So today we were discussing from one perspective the מדרגות, the levels, the difference according to Chassidut between Moshe Rabbeinu and the Avot, Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov. And the reason I picked that topic, and the connection to this week is because Hashem told Moshe Rabbeinu that He feels bad that the Avot aren't around. And He told Moshe, \"You're not like the Avot. חבל על דאבדין ולא משתכחין,\" He says, \"חבל, I feel bad that those that are lost and Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov are not around, because they were much better than you.\" And He explained what it is, so therefore we have to explain what is it that Moshe Rabbeinu said, and what is Moshe Rabbeinu's level, and why did he say it, and what is that the Avot, Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov, what is their level. And this will be more or less according to Chassidut, not in simple peshat, but the way Chassidut explains and the way the Rebbe explains it even more at length in the sichot. And that is, as we all know, concerning the question that Moshe Rabbeinu asked at the end of last week's parsha. At the end of the parsha, when Moshe, finally after Moshe Rabbeinu agreed to Hashem's request that he should go to Mitzrayim and speak to the Yidden, and speak to Pharaoh to see that the Yidden go out of Mitzrayim, and what happened was Pharaoh did not listen to Moshe Rabbeinu, but instead he made it worse for them. Till then, he gave him a certain amount of bricks that they had to make every day, but he supplied the straw, which you need to do when you make the bricks. And after Moshe Rabbeinu came and asked him to let the Yidden out, he made a harsher decree. He said, \"You'll have to make the same amount of bricks, but I will not supply the straw, you have to find the straw yourselves.\" So that took away a lot of the time, and they were not able to make the quota that they were supposed to, and they had all kinds of problems. And some of the Yidden actually saw Moshe Rabbeinu, and they said, \"What did you do to us? Since you came, it became worse.\" So Moshe Rabbeinu turned around to Hashem, and he said to Hashem, \"למה הרעותה לעם הזה?\" He questions His ways. He said, \"Why did You make it bad for them? What did You do? You made it worse for them. ומאז באתי אל פרעה הרע לעם הזה, from when I came to Pharaoh, You made it worse. למה זה שלחתני? Why did You send me?\" In other words, he was telling Moshe, Moshe was telling Hashem, he didn't understand, and he was questioning, it seems as if he was questioning what Hashem did. So in this week's parsha, it says, \"וידבר אלקים אל משה,\" Hashem spoke to Moshe, and He said, \"וארא אל אברהם אל יצחק ואל יעקב, I revealed Myself, I showed Myself to אברהם, יצחק, ויעקב, ושמי הוי׳ לא נודעתי להם, and the name הוי׳ I never showed them, and now I'm going to take the Yidden out of Mitzrayim.\" And as Rashi explains, according to one peshat, what Hashem meant to say was that, \"I revealed Myself to Avraham, Yitzchak, V'Yaakov, and they had, they also had problems, and I also spoke to them and did things which at first glance didn't make sense to them, and nevertheless they did not question Me. They didn't question My ways. Why are you questioning?\" And He used the term, \"חבל על דאבדין ולא משתכחין. חבל,\" it's an expression חבל, אוי וויי, it's bad for those that are lost and are not around. He says, \"I feel bad we don't have the Avos here,\" as if saying, \"Now you're the big man, but you're not as great as they are. They did not question Me, and you're questioning Me.\" Now first, let's just understand what Moshe Rabbeinu's question was, just to get an understanding. It wasn't just a question that, \"Why did You do it?\" Moshe Rabbeinu's question had a lot of depth to it. Moshe Rabbeinu's question was that how is it possible that something bad, as he used the term הרעותה from the word רע, how could be something bad should come out from this mission that You sent me? The mission was in connection to the geulah, the geulah, the redemption from Mitzrayim, the geulah, and the geulah is something that's perfect, that's good, only good. So how could something bad come from a שליחות that's in connection to something good? It came through a שליח who is only good, the שליח was Moshe Rabbeinu, and Moshe Rabbeinu is referred to in the Torah as כי טוב הוא, that he is good. It says when Moshe Rabbeinu was born, \"ותרא אותו כי טוב הוא,\" she saw that he was good, which means as Rashi says, נתמלא הבית כולו אורה, when he was born the house lit up, but the term in the Torah is כי טוב, he is good. And this שליחות came from a משלח who sent him, השם בכבודו ובעצמו, השם Himself, as the lashon we say in the הגדה, השם בכבודו ובעצמו, השם Himself. Because sometimes we find things that Hashem does through a malach. It says He sends a malach, whether it was by Avraham Avinu when He wanted him to not shachat his son Yitzchak, it says He sent a malach. Sometimes He does things through a malach, other places we find, but by יציאת מצרים, it couldn't come through a malach, it had to come through Hashem Himself. And the Sfas Emes says also because the מצרים was so low that a malach would come in, he would become batel from the tumah of מצרים. And the Yidden themselves were in such a low level at that time that only Hashem himself could pull them out. It says they were all the way down in מ״ט שערי טומאה, in the 49 gates of tumah. And had they stayed there a little bit longer and they would entered שער הנו״ן, the 50th gate of tumah, then there is no return, from there you can't get out. So it says Hashem took them out at the last moment, keheref