כוחו של היסח הדעת

00:01 Okay, we're looking at a letter from Tav Shin Lamed Gimel. We're on page Kuf Lamed, and we are at letter Yod Tav Reish Tzak He. This one at the bottom of the screen, it's from Gimel Adar Shen. So more or less fifty years ago. You know, we always beat around, we, we always beat around the fifty-year mark. This is written to a woman who's concerned about, uh, childbirth. The Rebbe writes, "Bracha v'Shalom," as we pointed out before, Bracha v'Shalom seems to be the formula for women. We don't know exactly why. «Memaynah hadasa eidis matzava,» I've been informed, the Rebbe says, about her situation, «Ve'asham yisbarich yima lei heria na,» God should fill the days of her, of her carrying a baby, «k'shura,» in the proper way, «ve'nakel,» and it should be easy, «ve'teiled et achai vekayama,» she should give birth to living children, «be'ito vezman ha'al,» in its proper time, «k'shura vekal, be'ito vezman k'shura vekal,» easy and in its proper time. It's a, it's a-- the Rebbe's sort of boilerplate bracha for, uh, for women who are about to give birth. Then we have the part we're gonna look at today, which is on the next page. «Lekasa aderech matza brucha.» But then he writes about her, about her, uh... How would you translate, "matza brucha?" About her situation, about her, um, emotional situation, where she's holding. Do you have ideas? What's your idea? Mood. I don't know. Mood. Yeah, I like mood. That's the word I was looking for. About her mood. «Hatey

01:16 bieyis lasiyah das mizeh kechol efshari,» she should distract herself from those thoughts as much as possible. Chesed das, this is gonna be the theme of what we're gonna talk about today, the power of chesed das and how we use it. So the Rebbe tells her, «Biyis hatey lasiyah das mizeh kechol efshari,» she should distract herself, remove her thoughts from this as much as possible. «L'chaka chesed das,» if you wanna know advice for making it easier not to think about things, 'cause, you know, the moment someone tells you not to think about something, you start thinking about it. So how do you do that? «Liyes asuka kechol efshari,» that is to keep busy. When you keep busy, your mind is automatically focused on other things. So the Rebbe gives a bracha, «Nesumcha v'suras teyvis,» and that's the end of our, that's the end of our letter. So this is a Rebbe's-- one of the Rebbe's standard responses to anxiety. He usually mentions chesed das, although when it comes to dagas, concerns about work and concerns about other things, concerns about the future, we talked about, I think, earlier this week or last week, we talked about the Rebbe does have other solutions for that. He talks about learning «chei v'salavavis,» increasing in your «bitachon,» throwing yourself into Torah and mitzvah, speaking with a friend. But in many cases, uh, throughout many, many letters, the Rebbe's advice is simply to stop thinking about the thing that is upsetting you. That if there's something upsetting in your mind,

02:20 chesed das. There's a certain power to distraction that I want to explore a little bit today. Uh, I think the ear-the earliest source I found for these ideas, and a lot of the same words the Rebbe uses in letters, is a letter from the Tamach Tzedek. I don't know if I've ever read a letter from Tamach Tzedek. By that, I mean a, a regular non-halakhic, non-shailan shulma, just straight-up letter. There's a letter from the Tamach Tzedek where once you read this letter, and, uh, we're not gonna have time to read the whole thing together, but I put it in the group, and here it is on the screen. Um, when you do get a chance to read this letter, you'll find that the Rebbe seems to use tricks from this letter constantly. That this is, uh, you find the same phrasing from the Rebbe in many, many letters to people, all coming from this Tamach Tzedek letter. I imagine that this is his source for a lot of these ideas. Um, so somebody writes to the, to the Tamach Tzedek saying that they're depressed. I think they're talking about fear, fear and depression, that they're in a state of panic of some degree. He talks about, uh, the «pachad shadum gerum latzme versus pachad bechazmil milayla.» And what he says in the first section of the letter is essentially that there's a degree of pachad, a degree of fear or anxiety that this person's experiencing that comes from God. When it comes to that part,

