Mishpatim | Raya Mehemna - Bringing Daas Into Emunah

00:00 Among chassidim, Walter was well known. Walter lived in the time of the Alter Rebbe. He was a Jew who, in his younger years, was a great Torah scholar. He had also been with the Maggid of Mezritch and was the Alter Rebbe’s study partner; they learned together. Both of them were, of course, with the Maggid of Mezritch in Mezritch. Chassidim tell quite a few stories about him. But over the years, rachmana litzlan, he fell from his level. He went through a number of things and sank into drunkenness and the like. They say that years later, a group of the Alter Rebbe’s chassidim were once on the road. They were traveling somewhere, perhaps to the Alter Rebbe or back from him, and stopped at an inn. As they sat there in the inn, they began a farbrengen among themselves. Then they noticed someone asleep beside the stove, under some sort of pile. One of them looked at him, and it seemed to them that this was Walter, whom they had known in the past. They saw him lying there asleep beside the stove and realized it was Walter, who in his younger years had been with the Alter Rebbe, had been with

01:36 the Maggid of Mezritch. He had been together with the Alter Rebbe at the Maggid of Mezritch’s. They thought: Surely they would find writings among his things—maamarim, Torah teachings, and matters he had certainly heard from the Maggid of Mezritch and written down. They began searching through his bundle. A bundle was lying near where he slept, and they searched it to see if they could find some writing, something from the Maggid of Mezritch’s teachings. Suddenly the man woke up, saw them rummaging through his bundle, and began shouting at them. He said, “Ah, chassidim nowadays! When we were students, when we were with the Maggid of Mezritch, we didn’t need to write things down. We didn’t need Torah in writing, pages of Torah. Because the Rebbe, Chassidus, and the chossid were one thing. Today the Rebbe is one thing, Chassidus is a second thing, and the chassidim are a third thing—and then they go looking for pages, pages of Chassidus.” Reb Shalom Chaim relates in this connection—apparently another version of the story, or a further part of it—that Walter was asked: How could it be that, over time, rachmana litzlan, after all he had been through, his conduct was not at all what befits a chossid, yet he still remembered and knew the teachings of Chassidus

03:17 that he had learned? They asked him how he still remembered so well the things he had learned. He answered with an analogy: Sometimes a person goes to sleep and falls into a deep sleep, and when he gets up in the morning, he cannot remember where he put his clothes. He cannot remember where his belongings are, where his hat is or where his coat is. He does not remember where he left his clothes and does not know where they are. But he does not have to look for his hands or his head, because they are part of him. Walter said it was the same with him: Although he had forgotten many things, and much had seemingly been erased from his memory, the teachings of Chassidus he had learned were part of who he was; those were things he did not forget. Reb Shalom Chaim would repeat this saying in Walter’s name: The point is that when a Jew learns Chassidus, it becomes part of him, one with his very being. Then the Rebbe, Chassidus, and the chossid are one thing, and something like that does not happen. Today’s parsha, Parshas Mishpatim, opens: “And these are the laws that you shall set before them.” And here the Torah begins with its first mitzvah: “If

04:46 you acquire a Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve, and in the seventh he shall go free without payment.” That is the beginning of Parshas Mishpatim. Here the Alter Rebbe asks a question right at the start of the parsha. The Torah says, “And these are the laws that you shall set before them.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu tells Moshe Rabbeinu that he must lay before the Jewish people the laws we are about to learn in today’s parsha. Then it says, “If you acquire.” Why, the Alter Rebbe asks, does it not say “If they acquire,” in the plural? After all, it says “before them”—to them, in the plural, to the Jewish people in the plural. So, continuing the statement about the laws, it should have said “If they acquire,” corresponding to “before them”: if they acquire a Hebrew servant. What does “If you acquire” mean? This is a twofold grammatical question: First, why does it say “If you acquire”? It should have said “If they acquire.” And second, why is it phrased in the second person? It should have been in the third person. Since “before them” is in the third person—to them—it should have said “If they acquire”: if they acquire a Hebrew servant, the laws are such and such. Here the words are in the singular and in the second person. That is what the Alter Rebbe asks in a teaching on today’s parsha. The Alter Rebbe dwells on this and brings out one of the matters fundamental to Chassidus, to understanding what Chassidus is and what a Rebbe’s role is.

