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Rav Shlomo Katz explores important perspectives and practical insights into our mental health and well-being, based on the writings and teachings of some of our nation's greatest Tzaddikim.
שלום עליכם, dearest friends. This past שבת, we had a really special and important afternoon שיעור on the topic that is very, very relevant to anyone that's going through the times that we're in. And that topic is the ability to have שמחת הנפש during the times that we're in, the ability to find rejoicing in our soul. Is it possible? Is it possible to have any type of joy in our hearts right now when there's fear? Which led us to the question of, is it actually possible to not be scared? Which led us to the question of, well what to do if I already find myself in a place of fear? All these questions are very relevant to the issues at hand and many of the questions that have been coming up, not just the last week and a half, but for the last year and ten months, seem to all be leading towards this place of a decisive moment in our faith, rediscovering what it really means to believe in השם and getting in touch with ourselves.
And these are all very, very important issues and we're still in the midst of discovering all of this and figuring this out. But thank God, we have the guidance of our sages of blessed memory that lead us to go into our own hearts and continue the discussion on all these issues that we mentioned above.So, what I'd like to do for the next few minutes is to unpack this. Let's see, let's see what we have. What do we have to work with? And we begin by something that's probably clear to us, but it's important to point out and to even highlight.
When I learn תורה, when I learn about a מצוה, or when I learn about a הלכה, I'm not just learning about what the תורה says, but at that moment, I'm receiving from God two things. One, is the clear statement of this is something that you are capable of doing. And B, I'm giving you all the strength to do it if while you're learning it, you realize it's me, השם, giving it right to you.When a person learns תורה like that, the experience of תלמוד תורה is something else. And there's a lot more to say on the matter, but for today's learning, I just wanted to focus on that, on that exact concept.
Because for many people, they may learn certain things and, God forbid, not feel that it's שייך to them. Or they may learn of high levels in the service of God and they may say to themselves, well, that, that's really relevant for people that are really, what we say, holding. But not, not for me. And we have to go, if this is our time right now to dig deep into our אמונה, into our faith, so we have to start off by saying that what we're going to be learning and what we will learn every day of our lives, but definitely today, these are concepts that are in our reach.
And the Alter Rebbe focuses the whole תניא on the פסוק, כי קרוב אליך הדבר מאוד, בפיך ובלבבך לעשותו. That these are things that you are able to do. It's close to you. It's in your reach.There's a very, very important piece in the רמב"ם in הלכות מלכים פרק ז' where the רמב"ם addresses the person that's going out to war.
And the רמב"ם is basically telling the, the potential warrior, he just wants to make sure that we understand what the תורה is telling us about the person that goes out to war. Where the question comes up in the תורה saying מי האיש הירא ורך הלבב? The person that's fearful, the person that has a soft heart, the person that's not able to be a warrior, what should a person like that do? So obviously, no one wants someone that has fear to be on the battlefield. But it happens that people are on the battlefield and they are approached, they they approach a sense of fear. There's a scenario that may cause them to have a lot of פחד in their heart.
So am I supposed to listen to the voice that says, listen, this is not for you, you gotta just, just get out of here. Or could it be that the תורה is telling me, well what should I do? It's guiding me. What, what should I do when I, when I approach this situation in life? And the רמב"ם, I'm just going to read for you from the רמב"ם a few lines here. He says, ומאחר שיכנס בקשרי המלחמה, but once you've entered into battle, at that moment, ישען על מקווה ישראל.
You lean, lean on מקווה ישראל, on the hope of עם ישראל, on הקדוש ברוך הוא, ומושיעו בעת צרה. And he will redeem you at a time, a daring time, a time of trouble. וידע שעל יחוד השם הוא עושה מלחמה. And be aware and conscious and focused on the fact that you are fighting for the oneness of God's name.
When we go to obliterate evil from the world, we are not doing it out of a sense of anger towards the enemy, even though the anger is definitely there. The, the focus is more on there's a blockage of God's light in the world. And it's manifesting through you, evil enemy, through the darkness and the concealment that you're adding on to the world. And we are people of light that are hopefully removing all the obstacles and all the screens that prevent us from truly basking in God's light.
But in order to do that, that's what I, what רמב"ם is saying, I have to be fully focused on that. And then he says very hard words. It's very hard for us to, to to understand this, but he says, ולא יפחד ולא יחשוב לא באשתו ולא בבניו, אלא ימחה זכרונם מלבו ויפנה מכל דבר למלחמה. That you must remove images, people, obviously the ones that we're closest to and that we love the most, we got to remove them from our midst, from our mind at that moment, because as long as we're thinking of them, that may get the bigger part of us, the worst part of us right now, and, and prevent us from being that fierce warrior that needs to be on the front lines in order to do the job that we've been speaking about right now.Now the רמב"ם continues and tells us something very, very important, that the תורה said, אל ירך לבבכם, אל תיראו ואל תחפזו ואל תערצו מפניהם.
