Parshas Chukas (5785) "Al Kein Yomru HaMoshlim Bo'u Cheshbon" - Why We Came Into This World

00:00 The Rebbe relates at one of the farbrengens connected with 12 Tammuz: When the Frierdiker Rebbe was released from prison on Gimmel Tammuz, he traveled to Kostroma, the place to which he had been exiled. The chossid Michoel Dvorkin, together with another chossid named Pinye Althaus, was with the Frierdiker Rebbe in Kostroma. The exile was supposed to last three years. But in fact, a great miracle took place: On 12 Tammuz, eight days later—the Frierdiker Rebbe had arrived on 4 Tammuz—word came. It was his birthday, and he was told that he was free, that he could leave, and that he would receive his release papers the next day, on 13 Tammuz. Those became the great days of the festival of Geulah, 12 and 13 Tammuz. One of the stories the Rebbe told was this: When the Frierdiker Rebbe arrived in Kostroma, Michoel Dvorkin had already traveled there ahead of him, a few hours or a few days earlier. When he learned that the Frierdiker Rebbe was about to travel to Kostroma, Michoel Dvorkin set out first. He was one of the older chassidim, and he traveled to Kostroma to arrange and open a cheder, so that when the Frierdiker Rebbe arrived, he

01:40 would already find that, thank G-d, educational institutions had been opened there. There were also a few Jews there. He immediately opened a small cheder, repaired the mikveh there, which had not been in proper condition, and began putting other matters in order. That was how he prepared the place, so that when the Frierdiker Rebbe arrived in Kostroma, he would find a functioning mikveh and a cheder for children. It was also like “He sent Yehudah ahead of him”—sending Yehudah ahead to establish a yeshivah. That is what Michoel Dvorkin did. There is another story from there: The Rebbe relates that after the Frierdiker Rebbe arrived and a few days had passed, he gathered the chassidim who were there, including Pinye Althaus. He said that several days had already passed since they left prison, and they still had not written a letter about the chadarim, the mikvaos, and Tomchei Temimim—about the work being done for Judaism in Russia. He said, in very sharp words: “What do you need a hand for if it does not write about these matters and does not work to advance Judaism? What do you need the hand for?” He used even sharper words, which are better not repeated; it was

03:13 a harsh statement [unclear] that he made. In other words, the Frierdiker Rebbe was deeply distressed that he was not working to spread Judaism and the wellsprings of Chassidus when he was already able to write. The Rebbe relates this story at a farbrengen and says: What is so remarkable about this? The Frierdiker Rebbe was then in a state of mesirus nefesh. His entire being was mesirus nefesh. His very stay in Kostroma was mesirus nefesh. After all, he had worked with mesirus nefesh to spread Judaism and Torah in Russia, and that was why he had been arrested and imprisoned. That was why he was there, why he had been exiled to Kostroma. That was the whole reason. And not only that: While in Kostroma, he was occupied with many aspects of serving Hashem. He davened and learned. As is well known, the Rebbe relates what chassidim who were there recounted: During those days in Kostroma, the Frierdiker Rebbe davened for many hours every day. On Shabbos, he davened for almost the entire day. So much so that the whole town came to watch—not only Jews but non-Jews as well. Even the town’s priest, to make a distinction, heard that there was a Rebbe there who stood for an entire day

04:38 and davened. The Frierdiker Rebbe davened with fervor, and people were drawn to it, so everyone from the town and the surrounding area came. They stood and watched how he, the tzaddik, davened. Yet what distressed him? What left him so brokenhearted? As he said: What do you need your hand for if it does not write about building a mikveh, building a cheder, and matters of Judaism? What he wanted to express was the entire being of a Jew. He knows he has a hand, and he knows he has a body, 248 limbs and 365 sinews. He knows that every part of his body must embody “I was created only to serve my Maker.” The entire purpose of your hand is to serve your Maker. And if it does not serve your Maker in every detail, then, as he put it, what do you need your hand for? This is what the Frierdiker Rebbe wanted to express through the Geulah of 12 Tammuz: A Jew must know that his entire being must be devoted to “I was created only to serve my Maker.” Then he is truly free of all darkness, of all concealments, of everything that seeks to obscure G-dliness. In the weekly parsha, Parshas Chukas,

05:59 on the Shabbosim around 12–13 Tammuz, there is always the verse: “Therefore the rulers would say: Come to Cheshbon; let the city of Sichon be built and established.” This is one of the verses in the weekly parsha connected with the wars fought then between the Jewish people and Sichon, king of the Emorites, and afterward with Og, king of Bashan, and with all the miracles and wonders that took place before the Jewish people were about to enter the Land of Israel. What does this verse mean? As Rashi and the commentators explain, this is what enabled the Jewish people to conquer all those regions. It is well known that Hakadosh Boruch Hu said not to fight Edom, Moav, or Ammon: “Do not harass Moav” and “Do not besiege the children of Ammon”—they were not to fight them. As is known, they were part of Avraham Avinu’s extended family: Ammon and Moav were connected to its descendants, and Edom descended from Esav. Hakadosh Boruch Hu said not to wage war against them because this is connected with the time to come, when “Saviors will ascend Mount Zion to judge the mountain of Esav, and sovereignty will be Hashem’s.”

