Parshas Behalosecha[1]

1^st Mamar “Behalosecha Es Haneiros”

1. Behalosecha Es Haneiros:^[2]
2. The seven types of Jews:

Each particular Jewish soul is referred to as a candle, while the general souls of Israel are referred to as a Menorah. The Menorah contains seven candles which correspond to seven levels of service of G-d. Some individuals serve G-d with love which is similar to water while other individuals serve G-d with love that is similar to fire. Others mainly serve G-d with the study of Torah, while others serve G-d with the attribute of Netzach, to battle and overcome their evil inclination in stirring away from evil and performing good. Others serve G-d through thanks and others serve G-d through Hisnasus. Hisnasus is holy arrogance as it states in the Talmud that all the Jewish people are considered sons of kings and as it states in scripture that one must raise his heart with courage to serve G-d. Others serve G-d with humility and humbleness.

• The divine lesson: The above teaching is fundamental to understanding the dichotomy of the Jewish people and the fact that it contains so many different sects. Ashkenazi Jewry, Sephardic Jewry, Chasidic Jewry, and all of the dozens of factions contained within each one of these groups. Often, the difference between these groups are not just in ethnicity and culture but in their focus within the Jewish religion. Most notably, Lithuanian Jewry focuses on Talmud and the legal portion of the Torah while Chasidic Jewry focuses mainly on the esoteric which is experienced through prayer, a Chasidic master, and the study of the inner dimensions of the Torah. Which is correct, or does no one have the monopoly over truth in service of G-d? Interestingly, the Alter Rebbe was asked this very question during the interrogations of the second incarceration. He responded that there exist some souls that are more inclined towards prayer and some more inclined towards Torah study. A similar idea was shared by Rabbi Simcha Wasserman, the son of Rav Elchonan Wasserman, during a convention of rabbis in California which included Chabad emissaries as well as reform and conservative rabbis. Rabbi Wasserman who was seen talking and acting friendly with the Chabad Rabbis was asked by a colleague who was a conservative Rabbi as to why he is so friendly with Chabad, as after all he is part of the Lithuanian camp who oppose the Hasidim. So Rabbi Wasserman answered him that the Jewish people are like an army, and just like in an army there are many different positions that need to be filled each one being equally vital for the war effort, so too the Jewish people collectively are part of the Army of G-d and each sect of Judaism fulfills a different position in that Army. Hence, while he and Chabad may have different views on many subjects nonetheless, they are both part of G-d’s army.

1. The command to love G-d and the will to desire Him:

The command of Viahavta, to love G-d, is not a command regarding the emotion of natural love found in the heart. Certainly, every single Jew contains a natural love for G-d hidden within his heart, and hence there is no need to command one regarding it. Rather, the command of Viahavta comes from the word Ava which means will and desire, as will is the inner fuel behind love as can be vividly seen from the fact that one’s will controls and directs one’s emotions.

The will can turn pleasure to pain and pain to pleasure: Even if a person contains a natural pleasure for a certain matter, a person has the power to remove his pleasure from it. This can be accomplished through him removing his will from having pleasure from the item due to some intellectual reason. [For example, one can will to no longer get pleasure from eating a certain food, if he knows that that food sets off his stomach. He can train himself   to no longer take pleasure in this food. This can be seen in dieting, that when a person stays off sugar for a certain amount of time he will eventually despise the sugar and not feel any pleasure in eating it.] The same thing applies regarding the opposite, that if G-d forbid one receives pain and suffering from a certain matter and he then decides to desire it for some reason, then he will no longer feel that much amount of pain from that matter. [Thus, for example, at first one may despise needing to exert energy to walk places due to not having a car, however, he can than choose to desire to walk instead of drive being that doing so is good for his health. This will then turn the pain of walking into pleasure.] Thus, we see that the emotions are dependent on one’s will, as the will is the inner part of the emotions. The reason for this is because the aspect of will comes from Keser which is the inner part of all of the attributes.

Willing to love G-d: According to the above, we can now understand the command to love G-d. G-d is not commanding us on the emotion of love in the heart, but rather on the will to have that emotion. If until now a person does not have the will or desire to love G-d, then he is commanded to change his will and desire and to love G-d and not have a will or desire for anything else.

