LM 17.3 — Vayehi Hem Merikim Sakeihem, Part 3 of 6 (para. 2–4) · תורה י״ז

Torah י״ז, we're up to paragraph ב', I will give a relatively short lead-in to to allow us to go forward, get back into it. The Torah had started off, כי יראה ואהבה אי אפשר לקבל כי אם על ידי צדיקי הדור, כי הצדיק הדור הוא המגלה היראה והאהבה, and this this line took some some explaining to do because yirah and ahavah seem to be certainly emotion, but but relating to one's direct relationship with הקדוש ברוך הוא, and we had to explain why is it that the צדיק הדור is the one who reveals this, and and how that relates to our relationship with Hashem.

In a basic way, we said that הקדוש ברוך הוא creates the world with a purpose, not just that there's a world and He tells כלל ישראל, gives us the Torah and tells us what to do, but that the entire beriah takes on a definition, it takes on a meaning, every element of the beriah, specifically as relates to כלל ישראל, because הקדוש ברוך הוא created, it would be the example or the discussion that we gave is בשביל ראשית. If a person made a dough and then took off the terumah, so then the dough is טבל, it has a different status, a different halachic status until the hafrashah is taken off. The world, the Rashi tells us, brings the Midrash really, that it says יום ראשון, יום שני, יום הששי. What's יום הששי?

That the world would have gone back to a state of tohu va-vohu had כלל ישראל not accepted the Torah, that's what gave the world קיום. The world was there, it was set up specifically למען, specifically for that הקדוש ברוך הוא should have התפארות for from כלל ישראל and from the Torah, but we look at the world, we don't see that. So the צדיק is the one who is constantly seeking and searching to see רצון השם in the beriah, why הקדוש ברוך הוא created things with a in a we said that there's three different levels. There's the כלל, we could talk about כלל ישראל like this: כלל ישראל is one nation, one organism, we're moving towards a certain goal. There's כלל ישראל is made up of, for our purposes, 600,000, 600,000 neshamot, let's say.

So the sum is greater than the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Once all of those pieces come together, then that creates that creates a unit, and that unit has as a כלל is able to accomplish something that none of the individuals separately could have. So when you put them all together, why should that be different? That's because there's כלל ישראל, that's a unit. Then there's all of the individual members of כלל ישראל, and then there's, if you look at every individual, there's also different parts, different facets to them, their their limbs, their movements, how how they operate. And the world is בכללות ובפרטות ובפרטי פרטי is designed to support, to bring out, to to elevate, it's there for כלל ישראל and for every member of כלל ישראל.

And the tzaddik is the one who is able, because of the level he's on, he comes close to Hashem, he's able to tap into this, he has a Torah mind, a Torah heart, he doesn't he takes out his bias, his נגיעות in terms of how he look at he looks at things. However it is for right now that the tzaddik is able to get to this point, the tzaddik is able to look at this world and see that הקדוש ברוך הוא he looks at the the program and says, "Oh, the what's ultimately the way that

this program is going to be used is X, Y, and Z, and that's why the program is designed with A, B, C, and it matches up." And he's able to look at the world and connect רצון השם within every aspect of the בריאה to כלל ישראל, and there's a parallel. So when there's a particular גזירה, it's going to relate to maybe what what we have to work on, there's going to be a a parallel in the בריאה, and that's going to work its way all the way through. And as we get close to that, and this was a whole discussion, this is what leads to yirah and ahavah, this גילוי that the tzaddik brings out, fleshes out in the בריאה and is able to be מגלה, reveal to the rest of כלל ישראל.

And this this sheds light on it, this opens us up to having yirah and ultimately leading to ahavah. And I'm saying it specifically in that order, which which which we said towards the end of last the last shiur, the the way that we had said it is if you can imagine somebody, something that you are totally in awe of, I mean just totally, halavai that we should have our awe for the right things, but just totally, totally blown away by, you just, you know, you're you're around this this person, this role, this king.

And then not only the king on the day of his coronation, and just blown you don't even have room to open your mouth, just to and and that and then that king goes and gives to you, focuses on you as an individual, you realize, what's his ratzon? It's not that he's so far removed from you, but he's focused and takes an individual interest in you, and he's proud of you and gives you nachat, all of a sudden that yirah, you're scared, forget about scared of punishment and scared of the רוממות, you're scared to even break that relationship. You almost just want To do nothing, your entire life would melt away just to come close and give nachat to this king, and you have total התבטלות of whatever whatever this person wants, you're you're there.

You're just you're totally larger than life, and the yirah leads to leads to an ahavah. Lehavdil elef havdalot, you know, you can see the way that certain like entertainment people, whatever, carry a certain idea where people will go out of their way, I mean, to get an autograph, let alone if they you could spend a day with the person, let alone, you know, have that you should interview the person, that they should interview you, that you should become friends with the with the object. Lehavdil elef havdalot, over here we we we we, you know, the the, we don't really have monarchs at least in America.

I know the Queen of England recently passed and was in the news and the royal family, I mean, but not even none of that comes close to not even a toenail, nothing compared to what we're talking about, מלך מלכי המלכים הקדוש ברוך הוא that created the very fabric of the בריאה, יש מאין, who has hashgacha pratit in in in every in every aspect, and is מחדש בטובו מעשה בראשית that in every single second is creating it. But still there is the Gemara does bring that there's an idea to go see a king so that in our terms we can understand how to relate to royalty, and then we can project that where where ultimately it belongs. We we have the the כלים that we have or what we can relate to.

And now we're going to explain that it's appropriate for a person to be by a tzaddik and to be able to live off this and derive off of this גילוי. However, there are times that a person might be close to a tzaddik, sometimes a person is just not by a tzaddik, but sometimes a person is close to a tzaddik and he just doesn't seem to get this elevation that we're discussing. אות ב׳, וכשנחשך אצל אחד היראה והאהבה, there are times when a person's yirah and אהבה, בבחינת אלביש שמים קדרות, are a bechinah of I will clothe the Shamayim, the heavens, with kederut, with like black, ושק אשים כסותם, and a sackcloth I will make their kesut, their garment.

The peshat the Malbim brings is that the Shamayim will be full of like dark clouds and and and the rain clouds will be as if they are are covering it with a sack. וזה בחינת אש ומים, שמים the Midrash brings, Rashi in Chumash brings, is esh and mayim. It's a Gemara in Chagigah, it's a Midrash. And esh, this is the way that it's brought, that esh is a bechinah of gevurah that relates to yirah, and mayim is a bechinah of chesed, which relates to ahavah. So we'll just take that for granted for right now. היינו יראה ואהבה, נתלבשים בקדרות, they are like covered over. What we want is we want this revelation. We want to we want it to touch us, we want it to resonate within us, the ahavah and yirah.

