Acharei | Likkutei Sichos Vol. 1

We are live. Welcome to Likutei Sichos Chelek Aleph live from the Soul Words House Sunday mornings. The truth is it is actually p.m. post meridian 12:30 p.m. Um Yeah, cuz in Tashan Pei Vav, the year that we're recording this, we just did the Pesach sichos because in Likutei Sichos Chelek Aleph Pesach comes after Metzoira and before Acharei, so we just did it just now. Even though it's Aleph Iyar in the year that we're recording this, but in future years, I'm sure you'll listen to this in the uh appropriate time. We're creating an archive with Hashem's help. The point of this, the reason why we learn every single sicha, every word, we don't skip is because we want to have a comprehensive library for anyone in the future who will be will be studying Likutei Sichos Chelek Aleph till Moshiach and even after. Even after Moshiach, people will want a a nice shiur in uh Likutei Sichos Chelek Aleph. I think I think okay. All right, page 253 of Likutei Sichos Chelek Aleph. Parshas Acharei, it's super short. It's like a page and a half. You ready? Here we go. Often posuk, "Ushmartem es mishmarti." Zog the Gemara. By the way, interesting, this sicha is actually from Parshas Shlach. Tashan Tes Zayin. Shlach is my birthday. J F Y I. My bar mitzvah parsha. I don't know if it's my birthday. You did it again. >> Sorry, sorry, sorry. Okay. Okay. Uh I thought you'd appreciate it. You're 110% sure you're not wasting your time. Oh, thank you. But you could just signal me. Okay, thank you. The thumbs up. All right. Um Yisrael, do you know when my Do you know when my my bar mitzvah parsha was? Let me guess. Is it Shlach? It was Shlach. This sicha is from Shlach. But um it's connected to the posuk in uh Acharei. Acharei, right. So, the Gemara says, so on the posuk, "Ushmartem es mishmarti." You should guard my guardings. You should guard my guardings. >> [sighs] >> Uh yeah, so it says the Gemara says, "Asu mishmeres lemishmarti." Make a safeguard for my safeguards. Doss, do you say to digdorim syogim derabonon eichtzu digdorim syogim vos yed yed is mechuyav tzu makdir zayn zich af ilu bidvorim mutorim. And that is the foundation for rabbinic enactments that are safeguards, fences around the Torah. Also, individual safeguards. Every individual is supposed to guard your spiritual health. Bichdei nit tzu kumen chas v'sholom tzu an issur, to avoid coming to a prohibition. Vi es steht in Sifrei Mussar, like the Mussar books say, "Es men darf zich ophiten in meyah shorim fun heter bichdei nit tzu kumen tzu ayn shaar fun issur." That a person should shield himself by steering away from a hundred gates of permissibility to avoid entering even one gate of prohibition. Somebody sent me a WhatsApp like last week and I I don't I'm not sure if I answered. I hope I answered. Uh if I did answer them, I probably answered, "I don't know." They said, "Where did you tell the story about Hilchos Pesach in the siddur?" And I said, "I don't know." I hope I answered him, "I don't know." That Okay, the story is that there was the siddur im dach the siddur that has sichos. The way that the book is, you have the siddur in the middle and around the edges like in a Gemara, you have like Rashi and Tosfos on the on the edges. You had the explanations of the davening according to sichos. And it was rare, you know, books were hard to get back in those days. So, they found out that there was this old lady who used to daven with such a siddur. So, Reb Hillel and the sichos came to her and they were trying to buy it off of her and she said, "No, this is my siddur." They said, "We're going to give you a brand new siddur. We're going to pay you kesef moleh, we're going to pay you top dollar for your siddur and then we'll also give you a brand new siddur." They said, "Look Look at your siddur. It's frayed and tattered around the edges and and we can give you a brand new crisp new siddur." She said, "But that's exactly why I don't want the new siddur, cuz your siddur is the regular siddur without the sichos around the edges." And they said, "But you don't learn that." She said, "I know I don't learn it, but see, when the edges get tattered it the the the the davening lines are in the middle, they don't get frayed. But you're giving me a new siddur where the davening goes all the way to the margins and when inevitably the edges of the page wear away, the lines of davening are going to get worn away." Ah, with this they were able to farbreng for days, for months. They said, "Look at this, that this lady, she couldn't