LM 23.5 — Tzivisa Tzedek, Part 5 of 7 · תורה כ״ג

Torah כ״ג, בעזרת השם יתברך, we're about to start the fifth shiur. If you have the standard print, it's on ל״ה עמוד ב'. We stopped a little in the middle of a thought. If you have on the inside margin, in the top paragraph, it's in the middle of that block of text, starting with שורש ההשפעות. Otherwise, in the middle of paragraph ה', it starts plugging all of the ideas from this Torah back into the סבי דבי אתונא, and we are in the middle of fleshing out the second the second ma'aseh, before the paragraph starting אנשי דמים ומרמה, which which is going to finish עד כאן לשון רבינו.

So it's we're starting ושורש ההשפעות ההוא מכונה בשם שליא. We're going to just review some of these concepts, especially because we're going to be finishing off this section soon. I'm going to use the Kitzur Likutei Moharan to go through some of the ideas, and then we're going to go forward in the text. The Torah itself, like all Torot, is talking about getting close to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. The a lot of the themes that come up, like we started off, talk about emet, emunah, specifically emunah with regard to monetary matters, שמירת הברית, mezuzah, the the negatives of atzvut and atzlut.

Certainly, though, a main focus of the Torah is dealing with mamon appropriately and ta'avot mamon, which is a an incredibly delicate dance. But, on the other hand, there's a lot at stake. Mamon is something every person needs money to live and needs support to live, and we relate to to money and sustenance as berachah. We daven for parnasah. There's a mitzvah to support one's family. On the other hand, the way that one relates to mamon and relates to his his role in hishtadlut and in seeking sustenance and relating to mamon itself is is the focus of a lot of our discussion.

The Torah started off framing it out in terms of attaching oneself and getting close to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. יש פנים דקדושה, and again I'm summarizing over here so we'll go back into the text in a minute, but there's פנים דקדושה, אנפין נהירין, right, the אור אין סוף, relating to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. It's a bechinah of chayim. We spoke about simchah, emet, emunah, אריכות ימים. We spoke about how emet and emunah go hand in hand, emet and emunah being built one on the other. We fleshed out a couple shiurim ago, and also in the last shiur, that a person couldn't can't really structure their avodah around only emet or only emunah.

And the opposite of relating to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, אריכות ימים, the vitality, the influx of energy into the world, aligning oneself with with הקדוש ברוך הוא, חותמו של הקדוש ברוך הוא אמת, would be sheker. We've said many times there's one truth and an infinite ways of falsehood, which we'll reference in a second. And, therefore, sheker, darkness, the absence of light, the absence of truth, the absence of relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu, relating to any other thing as a source of sustenance, of livelihood, of energy, of bounty in the world, is sheker. And that's not אריכות ימים.

And when we say אריכות ימים versus מקצר ימים, it's not only the amount of days, but it's the qualities of the days themselves, right? One of the one one of the interesting things to focus powerful thoughts to focus in the world is that we're able to achieve and acquire and relate to infinity through this world of finite means. So, when a person attaches themselves to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, they are a בן עולם הבא. Even from within this world, they are living a a life of infinite, נצחיות, of of endless meaning. And when a person puts a cap on that, they live within the structure of of the physical גשמי priorities and relating to things other than Hakadosh Baruch Hu, חס ושלום, as if to say, as the source, then that is a מקצר ימים, אנפין חשוכין, a dark face, סטרא אחרא, מרה שחורה, lethargy, sadness, עבודה זרה, אלהים אחרים, other sources, as it were, which

is מיתה. Life inherently, life inherently אריכות ימים is attachment to the source of of vitality in the world is Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Everything else is just dying a slow death from day one, עצבות. And we related this to תאוות ממון, that, again, the influx of bounty, energy in the world, which to us relates very strongly to parnassah. Although ממון itself we said is interesting because what what is money? Really, I work to make money so that I can buy food, so that I can sustain myself. Money itself is in in a certain sense we all daven for parnassah, we all daven for money, but what really if money takes on its own identity, then it's a pull to get something which inherently doesn't even have anything there.

And we talked about four or five different inappropriate ways of relating to money, ranging from something like theft, some mamash going against רצון השם, as if not acknowledging that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is המקום. How could a person operate outside, כביכול, to say, the universe of רצון השם, and still hope to achieve and attach themselves to any sort of an influx of bounty and sustenance and berachah, so to speak, to doing what a person person is supposed to do, and maybe having maybe having a sense of stinginess, a sense of of בעלות over their ממון. So we talked about, like I said, emet and emunah relating to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, but emunah specifically in the realm of business practices, this being one of the questions that a person is going to be asked after 120, and the idea of תאוות of תאוות ממון really representing, in a certain sense, the כלל of these תאוות of עבודה

זרות of of all the 70 nations, so to speak, the 70 עבודה זרות, the 70 other, let's say, palette of priorities of other things that people chase and give value to are all encompassed within this idea of תאוות ממון. Just mention a line that he brings in the Kitzur Likutei Moharan, which is just incredibly powerful, says in אות ז': כל הממון והעשירות שלהם - the people that deal, that relate to money inappropriately - is בבחינת שחוק הכסיל. People involved in the rat race, the way that it translates into English, is like the game of an idiot, but powerful imagery, שהממון משחק עמו - the money is playing with them, the money becomes his master - כמו שמשחקין עם תינוק במטבעות.

Not just a master to get somebody to do wrong, it's like playing with him. Again, the person is not even chasing something that's an actual ta'avah, he's chasing היכי תמצי to get a ta'avah, almost giving up ta'avot in order to chase the money which is there in order to pursue something else. ואחר כך הורג אותם הממון בעצמו, and then the money is what ends up killing them. People end up, I mean, in easy to understand way, people give up relationships, health, they give up everything that would otherwise make life meaningful, personal goals for money, and the money itself ends up killing them.

Now, talking about the idea of money and תאוות ממון having בעלות on a person is certainly a good lead-in to talk about שמירת הברית issues, ta'avah in in the other realm that is actually referred to as the תאוות הכלל, also has total בעלות over a person, and and we explained that the since תאוות ממון is עבודה זרה, the idea of becoming a קדוש, of being able to align to קדושה with הקדוש ברוך הוא, עמך כולם צדיקים, every Yid has an element of this בחינה of צדיק within, but the צדיקים, the people who have totally purified themselves, when a person is able to attach themselves to a צדיק, and strength and and and energy through and alignment through the צדיק, then they're able to achieve this קדושה.

And once a person has this קדושה, then they're also going to be saved from falling into this תאוות ממון. There's definitely a lot of similarities thinking about קדושה, אתה קדוש, how do how how do we even taytsh the word קדוש? Sometimes we say separate, removed, and by הקדוש ברוך הוא, the ultimate expression of this being separate is perfection. הקדוש ברוך הוא is אתה קדוש. Now we also הקדוש ברוך הוא gives us a gift of being able to have a relationship with him, it's one of the reasons I heard that in a brachah, it switches off between second and third person: אשר קיד- אתה, you, קידשנו במצוותיו, his מצוות.

We we both know that הקדוש ברוך הוא is אין סוף, there's no way that we could possibly have a relationship with הקדוש ברוך הוא other than the fact that that where הקדוש ברוך הוא's גדולה, שם אתה מוצא ענוותנותו, that הקדוש ברוך הוא, בני בכורי ישראל, wants directly a relationship with us. And we have this element: haneshamah is a חלק אלוק ממעל, we're able to relate directly to הקדוש ברוך הוא. But עד כמה that we're kadosh, so then we're saved from אלוהים אחרים, we're saved from עבודה זרה, things that are otherwise a source pulling us in different directions.

And the the the two things that we're aligning over here where a person would be self-serving as opposed to as opposed to in a position of giving, when a person is engaged in the relationship between an איש and an אשה and a משפיע and a מקבל and they're bringing a life into the world and the שלושה שותפין באדם, and a person is relating to the very act of of bringing down the Shechinah into this world and a בית נאמן בישראל and Im yirtzeh Hashem a לידה, then that is an act of the ultimate kedushah of aligning with הקדוש ברוך הוא and שמירת הברית.

And when a person does this for a ta'avah and is self-serving, so this is this is an element also of עבודה זרה and being not a kadosh, and we're we aligned a lot of these ideas with תאוות ממון. Now, in the last shiur, we came to plugging these ideas, broadly speaking, I didn't mention every detail, back into the stories the the the מאמרי חז״ל, not so to say stories, from סבי דבי אתונא, and I'm going to just read just very quickly, high level, the ideas. We're in the middle of the second one. So I'm actually going to use Rabbi Chaim Kramer's note on page 43 to help sum up the story.

