Starting from Modeh Ani, then פסוקי דזמרה, then we went to ברכות קריאת שמע, and then Kriat Shema, and then we went through the first parashah of Kriat Shema, the second parashah of Kriat Shema, and now we are up to the third parashah of Shema. And I would like to explain not again as I always say, not the halachot of Shema, not the halachot pertaining to the first third parashah of Shema, but more this the philosophy, the Chassidishe approach, according to Chassidut what the third parashah of Shema teaches us and what it's supposed to mean to us spiritually. Now, we know that the third parashah of Shema is really the parashah of tzitzit. The first parashah of Shema starts with Shema, and then ואהבת, that's the first parashah. Then we have והיה אם שמוע תשמעו, which is the other parashah, and the third parashah of Shema is ויאמר ה׳ אל משה, ה׳ spoke to Moshe, let's take a siddur, and Hashem told Moshe to tell the אידן, דבר אל בני ישראל ואמרת אליהם ועשו להם ציצית, it's the parashah of tzitzit, tell them to make tzitzit. And it goes through the details of tzitzit, and it says that by having the ציצית, והיה לכם לציצת, וראיתם אותו, when you see the ציצית, וזכרתם את כל מצות ה׳, you will remember all the mitzvot of ה׳, ועשיתם אותם, you will do them. And then the pasuk again says, למען תזכרו ועשיתם את כל מצותי, in order for you to remember and to do all the mitzvot. Then it says, אני ה׳ אלקיכם, I am ה׳ your God, אשר הוצאתי אתכם מארץ מצרים, that I took you out of מצרים, להיות לכם לאלקים, to be a God to you. This is the third parasha of Kriat Shema. Now, why is this connected to the first two portions of Shema? We know that in the first part of Shema, it says in the in the Shema it says, והיו הדברים האלה אשר אנכי מצוך היום על לבבך, that these words that I tell you should be on your heart. So this is what Hashem wants us to have, to say, this is the parasha of Shema. Then we continue the second parasha, it also says, ולמדתם אותם את בניכם לדבר בם, so that they should talk these words. But the third part, which deals with the mitzvah of tzitzit, why is that part of the mitzvah of Shema? So the Rambam says that the reason this is part of Shema is because it mentions here that we should remember all the mitzvot: וזכרתם את כל מצותי, you should remember all the mitzvot, or it says למען תזכרו ועשיתם את כל מצותי, you should remember and do all the mitzvot. And that's connected to Shema, because Shema is when we accept upon ourselves the yoke of the mitzvot. As I've mentioned all the other times, the Gemara says that the first part of Shema is קבלת עול מלכות שמים, is when we accept upon ourselves the yoke of the מלכות, the kingship of Hashem, and the second parasha is קבלת עול מצוות, when we accept upon ourselves the yoke of doing the mitzvot. So since we accept upon ourselves the yoke of doing the mitzvot, so as a continuation we mention also the third part, we say the third part, which also talks about all the mitzvot: וזכרתם את כל מצות ה׳, למען תזכרו ועשיתם את כל מצותי, you should remember all the mitzvot. But there's another opinion why we have this as part of Shema, and that's the opinion actually that's brought down in the Alter Rebbe's Shulchan Aruch, and that is because we want to mention Yetzias Mitzrayim, we want to mention that we went out of Mitzrayim. We know that there is a mitzvah every day to remember that we went out of Mitzrayim, as the pasuk says, and this is one of the pesukim that's very famous, because we say it in the Haggadah, and who doesn't say the Haggadah? In the Haggadah it says, we bring the פסוק, למען תזכר את יום צאתך מארץ מצרים כל ימי חייך, you should remember the day you went out of Mitzrayim all the days of your lives. And we even bring the derash what the חכמים דרשן, ימי חייך is הימים, when it says you should remember the days of your lives, that refers to the days, that every day during the day you have to remember יציאת מצרים, כל ימי חייך, by adding the word all the days of your lives, so the word all comes to add להביא הלילות, that even the nights. So therefore, just like we have a mitzvah of Shema in the morning and a mitzvah of saying Shema at night, we also have a mitzvah of remembering Yetziat Mitzrayim, remembering that we went out of Mitzrayim in the morning during the day, and a mitzvah of remembering at night. And that's why we connect this to Shema. We know that this is one of the mitzvot, one of the שש זכירות. At the end of davenen, the custom is that we say the שש זכירות, six things that we have to remember every day. One is, and the first is למען תזכר את יום צאתך מארץ מצרים, the pasuk that I mentioned, to remember Yetziat Mitzrayim. So to fulfill that mitzvah, we have this saying of the third parashah of Shema, because at the end of that parashah it says, אני ה׳ אלקיכם אשר הוצאתי הוצאתי אתכם מארץ מצרים להיות לכם לאלוקים. I am Hashem your God that took you out of Mitzrayim to be your God. So since in this portion, in this chapter, Yetziat Mitzrayim is mentioned, the fact that we left Mitzrayim is mentioned, that's