LM 15.2 — Ohr HaGanuz, Part 2 of 3 (para. 5) · תורה ט״ו

Torah טו, we are going to be learning אות ה and further we'll see if we can finish up with this session, otherwise we'll have to do, I don't think it'll be another full one. This is really going to be a milestone, we're finishing off the set of the first 15 Torot which are discussing the the the מאמרים that are for רבה בר בר חנה. The one that we're going to be discussing today might sound somewhat familiar if you learned through Torah ג, although we're discussing it with the ideas that come up in this Torah, which is different from what we discussed in Torah ג. Two housekeeping items and then we will we'll catch up and then start start looking inside.

First of all, I would love to, it's hard to know once once things go up, I know the some of the people that I learn with, but if if you've been enjoying, I would love to hear from you, even just to drop a quick note, no obligations or anything, but just to say hello. But second of all, more importantly, I was thinking if it would be לתועלת to put together, probably it would be two recordings, I will probably do it in between so that we don't take extra time away from going forward, of going through

in some sort of an abbreviated fashion the first 15 Torot to try to take stock of some of the terms, the the terminology that comes up, the concepts, to see how they relate to it and and sort of going through. Probably be more helpful to to somebody who's learned them before rather than just to be like a super קיצור, but if you'd be interested in such a thing, also just maybe drop a brief email. My email is in the is in the podcast thing, but it's mrubin, r u b i n, 214, 2 1 4 @ gmail.com. Shoot me a brief note, just say hello, and if you think it would be לתועלת, if you think that that would be helpful.

So let's sum up the ideas that we've that we discussed in the Torah, so now we can find them in the in the רבה בר בר חנה. We had started off, מי שרוצה לטעום טעם אור הגנוז, somebody who wants to taste the or haganuz, which is סודות התורה שיתגלה לעתיד, a לעתיד לבואדיקע תורה, צריך להעלות מידת היראה לשורשה. In the last Torah, we talked about elevating kavod, connecting kavod with its shoresh, with its source. That was yirah, and now we're talking about elevating yirah, connecting yirah with its source, and we're going to be speaking about connecting yirah with דעת. Now, the way that one elevates fear or connects fear to to to its shoresh is through משפט. Yirah is a is a reaction, and it can be caused by anything.

It could be caused by circumstances, anything can cause anything from yirah to anxiety. In fact, when the Gemara discusses what the שיעור of יסורים are, it says could be anything as small as somebody putting his hand into his pocket and wanting to pull out a certain number of coins and he pulls out he pulls wants to pull out two coins and he pulls out only one. So any amount of circumstances in life can generate a certain emotion or a certain reaction, some less and some more.

When a person connects yirah to the shoresh, so let's say one of the ways that we spoke about it last time is the famous example of when somebody gets hit with a stick, would you get angry at the stick or do you get angry at the one who's wielding the stick? If a person goes through life and they their their yirah is associated with whatever they are interacting with directly, so then that's not at the source. That's going to be just at the at the forefront. Really a person's relationship should be with with hakadosh baruch hu, being able to see through the world and to see רצון השם expressing itself.

Now, through משפט, if if if hakadosh baruch hu is using all of the various elements of the world in order to send somebody messages or to give somebody to to deliver a גזירה, רחמנא ליצלן, so how does a person interact directly with hakadosh baruch hu, avoid the middleman, and avoid the need for hakadosh baruch hu delivering some sort of an עונש, a punishment, on a גזירה, and also eliminate the anxiety of whatever? Doesn't mean that everything will always be comfortable, but eliminate that anxiety, it's introducing a known into the process. What do they do?

If a person has משפט, they have a self-evaluation process, they understand what they did wrong, and they say, "I'm going to evaluate myself, I'm going to do teshuvah." And therefore, to the extent that there's any gezeirah, I can take care of that at the at at the ground level. I'll be able to do teshuvah, I'll take upon myself a kaparah for something. By the time the Satan comes and tries to prosecute the person to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, Hashem says, "I don't need to deliver a message like that. The person already got the point, the person acknowledges it, and the person has already taken steps to rectify it." And therefore, as this person moves through life, again, it doesn't always mean things will be comfortable, but they've already eliminated the middleman.

They they can have התבודדות, they can they they can have this relationship directly with Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and they don't they don't have to be scared that anything that comes in life might be might be the proverbial stick, because they have this relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and through doing this, they're able to connect yirah. Their yirah is really da'at. Their yirah is really going to be is really going to be at its source, not just a a surface-level yirah, but ultimately a yirat haromemut, a yirah that's really that's more closely directed with their relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu and not not not anything that's more at the surface.

Now, once a person is able to have this yirat haromemut, then they will be zocheh to השגה of תורה שבנגלה, which comes through their their attitude of shiflut, of anavah. Har Sinai is associated with shiflut. משה רבינו, שכינה מדברת מתוך גרונו, משה רבינו who gave us the Torah, Moshe Rabbeinu was עניו מכל אדם. A person who comes to this level of hitbatlut, a person does teshuvah, a person does shiflut, a person is yirat haromemut vis-a-vis Hakadosh Baruch Hu, they they they understand who who am I to even approach Hakadosh Baruch Hu, so then they'll be

zocheh to Torah through this, and we'll see this in Rabbah bar bar Chanah, that that that they'll be able to daven once they have an attitude of shiflut, of anavah that they get through yirat haromemut, which leads them to השגה of Torah, so then they'll be able to daven with this absolute attitude of hitbatlut, to be able to take themselves out of the process, to not be davening in a self-centered way, to not say, "Yes, I understand that everything comes from Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and it's about me.