And yet, so first there has to be a gilui from the tzadik, but now all of a sudden, a person is going to the tzadik, they seem to be going through the right motions, and yet it's covered over. I'm just not feeling it. Maybe that happens to somebody sometimes. נתלבשים בקדרות ונחשכים, they're dark, ונתכסים בשק, it's covered over with a sackcloth, דהיינו שנחשך אצלו היראה והאהבה. The reason, זה מחמת שנחשך אצלו אור הצדיק. The reason is that the or of the tzadik the or of the tzadik is covered over, שממנו מקבלים יראה ואהבה, כנ״ל. So if Shamayim is esh and mayim relating to gevurah relating to gevurah and chesed, relating to yirah and ahavah, and this is flowing to us from the tzadik, but sometimes the tzadik is covered over.

Even though I'm standing under the sky, but there's like a covering that's not letting the revelations spread to me. There's sometimes that it's covered over. כי לפעמים יש שנחשך אצל אחד אור הצדיק, why is it that it's as if the light of the tzadik is covered over as far as I'm concerned, ואינו זוכה להבין ולראות אור הגדול. A person sometimes is not zocheh to to understand, to see, to relate to the ha-or hagadol of the צדיק, ואף שהוא אצל הצדיק, even if he's in his proximity, right, could be alone in a crowd, אינו יכול לטעום ולהבין ולראות אור הגדול של הצדיק, he's not able to taste, to understand, to see, to relate in any way.

I'm sure that there's chilukim that you can make in every level of relating to something, different levels of interaction. When I see it from far away, when I'm not near and I don't see it, but I have an understanding, when I taste and it's experiential, but either way, שעל ידו יוכל לבוא אל תכלית הטוב, that through this, I would come to the tachlit to the תכלית הטוב, which is really what we said, the tachlit of the whole the whole beriah. That's what gives the beriah meaning. כמו שמצינו גבי עפרון, an example that he brings, שמקום מערת המכפלה, שהוא שער גן עדן, there was it's in Chumash it tells us of the sale of מערת המכפלה from Efron to Avraham Avinu.

And מערת המכפלה he brings is the שער גן עדן, שדרך שם עולין כל הנשמות. He's bringing from a Zohar. We can I'll just read from the Hebrew the Targum over here, the translation from that piece זה זוהר, לך לך: כשנשמה יוצאת מן העולם הזה, when the neshamah goes out of this world, נכנסת למערת המכפלה, ששם הוא פתח גן העדן, העדן, that's the place, that's the petach of גן עדן, פוגשת באדם הראשון ובאותם האבות ששם, אם היא זוכה, שמחים בה, ופותחים לה פתחים, ונכנסת, ואם לא, דוחים אותה החוצה. So he comes to to to to meet, to interact with אדם הראשון and the avot that are buried there, and they either let him in or they push him towards the outside, but either way, this is the sha'ar of גן עדן.

And Efron was there, and Avraham Avraham was there, and Efron ends up selling this cave to Avraham. ואורו גדול מאוד, so the or, the revelation that's there was incredible, אף על פי כן, אצלו היה מקום חושך ואפילה, and to somebody who couldn't appreciate this, they didn't have the kelim, right, if you if a lehavdil a person stands stares at the the sun, it creates like dark dots in their eyes. So are they seeing a tremendous white light? But no, it could blind.

If a person doesn't have the kelim for something, or you know, I I don't, a person who does not have an appreciation for wine, they can have a bottle of wine that costs, I don't know, $100, maybe $1,000, and they don't enjoy it as much, you know, maybe at least at the lowest of level they could taste taste that there's something that's expensive about it, "Oh, this tastes like it's chashuv," but they don't actually enjoy it as much as something that's that that they might buy for $10 or $20. If a person doesn't have the keilim, they're they're not receptive to something, then they they might not even know, let alone to appreciate the or, they might even not know that there's or over there.

ועל כן מכרו מכרו בשמחה רבה לאברהם, עפרון sold it בשמחה רבה, כמו like it's brought brought, and he's bringing from Zohar Chayei Sarah, וכמו כן, similarly, by every single person, כשנחשך אור הצדיק, if there's the or of the tzaddik, but we are not in a position that we can be receptive to that, שהוא מאיר בכל העולמות, מכל שכן בעולם הזה, he brings over here in the notes, interesting, that that the Rabbi Nachman is bringing out, it says that the tzaddik is is מאיר בכל העולמות, כל שכן בעולם הזה, a person shouldn't think that really there's

nothing inherently great about the tzaddik, it's only because in this world, where it's so covered up and there's so much choshech and people aren't doing what they're supposed to be doing, so for our purposes, everything is relative, everything is בערכין, and the tzaddik is substantial compared to us. He says no, that a person reaches the level of a tzaddik, they're they be'etzem are are are or, and they're מאיר בכל העולמות, כל שכן in this world. Af al pi chen, we have to understand the inherent value.

I mean, even on our level, if we have a thought, a speech, a deed, when we do something where we're moser nefesh, that when when we do something, it creates something the way that הקדוש ברוך הוא set up the beriah, it literally is a revelation of light, and this tzaddik who's כל כולו he's he's moving towards the the רצון הקדוש רצון השם and he has hitbatlut to the Ein Sof, he is he's a ball of light, so to speak.

ואף על פי כן, אצלו אינו מאיר כלל, but by a person, this this person is not receptive to to to even seeing what he's seeing, אדרבה, הוא חושך אצלו, right, it would be like a person goes to the opera and thinks, I don't have a feeling for the opera, but a person goes to the opera and they think it's boring, they would rather go to some much cheaper form of baser entertainment that that they would that they would find entertaining. This person, lehavdil, this person does not have a sensitivity to something to to the subtlety and the unbelievable light of the tzaddik.

So we see by Efron that he literally sold באהבה, with b'simcha rather, he was able to sell the שער גן עדן, forget about for a lot of money, it shouldn't be for any money at all. וזה מחמת עכירת המעשים וכסילות השכל. The reason this is because of a person's muddied ma'asim and the foolishness of the sechel. Now, he does point out over here in the notes that the Malbim in the Be'ur Hamilot by Mishlei says that a כסיל is not a fool, meaning a person he could be very intelligent, what it means is that he's מואס בחכמה because of his ta'avot.

So in other words, when you speak to a person, a person could sound very sophisticated, and they're able to explain, to articulate in a very way, and yet because their value system is off, what they represent is, you know, let alone whether it's, you know, an irrational position, it's something that doesn't stand for the emet, and it's something that can't be right. If you look in contemporary times, depending on a person's, you know, political leanings, they can have they they can be very educated, Ivy League-educated, be very articulate, and yet when you listen to what they're saying, your your mouth drops open, and you say that that's foolishness, that makes, you know, there's no room even for that position.

