LM 25.4 — Achavi Lan Mana, Part 4 of 5 · תורה כ״ה

בעזרת השם יתברך, we're in the fourth shiur of Torah כ״ה, in paragraph ד', about 12 lines down in the standard print, וחושם יש נהר ונהג גוונין. Maybe we'll read through from the beginning of paragraph ד' relatively quickly, but first of all, as I think mentioned earlier, there's just a tremendous amount of excitement around Likutey Moharan, בקיאות, עיון, different shiurim, people becoming involved in different levels. So, anybody that can grow from this shiur, please please feel free to forward. If you can take just a couple of seconds even and click the five stars if you're enjoying these in Spotify, iTunes, I guess it'll help spread them.

Very appreciated. I want to focus on a nekudah, on one point which I think is really what we're continuing on in paragraph ד'. We gave a pretty good summary, I think, in the last shiur, so you can go back and listen to that. But for now, I want to focus on the idea of process and and taking a top-down, if you will, versus bottom-up approach. What do I mean by that? When you have a a source, everything is sourced in a particular idea. You have, you know, the seed with the entire blueprint of the tree, of the fruits, of the leaves, whatever's going to come out of it.

Everything, on one hand, is contained with the source, and with a with a healthy flow-through, if you will, anything and everything that happens is going to be consistent and have integrity with whatever the design, the ratzon, the will, whatever was in the original source. As it unfolds, it becomes more fragmented, and from the altitude, from the level of the chitzoniyut of that process, of the fragmentation, depending on a person's the scope of a person's perspective, they might not see either how everything goes together and complements each other, and it might even seem like things contradict each other.

So, I'll give maybe a couple of examples. I don't know if any of them are perfect, but maybe just to at least dance around the topic in different ways, whatever resonates, to understand this idea. One idea might be a music composition versus listening to the song. From the point of view of the composition, from the point of view of the composer, he can begin with a deep, abstract feeling he wants to express something, he wants to evoke a certain emotion by the by the song, and this would be, if you will, the neshamah of the piece.

That's going to unfold into a certain melody. He's going to find the instruments to be able to go together, arrange the dynamics, some of it will be louder, softer, build ups that will express depth, until there's going to be a final composition. From the point of view of somebody who walks in and sees the orchestra and just isolates on a particular instrument or what they're doing, they're not necessarily going to understand what the composer is expressing, and to really to be to really be able to understand anything at all that they're encountering from the outside in, that really can only happen once they climb outside in and then back out again.

Another example might be a business plan. A certain founder has a vision, they have a problem that they want to solve, they have a market need that they want to fill, a certain drive, a mission, and this is going to give rise to everything else. They're going to develop a business plan, hire employees, assign roles, set up branding, marketing, customer service, and so on. And eventually, the company is going to function and it's going to have higher, lower level employees and it's going to become externally facing. At that point, somebody who's, let's say, a cashier, accountant, warehouse worker, customer, from their point of view, they're going to see a fragmented reality.

They'll see a particular task, they won't necessarily understand the overarching mission. At best, each each particular role will stay in its lane and and just operate parallel to every other thing, not necessarily complementing each other. And at worst, it might actually they might actually get into a contradiction, it might actually get into some sort of a conflict with one of the other roles. And without realizing the overarching mission, even like one layer up, and then, you know, putting the roles together into each department, and then the departments together, you know, and so on, then they're not really going to have the perspective to understand really what their role is in the in the larger context of the company.

So, we actually addressed this general idea of the unfolding of the olamot and so on in the last Torah. It was one of the shiurim in the middle where I think we had a very big discussion of of the olamot. We talked about the process of of government and communities unfolding in a similar way. Where this becomes relevant to our discussion is if we think about, and again, we're not fully exploring this topic, but just sort of staying focused, so we're going to speak Hakadosh Baruch Hu kevayachol kevayachol is operating, so to speak, from the top down.

When you have the einsofiyut, the the infinite all-encompassing everything, there's really no room for everything else. There's no room, so to speak, for a candle to give off light in the in the midst of sunlight. So, Hakadosh Baruch Hu kevayachol created a tzimtzum, a process of filtering, holding back, whatever exactly that means, in order so that everything that was completely contained within the ultimate pnimiyut, within the ultimate source, the way that we tried to describe in our examples, could unfold into a process, and then when all of those pieces at every level, because this process is going to be iterative and happen multiple times until it unfolds and becomes very fragmented, with the pnimiyut being the source, and the chitzoniyut being the interface that seems to be fragmented, when there's a giluy that all of those pieces are actually are actually feeding back into the source, not only are they not fragmented, but they're actually totally complementary.

So, certainly at the higher level within the seed, it's one small seed, everything is totally consistent, but when it totally unfolds into millions and millions of pieces and it comes out that as fragmented as it looks, everything is actually representative of one system, that brings this גילוי יחודו יתברך, so to speak, מכח אל הפועל, it brings it to an ability to have expression. If I misstated anything, then please forgive me, reach out to me, let me know, but again, these things are so hard to discuss because they're so all-encompassing. So Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the world, from the point of view of the world, the world is coming to tikun.

At each step, that that fragmentation, that chitzoniyut needs to become aligned, and Hakadosh Baruch Hu gives us the opportunity to become creators. He gives us the opportunity to bring that shleimut to full expression, and that's the greatest gift that Hakadosh Baruch Hu could give us, and we express that. But from the point of view of the individual who is, first of all, expanding and growing himself, and growing upwards and elevating the olamot with him, we are starting at the outside of a process. The way that we can rectify any point in the process is to align ourself and become one with the pnimiyut at that altitude, right?

In other words, once you are aligned and understand the pnimiyut at any within any given structure, so now you got it, you've reached that shleimut, and then you grow to the higher altitude, and as you go to the higher altitude, you're going to experience this process all over again. Now, one of the examples that we gave, which is, you know, slightly different, but we explain, let's say, within an educational institution, within an educational system, you're going to have multiple levels. You're going to have a person going through through kindergarten into elementary school, to junior high, high school, college, and so on.

From the point of view of the educational principles at its core, those principles are not going to change at any level. What they're going to do is they're going to adapt in their expression in order to be applicable and achieve their purpose at any particular particular level. From the point of view of somebody growing upward through the system, they will first come into kindergarten, come into first grade, for the first time have to deal with a teacher in the front of the room, learning to sit at a desk, learning to learn from a textbook, and then they're going to master those social challenges, and whatever it is at that level.

Once they go into junior high, all over again, they're going to graduate from mastering and growing upwards within a system into the next system and the next iteration at a higher level, where they're once again going to encounter the chitzoniyut of that part of the process. They're going to get into a new building, they're going to have new new social types of dynamic, maybe the teacher's going to be a little bit different, the schedule is going to adapt, it's going to be difficult, the things that they thought that they had mastered they're going to encounter all over again at a new altitude, but as they master it, then they're going to be able to tap into a higher level of education through a higher level of discipline.

So, at every level that they now graduate into a higher universe, they're going to have to start again with these challenges, with the chitzoniyut, until they're able to to to be able to master it, they're they'll be able to not get distracted by that chitzoniyut, and they'll be able to achieve the purpose of the pnimiyut at that level. Plugging this idea back into our Torah, we started off the Torah talking about the functionality, the motivations of a particular person, again, with the flow-through. If a person has an idea, they have a well-balanced intellect, a well-balanced רצון, חכמה, בינה, דעת, the truest expression of which is rooted in the truest reality, המקום, ישראל ואורייתא וקודשא בריך הוא חד הוא, the actual principles of emet, of היה הוה ויהיה, the Torah.

