Parshas Tetzaveh-Zachor - The Divine Strength of a Jew to Break Amalek - Rabbi Asher Perkash

00:01 In 5698, the Frierdiker Rebbe was staying in Paris, France, for medical reasons and had to meet with several doctors. That Purim, the Frierdiker Rebbe was in Paris. He held a farbrengen where he and the Rebbetzin were staying. Several chassidim were there, and the Frierdiker Rebbe farbrenged at length that Purim. He said that one must [unclear], and that one could merit a great salvation. We know what kind of year 5698 was: just before the war, in a difficult period. Then, among other things, he told this story. The story was that in 5691, a very important rabbinic conference took place. It was a conference of rabbis in Russia, with rabbis from every circle taking part. Among its leading figures were the Rebbe Rashab, [unclear], Rabbi Chaim of Brisk, and other great rabbis in Russia who led the conference. It was a very important conference, at which they planned to advance several matters with the government concerning the rabbis and the authority and standing of Torah-observant rabbis throughout Russia. At that time, the Frierdiker Rebbe was

02:00 the one handling all the conference’s affairs. The Rebbe Rashab had asked him to do so, and he had to travel to various ministers and other influential people so they could advance the measures the rabbis wanted to advance. The Frierdiker Rebbe related that, among other things, he had to approach one of the government ministers. His name was [unclear]. He was a government minister, a very dangerous and wicked man. He had to approach him to obtain a note, which he then had to deliver to Baron Ginzburg, one of the prominent wealthy men of Ashkenazic background then living in Russia. Through him, they hoped to advance the measures. The Frierdiker Rebbe related that he was simply afraid—very afraid—and trembled at the prospect of meeting the minister, knowing his wickedness and his hatred of Jews. He said that one day his father, the Rebbe Rashab, saw him and asked, “What’s the matter with you?” He could see the tension on his face and asked, “What’s going on? What’s the matter?” The Frierdiker Rebbe answered briefly, “There’s a wall.” In other words, he meant that the situation was very difficult: there was a wall, as it were, something impossible to get past.

03:39 The Rebbe Rashab told him, “What is a wall? A wall is made of stones, and we need to make an opening in that wall. That opening must become a door so that we can pass through it. And the stones will remain intact; they will not be damaged at all.” This was guidance on the self-sacrifice needed to get through what one has to face. The Frierdiker Rebbe told this story to the chassidim, and we learn from it how to get past obstacles and trials in serving Hashem. In this story we find a connection to the weekly parsha, Parshas Tetzaveh, which is read together with Parshas Zachor. From the matter of the stones discussed in the weekly parsha, we come to a point in Chassidus, in serving Hashem, that connects Parshas Tetzaveh with Parshas Zachor. This is discussed in maamarim of Chassidus, beginning with the Alter Rebbe in 5675, and later by our other Rebbeim. The Mitteler Rebbe discusses it at length in [unclear], as do the maamarim of our Rebbeim who came afterward, including a maamar of the Rebbe Rashab, [unclear], from that year, from [unclear], that period.

05:19 When was that conference? The conference was in [unclear] the month of Adar, and there is a maamar from Shabbos Parshas Tetzaveh delivered that year, [unclear] Adar. The weekly parsha speaks about the tzitz, one of the priestly garments. In Parshas Tetzaveh, we learn about the priestly garments, and the tzitz was one of them. What does the parsha say? “You shall make a tzitz of pure gold.” A tzitz had to be made. It was a garment that had to be “on Aharon’s forehead”; “it shall be on Aharon’s forehead.” Moshe Rabbeinu made the tzitz of pure gold, and on the tzitz were “engraved letters,” spelling “Holy to Hashem.” The tzitz had to be placed on the forehead: “It shall be on Aharon’s forehead,” “and Aharon shall bear it upon himself as a remembrance.” That was the tzitz. When we look into this, we find that the Gemara in Shabbos says the tzitz extended from ear to ear. In other words, the tzitz was on the forehead of the Kohen Gadol, Aharon HaKohen, but it extended in width from ear to ear. The Maharsha addresses this and says that the verse states, “It shall be on Aharon’s forehead,” and the translation of “forehead” is “above his eyes.” That means that—