שעל ידי המעשים רעים נתחשך שכלו בכסילות, because of their ma'asim, so now when we talked about developing ahavah, we talked about yirah flowing into ahavah, over here it says that yirah is really something that's more intellectual, It's more abstract and ahavah is more of a ratzon. In other words, the yirah is almost a reaction to something outside, but it's it's an idea. I I hold you in a certain esteem, I have a certain awe of you, and that's that that more relates to the שכל. Ahavah is where I have a ratzon, it's something that there's a teshukah, there's a deveikus, it becomes, you know, for our purposes, emotional. It could be experience, it relates to the to the ma'asim.

So it says when a person, you know, perhaps we could say that the חיצוניות is מעורר the פנימיות, so over here it says because of his ta'avah, which is really at the level of was what he has a a ta'avah, deveikus, a teshukah for, and that's in the wrong place, so that comes also to impact the way that he that he thinks about things. I think that's what he's saying. And therefore, he comes also the, you know, say the the Gemara brings אהבה מקלקלת את השורה, that works for the positive and the negative.

It talk it brings a like other sides of the coin, by Avraham Avinu, by by Bilam, who saddled you know, who was saddling his own donkey, that when a person has a strong emotional connection with something, so then even the way that they think or the they can come to rationalize or, you know, not think about things, not stand on ceremony, they come not come not to to think about things in a certain way based on their emotional attachment to something. דהיינו דעות נפסדות וחכמות נכריות. So this person ends up with faulty דעות וחכמות נכריות. We we de'ah, da'at, is more of almost like an an integrated chachmah, way way of thinking about things, and chachmot is even just extraneous thoughts.

Chachmah is really, you know, like almost like a body of knowledge, although sometimes we we we talk about it differently, but how to be honest, I'm not sure exactly how we want to distinguish over here between de'ah and chachmah, but suffice it to say that the ideas that he has, the ideas that he incorporates within himself, his approach even from an intellectual level ends up being faulty due to his ta'avot and and what he has a teshukah for. כמו שכתוב, פסוק in ירמיה, חכמים המה להרע. They're not stupid, right? The the we don't at the Pesach seder we don't have a חכם and a רשע, and we don't have a צדיק and a רשע, and we don't have a חכם and a fool.

What we have is a חכם and a רשע because a חכם is a חכמים המה להרע. He's very intelligent. What we have in the Chumash where by Korach, he had very smart arguments, and in fact the people that went along with him were no were not small were not small people. He had very intelligent, structured arguments. They're חכמים להרע. The opposite of a of a חכם לטוב is a חכם לרע, not a stupid person. The person that could see into the בריאה and see the emet and see see see the truth, and the other person who's able to, sometimes you could even be fooled, he's able to structure arguments that are not in line with emet. ולהיטיב לא ידעו, and to do good they don't know, כי על ידי מעשיהם הרעים.

Now, I guess you could you could almost say, I don't know if you could be medayek from here, that it says that they're חכמים להרע and then ולהיטיב לא ידעו, the way that that it's translated over here in the in the pasuk I'm looking at says that they're wise to do evil, but they don't know how to do good. Well, okay, it's one thing using your, maybe we could say, I don't know, that you know it's one thing using your wisdom to do the bad thing, but I know what's good, but over here we're saying that once they once they start going down a certain path, then they they they even lose their receptive to what is right. They don't even know what good anymore, maybe?

But in any event, כי על ידי מעשיהם הרעים אינם יכולים להשתמש כלל בשכלם להיטיב, it comes out that once it's like after a person eats, let's say, very spicy food, and then they drink something that's very tasty, but their taste buds are off, you know, it becomes that everything is going to taste spicy. Sometimes a person can dull, in one of the the Ashamnu's, it says, you know, that a person a person can, I think by Ashamnu maybe in the ArtScroll, it says that like, you know, I destroyed my spirituality. A person can desensitize themself, or worse, develop a taste for the wrong thing. You know, the flip side of that would be do I create a sensitivity for the right thing?

But a person can do things that destroy that now, all of a sudden, אינם יכולים להשתמש כלל בשכלם להיטיב כי אם לרע, now they only have a taste for good, they can only use the wisdom, they only see they only see they only see good. You know, one person, you know, can say to a young person starting off in business, "You have to start off and you have to put in work. You want the easy way out, but you need an appreciation." The young person starting off might or might not want to put in the the work the hard way until it becomes successful, but he might appreciate where the other person is coming from. Another person says, you know, "Why would you even want to put in work?

Always just look for the easy way out." He's not even going to respect or, you know, it's going to come to a point where where where where the easy way out is is the is the lechatchilah. So people can develop besides for what a person wants, all of a sudden, it could change a person's value system. why should I do the right thing until they lead It gets to a certain point where they say, you know, what what's the value of doing the right thing if it's harder work when I can cheat? And you go down a down a path and it it literally distorts the way that you think about things. ועל ידי כסילות השכל, and from this this darkness of the שכל, על ידי זה אינו יכול לראות ולהבין אור הצדיק.

They can no longer see or discern to understand the אור הצדיק because the way that they think has now been distorted. And what's even worse, I believe the Chovot HaTalmidim talks about this, we we talked in an earlier Torah also, is that now it's not even, you know, me against the chacham, you know, the chacham stands for one thing I do better, a person starts to think that they are the chachamim. So now it's like in today's world of you know, of ageism, now instead of the person who has more light, more experience, more chochmah

coming to tell me like the Mesillat Yesharim's mashal, the person who is at the center of the hedge maze is coming to tell me the right way out even though from within the maze it seems different, all of a sudden I think I know better. So now, it becomes impossible to ever listen to those that I should listen to and take direction and it becomes hard to do teshuvah. Because once you're in a place where you know better and your value systems are off, so now you're you're you totally you don't even know right from wrong and light from dark and you're not going to be able to be receptive to to receptive to and even to see the the the light that the tzadik stands for.

So now we've now explained that while a person can only really have access to yirah and ahavah through the צדיק הדור, it's still possible that a person can have what to do with the צדיק הדור. He could be have proximity to a צדיק הדור and yet not be nourished not not have that window into the ahavah and yirah into the yirah and ahavah, notwithstanding. And that is because this person himself has done things to impact his ability to receive and his ability to connect. And now we're going to explain the tikkun to be mevatel this this כסילות השכל, the tikkun to be mevatel these things that are that are preventing a person from connecting to the tzadik and ultimately to yirah and ahavah.

And this will be through the avodah of אכילה בקדושה, the avodah of eating appropriately. והתיקון לזה, להכניע ולבטל כסילות השכל that it is the the foolishness is not really a good interpretation of כסילות, we mentioned before the the Malbim, the but that the כסילות is not so much a measure of intelligence, but the the person's approach. But the idea to subdue to be מבטל this כסילות of the שכל, הוא על ידי בחינת מזבח. So, in in the same vein of a mizbeach, when a person eats appropriately, that will be able to bring him round. And it's very interesting. We see the integration of, if I was going to talk about eating, you would not necessarily put that into the into the bucket of things that affect the שכל, the things that affect the intellect.

