יסודות החסידות בספר דגל מחנה אפרים - כי תבא - תפקידו של הסיפור החסידי

(1) 4. This is akin to the parable told in the name of the Baal Shem Tov, may the memory of the holy man and tzaddik be a blessing, about a king who placed a great treasure in a certain place and, using the power of illusion, enclosed the treasure within many walls. When people came to these walls, it seemed to them that the walls were real, and difficult to breach. Some immediately turned back. Others broke through the first wall and reached the second one, but could not breach it. A few broke through further, but could not breach the rest. Finally, the prince arrived, and said, “I know that all the walls are only an illusion, and in reality there isn’t any wall at all!” He proceeded confidently until he had passed through them all.

(2) One who is wise will understand the parable on his own, as referring to all the obstacles, lures and enticements, which conceptually are walls surrounding the treasure of God-fearingness. In reality, they are nothing.

(3) The main thing is a mighty and courageous heart, as then one has no obstacles, especially the physical kind, such as on account of money; or those his wife, children, father-in-law or parents put in his way; or something similar. They are all completely nullified when one’s heart is mighty and courageous for God. And even a warrior’s strength stems only from the might and courage of the heart; his heart’s exceptional might enables him to charge into the thick of the battle, as is brought in the holy books.

(1) 2. And know! each person has obstacles in service of the Creator, may His Name be blessed, such as traveling to the true tzaddik, and the like. And each person imagines that his obstacles are greater than his fellow’s, and that it is difficult to endure them.

(2) Know! each person’s obstacles are only commensurate with his abilities, according to what he can endure and handle—provided he wants to. And, in truth, there are no obstacles whatsoever, because God is enclothed even in the obstacle itself, as is explained elsewhere (Likutey Moharan I, 115).

(3) And the greatest of all obstacles is the obstacle of the mind—i.e., that his intellect and heart are divided concerning God or the tzaddik. Then, even when he breaks his obstacles to traveling to the true tzaddik and comes there, if his mind is divided, so that he has difficult questions concerning the tzaddik, and there is crookedness in his heart with regard to the tzaddik, this obstacle stands in his way more than any other.

(1) 3. The same is true of prayer. Initially, there are many obstacles to prayer. And afterwards, when a person overcomes them and comes to pray, if his heart is twisted and turned away from God, this is the greatest obstacle of all.

(2) This is the concept of “My heart is S’ ChaRChaR (surrounded)” (Psalms 38:11) ; “surrounded” in Targum is S ’ChoR S’ChoR. In other words, his heart is surrounded, enveloped and twisted by crookedness, questions and heresies concerning God. This is the concept of “They made their lives bitter with KaShah (hard) work…” (Exodus 1:14). And in the Tikkunim we find: with KuShya (difficult questions)… (Tikkuney Zohar #13, p.28b)—i.e., the difficult questions in his heart, the greatest obstacle of all.

(3) And so he must cry out loudly, from the depths of his heart, to his Father in heaven. God will heed his voice and turn to his cry. And it may even happen that from this itself all the aforementioned questions and obstacles will collapse and be eliminated. In any case, God hears his voice—which is his salvation. Thus the letters of KuShYA are an acronym for Shma YHVH Kolee Ekra (“O God, hear my voice when I cry out”) (Psalms 27:7). When overcome by difficult questions and heresy, he need only cry out to God.

(1) “You are standing today … from your wood choppers to your water carriers .…” (Devarim, 29:9)
On this King Shlomo said (Mishlei, 30:19), “the way of a man with woman.” This is as it was with Yiftach, of whom our sages said (Rosh Hashanah, 25b), “Yiftach was in his generation as Shmuel was in his.” This means that Yiftach has completed all that God asked from him in this world as Shmuel had done in his generation. This perplexed King Shlomo, and he said (Mishlei, 30:18), “three things are beyond me, and four I did not know … the way of man with woman.” This means the choicest elements in Israel, like the one who completes God’s will, and in this way, “with the young woman [b’almah],” meaning it is so also with the meekest of Israel. This is the explanation of “You are standing.” That is to say, you are connected to God. “Your leaders,” meaning those at the greatest level; “your water carriers,” to the lowest level; “all of you” are bound up with God. “Your wood choppers” means those with the least fear of Heaven, and “your water carriers” are those with the least love of God.

(2) “You are standing here today .…” (Devarim, 29:9)
“You are standing” after all the acceptance of punishment, which serves to clarify who will stand on his faith and accept it, not weakening in his resolve. Whoever does not truly believe will not want to accept warnings and punishments, for falsehood does not endure but the truth endures.

