Part 7 · Chapter 22

Abraham’s Akedah: Chesed Hidden in Gevurah 0:00

וכמו עקידת יצחק באברהם איש החסד, and similarly, like יצחק, עקידת יצחק, which was done by אברהם, which is איש החסד. So how can אברהם go and like be willing to sacrifice his son? That's like such a גבורה. And the reason is because the real thing of אברהם's חסד is for God, that he loved God, and whatever is Godly to him is a good thing.

And so if that's accomplished through a גבורה, it's not a problem. It's not a contradiction at all that אברהם should do something that is externally גבורה.

Because if God said to do it, then it's a חסד. It's a good thing. וכתנופת הלוים שנכללו בחסדים דכהנים, or like the the לוים, when the לוים were given instead of the בכורים to be like to help the כהנים, so it says that they were like waved, they were like the like the לוים were waved, and they were given over to the כהנים. But the כהנים are חסד, so how can the כהנים be served by לוים, which are גבורה?

כמו שכתוב וילוו עליך, like it says that they will take them to you. והיכי שרתי איפוכי? How can they serve the opposite? וכאי גוונא רבא, and there's many examples of this. And וכל זה אינו רק מצד בחינת התחלקות שבכל אחד, and the reason that this is possible is because each one divides into once you have this like the level פרצוף, once there's a complete התחלקות in each and everybody, and so then each ספירה already has its own ten, and divides ten, and ten into ten.

The Concept of Hatzlaka: Each Sefira’s Ten 1:23

על כן מצא מין את מינו וניעור. So then each thing finds its מין, and they it it gets woken back up. It's like a thing this is a thing in like a סמיכה and stuff, and also it's also a thing by עירובין. It's a thing that's used in different cases, that when you have like a mixture of opposites, so let's say, for example, if you had a a little bit of milk that went into meat,

so it's בטל if it's just a little bit, but then if you add more and you keep adding more drops, so eventually the taste is going to come back, and you'll be able to taste the milk again.

And then it's not בטל anymore. So מצא מין את מינו, that the the like מין finds its other מין and then it wakes back up and becomes a מציאות again.

Levites’ Inner Chesed Fuels the Priests 2:40

So really, even though the לוים are externally mainly a thing of גבורה, but really they have a little bit of חסד in them. And so when they connect to the כהנים, the כהנים bring out the חסד in the לוים, and the כהנים find a way to use לוים to help them. And also the לוים connect to the גבורה in the כהנים, and they, and their connection to the כהנים helps helps strengthen them, too.

And so each one is really able to work together with the other. גם בהיותם ב' הפכים ממש כו', even though they're two opposites, because once they have התחלקות, then they can come together.

וכמו ענין התחלקות מיכאל וגבריאל שר של אש ומים, like the divisions of מיכאל and גבריאל, which those are the the angels of fire and water. ואין מכבין זה את זה, nevertheless they do not extinguish each other, כמו שכתוב עושה שלום, עושה שלום כו', that God makes peace במרומיו, in in upstairs, in the heavens he makes peace between חסד and גבורה, between the מלאכים of חסד and גבורה.

לפי שיש בכל אחד מאיפוכי מאידך דייקא, since each one really has something of the opposite, so therefore they're able to come together. And this is like the idea of like a democracy, that even though everybody has their own desires, and מצד the light they don't agree, but

Democracy Analogy: Balancing Personal Desires and Tools 3:56

it when it comes to actual to doing things, to the to the כלי, so it could be that they're able to find some כלי that I want it because it will help me for this, and you want it because it will help you for that, and then we're able to work together.

We're asking the one that makes שלום למעלה should make שלום, we're asking him to make שלום למטה. עושה שלום במרומיו הוא יעשה שלום עלינו.

We're asking that השם should should help us to be able to mainly the main thing of שלום is between השם and the world, between Godliness and the world, in the physical world, spiritual and and physical.

The main way that we're able to that in order to make this שלום, the main thing that has to happen is there has to be a בירור, that you have to separate everything to make a חלוקה and divide it up, and separate the the goal from the the the the light from the vessel, the goal from the means. So first you have to clarify what is your goal, and the goal is to connect to God.

And what is the means, which is not the goal, that's the physical world. So first thing you have to do is purify your goal more and more. And the more that you understand that your goal is not to connect to God in order to get גן עדן or עולם הבא, not even to be holy and to be close to Him, but just for whatever God says you'll do, whatever, the the most the highest, most pure goal.

And once you refine that, then you have to go back and look at the means and see, what can I, how can I use everything, you have to look at everything in the world, in the spiritual world, the physical world, and see, how can I use this for this goal?

And then you see, okay, well, like this, some things are good, let's say like תפילין. תפילין ממש are good for a מצוה,

and so that becomes a, it it's mostly good, it's like a good thing. Certain things it's not, like on שבת you shouldn't put on תפילין, or let's say it's like a thing of like סכנת נפשות, so you shouldn't say, oh, now I have to go put on תפילין now.

So that's the main source of שלום is when you are able to separate the light and the vessel, then you see that they don't contradict. You can have them both together.

