Som Tasim Alecha Melech; Kabbolas Ol Malchus Shamayim and Yiras Shamayim as Preparation for Rosh Hashanah - Rabbi Asher Perkesh

00:00 There was a chossid, Reb Yoma Klotzker. He was among the Alter Rebbe’s early chassidim, devoted to serving Hashem and a profound student of Chassidus. He was among the distinguished students of the Alter Rebbe, and many stories are told about his service of Hashem, his study of Chassidus, and the depth with which he delved into it. One of the stories told by the Frierdiker Rebbe is this: Besides being a great scholar of Chassidus, Reb Yoma Klotzker was also a merchant, and from time to time he would travel to a fair. Once, a fair was held. In those days, a large fair would occasionally take place in one of the towns, and people would travel there to buy and sell all sorts of things before returning home. Reb Yoma traveled to the fair and davened there. After davening, he took his tallis and tefillin bag with him, walked through the market, and came to a wagon. A non-Jew stood at the wagon selling small items and food. Reb Yoma stood beside the wagon and became lost in thought. He began delving into matters of Chassidus and set his tallis and tefillin on the wagon, which was not his.

01:53 But [unclear]. He stood beside the wagon and began thinking about matters of Chassidus until he completely forgot where he was. Deep in thought, he lifted one foot and rested it on the wagon’s step. He stood that way, absorbed in thought, for several hours. Meanwhile, the market day came to an end. The non-Jew gathered his things from the wagon and drove away. Reb Yoma did not notice at all that the wagon had left. He remained standing there, one foot raised in the air, completely absorbed in thought, and then lowered it, without noticing any of these changes. He stood there until he suddenly came to himself and said, “Oy, sunset is approaching, and I need to daven Minchah.” Then he roused himself, moved a little to the side, and davened Minchah. The non-Jew traveled a little farther and stopped along the way because he wanted to buy something. Someone passing by happened to see a tallis and tefillin on the wagon and asked whom they belonged to. The non-Jew said that someone had left them there. The man took them back to the market, found Reb Yoma Klotzker, and returned his tallis and tefillin. When the Frierdiker Rebbe told this story to the Rebbe, his son-in-law, years ago, and the Rebbe

03:41 later recorded it in his diary—there are diary notes in which he recorded stories he heard from his father-in-law, the Frierdiker Rebbe—the Frierdiker Rebbe concluded the story by saying: “See how great the fear of Heaven of chassidim in earlier generations was, what fear of Heaven they had.” He stood immersed in thought about Chassidus, forgot the market, forgot it was market day, forgot the fair, and did not notice at all that the wagon had been there and then driven away. He paid no attention to any of it. But when sunset approached and it was time to daven Minchah, he immediately came to himself. That was the greatness of the chassidim’s fear of Heaven. And that is remarkable. In other words, what impresses us about the story is not the depth of his contemplation—that a chossid stood for hours in the market, delving into matters of Chassidus, able to be so absorbed in Chassidus for so many hours while the market day went on around him, forgetting everything. That is not the main point. The whole richness of the story lies in his fear of Heaven: how a chossid noticed that the time had come and he needed to daven Minchah. We are speaking about fear of Heaven. This is especially connected with the month of Elul. As explained in Chassidus, the main avodah of the month of Elul is to awaken

05:12 kabbolas ol malchus Shamayim—acceptance of the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven—and the avodah of fear of Heaven. The reason for this, as emerges from the maamarim on the avodah of Elul, is expressed in several ways. One of them addresses the question of why the main avodah of Elul is to awaken fear of Heaven. The explanation is that Elul is the preparation for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur: “I am my beloved’s,” and afterward, “my beloved is mine.” The Alter Rebbe explains in a maamar in Likkutei Torah that in Elul there is an awakening from below, a preparation for the revelations and spiritual influences drawn down on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Since Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are a time of awe, when Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s kingship is revealed—we crown Hakadosh Boruch Hu as King, and kingship entails awe—we must prepare for the revelation of awe drawn down from above during the Yamim Noraim. It is a time of awe, when Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s kingship is revealed throughout all the worlds, to the point that even the angels in the higher worlds, the seraphim and ofanim, are overcome with awe. This awakens awe in the souls of the Jewish people here below, so that they accept the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven for the entire year, as the Alter Rebbe explains. And the preparation for this is Elul, “I am my beloved’s.” During Elul, a Jew must awaken

