LM 31.6 — Is Lan Birah, Part 6 of 7 · תורה ל״א

בעזרת השם, we are learning together the sixth shiur of Torah ל״א אסלן בירה. As far as where we're starting, it's uh in the רביעטיה version, it's a new paragraph, ט״ו. In the English version, it's on page 356, over there it's not a new paragraph, and in the uh standard Likutei Moharan it's page מ״ה, עמוד ב', about two thirds of the way down the page. Uh it's actually in the middle of a paragraph, but the first word on the line is וזה. Uh it's a it's a little bit bolded in the version that I'm looking at.

Um as we had described earlier, this Torah was really uh divided into two parts. The first part was לשון רבינו and uh went through the Torah uh from start to finish. And then the second part, Rabbi Natan discussed ideas that were brought up already uh that he had heard in other context. So some of it is review, and some of it is filling in ideas from the first part. So uh at this point we're probably going a little bit faster, a lot of it is a review. I don't know if we're going to be able to finish the Torah this time.

Uh that would be a lot, but let's see how it goes. As far as a review of the Torah, I think we gave a pretty thorough review in the beginning of the shiur 31.4, as the shiurim are listed, so we're not going to go fully through it. But briefly, the Torah was discussing how we, from within the world, bottom-up, are able to trigger shefa, and uh effect how Hakadosh Baruch Hu runs the world. The entry point of the Torah was tzedakah, uh that when we bestow we are able to affect how Hakadosh Baruch Hu bestows unto us and uh gives energy into the world.

We've discussed before as well the idea of giving tzedakah before davenen, right? Even as early as the second Torah. But we said that tzedakah does not exist in a vacuum. In order to bring shefa into the world, it's tzedakah that goes hand-in-hand together with both emunah and two levels of שמירת הברית. Now as far as שמירת הברית is concerned, we had said that there uh שמירת הברית ultimately brings a גילוי of חסד, lines up with the ספירות, so that uh in the in the system of ספירות, there's חסד, גבורה, תפארת, נצח, הוד, and יסוד. שמירת הברית is at the level of יסוד and we had said עטרת יסוד leads into מלכות, but that at the beginning of that system is חסד.

So שמירת הברית ends up bringing a גילוי of חסד. חסד is אהבה, השתוקקות, desire to come close, that desire when in both in the potential and ultimately actualized, is what is responsible for how the shefa comes into the world. So if you would think about even words, let's say as bullets, what the bullet is able to achieve happens through the gunpowder, right? So that kavana, that desire, is what is actually going to bring the uh the energy in to be able to uh effect things in the world. Now, we discussed in paragraph ז' and ח', this was in the main part of the Torah, uh ז' we had explained that uh this desire, in order to actually bring the life into the world, it has to be actualized, and that is through words.

Uh the the Kitzur Likutei Moharan discusses the idea of talking to Hakadosh Baruch Hu in one's own words as well. So that is where the energy actually comes into the world. And paragraph eight had said, יש הבל אשר נעשה על הארץ, when Koheles says, they're seemingly uh things that are like vanities. Why do good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people, and so on? But hevel also means breath. And already in paragraph ח', he explained that when a person brings energy into the world, that's live energy that has to go someplace, and it's there to uh effect something.

If that is not used, or for whatever reason, let's say a tzaddik still has something to accomplish in the world, but that that hevel, that uh initial desire, that נפש בכח that was actualized through a dibbur is there, that is the underlying principle behind gilgulei neshamos. I'm going to read Reb Chaim Kramer's note just to set it up, because then we're going to jump into the uh into where we're holding, and it's going to relate back to these ideas. So Reb Chaim Kramer on page 357 in note 86 had said that "the souls of certain tzaddikim, in order to complete that which that which they left undone in a previous gilgul," so there was uh there was something there in the potential and it needed to be actualized.

And now it's sort of floating around, it needs a place to land and complete its mission, "this attaches themselves to a person in the aspect of ibbur." So it's sort of parallel. Now, ideally, we would like to uh understand how to make ourself receptive to be an antenna to uh to bring the soul of a tzaddik in toss. This also, chas v'shalom, could happen with the soul of a rasha's, also hang around. So he continues, "They assist him in performing a mitzvah, and so receive a rectification for themselves." So if a person now attracts the soul of a tzaddik that needs rectification, there's going to be an inspiration there.

They can choose either to uh use that leverage, or not to use that leverage. If they lean into it, the person is uh doing his own avodah, he's going to grow from the experience as well, and he'll be able to achieve rectification for this other soul, and chas v'shalom the other way as well. Also, if a person ends up becoming an antenna for the nefesh of a rasha that's hanging around, they can choose to either lean into that or not as well. He says over here, in some instances, the tzaddik's soul might remain attached to the person for an extended period, as when the person continues to perform mitzvot.