That's the idea of עושה שלום, that once, that that really there's already peace. למעלה there's already peace because there the light and the vessels are properly divided and separated. By us, we don't have peace because we don't see, to us it's not מבורר. It's not clear what is the real כוונה, what's the real goal, what's the אור, and what's only a כלי.

Prayer for the Temple: Peace Leads to Building 7:17

And so we're asking that that should come down to us.

Yeah, and that's why right, you know, right after עושה שלום comes of saying, like, יבנה בית המקדש itself. In the יהי רצון we ask that we should be given the portion in the תורה, cuz the תורה is what lets us have שלום, because the תורה makes שלום in the world.

And that's the main way that it does it because the main problem comes from when you somebody tells you, oh, this is good.

But you don't realize that what part of it is good and what part of it is not. So you just take the whole thing as one package deal.

But it's not you have to see that the אור is the the real thing, and the כלי you can change.

לפי שיש בכל אחד מהפוכו מנגדו דוקא, because each one has something of its opposite דוקא. אבל באורות הפשוטים בתכלית, but in the lights, the way they're completely simple, כמו בבחינת הנקודות, which this is a level of the נקודות, even before ספירה, cuz first the light there's the light the way they're it's פשוט, which is the נקודה. Then there's the light the way that it divides, which is ספירה, and then there's the the light the way it comes into a vessel, which is פרצוף.

But when you go all the way up to the first thing, which is the נקודות, הנקרא כתרים, הנקראים כתרים which are called the the crowns, the כתר of each ספירה, אי אפשר להם להתכלל כלל, they cannot unite at all. At that level there's no התכללות. מפני שכל אחד נבדל לגמרי מזולתו, because each one is completely separate from the other one, ולא ימצא בו כלל מבחינת מנגדו, and you have nothing of the opposite.

כמו עצם בחינת הטוב שבעצמיות נפש איש הטוב הנקרא עומק טוב, like the essential, the essence of the goodness in the inner self, the inner soul of a good person, which is called the depth of good, his pleasure in being good, עם עצם הרע, with the essence of bad, שנקרא עומק רע כו', which is called the essence of the depth of bad. That there's no there's no connection between the two.

One enjoys good and one enjoys bad, and you cannot unite. So maybe you could use the bad person for a good thing, but the actual goal, at that level of the the ultimate goal, they're the opposites, and they can't come together.

Teshuva Turns Bad into Good 9:44

אך בבעל תשובה אנו רואים שנהפך גם עצם הרע לטוב, nevertheless, we do see a type of התכללות, this is the third type of התכללות, which is in the actual עצם נקודה itself, where the essence of the bad gets turned over to good.

וכן זדונות עצמן נעשו כזכיות. And similarly, the sins themselves become merits. They become מצות. הרי הוא מצד מסירת נפש בעצמות אין סוף שלמעלה גם מהתחלקות עצם חסד וגבורה. This is only possible when a person reveals their מסירת נפש, their connection to God Himself, which is higher than the division of חסד וגבורה.

And so at that level, the even like the inner pleasure that a person has in doing bad, which is like the pleasure of like rebelling against God and being their own מציאות,

if they go the real depth behind that depth, it's really a thing of revealing that really there's only God, and so it's really just revealing how God could be מצמצם Himself so much that it looks like it's a real מציאות, but it's really a גילוי of Him. It's just a גילוי of His power of צמצום.

And so it's really the same thing as the חסד, revealing how there's only God, that even something that looks like a total opposite thing is really also coming from Him.

Sin and Mitzvah Both Reveal the Divine 11:19

So then, at that level, God is revealed through the עבירות and through the מצות equally. So לכתחילה, we have to do it through the מצות because God chose מצות, because God chose that גילויים should be important, but at the level of the עצם, it's there equally in both.

So in other words, for example, the whole reason that an עבירה is an עבירה is because a Jew is connected to God, and God told him not to do it.

So the fact that it's bad, and the whole feeling that it's bad, that itself is a גילוי of how of his connection to God.

Otherwise it wouldn't be bad, it wouldn't be a problem. It's just revealing it in a negative way.

But that but we don't want to reveal it in a negative way, so even though the עצם is the same, that he's a Jew and therefore he's connected to God, but since God chose the גילויים, we want it to, so therefore it's important that it be done in a good way. But nevertheless, מצד the עצם, it's really they're both revealing God.

Right. So this is why that a person shouldn't do עבירות, and that it's ממש, you know, a terrible thing. But once a person did it, it's possible to do תשובה and reveal something good in it. ולכך יכולים במסירת נפש דוקא לפעול שינוי רצון בעצם וכו'.

And this is why specifically when a person has מסירת נפש can they דאווען and ask God to change the way He does things. And this is what it says: the secret to being answered in in your prayers, in שמונה עשרה, is the מסירת נפש that you have in קריאת שמע before that.

Because when you reveal the level of מסירת נפש, where you have an עצם connection to God, at that level, חסד וגבורה are the same.

And so at that level you can ask God to change the way He does things, because at that level it doesn't it doesn't matter the way He does them. So you can ask Him to make it different, because also at that level He has like מסירת נפש for you that He'll do it the way you want it.