LM 23.4 — Tzivisa Tzedek, Part 4 of 7 · תורה כ״ג

Be'ezrat Hashem, we're going to be starting by paragraph ה' of Torah כ״ג. Tisha B'Av is already next week. We're we're in the nine days, and I wanted to mention a couple of ideas from primarily from Reb Itche Meir. There's a couple shiurim posted in the podcast actually that we put over here that I think are a good lead-in for the ideas that we from from our Torah to to summarize. The ideas that that Reb Itche Meir discusses is that there's a certain אור, there's a certain light, as it were, that is accessible by Tisha B'Av, like in any moed Hakadosh Baruch Hu brings shefa to the world, and Hakadosh Baruch Hu gives us a way to connect to Him.

And there are certain times where, from our perspective, that light is more manifest, is more of a gilui, it's more easily accessible, and there's certain times where it seems where there is a hester panim and it seems that the light is less accessible. It seems almost that it's a time of darkness, that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is limiting the shefa to the world, and that that there's less of an attachment. And one of the ideas that he discusses is if you take if you take a father's love for a child, the there are times when times are good, when the father is giving a reward, when they're sitting at a table, they're singing on Shabbos, things are nice.

And there are certain times when the expression of that relationship, whether the child does something that's a danger to himself or others, the kid runs into the street, he's engaging in negative behaviors, when the the expression of that relationship is in terms of discipline, it's in terms of din, it's in terms of something that seems to be a distance of the relationship. The From the point of view of the mashpia, from the point of view of the father, the the the the love hasn't changed. Sometimes, one could argue even, that it's a stronger expression of love when the when the mashpia, when the father has to has to give out a harsh a harsh response.

It hurts the father to see the son cry, but he knows that because because he loves the child, then there there has to be an expression of discipline, there has to be a din, there there has to be a a response to bring the child back around if he really cares. A lot of people are able to have a good time with people, but if you if you see somebody engaging in negative behaviors, health-wise, ruchniyus-wise, a person does not necessarily run around to give mussar, and it truth is it doesn't always, unfortunately, even bother us.

If a person would see a child fall, they'll say, "אוי," they'll run to help him, but if all of a sudden the child picks his head up and that child is his child, it's a it's a totally different response that it hits the parent in the gut. And therefore, one of the things that we understand as we go around the the the calendar year, we go around the mo'adim—Tisha B'Av is a moed—we go around the yamim tovim, and different life events, the way that we that we understand things, there is an avodah of Baruch Hashem making semachot, and there's an avodah, rachmana litzlan, of of semachot, of of the negative times, and neither one of them is an indication of more or less love, although there are certain times when the expression is a more is a more clear expression of it.

And as a person enters into these the three weeks and the nine days and then Tisha B'Av itself, and there's there's a lot to say about it, our avodah to tap into the אור is to understand not it's not a question of Hakadosh Baruch Hu's love for us, it's a question of Hakadosh Baruch Hu giving an expression of love כפי the כלי, כפי the response that's needed from us, and us appreciating that and having to dig in sometimes into uncomfortable truths about ourselves, about others. To really tap into Hakadosh Baruch Hu's love, we have to understand the expression of love, and to do that, we have to sometimes look in the mirror and understand why the response is the way it is.

And the way that we feel about that, the way that we feel about our parent when the when the parent does have to give sometimes a hard messaging, and we we that doesn't impact at all, we're able to give our our our father a tight hug instead of being defensive or just ignoring it and having things go on the background and going about our daily lives. We are able to turn inwards and appreciate the the relationship and the depth and the strength of the relationship in this context. Sometimes, again, even more so when people are having a good time, everybody's in a directionally positive mode, sometimes it's not able you you're not isolating the relationship itself.

And when things are hard and when things are not seeming to go well, and and we're able to appreciate, just like the נצחיות and the eternal relationship, the בני בכורי ישראל, that's when you really see when when when you really see who a parent is. Just one more idea that I actually actually saw, they put out in English pieces, adaptations, you can find it, of of Esh Kodesh from the Piasetzna. He mentions an idea, it's a longer idea, Shabbat Shuva from 5702, 1942, by l'fum tza'ara agra, he says HaKadosh Baruch Hu created the world in order to to give, and HaKadosh Baruch Hu wants to give, and in order for us to be able to receive from HaKadosh Baruch Hu, then we have to be domeh, we have to make ourselves similar to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, to appreciate to be aligned with that that at at its core, HaKadosh Baruch Hu is mashpia, HaKadosh Baruch

Hu is a creator. In order to us to be able to align ourselves to bask in HaKadosh Baruch Hu, we also have to make ourself ourselves into creators. How how do we become a creator? HaKadosh Baruch Hu gives us a mechanism to be able to change the world and to be able to change ourselves. The ultimate the the ultimate way to do that is when we have bechirah, when we have something that's gashmiyut, we have something that is seemingly distant from HaKadosh Baruch Hu, or like we're about to discuss by the Torah, we have something that, you don't have to say is selfish, but is self-centered.

We're at the center of it, and we're able to transform that. We're able to elevate it. We're able to take something and and and say yes, it could this could be used in a self-centered way for our own pleasure, for our own utility, but but we are be'etzem a member of Klal Yisrael. ישראל ואורייתא וקודשא בריך הוא חד הוא. We're we are we are here to make a Kiddush Hashem, we're here to bring HaKadosh Baruch Hu into the world, we're able to transform and redefine things in this world as vehicles to bring to bring the Shechinah into this world, in terms of the way that we relate to parnasah, in terms of the way that we relate to physical ta'avot and שמירת הברית, which we're going to say in our Torah.

This is something where every time we we learn Torah, every time we do mitzvot, every time we do mitzvot u'ma'asim tovim, and this is פשט lefum tza'ara agra, if the agra, if the reward is aligned with HaKadosh Baruch Hu, lefum tza'ara, the lefum the pain, the effort that goes into refining it, it's only to that degree that we become a creator, to that, and therefore, that it's that's not just like, you know, you do more effort, you get more reward. It's built into the system. It's built into the reality that HaKadosh Baruch Hu established that to the extent that we are creators, that we refine, that we effort, that we smooth down the edges, but not just smooth down the edges, that we mamash transform, transform gashmiyut into ruchniyut, physical in into an expression of Godliness, our role in life as being our role in the army of Hashem, being מקבל עול מלכות שמים, of

of making ourselves into a merkavah to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and it's not self-centered, but rather it's God-centric, and we play a role in that world, a God-given role, and there there's no קנאה, תאוה, וכבוד, we're not trying It's not about us. We're not trying to take things into our orbit that don't belong there. It says that there's 600,000 letters in the Torah, whatever exactly this means, and every single letter is aligns with with one of the neshamot of Klal Yisrael. Any letter, if if the ה is attached a little bit, it turns into a ח, or the little part of the ב is rubbed out and it looks like a כ, then the letter is pasul.

Every letter has its own unique contribution, and this is what we have to contribute to the world, what we have to hone, and refine, and create, and we're able to create an expression. That's our job in the world. Like we've mentioned before, I think I heard it b'shem the the the Lubavitcher Rebbe, I think R'' Nachman says something similar as well, that the day that a person was born is the day that HaKadosh Baruch Hu said the world wasn't complete without that person. And this is every single second, HaKadosh Baruch Hu creates us every single second that we have a contribution, otherwise HaKadosh Baruch Hu is not creating the world with extra pieces, there's something that we can add and to to compliment and create that shelemut.

And therefore, to to bring this into the ideas of our Torah, we talked about a person coming close and attaching themselves to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, attaching themselves to the Ein Sof, and how do we establish a connection between ourselves and between הקדוש ברוך הוא, המלך הקדוש, totally perfect, and and and and seemingly, chas veshalom to say, even inaccessible. But like we say, for those who say ויתן לך, Rabbi Yochanan says, בכל מקום שאתה מוצא גדולתו של הקדוש ברוך הוא שם אתה מוצא ענוותנותו. HaKadosh Baruch Hu makes Himself accessible. HaKadosh Baruch Hu created the world, He runs the world, He's מחדש בטובו בכל יום תמיד מעשה בראשית.

HaKadosh Baruch Hu runs the world with with hashgacha pratit. There's not a blade of grass that doesn't have a malach telling it to grow, and we have a direct relationship with HaKadosh Baruch Hu, אין מזל לישראל. So how do we in fact connect with this that that to become on the level where we can attach to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, can achieve even more than malachim? The question is, like we said a few moments ago, it's it's working on ourself, it's making ourself into a kli, and not even if you think about a kli as let's say a cup that can get filled up, making ourself into a pipe, allowing HaKadosh Baruch Hu or to flow through us, to make ourself into a mashpia.

