulfilled “from every tree of the garden you may surely eat,” there would no longer be a question from the tree of knowledge. And how could it be? For it is stated in the verse “and from the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden.” And one must understand, in what is that tree different? What is the distinction? Perhaps there is some logic in this: that when one fulfills the six days with desire properly, the Shabbat is automatically made, “and on the seventh day you shall rest” (Exodus 23:12), and this is not an obligation, and one does not need to fear, as the Chassidic books say — a person who lives a week properly

, automatically keeps Shabbat. Not that one needs to frighten “its desecrators shall be put to death” (Exodus 31:14), this is not a Shabbat of “its desecrators shall be put to death,” but a Shabbat of “and on the seventh day you shall rest,” from reason, from rest. But if you begin from negative commandments, then you always remain there.

The Resolution: Negative Commandments Relate to the Attribute of Fear

Perhaps what they say that negative commandments relate to the attribute of fear, its meaning is that in the depth of the matter, if the world were rectified, if the first man had not eaten from the tree of knowledge — it is understood that he should have eaten, and the thing would not have affected him. But when he understands correctly, that from the perspective of lishmah, from the perspective of love, which is truly a perspective like before the sin, the true perspective of the essence of the world, then in truth there is no prohibition of negative commandments. It is permitted to do, as it were, like in the future to come it will return to its permission and the like. There are no negative commandments, there are no bad things in the world.

And it turns out automatically, that one who would be attached entirely only to the attribute of love and to goodness, perhaps automatically he would not do negative commandments, but a reality of negative commandments, which is stated about a reality that does not exist, thus it would not be.

And why does the Rambam say, and brings that Midrash, the Rambam quotes, that for negative commandments one specifically needs the “and you shall guard,” the “shamor,” the fear of punishment, because there is no other reason? In truth, from the side of good it does not interfere, from the side of good negative commandments do not interfere. But from the side of fear of punishment, because fear of punishment says that the world, perhaps the entire world, is still at the level of shelo lishmah, and then one needs to do from fear of punishment.

A Person Should Not Say “I Cannot”: The Reality of Negative Commandments

And perhaps even regarding that side in the Rambam, in the matter of “a person should not say I cannot eat pig meat” (Sifra Kedoshim), perhaps there are certain negative commandments, and perhaps not everything is equal. For what we speak here of negative commandments, namely those that we do not understand, that are less understood. And perhaps there are negative commandments that it is forbidden to do them lishmah, because to do them lishmah means to say that it is true.

As I explain according to Chassidut, and perhaps it is also hinted in the Rambam, “a person should not say I cannot eat pig meat.” Why is it said “a person should not say I cannot eat pig meat”? Because the Holy One, blessed be He, also made pig meat, and in the future to come pig meat will be purified. One who says “I cannot,” he is speaking against the work of Hashem. In the work of creation it is said “and God saw that it was good” (Genesis 1), and even about the pig. A person is not permitted to eat pig today, we cannot eat pig properly today, for whatever reason it may be, because of the fall, because of the sin, because of the descent — the fall of the world from its level. But it is forbidden to ignore the good that is truly in it, but it is forbidden to do it properly.

There are things that one must do each thing according to what it truly is. A commandment that is true, that comes because this is how the world is in its source, that is good, one must do it with joy, do it from love. But not to do a transgression, that the reason the thing is a transgression is only because the world fell, is only because there is an aspect of shelo lishmah in the world — this is a reality, that after the sin, in the world of action, it is forbidden to do from love. One must do it from fear. And why must one do it from fear? Because the true understanding says that this is not a thing, this is not a problem according to love, but a problem according to fear alone.

One Who Loves the King: The Logic of Fear from Love

And if so, one can also resolve this: that one who loves the king, he also does not abandon, does not go. Why does the Rambam say that one who loves the king does commandments that the king loves? One can say exactly this logic, that one who loves the king does not do things that the king does not love. And this is like fear from love, and even complete love.

And the resolution is no: because one who truly loves the king, understands that there are no things that the king does not love. The king loves everything. If so, thus he will conduct himself. And there in the place where he is in this world, in the place where fear of punishment is lacking in him, about this they say that one needs to add the attribute of fear, one needs to add even the attribute of justice. Not the attribute of justice itself, because we do not know if this is the attribute of justice, but the attribute of fear, fear of punishment.

This is what I can understand, but all these are things that one needs to delve into them greatly whether they are correct, and this is the matter for today’s lesson.

Pekudei D’Mara Alma: Three Levels in Mitzvot and the Unification of Havayah-Adnut

Introduction: The Zohar’s Title for the Mitzvot

This shiur was delivered on Erev Shabbat Parshat Noach, 5785. This is the first week of the new zman, zman Cheshvan, and we are beginning anew, as is customary at the start of a zman, just as we did in yesterday’s Rambam shiur.

I wish to return and study the Zohar’s introduction to the Pekudim, “Pekudei d’Mara Alma” – the commandments of the Master of the World. This is the Zohar’s title for its section called Sefer HaMitzvot of the Zohar, the reasons for the mitzvot, the Pekudim. I want to go through the introduction, summarize and establish the main points of what we have learned, note what we still need to learn and understand, and build further upon this foundation. And since this week’s parsha is Parshat Noach, it is also fitting to learn something on this topic from within Parshat Noach.

The first thing we learned is the Zohar’s title for the mitzvot – “Pekudei d’Mara Alma”. And indeed there is a great question here. We will see further on that the Zohar calls the mitzvot “Pekudei d’Orayta”, commandments of the Torah, while the title calls them “Pekudei d’Mara Alma”, commandments of Hashem, commandments of the Master, commandments of Adnut. And behold, this is indeed a contradiction, a paradox, a tension that stands at the foundation of a large part of the entire sugya that the Zohar seeks to explain here about the mitzvot, and around which its introduction revolves. This is the Zohar’s primary intent. There are other points we have raised, but the main intent of the Zohar in this introduction is to explain that “Pekudei d’Orayta”, commandments of the Torah, are “Pekudei d’Mara Alma”, commandments of the Master of the World.

Three Levels of Understanding in Mitzvot

“Mara Alma” itself requires clarification, for there is yet another level within it. We must understand that there are three levels here, and we must understand them all. We are accustomed to saying “Torah and mitzvot” or “mitzvot of the Torah.” And regarding the Torah we often say “the Torah says.” In the Gemara we usually find “v’Rachmana amar,” and when the Gemara says “v’Rachmana amar” it specifically means that this is what is written in the Torah, as the rebbe in cheder often translates “v’Rachmana amar” – it is written in the Chumash. However, the simple meaning of “Rachmana amar” is ‘the Holy One, Blessed be He, the Merciful One, said,’ meaning the Holy One, Blessed be He, who is merciful, is the one who said it. But the intent of these words, and indeed their meaning, is that we never say “Rachmana amar” about something that is not written in the Torah, for how would we know what He said if it is not written in the Torah? Rather, “Rachmana amar” means that this is what is written in the Torah, but in different language.

And when a person performs a mitzvah, it is proper that he know what he is doing. Our entire lives are the performance of mitzvot, and therefore he must know what he is doing. One who performs a mitzvah because it is written in the Torah – this is one level of understanding and comprehension. One who performs a mitzvah because the Holy One, Blessed be He, commanded it, and one might even say because the Holy One, Blessed be He, commanded it as it is written in the Torah, for the Holy One, Blessed be He, commanded in the Torah – this is another level of comprehension. And a third level is one who performs the mitzvah because the Holy One, Blessed be He, is thus, for He does not command merely because He commands or because it is written in the Torah, but because the Holy One, Blessed be He, commands not by virtue of what is written in the Torah. Although it may be that from what is written in the Torah the matter becomes known to us, and this is already a secondary matter, but there is such a level of understanding, where a person says ‘because the Holy One, Blessed be He,’ not ‘because the Holy One, Blessed be He, commands’ – but simply ‘because the Holy One, Blessed be He.’

The Name Adnut: The Master Who Gives Meaning

After this we must remember that there is an even greater level, called the Holy One, Blessed be He, Himself, knowledge of the Name Itself. Knowledge of the Name Itself is above even Master of the World. One can say that there is the Name Havayah and the Name Adnut, and everyone knows this. We must say “Shema Yisrael Hashem Elokeinu,” and we do not pronounce the Name Havayah, but in kavanah we must have intent. And when we say Adnut, this is a very interesting kavanah. Indeed, all of Kabbalah is built on kavanah, and the mekubalim found a way to depict it in an image: Yud-Alef-Heh-Dalet-Vav-Nun-Heh-Yud.

But behold a wonder: when we say Adnut, it means Marei Alma, Master, my Master, my Lord Hashem, the Master of each person, Master of the World. That is, the ruler, the guide, the unifier, the one who makes the world make sense. We speak much about how the Holy One, Blessed be He, is Master of the World, the explanation of the world. One can say that He gives meaning to my life, and this too is mastership. People often think that mastership is acceptance of the yoke, it is fear, what we usually call mastership. We spoke last week a bit to explain the confusion in this matter (as we explained in the previous shiur about matters of mastership and this is not the place for it). Mastership – and then there is one who does Torah and mitzvot because they give meaning to his life, and meaning to life is also the Name Adnut.

This is master. What is a king? What is a master? A master is a ruler. There is rulership, and there are all kinds of meanings of rulership. Rulership can be through coercion, what is called by force, meaning I force you, as we spoke last week (as we explained in the previous shiur about the rulership that is by force and this is not the place for it). However, this is only when one does not understand, and indeed even when one does not understand, this is only a very low way of understanding mastership itself.

A person thinks about a king, and indeed we say that the Holy One, Blessed be He, is King of the World. There are people who do not feel comfortable with this, for in our times there are no kings, in our times there is democracy. And a king seems like a bad thing, a king appears as a dictator, someone who insists on his way and rules by force because he is stronger. But one must know something very important: that the mastership of Hashem, the kingship of Hashem, is not primarily meant according to the view of the Sages, according to the view of wisdom, according to the view of the Zohar – the kingship of Hashem, the mastership of Hashem, does not primarily mean that the Holy One, Blessed be He, is stronger than us.

And even the word “strong” – sometimes the Zohar uses language of strength, and we find such language in Chassidic works, “great and mighty” – even “strong” itself has different meanings. One can say that one is a stronger talmid chacham, he has stronger understanding, “strong” simply means ‘more,’ but this ‘more’ can be understood in different ways. And we must know, these are very important principles, that we are accustomed to the concept that strength simply means as if it were by force, that is, in the most external aspect, what is called in Chassidut achorayim d’achorayim, the most external garment that can be of truth, of greatness, of strength, of power, of any language you wish – that everything is only like metaphors and other ways to express this – and it is the power.

The Parable of Father and Son

A person asks such a question: Why is it the law that fathers tell sons what to do, and sons do not tell fathers what to do? This is how it should be, and this is how it is even in our times with a small child. What is the meaning of the fact that the father guides the children and not the children the father? There is a school, a kind of Marxism, that certain schools say: Why is this so? Because the child is small, his body is small, he cannot defend himself, he cannot hit back, and the father will always win. And therefore the father guides, because the father is stronger.

And behold, if the children were to make a revolution, if the children were to find a way – and perhaps in our times there is a way where the children find a possibility not exactly physically, for physicality is only one thing as we will see immediately, for it is possible that the son is not stronger physically, but he is strong in that he can call the police on his father if the father hits him. Once the father could hit his son because he is a father, and the son would only try to hit him back – the father would always win, for he is twice and four times bigger and stronger than him. Almost every father is stronger than his children, and therefore the father guides the children. But today, when the son has the police on his side, and the father is not allowed to hit him, behold he is already as strong as a father – if so, the rulership ends, the father ends, the greatness ends, the superiority of the father over the son ends, for he has a stick, he can hit back.

And nevertheless, it is true that a certain impression, the final level of the superiority of the father over the son, of the father’s rulership over the son, of the father’s honor over the son, of the father’s awe over the son, is indeed strong thus. But this is the most external of the external of the external. Everyone understands, and even in our times when we live as if in some imaginary world, even in our times most normal people still understand that the main thing that makes fathers greater than sons is not that the father is physically stronger than the son. The main thing is that the father has greater understanding. Not understanding for his own benefit – for about this alone it is possible that the father understands how to exploit the son for his own benefit – but the father has greater understanding for the son’s benefit. In this the father is a father.

The Father Is the Son’s Good

In other words: it is true that the father rules over the son, that the son does not rule over himself. And he does not rule over him because he is stronger, and not even because he is cleverer in the sense that he can exploit and manipulate him. Rather, he rules over the son because the son’s good lies with the father. That is, the father understands more about the son. And the word “understands” is only one thing, that the father has more control over this; and to say “understanding” is not always the most accurate word. But the father is the one who gives the son his good. The good, the good life that the son should receive – the son himself does not yet have this good, he is not good enough, he does not control his own good, because he does not understand, or because he does not have the power, for all the reasons – not only because he does not understand. It is possible that he is a great sage, but he does not have the ability, he does not have the connections, he does not have the possibility – physically, spiritually, emotionally – he does not have the possibility.

And therefore the father controls the son’s good. One can say that the father is the one who gives the son his good, he gives him his meaning. How? Through all the ways of education. And certainly the best way is not through coercion, but this is already a secondary matter: whether he hits, whether he teaches him, whether he yells at him, whether he speaks to him pleasantly – all these are details. But the father, in being the son’s good, the father is the responsible one. One can use this language: the father is responsible for the son. And this is certainly a certain rulership.

And the superiority, the ultimate perfection, is that when the son grows up, he will no longer need to come to the father, but will understand by himself, for this is greatness. Bar mitzvah – the father says “Baruch she’petarani,” I am already exempt, the son can already do it himself, how good. But as long as he is a son, the main meaning of mastership can be as it is written “the father’s awe over the son”: the main point is not that the father is stronger, and not even that the father is cleverer and can outsmart him, but that the father is the son’s good.

Mastership Means the Meaning of Life

And the good, as we say in another way, is the same thing as “the meaning of life.” The son does not have the concept of “the meaning of life” as we speak of it, for he is not free to express it intellectually. But the meaning – what gives meaning to the son’s life? That is, what makes them good, good in all ways? The father.

And from here I wish to say an important principle. When people say that the Torah, the mitzvot, the mastership of Hashem, are not – one says: “I do not go in heresy, not because I fear Gehinnom, not because of the stick, but because it gives me meaning in life” – people think this is not mastership. And this is nothing but a mistake, a complete mistake. This is exactly what is called mastership, exactly what is called mastership. Mastership means that the meaning of your life is given to you through the Torah, through the mitzvot, through the Holy One, Blessed be He. This is the meaning of mastership – not from yourself. If I could by myself, if I were “li ye’ori va’ani asitini” (Yechezkel 29:3), I would give meaning myself; but I grasped that I cannot.

If so, the meaning, that is the good – what puts my life in good order, what makes things make sense – comes from the Holy One, Blessed be He.

And the Name Adnut is the same thing. The Name Adnut does not necessarily mean that the Holy One, Blessed be He, is the strongest. This is only the final garment, and perhaps it is even a poor garment. The Name Adnut means that He stands above you, He gives meaning to your life, and in this the Holy One, Blessed be He, is Master of the World.

The Kelipah in the Notion That Mastership Means Strength

We must understand that when we say that the Holy One, Blessed be He, guides the world, people continue to think always – and this is a terrible kelipah that one can fall into, and who brought this kelipah into the world, and why is it? – a terrible kelipah is that they think, when they say that the Holy One, Blessed be He, guides the world, that it means the Holy One, Blessed be He, is stronger than us. We think that we do things, we do business, we educate our children. No! The Holy One, Blessed be He, is the master of all powers, as we say. But there is a complete mistake here in the meaning of the word “power.” Certainly power, but one must strip the word “power” a bit. The Holy One, Blessed be He, is the master of power over the world in the sense that He can say the aspects that one wants to say. The Holy One, Blessed be He, commanded the world to be – this is language, but one must know what it means: He forced, because He can overpower you, He has the ability and you do not. One can say in another way: the Holy One, Blessed be He, explained to the world that it should be, that it is good that it should be. And how does He explain? Perhaps through intellect, if that thing has intellect; and something that does not have intellect, He explains it in other language.

Why Do I Make the Holy One, Blessed be He, King?

But the reason that the Holy One, Blessed be He, is strong, the reason why – they ask why the Holy One, Blessed be He? Who gave the Holy One, Blessed be He, kingship over the world? Why not me? A person tells me such stories, that the Holy One, Blessed be He, should be the King, so they say. And he asks himself: Why? Do you know why? Because I want to. I think it is better for me. I want, I don’t know, I want. I want to be the king of my own life. Why should I give the Holy One, Blessed be He, the kingship? Why do I say ‘Hashem melech’? Perhaps ‘I will reign’? This is indeed a good argument. Do you want to think like people? But you cannot. The Holy One, Blessed be He, indeed has the ability, He can crush you like a small ant if He wishes, for you are nothing and nothing. If so, He is stronger than you, you have no choice, give Him the kingship. But this means coercion, this is not “His kingship they accepted upon themselves willingly,” and this is also not the correct understanding of kingship.

That is, it is true that the Holy One, Blessed be He, is the master of ability, I am not saying this is not true, but this is only the final garment of the Holy One, Blessed be He. The Holy One, Blessed be He, does not guide the world by being the strongest. The reason that we make the Holy One, Blessed be He, king, that the world is subjugated to the fact that the Holy One, Blessed be He, is Master of the World, is not because He has more weapons. This is not a dictatorship, that the whole reason the superior is above is because he has more weapons. Even in actual reality, the truth is – I do not want to enter into this – but this is not the reason.