06:41 fear of Heaven from below, within himself, through his own avodah and contemplation, awakening within himself kabbolas ol malchus Shamayim and fear of Heaven. This is the introduction and preparation, the “I am my beloved’s,” so that afterward, when the time comes for kingship, the royal throne, and awe to be revealed from above, the Jew will be a vessel capable of receiving it. The Alter Rebbe explains that the order of avodah is always an awakening from below: first comes a person’s own avodah, and afterward comes the awakening from above. That is the general idea. What is more, it is of course connected to what the Alter Rebbe explains later in the maamar, when he gives the analogy of the king: “Before he reaches the city, the people of the city go out to greet him and receive him in the field.” Before the king enters the city—which is the next stage, when the king enters his royal palace and sits on the throne—there is the stage when “the people of the city go out to greet him and receive him in the field.” And as explained in the maamarim that discuss the Alter Rebbe’s analogy, what is the avodah of “receiving him in the field”? In our avodah, it is kabbolas ol malchus Shamayim together with fear of Heaven. That is the meaning, the plain meaning, of “receiving him in the field.” And the Alter Rebbe says, “So it is in Elul”: we go out to receive him in the field,

08:15 What is the avodah? It is the avodah of an awakening from below, kabbolas ol malchus Shamayim. And the Rebbe explains in the maamar “Ki Imcha Mekor Chayim” in Sefer Hamaamarim 5750 that this is the avodah of Elul. The main avodah of Elul is an awakening from below and kabbolas ol malchus Shamayim—the idea of receiving the King. This is also connected to last week’s parsha. The verse “You shall surely appoint a king over yourself” appears in that parsha. Yes, it appears in the verses. The parsha discusses the mitzvah of appointing a king, and there it says, “You shall surely appoint a king over yourself.” But, says the Gemara, the actual halachah [unclear]. The Alter Rebbe, however, gives an interpretation of “You shall surely appoint a king over yourself” in Tanya, chapter 41. There the Alter Rebbe says: “And this is the beginning of avodah, its essence and its root”—that one must accept upon oneself the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven. Here the Alter Rebbe explains at length what this means and what should take place within us: one must contemplate that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is the King of kings, and that He fills all worlds and encompasses all worlds. Hakadosh Boruch Hu sets aside the upper and lower worlds and singles out His kingship over the Jewish people as a whole and over him in particular. Yes, Hakadosh Boruch Hu looks at each person and singles out His kingship over the Jewish people as a whole and over each individual in particular, in a special way. This then leads him to accept that kingship as well. The avodah here is that when a person contemplates how Hakadosh Boruch Hu sets aside the upper and lower worlds and singles out His kingship over the Jewish people as a whole and over him in particular, it illuminates him inwardly, and he accepts upon himself the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven, accepting His kingship. And he continues and concludes with the words, “And behold, Hashem stands over him.” That Hakadosh Boruch Hu

