The Kabbalists’ Tikkun to Provide Support and Sustenance for the Shechina | Zohar Matot-Masei Bein HaMetzarim 5786 (Auto Translated)

The Secret of Supporting the Shechina Through Kabbalah

Introduction — Continuation of the Topic of Holiness and Tikkun Chatzot

My teachers and rabbis, my dear brothers, today is Erev Shabbat Kodesh, Parshat Matot-Masei, Shabbat Mevorchim Chodesh Av 5786. We must now continue with what we began last week and what we promised. The verse says ‘kol hayotzei mipiv ya’aseh’ (whatever comes from his mouth he shall do) (Numbers 30:3), and we promised last week that we would continue to try and understand the secret, the foundation, and the practical halacha of the topic we discussed as a continuation of the topic of holiness, but it is also the topic called tikkun chatzot. For the later mekubalim — and I searched for this even today and I don’t have complete clarity — the Arizal, and perhaps already earlier in Reishit Chochma, though I myself haven’t seen this before, and in the words of the Ramak I haven’t seen this clearly — made from the point that the Zohar says one must rise at midnight and learn Torah, also a matter that one must cry over the destruction.

The Purpose of Learning Zohar — Building the Beit HaMikdash

And our claim was that this has a deep connection with the way of Kabbalah, and this is already a point explained earlier with clarity, according to the truth in the Zohar explicitly, and the Ramak explains it perhaps tens of times in his writings, that the purpose of learning Zohar is not simply to understand something. This is not a simple purpose, but rather there is in it a purpose of holiness. In other words, the intention, the secret intention of what was written in the Zohar and of what one learns in Zohar, is that very secret of building the Beit HaMikdash. The secret of — and one can call it more precisely — the restoration, the re-establishment of holiness. For the Beit HaMikdash is the house of holiness, the place where holiness dwells, the place where the Shechina dwells in the world.

And since there is exile, and since there is destruction, and not only is there destruction but the destruction goes and intensifies from day to day, as the Zohar says many times. The Zohar very much loves the language of the end of Tractate Sotah, ‘since the Beit HaMikdash was destroyed, there is no day whose curse is not greater than its fellow’ (Sotah 49a) — each day the curse grows. So says the Mishna or the Gemara at the end of Tractate Sotah, and when the Zohar speaks about the exile it brings this language almost every time. And everything can be explained in many ways, but it brings something in that it specifically uses this language in this way. And what it seeks to say is an answer to something I began to raise about it last week in hint.

The Problem of Positive Holiness — The Dwelling of the Shechina

What I seek to clarify is, see that there is a problem here, and we will explain it. The problem is that negative holiness — the topic of separation, elevation to be a better person, control over desires — this one can understand. But the topic of positive holiness, which cannot be interpreted except as the dwelling of the Shechina, as we read ‘ikkar Shechina b’tachtonim hayta’ (the essence of the Shechina was in the lower realms) (Bereishit Rabba 19:7), as the reader sees at the beginning of Parshat Bereishit and in the parshiyot of the Avot — to speak with the Holy One Blessed be He should be something so natural, like speaking with a person, to know, to be present in the reality of Hashem, in the reality of the Shechina, that this should be among the natural things like human relationships with one another.

And the great example of this is what we read about the Mikdash. For even the Mikdash is already a tikkun for a problem, and perhaps it shouldn’t be spoken of at all on its own. For this is the meaning of ‘ikkar Shechina b’tachtonim hayta’ — originally there was no Mikdash, and so too with Adam HaRishon in Gan Eden. Gan Eden can be called a Mikdash, for there was no world outside of Gan Eden. When Adam HaRishon dwells in Gan Eden, this is a place where ‘vayishme’u et kol Hashem Elokim mithalech bagan l’ruach hayom’ (and they heard the voice of Hashem God walking in the garden in the spirit of the day) (Bereishit 3:8) occurs — just as Adam HaRishon strolls in the garden, so too the Holy One Blessed be He strolls, both stroll together.

The Mikdash as Tikkun — Everyone Has a House

And what they made a Mikdash, and the Mikdash is that same matter itself like ‘v’asu li mikdash v’shachanti b’tocham’ (and they shall make Me a sanctuary and I will dwell among them) (Shemot 25:8), its meaning as we have said many times — every Jew has a house, and when one walks around the camp of Israel and asks where does Moshe dwell, they say Moshe dwells here, and where is Aharon, Aharon dwells there, and where is Elazar, and where is Korach, and where is Reuven — each and every one has his house. And where does the Holy One Blessed be He dwell? The Holy One Blessed be He dwells there. So He dwells among us. And He has His activities — there are activities that are the activities of Hashem, that we recognize as the dwelling of the Shechina, as the providence of Hashem, and the matter is natural like the relationships between us.

The First Eicha — Adam HaRishon

Except that already here there is a change, for about this the Midrash says that the first eicha — that they say ‘eicha yashva badad’ (how she sits alone) (Eicha 1:1), which is the title for the mourning of the Shechina — even the first eicha that they cried over was of Adam HaRishon. ‘Vayikra Hashem Elokim el ha’adam vayomer lo eicha’ (and Hashem God called to the man and said to him where are you) (Bereishit 3:9) — the Holy One Blessed be He says to Adam eicha. Eicha are the letters of eicha, and even though the vocalization is slightly different, eicha means eicha. Where are you, man? What happened to you? ‘B’gan Elokim hayita’ (you were in the garden of God) (Yechezkel 28:13), and until one time you fell, and you are no longer there. Afterwards they even expelled him, ‘vayegaresh et ha’adam’ (and He drove out the man) (Bereishit 3:24), but the eicha was already said about the very novelty that was created in him — that he hears the Holy One Blessed be He and no longer knows, ‘vayitchabe ha’adam v’ishto mipnei Hashem Elokim’ (and the man and his wife hid from before Hashem God) (Bereishit 3:8) — there is a place where the Holy One Blessed be He is found, and there is a place where the Holy One Blessed be He is not found. This is the first eicha, the eicha over the loss of Gan Eden.

