What was Yosef Hatzadik Uniqueness? ואני נתתי לך שכם אחד Kabbalah class by Rabbi Yitzchok Minkowicz

Welcome to this week's class in we're going to be learning a beautiful discourse in the Reb. The name of the discourse is called the Reb said this discourse that year was the 14th day of the month of in the year 54 years ago. So again the discourse is based in the in the verse in this week's Torah portion where tells I give I'm I'm giving to you one portion more than your brothers that I took from the hands of the Amorites with my sword and my bow. Now there we know the the different points that are brought down in the work the the holyic works in the works theidic works of the alterba the and the rabbis afterwards because we know it says in the that take it with his sword and his bow because we know the verse says know we don't trust on on the bow My sword is not going to help me. So what does it mean? My sw my my sword it's referring to prayer and what is my bow referring to request and that's why the tum actually translates of which my prayer my supplication to hashem. So therefore we have to understand what's the connection specifically with specifically in other words what is Jacob saying he's telling I'm giving you that I gotashi and which we already explained it doesn't mean literally the sword and the bow it's referring to the idea of prayer and what's that connection of prayer to Ysef more than the other tribes and also The connection with with is not like like one like what regular other tribe. He says above your above your brothers also we have to understand why it says prayer in expression of and a sword and a bow and and especially there are many terminologies of prayer like the medra says that there are 10 different languages to express the idea of prayer. So he could have said a language that's more connected to the idea of prayer. Why does he use specifically the idea of a sword and a bow and especially that in the Talmud we have to actually bring a proof from the verse? Because the verse says because I'm not going to take it with with with my uh with with my sword or my s my sword or or my bow. In other words, that it's not referring to and therefore they have to explain. No, it's not referring to God forbid a sword and a bow, but it's referring to actually pray. That's how he got it. So therefore, [sighs] if not for the Talmet's question, you might think it's actually a sword in the bow literally. So why do you have to use an expression which doesn't mean prayer also that sword and bull literally not only doesn't it's not a reference to prayer. It's opposite of prayer because it says clearly that we don't go ahead. We're not successful with our army and power. It's through the spirit of Hashem. In other words, there's ways to do war with army and power. And we said, "No, no, we don't do wars that way." But we do wars with spirit. And what is that referring to? The sword and the bow literally. And is prayer. So you see it's two opposites. And on the nations of the world we say that yeah there they powers their their horses and their chariots we go we go with hem. So in other words sword and bow that's not a Jewish way of prayer. So if that's the case, the question still is why does it say what and says we'll understand this based on what's explained in many discourses the difference between the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the tribes and we know the is three of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and every single Jewish person has within them spiritually the are they all our forefathers. However, when it comes to the tribes, no already some people come from Ruain, some lady etc. And like he explains in the classical works in the para in the discourse that starts and he explains over there actually in detail the difference between the service of Hashem through the for the tribe of Ruain, the service of Hashem of the tribe of Shimon, the service of Hashem of tribe of Levy and Yehuda. So we see that it applies every single tribe is unique. Everyone has their own avoid but in other words the Abra Isaac and Jacob everyone is we we're connect we're all connected all three of them but with the tribes everyone's different on the other hand he was in his whole league on his own why because it says in the in in in the prophetim in other words that the the the the tribes they the they they they went up they they they were ongoing was what we In other words, the work of the tribes is aliyah to go from a lower place to a higher place. However, by it says he's going in the other direction. the theatim are all going on the way up elevating the world and is coming down into the world and going down so deep into Mits and he comes down to the lowest places literally the lowest places and that's why it says heard with an extra because the the the downgrade of he goes to the lowest lowest places into Egypt into the the the the deprevity of Egypt into the darkest places of Egypt and like explained in many many places but the idea of the sul on the ladder which was on the on the arts on on the lowest level on the floor and the top is hashim the highest level that when it says land it's referring to with when it says with a hey it's referring to the lowest places and because it has it's referring to the highest places. So it says went down with the is he goes down to the lowest places and as we learned already last week that is connected to the idea of what of tora and tora is all about bringing godliness to the lowest places and that's a lesson for every single Jew just like the soul comes into the body which obviously is a tremendous tremendous downgrade from the highest place to lowest places. Now uh reference to the soul itself we know we say every single morning in the in the