ayin, like the blink of an eye. Had he left them another blink of an eye, they wouldn't have been able to come out. So if that was that low, so only Hashem himself, it says, was able to take them out. And we say that in the Haggadah, that it was לא על ידי מלאך, לא על ידי שרף, לא על ידי שליח. It didn't happen through a malach, didn't happen through a saraf, which is a higher level of a malach, not through a shaliach. It happened through הקדוש ברוך הוא בכבודו ובעצמו, השם himself. Now, Hashem himself, we know, is referred to in many places as תכלית הטוב, the epitome of good. So here we have a combination of all things which are good: יציאת מצרים, the mission itself is concerning something good, the shaliach is good, the meshaleach is good. How could something bad come out from such a shlichut? That was Moshe's question. But Hashem told Moshe Rabbeinu, \"Why are you questioning me?\" In pashut peshat it seems to be saying that, \"I know what I'm doing, so why are you questioning me? And you should be like the Avot. The Avot didn't question, didn't question me, why are you questioning me?\" And the question that we have is, how did he question Hashem? How is it possible that Moshe Rabbeinu should not have the proper emunah, so to speak, and he questioned Hashem? The Avot didn't, and it seems from this that the Avot are greater, when we know that really Moshe Rabbeinu was greater than the Avos. The best proof is that Moshe Rabbeinu was the shevi'i, he was the seventh, the seventh from the Avos, from Avraham who was the first, Yitzchak and Yaakov. And we know in Lubavitch this is the famous famous expression, כל השביעין חביבין, all sevenths are beloved. And when the Midrash says כל השביעין חביבין, he actually mentions different things, and one of the things is Moshe Rabbeinu, who was the seventh. Just like in the days for instance, seventh day of the week is Shabbos, that's the special day. And we find a lot of things that כל השביעין חביבין, the seventh is beloved. But Moshe Rabbeinu was the seventh. It does bring out the greatness of the first, because you're only a seventh to the first, so it has to start with the first. That's how the Rebbe describes it, explains it in the first maamar that the Rebbe said, the first Basi LeGani. But nevertheless, the seventh is the one that's the chaviv, the one that's more beloved. And Moshe Rabbeinu was the seventh. And we know that Moshe Rabbeinu is considered the מבחר המין האנושי, he's the chosen human being of all mankind, of all generations. Moshe Rabbeinu is the highest. His nevuah was the greatest, it says לא קם עוד נביא כמשה, that never ever was there or will there be another navi like Moshe Rabbeinu. Even Mashiach it says, who is going to be in many ways greater than Moshe Rabbeinu, it says, not b'nevuah. In nevuah he'll be close to Moshe Rabbeinu. The Rambam says קרוב למשה רבינו. He'll be a king greater than Shlomo HaMelech. He'll be a chacham greater than Shlomo HaMelech. But nevuah he will have קרוב למשה, close, but not greater. But Moshe Rabbeinu was the greatest human being. So how is it possible, takeh, that Moshe Rabbeinu questioned Hashem? And the Avos seemed to be greater when we know that Moshe is great, is greater than them.

So obviously, על פי חסידות, we have to look into what is the difference in the levels of Moshe Rabbeinu, the way חסידות describes it, and the level of the אבות? Now, we know in חסידות, whenever it talks about these great צדיקים from that caliber like the אבות and Dovid Hamelech or all these type of people, חסידות bring based on קבלה always connects them to some מדרגה, some ספירה, that this one represents this ספירה and this one represents this ספירה, and all in the עולמות העליונים, all ספירות of the higher worlds. And בנוגע משה רבינו, there are different things written in different ספרי קבלה. Different מדרגות that they apply to Moshe Rabbeinu, in קבלה we find. Actually somebody once asked the פריערדיקער רבי that there are contradictions: in one place in קבלה it says he's this מדרגה, in one place in קבלה it says he represents this ספירה and that ספירה, that means that his level was equivalent to that ספירה of אצילות, this ספירה. And what the Rebbe did was he said to this person, \"To get your To get your real answer, you have to go to my son-in-law, to the Rebbe. And the פריערדיקער רבי told the Rebbe to write up, that's how the story goes, to write up a whole רשימה to explain how they all fits, whatever it says in the different ספרים in קבלה, really they all fit from different angles. And the Rebbe wrote a famous רשימה known as רשימת משה רבינו. And that's a רשימה that we had all the years. See, the other רשימות was only found after ג' תמוז, but there are a few רשימות that we had from before. And that was the there is one that's רשימה of Moshe Rabbeinu, then later we printed it in Likkutei Sichos in the end the back of a הוספות to חלק ו' printed the רשימות. So there the Rebbe goes into explaining all the different מדרגות and how they all fit. But generally speaking, it is known in Chassidus that the מדרגה of Moshe Rabbeinu is חכמה דאצילות. We know that there are four עולמות: אצילות, בריאה, יצירה, עשיה. And these are the four עולמות of סדר השתלשלות of how the Aibershter created the world, starting all from the highest levels of אור אין סוף where we still have the גילוי אין סוף, the great light of Hashem, and that contracted and became lower and it was one עולם, another עולם, and another עולם, until finally it turned into עולם הזה הגשמי, this physical עולם. And the highest of all four עולמות is עולם האצילות. And עולם האצילות, as much as we call it עולם, which means a world, and a world, the word