17.8.09

heads or tails, evil loses

The goal of the klipah (the dark side) is to cause Israel suffering. The source of all the other side's power are the Holy sparks that fell and were trapped there.

The trick is, the Klipah elevates these Holy sparks to its 'head,' where they have the most influence and garner the most ability to stir up trouble for the Jews.

It happens to be that the head of the Klipah abuts the heels of Holiness, making it exceedingly easy to elevate those holy sparks just a little bit higher and back into the feet of Holiness, robbing the dark side of its power altogether.
(Mitzwah 22 & 23 Otzar HaHayyim - Komarna)

We see that God created the world in such a way that all the heavy lifting is done by the system, our job is just the finishing touches at every stage.

(The Baal Shem Tov says mitzwoth really almost perform themselves, without any help from us; May it be God's will that this teaching will help us to perform mitzwoth with simplicity and sincerity.)

[The Komarna brings this teaching to illuminate the mitzwah of redeeming your firstborn donkey. He doesn't say it outright, but it seems like he is equating the firsborn donkey (donkey in hebrew חמור shares a root with חומר matter, corporeality) with the 'head' of the klipah. Instead he explains how the redemption of the firstborn donkey teaches us about how to deal with 'foreign' or 'strange' thoughts. (Machshavot zarot are a complete topic in themselves, the translation does them no justice and we will address them God willing another time.) Tzaddikim raise them up through 'redeeming' (פדיה) them, while everyone else needs to behead (עריפה) them through repeatedly striking them. If you spend thought on this you will find a number of deep connections.]


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