וזה פירוש שאמרו סבי דבי אתונא, number one was: אמרו לן מילי דכדיבא, tell us something false. What's considered falsehood? שקר, חושך, עבודה זרה. Tell us what would be considered false, and Rabbi Yehoshua responded did הוה לן כודניתא, we had a כודניתא, which is a mule, which is a פירדא in Aramaic. פירדא is the same lashon as פירוד, which is separation. We explained how that relates to עבודה זרה, and in our case, תאות ממון. ויולדה, and it gave birth, which would be profits. So the תאות ממון, which is עבודה זרה, ended up yielding profit, brought, if you will, influx into the world.

והוה תליא ליה פיתקא, and there was a note on its neck, וכתיב ביה דמסיק בי אבא מאה אלפי זוזי. Said, "Your father's estate owes me a hundred thousand coins," because there's huge profits, people are drawn after the idolatry, after the עבודה זרה of money. We explained why בית אבא relates to money, and therefore, people are drawn in by the profits that they can that they can achieve. אמרו ליה, the wise men of Athens said, וכודניתא מי ילדה? But if if עבודה זרה is sterile, if you attach yourself to the source of sustenance, the source of life, you create that pipeline, so then bracha, influx, profits, whatever it is, can flow through that.

But if you're telling me that there's no other source, then you're attaching your pipe to what? How would it even be possible that there could be any profits that are generated from something associated with עבודה זרה? And in that case, how could there be תאות ממון? Why would anybody have money lust in that context, when it's the only way to achieve, to get bring the water in, is to attach your pipe to the reservoir. If you're telling me, "Yeah, there could be like little pools of whatever it is," but the reality is that everything is capped, endless, and there's no way to really get it.

In fact, people, we said, die waiting for the money. So then how could there ever be תאות ממון? אמר להו, so he responded, היינו מילי דכדיבי. This is what it means, something false, that people think that there could be profit, but the reality is that there can only be any sort of bracha and influx from the הארת פנים. And anybody that thinks that they're going to be better off not making רצון השם paramount, and not attaching themselves to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, not living with their entire רצון associated with Hakadosh Baruch Hu within the boundaries of Hamakom, you are in the universe of this world, and all of the worlds, a person can't function outside of that, and hope to have any bracha from anywhere else, it would only be a a a short-term perception.

מילחא כי סרי, the second story that we're in the middle of, they asked, "With what can salt be preserved?" We said that salt, מלח is a bechina of brit, and therefore, a person, we said, who does שמירת הברית, and תיקון הברית, this person is saved from תאות ממון. But what happens if a person already achieves מלח, he already achieves brit, he he has already done תיקון הברית, and now he still has תאות ממון? So how is that person going to be preserved when he already has the שמירת הברית? במאי מלחי ליה? With what can that be preserved?

And Rabbi Yehoshua answered, בסילוסא דכודניתא, with the with the שליא of a mule, the the the the sack, the source, what the what the mule comes in when he's in the mother's belly. The answer was that there's another way. שמירת הברית is, number one, is the essential way to be saved from תאות ממון. For a person that still has some sort of a ta'avah, which, one way of looking at this, at least in the question, would be that one of the lower levels, a person be'etzem has not not stealing, not chas v'shalom going against רצון השם, but he's still stingy, he still doesn't want to spend.

He's looking for the, you know, the lowest kosher one. There is still what to there is still what to rectify. He focuses on the source, and we explained in depth that the source of influx of bounty of bracha, of flow into this world, is be'etzem coming from Hakadosh Baruch Hu. At that altitude, there is no negative. It's only once Hakadosh Baruch Hu, with the צמצומים etc., flows this bracha into the world at a lower altitude, it takes on certain, you know, certain characteristics, depending how we relate to it, depending what kind of a כלי we make ourself into be, that now we divorce it, as it were, in our perception, from Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and we relate to it separately, which is why we think that there could be separate bracha.

But if a person would focus on, where does that come from? Where does that come from? Where does that come from? And we focus on all money as truly representing its its ultimate source, at which point there's no negative, there's no רשעות, there's no ta'avah, there's no yetzer hara over there. We're looking totally that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is sending into the world, then there is not going to be any alternate ta'avah. We use an example of a of a father who wants to give a son a token of of brachah, gratitude, their relationship, maybe a reward of something he did, and the the person takes on the the money, and he just wants the money to be able to do something that might be כנגד the father, but if he focuses on the source this helped me understand it, at least.

If he focuses on the source of the reason and the הרגשה and the feeling and the emotion and the expression of the father giving him this this reward and where it came from, then there won't be even room to say, "And I want to use this כנגד the father." That would be forget about רשעות, it would just be, you know, it it wouldn't even be emotionally stable. I'm going to take this thing that I'm mamash relating to as an expression of our relationship to do something against that relationship? So they asked, ומי איכא סילותא דכודנתא?

But if greed is עבודה זרה, the way that he explains it over here is it had if if greed, תאות ממון is עבודה זרה, which means that it has no womb, it has no source, there's no offspring, there's no source to focus on, if you're relating to תאות ממון as as something that's עבודה זרה'דיק, so then עבודה זרה doesn't have a source, it doesn't have any profits, this whole system doesn't work. So if somebody is sunk into this תאות ממון, what is the source of that that they would be looking toward? And he answers, מילחא מי סריא?

Wait a second, salt itself wouldn't spoil, meaning that you're right, nobody would ever find themselves truly in this system because somebody who is relating to the source, and this is really the crux of it, מבשרי אחזה אלוקה, from my בשר, from my ברית מילה, from my קדושה, אחזה אלוקה, for somebody to get to the point where they are relating to the source, they are relating to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, so then they would have needed שמירת הברית. A person who has שמירת הברית, they're never going to fall into תאות ממון. So that's really, again, it's almost like a second level: what if there's a person not fully rectified?

But the the real answer is your question never really is going to start because a person who has rectified the תיקון הברית, the שמירת הברית issues, that person is never going to have תאות ממון. So the basis of your question is, well, what if he has it anyway, and now he has עבודה זרה, how can he relate to the source? He's never going to have to relate to the source as the second level תיקון because he never would have fallen to תאות ממון in the first place. Therefore, the question never starts because the question, well, wait a second, this person finds himself with the ta'avah of עבודה זרה, and you're telling me that the way to be saved from something is to look towards its source, and עבודה זרה doesn't have a source as it were, Rabbi Yehoshua is responding that the question never starts.

There are questions that have answers, and there are questions where the premise is undermined. The premise of your question is what happens if a person already had achieved תיקון הברית and שלימות הברית, and nevertheless, they fell into תאות ממון, how are they going to be saved if they can't look towards the source? And the answer is somebody with full שלימות, full שלימות in the area of תיקון הברית, it's impossible for them to fall into תאות ממון because they're relating to the source, and the influx of of ממון at a higher altitude than the תאות ממון could possibly start, and then there's no there's no מקום, there's no מקום for that even to attach itself.

But let's let's just finish off this piece in the text, והשורש ההשפעות, the source of bounty, הוא מכונה בשם שליא, the continuing the analogy of ממון and of ולדה, the source of bounty is going to be like a שליא, it's going to be like the sack where the baby comes into the world, ששם מונח הולד, that's where the לידה comes from, כי השליא הוא בחינת דלתי בטני, the שליא, the sack, is a בחינה of the doors of my womb, which the Gemara from Bechorot דף מ״ה brings that הוסיף לה הקדוש ברוך הוא שני צירים, as it were, two hinges, ושני דלתות, the the אברים associated with the womb are referred to as doors, כי יש שתי דלתות לאשה, it's as if there are two doors for the אשה where the baby could come out, כמו שכתוב כי לא סגר דלתי בטני, that the doors of my womb weren't closed, this is a reference from a

pasuk in Iyov, but the point is that he uses the lashon of דלתי בטני, doors of the בטן, of the womb. Now, דלתי means doors, it also a דלד, a דלד is also a letter, so if you have two דלדs, and you would put them imagine a דלד one way and then a דלד inverted, if you put those together, that would be like a box, or if you think about like, you know, an L in one direction and then a דלד on top of it, those would come together, same shape, so then that would be like an end-מ, if you know the Hebrew letters, so then the מ סופית, the end-מ would look like דלתי בטני, it would look like a box.