10:20 He stands over each person, looks at him, and examines his heart and innermost thoughts to see whether he serves Him properly. The Alter Rebbe tells us, teaches us, that each person’s task is to know that He is watching each of us to see how we serve Him. “And He examines his heart and innermost thoughts to see whether he serves Him properly; therefore, one must serve Him with awe and fear, as one standing before the king.” In other words, when the Alter Rebbe speaks of the service that is “the beginning of service, and its essence and root”—the foundation of all service of Hashem—he means kabbolas ol Malchus Shamayim, accepting the yoke of Heaven, and fear of Heaven. Immediately afterward in the chapter, he brings the verse, “You shall surely appoint a king over yourself.” From this verse, we understand that accepting the yoke of Heaven is something a person must do through his own efforts: “You shall surely appoint over yourself.” That is, a person must accept the King’s sovereignty upon himself. It does not simply come down from Above on its own; there must be “I am my Beloved’s.” That is what “you shall surely appoint” means: a person must accept upon himself the yoke of the King’s sovereignty. And he must do so with fear. “You shall surely appoint a king over yourself”—“so that his awe will be upon you.” Accepting the yoke of Heaven must come with fear. A person must place himself under the King’s sovereignty, and this brings that fear to light within him. It is the fear of rebelling against the King of kings, Hakadosh Boruch Hu. In other words, this is not fear of punishment. Yes, but the Alter Rebbe is not speaking about fear of punishment. The Alter Rebbe is speaking about the fear of rebelling against the King of kings, Hakadosh Boruch Hu, because He is your King; He is my King. And being a servant should follow naturally. There must be a fear of rebelling against His sovereignty. This is the fear that is “the beginning

12:06 of service, and its essence and root.” This is what is meant by “You shall surely appoint a king over yourself.” And this is the whole point of the service of the month of Elul: to accept upon ourselves the yoke—the yoke of accepting the sovereignty of Heaven and fearing Heaven. Through this, as the Alter Rebbe says in the maamarim, we then receive on Rosh Hashanah fear of Heaven for the entire year. This idea of accepting the yoke of Heaven and fearing Heaven appears in the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov. The point made there is that fear of Heaven should not focus on fear of punishment; its main focus should be awe of the King. Awe of the King: He is my King, and I stand in awe of Him because He is the King, fearing to rebel against His sovereignty. That is an inner fear. As he brings from the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov on this, [unclear], he quotes the Baal Shem Tov on the verse, “And G-d has made it so that people should fear Him.” The Gemara in Berachos says, “Thunder was created only to straighten out the crookedness in the heart,” as it says, “And G-d has made it so that people should fear Him.” In other words, the whole purpose of thunder—of thunder and lightning and the like—is to awaken fear of Heaven. The Baal Shem Tov explains that a Jew must come to fear Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and that fear must be an inner fear, awe of the King. But to reach awe of the King, one can reflect on things in the world, such as,

13:43 for example, thunder. Yes, there is thunder and lightning. By nature, when a person is caught by a clap of thunder, he trembles. There are all sorts of things that can suddenly make a person tremble. And when something physical causes him to tremble, says the Baal Shem Tov, he must immediately bring himself to reflect: this trembling is only because of physical thunder, a physical thing. And Hakadosh Boruch Hu is the Creator who made that thing and brought it about. If so, how much greater should one’s fear be of the King of kings, Hakadosh Boruch Hu, who created all these things that inspire fear. This is what “And G-d has made it so that people should fear Him” means: a Jew must reflect and, through all the fears hidden within these things, reach their inner essence, which is fear of Hakadosh Boruch Hu—fear of the King. More specifically, there is an explanation by the Maggid of Mezritch of the verse, “And now, Israel, what does Hashem your G-d ask of you but to fear Him?” This verse appeared not long ago in the weekly parsha, in Parshas Eikev. Moshe Rabbeinu says there, “And now, Israel, what does Hashem your G-d ask of you but to fear Him?” The Maggid of Mezritch explains: What is the verse saying here? Hakadosh Boruch Hu is asking Jews, in essence, “to fear Hashem your G-d.” What is the deeper meaning, the substance of

15:14 this verse? He gives a parable: A father had a son whom he loved very much. The child was young and not careful. He was playing, and his father told him to be careful while he played, so that a thorn or something else would not stick him and hurt him. The child played, and a thorn lodged in his foot. The father is worried; he does not want a thorn to lodge in his child’s foot. That is the father’s fear. But the father knows that a thorn in the foot could, G-d forbid, cause harm and develop into a serious infection. The thorn has gone in, and from that, Heaven forbid, something could develop in the blood that might, Heaven forbid, cause a problem throughout the body. But the child does not know any of this. For the child, the main fear is simply that it hurts. When the thorn goes in, it causes a little pain, which in itself is not yet so terrible. But the father fears that, G-d forbid, something could develop from it throughout the body, and so

