LM 28.2 — Bani Lan Beisa, Part 2 of 3 · תורה כ״ח

בעזרת השם יתברך, we are continuing with the second shiur in Torah כ״ח. As we continue with paragraph ב', I am just going to read the first couple of sentences in paragraph א' because I think it will serve to remind us, although I do suggest going back to the first shiur, cause I think it was a little bit lengthy, but a a nice introduction to the topic. But the first two lines will will recalibrate us in order to move forward. We had said, "המתנגדים, המבזים, והמחרפים," people that practically they oppose, they disgrace, they vilify, we explained, accuse, go after יראי השם, "זה מחמת שמקבלים תורה מתלמידי חכמים שדין יהודאין." The reason that they do this is because they are מקבל תורה from תלמידי חכמים שדין יהודאין, what we explained.

But the we're not speaking about people that are, so to speak, presenting themselves as anti-religion, anti-Torah. In that case, so they disagree with the Jewish religion, they disagree with Jewish leadership, and therefore they go after them. We're talking about something much deeper, people that, from our perspective, we seem to see talmidei chachamim on both ends of this discussion, and we look at one group that is going after the tzadikim, they're going after the talmidei chachamim in a certain way, and it can be very hard to understand, number one, how, from our vantage point, how do we even understand this dispute?

We we explained that machloket, discussion, disputation is really the bread and butter of the Talmudic process, we have no problem with disagreement. Over here, we see something that's that that goes beyond a discussion point of trying to come to the emet, they are opposing and מבזה ומחרף the talmidei chachamim themselves. And on the other hand, Torah purifies, לא לשמה בא לשמה. How are we to understand that people that seem to also be talmidei chachamim, they also be seem to be presenting Torah, either it should change them from the inside, how could they be so opposed?

It's very difficult to understand the discussion, and in light of the idea that both sides seem to be coming from Torah. And he says, "כי תלמידי חכמים שדין יהודאין הם מקבלי תורתם מהשדין, שיש להם תורה נפולה מאלפין נפולין." They receive their Torah from שדין יהודאין, the opposing camp, which, again, you might say, if Torah is אורייתא וקודשא בריך הוא חד הוא, why should it matter where it comes from? And the Torah that they have is from אלפין נפולין. The general idea, I'm half assuming that people listened to the last shiur, but for our purposes, is the Torah is coming from a very, כביכול, high place.

The Torah is רצון השם, and it presents itself, it gives us an interface, an opportunity to attach ourselves to רצון השם from where we are holding. By way of analogy, if we say that there's a rope, as it were, or a השתלשלות, a chain, that's a a funnel, it's coming from a very high point, whatever that means. When I say high, it's not in terms of, you know, geographic location, but something that's beyond what we have a relationship with, and הקדוש ברוך הוא effects a miracle, as it were, in order that the רצון השם at a at an altitude that we have no relationship with is able to present itself, מצמצם itself, it's something that's beyond what we can really understand, in a way that we can understand, שור שנגח את הפרה, there's an idea of yibum, there's an idea of chalitzah, and in our terms, in the עולם העשיה, this becomes the presentation of Torah.

Having said that, if we think about, for argument's sake, a abstract philosophical principle or a principle of physics, and I'm trying to explain it to somebody who doesn't speak in the the same terms as I do, they don't have the same not just terminology, even ways of thinking about things, they don't have the background, and I want to give them a particular principle, then I will give them a mashal. And the, I've said before, the strength of a mashal is being able to put a principle in different packaging without sacrificing the truth of the principle.

So if I want to explain gravity, I'm sure you can do it in Newtonian terms, or, you know, something that would really understand the gravitational pull of the earth, something very complicated, but if I was trying to get to a particular idea, I could use a mashal, a baseball mashal, a something in other in other contemporary terms, so that somebody would be able to understand it, at least one nekudah of it without without sacrificing. So when when we have talmidei chachamim that embody Torah, talmidei chachamim that are living that that are living the Torah, the talmidei chachamim are in our world, but they are really the bottom of that chain.

What we see is somebody who through and through represents תורת השם. They are attached to Torah in a way that that is the bottom of the rope. That's the part that gives a glimpse into this world, but they are really an extension of principles that go way beyond. Now, let's say somebody walks in the room, as it were, they don't know anything that we're talking about, and they don't see something on the bottom of the rope as the end of a long chain that's really representing iterations and and and different presentations of ideas that are incredibly lofty, and the idea that we have a gift that we can attach ourselves to the Torah within our world, all they see is the mashal.

They don't understand it as a mashal where there's a nimshal. All they see is the story. They see the the tip of the iceberg, but without understanding that this is the tip of the iceberg, they just see this talmid chacham, this other tzadik, this rabbi is giving a drasha, I'm going to give a drasha. What's the difference between his and mine? If anything, the other the other talmid chacham who's receiving from the talmid chacham, שדים יהודים, these other rabbis, these other rabbanim, maybe they will even tend to have more appeal because the driving force of their presentation, of the substance of what they're going to give over and how they're going to give it over, is not driven by emet, it's not driven by trying to present the אור in a way that's appropriate to be מקבל in the כלי, especially because they don't even understand the Torah that they're giving over as being something that's inherently much, much deeper than whatever it is that they are presenting.

And therefore, they might be driven by kavod, by popularity, by trying to build a following, or even maybe, even maybe, trying to help people. But the the way that they're trying to help people is not by attaching them to something that goes to the infinite heights. They are they're simply presenting something that's only surface-deep. If this helps, you can think about machloket l'shem shamayim, think about a triangle where there's two people having a disagreement about הלכה as the two the two corners, the two end pieces on the base of the triangle, but they're not arguing with each other.