06:27 What the Alter Rebbe brings out is, in fact, what Hakadosh Boruch Hu is saying to Moshe Rabbeinu. Hakadosh Boruch Hu addresses this entire passage to Moshe Rabbeinu: you, Moshe Rabbeinu. And in the same way, clearly, this applies in every generation to the role of Moshe Rabbeinu, to the role of the Rebbe, the tzaddik. What is your task? “And these are the laws that you shall set before them.” You, Moshe Rabbeinu, must place the laws before the Jews. “Laws” means the laws of the Torah; all the matters of Torah, all the laws of Torah, must be “before them”—within them, in their innermost being. Your task, your role, Moshe Rabbeinu, is to bring the Jews to a point where the Torah and mitzvos, the matters of serving Hashem that they have just received at the Giving of the Torah, the Ten Commandments, penetrate them in a way of “before them”: that they illuminate them inwardly, become their own, and become something internal. And concerning this the Torah says: How do you do it? Hakadosh Boruch Hu says to Moshe Rabbeinu: Your task is to “set [the laws] before them,” within them. The Torah and mitzvos should penetrate them inwardly, so that they become one with G-dliness. Yisroel, the Torah, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu are all one; through the Torah, a Jew should be one with Hakadosh Boruch Hu in his innermost being. How is this done? “If you acquire.” You, Moshe Rabbeinu, must acquire; you must make

08:10 an acquisition involving a Hebrew servant. You take each Jew. That is what the Torah says in its plain meaning about a servant and all the laws governing servants. And on the inner level, the Torah says, the meaning of “If you acquire a Hebrew servant” is: you, Moshe Rabbeinu. Yes, that is why it is phrased in the singular and in the second person. You, Moshe Rabbeinu, must make this acquisition of a Hebrew servant and reveal in every Jew that he is a servant of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, a Hebrew servant, as we will see shortly in the details. This will in turn give him the strength for “Six years he shall serve, and in the seventh he shall go free without payment”: the work of six years, which is the work of the six thousand years, the work of refining the world, the work every Jew does in this world—and it is all connected to the Torah. This continues until the seventh millennium, when Moshiach comes: “He shall go free without payment.” And this is the idea of “without payment” that we will see in the future, when we will see service of Hashem in the manner of “he shall go free without payment,” as explained in Chassidus. We will look at the details shortly. So these verses give us guidance in serving Hashem, and guidance in serving Hashem with regard to our connection to Moshe Rabbeinu and what Moshe Rabbeinu accomplishes within every Jew: the matter of inwardness, so that the Torah and the service of Hashem become one with his innermost being. To understand this,

09:40 we need to understand Moshe Rabbeinu’s role and what Moshe Rabbeinu accomplishes within Jews. And when we understand the details of the verses that the Rebbe brings, it also answers, according to Chassidus, the well-known question that is always asked: How can it be that the Torah begins with laws concerning something that is not found in our times? Precisely when the Torah reaches Parshas Mishpatim and begins going into details—many details, central and important matters of daily life in Torah and mitzvos—it opens with an extended discussion of a Hebrew servant sold by the beis din, something that hardly ever happens, a ruling and a law not encountered in our times. How can the Torah open with that? This is a well-known question that all the commentators ask. Of course, there are explanations of it on the levels of pshat, remez, drush, and sod. And this is the explanation through which Chassidus reveals great depth and richness: how behind these verses lies a matter relevant to every person’s inner service, to each individual. The Alter Rebbe explains as follows: It is well known that Moshe Rabbeinu is called “Raaya Mehemna.” That is what he is called in the Zohar, “Raaya Mehemna.” The meaning of “Raaya Mehemna” is familiar; there is its plain meaning: “Raaya Mehemna” means a faithful shepherd. As is told

11:02 In the Midrash about Moshe Rabbeinu and King David, Hakadosh Boruch Hu tested whether they were faithful shepherds to their flocks. Because Moshe tended his flock faithfully, Hashem told him he was worthy of being the shepherd of the Jewish people. But on a deeper level, Chassidus explains: What is a “ra’aya mehemna,” a faithful shepherd? A shepherd provides sustenance. His purpose is to feed the sheep, the young goats, the flock. He brings them to the best, most pleasant pasture, as the Midrash describes Moshe Rabbeinu and King David devoting themselves to feeding and tending their flocks and giving them the very best. “Ra’aya mehemna” means one who nourishes faith. He nurtures each person’s faith. What does it mean to nurture faith? Seemingly, every Jew has faith. Jews are called “believers, the children of believers.” It is part of a Jew’s very essence. So why does faith need nurturing? Faith is present in everyone’s very essence, inherited from Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov, our holy forefathers—“the forefathers are themselves the chariot.” This is what the Alter Rebbe reveals in Tanya: Everyone has simple faith in Hashem. What