read the sichos, but what did the sichos do? It preserved that which Beautiful. Yeah. Yeah, okay. >> [sighs] >> You ready? Base. Fron vos zaynen bito'us un tayneh. Now, there are those who are mistaken and they claim, they argue, "Tzu vos darf men zukhen naye chumros?" Why do we need new stringencies? Mayleh, doss vos Reb Shaynu in yeden dor hoben ge'ased. Okay, fine, the we have the traditional uh prohibitions that the rabbis of old already prohibited. Es lei sosur min odovor she'e yagidu l'cho. We know that you're not allowed to stray from the matters that the rabbis tell you. Fine. Dafke aber oich nit tzu fil medakdik zayn in dem. But don't be so careful about it. Vorum es is doch men nit vi aderabonon, cuz it's only rabbinic. Mikol shekay naye chumros darf men geviss nit zukhen. Especially new stringencies, for sure we don't have to look for. Dayah chamo she ossur l'cho Torah. They say, "Isn't not enough what Torah itself forbade you?" Which is actually the language of the Yerushalmi. The Yerushalmi says, "In In nedorim, why are you making nedorim? Why are you making vows on yourself? It's not enough for you already what Torah prohibited? You have to prohibit new stuff on yourself?" So, that's what some people say. They say, "A, even the stringencies from that are traditional, of course we'll keep it, but like it doesn't have to be as important as the Torah obligations. And B, they say, uh for sure we don't have to take on new stringencies." Woah, woah, woah, woah, woah. >> [sighs] >> Yeah. People watching this in the future don't know. I I I I I just did two hours of of Pesach sicha, so I'm a little bit I need a little bit of a break after this. But right after this I'm going to do Kiddushin. Un zey breyngen noch a rayeh l'day tom fun dem vos es steht in Yerushalmi, az a mensch vet darfen opgeben a din v'cheshbon af yeder zach vos er hot gezen un nit gegessen. They have another proof, these guys. By the way, I've told you this before, Yisrael. When I used to learn Likutei Sichos as a bochur in yeshiva, I used to think, and I'm admitting my foolishness now, that the Rebbe would sometimes come up with made up arguments that no one really would say in order to as like a style of being able to respond to it. And then I grew up and I went out into the world and I met real people. And every one of the things that the Rebbe said, "Some people argue," I met tons of people who actually argue that. >> like you're looking at make up the ask. Yeah. >> [laughter] >> Okay. So, I've actually heard people say this. They say, "The Yerushalmi says that a person after he passes away, after 120, he's going to have to account for every pleasure of this world that he saw and he did not partake of." Says it to you Yerushalmi. So, they say, "Why do you all have to look for stringencies? To the contrary, unless it's expressly forbidden please enjoy." P'shuto. Noch mer zey taynen zey. >> [cough and clears throat] >> Furthermore, they argue azoy vi oisfiren oitz is doch zeyr shver, is nit kedai tzu marbeh zayn chumros un hidurim durkh dem ken men chas v'sholom farliren dem iker. They say, "Listen, it's hard enough to keep everything that we have to keep. You're going to add stuff, you're going to you're going to overshoot, you're going to overplay your hand. It's going to you're going to actually lose the main stuff." Tzu fil chumros ken ken noch breyngen az men zol in ganzn avek fun der hotorah chas v'sholom. If there's too much stringency, a person can completely abandon the way of Torah, God forbid. Un zey breyngen deraf a rayeh fun chetay tzitzis. And they bring a proof. What's their proof? From the sin of the tree of knowledge. She'eish kol hatorah mechatoim, which is the the the original sin. I shouldn't probably use that term, by the way, especially with the YouTube transcripts and the algorithm. Original sin has christological uh Yeah. Uh implications. But it is the first sin and it is I mean chronologically it was the first sin that human beings committed and it was the um origin of all sin. >> [crying] >> By the way, I I I [laughter] should now that now that I brought it up, we should explain that Havdil the the christological concept of original sin is that everyone carries the the the the blame for that. Okay? That's not that is not a Jewish concept. Okay, but it is the source of all sins, meaning when Adam and Eve sinned with the tree of knowledge or the fruit of the tree of knowledge, that made it possible for all further sins. Okay. That because Adam told Hava that the prohibition was