They're both looking upwards towards the point. They're both looking upwards with a different approach towards the emet. Whereas in our example, where one of the tzadikim is looking upwards towards the emet, the other one does not have that perception of his position being an extension of emet, being an extension of something that's coming from all the way above, he's simply looking horizontally towards the tzadik. So, the tzadik is anchored in emet, and the other person is simply attacking the tzadik, the the tzadik's position. So now, as we look forward to paragraph ב, what we have a tzadik who is trying to act as a conduit, as a as a vehicle to attach his תלמידים to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, to attach the world to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, to bring spirituality into the world not as being something separate from רוחניות, but being an extension, an expression, everything part of the master plan.

And on the other hand, we have these other terrible people, these רשעים, who are going after the tzadikim, they're saying the same way that I I have an opinion, he has an opinion, and they have their own תלמידים, and it becomes a disservice not only to themselves, but a disservice to their תלמידים who may actually be looking to connect and they just don't have the wherewithal to understand who is the true tzadik and who is the who's the facade, who is misrepresenting. So, how is the tzadik to number one, save himself, but also be menatzeach, also be victorious over this opposing party, this opposing force?

Paragraph ב, וכשיש ליראי השם חרפות ובושות מהכופרים האלו, when the people who are God-fearing people, the yir'ei Hashem, they are the subject of this abuse, of this shame that's coming at them by these other koferim, people that are denying Hakadosh Baruch Hu, their position is not actually, it's a presentation of Torah, but it's not rooted in in yirat Hashem, it's not rooted in emet, etzah al zeh, what is the advice, as it were? אנכי תולעת ולא איש. It's coming from a pasuk in Tehillim, it says, "I am a worm and not a man, חרפת אדם, I am abused, vilified, accused by people." Okay, there's a peshat in the flow of that kapitel, you know, what David Hamelech is saying, but for our purposes, לחרפות ובזיונות, הסגולה לזה בבחינת תולע.

What does David Hamelech say is the response to being charpat adam, vilified, abused, accused by people? אנכי תולעת ולא איש, to make oneself into a worm. Rav Chaim Kramer brings two ideas in page 179 of English in the footnote. He says, number one, a worm is a lowly creature that has no power or strength except in its mouth, so perhaps we could say in an asiyah world, in a in a world of of action, The the ultimate strength is physical. It's physical force. It's in this world, this tzadik says, "I can't come at this person at a this-worldly way.

The the the appropriate course for me to be victorious and not to be impacted is to be anchored in something deeper or higher, right?" It's to if if there's two if there's two opposing forces and one of them has a strong foundation, that one won't be moved. So, first of all, the tzadik is not rooted in the world of action, but in the world of speech, in the world of connection to the Torah, to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. And further, that relates to the world of emunah. He says over here, Rav Chaim Kramer, "Remaining silent in the face of vilification requires tremendous faith.

It means accepting the other person's cursing and disgracing him as God's will." Right? Because this world is the stage on which I have to engage in avodah to connect with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. The opposition that I'm encountering is coming from this person, but that's only because that's the presentation of it. Everything that I have is a gift-wrapped package from Hakadosh Baruch Hu, from the Ribono Shel Olam, to give me exactly what I need at any given time, and therefore it's all avodah. Some is more pleasant than others. And therefore, what is the appropriate response to חרפת אדם?

To make oneself into a תולעת, שעל ידי בחינה הזאת מנצח אויביו. Not only will a person be saved, but they will even be victorious and they will be mevatel these bizyonot, mevatel this this disgrace. If we can imagine for a second a person walking through the streets, a person who's a Nobel prize winner of something, you know, super sophisticated or royalty walking through the street, and the town fool, the town drunk who lives in his own universe of reality comes over and he says, "Oh, you don't even know what you're talking about. You're not royalty.

You're not the king." Would this would the king, would the professor, would they even stop? Would they even acknowledge? If a person has emunah, which emunah we generally translate as faith, as belief, but emunah is training. This is what a person is raised with. This is what they're anchored in. They're faithful to a task, right? An uman is a craftsman, their fingers, a person sits down to play piano, it's it's it's part of them. ויהי אומן את הדסה, it's training and it's loyalty to something. If a person was truly rooted in emunah in Hakadosh Baruch Hu, then not only would they win win this other fool in an argument, they wouldn't even acknowledge the argument.

It's foolish. It's not even worth stopping. The person doesn't even have a position. What is the way to be menatzeach and even be mevatel these bizyonot? To have emunah, and we're relating this to tole'a. Tole'a is like a worm. Anavah and emunah go together. Anavah doesn't mean that I don't have any assets, it means that everything that I have is from Hakadosh Baruch Hu as a resource, as an asset that comes along with a it's a privilege, it comes along with accountability, with responsibility, and with loyalty. I have it for a purpose, my entire life is for Hakadosh Baruch Hu.

When I make myself into a tole'a, into a worm, when I have anavah and that is associated with emunah, so then that is mevatel all these other כחות, כי תולע הוא בחינת אמונה. And where is the pasuk that relates a tole'a, a worm, as it were, to emunah? כמו שכתוב האמונים עלי תולע. In the words of the pasuk, it's a pasuk in Eichah. It says, tole'a could also mean scarlet. It's like mussar, those who are raised with scarlet, but we're in the פנימיות we're using these words to say האמונים, the word emunah, again, it's like a training, it's a loyalty, it's a faithfulness, it's something that somebody is imbued with.

עלי תולע, we relate it to the word tole'a, and therefore these two concepts go together. So how does a person get rid of or combat this חרפת אדם? אנכי תולעת ולא איש, but tole'at is a function and related to emunah as well. Further, where do we see this idea in a as a reference point? More pesukim, and we're going to reference now Avraham Avinu. Avraham Avinu we're going to say is the ראש למאמינים. Now just one word on Avraham Avinu. First of all, there were other great men at the time. There was Beit Midrash Shem V'Ever, but one idea is that they had a tradition.

Avraham Avinu came to this understanding, came to his emunah, came to his attachment point to Hakadosh Baruch Hu on his own. The the way that the sefarim speak about it, Lech Lecha the in the begin very beginning of Parashat Lech Lecha when Hakadosh Baruch Hu comes to Avraham Avinu, that was only after Avraham Avinu was willing to sacrifice his very life for Hakadosh Baruch Hu, for the truth, to get thrown into the furnace. So Avraham Avinu was the ultimate self-starter. We also relate to Avraham Avinu as representing chesed. What is chesed? It's a total התבטלות of self.

