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Audio: Shabbos Part 1 (2022-07-15)

Jumping into Adlakas Neiros without a framework

[0:00]

I'm just going to jump into hadlakot Neiros and start discussing that and then I thought that's probably a mistake. We should probably get the big framework IMAX picture and then back- ah you see what? Nothing's on the cameras yet. My camera and I'm going to make millions for you. I'm going to make Aaron Wolfson come to your door and bow to you. We're doing the Marashgal right? The Marashgal. These two English midtown millionaires, Aaron Wolfson wants them. We're going to give them the Marashgal in here. Take them home with you and he'll come to your house. Any money you raise, I'll take 10%. Fine by me. I'll take 10%.

Okay. So, I just was going to jump into, that's what I did over here, and then I decided nah, I probably should take the big back step. It might be too deep for anyone to explain to the person what it is but it's not really too deep. But it's the background for all the ideas we talk about.

Seeing the big framework and individual mitzvot

[1:10]

When you see the big framework and then you see the individual Mitzvos you see how it all fits together into something big and connected. So I'm going to drop back and then we'll see if we get a chance to do the Adlakas Neiros we don't do this with it next week. Okay. So, same idea when you explain Tamei HaMitzvos to people, you have to show them how ideas fit into a bigger framework. And that framework gives them a sense of unity and beauty. When people understand something and they see a bigger framework, they understand how everything fits together and there's that aha that eureka moment, that wow moment.

That's what we're looking to have. Now, one of the basics of Tamei HaMitzvos is that Ta'am is Geshmaq. It's Oneg. It's pleasure. But people at some level are trained to be puritans or trained to be Perishim and think the highest level is Perishus and they go oh who cares about Oneg. That- I don't care about that. That's not for me. But we have to realize that Oneg is Hakadosh Baruch Hu central Ma'alah without getting into the difference between Eden and Oneg. Obviously Hakadosh Baruch Hu made a world and he called it Gan Eden. If he calls it Gan Eden it's not something small or Gan HaTzroi. So clearly that's something we're supposed to try to get to and try to appreciate.

And step number three, step number three is, so you got to take a word that makes- so what happens? So you want to try and explain

Shabbos as Kedusha and joyful connection

[3:01]

Shabbos is about Kedusha and Shabbos is about Kedusha and you explain that Shabbos is like being a Dominican monk or something connecting to the spiritual world and like, it's a little hard to do that talking about eating Cholent and Kugel and stuff but okay but like you know you get in your wrong sense of thought and you botch it up. So really we have to understand that as we've heard it so many times Kedusha means passion, connection that brings you joy. And that's what Shabbos is. Shabbos is the end goal of life is to connect to God in a way that gives you joy. And that's what the Tamei HaMitzvos are.

Tamei HaMitzvos are you start off thinking a Mitzvah is a Mitzvah, it's a Tzivui, it's a command, something I don't want to do, I'm being nullifying my Da'as to a Da'as Elyon. And then a Ta'am HaMitzvah comes along and says no, no, no. You're not nullifying your Da'as to a Da'as Elyon and doing what's good for the Da'as Elyon and not what's good for you. You're becoming smart and connecting to the higher level wisdom so you can enjoy and experience the world in a more profound and deeper level and it's not a fight between you and God, it's not a Middas HaDin you have to be Machni'a that everything every Mitzvah is a way to to nullify yourself before God, minimize yourself before God.

But what we're doing is we're bringing on the greatness and grandeur of Hakadosh Baruch Hu to teach us so I can use the world in a way this is what the world's supposed to be used and it gives me great joy and happiness. That's what Tamei HaMitzvos, that's what we're trying to go for. That's what the Arizal says. In

Ashrei/Asher in the Blessing and its meaning

[4:35]

every Berachah we make we say Baruch Atah Hashem Elokeinu Melech Ha'olam Asher Kideshanu. Right, we don't say Baruch Atah Hashem Shetzivanu Lehaniach Tefillin. We put in first Asher. Asher comes from the word Ashrei. Right, Arizal says the word Ashrei comes from the word Asher. Right, the- Asher of course is Asher mishmeno lachmo. Over there the Arizal says Asher mishmeno doesn't say mishmono like it should say, it says mishmena from the eighth which means from the world of Binah, right? Asher is the world of Binah when you experience that deeper level world of Ta'amim. That's what the king's supposed to eat, that's what you're standing before the king, that's the greatness.

So Asher means Ashrei, I'm happy. Asher, I'm happy. Kideshanu, you've given me the ultimate connection and joy. And the second thing, if I'm an idiot and I don't know the Ta'amei HaMitzvos and I'm a hedonistic fraternity-ridden boy, then Ve'tzivanu he told me, okay, so you don't want to think about this, Bittul hadaas and do it anyway, right? But the higher level the Arizal wants is the first part, we enter into the Mitzvah with an Ashrei. Asher if I've got the world of Shmonah, I've got the world of Shemena lachmo, I've got that world then I see the beauty and the joy of the Mitzvah.

Kedusha as passionate union

[6:04]

Kedushah is like by the woman when you mekadesh her. Harei at mekudeshes li, behold you are one with me in a passionate and enjoyable way. That's what we're trying to go for, that's what we're trying to do. So that's the introduction to Shabbos. And maybe one more idea just that obviously the word Shabbos comes from the words, is the same root as the word Teshuvah. So we're going to see that everything about Shabbos is Teshuvah, not meaning that English terrible word repentance which that you focus on the penitent, what you did wrong and you look at what you did wrong again and again and again and again, but rather it's the word Teshuvah, returning to yourself, returning to a higher level, returning to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, both pshat is true, returning to a higher level.

So Shabbos and Teshuvah both have the same idea of returning to something deeper, more essential to me, that's what we're trying to go for and do. So I guess the frame is going to be before we get into the Mitzvah of hadlakas neiros is in the Aseret HaDibrot it says

Zachor es Yom HaShabbos l'kadesho explained

[7:19]

Zachor es yom haShabbos l'kadesho. Zachor es yom haShabbos l'kadesho. So of course the question is why Zachor, what do you remember? Why don't you tell me shomea, lishmor, la'asos? What did I forget? If I forgot it, I forgot it. Where did I forget? What am I doing it for? Second of all it's written in the infinitive form, it doesn't say zocher, yizkor, it says zachor in the infinitive which means I'm constantly remembering like Rashi says there. Why am I constantly remembering? I should remember on Shabbos, why am I constantly remembering it? Shabbos, why is Shabbos called shav to return? What am I returning to?

Zachor es yom haShabbos. Okay, we do yom too if you want. Yom is what's, what's a yom? A yom is a light of revelation of a Yud to a Vav to a Mem. How on Shabbos do I see the revelation of a Yud, high idea, Vav connecting to this world, Mem I bring it out to action? How do I see that enlightenment, illumination that's going on? Zachor es yom haShabbos. Shabbos, why is Shabbos to return? What am I returning to? What am I connecting to? Why is it the name it's called, why do they call it Shabbos? I don't know. Yom menuchah, right? They call Shabbos Yom haShevi'i, the seventh day, or called Shabbos, Yom haPrishah or whatever, I don't know, like make up your Yom haTorah, a guy knows only one language over there.

Yom haTorah like why, why, why do we do that? And L'kadesho, what's mean l'kadesho? How do I sanctify? What do I do? Do I go to the mikvah? Do I eat cholent? What am I supposed to do exactly? How do I go about the kedushah? That's what we're looking for. Sound like a formula like Zachor es yom haShabbos l'kadesho, but if you don't it's not, meaning, a mitzvas asei, every mitzvas asei, yeah, yeah. If you do this mitzvah if you don't not. So what's that mean? Okay, so we'll just explain the idea outside and then we'll just try and see the Alter explains it very beautifully on a simple level and then we'll see the depth of the Alter if you look a little further.

