R’ Rosenfeld – Sichos HaRan 3 – 4 – HaShem’s Forgiveness Is Infinite – Teshuva – Wealth – Never Give Up!

Sichos HaRan 3 – 4 – HaShem’s Forgiveness Is Infinite – Teshuva – Wealth – Never Give Up! – Speaker: Rabbi Zvi Aryeh Rosenfeld zal. (Lesson RW11b. Recorded in 1976.)
00:00 – SICHAH 3. Humility is a powerful ally.
21:00 – Kabbalah of Prayer – Traveling the 4 Worlds in Shacharis.
25:49 – Teshuvah – HaShem’s forgiveness is infinite – never give up.
31:26 – SICHAH 4. Achieving wealth. Money is not the root of all evil – lack of money is the problem.
39:00 – Shabbos repairs the soul.

Transcript:

00:00 – SICHAH 3. We continue the shiur, Rabbeinu zal’s Sichos Haran, Sayings of Rabbeinu zal. We come now to the third statement. Rabbeinu zal says, again, we spoke about this the last shiur, about the greatness of HaShem. To speak about how great HaShem is, is impossible because HaShem is Ein Sof. He is infinite. HaShem created worlds. We explained them, too.

We must repeat one item which is very important: there are four basic worlds.

This world, Olam HaAsiya, which means this universe – the earth and all the planets – is the lowest of all creation. It is a material type of creation which is comparatively nothingcompared to the upper worlds.

The next world, Olam HaYetzirah, is the world of the angels and, as we said, the smallest angel’s toe is larger than all the planets in this universe combined – all the millions of billions of light years – the space here – are less – in total – than one toe of the smallest of angels in the next world.

The third world is the Olam HaBeriya, the Throne of HaShem, kvyachol – if we can use that term.

The fourth one is Olam HaAtzilus, which means something that we have no conception of at all. It’s far beyond our conception.

These Four Worlds correspond to the Name of HaShem, the four letters of HaShem’s Name: Yud – the first letter, Yud, stands for Olam HaAtzilus, the top world. The first letter Hey is the Olam HaBeriya, Throne of HaShem. The Vav – the angelic world. And the last letter Hey is this bottom world, the materialistic world.

Now, Rabbeinu zal says that the greatness of HaShem is infinite because it’s worlds upon worlds, creation upon creation, all this created by HaShem. Above all this is HaShem Who created everything, and though HaShem would seem to be so distant or remote because this world is just a tiny speck, an infinitesimal speck of all creation, yet HaShem is not distant from us. The kingdom of HaShem, the Malchus, is specially, specifically in this world.

We said HaShem rules over all these malachim, angels and worlds, HaShem’s Malchus is this world. The sefira of Malchus represents the world of Asiya, this material world. But there are things that are happening, awesome, wondrous things that happen, that we can’t even have any conception of understanding it.

For example, there is a war going on in a small distant island in the Pacific. Or there is a storm or an earthquake somewhere in an African jungle that is uninhabited at all, yet this is a major catastrophe, a major storm. To us it means nothing, it’s meaningless, yet something is taking place, major precautions. Or there is a meteor that crashes in the skies against another satellite, things that are so distant from us or things that are close to us.

For instance, we have two tiny dots on the surface of creation. Two human beings that are so small they cannot be seen if we look at them from above. These two human beings are very far apart from one another. One is in one city, the second is in a different city or a different continent, and slowly things transpire, things occur, and they seem to be led like pawns along a certain path until they both come into contact one with the other.

They meet and after a period of time they merge, they become one, they marry. All this is a special pattern designed from heaven to lead them to marriage, bring about the birth of a new generation, and these are things that are so complex and so many that it’s impossible for any human mind to understand this.

All this is done by HaShem and therefore it is difficult for a person to understand even in the slightest about the greatness of HaShem. And this too is something that Rabbeinu zal stresses; this we must point out very clearly. If we have to go to battle for the sake of this item, then we are willing to do it because we would not risk the most precious possession and that is one’s faith in HaShem, faith in the Torah.

