Guarding the Seven Gates of the Soul שופטים ושוטרים תתן לך בכל שעריך Kabbalah Rabbi Minkowicz

Welcome to our class. We're going to be learning a beautiful discourse in the Reb. The name of the discourse is called the Reb said this discourse on Shabasim that year was the fourth day in the month of El in the year exactly 70 years ago. So again, discourse is based on on the verse in this week's Torah portion where it says judges and officers you should put in all your gates. The brings the verse from the prophets um what we say Friday night from it says that her husband is known in the gates. So the zora asked asks a question since we're dealing with as the woman of valor. Who is who is the bride? The Jewish people. So who is the husband? Hashem is the husband. And like it's like it's like it says in the prophets. So we see that Hashem is called the husband. And like it's and brings in the in the in the in the parenthesis kazal tell us that a woman doesn't create a bond only with someone that makes her a vessel. Like based on the verse that your husband made you who you are and in another place it says that in the future we're going to have the marriage because it says so what do we see from here that when it says the husband is referring to Hashem back to the point. So if that's the case, how is it that the the known in the gates that the the husband's known in the gates, we know that the infinite part of Hashem is on the highest level of concealment and we don't have the power to understand Hashem. So here we're saying that we we know the we know Hashem in the gates. How come we know Hashem? Hashem is infinite. So the Zoro answers two answers. One answer is what does it mean? You known the fact that Hashem is not known. Hashem is infinite because Hashem is known based on what you put in your heart and every every person has the power to connect with the intellect that we have and he says that this this this insight is also brought down in Tanya that what does that mean? So yes, on one hand, Hashem is not known, but on the other hand, we have the power when we meditate and we think about Hashem to get to know Hashem. That's one answer that the Zoah says. And the second answer the Zo says that what are the gates? Gates are the 10. And by knowing the 10, we can comprehend Hashem. Two answers that the Zoro gives. Now, these two answers, they go in line with the with the the translation of gates. In other words, according to the first insight what one hand it means a a gate but it also means hash like an like an estimation you're not you don't know hashem in a true sense of the world a word but you have like an imagination of it in in cababalistic terms it's calledas you know what it is but you don't know the essence of hashem how can you know the essence of hashem so the first insight that says that well we meditate on it that's kind we have it like shim we have it we have it some kind of estimate According to the second that's a sphere we understand the sphero so comes from a from a measurement what's the measurement the 10 sphero each one this is this that sphere etc there's 10 there's not nine not 11 and since the the the revelation comes in a finite way so you could comprehend godliness um through the parables of the 10 of the of the 10 sir the 10 powers of the soul etc and like it says Clearly from my flesh you can see godliness and other this understanding it's literally understanding it and not an estimation and that's why he says exa you see and the the target actually you literally ria to see it know you see not an estimation and these two winds are both truth because when it comes to godliness in the srise you could have a comprehension of godly way he's encoded in the sphere however godliness which is above the spir yeah you're right in that level. It's only an estimation. So it's not a contradiction. The the godliness that's enclosed at the sphere, we could comprehend it through the spheroids. And the godliness above, we we can't comprehend it. Now to understand deeper the explanation of what does it mean that he's known in the gates and we already explained there's two levels that known in the gates. One is an estimation and the one is more through the spheres in reality. So he says he'd like to give an introduction what he said what was brought down somewhere else an explanation based on the verse where it says we say in ashu [snorts] that the eyes um of all of us to you we have hope and so the word says is spelled and numerically is 20 lammed is 30 so you have total together you have 50 so he says the is 50 which is referring to the 50 gates of wisdom, understanding and what are the 50 gates of understanding and that's the that's the gates that through these gates we bring down when you comprehend the more you comprehend you you draw down from intellect into your emotions and then also elevate the emotions into the intellect. It's the connection between intellect and emotions comes down from the intellect to emotions elevates the emotions into the intellect and that's why he says which means elevating elevating the emotions into intellect and that's the basically the 50 gates of understanding which is what is numerical for 50 but there's another idea with with in 50 the first thing I the first concept is that it's the it's the intellect with the emotions you're elevating the emotions into the intellect but then there's another idea in the 50 gates of understanding ing that the fif what they receive from the higher level from the 32 strands of and the 32 strands of is basically connected withina. So the first thing he says you elevate the emotions to the intellect. Here we're connecting the intellect to and it creates the union between those two in in the words of it's called which is which is idea in the anti-chamber what of so know it's based on this there's two ideas in one is that through bina you have the intellect goes down into the emotions and the other one that from the 32 strands of goes into you bring down from the you bring down from from a from the higher level. Now the difference between these two levels is like the difference between something I'll say in Hebrew I'll translate and is will. So there's a higher level of will and there's a lower level of will. What's the difference? So he explains the lower level of will. That's a the will that's a byproduct of intellect. So you think about something and you get excited and you want it. So why do you want it? because it came from intellect. But then there's ruts and a higher level of want which is what comes before intellect. And that's the difference between these two ideas that we spoke before. The 32 strands