LM 20.3 — Tisha Tikunin, Part 3 of 6 · תורה כ׳

We are in Torah כ״ף, we are going into paragraph ה׳. Let's take stock of where we were holding, and then be'ezrat Hashem we are going to get lit up. Paragraph א׳ we started saying that there is a neshama in the world, that through this נשמה נתגלה ביאורי פירושי התורה, and we started to describe this neshama, this vehicle, this way that we are going to attach ourselves to bring down Torah to the world. This neshama called דבריה כגחלי אש, because in order to have or you had you need to have a keli. In order to have anything, if you would if you would put something that's too hot for the keli to handle, then the keli would melt, there would be no way to be mekabel.

The way to draw, to attach ourselves to Torah is you have to have a medium, you have to have a keli for that, something to draw it down. Therefore we have this neshama, and we explained that the תורה בעצם is emet. When the Torah is in the world, so then there's there's shalom, we're attaching ourselves to the ultimate truth, to רצון השם, to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. When this neshama is removed from us, we explained that, so then there's going to be מריבה על הצדיקים, there's going to be fights with the tzadikim. We have the best of intentions, but with where there's ambiguity created, there's safek that's created, there's a lack of clarity, this creates מריבה, this creates fights.

And the the portion of the Torah that we're talking now is when the Miriam, the באר מרים, the water that was coming from the סלע, the fact that after Miriam's פטירה, after Miriam was נפטרת, then there was then people came to Moshe with fights. And therefore in paragraph ב׳ we said, how are we able to draw down then ביאורי תורה? We said that דיבור נמשך, sorry, מי שרוצה להמשיך ביאורי תורה צריך מתחלה להמשיך לעצמו דיבורים חמים כגחלי אש. So we need to draw down these דיבורים כגחלי אש. The way to do that is צריך לשפוך שיחו בתפלה לפני השם יתברך.

We need to the way that we are able to draw things down from Hakadosh Baruch Hu is with an hisorerut, itaruta diletata, hisorerut from below, and the way that that's initiated is going to be through pouring out words in tefillah, pouring out words in prayer. And by pouring out these words, so then Hakadosh Baruch Hu's rachamim, through this תפלה נכמרו רחמי השם יתברך, the rachamim of Hakadosh Baruch Hu will be stirred, ונפתח לב העליון. We're using this as a term of art, so to speak, the לב העליון, this is where the water is going to come pouring out of. Through the לב העליון we're going to get the ביאורי, the פירושי תורה.

And this corresponds we said to the סלע, to the rock, and therefore through dibbur, through being able to pour out words in tefillah, we're going to get the words, we're going to get the words כגחלי אש from the לב עליון, and that's where we will have access to this Torah. In next, we said that that there's a difference therefore in this type of tefillah, because what happens is, is that the tzaddik, the one who is going to bring down these ביאורי פירושי תורה, he's going to initiate what's going to come down from the לב העליון through that tefillah.

And therefore there's a difference this person's bringing down Torah for to to be able to teach, to be able to bring that Torah for Klal Yisrael, so the it's going what comes down is going to correspond to the tefillah. And therefore we said that there's a difference when the person is learning by himself or whether or not he's learning, he's explaining to a group of people. Those people are coming to him, they're with him, they're included in that tefillah that he sends up. We explained that there's a difference in that tefillah: תפלת יחיד, תפלת רבים, right? We're going to see we're talking about תפלה בצבור. Tzibbur: צדיקים, בינונים, ורשעים.

We spoke a little bit about the idea of a קהלה in the context of Purim, י״ג זמן קהלה לכולי, מעשה מתן תורה was referred to as יום הקהל, so we talked a lot about that a little bit in the last shiur. So there's a difference in when there's a תפלת רבים, when people come to this tzaddik, this person, this talmid chacham who is going to draw down the פירושי ביאורי תורה from לב העליון, that that is going to be a different Torah that comes down based on the nature of that tefillah. And the nature of that tefillah is going to be different when people are coming to the tzaddik and they're נכלל, they're included in the לב העליון.

And in paragraph 4, we spoke from the point of view of these people, therefore there's also a difference in those who hear directly from the tzaddik, that they're there, they're included in the Torah, that the chelek in the Torah that comes down, and those who ultimately hear indirectly. Over here we weren't talking about hearing from a talmid, we actually referred to it specifically as learning from a sefer. But the reason we said again is twofold: number one, when the when the tefillah goes up, ואתה קדוש יושב תהלות ישראל, there's so to speak an increase in kedushah based on the the תהלות ישראל.

So when they're included in the in the tefillah, so therefore the Torah that comes down is going everybody it's going to resonate with anybody, there's going to be a chelek of everybody in this tefillah which is going to generate the Torah that comes down, that everybody's going to relate to, and therefore everybody is going to relate to this the the Torah, the emet, it's going to be ישר, that it's not going to be room for differences of opinion and kushiyot and sfeikot and other interpretations. And second of all, although it corresponds, as as people come to the tzadik, so then the what do you say? נכנע רשעם על ידי הטוב שבחכם הדור.

Yes, and the way that we described the last time is everybody's coming together ultimately for the same purpose, to get close to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, but on the other hand, every rasha has a certain has a or every person who has, we'll see, רע within them, so it's a different type of רע. My my ta'avah is not necessarily the same as your ta'avah, although we do explain that תאוות ניאוף we explained in the last Torah is the רע הכולל, it encompasses all the different ones, but nevertheless, when they come before the tzadik all for the same purpose, so the רע within each individual becomes נכנע, becomes subdued to the tzadik.

Therefore, the tefillah that goes up is from the from the from the collective kedushah, the collective tov that's within all of the people that come up. The רע is going to be subdued, and this is going to become a very powerful, inclusive tefillah that's going to that's going to bring down the Torah. Now I'm going to read a small portion actually from the Sefer Tomer Devorah, which I was going to really read later in the context of of the Torah, but I'm going to speak about it now, and then we'll just be able to reference it later. That way, hopefully, we'll be able to go a little bit more straight through.

In פרק ב׳ of Tomer Devorah, it speaks about מה הוא אף אתה, the way that we can be דבוק to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and it speaks about it in the context of the middot. So the first of these middot that it starts going through over here is keter, and he says, I'm going to read very quickly, but I think that the the the point will stick, and we're going to be talking about the idea of different of of embracing different roles at different times, which, on one hand, are different, they're they're opposite attitudes, but on the other hand, embracing the right attitude at the right time, which is ultimately consistent. So let's see what I mean over here.

