The next topic is going to be a continuation to all the inyanim that we spoke about in the inyan of tefillah of davening, and we are now holding at the point of Keriat Shema, the mitzvah of Keriat Shema, to say the Shema, and that is part of davening. Now the truth is the mitzvah of Shema is a mitzvah on its own. There is a mitzvah from the Torah that every day a person, mainly a male, has to say Shema in the morning and Shema in the evening. And that's why we have Shema in Shacharit that we say Keriat Shema, and we say Shema in the evening in the tefillah of Maariv, of Arvit. There is a machloket, an argument between the poskim, what constitutes the mitzvah of Shema. Some hold it's just the first parashah, which is שמע, ואהבת, some hold it's שמע, ואהבת and also the second פרשה, והיה אם שמוע. There is even an opinion that holds that ויאמר, the third parashah is also part of the mitzvah of Shema. And this is a mitzvah independent of the mitzvah of davening. It is just that the chachamim put the Shema into the davening, part of the stages of davening. So, what we're going to discuss today is not the mitzvah of Shema on its own, but the part, the inyan of saying Shema as part of the davening in continuation to the way we've been discussing the concept of davening according to Chassidut and Kabbalah the past few weeks. And as I always mention, we're not going to discuss the halachot, this is not a halacha shiur of Shema, when you have to say over, when you don't have to say over, which words you have to stress, or which words you have to make sure you don't get confused, that's a separate thing. We're going to discuss the inyan of Shema, what the meaning of Shema is, and also as Shema is part of the stages of davening. A while ago we had a shiur, one of the Monday night classes on the inyan of Shema, but there we spoke about Shema as an independent inyan of saying Shema, and today we will mention that also, but also more as it is part of davening, the hemshech of davening. We've been explaining all these weeks that davening has many stages, many steps, based on the Zohar, where the Zohar says concerning the dream of Yaakov Avinu, where it says that he had a dream that סולם מוצב ארצה וראשו מגיע השמימה, that he had a dream that there was a ladder standing on the ground, and the tip, the top touched the shamayim, touched the heaven. And the Zohar says: sulam, this ladder, דא צלותא, this ladder is davening. Because davening is basically a ladder. You wake up in the morning and you are all the way down, you wake up in the morning, we don't feel close to Hashem, and as we climb the ladder of davening, we get closer and closer and closer. And it says in Yerushalmi that a ladder usually has four steps. I guess in the time of the Gemara, a average, normal ladder had four steps. So too, the ladder of davening has four steps, and each step is another step in getting closer to Hashem. And the four steps are: Pesukei Dezimra, that's one section of davening, the pesukim of praise of Hashem. Then we have another section which are called ברכות קריאת שמע, the ברכות of Keriat Shema, which are the ברכות before Keriat Shema mainly, there is also a ברכה after the Keriat Shema, but mainly is the ברכות before קריאת שמע, which is made up of two brachos, starting with יוצר אור ובורא חושך, and finishing of ברוך אתה השם יוצר המאורות. And then we have the second bracha, אהבת עולם, or according to other נוסחאות אהבה רבה, and finish off with saying ברוך אתה השם הבוחר בעמו ישראל באהבה. So, that's the second stage, again, the first stage is the פסוקי דזמרה, the second stage is ברכות קריאת שמע. The third stage is קריאת שמע itself, קריאת שמע, and then the next stage is שמונה עשרה, is the tefillah of עמידה that are the eighteen brachos, or later they became nineteen brachos that we say, which we call שמונה עשרה. And then that's the top, we reach the top. Then after שמונה עשרה we start our descent, we're coming back down into this world. We already discussed in this class what פסוקי דזמרה is according to the way it's understood according to Kabbalah and Chassidus. Then we, I even explained already what is the inyan of the ברכות קריאת שמע, we had two classes on that. One, I explained what is the meaning of the first bracha, יוצר אור, where we talk about the malachim praising Hashem and the whole purpose of that. And then we explained the second one, which is the bracha of אהבת עולם, the love of Hashem to us, and how that is a preparation to Shema, and today we will discuss Shema itself. Now, the truth is, when it comes to Shema, there, I think we will have more than one class on Shema, today we will have it on the general concept of Shema, and then maybe one class or two on the specifics of the different details of Shema. Concerning what is the meaning of שמע ישראל השם אלוקינו השם אחד, we know על פי הלכה, according to Shulchan Aruch, based on the Gemara, that is the time when we accept מלכות שמים, that's the time when it's קבלת עול מלכות שמים, we accept the yoke of Hashem, the yoke of Hashem, Hashem's kingship. That's when basically we proclaim Hashem as king, that's when we accept Hashem as our king. And that's the meaning, שמע ישראל השם אלוקינו השם אחד, listen יידן, השם our God, Hashem is one. By saying that, we're showing that Hashem is one. And the Gemara says actually that כד אמליכתיה, if we in our minds accept Hashem as being the king of the four corners of the world and the seven heavens and the earth, then we have fulfilled the mitzvah of Shema. So basically the mitzvah of Shema is accepting upon ourselves the malchut of Hashem, which is the reason why on Rosh Hashanah the פסוק שמע ישראל is one of the ten pesukim of malchiyot. We know that on Rosh Hashanah, in the Shemoneh Esrei of Rosh Hashanah, it's a very long Shemoneh Esrei, Musaf we're talking about, a long Shemoneh Esrei. Why is Musaf so long, longer than any other Shemoneh Esrei that we have throughout the whole year? Because on Rosh Hashanah there is a special din that we have to in the Shemoneh Esrei mention ten pesukim that tell us that Hashem is the melech, Hashem is the king, that's called malchiyot, then we have to mention ten pesukim where we talk about Hashem remembering us, that's zichronot, and ten pesukim where it mentions that concept of blowing shofar. And in each one of these we have to have three pesukim from Torah, three pesukim from נביאים, three pesukim from כתובים, and then the tenth pasuk back to the Torah again. So in malchiyot, the first part, which is malchiyot, these are pesukim where we talk about Hashem being the king, the last one of this ten, the tenth one, is the פסוק שמע ישראל השם אלוקינו השם אחד. You remember from the chazan saying it out loud, ובתורתך כתוב לאמר שמע ישראל השם אלוקינו השם אחד. And it says in Shulchan Aruch. Now in this פסוק שמע ישראל it doesn't mention the word מלך. All other pesukim are pesukim that has the word מלך in it. That's why they're called pesukim of מלכיות. Then the other ones are pesukim that have the word זכרון, which is remembrance, the other ones are pesukim that have shofar in it. שמע ישראל doesn't have the word מלך, king in it. So it says in Shulchan Aruch it doesn't matter, because the pasuk