And though there are certain writers speaking about Gadolei Yisroel who wrote seforim, who write in a philosophical tone about the hashgocha of HaShem, HaShem supervises the world, everything that occurs in it, but they are loath to stress the point that HaShem covers every smallest item that exists. We explained once that if a breeze blows a leaf off a tree in a forest, the one little leaf that falls off the tree, they, speaking about these meforshim, these rishonim, say that this is done by a wind that is Malach HaRuchos. It’s an angel.

I don’t want to repeat their statement, but I will say in the positive sense that when that leaf was blown off the tree it was an act supervised, directed and watched by HaShem Himself. HaShem Himself saw to it, ordered that leaf to fall from the tree.

If something so small is an act of HaShem, then surely larger items that affect a human being, a human being’s life, or the life of a nation, or anything else that pertains to any type of creation is all seen, supervised, decided upon by HaShem Himself.

This is the greatness of HaShem and, of course, we come to the question as to if so, why do we say always that HaShem prefers the service of a small mortal being? When a Jew stands and davens to HaShem, he comes into shul, he rushes his davening very quickly, puts on his Tefillin, davens Shacharis, takes it off, and runs out to business or to – more important than that – to eat. He couldn’t wait to get through with davening so he can eat breakfast.

And for this, this short service, HaShem looks forward to and wants this more than all the heavenly songs sung by the angels in heaven. Imagine when you have angels, Rabbeinu zal described one angel, one single angel who has, possesses, a thousand tongues. And every one of these thousand tongues has a thousand notes sung simultaneously, a thousand melodies, and this angel sings, harmonizes; imagine what a thrill, how ecstatic a sound this is.

And there are many like that; many meaning there are thousands, millions, an infinite number of angels. All these rise up to give service, songs, to HaShem. And all these angels combined are not as desired by HaShem as one single Jew, if an ordinary Jew comes to daven. Why so? What is the reason, aside from the fact mentioned, always that an angel serves HaShem because he understands. He has no yetzer hara [evil inclination] to stop him, there is nothing to repel him.

Whereas a Jew has a free choice – a bechira – and therefore the Jew’s service is one that is more valuable. It’s an actual service. Aside from this, a much deeper reason is that in reality this angel’s toe might be much larger than the whole planet earth, or larger than the whole universe, that’s his toe.

But this Jew has a heart, he has a mind. In this Jew’s heart and mind is a soul, and the soul of that Jew is far greater than the angel’s toes and head, and all the angels combined. Because where that angel came from, where he originated from, a Jew’s soul originated from a still higher point.

So therefore, if we look at a Jew as one with a body, 248 organs, with a stomach and with an appetite to fit the stomach, but in fact there is within this Jew a soul, a neshoma, a neshoma that is so precious – kvyachol – it comes from, it is actually a part of the Shekhina, part of HaShem Himself. That is why the עבודה – the service – of this Jew is so important.

Now, about this, Rabbeinu zal says, a person has no conception, no understanding. If we go further, Rabbeinu zal says there is something that we call tachles; tachles means the goal, the apex, the highest point in comprehension, the highest point in wisdom. A person strives for wisdom. He goes higher and higher. Is there a limit? Can a person reach the highest point of this wisdom?

There is something called a tachlis hayediah, the greatest point in knowledge available, achievable, by a human being. What is that tachlis hayediah? אשר לא נדע. Tachlis is when a person reaches a point where he finally realizes, truthfully, that he does not know, he does not understand, he has no knowledge whatsoever, then he has reached the point, the apex of knowledge.

Now a lot of people today would say, “I’ve got the apex of knowledge because I don’t know anything”. But I don’t say that. We’re not speaking about those who really don’t know anything. We’re speaking about those who have gotten such a high degree of knowledge, knowledge in kedushah, in holiness, that the higher they go in the heavenly knowledge they get to the point where they understand that all this heavenly knowledge and all these angels and different worlds are nothing compared to HaShem.

Then they realize they are literally nothing, that this means they have covered all of the knowledge there is to cover and they’ve gotten to this point of zero. The upper point, the top point is zero.

Now, this, Rabbeinu zal says, can be achieved only if a person has also a characteristic quality – the quality of humbleness, humility, shiflus. He has no conceit whatsoever within him. Then he can achieve this point of tachlis. Tachlis of yediya.