why we say this. Now what we have to understand is like this: we understand according to the Rambam how this is connected to the mitzvah of Shema, because as we said before, the mitzvah of Shema, the second portion of Shema is קבלת עול מצות, that we accept the yoke of all the mitzvot. So as a continuation to the mitzvah of Shema where we accept the yoke of mitzvot, we have the third port- part of Shema which also talks about all the mitzvot. But according to the Alter Rebbe, which means according to the other opinion, we understand why we say this, but why is it connected to Shema? We understand why we say it is because we have to fulfill the mitzvah of remembering יציאת מצרים, of remembering the fact that we left Mitzrayim. So here we have it. But why connect it to Shema? Why wouldn't it be a separate thing? Why wouldn't it be someplace else? There should be a mitzvah that every day, in the morning and evening, we should say this. But why as part of Shema? There must be something there that is connected to Shema. Besides that, there's another question: even if for some reason we want to connect יציאת מצרים to Shema, why parashah of tzitzit? יציאת מצרים, besides this time where the Torah tells us the story, there are many more times during the in the Torah where the Torah mentions the fact that we went out of Mitzrayim. So why not mention any of those pesukim? Why specifically יציאת מצרים that's mentioned in connection to tzitzit? It would make more sense that in order to fulfill the mitzvah of זכר ליציאת מצרים, of remembering יציאת מצרים, we should say that specific pasuk that I mentioned before from the שש זכירות. We should say every day, in the morning and evening, the pasuk: למען תזכר את יום צאתך מארץ מצרים כל ימי חייך, you should remember יציאת מצרים all your lives, and with that, with doing that, we would have mentioned יציאת מצרים. Why connect it specifically, why mention the יציאת מצרים that's connected to the mitzvah of tzitzit? So this is a kashya according to the other shita, according to the Alter Rebbe. The truth is, even according to the Rambam, who says that the reason we mention the we say the third portion is because we want to mention all the mitzvot, what is the purpose? What does that add? Isn't that just repeating what we said before? In the second parashah of Shema, we are מקבל עול מצות, we accept the yoke of mitzvot, so already we accepted all the mitzvot. והיה אם שמע תשמעו אל מצותי, to the mitzvot that Hashem said. So what is the idea of having another parashah and again mentioning למען תזכרו וזכרתם את כל מצות השם, remember the מצות, למען תזכרו ועשיתם את כל מצותי? There must be something in addition that this parashah add to what we said before, even according to the Rambam. But certainly according to the Alter Rebbe, we have to understand why is this connected to Shema, and the second question, if we do want to mention Yetziat Mitzrayim for whatever reason, why this parashah of tzitzit?

But the truth is, one kashya, the first one, is answered in Tanya. Now, I should have prepared the Tanya. I'm sure there's a Tanya there. Here in Tanya, in perek מ״ז, which is actually the shortest chapter of the whole Tanya, that's why it's a famous one, cause someone wants to חזר Tanya בעל פה, he chooses this perek, cause it's short. So at the beginning of this perek in Tanya, he starts off by bringing the Chazal that say בכל דור ודור, and then he adds, ובכל יום ויום חייב אדם לראות את עצמו כאילו הוא יצא היום ממצרים. There's an obligation upon every person every day, every generation, and he explains that it means not only every generation, every day a person is supposed to feel as if he went out of Mitzrayim. Now, what does that mean he's supposed to feel as if he went out of Mitzrayim? There is a simple peshat, and there is the way the Alter Rebbe here explains it. The simple peshat is very simple: we have to remember that we were once slaves in Mitzrayim, and we left Mitzrayim. And we have to keep in mind that even though we left Mitzrayim three and a half thousand years ago, but we have to feel as if we went out today. And as we say in the Haggadah, if we wouldn't have gone out then, אילו לא הוציא הקדוש ברוך הוא את אבותינו ממצרים, השם would not have taken us out then, משועבדים היינו, we would still be in Mitzrayim. And therefore, we have to feel and thank Hashem as if today I went out of Mitzrayim. That's the simple peshat. So according to the simple peshat, it means that we went out of that country called Mitzrayim where we were slaves, and every day we have to thank Hashem and feel as if today we went out of Mitzrayim. three and a half thousand years ago. Every day we have to go out of Mitzrayim, actually, because our neshamah is in Mitzrayim. Mitzrayim represents a jail. Mitzrayim, the word Mitzrayim comes from the word מצר. מצר means narrowness. Narrowness means limited. When you're in jail, what does jail mean? Jail means you're limited. It could be a person who is in jail and he eats, he has what to eat, he has what to drink. The