LM 18.2 — R' Yonasan Mishtaei, Part 2 of 4 · תורה י״ח

תורה י״ח, we're going into paragraph ג, we'll give an overview so we have some momentum in case to remind us what we learned last week. We started off the Torah: לכל דבר יש תכלית, תכלית יש עוד תכלית אחר, גבוה מעל גבוה. Everything has a purpose, a goal that it's meant to achieve. And every purpose has really a higher purpose until we we get conceptually to the final goal, which we explained was שעשועי עולם הבא. Now, we used a mashal to explain, for instance, a person who wants to build a home, a person has a ratzon, he needs a place to live. Maybe that he could have different different ideas in terms of the place to live. Maybe it could be a place within within the city where he wants to conduct business.

Maybe it's going to be a recreational home where he wants to be able to have guests, and maybe it's a place where he can get away and have a little bit of solitude. Depending what his ratzon is, contained within that is going to be a lot of individual ideas that will have to all come together to be able to build a home that has that can fulfill the purpose that he has in mind. There's going to have to be a location, so maybe he's going to have to hire a real estate agent or a scout to go find the perfect location.

He's going to have to negotiate a price, they're going to have to have a foundation, they're going to have to buy materials, find people to to to build the place, and an architect, and you have to figure out a layout: Where should the bedrooms be? How big should the common areas be? Something that can that can achieve the tachlit for which he wants to have this home. Every single one of those projects is going to have its own tachlit, its own תועלת. So, depending how broad or narrow you make the snapshot in time or of the process that you're looking at, every piece of that is going to have a tachlit.

And every time you achieve one stage of that, then the pieces will be in place for you to move on to the next level and achieve the next tachlit. Once everything is in place until you have the home, at that point, then the the tachlit of the overall project will be achieved, and now you have a home. Now, the question is, so now let's say you have a home, so you have a place to rest. Now that you have a place of rest, you can go to work. Now you can go to work and you can make money, you can support, let's say, your children in yeshivah, you can retire, maybe you'll have a place that you can sit and learn afterwards.

Everything really is going to go towards avodah, and we said the ultimate tachlit is really שעשועי עולם הבא, which is which Okay, so taking a step back, what this means, though, is that we have, even in this world, there's a whole development of different pieces that are in place in order to achieve a tachlit of what we want to accomplish in this world. But the overall tachlit of the world is really something that's outside of the world. סוף מעשה במחשבה תחילה, Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the world in order to give people a way to earn עולם הבא, שעשועי עולם הבא. Focusing on that for a minute, that's very interesting.

So what it means is that the idea, the תועלת that really a person should have in mind every single second, that that purpose that should never be off of his or her radar as they go through the world in order to make sure that all of their actions, their thought, their speech, their actions are in line with what they're trying to achieve, is something that we really have no relationship with because the ultimate purpose, the שעשועי עולם הבא, the being davuk in Hakadosh Baruch Hu, etc., is something that is really outside of our frame of reference. So how is it that we're able to Otherwise, we're we're we're flying blind.

How are we supposed to make it through this world as a practical matter, always having that vision of that goal in front of us? So Hakadosh Baruch Hu, we we can we can talk about nevi'im and מתן תורה, but for for the purposes in in of this Torah, as what we have are the tzadikim. Tzadikim do have a relationship even with this תועלת of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. The tzadikim, I'm adding this in parenthetically, the tzadikim have hitbatlut. We've discussed this idea of a tzadik, a tzadik hador in other Torot. The Mishnah Avot says, עשה רצונו כרצונך כדי שיעשה רצונך כרצונו. When a person has hitbatlut, when a person aligns his ratzon, he aligns his ambitions, his identity with Hakadosh Baruch Hu, so then he really roots himself, he anchors himself outside of this world.

That person has a relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. I actually saw just in this week's parashah, Rav Yerucham brought a an interesting I'll just read it for a second. He brought a Gemara: אמר רבי אלעזר, אמר רבי אלעזר ברבי צדוק: למה נמשלו צדיקים בעולם הזה? לאילן שכולו עומד במקום טהרה ונופו נוטה למקום טומאה. It's a Gemara in Kiddushin דף מ' עמוד ב', and then he goes on to quote the rest of the Gemara. He says that the tzadikim are like a tree that all of it is standing in a מקום טהרה, and the branches are in a מקום טומאה. But if you cut off the branches, the entire tree be'etzem is rooted in the מקום טהרה, and resha'im are the opposite.

The tzadikim are be'etzem rooted in, they're a בן עולם הבא, they're a בן עולם הבא now, it doesn't mean getting עולם הבא later. The tzadikim have התבטלות. Therefore, the tzadikim are in a place where really those are the appropriate leaders to lead us. They're the ones who are able to have the תועלת front and center in their mind, and to the extent that Hakadosh Baruch Hu has a תכלית for all of us, the tzadikim can be the leadership, and to the extent that we have a relationship with the tzadikim, to the extent that we have our שורש within the tzadik, we are also able to live our life in this context.

However, when people do not have this התבטלות, when people have an element of avodah zarah, which we in this context we've spoken about ga'avah in the past, but we're over here we're talking we're talking about ka'as, anger, different ideas that are totally self-centered, which is a hint of avodah zarah, that really is the opposite of rachmanut. And when we do that, Hakadosh Baruch Hu there's a certain הסתר פנים in the world. Hakadosh Baruch Hu, as it were, hides His face. When there's a lack of rachmanut in the world, so then the tzadikim also will not will not take on the role of being the leaders. How do we restore the leadership to the tzadikim? We overcome our ka'as. Whenever a person has ka'as, instead of exercising on that, they replace it with rachmanut.

So we as a practical matter, we said last week also, if a person feels like they're getting angry, what's anger? Anger really is a hint of avodah zarah. It's the emotional reaction that we have when things don't go our way. That when when a person overcomes, you can't just say, "Don't get angry." That's just a spring that you push down until it pops. What you can do is you can replace ka'as with a different emotion. You put that momentum You see somebody acting inappropriately, and you say, "Oh, they they they, you know, they were abused in certain ways emotionally.