morning blessings it says as follows the soul be that you placed in me it's pure so in other words is higher than is one level is the next level because basically is referring to the soul the way it's in the level of and is given is higher than the level Because when when he in in his prayer he's going from the highest to the lowest level you know just like when it goes after and is referring to the world under that which is and is higher than the and the same thing also is higher than so when you say it's even higher than every single Jewish person says every single day and like and Like the verse says, God blew into his nostrils the the the the soul of life. And like the altar explains in that every single Jewish person has two souls. And the second soul is the part of God and it's literally a part of God. And like the zora says explains clearly that someone that blows into the nostrils is blowing from his essence and it's from his internal part and from the essence of the person. And that's why he says the soul that you gave me from the highest level and it came down to the lowest places to the to the to to the to the to to the lowest possible places to this materialistic physical world and a place where there's no place lower talking obviously spiritually and and even lowest place in the world is the body of a human being and that's what it means to be and it was in the body on the lowest level and is in this physical world into the body itself which is basically the lowest level and the body is obvious is even a lower level and because we know that everything Hashem created so for example things that grow living animals so everything Hashem created so the gish the physical part and the spiritual part were created together every the things that grow a tree grass the physical and spiritual is together. The the animal kingdom physical and spiritual together. However, when it came to the body of the human being, we all know Hashem first made the body separate. There was nothing in there. It was just a body and like it says was just a just a form and afterwards Hashem put the soul in. I'd like to explain the discourses and with the discourse with its title the reason that the the the creation of the body of of human being is different all creations. So what do we see from there? How low we are our body compared to something which is because was created the energy and the physical part together and we're we were first just created the body and we even lower that not only and we even lower the inanimate. Why? Because the inanimate is only that's his purpose to be inanimate. And this gets elevated into is it's not on its own. It's from something outside of itself. However, we human beings that unites with the soul and up to the point that the ultimate purpose of the body is like be like when like when it says like in the future Mashiach comes that the that the godly soul is actually going to receive the energy from the body. So therefore before that time before Mashiach comes and before the body got united with the soul that's not what it is and therefore it's on the lowest level even lower than like it says clearly because only you I know from everything [snorts] and therefore um and there therefore Hashem says the real power of the Jewish people. So you see that on one hand we are on the lowest the lowest level and that's why it says Hurit that Yseph came down not only mit the lowest level because what's the idea of Yseph to come down and bring things to bring godliness into the lowest level from the highest possible place to the lowest place but why to elevate the lowest place it's not just coming down here to stay here it's coming to elevate and therefore Yak said to Y and Yak realized who Ysef was Ysef was coming down from the highest places to the lowest places to elevate it. So Yakov turns to Y and he says guess what you the one that's doing the greatest work. In other words also has a translation of a shoulder. I'm giving you a shoulder which is the external part the back and because is all about transforming the high the lowest place is the back and In order to transform the world, you have to first transform your own back, your own low places, and then you can transform the whole world. And that's the real power that Tory has that toyra comes down from the highest places to the lower lowest levels. Like the author explains in that literally took a journey and it comes to the lowest levels until it comes into the physical world and in the materialistic world in a place of like the angel said the god said to the angels did you come down to Egypt do you have an animal soul within you and we're here to transform because is here to show you what to do how to do it and what not to do and to and give clarity between something which is pure and something which is the opposite of pure. And the way you transform purity is by by action. And that's that's why you have all the positive commandments to is elevating the positive stuff in the world which is the comm positive commandments. And how do you transform the impurity by don't do what you're not supposed to do the negative precepts to to observe the negative precepts. And when a person learns to what happens then is you become literally a king. And like it says clearly Malban who are the kings the ones that learn Tyra and everyone can be a king because everyone can learn Tory. And with this power of learning Torah you have the power to transform the world. And that's why he says I gave you because the power to transform comes from who? Because Yakov is telling I'm giving it to you comes from the and we know that the patriarchs Abraham Isaac and Jacob Yakov is the chosen of all the patriarchs. So Yakov gives him the power but the one that does the work that's because it