At at one level, chesed seems to be irrational. We also also say in תורה, חייך קודמין. Why should I put myself aside for you? Right? We have these stories in tremendous hardship where people had very little food, very little money, that one person should sacrifice their own needs to help out another Yid, to help out another person, that would seem irrational unless you're subscribing to something higher. This idea of being able to put aside one's prerogative in favor of what the right thing to do is, that is an aspect of chesed, that is an aspect of emunah.

I'm willing to subscribe to a higher truth that's greater than myself, perhaps we could say. So this is a bechinah of אברהם שהוא ראש למאמינים, כמו שכתוב "והאמין בה'", it's a pasuk in Bereishit. So we see that Avraham Avinu is associated with emunah. ובבחינת אברהם שהוא בחינת אמונה משבר ומבטל עבודת אלילים והכפירות והבזיונות. Avraham Avinu was able to be mevatel the opposing forces through the koach of emunah, which we also related to tola, "אנכי תולעת ולא איש", against the חרפת אדם, against these opposing forces, ומתגבר על הכופרים בבחינת בגבורות ישע ימינו. With the koach, it's a pasuk in Tehillim, that with that Avraham Avinu's salvation with his right hand with strength, he extended strength through the right hand.

What's represented by the right hand? כי אברהם שהוא בחינת חסד, that's the יד ימין, בחינת אמונה, which we explained that Avraham Avinu is emunah, he's also chesed, and therefore with the yemino, that is what provides salvation, that's gevurah, that is what is able to overcome the negative forces, בבחינת "וחסדי לא אפיר ולא אשקר באמונתי". This pasuk is essentially a promise from HaKadosh Baruch Hu to David HaMelech that the throne would never be removed from him and his descendants, but what we see is "וחסדי לא אפיר ולא אשקר באמונתי", the emunah and chesed going together. בימין הזאת, through this yamin, through this chesed, which we're now associating with emunah, which we associate with tola, which is the way to save oneself, be menatzeach of the the charpah, the disgrace, the abuse.

בימין הזאת הוא מתגבר על אויביו, through this ימין, ישע ימינו, the salvation comes from the right side, through yamin is how a person is going to prevail over their enemies. כי נעשה בבחינת אנשי חיל מתולאים, it's a pasuk in Nachum. It says אנשי חיל, strong warriors, מתולאים, it mentions that the the warriors are wearing scarlet, but in the context of our Torah, it says the warriors, the strength that breaks the enemies, that breaks the kefirah, מתולאים, it belongs to those who are dressed in not scarlet, but מתולאים, who are dressed in emunah. ובזה החסד, and through this chesed, through this emunah which brings one to chesed, a person overcomes their enemies, הוא מתקן אלו האלפין נפולין הנ״ל.

Not only do they prevail over their enemies, but they actually bring a tikun to the אלפין נפולין, בבחינת ועושה חסד לאלפים. The chesed, the emunah, is brought to the alafim, but not to the thousands, we're taytshing this as being to the אלפ'ס. And therefore, going back to where we started this shiur, if you have one tzadik that relates to Torah, they relate to truth through the true אלפ'ס, as it were, through through teachings, through Torah, the strength of their mouth, and they are being attacked on the surface level, somebody who is not rooted in truth, but it's just a surface level presentation, it's as if it's a fallen אלף, it's all the way on the bottom, how does the tzadik overcome the opposition that's coming at a surface level from the fallen אלפ'ס?

By being rooted in the true אלפ'ס, which is in chesed, in emunah, by making himself into a תולע, we said also by anavah, and by being rooted in something that's much more foundational, then they're not going to be impacted by the fallen אלפ'ס. Paragraph ג, just as a transition, I'm going to read the little note over here from Rabbi Attiya. He introduces paragraph ג by saying, after we address the chiruf, the bizyonot, the opposition by attaching oneself to emunah through תולע, through anavah brings one to emunah, and this is also an aspect of chesed, is anavah which in a certain sense this is ביטלות, it's staying away from something.

Emunah is a a reconciling of an attitude, shall we say, it's a commitment. Is that enough, or does a person have to take another step forward? Perhaps I can suggest that, and this is my own thought, we know that there's עולמות that relate to machshavah, dibbur, and maaseh. So emunah, we could say is a מחשבה, it's a commitment, it's an attitude. Dibbur, tefillah, Torah, it's relating to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, but then there's maaseh. Now, Now, on one hand, we we said that the opposition is coming from the really in in the עולם המעשה, as we say.

It might be words, but it's really in a this-worldly realm. And if a person is rooted higher, so then they they're going to be have more strongly rooted, more in a foundation, more in the יסוד, and they're not going to be pushed aside by something that's more surface deep. On the other hand, they need to bring that down so that they can have that strength to be able to apply it. How do you bring it down to the world of עשיה? So I'm going to suggest, that's why not only does a person need this emunah, but they also have to effect it בפועל.

They have to actualize it. How do they do that? By actualizing chesed. We said Avraham Avinu was represented emunah, but also chesed. This person, in order to attach themselves to the strength of Avraham Avinu, needs to engage חסד בפועל, the tzadik engages חסד בפועל, and other people attach themselves to the to the tzadikim. So further, ולבוא לחסד, how do we come to this aspect of chesed? אי אפשר לבוא אלא על ידי שיכניס תלמידי חכמים צדיקים לתוך ביתו, which is just in terms of the flow, it's interesting, cuz on one hand we started off, המזדווגים המבזים המחרפים יראי השם, with that the people that that are opposing יראי השם, as opposed to the to the talmidei chachamim themselves.