Kingship Built on Chesed

The reason that the Holy One, Blessed be He, is King, what makes the Holy One, Blessed be He, king – one can say that the attribute of Malchut is built on chesed, not on coercion. That is “v’yichonen b’chesed kis’o”. This is the entire work of the Yamim Noraim, to do so. I do not want to enter into all the reasons for this. The reason that the Holy One, Blessed be He, is King is because He is better. He is better. It is better that the Holy One, Blessed be He, should be King over us. When we guide ourselves, we have no content in our lives, for we begin like a dream that flies away. And when the Holy One, Blessed be He, guides our lives, it is better. This is the meaning of accepting the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven, accepting the mastership of Hashem. The kingship of Hashem does not mean that the Holy One, Blessed be He, stands against me, that I would want to rule and there is a whole war here, that the yetzer hara wants me for itself. No! Even the yetzer hara agrees to this. When one understands that it is better – sometimes a person does not understand, and then they hit him, they do external things – but one who has some intellect understands that the meaning of a person’s life cannot be entirely placed with him, but rather it is placed in his feeling his part in the entire world, for he has a role, he has a place, he has work.

This is the meaning of Hashem’s guidance of the world, Hashem’s mastership over the world, Hashem’s divinity over the world – this is the good. And this is a very deep principle. I believe one could elaborate on this, one could contemplate this deeply for years, and strongly negate. These are all very subtle matters, for we say the language of kingship and see so much, but I believe the matter is simple: it truly seems as if the Holy One, Blessed be He, does not want, does not, but He must, without choice He becomes. The Holy One, Blessed be He, does not want to be King over the world by being stronger. As it were, one can call this the gevurah in kingship over the world, but then this is not even gevurah in kingship; the externality is the gevurah in kingship, that is, the sitra achra itself. The Holy One, Blessed be He, wants to be King over the world in the attribute of chesed in kingship, or the good in kingship, called chesed chochmah in kingship. In that He organizes the world, He gives, one can say, meaning to the world, He gives explanation to the world. Why is there a world? Because the Holy One, Blessed be He, did so, because the Holy One, Blessed be He, understands that it is good, “vayar Elokim ki tov” (Bereishit 1).

This is the meaning of the kingship of Hashem, this is the mastership of Hashem. And I have already said this in passing – and not in passing, but this is a great and awesome principle. If so, what is the meaning of Marei Alma? This is the meaning of “Pekudei d’Marei Alma”. From the aspect that the Holy One, Blessed be He, gives the good to the world, makes the world make sense, gives meaning to the world, gives meaning to life – from this aspect they are mitzvot. This is the meaning of “Pekudei d’Marei Alma,” which is already better than “Pekudei d’Orayta.”

Knowledge of the Name Itself: Above Master of the World

But one must remember that even this in itself is still not sufficient. And as we love the language of the holy Rebbe, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi: “This is not the essence of divinity, that He gives life to all the worlds” (Tanya). That the Holy One, Blessed be He, is the meaning of the entire world – this is the way we come to Him, initially and at least. But this is not what He is, as it were. The Holy One, Blessed be He, what He is in Himself, if one can say such a word, is not what He gives meaning to the entire world. Like a father, what he is in himself: indeed I have the aspect that I am a father, in relation to my son I am a father, but in relation to myself I have a completely different life, my own, which is my inner self, relating to myself. When I am not with my children, what do I do? The Holy One, Blessed be He, in Himself is a thing unto Himself.

And the wonder of Judaism is that we say the Name Adnut, that is, we say: the Master over us, the one who makes my life make sense. And it is so because we cannot express it, we have no words. And why do we not pronounce the Name Havayah? Because we have no words to express it in our language and in our world. There is no word in the world that reaches this, for this is outside the world. But we say the Name Havayah. The Name Havayah means His existence, that He exists. And it also includes that He brings into being, but we will speak of this immediately. The Name Havayah means His existence and His essence of the Name Itself.

The thing that gives the meaning to all of life – let us take this for a moment – the thing that gives the meaning and the ability and the understanding and the order and the sense and everything to the entire world, to all creatures, is a thing unto itself. As it were, as the Rambam says, if all creatures did not exist, He would still exist. And if – and indeed all creatures now exist – but “Lifnei Adon Olam asher malach b’terem kol yetzir nivra, v’acharei kichlot hakol levado yimloch nora” (Adon Olam). Meanwhile He is the King over us, He is the Master. But before and after, as it were one can say that the world is only a small area in time, imagination, only a parable, and all the rest of the infinity of time that was before and will be after – He alone.

And He alone – this is good, this is true, that we cannot say it, for we live in a world that is… but this is more true. Anyone who has some intellect, some feeling, can understand that it is much better to think about this than about that, as people understand by themselves. A person says: Let us not return to the Torah. And a person says: Torah is good, Torah makes life good. Very nice. But as it were, one asks: If so, is the Torah a servant to your life? And this is not true, this is not correct, for the good of your life is in that it goes to something higher. But otherwise I could always think so.

Torat Havayah: The Mitzvot Are Connected to What He Is

When we say Torat Hashem, or “Torat Hashem temimah” (Tehillim 19), it is not written ‘Torat Adnut.’ And seemingly the Torah is Torat Adnut. What does it have to do with Havayah? No! It is Torat Havayah, mitzvot Havayah, as is written in that chapter that we say in “HaShamayim mesaprim” (Tehillim 19): mitzvot Havayah, mitzvot Yud-Kuf Vav-Kuf. And if so, the meaning is that the Torah has a matter, the mitzvot have a matter with the Holy One, Blessed be He, as He is, not only as He rules over us and gives us meaning. And just as He is, as it were, in a certain sense, only for our sake, no! He is also for His sake, also because of what He is.

And it is understood that we must say in complete simplicity: when we say from His side, when we say for His sake, we do not mean what He is, as if we were imagining Him like us – when something relates to us, like a father who says he is a friend to his children, he has something as a father, he has his own experience. The Holy One, Blessed be He, does not have His own experience, He is not flesh and blood, it is only need and the like. But our intent is that we have good, that we have pleasure, that we have something from what He is.

Havayah Elokim in Parshat Noach

Behold the principle: it is written “Bereishit bara Elokim” (Bereishit 1), and we say Havayah Elokim. And the meaning is that the Holy One, Blessed be He, made the world not only with the Name Elokim but also with the Name Havayah, “b’yom asot Havayah Elokim eretz v’shamayim” (Bereishit 2). And what is the meaning? As you saw in Parshat Noach, the Ramban notes there that the entire parsha is with the Name Elokim, in judgment – now understand why. But the salvation, “vayisgor Havayah ba’ado” (Bereishit 7) – I believe once in the entire parsha Havayah is said – and then “vayarach Havayah et rei’ach hanicho’ach” (Bereishit 8). The rectification, the salvation, always with the Name Havayah.

And the meaning is: when we say that above the fact that the Holy One, Blessed be He, is Master of the World, He is also Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh. And it does not mean that that Havayah is not connected to the world. As we say, the meaning of Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh is that He is hoveh, was hoveh and will be hoveh – which I am not entering now to explain, for His mode of existence is not something that is today. When we exist, we are today, and He – He is today and yesterday and forever at once, He is not in time. But with this He is also, as at least the mekubalim explain, that He is hoveh – it is written in Etz Chaim that He is hoveh and also mehave kol beriyah. And what is the meaning of mehave kol beriyah? Mehave kol beriyah is the Name Adnut. This is the meaning of yichud Havayah Adnut. Yichud Havayah Adnut says, as the Rambam says, “me’amitat himtza’o nimtza’u kol hanimtza’im” (Rambam Hilchot Yesodei HaTorah 1).

And these are lofty and deep matters, that one must hear them, that this is the meaning of truly mochin to malchut, in levels.

In Which Attribute Does the Holy One, Blessed be He, Guide the World?

One can ask thus, as we asked before: the Holy One, Blessed be He, comes, from what aspect? From what aspect does the Holy One, Blessed be He, guide the world? One can say, the lowest of the low level: the Holy One, Blessed be He, guides the world from the aspect of who is stronger. And this is a kind of religion, people can live this way, even this is something. One says: because He understands better, because He is the world’s good. If so, you are already grasping the chesed in malchut, grasping something deeper. One can say from the aspect of chochmah, because He sees that this is good. One can rank that chochmah is higher than good, or the opposite, and so on; this is already the next level.

After this a person can say something deeper. A person can ask: from what aspect? In what? As it were, one can ask thus: in which attribute? That is, in which aspect? Everything is His attributes, the Holy One, Blessed be He, does everything. But in which sense of what He is Elokim does He guide the world? The deepest meaning of ‘Havayah Elokeinu’ is that the Holy One, Blessed be He, guides the world, He is divine, Havayah Elokeinu, He is divine in what He is.

Only One Who Is Can Create the World

That is, when you ask such a question: what kind of creature, what kind of being, what kind of thing can make a world? One can make many levels. Something slightly better – a father can, and this is the aspect of “equated his honor with the honor of the Omnipresent” (Kiddushin 30). A father can make the good for his son, can arrange his life, this he can do. A flesh and blood king can make the order for the entire country, this he can do. That is, in the aspect of what he has the attribute called good, that is order, that he can arrange, can make justice, can make all the good attributes – in this he can make the world.

But when one contemplates deeply, one understands that to make the entire world exist, what is often called yesh me’ayin – which is not always the best word, and one must think about this and give new words to everything – to make the entire world exist, ultimately ultimately ultimately, only one who is can do this. One who is, for this is indeed utterly simple. In any case, according to this the matter is utterly simple, for before there is a world there is nothing, there is nothing in the aspect of world, there is only the Holy One, Blessed be He. And if so, the only one who can create the world – the attribute of Malchut cannot create the world. Consider: the attribute of Malchut means the guidance of the world, and this already requires a world. It turns out that after there is a world, the Holy One, Blessed be He, guides it, how good. But for there to be a world at all, only Yud-Kuf Vav-Kuf Himself can do this. One who is before any creature was created, only He can begin the whole thing.

If so, we say “me’amitat himtza’o nimtza’u kol hanimtza’im” (Rambam Hilchot Yesodei HaTorah 1). That is, if I want to know – in what does the Holy One, Blessed be He, reign over the world? In what is the Holy One, Blessed be He, Master over the world? In that He is Havayah, in that He is what He is. And what He is – is He for the world? Exactly because of this. Exactly because what He is is not connected to the world, not at all from the attributes at all. And therefore, the world as it were draws existence, it borrows. The entire world borrows existence. The Holy One, Blessed be He, has existence from Himself, and the entire world borrows existence. Our existence is borrowed, secondary existence, it comes from Him, comes from the fact that the Holy One, Blessed be He, is existence unto Himself. A very deep matter to contemplate, and there is no way to err in it. But this is the foundation of foundations of ‘Havayah Elokim,’ the foundation of faith – to say that the Holy One, Blessed be He,

guides the world not only from the aspect that He is stronger, not from the aspect that He is better, not from the aspect that He is cleverer, not only from the aspect that He is more righteous – for all these are attributes by which He guides the world. But what He is, the foundation of foundations, in the ultimate beginning “Bereishit bara Elokim,” what makes Him the God of the world – is from the aspect of what He is.

The Choice: A Relationship with the Holy One, Blessed be He, from the Aspect of What He Is

And if so, here we understand that there is a certain choice, a very difficult matter, there is a certain choice. A person can base his humanity, base his Judaism, base his relationship with the Holy One, Blessed be He, on the fact that the Holy One, Blessed be He, is stronger, on the fact that the Holy One, Blessed be He, is better – and this is a good thing, for these are divine attributes. But the choice – for there is a choice here – its meaning is that the Holy One, Blessed be He, chose Israel and Israel chose the Holy One, Blessed be He. The meaning is that the choice is that a person should say: the Holy One, Blessed be He, wants – this a person can say – ‘Havayah Elokim,’ He wants the Holy One, Blessed be He, to be his God, that the Holy One, Blessed be He, should guide him, as it were, that is, that there should be revelation, that it should be clear that even what the Holy One, Blessed be He, guides him, even what the Holy One, Blessed be He, is his God – for a person thinks: why is the Holy One, Blessed be He, better for me than I am good for myself? – that all these things should be because of what the Holy One, Blessed be He, is what He is unto Himself.

And this is joy, this is the meaning of “yismach Yisrael b’osav bnei Tzion yagilu b’malkam” (Tehillim 149), “tzadikim yismechu ya’altzu lifnei Elokim” (Tehillim 68), as Chassidic works explain: before the Name Elokim. That is, his joy, his devekut, his taste and his faith are not because the Holy One, Blessed be He, is stronger than him, and not because the Holy One, Blessed be He, is cleverer than him. In “strong” there is no joy at all, and perhaps a little. Better, and the source of wisdom, the source of Torah, the source of righteousness, the source of victory – all these are good things. But the greatest joy, the greatest love, the greatest devekut, is in that the Holy One, Blessed be He, is the source of Havayah, He is your Havayah. This is the meaning of ‘Havayah Elokeinu’ as it were – Havayah is my Havayah as well.

And the meaning is that the Name Havayah rests upon a Jew, not only the Name Adnut. And when we say the Name Adnut, one must always remember this. That is, we must know: indeed we live in a world that requires order, requires guidance, requires even power, requires all these things. But one must remember: from what aspect does He have all this power? From what aspect? Why indeed is the Holy One, Blessed be He, greater than me, stronger and better than me? Because He is Havayah, because He is what He is. It turns out that I – although seemingly this is a contradiction in terms, how can I, from the aspect that I am created, have a connection with the Holy One, Blessed be He, from the aspect of what He is, which is not at all from the creatures – you can. If you remember this. And perhaps it cannot be said, it is forbidden to express it, for we have no correct words for it. One immediately needs to have subtle knowledge, subtle connection with this. But this is what can be. It can be. And not only can it be, but it must be so. Less than this cannot be.

Shamor and Zachor: Two Levels in Performing Mitzvot

Let us return to the explanation of “u’shmartem,” to “Pekudei” – what shall I do when I am still holding onto the introduction? “Pekudei d’Marei Alma” – this is the simple meaning of mitzvot, that they are commandments of the Master of the World. And in contrast to this, different from this, “Pekudei d’Orayta,” commandments of the Torah. One might think this is already a question of semantic meaning, how we explain the words. One can explain that “Pekudei d’Orayta,” when we say “Pekudei d’Orayta,” we wish to say something higher than the commandments of man. Why? Because pekudei, everyone knows according to the Zohar, mitzvah means Adnut, and Torah means Havayah. Torah and mitzvah means the unification of Havayah and Adnut. For mitzvah indicates something that must be done, that is, it stands above you, the Shechinah stands above you and guides you, tells you what to do. And Havayah the Torah is the understanding of the mitzvot, the understanding of the good of the mitzvot themselves.

And he says that the meaning of ‘Torah’ is that the Torah is higher than the mitzvot. But the Torah is not just Torah, but mitzvot of the Torah, and the Torah is Torat Havayah. One must therefore say Torat Havayah, mitzvot Havayah, pekudei Havayah, everything is Havayah. And he says that the meaning is that through all these levels the Name Havayah shines. And now arises a new way of how to do mitzvot, a completely new comprehension of how to do mitzvot, which is a very subtle thing, and again one can err in it in various ways, but I must say it as it shines, as it is simple. This is a new way of how to do mitzvot.

The Derash from “U’shmartem Va’asitem”

And let us enter this into the derash that the Zohar says. It is written “u’shmartem et kol mitzvotai,” “u’shmartem et mitzvotai va’asitem otam” (Vayikra 22/26). What is this shemirah and asiyah? And the Zohar asks another question: where is zechirah mentioned? For you know that there is zechirah? All the mitzvot that have shamor and zachor – where is the zechirah?

Shamor, he says thus, shamor is for nukva. If it is shamor, why is zachor not said? Rather shamor means that I guard the mitzvot. The mitzvot are higher than me, this is what the Holy One, Blessed be He, says: the meaning of my life, my good, is not placed with me, does not begin with me, but begins with the Shechinah. This is “u’shmartem et kol mitzvotai,” the aspect of nukva, that is, we are the aspect of nukva, we are the receiver. The attribute connected to us, the final attribute, is the attribute that receives from all the attributes. This is the meaning of “u’shmartem” – I guard, I guard Torah, one who guards Torah. This is one level, the first level. And which mitzvot does one guard then? Mitzvot Adnut. This is the true meaning: mitzvot of the Master of the World.

But, says the Zohar, you must understand that what we call zechirah, which is higher, can be called in another way: asiyah. “U’shmartem” – here is shamor, “va’asitem” – here is zachor. Everything is the same thing, zechirah here is asiyah. That is, there is one who guards mitzvot, and there is one who does mitzvot. Does mitzvot, as the Zohar must explain, and it is built on the Midrashim, it says “va’asitem otam” – that you should make the mitzvot, not that you should fulfill the mitzvot. Like one who acts from the mouth of an agent: “it is not the same to hear from the mouth of the king as to hear from the mouth of an agent.” One who guards the mitzvot hears from the mouth of an agent. And one who does the mitzvot, that is, he creates them, he is the doer. But how is it possible that a person should be the doer of the mitzvot?

