Knowledge of God’s Name and Nullification of Idolatry: The Foundation of the Exodus from Egypt

Introduction: Erev Shabbos HaGadol

Erev Shabbos HaGadol, it’s very late, so we must just say a few minutes of the beginning points, truly the introduction to Pesach, a continuation of what we’ve been discussing the last two weeks regarding the matter of Pesach. So it doesn’t matter that it’s right before Shabbos, but it does matter that there’s no time.

Chapter 1: Two Approaches to the Exodus from Egypt – The Way of the Zohar

The Second Approach: Breaking Idolatry and Knowledge of God’s Name

So it is like this, we explained last night a bit more the second approach, the way of the Zohar, which is not only the negative aspect of the Exodus from Egypt, which we explained that according to Kabbalah this is the breaking of the idols of Egypt, the breaking of the supernal bonds, the breaking of the foreign gods that happened in the Exodus from Egypt, or what the Exodus from Egypt teaches us. But there is also the topic of knowledge of God’s Name (yedias shem Hashem).

Knowledge of God’s Name and the Elevation of the Children of Israel

And knowledge of God’s Name goes together with bringing forth the level, the elevation that is called the Children of Israel (bnei Yisrael). The first thing, one of the first missions that the Almighty told Moses, He said “Come to Pharaoh and say to him, thus says Hashem, My firstborn son is Israel” (bni bchori Yisrael). After that there is an end of the verse, after that it continues a bit further, but there is an end of the verse, and in a certain sense this means what do you want to say to Pharaoh? What do you want to tell the entire world? Yes, what one says to Pharaoh here is after all the sum total of what “so that you may tell in the ears of your son and your grandson” (l’ma’an t’saper b’oznei bincha u’ven bincha), what one tells the entire world wants to hear “what Hashem did to Pharaoh and to Egypt on account of Israel” (es asher asa Hashem l’Pharaoh ul’Mitzrayim al odos Yisrael).

The meaning is that what one wants to tell and what one wants to hear is what is called “My firstborn son is Israel” (bni bchori Yisrael), and this means in another way “I am Hashem” (ani Hashem).

The Repetition of “I am Hashem” in the Torah

Yes, “and you shall say to them, I am Hashem” (v’amarta aleihem ani Hashem). “Speak to the Children of Israel and say to them, I am Hashem” (daber el bnei Yisrael v’amarta aleihem ani Hashem), “and I appeared to Abraham” (va’era el Avraham), yes, “and God spoke to Moses and said to him, I am Hashem” (vay’daber Elokim el Moshe vayomer eilav ani Hashem). One explains on this “and I appeared to Abraham… as E-l Sha-dai, but My Name Hashem I did not make known to them” (ba-E-l Sha-dai u’shmi Hashem lo nodati lahem). Here it continues, here is an end of the verse, “I am Hashem” (ani Hashem). This is the same thing as “My firstborn son is Israel” (bni bchori Yisrael), and I, and this is what one wants to bring out in the topic of the Exodus from Egypt.

Chapter 2: The Innovation of a God with a Name

The Elevation of a Close God

We spoke about how one tried to explain, perhaps I still haven’t explained enough, but began to bring out the point, that this is the meaning that a person can say that I have a God and I know the name of this God, I know who it is. As it were, it could even be that if one doesn’t first break the idolatry of Egypt, and if one doesn’t explain that this doesn’t mean that the name, the name and its form (shem u’tmunaso), the image (dmus) that one gives it, has a thing in itself, is something that one must perhaps give true honor, honor for the name itself, one wouldn’t be allowed to do it.

Why God’s Name Was Hidden in Egypt

In itself, one of the main reasons why it is hidden, God’s Name is hidden, one didn’t say God’s Name to Pharaoh. The Ramban is indeed precise, one said to Pharaoh “I am Hashem” (ani Hashem), afterwards one switched, one says “the God of the Hebrews has called upon us” (Elokei ha’Ivrim nikra aleinu), meaning, the name Elokim, the name God of the Hebrews, this he understands, because Hashem he doesn’t understand, because one cannot, one may not say it in Egypt.

