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Okay,
hello peoples,
we can start.
Good.
We're in פרק ד׳
ליקוטי אמרים.
If you have it in front of you,
we're in the one,
two,
three,
four,
five,
six,
seven,
eight,
ninth line,
the last two words.
Until now we discussed the idea that the נפש אלוקית,
that Godly sense of,
that Godly identity of the self has three expressions of מחשבה דיבור ומעשה,
but what can it think about?
What it expresses,
what it wants to think about.
The נפש אלוקית is that aspect of me which is חלק אלוק ממעל,
that's the פסוק ויפח באפיו נשמת חיים.
I think I referred once to a ספורנו where the ספורנו says that the
basic animal,
basic living reality of the human being was included in the פסוק ותוצא הארץ
נפש חיה למינה.
And he writes over there that yes,
the sapien was created and he had a נפש חיה just like the animals,
just like anything else.
It is on that when he chose homo sapien,
then he created this בצלם אלוקים etc.,
ויפח באפיו נשמת חיים,
then he brought in this חלק אלוק ממעל,
this נשמה.
This will probably explain to us the existence of Neanderthals etc.
Yes,
they were created together with ותוצא הארץ נפש חיה למינה.
Read the ספורנו,
it's a really interesting ספורנו which is interestingly come but for me it means
something very simple that this אדם which was created that we talk about אדם,
that doesn't mean there weren't other people before that.
There were,
but they didn't get the ויפח באפיו נשמת חיים,
they were part of ותוצא הארץ נפש חיה למינה.
It explains a lot of things.
It's an important thing to know,
so let's go further.
So he says that the how does it express itself in חכמה ובינה ודעת
by thinking,
speaking,
and understanding whatever it's possible to understand in פשט רמז דרוש וסוד of תורה.
That's how else does it express itself?
If you have a נפש אלוקית which all it recognizes itself as wants to
be cleaving to God,
to return to its source,
so the only way it expresses itself of closeness to הקדוש ברוך הוא is
through תורה and מצוות.
So that is the idea of learning תורה through חב״ד,
through the חכמה ובינה ודעת.
Then he talks about the מידות a person has.
המידות,
you know,
afterwards once you have,
if you know in the flowchart of a man,
you have the three levels of intelligence:
חכמה ובינה ודעת.
We discussed this in the past.
And then you have,
well the דעת is that which is that possibility of taking a cerebral intelligence
and translating it into emotional intelligence,
something which can actually become vivid,
real,
and generate emotions.
You can have a lot of חכמה and a lot of בינה but you
won't react to it.
Like a typical example was people that smoke or take drugs or overeat like
you know like most people,
you know what I mean?
You know the science.
Goodness sakes,
we all know the science.
And we all know the thing,
yet somehow until not,
until what was it,
twenty years ago,
people in America smoked.
I don't think they smoke too much anymore,
thank God.
But you know people are still overeating,
I can see,
you know,
you try to buy a suit in in Europe,
you have to be slim.
The typical American,
I mean,
that size almost doesn't exist in Europe.
There're big people,
obesity is an issue.
Now where's it coming from?
What is this?
This is something that you know the science yet you don't react to it.
You have חכמה and בינה,
but you lack דעת,
the capability of creating that you create an emotional intelligence.
That is the פשט דרך אגב when a קטן אין בו דעת.
What do you mean אין בו דעת?
They can be super intelligent.
I have grandchildren,
you mean they know מסכתות of משניות before בר מצווה,
big deal,
including טהרות,
big deal,
but the emotional intelligence as to therefore,
if I do this deal,
what are the ramifications?
They don't play chess,
they don't think three steps ahead.
That,
for that you have to have a vivid reality and looking today about the
future,
etc.
That a קטן doesn't have.
That's the פשט קטן אין בו דעת.
I just want you to understand.
Doesn't mean he's not intelligent,
doesn't have the capability of translating it into emotional intelligence,
and therefore reacts in a non-wise way the way many of us do.
Many of us are adult קטנים in a certain,
when it comes to let's say these type of things.
So these מידות,
what are the major מידות?
So the major מידות,
well if you recall your ספירות,
primarily the מידות of a person reflect the מידות of הקדוש ברוך הוא.
And that's what you say in ברוך דוד,
that פסוק in דברי הימים.
לך ה' הגדולה והגבורה והתפארת והנצח וההוד כי כל בשמים ובארץ לך ה' הממלכה.
What that is,
the seven מידות of what we call גדולה,
extensive behavior,
outgoing חסד as we would call it.
גבורה is the idea of constricted behavior,
the introverted sense of self.
תפארת,
the beauty,
the merging of the two in a harmonious way.
נצח is the idea of overwhelming existence which makes other people around you shrivel.
הוד is the opposite of slinking in the backgrounds,
allowing other people to grow;
a wise parent and teacher learns how to do that,
okay?
And then יסוד is the idea of translating all that into a reality once
again,
the parallel of the דעת.
Now that you have the emotions,
can you translate it into an action which will reflect that,
and that's what's called מלכות,
the realization of all the aforementioned.
So these are called the מידות.
מידות,
but what are the?
So in חז"ל,
in רמב"ן specifically,
we have two מידות which are the,
I would say,
are the capital,
are the primary מידות,
which are חסד and גבורה,
which are the parallel of אהבה and יראה.
What do I mean by that?
I mean to say because a person which is when I talk about אהבה
or חסד,
what do I talk about?
I talk about a person which seeks proximity.
Love by definition is a mindset which draws yourself to someone else.
Not a question of your emotion,
what you feel,
question is what the mindset is.
The mindset is that a person is...
it's the fact that people are drawn to certain things.
Love by definition is an obsessive desire for constant proximity.
You're constantly looking ways of having,
of feeling that proximity.
So that's called אהבה,
which is the...
that is the emotional expression of מידת החסד.
מידת החסד is embodied in אברהם אבינו where he was like a jitterbug running
around saying,
"Yeah,
let me tell you more about God." He was the super Billy Graham walking
around and telling everybody,
"Yeah,
of course we know the truth," and all that.
He was a proselytizer,
he's the guy that opens up free hotels,
he's the קירוב guy,
he's the Jeff Seidel of the כותל.
This is אברהם אבינו,
very,
very active person,
נפש אשר עשו בחרן.
יצחק on the other hand is a very introverted person,
he's epitomized by the עקידה,
right.
He's not very active,
אדרבא he's very passive.
We don't see him doing anything or changing things.
He doesn't even change his religious status,
didn't get his name changed.
His father got his name changed,
add a ה to him because he grew.
יעקב became ישראל.
יצחק,
נעביך,
a שלעפער,
he was born a יצחק and he died a יצחק.
No,
the idea behind him is the idea you don't have to look for mountains
to climb,
sometimes the idea of just being and living לכבודו יתברך is enough.
You don't have to climb every mountain,
so you have to be able to be a constricted personality.
