The Yanuka Rav Shlomo Yehuda-מהי דרך חכמת הקבלה？ הקדמה לתורת הקבלה – שיעור יסוד הגאון הינוקא מוצ＂ש חנוכה - מקץ תשפ＂ו

2:43 But why do I mention the merit of the holy Avos? So that the Holy One, blessed be He, will see them, will see us, will have mercy on us, will draw His Chasadim down upon us. We need to walk in their ways, to follow their deeds, to be awakened by what flows from them, so that their merit will protect us. If I do not act in the way of the Avos, will their merit protect me? Why would it protect me? What for?

3:08 When I actually want to bring about a flow, I need to prepare vessels. The vessels are the way to receive the flow. It's like — an example; I'll give you a parable and its lesson. You've surely heard that joke — there was a man who wanted to win, a man wanted to win a livelihood, so they said to him: What do you want? Go fill out a Lotto form and you'll win. Have you heard that joke?

3:33 I don't know how to tell it. I ruined the joke. There was a man who wanted to win. He said: "Let me win! Let me win the Lotto!" He was told: "Buy a ticket and you'll win." Right? So that's how it is: a person wants to sweeten judgments, wants to bring things about. You want that? Pray. Tefillah, in the end, is what will awaken upon you the mercy and the merit that will flow down to you below.

4:02 Of course, that is only through good middos, good deeds — that you are clean, that you have nothing holding back your tefillah and your teshuvah from being accepted, as the Rambam lists in the Laws of Teshuvah, chapter 6. If you do teshuvah properly, the way it should be, these are things that can bring about closeness to the Holy One, blessed be He.

4:30 The more you truly — you know — rise and ascend, the more flow and the greater things you can bring about. That is, there is a difference between — say I take a Japanese man who has a good head and does all the kavanos, and a tzaddik, a holy man, who does all the kavanos. And of course Hashem will answer the one, and not the other. After all, in the end this is called the secrets of the Torah. In these secrets of the Torah, what is meant is a revelation of light, revealed in the most covered places, the most hidden. And a person's thought is the highest thing; it corresponds to Keser.

5:03 The moment I reveal in Keser, in my thought, the supernal kavanah of the upper worlds, the very yichud of the kavanah that I direct with my mind and my da'as — a great illumination flows from above to below, and then, in fact, there is a kind of revelation of ibur, a pregnancy. So I explained it just before — we said that we have the ibur, where I actually transform a covered place, where until now there were Gevuros and judgments and a hold for the outside forces, and I went and had kavanah and unified, and made levels and things and kavanos toward great and hidden things, and drew down a great kavanah, and turned it from the aspect of the holy Avos into the aspect of Nukva, into ibur, into a flow that will be drawn down upon me — this is done solely through thought,

5:56 through kavanah. This kavanah caused there to be a great flow — and of course, in the course of time we will see it. Where, for example — let me give you a bigger explanation than this, so you'll understand more. A place where we find Gevuros — we said that we sweeten the Gevuros, we turn it into ibur, and from that ibur we turn it into birth. Where do we find such a place?

6:22 No? No? Where? Amit David — very good, I accept your answer. It's similar, but I accept the answer. Bein HaMetzarim, the Three Weeks. In Bein HaMetzarim there are Gevuros, there are judgments.

6:51 All the good things are forbidden: joy — the destruction of the Beis HaMikdash, the Holy Temple; we don't get married. Narrow. And then the days constrict further, in the week in which it falls, and then the day constricts still more, down to the day of the ninth of Av, when it is forbidden to learn Torah at all. What do you see here? That the Gevuros have constricted to the point that it is even forbidden to learn Torah. Forbidden to learn Torah — meaning the Gevuros truly become such harsh Gevuros that even this is forbidden to me on this day, and so I cannot learn Torah on it.