Even then a person who says “I have reached it. I’ve gotten to the top and that’s it” – that person, too, is mistaken because there is still another level. He’s reached the top of the knowledge available to him. The top is: he knows that he knows nothing. Now from there on there is a new level above of knowledge where he can go above that, go still higher, reach the top of that one and get to the point also of the tachlis shelo nedah. And so there is higher and higher so the person can never say he’s reached the goal really. He reached the point of לא נידע, but only in this one category, in this one space, this one area he reached the goal. There are different areas you haven’t touched yet. The number of areas is infinite. That’s why a tzaddik, a true tzaddik, continues to study perpetually, continually.

Let’s take the case, or reveal the case of Moshe Rabbeinu, Rabban shel Kol Yisrael, Rebbi of all Jews, who knows more than any other Jew alive. Moshe Rabbeinu received at Har Sinai the entire Torah HaKedosha, everything that we find in the Torah: Chumash, the Gemara – this is all the word of HaShem. All these seforim were taught to Moshe Rabbeinu.

Not only that, but there are seforim that were written later on. We have the layer of poskim; the Rishonim, Achronim, the Shulchan Aruch written later on, we have seforim written today, Rabbeinu zal’s sefer, Rav Nosson zal’s seforim, the Arizal, the Baal Shem Tov – all these, the Gemara says, were taught to Moshe Rabbeinu by HaShem.

So he knew everything that he knew plus everything that others would know. His knowledge encompassed all knowledge there was and will be in the future. At the same time does that mean that he reached the peak of knowledge, that that’s the end?

The Zohar HaKodesh says that in Gan Eden, in the yeshiva in heaven, there are actually stories told about Moshe Rabbeinu speaking with the rabbis of the Gemara who had passed away already, their neshomas are in Gan Eden. They discuss certain aspects of Torah, questions asked, questions that are brought up, new questions, new ideas, they are discussed and they arrive at new answers, something that is novel, something that was not mentioned previously. And this is done perpetually. They don’t sleep there, they don’t eat there, but they continue to study the Torah, bring out new ideas every single minute of the entire 24-hour period of the day and night.

That was a long time ago. Rabbi Shimon Ben Yochai zal, the Zohar HaKodesh, was close to 2000 years ago. They are constantly continuing to study Torah. To this day we find stories of the Baal Shem Tov, the Arizal, who went to heaven to visit the yeshivas and had the same experience of learning more and deeper knowledge in Torah. That means, then, that there is a perpetual, a constant, an endless study, bringing out new ideas, new depths, in the Torah itself, which means then that there is no such thing as getting to the end.

Moshe Rabbeinu himself is getting new ideas, new knowledge, new to him, himself too. We find in the Zohar HaKodesh where Moshe Rabbeinu said he himself asked the question. He asked it in the yeshiva of heaven and a voice in heaven replied to his question. Even Moshe Rabbeinu, too, can learn from heaven. Who is the Rebbi of Moshe Rabbeinu? HaShem.

So we have this constant study of Torah, constant knowledge. But again, though, this is dependent upon a person’s shiflus – a person’s modesty. He is being modest, he is being humble, then he can reach the point, the top point of zero.

Now zero means the person considers himself nothing. Moshe Rabbeinu says אנחנו מה – we are nothing whatsoever, not even ashes, as Avraham Avinu said. [When] a person is nothing, he becomes part of this Ayin. Ayin is the Keser, the Crown of all holiness, HaShem Ein Sof, and that’s how he becomes merged with this holiness and reaches this top level.

Now, Rabbeinu zal says, to elaborate on this, we have a Torah in Likutey Moharan, Rabbeinu zal’s own words, which would shed a lot of light from this to the statement Rabbeinu zal made in Sichos Haran. Rabbeinu zal says that when a person would know, when a person reaches that point of knowledge where he understands that everything that ever happens to him is only good; it’s for his good. A person becomes sick, a person suffers, a person has pain; it’s for his good. We don’t understand that, because our knowledge is not that high.

A person who does get to that stage, where he understands this, and this knowledge is in the category of Olam HaBaah, the future world – Gan Eden. A person has reached Gan Eden if he can understand everything is for his good. Why? Because there’s a passuk in Tehillim (56:11) which says: באלהים אהלל דבר בה’ אהלל דבר.