What is יעקב אבינו?
He's a very interesting person.
He's a person when times he can be really out,
go out,
he knows how to work his way,
like you see what happened by לבן,
he knew how to outsmart him.
He also went to war in שכם,
and that's very simple.
On the other hand,
he knows how to hide.
He knows how to not be מבליט himself,
as you see he was נטמן באהלי שם ועבר for 14 years,
16 years,
etc.
You have a person which is multi-colored,
multi-disciplined and therefore merges beautifully of the two מידות of the אהבה and the
יראה equals the חסד and the גבורה.
So that's what he writes,
המידות שהם יראה ואהבה.
What are the מידות?
That's יראה ואהבה equals גבורה and חסד,
וענפיהם and their branches,
ותולדותיהם and their subcategories which are in the branches.
What does that mean?
Once again as I explained before.
If in the מידות,
well,
look at your ספירת העומר list,
you have forty-nine ways there describing subcategories of the מידות.
So each one of them had the חסד and the גבורה,
the אהבה and the יראה.
The branches are נצח,
הוד,
יסוד,
מלכות,
and each one of them has תולדות,
if you look carefully in your ספירת העומר list,
it's good to go through it once.
I think I once gave you guys a pamphlet,
I think I sent it over basically about explaining practically what each one of
those subcategories are.
If you want I can do it again,
but I recall doing it a few years ago during ספירת העומר.
If you need,
let me know and I will resend it.
But whatever it is,
that's what he says,
וענפיהם ותולדותיהם.
So what about those מידות?
The מידות which are the כוחות of the נפש.
אלקית.
That part of its of its properties it has שכל and מדות.
So those מדות,
where are they expressed in מחשבה,
דיבור,
and מעשה?
So he says,
ומלובשות.
How is the נפש אלקית's aspect of אהבה or יראה?
Where is it expressed?
Very simply.
It's not going to be expressed in loving a piece of art,
because that's got nothing to do דוקא with חלק אלוקא ממעל.
He has to express his מדות in his quest for God or his relationship
with God because that's the whole personality of the נפש אלקית as the רבי
writes in תניא.
That line,
it's not a נפש of feeling,
it's a נפש of cerebral thinking,
which is expressed in feelings.
נפש הבהמית,
he says,
that's experiential people.
People that don't live with their mind,
rather they live with their gut,
you know,
like most people,
I hate to say it.
You know what I mean?
You ask a person why do you keep שבת?
It makes you feel good,
you know,
or because I'm used to it and this is the way I grew up,
etc.
All these are psychological reasons which don't give a reason.
Okay.
The person that lives with the נפש אלקית has a reason why he's doing
things.
Everything he thinks before he talks,
thinks before he thinks,
before he does.
And that thinking has something to do with the identity of the נפש אלקית,
his quest for proximity with God by the definition of his identity.
So he says,
what is this ומלובשות?
What's the מדות of the נפש אלקית which is the אהבה and יראה and
their branches?
Where is it expressed?
ומלובשות בקיום המצות.
That's its avenue of expressing his love,
his awe,
etc.,
his relationship with הקדוש ברוך הוא.
His emotional relationship with הקדוש ברוך הוא is expressed in his קיום המצות במעשה
ובדיבור.
What does that mean?
So first,
what does בדיבור mean?
בדיבור שהוא תלמוד תורה כנגד כולם.
He constantly says this,
such a ליטווישע person.
Whenever he mentions תלמוד תורה,
it's like six places in this book he says ותלמוד תורה כנגד כולם.
It's more than anything else.
Now what does he mean?
You know,
sometimes you have to remember what this means.
You say this every day and I wonder if people כאפ what it means.
It says אלו דברים שאין להם שיעור...
אלו דברים שאדם אוכל פירותיהם בעולם הזה והקרן קיימת לו לעולם הבא.
It's a ברייתא.
The first part which you're saying is a משנה in פאה and the second
part is a ברייתא,
it's the תוספתא.
What is it?
ותלמוד תורה כנגד כולם.
What does that tell you?
All it tells you that it's a מצוה which has פירות בעולם הזה והקרן
קיימת לעולם הבא.
Why do people say that has anything to do with the importance of the
מצוה?
It's only talking about the reward.
That כנגד כולם,
all these enumerates a small list of מצות which you have normally שכר מצוה
בהאי עלמא ליכא.
There's no שכר of מצות in this world.
What do you have in this world?
Only that they give you is making life easier to fulfill the following מצות.
That's sort of whatever you have in this world is nothing more than a
means for making it more easier to fulfill more מצות.
But that's not the שכר of the מצוה.
שכר מצוה בהאי עלמא...
שכר מצוה in this world...
ליכא,
it doesn't exist.
This world can't...
whatever pleasure,
whatever there is in this world does not fulfill,
does not fill the reward or the payment or whatever you want to call
it for מצות.
But yet there are מצות with which yes we have a שכר in this
world.
Well you see what it says?
It says כיבוד אב ואם,
גמילות חסדים,
השכמת בית המדרש שחרית וערבית.
You notice it doesn't say בית הכנסת,
it says בית המדרש,
שחרית וערבית,
והכנסת אורחים,
which today almost doesn't exist because הכנסת אורחים means to say once upon a
time people didn't have hotels,
you would take in some strange wayfarer and give him room and board as
a חסד.
That's הכנסת אורחים.
Or like אברהם אבינו saw three ערבים walking in the desert,
they had no food,
he fed them.
That's הכנסת אורחים.
Just having your friends over for שבת lunch is not the מצוה of הכנסת
אורחים.
It's very nice.
But that's not what it means.
הכנסת אורחים,
ביקור חולים,
which I mentioned to a friend of mine this week,
most people don't realize how to fulfill that על פי דין.
If you don't serve the חולה,
help him a bit to relieve his sickness and דאוון next to him for
his רפואה,
you're not מקיים the מצוה of ביקור חולים כדין.
ביקור חולים כדין is not just to visit him to check out how he's
doing,
you're supposed to do something about it.
You have to alleviate his pain,
help him prop his pillow,
fix his bed,
I don't know what,
bring him a glass of water or whatever it only be,
and take a קפיטל תהלים.
The גמרא said that's the...
The place to דאווען for the חולה is right by the head of the
חולה,
because the גמרא says שכינה מראשותיו של חולה.
The שכינה is at the head of the חולה,
so why do you have to go to the כותל for?
בי מבקר החולה,
שכינה מראשותיו של חולה,
there you have השראת השכינה.
People,
I don't know why people are running to go different places when you have
נעבעך people in the community which would love to see you and that's the
best place for a מקום תפילה.
שכינה מראשותיו של חולה.
So if people would do it,
you should know it's שכר בעולם הזה והקרן קיימת לעולם הבא.
You know this שכר בעולם הזה does not take away from the principle.
There's a חידוש,
there's פירות which do not delete from the principle of the שכר.
