How Do We Discover Our True Essence? ויאמר ה׳ אל אברם לך לך Kabbalah class, Rabbi Yitzchok Minkowicz

Welcome to our class and so this we're going to be learning a beautiful discourse in the Rebbe. The name of the discourse is called by Hashem Avram and God spoke to Avram. The Rebbe said this discourse on Parshas Lech Lecha that year was the eighth day in the month of in the year Mem Aleph 46 years ago. So the discourse is based on the verse where it says by Hashem Avram. God says to Abraham Lech Lecha leave your land, the place you were born, your father's house, your parents home to the land that I'm going to show you. And then I'm going to make you to a great nation. I'm going to bless you. I'm going to make your name I'm going to make your name renowned. You're going to be a blessing, etc. And then it goes on to say all the families of the whole world is going to go ahead and bless you. So as we know the question that's asked in the different discourses of the Chabad Rebbe, why does it say twice Lech Lecha? It should have said Lech, go from your land. Why Lech Lecha? That's question number one. Also we have to understand it says I'm going to make your name great. What is the question is what is the Why is this considered a quality for Abraham because we know Abraham says Abraham is a fur. I am dust and ashes which means he was totally in the level of acceptance. He was humble. So what's the point of telling him I'm going to make you great? I don't want to be great. I want to be humble. So those are the two questions. And the Rebbe said the point of the explanation is as follows. >> [snorts] >> When the Torah says Lech Lecha twice, in other words what does that mean? You should go to yourself. In other words you should go and I'll say it in Hebrew, I'll translate it to the etzem atzmi atzmi. To go to who you are. Go to your source. Not go somewhere else. Go to who you are, which is your source. And that's why the verse says, go el ha'aretz to the land Asher erecha, I'm going to show you. So, >> [cough] >> besides the simple understanding that I'm going to show you the land of Israel, we know that the the the the Kabbalistic insight where Hashem says I'm going to show you and I'm going to reveal to you your essence of who you are. And that's why it says lech lecha go who go to your essence and I'm going to show you your essence. And like similar to what the it the the explanation of the Alter Rebbe and when when in reference to the verse where it says and I'll tell you at ha'aretz Asher erecha you were um given to understand ha'aretz Asher used the term to ha'aretz Asher. So so the Alter explains at referring to you uh the essence of the infant part of Hashem ha'aretz Asher you allowed yourself to be shown. In other words, to to reveal our essence. And this idea to reveal the true essence. How do you reveal your true essence? By doing the work of lech lecha. In other words, when you leave your land, the place you're born, your parents' home and with the two explanations, whether it's I'll say it in Hebrew, I'll translate milmata l'maala going from below on high or milmaala l'mata like the Rebbe is going to explain at length. What the Rebbe is saying over here is as follows, that basically what Hashem is saying to Avram, I'm going to show you your real self. I'm going to show you your true self. How are you going to accomplish that? By lech lecha. And like either milmata l'maala or milmaala l'maala the Rebbe is going to explain. And the Rebbe explains as follows. To explain this, one one insight is in the traveling, which we said is the first way is milmata l'maala from the physical world going to the spiritual world. And like literally like the verses say that Abraham left from his land, from the place he was born, his parents' house, the the city of Ur Kasdim, and where is he going? He's going l'ma'alah, he's going higher. He's going to land that Hashem is going to show him. Which what land is that? That's land of Israel. Cuz we know the land that he left from, Ur Kasdim, was a place of idolatry. And that's why he says, "Leave the land." And and and over over there he also went together with Terach. And it it says the other side of the Euphrates, um the our our ancestors lived there, which is basically Terach, the father of Abraham, who was basically the the father of Nachor, and they they they served other other other gods, etc. And that's what it means you should leave the place you're born, you should leave from there. And then you're going to come to the land of Canaan. And and he had with him Lot, who was basically the the brother of of the son of his brother, and it only afterwards says Hashem says to Avram after and Lot left from him. And that's what it means from your parent from your your your parents' home that means you left, not only Ur Kasdim, which is the place of Terach, but you left also the your family of Lot, then you're able to reach the highest place, and you went to the land of Israel. Which basically