You would say that maybe I feel lethargic because of it and the, you know, maybe I feel heavy or maybe it even incites certain certain other physical types of desires. If I you know, if I eat something and I feel very heavy and I'm very in touch with my physicality, but over here, we see something even deeper that a person can be מבטל this, you know, this clog, so to speak, or even worse than that, of the mind through eating appropriately. The Gemara in Berachos tells us, רבי יוחנן ורבי אלעזר דאמרי תרווייהו: כל זמן שבית המקדש קיים, מזבח מכפר על ישראל, ועכשיו שולחנו של אדם מכפר עליו. So, it's already brought down in Chazal that a person's table and the way that they eat is in the same bechinah as a mizbeach.

כי עיקר יניקת הכסילות The עיקר יניקה of we'll we'll have to speak this out, דהיינו הקליפות, הוא רק מבחינת מזבח, היינו מבחינת אכילה, כי שולחנו של אדם מכפר כמזבח, ומשם עיקר יניקתם. So, let's let let's talk about it for a second. The we're going to have to put together a little bit about a שולחן and a mizbeach, so for right now, we we could talk about the mizbeach and then understand that whatever it is that a mizbeach is accomplishing, a person is able to be accomplishing through their אכילה. I'm going to give an introduction a little bit through if coming from the Parpera'ot LaChochmah, and Reb Chaim Kramer brings the note, just to frame things out.

Hakadosh Baruch Hu, we've already gone in depth to the world that Hakadosh Baruch Hu created, and the purpose that Hakadosh Baruch Hu as we relate to it, that Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the world for Klal Yisrael and Klal Yisrael has bechirah and through our our proper use of bechirah, we were leads כבוד שמים and מלכות, אין מלך בלא עם. But the the this as as a necessity for people to, for Klal Yisrael to have bechirah and to make the appropriate choices, is, then there has to be a world where there is a choice, meaning that

first of all there are, or at least there's the perception of, two ideas to make a choice between, and that there is, from the perception of the chooser, that it's, you know, 50-50, that there isn't the utmost in clarity already. And therefore, there's going to be within this world טוב and רע. There's going to be the representative of the סטרא אחרא, of the other side. Now, this is this is philosophically very We're not going to fully flesh out this idea right now, but philosophically this is a problem, because if if if B comes from A, then that means that B was within A. So how do we deal with if Hakadosh Baruch Hu is כולו טוב, how can it be that something רע came from something כולו טוב?

Which has been the source of many different ideologies, you know, different sources: the the good source and the bad source and not coming from the same place. Ultimately, if you skip past all of the problems of how it came to be, we already addressed earlier that רשעה כעשן תכלה. It's not going to be that that there's good and evil and good is going to triumph over evil. It's going to be that evil will dissipate. In one analogy, perhaps we can say, if you know, if there's a coach that's trying to bring the best out of one of his players, well, if there's no opposition, then there's not going to be any place to bring things from the potential to actualize potential.

And therefore, there might be certain things that are put in place in order to create opposition, to create resistance solely for the purpose of bringing, and it might it might kill the coach and even kill the one who's providing the opposition, right, the one that's pushing back. It might it might kill them when they see that the person is failing, but all of these things are in place solely to bring something mikoch el hapoal. And therefore, the perception of what we see as being ra, I mean, if you could almost imagine, I don't know if

this is a good mashal, let's say I reach out with my arm, and I push the other way back against my chest, I push myself like back into a chair, so where where is that force that's coming against me coming from? It's really coming from myself, and I can adjust it accordingly for whatever the purposes are. There is no ra. It's only from the point of view of the observer that there's maybe a force and a counterforce, but it's coming from the same place for a reason. And we'll ultimately see that there is no ra. And that'll be the greatest, you know, statement of yichud, because we'll see that there wasn't even really any other. There was no sitra achra.

But for now, that there is a system that we have in place, those things need to be sustained in order for anything to exist in the world, and needs to have a flow of energy. The only energy is divine energy. Hakadosh baruch hu is what enables the world to exist, which means that there's some energy that allows ra, or sitra achra, or however you want to frame it, there is an energy that allows these things to exist, which is essentially the universe in which we operate, that we were able to create avodah.

Now, the the the world, we said the second idea is that the entire world is ultimately created and designed, including the sitra achra, including all of these other ideas, to bring out the hitpa'arut of Klal Yisrael, which we explored at length, which means that the entire world, some is more clearly able to we can understand it more clearly, and some less clearly, but the entire world is really made towards serving a purpose. And, so again, some of it's direct. If I eat something, then that is very clearly sustaining me.

If I somebody plants a seed, and then the seed, you know, grows into a tree, and the tree grows into fruit, and then that gets, you know, that gets shipped someplace, then his planting the seed might be less clearly directly serving me, but the entire the entire בריאה בעצם serves Klal Yisrael. And as certain kabbalistic concepts, we're going to try to keep it as grounded as possible, part of the system of the bri'ah, and part of the system of creation, is that it goes through birurim, that there are certain things that will come to directly service Klal Yisrael, and then there's certain parts of the bri'ah that, as it were, essentially creates the universe within which we have the avodah.

So then there's going to be certain birurim, I want to say clarifications, separations, we have like בורר on Shabbos, where we're able to take the productive part, the sparks, as it were, the the the things that are meaningful and go working towards the goal from the other elements of creation, and separate out the parts that are essentially really just the kli, the container, the shell. When the the shell, let's say, of an orange is necessary for the orange to grow properly, once a person is go- and you couldn't not have it, but once a person takes the fruit, then at that point they can throw away the shell, and the shell will dry up and shrivel up, and it will go into nothingness.

And even when we get to a person eating, a person eats, and then there are certain parts of that food that revives them, and then there's the parts of food that that ends up going into into waste material, it goes through a purification process. And therefore, when when a Jew eats, and he eats bikdushah, then he is now taking the nutritious parts of those food, he's going to direct it toward the right place, he's going to revive himself and and and be able to take the the the energy that was housed within the food, and there's going to be a process of birurim of those things that house that that that encapsulated that housed the spiritual energy within the food, and that's a process of birur. The mizbe'ach also was a process of birur.

There was the the dam went on the mizbe'ach, the meat got burnt up towards hakadosh baruch hu, depending on some of it was עולה כליל, some of it went to got totally burnt up, some of it was did not get totally burnt up, and some of it in different types of korbanot either the hides had to be burnt, some of the meat was distributed, there were different תכלית that different parts of the korbanot of the korbanot went to. And we're going to see that the mizbe'ach, in terms of the divine energy that comes through to the world, so it goes through a process.

There's there's there's חסד, גבורה, תפארת, נצח, הוד, יסוד, מלכות, לית ליה מגרמיה כלום, we've said many times before, malchut is really the the end it's the the interface with the next level, right, and as things go through iterations of or levels of creation, so when you go from stage A to B, the malchut, the last level of A, will actually be the first level of stage B. The the the interface with this world is going to be at the level of malchut. That's going to be a בחינה in the same vein of a mizbe'ach.