If a person has his his intellect fully aligned, and that is going to flow through to his emotions, to his actions, a person whose mind wants to move his hand, then that should be a seamless process. And, therefore, if a person is totally plugged in to his neshamah, to his חלק אלוק ממעל, then that should flow through towards his towards his intellectual and emotional faculties into his asiyah. If a person has different considerations, it's more bottom-up, they're being ruled, they're being governed by their בהמה'דיק considerations, well, then that's going to get in the way of what their mind really wants to do.

My mind, my heart wants to fulfill retzon Hashem, wants to fulfill purpose, and yet, seemingly, my motivations, things are getting in the way, right? In our analogy, if my hand is not doing what my brain tells it to do, there's going to be a dissonance. That is an indication of illness, and therefore, a person needs to get rid of the obstacles, needs to get rid of the friction so that there's going to be a healthy flow-through. Once we have a healthy individual, so now that person is plugging himself into the growth process that we described where at every level of the process, he's trying to align himself and tap into the penimiyut of that part of the process.

So, he grows, he encounters the chitzoniyut, he has to sensitize himself to the penimiyut of that part of the process, so that everything is really part of one big שלמות, and then he grows ever upwards towards towards the אין סופיות, which a person can get ever closer to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, ever closer to the neshamah of the neshamot, the source of sources, and so on. So, now in paragraph ד, I'm going to read pretty quickly, just straight through the words almost, so that we can get through where we're up to, but it'll be in context.

ואי אפשר להכניע הקליפות. When a person encounters what we call the chitzoniyut, what we call the kelipah, again, would be the peel of the orange. If you look at it in the context of the fruit, it's protecting the fruit, it's serving a purpose, it's vibrant, it's healthy, it's bright orange. When you look at the kelipah, you look at the peel as being separate from the fruit, it takes on its own personality, it shrivels, it becomes dull in color, this is the sitra achra. So, a person, if they're going to subjugate those kelipot, to align it with the penimiyut so that everything is really aligned with the emet at that level, היינו הדמיונות, המחשבות, the imagination, the thought process, תאוות, בלבולים, confusions, מניעות, those things are the preventatives, not necessarily even things that come from עבירה, but things that are just the chitzoniyut at any particular level that are in any מדרגה, אלא על ידי גדולת הבורא.

The way to do that is to come in contact with the penimiyut, and what's the ultimate shevach, the ultimate penimiyut, the ultimate revelation of truth that should flow through to any level? That's going to be the gedulah of the Bore, of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. What's gedulah, what's gedlut, what's large? If you have two things, one is larger than the other, when one encompasses the other. Something fits into the small one fits inside the bigger one. So, the גדולת הבורא, if you will, that's how I'm going to explain it for our purposes, is Hakadosh Baruch Hu is, kivyakhol, more gadol, hagadol than anything else because everything fits into the context of the universal Hamakom.

כמו בכוונה של הודו לה' קראו בשמו, that during Pesukei Dezimra, after the sitra achra, and so on, everything is different forces are in are in in their realm of strength at night. We we start our day going to Shacharit, we go up to פסוקי דזמרה. Zimrah is a song. Zimrah is also to prune, to cut away. And we are going to work upwards, back up towards hakadosh baruch hu through the olamot. The olamot we usually talk about as אביע: atzilut, beriah, yetzirah, asiyah. Now we're going to work up, through so asiyah, yetzirah, beriah, atzilut, whatever exactly those olamot are in this context.

But through davenen, we're going to relate back upwards to hakadosh baruch hu. If Shemoneh Esrei represents an attachment to hakadosh baruch hu in atzilut, so then we're going to develop this recognition, this shevach towards hakadosh baruch hu, הודו לה' קראו בשמו to proclaim הקדוש ברוך הוא, שזה מזמור מסוגל להכניע הקליפה שביצירה. As we rise up through the olamot, this mizmor is going to be machnia the kelipot of the olam of yetzirah, okay? כי נתעורר נגד עשיה. As a person grows up through the levels, he now masters, he gets through the bottom level, he goes to the higher altitude, that higher universe of yetzirah.

And now, he's going to encounter the chitzoniyut at that level. How is he going to be machnia, to subjugate the chitzoniyut, the kelipot at that level? By plugging in, so to speak, to the shevach of hakadosh baruch hu. So, what does he say at the beginning of פסוקי דזמרה, whether you're Ashkenaz, Sefarad, whatever it is, the פסוקי דזמרה starts essentially with הודו, which is a shevach of Hashem. שעולה ביצירה ועל ידי שמזכיר גדולת הבורא נכנעים, עיין שם. We really talked in the last shiur about this as each system is independent, but it's also interdependent, it's also interconnected.

So, we talked about how as a person achieves and grows through one olam, it's really overlapping, interdependent with the other systems. So, it says as as he's nit'orer the olam asiyah to the to the olam yetzirah, so then the chitzoniyut at that level will be encountered, okay? כי פנימיות היצירה עולה לבריאה, ופנימיות עשיה עולה ומלביש לחיצוניות יצירה, עיין שם. Again, this is a reference to sort of how the entire system, the structure is interdependent, becomes elevated. As a person elevates himself and becomes elevated through the worlds, he elevates the entire structure. Broadly speaking, we gave the example of a person, let's say, in a classroom who has chavrutot, and each חברותא שאפט is able to set the tone.

Maybe they ask different questions, they interact, the רבי. So, if a person is doing very well, his חברותא שאפט will be doing very well, the שואל ומשיב will be operating at a higher level, he'll be answering higher level questions, the level of the shiur will become higher. And if a person is unfortunately not doing well, that can actually make the entire level of the classroom, the the dynamic in the classroom, the types of jokes that will be told, the level at which the רבי will operate. So, any person And whatever they're doing can actually affect the entire system, so it's a very dynamic system.

ויתגלה גדולת הבורא על ידי צדקה שנותנים לעני, Gaon said that the the the revelation of the גדולת הבורא, so this is what we're saying as a person is tapping into the gedulah, the the praise of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, which is going to represent the ultimate פנימיות כביכול that flows through the system so that he can excel and succeed at his avodah and challenge wherever he is in the process. What מצוה מעשית does this? Tzedakah. Now, at the most basic level, I think we can understand the the world is structured on a system on a shleimut that's created through a system of משפיע מקבל, giver, not and taker, but giver and recipient, bestower and recipient, and this creates, so to speak, a shleimut, a זיווג, איש ואישה that's able to create and produce something that's in a greater and an extension of and greater than the original source and to go on and perpetuate the system as it expands.

If I am only in my own universe, there's really, in principle, no reason that I should share with you, I should give to you, unless otherwise let's say I gain a certain satisfaction from giving to you, so then I'm really just feeding my own machine. But if I have something, when you have these stories of of you know a lot of hardship where there's just not enough food to go around, and one person goes and he takes from what he has, and he gives to another, that is a godlike quality, the idea that a person can give, so to speak, with and not receive anything in return.

And the Chovot Halevavot actually talks about the different reasons why people give. No no human being can really be perfectly selfless. He talks about the context of a master and a servant, of a parent and a child. But tzedakah itself is the idea of becoming godlike, of taking from oneself and giving to another, and tzedakah, especially when we view ourself as part of the Jewish organism, if you will, we said before that there's a source and then as it expands outwards it becomes, we use the term fragmented if you will, but when you take all of those pieces together that in their own seem to be different, and you realize that they structure a shleimut to the extent that אורייתא וקודשא בריך הוא חד הוא, and Klal Yisrael, we have a neshamah, we have a חלק אלוה ממעל, and all of Klal Yisrael, 600,000 neshamot as it were, is representative of the shleimut of of of finding God in this world, so therefore it becomes part of one body.

