LM 15.1 — Ohr HaGanuz, Part 1 of 3 (para. 1–4) · תורה ט״ו

Torah ט״ו, לשון רבינו זכרונו לברכה. This is actually going to be the last in a series of fifteen Torot that go through the the fantastic מעשיות of Rabba bar bar Chana the way that they are recorded in Masechet Bava Batra, דף ע״ג ע״ד. Part of the background that I am speaking out comes from ר' Chaim Kramer's note in his print. The Rebbe had said that he had actually given these lessons in the name of Rabba bar bar Chana himself, that when he had first started to reveal these תורות, Rav Nachman had said that Rabba bar

bar Chana came to him and asked why he didn't why he's asking to Rabbeinu why he didn't pay attention to these מעשיות, these stories the way that they're brought in the Gemara, and that if he did, he would reveal to Rabbeinu the most awesome and wonderful insights. This particular this particular Torah was taught in Zlatapolya, most likely on or around שבת יתרו, which places it כ׳ שבט 5562, תקס״ב, or January 23rd, 1802. The incident the the what surrounded the context of it is that one of Rabbi Nachman's closest followers, the Terovitzer Maggid, had a son-in-law, ר' Yitzchak Aizik, who was a follower of Zusha of Anipoli. When his Rebbe was niftar, so the Terovitzer Maggid wanted him to to meet with and ultimately become one of Rabbi Nachman's followers.

Rabbi Nachman spoke to him about yirat Shamayim, about being able to be טועם טעם אור הגנוז, which we'll speak about, possibly actually a reference to Rabbeinu's Torah itself. And after he had an experience, and he explained, and it seems that he fainted during the experience while Rabbeinu was talking to him about yirat Shamayim, he woke up and he expressed regret that he had not visited Rav Nachman earlier. And later on, the Terovitzer Maggid visited with Rabbi Nachman and heard this Torah, at which all of these ideas were discussed in terms of the בית המקדש and intense tefillah and humility.

As far as what we're going to be discussing, we start off, the pasuk says, ואתם תהיו לי ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש, You will be to Me a kingdom of priests, אלה הדברים אשר תדבר אל בני ישראל. The the beginning of the Torah, אות א׳, מי שרוצה, we'll read the paragraph and then we'll unpack it a little bit at least: מי שרוצה לטעום טעם אור הגנוז, one who wants to taste the טעם אור הגנוז, not even the אור הגנוז or a direct encounter, a direct benefit from the אור הגנוז, but a taam, it's something that's like

a hint of it, it's something that's that's either leftover, but the the one who wants to taste the טעם אור הגנוז, היינו סודות התורה שיתגלו לעתיד, these are the secrets of the Torah that really in a general sense over here a person's able to to taste it. So first of all, he'll have full access to it later, and in general the access will be revealed later on לעתיד לבוא. צריך להעלות מדת היראה לשרשה. He has to be מעלה, connect the מדה of yirah with its shoresh. So first of all, this follows very well if you didn't hear the the Torah י״ד, then this is really a little bit of a progression at least these two Torot, it's clear why one comes before the other.

Torah י״ד had started off, also לשון רבינו זכרונו לברכה, להמשיך שלום בעולם, to bring down shalom into the world. Shalom we said is the name of HaKadosh Baruch Hu and השגחה פרטית. צריך להעלות כבוד הקדוש ברוך הוא לשרשו. We discussed at length what כבוד is and what it means to be מעלה כבוד to its shoresh, and we explained over there in אות א׳ in the last Torah that the כבוד of HaKadosh Baruch Hu, what's the shoresh of it? היינו ליראה, כמו שכתוב ליראה את השם הנכבד. And then we went over there into that how to be מעלה כבוד through תורת חסד, what does כבוד השם mean, to bring כבוד into those who are the furthest away from HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and through לימוד התורה, through engaging and through learning תורה לשמה.

And we explained in that context why the basis of כבוד השם is yirah. But now, we're talking about engaging yirah and the next step. In other words, so what's what what's it's a means to an end. We're saying that the point is מי שרוצה, not everybody's zocheh, but one who wants to, רוצה לטעום טעם אור הגנוז, to access this this otherwise hidden level of Torah that we wouldn't have access to, a person who wants to access that now, so then the next step in that chain is going to be מעלה יראה to its shoresh, and we're going to have to see that what the shoresh of yirah is.

Now, this idea, by the way, just to mention, this idea of of accessing that there are certain things within the the spectrum, the continuum of where we are now in עולם הזה, and ultimately there's going to be a גילוי in עולם הבא, but that if a person can engage, a person can have access sooner is also in different contexts we've we we've seen. One place we saw it is in Torah י״ג, I probably don't remember every place, but a couple of places that caught my eye. In Torah י״ג we said: זה בחינת התגלות התורה שלעתיד לבוא. So you can go back and listen to Torah י״ג, we discussed it over there. We talked about in Torah י״א, we were talking about that a person's obligations for יחודא עילאה, יחודא תתאה.

And we had said that כל אחד מישראל צריך שיהיה נעשה זאת על ידו. Over there we weren't just talking about מי שרוצה לטעום, but everybody has a certain obligation, על ידי זה יכול לבוא לתבונת התורה לעומקה, also like the depth of Torah, and in Torah ד' already we said כש- or what we talked about the idea of being able to engage in like an עולם הבא'דיק type of existence. Torah ד', the opening the opening words of Torah ד' were כשאדם יודע שכל מאורעותיו הם לטובתו, זאת הבחינה היא מעין עולם הבא. And we talked about also this idea of being ma'aleh something to its שורש, כשמעלה בחינת מלכות דקדושה מגלות בין הגוים, and we said מעלה בחינת מלכות לשרשה.

So this seems to be, we'll keep track a little bit of it, this idea about taking the the giluy and the access that we have to avodah, being able to to to being ma'aleh to elevate something to its shoresh, to understand, to connect to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and ultimately through that to have a clarity of something that we might not otherwise while we're in גלות בין הגוים and the Shechinah is in galut and so forth that we might not have otherwise have access to. So we see talk about this idea in different ways. So he says over here אות א', ומי שרוצה, one who wants to taste the the טעם אור הגנוז, the hidden light, what is hidden light?

So the note over here, again, I'm using in principle the RVTA version the most, he talks about the אור of the שבעת ימי בראשית that the Gemara tells us, that the Gemara Chagigah tells us that Hakadosh Baruch Hu had created אור, ויהי ערב ויהי- that there was אור on on יום ראשון, on the first day, the sun and the moon did not come into place until later on. But the אור of the first day, so Hakadosh Baruch Hu recognized that there was going to be כיוון שנסתכל הקדוש ברוך הוא בדור המבול ובדור הפלגה, it's a quote from Chagigah דף י״ב, and he saw what their deeds were going to be, so עמד וגנזו מהן, he came and he hid this light. למי גנזו? So where did he put the light? לצדיקים לעתיד לבוא.

וירא אלקים את האור כי טוב, ואין טוב אלא צדיק, and the light was hidden for the צדיקים. But a person who wants to have this light now, היינו סודות התורה שיתגלו לעתיד, it's housed- where where is this light housed? Or where where is the light come out? It's manifest in the סודות התורה. We have תורה שבכתב, תורה שבעל פה now. We've discussed earlier the different levels of תורה, נגלה, נסתר, הלכה and סוד, but the סודות of the Torah contain this light, this אור הגנוז, and a person who wants- this just quote, and then we're going to start moving, but a lot of times we just frame out some of the initial things that takes a little bit longer during the opening credits. He brings over here a Zohar. We'll read the Zohar inside.

He talks about being- having access to the סודות התורה. אמר רבי יוסי, it's a Zohar from תרומה, אמר רבי יוסי: ההוא אור אסתגנז ואיהו אזדמן לגבי צדיקייא לעלמא דאתי. כמא דאוקמוה דכתיב: אור זרוע לצדיק. וההוא אור לא שמיש בעלמא, there's no use, there's no access to it in this world, בר ביומא קדמאה, the only time was on that very first day. ולבתר אסתגנז ולא שמיש יתיר, and it wasn't used anymore. However, says Rabbi Yehuda, רבי יהודה אומר: אילמלא אסתגנז מכולא וכולא, had that light been totally hidden that there was no access to it, it's true, we no longer have direct access, there's no direct גילוי, but if there was no access to it at all, לא קאים עלמא, the world would not be able to exist, אפילו רגעא חדא.

