LM 33.4 — Mi Ha'Ish, Part 4 of 4: Beyond the Limits of Our Perspective · תורה ל״ג

B'ezrat Hashem, we are beginning the fourth shiur of Torah ל״ג, and we will be finishing the Torah today. We're up to paragraph ו', and to just bring together some of the ideas that we've been discussing at length until now, and then we can go forward with paragraph ו'. We started off talking about the idea of shalom, translates usually as peace, but not as absence of conflict, but as integration, as things being complementary, where individual aspects on their own will live in a silo and perhaps even seem to contradict, seem to be moving in different directions than some of the other pieces, but when taken together to make a whole that's greater than the sum of its parts, that forms a שלמות.

This can exist in a particular system, in a business, in relationships, איש ואישה, where people have very different dispositions, very different personalities, and yet the unit that they can build as a whole transcends either of their of their particular strengths and weaknesses and serves to to be a a שלמות when taken together. The way that a person is able to approach this שלמות is through the Torah and through tzadikim. We'll get to tzadikim in a minute, and really we'll be discussing it today, but the Torah, for purposes of the piece that we're discussing, essentially is the the vehicle through which Ratzon Hashem is expressed in this world.

הקדוש ברוך הוא כביכול is אינסופיות, בלי גבול, infinite, and this world is a world of גבול. It's a world of boundary, individual creations. We were just talking about the idea of שלמות between individual pieces that don't seem to fit together. How is it that they come together? When they subscribe to something that transcends either one of those individual pieces, they come together to form a system. How is it that we are able to contribute to this שלמות, to get out of our own boundaries to contribute to something greater? When we are able to attach to this greater vision, to this greater expression, and therefore, if because הקדוש ברוך הוא wants us, the finite creations, to have a relationship with Him, through this infinite love He provided a structure within which that relationship becomes possible.

That is the Torah and the mitzvot, which as presented to us have גבול. We identify this as middot, which literally a middah is a measurement. Sometimes the middot the middot are referred to as the ספירות, we talk about middot as particular character traits, ways that you can interact and interface with something else. So we talked about middot, ימים, days, as units of time. Time is a continuum. ימים would be units in something that otherwise is just continuous without any sort of a way to break it up, and the Torah and the mitzvot are essentially this this way that we are able to relate to הקדוש ברוך הוא.

We explained that this is a level of ahavah, because הקדוש ברוך הוא, עולם חסד יבנה, חק הטוב להיטיב, He wants to give to His creations. This expression of of ahavah that we have in this world is the אהבה בפועל, the actualized ahavah, the אהבה שבימים, and this finds expression within creation. There is a higher level ahavah that does not really find expression in creation, the אהבה שבכח, and we we used an analogy of a person that has a child, or even by way of analogy, a person who has an idea of a business, an idea to bring something out from within themselves into the world.

After that child, after that business, after what that that expression of creativity comes into the world, the person has a relationship with it. There's two things: there's me, and then there's something in the world, and I have this relationship, this affection, however you want to describe ahavah. What is my relationship with that object of my ahavah before it becomes an extension of self? While it's still in my brain, while it's still in my ratzon, I have a ratzon to do something, before I actually execute on it, before it finds expression, it's really just a piece of myself.

So that ahavah is much more primal, right? The the Gemara says that the ברא כרעא דאבוה, a son is like the leg of his father. If I have an idea that I want to bring out to express my inner ratzon before I actually create something and then I have an affection for it, it's just a part of myself. So it's the ahavah that will ultimately find expression in the world, but it's בכח. It's much more it's much more internal. It's a an immediate, profound love that is still within myself. Therefore, in this world where there is a perception of fragmentation, before there is the ultimate path towards understanding shalom, there there is a separateness.

There is a way that we can relate to Hakadosh Baruch Hu within the perspective, within the universe that we currently find ourself. In the next world, where it will transcend the fragmentation and we will live in a world of integration, where everything is actually one, we'll have access to a deeper to a deeper love, that will be לעתיד לבוא. So now, what our Torah is going to start off with is, what does this actually mean to us? We had mentioned that when one attaches themselves to Torah, to the deeper ratzon that underlies or transcends, depending how you look at it, all of the things that are contradicting in the world, not at their source, but only because of our limited framework, but with the added dimension we will see how everything is really part of one picture.

We enter into this world in this limited framework, the tzadikim are the are those individuals who within this world are able to break down those boundaries where they are מכניע their yetzer hara, where they are able to live within a world of greater שלמות, of greater perspective, even in this world. So the Torah provides this view from top down, and the tzadikim attach to it from bottom up. If this deeper love is presently concealed, how do we implement this into our avodah? What does this mean to us, even within our limitations? And therefore, paragraph ו' is going to begin.

ואפילו במידות עצמן, even within these limitations, these units, these the specific fragmentation and the the breakup within this world, כל אחד לפי בחינתו, everything according to its parameters, its characteristic, הוא בחינת דעת לבחינה שתחתיה. That will actually be a bechinah of daas, of this greater level perception of knowledge to anything below it, we'll explain soon, כמו שאמרו חכמינו זכרונם לברכה, מה שעשתה חכמה עטרה לראשה, this that chochmah made a crown for her head, ראשית חכמה יראת ה', so in our context we'll call that יראה, עשתה ענווה עקב לסולייתה, is actually a humility, anavah made a heel for her sandals, so chochmah is at the highest of the attributes, and that will that that will be like a crown even on its own that sits on top of everything that comes below it, and yirah is ראשית חכמה יראת ה', but everything is relative, we're working towards the אין סופיות, so within one perspective, chochmah might be at the top of all the attributes that we find, and yet that's only downward looking.

If we were going to look up, so then at the height, the top link in the chain that we're working upwards to is actually going to be the bottom link in the chain that's above it. Over here, Rabbeinu says that there's different aspects of yirah. There's יראת העונש, there's a fear or a reaction to consequence, and that's necessary, that can't be skipped, right? Learning about fire, for argument's sake, in a physics book, if a person doesn't realize that fire burns, so then it's just completely abstract, it's nothing that could actually change you. Understanding a world of consequence that Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave us as our platform for avodah, and that things in the world are real, יראת העונש will be the עטרה, the keter of the מידת חכמה.