itself is the concept that Hashem is יחיד ומיוחד, השם is single and the only being, and ומלכותו בכל משלה, that His מלכות is all over. So this pasuk really is the concept of Hashem being our מלך. So this is the general meaning of the פסוק שמע ישראל, we accept Hashem as our מלך. And then as this goes on throughout not only the first pasuk, but throughout the whole parasha, the first parasha of Keriat Shema is the פסוק שמע ישראל continuing into ואהבת את השם אלוקיך. So that whole first parasha basically deals with the ענין of us accepting Hashem as מלך, Hashem is our king. That's accepting Kabbalat ol malchut Shamayim, accepting the malchut Shamayim. But then it says in the Gemara that the second parasha of Keriat Shema is another step in this Kabbalat ol. It is not Kabbalat ol malchut Shamayim, but it's Kabbalat ol mitzvot, it's accepting the yoke of mitzvot. And as I mentioned many times, these are two separate stages. First you accept Hashem as king, and then you accept His mitzvot. Actually the Gemara makes it very clear concerning these pesukim. The Gemara says למה קדמה פרשת שמע לפרשת והיה אם שמוע? Why do we first say the parsha of שמע, ואהבת, and then we say the parsha of והיה אם שמוע, etc.? So the Gemara says כדי, because first you have to accept malchus shamayim, first you have to accept Hashem as king, and then you're able to accept the yoke of mitzvot. And it's a famous mashal in the Midrash of a king who just entered a country, and the people asked the king, please give us some laws, now that you're our new king, give us our laws. And the king said, first accept my malchus, then you will accept my mitzvot. First accept me as your king, a very general idea, accept me as your king, and then you will be able to accept my mitzvot. It's exactly what we do here. So first we say שמע ישראל and ואהבת, which means we accept the ol malchus shamayim, the yoke of the malchus of Hashem, and then we go on to the second פרשה, והיה אם שמוע תשמעו, which means if you will listen to my mitzvot, etc., etc. It talks about accepting the mitzvot of Hashem, which is the second stage. And we find a mashal in Midrash brought down in Shulchan Aruch of a king who sent a message, a letter to a certain city, and the people who received the letter got dressed special clothes, and they all came together and they all stood, they wouldn't sit, and they started reading this letter באימה וביראה ברתת ובזיע, with fear and trembling and respect. So too, when we say the Shema, we are reading this letter that was given to us by our king. But Hashem says, you know what, I don't need you to stand. I don't need you to get dressed specially. As long as you read this letter and you know what it means and you accept it upon yourself. One thing did remain, the other part that we have to read it with fear and with feeling, and with with trembling, that we have to do. But there is no din that we have to stand when we say Shema. The halacha is that we don't have to stand. Argument between Shammai and Hillel, we pasken that we don't. And this is basically what Shema is. So this is the general idea according to halacha of what Shema is. It is accepting the yoke of Hashem's kingship and accepting the yoke of the mitzvot of Hashem, acceptance of these things.

But Chassidut comes and explains that this itself, this is this is the whole point of Shema, but we have to go into more details. That in detail, what מצות שמע tells us is that we accept the yoke of Hashem, but there are two points in accepting the yoke of Hashem in addition to the general idea of accepting the yoke of Hashem. And these two points are the yichud of Hashem and the ahavah of Hashem. Yichud means the understanding of the unity of Hashem, and then we have the ahavah, the love, loving Hashem. Which means there is a possibility for a person to accept the yoke, but not because he understands why. He is just forced into it, let's say. He's born into it. A person that was bought as a slave, captured as a slave, he baal korcho has to accept the yoke of his master. He does it. He accepts the yoke of his master, he accepts the yoke of the master's commandments, and he does it. He doesn't necessarily understand why. He certainly doesn't like his master, but he has to. So, too, it's possible by a Yid, we could accept the yoke of Hashem for whatever reason, we feel forced into it, we're born into it, whatever it could be. So the pasuk comes and says, and that's what Chassidus explains, that that's not what we have to do. That's not what שמע ישראל is about. שמע ישראל is Shema means hear, and the real meaning of Shema is not hear, but understand. The real meaning of Shema is to understand. We find it many time in Chumash, when it says the word Shema, the literal translation is hear, but the peshat in the pasuk is understand. For instance, one of the pesukim in in just a few parshiyot ago, it says that the shevatim, the brothers of Yosef, did not know כי שומע יוסף, they didn't know that he's hearing, because there was a interpreter between them. Doesn't mean they didn't know he was He was standing there, and they saw he had he wasn't deaf. They didn't know that he understood what they were saying, because they had an interpreter. So the word שומע there doesn't mean to understand to hear, but it means to understand. So the pasuk says, שמע ישראל השם אלוקינו השם אחד, you have to understand that Hashem is one. So when we say that שמע ישראל means the acceptance of the yoke of Hashem, it's not just the plain acceptance of the yoke of Hashem. It's accepting it through understanding, through understanding that השם אלוקינו השם אחד, that Hashem is one. And Chassidus goes into so many details to explain what is the meaning that Hashem is one. That Hashem, there's no other being. Not like some people think that when we say שמע ישראל השם אלוקינו השם אחד, it means there is only one God. As the story goes, they once asked somebody, \"What does השם אחד mean?\" \"Well, there's only one God, and Yoshke is not the true God.\" So he said to him, \"That's what we think about השם אחד? That there is Yoshke is not a God, and Buddha is not a God, and...