A person can be the doer of the mitzvot if he hears what the Zohar says, that shemirah – that is, asiyah – is zechirah. And why is zechirah asiyah? He says: “kol man d’adchar milah l’tata ashchan d’it’avid hahu reshima l’eila” (Zohar). And they explain thus: simply they explain, as everyone knows, that by doing the mitzvot we arouse, and this is only a remembrance. We spoke at length that mitzvot are only a remembrance of what they truly are. But what we are explaining today is thus: how does a person do mitzvot? Can a person create the mitzvot? For the entire idea of a mitzvah is that you did not make it. Very nice. The Holy One, Blessed be He, made the mitzvot of Hashem, these are not the mitzvot of man. “asher ya’aseh otam ha’adam” (Vayikra 18) – how can a person create the mitzvah? A person can fulfill the mitzvah, and this is the aspect of shemirah. Usually when we explain the word ‘doing the mitzvot,’ we explain it at the level of shemirah, not at the level of asiyah at all. Asiyah is making. The Holy One, Blessed be He, is “ani Hashem oseh kol” (Yeshayahu 44), the Holy One, Blessed be He, does everything. How can a person do something?

The Answer: Pekudei Havayah and the Unification

The answer is: as long as you understand that mitzvot are an order that the Holy One, Blessed be He, gives, the order of good, a good way that the Holy One, Blessed be He, gives to the world – what do the mitzvot do two other things, what do they do with the Holy One, Blessed be He, two other things. Why? Because what the Holy One, Blessed be He, is, from the aspect of what He is unto Himself, from the aspect of what we understand what He is – is one thing; and from the aspect of what He guides the world – a completely different thing. And certainly you do, the Holy One, Blessed be He, is the mitzvot, and this is the study of Torah lishmah according to an agent.

But if you begin to contemplate the Name Havayah, you say that this is pekudei Havayah, not only pekudei Adnut, that there is the Name Havayah here, and you contemplate that this is a subtle thing that must be understood – for seemingly one can say that mitzvot certainly are not this, mitzvot are only Adnut, mitzvot are good order for the world. But he contemplates the order for the world: why do we say at all that the Torah is divine Torah, Torah from Heaven? This is Torah that is in Heaven, Torah. What does it matter where it came from? Is this divine Torah or earthly Torah? One should say that the Torah is from the Name Adnut, it should be from the Name Adnut. Very nice, the Name Adnut is also Heaven, but it is in the Name Adnut. “Heaven” – one knows that this is Tiferet, Heaven is the Name Havayah. In what way is the Torah from Heaven?

The answer is: he hears, he contemplates, and there is a certain choice in this. For this one needs to be a mekubal, one needs to be in a Chassidic shiur, to cease being a guardian of mitzvot only as a servant. He must begin to say: I do the mitzvot not only because they are good for me in this world, even for my soul. For what I contemplate is: in what way is the mitzvah good for me? Who makes them good for me? What ultimately makes them good for me is that Havayah is Havayah, that the Holy One, Blessed be He, is, that the Holy One, Blessed be He, is better than the entire world. And from the fact that the Holy One, Blessed be He, unto Himself is better than the entire world – perhaps indeed after much hishtalshelut – it emerges that the mitzvot are better than the entire world.

The Holy One, Blessed be He, Himself Is the Mitzvot

But my intent here is that there is a choice. For a person can build his relationship, his doing of mitzvot, on the aspect of shamor – very nice, a kosher Jew, a permitted Jew. But he can build it and say that zachor and shamor were said in one utterance, and that shamor is built on zachor. Israel – why, as a child would say: why are you my father? Because he is a father unto himself. And perhaps a flesh and blood father is not so, I do not know if the reason he is a father is because he is so good from his own aspect. But the Holy One, Blessed be He, the reason the Holy One, Blessed be He, is a father to me is not only because of my relationship to Him. On the contrary, my relationship to Him is built and rooted in His essential being, in what He is as it were in relation to Himself – and one is permitted to say such a word, this is the secret. One is permitted to say, for the Midrash says that the Holy One, Blessed be He, does mitzvot.

We do mitzvot not only because the mitzvot are for us, but because the Holy One, Blessed be He, Himself is the mitzvot. The Holy One, Blessed be He, is the mitzvot like us. People think that the Holy One, Blessed be He, has a lulav – the Holy One, Blessed be He, does not have tefillin, the Holy One, Blessed be He, does not have a lulav in Heaven. The lulav is something whose true reason, the first source of the lulav, is the Name Havayah, it is the Holy One, Blessed be He, as He is in Himself. And this is a new kavanah, one can have kavanah, one can be a completely kosher Jew and never do zachor and shamor, never remember the mitzvah that is the aspect of zechirah, which means zachor. This you can only remember, you cannot even say it – and perhaps when we say zachor the intent is to be reminded, this is the arousal, you can only arouse it, you cannot say it, you cannot do it, you cannot create the mitzvah. But you can remember that the shemirah is built on the zechirah. This you can remember, this you can do. And then the mitzvot are true divine mitzvot, then you do the mitzvot of Kudsha Brich Hu and His Shechinah, not only the mitzvot for the good of people.

There Is No Separation: The Good of People Is Kudsha Brich Hu

In other words: then the good of people is Kudsha Brich Hu. This one must know. The good is not other – this is a great mistake that people make: if so, he exploits it for the Holy One, Blessed be He, and it need not be good for man. No! This too is separation, the opposite separation, which goes to Tiferet without Malchut. This too is separation, the same separation. One is called kitzutz b’neti’ot, one is called denial of the fundamental, and their rectification is an awesome thing. No! The unification says that what is good for you, what the mitzvot are good for all the worlds – this is because they are in the aspect of the good of Hashem, mitzvot upon what the Holy One, Blessed be He, is unto Himself, not only the good of Hashem for all but the good of Hashem in Himself, and therefore the mitzvot are the good of Hashem for all. And this is another important mistake that must be negated from the soul.

And thus, this is indeed the explanation according to sod, upon what we spoke yesterday in a more analytical way (as we explained in the previous shiur in the way of nigleh about the perfection in doing actions in the world and this is not the place for it): that the perfection, doing actions in this world – part of which is doing mitzvot – is not that one must cease doing practical mitzvot and think only about divinity, and not that while doing practical mitzvot he should think about divinity. One can indeed, but this is not the main thing. The main thing is that the kavanah – which we have now explained from the upper aspect, in the way of Kabbalah – the kavanah of the good in them, the reason they are truly good, is because they are rooted in the Name Havayah. This is the meaning of ‘Havayah,’ the Master Havayah supreme. This is the meaning of 613 mitzvot of the Torah, which are the totality of male and female, the totality of both things: from what the Holy One, Blessed be He, is unto Himself and from what the Holy One, Blessed be He, guides the world, and it is all raza chada, all one secret. It is forbidden to separate between the secrets. One who says that Kabbalah speaks of higher reasons than the reasons for mitzvot according to nigleh which are to repair the world, and says that no, Kabbalah says this is only to repair the Holy One, Blessed be He – this is falsehood and this is somewhat kitzutz b’neti’ot. It is both together as one. On the contrary, this is the contemplation: the contemplation in what, why is this good at all? Because – as according to nigleh that we learned yesterday – because this leads to that, and one could say as they say in nistar, because this is built upon, rooted in what the Holy One, Blessed be He, is unto Himself. This is the meaning of “pikudei Hashem yesharim mesamchei lev” (Tehillim 19) – when it is “pikudei Havayah,” then it is “mesamchei lev.” This is joy, this is the joy with which we rejoice on Simchat Torah.

Parshat Noach: The Name Elokim and the Name Havayah

And I have no time or strength to say a derasha on this from Parshat Noach, but one can understand by oneself that the Flood is the Name Elokim, this is the gevurah of what the Holy One, Blessed be He, is stronger than all. And therefore there is an entire parsha – we learned last week (as we explained in the previous shiur about the words of the serpent and this is not the place for it) that the serpent said there are only negative commandments, there is only what the Holy One, Blessed be He, is stronger, that it is forbidden to do, that is fear. And the Holy One, Blessed be He, gave a mitzvah to Noach. The salvation of Noach was through mitzvot, the mitzvah of building the ark, and this He gave in the Name Havayah. The Holy One, Blessed be He, gave the mitzvah to Noach, and Noach did “vaya’as Noach k’chol asher tzivah oto Hashem” (Bereishit 6), he did the mitzvah. And indeed, as Noach ish tzaddik, Noach did the mitzvah, he was the aspect of merkavah, the aspect of Yesod that does the mitzvah, and then he saved the world. And this was the covenant, the new covenant that the Holy One, Blessed be He, gave to Noach, this is the foundation of the covenant, that it is possible that even Adam HaRishon was in it but not in this way. This is the foundation of mitzvot aseh, “vayizkor Elokim et Noach” (Bereishit 8).

The Secret of Brit Milah – A Sign of What a Person Is, Not What He Does

The Benefit of Contemplating the Mitzvah

This shiur is in honor of Erev Shabbat Parshat Lech Lecha 5777, and we are continuing our study of the mitzvot from the Sefer HaPekudin in the Zohar. In honor of the parsha, I have chosen to learn the mitzvah of brit milah, which appears at the end of Parshat Lech Lecha.

The main intention of this shiur, and this is its entire purpose, is this: We all have brit milah. Every Jew, at least all those I know, was circumcised at the proper time. But as with every mitzvah, the spiritual benefit lies in a person taking something from it, even with minimal awareness. Without awareness, the thing certainly exists always – you have brit milah, you have brit milah; but since the entire point of our approach is to say that when a person pays attention and settles his mind upon it, turns his heart and adds a bit of thought, he receives benefit of an entirely different level. This is the level of da’at (knowledge), the level of understanding, the level of intellect, the level of kavanah (intention). So too with the mitzvah of brit milah – a person needs to set aside time to think about it, to be with it.

And we do not practice this sufficiently with this mitzvah. There are mitzvot that merit “status” on their own, since they come from time to time and people make an occasion of them, like mitzvot that come periodically. When Pesach comes, people contemplate the mitzvah of matzah extensively, and therefore matzah has a powerful effect on a person. Everyone who eats matzah every year on Pesach receives vitality from it, receives divine insights from it, receives good counsel from it – all the matters contained in matzah, which each person learns according to his concern before Pesach – because he pays attention, dedicates time to it, dedicates attention to it.

Frequent Mitzvot: The Deficiency in Attention to Milah

But the mitzvot that a person performs every day, like tzitzit and tefillin and milah – and milah even more than daily – we find that people give them less attention. And this is unfortunate. For this is one of the greatest mitzvot, and one of the most fundamental. Everyone knows that through brit milah a person becomes a Jew. Avraham Avinu became a Jew, so to speak, “va’etnah briti beini uveinecha” (Bereishit 17:2), “hithalech lefanai veheyeh tamim va’etnah briti beini uveinecha” (ibid. 1-2). Through this Avraham Avinu became a person, Avraham Avinu became tamim (complete), Avraham Avinu became shalem (whole). And through this every Jew becomes a Jew, and we say “lehachniso bivrito shel Avraham Avinu” (Shabbat 137b).

And indeed we make a great celebration, for it is one of the mitzvot “she’kiblu aleihem besimchah” (Shabbat 130a), as explained. Therefore we make a great celebration when a brit milah comes. And yet, even the celebration itself I feel is never sufficient, for several technical reasons due to which the brit milah celebration doesn’t turn out to be as great a simchah as it should be. The Gemara explains that the wedding, since the mitzvah of forbidden relations was accepted with some sadness – “bocheh lemishpechotav” (Bamidbar 11:10; Shabbat 130a) – there is still in every wedding a kind of quarrel, and its joy is not complete; yet in practice we make weddings with great joy, with great ceremony. But brit milah, even when it’s in the morning and people need to go to work, for whatever technical reason, we don’t see in it as great a joy as a wedding or such great celebration.

So something is missing. And even if we say that indeed a person makes a brit, or he himself was circumcised, and he has vitality from it – it’s a time of joy for him, a yom tov for him, he makes a brit – he was only eight days old! And brit milah is not only when he’s eight days old; brit milah continues and goes with a person all the days of his life, from when he was eight days old, from eight days old, and from then on he remains without orlah (foreskin), remains with brit milah. As is known from the midrash about David HaMelech, who contemplated his brit milah and said “lamnatze’ach al hasheminit” (Tehillim 6:1; Menachot 43b).

The Rambam: Why Are the Laws of Milah Written in Sefer Ahavah?

And as the Rambam says in his introduction to Sefer Ahavah in Mishneh Torah, that Sefer Ahavah contains the mitzvot “that are frequent that we were commanded in them in order to love Hashem and to remember Him always” (Rambam, Introduction to Sefer Ahavah). And he brings there all those mitzvot that we would expect and anticipate to be in Sefer Ahavah: the mitzvot of Kriat Shema, tefillah, tefillin, berachot – all the matters in the order of Orach Chaim part 1, as I call it, things we do every day. Hilchot Zemanim is Orach Chaim parts 2 and 3, matters of Shabbat and Yamim Tovim. But he included milah in this! And why did he include milah in Sefer Ahavah? Because it too is “an ot (sign) in our flesh to remember always at a time when there are no tefillin or tzitzit” (ibid.), like that midrash we mentioned.

And here is something interesting in understanding the Rambam regarding brit milah: Just as every Jew learning Sefer Ahavah in the Rambam, learning Hilchot Tefillin and Hilchot Tefillah and the like, which are all things he does every day, comes to brit milah: this is something done – yes, a mohel perhaps does it every day, and needs to know its laws every day – but a father, and even an ordinary person, does it once in his life. Brit milah is one of the mitzvot that belong to once in a lifetime; it is, so to speak, the smallest of them, the rarest mitzvah in a person’s life. A person will say: There are mitzvot we do every day, there are mitzvot we do once a week, there are mitzvot we do once a year, there are mitzvot we do once in shemittah, and there are mitzvot we do once in a lifetime. There is brit milah; a wedding we hope to do once in a lifetime, and perhaps it’s possible twice. But brit milah is only possible once. By its very definition brit milah is only once in a lifetime; and this is the least of mitzvot from the perspective of fixed time, as it appears from the very performance of the mitzvah.

And on the other hand we understand that on the contrary, in complete reversal: The Rambam says it’s in Sefer Ahavah, that it’s the most fixed mitzvah, the most frequent! For even the daily mitzvot – Kriat Shema, tzitzit – let’s say a person wears tzitzit all day, and that he should have worn tefillin all day, even this is not all day. There are times when he doesn’t wear tzitzit and tefillin: he enters the bathhouse, removes his garments at night to sleep – and although the Arizal came and said it’s possible to wear tzitzit at night, even though it’s not a mitzvah, and I don’t know what its effect is, in any case at that time he has only brit milah. So brit milah is “an ot in our flesh to remember always,” and like everything, when we don’t think about it we don’t take anything from it.

The Matter of Vach Nacht: Cutting the Orlah of the Heart

And when Parshat Lech Lecha comes, there is a complete parsha in it about brit milah. In Parshat Shemini it returns, but there in only one verse. Here the entire deed is stated, all the light, all the inspiration of brit milah. Therefore we are making a shiur – ten minutes, twenty minutes, half an hour, whatever its length will be – and its purpose is that a person should spend twenty minutes in thought about the brit milah that we have.

And this is a very good thing. The thing itself is brit milah; contained in it are all the segulot (special qualities) that milah accomplishes: it pushes away the orlah, we are disconnected from all kinds of bad things, from all kinds of external things. This is what we are doing here.

However, it’s not possible to sit idle doing nothing – and indeed it’s possible, but it’s difficult on video – therefore we will learn meanwhile a bit of what the Zohar says about the mitzvah of brit milah here in Pekudin. Pekuda 14, says the Zohar, is the mitzvah of brit milah.

And as we learned the Pekudin briefly, many things are written here a second time from what was already written in Parshat Lech Lecha, where the Zohar elaborates greatly. Everyone who performs brit milah should learn beforehand the Zohar in Parshat Lech Lecha, all the lengthy discussion there about brit milah. And from there we learn the mitzvah of vach nacht, the very idea. And the idea is simple: that a person should learn and think about the matter – not just make a brit in the morning, but that an entire night beforehand he should learn. The Zohar tells a story that someone made a brit, and all the friends, the entire chavurah, came there and learned beforehand.

And they say this too is a segulah against external things, kelipot. But this is the same thing! For the greatest kelipah, as the meaning of orlah – orlah means dullness; and dullness means distraction, that a person comes in the morning to a brit and makes a brit, and there is around this a great orlah, and one needs to cut the orlah! And just as one needs to cut the orlah of the flesh, one needs to cut the orlah of the heart, and to cut the orlah of the heart that doesn’t allow one to feel, that doesn’t allow one to rejoice in the orlah of the flesh.

How so: During the day the time for the mitzvah has already arrived, and one needs to do it in practice, but at night a person needs to dedicate time, to open and broaden his perspective, to contemplate all the verses, all the statements, how they are understood, in all the ways, so that he can receive the vitality of brit milah.

And here in Pekudin the Zohar is more concise, and brings only the main points of how we understand the matter of brit milah. Perhaps there are some novel insights here, but this is the subject being learned here.

Foundations of the Mitzvah: Cutting the Brit and the Eighth Day

Two Questions: What Is the Cutting, and Why on the Eighth Day?

Thus says the Zohar: The mitzvah is to circumcise a baby boy on the eighth day, and the Zohar calls it “geziri dekayama kadisha” (Zohar, Introduction 13a). “Kayama” means brit in the language of Targum as usual. And the brit is holy – “kayama kadisha,” a holy brit – and it is cut. And one must understand, and the Zohar stands to speak about this: What is the cutting of the brit? We cut the orlah, not the brit! But what is the simple meaning that the essence of the brit is to cut the orlah? This is one question.