And yet, through anavah, there's a higher level of yirah. That that entry level of yirah, that entry level of realization that Torah and mitzvot are the bedrock of reality, we'll call that יראת העונש, that is actually step one on the higher ladder towards reaching יראת הרוממות, which we're not going to go into now. But what what do we see from over here? That wherever we're looking in terms of our avodah, we've explained like concentric circles beforehand, wherever I am, I'm trying to get to the level beyond me. At what whatever my perspective shows me is the crown, that's the highest that I could possibly go, that's only really within my limited perspective.

So I'm going to look one level beyond me, and outside of that, everything is hidden. And yet, as I grow, I will find that whatever the crown is, that level that I'm trying to reach, it's at the top of the mountain, as I get there, that actually will be the foot of the mountain that's beyond it. נמצא, שהמדרגה פחותה של עולם היצירה, the lowest level of the universe of the עולם of יצירה, הוא בחינת דעת לעולם העשיה שתחתיו. We've used different examples in the past. For our purposes, I think that the the easiest thing to understand is we we've talked about grade school.

When a person gets to eighth grade, they get to the height of middle school, so now they're at the top of that mountain, and then everything that they've reached towards really only becomes the basis, that becomes the introductory chapter when they get into high school in ninth grade. And then the same thing presents itself when they get to 12th grade, they master all of the educational, the social issues, whatever it is that they have to navigate, and that becomes only the introductory chapter as they go on to college, and so on. And this can present itself in many different areas, so that we've discussed the עולמות in different ways.

They're each one is a self-contained system. On the other Interrelated, similar to if you have a screenplay and then you have something on a screen, anything in one will be presented in the other, but in a different form, right? One of them will be more closer to the source. The screenplay is going to be closer to the ideas of what the author was trying to develop than what ultimately comes out on the screen, although what comes out on the screen will be more visceral to the end user. So we have different systems again that are each exist on their own and relate to the other worlds, but the ending point of one particular system will be become the starting point against which the other one is based.

So now we the the for our purposes the system of עולמות that Hakadosh Baruch Hu k'vayachol unfolded so that we can end up at the עולם העשיה within the world of action, the ד' אמות של הלכה, the physical world that we find ourself in, although we're able to climb up to elevate ourself and the world to gain greater and greater perspectives is אבי״ע is the acronym, אצילות בריאה יצירה עשיה. The lowest point of יצירה, which is beyond anything in עשיה, but that becomes the starting point that's עשיה that's the point of relationship, otherwise they would be totally disconnected.

The lowest link in that chain of יצירה becomes the top link in the chain in the world of עשיה. So the מדרגה פחותה of עולם יצירה הוא בחינת דעת, that becomes the level of דעת of the מוחין of the ideas that will ultimately develop into the rest of the מדות within עשיה. לעולם העשיה שתחתיו נמצא שיש אדם שהאהבה שיש לו עם השם יתברך במדותיו ובזמן. Therefore, back to where we started, we have our ahavah, we have our level of relationship within the world that we find ourself in that does have its limitations. הוא בחינת אהבה שבדעת שלמעלה מהזמן לאדם שהוא במדרגה פחותה ממנו.

So he's saying something fascinating over here. As much as we explain that our perspective limits us to a particular type of a relationship on the continuum, that may be in an absolute sense. As we go higher and higher, so then we're going to transcend anything possible in this world. But even within any particular system, there are subsystems. Wherever you are, whichever circle you're operating in, it's the inner circle compared to what's outside of it, but it's the outer circle compared to something that's inside of it. And therefore, as much as one person might be holding at a level of ahavah that is accessible to him, that might actually be the shoot-for goal, that is the higher perspective for somebody that's below him.

And therefore, as much as we introduced this system in an absolute sense of this world versus the next world, first of all, even that is only really one snapshot within Hakadosh Baruch Hu's total creation, but the system itself in a more micro way will actually give us a window into avodah, our own personal avodah and relating to others who might be higher on the ladder, even within this world itself. Now parenthetically, a point that we've mentioned several times before, to the extent that Rabbeinu is telling us that this is not just one overall system where once you graduate from it, you get to the top, you're in עולם הבא, לעתיד לבוא, that's where we graduate to שלמות, and anything below that is just some sort of limitation, no, by telling us that everyone has access to the system wherever they are, we're actually defining the avodah process, because we're applying it on a macro level.

Wherever a person is, they have to understand this system as I'm on one rung, there are things that are beneath me that are no longer relevant to my avodah, and there are things that are beyond me, but that I have a relationship with, and things beyond that that are beyond me and I don't yet have a relationship with. Whatever it is that is currently beyond me, that is actually my next step, and that is the path towards transcending the level, the relationship of ahavah that I have now to understanding what the level of ahavah is beyond that.

So if somebody were to ask you, 'How close are you to the אין סופיות? How close are you to something that transcends limitation, to total התבטלות, something that defies any גבול?' The answer is is that you're one step away, because this is the model that Hakadosh Baruch Hu implemented. Our avodah is to break boundaries and enter into the infinite. Every level is going to be infinite, so to speak, אין סופיות, בלי גבול, compared to the level below it that has those confinements. So if our avodah at every step is to be able to be מבטל ourself towards the אין סופיות, we're able to engage in that avodah wherever we are.

And that is the gift that Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave us. וזה שאמרו רבותינו זכרונם לברכה on a pasuk, it's a Gemara in Moed Katan bringing a pasuk in מלאכי, כי שפתי כהן ישמרו דעת, the lips of a כהן keep or guard דעת, ותורה יבקשו מפיהו, and Torah you should seek from his mouth. The פסוק ends, כי מלאך ה' צבאות הוא, because he is a מלאך. The Gemara says, חז״ל tell us, אם הרב דומה למלאך ה' צבאות, if your Rebbe, the person who is being mashpia to you, so from your point of view he is outside of your system, right?

There's always going to be the Rebbe, the talmid, and then there's going to be your talmid. So this is a moving system. But wherever you are, you are going to gain shefa from somebody who is outside of where you are and he's going to be mashpia to you. What are you looking for in a mashpia? Somebody who is דומה למלאך ה' צבאות. היינו שכופה את יצרו. That person has subjugated his yetzer, אז הוא דומה למלאך ה' צבאות. Now, interestingly, I don't it's hard to say that this has to mean that everybody is looking for the צדיק הדור, the גדול הדור, there's one person that could be mashpia.

