In looking, trying to figure out what topic to discuss, which subject to talk about, so I thought maybe we'll look into Pirkei Avot, and the next few weeks, since we learn Pirkei Avot, maybe to find some kind of topic that's connected to Pirkei Avot and it'll give us some hint, or some indication. So actually I found a Mishnah in Pirkei Avot which led me to discuss the topic of running. Running, it's one of the things that people do. But obviously we're not talking here about running, jogging to lose weight or anything. If we talk about running, it'll obviously be running to do a mitzvah. And there are different aspects to this idea of running, and this is what we're going to discuss. Where did it come into Pirkei Avot, and this is really the subject here in Pirkei Avot. This coming week's Perek, which is פרק רביעי, the fourth perek, the second Mishnah says, בן עזאי אומר, בן עזאי says, הוי רץ למצוה קלה, you should run to a light mitzvah, an easy מצוה, ובורח מן העבירה, and you should run away from an aveirah, from transgressing, שמצוה גוררת מצוה, because a mitzvah pulls another mitzvah, or a reward of, here, let's read the English, one, for one mitzvah brings about another, עבירה גוררת עבירה, one aveirah brings another, and then ששכר מצוה מצוה, the reward of a mitzvah is a מצוה, ושכר עבירה עבירה, and the reward of an aveirah is an aveirah. We're going to discuss this Mishnah and through this we're going to get into different aspects that are connected to running. But basically the Mishnah is telling us, what Ben Azai is saying is that, not that a person is supposed to do the mitzvot, and not that a person is supposed to not to do the aveirot, that we don't need Ben Azai to tell us. That's not Pirkei Avot to tell you that you're supposed to do every mitzvah. What it comes to tell us is that you're supposed to run to do a mitzvah, and that you're supposed to escape, run away from doing an aveirah. That's what he's trying to tell us. So he's adding a point here: not just that you have to do mitzvot, and even if it's a light mitzvah, an easy mitzvah, you still have to do it, but he's telling you הוי רץ לדבר מצוה, you have to run to perform the mitzvah, not so, הוי רץ למצוה קלה, to run to perform a mitzvah. And this is a Mishnah in Pirkei Avot, and we know that the Gemara tells us that Pirkei Avos is called מילי דחסידותא, words of chasidus, which means, as the Gemara says, מאן דבעי למהוי חסיד, if a person wants to be a chassid, you should do everything that it says in Pirkei Avos. That means, what's a chassid? A chassid in the Gemara does not mean as we call a chassid nowadays, a Lubavitcher chassid, a Vizhnitzer chassid, this kind of chassid. A chassid means a person who does lifnim mishurat hadin, who is more careful than the halacha, than the law requires. So the Gemara says if someone wants to be a chassid, wants to perform things better, more than the law requires, you shall do things that it says in Pirkei Avos, because Pirkei Avos, the Mishnayot of Pirkei Avos tell you different things which are not halacha. These are things which are beyond halacha. And that brings up the question: Here it says in Pirkei Avos, Ben Azai says that you should run to do even a mitzvah kalah, even a light mitzvah, an easy mitzvah. This is an halacha! Why would it be in Pirkei Avos? There is an halacha in Shulchan Aruch, the Alter Rebbe brings it in the Shulchan Aruch where it says concerning a shul, a person shall run to shul, הוי רץ לבית הכנסת, you shall run to shul, and then the Alter Rebbe adds in Shulchan Aruch, וכן לדבר מצוה, and the same to every mitzvah, you shall run to do a mitzvah. And being that this is brought down in Shulchan Aruch, it is a clear halacha that you have to run to do a mitzvah. So it's not what we call מילי דחסידותא, things of chasidus, things which are beyond the requirement of the halacha. This is the requirement of the halachah! So obviously there must be something else here. This must be an idea that there are two inyanim here. There's one type of running which is according to halachah, that you have to run to do a mitzvah, and then there's another type of thing which is running to a mitzvah, but that's already beyond the halachah. And we'll get into that, to see what the two things are. Then while we're at the Mishnah, let's discuss some of the details of the Mishnah. The Mishnah says you