To be mevatel ourself to HaKadosh Baruch Hu's רצון, Moshe Rabbeinu was the greatest leader, who was also עניו מכל אדם, who was שכינה מדברת מתוך גרונו, and malchut is לית ליה מגרמיה כלום. How is Yehoshua the ultimate talmid of Moshe Rabbeinu? It says that Moshe Rabbeinu was like the sun and Yehoshua was like the moon. We talked about in תורה א, כלל ישראל is דומה to the moon, that's totally reflective. How could we totally reflective of HaKadosh Baruch Hu's malchut and רצון, to not allow ourselves to get in the way of that role? We'll come back to that in a second, and so we started off the Torah lining up the ideas of פנים דקדושה, of אנפין נהירין, of light, of chayim, and we'll see אריכות ימים, right?

When a person, by the way, is attached to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, the example that I've used before is a plug in a wall. If you have a battery, the battery has a certain capacity. The plug doesn't have a capacity. If you if you take the plug out of the wall, so then the the machine, whatever it is, stops operating immediately, but if it's plugged in, it has infinite amount of capacity, it's plugged into the source. When we plug ourself into Hakadosh Baruch Hu, so then we're attached to chayim, we're attached to the source of life itself, and we have אריכות ימים, not even just in the amount of days, but in the days itself.

There is an infinite quality to our association with chayim, is at least the way that I'm thinking about it. Attachment to simcha, we talked about simcha at length in the previous shiurim. Rabbi Shemaya actually discusses simcha. We talked about bringing things that are opposites together, but not just together, but things that are opposite really complementing each other and being aligned towards towards a common goal. Rabbi Shemaya discusses in also in in ויאמר ככה that the simcha is when something is משלים a חסרון. We have a hint of simcha, we get a Shehecheyanu, if let's say a person needs a new garment, a person needs a house, a person feels a certain degree of simcha because there was a need that got filled.

The ultimate simcha that that simcha, that feeling of simcha only exists insofar as a person still feels the lack, and therefore, they feel the the the idea of שלמות. The ultimate expression of simcha is in Avodat Hashem, because we can understand that we are be'etzem, in a certain sense, חסר. We're totally reliant on Hakadosh Baruch Hu for everything, everything that we have, everything that we do, everything we are. Life itself, existence itself is totally on Hakadosh Baruch Hu. And therefore, when we when we have this recognition, our attachment to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, which is ongoing, and the more that we see it, we don't get desensitized, it's actually the opposite.

The more of an appreciation that we that we have for the שלמות, the more that we're דבוק to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, simcha in that, even when sometimes the avodah could be, like we said going into Tisha B'Av, the avodah sometimes is not the most pleasant avodah, but you can have an aspect of simcha also in that avodah. We've discussed before that Yonah getting the נבואה, how could Yonah get a נבואה when he was in a state of עצבות? It must be that there was a simcha. I think I think we quoted the Gra, I didn't see it inside, but that there could also be if if נבואה is only the שכינה שורה on something mitoch simcha, how did Yonah Hanavi have the nevuah when he was in a state of of depression by the קיקיון?

Because a person can have a simcha in that avodah as well. And on the opposite, when a person is oh, so פנים דקדושה, חיים, שמחה, and we said that these are functions of emet and emunah. We talked about how emet and emunah go together, bringing one to אריכות ימים. The opposite of this is when a person cuts himself off, as it were, and aligns himself with אלהים אחרים, not not the ultimate אלהי אלהים, not the ultimate source, but rather with with סיטרא אחרא, which is lined up with אנפין חשוכין, מרה שחורה, depression, עבודה זרה, מיתה, עצבות, שקר.

Sheker is temporary as opposed to to to emet, and this is this is מקצר ימים. And the when we talked about it in the Torah, we focused on תאוות ממון as being the the ultimate expression of עבודה זרה, of self-centeredness, and and the ultimate way to really get in touch with emunah and emet and attachment with with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. And the Torah went on to align תאוות ממון and שמירת הברית'דיק issues. We talked about the idea of of brit and melach and tzedakah. The same way that tzedakah is מתקן תאוות ממון and שמירת הברית, תיקון הברית is metaken the the עריות'דיק issues.

The way that we understood, you know, potentially we suggested to align those things, is that bringing shefa, bringing parnasah, supporting life, right? I mean, we we talk about hishtadlut and and and making parnasah and being able to sustain oneself, but if you think also parnasah is about growth, it's about a seed being able to grow and flourish and have and have a ולד, if you will, from the seed. And therefore, in a certain sense, parnasah and and bringing a neshamah into the world, Hakadosh Baruch Hu giving an influx of source of life into the the world.

Both are similar, and the way that we relate to those things, do we relate to the relationship between איש and an אשה, of bringing השראת השכינה into the world, of bringing a neshamah, of understanding a role and a partnership of bringing godliness into the world, or do we relate to that as self-serving, as fulfilling a תאוה? And on the other hand, parnasah, do we relate to to making ourselves into a כלי and הקדוש ברוך הוא is giving us of parnasah so that we can function in the world and have life and have a life of עבודת השם?

Do we have masa u'matan, business with emunah, or do we have other challenges, dishonesty in business, יגיעה, making ourselves overly weary, not having time for הקדוש ברוך הוא, for family, for for ourself, do we relate to what we make, the the money that we make as a result solely of our efforts? Not that our efforts are hishtadlut and that we do a chiyuv of hishtadlut and הקדוש ברוך הוא then gives it to us, but rather it's כוחי ועוצם ידי. Are we selfish in terms of in terms of whether or not we're willing to give? הקדוש ברוך הוא wants to distribute money, so he he gives it to one person who he knows he's going the parnasah is going to flow through.

If a person, the Chovot HaLevavot talks about this, a person has 10 employees, every person, let's say just to make the math easy, is supposed to have $100,000, or nine employees. So instead of giving a person $100,000 each, he gives one person a million dollars. One person owns the business, and the money flows through this person to the others. This person's role is to be the employer. Does that make him inherently, all of a sudden, I look at you as taking a dollar out of my pocket, or הקדוש ברוך הוא gave him the privilege of having the role is having it flow through him?

Is a person dissatisfied dissatisfied with what they have? Are they שמח בחלקו? These are both, I think, to say, a function both in the realm of of תאוה, physical תאוה, and of תאות ממון, a way that we understand the bringing the influx of chayim, of shefa, etc., into the world as something that is starts and ends with us. It's something that we direct, even when we give tzedakah, it's something that we have בעלות over, we get to decide who, how, what, when to distribute, or alternatively, no, there's התבטלות over there, we're in הקדוש ברוך הוא's army, we have a role, it's not our money, we're a trustee, as it were, over הקדוש ברוך הוא's accounts, and therefore, we don't take it personally.

And we relate to it as such, and then lastly, we started talking about the בחינה of mezuzah, of being זז מות, of putting the mezuzah, the the name ש-די, putting the mezuzah on the top third of the door, that the doorway represents the way that we we think about business. A person should divide his parnasah into thirds, or his money into thirds, cash, real estate, and business, the top third being business, which business is something that produces, the money that one has invested in business is something that produces, and the mezuzah relating to that third that we talk about that how how we engage in משא ומתן באמונה and mezuzah aligning with these ideas.

Okay, so now we're going to go into paragraph ה'. I had another vort that I was going to say about Reuven, Gad, and Chatzi Menasheh, especially last week's last week's parashah was מטות-מסעי. Mezuzah, by the way, is 65. Each one of the שבטי י-ה represented 26, two and a half shevatim. 26 times two and a half is 65, that they were, so to speak, on the outside of ארץ ישראל. They were like the mezuzah by the פתח of ארץ ישראל, but okay, anyway, not for now. Just it almost it lights you up, you want to reference these things because you see just how the every aspect of the world, of Torah, of the בריאה itself is reflective of these concepts of emet shining through once you're sensitive to them.

As we go into paragraph ה', we are now going to take these ideas that we've discussed short paragraph, we're going to read them through the lens of the pasuk of the that that we mentioned all the way at the beginning of the תורה, צוית צדק עדתיך ואמונה מאד, and then afterwards, we're going to go back into the מאמר חז״ל of Sava d'Vei Atuna. Paragraph ה', וכל המצוה שאדם עושה אותם בלא ממון, מצוות that a person does without spending money, but over here we say היינו שאינו רוצה להפסיד ממון בשביל המצוה. We're not talking about a mitzvah that just doesn't require money.