ראוי להיות האדם דומה לקונו, a person should be similar to his Creator, בסוד מדת הכתר, at the at at fundamentally in the מדה כתר, which is the שורש of all the מדות, צריכים בו כמה גופי פעולות שהם עיקר הנהגה. There are a lot of aspects of this. We're going to talk about the first one, which actually includes both of the ideas that I'm talking about. הראשונה כוללת הכל היא מדת הענווה. The first the first idea that is כולל everything else is the מדת ענווה. מפני שהיא תלויה בכתר, what does this mean? שהרי היא מדה על כל המדות, כתר is the מדה that's above, in a certain sense, all of the מדות, ואינה מתעלית ומתגאה למעלה, אמנם יורדת ומסתכלת למטה תמיד מפני שני טעמים. Now we have to see what it means.

It says that that the מדה of כתר is not it doesn't take any position of priority or anything like that. It's not, again, using trying simple words, but for the point that we're going to need over here, it's not מתגאה. It doesn't have any haughtiness. It doesn't have any idea of גאוה למעלה, recognizing, by the way, that this is the מדה on top of all of the other מדות, it's also at its core ענווה, right? We've said that Moshe Rabbeinu is is עניו מכל אדם. Moshe Rabbeinu was also the greatest human being who ever lived. What does that mean?

Moshe Rabbeinu 100%, ענווה doesn't mean thinking that you're nothing, ענווה means that that that there's zero entitlement, that I'm not great because because of who I am, I'm great because of the כחות that Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave to me. Every single כח that Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave to me, right, in רוחניות and גשמיות, it comes with an accountability. I'm in a certain sense I'm משועבד to the כחות that Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave to me. I don't own them. They're not mine to do what I want with, and therefore, the greater that a person is, the more humbled a person is by his task, the more that they realize their accountability that they're going to have to answer, it's very humbling.

And therefore, Moshe Rabbeinu, who is the greatest human being who ever lived, understood the greatness of of of his task at hand, of what he had to do, and he totally didn't own any of that. He was שכינה מדברת מתוך גרונו. So to the extent that he was totally מבטל himself to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, he was the the greatest the greatest man who ever lived because he had the least friction, the least resistance to just attaching himself, not as a כלי almost, but as a pipe that Hakadosh Baruch Hu could speak through. What what's over here?

האחד שהוא בוש להסתכל בסיבתו, a recipient, it's part of the whole נהמא דכיסופא, right, that that that The greatest gift that is that Hakadosh Baruch Hu lets us, in a certain sense, earn our reward, own our success, that way not only is Hakadosh Baruch Hu giving it to us, He's giving it to us in a way that we could appreciate, because a recipient, somebody who understands that nothing is coming from me and everything is coming from You, he's this person is בוש. There's a certain embarrassment even to look to the person that's giving that's giving me, and the more that a person gives me, the more that I'm almost like reliant on somebody, the more בושה that I have. אלא מאצילו מביט בו תמיד להטיבו והוא מביט תחת תחתונים.

So the, the, the, the כתר as it were, which is the first level closest to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, is בוש, there's a certain busha to look up towards Hakadosh Baruch Hu. ככה אדם צריך שיבוש מלהסתכל מצד מעלה לגאות, a person should never think have gaavah what he's receiving, אלא תדיר יסתכל מצד מטה להפחית עצמו ככל מה שיוכל, this person should be looking down, not not owning up to everything he has, but rather humbled by what he has, and looking down in terms of how he can give. והרי המדה הזאת היא תלויה דרך כלל בראש, אין האדם מתגאה אלא בהרמת ראשו כלפי מעלה, והעני משפיל ראשו למטה. Oh, we'll get to giving in a second. A person should should be with his head down. Now, that's as far as this person Keter vis-a-vis up.

I own nothing, I can't look up towards, I have no face even to look upwards, and therefore I'm anav, I have to look down. However, point number two, והרי אין סבלן ועניו כאלוקינו, היינו במידת הכתר שהוא תכלית הרחמים, there is no one who bears like הקדוש ברוך הוא במידת כתר, which is רחמים, ולא יכנס לפניו שום פגם ולא עוון ולא דין ולא שום מדה מונעת מלהשגיח ולהשפיע ולהטיב תדיר. Hakadosh Baruch Hu, in a certain sense, is the ultimate סבלן, right? What does it mean that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is bearing?

Think about how Hakadosh Baruch Hu gives us everything and most of us are not totally mevatel ourselves to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, which means Hakadosh Baruch Hu, as it were, is giving those who never deserved to receive the good in the first place, and even once we have the good we're not owning up to what we have, and yet Hakadosh Baruch Hu continues to give and continues to bear it towards the ultimate good. And therefore, our middah to be like הקדוש ברוך הוא, כך צריך האדם ששום סיבה שבעולם לא תמנעהו מלהטיב.

Hakadosh Baruch Hu has 1,000 reasons, number one, why he didn't have to give us there was no reason for Hakadosh Baruch Hu to give us in the first place מצד us, and second of all, Hakadosh Baruch Hu continues to give, notwithstanding that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is is ultimately, kivayachol, to speak, the ultimate סבלן, ושום עוון ומעשה בני אדם בלתי הגון לא יכנס לפניו כדי שיעכבוהו מלהטיב, ולאותם הצריכים טובתו בכל עת ובכל רגע. So in other words, when looking up, so to speak, we are nothing. We own nothing, we just have to be totally mevatel ourselves. All of a sudden, when looking down, again, it's consistent, but we're playing Hakadosh Baruch Hu, so to speak.

I'll mention one quick story in the Gemara, then we'll come back to this, then we're going to dive into paragraph ה. I heard this from Reb Berkowitz, but this is the Gemara. Turnus Rufus asked Rabbi Akiva, if God loves the poor, based on a pasuk, it's a Gemara, why are they poor? And the response that Rabbi Akiva said is, so that we can give them. Says Reb Berkowitz, Reb Yitzchak Berkowitz, the way that I remember him saying it, what's the message over there? People play a dual role. When things happen to me, so then my question is, how do I improve myself? Why did Hakadosh Baruch Hu do this to me? Why did I deserve it?

