Rabbi Minkowicz Weekly Torah Lesson Parsha Behar - Bechukotai 5781

welcome to this week's torah lesson this week's torah portion is pasha's baharan the question of the week is what is the practical spiritual significance of a hike known as the irrational mitzvot so this week's torah portion parishes baharan the second torah portion says if you will follow and observe my hook in my statutes we notice three types of mitzvot rules that even if the torah wasn't given we would observe them to have a civilized society a those which are testimonies for example we keep shabbat since god created the world in six days and rested in the seventh we observe passage to commemorate going out of egypt and then there's hooking statutes that means they're re they're rules without any reason irrational mitzvot so the rev brings a very powerful teaching from his father as a known capitalist to explain the idea of a hookah what is a statue and he says as follows he takes each one of the letters and explains them spiritually what they are the the chess the kuff and the hey he starts with the hey first hey is our line on the right a line and tap connected a gap and then another line which represents the three worlds bria yitzira and asea creation formation and the world of action bri and yatira are connected and we know what it says borosivitiv assisted there's a gap between formation and the the physical world and that's why it's a small gap in the a the same thing also practically in our world so we operate out of thought speech and action so generally speaking we think and then we talk and usually goes pretty pretty a pretty even flow when it comes to the world of action there's a gap there's a disconnect and that's what you have the gap between speech and action that we represent in the hay that's what the spiritual component of the hay then you have the hess what's the cast represent when thought speech and action are all connected one to the other there's no disconnect that means anything you're doing you spoke about it and you thought about it that's the hass in the world of kedusha what is the kof in the world of holiness so the cuff is where you have the right line the left one i mean and then the the one on the left goes all the way down what does that mean that your actions are not just abstract but they're anchored into the world you're doing mitzvos to elevate the world so cool represents where you you transform the world so the rapper's father explains like this the way it works is hashem created the world with the hay which means thought speech and there's a gap to action our job is the avoid of the chess our spiritual work is to connect our action with thoughts and speech a step further our job is to take our thoughts feature and action and bring it and make it part of the world internalize it in the world that's a general avoidance sometimes as a way of the the way the alphabets are are set up not going from aleph till top from beginning to the end but actually going from the end to the beginning it's called tashrak tough shane race counting them backwards so based on that the rapper's father explains that the cough represents when you're engaged in the world and then you go backwards you create a connect between our action and our in our speech and our thoughts and then we go back to the way our son created the world but then he says sometimes you just jump right in you skip the process of of the of creation where there's a disconnect and you start right away with chris what does a hike mean you start writing where thought speech is connected to action when thought speech is connected to action the action transforms and elevates the world so the answer to the question what is the spiritual significance of a haik the irrational mitzvoth where you jump right in and connect your thought and speech to the world of action and you go ahead and use your thought and speech and internalize it in the physical world and go ahead and elevate the beautiful world that we're living in this week's torah lesson is dedicated to the memory of baruch bernardi labe shlom banyose from rochelle slipper may their souls be elevated by the torah were studying in their memory thanks so much for joining us for our weekly torah lesson for more information please see our website chabadswf.org have a great and blessed week