Now, in note 88, he says, because the tzaddik's spoken yearnings are for good and holiness, they evoke thoughts of repentance even in the wicked. So if you would have a rasha, which however it comes to be, ends up being receptive to the soul of a tzaddik, there will be inspiration in the rasha also, and he will actually end up being able to do teshuvah, affecting a rectification of the tzaddik's soul, but it will benefit him as well. This aligns with the Ari's teaching concerning reincarnation, gilgulei nefashot, that by yearning for holiness, a person causes himself to become impregnated, that's right, it's a תורת of ibbur, with a tzaddik's soul so that he himself strives for greater holiness.

So what what comes out is that there's an incredible amount of energy in the world. Nowadays, perhaps we could think about it as cell phone waves that are out there, magnetic waves, things in the internet. A person might remember their parents telling them not to stand in front of a microwave, but there's a lot of loose energy in the world, and we can tap into that energy. This is incredibly inspiring because two points: number one, what this means is if we make ourselves receptive, we might not be holding in a certain place, but if we work on ourselves to the point that we're a kli to be able to attract some of that positive energy, it will give us a boost, we'll be able to rectify those who came before us, and it will also change us as a person.

And the other thing is a tremendous responsibility, because when we bring out things with our mouth, when we actualize our own nefesh, ideally we're going to achieve all we need to in the world, but we're also going to be releasing energy into the world that could ultimately be received by somebody else, and it could literally change another person's life, and can change the world at large as well. So that one nice word when you're having an otherwise bad day, or the speaking to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, or showing up for that davenen, or just when you're walking down the street and you articulate something that's on your mind, a person can literally can literally change the world at whatever point that energy is picked up.

So now in the text: וזה בחינת גלגולי הנפשות, this is what we're describing. Again, gilgul literally is to like roll, but the idea of cause and effect, when something happens it's going to have an effect down line. כי הדיבור שמשם יוצאים הנפשות, the words which ultimately take this the the potential for live energy, we said that the hishtokekut, the kisufin, the desire, it's similar to the נקודות as applied to letters. So there are 22 letters in the אלף בית, those letters can be put together in different ways, the individual letters into words, the words into sentences.

The example that we gave last time is, "I am happy, not sad," or "I am sad, not happy," are exactly the same words, but they mean things that are completely different. So the energy, the movement as applied to the raw material, that is what affects the ideas and the energy in the world. So the דיבור שמשם יוצאים הנפשות נעשה על ידי חיתוך האותיות באוויר, the shefa that we're bringing into the world is actualized from a person's thoughts into the speech. When a when a person speaks, so then the sound waves are shaped by the different parts of a person's mouth, the shape of their lips, and ultimately as they travel through the air until a person is able to hear them, so then there we don't see it, but in physics there's a cause and effect of how those waves reached are are articulated and generated, and how they reach the next person.

כי המוצאות, or maybe הם מוצאות, the Chazal tell us that there's five different aspects of how sound is generated from the mouth: from the lips, from against the palate, and so on. So there's different types of of words, but whatever it is that comes out of the mouth, through the throat, the tongue, the palate, the teeth, the lips, מכים זה בזה וחותכים האותיות באוויר, this is going to shape the letters that go through the air, והאוויר מכה זה בזה, then it travels through the air, עד שמגיעים לאוזן השומע, until it's picked up by the antenna of the other person's hearing.

ועל ידי חיתוך האותיות באוויר נעשה הדיבור. So the words are generated both really by the speaker and by and as it applies to the listener, right? At at any snapshot in time, there's only one sound. The words are the system and the continuity of how the sound waves are shaped one after another as the person speaks it, and ultimately as it the the sound waves are cause and effect as they travel through the air until they reach the listener, שמשם יוצא יוצאים הנפשות. The the nefashot are generated, we said, from the machshavah into the dibur, the dibur actualizes it.

It travels through the air, air is associated with chiyut, in Torah ח' we discussed it as well, and that is now received by a listener. כי האויר הוא החיות של כל דבר, because air is life. Hakadosh Baruch Hu, it says, breathed neshamah into Adam, so air is chiyut. ובלי אויר אי אפשר לחיות, the without air a person can't live. והוא בחינת הנפש, this is aspect of life, והנפשות יוצאים ומתגלגלים. So if the air is essentially associated with life, and that is carrying out the nefesh of one person that's going to reach the listener, then the nefesh of one person is going to go into the second person.

Parenthetically, perhaps we can suggest that what's the difference if I'm standing here and you're standing two feet away, if I'm standing here and you hear me through a telephone, or if I'm standing here and you're standing 2,000 years later? When a person opens up a Gemara and they say אמר אביי, אמר רבא, and they're literally quoting word for word, a person, those words might not have been spoken out of the particular mouth right now, but it happened a long time ago, and another person is carrying out those words, then perhaps we can be receptive to the to the tzadikim of the prior generations as well.

This would mean that we can literally make ourselves receptive to the nefesh of the greatest of the tzadikim that ever lived in our world. So, we'll keep that in mind, but be that as it may, כלל הדבר, the next sentence, שמאד יקר, very valuable, dear, הכיסופין וההשתוקקות לדבר שבקדושה, there's extreme value just to the desire, ultimately to articulating this desire, but the the process of bringing energy into the world starts off with having these retzonot. כי על ידם נתהוה הנפש, the life force in in the potential comes out through a desire, ונגמר על ידי הדיבור כנ״ל, ויוצאים ומתגלגלים.

