#6

Okay, I think we had discussed last time, more or less, שער ב' פרק ג', through Perek Yud, so maybe we'll begin to read and discuss a little bit in שער ד' פרק י"א. The concepts here are very difficult, and we'll try to get some elementary understanding, I hope it will be right on. Okay,

ועל זה עיקר חיותם ואורם וקיומם של העולמות כולם אמנם,

Nefesh HaChaim explains how since the whole world was created from the Torah, through the Torah, that's what we saw he quoted from Midrashim, from Bereishis Rabbah, of ואהיה אצלו אמון אל תקרי אמון אלא אומן, that the Torah was the what Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the world through the Torah, that he would look in the Torah, kavyachol, as it were, and then that would the chiyus which things have comes from the Torah. So the way that the world then continues to exist is only when there's a constant infusion of Torah into the world. הוא רק שאנחנו עוסקים בה, in Torah, kerauy. Now, here comes a phrase that we all know from the niggun, and we'll try to understand a little bit what it means. כי קודשא בריך הוא ואורייתא וישראל כולא חד. So what does that mean? What does it mean to say that Hashem and the Torah and Yisrael are all one? I mean, nothing is literally one with Hashem, right? Nothing is literally one with Hashem. So what does it mean when we sing maybe later Eli will be me'aneh us when we finish, I'm not going to torture you. So what does it mean when we sing that כי קודשא בריך הוא ואורייתא וישראל כולא חד? So on the bottom here, the note sends us back into שער א' פרק ט"ז, in the Hagahos. Let's take a look at that be-ezras Hashem. It's on page Nun-Heh, the Hagaha.

ועל פי זה ישכיל המעיין להבין על פי פשוט עניין הנזכר בזוהר פרשת אחרי, דקודשא בריך הוא ואורייתא וישראל מתקשרן דא בדא.

Hashem, the Torah, and Yisrael are literally tied up together, intertwined.

ודאי עומק כוונתו לסודות העמוקים, עם כל זה יש להסביר העניין גם בפשטות על פי זה.

So Nefesh HaChaim says he's going to tell us what the nigleh of the nistar is. He's going to tell us the exoteric understanding of the esoteric teaching here. והעניין כי קודשא בריך הוא סתים וגליא. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is hidden and revealed. Again, as indicated in parentheses, that's a quote from the Zohar HaKadosh. What does that mean, that Hashem is hidden and revealed?

כי עצמות אדון כל אין סוף ברוך הוא אינו מושג.

The essence of Hashem can't be apprehended, can't be understood. ולית מחשבה תפיסא ביה כלל. And no human thought, not any thought, can apprehend, can grasp the Hashem's essence, right? The Rambam interestingly says the same thing. And the Rambam says that's how and why when we describe Hashem, basically we describe Hashem in negative terms, right? We say Hashem is infinite. Infinite really is just a negative term, right? We're saying Hashem is not finite. He's not limited, he's not finite. Hashem is incorporeal. Hashem does not have a body. But we can't Hashem just defies our is beyond and defies our understanding. The essence of Hashem. So in that sense, Hashem is sasum, Hashem is hidden. מה שמושג לנו מעט מן המעט. The little bit that is intelligible, that we can understand,

הוא רק מצד התחברותו להעולמות. מה שמושג לנו מעט מן המעט הוא רק מצד התחברותו לעולמות מעת שבראם וחידשם. מה שמושג לנו מעט מן המעט הוא רק מצד התחברותו לעולמות מעת שבראם וחידשם.

The understanding that we have of Hashem is Hashem's involvement in the world, that we understand to Hashem and we relate to Hashem in terms of his involvement in the world. Let's say משל למה הדבר דומה just to to try to understand what this concept means, imagine imagine a bochur in a yeshiva that they have a rebbe. The rebbe parachutes in for the shiur, gives the shiur for an hour, they never ever see him or interact with him outside of the shiur. That's the only place they ever they ever see him, they don't observe him in any other context, they don't interact with him in any other context. So if you'll ask them, 'all right, so tell us about your rebbe', so they'll tell you with the with the the caveat, 'we can't tell you anything about him in general, we can tell you about him in the context of the classroom, in the context of the shiur we can tell you he's a wonderful rebbe, he's a wonderful ba'al masbir, he's very patient, he's very kind, he's very concerned with the talmidim', but we can't presume we can't presume to be able to define who he is beyond that because we only we only glimpse him in in that narrow context. So that's a similar idea here, right? So we don't we don't claim to understand or to be able to describe Hashem be-atzmuso, but what we can describe is Hashem in terms of his interaction with the world, Hashem in terms of his involvement with the world. Right, that's what he has said so far.