I want Hakadosh Baruch Hu to give me what I enjoy." It's not about finding themselves within within רצון השם, but it's about saying, "Well, Hakadosh Baruch Hu is the most powerful," and, you know, it's if if you watched the Charlie Harary Tisha B'Av video, he says, you know, "Amazon.God, it's just a matter of of putting in, of getting Hakadosh Baruch Hu to to to to to fit Him into what you want." So, that's that's self-centered. When a person is mevatel the ani, they say, "No, I have to evaluate where I'm holding. Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave me certain certain koachot, strengths, weaknesses, a circumstance. What What is it that Hashem wants from me?" So now they can engage in tefillah, and tefillah with mesirat nefesh.

This type of a tefillah is they they're coming out of the boundaries. They're being mevatel them mevatel whatever their limitations are. They're coming close to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. They're attaching themselves to the infinite. Once a person can do that, then they can be zocheh to even a higher level of השגה בתורה of סודות, and the Torah that this is a Torah also almost a בלתי גבול of סודות התורה, and this is the progression. So, in order to reach אור הגנוז, a person connects the yirah with yirah to the שורש by engaging in משפט. Through this, they have this השגה of תורה נגלה, leading to shiflut and anavah and hitbatlut that they can engage in tefillah, leading ultimately to a an understanding and attachment to the Torah of לעתיד לבוא, to the אור הגנוז.

אות ה': וזה שאמר רבה בר בר חנה, and now we're going to be discussing this מאמר from Bava Batra דף ע״ג: לדידי חזי לי ההיא אקרוקתא, רבה בר בר חנה said that he was recounting, I saw an אקרוקתא, which is a frog, a צפרדע, דהוי כי אקרא דהגרוניא, it was as big as the city of הגרוניא. The Gemara explains: ואקרא דהגרוניא כמה הוי? How big was the city of Hagrunia? שיתין בתי, it was 60 houses big. אתא תנינא, בלעה, a תנין come, like a נחש, and it swallowed that frog that was as big as 60 houses. אתא פושקנצא, comes an עורב, a raven, ובלעה לתנינא, and he swallowed this נחש that was able to swallow the frog that was as big as 60 houses.

סליק, this עורב went up, יתיב באילנא, it sat on a tree. And רבה בר בר חנה finishes off: תא חזי כמה נפיש חילא דאילנא, you see how strong the tree is, because this tree was able to sustain this bird, and you see how big this bird was, that again going through the progression. אמר רב פפא בר שמואל: אי לאו דהואי התם, לא הימני. If it wasn't that I was there, then I would not have believed him. So now we're going to go through this ma'amar. אקרוקתא, פירש רבינו שמואל, also now actually we could see the Rishbam, Rishbam: אקרוקתא, זו צפרדע, כאקרא דהגרוניא frog, אקרא דהגרוניא, the city of הגרוניא, גדול היה כאיזה כרך, this is how big the city of הגרוניא was, 60 houses big. ואקרא דהגרוניא כמה הוי? שיתין בתי, תלמודא קאמר לה.

This is the Gemara telling us. אתא תנינא, רבה קאמר לה. This is what Rabbah is telling us, that comes this תנין. פושקנצא, זו עורב נקבה, it's a female raven, an עורב. כי אילנא, like a tree, על ענף אחד כדרך העופות, this is how strong the tree was. It wasn't on like the the trunk of the tree, but rather the bird was on one branch. לא הימני, לא האמנתי, that I would not have believed him. So now, inside the text: אקרוקתא, פירש רבינו שמואל, which we just saw the Rishbam says that an אקרוקתא is a צפרדע, וזה בחינת עלית היראה לשרשה. This stands for the idea, this צפרדע... דעה within the Gemara that we're saying is an אקרוקתא, this stands for the idea of elevating יראה to its source through משפט, היינו דעת. Why?

Because through משפט one is זוכה to associate יראה with דעת, which is really a high-level יראה, through דעת, through an integrated understanding, it's not just a surface reaction, but rather a יראת הרוממות, which we said leads to שפלות and ענוה, which allows one to be zocheh to have a השגה of תורה שבנגלה, and ultimately davenen with מסירת נפש. But over here, כי צפרדע, which is the אקרוקתא, היא מילה מורכבת, צפרדע is representative of ציפור דעה, which is ציפור is a bird, we're going to connect the idea of a ציפור and דעה, which we said that yirah is connected to its source, and דעה, ציפור הוא בחינת יראה, בחינת ארץ. ציפור is the same idea, the same category, it's related to the idea of yirah and of ארץ, כמו שכתוב: מכנף הארץ זמירות שמענו.

כנף, again, is from the corners of the earth then there will be song, but כנף can mean corner, it can also mean wing, so like a bird and כנף הארץ, so כנף is associated with ארץ, and therefore we see that ארץ is the same בחינה, so it's a representative of the same idea as כנף, cause כנף הארץ, and כנף is a ציפור, because a bird has כנפיים, it has wings, and we said earlier in אות ב׳ that ארץ is associated with yirah because it says ארץ יראה. So therefore we see that a ציפור is connected to yirah, cause ציפור and כנף, and ארץ and yirah, and therefore we have ציפור and yirah.

And further we say, it says מי אלה, this is also another pasuk in ישעיהו, it's talking about when the פשט of the pasuk is talking about when people are coming back from from galut and they're going to say מי אלה that are coming back, לעוף כעב תעופינה וכיונים אל ארובותיהם, that like the birds that are coming back to their nests, but it says מי אלה, who who is this? Who created all of this? אותיות אלוקים. מי אלה, if you rearrange the letters, is the אותיות of Elokim. Elokim is representative of yirah.

