LM 3.1 — Akrukta, Part 1 of 2 · תורה ג׳

Okay, moving right along to the third Torah, אקרוקתא, a reference to the first מימרא of Rabbah bar bar Chanah, I will stress again that to the extent of our ability we are trying to present and understand the background of certain concepts that are beyond us as they relate to the Torah, so that we can begin to gain a grounding in Rabbi Nachman's teachings, although many of them maybe on the second time around or the hundredth time around will have that much greater depth. Although I will mention, I've heard this quoted before, although I'm going to say one thing from the quoted, it doesn't say to where exactly, but it's in the back on page 42 going from the back of the first volume of the

English Likutey Moharan, he quotes the Rabbi as saying that Likutey Moharan is the התחלת הגאולה, it's the beginning of the redemption, and now that it has come out, he said, "I want very much that people should study it to the point that they know it by heart, because it is full of guidance and has the power to stir people to serve Hakadosh Baruch Hu." And later on he said explicitly that learning his works was the beginning of redemption. May it come speedily in our days. He said the best way to study his works is to follow two separate routines: the first is to study swiftly as to become thoroughly conversant with the books, and the second is to study in depth because his books contain

the profoundest depth. So our goal for us is I guess more to become familiar at the basic level and try to understand enough that we can at least make it through with some some degree of meaning, so that we can begin to to to get a grounding and אם ירצה השם set ourselves up for further study. So in the beginning we quote that the מימרא of Rabbah bar bar Chanah: אמר רבה בר בר חנה לדידי חזי לי, I saw, ההיא אקרוקתא, a צפרדע, a frog, דהוה כי אקרא דהגרוניא, it was as big as a certain city whose name was אקרא דהגרוניא.

ואקרא דהגרוניא כמה הוי? How big was the city? שיתין בתי, it was 60 houses. And רבה בר בר חנה continues: אתא תנינא בלעה, a נחש, a תנין came along and swallowed, it swallowed the צפרדע; אתא פושקנצא, and a raven came along, ובלעה לתנינא, swallowing this נחש; וסליק יתיב באילנא, the עורב went and sat in a tree; and רבה בר בר חנה finishes: תא חזי, come see, כמה נפיש חיליה דאילנא, the אילנא, how great is the strength of this tree. So now we are going to explain, as we have mentioned before, the Rabbi' Chaim Kramer notes, quote, so far each piece from a sefer called Tovot Zichronot about the background of the of the maamar, the background of the Torah, and it probably actually makes more

sense, honestly, this one in the Hebrew because but I don't I don't have that sefer in front of me, but he quotes that there was a certain תקופה where Rabbi Nachman was in a in a city, it was amidst a certain period where there was a degree of opposition, and in the particular city that he went to, there was a shalom zachar where there was an expectation that the חזן was going to sing by the shalom zachar. The חזן identified or he sympathized with some of the opposition to Rabbi Nachman at the time, and Rabbi Nachman said that that the chazan said that he didn't have a kol, he didn't have a voice, and Rabbi Nachman said that, "Okay, I will have to give him

a voice." And ultimately, he quoted a pasuk in Mishlei that put together the idea of a person who keeps company with prostitutes will lose his hon, will lose his wealth. It says over here, lose his voice as well. Ultimately, this particular chazan was found out to be engaging in promiscuous behavior after Rabbi Nachman had said this maamar, and and ultimately, people became followers of Rabbi Nachman. And Baruch Hashem, the point going into this is that they formed study groups to learn Mishnayot and Gemara, and ultimately, the point is for us to become closer to Hakadosh Baruch Hu.

With that having been said, the we the maamar opens up, and he says, הנה מי ששומע נגינה ממנגן רשע, one who hears a neginah, who hears a melody, a song from a מנגן רשע, from a person who is singing, but he is a rasha, that those are his מדות, קשה לו לעבודת הבורא. So the person who hears it is going to be impacted to his detriment concerning his avodah. וכששומע ממנגן כשר והגון, and when he hears songs from a singer who is כשר והגון, אזי טוב לו, it's going to be good for him, כמו שיתבאר.