We're talking about where a person does the mitzvah, it's tzedek, it's righteousness, he's doing what he's supposed to be doing, but he doesn't want to invest. Perhaps he borrows talit and tefillin rather than buying his own, or lulav. He's in a position where he could spend money and he chooses not to. It's a צער for him to have to spend the money. The, you know, it's interesting, in every transaction, there's a cost and a benefit. We we had talked not that long ago, I forget exactly which Gemara it was, I guess in Bava Metzia, in the maybe the in the Gemarot that talked about interest, we're talking about in a transaction, there's always the money in exchange for something.

So when there's moneychanger, if you're going to exchange smaller bills for larger bills, every transaction is going to have something that's labeled as the money or as the cost in something. Really you you would not otherwise rather spend the money except for the fact that you need to spend something. When I have money, I could it's it's in the potential form, I can end up buying anything I want. I'm going to change it for a particular item because I need that. Perhaps, I'm just suggesting, but if it helps, this is a way to think about it.

When a person does mitzvot, I know that I have to do mitzvot, maybe in order to get a reward, maybe in order not to get punished, in order to get closer to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, I'm a frum person, there's a lot of reasons why a person does mitzvot, but if a person views the mitzvot as being the cost, then they want to spend as little as possible in order to get the benefit. And therefore, if a person is going to be able to accomplish the mitzvah without having to expend additional additional money, and money is not just money, by the way, maybe we'll quote just a short piece from from the Baal HaTanya afterwards.

If How does a person get money, especially in an agricultural society, יגיע כפיים, blood, sweat, and tears, so money is effort, excuse me, that's what it represents. And therefore, I would rather, I would rather incur as little of a cost as possible in order to get what I want. On the other hand, if I say that when I do a mitzvah, it's a, it's a הלבשה of רצון השם and I'm connecting mamash, I'm executing through my actions, I'm mamash connecting with Hakadosh Baruch Hu, I'm going to do it b'simcha, I'm going to do it בטוב לבב, the mitzvah itself is the benefit and therefore, I want to do it in the best possible way.

There's going to be a range of being יוצא and a way of doing the mitzvah in the best possible way. And I'm not trying to just get within that bracket and meet the bottom of the bar, I'm trying to do it in the best possible way and it's my pleasure. What else am I going to do with with with the money, with the cost, something that's otherwise mundane? I'm going to elevate it, I'm going to attribute it to the money and now, we're going to see that I've elevated my actual effort, the the time that I spend working on the farm, now that translated into some sort of dollar value and now, when I take that dollar value and I spend it towards a mitzvah, I've mamash elevated and been mekadesh my actual efforts.

Perhaps that's one way to be mitbonen and think about it, but in any event, we're going to go back into the idea of תאות ממון, which is in line, in line with the idea we just said also. What would תאות ממון be? That my efforts, the ממון that I have, which is in the potential form, ממון is in the potential form, ready to be spent, it's not a benefit in and of itself, is something that's self-centered rather than God-centric. It's something that my efforts belong to me and therefore, I want to spend it how I want, not that it's a pleasure הקדוש ברוך הוא gave me the resources in order to plug in.

I I know that just to add in parenthetically, one of the things that I've thought in my own life, there are sometimes that a person has a particular expense, might be associated with חינוך, some other realm of mitzvah, of רוחניות and a person says, "I've finally saved up I finally saved up a few dollars and now, all of a sudden this this came up. I need to pay for extra tutoring, an extra מלמד, whatever the case may be, finally I thought that I was going to get ahead and now that I have to spend it." But the a person can look at it exactly the other way.

"I was used to having X dollars, הקדוש ברוך הוא gave me an opportunity that I can pay for extra tutoring, I can pay for an extra מלמד, I have tuition expense and therefore, הקדוש ברוך הוא gave me the extra unintended money in order to deal with the extra unintended or it was unintended for me, the extra unintended expenses, it's not that this new opportunity is taking away the money I wanted to save, it's that the money that was directed my way was specifically in order to be able to do the mitzvah and not have to not have to have that צער because now, Baruch Hashem, I have the resources." So let's let's just plug this back in.

The כל מצוה שאדם עושה בלא ממון, again, היינו שאינו רוצה להפסיד ממון בשביל מצוה, a person is doing the mitzvah, but they want to meet the bottom of the bar, they don't want to incur that expense, הבחינה נקרא צדק, this is called צדק, it's righteousness, he's toeing the line, he's doing everything that he has to do. However, תאות ממון, which we said is self-serving, is סטרא אחרא, represents עבודה זרה, it does it does not allow a person to reach the ארבע פנים, the אמת, the אמונה. So when a person does the mitzvot, he's doing what he's supposed to be doing, but in order to reach the ארבע פנים, the אמת, in order for the mitzvot to have a דין of to to be within a בחינה of אמונה, that's only when it comes together with אמת.

And we explained earlier that אמת and אמונה go together. If briefly, if a person has אמת without אמונה, so that's not אמונה, that means that I only acknowledge things that I've verified, that's limited by myself, that's self-centered. That's only things that I understand as אמת. אמונה is where I take that and I bridge the gap between me and הקדוש ברוך הוא, things that I do not understand to be אמת. On the other hand, if a person has אמונה without emet, then what is their emunah? They're maybe giving over the reins on their decision-making, but what's the difference between attaching oneself to Hakadosh Baruch Hu and attaching oneself to you know, chas veshalom to say, attaching oneself to a frog?

So if you say that it's verified because of one's רביים and because of the masoret, then that's also validated based on emet. עדות, מסורה, they giving over based on testimony, עדות establishes a fact, that would be based on emet, but if a person has emunah without emet, so then that's also something that is lacking. Just mention similar a similar point, but not exactly, I happened to see an essay from Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch by שבעה עשר בתמוז, he's coming off a pasuk in Zechariah, that the people came to, the people came to the navi, and they wanted to know whether they should fast on שבעה עשר בתמוז, on תשעה באב, on צום גדליה, and עשרה בטבת in the times of the second בית.

And Hakadosh Baruch Hu answered the question. It's a pasuk in Zechariah in פרק ח', and he says, Hakadosh Baruch Hu answered that these fasts will be a source of rejoicing in the time of the second בית המקדש as long as people אמת ושלום אהבו, people love truth and peace. And Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch related this to the, to the problems that the people had in the times of the first and second בית. And I'll just read a, read a couple of lines, it was just very powerful. He says that the first בית המקדש was destroyed because, I'm just reading from the Collected Writings, he says, "The first sanctuary was destroyed because the people of that era loved peace and not truth; the second sanctuary was destroyed because the people of that era loved truth and not peace; Im yirtzeh Hashem, the third sanctuary will arise and have permanence only if we love both truth and

peace." And he explained, if if a if a person values peace, and we're using peace as a loose translation of the word shalom, shalom is a name of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, they value shalom at the expense of truth, then the world is not in true balance. It's not that the world is is is perfectly utilizing all of the systems in a perfect synergy the way that Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave it. It's his notion, it's very self-centered, it's his notion of shalom, and this becomes at the expense of at the expense of emet. I mean, this the essay could have been written today.

He says, "Truth must," in he's he's giving a criticism, he says, "Truth must incorporate the concepts of accommodation in order to be abreast of the times. Is this not bartering with what is most sacred? Is this not betrayal and denial of truth, which knows no bargaining or compromise?" Emet, two plus two is four. He uses this example, he says, that truth is precise and unequivocal. If a person values shalom at the expense of truth, the truth, then it's not truth and really, it's not shalom either. And on the other hand, if a person values truth at the expense of shalom, הק, again, shalom is one of the names of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, if a person is, and we can go on, I don't want to give you know really inject a lot of this into the shiur, but if a person just lets the entire world burn down on the altar of emet, or maybe

righteous indignation in the name of emet, he's he just lets the entire system crumble. There's also עת לעשות לה' הפרו תורתך. There's certain times that even if a person does feel like they're accurate, and they are accurate in a certain sense, but that's not the right path to go. There has to be this balance in order for there to be true emet and true shalom. They have to go together. Similarly over here, emet and emunah have to travel together. And when a person does not have that emet, so even the mitzvot that they perform, they're not attaching themselves to the אנפין נהירין, to the panim, so to speak, of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, they're they're they're doing what's statutorily required of them.

