LM 22.10 — Chosam b'Soch Chosam, Part 10 of 10 · תורה כ״ב

תורה כ״ב b'ezrat Hashem yitbarach, we're going to be mesayem the Torah with this שיעור, although we could start right back at the beginning and and learn it as though we've never seen it before. Even preparing the summary for the שיעור, and I've summarized it at the beginning of, you know, maybe every single שיעור throughout the series, I saw new things, I saw the same things from a different perspective, עמד on new details and I had almost חרטה, I wish I could go back to the beginning, but the Torah has just endless depth, and this would always be our experience.

So b'ezrat Hashem, הדרן עלך והדרך עלן as we're as we're going to be mesayem. The Torah starts off, it's on page ל״ד in the standard print, some of the other prints have a new סימן. Just to begin, this week we're going to be leinen פרשת בחוקותי. בחוקותי has the tochachah. The tochachah is talking about when there's גזר דין, when there's din in the world. This Torah that we're learning now, Torah כ״ב, talks about when there's a גזר דין and understanding in that context the role of the tzadikim, the different aspects of the role of the tzadikim and our relationship with the tzadikim and building building this picture how we understand this this dynamic between Hakadosh Baruch Hu and the הנהגה of Hakadosh Baruch Hu in the world.

There's a a constant word that comes up in the tochachah along the lines, I'm going to read one of the pesukim, "ואם באלה לא תוסרו לי והלכתם עמי קרי". What's lashon of קרי? A lashon is a lashon of קרי is a lashon of מקרה, sometimes you could say happenstance, coincidence, or nature, this is the way things go, is it something that's calculated, is it something specific, or is it something that's that this is I want to do something and I walk out and it's raining, unfortunately, it ruined my plans, but is this something to get angry about?

This is the way of the world, things happen. Or do I live in a world where there's active engagement with Hakadosh Baruch Hu, everything is hashgachah pratit, everything is a message? Instead of when something goes not necessarily the way I want, instead of saying, why is Hakadosh Baruch Hu screaming so loud?, we could stop and ask, what is He saying? The the the source of what brings tochachah, when Hakadosh Baruch Hu has to give us messages louder because we're not listening, is when we look at the world and we say that it's מקרה. However, what's the the source of when things happen and we declare maybe a תענית, when we do teshuvah, the idea of teshuvah in response to events that are happening in the world, means that we be'etzem have emunah, we be'etzem relate to what's going on in the world as a message from Hakadosh Baruch Hu to us or a response from

Hakadosh Baruch Hu that was that was נתעורר לטב ולמוטב by our actions, and therefore, this inspires us to make a cheshbon hanefesh to see whether what we need to what we're doing needs fixing, whether we're doing something good, we need to be doing it better. Everything is a dynamic relationship, felt the most in Eretz Yisrael. We talked in earlier Torot about the idea of nes and tefillah being something that's indicative and expressive of a of a dynamic relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. When we when we step aside from that and we relate to the world, sometimes things are good, sometimes things are bad, we have to respond, but it's it's mikreh.

It's not a a world with an active involvement and השגחה פרטית of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. So this is the way that we understand gezeirot. What is a gezeirah? A gezeirah is גזר דין. What's din? It's a דין תורה. ישראל, ואורייתא, וקודשא בריך הוא חד הוא, it's all part of one system. The world functions within a spiritual physics, so to say, and all of this is within the rules of Torah. Hakadosh Baruch Hu could have created any world that He wanted. Hakadosh Baruch Hu was אסתכל באורייתא וברא עלמא, there's a framework of Torah, there's a framework of din, and Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the world within this framework.

And therefore, if you had דעת תורה, you could be you have these stories of of gedolim that were able to see what was happening on a כללות'דיק level, on a פרטות'דיק level, and they were able to associate with something that the Klal Yisrael, that an individual has to work on because they understood the parallels, they understood what was going on in the world as being a microcosm, as being an expression of something greater. And if you can match that up, רמ״ח איברים, שס״ה גידים, the מצות עשה, לא תעשה, the way that there's that there's the a שיעור קומה in shamayim and the way that that expresses itself in this world, you'd be able to match it up, you would know you would know what's going on.

The Torah starts off and it talks about when there's going to be a גזר דין, there's different stages, before the גזר דין, after the גזר דין, we talked about it again in earlier Torot, and in paragraph א', it describes the tzadikim, that the tzadikim are the מוכיחי הדור, the בחינת רגלין. Why are they raglin? And it says two reasons. Number one, they are לימודי השם, they give הקדוש ברוך הוא עצה, so to speak, תורה לא בשמים היא, in the context of of of passing of implementing a גזר דין, this by definition or it seems that involves the tzadikim, and the tzadikim have one role to give etza to Hashem, so to speak, whatever that means.

On the other hand, והם הולכים בשליחות לישראל, they also go as a shlichut from הקדוש ברוך הוא to ישראל, הוכיחם ולהחזירם להשם יתברך, ועל שם זה נקראים בחינת רגלין, both directions: upwards towards הקדוש ברוך הוא, and also to give to give tochachah to כלל ישראל in order to hopefully avoid the need the need for this gezeirah. Now, Rabbi Nachman discusses this before he says that the gezeirah is passed. So the first thing that the tzadikim are doing is both giving etza to הקדוש ברוך הוא, minimizing the chet, as it were, arguing on behalf of כלל ישראל.

We went all into all of this in depth, and also giving tochachah to כלל ישראל even before the gezeirah is passed, because then the Torah goes after, וכשהשם יתברך גוזר גזר דין בעולם והדין הוא תורה, that once the gezeirah is passed, and now there is there's a gezeirah in the world, this is an expression of truth, this is an expression of Torah, at that point, הם מכסים זה הדין תורה וחותמין אותו, מחמת שלא יינקו ממנו החיצונים. We we had a whole discussion of this in the first שיעור, but, you know, perhaps one way that we can just express it for now is what is a גזר דין in What what is a גזר דין?

What is a gezeirah? On one hand, it's to restore equilibrium. Everything is me'orer a response, what we do down here, this is אתערותא דלתתא, and that's going to inspire and trigger a response למעלה. There has to be an equilibrium restored to the world. כלל ישראל, an individual, did something that was positive, negative, and there's going to be a gezeirah, there's going to that that's going to trigger a response from שמים. The other thing is that there's a purpose to a punishment, there's a purpose to yisurim. Sometimes that can be to give a message, it could be to restore direction, right?

If something goes off course, there's going to be a bumper to put it back on the right direction. What happens if somebody does teshuvah, if כלל ישראל do teshuvah? So now the direction is restored. There's no need as far as the message is concerned. In fact, the the point of the punishment, which would otherwise be destructive, the point of the punishment has already been achieved. On the other hand, there's this energy in the world that was already triggered, an action was done that had a spiritual consequence. So now, perhaps this is one way of of expressing the idea, now that there's this energy in the world that could be applied in different ways, maybe it can be there could be a mituk in the din, that could be either tempered, applied even perhaps to the positive, right?

There's a מאמרי חז״ל that say that there are times that an aveirah, if a person does תשובה מאהבה, could be an aveirah, well, not only turn a mezid into a shogeg, it'll turn even into a mitzvah. Now there's there's an energy, there's a spiritual energy in the world. How could there be a מיתוק in that energy? So over here, the the way that we're expressing it is that the the tzadikim at this point are going to be מכסה the דין תורה, because we don't want that there should be יינקו ממנו החיצונים, that this energy should should be should end up giving nourishment to the חיצונים, to the negative forces, and it will become into harsh punishment, otherwise it could be diverted.

So, one element of what the tzadikim are going to do is try to avoid the punishment, to give etzah to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, as it were, and to try to give tochachah to כלל ישראל, to draw them close, in order that there should be to avoid the punishment. And once there's a גזר דין, that the the חותם, the first חותם, the חותם פנימי, the חותם רגלין, is that the tzadikim are going to try to keep the גזירה under wraps, as it were, until it becomes expressed out in the open. There's still room to divert it the way that Rav Chaim Kramer brings from the Arizal in the note, that the idea of גבורות, the idea of of judgment is compared to red wine.

It's גבורות is associated with the color red. The halachah references that wine has to be kept in a חותם בתוך חותם. In the event that the tzadik's rebuke, the חותם, is destroyed at that first stage, then the חותם, it's now it's out there, that will become נידות, it will not stay. חותם and נידות is the same גימטריא, with expulsion and dispute becoming the norm, chas v'shalom. We'll see that soon. So this is going to be this is going to be the first stage. The next stage is: ויש חותם שהוא למעלה מזה החותם. So seemingly, just as I'm reading it now, it seems that this is potentially even after the גזר דין is passed.

היינו בחינת ידים המקבלים מוסר מאלו המוכיחים. Now, so I'm suggesting, I don't know, but it seems to be that the tzadikim at the level of רגלין have the idea of giving tochachah to כלל ישראל, to make it maybe that the the גזר דין will not be necessary. Over here, now, once the גזר דין is passed, and now once there's already the first חותם, that the גזר דין is there and the צדיקים are trying to keep it under wraps, so to speak, so that it's not going to be יונק to the חיצונים, so now the צדיקים are going to give תוכחה to כלל ישראל to try to affect a מיתוק in that דין.

In order for the צדיקים to do that, there has to be a relationship between כלל ישראל and the צדיקים. That relationship is built on אמונה. Over here, Chaim Kramer again brings in the note that if people do not accept the rebuke of the צדיקים, they grow even more distant from God, bringing expulsion and disputes in their wake, which we just mentioned from the other note. And there's also one point I wanted to bring from the Kitzur. We're talking about the צדיקים being מרבים שלום בעולם, they're minimizing the sin of כלל ישראל towards הקדוש ברוך הוא, they're being מלמד זכות, and also they're trying to bring the כלל ישראל closer to הקדוש ברוך הוא.

The way that it reads now, I I wasn't I didn't this is the point that I didn't distinguish earlier, I don't think, was the idea of being bringing תוכחה to כלל ישראל both before and after the גזר דין. But I think it reads well into the words because we're going to discuss preserving the outer seal in in being מקבל תוכחה from the מוכיחי אמת through אמונה, in order so that the inner seal doesn't get preserved. The inner seal wasn't put into place until after the גזר דין. So now, I think, you know, what I'm suggesting, it makes sense, we the the גזירה really had two purposes.

One of them was to get us to right our ways, if we were מקבל the תוכחה from the צדיקים, which we can only do if we have that relationship with צדיקים through אמונה, רעיא מהימנא, משה רבינו is what's the לשון over here? It says, "העיקר הצדיק בבחינת משה שנקרא על שם זה רעיא מהימנא כי רועה האמונה לתקנו להשלימה," that Moshe Rabbeinu is working to rectify אמונה, to bring it to אמונה שלימה, to perfection. So that's there are so many competing influences in the world for us to attach ourselves to the צדיקים that are facilitating a relationship with הקדוש ברוך הוא, that are בעצם just a walking, living, breathing ספר תורה and embodiment of the principles of אמת.