People mistreated them, and they have a terrible situation at home, and they're maybe taking it out on somebody else." If a person is able to replace ka'as with rachmanut each each each idea is in a situation-specific way, but you can replace emotion A with emotion B. You can't necessarily suppress an emotion. When we're able to replace ka'as, when we're able to get rid of this idea of עבודה זרה and replace it with רחמנות, so then the crown will be restored to the צדיקים so that we have appropriate we have the appropriate leadership in order to

restore to get rid of הקדוש ברוך הוא's הסתר פנים and restore that רחמנות, so that we will be able to get back in touch with the the ultimate תועלת so that we are able to live a meaningful life. And therefore, we're pairing together, or pitting one against each other, עבודה זרה and אמונה, כעס versus רחמנות. The more that we're able to restore our אמונה, and and and overcome כעס, the more that we're able to restore the element of רחמנות, and we're able that הקדוש ברוך הוא is not is is going to be פנים אל פנים,

is not going to have הסתר פנים, and the צדיקים will go back into the role of being in the leadership in order that we should be able to live a meaningful life, and attach sof maaseh b'machshavah techilah so that, you know, in other terms, we said that הקדוש ברוך הוא's חכמה, the תועלת for the world, should line up with the מלכות, with the way that the world should reflect back of הקדוש ברוך הוא's חכמה. And this is an idea we've discussed in many תורות, that מלכות, מלכות is אמונה, is כבוד, is גילוי. It's like the לבנה, that the לבנה should totally reflect the the שמש, which is חכמה.

We said already in תורה א', but the more that it's not that there's no התבטלות, that the לבנה is not just totally reflecting the sun, there's something else in the way, we get in the way of that, our כעס, our גאווה, other things, so then then the מלכות won't be totally reflective of the חכמה of הקדוש ברוך הוא's purpose, and at that point, that's what we would call the שכינה in גלות. Now let's go into paragraph three. ולפעמים חושב האדם בעצמו שיש לו רחמנות על העולם, there are times that a person feels like he has mercy for the world, ורוצה בהנהגתו, and he wants to be in a position of leadership, ובאמת, זהו רודף אחר הכבוד. This is nothing that we are strangers to, certainly in the political landscape.

A person really you would say that a person who is in a position of leadership is putting the ultimate sacrifice. He's living long hours, putting a tremendous amount of emotional investment, of time investment. He's putting everything aside to lead the people, for public service. There are those who want to be in a leadership position really for כבוד. ותולה רדיפתו ברחמנות, and yet they present that the reason that they want to be in a leadership position is because they have this rachmanut, because they want what's best for the people. Now this is really a total distortion of malchut. We said that malchut, kavod, really emunah, the idea of true malchut is when it reflects רצון השם.

When malchut is not kavod, we said already in Torah ו', although it was in a totally in a different context, but The difference between kavod Hashem and kavod melachim, when malchut is rooted in hitbatlut of showing, of being a giluy of רצון השם, that's one thing. When really the malchut, the idea that somebody wants to be in a leadership position, it's not to be have a giluy of רצון השם, but it's to to really towards their own kavod, then that really is is actually the the antithesis, that's the opposite. ובאמת הוא רחוק מהרחמנות הזה. In truth, he's very distant from this idea of rachmanut. כי כל זמן שאין לאדם אמונה בשלמות, so in so much as a person does not have true אמונה, שאין שלמות אח...

אמונה בשלמות שאין שלמות אחריו, meaning a shlemut that there's no shlemut afterwards, meaning an absolute אמונה, בוודאי אין לו לקבל המלוכה וההנהגה. The only person that's raui, it's a little counterintuitive, the only person that's raui to be in a position of meluchah, of kingship and leadership, is not when the buck stops with him. It's that he ends up in the position of leadership because he understands that really he has no skin in the game, that the buck stops with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. That really is the the person who's in a position, especially because the king is not at the top of the mountain.

It's one who realizes that he's leading society, he's leading the community, the Klal Yisrael, towards a towards the to'elet of where the world is supposed to go, on an individual level, on a כלליות'דיק level, towards fulfilling רצון השם. So that person has to be able almost to totally take himself, his own his own priorities, his own prerogative out of it, in order to lead the people. That's only possible where he is in a state of שלמות שאין שלמות אחריו. ואפילו מי שמאמין באיזה דבר שהוא מדרכי האמורי, even a person this is a reference basically to superstitions. In other words, what we're saying that that's not avodah zarah.

A person, we'll we'll give some examples soon, but a person sees you know, a black cat crossing, walking under a ladder, whatever it is, but he thinks that there are other forces, other simanim that seem to control things. Any type of a gap in in where his emunah should be, that alone is enough that there's not a shlemut. Remember something that's something that's 99.9% complete is 0% shalem. Shlemut either is or it isn't. If we're talking about a completeness, something that has a mum is not tam, right, is not tamim. תמים תהיה עם השם אלוקיך.

אף על פי שהוא מאמין בהשם יתברך, even though he has a lot of אמונה, בוודאי אין לו לקבל המנהיגות, still is not in a position to to fulfill a position a role of leadership, כי המנהיגות עיקרו בבחינת רחמים, because a position of leadership really requires rachamim. We quoted a pasuk last week from ישעיה פרק מ״ט, כי מרחמם ינהגם, that that that associated rachmanut with leadership, ועיקר הרחמים בהסרת עכו״ם, so again, we're putting together rachamim and removal of avodah zarah, really because removing avodah zarah is the opposite of emunah, rachamim is the opposite of kaas, so once we line these things up, we're saying that in order to have full rachamim, you have to have full emunah.

ואפילו שמץ עכו״ם, even a little bit of a sniff, a hint of avodah zarah, even דרכי האמורי, superstition, ואפילו כשהוא אומר צבי הפסיקני, even if he says that a deer crossed his path and that becomes some sort of a negative סימן, אין לו רחמנות בשלמות, he's not going to be able to achieve a full rachmanut, a full shlemut in emunah. The mefarshim point out that the reason he uses this example of tzvi, of a deer crossing the path, is because last week already we we used in from ישעיה פרק כ״ח a pasuk of עטרת צבי, the crown of beauty, לשאר עמו goes to the leftovers, that the crown of leadership goes to the to the anavim, to the ones who who don't have that כבוד עצמו.