אלא אסתגנז, but rather it was hidden, ואזדרע כהאי זרעא דעביד תולדין וזריעין ואיבין, it was hidden like a seed where we don't, if you look, you don't have direct access to the seed, what you have is פירות, the seed, there's growth that comes from it. So to the naked eye you wouldn't necessarily see how one thing is directly connected, it's further down the chain, but מניה קאים עלמא, it's from that derivative of the light that that's how the world is able to be sustained and established. ולית לך יומא דלא נפיק מניה בעלמא, there's no day that doesn't have something coming off of that original light, ומקיים כלא, it establishes the world, it sustains the world, דבהאי זן קודשא בריך הוא עלמא, that's how Hakadosh Baruch Hu sustains the world.

ובכל אתר דלען באורייתא בליליא, you can go back already to Torah ג' in אות ב' and at the end we talked about the idea of learning Torah at night, a couple of ways to look at it, you can go back and listen to what we said over there, that why learning Torah at night חד חוטא נפיק מההוא אור גנוז, that there's a חוט של חסד and it's especially to this אור גנוז, it's tapping into the to to the Torah itself. Two two reasons, I think, why we might have mentioned over there about learning Torah at night. Number one, now with electric lights, electricity, this changed a little bit, but a person is engaged all day long in whatever the practicalities, the hishtadlut of the world.

At night is the time when the noise stops, so that's when you settle down to whatever your default is. That's when, all of a sudden, when you're not engaged, you're not reactive to the noise, so a person who learns Torah at night, that shows that that's be'etzem where his heart is. That's where his default is when he doesn't have to be reactive. The second thing that we spoke out, even more so, I think, over there, is that the Torah itself could be responsive to something. whether it's kavod, whether you're plugged into something, even if a person is sitting in an organized structure in yeshiva or kollel, whatever it is. At night, when a person's in the privacy of his own home, when he's not in his in his nine-to-five so to speak.

I don't know that this would apply, I mean, you could pashut peshat would be night, but even the night seder, if a person's getting paid, he goes to night seder, but when he comes home, it's at night, nobody's watching, that's already Torah lishmah, he's connecting with the Torah in a much more in a in a much more יסודיסטיק way, ומשכא עילאין דלילא, and in that way, that's going to that that chut of the אור הגנוז, the chut shel chesed is going to be is going to be nimshach. עולם חסד יבנה, this goes to the heart of of the creation of the world, you could say, of a chut shel chesed perhaps, but this original or, the first creation is going to be nimshach on this person.

So, again, in the text, we said that this sod of this תורה שיתגלה לעתיד, this person, how do we have access to this? צריך להעלות מדת היראה לשרשה. We'll have to be מעלה מדת היראה to its shoresh. Now, there's different types of yirah. There is יראה נפולה or yirah of חיצונים, which we'll discuss exactly what that is, but that's not the yirah directly related to the two levels of yirat Hashem. יראת שמים would be יראת הרוממות at the height, but there would be, let's say, יראת העונש, understanding a person a person tells me to stay away from the fire.

So, before I get to wanting to listen to the person, to stay or what my relationship is with that person, even just to understand what the instruction and the reality of what of what the person is telling me, the reality of what a mitzvah and aveirah is, a person has to understand that the aveirah has consequence, that that there's in other words, you could say that there's a certain דרגא that a that a father tells a child, "Don't drink don't drink poison." You know, he puts a lock on the cabinet and says, "Don't drink that." So, a person could say, "Whatever my father tells me, I'll do.

I don't have to understand." But on the other hand, just to appreciate what the Torah is, that there is a reality, a real spiritual consequence of שכר ועונש, and what an aveirah is, and that an aveirah affects him, there is a certain practical first-level interface yirah with an aveirah that a person has יראת העונש, and they understand that the the Torah is a reality in the world. Not just סתם שכר ועונש like, you know, getting tokens or demerits, but understanding that would be like touching fire. A person doesn't get burned as a punishment for touching fire, understanding that that Torah is real.

And then there's יראת הרוממות, which we won't go totally into now, but a person can understand that the more that you're in touch with the reality of something, the more that that something touches the core, so then that there's a yirah created at that level, and the things that are less than that, the יראה יראה falls away. I'm probably telling the story wrong, but the story is true, it doesn't make a difference, it's a mashal anyway, that a chasid went to his Rebbe and he had, you know, a long list of a long list of problems. I don't know, he has a paper cut, and a problem in business, and this happened and that happened.

And the Rebbe gives him a bracha, he says, "You should have a lot of problems." And he didn't understand it, but he left, it is what it is, and he went home, and all of a sudden, he found out that a family member was ill. And all of a sudden, everything fell away. All of the day-to-day problems, nothing made a difference. And then, you know, Baruch Hashem, the person got better, Baruch Hashem he had have no problem to have all the little problems that he was complaining about before. He realized what a bracha it is. When a person has one big problem, everything else falls away.

And you can apply it in your own context, whether a person has jobs in his business or at work, if the business is threatened, then all of the day-to-day problems become become total nonsense. When when a person relates, and again, this doesn't really go to the heart of it, but יראה is is an is something We spoke about it last time. יראה is a is something that's external that inspires a particular response. The more that a person relates to הקדוש ברוך הוא from the point of view of of being in total awe and understanding, and again, הקדוש ברוך הוא is אין סוף, so the understanding could be אין סוף to the depth, and it goes hand-in-hand with יראה.

The more that I'm in awe, the more that I want to come close and just be absorbed into it, the more אהבה that I have, the closer I am, the more of an understanding I have, the more the יראה I have, גילו ברעדה. But if the more that a person's יראה, even the reality of the עבירות don't become the the the factor that really pushes a person to act, because even that, in a certain sense, is selfish. I want שכר, I want עונש, I don't want to do something, I don't want to be responsible for something bad, that's יראת העונש to me, but יראת הרוממות is greater than that. It's the way that I relate to הקדוש ברוך הוא. I don't want to do something I don't want to go against רצון השם.

So there's יראת העונש, there's יראת הרוממות, and then there's a יראה of of חיצוניות, of גשמיות, and that's really, I mean, if I see the world as being the the point the interface between הקדוש ברוך הוא and myself, so then the Chovot Halevavot gives a mashal in a different context of a person who's drawing water, he's a person who's turning the crank, the crank is attached to a rope, the rope is attached to a bucket, the bucket goes into the water. So, who's drawing the water? You wouldn't even say a pail is drawing the water. When it comes to, let's say, an עבודה, so then you have to maybe deal with the bucket, you have to deal with the rope, that's תשמיש- השתדלות in this world.

When it comes to appealing to something, you would only talk about the person whose רצון it is, that's the person that's drawing the water. A person hits you with a stick, it's the person who's hitting you with a stick. The the less of an attachment that you have with הקדוש ברוך הוא, the more that your יראה is to the חיצוניות, it's to the it's to the direct point, the גשמיות of the interface. When a person is not ירא with the גשמיות, they take this idea of יראה and they elevate it to the highest point. Not יראת חיצוניות, not even יראת העונש, they're moving towards יראת הרוממות. That's already going to be where we're trying to move, to elevate יראה to the source.

The source is going to be יראת גבורות, it's going to be דעת. We actually discussed a little bit of this concept. This borders on already like the way that the ספירות work and the way that we understand these כחות and the כלים and the מדות and the בריאה. In תורה ד אות ד we said, כשידע כל זאת נקרא ידיעה שלימה, עיקר הדעת is אחדות של חסדים וגבורות. We'll take this as it is for now, even if we don't understand it. There's חכמה, בינה, and דעת. דעת דעת includes it's an אחדות of ה' חסדים and ה' גבורות of חסדים and גבורות. So full דעת encompasses this idea where it brings חסדים and גבורות together.