So so now the point of the גזר דין, we don't need anymore. The only problem is that the גזר דין was passed, and now there's this energy in the world that's there for the taking, and there has to be a balance achieved in the world. So as long as the inner גזירה the inner חותם, rather, is in place, Klal Yisrael in the world could be safe from the גזירה. But if, rachmana litzlan, we're not we don't have the relationship with the tzadikim and the tzadikim are unable, as it were, to keep the to to keep that energy, that גזר דין under wraps, and the and and the חיצונים and the forces of רע, which are going to be נתעורר by our actions and our lack of emunah, let's see the way the the words of the Kitzur: "ובתוך שמירה יתירה שלא יתקלקל חותם זה, היינו אמונה, שעל ידי זה, חס ושלום, יוכלו לקלקל חותם הפנימי."

If the outer seal is disturbed, so then the inner seal can be disturbed, and now this גזירה is going to be ripe for the taking by the forces of רע and מחלוקת. "ואז נתקלקל שלום העולם, חס ושלום." The shalom, the the ultimate equilibrium of the world is going to be destroyed. The shalom between us and Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and the shalom of the world. "ועל ידי קלקול האמונה, חס ושלום, הוא בא לכפירה." A person can come to kefirah. "ולאמונות כוזביות," and to faith and alignment with with outside ideas, not with the emet, not with Hakadosh Baruch Hu.

"ולכמה מיני ליצנות." Leitzanut is a a cynicism, you know, it could be a problem in making light the in one of the words, I don't have it in front of me, of the vidui that I think is said on Yom Kippur Katan, we made light of things that are heavy, and heavy of things that are light. When people's value system is off, the I I saw from, I think, in Rav Avigdor Miller in the Amor Torat Avigdor sheet, says that the Orchot Tzadikim brings midot and their opposites, so there could be ga'avah and anavah. Says by ka'as, there's no I was just reading it quickly, I happened to see it someplace, but it was a profound point, the way that I understood it.

By ka'as, so what would be the opposite of ka'as? It should be patience. Says, "No, what's the opposite of ka'as? Ratzon." Because what what be'etzem is ka'as? Ka'as is a reaction to things that are not going the way that they should be. There is a perhaps a positive expression of ka'as: if a person sees somebody bullying somebody defenseless, widows, orphans, resha'im have power. A lot of times I would love to stand up against the bully, but I don't have it in me. I'm more of an introvert. I can't stand up for what's right, but I need to stand up for what's right.

Right? The חשמונאים. We need to stand up when things are mamash the רשעים are just gaining power, people are just going against the defenseless. That כעס, that energy, that adrenaline is what can get me going. However, that is that would be an appropriate use and directing the energy of כעס. That what's the opposite of that? So he says the Orchot Tzadikim brings רצון. I didn't go look it up inside. The the idea what the idea of having כעס appropriately and not getting not not misusing that idea assumes that I have the right priorities, the right רצונות, the right value system.

Once my value system, my priorities, what I want is off, so then the idea of a response against something that violates my principles, or if my principles are off, if my רצון is not aligned, if I don't have control of my רצון, one one way to address כעס is don't get angry. The other way is addressing what is it that's getting me angry in the first place. If I address first principles and אמונה and רצון, understanding that everything is coming from HaKadosh Baruch Hu, so then I avoid I'm never going to get into that situation in the first place.

So he says what that's related ליצנות. ליצנות is cynicism, right? It doesn't just mean like telling bad jokes. ליצנות is Making, taking something that's heavy, the Mesilat Yesharim says greasing a shield, so that you take something that has impact and then it becomes diverted. You're greasing like a round shield, you're making light of something that's heavy. With one comment, you could sweep away a full מוסר שמועס. ואינו שומע כלל המוסר ועל ידי קלקול תוכחה והמוסר אז הם זורין. In the Kitzur, through קלקול תוכחה and מוסר is they've become גירושין, which we said is like ניד, a לשון of נידה, so you're turning the חותם into נידה.

The חותם could have kept the גזר דין under wraps, and now there's going to be גירושין, exile, וטלטול נעשה, people are going to have to move around, and there's going to be מחלוקת בעולם, the היפך משלום. נמצא שאמונה היא עיקר. אמונה is be'etzem at the core, at the root of avoiding all of these things. There won't be a גזר דין, there won't be מחלוקת, there won't be גירושין in the world. עיקר חותם העליון של קדושה to preserve קדושה, which we will stay in ארץ ישראל, right? We had, I think in תורה ז, we talked about תפילה, we talked about אמונה, we talked about nes, we talked about Eretz Yisrael.

ויקלוט הקדושה וישמע ויקבל מוסר, and then we will be able to right ourselves. People are human beings, we do the wrong thing. But if we want to bring ourselves in line, we want to be able to attach ourselves to the tzadikim, like the Mesilat Yesharim says, the tzadikim who already have the maze solved, and they're able to tell people which direction to go, and from our vantage point we're so confused. We want to be able to מקבל מוסר, וישוב אל השם וירחמהו, ונמצא שנשמרת כל הקדושה על ידי אמונה. Emunah is what preserves all of that kedushah.

So how do we be'etzem merit emunah sheleimah? That means that what is our whole Torah over here, we've been talking for 15 minutes, what is the whole Torah about? Emunah sheleimah. Emunah sheleimah is what's going to preserve our relationship with the tzadikim, the outer seal, and even if rachmana litzlan, either if we would have taken tochachah from the tzadikim originally there wouldn't have been a need for a gezeirah, even though we went in the wrong direction, and even after the gezeirah, if we can preserve this emunah, we're not going to break the inner seal and won't have the effects, it seems, of the, of the inner gezeirah.

How do we merit this emunah sheleimah? We have to come close to the true, to the true tzadikim, and again, we talked about Moshe Rabbeinu and the שבעה רועים. How do we get close lema'aseh to these tzadikim? We need a certain azut. What's, what's azut? So we talked at length about azut d'kedushah. There's a lot of competing noise in the world, a lot of competing ideals throughout, throughout all of the ages. There were a lot of isms, but even now, everybody is standing on principles. Everybody's standing on their version of the way that society should be and what's right and what's wrong, and then they redefine everybody else's ideals as being archaic and old school and nonsense and primitive.

And people are, so how do I know what's right? Here I am, I'm growing up. Does it just depend which, which college, which university I go to? If you look around the landscape of what's going on the country, everybody's doing things in the name of righteousness, people assuming if they even understand what they're standing up in the name of. How do I cut through all of the noise so that I can see the truth? Because once you see the truth, everything falls away. Arguments only exist, if me and you are arguing, I might think that I'm right, and I might think that you're wrong.

That's different from saying I'm right and what you're saying is nonsense. Right? The example that I always use, just because I think it's easy, is, you know, two people can have an argument about which directions are better: one way is shorter, the other way might have more traffic, but they, we're both arguing that they get to the same place, and there's different reasons, or I might say that you're just wrong, there's something that you're not aware of. But let's say I say two plus two is four, and you're arguing two plus two is five. Well, I don't need to respond to that at all.

We just had, if you're, if you're learning דף יומי, we just literally had a Gemara, and the Gemara asks, there was somebody had made an accusation against one of the גדולי אמוראים or the גדולי תנאים, and it said, and he responded. And they said, why did he respond at all? So in that particular case, it was going to cast some sort of a, of a bad light or a bad accusation against one of his children, he wanted to publicly respond. You don't have to respond to nonsense, there's nothing to respond to. So in this case, you could see two leaders fighting and you say, you know what, I'll sit this one out, and I'll see which one, you know, who wins and then I'll follow them.

But if you see the truth, if I'm able to cut through all the noise and attach myself to the tzadikim, to the emet, so then I'm not even going to be disturbed by everything else. In this case, potentially, we could say it's even a little bit different, because you know, קדושה, הקדוש ברוך הוא, קול דממה דקה. If we think about things existing at different altitudes, things in this world, and we, we related this also to the neshamah of the guf, the influence at the, if a person is not holding in kedushah, they're not holding by the emet, the influence, the immediate influence seems to be much stronger from the, from the kochot of ra.

They're much more riled up. I might have mentioned one time, there's somebody named Tuvia Singer, I, I've seen him here and there. He is like an anti-missionary, happens to be very funny, knows Tanach backwards and forwards, in English inside out. I think he said he went through with the Abarbanel, you know, that's what gave it to him. But he, if, if you look for a while, there was a lot of missionaries running around, and I think he made all of his content free. But it's very, one of the interesting things is if you watch him debate one of these missionaries, one of these priests, he is relatively calm, he seems to have like all of the answers, and you'll see the, you know, the person arguing with him like hopping up and down, foaming at the mouth, getting all excited, unbelievable, and then they start yelling and getting emotional, and he much more calmly is

able to respond, at least that was my experience, I think I watched one or two. But when you have something that's true, it's much more subtle. It's like when two people are arguing, and one of them is calm, and the other one is just totally emotional and hitting and yelling, who do you who do you assume is right? When it comes to the רשעות and the רע and the outside influences in the world at the lower altitudes, the guf, the תאוות הגוף, we all might want to do what's right, our head could be in the right place, we want kedushah, we want to learn, we want to we want to act appropriately, and yet the תאוות seem so much stronger.

At the lower altitudes, the push and the influence of other things seem so much worse. So now it's even a little harder, it's not things that seem even and I just don't know which one is right. If anything, the influence of the the negative influence seems to be number one, much stronger, and oftentimes seems to be seems to be winning. Sometimes, chas veshalom, it seems to be that the people that cheat get ahead. So now it's not only a matter of sort of waiting, I need to mamash cut through the noise, I need to mamash cut through all of these influences in terms in in order to have clarity.

And that koach that allows me to do that is called עזות דקדושה. And if you can cut through it, so then one will be subservient to the other. Rav Hutner זצ״ל, in I saw a part of this piece, I think I've mentioned it before, in Pachad Yitzchak in the beginning of the שעה of the Shabbos piece, he brings an example. It's actually a halachic example. He talks about if somebody brings a let's say a cup, a kli, out, a person you can't carry on Shabbos, a person brings a kli out from רשות היחיד to רשות הרבים on שבת קודש, so then he's going to be עובר on הוצאה, he just carried.

But let's say a person brought out substance, and there's a shiur to the substance, there's a certain amount that a person is not going to be חייב for less than that shiur. Let's say a person has less than that shiur, a speck of food, a person would not be חייב for that. However, he doesn't just bring out that food from רשות היחיד to רשות הרבים, he brings it out inside the kli. Had he brought the cup out from רשות היחיד to רשות הרבים on Shabbos, he'd be חייב, but now that he brings the just less than a shiur, less than the requisite amount of food out from רשות היחיד to רשות הרבים, and he brings it out inside the kli, not only is he פטור on the food, he's פטור אף על הכלי.