shall run to a מצוה קלה, to an easy mitzvah. Now there's another Mishnah where it says הוי זהיר במצוה קלה כבחמורה, you shall be careful with an easy mitzvah like you are careful with a strict mitzvah. Here doesn't say that. He should have said הוה רץ למצוה קלה כבחמורה, you shall run to an easy mitzvah like you run to a strict mitzvah. Doesn't say that. Obviously it doesn't mean that. It means that, it doesn't mean that you have to run to an easy mitzvah the same way you run to a strong, to a strict mitzvah. When it says to be careful, there it does mean you should be careful when you do a light, an easy mitzvah as careful as you are when you do a strict mitzvah. But when it says running, it just says run to an easy mitzvah, that even to an easy mitzvah you have to run. When it comes to a strict mitzvah, you have to run even more, they're not the same. But why? What does this mean? And this is what we're going to explain soon. There's another place in Pirkei Avot where it also talks about running, and that is in the fifth פרק of Pirkei Avot, and this will be like a, a different category. It says there Yehudah ben Teima אומר, Yehudah ben Teima says that a person should יתגבר כארי, should be strong like a lion when it comes to a mitzvah. Then it says one of the things, ורץ כצבי, you should run like a deer לעשות רצון אביך שבשמים, to do the will of your Father in Heaven. Now this is also from Pirkei Avot, but this is a different category of running, obviously, because this is brought in Shulchan Aruch too, in the beginning of Shulchan Aruch. The beginning of the Alter Rebbe's Shulchan Aruch, he starts off by quoting this statement from Pirkei Avot, Yehudah ben Teima אומר, Yehudah ben Teima says, and he says one of the things is הוה רץ כצבי, you should run לעשות רצון אביך שבשמים, to do the will of your Father in Heaven. So what comes out from here is that we have three categories of running. We have one type of running which is a halachah. As I said before, it's not from Pirkei Avot, it's a clear halachah. You should run to שול, וכן לדבר מצוה, and so to every mitzvah that you do you have to run, and this is a halachah that you have to do. Then we have the other type of running which comes from Pirkei Avot, but it's brought down in Shulchan Aruch. So this is like a combination of both. Since it comes from Pirkei Avot, obviously it's something that's not so simple, it's not as clear-cut halacha. But nevertheless, because it is brought down in Shulchan Aruch, obviously this is a kind of running that is required according to the Shulchan Aruch, but not simple halacha. And that is the other statement that Yehuda ben Teima says, that you have to be like a deer, run like a deer to do the will of your Father in Heaven. So that is Pirkei Avot, but brought down in Shulchan Aruch. And then we have a third kind of running which is not brought in the Shulchan Aruch at all, and that is just in Pirkei Avot, and that is the one that we're learning here where it says Ben Azzai says הוה רץ למצוה קלה, you should run to perform even an easy mitzvah. Now this means, must mean something else, and this is not brought down in Shulchan Aruch, so obviously this is not a halacha. This is pure Pirkei Avot, which means this is something that is pure מילי דחסידותא, pure things to be done if you want to go out, go beyond the letter of the law. So again, the subject is running, and here we have, and when we talk about running in a shiur, in our shiur, we're not, this is not to discuss the, the running that you do in, on the, what's it called, on the treadmill, or you run to, to lose weight, this is running to do, to learn Torah, to do mitzvot. And here we see that there must be three types of running, three inyanim in running that the, that express three different things. And again, one is something that everyone must do because it's a clear-cut halacha, written in the halacha of a shul, but it says clearly you have to run to shul, and then it says really you have to run to every mitzvah, that's a halacha. Then there is a inyan of you should run like a deer to do the will of Hashem, of your Father in Heaven, and that's Pirkei Avot brought in Shulchan Aruch. And the third one is הוה רץ למצוה קלה, you should run for an, even an easy mitzvah, which is something beyond, which is only brought down in Pirkei Avot, it's not in Shulchan Aruch at all.

