Sod Yesharim
סוד ישרים
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This file contains merged sections from the following text versions:
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Sod Yesharim
Rosh Hashanah
Yom Kippur
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
It is found in the Gemara (Yoma 85b): Rabbi Akiva said, "How fortunate are you, Israel; before Whom are you purified, etc.? And it states (Jeremiah 17:13), 'The mikveh (ritual bath) of Israel is God.' Just as a mikveh purifies the impure, so too does the Holy One, Blessed be He, purify Israel." The idea is that it is since water was the first creation that emanated from His will, may He be blessed, and it hints to the covered (hidden) world. And this is [the meaning of] the midrash (Bereshit Rabbah 2:4) about the verse (Genesis 1:2), "and the spirit of God hovered on the face of the waters" - "this is the King Messiah." [The Sages,] may their memory be blessed, hinted with this about His will, may He be blessed. For He always desires to give over all of His good to Israel. And it is like it is explained in the midrash there, "He is not like a king of flesh and blood, upon whose horse we do not ride, and whose scepter we do not use, etc. Whereas the Holy One, blessed be He, gives over his crown to the King Messiah and dresses him in His clothing, as it is stated (Psalms 21:6), 'You have endowed him with splendor and majesty,' etc." Therefore creation does not have the power to receive this light until the future, but this will [of God] is rather hidden in the covered world. And the name, 'I will be,' indicates this. As it is found in the Holy Zohar (Parashat Achrei Mot 26:166), "'I will be' is that I am prepared to generate." And every root of purity is dependent upon this. As the root of impurity is the distancing from this will, to be biased toward oneself regarding matters of the physical body. For it is written, "the one who touches a dead body becomes impure." And purity is the opposite, when one separates all biases towards the body and brings himself close to this will of His, may He be blessed, "that I am prepared to generate"; and trusts God, may He be blessed, and does not desire to grab the good specifically in his [own] hand. And about this, the holy Ari (R. Yitzchak Luria), may his memory be blessed, wrote to have the name [of God], Aleph-lamed-dalet, in mind in the mikveh. As this name is the root of all holiness, to give oneself over to this will, which is the hidden world that is called, 'I will be' - that I am prepared to generate. And also found there is that this name, 'I will be,' three times squared (a scheme for counting the numerical value), is the numerical value (gematria) of chotem (sign). And the intention is that God, may be blessed, signs offs about this person, to give him life with all of the good. For since this person gives himself over to [His] will, may He be blessed, which is in the covered world; and he trusts God, may He be blessed - corresponding to this, God, may He be blessed, trusts this one, to give over all good abundance to him. And the purity of the mikveh of water indicates about this, that a person should give over and bring himself close to the covered world. And this is [the meaning of], "The mikveh of Israel is God."
Sukkot
Shabbat Chol HaMoed Sukkot
Hoshana Rabba
Shemini Atzeret
Simchat Torah
Parashat Shekalim
Parashat Zakhor
Purim
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Moses built an altar and called it God my banner (Ex. 17:15).
Against Amalek they really needed intense struggles as explained by the Mei haShilo’ach. If Israel depended only on the resoluteness that derives from the Source, the Blessed Name revealed for them at the sea: “Why do you cry out to me? The matter depends on the ancient of days” as we learned there in the Holy Zohar, then the adversary Amalek is aroused who asserts that it also has a resoluteness from the Source.
As it is said to him [Amalek], “You who dwell in the clefts of the rock (Jer. 49:16),” who can bring us down to earth? For Amalek was descended from Yitzchak and Rivkah. Therefore, the only option is to fight with force against Amalek to show that there isn’t a moment when Israel isn’t serving God.
Moshe our teacher struggled so hard until he showed that Israel is full with Divine service even when asleep and without conscious intention.
Nevertheless, Amalek was also aroused to opposition saying that they also served without conscious intent. Moses our teacher then showed that there is a difference between them even unconsciously. Since Israel consciously served God during the day to the best of their ability, so also at night during sleep when their minds don’t have the strength to clarify their service, God clarifies it for them as we find in the Zohar (Terumah 135b) “And since they reach there, it is all forever.”
However, idolators who are in darkness even during the day and despise Divine service are by neccessity in darkness when they are asleep and not concious. Amalek challenges this as well, saying that since Israel is nevertheless still in a physical body, how is it possible that someone in a physical body won‘t lapse in Divine service at least momentarily? Even with Moses our teacher we find that when he lowered his hands… It is impossible for a corporeal being to serve God without any interruption, as it is wrtitten that Moses’ hands became heavy, so even Moses our teacher had moments of interruptions.
Nevertheless, here as well the adversary argues immediately that Aaron and Hur stood on either side supporting his hands. However, we learned a detail from this in the name of Pirkei d’Rabbi Eliezer (Parashah 44): a prayer leader must have someone on the right and left. This means that the congregation of Israel means that there is someone clarifying for another. When one person must lower a hand, for it is impossible for one person to be in service (or pray) without a pause, nevertheless it is considered good about Israel that there is never a moment without service. When the “hand” of one relaxes and the person sleeps from the effort of the service, at that moment a friend steps forward in the clarity of service.
