Repentance Elevates you Higher כי תשא את ראש. תשובה A New Kabbalah class by Rabbi Yitzchok Minkowicz

welcome to this week's 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 onab and that year was the the the uh 16th day of the month ofar in the year 39 years ago so again the discourse is based on the verse in this week T portion where it says when you elevate the head of the Jewish people the accounting of them say again when you'll count them and won't be a plague when you count them so three time it mentions um the the word of ke for counting re says we have to understand what is it what what is the idea what it says when you say you elevate the head when you count them in other words that what does it mean you're elevating the head that you means it's not just physically mean ideas you're spiritually elevating the head so that elevation on the other hand is an an expression of a downgrade and the question is what's the connection with elevating the head to which actually is is a negative connotation that's question number two also we have to understand based on what to explain the Z that this that it says whoever is going to pass on the everyone's going to pass through to be counted so what does that mean so the Z says whoever is going to be passed is g to I'll say in Hebrew those that rebelled and did not do a com a Biblical commandment so in other words so is not just it's it's like on a downgrade level it's a sin like it literally means in other words whoever is going through that unfortunately a sin and and it says obviously three times before that the expression of so if that's the case what's the connection connection between elevating the head with the idea of a sin this question is obviously much stronger also there we have to understand the fact is that um those that sinned against a a a um Torah decree what is it referring to what What did the what what was where did they say it's talking about the sin of the golden calf because the fact is that the the Torah portion about the giving the schull giving the uh atonement it comes after the sin in the golden calf now those that Sinn in the golden calf were only 3,000 people and even them they weren't from the Jewish people they were called from the mixed multitude a like it says clearly in the verse and your that your nation has has sinned and Rashi says what is referring to it's referring to the so this add so the question before what's the connection out with elevating the head of all the Jewish people to the sin of the golden calf which is only the a also we have to understand what does it mean to elevate someone's head spiritually what do it mean elevating their heads and especially especially that on on a on a physical level um today we do not have the opportunity to bring the half half a shekele and know how much more so we don't have the opportunity to bring the half a shekele that was that the that the the adim which basically is the sockets that were used in the temple and know today we that doesn't apply to we don't we don't have we don't have a tabernacle but even the half a shekele that was used to bring the sacrifice to the community so that that only applies when you have the Bas of McDon when you have the temple today we don't have the temple and since we know the Torah is Everlasting so obviously you must say that this idea has a powerful lesson a practical lesson to us today also since the Mitzvah of giving the half a shekele is actually in the ramb writes it as one the mitv and and so now we so it's a Mitzvah that's that's that that applies for Generations so obviously the the the Everlasting component of it is very very strong so the question is what is the spiritual idea of the half a says in order to understand this he'd like to give an introduction based on the verse in the prophets that says as follows that means a left hand is under the head the am and the right hand hugs me know what is it referring to it's referring to the the Jewish people telling hasem that your left hand is under our head and the right hugs us that's the verse in the prophet so we know so we know it's brought down that any time there's a gift there's energy and he it's called there's a gift from above what causes that to happen it comes by and I'll say in Hebrew avoid when we do our work here so then hasem gives us obviously a huge gift but we it comes in response to what we do here and like the the cabalistic expression is mean we do our work that causes to give us the gift uh from above and more than that that what happens is when we do our spiritual work when we do our when we do our so then we re then we get a gift not the gift that we can reach it's a gift that's much greater and like it's explained elsewhere that when a person does their their their work their their part and then you get the the gift from so it comes in a place of a has to be a complete place in other words and over there comes in this complete place after you do the work you make yourself a vessel you reach a level that you cannot reach there and that comes the gift of mem so in other words so generally speaking to recap any time we do an AV we do we get a tremendous gift from above that we cannot reach our own so what do we see from here that in order that that we should be the ver like the verse we just quoted before from the prophets that Smo that has his left hand under our head and his right hand hugs us so obviously we need to do our avoid we have to do our work on this level of Smo left and right and that cause hem to gives us his his his left and his right what so what what what does that mean practically where where do we have the a the spiritual work of the left and the spiritual work of the right so explains that the the spiritual work of smoy the left on my head what is that referring to it's referring to observing the two the the um the negative precepts the 365 negative precepts and what does it mean the right hand hugs me what is that our part that's when we do our our positive Commandments the 248 positive Commandments why is that because the spiritual work of of not transgressing the negative precepts that's so to speak on on the left side it's on the negative side you're not doing and therefore what do you what's what do you get back and term for that it's smoy the left hand of hem comes underneath the head and the other hand we do the the the positive Commandments that's right that's that's that's that's positive and through that we receive you meaning the right hand of hem that hem that hugs us so in other words what they saying is like this um before we go forward that basically um anything we do it creates a gift from hasem and obviously much greater so therefore what's the practicality when we do the negative precept brings in the SM toxi the left that that holds our head and then we do the positive that brings what the right that hugs us now besides the idea of left and right like we just discussed which is the negative precepts and the proit