📋 Shiur Overview
The Secret of Consolation: Receiving Abundant Good Through Thanksgiving
Opening: A New Direction in the Lectures
Gentlemen, Erev Shabbos Ekev is before us. I wish to preface by saying that this week a new direction has fallen into my heart regarding how we will continue our lectures. Now we have completed the order—not truly completed, for these matters continue, but in any case we have completed the order of the three weeks, the order of the nine days. We spoke about Shabbos Nachamu. And truly it would be fitting to speak for at least seven weeks about the consolations, and therefore we will continue to speak about this, but in our own way.
Yesterday’s lecture was connected to this, and it is also a continuation of last week’s lecture, on Erev Shabbos, where we spoke about the difficulty, about the magnitude of the good, the magnitude of the success with which we are surrounded—to the point that even this itself is difficult.
Israel Cannot Withstand Neither Abundant Good Nor Abundant Calamity
I believe this is one of the reasons why we don’t do all those things we spoke about last week and yesterday—because we don’t have the strength to bear them. For Choni HaMe’agel said—I don’t remember his exact language—that a person cannot receive neither abundant good nor abundant suffering. Regarding abundant good, there was the incident where even excessive rain constitutes a problem. But this was Choni HaMe’agel’s language: “Your people Israel whom You brought out of Egypt cannot endure neither abundant good nor abundant calamity; You became angry with them, they cannot withstand it; You bestowed good upon them, they cannot withstand it” (Tractate Ta’anis 23). This was Choni HaMe’agel’s language.
That is to say, it is difficult. And it is interesting that the Gemara there comes to discuss whether a person is permitted to pray that abundant good be removed from him, and the conclusion of that sugya is that one should not properly pray for the removal of abundant good, even though abundant good—as they learned there—is one of the sources. I recall that the Gra brings this as a source in his commentaries on the Zohar, when he deals with the matter of the path of mitzvah, that good is always a mitzvah, and the Gra brings proof from here. And the Zohar says that this is the secret of the World of Tikkun, that is, the secret of consolation.
The Role of Man: To Sweeten the Judgment
What we spoke about a bit last week, that if a person encounters only calamity, only suffering, certainly the world cannot endure with this, as the Midrash says about Avraham Avinu: “Shall the Judge of all the earth not do justice?” (Bereishis 18:25). The Midrash expounds—You are the whole earth, and here is the emphasis: “If You seek world, there is no judgment; if You seek judgment, there is no world” (Bereishis Rabbah 39). That if You seek to go entirely with the attribute of judgment, the world will not endure. And everyone understands this.
And for this prayer was established, and all other prayers, their purpose is to sweeten the judgment, so that there should not be judgment alone, even in time. And this is the truth even on the days, even on the most difficult days of the year about which we are speaking—Tisha B’Av, which is almost entirely judgment—nevertheless it is not entirely judgment. We still add and insert into it, as the Gemara says that since the early ones hold that they place words of consolation in them, we don’t allow even Eichah to end with the verse “unless You have utterly rejected us, You are exceedingly wroth with us” (Eichah 5:22), but rather we add to it “Hashiveinu.” That is to say, we always sweeten the judgment, the judgment always comes with study. The judgment must be, and the limit is that the world should not be completely nullified. And the painful feeling is legitimate, and this is the proper order of things.
The Right to Be Happy
Now then: The Holy One, blessed be He, made the world—were you given permission to be happy? Were you given permission to smile? Yes indeed, “He made it for man that his mouth should be filled with laughter in this world” (Berachos 31). And this is like a kind of claim. The Gemara didn’t mean actual laughter, but in the manner appropriate for normal people, it didn’t mean this literally, but rather meant that there is here a kind of claim: How can you say that you sanctify drunkenness, as if there is no world at all? The answer is that there is no such thing. This is the task of the Jew, this is the task of man.
The Holy One, blessed be He, indeed did so, and as it were the truth is that there is here a destruction of the world, and man’s task is to sweeten it. Therefore we say “Hashiveinu,” and the verse uses “Hashiveinu” and not “Tashiveinu.” And as it were from the side of the Holy One, blessed be He, from the side of what is written, it says “unless You have utterly rejected us, You are exceedingly wroth with us.” There are commentators who explain that the verse speaks to ourselves and refers to calamity, but in any case this is how we understand it to be calamity, and the Torah itself can write calamity. And we come, the children of Israel, and say no, we don’t allow this. This is our task. Thus the Holy One, blessed be He, gave us, thus we were told. Indeed one must ask a question about this, but this is the accepted reality, that our task is to sweeten the judgment of the Holy One, blessed be He.
Sweetening the Anger of the Omnipresent
As it were, the Holy One, blessed be He, is angry, as the Gemara learned this week says, that Moshe Rabbeinu speaks about this, and when he saw that the Holy One, blessed be He, was angry, he sought to sweeten His anger. This is man’s task—to sweeten the anger of the Holy One, blessed be He. And this is proper, this side is normal, and we never allow it to be entirely anger, lest the world be destroyed. We pray, and we even make jests in a way of humor, and we do various things in order to sweeten the anger.
