galut, when the Jew is in exile, שנמשלה למדבר, which is compared to a desert, as the pasuk refers to it as ארץ ציה ועיף בלי מים, a wilderness, an empty land, a land where you're tired, there's no life there, bli mayim, without water, and that's what the galut really is. So, by being in גלות, מתחזק אצלו הצימאון והאהבה לאלקים. The love and the thirst to Godliness, to God, gets strengthened by the Jew ביתר שאת וביתר עז with more strength. That means that because the Jew is in galut, and he feels far away from Hashem, this strengthens his thirst to Hashem. זהו שכתוב בזוהר, and this is what the Zohar says, על הפסוק: הוציאוה ותשרף. This is a pasuk in Parashat Vayeshev, and the simple meaning of the פסוק, it deals with the story of Tamar. When Tamar, who was the daughter-in-law of Yehudah, after she had relations with Yehudah and then she became pregnant, and they didn't know who it was from, and when Yehudah heard it, he said, \"Take her out and burn her.\" And later she said that she showed the things that he gave her as a sign, and when she showed that, he realized who she was, and then they said not to burn her, and the end was that she gave birth to twins. And one of them, Peretz, there was Zerach and Peretz, Peretz happened to be the great great great great grandfather of David HaMelech, which was the great which is the great great great grandfather of Mashiach. So, this is the story. So, the simple pshat of the words הוציאוה ותשרף means take her out and burn her. So, the Zohar says that the pshat means: בשלהובי תיהרא בגלותא. Take her out into galut. Galut is taking out. Originally, we were we were in our land in Eretz Yisrael, and then we were taken out. So, is take her out, that means out into galut, and should get burnt with the flame, with the pure flame of galut. Burnt to what? That means that you will have the thirst to Hashem and you will burn, you'll have a burning desire to get close to Hashem. Perush, it means like this: הוציאוה, take her out. כאשר הנשמה מוצאת לתוך מצב של גלות, when the neshamah is taken out into גלות, אזאי ותשרף, then it gets burnt. Meaning: היא מתעוררת ברשפי אש האהבה להקדוש ברוך הוא, it gets awakened with the flame of love to הקדוש ברוך הוא. And the reason we refer to it as a fire, because there's a פסוק that says: רשפיה רשפי אש שלהבת-יה, that it's like a coal that burns with a great flame. And that refers to the burning desire that a Yid has to Hashem. So, when does that desire get stronger? By the Yidden being in Galut. As the nature is that when you're far away from something, then your desire is stronger. When you are close to it, then you don't have such a strong desire, such a strong feeling. Something that you like, and you have it, then you don't really appreciate it. תענוג תמידי אינו תענוג. If you have a constant pleasure, you have it constantly, then you don't really enjoy it. When you're missing, then you feel how important it is. And then what happens? Eventually, when you for a while if you don't have it, you start wanting it. And you want it more and more and more. And you get a stronger feeling to it. The same thing with Hashem. When the Yidden are in Galut, that itself brought out the flame of Tzimaon, of thirst to Hashem. So, that's how the Zohar explains the פסוק הוציאוה ותשרף. Take her out and burn her. Take her, meaning the neshama, take her out from Eretz Yisrael into Galut, and you'll see she'll be burnt. That means she'll be burning with love to Hashem, which they might not show when they're in Eretz Yisrael. Cuz when the Yidden were in Eretz Yisrael, they were constantly within the kedusha, within Godliness, constantly close to Hashem. So then you don't really feel it. But when you're away from it, that's when you really start feeling it. You start It's really funny, a lot of like the Israeli, that when they leave Eretz Eretz Yisrael, exactly! That's when they feel what they're missing. When they're there they don't feel the kedusha, even though it's there. Exactly. Because when you're far away, that's when you feel it. And when you feel you're missing, that itself shows that in truth, you always had that true feeling of love. Just to explain it for a moment, we know that tzaar, which is pain, is a is parallel to pleasure. And sometimes when you don't realize the pleasure that you have in something, so later on, when you don't have it and you have pain, that itself shows that in truth, when you had it, you had pleasure. There is a maamar from the Mitteler Rebbe that he he said not not long before he passed away. The Mitteler Rebbe lived in the time when this whole decree of the cantonists started, when the Czar gave out the decree that they should grab the Jewish children and they would take them to the army for 25 years. They the the tzarot, the problems that they had at that time were terrible. And the Mitteler Rebbe worked Well, he was the second Lubavitcher Rebbe, who worked very hard against them, trying to fight them and trying to help the Yidden. So he said a maamar which started with the words להבין לקיחת אנשי חיל, to understand, what is this concept? Why did Hashem bring to such a situation that they should take these soldiers away from Yiddishkeit and make them suffer? Why is it? So he said like this, because the Satan came to Hashem and complained, \"You see your your children, the Jews, the truth is they do keep mitzvot, fine. But they do it out of habit. They don't really enjoy it. You don't see them doing it with enthusiasm. They don't show any feeling. So you know, they're no good.