Bezrat Hashem, we’re going to start learning today a Torah
in Likutey Moharan, the Lesson is called ‘Azamra’ - I will sing to my
God. And about this Torah, Rabbenu said it’s practically impossible
to pass through all the tests and clarifications that we’ll have to go
through before the geula without this Torah. More than all the other Torah and
advice that Rabbenu gave over, he emphasized the importance of ‘walking
everywhere’ with this Torah.
What does he mean ‘walk everywhere’ with this Torah? It’s
not a hard lesson to learn, But it's the hardest lesson to actually implement
In terms of how to practically apply it. Putting it into practice, it's a
Lesson that's called 'Shmirat eynayim' - guard your eyes What does it mean to
‘guard the eyes’? Guarding the eyes has two aspects: The first one is very
simple: be careful what you look at! But there's another aspect that's
talked about in this lesson which is to 'guard your eyes' From having a
'bad' eye - an 'evil' eye. And to try to understand how we can have a ‘good
eye’. Because via this whole lesson, Rabbenu is teaching us the secret of how
to develop a ‘good eye’ (ayin tova). So what's a 'good' eye? At the start of
the lesson, Rabbenu tells us immediately what a good eye is. “Know! That you
need to judge every person favorably And even the most wicked person in the
world, you need to search out in him some good point that by way of this, he is
not wicked By finding in him this bit of good and judging him favorably, you
tip him into the scale of merit and righteousness, so that he is able to do
teshuva. And at the moment that we look at each other from the side of judging
favorably By doing this we bring each other back to doing teshuva And even
someone who possess almost nothing, nothing good, despite this, still search
out in him and see what good point he still possesses - yes, he’s stealing from
people, he’s a gangster, he’s got the biggest drug-dealing outfit in the
neighborhood but see how he’s still
helping out families for Shabbat.
There was a Jew like this who had the biggest drug-dealing
network in the neighborhood but who used to help poor families for Shabbat, and
send them food baskets for Shabbat. So what Rabbenu is saying here he's telling
us a big secret If he steals, etc, we don’t judge those things favorably. We
don't say ‘it’s not such a big deal to steal things’. Rabbenu doesn't agree
with that. Stealing is negative behavior Rather, Rabbenu is telling is
something else Rabbenu tells us to search and to look really carefully if there
aren’t some other things that he’s doing 2:44where you CAN see his good side The
good things that he’s doing. And it’s very important to look at the good that
he possesses inside of him. And another thing that Rabbenu is telling us, but
we really have to understand it: He says: By way of seeing this good point in
him, this good deed we really take him from the side of ‘guilt’ to the side of
‘merit’ and because we're doing this, he'll come to make complete teshuva We
need to understand a little Rabbenu’s words, to see what he’s really telling
us. But before we do, let’s do a short introduction to something that is at the
foundation of this Torah lesson.
Chazal Chazal asks the question: Why was the First Temple
destroyed and why was the Second Temple destroyed? and they come to the
following conclusion: The first Temple was destroyed because of the three
cardinal sins, namely immoral behavior, bloodshed and idol-worship. Really
terrible sins! Immorality, idol-worship, murder, of course these are awful
sins! And that's why the first Temple was destroyed. Why was the Second temple
destroyed? Because of Sinat chinam (baseless hatred) That's what Chazal says,
after plumbing the matter to its depths And they come to this conclusion, about
the reasons why the two temples were destroyed
In a different place, Chazal say something that's a little
difficult. What do they say? The first temple, where the reason is revealed What
does this mean, the 'reason is revealed'? That we know why, what sins caused
its destruction the destruction of the first Temple so, 'it's end' is also
revealed. What does this mean? There was a prophesy from the Prophet Isaiah many
years before the First Temple was destroyed that the first Temple will be
destroyed in the future But that all the destruction will only last for 70
years. This was a well-known prophecy, everyone knew it Also the non-Jews, also
Am Yisrael, everyone knew That the time between the first temple and the second
would only be 70 years. This is what Chazal meant that the reason is revealed
and the end is revealed. They knew the whole exile would only be 70 years.
The second temple: the reason is NOT revealed, so also the
end is not revealed. This year we're already 1948 years after the destruction
of the second Temple, but we still don't know when the third Temple is going to
be rebuilt. This is what Chazal is talking about Because we don't know the
reason why the second Temple was destroyed, so we also don't know when the
third Temple will be rebuilt. So says Chazal. But this is very difficult! Why?
Because a moment ago, we said in Chazal's name that the reason the second
temple was destroyed was sinat chinam so, we DO know the reason why it was
destroyed How can Chazal tell us, somewhere else
The same Chazal, who told us the second Temple was destroyed
because of sinat chinam and now in a different place are saying 'the reason
isn't revealed' - we don't know the reason.
Here we have a kushia, a difficulty, with Chazal They're
contradicting themselves But of course, there isn't really a problem here Rather,
we need to explain what's going on. It’s true, that Chazal told us that because
of sinat chinam the second Temple was destroyed. When they say 'the reason
isn't revealed', what they mean is two different things. We ourselves, we don't
understand the depth of the destruction that there is with sinat chinam.
To where the destruction reaches, with sinat chinam. It's
not obvious to us. Our minds can't grasp the awfulness the gravity of the sin of
sinat chinam which is worse than immorality, murder and idol-worship.
That's what Chazal means, that we don't know the reason It
hasn't been revealed to US how big the sin really is. That's the first
explanation. The second explanation of 'we don't know the reason', is that it's
not revealed to us
just how much God Himself is strict about the sin of sinat
chinam. Hashem tell us many times, He tells us: Even if you do a lot of sins if
you love each other I won't do anything to you. That's why it's written that at
the time of King Shaul Am Yisrael were tzaddikim, but they had wars, and they
lost their wars. But in the time of Ahav, they worshipped every idol under the
sun Ahav had a wife called Izevel (Jezebel) and she introduced Am Yisrael to
idol worship - they all worshipped idols because of her. Because of Izevel, and
Ahav joined in with her and encouraged her
But Chazal say He almost never had a war And if he had a
war, he always used to win.How can this be? Chazal ask this question! How can
it be? Chazal say: Why was this? Because they didn't speak lashon hara. Ahav
used to say: "I'll you do any sin you want. But if someone speaks lashon
hara they'll be beaten. Ahav was very strict about this. Chazal says: That
Ahav's army never lost a battle all the days of his life He wasn't beaten, and
all this happened why? Because he was strict about not speaking lashon hara about
other people. This is another hint about just how strict God is on the sins
between a man and his fellow.