positive pre precepts there's also another idea and like to explained at length in the in the classical Works in in our and the other discourse well that what is the right and the left referring to it's referring to prayer and learning to and doing MIT why is that first we're going to talk about the idea of prayer what's prayer prayer is is connected to brings down the smoy the left which is under our head why because prayer is on the left side what does it mean the left side it's basically elevating the the materialistic World on high like we see it says clearly in in in in the Torah reference toob praying so it says there's a ladder that was laying on the ground on the top reaches the heaven and we know that the the ladder is referring to latter of prayer and as as we know that prayer is also established in place of the sacrifice they brought in the temple and also so the source of the sacrifices we pray um since we don't have the sacrifices and the sacrifices also elevating the materialistic World on high and like it's brought down in different works of muser and different works of cabala that the reason why the that the sacrifices were made from all the four different ele El of inate things that grow things that are alive and the the human being in other words how do you have all four so the madra is the person that brings a sacrifice um the the um the the are the sacrifices and the is different Libations and the is a salt and like we know clearly it says and all the sacrifices you have to bring salt now why do we have from all four cuz in order to elevate the from all levels from this world we're trying to elevate the whole world on high and that's why the another reason why we find the sacrifices are brought outside they're brought from outside the BET mdash and even from outside Jerusalem and even possibly outside Israel why is that because the whole idea is to elevate outside Jerusalem Jerusalem and literally ele Elevate the whole the whole world and that's why the old ultimate completion of prayer is that when we pray it should be it should be consistent and like it says in the tal clearly we hope that we should be able to pray all day in other words just like the sacrifices it says that's the always an eternal flame burning on the temple know what does that mean that this spiritual work of transforming the world um um the purpose is to bring downi the left hand of hem under our head so that so to speak the left side the left side is prayer what is the right in our in our service of hem it's referring to learning to and doing MIT because when you learn T and you do MIT you're drawing Godly light into this world and that's basically the right and that's also the the the hug um the hug is referring to what's this God's hug it's but when we learn toy we do MIT like the alar writes clearly in Tanya that what's the whole idea of learning T it's like when you learn T you like hugging the king and therefore since when you learn T and you do MIT you're drawing down godl and you're hugging hem that causes Hashem to go ahead and hug us so again so first we had the the ne the the the left and the right was the negative precepts and the positive precepts but now he's expanding it that the left is referring to prayer and the right is and that's Now understand why it says first first the left underneath the head and afterwards the right hand hugs me because that's the way it's spiritually because what comes first of comes first is prayer which is a small which is left before you go learn T and like we know the famous teaching in the tal about the prayer of ab and what did he say that the prayer should be close to my bed me as soon as you get up the first thing you do is pray and then you learn t means first you have to have the prayer and then you have to deter so the prayer so to speak is Clos to your bed and we also know that so some sometimes we have people that learned Torah before prayer so that's only to prepare you so the prayer should be good but the goal is what has to be first prayer so you need to Prim the prayer that's why sometimes we learn that's why we learn before but specifically after we go ahead and we pray then we come to the spiritual work of learning to and doing MIT like it says you go from the from the where you where you pray to the B Med where you learn uh and like for example before you make get alyah to the Torah you make a blessing first you make the blessing first why because the prayer comes before the Torah and since how do how do we operate and as we pray first and then we learn Torah so therefore the gift we got from hem is SM is the left which is which is brought on by prayer and then you which is brought On Through To now this this spiritual work that causes to come down the left hand of which was under our head and the right hand that hugs us which is again the left and the right which we learned before is the initially is the negative precepts and the positive precepts and then we added on it also applies to prayer and Mitzvah what is the purpose the purpose is that a person should be healthy what does that mean the the body should be healthy the head should be healthy in other words not only the body which in general in the body you have the right and the left but even is even the head which is not a right and left but the go go of the goal of oldness is that our body should be healthy the right and the left and our our head should be healthy and and generally speaking what is that referring to it's referring to the idea of learning T and like we know that toyra has both components on one hand is T inter itself you have the 248 positive Commandments and um which corresponds to the limbs in our body and on the other hand you have you have you have the idea of the RO the head Which is higher than the right and left in other words that the ultimate learning of T is that that where T is um is is is higher than the so to speak the right and the left but and it's a much higher level so you have both components T has where it has the right and the left it has the Commandments then you have to come their toe which is much higher now but in order to elevate the head to to the next level how do we do that how do we come to the next level the way we come to the next level is what through the avoid of trva by returning to hasem as we know when you return to Hashem that's off the charts No Limits like the AL explains in Tanya the reason that when a person returns to Hashem and a person does chuva you can take something that was that you did wrong and it can turn transform to something actually good because the truth because truva when a person returns to Hashem it comes from where it comes from the depth of your heart with tremendous Love and Desire and a soul yearning to cleave to Hashem and when a person is is on such a level and the person is um yearning um to to uh to to to be with hem like like you're like in a a a place where it's a desert and you have nothing to drink