Why? Because now the kli is subservient to what it's holding, it loses its own identity. Once you attach yourself to the truth and you understand the world and everything going on is just a הלבשה, this is just the stage on which we're engaging with הקדוש ברוך הוא, we have עבודת השם. Once a person understands that the true, how does the Kitzur put it, והעיקר עצמיות האדם מה שנקרא אצל האדם אני היא הנשמה, that's the me, שהיא עצם הקיום לעד. Even after the how does a person get reward and punishment if he dies? He doesn't die.

The same him in this world is the him in the next world. Otherwise, if the person died, then how could he get reward and punishment? He's no longer around. No, the body was the kli, although there's techiyat hametim and the body is going to come back, but the the the guf is be'etzem a kli for neshamah. Once a person relates to the true himself as the driver of the vehicle, as the neshamah in the guf, so then he's able to actually relate also to the guf appropriately, and the guf itself takes on takes on meaning, as it were, and also finds its place within the universe of kedushah.

But how do we get this עזות of kedushah? Says the קיצור, והמבוא לעזות דקדושה הנ״ל היא על ידי שמחה, it's through simchah. So we'll say a few things about simchah, but one one thing that I'm just going to mention briefly, which is, you know, a whole another topic, is what be'etzem is simchah? It's the ultimate driver. If you're going to have an עזות דקדושה, something that's going to give you the ultimate push towards emet, simchah is really at the at the foundation of everything. Why? Why does a person do anything, think anything, bring it to articulation, start a project?

At the at the height of everything is ratzon. I have an abstract will, undefined, in order to do something, and then I'm going to develop an idea, and that idea will develop into practical, how to achieve that idea, into actionable steps, or in terms of speaking, if I want to say something, or I want to express something, that idea, before it's developed, is because I have a ratzon to speak out that idea. But what generates ratzon? What generates ratzon is ultimately that I have simchah, that I have pleasure in something, that I that I want something, that if this is achieved, it's going to be something that's going to give me simchah.

We'll speak out more on simchah in a second, very interesting. Actually, I'm going to say it now, because I think it'll be better to say before the next point. There's a sefer, The Joy of Emunah, Rav Reuven Schmelczer, it has unbelievable, most of the page most of most of the pages is footnotes, so I'm not going to go through all the footnotes, but he says he talks about why mitzvot have to be fulfilled with joy, why the Sefer Charedim says ידוע שעיקר מצוה על שמחה הגדולה בה, he brings from another sefer by the Chatam Sofer ויש שכר על השמחה יותר משכר של מצוה עצמה.

What is it about simchah, about the simchah shel mitzvah that that is able to the mitzvah is the the root of the word mitzvah is tzavta, it's connection, but what is it about the simchah that's behind the mitzvah that drives the mitzvah of a connection with HaKadosh Baruch Hu? He quotes Rav Moshe Shapira that what is the sensation of simchah is that of breaking out of limitations that confine a person to his physical borders. And this this is going to jive very well with everything we're saying, but just I'm just going to read a few lines.

Says, "By definition, a human being is limited and cannot contain more than his natural capacity. When one is besimchah, his identity expands and breaks out of the natural boundaries of the guf." This is describing, in other words, I think we could say עזות דקדושה. A person and ultimately anavah, and we're going to see the position of yirah with regard to simcha. But when what is it the simcha has to be directed in the right to correctly. But when a person is limited by certain things, he's limited by his own identity even, so that there's going to be an anavah over there that we're going to say what drives simcha is going to be Torah and tefillah, it's going to be an expansion of self, a drive.

It's hisorerut, more than a hisorerut, a hishtokekut. Right? Hishtokekut, hisorerut it could be I'm inspired to do something, hishtokekut I'm chaser even if I don't have it, I'm chaser rather if I don't have it. It's like water, I can want dessert even if I'm full, but if I'm thirsty, I need water, I'm chaser without it. And if I if I'm not thirsty, then water is not even desirable. When when a person expands, the second that I that I think that I'm full, I'm in a good place and I have tefillah and I realize that there's more of a relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu, then no matter where I am there's more to gain and I have a I'm chaser and I want to expand and I want to bring that in, and then the next time that I bring something inside of myself, I realize that there's more levels and I have a hisorerut and

hishtokekut, and I break out of the natural boundaries of guf, I'm driven, I have simcha, I have azut. He says, that's the common denominator of all types of simcha. A person gets married, he expands himself to include a wife. A child is born, the family expands. Shabbos and יום טוב מעין עולם הבא. The ultimate simcha is relating to our limitless רוחניותדיק dimension, which is an infinite expansion. He actually goes on to bring a diyuk, he says the opposite of עולם הזה should be עולם ההוא, that world. But it's not עולם ההוא, it's not that world, it's olam haba, the world to come.

We've said before, what's a בן עולם הבא? בן תורה is not somebody who is going to get Torah later, a בן עולם הבא is not somebody who is going to get reward later, a בן עולם הבא is somebody who lives with infinite spiritual עולם הבאדיק considerations now. Now he's a בן עולם הבא. A person can the example I think we gave earlier was a person moves a piece of plastic. Is he moving a piece of plastic or is he turning on a machine that can have a gazillion watts? A person who is a בן עולם הבא understands in this world that he's living, I'm not just shaking a lulav branch, I'm not just eating matzah, I'm affecting unbelievable things!

It's just that a person doesn't experience the effects of that until that's going to be to come. But an olam haba is not עולם ההוא, it's not that world. That Olam Haba exists now, it's just that Olam Haba is going to come. And therefore, that's what b'etzem simcha is. So how does a person get to simcha? A person gets to simcha through Torah and tefillah. We talked about this נעשה, na'aseh v'nishma, we explored this in the previous shiurim, it's going to be too much for now already, but a person constantly trying to expand, trying to bring in מקיפים, trying to not limit himself.

The opposite of that, by the way, this we said last time is anavah, the opposite of this is ga'avah. What's ga'avah in a certain sense? There's a story from Rav Yisrael, I believe Rav Yisrael Salanter, said two people arguing who is taller. So one person one person stepped up, he wanted to bring himself up so he was taller, and the other person knocked the knocked the other kid down so that he instead of bringing himself up, he knocked the other person down. Said this one is going to be a גדול, the other person is going to be a רשע בישראל.

The story is true, the facts might not be like I said. But this idea, what's anavah, what what allows for all this simcha, Torah, tefillah, the process of na'aseh v'nishma of constantly expanding, bringing things within oneself, and knowing tefillah, knowing that I can relate to something outside of myself, having hishtokekut, relating to HaKadosh Baruch Hu until a person just constantly iterates on this process until they're נכלל in the אין סוף, תורת ה׳, תפילת ה׳. That's anavah, understanding that where I am is only a speck not even a speck compared to those greater than me and ultimately towards infinity, and understanding the tzadikim as being how many levels outside of myself that they are my relationship as I expand out, but I need a reference point and I need to have a relationship, I need something to to bridge that gap, and I have the tzadikim.

Ga'avah is trying to say that I am the outer perimeter is what I think is what I think is correct, my perspective is correct, what I want is what I want, instead of expanding myself and being מבטל myself as if you if you think about, let's say you hold a candle towards a larger flame, it'll become absorbed in a larger flame. If you have like a bonfire and you put a you have a branch that has a that has a flame on you put it very close, the flame will jump and it'll be נכלל. Okay, so now now that's what it is, except now you could have the bonfire and it's close to a much bigger candle, right?

And then you can iterate this process each time, and then it gets absorbed in something bigger than itself. What's ga'avah? Ga'avah would be the exact opposite of this process. We're going to see how anavah really works its way into this lesson, and therefore the way to get to simcha, this expansiveness, is going to be is going to be through Torah and tefillah. Now, the עיקר שלמות השמחה, going back for one more second and this is going we're going to be finishing off. I know this was almost like a shiur in and of itself, but I think that it's it's as good of a finale as any to bring the ideas together.

Says the Kitzur, "עיקר שלמות השמחה היא על ידי יראה." Why does it have to be through yirah, the עיקר שלמות השמחה? Because a person can expand in a lot of different directions, and some of them are actually very harmful, some of them are very destructive. There's an infinite amount of things that could pull us in different directions, but there's only one emet, right? So if I'm going to expand, I need to be expanding towards the emet, so to speak, towards extra depth and extra extra levels of truth and things that before I didn't have. A person can get get, you know, unbelievably advance if he's learning the right things.

He learns the Gemara, and then Rashi, and Tosafot, and and Rashba, and rishonim, and then acharonim, or a person can spend his whole life on on the wrong bookshelf with comparative religions, I don't know. Once a person If a person has the emet, how does a person expand in the right direction? There has to ultimately be a framework. The simcha has to be calibrated. What calibrates it? Really, hechreach, really the idea that there's a structure that's not violable. I'm going to read an unbelievable Rav Moshe Feinstein. It's in the new print of Kol Ram on this week's on last week's parashah, Parashat Behar.

He doesn't ask the question this way, but I'm going to ask the question, I'm going to use Rav Moshe to to to answer the question, and I've heard others give similar answers. The Jews had said, "נעשה ונשמע." That's the greatest commitment to Torah ever. After נעשה ונשמע came כפה עליהם הר כגיגית. Hakadosh Baruch Hu, as it were, held the mountain over their heads. It's a it's a midrash, it's literal, it's not literal, whatever it means. Why? If you're going to hold the mountain over their heads, that's fine, but now the Jews already committed to נעשה ונשמע.

Why why does Hakadosh Baruch Hu at that point hold the mountain over over heads? Rav Moshe Feinstein comes at it from a from a different point. He talks about the idea of why we're chayav in mitzvot. Tzav, so relating If you do something that's an unbelievable thing and it might be an unbelievable thing, you did it because you wanted to. If I ask you to do something, what do you do and let's say I ask you to do that, you give tzedakah because you think it's a nice thing to do, you do kibbud av va-em because you realize it's a nice thing to do, I command you to do kibbud av va-em, then you're mekayem my ratzon, that's נעשה.

Now you can have נשמע and you can understand why what I said, you'll understand why it's true on the level that you understand it. And if I am, not I, if Hakadosh Baruch Hu is is Ein Sof, ein sofiyut, then the more that you connect to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, the more depth you'll realize as to why Hakadosh Baruch Hu is is is instructing you towards the emet. But the reason that we do mitzvot, Rav Moshe Feinstein פיינשטיין says, the reason we do brit milah is not because Avraham had milah or גיד הנשה because Yaakov Avinu had גיד הנשה.

He says, no, the reason that we do it is because it was commanded on Har Sinai, and he says, "ולכן", this is unbelievable, "חזינן שמכל תלמידי שם ועבר שודאי היו להם הרבה תלמידים", and all the "נפש אשר עשו בחרן", there were so many people learning by שם ועבר, there were so many people that Avraham Avinu brought with under the כנפי השכינה, "לא נשאר כלום לדורות הבאים." We have zero left. Where are they all? Why do we have zero left, not one? "לא יצאו מהם דורות טובים." Why? "משום שמי שמקיים את המצות מצד שהוא מבין הטעם, לא מועיל לזה חינוך." If I do something because I see that it's so, so then I can't give that over.