כעב תעופינה וכיונים אל ארובותיהם is the end of that pasuk, so that's כיונים is ציפור, כעב תעופינה is that they fly like a cloud, but what we have over here, again, it's a little technical, so we see that the Shem Elokim, which is a בחינה of yirah, yirah is also associated with a ציפור, because we said that it's מי אלה כעב תעופינה וכיונים אל ארובותיהם, so it's associating Elokim, which is yirah, with birds coming back, and therefore we see that ציפור is associated with yirah, both because of the מי אלה pasuk, and also earlier because of כנף is a bird, and ארץ is yirah, so we see that a ציפור is associated with yirah.

Now we said that ציפור דעה, right, that צפרדע is ציפור דעה, so ציפור we see is יראה, ודעה היא שורש היראה, and דעה is going to be the שורש of yirah. We said elevating yirah to its source is דעה, so therefore we see that אקרוקתא, it's a very long, roundabout discussion of why a צפרדע, or an אקרוקתא, is representative of the idea of of of ציפור דעה, of elevating yirah to its שורש. ודמיא לאקרא דהגרוניא, and it's similar to the city of Hagruniya, where it was as big as the city of Hagronia, this צפרדע, this frog, as it were, literally, is as big as the Akra deHagronia. What does that mean?

It's a לשון קרא דגרון, proclaiming with the throat, that's lashon of of Akra deHagronia is a city of Hagronia, or the language is reminiscent of קרא דגרון, proclaiming with the throat, שזה in the פנימיות, this is bringing out this concept, שזה בחינת תורה שבנגלה. Why? Because כמו שאמרו חכמינו זכרונם לברכה, there was a pasuk in Mishlei, it says כי חיים הם למוצאיהם, and the Gemara tells us אל תקרי למוצאיהם אלא למוציאיהם, meaning בפה, that when a person learns Torah they should articulate it with their mouth, and therefore קרא בגרון, to proclaim with the throat, that's Hagronia, or אקרא דהגרוניא, כי על ידי עליית היראה לבחינת דעת זוכין לתורה שבנגלה. So this is the first step of the idea that we discussed in the Torah.

We have this אקרוקתא, which is representative of ציפור דעה, ציפור is yirah, elevating yirah to its shoresh, which is daas. When one does that, so then he's going to be zocheh at the first level to תורה שבנגלה, which is which is associated with the concept of Akra deHagronia, that the ציפור is as big as the city of Hagronia, that a person is zocheh through the through this elevating yirah to its shoresh to תורה שבנגלה, proclaiming with the throat, Torah which is learned through articulation. ואקרא דהגרוניא כמה הוי? ש... שיתין בתי, 60 houses. Now, we said what's the next step after one is zocheh to תורה שבנגלה? Tefillah. So זה בחינת תפילה, כי כשאנו קוראים להקדוש ברוך הוא, when a person calls out to הקדוש ברוך הוא בתוארים של בשר ודם, adjectives.

הקדוש ברוך הוא gave us a chesed, our it's not so pashut, but our tefillah, the way that we relate to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, if you think about the terms, hagadol, hagibor, these terms are not really relevant to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. What's gadol? There's no such thing as inherently big, you can have a big a big cockroach and a small house, right? The the idea of gadol is something that's relative. If Hakadosh Baruch Hu is not is not at all subject to any sort of being relative to anything else, I guess you could say hagadol, the capital gadol, nothing is as great as he is. But gibor is strong.

These are not terms that are associated with with the infinite, and the truth is is that names in general are not are not related to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. What's a name? The idea of a name itself is a designation that's relative to a certain characteristic, meaning, if I ask you how hot it is, and you say it's orange, that's a meaningless statement. A name of something is only appropriate if it's relevant. If you're talking about the infinite, so then there's nothing that is or isn't any more or less relevant. It's Hakadosh Baruch Hu is all-encompassing, all-inclusive. The whole idea of a name or a point of reference is not appropriate כלפי הקדוש ברוך הוא. So how is it that we're even able to have names?

So there's different answers, the Rishonim, the Rambam in Moreh Nevuchim deals with it. One of the things I believe he brings over here in the note is that when we say a name, that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is not the opposite. We can't say Hakadosh Baruch Hu is something, but we could say that he's not quantifiable by something else. However exactly it works, but what Rabbeinu, what Rabbi Nachman is telling us is that it's a chesed of Hakadosh Baruch Hu.

Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave us the the ability, the right, the the the privilege, the the zechut to be able to use certain names, the the names that we have, at least the the Torah שמות of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, so any any points of reference that I heard one time there's a Gemara, is it Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa? I forget. It says that he heard that somebody was saying האל הגדול הגיבור והנורא, and then he went on and started giving other adjectives. So I heard this from Rav Feivel Cohen. So after the person finished, he said, "Is that all? That's the same thing as like a king has a gazillion dollars, and all of a sudden you said you heard somebody saying that he had only a million dollars.

That's not a praise, if anything that's taking away. You say that, you know, it's much less than than than he really is." So Rav Feivel Cohen asked, "Well, why did, in that case, the second that that this Tanna heard that somebody said even one adjective past the the the ideas and the descriptions that are in the Torah, at least things that are in the Torah were able to use, so why didn't he protest at that point?" And he said because, let's say, the person would have finished off after he exhausted everything that he could come

up with, and said like it says in Nishmat, "אילו פינו מלא שירה כים, ולשוננו גל כהמון רינה," and just gone on, and says that it's, no matter what I say, he would have finished off, and said, "I know that I just gave a million adjectives. No matter what I could possibly say, it's not enough," and would have acknowledged that way, then it still would have been okay. But either way, the idea that were that that Hashem allows us to use certain adjectives, a certain a certain defined set of adjectives that we're able to relate to Hashem because we're limited, because we're a keli, we're mugbal, we have boundaries, and so this allows us to have a relationship to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, that's a tremendous chesed. והוא נמצא לנו בכל קראנו אליו.