That's a very dangerous thing, because now if I'm surrounded by somebody else who's going through a difficult time and I take that attitude, so then why should I ever step in to help? The question is, they deserved this, I'm sure there's reason why they deserved it, I don't know why they deserved it, it's not my business to step in, why should I complicate God's plans? The answer is no. As far as I'm concerned, my job is to play God. Bein adam laMakom, then I have total hisbatlus. Bein adam lachaveiro, I play God. My job is to be a giver, not to make cheshbonot. My job is to do everything I can to help them. Why are they poor?

As far as I'm concerned, they're poor, they're in a difficult spot, because I need to give them, כל העולם נברא בשבילי. When we enter into Keter, there's total hisbatlus. When I look up, then I deserve nothing, I'm not in a position to take, I'm not in a position to give, I'm only in a position to be subdued before Hakadosh Baruch Hu with total with total hachna'ah. When I look down, when I look at others, I'm in a position to be a giver, I'm in a position to own success, I'm in a position to be mashpia, and whether or not they deserve it is not even necessarily my consideration, I have I have my avodah to do. So what we have over here is a person really stemming from the same source, right?

Because if I'm a pipeline coming from Hakadosh Baruch Hu, so then the idea that I'm giving really is is that I'm not part of the process, but on the other hand you can't just, you know, sit back and do nothing, you have to think about it, have sympathy, have empathy, think about what others need, own the success, strategize, have avodah, and think about what to do. So now we're going to be talking about this person who's at the height, we're going to be talking in the context of Moshe Rabbeinu who's at the height of this

idea, the height of anavah, the height of what we're talking if anavah is the שורש by מידת כתר, and we're going to see that Moshe Rabbeinu, the tzadik in this role of davenen to Hakadosh Baruch Hu to bring down the Torah, and on the other hand, in the role where he is paragraph ה, and if I misstated anything, then it's not because of anything that that it says, it's just the way that I misstated it, and I apologize, and I'm willing to reconsider whether or not I didn't understand it right, or didn't say it right, but I I I think that that it comes together nicely, I think that these these ideas work.

So now we're talking about the tefillah that needs to be generated from below in order to draw down from לב עליון the tefillah. וכה שמתפלל קודם הדרוש, when this chacham is מתפלל before he's going to give the דרשה, צריך להתפלל בתחנונים. So now he's not just davening as a תפילת יחיד, he's davening as a תפילת רבים, תפילה בציבור, צדיקים בינוניים רשעים, it's Yoma, it's it's קהילה, it's bringing everybody together. But what form does this tefillah take? This שופך, right, this pouring out the תפילה, ויבקש מאת הקדוש ברוך הוא מתנת חינם. The way that he that that he structures the tefillah looking upwards is total מתנת חינם, אתה חונן לאדם דעת, right, total chinam.

It's not because I deserve it, it's not because I I I I have skin in the game, this is based on all of the effort that I put in. We've quoted many times the Midrash, the Midrash is in Vayikra, it's going on a pasuk in איוב, מי הקדימני ואשלם לו, and and it goes on, he says, you know, who gave me the doorpost? I put the I'm so proud of myself, I put the mezuzah on it. Who gave me the house? Who gave me the doorpost? I'm so proud of myself, I put on tefillin, who gave me the arm? Ultimately, everything that Hakadosh Baruch Hu gives us is a is a matanat chinam.

Anything that we do is either only because we have the berachah in our lives, any of the mitzvot, we have the wherewithal, we have the heichi timtze, and in any event we're not living up to. Anything we do is within our potential to have done, so what are you so proud of? Did you fully use your potential? So you gave you were given you totally used the company car, you used the resources that were given to you in order to do it, Baruch Hashem. We also were able to have oneg and pleasure in this world, but nobody did more than their more than their capacity.

ולא יתלה בזכות עצמו, a person should not be תולה whatever he's asking for in davening, even in besides gashmiyut or even in ruchniyut, because because of my own zechut. Baruch Hashem, you understood a lot of Torah, Baruch Hashem you have the intellectual capability to do so, Baruch Hashem you have the resources, maybe you're listening to shiurim, if we were every generation has its challenges, had we lived at in a certain time and place, we wouldn't have access to sefarim, let alone to shiurim, other other technology, there's a lot of things that were we have access to and we did, because Baruch Hashem we have the we have the resources to do it.

אף על פי שעכשיו נתעורר מטי עוזי של עבודתו, even though we described that when the tzadik is going to make the prayer, it is the mitzvot, the maasim tovim that he did, that does in fact make אתערותא דלתתא, that does in fact include a reflection above. I heard, let me say this incredibly incredibly briefly, that there was a certain time when a lot of the rashei yeshivah were I saw this in a book called The Soul of Emunah, I think it's Rav Reuven Schmelczer, I don't have it in front of me, but a bunch of

rashei yeshivah were gathered with the Chafetz Chaim because there's a problem, there was no funds to support the yeshivot, and they they were there to to develop ideas, and they were not able to come up with any ideas. And the Chafetz Chaim was sitting by his table, and one of the rashei yeshivah went home, and he had an idea. He said, listen, one one mitzvah is worth all of the, you know, all the all the reward in the world is not enough to do one mitzvah, what I'll do is I'll have in mind, I'll go

to Shacharit tomorrow, and I'll have in mind that I'm going to put on tefillin, and then this reward will go it should be enough to support all of the yeshivot, but he didn't want to have this this this kavanah without speaking it over with the Chafetz Chaim. So he went to the Chafetz Chaim, saw him sitting in the same position that he was sitting the night before, and he addressed this, he said to the Chafetz Chaim, I have an idea. The Chafetz Chaim's face lit up, and he told the Chafetz Chaim his idea, and the Chafetz Chaim said no, it's not going to work.

Said, you can imagine a kid that finds a check for a million dollars in the middle of the street, and he goes, he knows that money buys candy, so he goes to the candy store, and he tries to give him the check for the million dollars to buy a chocolate bar. He says the the store owner would not be able to cash the check, and if he did cash the check, he would have to give the money back, because it's so far out of out of sync with with the candy, it wouldn't be appropriate to take, it would basically be גניבה.