We have an entire system of yeshivot, of rabbanim, of mashpi'im. And second of all, if somebody is still alive, they still have work in this world to do. So, I don't know if this statement is controversial. If you're looking in an absolute sense, we're looking for somebody who has been machnia the yetzer hara, not yitzro, not just his yetzer hara, there's nothing in this world that could appeal to him, neither the base ta'avot, the physical ta'avot, or even money, not even kavod, the person is mamash Moshe Rabbeinu, and he is totally mevatel himself. But I think that we can suggest at least one reading of this, right?

I think it's true on many, many levels, that at any place where I am holding, there are the yetzer hara's that I am battling. If you are going to be dealing with a young child or a person, you know, holding in a particular context, you know, there'll be people that have failings, there are people that have the yetzer hara but they don't have failings, there are people that are beyond a particular yetzer hara but at least they understand the yetzer hara, and then you're going to have people that are beyond that, they've totally subjugated the yetzer hara, they can't even understand why a person would have that particular desire, right?

Like we said, there's concentric circles, wherever you are, there's people beneath you, there's where you are, there's something right beyond you, but that there is that relationship, and there's something where you would be left wondering, why in the world would anybody even be drawn to that? So, over here, perhaps we can say when a person is looking for a Rebbi, they're looking for somebody where as far as the yetzer hara that they are dealing with, as far as where they're holding, they want somebody who is דומה למלאך ה' צבאות, they are outside of the boundaries, so to speak, of humanity as relates at least to particular yetzer hara's as I relate to them in the world, because this is avodah.

So, let's see let's see let's see if we can apply this and let's see how it goes. So again, אם הרב דומה למלאך ה' צבאות היינו שכופה את יצרו אז הוא דומה למלאך ה' צבאות, certainly in this regard, the way that we're learning this. כמו שכתוב בזוהר, ברכו ה' מלאכיו גבורי כח. The the the Zohar goes on the pasuk that bless ה', the מלאכים, the angels, the mighty ones, the גבורי כח. אלין, who are these? אינון דמתגברין על יצרהון. These are the people who are מתגבר on their יצר. We've said before that strength, גבורה, כח, strength is relative.

If you just have if you just have something, it really can't be described as strong or weak other than whether or not it is relatively strong compared to other things in its class. So the יצר is something that goes that goes after a person. The truth is that at a physical level, at a this-worldly level, the Gemara tells us that if a person would not have that spiritual boost, that help, that siyata diShmaya from HaKadosh Baruch Hu, then at a purely physical level no person would have the ability to overcome their יצר. The people that are able to tap into a out-of-worldly thing, so to speak, siyata diShmaya, this ruchniyut that's able to allow them to transcend, to be מתגבר on, to subjugate something that in this world would otherwise be insurmountable, that is a גבור.

They are stronger than something that they have no business being able to overcome. כי על ידי זה שכופה את יצרו, from the fact that this person, this individual, this tzadik has been כופה his יצר, אז אותיות התורה בולטות ומצטרפות. The way that we described before, if a person is in this world, he lives inside of this universe, these are his givens, there is a natural yetzer hara, natural inclinations for things, then the light, as it were, the expression of Godliness will be through the lens of how it appears. If a person transcends the facade, as it were, of this world, and they're able to understand the neshamah behind it, the system behind it, this is is HaKadosh Baruch Hu's רצון, this is why it presents itself this way in this world, here's why things seem to be טוב, and here's why things from our perspective, bottom looking up, seem to be רע, but they're able to see through it.

Instead of looking at it from inside the world, they're they're able to gain that perspective from the outside looking in, so then they see everything as an expression of godliness. That is the definition of אותיות, the building blocks of the world, the building blocks of life. The אלף בית are really the engine behind everything. It might be worth it to go and review parts of Torah ד'. There's so many there's so many parallels between these these תורות. If If you see this world as reflective of the building blocks of that are that are essentially רצון השם, then that means that the רצון השם is shining through this world.

אזי הוא בבחינת נעשה ונשמע. What does it mean? כי עושה ובונה אותיות התורה. By seeing through this world, I'm not looking at something physical. I'm not looking at a piece of chocolate cake or whatever. I am looking at the particles, the DNA of something, the DNA of רצון השם that in this particular case has been constructed to look like chocolate cake, like a particular תאווה, and that is called בונה the אותיות of Torah, because you are looking at a piece of cake, right? The Beis Midrash has Sefarim, and the restaurant has has physical things. There's no godliness in the restaurant.

If I want to engage with הקדוש ברוך הוא, I'll go to the Beis Midrash. If I want to engage with my stomach, then I'm going to go to the restaurant. For a person that transcends that, they don't have that divide. There's avodah that happens in the Beis Midrash, everybody has to eat, there's a tremendous avodah to eating, and there's avodah that happens in the restaurant. So that person is able to bring out he's בונה, he's עושה, he builds up, now you have רצון השם in the Beis Midrash, which yes, has more kedushah, and it has a more in certain ways, you know, its own avodah.

We're not comparing necessarily the avodah that happens in the Beis Midrash to what happens in the restaurant, or for that matter in a bathroom. We say Asher Yatzar, there's הלכות in how to go to the bathroom, הלכות in how to and how to bathe oneself. But yet, I am redefining those things that are outside of the Beis Midrash as also those are also אותיות and and דיבורים. וזוכה לשמוע קול תורה מעילא לעילא. And therefore, I am now turning these things as a window into רצון השם. I can now hear the קול תורה from above in every area of life.

I innovated that. I brought that reflection. I brought that expression into the world by creating the keli for it, by creating the the loudspeaker to hear רצון השם in every area of life. בוודאי מזה הרב, תורה יבקשו מפיהו. To this person that is trained to see רצון השם in every area of life, that's I don't see that. I'm limited to my own lenses. I'm limited to my own perspective. How am I going to transcend my point of view when I'm literally looking through my point of view? The answer is that I need something external. I need something objective that is not subject to those limitations.

