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Dvar Torah for Parshat Shemot

Based on Likutey Halakhot, Taaruvot 3:2–3

“And the Israelites were fertile and prolific; their population increased greatly. They became so numerous that the land was filled with them” (Exodus 1:7).

The Torah tell us about the Jewish population explosion right before going into the account of the Exodus. What’s the connection?

We know that any time God needs to chastise the Jewish people, He always prepares the cure/solution before the disease/problem (Megilah 13b). The huge surge in the Israelite birth rate immediately prior to the pain and humiliation of the Egyptian exile was a seed for the geulah (exodus) that was to take place. It is a suggestion for us, how we can bring the future, final geulah that much sooner.

Reb Noson acquaints us with the following concept: the more Jews there are, the more sacred daat (God consciousness) there is; the more sacred daat there is, the sooner the geulah arrives. How does this work?

We know from our own first-hand experience, as well as from history, that pain is a major feature of exile. The genesis of exile-pain, whether inflicted by others or ourselves, is misguided thinking. When non-Jewish concepts, values and weltanschauung hold sway, the inevitable results are a decline in faith (in God, His Torah and her
teachers) and in the exercise of defining Jewish values—kindness, modesty and compassion. Misconceptions about what Jews do or think, whether entertained by Jew or gentile, lead to slavery: mental, emotional, physical, financial and spiritual.

When Moshe Rabbeinu (our teacher) saw that so many Israelites were freed from Egypt and on their way to receive the Torah, he thought mankind’s redemption was at hand. He thought there were enough Israelites with kosher thoughts and attitudes to induce the rest of the world—starting with the Mixed Multitude (non-Jews who departed Egypt with the Israelites)—to accept the notion of “God is One and His Name is One.” That will definitely happen, and soon, we pray. But conditions weren’t ripe then. The Mixed Multitude proved incorrigible and ended up harming the Israelites.

So in later Egypts we continued our history, always accompanied by some great tzaddik reprising the role of Moshe Rabbeinu, always trying to correct the damage done by the Mixed Multitude. The damage is undone when every little Jew gets born and grows up thinking and behaving as a Jew should. The damage is undone as each of us gets re-born, from day to day and hour to hour, thinking and behaving a bit more Jewishly.

May we soon see the fulfillment of the prophecy, “The smallest will number in the thousands and the least will be a mighty nation. I, God, will hasten it, in due time” (Isaiah 60:22). Amen.

agutn Shabbos!
Shabbat Shalom!

© Copyright 2010 Breslov Research Institute

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admin Weekly Parsha Likutey Halakhot, Parshat Shemot

Based on Likutey Halakhot, Basar b’Chalav 5:7-8

“The days of Yisrael drew close to dieing; [Yaakov said to Yosef,] ‘I will lie down with my fathers…’ (Genesis 47:29,30); [Yaakov said to Yosef,] ‘behold I am dieing’ (48:21); [Yaakov] passed away (v.31); Yosef said to his brothers, ‘Behold I am dieing’ (50:24); Yosef died at the age of 110…and was placed in a casket” (:26).

Every human being comes to this world in order to make the world a better place by doing good deeds. However, most don’t get it right; they make things worse. This is why they undergo any number of reincarnations and suffer in many different ways. The primary foundation for improving the world is by affiliating oneself with a tzaddik who knows the root of every soul. Such a tzaddik knows how to deal with each soul, while it is alive and when it is dead, in order to fix it and help it to receive the maximum daat (Divine awareness) it can. (This daat is the essential delight of the World to Come.) So it’s a good idea to attach yourself to such a tzaddik while you’re still alive. It’s much harder once you’re dead. (But it’s not
impossible.)

We find that many people fall away from their attachment to the tzaddik. There are even some who for the most of their lifetime were closely connected to the tzaddik, but when they grew old broke their connection and became opponents to the tzaddik—may God save us! The critical part of any episode in life, and of life itself, is the ending. (All’s well that end’s well, as they say.)

As we grow older we should be growing wiser, with an ever more refined spiritual wisdom. Because the older we get, the closer we get to returning to our spiritual root and, ideally, to our ultimate tikkun (rectification). But also, for as long we’re alive we struggle with our evil inclination. The more spiritual wisdom and daat one must attain, the greater one’s struggles. Often one who regresses spiritually in his old age has not sanctified him sufficiently earlier in his life. Therefore, he is unable to receive the spiritual wisdom that comes his way and, as it were, loses his mind.

Sometimes Divine wisdom and daat are sent to us in pleasant packages; sometimes in less-than-pleasant ones. Study of a tzaddik’s teachings and otherwise affiliating with a tzaddik gives us the tools and vessels to receive the wisdom and daat, so that neither the pleasantness nor unpleasantness of the package overwhelms or distracts us.

