from the Rebbe on this week's parsha, Parshat Balak. In Parshat Balak we learn about the נבואה, the prophecy that Bilam said, and in it he praised the Yidden a lot. So amongst the things that he said about Yidden is the פסוק, מי מנה עפר יעקב, who could count the sand, the dust of יעקב, of the Yidden? And Rashi, in one of the pshatim he says it means like this: אין חשבון במצוות שמקיימין בעפר. There is no cheshbon, there is no numbering or the reckoning, in the mitzvot that the Yidden fulfill with sand. And Rashi gives an example of four mitzvot, and we know there, and finishes off וכיוצא בזה בהם, that there are similar mitzvot, another four mitzvot, so there are eight mitzvot altogether that the Yid does with sand. So it seems a contradiction in Rashi. First Rashi says that it means אין חשבון במצוות שמקיימין בעפר, there is no numbering, there is no cheshbon. And then Rashi says that there is a few mitzvot that we do. So how can we call and refer to it אין חשבון? And the Rebbe explains it על פי חסידות. We know

there are two ways a person could approach serving Hashem and fulfilling the mitzvot. One is he feels it, he understands the importance of it, and that's why he does the mitzvot. Then there's another way, and that is through complete bitul, self-nullification to Hashem, and complete kabbalat ol malchut shamayim, accepting the yoke of Hashem. And you do it just because Hashem said so, not because of anything of you, that you understand and you feel it, etc., etc. One of the difference between these two ways is, if the fulfillment of the mitzvot is based on the person's מציאות, on his feeling, on his understanding, etc., etc., since he is limited, so the fulfillment of the mitzvot also has to do with limitations. Because it's based on his limitations, on his sechel and his middot which is limited, so the mitzvot that he does are limited. But if you do it because you just give yourself over to Hashem, you have the complete bitul to Hashem, then the mitzvot basically are bli gvul, unlimited, because it's not based on the limitations of the person, it's based on Hashem. Hashem told you to do the mitzvot and you do the mitzvot, so that has in itself the inyan of bli gvul. Now we know

what it says in sefarim that dust, עפר, represents the bitul to Hashem. We know by chametz, when we are מבטל חמץ, when we nullify the chametz before Pesach, we use the words: it should be בטל ולהוי הפקר כעפרא דארעא, we say it should be like the dust, like the sand of the earth. And that's the bitul of the chametz. So the chametz, in order to show the bitul, we refer to it as עפר. We know concerning a person himself, we say in Shemoneh Esrei, every time we end Shemoneh Esrei we say ונפשי כעפר לכל תהיה, that I should be like sand, like dust to everybody. This is a way a person expresses that he is nothing, his humility. So how do you express it? By using the word עפר. And this is על פי חסידות what Rashi means: אין חשבון במצוות שמקיימין בעפר. If you fulfill the mitzvot not out of bitul, but you fulfill it out of your own sechel and your own middot, then there is a cheshbon. A cheshbon means there is a limitation. But if you do the מצוות בעפר, if you do the mitzvot with sand, in a form of sand, in a form of bitul to Hashem, then there is no cheshbon. The mitzvot are bli gvul, they contain in itself the bli gvul of the Eibershter, because that's how you do it. And that's what Rashi means to say: even though there are a few mitzvot that we do with sand physically, but this tells you something very special, that if you do the מצוות בעפר, with your ביטול, אין חשבון במצוות שמקיימין בעפר, then there is no cheshbon, that means that you have within the mitzvot something beyond cheshbon, which is beyond calculations, beyond numbers, because it has the בלי גבול of the mitzvot, which is really the בלי גבול of Hashem. And the

lesson we take from here is obviously that when we do mitzvot, as much as we understand and we feel the importance of the mitzvot, and we should, but that should not be the basis of why we do it. The basis why we do it should be because this is what Hashem wants us to do, and we should do it out of kabalat ol and bitul, and then we will have within the mitzvot the אין חשבון, the beyond cheshbonot, beyond limitations, and we will reach the בלי גבול and the essence of Hashem.