So you see this linkage of tzvi and tzvi. Tzvi can mean beauty, it can mean a deer. ובכן, אין לו לקבל המנהיגות, so this person should not be taking leadership, אפילו מי שיש לו אמונה גדולה, even if he has a lot of אמונה, עד שיפשפש בעצמו שלא נשאר אצלו אמונות שאין צריך להאמין, כגון דרכי האמורי הנ״ל. This person should not who should even if he has a lot of emunah, but he has to really he he has to do some self-introspection that there shouldn't be anything left within him that he's אין צריך להאמין, something even דרכי האמורי, something that's superstitious. He has to make sure, because it might be dormant, it might not even come out.

A person can think and, you know, in most of his day-to-day decisions he has a lot of emunah, but to be in a position of leadership, it really has to be a position of התבטלות. The only governing consideration has to be רצון השם. A person has to have rachmanut on the people, that's associated with complete emunah. ושיהיה תמים, complete עם השם אלוקיו. אז הרחמנות באמת, ולו, לו with a ו, to him, ראוי להנהיג. So only this person who's totally תמים עם השם אלוקיו, who's totally complete, that there's no element of what his considerations are, not

even some superstition, which is not עבודה זרה per se, but to the extent that there's any, that there's any sniff a hint of עבודה זרה over there, to that extent, this person is not ראוי for leadership, and the the way that we said last week, the way that we are able to restore the true leaders to come into place to give the crown back to them is for us to overcome our ka'as, to us to restore our rachmanut, to put ourselves in a position of emunah, we'll be zocheh to have the right leaders.

But this paragraph is focusing more on why sometimes you have people try to grab positions of leadership even though they think that they have rachmanut, but they they think that they want to lead and they might even have a lot of emunah, but they're not the appropriate people to be leading. אבל מי שאין לו אמונה בשלמות, those that don't have אמונה בשלמות, ונדמה שיש לו רחמנות על העולם ורוצה להנהיג את העולם and they say, no, that we we want to help out. You know, and it could be that they're well meaning. זה בחינת ומלכות תהפך למינות. This is a bechinah what the Gemara says in Sotah, that that at the end of days, in עקבתא דמשיחא, there'll be אפיקורסות in leadership positions.

The מלכות, the governing forces will be turned over into מינות, into אפיקורסות. It'll be כפירה in the governing in in the the governing class the governing positions of the nation. כי מעט המינות פוגם במלכות. Even a little bit of כפירה, a little bit of אפיקורסות creates some sort of a blemish in the מלכות בבחינת הנהגה in the rulership in the leadership, ומהפכו למינות and it turns it to כפירה. כמו שמהפך את המלכות לעצמו שהוא מין מעט. This person who's only a little bit of a כופר, meaning we again we associate ka'as with עבודה זרה and we associate also ga'avah. This person who's out for כבוד עצמו.

The same way that this person because of this element of arrogance, he wants to seize the leadership for himself, that's a sign also of this מלכות תהפך למינות that the leadership is turning to מינות, to כפירה. So, so far what we're left with over here is the idea that the only appropriate leadership for the nation are those who have complete אמונה בשלמות, תם תהיה עם ה' אלוקיך. And the only way that those people who have rachmanut on the people are going to be an extension of Hakadosh Baruch Hu's rachmanut on us are when we are deserving of it.

And the way to do that is to make sure that we don't have ka'as or I guess ga'avah also, but we that we don't have ka'as and we we have rachmanut, the more that we are able to have rachmanut, the more that we will be zocheh to the appropriate leadership that has rachmanus. Paragraph ד'. Some of these concepts are not that easy, but we will we'll read through the words and try to come out with something that that's meaningful for us. ודע שהאמונה, the idea of emunah which we know from Torah ז' by the way, that emunah, we talk about the ideas of אמונה פשוטה. We had a discussion in Torah ז' that emunah is built on emet. ודע שהאמונה היא מחזקת תמיד במלכות והנהגה.

Now emunah, by the way, is also associated with malchut, so it becomes a little harder. ר' Chaim Kramer addresses it in the note that the idea that if emunah is associated with malchut, so if we're going to say that emunah guards malchut, it's guarding then really malchut is guarding itself. I think he's getting at the idea of of true emunah, if if a person has emunah, so how do you know what's called emunah? What if I have emunah in something that's false? What if I believe that a rasha is really a tzadik? Or for that matter, I believe in a frog, right? So is that called emunah? Am I just lucky because my my emunah is in a tzadik instead of in something else?

What's the difference between אמונה פשוטה and פתי יאמין לכל דבר, between me me putting emunah in the appropriate place and a fool believes anything? So we explained over there, but for our purposes, the idea of emunah, again, emunah is built on emet, is going to preserve malchut, which בעצם מלכות there's there's appropriate malchut, we're going מלכות דקדושה and מלכות דסטרא אחרא, explained in some of the earlier Torot, but for malchut to be מלכות דקדושה to be in the appropriate place, that מלכות סוף מעשה במחשבה תחלה, that malchut reflects הקדוש ברוך הוא's chochmah, emunah will guard that.

This is part of the discussion that we're in the middle of having, that to the extent that we that we get rid of kaas, that we invest in rachamnut, that we come closer to emunah, that emunah will make sure that malchut is in the in the appropriate place. It's going to restore Ateret Tzvi, that the crown is going to go back to the tzadikim, that they're going to be the ones in leadership positions, to be in a position of malchut to to govern the nation in line with retzon Hashem'. So emunah is going to guard malchut. לא יקח אותו הזר שאינו ראוי לה. The idea of emunah is going to make sure that a person who is undeserving of malchut does not end up in that position. ודע שעיקר המלכות שרשו בחכמה.

We explained this before. On a פנימיותדיק level, in the sefiros malchut is is rooted in chochmah. There's חכמה, בינה, דעת, חסד, גבורה, תפארת, נצח, הוד, יסוד, and malchut. הקדוש ברוך הוא's shefa goes from chochmah to malchut, but even in a In a in a practical way, בשביל כדי לידע איך להנהיג ולמלוך, and every king has advisors. לכן יש לכל מלך חכמים ויועצים, every person who's in a position of governing, every person who's in a leadership position has advisors and חכמים, כי בזה תיקון מלכותו, with this, his personal leadership will be able to be established, ויתקיים מדינתו, and you could you can have one or the other. A person could be in a leadership position, but the kingdom will collapse, and a person his he personally could be removed, but the kingdom will be intact.