And when a person goes and articulates that, they bring it into the world for real. At that point, it is now energy that can be picked up and actualized, and actually impact other people, other inspiration. ולפעמים מתגלגל ובא נפש דקדושה לתוך הרשע, there are times like we explained in the introduction that a nefesh of kedushah can come to a רשע, ונופלים לו הרהורי תשובה, and he will experience thoughts of repentance, ויוכל לחזור למוטב, and if he is able to tap in and leverage and not ignore this, he might not have had his own thoughts of teshuvah, and yet when when out of the blue he did something that made him zocheh to have this, and he experiences a hirhur teshuvah, that could literally be the nefesh of a tzadik that ended up by him, and he has an opportunity to rectify the tzadik and also through that process it will change him as well.

וכן להפך, כמה רוב גורמים הכיסופין לדבר רע חס ושלום, there's negative energy in the world that was generated by a negative desire. כי הנפש שנתהווה על ידי כיסופים רעים, a person that had negative desires and wants, and he was attracted to bad things, מתגלגל לפעמים לתוך הצדיק, there are times when these can end up by a tzadik for whatever the reason. Maybe the tzadik did something negative, maybe for whatever reason Hakadosh Baruch Hu deemed that the tzadik was in a position to rectify this energy, that I don't know, ויוכל להחטיאו חס ושלום. But the avodah is going to be what we do with this initial thought.

So, we'll discuss soon that a person is not responsible, when a person has a thought out of the blue that comes to him from the outside, it was coming from the nefesh of an outsider, they are not going to be responsible for that initial thought, however, we very much have the opportunity to decide what to do with it. Perhaps we can also suggest that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is only going to allow us to receive that energy that we are suited to, either that it should change us or that we can be metaken it, so we're not going to get blindsided by something that's going to throw us off the rails and, you know, be able to say it's not our fault.

וזה בחינת יש הבל אשר נעשה על הארץ, we discussed this already in paragraph ח', when Kohelet says there's something that seems not to make sense, it's vanity in the world, that tzadikim have מעשה רשעים, רשעים have מעשה צדיקים. הבל הוא בחינת הבל פה שמשם יוצאין הנפשות, in the way that we're learning the Torah, hevel is representative of breath, so that there's the hevel of a tzadik that ends up by a rasha and vice versa. ועל ידי זה יש צדיקים שמגיע אליהם כמעשה הרשעים, there are tzadikim that they they end up doing מעשה רשעים על ידי שמתגלגל לתוכן נפש מכיסופין רעים, because they end up having this outside desire that came from a rasha.

ויש רשעים שמגיע אליהם כמעשה הצדיקים על ידי שמתגלגל לתוכן נפש מכיסופין טובים, and there is a rasha that ends up with a positive inclination that came because that energy was originated by a tzadik. Now, whenever you answer one question, you raise many more. So, how this process works we're not really going deep into, but suffice it to say that There is a system, and it's interesting that the same word that we use for vanity, for hevel, for something that makes no sense is, no, it's the hevel, it's the life force that's very much there. We might not be sensitive exactly to how it works, but it's all accounted for by the, by the Ribono Shel Olam, by the conductor of the world.

Now this part was not in paragraph ח, so this part is new. ולפעמים הצדיק מתקן הנפש רעה שנתגלגל אליו, וכן הרשע מקלקל הנפש הקדושה שנתגלגל בתוכו. There are times when a tzadik is able to rectify this negative energy and he's able to push back, to redirect it, so this energy will now be directed to the positive and will achieve a tikkun through the tzadik that receives it. And there are times that a rasha is going to be mekalkel the positive energy, he'll redirect it for the bad. Now, I don't know, he doesn't mention over here, I suppose then it will just still be hanging around until it goes to the next person, until it achieves its ultimate tikkun.

But in any event, again, the עבודה בעצם is ours to do, so we can't blame an outside factor, but we can make ourselves receptive to, to becoming an antenna for that outside energy. אך בתחילה בעת שמגיע הנפש, when a first, a person first receives it, על זה אמר הכתוב, יש צדיקים שמגיע, and so on, that there are tzadikim that receive negative energy, there are reshaim that receive positive energy, כי בוודאי נופל לו הרהורי עבירה בעת שמגיע אליו נפש רע מכיסופין רעים, the tzadik will, out of the blue seemingly, receive something that is a thought to sin, and it's really not in line with his day-to-day, with his life goals.

Where's it coming from? It's outside. And the answer is that it is a opportunity for him. אך אחר כך אפשר שתחטיהו, ואפשר שיתקן הנפש. That part belongs to him. We'll comment in a second. וכן יש רשעים שמגיע דמעשה צדיקים, שנופל לו בוודאי הרהורי תשובה. A rasha, out of the blue, receives הרהורי תשובה. He is zocheh to now have this nefesh, have this גלגולי נפשות, be receptive to this, to this energy, this positive energy, בעת שיגיע אליו נפש קדושה מכיסופין קדושים. He is now receiving energy that was generated by positive yearnings, and it's up to him to be able to lean into it, to capitalize on something that he wouldn't have otherwise generated himself.