The חידוש is that there's פירות בעולם הזה.
ביקור חולים,
ביקור חולים,
עיון תפילה,
well I'm not going into that,
it means דאווען like a מענטש.
At the end,
ותלמוד תורה כנגד כולם.
So it's talking about שכר that this מצוה has more פירות in this world
than anywhere else and has more קרן קיימת לעולם הבא than anything else.
What's it got to do with the importance of the מצוה?
What we can come to a conclusion,
this is a רמב"ם in פרקי אבות that he says that it is true
that God did not tell us the שכר המצוה because He wanted us to
do the מצוה for itself,
not because of its שכר.
He wasn't interested in us doing it for the,
He wanted to do the מצוה because you love me,
you want to fulfill my will,
you want me to,
you want to fulfill my רצון,
my תאווה.
So He didn't tell us the שכר.
But the fact of the matter is,
just like by עבירות we can see the חומרא,
the severity of an עבירה by the punishment.
There's a big difference הלכה as far as even burial,
for the ארבע מיתות בית דין there were two separate cemeteries.
לכתחילה should have been four separate cemeteries for different levels of the חיוב מיתה
because each one is harder than the other.
סקילה is the worst.
Okay.
But הלכה למשה מסיני it's only,
they're divided into two.
But that's הלכה,
you're not קובר a רשע גדול next to a רשע קטן.
A רשע גמור shouldn't be buried next to a regular Jew.
That's the הלכה.
Okay,
it's רמב"ם הלכות סנהדרין.
So ממילא we know that by עבירות we know through the עונש we know
what is חמור and what is קל.
By מצוות עשה there are a few of them that we know what the
עונש is for מבטל the מצוות עשה.
For example,
מילה.
A person who is not מהול himself or not מקריב a קרבן פסח is
חייב כרת.
You ever heard that?
On a ביטול מצוות עשה there's a חיוב כרת.
Okay,
that means מילה and קרבן פסח are very severe,
they're מצוות חמורות מאוד.
The fact of the matter is if you don't fulfill it there's a חיוב
כרת which is unheard of by ביטול מצוות עשה.
Where do we find an עונש מיתה of כרת?
But that's the way it is.
So he says that's,
but how but what do you know?
We can't know that.
So the רמב"ם says,
but where there's an indication of שכר so we realize if the שכר is
bigger that means it's more important,
it's also more חמור.
That's what the רמב"ם writes in in the פרקי אבות on the משנה of
מחשב שכר מצוה כנגד הפסדה etc.
where שכר מצוה מצוה שכר עבירה עבירה.
Look at the פירוש המשנה לרמב"ם,
that's what he says.
So this is what the Rebbe means over here when we constantly say ותלמוד
תורה כנגד כולם.
It means to say if it has more שכר,
both in עולם הזה and in עולם הבא more than any other מצוה,
obviously it is more חמור than any other מצוה,
it's more חשוב,
whatever you're going to call it.
Its ביטול of it is going to be very severe and the fulfillment of
it is very,
very enriching.
So in other words the ותלמוד תורה כנגד כולם originally just means that there's
going to be multiple שכר.
We have to add here that the שכר is an indication of the חומרא
of the חשיבות of the מצוה.
This is a רמב"ם פירוש המשנה.
Let's go further.
So he says,
so how do you,
in other words,
the your אהבה ויראה which pushes you to do תלמוד תורה.
In other words,
why do you do מצוות?
You're primarily supposed to do מצוות for one reason only.
You want to connect to God.
You want to be דבוק בו.
You want to cleave to God.
Why do you want to cleave to God?
Well that already,
as we discussed in the past already,
our souls are thirsty to cleave to God because they realize כי הם חייך.
This is the only measure of my existence,
He's the primary source of my existence,
He's the reason,
the continued existence,
and I have I have no other meaning except for that.
If one really sticks that into his head and learns of it over and
over and over again,
basic the second chapter of רמב"ם יסודי התורה,
the first four five הלכות and learns that over and over and over again,
probably reading מורה נבוכים on that too,
okay,
then he understands.
That he's driven for this constant proximity to God.
So therefore,
how's that expressed?
How do you get close to?
So we have to understand something.
People love feeling,
by doing certain things you feel spiritual.
You feel close to God.
That's why people love finding ways to feel close to God,
I don't know,
making a קומזיץ,
you know what I mean.
I'll remember a story I'll tell you.
I remember once some guys from KBY,
they were in the Old City for שבת and they had a rooftop מלווה
מלכה on top of ישיבת הכותל.
It's a beautiful rooftop over there,
on top of ישיבת הכותל.
The guys came back to the שיעור,
so I asked them how was it?
They say,
Rabbi,
we really felt close to God.
So I told them I want you to know something.
When I was a kid,
younger than you,
I spent four years of my life in New York and וחטאי אני מזכיר
היום,
I read the Rolling Stone magazine.
I don't know if you know what it is,
the old days,
the Rolling Stones,
whatever it is.
So it's not exactly,
you know,
the טאג מארגן זשורנאל or יתד נאמן.
It was a bit of a colorful thing,
you know,
מיסודי of Mick Jagger.
Anyway,
so I remember there were advertisements there.
This goes back 1960,
61,
you understand.
So there was an advertisement there,
if you give five dollars,
that was a lot of money in those days,
five bucks,
okay five bucks they'll give you סמיכה and you can open up a church
and become a bishop.
It's a tax haven,
you know what I mean,
that was number one.
I remember עד היום הזה,
hey brother,
why do I have to learn here?
I can be a גוי,
I get סמיכה for five bucks.
Then I saw something else.
Then it says over there if you want to be close to God,
this I'll never forget this,
you pay X amount of money and when you pass on they'll cremate you
and they'll put you into one of these satellites which orbit around the Earth
and you'll be closer to God because you're orbiting around the Earth so you're
definitely closer to God.
So it says,
you know,
you're as close to God on that rooftop singing as that poor guy that's
put in the capsule over there and is orbiting around the Earth.
He may be closer than you.
What do you mean close to God?
It's בובע מעשיות,
it's auto-suggestive.
You feel close to God,
but actually it's nothing more than like falling in love with a pin-up,
you know what I mean.
These soldiers in Vietnam used to put up pin-ups on the wall.
The lady in the picture didn't know they existed but they were in love.
And what does it mean?
They were in love with their figments of imagination.
They're not close.
What does close to God mean?
By definition to be close to God is impossible because God is infinite.
There is no distance in infinity.
How can you be far from God and how can you be close to
God?
Close and far are relative terms within a finite reality.
In finite reality there's dimensions,
there's distance etc.
In infinity there's no such thing as outside of Him.
So what do you mean you're close or far from God?
You mean you feel close,
you feel far.
Okay,
so take Prozac.
That doesn't do with,
does that have any religious meaning?
That's not the מצוה of אהבה,
not the מצוה of יראה.