For in order for a person's rule position to be intact and for the the kingdom itself also to be established and maintained, there has to be appropriate advisors and חכמים, וזה בחינת ויהי בישורון מלך. There will be in Yeshurun a king, a king will be established. When is that? בהתאסף ראשי עם, when there's ראשי עם, the the sechel, the mochin, when it gathers together, when there's chachamim in place, that's when there will be kingship established. היינו על ידי ראשי עם שהם מוחין והחכמה, על ידם תיקון בחינת המלכות, through the appropriate advice, through the chochmah being in place, that that's the root, and there will be established a malchut.

ועל ידי אהבת חכמים, and therefore, when the king loves chachamim, when the king loves wisdom and the wise, תיקון המלכות, that's when the malchut will be established. וכשבא למלך איזה שנאה על חכמים, when the king turns on his advisors, ידוע להוי ליה שמן השמים ירדוהו ממלכותו, when a king is in a position where he is turning away from the advisors, then we can know that min shemaya already, it's just a matter of time until until his his position will will no longer his position is already shaky. כי אין קיום לעולם בלא החכמה. When a person does not embrace chochmah, so then there's not going to be a kiyum, not in the world and not in a in a specific position of of leadership.

Leadership and ultimately the the leader is leading the world, and ultimately the establishment of the world, the kiyum of the world has to be rooted in chochmah. And again, in a ספירותדיק sense, the chochmah is really the plans, right? If if the if the house is not in lines with the plans, if it's not in line with the blueprint, so then ultimately it's not clear where the crack will be in the foundation, but the the chochmah is pure in the abstract form, and it's going to be unfolded into l'maaseh.

If the if what you see l'maaseh does not reflect the the blueprints, right, it it does not, there's a bug someplace in in someplace between where the plan was and where it came out, so then at some point it's going to get messed up. ובבחינת מלך במשפט יעמיד ארץ, a king במשפט, we're going to associate משפט with chochmah, right, there's חוקים and משפטים. חוקים, for our purposes, are let's say those mitzvot that we don't relate to on a חכמהדיק level. משפט is the the the rules that we do relate to on a חכמהדיק level. מלך במשפט יעמיד ארץ will establish the land. The מלך through chochmah will establish the land.

משפט בחינת חכמים, בבחינת ואם את משפטי תגעל נפשכם, if you grow tired, you turn away from my משפטים, from the חכמה, ודרשו, and Chazal דארשן in the midrash, in Torat Kohanim, that's a pasuk in Vayikra. Torat Kohanim, the Sifra is the מדרש הלכה on Vayikra, זה השונא את חכמים. This pasuk is talking to those who hate חכמים. So ואם את משפטי תגעל נפשכם, then now we see that משפט is associated with chochmah, and therefore when we say that מלך במשפט יעמיד ארץ, that a king through משפט, it's through the חכמים establishes the land, that's how his the the the kingship will stay in place.

However, when when the the king, when the leader turns away from the חכמים, he his אהבת חכם turns into שנאת חכמים, then it's only a matter of time before his malchut is toppled. נמצא, זה שאין לו אמונה בשלמות מחמת דרכי האמורי, it comes out that this person who does not belong in a position of leadership, because there's a crack in his emunah, he turns to דרכי האמורי like we explained, כשבא ליקח לעצמו מלכות והנהגה, this person wants to come and take malchus for himself, but he doesn't belong in a position of malchus, because he does not his emunah is not intact, והוא אינו ראוי לה. There's a little bit of kefirah like we said worked in.

אזי אמונה שסביב הנהגה, the emunah which surrounds leadership, the emunah which surrounds malchus, emunah is partnered with malchus, emunah is associated with malchus, emunah is partnered with malchus, we said ואמונתך סביבותיך, it's a pasuk in תהלים קאפיטל פ״ט, המחזיק בהנהגה שלא יגע בה זר, the idea of emunah is going to protect, emunah built on emet is going to protect that the wrong people are not going to be in a position position of of malchus, of leadership, so that it's going to become divorced from Hashem's chochmah, and then at that point, right, the Shechinah is going to be in galus, we're going to have a position where the leadership and the governance of the world is not going to reflect Hakadosh Baruch Hu's chochmah. Emunah will work to prevent that.

הוא מפיל איש זה לשנאת חכמים. How will emunah, so to speak, accomplish that? It will implant in this ruler a sinah for the חכמים, כדי שלא יתקיים בידו המלכות והמנהיגות, so that his leadership will not last. ובודאי לא יתקיים בידו, כי עיקר מלכות תלוי במשפט, כנ״ל. And therefore, since עיקר מלכות, leadership, is תלוי in appreciation of wisdom and the wise, this person's malchus will not last. אלא אם כן, now, what what could what what could put a a problem with this? So how will the forces of tumah, so to speak, work so that malchus will will not be in the appropriate place? אלא אם כן זה המחזיק במלכות מתגבר באפיקורסות ומינות.

What can happen is that this leader can be so far gone to push ideas of real minut, of real apikorsut, to the forces of tumah can work to separate out emunah having a place in the malchus at all. So, in other words, where where where emunah has a place at the table, so emunah will work that it that the wrong leaders are not going to be in the place of malchus. Those people who have a pegam in their emunah, those people who have you know, they don't have the right rachmanut, they're in it for themselves,

in it for their own ga'avah, their own kavod, their כבוד מלכים, those people will not will not end up in a position of מלכות to to separate out the מלכות from the root of chochmah, from HaKadosh Baruch Hu's תכלית in the world. But where the ruler is is coming from the point of tumah, he's working אפיקורסות, he's separating out the emunah from the מלכות, עד שמפריד את האמונה מהנהגה. Again, these concepts are a little bit abstract. We understand, some of these תורות are more accessible than others, but we work to understand them. So he says, אלא אם כן המחזיק במלכות מתגבר באפיקורסות ומינות עד שמפריד האמונה מהנהגה, until emunah is separated out from leadership, right. Until now, even in the last paragraph, we were talking about a person who thought that he had rachmanut.