אך אחר כך אפשר שהוא יקלקל הנפש הקדושה, או שתחזירהו למוטב. So this is a, a tremendous opportunity. As we go through the day, as we go through life, there are times when everybody experiences a הרהור תשובה, a, something to go out of their comfort zone, out of their box, and it might even seem fleeting. Imagine if you knew that this was the neshamah of one of your great-grandparents, or one of the tzadikim of yesteryear, and you were literally chosen. We're in עקבתא דמשיחא, there's a group of Yidden alive right now, Be'ezrat Hashem mashiach should come soon, and Hakadosh Baruch Hu is giving you the opportunity to complete the job of the, whichever tzadik it was that generated this energy.

Would you, even for a second, put that aside and let it pass until, chas veshalom, it goes to the next person? Or imagine that we're not holding so great, we're chas veshalom, I don't want to call any of us reshaim, and we have positive energy where we're just stuck in a rut, and then all of a sudden we can wake up and lean into that and allow that to change us. These are tremendous opportunities. And as much as, very often, we go through life and a lot of our mitzvot and avodah seem to be reactive to things that come up, if we take a step back and understand that the things that happen in life, either events from the outside or even feelings and inspiration, or feelings of a lack of inspiration that are internal to us, are extremely calculated and being presented to us for an opportunity to rectify certain things, and we are the only person in the world that is now in the position that we're in, that's an extreme amount of responsibility, but it's also an extreme amount of opportunity.

וזה סוד נפילת אפים שכוונתו להעלות הנפש בבחינת העלאת מים נוקבין, ולעשות יחוד קודשא בריך הוא ושכינתיה. The way he explains it over here in the note is, as a person davens, if you look in the siddur, some of them have the kavanot, different parts of davening are raising us up, allowing us to impact different parts of the עולמות, different parts of the spiritual system through which Hakadosh Baruch Hu governs the world. That energy is going to be there ready, willing, and able to come down. But if there's going to be a source, what does there need to be in order to bring it into the world?

A kli. There needs to be a כלי קיבול, there needs to be a receptacle. How do we receive that? Through מים נוקבין, through מסירת נפש, through making ourselves into a kli. Therefore, after Shemoneh Esrei, and I believe that halachah even says a person should say Tachanun within ד' אמות, within, you know, six or so feet, but within the מקום that they finish Shemoneh Esrei, but the idea of nefilat apayim, which, unfortunately, many people are very lax about, the idea of total התבטלות, that a person falls and they have in mind, it says, if they they literally are giving their life up as they fall down to say Tachanun, is that they're putting themselves aside and they're creating a kli to receive the beracha that was now generated and able to be and able to come down after Shemoneh Esrei.

כי על ידי הכיסופין והשתוקקות שזה בחינת העלאת מים נוקבין כידוע, through this yearning, this desire, this התבטלות that's generated when a person falls on his on his arms to say תחנון, מזה עצמו נעשה נפש. That desire, that very Tachanun, generates the נפש, ונתעלה ונעשה יחוד וזיווג כנ״ל. That creates the zivug to be able to bring the shefa into the world. Further, על ידי הכיסופין נעשין הנפשות, so these desires create these this נפש, this potential life energy, or life energy in the potential rather, שהם בחינת נקודות, which, as applied to the letters, are able to take the the letters and animate them in order to make them meaningful, in order to make them into words that that are substantial in the world.

ונזדווגו הנפשות, and this energy that got created is able to have a zivug, we explained this earlier, and then bring bring shefa into the world. וזה בחינת זיווגן והצטרפותן של הנקודות. The letter the נקודות under the each letter will animate that particular letter, but also allow it to be joined with another letter to create a word and create meaning. שהם בחינת זיווגי נפשות. This is an aspect of when we have a zivug. משפיע, מקבל, זכר, נקבה, and that brings that brings life into the world. ועל ידי הנקודות נזדווגו ונתצרפו האותיות, זה בחינת זיווגי גופות. So that we like we said, that there's the נפש in potential, and then there's the aspect of how it's represented in this world with the זיווג נפשות and the זיווגי גופות, with the letters representing the גוף.

וזה שכתוב, so this that we said that the מחשבה, a רצון or a will, but a מחשבה, a thought, is essentially an idea in potential, and then it's actualized by the דיבור, by the spoken word, which now will which which now can result in גילגול נפשות, זה שכתוב, לא הביט און ביעקב, that Hakadosh Baruch Hu does not hold us accountable, He does not look at the און in our in our Torah, or this relates to the מחשבה, על דרך שדרשו רבותינו זכרונם לברכה, מחשבה רעה אין הקדוש ברוך הוא מצרפה למעשה. If a person has a negative thought, but they never actualize it, then they will not be held accountable for it.