We can say this is also an allusion to the forty days of יצירת הולד, before which the ולד is not doesn't have the almost the definition of a ולד, it's called מיא בעלמא. He brings over here in the note from a Sefer Nishmat Avraham, which I think is like medical שאלות, he says that even though with an ultrasound you do see that there is some development of the ולד, but that would just be the התחלת אברים ופנים, almost the the צורה of also the development of any animal form until it takes on more of a human development, the דומה לצורת אדם, that really starts after forty days.

But in any event, what do we have over here? The doors of the womb, the דלתי בטני relating to the source of ולדה, talking about the womb, talking about the דלתי is the end-מ, is the מ סופית, וכי יש למעלה דלתי שמים, so similarly now, taking this analogy of the דלתי בטני referring to the source, to the שליא, to the womb of how a לידה comes in, now we're going to talk about how other shefa comes into the world, which we're also terming a לידה, וכי יש למעלה דלתי דלתי שמים שמשם נולד השפעות, there also is this בחינה, this element of the דלתי שמים, the womb as it were, in שמים, which becomes the source of hashpa'ah.

Again, the reason that we're talking about this is a tikkun, a way to be able to undermine, to to to reject as it were, to not give a makom for any sort of a ta'avah or יצר would be to relate to the source by which something comes in. So we're saying that this spiritual this this dynamic, which exists in the physical realm, exists in the spiritual realm also. Where do we see this? כמו שכתוב: דלתי שמים פתח, וימטר עליהם כעפר שאר. By the mann, by the שלו, rain is a Reb Chaim Kramer brings, rain is used as a reference to bounty, and meat is a is a symbol of wealth.

So when shefa comes into the world, that's referred to as דלתי שמים, which is similar to the way that we related to a שליה, to the source of a ולד. וזה שהשיב להם בשליה דכודנתא הוא תיקונו של שומר הברית. This that רבי יהושע responded to them, how is the salt preserved, meaning the person who has שמירת הברית is preserved with the mule of a of a פרידה, which can't exist. It's the the the the sac, the שליה of a mule, which can't reproduce, הוא תיקונו של שומר הברית. Looking to this source would be the tikkun of a שומר הברית כשנופל לתאוות ממון.

Then when a person already has the salt, and yet he has תאוות ממון anyway, what would how would he get out of this תאוות ממון? By looking to the source of the עבודה זרה, by looking to the source of the פרידה. The פרידה has also a שליה, which we're going to see in a second doesn't exist, and therefore he would look to the source of that עבודה זרה. ואמרו ליה: מי איכא שליה לפרידה? But a פרידה, a mule, doesn't have a sac. A mule can't give birth, and therefore the mule doesn't have this physiologically, the mule doesn't have this this this sac because it can't give birth.

כי עכו״ם אין לה אפילו בית ולד. And when it comes to עבודה זרה, at least a mule theoretically has the body parts where on the outside it would otherwise be able to reproduce, except for the fact that a mule's incapable of reproducing. But the the analogy when it comes to עבודה זרה goes even deeper: not only is an עכו״ם not able to reproduce, it doesn't even have a בית ולד, it wouldn't even have the כלים which could be activated. Because not only can an can עבודה זרה not bring influx of berachah into the world going forward, but it also doesn't have a בית ולד, it also doesn't have any כלים of הריון, it also doesn't have a source, there's no שורש at all to relate to.

And this is like we foreshadowed a little bit in the introduction, that there's two things going on over here. There's the source of mamon, of wealth, of bounty that comes into the world. Don't confuse mamon with תאוות ממון. Like we've said in the past about middot, middot are not inherently bad, it's what one does with them. It's when the sitra achra hijacks it. It's when a person's not connected to הקדוש ברוך הוא, so it gets diverted. Money, the idea of parnasah, of shefa, of bounty, of coming from דלתי שמים, that has a very holy source.

Down line, at a lower altitude, it attaches to תאוות ממון when a person relates to it for the wrong reasons. And therefore, in the question it says, hey, a person who has this תאוות ממון, who has this עבודה זרה, so you'd be looking for the source of that relates to עבודה זרה, but עבודה זרה doesn't have a source. עבודה זרה is just the dark side, so to speak, like we said, פנים חשוכין, the the light, the energy relating to הקדוש ברוך הוא is is is the source, but there is no true source for רשעות, for רע, for עבודה זרה, for these types of things.

That's just when a person, so to speak, turns away and doesn't relate to the true source. אמר להם: You're right. ומלח כי סרי, because the salt can't spoil. When a person when a person has the salt, when a person has the melach and the שמירת הברית, he's never going to fall into תאוות ממון, because this person is already relating to kedushah, he's relating to the true source of mamon, and when a person is in line with where mamon actually comes from, he's not going to be fooled by the תאוות ממון that happens. He already sees what's behind the curtain.

He already understands that הקדוש ברוך הוא is sending shefa into the world. So the idea of relating to money money as getting getting it from someplace other than the true source is silly, that makes no sense. He sees what's what's on top of the pyramid. He's not going to be fooled and drawn in by something that's that's lower down on the pyramid. כי באמת מי שתיקן הברית אינו נופל לתאוות ממון, and therefore the question doesn't start. Going into the next paragraph, although in the standard print it's not a separate paragraph, but: אנשי דמים ומרמה לא יחצו ימיהם.

We had said earlier that when a person is חולק on a tzadik, every every person has an element of tzadik within him, every Yid, but when a person is חולק on a tzadik who represents this direct connection, which we're going to explore a little bit more fully in the text, how does הקדוש ברוך הוא cause his downfall? There's a system How הקדוש ברוך הוא causes this this person who's חולק to be נופל into תאוות ממון, and that causes the person's downfall. I'm just going to read a couple of פסוקים right before in Tehillim, before the אנשי דמים ומרמה לא יחצו ימיהם, תהלים קפיטל נ״ה, פסוק כ״ג.

It says: השלך על ה׳ יהבך והוא יכלכלך, a person should cast his burden, as it were, onto HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and Hashem will sustain you. לא יתן לעולם מוט לצדיק, HaKadosh Baruch Hu will not allow a tzaddik to falter, ואתה אלקים תורידם לבאר שחת אנשי דמים ומרמה, but the אנשי דמים, which could be read as the people of blood or the people of money, of תאוות ממון, HaKadosh Baruch Hu will cause these other people to fall into the pit, into the into the באר שחת of תאוות of תאוות ממון, לא יחצו ימיהם, they won't even have half of their years, half of their days rather, ואני אבטח בך, but I, HaKadosh Baruch Hu, I have bitachon in You, which, okay, there's a difference between emunah and bitachon.

Broadly speaking, I guess we could say that bitachon is like emunah in practice. A person has emunah, and then they exercise that emunah, that becomes bitachon. We started off this Torah talking about emes and emunah. Emunah being the attachment to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, specifically in business matters, specifically in areas where we bring in an influx of bounty into the world, and attaching ourselves to the source of life, whereas a person that relates to other תאוות ממון, but relates to that source as being either self-serving or coming, as it were, from another source, that would be a dead end.

Anything that's not directly coming from HaKadosh Baruch Hu, as it were, we said, is really an aspect of מיתה, it's like dying a slow death. An analogy that we've used in the past is if a person has a faucet that's plugged into the reservoir, when you open up the faucet, there's a current, the water comes out, and it's not going to stop. For all intents and purposes, it's unlimited. The hose, the faucet doesn't hold anything, so it has total התבטלות, there's nothing that gets in the way, it's not a כלי. And on the other hand, and because of that התבטלות, it has access to chaim.

In our analogy, it has access to unlimited life, unlimited water. Whereas if you have a pool of water, no matter how large it is, and you can swish it around and create a create a current, but it's just dying a slow death. No matter how large the pool is, it's limited in how much water it has, and no matter how fast you swish around the water, you can create a facade, a perception of movement, and that movement might even be quicker than the slow the slower trickle and the slower flow of water from the faucet.

