Tomer Devorah with Rabbi Avigdor Miller's Commentary 2 Introduction of the Author Rabbi Moshe

Shalom. We are learning Tom Devor with Rabbi Victor Miller's commentary class number two. Last time we learned the introduction of Rabbi Victor Miller. And today we're learning the introduction by the author himself, Rabbi Moshe Cordova, the teacher of Arisal. It is fitting for a man to resemble his creator. We were created in the image of God and therefore we should behave like God behaves. Hashem didn't create us in his image just for fun. Since he created us in his image, it means that is the purpose. This is a man's duty. That is what he is supposed to do to resemble the creator. So when Hashem announced his plan to create a man, he said, "Let us make a manu in our image, in our likeness. Already at the beginning, Hashem defined what is the reason for creating a man. I want to create a being that's going to be like myself. Hashem wanted to create someone who is going to be like God. And therefore, our goal, the entire goal of our life is to become like God, to become godly. Mosher Raenu achieved it and before he died, Hashem called him is Elohim. He is a godly man. Then he will be somewhat in the secret of the sublime form. Hashem, Hashem's form, of course, a secret. We don't know how much greatness a person possesses within himself and we certainly don't know Hashem's greatness. But when a person makes it his function in life to imitate his creator as much as possible, then he is entering into this secret. It's um an interesting uh path that we're taking. We don't know what Hashem is, but we are going to try to be like Hashem and then we will be allowed to see Hashem. And that seems um strange. How can we become like God if we don't know what God is? We never saw God. Hashem's form is of course a secret. We don't know how much greatness a person possesses within himself and we certainly don't know Hashem's greatness. But when a person makes it his function in life to imitate his creator as much as possible, then he is entering into this secret. How can I get somewhere if I don't know the exact destination? But he's telling us if a person makes it his function in life to imitate his creator as much as possible. Once you have a goal, I don't know how to get there. I don't know how it looks because I've never been there, but I know what I want. I want to get to God. I want to be like God. I'm dedicating my life to become godly. And every moment, every step I take, I think about it. I want to be godlike. What would God do in this case? How would God behave? We don't know what we are able to do and we don't know what Hashem actually is. But to some extent we are already entering into that contact between man and Hashem in order to fulfill this person this purpose in life. So on a simple level, how can we get somewhere if we don't know the address? We can only call it a name, God, but we don't know how to get there and we don't know exactly. We've never seen him. We've never interacted with him directly. How can we become like him? And um the secret is because we have a part of him in us and like a magnet. Even if you put a curtain between the metal and the magnet, they don't see each other. But if you allow them to approach, they will stick. Exactly. They will not miss each other. So too, our soul yearns to connect with God. We might not know what God is. We've never seen him. But our soul knows God. Our soul is part of God. And therefore, we don't have to worry. It's like a boy who swings his bat at a at a ball flying at him very fast. And he doesn't need to calculate. He doesn't need to watch the ball and observe the trajectory of his bat that they should collide. If he does it, he's going to miss. He just feels it and the bat finds the ball. So too, we don't need to know exactly what God is. We cannot see or know God in this world. But the desire to come close to God by emulating him, becoming like him will allow us to find him. That means when we remove the the blockages which is the selfishness when we without reservation say I want to be like God we allow our soul to function freely and our soul will find the path. So he Tom Devor continues, "It is fitting for a man to resemble his creator. Then he will be somewhat in the secret of the sublime form, likeness, and image of Hashem. If he will not resemble Hashem, then he is a failure." The further a man is away from the image of God, the further he is from success. That's how we judge a successful man. The more godly he looks in his character traits, in his behavior, the greater he is. The less godly he looks, the greater failure he is. Because if he resembles Hashem only in his physical appearance, and we all do because we all have the same physical body with the head, with the torso, with two hands and two feet. Our body's form is the same. Already on uh the 40th day from conception the body re achieves that form and the soul enters the body. 40th day of conception as soon as the form of the body is there. So on a physical level our body is already somewhat like the spiritual image of um um the nishama. The nishama has a place to enter and we remain with this body for the entire life. It becomes bigger, taller, larger, but the essence of the body stays the same. And therefore, the body is not what we're looking for. We are not trying to emulate Hashem with our beautiful or muscular body. That's not our goal. If he resembles Hashem only in his physical appearance but not in the way he behaves, he is causing his beautiful face to be false. I was created with the image of God. Hopefully that godly image penetrated through the entirety