עולם also comes from the word העלם, which means it's העלם is concealment, it's already a level where the אור אין סוף, the godly light is not so shining, not so strong, nevertheless, it is called אצילות. The word אצילות comes from the root word of אצל, next to, which means it's still a level which is close to the source of the מקור of the אור אין סוף, which is Hashem himself. And in אצילות we have we know the עשר ספירות, we have the ten ספירות in אצילות, which is starts from חכמה, בינה, דעת, חסד, גבורה, תפארת, נצח, הוד, יסוד, ומלכות. So it says in קבלה that Moshe Rabbeinu represents חכמה דאצילות. His מדרגה was the level of חכמה דאצילות. That means that even though Moshe Rabbeinu was a human being living down here in this physical world in a physical body, his spiritual level that he felt was equivalent, equal to the way it was in חכמה דאצילות. Now, when we learn Chassidus, you start realizing what does it mean that there is גילוי אלקות in חכמה דאצילות. We can't imagine what it is. And that was the madrega of Moshe Rabbeinu. And an interesting expression, I think it says in Torah Or, that Moshe Rabbeinu, when he stood in front of Paroh, here we had חכמה דאצילות standing within ד' אמות of עמקי הקליפות, of the depth of the קליפות. Paroh is the depth of all the קליפות, the worst of all the קליפות, the way Chassidus and Kabbalah explain. And here you had a level of אלקות in a form of חכמה דאצילות standing next to, within ד' אמות of the עמקי הקליפות. But anyway, Moshe Rabbeinu's madrega is חכמה דאצילות. The madrega, the level of the Avot, Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov, they are also, it says, the level of אצילות, but they are the מדות of אצילות. Avraham is מדת החסד, Yitzchak is מדת הגבורה, and Yaakov is מדת התפארת. The fact that they represent these מדות is not something from Chassidus only, that you have in all the ספרים. It says Avraham is connected to חסד, Yitzchak גבורה, Yaakov תפארת. But Chassidus and Kabbalah explain it in a different way. They explain it that it's חסד דאצילות, which other ספרים don't have that expression. But we see that Avraham has to do with חסד because it says אברהם אוהבי, Hashem referred to Avraham as Avraham the one that loves me. That means that Avraham's way of serving Hashem was מדת האהבה, he served Hashem with love. Also we know that Avraham Avinu's main occupation was gemilut chasadim, he did chesed to other people. So his avodah was chesed. His way of serving Hashem was through chesed. Ahavah we know, love comes from the צד החסד, from the קו, from the direction of chesed, and that was Avraham. Yitzchak, it says is גבורה. גבורה is connected, it says, to yirah. Yirah is fear. It says by יצחק, פחד יצחק. Yitzchak served Hashem with fear. And when you have yirah, then it's a different way of serving Hashem, and then you have more גבורה, it's something when a person has more yirah it is you're able to tolerate less. When a person serves Hashem with ahavah, you're able to tolerate other things which contradict much easier than when you serve Hashem with yirah, because when you have the yirah, the strength, then you can't take it. That's how we find by Yitzchak, he was the one that couldn't take the avodah zarah, it says the smoke from the avodah zarah that Esav's wives did. And it says he became blind from their smoke. Chasidut asks the question, why didn't Yaakov, who lived in the same house, why didn't he become blind from the smoke? If it was smoke that blinds a person, the answer is only Yitzchak, because his level was yirah and גבורה, he couldn't take it. Yaakov, it says his level was תפארת. What's תפארת? תפארת is a combination of chesed and gevurah. So Yaakov had both. And since he had both, he was able to overcome all hardships. Because when you have only one kav, one direction, sometimes there are things that you can't overcome, because to overcome them you have to use a different thing, a different style. But if you have always both sides, then you're able to overcome everything, and we see that Yaakov Avinu overcame all hardships: the hardships of Lavan, the hardships of Esav, the hardships of trouble, the nisayon of trouble, the nisayon, the test of trouble. He was also very, very rich, which is another nisayon. We know that it says there is a nisayon of ashirus and a nisayon of aniyus. There is a test a person could have being rich, and there's a test of poverty. And it has actually that the test of riches is harder to overcome than the test of poverty. The test of poverty is much clearer, and when you're rich you don't really see the test, and it's much harder. But Avraham Yaakov had both. He was very rich, and he still remained the same Yaakov. He had all the tzaros from Esav and Lavan, and he still the same, stayed the same, because his level was the middah of tiferes. But the bottom line we're trying to get to is that the middah of the the avodah or the madreigah that we reply to Moshe Rabbeinu is chachmah. This is why Moshe Rabbeinu was the one that brought the Torah to the Yidden, because the Torah is chachmah. Torah is חכמתו של הקדוש ברוך הוא. What is the Torah? The wisdom of Hashem, Torah is chachmah. And Moshe Rabbeinu, whose madreigah was the level of chachmah, representing חכמה דאצילות, so therefore he was the one that brought the chachmah, he was the shaliach to bring the chachmah to the Yidden. But the level of the avos are middos, mainly middos. Now, it doesn't mean that the avos did not serve Hashem with chochmah, which means they didn't learn Torah, they weren't involved in the chochmah of Hashem. That's not true. We know the Gemara says clearly that אברהם זקן ויושב בישיבה. Avraham was a big talmid