He thought that he wanted to rule for the right reasons, but there was something in him that was a little bit off. Now we're talking about somebody who goes and he wants to absolutely rule for the wrong reasons. He's trying to separate out emunah from the מלכות. He's taking מלכות for for the for the forces of tumah, and he's separating out the אמונה מהנהגה, מבחינת המלכות מלהחזיק במלכות. אזי יכול להיות שיתקיים המלכות בידו. We'll see that this is really temporary. We discussed in earlier תורות the idea of something being linked to the source, and something that might be more temporary, might be a like a a whirlpool. You stir up water very quickly, but it's not It's not like an open faucet, an open channel of water attached to a reservoir, to a source.

So if you stir it up very quickly, it might seem like a whirlwind, but it's only a matter of time until it dies down. So even now, we'll see soon, the מלכות will only be reassigned temporarily, but this person who is separating out the emunah from the מלכות, then the מלכות can stay in the wrong place. כי אין מי שיפילו לשנאת חכמים, because the the emunah, which worked to preserve the מלכות by by separating out the מלכות from חכמים, by putting into this leader a שנאת חכמים so that the מלכות can't stand, כי האמונה נפרדה מן המלכות, the emunah in this case will not be protecting the מלכות, and therefore this leader who has the wrong ideas will be able to stay in a position of leadership for now.

We see really the battle between the forces of kedushah and tumah. But now we're going to read in just where we are into the ma'aseh that we quoted earlier at the at the very beginning of the Torah, which was coming from Rav Yonatan Mishti from Bava Batra דף ע״ד. וזה, נחית בר אמוראי לאסויי that we said with the diver went to, ובעי דנשמטיה לאטמיה, this diver went into the water to get this ארגז, this chest that had precious gems in it. This is like an atarah of מלכות. This diver, this בר אמוראי went to go get the leadership, and we said that the כרשא, the the fish, wanted to cut off the the אטמיה, his thigh. בר אמוראי, זה שאין לו אמונה בשלמות.

This בר אמוראי, this person went after like דרכי אמורי, this person did not have the proper emunah. He wanted to go get the position of leadership. He wanted to take the מלכות for himself. אטמיה, זה בחינת What is it? What is אטמיה? It's his thigh, but the לשון of אוטם is אוטם אזנו משמוע דמים. It's a reference to a pasuk in ישעיה, one who דלא שמע who seals up his ears, דלא שמע בזילותא דצורבא מרבנן. He has אהבת חכמים. A person who closes off his ears, he does not want to hear anything negative.

So when we say אטמיה, it's a remez to אהבת חכמים, and therefore, when we say this בר אמוראי wanted to cut off at the אטמיה, to cut Off at the אוטם, to cut off at the thigh, he wanted to separate the אהבת חכמים, היינו בירשא, because what's a בירשא? What's a fish? We said that בירשא like בריש, like Mordechai הנ״ל, that בירשא is a reference to emunah. So this בר אמוראי, this one who did had incomplete emunah, wanted to seize the leadership for himself. ארגז, by the way, is also like rogez, like anger, that's when inappropriate leadership comes. So emunah, represented by the בירשא, said, "Hey, wait a second, then מלכות is going to fall into the wrong place." The בירשא, the emunah, wanted to protect the מלכות by cutting off at the אטמי.

אטמי representing somebody who seals his ears not to hear bad things about חכמים, somebody who has אהבת חכמים. He wanted to separate it out that this bad leader would have a sinah for the חכמים, so that that leadership would not last because he wouldn't be taking the appropriate advice, רצה להפילו לשנאת חכמים. וזרק זיקא דחלא ונחאס. And what happened was that this בר אמוראי threw some vinegar at the fish. What's the kavanah in penimiyus? חלא, which is חומץ, which is vinegar, בחינת התגברות המינות, בחינת כי יתחמץ לבבי, when the heart ferments. We said, how could the negative forces, so to speak, prevent the emunah from removing the leadership so that the negative forces, the כוחות הטומאה, can keep the מלכות, at least temporarily? By working in extra apikorsus, the חומץ, the vinegar.

על ידי זה נחאס את הבירשא הנ״ל, the בירשא, the emunah went away, at least temporarily, so that the מלכות of avodah zarah, the מלכות of the סטרא אחרא would be in place, and then, at least temporarily, the מלכות would not be with the tzadikim. So just taking stock of where we are, and then we can move on to the next piece. Every person is seeking to attach themselves to the תכלית, to understand the תועלת that הקדוש ברוך הוא created the world for a particular purpose. The world is moving towards a particular goal, and every one of us has a piece, has a part of this process in the כלליותדיק way, in a פרטיותדיק way.

And therefore, to the extent that we're able to attach ourselves to this תכלית, then we live a life of meaning and we're not going to be mesupak. We're going to understand what we should be doing, where we should be doing it. The problem is is that we have a very difficult time perceiving this תכלית, because really the תכלית for which הקדוש ברוך הוא created the world is something that's outside of the world, right? The world is anchored, so to speak, in something outside of itself. הקדוש ברוך הוא created the world towards His objective, towards His end, but that's not readily accessible from within. So therefore, הקדוש ברוך הוא has various ways that He speaks to us.

We have that הקדוש ברוך הוא gave us a Torah, which is מצמצם in certain ways הקדוש ברוך הוא's ratzon that we're able to literally be davek in הקדוש ברוך הוא. But הקדוש ברוך הוא gave us נביאים, הקדוש ברוך הוא gave us tzadikim. The tzadikim are those who have such a bitul of their own ratzon, they're able to come to a point where they have one foot they're in the world to a certain degree, but they are not of the world. The example that we gave earlier was a tree which is totally rooted in one place even though the branches are hanging over into a place of טומאה. The tree is rooted, the tree is existing within a place of טהרה, but it's reaching over. But that doesn't define the tree itself.

To the extent that tzadikim are in positions of leadership for the rest of the כלל, so then we can find ourself within our שורש within the tzadik. And the tzadik are they're people. They're people that are able to relate to us, to help us find our own תכלית, but they're בעצם rooted, they're a בן עולם הבא. A בן עולם הבא doesn't mean going to עולם הבא later, it's like a person who's a ben Torah. Even when a person's not learning Torah, they're defined as a ben Torah. A tzadik is totally בן עולם הבא.

