Chasidut su Salmi 51:78

This shall be the Torah concerning the one struck with skin blanch [metzora] on the day he becomes clean. He shall be brought to the priest (Lev. 14:2), and our Sages of Blessed Memory interpreted metzora as one who speaks evil [motzi ra], for afflictions come through the sin of evil speech. But the matter is according to what is written, When God began to create etc. (Gen. 1:1), and our Sages of Blessed Memory interpreted: “For the sake of Torah and for the sake of Israel” (cf. Rashi, ad. loc.); so we find that Israel is something very important to Blessed God, since for their sake all of the Worlds and all the Creations were created. And Blessed God takes pleasure from each one of Israel, even from a greatly wicked person: “Your temples [rakatekh] are like a pomegranate (Song of Songs 6:7) – even the empty ones [reykanim] among you are as full of mitzvot as a pomegranate” (Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 57a). And when a person speaks evil about one of Israel, even if he speaks truth, he nullifies the Blessed Creator’s pleasure (if it were possible) and causes Him sadness (if it were possible) as is stated, [And the Lord …] was saddened in to His heart (Gen. 6:6), and inverts the pleasure [oneg] into affliction [nega]; therefore his “wage” is measure for measure, affliction comes upon him. And our Sages of Blessed Memory said: “Evil speech is as great as idolatry, sexual immorality, and murder” (Babylonian Talmud, Arakhin 15b). But we must be precise: what connection does idolatry have to evil speech? But the matter is according to what is written, By the word of ADONAI were the heavens made (Psalm 33:6), that all of the Worlds and all of the Creations were created through speech comprised of the 22 letters of the Torah, which is called Heavenly Sovereignty. For when the Sovereign does not speak, no one knows how to do His Will; and when he speaks His Will is revealed, and that is Heavenly Sovereignty whose Sovereignty is in all jurisdictions. And we find in Sefer Yetzirah that [the letters] are established in the mouth, that Blessed God established the 22 letters: the World of Speech, Heavenly Sovereignty, the Attribute of ADONAI-ness, ADONAI, open my lips (Psalm 51:17), were established in the human mouth.

Or one may say - at evening [ohr] of the 14th we check for chametz by the light [ohr] of a candle. It is explained that the essence of chametz is the yetzer hara, as explained above, and as explained in the gemarah "who prevents? The yeast in the dough". And behold the essence of the chametz is the yetzer hara, which comes because the building-block of humans is desire and pleasure of sex, as David Hamelech peace be upon him, says: " Indeed I was born with iniquity; with sin my mother conceived me" (Psalms 51:7), therefore a person needs to sanctify oneself at the moment of sex since the more one sanctifies oneself the more one gives to the fetus a holy soul, since from the holiness of sex a yetzer tov comes to the fetus. And from desire and lust comes the yetzer hara, therefore one should diminish one's desire so as to diminish the yetzer hara of the fetus, and the yetzer hatov can conquer with ease the yetzer hara. And regarding this it is written "at evening [ohr] of the 14th we search for chametz by the light [ohr] of a candle - that is to say, by the light of one's soul, since "the candle of Hashem is the soul of a person", since candle [ner] is the acronym of "neshamah, ruach" and "nefesh, ruach", which is appropriate for searching and burning the chametz completely.