06:56 the tzitz was above the eyes, while here the Gemara says it extended from ear to ear. The Maharsha says it had both features: the tzitz itself was wide and extended from ear to ear, from one ear to the other, but the words “Holy to Hashem” were above the eyes. And the Maharsha asks: What is the significance of this? It alludes to the eyes, the power of sight, and to the ears, the power of hearing—all of which must be holy to Hashem. In other words, the fact that the tzitz was made this way, with “Holy to Hashem” above the eyes, while the Gemara says it extended from ear to ear, alludes to the fact that both sight and hearing must be holy to Hashem. And when we look into the tzitz, we find that the Gemara says each garment was connected with a particular matter, with the faculties of the soul, in order to correct and atone for sins, undesirable things, and bad character traits. As detailed in the Gemara and the Midrashim, each garment atones for a particular matter. Regarding the tzitz, the Gemara says it came to atone for brazenness. In other words, the purpose of the tzitz, which was on the forehead—the forehead alludes

08:31 to brazenness, as we say: “For the sin we committed before You with brazenness,” and “Your forehead is brazen.” The forehead, the forehead itself, indicates insolence and brazenness. And this brazenness, this insolence, the brazenness that is the source of all the bad and undesirable things within a person—it is for this that the tzitz came, to atone for brazenness. So it follows that the tzitz has several aspects. [unclear], we see several things here in the tzitz. We are told that Moshe Rabbeinu had to make the tzitz. On the one hand, what is the tzitz? Moshe has to make it. And where was it used? On Aharon HaKohen, “on Aharon’s forehead.” That means that both Moshe Rabbeinu and Aharon HaKohen were connected with the service of the tzitz, and the tzitz’s purpose was to atone for brazenness. And it had both aspects, as he brings [unclear]: sight and hearing, both of which must be holy to Hashem, dedicated to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. We need to understand what the tzitz is and what it means in the service of the human soul. On this, the Alter Rebbe points out that we actually find two meanings for the word “tzitz.” The word “tzitz” has two meanings in the Holy Tongue. One meaning is light and radiance, brightness. As we say, the tzitz is like [unclear].

10:03 Sparks come forth—a spark, something connected with light. That is one meaning of the word “tzitz.” Indeed, several commentators on the plain meaning say that this is why it was called a tzitz: it was a golden tzitz with many adornments, and it sparkled. That is what the Chizkuni writes—that it had an aspect of light. The second meaning of “tzitz” is connected with seeing: “peering through the lattices.” And this fits with what we see: it was positioned between the eyes, above the eyes, connected with the power of sight, on the forehead. After all, when you look at a person, the first thing you see is the forehead. That is what the Rashba writes, and this too is connected with seeing, with the power of sight. So the word “tzitz” has two meanings: the tzitz is connected with light, and it is connected with “peering through the lattices,” with looking and seeing. The Alter Rebbe explains what the tzitz means in the service of the human soul. How are all these things connected in the service of the human soul? The Gemara in Berachos says that from the day the Beis Hamikdash was destroyed, an iron wall has stood between the Jewish people and their Father in Heaven. That means that since the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash, during the time of exile, there exists, may Hashem have mercy,