Six-sided cube metaphor for creation

[10:10]

Creation of the world is that there's six expressions to make a cube that the world can exist in: forwards, backwards, right, left, up, and down. And once you've got that, a person who's wise looks and says, \"What do I have? What's this cube in front of me?\" and we have to figure out what its meaning is. To figure out its meaning, we have to go to a different world. It's not the world of physical creation, it's the world of spiritual creation. So after I've done six sides in the physical world and I want to understand what's going on, I have to go internal and see what's the idea that connects all of these six sides, what's the unifying concept, what's the purpose of this thing, what unites it all?

That aspect of moving from the world of physicality to the world of ideas is called—six synonyms here. It can be called tzurah. It's the form that makes the physical world viable. It can be called yesod. It's the foundation that brings the physical world together and gives it meaning. It can be called kol. It's called everything because it's the idea that connects everything and brings everything together. It can be called Shabbos because I'm returning from the six and finding out what's the purpose the six sides exist for. I shav, I Shabbos to the higher world. It can be called zachor. It can be called remember because I have to go from the world...

what's the classic way you remember something? If you do it... those of you who've not been to Philadelphia and gone to the Schuylkill River or have had to go to the Art Museum... right? You've been to the Rodin Art Museum, right? So you've got Rodin's, you've got the copy, I admit it's a copy, but you've got the Thinker, right? So how does Rodin make the Thinker? It's you've got your whole body is supporting your head and your eyes are closed. Why is thinking... why when you think, when you try to think deeply, why do you close your eyes? You close your eyes because you're looking for something internal that connects everything, unites everything.

So zachor is pull out of the physical world and recognize what I'm looking for is to return to something deeper, that's again a word for yesod, for tzurah, for all of these things. zachor. You can't see Shabbos, you can't do Shabbos. You can't make Shabbos and you can't see Shabbos. What you do is you go to a deeper world, a deeper internality, and see how it all fits together, what it's all supposed to do. And that's zachor, Zachor et yom haShabbos. So zachor and with one more word I wanted to put in this formula of all the aspects that's going to the internal world, going for the connection. Let me see where I can find the sixth word is...

look, and maybe oneg is the next one, right?

Oneg: connecting higher and lower worlds

[14:01]

oneg in the Torah always means a connection to a higher level world. Zohar says the word oneg comes from the first appearance in the Chumash: Eden Nahar Gan. A river goes out from Eden. Eden Nahar Gan, acronym oneg. oneg is when you connect to the upper level flow. There's a makor of Eden of joy, and nahar, a river that flows out of it, gan, and you see it—let's see what I want it—you see it fructify and irrigate the lower level world, and that creates oneg. And that's what Shabbos is. Shabbos is the ability to see the upper level world connect to the lower level world in a way that brings completion, happiness, joy, etc.

So when all the ta'amei mitzvos we look at in Shabbos are all going to be this concept of I take the chomer and I find the tzurah. I take the malchus and I find yesod. I take the shamor and I find the zachor. You take a find a amal and you find oneg. You have six and you find a world of seven. Everything about Shabbos, everything about the taamei mitzvos over here is to see how that's the way Hakadosh Baruch Hu made us and that the final aspect of creation is he wants us to be be'oneg. The completion of the world is seeing how everything fits together and getting the oneg from it, that's what Shabbos is about.

Shabbos is finding meaning and finding purpose in the other six days of creation, that's what we're looking for and trying to bring out. Rabbi? Yes. Usually we say that malchus is seven and yesod is six. Yeah. So this is seeing seven is... So we're going to say over here and you'll see it explicitly is that this is the world of eight, right? But we're looking at the seven active sefiros versus the one mekabbel sefirah of malchus. That's what's going on. But this is why you have because we don't want it to be seven, that's why you have to have two challos. Everything's doubled because we don't want it to just be seven and you should get confused where it's malchus, everything is eight, everything is into the world above.

But we'll get there in the third shiur if we get that far. But about Kiddush, we'll see that's what's going on. So Rabbi, it's not a feminine day, it's a joining of the masculine to the feminine day? Yes. Shabbos kallah malkesa. So let's take a look. Here we go. So Ohr Tzafun starts off. Kasuv b'Torah. So basically everything I said the Alter wants to explain over here. He wants to explain it in nicer terms in that essentially he wants to explain two things simply. He wants to explain one is that kedusha is a high level terminology for joy, oneg. And that if you understand kedusha in a way not like that then you're wrong and that there's no other understanding of it.

And the second thing he wants to explain is that it's a spiritual creation, not a physical creation. Even though the way you do it is by, like Aaron is asking, by physical choice, through what we do. That's what he's trying to work on in the... Yes, here we go. Kasuv b'Torah Vayechal Elokim bayom hashvii melachto asher asah. What's the word vayechal mean? So finished? Yeah. So but that obviously doesn't make simple sense of the pasuk. So it comes from a word like kallah which means to refine, to complete. A kallah is coming along to refine and complete, Aaron, I know that's a big question. I'm not going to do taamei mitzvos on that one, and it's impossible but anyway that's what's happening, right?

But vayechal comes from the word to refine, Rashi says over here. But like Aaron said exactly right, this is in a deeper language saying it's the day in which you find how everything fits together. kol. kol is something that's infinite. It's not the six sides are parts. The seventh and the eighth, they're like kol is gematria fifty, it's chamishim shaarei binah. It's seeing how everything fits together. It's kol, it's seeing the infinity that's an idea behind the limited physical world that we're working for. I only have another one of these, I just missed sending it in. Okay, thank you. Okay, so okay. So Vayechal Elokim bayom hashvii melachto asher asah, he made in the past tense.

So the Alter wants to be medayek, it says the melacha was done. So there's no melacha done on Shabbos. So what's done on Shabbos? Not a physical creation, a spiritual creation. Vayekadesh oso. What's done on Shabbos is kedusha. So Hakadosh Baruch Hu is mekadesh the world not in a physical way, your mission is not to mekadesh, Hakadosh Baruch Hu not in a physical way. So he says Shabbos eino beriah chadashah. Shabbos is not another physical creation. lo It's not written Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the Shabbos. Ki im l'heipech, it's written the opposite. Vayechal Elokim bayom hashvii. God completed... On the seventh day.

And completed is a world of infinity, is a world of bina, is a world of creation shebo nigmera bria sheshes yemei bereishis. What was made? Ela shebeshabbos nishlema hatzura shel kol habria. That's the key. Shabbos is the physical world, the physical world, the physical world, and the only way to complete the physical world, we bnei torah know you have to go to a spiritual world of Torah to mekadesh it. And that's what the kol is, and that's where tzura is, right? The root of the word tzura, they always say form. We can get a learned dissertation from Cameron on this in Greek, hopefully, if not, that degree was wasted.

But the way that we understand tzura is from the word narrow. It focuses everything. There's many potentialities in physicality. Physicality could be used this way, that way, a third way. And the tzura is this is the way it's to be used. This is it and the only way. From the root tzar, kol haolam kulo gesher tzar meod. Right? You have a apple tree and you could use the apple tree for shade, you could use the apple tree for furniture, you could use the apple tree for furniture, you could use the apple tree to put a your child swing on it, or you can use the apple tree to make apples. A person who understands what an apple tree is knows that the tzura of the apple tree is only one thing.

If I don't use it for an apple tree, then I've wasted its essential potential. Its potential to produce sweet, good tasting, sweet, good tasting fruits, and that's what I'm supposed to do it for. And therefore I'll cut off some branches, which would have been better for swings, and I'll cut off some branches which would have been for shade, so that the fruit will be more succulent. And that's a tzura. I am not going to be open to every way of using it. There's the optimal way of using it. There's the best. There's the mevi min hakoach el hapoel. There's a best way to do something. That's what I'm trying to go for.