only thing is, he can't do what he wants. He's limited. He's said what, he's told what to do, when to do. He can't leave the premises, he has to stay where he is. He is limited. So a jail is Mitzrayim. Our neshamah is in jail in our guf. Our neshamah, before it came down to this world, to this body, really, all it was involved in was only in Godliness. There's a pasuk that says, חי השם אלקי ישראל אשר עמדתי לפניו. The neshamah says, Hashem should live, I stood in front of Him. אין עמידה אלא תפילה. What does the neshamah mean, I stood in front of Hashem? It davens all day. What does the neshamah do? Has no business up there, doesn't have to eat, doesn't have to drink. What does the neshamah do in shamayim? The neshamah is davuk to Elokus, the neshamah is connected to Hashem. Neshamah comes down here, put into the, it's put into the body, now the neshamah cannot do what it wants. The neshamah really has a desire to get close to Hashem, to learn, to daven, to, and the body limits the neshamah, and the body does not allow the neshamah to do what it's supposed to do. So the neshamah basically is in jail. And what a Yid is supposed to do every day, work on himself to free his neshamah from the jail. Now it doesn't mean, chas v'shalom, to free his neshamah that the neshamah should leave his body and should die. At least while the neshamah is in the body, should not be limited by what the body wants, but the neshamah should be able to do as it desires, which means to learn, to daven. How does a person get the neshamah out of jail? Which means, how does a person work on himself to fulfill Yetzias Mitzrayim? Yetzias Mitzrayim is going out of Mitzrayim in himself. So the Alter Rebbe says like this: when a person accepts upon himself the unity of Hashem, that itself is the first step of Yetzias Mitzrayim. That is the step of a person having his neshamah go out of jail. And that's a major thing, because what is the limit of the neshamah? What's that the neshamah's in jail? The neshamah wants to be close to Hashem, the נשמה wants to feel the אמתקייט, the truth of Hashem, but the body covers up. As far as the body is concerned, we don't feel the truth of Hashem. The moment a Yid sits down and thinks about it and comes to a realization, Hashem אחד, השם is one, and he really means it, that realization, you know how comfortable the נשמה feels? The נשמה feels mamash it's released, it's released from its, from its being in jail, limited in the body, and now it is free as the נשמה would like to be. That's what Yetziat Mitzrayim is. Actually, it's not only, but here we find a pasuk in in Hallel, the pasuk says, מן המצר קראתי ק-ה. That you call out to Hashem, מן המצר, it's the same word מצר like Mitzrayim. מן המצר קראתי ק-ה, I call out to Hashem from my מצר, from my limitations. ענני במרחב י-ה. If you do that, Hashem will answer you from width, which means if you really call out to Hashem and you want to get out of your מצר, you are able to get out and you will really be free, be wide. Wide means there is no more limitations. And actually, there, I heard from somebody that there was a chassid once who said to a different chassid what made him become a chassid, so he told the story. He once came to a city and he came to a shul, and he heard in the shul, he saw a chassid davening. It was Rosh Chodesh and he was davening, and after the minyan finished, he continued davening, so he stayed there to see what is this guy doing. And he heard him, he was holding by מן המצר, and he was davening the words מן המצר קראתי ק-ה, ענני במרחב י-ה for an hour. He was meditating on these few words, and he couldn't understand. So after davening, he walked over to him, he says, what's so deep about these words, מן המצר קראתי ק-ה, I call Hashem when I'm narrow, when I'm limited, and Hashem answers me? So he started explaining to him what it means, what Yetziat Mitzrayim is, and the נשמה, and the whole idea. After he explained to him, he said, tell me, where can I learn more about this? Where? He says, go to the Rebbe in Liozna, that's where the Alter Rebbe was. And he went, and he became one of the big chassidim, all based on the understanding of מן המצר. But anyway, this is what Yetziat Mitzrayim is. So the Alter Rebbe in Tanya here, after he finishes explaining what יציאת מצרים is, that the moment you recognize the truth of the unity of Hashem, that is יציאת מצרים, he finishes off like this: ולכן תקנו פרשת יציאת מצרים בשעת קריאת שמע דוקא. That is the reason... The parsha of יציאת מצרים is connected to קריאת שמע, אף שהיא מצוה בפני עצמה, even though to remember יציאת מצרים is a separate מצוה, ובלאו הכי מצות קריאת שמע, has nothing to do with the mitzvah of קריאת שמע, כדאיתא בגמרא ובפוסקים, like it says in the Gemara and all the codifiers, the halacha. אלא, why is it connected to Kriat Shema? מפני שהם דבר אחד ממש, because it's one thing. יציאת מצרים and what Kriat Shema is, is one thing. יציאת מצרים is the neshama realizing, the person realizing the unity of השם, השם אחד, that's what