11:38 A partition of iron. This is a partition of iron that separates the Jewish people from their Father in Heaven. What is this partition of iron? It is the concealment, the thing that hides and does not allow a Jew to draw close to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. On this the Alter Rebbe asks: Elsewhere in the Gemara, it says that even a partition of iron does not separate the Jewish people from their Father in Heaven. Here it says that a wall of iron separates them, and there it says that a partition of iron does not separate the Jewish people from their Father in Heaven. The Alter Rebbe explains a remarkable point: From Above, nothing separates us. Even during exile, Hakadosh Boruch Hu is with every person. From the perspective of G-dliness, of the Creator, of the One Above, of our Father in Heaven—even a partition of iron does not separate us. Hakadosh Boruch Hu is with every person, together with every person, even during exile. This is also the basis of the verse, “And even then, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them or despise them so as to destroy them and break My covenant with them.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu is with every person in every state and situation. But the partition of iron is on our side, on the Jew’s side. From the perspective of the person involved, how does the partition of iron come about? The precise wording is: “Your sins have separated you from your G-d.” In other words, when there are sins, something undesirable, “your sins have separated”—that is what creates the partition separating you. For Jews, from their perspective, from the perspective of the person involved, there is a partition of iron “between you and your G-d,” between the person and Hakadosh Boruch Hu. And “your G-d” means your strength and your life; from Above, He is always with the Jewish people. But

13:30 from the perspective of the person involved, the partition comes into being. And how do we break that partition? Jews are living in exile, and each person knows within himself that he has something undesirable. How do we break through that partition? For this, the tzitz comes, along with the matters mentioned in the verse, [unclear]. Two interpretations are given for “tzitz,” and these are two things a Jew needs to know. When a Jew wants to break the partition of iron and break the kelipah—the kelipah that conceals and hides, the kelipah that is the partition of iron, created because “your sins” have “separated you from your G-d”—how does he break it? Regarding breaking the partition from the person’s side, the verse tells us two things. One is that tzitz means, as we said, radiance, light. The soul needs to be illuminated. When a Jew’s soul is illuminated, when the soul is lit up, that breaks the partition. The second interpretation is that there must be “peering through the cracks”: making a hole, making cracks in the partition of iron, so that one can “peer through the cracks” and see the G-dly light. The Alter Rebbe explains in this maamar, in this exposition, that at its root this relates to kelipos in the work of the human soul. For when we speak of a partition of iron, we mean, broadly speaking, “Your sins have separated you from your G-d.” But the main substance of the partition of iron is the kelipah of Amalek. As the Kabbalistic texts state regarding Amalek, barzel, “iron,” has the same numerical value as Amalek when the word itself is counted as one. In other words, the partition of iron is the kelipah of Amalek. Why? Because every undesirable thing creates a partition, but in the body, Amalek is the head. He is the head of [unclear].

15:45 Chassidim explain: Why is it specifically with Amalek that we find something we do not find with any other nation? Each of the nations also expresses a bad trait. As Chassidim explain, the seven nations correspond to the seven bad traits in the human soul. Nevertheless, we do not find the Torah demanding the eradication of the other nations with the same severity. With Amalek specifically, there is no rectification at all. “Amalek is the first of nations, but his end is utter destruction”—total destruction, complete eradication. According to halachah, eradicating Amalek means wiping out not only the people but also the animals. We do not find this with any other nation. The Torah intended the eradication of Amalek to leave neither man nor woman, nor even animals, “from ox to sheep, from camel to donkey,” as stated in the halachic works. That is how thorough the eradication of Amalek must be. What explains why Amalek is so dangerous? The verse calls him “the first of nations.” Amalek is not just another nation; he is the first of nations, the head of all the nations. This was also true quite literally, in Amalek’s history. When the Jewish people left Egypt—“Remember what Amalek did to you on the way, when you left Egypt”—when the Jewish people left Egypt, all the nations of the world were gripped, as we say in the Song at the Sea, by “dread and fear.”

17:19 All the nations of the world were gripped by dread and fear of the Jewish people. The song lists the details of what happened: “All the inhabitants of Canaan melted away”; “terror seized the inhabitants of Philistia.” Everything that happened to all these nations, near and far—they were all completely humbled before holiness, before the revelation of G-dliness, and before the greatness the Jewish people had at the time of the Exodus from Egypt. Who was the first, the “first of nations,” to come and fight the Jewish people? And not only that: he came to fight them when he had nothing to gain from it. We had not gone to fight him; Amalek did not need to fight us. Yet who went out to war? Amalek. That is brazenness. This is “Amalek is the first of nations”: he had the trait of brazenness. He knew he would be scalded. Rashi gives the analogy of a boiling bath that no one could enter. A scoundrel, a brazen man, jumped in, knowing he would be scalded, but wanting nonetheless to cool it for others. That is the kelipah of Amalek, the kelipah of brazenness. So this is the thing that—