The Mikdash Comes to Fix the Destruction

And even when there is the Beit HaMikdash, the meaning of the matter is that there is a house where the Holy One Blessed be He dwells, which implies that in other houses the Holy One Blessed be He does not dwell. And already there is in this a kind of destruction. And the Beit HaMikdash comes to fix the destruction, meaning, it lives in a world where there is already a certain fall. Before the sin, in the completely original state, there is also no Mikdash, and this is the meaning of ‘ikkar Shechina b’tachtonim hayta’. But ‘bati l’gani achoti kala’ (I have come to my garden, my sister, my bride) (Shir HaShirim 5:1), says the Midrash — I returned to my garden, to my little garden, meaning to my place, ‘to the place where its essence was originally’, not to a new garden that was made, but to my garden that I have myself, ‘vayita Hashem Elokim gan b’Eden mikedem’ (and Hashem God planted a garden in Eden from the east) (Bereishit 2:8), the garden that the Holy One Blessed be He planted in Eden from the east, where His garden was and where He dwelt.

When they said ‘bati l’gani’, when they made the Beit HaMikdash, when they said ‘yavo dodi l’gano v’yochal pri megadav’ (let my beloved come to his garden and eat its choice fruits) (Shir HaShirim 4:16), ‘bati l’gani achoti kala’, they made as it were such a garden. The Holy One Blessed be He returns to the lower realms like in the garden, but not completely as it was. For if it were completely as it was, they would not make Mikdash on its own and chol on its own. There, there is no chol, and in the aspect of Gan Eden there was still no chol.

The World After the Sin — Never Fully Returns

But now, from the time of Adam HaRishon darkness already descends, and we have never fully returned. ‘Achen k’adam temutun v’k’achad hasarim tipolu’ (but like man you shall die and like one of the princes you shall fall) (Tehillim 82:7) still applies, even in the time of the Beit HaMikdash, even in the greatest time, people still die — whatever the meaning of the matter may be, this is the aspect of the body that dies, and perhaps the soul does not die — but in the sense of the world, for what is the world, since the sin of Adam HaRishon there has not yet been a period when the sin was completely nullified, perhaps for half a moment at Matan Torah, and perhaps in the kingdom of Shlomo, but fundamentally no. And with all this there were tikkunim in which the world was fixed, the world became better, and they made the Beit HaMikdash.

In the Time of the Mikdash Versus Today — The False House of Hashem

Now we say, that in the time of the Mikdash at least people were speaking — where are you going, where are you coming from, ‘samachti b’omrim li beit Hashem nelech’ (I rejoiced when they said to me, to the house of Hashem let us go) (Tehillim 122:1). Where are you going? The Holy One Blessed be He. Today people can hang a sign ‘Beit Hashem’ — where are they going, the Holy One Blessed be He — but I think this is false. There is here inwardly — and I’m not saying if there is a mitzva to make a Beit HaMikdash, perhaps it is a good thing — but a destruction remains, for to simply say that there is a Mikdash, a house, a mitzva, this is not the essence of the matter. For to say that there is destruction means that we cannot live, we do not understand what it means to live in such a world, where the Holy One Blessed be He has a house and I have a thousand.

And it may be that there is a reason for this, it may be that according to Chassidut one must speak about this, it may be that the ultimate purpose — indeed there is a certain sense that when one cries over the Shechina, one truly cries over the sin of Adam HaRishon, over the eicha, ‘vayomer lo eicha’, where is the man who went and was lost from the garden of God — and to narrow this and say that one cries only over the place of the Shechina, only over the place of the house, is already a kind of narrowing, it would be fitting that the crying be even greater than this, that there be a nachala without metzarim. Now is bein hametzarim, and bein hametzarim is the greatest narrowing that can be, as long as the mouth is closed in bein hametzarim — that already made a house, but became stuck between the straits.

Nachala Without Metzarim — The Boundaries of Gan Eden

And in the future to come, you know, one who keeps Shabbat properly, ‘v’ha’achalticha nachalat Yaakov avicha’ (and I will feed you the heritage of Yaakov your father) (Yeshayahu 58:14), nachala without metzarim (Shabbat 118a). And the meaning of ‘without metzarim’ is that there is here something that is above Gan Eden, from before what was, for what are the metzarim of Gan Eden? The metzarim of Gan Eden are ‘hakeruvim v’et lahat hacherev hamithhapechet lishmor et derech etz hachaim’ (the cherubim and the flaming sword that turns to guard the way to the tree of life) (Bereishit 3:24). This is the boundary, the gatekeepers of Gan Eden, that the moment there is such a thing — it itself is the destruction, it itself is the root of the destruction — that says there is man and there is Gan Eden, and the man is not in Gan Eden. Perhaps there is a place that is Gan Eden, like Yerushalayim, the place of the Mikdash, where there will be the Mishkan, where there will be Gan Eden.

And the truth is that the entire Mishkan is only to remind man, to remind us, ‘adam ki yakriv mikem korban’ (when a man from among you brings an offering) (Vayikra 1:2) — let man know, just as Adam HaRishon, that there was once Adam HaRishon who did not need a Mishkan, who dwelt entirely as it were in the Mishkan, whose entire world was in the garden, who was in Gan Eden. We will return to this, and we will immediately see another way to say this.

The Original State — Man and the Shechina Are Friends

But what I wish to finish now from what I began is, that it emerges that there is an initial state, an original state. The original state — so one must say — of man, the original state of the Shechina, is that they are friends, everything is one thing, they walk together.

‘V’hithalchti b’tochechem’ (and I will walk among you) (Vayikra 26:12) is said for the future to come, ‘v’hithalchti b’tochechem’, lest you say without fear, therefore ‘virattem oti’ — there will still be a certain fear of the Holy One Blessed be He, but man, as it were, strolls in the garden, like ‘I and you will stroll in Gan Eden’ (Sotah 17a). The Jews and the Holy One Blessed be He, man and God, stroll in the same garden together. This is the original state, and this is the state of the future, the state of souls, that if this is not the state of the future of the world, in any case this is the state of the future of souls.