Kriat Shema is and that's what יציאת מצרים is. And he adds, וכן בסוף יציאת פרשת יציאת מצרים, also the end of this פרשה, מסיים גם כן he finishes off, אני השם אלקיכם, I am Hashem your God. Because when you recognize that אני השם אלקיכם, I am Hashem your God, this is יציאת מצרים. This is the real יציאת מצרים. So what this did now answered the first question: What is the connection between יציאת מצרים and Kriat Shema? But it didn't answer the second question. The second question was, even if we do want to mention יציאת מצרים, why pick the pasuk that's in the parsha of tzitzit, and we even, not just pick out this pasuk, we say the whole parsha of tzitzit? Why don't we say the parsha the mentioning יציאת מצרים some other parsha? Or the best thing would be, like I said before, the parsha the פסוק, למען תזכור את יום צאתך מארץ מצרים כל ימי חייך, the pasuk which actually says that you have to remember יציאת מצרים every day. Obviously, there must be something in this parsha of tzitzit that has a special connection to Kriat Shema, besides of having Yetzias Mitzrayim. But the tzitzit, the aspect that this is a פרשה of tzitzit has a special connection to Kriat Shema.

So let me explain what is the connection of the פרשה of tzitzit to Kriat Shema, that's why it is part of the mitzvah of Kriat Shema, even though really it's not, but the chachamim put it together as part of the פרשה of Kriat Shema. Let's go back to the פרשה of Kriat Shema. We said that the פרשה of Kriat Shema is made up of two פרשיות till we get to the third. The first one is when we're מקבל עול מלכות שמים, we accept the yoke of the kingship of Hashem. And the second one is when we're מקבל עול מצות, we accept the yoke of doing the mitzvot. Accepting the the yoke of the kingship of Hashem is very general. We accept Hashem generally as our king. Accepting the mitzvot is already detailed. We accept the individual mitzvot. What it means is that when we accept Hashem as our king, let me start with a question maybe: What is the addition of the second פרשה over the first? If you accept Hashem as king, doesn't that automatically mean you're going to accept His mitzvot? If He's your king, He's your boss, what does it mean when you say this person is my boss? In which way does it express itself? That I have to listen to him. If he's my boss, I have to do what he tells me. So if we say we accept Hashem as our king, קבלת עול מלכות שמים, He's our מלך, doesn't that itself mean automatically that I accept to do what He tells me? What does it mean that we have first one פרשה which is קבלת עול מלכות שמים, and the second פרשה where we accept the yoke of mitzvot? Why do we need a second פרשה, a special a separate thing of accepting the yoke of mitzvot? The answer is it's true: When we accept Hashem as our king, that automatically means we will do the mitzvot. Otherwise, I didn't accept Him as my king. But the individual mitzvot don't make a difference to me. When I accept Hashem as king, that means whatever He'll tell me to do, makes no difference what, whatever He'll tell me. And each individual mitzvah as what it individually has to say, means doesn't count to me. He's my king. He tells me to stand on my head, I'll stand on my head. If He tells me to walk here, I'll walk here. If He tells me to go, and it's all the same to me, because He's my king, I do what He says. But that's not enough. Hashem doesn't want that we should only accept Hashem as king and accept generally speaking to do the mitzvot, but Hashem wants that each individual mitzvah with what the mitzvah stands for should mean to me. That I should also accept the mitzvah of tefillin because tefillin is something very important. I should accept the mitzvah of Shabbos because of the importance of Shabbos. I should accept shofar because of the importance of shofar. If I only accept Him as king without the individual accepting the mitzvot, I don't accept Shabbos. I have nothing to do with Shabbos. If He's my king, He wants me to keep Shabbos, I'll keep Shabbos, but not Shabbos means something to me. Shofar doesn't mean anything to me because I didn't accept shofar, I accepted His kingship. Which is important, we have to do that too. We have to Hashem accept Hashem as king that no matter what He says, we have to do. But Hashem wants, in addition to that, we should also accept Shabbos and tefillin and kashrut. Every mitzvah to what the mitzvah stands for has to have a meaning to me, because Hashem wants this individual thing, so I have to be connected to this individual thing too. And that's what the second parsha is. So here we have the first two parshiyot. The one is accepting Very מקיפדיק, we call it, just general Hashem, and automatically generally His mitzvot. Then we have the second parsha, where we accept the mitzvot as the mitzvot are separately, every mitzvah, but then we're still not finished. While we're saying the Shema, and we're accepting Hashem as king, accepting Hashem's mitzvot, we're involved in our mind constantly thinking about Hashem. If