Okay, we're holding here on page 31. I'm sure you have it in your copies. Okay, thanks. Yeah, I gave out the copies. There were one page that was still left for last week, and I gave it together with the new ones, that we might go on. That's page 31. Didn't come out on this, on the copies. Here you have 31, it's a single copy. Single page, yeah. Yeah, it's a single page. Yeah, we need another one. Okay, we're holding here the second piece from the top of the page. על

הפסוק אשא עיני אל ההרים, on the פסוק in תהלים where it says, I will pick up my eyes to the mountains, and we all know the continuation of the פסוק, it says אשא עיני אל ההרים מאין יבא עזרי עזרי מעם ה', I pick up my eyes to the mountains, from where will my help come? My help will come from השם. So on the פסוק אשא עיני אל ההרים, I will pick up my eyes to the mountains, אמרו רז״ל, so the חכמים said in the מדרש, זה משיח בן דוד. This refers to משיח בן דוד. In other words, I will pick up my eyes to the mountains, that means I will pick up my eyes to משיח. What does that mean? Now the simple פשט means that when a person is in trouble, it's one of the פשטים, when a person is in trouble and he feels מאין יבא עזרי, where will my help come? He doesn't see any source of help. So you should pick your eyes up to משיח and know that משיח will come eventually, and משיח will bring the גאולה to the world, and all your troubles will fade and you will be in a different level, different מצב. But here he טייטשט, explains it like this: פירוש, when it says אשא עיני אל ההרים, I will pick up my eyes to the mountains, means יש להתבונן בתכלית ומטרת הגלות. You should look into the goal of the גלות, of the exile. אשא עיני, pick up my eyes, means look into the thing deeper. Pick up your eyes means don't just look at it in the regular level. Pick it up a little higher, look at it a little bit higher, a little bit deeper. So when you look deeper into the meaning of the exile, you will realize שהיא העליה שתהיה בגאולה העתידה, that is the elevation that will come when משיח will come. Even though at this point we still are in גלות, and the גלות is hard to take, the גלות full of hardships, but the purpose of the גלות is that because of the גלות we will later on reach a higher level when משיח will come, as we have been learning the last few weeks. ואז, then, הרי גם במצב שבו יש לשאול מאין יבא עזרי, when a person picks up his eyes and looks at it that way, he looks deeper than it seems, he looks into the גלות and sees the end, the result, the meaning of the גלות, the goal of the גלות, then even if he is at a point where he has to ask himself or ask השם, מאין יבא עזרי, where will my help come? And the reason he's asking that question, בגלל החושך הכפול ומכופל של סוף הגלות, because the darkness is so great, especially at the end of the גלות it gets darker and darker. So when we are in a level of darkness, we can't see the light. So we turn around to השם and we see מאין יבא עזרי, where will our help come? Because when it's not so dark, things are not so bad, then you see a way out, you see a light a little bit, not so much, but you see some way, you see some light. But when it's very dark, then you say מאין יבא עזרי, you ask a question, where will the help come? You don't see any place where the help will come. But if you look deeper into the גלות, you pick up your eyes above the superficial part of the גלות and you look deeper, then even if you're at a point where you feel מאין יבא עזרי, where will my help come? Then הרי לא זו בלבד שאינו נפעל מחושך הגלות, so then what happens is, not only do you not care or doesn't bother the person the darkness of the גלות, אלא עומד הוא במצב של שמחה גלויה, it even makes you happy. That's why this this פסוק starts with שיר המעלות. It says שיר המעלות לדוד, there was a song that דוד sang. And what did דוד sing? אשא עיני אל ההרים, I pick up my eyes to the mountains, מאין יבוא עזרי, where will my help come? That means he feels, דוד is speaking about a person who is in a position that he doesn't know where his help is gonna come from. So what's there to sing about? He should really cry, not sing! The only time you would sing in such a situation if you are able to look deeper through the גלות, and see that really, even though it's hard, and the גלות is so strong that you don't see where your salvation will come, but you know that all this is only a stepping stone in order to reach the higher levels that will happen when משיח will come. Then you get happy. Then it's שיר המעלות, then it's a song. Now, it's very hard, because now when we look at the גלות, we don't see it. When משיח will come, like we learned last week, we will actually see it. That's why he used the פסוק, וצדקתי להגלות. When משיח will come, the צדקה, the kindness that's there in the גלות will be revealed. Now we just believe it, but then we'll see it. But even though we don't see it, but if we really think about it, and we look into it, and we understand it, then already it's we start feeling better, and we realize that it's only a שיר, it's a song that we could sing sing to השם, for the fact that מאין יבוא עזרי, that we're at a position that we don't know where our help will come, it means the גלות is so terrible, and still we sing, which is in essence the same thing that we always learn that a person should always say, גם זו לטובה, whatever bad thing happens, he used to say גם זו לטובה, this is also for the good, or as the

