LM 31.5 — Is Lan Birah, Part 5 of 7 · תורה ל״א

Be'ezrat Hashem, we are learning together the fifth shiur of Torah ל״א of Likutei Moharan. We started the appendix last week. The first half of the תורה, לשון רבינו ז״ל, was the was Torah ל״א, it was the core principles and structure of of the Torah, and then Rabbi Natan came and in the second half added a lot of the ideas that we that we discussed in Torah ל״א as he had heard them from Rabbeinu in other contexts. So there's some overlap and also some filling in of the gaps. Just so that we can make ground, move forward, if it's possible and you're listening to the shiur on the recording, I think it's worthwhile to just press pause, go back to 31:4 in the in the shiurim, it's Spotify, wherever you're listening, and listen through the 15-minute mark, 15 minutes and a couple of seconds, you can listen on double speed, but that will be a reminder of all the concepts as we sum them up before we started the appendix the first time.

So now back in this Torah we're going to go forward. We are in the inside margin of page מ״ה, 45, in the standard print, all the way at the bottom where it says, ״וזה בחינת ארבעה שנכנסו לפרדס״. In some of the other prints, it's paragraph י״ג or around paragraph י״ג, they're not all 100% consistent. But essentially, just in a 60-second sum up, we said that tzedakah directs the גלגלים, and so that a a person is able to affect the way that shefa comes into the world, and Hakadosh Baruch Hu's הנהגה through tzedakah. And we explained in the introduction that we just listened to how tzedakah is really completed by emunah, and not just emunah, but emunah together with brit.

So that emunah, let's say, is hitbatlut, emunah connects me to the source, tzedakah is הנהגה, tzedakah is how shefa comes into the world. But the way that we approach emunah so that it can come together with tzedakah is through brit. If emunah is hitbatlut where in a certain sense I cease to exist, you can say that the that the avodah of emunah is almost like looking I'm I'm I'm looking into a mirror and trying to explain that I don't exist, I'm I'm working on myself and yet I have total hitbatlut. A brit is between two parties, so a brit does require It's It's A brit is where I try to connect with Hakadosh Baruch Hu, so it's not total hitbatlut, I'm not being I I don't cease to exist, but I'm trying trying to come close to Hakadosh Baruch Hu working towards emunah.

So the brit is the avodah, the way that we explain, the way I understood of working myself up the mountain towards the peak of a mountain of emunah, which is a little bit of a move moving target because I'm moving towards the אינסופיות. And we explained that the גילוי of chesed as a person works on brit, there's a גילוי of of of the chesed of HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and chesed creates yearnings, a drive, a desire for something, which in a certain sense, if I desire something, that means that there's also a vacuum over there. I I I want to become close to you because I'm not close to you yet.

And that desire, that yearning is able to draw in chiyut, it's able to draw in connection to HaKadosh Baruch Hu and life. And that is what creates movement, that's what creates life with the with the raw materials. And now I'm just going to introduce something new that I did not say last week, or at least an example, if you're familiar or want want to listen, I know that it comes up I think in the last perek of Shaar HaYichud VehaEmunah in Tanya, so the shiurim, but in any event, when we think about the raw material, the building blocks of the world, we've discussed many times there's the 22 letters of the of of the alef beis.

But how those 22 letters get together, that requires movement, chiyut, energy, life. Meaning, let's say, not my example, you have a a sentence that says, "I am happy, not sad." Well, you could also say, "I am sad, not happy." Those have very different meanings, and yet you're dealing with the same building blocks. So as you take letters, you could put letter the same letters together into different words, the same words into different sentences, and so on. So when we look at the letters, it's really the נקודות that animate any particular letter, right, if you have letter א, it could be ah, oh, ay, eh, whatever the letter is, and it also allows the letters to be put together into into words as part of a structure.

Those נקודות, that drive that allows the building blocks of the world to function together to create meaning and significance, those are the נקודות that are brought in through the chesed, through the yearnings that is created, it becomes a גילוי when a person is working on brit, which brings them to emunah, to tzedakah. So if we have the choice really, that's our bechirah, how we are able to approach, how we are able to bring חיות לטוב ולמוטב based on our kavanah, based on our avodah into the raw raw material, whether it be you know directionally positive or chas veshalom directionally negative, that we said is applies to the אותיות, which would be תורה שבכתב, but that also applies in תורה שבעל פה.

We have the power, as much as we connect to the tzadik, we have the bechirah, the avodah is ours, and therefore we are going to apply this idea to תורה שבעל פה as well, and that is going to come out in the story of, in the text, וזה בחינת ארבעה שנכנסו לפרדס. There's a Gemara which says that four of the great Tannaim entered into Pardes, entered into shamayim, whatever exactly that means, but we're going to read the words, and they encountered the same thing, but had experiences across the spectrum. ארבעה שנכנסו לפרדס, רבי עקיבא נכנס בשלום ויצא בשלום.

Rabbi Akiva entered and came out b'shalom, in peace. בן עזאי הציץ ונפגע. בן עזאי gazed and he was driven insane. בן זומא הציץ ומת. He gazed at whatever the, he had a perception of whatever it was and he died. אחר קיצץ בנטיעות. Acher cut down saplings, but what this means, a sapling is something that has growth, and if you cut down the sapling at the root, then you go to the source and you're separating yourself from the source, this chas veshalom is is an aspect of kefirah. ואלו, so we see over here that four of the greatest personalities, of the greatest talmidei chachamim, they had the raw material, they had the pieces, and yet when they encountered it, they had drastically different experiences ranging from Rabbi Akiva, who had a tremendously positive experience, to on the other hand, Acher.

ואלו הארבע בחינות, הם בחינות צדיק ורשע, עובד אלקים ולא עבדו, coming off of a pasuk in מלאכי, האמורים בפסוק ושבתם, you'll come back, the Metzudos says it's talking about תחיית המתים and you're going to see the four different levels of of of individuals as they relate to avodah, וראיתם בין צדיק לרשע, בין עובד אלקים לאשר לא עבדו. So, these levels are represented by these four personalities. ואלו הארבע בחינות, הם נמצאים בכל בני אדם הרוצים לקנות לעבודת השם. These four aspects really find their way into anybody, and perhaps we can even say, even within ourselves in different aspects of our own avodah, or in different aspects of life, but these aspects of avodah are found are representative of the way that all of us relate to עבודת השם, ולהתקרב להצדיק והרב שבדור.