The answer is close to God,
the חידוש of the תורה is that God said an enormous thing.
If you fulfill my רצון through תורה specifically and through מצוות specifically,
you are bridging the gap between the infinite and the finite.
And there is a metaphysical union with God,
which is an illogical phenomena,
it's impossible in the world of logic.
But God is not defined by logic and God says yes,
your מצוות,
each one of your מצוות is a,
does an illogical reality of bridging the gap between the infinite and the finite.
It's as simple as that.
It's unbelievable.
That's what מצוות are.
And the only reason you're close to God if you love him is because
it's a מצוה!
If it wouldn't be a מצוה of ואהבת את ה' אלהיך,
feeling close to God would not have any theological meaning.
You are close to God because there's a מצוה to have this emotion and
this seeking proximity.
This emotion,
this seeking of proximity,
is a bridge,
is a מצוה through which you actually get close to God.
You cleave to the infinite.
Now what exactly that does mean in logical terms?
I have no clue.
What it,
metaphysical reality you're דבוק באין סוף.
Don't ask me what it means I can't really explain it because I don't
know what the word אין סוף really means.
I know it's infinite,
but I don't know what infinite is.
I know there's no such thing as,
I know what it isn't.
I don't know what it is.
I don't have any positive understanding of it.
I only know what I,
I do it by deducing what it isn't,
I realize that's what it is.
So you understand there's no other way of being close to God except for
through תורה and ומילוי רצוני השמורה,
let that get straight.
And if hypothetically you made a מלווה מלכה and you sang and that singing
expressed a real quest for getting close to הקדוש ברוך הוא,
so the יהודי would be doing a מצוה of אהבת השם,
but was just a good inspiring evening and after you went out with your
girlfriend for a pizza and you know and God you put in the freezer
nothing but nothing with nothing with nothing.
גורנישט.
It has no theological meaning at all.
It was nothing more than savoring your own navel.
You know what I mean?
You make yourself feel good so you prostituted religion for self-gratification.
That's all that is,
okay?
I want to put this as clear as day.
So this is what he says.
So but if you really do the מצוות through אהבה and through יראה,
then you're getting close to God and that's what he that's how you're expressing
the מידות of the נפש אלקית by through those expressing those מידות in תורה,
in מצוות.
Thus the תורה and the מצוות are the vehicles through which your נפש אלקית
cleaves,
fulfills its will of cleaving to the אין סוף.
Now let's see it inside.
כי אהבה שורש כל רמח מצוות עשה.
אהבה equals the מידות of חסד,
the quest of constant proximity is the root of all the 248 positive commandments.
וממנה הן נמשכות and all of them are expressions of that.
That's what it's supposed to be and more than that.
ובלעדה and without that,
without the מידה of אהבה,
if you do the מצוות because of multiple other reasons,
not because of a quest of proximity to the infinite,
אין לה קיום אמיתי.
That is not really fulfillment of the מצוה.
What does it mean אין לה קיום אמיתי?
So it's a קיום שקרי?
What does that mean?
The answer is in this last לשון of the רמב"ם.
The רמב"ם writes in the first chapter of הלכות יסודי התורה when we say
אמת,
הקדוש ברוך הוא is אמת.
אמת does not mean he tells the truth.
אמת means he is an absolute existent.
He exists not because of a reason,
he exists not because he does,
he exists...
no,
he exists!
He's the primary existent.
He is הוה קדמון שממנו הכל בחפצו ויכלתו.
I suggest you read the רמב"ם פרק א הלכות יסודי התורה הלכות ג ד
ה where it explicitly says that the only thing which is really אמת,
absoluteness,
is God's existent.
Everything else is relative.
Why do I,
a נשמה,
exist?
Because God wanted it to be.
If God chooses not to want it to be,
it won't be.
So its existence is relative to the will of its creator.
Why does science,
why is one and one two?
Because God chose to have such a logical understanding.
Should God change it and create a different way of thinking so one and
one won't be,
we won't have categories of one and one and they won't be equal two
anymore.
These are all created forms that which God had chosen,
chooses,
chooses to be.
Why do the laws of science exist?
Because God wants it to be.
And so on and so forth.
The clouds and ever so all these things are true within a relative reality.
They have a reason for it.
They don't exist on their own.
So when I say there's no קיום אמיתי,
what does that mean?
The absolute reason for מצוה,
the absolute מצוה is a מצוה which expresses the quest for proximity.
That's called the מצוה.
Everything else if you're doing it because of other reasons,
so that which generated the מצוה is not the essence of the מצוה itself,
but an external reason.
So you're not doing it because of itself and so your מצוה is actually
relative.
It expresses your relative feelings.
You want to feel close,
you want to do A,
you want to do B,
you want to feel part of community,
I don't know whatever different reasons you have.
You want to be close to your grandmother and therefore you want to light
שבת candles.
There's multiple reasons why we do things.
If you start asking people in שול tonight,
why you דאוון מעריב?
You'd be surprised at the answers you're going to get.
I highly doubt you're going to hear because this is the,
one of the ways in which I can be מקבל עול מלכות שמים and
קריאת שמע and I can be סומך גאולה לתפילה with all those ramifications and
through that fulfill my נפש אלקית's quest for proximity or cleaving to God.
If you give that answer brother,
I'll take you,
I'll be in America and I'll take you out for dinner.
I don't think you're going to get that in the typical שול.
Okay?
So what are you going to get?
You'll see,
they're going to be relative answers.
That's not קיום אמיתי,
it's not a...
קיום אמיתי means the reason of the מצוה is the מצוה.
רמב"ם describes it in a very simple language in הלכות תשובה פרק י.
He says האובד מאהבה,
a person who serves God because of אהבה,
עושה את האמת מפני שהוא האמת.
He does the truth.
Because it is the truth,
not because it makes me feel good to do the truth,
not because I'm doing what grandmother did.
No,
no,
no.
עושה—it's a very beautiful language here of רמב"ם פרק י הלכות תשובה.
Oh,
it should be a הלכה ב.
עושה את האמת מפני שהוא האמת.
That's called an absolute thing which is—no reason for it except for itself.
That's why he says קיום אמיתי.
That's what the רבּי means here,
that if you do a מצוה—the מצוה without it coming from its source,
it's not a קיום אמיתי.
It's a קיום of a relative reality that which may dissipate.
Today I feel like being close to my grandmother,
so I'll put on תפילין.
Tomorrow I don't feel,
I won't put on תפילין.
You have to ask yourself the question.
People make a—עד כדי כך that one has to understand that the ריטב"א writes
in the name of רבינו תם in פסחים דף ז that the purpose of
ברכות המצוות is exactly that.
The purpose of bringing ברכות המצוות right next to the מצוה as we know
the דין is עובר לעשייתן,
it must be proximate with the מצוה either beforehand or during,
sometimes בדיעבד afterwards,
but בעיקר הדין לכתחילה either beforehand or during,
מחלוקת הראשונים,
but definitely not after.