וזה ציוית צדק עדותיך, that's where a person does עדותיך, the mitzvot from צדק, אבל כשחביב כל כך המצוה עד שאין מרגיש בהפסד ממון, when the mitzvah is so chaviv to them, they're they're invested, they're not trying to meet the the bottom of the of the bar. They have this bitul, hitkashrut, hitkalelut to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, they want to embody, they want to attach themselves to רצון השם, and they're thrilled, they're invested, it's part of them, וזאת הבחינה נקרא אמונה כי עיקר אמונה הוא ממון, because the עיקר אמונה over here is is through is בממון, it's through ממון, which is the opposite of תאוות ממון, which we've been going through from the beginning.

This, by the way, becomes the pasuk, Rav Chaim Kramer says in note 79, page 32, ציוית צדק עדותיך, when one performs a mitzvah without willingly extending himself monetarily, it shows he has attained neither שמירת הברית, nor emet, which is the אור הפנים. He's not really attaching himself to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, he's just toeing the line. Because his faith is incomplete, he still has a desire for money, which we said is self-centered, instead of allowing the Shechinah to flow through him, instead of attaching himself to the אור הפנים, that becomes this desire for money, which I think is in line with how we're explaining.

However, the end of the פסוק, ואמונה מאד, when one overcomes his greed and is attached to truth, he attains אור הפנים, joy, life, and the mitzvot he performs are faith. And therefore, finishing the paragraph, כשמשבר תאות ממון כנ''ל, when a person breaks the תאוות ממון and he comes to a bechinah of אמת, ששם פנים דקדושה, this is where the פנים of קדושה are. וזה ואמונה מאד, what's מאד? זה ממון. כמו שכתוב ובכל מאדך, the pasuk says in שמע, ובכל מאדך. מאדך refers to ממון and that that's a proof that מאד, ואמונה מאד, מאד refers to ממון.

This where a person is able to with with all of his מאדך, with with all of his strength, but with all of his ממון, I think it works very nicely that his strength translates into ממון when a person does it with יגיעת כפים, this is where a person is attaching to emet and emunah, which is the opposite of תאוות ממון. I'm just going to try to mention quickly just because it's beautiful, it happens to be if anybody learns Tanya, and the the days this is the the fourth letter in Iggeret HaKodesh, he starts also for the pasuk towards the beginning, לך אמר לבי בקשו פני.

There's two ways to learn the pasuk, either David HaMelech is, as if on behalf of HaKadosh Baruch Hu, saying, "Seek My פנים," and he goes on, he says that no, בקשו פני to seek the פנימיות of the לב. But I'm going to suggest something, if I if if if I can, or at least, you know, perhaps it's a way to a way to relate to it. He says, how does a person seek the פנימיות הלב? There's two ways to relate. The חיצוניות הלב is through being מתבונן through the intellect, that will manifest in certain emotions, but the פנימיות הלב is really even deeper.

It it supersedes even anything rational, it's tapping into the inner רצון of the לב. And the Baal HaTanya says, when a person gives tzedakah with his ממון, ובפרט ממי שמזונותיו מצומצמים, a person who doesn't have just all the extra money, he's a little bit tight, ודחיקא ליה שעתא טובא, he's pressed, so שנותן מחייו ממש, which I think is very is I mean, just beautiful, another window into the same idea. This is a person who's being מפסיד ממון, he's giving from his actual חיים, ובפרט אם נהנה מיגיע כפיו, and specifically if he's giving from the work of his hands, שאי אפשר שלא יעסוק בהם פעמים רבות ובבחינת נקודת פנימיות הלב מעומקא דלבא.

This person is personally invested in making a living, and when he spends that money, he's spending his hard work, he's spending his effort. כי and and it's because a person also employs the the full universe, the scope of their emotion, their their רצון in what they do day to day, then a lot of their פנימיות הלב goes into that, and now when they take that and they transform it כמנהג... Okay, והרי עתה הפעם כשהוא מפזר מיגיעו, we don't look that he's spending money, he's spending his יגיע, he's spending his his חיים, ונותן להשם בשמחה ובטוב לבב.

At that point, הנה בזה פודה נפשו משחת, and he goes on, this is where a person spends it ממש בשמחה ובטוב לבב. And I I I think that we could say, he's talking about how to get into the פנימיות הלב, that that if a person takes the the hard effort, the hard things that they did, even with the פנימיות הלב, and they elevate it through taking that and giving it to tzedakah, but not just because they have to, but besimcha uvetov levav, so then they're able to to to to tap into to doing עבודה with the פנימיות הלב.

But I think that this actually works with the other interpretation of the pasuk also: לבי בקשו פני. Not only a question of getting into the פני, the פנימיות in the לב, but also בקשו פני, to seek the פנים of Hashem, perhaps we could say with the way that Rav Nachman is teaching, what's the פנים? The פנים is the emet, the פנים is the אנפין נהירין, and when a person does tzedakah, they go against the תאוות ממון, which means that they do mitzvot and they give tzedakah with with besimcha uvetov levav, with that money, with their actual effort, that's where it's not just צדק, but rather they're attaching themselves to הקדוש ברוך הוא in a בחינה of emet, of פנים, and also their mitzvot have a quality, a בחינה of emunah, because they're not begrudging it, they're not holding it back, it's not תאוות ממון, they're not being stingy with it, but rather it's besimcha uvetov

levav, like we like we explained earlier. Next paragraph, we're on ל״ה עמוד ב׳, by the way, in the standard print, the next the next paragraph, we are going to now see these ideas through the lens woven into the the ma'amar Chazal from סבי דבי אתונא that we started off with: וזה פירוש שאמרו סבי דבי אתונא, this is what the the Athenian scholars said to Rabbi Yehoshua, "אימר לנו מילי דכדיבא, tell us something false." So tell us something that's בחינת שקר, בחינת עבודה זרה. Tell us something that's false, tell us something that's a בחינה of עבודה זרה, כמו שאמרו חכמינו זכרונם לברכה, כל המחליף בדיבורו כאילו עובד עבודה כוכבים.

Somebody who disguises his words, or מחליף is to switch, it's somebody who's deceptive, that's associated with עבודה זרה. I'm just going to read the the Rav Chaim Kramer note, because I think it it'll help us understand. He says, that Rashi explains somebody who disguises his words so that they appear truthful and they are not, this is very common among those who do not conduct business dealings faithfully. And he brings a Maharsha and an Ein Yaakov quote a midrash that that that emet is the chotem of הקדוש ברוך הוא, that truth is the seal, as it were, of הקדוש ברוך הוא.

Disguising or changing the seal of God renders the person a a oved avodah zarah, and so untruth, even in one's daily affairs, is comparable to idolatry. Presented like this, maybe it makes it a little bit easier to understand. You know, one of the hard things, we know that avodah zarah is one of the the three sins that are ייהרג ואל יעבור, a person would even have to give up their life, whatever the specific halachah parameters are of שפיכות דמים, גילוי עריות, עבודה זרה. We just went through Tishah B'Av, we're talking about why the Beit HaMikdash was destroyed, and when we go through the sefer over here, we see תאוות ממון, and we see שמירת הברית, and sheker, now many things that we say are associated with avodah zarah, and unfortunately, many people see those or about themselves who are not necessarily a hundred percent truthful all the time or have תאוות ממון, and it becomes

a little bit difficult to relate to. Are all of these behaviors, what does it mean that they're associated with avodah zarah? But if we take a step back and we understand that הקדוש ברוך הוא, המקום, the ultimate framework, the ultimate context and universe within which everything exists, within which creation exists, within which chachmah exists, we have the חכמת התורה. Everything that we see is through the lens of our own eyes, our experience, and that's even where we are trying to be truthful, but everything is otherwise subjective. The only objective reality, as it were, היה הוה ויהיה, is הקדוש ברוך הוא where where this comes to define existence itself, and therefore that is the objective reality.

That's emet. That's something that's נצחיות. That's something that inherently is. And therefore, the chotmo, the signature, the seal of הקדוש ברוך הוא is emet. Something that's intrinsically true is associated with something that is is is tied to existence itself. Anything that is either true temporarily, right, it's it's talui, it's contingent on certain circumstances, or it's just totally subjective to the point that it's actually actually sheker, is something that's the antithesis. It's something that's opposite, as it were, הקדוש ברוך הוא. So what what happens? A person wants to present Why would a person lie? And the Shaarei Teshuvah actually talks about different levels of lying, anything from lying for a particular reason to a person that just habitually starts to make up stories or lie even for no reason.

