Chasidut sur Les Psaumes 119:98
מֵ֭אֹ֣יְבַי תְּחַכְּמֵ֣נִי מִצְוֺתֶ֑ךָ כִּ֖י לְעוֹלָ֣ם הִיא־לִֽי׃
Tes commandements me rendent plus sage que mes ennemis, car ils sont pour moi un bien inépuisable.
Kedushat Levi
This is also the meaning of psalms 119,98 מאויבי תחכמני מצותך כי לעולם היא לי, “Your commandments made me wiser than my enemies; they always stand by me.” The letter מ in the word מאויבי must be understood in the sense of “more than.” When read thus, the word is a reference to the evil urge, which is not only David’s enemy, but the enemy of every human being, implanting within us the powerful desires to taste the gratifications advertised. However, the psalmist, upon reflecting that what is eternal must be far more worthwhile than that which is merely transient, redoubles his resolve to serve only the Creator, rejecting the deceptive allure of physical delights.
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Kedushat Levi
Numbers 13,17. “ascend from here in the south and climb the mountain from which you will be able judge the nature of the land.”
The rule is that when engaging in the attempt to elevate “sparks”, i.e. spiritually fallen people, one must first attach oneself firmly to G’d’s attribute of חסד, loving kindness. The location of that attribute traditionally is the south, דרום, another word for נגב, south, means חסד, i.e. breaking the hold of the evil urge over one’s various תאוות, lust and cravings. We have already explained this elsewhere in connection with psalms 119,98 מאויבי תחכימני מצותיך כי לעולם היא, “Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, they always stand by me.” The “enemy” in this verse is the evil urge, Satan, a force that G’d employs to test man’s ability to resist temptation. Man’s basic error in relating to the satisfying of his cravings is that he imagines that by indulging his cravings he attains true satisfaction, well being without more cravings. He does not realize that the only craving that will result in such satisfaction is his desire to provide pleasure for his Creator. This is what the psalmist means when he describes the fulfillment of his craving for the service of the Lord as one that is enduring.
This idea is also alluded to when Moses said to the men “touring” the land of Canaan ועליתם את ההר, “you will ascend the Mountain,” the “mountain” being the evil urge.
We have a statement in Sukkah 52 in which the evil urge is referred to as הר, “mountain.” The Talmud there refers to the post-messianic era during which G’d is presented as “slaughtering” the evil urge in the presence of both the righteous and the wicked. The evil urge in that story appears to the righteous as a mountain, whereas to the wicked he appears as a thin hair. Both the righteous and the wicked weep when looking at the evil urge. The wicked weep as they cannot believe that they had been unable to overcome such a weak adversary, whereas the righteous weep as in retrospect they marvel at having conquered such a high mountain. According to the report in the Talmud, G’d agrees with the wicked having reason to berate themselves for failing to have conquered their cravings. The righteous’ amazement was due to their realizing that they had used the very efforts by Satan to indulge their material cravings as a tool to serve the Lord with the kind of overpowering desire that had enabled them to completely dehumanize, i.e. turning the ego, אני into an אין, a creature devoid of material desires, by concentrating on the source from which all the divine souls originate. There is an additional allusion to this subject when Moses added that the “tourists” are also to evaluate the cities in the land of Canaan i.e. ומה הערים? In the words of the Talmud in Pessachim 88, when discussing the difference between Moses and Avraham, the Talmud distinguishes between an early stage in serving the Lord, when to Avraham G’d appeared to have His residence on top of the mountain, i.e. (Isaiah 2,3) whereas to Yaakov He had already appeared as a “house-guest” (in the same verse). Moses had attained a level where he could completely divest himself of ego, as when he said of both himself and his brother Aaron: ונחנו מה, “what do we as personalities amount to?,” making sure that he omitted the letter א in the wordאנחנו , when referring to himself and Aaron. (Exodus 16,7-8). When the tzaddik is aware of all the three nuances in serving the Lord, he will succeed in elevating the “sparks” together with him and as a result subject Satan to a humbling experience.
The rule is that when engaging in the attempt to elevate “sparks”, i.e. spiritually fallen people, one must first attach oneself firmly to G’d’s attribute of חסד, loving kindness. The location of that attribute traditionally is the south, דרום, another word for נגב, south, means חסד, i.e. breaking the hold of the evil urge over one’s various תאוות, lust and cravings. We have already explained this elsewhere in connection with psalms 119,98 מאויבי תחכימני מצותיך כי לעולם היא, “Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, they always stand by me.” The “enemy” in this verse is the evil urge, Satan, a force that G’d employs to test man’s ability to resist temptation. Man’s basic error in relating to the satisfying of his cravings is that he imagines that by indulging his cravings he attains true satisfaction, well being without more cravings. He does not realize that the only craving that will result in such satisfaction is his desire to provide pleasure for his Creator. This is what the psalmist means when he describes the fulfillment of his craving for the service of the Lord as one that is enduring.
This idea is also alluded to when Moses said to the men “touring” the land of Canaan ועליתם את ההר, “you will ascend the Mountain,” the “mountain” being the evil urge.
We have a statement in Sukkah 52 in which the evil urge is referred to as הר, “mountain.” The Talmud there refers to the post-messianic era during which G’d is presented as “slaughtering” the evil urge in the presence of both the righteous and the wicked. The evil urge in that story appears to the righteous as a mountain, whereas to the wicked he appears as a thin hair. Both the righteous and the wicked weep when looking at the evil urge. The wicked weep as they cannot believe that they had been unable to overcome such a weak adversary, whereas the righteous weep as in retrospect they marvel at having conquered such a high mountain. According to the report in the Talmud, G’d agrees with the wicked having reason to berate themselves for failing to have conquered their cravings. The righteous’ amazement was due to their realizing that they had used the very efforts by Satan to indulge their material cravings as a tool to serve the Lord with the kind of overpowering desire that had enabled them to completely dehumanize, i.e. turning the ego, אני into an אין, a creature devoid of material desires, by concentrating on the source from which all the divine souls originate. There is an additional allusion to this subject when Moses added that the “tourists” are also to evaluate the cities in the land of Canaan i.e. ומה הערים? In the words of the Talmud in Pessachim 88, when discussing the difference between Moses and Avraham, the Talmud distinguishes between an early stage in serving the Lord, when to Avraham G’d appeared to have His residence on top of the mountain, i.e. (Isaiah 2,3) whereas to Yaakov He had already appeared as a “house-guest” (in the same verse). Moses had attained a level where he could completely divest himself of ego, as when he said of both himself and his brother Aaron: ונחנו מה, “what do we as personalities amount to?,” making sure that he omitted the letter א in the wordאנחנו , when referring to himself and Aaron. (Exodus 16,7-8). When the tzaddik is aware of all the three nuances in serving the Lord, he will succeed in elevating the “sparks” together with him and as a result subject Satan to a humbling experience.
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