And in our terms, for what we need for this Torah, it seems that the the the level of malchut and the בחינה of מזבח, those things are within the same vein where there's בירורים that take place, where we're able to take the positive spiritual energy and direct that towards avodah and make a clarification of those things that are essentially at this point the קליפה, right, that's the shell of the orange. When used productively, there's nothing wrong with that shell.

It's the peel rather, it's perfectly legitimate while it's being used towards supporting the the nutritious part of the orange, and once there's a בירור and we're able to use something positively, so then it's no longer necessary, and then it will it will be able to be discarded and shrivel up, and it has none of its own real substance. However, and that that's the process, the מזבח and the achilah which the בירורים take place. What happens when a person puts more stock into the into the peel, they put more stock into those things that really are only a means to an end, those things that are really there as to be a universe to house kedushah so it could be used properly?

Well, then all of a sudden the there is there is שפע that's coming down to the world that's sustaining both the orange and the peel. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is supporting, giving spiritual energy to all parts of that process that they could exist at all, but over here, instead of the person really lining up the שפע with the the orange, so to speak, and putting understanding that the spiritual energy is in the nutritious part of it and ultimately making a בירור so that the קליפה can shrivel up and has no existence, and it just like, you

know, kind of, you know, turns into dust and it's going to get blown away, they essentially put stock, and they lead שפע into the קליפה, they they're supporting and they're and they're they're giving substance with their avodah to the to the סטרא אחרא, to the other side of it, and it's being misdirected. So that when a person when a person eats and when a person engages in מזבח, there are בירורים, they are giving there's a certain minimal amount of energy through this avodah that does go to the סטרא אחרא, to the קליפה, although it's going in the most minimal possible amount, it doesn't really have its own substance, its own identity other than as servicing the main part. And if a person doesn't do these בירורים properly, then that balance ends up being off.

So that let let us see this inside. So again, the tikun to be מכניע and to be מבטל this כסילות השכל, which is which we defined even based on the Malbim the word itself, that that a כסיל is not foolish, but somebody who's מואס בחכמה because of his תאוות, he's he's it's more of an imbalance, he's relating he's relating to the wrong things as being primary, which actually is it creates a bias and a מואס, and the the שכל is improper, and he he lacks clarity because it's the תאוות that are driving the bus. How are we able to be מתקן that, to bring ourself back to התבטלות, to being objective, to having clarity, to be able to relate to the tzaddik?

And התבטלות requires an objectivity to to and not saying that we are that we are primary, it's that's על ידי בחינת מזבח, כי עיקר יניקת הכסילות, where is it that the כסילות, this what takes effect that the that it creates It's this kind of imbalance, דהיינו הקליפות, the in our mashal it's the peel, these things that are הלבשה that that really become strengthened through a person's negative actions, and this כסילות where they are not making the proper בירורים and the proper clarifications, הוא רק מבחינת מזבח, היינו מבחינת אכילה, because again אכילה and מזבח are in the same vein, כי שולחנו של אדם מכפר כמזבח, ומשם עיקר יניקתם.

And that's where the עיקר יניקה is from, hopefully in the appropriate amount, the appropriate minimal amount, and the appropriate idea and understanding the קליפה as it as it's supposed to be there to support the positive, so that we can have bechirah, so that we can nullify it, but chas v'shalom that it should be in the negative. ועל כן אפילו אחר אכילת איש הכשר, that's why, this is almost parenthetical, this is why when a person eats when a person eats, there is some sort of shefa going to the other side and the the קליפה really doesn't

have its own substance, it's it's really there only in terms of חשיבות to support the right thing, but lemaaseh it is סטרא אחרא, lemaaseh it is קליפה, and therefore that's why when a person eats, we see בהכרח שיהיו לו בלבול הדעת קצת אחר אכילה. Sometimes a person is takeh a little bit light-headed, there is a little bit of confusion. Ultimately, that gets clarified, he makes the proper birurim, but because there is this is the place where through eating and through making the birurim, but the the there is shefa that is directed towards the קליפה to exist, ultimately in the proper context, but therefore, there is almost a little bit of confusion at the time of eating.

וזה מחמת שיניקת הכסילות הוא משם, because the יניקה of the of the כסילות, the יניקה that ultimately goes to the to the קליפה to the other side happens through this avodah of eating, at the מזבח which is in the בחינה of מלכות. It's at this stage that is really bringing shefa to the world, ultimately again to be used for kavod shamayim, to make the proper birurim, to use our bechirah for the positive, to have to have appropriate התבטלות and and be מכניע ourselves to הקדוש ברוך הוא and recognize that we're living for the right purpose. אך צריך שלא ליתן חיות להקליפות. We want not to give חיות, not to really direct divine energy towards the קליפה, כי אם כדי חיונו בצמצום ולא יותר. The idea is really to only give it the minimal.

Through this avodah, we bring energy into the world enough to be able to distinguish, to make the appropriate birurim between the עיקר the עיקר and the טפל, so that we really only want to give enough shefa, we're only trying to bring enough shefa into the world to support the to support the negative elements of it so that they can ultimately be used towards the proper purpose. ואז כשהמזבח כתיקונו, היינו כשאכילה בכשרות כראוי, so where a person is eating appropriately and this is the avodah of the מזבח as appropriate, he's not overeating or eating things that

are unhealthy or eating in the wrong way or becoming totally involved in his food, and even the you know food is being an end in and of itself and he's just a total, you know, a foodie, and this is what it's about. Food is is gas for the car. You bring shefa to the world, you're supporting yourself. Why why why are you sitting there, you know, tasting the the gas before you put it into the car? Decide what the right one that you need is, put it in, and move on. Not that a person can't enjoy it. There's a makom for oneg for for oneg Shabbos and food, and we have simcha through basar and yayin and ובכל מטעמים, but a person has to relate to it appropriately. אזי נכנעים הקליפות.

When a person relates to these other, and again it really finds expression in the מזבח and in achilah, when a person relates to these קליפות as appropriate, so then it's subdued, right? They don't have their own identity and their own חשיבות, היינו הכסילות, and therefore the כסילות also, which is the attitude and the approach which places the תאוות over the שכל, כי אינו נותן להם כוח וחיות, because this idea this avodah is not giving its own energy and its own חשיבות towards the towards that that part of the בריאה which is really the the the

physical part, the גשמיות part, the part that is essentially the universe within which it provides us a basis for avodah, but not because it has a meaning in and of itself, כי אם כדי חיונו בצמצום, just enough that it needs in order to exist to serve its purpose, שזה מוכרח ליתן להם, that this is what is required to be given to the other side, כידוע. אבל אינו נותן להם שום כוח וחיות יותר מכדי חיותם, but we don't want to give it more than is necessary. ועל כן על ידי אכילה בכשרות נכנע הכסילות, through eating appropriately, we can subdue these other attitudes, the other side, נתרומם השכל, because there's a balance.