מה שמושג לנו מעט מן המעט הוא רק מצד התחברותו לעולמות מעת שבראם וחידשם

from the time that Hakadosh Baruch Hu created them yesh me-ayin להחיותם ולקיימם כל רגע ולהנהיגם and that Hashem continues to to infuse vitality and to sustain every every moment, kemo she-kasuv ואתה מחיה את כולם again in lashon hoveh, right, not ata barasa, ata chiyisa, but ואתה מחיה את כולם that you every moment sustain the world. ולכן לשבחו יתברך בתפילתנו שהוא חי העולמים. He's the life of the world, he's the life of the world reflecting this idea again that Hashem is is not just historically the the the creator of the world, but every second Hashem sustains the world.

כי כל כוונת ליבנו בכל התפילות והבקשות עשו להיות רק ליחודו של עולם הוא אין סוף ברוך הוא.

Our tefillos are directed entirely exclusively to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, right, clearly right reflected here the tradition from Volozhin and not not to say machnisei rachamim and those tefillos is clearly on the between the lines, in the lines here in the Nefesh HaChaim. Omnam lo mitzad but when we daven to Hashem,

אמנם לא מצד עצמותו יתברך לבד בבחינת היותו מופרש מהעולמות אלא מצד התחברותו יתברך ברצונו הפשוט לעולמות והתייחסותו בהם להחיותם.

But again when we're davening, so we're davening not only to again Hashem who he is, his essence, but also for us to relate to Hashem, so it means that we're relating to Hashem as he reveals himself, as his his will is present in this world, that he wills into existence. I think elsewhere the Nefesh HaChaim says that that's the pshat in לשון נוכח ונסתר בברכות. That's why we use both the second and the third person in the bracha. The second person reflects sort of our relating to Hashem in terms of Hashem's involvement in the world. So that's baruch ata, that's you, we can address Hashem in the second person, but then we we switch to the third person reflecting again that that we're also we're also saying a bracha and acknowledging Hakadosh Baruch Hu whom we don't know, who we can't address in the second person, whom we don't know, but the Hakadosh Baruch Hu that

לית מחשבה תפיסא ביה כלל. וזהו כלל שורש ענין העבודה והמצוות כולם וזהו לבד כל השגתנו.

Again, our apprehension, our comprehension is only in terms of Hashem's hischabrus to the to the world. Now,

וכל חיותם וקיומם של העולמות כולם הוא רק על ידי התורה הקדושה כשיהיו ישראל עוסקים בה.

The so who sustains the world, who's the Chai Olamim, who who's the life of the world? Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Okay. But how does Hakadosh Baruch Hu sustain the world? Hakadosh Baruch Hu sustains the world because his, his ratzon is embodied in the Torah. And then when the Torah is, is studied and the Torah is infused into the world, that sustains the world, right? That's sort of how Hashem is present in the world through his Torah.

וכל חיותם וקיומם של העולמות כולם הוא רק על ידי התורה הקדושה כשיהיו ישראל עוסקים בה שהיא נהירו דכל עלמין,

it's literally the light of all worlds ונשמתא וחיותא דכלהון, and it's like the neshama of all the worlds.

