לא צריך לצאת מעצמך | שפת אמת לפרשת וירא תרמ | הרב יהושע שפירא

One Read all Good We want to study the book Year 1880 Starting with the passage "And He appeared to him" Because Abraham our father, peace be upon him, was The beginning for our forefathers. Nevertheless, he was the sustenance of all created beings, as it is written "and you shall be a blessing in Abraham." This is from the Midrash of our Sages; there are other explicit verses such as "father of a multitude of nations" and "in you shall all the families of the earth be blessed." And actually, in the word "Lech Lecha," in the sentence "Lech Lecha," when the Holy One, blessed be He, commands Abraham to go out to the Land of Israel , He tells him two opposing things that complement each other: "I will make of you a great nation" and "in you shall all the families of the earth be blessed." Meaning that Perhaps we will say it in the words of our teacher, Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda; once they asked Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda, "Are we nationalistic or universal?" Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda answered, "We are nationalistic, and our nationalism is universal," as it says, "I will make of you a great nation," and through that great nation, "all the families of the earth [are blessed]." So here, the Sefat Emet sharpens this matter. On one hand, Abraham our father was the beginning for our forefathers, meaning specific to the Israeli nation. On the other hand, he is the sustenance of all created beings. Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, by Whose word all things came to be. That the Rabbi >> From the Rabbi >> That yes, exactly And this sharpening, it has an example in the human body; in the human body, the brain stem has two roles; the whole brain, the brain stem mainly, is an organ among organs And it manages all the organs. Meaning, one does not take someone from the outside who is not an organ to be above in order to manage, although there is such an aspect as well. But the main point is that there is an organ that is one of the organs, like a king who is one of the members of the kingdom, yet he manages everything else. So too, there is a nation that manages, spiritually and divinely, all the nations, all the created beings altogether. Now the Sefat Emet Refines this matter, which is actually a general idea; we have not yet entered the heart of the Torah portion, except for where he takes it from. The Sefat Emet, that it is written "And He appeared to him" Meaning, specifically in a private way. Therefore, all the years that passed before the circumcision were for the sustenance of creation. Meaning, there is a wonderful homily here. Says the Sefat Emet, after the circumcision with which we concluded the previous Torah portion, The situation became very sharpened. Until the circumcision, the level of Abraham was mainly the part where he gives life to all, "and the souls that they had acquired in Haran." And also "the son of the maidservant into a nation,""Ishmael shall live before You"; meaning, Abraham our father is invested in the whole world, and the abundance of the entire world from the Holy One, blessed be He, passes through Abraham. But now, the excellence of the Israeli nation over all created beings is sharpened, its uniqueness; therefore, "And He appeared to him.""And He appeared to him" Then leads to the birth of Isaac. Meaning, now we are occupied not with the whole world, not with "in you shall be blessed," not with "father of a multitude of nations," but with the growth of the Israeli nation. And this is the difference between "Lech Lecha" and "Vayera." That in "Lech Lecha," because most of the portion is until the covenant of circumcision. So at the level where Abraham our father is still uncircumcised, he is still like the nations of the world. There is a side that the entire Israeli nation began like the nations of the world. It began with Terah, it began abroad, and it began with the uncircumcised Abraham our father. And the circumcision is the turning point, that from here on it is a unique excellence of the children of Israel. If there are uncircumcised Jews , then they are called those who are circumcised. So the Halakha says that a person who uh: vows "I will not eat from the circumcised," is forbidden from the uncircumcised of Israel and permitted with the circumcised of the nations; because the nations, even if physically circumcised, are uncircumcised in essence, and Israel, even if physically uncircumcised, are circumcised in essence. And therefore, the special virtue causes this [that now], through the circumcision, the Holy One, Blessed be He, announces to Abraham our father the existence of the Israeli nation. Precisely for this reason, all the years that passed before the circumcision were for the existence of Creation, and now a special guidance began for the Children of Israel, which is the birth of Isaac, and this is already hinted at in the opening "And He appeared to him"–to him personally, as