We spoke about the verse “and Hashem spoke to Moses and to Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying” (vay’daber Hashem el Moshe v’el Aharon b’eretz Mitzrayim leimor), in the land of Egypt one may not say God’s Name. In general, in this world one may not say it, almost except in the Temple one may not say the Name of Havayah.

The Personal Name and Closeness to the Almighty

What this brings out, if we learn this explanation, that the Name of Havayah, this is the personal name (shem prati), this is the way how one says, as it were, just like, not in the same error that he has, God forbid, but just like the idolater has something very tangible as a god, for him the god is very real, it’s very real, it’s very close, as it were, just so, as it says “For what great nation is there that has a god so close to it as Hashem our God is whenever we call upon Him” (mi goy gadol asher lo Elokim krovim eilav ka’Hashem Elokeinu b’chol koreinu eilav), there is something of closeness to Him that is, ah, our God is not an idol and image, He is not a physical thing, not a tangible thing that one can see and speak, true, this is true from the aspect of what He is, but from the aspect of the kind of clarity and the kind of even way how one can speak with Him, one can “and you shall make known to your children and your children’s children” (v’hodatem l’vaneichem ul’vnei vneichem), one can speak it to the children, one can speak it to simple people who are perhaps not great philosophers who don’t understand what it means in the body, this is the same, and perhaps even better.

The Innovation: Our God is Close

Even better, one can even say that to the extent that we say that we have a God who has a name, he doesn’t have at all a god who has a name. And we sometimes even say the opposite, those who go in this way sometimes even say the opposite, the gentile, but whose god is something abstract, his god is something distant from him. It is not close and involved, it is something distant from him. But it is an innovation, and we say so. An innovation certainly. It is a concept, it is a cold thing. But by us Jews who know God’s Name, our God is close to us.

Chapter 3: The Danger of the Name – The Generation of the Dispersion and Desecration of the Name

The Revolution and the Danger

This is to such an extent goes the innovation, the revolution, which is to say exactly the opposite. And as we say, in order to be able to do this, we must show much chametz, we must show much evil inclination (yetzer hara). We must make sure that one doesn’t make the mistake that that generation made, that they began to think that this is so profane and the Name of God. They have literally this verse. They gave the Almighty a name.

The Generations Before Abraham: God Without a Name

What happened suddenly, now you don’t hear about any Name of God. They didn’t know the Name of Havayah and so on. It was Elokim, certainly, every normal person knew that there is a God (Elokim). I spoke to Adam, to Noah, I mean even before Noah. To Adam, to Seth, and Enoch, to Cain, to Abel. None of them had any doubt that there is a God (yesh Elokim). But no name, they didn’t have for Him. The name, is indeed a lower thing. The name, is a lower level. The name, is instead of a thing so holy like profaning a sacred thing.

The Generation of the Dispersion: “And Let Us Make a Name for Ourselves”

The name, the name, the name. The moment that indeed came the idea that someone made from the Almighty a name. Immediately, is the profanation, so too there is here two meanings in the name. Rather they go together. If one gave the Almighty a name, it is automatically, there is made a desecration, now one can already, precisely, a name one can steal, a name is a thing that one can make a mistake with it.

It seems like everyone says I have a Torah, I have a word, I have a name that is my name, comes there a wicked one as the rabbis teach, “and let us make a name for ourselves” (v’na’aseh lanu shem), and the Ramban explains it as a separation from the attribute of kingship, from the attribute of glory, “and let us make a name for ourselves” (v’na’aseh lanu shem), one says I can also make a name, if the whole thing is making a name, I will also make a name, I will also make a tower with its top in the heavens, like the Temple, yes, and its top is the gate of God, and how it reaches heaven, the ladder that Jacob our father saw is the same as the tower whose top reaches yes to heaven, from the angels of God ascending and descending on it. They also make a tower with its top in the heavens, because one can. If this is the thing, one can.