that's the place that Hashem chose to put his name there. He put his name in the land of Israel, and even in the times of Abraham there was already the choosing of the land of of Israel. And like Hashem says clearly to him, "Come, he's halach b'aretz l'orcha ul'rochba." Come, walk the land, the length and the width, because ki l'cha natatiha, Hashem is giving it already then to Abraham. And the Talmud says that the the fact that Avraham Avinu went and he walked the land, that's how he he he received ownership by establishing his presence there. And Hashem also says to your ancestors, "L'zaracha nasati es ha'aretz." So you answer I'm going to give the land. And the the Talmud Yerushalmi says, "It doesn't say l'zaracha to your ancestors, etein, I'll give in the future, but l'zaracha nasati, I already gave it to them." In other words, in the times of Avraham, we already received the land of Israel. So that So what does that mean practically? That mil ma'ata l'ma'ala, he's leaving Ur Kasdim, he's leaving Terach, he's leaving Lavan, and he's going where? To the Holy Land of Israel. And that's on a physical level, but the same thing also on a spiritual level. That this journey of Avraham was mil ma'ata l'ma'ala. In other words, that he went and when he went that he went l'cha, he went to his to to his source. And he went to the land that Hashem is going to show him. That Hashem is going to reveal Avraham who he is. Until he reached the the Avraham nahar, the other side of the river on the on a positive level. And that's why Avraham Avinu was called Avraham Ha'ivri, because the whole world was on one side and Avraham Avinu was on the other side. So that's the first insight. He went mil ma'ata l'ma'ala. He left and he went to the higher place. And that's where Hashem was it was it told him he's going to see the the truth and he's going to see he's going to see himself. The second insight is that this traveling went mil ma'ata from high down below. In other words, he left his land, he left the place he was born, his parents' home. What's it referring to? It's referring to sefirot. And the traveling is to land that I will show you, which basically he went to the lowest sefirah, which is sefirah of malchus. And we know eretz is referring to um the lowest the sefirot and even even and lower than that. And that's why it says, "I will show you." That when the soul leaves from the highest places and and and it comes down to the lowest places. And we're here, why are we here? To serve Hashem. And not only that, like the expression is, "I need the racing the shamash has tiny. I was created to serve Hashem." Or another expression, "I need a racing and like lightning racing the only reason why I'm here is to serve Hashem." We we have we create the reality that we can see Hashem that we see the the essence of our soul of our soul. So, in other words, there's two types of ways of serving Hashem. One is going from the lowest level to the highest level we get to see ourself or bringing down the highest level to the lowest level and that's how we get to see the essence of our soul. Now, Hazal tell us that Avraham Avinu kept the whole Torah before it was given. So, seemingly we ask a simple question. The fact is most of the commandments in the Torah is connected with going out of Egypt. Like it's brought down in the safer of chinuch and many other places. And for example, take shabbos, take yom tov that what do we say in shabbos and yom tov? It's all to commemorate going out of Egypt. Up to the point at the beginning when we received the Torah in the first commandment, what does it say? "I know you Hashem I'm guarding God that I took you out of the land of Egypt." Abraham was several generations before we left Egypt. Like it says clearly cuz you're going to be strangers in the land of Egypt later on. And the four generations only return to Hashem. So, what does it mean when we say that Avraham Avinu kept the whole Torah? It's all only only happened later. So, that is well understood that based on what it says in the Zohar. The Zohar says something very The Zohar says something very powerful. That the all the whole purpose of all the commandments is to to to fix the ray of Hashem. Up to the point is to fix the name the big name of Hashem, which means we add greatness in God by learning Torah and doing mitzvahs. And that's why Avraham Avinu he went ahead and he fulfilled the whole Torah even before it was given. Because when he went and he journeyed lech lecha me'artzecha, he left his his his land. And like we explained before, two ways, either from the low to the highest level or or from the highest to the low level. lowest level, are we not affected that Hashem's name should be greater? Like "Karnu rosha d'Shmaya" up to the point to the high to the to the high name of Hashem. Now, based on that, we can understand what another powerful idea when it's brought down in the in the Zohar, specifically in the additions of the second chapter. So, it says over