12:29 What can Moshe Rabbeinu add to that? The explanation is that faith must become daas—an inner, personal awareness. Faith is something abstract. It is an awareness of a profound truth rooted in the soul of every Jew. But by its nature, faith can remain in a higher realm. What does “a higher realm” mean? I’m a Jew. I believe in Hashem. I have simple faith in the Thirteen Principles of Faith: “I believe with perfect faith,” all thirteen declarations of “I believe.” In the siddurim of a number of Jewish communities, they are even recited every day. But that faith is only in the soul. Faith that remains a thought does not affect daily life. Think about it: How can a person believe in Hashem yet do the exact opposite in practice, in daily life? The well-known example the Rebbe brings—I once saw it—is the expression of our Sages: “A thief at the mouth of a tunnel calls upon the Merciful One.” He is a thief, about to steal. A thief acts in secret; he takes care to avoid the homeowner. He goes to steal at night, and he prays to Hashem—“calls upon the Merciful One”—to help him succeed in the theft. It’s astonishing: You believe in Hashem and pray to Hashem. How is that possible? You believe in Hashem, you believe in Hashem—so how can you do this? You know Hashem has forbidden it, that Hashem does not want it and does not permit it. The answer is that his faith has not yet penetrated him, because it remains makif, as Chassidus puts it—something that surrounds him rather than entering within. Faith remains up in that higher realm, in the realm of the believer’s faith. But in life,

14:20 in daily life, in what he feels within his soul, he still has desires and wants—all kinds of earthly desires. How is that possible? In actual practice, his faith comes into conflict with his earthly desires, even though his faith is complete. That is where daas comes in. He has faith, he has faith, but that faith, which stands apart from his feelings, must be brought [unclear] inward. This is Moshe Rabbeinu’s role, [unclear]: Moshe Rabbeinu gives the Torah and also instills faith in Jews through daas, through avodah, understanding, study and effort; he teaches the Jewish people as well. This is what Tanya means, and what the Rebbe brings in the maamarim on Mishpatim, [unclear]: Moshe Rabbeinu’s role is daas elyon. Moshe Rabbeinu’s soul, the level of Moshe Rabbeinu, is associated with daas. In the holy books, daas elyon—this is the level, the very essence, the nature [unclear]. The truth is a bond with G-dliness, deep within the soul. His role, therefore, is to reveal this in Jews, to awaken them and show them that faith must descend into daas and become something felt inwardly; faith must come alive within them. What is daas? Chassidus explains—and this is what the Rebbe, in Tanya, explains—that it does not mean what people ordinarily take it to mean. People understand daas as comprehension or knowledge: A Jew knows something; he has information. But that is not the true meaning of daas. Even according to the Torah, that is not what daas means. As the Alter Rebbe explains in Likkutei Amarim, chapter 3, daas is related to the words “And Adam knew Eve.”

16:20 That is the wording the Torah uses. When Adam joined with Eve, the Torah does not say “married”; it says “knew.” Everyone understands that “knew” does not mean an external kind of knowledge. There is a kind of knowing between people where I recognize someone, I know who he is—I saw him once. That is not the meaning of “And Adam knew Eve.” “Knew,” as the Alter Rebbe explains in Tanya, means binding and connecting. That is the true nature of daas: After chochmah and binah comes daas. As Chassidus explains, chochmah is the initial point of an idea; binah is its expansion and development—its length, depth and breadth. Only after a person has thought through an idea intellectually, with all its details, does the power of daas come in: the power to bind and connect. What a person understands and studies becomes truly united with his inner self, until he and the idea are one. What he understands no longer remains merely an intellectual understanding; he himself becomes part of it. It becomes part of his very essence, unites with him inwardly and becomes one with him. This is the power of daas, as explained at length in Chassidus and in Tanya. And we receive this power from Moshe Rabbeinu. That is why he cites the

