LM 17.6 — Vayehi Hem Merikim Sakeihem, Part 6 of 6 · תורה י״ז

בעזרת השם יתברך, Torah י״ז, we are up to paragraph ז, we will be finishing this Torah today. We gave a relatively decent summary at the beginning of the last shiur, so for anybody who's listening, if you want to just bring yourself current it would not be a bad idea to listen to the first few minutes of the last posting which was which went through paragraph ו. Just just as a much briefer summary, I'll use ר' Chaim Kramer's note to bring us a little bit current into the into the zone so that we can continue with paragraph with paragraph ו. The Torah started off talking about the fact that ahavah and yirah are attained through a tzaddik.

This is because of the dynamic whereby a tzaddik finds התפארות that that Hakadosh Baruch Hu takes in creation. And we explained at length what it was about התפארות, what it means התפארות. Hakadosh Baruch Hu, as the Ribono Shel Olam, as the Creator and the runner of the world, the interested runner of the world, has an interest and a design for society, for different people, for different parts within a person, within every element of creation, and that this this התפארות is revealed through the tzaddik who's always relating to that to that relationship between Hakadosh Baruch Hu and the world. And when this when this is revealed within the world, so this flows, our attachment to the tzaddik and this revelation flows and to manifest itself it it yields to ahavah and yirah.

What happens when a person doesn't feel this ahavah and yirah, and even when we seem to be attached to the tzaddik? Why is that? We explained that this is because of a person's own his his maasim, his his deeds and also his his foolishness, his wrong wrong ideology, misinformed ideas, things that things that present a clog. I was having a conversation with a very close chaver of mine this week on Shabbos, and we discussed this idea that in one hand we view ourselves as trying to build ourself up, and yet much of our avodah is talking about hitbatlut, in a sense it's breaking ourselves down. And when you're looking at anything in, you know, in in a very still frame, then you can make sense of it.

But just in terms of, you know, taking a step back, how does one relate to the idea of trying to climb a higher level by by pushing himself down? And we were discussing a little bit right right right here this idea, this idea in this תורה that if if we would have clarity, so then we would have we would have the flow, the relationship, our חלק אלוק ממעל, we'd be close to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. What's yirah? Rav Avigdor Miller says yirah is the shoresh is like ראה, to see, to be in awe. But if a person would truly have clarity, they would they they would automatically be by their their default situation would be to be standing in front of the Creator to feel in awe.

And they and they understood that Hakadosh Baruch Hu's interest, the Ribono Shel Olam's interest in them as part of His plan, that would that that would give way to a tremendous amount of love, that that this this I shouldn't say a being, Hakadosh Baruch Hu is not a being, but this Hakadosh Baruch Hu that we're in tremendous awe of, that we can't even catch our breath, has a a plan for creation and the world, and He's specifically interested in me, and He has designated a piece of the a piece of the actions that that if I fulfill my purpose I can literally give meaning to myself, to my family, my community, my city, to the entire creation, and give nachat to Hakadosh Baruch Hu Himself, as it were.

That that Hakadosh Baruch Hu's plan is being executed for whatever Retzon Hashem whatever רצון השם willed, and me through coming in line with that is literally finding meaning in objective terms of truth in line with Hashem rather than going in my own direction. So the more that I break myself away, I I peel away my bias, the more that I take myself out of the game, I don't impose my ideas, my retzonot, my likes and wants on on on this vision and on these ambitions and goals, right?

Like the Mesillat Yesharim, yesod hachasidut v'shoresh ha'avodah, that a person has to be has to develop his ambitions, his goals, the the less that I impose my biases on that, the more in line I am with truth, and the more that that's going to give way to ahavah and yirah. And being that this is going through the tzadik, so this is how we're framing it. The the reason that a person is not is not because he hasn't built himself up enough, but rather it's because he's allowing himself to get in the way. And the more that we peel that away, the more that we will be able to relate to ahavah and yirah. Now, once we have this, how is it how is it that we're able to bring a tikun?

How can we perfect? And we spoke about the avodah of eating, the avodah of of making birurim, and we we related related achilah to the mizbe'ach, or should we we talk about our shulchan as being as being a mizbe'ach, and part of the rectification of this foolishness, this the this allowing allowing ourselves to kind of clog up the channels, that's rectified by eating appropriately. And this idea of פגם מזבח, how it it so going forward we certainly have to eat appropriately. What's what's one way that we we focused on to rectify the פגם מזבח that's in place? And we discussed bringing gerim close to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Now, that sounds fine and good. How does a person inspire gerim to convert?

We are not, in principle, we are not into outreach in terms of conversion. And further, there's not necessarily access. So where where is this If we're saying that this is a this is a virtue, this is a ma'alah, the one of the the way that we can be מתקן פגם מזבח is to bring gerim close, well, you know, how does that fit in? The way that we explained it, first of all, and this is just a parenthetical, gerim also if they see if they're hit with the truth, they will also relate to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. There's also שבע מצוות בני נח.

The Jews are in a particular position in terms of our relationship vis-a-vis Hakadosh Baruch Hu, but a goy can also have a relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu to the extent that they they recognize the truth. But we're not talking about that, because we're talking about really the tikun and the pegam of of a yid. And how are we metaken through bringing close gerim? So it was really it was really two different two different elements. One was in terms of bringing those who are far close. We could talk about it in terms not only in terms of gerim, but in terms of ba'alei teshuvah.

And we said that once a once a tzadik makes these certain revelations into the beri'ah, so now there's there's a truth out there, and this is, you know, partially my understanding, there's a truth out there that can be perceived. So in this we're going to take a step forward in a second, it's like if a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it, did it make a sound? Right? In other words, once there's a truth that's injected into the world, there's a there's a certain shefa, there's a certain force, it's there for the taking. The only problem is that if there's if there's a big whirlwind, nobody's going to hear it. So how is it that we can that we can bring forth gerim?

It's really by clearing up the air, by clearing up the tornado and the windstorm in order that that these revelations and this truth that's being revealed in the world by the tzadik will be able to be heard even far the farthest away, not just in terms of people that that don't necessarily hear the truth, even people that have other ideologies, people going in the other direction. The way to do that, the way to clear the air, the way to quiet the storm in order that the communication can be heard, that it can facilitate relationships and exchange of ideas and and truth and make one receptive, we said tzedakah. Tzedakah is the entry point into that.

And we quoted we we quoted sources, but but but tzedakah creating creating that that shalom and that relationship is is something that quiets the air in order that that can that the tzadik will be heard, so to speak. The next step to that really is again, we're not necessarily interest- interested in bringing close people who are non-Jews, maybe yes to make a Kiddush Hashem and that they can recognize הקדוש ברוך הוא, but to convert? And we explained further that what we're bringing close is not necessarily the the the gerim. What it is is that there's a certain kedushah that can become trapped under the other nations.

In previous torot we talked about in galut whether the shefa comes אורך ימים בימינה ובשמאלה עושר וכבוד, where where everything is in line, so the osher the osher should also go through the yamin. But now that we're in galut and there's other there's other forces that unfortunately we are we've taken a step back, mostly because we have a pegam in our keli, it's not that הקדוש ברוך הוא has moved away from us, it's that we've moved away from הקדוש ברוך הוא, but in the the way that this this dynamic has become, there's certain kedushah that's trapped underneath the the other forces and underneath the goyim. And like a magnet, what we're really trying to do is recover those that kedushah to be me'orer.

In other words, to to awaken up, that kedushah sometimes can forget how kadosh it truly is. To awaken that kedushah wherever it might be housed, to bring that back requires us to to engage that kedushah. Now if you think about, you know, like caught in barbed wire, right? In other words, once that once that kedushah, that shefa, that force within the world has gone into the into the into the goyim and the goyishe culture, sometimes you'll see that people who are who are Yidden are are very successful in other endeavors, there's there's other drive. And as you move further and further away from the source, it manifests differently.

You can have, for instance, the first generation that was that was very involved in תורה ומצוות, another generation might have moved away, but they're still tremendous philanthropists, under under no circumstances would they or even want their children ever to marry out of the Jewish people. And little by little, those sensitivities those sensitivities go away. You will still have people who are who are Jews who are tremendously ambitious in various areas, but their association and their identity becomes more and more confused, and what we have to do is awaken awaken that kedushah. But when we pull it back, it can drag thing It becomes so enmeshed in some of the goyishe culture that it drags it back in, and that's where, when that kedushah comes back, you're able and sometimes it become become very difficult.

The Gemara says, and there's different peshatim in it, that גרים כספחת לישראל. And there's different peshatim in what that means. But sometimes, right? In other words, and I'm sure we've all had it, there's one piece of us that's inspired, and we want to move close, but even when we move close, we're not fully willing to disengage and leave aside many of our other interests, and we end up either in a personal level become confused, or alternatively, when, you know, we want to go into an environment which might be more pure or, you know, more consistent

in certain things and we want to have a taste of that, so, you know, we we bring ourself close to that, but on the other hand, we're bringing in all sorts of other junk, you know, that we haven't you know, that we haven't let go of, you know, and it's a big it's a big problem when people become close. You could have people in a certain shul, a certain yeshivah, they have a very communal feel, and on one hand, you want to be able to bring people close, on the other hand, you don't want to dilute you don't want to dilute that, and it's it's there's no easy answer. I'm certainly in no position to present that.

