LM 18.4 — R' Yonasan Mishtaei, Part 4 of 4 · תורה י״ח

Shalom u'vracha, I'm going to skip the introduction right now because I'm actually recording this at the same time as the last shiur, I just split up the recordings. And therefore we're jumping right into paragraph ז. If you need a little bit of just an introduction, then we recorded something at the beginning of last time. ותכלית נקרא תכלת. This idea of תכלית, Olam Haba, we discussed this in the context of the י. Now we're going to focus more on this idea of why techelet represents this, not only because of the same letters, not only because techelet is similar to the ים, to the to the רקיע, to כסא הכבוד, but rather because everything in the בריאה, it's עולם בהדרא כחדא דאיהו.

And the more that you are able to dig into the way that the בריאה works, the more that you're going to literally see in ruchniyut and gashmiyut the entire world is a reflection of רצון השם. כי התכלת מעורב שחור עם לבן. What is techelet? Techelet is a mixture of black and white. You know, we think of techelet as maybe a deep blue or indigo, but we are referring to techelet as as a mixture of of black and then with some white mixed in. The Tikkunei Zohar says that techelet is לבושא דאות י. And really, this is really bringing out what would we think if we saw this Tikkunei Zohar, any of us?

We don't know what we're talking about, we would see this and say techelet is a מלבוש of the letter י, דאיהו תכלית כלא? What does that even mean? Well, that fits perfectly into the way that Rabbeinu is opening our eyes into literally seeing meaning in something that's an incredibly that's an incredibly kabbalistic concept, the way that we the way that we have just explained this: that the י is essentially the chochmah, the original spark of an idea represented from Hakadosh Baruch Hu before He executes, you know, that idea into something that's למעשה'דיק in the world.

And it's something that if we had direct exposure to, if you look directly at the sun, you would burn up, a person would become blinded by it with no with no way for us to relate to something in the middle. Right? The Gemara says, it's where Chazal say that the same at the end of days the sun will be brought out, the same sun that's able to heal the tzadikim is going to harm the reshaim. It's the same sun, it's a question of whether you have the the the כלי to be מקבל. This idea of of the of the לבן or the לבן העליון that we're going to see, this idea of chochmah is something that we really can't relate to. What's a מלבוש?

A מלבוש is something that if a person's wearing a jacket, you don't say I'm seeing a person in a jacket, I'm relating to the person through the clothing through the clothing that he's wearing. And even more so, sometimes the clothing give me an understanding of who I'm relating to. When you see a person wearing בגדי מלכות, so I understand that he's the מלכות through the clothing that he's wearing. It's not that the power comes from the clothing, the clothing become an expression that me, from the point of view of the observer, is able to relate to. And therefore the techelet is something that puts together the שחור, the שחרות, the blackness, it's something that's the lowest level, that's the למעשה, that's the מלכות.

And the לבן העליון, that's the חכמה, that's represented by the י. When a person sees the תכלת, that's where they see this expression of the מלבוש of the י, of the entire סוף מעשה במחשבה תחלה, of the entire רצון השם lined up in a way that we can live, that we can relate to. שחור עם לבן, והוא גוון, this is the ממוצע שבין שחור ולבן. This this expression of it is the mixture of where it comes together, the white and the black, the the י and the אותיות that's משלים the אותיות, like this is really relating to the last shiur. וכשנתחבר שחור ולבן, when they come together כמו כתב שבבחינת שחור על גבי לבן. What's כתב?

If you're writing with black ink on white parchment, if you're writing with black ink on white parchment, בוודאי תחתית האות הדבוק והקרוב אל הנייר שהוא לבן, במקום הדיבוק והקירוב שם מעורב שחור עם לבן בבחינת תכלת. Which part of the letter, if you would take a letter, the letter is sticking up, it's a little bit raised parchment is thick from the parchment, if you would cut that letter horizontally in half, the Sefer Torah would still would would still be kosher, right? In other words, which part of the letter is the עיקר part of the letter? It's that part that's really resting on the parchment itself.

Now by the way, the parchment really absorbs a little bit of the ink, so at that literal that literal level there's going to be a עירוב, a mixture of the black and the white where it like absorbs in the ink, and that's it doesn't happen right away, that's the סוף. The סוף of where the of where the letters come out is going to be in the that point of התחברות where the letters become manifest, the ink becomes manifest as letters on the parchment. That happens where there's an עירוב of the black and the white, the point where the where there is a mixture, that's the תכלת, where the the color it's a little bit of a mixture by the black and the white. וזה תחתית האות הוא סוף התכלת.