That's what the tzura is. That's what Shabbos is. That's what we're looking for. So

Tzura: the ultimate purpose of Shabbos

[22:22]

Shabbos is about: what's the ultimate way of using this world in front of me? What's the ultimate taamei hamitzvos? What are we going for? Vehaynu shebayom ze lavash kol sheshes yemei hamaaseh tzura. Shabbos is the ultimate how we're supposed to express ourselves. Shabbos is how do we mekadesh time. What are we supposed to do? Shabbos is a day how do I live the best way I can do? Six days a week I'm on... I'm working to get to something. Shabbos is: okay, what am I really living for? What's my purpose? Today is you can't live in the installment plan. Shabbos is, okay, it's really a time to relate to myself and really a time to relate to the world and really a time to relate to my wife.

What are you going for? Umah hi tzura shenikba beyom Shabbos? Okay, so what's the tzura? The tzura is called kedusha. The world was made to be kadosh. It wasn't made to be nice, it wasn't made to be good, it was made to be kadosh. Right? This is the big idea. They say that's why it's not enough just to be a good person. The ultimate is you have to be a kadosh person. You have to find how to connect to a deeper reality and connect everything together. That's kedusha. kedusha is that tzura. Sheken kasuv vayivarech Elokim es yom hashevii vayekadesh oso. That's what Hakadosh Baruch Hu writes. He blessed it and he was mekadesh it.

Klomer shebayom hashabbos im gmar habria niskadshu kol haolamos elyonim vesachtonim shenivre'u misheshes yemei hamaaseh bikdushat shabbos venimtza efo shetzuras kol habria hi kedusha. Okay. So what's kedusha? So we could of course go to this... some people beat up on us that kedusha is separation. Obviously that can't be. Tosafos says over there in the beginning of Kiddushin, right? Harei at mekudeshes li. Because if it's being Harei at mekudeshes li, right? Get this clear, Oren. Right? Harei at mekudeshes li: behold I am separate from you, that can't make any sense. So you want to do ArtScroll style, you'll say Harei at mekudeshes bishvili you're separate for me.

But it doesn't say that, right? You go... so Tosafos says it means meyuchedes, you're one with me, mezumenes, you're connected. And obviously it also means with passion, right? Reishis Chochma and the Zohar say connecting

Kick‑off: Vitality and the upcoming lesson

[24:58]

with a... Vitality, that's what he's going to do right now. So this is off the way I any people who learn Derech Hashem first always scare me before they learn Mesillas Yesharim, because they talk different languages, right? Mesillas Yesharim talks the language of man, and Derech Hashem talks the language of God, talks the language of Derech Hashem, what's God's derech, what's going on. So when he defines kedusha in Mesillas Yesharim, he defines it's what kedusha, he defines it as oneg. When he defines it in Derech Hashem, he defines it as deveikus. So you use the word deveikus, people think deveikus is close your eyes and get out of your body and kadosh kadosh kadosh Hashem Tzevaos where we're all.

So, but the Ramchal understands that kedusha is oneg. Now he has me to define what that is, how do you get oneg? You connect. But you connect in a way that brings joy. Right? You can't be, you think you're dissociated, that's not going to work, you have to bring it out. Now

Rav Finkel’s proof: Oneg defines Shabbat’s holiness

[26:14]

over here the Rav Finkel, Rav Nosson Tzvi, he brings the simplest proof. He says, okay, you would think that oneg in ta'am hamitzvos is just a tzad thing, it's, it's like chocolate on the cake, chocolate on the piece of bread Israeli style, right? Right? Chocolate spread. No, or it's a covering on the... no no, it's the essence, kedusha is oneg. What's his proof? His proof's going to be gevaldig. His proof is, here you go: uvema misbateis kedushas Shabbos? How do we express the holiness of Shabbos? What do you do? Do you close your eyes and shokel? What do you do? Do you go to mikvah? be'oneg, it's oneg, that's kedusha.

It's got to be geshmak. sheharei nitzvinu lishmor Shabbos lekadsho bidevovarim, zachor es yom haShabbos lekadsho. Remember Shabbos to make it kodesh. But you know

Why just saying ‘kedusha’ fails without Oneg

[27:24]

what happens? You use the word kedusha kedusha kedusha with people and it doesn't connect to them, which is why we need ta'am hamitzvos. You say kadosh kadosh kadosh and people around moping, moping, moping, right? what's going on. eich aleinu lekadesh es haShabbos? How do we mekadesh Shabbos Here it goes: al yedei zeh shenivla be'oso ta'anug. We enwrap ourselves in joys. Like you just, you have to make yourself tired and available from having so much joy. It's like, it's tough having so much goodness on Shabbos? It's like. velo od, now here's the key. But you would think, oh, it's just a means. Rav Gershenfeld, come on.

Really the essence of life is Torah and Torah and Torah and just understanding spirituality and being very tired and studying over that, I don't know how deep you are, R' Akiva Eiger or Baruch Ber, whatever, whatever level of Achronim we're going by, that's what it is. So it says, no, no, no, Yeshayahu was upset with the people, the Navi, and he said, it's not... it's not that oneg is a pe'ulah, it's not a means to an end, it's not... don't give me any teretz you want to get so you can still just sit down and be kretchi, right? So Yeshayahu comes along and vekarasa lishabbos oneg. A name, the name is the essence of something.

He tells the people: You don't chap what Shabbos. is, the Alter says. You don't chap what Shabbos is. Shabbos is oneg. kedusha means a passionate connection that gives you joy. It's Eden Nahar Gan. You feel the flow in the world. That's what you have to get. That's what it says: velo od ela sheyeish likroa haShabbos keshem oneg. It's not just a means, it's not just a detail in Shabbos but the essence of Shabbos, when it says zachor es yom haShabbos lekadsho, translate that: zachor es yom haShabbos le'ongo, to be happy. kedivrei haNavi, like the Navi says, vekarasa lishabbos oneg, vechol Shabbos oneg. kol Shabbos oneg.

You're not getting it right if you're not appreciating Shabbos which is the purpose of all ta'amei hamitzvos. If you're not doing the mitzvah with passion and joy and engagement, then you don't understand what the mitzvah is. vekarasa lishabbos oneg. That's what we're going for. Harei misgaleh lonu shemahus hakedusha, the essence of kedusha hi oneg, venimtza shetzuras kol habriya hi oneg ve'idun. And since Shabbos, is the end, we find what's the purpose of life: oneg ve'idun, right? He's going with the word idun because he wants to hint to the idea eden nahar gan is what oneg is. But the purpose of creation is joy, and that's the beginning of the Mesillas Yesharim: Yesod hachasidus veshoreash ha'avoda hatmima sheyisbarer veyisames eitzel ha'adam ma chovaso be'olamo vesheha'adam lo nivra ela lehisaneg al Hashem.

Purpose of creation: Lehisaneg al Hashem alone

[30:39]

The only purpose is lehisaneg al Hashem. That's it. Nothing else. That's our goal. Sounds like baal teshuva Torah. Guess what? Maybe not this group excluded, but you know some baalei teshuvos are really smart. I like that. Exceptions to the rule? Yeah, it's like what's going on. But that's what he's trying to set up over here, right? So hopefully you understand now that's what the idea is. The idea is when you read in the Aseres Hadibros: Zochor. Go to an olam penimi, something you can't see. It's got to take a, the only way you can get to kedusha like Moshe said is you can't get there by doing anything. You have to go to an olam penimi.