He says, if you would understand what a mitzvah, what mitzvot umaasim tovim are, what the mitzvah of tefillin is worth in this world, it's not something that it's not something that's on par, it's not something, kivyakhol kivyakhol, that Hakadosh Baruch Hu would or kivyakhol could take in in order for in order for money, even where that money is for ruchniyut, it's just it's just totally out of sync. So we said that the mitzvot umaasim tovim, בעצם are מעורר incredible things in shamayim, and this is the tefillah that that the צדיק goes with. However, אין זה מטה כדי להתגאות, this mateh, this authority as it were that the צדיק takes is not where the צדיק is going to say based on my mitzvot—meaning there's two things that are going on.

One thing is what what the צדיק's mitzvot u'ma'asim tovim accomplish, and one is the attitude that the צדיק goes into the tefillah with, right? So objectively speaking, yes, the mitzvot u'ma'asim tovim have an effect above. That's separate and apart from a צדיק saying, "I'm so great, look at my mitzvot u'ma'asim tovim, here's what I'm asking for." Ela, but rather, this כח המטה, this authority, so to speak, that the צדיק is wielding כדי להכניע הרע שבעדה. So we we quoted a פסוק, מטה עוזך I think, right?

So we we said that when the צדיק is employing this idea of authority, that authority is not where the צדיק is coming with this attitude in order to say, "HaKadosh Baruch Hu, answer my tefillot because of the authority that I wield based on my mitzvot u'ma'asim tovim." What happens is is that the צדיק is supposed to wield this authority, so to speak, looking downwards in order to be machni'a the רע שבעדה, in order to gather together the kol, in order to unify them in order so that the tefillah that ultimately goes up will be a תפילת רבים. Some of the mefarshim over here talk about the ra as the רע כולל, the תאוות ניאוף, but the ra of every individual, כי ברבים יש בהם טובים ורעים.

Because as the people get together, like we said, a tzibur is צדיק, בינונים, ורשעים. וצריך להכניע over here the the note mentions this idea, it doesn't mention a source, it just says, "כידוע", okay? וצריך להכניע הרע שבהם, כנ״ל. Now by the way, keep in mind, he doesn't quote the Gemara in Berachot with with Beruriah, but Rav Hirsch also talks about it, and that we don't דאוון that the resha'im should perish, we daven that the רשעות should perish. So just an an important point, everybody's a חלק אלוק ממעל, we're all הקדוש ברוך הוא's children. What we're asking is not to be מכניע the רעים, we're asking to be מכניע the רע שברעים, right? Everybody has their own yetzer hara.

If we can remove those impediments, those obstacles, those מחיצות between them and הקדוש ברוך הוא, some people are just a little bit more farther removed than others. So over here, the tzaddik is using his מטה to be מכניע the רע שברעים, אבל לפני השם יתברך, that's with the tzaddik looking down. And therefore, that's how the tzaddik by being מכניע the רע שברעים, gathering together the kehillah, that's where the tzaddik is going to be able to include them, be נכלל them in the tefillah, where ultimately that tefillah is going to have the desired effect.

However, that's not part of the tefillah, that's not the attitude that the tzaddik has when he actually sends the tefillah up and he's looking upwards, אבל לפני השם יתברך, יעמוד כדל וכרש, he's standing like somebody who's a pauper, somebody who has nothing to offer, just asking for מתנת חנם, וידבר בתחנונים ולא יתלה בשום זכות. And he's going to ask in a pleading way without relying on any zechut. וזהו, and this is the pasuk in Devarim, "ואתחנן אל השם בעת ההיא לאמר." ואתחנן, לשון חנון, לשון of free, מתנת חנם, שצריך לדבר—by the way, just as an aside, we mentioned last year or the year before that from Torah א׳ that a tefillah is answered when there's חן, so just very interesting, חן and חנם coming together. But what's a tefillah that can be answered?

When somebody asks for the מתנת חנם. שצריך לדבר תחנונים בשעה שרוצה לומר, at the time that a person has to be מדבר, that a person has to speak from תחנונים when he's רוצה לומר. What does it mean when he's רוצה לומר? He wants to engage in a public drasha, he wants to be able לדבר, he wants to bring down that Torah in order to teach the people, first he has to say the appropriate tefillah. What type of tefillah is that? It's תפילת תחנונים, היינו קודם הדרש.

That's where he sends up the tefillah appropriately, and then, but when he that's where he employs the מטה עוזך in order to to be מכניע the רע שבכל, in order to bring people together, but when he actually sends it up and makes the tefillah, he understands that it's nothing that he deserves. וזהו טעות שטעה משה. Now this, Rabbeinu pointed this out, if the greatest man who ever lived, as far as we're concerned, made this mistake, as subtle, subtle, subtle that it was, we'll see, that means that this is certainly a mistake, this potential, and I'm saying this again based on my understanding of what I'm reading, chas veshalom I can't say anything about Moshe Rabbeinu, but this is what the Torah tells us in order that we should learn.

If people are malachim, then we can't learn, they're not human beings, and therefore to to whatever degree we can say, this is what we're learning. This mistake, as it were, that Moshe Rabbeinu made and that the Torah is עומד on, and if Moshe Rabbeinu could make this mistake, certainly, certainly, any of us can have this mistake in terms of our confusion of how we act and what role we're supposed to be in, שהקדוש ברוך הוא אמר למשה: "קח את המטה", take the מטה, "והקהל את העדה". Why, what is it that you should take the מטה, take the the authority, take the stick, that's for the purposes of הקהל את העדה, ודברת אל הסלע לעיניהם, and you should speak to the סלע in front of them.

Again, speak to the סלע is to send up the tefillot, we said that the סלע the rock, צור לבבי, לב עליון, that you should take that when they're there, once you've gathered together the עדה, you've been מכניע the רע that's in them, so then you speak to the rock, then you're able to say the tefillot, to take down the Torah from the לב עליון, because again, it was after Miriam's passing, so then once Miriam passed, there was a מריבה, they lost access to the מים from Be'er Miriam, and now there was מריבה, so the people came and they fought with Moshe, so Moshe Rabbeinu had to ויפלו על פניהם, we said last time.