opposed to "father of a multitude of nations," and that is what is written "to him" specifically " and he was sitting." Let us look first at the Midrash below: The Holy One, Blessed be He, said to the angels ( Yalkut Shimoni, remez 82): "Come and see the power of circumcision, before he was circumcised, he would fall on his face, and then I would speak with him." A comparison also to Balaam that there is a comparison between Abraham and them; his students, his students fall, and then I would speak with him. And now that he is circumcised, he sits and I stand. So it is written "and he was sitting"(va-hu yoshev), it is written—pardon, read "yoshev"(sitting ) and written "yashav"(sat), and in a moment the Midrash will explain this. The Midrash here expounds the verse " And You gave me the shield of Your salvation"—this is Abraham. A verse is expounded here in three parts: "And You gave me the shield of Your salvation"—this is Abraham, as it is said, "And I am, I am a shield for you" in the continuation of the verse: "And You supported me" in the fiery furnace, in famine, and with kings, even when there are complicated political situations, and You supported me. "You will support me"—it is specifically the right hand that will support, You supported me. You will support us even against kings, if Nimrod—the Holy One , Blessed be He. He saves Abraham from four kings, and the continuation of the verse is "And Your humility made me great," but there is a reader there, and it is written no—check it. Ar, certainly the Sages expound on humility here. What is the humility? The Holy One, Blessed be He, multiplied Abraham. The verse says: "Made me great"(tarbini ), so what is the multiplication here? What is the humility, the fourfold [ humility], that he was sitting and the Divine Presence (Shekhinah) was standing? Whose humility is it? >> Of God. >> Of God, as it were, as it is said, "and he was sitting"—it is written "sat." So the Sages ask: what is "and he was sitting"? What does it mean? That so he wanted to stand, the Holy One, Blessed be He, is talking to him, so he wanted to stand before the Shekhinah, the Holy One, Blessed be He, said to him: "Sit." So according to this, perhaps the humility is that he wanted to stand and the Holy One, Blessed be He, says to him: "No, you can sit, you are a sign for your children.""What, you are sitting while the Shekhinah is standing ?""Thus, thus your children shall sit while the Shekhinah stands," as it is said: "God stands in the congregation of God." It talks about the judges sitting in the court (beit din), so the court sits and the Holy One, Blessed be He, stands over them— "God stands in the congregation of God." And. It is a wonder that the Holy One, Blessed be He , stands over Abraham who is sitting. Sit, says the Sefat Emet, this is connected to what we spoke about: that with the nations, why do you need to stand? You need to go out of your boundaries, out of your rest, out of your composure of mind to receive the revelation. So Abraham falls on his face. There is a description in Maimonides that when a person prophesies, when a prophet prophesies, everything is shaken, he leaves his tranquility. For Maimonides, this is one of the pillars of faith; Maimonides says that the superiority of Moses over other prophets is a pillar of faith, " there has not arisen in Israel a prophet like Moses," as the poem says. And Maimonides says there are four differences between the prophecy of Moses and other prophets, and one of them is that all the prophets fall and are shaken, while Moses our teacher, in full tranquility, the Holy One, blessed be He, speaks with him. In other words, the question is whether prophecy removes a person from his boundaries so that he can merit its greatness, or whether, just as he is in his composure , the Holy One, blessed be He, reveals Himself to him—not as one who breaks and shatters his boundaries, but within his personality. And this is the difference between before the circumcision and after the circumcision , because before the circumcision Abraham falls on his face, because while he is uncircumcised he still needs to leave his boundaries to receive prophecy. But here he is sitting at the tent entrance, he sought to stand before the Glory, the Holy One , blessed be He, tells him: Now you are at a new level where you do not need to leave your place; through the covenant of circumcision it is already within you. It is not an exit. "Holy in your midst." It descends below. "Shout and rejoice, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel." It is within your boundaries. The nations of the world need to leave their place. Because "a house of prayer for all nations" means that they leave their home in order to arrive at a house of prayer. But for us, it is the home. The Land of Israel, within Jerusalem, inside the great and holy house, that is our home. We do not need to leave the house for the Divine Presence to be revealed. It is revealed within our home. Because that is the main difference. We return