But in any event, and the last thing we said is so, okay, so why is it once we give tzedakah and we clear the air, and the tzadik's message goes forth, and we have that the goyim become receptive, even though they have no real connection, but we we awaken the kedushah. That comes forward, and then the gerim come forward with it. Why is it that only certain certain goyim are feel inspired and not others? And this was this is in line with this idea that there there are certain places where there is kedushah that's sort of trapped and housed, and certain places where there isn't. So now we're going to continue with ז.

This all works well and good when we awaken the kedushah and the kedushah comes back, and now you're grabbing on, like I said, you know, to the to the cotton that's become that's become trapped inside some other structure and then pulls back some of the other pieces. It doesn't It's not a clean pull. It brings back some of the klipah also, and there's geirim, and people come close. What happens? דאלו העמים, כשהרע when the this this קליפה, רעה, שרואה שהטוב משתוקק וממשיך עצמו ורוצה לחזור למקומו. This this klipah, these, you know, goyim, as it were, have their own prerogative. It's nice, you know, we're sitting here learning Likutey Moharan, and we say, if you're exposed to the truth, who wouldn't want that?

So, you know, no matter what your avenue is to get there, once once the kedushah's awakened, so then, you know, the geirim should come running. But what happens? There are people that have other prerogatives, other ideas, and they see that there's this kedushah, as it were. You know, these are very lofty ideas, so we're going to try to present it in a way that we can relate to it. You know, they they see You'll see sometimes a you know, one member of a family wants to wants to convert. If that member of the family maybe wanted to do something totally different, they wanted to, who knows, get a piercing or a tattoo or go to India for six months, nobody would have a problem.

They become closer to kedushah, and there's a tremendous amount of of pushback. Why should there be any more pushback towards Judaism, when if they wanted to do, you know, any number of things where the pushback wouldn't be as severe? If anything, it's, you know, sometimes it's in line with where their grandparents or great-grandparents were and were willing to give up their lives for, but nevertheless, sometimes we see that where where there's klipah where there's there there's kedushah in place, there's the klipah will push back when it sees that the kedushah wants to go back to its place, and in the context that we're discussing it, in terms of geirim. אזי הם מתגברים. So what will happen is that they, the goyim, will be מתגבר themself.

The note over here points out that we started off the paragraph כשהרע is יחיד, that's referring to like the the the the klipah in general, and over here we're relating to our case about the the goyim and the other nations, so now it says, אזי הם מתגברים, that's why that's why it's in plural. But it says, אזי הם מתגברים על הטוב ביותר, ומביאים אותו לתוך העלם יתירה, it will the the other forces will push back and they'll try to further confuse the matter, try to further keep the kedushah, the taharah down, the tov down so that it won't so that it won't return, דהיינו שמביאים אותו לתוך פנימיות מחשבתם. They will they they will bring the the good into like the recesses of their thought, that's what it means literally.

דהיינו, what does this mean? שמַתחילים לחשוב מחשבות על זה הטוב, they will begin to engage their thought, not just in, you know, there's a difference if you like A and I like B, and now you, all of a sudden, the force of B becomes much more to the point that your enthusiasm overwhelms my enthusiasm and you bring me close. But if A is not just another idea, but it's a counterforce, so now the stronger that B gets, the stronger that A will get in the other direction, or it will try to undermine B's efforts. And therefore, they will start thinking about different ways to prevent, to prevent, in my example, B from coming closer to כלל ישראל, ועל ידי זה מכניסים את הטוב בתוך העלם והסתר יותר בפנימיות מחשבתם.

It's hard to understand exactly what it means that it brings it to the recesses of their thought, but I think, you know, if we think about the idea that there's conscious thought and dormant thought, sometimes what, you know, what motivates you might not even necessarily be a part of your active thought and you might not even be aware of it. So, you know, I think that, you know, one way to relate to this perhaps is that it buries, remember, we're talking about like the kedushah, the spark within the within the klipah and within the negative

forces itself, it sort of buries it so that it makes the tov dormant, so ein hachi nami, in other words, sometimes a person feels that something is missing and they don't know what it is, and they'll, you know, they'll come in contact with an idea, with a with a Jewish idea, idea of truth, and all of a sudden, they'll become excited. And what do you do? You have to distract it, give it another idea, give it something else to chew on, and it'll sort of bury this tov within the recesses of its thought, so that

so that so that this this tov which has been awakened, it sees that there's something missing, it's driven towards something, and the forces of ra will do anything that it can to be able to kind of redirect, redirect that hishtokekut, redirect that that thirst for something into some other direction, and the idea that it was inspired by truth and kedushah will be further buried. My take on it. ואז יוצא הטוב על ידי הולדה שמולידים, over here it adds in from the from the כתב יד: אלו הגוים, once once the first level the first level has this this problem where the ra and the klipah is trying to hide and conceal the good, and the ra is trying to do that, it wants to preserve its identity.

But that becomes very, you know, that becomes really very inspired, the the the ra is inspired by the tov strengthening itself, and the fact that it has its own its own prerogative and its own biases. So what happens over here? We can see that the tov will actually come out from the next generation of the גוים, כי הטוב הוא גנוז ונעלם בפנימיות מחשבתם ומוחם, because really the tov is buried in the machshavah and the מוח of the first generation, ומשם ההולדה, and it's from the in the language that we that we speak, we say that the the the zera, the seed initiates really in the מוח, and it goes down to the כליות, to the kidneys, כליות יועצות, and then it comes.

So we see that really this taharah, it's dormant in the מוח, in the brain of the first generation, so even though the first generation doesn't let it out, it'll come out by the next generation. We'll talk about this a little bit in a second. ולכן יוצא הטוב בזרע הילודים, therefore the tov will come out in the next generation, ואז אין כח בהרע של הילודים להתגבר על טוב שבתוכם. At this point, the ra will not have the כח to hold it back. And on our level, I think that we can understand this, that there's a lot of emotional arguments, and when people, you know, sometimes people feel threatened.

I've I've seen there's, you know, you can have a frum grandparent level, and then the next generation, the the grandparent level's children, they will be very anti. They'll be very anti, the old generation is either, you know, they thought about different things differently, they are the, you know, the old school thought things don't work anymore, and just a thousand arguments: intellectual, emotional, just a lot of pushback. Comes the third generation, really the pushback was very emotional, it was a it was a place where a person feel threatened, they felt hampered. Once you take that out of the picture, so you will you will see people where they have no objection, and they see they see some of the beauty of Yiddishkeit that other people that other people don't see.

I I was like in a conversation with somebody, and it was exactly this dynamic: the grandparents were Holocaust survivors, the children were really just almost like a study in sociology. One of the children was born in the DP camps, one of the children was born in America, just they they ended up with totally different, and because of the age gap, totally different paths in life in terms of where they ended up. One of one of the children was totally totally not frum. She has she has a son. The son, that third generation, does not have any of the animosity, any of the pushback. Really, if anything, he's perfectly happy to go to Shabbos dinner, and there are certain things that he actually is very receptive towards.

He doesn't feel nobody's he doesn't feel, you know, handcuffs in any way. Nobody's pushing him to be frum, and certain of the beauty he he sees, you know, he sees as really opening his life up. He told me about a conversation that he had where somebody told him, especially in today's day and age, wouldn't it be unbelievable if we could just take like a day a week and just totally shut our self off from from media, from everything? And they were going on, and the person who I know told his friend, he said, "You know, you realize that that's that's called Shabbos. And you realize that you're Jewish, you actually have access to this." And actually, the the other person somewhat lost interest.

But you literally see what what Rabbeinu was talking about in in everyday life. He's talking on a very high, lofty level, which becomes hard for us to relate to. But this idea where at the first level, when the ra feels threatened and the the tov is awakened, and the ra is pushing back, and it's trying to hide it, at the second generation, when all of a sudden there is this kedushah there, it's able more easily to find this expression once the it doesn't have this active force in the way trying to make it dormant. ואז יוצא הטוב על ידי ילודה על ידי ילודה ונעשו גרים. And then we can see this dynamic where the gerim become close.

So at the first level, we have we have the the the פגם מזבח, and we have the to to to be metaken through gerim. And what we do is we give tzedakah, and through giving tzedakah, it calms the air, and the message and the giluy of the tzadik is able to be heard far and wide to the point that even the goyim will become close. And the goyim in general can see even truth through the contradictions in their own writings. But certainly, the taharah within them can become awakened. Sometimes there's this dynamic where the ra pushes back, and in that case, even if it doesn't happen at the first level, the tov won't be able to find expression, it'll find expression in the next level.