And this corresponds to Rosh Hashanah, to the blowing of the shofar, which is the aspect of arousal from sleep. As is brought in the Kabbalistic texts, Rosh Hashanah corresponds to sleep, and the shofar representes arousal from sleep, since, "The whole world was created in Tishri" (Rosh Hashanah 10b). This is the aspect of disorder, Tav-Shin-Resh-Kuf, and when disorder is aroused, you must submerge yourself completely in sleep, which corresponds to the sleep of night. Rosh Hashanah is the first day of the Ten Days of Repentance, and the essence of repentance is to repent from haughtiness, humbling oneself and truly sensing one's lowliness and unworthiness. As our Sages said, "One self-chastisement is greater than one hundred floggings" (Berachot 7a), and, "He forgives transgression for the remainder" (Micah 7:18) - "to the one who makes himself a remainder" (Rosh Hashanah 17b). Therefore the essence of repentance is humility and humbleness, for all sins arise from disorder, from separating the Malchut and possessing it with haughtiness. That is the source of all judgments, to which the evil inclination and the forces of evil are attached, from which all sins arise. The holy books speak about haughtiness being the cause of all sins, since, "Whoever is haughty is as if he worshiped idols" (Sotah 4b), and, "Whoever acknowledges idolatry is as if he denied the entire Torah" (Chullin 5a). We find, all sins come through haughtiness, G-d forbid, for haughtiness separates disorder from order, which is the cause of all sins. Therefore, the essence of repentance for all sins is humbleness, making yourself as dust to be tread upon, sensing your lowliness and distance from Hashem, lowering yourself and breaking your heart before Hashem. That is how G-d will forgive a person, as written, "G-d will not scorn a broken and oppressed heart" (Ps. 51:19), and "Who forgives transgression for a remainder" - "for one who makes himself as a remainder". This is because humility and humbleness, one makes himself as Mah, as nothing and naught. In this way, one returns to order, represented by Mah, through which all judgments, which correspond to sins, disappear. Therefore, on Rosh Hashanah, which is the first day of the Ten Days of Repentance, the first day of Adam's creation, we must "sleep" - we must completely submerge ourselves as if we have no knowledge at all, but only cry out to G-d and declare Him King, in complete sincerity, without sophistication. On Rosh Hashanah Adam and Eve were created, corresponding to order and disorder. It was their task to rectify all the worlds, representing disorder, into order, to bring 'Eve' into 'Adam'. Had they done that, everything would have been brought into order, without any suffering and judgments, which represent disorder. But they blemished with their sin, and in doing so, they separated disorder from order, for their main sin was haughtiness, 'I shall rule', which was the essence of the Primordial Serpent's enticement, as written, "For G-d knows that on the day you eat of it, your eyes will be open and you shall be like G-d" (Gen. 3:5). As our Sages said, "It told them, 'Every craftsman hates his fellow craftsman - G-d ate from this tree and created all the worlds'" (Genesis Rabbah 19:4). In other words, he aroused jealousy in them and a desire to rule: 'you shall be like G-d' - 'creators of worlds', as if to say, 'Why should you subdue yourselves to Him? If you eat from the Tree of Knowledge, you will be a Gd and a King just like Him!' All this is the aspect of 'I shall rule', in that one desires to draw Malchut/Kingship to oneself, and then everything gets in disorder, for the person himself is in disorder. That is why all generations of mankind became destined to die, for they had blemished order, corresponding to wisdom, the source of all sustenance, as in, "Wisdom sustains life" (Kohelet 7:12), as in, "Mah is our life?". With their blemish, they separated themselves from order, from wisdom, from Mah, the main source of sustenance, and death as opposed to life was the inevitable result. Their blemish also caused everything to become disordered, represented by all the blemishes and decrees that were a result of their sin, as written, "With toil you shall eat of it...thorn and thistle will grow for you" (Gen. 3:17-18), upon which Rashi comments, "When you plant wheat, the earth will give forth thorn and thistle". All this corresponds to the disorder they caused with their sin, which was haughtiness, 'I shall rule', which caused all things to become disordered, since they had evoked disorder upon themselves with their sin. Not only did they not rectify, elevate and refine the world of the judgments that are attached to disorder, bringing everything into order, which is what they were supposed to do on the day they were created - for elevating the entire world to its source, merging disorder into order, was the very purpose for which Adam and Eve were created - but they caused great damage with their sin. The serpent first entices Eve, since she represents disorder, from which the forces of evil derive their power. The rectification should have been by merging disorder into order, by Eve being subservient to Adam, but the serpent overpowered Eve, representing disorder, enticing her to separate 'Eve' from 'Adam', disorder from order, so that Adam would follow Eve's will, so that disorder would rule over order. But they immediately repented and began rectifying everything, a rectification that would not be completed until the coming of the Messiah.