In the Meantime — The Great Building of the Generations

In the meantime there were states in which we made a great building, and much work was done on it. For ‘from the day I brought up the children of Israel from Egypt’ (Shmuel II 7:6) they did not tell the Holy One Blessed be He to make a Mikdash. It is an entire deed that the Holy One Blessed be He said to David HaMelech, that no one thought of this for three-four hundred years since the Exodus, there was a Mishkan, ‘va’ehyeh mithalech b’ohel uvmishkan’ (and I walked in a tent and in a tabernacle) (Shmuel II 7:6), I did all these. The matter took a long time, this is very deep work, ‘ad avo el mikdashei E-l’ (until I come to the sanctuaries of God) (Tehillim 73:17) — until they make the Beit HaMikdash there was very great work, this is not a small thing.

And they had to work hard work to bring into the world anew a feeling of the Shechina. Avraham Avinu already worked, ‘vayikra sham b’shem Hashem E-l olam’ (and he called there in the name of Hashem, God of the world) (Bereishit 21:33), made altars, established the place of the Shechina, ‘b’har Hashem yera’eh’ (on the mountain of Hashem it will be seen) (Bereishit 22:14), and Yitzchak Avinu worked, and Yaakov Avinu worked, and Moshe Rabbeinu worked, and as the Midrash says, seven generations — Amram, Kehat, Levi — worked, everyone worked. Finally it was possible to make a kind of Mishkan, though the Mishkan itself is only a temporary thing. Finally it took another fifteen generations, and Shlomo HaMelech was able to build the Beit HaMikdash. Awesome work was done here, and the peak of the work was Shir HaShirim, the day when Shlomo HaMelech made the Beit HaMikdash. This was the peak of success of the matter.

From When Did the Destruction Begin?

And the truth is, that since then there is no day whose curse is not greater than its fellow. And one should know from when the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash began. I wish to say now that it is from the sin of Adam HaRishon, but even from the tikkun that was made in the Beit HaMikdash, when did the matter begin to fall? As the verse says, ‘al api v’al chamati hayta li ha’ir hazot l’min hayom asher banu ota’ (for My anger and My wrath this city has been to Me from the day they built it) (Yirmiyahu 32:31) — from the moment it was made, from the moment of ‘bati l’gani achoti kala’, from that moment it began to descend.

But the moment that we call the greatest descent — like the moon that was at its fullness in the time of Shlomo, after fourteen generations, after fourteen kings, like the fourteen days of the moon, and descended completely back — is in the time of Tzidkiyahu, in the time of the destruction of the First Temple, when the greatest degradation occurred, and the Beit HaMikdash was destroyed. And now, as the verse says, ‘ototenu lo ra’inu ein od navi v’lo itanu yode’a ad mah’ (we do not see our signs, there is no longer a prophet and there is not with us one who knows how long) (Tehillim 74:9). We do not see signs, not the appointed times of God in the land, we do not see the Beit HaMikdash, we do not see Shechina, we have no prophet, we do not know what is still happening in the world. ‘V’ein itanu yode’a ad mah’ — he already said this explicitly.

The Fact of the Loss of Wholeness

And here there is truth. Indeed one can always say that he said this when he was depressed, and when he was happy he saw thus. And indeed one can always find encouragement, and one must find encouragement, and we will speak more about this. But the very fact of the existence of wholeness, of a complete way of life, in which man and the Shechina are not a contradiction, in which one can live both of them as one, in which one can come close, ‘v’hithalchti b’tochechem v’hayiti lachem l’Elokim’ (and I will walk among you and I will be to you as God) (Vayikra 26:12) — this is something that was, that we once had, but was lost. And on the day the Beit HaMikdash was destroyed — and I think that when we speak about the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash we mean the destruction of the First Temple, for the Second Temple did something, a certain tikkun it did, but not an eternal tikkun, a shaky building was the entire Second Temple — and since then we are losing it.

The Disenchantment of the World

Now, each time one speaks about this, as I said, there are wise men of our time who speak about the “disenchantment” of the world, about how the world has become an empty world, in which there are no angels, no seraphim, no demons, no spirits, no constellations. We do not believe today in anything. Barely are there people who still believe in the Holy One Blessed be He that He is at least the source of everything. Chassidic Jews believe in the Holy One Blessed be He that He is in everything, but only one.

And in a certain sense, this is what Chassidut — and it is proper that I clarify this — this is what Chassidut came and innovated. Not that there was no opposition and true controversy, but I think that those who understood well always understood thus. The Gaon of Vilna did not understand, what can I do. But I learn the Rambam, and I learn Zohar, and I learn the Ramak, and this is written in all the different books without any doubt. But what the Chassidim innovated — that there should be ‘melo chol ha’aretz kevodo’ (the whole earth is full of His glory) (Yeshayahu 6:3), that one can always find the Holy One Blessed be He, there is no difference, even in the place of the greatest concealment, “Anochi mi she’Anochi”, even the Master of the world, “in every movement and movement”, all those formulations — this should be understood as a kind of attempt, as a kind of effort to fix the problem that the world has become empty.

The Historians on the Mechanistic Worldview

And very many historians speak about this recently — and of course I wish to disagree somewhat with the historians — but they explain that when one reads books from the period we call the period of the Rishonim, the Middle Ages, one sees how the world was full of mystical things as they say. The world is full of magic, the world is full of living things. There are spirits, souls, reincarnations, angels, of all kinds. Sometimes one sees them, sometimes one feels them, sometimes one believes in them, but the world is full of all these.

And the scientists came, modern science, and emptied the world. They made the entire world like a machine, it moves, the world is a dead thing. As they say, there are those who think there is a God who directs it from above, like a watchmaker who made the whole thing. There are those who think He even supervises. But this is the picture we have, and this is called a mechanistic worldview. The world is mechanical, everything is like a machine. A dead thing, in other words, a dead thing. The world by its very nature is a dead thing. They expelled all the demons, there are no demons, no spirits, no angels, no souls, there are none of these in the modern way of looking at the world.

And this is very different from the old way of looking at the world, in which the world is full of all kinds of creatures, all kinds of angels, all kinds of spirits, all kinds of living things. That it may be that on every tree there is an angel that one can see. One goes to the forest and feels, so people once felt, so they tell stories. And I think that one who examines different old books and old tales sees that indeed this was the view.