lay lay Sego, don't even touch it. Lay Sego by don't even touch it, which wasn't true. Hashem only told him lay Sego mennu, don't eat from it. The whole story, the Nachash said, you're not allowed to touch it and he pushed her and she touched it and said, uh you touched it nothing happened. Just like when you touch it nothing happens, when you eat from it nothing happens. So there are people [cough and clears throat] who correctly cite this story and then they but they incorrectly come to a conclusion and therefore no more chamras, no more stringencies cuz you see what happened? Adam made a stringency. Don't even touch it. Even though the real prohibition was don't eat from it and from that came the whole debacle. Okay. >> [snorts] >> That argument is a big mistake. You're making a big mistake. And here's the answer, explanation. What? You're making a mistake. Dr. Dr. Midos? You're making a mistake. Okay. The a gemo The taina is aber a grisa toes. Yeah, we said that. And the answer of them is They were all given from one shepherd. All of Torah's commands. Because the Torah says do not turn aside from what the rabbis tell you, therefore rabbinic enactments have the same binding force as biblical commands. And the fact, this is so interesting what the rebbe saying. The fact that there are biblical and rabbinic obligations is cuz Torah itself wanted that there should be a distinction that in certain matters in a case of doubt one is stringent in other matters in a case of doubt one is lenient. You know, there's a concept of a safek d'oraisa is l'chumra. You have to be stringent in a case where you may uh transgress a biblical prohibition. With um a safek d'rabbonan rabbinic doubt so we err in the side of leniency. So what the rebbe saying here is Torah itself wanted us to have all of those obligations but it wanted that some of those obligations should be implemented in a way where we're stringent in a case of doubt and therefore made those obligations expressly stated in Torah and other obligations Torah wanted us to have in a way where if it was in a case of doubt, we would be lenient and so Torah arranged it that those things should come to us through the rabbis. So too the personal safeguards that every individual is supposed to make in permissible matters, like we said before, people should take care to not like I say, you know, uh I'm saying this week but I've said it in other classes. At the subway they have a yellow line. You stay behind the yellow line but doesn't mean you have to put your toes on the yellow line. And if you'll see me at the subway station, I'm all the way back by the wall. Okay? So there's the individual safeguards. Um yeah. That everyone has to do. Even that originates from Torah's command to safeguard Torah. And that's in addition to the positive commandment to sanctify yourself. The positive commandment to sanctify yourself is to act like a mensch and not to indulge. So that's a positive commandment of the Torah. Which is called Kadish Atzmo B'mutar Loch. Sanctify yourself even in permissible matters. To act holy even permissible matters. Just cuz something is kosher doesn't mean you have to do it or like the Hayam Yom says, Tornet Torment it. When you're not allowed to do it for sure you're not allowed to do it. Um was men mag, where you are allowed to do it, dafka menni, you don't have to do it. So personal um safeguards that is first of all Kadish Atzmo B'mutar Loch sanctify yourself in permissible matters. It's also uh the concept of Ushmartem es Mishmarti. Making safeguards. Daled. Now this that they bring this scholarly argument and they say, Yerushalmi [snorts] says that any pleasure that you knew about that you didn't partake of, you're going to have to give an answer after 120. And and and they're going to say and the whole sin of the tree of knowledge happened cuz Adam made extra stringencies. Okay, so what are you going to tell them? Here's what you're going to tell them. Adam Rishon in Gan Eden was what's called a chariot to godliness. He had no connection whatsoever to evil. A proof of this is that because Gan Eden cannot tolerate any negativity therefore after he sinned, he had to be uh banished from Gan Eden. Now when we call someone a chariot, what we mean is like a chariot has no mind of its own. It only does what the driver steers it to do. And you can say, what about self-driving cars? Well, those are programmed by a person. In that situation of Gan Eden where everything is perfect and holy and it doesn't tolerate any negativity so there