\" השם אחד means not that there is one God, there is one being. Not that Yoshke is nothing, that I'm nothing. That the whole world is nothing. That's what we have to understand. So the first step in שמע ישראל is the yichud, the understanding, the realizing that השם אחד, that Hashem is one. And the true meaning of השם אחד, as it says in pasuk and Chassidus explains, אין עוד מלבדו, that there is nothing but Hashem, nothing but Hashem. That's what we have to come to understand. And then the second step is, that it's not enough that we understand it in our minds, but our mind has to control our heart. And from our mind, it has to come to our heart that we have to start loving Hashem. That afterwards comes ואהבת את השם אלוקיך, you will love השם בכל לבבך ובכל נפשך ובכל מאודך, with all your heart, with all your life, your your soul, with all your might, with all your money. A lot of things included in these words. And that's a result of the first thing. It's not enough even to understand. We have to understand it so much that it makes us love. The nature is that when you understand something very clearly in your mind, if it's real, true in your mind, it will have to affect your emotions. It is impossible that a person should understand understand something is good and not like it. And if you he doesn't like it, it means that he didn't really understand it's good. It works both ways, and I explained this many times. It's impossible for a person to like something or any other of the emotions unless he understands it in his mind. Emotions don't just come out of nowhere. It comes as a result of the person's understanding. So if you really understand, it must make you have a feeling. And you cannot have a feeling unless you understand. That's what the Rambam says. The Rambam in the beginning says, איזו היא הדרך לאהבתו ויראתו? What is the way to come to love Hashem'? He says, בשעה שיתבונן, when you think about Hashem' and you understand truthfully the truth of Hashem', you must love him. And this is what שמע ישראל is. It's accepting the yoke of Hashem', that's according to halacha, but it goes deeper than that. How do we accept it? By understanding the yichud of Hashem' and then affecting our heart. Which, if you want, it's not noge'a to this shiur, but if you want what if you want to say, this is basically the basis of whole Chassidus. The whole Chassidus is based on these two points: explaining the true meaning of אין עוד מלבדו, explaining the true meaning that there is nothing but Hashem', the true meaning of Hashem' אחד, the real, real meaning, what does it mean Hashem' אחד. You learn in Chassidus hundreds and hundreds of ma'amarim to explain that concept. And the second concept is to explain the second part of Chassidus is how to come to love Hashem'. Like the pasuk says, וידעת היום, you know, והשבות אל לבבך, you bring it down to your heart. And how it comes into the person's heart, which is based on the concept of מוח שליט על הלב, that the brain controls the heart, the brain controls the emotions. And when you really, really have a true understanding, it'll control your heart. It'll make the person love. And when we say make the person love, it means a feeling of love to Hashem'. And this is the foundation of Chassidus. It's what chassidim used to call this the aleph bet of Chassidus. There was even a famous story, it's not important to this ענין that we're saying, learning, but a famous story with R'' Moshe Meizels. R'' Moshe Meizels was a chassid of the Alter Rebbe. He was very talented. He knew many languages. So when there was the war between Napoleon and Russia, the Alter Rebbe really wanted that Russia should win and Napoleon should lose. And not only did he daven for that and he blew shofar, whole thing, he also sent R'' Moshe Meizels to work as a spy in the French army in order to spy for the Russian government, and he would give over information. And he worked himself up so that he start he worked in the office of the generals, so much so in the office of generals. And he just would work there like small things, but he would pay attention to what they're talking. They didn't know that he was listening and understood, and they would make all their plans, and then he would pass down pass out them information to the Russian government. Once, as the generals were sitting on the floor over maps, planning the next attack, and he was sweeping the floor, listening to every word they were saying, the door flung open, and guess who walked in? Napoleon himself, because that's how he used to do, he didn't knock on the door or anything, he would jump run in. He walked in, and he saw the generals on the floor, and he saw this stranger standing there. So he looks at him, and he runs over to him, and he says, \"This guy is a spy!\" And he walked over to him and put his hand on his heart to see if his heart was pounding. And R'' Moshe Meizels said, \"The alef beis of חסידות saved my life.\" The second level of חסידות, the second part of חסידות is the מוח שליט על הלב, that the brain controls the heart. He controlled physically his heart that his heart did not pound. And when Napoleon saw that, well obviously this guy is not scared, so there's nothing to worry about, and he left him. And he said, \"Had I not learned this idea of מוח שליט על הלב, I would have died. It saved my life.\" But anyway, getting back to the point, so שמע ישראל has two parts to it. It has the part of the שמע, the understanding that ה' אחד, that ה' is one. And then we have the second part, the ואהבת, that it comes to ahavah. So we have to understand אחדות ה' and it has to come to ahavah. This is very general of what שמע ישראל is. But as I said, we are not discussing שמע ישראל on its own right, but we're discussing as this is a continuation to all the parts of davenen that we've been talking about before. And we've been discussing the whole time what is the all the what are all the steps of davenen and what do they lead up to? So we said that it's all supposed to lead up to ואהבת את ה' אלקיך בכל לבבך, you have to love ה' with all your heart, and it says לבבך with two ב's, and the Gemara says that means you have to love ה' with both יצרs, the יצר טוב and the יצר הרע, or using the chassidishe terminology, with the נפש האלוקית, with your godly soul, with your נשמה, and with the נפש הבהמית, with your animalistic soul. And I explain, what does animalistic soul mean? It means that we have a little soul inside, a little malach'l inside, an angel that keeps on telling us do something wrong? That's not what a נפש הבהמית is. The נפש הבהמית is nothing but us. We, without the נשמה, we, as simple human beings, part of the creature of the creation, are creatures like an animal. We want what's good for us physically. We have a desire that that's what we are pulled to. And what we have to reach is to love Hashem, not only that our נשמה should love Hashem, but also we as who we are as far as the creation is concerned, that we should love Hashem that way, too. And we said all the parts of davenen beforehand lead up to it. So, we explained פסוקי דזמרה, when we talk about how the sun and the stars and all praise Hashem, and they're all בטל, nullified to Hashem. So, that shows that even the nature is connected to Hashem, so that has an effect on the נפש הבהמית. Then the ברכות קריאת שמע, about the מלאכים, that's the source of the נפש הבהמית, as I explained at length. And last shiur, I explained how אהבת עולם we showed that Hashem loves us and that makes us have a feeling to Hashem. But finally, after we have all that, all that is still trying to work on our נפש הבהמית, on us to have a connection to Hashem and love Hashem as far as we are as human beings, as natural creatures part of the creation. By the time we get to Shema, we already should reach a level that we could love Hashem not only from the נפש הבהמית, but from a higher level. We already could love Hashem now looking at it from the נשמה perspective, that we can love Hashem and have a connection to Hashem not only as far as our גשמיות is שייך to love Hashem, we should love Hashem from a higher level, a different perspective. And I'll explain what that means, and I'll explain what Chassidut says concerning Shema as far as this is concerned.