I can't give over that that's that that's intrinsically right. What I can give over is being committed to something that you recognize as truth. So if you recognize something different as truth, you'll say, "You know what I received from my father? That a person should go in the way that he understands to be as truth." When people did not keep mitzvot because they were מצווה ועושה, because that was under the framework of כפה עליהם הר כגיגית, so then they're ultimately keeping mitzvot because they have an understanding. Whether it's, you know, based on you know, the we know that the אבות הקדושים were able to look into the בריאה and see the mitzvot, but ultimately that was מצד their נבואה, so it wasn't מצד a ציווי.

And therefore, he says, that was intrinsically not something that could be given over, "לפי שהבנים חושבים שהם מבינים יותר טוב מאבותיהם." Because people say the later generations were more advanced, earlier generations were more primitive, they did things they understood, so now we have more information, go בתר בתרייתא, we're going to do what we understand. And so therefore everybody did whatever they wanted to do. There was nothing to give over. "אבל מקבלת התורה בהר סיני, שנגלה השם ונתן תורה וכפה עליהם הר כגיגית..." So we don't look back and say, "You know why the Jews have certain values?

Because at that time and place, they understood something. Now that we have additional information, or we're in a different culture, different time and place, we understand differently, we will follow the path of our ancestors and do what we understand to be right." Comes HaKadosh Baruch Hu and says, "It's wonderful that you said נעשה ונשמע, that you recognize 2 + 2 = 4, but I just want to tell you that the reason you're following that..." That is not because you realize it's true, it's because it's intrinsically true. That's that's what because it's it's הכרח. And therefore, in order to have simcha, simcha, is that going to flap in the wind?

No, the ultimate driver of simcha is understanding that there's yirah. You know why I want to expand, you know why this is emet, you know why I want to get close to HaKadosh Baruch Hu? Because it's the הכרח, because there's yirah over there. The more yirah I have, the more that I have an inner drive to get close and appreciate it. The more that I get close and appreciate it, the more I'm in awe of it, the more yirah I have, וגילו ברעדה. And therefore, and therefore, this idea of yirah and ultimately simcha, so he says בראשית דמאמרא in the Kitzur, and that's why emunah is called ירוש-, emunah is, sorry, one second, שלמות השמחה is through yirah, yirah is a בחינה of בושה, which is which is a בחינה of tefillah, ירא בשת, he says בראשית is the letters are ירא בשת, and in order to have tefillah, to have התבטלות towards HaKadosh Baruch

Hu, that comes from yirah, that comes from busha, and therefore emunah is called Yerushalayim, which is because the עיקר בנין of Yerushalayim, tefillah, Beit Hamikdash, korbanot, all that comes yirah, that's from בראשית, ירא בשת, ירא שלם, he brings all these ideas together in terms of relating to Hakadosh Baruch Hu through yirah to simcha, to עזות דקדושה, which gets us close to the tzadikim, which means that we could preserve the חותם, we could have a mituk in the din, we can get close to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, we could have a mituk in the gezeirah. And now, now we're going to go forward.

So as we unpack a Gemara that starts off Elazar Ze'ira from Bava Kamma דף נ״ט עמוד ב', the the piece Rabbi Nachman just jumps into it, I'm just going to read out in English the the the piece so we understand the context of the Gemara. It actually has to do with how to evaluate damages. I'll read from the English from the Sefaria translation if anybody wants to follow along. It says that the Gemara relates Elazar Ze'ira was wearing black shoes, which was unlike the Jewish custom of that time, and he was standing in the marketplace of Nehardea, a public area.

The officials of the house of the ריש גלותא found him and said, "What's different about you that causes you to wear these shoes? That wasn't their custom." He said to them, "I'm wearing them because I'm in mourning over the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, and so I wear black shoes as is the custom of mourners." They said to him, "Are you a man of such importance? It's a gaavah. Are you a man of such importance to publicly mourn over Yerushalayim?" They thought that it was simply presumptuousness on his part. Since he was acting against the prevalent Jewish custom, they brought him to prison and incarcerated him.

We'll have to see this in how we unpack in Likutei Moharan. Elazar Ze'ira said to them, "Hold on, I am a great man, a scholar, and it is fitting for me to mourn publicly over the destruction of Jerusalem." So the we already discussed earlier in this Torah and other Torot also, the danger not just of anavah versus gaavah, but especially gaavah as as as running your avodah. If a person has anavah, they understand that who am I compared to Hakadosh Baruch Hu? I have the the the scope of my resources, of my skills, of my abilities, but really that's an accountability.

Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave me that specifically in order to utilize, unless I'm measuring up to the level of 100%, I'm fully utilizing everything that I have towards Hakadosh Baruch Hu, if anything that could be that can be an indictment. If a person has gaavah, so I own my resources, my skills, my abilities. These are things I've I've gaavah, whether it's things that I'm good at, whether people have or a good voice or even good looks, who's responsible for their looks? But people have gaavah over these things. And therefore, anything that they do is really reinforcing their own their own individuality, their own personality, but not not in a positive way.

They're folding avodah under into reinforcing their כלי, their גשמיות, their guf, who they are, rather than using avodah to be able to subscribe to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. So he says, not בתורת גאווה, but בתורת this is this is where I'm holding. The anavah is not the the avodah that I'm doing, or the outward avodah that I'm doing is not is not greater than where I'm holding, it's actually an expression of where I'm holding. So they said, "How do we know that you're a scholar?" He said to them, "Either you ask me a matter of halachah and I will answer you, or I will ask you a matter of halachah and you will answer me." They said to him, "You ask," and we'll explain maybe why they went that route and what this dynamic is.

He said to them with regard to one who cuts a cluster of flowers on the stem of a date palm belonging to another, so somebody damages somebody else's property, their palm trees, "What is he required to pay?" They said, "He pays the value of the date stem." He said to them, "But ultimately they will become ripe dates, which are worth more. So why should he only pay for the value of what he damaged when that's only b'koach, but now all of a sudden he robbed it of its potential, it was going to become dates?" They said to him, "If so, he pays the value of the future dates." He said to them, "But he did not take ripe dates from the other person!

How could the court obligate him to pay for damage that he didn't cause?" They said to Elazar Zeira, "You tell us the correct appraisal for the date stem." And he said to them, the court appraises the damage relative to a similar piece of land 60 times the size. And the Gemara Bava Kamma over there is talking about damages, right? In other words, if I damage fruits, how do I look at it? Am I looking at the damage to the fruits? Am I looking at the damage to the piece of land? The land is worth less without the fruits on it, and if I take a piece of land that's let's say a patch that's a 100 feet, 100 square feet in the middle of Manhattan, well that's going to have a different value of the value of 100 square feet as part of a larger parcel of land.

So if a person damaged two rows of apples, and you say, well how much did this decrease the value of land if it's a small patch of land? I have to be able to have some sort of a standard way of evaluating it, so they said, value the damage to the land as how much would this piece of land be worth in the context of a piece of land that's 60 times the size. Okay, עיין שם, however the Gemara goes through it. וזה פירוש אלעזר זעירא הוה סיים מסאני אוכמי. Elazar Zeira was wearing black shoes.

אמרו ליה, מאי עבידת? What are you doing? אמר, קא מתאבלנא על ירושלים. I am in mourning over Jerusalem. What's the kavanah in pnimiyut? כי היה מתאבל על ירושלים, קריה נאמנה, היינו על קלקול האמונה, that he was being מתאבל, Elazar Zeira was being מתאבל על ירושלים. Jerusalem, we said, is קריה נאמנה, it's the city of faith. He wanted to rebuild back up Jerusalem through being מתאבל, right? One expression of understanding the value of something is your reaction to it when there's a chesaron over there. כל המתאבל על ירושלים זוכה ורואה בבניינה. How is a person zocheh to realizing Jerusalem?

A person could have something, they don't have something, but when a person feels the lack, things aren't right, when something is missing. I heard this understanding one time, I think it was Rav Yaakov Weinberg, but he said that what does it mean that a person is מחכה, אחכה לו בכל יום שיבוא. Every day you're waiting for Mashiach, there are certain days Mashiach can't come. When a person is מחכה, it means things ain't right, things are missing, I'm מחכה. If a person has, let's say they're waiting for test results, health test results or admissions test results, whatever it is, they might know that they're not going to get it for three weeks, but they're not in a state of מנוחת הנפש until a person knows what they're doing next year.

Did they get into the yeshivah? Did they get into the university, the law school? They can't go on until they know. They have a serious test result, a health test result, and they don't know what the future's going to look like. Yes, there are some days they know that they're not going to receive the mail, they can't open up the envelope on Shabbos, but until they know and they receive those test results, there's something missing, there's something that can't go on. A person's reaction to not having something shows that they're lacking equilibrium without it. Therefore, a person's מתאבל על ירושלים, this is how the reaction is when we don't have Jerusalem.

We're a handicapped nation, as it were. There's, right, רמ״ח איברים, שס״ה גידים, there's 248 positive commandments. How many of those commandments relate to things that just simply until we have the land, until we have קרבנות, until we have בית המקדש, how many of those מצות עשה are relevant today? That means that even, yes, Baruch Hashem, we're frum, we're sitting, we're learning, we're davenen, by definition, we're only operating with 80-some-odd, the Chafetz Chaim has a sefer on all of the mitzvot that we have access to בזמן הזה. A person is lacking the ability. It's a body that's missing some of its limbs, but a person who's מתאבל on that, that's the person who's going to be zocheh to see it built back up.

What's Yerushalayim? Yerushalayim is קריה נאמנה, so he's being מתאבל on the קלקול האמונה. We said that emunah is going to be the primary thing in order to relate to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, as it were. We talked in the context of when there's a גזר דין passed, but the emunah is going to be the gateway. Let's see: ועל כן סיים מסאני אוכמי, he put on black shoes, להורות שנתקלקל חותם הרגלין, to show the shoes are on the רגלין. The רגלין, we said, are the tzadikim. The tzadikim have a role that on one hand they represent Klal Yisrael towards Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and also in a dual role, they also represent Hakadosh Baruch Hu, as it were, to Klal Yisrael, to bring tochacha, to bring us close.

But we're going to see that in order for the tzadikim to be able to fulfill that function towards Hakadosh Baruch Hu, they have to be speaking on behalf of Klal Yisrael. There's מאמרי חז״ל, when there were נביאים, including Moshe Rabbeinu himself, that didn't have interaction, as it were, בתורת נבואה with Hakadosh Baruch Hu when Klal Yisrael weren't holding on a certain level. In order for the tzadikim, as it were, to be effective towards Hakadosh Baruch Hu, they have to be representing the nation. For them to represent the nation, to be able to give tochacha, it has to be that the people are subscribing to the tzadikim.