There is a ספר called Torat Natan, which summarizes some of the main points without the derushim coming from Likutei Halachot, and he he goes through each piece and brings tries to bring out the points of each Torah. Over here, he he mentions that there's there's concepts of of kol, there's concepts of voice and there's concepts of speech. And while kol is very, very valuable to be me'orer a person in his moach which we'll talk more about later, but even in terms of his intellectual capacity for now, but he brings that the עיקר שלמות of the kol, the עיקר שלמות of the voice is when it is unified and tied together with dibbur, and it brings a yichud with the with the kol and dibbur together,

such that when the kol it goes into a person's heart and brings him brings him in line with with hithlahavut and he's moved with kedushah, and it's in line with his daat and results in dibbur, so then he can achieve the greatest of heights. However, when there's a divide between this emotional arousal and with with what would ultimately result in dibbur with his attachment to daat and his attachment to הקדוש ברוך הוא, so then that already is a is a pirud, and it's a separation from kedushah, and it's the opposite of yichud, and this is where there will be the energy has to go some place.

This results in a negative energy, and this is why a person who is a chazan who is a rasha, so there is a certain kedushah that he's yonek from, a certain kedushah that he nurses from that he draws down, where there's an energy that attaches the kol, but because it's not unified, the pipe, so to speak, is misaligned, so then the energy can come out in a negative way, and it won't be in line with עבודת השם, but rachmana litzlan it'll go into the wrong way. So with that, we're going to explain a little bit why for people, music is always a contemporary topic, first of all, in Breslov, people are very into singing, I guess, but in general, the the koach of music is

a topic that is discussed in various places, but the piece goes on why is the hearing kol from a מנגן who is kasher, from a singer who is kasher, helps a person, כי הנה כל הנגינה נמשכת מן הצפרים. The voice of neginah, or the sound of neginah, of music, draws, or sustains itself from צפרים, from birds. Now this concept of צפרים crosses over a lot of a lot of different concepts. We're going to go into it to the degree that we can as we go, but suffice it to say for now, again, as Rabbi Nachman goes through pieces, he'll bring an idea, he'll support it, validate it, move on, bring another idea so that ultimately as he weaves together and ties together picture A, and

then B to A, and then C to B, and then reinforces the points until he weaves together a whole tapestry where everything comes together, and so far coming back into either a pasuk or maamar Chazal, which is representative and expresses at its source the idea. But over here, he he supports this idea, כדאיתא במדרש: מפני מה מצורע טהרתו תלויה בשתי צפרים חיות טהורות? Why is it that a מצורע, a person that gets צרעת, which we know is a result from, or at least one of the things it's a result from speaking lashon hara, and part of the kaparah, part of the process to come out of the state of צרעת is to bring a korban that that has two birds, which are chayot and טהורות.

Now chayot, obviously, they're alive, so we're going to learn chayot is a reference to a different concept, that some of the malachim are referred to as chayot, and we're going to say that this is is tied to the idea of where nevuah comes from. We'll get there in a second. So again, we have a Midrash in Vayikra: מפני מה מצורע טהרתו תלויה בשתי צפרים חיות טהורות? Why is a מצורע's taharah process tied to the idea of צפרים, which we just said is the source of neginah? יבוא קלניא, that the chatterers, these birds that go and they chirp, the chirpers, ויכפר על קלניא, and should be mechaper on this person who had a pegam in his kol, who he was going, he was telling lashon hara,

he was doing things that he shouldn't with his voice, כי נלקה מחמת קולו. The reason that he got tzaraat was because he misused his voice, שדיבר לשון הרע. And the penimiyut reason that we see is that since a person, when he misused his voice, he caused he caused some sort of a pegam, some sort of a blemish, as it were. He impacted negatively, he was interacting with this upper koach called צפרים, which could have been the source of kedushah and kol that was used in a positive way, and instead he went and used it in a negative way.