of me and I'm not only the facade. Rabbi Miller says that requires explanation. There is nothing in the world as interesting and as noble as a human face. So he focuses on this idea that Tom D'vor says that a human being has an image of godliness on his face without even the nisha just the face of a human being is already godly but the reason why it's god like it's like that because it's reflecting the nishama Like the word in Hebrew panim, the word face in Hebrew is panim. And in Hebrew that means the inside panim. In English the word face and facade are the same. The in English the face means outside. In Hebrew, the word word face means inside. How is that possible? And we understand because our face expresses what's inside of us. Not only what's in our heart, but also what's inside of our soul. There is nothing in the world as interesting and as noble as a human face. A calm, serious, cheerful face undistorted by silly grins is the most beautiful sight in the world. The more innocent the face is, the more beautiful it is. Any human face is a masterpiece. However, if a person doesn't try to emulate the ways of Hashem, then it's only a deception. We can put makeup on the face, special lighting, and we might deceive others that we have worth. But that worth is only being judged by the face. Really the face is supposed to reflect our heart and our soul and therefore we shouldn't try to create an image with an outer paint. Rather we should improve our feelings towards others, our love for human beings, improve our character traits and then we will be surprised that people will love us. people will see a divine shine on our face. The face is supposed to be a form of reflection of Hashem's greatness. But in that person's case, it's a false form. A person who is trying to make a good face on the outside just for public view. He's using the English word face just the facade instead of focusing on the Hebrew word panim panim the inner world. Tom Dvor continues, "And therefore you could say regarding such a person that he has a beautiful face, but the deeds are not beautiful because the primary resemblance of the divine form and likeness is through one's deeds, through one's character traits which cause the person to behave the a certain way. Yes, Hashem already gave us a gift. He gave us a beautiful face. He gave us a soul and our job is to allow our soul to shine through our face. So that the image that our face shows is exactly the image of our nishama which is part of God. Rabbi Miller says, "What is the real form of Hashem? He doesn't have the features of a human being." How can you say a person resembles Hashem? We must say the resemblance is only in the way he thinks and behaves. My inner world is godly and then my face will become godly and then everything around me will become godly. Everything I touch will become holy. Just like Hashem behaves in certain sublime ways, in perfect ways, a person should think and behave in the same ways. That's Hashem's real form. So that means just like our face is what other people see and they can understand what's going on inside of our heart and our soul according to the way we smile according to our serious face, our innocent face, cheerful face and then they know what kind of thoughts go on in our mind. So too, how do we judge who Hashem is? It is according to his actions. We observe how does God behave towards the world, towards people and that way we understand what God is. That's Hashem's real form. However, when you think of Hashem, you also think of him as a king mel. If you envision a king without a face, you are not envisioning a king. Hashem is described as the mighty one, the man of war. However, however you describe him, you always have to picture a face. Only you don't know how noble that face should be. The face of Hashem that we would see through a prophetic vision would be a tremendous beauty. So he's saying imagine if our face is beautiful. Imagine how beautiful would Hashem's face be. Of course, Hashem doesn't have a face. He doesn't have image. But if our face reflects our inner world and already it is so beautiful. Even if there is a disconnect between our face and the inner world, our face is still beautiful. Imagine how beautiful would Hashem's face be if we could picture it. Now Tom D'vor continues, "What will it help if he has the sublime face that's supposed to hint to of his greatness? He has a likeness of what we imagine Hashem should be with his face. He advertises that he is telmlo, the image of God. But in his behavior, he doesn't resemble his creator. That's what causes a great disappointed disappointment in others when they observe a person who fell low and he cheats and he hurts others and they say how can it be? How can a human being be so cruel, be so lowly? And the question is why not? Aren't we animals after all? And the reason why we are so surprised and disappointed is because a human being is supposed to be godly. A human being has potential for godliness. A human being has part of God in him. And therefore we rightfully expect the human being to behave like God behaves. And when we see that they forget about their soul and they behave as if they only have a body, we are shocked. He continues, "Therefore, it is proper for each person to try to imitate the deeds of the crown." This is a cabalistic idea, the crown. There are different um siro. One of them is keter is a crown and which means there is a set of character traits that hashem possesses. We mentioned before that hashem possesses um various character traits whether it is kindness or strict justice um and and so on. Now we're going through and