In In this case, we're dealing now in תורה שבעל פה. So, the if if we were going to say we have a Rabbi for תורה שבכתב also, but if we were going to say that our connection to the source in תורה שבכתב is through the letters, and how we are able to draw shefa and understand and attach ourselves to תורה שבכתב, תורה שבעל פה would be through the mesorah, through the השתלשלות, and our attachment to the צדיק שבדור. But the tzaddik can't be doing the avodah for us. That is our attachment point, the avodah is ours.

So, there's still the possibility in how we are able to direct our own self, how we're able to connect. כי יש מי שנכנס ונתקרב להצדיק, there are those that enter and come close to the tzaddik. Every word here is exactly precise, but a person comes to enter with the best of intentions to get and to come close once he's there to ultimately come closer to the צדיק, ומקבל ממנו דרך ישרה לעבודת השם לפי מדרגתו וערכו. And he's going to be mekabel, a person is only going to have as much as they're able to be mekabel from the Rav.

The Rav is the Rav is presenting all of the right ideas, and yet we are going to receive them depending on our keli, depending on our glasses, depending on how we're hearing things, on our heart. והוא בחינת צדיק, בחינת רבי עקיבא, שנכנס בשלום ויצא בשלום. If a person has a keli that is ראוי לקבל, he's objective, he's not he's not putting in any of his biases, any of his subjectivity, he wants to connect, so that is going to be בשלימות. He's going to connect appropriately and he will now become the next link in the chain.

ויש מי שהוא בחינת הציץ ומת, הציץ ונפגע. We're going to put these together for now. There's also the possibility of people that would encounter in our case the tzaddik, they would encounter avodah, and yet they would not be able to become a kli, they would not be able to become a tzinoor to be able to receive the shefa ultimately and pass it on appropriately. היינו שנתלהב לבו מאוד מגודל האור, והתלהבות, they become incredibly enthusiastic at these ideas that they're hearing hearing, שהאיר בו הצדיק ביותר מעט למעלה ממדרגתו. And the tzadik is giving them these ideas, but it's more than the kli can hold.

You're You're trying to pour something that that's too hot into a cup that's going to melt, that's not going to be able to handle it. Either it'll totally melt down, or it would become warped, right? ועל ידי זה יוכל למות. וזה בחינת הציץ ומת, בחינת עובד אלקים. So, in this in this case, we're not talking about somebody who has their own ideas, they're trying to take the Torah, trying to take the Gemara to reinforce their own crooked ideas. We're talking about somebody who's enthusiastic. They want to enter and they want to come close to the tzadik.

However, they're just these are ideas that they're not equipped to handle. It's beyond them. So, either they will just totally totally explode, it's more than they can handle. ויש מי שיוצא מדעתו מחמת שעולה למעלה ממדרגתו, it's similar, a person that goes that goes out of his mind because He's hearing ideas that are beyond what he's equipped to handle. והוא בחינת הציץ ונפגע, בחינת לא עבדו. So the two in the the two levels in the middle, which we said were tzadik and rasha are at the extremes, and then there's אשר עבדו ולא עבדו. These would be representative of different levels of a person, both a tzadik, both wanting to serve Hashem, but different levels at which they were not able to be mekabel in an appropriate way.

Either they would be blown away, or it would become it would become warped, not in the way of subjectivity and bias and rishut, just in a way that they wouldn't be able to handle, that they wouldn't be able to to implement it. Parenthetically, some of the examples or discussions that we've had along the way are, let's say, taking a young person and giving them ideas even in halachah, even certain areas or relationship things, areas of shalom bayit, that they're just not emotionally, you know, experientially equipped to handle. What are they going to do with that information?

Then a first impression becomes a lasting impression. So either they would no longer be able to relate to it appropriately, or they would just it would become warped in certain ways that they can't handle. Separately, and this is not exactly in line, we've also talked about the idea that growth requires incremental changes. If you take something and you try to bend it too fast, either it'll just simply snap back into place, or it'll snap all together. The way that a person has to grow is one step at a time so that they're so that they're applying constant but small pressure and changes, but that's all incorporated and integrated into where they're holding.

When a person encounters something that they're just not ready for, they don't have the tools to be able to handle, so this is going to end up, chas v'shalom, either in death, or spiritual death as it were, but in death, or in in a person going crazy. They're no longer going to be able to see objectively. They're not going to be able to unsee something, so to speak. Certainly, this is an advertisement for not necessarily attending the best rabbi and the best בית מדרש, which might not necessarily be the best for your overall growth, but looking for somebody that's appropriate for you.

But in any event, ויש מי שמתקרב להצדיק ומקצץ בנטיעות, וכופר בכל חס ושלום. How could this be? A person is going to enter they're going to come close to the tzadik, seemingly with good intentions, and yet, they're going to end up totally undermining their attachment to the source. They're going to cut down these saplings at the root, is the term of art we're using, והוא נקרא רשע. וזה בחינת אחר, the the other, also a big tanna, right? Acher was the rabbi of of Rav Meir, and yet we see that he, after this experience, he he had a turn that he could not come back from.

וזה בוודאי טינא היתה בלבו, he had some sort of rot, some sort of rishut in his heart, in his operating system, in his thoughts, כמו שאמרו רבותינו זכרונם לברכה על אחר. It's a it's a Gemara. It says that even before this event, Acher would have certain secular music, sefarim, certain other things that he was attached to, and therefore, as they say in yeshivah, you can have something that is a sibah, this cause and effect: you're standing in one place, I push you, and then you move; and then you can have something that is a siman, right?

Something crumbles, well it's not because of something that happened now, really it was a faulty foundation, and what happened now was just really a siman of something that was there all along. So so they said about Acher, not simply that he was exposed to something that he couldn't handle, but actually he was looking through different kinds of lenses. The Mesilat Yesharim, I believe, if if I remember correctly, he's talking in the beginning about factors that take one away from zehirut. It could be bad friends, it could be being overall too busy and being distracted, but one of the things it talks about is litzanus, I think, שחוק.

If a person is cynical, if a person has certain ideas, this is extremely dangerous. If my head is on straight and I stam have certain ta'avot, so then I can battle with myself. Sometimes I'll be successful, sometimes I won't be successful. But if if I am looking through a cynical lens, right? There there are certain things that are embedded in my point of view, then you're mamash drowning in an ocean. There's almost there's almost no way to get away from that unless something external comes out and is able to just snap you back into place.