07:32 Then the lands of the Keni, Kenizi, and Kadmoni will be conquered. Until then, they were not to do so. Hakadosh Boruch Hu said not to enter Edom, because the conquest of Edom, the conquest of Esav, belongs to the time to come. The same is true of Ammon and Moav, which are connected with the Keni, Kenizi, and Kadmoni—the three nations that will be conquered only in the time to come. Yet here they conquered the entire territory of Cheshbon, those regions across the Jordan that the Jewish people fought for and conquered. Of this it says: “Come to Cheshbon; let the city of Sichon be built and established.” And the Gemara says: “Ammon and Moav were made permissible through Sichon.” Sichon, king of the Emorites, was not from Ammon or Moav; he was one of the Emorite kings, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu had said that the Jewish people should conquer the Emorite kings. The Canaanites, Chittites, and Emorites are among the seven nations. Because Sichon, king of the Emorites, and Og, king of Bashan, had conquered those cities, they were “made permissible through Sichon” and became places the Jewish people could fight for and conquer. That is how the Jewish people received the regions across the Jordan, where the tribes of Gad and Reuven and half the tribe of Menashe later settled, as we will learn in the coming parshiyos. And this is the meaning of “Therefore the rulers would say.”

08:54 “Come to Cheshbon; let the city of Sichon be built and established”—through Sichon, it could be “built and established.” The holy author of Kedushas Levi, from Berdichev, explains the inner meaning of this verse. He says that when the Jewish people wanted to conquer the land of Moav, Hakadosh Boruch Hu did not allow them to. When a Jew cannot conquer a place, that place is not where he is meant to perform the work of refinement. He explains the whole matter this way: The Jewish people travel through the wilderness, through the world, from place to place. “The Jewish people were exiled only so that converts would be added to them.” Chassidus explains that this refers to sparks of holiness. When a Jew comes to a place, makes a blessing, and eats and drinks there, he performs the work of refinement. Through this work he elevates the sparks of holiness, and that is how the world is made into a dwelling place for Hashem. But Hakadosh Boruch Hu did not allow them to enter that land. The Jewish people said: But Ammon and Moav contain all those sparks. Yet Hakadosh Boruch Hu told them not to go there; it could not be done. This meant that the refinement there would not take place. The Jewish people could not fulfill their role there, even though the entire purpose of the world’s creation is for them, for the Jewish people: that a Jew, through Torah and mitzvos, should elevate a place and turn it into a holy place. Of this he says: “Therefore the rulers would say.” The Jewish people are the “rulers,” who direct the world. The whole world was created

10:18 For them, for the Jewish people. “Come to Cheshbon”—how could they enter a place that belonged to the Ammonites? “Let the city of Sichon be built and established.” Because Sichon had fought Ammon and conquered their city, the Jewish people could enter that place and fulfill “let it be built and established” there. “Built and established”—these are all those sparks. They could elevate the place, make it a dwelling for Hashem, and turn it into a place of holiness. Accordingly, the entire sequence of events in the parsha expresses—as explained at length in the books of Chassidus, particularly in Chassidus—what the Jewish people conquered, as the weekly parsha describes. Not only the Land of Israel and the lands of the seven nations: the Jewish people also prepared for the conquest of the Kenites, Kenizzites, and Kadmonites, which will take place in the future. They also prepared the places where the Jewish people would be able to act: how the land east of the Jordan became part of the Land of Israel, so that they could act there in preparation for “when Hashem your G-d expands your borders,” as will happen in the future. The goal is to prepare the entire world for everything to become the Land of Israel, to make the entire world a place of holiness. On the verse “Therefore the rulers say, ‘Come to Cheshbon,’” there is a teaching of our Sages in the Gemara, Bava Basra, page 78. The Gemara says there that “There-