HaShem is kindness – is goodness, is good fortune. Elokim is din and harshness, בה’ אהלל דבר – I will give praise to HaShem. I will give thanks to HaShem for the kindness of HaShem, and באלהים אהלל – I will give thanks to HaShem, too, for the harshness. Why give thanks for it? Because I’ll realize that what appears to be harsh is actually good, it’s wonderful.

A person is sick, he is not being hurt; he is being cured. A neshoma has stains that are being erased through the sickness. The neshoma is enjoying an eternal bliss because of this sickness. A person doesn’t understand it, but if he does, then he has a contact with his soul, with Gan Eden.

Now, this too is what’s meant by, the possuk says: ביום ההוא, you say it every day, that day in the future יהיה ד’ אחד ושמו אחד – that day when Moshiach comes, that day in Olam HaBah, in the future, HaShem and His Name will be One. “HaShem” means always HaShem Chesed, “His Name” – the Name is Elokim – Din – “will be One.”

Echad means that HaShem, Elokim, will be Echad. Echad, Rabbienu zal says, has gematria Ahava. Ahava means that HaShem and Elokim treat a person only because of echad, because of ahava.

Why does HaShem give a person money, health? Because HaShem loves that person. Why does HaShem Elokim hurt the person? Because HaShem loves that person. את אשר יאהב ה’ יוכיח (Mishlei 3:12). HaShem does it only out of ahavah. So, both HaShem Chesed and Elokim Din are echod out of ahavah.

But that’s ביום ההוא – that’s in Olam HaBah. A person has to strive to reach that, to understand that now. And this is, what we said, this takes what?

Note: this takes the true knowledge, the true daas, the true chokhma. Because what is Daas actually? What is the sefira of Daas? There is Chokhma, Bina, veDaas. Does Daas exist separately?

Daas means the combination of Chokhma and Binah. Chokhma – Chesed. Binah – Gevura – Din. Chesed and Din. Daas combines both. A person who has Daas knows that Chesed and Din is One. יהיה ה’ אחד ושמו אחד (Zecharia 14:9). That both Chesed and Din are one – this is the true Daas.

And this a person can be zocha to, Rabbeinu zal says, how does a person know that it’s Daas? Only through teshuvah. A person does teshuvah for his sins and he says a vidui. Vidui Devarim – he confesses his sins before HaShem, before the Tzaddik Emes.

Vidui means that he pours forth his heart, he lowers himself, embarrassing himself, turning himself into nothingness; he is mevatel himself. This way, by saying vidui and doing teshuvah, he is returning the Malchus of HaShem, bringing the Malchus HaShem back.

Back from where? The person who commits sins, he takes the Kingdom of HaShem and lowers it, drives it out. He expels it. Because when a person commits sins, it means he does not accept the Kingdom of HaShem upon himself. So he’s bringing the Kingdom, the Shekhina, the Shekhina – the Malchus, into golus, having that in exile.

This sin, bringing the Shekhina into golus, when the sin is corrected, a person, through teshuvah and through vidui, perfects himself, accepts again the rule of HaShem, that means that he is bringing the Malchus of HaShem out of golus – returning this Malkhus to HaShem.

What is this Malkhus? Malkhus is Din. Malkhus is Elokim. Returning Malkhus – Elokim to HaShem, which means יהיה ה’ אחד ושמו.

His act of teshuvah combines HaShem uShmoh, bringing the Malchus – Din back to HaShem beChesed. With this he achieves, he does, the yediah – the understanding that all is good for him. With this he achieves the feeling, the knowledge of Olam HaBaah.

21:00 – Rav Noson zal says, with this we can understand, what’s meant by davening. What is tefilah? We come to daven before HaShem.

Note: the Arizal explains that there are four divisions in tefilah. These four divisions we daven every day; we just skim over it quickly. Davening is divided into four parts. First we have the Korbonos, the brochos in the Korbonos. That’s the beginning, and that corresponds to this lowest
world, Olam HaAsiyah.

Then we go on to Baruch SheOmar, Pesukei deZimra, Tehillim, which corresponds to Olam HaYetzirah, the world of the malachim who sing these songs to HaShem.

And then we go on to, after Borchu, we have the Brachos of Krias Shema, and Krias Shema itself, that’s Olam HaBeriyah, the Throne of HaShem. Throne means sitting, that’s why you must sit after Borchu.

