Matos: 5786 - Parshas Bechukosai: curses or blessings? The approach of the Alter Rebbe in the inner dimension of the matter. Presented by Rabbi Shimon Sonnenfeld, at the conclusion of the class of Rabbi Betzalel Mizrachi…

00:00 Speaker 1 Please.

00:01 Speaker 2 We are still in the week of Lag BaOmer, the week of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. The Gemara in Moed Katan relates that Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai once sent his son, Rabbi Elazar, to Rabbi Yonasan ben Asmai and Rabbi Yehudah ben Gerim to receive their blessing, because they were men of stature. Rabbi Elazar went to them. They asked him, “What brings you here?” He said, “My father sent me so that you would bless me.” So they said things to him that sounded like terrible curses. He returned to Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, who asked him, “What did they say to you?” He told him what they had said: “They said I should sow but not reap,” and all sorts of other things: that he should bring in but not bring out, bring out but not bring in, and that he should not have a new year. “They cursed me. They said harsh things to me.” Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai told him, “They are all blessings.” So why did they speak that way? There are several explanations. The Maharsha gives two. One is that they wanted to sharpen his mind, to see whether he would realize on his own that these were actually blessings. But apparently he did not understand that. The Maharsha gives a second reason: they wanted Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai to explain afterward that these were blessings. In that way, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai would also bless him. But the Alter Rebbe, in Likkutei Torah, does not quite accept the Maharsha’s explanation. He says that they meant their words as they said them. So why did they express themselves that way? The Alter Rebbe explains that these blessings come from a concealed level, from alma d’iskasya, the hidden world. They are so lofty that they cannot descend as they are, so they come in a concealed form. They appear to be curses. This also relates to this week’s parsha, Bechukosai, where the Torah has forty-nine curses. The truth is that they are blessings, but blessings so lofty

02:09 Speaker 2 that, to descend into this world, they are clothed in a form that looks like curses. The Alter Rebbe gives an example in Likkutei Torah. It says, “Ten women will bake your bread in one oven.” He explains how this is a blessing. What is the blessing in it? That the ten faculties of a Jew will all be aflame with love for Hakadosh Boruch Hu. My father-in-law, a”h, used to give another example from the rebuke in this week’s parsha. It says, “You will eat the flesh of your sons and daughters.” He would say, “That is a blessing.” What is the blessing? Jews came to the United States in the previous generation, or several generations ago, and their children did not quite follow in their ways and were not so observant of Torah and mitzvos. So “you will eat the flesh of your sons and daughters” is the greatest blessing: parents can eat meat in their children’s homes without worrying about kashrus. That is a blessing. The Alter Rebbe explains this at greater length in chapter 11 of Igeres Hakodesh, “Lehaskilcha Binah.” There he explains that no evil descends from Above. A person who is undergoing suffering must not become dejected. Why? Because no evil descends from Above; everything is good. It comes from alma d’iskasya, the hidden world. These things are so lofty that they come from that hidden world, and therefore descend in a way that appears to us to be bad. But the truth is that no evil descends from Above. And when a Jew truly believes this, it becomes good in an open and revealed way as well. There is a story about the Rebbe’s grandfather, whose name was Rabbi Shlomo

03:51 Speaker 3 Yanovsky.

03:51 Speaker 2 Yanovsky. He was the rabbi of Nikolayev. The story goes that in his time there was an outbreak of typhus, G-d forbid. This was before penicillin and antibiotics had been discovered. If someone fell ill, if they contracted this disease—G-d forbid. There was a hospital outside the city. I call it a hospital because there were only sick people there; there was no medicine. People were put there so they would not infect others, and generally they did not return. The Rebbe’s grandfather contracted the disease and was taken there. He had a good friend named Reb Osher of Nikolayev, who wondered what he could do for his friend. What did he do? He went to that hospital outside the city. But visitors were not allowed in; it was impossible, because the disease was highly contagious. He would stand outside and read aloud chapter 11 of Igeres Hakodesh, “Lehaskilcha Binah,” hoping that perhaps his friend could hear him. Every day he came, stood outside the hospital and read “Lehaskilcha Binah” aloud, hoping he could hear. And remarkably, before long Rabbi Shlomo recovered and returned home healthy. He later said that he had heard it. Every day he heard that reading of chapter 11, “Lehaskilcha Binah,” and it gave him the strength and the faith that no evil descends from Above and that everything is good. And so it became good in an open and revealed way. May it be Hashem’s will that the verse be fulfilled for us: “Hashem transformed the curse into a blessing for you, because Hashem your G-d loves you.” May all the things we think are negative be transformed into good, into open and revealed good.

05:46 Speaker 4 Amen, [unclear].