In order to understand these three categories of running, we have to understand when it comes to run to do a mitzvah, what does that mean? Why should a person run to do a mitzvah? Why not walk slow? What's the idea of running to do a mitzvah? So we understand like this: we know that it's very important to do מצות בזריזות. Zerizut means, I don't know what's the English word, alacrity. Woah, that's too fancy of a word for me. Say a simple word. Zealous. Zerizut! Enthusiasm is, but even in time, you shouldn't procrastinate, you shouldn't wait to do a mitzvah, you shouldn't hesitate from doing a mitzvah. Procrastinate's a fancy word. I don't know, English an English fancy word. That? That? No, zealousness is in feeling, which is connected, but I'm talking about time, that when a mitzvah comes to you, you should do it right away. Actually there is a halacha, it says מצוה הבאה לידך אל תחמיצנה, a mitzvah that comes to you, don't hesitate, don't push it away, you have to do it right away. But that's still not running. That means that you're doing it right away, you're not waiting, you're going to do the mitzvah. What brings a person to do the mitzvah right away? Why would a person do it right away? Because he's happy to do it. It's not a burden. Something that's a burden, you try to push off. Something you don't like to do, you try to push off. Something that you're happy to do, you don't push off, you're happy. So when it comes to do a mitzvah, and if you're happy, you have what we call simcha shel mitzvah, you have the joy in doing a mitzvah, because you know this is the right thing to do, this is what you want to do, you'll do it right away. But it doesn't necessarily mean that you are going to run. Running is when your simcha in doing the mitzvah is beyond that, which, using the word of Chassidus, if you have a simcha which is beyond הגבלות, beyond limitations, it is not limited, it is not so limited to your nature, you go beyond your nature, then you would run. In Yiddish there's an expression when somebody does something beyond his nature, is Er iz aroys fun di keilim, he went out of his vessels. Because vessels limit you. So when you do something within your limitations, even if you're good, and you're happy to do it, but you're limited, so then you will do it with simcha, you will do it in the proper time, you will not push it off, but you will not necessarily run to do it. But when your simcha is much stronger than your limitations, then you just can't wait. It's beyond limits. When do you run to do something? Something, it's not just something that you're happy with, something that you can't wait to get. So you run to it. So running to a mitzvah means that you can't wait to do the mitzvah. And we find stories with great צדיקים that just couldn't wait. Especially mitzvot that come from time to time. They say that the Berdichever, one of the years, the first night of Sukkot, couldn't sleep a whole night, because he knew the next morning he's going to do the mitzvah, so he couldn't sleep a whole night because for a whole year he didn't do the mitzvah of אתרוג. And he waited for the second it was possible, and he jumped out of bed, and he ran to do the אתרוג. The story goes that he did it, it was in a glass case and he didn't even notice it, and he went to get the אתרוג and he broke the glass case and he cut himself, because it was excitement beyond the limitations of what you do normally. Where does this come from? Where What brings a person to do it in such a way? Why would some people do the mitzvot on time, properly, with simcha, but not, oh, not gevaldig, as we say, nisht gevaldig, they don't run for it, and why would some people run for it? What is the basis of this? The basis of it is how battel you are to Hashem. How much you have your selflessness, your self-nullification to Hashem. When a person still has his own being, he still has his own, Chassidus using the words, his own יש, his own מציאות. So as much as he knows about Hashem and he cares about Hashem and he's close to Hashem, but he still doesn't go out of his own מציאות, of his own יש. So therefore, since his מציאות still counts, so it's limited to his מציאות, that's limited to how much he understands. And since a person's understanding is limited, so his connection to Hashem is limited, his bitul to Hashem is limited according to his understanding, and therefore, his wanting to do the mitzvot will be according to the limitations that he has. But a person that's completely battel to Hashem, and basically he forgets about his own מציאות and doesn't care about himself, and he doesn't exist in his own eyes, and his whole existence is only an expression of Hashem, he has the complete, true bitul to Hashem, then he will run to do the mitzvah, because a mitzvah is an expression of Hashem's will. And the moment he knows that there is such a thing as Hashem's will in this situation, and he doesn't count at all, so he doesn't have limitations that will stop him from doing it. So what's he going to do? He's going to run to do the mitzvah. He can't wait, because why should he wait? Who is the he? He waiting means I'm tired now, calmly I'll do it on time. I'm going to rush to do it. So basically it comes out that who will do something like running to a mitzvah? Someone who's completely batel, who doesn't care, he's a in in simple terms is a person who has the complete anavah, anivut, humility. Using the chassidishe terminology, someone who's batel, doesn't have ישות. That's the person that's going to run. But a person that has ישות, even though he's a פרומער איד and he likes Hashem and he's happy to do the mitzvot, but he won't run. Where do we find this, that if a person is completely batel then he'll do things which are beyond the limitations? We find it concerning David Hamelech. It's brought down in Tanach, but it's also brought down in the Rambam at the end of הלכות לולב. In the end of הלכות לולב the Rambam says how important it is to have שמחה של מצוה, to do a mitzvah with joy, with simchah. So the Rambam brings the example of David Hamelech. When they brought the ארון הקודש, when they brought the Holy Ark with the לוחות, it says David Hamelech walked in front of it מפזז ומכרכר בכל עוז, he was jumping and dancing, or in simple terms ער האט זיך גוט משוגע געמאכט, he made himself crazy in front of the ארון out of simchah for the ארון. And the daughter of Shaul, Michal bat Shaul, was watching from the window, the king! So she came over to him and she said, \"You're embarrassing us! You're the king! How could you do these things, מאכן ממש like this, מאכן משוגע?\" So he answered her, and the words that are used there that he said, that \"Who am I? I'm nothing, and I'm doing this in order to give kavod to the ארון הקודש which is for Hashem, so I'm allowed to do it.\" Now, in other words what he was saying was the reason he's able to do it going out of his limitations, if he would only use his שכל he wouldn't do it, but because his שכל didn't stop him from doing it, because his whole מציאות did not count. His whole metziut, Dovid Hamelech especially we know, Dovid Hamelech was completely mevatel himself. There's a pasuk Dovid Hamelech said, \"ואנכי תולעת ולא איש.\" \"I'm like a worm, not a human being.\" He was so batel. He killed his yetzer hara, says in Tanya brought down, כהורגו בתענית. So he was completely selfless, and therefore he did something which was beyond the limitations. So in his case what it was, was that he danced and sang and jumped and did things which are not normal. It also expresses itself in running to do a mitzvah, not just walking slow, even if you don't push it off, but you're just walking. Running means that you are completely more batel. If you have the bittul, then you will do it.