to the truth about the ancient nations of the world, that even among them sometimes a vision is found, as it is written "and He happened upon." Meaning, the nations of the world also merited prophecy, merited Divine revelation, but it is by chance. By chance means that it shatters the boundaries and removes a person from his place. It is primarily in the way of "as a handmaid," written incidentally, something that is not settled; that is how it is among the nations of the world. But the Children of Israel are constant and dedicated to prophecy at all times, and there is no need to change during prophecy, and this is the circumcision, that one essentially does not need to change during prophecy. Joshua says: "My lord Moses, restrain them." Moses our teacher says to him: "Would that all the Lord's people were prophets." It is true that there is a difference between Moses our teacher and other prophets, but essentially we all belong to the level of Moses our teacher. Our Sages say: What is the difference between Moses our teacher and the other prophets? That all the prophets prophesied with "thus" and "thus," that is that you do not belong. To prophecy entirely, so it is blurred, like "thus says the Lord," a glass that does not shine. And of Moses it says he prophesied with "this"; it is precise, it is completely settled. All of that has not yet settled because it is outside the boundaries, it is above your measures. This has settled completely, it is "this," as if I am grasping it, pointing with a finger. >> Love. >> True, but I don’t have...maybe one could say this is also proof, but how do we know that all of Israel possesses this level? >> That at the splitting of the Red Sea they say: " >> This is my God and I will glorify Him," Meaning, they all point with their finger, everyone at the level of Moses our teacher. Even a newborn, and our Sages say even a fetus in its mother's womb. Where we learn that "newborn" means everything that was destined to be born into the Israelite nation was included at that time in the people coming out of Egypt, all reaching the level of Moses our teacher. So that is what he says, that the children of Israel are established, specialized for prophecy at all times, and they do not need to change at the time of prophecy. That is what is said, "And He appeared to him as he was sitting." So much for one matter. When is Rabbi Algazi arriving? >> In general. >> So maybe...The Rabbis will prepare the lesson in the meantime; if not, then bring the books and we will study. So that is one part. Now... >> That the level of Abraham is like the level of Moses. >> Right. More true, actually. >> Right. >> Maybe it is a Midrash that says it came to Moses to compile the Torah. >> So by the merit of Abraham, yes, it is true, seemingly, what they say that Moses is greater than the other prophets—meaning the prophets who arose for Israel. But Abraham, the holy Patriarchs, that is a different level that even has an advantage over Moses. Now, The Sfas Emes takes it another step; he says "the opening of the tent" is circumcision; "And he was sitting at the opening of the tent," So he says: What is the "opening of the tent"? It is the...the...circumcision. "Opening," he says, is circumcision, as it is written in the holy Zohar: the opening of the body, for man has several openings, and the circumcision is one of the body's openings. So "he was sitting at the opening of the tent," this means he is sitting essentially in the Divine light that shines through the commandment of circumcision; that is the opening of the tent. For after the sin, they had "garments of skin"( ohr), At the sin of the first man, "And He made them garments of skin.""Skin"( ohr) is a coarse thing, like animals. And in the Torah scroll of Rabbi Meir, it did not change. It remained like before the sin. And there it is written they had garments of... " >> Light"(ohr) with an Aleph. This means for you that all created beings walk with "light," And man...Does not have light; instead, he has "light" with an Aleph. That is how reality was supposed to be, and "light" with an Aleph is an angelic quality that resides in man. Meaning, before the sin, he had both the quality of the angel, which is from the upper ones, and the quality of the lower ones, And therefore he had garments of "light" with an Aleph. But after the sin, he falls and descends to be at the level of animals, where his garments are "skin"(ohr) with an Ayin. So it is written that a mixture of good and evil was made, "Skin"(ohr) hides the internal potential light that is destined to come out, which is currently hidden. So the "skin" hides; with the gentile, it is truly completely hidden; the external "skin" completely hides the internal "light." Therefore it is written: "You are called 'Man' and the nations of the world are not called 'Man'," for the level of "in the image of God He created man" is completely hidden among the nations of the world, even though it is there, but now everything covers it, "skin" with an Ayin that requires difficult