There's a balance between the more that a person is elevated, the more that a person has he he lives in an objective world, so to speak, and he has clarity, and he focuses on the intellect, the less the גשמיות is going to mean to him, the less he's going to be invested in it. The more that a person's invested in גשמיות, at the end of the day, it's reciprocal, and therefore, when one invests in one, there's a reciprocal relationship, and it takes away energy from the, you know, from the other elements, the שכל and the and the תאוה. And the כסילות, again, is essentially the attitude that's placing, you know, that's anti-חכמה, and it is placing more emphasis in in the גשמיות, in the other side, in the wrong priorities.

And through through this, נכנע כסילות ונתרומם השכל, כמו שמצינו בגמרא, בבעיא דבעי רבא מרב נחמן. There was a certain case in the Gemara, the particular הלכה that it was talking about is when a person when a person steals from partners and then he acknowledges, he admits stealing to one of the partners, so the הלכה over there is talking about when when one admits to owing a penalty, you know, what the הלכה is over there. It's not it's not a a monetary a monetary obligation, which would otherwise be a penalty. When a penalty is not imposed, but a person admits, over here the person stole from partners, he admitted to one of the partners.

Whatever exactly the הלכה was over there, Rav Nachman ruled one way, and then ultimately, in the morning he changed his position. לצפרא אמר ליה, and in the morning he changed his position, והאי דלא אמרי לך באורתא, so Rav Nachman explained, why did I not tell you the appropriate הלכה the night before, דלא אכלי בישרא דתורא, because I had not eaten ox meat. Now, really we're not talking the fact we're not really talking about eating meat per se over here in terms of anything else. It could be that, so over there, it could be that ox meat is, you know, in the peshat that ox meat is very is very nourishing. We're really talking about eating versus not eating at all.

The the note over here quotes Tosefos that explains that maybe Rav Nachman didn't want people to know he was fasting, so he didn't say, "I didn't eat anything at all." He's just said mentioned that he hadn't eaten anything that was very, you know, nutritious and sustaining, he hadn't eaten ox meat. But in any event, he said that, "I have not yet eaten." Now, again, we did say that at the time of eating, immediately, sometimes a person experiences a certain בלבול השכל, because that's when there is shefa directed towards, you know, the this-worldly things, including including those klipot and סטרא אחרא, that there is a minimal amount of shefa going there. But after the birurim take place, this avodah of making the birurim can bring a person total total clarity.

Not only not not not only is there klipah, but the person is is actively making these birurim in terms of what goes on the מזבח, what stays off the מזבח, what goes here, what goes there, right? In other words, a person is making is making those distinctions, and therefore, נמצא על ידי שלא אכל, it come out because he had not engaged in the avodah of eating, לא היתה דעתו צלולה, he did not have clarity, כי על ידי אכילה נכנע כסילות ונתגדל השכל.

It's through this avodah of eating that the that that there's shefa and and energy and positive kochot that are that are directed towards the positive side, which is which for our purposes is the sechel and a clarity of mind, and there was making birurim in terms of the other part, the כסילות, which would prioritize either תאוה, גשמיות, things that would take away from the clarity of mind. אבל כשאוכל זולל וסובא, when a that's that's for our purposes that's that's the end of that idea that we're mentioning to support what we're talking about, אבל כשאוכל זולל

וסובא, when a person eats inappropriately, gluttonous, שזה בחינת פגם המזבח, that's a bechinah of a a blemish in the מזבח, so to speak, אז יונקים הקליפות, that's where now this energy and this priority is given towards the wrong side, which again, it's reciprocal. If you're giving energy and directing directing emphasis towards the wrong priorities, then mimela that's going to take away from the right priorities and the the right sechel and the right כחות, דהיינו הכסילות יותר מן הראוי, ואז מתגבר הכסילות על השכל, and therefore the כסילות will מתגבר על השכל, the sechel will not be able to be receptive towards, in our Torah, the connection with the tzadik and being able to properly receive from him in terms of yirah and ahavah and outlook, and ultimately integrating those ideas these ideas emotionally.

אבל על ידי אכילה כראוי נכנע כנ״ל, and takeh we see over here, the note over here brings from the Arizal even, that a person sometimes they have a certain change in attitude, and that could actually be linked to what they to what they eat. וזה בחינת מזבח בחלקו של טורף, this is what the Gemara in Zevachim brings that the מזבח was in the חלק of the טורף, which is reference to בנימין, בנימין זאב יטרף, that's the פסוק, and טורף is a בחינה of טרף נתן ליראיו. Sustenance will be given to those who fear Him. טרף is also לשון of מזון, בחינת אכילה בכשרות, that that's why the טורף is to like to to like rip apart, but that's why we see this לשון of בנימין זאב יטרף, יטרף is מזון.

That's where the the מזבח was also, שעל ידי זה מכניע טורפין אותן, because through the appropriate אכילה we're able to to tear apart, היינו את הקליפה of excess אכילה, we're able to tear apart the wrong ideas, elements. We're able to take away the influx of energy that would go there and to allow it to, or to to make it that it's going to be in its proper place. And this is through the עבודה of מזבח and the עבודה for our purposes of אכילה. אבל על ידי פגם המזבח, היינו פגם האכילה, על ידי זה נותנים כח לכסילות, ונעשה מטורף טירוף הדעת. This is also the same לשון, the אותיות of טורף, which could be, again, by the מזבח, but also to, it refers to מזון over here. טירוף הדעת is like a בלבול הדעת.

It confuses a person, שמתגבר על ידי זה, because the כסילות השכל takes on a disproportionate amount of energy to what it should have through this פגם האכילה and the פגם המזבח. And therefore, one of the ways that we're talking that that a person should be able to receive from the צדיק and be able to connect and bring himself to יראה and אהבה is through being is through being able to bring himself to a place where he has clarity of שכל. Part of what could bring a person clarity of שכל is the עבודה of eating appropriately.

Going into אות ד׳, we have now explained that it is impossible to really reach, to truly reach יראה and אהבה other than through the צדיק הדור, and that a person, to be receptive to this, even if he's next to a צדיק הדור, he can, rather he can make himself unreceptive to this through his מעשים רעים and leading to his כסילות השכל, his actions, and it also ends up affecting and impacting his intellect so that he cannot receive and have clarity. And we said that the עיקר יניקת הכסילות actually comes from eating inappropriately, linked to פגם המזבח. And now we're going to talk about how to rectify that.

Although it's true that a person would need to eat appropriately in order to, you know, not not continue that פגם in אכילה and השולחן המזבח in order to rectify it, but we're going to see that the tikkun is going to, we're going to take a step deeper, a step further, and we're going to see that the tikkun of of this פגם in אכילה comes from להשלים פגם המזבח, in אות ד׳, הוא על ידי גרים. It's going to become from from גרים, from the the process of conversion, from bringing people close. The note over here brings from Likutei Tefillos that wherever the the kavanah wherever it refers to גרים is not only actual converts, but it's also to convert things that are far away going in the wrong direction to going in the right direction.