The Problem of Abundant Good
What Do We Do When It’s Too Good
The interesting problem is from the other side. For when there is abundant anger, which we cannot bear, we establish a day of prayer, and the day of prayer’s purpose is to sweeten the anger. But what do we do when it’s too good? Behold, now it’s too good, and indeed this is the truth—too good is not good. And this is the matter, like the parable of rain, that when it falls endlessly and without measure—everything is flooded. Indeed there is good in this, and ultimately, after the flood recedes, something can grow from it, and there will even be some good in it. But in practice this is a great trouble, we cannot bear it. Abundant good—”Israel cannot bear abundant good,” for otherwise it turns into trouble itself, and it is not good at all. We cannot bear abundant good.
The Incident of Choni HaMe’agel
And as I review and study here the Gemara, which I had here, in Ta’anis—Choni HaMe’agel said “but I have received that one does not pray about abundant good” (Ta’anis 23). The incident was thus: They came to Choni HaMe’agel, for there was famine, and rains had not fallen. They came to him, that he should pray, and he made his sharp prayers, and rain began to fall, but it was not enough, until much rain fell, until it was already too much. And this is the incident, that they came to him to say that it was already too much. He said to them: What shall I do? One does not pray about abundant good, “and we have received that one does not pray about abundant good.”
And one must contemplate this. That is to say, as it were they say there—the task of the Holy One, blessed be He, is to do good, and man’s task is never to stop the good-doing of the Holy One, blessed be He. Even when it turns out badly for him, even when… This is almost like a kind of prayer of wayfarers, as the Kohen Gadol would pray that he not accept the prayer of wayfarers. Indeed they always bring Rashi’s words, and it is also brought in Berachos, that complete good would be rains in their time, and that each person should take care of his ways not to go at the time of rainfall. And this needs to be reconciled—a perfect world, a perfect world. A perfect and full world should properly have more than this. If so, what should a person do? What is the solution here? A perfect world indeed would not have wayfarers at the time of rain, but in any case one does not pray against abundant good.
It Is Forbidden to Deny Abundant Good
And I believe this explains our matter, that as we said—if a person contemplates entirely the suffering of the Shechinah, he will no longer be able to serve, and therefore it is forbidden to him. But there they have a solution, for the regular order is that they sweeten the judgment a bit. And likewise if a person contemplates abundant good, and looks at the quantity of good that exists, then too he cannot bear it. Here we have an interesting thing.
Apparently the matter is connected—and I have no explanation for this, only a kind of thought in passing—apparently the matter is connected to the fact that man is a limited thing, and opposite him is the Holy One, blessed be He, whose good-doing is without limit. And even the good that almost reaches man is without limit. As we learn in the matter of the Breaking, whose purpose is that there is no tikkun in the line, or as the Gra puts it—the Breaking is a bit of abundant good, not abundant evil. Abundant good and abundant evil go together, but there can be abundant good that man cannot be affected by: Master of the Universe, don’t give me so much light, don’t bestow upon me so many influences.
What is the meaning of this? There must be another solution. There is a solution, and I will say it immediately, for apparently I have found a solution. There must be another solution, and what is forbidden to do is to deny abundant good. And apparently the matter is, as we spoke yesterday, and is connected to the matter of gratitude—a person is not permitted to deny the good of the Omnipresent. It is not man’s task to limit the good of the Holy One, blessed be He. Man’s task is to limit the anger of the Holy One, blessed be He, but it is not his task to limit the good of the Holy One, blessed be He. This is how it essentially is.
In other words: A person is not permitted to be ungrateful, and it is the same thing. You cannot say—how can you say it’s so good? How can you make it so good? I don’t have the strength for it to be so good. There is no sense in this. This is wickedness.
Why Do People Always Look for Troubles
And I believe this is the reason—and it is interesting—for people are limited creatures. People love things whose limit can be seen, whose limitation can be seen. And apparently this is the reason that most people—and we complain, the mashgichim complain—that we connect less to the mourning of Bein HaMetzarim than to the joy of Purim. And I believe this is not true, for most people observe Purim even during Bein HaMetzarim. For we see—they make days of prayer, they pray for salvations, they always look for troubles. Why don’t they always look for troubles? Every holy claim brings them to speak about troubles. For “Your children cannot withstand”—Your children whom I brought out of Egypt cannot bear abundant good, they cannot receive abundant good. For the good, when one contemplates it, when one sees that it is infinite—we cannot receive it.
And it is also possible to say thus, and if we want to say it in Chassidic language, we will say that people love more to be in sadness, even in sadness that is as it were kosher sadness—the suffering of the Shechinah, the suffering of exile, the suffering of transgressions, in which he himself feels bad—even this people love more. Why? Because this is more human, because in this he still remains in the category of “yesh,” he remains human. I saw that this is called “yesh”—he doesn’t truly want to be nullified.