The right hand is giving to the left hand that's that's balancing out. Within a family structure, for instance, where certainly at a busy stage of life no no two people are less than 100% busy. One person is 300% busy, one person is 200% busy, and therefore they're just always trying to balance to create a stability within the household. There's no question of you did this last time, I did this that time, it's a question of creating stability within the entire structure to to take care of the household, to take care of the children, and so on.

And therefore, tzedakah certainly is going to be representative in this world of balancing out things that can only make sense when a person rises to a higher altitude and looks down and is going to rebalance things to take from one and give to the other, that really does not make any actual sense from the from the lowest from the lowest vantage point. I do just want to mention if you remember the shiur, go back and listen to the shiur, are interested in exploring more about this idea, just going to quote from Torah ב׳. I'm not going to go back through the whole context, but just this is paragraph ג׳ in Torah ב׳: מי שזכה לחרב הזה צריך לידע איך ללחום עם החרב שלא יטה אותו לימין או לשמאל.

We're going to be talking in a second about the idea of of הנהגות that are opposites, chesed and gevurah, and how these represent themselves within the בריאה, again that while the middot are opposite, they're actually creating a shleimut because they're both really extensions and coming the right and the left hand are really expressive of the greater goal, of the greater mission, and therefore they're not conflicting, but they're actually complementing each other to be able to achieve it. So in Torah ב׳ he says, how does a person go to battle, so to speak, go to war?

We're talking about tefillah over there, so that it's not going to be tilted towards the yamin or smol, right? If a person is a an educator, then they're not going to be giving discipline or being easy. Sometimes a person does something and the teacher looks the other way, sometimes they give discipline, sometimes they send the kid home, sometimes the kid needs a break and they need to send the kid to the office to go make copies, to go you know just just take a break. Are they tilting to the right or the left? No, they're straight down the middle.

They're doing exactly what the child needs as part of the educational process, כפי הכלי they're going to be משפיע, so therefore they're not schizophrenic, it's not that they're acting in one way towards the right or the left, they're always operating down the middle on the on on the stability and the basis of the educational principles that will take towards what it needs. So it's not extreme, are we looking at it from the point of view of the application, or again from the top down from the source. So how do we achieve this? Skipping couple words, וזה אי אפשר אלא על ידי בחינת משפט, the midah of mishpat of judgment of how to structure this, of how to convey this, what's appropriate at a given time, this is the amuda d'emtzaita, he says, I'm reading from Torah ב׳ again, in order to be able to use the weapons of war, so to speak, to approach tefillah from the middle perspective, not to the right or left, אלא לאמצע.

And skipping for a minute to paragraph ד׳ in Torah ב׳, he says, ועל ידי מה זוכה לבחינת משפט, how is a person able, not sometimes right, sometimes to the left and if you gather it all together it'll average out to the middle, we're not looking for that. We're looking for the midah of mishpat that incorporates the right and the left into a new hanhagah. How is a person zocheh for mishpat, and then he can employ the right and the left, but it's totally balanced? Al yedei tzedakah. שעל ידי צדקה אחידן במידת משפט, this tzedakah itself is the midah of משפט, כמו שכתוב, he brings some פסוקים, כי צדקה על ידי משפט, אלקים שופט זה ישפיל וזה ירים.

It's coming from Hakadosh Baruch Hu, God is the one who is the judge. Sometimes you have to bring together the The one goes up, one goes down, but it's all a system of balance that's designed, as it were. We can dictate what goes on because through our avodah we can elevate and lower the world, but it's all one bechinah of mishpat. We're not getting all wound up in why one particular thing happened here or there, but it's really just a system that's self-balancing, as it were. And he goes on, he says that through tzedakah a person is effecting, achieving this balance kivayachol on behalf of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, we're aligning with Hashem.

ובשביל זה צריך להפריש צדקה קודם התפילה כדי שיוכל לכלכל דבריו במשפט, and he goes on. Okay, so going back to our Torah that where is the gilui? איש כפי מהללו. A person is who their who their ideals are, their missions are. This is what defines, yes, a person has to understand, you know, where am I going in, you know, my plan. I have my 10-year plan, my 10-month plan, my 10-day plan. Where am I going long-term? What do I have to do in the in the intermediate sense in order to get there, and what's at hand?

And then constantly reevaluate, make sure that you haven't gone off the plan. But a person is who their ultimate mission is, where their צפית לישועה, their watchtower, what are they looking at, what's truly driving them, how is a person bringing out the shevach, this this that that this he's looking towards Hakadosh Baruch Hu to bring out a gilui of this gedulah? So practically speaking, he's able to engage in tzedakah, and engage in tzedakah to an עני הגון, who is ירא שמים, עוסק בתורה, right? And so on. That this process, it's not just a blind chesed, right?

We said that mishpat is chesed and gevurah together, it's defined by certain parameters. It's not just a matter of spraying money whether the person deserves it or not, whether they A tzadik is somebody who incorporates Klal Yisrael, they're part of it, so part of the what makes me into the perfect giver is having the perfect recipient. If you think about just, let's say, it's raining all over the place and I take a cup of water and I put it out and it gets full of rain, that doesn't make the rain, so to speak, giving the cup, I just took.

The idea of having a closed system of shleimus of משפיע ומקבל is going to be תלוי in the in the entire process. So we're not examining right now why דווקא צדקה to an עני הגון, but that that's going to be this process. כי עיקר הגדולה והפאר, the גדולה where everything is encompassed within the source. Like we said, that's גדולה והפאר. פאר is beauty where you have things that become synthesized, things on their own, notes on their own, colors on their own, if you will, seem to be competing, but the פאר is the beauty, the synthesis where it expresses something greater than could have been just through any one note, one instrument, and now it gets together into a symphony and it evokes different emotions, different sounds, sentiments.

הוא התגלות הגוונים. This is going to be through a giluy of the colors, chas veshalom to ever say this is a actual representation of what's going on spiritually, there's no colors. But on the other hand, we've used this mashal before. If you have white light which is just blinding, nobody would be able to perceive it, so you take that white light, you shine it through a prism and it comes out with colors. There's nothing external there. The colors were inherent in the white light, but if you put the white light under the microscope, you wouldn't have seen them.

So in one hand, you have things that are a innovation, if you will, I'm trying to pick my words carefully, but not to, chas veshalom, have גשמיות and so on. On one hand, you have an innovation, you have a creation of a heichi timtze to have structure so that this white light can go through a filtration process in order that without gaining or losing anything that it should be represented in colors. And if you can tap into the פנימיות, you understand what's going on, then you understand exactly what it is that you're perceiving on the on the front end.

And on the other hand, when you perceive these colors, there's different wavelengths, some things are absorbed, some things are reflected in order that you should be able to relate to it. Certain colors might be, so to speak, opposites. Red is evoking a very different emotion, so to speak, than blue. So when you have this התגלות הגוונים and yet they all go together and we understand that they're part of a shleimus, part of a whole because we take on this higher altitude view, וכסף וזהב הן הן הגוונים, the colors that we're dealing with are כסף and זהב, which for our purposes we will we will take on that these are these are expressive of chesed and גבורה, כסף, כיסופין, desire, כי גוונין עילאין בהם, these are incredibly high גוונין, incredibly high expressions of things that are going to be represented by כסף and זהב, וגוונין עילאין מלובשין בכסף וזהב אינם מאירין אלא כשבאין לאיש הישראלי.