So, on one hand we're addressing how the talmidei chachamim themselves address this opposition, but we're also talking about the talmidim, because we said that we as talmidim, we want to attach ourselves to the tzadikim, we want to be able to connect to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, as opposed to the talmidim that are attaching themselves to the other talmidei chachamim, so to speak, שדים יהודאין, or getting it from the wrong source. So over here we're introducing that somebody should attach themselves to the to the tzadikim, to the talmidei chachamim, but I guess even talmidei chachamim can also attach themselves to bigger talmidei chachamim, but or actualize chesed in some other way.

But let let's see what he says in the text: ולבוא לחסד, אי אפשר לבוא אלא על ידי שיכניס תלמידי חכמים צדיקים לתוך ביתו, through שימוש, כי המכניס אורחים תלמידי חכמים אמיתיים לתוך ביתו, one who is מכניס אורח, which we know Avraham Avinu, we learned that hachnasat orchim is even greater than being מקבל פני השכינה, we learn this from Avraham Avinu, maybe we'll comment on that in a second to align this with the lessons that we're learning, כאילו הקריב תמידין, כמאמר חכמינו זכרונם לברכה, איש קדוש עובר עלינו תמיד. This is a maaseh from from I believe Sefer Shmuel, but it says that the Shunamis was preparing a space for Elisha, who was her guest, and she says that this holy man, ותאמר אל אישה, she said to her husband, הנה נא ידעתי כי איש אלוקים קדוש הוא עובר עלינו תמיד, that this holy man is consistently coming to us.

However, the Gemara learns from this, however however often Elisha would come and visit, that the that somebody who is מכניס אורח, somebody who offers their home and they they service a talmid chacham, so this is this avodah is like bringing a קרבן תמיד. ובזה השימוש שעומד עליהם ומשמש אותם, through this servicing, this physically engaging, preparing the צדיקים, זוכה לחסד הנ״ל. A person is engaged in chesed, and they are zocheh, they merit the power of יד ימין, ישע ימינו, they merit the power of chesed, they attach themselves to אברהם אבינו, כמאמר כל המונע תלמידו מלשמשו כאילו מונע ממנו חסד.

It's a Gemara in Ketubot, it says that a talmid chacham who does not allow his students to serve him, it's as if they're withholding chesed from their students. So, it's it's very interesting, because on one hand, we don't want שונא מתנות יחיה, we don't want to seem entitled, we don't want to accept things from others, and on the other hand, there's a tremendous avodah of a person being able to serve their Rebbe, to serve the gadol, to serve the tzadik and the talmidei chachamim. Perhaps we can say that that requires a tremendous level on the part of the tzadik to be able to be served, to allow to understand their position as a Rebbe vis-à-vis the talmid and to allow the talmid to come serve them without them feeling any kavod, without them feeling entitled or feeling that they that they deserve such a thing, but they're actually allowing the person to to serve them to get the benefit of that.

Having said that, a person that doesn't allow a talmid to do anything for them, they are withholding this this sacrifice, this engaging in the relationship that the talmid will derive a connection through serving their Rebbe. And through the chesed that the talmid would do for the Rebbe, they will get the power of חסד, ישע ימינו. to overcome the the other opposing forces, like we said, עושה חסד לאלפים, the chesed that's generated from this will be able to overcome the elef. Perhaps we can even say on a global level that by the by the Rebbe, by the talmid chacham allowing the talmid to do this, this will generate more antennas, I guess, more kelim in the world, as it were, and more of an attachment for the שפע of Hakadosh Baruch Hu to come down, so that the increased presence of שפע in the world will overcome the other forces.

I guess just to mention one point that we touched on, we said that Avraham This I I don't believe this is my vort, it was my understanding. We said that Avraham Avinu, according to one one one peshat in the the Midrash brought by Rashi, that Avraham Avinu went to engage in hachnasat orchim rather than being מקבל the Shechinah, rather than engage with the Shechinah. And how could that be? If our entire role, our entire task in life is to connect with Hakadosh Baruch Hu, how could hachnasat orchim possibly be greater than engaging with the Shechinah?

And one approach that I've under understood is Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the world in order to be משפיע to us, in order to be מטיב to us. What is the greatest הטבה? For us to be God-like. This is why Hakadosh Baruch Hu k'vayachol gives us a avenue for עבודה, instead of the the farthest thing away from a giver is somebody who is a taker, right? That is the opposite. If we are going to be like Hakadosh Baruch Hu, Hashem is going to allow us to align with Him, to be an extension with Him, how is a way that we could be דומה, מה הוא אף אתה?

We have to become givers, we have to become bestow-ers. Therefore, what allows a closer connection, as it were, with Hakadosh Baruch Hu? If Avraham Avinu is engaged as a not as a taker, but as even as a recipient, even as a kli, if Hakadosh Baruch Hu is engaged with if Avraham Avinu is engaged with Hakadosh Baruch Hu on the receiving end, or if Avraham Avinu is going to be a משפיע and be מכניס אורח, perhaps we could say why is it that hachnasat orchim is greater than being מקבל נבואה and the Shechinah? Because that allows a person to be God-like, and when they do that l'shem shamayim, so that is actually a closer connection with Hakadosh Baruch Hu because by being a משפיע we are now שלוחו של אדם כמותו, כביכול we are an extension of Hakadosh Baruch Hu.

So in line with our Torah, how are we negating this opposition? By טליא, by which is anavah, emunah, by chesed, but not only by aligning ourselves with emunah, but also engaging actively in chesed. ובשביל זה היה התמיד כבשׂ. This is why the קרבן תמיד, the daily korban that was offered twice a day, it was a כבשׂ, was a lamb, כי ממנו נתתקנו האלפין הנפולין. This through the תמיד, which we just said is also represented by, and we can attach ourselves to through chesed, through שימוש תלמידי חכמים, through hachnasat orchim to תלמידי חכמים, but the קרבן תמיד was a lamb, בבחינת ואני ככבשׂ אלוף.