And then you go on to the highest world, Atzilus, Shemoneh Esrei; that’s above the world, the highest of all worlds. The davening corresponds to these four.

Now, with the davening, not a tzaddik but a regular Jew who davens in this order,his neshama rises from one world to the next kvyachol. For that moment he goes up so high and he reaches the peak. Which is the peak? After Shemoneh Esrei. When he reaches the peak of bitul, because then what comes afterwards? We have Vidui – confession, and Nefilas Apayim – “he puts his head down” – which means he is feigning, pretending, death. That means he has given himself up completely, surrendered himself to HaShem. He has made himself completely void,
nonexistent. He reached the peak of nothingness, the peak of ayin, the peak of bitul. So that’s how he has gotten to the top level, which means passing away into the future world.

Now Rav Nosson zal says that we have to note between these olomos [worlds], going from one to the other – what do we hope to achieve? We rise up, we purify ourselves, we do teshuvah to bring the Malchus back to HaShem.

How do we do that? Because between each one, going from Korbonos to Hodu we have a Kaddish there, Kaddish deRabbonon.

Going from Pesukei deZimra – Yishtabach to the brochos of Kriyas Shema, we again have a Kaddish, Kaddish and Borchu.

There’s a Kaddish between each world which means that at that moment we have accomplished something that brings together the Names of HaShem, HaShem-Elokim, which is the highest – “HaShem Elokai gedalta meod” – the greatest Name of HaShem – to bring these two together: HaShem – Chesed and Din together.

We say “Yisgadal vaYiskadash Shemei Raba”. “Raba” means the greatest Name of HaShem. Because “Raba” b’gematria is HaShem-Elokim, which is Yud and Kay [ה], and HaShem Adonoi, which is Vav and Kay [ה]. That’s the upper and lower part of the Shem of HaShem – that’s “Raba”.

The gematria of “Raba” is Yisgadal vaYiskadash, may He become greatened and heightened – the Kedusha of Raba. The Name of HaShem which is so Raba.

But what happens when the Malchus, when the Elokim, the Din, is brought together with the Chesed? And that is done after we complete each level and go to the higher level.

Note that [when] we get to the highest level – we go from Beriya to Atzilus – from Krias Shema to Shemoneh Esrei – there is no Kaddish there. Because Atzilus means we got to the Ein Sof. We become completely nullified and void. There is no necessity then to elevate ourselves because that is the peak, that is raising the Kedusha to its highest level. That is the Raba itself, Olam HaAtzilus.

But all this can be done only if a person purifies himself, if he does teshuvah, if he says vidui. This way a person is entitled, is able to reach the new level, the level of Kedushah, where it is a part of Olam HaBaah.

This is what Rabbeinu zal says here too: the “tachlis hayediah she-lo neida”. She-lo neida means, then, that a person gets to a point where he is ayin, Keser. He is so high he has gotten to the top of the levels, the level of Atzilus, but from there, there is a new area which he must first begin to enter into, and this a person can do serving HaShem forever and ever afterwards.

Of course, this is a very big order, but there is no limit to where a person can begin. No matter how low we are we can still serve HaShem from our level and be accepted by HaShem with ahava. HaShem has ahava for every single Jew. If any Jew, no matter how bad, wants to return to HaShem, he is always welcome. He will be accepted by HaShem without question.

Rabbeinu zal adds in this same paragraph (we go back to this third paragraph), Rabbeinu zal says in the same sentence, the same paragraph that also, a person should attempt to understand the greatness, the importance, of teshuvah.

Teshuvah is so great – repentance is even greater than the Kedushah of the Torah. We explained that Torah is Tiferes and teshuvah is further up than Binah. Fifty degrees of Binah, which means teshuvah.

What is meant by teshuvah? Why is it greater? To understand it very simply, because the Torah is dinim, mitzvahs, dinim (laws). Now the din states that a person who commits a sin, he has a sin to his record, he has a penalty awaiting him.

A person who commits a sin, Rabbeinu zal says that this sin which he did, he committed, it becomes engraved on his bones, becomes engraved on his neshoma, on his soul. And that stays there, and this avenges the mitzvah itself; the sin itself is what punishes the person. So, [if] a person did this, this is the law, the din of the Torah is that he must pay for his crime. That’s din.

