Parshat Matot In Memory of Shimshon Ben Shalom

Our commentators made note on this verse that regarding a vow is says 'to HaShem' and when the verse says oath, there is no mention to HaShem, and we must understand the reason why.

And there is what to say with the help of Heaven by prefacing with the words of the light of our eyes, the Holy Baal Shem Tov, may his merits rest upon us, on his explanation of the following Mishna.

"Behold, the battle with your evil inclination (Yetzer Hara) is the hardest battle in the world, and there are a few different aspects to winning this war.. one of them is destroying your evil inclination through self affliction and withdrawal from the goodness of worldly pleasures, so since you have distanced yourself from this world, you don't leave any room for the evil inclination to catch you in its net, since you aren't vested in any physical matters for this inclination to tempt you in the first place. However, regarding this first strategy, to what can we compare this path? To a story of a man that catches a thief, and is holding him down strongly, and if he lets him go for a split second, the thief will run away, and he can't do that because then he will be terrified all of his days that this thief will one day return to rob him again. This is the same scenario with someone who intentionally suffers by withholding from the joys and matters of this world, that this evil inclination is subdued before you all the while you are afflicting yourself, and if you dare start to enjoy a little bit of the physical world, he will spring up on you and bring you down.

However, there is an alternative straight path for a man to take, which is to involve yourself with all the matters of the physical world, when its done in a manner that is for the sake of the heavens, and you don't distance yourself from them, rather you conquer your evil inclination which can be found within the pleasures of this world, and you convert that force into an inclination for the good (Yetzer Tov)! Which is when you use this force for an elevated matter, as is taught by the sages of Israel -

As we see, that even your evil inclination can be your helper in serving HaShem, as we see below from Rashi -

And this is an aspect we see with King David who had said -

In regards to above, he is referring to the fact that his evil inclination was flipped towards the good, as we can see referenced by his son, King Solomon below -

And on this verse from King Solomon, the sages teach that when King Solomon says your enemies, he is talking about your evil inclination, as this inclination can fulfill you and do good.

And behold, based on this, our sages of blessed memory have said -

A righteous human eats to satiate his soul, and all the goodness of this world is in his hand, and it's all used for the sake of HaShem alone, and this pathway, the righteous has no fear that they will fall into the trap of the evil inclination. To what can this strategy be compared to? To someone who caught that robber, and then he chooses to provide the robber with all the good things, and to teach him the path of the straight, and then he is certain that this robber will never return to rob him.

When a person behaves in this path, we are then taught by the sages regarding this person "Ben Zoma said... Who is mighty? He who subdues his [evil] inclination"

Because this person subdued his inclination under his hand, and completely subjugates it to be with him and help him to fulfill the desire of his Creator, and the will of his Maker." Until here were the words of the Baal Shem Tov

And behold, alongside of the worthiness one receives by conquering his evil inclination by converting it to good, there is an additional benefit of enjoying and elevating this physical world for the sake of Heaven, which is that you bring a great joy to the One may His name be blessed. And when this theme is touched upon by the holy writings of our sages, an analogy is used to relate to the matter. That the joy a father receives when a son returns back to him after a long while of being stuck in captivity in a far away place. And similarity this is the same with the pleasures of this world have fallen from the light of the face of The Blessed One to descend into the mundane lowly world, and if a person uses this physical pleasures to bring tranquility to his Creator and Maker, then by doing this, he rectifies these fallen matters and returns then from afar back to their Father in Heaven, and the Blessed HaShem receives them with a great pleasure and intense joy.

However, it is the opposite when a person refrains and holds himself back from enjoying the matters of this world, this actually causes anguish to HaShem, as the holy sparks that reside amongst the mundane world aren't able to return back to HaShem where they came from.

And we can understand this in the Torah portion dealing with the Nazarite -

We see from this verse that the Nazarite is called Kadosh, Holy

As well, we can see in another verse dealing with the Nazarite -

Over here we see the Nazarite is being called a sinner, as he is afflicting himself (we see from Tractate Taanit 11a that someone who afflicts himself is called a sinner)

And according to our teaching here its not a conflict, as certainly the nazarite is holy in regards to his separation and his refraining from this world, while at the same time, since his position does not allow him to elevate these sparks in the physical matter to be elevated to their father in heaven, which causes suffering to HaShem Yitbarach, and in that regard he is also called a sinner! Understand this.

And from here let us return to our opening question of why regarding a vow the verse says to HaShem, and regarding an oath it does not say to HaShem. Behold, I saw in the Holy writings of the Shefa Tal, that the reality of a vow is connected to intelligence, which is where all the healings are found. And matters of healing were planted by HaShem in a hidden manner into the nature of this world, to bring great goodness to this world, which from this we can learn about all the amazing opportunities we have to to serve HaShem, including using the physical mundane world! Based on this its possible to say that a vow hints to the importance of interacting with the physical world for the sake of Heaven, therefor the verse says when making a vow to HaShem, which is educating us about someone who is using this world to bring a feeling of goodness to HaShem, which is the choice path as we mentioned above. Then afterwards the verse teaches us about the second path and says "or takes an oath imposing an obligation on himself", we see hinted here that this second person has afflicted himself and is refraining from the pleasures of this world, therefor, HaShems name is not mentioned for this second type of person, as he is causing anguish to HaShem, as he cannot take out the holy sparks found within the physical realm.

And on this path of thinking we can explain the below verse from King Solomon -

on From this verse we learn that its best to have a loving relationship with HaShem, and to serve him through the pleasures of this world, and in this manner, you use your inclinations to serve in a much higher manner.

And with this we can explain what has been written in the Medrash on the below verse from King Solomon -

Let us understand what the question of the above Midrash from the start, that by the end they ended up praising King Solomon? Based on what we said above, we can understand this well, that regarding when King Solomon said "but know well that God will call you to account for all such things", the sages of Israel then saw his supreme wisdom, that he chose the choice path for himself in the path of service of Hashem, a path of happiness and all goodness. So he said, enjoy yourself in your youth, and not to afflict yourself battling yourself to withhold from joy, just choose to serve HaShem with joy, and go in the path of your heart, like in the path of King David A"H when he said "My heart is hollowed out from within me", which means that even his evil inclination helps him in his service of HaShem, and as Rashi explained in Tractate Sukkah as we read above.

But, if you choose to serve HaShem in a path of affliction and refraining from this world, then the verse from King Solomon comes into play - "but know well that God will call you to account for all such things" - behold, the word here for all such things in Hebrew is Eleh - אֵ֛לֶּה - stands for an acronym for הִשָּׁ֤בַע לֶאְסֹ֤ר אִסָּר֙, when you make an oath to forbid something from yourself, and as me explained above, this is the path of self affliction with fasts and supplications, and through that specifically, HaShem will bring you to justice, because in that path you are not able to elevate the physical matter, and in that regard the sages said you said well Shlomo, as after they assessed his knowledge, they praised him, and this all makes sense with the help of Heaven.