11:49 “fore the rulers say”—these are those who rule over their inclinations. In other words, “the rulers” are those who rule over their inclinations. The verse alludes to Jews who control their evil inclination. And it says: “Come to Cheshbon”—come, let us calculate the account of the world. How do they rule over their inclinations? By making calculations. As the Gemara says there: “The cost of a mitzvah against its reward, and the reward of a transgression against its cost.” They make these calculations, and the calculations help them rule over their inclinations. Come, let us calculate the account of the world. But [unclear], the Gemara discusses several points in the verses that follow and interprets them homiletically. There is a beautiful maamar of the Alter Rebbe in Torah Or that explains the verse according to Chassidus: What is the meaning of “Therefore the rulers say”—those who rule over their inclinations—“Come to Cheshbon,” come, let us calculate the account of the world? What does this mean? And the Alter Rebbe explains: Calculating the account of the world means contemplating the ultimate purpose of the world’s creation. As is well known, there are two questions in Chassidus that come up again and again in Likkutei Torah, particularly in the Alter Rebbe’s maamarim, and in maamarim of Chassidus generally. The same question returns time and time again. The question is: Why did Hakadosh Boruch Hu create the world? Why was there all this tzimtzum, this darkness and concealment, until such a lowly, coarse world was created—a world of kelipos, which is [unclear]?

13:33 And a screen that conceals G-dliness. Why was there such a great descent? In particular, Chassidus explains, as written in the writings of the Arizal, the first tzimtzum: the withdrawal in which Hakadosh Boruch Hu withdrew the great light and created such concealment, so that afterward this world could come into being—“this lowest world, beneath which there is none lower”—full of kelipos, containing evil, where “the wicked prevail.” That is why it is called an olam, a “world”: as explained in Chassidus, olam is related to he’elem, “concealment”—the fact that the world conceals G-dliness. This brings us to the second question, concerning the soul’s descent. Why did Hakadosh Boruch Hu take a Jew’s soul? And here the question is even more difficult, because the soul is “truly a part of G-d above.” A Jew’s soul is truly a part of G-dliness. “The soul You have given me is pure.” And Hakadosh Boruch Hu took this soul, truly a part of G-d above, as it is, and placed it inside a physical, material body, together with the animal soul. As the Rashbatz, the well-known chossid Reb Shmuel Betzalel, would say: Divine wisdom is inside a sack of flesh, bones, and boiling blood. He would emphasize the wonder of the soul’s descent below. The soul is truly a part of G-d above, Divine wisdom; the Alter Rebbe says in Tanya that this is the soul’s source. And here, Divine wisdom itself, as it is, is placed inside a sack of flesh and bones with boiling blood—and that is the

15:14 material, physical body. The question is: Why all this? This is the greatest concealment, and this is the meaning of “the account of the world.” The calculation is to stop and think, to contemplate this question. Why does Chassidus return to this question again and again? Because, as chassidim would say, it is not merely a question that has an answer, after which a person can go to sleep peacefully. It is a question that is itself what the Gemara is talking about, what the Gemara means by “let us calculate the account of the world”: a Jew contemplates it every day and every night. A Jew must always contemplate this question and ask himself: What is the purpose, what is the intent behind our coming into the world? Why did Hakadosh Boruch Hu give me a hand? Why did He give me a foot? Why did He give me a head? Why did He give me a physical body with all 248 limbs and 365 sinews, and place me in this world, in this reality, in an olam—a word related to he’elem, concealment? Within this concealment is the pure soul. Within this physical body is the Divine spark. What does it mean that olam is related to he’elem, concealment? It is like a king, as the Alter Rebbe says in the maamarim. Suppose there is a great and wonderful king here. The great king is in a room, and the room conceals

16:39 the king. You cannot see him. You see a room, you see buildings, you see stones. And you know that behind all these things is the king, hidden in that place. Similarly, Hakadosh Boruch Hu is concealed: both in a Jew’s soul, where the part of G-d above is found within this physical body, which is [unclear], and in the Divine spark, the Divine life-force, found in every created thing in the world. And what is the intent behind all this? Why did Hakadosh Boruch Hu allow the soul to be brought down from a lofty height into a deep pit? To bring the soul down and seat it in a physical body, in such a place, amid such concealment. To create such a world, to bring about such a tzimtzum in the Infinite Light, and to create this physical world. What is the account of the world? What is the true intent? The whole intent is a descent for the sake of an ascent. Through this concealment, when a Jew breaks through it by serving Hashem through Torah and mitzvos, particularly through the avodah of iskafya—subduing and overcoming the evil inclination; when a Jew engages in serving Hashem to break the kelipos and the evil inclination that drew the soul down below. And the Alter Rebbe explains that whenever a person overcomes them in this world, amid the concealment, and “closes his eyes from seeing evil and stops his ears from hearing evil”—yes, he guards his eyes, guards his...