However, it's ultimately going to be short-lived. And therefore, in the text over here, אנשי דמים ומרמה, these people of blood, the the pshat in the Tehillim is David HaMelech is saying a tefillah about Doeg and Achitophel, who were אנשי דמים, they wanted to kill David, and he davens to HaKadosh Baruch Hu that they shouldn't have יחצו ימיהם. They shouldn't even reach the age of 35, which is half of a a lifespan of 70. But אנשי דמים ומרמה לא יחצו ימיהם, they shouldn't have even half their days. היינו מי שהוא בעל מחלוקת, a person who is a בעל מחלוקת, an אנשי דמים ומרמה, נופל לתאוות ממון, this person will succumb to greed, וימיו כלים ברדיפה אחר מותרות, his days will be consumed with chasing after luxuries, with chasing after ממון, וזה לא יחצו ימיהם, this that they won't have half their days, שאין אדם מת וחצי תאוותו בידו, a person doesn't die having achieved even half

of his desires. The way that we touched up the מאמר חז״ל that when a person has מאה, רוצה מאתים, it doesn't mean he has a hundred and he wants 200, that he always wants to double it, it's that whatever a person has, they dip their toe, they have a hundred, they want 200 more. And therefore, a person is always one third of the way, they're always lacking two thirds, and the more that they have, in effect, actually the more that they are missing. It's it's really, again, we we move, the the shiurim are very dense, and we try to move somewhat quickly through the material, but every once in a while it's worth it to write down a couple points and just be misbonen.

The idea that we get an influx of bracha from Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and relating relating to Hakadosh Baruch Hu as the source of bracha is attaching ourselves, as it were, to the faucet. We relate to everything that we have, the number one emotion that we should have is hakarat hatov. It's not a matter of being selfish, it's Hakadosh Baruch Hu is giving us the tools, and the life, and the resources in order to serve Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and attach ourselves to to to רצון ה׳, something that's of infinite proportions. We'll see soon the idea of אריכות ימים, we'll flush it out.

The idea of relating to money as self-serving, or maybe the source of money is coming from dishonest deals, or however I can manipulate things, כוחי ועוצם ידי, is not just a matter of, you know, there's something to work on. It's totally redefining the structure and the paradigm of how we relate to the world and how we're sustained. וזה לא יחצו שאין משיג חצי תאוותו, once the תאווה is the universe in which we relate to having things, that is something that is insatiable. So that when a person attaches themselves to the tzadik or they're in touch with their inner tzadik, which is מלח, which is שמירת הברית, which is kedusha, which is attachment to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, which is ממתק the מרירות, it's able to take the very aspect of relating to ממון itself, and it's ממתק it, it transforms it, it becomes something as a connection between between us and Hakadosh Baruch Hu, it can

generate hakarat hatov, that person will be attached to Hashem. But a person who is a בעל מחלוקת, he separates from the tzadik, he fights against the tzadik, or he separates himself, perhaps we can suggest even from his inner tzadik, the the the inner relationship with kedusha that he has, this person is going to be trapped by תאוות ממון, because this is going to be the the universe that he relates to everything in his life, the the paradigm, the way that he relates to it, כמו על הפסוק ויגרש מפניך אויב, that is the pasuk in דברים ל״ג כ״ז, that Hakadosh Baruch Hu says, I will chase מפניך, which we started off the פנים דקדושה, this was at the beginning of the תורה, אויב, chase your enemies away from פניך, ויאמר השמד.

These people that are chased away from the tzaddik, what's going to happen? ויאמר השמד, they'll fall into a שמד, עיין שם, but השמד as avodah zarah, as תאוות ממון. This is how they will ultimately be defeated because now the tzaddik has the direct relationship with the source, with the ultimate energy and sustainer, creator, sustainer, the Ribono Shel Olam, and these other people fall into תאוות ממון, and they are unable to defeat the tzaddik and to continue their challenge to the tzaddik, because they are plugged in to a different, not even a source, but something that's downline from Hakadosh Baruch Hu, they're not they're not anchored in the ultimate source of power of sustenance of energy in the world, and therefore they will not be able to defeat the tzaddik.

עד כאן לשון רבינו ז״ל. This is this is until here is the לשון of רבינו that Rabbi Natan was copying directly from the notes, I guess, and we're going to go on. Rabbi Natan is now going to flesh out some of these ideas. I believe my understanding is that the language that's לשון רבינו ז״ל is more dense and sometimes more terse, but as Rabbi Natan fleshes it out, we're going to see that it's going to be a little bit more explanatory. We're going to go into the ideas that we've been discussing, period. Now, וזה שסיים, this that the pasuk finishes that we read, אנשי דמים ומרמה לא יחצו ימיהם.

The people who are בעלי מחלוקת, the people looking for the blood of the tzaddik, the people who are attached to תאוות ממון, לא יחצו ימיהם, they are never going to achieve even half of their תאוות. They won't finish up their days. Or in that pasuk, they were going to have actual מיתה at half of their life. They wouldn't even have had access to a life. ואני אבטח בך. But I have bitachon in Hakadosh Baruch Hu, this relationship, emet, emunah. Shehu bitachon is a היפך מתאוות ממון. This is the opposite of תאוות ממון. כי המשוקע בתאוות ממון, somebody who is sunk in, who is immersed, he's he's living within תאוות ממון, which if we make it a little bit broader than just the ta'avah to have more money, the money, like we said, is not really a specific ta'avah.

Money is we make money in order to buy things. So in a certain sense, you could say that money is like the pipeline for berachah, right? In other words, I need a car, so I ask for Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Yes, Hakadosh Baruch Hu could deliver a car directly to me, but what Hakadosh Baruch Hu did is his pipeline, he sends the the the the the money and then I can divert the money and spend the money on what I need. And Hakadosh Baruch Hu, on Rosh Hashanah we daven, Hashem decides how much money a person is going to have.

That's the bank, that's the budget, that's the resources. A person should spend that on the on his necessities. Can a person misspend it and then not have money left for his necessities? Conversation for another time. But a person who just wants תאוות ממון, I'm not interested in spending my life and my resources on what Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants, I want to have ownership of that, I want to decide what I need, and maybe I need some luxuries. I want to be able to be the master of how I relate to life and what my priorities are.

A person who has תאוות ממון, that's the opposite of bitachon, which we said is like emunah in practice, it's when I actualize emunah. Actualizing emunah is the opposite of relating to money and the and shefa as תאוות ממון, as something that is self-serving. Why? Because again, a person who is משוקע בתאוות ממון אינו בוטח בהשם. He's self-serving, he's not plugging that into השם, כי הוא עובד כל עכו״ם. He's serving every avodah zarah. Once I abstract תאוות ממון away from a specific תאוה, and I say that I essentially want to be the source of an influx of berachah and shefa in the world and decide how that goes, and every other, you know, whether it's in the context of, let's say borrowing money, I'm going to, now again, the There's specific instances, people do have to borrow money, but we're talking high level, why would a person borrow money, let's say, that they don't need?

Because I want it sooner, I want it on my own terms. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is not ready to give me this, and I want to have it quicker. Or maybe I'm just stingy. I don't want to be able to give. Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave me more than I need, and now there's a needy person over there, I have the opportunity. Hashem could have given me five and him five, instead Hashem gave me 10 and I have the opportunity to be on God's side of the table. Hashem is sending it through me, and no, I want to have that ownership.

Or maybe I have the resources, I say, "Listen, this mitzvah costs money. Why should I spend more money on the mitzvah, then I'm taking that away from me?" Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave me the resources to be able to be lucky enough to spend money on this mitzvah, and it's me spending it. It's not just me Hashem giving me the resources and me directing the resources to the mitzvah. That's going to be coming away from something that I want to spend on myself. ואני אבטח בך. I'm not going to be משוקע, sunken in, immersed in תאות ממון.

I am going to actualize this emunah, I'm going to have bitachon in הקדוש ברוך הוא, שתוכל להזמין לי פרנסתי בסיבה קלה. Hakadosh Baruch Hu gives me the resources I need. If I'm spending money in the right ways, then why should Hakadosh Baruch Hu make me I have a bank also of time and emotional energy. If I'm going to take the resources and spend it on Hakadosh Baruch Hu, then Hashem should give me the resources so that I can spend my bank of emotional energy and time and strength on Hakadosh Baruch Hu. And therefore, Hakadosh Baruch Hu could really send me money with a סיבה קלה.

Every word of this Torah we could just spend a half an hour, a lifetime talking about. Why would a person go and take time away from their family, from their self, from Hakadosh Baruch Hu in order to make money? Because they want money for whatever their own preferences are. But if a person's ultimate preference is to be in Hakadosh Baruch Hu's army, and they know that Hashem is going to give them עשה לי כל צרכי, everything that they need, then my ultimate goal is to plug into Hakadosh Baruch Hu's רצון. My ultimate goal is to be mevatel myself to Hakadosh Baruch Hu.

Therefore, Hashem is going to give me everything that I need בסיבה קלה. If I don't have it, then maybe I have to re-evaluate whether that's actually my job in life. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is not going to withhold from me the resources to do what I have to be doing. Right, didn't Rabbi Maiman point it out? But right before the pasuk that that we associate with parnassah: פותח את ידך ומשביע לכל חי רצון, Hakadosh Baruch Hu give parnassah, what what comes right before that? What comes before we ask for parnassah? עיני כל אליך, my eyes are to You.