Modernism — In Different Periods

And indeed, in other places the news, or the trouble, of modernism, of modern times, arrived in different periods. Sometimes one hears that a person’s great-grandfather still thought the world was full of demons. In places the news has not yet arrived. I do not know even one person, or almost not one person, who lives completely as they tell supposedly about once. But in other places the matter arrived at other times, that new view that the world is empty.

Three-Four Systems in Knowing Reality

Now, one must understand that this problem has different answers, and even the Chassidic answer, which is the topic of ‘melo chol ha’aretz kevodo’, still has a problem in it. Indeed, we are for Chassidut, and if there is no other advice it is proper to say thus, but still there is a certain problem in this. And why? Or perhaps this is not a problem, perhaps this is the complete tikkun, and I only need to emphasize it. And it is, that in a certain sense everything still remains the same thing.

Meaning, let us understand. There are here three systems. There is the system of Kabbalah — and one who learns classical Kabbalah sees this, and we will immediately explain the system of Kabbalah more. The system of Kabbalah says that there is a God, the Holy One Blessed be He directs everything, and His power is in everything, and no one disputes this. And the light, the light of the essence of Ein Sof, spreads through the order of hishtalshelut to the last, to the ‘smallest dominion of the sea’, to the last level of the order of hishtalshelut. No one ever thought that there is something that goes out from the domain of His instruction and from the domain of His government, there is no doubt about this, not even in “their grasping in the totality of His government”, not even in the Sitra Achra, no one ever disputed this.

But still there are levels, still there are levels of hishtalshelut, levels of hitlabshut, and they are real things. And one can see this, that therefore everyone in Klal Yisrael who is a mekubal almost believes that there are demons, there are spirits, there are souls, there are angels, there are sefirot, there are all kinds of levels between the essence of Ein Sof and you. And even though the essence of Ein Sof is also within every sefira, and ‘mesovev kol almin ummalei kol almin’ (surrounds all worlds and fills all worlds) (Tikkunei Zohar), but the worlds exist, and in all those worlds, each and every one of the worlds has a certain life of its own.

Meaning, it receives it from the light of Ein Sof, which spreads in them, but it has a certain life of its own, and one can speak about it. And one goes outside, and when one looks at the world one sees a world that is full — here there is the Beit HaMikdash, there is Yerushalayim, each thing has holiness of its own. Indeed, ultimately, all the holinesses have their root from the Ein Sof that spreads in them, but He does not speak only about the Ein Sof, for he lives in the world, and the world is full of life, full of grace, full of living things. This is the Kabbalistic view.

The Dead View in Some Chassidic Books

In Chassidic books — meaning in some Chassidic books at least — one remains at a certain time, or there are people who understand that one remains a bit looking at the dead view. Meaning, the entire world is still the same thing. There is no multiplicity of shades, no multiplicity of images, no difference between angels and seraphim. What is the difference?

I sometimes look at Chassidic commentaries on the Kabbalah of the Arizal, and I see — not in him himself, but even the Komarner many times — that a wonder occurs. The Arizal comes and says that there is a certain name for bein hametzarim, another name for Pesach, another name for Sukkot, and one who learns Chassidic books sees that essentially everything means the same thing. Ein od milvado, there are no names, and the intention of the kavanot of bein hametzarim is to show that ein od milvado even in bein hametzarim. And the intention of Pesach is the same thing, and the intention of Sukkot.

And I do not dispute this, but why did the Arizal trouble himself and make so many kavanot and so many names, and special names for this thing, and special kavanot for this thing, and special deeds for this thing, so that through them he would arrive and return and bring them back to the One, to say that everything is Ein Sof? Heaven forbid, the Arizal also said that everything is Ein Sof. But therefore life is in the world, and the world, let us say after the sin of Adam HaRishon in any case, the way of tikkun of the world is through standing on that certain life, on that certain vitality of each individual thing, of each intermediate part in the world, of each level, of each angel, of each cheftza d’kedusha, and so forth. This was not to make everything equal, to make everything as if everything is the same thing.

The Four Systems in Detail

And about this I say that there are here systems. There is the system of atheism, which says that everything is equal, and there is nothing more, there is no God. The heretics cry out there is no God. And let us say another system of idolatry. There is idolatry that says there are all kinds of gods, and each one is a god, and the Persians cry out that their god is a god, and the Egyptians cry out that their god is a god. In short, there are all kinds of other gods, gods in the plural, many gods. This is a bad system, meaning, there are many things, but many other gods, many other true powers.

Then there is a system that says there is only one thing, that everything is the same thing, everything is equal, and one God directs it. This is the system of Chassidut. But it is lacking, even this system is lacking. For there are two separate questions here. One question — is everything equal, is everything the same thing, and the other question — is there a God. And this is not the same question. And one must know this, that many times in Chassidut they think this is the same question. If everything is equal, then everything is one God. But it may be that everything will be equal and nevertheless it will be empty.

And in a certain sense, the belief that everything is equal, that everything is the same thing, is itself a flaw, it itself is false. There is a multiplicity of shades in the world. The Holy One Blessed be He made the world so that there would be in it all kinds of things. And it is proper to say that the Holy One Blessed be He is a fact in the world, and one somewhat denies reality when one says that everything is the same thing. And one who denies reality denies the Shechina, for the Shechina is the one who has determination over all the details, over all the changes that there are in the world.

So it emerges that there can be four systems. Meaning, it may be that everything is equal without God, and it may be that everything is equal with God, but still there is a deficiency of “everything is equal”, which is all the time an advantage, but everything is without God. Then it may be that everything is different, everything is separate, but there is God — this is the system of idolatry, which has a great deficiency of “everything is separate”, separation, but it has an advantage that there is divinity in it. Then there is a fourth system, it is the system of Kabbalah — there are many things, and there is God, and there is one God. One God gives life to all the many things.

This is the fourth system, and I do not know if Chassidut disputes this, but this is a question of emphasis — this is the correct system. That both there is God, and there is a world, and the world is full of divinity, full of the illumination of divinity, full of other ways to speak with God, and many levels, and even tarcha reika — tarcha reika is a living thing, it has no completely special power, His kingdom rules over all, but it even has something to rule over, for there is no king without a people, and the Holy One Blessed be He rules over it. This is the view of yichuda tata’a, but it is important to grasp that this is the opinion of the completeness of knowing true reality — the completeness of knowing reality is the fourth system, and not the third system, and not the second system.