chacham, he sat in the yeshiva. יצחק זקן ויושב בישיבה, it says. יעקב זקן ויושב בישיבה, it says. They sat and learned Torah. Especially Yaakov Avinu, we know that Yaakov spent so many years, it says, in the beginning of Parshas Toldos, it says he was איש תם יושב אוהלים. יושב אוהלים means he sat in the tents. What kind of tents? The tents of the yeshiva of Shem v'Ever. And later on learned with his father, and then when he ran away from Esav, he went back to the yeshiva of Shem v'Ever for 14 years. I mean, he learned a lot of Torah. And so did the avos, Avraham and Yitzchak learned, constantly learned, they learned Torah. It doesn't mean that they didn't learn Torah, but that means that they served Hashem with chochmah also. On the other hand, by Moshe Rabbeinu, we don't mean to say that Moshe Rabbeinu didn't serve Hashem with his middos. Moshe Rabbeinu expressed his middos too. We find in Parshas Shemos that Moshe Rabbeinu when he grew up, it says ויגדל משה, he went out to his brothers, וירא בסבלותם, he saw their hard work. Now that doesn't mean physically he just looked around and he saw them working hard. וירא means er hot arayngekukt, he looked into it, and it bothered him. So much so that when he saw a Mitzri bother a Yid, he actually killed him. That's how much s'iz tsugenumen tsum hartzn, that's how much it bothered him. So he expressed his middos. So we're not saying that Avraham and Yitzchak and Yaakov only served Hashem with their middos and they represented the middos of אצילות, and Moshe Rabbeinu only served Hashem with חכמה and represents חכמה דאצילות. Moshe served Hashem with middos also. The Avos served Hashem with חכמה too. What we're saying is what was their ikar, what was their main avodas Hashem. They had all. Because be'emes every Yid is supposed to serve Hashem from all sides with all the middos, with everything that he has. But nevertheless, every person has his specific derech in which he goes, and that is his main way. So by Moshe Rabbeinu his main way of serving Hashem was through חכמה. By Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov, their main way of serving Hashem was through middos. Because Moshe Rabbeinu's main way of serving Hashem was through חכמה, he served Hashem, that was the way he did what Hashem wanted, was with חכמה. The nature of חכמה is to understand everything. That's what חכמה is. חכמה is wisdom. Middos doesn't have to understand. When a person serves Hashem with middos, it's not necessary necessary to understand. Just like in a person, not concerning Hashem, חכמה means understanding. And when a person is involved in חכמה, what is his occupation? If you want to describe what is he involved in, he's involved in understanding. That's what חכמה is. When a person is involved in middos, there is no understanding there. Middos is are emotions and they're feelings that are not understanding. Usually middos come from understanding because you understand this is good, you love it. But the love itself, that is not חכמה. That is not understanding. That is a middah. And therefore, Moshe Rabbeinu, because his מדרגה was chochmah, so when he served Hashem with chochmah, that means that he has to serve Hashem through understanding. That's the way he serves Hashem, understanding Hashem's ways. So when Moshe Rabbeinu came to Hashem and questioned Hashem, it's not chas veshalom he questioned Hashem because he's like when someone questions somebody, he says, \"Well, I don't know if you're doing the right thing.\" He questions whether he's doing right or he's doing wrong. But he came to Hashem and he said, \"I want to understand. Not because I'm complaining or saying you did something wrong. I want to understand. Why do I want to understand? Because that's the way I serve Hashem. I serve Hashem with understanding. And if I wouldn't understand, that means that I'm not living up to my potential of how I'm supposed to serve Hashem. I'm supposed to serve Hashem with my seichel.\" And imagine if Moshe Rabbeinu would not understand any anything, would not understand something, whichever thing it should be, that means that that aspect in his serving Hashem is lacking. Because that means that his brain at that moment is not really serving Hashem. When you don't understand some something, let me explain this. When you don't understand something, really what it means is that as far as your mind is concerned, this is not true or not right. If I don't understand why you're doing this, it means that as far as my brain is concerned, this is not so. And when you explain it to me, I start realizing it is so. So basically, it's as if saying that if you don't understand Hashem's ways, that means that your mind is not really given over to Hashem. It's not serving Hashem, because your mind doesn't understand Hashem's ways. So the Avot, that their מדרגה was middot, so there there was really no need for them to understand. Because their serving Hashem was the middot. So middot is more this is the emotions, so they loved Hashem, so whatever Hashem did is right and that's it. And the fact that they didn't understand how it fits, for instance, give an example what by Avraham Avinu didn't make sense. Hashem said to Avraham Avinu that כי ביצחק יקרא לך זרע, you'll have children from Yitzchak. Then Hashem says to him, \"Go שחט him.\" He should have said to Hashem, \"I don't know what you're talking about. You just promised me to have children. If I שחט him, he won't have any children.