I am My my goals, where I'm looking, where I'm looking towards is associated and my ambitions, my goals are towards Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and, like we said a moment ago, we're looking at the source. I understand that my eyes are looking towards אליך. Those are my goals, those are my ambitions, that's where I'm looking to for the money. And therefore, it's not that I have money and I can use it for good things or bad things. If I relate to money as just a pipe that's plugged into the source of all shefa, תאות ממון doesn't start.

תאות ממון doesn't work its way into that worldview. ואהיה שמח בחלקי, and I'm going to be sameach with my חלק, ולא אהיה משוקע בתאות ממון. And therefore, a person will not be sunken into תאות ממון. Just to mention one or two points that I think are nice, based on based on the Baal HaTanya in one of the letters in the back, says: ואהיה שמח בחלקי. When If you think about the lashon of chelek, you say: אשרינו מה טוב חלקנו ומה נעים גורלנו. A goral is a lot, it's something that's that's for me. A chelek, if you have a chelek of a pie, a piece of pie, there's nothing different from the slice of pie that I have than from the rest of the pie.

The only thing that's different is what I have. And the question becomes that if anything has a chelek, even if you didn't divide the pie yet, that means that it's potentially divisible. So what does it mean that a person's neshamah is a חלק אלוק ממעל? What does it even mean that we have a chelek, if something is indivisible, and then if you take a chelek out, then the thing is missing? So how does this even relate to Hakadosh Baruch Hu? It's a good question for separately. However, שמח בחלקי means that I acknowledge that I don't have it all.

I acknowledge that what I have is a chelek. But if what I have is a chelek, that's part of a greater whole. Again, I don't want to exceed go past the boundaries of peshat, but perhaps we could say, how does a person achieve simchah? How does a person achieve this attachment where he where he's defined by something that's greater than the sum of its parts? By understanding that he has a chelek. Nobody can have it all, not in terms of resources, not in terms of skills and abilities. But if I am totally aligned, like we said, a chelek is really no different than the rest of it.

If my retzonot are total hitbatlut to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, I'm part of that machine. So if you look at a machine that has different parts and I say, "Point to the machine," machine. You don't have to be pointing to the entire thing. You point to a chelek, which is a necessary, which is an intrinsic, which is functionally part of the ultimate of the ultimate machine, then that is a chelek. Even though it only performs one of those functions, it's identified with the thing itself. And perhaps we could say, how does a person have simchah? How is a person identified and expansive and and one with Hakadosh Baruch Hu himself?

When he recognizes that what he has is a chelek, and then it becomes the difference between יש לי רב and יש לי כל. A person is always going to be limited by what he has unless he has a chelek and he's now part of the greater whole. So then יש לי כל, he essentially has everything. עיני כל, his his eyes are אליך, and he understands הקדוש ברוך הוא gives everything בעתו. הקדוש ברוך הוא gives everything when when it's time, and he doesn't have to push even the right thing for the wrong reasons or on the wrong schedule.

And at that point, פותח את ידך ומשביע לכל חי רצון, הקדוש ברוך הוא gives everything their ratzon. Why? Because his ratzon is really הקדוש ברוך הוא's ratzon. ועל כן, אלו המשוקעים בממון, those who are sunk into money, כל מה שיש לו עשירות יותר, if a person is משוקע בממון, then the more ממון that they have is defined, again, we're redefining how he looks at ממון itself. A person who is plugged into הקדוש ברוך הוא, the more they have, the more perhaps the more of an obligation it causes. If a person needs a thousand dollars to live, and they have a hundred thousand dollars or if they have a million dollars, that just means that they have more resources to do רצון השם.

That doesn't necessarily mean that they have that they should redefine their priorities, but when a person relates to ממון, relates to תאוות ממון on their own terms, then the more that they have, the more that's reinforced, and יש לו דאגות ועצבות ומרה שחורה ביותר. And therefore, if simcha is being plugged into הקדוש ברוך הוא, is being שמח בחלקו, then the opposite of simcha, which is anxiety, which is atzvut, which is sadness, which is marah shechorah, which is depression, I can never have everything and no matter how much I have, I'm going to desire more. And a person is never going to have even half of their desires, so that the more that they have, the more they realize how much they want, the more that they realize how much they're missing, and they're limited by their own capabilities, they're not plugged into infinity.

כי הממון והעשירות שלו הוא בבחינת בעצבון תאכלנה. Anything they eat is only going to be בעצבון, with sadness, שהוא בבחינת עצבות ומרה שחורה, אנפין חשוכין. They're relating, we said what's אנפין חשוכין, relating to הקדוש ברוך הוא in אנפין נהירין, which is the light, which is the rays, as it were, coming from the source, I am now plugged into chaim itself. But when a person is redirecting their עיני כל אליך, instead of their gaze, their ambitions, their goals, they're looking at where the source comes from, instead of looking towards הקדוש ברוך הוא, they redirect that towards their own priorities, and the source of money, the source of their resources is their business partner, it's customers, it's the stock market, it's these other things that בעצם don't really have they're not really plugged into the actual source, they're limited by whatever the circumstances are, they're always going to be chasing their tail, and it's always going to

be out of their hands. I think we've said in the past, which holiday is the holiday of simcha? It says by by Sukkos, the the ניסוך המים. And what do we what do we scream out? אנא השם הושיעה נא. It's the holiday of הושענות. How could that be simcha? Because when we scream out, as it were, in desperation, meaning that we have zero responsibility other than to do רצון השם, אנא השם הושיעה נא, if I'm responsible for it, then I can have a good day or a bad day. If the stock market is responsible for it, it could be a good day or a bad day.

When הקדוש ברוך הוא is 100% responsible and I'm 0% responsible, I'm totally screaming out הושיעה נא, that's where I can have total simcha, because I'm not leaving anything to chance. Everything is within my בחירה, and if I didn't get it, it means that I don't need it. The most that you could say אנא השם הושיעה נא, the most that you can mamash have התבטלות, that's where you can have the most simcha, cause you're plugged into HaKadosh Baruch Hu. But when you're not plugged into HaKadosh Baruch Hu, you're you're you're you're hiding from the light, that's אנפין חשוכין, that's the darkness, that's בעצם מיתה כנ״ל, that's a dead end, that's the opposite of chayim is an element of of of mitah.

ועל כן, כל מה שיש לו ממון ועשירות יותר, the more money that a person has when they relate to money from a point of view of תאוות ממון, and that becomes reinforced, יש לו עצבות ומרה שחורה ודאגות יותר, the more depression and anxiety they have. כי הממון שלהם הוא בבחינת עצבות, why? Because the ממון that they have, all of their possessions is reinforcing this idea the way that they relate to it is an element of mitah and self-serving, ומרה שחורה ו... כולי כנ״ל. It's perhaps a good test when a person takes a step back, if you'd make a list of everything you have to be grateful for, and you come up with just pages and pages and pages, I mean, everything, there was in the Rav Avigdor Miller זצ״ל biography, it discusses that when he would come across somebody who had some sort of a deficiency, you could daven for them, there's a lot of

things you could do, but one of the things he would do is keep a list of הכרת הטוב. Baruch Hashem, these are things that I took for granted. Now that I see that people have this challenge, Baruch Hashem, I realize that I might have taken it for granted before, Hashem gave me something wonderful. If a person, despite all of that, goes through this exercise and they find that they are not in a good head space, they don't live a life walking around of gratitude and הכרת הטוב, perhaps this can be a point before Elul to reevaluate a person's own priorities and how they do relate to this.

וזהו שאמרו רבותינו זכרונם לברכה, מרבה נכסים, מרבה דאגה. This doesn't mean for everybody who has נכסים. There were big צדיקים that had a lot of money, big צדיקים that didn't have a lot of money, but those people weren't walking around in a world of דאגה and anxiety. כי בוודאי הוא מרבה דאגה ועצבות על ידי ריבוי נכסים ועשירות. But when a person relates to their money the way we've been discussing, then by definition they have more דאגה because their world and their worldview is more rooted in something that is not connected with God, and therefore it's not a question of what they have, it becomes a question of what they're missing, it becomes a question of limitations.