The Dilemma: Tower or Error

So how can one? So we are here in a dilemma, either one doesn’t make any tower and one doesn’t have this and doesn’t have that, or one makes and one has an error.

Chapter 4: The Solution – Removal of Chametz Before the Pesach Offering

Removal of Chametz is Nullification of Idolatry

So say the kabbalists (mekubalim), this is one of the secrets why one must be careful that it is chametz, a whole night is not removal of chametz, because this is a secret of nullification of idolatry (bitul avodah zarah), which is only so that we should be able to yes say God’s Name.

Why We Need to Be Able to Say God’s Name

Because we indeed want to yes be able to say God’s Name – why must one be able to say God’s Name? Because we live in the world of names (olam ha’shemos), we live in the world that is above the names, before the contraction (tzimtzum), before creation, which the kabbalists can perhaps understand, our whole fortune is perhaps that we have this out. But in any case we want “make us a name” (bneh lanu shem), we want to call, yes, “you shall call in My name” (tikra b’shmi), we want “in every place where I cause My name to be mentioned” (b’chol makom asher azkir es shmi), we want to mention the Almighty’s name.

The Danger of Separation – The Buddhist Parable

Because one has here a problem with what the kabbalists call being “a separator,” in other words, one will think that the name is the thing, and one will begin to serve the name instead of serving the One who is called by that name, yes? Like the Buddhist parable, that someone points to the moon with his finger, one begins to think that the finger is the thing. No, he wants to show you the moon, he wants to show you the thing that he is pointing to. So too is indeed a name, is indeed such a pointer, it’s like a finger, it points to something. But if one separates the name from what it points to, one can come to make from it an idolatry.

The Order: First Nullification of Idolatry

One says, first one makes a great nullification of idolatry, a very great nullification of idolatry. It could even be that it takes a few generations, a few generations or a few years, I don’t know how, that one is only engaged in nullification of idolatry, only engaged in breaking idols, only engaged in what Abraham our father did by Terach, breaking idolatries, removing chametz, burning out every kind of thing that can, yes, chametz is indeed a holy thing, the holy loaves that are next Shabbos, this one burns, this one burns.

Loaves of Thanksgiving – Even Holy Things One Burns

And it says in the Mishnah, loaves of thanksgiving (lachmei todah), yes, holy loaves, two loaves of thanksgiving that became leavened, one burns them with the chametz, yes? The leftovers one may not burn, ideally one must eat it. But the wondrous holy thing, the holy bread that is a bread of thanksgiving that one brings from chametz, it too one burns on the eve of Pesach. In other words, one is saying, God preserve us, the whole matter of materiality, the whole matter of what has a form, an idol and image, we don’t want. Why? Because this is our matter of idolatry, to break and break all names.

Chapter 5: “You Shall Not Do So to Hashem Your God” – The Distinction

“And You Shall Destroy Their Names” – Breaking the Names of Idolatry

After that comes so, yes, “their idols you shall burn with fire, and you shall destroy their names from that place, you shall not do so to Hashem your God, but only to the place which Hashem your God shall choose to place His name there” (l’sum shmo sham), there you shall do. Yes, what do we learn from here? That one must remove the name of idolatry, and the name of idolatry means every mysticism of the name.

The Innovation: “To Place His Name There”

After that comes a new innovation, that there is a place where the Almighty is “placing His name there” (sum shmo sham), there is a Name of God. “You shall not do so” (lo ta’asun ken), you want to have here a matter of “you shall not do so”? It would have been a matter of breaking idolatry. Breaking idolatry would seemingly have been, yes, “you shall do so to Hashem your God” (ta’asun ken la’Hashem Elokeichem), as they do. Why is the whole problem of idolatry? Because he has an idol and image. Because the Almighty has a Temple where there is a name, one would seemingly also have to do so. Comes the verse and says no, “you shall not do so to Hashem your God” (lo ta’asun ken la’Hashem Elokeichem). Why? We must learn why. How indeed can?

