Shavuos • The Three Foundational Teachings of the Baal Shem Tov for Life | Rabbi Asher Perkesh

00:00 Shavuos, the time of the Giving of Our Torah. The question is: What exactly happened at the Giving of Our Torah? What happened on Shavuos? It is the most historic day of the year, the greatest day of the year: we received the Torah. But what exactly happened on that day? There was Torah before then, after all. The Patriarchs studied Torah; our ancestors in Egypt studied Torah. The Sages say, “A yeshivah never ceased among our ancestors.” There were mitzvos before then, too. True, we received more mitzvos, but does that mean the whole difference is a matter of quantity? Before, there were a few mitzvos; now we have many. There were tzaddikim before the Giving of the Torah: Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov, and other great figures who lived before the Giving of the Torah and were great tzaddikim. “The Patriarchs themselves are the chariot,” as the Midrash says: the Patriarchs were a chariot for the Divine Presence. They were great tzaddikim; there was Torah, and there were mitzvos. So what exactly happened at that great, historic moment of the Giving of the Torah? We received Torah and mitzvos—but what exactly happened then? Today we will study what was new about the Giving of the Torah, according to Chassidus. The Baal Shem Tov opened our eyes and enabled us to understand that something much greater, much broader, and much deeper actually happened at the Giving of the Torah. It opens up a whole world for us: a new perspective, new lenses through which to look at life and the world. And that brings us to a new depth in our understanding of Shavuos and the Giving of the Torah. The Baal Shem Tov, Rabbi Yisroel Baal Shem Tov—whose yahrzeit, the day of his passing, is on Shavuos, by Divine Providence, and of course that is no coincidence. The Baal Shem Tov himself taught us that everything happens by Divine Providence. How much more so does the Baal Shem Tov’s own passing on this day teach us and give us a deeper understanding of

02:35 what exactly happened at the Giving of the Torah. The Baal Shem Tov says that the Giving of the Torah gave a Jew new lenses, a new perspective, an entirely different way of seeing. It changed how we look at the world: we can look through the world and see how every detail, every point, everything we see and hear, and everything in the world—not only things that are directly connected to Torah and mitzvos—has meaning. There is nothing in the world that we see as just something that happens to be there. Every detail in the world opens a path for us in serving Hashem. It teaches us how a Jew looks at the world and draws from it guidance and direction in loving Hashem, fearing Hashem, and serving Hashem. To understand the depth of this idea, we will begin with a story. Then we will discuss three fundamental points in the Baal Shem Tov’s teachings, three foundations of Judaism, each flowing from the one before it. Understanding them will open our eyes to a new perspective on life, and consequently a new perspective on the great day of the Giving of Our Torah, according to the Baal Shem Tov’s teachings. Chassidim tell a story about a time when the Baal Shem Tov’s students were sitting and learning in the beis midrash in Mezhibuzh. Outside, there was a storm and heavy rain. A non-Jew was traveling along the road with his horse-drawn wagon. The road was full of mud and muck, and the poor man’s horse got stuck in the mud. The horse tried to pull out one leg, then another; he tried to get the wheel out, but everything became more and more tangled, until the horse and wagon were stuck in the mud and he could not get them out. He could not manage on his own. At a certain point, the man gave up trying by himself and looked for help. He saw a place with a light on and a window. He went up to the window, opened it, stuck his head inside, and saw a group of people sitting and learning. He said

05:23 to them, “Friends, my horse is stuck in the mud. I need help. Please come and help me get it out.” The students, who were in the middle of studying deep Torah subjects, answered him, “We don’t know how. We can’t. We don’t have the strength.” The man replied in Ukrainian, the language he spoke, “You can; you just don’t want to.” He went out and returned to his wagon, and what happened after that is beside the point. What happened here, for us, does matter. The Baal Shem Tov, who was there at the time, heard what the man had said. He turned to his students and said, “Friends, you should know that this man did not come here for nothing. He stuck his head into this room and delivered a message to us. We heard that message because we were meant to hear it. From everything a Jew sees and hears, he must draw a lesson in serving Hashem. This man is telling us: ‘You can, but you don’t want to.’ A Jew has the ability to serve Hashem. Sometimes I say, ‘I’m tired. I don’t have the strength. I can’t. It’s too hard for me’—whether it’s learning, serving Hashem, davening, or refining my character. This man comes and gives us a message. He came into this world so that this message would reach us,” says the Baal Shem Tov, “so that we would hear that a Jew can do it. The problem is the will. We need to work on our willpower, and then we will find the way.” The Baal Shem Tov revealed a tremendous principle about how to look at the world. We will start with the first principle, move from there to the second, and then reach the third, which is the goal of our talk today. The Baal Shem Tov begins with his teaching on the verse, “Forever, Hashem, Your word stands firm in the heavens,” a verse in Tehillim. The straightforward meaning,