To the extent that a tzadik lives צדיק באמונתו יחיה, to the extent that a tzadik is fully with emunah, the tzadik also has rachmanut that is the opposite of ka'as, the tzadik is going to be in the position to lead us. Sometimes, unfortunately, we put ourself in a position where we don't deserve to have this rulership, to have this leadership that's going to lead us to the תועלת. We're living in a stage of הסתר פנים that's due to where we are. We're operating with ga'avah, with a little hint of עבודה זרה. Ka'as also is like that.

And one of the ways that in this Torah Rabbeinu gave us to put ourself back in a place where we can attach ourself to the tzadik is to overcome our ka'as, replace it with rachmanut, and this will trigger the process where we're going to have those tzadikim we're going to give a crown back to the tzadikim to be able to lead us with full emunah, with rachmanut, and turn away HaKadosh Baruch Hu's ka'as, as it were, and His הסתרת פנים.

There are those that, maybe even because of the situation in the world, they think that they have rachmanut or maybe they have a certain level of rachmanut, and a certain level of emunah and they want to be in a position of leadership, but they're doing that really for personal reasons, which is the antithesis of what we're talking about. To the extent that there's any hint, it doesn't take much to spoil a whole pot. To the extent there's there's any hint of personal, self-interest in being in a position of leadership, so then even if 99% is

there, if the entire thing becomes distorted, then the the they won't be adequate leaders and they won't be able to direct the כלל to to to to attach yourself to Hashem, to that תועלת, there's going to be something that demands a full התבטלות to be able to attach oneself to to something, to a perception, to a perspective that's outside of this world. And therefore, מלכות itself, again very abstract concept, because מלכות is is attaches itself מלכות is the end of the process, the גילוי, the revelation, the reflection of the chochmah of Hashem. In order you can't have broken telephone. To go from chochmah to מלכות demand that there's no other there's no other interests and self-interests that get in the way. And מלכות aligns itself with emunah.

Emunah, which is built on emet, which is built on the integrity of the system, will protect מלכות such that if somebody doesn't belong in a position of leadership tries to take that role, the emunah will make it that since, in order to be an adequate leader, one needs to rely on chochmah, on the chachamim, on the wise ones, on the counsel, on advice, emunah itself will somehow plant within these leaders that they should not rely on the chachamim so that their leadership will not last.

The way that sometimes, at least in a temporary sense, you will have leaders who are inappropriate in those positions that they they will be so far away from emunah, it's not that they'll be working towards towards emunah, towards רחמים, and there's something that's there that makes them not appropriate, some sort of a self-interest, but that they're trying to introduce כפירה, אפיקורסות, they're the opposite of emunah, so then they're going to drive a wedge between emunah and מלכות where the emunah won't be, so to speak, in a position of protecting of protecting the association with מלכות. These people are trying to hijack that. Now let's see, again a little bit abstract, but hopefully it's going to become more clear as we go forward.

Now we're going to talk about when the Jews are subject to the to the to to the מלכות of the the other nations. That's not even Jewish leaders that are that are purporting to attach us to the תכלית, to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, but this is leaders from without. ובאמת, paragraph ה. ובאמת מלכי העכו״ם, אף על פי שמלכם עלינו, even though they are in a position where they are ruling over כלל ישראל, אין במלכותם מבחינת מלכות ישראל. The quality of their leadership is not ישראלידיק. The the it's not that they are leading Klal Yisrael in a way that relates to the תועלת, to the purpose of a leader of Klal Yisrael. The it's it's coming from a different place entirely, because there's the ruchniyut and then there's the gashmiyut.

The true leader is really attaching himself to the ruchniyut, to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, to the תועלת, and then that translates into the practical leadership. The מלכי אומות העולם, when we when we mamash have leaders that are that are we're in galut and we're subject to the leadership, they're not even coming at it from ruchniyut, from a ruchniyut place. It's not that they're trying to attach themselves at the top of the chain that what's generating the entire unfolding of the world and trying to lead it back to its shoresh, to where it's supposed to be. They have their own gain, whether it's monetary, whether it's power, whether it's control, whatever the reasons that the מלכי אומות העולם want to lead the Jewish people, it's attaching itself at a lower point in that chain.

ולא נגעו בה, and therefore they're not really they're not going to be able to be masig, they're not going to attain, they're not really injecting themselves into the תועלת of the world, into trying to lead כלל ישראל towards Hakadosh Baruch Hu, but just in a distorted way. No, what they want is really just in the gashmiyusdike world, they want to have that power of control. So the when we said that emunah, emunah built on emes, is going to is going to send the inappropriate leaders to undermine their position, that's because the inappropriate leaders are coming to lead כלל ישראל towards their ruchniyus, but they're doing it in a distorted way. Comes emunah, comes the attachment to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, that's going to undermine that.

The the the goyishe kings are not coming to try to attack attack כלל ישראל from their ruchniyus point. We'll get to where they are in a second, where they're trying to pass gezeiros against כלל ישראל's ruchniyus. They just want the power, and therefore the emunah won't won't protect won't protect its territory, and at least for a certain amount of time, then the Jews are going to be in galus, and they will be subject to the outside rule. However, כי מי שרוצה להתגבר, when you have the מלכי אומות העולם that are trying to be shalit on כלל ישראל's ruchniyus, they are trying to pass gezeiros and try to get the the Jews to to to undermine the Jews' attachment to Hakadosh Baruch Hu from a religious perspective, זה וזה לא נתקיים בידם.

We see that those rulers, not only will they not have shlitah, they won't have rulership over כלל ישראל, The truth is is that their entire malchus, their monarch is going to end up crumbling, both in terms of the of being over the Jews, and in what they're trying to do, their plans will be undermined in terms of the ruchniyus, but also in terms of the gashmiyus they'll actually lose their power. היינו אפילו מלכותם על האומות העולם נטלה מהם, their entire, their entire kingship will be taken away from them, כי אמונה שסביב מלכותינו, because the emunah

that's ultimately protecting this quality of malchus within the world that is there to to govern the Jews, to bring a giluy of כבוד מלכותו יתברך in in terms of how Hakadosh Baruch Hu is dealing with the Jews, מפלת חכמתם, at that point it's going to come and it will takeh undermine the chachmah, the wisdom that these goyishe kings are relying on, שמלכותם תלוי בהם. And really we're going to see that there's there's two ways, one of them we mentioned, the way that this quality, this spiritual quality can undermine a a king's position is either to turn that he's going to disregard, to hate, to have a sinah for the chachamim rather than an ahavah for them, the other way is to somehow inject some sort of a foolish etzah into the chachamim.