Es yom, the revelation, there's a revelation of Yud Kay Vov Kay that happened on Shabbos that I can return to something deeper. I'm not just going to be in the outside world, I'm going to get to something deeper. Lekadsho, to be connected with life and myself and my wife in a deep way. That's what Shabbos is, that's what we're trying to go for and do. Okay? Yes. Is oneg just a feeling or is oneg something that you, I mean like can someone just train themselves to like feel a sense of oneg, or is oneg something that you have to do? Meaning I have to like learn Torah, I have to eat things that I like, I have to spend time with my wife, who doesn't exist.

Don't say that. Who doesn't exist right now as my wife. She's getting there. Yeah, it took a few tries though. It takes a work, that's what zochor is. That's what, but it takes a mindset more than almost anything else. And how to get to the mindset could be Torah, how to get to that mindset could be the mikvah, how to get to that mindset could be teshuva, right? It takes an action which is like Hakadosh Baruch Hu: Vayivareich vayikadesh, you have to mekadesh yourself. But it's not enough to do those things without oneg? Zochor, you have to go internal. Right? And zochor obviously, so simple pshat of zochor is close your eyes and know there's something deeper inside of yourself that you're going to put this all together, and that's yishuv to yourself.

You return, the Shabbos is return to the real essence of who you are. You return to your internal light, which is what Shabbos candles is, I'm going to give you a hint of what that is. But like that's yishuv to a deeper light, yishuv to something deeper, that's what we're trying to go for. But it takes an action. Okay, so now just the next part is the opposite of. Okay, well why, either you ask in the halacha way or you ask it in the Chumash way. halacha way:

Why must we remember Shabbat every single day?

[34:02]

why do I have to remember Shabbos every day? Right? The Gemara in Beitzah says why you have to remember Shabbos kol yom vayom? Why I have to remember Shabbos every day? Why doesn't it just yom shevi'i I have to remember it? And dikduk beChumash: why is it zochor in the infinitive? Why is it I have to constantly do it? So the Alshich is going to explain that you have to remember it every day because Shabbos is the connecting of all the days. Since what Shabbos is, it's kol and you can't have kol unless you have all the attributes, so for every moment of your life, every moment of your day has to be Shabbosdik the day because you're trying to connect everything.

So it's got to be something you're constantly doing. You can't, if you're a Shabbos Jew, it isn't you're just a Shabbos Jew on Shabbos although I'd agree that most people think that's what happens. But it means you're a Shabbos, Jew the whole week. You're looking and seeing how does this all come together in a climax and a crescendo of Shabbos That's the next deal that the Alter wants to make. Rabbi? Yeah? In the

Understanding the infinitive ‘zachor’ and its constant command

[35:39]

dikduk of zachor, how is it implied to me? How does the dikduk of zachor imply to me? It's a command, right? zachor es yom hashabbos? No. It's zachor is, Rashi says and it's pashut in grammar, zachor is the infinitive, right? When you take a word, how do you make the infinitive? You put a lamed in front of it, right? So you say lizkor, lishmor, right? And then you drop it off and that means something you do all the time, in the constant, right? zachor, right? That would be the command. zachor is something you're doing constantly all the time, and Rashi defines it as such. Let me find that back for Rashi. zachor is lizkor.

Isn't it just the same thing as we say nosen hatorah? Just if it's, if we're always saying it in the present, it means it's like just always happening? Stop. That's exactly what I'm trying to explain, not like that. Exactly not. One moment. I'm trying to remember Shabbos. Or if it was, if it was zochar? It would be the past? zochar? Or zecher? Yeah. Oh yeah, yeah, right. zochar is like in the past. You guys had mincha? Carmel? Yeah. The lunch at the almond, with almond milk from the college? Why you has an accent? Who has an accent here? Who asked me? Ten. mincha? Good idea. mamash. Yeah. No, but unless you go to one...

All right. So that's a bad idea. It was too hot. We used to daven in the stairwells. Hey. I'm very proud. You are very proud of your hat. And it's black. You, but I didn't, I didn't get to see mincha. Never. You don't have to buy a hat. If you do what? If you just daven in stairwells like the Mir, you're not to buy hats, and you don't hear the tzibbur, you just hear... and everyone mumbles... mincha. Yeah. Yeah, mincha. Yeah. But did you really daven? Like there's nothing better than being squished between the garbage can and the door to the bathroom and answering amen while a guy, while a guy runs and starts drooling people's coffee on you right there.

Sneeze right into his hand. Oh, you're, you're in the oh my god no one cares about personal hygiene phase? No, just kind of, COVID really just ruined that whole thing. It was like some guy's like, 'hey, is this COVID test positive?' I'm like, 'yeah.' He's like, 'oh, cool,' and went and sat down. I'm like... Oh my god. Or like, you see a guy in the... The good thing is, you know the Mir doesn't spend a lot of money on soap because guys use it? Like I wonder how often they have to refill the soap thing. Have you ever seen empty soap dispensers? No. That was very cost effective of course they were. No, it happened now that there was a tekufah where they were, they really weren't giving any paper towels.

Now they're there, at least some paper towels. Most of the time you find paper towels. There was a real tekufah where you just had to have... and they go for like three days without changing the towels, so it's like wet and off... It was a rough winter. I'll tell you. It was a rough winter. I couldn't get the Rashi and the Gur Aryeh in the same page. So I just have to remember the Rashi. Rashi just says lashon makor. lashon makor is the infinitive. Right? Infinitive is to learn. To learn, to learn means you're constantly learning. Now the language, of course, is more evocative of what we want. In Hebrew the grammar is called the Makor.

Makor means the source. It means the flow, the source that everything comes from. So

Zachor as a Makor: Connecting constantly to Shabbat

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Zachor is we have to go back to the source that everything comes from constantly and put everything together. So Berarya explains the Rashi. Rashi is very short. He just says Lashon Makor, Lashon Pa'ul. Right? So what does Lashon Makor, Lashon Pa'ul mean? A Makor is something that's constantly flowing. A Pa'ul is not a Pi'el, not a verb, it's something that's going on constantly. Peirush Zachor hu Makor. Zachor, it's a source, which in the English means an infinitive. To learn, to sit, you're always doing it. K'mo Pakod Yifkod, right? Pakod means you're constantly counting. V'hayah lo limichtav Lashon Tzivui, it should have been written in a command form, Z'chor, it should have been written with a Shva underneath the Zayin, the first letter.

But instead it's the Pa'ul es Yom HaShabbos L'Kadsho. V'lakach tzarich l'fareish Zachor tamid es Yom HaShabbos. There's an obligation to constantly remember Shabbos. Why? Because Shabbos is the Makor, it's the deeper thing that puts everything together. Anything you come on, you go, how does this add on to my ultimate Tzurah? How does it add to my ultimate completion? How's everything I'm putting together? V'lo yiheiyeh peirush sheyiheiyeh bo ha'makor ha'peulah temidis. Not like someone at a dinner table and his wife said, right? It's not that it's a deed that's going on constantly. Ki nimtza harbei she'ein peirush kein.

Because many times it's not used like that. Ella d'lo tichtav kan Lashon Tzivui. Since it's not written a command to do it once, find a good brownie and put it aside for Shabbos, find a good wine and put it, it's not enough. V'chasav Makor. It's written in the infinitive. Ella she'rotzeh lomar tnu lev lizkor tamid. You have to put your heart and your mindset has to be every experience I have, I have to connect to a deeper Makor. I have to connect to the source that's called Shabbos. Ki zeh inyan Makor. That's what Makor means. She'eino moreh al zman. It's not, doesn't teach us about an individual time. Ki hu Makor.

That's the Kabbalah part of it. Because that's what a foundation is. A Yesod is something that's always there. It's a Makor. A Makor, the source of the river is always expressing. So Shabbos. is the Makor, Shabbos is the Kol, Shabbos is the, therefore it's got to be Zachor. It's something you can't see and something you have to relate to all the time. V'lakach hu k'mo haloch u'bachoh, hakos patzua. Shepeirusho asos peulah. V'ein be'zeh shum zman meyuchad ba'asiyas peulah. You have to always be doing this. It's a Makor. It's constant. To learn, to sit. V'lakach nichtav kan bilshon Makor. Mipnei she'rotzeh lomar tnu lev lizkor tamid es Yom HaShabbos.