And Moses returned to Hashem etc and since I came to speak in Your name, evil [it is] for this people, and saving, You haven't saved (Exodus 5:23). And on a first glace "saving, You haven't saved"(Exodus 5:23) is a double expression, since he said "evil [it is] for this people"(Exodus 5:23) - in any case He did not save them. And here is its explanation, that we in this bitter exile, in which in our pain He is pained (see Isaiah 63:9), and the Shechinah is exiled with us (see Eicha Rabbah 1:32 and Megillah 29a) - the only thing we should worry and complain about is the exile of the Shechinah, and not think at all about our sufferings, but only regarding the suffering and exile of the Shechinah. And if our direction and our suffering were only regarding the suffering of the Shechinah and not on our suffering, obviously we would be redeemed immediately, but we are flesh without the ability to tolerate our pain an grief, and so our days lengthen in this bitter exile due to our many sins, because we partner our suffering with the suffering of the Shechinah, and we worry about our suffering. And if there was one tzaddik like this he would be able to save the entire world from this exile. And this is what Moses our master peace be upon him said "and since I came to speak in Your name"(Exodus 5:23) - the explanation is that all my speaking was not only for Your great and holy Name, which is in exile, and not only due to our own exile; and the sign and the proof that the truth is with me, that my intent was not only due to Your holy Name is that I see that Pharaoh has done "evil to this people"(Exodus 5:23); that this is the sign to the person who wants to rebuke one's fellow or to say holy words: how does one know that one's intention was only for the sake of Heaven without any other thought or position? If one sees that when one speak in front of people who are not sincere and they get angry over those words, it is obvious that the intention of the words was completely only toward Heaven, and with the Help Of The Highest Name one's words will make a mark - and this is what Moses our Master may peace be upon him said: all my words were not for any other intention but Your Name, truly, and this is the proof - evil came to this people. And since my words were only for the holiness of Your Name, it would have been deserving that Israel be redeemed immediately "and why saved, You haven't saved (Exodus 5:23)"? And this is what King David peace be upon him said: "Return to me the happiness of Your salvation"(Psalms 51:14) - meaning, redeem us and return us speedily to our land, because all my intention is solely for "the happiness of Your salvation", that we should be redeemed quickly for Your salvation, to return Your captivity (Lamentations 2:14) which is the Holy Shechina, and not because of us, but only because of You. And the Name will redeem us speedily, and we will be joyful and be happy in His salvation. Amen.

Go yourself (Gen. 12:1): Rashi explained, “For your pleasure and your benefit.” Now, our Sages of Blessed Memory said, regarding the verse, Do you indeed, who are mute, speak righteousness? (Psalm 58:2): “How should a person act in this world? Let him make himself as a mute. Could this even apply to words of Torah? The verse teaches, speak righteousness” (Hullin 89a). For it is known that it is written, Lord, open my lips (Psalm 51:17), because the Blessed Creator, the whole earth is full of [God’s] glory (Isaiah 6:3), no place is void of [God]; but [God’s] glory connotes cloaking as is known, that Blessed [God] is cloaked in each thing. And this aspect is called Shekhinah because it dwells [shokhein] in each thing; and that is the Blessed Name Lord. And it is also called the world of speech since By the word of YHVH the heavens were made (Psalm 33:6) and “the Holy Blessed One created the world through Torah” (Zohar 1:5a), meaning through the twenty-two letters of the Torah – the world of speech – all the creations were created. And it is stated in Sefer Yetzirah, “They were set in the human mouth” (Sefer Yetzirah [Luria ver.] 2.3), and that is the meaning of Lord, open my lips. And therefore our Sages of Blessed Memory said that “Evil speech is equivalent to idolatry” etc. (Arakhin 15b), for a person who speaks evil speech does not believe that his words are the world of speech, the charateristic of Lordship. And that is [the meaning of the verse], With our tongue we will prevail, our lips are with us; who is master over us? (Psalm 12:5), as we have explained elsewhere. And that is [the meaning of the Talmud’s statement], “Make himself as a mute,” meaning his essence. That is, he should not speak any speech unless he believes that of his own account he is mute, and his only speech is the world of speech, the characteristic of “Lord” as we have explained. And they ask: “Could this even apply to words of Torah,” that a person should not learn unless he believes as we have explained? “The verse teaches, speak righteousness,” it is a mitzvah to learn even if it is not for its own sake. And that is [the meaning of] what our Sages of Blessed Memory said, “Someone who converses meaningless conversation transgresses a positive commandment, as it says, you shall speak of them (Deut. 6:7) and not of meaningless things” (Yoma 19b). And it would seem, how could it be possible that a person should speak no speech other than words of Torah as is implied by the language of you shall speak of them etc.? But the explanation is this: you shall speak of them means to say that whatever you speak, you should believe that you speak with the Torah, whose speech is the world of speech, the twenty-two letters of the Torah as we have explained. And when you speak through world-guiding, do not worry, for the Holy Blessed One created the world through Torah and guides the world through Torah; all the world are led by the twenty-two letters of Torah, the world of speech, but only if you believe this as we have explained. But if you speak not for the sake of world-guiding, that is called “meaningless things.”

Contemplate this: the World of Speech speaks through you, and were it not so, it would not be possible to speak. This is the meaning of (Psalms 51:17) "Adonai, open my lips." So too with thought, which could not exist were it not for the upper World of Thought. You are like a Shofar, and what is blown into you is the sound that comes out. If you remove yourself from the breath blown in, no sound will come out. Therefore, without the strength of the Blessed One, God forbid, you could neither speak nor think.