1. The difference between love of Avraham and love of Aaron:

Both Avraham and Aaron are considered one of the seven shepherds who are responsible for feeding the Jewish people with the feeling of love for G-d. Now, why do we need two of the seven shepherds to feed us the same emotion? So, the two emotions of love that are fed to the Jewish souls by Avraham and Aaron are of a different quality. The love of Avraham which is fed to the Jewish soul is from the level of love of Ahavas Olam. This is a type of love which is aroused through contemplating matters of the world, matters that are within time and space, and how they are all nullified to G-d. This type of love is going from below to above. The level of love of Aaron is from a different level, as he is considered an escort to the Queen which represents a love from above to below. In this form of love, one’s entire desire and passion is to reveal the glory of G-d within the world to the lower beings. Aaron draws down this emotion of love to all of the Jewish people. This is in contrast to the tribal leaders who through their sacrifices draw down G-dliness to only the members of their tribe.

1. Bitterness over concealment of G-dliness is a prerequisite for experiencing love in the Shema prayer:

In order to be successful in experiencing the emotion of love for G-d, one must first bring himself to a state of bitterness over the fact that G-d is concealed from him. [If one does not feel bitter over the fact that G-d is hidden from him, then how can his love be true. You miss people who you love and you love people who you miss. If you don’t miss them then there’s a question as to whether you truly love them.] One should arouse bitterness in his soul from the fact that he is found in a state of darkness and concealment from G-d and that he does not see G-dliness with his eyes of flesh, and rather only sees the physicality of the world and is very distanced from the light of G-d. In one’s essence, he is very distanced from G-d, and is to be of bitter soul due to this, and especially over the contemplation of the great descent that his soul has gone through to create this distance. He should thus scream to G-d out of his state of pain, so that G-d shine his light within his darkness and state of separation. This arousal and scream from below arouses a spirit from above in heaven to reveal the glory of G-d to him. Ideally, this state of bitterness should take place during prayer, although this does not suffice, and hence it is to also take place at the time set aside for such contemplation which is by Tikkun Chatzos. The bitterness that one sets within his soul during this time draws G-dliness below on behalf of the entire day. Now, while there is a certain amount of revelation of G-dliness within prayer, the experience of the revelation throughout the rest of the days is through the study of Torah. Nonetheless, this experience as well is dependent on preceding the service of bitterness by Tikkun Chatzos, and within prayer. On this it states in Scripture “Haysa Li Dimasi Lechem Yomam Valayla/to me was the tears, bread for the day and night.” Tears refers to the bitterness that one has over his distance from G-d while bread refers to the study of Torah. Hence, the verse is stating that if one precedes tears to the study of Torah then his study of Torah will be one of revealed G-dliness.

• The Divine lesson: The above teaching of the Alter Rebbe touches upon one of the most core practices of the Chassidim of the previous generations, starting from the students of the Alter Rebbe all the way to the followers of the Rebbe Rayatz. The concept of performing an accounting of the soul to bring one to a state of bitterness of heart and broken heartedness over his low spiritual state was the most basic ingredient necessary to be a true Chassid who is an Oveid Hashem, and is repeated constantly in Chassidic discourses starting from the book of Tanya.[3] It was not uncommon for Chassidim to recite the bedtime Shema with an outpour of tears, crying over their distance from G-d that has been caused due to sin and descent of their soul. Likewise, it was not uncommon for prayer to take place with a soulful melody that led to an outpour of tears. Many Chassidim, even of the simplest level, would recite words of Tehillim before prayer with a broken heart and longing for G-d, shedding tears as they read the holy words. In the current generation however, since the Chabad movements move to America in the 1940s, this form of divine service has become scarce and rare amongst Chassidim. Some claim that this is simply due to Yeridas Hadoros, and due to the fact that current Western society is too grub and materialistic to have such experiences. They claim that the challenges of the people of this generation are much bigger and greater than simply not feeling love for G-d and hence we must pick our battles, and should leave the stress on serving G-d with bitterness and love and prayer for the previous generations, and for the future era after the coming of the Messiah. Others however claim that in truth there is an ideological shift in this generation, and that the divine service of bitterness and love has been explicitly negated by the Rebbe for the people of the current generation. This is either due to the fact that the job of our generation is outreach and not service of G-d in prayer, or due to the fact that we are not capable of doing the divine service of feeling bitterness, as it would lead to depression. One of the most quoted proofs for this approach is a famous Chassidic discourse stated by the Rebbe in 1987 in which the Rebbe states that in this generation we must focus on joy. Is this approach indeed true and sanctioned by the elder Rabbanim and Mashpi’im of Chassidei Chabad? So, the answer is that the vast majority of them do not sanction this approach that there has been a total philosophical change in our approach of serving G-d, but do agree that there is a realistic change due to facts on the ground. We certainly cannot demand the same level of divine service, which is preceded by great bitterness, to the average Chassid of this generation, and doing so can lead one to enter a state of depression. At the same time, we also cannot condone the notion of not arousing any bitterness for distance from G-d as without this key ingredient one will not be successful in arousing any true love for him in prayer. Hence, a balanced approach must be followed. Certainly, even today every Chassid is obligated to try to arouse a love for G-d in prayer, and hence he must include a certain level and degree of bitterness for his distance from G-d within his service of Hashem.