I'll just read it, I'm reading the language of the note, he says that the kavanah is הטוב שבו יתגבר על הרע שבו, which is a בחינה of הגר אשר בקרבך, the the גר that is within you, היינו שהיה בקרבך, שצריך לגיירו, שהטוב שבו יתגבר עליו להכניסו לקדושה, to enter in the the negative parts into kedushah. So we're talking about this process of converting those elements that are farthest away. And, again, you can have something that's far away moving in the right direction, and you can have something that's far away, or even perhaps close, that's moving in a towards a direction that's far away. So those are those are really two separate ideas.

The biggest kavod that we've already seen at least in two separate תורות, the biggest כבוד שמים is when you take something not only that's far away, but something that's moving in the wrong direction, moving towards the the opposite direction. The farthest direction away is the opposite direction. Now, all of a sudden, you come to come to align that with the with the אמת. And that that that really becomes the the biggest tikkun. So over here, in order to be להשלים פגם המזבח is through גרים, כי כל העבודה זרה אין להם כח כי אם מפגם המזבח. These ideas are, on one hand, so lofty, and we'll try to bring them down to earth so that they can we can they can become very meaningful to us.

Says, כי כל העבודה זרה אין להם כח כי אם מפגם המזבח. Where does עבודה זרה get its יניקה from? Meaning, what is עבודה זרה, or, you know, at the שורש, what's עבודה זרה? It's where you assign a certain autonomy, a certain power to something other than Hashem. Now, אנכי and לא יהיה, ייחוד השם are different mitzvot. It does not mean that a person can do עבודה זרה, we see throughout Tanach, and still acknowledge that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is on top of the mountain. Lehavdil, in other words, a person goes into a store, something costs a hundred dollars, so he goes over to the store clerk and he says, 'I'll give you twenty dollars if you give it to me.' Can the store clerk do it? Yes.

Does that mean that he's the owner or runs the store or they're not on camera? In other words, we try to There's a drought, Hakadosh Baruch Hu is sending a message we to do teshuvah. Should we do we acknowledge that Hakadosh Baruch Hu sent and that the reason is for us to do teshuvah? Perhaps, yes. If a person understands that they can do certain, you know, to do the rain dance, you know, tap into certain powers in order to achieve their desired result without having to conform and be mevatel himself to Ratzon Hashem, can they choose to do that? Yes.

Well, does that mean that they're essentially assigning some sort of autonomy or some sort of power, something else that they can tap into that would not necessarily be in line with Ratzon Hashem or that has its own kochos by doing that? Yes. So over here, what did we talk about in the in the entire idea of the מזבח and אכילה? You're taking the nitzotzot, you're taking the sparks, you're taking the productive part of something. And in this world that has a certain vehicle, those are housed within food, let's say, there's a certain animal, whatever the process of korbanot is and how we relate to korbanot, and then we have the process of birurim.

We have the process of a clarification, of a selection, and we understand which part of it is primary, which part of it was essentially a vehicle for the kedushah, and we understand that in this world that there needs to be a vehicle for that kedushah. And therefore, we assign it exactly as much shefa, even though it in and of itself is is gashmiyut and there's nothing on its own, it would it's it's mundane, but to the extent that it needs to exist, then we assign it and we direct a certain amount of shefa to it in the most minimum possible amount, which is appropriate as part of the the right process. But however, עבודה זרה is really the opposite of that.

עבודה זרה is where we take other things and we assign them their own you take something that might be, you know, it's a beautiful leaf and it's attached to the tree and it gets all of its vitality from the tree, and then you for your purposes, you separate that and you say, "Look at the beautiful leaf," and you say that it stands on its own. You don't acknowledge that all of the nutrients, it could be that the leaf or the flower is is beautiful colors, and really if you look at the tree branch, to your naked eye, it looks like a dark brown, you know, whatever color the the the tree is, you see, this flower stands on its own, I should really attach myself to the flower.

But all of its vitality, all of the seed, the DNA, everything is really coming through the tree. So once you separate that out and you start focusing on on really something that's coming from the source, that's already a bechinah of עבודה זרה. And that really it's the other side of the coin from some of the ideas that we discussed in terms of eating and the מזבח and the שולחן and this process of doing the birurim appropriately, and therefore he says that עבודה זרה is getting the koach from פגם מזבח, זה שכתוב בכל מקום מקטר ומגש לשמי, פסוק in Malachi. We're saying even by עבודה זרה, it says really everything is in terms of incense, it's מקטר, it's a הקטרה, and מגש, the korbanot also are for Me.

It says if Hakadosh Baruch Hu says, Chazal tell us over here in Masechet Menachot דף קי that even the goyim who are doing עבודה זרה are really acknowledge maybe outwardly, maybe in the heart of hearts, but they really acknowledge that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is אלקי האלקים, right? If you have a goy doing עבודה זרה, we're not talking about another conversation, you know, people who propose to be atheists and things like that, they acknowledge that there are greater powers than them. Do they You know, it's like the conversation by Avraham and Terach, do they really think that it's this idol, this piece of wood, you know, that's that's responsible for everything? They want to tap into and access certain powers perhaps that are inherent within them, but they understand that there's אלקי האלקים.

And כי אף שהם עובדי עבודה זרה, even though they are עובדי עבודה זרה, כל כחם הוא מפגם חלקי המזבח. It's a distortion of the truth, but it's a distortion of the truth. It's coming off of something. It can't really be self-created. ועל כן אמר השם יתברך, מקטר ומגש לשמי. There is an element of everything. It's a פגם מזבח, but it's but that but it's still coming from the מזבח. In other words, the shefa, even the people that worship avodah zarah, they acknowledge in a certain sense that the connection is really coming, although in a distorted fashion, from הקדוש ברוך הוא, כי כחם הוא מהניצוץ הקדוש של המזבח דקדושה שנפל לשם. It's these like fallen כוחות.

And I'm just going to read a little bit a little bit from the note because I think that it will help round it out. He's talking about the the עומק, the depth of this coming from Likutei Halachot from the halachot of תחומין ה ו, and he quotes the language. He says, הכסילים בוחרים ברע שאינם רוצים לרדוף ולרוץ אחריו יתברך במסירת נפש, אזי נתקלקל אצלם החיות הנמשך מייחוד החיצון. ונעשה אצלם כפירות ואמונות כוזביות. People believe in Martians or they don't, and people, if you ask many people around, secular people, if they believe in God, many might say yes, or they don't. Why don't people have a problem believing, saying that they believe in God?

