Parshas Breishis

"And Hashem G-d formed the man of dust from the ground..." (Genesis 2:7)

The Rebbe of Kotzk said, "If a person is truly aware that Hashem (G-d) created the world, then all earthly things appear to be of negligible value. If one were truly convinced of the uniqueness of his mission in life, his behavior would be radically different and he would put great effort into discovering that mission and fulfilling it. The extent of our efforts to accumulate earthly things indicates the value we ascribe to materialism. The very first words of the Torah hint at the basis for a spiritual life, "And the earth [and everything associated with it i.e. material goals] was barren and desolate." (Genesis 1:2)

The Jewish soul is rooted in the highest spiritual realms. Hashem created this world with the intention that the soul achieve spiritual perfection in it and thus eternally strengthen the bonds of attachment between Hashem and the soul. Taking into consideration the abovemendoned teachings, if the soul is unable to achieve close attachment to Hashem in the lofty spiritual realms, how can it be expected to achieve this closeness in this materialistic world which contains every sort of vice and temptation to lure the soul away from Hashem? In the following paragraphs, based on the teachings of Rabbi Nachman and his chief disciple, Rav Noson, we will explore the dynamics of why spiritual perfection can only be achieved in this lowly world.

[Rabban Gamliel, the son of Rabbi Yehuda HaNassi] used to say, "Treat His (Hashem's) will [the fulfillment of the Torah's commandments] as if it were your own will so that He will treat your will as if it were His will. Nullify your will before His will, so that He will nullify the will of others before yours. (Talmud: Avoth 2:4) The Vilna Gaon says that the definition of one who finds favor in Hashem's eyes through fulfilling His will is the one who observes the commandments, as the verse says, "For those who find Me (Hashem) [through the fulfillment of the commandments] find life and obtain [My] favor." (Proverbs 8:35) The Gaon adds that "Nullify your will before His will" refers to one who subjugates his urges [those that are in opposition to Hashem's will] for the sincere purpose of honoring Hashem, thereby complying with His will as the verse says, "A desire subdued is sweet to the soul..." (Proverbs 13:19) From this teaching it is clear, the goal of man is to try to attach his soul to Hashem through synchronizing his will with Hashem's will (the observance of the commandments), so he can be eternally bound to Him in the hereafter.

The world was created on Sunday. However, Hashem's desire to create the world as a place where man could eventually attach himself to Him actually arose just before this, on Saturday afternoon, Shabbos (the Sabbath). The Zohar says that this is why Shahbos afternoon is the most auspicious time of the week for mercy, because it is most connected with the spiritual energies of Hashem's will which was derived from His desire to create the world. [Note: Spiritual energies are eternal, therefore any event that transpired at a particular time creates spiritual energies that are the most powerfw on the anniversary of the event, whether it be the daily, weekly, monthly or yearly anniversary. This is why Shabbos afternoon is the best time of the week to for Hithbodeduth (see back page). (Rav Mlchel Dorfman, head of the Breslov Counsel of Elders)] The Zohar says that since Moshe attached his own will to Hashem's will more than any other person, it was fitting that when his soul returned to Hashem, he passed away on Shabbos afternoon, the time of ra'a'vaw d'ra'ah'vin, the "will of wills." This was consistent with his great, nearly perfect achievement of attaching himself to Hashem's will. (Zohar: Parshas Terumah) Moshe not only received and transmitted the Torah to all IsraeL but he fulfilled it in its entirety and with its full intent. The Talmud says that a person's name tells us everything about him, including his spiritual essence. The numerical value of Moshe Rabbenu (Moses, our teacher, the term with which he is commonly referred) equals 613, the exact number of commandments contained in the Torah. This indicates that the essence of Moshe Rabbenu's soul was the spiritual energies of the Torah itself.

As mentioned above, one attaches himself to Hashem by fulfilling His will. In a relationship where an individual chooses to fulfill the will of another, he must have a good motive to do so, for it is against man's nature to voluntarily relinquish his will to another. A burning desire to fulfill someone else's will is developed through and is an expression of one's deep love for and great need to be associated with the other party. The greater one's love for another, the more he is willing to fulfill the other's wishes. The goal of any love relationship is that the minds and of the parties involved unite in a common bond of oneness. In the same way, Hashem's desire is that we become one with Him in a common bond of love and the merging of wills and desires. This can be attained only by developing a strong relationship with Him, by fulfilling His will, i.e. His commandments. The greater the love we develop for Him, the more we want to be one with Him. The more we love Hashem, the greater the quantity and quality of the commandments we perform.

