Chassidus

New Maamar - ד"ה כי נר מצוה ותורה אור. • Explanation why God is called the "heart" of all of creation.  • The difference between heart (לב) and honor (כבוד) - the 32 pathways of chochma or malchus.  • Link to view this page in original sefer: http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=31640&st=&pgnum=81   • Link to purchase the original sefer: store.kehotonline.com/prodinfo.as...

• Yosef was רועה את אחיו - drawing down of the revelation of shabbos into the weekday.  • "Yisrael Loved Yosef" - the revelation of the higher level love of God on shabbos. • The explanation of Yosef being "Born in the old age" of Yaakov.  • The superiority of Yosef 'tzadik elyon' over Binyomin 'tzadik tachton'.  • The uplifting of sparks of tohu  (שם ס"ג) through Yaakov, tikun...

• Two levels of concentration (כוונה) - animal type (דעת תחתון), and human type (דעת עליון).  • Yaakov on the 'outside' and Moshe on the 'inside'.  • Yaakov the servant - service of God comes with much toil, Yisrael the son - service of God without toil.  • The level of Yisrael is given as a gift from God. To reach this sublime level one must preface the service of Yaakov - 'da'as t...

• Da'as makes it so you never forget what you meditated on.  • Da'as is connection to a concept and recognition of איך ומה הוא - the how and what of the idea  • Da'as takes over all your senses to the extent that you can't be connected to anything else  • Da'as Elyon and Da'as Tachton in service of God - bitul hayesh and bitul b'metzius.  • Link to view this page in the origina...

• Prayer is 'da'as' (דעת) - recognition, connection and deep feeling. • 'Da'as' relates to the Godly energy with transcends limited vessels, that's why it's not counted in the ten sefiros if keser is included. • Being that prayer is 'da'as' which transcends vessels, therefore prayer has the power to draw down that transcendent level of Godliness. • The main idea of prayer is: direction of the hear...

• Negative commandments clear out the negative forces to allow for Gods dwelling in this world. Positive commandments create the actual vessels to contain that presence. • Main focus of a person should be to rid of the evil within himself, this will automatically affect the world too. • Every positive mitzvah also has an aspect of it that refines the animal soul. • "Mitzvos require intention (כוונ...

• The external levels of malchus and midos of atzilus are the source for creation of the lower worlds. • Another explanation of לתבונתו אין מספר - referring to binah of atzilus, and more specifically to revelation of 'atik' in binah. • The true meaning of דירה בתחתונים - drawing down the infinite essence of God and not the external ray of Godliness. • How we are able to "fulfill Gods needs", as a...

• The meaning of שיעור קומה של מעשה בראשית רל"ו אלפים רבבות פרסאות. • The emotive attributes of atzilus relate to finite worlds and are therefore limited. • Only the external lower level of 'midos' relate to worlds, their inner core transcends them.  • Inner meaning of ולתבונתו אין מספר - 'midos' and 'malchus' of atzilus don't have limitation. • The concept of פנימיות and חיצוניות in all of the le...

• The world is a new creation something from nothing, how can we say that its source is limited? • Even in the world of Atzilus there is limitation (number) - the ten sefiros of Atzilus, God's potential for limitation, specifically the vessels. • The limitation of the vessels of the sefiros of Atzilus is different from the limitation in the lower worlds of בי"ע - there is no end to the expression...

• Questions on the verse אלה תולדות יעקב יוסף - why only Yosef? Why Yosef called בן זקונים and not Binyamin?  Why tell us Yosef age? Why does it say Yaakov and Yisrael? • Yaakov - servant, Yisrael - son. A physical servant, how can we be called servants of God? • Purpose of creation - דירה בתחתונים - "Dwelling place" means: for God's essence, and in a revealed way. • There are unlimited spiritual...

• The spiritual level of 'Yisrael' - refining sparks without war. • The level of 'Yaakov' - approaching physicality with deception, a necessary mode of service for most souls. • Why peaceful redemption happens through three things - Torah, acts of kindness, and prayer with a minyan. • Torah - Drawing down unadulterated Godliness to the world; Acts of kindess - bringing down 'arich anpin' into 'zei...

• Refining the holy sparks in a way of קטנות - immature intellectual capacity.  • Two reasons why prayer is hard for someone: 1) He's focusing on a Godly light that is covered by the worlds. 2) His Godly soul is imprisoned in the physical body.  • Higher level of refining sparks - "The righteous eat to satiate their soul".  • The higher refining is similar to eating on Shabbos,...