How strict God is about this. We don't grasp it. We don't
get it, how strict Heaven is about this subject, how strict God is about this
matter. And this is what Chazal said: 'the reason is not revealed'. We don't
know... They mean that it's not revealed to US the seriousness of the problem
of sinat chinam. What is sinat chinam?
Chazal say: sinat chinam doesn't mean now Reuven is going to
do something horrible to Shimon because he hates him. Of course, that's also
sinat chinam. But there's many more stages there's subtleties here, there's a more
'internal' dimension to the matter. Chazal tell us a terrible thing: Every
single feeling of envy, hatred, harsh judgment, anger, that a Jew feels about
someone else this is also considered to be part of the problem of 'sinat
chinam'. And because of this we haven't managed to rebuild the third Temple.
Everyone asks, everyone want to know: 'when are we going to get the geula?'
Hashem is pushing us to cry out to Him from the depths of
our hearts to bring the geula. We see it's being delayed. The question is
asked: "Why's the geula being delayed?" What's the reason for
delaying the geula?!
All the reason why the geula is being delayed, we should
know, Is solely and only because of these internal bad middot We're not talking
about hitting people here or because we're arguing with them. If a person just
feels something in their heart he's not even saying a word about it He's a
tzaddik, he's not talking about it to anyone else externally but, if he still
feels in his heart envy, hatred, or harsh judgments anger....against another
person, anything that's connected to these things, Chazal tell us: this is the
central reason why the geula is being delayed.
This subject is so very deep, the matter of how a Jew
relates to his fellow Jew. So, when we reflect on this and especially now - all
the year round - but especially in the three weeks Today, in another week and a
half, it'll be Tisha B'av. BH, this year we won't be fasting We certainly won't
be fasting on Tisha B'Av, and also not on the 10th of Av, either We'll already
be eating lamb chops, and goat chops in the temple, bezrat Hashem. But when we
reflect on this in the three weeks to see what we need to be doing what we're
meant to be doing in order to bring the geula nearer, and to ensure both that the
geula comes faster, and also comes with mercy and kindness 08
We need to know, that the single biggest secret about this is
to rectify this issue of sinat chinam. To rectify baseless hatred. How do we
fix sinat chinam? Ahavat chinam (baseless love). Today it's very difficult...
Someone told me yesterday that today no-one is willing to
give anything 'for free' (chinam) they're not even willing to give them 'sina'
(hatred) for free. And certainly not to give love for free! But this point This
aspect
of how Rabbenu is teaching us how apply the Torah's ideals
practically, in Lesson 282 in that lesson Rabbenu is teaching us the way how we
can fix the issue of sinat chinam. It's a lesson of rectification how we can
rectify the thing that destroyed the second Temple the rectification of sinat
chinam.
First things first, in every spiritual matter we always find
the principle of 'leave the bad, and do good' What is the 'leave the bad'
aspect of sinat chinam? It's that we should merit to work (we'll see how in
minute...) to work on our internal character traits, especially machloket
(making trouble), envy, anger and judging others harshly to work on these
points. For sure, nobody can in the space of a week, completely fix themselves.
Not in a week, and not in a month, and not even in a year. We should be
fortunate to fix it within 20 years! Hashem won't judge us harshly that we
still have these bad middot inside of us.
What does God want from us? Just that we make an effort. The
moment that a person makes some effort, Heaven already considers it that he's a
tzaddik in this area. Because God knows no-one can fix their bad middot so
quickly not in a year and even not in two years, can we fix these middot It's
the work of a lifetime. We need to work on it all our lives. But, at the moment
that a person even just begins this process in Heaven they no longer have any
complaints against him. Hashem doesn't expect of us that we should be angels
within 24 hours. If He wanted that, He would've created the world a little
differently, so we could become angels within 24 hours. Instead, God gave us 80
years, up to 120 years to work on these issues, in order that we can truly rectify
ourselves in these areas.
The first thing is, how can we really fix our harsh
judgments, our anger, all the jealousy that we have inside? What we said
earlier, that this sin is not really 'revealed' to us We can't really admit to
ourselves how deeply rooted inside of us this sin actually is. Often, we don't
even know what's going on ourselves! We don't know that we're angry at others,
judging them harshly And even more so, a person doesn't know how much he's
jealous of someone else. The character trait of jealousy is the sort of midda that
a person often isn't even aware that he has. So many times we feel jealous
inside, but we're not aware of it So what do we need to do? What's the work we need to do to overcome it?
The main work to do to overcome this is via tefilah, by talking to God, by
doing hitbodedut, some personal accounting it doesn't matter what, exactly, but
we need to ask God to help us
to identify these character traits that we have inside of us
To show us the truth, to open our eyes for us so that we can see the truth. And
at the moment that a person acknowledges the truth and asks for help - my
experience of this, and also many others have told me - that at the moment we
ask for this, they'll show us. Look, how much anger you have inside, how much
jealousy, how many judgment calls When a person actually acknowledges these
things, it's a huge thing!
A person should be happy that he's identified these things
internally, and shouldn't be unhappy. That we suddenly realise that we have a
lot of jealousy, or a lot of anger, or that we're very judgmental of others, he
shouldn't feel bad about this! The opposite, be happy about it! Why be happy? Because
now, they are helping you. They are showing you where you're really holding,
spiritually. After they show a person where he is holding, he should take it
and give it to Hashem, he should raise it up with words to Hashem
What does it mean to raise it up with words to Hashem? fore
example if you notice that you have jealousy inside you don't fall into
depression, Hashem doesn't need our depression our depression doesn't help
anything
Instead, we need to tell Hashem, have mercy on me! Help me! Take
this character trait of jealousy away from me! If you suddenly feel hatred
towards someone else Anger, like you really want to judge them very harshly
Like you want to help him achieve his 'tikkun haklali'
(general rectification). Sometimes we want to help someone else to reach their
'tikkun haklali' to help them pass on from the world
When we recognise these things within ourselves when we
recognise these characteristics within ourselves, what do we need to do? We
need to take these feelings that are inside of us and to turn them into a
conversation with God. Don't fall into sadness, and start asking: 'why am I
jealous?' etc Why are we jealous? Because God placed those characteristics inside
of us. That's our mission here in this world, to fix these things. We're not to
blame that we have these negative things! So what we need to do is to
acknowledge the truth. yes, I have a jealousy problem, I hate other people - to
take these middot and then immediately turn them into a conversation with
Hashem.