\" He didn't question. Why? Because if Hashem says, he doesn't care. He loves Hashem, and whatever Hashem does, wants him to do, he'll do. Whatever Hashem does is right. There's no question about it. The fact that he doesn't understand is not a lack in his service of Hashem, because his love is there. And his serving of Hashem is through love. But Moshe Rabbeinu, since his serving Hashem is through chochmah, so that means that he his chochmah has to be serving Hashem. If he doesn't understand, that means his chochmah is not serving Hashem, because his chochmah doesn't know, doesn't give himself over to Hashem, his chochmah doesn't absorb what Hashem did. Mimela his chochmah that time is not doesn't accept Hashem. He, the person, will accept what Hashem does anyway. Moshe said, \"I'll accept and I know what you're doing is right, but I'm trying to understand with my chochmah.\" That was the difference between Moshe. That was Moshe's not complaint, but Moshe's questioning, because this was Moshe's madreigah. His madreigah is chochmah.

Now, even though we'll get a little bit into the inyan in Chassidus here, even though in Chassidus we learn that the madreigah of chochmah is bitul, it says in Tanya, פרק ל״ה I believe, it says in Tanya that the level of chochmah, it says that the inyan of ביטול היא מדרגת החכמה, that chochmah, the madreigah, the level of chochmah represents bitul, which is self-nullification. It's hinted in the word chochmah. Chochmah comes from is made up of the two words, koach mah, the power of mah. What's mah? Mah means what, as if saying it's nothing. Moshe Rabbeinu, when he wanted to say that he is nothing, we're speaking because himself and Aharon, they wanted to say we're nothing, so what expression did they use? ונחנו מה. What are we? So the word mah represents bitul, not represents, means bitul. כח מה, it says, Chochmah is the כח of bitul. Now how's what has it got to do with Chochmah? So the truth is when you learn Chassidus, and you learn in Tanya, that says Chochmah is bitul, you always question, what does that mean? Actually, this, the Alter Rebbe quotes this in the name of the Maggid. Very seldom does the Alter Rebbe quote things in the name of the Baal Shem Tov, or in the name of the Maggid, very few times in Tanya, even though everything the Alter Rebbe writes he says he took from from the Rebbeim, he says in the שער בלאט, in the front of תניא, מפי ספרים ומפי סופרים. But here he quotes the Maggid, and he says that שמעתי ממורי, I heard from my Rebbe, from the Maggid, that Chochmah is bitul. So what does that mean Chochmah is bitul? So the pshat is, first let's let's look at Chochmah as far as Chochmah itself is concerned. Chochmah is part of wisdom, part of under- part of seichel, I mean wisdom, whatever English word we'll use for it, but it's seichel. But in seichel itself you have Chochmah, binah and daas. Chochmah is that first lightning of seichel that falls into a person's mind. For instance, when someone learns something and he has all kinds of questions and he doesn't understand, and he sits down to think, trying to understand it, the way the it goes, the order of the way things go, is that the first thing is that there is a, it says ברק המבריק, like a lightning, a thought that comes into your mind, a nekudah, a point, where you see that I see that this will answer all my questions, but you don't see how and what and when, you just see it. Then you sit down and you start developing it. You think about it and you bring this and bring that, but you develop the the nekudah, the point, and from that you come out with the complete explanation to the whole sugya, and all the questions are answered. The first level is called Chochmah, that's the ברק המבריק, that's the nekudah, that's the point, and the second level is binah when it's already developed into a complete understanding. Now because that the first level of chochmah of chochmah is the nekudah, that nekudah is bittul. That nekudah is a point where all you have is just the point of the seichel, with very little little details, and therefore, you have very little to the metzius of what really the seichel is. It's just a beginning. Most of the seichel is not there yet, so you have the bittul there, meaning you have very little of metzius. But whichever way we're going to explain it, chochmah is connected to bittul. How are we saying that Moshe Rabbeinu, because his level was chochmah, therefore he had to understand it, and if he didn't understand it, then he's lacking in his serving Hashem because he's not serving Hashem with the chochmah, but if we say chochmah is bittul, that means that it should not care of whether he understands it or not? Because usually the concept of of me understanding means me, I have to understand. It's why don't people do things, they don't don't do things if they don't understand it? Because it doesn't fit with me. If a person wouldn't have his ego, wouldn't have his metzius, then whether he understands it or not wouldn't make a difference. So here we're saying that Moshe Rabbeinu, because he was on the level of chochmah, had to understand it and that's why he questioned the Oybershter, not as a question, but just trying to understand, at the same time when it says that Moshe Rabbeinu is the level of chochmah, therefore his level was bittul. And it says Moshe Rabbeinu was the greatest anav in the whole world, says in Chumash, and in Chassidus it says he was the תכלית הביטול. So it seems to be a contradiction, that bittul, when we say you're battel, and on the other hand we say you have to understand, seems to contradict. Because when you tell somebody that don't care whether you understand or not, you have to accept it with קבלת עול מלכות שמים, you have to accept it with accepting the yoke of Hashem, always we say you have to be battel and therefore