They understood that that it was closed, and therefore they had to reopen this access that there would be to the Torah so there'd be no fight. שיקח ממשלת עוזו, that Moshe was supposed to take this authority שיש לו ממצות ומעשים טובים שלו, that he had from his מצות ומעשים טובים, but that authority is not that attitude is not used in order to make the tefillah, that authority is used והקהל את העדה. כי בשעת הקהל שיש בו גם רעים, at the time of gathering together the tzibur that has also צדיקים, בינוניים, and רשעים, צריך מטה עוז כדי להכניע רשעותם כנ״ל, that's what the authority is used for: to get the people in line so that ultimately when the tefillah goes up, it's going to be a tefillah, תפילת רבים, a תפילה בציבור.

ואחר כך ודברת אל הסלע לעיניהם, but then after you use the mateh, it doesn't say to hit the rock, it just says to use the mateh. Once you use the mateh to gather the people together, that's what the authority is for, then ודברת אל הסלע, then the only thing that's supposed to go up is אין דיבור אלא נחת, it's supposed to be a נחת'דיק תפילה, right? A calm tefillah, a tefillah of that where we want to subdue, that's a tefillah of הכנעה, שיש בו שיחה, תפילות בתחנונים כדל וכראש, that tefillah is not taking the form of a mateh, of authority, that tefillah is taking the form of va'etchanan.

אל הסלע, היינו לב עליון כנ״ל, that when you're speaking to the rock, the צור לבבי, the לב עליון, that's the tefillah that's going to be able to bring down, to be mamshich the the תורה לעיניהם דייקא, and it should be davka in front of their eyes, so to speak, שיהיה הכל בשעת מעשה, that the that the hakol should be there. The first thing you have to do is employ the authority to get them to get them near to come as a ציבור כדי שיקשר עצמו לנשמתם כנ״ל, to to be able to to tie yourself to them altogether so it'll be a תפילת רבים.

והוא לא כן עשה, but this is not what Moshe Rabbeinu did, again we're reading the words and getting what we can, שזכר טובו וצדקתו בשעת תפילתו, that he remembered his tzedakot and his tefillah. Now the mefarshim over here talk about, based on a pasuk in קהלת, כי העושק יהולל חכם, the cheating, as it were, it almost like I guess confuses the חכם, ויאבד את לב מתנה, and it destroys לב מתנה, the לב of of of patience, of caution, and it mentions over here from, who is it from?

He's bringing from Likutei Halachot in Hilchot Gezelah, that the mistake, as it were, that Moshe made, which was subtle שבסאטל, was because it says עושק דייקא, כי כל רשעותם ומחלוקותם של דתן ואבירם וכל חלקם הם בבחינת עושק וגזל, and it was these people that came, and they were גורם that a certain a certain שגיאה דקה to Moshe, based on this פסוק in Kohelet, it says that the עושק came and then they make that they destroy. Moshe Rabbeinu really was the לב the לב מתנה, the לב of מיתון, of patience, right? שלא המשיך By the way, I think in Torah ו׳, was it was it that we said כתר?

We talked about המתנה, that patience is teshuvah, is כתר, so it all lines up, and this is really in the context that we're talking about it also. שלא המשיך הטוב ברחמים ותחנונים, so in other words, Moshe allowed allowed himself, he was in this situation of, you know, of of extreme what was going on, so Moshe Rabbeinu was swayed, it wasn't a calculated decision, לב מיתון, it was because of Datan vaAviram, all the people that were coming against Moshe.

So Moshe Rabbeinu, instead of using the מטה only to gather the people together and then ultimately being מכניע and settled and with הכנעה, and that's how he sent the tefillah up, what happened was is that Moshe Rabbeinu, כביכול, I mean כביכול Hashem, but Moshe Rabbeinu, as it were, wanted to almost like force the process, because again, why was this מריבה going on? Because they lost the access to the Torah when Miriam died. All of a sudden, there was a tremendous fighting. Moshe Rabbeinu, to see the fighting in Klal Yisrael, the fighting on tzadikim, that people were all riled up, Moshe wanted it to settle down, he wanted to bring in the אמת, he wanted to inject the Torah into the world so that it would all so that it would all calm down.

And therefore what happened? Moshe Rabbeinu, as it were, wanted to force the process. והוא לא כן עשה, שזכר טובו וצדקתו בשעת תפילתו. Why did he mention his own צדקות, not chas veshalom that Moshe was ga'avahdik, שלא השתמש עם המטה בשביל הקהל, he was utilizing this idea of מטה, this idea of authority, this idea of being able to to take control of a process, אלא השתמש עם המטה בשעת תפילתו, and he was using it in the wrong direction. So two mistakes: one is that he did not ask the tefillah as a מתנת חנם, and the other thing is that once he utilized the מטה upwards, so then it was the attitude going upwards instead of downwards, he wasn't מכניע the רע. So now this really two problems, right?

One of one of them is the problem that the tefillah was lacking because, in terms of gathering the people as a כל together, being מכניע the רע and having this exponential effect of טוב. So the tefillah was lacking because he didn't use the מטה to be מכניע the רע. And now when he turned around and he put up this tefillah and he used the מטה upwards, so now also, the tefillah was not going to it was not בתורת מתנת חינם, and it was not going to have the desired effect, which we're going to see, ultimately, didn't have the desired, consequential effect of the Torah coming down, and it resulted in the punishment that Moshe Rabbeinu and Aharon HaKohen did not go into Eretz Yisrael.

Now, the note over here, just going to mention, not go through it, Ivei HaNachal talks about the idea that in the beginning Moshe Rabbeinu did hit the rock, that was before the חטא העגל, before the חטא העגל, when the people were holding on a certain level, so they could have gone straight into Eretz Yisrael, that the קליפה wasn't there, therefore it didn't need the מטה for the first effect, and he just draws this contrast in terms of what was going on and why the פסוקים are different in terms of how the מטה was used. But let's stay for where we are for now. וזה בחינת וירם משה את ידו.

ידו זה תפילתו, that Moshe Rabbeinu raised his hand, ידו is תפילה, כמו שכתוב ויהי ידיו אמונה, תרגומו פריסן, פריסן בצלו, that he spread his hands in tefillah. Just as an aside, the Yesod VeShoresh HaAvodah has a whole discussion about the idea of of of of raising one's hands in tefillah, that a person should not be cavalier with this, that there's actually a an incredible כח to it, עיין שם, but he says that the idea of of raising one's hands, emunah, we spoke in Torah ז, emunah, emunah is tefillah. שהרים את תפילתו, that Moshe Rabbeinu raised his tefillah. What does it mean he raised his tefillah? That, in a certain sense, the tefillah was disassociated from the people. Moshe Rabbeinu raised his hands koach.