When are our prayers accepted by Hashem? That happens when a
person recognizes these things inside himself and then immediately asks God to
help him with them, at the very moment that he sees these things and asks for
help his prayers are immediately accepted by God. So, then what happens is that
God opens up our eyes, and helps us to really see where we're really holding. We
need to know, this is actually a very big gift!
Because the yetzer hara comes, when Hashem starts showing us
just what a big problem he actually has with jealousy, anger how much he's
really judging people negatively, so then the yetzer hara comes and tells him
'now you have to be sad!' Why? 'Because you are the worst person in the world!'
But Rabbenu says 'no!' Hashem doesn't judge us harshly that we're full of
jealousy of full of anger, and all the rest. Hashem only judges us harshly -
when does he judge a person harshly?
Rav Dessler wrote in his book 'Michtav Me'Eliyahu' (a letter
from Eliyahu) When is Hashem strict with a person? When he says: 'I'm the most
OK person in the world...' Why am I Holon right now? (where the shiur is being
given) Only because I need to pray for Holon, and to give Holon some help. There's
a lot of problems in Holon so God put me in this generation just to help other
people do teshuva In my merit, Holon is being raised up.
This is what wakes up Hashem's attribute of harsh judgment
against a person. This is a very deep point: You saw the truth? Immediately
talk to God about it. As soon as a person does this, he starts walking on the
path of rectification as soon as a person notices what's going on, and asks for
mercy What are we asking for mercy about? Help me! Take this jealousy away from
me! Take the anger, the harsh judgment! This is the first secret of how to
rectify sinat chinam.
First things first, acknowledge the truth acknowledge the
truth and then talk to God about it. Many years' ago, a long time ago I was
talking to one of the tzaddikim, and I said to him that, I'm not so thrilled about
where I'm actually holding (it was the Admor of Porisov) I told him, Hashem
showed me that I'm not actually the biggest tzaddik in the world. I thought I
was... but suddenly I'm seeing I'm not exactly 'there' I remember that the
Admor laughed, and he told me: now you're starting to begin to really serve
Hashem. I asked him: 'what do you mean?' He replied: the more a person sees the
truth about himself, it's a sign that he's starting to come closer to God. It's
exactly the opposite (of what we think) If you're now seeing the truth, it's a
sign that God is drawing you nearer.
So this is the first secret of how to fix sinat chinam. This
is from the aspect 'leave the bad' - to fix the evil that's inside of us. Here,
Rabbenu starts his lesson with the 'do good' aspect. Rabbenu tells us how we
can fix this
from the side of 'do good'. As we said earlier for each
thing there's the 'leave the bad' and the 'do good' side How can we fix the
issue of sinat chinam from the path of 'do good'? Rabbenu tells us this secret when
he says that we need to 'judge everyone to the side of merit' and even someone
who's a complete evil-doer, we still need to search out in him some point where
he's still good, in that particular area Rav Natan said a very big secret about
this matter: every good thing that you find within a person it's Divine light.
After all, we say in the morning 'Elokai, the soul that you gave to me is pure'
It's our Divine aspect, it's the Godly soul that we possess inside of us. All
the good that we have inside of us this is the expression of, the revelation of
the Godly soul we have inside of us.
So, when we recognise something good in someone else What
are really recognising inside of them? What aspect? The Godly soul that they
have inside of them. That's the good that a person possess inside himself, his
Godly soul! So firstly, Rabbenu tells us a big secret. This is the work of a
lifetime We need to continue doing this throughout our whole life, to see how
we can switch our anger at people to . judging them favorably. This is what's
written, what do we say before the Ma'ariv (evening) prayers? If there's
broguez (upset with people) remember mercy. What does 'if there's broguez
remember mercy' mean? What are we really saying? Rav Natan gives an amazing explanation
of this: Right now, you're angry at someone. Why are you angry? He did
something to bother you. You saw that he did something stupid, or made a
mistake Rabbenu tells us: instead of getting angry at him that he did such a
stupid thing Have mercy on him, because
he did such a stupid thing. That's what it means instead of 'broguez', remember
the trait of mercy for the very same reason that you're angry at the person
for that selfsame reason - have mercy on him!
A told someone a little while ago, who was having shalom
bayit issues I told him that if we could merit that inside our homes, we could
switch out 'broguez' for 'remember mercy' then in every home there would be the
most amazing shalom bayit (marital peace) ever How do we know? Because this is
how the world usually works It's been like this for 5776 years already that the
husband starts judging the wife harshly and the wife starts judging the husband
harshly, too You know how this started? We know how this began It started three
hours after Adam HaRishon was created He was created, Chava (Eve) was created -
and immediately all trouble started. She gave him the apple Hashem asked him:
'Why did you eat it?' He said: 'What me? You're complaining to me? 'Go and
complain to her!' Straight away, we judge harshly Rabbenu tells us, In the
middle of your home, instead of 'broguez' remember mercy About the exact same
point that you're getting upset about it (because we need to tackle this from
both sides) Instead of judging harshly, have mercy!
Sometimes, we get home - a friend told me this - he was
asking for some help with his shalom bayit problems. So what's going on? He
told me he gets home in the afternoon and his wife immediately dumps all the
problems in the whole world on him So I asked him, why is she screaming at you?
Does she just like screaming at you? He said no, the kids are driving her
crazy. So I told him instead of getting angry at her that she's screaming at
you, feel sorry for her that's she's got to that place where she needs to scream
at you. The poor woman! Look what she's having to go through.
This is what Rabbenu means, when he says to switch all the
anger and harsh judgments and the jealousy to having a 'good' eye Whatever
negative thing we see in a person, we should always look for the mercy, for the
point of good it contains. When Rabbenu was in Eretz Yisrael when he returned
from Eretz Yisrael, as it's known, that here he grasped all the Torah of geula
(redemption) and all of his biggest insights, that he grasped, and all the Torah
that will accompany Am Yisrael until the coming of Moshiach, and even
afterwards, this is what Rabbenu grasped during his trip to Eretz Yisrael.
When Rabbenu returned home, he said 'I grasped what I
grasped' and the first thing that Rabbenu said, what did he say? He said: Even
a person did every evil thing to me in the world I wouldn't judge him harshly,
not even by a hairsbreadth. All the Torah of the geula that Rabbenu grasped in
Eretz Yisrael - no end of insights, many of which he couldn't even reveal to us
- Rabbenu said, in terms of practically applying the halacha of what he'd
grasped - don't judge ANY Jew harshly for ANY reason!