It's a pasuk in Yirmiyahu, and he says, I was like a domesticated lamb. The the note over here explains why in the pasuk in navi that אלוף is a reference to the animal that it's trained to go to the butcher, so it's subscribing, but over here it says ככבשׂ אלוף, so it's associating the word כבשׂ, which is a תמיד, the תמיד was a lamb, and it's associating now the word כבשׂ with אלוף because the hachnasat orchim, the chesed, is what is able to be מתקן the fallen אלף's and the Torah that's coming from the fallen אלף's, which is the opposition, וזה בבחינת כבשׂ, which is also לשון כבישה, captured or so to speak subservient, in service, שכובש תחת יד רבו ומשמש אותם.

So the כבשׂ, which is a link to the תמיד, so כבשׂ or כובש to be subservient to one's rebbi, to תלמידי חכמים, is is associated with אלוף, אני ככבשׂ אלוף, which means to be מתקן the fallen אלף's through כבשׂ, which is תמיד, which is chesed to talmidei chachamim, associated with with emunah, associated with טליא, which is the way to come against the the the חריפות. וזה תמיד, we see this the גימטריא ד׳ אלפין. אלפין or אלף is in גימטריא: אלף is 1, למד is 30, and פא is 80, so 80, 30, and 1 is 111.

111 * 4 is 444. תמיד, ת is 400, מ is 40, and ד is 4 without the י, but we see that תמיד corresponds to four אלף's, שהוא תיקון האלפין כנ״ל. I mean, some of this becomes a little technical, but it's again when you you sort of abstract away from the the the specific ideas that you're talking about, and you look for just the פנימיות התורה, the emet that's threaded through the very בריאה, you just see it reflected in every aspect, some more accessible, some less accessible. וזהו למי מדנים, למי שיח. It's a pasuk in Mishlei and says to the one who quarrels, the one who has senseless words.

מדנים, it says, is quarrels. היינו על ידי שיח through שיח is what translate as senseless words, על ידי חכם שד יהודי. The ראשי תיבות of חכם is a ח, שד is a ש, יהודי is a י. If you rearrange the letters, that's שיח. שיח stands for חכם שד יהודי, because, again, their words are senseless in that they're surface-deep. They're empty. They don't have substance. They're not anchored in Torah, they're not anchored in truth. Those are the ones who quarrel. על ידו מדנים, those are the ones who bring the the the quarrel. על ידו באו התנגדות, they bring opposition to the true יראי השם.

On the other hand, we know that even the even the the שיחה, even the conversations of talmidei chachamim, you can learn from, because those don't have senseless conversation. If everything is Torah, how many times are we learning a Gemara or מאמר חז״ל, and part of the Torah that we are learning is about some conversations, I mean, these very Torah, the the the very conversations that seem to be mundane on their face, but if a person is through and through Torah, anything that I say is going to be an expression of my thought. Right, it's just me bringing my thoughts into articulation.

If my thoughts, my personality is through and through a framework of a system of logic, but what is my system of thinking about things? I'm imbued, I'm through and through just a personality that is made up of Torah, then anything that I say, even if it is not engaged in a sugya, is going to be an extension and an expression of the Torah as applied to to whatever it is I'm talking about. And therefore, the sicha of a talmid chacham you can learn from, but the שיחה בטלה of somebody is not rooted in that, then if their their conversation will be senseless, it won't be rooted, and it will only be surface-deep.

Now before we move on to the next paragraph, I just want to quote a a short line over here from Likutei Halachot. It's in Yoreh Deah חלק א, הלכות יין נסך. But he says, אין כח להיצר הרע והקליפות, כי אם כשיונקים מישראל, חס ושלום. So we have these opposing forces as we relate to them, and he says that at least in the perception, in order for there to be any opposition, any fight, there seems to have to be some sort of a, I won't say equal, but it's an equal force, otherwise there would be no fight.

What is the koach of the kelipah? What is the koach that the negative force to even come against the talmid chacham? That is only actually energized by a distortion of truth. Something that's stam coming from from no place, then you know, I guess as a function of ra, as a function of a of a distraction, of appealing to the physical, then it has a certain koach and people will fall prey. But that really is a very low and base behavior. Where does the kelipah really get its force? The true energy is only coming from emet.

The true energy is coming from Elokim Chayim. The powerful koach that the kelipah has is when it tries to hijack and distort the energy and misrepresent it. That's the most powerful argument. We saw by Korach, he didn't just come and try to say, don't go against, don't go like Moshe Rabbeinu, do negative things. He came with arguments: if you had a an article of clothing that was fully techelet, why would it need to have techelet on the tzitzit? If you had a room full of sefarim, why would it need a mezuzah? And we see, by the way, the koach of leitzanut, of a distortion of, use for the positive as also.

Avraham Avinu who stuck this the the stick in the hand of the idol, and in and the hand of the avodah zarah, and he said if it really is so strong, so then, you know, why do you think I smashed all of the avodah zarahs? Maybe this idol smashed all of its other opposing avodah zarahs? The the the strength of an argument and the strength of leitzanut, again, I guess there's a positive format of that, but the the strength of that type of a opposition is coming from a distortion of something that is real. So he says, ובאמת ישראל הם רחוקים לגמרי מעוון לפי דקותם ורוחניותם בשורשם.

Our biggest pitfall is not going after things that just don't at all represent our ideals. The ikar koach that the yetzer hara has over the this, and then yes, we can descend into just base behaviors, is actually lehachti'am, חס ושלום, in order in order to make us do עבירות, הוא על ידי שמלביש עצמו במצוות. The first thing it does is it enclothes us, it's just a deviation from our positive momentum. It enclothes itself, "This is really the right thing to do. You want to do chesed, you want to do chesed, what are you going to do?

You're going to insult somebody if the way to appeal to them is by giving them not kosher food? You're going to insult them. You have to--" And it presents arguments so that it engages a person in developing their own priorities away from HaKadosh Baruch Hu, the אלפין נפולין. It's a misrepresentation of a Torah concept that's not rooted in emet, it's not rooted in reality, but it's in the name of mitzvot. And this is the most dangerous the most dangerous koach that we have to really be careful, because a person can, you know, especially become sunk into it without without realizing.