It doesn't have that subjectivity. The Mesilat Yesharim in the first chapter says, when you're in a maze, then don't have the person standing next to you tell you how to get out of the maze. Have the person that's already beat the maze, that's now standing on a platform that's outside looking in, and he's able to tell you exactly where do you go. He's outside the system. This is the person whose תורה יבקשו מפיהו. The person that subjugated this יצר, he doesn't have these נגיעות. כי בוודאי יודע הוא את התורה, אפילו מדברים גשמיים הוא מלקט אותיות התורה.

This person sees רצון השם in every area of life, and therefore that is the person that is able to be משפיע to you. וזה כי שפתי כהן ישמרו דעת, the it's the lips of a kohen keeps דעת, כהן הוא בבחינת חסד, the Kohen is aligned with chesed and with אהבה, ישמרו דעת, היינו שיתגלה על ידי הרב הזה האהבה שבדעת. What we are looking for is ahavah. Again, there's different expressions of ahavah in different in different stages of the world at large, different stages of avodah. So what we need is somebody who has this chesed, which essentially is ahavah.

The ahavah is חוק הטוב להיטיב, it's what הקדוש ברוך הוא is giving us, the opportunity, the goodness. Sometimes that goodness comes through challenge and through adversity, but he's giving the the the daat, and that ahavah can find expression throughout all of the sefirot, throughout the entire system, שהוא לפי מדרגתך, that this Rebbe, who has this אהבה שהוא למעלה מהזמן, that is according to you. That Rebbe might have his own zman. He's also living in a world. He's living in a world at his altitude. But כל העולם נברא בשבילי. I'm understanding the world through the lens of my avodah wherever I am.

I am living in a zman, yamim, middot, wherever I am. I have the structure within which I need to grow. So when I am attaching myself to this rav, to this tzaddik who, as far as he is concerned, he is outside of those limitations. He relates to the avodah that's למעלה מהזמן שהוא יום אחד יודע. There is no break, there is no tov and ra, there's no yom and laylah and or and choshech. What there really is is one system, there's one shleimut, it's not a יום ראשון, it's יום אחד. Everything is really one and it complements each other.

Again, not because it's totally one-dimensional, but because it's multidimensional and it seems to be complex, and actually it's so totally complimentary that it's not different pieces, but actually all of these things are really coming together to make one expression of ratzon Hashem. I need that person with that perspective to come and be my Rebbe, where I seem to see tov and ra. I see good days and bad days. I see so many competing priorities in my own life, both in terms of avodah, in terms of current events, in terms of my friends, in terms of competing drives within myself.

And now this person is able to offer, not just intellectually, but from the heart, from the ahavah, he's able as a reality to let me into a window of everything is actually only one, it's all ratzon Hashem. I am in the perfect place, at the perfect time, in the perfect situation to be megaleh and to realize the the Godliness within this world. That is the person who can break me out of my current perspective on whatever rung of the ladder I'm on so that I can go to the next rung on the ladder and begin the process all over again.

Okay, so we're about to be up to paragraph ז. Also, just one one kind of side note. Very often in a person's journey, they're surrounded by friends, maybe they have a a mentor, you know, something of that nature, and then later on, the relationship seems to, for various reasons, they've moved on. And sometimes a person can look back and think, was that relationship real? Was it not real? Was it some sort of a facade? Really I should have been here earlier. That is an extremely superficial way of looking at things, and it's not healthy. The reality is is that where I was at the time, God put me in the perfect place with the perfect relationships of those people who were outside of where I was in order to give me what I needed and bring myself to the next level.

Where I am now, I'm in a place where I might need different things, either I guess you could say vertically or laterally, for whatever the reason. To bring me out of that, those other people, for various reasons, might not be the right people or might not be the right institution to to to be mashpia to me where I'm holding right now. None of that impacts whether those relationships were real or whether or not it was the right person to be teaching me at that time exactly what I needed. But, as we move, we also have to be open to understanding what it is that we need to bring us to bring us forward.

Now, going into the next paragraph, paragraph ז, Rabbeinu is going to continue really explaining how this this big macro-system that we're explaining, how the structure according to which the world works really is applied also in a personal way in terms of avodah, which we already began discussing. You know, I wish, in certain ways I wish that I chazar'd more all these ideas. Every single one of these torot is structured to build together a picture, but any single one of those individual pieces is explored in other torot. So in certain ways, you can look at each one individually to build up a particular piece, but just understanding that every one of these ideas is dealt with individually, just even kind of flipping around תורה תורה כ״ה, כי צריך כל אדם להוציא את עצמו מן המדמה ולעלות אל השכל, every person has to bring himself over the lower levels, the imagination, and to transcend his perspective to get to the sechel.

Torah ל׳ talks about how to get, כי צריך כל אחד לבקש מאד מלמד הגון כזה, he describes the type of the type of Rebbe that a person שיכול להסביר ולהבין שכל עליון וגדול כזה, דהיינו השגת אלוקות. So, every one of these these points that we're using to build a structure, you could you could take any one of these points and then build together a structure that supports and explores that, so it's worth it to chazar and it's also, you know, on the other hand you have to appreciate every one of these torot on their own.

Paragraph ז, ויוכל כל אדם לטעום טעם אור האהבה שבדעת, כל אחד לפי בחינתו. Again, as much as this is bring the the world is the ז׳ ימים, the world is a is has a certain limitation up until which it stops and in order to transcend that that will be le'atid lavo. Every person has his particular limitations and structure that he's trying to descend, כל אחד לפי בחינתו, which means that when you're looking for a Rebbe, you're looking for this tzaddik, we can evaluate our own avodah and our own path the way that we need it and understanding our avodah according to wherever we're holding.

So, because we are going to define define our structure, our limitations, and whatever is אין סוף כלפי us, by us, we can also understand the idea of אהבה שבימים, the lower level ahavah that we described, and the אהבה שבדעת, the higher level ahavah, the higher level of ahavah and daat that we described, according to where we are at any particular time. In fact, you can't avoid this. There's no מעלה to saying, "No, I'm just going to, I'm just going to try to be perfect," because the only way to climb a ladder is rung by rung.