\" Like the Satan always does. He's the prosecutor. That's why he's called Satan. He prosecutes. He comes there. It's his fault, actually. He's the yetzer hara, too. So he comes down here down here and he tells us not to follow mitzvot and not to be enthusiastic, and then later he comes to Hashem and says, \"Look.\" But anyway, this was the yetzer hara the Satan said. So Hashem said to him, \"You know what? Let's make a test. Let's see if it's true.\" So he says, \"Well, what's the problem? Look down and you'll see that they don't do it with simcha, with ta'anug, with pleasure.\" So he said like this, \"Let me try to make it hard for them and let's see what will happen then. If when I make it hard for them, they wouldn't mind and they'll just go along, then you're right. That shows that they didn't really care about it. They had it, they had it, they did it. If they don't have it, it doesn't matter. But if they're going to have pain for not having it, then you'll understand that when they really did have it, they really enjoyed it even though they didn't show it.\" So that's what Hashem is doing. That's what the Mitteler Rebbe said. That's why Hashem made all this trouble, makes it hard for the Yidden to do mitzvot. So the Yidden takeh had cried out to Hashem and they had pain, they suffered a lot, and that was the answer to the satan to show that really, in truth, they constantly, always have the pleasure, even though they don't show it, because if they wouldn't have pleasure, then when they don't have it, they wouldn't have pain. They wouldn't have tza'ar. I remember when the Rebbe repeated this maamar. It was תשכ״ד, in 1964. It was right in the beginning when Reb Mendel Futerfas alav hashalom came from Russia. And it was a time when people, a few started coming out of Russia, but they they suffered all these years and he himself was in Siberia for many years and many of the other Yidden, Lubavitcher chassidim and other people were in Siberia, all for spreading Yiddishkeit. So there was a Shabbos that he came for, first time he came to the Rebbe, so he stayed for a few weeks, so the Shabbos before he left, the Rebbe said this maamar over. And I remembered when the Rebbe was saying it, I remember it like today. He was crying. He couldn't talk. Every second word he had to stop. Tears were coming out and he was crying and he repeated the maamar that the reason Hashem does this is so that to show that really we enjoy the mitzvot. So he said when a Yid cries to Hashem, and the words I remember he used and says to Hashem, \"Oy li,\" I remember the the tuning, he said, \"Oy li, alleli li, oy va'avoy, what do I have?\" So Hashem says, \"You see? That means they enjoy it.\" But in truth, when they had it, they didn't feel the enjoyment. This is just to show that in essence they enjoyed it, but in a revealed fashion, they really didn't show the enjoyment. So when do they really feel the enjoyment of a mitzvah? When it's taken away from them. That's what he says here. When the mitzvot, when we are in galut, that's when we really get this burning love to Hashem that we actually feel it, because we're missing it and then we feel it. Now let's learn the next piece and we'll go back to both, because it's one inyan. בשעה שאדם נמצא במקום ישוב, when a person is in a city, in a civilized civilized place, אינו צמא כל כך למים, he's not so thirsty for water. אבל כאשר נמצא במדבר, when a person is found in the desert, שאין מים מצויים שם, where there is no water, אז יגדל צמאונו, then his thirst is stronger. When you feel you don't have water, that's when you're really thirsty. והוא הדין בזמן הגלות, the same thing is concerning the גלות, מפני ריבוי ההעלמות וההסתרים והתגברות ההגשמה, because of all these blockades for Godliness, and this the the strengthening of the physicality of the world which blocks Godliness, נעשה תוקף התשוקה והכיסופין לאלקות, so the great desire to Godliness to Hashem becomes stronger. והאדם מרגיש געגועים עזים לאלקות, a person then feels great want, great desire to השם, ודרכי עבודה בעבודת הבורא, and in doing the right way the do- following the right path in serving Hashem. זהו שכתוב, this is the meaning of the פסוק, צמאה לך נפשי, my nefesh, my soul is thirsty to You, כמה לך בשרי, my flesh wants You, looking over looking to You, בארץ ציה ועיף, in the land that's empty, and that's it's that's that's tired, בלי מים, without water. That if you're in a place without water, and what does water really mean? The Gemara says, אין מים אלא תורה, the real water is Torah, so when you're missing this water, that's when you really want it, that's when you really feel it. And there and here, too, when the Yidden are in Galut, we really feel this desire to Hashem. Now, it's interesting that the Zohar that the was brought here before on the פסוק הוציאוה ותשרף, \"take her out and let her get burned,\" so the Zohar said that this refers to the Yidden being taken out into Galut from Eretz Yisrael, and that's when we will be burnt with this great burning love to Hashem. As I said before, this pasuk is actually written concerning Tamar. Now in the case of Tamar, what did they suspect her in doing? In committing the crime