The Order: First Removal of Chametz, Then the Pesach Offering

First of all it is so, the first teaching is, one must deny the removal of chametz. If one doesn’t do removal of chametz on the eve of Pesach, why does one do removal of chametz? In order to make the Pesach offering, which is Pesach to Hashem, yes, to Hashem the Name, one cannot. This I said, it could be one must indeed give much time that one is only engaged in the negation, one breaks.

The Jews Learned for Generations Only Rambam

After that which one has broken so much, one can see the fact, yes, there were the Jews, and by the Jews one teaches all the children, there were such generations that one only taught the Rambam who teaches that there is no idol and no image.

Chapter 6: The Kabbalists and the Ten Sefiros

The Kabbalists Say: One Cannot Live Without a God

After that came the kabbalists, they said, yes, but one cannot speak so, one cannot live so, one cannot live without a God. For example, what they even called, “exalted for Israel, not weary, truth and Torah.” Certainly, you know about the Ein Sof, you know about the Almighty as He is from the aspect of His essence, but we are indeed people, we want to speak with the Almighty as He is to us, as He is with a name.

The Torah Was a Parable of Ten Sefiros

They said, certainly, that the Torah and the Almighty was a parable of ten sefiros. In other words, as we will say the true Torah, the Almighty wants one to call with a name, it doesn’t bother Him. It only bothers Him if it will bring an error, on this there is jealousy of God (kinas Hashem). But if it doesn’t make with jealousy, if it is upon the face, it is yes the face of God, the Rambam brings the verse “you shall have no other gods before Me” (lo yihyeh lecha Elokim acherim al panai), in other words, “these are My face” (eileh panai), My face, as it were this that you call yes My face, should you yes make?

Then It Is Certainly Good – But First Nullification of Idolatry

Then it is certainly good.

But first one must make “you shall have no other gods” (lo yihyeh lecha Elokim acherim), first one must break it.

The Kabbalists Learned First the Guide for the Perplexed

And through this, as one sees in reality, after that even if you will learn Kabbalah, the opponents of Kabbalah and so on who claim that the kabbalists are materialists, which is not true, because they don’t know, they think that the kabbalists didn’t first learn Rambam, all kabbalists indeed first learned the Guide for the Perplexed (Moreh Nevuchim), they know that the Almighty has no physical form (dmus haguf).

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[End of Part 1]

Idolatry, Pride and Simplicity: The True Way in Service of God

Chapter 7: From Removal of Chametz to Two Loaves — The Balance in Service of God

And from this one can understand why a whole year one doesn’t need removal of chametz. A whole year one does indeed yes, there are indeed offerings (korbanos), there is indeed a whole year, and one is engaged a whole year in the simple meaning.

Like Yom Kippur, a similar thing, yes, Yom Kippur it says “on it there is no eating and no drinking” (ein bo lo achilah v’lo shtiyah), like the World to Come, like the Almighty is in the World to Come, as we understand, certainly, there is a better understanding, without any eating and drinking and so on. So this is Yom Kippur, but this is only once a year, one doesn’t fast every day, tomorrow one eats.

The same thing Pesach, one burns the chametz and one removes all kinds of what this is, all the stringencies that there are in the prohibition of the name one removes. After that comes “two loaves” (shtei halechem), yes, one brings even two loaves, so in itself is indeed the bread, there is indeed even physicality, he says, the food of man, it is written for them. Ah, now one can already yes say, this is the writings in essence, the Almighty was engaged in this.

Chapter 8: The Two Secrets in the Answer to the Question

A. The First Secret: Removal of Chametz First of All

And we made clear that it is not enough to say that it is a parable with a lesson, or that it is the same “as it is above so it is below” (kmo shehu l’ma’alah ken hu l’matah), just as by a person there are different attributes (midos), so too by the Almighty, or the deeper things that the kabbalists say, that a person conducts himself in the attributes of kindness he awakens by the Almighty the attributes of kindness.

And we forgot, this was already Pesach, one already explained all these things, there is no sadness, there is no idolatry, there are no gods of Egypt, all these foolishness. Ah, but as it were we say have yes, this is the first thing. This is the first secret of where this works.