of that comes into bina that's the will above intellect because it's coming from kma down to however the the the part of of the um where be is connected to emotions that's the in the will that comes through the inflict afterwards. And that's the essence of these two ideas. And when we say no it's known in the gates her husband and as we said that one hand you have an estimation and the other one that you know it is through the sphero that the drawing down through be into the lower level into amid. So that's something which we do comprehend understand. However when it comes to the higher level of drawing in the 32 strands of kma and the higher level of will that's something which what we only have a gueststimation and a a uh um estimation. And that's why it says judges and officers you have to put you all your gates. What are all the gates? All the gates are the 50 gates of bina like we said before that 50 is is the miracle is 50 and know the verse says so which the 50 g is the 50 is only used in the 50 so it's only it's used to to to to connect to the 50 and what do we have to do we have to bring in from from the higher level we have to bring in from the level of we have to bring from the in other words what's the what's a judge he uses us intellect and that's why that's why the says what does it say over there that the Hashem is eventually going to make all the the runes and all the gates and all the boundaries he's going to make it sparkle and he's going to make it with with tremendous pleasure etc In other words, the verse is your gates. We said already he's referring to the 50 gates of Bina. What's the idea is to bring it in to to the sparkling light which is basically an excitement and which means basically bringing down the intellect into the emotions and but then when it says in these gates which is limited we bring in from the is referring to which is the so explains basically what does it mean? that that again is which is in the 50 gates of so there's two ways one is and bringing from the higher level of of of and the other way of being comes down what into the emotions what does it mean practically says well understand it what it means the term what does it mean practically serving hashem he says we know that this that it says that you have to have judges and officers in all your gates It's referring to which gates? Yeah, there's the physical gates, but it's talking the gates and every single human every single body of every human being. And like he brings from the safiro that says as follows and the body has seven gates. We have seven gates and the seven gates correspond to letters begged capus baze gimmel dalid kuff re. These are all called kafulois because they can have a doug. which could be a bay and a vase and a gimmel and jiml. Um and a cuff and the tough and a each one of these can be double. And so what one what are these what are these seven gates? The seven gates are the two eyes, the two ears, the two nostrils and your mouth. And these are called gates. Why? Because through these your your ears, your eyes, your nostrils and your mouth. That's how you connect. That's how you connect to outside of yourself and you you connect to the world outside of you. And as you receive through them and you actually give through them and that's why it says you have to have judges and officers on all these gates and all the gates of human being you have to have someone that should be a judge. What is a judge? Someone should tell you what the what the Torah law is. In other words, we have to we have to we have to comprehend it. We have to understand it. So that's we have to know what the h is all these gates. If you listen to something, you see something, you smell something, you you want to eat something, you want to know is it okay or not okay? And what is the what is the what is the officer to like Rashi says to use like a stick to enforce a judgment? What what does it mean enforcing a judgment in the world of Kabala? It's called cababala acceptance. And like tell us a person should always make sure to make that that the god the yates to the good side is overpowering the gates. And these two ideas are similar to the idea that we mentioned before about the gates. And these two components in other words both the component of of understanding understanding and which is acceptance they each help one another. Why? Because when a person goes ahead and he accepts and you accept in a sincere way that helps your understanding. When you understand then it helps you doing. But when you just take upon yourself you accept that helps your understanding crystallize your understanding. And like like tell us that when King David would sit and study which is intellect and Y and Surya he was after waging war and the this that Y was was waging war which means spiritually he was fighting with the evil inclination that helped King David in his learning Tory and the same thing the opposite by King David learning tora that helped Yua or transforming his evil inclination because when you comprehend and you understand then what happens then is then the acceptance gets gets more um accepted in an internalized level. And that's why it says they'll judge the people a righteous judgment. And like the verse says, you have to run after righteousness so that you'll live and you'll inherit the the land. Because through the fact that we establish judges and officers on the gates of the human being, ears, eyes, nostrils, and a mouth, we're guaranteed that we're going to be connected to Shedek, the gates of righteousness and not, God forbid, the gates of death, God forbid. And through that we bring in the gates on high which we said before is the 50 gates of understanding nun and the 32 strands of of in of kma and the the lower level of will the higher level of will and through that we're going to have we're going to live and inherit the land and land is Hebrew is eritz but erit also comes to the expression of the will of hashem and then we're guaranteed that when hashem when rashashana comes and hashem is going to judge the world he's going to judge with righteousness and we say it with with joy and trust complete joy and complete trust that Hashem is going to judge the world with righteousness. So here we have another beautiful beautifulic discourse a powerful discourse of the rebba about the power of that we have to bring in and control our ears our eyes our nostrils our mouth do it through meditation acceptance and each compliment each other like says hopefully we'll we'll we'll experience it the great joy and we'll have the coming of msiach and next week's class will be your have a great and blessed week shabu