That's what Rabbenu's saying here. That we need to judge
every person favorably and to see their good points. And even if you see in
them negative things, search inside. Rabbenu says, look and search very
carefully so see in what areas this person still has good points. And if you
see, if we see in another person this good point, their good deeds Rabbenu
tells us something irresistible: Even if we're talking about a complete
rasha (evildoer). What's a 'complete evildoer'? We're not talking about someone
who's 100%. A Jew can't be 100% evil, but he IS 90% problematic. 90% of all his
deeds, all his actions are problematic. But he still has 10% that's OK. Rabbenu
tells us: If you see that 10% he's got, then by doing that you're going to
raise him up, REALLY, from the side of guilt to the side of merit. We have to
understand this a little.
What exactly is meant that we'll raise him from the side of
guilt to the side of merit? A couple of weeks ago, we told a story that's found
in the Gemara, in Tractate Chagiga. This story can really help us to understand
what Rabbenu is saying here. What Rabbenu is saying. And this story contains
some very deep learning. It's a short story, but very deep. The Gemara in
Tractate Chagiga tells us on page 15 that one of the Sages, Rava Bar Shila was
his name met Eliyahu Hanavi. Rava Bar Shila asked Eliyahu Hanavi: Tell me, what
is Hashem doing right now, in shemayim (heaven)? So Eliyahu Hanavi told Rava
Bar Shila: Hashem right now is giving over divrei Torah in the name of the
Sages (who originated them) Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai said such-and-such. Rav
Yehuda said such-and-such. Then Eliyahu Hanevi added 'but the divrei Torah from
Rebbe Meir, God isn't saying those'. so Rava Bar Shila asked him. He asked
Eliyahu Hanavi: 'Why isn't Hashem giving over divrei Torah in the name of Rebbe
Meir? He told him: Because Rebbe Meir learned Torah from Elisha ben Avuyah, who
became a heretic and who went and did a bunch of aveirot (transgressions) And
even after all that, Rebbe Meir still didn't abandon him and continued to learn
words of Torah from him. Why? Because Elisha ben Avuyah was a really big Sage and
Rebbe Meir wanted to continued to learn from his wisdom, from his Torah
knowledge. So he said to him Because he learned Torah from him after he became
a heretic so now, Hashem doesn't want to give over divrei Torah in the name of
Rebbe Meir.
So Rava Bar Shila replied: But you know that Rebbe Meir was
clever enough to take the good, and the truth from Elisha ben Avuya - he knew
how to take that - and the bad and the lies he knew how to discard it. That's
what's written in the name of Rebbe Meir: 'If you find a pomegranate, you can
eat the seeds and throw the peel away.' The meaning of this is that he knew how
to clarify and seperate out all the good and the truth from the Torah of Elisha
ben Avuyah. After Eliyahu Hanavi heard this, he said to him: 'Now, Hashem is
giving over divrei Torah in the name of Rebbe Meir!' 'Meir, my son, said'... At
this very moment - just as you said that Hashem started to say divrei Torah in
the name of Rebbe Meir.
We need to take a closer look at this story. Rava bar Shilah
lived approximately 100 years after Rebbe Meir. It was a different period of
time,
around 100 years' later. During all that 100 years, Hashem
didn't say divrei Torah in the name of Rebbe Meir because he learned Torah from
Elisha ben Avuya. So what, Hashem didn't know that Rebbe Meir know how to clarify
the truth and the good from the Torah of Elisha ben Avuyah?! If Rava bar Shilah
knew this - and we see that he was correct, because Hashem agreed with him -so
he was speaking the truth. So, up until now God didn't know this? He didn't know that Rebbe Meir knew how to
clarify the Torah of Elisha ben Avuyah?! Of course He knew! God knows
everything. If so, why did He wait until Rava bar Shilah would say this and
then immediately start to give over divrei Torah in the name of Rebbe Meir? Why
did He wait for 100 years, before He started doing that?
Really, it's a huge kushia (difficulty). But the answer
teachers us a very big secret. Hashem for sure knows how to judge every single
person favorably. That's obvious. If we know to do this, then of course Hashem
knows how to do this. But what does Hashem say? He says, in a manner of
speaking, 'Me? I don't have permission to judge people favorably. Not until
someone comes to the world and starts to judge another person favorably. At the
moment he does this - Reuven comes and starts judging Shimon favorably and sees
his good points, so then immediately Hashem sees them too.
It's like God is saying to us: until you see them yourselves
until someone in this world sees (the good points), so then I also don''t see
them.
This is the depth of the meaning behind the words that
Hashem said: 'I built the world in such a way that you are my partners in the
way that the world is run. Until you start judging each other favorably, I
also can't see it. I need you, in order that I can also start judging
people favorably and seeing their good points. This is a truly awesome idea!
Rabbenu says, when you see a good point in a Jew, you are tipping him from the
side of guilt to the side of merit. What does he mean? Exactly what he says!
Until someone comes along and sees a point of good in ploni Until
that happens, also in shemayim they also aren't paying attention to it. At the
moment that someone comes along and sees a good point in ploni, at that exact
same moment, Shemayim also starts to pay attention. It's introduced in the
Heavenly court To put is simply, every Jew - as we learned in the Gemara, and
like Rabbenu also teaches us - every single Jew can be a defense attorney at
every instant for Am Yisrael.
How? Very simply: by judging others favorably. By seeing the
good points in the other person. So, this is what Rabbenu says: by doing this
you raise him from the side of guilt to the side of merit until
Shemayim sends him help to do complete teshuva and all of this happens why?
Because you looked at him with a good eye. If a person has a
good eye, he'll get Upstairs after 120 years And they'll tell him: Listen, you
helped a whole bunch of people come back! You helped 3000 people do teshuva!
He'll say: 'Me?! I never did any kiruv at all...They'll tell
him: all your 'good eye' the way you looked at other people, in the merit of
that they did teshuva it's considered as though you brought them back Everyone
who has a good eye, he helps so many people come back (to God)
That's what Rabbenu is telling us here. You raise him from
the side of guilt to the side of merit And by doing that, You're bringing him
back in complete teshuva! You can help him do teshuva! This is the work that
every single one of us needs to do.
Every single one of us needs to try to judge others
favorably, and it's truly the work of a lifetime, you need to know The yetzer
hara, which is engaged against us in our war every second, it's trying to show
us: 'See! you need to judge everyone favorably - but not Reuven! Reuven, that
guy has NOTHING about him you can judge favorably...These things happen I can
tell you that from my own experience. Yes, Rabbenu says we have to judge
everyone favorably, that's the rule, but every rule has its exception - and
he's it! You don't need to judge him favorably.