B. The Second Secret: “And Let Us Make a Name for Ourselves” — The Problem of Pride

The second thing is, and here comes to the depth of the secret, and our lesson we want to say more in the way of service, in the way of Chassidus, in other words, from our side, but it is also the whole thing is this means that it is from His side.

The Second Mystery and the Explanation of “Let Us Make a Name”

The second mystery is like this, the second part of the answer is like this, that there is another way of interpreting the verse “and let us make a name for ourselves,” which we say is one of the roots of idolatry (avodah zarah). Yes, they made themselves a name, they made themselves something that is separate, they made themselves something that is independent, which is a name without the name of Hashem. Yes, they made a name without Hashem. It’s the name, but it doesn’t remain, and the Ramak [Rabbi Moshe Cordovero] calls this “cutting the plantings” (kitzutz b’netiot), they caused the descent of the structure, they made the kingship (malchut) without the beauty (tiferet). This is the meaning of “and let us make a name for ourselves,” this is the meaning of “woe to those who call in the name of Hashem,” the same point.

C. The Tikkunei Zohar’s Parable of the Study Hall

Now, but what is the answer? There is another way how one must learn this. The Tikkunei Zohar says “and let us make a name for ourselves,” a parable. The Tikkunei Zohar says who is “and let us make a name for ourselves”? The one who makes a study hall (beit midrash), and afterwards in the study hall he makes a tower (migdal). Yes, a migdal is what the Sephardim call the platform (bimah), where one goes up to read the Torah they call a migdal. He is “and let us make a name for ourselves,” he makes a migdal, and he makes in it, he writes his name. Why? “And let us make a name for ourselves,” so it should stand in my name, the gate of so-and-so son of so-and-so.

The one who makes a study hall, says the Tikkunei Zohar, this is literally “and let us make a name for ourselves.” Why? He wants his name to be famous throughout all the land, people should know his name, such-and-such building.

D. The Lesson from the Parable

What must we understand here though? What must we understand? That this doesn’t mean that one shouldn’t make any study hall, first of all. Secondly, however, we see here that the “and let us make a name for ourselves,” the way that we speak of it in terms of service (avodah), is the same thing that he means himself. In Chassidic language one says, he means his existence (yeshut), he means his pride (gaavah).

Chapter 9: Idolatry as the Highest Pride

A. The Deeper Explanation of Idolatry

He is so great. But one must explain this more deeply. In other words, let’s say like this.

What is the problem of, what does idolatry (avodah zarah) mean? What is the problem of the other gods (elohim acherim), of the “you shall not bow down to them”? It’s called according to Kabbalah “cutting the plantings” (kitzutz b’netiot), or the theoretical-philosophical is called “cutting the plantings,” he separates. But what he calls, this is in actual practice it looks like pride (gaavah). It’s pride.

B. The Greatest Pride: “They Made Themselves Gods”

What is the greatest pride that a person can have? A person can be prideful in many ways, but the greatest pride he can be is to say that he made himself a god. “They made themselves gods” (asu lahem elohim).

Imagine idolatry, it’s the work of human hands (maaseh yedei adam). A person can make many things, he makes a great building, he wrote a book, he made a yeshiva, he made a business. Okay, he makes, he considers himself great, he made it. Imagine how great a person must consider himself that he should make himself a god. “They made themselves gods.”

Hello, you’re making yourself a god? A god makes you, you don’t make a god. The entire idea of a god is that he makes you, you don’t make him. Yes, you made him, the god who took you out of Egypt? You made him? He made you, he took you out. “I am Hashem your God who took you out of the land of Egypt,” not the god that one makes. One cannot make a god.

C. The Deeper Meaning of “Making a God”

Of course, in a living truth one can somewhat yes make a god, which we spoke about last week, it’s called “awakening from below” (itaruta d’letata). But what does the awakening from below consist of regarding the making of gods? It consists of knowing that one doesn’t make a god, a god makes you. And making a god is a deeper thing.