And therefore, Acher already had this exposure and this affinity for things that were not in line with ratzon Hashem, not in line with the emes, and therefore it wasn't just that he got blown away, that that he died, or that he heard something that he couldn't handle, but he received and he understood, whatever this experience is, which we're going to go into, through through a different sort of lens, and therefore that drove him towards kefirah. Just mention one more point, because I think it's important. You know, there are there are times that two people are arguing, and somebody says, you know, there's a there's a A very, a very subtle difference in an argument whether or not I have a point that I believe is emes, and I am having this discussion with you because I want to bring you to my to my understanding of what the emes is.

There is another thing where a person digs into the argument itself. There is a certain competitiveness, there is a certain there is a certain you know, element that they want to win, and sometimes even for all of the right reasons, two people will be having an argument. You will be trying to convince the person of the emes, and you will push him, and you will try to convince the person, "Well, if you're saying a, b, and c, well, that is going to lead to a totally untenable conclusion. You couldn't possibly be saying that," right? And the truth is that the person would never want to say something that could be borderline kefirah, apikorsus.

He would never want to go all the way to the ultimate conclusion, and he would never he's never articulated in that way before, and yet little by little, as you chip away at an argument, you bring the person to doubling down on his position and saying something that, you know, that brings him to a place that he never should have been. And I'm going to suggest, I heard this from from a great person, you don't have to make a kofer out of somebody. If somebody is emotionally involved in a particular position, they're in an argument, they're getting heated, sometimes just walk away, because there once something once the cat is out of the bag, it becomes very difficult to go back.

So, as much as a person might have these subtle things and they have to work on themselves, and they have to work in their foundation, and they have to be course-corrected, but there's not necessarily a a need for you to expose a person to an experience which is just going to, you know, to accelerate and and and create a wall that's going to make him harder to go back. So, be that as it may, we have these four personalities: Rabbi Akiva, we have Ben Zoma, and Ben Azzai. The By the way, the version that we have over here is a little bit of a different גירסא in the Yerushalmi and the Bavli.

So, we have it I believe as presented in the Yerushalmi, I think I saw in the notes. And we have Acher that that ended up having a tremendously negative experience of kefirah from their from this revelation in פרדס. ועל כן בהכרח שימצא בהצדיק הזה it's necessary to find within a צדיק שימצא דבר שיקציץ בנטיעות על ידו. And the way that the way that I'm reading and understanding is it's not that, "Oh, I'm looking for a tzaddik that's going to be ambiguous." When he says it's behachrach, he means it's built into the system. The same way that Torah is the blueprint of the world, this is the raw energy of the world, and הקדוש ברוך הוא left us the the bechirah and the ability to sign on, to incorporate, integrate emes, to be mevatel yourself to הקדוש ברוך הוא, this applies to תורה שבכתב and תורה שבעל פה, which means that the same way that the Torah is letters, if you look into a Sefer Torah, there are no nekudot over there, so the same way that the tzaddik, yes, we have guidance, we have an eitzah, and so on, עשה לך רב, קנה לך חבר, but by definition the tzaddik who is the the the the link in the chain that is our exposure and bring us along to Torah, but at the end of the day, the way that Torah works, the way that our avodah works is it gives us the opportunity to be builders.

It gives us the opportunities to mamash be partners with הקדוש ברוך הוא in the world, to build up ourself and to build up the world around us, not just to be robots and to listen to the instruction and direction without thinking about it from the tzadik. And therefore, behechrach it comes out that when a person encounters the tzadik, there is the possibility that chas ve-shalom they can go in the wrong direction, ועל זה נאמר, "ופושעים יכשלו בם," that in the very thing, in the very Torah that a tzadik is going to gain life through, poshim, people who are negligent, people will be able to stumble as well, כי הרב בהכרח שיהיה לו שני כוחות האלו כנ״ל, that objective truth, objective building blocks in the world, the way that the way that הקדוש ברוך הוא gave us the opportunity to connect has two ways of receiving it.

This gives us our avodah and the ability to to, again, to partner with הקדוש ברוך הוא. וזה בחינת מלאך ה׳ צבאות. So, now if we went back to the to the introduction, we saw that, again, there's two levels of brit, one level which are able to work towards emunah and tzedakah and so on, and the way that we divided the two levels of brit is one was ברית תתאה, which was essentially איסור והיתר. We're going to say that this is the Mishnayot, this is the the ד׳ אמות של הלכה. We have to reverse course, and it's at a lower level.

Just a basic ground level, what should we do and what shouldn't we do, and then once we're directionally positive, we're doing everything right, now we have to come closer to הקדוש ברוך הוא, that's going to be ברית עילאה, and we in the previous parts of the Torah, we gave a lot of parallels that we see in how this avodah breaks up. We spoke about Eliezer Eved Avraham and Avraham, but we talked about a lamdan and a tzadik. A lamdan is somebody who learns up the Mishnayot, they have to know what to do, and then there's the tzadik, the person that works on themselves to go ever higher, and this is also represented by a malach who is in a certain sense a we could say perhaps an an agent of Hashem.

This is how הקדוש ברוך הוא, כביכול, has a system of operating through. There's no blade of grass, as we say, that doesn't have a malach telling it to go. Every nation has its archangel, its malach. Klal Yisrael has a direct connection to הקדוש ברוך הוא. So we have the idea of a malach, and we have the idea of Hashem Tzevaot. Hashem Tzevaot Shmo, it's an it's a an אות בצבא שלו. Let's see inside. So מאי חזא? What was it that אחר saw that led him on the wrong path? חזא מט״ט דקאי יתב. He saw the the the angel, one of the highest angels called the מט״ט angel.

And he saw that this malach had reshus, whatever this means, don't take it literally, but take it for the ideas, that this malach was sitting for some period of time upstairs in the heavens, and he was writing the zechuyot of Yisrael. And אמר שמע מינה, so came along Acher, and he said, "Well, I have a mesorah that there's no such thing as sitting upstairs other than Hakadosh Baruch Hu." Again, whatever this means, don't get lost in the anthropomorphisms or the visuals, this is not what it means, but representative of whatever it is that nothing can sit in front of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and something else, something that wasn't Hakadosh Baruch Hu was sitting.

So chas v'shalom to say that means that there had to be some level of autonomy. Again, it's hard to say the words, that this Metatron angel was not subject to these rules, not subject in some aspect to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, there were שתי כחות. Rabbi Akiva also saw this and דרש השם צבאות שמו, אות הוא בצבא שלו. This this idea of Metatron, he is an ot in Hakadosh Baruch Hu's army. So as much as we have this general rule and the exact scope of this is beyond us, but whatever was was seen as the Metatron angel carrying out a certain task, this was nothing other than Hashem.