The רמב"ם's pointing us to the תורה where it says in ספר דברים that when a person does engage in such a battle, there's something that you're not allowed to do. You're not allowed to have fear in your heart. You're not allowed to be paralyzed by the, by, by the fear, and you can't shock yourself too much. You can't freak yourself out too much.
And we're going to get back to this, these words from the, from the תורה, because the רמב"ם's saying that if you do fall into this category of someone that's fearful, it's not just that it's a bad thing and not a good tactic for a warrior, but rather the רמב"ם says you're עובר על מצוות לא תעשה. You're transgressing one of the מצוות of the תורה. The תורה says not to be fearful. And you go over that when you have, when you invite fear, not exactly invite fear, but when you allow fear to play a role in your decision-making.
The רמב"ם's pointing out something very, very important, because it is not just a bad idea, like we said before, but we need to interpret it as being, the best example I think we gave over שבת is that when a person allows fear to do what they do in their life and, and confuse them in a state of war, it's the equivalent of not eating non-kosher things, meaning it's the equivalent of making sure you don't transgress those things that are prohibited, that are, that are not permitted on שבת. But that's a very big thing. That's basically we're wondering, could it really be that there could be a commandment about an emotion, about a feeling? Which of course brought up the famous question, ואהבת את השם אלוקיך בכל לבבך ובכל נפשך ובכל מאודך. I'm commanded to love.
Could there be such a commandment to love? Could the תורה command me about emotions? We're going to get back to that, but the רמב"ם ends off by saying that anyone that fears, anyone that, sorry, that that battles, וכל הנלחם בכל לבו בלא פחד, but anyone that fights with all his heart without fear, and his כוונה is to be מקדש שם השם, and your, and your point of doing the battle is to sanctify God's name, now look at the next two words, מובטח לו. The רמב"ם's saying that person is promised, he's guaranteed, מובטח לו שלא ימצא נזק ולא תגיעו רעה. A person is promised that damage won't find his place, and that bad things won't happen to that person. ויבנה לו בית נאמן בישראל, and he will merit building a home in עם ישראל, and he will merit to have children and, and all the good stuff that, that, that awaits those that come back victorious from battle.
But the two words here is מובטח לו. It's a big guarantee. רמב"ם's saying that person is promised that it's going to be good. Who? The one that is not going to be עובר the מצוות לא תעשה, the one that understands that the תורה commands me that I'm not allowed to be fearful right now.Now, in a beautiful, heartfelt letter that I came across last week, a letter written by the third Lubavitcher Rebbe, the צמח צדק, רבי מנחם מענדל שניאורסון, we found something very, very important, something very, I would almost say, surprising for Lubavitch literature because it is, it is so, you'll see.
I don't have to explain too much. The צמח צדק wrote a letter, it's אגרת ט"ו in the אגרות of the צמח צדק, where he, I think it was a letter in correspondence with his מחותן, one of the fathers of one of his sons-in-law, daughter-in-law, not sure exactly who. Where the Rebbe is addressing those that are feeling very much fearful in their heart. It must have been a time of war, some time or maybe a pogrom, I'm not sure exactly.
So the Rebbe writes off by saying that the first thing is, ודאי שיש לבקש מהשם על שמחת הנפש. No matter in what state you're in, what stops a person from asking השם to bring שמחה into their soul? As the פסוק says, דוד המלך asked for this, שמח נפש עבדך. Bring rejoice to the soul of the one that's serving you. I'm with you, השם.
I'm in this. Like, I'm your guy. And I don't want to go through life like this. I don't want to go through this experience like this.
So the ability to simply ask God, God Almighty, right now, I want to show up in the best way possible. I want to be the best that I could be. But I know that without שמחה in my, without happiness in my soul, the chances of doing that which I signed up for don't look too good. So the צמח צדק says that's how we have to begin the whole approach to this, to this topic.
And he brings again from the רמב"ם that we learned, that a person has to make sure that I listen to the תורה when it says, I am not allowed to become someone that is fearful. But he addresses the obvious question that we asked before, but what about if I am? Then who, do I have a place? I know I'm not supposed to. I know I'm supposed to be courageous, strong. I know all that.
But what if I'm not? Then where's my place? So I'm going to read you one line here from the צמח צדק that sharpens what we were trying to say before. וידוע שכל המצוות אינן אלא בדבר שיש לאדם בחירה על זה לעשותו או למנוע מלעשותו, כמו שכתוב בשמונה פרקים להרמב"ם פרק ב'. As we've learned in other places in the רמב"ם, in the שמונה פרקים, the second chapter, and also in the fourth chapter of שמונה פרקים, the צמח צדק says that a person must internalize that מצוות that are given to us all relate to a person's בחירה חפשית, a person's free choice. I could choose to do what I'm supposed to do, and I can choose to refrain from what I'm not supposed to be doing.
