Hasidut untuk Mazmur 32:6

Rabbi Natan says, "The time of finding (Psalms 32:6) refers to Torah, as it is stated, He who finds Me finds life (Proverbs 8:35)." (Berakhot 8a:11) Torah hints to the specific commandment that is unique to a man in his root source. As every person has a unique commandment that applies to him in his root source, and he has to be more exacting than others about it, in all of its stringencies and its fences. And that way, his root source will be repaired. And it is like the matter that we have found in the Talmud (Shabbat 118b), "In what was your father more careful? In the commandment of tzitzit [fringes]." And the idea in this is that if someone is exacting towards a commandment that does not belong to his root source, and he is more exacting than need be about it due to his confidence that his root source will be repaired — it is about him that it is stated, Do not toil to gain wealth, etc. it grows wings and flies away, like an eagle, heavenward (Proverbs 23:4). And that is that God, may He be blessed, hides the depth of the intention that He has hidden in the act of the commandment. As if there was only the intention in the commandment, then why would God, may He be blessed, have commanded to actually do the commandment. It is implied from this that a person does not have knowledge in this world of the inner hidden words of Torah in the performance of the commandment, And this is like it is found in the Talmud (Sotah 21a), "Rav Yosef said, 'A commandment, at the time when one is engaged in it, protects and saves; at the time when one is not engaged in it, it protects but it does not save.'" And that means that at the time one is not engaged in it, there is nothing of the holiness of the commandment that remains in the body, since the body does not understand its root source. However, a commandment that belongs to a person, especially if he adds to it in its details and its understanding, then God, may He be blessed, enlightens him that he should understand the commandment in the light of the Torah. For all of the essence of the commandments is in the words of the Torah. So he will then have understanding into its intention, and see that the commandment's garment and performance is only in this world. And this is [the meaning of] that which we pray (in the Kedushah of the Order), "May He open our hearts to His Torah," with a vav [making the word possessive, His/his]. This hints to the words of Torah and the commandment that belong especially specifically to each person, according to his root source.

The Gemara³⁰⁶Sanhedrin, 64a tells us that the word, “cleaving (d’veikim)” means an intensely close connection.³⁰⁷“Devekus” is the act of joining and uniting oneself with God. It could be described as an intense feeling of connection to God. Man indeed has the ability to unite with the Omnipresent, each at his own level, and reaching a state of deveikus is one of the primary goals of Avodas Hashem. In order to understand the phenomenon, the Rebbe points us first to the way Chazal used the term deveikus. It is not simply being close together, like a lid tightly fastened to a jar that can be removed with little effort, but in the imagery of the Gemara, “like two date palms that grew together.” wedged together, inseparable. It is the difference between a mere association and a long standing relationship where the two grew together, like a man and wife or a child and parent. When you achieve devekus you cannot be taken away from God, or even distracted from being conscious of His presence. The Toldos Yaakov Yosef³⁰⁸Yaakov Yosef of Polnoye, the “top student” of the Baal Shem Tov, published in 1780 (5540) the first sefer to quote teachings of his master Rabbi Yisrael. tells us in the name of the Rambam that the ultimate purpose of Torah observance is for man to reach the point where he fulfills the words, “and you shall cleave unto Him,” in all aspects of his Torah observance. With this in mind, we can understand how the teachings of Chassidus are not an optional avodah that the man of Israel can “get by” without. It is the central point of the Torah - its very culmination - and without it, man’s Torah observance is somehow incomplete.³⁰⁹Deveikus happens when there is a harmony and union between your desires and God’s desire. You can reach deveikus in learning and in davening, but it must be clear that an eved Hashem can reach deveikus in the performance of just about any commandment. Those who know little about Chassidus might have an image in their minds of Chassidim reaching deveikus by davening, singing, and dancing for long periods of time. Though Chassidus stresses avodah b’simcha, still, being a chassid does not mean dancing around and clapping your hands, “drinking l’chaims” and davening late. A chassid is a baal nefesh, and once in possession of your soul you yearn to cleave it to the source of all souls in everything you do. How is it possible to truly cleave God through avodah if that service is done without soul, or with a soul that is covered up, or with a soul that you have not yet mastered? One can only reach deveikus (intense closeness or cleaving) through the avodah of Chassidus through some mastery of a revealed soul. Once you succeed in revealing your soul you can then truly feel deveikus with Hashem, each according to his own level. There is a concept and practice of mesiras nefesh in avodah. Mesiras nefesh means delivering over of your whole soul in any service of God, as we mentioned in Chapter Five when we quoted the Beis Aharon.³¹⁰Rav Aharon of Karlin, a generation after the Baal Shem Tov. When a man, God forbid, comes to a trial of faith at the hands of the oppressor, then he must relinquish himself in martyrdom and allow the destruction of his body and his life. It is only under highly rare conditions that we are asked to deliver our very lives to the avodah. And yet, every day, we have the ability to deliver our souls. For this reason it is called mesiras nefesh, (relinquishing the soul) and not mesiras hagoof (relinquishing the body). Mesiras nefesh is done when man’s desire, thoughts, behavior, and body are whole-heartedly offered to God in the context of the avodah. With the work of days and years, the eved Hashem directs all of his energies into the avodah. In this way he is really giving himself over to God. He still lives and walks the earth, but still, he delivers his body, soul, and all of his powers to God. After days and years pass he attains greater levels of devotion, until he reaches a point where he puts his life and soul³¹¹Here, as in many other places, the Rebbe Zts”l says, nefesh, ruach, and neshama, which we call, “soul.” into every act of kindness, every tefillah, and every line of Torah, every moment of the day. In his very lifetime he is wholly given over into God’s hands. And then, “at a time when God is found,”³¹²Tehillim, 32:6. “a time when God is found … Rav Nachman bar Yitschak says, this is when one passes on.” (Gemara, Brachos 8a) after the length of days and years, he is then altogether given over to God.