A vort from the Rebbe on this week's פרשה, פרשת ויצא. In the beginning of Vayeitzei, it starts: ויצא יעקב מבאר שבע וילך חרנה. Yaakov left Be'er Sheva, which is Eretz Yisrael and the place where his father and his mother lived, and he went to Charan. And Rashi says: מגיד, this teaches us, שיציאת צדיק מן המקום עושה רושם. When a tzaddik leaves a place, it makes an impression, because בזמן שהצדיק בעיר, when the tzaddik is in the city, הוא הודה, הוא זיוה, הוא הדרה. He is its significance, his glory, splendor, I don't know exactly the translation in English, but it means the beauty is there. The tzaddik is that הוד and זיו and הדר. יצא משם, and he leaves there, פנה הודה, פנה זיוה, פנה הדרה. The הוד, זיו, and הדר, הדר leaves. So the Rebbe explains this al pi Chassidut, according to the חסידישע פשט in the pasuk.

The Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh explains that this idea that Yaakov left Be'er Sheva and went to Charan hints to the neshamah that leaves the shamayim, leaves the עולם העליון. It says that the neshamah is lema'alah, when it's in shamayim, it's under the כיסא הכבוד. When it leaves that area, that area is called באר מים חיים. That's the place, a well of living waters, similar to the word Be'er Sheva, also from the word באר. So when it says Yaakov left Be'er Sheva, that hints to the tzaddik, that means the neshamah of a Yid leaving its source lema'alah in Shamayim. And it comes down to the body, into this world, and that's hinted in Charan. It comes to Charan, because the word Charan in Chazal tell us comes from the word חרון אף של מקום, the Aibershter's anger. Charan represents a place where the Aibershter was angry about that place. And that's עולם הזה, that's this world. So the neshama leaves Be'er Sheva, leaves its source in Shamayim, comes down to this world in Charan. Why does the Aibershter send the neshama down? So Chasidus explains that it's yeridah l'tzorech aliyah. It's dake a descent, coming from such a high level, so close to Hashem, and coming down to such a low level, into this world, which is a very, very low level. The purpose is so after it's down here and it does what Hashem wants it to do, fulfills its shlichus, does, learns Torah, does mitzvot, that's l'tzorech aliyah, the neshama goes even higher than it was before. Because only through doing mitzvot and learning Torah in this world could the neshama reach such very high levels, higher than it was before it came down, when it was in Shamayim. And that's what Rashi means to say, that when the tzadik leaves the place, the hod, the ziv, and the hadar goes away, which means that it doesn't have this gilui or, it doesn't have this light of Hashem, the Ohr Ein Sof, the revelation of the Ohr Ein Sof it doesn't have anymore down here. When it was in higher worlds, there there is the Ohr Eloki, the Godly light shines very strong, but when it comes down here, this or goes away, because the physical body doesn't feel it. When the neshama is in the physical body, it can't contain this Ohr Eloki. That's what it means that when he leaves Be'er Sheva, when Yaakov left Be'er Sheva, or when the neshama leaves l'maalah the source, the הוד, זיו, and הדר leaves it.

But we learn in Chassidus that when we talk about גילוי אור אין סוף, there's a revelation of the light of Hashem, that's not the essence. That's not the essence, that's only a gilui. A gilui is a revelation, a gilui is only something that's outside of the thing itself. A gilui comes from a source. So you have the or and you have the maor, the source of light. And that's the etzem. So what Rashi is telling us, when the neshamah leaves l'maalah, it dake, all the revelations go away. But at the same time, it's only the revelations go away. This is giluyim. This is not the essence. But as far as the essence of the neshamah connected to the essence of Hashem, that is the opposite. That is davke by coming down here. So it doesn't feel it, because giluyim you feel, this is, the etzem you don't feel. But when the neshamah comes down, what goes away is the giluyim, the revelations, which is superficial, not superficial, but outside thing, not the essence. But the essence of the connection of a Yid, the etzem of a neshamah, which is connected to the etzem of the Eibershter, that doesn't go away by coming down. On the contrary, it only has it when it comes down, has it even more than before, because this is what the Eibershter wants. The Eibershter wants a דירה בתחתונים, that we should make a dwelling place for Him down here. So when the neshamah comes down here in this low world, which is called חרון, this is where the neshamah fulfills its mission, and here is the connection of the עצם הנשמה stronger than it was before. And that's a lesson for every person. We know when we're down here and we think that this is very low level, which is true, and we have to realize that davka down here, when we make a דירה בתחתונים, we bring Godliness into this low world, that's when the strength of the neshamah, the strength of the connection of the neshamah to the Eibershter, comes out b'foal.