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.