וזהו שאמרו רבותינו זכרונם לברכה מבני בניו של סנחריב למדו תורה, this is from the כתב יד, וכן כמה רשם שהביא בגמרא ודייק מבניהם נעשו גרים, היינו כנ״ל. It's it's a reference that the Gemara gives really a list of of almost villains, in other words, people that were tremendous a tremendous tremendous representation of ra. And we see that their grandchildren, their descendants actually were megayer, came close to the Jewish nation. It's also an interesting perspective for a person for a person who is in this situation, as they look in the as they look earlier generations, perhaps

they they they think that they found kedushah and there's there's no good, and you know, they understand that there is if if they were lucky enough that the good was able to come out through them, they're able to understand that there was a certain dormant tov that was in what came before them, and perhaps they can come to appreciate that, even if sometimes there is, you know, it's very difficult in terms of the emotional dynamic. I don't know, but be that as it may. וזה בחינת this this idea that we're talking is going to be in the the same vein as this idea, this bechinah of a pasuk in Tehillim, "ה' יספור בכתוב עמים." HaKadosh Baruch Hu will count when he inscribes the nations.

"זה יולד שם, סלה." This one was born there, סלה, forever, that when HaKadosh Baruch Hu is yispor, he counts, but he takes takes account of, but we're going to explain it as that he's accounting for the Yisrael, the kedushah, the tov that is swallowed up within these other nations in order to be able to take them back, to draw them back, to put the kedushah back where it belongs, even if not at the first level, but certainly at the second level, right? זה יולד שם. בכתוב, זה בחינת הטוב. We said that that he inscribes the nations, but this כתוב is relating to the chelek of the neshamot of Yisrael that is like captured, it's held back, it's within the גוים, שיצא על ידי בחינת הכתב.

We explained earlier that this bechinah of כתב, if you scream out to somebody and they can't hear you, how can you communicate with them? You write it down. In certain ways, speech is a much clearer, more direct form of communication. But sometimes at that level, there are things that are very confused, and there can be certain things in writings which might be a less a less clear form of communication in certain ways, and yet, that will get the message across. And the way that we explained it by us is when the when the noise clears through tzedakah, and the tzadik is able to bring this truth into the world, the tzadik's's messaging will come across even in the כתב. It's it's כתב, it's written. When I speak to you, I'm speaking and you're listening.

When I write something, I could write it and I could walk away. The כתב is independent seemingly. So even in this this writing which the goyim have, which doesn't seem at all related to the tzadik, and in fact, it's talking about goyish ideology, but the goyim will look in it, they'll see the contradictions over there and through that writing they'll be able to come close. וזהו: זה יולד שם סלה, שנתלבש הטוב בהילודים ויוצא על ידם, כנ״ל, like we just explained that the tov will come out through the ילודים.

וזה פירש רש״י, זה יולד שם, and this is what Rashi explains, שהם ישראל שנטמעו בעכו״ם, these are the Jews that came that became mixed up with the גוים, היינו בבחינת הטוב הכבוש אצלם, this is the tov that is like captured within them, held back, שהוא בבחינת חלקי נשמות ישראל, כנ״ל. Now really I should have read this before, but just so that I can tell, mention over the pasuk in context, the the קאפיטל Tehillim was written by David HaMelech praising Jerusalem, the spiritual center of the world, and it's it's referencing the the returning by the final geulah, and פסוק ו׳ in פרק פ״ז, this will this will make make a little bit more sense that that we were talking about what what this pasuk is referring to. It's really not so deep beneath the surface.

After discussing restoring Jerusalem and the geulah, it says, ״ה׳ יספר בכתוב עמים״. The ״כתוב עמים״ is the decree against the goyim. Over in the פנימיות we talked about the כתב reaching out to get them to be מגייר, but it says, ״ה׳ יספר״, Hakadosh Baruch Hu will count every Jew and separate him from among the nations, that when when Hashem write writes this decree to destroy the other nations that didn't serve Him, Hakadosh Baruch Hu is going to count back the Jews and say, ״זה יולד שם סלה״, this person's ancestors were born in Jerusalem, this one is this one belongs to Me.

But this is in the פנימיות, we're saying that Hakadosh Baruch Hu will the the goyim will relate to it through the כתב, and Hakadosh Baruch Hu will also reach out and bring back the kedushah, but the kedushah and the taharah, the טוב, was going to bring back the gerim as well. וזה פירש, further, this is the פירוש of the following pasuk. This one we mentioned earlier in אות ד׳: זה זה בחינת ״לא ישכב עד יאכל טרף״. The Jewish nation does not lie down until he eats his טרף, his his prey. זה בחינת שלימות המזבח, כנ״ל.

טרף is a reference to אכילה בקדושה, טרף is a reference to the אכילה of the מזבח, as it were, that through that we are מכניע and we like snatch away from the קליפות, ״ודם חללים ישתה״, the drinks the blood of its kill, ותרגומו: ״ונכסי עממיא יירת״. Onkelos translates this pasuk as the possessions, the נכסי of the עם of the other nations he will inherit. So the way that we're interpreting this פסוק, that the Jewish nation will not lie down, as it were, until he eats his טרף, his prey, and drinks the blood of his kill,

but we're we're explaining that the until until there's an אכילה of kedushah that we're מכניע, that we push down the counter forces, and we we drink the blood, the ״ונכסי עממיא יירת״, understanding the way that Onkelos reads into the פסוק, that we bring back what's כיסוי, the נכסי, what's כיסוי, what's covered over under the גוים, so then we inherit that, we bring it back, and that sort of subdues the negative forces to the point that they actually come back. So let's see: וזה ״ונכסי עממיא״, היינו בחינת הטוב שנתכסה אצל הגוים, the בחינה of good that's covered over by the גוים, שהביאו אותו בהעלם והסתר בפנימיות מחשבתם, כנ״ל, that they that they brought into concealment, to being covered over, שיוצא על ידי זה ילודים ונעשים גרים. How do we how is that become recovered?

That becomes recovered through their children, through the next generation, you know sometimes maybe at the first generation, sometimes not till the next generation, in cases where it's really pushing back, ועל ידי זה, in cases where there's כיסוי, that's where it comes through the next generation, ועל ידי זה נשלם המזבח, and that's where ״לא ישכב עד יאכל טרף״, that's where we there's going to be a tikkun in the פגם המזבח. So really we saw that a פגם in the אכילה, when there's a tremendous avodah to eating. This is some of the takeaways that we have is that tzedakah creates a clearer medium so that the tzaddik can have effect on the world. Tzedakah is something that really creates a shalom, and it makes people receptive to different ideas, it brings people together.

And if you have tzedakah, not only you giving them money, let's say you invite somebody over for a meal. So further we can talk about the tremendous tikkun and the tremendous פגם that can go through eating. When a person eats not not so that the kedushah can can be, you know, so that there could be בירורים, so that they're trying to come closer and feed their neshamah, and that there's a physical part, everything sort of has its compartment and its place, but they're eating as a glutton, they're eating for the physical pleasure, so that creates a tremendous confusion where people have wrong ideas and that's a פגם המזבח.

But an appropriate eating, an appropriate eating is something that brings clarification, and he understands the place of the neshamah in his body and the and the guf of his body, and and able really to, number one, prevent somebody from from also relating in an intellectual way to the wrong ideas, but also as we we're מתקן this פגם המזבח, which we do also through Through, which one of the ways, primary ways to do through, through geirim, but that really relates to the פגם in the מזבח and the פגם in the אכילה. Strengthening ourself in eating appropriately also strengthens ourself in avodat Hashem, not just in in the avodah that we do in our ma'asim, but even it relates to the avodah in in our clarity of mind.

And now that we discussed all of this, might go a drop, a drop quicker because we're going to go into this, this this Gemara in Bava Basra, which is going to work in the ideas that we discussed into the פנימיות of this מימרא חז״ל. זה פירש: רב ספרא משתעי. רב ספרא was relating, he was discussing, זימנא חדא הוה קאזלינא בספינתא, one time we were traveling by ship, וחזינא כוורא, and we saw a fish, דאפיק רישא ממיא, it raised its head out of the water, ואית ליה קרני, it had horns, וחקיק עלייהו, engraved on the horns

it said, אנא בריה קלה שבים, I am the lightest creature of the sea, we'll see what the Rashbam says on this, והוינא ש' פרסי, and I was 300 פרסה long, a tremendous distance, ואזלינא לפומא דלויתן, I went to the mouth of the לויתן, and this is all engraved on the fish. אמר רב אשי: ההוא עזא דימא הוי, this fish is the sea goat, דבחישא, which stirs things up, ואית ליה קרני, and has horns. Sounds very difficult to decipher. Let's just see the Rashbam for a second. It was a בריה קלה, מבריות קטנות שבים, one of the smallest creatures in the ים. לפומא דלויתן, it went to the mouth of the לויתן, שיאכלני היום, that לויתן should eat it.

עזא דימא, Rav Ashi explained that this is the sea goat, שכל מה שיש ביבשה יש בים חוץ מן החולדה. The sefarim talk about why the חולדה should be the exception, but generally speaking, the ים is representative of a, you know, a world unto itself, and there's a there's a parallel in whatever we have on the earth, we on the dry land, we have in the sea as well, and therefore this is this is כנגד the goat of the sea, בשחיטת חולין, the Gemara quoting a Gemara Chullin. דבחישא, חופרת בים בקרניה לבקש אחר מזונותיה, it digs into the sea. The ים is really the sea bed. Rabbi, Rabbi Maiman actually quoted a source, but I think I think I've seen this as well.