03:21 you should daven for God to take it away. Pray that that'll go away, because part of it comes from God. But at the same time, we also scare ourselves, he says. So in addition to whatever God's causing, you also have the problem that you're causing yourself some of your intimidation. Some of it's internal, whatever fear you're experiencing. We scare ourselves, and that's a matter of bechirah, that's a matter of free choice. So since that's a matter of free choice, you can't fix that by praying it away. You can't pray away things you chose. If you choose to put yourself in a certain state, davening for it doesn't help because God's not allowed to, not allowed to, he doesn't. God doesn't interfere with our own free will. So if our own free will is causing us anguish, then we have to fix our free will, not ask a god to take it away. He gives a proof that you can control your fears, and the proof that you can control your fears that he gives is in the second paragraph here, «Veraya buru roveze, hu mashin it's davina belav sh'lad et lefach ad m'molchamet mashkas vayerach levachem.» It says in the Pasuk that we have a commandment, and he says here that Rambam and Smag both put in the six hundred and thirteen mitzvahs, that when someone's about to go to war, there is a negative prohibition that you're forbidden to be afraid. So you can't forbid something that's impossible. If you say, "Look, fear is

04:21 natural, I can't stop myself from being afraid," there's proof in the Torah that it must be possible to get rid of your fears, otherwise there wouldn't be a negative prohibition of being afraid when going into battle. That's what the Tamach Tzedek says here, «L'cheir zeh klayi,» this is shocking, «ma yasim, kol macham libey hu ma alav bached ve'zeh v'em molchamach.» He sees the bloods of war, and he gets afraid. «Veyadu ash kol mitzvot zeh nena libedav sheyesh olem bechirah zeh.» We know that mitzvahs are only for things that I can choose to do, to do or not to do, so it must be that it's possible. Here, I wanna read this part inside 'cause this is the section that's most pertaining to us, this paragraph three here. The Tamach Tzedek writes, «Achi yindi yesh l'fal adam gimel nebush, einefesh, machshava, dibbur, ma'aseh,» a person has three garments: their thought, speech, and action. «Be'em iguran ha'gaz al adam,» this is how a person conducts himself, «vehem bechirah ve'reshut nesun la'achshev ve'ledav ve'laasis ken in meiche,» and we have control over them. We can control our machshava, dibbur, and ma'aseh. We can control thought, speech, and action. «Va'afi im mefachad beliva,» even if a person is afraid in their heart, «yuchal lisalek hamachshava, dibbur, ma'aseh,» he can remove fear from his thought, speech, and action. So a person is capable of controlling these garments, including the garment of thought that makes us afraid. «Ve'eker? Sh'lei lachshev ve'ledav mizeh klal.» What that means, how do I practically do

05:29 that? By not thinking about it or speaking about it at all, rather thinking about or speaking about something else. I think I'm gonna jump now to right here. «Ve'atam lazeh? Sh'al idei silo kamachshavi yispat ha'pachad.» The reason why removing your thought from something can make you not afraid of that thing anymore, «hul efisha, kol midis kil me'adas,» because all of our emotions, all of our midis, they're kept alive by our thought. If das doesn't exist, if intelligence doesn't exist, our emotions don't have any power to them. That's the battery pack for all, battery pack for all emotions is intellect. «Shu nikra matecha dekal el shis,» it's called the key that can-- that is included, uh, that has six things included inside it. Das is the, uh, is the key that includes the six midis. These and can only go into which is our emotions by way of our thoughts, which means that if we don't think about something, we can't feel anything. This is sort of the inverse of the Chabad approach, right? The of Chabad is that when I think about something, it makes me feel. Now, the inverse of that is that when I don't think about something, I can't feel. It's impossible to feel if I'm not also thinking about it. So by removing das, by not thinking about something, I literally . I literally take my das, my intellect, out of that midah and don't think about it anymore. Then it's as if the thing never happened. I don't feel that

06:51 anymore. He then gives a couple other examples to this, and it goes down here in paragraph four. It says, is that I'm very careful where I put my thoughts. So what we get from here is that doesn't just mean distract yourself. It literally will take away the emotion. If I have an emotion that's, that's getting in the way of my life, that I'm unable to, uh, be productive because I'm afraid or because I'm anxious or because I'm depressed, uh, obviously, if it's a medical condition, this doesn't apply. It needs to be treated medically. But if it's something that my own mind is causing that I can treat on my own through thinking, the answer is not to think through my problem, but to ignore the problem. Because moving my mind away from the issue means that there's nothing powering the midah anymore. Because as we said a second ago from the Tzemach Tzedek, das is what's needed to power midahs, and das only powers midah when mashava gets involved. So if I stop thinking, I'll stop feeling. And when something is not a, you know, a medical condition, but a-- something that I'm in control of, an emotional state, I can change my own emotional state for positive or for negative simply by focusing on something. So we have this in Tzemach Tzedek. The, uh, Rebbe says that one of the reasons why this works, in addition to what Tzemach Tzedek says, is that there's a halacha that it's, uh, it comes down to halacha