Simply of course, one can say what one laughs at idolatry in Hallel, he makes himself a god, “half of it he burned in fire,” which we read in the haftarah last week, he took a piece of wood, and half of it is firewood, and half of it he makes from it a table. This is making a god.

D. The True Meaning: Taking God for Oneself

But deeper, making a god means what? To think that I, insofar as I am created, not insofar as I comprehend the Creator, which is called the divine soul (nefesh elokis), which is actually not. But I, insofar as I am created, insofar as I am human, I am on the side of the great human, I, it’s fitting for me to have a god, it’s fitting for me to understand God. I am among the things that I also understand, I am a person of level, I am a person of comprehension, I understand the Almighty.

This is idolatry. That is, he took God, he took Him for himself. He became the god. He stole from himself, literally a thief, “one who steals from the community of Israel and the Holy One Blessed be He.” He stole from himself, he took God, and now he is “taking for himself gods” (lokeach lo elohim), he took himself a god, he made himself a god. Let me say this.

Chapter 10: The Critique of False Philosophers

A. The One Who Has No God

And not only that, I want to say a deeper thing, I hope that people won’t criticize me too much for saying this, and not only that, that I think, I already said in a public lecture around Chanukah time, but I want to say it here now in this context, perhaps it will answer our problem.

I think that it can very well be that there is someone who doesn’t have a god, that he is on the level of a child and small-minded (katanei hadaat), one would have had to otherwise make words of Torah like the language of people (dibra Torah k’lashon bnei adam), he should imagine that the Almighty has hands and feet and one speaks to him so far, just as the Torah spoke in human language (dibra Torah k’lashon bnei adam). But it doesn’t suit him, he considers himself greater, he is a great sage (chacham), he has heard that the Rambam [Maimonides] said that the Almighty doesn’t have a body, and the Rambam was a very clever person, so it must be that the clever people understand that the Almighty doesn’t have a body. It doesn’t suit him.

B. The Result: He Doesn’t Serve the Almighty

And consequently what? He doesn’t serve the Almighty. As we see in the early authorities (rishonim), the kabbalists who are angry at certain people who were and considered themselves students of the Rambam, who more or less said this. How does one know that someone is a philosopher who isn’t proper? He doesn’t come to pray.

Why? Because he says, “Ah, there I must be engaged in comprehending Hashem. Prayer, one speaks there as it were (k’veyachol), all those people who pray think unfortunately that the Almighty hears them, He has an ear, He hears it. It’s not like that.” Consequently, what did the people say? He doesn’t need to.

Ah, at that time did he sit and learn the Guide for the Perplexed (Moreh Nevuchim)? I think that I’m not sure, often not. But it doesn’t look true. Why? It doesn’t look true.

C. The Chassidic Books’ Understanding

Let’s say like this, in Chassidic books it says this, and by the way, the Chassidic books have one advantage, one can always criticize their comprehensions, perhaps one can understand better, I don’t know, perhaps they had better information, but their understanding of what drives people is often very penetrating and profound.

And the Chassidic books say, “Ah, in other words, you’re not interested in knowing God. To know God is something that ruins you, that destroys you. What interests you is called the one who understands God, yes? What interests you is to become yourself greater. You don’t understand the Almighty. To understand the Almighty you would yes have gone, first of all you would yes have gone to the study hall, you would yes have prayed.

Secondly, let’s say that you understand that one must understand deeper, one must understand truly, certainly. What does that mean? You would have prayed with intention (kavanah), it’s the Guide for the Perplexed, it’s fine. What will you gain here by praying in order to be close to the heart, to think of the Almighty? It’s good, but this doesn’t interest you. Why doesn’t this interest you? Because you see that this isn’t interested in the Almighty at all, you’re interested in yourself.”