Now this fits in what we said, because if a person has an external thought, by it says this, by a yid a person is not going to be held accountable for a negative thought, by a goy they will be. Why? Cuz by a yid who בעצם is a חלק אלוקה ממעל, they're attached to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, this מחשבה טובה is מחשבה רעה, negative thought is essentially external. The question is how they deal with it. So if they lean into the thought, and then they do a negative action chas veshalom, so then they're going to be held accountable.

But if the thought is external, and they push back, and then they don't capitalize on it, they don't actualize it, then they're not going to be held accountable. If a person is just a negative person in their own right, going on the Gemara in Kiddushin that it makes the difference between Yisrael and the other nations, then they they're not going to have that aspect of it being external, so they are responsible for those thoughts. וזהו לא הביט און, ראשי תיבות וי אבדה נפש. Why are we associating און with מחשבה? So, earlier in the Torah we said וי אבדה נפש, when Shabbos comes and a person appreciates the נשמה יתירה, but what's the best way to appreciate something?

Why, the with the lacking of it. When a person realizes that the נשמה יתירה is here and soon he's not going to have it anymore, that's what actually brings in the desire to keep it, and that's what brings their appreciation, that actually that that thought is actually what brings the נשמה יתירה on. שהוא בחינת השתוקקות וכיסופין, והיינו שהשתוקקות וכיסופין רעין אין הקדוש ברוך הוא מצרפן למעשה, וזה לא הביט און ביעקב. Now, the note over here, I just want to flag the point, but we're not going to go into it, just highlights that in the Gemara it says that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is not מצטרף a מחשבה רעה למעשה, but a person does get שכר for the positive מחשבה.

And for purposes of our Torah, if a מחשבה is essentially in the potential and it hasn't been actualized, in principle there shouldn't necessarily be a difference between something that is either good or bad, so maybe we'll come back to it. But for now, זהו שכתוב רצון יראיו יעשה, that the רצון or the מחשבה or the will of the יראי שמים, יעשה is associated with the עולם העשיה in the potential, ואת שועתם, but when there's דיבור, when there's crying out, when it's articulated, it's actualized, ישמע, then it will be heard, ויושיעם, and then it will have an impact, it will save them, היינו שצריכים שני בחינות, רצון ודיבור כנ״ל.

There has to be a מחשבה, that's in the potential, and a person brings it into the world. כי הרצון שהוא הכיסופין פועל שנעשה נפש בכח, because the רצון is in the potential, there's the energy that's loose, but it has not yet been released into the world. ועל ידי הדיבור יוצא נפש מכח אל הפועל, then the energy is released, ואז נעשה בקשתו על ידי שמצייר אותיות לטוב כנל. And through this, there is shefa that can come into the world, and like we said, can also impact even another person's inspiration. וזהו: רצון יראיו יעשה, כי על ידי הרצון, through the desire, שהוא הכיסופין נעשה נפש בכח, כי עשיה הוא אותיות עשיה, that is associated with the letters, which is associated with עשיה in this world, ועולם העשיה הוא בחינת נפש כידוע, and we know from other ספרים that the עולם העשיה, the physical world is associated with נפש in the נפש, רוח, נשמה system.

ואז נעשה בקשתו, רצונו בכח, and when the person has the רצון, so then the potential for this desire, for this energy is in the person until it's articulated, בבחינת רצון יראיו יעשה, that the רצון of of the יראי שמים is in the עולם העשיה. ואחר כך, יעשה and עשיה are the same letters, ואחר כך ואת שועתם, and then when the person articulates it into a tefillah, he brings it into the world, like we said, the airwaves knock one against the other and now it's it's here, even if we can't see it, שמדברים בפיהם השתוקקות ורצון והכיסופין שלהם, a person says it with his mouth, על ידי זה ישמע ויושיעם, it will be heard and then we'll bring a salvation.

כי על ידי הדיבור נגמר נפש ויוצא מכח אל הפועל, through the words, this nefesh, this life energy is actualized, ואזי נצטיירו האותיות, and then the letters are able to function, ונעשים כלי לקבל טוב, and they are able to receive, be a recipient of the שפע, ונתמלא בקשתו בפועל כנל, and he's able to receive what he's looking for in the תפילה, כי כפי שהנפש נעשה בכח או בפועל, in accordance with the nefesh that is made either in the potential or actualized, כן נעשה נקודות להאותיות, that is how the letters, which are the כלים, are are animated and able to function and become substantial, וכן נצטיירו האותיות, and then they are shaped, they're formed, וכך הם פועלים ועושים בקשתו ורצונו כנל, and they're able to achieve what was essentially behind those letters and behind those words.

Beforehand we talked about the order of the words, the articulation of the words, and the truth is it could even be in tone. So once once those letters, those words come into the world, but they are animated, like we said, the bullet is achieves its power through the gunpowder behind it, through the spin that's put on it, then it's able to have impact in the world at large. Okay, next idea. If you are in the regular print, it's מ״ה עמוד ב׳ on the bottom of the inside margin. The other prints have this on paragraph ט״ז, and this relates to an idea that we saw in paragraph י״ג.