7:24 And then what do we do? We see that there is, in fact, a certain kind of ibur. When was this ibur? At a time when there are such Gevuros? How? Who brings about the ibur? We do — the Jewish people. This ibur is the soul of Mashiach. The soul of Mashiach is a kind of revelation of a high, immensely great light, and it is in ibur.

7:51 It is in ibur. Where is it in ibur? On the day of Tishah B'Av. And suddenly there is a revelation of birth — when? On Tishah B'Av, Mashiach is born. Boom. Look what happened here. We had the days of Bein HaMetzarim — Gevuros, Gevuros, Gevuros. In that Bein HaMetzarim there were Gevuros, but there was also ibur there. Within those Gevuros, which we tried to sweeten every day of Bein HaMetzarim — that is a certain kind of sweetening. In any case, we sweeten the judgments through Tikkun Chatzos, through remembering the Temple.

8:20 A person grieves over the destruction of the Beis HaMikdash. Every moment someone asks him, "What — you're not...?" "No, no, not in Bein HaMetzarim." We don't get married, we are in sorrow, we do teshuvah, at midday we say Tikkun Chatzos; everyone speaks of the Beis HaMikdash — "Not now, it's Bein HaMetzarim" — "I'm not doing a deal." Everyone mentions the Beis HaMikdash. These deeds, these simple kavanos of remembering the Beis HaMikdash bring about a sweetening of the Gevuros, but also bring into ibur that same intensity of a revelation of light, which is destined to be revealed on a certain day. And in the end, the birth is revealed — when?

8:57 On Tishah B'Av. And that is the secret of Mashiach being born on Tishah B'Av. Of course, the Abarbanel — Rabbi Don Yitzchak Abarbanel, whom you've surely heard of — and there are many other commentators who explain that it does not mean that Mashiach was born on Tishah B'Av. The plain meaning is not that one can go looking for a Mashiach who was born on Tishah B'Av; rather, the real meaning, as I explained, is about that aspect, that illumination which comes to be revealed and is in hiding, and its revelation takes place afterward.

9:38 When some person learns Kabbalah nowadays, he doesn't understand the concepts in this way, the way the Rav explained. Could it be that there's no point in learning it? We understand it only on the surface — only as much as the Rav explains. "No point in learning"? Why not? Why not? Because really, as the Rav says, they're just abstract concepts, and one has no connection to them. — True, Kabbalah today — let me explain something.

10:03 Today, Kabbalah is — this wisdom is called a hidden wisdom. In their day it was called Toras HaChen. Toras HaChen. They would write of it in the books: "as is known to those who know Chen." "As is known to those who know Chen." To those who knew Chen, it was a hidden wisdom. It was a wisdom that is not spoken of openly. First of all, Kabbalah — one does not speak of it openly; one speaks of it in hiding.

10:35 Possibly. I don't know — possibly. One can also interpret it that way. But I just want to explain something to you. The Kabbalah we speak of today — the teaching of Kabbalah already existed back then, in the time of King David. Achitofel knew the Name of Hashem. And then, when the foundation pits burst open and water came out, and the world was about to be destroyed, King David said — anyone who knows and keeps silent, he cursed him. He cursed Achitofel — even though he knew the secret of the Explicit Name.

11:01 We know of the Name of Seventy-Two, the secret of the Explicit Name, which appears at the head of "Vayisa," "Vayavo," "Vayet." The Name of "Ana BeKoach" — Tractate Kiddushin, page 71a, in Rashi, as Rashi explained. You see that there is such a thing called the Name of Hashem. We have — each one of us has the letters of his name: four letters, three letters, five letters, ten letters. The Holy One, blessed be He, has 216 letters, 72 Names. The Holy One, blessed be He, has 72 Names.

11:34 You know it too. I'll show you — here it is, written right here, behind it. I can show it to you. It's in the verses, in "Lamenatzeach," in many Names and many siddurim — it's there. It's there. It isn't something that is hidden today. But what? It is not set out in the right order. You don't know how to draw this one to that one, this to that, this to that, this to that, to that, to that, to that, to that. And so only Mashiach will know how to join the Names. And so it is written that the Holy One, blessed be He, will raise him on high. Why?