of adultery, the sin of adultery. Actually, that fits to the the the level a Yid is in Galut. What is the kind the meaning of adultery? Not in her case actually, a little bit, but not 100%. The real case of adultery is when a woman goes away from her husband to someone else. In Tamar's case, it wasn't exactly that way because even the way they suspect it, she wasn't a married woman. But nevertheless, since she belonged, it seemed, to Yehuda's family, she had no right to go to anybody else, and they thought that she had a relation with somebody else. The concept of going away from a husband, so to speak, to somebody else is exactly what happens in the time of Galut, in a spiritual sense. We know that the Yidden and Hashem are compared to a husband and a wife. Hashem is the husband, the Yidden are the wife. That's the whole idea of Shir Hashirim. The whole Shir Hashirim is based on this idea. It all talks about a man and a woman, a husband and a wife, and the love that's there between them, which actually is the love between Yidden and Hashem. It's only a mashal. It says there is a big aveirah in using pesukim of Shir Hashirim for secular reasons. There are people who when they want to write some kind of love letters or love poems, they pick pieces from Shir Hashirim. It's forbidden, because then what you're doing is you're taking down the true meaning of Shir Hashirim, and you're secularizing it, you're bringing it down. Shir Hashirim is very holy. The Gemara says, כל השירים קודש. All songs are holy, all the songs you find in the Chumash, in the Torah, like אז ישיר and all other שירים. שיר השירים קודש קדשים, as holy of holy, because that really talks about the true essential love from a Yid to Hashem, because the Yid is the wife, and Hashem is the husband. If a Yid does something wrong, turns away from following the true path of Hashem, this, to a certain degree, in a very, very fine sense, is similar to the idea of adultery, moving turning away from your husband. Now the real concept of spiritual adultery is avodah zarah, when a person worships an idol. So mamash you are changing, you're going away from your God, your husband, and going to another man, accepting somebody else. That's outright spiritual adultery. But in truth, any aveirah a person does means that he's turning away from Hashem. And therefore, since he's turning away from Hashem, he's not really listening to the husband. The a Yid, who is one of the part of the wife, so to speak, of Hashem, is turning away, not listening, doing something wrong. So therefore it says in truth, every little aveirah is to a certain degree like like avodah zarah, like idol worship, because you're not doing what Hashem wants, so you're worshipping something else. You're worshipping money, you're worshipping what your physical desires, that's what you're following, so this is really adultery. So really the case of where the pasuk is written that the Zohar says refers to the galut, and if you're in galut you get burnt, that's actually what it means. Because the case over there was a the mashal of זנות of adultery, which is the case of galut. In the time of galut, the problem is we don't see Hashem, we're not so close to Hashem. To a certain degree we since we don't feel, many people turn away from Hashem. And turning away from Hashem is similar to what they suspected Tamar in doing. And what does the pasuk say? Take her out, that means that this taking out into galut is gonna lead to ותשרף, to get burnt in this great love to Hashem, because by being far away, you get the desire even stronger. It's interesting on this pasuk in Chumash Rashi says that why did she deserve to to get burnt according to what they thought to their the way they were suspicious? So Rashi says because she was the daughter of Shem. Shem, the son of Noach. Shem was a kohen. There's a pasuk in Chumash it says ומלכי צדק מלך שלם והוא כהן לאל עליון, so he was a kohen. The din by a kohen is that if a daughter of a kohen commits adultery, so the pasuk says the punishment is to get burnt. And since she was a daughter of a kohen, so that's why this was her punishment, this is the simple peshat. But the Rebbe once explained peshat in that Rashi according to this Zohar. Because what the Zohar says what when you're in galut, this brings out more your burning love to Hashem. But the question is how could it be? If a Yid is in galut, and in galut means not only physical galut that he's out of the country of Eretz Yisrael, but it means that he's in a situation where he doesn't feel godliness, so the then why would it bother him that he's far away? When does something bother you when you don't have it? If something that you appreciate, something that you feel, so when you have a lot of it, so then you don't really appreciate it. When you're missing it, and you still know how important it is, then you appreciate it more. But when the Yidden are in galut, and there is what we call the העלם והסתר, this concealment of Godliness, so then the Yid is completely covered up by all his physical things. So how is it that that brings out with him a desire when he really is blocked from that feeling of Godliness? So Rashi says, because she was the daughter of a kohen. Every Yid is considered a בת איש כהן, the daughter of a kohen. Who's the real kohen? It says the real kohen is Hashem. There's a Gemara that uses the expression, אלהיכם כהן הוא. Actually, the Gemara, Tosefot says this concerning a goy once asked Rabbi Akiva that, \"Your God is a kohen. A kohen is not allowed to become tamei. So when he does become tamei, because the pasuk uses a term that God when he takes revenge of the enemy, it says he becomes tamei. So how does he become tahor? He'll have to go to the mikvah. How does he go to the mikvah?