17:42 verse, [unclear], “I will sow the House of Israel with the seed of man and the seed of beast.” The Rebbe says that He sowed them. He planted within the souls; He sowed the souls of the Jewish people. There are two kinds of souls: the seed of man and the seed of beast. The Alter Rebbe explains that these are two levels. The seed of man refers to souls of Atzilus, souls in which daas shines—the quality of man. Man’s distinctive quality is daas, this power of binding and connecting, and all that it entails. That power is what makes one a man. These are the lofty souls in whose inner lives G-dliness shines. But most souls are the seed of beast. What does “the seed of beast” mean? Of course, they are not literally animals, because every person has at least some daas. Every person has within him emotional attributes, chochmah, binah and daas; everyone has these powers of the soul. But he is called the seed of beast because animal concerns hold importance for him. By nature, he is focused on himself as an independent being, and his animal soul is strong and closely bound up with him. The Alter Rebbe says in Tanya: Who is the person? In an ordinary person, this animal soul is his sense of self. So, since in truth, at the center of such a person’s life, the

19:04 main thing is “me”: what I want, what I want, what feels good to me. Even his understanding is therefore subject to what feels good to him. That is why he lacks true oneness with G-dliness. This is what Moshe Rabbeinu accomplishes through “before them”—meaning, within them: He elevates the seed of beast; he elevates the Jew. The Jew emerges from his animal nature, his coarseness and his preoccupation with the physical, and becomes a person with a genuine bond and connection to G-dliness. He develops a taste for G-dliness, a love for Hakadosh Boruch Hu, love of Hashem and awe of Hashem. All of this is what it means to be a ra’aya mehemna: Moshe Rabbeinu brings Jews to the point where faith enters their daas, their inner being. But the question that arises is: How can one reach that point? We are talking about the seed of beast, about the lower souls to begin with. We are talking about souls called the seed of beast. How can a beast become a man? A man is a man, and a beast is a beast. How do you take a beast and make it into a man? How can you take the seed of beast—souls that are inherently lower, souls bound up with the physical, souls dominated by selfhood—and have it suddenly become, through daas [unclear], how will it attain understanding

20:25 Of greatness? How do we elevate him? How does Moshe Rabbeinu do it? This is the continuation of the verses in the weekly parsha. Hakadosh Boruch Hu says here to Moshe Rabbeinu: “And these are the laws that you shall set before them.” Moshe Rabbeinu’s task is to bring the laws “before them”—into their innermost selves—so that there will not be three separate things: Hakadosh Boruch Hu as one thing, the Torah as a second, and the Jew as a third. No. “Into their innermost selves” means that the Jew, the Torah, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu—G-dliness—are one and the same. But how do we bring that about? [unclear] After all, he is “the seed of an animal.” This is where “When you acquire a Hebrew servant” comes in. You, Moshe Rabbeinu, must bring about this acquisition. What is an acquisition? It means taking something and transferring it from one person’s possession to another’s. An acquisition is not something new. The thing is in the seller’s possession, and you transfer it from the seller’s possession to the buyer’s. What does “a Hebrew servant” mean? It means that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is telling Moshe Rabbeinu: You do not need to create anything new; you only need to reveal the essential, inner strengths that Jews already possess, bringing them out of concealment into the open. Every Jew is, in essence, a Hebrew servant. And here we come to the G-dly meaning of the word “Hebrew.” What does “Hebrew” mean in “Hebrew servant”? What is a Hebrew? “I am a Hebrew”—we find this with the prophet Yonah, when they asked him, “Where do you come from?” Yonah was on a ship. He wanted to flee,

21:59 and the ship’s captain found him and asked him, “Where do you come from? What is your occupation?” What did the prophet Yonah say? “I am a Hebrew, and I fear Hashem, the G-d of Heaven.” “I am a Hebrew”—what does “Hebrew” mean? The Rebbe explains that it means “from beyond the river.” That is why Jews are called Hebrews, because “your ancestors lived beyond the river.” There is a verse in Yehoshua, chapter 24, which recounts how Yehoshua summoned the Jews before his passing, spoke many words of admonition to them, and began: “Your ancestors lived beyond the river from ancient times—Terach, the father of Avraham and the father of Nachor.” On the simple level, this would seem to be something negative, G-d forbid: “beyond the river” refers to Terach, Avraham’s father, and “they worshipped other gods,” as we say in the Pesach Haggadah: “At first, our ancestors were idol worshippers.” This refers to Terach, who worshipped idols. But the inner, Chassidic meaning is precisely the opposite: it alludes to the essence of the soul, to the soul’s source, from which the souls of all Jews are drawn into this world. After all, the river is the one in “A river flows out of Eden to water the garden.” When we speak of a “river” in the realm of holiness, we are speaking of Gan Eden, as the verse in Bereishis says: “A river flows out of Eden to water the garden.” What is the river itself? The river of Gan Eden. “Beyond the river” means beyond that river, higher even than Gan Eden. The source of every Jew’s soul is beyond the river. Souls are drawn from levels higher than Gan Eden.