that's what we're doing, we're thinking about Hashem as our king, we're thinking about Hashem's mitzvot. But what happens after we finish with that and we stop thinking about it? A person can't walk around all day thinking about Hashem. There are other things that a person does. Certainly, a person who's not in the yeshiva all day, he goes out to business and he goes out into the world and he's involved in his own needs, in his own physical needs, whether it's eating and drinking or business and things like that. What happens then? Then, since you're not involved in these thoughts, normally what will happen, that קבלת עול, that acceptance of the yoke, whether it's of מלכות שמים or the mitzvot, automatically wears off. What we need is that even when we are away from these thoughts, we should be absorbed with that feeling, it should last throughout the whole day. It should penetrate into us so strongly that all day, when we leave the davenen and we leave the saying Shema, we should have that feeling. And that's what the third פרשה of קריאת שמע is, the יציאת מצרים. What does יציאת מצרים mean? As we said before, יציאת מצרים means to go out of the limitations of the body. That means we're dealing here with a person that his body limits him. That means we're dealing here with a time, with a level when you are involved in מצרים. And the job is יציאת מצרים. So what does the פרשה of יציאת מצרים tell us? The פרשה of יציאת מצרים tells us one thing, that you have to get out of מצרים. When we are holding at the level of the first two, we don't talk about יציאת מצרים, because we're not in מצרים. Imagine a person who's thinking about השם אחד, he's not in מצרים. And a person who's thinking about והיה אם שמוע תשמעו, you're talking about the mitzvot, you're not in מצרים. מצרים represents the bodily things which which limit the neshamah. So that's not, so we don't talk about, we're not in מצרים, so we can't talk about יציאת מצרים. The moment we talk about יציאת מצרים, obviously we're talking at the point, at a level where we are in מצרים, and we're saying get out of מצרים. So the third פרשה, that is the המשך, the continuation of the first two. The first two is a point when we are when we accept upon ourselves the קבלת עול. And the third one is that this קבלת עול that we have from the first and the second should also come at the time, continue into the time when we are in מצרים and we have to get out of מצרים. If you want to use the terminology of Chassidut, we have the words that I use in other שיעורים לגבי קריאת שמע, but I'll apply it here, too: there's ביטול במציאות and ביטול היש. ביטול במציאות means that a person's whole being is בטל, nullified to Hashem. ביטול היש means when you have a יש, יש means you are a something, and you have your own being as a separate entity, and nevertheless you are מבטל yourself. Now, the highest level is ביטול במציאות. A person is completely nullified, he's only Hashem, nothing else. But that doesn't happen all day. All day a person can't live with the level of bitul bametziut. When you daven, and if you daven properly, the way we're supposed to—unfortunately, not many of us do that—but if a person would daven the way you're supposed to דאווען, ווי א ייד און ווי א חסיד, and you would think, what would happen? You'd reach the level of bitul bametziut. When you daven and you meditate on the first and second פרשה of Kriat Shema, you become bitul bametziut. But we're only human beings, most people are like that, tzadikim are different, but most people, when you leave the davenen and you go on your way, then your bitul bametziut is not there. Then you're back to a yesh. So you need the bitul hayesh, that this yesh should be battel. Now, in truth, the bitul hayesh is, to a certain degree, greater than the bitul bametziut, because bitul bametziut means you're not a metziut. In other words, why are you battel? Because you're not a metziut. Which, in theory, means that the of a metziut is a contradiction to your bitul. So why are you battel? Because you're not a metziut. Had you been a metziut, you wouldn't be battel to Hashem. Bitul hayesh means that you are a yesh, and you're still battel. See, bitul bametziut means because you're nothing, that's why you're battel, but had you been something, had you not felt that bitul, you would not really be battel to Hashem. Bitul hayesh means while I am a yesh and I'm not involved in the complete godly ענינים and I'm involved in my matters, and still I'm battel to Hashem. That's a deeper level. The other one is higher and this is deeper. Or using the explanation, the words in כמות and in איכות, in quality, in quantity, bitul bametziut is higher, in quality, in effort, bitul hayesh is greater. And that's what the third parashah of קריאת שמע is. And it's part of קריאת שמע, because it's exactly what קריאת שמע is, but taking it down so far that it doesn't stay with us only when we're davenen, but taking it down to Mitzrayim, and while in Mitzrayim telling us get out. And that's connected to tzitzit.