And Hakadosh Baruch Hu, as it were, makes himself available so that we are able to attach ourselves to him, and the greater that we become, the the the the greater and the more lofty our relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu can become. But Hashem, as it were, kivayachol, stands ready, willing, and able to have the maximum possible relationship with us. The limitation on our relationship is not from the point of view of Hashem, it's from our point of view. That's a chesed of Hashem Yitbarach that kefi our level, at whatever level we're on, Hashem allows us to have a point that we're able to connect with HaKadosh Baruch Hu, as much as we can handle.

כי אם לא היה בחסדי השם יתברך, if it wasn't with Hashem's חסד, לא היה כדאי לקרוא ולכנות את השם יתברך בתארים, ושבחים, ותיבות, ואותיות. If it wasn't for for HaKadosh Baruch Hu's chesed, then we would have no point of reference with HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Hashem wants us to have a relationship with him, and therefore that's kivayachol, like the maximum anything in less than infinity is a as if it were a limitation. HaKadosh Baruch Hu allows himself to have like points of reference in order that we should have a relationship with him.

Rav Chaim Kramer points out in his notes, I'll just read coming from the Mei HaNachal, it's therefore essential that a person rouse himself to intense prayer with total self-sacrifice, particularly when mentioning words of praise, which ascribe attributes to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, by doing so he'll be worthy of attaching himself to the holiness and come closer to Hashem. For in truth Hashem's greatness is far beyond our conception, and the words we utter in His praise can never be adequate. It is only because of His chesed that we can even mention them at all. So the, the, the reaction and the approach that we should have when, when interacting with HaKadosh Baruch Hu is one of hitbatlut.

The fact that we have these terms at all it really is not illustrating and not referencing Hashem's greatness, because Hashem's infinite greatness is more than anything we could talk about. What it really is is it's referencing our limitations. And therefore when a person approaches HaKadosh Baruch Hu with, with no matter what the, the infinite level of praise that we could try to express, that doesn't come close to being enough. A person should realize Hashem's greatness vis-a-vis as opposed to him, and that should lead to an attitude of anavah and shiflut. And therefore tefillah is a bechinah of chesed. The idea that Hashem allows us to engage. וזה ששים בתי, this is 60 houses representative is a בחינת חסד, בחינת אברהם.

So this idea of 60 houses of tefillah is a is a reference to chesed because the bechinah of Avraham. Why? כמו שכתוב ששים המה מלכות. אברהם אבינו, ששים המה מלכות, אברהם had 60 houses, as it were, come out of him. There were 16 from Bnei Keturah, Yishmael and his sons were 13, Yishmael plus 12. Yitzchak and his sons were three, Yitzchak and then Yaakov and Esav. Yaakov's sons were 12, בני עשו were 16. If you add that all up, 12 and three is 15, 16 is 31, 31 and 13 is 44, another 16 that becomes 60.

So 60 is representative of Avraham, which is chesed, which is tefillah, because we said that, that again, connecting yirah to daat to its source is, the is ציפורי דעיא דאקרוקתא leading to עקרא דהגרוניא, which is תורה שבנגלה, articulating Torah leading to tefillah, which is with שפלות, which is because the 60 houses are representative of chesed. Chesed is tefillah, because the chesed of Hashem that we can relate to Him, relating to Avraham. Avraham Avinu anyway we know that Avraham Avinu relates to Shacharit, relates to tefillah. Over here, as it says, ששים המה מלכות, פירש רש״י זה בחינת אברהם, ובתי לשון מלכות.

The text itself doesn't really explain the shaychut of מלכות per se, but the notes bring from elsewhere that מלכות is a לשון of נגלה and associated with תורה שבנגלה, and therefore it's it's explaining or it's associating where the tefillah comes from. Again, in our progression, when one is זוכה to תורה נגלה, so then that leads to an attitude of שפלות and ענוה, so that one can daven from a point of מסירת נפש and התבטלות, leading to תורה ש... תורת נסתר. וזה: סמכוני באשישות. And this is we see in the pasuk in Shir Hashirim: סמכוני באשישות, literally to support me with a delicacy, כמו שמשימין אשישות, but the לשון of אשישות is not just a delicacy, a certain type of a cake or a wafer, but what it is is אשישות is also a keli.

If you switch the alef for an ayin, which sometimes in derashot can be switched, עשישות is a, like a a certain type of a glass or a lens. Sometimes a person can't look directly at an a very bright light, but through a lens, by a by an eclipse, you have it, right? But by a lens or or sunglasses even, כנגד אור גדול, when there's an אור גדול, which for our purposes is אור הגנוז, it's an אור, תורה שבנסתר, but there's something that's too bright as it were, even the אור is a mashal, but it's an

אור הגנוז, something that's too much shefa that we can't relate to it, it's too much for our keli, it would be like pouring, you know, lead into a Styrofoam cup, it can't hold it, so what happens is is that we are we relate to the אור הגנוז through a lens, כדי להסתכל באור גדול על ידי אשישות, to be able to relate to the light through a lens, and therefore we're able to look at it. כן גזר חסדו לסומכנו, so therefore Hakadosh Baruch Hu in His chesed was gozer to support us, to give us what to rely on, so that we can relate to Hakadosh Baruch Hu through tefillah. בתארים ושבחים האלו, like we had said before, that really we can't relate directly to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, it's like kivayachol climbing a glass mountain.

Where where is the point of contact with the infinite? You can't address it. So Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave us as it were a heichi timtza, He gave us a way and a wherewithal that we should be able to have a relationship, and this is through a tzimtzum that Hakadosh Baruch Hu, it's not that the words are wrong, we we have some of these descriptions, these character, these praises from the Torah itself, but Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave us the ability through Hakadosh Baruch Hu's chesed that כפי where we are as as people, as human beings, that we should be able to have a relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu.