It says in Kabbalah that in Shema we have two פסוקים, before we even get to ואהבת. One is a פסוק, and one is not a פסוק, one is taken from the Gemara. The first is שמע ישראל ה׳ אלוקינו ה׳ אחד, \"Hear, O Israel, Hashem our God, Hashem is one.\" Then we say ברוך שם כבוד מלכותו לעולם ועד, \"Blessed is the name of the honor of the מלכות, the kingship of השם forever.\" That's the second pasuk. Second pasuk is not a pasuk in Chumash, actually it's from the Gemara. The Gemara says, interesting how it just happens to fit into this week's parashah, we didn't plan it this way, in this week's parashah we learn that at the end before Yaakov Avinu passed away, and his children were gathered around him, he said he was afraid maybe they're not all such great tzadikim. So, he asked them, because the Shechinah left him, so he asked them do they are they fine, do they believe in the same thing that he believes? And his children said to him, שמע ישראל, and this time Yisrael means Yaakov is called ישראל, \"Hear ישראל, our father, ה׳ אלוקינו, Hashem is our God, ה׳ אחד, Hashem is one.\" And as the Gemara says they said, כשם שאין בלבך אלא אחד, כך אין בלבנו אלא אחד, just like in your heart is only one, in our heart is also only one. So when they said that, Yaakov said, \"Oh, ברוך שם כבוד מלכותו לעולם ועד,\" like we would answer, \"Ah, ברוך השם, this is so.\" So he answered ברוך שם כבוד מלכותו לעולם ועד. So that's where it comes from. Reason we say it quietly, because since in Chumash it's not mentioned, so Moshe Rabbeinu didn't say it, Yaakov Avinu did say it, so we don't want to say it because of Moshe, we do want to say it because of Yaakov, so we make a compromise, and we say it quietly. But anyway, that's where it comes from. But that's just the reason of where it started, but the meaning behind it, it says in Kabbalah, in the Zohar, that the פסוק שמע ישראל ה׳ אלוקינו ה׳ אחד is יחודא עילאה—we're going to get a little bit into the kabbalistic aspect of it—is יחודא עילאה, and ברוך שם כבוד מלכותו לעולם ועד is יחודא תתאה. יחודא עילאה means the higher, the upper level of unity of Hashem, and יחודא תתאה means the lower level of the unity of Hashem. And basically the difference between these two, what do we mean lower level of unity, higher level of unity? I mean there's only one unity. Unity means one. There's only one Hashem, and that's it, and there is no What do we mean they're higher or lower? Obviously it doesn't mean in fact, it means in feeling, in how much we can feel, how much we can understand, how much we can comprehend. So there are two approaches to understanding the unity of Hashem. Two ways. One way is the way we can comprehend the unity of Hashem, calling it מלמטה למעלה, looking from down up, and accepting the unity of Hashem. And then you have מלמעלה למטה, from up down, the way Hashem looks at it, the way Hashem looks and sees His unity. The way Hashem sees His unity, to tell you the truth, there is nothing but Hashem. In truth, the way Hashem is in עצם, there is nothing, אין עוד מלבדו, there is nothing but Hashem. The fact that He created the world, that's nothing. For It says the world is כלא חשיבי, it's considered that's there, that's the way Hashem looks. Which sometimes, it says in Chasidus, we always refer to the world as yesh me'ayin. The world was created something from nothing. That's the way we see it. The way Hashem sees it, it's אין from יש. It's nothing from something. He is the something, He's the real thing, the יש האמיתי, the true יש, and the world is nothing. It is, there is no world. This is all in itself, on its own, it has nothing. So the way Hashem looks at it, it's nothing. And Chasidus always has different expressions to show לאו מכל אינון מדות כלל. Hashem is beyond anything, and the fact that He created the world, it's as if it's not there, and that's why a lot of times the lashon, the expression is נברא העולם, the world was created. Not always do we use the term He created the world. The world was created. Why? The difference between saying He created it and was created, when you say someone made something, obviously it shows that you were involved. If you're involved in something, then it has an effect on you. There is a difference in you before you did it, while you're doing it, after you did it, you're involved. By Hashem, Hashem says אני הוי׳, אני השם לא שניתי. There is no change. The fact that He created the world didn't make a change in Him. It's as if it came from Him, but by itself, which had no effect on Him because it's all nothing compared to Him. That's how we say in davenen every morning, אתה הוא עד שלא נברא העולם, אתה הוא משנברא העולם. You are the same till the world was created, you are the same after the world was created. And in the olden days they used to have a different nusach. Here they used to say אתה הוא עד שלא בראת את העולם, you are the same till, before you created the world, and you are the same after you created the world. The way we say now is, you are the same before the world was created. We don't even refer to it as you created the world. The world was created. You, from You, but it was created because it's not like somebody who's mit'asek, who's involved, because you are limited to what you're doing. Hashem is beyond any limitations. So the way Hashem looks at it, nishta kein velt. That's called yichuda ila'a, the higher יחוד. If a person would reach that madreigah to realize that s'iz nishta kein velt, and the only reason there is a world is only there because Hashem says in the Torah. The truth is, maybe there is no world. Maybe all this is an illusion. Maybe! The truth is, maybe! We have one proof it's not: it says in חומש, בראשית ברא אלקים את השמים ואת הארץ. It says Hashem created heaven and earth. If it wouldn't say in the Torah, I takeh don't know, maybe all this is a joke, maybe it's not even true. Maybe it's all a mistake, an illusion. So when we look from Hashem's perspective, מלמעלה למטה, there is no world. That's yichuda ila'a. So a person who would reach that madreigah, that would mean you have to think about what the world, how low the world is, how it's nothing, it's all limited, and Hashem is