12:01 "I will raise him on high, for he knows My Name. He will call upon Me and I will answer him." He will call and I will answer him. Why? He knows My Name. The Holy One, blessed be He, says: You know My Name — I answer you. You don't know My Name — why are you shouting? You don't know My Name. Now, this is the secret of the Explicit Name. The Name of Seventy-Two, 216 letters, 72 Names. This Name is a Name of kavanah.

12:26 There are kavanos, and there are yichudim. There is a very great difference between kavanos and yichudim. Many people ask me whether one may have kavanah on this Name in the brackets — is it permitted, or is it forbidden — "Rabbi Nachman said so." Rabbi Nachman said that "Kabbalah" is the gematria of adultery. And many people who at times engage in Kabbalah end up coming to adultery. There is Kabbalah, and there is Kabbalah. The more dangerous, more problematic Kabbalah is not the Zohar and reading it.

12:50 That is not the Kabbalah. The dangerous Kabbalah is the yichudim and the unions of the middos. It's when a person starts to direct kavanah and perform yichudim — when he starts taking Names, intending to unify from the nefesh to the world of Yetzirah, and rising to Beriah, and after that he starts to direct kavanah and unify worlds, and he makes a mess, and "cuts down the plantings," and things like that. That is yichudim.

13:15 That's a bit — I'll speak about it. That is one thing. Then there are kavanos. With kavanos there is no problem at all. Everyone can have kavanah. Having kavanah means directing one's mind to the holy Names. One may have kavanah on the holy Names; there is no problem with that. There are also those who want to begin having kavanah — one can have kavanah on the letters of the Name of Hashem, the letters of the Name Ehyeh that appear there, and holy things — that is better than for a person to go and think forbidden things, or things that will keep him from kavanah.

13:46 So there are kavanos, but there are also the yichudim. The yichudim themselves appear in the siddur of Rabbeinu the Rashash, the Toras Chacham; they appear in small Rashi script, where each kavanah has its own yichud. That is, when you look at the siddur of the kavanos, we have kavanos and we have yichudim. When I actually look at the kavanah, I have no problem having kavanah.

14:11 I do have a problem performing the yichud. Performing a yichud is already more of a problem, because with yichudim I need to know where I am directing the kavanah: to which world, to which chamber, what flows down, what will enter into ibur, what will come to birth. Because if I direct it toward things that are not good, or you don't know what you're doing — you can become confused, go mad, and make of it, Heaven forbid, something not good. So first of all, let's make this simple.

14:36 With kavanos there is no problem at all. One can have kavanah, look at the holy Names, look, have kavanah, see the holy, shining letters. Blessing upon whoever wishes to. I don't hold people back from having kavanah. Whoever wants to have kavanah can do so. But the yichudim are already another matter. One has to know how to do it, in what way to do it.

15:00 And where does the problem with the yichudim lie? In that people don't understand the concepts. Now, the teaching of Kabbalah is a hidden Torah, a Torah kept concealed. With this Torah, in fact, they did not want just anyone to have a hold on Kabbalah. For this is a Torah that passed from one man's mouth to the next. Each one was a sage who understood this Torah; he taught his student, and he taught his student. You can't come along now with a book, start reading, and understand. You may know a mathematics book, but you understand nothing of Kabbalah. You have no hand, no foot, no hold in this wisdom.

15:36 For it is a wisdom very, very much of the heart, and there were many holy ones. You've surely heard of a great many tzaddikim who would perform kavanos and yichudim, and would weep. Have you heard? The Baal Shem Tov, who would weep; Rabbeinu the Rashash, whose face was full of tears; the holy Or HaChaim, Maran the Chida — when they performed yichudim, in the tallis, they would weep greatly. Now, a person sees pages like these, with so much wisdom — what tears they would weep!