07:56 in a bunch of places, that it's impossible to have two thoughts at once. So if I think about something else, I don't just remove my thoughts from the thing I don't wanna think about, but actively focus on a different thought. It seems that I can push the other thought out because it is impossible to think of two things at the exact same time. This, uh, this idea of is not just the Rebbe's advice for when people are afraid or anxious. You find it a lot by Averos, a lot by people trying to do Teshuvah, specifically Teshuvah regarding Cheit Nerim, specifically regarding those Averos. And I found that in at least two places. I wanna show you a couple letters here. So this letter on the screen right now is from Igeres volume three, page ninety-two. And, uh, the Rebbe says regarding a Tikkun for the known thing, which is always Cheit Nerim. First of all, the Rebbe says, "I don't want you thinking about it." Since a person's thoughts are always flowing, how do you get rid of a negative thought when my thoughts are always thinking? By thinking about something else. And the Rebbe's suggestion, why not think about Torah? Although obviously it would work for anything. Thinking about anything else will move your mind to the other thing. And I wanna-- There's another letter that's very similar, but it has a, a slightly different angle to it that I wanna show you. There's also this letter here. It says, Once again, someone asked

09:16 for a Tikkun for the Yinyei HaYedidah. Again, it's Cheit Nerim. It's well known what is the advice that's given for this. Removing your mind from it, not thinking about distraction. Not just from that thing. So this is an important deal here. The Rebbe is saying that a person's done an Avera, and they want to stop doing that Avera and be able to do Teshuvah. Step one, stop thinking about the Avera, and step two, stop thinking about the Teshuvah. Don't even think about how to do Teshuvah from it or how to fix it. Move your mind from it completely. And instead, have those inside your head, Torah, things like that. Distract your mind from it. So the Rebbe says when it comes to Teshuvah, uh, is again very important because it, uh, it moves us out of that state and keeps us away both from thoughts about the action and also thoughts about the Teshuvah for the action. Um, I have a suspicion that the Rebbe's for Teshuvah is really the same as the Alter Rebbe's for Teshuvah in general that's found in Parshas Balak. This I don't have a source for. This is just my heart tells me. You can disagree, or you can find sources that disagree and smack my heart right down, and then I'll have to have so I don't feel sad all the time 'cause you destroyed my theory. But my, my theory is that the-- when the Alter Rebbe talks about Teshuvah in Likutei Torah Parshas Balak, which is the,

10:29 the foundational maamer of Teshuvah, all Teshuvah maamer are based on this one maamer in Likutei Torah Parshas Balak. Um, there he says that what Teshuvah is, is You'll also see this in Igeres of Teshuvah, that the act of Teshuvah, Teshuvah is, uh, fundamentally The way Teshuvah is done is by abandoning the sin completely. And he there explains that part of abandoning the sin completely is not thinking about it. So when people ask the Rebbe for a Tikkun and he says, "I, I wanna, I wanna do Teshuvah for this thing I've done. I want a Tikkun," and the Rebbe says, "Just don't think about it," I think a lot of people read that as the Rebbe pushing them away and saying, "Don't think about it. We'll get to Teshuvah later." I don't read it that way. I think that is Teshuvah, that the, the Teshuvah itself is that I'm going to and I'm going to have a that I'm going to abandon the sin, and I'm also going to uproot any will I have for the sin by simply not thinking about it, not giving it power anymore. So I don't think these are just Tehulia. I think this actually is a Tikkun in and of itself, that the Tikkun for many Averos is This is, uh, this is my own pet theory that you're completely free to, to disagree with loudly. Uh, also appears to work against Ayin Hara. I didn't put this up on the screen, so I'm just gonna have to read it