And another thing: It must be on the eighth day, and this too is a question. It’s important, even though the essence of brit milah is not entirely the eighth day. There is the aspect of time, and there is the aspect of the brit. Avraham Avinu performed brit milah not on the eighth day, but it says “uven shemonat yamim yimol” (Bereishit 17:12), that from the eighth day we perform brit milah. So we need to understand the connection of these two things.

Three Modes of Cutting in Brit Milah

First of all we need to understand the cutting. There is the expression “krirat brit” (cutting a covenant), and it’s an interesting thing. Rashi speaks about this (Rashi Bereishit 15:18): Why is it called krirat brit, and what is the connection of the language? And Rashi says we learn from brit bein habetarim its meaning, for there was an order to cut something as a sign. And since the way of those who cut covenants was – and perhaps even today, I don’t know – to do something and cut something to hint at a matter, whatever it may be, this was the way. Just as today we say they sign the contract, the way in which they do the matter, in which they establish the brit, is by cutting something; on account of this it’s called krirat brit. This is Rashi’s explanation.

But an interesting thing – and perhaps indeed this is the simple meaning – that when we perform brit milah we also cut something: we cut the orlah, as it says here “unmaltem et besar arlatechem” (Bereishit 17:11). The language of cutting is not used for orlah, but apparently this is the same idea itself: we cut and cut the orlah. And the language “karet” is also used for one who doesn’t do it, and it’s an interesting thing: there is also karet for one who doesn’t perform brit milah – he is cut off! So we cut brit, we cut the orlah, and whoever doesn’t cut will be cut off from the brit, “et briti hefer” (ibid. 14), “venichrta hanefesh hahi me’ameha” (ibid.). These are the three cuttings that are here.

And we need to understand the subject. It’s interesting that here it says “unmaltem et besar arlatechem,” that we cut and circumcise. And perhaps even “milah” means cutting? I don’t know the meaning of the word milah, and perhaps it too is a language of cutting. So we cut the orlah, and this is the brit. And we do it to every male, to a child, when he is “ben shemonat yamim” (ibid. 12), eight days old. And all these are things that need some explanation of their essence. And the Zohar says thus – and I think what the Zohar does here is very good – and it brings a verse:

“Sod Hashem Lirei’av Uvrito Lehodi’am”

Mysteries of Milah in the Midrash

The mitzvah is a secret. And how is it a secret? Everyone knows that the Zohar holds that every mitzvah is a secret, and this is not a great novelty that the mitzvah is a secret. We already spoke about the matter that every mitzvah is a secret, but the mitzvah is a secret. The Zohar says: I have a verse for this! A verse is stated in Tehillim, in the psalm “Eilecha Hashem nafshi esa” (Tehillim 25:1): “Sod Hashem lirei’av uvrito lehodi’am” (ibid. 14).

And the Zohar didn’t innovate this thing about the verse on its own; it expounds “uvrito lehodi’am” on brit milah. This is the midrash! The midrash on this parsha, all the midrashim – Bereishit Rabbah and Tanchuma – bring the verse “sod Hashem lirei’av uvrito lehodi’am” about the subject of brit milah (Bereishit Rabbah 49:2; Tanchuma Lech Lecha 19).

And what does the midrash say about this? The midrash expounds “brit,” “uvrito.” Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave “briti beini uveinecha.” And to whom was “briti beini uveinecha” said? This is the brit. Hakadosh Baruch Hu already made a covenant with Noach – and one who learns the parsha carefully will need to elaborate, that there is a covenant with Noach, a covenant with Avraham, all those layers of covenant that were innovated until the time of the Flood and after. In any case it says “sod Hashem lirei’av uvrito lehodi’am.” And what is the midrash’s intention at this point?

That for twenty generations the world existed, and Hakadosh Baruch Hu didn’t reveal to anyone, didn’t tell anyone, so to speak, “lehodi’am.” And it’s an interesting thing, “uvrito lehodi’am.” What is the meaning of “lehodi’am”? The Ramak here in his commentary on the Zohar claims that the Zohar struggles with this and troubles us to expound: What is “lehodi’am”? What is He making known? He is making known the brit? He makes them know His brit, or makes known something else? The language is not clear; brit is apparently not something that is made known, what connection is there to announce about brit? There is some difficulty in the verse, we see something here.

So the midrash says: For twenty generations Hakadosh Baruch Hu didn’t reveal His brit to anyone. And the midrash explicitly calls it “misterin shel milah” (Tanchuma ibid.), meaning the mysteries, brit milah is mysteries. And although I seek to explain clearly – we already spoke about this many times – that the word “sod” in the verse, according to its simple meaning, is not interpreted as secret, but more like a kind of counsel and council, that people gather together, and an assembly is called sod.

“Uvsod ami al yavo’u” (Yechezkel 13:9) means that they gather together. And it’s understood that then they gather to speak hidden things. But “sod” doesn’t mean secret, but rather more like council, “besod.” “Besod yesharim ve’edah” (Tehillim 111:1), that they gather. A gathering, and usually a gathering of special people, not just anyone, but certain people gather. This is the meaning of “besod.”

“Sod Hashem lirei’av” means: Hakadosh Baruch Hu with His fearers; this is the simple explanation. But already the midrash interprets here about brit milah, the midrash in Parshat Lech Lecha says that “sod Hashem lirei’av” means that Hakadosh Baruch Hu revealed “misterin shel milah” – the mysteries of brit milah, that in lashon hakodesh is “seter,” and aren’t these words connected to each other. The mysteries of brit milah Hakadosh Baruch Hu revealed to Avraham Avinu first. There was already Adam, there was already Noach, there were already many people, and not one of them knew the mysteries of brit milah, until Avraham Avinu came and He revealed the secret to him.

And the midrash tries to explain what the secret is. The midrash expounds homilies: sod in gematria samech-vav-dalet – things that come out from Avraham Avinu in the merit of milah. But the main point – and this is the language in Tanchuma; in Bereishit Rabbah the language is not thus, but in Midrash Tanchuma thus is the language, and there are two versions in Tanchuma as is known, in one thus and in one thus, but this is what is in the midrash – is thus: that Hakadosh Baruch Hu said to Avraham Avinu: What shall I give you?

And I’m sure that when the Zohar says “sod Hashem lirei’av,” even though the Zohar is going to interpret this in the way of Kabbalah and in its style, this is nothing but an explanation of what the midrash says. Every person should always learn that the Zohar is an explanation of the midrash in many ways, and it explains here the midrash on this matter.

The Parable of the King’s Weapon: “It Is Sufficient for You to Be Like Me”

Let us open then the midrash that it should be here again. The midrash says, what is “sod Hashem lirei’av uvrito lehodi’am”? How does the verse connect here? Thus says the midrash: Hakadosh Baruch Hu says to Avraham Avinu – and this is “vayehi Avram ben tish’im shanah vatesha shanim” (Bereishit 17:1), already ninety-nine years old, after a complete lifetime of work, he already did everything. And Hakadosh Baruch Hu says: It still wasn’t enough, and therefore indeed you still didn’t have a son, that son who is Yitzchak, from whom comes the covenant of Avraham Avinu first. It still wasn’t! Thus says the midrash: Hakadosh Baruch Hu says to Avraham, what shall I give you? Money? You already had more than enough money! Already before, in the first promise, Hakadosh Baruch Hu promised him “va’avarechecha va’agadelah shemecha” (Bereishit 12:2), and there was already everything.

He had money, “ve’Avram kaved me’od bamikne bakesef uvazahav” (Bereishit 13:2). Like a parable of a king who had a friend, says the midrash (Tanchuma Buber Lech Lecha 24): a king who had a very wealthy friend, “he was excessively rich,” he already had more than enough of everything he needed – and perhaps the king himself gave him – he already had everything. The king said: What shall I give him? Silver, gold, servants, maidservants, animals – everything needed he already has! Like that “ilan ilan bameh avarechecha” (Ta’anit 5b), that I cannot give you. “Rather Hakadosh Baruch Hu said”: What shall I give you? I will give you that you should be like Me!

And in the other language – and it’s in both languages – I will give you my weapons, thus says the midrash (Tanchuma Lech Lecha 19). The king says: I will give this friend, “behold I am girding him with my weapons,” I will give him my weapons, this I will give him. I will make him as if like Me! This is the explanation, this is the language of the midrash: “What shall I give you? It is sufficient for you to be like Me” (Tanchuma Buber ibid.), this I can give you, that you should be like Me. “Va’etnah briti” – “sufficient for the servant to be like his master” (Berachot 58b). Meaning, all those external things, silver and gold, are nice things, but the novel part is what Hakadosh Baruch Hu says “briti beini uveinecha,” that “behold I am girding you with my weapons” – they dress him, gird him with the king’s weapons, with what the king is. This is the explanation: “Ani hineh briti itach” (Bereishit 17:4) – my brit is what I am, my brit is with you! This is the explanation.

And it’s possible that the midrash intends to hint – and one needs to contemplate and be precise in the languages of the verses about Noach: Indeed Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave a covenant to Noach, but it doesn’t say “ani hineh briti itach,” it doesn’t say that Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave His brit with Noach. Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave a covenant, “vahakimoti et briti itach” (Bereishit 6:18), and other languages: a covenant “beini uveinechem uvein kol nefesh chayah asher itchem” (Bereishit 9:12), many matters in that covenant. But with Avraham Avinu a strong language is stated! Hakadosh Baruch Hu says: “Ani” – I – “hineh briti itach,” I who am I, my brit is with you. This is the precision that the midrash notes here.

And on this the midrash says: “Sod Hashem lirei’av uvrito lehodi’am.” Meaning, “sod Hashem” means the secret of what Hashem is, for this is now the explanation, and it connects to what we spoke about in the previous shiur (as we explained in the previous shiur about sod Hashem and this is not its place). “Sod Hashem” is the secret, and they say the mysteries, a mysterious thing. Always what a thing is, what a person is, this is his secret. What I say to so-and-so – this is what he needs; what I do – this is what I do; what I am – this is my secret! And when I have a friend, who is from my inner circle, from my counselors, from my people, I transmit my mysteries to him, I transmit my secret to him.

The midrash explains that brit milah means: Hakadosh Baruch Hu transmits His secret to Avraham Avinu. He transmits to him what He is, so to speak, like that king who transmits to him his weapons. And indeed weapons are not the soul of the king, and the parable is not identical to what it represents, but weapons are so to speak what makes the king a king, what effects in him his kingship. A king is a warrior, a king is a man of war, a king concerns himself with this. He gives him his seal, like his seal – in other languages, the king’s seal, like “vayasar hamelech et tabato me’al yado vayitnah” (Esther 3:10) – this is the matter of “ani hineh briti itach”: they give him the seal, they give him what Hakadosh Baruch Hu is. “Chotam brit kodesh” it’s called, “vetze’etza’av chatam be’ot brit kodesh” (text of the blessing of milah).

A Thing That a Person Is, Not What He Does

So we understand that naturally brit milah is a great secret, “sod Hashem lirei’av,” a secret – a greater secret than all the mitzvot! And there is a novelty here: All the mitzvot are secrets, and in a certain sense Jews perform all the mitzvot from the power of the brit. One who enters into the brit, afterwards performs mitzvot. Brit milah is like a prerequisite to mitzvot. And we do it to a child, as the Ramak is precise here in the Zohar – we do it to a small baby, eight days old. And one of the matters of eight days old is to minimize, as we learn, “veYishmael beno ben shelosh esreh shanah” (Bereishit 17:25).

No, the essence of the mitzvah of brit milah of Avraham Avinu is eight days old. And what is eight days old? It means that the entire world does it, the community – for it is a law that brit milah is incumbent upon the father and upon the beit din (Kiddushin 29a). The Zohar says “kol alma,” an obligation on “kol ama kadisha” (Zohar, Introduction 13a), an obligation on the world; the world, the community, brings the child into the covenant of Avraham Avinu.

And its meaning: Brit milah is still not a mitzvah, but it is the secret of the mitzvot! When you are part of the secret, you are in my inner circle, you are part of the Jews, and the Jews perform brit milah for you – this is the explanation – then on this basis, built on brit milah, you can perform mitzvot. Therefore this is the depth, and it’s a very important thing: Brit milah is not something that needs to be done, but something that a person is. And therefore we do it to infants, for infants don’t do anything; to infants we do, and they are! We will speak a bit more deeply about the meaning of this, but in practice this is so.

Practical Conduct: To Think for a Moment Every Day

Therefore, when we say that brit milah – according to the words of the Rambam, according to the words of the midrash – brit milah is something that doesn’t even need to be worn. Tzitzit a person needs to get up in the morning and wear, needs to get up in the morning and put on tefillin, needs to get up in the morning and recite Kriat Shema. All these are things that need to be done. These are indeed the constant mitzvot; a person is a Jew, and it becomes like “targileinu beToratecha” (text of Ahavah Rabbah blessing), it becomes fixed: he gets up and puts on tefillin. But he still needs to do it, it’s still a mitzvah, and it’s not a secret. In this external manner it’s revealed. Brit milah is something that already exists: a person gets up and already has it, it already is!

And this is a true intention. I think that the midrash that says that David HaMelech looked at his brit milah (Menachot 43b) – and one needs to know what the meaning of “looked at the milah” is: it means he contemplated it, and not necessarily that he gazed at it, but he looked at his brit milah at the time when he was in the bathhouse and saw that he was naked from tzitzit and from mitzvot. And what the midrash seeks to express is that brit milah is something elevated above the mitzvot, and therefore one needs to rejoice in it.

And this is a true intention. I think that like everyone who wants to receive something – you want to receive from tefillin, you need to think for a moment; we say leshem yichud, to put on tefillin, I am ready and prepared, and I think for a moment what I am doing, and through this we merit the benefit of da’at – the same thing with brit milah: one needs to take a moment and think about it! And indeed with brit milah we don’t say leshem yichud; the father already said “lehachniso bivrito shel Avraham Avinu” when he was eight days old. But when every person enters the bathhouse, or the shower, it’s proper that he should have such an intention: he needs to think, he needs to give this a moment every day, that when he enters the shower and he is naked, he should think that he has brit milah! I think this is a practical thing, and that this practical thing needs to have a very powerful effect. This is the meaning of brit milah, this is its simple meaning.

The Explanation According to Kabbalah: From the Attribute of Fear (Malchut) to the Secret of Hashem (Yesod)

And this is a secret. I think it’s the simple meaning of Scripture, and it’s also a secret. And what is the secret? Thus says the Zohar: It says “sod Hashem lirei’av.” What is “lirei’av”? The midrash says that “yerei’av” is Avraham Avinu, as it says “atah yadati ki yerei Elokim atah” (Bereishit 22:12) after the entire matter. Avraham Avinu is the fearer, he is a fearer of Hashem. Thus says the Zohar, and it’s simple: If we understand that the midrash says that brit milah is the king’s weapon, that brit milah is “that you should be like Me” – they give him the kingship itself, the essence of the king itself.

And everyone understands that it cannot be literally so. And this is a coarse, physical parable, of a king with weapons with a friend. And everyone who learns Kabbalah knows that this needs to be explained, to be stripped, and to understand that it’s not speaking, so to speak, about the king himself – the king is above all this. Rather we’re speaking about what our mekubalim call “sefirot” – and the Zohar almost never calls it thus, but the mekubalim call this the ten sefirot. And when we grasp a sefirah, meaning we grasp the king himself; this is the meaning of Kabbalah. Naturally, when such a parable is stated in the midrash, that he gives weapons, or gives this or that, we need to know which sefirah is being discussed. And each sefirah speaks about a different attribute, a different level, a different kind of comprehension, a different kind of taste, a different kind of light that it’s possible to see from the king himself.

Therefore the Zohar says, that when the verse says “sod Hashem lirei’av,” we can immediately understand at which level we’re speaking here. For “lirei’av” are certainly those who fear sin. We spoke many times about fear here in Pekudin (

The Explanation According to Kabbalah: From the Attribute of Fear (Malchut) to the Secret of Hashem (Yesod)

And this is a secret. I think it’s the simple meaning of Scripture, and it’s also a secret. And what is the secret? Thus says the Zohar: It says “sod Hashem lirei’av.” What is “lirei’av”? The midrash says that “yerei’av” is Avraham Avinu, as it says “atah yadati ki yerei Elokim atah” (Bereishit 22:12) after the entire matter. Avraham Avinu is the fearer, he is a fearer of Hashem. Thus says the Zohar, and it’s simple: If we understand that the midrash says that brit milah is the king’s weapon, that brit milah is “that you should be like Me” – they give him the kingship itself, the essence of the king itself.

And everyone understands that it cannot be literally so. And this is a coarse, physical parable, of a king with weapons with a friend. And everyone who learns Kabbalah knows that this needs to be explained, to be stripped, and to understand that it’s not speaking, so to speak, about the king himself – the king is above all this. Rather we’re speaking about what our mekubalim call “sefirot” – and the Zohar almost never calls it thus, but the mekubalim call this the ten sefirot. And when we grasp a sefirah, meaning we grasp the king himself; this is the meaning of Kabbalah. Naturally, when such a parable is stated in the midrash, that he gives weapons, or gives this or that, we need to know which sefirah is being discussed. And each sefirah speaks about a different attribute, a different level, a different kind of comprehension, a different kind of taste, a different kind of light that it’s possible to see from the king himself.