It says, it's a pasuk, it says, כמים לים מכסים, that the מים covers the, the מים covers the ים, the ים is really the sea bed, and over here it's digging into the into the yam, it's digging into the sea bed with its horns to search for its food. חזינא האי כוורא דאפיק רישא ממיא, we saw this fish that raised its head out of the water. Kavora, what is a fish? זה בחינת הטוב, this is representative of טוב, שהם חלקי נשמות ישראל.

This relates to the concept, the the neshamot of Klal Yisrael that are that are captured by the goyim, and it's able to come back עם הגרים because since the tov is tied in, it's integrated, it's tangled up with with these other forces, therefore when it comes back, it's going to bring back everything, it's going to bring back gerim. And now why is it that the, well we're going to see this, why is it that these the חלקי נשמות ישראל is represented by a kavora, by a dag, by a fish? כי דגים אסיפתן היא טהרתן. There's something you could say extra tahor, tov represented by the fish in that a regular animal, if if you die, you can't eat it, it would be a neveilah.

In order to make it that it's edible, assuming it has all the signs and stuff, you would need shechitah appropriately. A fish just need an asifah, they only need to be gathered from the water, they don't need shechitah, they're one step closer. And therefore, dag is representative of tov, of taharah. זה בחינת חלקי נשמות, and this asifah is relating to gathering in the נשמות, בחינת רוחו ונשמתו אליו יאסוף, that unto Him, it's a pasuk in Iyov, are gathered the ruach and neshamah, that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is going to gather in the ruach and neshamah of a person.

But we see this language in the pasuk, sort of hanging out a flag, רוחו ונשמתו אליו יאסוף, that ya'asof, asifah is used, and in halachah we talk about by fish, אסיפתן היא טהרתן, and also we use this language of asifah by a neshamah, and therefore in the penimiyut, we're going to be able to relate a, the the tov, the neshamah to a דג, בחינת, and this this dag that it says asifah, this is going to be a remez to the bechinah of גרים, בחינת גרים, בבחינת נדיבי עמים נאספו.

The nobles of the nation gathered, a prince, the noble is a נדיב, they're the ones who are in a position to give, the way that we're interpreting this in פנימיות is, well, first of all, so we see that נאספו is a language that's used by a דג, it's used by a נשמה, because the language אסיפה is used by both. Now we see that אסיפה is used by נדיבי עמים. So the way that we're interpreting that is that the נשמה or the חלק הטוב that's within the גוים, when they're נדיבי עמים, when their their לב is is is נדבם להתגייר, that they're inspired in order to become close to הקדוש ברוך הוא, נאספו.

So that it's because that חלק הטוב, that נשמה within them will be נאספו, and that's going to draw close the נדיבי עמים, that's going to draw close the גרים, which happens through the process that we described, through giving צדקה, through the צדיק, the צדיק's גילוי, the גילוי of אהבה and יראה finding itself, the אמת finding itself in the גוים's writings. ועל שם זה החכמים נקראים בעלי אסופות. This is why the Gemara in Chagigah calls the חכם בעלי אסופות, the master of gatherings or anthologies, שהם מאספים הטוב, because they are able to be מאסף the טוב.

But in the פנימיות it doesn't just mean that they gather together ideas of Torah, it means that the צדיקים are the ones that are able to gather in the חלק הטוב, the חלק נשמות that are עם הגרים, that are with the גרים. Because since נדיבי עמים נאספו, but who gathers that in? The בעלי אסופות, the צדיק who is the one who's able to gather in, is able to gather in from the נדיבי עמים, יאסף רוחו ונשמתו, that relates to the neshamah, and they're able to gather in that חלק הטוב, which will come and schlep with it schlep with it also the other חלק, which is the the the kelipah, but that's what brings together in the gerim. וזה הטוב עם הגרים, אפיק רישא ממיא.

So this combination, this tov that's with the גרים, אפיק רישא ממיא, the fish raised its head out of the water, היינו שמוציא את השכל משטיפת המים הזידונים, it raised its head, it was able to bring its head out of the water from the drowning in the in the stormy waters, שהוא כסילות השוטף על השכל, that this foolishness was inundating it. This is a result, again, of the פגם המזבח, which resulted, what what brings this this lack of birurim? In other words, again, eating is birurim. The vitamins go where it belongs, certain things go into the blood, the life, the chayut gets energy, certain things go out as waste material. When there's a פגם המזבח and people eat with the wrong kavanot, that's a confusion.

This confusion is brought about by pegam of achilah, and it relates to a פגם המזבח, that is that is rectified with bringing back gerim through the process we described of אפיק רישא ממיא, of being able to through this process lift above lift above the confusion, to raise one's head out of the water. And again, and as much as we talk about this with gerim, we could talk about that it's for בעלי תשובה as well, when a person becomes entrenched in these outer ideas. והוה ליה קרני, and it had horns, וחקק עליה, and on its horns it was carved: אנא בריה קלה שבים, the smallest, according to the Rashbam, בריה or creature in the water, והוינא ש' parsaot, and it's 300 parsah long, ואזלינא לפומא דלויתן, and I went to the mouth of Livyatan.

What is the kavanah in penimiyut? קרנא, זה בחינת צדקה. Keren is principal, שהוא בחינת הון יוסף רעים הנ״ל, because when one gives tzedakah, it quiets the the the tumultuous environment, it brings clarity so that, again, the tzadik can be heard, שהוא עיקר הקרן, because the tzedakah is the ikar sorry, שהוא עיקר הקרן הקיימת לעולם הבא. The tzedakah is be'etzem the principal. Where is the tzedakah hidden? Where is there going to be the real reward for tzedakah? What do you see the benefit of tzedakah? In בעצם in Olam Haba, כמאמר מונבז, like Monbaz Hamelech, when his family had asked him, he became the king, and they said, why are you emptying your you're distributing from the storehouses to the poor people?

And they said, you're you're kind of you're getting rid of the wealth of the royal family. And he said, no, and he gave a string of answers. One of them was, אבותי גנזו למטה, my fathers were storing things down in the this-worldly storehouses, ואני גנזתי למעלה, I'm taking that, and I'm putting it directly into my spiritual bank account, the קרן instead of just being here for the waste, once I give it. There's a story, I forget which Rebbe it was, I saw in one of Rav Gamliel Rabinowitz's sefarim that somebody came knocking on the door of of a particular Rebbe, and he didn't have a hat. It was a certain time in history where, I mean, that was, you know, every person wore a hat, he didn't have a hat.

So this this Rebbe went up to his room, and he got the, you know, his Shabbos hat, his Yom Tov hat, whatever it was, his nicest hat. So his wife said, the person has no hat, why not give him the worse hat, and then you can use the better one? And he said, you're right, this hat is I really like it, this is this is my favorite hat, maybe it has sentimental value, who knows what, maybe it was just nicer. He said, "Therefore, this is the hat that I want to be able to wear in Olam Haba. Once I'm there, it's going to be forever. I would rather have I would rather have the nicer hat for Olam Haba." So he gave he gave it to tzedakah.

Once the tzedakah the tzedakah is given, that goes directly, the קרן is preserved, וחקק עליה, it was engraved on the horns, היינו על ידי הצדקה, through the tzedakah, which is called קרן, נעשה חקיקה, it makes an engraving. Like we said earlier, that a communication makes almost like an engraving, sound waves that goes through the air. We need the tzedakah to get rid of the the environment so that it can be heard and somebody could be receptive to it, בבחינת הכתב הנ״ל, which we quoted a פסוק, לשוני עט סופר מהיר כנ״ל.

So this is the the holy words of the צדיק, they are engraved, as it were, in the air, and they can be heard from far away once the tzedakah clears the air, בבחינת ושמעו הולך בכל המדינות, that his fame went in all of the מדינות, להטוב הכבוש בין העכו״ם, and it was able to be מעורר, it was able to awaken up the the the טוב that was suppressed, ומעוררו בתשובה לשוב לשרשו, and it inspires that טוב to come back to its שורש, כי הטוב זוכר את עצמו, because טוב בעצם once once you come in touch with something that that goes to your core, there is something that will resonate.

So if you can get in touch with this, part of I guess maybe I'm not familiar, but the Lubavitcher Rebbe's campaign for for tefillin, and you could say that there's stories where you see that somebody put on tefillin once and they have put in tefillin in forever, maybe since their bar mitzvah, and they they they burst into tears. Once there's something that you can find in somebody that resonates, it can it can open things up. אנא בריה קלה שבים, I am the lightest creature in the ים, היינו שאני למעלה מכל העולמות. What does it mean? Something that's light floats to the top. What's something that's floating to the top of the ים?

A ים, היינו המ״ם הוא ארבע עולמות, מ״ם an a מ״ם סופית, an end מ״ם, and the when the מ״ם is at the last letter of a word, it looks like a box. It's enclosed in four sides. That that's representative of the four elements of the bri'ah, which in Kabbalah language is אצילות, בריאה, יצירה, עשיה. Sometimes you'll see an acronym of אבי״ע, א-ב-י-ע, but the layers of creation are represented by a מ״ם. So what's the יו״ד? הוא בבחינת חכמה. The יו״ד is the the the first letter of the י-ק-ו-ק.