processing to soften it. 5763 . >> Ah. So it needs difficult processing in order to soften it because it is covered. Now, among the nations of the world, there is no way to fully soften this. Therefore, even when they have a divine revelation, like with Balaam, it is something outside of reality. There is a possibility of speaking with Gentiles. We find in our portion, Hagar the Egyptian, an angel of the Lord speaks to her. These are the levels of the early generations: the angel of the Lord speaks. Your rabbi, a man of truth , says: Go forth and learn the difference between the early generations and the later generations. It is actually written in the Sages, but he expressed it in a phrase; he says: from the transgressions of the early ones, the Torah was made, for it is written in the Torah that if you blemish one letter, the whole scroll is invalid. He says: And from our commandments, one might wonder what is made? This is the level of the early generations, supreme of the supreme. And this is also the simple meaning of what is written, that the early ones were like angels. It is simple, because if Lot, if, uh, Hagar—angels speak with them, and Balaam—angels speak with them, then the early ones were like angels. However, there is a slight refutation to this. What is the refutation? That an angel also revealed himself to the donkey. Meaning, that in fact these are different levels, which do not overlap. Although the donkey, all it saw was just a angel with a sword, but in essence, it opened its mouth, and that was also in the donkey —there is some level of humanity even in animals. That is what we started with, that Abraham is in the rabbi, that in the end, the depth of depths of the holiness of Israel, which is revealed in Abraham, is revealed in all created beings, it is just covered. >> It is not a special creation. >> This mouth of the donkey is not a special creation that is outside the bounds of nature of other donkeys, as it is written in the Ethics of the Fathers. At twilight. >> True, but twilight is after the earth sinned and did not bring forth a fruit-bearing tree, but only a tree that bears fruit, and it sinned; the moon was diminished, and there were two great lights. After all this, there also needed to be some opening for the mouth of the donkey, so that the foreskin of the covering would not be completely missing and impossible to open—so the opening was created. In truth, the world is built this way, soon we will see because this is truly our issue: this opening, and he sits at the opening of the tent. But let us just say that there is in the vision of vegetarianism peace; I will say this in my own somewhat illustrative description, but the Rabbi says: what will they do in the days of the Messiah ? The earth will already be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. So what? What will they do? So he said: they will study the inner secrets of the Torah, the animals , wonders of wonders. After that, they will also study the plants, and finally , the inanimate objects as well. It is written, "The stone shall cry out""from the wall," that the physical will shine , a stone from the wall will cry out, " Let the sea and its fullness roar," to elevate the world with the name of God within it. Meaning, what is this joy? Will it just be some movement like that of dancing and singing? No, it is an inner movement that truly all the inanimate, vegetative, animate, and speaking levels will express divinity, if not for the name in which it was created. If in the end there is no revelation of divinity from within it, then who needs it? Only that all the levels depend on how much you hide. And therefore, among the Gentiles, there is no settled mind in prophecy. And for Israel, the core begins with prophecy, like the prophecy of Abraham and Moses. That is complete vision for us, a bright mirror, only that this too was hidden from other prophets. As for us, we don't even have that bright mirror. Although, where do we have a bright mirror? Where do we all merit a bright mirror? A hint now: for what are we doing now? We are speaking words of Torah. The Torah is the Torah of Moses, consequently, the Torah that the Holy One, blessed be He, gives to Moses in a bright mirror is given to us. In the end, all our involvement in Torah is our involvement in a bright mirror, Whether what was then was the ultimate display, or if today we are at a higher level as if that was just the beginning . >> Until what >> that the Holy One, blessed be He, spoke with the donkey, it was as if so that we >> that this would be in the future or that it is a low level and today we are at a high level >> Ah, no. That was already after the giving of the Torah, for Israel spoke Torah to the donkey. But there it was amidst the struggle between Israel and the nations of the world, to the point that they wanted to destroy all of Israel with curses, and it was from within a struggle that something sparked; Meaning, all the blessing for Israel—there was some opening among the nations of the world