This explains an interesting thing. We said before that the Alter Rebbe in Shulchan Aruch says that you have to run to shul. Says you should, you have to run to shul, and also to every mitzvah. And he quotes a pasuk. And he quotes like the pasuk says, \"נרדפה לדעת את השם.\" We will run to know Hashem. So that's a pasuk which shows נרדפה means to run, that shows that you have to run. But the question that comes up here, for all anybody who's familiar with the Alter Rebbe's Shulchan Aruch, the way he writes the halachot, the Alter Rebbe writes the reasons for the halachot. But in most cases he doesn't write the sources for the halachah. There are so many halachot which are based on different pesukim, and the Alter Rebbe doesn't bring the pesukim. Even though in the Gemara, which is the source of all the halachot, every halachah is learned out from a different pasuk, but the Alter Rebbe in Shulchan Aruch does not bring the pesukim. Here, the Alter Rebbe brings a pasuk. He brings a pasuk where it says, \"נרדפה לדעת את השם,\" we will run to know Hashem. Why does he bring the pasuk? If he would bring a reason, we'd understand. Actually that's the difference between the Alter Rebbe's Shulchan Aruch—it's not important to this subject, but I'm just mentioning anyway—the difference between the Alter Rebbe's Shulchan Aruch and the regular Shulchan Aruch from the Beit Yosef is that the Beit Yosef did not write the halachot with their reasons. He just wrote halachot, halachot, halachot, didn't write the reasons. The Alter Rebbe in Shulchan Aruch, every halacha has the reason. But not the source. If the Alter Rebbe would write all the sources, it would be triple the size. So he didn't write the sources, didn't write which pesukim we learn out from. How come in this halacha the Alter Rebbe writes the source, from which pasuk we learn it out, that you have to run to do a mitzvah? So here we have the Rebbe's explanation. He says when the Alter Rebbe brings this pasuk, it's not the source, it's the reason. This pasuk gives out the reason. What was the reason a person should run to do a mitzvah, we said? Because if you are completely batel to Hashem, this brings you to run to the mitzvah. This pasuk expresses this idea that a person should be completely batel to Hashem. Where is it in the pasuk? The pasuk says, \"נרדפה לדעת את השם,\" we should run to know Hashem. So the Rebbe explains it like this. The Tzemach Tzedek explains this pasuk as follows. If we look at the pasuk itself, the pasuk says, \"נדעה נרדפה לדעת את השם.\" We will know, we will run to know Hashem. So the Tzemach Tzedek asked, why is the word to know written twice in this pasuk? Again, the pasuk says נדעה, we will know, and נרדפה, we will run, לדעת, to know את השם. So it says the word da'at, knowing, twice. So the Tzemach Tzedek explains, and we're going to get a little bit into a Chassidish subject here of Chassidut, that the two times da'at refer to the two types of da'at that exist. We know it says in Chassidus that there is דעת תחתון and דעת עליון. דעת תחתון means the lower da'at, the da'at of below, da'at the knowledge, the understanding of the below. דעת עליון is the understanding of the above. What's the difference between דעת תחתון and דעת עליון? So דעת תחתון is the way we see things, and דעת עליון is the way the above sees things, the way things are seen above, the way Hashem sees things. What is the difference the way we see things, the way Hashem sees things? Well, the difference is very simple. We look at the world and to us, the world we always use this term, even in Torah, the world was created יש מאין, the world was created something from nothing. In other words, we refer to the world as a something. And this something came from nothing, because in our eyes, what is something? What is a יש? What is a being? גשמיות, this physical world is a being, is something that exists. Spirituality, רוחניות, something which is not tangible, is not something that we are able to relate to, so to us, that's not a real מציאות, that's not really something. That's דעת תחתון, that's the way we look at it. But then you have the דעת עליון. דעת עליון is the way Hashem looks at things. He looks opposite. רוחניות is something, Hashem is the real מציאות. He is what would be called the יש האמיתי, the true יש, the true being, and this world is really nothing. This world is not a real מציאות, as it says in Chassidus in all the places that we have to realize that this world is כלא חשיב, is like nothing, and אין עוד מלבדו, there is nothing but Hashem, etc., etc. This is all true, but that's not what we see. That's called דעת עליון, that's the way it's looked from above. We see da'at, we have דעת תחתון. The pasuk here that the Tzemach Tzedek says uses the two terms, נדעה, נרדפה לדעת, it mentions two דעות to tell us that what could bring a person to run to do a mitzvah is if a person has the דעת עליון. If a person is in a level where he's able to feel as it is felt above, למעלה, then he's able to be נרדפה, then he's able to run. So in other words, what is the reason behind this mitzvah that you have to run to do a mitzvah? It is because a person should really be batel to Hashem, that he should really