Chapter 11: The Foundation of Simplicity — The Baal Shem Tov’s Teaching

A. A Wonderfully Sharp Teaching

I want to say a wonderfully sharp teaching, I want to say a wonderfully sharp teaching. I want to say that it can be why? Because one cannot dance higher than one’s level, the true essential thing is not falsehood, it’s to go with simplicity (temimut). Simplicity (temimut) and straightforwardness (peshitut). Simplicity and straightforwardness is a true thing, even according to the Rambam there is a way one must go with simplicity.

B. What Does Simplicity Mean?

And simplicity doesn’t mean what people think that it’s something that is a bluff. Simplicity doesn’t mean, one may not go away from where one is oneself. Not to go away from where one is oneself.

C. “Many Did Like Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and Did Not Succeed”

One of the greatest teachings of the Baal Shem Tov was: “Many did like Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and did not succeed” (harbeh asu k’Rashbi v’lo alta b’yadam). The Baal Shem Tov said why? It says in Toldot a few times, many times, like every thing, but the world knows many teachings of the Baal Shem Tov, but I think it doesn’t know this enough.

“Many did like Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and did not succeed,” meaning they became broken from here and from there, yes? They had neither their work done by others nor Torah. Why does the Baal Shem Tov say? Because “they did like Rashbi,” there are many people who wanted to be Rashbi, he wants to be Rashbi. It doesn’t work.

Rashbi spoke for you are on the level not to make idolatry from your power, you are already on the level, you already truly hold, you would have wanted to be Rashbi? Yes, I understand. It’s another thing, Rashbi is a great Jew, I want to be Rashbi. You have neither this nor that. A camel wanted to have horns, so he remained neither with horns nor with ears.

D. The Danger of Dancing Higher Than One’s Level

This happens when a person dances higher than his level. Just so, we are in the physical world (olam hamuchashim), we are in the world of chametz, let’s even say. Or the capacity for chametz, yes? We are in this world. And sometimes the Almighty wants to speak to us. Now this is not us.

Chapter 12: The Third Answer — “Which Hashem Will Choose”

Here comes the third point which is the true answer. What do they say, I’ll give you the right, what it says in the portion of Devarim, in the book of Deuteronomy, how may one have but it’s not permitted?

This we didn’t make, this is “which Hashem will choose” (asher yivchar Hashem), the Almighty chose this. What does it mean that the Almighty chose? It doesn’t mean the embodiment as it were (k’veyachol) that people think, the Almighty wants that there one should make but it may not be here, and there is but the planting and here not. What does this mean? It’s a superficial god. What it means is,

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[Continued in next part]

The True Answer: “Which Hashem Will Choose” – How One Becomes a Chariot for the Divine Presence

Chapter 13: The Third Point – The Almighty Made It, Not Us

The Foundation of “Which Hashem Will Choose”

Now, this is not us. Here comes the third point, which is the true answer. What do they say? They say, who gave you the right? What it says in the portion of Devarim, in the book of Deuteronomy, why may one speak of a Temple? Because this we didn’t make. This is “which Hashem will choose” (asher yivchar Hashem). The Almighty chose this.

An Inner Interpretation: Recognition of Limitations

What does it mean that the Almighty chose? It doesn’t mean the embodiment as it were (k’veyachol) that people think. The Almighty wants that there one should make a Temple, and there it’s not, and there is idolatry here not.

What does this mean? I have an inner interpretation of it. What it means is, that things still become idolatry when you don’t grasp that you didn’t do it, rather the Almighty did it.

How do I know that the Almighty did it? Because you have the recognition in practice (halacha l’maaseh) that not I with what I grasped in the small image of divinity, rather the Almighty.

I on my part (mitzidi) also actually consider myself great, I would have wanted to have the truest comprehension. But meanwhile, in my situation, in my world, with whom I speak, and who spoke to me, who spoke to me, I understand that when I try to imagine the Almighty, it comes to me that it’s a small god, it’s a little god. I say, or there came to me a… I know, simple services that one can do, saying Psalms (Tehillim), I know, saying “I thank” (Modeh Ani) from “Give thanks to Hashem for He is good, for His kindness is eternal” (Hodu l’Hashem ki tov ki l’olam chasdo). This is what I know.