Shabbos is the source of the world. Everything you encounter, it'll be completed by your connection to Shabbos. Shezehu asos peulah v'ein zman meyuchad la'zeh. You don't wait just till Shabbos for this. V'lakach hu tamid. V'zeh peirush amiti. I've explained to you the true understanding. That's what we're trying to go for. That's what Zachor es Yom HaShabbos is. That's what we're going for. Next.

Menuchah’s role versus Neshama in the Shabbat framework

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There's a reason Menuchah doesn't fit into this framework seemingly? Meaning I always thought Menuchah plugged back into that. Yeah, yeah. And we moved to, the word you want is Menuchah is something that happens to the Guf and not to the Neshama. The Alter, the Alter today's class, go. The Alter keeps setting it up as there were six days of creation and then we have the seventh. We had six days of Chomer and then Tzurah. So he seems to be putting the Tzurah at the end. But I thought, I feel like we've heard other frameworks where we have six days are masculine and then we have the feminine. We have Kallah is Kol.

She's Mashlim. But here the Tzurah, the masculine is Mashlim. Sof Ma'aseh is always masculine Mashlim. Isn't she Kol? She's the last step. No, that doesn't orient us, no, no, I don't know. Six days you go out and then you have to go up to put everything together. It's not in the world of physicality. That's what he's trying to say. Six days you create, that's physical, that's the classic movement. And the seventh is the Bechinah, the Kedushah. That's where to go for, let's just finish this out. Keshetamik bo, oh, look deeper. The part I just tried to say about why do you have to constantly remember Shabbos.

Shabbos is a makor, it's the infinity, it's the... I didn't even know that, but I thought about it. That'd be too amazing. Maybe it is. Do these Greeks know so much? I don't know. Yeah, you connect it over here, you connect it over there, and understand for the first time that the infinite might come from the word infinite, right? Like what we went over here. But I don't know if it actually does. I don't know. That's a good... that's what I thought at the first time. I haven't usually dorsh in my English, maybe that's what's going on. But now you're pushing me so far, but that's the makor over here. Core. makor.

Core. makor. V'kha'asher na'amik od yisba'er she'sheshes yemei ma'aseh hein bchinas chomer la'Shabbos. Okay, like we just were bothered by, right? It's the physical to the spiritual Shabbos U'kesheim she'Shabbos hu gmar habriyah kein sheshes yemeihein techillas haShabbos. Just like Shabbos. completes creation, so too the six days are the beginning of Shabbos You have to understand that you can't jump to Shabbos. There's no mitzvah to live like a monk. Some guy's really frum, right? This is extreme BTDs. I'm not going to do the thirty-nine melachos any day of the week, right? I'm just going to exist Shabbos.

the whole week, right? No, no, no, you completely missed it. You can't have Shabbos without working six days in the world to bring it out. Ee efshar la'Shabbos bli sheshes yemei ma'aseh. You can't have Shabbos without expression in six worlds. Sheharei Shabbos hu yom shvii. Umishum kach kasav haRamban. Chovas zchiras Shabbos lekadsho eino ela yom Shabbos bilvad. It's not just a din on Shabbos all of a sudden you put on your Shabbos clothes, and oh, now I think about Shabbos You have to have Shabbos. through the whole week long. Im kol yemot hashavua. The whole time, it's again, infinity, makor, it's constant.

Ki kol yemot hashavua hein chelek mi'Shabbos. Everything's a part of Shabbos Ulachen, therefore, now you understand why it is. Monim es kol hayomim lo bishmos bifnei atzmam. We don't give them names. It's not Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. It's Yom Rishon, Yom Sheni, Yom Shlishi, because we're all building to shvii. Ela mekashrim osam la'Shabbos echad bashabbos sheni bashabbos shlishi bashabbos. Okay. So that's the beginning. I just want to go... I see what the time is, so I'm not going to be able to do the whole Or HaTzafon inside over this, I just want parts that are relevant to us for Ta'amei HaMitzvos, okay?

So flip the page with me. Okay. Now a little bit... If Aaron and Jacob think, this will be an explanation to their question, but we'll get there in a little bit. Okay, how do you get oneg? So one aspect of oneg is the mindset oneg is zachor. You go internal, you find your tzurah, you find your kol. But the other thing is you make a malchus to mekabel all of that too. This is why Shabbos. is always doubled. It's doubled because there's two ways to mshalem the week. One is by going up and one is by going down, and of course you want to do both, right? You go up to the pnim, and you go down to an expression of what's going on now.

And that's the essence of what Shabbos is. So, hinei. beis, the second piece over here. Hinei kedushas yom Shabbos ba davka al yedei ta'anug gashmi. The expression of kedushas, after I've explained to you you have to be zachor zachor pnim pnim pnimi, internal, internal, internal, mindset, mindset, mindset. But to do it, you have to also bring out. You have to bring it out in a way that you bring to a deeper connection to the physical world. For those of you who like it, cholent, right? So you have to bring out to what's going on. Vhinei kedushah shel yom Shabbos ba davka, specifically, intentionally, only al yedei ta'anug gashmi, kegon achilah ushtiyah, sheharei Chazal dorshin, zakhor es yom haShabbos lekadsho.

What's lekadsho mean? zochrehu al hayayin. You have to drink wine. klomar she-kedushas shabbos ba al yedei shtiyas yayin. ve-im ein lo yayin, oh, the Gemara says if you don't like yayin and pas chaviv, you like pas more, alav yoser, mekadesh al ha-pas. Use the pas.

Wine vs. Pas: Why wine matters for Shabbat

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What are we looking for? Why is wine special? It's not special because of some some spiritual reason, it's special because it's chaviv, it gives you joy. It's geshmak. And if you don't like wine, okay, so have bread, have good challah. Don't touch really deep dikdukim. If I was a straight halachic Jew, me and the Chazon Ish I promise I'd do it on pas. I enjoy bread much more than wine, but you have to be normal even when you're abnormal. Ben Jerry's. ve-od she-ein kiddush ella bi-makom seudah. And more than that, that's not enough. You can't just have wine, you have to also have bread. So you have to eat and you have to drink.

So you have to bring out to the world and enjoy it. Again we see that kedushah means oneg. kedushah means joy. It's not that we have to explain Shabbos as the day of giving up my creation for G-d's creation or all these eved Hashem type ideas. It's a day that we're supposed to be really happy. It's a day that we're supposed to be engaged in what life's really about. One period of time in which I'm really connected to myself and the world and I'm really happy. Now, I

Three Parts of a Person: Head, Heart, Body

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think we all understand that a person's made up of three parts. He's made up of neshamah and a ruach and a guf. The Ohr HaChaim is just explaining the ideas out over here, obviously he's hinting to much more of what's going on, but the idea is you can't be connected to something, just like you can't be connected to your holy wife, no way, in a coarse state if she's constantly being, right? She's constantly there for me, she's growing all the time unless she's not growing. But there's three parts. There's, you have to find joy in your head and you have to find joy in your heart, you have to find joy in your body.

And that's zachor es yom ha-shabbos le-kadesho. That's kiddush. So what exactly is going on? So pashut the word zachor means what? I have to remember the profundity, the poetry of the world around me. zachor, remember that God created the world. Ooh, that's the mindset I want. Those are the words of kiddush. So you might think that just the words of kiddush, appreciation, appreciation of the world, that would be enough. For sure you have to have the mindset, that's the first part, but the Gemara is mechadesh that that's not enough, you need to drink. What does the drink do? What does wine do? It obviously awakens the emotions, right?