completely beyond that is. Then there is a yichuda tata'a. Yichuda tata'a is the lower level. The lower level means the opposite: you look how good the world is, world is, look how great the world is, and then you realize who made that? Who created the world? Hashem. Oh, so you can imagine how great Hashem is. So it's not by saying that there is no world, it's saying that there is a world, and this world has so much in it. מה רבו מעשיך השם, look how many things it has, מה גדלו מעשיך השם, look how your מעשים, how great they are. And the more you realize of what the world is and how great the world is and how deep the world is, then you will come to realize the greatness of Hashem. Actually, it's one of the ways the Rambam says to reach understanding the greatness of Hashem is by thinking about מעשה בראשית, about the creation. And he says, you think deep into the secrets of the creation, you will come to recognize the greatness of Hashem. So it's not realizing how the world is nothing. Realizing how great the world is, but all that came from Hashem. So there is, so your recognizing the unity of Hashem is a result of the fact that there is a world. So the two ways are opposite: the first way, יחודא עילאה, is looking at it from Hashem's perspective that He is there and everything else is just nothing, and the other way is מלמטה למעלה, looking at the world is something, but that something is batel, something only came from Hashem. Now, when we talk about affecting our נפש הבהמית, affecting our animalistic part of ourselves, which is the creation part of ourselves, that could only come from the יחודא תתאה, from the lower level. Because we have, we feel ourselves as a, a מציאות. As far as our נפש הבהמית, animalistic part of it, as far as our גוף, our body is, we feel ourselves as a מציאות. You bet I'm a מציאות, I'm something! And that's nature, it's not our fault, it's not bad, it's not something wrong with us, that's how Hashem created us, that we feel ourselves as a מציאות, as something. And in order for our נפש הבהמית, our יצר הרע, ourselves as we are to recognize the truth of Hashem, we have to work through יחודא תתאה. We have to realize that we as a being, in truth, all came from Hashem. And that's where we work on Pesukei D'Zimra, as I explained, and we work in the ברכות קריאת שמע to come to that point. But from the נשמה's perspective, the נשמה, which is not part of the creation, the נשמה, which is a חלק אלוקה ממעל ממש and is part of Hashem, ממש part of Hashem, the נשמה has an ability to recognize in the world the real, real truth, that in truth, there is no world. The truth is that there is only Hashem, that's יחודא עילאה. So till we get to קריאת שמע and we go through all these stages, we first have to work on the נפש הבהמית, because we can't work on the נפש האלוקית, the נשמה, to reach the high level when we didn't first get rid of the problems that we have, that we are human beings and we have these, so we have to work on that. So we work from פסוקי דזמרה, ברכות קריאת שמע, the second ברכה, to take away the problems from the נפש הבהמית. And the נפש הבהמית, as far as, as I explained all these shiurim and I'm not going to repeat it, that this makes us all feel that we as people, as creatures, as part of the nature are all batal to Hashem, that's יחודא תתאה. And then we are at that point already, we are now able to have what we call the גילוי הנשמה, and we come to the שמע ישראל ה' אלקינו ה' אחד, which is יחודא עילאה. And when we come to the point of יחודא עילאה, at that point, we are ready for mesirat nefesh. What's mesirat nefesh? Mesirat nefesh means giving up your life. A person, when he recognizes that there is there's only Hashem, nothing else, obviously you're ready to to give up your life. And that's why it says in sefarim that when you say שמע ישראל in davenen, one of the kavanot you have to have is that you are ready to give up your life. And to be very practical, simple terms, it means that when you close your eyes, you have to think in your mind, if a person would walk over to me now with a gun to my head and say to me, \"Bow down to an idol or I'll shoot you,\" you have to be ready to say, \"Shoot.\" You have to feel it. That's called מסירת נפש בכח. Baruch Hashem we don't have to do it b'foal. We don't have to do it in reality, b'foal, actually. But b'koach means potentially, but we have to awaken within ourselves that feeling, to really think, not just say think the words, but really think, \"Yes, yes, if someone would walk over with a gun now and want me to bow down to an idol, to convert to Christianity, I would be ready to give up my life.\" That's what we have to think by by Shema. It says in Kitvei HaAri zal that מוצאי Yom Kippur, when we say שמע ישראל ה' אלקינו at the end of Neilah, which is the climax of Yom Kippur, what do we have to have in mind? We have to have in mind that we are ready for mesirat nefesh. Why? Because ה' אלקינו ה' אחד is mesirat nefesh. It is realizing the יחודא עילאה, the highest level of the יחוד, that there is nothing but Hashem. So what does it mean that I won't give up my life? I mean, there's nothing but Hashem! But the truth is that יחודא עילאה is fine. But one might ask, let's say this, let's put it in the form of a question: If we reach a point of יחודא עילאה at the time of שמע ישראל, then why do we continue to יחודא תתאה? And let me explain why is ברוך שם יחודא תתאה, I'll explain. ברוך שם already talks about Hashem not the way Hashem is beyond creation and He is not He is beyond and creation is nothing. ברוך שם כבוד מלכותו, and I'm not going to go into details because Chassidut and Kabbalah explain it, שם is a name. A name of a person, as an example, is not the essence of the person. It's connected to the essence. It's the person himself that's being called by the name, it's not somebody else. But the name itself is not the person. The best proof is a person could live 120 years without a name. The only reason he needs a name is because no one else can refer to him. So the name he needs is only in his relationship to others. No one could refer to him, no one could talk about him. Imagine, I always make this say this, if you want to talk lashon hara about a guy, how would you talk if you don't know his name? How will someone else know that this, so you got to know his name, so you have to have a name. You see, but a name is only for that reason. So name is not the essence of the person, even though I said it has connection to the עצם. It says that if a person faints and you have to revive him, which means you have to bring his life back, one of the etzot is, if nothing else, whisper his own name into his ear, and that'll revive him, because it affects his עצם, it says. And name is the עצם. Or the famous story with the Alter Rebbe, that he was once had the Tzemach Tzedek, a little kid, his grandson sitting on his lap and he was like pointing, a kid, little baby, pointing at his face, \"Oh, this is zeide, zeide.