כי הנכסים שלהם הם בעצמם בבחינת עצבות כנ״ל. Their very possessions, they're not שמח בחלקו, they want it all, they need to fulfill their desires, they don't look at what they have as a חלק, which, interestingly, we said is a חלק essentially means that I have an aspect of the whole. No, what they have is they want יש לי כל, and whatever they don't have is something that they're missing. ועל כן, כל מה שמתרבין יותר, the more they have, מתרבה העצבות והדאגות ביותר כנ״ל, the more they're missing, because they'll never have all of their desires. They're just chasing something that's a moving goal.

If I say that I want to do רצון השם, I can accomplish that right now, and now it's just a question of where I am where I am in that journey. But if I am chasing my own desires, I'm chasing my own goals, and those goals will never be fulfilled, then I can never have it. ועל כן, הממון והעשירות הוא מקצר ומכלה ימיו וחייו של אדם. And I'm going to suggest in a second, it says מכלה ימיו וחייו, the days and his חיים, why doesn't it say the days of life? What does it mean it's מקצר חייו?

כי אין דבר שמפסיד החיות כמו דאגה ועצבות. There's nothing like anxiety and depression, which is mekatzer, maf sid. These are languages of gevul, these are languages of limitation. Everything is limited. What's the difference if it's 100 years or 50 years or 120 years? People used to live till 900 years, all of our lives are kitztzur. But what I'm going to suggest, and then we'll go forward in the language itself, I think I mentioned this earlier on, is arichut yamim doesn't mean a lot of days. If you have 100 years worth of days, no day is different than a life of 50 years worth of days.

Each day still stands on its own. Arichut yamim is the quality of the of the day itself. I actually on on Erev Shabbos, I picked up a book, the sefer that I saw just came out, somebody put together the philosophy of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, and a lot of it is really coming from Chabad generally, but it's on the Lubavitcher Rebbe's focus. I didn't get very far, but one of the ideas that he's discussing towards the beginning is דירה בתחתונים, creating a makom for השראת השכינה in this world. And how do we relate to this world, which is the most distant, as it were, the most mundane, the most physical?

All of the worlds, the systems, the olamot, the malachim, those are spiritual worlds that Hakadosh Baruch Hu created through השתלשלות, and they are a distilled, as it were, I wouldn't get into it, expression of the the אור אין סוף and how Hakadosh Baruch Hu develops, as it were, the creation. But what about our world? It seems to be qualitatively different from all of those worlds in between us going all the way up the ladder, where our world seems to have not just a distilled and a lesser spiritual expression, but it seems to be totally independent, with independent priorities.

Things seem to be mundane, physical, everything that we're discussing over here, תאוות ממון. There seems to be, as it were, a opportunity through bechirah and so forth, but even through all the forces, the סטרא אחרא, for the world to express itself as being something that's not just lower down, at a lower altitude, lower down on the chain, but actually, as it were, different. And he goes on to describe our avodah of creating a makom for השראת השכינה and דירה בתחתונים, of taking these things that seem to be not just lesser, but actually different from things that would be expressive of the priorities and the ratzon of Ha Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and we have the opportunity to redefine, we could take that mamon and redefine it from something that's used for us as something that's used by us for Hakadosh Baruch Hu.

We have the opportunity to literally reinvent, as it were, to be creators. We have the opportunity to take something which expresses itself in a physical form and give it נצחיותדיק properties, a נצחיות definition, so that one example that we've used, if it helps at all, is when I move a piece of plastic, what action did I just do? Did I move a piece of plastic 1 cm, or if it's a light switch, did I turn on a light? When I give money to somebody else, did I take something that I could have used for myself, and instead of spending it on myself, I spent it on somebody else?

Or did I give tzedakah and act as a pipeline for Hakadosh Baruch Hu to send resources in, and therefore for Hakadosh Baruch Hu to pour in rachamim and chesed into the world, and change the entire balance of myself, my family, the entire world, affecting something that's essentially a a a a change of infinite proportions? A person who's a ben olam haba doesn't mean that they're getting rewarded later, it means that right now they're living as a ben olam haba. Those yamim have אריכות ימימדיק properties. The days that this person is living in is not a 24-hour day.

He's operating within a 24-hour structure, framework, but he has arichut yamim. A person who is associated not with the infinite source and infinite properties, and that's not how he relates and defines himself, is being מקצר ימים. He's taking these days where he could learn Torah, he could do chesed, he could connect to another Jew, he could make a keli for Hakadosh Baruch Hu to to have השראת השכינה in this world, and now he's putting boundaries around it, and he's taking those ימים and he's he's being מקצר ימים. And therefore, back in the text, כי אין דבר שמפסיד החיות כמו הדאגה ועצבות.

When a person's world view is anxiety, is עצבות, is depression, is cut off from simcha, from אריכות ימים, from Hakadosh Baruch Hu, so we see this in our world as well, anxiety kills, כידוע לחכמי הרופאים, והממון והעשירות הוא מרבה דאגה, because ממון and עשירות are מרבה דאגה ועצבות, כנ״ל, על כן הוא מפסיד ומכלה חייו. When he thinks about the the source of shefa, money, life, and he thinks about that, he redefines that very thing, instead of being life-giving, it's something that saps life, על כן הוא מפסיד ומכלה חייו, כי הוא מקושר בפנים דסטרא אחרא. Because he is now tied to the סטרא אחרא, אלהים אחרים, חושך, הוא בבחינת מיתה, היפך אור פני מלך חיים, כנ״ל, like we've been discussing, ועל כן הממון ממיס אותו.

So, the ממון itself will kill will kill him, as it were, it associates him with with with death, כי הוא בבחינת מיתה, because the money itself, which should be the source of shefa and life and abundance, is itself an element of מיתה. And that's how he's sustaining himself and reinforcing his world view, שהוא עצבות, and he becomes depressed, כנ״ל, שכל זה הוא בבחינת תאות ממון, כנ״ל. All of this is תאות ממון. Going further, we're going to associate this תאות ממון with the נחש and the קללה of the נחש. וזה שכתוב by the קללה of נחש in the beginning of בראשית, ועפר תאכל כל ימי חייך, that the snake would have its food available, but that it would eat from the dust.

עפר זה בחינת הממון, כמו שכתוב ועפרת זהב לו, it's a pasuk in Iyov that's relating gold to dust. Rav Chaim Kramer points it out that Iyov is speaking about the sources the the sources in the natural world of everything that that there is, and he says in our text, dust is compared to melancholy, dust we relate to עצבות, which suggests that gold before it is mined, as well as everything that is attached to dust, which is one of the כוחות in the in the physical world, is enveloped in עצבות. Okay, so this says, זה בחינת ממון, like it says עפרת זהב לו, היינו שהממון והעשירות שהוא בחינת עפר, that ממון and עשירות, and we're relating to gold as representative of ממון, gold being associated with the quality in physical בריאה of dust, which relates to עצבות in the מדות, תאכל כל ימי חייך.

This is what a person will be eating if a person has תאות ממון, which the ממון is buying the food that the person is eating and living off of. But when that is sourced in something that's עצבות-based and something that's עפר, so then this will again reinforce, this is going to he's going to be eating from the dust and he's going to be living in a state of עצבות and reinforcing that. כי הממון היא אוכלת ומכלה כל ימי חייו של אדם, כנ״ל. The ממון will eat all of his days. Perhaps we could say, what does it mean that it'll eat all his days?

When it consumes his days, we said that that's מקצר ימיו, that puts גבול on it. Instead of being expansive and b'simcha, it's going to eat away at his days, and literally, we said even the רופאים will say in our world that anxiety, דאגה, those are killers. כי עפר הוא בחינת עצבות, because עפר is the same bechina of עצבות. The Shaarei Kedusha, famously Rabbi Chaim Vital, relates to the the middos within the בריאה, we had a big discussion of it in תורה ד, אש, מים, רוח, עפר. עצבות is associated with עפר in the מדות, שהוא בחינת תאוות ממון, כמו שכתוב בתיקונים, עפר איהו קר ויבש.

The qualities of עפר are cold and dry. הכי טחול קר ויבש. The the organ that's associated with עצבות is the spleen, I don't know much more than that, but also it has these qualities of קר ויבש, of cold and dry. ומהטחול נמשך העצבות כידוע. So we'll take his word for it for now that that עפר and the spleen and עצבות, all of these are associated with the same elements and characteristics in the בריאה. Hakadosh Baruch Hu put it into structure in into place a certain structure in the בריאה and layered over this particular structure is things within the בריאה physically, things within the בריאה emotionally.