want to run to do the mitzvah. So this is what the Alter Rebbe does. He quotes the pasuk not because he wants to bring the source of the pasuk why we have to run to do a mitzvah, he quotes the pasuk to give the reason. So that's what he says: a person should run to shul, וכן לדבר מצוה, also to every mitzvah you have to run. And then he says שנאמר, because it says, and this is going to be the reason why you should run, because it says נדעה נרדפה לדעת השם, you should know to run and to know Hashem. In other words, there are two דעות in this pasuk, which tells us that we have to have both דעות. It's not enough for us to have the דעת תחתון, the way we look down here, we also have to have the דעת עליון. We have to also look at the world and not just say the words, but really feel the way it's דעת עליון. Because we're supposed to reach that level, that's why we're supposed to run to do a mitzvah. So now we already know what is the meaning of the Shulchan Aruch when it says in Shulchan Aruch every person has to run to do the mitzvot, says run to shul, to every mitzvah, because a person is supposed to be at the level that you're completely בטל to Hashem.

But then we have a very strong question here: how many people hold at that level? Very few. Nevertheless, this is a דין in Shulchan Aruch for every person, that every person has to run to shul and run to do a mitzvah. Why? If the whole reason the running is only because you feel so close to Hashem, and you feel that you you are nothing, and all you care is about Hashem and His mitzvot, and therefore you just run to do the mitzvah, so it should only apply to those people who have that feeling. But why is it in Shulchan Aruch that it's a דין for everybody? The answer is very simple. We find that the הלכות or the mitzvot were made by Hashem in such a way that it coincides with the real, real, true meaning and depth of the mitzvah. And because of that, the mitzvot and the הלכות were set up in a certain way, and even those that are not at the level of why the mitzvot were made in a certain way, still have to do it. I'll give you an example, not only by mitzvot, even by other things. For instance, we always learn, and it's one of the things we spoke about many times, why was the order of davening set up the way it's set up? That first we have פסוקי דזמרה, we have the parts the parts of davening that we daven, הללוקות, and then we have the berachot of Kriat Shema, and then we have Kriat Shema, then we have Shemoneh Esrei. So, we always learn, you know why it's set up that way? Because these are stages. A person when he starts davenen is supposed to try to get closer to Hashem. You start down here, and you walk work yourself up. That's why in the Zohar, davenen is referred to as a ladder. When Yaakov Avinu had the dream of the ladder, the Zohar says, דא צלותא, the ladder is davenen, because it's like a ladder. The ladder stands on the floor, you start from the bottom, and then you go up all the way שמימה. The same thing with davenen: when you start davenen, you're still low, every morning you're still on a low level, and when you start, you start walking up, you're getting closer to Hashem, so first you go through Pesukei Dezimra, and then you go berachot Kriat Shema, finally you reach the level where you are at Kriat Shema, where in Kriat Shema we say ואהבת את השם אלקיך, you shall love Hashem, you reach the point of love, and it's impossible to reach the point of loving Hashem if you don't go through the stages of Pesukei Dezimra and berachot Kriat Shema. And then finally, we go further, after Kriat Shema, the next step is Shemoneh Esrei. Shemoneh Esrei is the highest level, then it says Shemoneh Esrei is כעבדא קמיה מריה, when you stand already like a servant in front of his master, you're completely batel. So, the reason we daven, the davenen is set up in such a way, because this represents the different levels we reach. Now, I would like to know how many people when they daven, follow through, go through these stages? There are some, I'm sure people will daven with kavana, but when you come to shul, you'll see that davenen takes 35 minutes, 40 minutes, 45 minutes. If a person would daven and go through all these levels, you know how long it would take? Should take hours. Even just to think that you're going through these levels, certainly if you actually want to live through these levels. I don't want to spend time on the story, but I'll tell it anyway, the story with the Mezeritcher Maggid. The Mezeritcher Maggid had a friend who used to learn with him in his youth, also a great scholar and And that person came what he became, he, and the Mezeritcher Maggid became the great Mezeritcher Maggid. Once his friend came to visit him, and he saw that the Mezeritcher Maggid davent for hours upon hours upon hours. So, he went into him, and he was talking to him, and he says, \"I know you, we're both friends, and I'm sure when you daven, you have great kavanot, כוונות האר״י ז״ל. Why's it take you so long? I also daven with כוונות האר״י ז״ל. Takes me two hours, takes you five hours? What what takes you so long? What are you doing there?\" The מגיד didn't answer him, said, \"I'll answer you later.