What is the way that we can steer away from that? At the intellectual level it might be very hard, is by engaging physically in chesed. Attach oneself, once you can identify the true gedolim, the true tzadikim, the true תלמידי חכמים, attach yourself to them בפועל with chesed, and then you will become an extension of them, you will be protected from these from these opposing forces. So now, we are going to read these ideas back into the ma'amar Chazal that we started off with: וזהו שאמרו סבי דבי אתונא, this is what the Athenian scholars posed a question to רבי יהושע בן חנניה: בני לן ביתא באוירא דעלמא, build us a house, build us a structure in the sky.

What what does this mean? It's a reference: כי אלו בני אדם הרוצים לערוך עבודתם על ידי התורה ששומעים מתלמידי חכמים שדים יהודאין, there are people that want to establish avodah and they are attaching themselves to the teachings of תלמידי חכמים שדים יהודאין. ובאמת אין להם על מה שיסמוכו, but there's there's nothing to rely on because we had said that the true presentation and attachment of Torah is understanding that we have an interface, we have an attachment point in this world, which is really at the end of a long chain, we're attaching ourselves to a channel of flow of hashpa'ah, of retzon Hashem, which is anchored in something all the way higher up in the olamot that are way beyond us.

However, the the תלמידי חכמים שדים יהודאין that are going based on the אלפין נפולין, they're not understanding the interface, the tip of the iceberg, the presentation of Torah ideas as being a articulation, a presentation of something incredibly deep, but rather they're just taking it at face value. Again, we explored this very much at the beginning of the last year based on a Zohar that we brought which I think was in פרשת בהעלותך, and therefore if it's they're just taking the idea as it presents itself at the surface, they are disconnecting it from the truth. And at best, it's just it's just surface deep and they're not understanding the true meaning of it, but at worst, what they're doing is they're connecting it to the wrong value system, which would be their own kavod to be to to achieve their own purposes, for political gain, for wealth, whatever it is.

And once that's the driving force, it's totally disconnected from emet, not even bemikreh, it's not even it's no longer an expression of a true Torah idea. And therefore that is a house that's built in the air, it's a structure that's not attached to anything, there's no foundation. והוי כאלו רוצים לבנות בית באויר, it's as if these people who are attaching themselves to שדים יהודאין, they want to build an עבודת ה׳ through this Torah, but it's not it has no foundation, it has no yesod, it's not attached to anything, it's in the air. כי תלמידי חכמים שדים יהודאין הן פורחין באויר, the תלמידי חכמים that present this this this presentation of what is Torah, it's אלפין נפולין, it's disconnected, it's in the air, ואין להם על מה שיסמוכו, there's nothing to rely on, כמו השדים שפורחין באויר, like שדים that are floating in the air.

It's interesting, just I'm thinking the idea of floating in the air really has two connotations. One of them is that if it's floating, it has no foundation, it's not resting, it's not anchored in anything. But the second one is that if it's not on the ground, it has no practical has no practical impact. Kedushah requires that there's and that there's a keli, that there's a vessel, that that there's a כלי קיבול for it. It's being able to draw the connection so that we are attached to הקדוש ברוך הוא. Over here, you have something that is not representing a Torah ideal, and it also is not going to have the ability to attach the world to anything.

Just to read Reb Chaim Kramer's note, he says that kedushah requires a receptacle, a place to rest, the shedim the the the שדים יהודאין have no body, they have no guf, they have no kli for kedusha, and he says that the heretics want to build a house, as if a receptacle, a place to rest, that's what's represented by a house, for the senseless Torah teachings and heresies, but those who look to their teaching find themselves in the sky with no basis or foundation upon which to rely, no means of esta- establishing themselves on the elevated and lofty level they seek to achieve.

So, back in the text, ואמר שם, רבי יהושע בן חנניה said the שם השם, וקם בין שמיא לארעא, and he stood, וקם I guess was established, between the heaven and earth. היינו, התלמיד חכם האמיתי הוא בין שמיא לארעא, the true talmid chacham is between, it's a connection between heaven and earth. He's able to draw that bridge, as we've been discussing, כתרגומו, like a pasuk in Divrei Hayamim: כי כל בשמים ובארץ, דאחיד בשמיא וארעא, that connects, that unifies, brings a connection between שמים and ארץ. And over here in the note, in Chassidish or kabbalistic terms, he explains that צדיק יסוד עולם, צדיק is יסוד, and in in terms of the flow of the ספירות that we've said, there is חכמה, בינה, דעת, חסד, גבורה, תפארת, נצח, הוד, and then there's יסוד and מלכות.

מלכות is לית לה מגרמה כלום. The שפע flows through the ספירות, and if it flows through properly, and nothing else, so to speak, gets in the way, there's total התבטלות, מלכות represents, it's a גילוי, so to speak, of מלכות שמים. But it's not introducing additional שפע, it's reflective of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, which means that when there is a total healthy flow-through of שפע, so that the כלי קיבול acknowledges itself as such, that represents מלכות. What is the conduit between everything that comes above, if you think about a funnel, if you think about מלכות as a כלי קיבול, and all of the other ספירות as coming down the funnel, what is the connection between the שפע flowing through to the כלי קיבול, which will manifest רצון השם?

יסוד. So the צדיק is connecting the שמים וארץ, the, the זעיר אנפין, as it were, the upper ספירות and the מלכות. So Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananya now says to the Athenian scholars, ואמר: אפיקו לי לבני וטינא מהתם. Take, or take up, or take out, Aphiku is to take out, take out the bricks and the mortar. לבני would be bricks and טינא is cement or mortar, but טינא could also mean a grievance, כי טינא נכנס בליבם של אלו. There's a grievance that entered into the hearts of these people that are receiving their ideas, their false ideas, from the תלמידי חכמים שאינם הגונים, and now they're developing a perspective as regards the צדיקים, כנ״ל ונעשה ליבם לב האבן.