You don't, no one chug-a-lugs a bottle of cheap wine to do well on tests, right? That's not it, it's to magnify your emotions. So zachor is pashut to the Gemara that it means you have to say the words. If you walk up and you just say l'chaim Friday night, is there any hava amina and you drink the wine? There's no hava amina yotzei kiddush. kiddush requires a zachrehu and it requires a drinking wine, right? That's for the emotions. The emotions get awakened by yayin which we'll talk about probably next year, right? When we get there, to nezirus, we go slow, right? It affects the emotions and awakens you up.

And that's but and that's not enough he says. If I just

Halachic Debate: Kiddush with Words Alone?

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have my head and my heart connected, so for sure I if I just say, right, this machlokes this Tosafot, right, it's machlokes Tosfos and Rashi, whether the obligation of wine is de-oraisa or de-rabbanan. Rabbi Akiva Eiger classically says that you yotzei just with words, not like the way the Alter is learning over here, not the way Tosfos learns over here, but he says you shouldn't say gut shabbos to somebody, right, classically before you make kiddush because then you've been yotzei your mitzvah of shabbos in a not mehudar way, without the wine. So you don't pasken it. Right? You learn the Mishna, everyone does.

Well because you make a bracha l'vatalah meaning if you do like a prominent kiddush, no? No, no, no, and then they m'kayem a d'rabbanan, but you're not doing the mitzvah min hamuvchar. Right, like the famous Rav Chaim, if you've got a bunch, you've got one Lulav that's definitely kosher and another Lulav that might be mehudar but it might not be kosher, right? So what do you take first? So it says for sure you take the one that's mehudar first because if you're yotzei it, then you're yotzei mitzvah min hamuvchar. If you're not yotzei and you take the other one, so then you're yotzei. But if you take first the kosher one, then you've been yotzei the mitzvah, now the mitzvah min hamuvchar is not going to be yours.

So he wants you to go take home and do the mitzvah min hamuvchar with your wine, with your wine in makom seudah. Okay. Okay, and then so

Kiddush in the Place of a Meal

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the third one is what's the idea of kiddush bemakom seudah? kiddush bemakom seudah is you have to bring the body into it. It's not enough just to have the head happy with the words. Wow, God made the world Vayechulu hashamayim v'haaretz v'chol tzevaam, that beautiful expression of realizing that everything in the world was created by Hakadosh Baruch Hu and how much I have to appreciate it and grab into it. So amazing Friday night, woo, just one time to be a Baal Teshuva about having beer around. It's like just the beauty of the world, right? Then you drink the wine, the wine opens up your emotions, and then you eat the mezonos or the lechem and that takes care of your guf.

So now you've got complete kedusha. You've got completely connected upstairs, downstairs, that's what you're trying to go for. So that's what he means by makom seudah, the makom seudah takes care of your guf of the joy. So now we're complete connected. v'od she'ein kiddush ela b'makom seudah. v'chen amru Chazal shelo nitna Shabbasos v'yamim tovim ela l'achila v'shtia, they were given to eating and drinking. v'ze tivah shel neshama yeseira b'Shabbas, yochal v'yishte v'ein nafsho katzah alav, eats and drinks and he doesn't feel constrained. harei kedushas Shabbos mispashetet gam b'taanug gashmi. That's the key word gam, right?

You first have to have the mindset upstairs and then you bring it out to what Jacob's calling the feminine all the way downstairs, so everything he knows. There's a masculine masculine and a masculine feminine and a feminine masculine and a feminine feminine. That's what we're doing over here. That's where we're going for. Everything that's mashpia is the masculine and everything that's mekabel is the feminine, and it's going to go the whole briya goes masculine feminine, masculine feminine, masculine feminine all the way down. That's what we're going for over here, he's explaining. ad shegam hem naasim kodesh v'ee efshar l'kadesh Shabbos rak al yadam.

It's impossible to mekadesh shabbos without enjoying the world because it's got to be oneg and oneg connects you spiritually to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. deveikus is not just those technical words written in Derech Hashem, davek. It's the words written in Mesillas Yesharim, lehisaneg al Hashem, you have to feel it, you're connected, it's got to be there with you. Just connecting sfatik with in the spiritual world means you're not connecting your ruach and your nefesh. ad shegam naasim kodesh v'ee efshar l'kadesh Shabbos rak al yadam. nimtza shekol habriya shehi kedusha eina mispateshet ki im al yedei taanug gashmi.

It's impossible to understand the world without... okay. Now he just wants to go to the next level, and this is this will be nogaya till we get back to lighting candles. But he just goes and that's what Shabbas is.

Teshuva Should Be Joyful, Not Solemn

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Shabbas is just returning to a deeper place, and that's why a person who really does teshuva has to be happy also. People think that teshuva has to be all sad and depressed, but Shabbas is teshuva should be joy. teshuva is the joy of Yom Kippur because I'm returning to a deeper spot. Ooh, I'm really using the world properly. So that's what he's going to do, he says, right? He's going to go he's going to go through the famous how does Mizmor shir l'yom haShabbos? So Bereishis Rabbah says why is Mizmor shir l'yom haShabbos tov lehodos l'Hashem. it's good to admit to God. So it says that Adam HaRishon admitted to God when he sinned and ate the Etz HaDaas Tov v'Ra.

tov lehodos l'Hashem, he admitted. Very good, he did teshuva, that's what Shabbas is for. Shabbas is lashon of shav, return. Mizmor shir l'yom haShabbos? tov lehodos l'Hashem, But of course the Midrash asks why. Shouldn't you be in pain and bechi and crying? No, because teshuva is I'm growing, I'm getting to a deeper place. It's great. I'm happy. Mizmor Shir. And he knew he had to be happy and excited, so he had to do a mizmor and he had to do a shir leyom haShabbos for a day of teshuva getting to a deeper self. Every Shabbos we do teshuva and during the week we're running around so much we forget why we're doing it for, what the purpose is, and then we go back.

And just like Shabbos has to be happy, teshuva has to be happy. That's what the Maharal going, that's what the Alter going for over here. And of course it's explained by lots of ideas that in the Alter there's got to be a simcha about it because if you're getting deeper and more and more connected you should be happy. I wasn't going to go there, it's all about teshuva and everything, but we'll get the idea that's going on. Let's read the two lines, okay? Umikan. So first of all Shabbos shouldn't be a holy day of prishus of asceticism. Mikan shegam teshuva eino ba ela al yedei ta'anugim gashmi'im. Sheharei ikar ha-teshuva hu letaken ha-pegam she-pagam b'kedusha.

So now he's saying what's the essence of life? kedusha. So if you're in a bad mood when you do teshuva what happens? You've messed the world up. No no no, you have to be happier. teshuva should make you happier otherwise you're going the wrong direction.

Kedusha Is Connection, Not Separation

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V'im kedusha hi oneg, and if kedusha is oneg, our classic Machon. That's so cute. Dan Grove had a group here, so he brought his daughter here for a Bas Mitzvah. So his daughter Tova told me that she's my real talmida. I said why real talmida? She said her fifth grade mora told her that kedusha means separation and we have to be cut off from physical joys to be kadosh. And she said no, kedusha means connection. And the teacher embarrassed her in class, but she said I knew I was right, it's okay. That's my old feisty kid, good for her. V'im kedusha hu oneg, and if kedusha is oneg, if kedusha means connection, Eden Nahar Gan, the place of joy connects with a river and a flow and a gan, and because of that I grow.