Therefore the Zohar says, that when the verse says “sod Hashem lirei’av,” we can immediately understand at which level we’re speaking here. For “lirei’av” are certainly those who fear sin. We spoke many times about fear here in Pekudin (as we explained previously about fear and this is not its place), and always fear is the level of the Shechinah, fear is the level of the attribute of Malchut. And as we learned regarding positive commandments and negative commandments, the matter connects here as well: Fear is the level of negative commandments, which is the level of Malchut.

But the verse says a novelty: One who fears Hashem, who already merited Malchut, receives “sod Hashem.” “Sod Hashem” is a higher level than fear of Hashem. One who fears – preparation is needed, as we just spoke that fear of Hashem means paying attention, preparation is needed – one who fears Hashem, receives “sod Hashem.” Sod is a secret, a higher level. “Sod Hashem” is the brit! “Uvrito lehodi’am” – the brit is made known to whom? To “yerei’av,” to the aspect of fear above and to the aspect of fear below. One who has the aspect of fear, will receive the brit, which is the secret.

Meaning, everyone knows that “brit” means “tzaddik” in the Zohar. Brit is one level above the Shechinah, meaning tzaddik, which we usually call “Yesod”; this is the level of the brit. And who receives it? “Yerei’av,” one who fears Hashem. These are simple things.

But the language of the brit, that the brit is “that you should be like Me,” it is “my weapons” – and so to speak the weapons can also be as we learned in recent weeks (as we explained in recent weeks about the rainbow and this is not its place): the rainbow. The rainbow too is an aspect of weapons, and the rainbow also indicates the brit, as it says “et kashti natati be’anan vehayetah le’ot brit” (Bereishit 9:13), it is a sign of the covenant. And the rainbow is also a clean language for the organ of milah – and the Ramban explains thus – as it says “yoreh kachetz” (Yevamot 65a), such languages; so to speak it’s a bow, it’s also a weapon, literally, for a bow is an arrow and bow. And the same thing here: the king’s weapon, this is the aspect of a bow. And the same thing “one who looks at the rainbow” (Chagigah 16a): Just as it’s forbidden to look at the milah, it’s forbidden to look at the rainbow, according to the words of the Ramban (as we spoke in the previous shiur about the Ramban and this is not its place). And the weapons – meaning, there are weapons as an external aspect, and there are weapons that indicate the king’s own weapons. The king himself, who is so to speak as we say the sefirot, the weapons of the king’s body, this is his organ of the brit; this is the king’s weapon that is given to a Jew in brit milah. This is the meaning of “sod Hashem lirei’av.” Correct, this is the Zohar’s explanation; and a person needs to rejoice in this! This is what every Jew has. We already need to say this, it’s already permitted to say this. And when we speak about this, we need to remember that it’s understood that the Zohar comes with the idea that if so, the matter connects with the Rambam, connects with the following matter.

The Secret of the Eighth Day

But first we need to say the matter of the eighth day – I want to go according to the order of the Zohar, and afterwards speak about this a bit. The eighth day indicates that there is a “day.” Everyone knows that “days” indicate the sefirot, and thus we understand that “days” mean the very essence of time, the very being of time now: What day is today? Today is the eighth day, the eighth day from his birth. The eighth day according to the Zohar is the level of Yesod – and how this is calculated, one needs to investigate in the calculation of the mekubalim how this comes out, for this is actually a great problem – this is the eighth day.

And the midrash as is known says (Vayikra Rabbah 27:10), and the Zohar mentions it here at the end of the passage, that why does a child need milah on the eighth? So that one Shabbat should pass over him. Meaning, as we said about Shabbat at the beginning: Why is the order of the day made, the regular order that passes? And he needs to pass through the regular order, and this is not a special thing. I think to minimize the one who says that the eighth is the higher level, I think that on the contrary, the opposite: the eighth is after you have the entire regular level, and this is the regular level.

And now we need to return to the subject of cutting the orlah: Where does cutting the orlah enter here? For this is the deeper thing in brit. And here it says thus, and this is stated briefly on the subject:

The Rambam’s Reasoning in Moreh Nevuchim and the True Meaning of “Shomer HaBrit”

The Simple Meaning: A Sign on the Most Important Organ

As is known what the Rambam said about brit milah – and I think the Rambam is perhaps the first who came up with this idea; and one needs to examine in the midrashim if there is a source for such an idea, and I wish to emphasize this.

Meaning, simply everyone understands: Brit milah is a brit, it’s an ot (sign), it’s a mark in the flesh. We cut the orlah, and this is a sign that a person has a sign, like every sign of a covenant – just as in brit bein habetarim they cut the turtledove and the young pigeon and so on, a sign on the covenant, a sign. The same thing in every person’s body there is a kind of sign, a seal, a sign; we make a cut, we cut the orlah, and this is a sign that he has the brit. This is the meaning of brit milah, and this remains the simple meaning of Scripture, and there is no doubt that this is the simple meaning of Scripture, according to the words of the Rambam himself in Sefer Ahavah that this is the essence of the simple meaning, and also in Moreh Nevuchim (Part 3, Ch. 49) where he speaks that there are three simple meanings in brit milah, and it’s clear that this is the essence of the simple meaning, the simple meaning of Scripture, the simple meaning of reality. Brit milah means that we make a sign that there is a brit.

But the Rambam came up with a very interesting novelty, and I think we need to appreciate the greatness of this novelty. And it’s as if he contemplates thus: Why does brit milah enter into the organ of the brit? Indeed we call it “ever habrit,” but this is only after there is brit milah! Initially why is it called thus? “Bivsarchem” (Bereishit 17:13). The Torah calls it flesh, “bivsarchem,” “besar arlatechem” (ibid. 11). Why does brit milah enter into the flesh? Let them do it on the ear, as the Gemara says (Shabbat 108a), on the nose, I don’t know!

I think that even on this one needs to hear, that the simple meaning is that indeed because of this! Meaning, brit milah is a sign for the brit. And the thing has a strong connection, as we see here, with what Hakadosh Baruch Hu gives Avraham Avinu children, those children through whom the brit is established. And this is an important place, an important and honored place as well. The essence of the flesh – meaning, flesh generally means the entire person, but flesh in a particular way can indicate the organ of the brit (see Rashi Vayikra 15:2) – in that flesh we make a brit, for this is the essence of the person: there he becomes a father, there he begets children. Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants to show that when a Jew begets children, when Avraham begets children, there is a sign on this point. This is the simple meaning of Scripture. So this is not that in the organ of milah there is a contradiction to the idea that it’s a sign. On the contrary: This is the best sign! The strongest sign is made on the most important place, on the best place, on the strongest place, where Chazal call it “keli zeino shel adam.” There he does it, and the thing fits very well, suits very well. There is nothing here that needs explanation, there is no difficulty here.

The Rambam’s Innovation: Weakening the Power of Desire

But the Rambam contemplated – I don’t know if he asked the difficulty thus, but I saw others asking such a difficulty: It’s not acceptable that brit milah needs to be done in such a modest place, they will say, that this is not a place that can be shown. True, one needs to go to the bathhouse, and then they see it, like David HaMelech. But generally perhaps one can ask that this is not honorable; and there is a question in the Rishonim whether it’s possible to bless facing the nakedness of a minor at the time of brit milah. The Rosh writes that it’s not possible to say that one cannot bless – certainly one can, for on this the mitzvah was given, and besides that a minor perhaps doesn’t have the law of nakedness, an infant – but he says that necessarily Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave brit milah, and at brit milah we bless, so we bless there! Thus wrote the Rosh, if my memory serves me, in Hilchot Milah. But there is here a kind of difficulty, a problem that perhaps troubles people. In the Torah we don’t see that it troubles, but people are troubled by the thing.

And another thing that connects to this: As is known there is a rule of things that a person’s soul desires them (Makkot 23b). And proof: The mitzvah is somewhat difficult, as we spoke “bocheh lemishpechotav” – a strange thing, and certainly the Gemara contemplated this when it said that these two mitzvot, brit milah we do with joy and a wedding with sadness (Shabbat 130a), even though for us it’s somewhat the opposite: in practice at brit milah there is pain, while a wedding – although we sometimes struggle with the ketubah – a wedding is certainly great joy. And certainly the matter connects with the fact that the wedding is also with brit milah. The Gemara seeks to express from this that the part of contention in the wedding is not connected with the part of milah. This I think the Gemara seeks to express, but understand that there is something here.

And the Rambam came up with a very interesting explanation (Moreh Nevuchim Part 3, Ch. 49), which is not the simple meaning of Scripture – meaning, he includes brit milah in another category, and we will explain. The Rambam came up with an explanation that everyone knows: Since in this organ there are great desires, which are things that a person’s soul desires, we cut it somewhat, so to speak, to weaken. And if it’s physically weakened – the Rambam says that it’s physically weakened, that every organ from which we cut a bit is weakened a bit; and in the Gemara it’s explained that perhaps it’s not actually physically weakened, but there becomes less pleasure, “one who has relations with an uncircumcised man finds it hard to separate” (Niddah 31b), that there is a kind of pleasure from the orlah; or this is a symbolic thing. And however it is, the Rambam’s idea fell that brit milah belongs to the opposite! Meaning, not that here is the strongest place, the best place, the king’s weapon, and here we cut a covenant – no! The Rambam contemplated with this additional simple meaning that he innovated in brit milah, that since here there is a problem – let’s say it in spoken language – here there is orlah, and the orlah indicates additional desire, an abundance of desire, an abundance of lust that people have in matters of forbidden relations, Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave a brit to cut a bit, to weaken the power of desire. This is the Rambam’s simple meaning.

And according to this it comes out – unlike the Rambam in Mishneh Torah – that brit milah belongs to which book? To Hilchot Issurei Bi’ah, it belongs to Sefer Kedushah, it doesn’t belong at all to Sefer Ahavah! This is not a mitzvah like tzitzit and tefillin; rather a mitzvah like the mitzvot of forbidden relations, Hilchot Issurei Bi’ah, regarding “va’avdil etchem min ha’amim liheyot li” (Vayikra 20:26), which is also part of the holiness of Israel: to be separated from forbidden relations, from forbidden unions. This was the simple meaning. And the Rambam in other places indeed includes brit milah in this, but in Mishneh Torah explicitly he doesn’t include it there; he includes brit milah in Sefer Ahavah, where its main place is, certainly the main simple meaning.

The Excellence of a Mitzvah That Doesn’t Depend on a Person’s Actions

We therefore need to say thus: The Zohar says, how is brit milah done? Brit milah is done by cutting the orlah. And the Zohar says that orlah indicates what is called the Sitra Achra, all the parts of evil in the world.

And at the time when we cut the orlah, the brit is revealed through this. In other words, it’s possible to say thus: that cutting the orlah belongs to the verse “sod Hashem lirei’av.” If there is a condition that sod Hashem is for those who fear, we first need to ensure that a person fears, that he is not uncircumcised.

And the Zohar says that at the time when the world gathers to cut the orlah, so to speak Hakadosh Baruch Hu gathers the heavenly retinue, which are the supernal forces, existence itself, and there Hakadosh Baruch Hu is revealed. And by revealing the crown, by revealing the brit from the orlah, we reveal Hakadosh Baruch Hu from among all the orlah of all the forbidden relations, all the nakedness of the land in the world. And through this, like everything that Jews do that is done thus in the world and done thus above, then the orlah is pushed away before the good, the orlah is pushed away before the holy people above – for there is an aspect of Israel above, the king’s weapon – and at the time when a Jew here below cuts his orlah, the orlah is cut from there above. This is the Zohar’s explanation of “yimol besar arlato” (Vayikra 12:3): Where does the orlah enter, and what is the explanation that cutting the brit is cutting the orlah, to cut the orlah from before the brit.

But I think the meaning of the thing is very deep, and I will be brief. And I say thus, that this is another problem: I think that from this thing brit milah became a thing of joy… This is the greatest perfection! For a Jew should have thought thus:

I have tzitzit, I have tefillin, but they come through action. Go know if my intention is correct, go know if my tzitzit is kosher; I don’t know, I need to do, I need to ensure, I need to check. There is always a certain deficiency in the practical mitzvot that a person does. And as David HaMelech expresses, I don’t always have them – and this is already in itself a deficiency: I sometimes need to remove my garments, and I don’t have tzitzit.

But brit milah – meaning “hithalech lefanai veheyeh tamim” – the brit milah that every Jew has, it’s impossible to touch it! For it doesn’t go away, except if someone pulls back his foreskin – and it’s been a long time since I met someone pulling back his foreskin. There is no such thing that in brit milah there is a flaw. And you didn’t even do it yourself! You also cannot think: “I intended, I didn’t do brit milah with the correct intention” – you didn’t do it with any intention, you were eight days old! And no one, the greatest of the mekubalim that I know, didn’t have kavanot at his brit milah – perhaps at his sons’ brit milah, but for himself he didn’t have intention. So it means it’s perfect!

And from the side of the brit, when a person thinks from which mitzvah to take vitality, from which part of his Judaism, certainly brit milah should be the first candidate. You have brit milah perfectly, you are circumcised, and there’s nothing better than this!

Who Is the True “Shomer HaBrit”?

But what? Since people know the Rambam’s simple meaning, and the Zohar built many homilies on the foundation of the Rambam’s simple meaning, and they call this many times – and one needs to know that this is in the way of complete homily – what is called “shomer habrit,” meaning one who is careful about forbidden relations. I think this is a mistake! If I were given the authority to change the language, I would stop using the term “shomer habrit” about the subject of forbidden relations, for this is a terrible thing. The holy brit, “vetze’etza’av chatam be’ot brit kodesh,” doesn’t mean that his descendants are shomrei habrit, careful about forbidden relations. I’m not saying the thing isn’t connected, I think it’s certainly connected; certainly there is here a hint to the evil inclination of forbidden relations. But this is a sign of the holy covenant, far more elevated than this! Even one who commits transgressions doesn’t transgress the covenant of Avraham Avinu – but what, does he pull back his foreskin? But I’m not speaking now about one who pulls back his foreskin.

And there’s no possibility that we should take the thing that should be the most independent of a person’s actions, and turn it into something that is as the Gemara says “most of them in theft and a minority in forbidden relations” (Bava Batra 165a), and “improper thoughts” that no person is saved from them every day (ibid. 164b) – it comes out that no one is shomer habrit! They say: no one is shomer habrit. It’s impossible that there should be such a thing!

In brief summary: “Shomer habrit” always means Hakadosh Baruch Hu! “Shomer habrit anenu beyom koreinu” (Selichot), Hakadosh Baruch Hu is shomer habrit. And which brit does Hakadosh Baruch Hu guard? The brit that He made between Him and the Jews in brit milah, “va’etnah briti beini uveinecha”! And the meaning of the word “brit” is something that cannot be changed, and we already spoke about this many times. The meaning of the word brit is that this is not something that needs to be guarded vigilantly. It’s impossible that guarding the brit means that one needs to stand guard that there shouldn’t be forbidden thoughts, not to be among forbidden relations. Certainly one needs to be careful about forbidden relations, but on the contrary, exactly the opposite: The Zohar that used the term guarding the brit – or I don’t know who started – about the trial of forbidden relations, meant to say exactly the opposite: that when a Jew has a trial of forbidden relations – and in the Gemara it’s explained that one needs to look at the tzitzit, “ur’item oto uzchartem… velo taturu” (Bamidbar 15:39; Menachot 43b) – no, you can think about brit milah! For there is brit milah, and this is what the Rambam says: brit milah itself is already a protection from forbidden relations!

Removing the Orlah: Revealing What Was Always There

In other words, instead of struggling with the nakedness – this is the secret of negative commandments. And why do we say that fear indicates negative commandments? Negative commandments have a certain excellence over positive commandments: negative commandments are passive, and naturally negative commandments indicate something that a person doesn’t do at all, and naturally there cannot be any deficiency in them; this is nothing but a revelation of what is true. So in brit milah we cut the orlah: we don’t do anything, we don’t build, we don’t add – but we remove! And what do we remove? We only show what was true.

And this is the meaning of brit milah, that we remove the orlah: all of brit milah is so to speak a negative commandment. And indeed this is not a negative commandment, but a positive commandment – and it’s one of two positive commandments that have karet, and this is a novelty; and one of the explanations in this novelty, besides Korban Pesach which also has something similar, because Pesach is also entry into the covenant.

But one of the novelties in this is that it’s a positive commandment, but it’s not really a positive commandment. This is a positive commandment that has nothing but cutting, meaning that we cease to believe in the orlah! And the moment we cut it, naturally there is already milah, naturally there is already brit. This is not a brit that needs to be renewed; Hakadosh Baruch Hu already made Avraham Avinu so that this is already true. The midrash intends to explain this, and it’s stated explicitly in the following midrash: “Ani hineh briti itach” – that it already was! This is not “I am renewing my brit”; Hakadosh Baruch Hu says: I have a brit, and I am giving it to you. Meaning, the brit was always already there. And what does Avraham Avinu need to do? Only to remove the orlah, “unmaltem et besar arlatechem.”

And this is the meaning of brit milah: it’s nothing but cutting, it’s nothing but severing, and this is the secret that cutting the brit is cutting the orlah.

Burying the Orlah in Dust: Giving the Evil Inclination Its Proper Place

Afterwards the Zohar elaborates more – and I think the custom already preceded the Zohar (see Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer Ch. 29) – that we take the orlah and place it in a vessel of earth. And thus is the custom: we bury it or place it in some earth, we do something with the orlah. And the Zohar says this is a great secret: this shows that even the orlah – meaning, the orlah indicates the Sitra Achra, indicates the evil inclination – cannot be completely discarded. This is the secret of the goat to Azazel, which the Zohar elaborates on many times. Iyov erred: Iyov wanted to cut the orlah so nothing would remain. But it’s impossible to cut the orlah so nothing remains! At every brit milah there is a complete ceremony – meaning, the mohel does this, and this is not a great public ceremony – but we take the orlah, do something with it, place it in earth. And the Zohar says this is so to speak a hint that we give to the earth – “venachash afar lachmo” (Yeshayahu 65:25), the earth belongs to the serpent; and serpent means the evil force, the force of matter, the force of the Sitra Achra – we give it the orlah. Meaning, not that we cut the orlah and burn it and don’t give it to anyone.