L'mashal, and it's not a it's not a perfect mashal because there's parts, but if I am going to do something, and I say, "I'm the only one allowed to do it. Nobody else can do this for me," and then I reach out with my hand, say, "Well, wait a second. Who is who is a person? Is a person his heart, is a person his head? A person is not defined by their hand, so this is their hand doing it, this violates the rules." Obviously that that would make no sense. So however Rabbi Akiva understood this through the lens of truth, through the lens of emet, he was not thrown off by this.

Whereas Acher, he already had these other priorities with the music, with the ספרים חיצוניים, and therefore, when he encountered Metatron, he he already received it. He built a new reality in his head that he couldn't that he couldn't come back from. So רבי עקיבא דרש השם צבאות שמו, אות הוא בצבא שלו. ועל כן צריך הרב שיהיה לו שתי בחינות אלו. So back to our יסוד, that the Torah and the the conveyer of Torah, what is going to be mashpia to us, whether Torah shebichtav, whether Torah shebe'al peh, in our case, the the rav, the tzaddik that's giving over the Torah shebe'al peh, perhaps that's why it says the rav rather than the tzaddik, it's in the context of the רבי-תלמיד relationship.

בחינת מלאך, היינו מט״ט, which also we said is the level of the lamdan, and therefore, a person who takes that as a aspect in and of itself rather than part of the greater system, but having its own identity, that gives a person the ability to be מקצץ בנטיעות, חס ושלום. ובחינת השם צבאות, which is clarity. And and that this מלאך מט״ט is only an ot, it's only a letter, it's only a function of the tzvaot of the tzvaot. וזה דומה למלאך השם צבאות. ואזי אפשר להנכנס ונתקרב אליו לקצץ בנטיעות על ידי בחינת מלאך. Therefore, if a person is only relating to the level of malach, but not as part of a broader system, as a system in and of itself, כמו אחר שקיצץ בנטיעות על ידי שראה מט״ט שהוא מלאך, like שהוא יושב, like Acher who saw that the malach מט״ט, and he said, "Well, wait a second.

If that has its own autonomy, this is a lower level and yet it's not subject to the higher authority, maybe there's a lacking of יחוד השם. There's something other." שעל ידי זה טעה ואמר שהוא רשות בפני עצמו, חס ושלום, כנ״ל. או ליכנס וליצא בשלום. Alternatively, a person can enter and leave shalom. על ידי בחינת השם צבאות, כמו רבי עקיבא. And the word shalom is appropriate, not just that he left safe, not just that he that he left without making a mistake, but perhaps we could say the definition of shalom is not a bunch of things in parallel tracks going in the same direction, the definition of shalom is where things are complementary, right?

It's not just the same instrument playing the song, it's where you have a symphony on its own, everything is doing something different, and yet it complements each other until you have a shleimut, where once you have a shleimut, anything less is no good, and anything more is no good. Shleimut is complete. When Rabbi Akiva understood that everything is part of a system, both the balances and the counterbalances, and so on, he wasn't confused by any of this, whereas Acher because of his background once he was in his hall and it was not with the glasses of emet, and yashrut, and ייחוד השם, and shleimut, therefore, when he saw these counterbalances, if you will, he saw these other things that did not seem to be in line with what he understood to be the emet, it caused a confusion to the point that he couldn't come back from it and it represented itself as kefirah.

Further, we are, if you're using the regular print, we are in the middle of the paragraph on the bottom left of the page, on page מ״ה עמוד א', כי כל צדיק צריך שיהיה למדן בתורה וחסיד במעשים טובים. When we represent this idea of ברית תתאה and ברית עילאה or lamdan and tzaddik, we are not talking about one as being better than the other. The question is really systematic. Meaning, how do we look at being a lamdan and a tzaddik? Can you have one without the other? And which one comes first? So, before we go forward inside, let's say lemashel, let's separate them out.

And by the way, I think perhaps, you know, this sheds light and maybe removes some of the machloket, I'm just suggesting, between some of the focuses that you find in the approach of the Chassidim and the opponents to חסידות at various points in time, which in as much as they were philosophical arguments and ruchniyut and spiritual, theological arguments, but they were also placing certain emphasis in response to some of the klipah, in response to some of what was going on and what was going on wrong in the other camp. So, if we were to separate them out, then I'm going to speak in, I guess, a little bit of an extreme way just to make the point.

Obviously, in terms of reward and punishment and how a person gets close to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, that is, you know, בינו לבין קונו and Hakadosh Baruch Hu has his own cheshbon. So lemashel, let's take lamdanut, let's take issur v'heter. If the definition, we could say about religion, is the system of of behaviors and activities and so on that connect one to hakadosh baruch hu, to God, if a person were at the extreme to disassociate halacha, issur v'heter, with the source, with hakadosh baruch hu, then it becomes the Shulchan Aruch becomes a textbook similar to a math book, or a physics book, or anything else.

It's just a it's just a system that is no longer connected to the source and it takes on an identity of its own. And you see that many scientists You would think that scientists would be the biggest believers, it gives the the biggest window into nifle'ot haBore, and yet the exquisite structure of of understanding all these things takes on a life of its own and a perceived independent significance when looked at outside of a ruchniyut perspective, and therefore, instead of reinforcing our connection with hakadosh baruch hu and our emunah, it it goes to the opposite.

But let's take the opposite extreme, right? Let's take a person who is a tzadik or a chasid without the lamdanut. So, in our example, here you have a person who is totally turned on by the idea of Torah. He takes the Torah and he dances with it, he takes the Torah and he kisses it, and he's mamash lit up. But as far as issur v'heter, he is not he he's not so he's not so medakdek in halacha. Going back to the Mesilat Yesharim, one of the one of the factors, I think the five factors he says in the beginning that a person has to have in order to work towards chasidut, is being meduyak in halacha.

You can go look it up. But over here, you have a person, he mamash wants to connect to Hashem, he feels incredibly spiritual, and yet the details, you can't get lost in the details. So, the example that a lot of times I use is physics. Not that I'm such a scientist, but because my understanding of it is this is physics is not just a body of knowledge, it's the science of how things actually work. So, you can imagine that a person has a physics book, and he's just lit up by the ideas of things contained in there, that there's actually a method to the madness.

There's not chaos, everything makes sense. And he loves it, he kisses it, he dances around with it, and he mamash finds it exquisite how hakadosh baruch hu's world, He gave us a world with levers and mechanisms, cause and effect, it's unbelievable. And even let's say he opens it up, right? He and he sees in it that how fire works, and how water works, and how fire could be tremendously productive or destructive, and but water is able to put out fire. Even assuming he's exposed to this and he knows this, the next day, you find out that the guy's house burnt down.