Just using our example from before, where a person goes through grade school, then high school, then college, if you could theoretically train a five-year-old to, to be able to spout back, to memorize formulas that only a doctorate would be able to understand, they wouldn't grow from that. They would maybe be able to, they'd be able to spit it back at you if they could memorize it, but there would be no graduation to understanding how each level leads into the next. So, therefore, we're talking about כל אחד לפי בחינתו, אפילו עכשיו בתוך הימים, even now that when a person is in this הלבשה, they're in these days, in this units, the structure that they live inside, היינו כשיקשר את ליבו לדעתו, when a person draws that connection, it's like a funnel.

The bottom of a funnel is inside the bottle or whatever you're trying to fill up, but it's connected with what's outside. A person has to be mekasher his emotions to his daat. In this system, the emotions or the sefirot, the chesed, gevurah, tiferet, and so on is going to be the sefirot and the the emotional middot, as it were, and then the mochin, the sechel is going to be what drives that. We'll speak about that more in a second. כי כל אחד מישראל יודע, at a certain point, outside of our limitations right now, we all have, every member of Klal Yisrael, every Yid, has a neshamah, has a חלק אלוקה ממעל.

We are all attached to something that is outside of our limitations, and we know in our core שיש אלוקים בכלל, הקדוש ברוך הוא's מלא כל הארץ כבודו, there is a דעת that transcends the מדות. We we know the real truth in our heart of hearts, so to speak, and that really everything in this world does not impact or dictate in any way what the truth is. אבל הרשעים הם ברשות לבם. The רשעים, they are in the רשות of their לב, והמדות והימים also are הם נכללים בלב. They are also subject to the לב, כמו שאמרו חכמינו זכרונם לברכה, רחמנא ליבא בעי ובלבד שיכוין את ליבו לשמים, כי עיקרן של המדות הוא הלב.

Let's stop and talk about this for a second because I think it's extremely important, and it gets a little bit misapplied. Rabbi Maiman, by the way, in his shiurim talks about this as well. We we tend to think what leads what? We don't want to be super cerebral, super intellectual. רחמנא ליבא בעי. We have to attach our heart. We have to attach our love. But let's think for a moment, especially the way that Rabbeinu is presenting, the Baal HaTanya certainly goes through this, but in the understanding of the evolution of the structure through the ספירות, through the human personality, what is the לב based on?

Ultimately, it's based on the שכל. The flow through of רצון through חכמה, בינה, דעת into חסד, גבורה, תפארת rides on the שכל. Why is this? So just to give an example, if a person, the way that I always kind of boil it down is a person who is sad at a wedding and happy at a funeral, we don't say, "Well, these are his emotions." No, we would say that that person is emotionally unstable. Why? Because the לב, the דעת, the integrated wisdom which is supposed to affect a person's disposition is supposed to follow the truth, and obviously a person has to understand that their שכל is aligned with truth.

If a lot of these examples I use many times, so, you know, don't don't hate me for that. If a person sees a kid, and the kid falls and they feel terrible, "oy vey, that kid is in pain," and then all of a sudden the kid looks up and they realize that it's their kid, then their emotional disposition changes. So really, the לב, which is more than just the emotion, the לב is really the operating system. It's it's נכלל all of the מדות. It becomes what drives me on an emotional basis. That's what's going to move me.

It's going to get my blood going. But really, it's נכלל and it rides on the truth. It rides on the knowledge. If a person would constantly have his emotions in flux going up and down and it would be divorced from the reality, well then that person would be unstable. You wouldn't be able to rely on that person because their emotions would sort of blow with the wind. So when we say רחמנא ליבא בעי, what mean what we mean over here, the way he's saying it, is when we have that דעת, we have that truth that is not subject to all of the this-worldly ups and downs, it's not subject to the facade and to the presentation of רע, our דעת What's at what's in the top of the funnel, it's outside the system, that is the inner truth that really drives our emotional composition, that drives how we really truly feel about things, right?

That becomes the לב, the heart. That becomes the operating system, and that's what HaKadosh Baruch Hu wants from us. However, when you have the רשעים that instead of top-down, inside the funnel, through the body, through the heart, into the לב, but rather they are run by their emotions, then that's not really the true לב. That's because the לב is detached from the שכל. We say רחמנא ליבא בעי, that we're looking at the לב as the תכלית, that's the end of the system that has integrity. When the ידיעה, the דעת, the מוחין, the truth flows through the system until it reaches its target, so then that target is identified with the לב.

But if a person starts backwards, they're only running their life through their לב, through their emotions, and their emotions are willy-nilly, and they are not anchored in any sort of truth. A person could actually be incredibly inspired, and then they end up with nothing. Why? Because it wasn't anchored in truth. It wasn't anchored in reality. It wasn't anchored in דעת. And therefore, those person, like he says over here, אבל רשעים הם ברשות לבם. Why is that a bad thing? I thought you just told me רחמנא ליבא בעי. They're in the רשות of their heart. Unfortunately, their heart is not in the right place.

But if he feels this way, I feel a different way. No, the reason that they're ברשות לבם, that that's a bad thing, is because their lev is a detached lev. And a person who's a tzadik, a person who's learning in the right way, their understanding is the right way, their their lev is in the reshut of their seichel, inside. נמצא כשמקשר את לבו לדעתו, the lev has to be attached to the da'at. The lev is the end of the that's the tachlit, that's the bottom of the funnel, but it's attached to the top of the funnel.

שהידיעה שיש להם, he has a da'at, an integrated wisdom, that da'at that connects the mochin and the lev, it connects the intellect and the lev so that it's aligned, that there's a shleimut. יודע בכלל שמלא הארץ כבודו, ויודע בידיעת התורה, and he knows, not just intellectually, he truly knows, he again, he doesn't see that chocolate cake, he doesn't see that resha'ut in the world, he only sees ratzon Hashem. Sometimes ratzon Hashem is the is the treadmill going forward, makes you go faster, you run with the wind, and sometimes it's giving you that opposition, that adversity so that you could build up the strength that you need in order to bring up your gedulut.