So over there we said, היינו שלא יחלק בין חסד לדין, at length we explained that a person does not distinguish between חסד and דין, they see through the הנהגה. Even though a person might have to be structured to give חסד, so that's giving חסד through דין, but when everything comes together, that's כלו הטוב והמטיב, ה' אחד ושמו אחד. But over here, we're talking more about at least the element or yirah, the גבורות that are within דעת, and that becomes the שורש of yirah. And with that introduction, we go forward. So now we're going to explain that elevating yirah to the שורש is going to happen through משפט, through hitbodedut.

And this is relevant, I guess, going into or before Tisha B'Av, and going into ימי רצון and Elul, and ultimately Yamim Noraim, if we're not already in Yerushalayim before then. But על ידי זה, so through this, through ridding oneself of יראה נפולה, how does a person do this? Through משפט, a person is able to elevate his yirah. So let's see inside. ובמה מעלין את היראה? How is a person going to elevate his yirah, we're in אות ב, to the שורש of דעת until he can reach this level of יראת הרוממות, and not be scared of the everyday lions, tigers, bears, oh my! These things are just expressions of רצון השם, but I relate on a on a on a higher level, right?

בבחינת משפט, it's through משפט, which we're going to explain as being a person who applies משפט to himself, he makes a חשבון הנפש, he engages he engages hisbodedus. The קיצור, Rav Natan explains in the Kitzur, hisbodedus is a it's a it's a conversation, an open-flowing conversation, a שיחה between between a person and hakadosh baruch hu, understanding how they relate to רצון השם, how they're measuring up to to those around them, to themselves, to the world, to what their obligations are. Every person has their obligations. A person who has more kochos, he has more responsibility, he has more accountability. A person who applies who and and all this happens like the משל in Rosh Hashanah that it says כבקרת רועה עדרו, what what's לשון over there?

Like the sheep that are passing through to be counted one by one. When a person comes to judgment, it's not maybe it could be that, well, how bad could I be? I do much better than everybody else. Well, maybe I'm doing 10 times better than everybody else, but my kochos are 100 times better than everybody else. If every If everybody makes has $10,000 and one person has a million dollars, well then don't judge whether or not you're a big בעל צדקה relative to your peers, right? Even percentages. A person who has $10,000 and gives $1,000 is left with $9,000. A person who has a million dollars and gives a half a million is left with $500,000. Is it so clear that his obligation is מעשר? I don't know.

So a person has to engage in hisbodedus. He has to have true solitude just between him and hakadosh baruch hu to make this חשבון הנפש, כמו שכתוב מלך במשפט יעמיד ארץ. And we'll see what the לשון is of מלך, but it's a פסוק in Mishlei. The king through משפט will establish the ארץ. What's a מלך? המלך is every person, every person to himself. מלך, by the way, the לשון of נמלך, a person is נמלך to get advice, to have מחשבה. We're actually doing in the Ali Shur tonight the the some of the וועדים on מחשבה, and speaking literally about this idea of מלך coming from נמלך, that that a person has to be מושל on all of his kochos, and that happens through machshavah.

So a person is is called a melech, and through mishpat he's able to judge himself, he's able to be ma'aleh the ארץ, יעמיד ארץ. What's aretz? Aretz is a bechinah of yir'ah. ארץ, כמו שכתוב ארץ יראה ושקטה, I think the end of the pasuk is, pasuk in Tehillim, but the pasuk says ארץ יראה, so we see that yir'ah is tied to is tied to aretz. Now as a person as a as a person judges himself, you know, every person we say that כל העולם כל העולם was the entire world was created, כל העולם נברא בשבילי,

the accountability of the entire world is on every single person, the the way that we've explained it in different different meshalim, but if you think about the idea, if if 25 million show up to vote, does one vote make a difference? There is an obligation everybody should vote and do their duty because that's their avodah. Or 25 million people show up to, you know, you have a הפגנה with 300,000 people, there's a value to all the numbers, but does any individual matter? It's hard to know. But let's say you're going to a simchah where a lot of people come, but then the בעל שמחה sees you and that's meaningful to them, or a shiv'ah call and the nechamah of you making the trip is very meaningful.

Or a piece of a puzzle, it doesn't make a difference whether it's a bigger piece or a smaller piece. Any single piece that's missing destroys the entire the entire whole. I gave a mashal this this Shabbos, we're talking about an arch, some of this meshalim is coming from Rav Aharon Lopian, the paradox of the arch that every single piece has to be in place for it to stand, but it can't stand until every piece is in place. Lema'aseh what they do I think they build it around a frame and they take the frame out.

But every single person, we said at the end the very end of תורה ב׳, right, that every single person was responsible for perfecting and bringing their piece of the mishkan, but to get the Shechinah to be שורה, משה משיח had to had to assemble it. That's the role of the צדיק הדור. His role is to take all the pieces once they reach the shleimut and to put the the superstructure together so there could be השראת השכינה. So the entire structure is dependent whether or not you you view yourself as being a big piece of the puzzle or a small piece of the puzzle, the entire structure is resting is resting on every single person.

And to know whether or not you're measuring up to what your job is supposed to be, maybe you're a cornerstone, maybe you're a small little piece. And the truth is in an arch, sometimes the the the smallest it could be the smallest wedge that really is the top piece that comes in last that holds the whole thing up, we don't know. But anyway anyway, in order for a person to make a cheshbon, they have to they have to be making that mishpat is going to happen. And there's two ways that a person can have rachamim on himself.

A person can do the mishpat on himself and then if the yetzer hara or whoever the satan comes to הקדוש ברוך הוא to pass judgment on the individual, Hashem is going to say this judgment has already been passed. We'll speak out in a second that it's a big rachmanut, it's a big chesed that a person could have on himself to do the mishpat by himself instead of waiting for in shamayim in in shamayim for for it to happen, the בית דין של מעלה. היינו שישפוט את כל עסקיו, a person should make this חשבון הנפש כמו שכתוב יכלכל דבריו במשפט, should nourish his affairs with משפט, היינו שישפוט וידון בעצמו כל עסקיו, יפשפש וימשמש במעשיו, a person has to has to go through all of his ma'asim.

The Gemara in Eruvin actually says that נוח לו לאדם שלא נברא, but once a person was created, it doesn't mean better, it would be easier, once a person was created he should go through his ma'asim. At this point it takes work. He could get ahead. One of the ways that we that we explained it, the Rabbi Chaim Volozhiner discussed this in Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai says, even if I think I think פרק ב׳ in Pirkei Avot says, אם למדת תורה הרבה אל תחזיק טובה לעצמך, you know, what did what did you accomplish? You accomplished only HaKadosh Baruch Hu has an overall plan for the world.

We gave a mashal over there, we said if a father goes to a son and he says if you do XYZ, you finish a certain masechet, I'll reward you with a trip to Eretz Yisrael. And the kid knows that the father already bought the tickets to Eretz Yisrael, he doesn't need to put in the work, so he sits there for five, six, seven weeks faking it and he doesn't do what he's supposed to do. And ויהי היום and the father ends up testing the kid, and takeh the father bought the trip to Eretz Yisrael, so he ends up getting it. The world is destined it's going to go towards a certain place, but who lost out?

The kid that could have gone and put in the effort and then he he would have got tested and he put in all of the effort, and now with a smile on his face the father has nachat and he gives the kid the trip to Eretz Yisrael and they go in celebration and they go to all of the sites, or the one who faked it out and he takeh gets the trip and he didn't put in any of the effort. The end result, it might end up getting there. נוח לו לאדם that he wouldn't have been created. The neshamah was בשלמות before it came down to this earth. It came down to this earth for an opportunity and an opportunity that we b'etzem are going to benefit from, so it's for us.