says Yakov Yak is the visionary he is the the one of the and he's the he's the most powerful he's the most balanced of the three of the patriarchs but the work y does now even though is yudv which means yud the highest level and goes down to the heel and he's in the level of but on the other hand to bring it down into the world of bri that means means and like the zya explains at length why is the one that has to bring it to the finish line and that's the difference between y and all the other tribes [snorts] is all about going into the lowest level bringing down to the lowest level the on the other hand it's all about elevating the world they want to leave and like it says like we quoted the verse before they elevated shift what is what what is that how do you create transformation elevating that's through prayer Now even though also is from the expression of which basically is also about drawing down the light but the fact is their work the way it's in the world of Bria it's all about elevation like we again we quoted the verse how do they do that through prayer and prayer we know is like the ladder know which the ladder stands on the floor and the the feet are in heaven it go you you go from the lowest level to the highest level with the four rungs on the ladder. Like we know when you pray you start over which basically it's still your starting of you accept you acknowledge and before that obviously which is also an acceptance then you go to with praise of hem and then you go to the next level until you reach the then you ultimately reach which is total acceptance you're standing in front of and that's the of the is through prayer to elevate the world now we know that the main power and effect of terra comes after prayer and like it says clearly in the Talmud that the prayer of what was it that my prayer should be right next to my bed means right when I get it the first thing I do is pray and it's explained what does that mean that the first thing you have to pray and the Torah should come after prayer and that's why it says actually in the zoy um [clears throat] and he brings out the zor that king David unified and high with Hashem. In other words, because since David was the one that created all the prayers of of of Tim and which is all about prayer and therefore he was able to to to fuse um on high with Hashem. Now even though that the main to tora is all about bringing down godliness to the lowest places, prayer is all about elevating from the lowest to the highest places. But since we know that everything in holiness, everything's intertwined. There's no such thing as just prayer without Torah and there's no thing as just to without prayer. So in other words, obviously in terra itself, even though tora is all about bringing the light down, you also have elevation, elevating from the lowest to highest. And in prayer which is all about elevating you also have terra which brings the light down. What does that mean? He explains like this we said is all about bringing the godly light down here. But you have the elevation that takes place in terra. What is that? That's the oral law because the written law that's comes that's bread from heaven. That's where godliness come down to this world. However, when you're dealing with the oral law and especially the the Talmud, the Babylonian Talmud, that's all about elevating the physical world because in reference to Tali, we know it says, "You found me in the dark places and know specifically through the darkness. You come to the full comprehension which means it comes through tremendous effort and like we know find it said how fortunate that he saw this." In other words, because in the beginning when he had a question and they they responded, but later on he would answer many many more answers. In other wasn't that answered 20 24 different answers, but because of because of thus because there was so many more questions and therefore there was much more clarity. So the darkness created greater light. So you see that even though tora is all about bringing the light down but there's a component of tora when you were asked the question is what you also elevate the same thing also with prayer yeah which is basically elevating down here you also have the aspect of bringing down the light into this world in other words even though prayer is generally going on through the four levels of of the ladder but the fact is in the latter we know it says they were true but they were also coming down and like But it says in other words after you reach the level of you you're elevating you come to the highest level you totally acceptance in front of Hashem and but the fact is when you come to that highest level what do you do you don't stay there you actually start asking for physical requests you start bringing down the light into this world and even though it starts with you're giving you're giving us wisdom which is basically intellect but after this what do you do you ask for physical materialistic things God should bless should bless us and materialistic things building Jerusalem we should have coming the the Messiah should come we should go out of exile we should have the redemption that we should go out of this dark dark exile up to the point where you can't wait to see the return of Jerusalem so you see you have both components each one has both but then you also have the unification of prayer and terror as well literally because the fact is in prayer there's a lot of pieces of Tora in the prayer and in tora also there's a lot of prayers in there which b what's what's do you have with very simple you have the book of psalms which is part of and the fact is it's all prayers so you see that you have the fusion of both and connected and that's why tells that in other words that specifically