Now, very interesting, Rav Chaim Kramer has a beautiful note over here in the English Likutei Moharan. He relates this to the Gemara in סוטה that HaKadosh Baruch Hu appointed the נחש as a ruler over the animals in creation, to some degree the נחש seemed to have a role almost similar, almost like a a quasi a similar role to to to humanity within creation over over the animals. The the נחש, as long as it would have been subservient to people, it would have been in some sort of a position of quasi authority.

However, it seems, again based on חז״ל, these are very hard, but at least we can try to understand this pnimiyut that really shows up in all areas of the Torah, and if a person is sensitive to it, we have our leaders, we have the tzadikim, it will explain really what's going on in the world in terms of current events, and it will in a in a holistic way, and also in a specific way in our lives, and that's what what helps to illuminate where our areas of avodah lie. So over here he explains that the נחש, we know the midrashim, the מאמרי חז״ל that the נחש wanted to replace אדם, he wanted to take חוה for himself, and he relates this idea that really the נחש should have been the king of the animals.

He should have, he should have been the the king of the animals, but when he tried to attach himself within within the the relationship between אדם and חוה, I'll just read this note, it says, "In our text, this relates to the nations seeking control over the Jews by suffusing them with their own atheistic and heretical ideas." We already explained in one of the earlier torot, I have to look back which one, that the zivug between חוה and the נחש represented that the Torah is called תרי״ג עיטין, 613 pieces of advice, that this the atheist, the

the heretical ideas, that was by חוה when she took the etzah from the נחש, and he says that the נחש corresponds to these to these כפירה'דיק ideas, he brings a note to reference, we'll get there be'ezrat Hashem, תורה ל״ה. And he says that the the נחש's plan to take חוה for himself, which was to implant this כפירה, but then what happened was not only did the נחש fail to separate חוה from אדם, but lost his rulership over the animal kingdom as well, whatever position, a point of leadership that he would have had, and therefore lost everything. So once once the נחש, once these these forces kind of didn't stay in their lane, so then the the barriers were breached and they they ended up losing everything.

And he continues, he says that Rav Natan writes, סוף מעשה במחשבה תחילה, that to the extent the tachlit existed even before the creation of this world, to the extent that a person directs all of his efforts, all of his focus, his ambitions to achieve that initial tachlit, and yes, it's hard for us to relate to, so we have the Torah, we have the נביאים, we have the tzadikim, which is what we're talking about, then a person is living almost in this dual existence. He lives a purpose that's in the world, like we said before, but not of the world.

He's using the the the tools at his disposal within creation, within the finite world, to achieve something that's that that's of infinite properties, that HaKadosh Baruch Hu gave us this opportunity, and therefore he's not going to live בספקות. Even where something within this world doesn't seem to make sense, that's not going to stir the person. I saw, HaGaon Rav Gamliel Rabinowitz has a Sefer Tiv HaParashah, he has many many many sefarim, but he was talking in this week's parashah, by Avraham Avinu after the Akeidah, that Avraham Avinu was going to be zocheh to to brachot, and he brings all the pesukim of brachah, and at that point, game over. He won the game.

Akeidat Yitzchak was the was the last of the ten nisyonot for Avraham Avinu, and therefore, and therefore everything should have been going going easy at that point. That's what he would think. And yet he came back and then Sarah Imeinu was נפטרה, and then he had to deal with people on a very low level, Ephron. Ephron and the the the people in order to in in order to get Me'arat HaMachpelah, and then he had to overpay for it, and one thing after another seemed to be going not right. Now, a person who is living outside the world, so the things that he's dealing with sometimes within his field of vision don't seem to to fit in.

And therefore, even if a person's able to solidify his himself, he's able to dig in and say, "I'm going to do what I have to do no matter what," but the truth is there's something gnawing at him. He's still waiting, "When am I When am I going to see how things fit together? This, you know, it doesn't seem right." And there might be, whether it's articulated or whether it's just buried deep within him, something that seems that, you know, that that that he or she was wronged. Says Rav Gamliel Rabinowitz, this is part of the nisayon.

When a person is living as a בן עולם הבא, when a person is living outside of the world, they are able to understand in a very real way that they don't have the perspective, that to the extent that they're attaching themselves to a to a cause and to an ambition, to a tachlit that's greater than any of the pieces in this world, that's that's part of the nisayon, understanding that when they passed the nisayon it was because they were living greater than The whole sum is greater than the sum of its parts.

They were living in something that was greater than as a human being they could possibly accomplish, they were attaching themselves to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and even when they pass, and now they say, "Okay, so now HaKadosh Baruch Hu is going to allow me to have the the field of vision within this world to appreciate what I've what I've done," they're not going to be able to have that either, at least not right away. However, when a person doesn't he's not a בן עולם הבא, he's not attaching himself to the tzadik where the tree is rooted

in taharah, even if the branches are are are leaning over into this world, where a person is governed by this worldly considerations, whether it's דרכי אמורי, things that are superstitions, things that within the world seem to have be really the cause and the effect, it's true, God is the most powerful, maybe He doesn't get involved, whatever chas v'shalom, whatever a person thinks that they're governed by this worldly considerations, so at that point, they're governed by the reality of this world, and it's things could become very confusing, because at this level, not everything seems to jibe, not everything seems to make sense.

And he actually explains that this is this was really an aspect of the nisayon from the נחש also, that the the נחש was trying to convince man to have a תפיסה on chochmah, the idea that that Adam would be able to have a this-worldly He would He would eat from the עץ החיים עץ הדעת rather, which was attractive as a means to gain intelligence, he's quoting from the pesukim, and this way, what the נחש sought to do was give this for for for Adam who is, in a certain way, rooted much higher than everything else

in creation, to be able to own that piece of chachmah, to relate within him toward what he wants the tachlit to be, to understand more of the to'elet, that was very attractive than to constantly as high as adam could go, to be able to have to have hitbatlut to something greater than himself that he would never be able to understand. But in doing so, adam would be detaching himself from the true tachlit, from the true anchor that's that's anchored much deeper than than an adam within this world would be able to reach.