When the soul resides in the blissful environment of the spiritual realms, very close to Hashem, it feels no lack. In this situation the soul's desire for Hashem is not so great. The bonds of attachment of any relationship are strengthened when the parties involved realize how much they mean to and need each other. The greater their interdependency, the stronger their attachment. Therefore, the lofty soul is sent to this lowly and materialistic world in order that it should become acutely aware of how much it really needs Hashem, and what it feels like to be without Him (devoid of true life, joy, purpose etc.) This is something that the soul cannot learn any way other than to actually experience this isolation. When the soul realizes what it is missing, it recognizes that it desperately needs to renew its lost attachment to Hashem in order to regain its lost essence. This increases the soul's yearning for Hashem. When this occurs, the soul through performing His will strives to once again attach itself to Hashem. The soul's longing and the strong attempts to do Hashem's will creates a much stronger and closer level of attachment and unification between the soul and Hashem, far surpassing anything the soul could ever have hoped to achieve had it remained in the bliss of the upper worlds. Thus the soul must descend to this world, enabling it to achieve a much higher level of attachment to Hashem.

How can the soul which takes delight only in spirituality, be lured away from Hashem by the material pleasures of this world? What possible pleasure could the soul derive from physicality? The soul's desire for Hashem is so great that it should never be able to stay in the material body, even for a moment. However, to induce the soul to remain patiently in this world until it has completed its mission, Hashem invested every material item with part of His life sustaining essence, called n'tzotzos k'dushos (holy sparks). They are found in every material item in this world. Therefore, all of the soul's encounters with physicality such as eating, drinking etc., provides it with limited units of nourishment from Hashem's light that it needs and craves to sustain itself. n'tzotzos k'dushos provide enough nourishment for the soul to induce it to remain in this world until it completes its mission. Therefore, the pleasure that we derive from the material is really from the essence of Hashem's light found in that particular item.

However, Rav Noson cautions that in this world, where Hashem's light is clothed in physicality, there is a great danger associated with materialism. As a result of Adam's sin, the forces of evil became attached to every physical item. Therefore, when a person partakes of something physical, he must be very careful not to become excessively caught up with the physical pleasure associated with it. Physical pleasure is derived from energies of the forces of evil which can damage Hashem's light contained in a particular item and distract a person from Hashem. Because it is very difficult for the average person to avoid being caught up in physical pleasure, it is best to limit one's involvement with physicality only to that which is necessary for the maintenance of his body, avoiding excess, and to do everything with as much sanctity as possible. [This is not to say that one should not have pleasure, for depending on one's level physical pleasure is actually a part of the maintenance of his body.] However, there are Tzaddikim (saints) who have reached very high levels who are able to derive spiritual pleasure from the n'tzotzos k'dushos contained in each physical item far exceeding any physical pleasure. For example, when such Tzaddildm eat, they eat with purity and sanctity, enabling their souls to be nourished exclusively from an abundance of holy sparks. They do not even taste the physicality of the food, but rather only the spiritual essence of it. Since these great Tzaddildm are able to derive tremendous spiritual pleasure by their ability to taste the holy sparks contained in their food, they are able to eat as much as they like without causing any spiritual harm. For the more they eat, the more of Hashem's pure light they ingest [Note: Since very few people reach this lofty level, deriving only spiritual pleasure from physicality, Hashem does not as a rule, expect this type of behavior. What is expected is that we moderate our physical activities and sancfify them by using them as a tool by which to serve Hashem. The Sages teach: "Rebbe Elazar ben Azariah taught, "Do not say, 'I cannot stand pig meat!' Rather you should say, 'I would like to savor pig meat, but what can I do -- Hashem forbade it, and commanded me to separate myself from the nations in order to be His, and to accept His soverignty upon myself."' (Sifre)].