that was a blessing for Israel. He hints here at Balaam, because Balaam is a boundary, he is the fallen one, and there it was still with some opening, but much, much more opaque. And the proof—that even the donkey had its mouth opened. By the way, there are truly levels of miracles performed in the physical, like blood turning, water turning to blood, and a glimpse. Each one brings a man from nothing. So all the wonders are what reveal part of the virtue of the wonders; it is not just to solve problems; here the Holy One, blessed be He, could solve all problems by way of "there is no restraint before Him." Why does He solve the problems by way of a miracle? Because through a miracle, the hidden divinity peeks through. But it does not peek only for the miracle, that in a miracle there is divinity and all other times there is none, as if the Holy One, blessed be He, is not present, he sees a problem, he arrives, handles it, and now you revealed divinity and afterwards he withdraws— that is God forbid! The miracle is that you see there is divine action in everything, You learn from this about nature as a whole; this is the opening, an opening is exactly what he comes to speak of here. This is the opening— the miracle is an opening to all of nature. The Ramban says that why did we see the great miracles? To establish in our hearts that everything that happens to us is all in the manner of a miracle . Only that here you see it is a miracle, and there you do not see. And what you do see is in order to teach you that even when you do not see, it is truly a miracle. That itself is what the Holy One, blessed be He, wants. So let us return here. So he says, after the sin there were garments of light. And only, only for the children of Israel was the secret of the opening established. There is a covering, even for the children of Israel there is a covering, but there is the secret of the opening in the commandment of circumcision. And in any case, even for Israel, the whole body is still covered . It is only an opening. It is not everything. Everything is covered and there is an opening. Reality conceals the glory of the Almighty, as do the Torah and the mitzvot, and here especially the brit milah—we will soon see the special connection between circumcision and Torah. In any case, the entire body remains covered, and it is man's work, the work of man in the material world, to repair all of creation; why is it covered? So that man will discover that even in the material, where there is an orlah, where there is a covering, even there he can reveal Godliness. In other words , the Holy One, blessed be He, gives man covered places so that he may discover. Why does Israel begin their history in Egypt? To reveal that even in the most closed, most opaque places, there is light. That is Israel. So, because after the sin, this was the Creator's new plan. Before the sin, everything was supposed to be unified. The Garden of Eden. Where did the spirit of God walk? Within the garden. It is like "the earth shall shine with Your glory," where everything was full of Godliness. That was before the sin. But after the sin, the Holy One, blessed be He, devised a new counsel. Now, how do we fix it? Through an opening. And who is the opening? It is the nation of Israel among the nations, and the circumcision among the organs. And so on in this manner. And Torah among the wisdoms. Meaning that not everything is as revealed as it was in the Garden of Eden. In the Garden of Eden, everything was revealed, except for the serpent and the evil inclination in man and the evil aspect in the tree, and all the rest shone with His glory. And the Holy One, blessed be He, reversed the order, so that everything would be closed and there would only be an opening of light . For why did the first man sin? For a completely opposite reason from most of our later sins, although even later there are some such sins. But the reason Adam sinned was not because he had an evil inclination—it is written in the books that he desired materiality—but rather that everything was full of Divine light, and he wanted Godliness to exist even in materiality. He wanted there to be light even in the darkness. Now, if everything is light, then where will you find a little darkness? So you need a serpent, you need the Tree of Knowledge which has an aspect of evil, and you need the tree of the forbidden; otherwise, how will you reveal from within the darkness? Because to him, everything was light; his only "evil inclination" was that there should also be light in the darkness. Since that is the case, the Holy One, blessed be He, says: All right, then let us reveal light within the darkness. It is as if it is not a punishment, it is what was requested; Adam almost asked to bring out light from within the darkness. After all, it is written "you may eat of every tree of the garden," so everything is full of light, everything is full of G-d, eat and you have a mitzvah to eat, and everything is full of Godliness, if you eat from it, he would live forever—he