This is something that's the opposite from הקדוש ברוך הוא. When a person lies, specifically in terms of business, let's say, we've been talking about what's business, what's parnasah. Parnasah is where הקדוש ברוך הוא is bringing shefa into the world. הקדוש ברוך הוא is giving us a way to sustain ourself, a way to to bring berachah into the world so that we can have life, so that we could do do avodat Hashem. When a person uses sheker to facilitate that, so then who's the source for the shefa? Who's the source of his parnasah? It can't be that if a person is trying to open up a pipeline for הקדוש ברוך הוא to send shefa into the world and he's relating to Hashem as the source, and yet he's going to bring that about through deceptive measures, that's anti the ratzon of the source, then who's really in charge of the parnasah?

Is it myself? Is it my business partner? Is it other circumstances? It can't be that you're going to do something that is anti Hakadosh Baruch Hu and yet you're relating to Hakadosh Baruch Hu being the source and the autonomous source and the decision-maker, k'vayachol, and I don't want to misstate words, of deciding who's going to get parnassah and how much parnassah and from Rosh Hashanah and throughout the year and tefillah. Therefore, when a person uses deceptive practices, generally speaking, anything outside of the objective truth, whether subjective, but certainly something that's a lie, something that's anti, is essentially presenting something as true, as existence, that's outside the realm of Hamakom.

It's outside true existence. So where would it be coming from? It's avodah zarah. It's something that's זר, it's strange. It's as if there's another source. You're allying yourself with another. What's that other? That that other might be your own subjective, your self-serving. That would be that that's also a hint of avodah zarah. And also through through through discussing parnassah, this also is is talking about there being a different source, a different avodah zarah, the god of parnassah. What's that god of parnassah? Maybe your god of parnassah is your boss. Maybe it's your business dealings. Maybe it's the economy or the stock market.

That's that that's serving, as it were, another source. And therefore, the סבי דבי אתונא said, "Tell us something מילי דכדיבא. What is Tell us something about avodah zarah. Does avodah zarah have substance?" And they were referring to they they framed it as מילי דכדיבא, something that's sheker, and there we we see from this כמחליף בדיבורו that sheker is associated with avodah zarah. And they were asking, "Does sheker or avodah zarah, does it have substance? Can it bring anything into the world? Is it able to provide? Is there anything there?" Like we said, existence, is it associated with any manner of existence itself?

ואמר להם, so Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananya said back, "הוי לן כדנייסא וילדה. We had a mule that gave birth. כדנייסא זו פירדא. A כדנייסא is a mule. A mule is a פירדא in Aramaic, and פירדא is a רמז to פירוד. פירוד is separation. זה בחינת עכו''ם. This is a בחינה of עבודת כוכבים." When I think we've mentioned before, I heard, I don't I'm hoping I'm not misquoting it, but Rav Avigdor Miller, ZT"L, said, "If Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants us to recognize ייחוד השם, that everything is coming from one source and aligns with רצון השם, so Hakadosh Baruch Hu should have created everything where we could see the unity, as it were.

Maybe Hashem should have only made green apples." And he he he responded, I don't know if I heard it in a shiur or I think maybe I read in one of the Toras Avigdor booklets, no, because then people would say HaKadosh Baruch Hu is a green apple machine, HaKadosh Baruch Hu is the master of green apples, but that's limiting. That doesn't mean that the universe of what's possible is green apples. What really shows a yichud of Hashem, where there seems to be a lot of things that are separate, you know, you plot all of the dots all over the place, seemingly random, seemingly moving in different directions, and when all of a sudden comes עקבתא דמשיחא and you reflect back, and now you take a step back and you see that no, the full universe and scope of anything that could ever possibly happen, that was actually all part of one universe, one situation.

It seemed to be different priorities, it seemed to be going in different directions, and actually, it was all part of one picture, and that is reflective of a yichud. If you think about it differently, maybe think about, like, you know, the solar system or some other, you know, type of a of a gyroscope or even like a kid's mobile, where there's a lot of different things hanging and spinning in different directions, but assume, for purposes of this mashal, everything is mamash in perfect balance, so that if even one thing was different, the entire system, which is actually שלמות, and it's it's completing perfect circles, and it's it's operating in a perfect circuit, imagine that something was one degree off, then the entire system wouldn't just shift a little bit and, you know, and be a little bit on a diagonal.

If you have all different pieces that all seem to be spinning at different speeds, slightly different directions, but because they're all perfectly weighted and balanced and counterbalanced, they all seem to be moving towards, as it were, ratzon Hashem. But if something was if one of those things was one degree off and everything was out of balance, then everything starts taking on their own momentum. This is the difference between a yichud, when we see when we see our world and everybody and every nation and every person, every individual seems to have their own priorities and their own way of understanding what's responsible, what's a source, what gives them parnasah, what gives them happiness, and at this point, the Shechinah is in galut.

There doesn't seem to be any way to reconcile into being one unified picture of Malchut Hashem. After the end of days, when we're able to look back, and we could see how everything, it was only because of our little slice of the our little slice of vision, our little slice of perspective that seems things to be disunified, but everything, even though they weren't necessarily willing participants in the system, but everything was actually part of this large choreographed a dance to bring about to to bring about the revelation, the ultimate giluy of מלכות, the ultimate giluy of of ריבונו של עולם, of יחוד קודשא בריך הוא ושכינתיה, so that's when it comes together into one unification.

However, if if we look at what our role is, when we attribute we instead of being weighted around the center, as it were, we we tilt whatever those priorities are, there is תאות ממון, we attribute something else as a source to the parnasah, we we we talk about our own individual drives not as being something where we can use it as part of avodat Hashem and use our bechirah and convert the darkness into light, but all of a sudden any one of those things becomes its own master, now you don't have a million different pieces that are all weighted and counterweighted to be part of one system, one gyroscope, something that's perfectly balanced.

Now what you have is a million different pieces, because once they're out of balance, then there's total פירוד over there. Therefore avodah zarah is פירוד. It's attributing a source, it's throwing the weight off. So again, כדניסא זו פירוד, the כדניסא is a mule, a mule in Aramaic is a פירדא, it's a בחינה of עבודת כוכבים דשריא בפירודא, which is remains it's found in a state of פירוד, כמובא בזהר שרי בחיבורא, it starts off as though it seems to be something part of a connected system, וסיים בפירודא, there is a whole kabbalistic explanation over here that יחוד קודשא בריך הוא ושכינתיה, that the זעיר אנפין and the מלכות and and the the the ז״א, the נוק' rather, the representative we said of אמת and אמונה, when those two things come together, when there's a זיווג, then that can create a שלמות and that can be מוליד, that can have children, there's a משפיע and a מקבל,

it's part of a closed a closed universe system, and therefore, even though if the system of avodah starts off where those things are not necessarily fully aligned, our avodah is to bring them into alignment, and therefore we we're able to open up the pipes, we're able to connect to הקדוש ברוך הוא, whereas avodah zarah, there's going to be a separation, it's not going to be aligned, it's not going to have emet and emunah, we related this before to תאות ממון, again, I don't want to get too into the the the spiritual physics of the way that it's talking about the perud between these things, but suffice it to say that, again, at whatever altitude you're talking about this system, it's reflective of these truths.

So avodah zarah represents a perud in the system, וילדה זה בחינת רווח, and the idea of ילדה, of having a of giving having offspring, That is talks about profit. המכונה בשם לידה, profit is also referenced as לידה. It's bringing something in. You start off with whatever it is, with money. You have the business partner and the money partner, and they get together. And when they are able to have it so that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, they're able to profit from a business deal, that's going to be a לידה. And therefore, if we're framing this as the Savrei de-Bei Antunai said, can something that represents sheker, something that represents avodah zarah, it's not in line with רצון השם, it's not a unification of the system, it's not where there's a zivug and things are creating a שלמות to be able to be mol id, something that's otherwise sheker, is there

any substance there? Can it end up producing? And Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananyah responded that we had a mule, which would otherwise represent perud and and and avodah zarah, and something that's be-perud, and yet it produced, and yet it had a child. ואמרו לו, וכי כניסה מילדה? Well wait a second, a mule is incapable of producing. Meaning, avodah zarah, which is be-perud, how can avodah zarah bring anything into the world? כי עכו״ם אל אחר אסתריס ולא עביד פרין. עכו״ם, עבודה זרה, אל אחר, another power as it were, אסתריס, it's sterile, ולא עביד פרין, and it doesn't give off any offspring, which logically also makes sense, right?

If you have something that is we don't say that there is הקדוש ברוך הוא, which represents the truest way of looking at things, and then there's other ways of looking at things. No, there is one unified truth and reality, and then there are, so to speak, negatives if you if you will. Sitra Achra is the other side of it. It's something that's found in the shadows. It's a it's warped. It's a misrepresentation of the ultimate truth. But if something is a negative, if you have something that's light, there's substance, there's אור אין סוף, it's something that's that's producing, it's something that's real.