And certainly this intends to express a depth, if we interpret that orlah here means what the Rambam innovated – that this again indicates and is built on the fact that milah belongs to cutting the excessive power of desire, the power of the evil inclination.

So certainly what the Zohar seeks to say here, and what the Zohar elaborates many times in other places, that cutting the evil inclination – according to the words of the Ramak, and this is language in Pardes: to eliminate the evil inclination doesn’t mean to burn the evil inclination, but to give it its proper place in holiness.

So it’s impossible to cut everything. And even what we say that we only need to cut the orlah in order to reveal the brit, doesn’t mean that it’s possible to completely ignore the orlah. The more correct meaning is that we need to give it, so to speak, its sustenance, we need to give it what the serpent needs: the serpent wants to eat earth, we need to give it earth. We need to give it the right thing – and certainly only the orlah, nothing more than this – but we need to give it what it needs. And this is “a child and a woman, the left hand pushes away and the right hand draws near” (Sotah 47a). This is the subject of brit milah.

Zohar Shiur for Erev Shabbat, Parashat Vayera – The First Commandment in the Order of the Commandments: Knowledge of God

The Concept of Mitzvah and the Order of the Commandments

Today is Erev Shabbat (Sabbath eve), and it is already almost Shabbat, Parashat Vayera. We are returning to the sequence where we stand, which is the first commandment. We need to approach the first commandment once and for all. Certainly there is a connection to the weekly portion, "And God appeared to him" (*Vayera elav Hashem*, Genesis 18:1), and whoever has studied what we wrote on this matter will see the connection for himself (as we wrote elsewhere, and this is not the place for it). But my intention here is simply to return and study the place where we stand in the first commandment, to make a few observations, and perhaps we will also merit to understand something.

As we have learned, the Zohar here compiles a kind of *Sefer HaMitzvot* (Book of Commandments), and at its head it placed an introduction on the meaning of the concept "mitzvah" (in the shiur before last, which dealt with the commandment of circumcision, we spoke about the meaning of the word "mitzvah" and how the mitzvah itself becomes Godliness, and this is not the place to elaborate). As the Chassidic works say, "mitzvah" derives from *tzavta*, meaning something that connects a person with the One who commands. A mitzvah is not merely an order; rather, as the Zohar says, the positive commandment and the negative commandment are *dechar ve-nukva*, male and female, so to speak, of the supernal attributes, of the *sefirot*.

From this introduction we continue to study the first commandment. And the introduction to the first commandment must be framed in a very important way, for one must know that regarding the question of what the first commandment is, there is a great question, a great dispute, and great perplexity.

As we learned in one of the introductions to this series, arranging an order for the 613 commandments is to a large extent arranging an order in the Torah itself. For besides the general order, that there are 613 commandments or a certain list of commandments, and that there are fixed commandments, constant commandments, and obligatory commandments, there is also an internal order within the commandments: which commandment is first, and how the commandments are grouped and joined to one another. This order is what gives us the structure of the commandments, and the understanding of how they function as a single whole.

Maimonides' Innovation: Knowledge of God as the First Commandment

Maimonides (the Rambam) came with a great and far-reaching innovation, and said that the first commandment is the commandment of knowing Godliness, knowing the existence of God. This was an innovation of the Rambam; as far as I can see, no one before him counted what is called the commandment of faith, or the commandment of knowing God (that is what the Rambam and the Zohar call it), as a commandment at all, and certainly not as the first commandment. It was the Rambam who introduced this.

And why should it be the first? Seemingly the matter is simple, for this is the most important thing of all. But this can be understood in two ways, and according to both ways it will become clear that it is not so obvious that knowledge of God can be the first commandment. And in my opinion, the Zohar deals with this very question.

The First Approach: A Logical Prerequisite to the Other Commandments

The first approach is a relative one, in relation to the other commandments. When arranging an order, it is proper to place the general before the particular, and the foundation before the branches and the stories built upon it. When there are two things, one dependent on the other, such as general and particular, or such as a premise from which a conclusion follows, it is fitting to open with the general premise, with the thing upon which what follows is built and without which it could not exist, and only afterward to detail what follows from it.

For one could say this: commandments are things that one does because the Holy One, blessed be He, commanded them. Whether or not this is the reason one does them, in any case commandments are things that God commanded. It follows that before speaking about commandments, one must know that there is a Creator who commands them. One must know at least two things: that there is a Creator, and that He commanded the commandments. And perhaps a third thing should be added: that since He commanded, it is therefore obligatory to perform them.

Here, then, are three stages. And if one frames the commandments this way, that a commandment is something God commands, one must understand that there is a Creator, that He commanded commandments, and that what God commands must be done. These three things at the very least precede the commandments, and in the structure we construct, they will come first.

The Objection of Rabbi Hasdai Crescas and Nahmanides: God's Existence Cannot Be a Commandment

Against this approach there is a famous objection by Rabbi Hasdai Crescas, and perhaps, though it is not clear, Nahmanides (the Ramban) also alluded to it. The Ramban, in his glosses on the *Sefer HaMitzvot*, seeks to defend the position of the author of *Halakhot Gedolot* (the Behag), and I believe the position of others as well; the Behag is the principal enumerator of the commandments before the Rambam, with whom the Rambam argues, but perhaps others too, and I believe Rabbi Saadia Gaon also does not count faith as a commandment.

And so the Ramban argues: this makes no sense. You are absolutely right that without God's existence, and also without the two following things, namely the command itself, and the fact that if there is a command one is obligated to obey it, there are no commandments at all. But that is precisely why it is not a commandment! As the Midrash says: "Accept My sovereignty, and afterward accept My decrees" (Mekhilta, Yitro, Parasha 6). These are two separate things. First you must know that there is a God ("accept My sovereignty" does include somewhat more than God's existence, but in any case).

And Rabbi Hasdai Crescas sharpens this even further: it cannot be a commandment at all. For a commandment means that God commands, so how can there be a commandment to believe that there is a Creator? Before it is known that there is a Creator, there is no one to command the commandment! The commandment presupposes that there is a Creator, and necessarily knowledge of God precedes the commandment and cannot itself be a commandment. It is like that rabbi who testifies about himself that he merited a revelation of Elijah; it is self-referential, an argument that circles back on itself, and nothing proves itself. God commands us to believe in Him: if one knows there is a Creator, there is no need for the commandment, and if one does not know, what use is the commandment? This is Rabbi Hasdai's famous objection to this concept, and in his words: "It is a well-known error to count... knowledge of God as a commandment" (*Or Hashem*, Introduction).

This, then, is the objection of Rabbi Hasdai, and to some extent the objection of the Ramban. The Ramban does not go that far, but his intent is close: it is true logically that this precedes the commandments, but it is very difficult to say that it is itself a commandment, and there is something strange about it. Either it is not fitting, or it is entirely impossible and illogical for it to be a commandment in itself, or at any rate, as the Ramban says, it is not correct to call it a commandment.

Torah from Heaven: What Is Missing in the First Approach

There is another point to note here. In truth, the way the reasoning is presented here differs from the way the Rambam's reasoning can be presented, and if we understand how it should properly be stated, we will understand that there is no objection at all.

For there is another way to explain why the first commandment should be knowledge of God; not because in order to fulfill commandments one must first know that there is a God. For if so, first, the objection is strengthened, and second, more things truly need to be added.

And indeed the Ramban himself seeks to add more commandments to the first commandment, at least one more and perhaps two, and one should examine carefully the wording of the Ramban's glosses on the *Sefer HaMitzvot*. And a most interesting point in this matter is the Torah. Everyone understands what is called "Torah from Heaven" (*Torah min ha-shamayim*). If, as we said, for there to be commandments one must know that there is a God, that there is a Creator, and that He commanded the commandments, then these two things at the very least should be the first two commandments. And yet even the Ramban did not write this: suppose there are three commandments, since unity, love, and fear must also be included, but it did not occur to him to write that the first commandment is to know God and after it comes a commandment to believe that the Torah is from Heaven.

And he could have done so. Incidentally, the Ramban comes quite close to this (and one should examine the gloss more carefully, I believe on the Rambam's first or second commandment): for there are enough verses from which such a commandment could be derived. Just as there is the verse "I am the Lord your God" (Exodus 20:2) and "Hear, O Israel" (Deuteronomy 6:4), from which the Rambam made a commandment to believe, "to know that there is a First Being" (Rambam, Laws of the Foundations of the Torah 1:1), so too one could derive a commandment from the verse "Only take heed to yourself and guard your soul diligently, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen" (Deuteronomy 4:9). The Ramban says (Forgotten Negative Commandments, no. 2) that this is a commandment not to forget the Revelation at Mount Sinai. The masses think the Ramban is introducing some commandment of remembrance here, but the Ramban's intent is precisely this point: in order to fulfill commandments one must know the Torah, and the Torah means the Revelation at Sinai, and there is an explicit verse that it is forbidden to forget the Revelation at Sinai! That is, one must know and remember, and remembering and knowing are one matter, that the Revelation at Sinai occurred. This is very reasonable. And one must wonder about the Rambam: if he follows the reasoning that a logical order must be established for the commandments, and that before knowledge of the commandments one must know God's existence, then certainly, and perhaps even more so, one must also include the existence of the Torah, Torah from Heaven, the Revelation at Sinai. And the Rambam does not do so.

Love and Fear: The Reason for Fulfilling the Commandments

And there is something more, as we said: even after we have established God's existence, and even after the Revelation at Sinai, it is still not enough. For a person can argue: why should I obey? What do I have to do with the Revelation at Sinai? Granted that God commanded a commandment, so what? This is a very difficult point to explain (and we have apparently spoken about it on other occasions, and this is not the place to elaborate): so what? Something more is missing here, and certainly something more is missing on account of which I would be obligated to fulfill commandments.

That "something more" the Rambam did indeed count among the first commandments, and the Zohar holds that perhaps it should be the very first commandment. In our terminology, this "something more" is called: the commandments of fear and love.

Each of fear and love, which correspond to the positive commandment and the negative commandment (as we discussed above), can be explained in dozens of ways and levels. But the essence of fear and love is this: God commanded commandments, and one must fear Him; if this means fear of punishment, then you already have a reason to fulfill commandments. And if it means fear of His exaltedness (*yirat ha-romemut*), it means that it is good to fulfill commandments. And according to what we have learned, love means that it is good to fulfill commandments, whether or not I know their reasons. And this is already a reason to fulfill them.

Incidentally, from this understanding one can grasp a little why it did not occur to the Rambam to count Torah from Heaven. Torah from Heaven is merely a historical fact, from which we received the commandments, but it is not the reason one must fulfill the commandments, and it is certainly not the essence. The essence is: why must one fulfill the commandments? Because of love and fear. Love and fear are a reason for fulfilling the commandments; Torah from Heaven is not a reason for fulfilling the commandments, but rather the story of the source from which the commandments first came. I do not know whether one can truly say that had it not occurred, everything would be as it is, for one still needs a source for the fact that these are the commandments and that they are good. But in any case, if one understands the matter, that the only thing that is good, and this is the commandment of love according to what we are learning, then certainly there is no need, so to speak, for Torah from Heaven as a principle in its own right and as a commandment in its own right. For love and fear are the reason one fulfills the commandments.

The Order of the Commandments in the Zohar and Among the Other Enumerators

But even this is not sufficient, for the Rambam did not establish love and fear as the first commandment, but rather said that God's existence is the first commandment. What does this mean? It means that the Rambam intends something entirely different. And the Zohar here, in the *Ra'aya Meheimna* (*Pikudin*), follows in the footsteps of the Rambam, and clearly argues with the other position.

And this, in my opinion, is something very beautiful. In the Zohar there are two places that begin explaining the reasons for the commandments in order. In the Introduction to the Zohar there are fourteen first commandments that the Zohar explains in order. Certainly there are many reasons for commandments scattered throughout the Zohar's discourses, but the writing of an actual *Sefer HaMitzvot* is found in the *Sefer HaPikudin*, and that is the main one; it goes through, as we discussed, forty-seven commandments, and in the Introduction to the Zohar there are fourteen commandments. That is, neither was completed, but in any case it is evident that it is attempting to do so.

And in the Introduction to the Zohar the commandment of knowing God does appear, but it is only the eighth commandment, if my memory does not deceive me (Zohar I, 11b). The first commandment there is fear of God, and the second is love of God, and it brings an explicit verse for this: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge" (Proverbs 1:7). And afterward I saw it noted, and I believe Rabbi Saadia Gaon does indeed open this way, that the first commandment is fear of God and the second is service, meaning prayer and other forms of divine service. And there are also other enumerators of the commandments who held that one should open with fear, and there is much logic to this.

God Is the First, and the Commandments Are God and His Deeds

But the Rambam did not do so. And the Zohar here argues explicitly, saying: but it is written "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge," and it gives an answer to this. It explicitly grapples with the idea that one should open with fear of God.

And what is the plain meaning? The plain meaning is that there is an entirely different reason why the commandment of God's existence, knowledge of God, should be first. Not because it is a precondition, a foundation for fulfilling the commandments, but for an entirely different reason: because God is the First! What does God's existence mean? God's existence means the first thing. The first thing, in the Rambam's words, without which nothing could exist. He is the First, the most fundamental of all, the foundation of all things, "the foundation of foundations and the pillar of wisdom" (Rambam, Laws of the Foundations of the Torah 1:1); the foundation of all things is God.

And now, let us recall what we said about the commandments. The commandments, as the Zohar understands them, and in truth also as the Rambam understands them, are not things that God commanded. The commandments are God Himself! In other words, one should say: God and His deeds. The first commandments deal with God Himself, and they are love and fear, and after them come commandments that are God's deeds, which teach how to conduct oneself: how God governs His world, and how it is fitting for a person to conduct himself in the world. This is the matter of God's deeds. And in the language of the Zohar it would be said: God and His attributes, the Divine Essence and the attributes, *Zakhor* and *Shamor* (Remember and Keep).

If so, if the commandments are not a command of God, requiring a precondition of how one knows about God before the command, but rather they are God Himself, then certainly the first commandment, or the principal commandment, which is perhaps all the commandments together, is God's existence itself, the knowledge of God's existence! And God's existence can be known through knowledge, it can be known "when you walk on the way" (Deuteronomy 6:7), in one's conversation, in reciting the Shema, in wrapping oneself in tzitzit, in donning tefillin; all of these are branches of the knowledge of God Himself. And afterward, as mentioned, also God's deeds: that it is fitting to keep Shabbat, that it is fitting to observe "You shall not wear *sha'atnez*, wool and linen together" (Deuteronomy 22:11). All of these are details, which the Zohar will explain as to which *sefirah* they relate, that is, which mode of conduct among God's attributes they concern.

But essentially all the commandments are about God's existence, and the commandment of knowing God itself must certainly be the first, not because God commanded it first. It makes no sense to say that God commanded that people believe in Him; but in truth, regarding the commandments in general, too, it makes no sense to say that God commanded.

The essence of the commandments is that God is thus: either He is thus, or He acts thus. If so, this is an entirely new explanation of why knowledge of God is the first commandment. And this is how the Zohar proceeds here, not in the Torah portion but in the commandment itself. The Zohar counts the commandments by their numbers, and at this number it says: "*Pikuda kadma'ah*" (Zohar II, 42b), the first commandment, "*reishita kadma'ah le-khol pikudin*," the beginning and the start, the first of all the commandments, is "*le-minda leih le-Kudsha Berikh Hu bi-khlalut*," to know the Holy One, blessed be He, in a general way (ibid.). That is, and this is how I understand his words here: its being the first commandment is not a matter of number, nor a matter of logical necessity that one must first know this and afterward something else.

"I Am the First and I Am the Last": Knowledge of God in General and in Particular

It is the first, just as God is the First! And the Zohar itself explicitly cites the verse for this: "I am the first and I am the last" (Isaiah 44:6).

"I am the last" refers to knowledge of God in particular, and we are not able to explain this now (in the next shiur, God willing, we will enter into it and return to the topic). This is the answer to the Zohar's question, for it is written "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge," implying that fear should be the first commandment. And to this the Zohar answers that this is the last knowledge, which a person attains after understanding all of God's deeds, namely the 248 positive commandments and all the commandments altogether, which are knowledge of God in particular, that is, His actions and modes of conduct in the world. This is the end of all the commandments; this is the detailed knowledge learned after forty years: "Yet the Lord has not given you a heart to know, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, until this day" (Deuteronomy 29:3), the last knowledge of God's existence.

But "I am the first and I am the last," says the Zohar, means literally: I am the first commandment and I am the last commandment. That is, the knowledge of the "I" is the first commandment and it is the last commandment; and this is not an arbitrary number in the count of the commandments, but rather it truly is the most important thing of all, the beginning. The difficulty is on the human side: at the beginning of his path he does not understand properly, and at its end he understands properly. In "I am the last" he understands properly, and it is the very same thing. What was understood at the beginning is the very same as what is understood at the end, only at the end it is understood better. Not only does he know, in the Zohar's language, that there is One above the world who rules over the world and so on, but he also knows a little of how God governs all His deeds, and how good all His deeds are, and so on; and this is "I am the last." This is the novel insight I wished to share regarding faith in God and knowledge of God, and how it is the first commandment and in what sense.