Teshuvah is higher. Teshuvah is so great that teshuvah can take this very same sin, this very same crime, this very same din of Torah, and it has more power to take this and invert it inside out and change, transpose this into a new item, a new being, a new creation. This sin now becomes a mitzvah.

A person who performs the mitzvah of teshuvah, repentance, it happens through ahavas HaShem. Every sin that he committed is now changed to a mitzvah.

For example, if the person was told “do not break the Shabbos”, it’s the most important mitzvah of the Torah and he is mechalel Shabbos, he violates the din of Shabbos. He has that sentence now engraved on his bones. If he does teshuvah mei ahava, that sentence is turned around and instead of saying that this man broke the Shabbos, the word is changed: this man obeyed the Shabbos. He has the credit of the highest mitzvah possible.

So a person through teshuvah can actually convert the entire Torah – all the sins in the Torah – to mitzvahs; so high is the power of teshuvah.

Of course, it’s difficult to understand. Torah is so great. Torah is the word of HaShem; it’s part of HaShem. How can you take something, what power is it that can change all the dinim of Torah?

Rav Nosson zal asked Rabbeinu zal this question. He asked, how is it possible for a person to take the words of Torah, which is the highest Kedushah possible, it’s part of HaShem, it’s the treasure of HaShem, with what power can he take this and erase it, erase the sins that he did? How can he find favor in the eyes of HaShem who commanded him and he violated the command of HaShem?

Rabbeinu zal replied, a person can do this only, specifically through crying out to HaShem, tefilah, tefilah or tzaakah. We cry to HaShem and cry so long, and so endlessly to HaShem we’ll find the warmth, the compassion to take the person back, to return Him.

But this requires a person’s never giving up hope. This was the main lesson Rabbeinu zal taught, the main lesson he’s famous for, the main lesson which shows the greatness of Rabbeinu zal himself: under no conditions should a Jew ever give up hope.

A person feels in himself that these words are said for all Jews who committed some kind of sins, they could do teshuvah. If it’s bigger sins, smaller sins, but not me. I’ve gone so far away from HaShem, a person feels that the number of sins that I committed are irreparable. There is no way to repair this, to correct this, anymore. This does not apply to me.

That’s the error Rabbeinu zal warned against. No person should ever say this does not include me. No person should ever, chas veshalom, fall into yiush, into a loss of hope, because that is the worst possible crime of all. A person should know to continue to daven and to pray, to cry to HaShem and his tefillos will be answered, because HaShem wants that.

HaShem wants the rasha, the evil person, to return to Him, and HaShem will accept him. In fact HaShem stretches out a hand to bring back the rasha, ata noseyn yad leposhim, kvyachol, HaShem stretches out His hand to bring back who? Not the small sinner, the חוטא, the one who has committed small sins, not the maizid, but the poshim. Poshim means ones who committed sins for spite. He rebelled against HaShem, that person who was so spiteful and so evil, HaShem wants that person back specifically.

So no person is exempt from this rule. No person could ever say he has gone too far. He cannot go too far because as far as you go, no matter how far it is, the kindness of HaShem is still further, is still greater. It will outshine and outnumber, outmatch anything you could ever perform in evil, there is more kindness by HaShem.

If a person keeps that thought in mind, then he is certain to be able to fulfill the mitzvah of teshuvah, come back to HaShem, be accepted by HaShem and to find that he is in the good graces of HaShem forever afterwards. This is the third paragraph.

31:26 – SICHA 4. We come now to the fourth one. Rabbeinu zal speaks about the topic of money. This is a very favorite topic with most people. This point of course, Rabbeinu zal does not say that money is bad. In fact, we want to correct the misapprehension on the part of most people who still think that money is the root of all evil, which is very false.

It is the lack of money that’s the root of all evil. A person who doesn’t have it, it causes him commits sins, to commit wrongs. A person who has it can retire and be a good person for the rest of his life; it’s the lack of money. But a person must learn to live properly and not to commit wrong.

Money itself, domim, is actually something that is holy. It is so holy that its origin, where does money come from? Rain comes from the clouds. Money comes from higher up. You don’t find money raining down from clouds.

Money comes from further up in heaven. It comes from the same place that a person’s neshama comes from. The nefesh originates way up in heaven, and that’s where money originates too. You’ll find money buried in the ground, gold in the ground, you’ll find money at the paymaster’s station, the teller in the bank. You find money at your employer’s office.