Moshe Rabbeinu, instead of instead of almost like looking downward and gathering together the כל and then raising up the tefillah with everybody, Moshe Rabbeinu raised his tefillah going upwards with כח, ולא קישר עצמו עם הכל. However, he did he was not mekasher himself with the כל, subjugating himself as the leader of the כל, and, ultimately, going up above totally with one ratzon, and and, ultimately, having the the type being being machnia the ra and then having the type of tefillah totally of tachanun, of מתנת חינם, to bring down the Torah the Torah that they needed to resolve all of the merivah and the fights.

But, rather, what happened was is that the Torah that came down, the Torah that came down was, we'll see in a certain sense, not in the purest form that it could have otherwise been. So just a couple of points. First of all, it says over here in Likutei Halachot, the halachot of seudah, that it brings over here in the note, that that when a person is ממשיך תורה ברחמים, תחנונים, בהתקשרות נפשות השומעים, the way that we're describing, that the tefillah is with total hachna'ah and subjugation and gathered together, etc., הוא יכול לקרב גם את המרוחקים

ביותר, so then it's all-inclusive, שאין בחלקם כי אם שורש נשמת ערב רב, even those people that have the ultimate רע שבהם, they can also be included in the tefillah, they're also the ra within them is going to be subjugated and they will be included in the Torah, because they also need need need a tikun. However, there's no way to force that process, which we're actually going to in the next few lines we're going to explore, and he says something that's just mind-blowing. He says that צריך הצדיק שיאחז גם כן בבחינה זו של אריכת אפים. What do we need from Hakadosh Baruch Hu?

We need that Hakadosh Baruch Hu should have אריכת אפים, ובבחינה זו של אריכת אפים של צדיק, כל מה שצריך הצדיק שלא ידחה את השעה בשום דבר, רק יאריך אפו על כל דבר, וימתין הרבה לרחמיו המרובים בלי שיעור. The way that I understand what he's saying is something that we all need to understand. The midah the the the middah of din in a certain way, if Hakadosh Baruch Hu takes, like we said, a certain snapshot in time, so then we deserve what we deserve. Sometimes that's going to be a harsh a harsh din.

However, if Hakadosh Baruch Hu takes a broader picture, right, sometimes there could be a ירידה שהיא לצורך עליה, sometimes a certain experience will end up impacting somebody later, they'll do teshuvah me'ahavah, sometimes, you know, if you take a hard stance and then you you throw somebody out of the house, so then, you know, you break that relationship, but if a person has more arichat apayim, patience, every situation a person has to apply this to themselves, then, ultimately, the warmth, something will reach them, and the the result will end up being it'll justify it'll justify what what what got a person there. We need Hakadosh Baruch Hu, as it were, to have arichat apayim with us. This is teshuvah.

One of the things that the Tomer Devorah says in the beginning, by נושא עוון, that Hakadosh Baruch Hu Hakadosh Baruch Hu sustains not just the sinner, Hakadosh Baruch Hu sustains even the sin itself, because otherwise where is the sin going to go? If you look also in the first couple of perakim, in the beginning people are probably may perhaps more familiar with the first few perakim of Tomer Devorah, it speaks how Hakadosh Baruch Hu has the ultimate patience, and not just patience with us, he even sustains the sin so that the sin doesn't just, you know, a person could die right away or the sin could feed off the spiritual energy of the one who created it.

Hakadosh Baruch Hu has the ultimate amount of arichut apayim, of patience, in order to facilitate that we should do that we should do teshuvah, that we shouldn't expire immediately, etc. We need arichut apayim from Hakadosh Baruch Hu. How do we, like we said earlier, how do we inspire, how are we me'orer this this הנהגה of Hakadosh Baruch Hu? When the tzaddik has arichut apayim to those who are around them. If we want to trigger this arichut apayim from Hakadosh Baruch Hu towards us and ultimately towards the world, and ultimately towards those resha'im, too, if we want them to do teshuvah, how are you going to get their heart to open up?

When you have arichut apayim to these resha'im, when you have arichut apayim to these people who have רע, and you want הלוואי that, not that they should chas veshalom be destroyed, but that the rasha should be destroyed. If הלוואי that they should do teshuvah, you want them to do teshuvah, you want to bring this attitude of arichut apayim, of light, into the world, you have arichut apayim to them, and you will open up and be me'orer this attitude of arichut apayim from Hakadosh Baruch Hu to you, to the world, to them as well. The other point that I wanted to mention is Likkutei Halachot no, is Sha'ar HaMitzvot Parashat Va'etchanan, he brings he I guess Rabbi Chaim Vital says בענין עסק הלכה בעיון עם חברים.

He says, "I saw that the Arizal זכר צדיק וקדוש לברכה was מתגבר כארי בכח when he would be עוסק in halacha to the point of sweating and shaking. He was engaging in עיון," and he says, "ושאלתי את פיו מדוע טורח כל כך? Why?" He was asking his Rebbi, "Why are you so it's such a tircha, shaking and sweating and engaged?" And he says the Arizal told him, "כי הנה העיון לשבר הקליפות שהם הקושיות שיש בהלכה ההיא שאין מניחים לאדם להבינם, ולכן צריך האדם לטרוח ולהתיש כוחו אז." That's why the Torah is called תושיה, etc. He says that the that because there are certain קליפות, those קליפות because of the way that we have the Torah. In other words, again, we don't have access right now to the utter truth.

Really we should be exposed to the truth, there should be there should be no question, right? We're exposed to the Torah, there should be there should be no question, it should just light it should just totally touch our נשמה and and that's it. Why is it that there's this ambiguity? Why is it that there's these ספקות? It's because of the Torah in the form that we have it, that we'll speak in a second. How do we break how do we break through that קליפה? We break through that קליפה with the effort that we put into עיון. So it's wonderful that a person is smarter, but the truth is is that inasmuch as there is a מעלה of understanding the concepts of Torah, there's also a מעלה to the process.