First I'll explain the connection to tzitzit generally, and then more in detail. Generally is, it says here that one of the reasons the reason the Torah says for the mitzvah of tzitzit is because through the mitzvah of tzitzit we will remember all the mitzvot. And it repeats it twice: והיה לכם לציצית, it repeats it: וראיתם אותו, you'll see the ציצית, וזכרתם את כל מצות ה׳, so you'll remind yourself all the mitzvot. And what will happen? ולא תתורו אחרי, and you'll do the מצוה, ועשיתם אותם, ולא תתורו אחרי לבבכם ואחרי עיניכם, so you will not follow your eyes, your heart and your eyes, אשר אתם זונים אחריהם, that you tend to follow, למען תזכרו, so you remember, ועשיתם את כל מצותי, and you will do My mitzvot. To which kind of person is Hashem talking to? Obviously to a person who tends to forget the mitzvot. A person who is able to follow his eyes and his heart. So we're not talking here to a person that is involved in Godly things, a person who is his mind is only involved in השם אחד. A person who's who's holding by the level of the first and second parashah of Shema, that person doesn't forget about Hashem. That's what he's involved in. Tzitzit came because people tend to forget about Hashem. People tend to forget about the mitzvot. People tend to follow their eyes and their hearts not the way Hashem wants. So Hashem says, \"I gave you the mitzvah of tzitzit to remind you of the mitzvot, to remind you of Hashem, to remind you not to follow your eyes and your heart.\" So what is the mitzvah of tzitzit for? For the same purpose. The mitzvah of tzitzit was given to us because we're able to be we it's possible that we will be in a level that we're involved in all our gashmiyusdike materialistic things, and we will not remember Hashem. So Hashem gave us the mitzvah of tzitzit to remember. So the mitzvah of tzitzit and יציאת מצרים is exactly the same thing. יציאת מצרים is that we're in מצרים and we have to get out of it. We're in a level where our neshamah is in jail and we are not in the level of kabalat ol, and we have to get out of it and have the kabalat ol penetrate at that level too. And that's what tzitzit is, to remind us at the time when we forget and to remember Hashem. So that's why when they chose or the chachamim chose to mention a pasuk of יציאת מצרים in continuation to Shema, because that's really the continuation of Shema, they chose, they picked it together with the mitzvah of tzitzit, because the mitzvah of tzitzit is the same idea as יציאת מצרים. That's very general. But then we could go a little bit more into the detail of what the mitzvah of tzitzit is, and we'll see that connection too. The mitzvah of tzitzit is made up of two parts. And then, as I'll explain, the second part itself is made up of two parts. But first the general two parts: you have the tallit and you have the tzitzit. You have the tallit itself, the בגד, the garment, and then you have the tzitzit, the strings. Now in Kabbalah we find that the garment, the בגד, the tallit, is called פריסא דמלכא. That is the spreading out of the מלך, that is that it represents kabalat ol malchut shamayim. You accept the yoke of Hashem, the kingship of Hashem. That's represented in the tallit. The tallit is something that surrounds us, it's makif, it takes around the whole person. It's not specific, it's general. When you surround yourself with a blanket, it surrounds the person, it's a very makif. Makif means it surrounds, but it's very general thing. Not the word superficial, but generally it surrounds us. The tzitzit are already individual strings that come out. So it says in Chassidut that the בגד, the garment, that represents the fact that we are mekabel upon ourselves the yoke of Hashem's kingship. Actually that's what we're supposed to have in mind when we put on the tallit. The tzitzit that come out of the tallit are already the specifics. Each string is a המשכה, each string brings out specific strings that they represent the fact that after we're mekabel upon ourselves the general מלכות שמים, we have the individual specific mitzvot. Now which one is more important? They're both important. It's like we said before: these two parts of the mitzvah are exactly like the two parts of Shema. The first part is קבלת עול מלכות שמים, to accept Hashem generally, that's the beged that surrounds us, and then the strings are the קבלת עול מצוות when we have the mitzvot that come out of it. The first one is general, so it's not so individual to the person. There's a mashal given that when you hear somebody give a very, a speech that did brings out a very deep thought and most people don't understand, so even those who don't understand, so if you didn't understand it, it didn't penetrate individually into your mind that you should have grasped it, but the general atmosphere of hearing that there is such profound ideas here has an impression. And then you have a second level afterwards, that when you sit down and you start thinking of the individual ideas, it has even a deeper impression. That's the tallit, which is the general קבלת עול מלכות שמים, and the tzitzit, which is the קבלת עול מצות that come out. So tzitzit is similar to the two. But then there's another point that's brought out in the חסידות קבלה