Chassidus and Joy
Why Is Joy Such a Fundamental Principle in Chassidus
Not so—I believe this is one of the secrets why joy is such a fundamental principle in Chassidus. For the entire matter of Chassidus is an extremely difficult path, and we think that Chassidus comes to make things easier for people. But when one truly contemplates, one sees that it doesn’t make things easier for people at all, and perhaps it is more difficult for people, for it doesn’t throw away the person. Rather it is much higher service, much deeper, it is not less service but more service, except that it is on different planes. Regarding the body, regarding what we usually call service, this is not considered service at all. But the entire matter—and I say this because we consider ourselves Chassidim and walk in the path of Chassidus, let us say thus—it is very difficult to walk in the path of Chassidus. One almost needs to be born with a soul of Atzilus in order to achieve a taste of it. And blessed be Hashem, we have merited this, and we have no complaints.
Joy Is the Attribute of the Holy One, Blessed Be He
But Chassidus goes with joy, for Chassidus always seeks to go from the side of the Holy One, blessed be He, from the side of Divinity. It seeks to look a bit at man from the side of Divinity, not from the side of man. And therefore joy is the attribute of the Holy One, blessed be He. Perfection, joy, good-doing—the attribute of the Holy One, blessed be He. And the attribute of all creatures, from the aspect of their being created, is that they have no joy. For even the greatest creature, even the Sefirah of Keser, and even Adam Kadmon—as the Zohar says “black compared to the Cause of all Causes”—it is black compared to the Cause of Causes.
The Incident of the Ropshitzer Rav and the Chozeh of Lublin
Like the incident that occurred, and I believe the Ropshitzer Rav met the Chozeh of Lublin, and the latter was tense, and said he was nothing. The Ropshitzer Rav said to him: It appears the Rebbe is broken. The task of students is to strengthen the Rebbe many times, and there is a Chassidic story about this, just as it is the task of Israel to strengthen the Holy One, blessed be He. He said to the Rebbe: It appears the Rebbe is already standing at the level of Keser, about which it is said that Keser is black compared to the Cause of all Causes. And the Rebbe said: Ah—and he revived him.
Perfection from the Side of the Creator, Deficiency from the Side of the Created
What do we learn from this? All this is truly connected. For if the Rebbe had looked from the side of the created beings, behold Keser is not black. Keser is black only when one evaluates it compared to the Holy One, blessed be He, compared to the Ein Sof—then it is black. But compared to all the rest it is wondrous. However, when we say “compared to all the rest,” the meaning is compared to the Or Ein Sof within it. When we speak of the positive reality, of the positive existence that is in everything—the Holy One, blessed be He, is not relevant to them. And what is relevant to me, as the language of my story—what is relevant to man? Only the deficiency. And therefore people, who seek everything relevant to them, are immersed in deficiency, are immersed in suffering and pain and limitation. Whereas one who ceases to be immersed in this is immersed in fullness and plenitude, in “May Hashem fulfill all your wishes”—and what he has, behold a person cannot attribute it to himself.
The Parsha: And You Shall Eat and Be Satisfied and Bless
The Great Question on the Verses
Perhaps there is even a person… And especially when speaking of the infinity of good, which is stated in the weekly portion, that the verse speaks about this. And this is what I wish to raise. “And you shall eat and be satisfied and bless Hashem your God” (Devarim 8:10), and do not say “my strength and the might of my hand made me this wealth” (Devarim 8:17), but rather “and you shall remember Hashem your God, for it is He who gives you strength to make wealth” (Devarim 8:18). And the verse elaborates on the good, and elaborates not to forget the Holy One, blessed be He. For the good can cause one to forget the Holy One, blessed be He, and the verse even elaborates on how many good things there are.
And one must understand this. And I bring this as a great question: If the Holy One, blessed be He, wanted in the verse that we remember the Holy One, blessed be He, that we remember His good and not forget—He should have said that you are nothing. There are such verses this week, that from yourself you would have been nothing, and the like. But meanwhile the verse enumerates how good everything is, how great the success is. And if it enumerates how great the success is, behold this is apparently a strengthening of “my strength and the might of my hand.” How is it possible that the verse enumerates both how good the Land of Israel is, how successful Israel is, how much money they have—”and you will build good houses and dwell in them, and your cattle and sheep will multiply, and silver and gold will multiply for you, and all that you have will multiply” (Devarim 8:12-13)? And will this bring a person to remember the Holy One, blessed be He? It appears from the verse that this is liable specifically to cause forgetfulness.