\" And Rabbi Akiva answered him, \"Well, עיקר טבילותא בנורא. The main form of purification is through fire.\" And it says a פסוק, אלהיך אש אוכלה הוא. Hashem is a fire, so he goes to a mikvah of fire. The mefarshim talk about it to explain exactly what he meant. But the kushya was used, and Rabbi Akiva didn't dispute them. He said, \"אלהיכם כהן הוא. Your God is like a kohen.\" So every neshamah, it says, is called a בת איש כהן, is a daughter of a kohen. And the neshamah, even when it comes down into galut, still is the בת איש כהן, still has that that quality of being a daughter of Hashem, meaning the child of Hashem, and therefore, even in galut, it truthfully appreciates and feels close to Hashem. And since it still appreciates it, and it doesn't have it in a revealed way, it brings out a strong burning fire of the neshamah. And in truth, who said this, הוציאוה ותשרף? Yehuda! There it says that when they found out what, that she was pregnant, Yehuda said, אמר, he said, הוציאוה ותשרף. What is the meaning of Yehuda? So again, we find in Chassidut that Yehuda, even though it was a name of a person, name of a shevet, it also has a meaning. The word Yehuda comes from the word hodaah. Hodaah means to admit. Admitting means when you don't really understand it, don't really, you know, fully know that this is the truth, but I admit. In the time of galut, it says that the Yidden live a spiritual life which is similar to hodaah. In the time of the Beit Hamikdash, the Yidden were in high level, and they understood Hashem, and they understood the depth of the mitzvot, and they understood the depth of the Torah. They were בעלי שכל, we call it. In the time of galut, we are lower level of neshamot, and our way of serving Hashem is not through deep understanding because we don't understand too much, but our way of serving Hashem is through קבלת עול מלכות שמים. We just accept the yoke of Hashem, and we say to Hashem, \"Whatever you tell us to do, we do. We're not great chachamim, we don't know much, we're not as great as they are, but we just do it through kabbalat ol.\" We do it with a greater kabbalat ol, which is accepting the yoke like a slave accepts the yoke of his master, more than they did. Because when you really understand the depth, you don't do it through, it's very hard to do just because you're told. You do it because you like it, you understand it. But when you don't really understand, then it's easier to do it just because you're told. So we are we do it because our we're told. So the way we do it is the form of hodaah. Hodaah means admitting. When you admit, so, \"I'm giving, I'm giving myself over to you.\" And that's the way we serve Hashem during galut, and that's what Rashi says. Yehuda said, Yehuda comes from the word הודאה, because during the time of galut we are still the בת איש כהן. We are still Yidden and we have the neshama, and the neshama has its closeness to Hashem, whether it feels it or not, it is there. And therefore, even though we serve Hashem with Yehuda, with only הודאה, since the neshama is there, and the service of Hashem is there, therefore what happens? הוציאוה ותשרף. Yehuda said, \"Take her out, and she'll be burned.\" That means that the neshama, when it goes out of into galut, it starts burning with a flame to Hashem. In truth, it's not only concerning the neshama going into galut, but it's בכלל concerning the neshama coming down into this world. The whole world is a galut. The neshama in itself was there in שמים before it came down, it was close to Hashem. Coming down here is a galut, coming down here is a place where there is העלם והסתר, a cover-up on Hashem and concealment of Hashem, and the neshama is taken away from its real place. place. The reason Hashem did it is for the same reason, so that we should have this desire even in a place which is far, and because it's far, the desire is stronger even when the neshama is there. That's in generally speaking concerning the neshama coming down. Certainly when we're talking about the time of galut, it's even stronger, that when we're in galut we're definitely taken away from the right situation that we should be in. And through this יציאה, this יסוד of this brings out a greater desire in us. And later, as the second piece we learned, why is this greater desire there? The mashal he gave from the water, that when a person has water, then you don't feel thirsty. Not only when you drink the water, the fact that you know there is water in the sink, you're not so thirsty. When you know there is no water, you get thirsty right away. The Gemara calls it פת בסלו. When you have bread in your basket, then you're not hungry, you're not worried. But when you know you have no food, then you're hungry. We see that always. How many days does it happen that you don't eat for a half a day, you know, because you're busy? On a fast day, you wake up in the morning, you're hungry. It's a funny thing! The first hour, you're hungry! Many days that I eat much later, wake up and who thinks of being hungry? 