And therefore, Hashem gave us these אשישות, these lenses, these רשות to be able to have these descriptions, these adjectives, names of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, so that we could come to a point of deveikut. וזה לשון סמכוני, to support us, שהוא בחינת סמ״ך, which is סמ״ך is 60, בחינת ששים המה מלכות, again connecting in the Torah over here, that the 60 the 60 houses, the 60 with tefillah, with chesed, with Avraham, with the 60 lines that came from Avraham, and over here samcheini, to support us, that Torah is that tefillah, rather, is through chesed, because only through HaKadosh Baruch Hu's chesed that we're able to have a deveikut and a relationship directly with HaKadosh Baruch Hu. So this also is a לשון of סמ״ך, of support, but סמ״ך is 60, בחינת אברהם, שבחינת סמ״ך בתי.

ואתא תנינא ובלעה, so that's where we're holding so far, the עקרוקתא דציפורדעא elevating yirah to the שורש, to דעה, giving us leaving us to be able through anavah and שפלות, but to relate to עקרא דהגרוניא, which is to proclaim with the throat, the city called הגרוניא, but in our terms תורה שבנגלה, which enables us to daven, through שפלות, through anavah, through מסירת נפש, really that we are only able to daven through HaKadosh Baruch Hu's chesed. Comes the nachash and swallows up, swallows up the the the 60 houses. What does this mean, the tefillah? תנינא זה בחינת נחש, the יצר הרע, שמסית את האדם שיתפלל לתועלת עצמו. How does the yetzer hara come to try to swallow up the tefillah, this point of access, this relationship between us and HaKadosh Baruch Hu?

He wants that our davenen itself, there's two ways to daven. We can daven that HaKadosh Baruch Hu should give us, yeah, also even physical things, but should make us into a keli, we should have ישוב הדעת and מנוחת הנפש and נחת, we should be able to have the wherewithal to develop ourselves spiritually, to make ourselves into a keli so that we could relate to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, to relate to our tachlis. Or we can daven for our own needs. But is the tefillah self-centered or God-centered? The tefillah is an עבודה שבלב.

If the tefillah is not an avodah, it's that we want Hashem to serve us, so then that is that that is not necessarily that there's something wrong specifically, we we are able to daven for our needs, but perspective-wise, whether or not we're trying to have hitbatlut towards Hakadosh Baruch Hu and find ourselves within המקום, within the greater the greater context of tachlis in the world, or is the world centered around us? So what the yetzer hara comes, he wants that the tefillah should be for our own to'elet, so it should be a self-centered תפילה, כמו הב לנא חיי ומזונא, give us life, מזונא is food, it's about us, or שאר תועלת, or whatever it is.

And therefore it's as if he wants to, the nachash wants to swallow up, wants to swallow up the tefillah. But it's only it's only when we have anavah and hitbatlut that we relate to the tefillah properly, that's where we have hitbatlut, we are able to come outside of our own boundaries. It's true, maybe our דרך בעבודה has a certain character, certain strengths, but when our to'elet, our tachlis, the way that we relate to it is not confined to ourself, we're trying to go into the greater good, so then again we're making ourselves into something that's בלתי מוגבל, that's not limited, that doesn't have boundaries. And at that point we'll be able have a relationship with the אור גנוז, with תורת with תורת הנסתר.

By the way, this is there's actually a halachadik idea in Shabbos, just an interesting point, the Pachad Yitzchak actually has a discussion about this also, that if a person on Shabbos carry transfers out, so then a person is only chayav for transferring out a certain shiur. So let's say a person takes out food, let's say a person will be chayav only if they take out a kezayit of food. If it's less than a kezayit, then de'oraita level they won't be chayav. Let's say a person takes out an empty cup, so that's an item, they'll be chayav on the cup.

But let's say a person takes out a cup or a plate, and inside is food, and the food is less than a shiur, so then we'll say even though if a person took out the plate he'd be chayav for transferring the plate, in a in this context since the plate is really just servicing the food, it's batel to the food, so then he'll be פטור אף על הכלי. Meaning, depending what's subservient to what, or in the context of Shabbos, right? Does a person rest on Shabbos because they're tired so that they can get back to the six days of work? Really they would work all day, but they need rest, right?

Or do you say that no, really the point is the Shabbos, really the point is to spend time to appreciate tachlis, Hakadosh Baruch Hu, self, family. But a person has to engage in the world and all these things, and really that's only to support whatever his true תועלת is. That's what comes to define the person, and the other part is subsidiary. Or stated differently, just taking a step to the side for 1 second, really there's two type you can relate to rest in two different ways. I could tell you, I don't remember. It's not my vort.

You could relate to rest as saying, "I'm running and I," like in Shabbos, there's if a person is considered to have come to a hanacha, to have come to rest, well, the Gemara says, well, there's two types of rest. If he rested to adjust his load, really he didn't want to rest, ela mai, but it's too heavy or he's tired, so a person rests just in order to keep on going, that's not considered a hanacha. However, if a person rest So, that's not really called a rest, that's just a temporary stop, but it's only servicing so that he can go further. But let's say a person is running a computer program, he's trying to debug something, or he's building a house.

At the point that it stops, that doesn't mean that it's resting so that it can continue debugging the program, that means that it found all the bugs and it's ready. That means that the house is built, and now it's completed. So, when we rest on Shabbos, it's not that we're resting to get back to the six days, it's that we've come to a point of tachlis. That's really where we're trying to get to go. Olam Haba is יום שכולו שבת, that's really where it's at. Our avodah in this world is ששת ימי בראשית, but a person halvai the whole week then Sunday, Monday, Tuesday you're buying something l'kavod Shabbos, everything is really with that eye.