we mention all these character traits. But the crown, what is the crown jewel? What is the best set of the characters of Hashem that we can best describe God with? with that is the 13 attributes of sublime rahim of higher levels of compassion. The highest description of Hashem's character traits is a set of 13 attributes of his mercy and compassion. The crown means the midot the character traits of Hashem that are expounded in the Torah. They are like a crown on Hashem's head. These midot are the crown these midot of the crown were told to Mosha Rabenu and not only for him but for all people to learn. Hashem said to Moshe, "I will teach you a secret about myself." And Hashem taught Moshe about the 13 attributes of God's mercy. He taught it to Moshe for a number of reasons. Number one is that in times of difficulty, the Jewish people should mention these 13 attributes of mercy. And by mentioning and concentrating on the 13 attributes of mercy, they will actually bring down the um energy of these 13 attributes of mercy down into this world. They will sort of um inspire Hashem to rise from his throne of strict judgment and allow Hashem to rest on the throne of kindness. So, Hashem said to Moshe, "In times of trouble, teach the Jewish people to mention the 13 attributes of mercy, and I will help them." Our sages, however, say that it's not enough just to mention the 13 attributes of mercy. What Hashem really meant is that Jewish people should recreate the 13 attributes of mercy within themselves. And Hashem said, "When you mention my attributes of kindness and mercy, emulate me. Awaken within yourself mercy and compassion and kindness and through that I will have compassion on you. These midot are explained in the first in the following pukim in mika more clearly than they are in the kumsh. In humash, it says what we mention in prayer every day in um the the Torah mentions the 13 principles of however to devor says that in the verse in Mika the prophet that we mentioned yesterday They are described um with more detail. And what is that? Who is a god like you? Who pardons iniquity and passes over the transgressions of the remnants of his heritage? He does not retain his anger forever, for he desires kindness. He will again have compassion upon us. He will conceal our iniquities and he will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. You will give truth to Yakov, kindness to Abraham as you swore to our forefathers from the days of old. And in this book we will study these pukim carefully because they are the foundation of the entire sephir. If so if these verses contain the 13 attributes it's fitting that these 13 midot should all be found in us. When we describe Hashem, it's in order to realize what Hashem expects of us. Hashem is showing us example how we should act. And now let us explain these 13 forms of behavior that properly should be found in people. We should try to emulate each character trait even in the smallest degree in order to resemble Hashem a little bit. As we study each mida, some residue will remain in us. People who learn this are going to change as a result. And when we learned Misati Sharim and we were going through the letter, we mentioned this idea that even though we finished one letter, one wrong of the letter and we're going to study the second wrong, but we didn't incorporate the first wrong yet. We didn't uh perfect it. Why are we jumping to the second rung? We're not ready for it yet. And we said, "Yes, that's true. We are only having a a superficial overview of the entire path." But then we have to come back and review and continue working on the first wrong. But we should be aware what is the second and third and fourth and fifth all the way to the till the end. Because when we are aware of the structure of the framework, we can already slowly can start filling up that framework with with u uh certain small behaviors and small ideas that we are putting into our heart. And it's just like a warehouse. You can have a huge warehouse with shelves from ceiling to floor with multiple shelves across hundreds of yards. And you start bringing in the merchandise. First, you mark all the shelves. This merchandise is going to go on this shelf. This merchandise on that shelf. And then as you bring the new merchandise, you know exactly where to put it. If you didn't study the whole warehouse and know what kind of shelves you have when you bring in the merchandise, you're not going to know where to put it and it's all going to be piled up out of order. That is why we first learn the entire book. Whichever book you're learning, learn it superficially first and then go back and start learning it slowly reviewing it. And you might grasp an idea from a higher wrong. And that's okay. Place it on the right shelf. Keep it there. Then go back, take some more merchandise in your interactions in the world, in your study, in your thinking and understanding. The more you gain through reading, through speaking to people, through your own thinking, through your experience. Take all that and absorb it and file it in the right cabinet on the right shelf. Fill up the entire framework and slowly you will see the entire picture emerging beautiful picture of a godly human being. That is why we're learning about the 13 attributes of God's mercy. One greater than the other. Even though we're still working on the first attribute of simple mercy, we are learning about greater because who knows maybe we will have inspiration and opportunity to apply it and we will have the knowledge. We will continue with the first chapter of this book next week. Thank you for joining. Shabbat shalom.