ואלו היה העולם מקצהו ועד קצהו פנוי אף רגע אחד מעסק והתבוננות בתורה הקדושה,

if you could imagine from a millisecond there wasn't anyone learning Torah anywhere in the world, היו חוזרים כל העולמות לתוהו ובוהו. The world would come to an end. The world would come to an end because again, again what's the development here? What's the continuity in the Nefesh Hachaim? The yesod is again a yesod which again not only the Nefesh Hachaim has, the Rambam also says it as well. Hashem didn't create the world but Hashem only that it's not only that Hashem created the world but Hashem sustains the world every second. The world has to be sustained. It's not a wind-up, it's not like a wind-up gadget that it's wound up for 6,000 years. It's not wound up for 6,000 years. Every moment, every instant Hashem has to sustain it. That's אתה מחיה את כולם. Who's responsible for the ongoing existence of the world? Not just that Hashem created it תשס"ו years ago, but that's when Hashem first brought yesh me'ayin, but then Hashem has to sustain it every second. How does Hashem choose to sustain it? What's the device? So the, if you say that the light bulb needs the electrical current, so you can ask so how is that current brought, how is it channeled to the appliance? How does Hashem sustain the world? He sustains the world through the Torah, right? The same way he initially created the world through the Torah, so he sustains the world through the Torah also. Specifically, he sustains the world by our learning Torah, right? Now, so that's what the Nefesh Hachaim is, we'll see, that's what he's building up to, that that's the pshat when we say קודשא בריך הוא אורייתא וישראל חד הוא. Again, it doesn't mean literally one. Nothing is literally one with Hashem. Hashem is one. Nothing is literally one with Hashem. What it means is one in the world, right? The same way when we talk about Hashem, so anytime we're talking about Hashem, we can't be talking about Hashem himself who is לית מחשבה תפיסא ביה, who is beyond our comprehension. Talking about Hashem in the world. Hashem in the world, Hashem as the one who sustains the world, Hashem as אתה מחיה את כולם, in that sense he's one with Yisroel and Oraisa because it's as it were this partnership that it's Bnei Yisroel studying the Torah which is the way Hashem's ratzon and presence is infused into the world to sustain the world. That's the pshat. Maybe we'll just see this last paragraph on nun vav. Actually we didn't finish the previous paragraph on top of nun vav. כמו שאמרו ז"ל בשביל התורה, right, that Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the world for the Torah, כמו שכתוב וחיי עולם נטע בתוכנו. So the Nefesh Hachaim says generally when we say the Birkas HaTorah, we say חיי עולם נטע בתוכנו, so we understand it to mean that the Torah is the key, the pathway to eternal life, right? That's what it means חיי עולם נטע בתוכנו, that through the Torah that a person is zoicheh to chayei olam to eternity. Nefesh Hachaim says it means something else also. חיי עולם נטע בתוכנו, that Hashem planted amongst us the Torah which is the source of life for the whole world. That's what חיי עולם נטע בתוכנו is. Right, that's what he means. k'mo she'amru zal וחיי עולם נטע בתוכנו. Current olam? Yeah, all olamos, all olamos. But olam hazeh as well. Right, right. That nata betocheinu Hashem planted in our midst by giving us by the Torah and the mitzvah of talmud Torah Hashem planted the life of the world in our in our midst. So does this take out hishtadlus from our responsibility according to Rav Chaim Volozhin the way we approach our life? In terms of Torah is the ikar. So we have this balance that you know Torah's the ikar but you have hishtadlus you have to do other things to exist. But if Torah's really the ikar and our responsibility is just to learn Torah then it's sort of like according to Rav Chaim Volozhin there's nothing else. The only kiyum of the olam is Torah itself. Gemilus chasadim and ma'asim tovim is secondary, it's just talmud Torah. It's like that's the fuel that co-exists. That only that, nothing else. No ma'asim tovim, no gemilus chasadim, everything else is sort of like secondary. You know if you can't learn Torah so you do everything else. So that's an excellent question. The answer is that yeah, Torah is the end-all and be-all but Torah itself validates the other things. The Torah itself says when the Gemara in Avodah Zarah says that kol ha'omer