So, the way that a person relates to tefillah is the relationship with Hashem to service themself, or is the way that they tend to their needs a function of the relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu? ואתא פושקנצא ובלע. Comes the פושקנצא, the עורב, the raven, and it swallows up the נחש. What's a פושקנצא? פירש רבינו שמואל עורב. עורב is a raven. What does that represent? The idea of a raven is we'll take Chazal discuss that it says that through the raven, that's where a person is going to be זוכה to Torah. It's a לשון of התבטלות, because what אמרו חז״ל, חז״ל tell us the Gemara in Eruvin, where do you find Torah?

מי שמשחיר פניו כעורב, a person who blackens his face like an עורב, that he's willing to be batel to the idea of learning. He factors himself out of the process, he sacrifices for the task, this mesirat nefesh. מי שנעשה אכזרי על בניו כעורב, the raven apparently has a certain level of cruelty on on even on its on the baby birds, on the family, and כביכול it doesn't it doesn't support them. But this idea that a person Yes, a person has a certain avodah to support certainly חייך קודמין, to support himself, to support his family, to support his kids. But what we're saying over here in principle is what what what is the center?

Is a person willing to put aside his needs, sometimes even you know if it's necessities and a person can't drop dead, right? But is a person willing to put himself into a בחינה of עורב, of self-sacrifice, of And a person has to find that line, right? It takes a lot of cheshbon hanefesh to know where a person's, let's say, his family needs help, and he doesn't go do another avodah that he was going to do, or he tells his family, "Today is not the time to go on vacation. I have off from work, I'm going to join a a one-week kollel." Can't do it all the time, but if I have a week off, then what I should be doing is be'etzem engaging in the structure of a structured learning program.

When a person has to know which avodah to employ, so that takes cheshbon hanefesh and a person has to understand. But in principle, the idea of an עורב is a person who seems to be cruel, who turns his face on even certain seeming necessities, and the Gemara says for for giving support. And the Gemara says that, where do you see Torah? Somebody who has self-sacrifice, somebody who has this level of almost like a a cruelty, that that represents a bitul and ענוה, שפלות. היינו this בחינה of a עורב שמתפלל בלי שום כוונות תועלת עצמו. He's davening, but it's not Yeah, part of part of what he's davening for might involve the fact that he has to support himself, but why do you put gas in a car?

So that it can go because it has to get someplace, it's not to satisfy the car. Everything is not a function of of for his own תועלת, it's for the תועלת of of תכלית of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and that's hitbatlut, that's represented by the עורב. ואינו חושב לכלום את עצמו, that's not his point at all. ונתבטל כל עצמותו וגשמיותו, and he and he's able to have nullification of self of his גשמיות, ונתבטל כאילו אינו בעולם, as if he's not in the world.

כמו שכתוב, you know, and it's interesting, we've said before, if if let's say a person wants to build a house, so whoever let's say builds a house, does a certain job, they're going to get all of the credit, or if a person's in a choir and the choir has to play someplace to satisfy the king, right? And it's between him and another person, the other person's a better singer, the other person's a better builder, who should do it? Should should he step forward and try to take the credit? But if he's batel to the task, then he says, "No. My job is to pass the ball to the other person, to let them have the solo, to let them even if they're going to shine in the light.

If my whole point is to is to win the war, my point is to that there should be a beautiful song, that there should be a a good house, then my success is to become batel to the task." When a person views himself as having avodah, they factor their own personal considerations out of the out of the process, like it says by tefillah, by Kriat Shema, that a person should do with מסירת נפש, כי עליך הורגנו כל היום. Just one second, the Rav Chaim Kramer notes over here point out says when a person wants to become truly religious and serve Hakadosh Baruch Hu, they seem overwhelmed with confusion, with frustrations. The more that they want to serve, a lot of times the more difficulty that they and frustration they encounter.

All the enthusiasm that such people have when trying to do good is very precious, even if their goal is not achieved, their effort is counted like sacrifice. And this pasuk also applies to a person that wants to pray, but encounters numerous distractions. If he gives himself over entirely to the task, he has mesirat nefesh, then even if his prayer is not perfect, it's a level of self-sacrifice. So what it says over here that כי עליך הורגנו כל היום, that for your sake we are killed each day, that corresponds to is בחינת שחורות כעורב, that our avodah is a person who forget about what they accomplish, even ruchniyut.

In other words, a person can work harder and seemingly on paper accomplish less, the avodah is the mesirat nefesh, the avodah is to be batel to the process, to try to engage רצון השם, עשה רצונך כרצונו, and that's measured, you know, if you think about it like this, there's two people: one person is able to run a mile and it's not that hard for him, he's in very good shape; the other person, the doctor tells him to get exercise, and he doesn't even make it a mile, he makes it 0.8 miles. Who accomplished more? Well, if the point is to run a certain distance, then the person who ran farther accomplished more.

But if the point is to get exercise, well, look at their heart rate monitor, look how many calories they burnt, look at their heart rate, it could be that the person, even though they didn't get, they were trying to jog a mile because that was their goal, but what they were really trying to do, that was just a structure for what they were trying to accomplish, it was really that they should engage the task, that person accomplished more.

And that's what we're trying to get to, this idea of hitbatlut, hitbatlut to the Torah, putting them in the stage of hisbatlus, and ultimately tefillah, they can be davuk to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, again, come out of themselves, that they could be zocheh to תורה נסתר, ועל ידי זה that a person is mevatel himself, their עצמות, their גשמיות towards tefillah, that they're not, it's not a self-centered תפילה, סליק ויתיב באילנא, then this raven is able to fly up and sit on the tree. What is that, what's the פנימיות over there? שזוכה לבחינת תורה שבנסתר, that they'll be zocheh to this other level of Torah, this עתיד לבואדיקע תורה.