\" So the Alter Rebbe says, \"וואו איז דער זיידע? Where is the zeide?\" So he points at his nose. He says, \"No, דאס איז נישט דער זיידע. He's not zeide, this is zeide's nose. Where is zeide?\" דער זיידע's So he points at the, \"No,\" he says, \"דאס איז זיידע'ס אויערן, this is zeide's ears.\" And he saw the kid saw he's not getting anywhere, so he jumped off the lap, ran out of the door, closed the door, then he ran back in, opened the door, screamed, \"zeide!\" So the Alter Rebbe turned around, and he says, \"דאס איז זיידע.\" So in this case it's the word zeide, but the same thing is with a name. When you call a person by a name, it's his עצם. But on the other hand, the name really is not עצם. It's the same thing by Hashem. When we say שם, כבוד שם, the name, we're talking about Hashem already the way He relates to the world. Just like a name is the way a person relates outside of himself, it's already the lower level, the way he is part of the world. The same is with kavod. What is kavod? Kavod is honor. It's not the person himself, it's something outside of the person. The same is malchut. What's the concept of a king? אין מלך בלא עם. You can't be a king without a nation. So the whole concept of being a king is the fact that there are others that you're a king over. A person who's all alone can't be a king; you have to have other people to be a king over. So kingship is your relationship to others. When we speak about Hashem as שם, כבוד, מלכות, that's all already the lower level, the way Hashem relates to us. Le'olam, into the world. Va'ed means forever, which is time, into the world, which is space. So ברוך שם all talks about the lower level, the way we look at Hashem already the way He's connected to the world, so there is a world, and Hashem is the boss over the world. And we bring it to us. Baruch means blessed, but baruch also means to bring, to be mamshich. The word baruch comes from the word ויברך הגמלים, to bring down. So ברוך שם is already the lower level. So the question one might ask: if we already by Shema reached the point of mesiras nefesh, the point of יחודא עילאה, we went through the whole davenen, we reached יחודא עילאה, then why in the world do we come to ברוך שם and then go down a level? Usually it works opposite: we go higher and higher, we don't go down. And here we're going to Shema and then we're going down.

The answer is because, as I said before, part of what we're trying to do is affect the נפש הבהמית. We did reach a level of affecting, of already revealing the feeling that the neshama has. The neshama, being part of Hashem, could see the world as Hashem sees it. But at the same time, the נפש הבהמית doesn't. And we do say ואהבת את ה' אלקיך בכל לבבך, with both, so we still have to stick to that. So that's what we have. We have here both. At the same time that we have יחודא עילאה, the נפש הבהמית, our animal part of ourselves, cannot reach that level, still sticks to יחודא תתאה. And the emet is that even in the first פסוק, שמע ישראל ה' אלקינו ה' אחד, we already have a hint to the lower level, to יחודא תתאה. Even though we said, \"Hear, O Yidden, Hashem is our God, Hashem is one, nothing else but Hashem,\" so that's the higher level that there is nothing else. But even there already we have a hint to יחודא תתאה. And this I'll explain in a moment why, but it's all for this reason, because we have to have something for the נפש הבהמית. And besides that, I'll tell you the truth: when we sit in shul and we reach this high level—we all see that everyone in shul by Shema Yisrael reaches that high level and feels mamash close to Hashem—close your eyes, and you are יחודא עילאה, the highest level of אחדות השם, you feel there's no world. And then what happens afterwards? You take your hands off, and you go to Shemoneh Esrei, okay, and then you go back to your talking. And then what happens? You go outside, and you say, \"Hey, I just finished saying יחודא עילאה, נישטא קיין וועלט, no world, nothing. Oh, is there a world!\" Go outside, especially if in the weekdays you daven, and you go outside, you go to business, a groyse velt, you have a big world out there and all kinds of problems, and what kind of בבא מעשה is this, ה' אחד, there's no world, it's all only Hashem? So that's why we have to also, at the same time when we reach that level, we have to remember that even in the level where there is a world, it's all battel to Hashem, it's all nullified to Hashem. So at the time when we have יחודא עילאה, we also have to have the יחודא תתאה, we have to have the lower level, which is feeling that in the level where there is a world, it's all batel to Hashem. So when we come out into the world and we see the world, we say, \"Hey, I know, looks like there is a world, but even in the level that I am now, I also am able to recognize that there is a world. Even as far as my נפש הבהמית, which is my animal, which is my involvement in natural, worldly things, there is also Hashem.\" And that's hinted not only in ברוך שם, but in the first pasuk also: ה' אחד. What do we have to think when we say ה' אחד? It says in Shulchan Aruch clearly that when we say ה' אחד, we have to think in our mind: the alef is Hashem, alef is one; chet is eight; dalet is four. And what I'm saying now is from the Shulchan Aruch, taken based on the Gemara, that we have to think in our mind that the chet, which is the eight, meaning the seven heavens and the earth, which is creation, the dalet means the four corners of the world, they are all nullified to the alef, to Hashem, which basically is יחודא תתאה, not יחודא עילאה. It's not that we say, \"You know what? אין עוד מלבדו, there is no world.