דכל מי שאין לו אלא תורה אפילו תורה אין לו,

a person who only learns Torah and doesn't do chesed, so the Gemara in Avodah Zarah says he doesn't even have Torah. And the Gemara quotes a pasuk for it. So the answer is that Torah itself validates, not just validates, requires these other things. Torah requires that there has to be ללמוד על מנת לעשות. The Torah requires that. ולמדתם אתם ושמרתם לעשתם. So the Torah itself requires that. And the same is true for hishtadlus. For most people, so for 99.whatever percent of the population, so the Torah requires a hishtadlus as well. We are supposed to understand that it's only hishtadlus, it's not that we're it's not it's not cause and effect, but the Torah itself requires the hishtadlus. You looking in the ma'amar of the Zohar before davening? Yeah, we have the Vayevarech David and Patach Eliyahu. I don't know the Patach Eliyahu but I know Vayevarech David. Okay. No, just wondering why we had a similar mahalach in the Nefesh HaChaim with reference to עשה אורים גדלים כי לעולם חסדו. And there he quoted that pasuk right, right. He quoted what he saw here that he didn't see there. Yeah, I don't know. I wondered about that but didn't follow it through. I don't know. But then he quoted that, he quotes that right in an earlier perek in Sha'ar Aleph and he mentioned David Hume I think at the time. Right, right, that's right. But where the lashon of in Birkas Krias Shema המחדש בטובו בכל יום תמיד מעשה בראשית and then as we do in Birkas Krias Shema he refers to the pasuk of le'ose oirim. If we said this already I'd just point out that you know Chei Ha'olamim seems to be the misgeres of Psukei D'zimra. You know Yishtabach ends with Chei Ha'olamim and Baruch She'amar begins with Chei Ha'olamim. I guess there's a lot more to think about and say about that point but that seems to be the framing of Psukei D'zimra and this ואתה מחיה את כלם is really like the end of Psukei D'zimra you know Az Yashir doesn't really belong in Psukei D'zimra. No, so I think that point is very relevant. I think that's what the Nefesh HaChaim is saying, that that is the context of our shevach. Our context of our shevach to Hashem is Hashem as Chei Ha'olamim. Hashem is obviously much more than that but we can't relate to that. We can't again if I only know the Rebbe from the classroom so I can only talk about him in terms of his qualities as a Rebbe in the classroom. So we know Hashem in terms of his involvement in the world. And that's exactly so Chei Ha'olamim does set the parameters for Psukei D'zimra. Know also to understand to say that the more that Bnei Yisrael learn Torah and do mitzvos the more Hashem reveals himself in the world doesn't that make sense? Yeah, I think so. I think absolutely. Now ve'amru gam kein just to finish the hagah here on page nun vav. Ve'amru gam kein בשביל ישראל כמו שנתבאר. Right so Chazal say on Bereishis that Hashem created the world bishvil haTorah and then Chazal also say... differing things. It's rather again kemo shenisba'er

שעל ידי עסק האדם והגיונו בתורה הקדושה הוא משיג להסתנוצצות אור בחינת הנשמה בו.

This I think we're going to have to read our perek first before we can try to understand. Just a second, we should read the our perek first. You know what, let's just let's do it a little bit out of order here. In this paragraph on nun vav, let's just skip please to the last two lines of of this paragraph and then we'll bli neder come back to the middle part. וזהו קודשא בריך הוא ואורייתא וישראל מתקשרין דא בדא. Again, this is the idea when we say that they're that they're intertwined, that they're in quotes, 'one', unquote. What it means is again in terms of the world, in terms of who is it, who is it who sustains the world? Hashem sustains the world. אתה מחיה את כולם. Who is it, what is it that sustains the world? The Torah sustains the world. What is it that sustains the world? Yisrael sustains the world, sustains the world. ישראל קודשא בריך הוא ואורייתא חד הוא. That's what it means. That's what it means. Now, what was the what what does this middle part? So let's come back here to to the opening paragraph of of our perek here yud alef. This is also difficult to understand, but but let's try. Now, first if you repeat the inyan of Bnei Yisrael and I mean Torah and Hakadosh Baruch Hu אורייתא ישראל מתקשרין דא בדא. One. Yeah, so what it means is like this again. So so the first the first step in in the Nefesh Hachaim's mahalach is to just to recognize that when we when we talk about Hashem, when we when we praise Hashem, when we say when we describe Hashem, רחום וחנון ארך אפים ורב חסד ואמת, so as as laudatory as all those terms are, we're not describing Hashem himself. Because we have no hasagah, we have no comprehension of Hashem himself. It's beyond us. It's it's beyond us. It's like I don't know if I don't know, well you can't even any mashal would would cheapen it. It's just just so beyond, just so beyond us. But we do talk about Hashem and and we are supposed to understand Hashem in terms of his in terms of his involvement with this world. And we are supposed to when we say ה' שונא גזל בעולה, we're saying that in terms of Hashem's involvement in the world, so we know that that Hashem despises thievery etc. So that's the first step. So when we're talking about Kudsha Brich Hu in that phrase of קודשא בריך הוא אורייתא וישראל, so we're talking about Hashem as he's known to us and he's known to us mitzad hitchabruso la'olam, by virtue of his his connection to, his involvement with, his revelation within the world. That's so we're talking about Hashem in that dimension. Now, let's ask a question. What is it that sustains the world? What is it that sustains the world? So we can give three different equally correct answers. Hashem sustains the world. אתה מחיה את כולם, le'oseh niflaos gedolos, le'oseh orim gedolim. Hashem it's not lemishe'asah orim gedolim, it's le'oseh orim gedolim. Hashem on a constant basis is is making these great lights, ki le'olam chasdo, because forever and ever his chesed continues unabated. So who who sustains the world? Hashem sustains the world. That's answer number one. Okay. Answer number two is who sustains the world? What sustains the world? So the Gemara says in Nedarim that אלמלא בריתי יומם ולילה, were it not for for Torah, the world wouldn't exist. There has to be a constant infusion of Torah into the world. Why? Because Torah represents ratzon Hashem, and that's our way of of infusing godliness into the world. Now, how is so what sustains the world? Torah sustains the world.