If you have something that's in the shadows, that's just where there's something that's hidden. Something that's hidden doesn't have something. Something that's hidden, it's Sitra Achra, it's in the choshech, there's nothing there to produce. It's only blocking what is there. So when you have two things, you have a mashpia and a mekabel, there could be a zivug, there could be a holadah, that can produce. But something that's the Sitra Achra, that's kelipah, that it's the shell, once the kelipah, you take the peel off the orange, then it just shrivels up and it dies. It doesn't have its own energy, as it were.

It's not tapped into not only a source of energy, it's not tapped into the source of energy, and therefore, how would it be able to produce? It's impossible. השיב להם, היינו מילי דכדיבא. This is something that's sheker, which is incredibly powerful. Not only is it is it not possible, but this is היינו השקר. In this world, we look around and we oftentimes see people that shouldn't be getting ahead getting ahead. According to the rules that we just said, how is it possible that anybody operating not in line with רצון השם, somebody who is operating according to his own set of rules, something that is avodah zarah, how could it be that we see רשעים וטוב לו?

So he says, this is the מילי דשקר, this is the מחליף דיבורו, this is the deception. It's not just that a person is making a lie and say, "Can a rock talk?" I don't know, whatever you'd say, I'm explaining something that's just totally impossible. No, it's something that's impossible, but it's presenting itself as though it were the truth. Something that's true can be מוליד. Something associated with substance, with הקדוש ברוך הוא, with emet, and lining up emet and emunah, is able to bring shefa into the world. Now you have something that's out of alignment, and I'm not just making a statement that says, "Oh, and this thing that's out of alignment, water ran through it," and it's something that's ridiculous.

That's one level of sheker, but the the מילי דשקר over here is that it's something that is deceptive. Over here, people are acting in dishonest ways. They're acting through תאות ממון, and yet, we're going to see four different ways in in the in the Torah that it's as though the person is profiting. That's the that's the the the feeling, or at least in the short-term sense, or this is the way that it presents itself to the outside world, but be'emet, really, אינם מרויחים. There's a very powerful Midrash I just want to mention he brings over here in the note that by Noach the the the pasuk says, מכל החי מכל בשר שנים מכל תביא אל התבה.

Rashi says, לרבות שדים, and he brings a Midrash from Shocher Tov. What does it mean that לרבות שדים came into the תבה? I'll just read the Midrash. It says that רצה שיקרא ליכנס לתיבה, falsehood wanted to come into the תבה. אמר ליה נח, לית בה כניסה אלא אם כן יש בן זוגך, לפי שכל הנכנסים הן איש ואשתו. Only things that have a partner are able to come to the תבה. אז אזל והשכח ליה לפחתא. Sheker went and found פחתא, depletion, שהוא הממונה על בני אדם להפחיתם ולחסר ממונם. This is the power, we're putting a name on it, depletion.

that takes away from a person's shefa. A person doesn't just naturally lose money, there is a force that causes a person to lose. אמר לה מי נסבת לי? Marry me. אמרת ליה, so she said back, מאי תיתן לי? What are you going to give me for kiddushin? הי מנסבא לך? How am I going to marry you? אמר לה כל מה דמרווחנא, so sheker said, deception said, anything that I am able to produce אנא סיב לך, I will give you, to give to you, to depletion. מיד נכנסו לתיבה, they went into the תיבה. The Midrash goes on over here, והיינו דאמרי אינשי מה דמסגל שיקרא פחתא נסבא.

Anything that comes about through deception, that it's מסוגל, that comes about through sheker, through any sort of dishonest practices, fraudulent practices, that is going to go straight to depletion. And he brings even a Tosafos HaRosh on the on the Torah, a Rishon who brings a מדרש, הוא שד ושמיה שיקרא. Okay, and he goes on, but I mean there's an unbelievable... often times we have we have challenges, whether it's because we see somebody else or maybe in our own realm. And we see mamash the Torah. If you think about it you understand, you have emunah, bitachon, you understand a maamar Chazal as represents that this is the Torah, this is the emes.

And it's saying that that yes, of course anything that's outside HaMakom, it's outside reality, it's outside the universe, how can a person possibly go against רצון השם and expect brachah, expect positivity, expect shefa to come to the world when Hashem is the only source? That's avodah zarah. But besides, we have a Midrash that's mamash on point, and even within the system Hakadosh Baruch Hu does allow for sheker, He allows for seemingly people to get ahead. So maybe Hakadosh Baruch Hu said, "You know what, at least for purposes of this world, I'll make it that a person can do their own thing and get ahead, and they're going to end up profiting." Says Chazal that no, actually, within the system, yes, it could be short term, it could be נדמה להם שמרויחים, but the sheker in the world is partnered with פחתא, sheker in the world is partnered with depletion.

If you want to feed the koach, maybe it'll even take off more than was profited. But over here it says, if you want... there's a deal between sheker, between deception, and between, and between depletion, and therefore anything by definition, anything that sheker produces, and it does produce in the short term, otherwise there would be nothing to give. So we're not we're not we're not going to be able to say, we see it in the world, that a person that acts with deception doesn't produce anything, there is something there in the short term, and that is going to feed, that's going to defeat feed depletion, which is very powerful.

I mean, it's one thing that a person wants more and they don't have, so they want to be moving so to speak in the positive direction, and they're not moving towards profit. Over here now, they're associating themselves with negative kochos. Not only are they not having more profit—a person, why would they want to lie? They want profit that they don't have. But now they're getting on the train moving in the negative direction, they're getting on the פחתא train, they're associating themselves with this shed called shekara. Very powerful mashal. So now, Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananya said, ותלו ליה פסקא בצוארא, and there was a note that was hanging on its neck דהוי מסיק ביה אבא מאה אלפי זוזי, that the sons of this פירדא, the son of this mule should pay back a debt that their father's house owed that was 100,000 זוז.

ביה אבא, זה עבודת אלילים, כמו שכתוב האומר לעץ אבי אתה, it's a pasuk from Yirmiyahu, but we're going to see how it relates to our Torah, a reference to avodah zarah as being ביה אבא, as being a father, ועבודת אלילים הוא חובה. And avodah zarah is referred to as a חובה. So this note which was a note of indebtedness is a reference to avodah zarah hanging around the neck, because the the pasuk says in בראשית וירדפם עד חובה, it's by the the pesukim that deal with that talk about Avraham and the war with the four kings, and Rashi over there says על שם עבודה זרה, וירדפם עד חובה, חובה is a reference to עבודה זרה שמכרעת את הכל כף חובה.

Why is avodah zarah referred to as חובה? Because it creates a debt. Even if a person has מצוות, מעשים טובים, if a person's עובר עבודה זרה, he's going to be חייב מיתה, this liability is not going to be removed. וכל המדבקין בה, a person who is attached, he's cleaving to avodah zarah, which we're saying as תאוות ממון, הם בעלי חובות, they now have a debt, כמו שאנו רואים בחוש. And we see this. What does it mean a debt that's not erasable? A person, you're not just going to count off מעשים טובים, but no, the debt of avodah zarah has to be paid back.

Over here also, we we said, so this idea of avodah zarah that we're associating with תאוות ממון, it creates a debt that has to be paid back. For for instance, the the if a person has, has $100, יש מנה רוצה מאתים, he has $100, he wants $200. Now I guess there's two ways of learning that, either you can say he has one hundred, he wants two hundred, he wants twice as much. You could say if he has a hundred, he wants two hundred more, he doesn't even have fifty percent of what he wants. But איך שיהיה, if a person has a hundred, he wants two hundred, to say, "Great!

You know what? Now let's satisfy this desire. I'll give you three hundred. Now you have everything you want." But no, that's true. So it comes out that the more one has, actually the more one is missing. If I have a dollar, I want, it says I want two dollars. If I have ten dollars, I want twenty. If I have a hundred, I want... So the more that a person has, and the more that they relate to what they have not from a point of view of gratitude, not from the point of view of they're not entitled, that they are not owed anything, right?

So שונא מתנות יחיה, a person that's entitled, that's מיתה, exactly in line with our Torah. But no, a person who has hakarat hatov, they're not entitled to anything. They They receive things, they have hakarat hatov, they use it for avodat Hashem. And we said that that relates to חיות, that relates to to energy, being in line with receiving שפע and life itself from Hakadosh Baruch Hu. But a person who has who relates to what he has from a point of תאוות ממון, from avodah zarah, that actually creates a liability. The more that one has, the more that one's palate becomes wet with תאוות ממון and having that be fed, the more of a liability that is.