גמרא says that רבי עקיבא used to say, כל מה דעביד רחמנא לטב עביד, whatever השם does is for the good. And in that itself, as I explained once before, these two, even though they seem to be saying the same thing, but they're actually two levels. גם זו לטובה means this is also for the good. That means when something bad happens, it is bad, but it's bad that will lead up to good. Like the example we always use is someone misses a flight, a plane, and he's very upset because by missing the plane, he's gonna miss his appointment, and then he'll lose a business deal, and who knows what's gonna happen, he's gonna lose $10,000. He's very upset. And then later he finds out the plane crashed. So what here? Here the fact that he lost his appointment was bad, it's just לטוב, it's for something better, it's for something good. The second statement, כל מה דעביד רחמנא לטב עביד, whatever השם does is for the good, is even deeper. Not only you see that this will lead you to good, this itself is good. Now, that's hard to see. How could you say something that's bad is really good? The truth is, usually we don't see it. But we believe that it's definitely good, because we know מפי עליון לא תצא הרעות, from השם, from above, bad won't come. There's an expression in גמרא, אין רע יורד מן השמים. No bad comes from heaven. השם is, says תכלית הטוב, the ultimate good. And there's an expression in קבלה ספרים that, and it's a natural thing, but the expression is used on השם, טבע הטוב להיטיב. The nature of someone who is good is to do good to others. השם is the ultimate good, so he only does good. איי, we see certain things are not good, and we know everything comes from השם, and as you noticed, I didn't say we believe everything comes from השם, we don't believe, we know, the fact is everything comes from השם, and since nothing bad comes from השם, so everything is good. We don't see how it's good, it's good in disguise. Now, it says in חסידות sometimes that it's the good is so great that it can't come down in the form of good. It has to be covered up. Like when you want to send a diamond to somebody and you want to make sure that no one steals it, you want to cover it up, you cover it up with dirt, with garbage, so from the outside you don't see it, so it's disguised, but really what's hidden inside is the diamond. Same is here, when it's something that's very good, it comes down hidden. Now, how and what, we don't understand, but that's the fact. The same is concerning the גלות. The גלות seems to be terrible, and as it gets further into גלות, further and further, it gets worse and worse. It's darker and darker, but in truth, this is all good. So when a person has all these troubles and he comes to a point of he raises his hands and he says, \"I give up, מאין יבוא עזרי, there's no place my help could come.\" But if you look a little bit deeper, אשא עיני, you pick up your eyes a little bit deeper, then you'll say it's שיר המעלות. You'll say it's good, and you'll be happy. That's the basis of the whole idea of the גמרא says that you have to be מקבל, accept even bad things with the same feeling that you accept good. Actually, the גמרא says like this, כשם שמברכים על הטובה כך מברכים על הרעה, just like you bless השם for the good, you have to bless השם for the bad. And the גמרא asks, it's not true! There is a different ברכה! When something good happens, there is a ברכה that's made, הטוב והמטיב, ברוך אתה השם... הטוב והמטיב, thanking השם for being good. Or ברכה שהחיינו, let's say, it's a ברכה for something good. When something חס ושלום bad happens, we also make a ברכה, but a different ברכה. The ברכה is ברוך דיין האמת, that you say השם is the true judge and therefore whatever He does we accept, but it's a different ברכה. So the גמרא says it doesn't mean that you say the same ברכה, it means that you have to accept it with שמחה, with joy, the same way you accept something bad. Now, how is it possible for a person to accept something bad with the same שמחה as good? That's impossible, it's against the nature. Only an abnormal person could do it, could jump from joy when something bad happens to him. You could behave like you're happy, but the actual feeling of happiness, if it's not good, and the nature of a person is not to be happy, how could he be happy? The only way he could be happy is if you understand that really it's good. And that's what he's saying here, if you look deeper, you'll see it's good. So that's concerning anything bad that happens. Same thing is with the גלות in the larger scale, that when you look into the גלות, you see if you understand the depth of it, it's all for good and you can be happy already. And

here comes in the famous story with רב זושא which I told once before, that once someone came to the מעזריטשער מגיד and asked him, what is the פשט in the גמרא that you should accept the bad just like good? How is it possible? So he said, you know what, go into the שול, there is a student of mine who's sitting, ask him, he'll explain it to you. Fine. His name is רב זושא. Went to the ישיבה, שול there, he saw רב זושא, found him, walked over to him, and he asked him the question, the רבי sent me to ask you the question, you should explain how it's possible to accept bad like good. This רב זושא was very poor. He had all kinds of צרות, he was very sick. He had צרות from his children. He had צרות from his wife, there are many stories how his wife used to curse him, all kinds of צרות. He he only had צרות. So when he asked him this question, he turns around to him and says, I really don't understand why the רבי sent you to me. He should have sent you to someone who suffered sometimes, then he could explain to you how you could expect accept suffering with the same שמחה as you accept good. I never suffered in my life, I really don't know. That was his answer, that's exactly what the what the מעזריטשער מגיד wanted him to hear. So here he saw that it's possible. But why is it? Because he was able to look into the bad and see the good. So therefore, even when you're at a level where you say מאין יבוא עזרי, you still are able to have אשא עיני. There is more here. When a person person actually reaches that level and he's able to look deeper into the גלות and see the depth and see the truth of what's behind all this darkness, this person will actually bring down that השם will actually help him. If השם actually If a person actually reaches this level, then he touches, so to speak, he influences, כביכול, so to speak, השם, that השם actually will make a change and will make it come down that he will actually be helped. That's why it says אשא עיני אל ההרים מאין יבוא עזרי, and what does it say further? עזרי מעם השם. He טאקע gets the help from השם, because when he understands that מאין יבוא עזרי really is no doesn't affect him because he knows it's all for the good, then השם actually helps. And