We have a relationship with the tzadikim, and we said that that's through emunah. So if there's not going to be emunah, so then there's going to be a קלקול in the רגלין, even though we said in terms of two different חותמות, one is the חותם רגלין and one is the outside of That is the emunah and the relationship with the tzadikim. When there's no relationship with the tzadikim, then the the חותם ידיים, then the חותם רגליים is also going to be is also going to be messed up. Once that חותם is messed up, then rachmana litzlan it could be that the גזר דין is going to turn into a דין אכזרי because we said that this this גזר דין, this energy in the world, it's not going to be under wraps, but it'll be available for the negative forces to be yonek and it could turn into a negative דין.

ונעשה מחותם דם נדות, the same gematria of חותם and נדות, that instead of being a חותם keeping the דין that it there could potentially be a mituk, it's mituk, then then it's going to turn into נדות, the same gematria as banished. It's going to turn into machloket and golah. Where's it going to be The tzadikim bring shalom into the world, shalom between כלל ישראל and hakadosh baruch hu. If everybody, even if everybody's different and has, you know, different immediate, let's say, priorities, when everybody's part of the same system, everybody's is becoming a keli to hakadosh baruch hu, we're trying to make a דירה בתחתונים, we're all trying to use our strengths, we're standing around a circle all looking towards the middle, so then everything be-etzem comes together, and the tzadikim brings that together.

We said, I think in Torah ב׳, that everybody brought their part to the משכן, but the שכינה didn't dwell in the משכן until Moshe Rabbeinu assembled it and brought it together into one structure. When everybody, you know, ga'avah, everybody says, "I'm doing it בתורת עבודה," but everybody wants to express themselves, I guess you could say, "אנא אמלוך," right? I want to be a different conversation, but I it's an expression of myself, I want to be the בעלים on my avodah. So at that point, then there's going to be machloket and there's going to be galut, and the tzadikim are not going to be able to bring that shalom, and there's it's going to be represented in נדות.

וזה מסאני אוכמי. That's why it's a black shoe. שנתקלקל הרגלין ונעשה נדות, כי האי שחור אדום הוא. Halachically, there's a discussion what when something is considered דם, when something is considered blood. Blood is be'etzem red. There's different shades of blood, and it says in the Gemara that black is also indicative that it could be blood. Why? How could black be blood? Because red blood that has a קלקול in it, so that turns black. So over here, interestingly showing how is he showing a קלקול in the רגליים? Because the רגליים is representative of shoes, and really you would say that חותם turns נדות, and נדות is blood, so maybe he should have been wearing red shoes, but when there's a קלקול in the red, then that red turns black, and that that's how we see it what get it's expressed by the Gemara.

וזה נעשה על ידי קלקול האמונה, because even though, even though really we're talking about חותם רגליים, which is one seal, but we said that in order for there to be a חותם רגליים, the where the tzadikim bring together the shalom to avoid the to avoid the effect of the גזירה so that the tzadikim could represent Klal Yisrael to Hakadosh Baruch Hu and give תוכחה to Klal Yisrael, leave the גזר דין under wraps so that it won't become destructive, but in order there has to be emunah, there has to be a relationship between Klal Yisrael and the tzadikim in order for that to in order for that to work.

And where the emunah is broken, memeila, it's automatically there's going to be a חותם in the רגליים as well, chas v'shalom. עיקר היא אמונה, כמבואר למעלה, שעל ידי קלקול האמונה, שהוא בחינת חותם ידיים, when there's no emunah, there's no relationship between Klal Yisrael and tzadikim, נתקלקל ממילא, it happens automatically, leads to a חותם רגליים. It's impossible for the חותם רגליים to stay intact, for the tzadikim to bring the shalom between Klal Yisrael and Hakadosh Baruch Hu, to leave the גזר דין under wraps. In order for them to do that accurately, to bring shalom and not to just bring machloket and פירוד, it has to be that the tzadikim are really leading Klal Yisrael, as it were, and there's this relationship there and they bring Klal Yisrael together.

כי עיקר הוא האמונה, כנ״ל, because the ikar is the emunah. אמרו ליה, they said to him, "מי חשיבת לאתאבולי? Are you so chashuv that you're able to be mitabel on Yerushalayim?" You're expressing aveilut. But if a person is not holding there, so then their aveilut is not really an expression of the feeling that they're lacking equilibrium as a as an expression of their appreciation for what Yerushalayim is, that something is now missing from the relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Really what it is is, "I'm holding on such a level." They're not they're not showing that they're lacking, they're actually trying to build themselves up, build themselves in up into what?

Our only gadlut is our attachment to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. If a person's building themselves up separately because "I'm chashuv," what I'm really doing is separating myself, chas veshalom, from Hakadosh Baruch Hu, so that's a katnut. If I if I'm trying to build myself up, who am I? I'm I'm compared to Hakadosh, I mean, relating to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, my only value proposition, my significance is that I'm attached to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. I'm separating myself because I say, "I'm good." So then I'm בעצם nothing. היינו שחשדו שיש לו גדלות. They thought that he had gaavah. ועל כן, the opposite, על ידך נתקלקלו הרגלין.

If what you're engaging in is gadlut, so to speak, and gaavah and separating up yourself from Hakadosh Baruch Hu, the opposite of emunah, so then your expression of aveilut of Yerushalayim is not only not effective to bring back Yerushalayim, you're the one, chas veshalom, who's actually causing that there should be that there should be galut, etcetera, בבחינת אל תבואני רגל גאוה, it's a pasuk, let not the foot of the gaavadik come to me. So if gaavah is a bechinah of we see, the first of all, gaavah is a bechinah of רגל, כי על ידי גדלות נתקלקלו הרגלין, so the opposite, now we see that that if gaavah is is also associated with regel, but now over here it's causing a kilkul on the regel, a kilkul on the חותם רגלין, it's causing the galut, the opposite of shalom, it's causing the pirud and the the גירוש, והחותם to become נידחת, בבחינת כל המתגאה כאילו דוחק

רגלי השכינה. So he quotes over here the Parperaot LaChochmah says גבר יהיר, a person who is גאוהדיק, ולא ינוה, won't come to נוה קדשך, the opposite, נהלת בעזך, we talked about the azut d'kedushah of the tzadikim, when we're led by the צדיקים אל נוה קדשך, this brings us to נוה קדשך. So the gaavah, or the versus the anavah, or the anavah that is bitul to the tzadikim, to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, is what brings us towards ירושלים, קריה נאמנה, and the emunah leads us there, as opposed to the to the yehirut, the gaavah, that's what's ולא ינוה, that keeps us away.

Now, this fits with everything we're talking about, the anavah, how did we look at simchah? We talked about simchah as a function of expansion, of getting greater than myself, of not being limited by my own by my own limitation, by, you know, my own perception of myself, my own individuality and the independence from HaKadosh Baruch Hu. So if we're looking at this that the anavah brings to simchah, we said that that brings to Torah and tefillah, or brings the azut d'kedushah, which allows us to cut through all of the noise and attach yourself to the tzadikim, which brings the the outer seal, which protects the inner seal, and that emunah is what what brings us to be mevatel the gezerot as opposed to gaavah, which causes pirud.

I'm just going to mention one idea, an unbelievable idea that I saw, you know, as we discuss Klal Yisrael's relationship with the tzadikim, we talked about שימוש תלמידי חכמים, we talked about purifying the the the כלי, purifying the גוף through the נשמה, the relationship between the גוף and the נשמה, and the idea of whether a כלי views itself, as it were, as being an independent entity or understanding a כלי by virtue of its function, that its גדלות, its identity only comes when it's servicing whatever is inside the כלי, that the that the גוף takes on its identity, it's purified, and it takes on its own חשיבות when the גוף is the מרכבה of the נשמה.

And over here, talking about that in the context of ירושלים, קריה נאמנה, not being דוחק the רגלי השכינה, of coming to נוה קדשך, bringing the גאולה, bringing back ירושלים, the there's a ספר called Shaarei Avodat HaYichud was put out by one of Rabbi Itche Meir's talmidim, it's מיוסד ומלוקט from Sifrei Rabbeinu Aharon Halevi miStrasheile, I'm probably mispronouncing that, זכר צדיק לברכה, who is one of the the תלמידים of the Baal HaTanya. And I'm just going to quote a small piece, but it relates directly to this idea. He says הקדוש ברוך הוא הקדוש ברוך הוא created the world, he brings from the Etz Chaim, he says why Etz Chaim why did הקדוש ברוך הוא create the world?

כדי להיטיב לברואיו, ויכירו גדולתו, ויזכו להיות מרכבה למעלה. To be מטיב to הקדוש ברוך הוא sorry, הקדוש ברוך הוא to be מטיב to the ברואים, that we should be, obviously the language is very hard, but that we should be מכיר הקדוש ברוך הוא, and to be merit through this that we should be a מרכבה. In simple language, what's a מרכבה? What's a chariot? A person is driving a chariot, a person is driving a truck, a person doesn't say that the truck is driving and I'm leading it, whatever if if the the truck is a function of the driver, I only speak in reference of the driver, where are you driving, I don't talk about the מרכבה.

The idea is that a person should not have an independent idea, I want what I want, and I am willing to take what I want, and I will do עבודה, I will do מצות. No, that a person becomes an expression, he becomes a vehicle, as it were, of הקדוש ברוך הוא. And he says the אבות, הן הן המרכבה, that they were mevatel themselves תמיד אליו יחודו, and the highest expression of this is that Moshe Rabbeinu is mevatel his metziut. So, you know, going back to our example, if if there's who I am and what I do.

If who am I, איש כפי מהללו, a person is their understanding of the world, their vision, their hopes, their dreams, their understanding, their machshavah. So I can have my own understanding based on my my experience, my knowledge base, and I can evaluate what you say, and I can recognize that what you say is true. But or I can say that that's not just what I do, it's not that I'm me and I'm relating to הקדוש ברוך הוא. If I understand, I totally align, my priorities are truly הקדוש ברוך הוא's priorities, my understanding of truth itself, my vision of the world is a תורהדיק view of the world, I make myself into a merkavah.

Now, the Avot, the צדיקים, הן הן המרכבה, even the שיחה קלה, even the שיחת חולין rather of tzadikim you can learn things from, because even when a when a tzadik, when a person is on this level, not just when they're necessarily learning Torah and doing mitzvot and they're applying their knowledge to something that's So to speak ruchniut. When they're looking at the world, they're looking through תורה'דיק eyes, they mamash see the world, even their שיחת חולין is a Torah outlook, it's viewing the world through that. So this is where the the the אבות הן הן המרכבה, the tzadikim, this is they totally make themselves into a merkavah.

But he goes on, he says, but this is really the be'etzem, the avodah of every single person. Now, but I'm not holding there, so what's my avodah today? I be'etzem, I'm a lowly person, this is not where I'm holding, and he brings from the Baal HaTanya. He says that even if the Avot were holding on a level where they mamash were a merkavah, but I I'm I I'm just you know, I'm I'm I'm a keli, I have my own personality, I'm not holding. However, he says, באמת כן הוא בכל ישראל בשעה שעוסקים בתורה ובמצוות, רק שאיננו מרגישים בכך מחמת חומר הגוף שלא נזדכך.