The more that now they have to it takes a lot more effort to make a lot more money, and a lot more attention, שזה המשא תלוי בצווארו של בן אדם, it's as if this weight is hanging on the neck of a person. The Gemara even says, when it says a person should learn before they take on certain burdens, it's ריחיים על צווארו. Once a person has a burden, that is it's משעבד him. So this person who has the weight of the חוב, of the liability of having to pursue תאוות ממון, and the more that one has the more that one wants, שאין מסתפקים בממונם, a person is never going to be מסתפק, he's never going to have enough, there's always going to be the and then.

And a person thinks that they have enough, because from any point in time, if they have a hundred they want two hundred, and they don't think that they want three hundred, it's not till they have it. But this becomes a system that keeps on going. And now, ולווין ממון מאחרים. We get up every morning, we say, "עשה לי כל צרכי." This is the way that Rabbi Maimon presented it also, or similar, not exactly. He says, "עשה לי כל צרכי." I believe that HaKadosh Baruch Hu gives me what I need. If I have a job in life, HaKadosh Baruch Hu is going to give me the tools that I need to have that job.

If I don't have something, I don't need it. Maybe you could say that HaKadosh Baruch Hu wants to put me in a position where I'm going to daven for it. We've said this before: we think that we daven for what we need. No, HaKadosh Baruch Hu wants us to relate to Him through the full range of human emotion and needs, want, to ask, הכרת הטוב, everything. And therefore, maybe HaKadosh Baruch Hu puts us in a position where we need something so we're going to write home to our parents and ask for it. But however it is, HaKadosh Baruch Hu is going to give us what we need in order to be able to fulfill our task.

And if we try to push that We've mentioned in other תורות, one of them maybe was תורה כ, I forget exactly right now, that this is actually one of the the big challenges that many great many of the greatest people fell from, that not not that they wanted the wrong thing, but that they pushed for it too quickly. They wanted the right thing at the wrong time. They wanted the right thing, but on their own terms. ולווין ממון מאחרים. Now, yes, there is a place where a person has to borrow properly, but over here we're saying that a person that that a person goes and they they get access to the money before it was coming to them from HaKadosh Baruch Hu.

Again, obviously there's people that need to borrow money, and there's a whole there's הלכות about it, but we're speaking in a principled way. Why would a person otherwise borrow money, let's say if not for their absolute necessities and so forth? Because they want access to money that HaKadosh Baruch Hu has not given them, or not given them yet. Maybe it's for something they don't need or they don't need it yet, and they want to shift things on their own terms. And therefore, נדמה להם שהם משתכרים שכר הרבה, all of a sudden they're very liquid, they have a lot of money.

This is one deception. One deception is now they're creating a debt, they're creating a liability. Now they're spending money that they don't have. It was bad enough before they had the money, now they have a a a big liability on top of what they originally needed. They have to pay it back. ואחר כך מתים בעלי חובות. And then, if they had money, now their estate is going to owe. It's another deception. It seemed to be that the father was so wealthy, they go through the books, and now it comes out that there was actually nothing there.

ואם אינם מתים בעלי חובות, and even if they don't die in a state of בעלי חובות, הם חייהם בעלי חובות. Their life itself is not a life. They they're they're golden handcuffs maybe, right? A person has a a very high-paying job and they take on a a mortgage that they can't afford and vacations that they can't afford and they have to they have to be like the Joneses, then their life itself is not life. You see them during that little slice of time when maybe they happen to be on vacation or they're driving a nice car and wearing nice clothing, but it's it's something they're on a treadmill, they can't keep up with it, they can't enjoy what they have.

They're always focused on either what they don't have, or even worse yet, having to maintain this perception of what they of what they had. It's another שקר, ומטריחם, it's עצמם בטרחות גדולות, and now they're slaving, and there's no time to learn, no time to spend time with their family. Maybe they're even traveling. Maybe they're putting themselves in danger in order to just get this money. That's another deception. They're they're being מטריח themselves. You think that they have a life, their very life is being put at risk and being drained. ומסכנים את עצמם בסכנות דרכים בשביל שכר מועט, for not even a lot of שכר necessarily, they just have to keep up בשביל לשלם חוב אביהם in order to service this debt.

חוב עבודה זרה, this עבודה זרה, this תאות ממון, they only have to pay back, they only have to reach where it is. And this Rabbi Maimon speaks out these four different things in note 87 on page 37 of the English version: borrowing a large sum to invest, looking for the big profit if the investment fails, or feeling secure to to earn from the fruit of one's own hard work, but then spending very freely and then not seeing where the money went, or earning profits but mortgaging one's entire life and happiness, or making a lot of money, but finding out that he worked so hard to the point of even endangering one's life.

So these are the things that are שקר. It seems to be that a person has a lot, there's a lot going on, there's a lot moving and trading hands, but the person actually has nothing. Now why did we say that this note was hanged on the neck, this note of עבודה זרה? The Maharsha says that this wasn't just any note, this was like a will. What's a will? מצוה לקיים דברי המת. It's a mitzvah, as it were, to to to keep up with the with the תאוה, with the עבודה זרה. A person, we spoke actually in in תורה א׳, the idea of the יצר הרע presents it as a mitzvah, but it's something that a person is compelled to do, כי מצוה לקיים דברי המת.

So this עבודה זרה is מיתה, and now it's what's a mitzvah? It's something that a person is compelled to do. זה הדבר להם כמו צוואת אביהם, it's as if they they don't have a choice. They're locked into the to the רצון, the last will and testament of the מת. If the father says something, it's something one has to do. If the עבודה זרה says something, even though it's in the wrong direction, the person has to keep up, they don't have a choice. It's a מצוה לקיים דברי המת, שישלמו חובותיו, they have a debt to pay, they can't just not pay it, and this תאות ממון has created a debt on them.

It's just if forget the words, just press pause and focus on the imagery of what we're saying of people around you or things that we fall into certain behaviors and sentiments ourselves, it's very powerful. וזה שפירש מהרש״א תלו ליה פיתקא בצואריה שטר צוואה, this is a צוואה, this is a last will and testament. Okay, I would stop here, but I just want to get through the next, if if I can, just the next the next piece, which talks about the other the other question of the סבי דבי אתונא: ואחר כך אמרו לו, and then they asked Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananya, מילחא כי סרחא, כי סריא rather, when salt spoils, now salt is usually a preservative, במאי מלחי ליה?

What are you going to salt the salt with? What can you preserve the salt with if the salt itself is a preservative? What does it mean in פנימיות? כי תיקון של תאות ממון, the תיקון of the תאוה for money הוא תיקון ברית מלח כנ״ל, we already explained at length that the תיקון of ברית קודש, of שמירת הברית, is what can attach a person to the אור פני מלך חיים, it can attach a person to אלוקות, the kedushah attaches oneself to הקדוש ברוך הוא, and therefore a person will be far away from עבודה זרה, and עבודה זרה is associated with תאות ממון.

ושאלו, so they asked Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananya, זה שתיקן בריתו, let's say you're telling me that the antidote to תאות ממון, we also mentioned tzedakah by the way, but that the antidote, the rectification of how a person gets out of תאות ממון is תיקון הברית. Let's say a person was already מתקן his ברית, אם נפל לסירחון, if he still falls to תאות ממון, then במאי תיקונו? Rav Chaim Kramer brings that there's different levels of תאות ממון, maybe we see even צדיקים that רחמנא ליצלן fall to the lower version of it, the stinginess, the pettiness which might not be fully, let's say, stealing or some of the other more severe forms.

But how So if you have a person that was מתקן תאות ברית, then how are they going to be מתקן תאות ממון? והשיב להם, and he answered them, בסילתא דכודנתא, with the שליא of a mule, which a since a mule can't give birth, then there can't be a שליא. We already spoke out in the very first shiur that שליא in the time of חז״ל could be different than we refer to שליא today, whether it's the pouch that within which the fetus rests or it's something that's alongside the fetus from which it nourishes itself. It seems that over here we're talking about the pouch that a fetus rests in, but the point over here is כי באמת יש עוד תיקון לתאות ממון.

You're asking a question if תיקון if if the tikun of שמירת הברית is going to be the antidote of תאות ממון, עבודה זרה, now I have a person that already rectified the תיקון הברית, but yet he still has תאות ממון, what's his next step? So how is he going to be able to address that? And he answers, בסילתא דכודנתא, the placenta of the פירד. What does it mean? Or amniotic sac. כי באמת יש עוד תיקון לתאות ממון, היינו שיסתכל על שורש, look where it came from, שמשם בא כל הממון וכל ההשפעות, all of the money, all of the shefa comes from a very lofty source.