The Problem After the Destruction — Atheism and Not Idolatry

So we return to the place where we stand, and we hold that there was a tikkun, that they made the Beit HaMikdash, that there is a place where holiness will dwell, but it was broken

The Problem After the Destruction — Atheism and Not Idolatry

So we return to the place where we stand, and we hold that there was a tikkun, that they made the Beit HaMikdash, that there is a place where holiness will dwell, but it was broken. And when we say it was broken, I think this is more in the time of atheism than in the time of idolatry. Meaning, I do not know many Jews who because there is destruction of the Beit HaMikdash began with idolatry. Perhaps this was once a test in the First Temple, but from the Second Temple this is not the test, and this is truly the difference between the destruction of the First Temple and the destruction of the Second Temple. And indeed we will think about this another time.

But in any case, all that is from the destruction of the Second Temple, our problem is not that perhaps there is another god, that perhaps there are too many other things, but rather the problem is that there is nothing. As it says, there is no longer a prophet and seer, there is not with us one who knows how long. It does not say “and perhaps I will be to them”, as is said in other verses. And it is possible, God forbid, ‘and what will You do for Your great name’ (Yehoshua 7:9)? And why will the nations say? The nations will say that perhaps their god is stronger, as Moshe Rabbeinu said, as Yehoshua bin Nun said — no, there is nothing.

The Nothingness Goes and Intensifies From Day to Day

Now, this nothingness must be understood. The Zohar says, leaves it thus, and the Ramak explains it — this nothingness goes and intensifies from day to day. Meaning, what the nations say occurred in the seventeenth century, when they began to grasp that the world is empty — the Torah says, the Jews know, that the matter began on the day the Beit HaMikdash was destroyed. Already a problem of two thousand years it is, and perhaps more, perhaps as I say from the First Beit HaMikdash, perhaps from the sin of Adam HaRishon, a much more ancient problem.

Why Did Kabbalah and Chassidut Solve a Problem?

But what? And if so, why do we say that we see the fact — we too admit that Kabbalah came, Chassidut came, and they came to solve a certain problem? The Rambam, the Raavad, Rabbeinu Saadia Gaon had other problems, for they did not have these problems. One does not sense from them that they speak about prophecy, that they speak about the dwelling of the Shechina, that they speak to us about things that — indeed perhaps they do not have them now, temporarily they were broken — but they do not speak about them as things that one does not know at all what they are. Whereas in the later generations, one must first explain at all what the thing is.

What is the explanation of this difference? The explanation of the difference, say the mekubalim, is that this is simply a continuation, another stage of the descent of the Shechina. From the moment the Beit HaMikdash was destroyed, the Shechina began to descend.

The Ramak on the Secret of the End

The Ramak says thus, a wonder, that when they calculated — for they deal much with the teachings of the end, when must Mashiach come, when must the exile end, “what is the secret of the final end?” — he says, that when one contemplates one sees that the need, as he explains, and one can examine and see if he said exactly thus, and I can still say how I understand this.

Daniel, for example, thought seventy years are the measure of the exile. And what is the explanation of the matter? The explanation of the matter is that the world can exist — the world, let us say the Jewish world — can exist only as there is in it a certain life, which in Kabbalah they call “yichud”, a certain dwelling of Shechina. Meaning, so one must believe, so Jews believe, that without the Beit HaMikdash the world is not alive. A world cannot be possible if the atheists are correct, God forbid, for then the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash does not raise or lower. And even if the Chassidim are correct, it does not raise or lower, for the Holy One Blessed be He gives life to everyone in any case. But if there is a difference between a world with yichud, with Shechina, and between a world without Shechina, in separation — a special Shechina, which is ‘I am Hashem your God who unifies My name upon you’ in a special way — then how can the world continue?

The world cannot continue forever in exile. The exile cannot be an eternal thing. Meaning, if it will be an eternal thing, it will end at a certain point. Either it will end with ‘and the children will return to their border’ (Yirmiyahu 31:16), or it will end with ‘and you will be lost among the nations’ (Vayikra 26:38). There are two ways in which it can end, but certainly it must end. And since there is a certain promise, there is a certain condition, there is a certain nature, that we already know that there is such a thing that “and you will be lost among the nations” cannot be, it must be ‘and Hashem your God will return’ (Devarim 30:3), there is a certain point.

Seventy Years — A Complete Generation

Now the Ramak says thus: Daniel calculated seventy years — he calculated, seventy years are ‘the days of our years, in them seventy years’ (Tehillim 90:10). And I think Yirmiyahu calculated this, for it is written, and this is true. What are seventy years? Seventy years are a complete generation. After seventy years no memory remains of what was. This is reality. In the Zohar it is written that he forgot the language “seventy years”. About Choni HaMe’agel it is said, indeed, that a person who arises after seventy years, the world is no longer his world. We spoke about this at the time of Pesach — ‘until here is the mercy of a father on a son’, one can transmit the tradition for three or four generations, and seventy years are more or less the strongest way. One can say, as long as one more person still lives, one can still see the grandfather of seventy years, he can still speak with you. After eighty he is already somewhat nullified from the world, let us say at one hundred, but there is no longer any connection. A bit of connection, but not a real connection. So seventy years, this is the length of time that can be.

The Renewal of Life — New Abundance From the Yichud

Meaning, if there was — in other words, for the world to continue, for Judaism to continue, there must be life, there must be renewal of life, which we call new abundance from the yichud, that there was once history, “once there was”, there was once. Now there is yichud. I can understand that there will be exile for seventy years. In other words, in one year they will still remember. In the first years the Jews will still remember, ‘by the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and also wept when we remembered Zion’ (Tehillim 137:1). They still remembered. They still remembered Zion. They could still say “eicha”, ‘how shall we sing the song of Hashem on foreign soil’ (Tehillim 137:4), ‘if I forget you Yerushalayim’ (Tehillim 137:5). Indeed, one can sign in another place, “good within the bad”, they still knew what it means. Another year came, and they already said in a weaker voice. Another year came, and it became even weaker. Indeed, the gathering becomes weak each year, for they forget, and do not know from what was.