there as follows, when Hashem went ahead and gave the Torah to the to the Jewish people, so he went ahead and he hinted on a very very high level, and he said, "Anochi Hashem Elokecha." I am God your God. That was the first commandment. What does that mean on a spiritual level? It's referring to chesed and kindness. And and who is the one that united with that chesed? It is Avraham Avinu. And how and how is that? By accepting the positive commandments. And um the the the the secret of the positive commandments, which Hashem gave to Avraham Avinu, and where do we see that? Because it says "Lech l'cha me'aretz'cha." It's a positive commandment to leave your land. And that's why the positive commandments, which we know how many positive commandments are there? There's 248 positive commandments, which and and and and that's the same numerical value as Avraham Avinu, Avraham. Avraham is spelled aleph, bet, resh, hey, mem. Aleph is one, bet is two, resh is 200, hey is five, mem is 40. That's 248, which is connected to 248 positive commandments. So, what the Zohar is saying is, "Anochi Hashem Elokecha," the positive commandments, that's connected to Avraham Avinu, "Lech l'cha." Leave. He's giving a positive commandment. As we see, the 248 positive commandments is the same numerical value as Avraham Avinu. The second command, "Lo yihiyeh l'cha elohim acherim," you shouldn't have any other gods. So, the Zohar says that's the secret of the of the of the negative commandments. Who is connected to the negative commandments? Yitzchak Avinu. Why? Because Yitzchak was commanded through a negative commandment. And his purpose was the negative commandments. Like when it came to Yitzchak, it doesn't say "lech lecha" to go, but it's a the negative precept. What's the negative? "Al teira." Don't go down to Egypt. And like it's brought down in the in in in Alter Rebbe explains in Tanya that the commandment of "anochi" includes all the 248 positive commandments. And the commandment of "you shouldn't have any other gods" includes all the negative commandments. So that's the first one that's connected to Avraham Avinu. The second one is connected to to to Yitzchak. Then it says "lo sisa." You shouldn't take Hashem's name in vain. And that is connected to the sphere of Tiferes, which is called truth. And that's Yaakov. Cuz what does it mean you shouldn't take God's name in vain? It means you shouldn't be false. You should be speak emes. Who's emes? Yaakov. And that's Yaakov is is a connection between the positive and the negative commandments. Like it says clearly in reference to Yaakov, that Yaakov "ish tam." He was a simple person sitting in the tent. And it says doesn't say "ohel" plant, but "ohalim" plural, tents. Cuz it's including the positive commandments and the negative commandments. And he's also we know Yaakov is the the the middle one. And another insight is that what does it mean he was sitting in the tents? He was learning Torah. Because learning Torah is not just learning Torah. Learning Torah brings you to do mitzvahs. So that you have both components. You have learning Torah and doing the mitzvahs. And and and and and when you're doing the mitzvahs, you're doing the positive ones and the negative ones. So therefore, so what is the connection with the commandment of "lech lecha" to leave, which is basically um the the positive commandments, and it includes all the 248 positive commandments? Based on what we learned, we'll understand because when when he when Avraham Avinu went and he go went ahead and he did all the 248 positive commandments, he reached the to the greatness of Hashem names, which means he was able to fix the name of Hashem. And what is that referring to? It's referring to all the positive commandments. So, that's why it says "Lech lecha me'artzecha." You should go ahead and you should leave the land that I'm telling you. And this is not only for Avraham Avinu, but there was this a a lesson, an everlasting lesson for the spiritual work of every single Jewish person. And like we know what it says in reference to what says "Anochi Hashem Elo-kecha." I am God, your God, in a singular term, that it took you out, in a singular term took you out, because it's referring to every single Jewish person specifically. And the same thing also it says "Lech lecha la'azov" that says a commandment to every one of us. And in two components, like we learned before, on one hand "mil'mata lema'ala" to leave the lower level and to aspire to go high, but also the "mil'ma'ala lema'ata" to take the spirituality bring it to this world. And like it's explained the explanation that a person has to go ahead and leave me "artzecha." So, literal meaning is you're leaving your land. What does "artzecha" mean? It means your "retzon" is your will, your nature. And your your "melantoch" the way you were brought up is basically your your your your education that you received. And your your your "beis avicha" your parents home, which is referring to your