9:00 in the morning you're hungry? 9:00 in the morning you're hungry? Sometimes you don't eat till 1:00, 2:00, 3:00, who knows, when you're busy! On a taanit, on a fast day, you're hungry. Why? Because you know you're not allowed to eat! You know you can't eat, so you feel it. But you know I can eat, I can I can eat anytime, so I'm not hungry. When I have water, I'm not thirsty. But when I know I don't have it, then you're thirsty. When you're far away, you're thirsty. When a Yid is in galut, that means we are far away from the water. The water represents תורה ומצוות, but we're not far from Torah, but we're far from from Godliness, because Hashem is not revealed. When the a Yid were in Eretz Yisrael, they had the בית המקדש, the Shechinah was there, they saw the nissim, the miracles in Yerushalayim in the בית המקדש, they actually saw Godliness. The pasuk says that when the Yidden used to go up three times a year to Yerushalayim, the purpose was שלוש פעמים בשנה יראה כל זכורך, you should be seen. And the Gemara says it's two things: to see and to be seen. A a Yid would go to Yerushalayim to be seen by Hashem and to see. The Gemara says, כשם שבא לראות כך בא ליראות, or כשם שבא ליראות כך בא לראות, you came to be seen and to see. So, in the time of the בית המקדש they were able to see, so they knew they had it, they had Godliness, so they weren't thirsty for it. When in the time of galut we don't have it, that's when we are thirsty for it. So that feeling of thirst in itself is a very important feeling. Hashem wants a a Yid to feel the need of Godliness and appreciate it. And in a time of galut, we appreciate it more. This is similar to the general next general explanation why we say במקום שבעלי תשובה עומדים אין צדיקים גמורים יכולים לעמוד. The level baalei teshuvah stand, tzadikim gemurim can't stand. So it says the reason is because by a baal teshuvah, the aveirot that he did become mitzvot. It says a baal teshuvah has a thirst to Hashem much more than a tzadik. A tzadik was always in it, so he doesn't have a thirst, he has it and he's happy. A baal teshuvah, who was missing, he was in the desert and he didn't have any water for all these years, and now and finally he realizes that what he was missing, so he becomes very thirsty. And if you're very

thirsty, you have more enthusiasm and appreciation to the thing that you're thirsty for than if you're not thirsty. So a baal teshuvah has something a tzadik doesn't have. And because of that, it says the aveirot turn into mitzvot. Which in itself needs explanation. Why would the aveirot turn into mitzvot? Milei if we would say that because he did teshuvah, Hashem says, \"Well, I'll wipe out all the aveirot. Fine. Because you regret and I'll say I'll start a new record. Whatever you did doesn't count.\" But how do the aveirot turn into mitzvot? Why should something wrong you did become a mitzvah? So it says in Chassidut because what brought you to this high level of having such enthusiasm to Hashem, such a thirst? The aveirot. Because you were in the desert. How did In which way did it express itself the fact that he was in a spiritual desert? The fact that he did aveirot, that meaning he was in a desert. Because he was in the desert and didn't have the water, that's why he is very thirsty now. So the aveirot brought him to a higher spiritual level. So therefore the aveirot is are really considered a stepping stone to mitzvot. So we we have a rule that when you have a hechsher mitzvah, when you have something that is an introduction to a mitzvah, even though it's not a mitzvah itself, it becomes like the mitzvah. For

instance, it says that it's a mitzvah to make a sukkah. To make a sukkah, and if a person doesn't make a sukkah, I could eat in someone else's sukkah, but it says it's a mitzvah. Actually It says in Yerushalmi that Yerushalmi holds that when you make the sukkah, you have to make a berachah too. What berachah? אשר קדשנו במצותיו וצונו לעשות סוכה. But what's the mitzvah? The mitzvah is בסוכות תשבו, to sit, live in the sukkah, eat in the sukkah. But because there is no way you could live in a sukkah unless a sukkah is made, so that's a preparation to the mitzvah. It becomes then part of the mitzvah itself. If that makes it possible for you to do the mitzvah, then it becomes part of the mitzvah itself. We find a lot of places where a case where even though it's not a mitzvah itself, but if that's the way to get to the mitzvah, then this becomes part of the mitzvah. The same thing here. The way to get to this high level of thirst to Hashem is through aveirot. Now you can't go ahead and do aveirot, we mentioned that many times, because you're not allowed to. But if it's done, so then these aveirot really are the way this person reached to his higher spiritual level. So then these aveirot become part of that higher spiritual level, so the aveirot are turned into mitzvot. Now in truth, it's not turned into individual mitzvot, but it's turned into the the general concept of what mitzvot are. Now I'll explain myself. In mitzvot we have two aspects. We have the individual aspect of every mitzvah, and that every mitzvah, one is different than the other, and then we have the general, we call it nekudah, the general point of mitzvot.