But the fact is: where did that money come from? What is the source, the origin? It is in up above, because the origin of money is a very high kedushah. It’s very holy.

And therefore we find that Yaakov Avinu was willing to go back in the dark, across a stream of water, alone at night, and risk his life just
to get back a small item of very small value, because the money of a tzaddik is very precious.

Now, how about getting some of this precious item?

Rabbeinu zal says that now, meaning nowadays, in contemporary time, it’s very difficult for a good person, a tzaddik, a religious Jew, to have money, to have an abundant supply of it, because in order to get money nowadays a person must go down, must be sent low into tumeh [impurity], away from religion into sin, and there he will find the money now. The money that was so good before has descended into a low pit.

There is a possuk: ותרד פלאים – “she has descended very far” [Eicha 1:9]. פלאים means very, very far. פלאים also stands for the letters אלפים, thousands – the thousands or the thousands of thousands, millions, of all – way down.

Who gets this money now? People who are bad. We find that nowadays there is “rasha vetov lo, tzaddik vera lo”. Rasha, the evil person, is very wealthy – he has a home in Florida, he has a swimming pool here, he’s got cars. And the good person, the kind person, the benevolent person, the very religious one, struggles to make a living. Why is that?

Then, of course, we do find exceptions. There are tzaddikim too, some who have money, but they are very few and far apart, and they too don’t have that much; they don’t have such millions. And even those who do have money, it doesn’t do them too much good, because those who have a lot of money, the fact is that it detracts from their serving HaShem to an extent. As good as they are they would serve HaShem more, they’d spend more time if they didn’t have this money, because this way they have business, they’ve got to attend it, it takes away a lot of their time, the business expands, they have still more connections, and the time that is used up would have been used up for the study of Torah and tefilah if they’d have less money.

So nowadays we find that money is not too good, not too valuable and very rare for a good person. Rabbeinu zal quotes his grandfather, Rabbi Nachman Horodenker zal, who was one of the closest disciples of the Baal Shem Tov. He’s buried in Teveria.

Rabbi Horodenker zal said, there is a passuk in the Torah which says that ארך ימים בימינה בשמאולה עשר וכבוד [Mishlei 3:16].

Speaking about the Torah itself, the Torah itself has two sides to it; again, the right and the left. The right is always the chesed, left is din. On the right side of the Torah there is more life, which means reward. Where is life long? Olam HaBaah.

On the left side of the Torah there is עשר וכבוד, wealth and honor.

Now, in this case, of course, we always say that “right side” means one who studies Torah leshmah; studies Torah with sincerity and for the sake of mitzvos, learning about the mitzvahs and obeying them.

“Left side” means one who studies Torah for the sake of kovod, not for the sake of purity. But still, for the sake of the mitzvah of learning, too. So, one who studies on the left side, wrongly, he is still rewarded with wealth. The right side, he studies perfectly he gets long life.

So the Gemara asks, the left side has wealth, the right side has long life and does not have wealth. Why? The right side should have more.

The Gemara says, of course, the right side has more life, that it has. And wealth – it goes without saying. It goes without saying it has wealth too. “It goes without saying.”

Now Rabbeinu zal says, “It goes without saying” means that a Jew goes without saying, but is it really there? You won’t see it. It’s kol sheken, surely it’s there but only surely, not actually. In actuality you will not find it. It’s a drush, it’s a pshettel which tells us that the riches are there too but you can’t eat a pshettel, you can’t have real cash out of a pshettel, kol sheken but not actually.

These are the words of Rabbeinu zal’s grandfather, which shows, which proves, that a person who is a tzaddik could only get money from a pshettel but not really, not actual cash.

Rav Nosson zal explains too that the person who is ______, a person who is filled with craving for money, for wealth, for power, that person is committing the sin of idol worship, because that person actually idolizes, worships, wealth.

And therefore, we find that when the Beis Hamikdash was destroyed because of idol worship, it says that the Jews suffered double punishment, ____ keflyim, a set of double because of the destruction, because of their taivos, their evil desires.