But Rabbenu says: No! This is one rule that doesn't have exceptions. You have
to apply this teaching to every single Jew. But, it's possible that when a
person is on a higher spiritual level like that he's able to see more and more the
good points.
There's a Gemara in Tractate Yoma Rebbe Meir says -
the same Rebbe Meir we were talking about - Rebbe Meir says that even if just
one 'unique' person does teshuva He's forgiven, and all the world is also
forgiven It's asked about this Gemara Rabbi Tzadok HaKohen of Lublin says about
this Gemara: 'I don't understand this Gemara!' There's one unique ('yechide)
person Who does teshuva. Let's say he lives in Holon. And he does teshuva -
he's forgiven, and all the world with him.
Now there's a Jew living it up in some festival in Columbia Why is that Jew being forgiven too, because
some Jew here made teshuva? What's the connection between this and the other? Everyone
has free choice in this world everyone has their job that they need to do in
this world What's the connection, that 'he's forgiven and all the world is
forgiven with him'? asks Rabbi Tzadok HaKohen about this Gemara.
In order to answer the question, we first have to clarify who
is this 'yechid', this unique person who does teshuva and then the whole world
is also forgiven in his merit. Who is this 'yechid'? Everytime we talk about a
'yechid' - it's referring to Moshiach ben David Whenever the word 'yechid' is
written in the Gemara, it's hinting at the spiritual soul level of 'yechida',
and it's hinting at the tsaddikim who are unique in the generation, and come
from the aspect of Moshiach ben David At the moment that he makes teshuva, the
whole world is forgiven.
Why? Rabbi Tzadok
says - and this secret is also written in a few other seforim - That the bigger
a tzaddik is and especially, there are souls that come from the aspect of
Moshiach ben David - or maybe they themselves are Moshiach ben David, we don't
know, until geula comes
we have no idea who that's going to be, exactly, but these
souls of 'Moshiach ben David' At the time that they make teshuva and start to
look at Am Yisrael they immediately start saying to Hashem, from a very 'real',
sincere place, and a very deep perception They say to Hashem: 'I'm telling
You,' the tzaddik tells God, I'm telling you, there is no Jew who is a
criminal. No Jew is guilty! 'I can show You', the Tzaddik tells God, How inside
every single Jew, there is Divine neshama (soul), and I see the good point And
by his 'looking' like this, he judges the whole of Am Yisrael to the side of
merit, and helps everyone to make teshuva.
It's said, in the important book 'Pri Ha'Aretz' what can we
understand about a tzaddik like this who sees the good point in every Jew?
Where does it come from, that perception? What is this
perception founded on, that he can see in every person the good point? It says
something incredible in the sefer 'Pri Ha'Aretz' - he was a very big person,
one of the Baal Shem Tov's students. The Maggid of Mezritch.
He gives over an amazing secret. He says: Each and every tsaddik
particularly those who are engaged in the rectification of Jewish souls
Hashem puts into their brains, their thought-process all the
crazy ideas in the whole world. All the lusts you can find in the world all the
bad middot, all the confusions about emuna (faith).
Everything is passed through the brain of the tzaddik. We're
not saying that he 'falls' into these thoughts We're in no position to know
what really goes on He's not caught up in actually doing these sins But inside
of himself, he sees how if Hashem wasn't helping him and wasn't guarding him
all the time in one second he could turn into the biggest criminal in Am
Yisrael It could be that the bigger a tzaddik actually is
the more he experiences this, that if not for the protection
of Hashem, he could be worse than all the sinners of the generation all the
criminals of the generation. He's also a tsaddik so he has a very broad mind,
and if he goes down there he can rectify all the sins, big time
because he's such a 'big' person, so he'll also do a 'big'
rectification. Now, what does he see?
He sees that Hashem is looking after him, so he doesn't fall
into those places. How, asks the Pri Ha'Aretz, how does He do this?
How does God show this to the Tzaddik? He says something
amazing: He puts into the mind of the Tzaddik all the desires, all the bad
middot, all of the generation's madness - he puts everything into the Tzaddik's
mind. So now the tzaddik sees, he sees 'if I didn't have some sort of
protection, some sort of Heavenly help I could also become a transgressor! I
could find myself in the lowest pit of gehinnom in less than a second! Except,
that God is looking after him. And then, He starts to raise him up, higher and
higher this is what the Pri Ha'Aretz says, that He raises up the tsaddik And then as the Tzaddik is going higher and
higher, he says 'why am I going up,
while those people walking around down there on the streets aren't being raised
up to Mount Sinai, to receive the Torah? Why am I going up to all these very
high spiritual levels while these people are still walking around the streets? Me
and him - we're exactly the same!
Just a few short hours ago, I saw that me and him we're
exactly the same! So then, the Pri Ha'Aretz says, by doing this he REALLY
doesn't know why he's going 'up', and not the other guy. That's what's written,
that: 'I don't understand it...' And with this outlook, he see the good point in
every single Jew.
From the experiences that he himself has had he sees how
there is good inside every single Jew. And so he can judge them favorably, and
look at them with a good eye at each and every Jew And that's how he engenders a
yearning to do teshuva into all of Am Yisrael, this Tzaddik. And this is the
strength of our biggest tzaddikim. This is what's written in the Gemara: Rebbe
Meir said: Even if one (the 'yechid') does teshuva, he's forgiven and all the
world with him. Why is he forgiven? Because he sees the good that's inside
every Jew. He says: 'You see that Jew doing something stupid? He's doing
something stupid, and I'm not - but do you know why? I'll tell you something: I
also don't know why! This biggest tzaddik in the world says, I also don't know!
I don't know why I've gone up to the highest spiritual levels, while he's
still walking around on the streets, and he can't guard his
eyes. It's a decree, I don't understand it! And by way of the Tzaddik
expressing this,
says the Pri Ha'Aretz, by doing this, the Tzaddik and all of
Am Yisrael become unified (have 'achdut') - with one soul.
This is the secret of Moshe Rabbenu, who all the time used
to pray for Am Yisrael with self-sacrifice.
Why did he used to pray for Am Yisrael with this mesirut nefesh? the Pri
Ha'Aretz says, because Moshe Rabbenu knew that he was no better than anyone
else. And by way of this he engendered merit, and a yearning to do teshuva in
all of Am Yisrael, and by doing this, everyone did teshuva.