וכשכופה את לבו לדעתו, and when a person subjugates their heart to their da'at, right, the lev becomes the avenue of expression, the window to integrated wisdom that translates something intellectual into something that's fully real for that person. היינו שלבו ברשותו, the lev, they're not in the reshut of their lev, their lev is in their reshut. אזי נכללין גם כן המדות שבלבו לדעתו, then the chesed, gevurah, tiferet, netzach, hod, yesod, and so on. We said that the chesed really goes along with the middot, but where does the chesed come from? All of those things are subject to their da'at.

That's what actually dictates and directs the system, and their da'at is something that is not subject to this world, their da'at is something that in the heart of hearts is aligned with HaKadosh Baruch Hu, it has the objective truth and reality, and the way that we are able to develop that is to attach ourselves to a Rebbe who is not subject to these limitations. ואזי מקבלין המדות אור האהבה שבדעת, that is where we take in this אור האהבה שבדעת, which is, again, there's the ahavah outside the system and the ahavah inside the system, that's where we're able to inject this ahavah into our perspective to allow us to climb above, to allow us to raise ourselves from level to level.

ורואה ומשיג אור הגנוז לפי בחינת זו. Again, everything is it can't be stressed enough in in the way that I am understanding this Torah in translating the structure into a personal structure of avodah, that as much as we understand the tzurah, the שיעור קומה, how HaKadosh Baruch Hu built the world, it's like fractals. This this this tzurah translates into the world developing into from this world, עולם הבא into לעתיד לבוא, and it translates into my personal, where I'm holding, into my personal לעתיד לבוא. היינו שהצדיקים והתורה שהיה גנוז וצפון עד עתה ממנו, all of this perspective, this subjugation, this truth that until now was hidden from me, why?

Because I was allowing my lev, I was allowing my personal reflections and emotions to dictate my reality, so it was hidden from me. I might have been exposed to it intellectually, but it was hidden from me emotionally, it was hidden to my reality. כשכופף את לבו להדעת, אזי מקבל הלב שהוא שורש כל המדות ומקבל אור האהבה שבדעת, then my lev will have access to and integrate the truth so that that will become the basis of my operating system and my emotions, and what drives me in a in an actualized way. הוא אהבה שהיה בכח בין הקדוש ברוך הוא לישראל קודם הבריאה, this is going back to what we described before, This is the רצון השם that HaKadosh Baruch Hu created the world to bring out.

Sometimes, when you create a system in order to actualize a ratzon, the different parts of that system are operating in different ways, but they all come together. So, within the system there's ימי טוב, וימי רע, things that are going in different ways, and there's going to be a particular type of ahavah that applies to it. But when we're able to develop this lens, we're actually able to attach things back up to the shoresh, so we have access to the original ratzon, to the original love that was internal kivayachol kivayachol to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, pre-creation, right?

It was that love that I had for a certain creative aspect, a certain expression that I wanted to write a letter, I wanted to make a poem, create a song in order to express that. Once it's in the בריאה, I have a love for that object. But there's a much deeper, more primal love that I had in my brain and in my heart before that that's what got me to to bring that out into the world. And when we attach everything back to the shoresh, that's how we can find ourselves and redefine redefine ourselves and redefine the world as everything is really part of one bigger shleimut, really everything is only to bring about and actualize בגלוי the yichud of HaKadosh Baruch Hu inside of this world.

So now, to finish off the Torah, and then Rabbi Natan will add something on as well, but we're going to put these ideas back into the pasuk that we began the Torah with. וזה: מי האיש החפץ חיים. חפץ הוא בחינת לב, we'll discuss this in a second, but to desire, to want something, that is in the לב, שהחפץ הוא בלב, the desire, the ratzon is in the lev. חיים הוא בחינת דעת, and the idea of life, of energy, of attachment to the source is the bechinah of דעת, כמו שכתוב: מקור חיים שכל בעליו, that the source of life is sechel to to to its בעלים, כמעיין נובע, like a wellspring.

It's interesting because sometimes we would associate the heart, the heartbeat with life, but over here he is associating sechel with life, the brain, the awareness, and, you know, certainly I guess we could say in terms of the sefirot, the mochin, the chochmah, binah, da'at are higher up, closer to the source than all of the all of the other sefirot that would translate into the lev like we discussed, but in terms of who who a person is, as much as the animal life, as it were, would be the heart beating, the human life, the human awareness, the the the bechirah, the attachment to הקדוש ברוך הוא certainly resides in the seichel, so I'm sure there's a lot a lot more to say, but in any event, the way that it's being presented to us is that the desire is in the lev and the the attachment to life is in the seichel.

However, plugging back in what we discussed not that long ago, when we're talking about lev, we're not talking about lev as a detached function from the intellect, right? There are emotional people and they are intellectual people. No, what we're talking about is the function of the lev as coming as the culmination of that process, the things that I know, that I've come to understand as my reality, my attachment to understanding, translating into a emotional response, into a internal response that becomes my operating system, otherwise that's not really the true lev, that is just the presentation of a lev.

So, היינו כשמקשר את הלב לדעת, מי האיש החפץ חיים, the person who attaches the lev to the da'at, and da'at being the true da'at, the true understanding, the objective reality, the attachment to השם, שלבו ברשותו, that the lev is is, again, it's sort of downline, down the pipe from something that is hooked up through our attachment to השם, שכופף את יצרו, that a person was machnia their yetzer, the lev hasn't been hijacked. אזי לפי בחינה זו, therefore this person, according to his level where he's holding, אוהב ימים, הוא ממשיך את האהבה מדעת לתוך הימים ולתוך המידות.

Wherever this person is holding his universe, wherever his lev currently is, when he is able to attach that pipe, attach that funnel back to something that's beyond him, to bring in a new understanding which will translate into a new hit'orirut, which will increase his da'at, it'll increase the attachment that he finds himself within the world as well, לראות טוב, ורואה ומשיג, he will see, when you see something it's beyond you, u'masig, and then you will grasp it, and then you will internalize it, you will be able to to to actually have it inside of you, את האור כי טוב, the or because it's good, veganaz, and until now it was hidden, שמשיג האור, היינו התורה הגנוזה והצדיקים הגנוזים.

