A vort from the Rebbe on this week's פרשה, פרשת בשלח. In פרשת בשלח, the Torah says that Pharaoh took his horses and his army, and they ran after the Yidden. And Rashi asks, where did he get the animals when the animals died in the plagues? And Rashi says that it came from the more religious people who listened to Hashem, and they put away their animals when the makkot came, and they didn't die, and therefore he took from them. And Rashi finishes off, מכאן היה רבי שמעון אומר, from here Rabbi Shimon says, טוב שבגוים הרוג, the best of the nations you should kill, טוב שבנחשים רצוץ את מוחו, the best among snakes, smash his brain. And the Rebbe asks many, many kashiyot on this, and one of the kashiyot he asks, why by the snake Rashi uses the lashon smash his brain, should have said smash his head, why smash his brain? And the Rebbe goes in to explain it according to peshat, but then the Rebbe then explains it in ruchniyut, in עבודת השם. It says in Zohar that the snake represents the yetzer hara. And sometimes you have a טוב שבנחשים, a good snake, which means a yetzer hara which looks good, and the Rebbe calls him a frumer yetzer hara, a religious yetzer hara. And the yetzer hara comes and says, \"I want to make peace with the yetzer tov. Let's make a compromise. I'm going to not bother you, let you learn Torah and do mitzvot when you have to learn Torah, you have to do mitzvot, and the yetzer hara should give into the, yetzer tov should give into the yetzer hara also, give in a little bit, that when you eat you should eat with ta'avot when you have to eat, and other things that when it's different times, give in to me, do things that the yetzer hara wants.\" So that's the thing of a טוב שבנחשים. He sounds like a good yetzer hara. He's ready to give in for you to learn and I'm not going to bother you. So Rabbi Shimon says, this good yetzer hara, smash his brain. Why does he use the word brain? Because you can't make peace with the yetzer hara. He's a snake, and a snake is very sly and he hates you, no matter what he looks like and what impression he makes. And the fact that he's ready to give in in certain things, that's part of his slyness. Because he thinks he'll start with that, and at the end he will get you to the worst things. As the Gemara says by the יצר הרע, היום אומר לו כך, today he does says to you, עשה כך, do this, למחר אומר לו כך, tomorrow he'll say do worse things, and the end will be he'll tell you עבודה זרה, go worship idols. And therefore, what's the only advice it gives? רצוץ את מוחו, smash the brain. The brain represents the slyness that he has in his head. So it's telling you, don't accept this compromises from the yetzer hara, he's just being sly, smash his brain, and don't give in to anything. That's one ruchniyusdike lesson we take from this Rashi.

Then the Rebbe says another vort. We all know the peshat, it says יגיע כפיך כי תאכל, there's a pasuk that says in Tehillim, you shall eat from the toil of your hands, and chassidus explains, the Rebbe elaborates on it, that tells you that when you work, you should only work with your hands. Means when you work and get involved in making a living, in your livelihood, you shouldn't put your complete head in it. Now, you should do with sechel, but that's not where your head should be, your head should be in Torah. You work with your hands, you work with the outer kochot you have, but not with the main koach of the head. That's what the pasuk says, יגיע כפיך כי תאכל אשריך וטוב לך. If you will do that, it'll be very good. And that's what it means smash his brain. The snake is the yetzer hara. The main thing is don't let the yetzer hara get to your brain, because you have to do things in gashmiyus, but you have to do it because you have to do it, but not your head should be laying in it. So that's why the Rashi says that Rav Shimon said by a snake, טוב שבנחשים רצוץ את מוחו, smash the brain, don't let the brain of the yetzer hara get to you. And as we find the famous story, the Rebbe Rashab that he had a chassid who was a chasidishe Yid, and he learned chassidus, but then he went into business, the business of selling boots, kaloshen. And he got so involved that he came to yechidus to the Rebbe Rashab and he asked him all kinds of questions about his business. So the Rebbe Rashab said to him, \"I heard of putting feet in boots, feet in kaloshen. To put your head in kaloshen, I never heard, and you put your whole head into this.\" He got the message, and obviously he changed. But that's what we say here. Come to the nachash, to the snake, to the yetzer hara, smash his brain, don't let the brain get to you, your brain should be in holy things, and only your superficial, outward kochot should be involved in your gashmiyus.