Lema'aseh, the only way that we can attach ourselves to that to'elet, like we talked about the tzadik, is to have total hitbatlut and to be able to totally put our own perception, our own senses, our almost humanity aside, but we will be able to relate to in some way. And he continues on, וזה שכתוב במפלת מצרים, a pasuk in Yeshayah: נואלו שרי צוען, that those the the ministers, those who were giving advice to Paro became foolish, על ידי אולת, היינו נפילת חכמתם, נפלה מלכותם. So again, this is another element. One way we discussed the chachmah being undermined was through a sin'ah for the chachamim, that the melech would hate the chachamim. Another way is that the chachamim themselves will become foolish.

וזהו שאמרו חנניה, מישאל ועזריה לנבוכדנצר, and this is what Chananya, Mishal ve-Azaryah, who were at a time they were at a time that Nevuchadnetzar, the king of Bavel, conquered Yerushalayim, and he was advised by his counselors to issue a decree that everyone would have to worship the idol that he had built, and anybody who refused would be thrown into a furnace. And Chananya, Mishal ve-Azaryah were leaders of the of the Jewish people in galut, but they were also forced to serve as advisors in Nevuchadnetzar's court.

They refused to bow down to this idol, they refused to commit idolatry, and therefore Nevuchadnetzar, who was furious that members of his own court were disobeying him, he demanded an explanation, and these pesukim are in Daniel, but based on the Midrash, Chananya, Mishal ve-Azaryah told him, "If you want to be the ruler as far as practical practical leadership, you're taking taxes, you know, you have us under your thumb, that's one thing. But if you think that you're actually going to be our leader at our core, if you think that you're going to be in control of our spirituality, then you are sorely mistaken.

Sometimes you'll see they have printed these like letters, these accounts of people that died al kiddush Hashem, and you know, statements I've seen along the lines of you can take you can take my possessions, you can take my family, and even take my life, and things that it's hard to relate to, but I'm just quoting the words, otherwise it's too much, and say, "But but my emunah you can't take from me." At the end of the day, I'm I'm rooted outside of this world, everything that I have in this world can be taken away, but my attachment to HaKadosh Baruch Hu will not be severed. And that's what they that's what they said, את מלכא עלינו לכרגא, כרגא is a head tax, אבל להנהגותינו בעבודותינו באמונותינו, את וכלבא שוה.

If you think that you are going to relate to us on the level of our avodah, on the level of our emunah, then as far as being a ruler, you're no more of a ruler than a dog is a ruler. This is based on the Midrash, Vayikra Rabbah, Bamidbar Rabbah, Shir HaShirim Rabbah, it's coming from מדרש, היינו שאמרו שלא יגע במלכות ישראל שייך לאמונתינו. As far as having any impact, any rulership on where Klal Yisrael fits into the briyah vis-a-vis HaKadosh Baruch Hu's tachlit, if you think that you're going to undermine our relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu and avodah, so then there's no difference between you and a dog as far as who the leader is. אם לא שתתקף יד המינות.

Now, so now, however, lemaseh we do see we do see if you look through the dorot that there were goyishe leaders, there were אומות העולם that were in positions of leadership, and lemaseh they did impact Klal Yisrael's avodah. So how did that happen? אם לא שתתקף יד המינות על האמונה עד שמפיל את עמודה to the point that יד המינות, that the kefirah, that the forces of apikorsut worked their way in so much that it severed that there was a barrier between emunah and malchut, we see one of our avodot, certainly ikveta demeshicha at the end of days, in order to get back the real malchut, to have the temporary malchut that's rooted in the sitra achra fall, that our avodah is to work on emunah, tefillah, right?

That we'll see really in the next paragraph we're going to talk about Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa and tefillah, we had in earlier torot that emunah and tefillah and nissim, I think in in Torah in Torah ז' and Eretz Yisrael are are all are all within the same the same bechinah and the same idea. But over here he says once the יד המינות, the יד הכפירה works its way in, so then it drives a wedge between emunah and malchut, and this emunah that was that serves to protect malchut from falling into the wrong hands, אז יוכל לקבל מלכותינו חס ושלום מבחינת וזרק חלא נח, אז כנ״ל.

This relates to the part in the story that זרק חלא, that the vinegar, the apikorsut was thrown at the barsha, the brosh like Mordechai that represented emunah, and then the emunah swam away for for at least the time being, כנ״ל. And we see, by the way, I heard from from Rav Maimon, there's a very sometimes it's not even clear, it's it could be very subtle. Two two things are not very far apart. At the point of the fork in the road, it's very very subtle, the difference between one and the other. And some of the examples: מינות and אמונה, one letter apart, the א. מת and אמת, one letter apart.

As we say, "שמע ישראל ה' אלקינו ה' אחד" - אחד and אחר, the difference between a ד written and a ר and a ד is very it's just one little one little spot of ink on the edge of the on the edge of the ד, that's the difference. The the subtle difference between where something could be towards אמונה, towards אמת, and the difference where it can be going אלוקים אחרים is could be very subtle. Certainly when it comes to the leadership in the אומות העולם, it's clear that they have their own prerogative, but even when

sometimes we have rulers that come, they want to be in positions and they purport to be of אמונה and רחמנות and the right ones, and really there's something within them that's really selfish, it's self-centered, גאוה, כעס, עבודה זרה, but it's towards their own, they want the כבוד, so that really becomes a distortion. And to the extent that it's not sincere, so then, like we said before, something that's 99% true is 100% false. The the broken telephone is a dangerous game.

Once once the תועלת from חכמה is not preserved all the way through this world towards the גילוי within מלכות, so then we're not going to reach our תועלת, and it has to be the אמונה has to protect that מלכות and set aside those leaders to undermine their position of leadership so that so that we we can get where we're supposed to be. Ultimately ultimately, when we think we're on the right path, it can be very dangerous if we're not on the right path because we won't even be looking towards תשובה.

Okay, we are going actually to stop over here and then b'ezrat Hashem I'm hoping that next time we will be able to complete to complete this