While a person is engaged in Torah u'mitzvot, right now, it could be that for the rest of the day my head is going to be in places that it shouldn't be, not even necessarily negative, but not engaged from looking at things through a תורה'דיק approach. But right now, I'm fully engaged, the sum total of my head is talking about הקדוש ברוך הוא, talking about avodah. If you were to take a snapshot of my brain, I mean halvai, I'm holding there, but I'm using an example. If you were to take a snapshot of a Yid's brain when he's fully engaged in Torah u'mitzvot, this this is a sum total of right now.

Maybe not in a broader way is he a merkavah, but at least while he's engaged in Torah u'mitzvot, so at that moment in time he's a merkavah, and we want to work towards where we reform and revise and bring ourselves closer and little by little, sometimes small steps are more effective even than big steps, at making ourselves that we're going to be a merkavah in the broadest sense possible. But at least while a person is engaged in Torah u'mitzvot, and emunah and our relationship with the tzadikim, then we actually are fulfilling this idea of the the actual creation.

He goes on to say to be a דירה בתחתונים. This is an expression of HaKadosh Baruch Hu in this world. This is the entire we are mamesh engaged in in in the purpose of the creation, he says, of adam and of the ברואים and of the עולמות and of mankind. It's just that we're not holding on the level where where if if we would understand this and we would see what what it is that we're mamesh establishing a דירה בתחתונים, we'd be blown away. So therefore, you know, that'll be when it by Olam Haba. We don't feel it, our guf is not purified enough to understand the reality of what we're actually accomplishing.

But when you go to Shacharit, this should be a big hit'orerut and a big chizuk to us that we're mamesh we're validating and creating with HaKadosh Baruch Hu, that there's a kli, that HaKadosh Baruch Hu's creation of the world itself. ועל כן, כיוון שחשדו בגדלות, since they were חושד him with גאוה, חבשו, they imprisoned him, כי עונש הגדלות הוא תפיסה. The way they were explaining it, perhaps we can say that in גדלות, you're really your own worst enemy, you're holding yourself back. If התבטלות and anavah is limitless growth, unlimited potential for growth because you can attach yourself to the Ein Sof and continuously growing forever.

If you can try to to have גדלות and fold anavah and fold avodah into your perception, then you're essentially holding yourself back, you can't attach yourself to the infinite, כמו שאמרו רבותינו זכרונם לברכה, whoever behaves with גאוה, הקדוש ברוך הוא משפילו, הקדוש ברוך הוא will lower him, שנאמר ואם אסורים בזיקים, it's a pasuk in Iyov, that it says that a person who is מגביה himself, then he's going to end up אסורים, held back, לשון of אסור is held back, בזיקים, in chains. נמצא שעונש הגדלות תפיסה, ועל כן חבשוהו. Just to quote from Reb Chaim Kramer's note, he brings note 169 on page 394, says that the Gemara says that if one grows haughty, God will knock him down.

Chazal learn this from the pasuk in Iyov where we just quoted: He, meaning HaKadosh Baruch Hu, enthrone kings to reign forever and raises him, but if they are bound in chains, held in cords of affliction, he tells them of their deeds and their transgressions. And he explains, based on Rashi, that when raised by God, his kingdom is forever, when raised by his own haughtiness, he will be bound in chains. And therefore, if a person finds himself bound or imprisoned, let him know this is a punishment for having become haughty. I don't know if parenthetically we could say that if a person is experiencing like roadblocks in avodah, maybe that's a good reason to have cheshbon hanefesh in terms of what his motivations are.

But let's leave it. אמר להו, in order to prove that he was a talmid chacham, says, בעו מינאי או אבעי מינייכו. He says, you ask from me or I will ask you a question, כי זה יהיה ניסיון אם יש לי גדלות, הראיה שלא אוכל להשיב לכם. Why? כי כל המתגאה חכמתו מסתלקת הימנו. A person who has gaavah, his chochmah goes away from him. So he says, if you ask me something and I can't answer you, that will show that I was acting gaavadik. But he was saying I was acting appropriately, which means that the way that you approached me was gaavadik.

I will ask you a question and maybe you can't answer me. Reb Chaim Kramer over here brings a note that they chose בעו מיניה, they they chose for him to ask them a question because it was a little bit of a safer path. Had they asked him a question and he answered, it would have shown for sure that he wasn't gaavadik. If they if he asked them a question and they couldn't answer, it wouldn't necessarily show he wasn't gaavadik, it would just show that they, you know, perhaps acted inappropriately more than the way that they should have.

So, you know, depending what happened, it was a little bit of a safer path. Be that as it may, בעו מיניה. So he asked from them: האי מאן דקץ כופרא מאי משלם? Somebody who cuts down a budding date tree, it belongs to it belongs to his neighbor, he has to pay damages. מאי משלם? What does he have to pay? It was he he cut it down. Had he left it, it would have ripened. At this stage, it was not yet ripe and therefore it should be worthless, but on the other hand, it would have it would have been on its way to being worth more.

In pnimius, קץ כופרא, a person who cut down the budding date tree, but over here הוא בחינת שפגם בעזות. A lashon of cuts, קוף צדי, a lashon of cutting down is a lashon of cutting or פגימה. כופרא הוא בחינת עזות. And כופרא, which is interesting because we'll see that azus, or engaging in negative azus, if positive, if azus d'kedushah attaches one to the tzadikim and leads to emunah, so the opposite of that, azus the the negative type azus could lead to kefirah, the opposite of emunah. Over here, כופרא really is the root, and we're going to associate it with עזות, הוא בחינת עזות, בחינת קולות, כמו שכתוב: הכפירים שואגים לטרף.

And it says that the כפירים, the young lions, roar after their prey, so we're associate with קולות, and this is going to be the negative azus. Although it's interesting that we're put putting the word כופרא, which would seem to be a lashon of of kefirah, but but the the negative azus it was what could lead to kefirah. So ושאל, he asked them: מאי משלם מי שפגם בזה העזות? What does a person have to pay, so to speak? What has to be fixed, a person who engaged in negative azus? He associated himself with the negative influences in the גוף-נשמה context, that could be for personal ta'avot in the tzaddikim, the the positive leadership context.

והשיבו, they answered: משלם כופרא. He has to pay for what he damaged, כמו שפגם ישלם, that he has to, let's say, engage in anavah, has to get close to the to the authentic tzaddikim, and he has to make up whatever he damaged. ושאל, so he asked: והא כהוו תמרי, but at the end of the day, תמרי is a לשון of המיר, like a לשון of תמורה, it's a לשון of to change. But it says כי על ידי זה ש- but over here it says that the the כופרא, the budding dates, would have become תמרים, it would have become dates.

So by cutting down the כופרא at the earlier stage, he was preventing them ultimately from becoming dates, so that's really a greater harm, כי על ידי זה שפגם בעזות, by virtue of the fact in פנימיות that this person was פוגם בעזות, he engaged in negative azus instead of the עזות דקדושה, יכול, it's possible, now it's indirect, it's not immediate, but of by virtue of distancing oneself from tzaddikim and ultimately following the wrong leadership, יכול לבוא לקלקול אמונה, it's possible that through this that through the negative azus, instead of cutting through the, like we said, cutting through the noise, so to speak, cutting through all of the immediate influences and attaching oneself to the truth, to the tzaddikim, to the שבעה רועים, which will reinforce emunah, the חותם ידיים which protect the חותם רגליים, over here he's being diverted and that's going to be moving farther away from emunah, which will also have a negative result

from the גזירה, because by disturbing the חותם ידיים and not reinforcing the emunah, the חותם רגליים is going to get messed up. וזה תמרי, the idea of of תמרי, בחינת ההמיר גוי אלהים... ועמי המיר כבודו, it's a לשון of, has a nation המיר, exchanged its gods? But my people exchanged, continues, כבודו בלא יועיל, as כבוד, honor or glory, without any benefit. So by changing up priorities, allegiance, faith, as it were, to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, it becomes a לשון of the opposite of emunah, so to speak of avodah zarah. והשיבו, so they they agreed with they agreed with Elazar Zeira, and they said: Okay, ישלם תמרי.

If you're saying that A leads to B, so then by disturbing A, ultimately the consequence is going to be B, and therefore, if you're saying that they cut down כופרא and that's going to lead to a loss of dates, or by engaging in negative עזות, now again, we use a lashon over here of יכול, that's going to be engage be the opposite of emunah, kefirah, of avodah zarah even, so ישלם תמרי, כמו שמגיע על קלקול אמונה. We've said many times, by the way, we associate gaavah with avodah zarah and why that is. But over here, if it's going to come to a קלקול אמונה, so then that's what they're ultimately responsible for.

The problem is, והא לא הוו תמרי, but lemaaseh, this person cut down כופרי, and he didn't cut down תמרי, he cut down budding dates and not dates themselves, כי אף על פי כן עדיין לא בא לכפירות. It's possible, or like we said, יכול, it's not necessarily direct. Sometimes something has an immediate effect. Over here it's one level removed. Yes, this person is not following the is not going in the direction of עזות דקדושה, and he's distancing himself from tzadikim, but he has not yet engaged in תמרי, and being, and moving away from emunah, in avodah zarah, in kefirah as it were, and therefore how could this person be punished like that?

This is similar, by the way, I mean we see this threading throughout the בריאה. This is how the question really was framed in terms of monetary damages as well. This person damages a small parcel of land. How do we look at it? If we look at it in a very local way, then this is how much land is worth. If we look at it in a broader context, if you look at a 10 square feet in the middle of a million square feet, it's totally negligible, and that's what we said, b'shishim. B'shishim is the appropriate context in which to evaluate something.

והשיב בשישים. So, he said shishim, the way to look at this at what was actually damaged is in the context of shishim, that would be appropriate. היינו גיהנם, שכל העולם אחד משישים לגיהנם. He's coming off a Gemara that goes through a calculation of how big the world is compared to עדן, compared to the Gan Eden, compared to Gehinom. But be that as it may, the way that we're relating to it is that there's the Ba'avei HaNachal, Rav Chaim Kramer's note 179 over here, he relates נעשה, עזות דקדושה, ונשמע to three different types of punishments: galut, Gehinom, and ultimately reincarnation.

He says that there for kefirah, for the opposite of emunah, a person either stays in Gehinom, rachmana litzlan, or he's not going to be able to get into Gan Eden, so there's going to be reincarnation. Be that as it may, Gehinom is in the middle of galut on one end, which we're going to explore right now. Galut, we had said earlier already that tzadikim make shalom in the world, the opposite of shalom is פירוד, is machloket, is galut. In fact, the idea of the idea of galut is he brings over here also, is not only the idea of being literally outside of Eretz Yisrael or subject to foreign rule in terms of the world, but it's actually it denotes being ruled by evil characteristics of the host culture, the lust for money, immorality, other evil desires.