The underside of the letter, that's the סוף and the תכלת. כי כשהסופר כותב ומעמיד הכ... קנה והעט עם הדיו על הנייר, when the sofer, the scribe touches the the ink to the parchment, בוודאי הדיו רחוק מן הנייר מעט. It does not it's not yet soaked in, it's sort of just sitting on the top. Each one is defined to itself, עד שהסופר מעמיק העט עם הדיו בתוך עומק הנייר, until he pushes the pen down a little bit, then it takes hold, ואז נדבק שחרות הדיו בעומק בקירוב גדול, and that's where it forms an attachment, that the black and the white come together, and that results in תכלת. נמצא שהקירוב הוא סוף ותכלית. This התחברות, this closeness, this coming together is the סוף, this is the תכלית.

This is the underside of the letter, this is the end of it, but that's where the money's at. That's where ultimately the expression of what the the potential of the ink, the כח אל הפועל, is found. ובמקום הקירוב, and all of this, this place of this attachment, this coming together, שם הנייר והדיו מעורבים בבחינת תכלת כנ״ל. This is where this is where the the the white and the black find expression in techelet. כי כן הדבר שהתכלית שהוא סוף המעשה, because this is how it is, that the tachlit, which really is the סוף המעשה.

The tachlit, I I think that I want to buy a house, or I want to build a house, I need a place to live, really on a much higher level, it's much more abstract, it's much more in a certain way, or in the computer code, right? In a certain way that's a much more important, you know, much more powerful. What's more powerful? The power of the brain or the power of the fingernail? But where does it find expression? In the סוף, in the סוף מעשה. הוא במחשבה תחילה. The computer code finds expression on the screen, and the the what's going on in the brain finds expression in the in the fingernail, and this ratzon to build a house finds expression in the bricks and the mortar. הוא במחשבה תחילה וקרוב למחשבה כנ״ל.

All of that is really קרוב all of that is really קרוב למחשבה. And that's where, see once it lines up, that's where the whole middle of the process falls away. Right? Once like we said before, I want a house, I build a house. At once that happens, I will never think about the fact that there was pipes and plumbing and electricity, I'll never think about that again. I only think about that during the middle of the process because that's how you get it done.

Once I line up the beginning and the end of the process, the significance of the middle part is it's no longer necessary for the process, and that's where all the other priorities, the goyim, everything else, everything else which was only there because the process was necessary to bring us to the end, because הקדוש ברוך הוא, חק הטוב והמטיב, wanted to give us and wanted to give us an even greater, an even greater understanding. This happens this happens through the the the techelet. We had a certain perception of HaKadosh Baruch Hu, it was totally light as it was. In other words, there was no ra. We before we came down to the world, we saw HaKadosh Baruch Hu directly, but we could have a clearer perception of HaKadosh Baruch Hu.

How is it that you can increase the light through the contrast through darkness? By coming down by coming down to this world and living temporarily in in a position of nisayon and of competing priorities, we were able to push through that and say, not not just are you telling me something that that makes sense, but when you put the the the darkness there and then all of a sudden I'm able to see the the falsehood in everything else and then have a greater appreciation for the truth itself, חותמו של הקדוש ברוך הוא אמת. It's hard to talk about. We use analogies because to talk about it directly is you know we don't we don't have the words, we don't have the thought process to do it.

Once HaKadosh Baruch Hu creates a contrast of all these things that present themselves as true, and I'm able to say that no, HaKadosh Baruch Hu is the only אמת, Torah is responsible for everything, now we're going to go back into that state where there's no more ra, and we're going to have a greater a greater appreciation, a greater exposure to the emet through through this challenge. This this process of that completion is represented in the techelet, and and and this is what gives us a greater appreciation for the white. In tzitzit also, I'm speaking a little bit from this note from from what Rabbi Atiah that Rabbi Atiah brings.

This idea, it says by tzitzit also that that when is the time even to say שמע, ייחוד השם, when you can distinguish between תכלת ללבן, right? In other words, when a person The techelet is what gives us the appreciation for the לבן. Every one of these concepts could be unfolded into an entire talk. Comes רבי נתן, נראה לעניות דעתי לפרש, כי סוף מעשה, the סוף מעשה, this tachlit, this this עולם הבא, הוא בחינת שחרות. Sorry, again, כי סוף המעשה, the מעשה'דיק level, הוא בחינת שחרות, ותחילת המחשבה הוא בחינת לבן עליון. We We I just worked this explanation a little bit into what we were talking about. כידוע, נמצא שסוף מעשה שהוא התכלית, הוא במחשבה תחילה וקרוב למחשבה, הוא בחינת תכלת, שהוא חיבור שחור ולבן, והבן.