So part of his kaparah process in the עולם העשיה, in the world where we find ourself, as as we have our avodah represents itself in him bringing צפרים, birds, in order to create this tikkun. נמצא מי שהוא כשר נמשכת הנגינה שלו מן השתי צפרים חיות טהורות. But the general concept that he wants to bring over here is that we see that kol or neginah is tied to this idea of צפרים, and he brings it from the negative, that the kaparah of the מצורע is linked to him being metaken this this בחינה that he misused with the idea of צפרים.

Further, וכתוב בזהר, That this בחינה, this element that we're referring to as צפרים, שהשתי צפרים הנ״ל יונקים מאתר דנביאים ינקין. These צפרים, so what we said is that these are the source going forward to neginah, going forward to music or to song. They, however, they receive their koach from where neviim also get their yenikah, that from where neviim the from the where the koach, everything is flowing downwards. So from where the neviim get their koach, that's where these צפרים, that's where this koach gets its koach from, which we're going to see is Netzach and Hod of the world of אצילות.

Now, what exactly that means, we'll we'll we'll at least comment enough that hopefully it's usable to be able to get something from. ולכך נקרא המנגן חזן, מלשון חזון. The לשון of חזון comes up in נביאים, the לשון of חזון is a reference to נבואה, and that's why a chazan, somebody who creates music, is called with the same language as the word that's representing נבואה as well, היינו לשון נבואה, כי לוקח הנגינה מאתר דנביאים ינקין, because where the chazan is coming from, the source for where the music ultimately comes from is really rooted and sourced in the same כח, the component that's able to give the כח of נבואה, the the נבואה.

And we know in fact that that music has tremendous כחות. It says that I believe Yonah Hanavi got his first his first, what is it, his כח of נבואה by the Simchat Beit Hashoeva, where they played music, although it was linked to the שמחה as well, but even I believe by by Shaul Hamelech, it talks about bands of נביאים that they would also play music. But in any event, the idea of music to be able to shed some of the גשמיות and being able to attach to higher כחות is not something that's entirely strange to us, but this idea that we're talking about in a technical perspective is probably new.

So what we reference at this point is that נבואה is getting its כח from the ספירות of נצח and הוד, which we're referring to as צפרים. There's also going to be, the same way that whenever whenever there's טומאה in the world, so that טומאה also has to get its כחות coming downhill, although we call it kind of the negative source of קליפה, it can't not have any energy, otherwise it wouldn't exist, but nevertheless it's considered it's considered like the other side, like the husk. It doesn't have it doesn't have the the the תוכן, it doesn't have the the תכלית of what it is.

But the structure of how it gets its energy is also going to parallel the the way that the positive energy is conveyed as well. So now that we explain that the the voice or the קול of music that's kasher in a positive way, and if a person hears this song that it's good for עבודת השם, so now we're going to have to explain hearing a voice from a מנגן in the negative way. It's going to be bad for עבודת השם, and again we're going to explain a little bit in a technical way.

וכשהמנגן הוא רשע, אזי הוא לוקח הנגינה שלו מצפרים אחרות שבקליפה. So the same way that the these these these ideas that we're referring to as צפרים, which correspond in some way to the the the way that נגינה, that music is nourished from, as well as נבואה, and more part of the ראיה that we brought was from a מצורע, so too a person who has music, although it's disconnected from דעת and ultimately it's disconnected from דיבור as well and it's it doesn't align a person with Avodat Hashem, it could lead a person the wrong way, but this also is going to be יונק from an idea of צפרים in the negative aspect.