Now, this is a important point. The the כסף and זהב, I would suggest, if you're interested in in the concept of ממון, I think we explored it very deeply in Torah כ״ג was about ממון, כסף and זהב are representations, they are כלים. They're representations of chesed and גבורה, and when there's a synthesis, again, that will be representative of something much higher, of something that HaKadosh Baruch Hu has put into the בריאה. In order for those to find meaning, that can only be through Klal Yisrael. Klal Yisrael is representatives of HaKadosh Baruch Hu in the בריאה.

Our principles, our our axioms, our core function and personality, our חלק אלוק ממעל, what drives us is going to be Torah, because we said אורייתא וקודשא בריך הוא חד הוא, we always come back to that, and therefore the perfect expression of where we find our shleimus, our תפקיד, our תכלית is going to be in line with Torah. And the way that we relate to money is not going to be somebody chasing money, but money is a tool, money is a כלי, it's something where we're able to receive the shefa of HaKadosh Baruch Hu. And therefore, for כסף and זהב to find its appropriate expression in this world, that's going to be by the יידן, כי שם מקומם.

That is where HaKadosh Baruch Hu is משפיע into the world, and we receive it appropriately, ונכללין זה בזה. And the Jewish nation is the התכללות. Each one this is behind the דינים of areivus. Why am I allowed to make Kiddush for you if I already made it for myself? Because there's something lacking in my Shabbos, something lacking in my mitzvah of Kiddush if you didn't make Kiddush yet, and therefore there's areivus. We're all together, we're all incorporative of one another. And since and this applies directly to tzedakah. If you if you don't have money and I do have, there's enough resources in the world to go around if everybody would just balance out and take what they need and give what they can give and take, and not everybody was just totally self-centered.

Going back to our example of the right hand and the left hand: the right hand needs something and the mouth is not thirsty, so the mouth is going to refuse to take the medication, or the the arm says no, the mouth can't take the medication, or whatever, let's say it tastes good, or it doesn't want to take a needle that feels bad? It's all one thing. Tzedakah is where Klal Yisrael come together, ומתנהרין אלו הגוונים, and these lights, as it were, are able to shine, to find expression through פאר, through through this entire process of of finding a expression in שלימות, בבחינת ישראל אשר בך אתפאר.

Where does the expression of HaKadosh Baruch Hu expressing beauty in this world come from? Through Klal Yisrael, right? A tzaddik, we've mentioned this before, is be'etzem a walking Sefer Torah, a person who has his physical drives and he he is able to think in line with Torah, and all of his drives, all of his בהמה, as it were, becomes an expression of Godliness as well. We're in the season of Purim. Purim doesn't mention God explicitly, and yet the entire Megillah is a is is the greatest expression of God in this world, דירה בתחתונים. Everything in this world is its own It's not that HaKadosh Baruch Hu breaks the world to show miracle, but that the world itself is an expression of HaKadosh Baruch Hu.

Klal Yisrael is that expression, that that representation in this world, כי מקום הגוונים אינו אינם אלא אצל איש הישראלי, because the place where these colors, as it were, come out, so there's this perfect expression of shleimus in the system, is by Klal Yisrael. Okay, that was longer than I thought, but now this is where we're actually up to. כשמתנהרין הגוונים, אזי הקדוש ברוך הוא מתגדל ומתפאר בהם. When these lights shine and find expression in כסף and זהב, the חסד and גבורה are in are in Kesef and Zahav, in money, or money is really just a translation, in ממון, again go back to Torah כ״ג, that's where HaKadosh Baruch Hu finds גדולה, פאר.

The money is not just a person is chasing money and then he can never be satisfied, but rather this is how HaKadosh Baruch Hu is משפיע into the world, and when we relate to it as such, it will find a perfect synthesis, perfect meaning, בבחינת לי הכסף ולי הזהב. There's a pasuk in Chagai. The pasuk says, literally I'll read the פסוק, ומלאתי את הבית הזה כבוד, it starts off, I'll fill the בית המקדש, where HaKadosh Baruch Hu's presence is a tremendous gilui, לי הכסף ולי הזהב אמר ה'. So HaKadosh Baruch Hu found פאר, found כבוד in the בית המקדש, which was made from gold and silver, the כלים certainly, there was a lot of gold and silver in the בית המקדש, ונעשה מהם בגדי ישע.

And through these הנהגות, and these representations of these הנהגות finding expression in the world, was made from them בגדי ישע, which literally is clothing of salvation, but ישע is תכלית, ישע also can be translated to הסתכלות, to look towards כמו ישע אל ה׳, these are clothing which are which are representations in this world of something deeper, something higher, like we say ישע אל ה׳, a person should hope to Hashem, but not just hope to Hashem as to get saved, they are looking towards מחמת הפאר because the truth is is that we say Gam zu letovah, but והיה ביום ההוא יהיה השם אחד ושמו אחד, everything really goes together.

It's only at at this level that we say Baruch dayan ha-emet, and that is our perspective. Even if a person always understands intellectually Gam zu letovah, we do emotionally relate to things as Baruch dayan ha-emet, as negative. A person can't just say ברוך הטוב והמטיב when something bad happens, even if they intellectually realize, but we're looking towards the constantly breaking out of that perspective so that we can relate to things in a way of פאר, הכל מסתכלין בו, we are all anchored in something deeper, we're looking towards this פאר, towards this beauty, כי כולם מתאוין להסתכל בו, we all have a desire, no matter where we are, we are looking towards this perspective of פאר, of beauty, where everything is synthesized, fits together, and through that lens, if we're there or we have אמונה to at least understand that that's that that's the ultimate truth, we'd be able to reconcile, or at least not get thrown off base, by any of the daily goings on that we don't understand when we're only, you know, stuck in פרק ג׳, ד׳, whatever it is, of the Megillah, but we know that there's an end, we've seen it every year, just now it's a new year, we're on a higher level, a new events, but we know that there's going to be an end to the Megillah where things fall into place, and it doesn't throw us off that we're that we're stuck in the beginning פרקים where things seem to be going sideways.

Now, this is I can't this is unbelievable. אבל כל זמן שהכסף והזהב אצל עכו״ם, אזי גוונם נעלם ומאדם. So, we have kesef and zahav in the world. We just said that it's representative of godly qualities. And yet it says that when the kesef and the zahav are by a אינו יהודי, so this is going to be the or will be hidden, ואינו מאיר להם, it doesn't give off this light, כי אין שם מקומם, that's not its place, כי אין מקומם אלא אצל איש ישראלי, its place is only by a איד, בבחינת ישראל אשר בך אתפאר, כי שם פאר הגוונים.

Now, let's just explain for a second and there was a couple ways I was thinking about this. We've we've mentioned this before. When you look at something that's a keli, a keli really serves two purposes. One is that it hides the light. If I'm not going to be able to relate directly to the light, to the fire, whatever it is, it needs a wick, it needs something that's going to hold it, I need a keli in order to shield the core light that's going to burn me up. The other thing that it does is it gives it is it provides it form, it provides it a צורה.

When I have something where I have no מקום תפיסה, I have no way to grasp it, if it's put into a keli, now I I have a I have a starting point, I have a a place where I can grasp, and now I can approach the topic from there. That could be a mashal. Meshalim, I think the Gemara calls it handles. It's a it's a topic that I have no I have no relationship with, and by providing me a foothold I'm able to approach it. This means that the value of the keli is defined by the or, by the tochen that it's holding.