16:02 So that is the decline today, in our Kabbalah of today: it is taught very, very externally, without the ability to understand the concepts and what stands behind each concept, so as to grasp it and take hold of it. And why did they speak this way, in such confusing language? Rabbeinu Yosef Chaim also wrote of this. Why does Kabbalah speak in such terms?

16:27 Unions of the middos, and yichudim, and all kinds of Abba, Imma, Ze'ir, Nukva, Ze'ir Anpin, Keser — what are all these concepts? What are such terms coming to tell us? These concepts — why do you say of something that it is a "musag," a concept? "Musag" means something that is grasped. When I speak of something that is not "musag," it is not grasped. They don't want anyone to grasp Kabbalah. That is the first thing one must understand. The point is not for a person to come and grasp Kabbalah; the point is for a person to have kavanah with Kabbalah.

16:56 To grasp this wisdom — no one will grasp it, for it is concealed, secret, sealed and hidden. You cannot grasp it. You can use it for the moment, and with it direct kavanah to that level, to that thing you need. But to grasp Kabbalah, to grasp this wisdom — that is something we have not found people able to grasp. Even those holy ones, the lofty tzaddikim of earlier generations, even they themselves said that they had still not grasped Kabbalah.

17:29 So who can come and say that he has grasped it? Grasped it? So that is why Kabbalah is built, first of all, on concepts that are not grasped, so that whoever first comes to learn it will run into a barrier: he understands nothing. All he understands is Abba, Imma, Ze'ir, Nukva, Anpin — he doesn't understand what this thing is. It sounds to him like something that makes no sense.

17:55 Why? So that, first of all, he will not grasp it. Now, we need to take these concepts and begin to simplify them, to clarify them, to explain their context. For example — just as an example — we say Abba and Imma, Father and Mother. Abba and Imma in Kabbalah. Abba is more Gevuros. Abba — right? Like a father; there's a father. When a person hears 'father', what does 'father' say?

18:20 A father is anger, that is judgment. A mother is more mercy. So behind the concept of Abba and Imma, I manage to understand that what stands hidden behind them is a revelation of a greater light, to have mercy, and a revelation of Gevuros, more to stand firm, more to hold back. Abba and Imma.

18:45 That means, now, when we actually want to draw down mercy and want to sweeten the judgments, I don't go to Abba, I go to Imma. There the judgments are sweetened at their root. In the responsa Rav Pe'alim, part 1, siman 1, Rabbeinu Yosef Chaim clarifies and explains, in a simpler way, all these concepts of the Shechinah, the unification of the Holy One, blessed be He, and His Shechinah, and things like that.

19:10 Now look, this has to be explained with a great many introductions. I can't explain it to you just like that. Why? Because, Heaven forbid, there were, to our sorrow, many who erred in Kabbalah and came to heresies from the expressions; they erred, they interpreted it wrongly — expressions, very difficult things, that were deliberately put in such hidden and concealed language. And in truth, Rabbeinu Yosef Chaim explains that all of Kabbalah is built in a language very similar to what?

19:40 To Shir HaShirim. Look at Shir HaShirim. A person reads: 'All the songs are holy, and Shir HaShirim is holy of holies' — in Tractate Yadayim. We see that Shir HaShirim is holy of holies, and in truth Kabbalah — what is it similar to? To Shir HaShirim. Expressions of male and female, just as there is male and female in Shir HaShirim. That is how I once explained it — whoever heard my shiur on Kabbalah when we were in Jerusalem — I explained that there is nothing here that is a difficulty for Kabbalah.

20:09 Because just as Shir HaShirim is in the language of male and female, and things that are very physical, as it were, Heaven forbid — you learn Shir HaShirim, and you say these are very earthly things, a language of love, of... what is going on here? These are things that don't make sense, but these things are really speaking about the Shechinah, about the Holy One, blessed be He, about Knesses Yisrael.