11:31 to you, but I found in Igeres volume thirteen, page ninety-four. The Rebbe writes, regarding so and so who is worried about Ayin Hara, the evil eye, when it comes to things like this, when a person doesn't pay attention to it at all, and they remove their thoughts from it completely, that is This is probably the same as the general principle that people who aren't worried about Ayin Hara don't have to worry about Ayin Hara. This shows up in a lot of places, but the Rebbe doesn't say it that way. Here, the Rebbe says That if you wanna get rid of Ayin Hara, the fastest way to get rid of it is not thinking about it. There, it sounds like even somebody maybe who believes in Ayin Hara and therefore is subject to it to some degree can also be by not thinking about it. And again, how do we not think about things? By focusing on something else. I want to just end by saying that another place in Chassidus where we see a lot of hesed hadas as a powerful tool, the power of distraction, 'cause what we've talked about so far is that distraction is a powerful way to get ourselves out of an anxious or scared state. It's a powerful way to help us do teshuva, and it's a powerful way to get rid of ayin hara. There's another powerful thing that comes with hesed hadas, and that's Mashiach. Now, Mashiach is supposed to arrive b'hesed hadas. There's several Gemaras on this,

12:37 with many of them being learned. Many of them are in Masechet Sanhedrin, which is what Kerets learns on Tuesdays with his shiur. Uh, once again, and as, as many times as possible, free advertising for the, uh, for the Tuesday night shiur at the shul. Uh, in Masechet Sanhedrin, it's mentioned, "Ein ben David ba ani she yashu min haGeulah," that Mashiach won't come until we've given up, really, until we've had yush, and we can't imagine that the redemption could ever come. It says in the Gemara that there are th- three things that only come b'hesed hadas, and that is Mashiach, uh, a matza, that I lost an object, you know, when you can't find your keys and you stop thinking about them, they suddenly turn up, and an akrab, a scorpion. So the three things that when I don't think about them, they show up, are scorpions, my lost objects, and Mashiach. And there is a story in the Gemara that when Rabbi Zeira found people calculating the Ketz, trying to figure out when Mashiach would finally come mathematically, he said, "Please stop it. You're pushing off the Geulah because Mashiach only comes b'hesed hadas." It's important to note that Rashi says there that, uh, the hesed hadas is not that I'm not thinking about Mashiach, it's that I'm not thinking about Ketzim specifically. That, uh, when I stop thinking about-- When I stop trying to calculate exactly what date Mashiach will come, and I just revert to a basic, "I'm expecting him at any moment

13:38 every day," then Mashiach comes. When I'm focusing on trying to calculate a Ketz, that can be harmful, that can be counterproductive. Rabbi Zeira seems to think it's, uh, Rabbi Zeira seems to think it's literally counterproductive. And by the way, I, I don't mean to point fingers at anybody, but I think this but I will anyway, that there, uh, that there are some people who are very interested in trying to calculate the Ketzim and, uh, trying to publicize and talk about whatever Ketzim might have existed and might be existing in the future. And, uh, Ari has this clear, the Kol HaKatzim. First of all, there aren't any more Ketzim coming up, and second of all, we have a Gemara of Rabbi Zeira saying, "Don't calculate Ketzim. You're pushing off Mashiach, so maybe don't do that." Um, the Rebbe in a Sicha, in Likutei Sichot volume ten, page one hundred and seventy-two, he explains the hesed hadas by Mashiach as not just not focusing on Ketzim, but on the fact that you can remove das, and through removing das bring Mashiach itself, and I wanna end on that. But he says there that hesed hadas by Mashiach is a faith that transcends intellect. It's when we look at a world, and we say that this world is too broken for Mashiach to come, it's impossible. And, uh, intellectually, Mashiach can't fit into this world. That's what my das tells me. And I take my das and I set it aside and put it in a corner, and

14:36 I say, "No, the world is ready for Mashiach." That's hesed hadas. I stop thinking that this world can't be ready for Mashiach, and instead declare in faith that indeed it is. And the Rebbe says that when the intellect can't imagine that there's room in our world for Geulah, nonetheless, I expect Geulah every single moment, every single day, that's exactly when Mashiach comes. "Ein ben David ba ani she yashu min haGeulah," until there's a degree of hesed hadas. Okay, that's it.