Why? There was a small little fire that spread. And you ask him, "Well, why didn't you just put it out? There was water available." And he gives you just a blank look. He's living in the world of tzidkut and chasidut, but he's totally divorced from the world of issur v'heter. He's totally divorced from the practical expression of it being real. It's not just abstract ideas that have beauty. Hakadosh baruch hu gave us a beautiful world of asiyah where that we have a a practical way way that in our physical world we are able to connect with retzon Hashem through the miracle of tzimtzumim and so on, through the miracle of the expression within our world.

So now putting these things together, and then we'll see it inside in a second, it becomes clear, I think, that lamdanut has to go first, because you can't love and be enamored by something that you have no idea what it is. So you you can understand something without understanding the significance, but you can't really understand the significance without knowing what you're talking about to begin with. So the progression would be that a person has to be a lamdan, again in the appropriate context. If that is divorced from chasidut and tzidkut, then that could chas v'shalom lead to drastic consequences.

But as a person first does סור מרע ועשה טוב, they first learn issur v'heter, then they are able to also attach and grow ever closer and understand, be mevatel himself to retzon Hashem. So now back inside the words, כי כל צדיק צריך שיהיה למדן בתורה, he has to understand issur v'heter, he has to understand the the the structure of how retzon Hashem represents itself in this world, וחסיד במעשים טובים. And he has to transcend the The חסיד is somebody that goes beyond the letter of the law. He's attaching himself not just to the cold structure of do's and don'ts, but he's attaching himself to רצון השם, he's going above and beyond, right?

A person says, "I'm thirsty, can you bring me a cup of water?" and then he puts in ice, it's hot, he understands what the person wants and he is operating within the structure of למדנות in order to to become closer to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. כי אם אינו למדן, אמרו רבותינו זכרונם לברכה, ולא עם הארץ חסיד. A person cannot be an עם הארץ and also be a חסיד, because you don't know, I want to do the nicest thing in the world for you, I bake you a bunch of peanut butter cookies and I don't realize that you're allergic to peanut butter.

A person that doesn't know what they're talking about is not going to be able to go the extra mile, he doesn't know what the mile is. ולמדן בלבד בודאי אינו כלום. And on the other hand, a person who literally is our example using Shulchan Aruch like a textbook like any other secular thing, also is not worth anything, כי אפשר להיות למדן ורשע גמור. It's totally disassociated. If if the the the צורה of the the the Shulchan Aruch is the צורה of behaviors in the context of religion which is connecting to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and a person disassociates it from HaKadosh Baruch Hu, then there's nothing that stops him from being a למדן and a רשע גמור.

ולא זכה, נעשית לו סם מות. And if a person is not זוכה, he doesn't merit, he's not connecting with HaKadosh Baruch Hu, then it's still raw energy, but it could be the elixir of death instead of life, instead of Life is אלקים חיים is connection with Hashem, and מות is disassociation with Hashem. על כן צריך שיהיה למדן וחסיד. Therefore, it needs to be both. ושתי בחינות אלו הן בחינות מלאך, ה' צבאות. These are represented by מלאך and ה' צבאות. כי מה שהוא למדן בתורה, הוא בחינת מלאך, שהוא מט״ט. That is the practical It's part of a system, but it's the the our practical way of understanding within this world with the letters, with the נקודות, with the הלכה.

This this is the way that we attach to HaKadosh Baruch Hu through the Torah, כמו שכתוב: ויאמר אלהים יהי רקיע, ויהי מבדיל בין מים למים. The Torah tells us that HaKadosh Baruch Hu put a רקיע, a divider, that was מבדיל between מים and מים. And the Zohar tells us on this: דא מט״ט, שהוא בחינת משנה, המבדיל ומפריש בין מיין דחיין ובין מיין מסאבין. This is representative of מט״ט, which is a system of dividing between, I guess we could say, pure water and impure water, but the idea of בין טמא לטהור, אסור ומותר. This is representative between just the very structure: what should you be moving toward practically and what should you be moving away from?

וצריך לדמות לקונו, להיות חסיד במעשים טובים, וזה בחינת ה' צבאות. So a lot going on over here, a lot in the words, but trying to at least understand it in a meaningful and practical way, that is the first level. אך מי שטועה וסובר שבחינת למדן לבד הוא העיקר, inasmuch as לא עם הארץ חסיד, and therefore a person has to be a lamdan, they cannot approach chassidut without under- without understanding what is truly the emet, what is the blueprint of the world, how are we supposed to act and relate to it in a physical way within our lives, but a person who is טועה וסובר שבחינת למדן לבד הוא העיקר, he disassociated, he thinks that that is a system in and of itself, הוא בחינת אחר שקיצץ בנטיעות.

He is separating it from its source. So now it becomes an other, it's another body of knowledge, independent significance, that's just kefirah. על ידי שסבר שמלאך מט״ט בעצמו הוא רשות, חס ושלום. He thinks that this system has its own autonomy. The science I think was a very good example. How is a scientist an atheist? I mean, all science really tells us is the the system between A and B, and B and C, and cause and effect. It doesn't tell us where A came from. So, if anything, scientists should just be if something this exquisite and this exact that I'm spending my entire life trying to figure out came into being, then obviously there must have been intelligent design.

It's It's It's undermining and irrational to say that something so amazing was just random. But science doesn't address creation. It doesn't address where the A came from, it only addresses things within the system. And yet, once a person relates to that as a רשות לעצמו, then it it it disassociates him with Hashem. It It just cuts it off at the at the source. אך באמת מט״ט בעצמו בלי הקדוש ברוך הוא אינו כלום, ואין לו שום רשות. But the truth is that it's totally connected, and as substantial and significant as the entire system that we're that we're speaking of as lamdanut, as Metatron, or for for argument's sake, even as science is, that is literally sitting on the yesod of emunah, and of attachment to Hakadosh Baruch Hu.

I mean, you can imagine an abstract painting that on one Two people are looking at it. One of them is totally unimpressed and one of them thinks that it's exquisite. The person that is totally unimpressed says a bunch of paint just spilled from sitting on a high shelf, and it splattered. And yeah, it looks cool, but like, you know, whatever. And another person looks at it and understands that there was an extremely artistic, creative, intelligent designer and individual that wanted to express a certain idea. And he, to the nth degree, expressed it with this with this painting.