אין העולם מתקיים אלא בהבל פיהם של תינוקות של בית רבן.

The world exists because of the breath of the of the children learning in cheder. So answer number two is what sustains the world? Torah sustains the world. Answer Answer number three: what or who sustains the world? Klal Yisrael sustains the world. It’s when the it’s when the kedusha which which a Jew realizes and and releases into the world through his Talmud Torah, that sustains the world. Three different answers. It’s all one answer, right? The Torah and and Yisrael are are a way of injecting, infusing the Torah Elokus, the the divine Torah into the world. So we have three answers: Hashem sustains the world, the Torah sustains the world, Klal Yisrael sustains the world. Says the Nefesh HaChaim, that’s what that’s what it means when we say that ישראל ואורייתא וקודשא בריך הוא חד הוא in in that sense. That that type of of partnership. That type of partnership. But not in any in any literal sense. Nothing is is one with Hashem in in a literal sense. You you can’t say that. Okay, so now the so maybe we’ll just introduce it. I don’t think we’re going to be able to explain it because it’s it’s complicated. Now, but let’s read the opening. Why couldn’t we say that if if we’re an if we, to an extent, we’re part of Hakadosh Baruch Hu? Because הקדוש ברוך הוא ברא עולם created Adam. So there’s Elokus in every Adam. So in essence, it you know, that in itself is and Torah’s part of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, why wouldn’t that be a one? In other words, the oneness of Yisrael and Hakadosh Baruch Hu is not an individual separate existence, it’s the exposure of Elokus through you through the person that creates that oneness. It’s not like I wouldn’t you know, looking at it, I wouldn’t look at it as a separate So I’m it’s a question, it’s not a statement. In other words, Hakadosh Baruch Hu created man and therefore there’s there’s an essence of Hakadosh Baruch Hu within man that No, not an essence. Not an essence is not the word, but there’s an ex In other words, we expose, we Tzelem Elokim, we expose Hakadosh Baruch Hu to the world by acting a certain way through Torah. That doesn’t make it chad hu. But again, but chad hu again suggests again literally the words mean an identity. So what the Nefesh HaChaim is says in terms of the world it’s an identity. That what is it in in the again in terms of what’s sustaining the world, there’s an identity. I mean, as again, we just asked the same question, we gave three different answers and we said they were all right. So how can they all be right if there were three different answers? So that’s what the Zohar is referring to as as chad hu. That these three different answers are are not they’re not different answers. They’re three you know, they they have the same goal. Is that maybe way of saying it? Sustaining the world. I think it’s more than the same goal. Again, in terms of Torah and Yisrael, when we bli neder I guess next week im yirtzeh Hashem we’ll try to figure out this business of what it means that every neshama is is sort of anchored in a letter of the Torah. So we’ll certainly see that the relationship between Yisrael and Torah is is much more than than the same goal. I it’s somehow it seems I don’t know if that’s a strong enough way of of capturing it. Again I think maybe the analogy of how all three are the answer to the question of who sustains the world is that Hashem is is Hashem sustains the world through Yisrael and Torah. And and that’s what it means. That the chad hu in in this task of of sustaining the world. That Hashem as we know him in the world is is present in the world and sustains the world through Yisrael and through through Torah. Right. Okay, so bli neder we’ll continue.