don't care whether you understand or not. When the said נעשה before נשמע, they don't care whether they'll understand or not, they'll do it because they were battel to Hashem. And here we're putting the two together, we're saying that Moshe Rabbeinu on one hand because he was chochmah that he had to understand, and at the same time we're saying we know that Moshe Rabbeinu madregah of chochmah which is a מדרגה of bitul. The answer is it is not a contradiction. It depends why you want to understand. If you want to understand because I want to understand, it's only human nature that we want to understand things, and that is if I don't understand, it doesn't fit with me, it's a contradiction to my ego, to myself, that understanding is not bitul, and that's not the level of Moshe Rabbeinu. If you want to understand because Hashem wants you to understand, because Hashem wants you to serve him with your שכל, and therefore he wants you to use your שכל to understand, then even though you want to understand, it's not you. It's you because understanding is the person, but what's behind it, what's the base of this understanding is not because I care. What he meant is also not to say, well, the אבות are greater than you, they didn't question, because as we just explained, the fact that they didn't question wasn't because they were greater, because that wasn't their מדרגה, that wasn't their level, and that wasn't the way they were supposed to serve Hashem. They served Hashem with their מידות. But Hashem said to Moshe Rabbeinu, the time has come for you, with your level of חכמה, to reach a מדרגה of combination of your חכמה together with the מידות of the אבות. You're supposed to absorb the מידות of the אבות, and I'll explain what I mean. And what he said to him was, what we look in Chumash, what did Hashem answer? He said that וארא אל אברהם יצחק וגו', I revealed myself to the אבות, ושמי הויה לא נודעתי להם, I did not let them know my name הויה. And now the time has come to reveal my name הויה. What he was saying was that till now, Hashem did not reveal himself to the אבות and בכלל did not function, so to speak, through what the name הויה represents. Mainly Hashem functioned, so to speak, through the name Elokim, or Kel Shaddai which is the same idea as שם אלקים. Now, the time for הויה came. Why now? Because we know that at the time of Matan Torah, that was the time of the revelation of שם הויה. Yetzias Mitzrayim is the beginning of Matan Torah, so therefore by Yetzias Mitzrayim already started the שם הויה. What does that mean? What does it mean that till now Hashem functioned through שם אלקים, and now through שם הויה? So we all know, anybody learned a little bit of Chassidut knows the difference between שם אלקים and שם הויה. שם אלקים is בגימטריא הטבע, בגימטריא nature, the nature, which is 87: 5 and 9 and 2 and 70. 70, 79, 81, 86, with the כולל it's 86. Elokim is בגימטריא 86. How is Elokim בגימטריא 86? Even though we always in the yeshiva I always ask that question to make just just to make a joke: If Elokim has a ק in it, so it's already 100! Elokim is not with a ק, Elokim is with a ה. We just pronounce it Elokim. Elokim is 86, it's הטבע. Elokim represents Hashem the way he functions through nature. הויה represents Hashem the way he is beyond nature. That's why הויה is made up of three words: היה, הוה, ויהיה, past, present, and future, together in one word, כאחד, which is not nature. Nature is, the whole concept of nature is time, time and space, time is past, present, and future. To have past, present, and future together, that's not nature. And that's what הויה is, past, present, and future together. So הויה is beyond nature. One of the differences between the name הויה and the name Elokim, Elokim, besides the גימטריא הטבע, it's also לשון רבים, it's plural. We're talking about Hashem, there's only one Hashem, but that's Elokim, י' מ', it's plural. While הויה is not plural, הויה is singular. Why is Elokim plural? Chas v'shalom, more than one Hashem? It's plural because we're talking about Hashem the way he puts himself into nature, and the nature is made up of many things. So all the different things of the world is all from Hashem, and the Hashem the way he puts himself into the nature is Elokim. So at the time when you have, so till Matan Torah, there was not such a great revelation of Hashem. The world did not really recognize Hashem in such a high level, so So the highest they could reach really was to the level of feeling Hashem the way he functions through nature, which really basically he is hidden. That's where the word הטבע comes from. The word הטבע means nature, but the word hateva also means something that drowns, sunk into the water, טובעו בים סוף, sunk. The word hateva means where Hashem is, when something hidden, that's what Hashem is hidden in the world. And that's as far as the people could recognize. Certainly the goyim. That's why when Moshe Rabbeinu came to Pharaoh and he said to him that Hashem sent me to you, and he used the name Havayah' because at that time already Hashem started using the name Havayah', Pharaoh said, \"מי הוי' אשר אשמע בקולו? Who is this הוי'? Never heard of the guy. Who is this guy?\" Midrash actually says that Pharaoh went to his to a room and took out his books of all the עבודה זרות, all the gods in the world, and he looked through it. Says, \"I don't find his name there. So who is this guy?\" Why? Because Pharaoh, Chassidut says, had no connection to Havayah'. Havayah', which is l'ma'alah beyond teva, has nothing to do with Pharaoh. When Yosef came to Pharaoh and Pharaoh said to him, \"I heard that you're able to interpret the dream,\" so what did he answer? \"אלקים יענה את שלום פרעה.