And if you ask: but it is written "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge," implying that before knowledge, before knowing God, there is a need for fear of God? The Zohar answers: No, you have not understood the plain meaning. "The fear of the Lord" is itself the *Shekhinah* (Divine Presence), and it is the last thing a person knows. And one must understand why it is the last thing, for seemingly, from below to above, it is the first; but in any case, his intent is a particular knowledge, called knowledge of the *Shekhinah*, and not merely knowledge of the Holy One, blessed be He. This is the Zohar's way of expressing things. And this is what becomes known at the end, and this is indeed the fear taught in the Book of Deuteronomy, which is already the particular knowledge.

But this does not mean, and therefore do not learn, that fear is something that precedes the commandments, that is, as people say, that one must first fear God in order to fulfill the commandments. No! That is a narrow-minded interpretation. The Zohar in the Introduction does indeed follow precisely this interpretation; but whoever understands fear of God in truth understands that fear of God is an additional commandment, and it is itself, as we have already said, the final level of the commandments, "I am the last."

"I am the first" means love of God, or if you prefer, God's existence; "I am the last" is fear of God. And both are the very same "I am the Lord," and all the paths are one matter, as the Zohar says: in general and in particular, and all is one.

Thus far what I wished to study in honor of the holy Shabbat.

Zohar Shiur, Erev Shabbos Parshas Chayei Sarah – The Mitzvah of Faith and Knowledge of God According to the Zohar: A New Name Every Day, and Knowledge in General and in Particular

The First Mitzvah and the Root of All the Mitzvos

This shiur, on Erev Shabbos Parshas Chayei Sarah, continues with the words of the Zohar on the first mitzvah. This mitzvah, as we have learned, is not only the first in the count of the mitzvos but also the root of all the mitzvos, and therefore one can never speak about it enough. For there is here a special positive commandment of faith in the existence of God, or of knowing it (as we explained in the previous shiur, that the Rambam and the Zohar introduced the idea that there is a special mitzvah in this, and this is not the place to elaborate).

Admittedly this is a novel idea, but our Sages already said something clear and agreed upon, which they count as an additional mitzvah: that one must mention the unity of God every day and speak of it, as the verse says: "And you shall speak of them when you sit in your house" (*ve-dibarta bam be-shivtecha be-veitecha*, Deuteronomy 6:7). From "and you shall speak of them" the Sages derived the obligation of reciting the Shema (Berachos 13b), but the plain meaning of the verse is that one must speak of them, and we fulfill this speaking through the daily recitation of the verses of unity in the Shema. Now, there is a dispute in the Gemara (Berachos 21a), and the Rishonim and Acharonim disagree about this, whether this mitzvah is of Torah origin (*de-oraisa*) or rabbinic (*de-rabbanan*). In any case, it is certain that long before the Rambam came and said that faith in the existence of God is a mitzvah, it was already a mitzvah, and one could call it a daily ritual: to mention and speak about the existence of God and His unity, morning and evening.

Therefore, even if one sometimes grows tired, one must learn it again and again. We have already spoken a great deal in our lifetimes about the mitzvah of the existence of God, and about all the discussions surrounding it — whether it is a mitzvah or not, and so on — and still it is not enough, for this is the mitzvah itself. For there is a real mitzvah to remember, to mention, and to speak about this every day, and therefore we will continue with this subject. Whoever finds the connection to Parshas Chayei Sarah may point it out, since I do not have a special dvar Torah on the parsha right now; rather, I am continuing with what we have been learning. And since in these days Shabbos comes in very early, during the winter weeks we will try to shorten the shiur by ten or fifteen minutes, because although it is fitting that it be on Friday, there is not that much time on Friday.

"And You Shall Speak of Them" – Speaking of God's Unity in One's Own Language

Let us return and continue; we will look into the Zohar and see where we stand. I will repeat the main points of what we said last week, for one must always return, reflect on things, and formulate them anew. "And you shall speak of them" — whoever has the strength and the feeling to formulate things anew and say them in our own language, his mitzvah is to say them at every moment, truly. Indeed, we say "Shema Yisrael," the verses that Moshe Rabbeinu already said, but the essence of the mitzvah, according to the plain meaning of the verse, is "and you shall speak of them" — that one should speak of them. And to speak of them means to speak about them in your own language.

Indeed, the Shema may be recited in any language (Berachos 13a), and that is the halacha. Admittedly, the Rishonim explained that "in any language" means one must translate word for word, and there is a discussion of this in the Raavad and, much more so, in the Acharonim after him, that each thing must be translated precisely. But it is not clear to me that this is the meaning. It seems to me now that one can interpret "in any language" to mean that one must speak of God's unity in one's own language. One must express the concept of unity — and even the words themselves, "unity," "existence," all the words the Sages, the Rishonim, and the Gemara coined — for example, "the Kingdom of Heaven" (*malchus shamayim*), which is what the Sages call it, even though in the Torah there is almost no "kingdom of God" — each one found his own word for how to express the thing called the existence of God.

A New Name and a New Understanding Every Day

Therefore, the mitzvah is constant: to find every day a new word with which to speak. The Baal HaTurim (Numbers 11:16) states that the Holy One, blessed be He, has seventy names, and there is also a Muslim tradition that He has a hundred names. But certainly the Holy One, blessed be He, has infinite names, for "Everyone that is called by My name, for My glory I have created him" (Isaiah 43:7) — the entire world is names of the Holy One, blessed be He, and the entire Torah is names of the Holy One, blessed be He, as the Ramban says (Introduction to his Commentary on the Torah). It follows that the Holy One, blessed be He, has thousands and tens of thousands of names.

Every day that one mentions God's name in a different way and in a different language, one must call the Holy One, blessed be He, by a name, as the verse says: "And you shall be called by a new name" (Isaiah 62:2). Regarding Jerusalem it says that she will be called by a new name, "She shall be called: The Lord is our righteousness" (Jeremiah 33:16), and so too we must give the Holy One, blessed be He, a new name. And there are teachings from the Arizal, in the order of the ascents of the holy Shabbos, in which the Arizal introduced many new names for the Holy One, blessed be He — though apparently built on earlier names, combinations (*tzerufim*) and expansions (*miluyim*) — and we must grasp the idea (as we discussed last year during Chanukah, when we studied the matters of *Shiur Komah*, and this is not the place to elaborate).

Indeed, one must give a new name. But by a new name I do not mean merely a new word. There, we spoke about giving truly new combinations of letters, which was the way of many Kabbalists. But my intention here is a new understanding, a new grasp, a new concept: What does "God" mean? What does it mean at all when we say the unity of God? For we believe that the Holy One, blessed be He, as He is in Himself, is exalted above all these conceptions. Even when we say that He is King, or that He is One — as the Zohar says, "You are One, but not in number" (*ant hu chad ve-lo be-chushban*, Tikkunei Zohar, Introduction 17a), which has a precise philosophical meaning — nevertheless, what we call "One" is also only, so to speak, the first garment, the first revelation of the Holy One, blessed be He, that is called One, while the Holy One, blessed be He, Himself is not even called "One." At any rate, there are Kabbalists who say so.

And as is well known, the Vilna Gaon says that even the attribute "existent" — "existent" refers to *Keser* (Crown), for in *Keser* the Holy One, blessed be He, revealed Himself as existent. But above that, when one says "Necessary Existence" (*mechuyav ha-metziyus*), in the language of the Rambam (Laws of the Foundations of the Torah, ch. 1), above that He is not even "existent." That is to say, the concept "existent" that we have — and this is not a human concept but a divine concept, for all concepts are truly divine; man did not make them, rather the Holy One, blessed be He, makes the concepts, and the Holy One, blessed be He, created the concept — but the Holy One, blessed be He, Himself is "not any of these attributes at all" (Tikkunei Zohar, ibid.): not existent, not singular, not King, and none of the rest.

Consequently, if one understands this, one also understands that there is an obligation and a mitzvah in every generation, every single day and every single hour, to give the Holy One, blessed be He, new names. And I say this with great depth and in complete seriousness.

The Secret of the Generation of Enosh: When the Name Becomes Profane

The Contradiction Between Peshat and Derash in "Then It Was Begun to Call in the Name of God"

For it is written regarding the generation of Enosh: "Then it was begun to call in the name of God" (*az huchal likro be-shem Hashem*, Genesis 4:26). In this verse there is a *peshat* (plain meaning) and a *derash* (homiletic interpretation) that seemingly contradict each other — a genuine head-on contradiction, one against the other. The simple *peshat* is that at that time they began to call in the name of God, as the commentators say, that they began to pray, to offer sacrifices, and all forms of divine service. For "to call in the name of God" is the language of the verse "And Avram called there in the name of God" (Genesis 13:4) — to call by the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, or by the Name *Havayah* (the Tetragrammaton), and that is the simple meaning.

And most of the commentators come, and the Midrash comes (Bereishis Rabbah 23:7), cited by Rashi: "*huchal*" — from the word *chullin*, profane; the name of God became profane, for at that time idolatry began. And as the Rambam elaborates (Laws of Idolatry 1:1), in the generation of Enosh the matter of idolatry began based on various lines of reasoning — "*huchal*" from the word *chullin* — and then the desecration of God's name began.

What is the connection between the *derash* and the *peshat*? It is a wondrous thing. I am not saying this is the first *derash* that runs opposite to the *peshat*, but there is a principle that I repeat many times, and incidentally it is an accepted principle. For example, the *Divrei Yoel* in his homilies on the Torah repeats this principle many times, and one of his many questions on the Chumash is that there is a *derash* that does not fit with the *peshat*, for we hold as a rule that the *derash* must connect to the *peshat*, and on that basis he says his teaching. So this is not an innovation of those Jews of our time who engage in the plain meaning of Scripture; rather, it is accepted in the books of homiletics and in the works of the biblical commentators that the *derash* cannot be disconnected from the *peshat*.

And the explanation is simple: the moment one gives the Holy One, blessed be He, a name — "*huchal*." For the name and its holiness, as the Tikkunei Zohar says, which we recite in *Pasach Eliyahu*: "And when You withdraw from them" — if You remove the Infinite (*Ein Sof*) from them — "all the names remain like bodies without souls" (Tikkunei Zohar, Introduction 17a). The names of God are only bodies, so to speak. Of course, relative to us the name is a great light, but relative to the light itself, relative to what is meant by God's very essence, the name is only a body, only a garment and a vessel through which one grasps.

And the nature of vessels — as the Arizal calls it, the shattering of the vessels (*sheviras ha-keilim*) — is that the names fall: the sparks and the fragments of the names. The moment there is a name there is a word, and the moment there is a word, one can forget. That is the meaning of the generation of Enosh: because they gave the Holy One, blessed be He, a word. Before that — I do not know what Adam did, but the idea here is — before that, when people do not say words, when they restrain themselves, "You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain" (Exodus 20:7), they do not give the Holy One, blessed be He, a name, but only "To You, silence is praise" (Psalms 65:2); one does not say a word, one stands in awe before the Most High and says nothing — then there is no such concern. There are other concerns: that people will forget. And consequently, since people forget, one must say a word.

"My Name" Versus "A Name" – Between a Living Name and an Idol

The moment one says a word, the word can become profane, as it says, "Robbers came and profaned it" (Avodah Zarah 54b). If there is a Temple, the Temple can become profane; if there is a word, the word can become profane. And profane does not necessarily mean something ordinary; rather, this is precisely the sin of the generation of Enosh: one can actually confuse things, saying that the word has independent power. And this is the root of idolatry — believing that the concepts, and even the names, are *it*.

And as the Rambam elaborates (Guide for the Perplexed I:61–62; Laws of Idolatry 11:12), one must not believe that names have power. And here the Kabbalists seemingly disagree with him, but afterward the Kabbalists say that on this point the Rambam was right. The Rambam's intent is regarding one who thinks that in amulets, when one writes a name, the name has power. What does that mean? The Holy One, blessed be He, has power; names have no power! The Holy One, blessed be He, has power. Certainly the Holy One, blessed be He, through His names has power, and perhaps on this there is some kind of dispute between the Rambam and the Kabbalists, and perhaps not. But this is certainly the truth: one may not think that a mezuzah or a name has power. A name has no power whatsoever; a name without the Holy One, blessed be He, Himself is nothing.

It must be "*Shemi*," *My* name — not "*shem*," a name. "*Shem*" alone, without "*Shemi*," without the *yud*, so to speak, is "And let us make for ourselves a name" (Genesis 11:4) — that is separation, and that is its meaning. This is how the Zohar (Zohar I:75b) explained the sin of the Generation of the Dispersion, and this is what I say about the generation of Enosh and all the root sins in the Book of Genesis: that they took the name, as it were "a name without a *yud*," so that there would be a name without "*Shemi*."

Therefore the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moshe Rabbeinu: "This is My name forever, and this is My remembrance for every generation" (*zeh shemi le-olam ve-zeh zichri le-dor dor*, Exodus 3:15) — to mention Him in each generation in a different way, as the Gemara expounded (Pesachim 50a). And seemingly there is a contradiction here: if it says "My remembrance for every generation," doesn't that mean forever? Rather, the Gemara says that "My name" is different from "My remembrance": "Not as I am written am I pronounced" (Pesachim, ibid.).

And the explanation, according to the principle we stated, is that since one understands that the Holy One, blessed be He, is not *this* — if a person thinks, God forbid, that the Holy One, blessed be He, *is* the name, then it is better that he remain with the old names. But if one holds, and each person believes and understands — not only believes but also understands — that the existence of God itself is not one of the names and not one of the concepts, then consequently, if one insists on the old concepts, slowly they become stale, they become simply old, and one repeats what one thought yesterday. "Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One" (Deuteronomy 6:4); "Twice daily, with love, they say Shema" (Shabbos Mussaf prayer) — this means that every day one says a new "Shema," that is, that today one contemplated, today one saw something of the existence of God, in whatever way one sees it today.

If one repeats yesterday's, one is worshiping yesterday. Yesterday is an idol; yesterday no longer exists, it has passed and is gone. Yesterday as God is an idol, and yesterday no longer exists. The name that was said yesterday has no power.

Of course, one can say the same words with new intention, with renewal and with new light. That is the service, as they say that one must pray every day; to pray every day according to Kabbalah and according to the *kavanos* (mystical intentions) means to make new names every day. And besides the fact that there is an inner dimension to this, it seems to me that it is also simple: all words grow old, all words begin to carry all kinds of connotations and associations that people have, and people carry wounds and difficult experiences with them. He says "God" and means something specific, and no one knows what he means.

Silence Before the Holy One, Blessed Be He: Wonder and "Whoever Adds, Detracts"

Looking at the Work of Creation Without Adding Superfluous Words

One must always give new names, and sometimes even when there is no name at all — that is good. It seems to me that this is the best, for this entire birth of new names begins from wonder, from amazement: "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain it" (Psalms 139:6). We do not know; one rises in the morning and does not know. And one must say this explicitly, because we have grown very accustomed. For example, a Jew rises in the morning, looks at the world, and says, "Blessed is He who makes the work of creation" (*baruch oseh ma'aseh bereishis*, Berachos 54a). Why did he say so much? He has already said too much — he said "who makes the work of creation." Can he not see the work of creation itself? Must he add words to it? Does he need words in the Holy Tongue and in Aramaic, in a language one does not understand and does not speak — I mean for someone who does not speak it?

Sometimes "whoever adds, detracts" (Sanhedrin 29a). One must be very careful about this, and I cannot state a practical halachic ruling, but there is a great deal of "whoever adds, detracts" in excessive speaking of God's name, in excessive speaking "of a name," as in "and let us make for ourselves a name." With Yosef, the name of Heaven was fluent on his lips (Bereishis Rabbah 86:6), but one can also overdo it. Not everyone who constantly says "Baruch Hashem" and "im yirtzeh Hashem" and the like has a greater grasp of Godliness. There is one who does not say all these things because he knows that he stands in awe before the Most High God. He knows that what we call by the word "God" is not the word "God." And who gives a person permission? Who allows a person to go and grab God with his coarse fingers? It is not so. We need a little reverence, a little awe of His exaltedness.

He tells you nothing; rather, he looks at the world, looks at reality, and says: this is it, this is reality. I told you that the world is Godliness, and you think... People think that if he says this, or does not say it, he is a heretic, an *apikores*. You said that... I said nothing! I said that the life-force — the *Me'or Einayim* learned from the Baal Shem Tov that a person should look at the life-force (*chayus*) in every thing and say that this is Godliness. And he thinks he must say "*chayus*." Not so, for the word "*chayus*" is only... The Chassidim adopted a new word, "*chayus*." Where is the word "*chayus*" written? True, in the Rambam and earlier authorities it is written that the Holy One, blessed be He, gives life, but they adopted the new word, and it merely emerges and is revealed. The life-force is something that *is* something, not something that one *says*.

"The Lord Is God" – Reality Itself Without Partitions

Let us return to what we began with. We said that one must speak every day about the mitzvah of the existence of God. I do not know what to call it, and to constantly say "in the name of God" — many times this stems from falsehood, as if whoever does not say so, it is heresy. Does that make the one who says it a greater believer? I do not understand. You understand that the existence of God is the fundamental reality — and if you want the word "reality," the fundamental reality of everything — that is what we call God. That is what we mean by all the names and appellations: the life-force, the thing that brings into being, the thing behind everything. But even the word "behind" — you have already added! You have already said two things here: there is what is behind, and there is the thing itself. The very essence of all things is God. I do not want to say words; people say the word "Elokus" (Godliness), and no one knows what it means, except that they learned from Lubavitch to say this word.