This oneg helps me grow and develop. V'zehu ki he'eder oneg hu pegam b'kedusha, he'eder oneg. If you don't have kedusha, you don't have oneg. V'ein letakno ela al yedei shlemus oneg. You gotta get more joy. Klomer al yedei ta'anugim gashmi'im. And then he goes on and explains that you have to be happy when you do teshuva and that's what mizmor shir leyom haShabbos is. You gotta go into teshuva with joy and happiness. Okay, we'll get there. And is that why it's a mitzvah to eat before Yom Kippur? Yeah, that's what he says. Yeah, that's what's going on, and the fasting specifically in humility and meshabor lev and all of that is part of the way to get there.

That's part of what's going on, but you have to be going for the end. It's just like my wife making Shabbos is hard work over here, but she knows the end is for simcha, is going for the joy of what's going on. So it's not pshat that a person's smiling as they're doing charata. I sure hope so. Internally, I think so, yeah. Internally, deep inside, yeah. Yeah, look, I'm going the right direction. Yeah, it's like, I think, LeBron James is going to get up at 6:30 and shooting three-point shots, everybody else is kvetching and he's going to go, oh they're going to see me in the fourth quarter of a playoff game, this is going to be geshmak, I'm getting to shleimus.

I hope that's what we're trying to get to. Why is that the aspect that Hashem loves though? The nishbar lev, meaning? He loves nishbar lev because you're getting to the deeper pshat, you're getting inside yourself. You're doing the hard work. But you're in the world of din, you're getting to the hard work, you're doing what you're doing. What part, yeah, on the level, the emotional heart level, what part of it is singing? Because you said Mizmor Shir but you said the yayin that brings out the emotions. Yeah, they're both ways of bringing out emotions, just depending on different strokes. Yeah, no, both.

Both. It's both. I mean again, like, you know, why do you have to sing, the Shlah says when you come home from shul, right? So either you have to sing Shalom Aleichem and Eishes Chayil because you want to get yourself happy for Kiddush, if you don't have a happiness for Kiddush it's not going to go, or that we want the malachim who are kodesh and therefore they sing all day long, they sing shira, therefore we have to be able to get the malachim to like us, so if you don't sing the malachim won't like you. Whatever it is, you're going off for a kedusha. Okay, so just then to see the deeper idea that the Sha'arei Ora at 1100.

Generation of the Ramban, explanation of Chumash terms in terms of Chachmas haNistar. He just explains this idea of kol and Shabbos and everything, we'll try to see that in there.

Yesod and Kol: Foundations of Shabbat

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hamiddah hazos, this middah which is called yesod, obviously it's called yesod because it's the foundation of the whole world. What's the foundation of the world? hamiddah hazos nivru shomayim va'aretz v'chol tzevahm ma'alah u'mata. Everything got made by this attribute called yesod. v'sod vayechulu hashomayim, it's like Oren said, it comes from the word kol. vayechulu means I made everything, there's an infinity behind it. Don't see things as parts, see things as a spiritual connected whole. v'sod hagadol Shabbos hu sod kol. There it is, period, okay. He's attached to the word vayechulu as lashon of kol, and that's yesod and that's what Shabbos is.

Shabbos is the ability to pull out of the physical world to connect to a deeper world and bring that flow from the deeper world here to Shabbos where everything's connected together. v'kolel shtei middos b'sod zachor v'shamor. zachor is the masculine, that's where you have to close your eyes and go to an internal world, and shamor is taking care of the physical world. zachor is masculine, shamor is feminine. v'zeh sod vayechulu hashomayim va'aretz v'yichal elohim bayom hashvii. bishlosha avos yarshu middah zo shehi middas kol b'sod zachor v'shamor. Avraham ksiv bei v'hashem beirach es Avraham bakol. v'Yitzchak ksiv bo va'ochal mikol.

v'Yaakov ksiv ki chananani elohim v'chi yesh li kol. So all of them got to the aspect of kol because kol is the essential test of this world. Can you put the whole world together? Can you find the tzurah? You've passed your test when you find infinity in the finite world. al zeh amar David alav hashalom al kein kol pikudei kol yisharti. All of your pikudim are all of my work. That's what I'm trying to work for. I'm trying to see this is the tam for all mitzvos. All mitzvos, right? kaf lamed is fifty, chamishim sha'arei binah. All I'm working for is trying to see how life geshmak, geshmak life is and to see how it all fits together.

lifi shehamiddah hazos shevi'is ad sefiros binah. We forget malchus because malchus is the world of ma'aseh right now and we're looking at this is the seventh, the six expressions in the world and that's going to make it the masculine. k'mo shemarnu l'sefiros binah yesh chamishim sha'arei. We know there's chamishim sha'arei binah. You have to understand the world. ta'amei hamitzvos is to understand and to think. u'me'osam chamishim sha'arei binah yoneka kel chai. These chamishim sha'arei binah brings out the chesed of God that invigorates us. kel is a language of mercy, chai that makes us alive. And that's another name for yesod.

Right, that's why we say it at bris milah, kel chai. Right, how do you feel that God's chesed is alive? The joys of sexual relationship, that's the kol. al kein nikra b'lashon kol ki misham from this binah nimshachim hakol. This is the plan, you get it. I see how everything fits together, I see all six days, I see its deeper purpose, I have the mindset, everything's beautiful and appreciated for what it is. That's why it's not on the eighth day, on the seventh, meaning it's still connecting it down. It's still, it's like Shabbos, right, the seventh and the eighth. v'sod hagadol vayar elohim es kol asher asah v'hinei tov me'od.

Did I skip a line? No, okay fine. k'var yadati, at the end of the gematria, kol, gematria, kol is gematria 50, chamishim. And you know that chamishim in Hebrew means passionate, chumashim. So again, we've got this that every kedushah is passionate again, right? chumash is called chumash because when you're smart, you get passionate. When you don't have ta'amei mitzvos, you schlep along. When you have chumash, you have not from this word five, forget this five dramas, chumash. passion. We're connected. And Koach Chai is 49 for that? Is Yonit for that? Maybe we'll see. Not exactly. I just lost my spot. Ki Kol, Besod, Ki Kol, Ki Kol hadavar nimtza venivda, everything found in creation bechamishim sha'arei binah so it came out from the wisdom of God's plan.

So you have to go back and understand what everything's made for and see its neshama, see its tzurah, see its form, see what's going on. And that'll give you a geshmak, asah vehinei tov me'od, and then it's very good. That's what we're looking for. Uchevar hodanucha ki middah zos nikras kol. I've told you already. Veyeish lah or al sod penimi dak, an inner idea. da ki behischaber middas zachor, the mindset, the binah, the internal with shamor, the external world, that's Malchus, az kol ha'olam bemiluah ushleimus, then there's geshmak all around the world. And that's when you have your cholent or whatever it is, then you've completed everything.

Ubesod, what's this foundation this? Es kol asah yafeh beito. Ki middas zachor nikras besod kol. Zachor like we said is a word for kol. Umiddas shamor nikras es. Middas shamor is a time that wants to receive, it's an es, it's waiting to happen. Shezachor, I'm not going to explain that right now. That's what he goes on in the next paragraph, we're not going to do that. Ki middas zachor nikras besod kol umiddas shamor nikras es. Ucheshezachor veshamor misachdim ke'echad, when you bring out, when you first what happens? You've got the six and then you see the seventh panim. Oh, it's beautiful. And then because I see this panim I can go further down and I bring out the shamor, I have my cholent, that's the eighth.

So you've got the whole flow and that's what Shabbos is. Shabbos it's going up and going down like everything. It's all great. This was always like the first thing that I felt when I when I had my first Nefesh Hachayim shiur with the Rav when he said okay right in front of the book that every light has to have a vessel and every vessel has to have a light. Everything else is commentary. Go for it. And it really is like that's like psh... I'm looking for my original Nefesh Hachayim. I can't find it. My kids. But he really said that, that's what he said like like that's that's what we're going for. But that's what's happening over here.