07:48 as the commentators explain it, is this: “Forever, Hashem, Your word stands firm in the heavens.” The words of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, His promises, remain in the heavens, and even though we have not yet seen them fulfilled, one day they will be. The words of Hakadosh Boruch Hu are not lost. That is the straightforward meaning. Then the Baal Shem Tov comes and offers a new interpretation. This interpretation is actually already found in the Midrash, in Midrash Tehillim. Nevertheless, until the Baal Shem Tov’s time, this Midrash had not been given this significance—especially the significance the Baal Shem Tov gave it in our lives. The Baal Shem Tov says: “Forever, Hashem, Your word stands firm in the heavens.” “Your word” means the word of Hashem, the words Hakadosh Boruch Hu spoke at the creation of the world. During the six days of Creation, Hakadosh Boruch Hu spoke the Ten Utterances through which the world was created. Each day, Hakadosh Boruch Hu spoke, and through that utterance something was created. On the first day, the second day, the third day—there is the word of Hashem that created the firmament. On the second day: “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters.” The same applies to each of Hashem’s utterances: each day’s utterance created the part of the world made that day. According to the Baal Shem Tov, the verse says, “Forever, Hashem, Your word stands firm in the heavens.” This means that when Hakadosh Boruch Hu said, “Let there be a firmament,” it was not simply, as one might understand it, that He said it once and that was that, and now the world continues to exist. The world is alive; the world exists. Hakadosh Boruch Hu created the world during the six days of Creation, and since then the world has been here. He directs it and sustains it, but the world exists. The Baal Shem Tov says: No. “Forever, Hashem, Your word”—the utterance Hakadosh Boruch Hu first spoke, one of the Ten Utterances through which the world was created—that

09:58 It repeats itself at every single moment. The Baal Shem Tov says: At every moment, Hakadosh Boruch Hu brings creation into being, gives it life, and sustains it anew, down to every detail. The word of Hashem is invested in and present within every detail, within every created thing—in inanimate matter, plants, animals, human beings, stones, earth, water, wildlife, livestock, and trees. In every detail, the word of Hashem, the G-dly power that created it at the first moment, continues to create it at every moment. The reason for this, the Baal Shem Tov explains, is very simple. The world is something new, created from nothing. One of the foundations of our faith is that the world was created from absolute nothingness: something came into being from nothing at all. That is impossible according to nature. Only the G-dly power of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, Who can do anything, can bring something new into being at every moment. He can bring something into being from nothing. Since the world has no ability to exist on its own—on its own, it is nothing at all—the fact that it exists is only by the power of the Ein Sof, by the power of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. So the Baal Shem Tov says: If that is so, then every moment is a new creation. It was not new only the first time. At every moment throughout the six thousand years of the world’s existence, every created thing should really be nothing at all. On its own, it does not exist; it exists only because of the G-dly power bringing it into being. That power brought it into being for one moment. Then a new moment arrives, and it must be brought into being again. This is a fundamental teaching through which the Baal Shem Tov opened our eyes to see the world in an entirely different way. You look at the world and think it exists. Hashem created it. I am a believing Jew. I know Hashem created the world during the six

11:58 days of Creation, but that was 5,783 years ago. That time has passed. Hashem created the world, and now it goes on and functions. Hashem governs it. But the Baal Shem Tov comes and tells us: No. The G-dly power brings the world into being and gives it life at every moment. The Alter Rebbe, author of the Tanya and the Shulchan Aruch, takes this teaching of the Baal Shem Tov in Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah, the twelve-chapter section of Tanya, and develops it, explaining it in a compelling, wonderful way. That is one foundation of the Baal Shem Tov’s teachings. The Baal Shem Tov then went on to reveal another fundamental teaching, another essential message, which, as we said, follows from the previous message: the concept of hashgachah pratis, individual Divine Providence. The Baal Shem Tov says that nothing in the world happens by chance. And this does not apply only to people. Before the Baal Shem Tov, great Torah sages also spoke about hashgachah pratis—that Hakadosh Boruch Hu watches over each detail individually when it relates to the purpose of creation. Every detail in the world matters to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Nothing happens by chance. Most of the great Torah sages before the Baal Shem Tov, however, said this was true with regard to human beings. A person is the crown of creation, the center of creation, so every detail of a person’s life matters. But with animals, plants, stones, earth, water—the simple, inanimate, tiny things in the world—what importance do they have? What do they have to do with it? There, what matters is the broader picture. If something connects to a person, then it matters, right? Hakadosh Boruch Hu decrees what happens to a person; He judges a person. So the things in the world that affect a person—whether he will have a house, whether he will have