18:13 eyes, and he is careful in speech, in thought, and in every act of iskafya, in every movement. In this way, he breaks through the concealment and draws down the radiance of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, Sovev Kol Almin. All the concealment of the account of the world applies only to the radiance of Memalei Kol Almin—a limited radiance that has been enclothed through many tzimtzumim, down to the tzimtzum of this physical world. Similarly, the soul passes through—as we say of it, “You created it, You formed it, You breathed it into me”—all the many tzimtzumim, until it is enclothed in a physical body. When a Jew practices iskafya, when a young man conquers his evil inclination, he breaks through the power of concealment within the soul. In doing so, he breaks the concealment throughout the entire chain of spiritual worlds, all the way up to the first tzimtzum. He brings about a transformation in that entire chain, drawing down the radiance of Sovev Kol Almin. As we say in the wording of the Gemara that the Alter Rebbe cites in the maamar: “Whoever answers ‘Amen, yehei shmei rabba’ with all his strength and full intent has a seventy-year decree torn up for him.” The Alter Rebbe explains that with every act of iskafya he performs, “Yehei shmei rabba mevorach” truly takes place. “Mevorach” is related to blessing and drawing down: he draws down and brings here below “shmei rabba,” His great Name, the radiance of Sovev Kol Almin. He draws down the Infinite Light, which is above the entire chain of spiritual worlds and all measures and limits, when he says “Yehei—

19:46 “His great Name.” With every act of iskafya, with every action, word, and thought in which a person subdues his yetzer hara, he draws down from “His great Name,” from the infinite light of Ein Sof, which is beyond the entire order of spiritual worlds. This is measure for measure: by going beyond himself, acting against his nature, and breaking that nature through iskafya, he breaks through all measures and limits Above, all constraints and limitations, and all concealments, and “His great Name” is drawn down. As a result, he overturns the decree of seventy years. Those seventy years are “the days of our years are seventy years”—the years the soul spends in the body, waging the struggle to refine its character traits, with the body and the animal soul. Through this, we draw down that power, overturn the decree of seventy years, and make the world a place of light. We make the world a dwelling place for Hashem. This is the meaning of the verse, “Therefore those who rule say.” The Frierdiker Rebbe explains in the maamar that the word “hamoshlim” has three meanings. First, “those who rule over their inclination”: as we said, by making an accounting of the world, one comes to rule over one’s inclination. This is iskafya. As we said, one breaks the yetzer hara and rules over it through iskafya, as will be explained further. “Hamoshlim” is also related to “mashal hakadmoni,” “the parable of the Ancient One.” “As the parable of the Ancient One says” is a verse in Shmuel. And what does “the parable of the Ancient One” mean here? As Rashi says, “the parable of the Ancient One”—

21:23 Rashi brings this in connection with the verse, “From the wicked comes forth wickedness.” Rashi means that “the parable of the Ancient One” is the Torah, the parable of the Ancient One of the world. So “Therefore the moshlim say,” in the sense of “the parable of the Ancient One,” refers to studying Torah. “Hamoshlim” is also understood as “those who bring to completion”: bringing the higher purpose of the soul’s descent into this world to full realization here below. In other words, the word “hamoshlim” contains three ideas: ruling over one’s inclination—iskafya, as will be explained further; “the parable of the Ancient One”—studying Torah, which gives us the strength to change the world and make it a place of light; and “bringing to completion”—fully realizing the higher purpose and making the world a dwelling place for Hashem. This is what this week’s parsha teaches us: a Jew must always know and remember to make an accounting of the world, and remember that he came into the world to illuminate it and change it, to bring “a mitzvah is a lamp, and Torah is light.” Through the lamp itself [unclear]. This is how a Jew illuminates the world and fulfills the higher purpose of “making a dwelling place for Hashem in the lower realms.” And through this, “the city of Sichon will be built and established.” I see the explanation of “Sichon”: it refers to the service of davening. “Sichon” is related to the word for speech. It refers to davening and Torah study—the speech of davening and the speech of Torah. “The city of Sichon will be built and established,” meaning—

22:58 Through studying Torah and the service of davening, and through the work of iskafya—ruling over one’s inclination—“it will be built and established” is fulfilled: we change the world, make it a place of light, and cause it to become the opposite of Moav, Ammon, and Edom. We conquer all these aspects associated with the nations of the world and make [unclear], and enter Eretz Yisroel, into the Geulah. From the Geulah of 12 Tammuz, we must reach the complete Geulah. Yes, we see the whole world becoming a place of Torah and Yiddishkeit. It began thanks to the Frierdiker Rebbe’s liberation at that time. Afterward, he left Russia and eventually reached America, where he planted the seeds and worked to make every place in the world a place where “your wellsprings spread outward.” And may [unclear] all the matters of the month of Tammuz, so that it will be a month of Geulah—the true and complete Geulah through Moshiach Tzidkeinu.