And many times, when one adds, one detracts. And perhaps one should be a little silent, and say "Shema Yisrael." Indeed, one says the verse written in the Torah, as explained in the Gemara (Berachos 33b), and the Rambam elaborates on this in the Guide (I:59) when he speaks about the negation of attributes: Rabbi Chanina said, had Moshe not written them in the Torah and had the Men of the Great Assembly not come and established them in prayer, we could not say them. What does this mean? One could elaborate on what his intent could be, but his intent for our purposes is that when we say "the great, mighty, and awesome God" (Deuteronomy 10:17), it is not because we came up with it, but simply because that is what is written in the siddur. What is written in the siddur one cannot argue with, and it does not mean that I am saying I have something good to add. I am saying the siddur; I am simply repeating what is written in the Chumash. But into this one must bring new life, something new.

This is the first homily I wanted to say, and I do not want to dress it up; I do not want to say that one can explain a certain verse with it as such-and-such a Chassidic book brings. Certainly all the books of Chassidus say this, and certainly it is written in the Zohar a thousand times, and it is written in all the *kavanos* of the Arizal, and everything is built on this — but one must remember it. And one cannot always say it this way — a person says: the books of Chassidus say that one looks at the world and sees Godliness. I do not know; too much has already been said. Reality is reality. As it says, "The Lord is God" (*Hashem hu ha-Elokim*, Deuteronomy 4:35) — reality is reality, and that is the meaning of "The Lord is God." "I will be what I will be" (*Ehyeh asher Ehyeh*, Exodus 3:14) — what He is, is what He is. That is the meaning of "God."

And if you want to add to it — "then it was begun to call in the name of God." There is nothing wrong with that; just know that tomorrow it will grow old, and tomorrow you will have to start anew. One must "call in the name of God"; there is a mitzvah to call in the name of God, for otherwise it is not revealed and one cannot speak about it, as we speak about it many times. But you must always start anew. That is the mitzvah of unity, the mitzvah of "Shema Yisrael."

The Intention of the Shema: Elevation to the Essence Above All Unifications

The mitzvah of unity is very important, and I have already said this (in the shiur dealing with the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov, and this is not the place to elaborate), and I repeat it because this is the intention of the Shema: every day one must have a new intention in the Shema. The Ramak (Rabbi Moshe Cordovero) says that in the Shema one should not intend the unifications (*yichudim*) of *Chochmah* and *Binah*, *Tiferes* and *Malchus*; all these unifications are not intended in the Shema; rather, one intends the unity that is above this, which does not change.

And seemingly this is difficult, for in the siddur of the Rashash and in the *kavanos* of the Arizal it is written that one intends unifications. But the meaning — now I grasp it — is not that. The meaning is that from what one understands, as the Rambam says that the Holy One, blessed be He, "from the truth of His existence all existing things exist" (Laws of the Foundations of the Torah, ch. 1) — from what He is, which is not unifications (for unifications mean creation; they already contain a certain chain of descent (*hishtalshelus*), all things are already coming into being, names are already coming into being) — from what He is, He received His name. This is how one should understand the words of the Arizal that in the Shema one must make a unification: his intent is not primarily to make a unification, but primarily to elevate the entire unification to the essence, to the very essence of the *Ein Sof*, and from this new unifications are born. Certainly! And the main thing, as anyone who studies the writings of the Arizal knows, the main drawing-down of the *mochin* (mental states/intellects) occurs in the Shemoneh Esrei, not in the Shema; in the Shema there is only a preparation of *Imma* (the supernal Mother). But the main point of the Shema is elevation, and this is always taught in the books of Chabad as well. That is the intention of the Shema.

The Relationship Between the Mitzvah of Faith and All 613 Mitzvos

Faith as the Head and Heart of the 248 Limbs of the King

Let us now return to what I wanted to say regarding the mitzvah of the unity of God — and not the unity of God, for we are not yet even at unity — but rather the mitzvah of the existence of God, the knowledge of God. The Zohar says: "The first commandment, the beginning of all commandments, is to know the Holy One, blessed be He, in general" (*pikuda kadmaa, reishisa de-chol pikudin, le-minda leih le-Kudsha Brich Hu bi-chlala*, Zohar, Introduction 11b). I will repeat what we said last week (as we explained in the previous shiur), and we will understand it a bit better. It seems to me that this will be enough for today, and I hope it will be enough, and it must be enough, for it cannot be otherwise. "The Lord is One" — that suffices: "Once you have made Him King above and below and in the four directions of the heavens, you need no more" (Berachos 13b), and this "enough" (*dai*) is the meaning of the *dalet* of *echad*. That is enough, and there is no need to add.

We stated a great novel idea to resolve the question of Rabbi Chasdai [Crescas] (Or Hashem, Treatise 1, Principle 1), and perhaps also the question of the Ramban on the Rambam (Glosses on Sefer HaMitzvos, Mitzvah 1). And I must say that Reb Mottel always teaches — perhaps not in this formulation, I do not know — but the idea that the mitzvah of faith is indeed a different kind of mitzvah, I learned from him. But what we say, we say in the way of the Zohar and in the language of the Zohar, and we are permitted to speak in the language of the Zohar.

And the language of the Zohar works out as follows: the 613 mitzvos, 248 positive commandments and 365 negative commandments, are the limbs of the Shechinah, the limbs of *Zeir Anpin* and *Nukva*, the limbs of *Tiferes* and *Malchus* (Tikkunei Zohar, Tikkun 30). The 248 positive commandments are the 248 limbs. Whose limbs? "The 248 limbs of the King" (Zohar I:170a), the 248 limbs of the King Himself, the 248 limbs of what is called *Zeir Anpin*. And the 365 days are the Shechinah, or the 365 are above this — we will yet get to this and learn it, and we will understand that there is a certain perplexity in explaining the 365. In any case, the 248 are the main limbs, and the main study is in the positive commandments: the limbs of the Shechinah are the 248 positive commandments, or the limbs of the King are the 248 positive commandments.

And now, if we say that the first mitzvah is faith, one can ask: it has already been said, "All Your commandments are faith" (Psalms 119:86) — all the mitzvos are faith, all the mitzvos are limbs of the King, all the mitzvos are names of God. What then is the difference between the mitzvah of faith and all the mitzvos? It turns out there is no difference. The difference is only that the mitzvah of faith is "the beginning of all commandments," the essence of all the mitzvos. Not because from our side, as human beings, we must first know that there is a God and so on, but rather just as among the 248 limbs there are limbs on which the soul depends and limbs on which the soul does not depend (Temurah 10b). The soul itself is not one of the limbs, but among the limbs themselves there is, for example, the brain or the heart, what are called the principal organs, on which everything depends. And indeed they too depend on the soul, and precisely here one must examine whether there is perhaps an aspect of the mitzvah of faith that is above the mitzvah — but the mitzvah of faith is the life-force of all the limbs, and we will call it the first limb. By first I do not mean first in time, but the most important, the root limb, like the head or the heart — as each person will learn it — the head or the heart of all the mitzvos, and that is the mitzvah of faith. That is the explanation according to the Zohar: a limb of whom? Of the revelation of God, of the King, of *Zeir Anpin*, of *Zeir Anpin* and *Nukva*.

The Root That Orders and Gives Meaning to All 248 Mitzvos

If so, we begin to understand that the Zohar introduces a great novel idea here, and it seems to me that the Zohar is working here to integrate all the views and all the sides. When one says there is a dispute — the Rambam, the Ramban, so-and-so — one always thinks: well, it is a dispute, and one can learn it this way or that way. But the Zohar, as is always its way, shows that each of the holders of the views grasped a particular point because of which one must learn differently. Some learned it this way and some learned it that way, and that is the first dispute: whether faith is counted among the mitzvos.

And there is another dispute, very important, which one must listen to carefully, and it seems to me that the Zohar is speaking about it here. But the first question is the connection and relationship of faith to all the mitzvos. And the answer in the Zohar is that faith is not another mitzvah preceding all the mitzvos, since all the mitzvos are the existence of God; rather, faith is the root of the existence of God that is in the mitzvos. Or one can say: the first vessel, the first place in which the limbs receive the existence of God, the place in which the existence of God — which is, so to speak, the body of the King — comes into being. That is the meaning of the mitzvah of faith.

And what does this mean? That it gives meaning to all the mitzvos, that is, it is the organizer, the order of all the mitzvos. And this is also the intention of the daily Shema: a person must do many things every day, and as is known, the Shema contains 248 words (Tanchuma, Kedoshim 6), to show that all the words are one. That is the intention: everything is "when you sit in your house and when you walk on the way" (Deuteronomy 6:7) — one extends the oneness of God over all modes. This is what we learn in the first paragraph from "when you sit in your house and when you walk on the way"; the second paragraph deals with reward and punishment, with the Land of Israel and the whole matter; and the paragraph of tzitzis reaches all the mitzvos, "And you shall see it and remember all the commandments of God" (Numbers 15:39), as the verse explicitly states.

The intention of the Shema, then, is: I have so many things to do, but in truth I have only one thing to do. There is only one thing, and there is only one thing. That is "Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One."

Faith and Inquiry: Knowledge in General and Knowledge in Particular

The Dispute of the Rishonim Between Simple Faith and Knowledge

And just as there is this perplexity, so too there is a great perplexity and a great dispute known as a dispute among the Rishonim. But one must understand that there is no wisdom in saying "a dispute among the Rishonim"; there is a real problem here. The dispute is only that each one, so to speak, leans more toward one side of reality, but there are two realities here. It is a kind of dispute between faith (*emunah*) and knowledge (*yediah*). As is known, there are those who say that one fulfills the mitzvah of faith by believing, and we will call this simple faith (*emunah peshutah*): this is what is written in the Torah, and that is enough for you.

And there are others who say not so, but rather knowledge — and as is known the Rambam elaborates on this (Laws of the Foundations of the Torah 1:1; Guide for the Perplexed I:50) — knowledge is most important. For if one merely says it, what point is there in saying it? One must know, contemplate that it is so, be convinced that it is so, and so on. That is the subject of the dispute called the one between faith and knowledge.

And now, the Zohar says: both. And it seems to me that it is entirely correct. It is clear that one needs both. First, if the way one ordinarily learns does not exist, if one does not teach children faith, nothing will ever begin; for if we go to teach every boy the entire existence of God and all the forces, that is not feasible.

Second, when one says "knowledge," what truly is the real meaning of knowledge? Knowledge does not mean only that I have a proof that there is a God. That is simple, and it seems to me that even according to the Rambam and all who favor inquiry, the intent is not only a proof — that too, but the main goal is a clear grasp and clear knowledge of all of reality. That is, you do not only know that there is a God, that there must be a God, but you also know — as we said that the mitzvah of the Shema is to know — how God does everything, how He orders your 248 limbs; everything you must do this day is because of "the Lord is One." Everything is organized and ordered by the oneness of God.

So knowledge means knowing the entire world, knowing the Work of Creation (*Ma'aseh Bereishis*) and the Work of the Chariot (*Ma'aseh Merkavah*) (Rambam, Laws of the Foundations of the Torah, chs. 1–4) — everything. Everything there is to know must be known in the aspect of knowledge. That is the meaning of knowledge.

It follows that knowledge is a very long process, something that takes forty years at the very least (Avodah Zarah 5b), and even an entire lifetime, to perhaps begin to know something, to know all the works of God — for one speaks of God together with His works, and everything must be known. So knowledge by its very definition is something long, and by its very definition it is more connected, one might say, to the 248 limbs.

The Zohar's Definition: General Knowledge at the Exodus and Particular Knowledge After Forty Years

And there emerges from this something very interesting regarding the mitzvah of faith, in its relationship to the two levels of faith. The Zohar calls it this way — I can tell you in other words: instead of saying "faith and inquiry," I will give you another explanation: general knowledge and particular knowledge (Zohar, Introduction 11b–12a). (And we have already spoken several times in this shiur that this is a good definition of faith and inquiry.)

Simple faith is general knowledge: I know that there is; I know, as the Zohar says, that there is a God who created the entire world, who rules over the entire world, who created man and placed a soul within him (Zohar, ibid.). This is knowledge in general terms, knowledge in a general way, which every Jew knows, which he is told.

Afterward there is particular knowledge. Particular knowledge means: What does "God" mean? How did the Holy One, blessed be He, create? What does it mean that He created man? What does it mean that He rules over the world? How does He rule? What kind of rule is this? And so on and so forth — all of this is particular knowledge.

The Zohar says that in the knowledge of God there are two mitzvos (Zohar, ibid.), and one must understand technically whether it means to say that there are two mitzvos — a mitzvah of general knowledge and a mitzvah of particular knowledge — or that it is one mitzvah, and these are levels of the same mitzvah. But this is the Zohar's definition: knowledge in general and knowledge in particular. First one must know in general terms, and afterward one knows in particular detail.

And on this the Zohar expounds (Zohar, ibid. 12a) that this is the difference between the verses we have already discussed in the portions of the Book of Deuteronomy: at the Exodus from Egypt, Moshe said, "And you shall know that I am the Lord your God who brings you out" (Exodus 6:7), and this is knowledge in general. Afterward he said, "Know therefore this day and take it to your heart that the Lord is God" (*ve-yadata ha-yom va-hashevosa el levavecha ki Hashem hu ha-Elokim*, Deuteronomy 4:39), and this he said after forty years. This is knowledge in particular, an entirely different level of knowledge.

Fulfilling the Mitzvos as the Explanation and Revelation of Particular Knowledge

Now one grasps that this is connected in a wondrous way, for it is almost the same thing as the relationship between the mitzvah of the existence of God and all the mitzvos. Just as the relationship between knowledge and faith begins with general knowledge — for one cannot know that there is a mitzvah before knowing in a general way that there is a God; the father at least said it, and you know how to say in a general way — and I am not speaking only of this source — you know how to say in a general way that there is a God, but you do not know how to say anything about Him. That is general knowledge, and it comes first; in time it is certainly first, in time it precedes.

And afterward, as we said, there are another 248 mitzvos, or 247, that is, two hundred forty-seven other mitzvos, and they are the particular limbs of the King, all the other limbs that flow from this mitzvah. And not only do they flow from the fact that there is a God, but they are the very enclothement and revelation of the existence of God in all the particulars, so that it will take hold of all of life and be expressed in every possible way, in the form of a human being, which is the revelation in the world, to express the existence of God.

It follows that after one fulfills all the mitzvos, there is particular knowledge of God. There is not only the general knowledge, which is like the first limb, but there are all the limbs. And then one also understands "that the Lord is God" — that the general is the particular! There is no difference; what you knew is itself the true thing. For example, as we say, someone who learned in cheder that there is a God, and afterward learned all the details of what it means, ultimately comes out and says: this is what they taught me in cheder; this is not a different God! There are not two Gods, a God of inquiry and a God of faith. There are not two Gods, of the particular and of the general. He is One! But what he has attained is that he knows how to speak about Him, knows how to say all the details.

So particular knowledge is itself all the mitzvos; all the mitzvos are an explanation of the mitzvah of faith, that is, they express the detailed particulars of the mitzvah of faith. One can put it this way, and so the Zohar will say: whoever knows only that there is a God fulfills it in a general way. And perhaps there is even a further novel idea here: that one of the ways, at the very least, to attain particular knowledge is through fulfilling the mitzvos. That the mitzvos have such a special quality (*segulah*) — either that in each mitzvah lies hidden a secret from which one can learn a detail of the reality of the worlds, or that it is actually a special quality of drawing down light in a particular way — another way of understanding the mitzvos. As the Zohar says, a mitzvah makes an impression above, that is, it draws down the particular light, and this is what the mitzvos do, and this is the fulfillment of the particulars of faith. For this one must do all the mitzvos, one must live an entire life, do all 248 mitzvos as much as possible — and one must speak separately about how it is possible to do all the mitzvos. In any case, all the mitzvos a person has in his life, the inwardness we spoke about, is the particular knowledge of the positive commandments.

Summary and Connection to Parshas Chayei Sarah: "And God Blessed Avraham with Everything"

And from the plain meaning of the Zohar emerge the two novel ideas I said today. The first novel idea: that every day one must introduce a new interpretation. And our new interpretation now is that the mitzvah of God's oneness is like the Crown (*Keser*), like the thing that organizes all 248 mitzvos. Consequently, both the perplexity and dispute over whether faith is a mitzvah or not is resolved, and the dispute over whether faith means knowledge, and whether general knowledge or particular knowledge, is also resolved: the intent is both, like the head together with all the limbs. After all the limbs it means the particular; before that it is only the general.

And let us explain the verse a little: "And Avraham was old, advanced in days, and God blessed Avraham with everything" (*ve-Avraham zaken ba ba-yamim va-Hashem berach es Avraham ba-kol*, Genesis 24:1). "And Avraham was old" — he grew old, and learned anew every day; "advanced in days" (literally, "came in days") — every day he said "Shema Yisrael" anew with a new interpretation. And in the end, "God blessed Avraham with everything," meaning that in the end he knew, so to speak, "Know therefore this day and take it to your heart that the Lord is God" — that God, everything, all the conceptions, became one "everything," the One. That is the meaning of "Avraham had a daughter, and *Bakol* was her name" (Bava Basra 16b) — the attribute of *Malchus*, "the Lord is God": the general emerged, and said that everything was the very same God, as was understood in all the other ways. That is our interpretation.

Shabbat Shalom!