from the Rebbe on this week's parsha, Parashat Vaetchanan. In Parashat Vaetchanan, we have the most famous pasuk in the Torah, and that is שמע ישראל השם אלקינו השם אחד, which means hear Yidden or understand Yidden that Hashem Elokeinu, God our God, השם אחד, השם is one. And when we say Hashem is one, it doesn't mean that there is no other God, obviously. What it means is there's no other metziut, there's no other being. Hashem is the only being, the real, real being. As there's another pasuk that says אין עוד מלבדו, there's nothing besides Him, He's the only metziut. But the Rebbe asks the question: if the pasuk is trying to tell us that there's nothing else but Hashem, why does he use the word השם אחד, השם is one? Shouldn't he use the word השם יחיד, השם is single? The difference between echad and yachid is: echad means one. When you have one, doesn't mean you can't have a second. When you have five things, you say: this is number one, this is number two. But if you want to say something is the only thing, then you use the word yachid. If you want to say: this is my only child, you say: he is a בן יחיד, he's the only one, there's nothing else. And when we want to say there's nothing else but Hashem, why don't we say the word השם יחיד? And therefore, when we say in Adon Olam: הוא אחד ואין שני, since we use the word echad there, He is one, right away we have to make sure that we understand what we mean, and we have to add: ואין שני, there is no second. Because from the word echad itself it doesn't mean there is no second. So therefore, we have to say ואין שני. So if the Torah wants to tell us that Hashem is the only being, why does the Torah use the word השם אחד, not the word השם יחיד? And the

Rebbe answers: it says in Shulchan Aruch that when a person says in davenen שמע ישראל השם אלקינו השם אחד, he has to be mechaven, you have to think that the word echad means like this: it's made up of three letters: alef, chet, dalet. Alef is one, chet is eight, and Dalet is four. Alef, one, means the Eibershter, He's one. The Chet, which is eight, represents the seven heavens and the earth, that's eight. And the Dalet, the four, represents the four corners of the earth. Which means that we have to keep in mind when we say echad that the whole universe, which is the Chet, the eight, seven רקיעים and the ארץ, and the דלת רוחות העולם, they are all batal to the Alef, to the echad, to the to the one which is the Eibershter. That's what the word echad tells us. And this is the pshat. The pshat is that Torah wants to tell us that even though there is another metziut, other types of things which seem to be a metziut, a real being, nevertheless we have to know that really they're not a real being, they're only an extension, an expression of the Eibershter's will, that's why they're there, but not בעצם that their own metziut. And bedavka that's what the Torah wants to tell us. If the

Torah would say השם יחיד, השם is single, and a person would say it, first of all, he looks around, he says: it doesn't seem to be so, I see other things also, I see a gantze velt, the whole world is around me. Especially then, when you sit in shul and you put your hands on your eyes, you close your eyes, you say: השם אחד! נישטא קיין וועלט, there's no other world. Then you go out into the street after davenen, you go to work, you see all kinds of other things, and you see that there is a world! So it seems to contradict what you thought when you said that there is no world. That's why the Eibershter says: I know that there are other things that seem to be a metziut, and I want to tell you: even though the Eibershter is one, which might make you think that there is another, you should know that there is really not, there's nothing else. So it uses bedavka the word echad to tell you that, that even though there is another metziut, seemingly a metziut, it's not really one. And that's what the word echad means: that when you see the Chet, which is the seven רקיעים, the seven heavens and the earth, and you see the Dalet, the four corners of the world, you should realize they are all nothing but the Alef, they're all batal to the Alef. But then you can't ask a question: how could you say there's nothing but Hashem when I see a whole world? Because when you said it, you knew that there is a world! But you have to realize that it only looks like it's a real metziut, but really its whole מציאות is the Eibershter. And

that's bedavka why the Torah chose to use the word השם אחד, meaning that Hashem is the only מציאות, but by using the word אחד, that tells you that even though there seems to be another מציאות, which the word אחד doesn't say that there is no other מציאות, so it seems to be another מציאות, you have to know that the Eibershter is the only real מציאות. And that's really what a person is supposed to be mechaven when you daven and you say השם אלקינו השם אחד, that the whole world that we see and everything in it is nothing but an expression of Hashem's will in order for us to be able to fulfill His will, that's why He made a world which looks like a world in order to fulfill His will with doing Torah u'mitzvot. And that is the tachlit what the Eibershter wants: a דירה בתחתונים, that in this physical world which seems to be a מציאות, we have to reveal that its real מציאות is only the will of Hashem.