The Humble Person Recognizes Good
But I think—and what does the verse want? “And your heart will be lifted up and you will forget” (Devarim 8:14)—behold this is indeed the order, and so it is said in the Song of Ha’azinu “And Yeshurun grew fat and kicked” (Devarim 32:15). If so, what do they want from us? And I say a precious thing: What they want is that we feel how great the good is. Why? Because when a person says “my strength and the might of my hand,” he can consider himself very great, he can be very proud. For one of man’s powers is that he can think that the sun rose for him today. So be it. But the moon and the stars and all the other billion things… I believe that in order for a person to be proud, he needs a small world. He needs to look at his success as a small thing. So I believe. We think that the humble person considers himself less successful, and therefore says “the Holy One, blessed be He, did it,” whereas the proud person considers himself so successful that he doesn’t need the Holy One, blessed be He. And I say the complete opposite.
The humble person recognizes good. And the one who recognizes good considers himself much more successful. So successful, so much good, that he can no longer attribute the success to himself. When one looks at how good it is for us, the person says—as the language of the verse, as the language of the Haftarah. In the Haftarah of the weekly portion it says “and you will say in your heart,” that it will be so good for you, “who bore me these, seeing I was bereaved and barren, exiled and cast aside, and who brought these up? Behold, I was left alone, where are these from?” (Yeshayahu 49:21). Behold this is the amazement that the Haftarah says Tzion will say: Who bore me all these? I don’t know where they came to me from.
It Is Impossible to Make a List of the Good Things
Not so, that when a person is a bit good, even very good, but still within limit—when he looks at the limit, he can think it’s from his own power. But when he looks at abundant good, a person cannot bear it, and then it is difficult for him, for it is as if a person cannot look at the sun. Usually, in order to arouse gratitude, they tell a person to make a list—make a list of your good things. But here it is impossible to make a list.
How do we say in the Shemoneh Esrei? “The Good One, for Your mercies have not ceased, and the Merciful One, for Your kindnesses have not ended” (text of Modim). That is to say, “the Good One” is even what I received perhaps, what I can see. And not only what I received—for even what I received is infinite, almost infinite, and perhaps completely infinite if I want to contemplate it—but even what I can count has a measure, and I can make a list of it. Indeed, evening and morning and afternoon, and our souls, and Your wonders—a list, that there should be sixteen things in it. But if one contemplates the good of the Holy One, blessed be He, what is the reality? In order that I should exist at all, the good includes the entire world, it includes the Holy One, blessed be He, Himself. It is infinite. One can only say “the Good One, for Your mercies have not ceased”—I cannot thank You. As the language of “Ilu Pinu,” that in any case I cannot thank You, for I cannot bear abundant good.
Emphasizing the Good Is from the Upper Side
Being Positive Means Recognition of the Creator
It emerges that emphasizing the good is always emphasis from the upper side, always emphasis from the side of the Holy One, blessed be He, always emphasis from the side of holiness. And therefore, if a person agrees to say “I believe, I have no idea, I don’t know myself how good it is for me, but it’s so good for me, it’s so Divinely good for me, so good as the Holy One, blessed be He, Himself can be good”—then he is exceedingly joyful. He is joyful to the point that he needs to moderate the joy, he cannot bear the joy. He almost cannot bear the joy. He asks his friend “Please, go cool me down a bit, I feel too happy.”
And I believe this is the main reason why we always say we are negative. We are negative because to be positive means recognition of the Creator, and to be negative is from the side of the created. And this is the principle of the matter: The deficiency is from the side of the created, the perfection is from the side of the Creator. And people love to be immersed in deficiencies, love to be created beings. It is very important to be a created being—and I don’t mean the opposite mistake, that a person should think he is the Creator. But when a person recognizes good, thanksgiving—it is the secret of receiving the perfection of the Creator, the secret of being immersed and living in the perfection of the Creator. This is the joy, this is the consolation.
The Solution: Thanksgiving
Choni HaMe’agel’s Thanksgiving Offering
Now, since it can indeed be that an obstacle will come from this, it can indeed be that “they cannot bear abundant good,” that a kind of flood will come from this, for excessive water is also not good—about this Choni HaMe’agel said “I have a solution.” He said: “Nevertheless, bring me a thanksgiving offering.” Choni HaMe’agel said: I will tell you what the solution is. The solution is that they should bring thanksgiving, a thanksgiving offering. And in honor of the thanksgiving he could say the prayer I mentioned above, “Your children cannot withstand neither abundant good nor abundant calamity.”
Limiting the Good Through Thanksgiving
In other words, it is possible to say thus: The way, the only way we can receive any good, is that it must be limited. And the way of limitation is not by saying “Master of the Universe, this is not good, this is bad,” and to find where it is bad—as a person can find in everything where it is bad. No. The way is to give thanks. The way is to make thanksgiving. And when we give thanks—we certainly give thanks, and it is possible in the way of general praise and thanksgiving, “all of You is mercy”—but perhaps the main thanksgiving is for what I receive. And when we give thanks, in this we make the vessels, in this we make the limitation of receiving in the category of abundance, not abundant good, but how much good I can bear. And then it is possible to bear much more good.