And their lev is becoming stone, reminiscent of, if we remember from the beginning of Torah כ״ה. Which is interesting because this is another expression that if we say that לב נשבר, לב רך, this is something that makes one susceptible to receiving from the tzaddikim versus לב אבן, which means that we can't receive. It's not so much that it's two competing forces that are equal but opposite. Really, if we were receptive to the truth, right, if we had an open mind, if we had an open heart, then there wouldn't be a contest. The only reason that we're not attaching ourselves to truth is because we have לב אבן, it's because we have blockage.

So if a person can remove the blockage from their hearts, then they will automatically be receptive to the truth, right? It would be obvious, it would, it would speak to their heart. וכשתלמיד חכם האמיתי רואה מחשבתם הרעה, when a תלמיד חכם אמיתי, a true תלמיד חכם, sees the bad intentions, how people come against the צדיק, אומר להם שיוציאו הטינא מליבם. The response is not, it's not an equal opposition. They understand that if you would remove the blockage, if you would remove the obstacle, then the path would be clear for you to receive the truth. So if somebody wants to build a house in the air, they want to attach themselves based on the wrong ideas, if I can remove the facade, I can allow you to see behind the curtain, so now, once I remove the grievance, people dig in, they dig into dispute.

Sometimes people are fighting about things, they don't even realize what it is that they're fighting about. The תלמידי חכמים שאינם הגונים, they have their own reasons that they are misrepresenting the Torah, but the other people, they become involved in the dispute. I mean, this is, if you are listening to the shiur only for this idea, how many times that based on an initial idea you become engaged in machloket, the machloket takes on a life of its own, and you no longer even have gone back to evaluate or reevaluate what it is that you're pushing against.

You've just become involved in the pushing, and you forget about the ideas that started this entire point, some of which were way more subtle or not even, you know, that not even worth getting involved in where you are way down the road. So therefore, when the תלמיד חכם realizes that these people are opposing posing the tzaddikim based on what they received from תלמידי חכמים שאינן יודעין, what's the first response? Take out the טינא, take out the grievance, take the bite out of it. What are we fighting about? We're on the same side of the table.

I I just anecdotally, I one time heard a story of a person who was a mediator, somebody whose job it was to bring people together, and at the beginning of any mediation session, at the beginning of any discussion, two things that that that the person did, again, the I was I was hearing it secondhand, they sat the opposing parties on the same side of the table, and then the lawyers, I guess, were on the other side of the table, so they weren't staring across at each other trying to dig in, just in terms of perception.

And the second thing they did is they wrote down a list of all of the things that they agreed on. So if you break things up into 1,000 pieces, you can agree we agree that there was a contract in place, we agree that these were the services to be provided, whatever it is. So by the time you get to the 100 things, 19 things, whatever it is that everybody agrees on, the things that they disagree on are actually much more narrow, and it seems like a very small piece to resolve the dispute. So people get so involved in the fact that they're fighting on opposite ends of the table that sometimes the first thing to do is not even to resolve the underlying dispute, it's just to say let's take out the grievance, שיוציא הטינא שבלב האבן, let's take out the grievance that is responsible for this hardened heart, ולא יכפרו בהקדוש ברוך הוא, take out the kefirah in Hakadosh Baruch Hu, chas veshalom.

Sometimes people are arguing so much, just in order to support their position, they can say horrible things, things that are ממש kefirah. So the first thing that we need to do is say, hey, we all want to get to the same place, we're all looking for emunah, we all want to get close to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Let's re-establish the emunah, let's re-establish the תעלה, right? Let's let's get rid of all of the things that are pushing back against the tzaddikim, and now the truth can become clear, כי הטינא ולב האבן מהתם. Where does this grievance come from?

Where does this טינא come from? It comes from התם. It comes from over there. What's התם? ה׳ ת׳ מ׳, five plus 400 plus 40 is 445, because we had said that אלף is 111, 111 times four, the four אלפין, the four true אלפין are תמיד דהכנסת אורחים, attach oneself to talmidei chachamim. You add one more, so that's also similar to the אלף at the source, but we said that's התם, that's 111 times four is 444, add one more and it's 445. That's התם, that's taken from over there. Gematria, by the way, is with the כולל also, so different maybe of the commentary address a little bit differently, but perhaps we could say, so what's התם?

Instead of taking the the אלפין at their source, at what they are, it's adding something, it's using them for a new idea, it's adding plus one, היינו בבחינת אלפין נפולין הנ״ל שהם בגימטריא התם, but again, with that extra one, כי ארבע פעמים אלף עם הכולל עולה התם. So now to finish off this מעשה, אמרו מי איכא דמצי למיסק להתם. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananya, as it were, in the context of the story is now is is now hovering, and he says, you want me to build a house between heaven and earth, bring me the bricks and the mortar.

So אמרו לו, so they they said, well, who would be able to bring up the bricks to the middle of the sky? שאמרו לו מי יוכל להעלות האלפין נפולין. What are they saying? Who is able to rectify the אלפין נפולין? Here here you have people that received from תלמידי חכמים שאינן יודעין, who is going to be able to rectify those fallen אלפין? והשיב להם מי איכא דמצי למיבני ביתא בין שמיא לארעא. The way that we're reading this is a little bit different from the פשוט פשט in the story, but he's telling them almost rhetorically, not who's able to build, but the one who's able to build, the tzadik that is able to connect the שמים and ארץ, the tzadik who is יסוד, who's able to connect the upper ספירות and the מלכות, the tzadik who's able to take those אלפין and to connect them, to build a כלי for קדושה, to be to be able to be a vehicle and a conduit to to bring people close to הקדוש ברוך הוא, that's the person that can reconnect the fallen אלפין, because, I don't know if we mentioned it now, I can't remember, but in in principle, קליפה and the פרי, and the fruit, unity and and disparity or separateness is really perspective.