16:34 the father needs to make a small cut to reach the thorn lodged in the child’s foot and remove it. There are two kinds of fear here. There is the child’s fear: he cries out that it hurts. The thorn itself hurts a little, so he would rather leave it in, because he is afraid. The father makes a cut, blood comes out, and the child starts screaming and crying; he does not want to be cut. That is the child’s fear, because he is afraid of the immediate, outward pain he will feel. But the father has an entirely different fear. The father is afraid of the thorn itself. He knows that the thorn could, Heaven forbid, cause harm throughout the body and, G-d forbid, put the child in real danger. This is what the verse says: “And now, Israel, what does Hashem your G-d ask of you but to fear Hashem your G-d?” The Torah says to a Jew: What kind of fear does Hakadosh Boruch Hu want from you? “What does Hashem your G-d ask of you?”—what kind of fear does Hakadosh Boruch Hu want from a Jew? The fear Hakadosh Boruch Hu asks of a Jew is “to fear Hashem your G-d”: your fear should be like the father’s fear, his concern [unclear], and not the fear of

17:51 the child, who fears the situation, the punishment, the fright, the pain. That is an external fear, and it is not the main kind of fear. A Jew must work on his fear of Heaven so that it becomes a G-dly fear. His fear of Heaven should be “so that people should fear Him”; the fear should come from “Hashem your G-d”: from what Hakadosh Boruch Hu [unclear], and from the fact that sin and transgression, G-d forbid, create separation, create rebellion against His sovereignty, and create separation between Hakadosh Boruch Hu and a Jew. This is the fear that Hakadosh Boruch Hu [unclear]. A Jew needs to feel this fear, and about this he says, “What does Hashem your G-d ask of you but to fear Him?” You know what the Gemara says about this verse. Regarding “What does Hashem your G-d ask of you but to fear Him?” the question arises: What does “but to fear Him” mean? The Gemara asks, “Is fear, then, such a small thing?” Is fear a small matter, that the verse says “but to fear Him”? And the Gemara answers, “Yes, for Moshe it is a small thing.” Fear is a small thing for Moshe Rabbeinu. Regarding [unclear], as the Gemara says in its plain meaning: since Moshe Rabbeinu is the one speaking—he wrote Mishneh Torah, “Moshe said them in his own words”—Moshe Rabbeinu says, “but to fear Him.” Moshe Rabbeinu says: Yes, the whole matter of fear is

19:17 a small thing. For Moshe Rabbeinu, who was [unclear] of fear of G-d and [unclear] in the service of Hashem, fear was a small thing. The Alter Rebbe asks about this in Tanya—there is, in fact, a question about the [unclear], and he addresses it. But the Alter Rebbe explains in Tanya, chapter 42, that the question about fear is a familiar and straightforward one: Moshe Rabbeinu is speaking to Jews. The verse says, “And now, Israel”; he is speaking to the Jewish people and says, “but to fear Him.” He is speaking to the Jewish people, to all of Israel, and says to the Jews, “but to fear Him.” And what is the answer? The Gemara answers that for Moshe it is a small thing—but he is speaking to all of Israel! For Jews, fear, especially fear of this kind, fear of Hashem your G-d, [unclear], fear of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, is not a small thing. The Alter Rebbe explains that “every single member of the Jewish people” has a spark of Moshe Rabbeinu within him. What does that mean? “For Moshe it is a small thing” does not mean only that it was so for Moshe Rabbeinu himself. A Jew has a spark of Moshe Rabbeinu within him. And [unclear] Moshe Rabbeinu. [unclear] the faithful shepherd. That means that [unclear], he draws down [unclear]