Yirmiyahu HaNavi thought, after seventy years, either the Holy One Blessed be He will redeem the Jews, or no, or there will no longer be Jews. There is only one, as Rabbi Bunim said, or there will no longer be Jews. There are only these two possibilities. This is fundamentally what the end is built upon, or one of the explanations that the end is built upon. And since seventy years cannot be, it must be more. But the Holy One Blessed be He showed us better.

The Levels in the Shechina — No One Can Estimate

True, Daniel already said that one can say seventy times seventy, there are greater ones. In other words, as much as the earlier tzaddikim could estimate, Yirmiyahu HaNavi, or other people who were later at the time of the destruction, they said that it cannot be that the exile will continue much more than such and such years. All this was their estimates of how deep, how many levels there are in the Shechina. One can say this in a positive way, and one can say this in a negative way. I say this in the positive way.

Meaning, they thought that the impression — in Kabbalah it is called thus, the Ramak says thus, in the language of the Zohar thus — yichud is like planting. One plants, ‘light is sown for the righteous and for the upright of heart, joy’ (Tehillim 97:11). One plants light, and a tree grows from it, the fruits of the yichud grow from it, the souls, the Jews who emerge from the yichud of Kudsha Brich Hu and His Shechina, the Beit HaMikdash, where ‘all your males shall appear’ (Shemot 23:17), they make yichud, and from it babies are born, Jewish babies. Jewish babies means babies with a Jewish soul, who have reception in them, who have feeling for Judaism, who have feeling for the Shechina.

The Parable of the Aftergrowth

And what happens if one stops planting? Indeed, such a shemitta, ‘and the land shall rest a Sabbath to it’ (Vayikra 25:2), a shemitta is made, they do not plant. But every person knows that even in shemitta it grows, and this is called sefichim. Meaning, from yesterday’s planting it can grow. In other words, the babies can give birth to babies themselves, or in a certain sense this grows by itself. And the parable of the sefichim is a better parable — they do not plant, but seeds fall by themselves from the previous year, and somehow it grows by itself even without planting. Indeed much weaker, this is not renewal, this is not a living thing, it is a dead thing, but it grows, this is offspring, light and offspring, this is the offspring of fire, the offspring of light, it grows.

And every Jew once said an end, every tzaddik once said an end. He contemplated, how deep can the matter descend? How far? How many times can it continue? How many levels are there? In other words, how many levels are there in the Shechina? The first level, a copy from it, a copy from the copy, a copy from the copy. This one thought, there are seventy levels after that. The second said, a thousand levels, a thousand years, ‘a thousand years in Your eyes’ (Tehillim 90:4). Indeed, a thousand years is the exile written in the Zohar. A thousand years is the exile. He thought it is more than a thousand years. Either this is another Torah, another Judaism, or there must be redemption. There are not more than a thousand levels in the Shechina. It cannot be.

The Infinite Levels of Descent

But we know that the exile still continues in a certain way. And this means that all of them, not even one of them understood how deep and far the matter descends, how many levels there are in the Shechina, what is the measure of its stature — meaning the measure of the stature of the Creator of the world, how many levels there are in the Shechina — ‘she has fallen, she will not rise again, the virgin of Israel’ (Amos 5:2). She will fall, and when she falls completely, she will not rise again, so the Ramak explains in the Gemara, when the Shechina falls, that there will no longer be where to fall in the last levels, when she stands on the letter tav — then will come “the virgin of Israel”.

The problem is that it was revealed that there are still levels at the end, and who knows how many more there are. The Shechina can fall much, much more, one can descend much more. Do you think to be an idolater of the generation is a problem? I will show you what it means to be an atheist. Do you think to be an atheist is a problem? I will show you what it means to be a Litvak. I mean to say, a certain Jew who can be completely dry, but still he is some remnant of a Jew. One can still much, much, as they say, this is the mistake that everyone knows about, there is a mistake, all the tzaddikim erred in the end, “I troubled myself to calculate and erred”, for they could not understand how deep, how many levels there are still in the Shechina, that there is still in them a certain life. And this is what informs us, that there is still that certain life, for if there were not, the matter would have to end, or the redemption would have occurred.

The Remedy — Small Ends

The mekubalim come and say, it cannot continue thus. It cannot be, true, it continues, but it truly cannot continue thus. And it may be, I truly think, that this is another Chassidic interpretation of the end, that they say that every end truly was a certain awakening, truly did something, but not actually, not in the sense, not in the physical sense, but in the spiritual sense, the opposite, all kinds of excuses. But in other words, the tikkun of the world that they speak about, the dwelling of the Shechina that they speak about, it is clear that it is not one thing, but a thousand parts. One can fix one part and another part will remain, and vice versa, and there is no problem with this.

And in a certain true way — and this the Zohar also explains and in the Ramak at length — what was destroyed in the Beit HaMikdash does not necessarily mean that everything ended. Indeed this is a fall, and a certain measure that one can see, one can ask the experts and they will see how much impression still remains, how many sefichim still grew in the time of the Baalei HaTosafot, and in the time of the Rama they no longer grow, already much weaker. But for this there is a remedy. The Holy One Blessed be He made for Himself a remedy, or brought a remedy. There are remedies for this. In other words, there are small ends. In what that person understood that the world cannot continue further, lies that truly in that period a new prophet came. But they do not call him a prophet, they call him ruach hakodesh, a master of a level, a master of comprehension, an innovator of Torah innovations, a rabbi, the Baal Shem Tov, Zohar, Arizal, whoever it may be, each one in his generation, a new way, for all the ways are always lacking, for all of them are still not the completeness of yichud, all of them add a bit more and a bit more.