So, “Don’t trust in yourself until the day you die” (Avot 2:5). “Don’t trust in yourself”—Don’t think you can go it alone; we all need the tzaddik’s advice. “Until the day you die”—to fully absorb the teachings of the tzaddik you have to be willing to “die,” to make sacrifices, even suffer shame and humiliation, in order to maintain your connection with him “until the day you die.”

May God bless us that we live well and wisely, for a long, long time. Amen.

(Next week we’ll talk about birth—I promise!)

agutn Shabbos!
Shabbat Shalom!

admin Weekly Parsha Likutey Halakhot

Based on Likutey Halakhot, Beitzim 4:1

An egg which is round on both ends, or pointy on both ends, is certainly not kosher. An egg which is round on one end and pointy on the other, may be kosher. You have to ask someone trustworthy (Shulchan Arukh, Yoreh Deah 86:1).

Round and pointy refer to two traits for which Jews are known, shame and brazenness, respectively. Too much of either is a sure sign that one will successful in neither Torah study nor overall Jewishness. Too much shame, or fear to speak up at the right time, means that one won’t seek the information he needs within Torah and will fail to take a stand against those that attempt to limit honest Jewishness.

Being too pointy, always impudent, is also not kosher. While arguments for the sake of Heaven do exist (Avot 5:20), being constantly confrontational indicates that one is more interested in victory than in truth (see Likutey Moharan I, Lesson #75). Not a good game plan for being attached to the Creator.

Yet exercising a proper measure of shame and brazenness is not a guarantee of being kosher. Each of these traits can me misplaced. For example, one might feel too meek or ashamed to tell the Greek oppressors that he won’t accept the restrictions they’re placing on the exercise of Jewish practice. And he may feel supremely confident in shushing those Maccabees who are shouting, “Anyone for God—with me!”

Chanukah is related to the word ChiNuKh (education, training). With Chanukah, we beginn again to become Jewish, to train ourselves (and perhaps others as well) to properly exercise those traits which will get us through the challenges that we will eventually face. The Chashmonaim (aka Hasmoneans) modeled the successful use of shame and brazenness. They stood up to the Greeks because they were ashamed to face their Creator, and their ancestors, devoid of the essentials of Judaism and having failed to defend God’s honor.

God, please help us to properly exercise our shame and brazenness, at the right time and the right place, to the right degree. Amen.

afreilekhen Chanukah!
Chanukah sameach!

agutn Shabbos!
Shabbat Shalom!

admin Chanukah Chanukah, Dvar Torah, Likutey Halakhot, shame and brazenness

Based on Likutey Halakhot, Nezikin 4:13

With this work, i.e., the Zohar, they will leave exile (Zohar 3:124b).

LaG b’Omer is the anniversary of Rebbe Shimon bar Yochai’s passing. Jews all over the world celebrate this event with great gusto, singing, dancing and lighting bonfires. Does this make sense? Yes, if we understand, even a little bit, what he achieved and that he left gifts for us so that we can achieve. The following is a free rendering of some of what Reb Noson had to say on the topic.

Study of any part of the Zohar remedies the past and gives one greater openness to the Godly. The remedies and capability to be open are the ways of the sacred Kabbalah that Rebbe Shimon and his students revealed. This is why “with this work, i.e., the Zohar, they will leave exile.” This will fulfill the prophet’s prediction: As in the days when you left Egypt, I [God] will show you wonders” (Micah 7:15).

Just as Moshe Rabbeinu taught us how to perceive the Divine when we left Egypt, now as well, at the end of this exile—more stressful and difficult than the one in Egypt—God, in His compassion, will redeem us via the Torah secrets that Rebbe Shimon and his colleagues unveiled. These secrets are vessels and frames for understanding the Godly. They constitute the core of the soul’s cure and redemption, in regard to both the material and the spiritual.

This is true even though we don’t have a clue about the real meaning of the secrets that Rebbe Shimon revealed in the Zohar. Nonetheless, the vessels and remedies for our souls are all still there. Anyone who is concerned about God and wants to labor in seeking Him, can easily come to perceive the Divine.

Making vessels and frames for the Sacred available requires many, many stages of reduction of the Divine light’s intensity. Due to mankind’s misdeeds throughout the generations—from Adam till the present—it’s impossible to completely rectify everything in one era. So the tzaddikim of each era toil to make more and more such vessels, so that those of us in this final era can more easily connect with God, if we really seek Him.

In this way, God has graced us with the teachings of the Arizal, the Baal Shem Tov and others. One who is spiritually sensitive and concerned about God will understand the greatness of the tzaddikim and what they have accomplished, in what they have repaired and prepared. Their accomplishments are our lifeline for the Present and the Future. We revive ourselves with their holy legacy delivered to us by their students.

May the merit of the tzaddikim protect us and all Israel. Amen.

© Copyright 2009 Breslov Research Institute

admin Uncategorized Breslov Research Institute, LaG b’Omer, Likutey Halakhot, Rebbe Shimon bar Yochai