If you have a bottle, you have a bottle of water. If the bottle is empty, then it's just garbage, it's a piece of plastic. There's no value to it other than by what function it fulfills. There's an interesting halacha of Shabbos that we mentioned, I believe Rav Hutner talks about it, that if a person carries out a keli, carries out something on Shabbos, then he's going to be chayav. He just carried out something on Shabbos with no eiruv, and so on. Let's say a person carries out a keli, but in the keli is something that's tochen, there's substance, it's holding something that it's designed to hold, that's less than the shiur for chiyuv.

So, a person now will be פטור אף על הכלי. Why is he patur on the keli? You just told me a second ago that I'm chayav for carrying a plate out to the רשות הרבים, I'm chayav for carrying a bottle out to the רשות הרבים. But once the keli is holding something, then the keli loses its own independent identity. And if it's serving something that's less than the shiur, less than the amount that one would be obligated if he carried it out, so then the keli itself doesn't exist on its own. When we look at money, money is a keli that's designed to convey, to relate shefa from Hakadosh Baruch Hu.

It's a very powerful koach. We know that zeh l'umas zeh, when there's something that's very powerful positive koach, that can also create a very a source for a negative koach as well to follow. So, mamon is obviously an incredibly powerful yetzer hara, desire, and so on, Torah כ״ג. But if we look at money as a keli for something that powerful, then the truest expression of money, where it finds its place in the בריאה, is only somebody who is using it for that. Otherwise, otherwise it's just empty. And we talked about this in different ways also, let's say, for the relationship between husband and wife.

If it's a keli for emotion, a keli for relationship, a keli for building families, and a person divorces that outer aspect of it from the תוכן, then a person can never be satisfied, and it'll never find true expression. That's not truly its מקום, and you can extrapolate out to different, you know, to different areas. So, over here, when we relate to mamon, ממון כסף and זהב, money only finds its true expression in the בריאה when it actually, it's in its מקום, it's by Klal Yisrael who's going to use it as a keli for its actual functionality.

Otherwise, it's just a mirage. It's a facade. We're looking at we're looking at the keli as though it holds something and it's an empty box, and it can never truly bring satisfaction. This is worth dwelling on for a lot of time. ובשביל זה העכו״ם תאבים לממונם של ישראל. If money can only find its place of true satisfaction in the בריאה when it's operating in its capacity as being a keli, then that means that if Klal Yisrael are the only ones that truly relate to הקדוש ברוך הוא, Klal Yisrael is the keli for the אור of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and the mechanism where we receive shefa, at least in one aspect, is going to be mamon, then nobody can people are going to look it's like looking at somebody else and saying, "I want that." But you you want what they have.

It's like imagine in the context of a relationship, a husband buys a wife flowers, so somebody else says, "I want those flowers." Okay, so a person, they go to the store and so they get flowers, and yet there's no meaning. What they want, they were looking at the keli, they were looking at the outer aspect, but that's not really what they were craving. So it says, this is why goyim want the mamon of Klal Yisrael, because they see something and they're craving it, so they want the money, but they're not getting satisfaction in their money, so they want the money of Klal Yisrael.

Again, these are mamash like underlying the very יסודות of of of understanding so much that goes on in the world in a personal way, in a in a broad way. As it says, אף על פי שיש להעכו״ם כסף וזהב הרבה, the גוים can have a lot of money, תאבים לדינר של יהודי, and the the notes over here point out that the Jews were always taxed very heavily through the ages through the goyim. They can have tremendous amounts of wealth and yet they want the דינר, they want the coin of the יהודי. Why? Because they're looking at what the flowers represent, but they can't put their finger on it, they don't understand it, so they just know that they want that, and then they get it, and it doesn't it doesn't it doesn't scratch that itch.

כאילו לא ראו ממון מעולם, it's as if they've never seen money in in the entire life, because the truth is that they haven't seen they've seen money, but they haven't seen mamon. Everything that they have, they just it's not doing it for them. וזה מחמת שהכסף וזהב שיש תחת ידם, the money that they have, אין הגוונין מאירים, it's not mamon. It's not the keli for the light and the shefa of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. So it doesn't do it. They just see what the Jew has. They just see that what the person got that flowers, it's representative of a relationship, and they want that.

ואין החן שורה על ממונם שלהם. The chen is not resting in their ממון, כי עיקר הפאר והחן אינו נגלה אלא אצל ישראל. And again, just you can't not mention from the Torah א', just going to mention one line over here to understand the meaning of chen. It's in paragraph two. It says, כי על ידי תורה נותנין כח למלכות דקדושה. We said that Torah is really the truest the expression of ratzon Hashem, of chochmat Hashem in this world. Once we start with Torah top-down, like we said, that's where it gives koach to the malchut of kedushah.

Malchut is לית לה מגרמה כלום. The truest expression of malchut is when nothing there's nothing out it doesn't give anything of its own. It's a true reflection of what came above it. The example that the Torah continues to use is the perfect expression of the moon is when nothing is in the way and it 100% reflects the sun. It's not giving off anything of itself. It's just it's just a true giving it's giving a true גילוי מכח אל הפועל. ואז מקבלת המלכות, שהיא בחינת נו״ן, חיות מן החכמה. What what is this relationship, this full circle, this full circuit that creates a shleimut?

If the נו״ן represents malchut and it gets chiyut, energy, from chochmah, which is ראשית, שהיא בחינת חי״ת, ונתחבר ונתקשר החי״ת והנו״ן, נעשה אור הלבנה כאור החמה. Like we like we've been saying earlier in the shiur, this perfect flow-through from the top of the system to the bottom of the system where nothing gets in the way, there's no friction, there's no obstacles in the process, that causes chen. Things fit, right? And that's really what we're saying over here. Where is there chen to the mamon? Where the mamon is a perfect expression כלי, מלכות, it's reflective, so to speak, of of what it represents, of the outer spiritual kochot that are being invested in the world and מתקבל על ידי the mamon, that is what gives it chen.

So the the pe'er, the beauty, the chen of the money is only found by Klal Yisrael. ובשביל זה נקראים רשעים. That's why the it says, כמו ש הוי, it says כמו שאמרו, it says הוו זהירים ברשות, that a person should be careful about getting too close to the malchus, to the government of goyim. But reshus is government. Reshus is the are the powers, the governing, the authority of the other nations. Why is it called reshus? רש means poor, because they have the outer trappings, they have the authority, they have everything, they don't actually have the tochen, they're not actually attached to the source.

כי הם רשים ועניים, כי אין להם הנאה מממונם, they're actually poor because they don't have hana'ah from their mamon, which mamon is really what what is mamon? Mamon is not even a pleasure, mamon is A heichi timtzi. A person works so hard for money, people die with millions of dollars in their bank account. The money gives a person the ability to go utilize things. They have no hana'ah from their mamon, because what really is mamon trying to give you the ability to do? To connect to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. And yet they have their mamon, or over here, similarly, reshus, authority.

What power does the government have? The power to execute. That's really in line with mamon, and yet it's רש, it's poor. It doesn't actually have that. כאילו הם עניים, it's as if they are עניים, ותאבים לממונם של ישראל. So they want the money of כלל ישראל, כי על ממונם של ישראל שורה פאר וחן, והכל תאבים להסתכל על פאר וחן. Everybody really wants the mamon of Klal Yisrael. Period. אבל תדע, אבל דע, תכף ומיד כשהעכו״ם מקבל ממון ישראל, so what happens? The other nations go, they tax כלל ישראל. However they get it, they takeh they steal the flowers.