It's like what we're seeing. Baruch Hashem, we're seeing the
aspect of geula, there's so many baal teshuvas. All the force of these baal teshuvas,
where does it originate from? From these tzaddikim, who went through all of
these things and who have now engendered
a yearning to do teshuva, inside every single Jew. This is
what Rabbenu is talking about!
But we're not on that level. We're not on the level of these
tzaddikim, but Rabbenu is teaching us that us also - us small, simple people -
we also have a job to do. To go everywhere with this idea, to have a good eye. To
judge every single Jew favorably And by doing this, we can increase the 'good
eye' found within Am Yisrael.
Rabbenu says, this is what's called 'ahavat chinam' (free
love) - it's the rectification for the destruction of the second Temple.
looking with a good eye is all the tikkun (rectification) of the Temple. And by
doing this, we bring each other back to do teshuva. There's a teaching, a dvar
Torah In the Gemara, Masechet Eruvin, the Gemara says: It's revealed and known
before the Creator of the world, i.e. before Hashem that in Rebbe Meir's
generation, there was no-one else who was as wise as him that's what the Gemara
says And why wasn't there someone as wise as him? Because his 'friends'
couldn't follow his train of thought Who was the 'friend' of Rebbe Meir? Who
didn't know how to follow his train of thought, according to the Gemara? Rabbi Shimon, Rabbi Yehuda, Rabbi Yose...Huge
sages! Yet even so, the Gemara says Rebbe
Meir was so wise, they didn't know how to follow his train of thought! But if
he was so wise, why couldn't he teach people how to follow his line of
thinking?
The Gemara gives an example, of what this really means The
Gemara tells us that they would come to Rebbe Meir and ask him questions They
would ask him about things that according to halacha, were tamei (spiritually
impure) Let's say, this cup is tamei, and they'd come and ask him "Is this
tamei or tahor (spiritually pure)?" Rebbe Meir would tell them: "It's
tahor!" He would tell them things that were the opposite of the truth! He'd say that 'this is tahor!' and that he
guarantees that it's tahor Okay....half an hour would pass and they'd bring a
tahor thing to Rebbe Meir they'd bring
him a tahor vessel, and they'd ask him "Rebbe Meir, is this tamei or tahor?"
He'd tell them: It's tamei! And I guarantee that it's tamei! Each time, he'd
tell them the opposite of the halacha! And guarantee it, too.
Immediately after this, the Gemara concludes:" Rebbe
Meir is not his true name!" "His real name is Rebbe Nechemia or Rebbe
Nehorai" He is only called 'Rebbe Meir' because he 'enlightens' people as
to the real halacha" He's teaching people the right halacha?! Just before,
it says Rebbe Meir is confusing people Now you're saying he's enlightening
people about the real halacha?
The Maharsha, one of the big Gemara commentators asks about
this: How can you say he's enlightening
people when really he's confusing them? The Maharsha says this, a very big
secret: By way of confusing them - and he knew he was confusing them - they'd
start to dig down to the real depth of the subject What did Rebbe Meir intend
to do, by confusing us like this? And by checking like this they'd come to the
truth within the truth Rebbe Meir's confusion led them to the real truth This
is what the Maharsha says. Everything we just said up to now about this Gemara
is the simple explanation but every story in the Gemara also contains deep
secrets. All the Gemara is pshat, remez, drush, sod There's something very deep
going on here Rebbe Meir was a Gadol HaDor. They'd bring him an impure thing -
a really tamei thing!
And he used to say it was tahor, pure! And show them the
inside of it.
What's the real, deep intention here? They would bring him a
'tamei' thing - that means they'd bring him a person who seemed to be
spiritually impure, very far away from Hashem and very far away from having
good middot And this was called 'from
the aspect of tamei' And what did Rebbe Meir say? He's tahor! (spiritually
pure) And would show them the inside. What did he show them? How on the inside, this person was really
still tahor - spiritually pure. And by
doing this, this distant person this person from the aspect of 'tamei',
spiriitual impurity Would receive the strength he needed to return in teshuva.
The Tzaddik of the generation would tell him that he's pure,
and show him this 'pure' good point that
he still had, inside. On the other hand, 'tahor' people would come to him this
is talking about big tzaddikim, who would come to the wisest Sage of the
generation And what would he tell them? "You're tamei!" He'd show
them internally what they still needed to fix and rectify and that in that
aspect they were still tamei This is the work of the Tzaddik to show us the
points to show us the good point we still have inside The points that come by
way of being judged favorably and by doing this, a person gets the strength
they need to make teshuva All the strength we have to make teshuva comes from
the Tzaddik seeing the good points we still possess and that's how we're 'enlightened'
and woken up.
But in truth, this isn't enough Rabbenu says: A person needs
to also find in himself the good points Because the yetzer hara wants to tip
him into sadness and black bitterness (depression)but nevertheless, it's
forbidden to fall into these and we need to search and to find in ourselves
some good deed Here, Rabbenu is telling us, practically a secret that he tells
us in many other places, too Rabbenu is revealing it to us He's telling us what
the single biggest 'yetzer hara' of the generation actually is of these last
few generations. If you'd ask us, we'd say: 'it's the lust for money', ' it's
the lust for immorality' 'maybe it's anger' - and so on. Of course, these are
all yetzer haras. But they aren't the biggest yetzer. Rabbenu says this in a
few different places. He says that the biggest yetzer hara of the generation is
the one that wants to pull a person into sadness, bitter depression and despair.
There is no spiritual 'fall' greater, that the yetzer wants to pull a person into
than a person should stop believing in himself and should enter into sadness
and depression. This is the single biggest spiritual danger for a person. The
moment you fall into this, there is nothing more dangerous, spiritually. Why is
this?
A person fails, and falls into sin. But as soon as he sins,
he can make teshuva. You can make teshuva when you sin! It's the opposite (of
what the yetzer tells us). The Gemara tells us. If you do a sin and and you
feel ashamed, immediately all your sins are forgiven. As soon as you feel
ashamed of your failure they forgive you for all of your sins! But Rabbenu
says, if, God forbid, a person falls into bitterness There's stages here.
First, he falls into bitterness and he becomes very heavy-hearted. Then, he
gets to the next, even worse spiritual stage, and starts to feel sad and then
afterwards he 'merits' to get to despair...these are called the three stages of
the klipa (realm of evil) heavy-heartedness, sadness, and then despair as soon
as a person gets to this stage Rabbenu says: There is no greater danger,both
spiritually and materially, than this. This is the most dangerous yetzer hara that
a person falls into these sorts of negative feelings.