Why?
Because the purpose of the ברכה is to—is to make a declaration.
I am doing this because this is service to my King,
to הקדוש ברוך הוא.
ברוך אתה ה' אלהינו מלך העולם אשר קדשנו במצותיו—this is a commandment,
and He's the authority which commands,
וצונו,
and He commanded us to do this and I am doing this to fulfill
a commandment of the ultimate sovereign which is God,
which is the primary source of all.
So what are you actually making a declaration?
I'm not doing it because it makes me feel comfortable.
I'm not doing it because that's the Jewish thing to do.
I'm not doing it to honor my grandmother on her יארצייט and come to
שול and דאווען בציבור.
No,
I'm doing it because that's a ציווי of הקדוש ברוך הוא and that—ציוויים do
not mean suggestions.
ציוויים mean imperatives,
commandments,
and I realize that these are imperatives and therefore I am fulfilling my—my—תפקיד as
a—as a subservient to the sovereign and I'm fulfilling the ציווי.
Now that's what the ברכה is for,
it's an אופן הריטב"א.
He says you don't do it for other purposes,
you do it for that.
So the whole idea of ברכות המצוות is to say that the מצוה is
done because that's רצונו יתברך.
That's all.
Not because myself,
but because I've bent myself down to the sovereign's will.
This is the קיום of a מצוה.
Any other reason is not a קיום אמיתי,
and בעצם זה שקר in the ברכות המצוות.
I hate to say it's pretty bad.
Some—רב הוטנר טענה'ד that he is not sure that a person which puts on
the תפילין and doesn't realize—doesn't live within a consciousness or the subconscious that he
is a commanded person and this is a commandment,
he shouldn't make a ברכה.
He held it was a ברכה לבטלה.
He held if you—I mean,
usually I'm hoping that the Orthodox Jew lives within a certain at least subconscious
reality that there's an authority which is imperative.
So you make these ברכות.
לכתחילה you should bring it up into your mind.
But what about a person which nothing at all—is you doing him a favor
by telling him to say the ברכה when he puts on תפילין at the
כותל?
He טענה'ד no.
The ליובאוויטשער רבּי didn't agree,
I'm being blunt about this.
I'm not going into the why,
but I personally understand רב הוטנר'ס טענה very well.
So that's just I want to add that in.
So that's a very important נקודה.
This is what he says.
כי המקיים באמת,
a person does it for real—in other words,
the way it's supposed to be done for—what is the reason of the מצוה?
הוא אוהב את ה'.
He's the lover of God.
Which means what?
As the next sentence explains what a lover of God is.
חפץ לדבקה בו באמת.
He wants to cleave to Him in totality,
absolute—absolute cleaving to God.
Why?
Because...
Ask Romeo why he's willing to die because he couldn't live without Juliet.
He had no meaning of existence without her.
The צמח צדק points out there's no חיוב of—of מסירות נפש.
It doesn't say anywhere get yourself killed if someone tries to coerce you from
doing עבודה זרה or שפיכות דמים or גילוי עריות.
What's the מקור of the הלכה?
פסוק says ואהבת את ה' אלהיך בכל לבבך ובכל נפשך ובכל מאדך.
You must love him with your whole life.
נו?
So does the פסוק say you have to give your life away?
The פסוק says that you—what are you מוותר?
What are you doing?
The מצוה is love Him to the extent that life is meaningless without Him.
So the מצוה of מסירות נפש—not to get yourself killed,
it needs a...
consciousness,
I can't,
there's no way I can turn my back on God,
and therefore עבודה זרה,
I may not do a lot of things in life,
but עבודה זרה,
forget about it,
I'm not turning my back on my source.
I can't live without that.
My life is meaningless without that.
This is something unbelievable that through the centuries,
I would say until the Enlightenment movement,
centuries of Jews,
which were not always the greatest observant people,
would give their lives על קידוש השם,
not to become an apostate.
Things changed with the breakdown of the ghetto.
We're not going there today.
I think that multitudes of Jews do not live with any sense of religious
consciousness or a covenantal relationship,
but definitely until the breakdown of the ghetto,
until the Enlightenment movement,
Napoleon,
we definitely there was no such thing.
A Jew meant a person in covenant with God and he wasn't going to
give up his identity.
Just simple as that.
That's why intermarriage was very,
very,
very rare.
If there's intermarriage today,
because once again,
the idea of Jewish identity as a covenantal relationship with God has been watered
down terribly as we know.
It's נעבעך a terrible truth and the college campuses with the multitudes of intermarriage
will attest to that fact.
This is what we see today.
So here he says,
the person which has loved God חפץ לדבקה בו באמת.
Then he says a line which you should always remember:
ואי אפשר לדבקה בו באמת.
It is impossible to cleave to God in truth כי אם,
only with קיום,
fulfillment of רמ"ח פיקודים,
with 248 מצוות שהם אברין דמלכא כביכול.
כמו שנתבאר במקום אחר.
You perform each מצוה,
which is which you do with a certain organ of yourself,
that is parallel to another כלי,
another vessel of interaction of God which we call the אברים of God,
which means to say different מלאכים or different כוחות through which He expresses Himself.
Just like you have רמ"ח,
it's כנגד רמ"ח אברים so to speak of the שכינה and each מצוה you
connect a certain aspect of הקדוש ברוך הוא.
So you really want to connect to God for real,
or not because you want to feel connected.
Then there's a difference.
This is a very important sentence.
ואי אפשר,
I'm going to say,
לדבקה בו באמת,
there's no way it is impossible,
only כי אם בקיום רמ"ח פיקודים.
The only avenue of connection to God is fulfillment of מצוות שהם רמ"ח אברים
כביכול.
So that's number one.
So that's where the מדות are expressed.
The מדות are expressed in the נפש האלוקית when it wants to express its
identity of cleaving to God,
of expressing his חכמה and his מדות into cleaving to God,
that's what he wants to do.
So what does he do?
He does מצוות.
There's nothing else he can do.
He's not going to strum a guitar,
that won't help him.
That may be conducive as we know,
music can be very conducive to a relaxation which can allow deep thought and
meditation.
We know the prophets used music as a medium which allowed them to meditate
and ultimately prophesy.
Yes,
that I can understand.
It's very important.
But seeing it as "Oh no,
we're going to have a great בהתלהבות,
we're going to close our eyes and swoon",
believe me,
that has nothing to do with תורה ומצוות and you're not close to God.
You may be inspiring people,
which is very nice.
You know,
the idea of making a nice קומזיץ is sweet,
but believe me,
one בלאט גמרא,
you're closer to God than all of that put together.
We're going to read that in two minutes.
He goes on and says ויראה.
What is the יראה?
That's the aspect of אהבה.
What about that restrictive,
that introverted sense of self,
יראה,
that you shrivel,
which is שורש השס"ה לא תעשה.