We talk, and we've we've discussed this a little bit before, but when we talk about the the sefirot and the the פרצופים, the way that הקדוש ברוך הוא relates to this world is through using the sefirot as a vehicle, and the way that we we plug that in, everything is really come from the י-ק-ו-ק, is that יו״ד is חכמה, ק is בינה, and then the ו will be חסד, גבורה, תפארת, נצח, הוד, יסוד, and then the last the last ק will be מלכות. So the but the the first, the יו״ד, the beginning of that process is בחכמה.

I think we we said earlier, בחכמה יסד ארעא, there was a Targum Yerushalmi, but anyway, chochmah, if you think about a presentation, you could have a lot of interesting ideas that aren't necessarily structured in a certain way, right? You can have, let's say, if you go to a conference, sometimes there's a morning session, which is very calculated in terms of ideas that are built on each other, one thing comes before the other, and then sometimes you have breakout sessions, which each are interesting in their own right, but you don't necessarily want need one for the other. When הקדוש ברוך הוא set up the bri'ah, so everything could be נפלאות הבורא in its own right, but הקדוש ברוך הוא wanted a process.

He wanted a a a physical process, there's nature, there's there's a spiritual process. He wanted us to relate back. In order to do that, you have to have a system. The beginning of that system was chochmah. Chochmah is the beginning. So it says, כולם בחכמה. So again, יו״ד הוא בבחינת חכמה, שנתפשט בכל העולמות, and it you could see it that it it spreads throughout the olamot. Sometimes the chochmah is representative, it finds expression on everything that comes afterward. כמו שכתוב, כולם בחכמה עשית, everything is made with with chochmah. וזה בריה קלה שבים, היינו שכמו שדבר קל צף למעלה, that we said something that's light floats to the top, כן הנשמה שהוא הטוב הוא למעלה מכל העולמות.

It means that the neshamah, relating to the tov, relating to the neshamah, is למעלה, it floats to the top of all of the olamot, which is which is tremendous. That means that the the tov itself, even when it's covered over, I mean this should be tremendously inspirational. Again, exactly in this vein that we mentioned earlier, we're not talking about building ourself up into something that we're not. We're trying to figure out a way to come through to who we are. The the the tov, the neshamah, the חלק אלוה ממעל is be'etzem above all of the worlds, with the מלאכים, the spiritual beings, it's it's above. There's the מ״ם and the the world is be'etzem a ים, right? The world is with chochmah at the head of its design.

and manifested in in the the מ, in אצילות בריאה יצירה עשיה. Over all of that, floating to the top is the neshamah, is the חלק הטוב, and this tov this tov is what's going to be awakened and be able to get schlepped back and it's going to bring with it the with the גרים, והוינא ש״ן פרסא, so he says, "and now it was 300 פרסא דהיינו שהנשמה נזכרת שהיתה בבחינת ישראל עלה במחשבה תחילה," it's מתעורר, it resonates within the neshamah that it recognizes that it was, as it were, במחשבה תחילה, meaning going back to our

very first shiur in this Torah, הקדוש ברוך הוא created the world, every single element of the world is be'etzem the תכלית of the world is Klal Yisrael, and therefore the world is a stage for Klal Yisrael to shine on and there's no extra pieces. הקדוש ברוך הוא every element of the world, and therefore, ישראל עלה במחשבה תחילה before הקדוש ברוך הוא put anything on the canvas so to speak, made the canvas in order to be able to be the right canvas on which to paint. Every single thing was ultimately במחשבה תחילה for Klal Yisrael to be able to achieve its תכלית, that's at the that that that is of of infinite proportions.

In other words, it's greater than any of limited anything that you can discuss in the world, Klal Yisrael was greater than that because everything folds into its purpose. והקדוש ברוך הוא נמלך בה בבריאת העולם, it's as it were, הקדוש ברוך הוא consulted with Klal Yisrael, with this tov, with this neshamah at the beginning of בריאת העולם, because every aspect of of of Yisrael relates to it and the way that the neshamah needs to fulfill its job.

Some that relate to this tov around the world, so sometimes that's not as apparent, it can get confusing, בבחינת המה היוצרים, they are the architects, יושבי נטעים who dwell in the fields, עם המלך במלאכתו, with the King, שנמלך בנשמותיהן של ישראל בשעת בריאת העולם, that relating this that הקדוש ברוך הוא consulted with the with the neshamot of Klal Yisrael in בריאת העולם. But again, נמלך is to seek advice, but that's I think that's why I'm breathing, that doesn't mean Hakadosh Baruch Hu took advice.

In other words, if if this was the entire תכלית and the point of the entire בריאה is for Klal Yisrael to develop, so then as it were, this is in our language, k'vayachol, but you're going to consult your ultimate purpose in terms of how you're going to create, do anything, דהיינו שהיא נזכרת שהיתה במעלה גדולה כזו כנ״ל. And now this טוב recognizes, remembers, it resonates, it's there, it understands and feels that that this is this is what it בעצם is. It's in the trapped inside of a either a Gentile like I said, maybe could relate to baalei teshuvah, but in a in a foreign context, ועתה היא הולכת לכליון והפסד, and now it's going to destruction. It's totally lost its its outward conscious sense of identity, chas v'shalom.

And this is the ש, this is the 300 פרסה long, but this is the ש of three, ש זה בחינת המחשבה שנחלקת לשלשה ראשים. The the the מחשבה relate, there's three different parts of the מחשבה: there's מחשבות שכליות, מחשבות מידותיות, מחשבה מעשית. There's three different elements to a person's conscious, you know, thought and and activity is the שכליות, the intellectual part, the מידות, also abstract, right? Things that might be that are that are emotional, but things that can be מעורר רחמים, things that can inspire certain הנהגה, so there's the more intellectual portion, there's the מידות, there's the emotional portion, and מחשבה מעשית, and then there's the מחשבה the practical מחשבה, the things that relate to, "What do I need to do to eat?

I need to go here, go there." So the מחשבה, the מחשבה is really there's three different components: the, you could say theoretical, intellectual, abstract, emotional, which is practical in one way, and then there's the the מעשית which is למעשה practical. ופרסה, so what's 300 פרסות? בחינת רגל. פרסה means like a foot, a hoof. So פרסה is a is a is a length, 300 פרסות, but also it says that 300 פרסות over here, ש״ן פרסא is really the three dimensions of thought connected with the רגל. What does it mean? היינו עצה. רגל is an עצה. וכל העם אשר ברגליך, in by Yitro, it says, all of the nation that is by your רגל, Rashi explains, הנמשכים אחר עצתך. So פרסה is going to relate to עצה. היינו, so what does this all mean?

שהנשמה of כלל ישראל is the חלק of טוב that's that's captured, it's dormant, it's underneath in the גוים in this foreign context and ideology, נזכרת שהיתה תחילה במחשבה, through being receptive, through tzedakah, through calming things down, it's receptive to the גילוי, the what what the messaging that comes from the tzaddik. It even sees it in its own כתב. And it remembers that it was תחילה במחשבה, which is the ש, because the ש is all of the elements of מחשבה, and it recognizes not just that it's the most important creation, it defined creation. Hakadosh Baruch Hu, as it were, was נמלך with this טוב, with this חלק נשמה in order to create. Everything folds within it, and here it is, busy getting distracted with things that are, you know, at a much lower level.

meaning created much more downstream that were only there that were only there for it. Meaning, you know, a person gives somebody else a gift of a of a sports car in order to get from point A to point B faster, to go from his house to yeshiva, who knows, and the person becomes enamored. So what what's the vehicle? The vehicle is just there for him to drive. And this person all of a sudden becomes enamored with the vehicle. He starts taking it for test drives. He He goes, and chas veshalom, all of a sudden, he starts, you know, just building up a car collection and then he drives it and he crashes. And then you look at it he remembers, "What am I talking about?

The whole point of the car, to have a fast car, is to get from point A to point B, to achieve תכלית, and the whole reason why Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the car in this way or gave me this type of a car is really for me, it's for my תכלית. Everything relates to me, and here I am getting absorbed by it." ובו נמלך בעת בריאת עולם, הקדוש ברוך הוא took advice, as it were, with this טוב. It realizes it's גדלות. והשתא אזלין לפומא דלויתן, and now it's going to the mouth of the לויתן, היינו לכליון והפסד. And it's going it's going towards towards destruction. The The note over here talks about why this the מעשה over here frames it in terms of the לויתן. לויה is, by the way, to to escort.

It says that לויתן is בחינת לויתן is a חיבור. Over here, it's talking about the חיבור between the נשמה and the גוף, that instead of the נשמה driving the bus, the גוף, as it were, is driving the bus, and therefore, because it's doing that, it's going towards destruction. Okay, not for now, just to point out that the idea of of why it It's not just for purposes of this story, but it's explaining the the לויתן specifically as an example. So it says, היינו לכליון והפסד, חס ושלום, it's going to destruction. ועל ידי זה מרחמת על עצמה, it'll have like רחמים on itself, ומתעוררת לשוב לשרשה כנ״ל, and it's going to, you know, everything else all of its other interests will recede into the background.