So he he explains, I I read a little bit, I saw that piece already, and therefore he learns that into what we've been talking about, that when when this white and dark comes together as manifest by the techelet, this is where we have this idea of סוף מעשה במחשבה תחילה. Last piece, paragraph. Paragraph ח'. So, where do we see וזה, this idea, this idea that Hakadosh Baruch Hu, that it comes from Shamayim, prevents the people that do not belong in a position of מלכות, of מלכות having the מלכות, right, this is coming back to how we really introduced paragraph ו' today, that those who are not ראוי for מלכות wrongfully insert themselves into this position.

דווקא בת קול, it's דווקא through this בת קול, which is literally an echo, but it's not a נבואה, it's a voice coming from from Shamayim, but this idea of a בת קול is what introduces introduces this this element, this the the this בת קול that said, "What do you have to do with the wife of Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa?", which is referring to complete and perfected speech of מלכות, which which the undeserving leaders are are trying to take. Why is this coming from a בת קול? שיצא, כי בחינת בת קול התכלית של כל דברים. A בת קול actually represents this idea of the תכלית of everything, היינו, שמהפך כל דבר מראשו לסופו שהוא התכלית. What's תכלית?

When the the everything is reversed back to its original intention, right, in other words, the original חכמה, then it comes down, it seems like everything is backwards, it does does not to to the uninitiated it does not seem that everything is בכל דרכיך דעהו, that we're not able to see God through everything, and what we need to do is rearrange all of these things that seem to have their own competing ideas and put them back into the structure of understanding that there's expression of רצון השם, and specifically in in order that they only exist as the resistance for us to see that. בבחינת איזהו חכם הרואה את הנולד, the חכם is one who is able to see what's going to be, to see the consequences, שהוא הסוף והתכלית.

The idea of סוף מעשה במחשבה תחילה, the idea that a חכם is the one who has the חכמה is the original מחשבה, but the חכמה is רואה את הנולד, the one who is able to see that through to the תכלית to understand that's a complete system, to have an idea that's not practical or something that's not able to manifest or something that's going to, you know, going to going to end up as part of some sort of a a result that's not going to be reflective of the original חכמה, so that's not that's not בעצם חכמה as part of the system. כי בת קול הוא מה ששומעין כשאחד מוציא קול ביער. What's a בת קול? What's this echo, as it were?

Somebody who says something in a forest, או במקום אחר, אז שומע כאילו אחר גם כן מוציא קול כזה, so it sounds like somebody else like is somebody else is bouncing his voice back at him, says the same thing. וזה אנו שומעין בחושינו, כשאדם מוציא איזהו דיבור, אז אנו שומעין גם כן הדיבור בעצמו. Somebody says something, and we hear that same something said again. נמצא שהבת קול מהפך את הדיבור מראשו לסופו, ומקרב סופו לעצמו. So it comes out that the בת קול changes around the word. Now, I don't know how it works in terms of the physics of it and we're going to leave it aside, but in terms of the perception, in terms of what we're trying the message that we're trying to learn, that that's what's that's what's important to us.

So what we're going to say is if I if if I say something, so I say the word ברוך, so how does it come out of my mouth? First the ב' rolls out, if you think about a bunch of items, right, in other words, first I send the ב', think about like a lot of balls that I'm rolling out, so first the ב' rolls out, then the ר', then the ו' sound, then the ך' sound. So as I relate to it, which one is closest to me? The ך' sound.

When the echo bounces that word ברוך back, so it doesn't just send it back to me with the ך' being closer, it reverses it back, it's as if you know think about like if it was bouncing off a wall and then reversing back, so that when I hear it, I hear the ב' first again. So when I said the ב', I said the word ברוך, again, it's a little bit of a visual, but you know, this this is this is the message that we're bringing out of it. When I said the word ברוך, it left my mouth so that so that the the sound the end of the word was really the sound closest to me.

And when the בת קול bounced it back at me, it ended up being that the first word that left my mouth ends up being bouncing back at me first, and then the end the the end of the word, which is now as it were think about like closest to the בת קול, that ך', is is the farthest away from me. It comes out that what happens at the end of the process, through getting reversed back, ends up being reflective of what was there at the beginning of the process itself. Now we're going to see it inside.