This is why, since that was avodah zara, therefore a ganif, a thief who steals, which is like avodah zara, what is his penalty? He must pay kefel, he must pay double. Double because that’s the penalty for the destruction of the Beis Hamidkash and avodah zara. Rav Noson zal says that this is one who is pogaim, he causes a defect in money which is supposed to be holy which is supposed to be pure. By worshipping money, by having a taivoh for money he causes this pegam, and his penalty is to pay kefel. How does a person rectify that? How does he correct it?

39:00 – The correction is through something which is supposed to remove the earthly type, the mundane, the base type of desires. And that is something which is heavenly, pure and heavenly, that’s the Shabbos Kodesh. Shabbos Kodesh is the Malchus, it is the Queen Shabbos, which is heavenly and which is so great that it can be mesaken – it can perfect all these wrong types of sins. The Gemara says clearly that a person who observes the Shabbos, he is forgiven for idol worship, the exact words in the Gemara. And we find, therefore, the kefel here too.

The Shabbos has a mitzvah of Lechem Mishneh. Lechem Mishneh – double. Double the amount of food that you have during the week, double the amount of shefa. Lechem, as we said, is three times HaShem’s Name. Three times the gematria of 26 is 78. Lechem Mishneh is 6 times, that’s the inyan of tzaddik, the greatness of tzaddik, six times HaShem is _____ tzaddik, Yosef, and therefore this Lechem Mishneh is the opposite of this rasha, this ganif, which perfects his pegam of kefel, paying double. We now have this double bekedusha. We now have this ashirus, this holiness in Kedushah.

And this teaches of course to avoid, to be wary of those people who spend a lifetime, a whole life from their youth until they are very old, they constantly run after, they pursue this elusive wealth. They try again and again to open another store, another business, another job, and they will not stop. It is as though they have a fire under them that’s burning in them, that forces them on to pursue, to try to achieve this wealth. The end is that they die poor. If they die rich, they leave their money behind them where it did them no good. So, a teiva, a desire that destroys a person’s ____. A person should see to it to achieve this ashirus dekedusha – the wealth of kedushah – through the kedusha of Shabbos Kodesh. Rabbeinu zal says too that it is possible that a person should have wealth though he is good.

One exception: that is a person who served HaShem very loyally despite the fact that he was poor and he was starving, despite the fact that he had nothing to eat, he did not complain to HaShem, he accepted it with happiness, he accepted it with emunah, with faith. He lived, continued to live in purity and devotion to HaShem, serving HaShem properly. And HaShem says to that person, because you served me so loyally, you fulfilled the mitzvos during a time of poverty, I am going to let you fulfill the mitzvahs through wealth. And that later on, he becomes wealthy as a reward for his having been loyal when he was poor.

And this “later on” does not necessarily mean in his later years, because if a person becomes wealthy when he is 70 years old, he cannot eat much steak at that time, or 80 years old to use, to buy a Cadillac when he is 80 does him no good – _____. So later on really means when he is young, young, again, a person who lived through life and served HaShem loyally, devotedly, in poverty, when he comes back, a gilgul, to this world, he comes back with wealth in store for him. Even though now he is not that perfect, he is good though, he will have this wealth, so he is good now, he is a tzaddik. A tzaddik should be suffering, that is normal, yet he’ll have this abundance of wealth as a reward for his past gilgul when he served HaShem in poverty, because there is always the reward to come.

The best thing of course is for a person to serve HaShem and to accept whatever HaShem gives him. The wealthiest person is he who is happy with his lot, who gives thanks, שבח to HaShem for everything he receives. A person like that is really wealthy because he never has to worry, he never has any concern over the tomorrow, the problems of livelihood, because whatever HaShem gives to him, bestows upon him, he accepts with simcha. And that is the true life of a tzaddik, and that is something which gives a person both Olam Hazeh and Olam Habaah.

This is what Rabbeinu zal teaches us here, that it is difficult to have money, but a person could have true wealth, that it’s more important by accepting the brachos of HaShem, the ahava, and thereby have his future guaranteed, which means oved es HaShem beEmes, to serve HaShem beEmes and beAhava and to receive the brachos of HaShem, begashimus and beruchnius. Above all, to merit seeing with our eyes, now, this month of Adar simcha, should be the month we see the coming of Moshiach, Binyan Beis HaMikdash, amein ve’amein.

(Edited by s.y.w.)

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