It's going to want to be מעורר to come back to its own שורש. ונעשין בעלי תשובה או גרים. Over here, mentioned specifically specifically baalei teshuvah. We have not mentioned that until now, but when when Rabbeinu is talking about gerim, generally speaking, it applies in terms of, you know, foreign foreign ideologies and cultures and thoughts and applies as well to baalei teshuvah. So now we will finish off, and then we will and then we will summarize all of the ideas that we've seen into this into the story from the Gemara and read back in the פסוק ויהי הם מריקים שקיהם that we started off the Torah with.

אמר רב אשי: רב אשי said, האי, this דג, this fish that we've been talking about that raised its head out of the water, עיזא דימא, it is the goat of the sea, דבחישא, digs, ואית ליה קרני, and it has horns. עיזא, which is the we explained to mean a goat, but עיזא is לשון of עז, זה בחינת עז, היינו יראה. This is the yirah, the awe, the fear, but more really the awe that is that is generated when a tzaddik is looking into the בריאה, בחינת כי תפארת עזמו אתה. We explained this pasuk already in the first section of the Torah. We related it to tefillin, which are called פאר, and and they're called oz.

That when one wears tefillin, so then it it gives off it it generates a yirah on the other nations. דבחישא, היינו בחינת הצדיק שמחפש תמיד אחר ההתפארות שבכל אחד מישראל כנ״ל. The idea of digging, of constantly searching, of looking under the surface, this is relating to the tzaddik who is constantly looking into the briyah for the hitpa'arut that שבכל אחד מישראל, both on a on a klalut'dik level, on an individual level, within the individual. We mentioned earlier, I don't remember if it was in the context of this Torah, but I saw one time Rav Avigdor Miller discussing we we're trying to come to a point of a גילוי יחוד, יחודו יתברך, that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is unified and one.

So the way that Rav Avigdor Miller framed it, and I've heard the same point spoken about coming coming off of different topics, really, but if if if everything is really coming from Hakadosh Baruch Hu, we want to be able to look into the briyah, we want to see Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Hakadosh Baruch Hu should have created all creatures to look the same. Then we would have worked our way backwards, and we would have seen a unified expression. And the way that Rav Avigdor Miller explained it is, if all apples were green, then we would look back and we would say that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is an unbelievable, amazing green apple machine. Right?

Or differently, if people look at, you know, different types of animals, there's fish, and then there's mammals, bugs, all sorts of different creatures. And you say, "Well, they come from different They They come from different sources. You have the elephant source, and you have the people source, and different types of species." Well, really what that is is we're trying to put we're trying to put I heard Rav Aaron Lopiansky talk about this. He was discussing really evolution. But we're putting really Hakadosh Baruch Hu into our point of view. And we're saying, "Well, if we were going" create things to look different, then we would use it starting with different source material. But instead of instead of trying to work our way backwards, let's think about it like this.

Instead of thinking about it because we have a limited perspective, so if we were at the beginning of the process going forward, that means that we would be within whatever limitations we have. Working backwards, there's a full spectrum, a full variety of species, of personalities, of colors, smells, things moving in different directions, things that seem to be not even necessarily have a relationship, things that seem to be random. And the the greater that you take a step back, the great the more that you don't look at any link in the chain as being isolated and

say what does one thing have to do with the other, but you you take a step back so you see a full picture, and then you take a step back and then you still see full even more so, this picture connected with that picture, you know the you you see the patterns in history, and as you go back back back back back, at some point you would reach the greatest context with which to look at everything. That would be called המקום, the context in which you can look at all of reality, and Hakadosh Baruch Hu is אין סופיות.

If at that point one could say that the perspective that you gain is actually that what when you zone in seems to be random, not necessarily that A has to do with B, but as as you take a step back you see that it's one integrated picture that's all really working towards one unified expression. That is actually a much greater, breathtaking, awe-inspiring expression of the yichud of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Had HaKadosh Baruch Hu created things in a more limited way, then you would say that HaKadosh Baruch Hu relates in a unbelievable, you know, perfect sense to this particular thing.

But when it's the full scope of every single possible expression of reality that has nothing to do with each other, and then from that perspective you start putting the pieces together and realizing, wow, actually it all fits together, the more that I take a step back, that התפארות, that realizing every little nuance, every little thing is built into the picture, there's no extra piece, and the reason that we think that something is extra, right, maybe you take at a certain point they thought that, whether tonsils are extra, I mean I don't know enough about the

biology, but you know they thought that that certain things are just extra appendages, they have they have no relationship, no use, and it's just sort of left over from when human beings are monkeys, and then at some point you say, well, that's only because we had such a micro point of view. All of a sudden the knowledge base expands and you're you're able to see how, no, everything ties into the purpose. There's no extra pieces, and you see that enough on an often enough scale, whether in the context of history or science or anything. At some point you say, listen, I'm 100 for 100.

100 times in a row I thought that that the I wasn't going to find an answer to some question in the בריאה that I had, and a 100 times I found an answer that once it fits, it created just an unbelievable architecture, an unbelievable symphony of the way that the בריאה fits together. Now you come to again you come across something and you don't understand why it fits together, you say at that point you have a question? HaKadosh Baruch Hu is running a pretty good track record. So a tzadik is going, and this is the way that he looks at the בריאה. That's breathtaking, that's awe-inspiring, that puts you on the floor. Do you even have a place that you can open your mouth?

Even when you think that it fits, even when you think that it fits you start to understand that you're speaking from such a limited perspective. And then after that, ואית לה קרנא, this עז has קרנא, has horns, היינו בחינת וברצונך, with HaKadosh Baruch Hu's רצון, תרום קרננו, it elevates our stature. This awe-inspiring, you can't say being, this this this המקום has a specific slot in this in this picture that specifically relates to us, and He's interested in us, and gives us even bechirah so that He can allow us to make the choice and own our

own right, as it were, to be able to fill that slot and is willing to give us a reward for for being able to fill that slot and a relationship with Him for being able to ourselves understand and appreciate and come in line with that tachlit, right? We expanded on this in the earlier shiurim. היינו אהבה שנתגלה על ידי הצדיק כנ״ל. So first we start off with this yirah, and then as we we develop and there's a relationship that develops, that becomes that becomes ahavah.

I heard, I was listening earlier to Rav Aharon Lopianzky, really I saw a piece of Kuzari, and in the very introduction he's starting to establish the framework of the way that the Greeks related to Elokim and setting up for the way that the Jews are going to relate to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. And Rav Aharon Lopianzky quoted part of this discussion really later on from the fourth section of of Kuzari, where the I didn't go back and see it inside, but he's talking about the difference between Havayah, between HaKadosh Baruch Hu and Elokim, when Paroh says, "I don't I don't know Havayah." And really, I just want the example that he gave.

He said, if you look at, you know, empirical evidence, and you look in the בריאה, and you come to the conclusion that there is a source, right? It all traces back to one framework. It could be a power, you can call it Mother Nature, you can call it a system of reason, right? The system of logic. You are a better person if you are a logical person, but the system of logic doesn't actually personally care whether or not you are logical. But what you do is you put everything on a piece of paper, you you list it all, and you come to the conclusion that there is a centralized power behind everything that, again, it doesn't care about you, but you care about it.

You want to be a reasonable person, regardless of whether the system the greater system of reason cares that you are a reasonable person. That's one way of looking at it. The the the next step, the way that we relate to Havayah, is that no, that HaKadosh Baruch Hu has a tachlit and has a relationship with us. And the example that he gave was was unbelievable. He said, let's say a person was looking at a resume, a resume maybe for a shidduch, an employee, whatever it is. And you look at all of the questions, and you put all of the evidence together, and this evidence says that, yes, I should form a relationship for this person.

Or in other terms, let's say you have you put a a list of all of the, you know, all the characteristics of somebody who has a particular emotion, whether it's love, anger, whatever you want, and you come to a point where you're able to look at somebody, and you'll write down exactly what the characteristics are, and you're able to say, a person who's acting in this particular way, their blood pressure goes up and, you know, certain things happen and there's certain hormones, that this is characterized, this person must be angry, right? This person must be happy. Now, that's that that's one way of relating to a particular state of mind, state of being, a particular person. Now you go forward, and you form a relationship with this person, right?

All of a sudden, you get married, you form a partnership, and 20 years go by, and you have a meaningful relationship with this person. Now you go back and you look at that list of characteristics. All of a sudden, you write down all of the characteristics of love, and you reach a stage where you are in love, you have this emotion, you relate to it, right? At that point, you go back, and you look at the list of characteristics. It's not that they're not true, but you would laugh. They become meaningless. All of a sudden, the way that you relate to this person with a deep emotional attachment or a relationship, something that's come to the forefront, you relate to a particular emotion, you have an in-depth understanding.