ישת, ישת חושך סתרו, He made darkness his סתרו, He made darkness His hidden place, that it's as if Hakadosh Baruch Hu was like surrounded by חושך, but the way that we're דרשנינג it, it's talking about סתרי תורה, and the pasuk is giving an עצה how to reach סתרי תורה through חושך, through his hisbatlus. שסתרי תורה, which is like a which is a hidden thing, אדם זוכה להם על ידי חושך, that he's שחור, he's blackened like a raven, that he's בטל, היינו מסירת נפש, ומשחיר פניו כעורב.

Like we just explained, and also another tie-in to חושך, one is that it's מסירת נפש to be able to engage in tefillah relationship with Hashem, but through that, כי הם, that סתרי תורה are בחינת חושך על שם עומק המושג, through the depth of being able to be משיג. Again, it's because when a person has גבולים, a person is self-centered, they're limited by their own self, they can't relate to this אור הגנוז. The only way to relate to it is the more that a person expands themselves, the more that they're going to be able to relate to this אור.

So the more hisbatlus a person has, the more יראת הרוממות they have, the more that they're going to be able to expand and relate to Hakadosh Baruch Hu in an expanded way, the more that they'll be able to be משיג and relate to סתרי תורה. וזה בחינת סליק ויתיב באילנא, it went up, the עורב went up and sat on the tree, ששם מדור הנשמות, that that's where the נשמות, that's where the נשמות, it's the dwelling place for נשמות. כמו שכתוב based on the זוהר, כל נשמתין מאילנא רברבא נפק, that all of the נשמות come out of the אילנא רברבא, they come out of the great tree, the עץ החיים.

והוא בחינת עולם הבא, this is the place of עולם הבא, ששם אריכות ימים, this place of בלי גבול, that's where there's אריכות ימים, כמו שכתוב כימי העץ, פסוק in Yeshayahu, that as the days of an עץ, the days of a tree, ימי עמי, these are going to be the days of my people, so that the Klal Yisrael is going to be זוכה to אריכות ימים, עולם הבא, like the עץ החיים that also was מתקיים לנצח, it's the forever tree, right? That it's a חיים of נצחיות. So it comes out that the אילן, we said that the עורב goes and sits on the אילן, the אילן is a בחינה of Olam Haba. Olam Haba is a place where there's the אור הגנוז, it's where הקדוש ברוך הוא hid the light for the צדיקים לעתיד לבוא.

That's סתרי תורה, that's an next-worldly Torah that's outside of limitation that we can't even relate to because we're because we're מוגבל, but we have a so it's not until a person that has mesirut nefesh that they come out of their boundary, that they have self-sacrifice, that they'll be able to relate to this type of a Torah until they go to sit on the אילן. And this is what Rabbah bar bar Chana says, that one who is זוכה to a בחינה of עורב, שחור כעורב, of nullification of self, that that's where they're going to have tefillah with mesirut nefesh, that's where they're going to be able to go sit on the אילן, they'll be able to be זוכה to אור הגנוז.

Now, how is it that that a person is going to have this gilui though of סתרי תורה? How are we going to be able to have any sort of a hasagah from it? וזה זוכה על ידי תפילה. It's through the tefillah, which again, through tefillah if a person daven's through mesirut nefesh, this becomes an expansion of self. כי הקדוש ברוך הוא מתאווה לתפילתן של ישראל. הקדוש ברוך הוא, as it were, we can't speak to why, you know, we can't ask what it is about ratzon, but we can ask, what, what does Hashem want? We say that הקדוש ברוך הוא is מתאווה, הקדוש ברוך הוא is חפץ חסד הוא. הקדוש ברוך הוא wants to give, He wants to be mashpia.

הקדוש ברוך הוא stands ready, willing and able, what הקדוש ברוך הוא needs, kivayachol, in order to be mashpia, is that we should make ourself into a keli. And therefore הקדוש ברוך הוא wants that we should expand ourself, that we should come close, that we should become a keli for His shefa, and therefore Hashem is מתאווה לתפילתן של ישראל. He wants that we should have proper tefillah. וכשישראל מתפללין לפניו וממלאין תאוותו, it's like a parent wants to give a kid something, they want the kid to have appreciation. Otherwise, the parent could turn around and just give it to the kid without earning it. But then whatever the kid receives, even if he gets the candy, the toy, or the trip, whatever it is, it won't be that relationship.

It's not going to be coming with that shefa, with that smile, with that אור פנים, that's not that's not what הקדוש ברוך הוא wants הקדוש ברוך הוא wants to give us in the best possible way. To do that, we have to we have to earn it, we have to engage, we have to develop into a mekabel. כשישראל מתפללין לפניו וממלאין תאוותו, אזי נעשה כביכול בבחינת אשה, שהוא מקבל תענוג הימנו. This is it's going to be based on a pasuk that it says, we'll just read it, כמו שכתוב: אשי ריח ניחוח לה'. It's a pasuk by the korbanot. Ishei means the fire, the fire of the like like lashon of esh, the fire of ריח ניחוח לה'.

But the word ishei, which is like a fire, also could be it's the same word for ishah, which is in in the feminine. על ידי הריח ניחוח שמקבל נעשה בבחינת אשה. And it says in the פסוק, נקבה תסובב גבר, that the נקבה will court will will court the גבר, will court the male. So it's a פסוק in ירמיהו. But what we're saying is is that when we talk about נותן and מקבל, so generally speaking, we talk about the נותן in the masculine, and we talk about the מקבל, the recipient, in the feminine. So generally speaking, we say that HaKadosh Baruch Hu gives us, we're the כלי קיבול, but in this particular instance, the way that the פסוק is bringing out the point, HaKadosh Baruch Hu, as it were, makes Himself it turns the opposite.