that's hinted in the words מאין יבוא עזרי. The simple meaning of the words מאין יבוא עזרי means from where will my help come? In חסידות we find a new פשט in this in this פסוק. The simple פשט, it's a question: מאין, from where will my help come? I don't know where it's going to come from, I don't see any source of help, so it's a question. So when you write מאין יבוא עזרי, we would write it with a question mark, that's what the person is saying. חסידות says no, it's not a question. מאין יבוא עזרי is a statement: my help will come from אין. What's this אין? So it says in חסידות that אין is a very high level, which is a certain level, godly level, within the higher spiritual worlds, which is called אין. It this is explained actually on a משנה in פרקי אבות. פרקי אבות we find, עקביא בן מהללאל אומר, עקביא בן מהללאל said, הסתכל בשלשה דברים ואין אתה בא לידי עבירה, if you're going to look into three things, you won't come to an עבירה. What are the three things? If you

start thinking מאין באת, where you came from, לאן אתה הולך, where you're going to, ולפני מי אתה עתיד ליתן דין וחשבון, and in front of who are you going to give an accounting. So if you think about these three things, you won't do an עבירה. So here again, מאין באת means from where did you come, לאן אתה הולך, where are you going to, ולפני מי אתה עתיד ליתן דין וחשבון, in front of who are you going to give an accounting. חסידות says מאין באת doesn't mean from where Where you came. It's a statement, מאין באת, you came from אין. If a person will think these three things, that you came from אין, and where are you going? לאן אתה הולך, you are going to אן. And you're going to give an accounting in front of מי, ולפני מי. It's not, the word מי here doesn't mean according to this פשט, in front of who. It's a fact, in front of מי. These are three such expressions that refer to three levels למעלה. There's a level called אין, and there's a level called אן, and there's a level called מי. And what he's telling us, מאין באת, you came from אין, you came from the level of אין. A איד's נשמה comes from that high level called אין. And you go, when a person finishes, you go to the level called אן. And the accounting you give, that's at the level called מי. This אין refers to a very high level within השם. A lot of times when we want to talk about the creation of the world, we say the world was created יש מאין, something from nothing. We're so used to this expression that we don't even think about it, but when we stop to think, what does that mean? Something from nothing? We came from השם. Everything comes from השם. It's not from nothing. השם is nothing? If anything, we're nothing. What it should have said is we are אין מיש, we're nothing from something, but we're not something from nothing. So it says, why is it called אין? It doesn't mean חס ושלום we came from nothing. Compared to what we think of something, of a being, because to us a being is something tangible. We're גשמיותדיקע people, we're גראבע, low, low people, we're part of the physical creation. So something physical, that's for us a being. Something you know, very heavy, that's a stronger being, a heavy rock. Could split someone's head, that's something. So to us, a מציאות is what's a יש? גשמיות. רוחניות is Godliness, to us that's far-fetched, that's something abstract, that's something far away. We look at it as nothing, so in our eyes it's called אין, so we call יש מאין. But really, the אין refers to השם, who's the real יש. He's the real being. And the real being, the more it's a real being in רוחניות, the less it's גשמיות. That's why we call it אין. So the real יש, which חסידות or קבלה calls the יש האמיתי, is the real אין. We are יש. We are something, but we are called the יש הנברא, the created יש. השם is the יש האמיתי, the true יש, which if we look at from our perspective, the truer the יש is, the more spiritual it is, the more אין it is. So therefore, when we refer to השם as אין, what we really mean is the real יש. So when it says in פרקי אבות, remember, הסתכל, look in, מאין באת, you came from אין, because we came from the real יש, we came from the true level of השם. And when the נשמה goes back, it goes back to the level called אן, which is similar to the level אין. אן means also like nothing, but without a יוד, so that refers to even a higher level that's not even the יוד, and קבלה explains what it is. And then it says, when you give your accounting, you give it to מי, the level called מי. מי means who, which is similar to אין. אין means nothing, and מי means who. Who is it? As if we don't know. So it's a level that's beyond our understanding. And that level is called מי. We