18:35 we are saying here: There is a partition of iron that separates, and it is the kelipah of Amalek. Brazenness, the “first of nations”—that is the kelipah of Amalek, the kelipah of brazenness. And in our avodah, in the work of the human soul, this exists within a person. Everyone has different issues; everyone has his own thing to correct, and each person knows it within himself: bad traits, unhealthy desires, undesirable conduct. There are all sorts of particulars; everyone has his own issue, his own trait, the thing he needs to correct. But what is the central point, the force, that we mean by “Amalek is the first of nations”? It is the brazenness of the kelipah, the force of the kelipah. It is something beyond reason and understanding—or, as they say, beneath reason and understanding. This is what Chassidim call attachment: the attachment of the animal soul, which has become so excited and invested itself so deeply, binding itself so forcefully to material pursuits, that even when it understands and knows that this is wrong, knows all the issues, and reflects on and understands everything properly, nevertheless—as the expression regarding Amalek goes, as quoted...

19:58 The maamar explains it as “he knows his Master and deliberately rebels against Him.” Not only does he “know his Master”—he knows the truth and understands everything—yet he “deliberately rebels against Him,” out of brazenness. That is the force of this nation. We find this even in ourselves, in a more practical way, and it expresses itself in actual avodah, in a person’s life. We see it today: Often there are things about which a person tells himself, “I can’t.” A person may have problems, various issues, bad traits, and also unhealthy pleasures in thought, speech, and action—things he looks at, things he listens to that he should not. He knows these things are destructive; he knows what they do, that they are unhealthy physically and unhealthy spiritually. He knows and understands the whole matter, and yet he has this settled assumption, this forcefulness, with which he tells himself: I can’t. I can’t. I’m already caught up in it, I’m trapped in it, I’m trapped in it, I can’t. Today they call it “addiction,” “obsession.” He has been captured by it and swept along. “I can’t.” It is about this attachment, this forceful hold of this world, that we say it is brazenness, the brazenness of the kelipah. This is the “forehead” of the opposing side, the “this opposite that” whose numerical value is Amalek, the force of the kelipah of Amalek. That—

21:33 What is the advice the Torah gives? How do we break the kelipah of Amalek? The answer, they say, is the tzitz. What is the tzitz? When you look more deeply, it is a glimmer, a spark of the soul. What does that mean? When a person is in a state of brazenness, when the kelipah is strong, how can that strength be broken? Chassidus says—and the Rebbe adds a point in a maamar about the [unclear] tzitz—that a person must know and remember that he has a soul. Simply remembering that he is a Jew, that he has a soul, that he has the yechidah within his soul, that he has an essential bond with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. What is an essential bond with Hakadosh Boruch Hu? It is far stronger and loftier than the animal soul’s attachment to the kelipah and to this world. How do we understand this? The well-known statement of our Sages in the Gemara is cited: “The Jewish people are the boldest of the nations.” We are speaking about boldness: the Jewish people are the boldest of the nations. At first glance, the Gemara says this in a negative sense, but here it is understood in the opposite way, positively. “The Jewish people are the boldest of the nations” refers to the strength of the yechidah of the soul, to a Jew’s essential strength. There is also strength and brazenness in the animal soul’s attachment to undesirable things. But when a Jew awakens within himself the strength of his Jewishness, the strength of his soul, the boldness and firmness of his soul, it completely negates the brazenness and strength of the animal soul. And what is this? It is not a verse, but the Rebbe says it. Chassidus brings it several times, and it is written in Tanya, that a Jew