Because there's a disconnect, where something does not create an accountability and a responsibility, it doesn't impact my life, it doesn't mean that there is a God that created the world, that's actively involved in the world. You know, when a person says, you know, I can pray for big things, but not small things, then, and correspondingly, you know, God maybe cares about people, you know, if somebody kills somebody, but why should they care if, you know, if I talk during davenen, or if I give one penny to tzedakah? That becomes detached. And once Hakadosh Baruch Hu is not intimately involved, and it does not create a corresponding responsibility and an accountability, that's really what it is, it's a התחייבות. You know, mitzvot, people say, secular people say a mitzvah is a good deed.

That's not what a mitzvah is, a good deed. It's a commandment, and a commandment has a commander, and when you are an extension of the will of the commander, then that causes צוותא is like a, צוותא is like a joining, and a togetherness. People over here, so he says, why do the כסילים, if they believe in God, not want to, they don't have emunah? The emunah is bridging, bridging that gap between us and Hakadosh Baruch Hu, because they don't want to be accountable. They don't want to have to have mesirut nefesh. They don't want to... I have my will, sometimes my will says that there's a God, and that I should be ethical, but I'm doing it because it makes sense to me.

People don't want to have to sacrifice their life, their will towards Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and what happens is that they create an ideology around that. And therefore, that's why it becomes it creates a distortion that becomes a פגם of the מזבח. But that's not because they actually, you know, intellectually would deny, that's not where it starts from. So therefore over here he says, הניצוצות קדושות של מזבח שנפלו לשם, it's like these ניצוצות fall, and then they become distorted. But indirectly there is really an acknowledgement and a connection that the shefa is ultimately coming from Hakadosh Baruch Hu.

ועל ידי הגרים, על ידי שכל אחד משליך אמונתו, and therefore what ends up happening is though when people worship avodah zarah and they develop this ideology, whether total, you know, גרים, people that are coming from avodah zarah, or even some of us on our level, when we take upon this attitude in our own lives, what we do is we strengthen the amount of shefa and the amount of influence that those things that should really be טפל and supportive to the עיקר, they take on almost in a certain sense their own identity, and those forces become stronger, and they cloud, certainly in perception, they seem to overwhelm so that it becomes harder and harder, these clouds and this darkness, to you know to access Hakadosh Baruch Hu and to see that emunah clearly.

But now, he says, על ידי גרים, על ידי שכל אחד ואחד משליך אמונתו והולך אחר אמונת ישראל, when those who are in this position they go and they throw away their ideologies and they go after the אמונת ישראל, ועל ידי זה מכניע עבודה זרה שנעשה מפגם חלק המזבח, there's a subjugation of these other ideas, the avodah zarah that comes from פגם המזבח, אז חוזר ניצוצי חלקי המזבח למקומן ונשלם המזבח. This becomes a tikkun of the מזבח. And again, it's in line with this avodah, these birurim that could be done even in an individual sense, from the avodah of eating.

So now, right, in other words, if everybody that did an aveirah dropped dead and everybody that was doing ratzon Hashem became wealthy and did fabulously, then there wouldn't be a question, forget about כח הטוב והרע, there would be koach that's in line with what works in direct shefa and all of the other kochos. So Hakadosh Baruch Hu structured the world this way, but our avodah is to see through it. וזה בחינת לא ישכב עד יאכל טרף ודם חללים ישתה, this is coming from the brachah as it were of Bilaam to Klal Yisrael, and he says

the pshat in the pasuk is לא ישכב עד יאכל טרף, that the Jewish nation will not lie down until they eat their prey, until they defeat their enemies, ודם חללים ישתה, and drink the blood of their kill, so to speak, and then they are ירשן, they inherit their nechasim, ותרגומו. Targumo of ודם חללים ישתה, the Targum says נכסי עממיא יירת, they inherit the possessions of the goyim. יאכל טרף, what does it mean they eat their prey? Now, טרף, again we said טרף is sustenance, it's food, it's prey, it's a reference to the mizbeach, which was because of the pesukim by בנימין, זה בחינת שלימות המזבח.

When we look into this brachah, and by the way, Bilaam, who was the the evil incarnate is the language that it says in the note of of Rav Chaim Kramer, but Bilaam, who even in the Mishnayot we we compare Bilaam as being like, you know, the the response to what we had as Moshe, who is the ultimate עניו מכל אדם, the ultimate hitbatlut, it seems that that that what the goyim had was Bilaam, so he was totally totally the opposite. Bilaam, how did he get the Jews to go after Midian and avodah zarah and Pe'or, which was in that terrible episode? It was through food, and leading to avodah zarah, through them going to the to the god and the the of of Pe'or. So it was through this it was through this idea.

So he says over here, linking it through linking through to the brachah of בלעם, זה בחינת שלימות המזבח, בחינת מזבח בחלקו של טרף כנ״ל, וזה נעשה על ידי ונכסי עממיא יירת. What it means is that the possessions of the goyim, as it were, what what do the the עובדי כוכבים, what do they do? They put their stock and their faith and their and their allegiance to these other powers, and when you take those, and those get drawn back in, those get inherited, היינו על ידי גרים, כמו שכתבו חכמינו זכרונם לברכה לענין ירושת הגר: כל הקודם בנכסי הגר זכה. This refers to a particular halacha, that all all Jews have relatives.

If a person doesn't have direct descendants, then they have a father, and then the father has brothers who have children, and if they don't have that, then they have a grandfather's brother's children. Halachically, when a person converts, legally they are deemed not to have relatives. So what happens to their possessions? Their possessions a person who is of the Jewish nation comes along, and they take possession of the the the convert's items. So what what the what the idea over here is that there are there are certainly ניצוצות of kedushah, etc., that go outside of the Jewish nation, so to speak, they fall.

In other words, again, through this process of בירורים of mizbeach, of eating properly, we should be putting things in their place, we should be using the kedushah for its purposes, and the the other things what what should be mundane, etc., it becomes a vehicle for kedushah, and everything is within the appropriate structure. When that is misaligned, we we give too much we we put substance and we put stock into the other, and then all of a sudden the shefa is directed there, it falls, so to speak, outside the system. What is the tikkun for that? Taking things that are specifically outside the system and bringing them back in, in a personal sense, and even in a sense of gerim, which we're going to go into next time in paragraph ה׳.

How are we able to cause there to be gerim in the world? But what what happens is is this process of now taking these things on the outside and bringing it back within the system, with the wrong ideologies and and and bring them close, so that becomes the rectification for this idea. So I mean it's it's unbelievable what we see as being two things that are totally separate. So a person didn't eat with the appropriate kavanos and so forth, and gerim is like, are you talking about a גר צדק?

These actually are are coming from the same ideas, and therefore the rectification for for eating is gerim, but on the other hand we see that when we do work on eating, and we do work on on on having the appropriate table and Shabbos table and every every day, and how we eat and make brachos and how what our approach is to food, we see the tremendous even the tikkun that can be done through that, and if we don't do it, the tremendous damage that could be done to ourselves and to the world.