find something similar also concerning the מי, just to show this idea, on another פסוק. It says in חומש that when השם gave the תורה, when he said עשרת הדברות, the אידן got very scared. And they said to השם, please, after the second דיבור, they said please don't talk anymore. We want you to talk, משה, instead of השם. משה was upset. משה said, if you had a chance to listen to השם himself, you want to hear from me? השם said, no, don't worry. It's good. They're afraid of me? Fine. Then the פסוק continues. השם said, מי יתן והיה לבבם זה ליראה אותי כל הימים. Who should give, which means הלוואי, we hope, they should have this fear all the life all the years. Good they're afraid of me? Good, הלוואי. מי יתן, it's an expression. מי יתן, who could give, who could make that they should have this יראה, this fear, כל הימים, all the days. So here also, מי יתן means who could give. Comes חסידות and says no, It's not a question, a wonder, it's a fact. מי יתן, this level called מי, can give that they should have fear. And חסידות explains it like this: Normally, the גמרא says הכל בידי שמים חוץ מיראת שמים. Everything is in the hands of השם except יראת שמים, the fear of השם. That's hands of the people, not in the hands of השם. השם doesn't force a person to have יראת שמים or not to have יראת שמים, to do a מצוה or not. הכל בידי שמים, so therefore, it's only up to the person. So ספרים, there's a question asked: How come you would go and ask a ברכה from a צדיק that you should be a ירא שמים? For a בר מצוה you go to a צדיק, you go to the רבי, and you ask him a ברכה that your son should be a חסיד, ירא שמים, and a למדן. What does that mean? מילא if you ask him I should have success and money, good, because that's the hands of השם, I want please interfere to השם for my sake. But יראת שמים, you'll be a ירא שמים! You'll be a ירא שמים if you work on it, I mean what are you asking for a ברכה? Some תפלות we even ask for יראת שמים. For instance, in the יהי רצון that many people say on שבת מברכים, ליובאוויטש doesn't say it, but they say, they say we ask השם for חיים של this, חיים של פרנסה, and it says חיים שיש בהם יראת שמים. You're asking השם for life with יראת שמים? What do you mean you're asking השם for יראת שמים? Don't ask for יראת שמים, be a ירא שמים! You'll be a ירא שמים, what are you asking Him? So the ספרים answer that as much as the גמרא says that everything is in hands of השם

except יראת שמים, there is a thing that השם can help a person to be a ירא שמים. That level where this help comes from, the spiritual level is called מי. And that's what the פסוק says: מי יתן והיה לבבם זה ליראה אותי כל הימים. מי can give! The level of מי is able to give והיה לבבם זה, their heart should be to fear me all their life. In other words, the יראת שמים could come from the level of מי. And that's what it says in פרקי אבות: ולפני מי אתה עתיד ליתן דין וחשבון. That since that level helps out, later you're going to have to make an accounting to מי. מי, ס'קומט that level so to speak is going to say: 'I helped you, what happened to you? You're going to have to give an accounting to the level of מי.' Similar is עין. עין also refers to a very, very high level. And מאין יבוא עזרי, if a person looks deeper into the גלות as we said before, and he's a level where מאין יבוא, he doesn't know where the עזרי, where the help will come, because it's so terrible, but if he's אשא עיני, he picks up his eyes and looks deeper, then he reaches the level of עין. Which is actually the פשט, it says in גמרא: אין מזל לישראל. אידן have no מזל. מזל means the constellations, that they have all kinds of influence on the world. So it says on the גוים, they're under the מזלות. That's actually why they worship the stars, the מזלות. They're called, גוים are called עובדי כוכבים ומזלות. They serve, they worship the idols. What kind of idols? כוכבים, because it makes sense! Not that they're right, but I understand what they're doing, because they know that they're influenced by the מזלות, and therefore they pray to the מזלות, and they worship the מזלות. But אין מזל לישראל. אידן have no מזל. So there's a question that's asked: The גמרא says הכל תלוי במזל. Everything depends on the מזל. אפילו ספר תורה שבהיכל. Even the ספר תורה in the ארון קודש, in the holy ark. And