We had discussed אם הרב דומה למלאך ה׳ צבקות, two aspects of being a למדן בתורה and a חסיד במעשים טובים, and we related them to the ברית תתאה and the ברית עילאה. Now, when we addressed it at that time, we explored it at length, we explained that if to be a chasid and a tzadik is to go beyond the letter of the law, then step one on that ladder of getting ever closer to the Ein Sof has to be to understand what the law is. If a person wants to move towards his bitul to רצון ה׳ and they don't know what רצון ה׳ is, and they're leaving it to themselves to decide, then whatever it is that they're being mevatel to is actually coming internally.

They're the ones who decide what chesed is, they're the ones who decide what gevurah is. That could lead to tremendous השחתה. So on the ladder, the infinity-rung ladder getting closer to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, step one is going to be to understand what Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants from us, and that is איסור והיתר, ד׳ אמות של הלכה. This is how we live in the world as a Torah Jew. Now, practically speaking, these two things are going to feed off one another. The more that one wants to get closer to Hakadosh Baruch Hu and appreciate רצון ה׳, the deeper they're going to go in Torah.

The deeper they go in Torah, the more of an appreciation they'll have, and the closer that they're going to want to get to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, the more that they're going to be mevatel themselves and the more that they're going to have mesirut nefesh. However, as a matter that's a that's a practical consideration. Now we're going to address it a little bit differently, we actually touched on it earlier also, which is not just practically speaking, how does one develop, but as a matter of focus, what takes precedence in a person's growth and development, and depending where a person is holding, the למדנות or the צדקות, so to speak?

So let's see how Rabbeinu addresses it inside. שייך לעיל באות י״ג, or Rabbi Natan rather, למה שכתוב שם שלמדנות בלבד בודאי אינו כלום. If a person were to isolate למדנות, then that would be nothing. Now, why is that? To be, to be sure, if a person only wanted to focus on צדקות without any aspect of למדנות, that would also lead to nothing. A person has only to open up the newspapers and look at people's definition of chesed in various contexts, and they will see that that couldn't be farther away from the Torah. But over here, we're not talking about somebody who doesn't know the halachah, we're talking about somebody who is isolating things.

So, in terms of an approach, in terms of where they're working towards Hakadosh Baruch Hu from inside out, if a person were to isolate למדנות, so then they are disconnecting it from the source. We we quoted a Zohar from, I think it's from פרשת בהעלותך, I don't have it at my fingertips, and it talked about how we relate to the stories of the Torah. Is it just a chas v'shalom another set of stories? And the Zohar was was very was very pointed in how he spoke about it. If a person We have a tremendous miracle of Hakadosh Baruch Hu giving us access to רצון השם within סוגיות that address things in this-worldly terms.

We have access to infinity through the finite. If a person were to isolate the למדנות, the presentation of Torah from the idea that it is actually a הלבשה, so to speak, of infinity, well then, in a certain sense, chas v'shalom to say, it's really just a textbook. So, ומי שטועה וסובר, חס ושלום, שלמדן לבד הוא העיקר, if the issue is really just delving into the סוגיא as an academic study, that's what he means שלמדן לבד, הוא בבחינת אחר שקיצץ בנטיעות. This is קיצץ בנטיעות is a term of art, but what he's saying is Acher was there's a story in the Gemara, I think it's Chagigah, it goes through the the history of Elisha ben Avuya, who was R'' Meir's Rabbi, and it says he was קיצץ בנטיעות, which, even literally, means to cut off the roots of the saplings.

It might look fresh, the סוגיא is being learned, but once you cut the leaf off, then it is just dying a slow death. It's cut off at the root. It's no longer attached to the source of life. כי יכול להיות למדן ורשע גמור. At that point, a person can know the subject extremely well, and he's no longer attached to אלקים חיים. It's no longer attached to the source of life, כמבואר לעיל. וכן אפילו הצדיק לפעמים כשנופל ממדרגתו. So now, what happens when you have a tzadik who falls from his מדרגה? I was I was actually learning a piece of Rav Tzadok the other day, and he he brought down the מאמר חז״ל of שבע פעמים יפול צדיק וקם.

And I had a shtikel diyuk, I bounced it off somebody, he seemed to like it. It doesn't say A lot of times we say that a tzadik falls seven times, a rasha only falls once, he's a tzaddik not despite the falls, because of the falls. But if you look at the words, it does not say that a שבע פעמים יפול וצדיק קם, and a tzaddik gets up, a rasha doesn't, or וקם צדיק, when he gets up, he's a tzaddik. If you look at the words, it says שבע פעמים יפול צדיק, the tzaddik falls seven times, and because we're talking about a tzaddik, the tzaddik is the one who gets back up.

Now, we're not talking about a person who falls and he's eating chazir on Yom Kippur. If we're saying every tzaddik falls seven times, the tzaddik is defined as somebody who is keeping רצון השם and so on. Rav Tzadok discusses it as a aliyah and yeridah is essentially hisorerus. It's like we discussed in תורה ו׳, בקי ברצוא, בקי בשוב. A person can get close to Hakadosh Baruch Hu when they have the wind at their back and they're going forward, and a person gets close to Hakadosh Baruch Hu when they're fighting against the momentum and it feels extremely hard.