HaKadosh Baruch Hu, for these purposes, makes Himself play the role, as it were, of the מקבל, as the אשה. That's why it says that through the ריח, נעשה בבחינת אשה, that HaKadosh Baruch Hu makes Himself the מקבל, because He allows us to give, He allows us to invest, to sacrifice, to contribute. If HaKadosh Baruch Hu would just force us to do whatever it is, so then we become at best we're like a machine, at worst, so then we're not doing what we're supposed to be doing, and Hashem says, fine, I'll give it to you anyway, even if you don't deserve it. By allowing us to have sacrifice and to be invested in the process, to earn, to have skin in the game, so then we we end up being better off.

But because HaKadosh Baruch Hu allows us to sacrifice, so as it were, Hashem is receiving. It's like I heard one time, actually, Rabbi Jonathan Rietti was speaking, he said, if you would ask a person what's the greatest miracle ever, we would say Kriat Yam Suf, Matan Torah, whatever it is. If you would ask Hashem the biggest miracle ever, He would say when a person does teshuvah. For HaKadosh Baruch Hu, there's no nature specifically, it's just how HaKadosh Baruch Hu decides to do it. Whatever Hashem does as pattern and practice, that becomes nature. But HaKadosh Baruch Hu puts a yetzer hara in place. When we go and we're able to break our nature, our constraints, our what we're confined by, so then to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, that's tremendous.

For for Hashem to go against the system He puts in place, so what's the difference if He does it through A or through B? But when we do teshuvah, to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, that's a miracle. So HaKadosh Baruch Hu, as it were, is like the recipient in that idea that He allows that that He receives like nachat ruach, that that His, kivyakhol, His תאווה is satisfied by us. being מבטל ourself with mesirut nefesh, and then נקבה תסובב גבר, that's the פסוק in in ירמיהו, that it's a בחינה of a נקבה that acts as the the the the מלבוש for the for the man. What does it mean?

שהקדוש ברוך הוא נעשה בבחינת מלבוש נגלה, that הקדוש ברוך הוא, through the fact that he gets this ta'anug, that his ratzon is satisfied, it's as if it's a מלבוש נגלה. That's the point, it's visible, היינו בחינה שהיה מתחילה בנסתר, עכשיו נתגלה על ידי התפילה. So what we're saying over here is that there was a certain element that the the Torah's נסתר, a certain element of ratzon Hashem, of Torah, of expression that did not have any sort of a גילוי in the world, because we weren't ראוי to it. הקדוש ברוך הוא is there's ein sofiyut, הקדוש ברוך הוא wants nothing but to give shefa. By us having self-sacrifice, in a certain way playing the active role, so it ended up being that what was previously hidden now becomes נגלה.

The רצון השם שבו, now that becomes revealed, because through our mesirut nefesh and tefilah, like we said, we expanded as the keli, we'll be zocheh to תורת נסתר and there's going to be a גילוי of ratzon Hashem in the world. וקודשא בריך הוא ואורייתא כולה חד, and this אור נגלה, but ultimately this אור נסתר, that that is an expression of of of of ratzon Hashem. ישראל ואורייתא וקודשא בריך הוא חד הוא, and therefore when there's a גילוי of Torah in the world, so that means that it's as if even this this גילוי of הקדוש ברוך

הוא, as it were, that was previously hidden, so now that becomes revealed, and therefore it's as if the אשה through us fulfilling the ratzon Hashem, it's as if הקדוש ברוך הוא, so to speak, in that dynamic is the מקבל, but therefore it ends up being that that הקדוש ברוך הוא will provide a greater גילוי. Well, like court the male, that becomes what's נגלה. Now what was previously hidden becomes becomes נגלה. ואז על ידי התפילין נתגלה אורייתא, היינו סתרי אורייתא, like we already explained, that a person through this element of bitul will be zocheh to tefilah, will be zocheh to come close to הקדוש ברוך הוא.

I heard once from Rav Pincus, you know, sometimes if you're in a car and you know you can't tell if you are moving, if you're moving backwards or the other car is moving forwards, or something is coming to you, are you moving towards it or is it moving towards you? הקדוש ברוך הוא is moving is is really moving towards us. All we have to do is be receptive to it. The more that we make ourselves receptive, we think that we're doing so much avodah, we're coming so close to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, that's not really what's going on.

If we just have hitbatlut, we allow ourselves to become an expression of רצון השם, Hashem will provide all of this shefa, and therefore through hitbatlut and through tefillah, so then we'll be we'll make ourselves into a an antenna that now will be receptive to reach, to be able to receive this this תורת נסתר. Yeah, ואז על ידי התפילין נתגלה אורייתא, היינו סתרי אורייתא. תא חזי, come and see, כמה נפיש חילא דאילנא, see the strength of this tree, היינו כמה נפיש חילא דהאי סתרי תורה, the great כח of סתרי תורה, שאינו יכול להתלבש בשום דבר מוגבל,

it's not able to be contained by any anything that has boundaries, בשום גוף, אלא במי שמחשיך פניו כעורב ונעשה כאכזר על בניו, only the person that we said is represented by the עורב, that has that that seemingly has like a cruel streak, that in other words it's not focused on its own necessity, it's the avodah is not at all self-centered, but one who's mevatel even to the point that his own necessities. But again, a person has to know, make cheshbon hanefesh where to do this.

A person could also have be self-destructive, but when a person has hitbatlut and their avodah is not self-centered, it's it's God-centric, and the question is where what which piece of the puzzle are they fulfilling, but it's it's it's Hashem's puzzle, it's not their puzzle, that's when they are going to be able to be zocheh to tefillah and to סתרי תורה. Okay, I wanted to finish it up on this on this time, but I'm going to break it up, and then that way the recordings will be a little bit smaller and and and easier.