Somech Hashem L’chol HaNoflim (Hashem Supports All Who Fall)

And with all this, it is proper that the Ramak, that is Rabbi Moshe Cordovero, calls this samach, ‘somech Hashem l’chol hanoflim’ (Hashem supports all who fall) (Tehillim 145:14). And she falls and in the future will rise, when she falls completely, He will raise her. But even at the time she is falling, a verse is said, the Gemara says, and nevertheless David returned and rejoiced in ruach hakodesh, as it is said, as is written in the letter samech of Ashrei, somech Hashem l’chol hanoflim. The Holy One Blessed be He supports. Somech does not mean that He makes it so she will not fall. When she is not falling, this is not somech Hashem l’chol noflim, but rather raises the fallen. This is the raising of the virgin of Israel. But somech Hashem l’chol noflim means that she is truly falling, that she is in free fall. But somech Hashem, the Holy One Blessed be He supports a support. And the Zohar calls this se’ad or samach. And the language of se’ad, I think it is from the language of “kisei David l’sa’ado”, to support, like placing a hand underneath, like — I do not remember who said about the State, a cushion for Israel in exile. To place a hand underneath, to place a support for the Shechina.

The Support — Renewal Within the Previous Light

And the support is always renewal within the previous light. This is not new light, this is not completely new light, but rather commentary on previous Torah. But many times it is so great that it is a new yichud. One can say that according to this measure, indeed it is redemption, according to this measure indeed it is new light. And as we spoke the previous time, that then they specifically begin to cry over what is lacking, for then they return — that we said that by the rivers of Babylon they still remembered. Now they no longer remember, but when they are reminded, for the Holy One Blessed be He sent se’ad and samach, one can cry over the last exile, and this does something additional.

The Way of Kabbalah — Raising the Yichud

And this is the way of Kabbalah. The Ramak said many times that the entire intention of the Zohar, and the intention of what the Zohar was revealed in the later generations specifically, is built to do, to raise that yichud, not the true yichud — that therefore it is said that it will bring — ‘with this composition of yours they will go out from exile’ (Zohar), if it succeeds. And if not, a second se’ad will come later, which already came. I mean, since then already two-three more have passed, the wheel has already turned two-three more times, and there are new things, and this is not correct, one should not hold specifically to what they were. But still we live very strongly from the Zohar, from the yichud, from the se’ad and samach that they made, that the Zohar made, and that the later mekubalim made.

And they built a kind of Shechina, a kind of Mishkan, a kind of Mikdash, through the crying, through “they made the bed like all who recline at night”. And the crying makes it so we can live further, so we can continue to live.

The Great Question — The Emphasis on Mitzvot of Holiness

Now I wish to explain on what the foundation is based, and it is very similar indeed to what I said, that the Beit HaMikdash is itself a tikkun for the problem of exile, for Adam HaRishon did not need a Mikdash at all. And with this we will resolve a great question that people have about the mekubalim, and I think here lies the secret of the answer.

The question is thus: One who learns Kabbalah sees an enormous emphasis, an emphasis renewed in a way that there was nothing like it. One can learn earlier books and not find this emphasis in this way, on what one can call mitzvot of holiness, or what they called in foreign language ritual mitzvot. Meaning, one who learns in earlier books sees that there are mitzvot between man and God and mitzvot between man and his fellow. But even when they speak about between man and God — there is Torah, service, acts of kindness — even when they speak about things that are between man and God, generally the one who knows knows, that there is almost not even one book from the Rishonim, and perhaps even from the Midrashim, that is like a book about the holiness of Shabbat, or about the holiness of the festivals, or even about the importance of eating kosher. It too is indeed holiness, he says.

One sees that there is exactly the same emphasis on, let us say, the topic of good character traits, on the topic of fixing society, and even when they speak about between man and God, they speak about certain understandings that a person will understand the Holy One Blessed be He, or about things that are like the perfection of man that he does not have other people, separation, devekut, such matters. But one does not see, for example, that an entire book will be dedicated to kavana, to the secret of the mitzva of tefillin, to the laying of tefillin as something that sanctifies the person, that brings the person close to divinity, that brings divinity into the world. One does not see in the books before the Zohar, and in later Kabbalah even more, but one does not see this emphasis at all.

On Three Things the World Stands

And there is here a correct claim, and the Mishna says ‘on three things the world stands’ (Avot 1:2): service, which is the service of the Mikdash, or let us say in this time when we do not have a Mikdash, we have prayers in its place, we have that type of mitzvot, practical mitzvot, mitzvot of service of Hashem. Indeed this is only a third, but Torah and service are two other things. Torah means learning Torah, it does not mean learning Torah with devekut. The pillar of service. Acts of kindness does not mean to do acts of kindness with the kavanot of the Arizal. There are no kavanot of the Arizal at all on acts of kindness. Indeed, one can see which mitzva there are almost no kavanot of the Arizal on — there are none. For one gives tzedaka. Indeed there is a kavana on tzedaka, but this is because the tzedaka given as a ritual, like “baruch David”, but what one gives tzedaka, what one gives money to Jews, this is not a way of being a mekubal. This is not Chassidic service. Chassidim indeed do these services, but these are not services that they present as Kabbalistic services. Simply, one must also be a person.

The Question — From When Is This the Most Important Thing?

And people can even ask, when they ask such a question, that in Kabbalah they say that all the mitzvot that one must do are in order to fix the tikkunim in the upper worlds. And the meaning of the matter, in order to build the Mishkan, to build the Shechina. This is the meaning of upper worlds. The Shechina in the world must be built, but there is a structure, as they speak about the entire order of hishtalshelut, one must build it, so that there can be “a house I have formed”, “the house destined to be built”, that there can be in this world.

And people ask, from when is this the most important thing? Why has this become such a great emphasis? For in the prophets it is said many times — what, the Beit HaMikdash? People rely too much on the Beit HaMikdash. The main thing is to be a person, the main thing is ‘to do justice and love kindness and walk humbly with your God’ (Micha 6:8). The main thing is not all these, the main thing is not the service of Hashem. The main thing is the perfection of the world, and indeed grasping Hashem is part of it, but not the ritual mitzvot, the mitzvot that we call mitzvot of service. This is not the emphasis.

And one sees apparently that our rabbi says explicitly the opposite. One who learns Kabbalah, who walks among Chassidic Jews — and I think that all Jews today are Chassidic in this way — sees that the main emphasis is on the mitzvot specifically. This is the life. When they speak about Shabbat, about Yom Tov, about tefillin, about tzitzit, about prayers, about singing songs and praises, all kinds of such things that belong as it were to the pillar of service, to what they did in the Beit HaMikdash in doing such things.