what it means in simple פשט is, when you go out to take out a ספר תורה for קריאת התורה, you have three ספרי תורה, you just pick one. Why did that one get picked? מזל. I remember once in 770 they, certain שבתים, they would use משיח'ס ספר תורה, the special ספר תורה that's made for receiving משיח. So, and it's in the ארון קודש. And only special שבתים the רבי would give out a הוראה that that שבת they should read from that ספר תורה. So one שבת that they were supposed to read from that ספר תורה, the one that was honored with פתיחה, to take the ספר תורה out, or didn't realize or no one told him, whatever, he took out another ספר תורה. He took out another one, and he started walking away, so the גבאי or someone said: 'Hey, you got the wrong ספר תורה.' So he was going to put it back. The רבי was looking and said not to put it back. You took it out already, I mean, it's a בזיון, you can't embarrass the ספר תורה. And the רבי looked at him and said: 'הכל תלוי במזל אפילו ספר תורה שבהיכל.' That's it, that's what, this time the ספר תורה had מזל. But anyway, everything depends on מזל, and here the גמרא says אין מזל לישראל, there is no מזל. And know what חסידות says? When it says אין מזל, it doesn't mean there is no מזל, the מזל of the אידן is called אין! The same level we're saying that עין and אין, it's the same thing, אין is the מזל לישראל. The level עין. The level עין, that מאין יבוא עזרי, the עזר could come from עין. So if a person is in the, reaches this level that we're talking about here to be able to look deeper into the darkness into the גלות, that person reaches the level of עין, and מאין, from there comes עזרי. But there is one condition. The condition is that he has to pick up his eyes to the mountains, which really means pick up your eyes above the mountains.

What does that mean? The mountains בכלל it says represent גאווה, arrogance, person ego. The mountains are part of the earth, but they stick out. They're גאווה. That's why by מתן תורה we know that when the mountains came running they want השם should give the תורה over the mountains. השם said no I'm not giving. Why? Because you're בעל גאווה. He gave over the smallest, the lowest mountain, הר סיני, which says נמוך מכל טורייא, it was the lowest one. What we see from there, mountains represent the person's גאווה, the person's ego. The only way a person is able to reach this level of looking deeper into the darkness, seeing the truth that's behind it, is only if the person overlooks his ego, which חסידות uses the term, is through ביטול. A person is בטל, a person is humble, and he's בטל and he doesn't hold himself as a as a whole being, as a whole מציאות, then he's able to see it. As long as the person's ego interferes, as long as the person is a יש, then his מציאות counts. When you have your own מציאות, you can't see how the darkness is light, because as far as you're concerned, as it seems to you now, the darkness is dark, and it's dark for you, it hurts you, you suffer. So when your מציאות counts, then that's it. But if you אשא עיני אל ההרים, you pick it up above the mountains, which means above the ישות, חסידות says, above the the the מציאות the being the felt the fact that you feel yourself as something, then, when you're בטל, you're able to see the truth, and you're able to reach the level of אין. Which by the way shows that in order to reach the level of אין by השם, you have to be an אין. You have to be אין, which means nothing. You have to feel yourself like nothing. Not, see, it doesn't mean that a person I'll I'll listen to you in a minute. That doesn't mean that a person should look down at himself and lose his self-esteem and and be like nothing. Then that's It means you have to know who you are. And you have to know, it says in in חסידות, just like a person has to know his faults, you have to know your מעלות. You have to know your level. So you have to know who you are, but at the same time, while you know who you are, you have to realize that all that is not thanks to you, it's thanks to השם, and therefore you you don't count really. So, for

instance, it says by משה רבינו, והאיש משה ענו מאד מכל האדם אשר על פני האדמה. משה was the greatest ענו, the most humble person in the world, of all people. He was more humble than the lowest of the lowest. What does that mean? משה רבינו did not realize that he was the leader? He didn't know that? He thought he was just nothing? He didn't realize that he was the one that brought the תורה down to the אידן? I mean, he didn't know that? What do you mean he was more ענו and he held himself lower than the lowest person? So חסידות says חס ושלום, he knew the truth, and ענו doesn't mean a liar. An ענו knows the truth, but it means that משה רבינו thought, I know I'm the greatest, but I don't get any credit for it. Had someone else been in my shoes, would have been greater than me. The lowest of the lowest, had he had my upbringing, and my father, and my נשמה, and my this and my that, would have been greater than me. So, what, I don't get credit. So you could be בטל, at the same time know your own מעלות. So you have to know your מעלות. That's why מתן תורה was given on the lowest mountain. If it's supposed to be given on a low place to show ביטול, should have been given on the valley. Why on a mountain? Shouldn't be on any mountain. Because there has to be a mountain. A mountain means you have to feel and realize and be strong and know who you are, but at the same time you have to be low. You have to be a lowest mountain. Then the גאווה that you have is not real גאווה. It's knowing who you are and knowing what's expected of you. If a person doesn't know who he is and doesn't know his מעלות, his greatness, won't live up to what's expected of him. If I person himself looks at himself oh doesn't think doesn't know that he has a good head, so, I just learn a little bit and then I'm יוצא, I did I did my best. But if I know I have a good head, then I have to learn much more. So you have to know your מעלות, but the מעלות have to be together with ביטול. It says ונפשי כעפר לכל תהיה, one of the expressions we say in דאווענען, which shows ביטול, my soul means I will be like dust to everybody. That's an expression we use, it's taken from the גמרא, to show that I am בטל. So it says in חסידות, you're right, you're like dust, like sand of the ground, but make sure you don't and people should step on you, that's really what you're saying, everyone could step on me, but be careful don't let people too many people step on you because then they'll wipe you out. So it's means that you have to be strong, but at the same time you have to be ביטול. And when you have ביטול, that's when you're able to look deeper into the גלות and see, because then your ego doesn't count. And it's interesting, the word אין, you mentioned it before, is the same letters as אני. And אני means I. And אין is nothing. The אני has to be in a form of אין. Then you reach the אין of השם, מאין יבוא עזרי. So the