ועל ידי הסתכלותו שם, יתבטל תאוותו. By looking at the high source of ממון, we'll speak this out in a second, כי שם בשרשו השפע כולו אור צח ומצוחצח, that the shefa at that level is unbelievably pure, ותענוג רוחני, and it's actually רוחניות. Meaning, first of all he brings over here a Yerushalmi that when HaKadosh Baruch Hu by תרומת המשכן, it says that Rabbi Meir says HaKadosh Baruch Hu took out a מטבע של אש from under the כסא הכבוד, the same place which is the שורש of נשמות בני ישראל, and He said, זה יתנו. He showed Moshe Rabbeinu the source for the מטבע of אש is coming תחת כסא הכבוד, the same place as the שורש of the נשמות of ישראל.

And the Likutey Halachos over here says, כשמקשר עשירות לשרשו נתבטל תאוות ממון. When a person understands the שורש of ממון, it's going to become בטל. Why? Because what is ממון? ממון is really the physical vehicle, as it were, that HaKadosh Baruch Hu conveys nourishment or a source for nourishment, the way that we're able to nourish our חיות, nourish our energy, nourish our bodies in order that we should serve Hashem. That b'etzem has zero yetzer hara, physicality, nothing that's גס about it. Like everything in the world, HaKadosh Baruch Hu sends a spiritual source that ultimately manifests itself in our physical world, and it's something that He gives.

What's negative? So, at a lower altitude than that, there are spiritual forces, this is part of our challenge, this is part of our bechira, that almost hijack or they present and they represent themself as being what mamon is, and therefore the way, depending where a person is holding, they now relate to mamon in a selfish way, in a self-centered way, in something that's representative of עבודה זרה. But if a person comes to define mamon as being something that be'etzem is from the utmost of kedushah, the way that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is going to send shefa into the world, and this is a person's headspace, they mamash It's not just that they're fighting negativity.

They come to relate to mamon itself, they look to the source, and they see it as being a דבר קדוש, it's something that we can literally receive the bounty of Hakadosh Baruch Hu through, then there's no room The person is operating at a higher altitude. There's no room Just state it differently. For instance example, we can give many different examples. If if a person's father gave them the keys to the car, now all of a sudden they want to take the car, they want to go with their friends, do bad stuff. But let's say a person understood that this car, whatever their father was giving them, was mamash a reward for for doing עבודת השם, for learning, it was mamash an expression of the relationship between father and son himself.

It was something that was unbelievably tied, intrinsically tied to something that was that that was higher than any of the kid wanting to go and use the car for something that was against the father's wishes, or money, or whatever it is. So, the the the Rav Maimon actually brought in the in the shiur, I don't know if this is a practical thing that we do today as a mental exercise, that if a person let's say has תאוות נשים, if a person comes to relate to that to to to that target of their desire and and think of them literally as being a neshamah, something that's a creation of Hashem, there's no room for the ta'avah to attach.

And therefore he says over here if a person is number one is work on שמירת הברית, number two, you're saying what's another exercise, a person worked on שמירת הברית and now they have at some level a ta'avah for money, what should they do? They should come to relate and reinforce, look to the source of where it comes from, ואין מתעוה or ואין מתעבה, different girsa'ot. מתעבה would mean it doesn't thicken because we said it doesn't thick on, doesn't take on גס something that's more base until later on down down below, but or מתעוה, he's not going to have that תאוה אלא למטה.

The the the possibility for desire for money only takes place below. מי הוא פתי יסור הנה, what kind of a fool is going to turn towards towards that way of relating to money, להשליך תענוג רוחני? You you have the ability to relate to this gift from Hakadosh Baruch Hu, from your father, and to mamash be lit up by it, to to feel the love that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is giving you and you're going to turn to relate to in such a coarse and a base way, וליקח תענוג עב, and to take some sort of a more base desire out of it?

Why would anybody do that? And if a person does that, then there's going to be no room for the desire. So based on this, first of all Avi HaNachal, we're answering the question that we that we asked before: How could it be that a person who has worked on שמירת הברית, a person who's a tzaddik could still have some form of greed, of pettiness? Because a person might have worked on one level of שמירת הברית and been saved from one level of תאוות ממון, but Hakadosh Baruch Hu, we have to work towards the אור אין סוף.

We're working towards the infinite. There's that we can forever get closer to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. I guess that for for certain ta'avot, a person can come to לבי חלל בקרבי, a person can come to a full rectification of certain desires, but a person who still has more room to grow in this area, so there there is still some degree of תאוות ממון. The more that they align, associate, look towards, identify with the שורש, the more that they're going to get rid of any room, any place where there's that where the תאוות ממון can take hold.

This, by the way, Likutei Halachot explains, Choshen Mishpat Hilchot Mussar, is why there is such a strong תאוות ממון, because אדם, by the way he doesn't say this, but אדם is מבעה, שור, בור, מבעה, הבער. אדם is מבעה, אדם is a seeker. A person always wants to get close to their source. Where there's a distortion in how we relate to that source part of the source is if if we're going the way that we said before that by from the Or Hachaim Hakadosh, that the the מקום for the שורש נשמות of כלל of בני ישראל is the same מקור under the כסא הכבוד is the same place where the מטבע של אש.

A person wants to get get close to their source, a person is always going to want to attach to the שפע, to the influx of energy coming from Hakadosh Baruch Hu. So but where where somebody is unfortunately holding at a lower degree, they're not they're not associating that תאווה, that like inner that inner desire for for ממון in the appropriate way in the קדושה, and the שפע and the sustenance from Hakadosh Baruch Hu, but they're relating to it through their desires because they haven't rectified their own שמירת הברית, so now there's going to be an insatiable desire for ממון.

So on ממון דווקא we see this this level of desire. אבל you're forever going If you're forever going to want to get closer to your source, but you're misidentifying the source, you're never actually going to get closer to there, and that gnawing desire is never going to go away, but you you keep on wanting to get there. אבל לזאת הסתכלות, in order to be able to look at one's source, now that we're saying what's the rectification for somebody that worked at one level of שמירת הברית and now he needs to fully expunge it out of himself?

How does he do that? He has to associate ממון with the source. You have to have the eyes for that. You have to have the כלים for that. You have to be able to look up to תחת כסא הכבוד. A person, to be able to do that, needs to have a full rectification of שמירת הברית, which is ברית מלח. We we spoke about this earlier at length why ברית מלח is שמירת הברית. אי אפשר לבוא אלא עד שיתקן, עד שיתקן בריתו, כמו שכתוב מבשרי אחזה אלוקה. How can I look to my source? How can I look to Hakadosh Baruch Hu?

מבשרי, but I from from a point of שמירת הברית. When I מתקן the בשר, I'm מתקן the גוף, so then when I make myself into a קדוש, I can align myself with קדושה, then I can relate to my source, I can relate to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. This sounds presented like this, it makes a lot of sense, right? It's very scientific. If I want to be able to relate to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, to אור פני המלך, then I have to be coming from a place of kedushah. I have to be able to look through kadosh eyes from a kadosh body from to be able to purify my desires so that I'm not just animalistic desires, I am a kadosh, and I relate to my source of kedushah.

שבתחילה צריך לתקן בשר קודש ואז יוכל להסתכל באלקות, and then I can look towards Elokus and be affected and impacted and relate to it. ובשביל זה עיקר התיקון של תאוות ממון הוא על ידי הברית. כשמתקן בריתו, when a person is metaken their ברית, אי אפשר ליפול לתאוות ממון, then they'll be able to look towards their source, in which case they're going to relate to mamon as not as תאוות ממון, not as something that happens at a lower altitude when the sitra achra gets hold of it, something that's physical sustenance for physical desires and so forth, but it's actually representative of Hakadosh Baruch Hu giving us loving shefa and support directly, and therefore there's nothing to take hold of תאוות ממון.

A person works on kedushah and he relates to kedushah and he relates to תאוות ממון coming through kedushah, an expression of קדושה, כי על ידי מלח, through שמירת הברית, תאוות ממון חסר, תאוות ממון falls away and it becomes batel. Okay, I I really wanted to make it to the end of this paragraph or even where even where it says עד כאן לשון רבינו, it's not that far in, but I also want to do it justice, and I guess this is a point that's very worthy of chazering. In any event, so we're going to stop here, and Im yirtzeh Hashem next time, this is where we'll start.

We'll sum up, which is a good sum up of עד כאן לשון רבינו, and then go into the into the rest of the Torah.