\" They got into the conversation, he said, \"What do you do?\" So, he told him the truth. He says, \"I learn most of the time, and I have a store that my wife manages the store and she sells, but for one month a year, I have to go to the big city, to Leipzig, and it takes me a month to get till I get there and I buy all the merchandise, I bring it back, and then I put it in the store. So, I have to spend a month out of the year spend time on my business, and then the rest of the year, I'm able to learn.\" So, the Mezeritcher Maggid says to him, \"I don't understand, why does it take you so long? I have an advice for you. Why do you have to take waste a month to do it? I have an advice: why don't you sit down and meditate and imagine that you're walking onto the train, and then the train is going, and this is the first stop, and this is the second stop, and this is the all the details, all the details, till finally, you got to the city, you're going into this place to buy the merchandise here, merchandise there, you pack it up, you think in your mind, and then you're going back. This whole thing will take you a few hours till you go through all the details, but that's all. You won't waste the whole month. Why do you have to waste the whole month?\" So, he says, \"I don't What are you talking about? What's wrong?\" He says, \"Yeah, but I need the merchandise. This is all fine, but I don't have the merchandise.\" He said, \"That's the difference between me and you. You just think about different levels, so how long does it take just to go through the thoughts? So, it takes you two hours. I actually experience it. I have the merchandise. I actually, when I reach a level, I'm there! So, that takes much longer! Just like in you, it takes you a month versus a few hours, takes me five hours versus you an hour. So, in order to do it, it takes time, but we daven so fast.\" So, the question is, you know what the halacha should have been? That a person who reaches these very high levels and goes to davenen according to all these levels, he should daven in this order, because he knows that he starts off with one thing and then continues and then continues and goes But we who daven anyway fast, and to us it's all the same, so why do we have to go through this order? The answer is very simple. When the chachamim established the halachot, they established it according to the true inner meaning of what it's supposed to represent. And since the davenen is supposed to be this way, that everyone has to daven this way. So the same thing here also. The reason why a person has to run to do a mitzvah is because he's supposed to be so batel. That's the source, that's the reason behind it. But nevertheless, the Shulchan Aruch is written for every person, because every person has to run to do a mitzvah, because that's where the chachamim set it up based on what is really behind the mitzvah. But the truth is it goes a little bit further than that. It's not only because it's based on the real way to do it is because you're really batel and that's why you want to run to do the mitzvah, there's another point to it. If a person will do the physical act, this itself will bring him that he will become batel to Hashem. It works both ways. When a person is really batel to Hashem, and he really cares only about Hashem and doesn't care about himself at all, this is a reason why a person would run. On the other hand, it works the other way too. If a person would constantly run to do the mitzvah and not wait, this itself could bring out into the person that the person will start becoming batel to Hashem. And if you look in the pasuk, Alter Rebbe brings, it says נרדפה לדעת את השם, we shall run to know Hashem. As if it's saying See, before we were saying that because you know Hashem, you have the דעת עליון, this higher דעת, that's why you run to do the mitzvah. It's the other way too. When you run to do the mitzvah, this will lead you לדעת את השם, that you will reach the level of having this דעת עליון, that this will bring you to get closer to Hashem. And it's interesting that this is the reason why where In which mitzvah do we find the source that you have to run? It says by every mitzvah. But how does it start? It starts off by saying you should run to shul, and also to all the mitzvot. Why is the first place it's written is running to shul, to daven? Because as we just explained, davenen is a way we step higher and higher and we get closer to Hashem. And this is the idea of running to every mitzvah. Running to every mitzvah is a stepping stone that will bring us to get closer to Hashem. When we do the things right, and we train ourselves to do it in a way that in depth it means that you really care. So even if you don't really care so much about it, but you're acting that way, you're acting as if you care, and you're behaving according to the level that you care, then this will make you care, and this will make the person completely become batel to Hashem. So this is what it says in Shulchan Aruch that you have to run. It's talks about every single Jew. This is not from Pirkei Avot. This is not something that's beyond the letter of the law. This is not something that's