\" We say there is a world, there is the chet, seven heavens and earth, and there is the dalet, the four corners of the earth, and all that is batel to Hashem. Sometimes that is important for us, because otherwise, you know, we don't even know what, we could just say there is no world. But to realize that there is a world, at the point, because sometimes many times, most of the time we feel there is a world, and even that's nullified. Just to say there is no world is no big kuntz. They say this joke, that once there was this chassid that owed someone money, and the guy came to him and said, \"Pay me my money.\" So he said, \"What's money? S'iz gornisht. Are you talking gelt? S'iz gornisht.\" So he called him to the Rav, a din Torah. And the Rav said to him, \"What happened? You owe him money. Why didn't you pay him?\" \"Gornisht! Nothing. Everything is nothing. הכל הבל, everything is nothing.\" So the Rav saw what is happening here, so he calls the shamash, and he says to the shamash, \"Take this gornisht, put him down on the gornisht, and take down this gornisht, take a big gornisht, and give him a few gornisht's, and we'll see if he's gonna pay the money or not.\" Gornisht means a nothing, but he called it, \"Take this nothing, and put him down on nothing, and bring a big nothing, and hit him four nothings, and we'll see what's gonna happen, if he'll pay the nothing.\" We have to remember that it's not easy, it's easy to say nothing. There is something, and that something has to be according to what Hashem wants, because it's all from Hashem. That is יחודא תתאה. So we can't be stuck with יחודא עילאה, and sometimes we could be in it and we don't bring it down practically, so number one, the נפש הבהמית won't feel it, number two, when we go out and we're not at that stage in middle of davenen where we feel that, then we're lost, because here we felt no world, but there is a world, we don't know what's going on. So we say we have to have the יחודא תתאה also. We have to have the יחודא עילאה of the שמע ישראל, and then we have to have the יחודא תתאה, which is the ברוך שם. And when we have the both together, then we have accomplished what we want. So again, what we're trying to accomplish is here to reach to ואהבת את השם אלוקיך, to love Hashem. And love Hashem means to love Hashem physically, to have a feeling of love. Just like a person who loves some other person, a child or whoever, you actually feel a love. We have to have that to Hashem, but that doesn't come by itself. So we have to go through all these stages: we have to go through פסוקי דזמרה, the first beracha of קריאת שמע, the second, and finally we come to it. And we have the בכל לבבך בשני יצריך, the two. So we have to have the נפש הבהמית, the יצר הרע, and the נפש האלוקית. So we have these two levels in Shema: we have the level of השם אחד, which is the level of יחודא עילאה, then ברוך שם, יחודא תתאה. And in השם אחד itself, we have השם אלוקינו, which is יחודא עילאה, השם אחד, the אחד we said is the אלף, חית and דלת shows there is a world. And then there's one more point how the אחד, as much as we say it's the higher level, includes the lower level, because we use the word אחד. Hashem is one. And Chassidus asks a very strong question: If we want to bring out the true unity of Hashem, it should have said השם יחיד, השם is single. אחד, one, doesn't mean that there is nobody else. That's why we say in in davenen, in Adon Olam, we say, \"והוא אחד ואין שני,\" He is one, there is no second. Why do we have to mention there is no second? Because just by saying אחד is no proof, maybe there is a second. When we say a person, \"This is בן אחד,\" one son, doesn't mean he doesn't have another son. If you want to say he's the only son, you say בן יחיד, a single son. So here really we should have said השם אחד, השם יחיד. And the answer is that this is exactly what we want to say. When we say אחד, one, it's as if we're giving place for a possibility of a second. And nevertheless, we're saying that He's only one, which means יחודא תתאה. We're saying He's one, as if saying there's a possibility of another being, and nevertheless we're saying that that other being is not really there because He's the one. So this is showing that the velt, the world that's there, is really batel to Hashem, it's יחודא תתאה. So if we want, we could break up the first pasuk itself: השם אלוקינו, השם is our God, that's it, אין עוד מלבדו, and השם אחד, יחודא תתאה. Generally speaking, the first pasuk is called יחודא עילאה, and the second pasuk in Kabbalah, is called יחודא תתאה. And then we're able from that to reach the next part, ואהבת את השם אלוקיך. We have love. But what is love? Love really means, Chassidus says, and that's from the Rambam, love means a desire. When you love something, you want it, you have a desire to it. That means to have a desire to Hashem, to have a want. The word ahavah in Hebrew comes from the root word of אבה, אלף בית הא. אבה means to want. There's a pasuk it says, ולא אבה השם אלוקיך לשמוע אל בלעם. Hashem did not want to hear Bilam, to listen to Bilam. Now, normally want is ratzon, but in Hebrew, here in this pasuk it says ולא אבה. אלף בית הא means want. And what does want, even in English, what does want mean? You have will and you have want. Remember the Rebbe once explained why he used the term \"we want Mashiach now\", because in the dictionary want means also there's something lacking, you're missing. That's what want is. That's what love is. Love is you are missing something. That means you feel you want something, there is something you have a desire to. That's what Krias Shema, the davenen is supposed to bring you from Shema, from the beginning on through Shema, so you come to the point of ואהבת, you love Hashem, it means you have a desire. That's what the Rambam says. Love means a desire, a constant desire.