Where I End, “The Works of Hashem” Begin

I say meaning, that when a person has such a perspective, it’s not he who makes it, it’s the Almighty who made it. Not I have a great comprehension, I understand so, not I am a great super-sage and I must specifically yes have an embodiment. Not any one of these things. I don’t have anything here. It came to me like this. It’s from the side of my limitations (hagbalot).

When a person recognizes his limitations, it means, where I end, there begins what we call “the works of Hashem” (maasei Hashem). It’s the Almighty who made it.

The Almighty Places Himself into a Name, into a Form, into a Temple

If the Almighty Himself placed Himself into a name, into a form, into a Temple, can anyone have complaints? “And Hashem said I will strike Egypt” (vayomer Hashem nagof et Mitzrayim), the Almighty came, “I and not an angel” (ani v’lo malach). The angels are against it, the angels are immersed, the angels say that the Almighty cannot, but the Almighty says that He wants to yes.

What does it mean that He wants? It doesn’t mean that He Himself becomes a body, but He wants that you should understand Him as (b’tor) a body.

The Parable of the Burning Bush

“And the angel of Hashem appeared to him in a flame of fire from within the bush” (vayera malach Hashem elav b’labat esh mitoch hasneh) – Moses our teacher saw a fire, and the Almighty… this was an angel of the Almighty, and the Almighty wanted that you should understand that the fire this is Me, I am this. This is the point. One must do something.

As long as you understand that this is what He wanted, so He certainly wanted to make Himself, there is no question whatsoever of idolatry.

The Difference Between Idolatry and True Service

Idolatry means completely opposite to Hashem, that you think that I made an idol, I made it, this is already made.

Understand, for this practically is true, if one goes and one does it in the form of (b’torat) the commandment, one doesn’t do, what is relevant (nogea) that not, because I understand that I must do because the Almighty told me, I don’t understand it at all, rather the Almighty said so, how He gave the commandment in the Torah, how one understands that there is a commandment, then there is no question whatsoever.

Chapter 14: How All the Points Come Together

Destroying Chametz, Materialism, and Self-Existence

It will if so one can understand, all these things that they say are connected. What they said that one destroys (m’vaeir) chametz, which is a way how one can make the calf Hashem without idolatry, because it’s a similarity to this.

And what one says that chametz is materialism (chumriyut), and afterwards one says that chametz is self-existence (yeshut), chametz is considering oneself, this is the depth of understanding (omek hadaat) psychologically in our life of materialism on the one hand, the greatest materialism is the perspective that a person has on himself, the self-existence, what he says that I made it.

The Reward for “I Made It”

And if one gives up (m’vateir) on this that I must have made, I must have the greatest comprehension of service, then it can be that it’s very easy one can do as it says in the verse, “their idols are silver and gold” (atzabeihem kesef v’zahav), “like them shall be those who make them” (k’mohem yihyu oseihem), just like the god, if you have a god that made itself, you’re stuck in yourself, you are wood and gold, silver the work of human hands (maaseh yedei adam), very good.

“And Israel Trusts in Hashem” – One Lives as the Almighty Lives

But “v’Yisrael batach b’Hashem” [and Israel trusted in Hashem], the Jews, they have bitachon (trust) in the Ribbono Shel Olam, they too are “k’mohem,” they live as the Ribbono Shel Olam lives. Just as the idol doesn’t live, just as his god doesn’t live, he goes “k’mohem yihiyu oseihem” [like them shall be their makers], so too the Jew lives as the Ribbono Shel Olam lives.

One Becomes a Merkava L’Shechina

How does a person live? Does a person live without a body? Does a person live without einayim (eyes)? “Einayim lahem v’lo yir’u” [they have eyes but do not see], he lives with einayim, but the einayim are the eyes of the Ribbono Shel Olam, meaning he becomes a merkava l’Shechina (a chariot for the Shechina, a vehicle for the Divine Presence).

Conclusion

This is already the new level of Pesach night, im yirtzeh Hashem (God willing), Motzaei Shabbos we will upload the shiur.