*At the end of the Sefer we have published an epilogue on this subject written by Rav Eliyahu Landa, in the original Hebrew.

1. Perikas Ol – Removing the yoke of heaven:

One of the main causes for the darkness and concealment that one feels from G-d in his soul, is a lack of accepting the yoke of heaven, or a throwing off of the yoke of heaven known as Perikas Ol. This results from one not seeing G-d in his life as he would see a king of flesh and blood. If he would see a king of flesh and blood in front of him he would certainly not disobey and rebel against his will. Thus, the removal of the yoke of heaven is the removal of the presence of G-d from in front of one’s eyes. This is one of the purposes of the reading of the Shema, to re-accept the yoke of heaven upon oneself so he can then merit a revelation of G-dliness and love G-d.

• A Divine lesson: Perikas Ol, and not having acceptance of the yoke of heaven, is the cause of all sin. If man felt the presence of G-d opposite him at every moment then he would be to fearful to transgress before G-d. There is an entire Chasidic work dedicated to this subject written by the Mittler Rebbe by the name of Derech Chaim.

1. The severities of hairs, olives, and laws of Torah:

The hairs of the beard correspond to the 13 fixtures of the supernal beard known as Tikkunei Dikna of Arich Anpin. This is an ultimate level of kindness. Nonetheless, this is only the inner part of the hairs, however the outer part of the hairs are hard and derive from severity. The same applies regarding the olive fruit, that they come severities, even though oil is contained inside of them. Likewise, the laws of the Torah contain many prohibitions which are aspects of severity even though in general Torah is kindness. This is because in order for kindness to be drawn below it has to come through a packaging of severities. This is likewise the reason behind the idea discussed previously, that in order to arouse love one must first precede it with an arousal of bitterness.

2^nd Mamar “Behalosecha Es Haneiros”

2. Behalosecha Es Haneiros:^[4]

See Volume 1 of our Chassidishe Parsha Torah Or Series under Parshas Behalosecha where we covered the following matters of this Mamar in detail:

1. The purpose of the Karbanos of the Nesiim:
2. Who is allowed to eat meat?
3. Meat derives from Gevurah:
4. Meat arouses selfish love of G-d; Moshe was the epitome of selflessness:
5. Moshe’s disbelief in Hashem’s ability to provide meat:
6. Hashem’s reply to Moshe:
7. The Slav bird:
8. Aharon’s service surpasses that of the Nesiim:

[1] Likkutei Torah p. 29a-36b

[2] Likkutei Torah p. 29a-31a

[3] See Admur 98:1; Tanya chapters 1, 26, 29, 45; Igeres Hateshuvah 7, 8, 9, 10; Torah Or Vaeira; Beshalach; Likkutei Torah Achrei Mos; Emor; Behar; Behalosecha; Siddur Admur; Derech Chaim; Hemshech Ayin Beis 78; Sefer Hamamarim 5689 p. 104; Likkutei Dibburim 3 P. 701; gros Kodesh Rayatz 9:217; Mamar Chaf MarCheshvan 5746; Mamar Vayishlach 5746 Margala Bepumei Derava; Sefer Mamarim Melukat 6 Ata Tetzaveh p. 39-41; Sefer Hasichos 5752 p. 187-198

[4] Likkutei Torah p. 31a-32b