More than 200 years' ago, Rabbenu revealed that the ikker
(essence) of our test in this generation would be precisely this.That the
yetzer hara would really try to pull us into this sort of negative thinking so
that we'd stop believing in ourselves, and start to feel sad and depressed and
from here, God forbid, he can pull a person into the lowest pits of hell,
mamash. The moment a person falls into sadness, depression, heavy-heartedness a
person then loses their ability to keep fighting to exist, to do, to continued
in this world. So the first thing we need to know, Rabbenu says is that even
more than the yetzer hara wants our sins what it really wants is the sadness
and depression that comes afterwards. So how do we fight against this? Today,
thank God we're seeing that nearly the whole world suffers from this problem. They're
going to psychologists, psychiatrists, coaches, workshops. And if that doesn't
help, then they start smoking grass. All these things, what are they? It's
escapism! People want to get away from themselves! People can't stand their own
company. So maybe, I'll go talk to a psychologist. That doesn't help. So now, I
go to a psychiatrist who'll give me some pill. The pills don't work... so now
I'll try a workshop
That also doesn't help. So finally, they start smoking grass
until they have no more idea what's going on in the world. Someone told me:
Every time I go to sleep I tell my wife to only wake me up when Moshiach comes.
I don't want to have to deal with the world anymore. I don't want to see the
world again until Moshiach comes. Where is this coming from?
Rabbenu told us, more than 200 years ago, about this
phenomenon about what the biggest test of the last generation would be that the
yetzer hara would want to pull us down and confuse our thinking. We need to
know this. It's not so interested in our sins. Our sadness is its food, it
gives much more sustenance to the yetzer hara than all the sins in the world.
Rabbi Natan writes in the Likutey Halachot that the yetzer
hara's sustenance comes from our sadness. So, Rabbenu saw that this would be
the essence of our test in these generations. In many instances, we see the
following happen: sometimes, the yetzer hara comes to the person and tries to
get them to fall. Maybe, he's already a 'Breslover', and nothing is bothering
him because he's following all the advice of Rabbenu. So what does the yetzer
hara do? The Ramchal tells us, it moves over to his family instead. It'll start
making all this effort to make problems between the person and his family. With
his wife, his children, his parents, even with the Grandpa and Grandma, with
the grandchildren it depends who, even the uncles and aunts.
It causes all sorts of these sorts of problems so a person
will be.. You're strong! you went to Uman! You got stronger in looking for the
good points? So I'm going to move over to your family to your relatives. The
Ramchal tells us the moment the yetzer sees that a person is strong he starts
up with his relatives instead. Today, we
see a terrible thing: the yetzer hara is damaging things within families.
All the time, people
come to me and tell me. "All my life is in ruins", so I ask why is
all your life in ruins? And they tell me this and that happened within my
family. I tell them: this stuff already happened, OK. Who says this destroyed
your whole life? Is this some secret of the gematria, that your problem adds up
to 'the destruction of your whole life'?! How'd you get to the idea that this
means your whole life is destroyed? This thing that happened to you? Let's see
if that's actually the reality.
I want to tell you something. Once I said this to someone
who was very stubborn. I told him 'Listen, I knew this Rabbi and let me tell
you what happened to him at home. He said, OK, what happened to him? I told
him: He was married twice. He had a son from his first marriage and a son and
daughter from his second marriage. OK, it happens a lot, that you see things
like this. He asked me: 'So what was the problem?' I'll tell you: The son from
the first marriage raped the daughter from the second marriage. And then her
brother killed him. Did you ever hear of such a thing?! That the son from the second marriage killed
the son from the first marriage?
He told me: It's completely impossible that something like
that happened to a Rabbi in Israel! So I told him,Listen, I know this happened
personally He told me: It's impossible! I don't believe you. So I told him,
yes! It happened to King David! This is King David's story.
This is exactly what happened to King David in his household.
Amnon and Tamar, and then Avshalom killed Amnon. This is exactly the story of
what happened. All of us read this, heard about this, It took us exactly 35
seconds to read this story. But can we really begin to imagine what happened to
King David when this thing happened to his family?
Can anyone begin to grasp this matter? And it's written In
the Book of Shmuel, just how much David loved Avshalom. He loved Avshalom very
much. And this is just one story from King David.How many things occurred to
King David. within his household... If King David now
took these things at face value this is destruction! There
hasn't been a destruction like this since the world was created until the
coming of Moshiach! Can anything be more awful than this?
To put it simply, God forbid that something like this should
happen to anyone. If something like this happened to us Or even a fraction of
what happened to King David. What would happen to us? We'd end up
institutionalized in some psychiatric wing having lots of treatments for many,
many years, because we couldn't cope with things like this. What happened with
King David? He's the King Moshiach! David is the Moshiach! We see, what did King David do? What he could
fix, he fixed. Then he immediately got up for chatzot (midnight) Continued to
get up for chatzot, continued with his prayers continued to lead Am Israel.
Why?
Because King David had enormous daat (insightful knowledge) about
this issue. What was his daat? He knew that there are things that God does,
that are nothing to do with him. What this means is that it wasn't connected to
David's deeds. 'This didn't happen because of me!'
Whatever God does it's really not your concern. There are
things that Hashem does that we aren't responsible for, for every single thing
that Hashem does. So Rabbenu tells us, just how careful we need to be not to
take every single thing that happens too much to heart.
We always need to try to do good, to improve, to pray to
help in whichever way we can help. If someone listens to us, we need to try to
tell them the correct things we have to educate our children. Rabbenu doesn't
say that we need to stop making our own effort. We're not cancelling our own
effort! But with all the effort we're making, we still need to know that God
has His own matters to arrange. He has His own work to do, and our work is to
know how to accept that. To know how to accept this with love. That God does
things like this. And that Hashem knows a bit more than we do how to run the
world and we have to learn how to accept Hashem's leadership. And not only
this. Rabbenu also tells us 'look at the good points that you have within you' Look
at your family, at wherever you're having the problem search out the good
points. Rabbenu says, and every one of us also needs to search out the good
that is inside of HIMSELF. What's with these good points, that we possess
inside ourselves?
This is a rule, and a very big secret that we need to know: Rav
Dessler, the author of the book 'A Letter from Eliyahu'
he asked the following question: Where is the point of free
choice for an individual? Where can a person really choose how to act
which is essentially the work we need to do, to choose
between good and bad so where is this point of free choice? Rav Dessler
discusses this and he says the point of choice for an individual it's essence
and it's expression is found in that person's ratzon (will) 'What does the
person WANT?'