So now that a person was created, so that the opportunity that we shouldn't get נהמא דכיסופא, that we should be able to build our own reward and give HaKadosh Baruch Hu nachat and so forth, so that is going to be that's going to be for our benefit. So over here also, our job in life is is to do mishpat, and HaKadosh Baruch Hu has a plan that there's a certain amount of of tikunim and a certain amount of avodah that HaKadosh Baruch Hu put into place that should happen leading towards leading towards the ultimate geulah, but is it for HaKadosh Baruch Hu? It's b'etzem for us. But now we we stand to be reward or punishment. So over here we're going to see that really it's for us.

We can connect, we can bring the gilui into, make ourself into a keli to have access to the gilui. And if a person wants that, what they have to do is elevate yirah. The way to elevate yirah to יראת הרוממות, as we're seeing, is to connect through דעת, through the element of גבורות in דעת. And the way to do this is to be able to evaluate oneself: Where am I holding vis-a-vis רצון השם? The way that I should do that is through משפט. Ultimately, I'm going to be accountable on what I did through משפט anyway, but I can do myself a huge tovah through doing משפט myself. Well, I'll just speak it out now. Why? Because in this world, so the my frame of reference is this world.

So if I make I make משפט, then Hakadosh Baruch Hu could punish me and steer me in a certain direction so that I, well, it'll steer יראת שמים in me or it'll steer me back into the right path. I can avoid something much harsher by saying vidui and by making a cheshbon hanefesh and doing it myself. That would be the easiest. The truth is, even יסורים in this world are much, much easier than when I'm when a person is going to be in a רוחניות world and then they deal with consequences in the רוחניות way. We don't even understand that. But the reward that a person gets in this world doesn't compare to the reward in the next world.

And the and the and the, you know, you could almost you could almost compare it להבדיל, למשל, a person is playing a video game. So if something happens, the person loses lives in the video game, or if they're going to get a Somebody is going to after the game is over, they're going to evaluate if they got points or or or whatever it is, got outs, and then they fine them money. So Halevai that in the video game itself might have been unpleasant while he's in the middle of the game, but halevai that he should be able to deal with it in the game.

But but but even before that, a person could really avoid the hardship by making a משפט and by doing teshuvah, and whatever it is that that יסורים and so forth would have accomplished, he could accomplish himself. ובזה יוסר מאליו כל הקודם. So now that a person is going to attach at the level of יראת רוממות and understand the world as just being a reflection like in Torah א of totally רצון השם, so all of the goings-on in this world are really only Hakadosh Baruch Hu the way that He interacts with us.

A person who who has this direct relationship with השם, יעלה בבחינת יראה ברה ונקיה, his יראה, his the way that he looks at what gives him יראה, what inspires this emotion and instigates this emotion, this what makes him reactive, it's happening at a much higher level than just the everyday. The everyday thing that we deal with just follows רצון השם, שיישאר אך יראת השם ולא יראה אחרת. Even יראת העונש is not going to be is not going to be what he's what he's worried about.

כי כשאין אדם, when a person's job, he's worried about all of his the files on his desk or whatever, and then all of a sudden, he comes up for an employee review and he's worried he's going to he maybe get a promotion and leave all everything on his desk to somebody else, or he's going to get hired fired, chas veshalom, so then the everyday things, the calls that he has to return, that's just not what he's worried about. Even if there's a real-world consequence to it, even if there's יראת העונש to it, and the higher up on a chain you go in any context, the the the less that the the the little things make a difference. כי אם אין דין למטה, יש דין למעלה.

The Midrash says that I'll quote you the Midrash: במקום שיש דין, אין דין; במקום שאין דין, יש דין. Where there is דין in this world, a person makes cheshbon hanefesh, then there's not going to be דין למעלה. And when there's דין when when there's no דין over here, there will be דין למעלה. כששופטין את האדם במשפט דלעילא, אזי הדין נתלבש בכל הדברים. If a person doesn't want to judge himself within evaluating his deeds and making teshuvah, so then he's going to face some sort of a judgment.

And even we're not talking about the ultimate judgment after 120, so day-to-day, the Hakadosh Baruch Hu made the בריאה that it's going to be responsive to a person, and then he's going to have to deal with with the everyday, with the Tanach is full of, you know, whether there's going to be a drought or rain, השגחה פרטית. The Gemara says, even yisurim, if a person pulls the wrong amount of change out of his pocket, that means that the world we don't we're not always sensitive exactly to why everything is happening in our life, but a person has emunah u'vitchon, it doesn't mean things are going to happen exactly the way he wants it to happen. It means everything is calculated.

So am I going to be calculated my calculations, am I scared of the pail and the string that's attached to the pail? If I understand that I'm my conversation is going on with the person who's pulling the crank, so then I don't even have to worry about the nature of this stick. I should ask the person to stop wielding the stick and tell him whatever he's doing it, I'm going to stop. The the the yirah of all of the immediate things falls away. But if I don't do that teshuvah, so then Hakadosh Baruch Hu's שפע in a certain sense, it goes to the קליפה, goes to the other side, that instead of interacting with me directly on that level, so my point of interaction, I don't I don't acknowledge the person pulling the crank.

All I'm doing is I'm worried about the stick. And Hakadosh Baruch Hu is going to act through the through the the stick, through the rope and the pail if he's drawing the water, whatever it is. And that's going to be it's up to me how I want to relate to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and therefore, the רצון השם לטוב ולמוטב is to give the משפט of the גזרה of the גזר דין, לעשות בזה האיש משפט כתוב, to do with the person.

משפט כתוב meaning that the משפט that's written in the גזר דין, כמו שאמרו חכמינו זכרונם לברכה, like the Gemara in Nedarim says on the פסוק in תהלים, למשפטיך עמדו, that the world stands ready, willing and able to deliver Hakadosh Baruch Hu's משפט, עזי הכל עבדיך, that everything is a servant of השם, לעשות דין בזה האדם, to convey the judgment to this person. So, again, a person should have rachmanut on theirself and they could avoid this, they could lead a much more pleasant, worry-free life. Does it mean that everything's going to happen exactly the way they would want? Well, if they're mevatel their ratzon to רצון השם, then the answer is yes.

It doesn't mean that they'll always understand it at every step of the way, but yeah, it's going to be it's going to be much easier. They're not going to be sitting there being a back seat driver, they're going to understand that they're talking directly to the driver and whatever happens is happening for a reason. So the way to do that is to engage in the משפט themself and not wait for the משפט to be delivered from without. אבל כשהוא שופט את עצמו, if a person is going to do a cheshbon hanefesh and they're going to judge themself and whatever happens to them, they'll be מצדיק עליו את הדין, וכשיש דין למטה אין דין למעלה, and then there won't have to be any judge.

They'll be able to be mametik the din, they'll be able to be mevatel the גזירות, ואין היראה מתלבשת בשום דבר לעורר את האדם, and the yirah is not going to take on the form of all of these other things, whether עונש and all of the everyday things that we worry about. Hakadosh Baruch Hu won't have to send messages through those things because the person will relate directly to Hakadosh Baruch Hu and he's going to do teshuvah. כי הוא בעצמו נתעורר, he himself will inspire himself to to look towards his tachlit and make himself right, right? השיבנו אבינו לתורתך וקרבנו מלכנו לעבודתך.

We're going to turn in the right direction, we're going to bring ourselves closer, we're going to ask for selichah, mechilah, do teshuvah, get rid of all the mechitzot and the obstacles that separate us from Hakadosh Baruch Hu. So in that sense, we're going to be able to restore yirah to where yirah belongs. It's going to go above the everyday and even the יראת העונש, it's going to go towards יראת הרוממות. וזהו ושם דרך, a pasuk in Tehillim, ושם, like a שומה is an evaluation, ושם דרך means to place your way, the Gemara darshes's it, מי ששם אורחותיו, a person that evaluates his ways, כמו שדרשו רבותינו זכרונם לברכה, אל תקרי שָׂם אלא שָׁם, it's a Gemara in Sotah.