•  Proper intention of business man - make money to give tzedaka, to beautify mitzvos, to have free time and a free mind learn Torah. •  Uplifting sparks from business is when he actually prays with proper focus and learns Torah after his day of work, connecting the sparks back to their spiritual source. •  Refining the sparks brings down a great revelation from tohu and brings down blessing for a...

Refining of the holy sparks is through chochmah - deception (אני חכמה שכנתי ערמה) | Refining sparks when eating happens when he eats not for self gratification but rather for the sake of serving God with the energy he gets from eating | Working on yourself not to desire the physical takes away the feeling of pleasure when eating | Physical pleasure from eating causes great spiritual decent ones so...

Through subduing the animal soul draw down from its infinite Godly source and add energy to your Godly soul | The intense Godly energy of 'nogah' (אור נוגה) | Rivkah's desire to take the blessings away from Eisav so that Yaakov could uplift the physicality | Why the Eisav's blessings had to be taken through deception | Caution from involvement in excess of physical things | Every person's necessar...

• The two results from drawing down the sublime encompassing light (אור מקיף) into Eisav.  • One: the energy would be swallowed up and used by Eisav. Two: the light would nullify the very existence of Eisav.  • Only Yaakov can refine the sparks in Eisav through the energy of the sublime revelation of the 'dew'.  • To Eisav a material blessing, to Yaakov a spiritual one.  • &nbs...

• New Maamar - ד"ה פדה בשלום נפשי.  • Peaceful redemption through Torah, acts of kindness, and prayer with a minyan.  • The name Yaakov implies trickery, even though his name is changed to Yisrael, the Torah still calls him Yaakov.  • Why were the blessings intended for Eisav taken through deception.  • Why Yitzchak wanted to bless the evil Eisav in the first place.  • The...

The Explanation of the gift that Yaakov sent Eisav | 'Ox' - ratzo, 'Donkey' - shov, 'Sheep' - mercy or self sacrifice (ratzo) | 'Servant' - putting ones ego on the side in actuality, doing mitzvos | 'Maid Servant' - the work of refining the sparks (עבודת הבירורים) | 'Rachel' - the essence of malchus, 'Bilhah' - the external ray of malchus | The unique quality of birurim can only happen through des...

The self sacrifice (מסירת נפש) experienced during tachanun (נפילת אפים) | Type two of emotional excitement - desire to escape but with the ultimate purpose of return | Tikun - 'ratzo' together with 'shov'; Tohu - pure 'ratzo' to the point of expiring | The 'ratzo' of tikun is imbued with surrender of ego and feeling God's ultimate purpose | The 'ratzo' of tikun reaches higher than that of tohu | T...

Tohu is 'ratzo' while tikun is 'shov' | The experience of 'ratzo' comes from the small capacity of the vessel (מצד קטנות הכלים) | The love of בכל מאדך - with all your might, not truly unlimited, just compared to ones limited faculties (heart and mind) | Tohu - vessels with small capacity, resulting in 'rotzo' and the light leaving the vessels | Tikun - vessels with broad capacity, resulting in 'sh...

The contemplation to produce fear seems to be the same as that which produces love - focusing on the exalted essence of God, just that the focus is a little different: Fear - the exalted essence of God; Love - His essence is above internal investment in worlds | Deeper awe of God is aroused by contemplating how the essence of God is found everywhere in a revealed way, even in this physical world |...

The love brought about by contemplating how far God in His essence is from the world, is to connect only to His essence and not to any external revelations from Him | Higher love which comes from a feeling of closeness | Analogy of light's natural desire to go back to its source because it always remains attached to that source | The love of delights - אהבה בתענוגים - when the essence of God is re...

Contemplation on the Godly energy that enlivens the world, but can't feel the precious Godly energy because of his overindulgence in physicality, generates a love defined by bitterness and thirst | The concealment of Godliness caused by the sin of Adam with the "Tree of Knowledge" | The strong decision made to leave physicality and to connect to God through Torah and Mitzvos | Deeper love experien...

Another way to understand the difference between 'tohu' and 'tikun' being chesed and gevurah - love and fear, rotzo and shov | Love is a feeling of closeness, and comes from feeling close to that which you love | Love is produced only when that which you love is on your level, if not its closeness results in awe and self abnegation | The love of God produced by contemplating how He is the life of...

The light of the first day is the infinite energy of God which preceded the tzimtzum | The difference between the quality of Godly light in 'tohu' compared to 'tikun' is like the difference between אור אין סוף שלפני הצמצום and the limited אור הקו | Two reasons why 'tohu' is characterized by chesed and 'tikun' by gevurah: (1) Tohu - unlimited revelation of godliness without contraction - chesed, ti...