This partnering where one clarifies another is called congregation (tsibbur) and is limited to Israel. It is in reference to this partnering that it is written “And Moses’ hands were heavy” and Aaron and Hur held his arms one on each side. This does not happen with other peoples which are separated and tsibbur isn‘t applicable and there is no partnering as we learn in the Zohar (Mishpatim 103a): Another god is impotent having no desire for eternity and doesn’t expand or bear fruit. Would it bear fruit, it would upset the world.
Parashat Parah
Parashat HaChodesh
Shabbat HaGadol
The First Night of Pesach
The First Day of Pesach
The Second Day of Pesach
The Night of Shabbat Chol HaMoed Pesach
Shabbat Chol HaMoed Pesach
The Seventh Night of Pesach
The Seventh Day of Pesach
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Then Yhvh said to Moses, “Why do you cry out to Me? Tell the Israelites to go forward. And you lift up your rod and hold out your arm over the sea and split it, so that the Israelites may march into the sea on dry ground.
And it is explained in the Holy Zohar, “Come see: it is from the aspect of g’vurah that water is aroused and enters the world and now the Holy Blessed One wants to dry out the water. So why does it say ‘lift up your hand’ when that signifies the left?
So lift up your staff to dry out the water and stretch out your arm to have the water return, to awaken the side of Gevurah and return the waters onto the Egyptians. And because of this, [we notice] there are two things here, the first is written, ‘Lift your staff’ and the second ‘stretch out your arm’ over the waters and they will split.
Meaning that this is the order by which God guides the world, from the start of each level until its end without any input from human beings. This order is truly very much beyond the comprehension of the creation. Therefore, the kind of guidance that God established where comprehension is revealed, does give human beings a choice. So how can these two ways be unified into one when they seem to be contradictory?
And in truth, these two ways can actually be seen as one completely connected process and this process is hinted at when looking at the things created at twilight between Friday and Shabbat of creation week? We learn this is the ram that was created during that twilight time and like all the things created beyn hashmashot it was prepared for when it would be needed. Here also, the ram that was to be sacrificed in place of Isaac {it was only a year old because “and the lamb was year old” and that’s how it needs to be. This is the ram that was sacrificed in place of Isaac. [meaning the potential for their use was created at Creation and was tucked away to use at the proper time.]} This is in harmony with what we learn in the Talmud which says that it is impossible to stand in the twilight [because it happens so quickly].
This hints at God’s speech being unable to be limited {vis a vis} by the boundaries of human beings instead God’s words are always alive and existent, especially at the hour of need. It is a potential that is set to come into human awareness at the moment that it is needed.
And the meaning of {this}the Holy Blessed One’s speech] is always being clarified according to what is needed at the time, under those certain circumstances, and when times change, so too does the meaning of God’s speech change. And these varying statements don’t contradict one another for all of them are the Living God’s words, alive and existent and there is a unity among them. Even when there are two opposites related to one topic, for example with the words ‘and {they} offer{ed} him up as a sacrifice.’ The original meaning of this referred to the sacrificing of Isaac [literally: lift him up] but after he was on the altar, the meaning of this phrase change to ‘take him down.’ And these two definitions are not at all at odds, rather they explain a given time in history.
And so back to this staff — about which it is said: ‘Raise up your staff’ which was created also at twilight, hints at a connection and unification of two ideas that appear to be opposites on the same subject. For the Holy Blessed One opened up the Sea of Reeds with the order as it is for God. God exposed the way in which the world runs, from God’s perspective. When God said to Moshe, ‘What are you yelling at me for? The Shechinah travels with you through the grace of the Fathers.’
This matter depends on Atika, Ancient One, because this situation depended on the intercession of the Ancient One (meaning the way the world operates with solely God acting) And in this organizing principle of Atik, it is not appropriate to identify supernatural events as being miraculous. Rather, this shows another well-known organizing principle, that of God continually showering life upon creation, at every moment in time. If, God forbid, this showering of life ceased, even for one second, all of existence would be null and void.
And if that is the case, then how can you identify any one change in nature as miraculous when you see a miracle like this {that renews itself} each moment – just like when Adam HaRishon, the first human, saw all of these ongoing natural miracles, beginning on the first day of his creation. How could he explain from his point of view which thing that he saw was wonderous and miraculous, since it was all new to him? When he saw the sea undulating (the tides), that indeed was a miracle! However, after he got used to seeing it, he came to count on the fact that the sea moved as it did and would continue to always do so; nature required it. So, if one sees the sea stop being agitated and exposing the dry land, that would have been considered a miracle, for nature had changed her course.
Therefore, when the Holy Blessed One showed Israel the true organizing principle, as it is from the Divine perspective, Israel came to understand again how God operates in the Universe, just like Adam HaRishon did after being created – that the One who can tell the sea to swell can also tell it to recede? And that is why it says, “And the sea returned at the break of dawn to its normal state” meaning that it returned to its original condition.
It appears then that, since its original state at creation already contained its splitting in the future, then from the very beginning it was determined that the sea would split and, if so, what is the miracle?
The essence of the miracle is that it became possible for the Israelites to experience in real time the organizing principle from Atika. The Israelites were able to comprehend the way of God operating the workings of the Universe unilaterally, from God’s vantage point, despite their truly limited ability. They ultimately come to know that this Atik operating principle (unilateral model) and the Z’eir Anpin (Shechinah, partnership model) are actually one and the same. And from this knowing, Israel was granted compassion and Egypt was judged…
The Eighth Day of Pesach