through the one that was able to go down to the lowest level drawing down the light into lowest level you're able to affect on the deepest and lowest level and that's the idea which is the idea of prayer which takes place in so normally yes is all about bringing it down but then it's about elevating and that's why he uses the term which is referring to idea of a prayer and like we know the the example he gives is with a lever you know but when you want to pick something up and you pick it up from the hot from you have something you want to pick up you pick it up from the top only the top gets picked up. Pick up in the middle only the middle if it's only from the middle or close to the bottom but the whole thing is not going to be picked up but when you go down you're sticking in the lowest level then you have the power to pick up the whole building and that's the same idea. Ysef went down to the lowest places because when you go down to the lowest places in mitim and literally high lower than a regular mitim, you're actually able to elevate all the levels of and the fact that Ysef went down to Mitsim. he was able to go ahead and gather all the the storage houses with with with uh with supplies and everything from Egypt went into the storage h houses and on the contrary specifically from Egypt was able to flow blessings to the to the whole world and even to Israel and that's why he says I gave you one um I mean that I got because through the fact that went down to Egypt he went to the lowest level he was able to elevate from the lowest and that's the idea of what also that through that he was went down to the slowest level in Mitim he affected not only in Egypt but he affected all the tribes and like we learned before that the power to elevate comes from the tribes but how does that come from it came from when you draw tora down which is y infused him with and that's why he says he was above above his brothers because he's higher than his brothers but he affected in them and that's why they didn't recognize him and know if they weren't on this level but through y doing his spiritual work he was able to go down to the lowest level and bring to he was able to affect also the brothers as well now based on explains beautifully we'll understand why yak says I I I gave you this gift this before he gave out the blessings if you look in before he gave out the blessings to the brothers he's already giving this blessing seemingly He should have first blessed all the all the brothers and um after he blessed all the brothers when he says Ysef to to bury him in the land of Israel and then he should have told him the reward for it. I'm giving you the one one piece uh one more than your brothers. But why did he give why did he give this blessing before? Because this gave the power to all the tribes. And that's why he has to say it beforehand because the power of to that the the tribes had to elevate came through the drawing down the energy of through and through that it came into literally into the the sword and and the bow literally even though it says in that if somebody prays for materialism it's like these disrespectful uh dogs that are screaming give give but we know the way the the the laws in in in um that the main prayers for what? Not for spiritual things, physical things. A matter of fact, the first three the first three blessings in the that's only to set up the the praise for Hashem which is a preparation for the main prayer that you're asking for for for physical things and the and the at the end after you finish asking it then you thank Hashem you acknowledge Hashem's great greatness but afterwards comes the transformation with the sword and the bow because on the on the on the enemy which is close what is the enemy which is close spiritually the arrogance with total total total disrespect and then you know that's an enemy. So that's enough the sword but an enemy that's far which is a more refined arrogance which basically is concealed and you don't even own it that already you need to have the bow you know you need a bow to reach a further enemy and through that elevating that that that that that negativity in the world. So for the enemy which is nearby the arrogance enough the sword can knock it out. But once you have something which is far you don't it's disguised and you can't see it then you need a bow. And just like when it comes to a bow the more you pull the bow to yourself that's how far it's going to go. The same thing also spiritually the more a person becomes humble you're able to reach and elevate much more. And that's why after all the blessings what does it say? He blessed them each according to their blessing. And Rashi says because because he you know he he he gave some criticism. So you might think that he didn't give them all the blessings. So the Torah teaches us no he blessed them all. In other words that the the the blessings are specifically that the the the the way they serve Hashem every tribe according to according according to their personality. And we know there's 12 different ways to serve Hashem. But afterwards is a 13th gate. And the 13th gate is the one that applies to everybody which basically that is the gate of of of of bringing down godliness to the lowest level and through humility and through and and but by doing that we're going to merit the coming of Msiah. It's going to happen finishes off beautifully obviously in our generation. So let's hope and pray after learning this beautiful discourse about the power of sadic about bringing down godliness to the lowest level and by bringing it to the lowest level we actually are able to then elevate the whole world and we'll have the coming of mashia let's hope and pray our next class will be inesh have a great and blessed week shuv