So we read in the pasuk that ושם דרך, one who evaluates his ways, היינו ששופט אורחותיו, כמו שכתוב אלה המשפטים אשר תשים. These are the the How do we evaluate משפט? Through תשים, through תשִׁים, through through evaluation. When a person evaluates, that's how the the the משפט is the שומה, is the cheshbon hanefesh, is the evaluation. That's how a person can accomplish the משפט that he's going to get. על ידי זה אראנו בישע אלוקים, we'll be able to see the salvation of Elokim. Elokim is din. זה בחינת יראה. And that is a bechinah of yirah, which, again, is really an element of דעת, כמו שכתוב את אלוקים ירא.

I fear I fear Hakadosh Baruch Hu, but I fear Elokim, I fear din, that that and that this person who makes a cheshbon hanefesh and he fears only Hakadosh Baruch Hu, the יראת הרוממות, that's the person that will see the salvation from Hakadosh Baruch Hu and he's not going to have yirah of these חיצוניות. היינו בחינת יראה עולה מן הקליפה ומן האומות על ידי המשפט. He won't be scared of the קליפה and the אומות and the nations and the wars and the newspapers and the current events. Media is horrible because besides for the idea that sometimes we talk about a person is where his thoughts are, like if a person is living in virtual reality, so where where is the person? But a person is who his thoughts are, right?

If if you would take one person, I mean they can't do this, but you take a like a brain and put it into a second person, and you would wake up, literally look in the mirror and be in somebody else's body, then you would think of yourself that's you in somebody else's body. You are who your thoughts are, even if every single physical part of you is the other person. A person is be'etzem is be'etzem who his thoughts are. That's how you could change yourself through your machshavah. A person spends an hour and a half a day listening to the news, which you know who is it who's writing the news?

People who have every incentive and put billions of dollars into an industry to play with your heart strings and emotions, and to convince you that the you know that the world is falling and babies are dying unless you continue watching, and make you nervous over everything under the sun to get ratings, well that takes a large chunk out of where your head space is. If you do that for an hour and a half and then you say Keriat Shema at night and say, "Oh, I trust Hashem." Well, you just you spent an hour and a half living and being in a world that was dictated by whoever it is that was deciding, you know, all the news that's fit to print.

So over here he says that היינו בחינת יראה עולה מן הקליפות מן האומות על ידי משפט. A person realizes he's not worried, he's not going to have yirah out of everything that he sees in the newspapers. Where is the yirah? Where does the where does all the action take place? When he davens Shacharit, Minchah, and Maariv? Say ולמלשינים, well that that's going to be, that's where the the true yirah is. How Hakadosh Baruch Hu decides, in His infinite wisdom etc., to let things play out for whatever the reason, that's Hakadosh Baruch Hu's business. As far as you're concerned, your issue happens when you're davening Shemoneh Esreh, when you're working on yourself.

כי מתחלה היתה נתלבש בקליפה, originally things were נתלבש in klipah and his yirah was going towards the interface of the gashmiyut of the chitzoniyut of the klipah. But once he does, he engages in mishpat, once he he elevates yirah to the daat, to the true daat, and he elevates his yirah to yirat haromemut, so then his yirah it's no longer, it's elevated. It's no longer at the lowest levels of yirah of chitzoniyut, not even yirat ha-onesh, it's going to be up to yirat haromemut. וזהו שהאדם מפחד את עצמו מאיזה דבר, משרים, מגנבים, משאר פחדים, this a person is scared of the everyday things that would give a person fear: the crime rate, a particular minister.

זהו שהיראה נתלבש בזה הדבר, כי אם לא היה נתלבש היראה בזה הדבר, if the yirah would not be associated with with this thing at the at the lowest level, like within the video game, right? So it says, לא היה כח בזה הדבר להפחיד את האדם. And it says something very interesting over here also: that we're the ones who give these things the koach to make us nervous. Now, again, that doesn't take away from avodah and hishtadlut if a person's because if something presents itself to him in such a way that he has to react to it, then it could be that my avodah, Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave me something, and my avodah is that I have to deal with it in this-worldly sense.

But in terms of emotionally, in terms of how I relate to it, so if I am not scared of it, I'm not scared of the stick, I'm scared of the person waving the stick, I'm not scared of the pail, I'm the person who's who's drawing the water, and if this pail has a hole, then the person will replace the pail, I'm dealing with with with with something at a much more primal level, so then there's not going to be any yirah that's going to be able to come at me from any of these from any of these individual things.

And the truth is is that that that I might not even have to deal with a lot of the everyday annoyances of life, because if Hakadosh Baruch Hu is trying to send me a message and I'm willing to get to that same place through cheshbon hanefesh, so then Hakadosh Baruch Hu is not going to have to guide me in a more uncomfortable way to get towards that place. אות ג: So in a general sense, where are we holding that to experience the אור הגנוז, the hidden light, the mysteries of Torah, we have to be מעלה, we have to elevate yirah to its שורש within דעת. And we saw that yirah is elevated through משפט.

A person who does cheshbon hanefesh and he judges himself, so then he obviates the need, the judgment from above, and therefore he comes to yirat Hashem, which is pure and not that it's going to be נתלבש and clothed in something that is external. So now, as we move forward into אות ג, we we're going to explain that through this cheshbon hanefesh, through this judgment of oneself, the this is where the yirah is going to move over, and we have to explain now what exactly is the שורש of yirah.

שורש היראה הוא דעת, כמו שכתוב בעץ החיים שמנצפ״ך, or מנצפ״ך, but these are the end letters in in the אלף בית, there are letters that have, like if a מ comes in the middle of a word and then there's a ם that's closed that close that comes at the end of the word, there's a נ in the middle and a ן at the end, these are letters that come at the end of words, and something that's closed is representative of דין. This is the ה׳ גבורות, הוא בדעת דזעיר אנפין. Now this is a reference to ideas that are beyond us, not not necessarily in a in a philosophical sense, but they require just a technical knowledge in terms of how the ספירות work.

But but in general, there's a process, and it's almost like fractals. In other words, this this idea, this process, the framework exists on a כלליותדיק level, and at each at each step in the system, in the development of the world, the spiritual worlds, the physical world, so then this same framework plays itself out. There's we know that there are ten ספירות. The ten ספירות are חכמה, בינה, דעת, we'll say, sometimes כתר and דעת are interchangeable, but there's חכמה, בינה, and דעת, these are called the מוחין, the three intellectual ספירות as they were, and then there's חסד, גבורה, תפארת, נצח, הוד, יסוד, the next six, and מלכות, which is לית לה מגרמה כלום. מלכות takes everything.

It's it's everything that comes above it is reflected, and then as you go on to the next level, so then מלכות becomes, in a certain sense, it's it's what everything afterwards will unfold from at the next level. There's a way to look at these ten ספירות, not in ten, but rather in five. Now, in principle, at least for now, we can understand that let's say the ספירות are the building blocks of everything, and the פרצופים, the face represents the relationship. So, in other words, if you have the parts of the face, you could have the eyes, the ears, the nose, so each one of those has its own function, and when you put them together into a face, so then the the relationship between the various parts, that represents a certain כח.

Now, the truth is everything itself is is kind of is is kind of contained. In other words, if you think about an organization that has that has many organizations within it, so you might have one organization, for instance, one organization that's that's responsible for the חסד arm of a certain organization, and one organization that's the disciplinary arm. Within, let's say, the חסד arm of the organization, there's also going to have its own CEO and its own arm that's responsible for building a framework, so then you can have גבורה שבחסד, חסד שבגבורה, we discussed them in the ספירות. So the the the ספירות themselves play out even within the different פרצופים.

The way that the פרצופים are referred to as אבא, אמא, so אבא will be align up with חכמה, בינה lines up with אמא lines up with בינה, I'll leave דעת out for for a second when we refer to this, then there's going to be זעיר אנפין, זעיר אנפין will include the next six ספירות, חסד, גבורה, תפארת, נצח, הוד, and יסוד, and then נוקבא, which is like the female, the recipient, that will be מלכות. אריך will line up with כתר, right? So in this that's why we said that there are five, there's אריך, אבא, אמא, זעיר אנפין, and נוק.