דהיינו, if I see a peel on an orange, whether I say that's a peel or whether I say that's part of the orange is the way that I perceive it. If there's an orange that needs a שמירה and needs something to protect it, and needs something that's going to be a certain color that's going to be green so that nobody is attracted to it until it's ripe and now it's orange and now somebody wants it, and it keeps the fruit moist on the inside, that peel is part of the fruit. It's not separate. It's not until it takes on a life of its own that it's going to become dark, it's going to become black, it's going to dry up.

The difference of whether the אלפין, the presentation of Torah in this world are connected to their source or whether they're אלפין נפולין, is the way that we relate to it. The tzadik is able to take everything in this world, everything mundane—we didn't quote earlier Likutei Halachot, it says that the tzadik is going throughout the land, we'll just read, it says that the that the tzadik is going through the land and he is through his words והם תכו לרגלך ישא מדברותיך, where is it? Tzadik is הולך ונוסע בדרך ונע ונד ומטלטל בשביל לברר ולתקן בחינת אוירא דעלמא, as he goes through the land he encounters things, he makes brachot, he gives perspective, he has talmidim, he gives the appropriate way to understand this world as a as a feature.

It's something that הקדוש ברוך הוא has provided to us in order to relate to Him. It's something that is a It's not extra, it's not non-רוחניות, it's not גשמיות. It's something that we have at our level in order to connect to הקדוש ברוך הוא. That is b'etzem the rectification. Right? It's when you realize that it's not that טוב is triumphing, triumphing over רע, but that there was no רע to begin with. That was all our perspective and our doing. And therefore he says, you know who can rectify the fallen אלפין? The one who is יסוד, the one who's able to connect the שמים and the ארץ, היינו מי שבונה ביתו על ידי תלמידי חכמים אמיתיים, those who are מקיים הכנסת אורחים, those who attach themselves to tzaddikim who become an extension of this idea, כי יש להם על מה שיסמוכו, those people are now connected to the foundation, they've connected the dots, כי תלמידי חכמים אמיתיים הם יסוד כל דבר, ומי שביתו בית ועד לחכמים, סופי תיבות, בית, ת, ועד, ד, חכמים, מ, rearrange the letters, a person is בית ועד לחכמים, they're תמיד, they're not coming from התם, but rather they're connected to the source.

The four אלפין are a connection to תמיד, to chesed, to emunah, to תפלה, שבונה ביתו בבחינת איש קדוש עובר עלינו תמיד נעשה עלית קיר, and that was where the Shunamis was built up her house for הכנסת אורחים, they built a wall, it's part of the pesukim over there, in order to service the tzaddik. אלו האנשים מעלין האלפין כנ״ל, these are the people that are able to raise up the אלפין. And therefore I'm going to read now the סיכום, the note in my Likutey Moharan has a little bit of a summary. It's interesting because the the way that Rav Chaim Kramer presents the discussion, or maybe it's just the presentation of it, it's subtly different, but just maybe based on the מפרשים, the way that Rav Chaim Kramer learns this, going back to the beginning, came along the Sabei Devei Atnu, and just reading inside the story, hold on one second, says, בני לן ביתא באוירא דעלמא, build us a house, that the Sabei Devei Atnu said we want to build a Torah discourse that is going to teach and influence people.

אמר שם, קם ותלא בין שמיא לארעא. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananya said the name of Hashem, his teachings were founded, were solidly based in the four holy אלפין, and therefore he was able to put אמונה and impact others. אמר להו: אפיקו לי לבני וטינא מהתם. And he said, if you want to be able to give over these ideas in a way that they will work, in a way that they will connect with this world, then you need to remove the heresy from your heart. אמרו: מי איכא דמצי לאסוקי התם? And at this point they asked, well, wait a second, all of the Torah that we relate to really comes from the fallen אלפין, can anybody get up there?

How will this be able to be rectified? אמר, and he said back, ומי איכא דמצי למיבדי ביתא בין שמיא לארעא? Is there anybody that can build a house between the heaven and earth? But over here it's a little bit rhetorical: the one who can build that house, the tzaddik, the יסוד, צדיק יסוד עולם, the one who is able to connect the שמים and ארץ, he is the one who will be able to to rectify this. Just to highlight, and again, it's a little bit of my ambiguity, so if anybody has a take on it or maybe it's just again the way the different mefarshim learn, is whether or not the Savi d'Bei Athuna were originally asking to build Torah discourses and teachings that would influence people for the negative, so in a certain sense they wanted to influence people, but Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananya was highlighting that the only way to actually influence people is to connect to truth, and therefore there was a problem afterwards of, hey, we've already sort of attached ourselves to the אלפין נפולין, how could those be rectified?

Or whether the question is from the point of view the way that the Torah over here seems to present it, again in paragraph ד, כי אלו בני אדם הרוצים לערוך עבודתם על ידי תורה ששומעים מתלמידי חכמים שאינם הגונים, that the initial inclination, the the original question or presentation is people that b'etzem want to connect to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and the problem is that they are that that they've been attached to the תלמידי חכמים שאינם הגונים, so even in the original presentation it's, hey, now that we have these אלפין נפולין, we're sort of in the air, how are we able to build the house?

So directionally the question is positive, and then the answer is again similar: you have to attach yourself to a chacham, and that's the only way to rectify it. But in any event, I mean the messaging of this Torah is just profound. The the the The idea of having to grapple with understanding how, again, on one hand, לא לשמה, מתוך שלא לשמה בא לשמה, and on the other hand, how you can have people that are learning and engaged in learning, and yet the Torah will not lead them to a positive place. They're מגשם the Torah, they're relating to it in a different way, and how we can understand that people who both seem to be learning Torah end up in machloket, and the danger, and what's really incumbent on us, as we want to go in the right direction of making sure that we are attaching ourselves to the right people.

And the the method for doing that is to practically, to first of all, have anavah leading to emunah, and chesed to attach yourself to Avraham Avinu, but through the tzaddikim, and not only from the point of view of perspective, but to actively engage b'foal to bring this out through שימוש תלמידי חכמים, I mean, just tremendous ideas, and Be'ezrat Hashem next time we're going to finish the Torah.