למשל, כשאדם מוציא דיבור של ברוך, בוודאי יצא אות ב' בראשונה, ונתרחק מן האדם, the ב' is the farthest away from me, ואחר כך מוציא אות ר' של ברוך, ואז הר' קרוב אל המוציא מן הב', וכן הכ' שמוציא באחרונה הוא קרוב לאדם יותר מהריש, והבת קול לקחה זאת התיבה ברוך, and the way that we just we just spoke it out, and then when this בת קול takes this word ברוך, it reverses it back, ומהפכת אותה מראש לסופה, it turns it back, so that really the כ is going to be is which now is as it were in the beginning of the word, because that's what closest to the speaker in a certain sense, it's going to turn back around to be at the end, ומהפכת אותה כדי שתהיה קרוב לאדם יותר מהריש והריש מהכ.

נמצא, so what message are we trying to take out of this idea represented by the בת קול? נמצא שהכ' שהיא סוף ותכלית של תיבה, the כ, which is really the תכלית, meaning the end, the word comes to a state of completion, "ברו" doesn't mean anything, "ברוך" is what gives the ב its meaning. The the תכלית of the word, the word reaches its completion, its state of meaning as a word, once you get to the last dot, like we said, the last י, סוף מעשה במחשבה תחילה, the ב becomes meaningful as a ב as part of

the letter once you get to the end, ותכלית של התיבה שהייתה רחוק מתחילה של הבת קול בתכלית הריחוק, that really when it came out of the בת קול, so really the כ was farthest away from the בת קול, it was closest to the speaker, when it turns the word back around, so then the כ becomes last again. עכשיו היא קרובה בתכלית הקירוב to the בת קול. Okay, again, I I don't know exactly the physics of how it works, but we can understand the messaging that he's giving and why it was in the context of an echo of something that's bouncing back, that we wanted to bring that the beginning of the system and the end align. כי כן אנו שומעים שהבת קול מוציא תיבת ברוך, בתחילה ב', ואחר כך ר', ואחר כך כ'.

נמצא שהכ' היא התכלית, the כ, that's the end of the letter that brings the word into a state of meaning and completion, שהייתה מתחילה בתכלית הריחוק של הבת קול. Really what reached the בת קול first, so to speak, was the ב that came out of the person's mouth first. עכשיו נתקרב בתכלית הקירוב, כי הבת קול הפך את התיבה, it comes out that the כ is the closest to the בת קול. Okay, so we see this idea as represented by the idea of בת קול that we've been talking about for a while.

וזה שנפקא בת קול, בת קול דווקא, ידיעה זו, this idea that the sound that was that was identifying this idea that the מלכות belonged in the in in by the צדיקים, who are the ones who relate most directly to the תועלת of the system, בת קול דווקא ידיעה זו is the one that really said this, right? That really is able, even the מלכות that wrongfully ended up by these inappropriate people who were able to drive a wedge with אמונה, but ultimately this בת קול comes out and puts the מלכות back where it belongs. מאי אית לכו בהאי מאי מאי אית לכו בהדא קרטליסא, what are you doing with this with this box, with this gem-studded box with the מלכות?

דאיתתא דרבי חנינא בן דוסא, it belongs to the wife of Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa, to those who relate to the אותיות in a in a context of שלמות, of תכלית, of of putting the י into completing the צורה of the final אות, of סוף מעשה במחשבה תחילה, דעתידה לשדיא בה תכלתא לצדיקי לעלמא דאתי, she's the one who's saving the תכלת for those צדיקים לעתיד לבוא. עד כאן לשון רבינו. Wow. Okay, so we are just going to we'll sum up just in a very brief way in a second, but let's just finish reading these words: סיום

המשתעי, the the the סיום of these מימראs of of משתעי, רבי יונתן משתעי, the last few תורות, דהיינו רב יהודה הינדואה משתעי ושאר מאמרים כאלה, we started off the first 15 תורות were the Rabbah bar bar Chana, then we had three more that were in terms of a certain תנא or אמורא who is משתעי, who was saying, there was a few more that we're not going to address right now, המובאים שם בבבא בתרא אחר מאמרי רבה בר בר חנה, שאינם אמרו ליהונתן בר נתן ומעשה דרבי אלעזר ורבי יהושע, הכל יבוא אי״ה בספר ליקוטי תניינא בסימן ד' וה' וז'. לכו נרננה שם תמצא מרגוע לנפשך. You'll find a pleasure, a refreshing for your for your nefesh.