The entire significance of it is totally riding on the yesod of emunah, a creator, a designer, right? An intelligent being. Or is it separated from that? כך התורה בלי מעשים טובים אינה כלום. So too, the Torah, the איסור והיתר, the תורה שבעל פה, without Hakadosh Baruch Hu, is nothing. In our example, it's just the painting that just splattered. אדרבא, לא זכה, if anything, it takes on its own significance and not only is it random and meaningless, but chas veshalom, it separates one from Hashem. ומחמת שני הבחינות אלו, these lamdan and tzadik, Metatron and Hakadosh Baruch Hu, the ברית תתאה and the ברית עילאה, these two בחינות שצריך להיות להצדיק למדן וחסד, so the tzadik ultimately has to have these two aspects.

והם בחינת מלאך ה׳ צבאות. על ידי זה נמצא בהצדיק שני כוחות שיש לה תורה: סם חיים וסם מות. It's the סם, it's the elixir, it's the energy. But whether or not it's chaim, it's attachment to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, or it's mavet, it's distance, and even chas veshalom to reinforce that distance, that is up to the person, it's up to the keli. ואפשר לו להתקרב ולא למצוא בו דבר שיקצץ בנטיעות, או ליכנס ולצאת בשלום. And a person will be able to either use it to reinforce a separation, to take on a life of its own, or to come in and go out b'shalom, where everything is complementary, everything is part of a system.

Next paragraph, again, some of the volumes have this as paragraph י״ד, or it's a drop before or after. The regular צורת הדף does not have extra numbered paragraphs over here. But in any event, so we explained that there are two kochot. There's really the raw material, the raw energy, this is represented by the כ״ב אותיות of the Torah. Or seemingly in the context of Torah Shebaal Peh, the the raw material coming from the tzaddik that then is related to by the recipient, by the talmid. But when one is zocheh to reach a stage of a lamdan and ultimately of a tzaddik, so that person now is able to bring that raw material to the purpose for which הקדוש ברוך הוא gave it to us, and therefore, this will actually shape the form that the כ״ב אותיות take in this world.

וזהו: אם הרב דומה למלאך ה׳ צבאות, if the Rebbe is דומה to a מלאך ה׳ צבאות, he's zocheh to these two levels of שמירת הברית, היינו שהוא למדן בתורה, he is a lamdan in the ד׳ אמות של הלכה, of איסור והיתר, ועובד את ה׳ in chasidut, in מעשים טובים, now that he is directed appropriately also to to go above and beyond, to now excel towards towards closing the gap between him and הקדוש ברוך הוא, bringing himself and the world up. ועל ידי זה הוא מצייר אותיות התורה לטוב. Through this person who is zocheh to the two stages of שמירת הברית and a גילוי of chesed, creating these כיסופין and these yearnings, that person is able to introduce נקודות and נפשות, life into the raw material so that the אותיות התורה, those כלים, are now formed לטובה.

They now are in line with the source. They are connecting one to הקדוש ברוך הוא. It is the סם חיים. אזי תורה יבקשו מפיהו. So the pasuk now, if if a rav is דומה, a lamdan and a tzaddik, so a מלאך ה׳ צבאות, so a person should seek Torah from him. But over here, the way we're going to learn it is that the אותיות התורה themselves מבקשין לקבל נקודות ולצטייר מפיו. The אותיות התורה come into the world, so they are not really directed one way or the other. We, Klal Yisrael, have the avodah to use our bechirah in order to take those and to introduce the nefesh, introduce the chayus, the life in the appropriate way.

But be'etzem, those letters of Torah are dying, so to speak, no pun intended, right? Because we're introducing life into them, to be articulated and used and connected in the appropriate way. היינו על ידי שפיו ידבר השתוקקות וכיסופין דקדושה שלו, because the the mouth is what articulates the ratzon, articulates the machshavah. The the mouth is what actualizes potential. When this tzaddik goes and he articulates the letters of the Torah, the כ״ב אותיות, the words, and injects kedushah into them, the the letters of the Torah themselves want to be used in such a way and related to in such a way, שעל ידי זה נגמרין ויוצאין הנפשות.

Now, these letters are brought to their tachlis, to their completion, and the the appropriate life is introduced into the world. ונעשה נקודות לאותיות, and the nekudos, which are the the vowels, but those are what give life to the letters, ונסתיירו ונעשה כלי לקבל טוב. כי על ידי הנקודות נזדווגו ונתצרפו האותיות כנ״ל. So when this tzaddik, again, we said that the yearnings bring in the nekudos, which is the life force, which is applied to the כלי, which is the letters, so the letters want want to be used and related to in such a way. So, תורה יבקשו מפיהו.

The Torah, the letters of the Torah want to be articulated by this tzaddik. Vezeh, these aspects of bringing letters together, of forming this זיווג and these כיסופין, שכתוב, this is what the pasuk says, תורי זהב נעשה לך, chains of gold we'll make for you, עם נקודות הכסף, with the nekudos made of silver. We explained this earlier in the Torah also. It's a pasuk in Shir Hashirim. כי זהב הוא בחינת זיווג. Gold is a בחינה of זיווג, of a זכר, נקבה, משפיע, מקבל getting together. כמו שכתוב מצפון, from the north, which is representative of if you were looking towards the east, the north would be on the left, it's representative of gevurah.

מצפון זהב יאתה, gold comes from the north. ואתערותא דזיווגא, the arousal toward זיווג, מסטרא דשמאלא, also comes from the north, שהוא צפון. We'll explain this soon. וזהו, now we're going to explain something new, though, in the course of our explanation about the process of zivug and how it brings shefa into the world. וזהו, תורי זהב נעשה לך, chains of gold will be made for you, שהאותיות תהיינה נזדווגין ונתצרפין על ידי נקודות הכסף, that the chains, the zivug and the צירוף of the letters will be made, how? Through נקודות הכסף, through the נקודות, the nefesh, the vitality and energy that's brought in through the כסף, through the כיסופין, through the desires.

Now, how does this work? כי זיווגן וצרופן של אותיות היא על ידי נקודות. We already said that the letters are able to join one another and be part of the zivug process in order to be מוליד שפע into the world, how? Through the נקודות that are brought in through the desires, שנעשה מהכיסופין והשתוקקות, שעל ידם נתהוין הנפשות שהם בחינת נקודות, that through the כיסופין and the השתוקקות that will bring in the life force into the world. כי על ידי הכיסופין נעשה זיווג, through the desires there comes to be a zivug, which is necessary in order for some new energy to come into the world.

