A vort from the Rebbe on this week's parashah, is Parashat Chayei Sarah. In Parashat Chayei Sarah we learn that Avraham Avinu bought from Ephron the Me'arat HaMachpelah. And the pasuk says, וישקול אברהם לעפרון, אברהם weighed, which means gave to עפרון, ארבע מאות שקל כסף, 400 shekel of silver. The Arizal explains this פסוק על פי קבלה. In Kabbalah it says that when Mashiach will come, the tzadikim, when they get up techiyat hametim, will be given by Hashem, because of Hashem's kindness, they will be given, we call it, ת׳ עלמין דכיסופין, 400 worlds of pleasure, which means they will have great pleasure in Hashem. And it refers to 400 worlds of pleasure, and in Kabbalah we have חשבונות what's the inyan of the 400, why it's called 400, and worlds, etc., etc. But the main thing is that 400 worlds of כיסופין represents the great pleasure that tzadikim will get when Mashiach will come. And this will all come from the kindness of Hashem, because of Hashem's chesed. Now we also know that Avraham represents chesed, Yitzchak represents gevurah, Yaakov represents tiferet, which is rachamim, etc., etc. And this is how the Arizal taytsh this pasuk: that Avraham, which represents chesed, because of the chesed of Hashem, there will be given to Ephron—Ephron represents the tzadikim, the tzadikim that will get up techiyat hametim because they're laying in the ground, in the עפר, in the sand, and they will get up from the sand, so they are referred to as עפרון, meaning the tzadikim. So Avraham, which is chesed of Hashem, will give to the צדיקים ארבע מאות שקל כסף, 400 שקל of כסף. כסף comes from the word כיסף, which means desire, which means pleasure. So this פסוק is taytsh that because of the chesed of Hashem, the tzadikim, who are hinted in the word עפרון, will be given 400 worlds of כסף, of כיסופין, of pleasure in Hashem, and that will be לעתיד לבוא. But the Rebbe asks the shaila: why would it be that when we want to refer to tzadikim, we call them עפרון? We know why, because they're in the ground, they'll get up תחיית המתים, but nevertheless, עפר is not such a nice thing. עפר is a very low thing, it's the ground, it's the floor. So why would the Torah refer to tzadikim, according to this pshat of the Arizal על פי קבלה, with the word עפרון, with the word עפר?

And the Rebbe explains that the word עפר also represents something else. עפר represents bitul to Hashem, עניוות, humility, but main thing is to be nullified to Hashem. עפר is something that people step on. The Gemara in Eruvin says a לשון, משים עצמך כעפר. If a person, the Gemara wants to explain a person is בטל, is not a בעל גאוה, it uses a לשון he makes himself like עפר שהכל דשין בו, that everyone steps on it. So afar represents bitul. We also say in Shemoneh Esrei, at the end of Shemoneh Esrei, we want to express that we're nothing, we use the word ונפשי כעפר לכל תהיה, I should be like afar. So afar represents bitul to Hashem. And the Rebbe says this is why the פסוק here when it wants to refer to צדיקים, it uses the word עפרון from the word afar, because the ma'alah of צדיקים is that they are afar, they're batel to Hashem. Their metziut doesn't count, their own being doesn't count, they're completely batel to Hashem. And what the פסוק is telling us, the reason why they will be able to get such a high level of pleasure in Hashem, which is really a level of בלי גבול pleasure, unlimited pleasure, even though we use the word 400, but it's unlimited pleasure. And the reason why they're able to take it, to get it, is because they're afar. Because a human being, no matter how he is and how great he is, cannot take something that's בלי גבול, something that's unlimited. The only way you could take something that's unlimited if you unclothe yourself from your own metziut, from the limitations of your metziut, then your metziut doesn't count, and you could take as much as Hashem gives you. And that's what the פסוק is saying, that because of Avraham, which means the chesed of Hashem, the צדיקים who are called עפרון, that means that they are batel to Hashem like afar, they will be able to take the 400 שקל כסף, the 400 עולמות of kisufin, of pleasure in Hashem, because they're unclothed of their metziut and they have the proper bitul, their kelim to accept it.

And this is a lesson for everyone, that the way to receive inyanim that normally you cannot be a keli to receive, is through the bittul to Hashem. So the bittul to Hashem is the foundation of getting all the madregot a person could get. And that's the lesson to a person, that the first thing a person has to be is humble, and humble doesn't mean just humble to another person, but humble being batel to Hashem, then the person could get high, very high מדרגות רוחניות.