All of these things are built with the same pieces, they represent and manifest themselves in in different ways, and we see that the same qualities that that manifest themselves in עפר are the same qualities that represent themselves in depression and עצבות. וזה שסיים שם בתיקונים, and the Zohar finishes off, ובגין דא, because of this, ועפר תאכל כל ימי חייך, that he'll eat dust all of the days of his life. היינו כנ״ל, that through a person falling into תאוות ממון, he's going to associate himself and be דבוק in the נחש and the קללה of the נחש, and the נחש represents the סטרא אחרא and kelipah and the malchut of kelipah, which what we're describing all along as what's the source?

Is a person being mevatel himself to the to מלכות דקדושה, or the the malchut of the other side, the world representing and reflecting other ideals, perhaps we could say. And therefore, עפר associated with the נחש is atzvut, and this is going to he's going to eat all of the days of his life, and it's also going to consume all of the days of his life, I think we could say in both directions, עיין שם והבן היטב. וזה שכתוב בתיקונים, and this that it says in the Zohar in the תיקוני זוהר, טחול, the spleen, דא ליל.

Rav Chaim Kramer points out not to say the names of certain malachim because it's as if it gives them koach, but this ליל angel, which represents the the sphere of the מלכות דקליפה, אימא דערב רב, she is as it were the אימא, she generates the ערב רב, the resha'im that are mixed in the mixed multitude with Klal Yisrael. So again, members of Klal Yisrael similar perhaps to what we're saying, introducing the way that we relate to mamon. Mamon is part of the of what people need, it's part of what everybody relates to, but it's a question of it's mixed in.

Sometimes it's hard to tell about others or about even oneself what their true priorities are, but this mixed multitude that ultimately causes death, שחוק כסיל, it's the levity of the כסיל, as it were. מאן כסיל, this כסיל, דא אל אחר, is the אל אחר, the סטרא אחרא. Over here it brings down from kabbalistic sources the ס״מ angel, who is as it were the בעל, the husband of the ליל angel, because the ס״מ angel is referred to as מלך זקן וכסיל, עיין שם. ואיהו אסכרה, and the children as it were that are that come that that come from this union between אל אחר, between the סטרא אחרא, between the ס״מ angel and the ליל angel, this generates askarah, which is a disease that is a it's it's a respiratory infection, but it's a horrible disease, it translates over here as diphtheria, which cuts off essentially the ability to breathe, it causes choking.

If we think about the neshamah, the neshimah, the רוח אלוקים, attachment to HaKadosh Baruch Hu through נשימה, through breath, this is what cuts off our connection to to life, our connection to Chaim. It causes אסכרה לרביא, causes אסכרה to children. Over here it says, why children? It's those whose daat are not developed to be able to save themselves from תאוות ממון. We're going to see that a tzadik is one חכם עיניו בראשו, who is able to not fall into תאוות ממון. But over here, those who are not able, תאוות ממון affects everybody. We're all we're all dealing with ממון, but the people who fall into תאוות ממון, those are people that do not have the daat and the connection to the tzadik and the connection to the source and the relationship to the source to be able to save themselves.

דאינון חייביא, those who are guilty, the these resha'im, these people who are ending up being חייב, they fall into תאוות ממון, they are ultimately led in the wrong direction by these by these negative forces, and these negative forces are the one that ultimately cause their death, because this ליל angel חייכא בהון בעותרא בהאי עלמא, she laughs as it were, we brought this in the Kitzur Likutei Moharan earlier on, that it says it's a laughter. What is laughter, by the way? Perhaps we can say, laughter is a reaction when there's when it's something that's unexpected, it's something that's an irony, it's something that's misrepresented and distorted in almost a comical way, it's totally divorced from the meaning of what something is.

When a person takes ממון, which is the ultimate connection with HaKadosh Baruch Hu, that Hashem is able the the at the source, it gives a shefa, and they totally misrepresent and take this ממון and they attribute it to the wrong source, and they make it self-serving, and they they die, so to speak, with with millions of dollars in the bank, maybe living as a pauper, or they take the money that Hashem gave them and then they withhold it instead of using it to to buy themself eternity with mitzvot, and they use it only to to to fund and pay for their pleasures, if not, like we said, just totally leaving in the bank and not even getting the pleasures, there that causes laughter, the money plays with them.

It's very, very powerful mashal to really be מתבונן in it, ולבתר קטילת להון, and then it ends up killing them. And now we're going to tie תאוות ממון directly to מיתה: כי אלו המשוקעים בממון הם בבחינת: 'בעצבון תאכלנה' כנ״ל. Like we said before, the curse of the נחש, those who are משוקע בממון are within the curse of of what they eat is really out of depression. They're not attached to simcha, they're not attached to, they're they're not relating to the their source as HaKadosh Baruch Hu and נצחיות, but rather it's something that's that's מיתה, it's something that is not sourced in eternity, but it's sourced in temporary priorities and ideals, and it's limited.

שהוא בבחינת טחול, which is associated with the טחול, שהוא בבחינת עצבות, which in physiological terms we said that the טחול, the spleen, is associated with depression, ומרה שחורה, lethargy, sadness, וריבוי דאגות, anxiety, והם מקושרים בפנים דסטרא אחרא. This is relating not to the אנפין נהירין, not to the the the Elokim, not to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, the source of sources of power, but rather, as it were, to the other side, a distortion, as it were. Again, it doesn't really have its own source, it's just the סטרא אחרא, it's the other side of truth, it's looking at it from an angle and then misrepresenting it, אל אחר וכו' כנ״ל, שכל זה הוא בבחינת טחול.

All of this is associated with the טחול, with the spleen, אמא דערב רב שחוק כסיל, which is associated with the little angel, which is generates this this תאוות ממון, that it generates the ערב רב, the wrong priorities, and ultimately causes their death, which is also together with the שחוק כסיל, the laughter, as it were, of the of the כסיל, of the fool, אל אחר כנ״ל. וזה שכתוב שם: 'ולבתר קטילת להון', that after this, it actually kills them, כי בוודאי הממון שהוא בבחינת טחול ועצבות כנ״ל, this money, when a person relates to the source of bounty coming in, but in a negative way, and it's associated with דאגה, with anxiety, with depression, כנ״ל, הורג אותם, this actually seeps and saps, rather that's actually the right word, it saps out their chiyut, it saps out their energy, it saps out their their life and their drive, I mean we can see this מעשה בכל יום.

הורג אותם, it kills them in an actual physical way, it kills a person, but it also just takes out their their live energy, כי הממון שלו הוא בבחינת מיתה, אנפין חשוכין, עצבות וכו' כנ״ל. I know it's late, I want to push through a drop just to where it says וזהו, עד כאן לשון רבנו, we spent so much time developing these concepts, I think that it's worthwhile. וזהו מה שכתוב לעיל, we said earlier on, we brought a Gemara in Berachos, that the בני מערבא, the people in Eretz Yisrael would ask a chatan: מצא או מוצא? asking about the kallah, and we explained the פנימיות: שתאוות ממון הוא בבחינת: 'מוצא אני מר ממות את האשה' כנ״ל, that I find more bitter than death is the אשה, because the parnasah is referenced by the אשה.

We explained this also in the introduction, that this was a a message or this was about the maaseh that happened with R'' Lipa. כי כן מבואר שם בתיקונים: 'ומוצא אני מר ממות את האשה', I find more bitter than death an אשה, ודא טחול. So you'd have to look up in the Tikkunei Zohar, but he says that the person who's chasing after ממון, who is דבוק in the little angel which is מלכות דקליפה, this is a בחינה of טחול, and his פרנסה will be more bitter than death because it's an element of עצבות, of מרה שחורה, of depression, lethargy, anxiety, worry, and this, again, is representative of actual death, and also even just death if you think about somebody who's unable to be engaged in life because of his attitude, his emotional stability or instability.

אך פרנסה דקדושה, but a person who is דבוק to the שכינה, he looks at the source of ממון, the פרנסה that he gets is coming directly, as it were, from HaKadosh Baruch Hu, that's how he relates it, and it strengthens his הכרת הטוב, it strengthens his attachment to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, he relates to מלכות דקדושה, and every- everything that he has is part of his חשבון הנפש, how he's going to spend it his role in life, ובבחינת מצא אשה מצא טוב, a person who finds פרנסה, he finds טוב, not negative. This very thing is defined, it not just represents, it's not just an abstract idea.