greatest problem is that stops everything is the ישות. Person's own ישות, and it's not even the word גאווה, it's ישות. It's the fact that I am something in a feeling that I am something on my own. I am something because השם gave it to me and I'm this and therefore I'm serving השם, that's fine. Then you're doing it for השם's sake, but if you say I am something and you look at the יש as myself, חסידות says that's the worst. That's why, as soon as I finish this I'll listen to you, that's why it says an interesting thing, the גמרא says that we have the מלאך המות and we have the שטן and we have the יצר הרע. So the גמרא says really they're all the three the same. First the יצר הרע comes to a person and tells him, convinces him to do an עבירה. Then that same guy turns into the שטן. What's the שטן? The שטן is the prosecutor. The word שטן means to prosecute. The same guy who convinced us to do an עבירה goes up there and prosecutes against us. השם says, okay, in that case the guy deserves punishment. Now he turns into מלאך המות and he executes the punishment, and the person would die. So the גמרא tells this and then the גמרא makes a statement that in truth you should know, הוא היצר הרע, הוא השטן, הוא המלאך המות. It's all the same guy. So חסידים used to say like this, by a פארברענגען, they used to say like this. Originally it started that this guy got a title מלאך המות, and that was his job. He came to a complaint to השם and he said, you know, מלאך המות is pretty scary name. People don't want to listen to me, they don't want to talk to me. מלאך המות, the angel of death? Can't be. So השם says, you know what, I'll give you a new name. I'll call you שטן. שטן is like a מלאך type of thing, you know, it sounds pretty good. Oh fine, he came down, started doing his job, till people started realizing that it's the same guy! So they stopped listening to him. So he comes to השם and he says, listen השם, they realize that I'm the שטן, I'm the same guy as the מלאך המות. He says, you know what, I'll give you a new name. יצר הרע. יצר means some kind of spirit, sounds more fancy, spiritual. So he came down and he started working, and it's working! Years, years later, when חסידות started spreading, חסידות has a new word for it: נפש הבהמית. Which means animalistic soul. So the חסידים said that what happened was, after many years working as the יצר הרע, he came to השם and he said, listen here, they realized who I am, and I can't do my job. השם said, I'll give you a new name. נפש הבהמית. נפש, you know, נפש, people will think נפש goes together with נשמה, נפש, רוח, נשמה, נפש, fine. So he was happy. He came down and started working as the נפש הבהמית, and he succeeded. After a while, years passed and people realized it's the same guy! So he came to השם, said, what do I do now? השם said, I'll give you a new name. That is יש. And that's working so far! Didn't change. But they used to finish off saying you should realize, הוא היש, הוא הנפש הבהמית, הוא היצר הרע, הוא השטן, הוא המלאך המות. So basically the יש, that goes together with the מלאך המות. So the יש, that's the worst thing. 'Cause that's actually the יש of the person that holds a person as his own ego, that blocks out everything. What it has to be is the אין, and when you have the אין, you אשא עיני, you look at all the darkness of the גלות, you pick it up and you see the truth, and then you reach the level of מאין יבוא עזרי. And what happens? עזרי מעם השם. השם טאקע helps. And you and then and then person has this as a שיר, שיר המעלות, because he realizes the truth. Yes? I wanted to ask something. Yes. So, when when a Jew reaches the level of אין, he's no longer controlled by the constellations. You said there's a new level of מזל. When you say מזל, you're using the term loosely, you mean that there's a new level of Right, right, right, right. You don't mean that there's a new set of constellations. No no no no no no no. That is the מזל. The אין becomes the מזל. Right, right, right. Not a loosely, not at all. We are not under the מזלות at all. Actually there's a פסוק in תנ״ך, I don't know if I'm going to be quoting it ממש word for word, it says מאותות השמים אל תחתו. That means, from the signs of the heaven don't be afraid. כי הגוים יחתו מהמה. The גוים, they are afraid of it, and they have a right to be afraid, 'cause it is it has it shows things for them. But by אידן, it doesn't. Now, there is there are other פשטים that say that the אידן are under the control of the מזלות. But what does it mean אין מזל לישראל? That they have a choice of changing it. A גוי doesn't have a choice. If the מזל if it's written in the מזל that this is going to happen, it's going to happen. Which is connected to this פשט, because ultimately we're connected under the מזל of אין, which is השם directly. Therefore, even though naturally there are the מזלות that have some control, but we ultimately are connected to the אין, and the אין, who is השם, controls these מזלות. So if we're connected to Him, He could change them. So, therefore, we really are not under the מזלות. But the main point is that if we are in the level of אין, then we could reach the אין. It's basically the concept of מידה כנגד מידה. That's what happens. If we show השם that we are in the form of אין, then השם says, \"Yes, I will bring down to you the level of אין,\" which is the actually the highest level, like I said before, of the real יש, the יש האמיתי. So here it works. If we're אין, we get to the real יש, and if we're יש, then we don't get to the אין. It's like in the פסוק, it says, \"היסתר איש במסתרים ואני לא אראנו.\" Simple פשט is: Can a person hide in a hiding place and I will not see him? So the בעל שם טוב said a פשט like this: היסתר איש במסתרים, can a person hide? And he says, \"ואני,\" if the person who hides and thinks he's אני, I, then לא אראנו, השם said, \"I don't see him. I don't look at him.\" But if ואני לא, if there is no אני, then אראנו, I see him. See, he טייטשט the word ואני לא אראנו in two ways: ואני and then לא אראנו, or ואני לא and then אראנו. That's the פשט. If there is the אני, that's no good. If there's אני לא, which is the אין, then אראנו, then השם sees him, and השם comes down and He brings all the levels down. Yes. Why do they say מזל טוב? If we do if we do have a מזל, we even say מזל טוב, and then the But we, but we mean the אין. We mean the אין. That high level called אין. There is another thing here, maybe we should let's I'll bring it up, too, in this מזל, which will connect it to מזל טוב. There is another concept in this מזל if we're talking about a ייד. Sometimes the word מזל by a ייד refers to the essence of the ייד's own נשמה. And the פשט I'm going to say now is connected to what I said before because they're very they basically mean the same thing, but it's from a different angle. It says in גמרא like this, I mean in the גמרא מגילה it says, on a פסוק, and it says when דניאל saw the מראה, when דניאל saw the writing on the wall, so it says, \"והאנשים אשר היו עמו לא ראו,\" the people that were with him didn't see, \"אבל חרדה גדולה נפלה עליהם,\" but there was a great tremble that came upon them, they started getting scared. So the