So wherever a person is right now, my lev is operating according to my understanding, that is my operating system, that is where I'm holding, how do I increase? I have to work on da'at. The way that I work on da'at is attaching myself to the Torah and to the tzadikim, to those people that don't have my limitations, they're not looking through my lens, they're not limited by my perspective. There's a level of hitbatlut over there, and by allowing myself to attach to something that is beyond my negi'ot beyond my limitations, my da'at will now be anchored at a higher point, and because the lev, because the emotional system, the response, the world in which I live is ultimately a function of my da'at, by expanding my da'at, by expanding my top of funnel, then I will introduce those things that were אהבה שבדעת, that ahavah that was beyond me, I'll be able to translate that into אהבת ימים, into something that is also ahavah within this world.

Next paragraph. So Rabbi Natan adds on, ושמעתי בשמו שאמר שבתורה הזאת כלולים הכוונות של לולב. Besides for the kavanot of tefillin that we expressed, we talked about the tefillin shel rosh, the compartments, and so on, and the tefillin shel yad, which is opposite the lev, so we, as we just explained, bringing this understanding, this mochin from the daat into the lev, also the kavanot of lulav are in this תורה, ולא זכיתי לשמוע ביאור הענין. And says Rabbi Natan, "I never heard the explanation of this idea from רבינו, אך עיינתי ומצאתי קצת." But I looked into it myself and I understood some of this, some of this idea, what Rabbeinu had said that the kavanot of lulav are here, כי עיקר הכוונה של לולב הוא להמשיך כל החסדים עד החזה.

Vehachazeh, or the chest, sometimes when we talk about the שיעור קומה, we talk about the אדם הגדול, the structure of the world, sometimes we talk in terms of ספירות, we talk in terms of שמות, different הנהגות of הקדוש ברוך הוא, and sometimes we translate that structure into how it presents in the human form. So therefore, the way that we act with the lulav, we take it and we extend it out in six directions, and we bring it three times out and in, we bring it into the lev. So we go out and then we're mamshich, something we draw back into our lev, 18 shakes, three times in every direction.

So he says that the kavanot of lulav are to bring in the chasadim into the lev. We had said that there's really two aspects: there's the mochin, there's the daat, something outside of my system, the daat translates that into my body, into my person. However, the flow-through is chochmah and binah and daat, daat translated into חסד, גבורה, תפארת, נצח, הוד, יסוד. Chesed representing ahavah actually flows through into the entire process. So what we want to do is we need to access new levels of ahavah into the chesed that's in this world, so that we can elevate our לב and elevate that that אהבה.

So what we do with the lulav is we take the חסדים into the חזה, into the לב, להאירם אל המלכות, in order that it can flow through the system into מלכות at the lowest level, at the תכלית of the level. The entire system, I think we said this before, of a power plant, why do we have an entire system of energy? So that people can power things in their homes, in the outlet, which is seems to be at a much lower level, right? Lower level. The entire system of a reservoir, and all the filtration, is so that people can have water in their home, in their sinks.

So therefore, what we need to do is we need to bring something outside the system from the highest of levels in order that there should be a גילוי in this world that is accurately lined up with integrity, with fidelity, and all of the רצון השם and the truth can present itself all the way down in מלכות in this world. וצריכין לנענע נענועים, so what do we do? We shake the נענועים, כדי להמשיך אור משרש החסדים שבדעת, we reach outward to the highest levels, to those things that are beyond us, not just to the חסד which is in our system of חג״ת נהי, חסד, גבורה, תפארת, and so on, but the שורש of חסד, like we said, the love where it is even before it presents itself, the שורש of חסד that's in דעת, that's beyond the system, אל החסדים המתפשטים בגוף, and we attach it to the חסדים which will ultimately throw through the גוף, להוסיף עליהן אור גדול משרשם שבדעת, so that we can elevate the דעת, elevate the higher אהבה, which will ultimately flow through into our לב.

עיין שם Pri Etz Chaim Shaar Lulav. And this is how the Arizal z"l presents it. וגם מבואר שם שהכוונה בענין הכתוב יומם, plural, יצוה ה' חסדו, why יומם? ולא אמר יום, אלא יומם שהוא הולך עם כולם, עיין שם. We'd said that the ספירות also sometimes referred to as מידות, or referred to as יום, ימים, or as each one is being a day, a distinct unit. So really it should be יום יצוה ה' חסדו, because חסד is linked to אהבה, but it's יומם, because the חסד, ultimately אהבה flows through the system, that מידה of אהבה, that מידה of love.

This is a little bit technical, but okay, we're finishing up what Rabbi Natan is enlightening us to, where we see other areas within our עבודה layered over this this this system of aspects of truth, aspects of how Hakadosh Baruch Hu put these things into the בריאה. וכל זה מבואר בתורה הנ״ל על פי דרכו הנוראה של רבינו ז״ל, what the Arizal just said by lulav actually presents itself if you look in Rabbeinu's system, כמבואר שם, שעל ידי כפיית היצר, through subjugating one's yetzer, meaning that we take the lev that could have been subject to the yetzer, a person was governed by these other emotional, these desires, and he's מכניע it, he subjugates, he plugs it into the system that's actually a flow through from the lev.

In that case, זוכה לגלות האהבה, because now that it's back in line, the ahavah can, the chesed can flow through, שהוא חסד, שהוא יומא דאזיל עם כולי יומין. Now that you reattach the lev, the end of the system back up to the pipes, then the chesed and the ahavah will flow through, דהיינו אהבה, שהוא חסד מלובש בכל מידות. ומבואר שם, שיש אהבה שבדעת, and we explained in our Torah that there is this אהבה שבדעת, the source of the ahavah before before it presents itself even in the lower levels of creation, right? We had explained that a person has a love of an idea of their child, of anything before it becomes something that's externalized.

Now there's a love between two things, there's first the internal love for this thing. So there's this אהבה שבדעת before it comes into the world, שהוא למעלה מהזמן והמידות, which is before any sort of distinction, any sort of perception of fragmentation, before anything starts breaking up into different aspects, earlier in the in the within the unified within the unified world. ועל ידי שמקשר לבו לדעתו, now when a person lines up his da'at, his desires, his emotions, the lower aspects of himself with his דעת, שלבו ברשותו, meaning that the way that I feel about something is in line with the way that I understand it, a true perspective that actually manifests in my emotions, אזי מקבלין המידות אור האהבה שבדעת, then the middot themselves, the lower level will actually become a receptacle for that higher-level love, כנ״ל.