The process is not just to get to the end, the end is the process, right? The process not just means to an end, the the the going through the process, the breaking your head, the putting in the effort, the מסירות נפש, that is the end itself for this for this part of the עבודה in order to break the קליפה, and then ultimately, once a person breaks through all the קליפה and they get to the to the inside, they get to the nut, then then then it'll go easy, right? The משל is like a walnut, if you have a nut, then you have all of the the קליפה surrounding it until you get to the inside.

Just quoting a passage from the Tikkunei Zohar, says אם לא דמחה בה, if it wasn't that Moshe Rabbeinu had hit the rock, which was כביכול we'll see the שכינה, that he had not used כביכול to hit the rock, we're saying that he applied the מטה towards the צור לבבי, towards the סלע, as it were, that he applied the מטה in the wrong direction, had Moshe Rabbeinu not done that, לא הוו טרחין ישראל בתנאים ואמוראים באורייתא דבעל פה דאיהי סלע, then we wouldn't have been necessary for all of the process that now now it is necessary.

But this idea that תנאים ואמוראים, Torah Shebe'al Peh, the going back and forth, which was in the form that we have it, there was always Torah Sheba'al Peh was given with Torah Shebichtav on Har Sinai, but the way that we have it, the avodah that we have of going back and forth and the iyun and the pilpul and uncovering and getting past it, אלא איתמר בה ודברתם אל הסלע ונתן מימיו, it should have been בלא טורח, it should have been easy, the water should have just come flowing out of the rock, ויתקיים בהון, and we would have been מקיים the פסוק in ירמיהו, ולא ילמדו עוד איש את רעהו ואיש את אחיו לאמר דעו את ה׳ כי כולם ידעו אותי למקטנם ועד גדולם נאם ה׳ כי אסלח לעונם ולחטאתם לא אזכר עוד.

What he's saying is if there was if משה רבינו was מכניע the רשע בעדה, if at the time he was he was He spoke to the rock, and he was מקדש שם שמים in the way that it was, then what would happen was is all of Klal Yisrael would have understood the Torah in a much easier way, והוה נפיק מיא, the Torah would have come out בלא קושיא, מחלוקת, ופסק, בגין דשכינתא דאתמר בה, there would have been no kushyos, there would have been machloket, there would have been no need for this level of עיון, הלא כה דברי כאש נאם ה', והוו שרוין בפומיהון דישראל, and it would have been in the the mouths of Klal Yisrael of again, like their mouths would have been כגחלי אש, דאיהי אורייתא דבעל פה, דאיהי סלע.

Okay, it goes on. סלע על ס'. What's סלע? Oh, סלע is על ס' דאינון שיתין מסכתות דאיהי סלע על ס' עד כאן לשונו. So what we see over here is, again, that in order to have the Torah in the form that we can just relate to it, to be able to be mamshich, first of all, it's in response to the to the tefillah. Once we don't have, like in paragraph א we saw, the neshamah that's going to bring it straight down, what it has to be is it's in response to a tefillah. The tefillah can't be a תפילת יחיד. It has to be a תפילת רבים.

The way to have a תפילת רבים is to apply, for the tzadik, the one who is going to bring down Torah, to apply the מטה downwards in order to be מכניע the רע, then the tefillah goes up, the pure form comes out. Moshe Rabbeinu, because of Datan vaAviram, because of what was going on, there was this slight thing, he wanted to, we'll see right now, which is incredible, rush the process, okay? Because of what was going on, and therefore he did not apply the mateh in the way that it could have been applied to be

מכניע the רע, but rather the tefillah in a certain sense had this פגם, and therefore also he didn't pray with matnat chinam, and therefore because the prayer at that point had a פגם, is imperfect, the Torah came down in the form that we have it today, where there is machloket, etc. ויך את הסלע במטהו פעמים, so it says that Moshe Rabbeinu hit the rock twice, כביכול הכה צור ויזובו מים. He hit the rock and the water came out, שהכה לב עליון, that it's as if that Moshe Rabbeinu hit צור לבבי, the סלע, the לב עליון.

He hit, as it were, כמו שלוקחין איזה דבר בכח ובאונס, it's as if he wanted to force Hakadosh Baruch Hu, he wanted to force the Shechinah to give forth the water, כי בא בכח מעשיו הטובים, he was coming to try to force the process based on my mitzvot and maasim tovim. וזהו הכאת הסלע פעמים, as it were, הכאה אחת שלקח ביאורי תורה בכח ובאונס. Number one, it's as if he came to take the ביאורי תורה בכח, which is now it didn't come in its pure, in in its pure form, as it were, it came with ספקות, ולא ביקש מתנת חנם, כנ״ל. Oh, sorry, sorry, הכאה אחת שלא ביקש מתנת חנם, והכאה אחת, and the second הכאה, as it were, was, we're going to see, was מיתה.

The second הכאה was that once Moshe Rabbeinu brought the Torah down, he wasn't מקדש שם שמים as he could have been in order to bring out the Torah in its highest form, so there had to be a balancing out of kiddush Hashem, which Chazal tell us is with the מיתה, was was with the מיתה of tzadikim, unfortunately, because the Torah says מי שדוחק את השעה, a person who tries to rush the process, שעה דוחקתו, then it comes that ונסתלק קודם זמנו, that the שעה is going to is going to be דוחק him, right? The Gemara brings תניא רבי שמעון בן אלעזר אומר אף משה ואהרן בחטאם מתו, it says יען לא האמנתם בי להקדישני.

And therefore there needed to be a קידוש שם שמים, uses also the same lashon over there by Nadav vaAvihu, but over here we see that Moshe Rabbeinu tried to rush the process, and when a person rushes a process, it has consequences. ועל הסתלקותו, השכינה, שהיא לב, with the לב עליון הנ״ל, מיללת ובוכה עליו. This is the הכאה שניה. What was the, as it were, the hitting the rock twice? The first hitting the rock was when Moshe tried to force the process based on his own mitzvot and מעשים טובים, and the second one was the tzaar of the hakaah, as it were, to the Shechinah, to the לב עליון, that Moshe Rabbeinu had to die before going to Eretz Yisrael.

וזה פעמים כי מתו משה ואהרן על ידי הכאה, כמו שכתוב המה מי מריבה, this is why they died, because Klal Yisrael came, it says המה מי מריבה אשר רבו בני ישראל את ה' ויקדש בם, that Moshe and Aharon died because of this before their time. ובשביל זה אין לאדם לדחוק את עצמו על שום דבר, אלא יבקש בתחנונים, אם יתן לו השם יתברך, יתן, ואם לאו, לאו. And this is, by the way, just reading from R'' Chaim Kramer's note, he brings he brings this idea throughout throughout, you know, reference points throughout where Adam HaRishon, Chazal tell us, had he waited until until Shabbos, then he would have been able to have wine from the עץ הדעת, but instead he was דוחק שעה, he drank it first.

