A vort from the Rebbe on this week's parshah, Parshas Mishpatim. In Parshas Mishpatim, from the pasuk that says אשר יאמר כי הוא זה, the Chachamim learn out that a מודה במקצת is chayav a shevuah. If somebody admits to part of the claim, the din is he has to swear. For instance, if someone claims you owe me a hundred dollars, and he says I only owe you fifty, let's say, so the din is obviously the fifty he has to pay, but he has to swear on the rest. He has to swear that the others I don't owe you. That means that a מודה במקצת generally is chayav a shevuah. We know that all the dinim that we find in the Torah have a counterpart, a ruchniyus'dike meaning, a meaning in Avodas Hashem. And what is the meaning of Avodas Hashem of this inyan of a מודה במקצת is chayav a shevuah?

And the Rebbe explains it as follows: when a person, chas veshalom, does an aveirah, we don't say that he, his whole being is involved in the aveirah. Because every Yid has a neshamah, so the etzem of the neshamah is never involved in the aveirah. The essence of the neshamah always remains connected to Hashem, even while the aveirah is done, as it says in Tanya. Even when we look at the kochos of the neshamah, not only the essence of the neshamah, even the superficial aspects of the neshamah, the attributes of the neshamah that does get involved in aveirah, we still don't say that the whole koach, any koach, any power that he uses, any strength he uses, any attribute he uses to do an aveirah, it's fully involved in the aveirah. You can't say that either. The Gemara says that אפילו פושעי ישראל מלאים מצות כרמון. Even Yidden who are פושעי ישראל, means Yidden who are not observant, Yidden who don't do what Hashem wants, are still filled with mitzvot like a pomegranate. Like the pomegranate is full of seeds, every Yid, אפילו פושעי ישראל, is full of mitzvot. So you can't say in any aspect of a Yid that even if he does an aveirah with a certain attribute, that that whole attribute, that whole midah, the whole koach is involved in an aveirah.

And therefore, when the yetzer hara, the Satan, they're all one, come in בית דין של מעלה, the Heavenly courts, and prosecute a Yid for doing an aveirah, and he claims, because he did an aveirah, so give him over to my reshut, to my domain, and I'll take care of it, I'll take care of him already in a negative way, obviously, the answer to that is, a Yid who did an aveirah is only a מודה במקצת. Part of him did an aveirah, it's true, not in the neshamah, but in the neshamah itself, the superficial parts of the neshamah are connected to the aveirah that he's doing, but not completely. It's a מודה במקצת. He admits to part, yes, a little bit is, but the other part isn't. And what's the din? The din by a מודה במקצת is that he has to swear. Now, we know that the word shevuah, which means an oath, to swear, has another meaning. Shevuah comes from the word sheva, which means satisfied. And in Chassidut it says that משביעין אותו, sometimes it says you make him swear, means you satisfy him, you fill him up with special koach. And that's the pshat. Every Yid, even if he does an aveirah, he's only a מודה במקצת. And what is the result? The Aibershter does not give over the Yid in the reshut, in the domain of the Satan, of the yetzer hara, but the Aibershter says חייב שבועה, it means we give him a shevuah. We give him, we satisfy him, saturate him with more kochot that he should not fall into the reshut of the kelipah, of the yetzer hara, and he has koach to overcome the yetzer hara and even do teshuvah for the aveirah that he did.

While I'm mentioning this Gemara that אפילו פושעי ישראל מלאים מצות כרמון, and even the Yidden who are not good are also full of mitzvot, just reminds me a story. It's not part of the sichah, but it reminds me a story that a story that I heard, and I think it's true from the way I heard it, from the one I heard it, that there was once a Chassidishe Yid, not from a Lubavitcher chassid, but a Chassidishe Yid from a different chassidut, went in to the Rebbe for yechidut, for a berachah. At the end, before he left, the Rebbe asked him, \"Can you repeat any vort that you heard from your Rebbe lately?\" So he said, \"Yeah, my Rebbe spoke about this Gemara, that even פושעי ישראל, means let's say the word bad Yidden, are also full of mitzvot.\" So he said, \"I don't understand, the Rebbe asked a question: If you call them פושעי ישראל, how can you say that they're full of mitzvot?\" And the Rebbe looked at him, and the Rebbe said, \"I have the same question. But my question is a little bit different. If they say they're full of mitzvot, why do you call them פושעי ישראל?\" And this shows the Rebbe's approach to everything in a positive way.