intellect, which gives birth to your emotions. And you you where do you have to go to? You have to go to the source. Where are you going to? The land that I'm going to show you. And how do we do that? By How do we go ahead and and create that? We go "mil'ma'ala lema'ata" from the higher level to the lower level. And coming down to physically to this world. Coming down to the which called the the abyss, this physical world. And there's there's no physical there's no lower place where God is concealed like this world. And by doing that we make a dwelling place for Hashem down this world. And there was he liked to create a connection between these two insights. Why is that? Because when a person comes down to this world, so one end you can say, "My gosh, this is a downgrade." But we have to remember you read the Zohar every downgrade is for an upgrade. But in through that we we reach the the soul reaches the heart or to what what is the heart? Like we learned in the beginning of this discourse to to our essence. And and to the to the essence of who we are we are. And we reach we reach even higher to the higher than the source of who we are. And higher than the the the God that supposedly gave us our soul. And like it's explained in the in the in the Hasidic discourses of of of the gates of repentance and especially in the Hasidic discourse of Parshas Zino that the Elohim Hashem Hasano is referring to the the the the rock. And we know the difference between the fire that's in a coal and a fire that's so to speak in the rock that a fire that's in a coal and even if the coal was so to speak extinguished, but the fact is there's still some kind of fire in there. However, when you have a fire in a rock, it's so concealed it's called in Kabbalah Helem She'eino Metzius. It's concealed it doesn't even exist. And the same thing also we're going to stand the source of the soul on high which is basically like the fire which is in the rock which is basically concealed where it doesn't even exist. But by coming down to this physical world Lech Lecha to leave. And we're going to go to the Eretz to the land. And like it says Eretz Hadom Ragli like for example like a a footstool which ultimately by coming down and putting on the footstool the lowest level it actually picks up the head um the person sitting on the on the chair. And by going down and dealing with the materialistic world, the soul reach is even a higher place. And up to the point that reaches the way it's connected with the infinite part of Hashem. And that happens by doing our work by learning Torah and doing mitzvahs which is we know it's generally divided up in three three areas. And that's why he continues on to say that I'm going to make you for a great nation. And um you you're going to be blessed by everybody, which is basically the three the three areas. Like it's explained in in the from the Tzemach Tzedek and the Ohr HaChaim and the other the other Chassidic Rebbeim. And the Rebbe finishes off so beautifully and powerfully. He says, "It should be the will that when we go ahead and do our work of Lech Lecha, we're going to go and we're going to go to the land that Hashem is going to show us spiritually. We're going to come very very soon to the land literally, the land Eretz Yisrael. Because when we go ahead and we nullify the reason why we're in exile. Cuz why are we in exile? Mifnei chata'einu galinu me'artzeinu, because we sinned. God exiled us out of the land. And we we're away from the land that we of of Eretz Yisrael. And And why is that? Because basically when we go ahead and we learn Torah and we do the mitzvahs. And especially when we go ahead and we do teshuvah, we return to Hashem. So then what happens when we return to Hashem? Then your actions become ones that give off light. And like we know the the explanation where it says in in Chazal that it's better to do um one moment of teshuvah, returning to Hashem, and good deeds in this world greater than the whole world to come. So he starts off by returning to Hashem before doing the good deeds. Why? Because when a person returns to Hashem first, then your actions are good and they actually give off light. And then we'll come to the land, the land that Hashem is going to show us. The land of Israel literally. And we're going to come with our children, with the elders, with our sons and our daughters. And call God with the whole community is going to return. And we're going to come back literally to the land of Israel together with Mashiach Tzidkeinu. With the with the our righteous Mashiach and Hashem. And the Rebbe finishes off so beautifully and powerfully. It should be happen bimeheira beyameinu mamash, very very soon and very very quickly. So, here we have another beautiful Hasidic discourse. By doing our work, we reach the highest places and ultimately the highest places will bring us to Geulah Hamitis Hashleima. Let's hope next class will be Yerushalayim Ir Hakodesh. Have a great and blessed week. Shavua tov.