Every moment that a person wants good, he's coming from a
place of good. In the meantime, it could be that all this stuff happens to you
all this stuff that's really not so good. But effectively,
for as long as you still want good know that you're still connected to the good
place.
The Baal Shem Tov taught that the place that you're thinking
about, that's where you really are Rabbenu added to this: The place where you
WANT to be, is where you really are. Our ratzon, our will,connects us to a
completely different reality.Sometimes, we can walk around the world completely
confused he doesn't know his right from his left, nothing's working out for him.
But inside, he WANTS good he WANTS the truth, he WANTS to be in a completely
different place. Except what: Heaven isn't giving it to him. Many times in
life, there are occasions when they put shackles on our arms and legs and they
don't let us move from our place.
Rabbenu tells us, know, changing your place whether in
gashmius (materialism) or ruchnius (spirituality) many times it doesn't depend
on us at all. We aren't responsible. There's a Creator of the world and He's
deciding how things work out here in the world. Rav Dessler says:
'What really depends upon a person himself?' What internal
strength really depends on the person themselves? He answers that the strength
that a person really has is just his ratzon (will). At the moment that a person
wants good you should know according to how much will you have, that's deciding
the place where you really are. If you want 'good' 50%, you're 50% in that good
place, already.
And there comes a stage where a person's ratzon, in one fell
swoop will take him to a completely different place. These things happen! A
person could be stuck 10, 20 years they can't move from their place, but all
the time he continues to want, and to request and then in one fell swoop, he
finds himself in a completely different place. We said that Rabbenu told us
that we have to look inside ourselves, for the good points how to actually do
this is for a person to see just how much his wishes and desires are actually
for the good. Because it doesn't always happen that are actions really get
there so we need to see just how much from the side of ratzon, will, we really
WANT the truth, the good. At the moment we learn how to feel this out, Rabbenu
tells us, this will give us tremendous strength and by way of this tremendous
strength, suddenly, we can get all the way up to shemayim (the Heavens) as
though we're sitting on some rocket that in a second takes us to a completely
different place. A person can't believe
how that just happened! But Rabbenu tells us: you want to know how that just
happened? It's thanks to all the desire for good you had, throughout all those
years.
Maybe you had good desires for 10 years, and didn't even
move a centimeter. Then one day you woke up in the morning, and you found
yourself in a completely different world! How did this happen?! It's your 10
years of wanting, that helped you get all these things. To conclude, Rabbenu
says something wonderful here: He says, there's a Tzaddik who makes niggunim
(melodies) from every good point that exists inside every Jew. The Tzaddik sees
the good points that we're also seeing the good points, this gets added on the
Tzaddik's vision
and by way of this, melodies are And there is one particular
melody that is formed from all of these niggunim and at the moment that this
niggun (melody) is revealed, at that moment the Beit HaMikdash (temple) will
come down to the world, and Moshiach will be revealed.
So we're waiting for this melody! And what is this melody
created from? It's created from the good points of every single Jew.We need to
understand this, a little. We see a good point. We don't hear any music as a
result of doing this what melody is Rabbenu talking about?! Rabbenu is making a
very deep point: There's a higher spiritual world which is called the world of
Keter ('crown'). It's a very lofty world which contains infinite mercy for Am
Israel. We bring down a 'shaft' of this mercy from Keter to us that's our
workthis is also the secret of the 13 attributes of mercy that we say in our
prayers that also comes down from there It's called the 'secret of dikna', that
Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai revealed on the very last day of his life. He revealed
the secret of the 'Keter', the secret of mercy.
Rabbenu tells us, and here he tells us an amazing chiddush
(novel teaching), Rabbenu tells us: When you see the good in a Jew, or you see
the good in yourself your bringing this melody down from the world of Keter. You're
bringing down this yearning down from the world of Keter and this yearning
joins in with all the good points that were found in Am Israel from the
creation of the world until now. And the Tzaddik combines everything he knows
how to combine all these melodies, all of this yearning to make one single,
communal melody and at the moment that this matter is completed, the Beit
HaMikdash will immediately descend.
So, Rabbenu says here that the whole process of geula is
built upon these good points. Why? Because the good points are themselves the
tikkun (rectification) for sinat chinam. What was the sinat chinam they had at
the Beit HaMikdash? That they didn't walk around with this practice of seeing
the good in the other person. On the one side they on many occasions during the
period of the second Temple were on a very high spiritual level. But sometimes
when a person 'ascends', spiritually in connection with the mitzvot between God
and man to a very high place, what can happen?
It's written in the mussar books, what can happen? The
mitzvot between a man and his fellow man can get harmed. A person can be a big
tzaddik, when it comes to the mitzvot between man and Hashem. He gets up for
the midnight lamentation, he learns, he prays Baruch Hashem, this is a very
high level! But, it's written in the mussar books, that it can happen that you
go up so high in regard to the mitzvot between man and Hashem and that the
yetzer then comes and ruins your mitzvot between man and his fellow man. “Now
I'm a tsaddik I can't stand these other guys! He's upsetting me! What sort of
Jew is this?! He's bothering me, he's stopping me from being an angel.”
He's stopping you from being an angel?! First, go and be a
human being, so you'll get on well together, God tells this person. We don't
need you being an angel, and that guy being left somewhere on the side. He'll
get some corner of the lower Gan Eden while you're in the higher Gan Eden. God
wants Am Israel to have achdut (unity) The whole rectification of the world,
writes one of the big kabbalists, he says something awesome: Hashem put us here
in this world of division / separation solely in order that we would search out
all the ways we can achieve unity, within this world of division. And this is
what Rabbenu is teaching us: this is having a good eye judging other people
favorably that a person sees good in himself, in others, in his family - every
human being! We have to judge everyone to the side of merit even someone who
is a complete rasha (evildoer). To see the good points and to raise up each
good point so that it can be joined to the single, communal melody says
Rabbenu, to the melody this single, complete melody And at the moment that this
melody is completed that's been built from all these good points, Moshiach will
come! This is the path to geula (redemption). People ask: 'How can we bring the
geula?' Achdut! And we get achdut by following this Torah from Rabbenu By way
of having a good eye So, all the destruction happened because they lacked this
aspect They had a very, very high spiritual level They had the Beit HaMikdash,
they had open miracles But they were lacking, very lacking in the matter of how
a man treated his fellow man. This is the matter of sinat chinam and thus, we ended up in this exile. It
should be God's will that with His mercy and kindness, this year we won't have
to fast on Tisha B'av, and not on the 10th of Av either.
[Amen!]
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