14:12 property, whether, G-d forbid, he will lose it—certainly come under hashgachah pratis. But what happens to a worm crawling around—as great Torah sages wrote, a worm crawling at the far end of the earth, in a desolate wilderness—would Hakadosh Boruch Hu care what happens to it, whether it moves, where it goes, and what its purpose is? That seems to make no sense. Then the Baal Shem Tov came and revealed this fundamental teaching of hashgachah pratis. He said that nothing in the world—not only among human beings, but also among plants, animals, and inanimate objects—happens without wondrous hashgachah pratis over every detail. In the Baal Shem Tov’s words, even a leaf falling from a tree and being blown along by the wind is a matter of hashgachah pratis. That individual Providence determines which leaf, from which tree, carried by which wind, and where that leaf will end up. There is a well-known story told about how the Baal Shem Tov would make his teachings tangible for his students. To explain this idea, he went out with his students to a grove and showed them a leaf falling from a tree. He said, “Let’s follow the leaf and see what happens to it.” The students followed the leaf for several hundred meters until it stopped. Then the Baal Shem Tov said, “Let’s see what’s here.” They lifted the leaf, and underneath it was a worm. The Baal Shem Tov said, “The sun was beating down here, and this worm needed some relief. The leaf came and covered it.” The Baal Shem Tov showed them: Look at this—Hakadosh Boruch Hu made sure that this worm would have shade. He sent the wind, the wind carried the leaf, and the leaf arrived here. All of this

16:13 happened through wondrous hashgachah pratis from Hakadosh Boruch Hu. What is the basis for the Baal Shem Tov’s teaching about hashgachah pratis? It follows from his previous teaching. Once we know that every detail of creation, even its smallest part, is created anew at every moment, that G-dly power is present within every detail of the world, and that nothing in the world exists simply because that is the way nature works or because that is how things must be—rather, there is G-dly power present in every detail of creation—then it follows that every detail of creation is also subject to particular, individual Providence from Above. Every detail matters to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. We do not understand exactly why or how it fits into the picture. But if we understand that nothing should exist on its own, that everything is a marvel, something newly created, then if it is being newly created and the power that creates it is within it at every moment, every detail of creation also has some G-dly message, purpose, and intention. It is connected to the overall purpose for which Hakadosh Boruch Hu created the world, and every detail helps fulfill that purpose. From this message, from this second foundation, we come to the third foundation, which is really the whole purpose of the Giving of the Torah. Now that we understand that G-dly power brings everything into being at every moment, and we understand that there is hashgachah pratis—that every detail of creation matters to Hakadosh Boruch Hu and to the entire purpose of creation, that nothing happens by chance—we reach the third stage. Everything a Jew sees or hears, says the Baal Shem Tov, is a lesson in serving Hashem. When I am out on the street or encounter something in the world—and we are not necessarily talking about something connected to Torah study

18:19 or the actual performance of mitzvos—it might be something completely incidental. I heard something on the news, saw something on the street, or went on a trip and saw something happen. I heard about some event that seems entirely unimportant. If Hakadosh Boruch Hu arranged for me to see or hear it, then it is not by chance. Hakadosh Boruch Hu brings everything in the world into being from nothing at every moment, and everything happens through His hashgachah pratis. So if hashgachah pratis brought me to see this thing right now, at this particular moment, or to hear about it, I have to ask myself: What can I learn from it? What is the G-dly message? And so we can understand that when the Baal Shem Tov sees an ordinary non-Jew whose wagon has unfortunately become stuck in the mud, and the man comes to ask for help and delivers a message, the Baal Shem Tov’s first question is: What is the G-dly purpose here? This has come to teach us a lesson in serving Hashem. Actually, when we think about it, this idea existed before the Baal Shem Tov as well. We could say that it is what the Mishnah says in Pirkei Avos in just a few words: “Let all your deeds be for the sake of Heaven.” It is a halachah in Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim, section 231: A Jew needs to know that all his deeds should be for the sake of Heaven, and that “in all your ways, know Him.” In other words, as the Shulchan Aruch itself explains, even in a person’s speech and actions, in everyday life, at work, in business, in eating, in all the things a person does each day, he needs to see how they lead him to serve Hashem. The Baal Shem Tov gave this greater depth. The Baal Shem Tov opened the treasure house of the teachings of Chassidus. He gave this greater depth, and therefore, as we said, this