בנוגע הטלית והציצית. The tallit surrounds the person. When the person is surrounded, he's completely, envelop enveloped as we would say in the tallit. So he doesn't have anything to do with outside world. So the tallit, that represents the person when he's still involved in his meditations about Hashem. The tzitzit represent already when the person is away from his being completely enclosed in the ענינים of Hashem, it's already going out, just like the tzitzit go out of the beged. And that is the תכלית. It's not enough just to have a beged. If a person will have just a tallit, just the garment, he did not fulfill the mitzvah of tzitzit. The mitzvah of tzitzit is to have the garment and to have the strings. That means that the mitzvah of tzitzit is to represent the fact that there is a level when we're completely involved in Hashem, and then it has the level of taking that involvement and having a string come out of it and going out, away from it. That means that even when you're away from it, it still takes it. It's like, I believe, I'm just making my own mashal, it doesn't say that, like a wire. You have a generator with electricity, and then you have wires that come out, away from the source of electricity, and it goes out to a place where there isn't and it brings electricity there. That's what the tzitzit are. It takes what the tallit represents and you have the strings, these are wires that take it out when you will go away from the tallit, you will go away from being wrapped completely in Godliness, saying שמע והיה אם שמוע. When you go away, this shleps along with it, it takes the to it. So what the idea of Yetziat Mitzrayim, as we said before, what that is is to show that whatever we accomplished in קריאת שמע, we should take it along when we leave the level of Krias Shema. That's what, why we say Yetzias Mitzrayim in connection to Krias Shema. The question was, why did we pick tzitzis, why Yetzias Mitzrayim from tzitzis? Because this is exactly what the mitzvah of tzitzis is. The mitzvah of tzitzis is to take that great kabalas ol and in, in being enwrapped in the tallis, to take it out like the tzitzis and bring it out outside when we're away, when we come outside. There is a halacha that the, says הכנף מין כנף, that the tzitzis have to be from the same מין, from the same kind as the בגד, as the garment. Which means that whatever the garment stands for, the tzitzis are the same, but they're not there, they're נמשך. A line is when you bring, like the wire that brings it. It actually says in Kabbalah, why do we have 32 strings in the tzitzis? It says it's כנגד ל\"ב נתיבות חכמה. It says there are 32 ways, roads that lead from חכמה. We have in אצילות, we have חכמה, בינה, דעת, it says there are 32 roads that lead from חכמה going lower. A road is something that takes you from one place to another. Tzitzis are the ones that take you from where you are and it brings it along to a further place. Why 32? Well, just like there are 32 teeth, and the last teeth that come in are called the wisdom teeth. They're wisdom, that's what that represents the חכמה when you get the real ל\"ב נתיבות חכמה. The חשבון that says why 32 is because there are 22 letters in the alef beis plus the עשר ספירות, the 10 ספירות, together it's 32. But that's not for now, but the idea is that the tzitzis represent what we explained in Yetzias Mitzrayim. And then there's another point in the tzitzis along the same line. As I said before, there are two parts to tzitzis: there's the בגד, the tallis, and the strings. In the strings itself, there are two types of strings. Nowadays, we only have one, but originally, the way it's in the Chumash and the way it was, what does it say here? ועשו להם ציצית ונתנו על ציצית הכנף פתיל תכלת. You had a string of blue wool, a blue string. So you have a blue string and a white, the white strings. So tzitzis, the strings themselves are made up of two parts: תכלת and לבן. The blue and white. Now it says in Kabbalah that the תכלת and לבן, they both represent a different level of אור אין סוף, of Godly light. You have אור, נהורא אוכמא and נהורא, נהורא חיורא. You have the white light and the blue light. What's the difference between white light and blue light? When you burn a candle, for instance, you see blue light and you see white light. You also have red light, but that's a different point. And it says like this: the part of fire that's right next to the wick is blue. The part of fire that's further, that's white. When you have a piece of wood burning, the part of fire that's close to the wood that's being burnt, that's blue. That's dark. The other part that comes out of it, that's white. In other words, it says that the blue light is the type of light that comes because you are burning the fuel. The fuel, or the wick that's being burned, is dark. The light that comes after that that's not burned, that's original light, it comes because of the fuel, certainly, but it's not the part that's burning the fuel, that is white. When you have to burn the fuel, that means you're fighting with something. You are overcoming something. It's dark. When you're not overcoming anything and there is just a pure light, that's white. So it comes out like this: the two colors in the