In a certain sense, there's actually more growth at that point because if a person is enjoying the avodah, it's good that they enjoy the right thing, but there's a very subtle line between whether they're serving Hashem or they're being self-serving. They they enjoy the right thing. Where do you see where a person's heart really is? Where they're not feeling that hisorerus, and they're doing it because it's the right thing to do, they're doing it because they want to get close to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, that's where you see what really is driving them. So, in a certain sense, a person can actually have the most growth when they feel it the least.

So over here, we have a tzaddik, and he's defined as a צדיק, ולפעמים כשנופל ממדרגתו, but he he's he doesn't have the wind at his back, he's not moving as fast, he seems to have had a yeridah from where his madregah was, and he's still a tzaddik. What is it that he should hold onto? What is he leaning into? Where is his point of attachment until he's going to be able to rally back? On one hand, you could say that the every every word of Torah is just is beyond this world, and therefore, even when he's not feeling it, so don't concentrate as much on tzidkus, so to speak, don't concentrate as much on on on emunah, he should lean into the the lamdanus of Torah, this he'll be able to engage in and the emunah will come back.

On the other hand, again, we're talking about a tzaddik, we're talking about somebody who has reached a level where he knows halachah, so he's not going to be confused. What is his point of focus? To maintain that attachment of emunah. On one hand, but maybe I would say that that's harder because he's not feeling it, he's not holding at that level of emunah. So, which which one should he lean into? So, he says כי ידוע שאי אפשר לעמוד תמיד בקביעות המדרגה אחת. First of all, we're taking it as a standard. Life is not a flat line, it's always going to be ups and downs, and therefore, if a person thinks that they're supposed to have consistency, that's true, but to be alive, by definition, means fluctuations.

אזי בעת שיפול ממדרגתו, when he falls from his מדרגה, אם ירצה להחזיק עצמו במדרגת למדן שנשאר לו הוא לא טוב. If while he's going down, he focuses on the mechanical almost aspects of Torah, so he's lacking that connection, and instead of trying to build back that connection, he focuses on the lamdanus of Torah, almost, again, in the way that we were describing it, he starts leaning into Torah as though it's a subject. So, instead of lighting him up, in a certain sense, it's almost bringing him farther away. רק צריך להחזיק עצמו ביראת שמים מה שיש לו עדיין מהרשימו שנשאר לו.

A רשימו is essentially the imprint, right? In other words, it's what's left. In a certain sense, what we're saying is not 100% intuitive, by the way, because it gets a person very down. If I feel like a month ago, six months ago, last year, I was mamash walking around, I was doing hitbodedut, I was talking to HaKadosh Baruch Hu in my own words, I mamash felt like I was on top of the mountain, and now I feel so distant from that, all I have left is a רשימו, all I have left is just a smudge on the page, so I could say, "Listen, but I still have an intellect, I'm still able to learn up a סוגיא, I know that I can get back there, I know that it's all about HaKadosh Baruch Hu, let me focus on the סוגיא at hand and then I'll come back and at least I'm going to build up that those those ידיעות and I'll have it at my fingertips and that's going to occupy my mind." To focus on emunah in a certain sense is very painful because it highlights the idea that all of a sudden, I thought that I was holding by something emotionally, it was mamash lighting me up, and now I'm trying to build back emunah, I feel like it really highlights my tremendous ירידה even more so.

But he says is that that actually that is the path, because if a person starts learning the סוגיא and treats it at this point almost like a subject because he feels distant on on a level of ruchniyut, so then he will actually reinforce that distance and it will become even harder to get back, so that now he will be almost like מגשם the Torah because he's learning it as not being connected to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. So, we had focused on the process from the bottom up, so to speak, in order to gain tzedakut and attachment to הקדוש ברוך הוא, לא עם הארץ חסיד, it can't be on your own terms.

The first thing that a person has to do is identify and understand what רצון השם is so that he can now bring himself in line with Godly values. But once a person is up there and they're falling, the question is what is it that they hold onto? And at this point, and ironically, there's more to be lost than gained by focusing on the lamdanut of Torah when they're not otherwise plugged into the tzedakut, they're not otherwise plugged into the emunah, because now instead of learning it as the first rung on a ladder where directionally they're going upwards, but actually directionally they're going downwards, and therefore, they'll start to relate to the lamdanut as sort of a subject on its own when they're not otherwise connected.

And therefore, what they should do is have hitbatlut, they should focus on emunah. As much as I'm sort of in a fog and I'm not feeling it, I'm not understanding anything, this is where I say I have emunah peshutah, I understand that wherever I am is going to be totally limited by my perspective, and yet I'm part of a broader system and I attach to HaKadosh Baruch Hu at the root even when I'm not feeling it. I will just inject over here a hitbonenut that I personally have found have found useful, really it's based on the Chovot HaLevavot in the beginning of Shaar HaBitachon.