That's the strength that God gave me. You know, friends, one of the most difficult things of anyone suffering from serious trauma and stress and anxiety is that they believe and it feels like this, it really does feel like this, that they don't have בחירה, they don't have choice. What they're experiencing, what they're feeling, זה גדול, גדול מהם. It's too, it's bigger than them.
They, it got the best of them. They, they can't, they can't come out of it. Now, as we said on שבת, there are certain situations, of course, of people suffering from severe states of stress and anxiety and panic, where they should seek medical treatment 100%. We're, we're, we're, in this class, what we're trying to really relate to is עמך, the העם.
All of us are running into and out of bomb shelters, hearing crazy booms, seeing together with the incredible, miraculous, miraculous actions taking place on enemy grounds, we're still seeing a lot of destruction, and are faced with a lot of very anxious feelings. So this, what the צמח צדק is going to do now is basically speak to the person that is dealing with a state of war, of being someone that didn't necessarily choose to be around such a thing. But what do I do once I'm in it? What do I do once I'm in it? What do I do once I'm feeling all this? Now here is where the צמח צדק brings us into the life and the heart of the תניא, as the Alter Rebbe explains to us so beautifully in the beginning of the תניא, that there are three garments of the soul. Garments can also be interpreted as ways of expression, three ways that my soul expresses itself in this world.
מחשבה, thought, דיבור, speech, and מעשה, and action. When we speak about בחירה חפשית, the צמח צדק says that each person has to check in with these three garments, with these three elements: מחשבה, דיבור, ומעשה. And ask myself, am I thinking the thoughts that I want to be thinking about right now? And if the answer is no, I plug in another thought because as the צמח צדק explains, and there's a beautiful teaching in ליקוטי מוהר"ן on this as well, that you can't have two thoughts at the same time. So I choose at that moment to think of something else.
That's my choice. I'm thinking about the terror, rightfully so, because this is what's going on around me. A מאמין, a believer is not someone that never thinks about fearful things. A מאמין, a believer is someone that catches themself when they're caught, trapped in negative and dark and fearful thoughts, and at that moment decides, I'm not going to be thinking about this right now.
I'm going to think about whatever else it is. And then I check in with my speech. Am I talking a lot about the things that bring fear? Am I speaking, is my speech very much connected to the paralyzing aspect that fear causes, causes in me? And then I go to מעשה and action. What am I actually doing? Where have my legs led me to today? And the בחירה in these three departments, the צמח צדק says, was given to us in order to be people that can look fear in the eye and say, hi, sorry, wrong address.
I've chosen to move, I've chosen to move somewhere else. And at a certain point, the צמח צדק says is that when the מחשבה, דיבור, ומעשה are really in check, that I check in with myself in these three areas throughout the day, I have a chance of these מדות that have now become non-fearful characteristic traits and attributes, I have a chance that these מדות become קבוע בנפשו, they become instilled within me. This is the fabric that makes me me. And at that moment, the prayer that I began with, שמח נפש עבדך, begins to happen.
And the צמח צדק says, we'll start to feel a pouring of a new spirit from above which will bless me and surround me with an ability to not just function and not just survive, but even to have inside joy in my heart. Which is something that I know that many people that maybe are not in the country can't understand how we're able to have a certain element of joy when there's so much around us that that is telling us otherwise. But this is basic פנימיות עבודת השם. When my godly service is like this and my מחשבה, דיבור, ומעשה are checked in and I become a בעל בחירה over it, the natural result is that there's now room for joy to come into your heart.
And I don't mean joy that it makes you feel like you want to go dancing around the streets and, you know, come up with people and say, מצווה גדולה להיות בשמחה. Not, not those things. It's something inside. It's this inner element of joy.
And everyone knows that when I have inside joy, I have air. I can breathe. And the opposite is is when I don't have inside joy and I don't have air, I can't breathe, and that's usually the hardest to deal with. That's the most difficult to deal with.
That's the feeling of being suffocated, which we're trying to, we're trying to go out of. There is of course a lot more to to to say on this subject, and there are a lot of very important works in the teachings of Rav Kook on the matter, which maybe we'll get to on another day. But for now, what I wanted to bless us all with is maybe a new found and more profound understanding of what מצוות really are, what אמונה is, and what it means to be a warrior in the times that we're facing right now. And to not forget, everyone's in this together.
Some people have an easier time checking in and replacing thoughts with better thoughts, and by some people it's more difficult. But each person, כפי שורש נפשו ונשמתו. Each person in accordance to where their heart and soul is at, shares a common denominator: בעל בחירה, masters of choice. So I give us a ברכה that when we learn תורה, and specifically, we learn the laws regarding those that go out to war or those that are faced to be in a state of war, that when we hear what the תורה says, it has it has an accompaniment, it has music with it that says, this is something that you're capable of doing.
And then you hear a whisper from השם and says, and I believe so much that you can do it.