The Land of the Deer: Fills According to Itself
And one must say another principle, and this is the secret of “the Land of the Deer.” For the Land of Israel—as the prophet speaks about this—where is your place? Where is your place for all those good things of the Land of Israel? As the language “for you will be crowded with inhabitants” (Yeshayahu 49:19), that there is no place. The prophet says “Your children of whom you were bereaved will yet say in your ears, ‘The place is too narrow for me, make room for me that I may dwell’” (Yeshayahu 49:20). Tzion now, to our sorrow, has much space, but the matter is that it is narrow. The prophet says: There will yet come so many people that there will be no room, and they will say “move over a bit,” like a mother with many children, who push each other on the bench, and all want to sit next to their mother.
And this is the secret of what the Gemara says “the Land of the Deer,” that it fills according to itself. We often don’t have abundant good, because we don’t know how to bear abundant good. But the truth is that there are very many vessels, we have enough vessels. And the vessels truly are the blessings—as we say blessings, drawing down—one must make vessels. The vessels are the things through which we can bear much more good than we think. Except that the first thing is that one must know how to count it, to know how to recognize it, to know how to offer it, as the main service of the parsha is “and you shall eat and be satisfied and bless Hashem your God.”
Two Mitzvos: Servant and Son
Opening of the Zohar’s Order: Pekudei
If so, this is the thing we must speak about, and I must shorten due to time constraints. My plan was to begin a bit to learn the order of the Zohar, Pekudei, that the first mitzvah is a mitzvah of every day, and I wish to shorten now. But the second mitzvah is the mitzvah of prayer, and so it is said in the weekly portion “and to serve Him with all your heart” (Devarim 11:13). “To serve Him with all your heart” is the mitzvah of service of Hashem. And the Zohar says that service is interpreted as the service of the servant, and there is also the service of the son.
Prayer: The Aspect of Servant and the Aspect of Son
And prayer—the Zohar says in Pekudei mitzvah 2—there is in it prayer from the aspect of servant, which praises its Creator, and there is in it the aspect of son, who knows what his Creator wants, knows the details, and this is connected to the exposition of general and particular, which is the first mitzvah. And I must shorten now, and therefore I will stop here. But it is possible to understand that this is connected to these two things.
From the side of the servant one only needs to give thanks, and he cannot even say—as it is said about Choni HaMe’agel, that Shimon ben Shetach said to him “What shall I do to you, for you act petulantly before the Omnipresent and He does your will like a son who acts petulantly toward his father” (Ta’anis 23). The son has a certain way to receive exactly what he needs, for he understands what the father wants, he knows the details, not only the generalities.
Summary: Thanksgiving Makes the Vessel for Good
If so, the aspect of servant is thanksgiving, that one only needs to give thanks. And the aspect of son—through thanksgiving a certain vessel can be made, a vessel through which we can receive the abundant good that the Holy One, blessed be He, gives. And the truth is that as much as a person can, behold he is immersed in the joy of the Holy One, blessed be He, and he is so joyful that he doesn’t know what to do with himself. But from our side one needs to be a bit in the aspect of son, and this is what enables us to conduct ourselves with the good properly, so that there should be neither abundant good nor abundant calamity. And therefore may we have a joyous Shabbos.
📝 Full Transcript
The Secret of Consolation: Receiving Abundant Good Through Gratitude
Introduction: A New Plan for the Lectures
Rabbosai, Erev Shabbos Ekev. I want to say that this week a new plan occurred to me for how we should continue our lectures. We finished the order of the three weeks and the nine days, and we spoke about Shabbos Nachamu. The truth is that one must speak for at least seven weeks about the consolations. So we will speak about this, but in our way.
Last night’s lecture was connected to this, also a continuation of last week’s Erev Shabbos lecture, where we spoke about the greatness of how much goodness and success we are surrounded by, and that it is even difficult.
One Cannot Receive Neither Abundant Good Nor Abundant Suffering
I mean that this is one of the reasons why we don’t do all the things we spoke about last week and last night — because one cannot bear it. Choni HaMe’agel said that one cannot receive neither abundant good nor abundant suffering. There is the story that it rained too much, which is also a problem. But the language of Choni HaMe’agel was: “Your people Israel whom You brought out of Egypt cannot endure neither abundant good nor abundant suffering. When You are angry with them they cannot stand, when You shower them with good they cannot stand” (Tractate Ta’anis 23).
It’s a bit interesting that the Gemara there came to the discussion whether one can pray to remove abundant good, and it turns out that one may not pray to remove abundant good. The Vilna Gaon brings this as a source in his commentaries on the Zohar, when he speaks of the topic of derech hamitzvah, that the good is always a mitzvah. And the Zohar says that this is the secret of Olam HaTikkun, that is, the secret of consolation.
The Role of Man: Sweetening the Judgment
If There Is Only Suffering There Will Be No World
We spoke last week that if there is only suffering and pain, the world is not sustained. As the language of the Midrash on Avraham Avinu: “Shall the Judge of all the earth not do justice” (Bereishis 18:25). The Midrash explains, You are the entire earth — “If you want the world, there is no strict justice; if you want strict justice, there is no world” (Bereishis Rabbah 39). If You want to go completely with the attribute of judgment, there will be no world.