This principle applies as well to all estranged Jews who have fallen very far from Hashem. When they become aware of their great distance from Hashcm and feel greatly anguished by it, they arc motivated to sincerely repent. Their will to return to Hashem becomes so great that it propels them to very high levels of attachment to Hashem. Indeed, it was their initial distance that provided them with the very strong spiritual energies of desire enabling them to reach such high levels of attachment to Hashem's will. In addition. their strong desire to return to Hashem transforms all of the former negative spiritual energies they created in violating Hashein's will converting all of their sins to merits as the Talmud teaches. "The place where [sincere] penitents stand [referring to the lofty spiritual level of attachment to Hashem], even the completely righteous are unable to stand." (Talmud: Berachot 34b)

Now we can understand why this lowly world is so necessary and important for the soul's growth and development, although it is so far removed from the spiritual realms. Rabbi Nachman taught that everyone, even the great Tzaddikim, must experience countless ups and downs throughout their lives in order to obtain the necessary will and determination to attach themselves to higher and higher levels of Hashem's will. The main thing is not to despair! One should repent for any mistakes he has made and then never look back, but rather continue to advance ever higher. Amen! (Lekutai Halachot: Choshen Mishpat: Hilchot A'raiv 3:2-4)

Rebbe Leib of Mtwfinyetz@ was a very holy Tzaddik and extremely poor. One day, his wealthy son-in-law, Rebbe Yudel of Dashiv came for a visit. Rebbe Yudel was one of Rabbi Nachman's more noteworthy students, and was known as a great Tzaddik. Since Rebbe Leib was so poor, all that he was able to offer his esteemed son-in-law was a bowl of diluted borscht on simple platter@ Since Rebbe Yudel came from a wealthy home, he was not used to eating such a simple dish and did not touch his food. Rebbe Leib noticed and asked in astonishment: "My son, why don't you eat?!" Rebbe Yudel delicately indicated@ to his holy father-in-law that he was not used to eating such foods on such Plain dinnerware. Rebbe Leib then immediately took Rebbe Yuders spoon and dipped it into his own bowl of borscht and said to Rebbe YudeL "Now taste the borscht." Rebbe Yudel took the spoon from his holy father-in-law and tasted the borscht. He was amazed. He had never tasted such delicious food. Even the dinnerware had changed its appearance and looked like that used by nobility. (Note: This miracle was performed drough tasting and manipulating the holy sparks found in the material world]: (Otzar Yirat Shaw'ma'yim Volume: 2, Chapter: 14, pp. 190)

@ phyisical pleasure [from our food]. Give us the ability to actiate the holy sparks associated with the twenty eight [Hebrew] letters through which the world was created, which are contained in all physical things. Let allthe pleasure derived from the physical world, such as eating and drinking, be derived from the holy sparks alone. Through [ingesting the holy sparks] let us be worth of attaining a good heart, which is fitted with the bright light of holiness. Help e that I should not derive any benefit from this world without first making the appropriate before and after blessings. (1 Lekutai Tefilos 19)

[We are biblically required to recite the Shema once In the evening and once in the morning, which is a declaration of our faith in Hashem and His Oneness. The first verse of the Shema is, "Hear (Shema) O Israel, Hashem is our G-d, Hashem is One!" (Deut. 6:4)]. The main thing [in order to fulfill one's obligation to recite the Shema] is that one must have kavana -- awareness and intention -- when one recites the first verse of the Shema [this means one must think of the translation of the words, while one recites the first phrase of the Shema. The second requirement of kavana, is that prior to its recital, one must have in mind that one is about to fulfill the positive commandment of the recital of the Shema. If one recited the blessings of the Shema prior to the Shema, one has fulfilled the second requirement. (Mishna Berurah)] Therefore, if one neglected to have kavana for the first verse [to think of the verse's translation while recltlng it], he has not fulfilled his obligation and must read it over again. Even according to the opinion that maintains that the fulfillment of the commandments does not require one to be consciously aware that he is performing a particular commandment prior to its performance agrees [in thls case, that one has not fulfilled hls obilgation and must repeat the Shema]. (Maran) [This rule applies to the next phrase as well, which is Baruch Shem, Blessed be His Name Whose glorious kingdom is forever and ever. One who neglected to translate the words of Baruch Shem, as he recited, must repeat the Shema as well. (Rama) (Shulchan Aruch: Orach Chaim: 669:1) (Mishna Berurah) (Shulchan Aruch: Orach Chaim: 63:4)

Volume 4, Issue 1