The husband gave the wife flowers, it's tremendously meaningful, it's on their anniversary. This person goes and they steal the flowers. So, whoopee, now they have the flowers that somebody else gave to their loved one. תכף ומיד נתעלם החן והפאר בתוך הממון, so now all that meaning is no longer accessible. Now I took those flowers, and now what did that do for me? So I saw it, I desired it, I wanted it, I craved it, and yet it's inapplicable to me, I don't relate to it. So now that I took the mamon, I no longer am able, that light that was there no longer finds expression.

ובשביל זה העכו״ם בכל פעם תובע ממון אחר מישראל, since that itch is not scratched, so every time they continuously want the mamon of כלל ישראל, ושוכח הממון שכבר קיבל. Then it's almost like the language, like we said, we're going into the Megillah, that Haman says that וכל זה איננו שווה לי. Nothing is worth it to me. So now they got those flowers, and now it's not doing it for them, and now they see it again. Another husband is giving the wife flowers, and they still crave that, so they forget what they have, and then they continuously want more.

כי נתעלם החן כשבא ליד עכו״ם, because that chen, that favor what they're seeking is lost, it's hidden when it comes in by the goyim. וזהו, and this is why the Mishnah continues, it says הוו זהירין ברשות, a person should be careful around Gentile authorities and governments, שאין מקרבין אלא בשעת הנאתן, because you think that there's a relationship there, but the truth is, is when does the government reach out, when are they acting like your friend? Only בשעת הנאתן, when they have hana'ah. וזה בחינת חן בעיני השם, it's coming off the פסוק ונח מצא חן בעיני השם.

How do we find chen in the eyes of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, as it were? עיני השם זה גוונין עילאין, the עיני of Hashem. If there's another Torah, I think it was Torah י״ג, I don't remember offhand, that we talked about the different colors of the like the בת עין, and the different colors of the eye, the white, the colors, but for our purposes right now, the עיני of Hashem relate to colors. We're going to relate that to chesed, gevurah, and תפארת, שהם בחינת כסף וזהב, which we said are representative of chesed and gevurah. שם עיקר החן והפאר, that's where there's chen, that's where there's פאר.

And I'm just going to suggest, maybe we'll put it on the back burner to see if it ends up fitting, when we talk about what a person sees, when we talk about the עין, that really becomes a good context in which to think about tiferet, in which to think about chen, where you see everything together. Because if you have conflicting middot, if you have conflicting chesed and gevurah, for instance, this goes back to what we said before, at the level of chesed and gevurah, at a level of conflicting middot, then those two things seem to operate separately, or even to conflict.

But if you go a level up, then you could say, 'Oh, there is a certain mission. In order to accomplish the mission, there needs to be the expansiveness, there also needs to be the structure. There needs to be the chesed, there need to be the budgeting, there needs to be the auditing, there needs to be the gevurah.' If the chesed and the gevurah both understand themselves as there to accomplish a higher purpose, to accomplish their function, but also knowing when that they have to be submissive, when they have to be מבטל themselves, when they have to complement, and they have to, you know, what to do at that point of conflict with the chesed and the gevurah, so then there's tiferet, that becomes blended.

If you think about ראיה versus שמיעה, let's say, if you think about sight versus hearing, if I take a look at a big picture with a lot of colors, a lot of isolated things where the colors seem to clash, or they don't seem to conflict, or I don't know how they come together, I can look in one full swoop, I can just take one glance at that picture, and I can understand the tone, I can understand the picture, how it comes together, and then I'll no longer get confused by isolated pieces. שמיעה is different. If I want to describe the picture to you, then I have to do it step by step, everything leading on its own, there has to be חיתוך הדיבור.

I need to structure and articulate it from beginning to end, one piece at a time, sequenced appropriately. And those two things don't apply to the other, right? If I just look at one piece of picture at a time, I'll never get the entire picture, and if I just, you know, speak out everything in one big jumble, then I won't be able to explain it from the point of view of hearing. So, relating to עיני השם, relating to the eyes, that's where all of the colors come together, that's where they complement each other, that's where they're all part of one picture.

וזה, and now I can explain another parsha in the תורה, שאמר אבימלך לשרה: הנה נתתי אלף כסף לאחיך, this is by the ma'aseh of Avimelech and Sarah, Avimelech tells Sarah, "I've given you a thousand pieces of silver," kesef, one of the גוונים, the חסד, "I've given you a thousand pieces of silver to achicha, to Avraham. הנה הוא לך כסות עיניים." There are pshatim in what it means כסות עיניים, whether it was an actual clothes what he gave her, but just reading pshat that the כסות is referring to the to the eyes. What's a כסות? Somebody wears a beautiful coat, it covers them up, but it also is expressive.

When you see somebody wearing a uniform, seeing a certain type of clothing, it draws the attention. It's something that you look towards. היינו כשיצא הממון מיד עכו״ם ליד ישראלי, תיכף נתגלו הגוונים ונעשו בבחינת בגדי ישע. It's a very interesting what we see over here, and Rav Chaim Kreimer points out in the note as well, we talked about what happens when money that's among the ישראלים, among Klal Yisrael, goes to the hand of the עכו״ם, goes to the hand of the goy. They're now taking the outer shell, the כלי, of something that can relate to HaKadosh Baruch Hu's שפע, take it and channel it, and now they have the כלי that's not that's not servicing its ultimate purpose, and therefore there's no satisfaction, they don't relate to it as such.

What about the other way? If the money starts out by the עכו״ם, over here the money started out by Avimelech, is this money no longer capable of fulfilling the function of ממון in the world? And it says no. Once the money went, the ממון rather, went from Avimelech to to to Sarah, to Avraham Avinu, now it went from being, I guess we could even say it went from being money to being ממון. Somebody recently told me that his father didn't know what a wedding was, he knew what a ch tunah was. So over, it's a it's a spiritual thing.

There's a tremendous thing going on by a ch tunah. A wedding is the is the the the outer trappings of the event. How does money become ממון? When it goes back to the to Klal Yisrael, so now נתגלו הגוונים, now the colors, this the idea of חסד, גבורה coming into תפארת, everything that we've been discussing comes together, נעשו בבחינת בגדי ישע, and it could become those clothing that we can look towards, the כסות עיניים, היינו כסות עיניים שהכל מסתכלין בהן, שהכל תאבים להסתכל בהן, that everybody desires to get it. Now we can see the synthesis of of of the place of ממון in the בריאה.

Further, על ידי צדקה שנותנין ממונו נתתקן כל הממונות. Tzedakah is a very interesting thing. When we, generally speaking, we have to we have to do mitzvot, and some of those mitzvot will deal with physical objects, and we could say that I have a budget and some of the things I spend on myself, some of the things I spend on on certain items that I need. When it comes to, let's say, let's use a model of טבל, if a person has to take tithes off of grain, the the bucket of grain has a status of טבל.

Once a person takes off the tithe off of the off of the grain, then the entire grain takes on a different status, now it is מתוקן, now it is tithed tevel. Now let's think about tzedakah. When I put in my my my kishkes, I put in my hard work, I put in my my mental effort and my my strategy, the you know, my best efforts towards making a living, do I do I give tzedakah because it's one of the things I have to do, this is my hard-earned money and now I give tzedakah because it's a chiyuv, or do I say, the Chovot Halevavot actually discusses discusses part of this point in addressing when I have bitachon, why does הקדוש ברוך הוא want me to have hishtadlut?