גמרא asks the question, if they didn't see, why were they scared? What were they scared about? So the גמרא answers like this: \"אף על גב דאינהו לא חזו,\" even though they didn't see, \"מזלייהו חזו,\" their מזל saw. So it says Belshazzar did not see the writing on the wall? What? Belshazzar did not see the writing on the wall, neither did his folk. They just knew they were very frightened, so they called Daniel to interpret it. Right, took, yeah. But the גמרא asks, if they didn't see, why were they frightened? So the גמרא answers, they didn't see, but their מזל saw. What does their מזל mean? So חסידות says מזל refers to the essence of the נשמה, which is not down in the body. It says like this: not the whole נשמה of the person comes into the person's body. Part of it comes. A lot of it stays up there. That part of the נשמה is called מזל. Why is it called מזל? In Hebrew, the word מזל comes from the same root as the word נוזל, means liquid. When something drips, we call it it's נוזל. The part of the נשמה that stays up there constantly sends down signals to the נשמה down here. There are certain things that drip down from that part of the נשמה and comes to us. That's why it says in ספרים that it's possible sometimes a person just is walking in the street and just, out of the blue, gets some kind of התעוררות, an awakening of doing תשובה, of דאווענען better, learning better. How in the world did it happen just like that? A person is in learning, in the middle of a שיעור, in the middle of דאווענען, you can say he's involved in these matters, and he thinks, you know, finally you've come to realize you have to change. But in the middle of your business, in the middle of working, in the middle of walking in the street, where did this come from? So some place it says sometimes it comes from the בת קול. It says in פרקי אבות that there's a voice that comes out every day from heaven and says, \"אוי להם לבריות מעלבונה של תורה,\" woe is, woe is to those people that embarrass the תורה. So everyone asks, what's the purpose of that voice? No one hears it! Trying to influence somebody. The answer is you don't hear, but your נשמה hears it. And sometimes that בת קול just influences you without you knowing. wing. But sometimes, it says, is because the your part, your essence of the נשמה, which stayed up there, drips down, sends down signals, and sometimes that signal comes to the person and makes the person realize that you have to do תשובה, or whatever the signal is. And that's why it's called the מזל שבנשמה, it's the part in the נשמה from where it drips down. So sometimes when we talk about a איד having a מזל, it means that the essence of the נשמה which is called מזל. So when you say to somebody מזל טוב, what we mean is that from your essence of the נשמה, which is 100% good, there's nothing here but good, so that should influence you, and should bring all the good השפעות to the person, that's why you say מזל טוב. It's like I just want to say that these two פשטים where I said that מזל refers to השם, the עין, and מזל to the essence of the נשמה, they're really not two separate פשטים, because the essence of the נשמה is closely connected to השם. The essence of the נשמה is a חלק אלוקה, it's part of השם. So really the two things go together, but it's just from a different angle that we're explaining this מאמר חז״ל.