Ucheshezachor veshamor misachdim ke'echad besod kol besod es, azai omer es kol asah yafeh beito. God made everything beautiful in its time. Ubesod be-es-vav besod. It's beito. Beito means at the time I've added a vav to it. I've added the connection to the world above. There's an es that looked like it's disconnected, I add the vav to it as the yesod and it's connected. This is what the Alter is trying to say about the ta'am of Shabbos. That Shabbos is going deeper, connecting out, and if we see this big picture then I think we'll go through all the ta'amei hamitzvos individually and we'll see how it all fits into this framework.

So that's I think pretty much what I wanted to do. So Shabbos is supposed to sort of provide like a ta'amei hamitzvos for the whole week in that sense? Whole, all of life. All of life. It's the completion of everything. It's kol. But it doesn't just have to happen on Shabbos. I mean, you're saying you build up to that. That's and that's that's what the Alter said. And again, you know sometimes people read the Alter and I think I tell you

The Alter’s Month‑and‑Half Study with Rav Mushkovsky

[1:13:59]

this all the time there's this piece in Maaseh Hagadol where it says that they wanted to know that the Alter would leave in Tammuz the yeshiva with sheshes habachurim and he'd go learn with the son of Daniel Maskovsky, the mashgiach of Kelm for a month and a half. So Rav Kamenetsky, Rav Nosson zecher tzaddik livracha, being a big Litvak and not really understanding, asked Rav Meir Chodosh what did he do for the month and a half together with Rav Mushkovsky? So he says they learned Torah together. So he then asked Rav Hutner. Rav Hutner says they learned Lashon. They learned Kabbalah together. They learned Kabbalah together.

And of course that's why he went to Rav Mushkovsky one of the greatest Kabbalists of Lita. So then in a classic Lithuanian style, but we know that Rav Meir Chadash was closer to the Alter than Rav Hutner was, so obviously he's right. No, Rav Meir wants to cover up, hatzne'a leches, you don't talk about what you're learning. That's it. Like of course he was learning these deeper ideas. Right, you see over here, but you can think you're learning the Alter as Mussar, you can learn him as Hashkafa, seeing him open up deeper ideas, that's where we're trying to go. For again, we always say over that in Tnuas HaMussar it says that the Alter learned the Maharal because Rav Yisrael Salanter told the Alter mi'Kelm to learn the Maharal.

So they didn't talk about it. You don't see it there. It's right? But if you see it there then you see it. If you don't see it there then you don't see it. That's, yeah. In

Ta’amei HaMitzvos: From Understanding to Obligation

[1:16:04]

terms of the pattern for the Ta'amei HaMitzvos, so first you bittul ha'da'as and then you connect upstairs? No. That's if you're an eved Hashem. Right. You're saying so first you get the tzivuy and after why, and then you... No, first asher kidshanu b'mitzvosav, first you're trying to use your brain. Right? You see how it's beautiful, right? I see the Ta'amei HaMitzvos. But if I don't understand the Ta'amei HaMitzvos, and I don't see the tzurah, so then I have to v'tzivanu, then I have to go to a lower level being an eved. A ben does things, right? The Zohar says, the Ramchal says, it's all in the Mesillas Yesharim.

A ben does things because he understands the reason of his father. An eved doesn't necessarily know the reason of his father, so he has to just trust his father and bring out, trust his king and just bring it out. But a son knows and talks with his father all the time. If you're a ben, the Ramchal understands the Zohar, if you talk with your father all the time then you know why you're doing it, everything's a ben, you're happy to do it. If your father doesn't talk so much, you have a problem, you don't talk to me, then like then you're an eved and you don't know what you're doing and then you have to mevatel your da'as.

But Hakadosh Baruch Hu doesn't want us to put our head between our knees like Rav Chanina ben Dosa, he wants us to have our head upright thinking and doing and that's how we're going to understand and appreciate the world more. I don't understand how someone can want to give up this joy and not be a ben Torah. It's just like, I don't, I don't know. Hakadosh Baruch Hu made me a hedonist, but this is the joy I want to have. Right? We're good? Good. Yeah, don't worry though, you'll get s'chus at the right wife. Go. Keep going. Learning, learning Jimmy's s'chus today, it's fine. Embarrassment for the Rav and for his wife, it's all going to bring its s'chus, it's going to be good.

Eden vs. Oneg: Distinguishing Higher Joy

[1:17:55]

What's exactly the difference between Oneg and Eden? Eden is a state of being connected to something beyond yourself, it's called chochma. Now chochma so profound and so refined that it doesn't affect your bones down here. Oneg is bina. Oneg is the joy that comes out with bina and it's symbolized by its Eden, nahar, water, what's water do? Water gives you a flow, you see how it connects? Water irrigates you. gan, and I grow from it. So Oneg is joy. I first have Eden, I have a joy that's a chochma'dike joy, it's very refined and it's very good for my neshama. My neshama loves it. But my ruach and my nefesh don't get it so much.

Oneg is we need joy that I take that, and then and maybe that's really Ta'amei HaMitzvos and to bring it down as a nahar, flow of inspiration, to gan that helps me grow. That's what we're talking about. That's Sha'arei Orah says this. Maybe the Zohar says it but the Sha'arei Orah says it quite clearly, that demarcation. Okay? All right. Yes, don't let me forget about all of you. I didn't forget about your kallah, don't worry. I know she exists, I'm ma'amin. In the

Five Lights of Creation and Their Deeper Structure

[1:19:32]

first year when we, in Parshas Bereishis when we do the five lights of creation, and it sounds like similar in a sense to how we're saying here, like the whole week we're basically building this product, putting together all the chomer and the matter and then basically the tzurah that gets stamped, that gives meaning to all those seemingly disparate parts that now seem like a complete. It sounded like we talked about those five lights of creation in a similar way. The ikar difference is obviously there's a connection because that's chamesh, which is chumash, which is passion, but it's lacking the deeper connection to an upper level world, which we don't talk about there over there at all.

They were talking about the world of ma'aseh, the world of ma'aseh, the world of ma'aseh. And what's called up and down is what's missing. That's a flat world, it's a flat world without creation of up and down yet. So it's a primordial creation, it's an earlier creation, it's a creation not in this world so much. That's what's going on. It's chamesh, it's the world of thoughts. It's an expression of the world of middos and thoughts. igulim? No. Okay, no. igul you can't see five, it's all connected. It was just again up there, it was just...

Upcoming Shabbat Logistics and Candle‑Lighting Plans

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Okay, very good. Shabbos Shalom. Next week we have to figure out what lighting candles is, sorry. Next week if we could do 11:15, I'm having an oneg at 9:30 and I see that ends a bit late. 11:15? Yes, sure. It was so much fun to meet on Wednesday. I feel so much better to start. I was also looking forward to... yeah, so Shabbos would be like... always busy enough. That's what I've been doing so much with the guys. I get done... some are very good. That's the best. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, totally. He's doing some roles and no, no, no, not the rolls. You guys want... people want to take... good coffee. No, I'm saying either of these two GPS guys or from the hotel...

well I'm saying then I can move it. Yeah, I'll send out something with good times. He's involved in... Columbus. Yeah, nice. Yeah, I know, I know. He's very great. Chris Mark, yeah. He's very religious. Baruch Atah Adonai. Yeah, that's for sure. This thing is also... yeah, it's very religious. Why would you start with shamor? Since shamor is the kli? Generally, talk about the idea of starting with the kli. We do. We make the kli and now we're going back to the Shabbat vayinafash. The original thought was there originally, we forgot because of work, and now after Shabbat vayinafash we go back through work in the week, we work all week.

zachor, remember what the original idea was why you started working. You have to get back to that original idea. Zach, may your frat house be the most popular at Columbia. Amen. That's only going to happen... I'm only saying to play one frat house that actually may have drinking in the basement.