20:34 It is really a dialogue between the Holy One, blessed be He, and the Jewish people — that is Shir HaShirim. And Kabbalah — in what language is it? That of Shir HaShirim: Abba, Imma, zivug, middos, all these things — pay attention, it is in the same language. How did I explain it? I brought out many chiddushim there on that Shabbos; I understand they also put it into writing, in a booklet, and with Hashem's help it will yet come out later.

20:59 Can one say that the Baal HaSulam understood the depth of these things the most? Look, you have the approach of Rabbeinu the holy Ramchal. The Ramchal is — I can't tell you what. But look, once again, the fine points in Kabbalah... in Kabbalah there are a great many approaches. We have the approach of Rabbi Aharon of Strashelye on the order of the unfolding of the worlds, from the teachings of Chabad, the Alter Rebbe of Chabad. Rabbi Shabsai of Rashkov — the siddur of Rabbeinu the holy Baal Shem Tov.

21:36 Rabbi Shabsai of Rashkov — there are yichudim and kavanos there that are chiddushim of the Baal Shem Tov. The mikveh kavanah of Rabbeinu the Baal Shem Tov somewhat contradicts the Arizal's kavanos for the mikveh — for instance, as an example. That is in Chassidus. You have the Komarna, who attained further attainments and yichudim on top of the Baal Shem Tov, and attainments and levels that he attained on his own. The holy Gaon Rabbi Tzvi Hirsh of Zidichov.

22:02 I'm talking to you about Chassidus. And where is Rabbi Chaim de la Rosa, the Toras Chacham, Rabbeinu the holy Rashash, the holy Rashash himself? You need Rabbeinu the holy Arizal, you need the holy Ramchal — and the holy Ramchal himself is yet another approach, yet another path, a tremendous one, in Kabbalah. Rabbeinu the Gra, the Vilna Gaon, who had attainments in the Zohar and in Kabbalah, and knew the whole Etz Chaim and everything — he attained yet another explanation and kavanos of his own.

22:29 These are more paths, another path in the approach to interpretation and to the Kabbalah of the Torah. Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, Rabbi Nachman of Breslov — all of the Etz Chaim... all of Likutei Moharan is Kabbalah, together with all the writings of the Arizal; Likutei Halachos, and all the writings of the Arizal. Does it match the words of Rabbeinu the Toras Chacham, the Rashash? No.

22:55 Rabbi Nachman is more in the direction of Rabbeinu the Arizal and Rabbi Shabsai of Rashkov, and that is the kavanah of Rabbeinu Rabbi Nachman. There are those who learn this too, and have kavanah with it. It doesn't come now to contradict. That is to say, the teaching of the Leshem, Rabbeinu the Leshem Shevo, may his merit protect us, Rabbi Shlomo Elyashiv, who was a descendant of Rabbeinu the Arizal and the grandfather of Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, Rav Elyashiv — he is yet another kavanah and path, a world unto itself, what he attained.

23:22 The Leshem — the Chazon Ish said he wanted to learn only from him, because he was very, very great. There were those who disagreed with the author of the Leshem, because in the Leshem itself there are a few things that are somewhat difficult, in the Leshem, that require close study. In Kabbalah, it is different from pshat, the plain level. You go to a sugya in the Gemara, so you look at the Yerushalmi, you look at the Tosefta, you look at the Bavli, you look a little into the Rishonim — the Rif, the Rambam, the Tur, the Shulchan Aruch, Rabbeinu Yonah.

23:53 You enter, somehow, a kind of interpretation where you have one, two — and with that it ends. Forbidden, permitted. That is how it is in the Rishonim. In Kabbalah you have interpretations. The order of the worlds. Each one attained something in Kabbalah, and you need to know: if you go according to a certain sage, in Kabbalah you have to go with his whole corpus, with his whole approach, with his whole interpretation — to learn all of his writings.