For this, prayer was made. All prayers are to sweeten the judgment, that it should not be only judgment. Even on the worst days of the year, Tishah B’Av, which is almost only judgment, it is still not complete. As the Gemara says, because the early ones placed words of consolation in their words. We don’t even let Eichah end with “For if You have utterly rejected us, You have been exceedingly wroth against us” (Eichah 5:22), rather we add Hashiveinu. One always sweetens judgment. The judgment must be, because without judgment there will be no world. And this is legitimate, this is the order of things.
The Right to Be Content
Are you given the right to be content, to smile? Yes — “It is forbidden for a person to fill his mouth with laughter in this world” (Berachos 31). This is like an argument: how can you make it that you sanctify laughter if there is no world? The answer is, there is no such thing — this is the job of man.
The Ribbono Shel Olam has indeed made, and as it were the truth is that there is a destruction of the world, and the role of man is to sweeten it. For this we say “Hashiveinu,” and the verse doesn’t say “Tashiveinu.” From the side of the Kadosh Baruch Hu it says “For if our sins have angered You exceedingly”. The Torah itself can write suffering, and we the Jews come and say no, we don’t let ourselves. This is our role, this is how the Ribbono Shel Olam gave us. One must indeed ask a question, but this is the reality that is agreed upon, that our role is to sweeten the Ribbono Shel Olam’s judgment.
Sweetening the Ribbono Shel Olam’s Anger
As it were, the Ribbono Shel Olam is angry, as the Gemara learns this week, that Moshe Rabbeinu saw that the Ribbono Shel Olam was angry, so he prayed to sweeten the Ribbono Shel Olam’s anger. This is the role of a person. One never lets there be complete anger, because the world will be destroyed. One prays, one makes jokes, one does all kinds of things in order to sweeten the anger.
The Problem of Abundant Good
What Does One Do When It’s Too Good
The interesting problem is from the other side: when there is abundant anger one cannot bear it, so one makes a day of prayer in order to sweeten the anger. But what does one do when it’s too good? Too good is also not good, as in the parable of the rain, that if it rains without measure it becomes flooded. Yes, after the flood passes perhaps things will be able to grow from it, but in practice it is a great trouble. “Israel cannot bear abundant good,” because otherwise it is not good.
The Story with Choni HaMe’agel
Choni HaMe’agel said “But I have received a tradition that one does not pray about abundant good” (Ta’anis 23). There was a famine, there was no rain, so they came to him, and he did his sharp prayers until it began to rain. But it wasn’t enough, until it rained so much that it was already too much. So they came to him and said, it’s too much. He said, what should I do? One cannot pray about abundant good.
That is, as it were the role of the Ribbono Shel Olam is to bestow good, and the role of man is never to stop the Ribbono Shel Olam’s bestowal, even when it comes out bad for him. This is like the prayer of travelers, as the Kohen Gadol would pray that he should not enter into the prayer of travelers. Although we always bring Rashi and Berachos that a complete good would be rain in its proper time, and each person should arrange that it should not be the time of rain when he is traveling. A completely perfect world would not have any travelers during the time of rain, but one cannot pray against abundant good.
One May Not Deny Abundant Good
I think that this explains our matter: if one contemplates completely the suffering of the Shechinah, one will not be able to serve, therefore one may not. The normal order is that one sweetens the judgment a bit. But also, if a person will contemplate abundant good, he will not be able to bear it.
Apparently this has to do with the fact that a person is a limited thing, and the Ribbono Shel Olam’s bestowal is unlimited. Even the bestowal that comes to man is unlimited. As we learn the topic of the Breaking: that there is no vessel of repair. The Breaking is abundant good, not abundant evil. One cannot be impressed by abundant good — Ribbono Shel Olam, don’t give me so much light, so much abundance.
There must be another solution. But what one cannot do is deny abundant good. The matter, as we spoke last night, has to do with recognizing the good. One cannot be ungrateful for the goodness of the Makom. It is not the job of man to limit the Ribbono Shel Olam’s goodness — rather to limit the Ribbono Shel Olam’s anger. In other words, one cannot be ungrateful. How can you say, I don’t have the strength for it to be so good? It doesn’t make sense, it’s wickedness.
Why People Always Look for Troubles
I think that this is the reason why people love things that one can see their limit, their boundary. This is apparently the reason why the mashgichim complain that one connects less with the mourning of Bein HaMetzarim than with the joy of Purim. But I think it’s not true, because most people try Purim also in Bein HaMetzarim — one makes days of prayer, one davens for salvations, one always looks for troubles. Why doesn’t one always look for good things? Because Your people cannot bear abundant good, when one sees that it is endless.