Before I even explain it, we see it in the berachah. When we make a berachah before we do a mitzvah, we see that there is one part of the berachah that's the same all the mitzvot. Then we have another part of the berachah which each mitzvah is different. We start off, ברוך אתה השם אלוקינו מלך העולם אשר קדשנו במצותיו וצונו. All berachot are the same. And then we say להניח תפילין, להדליק נר של שבת קודש, we have על אכילת מצה. Every mitzvah has another end. But the first part of the berachah, they're all the same. Why? Because in every mitzvah, we have two aspects. We have the general aspect in which all mitzvot are the same, and then we have the individual aspect that every mitzvah has its own meaning and then whatever the mitzvah stands for. As we see in another maamar Chazal, the Chazal say, an interesting, everyone knows this statement, but when you start thinking about it, it seems like a contradiction in itself. Chazal said like this:

אל תהי יושב ושוקל מצותיה של תורה. Don't sit and weigh the mitzvot of the Torah. Don't weigh mitzvot, one mitzvah against the other. You should know, the Chazal say, that קלות שבקלות, the most simple ones of the simplest, are just as important as the חמורות שבחמורות, as the most strict of the strict. That's what the Chazal say. Now start thinking, isn't this a contradiction? If they're all the same, then how do you call one קלות שבקלות and חמורות שבחמורות? If they're all the same, you can't have a simple one, a light one, and a heavy one, an important one. It should have said, don't weigh the mitzvot because כולם שווים, they're all the same. Don't even mention the possibility of one being more than the other. Here it says you should know that the simplest mitzvah is the same as the most important mitzvah. How is it? Then it's not the same! You can call it simple and important and חמור! The answer is there are two aspects in every mitzvah. There is the חמור and קל, which every mitzvah is different, some mean this, some mean that, and therefore there are more important mitzvot, less important mitzvot. But then there is the general point, the nekudah of all mitzvot, and that's the same in all. And that's what he says: you should realize that there is something in all the Don't weigh the mitzvot! They're all the same. Even though there is a difference between some and it looks like they and they are different, you should still remember they're all the same from a different outlook, they're all the same. Now from which outlook, which aspect, which angle are they all the same? The fact that they are all the ratzon of Hashem, that they're all the will of Hashem. And since each one is the will of Hashem, it's just as important. That's why the first part of the berachah expresses that will. What do we say? You made us holy, וצונו, You commanded us. And that's it! The fact that You commanded us, that's enough for us to do it with the strongest mesirut nefesh no matter what the mitzvah is. Then we say, in addition to that, the specific detail of how to express the will of Hashem in this mitzvah and in that mitzvah, that's different. Each mitzvah is limited, each mitzvah has its own meaning. Some are stricter, some are not so strict. But the general idea that this is the will of Hashem, it's all the same, and that's the most important part that counts. Because the will of Hashem is one. And in truth, there is one See,

there are two ways to look at mitzvot. Let me explain it maybe from this way. There are two ways to look at mitzvot. You could say Hashem wants you to do this, Hashem wants you to do this, He wants you to do this. Hashem wants one mitzvah, two, three, so there are 613 different retzonot, different wills of Hashem. That's one way to look at it. There's another way to look at it, that there is one will which divides itself, branches off into 613 different details. But the will is one. Hashem wanted one thing which is accomplished in 613 different ways, but there is one thing that he wants. So the truth is that they're both true. There is one will and that is the foundation of all the mitzvot. Hashem wants a certain accomplishment, wants one thing, and that thing he could do through many different ways, and he told, \"I want you to do it all these 613 ways\", which by the way explains something else. If we say that mitzvot come from Hashem, they are the will of Hashem, and the Rambam

says that it's not like by human beings when the person and the will are two separate things. I have a will to something, so you can't say I am my will. I am one thing, I have a will within me. By Hashem, he says הוא ורצונו אחד, he and his will are one. Just like we said by the wisdom. By us, by people, the Rambam says when a person understands something, he has a chochmah, wisdom in his mind, so there are three parts to it: there is the person, uses his כח השכל, uses his brain to understand something. Let's say I understand one and one equals two, so there is me, there is my seichel, and there is one and one equals two, which I understand. There are three things. By Hashem, he says, הוא וחכמתו אחד, he and his wisdom are one. And the same thing with his will. It's not that he has a will, because he and his will are one. How is that possible? How can we understand that? So the Rambam says we cannot understand it. But because we don't understand it doesn't change the fact. How could we expect to understand the will of Hashem or what it means? But the fact is he and his will are one. So the question is, if he and his will are one, he is one, so how could there be many wills? Like it's a division already, you have many different things coming from him. So there has to be one will. It's not a peshat there is one Hashem and he has 50 wills, or 613 wills. There's one Hashem with one will, and that's part of him, and that will spreads itself out, branches off in 613 details, like 613 branches. And this one will is the same in every mitzvah. So in truth, all mitzvot are in truth the same because the essence of every mitzvah is the same, and that is this is the will of Hashem, it's just branched out in different ways. That's one of the reason why it says ha'osek b'mitzvah patur min hamitzvah. When you're involved in one mitzvah, you are patur, exempt from doing another mitzvah. Now the