Sometimes we'll refer to זעיר אנפין and נוק together, so you'll see a abbreviation of זו״ן, ז-ו-ן, but in any event, the point that we are trying to make is that the שורש of יראה, יראה is דין, is גבורות, is found within דעת. When we talk about חסד, בינה, and דעת, דעת is is brings together the חסדים and the גבורות. In other words, you have the the more expansive, like convergence and divergence, you'll have the more expansive כח on the right, so to speak, the more restrictive, the framework on the left. דעת is like an integrated חכמה, that's what brings them together.

So the גבורות are a portion of דעת, that that's going to be where יראה is rooted, and therefore, the דעת in זעיר אנפין, when we talk about a a framework of these פרצופים, so then the דעת within זעיר אנפין, that's going to be where the שורש of יראה is. If this if this is hard for us to grasp, then we can move on and and and try to relate to it, bring it down to earth for what we need. Now, what's the ראיה for our purposes? So we're saying that יראה, which seems to be an emotional reaction, that's rooted in דעת, כמו שכתוב, ״אז תבין יראת ה׳ ודעת אלקים תמצא״. It's a פסוק in Mishlei.

When you understand יראת ה׳ ודעת אלקים תמצא, but we see that yirah and דעת are תלוי one in another, so that's one thing. Second of all, דעת, הוא בלב, the seat of דעת is in the לב. If you look at Rav Avigdor Miller's Chovos Halevavos, it's he doesn't translate it as Duties of the Duties of the Heart, he translated as Duties of the Mind. The לב is really a much more without without distinguishing between like, you know, the intellect versus emotion, but the לב is like a person's operating system, it's really a person's a person's mind, but in a much more in in a much more deep-seated way. So he says, כמו שכתוב, ״ולא נתן ה׳ לכם לב לדעת״.

So again, we see this we see this tying together the idea of דעת and לב. So yirah is rooted in דעת, specifically in the גבורות of דעת, which he brings from Etz Chaim, the מנצפ״ך, that these letters which are talking about גבורות is in the דעת of זעיר אנפין, but again, that was sort of in a in a technical sense. For our purposes, yirah, the emotion is really rooted in דעת, in the in the גבורות part of the integrated חכמה, the integrated דעת, and דעת is viewed as being seated in the לב. גם שם עיקר היראה, כמו שכתוב, חכמינו זכרונם לברכה, ״דבר המסור ללב נאמר בו ויראת מאלקיך״. We discussed this earlier. Why is yirah in the לב?

First of all, it's only within a person's heart, the way that we the when when yirah is discussed, if a person walks in the walks in the room that you should be standing up for and then you don't stand up, who knows whether you really saw him or you really didn't see him? It's really it's really in the לב. The second idea is that if a person has yirah, right, maybe his heart beats faster, even in a physical sense we can see that yirah is tied to a person's a person's לב is tied to the yirah.

Now, he does mention over here in the note, Torah קנ״ד we'll get to is actually it's certain differences I think, but it's a little bit of a קיצור of over here, but he he brings over here in the notes that an an עכו״ם, a goy, also has דעת to the extent that they have intellect, but it's not tied to the לב. The idea of how from from an inner point of view, a a Yid is structured, we have our לב is different. We have a neshamah, we have a chelek Elokah mima'al.

The way that we are like the famous story is, you know, "Do I have to be a triangle in order to teach geometry?" The way that we can get in touch with ourselves, that we resonate from within, that our da'at ties and that we change on the inside as a person, that's a quality, it's a quality of of a of of a Klal Yisrael. So the the idea is that elevating yirah to the shoresh, again, is yirah to da'at. Da'at is in the lev. היינו שידע ממי יתיירא, that a person should know, but not just to know like in his mind. Veyada, it's a deep-seated, it's an integrated da'at. When a person truly has da'at, it definitely affects the emotions.

All of a sudden somebody cuts you off and then see that who who it is, or somebody, you know, you're walking and somebody, you know, they call you, you're going someplace and they call you because they need help and it annoys you that all of a sudden your day is thrown off, and then all of a sudden you see that it's somebody you have a tremendous amount of respect for, and then you're, you know, you're very flattered that they called you for help and you'd much rather go do that, and you feel differently. It affects your emotions. So a person that has a yada, that has an actual integrated חכמה ממי יתיירא, he knows who he fears, היינו ליראה את השם הנכבד, and then he says yirat haromemut.

So first of all, we explained the idea in relating da'at to the lev to be able to internalize something, to change it to to change as a person, to get in touch with oneself. That's one chiluk between an akum and Yisrael. But over here also, when we say that a person's ידע ממי יתיירא, that that they know that they have da'at, so this also goes to the heart of what a human being itself is. He quotes over here from Likutey Halachot, but an animal also has a certain fear from a surface-level response to stimuli.

The idea of in of it being intellectualized, not just a surface-level acknowledgement where where there's a stimulus and then you have a response of fear, but that you internalize it and there's a the the mind and the intellect come together, it becomes an integrated chokhmah. The the example I heard, I think Rav Berkowitz one time gave is he says, you know, let's say you have a candy and the candy falls into the garbage, into a pile of something disgusting, an animal might lick it and maybe it even tastes better, who knows what. But a person, not only will he not want it, if he eats it, regardless of how it tastes, it can literally make him gag, it can make him nauseous.

At a at a certain level, once once it goes deeper, so then what you know and your emotions come together. So this is one the that that idea where a person reaches deeper, an animal can have surface-level stimuli, but when a person transfers it into the da'at, that's that's a human being, that's what a human being can do. An animal can have יראת חיצוניות, at surface level, יראה נפולה. When we have the mishpat and we transfer it from on the surface to integrating where it's really come from, that everything is רצון השם, that's where we elevate the יראה נפולה to the next level.

First of all, an intellectual understanding of where it's coming from, יראת העונש, looking at looking at mitzvot and עבירות as reality, looking at the Torah not just as an instruction manual, but as like as a physics book. The Torah is describing principles of reality and our mitzvot, our thought, our speech, our action all make a difference. And then that transfers into yirat haromemut. The more that we understand that, and the more that we that we relate to it, the quotes over here from the Mesilat Yesharim, Mesilat Yesharim that explains yirat haromemut. But even we can understand on our level that if you know, sometimes a a look of true disappointment from somebody you respect is much worse than anything.

You know, let's say there's somebody who you're very close with and you do something wrong, so they could punish you, they can take away they could take away a privilege and it's bad, and you feel bad. And at some point, you realize that they had trust in you and you let their trust down, they're disappointed in you. That is a much much worse thing than anything they could do to you. You might even beg for the punishment, right? They say, "No, I did something wrong. Just punish me, let me get past." And they say, "You know what? It's not it's not even worth punishing you. I I had a certain amount of faith in you, and that faith is lost.

You're going to have to rebuild that trust." That's already a different type of a yirah. The way that you relate some to somebody on that level, so again, yirat haromemut vis-a-vis the HaKadosh Baruch Hu, that a person sees the lowliness of man and and the romemut of הקדוש ברוך הוא כפי where he understands at a certain time, doesn't want to disappoint and move away from HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and who am I to do anything? It sounds very lofty, but on our level also, we can understand what it means to have that fear of disappointing somebody is much It's at a much loftier level, a much more subtle level than the fear of a consequence.

And then we elevate that to יראת to so it ultimately comes יראת הרוממות, so we start off with משפט, the משפט of judging ourself is able to elevate us from having to deal with whatever Hakadosh Baruch Hu's משפט and גזירות are going to be clothed in this world, we can avoid all that, have רחמנות on ourself, that leads to the to a yirah, the first-level yirah, and as we go to a first-level yirah, we're going to able to elevate ourself and raise ourself also towards יראת הרוממות.

A drop weiter to אות ד', so now we'll speak that once a person achieves attains יראת הרוממות, he will be able to have a השגה in Torah, and then we'll say that there are two levels: there is the השגה of תורת הנגלה, which we will define for our purposes, which will lead a person to be able to engage in tefillah, and tefillah with mesirut nefesh, until he is able to get to the next level and be טועם the הנהגות תורה ש תורת הנסתר. וכשמגיע, inside the text, לבחינת דעת, so once a person is able to get to דעת, again, the way to do that is through משפט, through חשבון הנפש, and through judging oneself, and being מעלה the yirah to its שורש, which is within דעת, זוכה להשגת התורה.