(3) “… your heads, your tribes, your elders and officers, each man in Israel, your infants and women, your convert that is in the midst of your camps, from your wood choppers to your water carriers .…” (Devarim, 29:9)
The verse mentions ten levels, five against five, and all as one are included among Israel. “Your head,” means those possessing Chochma (wisdom) are placed in juxtaposition to the infants (also small children), for infant, taf in Hebrew, is connected to the word for “drop,” tipah in Hebrew, meaning that they possess only a small amount of consciousness (da’at, also “knowledge”). Then accordingly, when any mistake happens even to the youngest children, it affects even the heads, for the taf possessed a little consciousness from the head. “Your tribes,” meaning expansion, for all of Israel were hidden in the root of Yaakov Avinu, and there they were as one soul. Thus when they were divided into tribes certain souls in different generations experienced expansion. This is in juxtaposition to the women, because all expansion comes from birth, for when the child is hidden and included in the soul of the father then there is no expansion; only when the child is born does it begin to expand. “Your elders” means the one who has acquired wisdom.
“Your elders,” is juxtaposed to “your convert,” for according to the original insights into the Torah made among Israel, so will converts come to and increase among Israel. The more we increase words of Torah, and thus experience greater expansion, then correspondingly the holiness of Israel extends even to the souls of the nations, and they will be gathered among Israel. “Your officers” are the God fearing, and they are placed in juxtaposition to the “wood choppers,” for “chopping” represents anger, and on this the Holy One, blessed be He, testifies that within all the anger in Israel there is the fear of God. “Every man of Israel” means the attribute of the love of God, and this is placed against the “water carriers,” for water is compared to desire, as said in various places, and all desire and love in Israel comes from God.

(4) “That you should enter the Covenant of Hashem your God, and into His oath, which Hashem your God makes with you today.” (Devarim, 29:11)
Rashi explains that l’avr’cha should be understood “that you should enter” (and not “cause you to enter”). Rashi’s intention in this is in order to explain that the covenant is dealing with the realm of thought, as it says later (verse 28), “the secret things [meaning thoughts] belong unto Hashem our God.” (Where Rashi seems to say that God may punish an individual for his thoughts.) But in truth, God does not punish one for his thoughts. Nonetheless, even though God ony punishes for actions, still, one is not considered close to God if his thoughts are not cleaving to God. Therefore Rashi explains “that you should enter,” meaning that just as He gives you the ability to choose for yourself, free of any warning of punishment, so may you (choose to be) a servant of God even in your thoughts.

(5) “The secret things belong unto Hashem our God, and the revealed things are for us and our children, forever, to do all the words of this Torah.” (Devarim, 29:28)
It is written in the Gemara (Sanhedrin, 44a),
The Tannaim (Talmudic Masters) argue the following point. The secret matters belong unto God, but revealed matters belong to our children and us forever. Why are the words Lanu u-lebanenu [unto us and to our children] and the ‘ayin of the word ‘ad, [forever] dotted? In order to teach that God did not punish secret transgressions until the Israelites had crossed the Jordan. this is the view of Rav Yehuda. Said Rav Nehemia to him, “Did God ever punish all of Israel for crimes committed in secret? Does not the Torah say forever? But just as God did not punish Israel for secret transgressions [at any time], so too did He not punish them as a whole for revealed transgressions until they had crossed the Jordan.” So why where they punished in the case of Achan? It is because his wife and children knew thereof [so the transgression was no longer secret], therefore all of Israel was punished.
One could say that the answer of the Gemara, “because his wife and children knew thereof [so the transgression was no longer secret],” is not enough, for from this it would seem that not all of Israel, but only the ones who knew of the transgression should have been punished. We can explain this in the following way. When a man transgresses in secret, unknown to anyone else, then his sin is not pertinent to the whole community of Israel, but it is rather of the secret things that belong to Hashem our God (and He decides how to deal with that individual). God is called, Rav Chesed, the Great One of Kindness, and He is called the one who tilts the unworthy to the side of mercy. He clarifies the action for the good, but we only find this attribute in God. However, if there is another person who witnessed or knows of his fellow’s sin, then the sin becomes pertinent to the whole community of Israel. This is because the very act of witnessing another’s sin is testimony that the very deficiency also exists within him, or within another member of Israel, (even if with him it never materialized in action). For this reason, God made him witness the sin. Certainly the one who saw his fellow man’s evil action felt a stir of teshuva (repentance) in his own heart. Therefore, this affair pertains to the entire community of Israel, for “all of Israel are responsible for one another.” In this fashion does it say in the passage about the one who cursed in Parshat Emor (Vayikra, 24:14), “and they shall lay their hands upon the head [of the one who cursed].” They placed their hands on his head exactly as they did with an animal brought for sacrifice in the Temple. All of Israel needed atonement because they had heard the curse, and in him, they achieved atonement.