\" Elokim, Hashem will answer. But which name did he use? Elokim, because Pharaoh is a shaychut to Elokim. But בכלל the world at that time till Matan Torah or when it started becoming already close to Matan Torah, till then it was only Elokim or Kel Shaddai. Havayah' started now. The difference is Elokim because it's Hashem the way he is in nature, and nature everything though there are so many different things, so in ruchniyut, in serving Hashem was also the same. That there were many different madregot in serving Hashem. Separated, just like the world has different things, and Elokim is the source of all these different things, so the tzadikim who served Hashem at that time also served in different ways. Ways of התחלקות. התחלקות means division, different ways. Just like the world, the world has התחלקות. But when the revelation of Shem Havayah' came, so then what started was that now all the types of ways of serving Hashem have to be combined. And they all have to come together. So Hashem said to Moshe Rabbeinu, \"Now is the time that your way of serving me, which till now was through chochmah,\" and Moshe's מדרגה was chochmah, \"and it was chochmah mostly, you have to now combine the chochmah with the level of the Avot, which is the middot. And when we said when it comes to middot there is no question of sechel, you have to incorporate that into your level of chochmah. Now they have to now there is no differences.\" And what does that mean? That you shouldn't have ask, now you will not ask any questions. Now what does that mean? Let me explain that. If Moshe Rabbeinu's level was chochmah, chochmah means you have to serve Hashem through understanding, so why wouldn't he ask any questions? So his mind has to understand everything, otherwise you're not serving Hashem to your potential, you're not serving Hashem what you have to. And it's not his ego, as we said before, because it's because he wants to serve Hashem, that's why he wants to understand, not because he needs to understand. But there is even a higher level. There's a higher level that you use your sechel, but it doesn't mean that you have to have answers to your questions. You come to an understanding with your sechel that you don't have to understand. And the truth is even simply sechel leads a person to a point that he comes to recognize and understand that there are things you can't understand. If you only use your sechel, you understand as much as you can, you have to come to a conclusion that there are things which are beyond sechel. And that we learn in Chassidut. So when we say there are things which are למעלה מן השכל, that doesn't necessarily mean that they're למעלה מן השכל and it has nothing to do with your sechel. Your sechel comes to understand, afilu in the simple terms, that if you ask somebody, \"Could you understand everything that Hashem does?\" He said, \"No.\" Does that mean that these are things that don't make sense to you? Right, they don't make sense, but do in my sechel I understand that it's impossible for me to understand. So if I come to that point, and it's not that I don't serve Hashem with my sechel, my sechel understands that I don't have to understand this, or I can't understand. So I am, not saying like some people say, \"This, don't understand, finish, don't do it, don't question.\" If you say don't question, then you're not using your sechel. But if you use your sechel and you say, \"Well, I could I understand that this thing I don't have to understand or I can't understand and therefore I have to accept it,\" you are using your sechel. Your sechel came to a logical conclusion that this is something that you don't understand. So here you are using your sechel. And that's what Hashem wanted Moshe Rabbeinu to reach that point at that moment now when you have to combine the middot with the seichel, which means, if we'll put these words, the seichel with למעלה מן השכל together, this is what he said to him: Now is the time that you have to adapt also the level of the Avot together with your madregah. So again, in short, it comes out like this. Moshe Rabbeinu did not question Hashem. He didn't have any question whether Hashem is right or wrong, but he came to him, he says, \"Explain it to me because I have to understand it, because that's my madregah. That's what I need. That's the way I'm I serve you. That's the way my neshamah is. That's what you make your fault. You did it. You make gave me that neshamah of חכמה דאצילות. I have to that's I have to serve from Hashem to understand. The Avot, they didn't have to, but if I won't understand, it will be lacking.\" Now Hashem said, \"You're right, but now the time has come when you have to combine the higher another דרגא together with your דרגא, and you have to now use the seichel to come to the point that you don't understand, and therefore, it will be that you serve Hashem with your seichel, and at the same time, you will not have the questions. And from then on, you will be able to reach that madregah.\" And it takeh says that Moshe Rabbeinu, there are things that Moshe Rabbeinu also doesn't understand. It says that even פרה אדומה, which is a chukah, no one can understand it. Even Shlomo HaMelech said, \"אמרתי אחכמה והיא רחוקה ממני. I try to understand it, I can't. It's something beyond seichel.\" And Hashem said to Moshe Rabbeinu, \"לך אני מגלה טעם פרה. You I will tell the reason for פרה. You will understand.