What happened to the other pillars? No one denies, God forbid, that there are other pillars, but what happened that this became like the central view of what Judaism means?

The Answer — A New Way to Build the Beit HaMikdash

And the answer is that this is a new way to build the Beit HaMikdash. Meaning, until now, if there was Gan Eden, or even another world, where the entire world in its very essence is a place of holiness — the weekdays no one ever thought are not part of Shabbat. There is ‘six days you shall work… and the seventh day you shall rest’ (Shemot 20:9-10), this is a cycle, everything is part of the same cycle. What one works on weekdays is not separate from Shabbat. But this is as long as one understands that there is an angel of the first day and an angel of the second day, and from Shabbat it is the Holy One Blessed be He Himself. But what happens when a person no longer believes in that angel of the first day and that angel of the second day? One can barely convince him to remain believing in the Holy One Blessed be He of Shabbat. But rather the entire world becomes a place of chol, much more than it once was.

If so, what does one do? One does as the Holy One Blessed be He said, make Me a Mikdash. At least one place will be made that is full of holiness, that is full of angels, sefirot, names, devekut, all kinds of shades of devekut, not just one simple thing, with all kinds of images from it. Like the world, that the world is full of all kinds of things, ‘blessed is the name of the glory of His kingdom forever and ever’, ‘Your kingdom is a kingdom of all worlds’ (Tehillim 145:13), all those worlds.

Bringing in All the Parts Through Mitzvot of Holiness

And the truth is that when one does thus, one brings into it even all the other parts of the world. Meaning, instead of saying that there is Torah, service, acts of kindness, they say indeed, that one who lays tefillin will be awakened in him to love another Jew, for tefillin teach about ‘who is like Your people Israel, one nation’ (Divrei HaYamim I 17:21), the tefillin of the Holy One Blessed be He, and he will remember the tefillin of the Holy One Blessed be He, and this remembrance to love another Jew. Or that he will come to the Rebbe on Shabbat, which is as it were a small Mikdash, and there he meets with additional people, and thereby love of Israel is made and so forth, and other ways.

But then they learn Torah so that there will be devekut. Why was it bad to learn Torah in order to learn Torah? So they once did. But the matter lost its value, for once, one who learned Gemara of the Rishonim — I do not believe that even one of them learned Torah with devekut as the Chassidic books demand — but they did not learn separately from devekut, for they lived and the entire world was in their eyes the garden of Hashem, Gan Eden, at a certain level, not at that level that was with Adam HaRishon or even in the time of the Temple, but enough that it could continue in this way.

But afterwards such a thing was made, that if they will learn Torah and they tell him what they demand — Chassidic talks discuss this thus explicitly, and you grasp that this is a new problem — if they say that they learn Torah in order to understand the wisdom of creation, in order to understand the world, in order to understand what is the halacha that one must do, the person will say, this is secular learning, this one can learn in the academy. And it is said that to learn science is a thing of chol. And who put this into the heart? Ah, the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash put this in. The destruction of the Beit HaMikdash, which took out the Shechina from the entire world, which did not leave even in the Beit HaMikdash, put into the heart that the world is empty.

If Everything Is So, Then Everything Is Also Not

Do you want to return a bit, you must build anew somewhat the Beit HaMikdash. If you wish to say melo chol ha’aretz kevodo — behold, again, if you say it in a simple way, everything, automatically everything is the same thing, automatically everything is nothing. If everything is so, then everything is also not. If every day is holy, then every day is not holy. There is no difference. For one must first understand what holiness is.

For automatically, says the mekubal, do you know what? We will build anew the Beit HaMikdash. True that there is no Beit HaMikdash, but it is indeed permitted, in a small aspect, in the aspect of Ze’ir Anpin, the small Mikdash, and one can build anew the Beit HaMikdash. They do not have the Beit HaMikdash. So they expand, they find in every point where there is a mitzva of holiness — laying tefillin, wearing tzitzit, keeping Shabbat — that all of them are mitzvot of holiness, not mitzvot of fixing the world. Mitzvot of bringing down the Shechina to the world, or of bringing the Shechina into them. And they put as many forces as possible to expand in the mitzvot, meaning to add to them interpretations, kavanot, orders, customs, to add decorations, like customs that are around the mitzvot. And thereby there will be a world that is a bit the world again, and everything is a bit standing on one. By emphasizing the mitzva of holiness, they return a world that is full of holiness.

When Can One Say the Sermon of Yeshayahu

And even though originally one did not need to emphasize this — originally it was the opposite, in a world where everyone understands in it that the entire world is full of holiness, one can enjoy and say, indeed, but do not think that this is enough, do not think that going to the Beit HaMikdash is enough. One must also do the between man and his fellow, one must also do as Yeshayahu HaNavi says, that a person will find a poor person and give him to eat, and so forth. But this works only when you still believe in the Beit HaMikdash. Yeshayahu HaNavi did not say not to believe in holiness, he said to know what holiness demands from you in practice, how to bring it even in between man and his fellow, all those things.

But if one lives in a world that is after the destruction, then one cannot say the sermon. They then say the sermon in reverse, meaning, they try to bring everything into the holiness, and thereby return the world. This is the secret of the Shechina, that thereby they return the Shechina to the world, and then one can already say the sermon again, then one can already say again even the sermon of Yeshayahu HaNavi. But one can say the sermon of Yeshayahu HaNavi only to a mekubal. One who believes originally that the entire world is flat, that everything is the same thing, what does he say in the sermon? Atheism. He says, ah, there is no world, there is only that one should be a good person, in any case. And why should one be a good person, by the way? I do not know, it is pleasant, it is not clear why.

Summary — The Secret of Supporting the Shechina Through Kabbalah

But the advice, the way of Kabbalah to build the Beit HaMikdash, is the way of all those ways, the way of emphasizing all those mitzvot of holiness, and thereby to continue into them all the other types of levels, all the other types of values, all the other types of good character traits, all the other types of virtues that there are in the world, that there are in Torah. And this is my explanation of the secret of supporting the Shechina through Kabbalah.