Part of my avodah is to get close to הקדוש ברוך הוא. The stage on which I perform that avodah is going to be in part making a living and how I relate to the בריאה. I say הנני מוכן ומזומן, I'm going to I'm I'm going to do my obligations towards הקדוש ברוך הוא, what Hashem wants from me, and I'm going to work separate and apart from the result. Now, I put in my effort, and now I that that resulted in money. Well, that's a little bit of a dangerous thing. Was the money a result of my putting in my hishtadlut, and therefore הקדוש ברוך הוא gave me what was gozer that I should have?

It could have come directly or seemingly directly from my efforts, or it could have come from someplace else. But in response to my doing my chiyuv, now הקדוש ברוך הוא gave me money, and the same way that I can give I can give, you know, two or three of something to somebody in order that you take keep one for yourself and then pass it along, everything comes from Hashem. And we see a lot of a lot of mitzvot that deal with taking off the first. Like we said, there's terumot and ma'asrot, there's bikurim, there's ראשית הגז, there's מעשר כספים.

When I relate to tzedakah, and that is going to form how I relate to the money that now I have as a result of my efforts, I am not taking nine for myself and giving one to tzedakah. I am, let's say in the context of ma'aser, I am now taking through that undefined whole bucket of effort that I put into making money, I am now elevating that entire thing by separating tzedakah from there and giving it the way that הקדוש ברוך הוא wants to give me, and it wants me to give it to a to a עני הגון, I'm giving it to a תלמיד חכם, I'm giving it to bring a דירה בתחתונים, I'm giving it to bring a גילוי of הקדוש ברוך הוא into the בריאה, and therefore through tzedakah, I am now I'm turning this money into mamon, and I'm showing I'm giving a physical a physical act to bring that about.

And therefore all of the money is going to become metukan, it's going to become fixed, as it were. It's going to become rectified through my giving tzedakah in the right way. ונתגלו הגוונין and the the colors, as it were, the aspects of the ממון, יאירון, they will shine forth, they become revealed, ונעשה כל ממונו בבחינת לי הכסף ולי הזהב. I am now showing how I relate to the money. Everything relates to הקדוש ברוך הוא. I mean once Hashem allows me to utilize some of those resources for what I need, and if my entire life I am a servant of HaKadosh Baruch Hu, I exist and I am directing my resources, my internal strengths towards bringing God into the world, so everything that I need, I'm really on the work credit card.

Everything that I use is really to facilitate my doing my job right, right? A person uses HaKadosh Baruch Hu's credit card for Shabbos. Why? Hashem is not at my table, I'm at Hashem's table. I'm a function of bringing about the גילוי of HaKadosh Baruch Hu into the בריאה. ובבחינת בגדי ישע, clothing of, we said, we translate this as clothing of הסתכלות. Everybody is going to look at this look at this ממון, not because it's money, but because it is a vehicle of bringing HaKadosh Baruch Hu and HaKadosh Baruch Hu's שפע into the world. מעיל צדקה יעטני, and I am clothed in a robe of tzedakah.

And again, by giving tzedakah, it's the right hand giving the left hand, you're not giving anything. You're showing that you're part of Klal Yisrael, you're part of a the the unit of Klal Yisrael. ישראל ואורייתא וקודשא בריך הוא חד הוא. We are HaKadosh Baruch Hu's representative in the world. By giving tzedakah, I'm showing how I relate to the money, and I am I am one with HaKadosh Baruch Hu. It doesn't belong to me to give, but rather I I view everything that I have as being there for one purpose. Again, like we said, you're finding unity in the multiplicity.

In other words, there's there's me and there's you, why should I give you? And the answer is because we're not really separate. When I when I have the money, and then the entire reason that I have the money, it's not to feed myself, it's to feed, so to speak, to support bringing HaKadosh Baruch Hu into the world. That is myself. That is my ultimate mission. Now, he mentions over here in the note that when we you give tzedakah appropriately, one is making sure that all of the money, all the ממון, rather, that you have was was acquired appropriately, it was acquired according to halacha, and the other thing is how you spend it.

And it's interesting, going back all the way to the beginning of the shiur, where we said that if a person has full alignment, so they have their ratzon, and then their ratzon, which should be aligned with HaKadosh Baruch Hu, will now dictate there will be a full flow through, so everything that they think and speak and act is really all in line with their ratzon. It's not that there's multiple pieces, you're just bringing you're straightening out the hose, the entire flow, everything expresses its source and you're not getting in the way. But if you are not זוכה to bring out these colors of via tzedakah, because your ממון is not ממון, but rather it's money, it's yours, well that means that the money is expressive of different priorities.

Now, part of your priorities might be to feel like a giver, it might be that you don't want to get punished so that you're not going to do aveirot, so that you're going to do mitzvot. But the real question is who whose what world are you living in? Are you living in your world where HaKadosh Baruch Hu is one of the factors, or you living in HaKadosh Baruch Hu's world where where the only factor is ratzon Hashem? Part of that is yes, HaKadosh Baruch Hu gave you your efforts, your strengths, your challenges, your personality, where if you view everything as coming from HaKadosh Baruch Hu, so then there's no קליפה, there's nothing else to get involved.

You factor out all of the other shells, all of the other קליפה, all of the other chaff, everything is only to serve the wheat, the the peel is only to serve the fruit. There aren't two things here, there's one thing that has different different aspects. But if you are living in your world, not HaKadosh Baruch Hu's world, so then there are a lot of different priorities and factors that have to be that have to be balanced. The way that you relate to tzedakah shows the way that you relate to your world, where mamon is mamash your nefesh, mamon represents your efforts, that is a good indication and the chitzoniyus is meorer the penimiyus.

That really is allows you to align yourself with רצון השם. ואפילו זה הממון שלוקחין העכו״ם מאתנו, even the money that the that the gentiles take from us, נחשב לצדקה, כמו שאמרו חכמינו זכרונם לברכה, we'll have to explain what this means in a second, ונוגשיך צדקה, that your rulers are tzedakah. Rav Chaim Kramer over here points out that this is not just the regular head tax or whatever, this is where people are forced to pay the the government money in order to ensure that Jews are allowed to continue observing Torah and mitzvot, so this is also a a an aspect of tzedakah.

But I think that we can we we can perhaps suggest also that let's say I have my plan, I want I want to do good things with my money, I want to give tzedakah, and and Hakadosh Baruch Hu dictated that I'm supposed to have a certain amount of money, so He gave me certain money to keep and certain money to pass along. Now, for however it happened, if, yeah, I'm supposed to have a certain amount of money and not all of the money was supposed to give went to tzedakah. So now, some of the money gets taken away from me.

Part of my avodah could be on the front end. Halavai that all of my avodah should be in the front end and I should choose how my I I do my avodah. But sometimes, I didn't do it. Now, I get to see, it's a little bit more challenging, perhaps, but it's also a good indication of where I'm truly holding, my reaction. If I decide I want to give tzedakah, so things are going according to my plan. How do I really see if I'm in line with a world of אין עוד מלבדו with Hakadosh Baruch Hu?

When something takes a left turn, it doesn't go the way I want, and now the question is how I react to it. If I react appropriately, then that money that got taken away from me can also be bringing about a גילוי כבוד שמים, a גילוי יחודו יתברך. How I as a as a walking, living ספר תורה, as a as a vehicle for רצון השם react when things don't go the way that I would have wanted to personally, that can also bring about a גילוי of Hakadosh Baruch Hu in the world and show that my mamon is mamash a vehicle for bringing about God into the world.