Now, וכתב בזהר כי הצפרים שבקליפה יונקים מדדי המלכות. And it's written in the Zohar that the צפרים on the negative side are יונק from דדי המלכות, from the nourishing factor from like a women is a woman is יונק her child from דדים. Now this doesn't translate cleanly into into spiritual כחות, but what we have here that we've mentioned before is parallels the the spiritual structure, and it's יונק מדדי המלכות. Now, one of the things that Hakadosh Baruch Hu when He was going to wants to create and establish an order in order to create, in order to have בריאה, there can't really be in certain ways just a direct relationship or a direct transmission straight from the infinite, you know, a thousand billion gazillion watt light

bulb which is still an understatement into anything because there wouldn't be a כלי to be מקבל it. So you can't pour, you know, I don't know, molten lead into a Styrofoam cup. There in order to have the בריאה the way that Hakadosh Baruch Hu set it up, Hakadosh Baruch Hu set into place a series of filters, we'll call them, in order to be able to filter down the אינסופיות and ultimately have have a בריאה. have creations, and be able to interact with them. The עולמות that we'll see coming from the the אור אין סוף going to אצילות, which אצל means either a flow or next to, the Nefesh HaChaim discusses it, but the layers of creation and reality, not necessarily as we know it, but

reality as it exists, if you'll see ever the the acronym אבי״ע, אל״ף, בי״ת, יו״ד, עי״ן, these are different עולמות as they're called, different systems, and it'll go, there'll be אצילות, and then going into בריאה, יצירה, and עשיה. We are over here in the world of עשיה. The way that Hakadosh Baruch Hu interacts and puts the energy into each world is it goes by a system of what we call ספירות, and those ספירות are basically in in three syst- or or in like they like say almost like triads.

The first one will be, we'll call it either כתר, חכמה, and בינה, or חכמה, בינה, and דעת. We don't usually use כתר and דעת together, you'll discuss it one or the other, which will be discussed I guess in different time we'll be able to understand it, but there'll be let's say חב״ד, חכמה, בינה, דעת. So חכמה will be more expansive, we'll be put let's say lining up on the right side, בינה will be more definitive, it'll be like last time we've discussed חסד and גבורה, it'll be holding back.

חכמה is a kernel of an idea, it's a lightning bolt, it's expansive, and בינה is more definitive, it's being מבין דבר מתוך דבר, it's being able to make inferences. And then דעת integrates that into into one integrated type חכמה, and goes down to the next level. This idea of חכמה, בינה, and דעת will refer to as the מוחין, these are like the intellectual type of idea. And then it goes into the next, which you can call I guess the emotional realm if you'd like, but then there will be חסד, גבורה, and in the middle will be תפארת, and then the next triad will be נצח, הוד, and then it combines to יסוד, going down to the next level.

So if you're looking at it, it would be חכמה, חסד, and נצח would be lining up let's say on the right side, on the left side would be בינה, גבורה, and הוד, and then in the middle, there's always going to be that that that ממוצע kind of combines, and it goes on to the next world until below the we'll call them חב״ד, חג״ת, נה״י, below נצח and הוד, which through יסוד go down into מלכות. We discussed that מלכות is לית לה מגרמה כלום. מלכות does not have its own energy really other than the fact that it's built up through נצח and הוד, that מלכות is going to be יונק, מלכות gets from the going coming from what came before it, and then after מלכות, it

flows through into the next system. Now these are like fractals, you can Google that, it would be like you would isolate any piece, the everything is made up of these. So if you were going to have let's say חסד or חכמה, there would be חכמה of חכמה, and then בינה of חכמה. Each everything just forever is made up in terms of the same structure. So as Hakadosh Baruch Hu interacts and sends force sends this this spiritual flow of energy through the עולמות, so it goes from חב״ד, חג״ת, נה״י, מלכות, and then sets it up as it goes as it goes into the next into the next עולם.

Now when we speak of these by the way in a כללות'דיק way, so one of these molecular molecular type of structures would be called a פרצוף, and the פרצופים again will run roughly the same structure. The names will correspond, we'll as we get our feet wet, we're going to learn some of these concepts. So it would be חכמה would correspond to the פרצוף of אבא, בינה would correspond to the פרצוף called אמא. The six in the middle, which are חסד, גבורה, and תפארת, נצח, הוד, and יסוד, which on the ספירה side could collectively sometimes be called תפארת, on the פרצוף side would be called זעיר אנפין.