deep in the person's נפש, something that has to do with his deep understanding and connection to Hashem. The Shulchan Aruch says clearly, you have to run, this is a physical halachah, you have to run to do a mitzvah. And that's not a that's not something beyond the letter of the law. Comes in Pirkei Avot, in Pirkei Avot it comes to tell you even more. In Pirkei Avot it comes to tell you since Pirkei Avot is מילי דחסידותא, it's not just clear halachot for every single person, it's something that's extra, so it comes to tell you that So it talks about the deeper feelings of the person. And that is the inner meaning of the running. And the inner meaning of the running is the feeling that you have. So in Pirkei Avot we find two statements which tell you the depth of what the running means. And one is that you should run like a deer to do the will of your Father in heaven, and the other one is what it says here, you should run to a מצוה קלה, you should run even to an easier mitzvah. And I'll explain what these two mean. First we said that by every mitzvah a yid has to run whether you're holding at that level or not, that's Shulchan Aruch. Then you have another thing, that you have to have the feeling of closeness to Hashem, which is not halachah because not everyone can have it, but nevertheless it's something that from the Pirkei Avot it was written in the Shulchan Aruch It was It became a halachah because it's much easier for people to develop. And what is that? The beginning of Shulchan Aruch starts with the words like I said, you shall run like a deer to do the will of Hashem. Where is this written? In the beginning of Shulchan Aruch. Before Shulchan Aruch even talks about the person saying Modeh Ani in the morning, this refers to the general In Yiddish we call it אוועקלייג. How would you say it in English? A general Principle? No, no. אוועקלייג is giving yourself over to Hashem, huh? No, not sacrificing. That a person dedication, dedication. That's the word. A person that dedicates himself to Hashem, which is a form of bitul, that's something that's easier for a person to do. So we have like this: the first level is the physical act, run to a mitzvah. Then it says, but besides the physical running you have to have the feelings. And the feeling, one feeling is that's easy to accomplish, and that's the general dedication to Hashem. See, to say that every individual mitzvah that I do, I should feel in that מצוה השם and not care about myself, that's very hard. But the general dedication and giving yourself over to Hashem, that's שייך to all all people. Meaning to say that when you wake up in the morning, the first thing that we do is we say to Hashem: We are Yours. And that's something that every Jew is able to do and actually every Jew does. When we wake up in the morning we say Modeh Ani. מודה אני לפניך, we say we thank You Hashem. It's not only thanks, it's hoda'ah, which means we admit to You Hashem, we give ourselves over to Hashem. And that's the beginning of the whole day. And this is something that every Jew is able to do, able to reach no matter what level he is. Because this is something that has to do with the neshama of a Yid. That's why in Modeh Ani there is no name of Hashem. What is the reason why there is no name of Hashem? There are two opposite reasons. One reason is because you say מודה אני before negel vasser, your hands are still tamei, can't mention Hashem's name. And then there's another reason given: because the name of Hashem, since it's a name, is already a description, it's already a limitation. There is this essential connection that a Yid has to Hashem from his neshama, which is beyond the limitations of the person, reaching into the level of Hashem which is beyond any limitations, even spiritual limitations of Hashem. And in Chassidus the expression is: קיין טומאה אין דער וועלט קען נישט אנרירן דעם מודה אני פון א איד. No tumah in the world could affect the Modeh Ani of a Yid. So the reason Hashem's name is not there not because we're tamei so we're too low to mention Hashem's name, because it's something that is so high that is beyond the tumah and the tumah can't affect it, so we don't we could say it before negel vasser and Hashem's name is not there because it's something that's beyond any names, because like I said, a name is a limitation. So that is the general אוועקלייג a Yid has to Hashem. And what does where does it express itself? In the fact that he runs. Because we said before, running to a mitzvah means giving yourself over to Hashem. Here it says: A person shall run like a deer to do the will of our Father in Heaven. It doesn't mention to do individual mitzvah, because here we're talking about general idea of a Yid giving himself over to Hashem to do the will of Hashem. Now this is already deeper than just a physical act. Here we're talking already about a feeling. That's why this is something that's in Pirkei Avot. Pirkei Avot we said is deeper than just the letter of the law, but it's a kind of thing that's taken from Pirkei Avot and brought into Shulchan Aruch, because it's something that every person can adapt and every person can accomplish to give himself over completely to Hashem.