So I think I think it's a nice way to learn, and the truth is Baal HaTanya discusses this also. A lot of times, we start evaluating our avodah, our success by the situation we find ourselves, but the the truth is is that many times, the situation we find ourselves in is not in our hands, or even if we fell, but lemaaseh, we're not holding by being a tzadik, we're not holding by doing everything appropriately, and therefore, at any moment in time, our avodah is what it is. Very often, our avodah is actually what our response is, like any like any challenge.

The fact that the challenge came about, however it did, is no longer in our hands as of this point in time. Our avodah going forward that we are uniquely positioned to do is to address the challenge that we find before us. I'm going to go just another couple of minutes. The וזהו עיניך ברכות בחשבון, it's quoting a pasuk in Shir HaShirim. I'm just going to read the pasuk, I'm using the ArtScroll in the English. Literally, it says, "Your eyes are like pools of חשבון by the gate of בת רבים." The way that the ArtScroll taytshes up Rashi, it says, "The Sanhedrin and Torah scholars are likened to eyes because they have the vision to direct the nation in the proper path, just as the pools of חשבון provide essential water to the nation, so the Torah scholars provide wisdom." So ברכות is a pool, it's a spring, it's something that provides.

But let's see let's see what he's bringing it for over here. וזהו עיניך ברכות בחשבון, your eyes are like pools in חשבון. עיניך, זה הגוונין. This how we said before that the eyes represent colors. We we related that to מדות, we related that to תפארת, but we talked about it in terms of colors relating to כסף וזהב, relating to ממון. So עיניך is a reference to גוונין, to colors בבחינת כסף וזהב. נתברכין, the money becomes blessed. It's interesting, because we're switching a little bit how we addressed it beforehand. We're talking about when we talk about money and the flow of money, there's the source of that flow and then there's there's the מקבלים, although when we relate to ourselves as being מקבל שפע from Hakadosh Baruch Hu, we really turn ourselves into a pipeline also.

What's the best way? I heard one time a beautiful a beautiful vort, a chasidishe vort, it said that that the the money is a גלגל in the world. Things fill up and then they they go down, what goes up comes down and people it's kind of cyclical. What's the best way to ensure that a person's cup does not start emptying out? If he turns his cup into a pipe, right? In other words, he allows it to flow through, then the cup can never fill up. But in any event, going back to the פסוק, עיניך ברכות בחשבון, your eyes, which we're going to say that the עיניים again relate to the colors, colors representing different הנהגות, but specifically over here relating to כסף וזהב.

ברכות are are blessed, we're going to say they're an aspect of ברכה בחשבון. עיניך, זה הגוונין בבחינת כסף וזהב. How do we attribute ברכה, נתברכין, how do we give ברכה to the כסף וזהב which are going to bring this שפע, the כלים for Hakadosh Baruch Hu's שפע into the world? על ידי צדקה, through tzedakah, which is called חשבון. It relates over here really to a Gemara, which brings a pasuk in ישעיהו, וילבש צדקה כשריון, that he was dressed in tzedakah like like a coat of armor. If you think about the old armor, it would be like scales almost, each each little piece is only a little piece, but when it comes together, so then it forms a coat of armor.

So it says that how how do we get the כסף וזהב in this world to be נתברך? Through tzedakah. Why? שכל פרוטה Oh, so first why is tzedakah called cheshbon? שכל פרוטה נצטרף לחשבון גדול, so that's why cheshbon is a reference to tzedakah. And the end of the pasuk says, על שער בת רבים, ואפילו על ידי הממון שבא ליד עכו''ם הנקראים בת רבים, even that money that comes to the hand of the goyim, that comes to the hand of the Gentile, the Gentiles are called בת רבים, it's a the a multitude of nations, גם זה נחשב לצדקה, like we said earlier, this is also considered צדקה, כמו שכתוב ונוגשיך צדקה, that your rulers are tzedakah.

So over here also, once we engage in tzedakah, ideally, we talk about the אחדות of Klal Yisrael, God's representatives in this world, creating a דירה בתחתונים, the שלימות of Klal Yisrael being God's representation. in this world and therefore we're able to bring about that bracha. If we don't do it that way, then depending how we relate to it, the type of tzedakah, the reason that we said that the money is taken away from Klal Yisrael and going to the rulers or perhaps our reaction to it, we can also draw down God's blessing into this world and be מברך, create a bracha around the כסף and זהב.

אבל וזה דוקא על שער בת רבים, but we should know that that's not just it's not arbitrary. In other words, it's not just that now the bracha comes down and the money gets taken away, there's bracha attached to the כסף and זהב. Like like anything else, you would say it's a valve, it's a pipe, it only receives the bracha when it's connected in the appropriate way. The כסף and the זהב, when it's in the hands of Klal Yisrael, that creates the bracha. We said that that's why the the non-Jews see it and they get jealous, not of the money, but of what the what's inside the כלי, what the money represents.

Over here, it's דוקא על שער בת רבים, it's דוקא by the gates of the בת רבים, feeling it back into the pasuk, before it gets to the בת רבים, before it gets to the gentiles, כשעדיין על השער, once it gets to that place, that's where there's bracha in the ממון that Jews have the money, and then as the the the goyim want to take the money, so then there's there's bracha that's now associated with the money because they're taking it away from the from the Jews. However, that bracha will not ultimately extend to them, it's only קודם שבא ליד עכו״ם, it's only by the gates, עדיין שורה חן על הממון, that's where the chen is associated with the money, אבל אחר כך נעלם החן כנ״ל, but once it leaves once it's not in a position anymore to be a kli, so then it no longer contains that bracha.

And therefore, just summing up this end, I'm going to use Rabbi Chaim Kramer's note, he says in the context therefore of our Torah, it says your eyes, עיניך, representing the גוונים, the כסף and זהב, are בריכות, they are blessed, over here again, besides for the source of bracha, it brings bracha to the ממון, בחשבון because of the amount given to tzedakah, so this rectifies, not only is the tzedakah given, but it actually rectifies all of the money, but by the gate of בת רבים, this money only radiates it it has is expressive of the bracha only until it reaches the hands of the nations, at that point this disappears because it's no longer in a place where it's plugged into its purpose, where it can fulfill its aspect as a kli of shefa.

Also, he goes on, Rabbi Natan points out that this charity that's taken by the nations ultimately causes their downfall, right? If it would make sense going back into our earlier discussion, if we said that that tzedakah, when you see tzedakah being given, money given, something given from ראובן to שמעון or something from a husband to a wife, it's not just what was given, but it's what it represents. Over here, somebody goes and steals that, it says over here the fact that the fact that the flowers, the tzedakah got taken away from us, it could still in a sense, depending on the pshat in what we mentioned, fulfill its function, but as far as the the one who took that money, then that will actually cause their downfall.

As explained, charity breaks the klipot, enabling the intellect to ascend. To put it in English, the nations vis-a-vis Klal Yisrael are like the klipot vis-a-vis the intellect. Since charity breaks the klipot, then the charity or over here, the taxes exacted by the nations from the Jews will eventually break the klipot, and it'll actually ultimately take power away from them. So, similar to many pesukim in Tehillim, like in other words, when when an enemy sets a trap and he falls into his own trap, the very charity that they took, which is really a way that we can connect to HaKadosh Baruch Hu and represent the bracha because the klipot fall away, since their power is from the klipot, it actually will end up harming the nations.

We're going to stop here. We're very close to the end of this portion of the Torah, but we can use it as a a short or as a a heichi timtzi that we can chazer a little bit, plug this back into the original מאמר חז״ל, and then do the the last few pieces that are the appendix that Rabbi Natan added, just rounding out some of the ideas in this Torah.