This is the שורש,
the root,
is supposed to be expressed in every time you refrain from an עבירה because
you don't allow yourself to express yourself in front of the majesty of God.
God says "I'm here,
don't do that." There's no way I'm going to do it because God is
here and I live with the consciousness of stand in front of the majesty
of הקדוש ברוך הוא.
You said that's what יראה means.
יראה doesn't have to be יראת העונש.
It means יראת הרוממות.
It's that which the פסוק says in פרשת ואתחנן when they describe that the
Jews were frightened after they heard אנכי ולא יהיה לך.
They told him,
and they were scared of all the קולות וברקים.
They recoiled backwards and told משה,
"Listen,
we're afraid we're going to die.
You stand between us and God and you tell us whatever He says and
we can't do that." And משה was disappointed that they wanted a medium,
him to be a medium.
You can have a direct date.
Why do you want to go through a שדכן?
So he told God and God says,
"No,
they did the right thing." And God had because they have בושה.
They have יראה.
Why did I do this קולות וברקים?
למען תהיה יראת השם על פניכם.
He says הלוואי it should be this way all their lives.
So the גמרא,
the ספרי says,
"What's יראת השם על פניכם?
הוי אומר זה הבושה." The ultimate יראה on your face expressed in your face
is בושה.
Why?
Because בושה is expressed in facial expression.
The גמרא says that you become pale.
If you have a nice rosy face,
you become pale when you have בושה.
That's why the דין of המלבין פני חברו ברבים,
if you make somebody pale because of בושה,
it's as if you're killing him.
That's the גמרא,
we all know that גמרא.
So the idea is a חטא that if I would do it,
I would become pale.
That's real יראת שמים.
The idea,
the thought of of doing an עבירה in front of הקדוש ברוך הוא is,
"Are you crazy?
I mean,
I'd be ashamed.
How could I possibly stand in front of this super truth and live in
La-La-Land?" You wouldn't do it in front of your mother.
תכלס,
why are you doing it in front of God?
That's the כלל גדול בתורה.
You know,
I remember when the internet came out,
they had this thing called Net Nanny.
They would do,
you know,
to make sure you didn't do stupid things and go different places.
So you put up an email address and wherever you went,
the site was sent to somebody you were appointed as your שומר.
So the עצה was always,
"Give your mother's address." You know,
you give your mom's address,
your mom's going to see where you're going.
Believe me,
you're going to go בדרך הישר.
You don't want mom seeing anything stupid.
That's the way it is.
Okay,
what do you need Net Nanny for?
אצל הקדוש ברוך הוא,
the תירוץ is,
"You're a כופר בעיקר.
You don't believe עין רואה,
אוזן שומעת וכל מעשיך בספר נכתבים." It's very simple.
That also you know it with חכמה,
you know it with בינה.
You don't even have it in דעת and therefore you don't really believe it.
You pay lip service.
You don't honestly believe עין רואה,
אוזן שומעת וכל מעשיך בספר נכתבים.
If you would really believe it,
then there's no way that you would do anything like this.
How's it possible to say "I'm religious,
I believe in השגחה פרטית" and he so what?
You think God went to the other side of town?
He's writing tickets in Times Square now?
You think he takes off on Saturday night?
איך פֿאַרשטיי נישט.
The תירוץ is no,
you're a כופר בעיקר,
that's the truth.
Now I have it in חכמה,
I have it in בינה,
there's no way it's going to affect my way of life.
And that means to say you're not really doing the מצוות because of אשר
קדשנו במצוותיו וציוונו.
You're doing it because you make yourself feel good.
And this society doesn't demand for me to do so I don't have to
feel bad about it.
I'm pointing out a terrible religious deficiency that we all,
all,
capital ALL,
suffer from.
And this is what he's saying over here.
The שורש of מצוות לא תעשה is יראה.
ויראה הוא שורש לשס"ה לא תעשה כי ירא למרוד במלך מלכי המלכים הקדוש ברוך
הוא.
First of all,
he's scared to rebel against authority.
או יראה פנימית מזו והוא שמתבייש,
an internal יראה which is שמתבייש,
he's ashamed.
This is what we described a minute ago.
מגדולתו,
from the great the awesome majesty of God.
למרות עיני כבודו לעשות הרע בעיניו כל תועבת השם אשר שנא.
To walk against the eyes of הקדוש ברוך הוא,
all the things that God hates and are abominable for him.
We can go into a big list,
they're all שס"ה מצוות לא תעשה.
Okay,
הם הקליפות,
which means to say the living with husks equals living externally.
God hates people who live with externalities.
That's what קליפות are,
that they see things by the judge the book by its cover.
Look at things only by externalities.
You go to a pastry store and you see "Wow,
that looks so good." Did you ever check the ingredients?
Are you kidding?
You know what you're eating there?
I mean blah,
if you look you'd lose your appetite if you know that brother you're taking
margarine and sugar and a few,
I don't know,
colors which come some from the from the from the hormones of a beetle
from Brazil.
You know what I mean?
And that's what you're eating and this you the wedding cakes?
Blah!
Wouldn't go near it with a totem pole.
The point is if you were דעת.
This would be different;
this is קליפה.
סטרא אחרא is the alternative what?
What does סטרא אחרא mean?
The reality which is alternative to living with דעת.
סטרא אחרא is the world of experiential life without trying to ask why and
what.
אשר יניקתם מאדם התחתון.
What gives,
energizes this reality,
you know who?
Me and you.
In other words,
these don't have a real קיום.
They're an alternative.
What gives them life?
The fact that more and more עבירות we do,
we give more and more life and reality to the alternative way of seeing
things equals not living intelligently.
Those who don't live intelligently create for the world a stronger atmosphere of living
not intelligently.
That's what he says:
אשר יניקתם.
Where are they יונק?
Where do they,
where do they get their sustenance from,
their continued existence?
Because לכתחילה they're the figments of imagination.
Why are they so strong?
And the answer is we create that.
אשר יניקתם מאדם התחתון ואחיזתם בו.
Once they leech onto us because we live that way,
so they,
they,
they,
it's they're like parasites.
If we live that way,
they are energized by our actions.
They're like a leech which is נאחז which takes off the blood;
they are נאחז.
Their יניקה is from our מעשים שטחיים בשעת מצוות לא תעשה.
If we live externally and thus we do עבירה,
just think of the different עבירות possible that happens כל יום ויום that we're
not even talking about that.
Sometimes I wonder,
how can a person be in business in America without being a בקי גמור
in הלכות ריבית,
unless he calls constantly on the phone to רב מרדכי ווליג?
I don't know,
then,
then מרדכי wouldn't be able to דאוון שחרית.
Okay?
You know what I mean?
How can you be in business without knowing הלכות ריבית?
How can you do credit card things?
You know what you're doing?
Does anybody know איזהו נשך like you know your name?
I don't understand how;
I sometimes I wonder.