23:32 does not want to be, and cannot be, separated from Hakadosh Boruch Hu. In other words, a Jew’s bond with Hakadosh Boruch Hu is very strong. A Jew does not want to be separated from Him. And more than that: a Jew cannot be separated from Him. Why can he not be separated? Because he is a Jew. Being a Jew is his very essence, what he truly is. And one cannot be separated from one’s essence. This is the yechidah of the soul, the part of G-dliness within the soul. The animal soul does have a kind of attachment. Chassidus says that “it is called by five names”: the soul is called nefesh, ruach, neshamah, chayah, and yechidah, and each name indicates another faculty of the soul. The animal soul, too, has corresponding levels—except for one: yechidah. Yechidah exists only “to unite with You”: “Embraced and bound to You, the yechidah to unite with You.” Yechidah exists only in holiness, in G-dliness, in the G-dly part of the soul. The animal soul has nefesh, ruach, neshamah, and chayah, but it has no yechidah. In simple terms, this means that the animal soul, just like the G-dly soul, has experiences of pleasure, feelings and emotions, intellect and understanding, desires, and even powerful desires. That strength is the level of chayah. The force of desire is a form of attachment on the side of unholiness, just as there is a powerful desire on the side of holiness. Those are the first four names. Yechidah means singular, united. Yechidah means that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is the only thing that exists, unlike the

25:23 notion that there is nothing beyond “a veritable part of G-d above.” There is nothing but Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and nothing besides Him matters. That is the light of G-dliness. The animal soul comes from a different reality; it comes from something else. Even if a person often says, “I can’t do it. I can’t pull myself away from this craving. I can’t pull myself away from this food. I can’t break this foolish habit or give up this pleasure, even though I know it is unhealthy and distances me. I just can’t pull myself away”—people say that, but it is false. It is not true. Because it simply cannot be so: that is not your essence. The concerns of the animal soul are not who you truly are. They are something added, something that has attached itself to you. Therefore, the force with which the animal soul clings on, that brazenness of Amalek, is external. It is false, an artificial strength, not a genuine one. The strength of the G-dly soul, the strength of the yechidah, by contrast, is genuine, because it is the power of truth. For the essence of a Jew is a part of G-d above; that is the essence of being Jewish. And from that, one truly cannot

26:42 be separated. So when this becomes illuminated—and that is the tzitz, that glimmer—and the light of the soul shines inward, when this truth becomes clear to him: “I am a Jew, and because I am a Jew, I do not want to be, and cannot be, separated from Hakadosh Boruch Hu”—that strength helps me overcome everything that stands in my way, all the undesirable things that might surround me. This is the meaning of tzitz: a glimmer of light. Then comes the second stage of the work, “peering through the cracks.” With this strength, a Jew can then make windows and openings, open cracks and windows, and break through that iron partition. This is accomplished through actual work, by strengthening one’s care over the powers of sight and hearing, as we discussed earlier. In this way, he can bring about a revelation of G-dliness, so that the light of the soul shines within him and breaks that iron partition. This helps us understand the tzitz spoken of here. Hakadosh Boruch Hu tells Moshe Rabbeinu: You, Moshe Rabbeinu—Moshe Rabbeinu has the power to reveal the essence of Jewishness within Jews. And what is the tzitz? Moshe Rabbeinu must make the tzitz. And where is the tzitz placed? On Aharon’s forehead. Aharon’s forehead represents

28:07 the forehead, the strength of holiness, which has the power to break the strength of the opposing side. For Moshe and Aharon were among the seven shepherds. They are foremost among the seven shepherds, who cause faith to shine within Jews. Chassidus explains at length the roles of Moshe and Aharon; we cannot go into the details in a few words, but these are two interconnected matters. To bring the light of the soul to shine within a Jew, Aharon the Kohen has the role of “When you raise up the lamps.” As explained in Chassidus, he is the one who kindles souls. “Lamps” refers to souls: “The soul of man is the lamp of Hashem.” He kindles within them the great love, or the essential love, that a Jew has for Hakadosh Boruch Hu, because of which he does not want to be, and cannot be, separated from Him. This is accomplished through Moshe Rabbeinu, the head of the Jewish people, who instills this within Jews from above downward; and through Aharon the Kohen, who is the faithful shepherd, working with Jews from below upward so that they can do this work of breaking through an iron partition. Then the strength of kabbolas ol, the strength of the soul, shines within them and nullifies the kelipah of Amalek. This is also the Alter Rebbe’s interpretation of the verse: “Behold, he stands

