시편 136:4의 차시두트

"When a woman conceives and gives birth to a male child..." In the Midrash (Vayikra Rabbah 14:2), "I will bring forth My righteousness; it is not far off, and My salvation shall not delay" (Isaiah 46:13). Rabbi Nathan said, "We calculate for the sake of our forefather Abraham. He who comes from afar." As it is written: "He renews His wonders" (Psalms 136:4), "Who makes new every day." Indeed, according to the simple understanding, what newness is there in a mother who gives birth every day? Then even renewal should become ordinary. But the matter is this: that the Holy One, blessed be He, makes something new out of the ordinary, and wonders will come into the hearts of those who await Him on everything to say, 'Who has created these?' As with our forefather Abraham, peace be upon him, for the world behaved as such for many years before Abraham came into the world, and there was no one to inquire and wonder about His conduct. And in the heart of Abraham, peace be upon him, there was a very great wonder (Genesis Rabbah 39:1). It can be said that the city without a leader: who is the owner of the city? And when the Holy One, blessed be He, saw that his question was not like the natural inquiries, but because he truly wanted to know who created these, in order to worship Him, and because of this, he despised all the pleasures of this world. Then the Holy One, blessed be He, had to reveal Himself to him and show him that He is the Owner of the city. And regarding this matter, it says, "When a woman conceives," because there is no value in the term "woman" in the world of nobility, as is explained in the Gemara (Shabbat 88a): "What is the significance of a female birth among us?" And it is said, "When a woman conceives," etc. That is, one who has a true desire with strength and vigor for the Holy One, blessed be He, and gives birth to a male child, and he is the one who clearly achieves true salvation. For the birth of a male indicates true salvation because all the good is included in the soul of the Jewish person. And this is the matter of the Midrash: "We calculate for the sake of our forefather Abraham." That is, Abraham recognized from himself that there is a leader in the world, and we too can recognize when we turn our minds to Abraham to contemplate his ways, for the awakening of Abraham's heart caused amazement to everyone who understood why he was awakened in his heart to inquire and wonder who created the world and its fullness, and how many thousands of souls were before, and it did not occur to them to ask this. From this awakening itself, we can understand that there is a Creator and Leader, for the desire that came to Abraham's heart was also from what the Holy One, blessed be He, sent to him in his heart. For if this had happened naturally, why did it not happen to all the world? And this is what the Midrash says: "We calculate for the sake of our forefather Abraham," for his name indicates his will, as is found in people who are called by their actions and professions because all their will is in the matter they are involved in. And also his name in the Gemara is will. And this is "I will bring forth My righteousness from afar," for His name indicates His will, as found in people who are called by their actions and professions, for their entire will is in the matter they are involved in, and His name in the Gemara is will.

"To the One who makes great lights, God's love endures forever" (Ps. 136:4) [We can understand] the verse according to what is written in the Zohar (Zohar 2:136b) "R. Hamnuna the Elder, when the morning star would come out throughout Shabbat, he would sit for a moment and raise his eyes, and was happy, and would say that he was sitting under the sight of the joy of the superior angels. They go out and they rest, and throughout Shabbat a person sits in the world of souls." according to what is known, in every Erev Shabbat Kodesh the souls have an ascent, and through this the extra souls come down, on Shabbat, to this world. And through this we explained what is written in the Gemarah in the name of Rabbi Zeira, that Rabbi Matana said, that Rav said: the fats and the wicks that our sages talked about, which we to not light the candles of Shabbat, we do light with them the candles of Chanukah, whether on Shabbat [of Chanukah] whether the rest of the week. And this is a hint regarding the souls that are distant, as it is explained in other places the fats are symbolic of the soul, the wicks are symbolic of the body. The fats and wicks which are not kindled for Shabbat are due to the fact that there are some defects on humans, God forbid, defects that make them distant, every so often, from ascending the place of their soul-root. And this is the strength of the Shabbat and Chanukah that are an ascent even for souls that are distant, and [feel] outside. And this is the explanation of "Maker of great lights" - those are the lights of Shabbat and Chanukah. Shabbat is called light as we say "a rest and a gladness, light for the Jews" (zemirah of Shabbat). And on Chanukah the hidden light of the seven days of Creation is aroused and this is why, together, they are called "great lights." "Because God's love endures forever" (Ps. 136:1) - this is the Higher Love to all the world, without any dismissal of any sort, and to rise them to the source of their quarrying [creation]. Despite all this, they hinted so we could understand the greatness of the Tzaddik of the generation, that he is a conduit to pull down the Flows and all the above mentioned Fixings are done through his hand, as it was when we heard the deed that occurred in the times of the Besht z"l. A reincarnation of a certain great man, from the times of the Ari z"l, came to him and from that time [of the Ariz"l] onward he was waiting for hundreds of years until the Besht came and fixed his soul. And he was not able to merit to go to the righteous of his generation because he was not set in front of them, until the time of the Besht z"l. And to understand - why is this thing dependent upon the will of the tzadik? Isn't God, in God's compassion, able to free the bound? Why did he need to wait until the compassion of the tzadik was aroused (?) towards him? Indeed, from the beginning of creation it arose in the Will of the Blessed Name that a tzadik would govern etc as it is written "gracious compassionate and righteous" (Psalms 112:4) (Shemot Rabbah 15:20). And the Tzadik that is the basis of the world, he is the middleman through whose hands the salvation that fixes [the other person's] soul root above. And this is the verse "say of the tzadik, he is good" (Isaiah 3:10) - the righteous is called good. And this is "a good name is better than fragrant oil [shemen]" (Eccl. 7:1) - because the tzadik unifies the Name and therefore it is in his hand to fix a soul [neshamah], a good oil [shemen] - that comes [shemin] from God. [שמ"ן ה' and נשמה share the same letters]