If you go back and you look at all of the the the the bullet points of the list of what this was, it's not that it's not true, but it's it's it's it's totally divorced from where your relationship is. Elokim, powers, the way that the nations related to a god with a lowercase g, right? That was there is some sort of a centralized, overarching power that's responsible for everything that we see, and they formed some sort of a understanding and a relationship, a dynamic with this with this understanding of this being or this force called god with a lowercase g. Havayah says we have a neshamah. Havayah says that we have an experience, that we have a relationship with HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and this HaKadosh Baruch Hu relates to us.

At that point, once once we are בני בחירי ישראל, once we we have an understanding of a Elokim Chayim, of a living God, to to to go back and say that Elokim does describe the the the the the the power of powers of the world, but it's almost, I don't want to say hollow, but it's almost surface-deep compared to the relationship that we have with HaKadosh Baruch Hu. We start off with a yirah, there is a fear of consequence, and and we start off with this understanding of God, and as it matures, it matures even into a God that has a tachlit, that's that's an interested God in the world, and we become floored by this yirah. And as we develop this relationship with הויה, you can't love reason.

I mean, you can love to be a reasonable person person, you can't love the system of logic, right? But when you have an interested an interested God, this you can form a relationship with it where that becomes integrated into your neshamah, you have a yirah and you have an ahavah, and it's a direct relationship. And this when we when we have this is what the tzaddik is able to open up for with us, this is what the tzaddik is able to be megaleh for us, it's able to open up yirah and ahavah.

That's only when we let that in, when we're not clogged up by these things that stop us from having that experience, they clog up our neshamah, so then we can we can understand we can be religious, we can understand God in a little bit of a detached, divorced way. The point that we end up hav- having this yirah and ahavah that we're trying to get to, that's the point that we're able to unclog our neshamah, we're able to have this clarity, like we've discussed before, we're able to literally open up the channels. That's where we have the ahavah and the yirah.

כי על ידי כל בחינ- כי על ידי sorry כנ״ל, כי על ידי כל בחינה כנ״ל, through everything we've been saying that we explained throughout the story of Rav Safra, tzedakah, because tzedakah is going to be is going to clear up the air so that the communication is going to go through and even the gerim, even the people that were before and were far away, they're going to be able to end up coming close and it will be נשלם פגם המזבח.

And once we're able to be נשלם the פגם המזבח that became, again the mizbeach we said it's like our shulchan, it's where we make the birurim, once we're able to be נשלם פגם המזבח that that that developed because of our negative ma'asim, so then our achilah will also be b'kedushah and we'll be mevatel all of the foolishness that came from from our bad ma'asim and the the fact that we were eating like a glutton, we were eating for the wrong reasons, and all of those things, the shefa would come to the world and then it became distorted, that was feeding the sitra achra, that was feeding avodah zarah, that made פגם המזבח.

But once we're able to sort of clear all of that away, and we're able to open up oursel- open open ourselves back up, it's not so much that we have to develop the yirah and ahavah, it's different ways of thinking about it. One is developing the yirah and ahavah, and one is clearing it away so that we can develop the sensitivity of our neshamah to understand that we are a חלק אלוקה ממעל and sort of yielding to yirah and ahavah. נתגלה אור הצדיק and there will be a giluy of the אור הצדיק, שעל ידי זה יהיו זוכין ליראה ואהבה כנ״ל.

So just to sum up the story, רב ספרא משתעי told over, זמנא חדא הוה קאזלינא בספינתא, he was going on a ship, וחזינא לההוא כוורא, he saw the fish, the fish is representing the souls of the ba'alei teshuvah, the gerim, that come to convert, they're gathered up by the צדיק, דאפיק רישיה ממיא, wanted to take its head above the water, above the foolishness of its thoughts and its deeds. ואית ליה קרני, and the fish had horns, we the this person gave tzedakah, creating this tranquil the tranquil air so that communication could be heard, so that even those who are far away would be able to relate.

וחקק עליה, and when it was engraved on the horns, meaning that this tzedakah caused that the words of the tzaddik would become engraved and seen even in the writings of the other nations. אנא בריה קלה שבים, I am the lightest creature of the sea, I'm rooted in the highest levels of creation. והוינא ש׳ פרסי, I am 300 parsah long, I come from such a lofty level that HaKadosh Baruch Hu Himself, as it were, we spoke about the three different types of מחשבה, הקדוש ברוך הוא, as it were, Himself, sought my etzah about creating the world. It was involved and embedded in the actual tachlit of creation. ואזלינא לפומא דלויתן, and now I'm going to the Livyatan, how could that be?

Something coming from such a high shoresh, tied into the very fabric of of creation of HaKadosh Baruch Hu creating the universe is now becoming disassociated from even remembering that it's at the shoresh and it's going it's going to to be swallowed by evil and destroyed and then because of these thoughts, this neshamah comes close and comes to repent. אמר רב אשי, ההוא עיזא דימא הוי דבחישא ואית ליה קרני, and רב אשי finished off, he said that this is the this is the sea goat that digs and has has these these horns, which is what we

we just explained now that this that this fish this relates all of this is made possible, it's able to rise above because of the tzaddik that's able to dig and find this hitpa'arut in creation and related to every single Jew and bring this hitpa'arut to the front, bringing a yirah and an ahavah and bring us to have a relationship with HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and once ever the the air is clear and the tzedakah is able to clear the air and bring a a a tikun to the פגם המזבח and and a a tikun to the

way that we eat, so all of this is able to clear up the things that clog up our from our deeds and our minds so that we will have a clear channel for our neshamah directly to HaKadosh Baruch Hu and to have a full giluy of ahavah and yirah. Now we're going to come back to the first pasuk, we might do this a little bit quickly, but to where we see the ideas that we've discussed in this Torah in the last פסוק: ויהי הם מריקים שקיהם. The it's talking about when the brothers of Yosef were emptying their sacks and they saw that each one's bundle of money was found in his sack and when they they they and their father saw the bundles of money, they became frightened.

Meaning originally they even though they were close to Yosef HaTzaddik, they didn't have this this yirah, but at this point they started to empty their sack, we'll see what the significance of that is, and all of and at that point the yirah returned and related to them and their father Yaakov said that you are making me שכלתי you are ש- ויאמר להם יעקב אביהם אותי שכלתם that you're making me, chas v'shalom, lose my children, Yosef is gone, Shimon is gone, and now you want to take Binyamin as well. So, let's go through this pasuk. ויהי הם מריקים שקיהם, and they were emptying their sacks, היינו בבחינת לבשו שמים קדרות, is a pasuk in Yeshayahu, that this corresponds to clothing the shamayim in קדרות, in blackness. Shamayim is esh and mayim.

Esh is like yirah basically, we're going to relate it to, and mayim is ahavah. So the the yirah and ahavah are becoming are enclothed in blackness. ושק אשים כסותם, and making garments, meaning that it's all the light is covered up. שמים, היינו, שמים, which is esh and mayim, is yirah and ahavah kanal, like we just explained. וכשהם מריקים את השק והחושך מן היראה והאהבה, once they were able to empty empty the sack so that from the from and the darkness from the yirah and the ahavah was able to bring a giluy, the yirah and ahavah was able to come from to the forefront, at that point the or of the tzaddik was able to shine forth. והנה איש צרור כספו בשקו. Each one's bundle of money was found in his sack.

What does this mean? צרור כספו, זה בבחינת צדיק, בבחינת צרור הכסף לקח בידו, he's bringing from a pasuk in Mishlei that צרור כספו is relating is alluding to a צדיק, שהם הצדיקים, כמו שפירש רש״י שם, basically saying that money refers to the best of them, meaning referring to the tzaddikim. בשקו, in his sack, היינו, meaning שהאור הצדיק נתחשך ונתלבש, that the or of the tzadik was covered up, ונתכסה בקדרות ובשק, and was covered over by darkness and by by sackcloth, it was obscured, it was enclothed. היינו, שמרגישים שהשק והחושך שהיה על היראה והאהבה, seeing that this that this covering, this choshech, this darkness that was that that was confusing and covering over the יראה והאהבה, זה מחמת שק וחושך. It's not it's only because it was obscured by the darkness, שנחשך אצלם אור הצדיק.

It's not that there was no אור הצדיק, it's not that there's not ahavah veyirah, it's not that the relationship is not there for the taking, it's that it's covered over. But what do we have to do? Well, what we have to we have to clear clear that out, right? ויראו את צרורות כספיהם המה ואביהם, and they and their father saw the bundle of money, היינו, שראו והכירו, they saw and they recognized, שצרורות כספיהם, that the or we said צרורות כספיהם is the tzadik, that the light of the tzadik, as long they're zocheh to be mekabel mimenu from him the yirah and the אהבה, תלוי בהחומר והצורה. Being able to be sensitive to that is talui in the chomer and the tzurah. שנקרא המה ואביהם. That that is referred to as them and their fathers.