One can even say in a Chassidic way, that people otherwise love to be in sadness, even the kosher sadness — the suffering of the Shechinah, the suffering of exile, the suffering of sins. Why? Because this still remains a bit of existence, he still remains human. He doesn’t want to truly be nullified.
Chassidus and Joy
Why Joy Is Such a Basic Thing in Chassidus
I think that this is one of the secrets why in Chassidus joy is such a basic thing. We think that Chassidus comes easier to make for people, but when one thinks into it truly one sees that it’s not easier, it’s much higher and deeper service, just on other levels. Regarding the body, regarding what is usually called service, it doesn’t mean service at all. It’s very hard to go in the way of Chassidus, one must almost be born with a soul of Atzilus. Baruch Hashem, we have that.
Joy Is the Attribute of God
Chassidus goes with joy, because Chassidus always wants to look at man from the side of God, from the side of divinity, not from the side of man. About this, joy and completeness are the attribute of God, and deficiency is the attribute of all created beings. Because even the greatest creation, even the Sefirah of Keser and Adam Kadmon, as it says in the Zohar “But he is black before the Cause of all Causes”, is black compared to the Cause of all Causes.
The Story with the Ropshitzer Rav and the Rebbe of Lublin
There is a story that the Ropshitzer Rav met the Rebbe of Lublin, depressed, and he said that he is nothing. The job of students is often to strengthen the Rebbe, just as the job of the Jews is to strengthen the Ribbono Shel Olam. So the Ropshitzer Rav said to the Rebbe, “It seems the Rebbe is already holding at the level of Keser, where it says Keser is black compared to the Cause of all Causes.” And the Rebbe revived him.
Completeness from the Side of the Creator, Deficiency from the Side of the Created
What do we see from this? If the Rebbe looked from the side of the created beings, Keser is not black. Keser is black only when one evaluates it compared to God, compared to the Ein Sof. Compared to everything else he is tremendous.
What belongs to man? Only the deficiency. The people who only want what belongs to them, cook themselves in the deficiency, in the pain and the suffering and the limitation. But the one who hears about what is the fullness and the completeness — “May Hashem fulfill all your wishes” — this a person cannot attribute to himself.
The Parshah: You Shall Eat and Be Satisfied and Bless
The Simple Question on the Verses
Especially when the endlessness of good is stated in this week’s portion. “And you shall eat and be satisfied and bless Hashem your God” (Devarim 8:10), you should not say “My strength and the might of my hand made me this wealth” (Devarim 8:17), rather “And you shall remember Hashem for He is the One who gives you strength to make wealth” (Devarim 8:18). The verse elaborates on the bestowal, and elaborates that one should not forget the Ribbono Shel Olam.
I bring it with a simple question: if the Ribbono Shel Olam wanted that one should remember His goodness and not forget, He should have added that you are nothing. There are such verses in the week, that you on your own would have been nothing. But meanwhile He calculates what success this is, which is apparently a strengthening of “my strength and the might of my hand.” How can it be that He calculates how good Eretz Yisrael is, how successful the Jews are — “And you will build good houses and dwell, and your cattle and sheep will multiply, and silver and gold will multiply for you, and all that you have will multiply” (Devarim 8:12-13) — and this will make the person remember the Ribbono Shel Olam? It seems from the verse that it can make one forget, as it says “And your heart will be lifted up and you will forget” (Devarim 8:14), and as it says in Shiras Ha’azinu, “And Yeshurun became fat and kicked” (Devarim 32:15).
A Humble Person Is One Who Recognizes Good
I say a very important thing: what is wanted is that one should hear how great the good is. Why? Because a person can consider himself very great and be arrogant. He can think that because of him the sun rose today — but the moon and the stars and all the other billion things? For a person to be arrogant, he needs to have a small world, he needs to look that his success is little.
We think that a humble person thinks he is less successful, therefore he says “the Ribbono Shel Olam,” and an arrogant person considers himself successful, therefore he cannot acknowledge the Ribbono Shel Olam. I say it exactly the opposite: a humble person means one who recognizes good, and one who recognizes good considers himself much more successful — so much bestowal, that he can no longer attribute the success to himself. As it says in the Haftarah of this week’s portion: “And you will say in your heart, who bore me these, and I was bereaved and barren, exiled and removed, and these who raised them, behold I was left alone, these where are they” (Yeshayahu 49:21). Zion will say, “Who bore me all these? I don’t know from where.”
One Cannot Make a List of the Good Things
When a person is only a little good, still with a limit, he can think it is his own. But when he looks at the abundant good, he cannot bear it, it is as if one cannot look at the sun. Usually in order to make recognition of good one makes a list of the good things — but here one cannot make a list.
How do we say in Shemoneh Esrei? “The Good One, for Your mercies never cease, and the Merciful One, for Your kindnesses never end” (text of Modim). Even what I have received and can see is also endless. What I can count has a measure, I can make a list — evening and morning and afternoon, and our souls, and Your wonders, sixteen things. But the true goodness of the Kadosh Baruch Hu includes the entire world, it includes God Himself, it is endless. One can only say “The Good One, for Your mercies never cease” — I cannot thank You. As we say “Ilu Pinu,” I cannot thank You anyway, because I cannot bear abundant good.