extra stringencies are not only unnecessary, they can even be counterproductive. is a a mile because >> [cough] >> when somebody is a merkava, is a chariot to godliness like Adam like other big tzaddikim, then when he does something, then he elevates that thing. Whatever he does, he he makes it holy. And therefore when he holds back from something, is it a menaya an aliya? He's preventing that thing's elevation. Like it says a tzaddik, a chicken wants to be eaten by a tzaddik. I don't know if you would interview the chicken if it would say that, but the nitzotz, the spark that's in the chicken wants to be eaten by the tzaddik. Why? Cuz he's going to elevate it. But does a chicken want to be eaten by a person who's just going to indulge and eat it with animalistic pleasure? No, cuz the chicken's already living on a level of animalistic pleasure. So it doesn't have to die for that. It's not an aliya, it's not an elevation for it. But a tzaddik who's a merkava, who's a complete chariot, anything he partakes of is uh is an elevation for that thing that he partakes of. But the most cod sham achilles shabbos for all. A [laughter] semblance of this we have in the concept of eating cod sham, meaning holy foods, sanctified foods, like sacrifice foods that the kind of eat. Or like anyone who eats on shabbos where the eating itself is a mitzvah and everything is automatically elevated. However, if you're not in gun Aiden, if you're in this world where there is negativity so where the safeguards are helpful, then you have to have them. Um and they are a virtue. They are beneficial. That's like I said from the sea cuff shabbos uh partial schlock. Toshin test Zion. I also wanted to mention that the rabum explains very clearly in Mishnah Torah both in the agdoma of Mishnah Torah and also I think in Hilchos Mamrim, I think if I remember correctly that the idea of rabbinic safeguards is not opaque. It's very transparent. Meaning to say, we know exactly what things are biblical and what things are rabbinic. In other words, if you were to tell someone that it's all one level of obligation and not explain to them what is a safeguard that's problematic. But when we know what like for instance, I think that I'm going to use the example of chicken and milk that if you tell someone or it maybe even gives example of if you tell somebody that the only prohibition of meat and milk is if you literally boil it in the the the milk that's not true. Really, the khakhamim told us that the biblical obligation is not even to eat meat with milk. That's biblical. Um but meaning it it's not just if you literally boil the calf in the mother's milk. It's eating any meat that's that's cooked together with with milk. Um so that's biblical. But chicken and milk, that's rabbinic. And if you would tell them, "No, that's also what the Torah means." So that's not true. But anytime that the the khakhamim give us safeguards, they're very clear with us what is biblical and what is rabbinic. So that's also another important thing to mention here that uh like also in the story of Adam and Hava that clearly Hava was not knowledgeable about what was only a safeguard. Cuz she could have told the nachash, "Well, yeah, I'm not supposed to touch it, but that's just our >> [snorts] >> that's just our extra vigilant safeguard." So of course, you know, touching it doesn't kill you. But at any rate, um yeah, the point is khumras are not inherently a bad thing although I know many people who have had negative experience with khumras. Khumras clearly have to be taught in the right way and they have to be taught in a way that empowers people. And then you have the flip side of khumras which is hidurim. A khumra is an extra stringency, more care in the prohibitions. Hidurim is beautifying something in the in a in a positive thing. Doing doing what we do in an even more beautiful way. And it's an expression of greater love of Hashem. And those things are beautiful, especially when people know that they are extra, they are beyond. We're going above and beyond the letter of the law. And then it's a very beautiful thing and it also keeps us keeps us safe. And so you don't have to be afraid of khumras and hidurim. To the contrary, they are a wonderful part of our relationship with Hashem. And that is the end of the sea cuff. That's the end of partials achray. We're going to end the live stream here. If you're watching live, we'll be back in a few minutes with the kedoshim sea cuff. If you're watching this in a uh leap year, then we'll see you next week.