A person says HaKadosh Baruch Hu loves me and he he's aware of me, meaning if you think about let's say meshulach that comes into shul, it could be that you're aware of him, but you don't want to give him, or it could be that you love him, that you would want to give him, you have chesed, but you pashut don't see him come in, you're not aware. Even with those two things, a person needs to have money, he needs to have the ability to help. If he has the ability, but he doesn't want to give or doesn't know that the person needs money, he's not going to give.

And he also has to know what the person needs, right? A person, let's say a pharmacist, can have access, he's chazak, he has the ability, he has all the medicine, but he doesn't know what's going to cure this particular person. So as we go on the road to bitachon, first of all, we need to know that HaKadosh Baruch Hu loves us, he's aware he's aware of us, he's paying attention, he has the ability To give us what we need, He knows exactly what we need, HaKadosh Baruch Hu is in control of the process from the beginning to the end.

Otherwise, right, a person go to the doctor at a particular moment in time, but that doctor didn't have control from the beginning of the process until the end of the process, and therefore whatever the doctor can do can be frustrated by something that came before, after. Also, number six, HaKadosh Baruch Hu is not, nothing can affect what HaKadosh Baruch Hu wants to do. It's not like HaKadosh Baruch Hu could do everything and what's going to be, it's a bad weather day, right? So, whatever, a person that's able to rely on Hakadosh Baruch Hu, nothing else will get in the way of that.

And once a person is zocheh to bitachon and zocheh to this attachment Hakadosh Baruch Hu, it's not going to be impacted by whether they deserve it or not, otherwise a person would be held back in bitachon because they could forever be questioning themself. So, for me, there is a difference between emunah and bitachon, but I'm just going to use these התבוננות on bitachon, on reliance, so that a person can reach a ישוב הדעת and a מנוחת הנפש. When a person understands these seven ideas, again, chesed, הקדוש ברוך הוא loves me, He's aware of me, חזק, He has the ability to help me, and He knows exactly what I need, He's in control of the entire process, nothing can impact and affect and hold Hakadosh Baruch Hu back, and He can come through for me whether or not at this particular point in time certainly I do or don't deserve it, that is going to keep me attached to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and that really is the root of my attachment against which the background that I can go and then delve into the למדנות of Torah.

And then finishing off, Rabbeinu relates this idea of the יש הבל, of tzadikim, of thoughts that end up by reshaim in order that they should be מתקן, and how they address it, and the thoughts of reshaim can end up by tzadikim. So this idea of יש הבל אשר נעשה על הארץ, Rabbeinu is going to put together with the original הבל, the son of Adam Harishon, עיין בתיקונים, and he references a Tikkunei Zohar that talks about the sin of הבל, that at the time that he brought his קרבן, he was הציץ בשכינה. And Rabbeinu is going to put this together, that Adam Harishon ate from the עץ הדעת, which was both a מחשבה and brought מכח אל הפועל, and הבל was הציץ בשכינה, he gazed at the שכינה at the time that he brought the קרבן, which was also an ענין of trying to access דעת that was otherwise beyond human beings.

And he's going to say, I'm just going to read this outside, because it's a little bit terse in the words, is going to say that what caused that הבל should sin, that there was this idea of the sin from Adam Harishon that sort of reached that reached הבל. So this is also this idea that a person can do can do an act that will otherwise impact somebody else. So that's the end of this thought. So אמר ליה, כי ביום אכלך ממנו כתיב, it says that on the day that אדם הראשון ate from the עץ הדעת he's going to die.

What about הבל? On the day that he brought the korban he was הציץ בשכינה, and it says אמר ליה בההוא יומא הציץ ומית. On that day he did die. This is what gave קין the koach to kill him. אמר רבי שמעון, בגין דכתיב יש הבל אשר נעשה על הארץ אשר יש צדיקים, and so on, עיין שם והבן. Now, I probably, I don't even know if I could could zoom as fast as I can till the end, but it could be that yatza scharo behifsedo. Therefore, I'm going to stop over here, which is a little bit shorter than we normally go, and then next time I will finish it.

Maybe we'll, I'll use the opportunity to sum up, maybe using Kitzur Likutei Moharan, some of the main ideas. But in any event, we'll just leave it for the next shiur, which, again, maybe it'll just be another week of being a drop shorter, but I think it it probably makes more sense. Okay, yishar koach. דע שרצה להשיג דעת במה שנעלם מבני אדם. What it means that he gazed at the Shechinah is he was trying to gain daat, something that was otherwise not accessible to to human beings. So אמר ליה, he said back, אם כן ראוי שהבל יענש באותו יום שהקריב את הקרבן, הבל should have been killed on the very day he brought the korban.

And Rabbi Shimon responds, אכן כן היה, again, reading in the Hebrew translation, שבאותו יום שהביא את הקרבן הציץ בשכינה ובאותו יום מת. In fact, he did die on that day, and then Rabbi Shimon related this back to the idea that we're discussing. And the way that Rabbeinu explains it, he he's relating it to the idea that we've been addressing, what caused that הבל should sit, sin,