When he has money that reinforces his attachment to HaKadosh Baruch Hu instead of rachmana litzlan the other way, שהוא בבחינת הצדיק הנ״ל, because מצא טוב, טוב אין טוב אלא צדיק the Gemara in Yoma says, and a צדיק is a בחינה of ברית, of שמירת הברית, of ברית מלח, of somebody who is who has שמירת הברית, who is a קדוש and אתה קדוש, he is attached to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and there is no תאוות ממון there, there is no room for for the תאווה of ממון because the ממון itself is reinforcing his attachment to HaKadosh Baruch Hu.

כי צדיק האמת ניצל מזה, he is saved first of all like we saw in the מעשה by the סבי דבי אתונא, a person who has who is full צדיק, full תיקון הברית, full קדושה, he is attached to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, there is no room even for תאוות ממון, and a person who theoretically does have some room for תאוות ממון they can look back at the source, and then they'll be saved from it. כי אין הממון מזיק לו, the ממון is not going to harm him, if anything it's reinforcing his attachment to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. כי עליו נאמר the pasuk in Kohelet says, מוצא אני מר ממות את האשה, טוב לפני האלקים ימלט ממנה.

A tov, a tzadik who is before HaKadosh Baruch Hu, he relates to the panim, the אנפין נהירין, the panim of HaKadosh Baruch Hu, the emet, the emunah, and that's how he relates to HaKadosh Baruch Hu sending parnasa, shefa. He is escapes he escapes this תאוות ממון, this death, כמו שכתוב שם Tikkunim: ואמאי איקריאו רביא? Why did we call the רשעים the ones who perish from the תאוות ממון from the אסכרה, why do we call them children, רביא means children? בגין, because דלא אשתפיין דעת לשזביה מיניה, because they don't have the daat, they're like children that they don't have the the חכם עיניו בראשו, they don't have the daat in order to be saved from this תאוות ממון which is now going to reinforce itself and attach them to the מלכות דקליפה.

אבל לב מבין, but a person who does have a לב מבין, a person who has this understanding, אשתזיב מיניה דתמן צדיק, because over there he has a בחינה of a tzadik, he has the שמירת הברית, he doesn't get involved once a person's on a slippery slope already, but a person who has חכם עיניו בראשו, who has a לב מבין, he is a tzadik, he is saved from it. ורזא דמילה, and this sod is, טוב לפני האלקים, a tzadik who is before HaKadosh Baruch Hu, who is attached to the panim of הקדוש ברוך הוא, ימלט ממנה, will be saved from תאוות ממון, וחוטא, but the sinner, ילכד בה, will be ensnared in it.

כי צריך חכמה ודעת גדול לזה, a person needs a tremendous לב מבין, a person needs חכמה to understand this שלא יזיקו הממון, before you get into that point where a person's already pulled, he's already has the ממון, once he relates to it in a negative way it could be already too late unless he has the unbelievable strength to be saved from it. But a person who has the לב מבין so that he shouldn't be מזיק, he shouldn't be harmed from it, שלא יכלה ימי חייו, because otherwise his life is going to go down the drain either actual death or even if life is an opportunity, like we said, to attach oneself to נצחיות, a person can use the every second, every moment, every day of his life, every word of Torah the Gra says is a separate מצוה, how many words can a person learn in a short period of time, and a person is

distracted and they're going and they want to get money, and money is important, it costs a lot to be a a frumer Jew, it costs a lot just to live, but the way that they relate to money is something that eats up all the days of his life, and they they they leave some part of some part of the day to be יוצא זיין with Torah, with עבודה, or they'll do it later on when they retire and it it uses up their entire life. And we see the ראיה about how great a person's חכמה has to be to be saved from this because כי רוב העולם נלכדו בזה.

Look around, most of the world is ensnared in this and they justify it also by the way, היינו בתאוות ממון, והממון הורגם וממיתם כנ״ל, the money, the תאווה of the money, the drive for the money, the ambition, their goal, and we consider ourselves productive, and and it kills them, it eats them up. ואי אפשר לינצל מזה כי אם על ידי הצדיק, the only way to be to be זוכה, to merit to be saved from this is to develop the inner צדיק and to attach oneself to be יונק from a צדיק who has reached this שלמות in תיקון הברית in קדושה, שנאמר עליו: טוב, the צדיק, לפני האלקים, again, who is before הקדוש ברוך הוא, who is attached to the פנים of הקדוש ברוך הוא, ימלט ממנה כנ״ל, אשרי לו.

This person is אשרי, is fortunate. עיין שם בתיקונים ותראה נפלאות. Now with this background you could look at these תיקונים which would otherwise have been unable to decipher, but now with this background you can look into the תיקונים that we've been going through and you will see unbelievable wonders. אך עתה, now שפתח רבינו זכרונו לברכה את עינינו, now that our eyes are open, וגילה לנו את ההקדמות החדשות הנפלאות המבוארות לעיל בתורה זאת, and with everything that we discussed and going back into this this Tikkunei Zohar which I guess he's referring to the Gemara the Tikkunei Zohar with with לילית and with the ס״מ angel and giving אסכרה to the תינוקות, עתה עתה מבוארים היטב דברי התיקונים כנ״ל.

You can look into these brief passages of Tikunei Zohar and you will see everything that we've been discussing, כי עתה מבוארים שם כל דברי רבינו הנ״ל. In there is everything that Rabbeinu has now described to us. ראה והבן וחכם. ראה והבן וחכם, a person can see and understand and become wise. עיין שם בתיקון ע׳ הנ״ל, go look in תיקון 70, מה שכתוב שם: אם זכה, if a person is zocheh to become a tzadik, to be שומר הברית, עזר, then he will be davuk to the Shechinah, which will help save him from תאוות ממון, ואם לאו, and a person who is not zocheh to שמירת הברית, כנגדו, then he'll be davuk in the מלכות דקליפה and the ליל angel, which will be opposite him and will plunge him into תאוות ממון, and ultimately death.

עליה איתמר, on this person, it says, or on that, it says, ומוצא אני מר ממות את האשה. This person finds more bitter than death the אשה, which is representative of פרנסה, ודא תכיל, this is a bechinah of the חיל, שבתי, which is also the mazal of Shabtai, which is expressing the מלכות דקליפה, היינו בחינת עצבות ומרה שחורה שהוא בחינת חיל שבתי פסיא אוכמא. כידוע, again, once you know the inner code, the programming of the world, then you will see how everything is layered over the פנימיות. And he's discussing beyond us. Shabtai is Saturn. פסיא אוכמא is a reference to a black kli, a black bucket, but פסיא is also לשון of פתי, which we said is the the שחוק כסיל.

פתי is like a fool, the black fool. עזר דא שכינתא עליה איתמר. Again, if a person is zocheh, I guess because they'll have an ezer, if not, it'll be כנגדו. The ezer, the one who helps him, the one who gives this מתנה, a person who attached himself to הקדוש ברוך הוא, then הקדוש ברוך הוא is going to be an ezer. מצא אשה מצא טוב ויפק רצון מה׳. If a person have found a wife, has found good, and we had associated ishah with parnasah, he's found good, good is with a tzadik, a person who is a tzadik has שמירת הברית, he attached himself to a tzadik, he relates to parnasah in the positive way, and he will get ezer from Hashem, he will have favor as it were, ויפק רצון מה׳, rather, he will he will have chen, ratzon from Hashem.

U'vegin da, and because of this, הוו אמרי מארי מתניתין, the Tannaim, the masters of the of the Mishnah said, מצא או מוצא? Did you again, associate with the two pesukim which relate to parnasah as מצא אשה טוב and מוצא אני מר ממות. עיין שם היטב והבן וכו׳ שכל דברי רבינו ז״ל מבוארים עתה שם. And now you will see that everything that Rabbeinu said is actually within that תיקוני זהר בתיקון ג׳ הנ״ל באר היטב. And therefore, as we read the last paragraph over here, וזאת התורה היא לשון רבינו ז״ל בעצמו עד המקום שנרשם לעיל, until where we pointed it out in the text, was directly lashon of Rabbeinu.

ומשם והלאה הוא מלשוני, from there on is my own words, says רבי נתן, מה ששמעתי עוד דברים שלא נתבארו בלשוני הקדוש, that I heard other things that were not explained explicitly from רבינו, ועוד לאלוה מלין, and other godly things that I heard. He's referencing a pasuk in איוב, כי עוד לאלוה מלים. מה ששמעתי והבנתי מפי הרב קדוש בעת שזכיתי לשמוע מפי הרב קדוש התורה הזאת, וזה הוא, and then he goes on to explain other ideas that he is going to tie back into what we've been discussing until now. Okay, Yishar koach gadol and אם ירצה השם, it could be that we'll actually finish the this Torah, never finished, but finish this Torah in the next shiur.