tzitzit, the white and the blue, represent two levels. The white represents a light of Hashem that a person will have within himself because every neshamah is like a light, the mitzvot are like light. נר השם, נר השם נשמת אדם, the neshamah is like a candle. Mitzvot are called a candle, כי נר מצוה ותורה אור, a mitzvah is like a candle. So that represents the light of Hashem not in a level where you have to overcome something. The blue, the blue light represents a level where you have to overcome. That means there are two levels in a person. There's a point when a person has to overcome his מציאות, his ישות, his yetzer hara, and there's a level when a person doesn't have to overcome it. And what are the two levels basically? As we said before, the level of the first part of Shema, you don't have to overcome anything, it's ביטול במציאות. You think about Hashem and you reach the level of kabbalat ol, you accept the yoke of Hashem, you accept the yoke of the mitzvot. You're not involved in Mitzrayim, you're not involved in your materialistic things. That's the white light. But then the blue light, which comes from overcoming something, burning something, that's when a yid is in Mitzrayim. And a yid is involved in his materialistic things, and he has to overcome it, and even there he should feel Godliness, he should feel he's going out of Mitzrayim. That's the blue light. And that's why in tzitzit, because we said before that tzitzit represents this idea of having Godliness and then bringing it out when you are away from the meditation of Godliness, that's why in the tzitzit themselves we also have two. We have the blue and the white, it's just takeh nowadays we don't have the blue because of halachah reasons, because we don't know exactly how to make it, so we only have the white. But the concept of tzitzit still remains the same, that we have to have the tzitzit, the strings, to show that it comes out and in the both levels. And this is the reason על פי חסידות and Kabbalah why the third part of Shema is connected to Shema. Even though it has no connection in the mitzvah of Keriat Shema, it's because of Yetziat Mitzrayim. But as we said before, this is the the whole purpose, I wouldn't say the whole purpose, of of Keriat Shema is to get to that point, that not only when we're sitting in shul and closing closing our eyes, covering our eyes and saying שמע השם אלוקינו השם אחד, השם is one, very great, and we also say we're mekabel, we accept upon ourselves the mitzvot, we have to remember that when you leave the shul and you're going out into business, there you have to remember that השם אחד.

Now I'll tell the story over again even though I told it many times, with R'' Binyamin Kletzker. That R'' Binyamin Kletzker was a very rich man, and yet he was a great chassid. And R'' Binyamin Kletzker had a business of קלעצער, of wood. He would chop down wood in Russia in one of the forests that he had bought, and he would ship it over the river to Leipzig. He was a rich man. So once he had an appointment, and they took him to the appointment with his wagon, and when he came to the appointment wagon, I told the story I think a few weeks ago, he stopped the wagon, and the driver stopped the wagon waiting for him to go down for the appointment, for the business appointment. And he was involved, during the drive he was thinking inyanim in Chassidus. So he was still involved, he forgot about it, and he was thinking. He didn't want to bother him, it took an hour or two. Finally woke up, so he says, \"You know, we're late, you have to go to this appointment.\" Said, \"Fine.\" So they went to the appointment, but as they were going, the wagon driver says to him, \"What were you thinking about that you missed your, you almost missed your appointment?\" \"What was I thinking about? השם אחד! What else should I be thinking about? Hashem is one.\" Says, \"I don't understand. In middle of dealing with קלעצער, you're thinking about השם אחד?\" He says, \"You don't understand. If other people in middle of השם אחד can think about קלעצער, why can't I think in middle of קלעצער about השם אחד? The whole idea is that not when we say השם אחד we should not think of קלעצער, but when we think of קלעצער, when we're involved in our business, that's when we should remember השם אחד. And that's what the third parsha of Kriat Shema is, that's what the tzitzit represents. And another story from the same R'' Binyamin Kletzker, and I think I told it also, that once after he made a whole list of a bill that he gave to somebody for the deal that he made, so he wrote, the first line it said 25 קלעצער, this and this amount, 30 קלעצער, this, a whole list. And then he made a line: סך הכל, sum total. נו, what would you expect? You would add it all up, sum total. So he wrote: סך הכל, אין עוד מלבדו. There's nothing but Hashem, that's the סך הכל, that's the sum total. Because to him, during the business it was אין עוד מלבדו. But where do we have it? We have it in the third parsha of Shema. And that's why the Chachamim connected this, because this is what Hashem wants of us, and this is what the Chachamim wanted of us to remember. And we just hope that when we daven, we have this in mind. Okay, I think we'll stop here.\"