Torah requires a certain שלמות הדעת, when he's מעלה יראה, again, the question is how do we look at things around us? We discussed this idea in Torah א' also, are we looking at the world as as שלוחים of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, are we looking are we seeing רצון השם in the world? So that's already elevating yirah to its שורש, in דעת, and that שלמות will give him access to Torah, to relating to, אורייתא וקודשא בריך הוא כולא חד הוא, to relating to Torah, if a person is living on a more superficial level, then he will not have access to Torah. So with through elevate through connecting with דעת, he'll be זוכה to השגת התורה, כמו שכתוב, like it says in משלי, אני חכמה שכנתי ערמה.

I am chochmah, and dwell within cunning, within wisdom, but ששכונת התורה, where Torah is able to be שוכן, is able to dwell, אצל בר דעת, it's with somebody who has da'at, who has this ערמה, what's לשון הפסוק? It says over there, כל ערום יעשה בדעת. And the reason that this that only a בר דעת is able to have תורה, כמו שכתוב, קודשא בריך הוא יהיב חכמתא לחכימין. Now, the Nefesh HaChaim already discusses literally means that HaKadosh Baruch Hu gives chochmah to those who have chochmah, so then where does the chochmah come from come the chochmah come from to begin with?

If you only give chochmah to one who has chochmah, and to get chochmah you need chochmah to begin with, it becomes a little bit circular, and the way the Nefesh HaChaim talks about this also, יראת השם היא אוצרו, who do you give money to? The one who knows how to guard it. That and the way that we're relating to in this Torah also, that the chochmah that we're talking about required to have the chochmat haTorah is yirat Hashem. So where is the the pasuk over here the note brings? הן יראת השם היא חכמה וסור מרע בינה, it's a pasuk in Iyov. So we're talking about developing yirat shamayim, yirat Hashem, one who develops yirat Hashem, that is the chochmah that one needs in order to get to the to the chochmah of chochmat haTorah.

And the way to get that yirat shamayim is, again, the true yirat shamayim is is connecting yirat Hashem with da'at, and relating not to the superficial yirat Hashem, but relating to HaKadosh Baruch Hu in a more direct way, which ends up being a relationship of of yirah, and ultimately יראת הרוממות, so that is the person that will end up being able to relate to Torah. אבל יש שני בחינות תורה, now when it comes to relating to Torah, there are two categories for now: יש בחינת נגלה ובחינת נסתר. Now usually when we talk about נגלה and נסתר, we talk about נגלה being Tanakh and Mishnayot, Shulchan Aruch, and those types of things, and נסתר is going to be things that are more קבלה'דיק, as a general grouping over here.

We seem to be talking about it a little bit in a different sense, that נגלה is the things that will be revealed in this world, and נסתר are going to be the things that are that that are hidden in this world, but accessible in the next world. Now the I think it's one way potentially looking at it, when we talk about נסתר, we talk about סוד, the the definition of something that's סוד, secret, hidden, is not something that you don't know. Let's say if you don't know French, that doesn't make French סוד. If you don't know Aramaic, the Zohar and and these types of of חכמות are not סוד because you don't know the language. Something that's סוד is something that's not necessarily accessible inherently.

So for instance, one of the in a different context, but talking about this idea, if you have Had to describe to somebody, again למשל, if you had to describe to somebody how to ride a bike, who's never seen a bike, you say you kind of, you know, for an hour you'd go on, you'd get on and you say, "Well, you go and you start pedaling, and you go a little to the right and a little bit to the left, and you kind of get your balance until it goes." And you know, you go on and

on and on, and then once a person gets it, you say, "Well, can you describe how to ride a bike?" And said, "Well, you know, it just kind of it's kind of like riding a bike." There's no way to describe music to somebody who's never heard it. "Well, you're speaking a little bit a little bit deep, and a little bit of a higher voice, and a lower voice, and when you go back and forth, it creates a nice sounding thing." But if somebody doesn't know what music is, there's no way to describe it. When we're talking about something that's נסתר, it's something that is not of this world.

So the idea that Torah has there's certain parts of Torah that are accessible within this world, that are relatable, and then there are certain things that are not accessible in this world, not within the הלבשה of this world, within the terms, the way that we think about things. It's something that's beyond. When we are in the next stage of life and of existence, we'll be able to relate to it at that point. אבל הבחינה'ס נסתר, אינו זוכה אלא לעתיד לבוא. We're not זוכה to that אור הגנוז. We're trying to talk about how to relate even to a טעם of that אור הגנוז, how is a person going to get there?

In other words, Torah has a certain the it's depending which ספרים you're looking at, but you'll see that it says that Torah is it precedes the world, and the whole Torah is names of הקדוש ברוך הוא, and Adam HaRishon learned Torah even before the חטא, but a lot of the Torah that we learn are things that whether it's talking about in bigger topics, whether it's talking about certain מעשים, like almost like stories that that are that are discussed in the Torah, or הלכות. Before Adam HaRishon ate from the עץ הדעת, there was no death in the world. How many סוגיות are there that the way that we relate to them, they talk about מיתה, ייבום, when one person dies? Right?

There are a lot of סוגיות that are רצון השם, and the way that we relate to to those סוגיות in Torah are through the הלבשה, through the world that we know as we live it. Now, those principles of of רצון השם, if they were not within the הלבשה, within clothed in ideas of this world, they would be framed in terms of a higher level of a higher level of existence. The mashal, I heard a I think I heard Rav Yitzchak Berkovits was discussing this idea, but I think it's relevant, so I just want to mention it, that why was it such a almost like a tragedy, as it were, when תורה שבעל פה What was the significance of תורה שבעל פה being written down?

The Chafetz Chaim discusses it in a different way, but Berkovits made a point I think it was Rav Berkovits that if you think about תורה שבעל פה, so what you have is principles, and those principles are discussed in case format. Many of the cases seem fantastic, they might never happen, but the cases are there to illustrate a principle. So, but for instance, let's say planting is facilitating growth, cooking on Shabbos is changing the substance of something through fire, tying is taking two things and binding them together, sewing is binding two things together through a third substance. When we have the examples in the Mishnah, a whole masechta of Keilim, Keilim is taking these principles of טומאה and טהרה and expressing them through particular Keilim.

If we would have the תורה שבעל פה and it would be given to us today, so maybe cooking on Shabbos would not be פרק כירה, it would be פרק Whirlpool oven or whatever whatever it is that you have. Keilim would be framed in terms of our Keilim so that you could preserve the principle in the clearest possible way. When תורה שבעל פה was written down, it was essentially frozen in time. How much of our Torah is spent in machloket in just trying to figure out what the nature of the oven that they were dealing with in those times were? It fundamentally changed everything they were trying to do so that the הלבשה of the principle of Torah was now framed at that in terms of those cases.

So the principle is there, but the expression of the principle, and and and certain things that we might not even have access to because in terms of תורת הנגלה, there isn't, let's say, a good mashal in order to really convey certain aspects of it. So we don't know I don't know exactly what the תורת הנגלה and תורת הנסתר are, but תורת הנגלה is something that we have access to in this world. תורת הנסתר is something that does not have this הלבשה. And it's the there's a little discussion in the note over here in terms of Torah being rooted in in זעיר אנפין, in terms of תורה דעתיקא קדישא, which we had we had earlier this idea of תורה לעומקה, right? What was the lashon over there? תבונת התורה לעומקה.

But the idea of next-worldly Torah is it's you don't want to say that Torah is אורייתא וקודשא בריך הוא כולא חד הוא. It's not that the Torah is changing, but the certain ways that we can relate to Torah is coming from a more from a more primal, from from more at the core, it's more deeply rooted, and We'll leave it at that. For our purposes, that's enough for now. And therefore, he says, בזה העולם זוכה לבחינת נסתר, in order that also in this world a person will be able to be zocheh to attach themselves to Torah beyond the הלבשה, beyond the way that it's enclothed in this world, a person has to be able to come out himself of being enclothed into this world. How is a person able to do that?