23:36 Souls are drawn even from the highest level of G-dliness. “Beyond the river”—that is the soul’s source. But what happened? The soul descended here below, became clothed in a body and an animal soul, and this brought about a descent. Yet in its very essence and foundation, it comes from “beyond the river.” And so the Torah says, “When you acquire a Hebrew servant.” Moshe Rabbeinu does not need to create something new, to introduce something that was not there; he only needs to bring what is concealed into the open, to bring out and reveal in every Jew that he is a servant of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, a servant of the King of kings, Hakadosh Boruch Hu. How is he a servant of Hakadosh Boruch Hu? Because he is a Hebrew, because he comes from “beyond the river.” He has the loftiest and deepest strengths, arising from the soul’s source at the highest level, “beyond the river.” That is why he can serve Hakadosh Boruch Hu and reach the deepest levels of oneness with Him and self-nullification before Him. That is from the perspective of the soul. And the Rebbe, in the maamar “Ve’eileh Hamishpatim” of 5711—one of the first maamarim the Rebbe delivered after assuming the leadership, in Adar I, on Shabbos Parshas Mishpatim—spoke in that maamar

25:00 of something even deeper: that is from the perspective of the soul. Moreover, the Rebbe said that this is true even from the perspective of the body. At first glance, a Jew’s body is a physical, material body. The Rebbe explains that even a Jew’s body is drawn from the highest level. Chassidus explains that the source of the body and the animal soul is in the world of Tohu, which is even higher than the world of Tikkun. In any case, both from the perspective of his body and from that of his soul, a Jew’s source is at the highest level. And therefore, the Rebbe says, Moshe Rabbeinu, the faithful shepherd, must reveal the loftiest and deepest qualities present in every Jew. Through this, it becomes possible to bring about “six years he shall serve”: all the service of Hashem that a Jew performs during the time of exile, throughout the six thousand years in which Jews toil in serving Hashem in exile, each with his body and animal soul, refining and purifying them. For this is the purpose of the soul’s descent below: to transform oneself, one’s body, and one’s animal soul into G-dliness; to make a dwelling for Him in the lower realms, so that the entire world becomes a dwelling for Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The strength for this service comes from “And these are the laws”—from Moshe Rabbeinu, the faithful shepherd, teaching the Jews, giving them strength, and explaining and revealing the strengths they possess, so that every Jew’s faith enters his innermost self,

26:23 enabling him to have true daas, a true connection to G-dliness. It becomes something alive, something of his own, something internal. And through this, all the work is a preparation for “and in the seventh he shall go free, without payment,” when we reach the future era and the work of refinement is complete. This does not mean, G-d forbid, that “without payment” means we will no longer need to observe Torah and mitzvos. Here the Rebbe explains that the Sages’ statement, “Mitzvos will be nullified in the future era,” must not be understood literally. How could that be? After all, regarding the future era we say in prayer, “And there we will perform before You the mitzvos of Your will.” The true fulfillment of mitzvos will be specifically in the future era. But it will not be in a state of battle, or as labor. Now it is a battle: the work of refinement, a struggle between the good inclination and the evil inclination. In the future era, there will be victory after the battle. The service will be performed in a state of rest. This is the meaning of “he shall go free, without payment”: there will be service of Hashem, but it will be a service of “freely, without payment.” The Jew will serve Hakadosh Boruch Hu because he wants to serve Him, because it is his nature, his pleasure, his joy. Freely, without payment. In this way of serving, a Jew will be one with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. And all of this is because a Jew is, in essence, a Hebrew servant, possessing [unclear]

27:46 through all these things. But who reveals this within us? Moshe Rabbeinu reveals it. And that is why, through learning—why it is so important, when Parshas Mishpatim comes around, to grasp the depth of this matter, and why we must study the inner dimension of the Torah. And we must [unclear] with Moshe Rabbeinu and with the extension of Moshe in every generation, who work upon a person, bringing a Jew’s faith into daas and into his innermost self. Through connecting with Moshe Rabbeinu, with the extension of Moshe in every generation, and studying what he teaches us, and through uniting with him and becoming one with him, we reveal [unclear]. This is the true preparation for the revelation of the future era, when we will see the Shechinah. May we merit the complete Geulah through Moshiach Tzidkeinu, immediately, right now.