and you just want to have that water that's the idea of chuva and when a person returns to AEM with tremendous love then what happens is you something you did wrong can actually become positive why because you actually reach the place of tremendous love for hasem so what do we see from here that Chua has the power No Limits that means something that was wrong before becomes something positive and therefore Chua has the power to elevate the head higher than both levels even higher and higher So based on this D explains that's why he says you have to elevate the head now what we learned before something which is negative and up to the point that we learned it's actually it's a transgression and we even said it's a transgression means you're transgressed against a Biblical commandment so what does that mean you're elevating the head because of something negative and you're saying something very powerful because the the what what what creates the the the negative and the sin the whole reason very powerful the whole reason why somebody did something wrong and something negative and someone sin is so that the person will do chuva because when a person does truva then you can Elevate the head even higher to a place which is Without Limits in other words because the fact is like this the Jewish people are have no connection with sin our connection is doing what hasm wants the 2 148 positive Commandments staying away from the negative Commandments learning tah doing MIT we have no room we have no way to to it's not in our cards really to sin and like quotes from The Z the zor says a soul that sins so the zor says to it's a question is it possible for a soul to sin now but this that there is unfortunately things that we do that are not appropriate on a on a refined level or sometimes unfortunately we something do something which is physically wrong what why does it happen the intent is that but after we do something wrong whether it was by accident whatever reason caus it to happen the goal is that we should reach to a place of trth we return to oh my gosh I love you it was terrible what he did and then we do that we reach a very very high level of we actually Elevate the head so from here we see the powerful like idea on on practical level that even if a person God forbid is in a very very low place so e besides the fact that the whole reason why the soul came down to the body that in itself is a ter is gr for the soul the soul wants to be with Hashem it came down here and now yet even more when a person unfortunately Rebels against hem doesn't do something he's supposed to do according to the Torah but we have to know and this is so powerful and so important and so empowering that the intent of the whole downgrade of the Soul coming down into this world or unfortunately sinning is so that we should be to do chuva which is basically elevating the head powerful idea so here we see what does that mean practically and our service of hasem there's two opposite two two extremes on one hand even somebody who's in a very very high level it means he works serves hem on the right side and the left side the positive and the negative the prayer the toyra he does everything and even it means he reaches a level that he's reaching of he's reaching the highest levels but you have to know there still a higher level what's the higher level as high as you go you can still go a little more that's on one one side on the other side even somebody unfortunately that that that fell through a little bit and is not doing as supposed to a person has to know that the only reason why you're there is not because you're a loser not because you're a bad person the the reason why you messed up a little bit is so that you'll have now the power and the opportunity to do chuva to return to Hashem and you return to Hashem you'll be able to reach a very very powerful place of So based on this explains that why we find that when it says those that are passing through there's two opposite translations of passing over the one is like we learned before from the Z was that mean you literally transgressed on the Commandments of hasem and the second trans ation is what does it mean is referring to one that passed over um on the on the water what water passed through pass through um theam of the splitting of the sea so it's two opposites one hand you're saying could someone that sinned and one you're saying it's what someone that crossed the sea because the fact is explains because the the the ne the what's lacking and the sin on the first inside someone that Rebels against hm doesn't do what says in the tah it's only because of tra it's only to repent so that you'll have the level of and that's the whole idea of splitting the sea like like like like it says clearly in in that when when when uh even a mid Ser saw on the sea she saw what the biggest Prophet didn't saw and know what do we see did not see what do we see that when splitting of the sea is higher than the than the charity of of and even higher than the charity ofal which means it's what it's it's off the charts and that's the whole idea why the the the splitting of the sea was the end and the completion of going out of Egypt and because you ultimately reach the highest level and the same thing also msia comes like it says clearly in the prophets just like in the days of Egypt we're going to see tremendous miracles of M comes and like it says in the prophet is going to go ahead and split the Waters of of Egypt and he's going to put his hand on on on on on the stream and he's going to separate into into seven streams so what do we see that so it's know the what's going to be in the future just like when when we went out of Egypt however the splitting of the sea what it's going to be like future mahes is even going to be much greater than when we went out of Egypt because if that's the case what's the what's the Revolutionary of the of when mashiah comes and on the contrary we're going to have tremendous Miracles which are going to be even even even on the on the level of of going out of Egypt like it says but even much greater and like it says clearly is going to be a brand new Torah when is that going to happen with the Redemption the true Redemption the complete Redemption and it's going to happen very very soon and in our days literally so again here we have a beautiful beautiful powerful cic discourse of the rabba with very powerful ideas obviously I think the main idea teaches us is that someone sins remember the reason why you sin is you can do Chua and you can actually have the greatest elevation knowing that is so empowering that because we all are human we all have slips here and there we have to remember the whole purpose of the slip is to elevate ourselves to even a much greater level like der finish often says God willing will have the ultimate highest level just like we had theam and we're going to have the G and next class will bees have a great and blessed week sh okay I'll think