המה זה החומר שהם כלי המעשה, ואביהם הוא השכל הנקרא אב בבחינת אב בחכמה. So המה, חומר is really it's like if you have a hunk of clay and then you imprint a form on the clay, right? The chomer is the substance and the tzurah is what gives it what gives it meaning. So we're talking about המה is basically the the referring to the gashmiyut and the אביהם is referring to the sechel because of אב בחכמה, אב is chochmah, that's referring to the חכמה, היינו כנ״ל, meaning שהתגלות אור הצדיק שיזכו להכיר ולהבין וליטול ולראות אורו הגדול,

the idea that there should be a gilui of the or coming from the tzadik, that that we should be receptive to the yirah and the ahavah that the tzadik is bringing in, הוא תלוי בשלמות המעשים ובזכות השכל, that's talui really starting off with the ma'asim, it's because the same way that kavanah can affect ma'asim, so ma'asim can also affect our intellect and the way that we relate to certain things, and it can bring foolish ideas and so forth. So the the the idea they they recognized that the bundles of money, the the ability to get the yirah and ahavah, the giluy and relate to the tzadik in an appropriate way, is talui in המה ואביהם, it's talui in the way that they are acting and relating to their guf and their seichel.

ויאמר להם יעקב אביהם, so Yaakov, their father, the seichel, it's as if the seichel is giving the גוף מוסר, היינו תוכחת השכל שמוכיח את החומר, the seichel is telling the guf, hey גוף, שהם כלי המעשה, you're the ones who are responsible for acting, שהוא תולה סרחון, the reason that the seichel is getting messed up, that there's foolish ideas, you're making me not be receptive to the yirah and the ahavah, it's because you're messed up in the way that you're acting, you're getting too involved in the guf in a distorted way, בכלי המעשה, and it's introducing negative ideas and a negative way of relating to to the environment, to the tzadik, and I'm not receptive to the yirah and the ahavah.

וזה: אותי שכלתם, that's what Yaakov says, that's what the seichel, so to speak, says, you're leaving me childless, חס ושלום, שעל ידי מעשים מכוערים, because of the the the bad deeds, גורמים כליון, you're causing me destruction, והפסד להשכל, and loss, and loss to the seichel. The deeds are causing the seichel to become eradicated and loss to to lose its ability to have clarity. יוסף איננו, so the seichel says, it's continuing to give mussar to the guf, that that יוסף איננו, זה that that בבחינת הון יוסיף רעים רבים כנ״ל הנ״ל.

What we said was the הון יוסיף רעים רבים, this is referring to tzedakah, tzedakah is that has ability to clear the air, when the air is clear be receptive to the yirah and the ahavah, that יוסיף איננו, I don't have any yosif, I don't have any tzedakah, I don't have the proper maasim in order to be able to enable the sechel to be receptive and to have clarity to the yirah and ahavah. ושמעון איננו, זה בחינת ושמעו הולך בכל המדינות, that we don't have the ability to hear. This is related to by Mordechai, ונעשה על ידי בחינת הון יוסיף, that when there's tzedakah, when the air is clear, then we're receptive to the message, and they the people could see it even in their own writings.

They would see they would see that there's contradiction in their own writings, they would be receptive to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. So יוסיף איננו, there's no tzedakah, there's no clarity, therefore שמעון איננו, we're not receptive to the message כנ״ל. And when you don't have any of that, ואת בנימין תקחו, זה בחינת מזבח בחלקו של טורף, בנימין represents, that's where the mizbeach was, שהוא בנימין. Now we're left with פגם מזבח, and the eating is off and the pegam is off, and now that we don't have any of that, even the, once there's no there's no clarity of

avodah, and we're not relating to Hakadosh Baruch Hu in a receptive way, so even those the shefa coming down, we're mischaracterizing it, the ניצוצות are being are flowing not towards towards avodah in the positive sense and hitbatlut, but once we're not receptive to the yirah and the ahavah, so then the energy, so to speak, the shefa coming down, it's going to be diverted towards avodah zarah, towards wrong ideas, and there's going to be פגם מזבח, שעיקר שלמות השכל תלוי בזה.

Because the ikar, in order to be able to have a שלמות השכל to relate to the yirah and ahavah, to relate to the tzadik, we need to be receptive, the sechel needs to be receptive, which means that the maasim have to be there, the maasim over here relating to tzedakah, the air has to be clear, the communication has to be clear, we have to have this relate to truth and in an objective to the objective truth, and when that's not in place, so then everything is everything is distorted and even even things that are coming, the shefa coming from Hakadosh Baruch Hu seems to be received in a distorted way. דהיינו שהשכל מוכיח ואומר שעיקר החסרון שנעשה עקר המוח הוא תלוי רק בכלי המעשה, but this starts with with the כלי המעשה.

The idea of developing foolish ideas is it really started with the כלי המעשה, and once a person is acting in an improper way, so then the sechel comes along to justify it, to it becomes it starts thinking in a you know, it's very just on another note parenthetically, it's very difficult, impossible to have clarity of mind and also act inconsistent with that. Something has to give. If you truly know, meaning nobody really knows that two plus two is four and is able to act as though two plus two is five, nobody is able to see a car coming and walk across the street, I don't think. I mean the studies on I don't think that you can like, you know, run full force into a wall.

The wall is there, you'd have a reflex action. If you truly know that something is there, then it manifests itself automatically in action, and if you're going to act a different way, so then that's going to affect, you're not going to become to truly know something. דהיינו צדקה. So the כלי המעשה, the maaseh that's able to generate clarity, tzedakah is at the root of that, שתלוי במעשה, בחינת והיה מעשה צדקה. So tzedakah has this כח, שעל ידו נשלם השכל כנ״ל. So where the acts are getting distorted, the first step towards that is to give tzedakah.

כי כשנותנים צדקה על ידי זה נעשים גרים כנ״ל, because tzedakah is able to הון יוסיף רעים, it's able to clear the air, it's able to bring people in, it's able to be receptive to the messaging, ועל ידי זה נשלם המזבח, שהוא בחינת שולחנו של אדם, דהיינו שזוכים לאכול בקדושה, and once we're able to to to have clarity, to be able to relate to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, so then the that will give us a relationship to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, we'll relate to again we'll have התבטלות, we're going to we're going to re-establish our connection with עבודה

with the מזבח, that relates to the way that we eat as well, ואז נשלם השכל, ואז זוכים לראות אור הצדיק, and we'll be zocheh to see the אור הצדיק, we'll be receptive to the objective truth, we will take our own subjectivity and our own מעשים that were leading us the wrong way, those will be removed, ועל ידי זה מקבלים ממנו יראה ואהבה כנ״ל. And if we if we go back, this was a long Torah, if we go back to the beginning, we will see how really all of these ideas which we explored at length in their place relate to the Torah.

Okay, maybe I will try to to go back, have like, you know, one shorter derashah to go just going through the reading through maybe the Kitzur Likkutei Moharan to tie this together, but I think that we you know, we tried each time to tie together in the beginning of the שיעור, and this was just really a breathtaking Torah, and we will move forward to Torah י״ח. So, just adding two points that I actually have written in on my Likkutei Moharan just to think about.

One is that this perspective of the tzadik is really at the heart, that we we see over and over again that Moshe Rabbeinu was davenen for Klal Yisrael, the the role of the tzadik in in in davenen, we see that really it's not just a person's on a higher level and able to daven, and therefore even though they do you know The Klal Yisrael doesn't necessarily deserve it, at the core of the role of the tzadik and the leader in relating, davening on behalf of Klal Yisrael is the way that the tzadik himself relates to Hakadosh Baruch Hu and relates the way that Hakadosh Baruch Hu relates to the בריאה and all of Klal Yisrael.

Even really negative reinforcement sometimes might be appropriate, might be expression of love, but the tzadik is relating to the entire בריאה from a focus of of התפארות, and therefore we you know, it's just a point of a point to think about. And we just had, we were giving this, coming off of really פרשת לך לך, פרשת נח, we saw that there was דור אנוש already at the at the beginning of עבודה זרה. It's not that they believed that there was no HaKadosh Baruch Hu, there's no Ribono shel Olam, chas veshalom, but that HaKadosh Baruch Hu, the Creator, gave over, you appointed intermediaries. There can't be a direct relationship between us and HaKadosh Baruch Hu, because people are so low. And it's very hard to get around that if you don't have proper perspective.

You say, how could we possibly relate to HaKadosh Baruch Hu? Because we are in such a low, insignificant position, אנכי עפר ואפר in a certain way. So, therefore, we're not going to relate directly to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, relate to the middlemen who are more associated with the goings-on of the world. And we see in this Torah it's actually exactly the opposite, farkert. The people are so high. The entire idea of התפארות is understanding the way that we described when we talking about the the אהבה that comes after יראה, תרום קרננו, it's that that we have

our שורש all the way above the בריאה, all the way above the עולם, all the way אבי״ע, אצילות, בריאה, יצירה, עשיה, that HaKadosh Baruch Hu took an עצה from people who are going to be the תכלית of the בריאה, that were so high. That is totally the opposite of of the the sentiment that really started off all of the mistakes, that that because people are so low, there needed to be an intermediary, it's farkert, that that we are at the very heart of HaKadosh Baruch Hu creating the בריאה, we we do have a direct pipeline, we are be'etzem we are be'etzem at the all the way all the way tied in as high up as you can go, as relates to the בריאה.

Okay, be'ezrat Hashem, we'll start