This they explain is the real subjugation, the subjugation of the soul, so that one is distant from God. So, we see that one leads to the other. Certainly this seems to overlap with the idea of a negative azut of subscribing to the wrong leadership, to the wrong influences, but in principle we're setting up this spectrum, as it were, between galut, gehinnom, and then one who's not going to be able to get into into Gan Eden, and therefore it's going to be either staying in gehinnom or reincarnation, and we're associating this with נעשה, עזות דקדושה, ונשמע.

And over here, the question, the way that we're framing it is, what is the punishment or the consequence of negative azut, of עזות דקדושה? So, Elazar Zeira says, well, on one hand, you can't say that it's the ultimate we can't associate with ממש כפירה with the ultimate punishment because it hasn't gotten there yet. On the other hand, to just say that it's galut, to say that it's on the other end of the spectrum, so then, you know, it's going it's going towards the ultimate negative goal, as it were, of emunah, and therefore we look at it in a broader context, then it's in this middle ground of gehinnom.

Also, well okay, let's let's go a drop vayter. So he says, גיהנם שכל אחד משישים לגיהנם. כי עז פנים לגיהנם, azut comes from a יסוד אש, the Shaar HaKedusha we've mentioned before, we've mentioned before in these תורות that the midot are associated with אש, מים, עפר, and אויר, and the azut comes from a יסוד אש, so we're associating gehinnom with אש. כי עונשם של כל הדברים החליף אברהם אבינו עליו השלום. Avraham Avinu, the Midrash points out, over here brings a Midrash Rabbah that Avraham Avinu was presented with four things: גיהנם, מלכיות, מתן תורה, and בית המקדש.

And HaKadosh Baruch Hu told him by the ברית בין הבתרים, כל זמן that your children, that your בניך, that Klal Yisrael is osek in two, that עוסקים בשתים, meaning Torah and korbanot, then they'll be saved from the other two, Gehinnom and מלכיות. However, Avraham Avinu was told that HaKadosh Baruch Hu HaKadosh Baruch Hu told him that there will come a time when they're going to be deserving of punishment, and HaKadosh Baruch Hu as it were gave Avraham a choice. Rav Chanina bar Pappa said Avraham chose מלכיות, galut over Gehinnom, and then there's a מחלוקת over there, it says that רבי יודן ורבי אידי ורב חמא בר חנינא אמרו אברהם בירר לו גיהנם והקדוש ברוך הוא בירר לו את המלכיות.

And it goes on, but we see we see in this interaction that that Avraham Avinu chose that galut will be the punishment and not Gehinnom. Now, to explain this, Rav Chaim Kramer brings the Ba'ivei HaNachal in the note 179, says if instead of serving God, the Jews sin, this strengthens the עזות, the influence of the other side, סטרא אחרא, which in turn gives the עזות, the strength if you are following the wrong influence, turn away from God, so it's giving that influence What gives influence power? Following and subscribing to that influence. So this gives עזות the strength to further deter the Jews from serving Him.

As long as a person is in this world, he can use his holy עזות, where we spoke about the קולות and the עזות דקדושה, to overcome the unholy עזות to be able to cut through that. However, in Gehinnom, where the עזות of the other side is manifested in the accusing angels that exact punishment one cannot escape, there all his cries are to no avail. As the Sages said, whoever does not work in this world cannot attain the next world. Therefore, Avraham exchanged the spiritual punishment of Gehinnom, where the sounds of holiness do not help, for the physical punishment of subjugation, for which the sounds of holiness can help.

So it was much better to choose in this world, even if we're in a period of darkness, as it were. Over here, a person can cut through and still access and still access the tzaddikim, emunah, HaKadosh Baruch Hu through the קולות, through the עזות דקדושה that will lessen the influence of the negative forces. But in Gehinnom, a person doesn't have access. And he goes on, he says, whoever merited drawing close to the tzaddikim during his lifetime, thereby meriting the עזות דקדושה, will after his passing be able to cry and pray for the tzaddikim to take him out of Gehinnom.

So longer conversation, but whatever we set up, the Mesillat Yesharim gives multiple examples. I think he brings three different examples from Chazal. This world is like a hallway, the next world is like the טרקלין. But one of them is that this world is like Erev Shabbos, the next world is like Shabbos. It's not just a arbitrary reward. Whatever you cook, whatever you put in the cholent, that's what you're going to get. What are we going to have in olam haba? Whatever we prepare in this world. If a person prepares an attachment to the tzaddikim in this world, sometimes it's hard, we have challenges, we're not always able to stick to those to those priorities in that clarity.

But if a person establishes, he draws close in attachment to the tzaddikim in this world, so even in the next world, that attachment is intact. And therefore, the tzaddikim will be able to take him out of Gehinnom, out of the fall preceding the ascent, okay? So earlier also we said yeridah letzorech aliyah, he'll be able to immediately reap the rewards of his work in this world. But someone who is brazen-faced, the negative azut and does not draw close to the tzadikim will not be able to count on their merit to free him from Gehinnom when he passes away.

So Avraham Avinu chose the path of galut over Gehinnom. Having said that, he brings over here also from the Parperaot LaChochmah. I can't say that I understand this exactly, so I don't want to impose I don't want to impose sort of like, you know, reading myself into the words, but he brings over here that foreign rule corresponding to the domination of false leaders, which we just said, itself stems from the brazenness of the other side. So therefore, the idea of galut itself, the idea of negative forces itself is essentially the negative azut. Therefore, it's insufficient for a person who behaves with the unholy azut to pay for his sin through the suffering which comes through being subjugated by the yoke of foreign rulers.

So he seems to be saying, although I'm not sure of that, but I just want to read it and know that it's here, that even though Avraham Avinu chose the punishment of galut, of being in exile as a punishment, but nevertheless, that's still a punishment for something else. If the exile itself is the negative azut, that itself is the influence of the foreign leaders, then that can't be the punishment for negative azut. So since the punishment would really be Gehinnom, but Hakadosh Baruch Hu, as it were, gave Avraham a choice to substitute it with galut in this world, but the galut in the world is the azut, that can't be the punishment for the azut, so that stayed in Gehinnom.

Okay, so be that as it may, let's just go back to the text. So we're reading these concepts into the story of Elazar Zeira, and Elazar Zeira is talking what happens when a person goes towards the negative azut. On one hand, it's on the path towards קלקול אמונה. On the other hand, he has not gotten there yet, and therefore what's the punishment? So it says over here, Gehinnom. כי עז פנים לגיהנם, כי על שאר כל דברים הללו הפך אברהם אבינו עליו השלום על שיעבוד מלכיות. Avraham Avinu chose galut as a punishment, אך עונש העזות נשאר רק בגיהנם.

However, the עונש of azut remains subject to Gehinnom. וזה שפגם בעזות דקדושה על ידי עזות פנים דסטרא אחרא ישלם בשישים, היינו בגיהנם כנ״ל. And therefore, the person that engaged in negative azut, so the punishment for azut is on a level of its own, separate from other עבירות, and therefore the punishment will be in Gehinnom. So summing up the story, note 180 in Reb Chaim Kramer, he says Elazar Zeira was a true leader who was humble, he had anavah, he had attained Torat Hashem, and he put on black shoes, symbolizing the damaged seal, the חותם רגלין, and went to the market in Ardashir, in a public place.

Now, the servants of the Reish Galuta saw him and said, "Why are you wearing black shoes?" He said that, "I'm in mourning for Yerushalayim, for the קלקול אמונה," was corresponding to the damaged חותם ידין, which we explained why the relationship between the חותם ידין The חותם רגלין, but he said that once the outer seal of emunah is damaged, the inner seal is damaged, and therefore ירושלים, קריה נאמנה relates to emunah, since a person who engages in aveilut is rebuilding Yerushalayim and rebuilding emunah, so he was engaged in aveilut. But they said, "Well, wait a second, if you're not holding there, then that's not really anavah, that's actually gaavah.

Gaavah is what drives people it was drives drives Klal Yisrael away." So they, "So, are you so important that you can mourn in public?" They now are potentially engaging in the azut or the negative behaviors themselves, so they saw this as a public display of of anavah, sorry, public display is gaavah rather, and they had him arrested, which we said אסרוה בזיקין, that's the punishment for gaavah. But he said, "No, I actually am holding there, I'm an אדם חשוב, it's anavah, I'm doing the right thing, and therefore I am rectifying the emunah of the people, as opposed to you who are questioning me going against me, it's azut." So now there there was this conflict, and they they were going to resolve the conflict because gaavah makes it that a person is going to forget his Torah.

So he said, "Well, if you ask me a question I can't answer you, that'll show the gaavah, or the other way around." So he gave them a choice whether or not they should ask him a question or he should ask them a question, and he ultimately asked them, they chose, someone who cuts down, cuts כופרא has azut has negative azut, he cuts down the budding date tree, what does he have to pay, what is the payment, the punishment for unholy azut? And he answers, they so they said he pays the price of date buds, that in other words he will repent, he will do teshuvah for exactly what he did.

But Rav Elazar Zeira said, "Well, wait a second, the unholy azut, the negative azut, that's going to lead to a קלקול אמונה, so shouldn't the consequence relate to what this is going to be in line to cause?" And they said, "Okay, that makes sense. Let him pay the punishment for heresy, for a קלקול אמונה, which is more severe even than Gehinnom. It will be to stay in Gehinnom like we said, or not being going to Olam Haba, reincarnation." But he said, "But he didn't take full-grown dates. Who said that he would have come to that level?" And they said, "So you tell us." And his answer was, pay a sixtieth, meaning that עז פנים לגיהנם.

So now to finish up, this Torah was said in עשרת ימי תשובה the year תק״סה. We're now going to tie together the idea of Tishrei and the two חותמות. And חודש תשרי, which is called ירח האיתנים, איתנים is strong, עזות, ועזות דקדושה הוא בחינת תשרי, ועל כן נקרא ירח האיתנים. The reason that Tishrei is called the powerful month or the the month of the powerful, of the strong ones, מלשון תקיפות, firm, ועזות, כי אז צועקים ישראל קולות וקול שופר, because in Tishrei we have the קולות, the halachah brings down that even somebody davens quiet during the Yamim Noraim, a person can daven louder, but there's the קול of the שופר, שהקולות כולם הם בחינת עזות כנ״ל.

It's this עזות, this עזות דקדושה that again attaches to the tzadikim, which builds emunah, which guards the two חותמות. Through ועל כן אז נחתמו ונתקנו שני חותמות. Through this, we're able to build up and to solidify, to preserve the two חותמות, חותם בתוך חותם. The Arizal brings that at the time of Neilah, the holy time of Neilah, the tefillah of Neilah, that's the inner חותם that where it's going to preserve that there shouldn't be the חיצונים are going to be יונק from the גזירות. So this is a special time after Rosh Hashanah, Aseret Yemei Teshuvah, Yom Kippur, that we have the we preserve the inner חותם so that the חיצונים shouldn't be able to be יונק off of that גזירה, that there should be a מיתוק in the דין.

