the one that got away

There's a story about R' Zusha and R' Elimelech (two famous Hasidic brothers and Rebbes) going to ask the Maggid (of Mezritch, their teacher and mentor) a very profound question:
Rebbe, it is taught that Adam contained the souls of all of Bnei Yisrael. If this is so, then we were there too. If we were there, part of Adam, we never would have let him sin, so how is it possible that he sinned?
The Maggid replied: Before the sin, a number of holy souls fled his body and only then was he able to sin, you were among those souls.

I love this story for a number of reasons, maybe most of all is the pure simplicity of R' Zusha and R' Elimelech in their certainty that Adam could not have sinned if they were in any way part of Adam. Now, I trust this story because of the holy chutzpah it contains, but I'd never seen Kabbalistic or Hasidic support for it until now.

The Ben Ish Hai on this week's parashah (Tetzaveh) explains that the Tzitz hints at the entirety of the souls of the Jewish people. The first Tzadi represents the 90 (gematria of צ) souls that left Adam before the sin, the Yud represents the 10 which remained, and the final Tzadi represents the 900 (the gematria of tzadi sofit) souls that fell into the klippot and must be redeemed.

So finally the story has some corroboration I'm happy to say. (Obviously if I'd learned any serious amount of the teachings of the Ariz"l, which I haven't, I would've probably already learned the source of this idea.)

not all thoughts are created equal

כי לא מחשבותי מחשבתיכם ולא דרכיכם דרכי... כי גבהו שמים מארץ כן גבהו דרכי מדרכיכם ומחשבתי ממחשבתיכם (ישעיה נה, ח-ט)

My friend Yehoshuah recently shared a phenomenal teaching from the Torah Ohr with me. (Purportedly from parshat Zachor) The Baal HaTanya says, what does it mean "your thoughts aren't like HaShem's thoughts"?!? When we're learning HaShem's Torah, our thoughts are exactly HaShem's thoughts! (This is a truly foundational principle in the Tanya, in case you didn't know)  Rather, you have to read the next part of the passuk to understand it's true meaning: "Your ways are not like My ways." This is actually an explanation of the first part of the passuk. If your ways are not like HaShem's ways, (ie. If you aren't involving yourself in mitzwoth) then your thoughts certainly aren't HaShem's thoughts!

Its the journey not the destination

The Noam Elimelech on parashath Shemot says something very cool: Why does the parashah start with Bnei Yisrael coming down to Egypt and continue about Bnei Yaacov who arrived in Egypt? He explains: The Tzaddik who is starting out on his journey is called 'Yaacov', and often this Tzaddik feels like he has already attained righteousness, he's already arrived. But the true Tzaddik is called 'Yisrael' and he knows that his accomplishments are forever dwarfed by what he has yet to achieve, and so he is always "on his way," never actually getting there.

I think one thing we can learn from this teaching of the Noam Elimelech is that in order to attain holiness, we need to first think we've arrived, that we already made it, so that all the depression and self doubt don't trip us up. Only after we've achieved some level of holiness, we need to start recognizing how far we still have to go.

In order to get anywhere, we need to arrive first.

Remember to put on your tefillin when you put on your tefillin

When you put on your tefillin, it's easy to just put them on by rote. But you can just as easily remember R' Nachman's Likkutei Halachot, and when you wrap the hand-tefillin think of and connect with Klal Yisrael. When you donn your head-tefillin think of and connect to HaShem (if you feel too distant from HaShem at present you can connect to the true tzaddikim, who exist solely for the purpose of helping us connect to HaShem.)Now you've put on your tefillin.

The elephant in the room

 When we talk about the number of candles we light on Hannukah, we inevitably ignore the Shamash, after all, it isn't one of the actual candles of the mitzwah. It's a helper candle. Yet, for children, and even for our own eyes, it's a constant source of cognitive dissonance. On the first night we light one candle. ..in addition to the Shamash, so when we look and see a Hannukiah (aka. Hannukah Menorah) lit on the first night, there will be two candles there.

Yeah ok, we all can deal with a little cognitive dissonance, but since nowadays everyone lights the Shamash, and (almost) everyone lights according to Beit Hillel, we should delve into the deeper meaning of the Shamash as well.

One thing to learn from the Shamash, is that whenever we are involved in a mitzwah, HaShem is right there with us, involved too. The Shamash's light represents that, and helps us to properly perform the mitzwah, just as HaShem is always helping us to perform each mitzwah.

Normally HaShem's presence is implicit, why make it explicit on Hannukah? On Hannukah a unique and elevated light is revealed in the world, so high that we can't use it for any other purpose than simply to look at the candles. Also, on Hannukah, that light illuminates in the lowest places, even deeper than HaShem's light normally descends the rest of the year. So on Hannukah, the Shamash represents HaShem's participation in our mitzwot in a more visceral way than the rest of the year.

So when we look at it that way, there's no cognitive dissonance, as the Baal Shem Tov teaches, [see: helping us (all) along] HaShem always helps us do the mitzwoth.. He even does the lion's share of the work, we do the physical action and He reflects those actions in more radical changes throughout the upper worlds.