would eat from the Tree of Life—he would be eternal, and at the moment it is dependent, dependent on what you eat. So you see the Tree of Life, you see that everything is full of eternal life, and he says: No, I want the temporary life to also shine with Divine light. So that is why he ate from the Tree of Knowledge. And we now sin because we are drawn after the concealment, after the darkness, not because we want the light to shine also in the darkness. Although there is a little...uh...some kind of behavior that is because it thinks it will be able to extract from within the darkness. But in truth, even regarding the Sabbatean movement, we see that mostly where it descended into darkness there was some spark; therefore the Rabbi says that in Israel , they call the Sabbatean movement a path of the wicked. A false messiah, they say: it is a lie, do not call him messiah, call him a liar, he said there was no spark there. And what is the Messiah? The Messiah in Gematria is " snake"(Nachash); he is the one who fixes the sin of the first man and transforms everything. So before— everything was destined, it was a bit of darkness, and the sin was that he wanted to illuminate the darkness in an incorrect way. The Holy One, blessed be He, says to him: You want such darkness ? Please. So that is this world, so what do we do in this world? Everything is darkness, but one must illuminate it , after all. So there is one opening. And therefore it is, a nation, a world that has nations in it, and one nation among them illuminates everyone, and one man among them, Abraham, and he is the one upon whom all creatures depend. And every person from Israel needs to be like that. Right, every person must view the entire world as if it is half guilty and half meritorious. The Holy One, blessed be He, gives me the keys to the entire world, and the inner dimension of the Torah explains this at great length, how the action of every person acts upon all creatures. A person studying Torah sustains the whole world. "If not for My covenant by day and night, I would not have set the laws of heaven and earth." This is said about the Torah, by the way, originally it is said about the covenant of circumcision. This is exactly the teaching we brought, that "if not for My covenant by day and night." It is said that there is a covenant and a person, day and night; it is a commandment that a person does all the time and it sustains the world. Okay, so it says that after the sin, this was the Creator's side—To be a nation special to Him, blessed be He, and through this, all creatures would be illuminated. That is what it says: "And He appeared to him as he sat at the door," that is the interpretation, the day of circumcision, He is listening. " And He appeared to him" means He sees Israel with a special vision, but He sees in that special vision of Israel an opening to illuminate the whole world, for this is the advice on how to illuminate the world with the glory of the Almighty after the sin. And through this, the whole body is drawn after this illumination, meaning through the covenant of circumcision, the whole body is illuminated. And through Ah, we already saw this last Sabbath, last week, where he brings that "even in His rest, the uncircumcised will not dwell, " that these uncircumcised ones are the Sabbath. But one just needs to pay attention to when this is said. It is said on Sabbath morning, in the Sabbath morning prayer. And the Sabbath morning prayer is a unique place...did the Rabbi arrive? Oh, so one second. Rabbi: That the Sabbath morning prayer is a unique place, it is where we mention Moses in the prayer: "Moses shall rejoice in the gift of his portion." Usually we mention the Patriarchs and there is the beloved one for the future , love of the Patriarchs, the future, in the morning Shaharit prayer we mention Moses. Why? Because it is the time of the Giving of the Torah. Shabbat morning; the Torah was given on Shabbat morning, therefore the Shabbat morning prayer "Moses shall rejoice in the gift of his portion," as he stood before You at Mount Sinai, is the two tablets of stone he brought down at that time of the Giving of the Torah. And it is correct to say here again what was said in the past: even if one is uncircumcised, there are uncircumcised ones here. In this matter of receiving the Torah, receiving Shabbat, and receiving circumcision, it is all interconnected, and through this , the entire body is drawn after the spirit. And a similarity to this is found everywhere: one point upon which the entire impurity is placed. The word "point" is perhaps the most common word in the words of the true Sages; perhaps I am exaggerating, but it is the inner point, and this is the opening, the opening of Abraham our father, peace be upon him, as it is written: "You have opened a great opening, and many converts have come." As our Sages interpret the word "opening" and say: " Many converts have come," meaning you revealed divinity even in all those who are uncircumcised. Shabbat Shalom, Sit Accept.