simple meaning is because you can't do both mitzvot, so if you're busy in one, can't do the other. So the other one actually is not done, but we can't help it. You just can't do them both, so you do one. In chassidut it says, it's actually not for chassidut, it's even based on kabbalah and the Arizal, that that's not the peshat. The Arizal says the peshat is because every one mitzvah, every single mitzvah includes all other 612 mitzvot. So when you do one mitzvah, in truth you are actually doing a little bit of all mitzvot. So then why should you drop mitzvah number one to do mitzvah number two, when you're doing mitzvah number one you are actually doing mitzvah number two? העוסק, that's why פטור מן המצוה. But what's the peshat behind it? Because in truth all mitzvot are one mitzvah. There is as if we're saying there's one Hashem and one mitzvah. Right. That's why certain mitzvot actually it says are like all the mitzvot, some mitzvot. Like it says tefillin for instance, it says it's כנגד כל התורה, says mezuzah, it says by tzitzit, certain mitzvot are as important. So in truth, every mitzvah is like the whole Torah, but there are certain mitzvot which you could see it more. And then there is really one mitzvah which is the mitzvah of the Torah. Which one is that? No, no, that's a כלל גדול בתורה, that's a klal. Talmud Torah is Torah. I don't mean of that. There's a pasuk that says זאת חקת התורה. This is the law of the Torah, this is the law. Which is that? מצות פרה אדומה. And the Sefarim ask, why does it say זאת חקת התורה? It should say זאת חקת הפרה. By קרבן פסח it starts off also זאת חקת הפסח, this is the chukah of Pesach. So it should have said, when it starts off פרשת חקת about the פרה אדומה, it should say זאת חקת הפרה. It says זאת חקת of the Torah. This is the law of the Torah. Do you know why it says so? It says in Chassidus, yes, the mitzvah of פרה אדומה is the one mitzvah which is which expresses what every mitzvah really is. Why פרה אדומה? Now, I don't know why פרה אדומה, the reason, but the point is because פרה אדומה has no reason. פרה אדומה has no meaning. There are different categories in mitzvot. Certain mitzvot are mishpatim that if the Torah wouldn't tell us we would do it on our own. Then there are mitzvot called mitzvot and edot that we wouldn't do it on our own, but after the Torah told us, we have a reason. We wouldn't keep Pesach if the Torah wouldn't say, but now that the Torah told we know why. Shabbos, we wouldn't keep Shabbos, but the Torah said keep Shabbos, for a reason, we understand it. Then there's a category called chukim, without a reason. From the chukim itself, the one mitzvah that has no reason whatsoever is the mitzvah of פרה אדומה. Because on all other chukim, all other mitzvot that have no reason, it says in Midrash that Shlomo HaMelech said that he reached the understanding of those mitzvot. He did. The only one mitzvah that he couldn't understand is the mitzvah of פרה אדומה. He said, it says a pasuk: אמרתי אחכמה והיא רחוקה ממני. I said, I'll try to be smart. Shlomo Hamelech was חכם מכל אדם, the greatest חכם. But he says, I tried to be smart in everything. על כולם, I think this is the lashon of the מדרש, על כולם עמדתי. All of them I got, and this one mitzvah I couldn't get the reason. The red heifer, the mitzvah of burning the red cow and with the ashes and sprinkling it, and when a person becomes tamei, so there, he said that he couldn't understand at all. There are a lot of explanations which part of it is the one that we don't understand. Some say it is the fact that if you're tahor and you sprinkle if you're pure if you're impure if you're tamei it makes you pure, and the person who's tahor and touches it becomes tamei. So it's a contradiction, makes no sense. Others say that the that the reason it's called a chok is because it was a korban, like any korban, like a sacrifice. The sacrifice you had to bring in the Beis Hamikdash, and this had to be burnt outside. More details, but anyway this is the mitzvah that even Shlomo Hamelech couldn't understand. In other words, this is a mitzvah that the only reason you do the mitzvah is because it's the רצון of Hashem, the will of Hashem. Other mitzvot, as much as we know it's the will of Hashem, but as long as you can understand it, there is always a mixture of your own seichel that you do it because it makes sense to you. It's the right thing to do. My seichel dictates that I should do it. So, I'm really doing it not because it's the will of Hashem, it's because it's my seichel. You can sometimes forget, or even when you don't forget, it's human beings are human beings. So when you understand something and you like something, as much as you try to, you know, isolate the mitzvah, but still your metziut, your being is involved. In פרה אדומה it's impossible to be involved, because there is no logical reason whatsoever for פרה אדומה. So פרה אדומה is the mitzvah which expresses the will of Hashem. And that's why this is the mitzvah of the Torah. Because, in truth, every mitzvah basically, as I said before, is the is the will of Hashem. That's the main part of the mitzvah. The fact that the mitzvah expresses this way and accomplishes this, and when we know we learn Chassidus that when you do a mitzvah you know what goes on in heaven every time you put on tefillin, oh, the whole heaven's turned upside down when we do a small mitzvah, all סדר השתלשלות, which means all of, you know, the higher spirituals everything depend on the mitzvah of a single Jew, and every little thing that is true. But it happens, and when a person does it, we don't feel the will of Hashem, because it's as if we're doing it for all kinds of different accomplishments. But the mitzvah