\" And it says, why takeh does Hashem tell Moshe? So it says in חסידות because of this, because Moshe's level is chochmah, and he has to understand it. For him to connect to the mitzvah of פרה אדומה, he had to understand because chochmah has to understand everything. And at the same time, it's ask a question, חסידות asks a question, that means that Moshe Rabbeinu is missing the level of חוקים? There is a concept of חוקים in the Torah, which means beyond understanding, so Moshe is missing that level? So it says no. Whatever we under whatever we have, Moshe understood, but his level of chukim was a higher madregah, something beyond there that even he didn't understand, but it came after the highest level of understanding, that he understood a highest level, and then there's a point of not being able to understand. And the Gemara takeh says, חמישים שערי בינה נבראו בעולם, there are 49 gates of wisdom in the world, כולם ניתנו למשה חסר אחד. They were all given to Moshe except one, 50th. Because even by Moshe Rabbeinu there is a level called שער החמישים, which is beyond understanding, but it's no contradiction to Moshe's avodah of chochmah, because with his sechel to the highest madregah and you come to not understand, that's a level of understanding. You understand that you don't understand. Just to finish off like it says, תכלית הידיעה שלא נדע. It says the tachlis of the goal, the the the highest epitome level that you could reach in understanding, in knowing, when you come to see that you don't know. So I heard from somebody once, he said, \"You learn so much till finally you realize you don't know. I'm smarter. I don't learn lechatchilah, so I don't know. Why do I have to learn and learn and learn and spend years and years learn, finally come to understand I don't know? I lechatchilah know I don't know.\" There is a difference in what you don't know. This guy doesn't even know what he doesn't know. That's not called not knowing. You learn, you learn, you learn, and you come to the highest level of understanding, then you talk you really don't know. Then you know what it means not to know. But that level of not knowing comes as a result of knowing. You know that there is something that you don't know. This guy doesn't even know what there's what there's what what he doesn't know. And by Moshe Rabbeinu, after he's questioned here and Hashem told him now you take the madregah of the Avos also, reached that madregah, and that's why from then he was zocheh to go on further to take to go to Par'oh and then finally take the Yidden out of Mitzrayim, and take Yidden to מתן תורה, etc., etc.

Where does it say Hashem criticized? We we sing it that way. It doesn't say. It depends the tone. Yeah, but that you have all these pesukim have to be taytsh differently according to Chassidus, that it's not a punishment, and it's just saying this is fits to your madregah. But a lot depends on exactly how we sing it. I always repeat this story and I'll repeat it again, depends how you say the pasuk. Maaseh with the Alter Rebbe with Pesach night, I'll repeat that, Pesach night, once the Alter Rebbe happened to be in a city that the Chassidim didn't have their own minyan there yet. There were no 10 Chassidim, so they used to daven in the regular shul with the other people. And the Alter Rebbe was there, so he davened with them. It was Pesach at night. מנהג חסידים is we say Hallel in shul, right, in Maariv. And the other people, אשכנז doesn't. Not only don't, by them it's a whole thing. In those days when חסידים and מתנגדים, whole thing, so one of the major things that they were looking to see are you a חסיד or not, one of the סימנים would be if they see you saying Hallel, oh, that was the worst thing. So what did they do? They davened with the regular minyan, they didn't want to say Hallel, no one should make any problems, so they waited for everyone to leave, and everyone left, they said Hallel. Didn't have ten people, but the two between themselves said Hallel. The שמש, after he left, and he started making his seder, realized he forgot something in shul. So he ran back to shul. Comes into the shul, guess what he sees? Here, these guys saying Hallel. He made a whole טומל, ran to the רב right away. The רב, in middle of the seder, came running to the shul and started screaming at them, and started at the Alter Rebbe, \"What's going on here? How do you say Hallel?\" And he screams to him, \"Don't you know that Rema says,\" started banging on the table, \"that Rema says, אין מנהגנו לומר הלל בלילי פסחים?\" He screams that Rema said it's not our מנהג to say הלל פסח night. So the Alter Rebbe turns around to him, and he says, \"How do you know that the Rema was screaming and knocking on the table and saying אין מנהגנו? Maybe he said, נעבעך, אין מנהגנו לומר הלל בלילי פסחים. Nebech, we have no we don't have that זכות. But how do you know he was screaming like that?\" So, a lot of things depend on how you say. The same thing in Chumash, we are used to that the אייבערשטער saying to him, \"או, חבל על דאבדין ולא משתכחין.\" Maybe he said, \"נו, חבל על דאבדין ולא משתכחין. You know, now you're going to do it?\" Like the mother with this with the letter from her son. It was a son who went to ישיבה, came back, and sent a letter. So the father opens the mail and reads the letter, looks at the letter and tells his wife, \"What a chutzpah from our son!\" She says, \"What did he write that has chutzpah?\" \"הא, טאטע, שיק געלט!\" He says, \"טאטע, send me money, what am I, a bank? טאטע, שיק געלט!\" She says, \"Give me the letter.\" She looks at it. \"You don't know how to read it. טאטע, שיק געלט. Who says he's screaming at you? He's begging!\" Same thing here. It depends how you say it, so we have to read the Chumash a little bit different. Hashem didn't scream at Moshe, he said it nicely. Anyway. Okay.