And after Sukkos, the where בצלא דמהימנותא, the שבעה רועים, right, the אושפיזין, the final day, the finale of Hoshana Rabbah, that's the outer חותם, the אמונה, על ידי עזות דקדושה זוכים לאמונה. So during Tishrei we preserve both of these חותמות, and through the עזות of kedushah, through the קולות from the Yamim Noraim, we get to אמונה שהוא בחינת חותם הידיים that ultimately preserves the inner חותם. ועל ידי זה זוכים לקבל מוסר ממוכיחי הדור, and through this emunah we're able to receive the tochacha, we're able to receive the rebuke, the guidance. That's how we're able to make ourselves into a keli to be mekabel from the צדיקים, שזהו בחינת חותם רגלין כנ״ל.

That the מוכיחי הדור we said are the רגלין, and they're the ones who are going to be mussar, they're going to, so to speak, keep the din under wraps so that the so that the outside forces are not going to be יונק. How are we able to preserve that inner חותם? Through emunah, through our relationship with the tzadikim, that's the outer חותם that's built on top on by הושענא רבה, שהן בחינת שני חותמות, חותם בתוך חותם כנ״ל. We'll sum up in a second just parting words because it's late. וזה תשרי, בגימטריא תשרי שתי פעמים חותם.

חותם is 454. 454 * 2 is 908, adding the kollel, the one for the word itself, so Tishrei is 454 and then one for the word is 455, and then add the same thing, that's 910. So two חותמות is the month of Tishrei in גימטריא עם שתי תיבות. ועל כן בתשרי שמחת ישראל, that there's a simcha in Tishrei, not just on on Sukkos and Hoshana Rabbah, but even in ראש השנה כי עזות הוא על ידי שמחה כנ״ל, like we said that the the azut d'kedusha comes through simcha. There's a pasuk in Nechemiah says, כי חדות ה׳ היא מעוזכם, that that Tishrei the עזות leads to simcha.

וגם במקרא זה נאמר על ראש השנה, by Rosh Hashanah where we even though we're we're on trial, there's a simcha associated with it, and Chag Sukkos is we know that is זמן שמחתנו. So, it comes out that in Tishrei, this is the this corresponds to the two חותמות that are perfected: number one, through the leaders, the tzadikim; number two, through emunah, and the emunah again establishes our relationship, our connection with the leaders that they can do they can fulfill this role of representing Klal Yisrael towards Hakadosh Baruch Hu and also representing הקדוש ברוך הוא towards כלל ישראל.

And that emunah in the tzadikim is what allows that inner חותם to be so that the חיצוניים are not going to be יונק off the גזר דין. And this relationship with the tzadikim is reached through azut d'kedushah, which you come to through simchah, which is תשרי is the month of it's the month of דין, there's יום הדין and נעילה, but ultimately Sukkos is the is the Yom Tov of זמן שמחתנו, but it's also that we sit in the sukkah, it's also the time of emunah, and therefore, it all fits together. Just two closing points: number one, he brings over here, ראויה תהיה, he brings this this idea, it says, לפי דברינו בתחילת תורה זו, we can explain this unbelievable idea that people go on Rosh Hashanah to the צדיק הדור to receive the tochachah, which is going to be the חותם רגלי פנימי, and on Sukkos we get the emunah from the ushpizin, and again,

it all fits together. And he says, ובזה יובן שיחתו של רבנו, וזה לשונו: רבנו אמר, מה שהצדיקים אחרים פועלים בעבודתם מראש השנה עד הושענא רבה, this process that the צדיקים are able to accomplish, to be ממתק the דין by the Yamim Noraim, by the ימי הדין, by Rosh Hashanah going through the tefillah of ne'ilah, which is the חותם רגלין, and ultimately Sukkos and Hoshana Rabbah, which is which is the emunah, the outer חותם, פועל אני בלילה הראשונה של ראש השנה, עד כאן לשונו. Rabbeinu was able to accomplish this even at the start of it, the the seeds, the day one, on the he was able to accomplish this on Rosh Hashanah, and and this is the power of going to of going to Rabbeinu on Rosh Hashanah.

He says over here, ולכן הזהיר כל כך את אנשיו לבוא אליו בראש השנה כדי לקבל ממנו את שני החותמות הללו, תוכחה ואמונה. So, going in to protect yourself, to bring a mituk in the din, so that Klal Yisrael will have a a positive din, this is accomplished through these two חותמות. So, the last sort of summing up, not going to be nearly as long as our introduction, but I'm going to use again Rabbi Chaim Kramer's note because he says it actually in a little bit of a different order. So, the summing up now that we have all of these pieces, he brings for a person to benefit from the exalted spiritual perception of the soul, ultimately what are we trying to do?

Full integration, that our that our guf doesn't have its own independent identity, but that it the the neshamah should be shining through the guf, that we're elevating the guf. A person should perform many mitzvot, mitzvot ma'asiyot, mitzvot with the guf. The guf, right, is going to be משמש the neshamah. We're משמש the tzadikim. The guf is going to serve the body. Likewise, a person himself should serve the tzadikim so that this is true again in a פרטיות'דיק way and in a כלליות'דיק way. This transforms him into the concept of of flesh vis-a-vis the the tzadik, so the guf corresponds to the neshamah where the way the same way that a person is going to correspond to the tzadik.

Now in order to subdue the body's עזות, the the negative עזות, the עזות of the guf or the עזות of the false leadership, he says how does a person do this? With the עזות of kedushah. How does a how does a person go towards the עזות דקדושה? Through the קולות, and through the קולות a person is able to break through the guf and also able to break through the negative influence to attach himself to the true leaders, to the שבעה רועים, and once a person has this, he's attached through emunah, he's able to receive the rebuke of the tzadikim, the tzadikim who themselves have achieved תורת ה׳, and in that, Hakadosh Baruch Hu reveals to these tzadikim the forthcoming decrees, which are דיני the גזר דין תורה, and the tzadikim are able to reveal to the people in the form of תוכחה, in the form of rebuke, to be able to bring the people close,

so that the there there could be a מיתוק in the דין, and it won't open itself up to being יונק from the חיצוניים, it won't chas v'shalom, rachmana litzlan, be a negative דין, but actually the decrees will be mitigated. However, there's another aspect of עזות that we have to break through. This is the עזות that we saw from the sort of בעל עזות either, that that could cause a קלקול in the emunah. This עזות, whether we talk about the גוף, which is a gross physicality, or whether we're talking about improper עזות against Torah and God-fearing people, the people who are against the tzadikim, this creates an echo, so there's all this noise, and a person is almost incapable of differentiating between the sounds of kedushah and not kedushah, which becomes so misleading that a person could even could even be trying to serve Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and he's really going in the wrong directions.

How does a person break through the noise and come to the holy עזות? This is through simchah, this is through joy. joy, this is through the concept of נעשה ונשמע, the concept of Torah and tefilah, תורת השם and תפילת השם, and this joy, which is going to lead to the עזות דקדושה, so that lead to the emes, to not get confused by the by the echoes, by the negative עזות. So how how is that achieved? Through yirah. We explained already at length why yirah precedes simchah. This yirah is synonymous with humility, with humbleness. We explained בראשית, ירא בשת, ירושלים, קרין אמונה, תפילה.

When a person achieves this through joy, this נעשה ונשמע, he rises to a higher level, and he's able, in an iterative process, he transforms the each neshamah into נעשה, he's able to incorporate within himself, he's able to grow closer and closer and closer to the Ein Sof. He says whereas holy boldness, עזות דקדושה construction perfects faith, the unholy brazenness, the negative עזות, that leads towards kefirah. So we saw that the נעשה ונשמע, the negative the נעשה, the עזות דקדושה and the neshamah, and this on the negative side, rachmana litzlan, this this corresponds to galut, to Gehinnom, and or or and to a person reincarnation we saw that a person's not even going to be able to get in.

So he says, how does a person differentiate between the sounds of holiness and the sounds of the other side in order to subdue the negative עזות? A person has to daven and daven again, because davening corresponds to neshama. And the more a person attaches himself to neshama, so then they're going to be able to incorporate the neshama into נעשה and grow level until they reach תורת השם and תפילת השם, and they're able to negate oneself. We explained in avodah, through his bitul, through anavah, then a person's able to break down their own barriers and be mevatel himself towards the Ein Sof, towards HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and to grow.

But when a person has the ga'avah, this is exactly the opposite. Instead of yielding and being mevatel himself towards Torah, avodah, towards the emet, towards the tzadikim, towards building emunah, towards the outer חותם, instead it's actually the opposite. They're limiting they're they're limiting themselves by themselves and they bring everything within, they become the outer limits of whatever they can reach. That's ga'avah, that's the opposite, that's kefirah, that smacks of avodah zarah. But if a person can do this, they'll be spared, Im yirtzeh Hashem, from the punishment of gehenom, and they'll merit all the rewards of Gan Eden, which corresponds to neshama, to תפילת השם.

And therefore and they will they're negating themselves to the Ein Sof, each person attaining the highest level that he's capable of, bring peace and blessing and abundance and shefa to the world. Coming back to as the Sifra deTzniuta state, and we can just leave off from what we had mentioned from Rav Moshe Shapira from the very beginning of the shiur, that איזהו בן עולם הבא? We're not talking about עולם הזה versus עולם ההוא, that world, something that we're disassociated with, but rather, even though we don't necessarily appreciate it until we get to a different state of being, but a person who's a בן עולם הבא is a בן עולם הבא now, as if you want to look up just one thought, the Gemara in Ta'anit says, it says that there were two brothers in the marketplace, and Eliyahu said Eliyahu HaNavi said to Rav Beroka that these people are בני עלמא, these people are בני

עלמא דאתי. These are בני עולם הבא. So Rav Beroka went over to the men and he said to them, אזל לגבייהו, אמר להו: מאי עובדייכו? אמרו ליה: אינשי בדוחי אנן. We are jesters, we're bachanim. Sorry, one second. אינשי בדוחי אנן, מבדחינן עציבי. And when people are sad, we cheer them up. What's a בן עולם הבא? Simcha. It starts this process. Again, עזות דקדושה, emunah, it mitigates the decrees that that a person is able to take to to bring a מיתוק to the din and attach to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. אי נמי, כי חזינן בי תרי דאית להו תיגרא בהדייהו, we see people fighting, טרחינן ועבדינן להו שלמא.

When people are fighting, we bring shalom, we bring peace. So simcha and shalom, this is exactly the ideas that we associated earlier with the with the tzadikim and what's associated with the tzadikim. And Be'ezrat Hashem, the more you look, it's just everything fits together into one picture. You can find the emet. It's just a question of finding a window into the emet. We will finish up the there's a few pieces at the end, just an an appendix to the Torah. We'll finish them up next time. But ברוך השם, הדרן עלך, תורה כ״ב, and we'll try to do the Kitzur together as well.

But it was a long Torah, I think very rewarding, and Im yirtzeh Hashem, we'll come back to it.