of פרה אדומה, which we have no idea what the mitzvah means and why we do it, and there, all it is is the will of Hashem. And in truth, this is really what every mitzvah is. That's why there's a statement of the Chazal that say like this, that we tell Hashem: אילו נצטוינו לחטוב עצים, had You told us to chop wood, we would do that too. Now what's the big chidush? What's so special about that? I mean sure, why? Hashem told us to do this, we do it. Why would we If You tell us to chop wood, why wouldn't we do that? What's Why are we saying, if You tell us to chop wood, would you do it? He told us to strap our hands, we do it also. So if You chop wood, we do it too. What it means to say is, not See, if You would tell us to chop wood and it wouldn't accomplish anything, as just like chopping wood doesn't accomplish anything now. Now if a person would chop wood all it would do is he'll have wood for his house, but it wouldn't do anything spiritual. So we're telling Hashem: Imagine You would tell us, \"I want you to chop wood,\" and it wouldn't accomplish anything. It would be like chopping wood right now, which doesn't do anything. So you would say, \"Then why should I do it?\" Other mitzvot accomplish all kinds of things in heaven. This wouldn't do anything! We would tell Hashem, \"We don't care.\" Because if that's what You want, hineni, that's what they say, we are here because we do it only for the ratzon of Hashem. So the main nekudah of the is that this is the will of Hashem. When we speak of—how, how did I get to this? When we speak about, about teshuvah, that because he was in the desert, so to speak, and he didn't have water, that brought him to be more enthusiastic in Hashem. So, therefore, the aveirot become mitzvot, but what it means is not that the aveirot become individual mitzvot. They become the general concept of what mitzvot are. The general concept of what mitzvot are is that ratzon, the will of Hashem. That's what happens. We now look back, these aveirot were the ones that brought my will to do the will of Hashem. It's not that that aveirah becomes tefillin. A person ate chazir, so now it turns into as parallel as if he were to put on tefillin that day instead of eating chazir. That's not what happens. What it means is that since this brings a Yid to have a greater connection to Hashem, a greater thirst, a greater will, so the aveirot become mitzvot, but not individual mitzvot, each mitzvah is separate, but it becomes what the mitzvah really stands for, which is the will of Hashem. Since this brought me to be closer to the will of Hashem, then this becomes the will of Hashem. So this is a baal teshuvah. The same idea is with the galut.

When a yid is in galut, and he's thirsty in galut because he doesn't have mitzvot, and this makes a yid become close to Hashem, feeling that he's missing, because of that, he reaches a higher מדרגה than he was before, because this thirst makes all the the hardships turn into something good, because that brought him to want to have this will of wanting the ratzon of Hashem. Let's turn to the next piece. The Baal Shem Tov פירש'ט א פסוק: \"כן בקודש חזיתיך\", כך. We quoted the pasuk before, \"צמאה לך נפשי\", that my heart thirsts for You, my flesh desires You in the empty land, place without water. Then the pasuk continues: \"כן בקודש חזיתיך\". So in holiness did I see You. So the Baal Shem Tov says כך, he says it like this: \"כן\" means הלוואי, I wish. \"בקודש\", in holiness, means בזמן הבית, in the time of the בית המקדש. \"חזיתיך\", I would see You. So he says like this: that what we're saying is that we say, \"הלוואי in the time of the בית המקדש we would see You like we see You now in the time when we are in the desert, meaning in ארץ ציה וצלמות, in a place far from השם.\" פירוש, it means like this: \"הלוואי והייתי רואה בזמן הבית\"—הלוואי, I wish we would see in the time of the בית המקדש—\"אותה דרגא של גילוי אור אלוקי\"—that same level of revelation of godly light—\"שממשיכים בזמן הגלות\"—that we bring down now. It was הלוואי we would bring down such godly light in the time of the בית המקדש like we bring down in the time of גלות. \"שכן עבודת השם בזמן הבית\"—because when they served השם in the time of the בית המקדש—\"הייתה עבודת המוח והלב\"—they served Hashem with the brain and with the heart, with their higher attributes. \"שיש בעבודה זו תענוג רב ושמחה\"—when you do that, you have great pleasure and great joy. \"מה שאין כן בזמן הגלות\"—but in the time of galut—\"העבודה היא יותר בקבלת עול ומסירות נפש\". We only serve because we accept the yoke of Hashem, we don't understand much, we don't feel much, just because we accept what Hashem says. And we do it with mesirut nefesh. \"וכאשר יהודי מוסר נפשו על לימוד התורה וקיום המצוות\"—when a person gives his life for learning Torah, doing mitzvot—\"ובפרט בזמן הגזירה שמענישים על זה רחמנא ליצלן\"—certainly a time of decrees from the goyim, when they just punish you for doing mitzvot—\"הרי הוא ממשיך אורות גדולים ועצומים\"—we bring down greater lights, stronger lights of Hashem—\"הרבה יותר מאשר האורות שנמשכו בזמן הבית\"—much more than the light that came down in the time of the בית המקדש. And this is what the pasuk says: In the time of galut, \"צמאה לך נפשי\", we desire. And because we have that desire, we look back and we say, we reached higher levels than we reached in the time of the בית המקדש. \"כן בקודש\", halavai when we were in the holiness, when we were in the בית המקדש, \"חזיתיך\", did I see You like that. Even though now from one hand it seems like there is less light—in בית המקדש there was much more light, spiritual light—but on the other hand, even though we don't see the light, but in truth there is a greater light now, because when we serve Hashem with mesirut nefesh out of thirst to Hashem, there is a greater spiritual light. And the interesting that

here the expression is \"כן בקודש חזיתיך\". \"חזיתיך\" means I saw You. Halavai in קודש I would have seen You like this. In Hebrew, to see is the word ראיה. That should