Al yedei tefillah b'mesirut nefesh. Through relating to HaKadosh Baruch Hu through a mesirut nefesh, through him being able to get out of himself, right? עשה רצונך כרצונו. People make a mistake, they think in davenen with kavanah that I'm davenening with a lot of kavanah so that Hashem will give me what I want. You're not trying to drag yourself into Hashem's world, you're trying to drag HaKadosh Baruch Hu into your world. But what's tefillah also with hitbatlut, with mesirut nefesh? You're getting out of your הלבשה, out of your ratzon. Even when you're able to daven, you should daven for every piece of gashmiyut and everything that you need, but the way that you're relating to gashmiyut is not in a selfish way or a self-centered way.

You're you're you're relating to HaKadosh Baruch Hu that I want to give you nachat, and in in order to give you nachat, you're davenening not just that I want, let's say, money so that I could do the right thing with, but you're literally moving over into HaKadosh Baruch Hu's world, so to speak. You're being mevatel your ratzon and you're davenening for your needs as as an element of avodah, which is, again, how do we do that? That's beyond the focus of this Torah.

But over here, what the point that we're trying to make is, as one sheds the the הלבשה that he's within, a person is able to come outside of himself, have mesirut nefesh, so then the way that he's going to relate to Torah, the way that he's going to relate to HaKadosh Baruch Hu is also going to have a hint of being outside of the הלבשה of this world, and he'll be able to get a taste of even the Torah, the principles of Torah that are also beyond the הלבשה of this world. ותפילה זוכה ותפילה זוכה על ידי תורה שבנגלה. To get to to to tefillah, so you get to it through תורה שבנגלה. כי התורה היא בנגלה היא בחינת Okay, so now he's going to explain how that works.

כי התורה שהיא שהיא בנגלה היא בחינת סיני. The נגלה part of Torah the כמו שאמרו זכרונם לברכה, there's a Gemara in Berachos that says סיני ועוקר הרים, הי מינייהו עדיף? והשיבו, סיני עדיף, כי הכל צריכין למרי חטיא. That's a discussion about breadth versus depth. A person that has that has the he knows all of the ideas of Torah, but he's not necessarily analyzing it in a certain way, which we refer to עוקר הרים, grinding of uprooting and grinding of mountains. So, it says if you need somebody to be the rosh yeshivah, what's עדיף?

A person who knows where to look, he knows what the principles are, he can be מדמה מילתא למילתא and know all of the ideas of Torah, or a person who doesn't necessarily have those ideas, but he's a very sharp thinker. And it says as a practical matter, you know, as much as you think, if you don't know, if you're missing information, you don't have easy access to that information, as a practical matter, it's better to have all of the pieces and then you'll know where to look.

You'll have then you can take it, you can ask a שאלה, but at least you'll you'll know the correct way to look at a particular issue and then take it from there, whereas a person can be a deep thinker, but if they don't understand that the answer is on the next page and they're missing principles, so then there's more of a danger. But within our Torah we're going to say that Sinai is representative of תורה שבנגלה. It's more accessible, it's a little bit more closer to the surface, closer to the הלבשה of this world. And we said that הכל צריכין למרי חטיא, everybody needs to engage at least at that level. We said when we first started the Torah that not everybody is going to have access to this deeper level of Torah.

והתורה שבנגלה הכל צריכין לה, אבל תורה שבנסתר זעירין אינון דצריכין לה, it's only a few people that need or that are going to have access to that deeper level deeper level of Torah. Now when we talk about Sinai, so Sinai again is תורה שבנגלה. That's going to be the first step, so that after a person they they want to they they connect their yirah through משפט to daat, and daat leads to השגת התורה, and there's two levels of Torah. There's תורה שבנגלה and תורה שבנסתר. The תורה שבנגלה will bring one to tefillah, then as they daven with tefillah with mesirut nefesh, then they will shed their הלבשה, they'll be zocheh to the תורת הנסתר. But over here, we're at that level in that chain.

This is what we're tracing of the תורה שבנגלה בחינת סיני הוא בחינת שפלות. Sinai, why did Hakadosh Baruch Hu, Chazal tell us, give the Torah on Sinai? Because it was humble. כמו שאמרו חכמינו זכרונם לברכה, שהניח הקדוש ברוך הוא כל ההרים ולא נתן את התורה אלא על הר סיני. Why? Because הר סיני represented shiflut and anavah. וחכמינו זכרונם לברכה אמרו שתפילת השפל אינה נמאסת, that when a person engages in tefilah through anavah, through shiflut, then it will Hashem will not be disgusted by it. It will it will be heard, so to speak, it will be received in shamayim. כמו שכתוב לב נשבר ונדכה אלקים לא תבזה, but Hakadosh Baruch Hu will not abandon and scorn the tefilah of a broken heart, right? There's nothing as whole as a broken heart.

But over here, so we see that Sinai, Sinai is תורה שבנגלה, but Sinai is also shiflut and anavah, and the the and therefore, we're associating תורה שבנגלה and Sinai with tefilah through mesirut nefesh. ועל ידי תפילה שהיא במסירות נפש, ומבטל כל גשמיותו, he's mevatel his his surface, his self, his self-centered, but even more, more than just self-centered, just the gashmiyut way of looking at things. He's not seeing the world when he when he sees gashmiyut, he sees a direct relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Hashem is giving him certain things. He's he needs to eat food, there is spirituality in food, there he lives in a world of relating directly to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. We discussed this at length in the first Torah. ואין גבול. Now, gashmiyut is a gvul.

I think in the seventh Torah we already talked about that tefilah is a bechinah of emunah. Gashmiyut has gevulot. A person is sick, so what are they going to do? They have to take medicine. But there's certain gevulot, there's a teva, there's a way that the world works. When you go and you make You're not allowed to be somech on a nes. But when you don't live in the world the way that you relate to gashmiyut, you're relating directly to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, so then from Hakadosh Baruch Hu's point of view, what's the difference between using oil as fuel for a lamp and using vinegar as fuel for a lamp? Neither one of them are more or less miraculous.

So therefore, when you connect at a level above the halbashah of this world, so then you you live in a world above gevulot. The the the world, the real world that you live in, you you can daven, you can attach to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, you daven with mesirut nefesh. And this is not just something that you can convince yourself, you have to live there, you have to live there as a reality, right? A person who, you know, his father owns the company, so then a person who has a manager, he might be limited in certain ways. But if your father owns the company and all he has to do is go into the system and press the override button, so that's not miraculous, you're connecting at a level where there's an override button.

It's a question of the world that you live in. שמבטל כל גשמיותו ואין גבול. או שאין גבול, ואז יכול להשיג תורה שלעתיד. Once you're not in gevulot, so the way that you relate to Torah also is going to be in a total Torah without that הלבשה, without those גבולות, שהיא אינה גבול ואינה נתפסת בגבול. And the way they relate to הקדוש ברוך הוא and to Torah and the principles of Torah is also going to be above this level. And therefore, the full the full-blown relationship with it might be לעתיד לבוא, but at this point a person, these are the steps that it takes in order to relate to the Torah of לעתיד לבוא at a more רוחניותדיק level, of an אין גבולדיק level, of a אור הגנוז, of a תורת הנסתר level.

And and this is this is so far what we're trying to explain, and then we will move on to the רבה בר בר חנה. So again, there's elevate In the last Torah we discussed connecting kavod to its shoresh in yirah, and now we're talking about yirah, connecting yirah through mishpat, through חשבון הנפש, connecting yirah to daat. We discussed different levels: there's יראה נפולה, which is יראה חיצונית, and then there's יראת העונש, but the highest level of connecting through daat with הקדוש ברוך הוא is יראת הרוממות.

Through this hasagah, a person is going to attach himself to תורת הנגלה, which through תורת הנגלה, סיני, a person will be able to daven with mesirut nefesh, get come outside of his gevulot, outside of his gashmiyut, and then when he relates to Torah, he'll be able to move to the next step of תורת הנסתר.