Like I'll never forget,
there were two boys from Belgium in the ישיבה that they,
the half a year before they were going to go back,
they were business people and they're going to go back to business.
רב משה שטאפש שליט"א,
he went and learned with them הלכות ריבית.
I was impressed.
I said,
משה,
you're a צדיק;
you should do the whole ישיבה this,
you know?
From שנה ה and further,
many of them are going to go into business,
they don't know what they're doing.
You know,
you have to know הלכות ריבית.
I'm just this is small examples that people do עבירות endlessly and not even
aware what they're doing,
whether דאורייתא or דרבנן.
How many people say thank you for a loan or do favors because of
a loan?
This is all ריבית דברים,
איסורים.
Then he says,
והנה שלושה לבושים אלו.
So so far we learned that the three לבושים,
מחשבה דיבור ומעשה,
which are the expression of the שכל and the מידות of the נפש אלקית.
Then he writes:
והנה שלושה לבושים אלו.
These three לבושים which are expressed in what?
In מחשבה דיבור ומעשה of the נפש אלקית.
When they are לבושים for תורה and its מצוות,
אף שנקראים לבושים לנפש רוח ונשמה,
although they're only לבושים because they're not the essential self,
they're only tools of expression as we learned in the previous class.
A לבוש is a tool of expression.
It's not the essential self.
The essential personality is the psychological profile,
which is the חכמה and the מידות.
That's the psychological interactive profile.
The לבושים are mediums of expression of that profile.
So they are לבושים for the different levels,
whether נפש or רוח or נשמה.
I'm not going to explain that at the moment.
עם כל זה גבהה וגדלה מעלתם לאין קץ וסוף על מעלת נפש רוח ונשמה
עצמם.
An unbelievable thing.
By doing those,
the expressions of the נפש אלקית of מחשבה דיבור ומעשה in תורה ומצוות,
its שורש,
its root is higher than the עצם נפש רוח ונשמה itself.
He's going to explain what that is.
In other words,
when you do a מצוה or you learn תורה,
you're doing,
it's if you're using it as a לבוש,
but what you're using actually comes from a higher source than your essential identity.
He's going to explain what this is.
כמו שכתוב בזוהר;
the זוהר writes,
it's a very famous זוהר:
אורייתא וקודשא בריך הוא כולא חד,
they are all one.
What does that mean?
פירוש דאורייתא,
when we say אורייתא,
we don't mean בבא קמא בבא מציעא בבא בתרא,
היא חכמתו ורצונו של הקדוש ברוך הוא.
What is the תורה?
The חכמה and the רצון.
of הקדוש ברוך הוא.
Here let me explain what this means.
Let's understand,
we know the כלל is that the גמרא says that תורה קדמה לעולם.
תורה preceded the world.
The רמב"ן elaborates this.
This is also another reading,
I think everyone should take time and read the הקדמה of the רמב"ן
in his פירוש על התורה.
That is יסודי הדת.
Unbelievable.
And there he discusses the idea,
what does it mean הסתכל באורייתא וברא עלמא?
The זוהר says,
God looked into the תורה וברא עלמא.
So,
what does a kid think?
It says לא תגנוב,
so He created גנבים.
It says לא תרצח,
so He created רוצחים.
No,
that's not what it means.
What does it mean הסתכל באורייתא וברא עלמא?
Wait.
You really,
come on,
what does it mean?
What does all this really mean?
How do we understand it?
So the רמב"ן explains as follows.
רמב"ן explains that the total revelation of God's wisdom through all of history,
from the beginning,
from בראשית ברא אלוקים,
going to the last whatever revelation of חכמה will be discovered in the worlds
of science to the end of time,
all of that is in the תורה,
in פשט,
in רמז,
in דרוש,
in אותיות,
in נקודות,
and whatever be.
He discusses this at length.
He says literally and in every generation that aspect of חכמה comes out into
the world.
And the נביא sees it directly in the תורה.
He says where do you think ישעיהו was saw the מרכבה?
He looked in the חומש and he saw it there and thus he prophesied
it.
יחזקאל,
where did he see his מרכבה?
He looked in the חומש and he saw it there through prophecy.
Where did שלמה המלך get the idea of knowing שיחת הדקלים ועופות?
He knew the language of how trees interact and how animals interact.
He saw it in the חומש.
Where did אליהו,
the one of the friends of איוב,
get the סוד הלוויתן,
which whatever that means,
it's something esoteric?
He saw it in the חומש.
רמב"ן explains that all of the חכמה of הקדוש ברוך הוא is found in
the חומש.
You just have to be able,
not every,
but where do you see it?
Well,
through certain inspiration,
through prophecy,
through סיעתא דשמיא,
certain people in certain generations see it.
But that will include all the sciences.
Everything is found in the תורה.
It doesn't mean that if you learn חולין you can be a brain surgeon.
No,
you can't be a brain surgeon.
And this mythological story of the חזון איש,
I don't believe it,
honestly.
Okay,
they say that he gave instructions to brain surgeons how to do it based
on גמרא חולין.
I do not believe it.
Okay,
I really think it's idiotic.
But that,
but the רמב"ן says it.
The רמב"ן says literally כל הגילויים של חכמה of הקדוש ברוך הוא,
as much as it was revealed בעולם הזה,
all of it is found.
God gave it at סיני.
And therefore he says that when משה wrote his book,
he had so to speak up in heaven something which was called ספר,
which was אש שחורה על גבי אש לבנה.
It was so to speak black,
whatever that means,
understand the metaphor,
was black fire on the background of white fire.
And it was letters which could be read in infinite ways.
And he was dictated to read the letters in certain words and sentences.
That was when God would say it and he would write it.
משה,
הקדוש ברוך הוא,
the גמרא says in בבא בתרא and מנחות,
God would say it and משה would say after him and write it.
That's a גמרא in בבא בתרא in the first פרק and also a גמרא
in מנחות.
It means that the רמב"ן explains,
yes,
He would tell him,
well,
this is how these letters have to be put into words and this is
how after X amount of words that's going to be a sentence.
And then there's also going to be paragraphs called פרשה סתומה,
פרשה פתוחה.
These are the added directions of God of what to see.
משה,
this is how you're going to bring it to the world.
But in really there's so much,
there's infinity there.
Now that חכמה of הקדוש ברוך הוא,
that's הסתכל באורייתא וברא עלמא.
God looked into His חכמה,
His infinite חכמה,
and in that חכמה which is encapsulated in כל התורה כולה,
that's where He looked into that book so to speak and with that He
created the world.
The world of science is also in that book.
Now you don't make a ברכת התורה on physics because we don't see it
from the תורה.
But if hypothetically the נביא would see physics from the תורה,
he could make a ברכה.
Is the חכמה of הקדוש ברוך הוא found in the תורה?
Yes.