Yes? If Belshazzar wasn't a Jew, so how did he have a... Okay, so there it's according to his level. Everyone whatever נפש he had also has that influence. Transcended his body. His body, right. And we apply that to a איד that by a איד, it's ממש, you know, the in the highest level that's from the עצם of the נשמה that's למעלה. Was he the grandson of... Well, he still had a דין of a גוי. He was a grandson of... There are different opinions, that's one opinion. Let's learn the next piece now, which is along the same lines of what he said before. גם כאשר חושך הגלות הולך וגובר, even when the darkness of the גלות gets stronger, gets worse and worse, אין ליהודי להתפעל מזה, a איד shouldn't care. ואדרבה, to the contrary, ביודעו שירידת הגלות היא ירידה לצורך עלייה, if you know that the fact that a גלות is a descent, you go lower, but the purpose is that through the גלות later you will get higher, הרי הוא מוסיף בעבודתו ביתר שאת וביתר עז, so a איד

will add in his service of השם even more. So when you see the גלות and you see the גלות gets worse, what does it cause? That you should learn more תורה. ומוסיף בנר מצוה ותורה, you add in מצות and תורה which are referred to as a candle and as a light, כדי לבטל ולהפוך את חושך הגלות, in order to destroy and to change the darkness of גלות. ודווקא גודל הירידה דחושך הגלות מביא לעלייה גדולה ביותר. The lower it gets, the darker it gets, the greater you will get later. So when you see darkness, so if you look deeper, like I said before, if you look deeper, you pick up your eyes beyond the superficial part of it, you will see that it'll be, the darker it is now, the lighter it'll be later, and what will that do? It'll cause a person to do more מצות. Not like להבדיל by a גוי, by other people, when they see trouble, they give up. When they especially if they don't see any way out, you give up. Especially if you believe that everything comes from השם, and השם is making you all that trouble. What will you do? Tell השם, \"I don't need You, I ain't going to listen to You? If You want me to listen to You, why don't You listen to me? Why don't You do what I need?\" And by a איד it doesn't work that way. You see the darkness, and what does it do? It adds more מצות, it adds for the person to be close, connected to

השם. ואדרבה, ככל שחושך הגלות גדול יותר, the darker the גלות is, הרי זה מורה על גודל הגילוי דלעתיד לבוא, it shows how great the revelation will be when משיח will come. כאשר החושך חושך הוא כפול, when the darkness is doubled, הרי זה מורה, that shows, שהאור והגילוי דלעתיד לבוא יהיה גם ביתר כפל, that the light is going to be doubled. You see, and that's always an expression we use חושך כפול ומכופל, doubled over doubled. So that brings you to a light that will be doubled, because in truth all that is only as a stepping stone to the good, so we should realize it now that if it's a double darkness, there'll be double good. Now actually the expression double usually is used as a term just, you know, double, but it means if it's a strong darkness then the light will be stronger. But it's not so simple. We do find the expression double. In in מדרש on the פסוק נחמו נחמו עמי, \"Comfort, comfort My nation\", which is the comfort that the נביא, the נביאים give the אידן for the גלות, for the חורבן בית המקדש, so it says a double word, a double expression, נחמו נחמו. So the

מדרש says that השם gives them a נחמה בכפליים, a double comfort. Why? Because לקו בכפליים, since He gave them a double plague, therefore He's going to give them a double נחמה. Now what's the פשט He gave them a double plague, double trouble? So simple פשט is we had two בתי מקדש, and they were both destroyed, so we had a double צרה, so we're going to have a double נחמה. But the רבי explained once that it has a much deeper meaning, it's not only because we had Two בית המקדש. The גלות in itself, the way השם made it, is that there is a double trouble. There's usually, there is a double trouble. The חורבן itself, the destruction of the בית המקדש itself, and the גלות, the fact that we're in גלות itself, by the גוים, is in itself enough trouble. And the trouble that we have comes along with a חילול השם. השם made his own חילול השם, imagine. What does the world say when they see that the יידן have a גלות? What do they think of השם then? They say, \"Look, where is your God?\" like we find in פסוקים that the גוים say to us, \"איה אלוקיכם?\" So it's actually השם's name that is desecrated in the world. That's one thing. But then there is another חילול השם. It would have been one thing that if the גוים send us to גלות and they destroy the בית המקדש, and then the גוים also aren't so great. Here we have a double: even after the חורבן בית המקדש, the גוים themselves that destroyed the בית המקדש, for many years, Rome that destroyed the בית המקדש was on top of the world. So that already is an extra trouble that was not needed for the חורבן בית המקדש. The fact that Rome at that time, for instance, was the superpower of the world, that was good, because when השם wanted they should destroy the בית המקדש, at least it should be done through a superpower, it shouldn't be done through some small little nation. But after they destroyed the בית המקדש, now