But then there is another level, and that's the third type of running. And that is that not only generally speaking a person גיט זיך איבער to Hashem, and like all of us, at that level we're all, ask any Yid, we're all frume Yidden that means we're all our life is basically based on keeping mitzvot and we're all giving over to Hashem. But when it comes to individual mitzvot, that's already harder. That we should feel in each mitzvah, that each mitzvah is Hashem and we don't care about ourselves, but we care about the mitzvah, that's already a high level. So that is what Ben Azai meant. When Ben Azai says הוי רץ למצוה קלה, you shall run to even an easy mitzvah, he specifically does not say you should run to an easy mitzvah like a hard mitzvah, because you have to run to a hard mitzvah even more, because we're talking here about each individual mitzvah in its own right. And therefore he says you have to run to every mitzvah according to it, but you have to run to it. What does it mean to run to every mitzvah? It means to feel that when it comes to do a mitzvah, not only generally speaking because it's Hashem and mitzvah so we give ourselves over, but each individual mitzvah with its own individual meaning is so important that it's the most important thing that counts, and ourselves don't count at all when it comes to that mitzvah. That's a high level. And that's something that's only written in Pirkei Avot. It's said by Ben Azai. Why by Ben Azai? Because Ben Azai was a person that was completely given over to Hashem. He had, chasidut calls it, a רצוא without a שוב. Ben Azai was the one that said that he doesn't want to get married. And he said, why not? מה אעשה שנפשי חשקה בתורה. What can I do? They told him, why don't you get married? How can I get married? נפשי חשקה בתורה, I desire to learn. His giving himself over to Hashem was beyond anything. And על פי הלכה, a person like that was allowed to do it. In Shulchan Aruch the Alter Rebbe discusses it, that according to הלכה, even though there's a mitzvah of פרו ורבו, you have to get married, but a person of the caliber of Ben Azai, he had the right to do it because he was so much given over to Hashem and nothing in this world counted to him. So Ben Azai is the one that comes and says, you should know that you have to run to an individual mitzvah even when it comes to the individual mitzvot, not the general giving over, which is very high to have to do it. And that's something in Pirkei Avot. So let's make a סך הכל, a sum total of the things that we spoke about. We have three places where it talks about running to do a mitzvah. One is in Shulchan Aruch, so you should run to shul and every mitzvah. One is that you have to run like a deer to do the will of Hashem, which is from Pirkei Avot, but it's brought in Shulchan Aruch. And then we have Ben Azzai says you should run to even an easy mitzvah, and that's Pirkei Avot, which shows that it's not for everybody, it's only for people who are on a higher level because we're referring to three different things. What it says in Shulchan Aruch is the simple act: you have to run to the mitzvah. That's shayach to everybody. Every Yid has to run when it comes to do a mitzvah, comes to shul, it says you should run. When you leave shul, so you should go slow. But when you come to shul, you should go fast. And then it says וכן לכל דבר מצוה, to every mitzvah, you have to run. Why do you have to run? Because essentially a Yid's supposed to be batel to Hashem that he can't wait and he runs. So therefore, even if a Yid is not at that level, but the bottom line, the act he could do and this will help bring him that he should reach the level that he's supposed to feel at that. But we're talking about in Shulchan Aruch, we're talking about the physical act. Then Pirkei Avot talks about the spirituality behind it, the spiritual avodah behind it. And that itself has the two parts. There's one type that says you should run generally speaking, you should be batel to Hashem in a general way, which is something beyond the simple physical act, but it's still close and a person is able to accomplish it. And then you have the other thing that you have to be batel to Hashem in such a way that every individual mitzvah according to its own meaning should mean for us so much that we have to, we will run to it. And that's something not everyone could do and only special people could do. But at least when we learn about it, we know where to strive to. Someone might ask if most of the things, or all the things in Pirkei Avot, are things that are for people on a higher level, so why do we learn it? We know we're not at that level and probably will never get to that level. But at least we know what the levels are, we know what we're striving to. A person knows that he has to get over there, so whether he'll get there or not, at least he's in the right direction and he's striving. So if you're going in the right direction, we know already where we're gearing to get to, that's already important, and that already is part of being there because we're going in the direction there. And also possible that if a person works on it hard, he will reach that level actually. But the bottom line is what we talk, take out from here, when we talk about running, we should know what it means. Running is running to do the will of Hashem. We say when we, speaking from the Gemara, when we finish a masechta, there is a whole bunch of, you know, little things, tefilot that we say. So one of the things that we say that we thank Hashem that You made us who we are, people who sit in the בית המדרש, who are able to learn, and we're not like the יושבי קרנות, not like the people who sit at the corners, which means people who the bums. And it says the difference between us and them, הם רצים ואנו רצים. They're running and we're running. The difference is הם רצים לבאר שחת, they're running into גיהנום, ואנו רצים, and we run ומקבלים שכר, we run to השם and we get schar. And we hope that when we run to Hashem, we'll catch up to Him, and Hashem will take us in, and what He'll do is when we get to Him, that will be when He will bring משיח צדקנו במהרה בימינו. אמן.