כי על ידי מה שהוא נכסף אל הדבר נעשה נפש. The desire for something brings the nefesh into the world. ועל ידי מה שהוא נכסף לדבר, חוזר הדבר וחושק אליו. Now this is this is new. I have a desire for x, for the object of my desire. That will now bring in, based on my כוונות, life force into the world. There will be an equal and opposite reaction where the object of my desire will now have a desire for me. In the way that we explained it before, the tzadik has שמירת הברית, this brings a גילוי of the chesed, the ahavah, the כיסופין, the השתוקקות for the Torah.

This brings the nefesh and the נקודות which animate the letters of the Torah. Now, they're equal and opposite, the letters of the Torah have a desire to be articulated by the tzadik. So there ends up being a nefesh going both ways: the nefesh that I create towards the letters, and based on my initiation of this process, the nefesh, so to speak, that is created by the letters having a desire to be articulated by the tzadik. ומזה נתהווה גם כן נפש, והנפשות נזדווגין. These נפשות that are brought into the בריאה, again, very abstract, but we're we're speaking really about some of the highest concepts of the world, at least we can read the words and become sensitive to these things, and hopefully learn as we go along.

So, this new energy that's brought into the world, one that's initiated by the the initial desire, and one by the corresponding desire, those are now in the world and they relate to one another, ואחר כך באין לבחינת עיבור ולידה. And those energies now exist initially in the state of עיבור, in the state of כח, ולידה, and then they're actualized bringing שפע into the world. וזהו ענין הכתוב בזוהר הקדוש תאוותא דנוקבא עביד נפש נוקבא, ותאוותא דדכורא עביד נפש דכורא, the desire of the נקבה or in our sense, the recipient, the כלי קיבול, towards the משפיע brings in a נפש that is we relate to as נקבה, the ta'avah of the משפיע, or in our case the corresponding the corresponding נפש will be a נפש of a זכר, and these two corresponding energies end up going through a process that leads to a pregnancy, an עיבור and a לידה.

How? כי מה שהוא נכסף הוא בחינת תאוותא דנוקבא, the initial thing that the the ultimate recipient has a desire for that is the ta'avah of the נקבה, והוא עביד נפש נוקבא, והוא עבד נפש נוקבא, and this desire brings an energy that is an aspect of נפש נוקבא. ומה שהדבר חוזר ונכסף אליו, and now that the משפיע has a desire, the אור has a desire to be expressed, to be מקבל by the כלי, this is what is going to bring the כח into actualization, הוא בחינת תאוותא דדכורא ועביד נפש דכורא, and this is going to bring a male, a משפיע energy.

ואחר כך באין לבחינת עיבור ולידה כמו שכתוב בזוהר שם, and this this new energy together will ultimately bring שפע into the world, so that the letters of the Torah, the building blocks, are actualized in a positive way. Now, before we go on, I'm just going to read a couple of notes over here from Rabbi Atias's Likutei Moharan that he brings that I think are useful to us as yediot, and also as relates to this Torah. Page 291, note 187: We had said that the התעוררות for zivug comes from זהב from the left which is an aspect of גבורה.

He says over here, שהתעוררות לזיווג הוא על ידי היצר הרע ששרשו מהגבורה, which seems to be, we have to understand this, or to the extent that we're even able, we have to understand this. Everything that we're discussing is a desire towards Hakadosh Baruch Hu that comes from חסד, that's כיסופין and השתוקקות. Where is there entering into this into this process something that is aroused from גבורה? And he says, ואין הכוונה להיצר הרע ממש חס ושלום. We don't mean this in a negative way what we're discussing, אלא לבחינת היצר הרע שהוא נצרך לבריות, we're talking about the יצר, the desire, if you will, that exists at our in in our world, something that's necessary for the בריות, כמו שמבואר בזוהר.

And he goes on to explain it. The way that potentially I'm understanding it, I'm just going to suggest, is that we have a yearning towards התבטלות to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. We want to attach ourselves to the source. Like we explained, at the highest levels of emunah, there's total hitbatlut. What is the process by which we work towards emunah? That's the process of שמירת הברית. But that be'etzem is upward-looking. So if we imagine the process being a triangle, on one hand our our avodah is upward-looking towards Hakadosh Baruch Hu, on the other hand we exist within the world, and there is, that would be the base of the triangle.

So even though our ultimate goal is upward-looking, hitbatlut towards Hakadosh Baruch Hu, we, how do we achieve, how do we acquire our netzchiyut, how do we acquire Olam Haba? Our relationships and our interactions, both בין אדם למקום and בין אדם לחבירו, and how we relate to things within this world, both in terms of mitzvot towards Hakadosh Baruch Hu, but also interpersonal interpersonal relationships. This means that at some level we need an appreciation and some sort of an attraction and a desire to interact with things in this world, for the right reasons. That's why he says, it's not we're not talking about a yetzer hara that's מיאוס, but if a person would have literally zero desire for, in our case between an איש and an אשה, the Gemara says at some point that when Sanhedrin had davened to be מבטל that yetzer hara, the world would not have been able to survive, even the the chicken stopped laying eggs.

So on one hand we do everything with the right kavanah for the right reason, we're upward-looking towards Hakadosh Baruch Hu. On the other hand, our avodah takes place, we acquire the netzchiyut with things in this world, but that also means that we need the kelim to relate to things in this world. So while the our ultimate reasons are kisuf and our hishtokekut Is a result of chesed that we want to bring shefa into the world, in order to function, there needs to also be a desire and arousal to eat food, for family relationships, and then those are used not an end in and of themself, but as a tool and as leverage and as a means to an end for the right reasons to bring shefa into the world, and that is really the underlying meaning, the way I'm understanding it, of תורי זהב נעשה לך עם נקודות הכסף.

The hit'orerut for the zivug at this world, for everything that we have to do in this world, is leveraging the zahav, it's the smol, the gevurah, but in an appropriate way, utilizing the נקודות הכסף, the life force which is ultimately upward-looking, but leveraging things in our world. The second note that I want to focus on, note 189, page 292, coming from Likutei Halachot, חושן משפט חלק ב׳, הלכות נחלות, says: אנו צריכים לכסוף—I'm just reading the the the selection from Likutei Halachot—אנו צריכים לכסוף תמיד להשם יתברך בכיסופין והשתוקקות חזק. We need to have a desire and a yearning towards השם.