Emphasizing the Good Is from Above
Positive Means Recognition of the Creator
It comes out that the emphasis on the good is always the emphasis from the upper side, from the side of the Kadosh Baruch Hu, from the side of holiness. Therefore, if a person agrees to say, “I believe, I myself don’t know how good it is for me, but it is so divinely good for me, as good as God Himself can be good” — then he is extraordinarily joyful. He is so joyful that he needs to moderate the joy, he asks his friend, “Please, go make a sip, I feel too happy.”
I think that this is the main reason why one is negative: because to be positive means recognition of the Creator, and being negative is from the side of the created. This is the general principle: deficiency is from the side of the created, completeness is from the side of the Creator. And people love to cook themselves in deficiencies, they love to be created beings. It is indeed important to be a created being — not because a person should think he is the Creator — but when one has recognition of good, the gratitude, this is the secret of receiving the completeness of the Creator, of living in the completeness of the Creator. This is joy, this is consolation.
The Solution: Gratitude
The Bull of Thanksgiving of Choni HaMe’agel
Because it can indeed become from this an obstacle, like a flood, that “they cannot bear abundant good” — for this Choni HaMe’agel said, “I have a solution.” He said “Nevertheless, bring me a bull of thanksgiving”. The solution is, one should bring a bull of thanksgiving, and in honor of the thanksgiving he was able to say the prayer, “Your children cannot stand neither in abundant good nor in abundant suffering”.
Limiting the Good Through Thanking
The only way for us to be able to receive some good, one must limit it. The way of limitation is not through saying “Ribbono Shel Olam, it’s bad” — rather the way is to thank, to make a thanksgiving. The main thanksgiving is on what I am receiving. When one thanks one makes the vessels, one makes the limitation of receiving in the aspect of how much good I can bear. Then one can bear much more good.
Eretz HaTzvi: It Fills According to What It Is
This is the secret of Eretz HaTzvi. The prophet speaks about this, how is your place for all the good things of Eretz Yisrael, as it says “For your ruins and your desolate places and your destroyed land, for now you will be too narrow for inhabitants” (Yeshayahu 49:19). The prophet says, “Your children will yet say in your ears, the bereaved ones, the place is too narrow for me, move over for me that I may dwell” (Yeshayahu 49:20). Zion now unfortunately has much space, but it is narrow. The prophet says, there will yet come so many people that they will say, “Move over a bit,” like a mother with many children, and all want to sit next to the mother. This is the secret that the Gemara says “Eretz HaTzvi,” that it fills according to what it is.
We don’t have abundant good many times because we don’t know how to bear abundant good. But the truth is that there are very many vessels, and the vessels are the blessings. One must make vessels, and the vessels are the things that we can bear much more good than we think. The first thing one must be able to calculate it, recognize it, offer it — as the main service of the parshah is “And you shall eat and be satisfied and bless Hashem your God”.
The Two Mitzvos: Servant and Son
Beginning of Seder HaZohar: Pekudin
My plan is to begin learning the Seder HaZohar, Pekudin. The first mitzvah is a mitzvah of every day. The second mitzvah is the mitzvah of prayer, which also says in this week’s portion, “And to serve Him with all your heart” (Devarim 11:13). “To serve Him with all your heart” is a mitzvah of service of Hashem. The Zohar says that service means the service of a servant, and there is the service of a son.
Prayer: The Aspect of Servant and the Aspect of Son
The Zohar says in Pekudei, mitzvah 2, that there is a prayer of the aspect of a servant (eved), which praises his Master (Kono), and there is an aspect of a son (ben), who knows what the Master (Koneh) wants, he knows the details. This relates to the exposition of klal u’prat (general and specific), which is the first mitzvah.
From the side of the servant one only needs to give thanks, as it says regarding Choni HaMe’agel, that Shimon ben Shetach said “Mah e’eseh lach she’atah mitchateh lifnei HaMakom” (Ta’anit 23). A son has a certain way of receiving precisely what he needs, because he understands what the will (ratzon) of the father is, he knows the details, not just the general principles.
Summary: Thanksgiving Creates the Vessel for Goodness
The aspect of servant is the thanksgiving (hoda’ah) where one only needs to give thanks, and the aspect of son, that is through thanksgiving (al yedei hoda’ah), a certain vessel is created so that we can receive abundant goodness (rov tovah) that the Almighty gives. The truth is that as much as one can immerse oneself in the Almighty’s joy (simchah), one is so happy that one doesn’t know what to do with oneself. But from our side one needs to be somewhat of a son, which enables us to carry the goodness, so that it should be neither too much goodness nor too much suffering (puraniut). And therefore one should have a joyous Shabbos.