24:22 You can't skip around — pray from the Ramchal's siddur and learn the Leshem. Not that... I just brought that up; there is no problem with that. What I mean is this: you can't take from this one and from that one and mix them together. Pray with the Ramchal's siddur and the Rashash's siddur — just as an example. Do you understand what I mean? It's not like when you learn Bavli and Yerushalmi. Learn Bavli and Yerushalmi: here you have a difficulty and there you have a difficulty, and you reconcile them with some line of reasoning. But if you now go and learn things that can be contradictory, you can bring a person to confusion. That is why Kabbalah has to be learned in a way that you learn one track, and the entire approach and wisdom of that sage,

25:03 to the end, and you finish learning all of his sefarim. After that you learn the second one, and after that the third. When you have learned them all, you can reconcile — somehow understand, more or less. Though I don't believe it — it is very, very hard to reconcile them, almost impossible, but... That is yet another approach in its own right. Now, Rabbeinu the Baal HaSulam. The Baal HaSulam — you should know, I truly want to say — in Kabbalah, the approach of the Baal HaSulam is...

25:38 I can't say that now; you know, I'm not coming to hold competitions or to come and say who is greater and who isn't; it isn't fitting to use that kind of language. I can only speak about the work that the Baal HaSulam did. The Baal HaSulam did work that is precise in the teachings of Rabbeinu the Arizal. In all of Kabbalah, you almost never find contradictions in anything he composed and went on to elaborate in his writings — not in his commentary on the Zohar, and not in Talmud Eser Sefiros.

26:17 And he held fast and did not move one millimeter from all the words of Rabbeinu the Arizal and the Zohar. That is, he kept to a plain, straight line and track, which he did not shift or try to add to, but of course he explained the things and joined them together, very much like a puzzle. That is why the approach of the Baal HaSulam is very precise.

26:44 The approach of the Leshem is also very precise, for that is what the Chazon Ish held, but with the Leshem you need very deep study to understand his words, because the Leshem raises difficulties and resolves them, and there are many things in his words that need very deep study, which can sometimes contradict the approaches of other commentators. In the words of the Ramchal, for example, there are things that will be different from the words of the Leshem. And in all of it — I can't go into every single thing with you, because each thing requires explanation and interpretation from every side.

27:16 But among them, each one is branches and paths. People need, first of all, to know the concepts at all. Today, anyone who opens a sefer of Kabbalah jumps into Kabbalah, when it may be that he has not understood in depth at all the foundation and the root of the concepts. And after he understands the concepts, understands the connection between them and what stands behind them, and what their purpose is, and what flows down and where it goes, and what the kavanah is and what the path is... And so, today we are in a generation of kabbalists; we have many, many kabbalists, more than there ever were before.

27:57 And this started from the previous question that we learned. What is it? Those who learn it — most of the world that learns it, certainly — at the end of the day, when you get close to them, when you are in their company and things like that, you see that they — the great majority of them are in the attribute of judgment; all the time they are judging you. A second thing: the Rav — you said this too — that the sefer Sippurei Maasiyos, which people call a story, an ordinary story, that is read to children — it is actual Kabbalah.

28:46 Correct. I just want, for one moment, to really put a certain emphasis here on what he just said. In the Etz Chaim, for example, Rabbeinu the Arizal wanted you to actually learn, to understand how the matter connects, and through that to rise and be elevated upward, to the upper worlds; that is what he wants to teach you. The Sippurei Maasiyos — folded inside it is all of Kabbalah.

29:12 The Etz Chaim is inside, the Zohar, the writings of the Arizal — they are folded inside the sefer Sippurei Maasiyos MiShanim Kadmoniyos. All of Kabbalah is folded inside this sefer. The way of Rabbi Nachman was like the way of Rabbi Shlomo of Lutsk, the author of the Dibras Shlomo. And Rabbi Shlomo of Lutsk, the author of the Dibras Shlomo, was one of the greatest of the sages, the tzaddikim, and he once gave a very beautiful explanation.