So there's a few more of these stories that are part of the fantastic stories in the Gemara that are going to be addressed by Rabbeinu. These will be found later. They were going to transition into the next set over here. עד הנה עזרונו רחמיך לסיים מאמרי משתעי. ברוך השם, הקדוש ברוך הוא helped us to finish these מאמרים אשר הסתירו בהם גנזי דמלכא, that we we that were hidden, the secrets of הקדוש ברוך הוא, of the King, כולהו תנאי וכולהו אמוראי, all the from all the תנאים and אמוראים, כען אתיצו come listen, למלי דנפקין בהדראתא to

the come listen to the words that are going to be presented with beauty, שפר עלי לחוייא באפי מלכותא, the words that are that are worthy of being said by by kings, בחכמתיה יגלא לכון קצת לידיעותא, with chochmah the Rabbi Nachman is going to reveal to us some some of the ideas, גדלות of גדלות הבורא גניזין עילאין, of these tremendously hidden thing otherwise hidden things, secrets of גדלות הקדוש ברוך הוא, הצפונים ספרא דצניעותא, which are hidden otherwise in this portion of the Zohar, of Sifra d'Tzniuta.

I see, and somehow I come and wonder די עבדי מנא עלאה קדישא שמיא לגלאה לנא עיטין דאורייתא, that the unbelievable things, that the עצות, the advice of the Torah that הקדוש ברוך הוא gave us בדרך נפלא ונורא השוה לכל נפש, in ways that we can comprehend, לזכות, לקרב על ידם לבורא הכל, in a way that we are able to get closer through this advice to הקדוש ברוך הוא, למעבד ליה רעותא, to the one who who created everything in order to give הקדוש ברוך הוא נחת רוח. בריך שמיה לעלם מכל ברכתא ושירתא.

Now, the just as a parting point of this, so again, we, you know, we really hammered home, I think we summed up really this the ideas in the last in the last portion of the of of the shiur, certainly as a practical point, the idea of understanding that everything is within the system of תועלת, even though we can't relate to it, the idea in order to bring us closer to הקדוש ברוך הוא, to the tzaddikim that will be able to inject into the world and into leadership positions ways that we can ultimately relate to the

תועלת, and and and bring the system into into a into a שלמות, and connect the the the beginning and the end, so that the the world is really going towards towards its tachlit and תועלת, and the most immediate thing that we can do is to work on any situation that would bring part that would bring along a reaction of anger, to be able to train ourself not to suppress the anger, but to introduce rachmanut into the anger. The reason that this person is acting this way is because he's in a very difficult position.

To replace one emotion with another, and to be able to come away from anger, which is really, you know, out of all תאוות, perhaps we can say, other things, I know that I want to do the right thing, I know what I'm doing is wrong, but I can't escape a certain תאוה. True anger is is where my my intellect totally takes a back seat. It's it's a total emotional reaction when things don't go my way. It's not a sadness, it's an anger, it's an explosive reaction in a way that my sechel, if I had my wits about me, I wouldn't act that way and it could become totally destructive. Even, you know, every middah has its positive elements.

One could say that even the positive way to deal with anger, which is to show anger, to show that type of reaction when it's for a purpose, or even if you say that something that my sechel does want me to do, but I wouldn't emotionally be prepared to do, it can inject some adrenaline into me when things are going, you know, people are let's say acting in inappropriate ways against הקדוש ברוך הוא to allow me to do what my sechel does want to do. But the idea of literally putting one's sechel aside to become destructive really has no place, and to work on that is is a way that we can bring about to to really bring the world into a better place.

Now, just as a one last note, if that's not like enough, רבי, Rav Chaim Kramer in his note at the end does mention that even though the Torah over here really only makes a passing reference to to the Yom Tov of Purim, the Mi Nachal points out that there are actually a lot of connections between this Torah and the Purim story. That in the time of Esther, of Mordechai and Esther, the Jews were worshiping עבודה זרה, and where there's עבודה זרה, there's anger and concealment, and came Haman, who was going to a position of leadership

by spreading literally מינות and אפיקורסות, and he was able in the short term to take the מלכות, but then Mordechai, who was really, like we said, the ראש and the personification of יהודי, of emunah, of faith, which protects the מלכות from falling into into the wrong hands. So, he's ultimately Haman came to despise the the wise men, specifically Mordechai himself, who and ultimately Haman did did have have a downfall, and Mordechai's ascent to leadership was appeasing the king's anger, and he was able to turn anger into mercy, saving the Jews from destruction, and as a result, he went from the king's palace wearing wearing a clothing of of תכלת.

So so there's there's a lot going on over here, but Baruch Hashem, looking very much forward going into the next section, the third section now of the some of the Torot that are going to be some of the pieces from Sifra DeTzniuta. Looking forward Be'ezrat Hashem.