(6) “And it shall be, when all of these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you shall take them to your heart among the nations, to where Hashem has driven you. And you shall return unto Hashem your God, and heed His voice … And if your exiles shall be in the outermost regions of the cosmos, from there Hashem your God will gather you, and from there He will take you … And Hashem your God will circumcise your heart … to love Hashem your God … And Hashem your God will put all these curses upon your enemies and on those who hate you … And you shall return and listen to the voice of Hashem, and do all His mitzvot, which I command you this day.” (Devarim, 30:1–8)
The way the Torah says “the blessing and the curse” has a special meaning. Within the curse, the blessing also exists in secret. “You shall take them to your heart,” means that you shall take to your heart that the blessing also exists within the curse. “And you shall return unto Hashem your God, and heed His voice” means the inner voice that exists in everything. This is as it is written in the Holy Zohar (Bereshit, 50b), “and Hashem your God shall return your captives and be merciful with you.” This means mercy in the purity and wholeness of heart that God will give you in words of Torah and the study of Torah with desire and wholeness of heart. “And if your exiles shall be in the outermost regions of the cosmos” means a place your whole understanding tells you is far from your ability to fix, “From there Hashem your God will gather you, and from there He will take you,” meaning that even there will God fix you.
“And Hashem your God will circumcise your heart… to love Hashem your God,” means that he will take the desire you have for matters that are not good in the eyes of God, and fix it at the time when you return in complete teshuva (repentance) in the love of God and the desire for words of Torah. “And Hashem your God will put all these curses upon your enemies and on those who hate you” means he will take the evil lusts that exist in you and place them upon your enemies and those who hate you. “And you shall return and listen to the voice of Hashem, and do all His mitzvot” means that God will clarify all the lusts within you, and give this desire back to you to use in the fulfillment of His mitzvot and statutes.

(7) “It is not in heaven, that you should say, who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it to us, that we may hear it, and do it? Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it to us, and make us hear it, and do it? But the word is very near unto you, in your mouth, and in your heart, that you may do it.” (Devarim, 30:12–14)
The Holy Zohar (in Bamidbar 176 and other places,) tells us, “How precious are the words of Torah! This seems as if it is beyond the sea, and then it says some more supernal words of Torah, and it seems as if it is in the highest heavens.” This can be understood through what is written in the Tanna Dvei Eliyahu (Zuta, Ch. 12), “A parable. A mortal king builds a wall by way of which one enters vast palaces. In the wall, he opens a narrow passageway, so narrow that one who does not love the king will not exert himself to enter. Yet one who truly loves him will push himself for he knows that after difficulty, great delights await him.” So too here, where initially he not yet understood words of Torah, how high and precious they are. Then when one comes to the meaning of words of Torah, then “it is not in heaven, and not across the sea … but it is near unto you, in your mouth,” etc. Therefore, Moshe Rabeynu specifically wrote these words in this Parsha, which follows the fiftieth Parsha in the Torah, for then he had attained this level (the fiftieth gate of understanding), that of “it is not in heaven, but near.”
This means that even though a man needs fences and boundaries while he does not yet understand words of Torah, once he understands them, he does not need this. “It is not across the sea,” that is to say, he does not need to be far from the delights of this world, which we call, “a sea,” for “sea” teaches of desire. Only at the beginning, for he can only initially enter into words of Torah through great restraint and separation from earthly delights, but this is not the main principle. The main principle is in the doing (the performance of God’s will). This is “in your mouth and in your heart to do it. This is the principle, as it is said in the Tikkunei Zohar (on what Isaac said to Yaakov), “‘make me tasty delights that I love’ [Bereshit, 27:4], these are positive mitzvot [that are done].” This is as it says in the Gemara (Ta’anit, 10a), “better a flooded land than a dry land.” It is good have even a little desire instilled in him and not to be completely dry, as we have explained on the verse (Mishlei, 19) “the desire of man is his kindness;” see there.