Is the חכמה הקדוש ברוך הוא,
but this wasn't given to man to see it from the תורה only through
a,
I guess a נביא is not for teaching physics.
Okay,
so man has to find it out on his own.
But the פשט is he's not revealing something which wasn't there,
it was already given and in this period of time הקדוש ברוך הוא decides
to let people into it.
If you believe in this that all the חכמה of everything was given במתן
תורה.
You understand what מתן תורה,
that's what it is.
So I say that he הסתכל באורייתא וברא עלמא means that,
he looks into His חכמה.
And as we described,
it means to say so תורה,
we look at תורה,
it means חכמה and רצון of הקדוש ברוך הוא.
What does that mean?
It means to say when I learn a סוגיא,
you learn a משנה.
No,
a משנה is a case with rulings.
Now people who only memorize the case and the rulings,
they are not learning the wisdom of the rulings and the wisdom of the
case.
They are learning the external husk.
So if you accumulate,
you know all of הלכות שבת,
you know the cases and the rulings,
you're very nice,
but you didn't go near the חכמה of הקדוש ברוך הוא.
You may have connected to the רצון of הקדוש ברוך הוא.
Yes,
He wants you in certain situations to do that.
So you're not connecting to the חכמה per se,
you're connecting to the רצון which is an expression of the חכמה.
The חכמה is a certain value system which is expressed there in רצון that
you should do this way and that way.
So what you're doing when you're learning things superficially and you're learning like a,
you know,
collecting פסקי הלכה as people love doing or whatever you're doing there,
what you're doing is learning case,
הלכה,
case,
הלכה,
case,
and you're a great memory,
I can test you with a pin and a needle and you know all
of הלכות שבת,
but you don't know the חכמה of שבת.
You didn't get close to the חכמה of הקדוש ברוך הוא.
To get close to a person's רצון is much easier than to get close
to a person's חכמה.
Fulfilling my will,
okay,
you can fulfill my will,
that means you're close to me,
could be you're fulfilling my directive.
You know when you connect to my wisdom which is essentially the closest you
get to me,
to my value system,
to who I am in my world of thought,
how could you be closer?
For you and me to be close to another person the deepest thing is
when as my mother-in-law always used to say in יידיש they say,
you sleep enough on one pillow,
you get one head.
מ'שלאפט אויף איין קישן קריגט מען איין קאפ.
He says you know I mean you get close to the mindset,
you become like the personalities merge because the value system merges,
the way you see things,
the וועלטאנשאאונג merges and that's called,
that's called דבקות.
דבקות is exactly that.
So the דבוק with הקדוש ברוך הוא is not through the רצון alone,
won't do.
It's through דוקא internalizing His חכמה because that's the closest you're going to get
to Him.
The closest you're going to get to God is His value system and His
חכמה.
So the key is when one learns תורה you are actually connecting not just
to His will and you understand תורה,
you're connecting to His חכמה.
And that חכמה of הקדוש ברוך הוא is the closest you can get to
Him.
The infinite God expressed Himself primarily first of all in חכמה and from that
חכמה became בינה and from that בינה became דעת and from that דעת became
חסד,
גבורה,
תפארת,
it all starts with חכמה.
God creator starts with God being God of חכמה.
Everything else is חכמה and its development.
You when you learn something in truth,
you know you learn something you understand not just the law but the conceptual
thinking behind it.
Ultimately the meta-halachic principle behind it,
ultimately the philosophical building behind it and deeper into the metaphysical thinking behind it,
that's the deeper and deeper that you will get to understand חכמה of הקדוש
ברוך הוא.
So this is what we say at the moment,
this is what he's going to say now at the moment that by learning
תורה that's the closest you're going to get to God if you learn תורה
and you seek not His rulings but the wisdom behind it.
So how important it is to try to learn to ask the question,
okay,
now I know the rule,
tell me the dynamics,
tell me the wisdom behind it,
what the values behind it and that's going to force you to learn much,
much deeper than even what you're learning at the moment.
Even a nice piece of רב חיים won't do that.
He'll only tell you according to these rules,
this is the basic conceptual thinking,
but what's the value,
what's the wisdom in that thinking?
You still have a lot to go.
So let's have it for next time around,
in the meantime have a great week,
ברכה והצלחה.
Okay,
we're in מסכת סנהדרין *Masechet Sanhedrin*,
דף י"ז עמוד א' *Daf Yud Zayin Amud Aleph*.
I think we're at the top of the page,
but maybe we should just go back into the משנה *Mishna* for a second.
The משנה *Mishna* on דף י"ג עמוד ב' *Daf Yud Gimmel Amud Bet*,
which says the סמיכה *Smicha* for זקנים *Zekeinim* is done with three.
What is סמיכת זקנים *Smichat Zekeinim*?
So we saw earlier that it refers to the מינוי *Minuy* of the דיינים
*Dayanim*.
רבי יהודה *Rabbi Yehuda* says five.
The גמרא *Gemara* on the bottom of י"ג עמוד ב' *Yud Gimmel Amud Bet*
asks,
what is this סמיכה *Smicha*?
Is it really resting the hands like משה רבינו *Moshe Rabbeinu* did to יהושע
*Yehoshua*?
Or is it the מינוי *Minuy*,
the appointment of the דיינים *Dayanim*?
And the גמרא *Gemara* answers it's the appointment and it's called סמיכה *Smicha*.
In Hebrew the term for סמיכה *Smicha* is מינוי *Minuy*.
So we have the term סמיכה *Smicha* and we have the term מינוי *Minuy*.
Are they the same thing or not?
So the גמרא *Gemara* said at the end of י"ג עמוד ב' *Yud Gimmel
Amud Bet* that it's the same thing,
the מינוי *Minuy* is the סמיכה *Smicha*.
Then the גמרא *Gemara* continued on the top of י"ד עמוד א' *Yud Dalet
Amud Aleph*.
What's the difference between ארץ ישראל *Eretz Yisrael* and בבל *Bavel*?
In ארץ ישראל *Eretz Yisrael* we call it מינוי *Minuy* and in בבל *Bavel*
we call it סמיכה *Smicha*.
Wait,
isn't סמיכה *Smicha* the real word?
Like we see in the תורה *Torah* with משה רבינו *Moshe Rabbeinu*?
So why in בבל *Bavel* do they call it סמיכה *Smicha* and in ארץ
ישראל *Eretz Yisrael* they call it מינוי *Minuy*?
The גמרא *Gemara* says because the real סמיכה *Smicha* can only happen in ארץ
ישראל *Eretz Yisrael*.
Wait,
but you just said in בבל *Bavel* they call it סמיכה *Smicha*.
So the גמרא *Gemara* says in בבל *Bavel* they are more careful with their
language because they don't have the real thing,
they use the technical term סמיכה *Smicha*.
In ארץ ישראל *Eretz Yisrael* they have the real thing,
so they can just call it מינוי *Minuy*.
Anyway,
that was the discussion there.