20:52 For every Jew. This is present in the Jewish soul, inherited from Moshe Rabbeinu. But [unclear], this needs to be [unclear]. What Jews have through Moshe Rabbeinu makes it “a small matter” for a Jew to recognize the fear of Heaven within himself. In explaining this, the Rebbe says that “in every generation” [unclear] sparks of the soul of Moshe Rabbeinu, peace be upon him. Every Jew needs to [unclear] this, and he knows [unclear]. It is present in Jews. By contemplating the greatness of Hashem, he can recognize within himself [unclear] that this fear is there. It is not something that has to be created anew. The fear is present in the innermost part of the Jewish soul. The Rebbe explains that every Jew has a natural fear of Heaven deep within his soul. He cites the verse, “If you seek it like silver and search for it like hidden treasures.” And the Baal Shem Tov says that a Jew is “a cherished land.” Deep within the Jewish soul there is [unclear] of fear of Heaven. It is there by the soul’s very nature, deep within the soul of every Jew. It only needs to be revealed, brought from concealment into the open. That is the work of Moshe Rabbeinu: the spark of Moshe present within Jews can be [unclear] from concealment into revelation. And this is “a small matter”: fear of Heaven becomes revealed within him, and fear of Heaven [unclear]. The Rebbe adds that He “watches and looks, listens and hears, and understands all his deeds” [unclear], and every step and word.

22:40 Granted, [unclear]. And the Rebbe says that this is present in a Jew everywhere, at all times, at every moment. A Jew knows what “You shall surely appoint a king over yourself” means. During Elul, we need to work on this. We need to prepare to greet the King in the field. The Rebbe says we need to deepen our fear of Heaven throughout the year, but now is a special time, so for a Jew this must be felt more strongly than during the rest of the year. We need to seek it and find it through work. As the Rebbe says in Tanya: when Elul arrives, we say, “The King is in the field.” A Jew must prepare to greet the King. What does that mean in practice? To accept upon himself the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven and to take on the fear of Heaven. After all, every Jew has a spark of Moshe Rabbeinu, and through it, fear of Heaven can be brought from concealment into revelation. This is the idea stated in the parsha, in the verse “You shall surely appoint a king over yourself.” In its plain meaning, the verse speaks about a king of Israel, about the mitzvah of appointing a king. What does that have to do with fear of Heaven, and with the spark of Moshe Rabbeinu within a Jew? And more generally, what is the point of “You shall surely appoint a king over yourself,” the mitzvah of appointing a king? The well-known question is discussed at length by the Tzemach Tzedek in Derech Mitzvosecha, in his discussion of the mitzvah of appointing a king.

24:21 The question is well known: the Torah says, “You shall surely appoint a king over yourself.” It is a positive commandment from the Torah to appoint a king. Yet when it came to putting this into practice, and the Jews asked for a king in the days of Shmuel the prophet, Tanach relates the whole course of events: Shmuel the prophet was angry with them. Shmuel told them that Hakadosh Boruch Hu was angry with them because they wanted a king like all the nations. All kinds of harsh things were said there, which plainly show that Hakadosh Boruch Hu was not pleased, and Shmuel the prophet was not pleased, that they wanted a king. But seemingly, it is a mitzvah. The early commentators already ask this question; the Ramban discusses it. What was the sin of the Jews in asking for a king when there is a mitzvah to appoint one? There are many explanations: that they asked for a king like all the nations, and various other explanations given by the commentators on the Torah and Tanach. But there is the explanation the Tzemach Tzedek gives in Derech Mitzvosecha: since a Jew must have fear of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, what is the inner purpose of the mitzvah of appointing a king? When the Torah says, “You shall surely appoint a king over yourself,” why is a flesh-and-blood king needed?