20:32 It is no coincidence that the Baal Shem Tov’s hilula, the day of his passing, is on Shavuos, the festival of the Giving of the Torah. The Baal Shem Tov revealed to us the depth of the Giving of the Torah. It was not just about giving a Jew more Torah, another mitzvah—though that is certainly something tremendously important and wonderful. But as we said, that existed even before the Giving of the Torah. The Baal Shem Tov revealed that the Torah changed all of creation. The Divine revelation at the Giving of the Torah reached into every detail of the world. We know that the Midrash says that when Hakadosh Boruch Hu gave the Torah, the entire world fell silent. As it says there, the sea did not roar and the animals did not cry out. There was a silence throughout the world, because at the Giving of the Torah, the Divine revelation changed creation. It changed the way we look at the world. It opened up a new perspective, a new understanding, and revealed the true nature of reality. Before the Giving of the Torah, the world seemed to be one separate reality and the Divine power another. People believed in Hakadosh Boruch Hu and knew of Him, but these were two separate things: “The heavens are Hashem’s heavens, but the earth He has given to mankind.” Then came the Divine revelation of “I am Hashem your G-d.” The revelation of Hakadosh Boruch Hu at Mount Sinai penetrated all of creation and revealed the Divine truth: Hakadosh Boruch Hu and the world are not two separate entities. The entire existence of every detail in the world is the Divine power that brings it into being. Our eyes were opened to see creation, to see life, to look at life in an entirely different way. When a Jew sees Divine providence in every detail, everything becomes part of serving Hashem. And this connects with a wonderful teaching of the Baal Shem Tov on this subject.

22:45 The Baal Shem Tov speaks about the verse, “I have set Hashem before me always.” It is a foundational verse, from chapter 16 of Tehillim. Its simple meaning is that a Jew must always keep Hakadosh Boruch Hu before his eyes. The Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim, begins with “I have set Hashem before me always.” This is the foundation of a Jew’s life. The Baal Shem Tov came and said that “I have set” has another meaning. It is not only that I always keep Hakadosh Boruch Hu before my eyes, giving me fear of Heaven so that I am careful with Torah and mitzvos, guard my eyes and ears, and guard my thoughts, speech, and actions, because Hakadosh Boruch Hu is here. There is something deeper. “I have set” can also mean “I have made equal.” In the Baal Shem Tov’s words, every situation a Jew finds himself in should be equal in this respect. Sometimes a person finds himself somewhere he cannot study Torah right now. He cannot daven right now. Life brings me into certain situations. It might be because of business, a family outing, or a trip I ended up taking. I have arrived somewhere, and right now I am in a place and situation where I cannot sit down and study. I cannot daven right now. A person might think, “What am I doing here? There is no serving Hashem here.” The Baal Shem Tov says that “I have set” means making things equal: a person should see every situation, every circumstance, and every detail of his life this way. He should know that Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants us to serve Him in all kinds of situations and in all kinds of ways. So if life has brought me into one situation or another, whatever the circumstances, I look for a way to serve Hashem in everything—even when I am walking down the street, even

24:54 when I am out for a walk, even when I am involved in the most incidental parts of my life. I look to see what I can learn from them and what lesson I can take for serving Hashem. The Frierdiker Rebbe relates in one of his sichos that the Alter Rebbe once said, in connection with this teaching of the Baal Shem Tov—that everything a Jew sees and hears should teach him something about his life and his service of Hashem: “We worked hard, exerting ourselves tremendously, to bring this approach into our lives. For our children, it has already become natural.” The Alter Rebbe said, “I promise that someone who works on himself to follow the Baal Shem Tov’s path, making everything in the world a guide in serving Hashem and trying to learn something for his life from everything, will thereby plant a good spark in each of his descendants.” This will help him and the generations after him follow the straight and proper path. So as we find ourselves in these great days of the Giving of the Torah, we know that Shavuos is also the day of the Baal Shem Tov’s hilula and the day of King David’s hilula. King David said, “I have set Hashem before me always,” and “Forever, Hashem, Your word stands firm in the heavens.” The day of his passing, too, is on Shavuos. Through the Baal Shem Tov’s teachings, we come to understand that deeper perspective, that broader view—the Baal Shem Tov’s lens through which we will look on Shavuos. May we truly merit to receive the Torah with joy and inwardly, and may we soon merit, speedily in our days, to see throughout the world the fulfillment and revelation of what we speak of as the revelation of Moshiach, when “Hashem will be King over all

27:10 the earth. On that day Hashem will be One and His name One.” As the Alter Rebbe says in Tanya, that revelation of the Giving of the Torah was not meant to remain a one-time event. It will be a permanent revelation with the coming of Moshiach, when the truth will be revealed throughout the world: “You have been shown to know that Hashem is G-d; there is none besides Him.”