He brings that Yitzchak Avinu wanted to give Esav the berachah, however Esav at the time was, it was premature. He was not he was not where he needed to be. Yaakov Avinu wanted to early the time of the final redemption. Talks about Shimon and Levi and Shechem and Yehudah, Yosef, the brothers, so on. He doesn't mention all, but I guess he's bringing from someplace just various areas all over all over Torah where rushing a process ended up having severe consequences. Now, just one other interesting point, which part of it I understood from one of Rav Kivak's shiurim, is an idea that we discussed before.

The way that we talked about it earlier is if you have a reservoir of water, you have an ocean of water or whatever it is, ultimately it has, it might be tremendous, it has a certain amount of water in it. How is it that you can have a כלי, as it were, that has an infinite amount of water in it? When it's a pipe. In other words, it's not it doesn't hold anything. The pipe might even be very, very small, but it ends up being a conduit through as much water pours in.

When a tzaddik, no matter how great he is, davens from his own mitzvot and ma'asim tovim, so ultimately the Torah that he brings down will be, kivayachol, as it were, lacking in this infinite property because he can only ask for as much as he's a keli to ask for. So therefore, once the Torah is coming down in response to a tefillah that's not total matanat chinam and total hitbatlut, so therefore, it's not going to have, as it were, be presented with come to us in this form of this property that's going to just totally resolve

all dispute, and therefore, we're going to have to break through the kelipah to get there, and therefore, again, it's one way of looking at it, I hope I hope I understood it right, but that that's when the difference between a prayer to bring down, to be ממשיך תורה that's coming from from the person's own, tzaddik's mitzvot and ma'asim tovim, which might be tremendous, rather than total matanat chinam, it's qualitatively different. One is is יש לי רב, right, in a certain sense, and one is יש לי כל. One one is one is coming from it's, as great as it is, it's limited by the mitzvot and ma'asim tovim, and the other one is you can ask for everything because I am nothing. וזה יען לא האמנתם בי, היינו תפילה.

Again, emunah, we said, is the same as tefillah. Says יען לא האמנתם בי that because you didn't believe in Me that the tefillah was imperfect, כנ״ל שהרים תפילתו מתפילת הכל, that משה רבינו, לא, שלא קישר עצמו עם הכל. The tefillah was removed from the כל. The tefillah was not being machnia the רע and raised up with everybody where the tefillah was was with the tzaddik, with Moshe Rabbeinu in this case, not at all part of the process, but Moshe Rabbeinu didn't bring them up in the tefillah, but rather, again, the tefillah was separated from them. Instead, he applied the מטה upwards and the tefillah was raised up, it was removed.

הרים תפילתו, by the way, I mentioned this point earlier once before, I don't know if it's applicable here, it's the difference between גדול and רם. גדול is big. We talk about א-ל הגדול, so we'll we'll see how I'm going to just try to use this idea here also. A building is big, a mountain is big, we don't say it's high, it's attached to the ground, it's attached to the floor, it's relevant. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is גדול, as big as it is, but there's השגחה פרטית, it also touches the ground. רם is high, and a cloud, an airplane, it's very, very, very high, but it's not touching the ground, it's disassociated. Over here, it says also that הרים תפילתו מתפילת הכל, it was raised up, it was removed, right?

So the the way that I've applied the concept before, I've heard it applied, is we say הקדוש ברוך הוא is א-ל הגדול, that הקדוש ברוך הוא is gadol, he's not just high up and removed, but הקדוש ברוך הוא there's hashgacha pratit, he's involved in the world, not just רם and removed from the world. But over here, perhaps this is the idea that we're saying, I don't know if we can apply it, that הרים תפילתו, the tefillah was raised up, but it wasn't rooted with all of the כל. כי תפילה היא אמונה כמו ויהי ידיו אמונה. And the reason was להקדישני לעיני בני ישראל, that really הקדוש ברוך הוא wanted that there could be a kiddush shem shamayim including Bnei Yisrael.

להקדישני דייקא, כי על ידי תפילת רבים נתקדש שמו יתברך כנ״ל, like we said, ואתה קדוש יושב תהילות ישראל. It would have added kedushah to שמים in a certain way, as it were, to to add kedushah to open up that the Torah should come down if the תפילה משה sent up was based and inclusive of כלל of the קהל. לכן לא תביאו אל הארץ. Now, why was Moshe Rabbeinu not going to bring them to the ארץ? רמז על הסתלקותו, that Moshe Rabbeinu was hinting to the הסתלקות of משה רבינו, מידה כנגד מידה, כי הקדושה גם כן ניתוסף למעלה בשעת פטירת הצדיק כידוע.

It says the pshat way of looking at this is that הקדוש ברוך הוא, the Torah is emet, there's a there's a structure, and הקדוש ברוך הוא, we say that הקדוש ברוך הוא is מדקדק with the צדיק כחוט השערה, that different ways of understanding that line, but the way I think the Mesillat Yesharim says is that if that הקדוש ברוך הוא doesn't give anyone a pass. The Torah is principles of truth, and therefore, don't think that just because a person is generally a tzadik they're going to get a pass, that there's a when הקדוש ברוך הוא

says, no matter who it is, that the Torah is reality and that they're going to get punished also, there's a din that comes to a tzadik, that's a tremendous Kiddush Shem Shamayim, and therefore, that's one way of looking at it, I'm sure there's others and more kabbalistic reasons, but it says that the the petirah of a tzadik is a tremendous kedushah, and therefore, once there was the the kedushah that that would have been gained by Moshe Rabbeinu going through the process the way that we've been describing was lost, it had To be balanced out by the kedushah of the פטירת צדיק.

נמצא מה שנחסר על ידם נשלם על ידם, what the kedushah that was missing from Moshe Rabbeinu was now balanced out also על ידם through the petirah of of Moshe Rabbeinu, of of the petirah of Moshe Rabbeinu and Aharon, and ultimately not going into Eretz Yisrael.