25:45 After all, we have the King of kings, Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Why do we need “You shall surely appoint a king over yourself,” so that “his awe should be upon you”? The reason is that a Jew cannot, through his own efforts, reach a higher kind of fear—yirah ila’ah, the fear that comes from shame, awe of Hashem’s exaltedness. There are many levels of fear discussed in the sefarim. Through the king, one can reach an inner fear, a higher kind of fear. That is why the king is said to have the highest level of fear. Thus it is said, “Once a king bows, he does not straighten up again.” When the king bows during the first blessing of Shemoneh Esrei, he remains bowed throughout the Shemoneh Esrei prayer, because his defining quality is fear. This is how it must be for a king of Israel, because this is the nature of inner fear. When a Jew submits himself before a king, the inner purpose of the mitzvah of appointing a king is that, through the king, he should rise to inner fear, to yirah ila’ah, to a higher level of self-nullification. The mistake the Jewish people made in the days of Shmuel the prophet was that they wanted a king for an external kind of fear. This is the level of fear described in the plain sense by the teaching, “Were it not for fear of the government, people would swallow each other alive,” as it says in Pirkei Avos. This is a fear more connected with—

27:09 fear of punishment and the like. You do not need a king to attain that kind of fear. A Jew should have it on his own, as a basic fear of Heaven. The need for a king is to rise to a higher level of fear. And that was the sin of the Jews in Shmuel’s day: they wanted to use the king to instill an external kind of fear. That is why Shmuel told them that Hakadosh Boruch Hu was angry, and so on. But from here we see the Divine Providence: we always read Parshas Shoftim during Elul, and Parshas Shoftim contains the mitzvah of “You shall surely appoint a king over yourself.” In spiritual service, this means accepting the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven and fear of Heaven—“that his awe should be upon you.” This is the work of Elul: greeting the King and preparing for Tishrei, preparing to accept the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven. The point of “You shall surely appoint a king over yourself” is that, to reach the innermost level of fear and awaken G-dly awe, there must be this element of “You shall surely appoint a king over yourself,” the appointment of a king. This also relates to Moshe Rabbeinu, to the spark of Moshe within every Jew, and especially to one who is [unclear] of Moshe Rabbeinu, which is the [unclear].

28:25 The Moshe of every generation. Yes, these are our Rebbeim, the tzaddikim. By studying their teachings and connecting ourselves to them, we learn the true meaning of fear, fear of G-d, the inner fear. Through this, we bring ourselves to a state that truly prepares us to come before the King. Yes, during Elul we want to feel fear of Heaven. This is also connected with the beginning of our parsha: “You shall appoint judges and officers for yourself at all your gates.” I saw it cited in the name of the holy Shelah and in the name of the author of Sifsei Kohen al HaTorah, Rabbi Mordechai HaKohen, one of the great Kabbalists and leading Jewish sages in the time of the Arizal. He wrote Sifsei Kohen al HaTorah, and there he explains that in “You shall appoint judges and officers for yourself at all your gates,” “your gates” refers to the seven gates: the eyes, the ears, the nose and the mouth. These are the gates of the body, through which things go out from the body and things enter it from outside. So there must be “You shall appoint judges and officers for yourself at all your gates”: the judges must know to consult the Shulchan Aruch before looking, and before using any of the senses—sight, hearing and smell. All of these must be ordered according to halachah, according to the Shulchan Aruch. And “officers”—there must be firm enforcement

29:45 and care to ensure that the gates are permeated with fear of Heaven. Through this, in “all your gates” as well, each person, according to his capacity, can experience a taste of G-dliness, a taste of G-dliness, and vitality in G-dliness, vitality in G-dliness, in the service of Hashem, and prepare with joy and gladness of heart. This is also what the Rebbe wrote in letters to a number of people, mentioning the need to study chapter 41 of Tanya, particularly its first eighteen lines, and to review them every day to awaken fear of Heaven within ourselves. The Rebbe added, for a number of people, that fear of Heaven must be accompanied by great and immense joy. As the Alter Rebbe says in chapter 33, there is great and immense joy that the King is together with me. Alongside the awe that the King is with us in the same dwelling, there is also great and immense joy that the King [unclear] and dwells with us in our home. Through this we prepare for Rosh Hashanah, when we accept the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven. And as the Rebbe discusses in the well-known maamar of Rosh Hashanah 5703, accepting the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven involves profound self-nullification and great awe, together with great and immense joy, so that it will indeed be a blessed year,

31:06 a joyful year, a good inscription and sealing, a good and sweet year materially and spiritually.