ואז גם השם יתברך נכסף אלינו. When we have a desire to be a kli, to receive and join with Hakadosh Baruch Hu, then Hakadosh Baruch Hu, the אור, has a desire for the kli, to be expressed by the kli. Excuse me. ועל ידי זה נעשה יחוד בין כנסת ישראל והקדוש ברוך הוא ונמשכין תולדות נפשות קדושות. And when we have a desire as a recipient to to receive from Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and Hakadosh Baruch Hu has a desire, כביכול, to be משפיע towards us, this is going to bring the energy and the attachment and Godliness into the world.

שהכיסופין שאנו נכספין להשם יתברך זה בחינת תיאובתא דנוקבא. The desire that we have for Hakadosh Baruch Hu is the desire of the recipient, of the נקבה. הכיסופין שחוזרת שהקדוש ברוך הוא נכסף אלינו, and the corresponding desire of the משפיע towards the מקבל is a בחינה of תיאובתא דדכורא. ואחר כך נתחברים הנפשות, and then there will be a חיבור of the נפשות, which will lead to עיבור and לידה. כי זה הכלל, שכלל ישראל וכן כללות העולמות הם בחינת נוקבא, בחינת מקבל לגבי המשפיע. Now, we spoke this out a lot, but I think it's important to go through, because it will come up over and over again.

Everything in this world, Klal Yisrael and all of the creations, are a בחינה of receiving energy from Hashem. והמאציל, and the bestower, הקדוש ברוך הוא, שהוא הבורא יתברך שמו, is a בחינה of דכורא נגדנו, is a בחינה of the זכר, which is the משפיע. שזהו בחינת היחוד הנעשה על ידי כל המצוות, שנתחברין כנסת ישראל עם דודה ונכללין בו יתברך. This is the exchange, if you will, and the ultimate union that is initiated with all of the acts of mitzvot, again, acts in the physical world, בין אדם למקום, בין אדם לחבירו, but everything in the physical world that we do in order to in order to be דבוק to Hakadosh Baruch Hu.

וצריך כל אחד לראות שיתעורר תחילה לכסוף ולהשתוקק אליו יתברך. So this is very important. So if if we're saying that we desire Hakadosh Baruch Hu and there's a corresponding desire for us, what's the difference which one comes first? Maybe Hakadosh Baruch Hu should initiate the love for us, we don't have it in us, we're just not feeling it, and then we will have a corresponding desire to Him, it gets us to the same place, it would be a lot easier for us. Why do we have to initiate this desire? Where is it supposed to come from with these acts of mesirut nefesh?

So he says no, the the hit'orerut of the נקבה should come first, much more important. שאתערותא דלתתא קודמת לאתערותא דלעילא, our upward initiation and mesirut nefesh, or mayin nukvin if you're familiar with the term, that בעצם should come first. ואז נמשך עליו חסד גדול שהוא סטרא דדכורא, and then there will be a corresponding chesed and shefa that comes from Hashem, בבחינת אשה מזרעת תחילה, if the woman is מזרעת תחילה, it's initiated with the נקבה, אתערותא דלתתא, יולדת זכר, then will bring in זכר into the world, Hakadosh Baruch Hu will be משפיע, דהיינו כשכנסת ישראל נכספת בתשוקה גדולה אליו עד שמולידה נפשות, when Hakadosh Baruch Hu is giving life, chayut into the world in corresponding to our desire, אז השם יתברך נכסף עליהם ומשפיע עליהם אור החסד הגדול שבבחינת סטרא דדכורא כידוע, then Hakadosh Baruch Hu is going to be mashpia to us.

אבל, however, כשאין אדם מעורר את עצמו להשם יתברך, when we don't desire, we're not making that first move, ואז השם יתברך נכסף אליו, and Hakadosh Baruch Hu initiates, כי הוא יתברך חפץ ומשתוקק שישוב אליו, הקדוש ברוך הוא wants us to do teshuvah, but over here, we're not earning our way in, we're just really passive. Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants us to do teshuvah, He doesn't want us to, chas veshalom, wither away and move towards destruction, so הקדוש ברוך הוא takeh initiates. ואז אתערותא דלעילא קודם אתערותא דלתתא, and therefore, the initial desire comes from Hakadosh Baruch Hu.

ואז הנפשות של האדם הן בבחינת סטרא דנוקבא, and then what is going to come into the world will be a bechinah of סטרא דנוקבא, of מקבל, בחינת איש מזריע תחילה יולדת בת. If the איש, if the mashpia, if Hakadosh Baruch Hu, is the one who initiates, what comes out is ultimately יולדת בת, it's of the nature of recipient, it's not a בחינת חסד, כי עיקר מדת הדין הוא בחינת סטרא דנוקבא. Again, these are ידיעות, but it's just important it gives us a window into really a Gemara in terms of how zivug comes about and the type of תולדה that comes from that zivug.

So, he says that the idea of נוקבא is an element of דין, נמשך מתחלת הדין של בריאת העולם. This comes from the original דין of בריאת העולם, שעיקרו הרי היה בתחלה בשעת בריאת העולם אתערותא דלעילא בלא אתערותא דלתתא, because if Hakadosh Baruch Hu set up a world and a system and a process where we can be partners in creation by bringing the shefa into the world, well that was impossible with the initial with with the initial bestowal, we didn't exist yet. Hakadosh Baruch Hu created a world, עולם חסד יבנה, but the ultimate chesed is really that we're able to earn our own existence.

The ultimate chesed is really when Hakadosh Baruch Hu is bestowing in response to our mesirut nefesh. But in order for us to exist, we couldn't have earned that, so that be'etzem came and it was initiated by Hakadosh Baruch Hu. So, now though, that's only stage one of the process. Now be'etzem it's on us to be able to earn this. When we are not stepping forward and we don't have that mesirut nefesh, and we don't initiate, and we rely that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is going to give a freebie, then that be'etzem is an element of din.

Okay, we're going to stop over here. We've now we've now summed up the idea of how we relate to the raw material of the כ״ב אותיות and ultimately of the of the tzadikim who are mashpia to us, but the avodah is on us, and how when a person does reach the level of שמירת הברית, and of lamdan, and ultimately of tzadik, so this is what creates the the zivug with the אותיות התורה, this is what brings life force into the world, and how that process of bringing shefa into the world actually works. Somewhat technical, but hopefully we can do our best to be able to to grow, and to gain ידיעות, and to become a a lamdan, and be'ezrat Hashem to work towards chasidut and צדקות. Okay, in the volume that I'm looking at, this is actually paragraph ט״ו, so we'll use this as a stopping point, וזה בחינת גלגולי הנפשות, and be'ezrat Hashem we'll continue next