We don't we don't have to remember these names, but זעיר אנפין would be this this set of six in the middle, and then מלכות would be called נוק', the נוקבא of זעיר אנפין. And now the reason that the only reason that I mention this now is because sometimes these are used these terms seem to be used almost interchangeably, but as we talk about the נוקבא, which is the a כלי, it receives, we said that the מלכות doesn't have is not a giver, מלכות in in the ספירה context receives from what's above it, so נוק' the נוקבא also receives what's above it, and we some some of these terms will now make sense because we are going to be talking about the the דדי, right, the

דדים of מלכות, so why use this term of the דדים of מלכות? Because if we understand that נוקבא on the פרצוף side is parallels מלכות, so now it makes sense also why this idea of of the nourishing element of מלכות or of נוקבא, which is in the feminine, is referred to as דדים, is that element which is goes on to nourish what comes after it. So again, the Zohar says that the ציפרים of קליפה are יונק from the דדים of מלכות. So for our purposes right now, what we're going to have is נצח and הוד, which, again, are on the right side and left side respectively.

Those will be the דדים of מלכות in, let, in, for our purposes, the עולם of אצילות. The, the ציפרים of קליפה will be found, for our purposes, in the next עולם, in the next layer, not all the way as high as אצילות, but the the ציפרים that we're going to put on the קליפה side will be in בריאה. And we're going to say that those make up actually on the קליפה side, I'm getting this from Rabbi Yehoshua Gross's פירוש, the חכמה and בינה of נוקבא. Why? Because we said that מלכות or נוקבא does not have any of its own כח other than to be מקבל.

So when you have the universal מקבל, you have that נוקבא, that is built up from what came above it. So that when the נהי, or the נצח and הוד through יסוד, when the נצח and הוד go and those are what build up the מוחין of the מלכות or of the נוק of the next level. So what you have over here is that the חכמה and בינה of נוק of the, or נוקבא, you could say it either way, but what we have is that the חכמה and בינה, the מוחין, that will make up the ציפרים of the קליפה of the negative side are going to be built up from the נצח and הוד of the lowest level of the מלכות that that are on אצילות.

Now, as confusing as this may be, we're going to try to ground this a little bit as we start to move forward and give us a nekudah of התעוררות that we can turn into avodah. Maybe if a if a person wants, you can look in Likutei Tefillos, which is also translated, and what that does is the tefillot correspond to each Torah, and you could see, as the Torah and tefillah go together, a way to ground some of these תורות that we're going through in a practical way and turn them turn them into a tefillah so it could goes hand in hand towards avodah.

And Zohar continues, "כד אתפליג ליליא," when the night is split by chatzot, the negative the negative kochos have more of a שליטה in the first half of the night. Comes chatzos, when all of a sudden they're more contained. "כדין כרוזא כריז," it's like a a yell goes out, and that's when the positive kochos start having a have more of a role. David Hamelech used to get up and he would play music at chatzos, and then he would spend the rest of the night learning Torah, which we're going to see soon.

And we say also, "כצפרים," like the pasuk in Kohelet, "כצפרים האחוזות בפח," like ציפרים that are that are in in a trap, "כהם יוקשים בני אדם." That it's a reference to the fact that people who are יונק from these ציפרים, these negative kochos, and for our purposes that that are nourished or have this negative hit'orerut from a chazan who is a rasha, from music coming from a negative place, they also are going to be entrapped by these kochos and entrapped in their תאוות and entrapped in their desires.

And now we start to understand a little bit the first piece that we that that we said. This is the פנימיות behind why how a person who is who hears music from a positive place is attaching himself to the same place where נבואה is nourished from and attaches himself to דעת, which will result in דיבור, and he's aligning himself with Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and he's like like we said, like a hose that's that's where where the the the energy can go straight through, whereas a person who is attaching himself to the source of the negative energy, which is going to be dissociated from דעת and dissociated from דיבור, so now that's going to result in in in negative kochos, and it'll bring him farther away

from avodat Hashem.