But then we have to remember that it's not enough to stay with this desire, which is like a thirst, but the point is to quench our thirst. If a person wants water, is thirsty, that shows his connection to water, but the main thing is to get the water and drink it. So too here, we have a thirst to Hashem when we reach ואהבת, and then we have to quench it. How do we quench our thirst? We go on with further, by learning Torah the pasuk says, והיה אם שמוע, doing mitzvot, that's the only way we quench our thirst, because the neshamah has this thirst, and also the nefesh habehamit, to get close to Hashem, realizing that the the true being is only Hashem, and the only way we could really truthfully get close to Hashem is by doing Torah u'mitzvot. Nothing else. It says in Zohar: לית מחשבה לית מחשבה תפיסא ביה, there is no thought that could grasp Hashem. Nothing could grasp השם, כי אם, but כשהיא מתלבשת בתורה ומצוותיה, only in Torah u'mitzvot. In Torah, you have Hashem himself. When we learn Torah, we connect ourselves to Hashem, as it says in Tanya at length, we're not going to go into this late. And mitzvot, when we do a mitzvah, we are connected to Hashem, the word mitzvah is צוותא וחיבור, means connection, besides commandment, it means connection, we connect ourselves to Hashem, and we connect ourselves to the essence of Hashem. And no thirst of the neshamah or anything, no malach could connect himself to Hashem like we could through mitzvot. That's why it says the malachim are jealous of us that we have mitzvot. The Baal Shem Tov said that malach Michael, the greatest malach, wishes that he would have at least one tzitzit. He's not so greedy to want four tzitziyot. Four, so much, he never even expects, but at least one tzitzit he should have. And he doesn't even have that. So the connection he has to Hashem is in a certain level, but nothing to the essence of Hashem, and that is through mitzvot. So how do we quench our ahavah? By doing mitzvot. And that's what we continue in the Shema, as I will explain, we will still continue in the in next shiurim about the Shema, we continue and we go into the mitzvot, that after we have the Shema, we have the יחוד, understanding אחדות of Hashem, and the yichud of יחודא עילאה and יחודא תתאה, and then we have the ואהבת בכל לבבך for the יצר הרע and the יצר טוב, נפש הבהמית, then the next thing is ושננתם לבניך, learning Torah, and then to וקשרת, putting on tefillin, and doing mezuzot means all the mitzvot, the next, והיה אם שמוע, because that's how we quench our thirst, and then we have accomplished what davenen is is supposed to accomplish, we have reached the third step of davenen. And then we have to go on to the fourth, and then we have to climb down, and that, אם ירצה השם, we'll talk about in the next classes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. First one I noticed? On Kippur night, is there an option of out loud? Why is that? Because we're finished with Yom Kippur and we're coming down. So now we're working ourselves down. Then we say השם הוא האלוקים which is even lower down. So we start we're holding at the highest level, we come to the climax of Yom Kippur, and then we start our descent. So here the descent is ברוך שם, that we bring down יחודא תתאה and then we go to השם הוא האלוקים, coming down back into the world. Huh? Oh, I'm sorry, I thought you meant by Ne'ilah. Let's start again. By the night. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Why do we say ברוך שם loud? Well, the peshat why we say it loud, the question why do we say ברוך שם כבוד on Yom Kippur loud. Now, I said before why we say it quietly, but I gave only one reason, like I said, this is another class of all the halachot, there's another reason why we say ברוך שם, because we don't want the malachim to hear. They're jealous when we say ברוך שם. Now, Yom Kippur, when we are like malachim, we don't we're not scared of them, so we don't care. It says we're dressed in white, we're like malachim, and so then we're not afraid, so that we were able to say it loud. Now, probably על פי קבלה it also has the same meaning that we say Shema and ברוך שם the same way, in other words, that the yichud of ייחודא עילאה, ייחודא תתאה in a in a complete way. But in the ייחודא תתאה, you really feel ייחודא עילאה, so we don't say it loud. Right? Whatever it is, but that's the the poshuteh reason is what I said, because we are like malachim. Yes, sir. The פשוטע פשט is because a blessing in vain means you blessed Hashem and you used His name and there was no reason for it. And if you say ברוך שם, there was a reason for it. The reason was to praise Him. So to make up a little bit for the mistake, you say ברוך שם. That's it. But there must be a reason, connection to this, that we bring down Hashem close to this world, but that's that's not for now. Yes. Yes. You said when we say the Shema we should be prepared to give up our life for Hashem. What happens if a Jew realizes that he's in a position where he wouldn't be willing to give up his life? He's not ready for it? Yeah, should he still say the Shema? Sure, you still say it, but work on it. Work, a person who doesn't feel should work on it. The next day he should think again, and the third day think again, and bring himself to really come to the point that he's prepared to give up his life. Yeah. That's part of what he has to do. Yes. To the spiritual. Right, that is he's bringing down the higher. That is true. The spirituality of Hashem the way it's beyond. Yeah. Yeah, true. True. Yeah, yes, yes, yes, yes, exactly. And that's why le'olam means into the world. Yes, into the world. Well, we should feel it. That love that neshama has, the נפש הבהמית should feel, so it feels the neshama's love. Exactly. We want to thank