וכל זה הוא סוד כוונת לולב, and all of this is within לולב, שהוא המשכת הארה משורש החסדים שבדעת, again, to tie together the lower levels and and connect the pipes upwards of something that was previously outside of my system. I want to tie my emotional capacity with something that was previously beyond me, and how do I expand my da'at? Again, by subjugating my yetzer and to attaching myself to to those sources that are that are outside of my boundaries, so now I can elevate myself, namely the Torah and the צדיקים, שהוא בחינת אהבה שבדעת לתוך החסדים שבגוף, שהם בחינת כללות המידות.

And guf we said is a כללות המידות. The way that I feel about something, the what lights me up, ultimately is נכלל, it incorporates all of my understanding, all of my emotions, and that ultimately comes together within the לב, שבכולם מלובשים חסדים, and once we're able to attach this higher-level ahavah into an ahavah in the world, this ahavah will flow through and be an aspect of every part of myself, because we said that that ahavah, that chesed flows through, שהם בחינת אהבה כנ״ל. וכל זה להאיר אל המלכות, and the entire point of this is to go all the way through the system into the malchut, where at the lower level there is a גילוי, שהוא האתרוג.

The etrog, we know was supposed to be perfect, it's supposed to be beautiful, it's not supposed to have a mum. The entire tachlit of this system of attaching ourselves to as high up on the chain, closest to the sources as possible, so that will there'll be a flow through into the world, into the tachlit, and the malchut will reflect all the way back up to the ratzon, and it'll be a system that has total fidelity. היינו כדי לגלות מלכותו לכל באי עולם, not just to the Jews, but to every aspect of the world. We are the emissaries, we are the vehicle through which this happens.

However, the idea is that רצון השם should present itself and be, we said that the letters should light up, whether we see tov and ra, but ultimately the malchut present itself, everything should be lit up as a giluy of הקדוש ברוך הוא, היינו למצוא אלקותו בכל לשונות העכו״ם, so that in everything, even the other languages/cultures, you know, and so on of the other goyim, really we'll see that this is an aspect, maybe a more limited aspect, it's not in its unified form, but we can see that everything is really is really Godliness that's in every aspect of creation, and our job is to tie it back to the source, to put it back together.

ובכל הדברים הגשמיים ובכל מדורי הקליפות כנ״ל, שכל זה הוא בחינת מלכותו בכל משלה, even at the lowest levels, we will see malchut reflect back at the the king, the malchut, the kingdom is going to reflect back at the Creator, at the King, at the Ribbono Shel Olam, and there is no perception of otherness whatsoever. וכל זה נעשה על ידי הצדיק, which we said similar to Torah, the tzadik is somebody who has subjugated his yetzer, somebody who has transcended the world, and not at not despite the world, but now is able to top-down understand that the entire world is actually Godliness, and the tzadik is kofeh the yetzer, so the lev is not governed by the yetzer, he's not governed by his lev, but the lev is actually subjugated to the daat.

It's reattached, that is the true perspective, שהוא בבחינת הלולב, that the tzadik is a aspect of לולב, שהוא בבחינת צדיק כידוע. And, not to get into it, but just rashei prakim reading from the note over here, that the tzadik is a vav is a line. A tzadik, it's like a chut hashidrah, like the spine, which has 18 vertebrae, and the lulav has 18, we said na'anuim, three in three in six directions, corresponding to the 18 berachot of Shemoneh Esreh and the 18 azkarot of הבו לה' בני אלים. So it goes on, but again, we see that once you, instead of looking from the outside in, once you understand the formula, the code of the world, then you will see different aspects of how the world is actually layered on top of and an expression of the the the way that Hakadosh Baruch Hu has a הנהגה with the world, and in all these things בבחינת צדיק כתמר יפרח.

Lulav is a date palm, so the צדיק is associated with the תמר. כי בסוכות אנו עוסקים לגלות מלכותו לכל באי עולם. Sukkos, when we have the lulav and the etrog, is actually where we have this עבודה of bringing a גילוי of מלכותו יתברך into the entire world. ואפילו לכל השבעים לשונות, העכו״ם, שזהו סוד שבעים פרים שמקריבים בשבילם בסוכות. The system of קרבנות on Sukkos, beyond now, that the 70 קרבנות, if you add them up, is associated with all of the 70 nations. But we see over here our עבודה, not just to be the end of the line, but to actually to be משפיע to and and to be a צינור to bring down, to again, like we keep on saying, use this לשון of like lining up the pipes so that everything, all of the fragmentation, it's really one system.

And as much as there's different expressions and different forms of it within this world, it's not fragmentation, but rather it's integration. It's not just one, it's it is multifaceted in its presentation, but because it's integrated, it's actually all part of one greater שלמות, one ייחוד. וזהו שאנו אומרים אחר נטילת לולב והקפותיו, למען דעת כל עמי הארץ, that in order that there should be דעת that is to כל עמי הארץ כי ה' הוא האלקים אין עוד. וכל זה מבואר בהתורה הזאת כמבואר לעיל באריכות, and all of what we just explained by the lulav is actually the same ideas that we discussed באריכות in the Torah itself.

Again, starting off really with the כוונות of תפילין, ועדין צריכין עיון רבה, and still we can apply a lot of more a lot more depth and looking into this idea לבאר כל הכוונות של לולב על פי התורה כנ״ל באר היטב, וה' יאיר עינינו בתורתו, and we end with a תפילה that Hakadosh Baruch Hu should lighten up our eyes, right? The light comes in from the outside. Hakadosh Baruch Hu should give us that דעת שנזכה להבין דבריו ורמזיו הנוראים ונפלאים, that we should be able to totally understand what the AriZal put into the כוונות לולב, and the depth is is infinitely deep of the Torah, and yet at least we have a little bit of a window that we heard from Rabbeinu that these ideas are in also in lulav, and bring from the לשון of the AriZal in the כוונות. Okay, we're bumping up against an hour, so I guess Baruch Hashem' we finished the Torah, and next time we will start Torah ל״ד.