29:31 behind our wall, peering through the cracks.” This follows from what we have been discussing. The Alter Rebbe explains it this way: “Behold, he stands”—a Jew must know that “he” refers to Hakadosh Boruch Hu: “This is my G-d, and I will glorify Him”; “Behold, this is our G-d.” “This” suggests pointing with a finger and saying, “This!” G-dliness is standing there. But in its plain meaning, the verse speaks of the revelation of Moshiach; it is also a verse about the Geulah. In other words, the Geulah is standing in plain sight: “He stands.” The question is why it is “behind.” Why do we not see it openly or sense it? The answer is “our wall.” We put up the wall. Through his conduct, and by strengthening the animal soul, a person erects that wall. As the saying goes, even an iron partition cannot separate—but there must be “peering through the cracks.” A person must break through it and make openings in the iron partition. This is what the Rebbe Rashab told his son, the Frierdiker Rebbe: You must use your forehead to make a hole in the wall. You must break through that iron partition and make a hole in the wall, and turn the hole into a door, so that the revelation of G-dliness can shine inward. And through this, it then becomes possible—and it is not a matter of the forehead, of the situation remaining at full strength, remaining intact with its exile, of the yechidah of the soul, the strength

31:00 of the Jew. And this is the work of Shabbos Parshas Zachor, the preparation for Purim. The Rebbe once spoke at length at a farbrengen on Shabbos Parshas Zachor and said that the passage is called “Zachor”—“Remember.” That is its name, Parshas Zachor. Although the Torah goes on to give the details in the verses, when you ask a Jew, “So, what is today’s passage called?” the answer is simply “Parshas Zachor,” with nothing added. It is not called Parshas Amalek; we say Parshas Zachor. And we see that this one word contains the whole issue of the kelipah of Amalek. We tell a Jew: “Remember.” You must remember. Remember what? Your very identity. Remember that you are a Jew. When a Jew remembers who he is—remembers his essential Jewishness, the fact that he is a Jew, and the strength of a Jew: that a Jew is one with Hakadosh Boruch Hu and neither wants nor is able to be separated from Him—when a Jew knows, remembers, and feels his very essence within himself, he can break through and shatter the kelipah of Amalek: its coldness, its brazenness, all these things, the force that obstructs the service of Hashem. And this is the preparation: breaking Amalek, and then all that follows from it, which is

32:18 the matter of Haman, the whole story of the Purim Megillah. This is what it means when we say, “Hashem will wage war against Amalek from generation to generation.” As the Targum says, “from generation to generation” means until the coming of Moshiach. In every generation, until Moshiach comes, there is a war against Amalek. Regarding the war against Amalek, Chassidus says that physically, we do not know who Amalek is today. But “remember,” and all these matters, still apply. So the kelipah of Amalek is present from generation to generation, at every level and in every realm of serving Hashem. A Jew stands firm with the strength of mesirus nefesh and the strength of kabbolas ol—something every Jew has, for “the Jewish people are the boldest of the nations”—and all the more so today, with the strength of the soul. He then brings this into actual practice, accepting the yoke of Heaven and performing mitzvos. As explained in that maamar, this too is enough to break through that barrier. Once the very essence of Jewishness has shone forth, there must be action in practice—specifically, the observance of practical mitzvos, and especially tzedakah. These make openings, holes, and cracks in the iron barrier. And this brings about “You shall erase the memory of Amalek.” And “When Hashem your G-d grants you rest,” as will happen in the future—when Moshiach comes, as it says, “Hashem will wage war against

33:37 Amalek from generation to generation”—the kelipah of Amalek will be nullified. Then “Hashem will be King over all the earth; on that day Hashem will be One and His name One.” And “For the Jews there was light and joy, gladness and honor”—so may it be for us.