29:37 He explained that Rabbeinu the Arizal wanted man to go up to heaven, whereas the Baal Shem Tov wanted to bring heaven down to man. Rabbi Nachman, I say, did not want to bring heaven down to man — rather, he brought heaven down into a person's mouth. In the simple Sippurei Maasiyos that you learn — a simple tale — you can tell a child a story: the tale of the King's Son and the Maidservant's Son who were exchanged, the tale of the Lost Princess, the tale of the Clever Man and the Simple Man, of the Burgher and the Poor Man, of the Fly and the Spider, of the King and the Emperor, of the Humble King, of the Master of Prayer, the Seven Beggars.

30:12 All these things, these stories and tales, are very simple things; a child can understand them. But what did he do inside? He told you a story. He clothed everything inside it. Your understanding of how the story connects creates the kavanos, the yichudim and the effects that are hidden inside the tale. That means he took the meaning of the yichudim and the kavanos, and brought them down into concepts; from the concepts he turned it into a simple connection in the mind, and from the simple connection in the mind he translated it into a tale.

30:55 And then, when you read the tale, you understand in your mind a story, a connection between very simple things: a fly and a spider, the king who sat and dreamed a dream, and sees the spider crawling, and a page that shields. You understand? Something very plain, that you understand with your mind. That understanding in the mind creates a yichud in heaven among all that stands above, which he planted inside.

31:22 That means he already put the Kabbalah inside; he devised it, prepared it and assembled it. That means, Rabbi Nachman's Sippurei Maasiyos are not a mashal and a nimshal, a parable with its meaning — they are a mashal, a parable. Its nimshal is yichudim and kavanos from the Etz Chaim, the writings of the Arizal, the siddur of the Rashash and the Arizal, in all the kavanos. That is to say, Kabbalah is folded into the Sippurei Maasiyos.

31:47 That is to say, Kabbalah is folded inside the sefer Sippurei Maasiyos. That means: by my understanding just the tale, I bring about the yichudim and the kavanos, as if I had performed a yichud with certain kavanos — just through a tale. Inside, so very, very much is folded and hinted. And one who understands Kabbalah will be able to dive in and understand where it is hinted — from which sefiros, from which gate, from where each thing he spoke of there is hinted in the Etz Chaim, in the Pri Etz Chaim, in Sha'ar HaKavanos — each thing, where it is hinted inside the Sippurei Maasiyos; for there are lofty hints in it, high, hidden and concealed, inside this sefer.

32:34 So up to here — that is really the meaning and the explanation; I explained, so to speak, what the pshat in Kabbalah is. So we have explained a few things that are needed for Kabbalah. I hope you will remember it. What you remembered, you remembered — also what was said on Shabbos itself. What was said on Shabbos — that is left to the Torah scholars with the good memory: Rav Rappaport, Rav Asaf, Rabbi David — remember it, put it up.

33:02 What you remember, you remember; what you recorded, you recorded; put it up. No — but there is also what we learned before; that you did not record. A very good answer. So look — he is asking about the Leshem Yichud, whether it helps or doesn't help. So look, it's like this. There is a sefer, Ohr HaShanim; there he writes to say a Leshem Yichud for every mitzvah that we do.

33:32 In the Tzetel Katan, the Rebbe Reb Elimelech writes that Leshem Yichud will help a person greatly, and over time he will feel kedushah and purity in saying it — in that he says, 'For the sake of the unification of the Holy One, blessed be He, and His Shechinah.' In the responsa Rav Pe'alim, part 1, siman 1, the virtue of it is there; Rabbeinu Yosef Chaim speaks about it. You have great and tremendous virtues in saying this, beyond measure — the level and the power of what you bring about by doing the... It is like a small formula with a great many things folded inside it.

34:03 If you can say it before every mitzvah, before everything you do — I also explained that according to the pshat, in fulfilling one's obligation, as in siman 8 in the Beis Yosef, the mitzvah of tzitzis: that if you do not have in mind 'to fulfill all His mitzvos', blessed be He, you fulfill the obligation of wrapping in tzitzis only bedi'eved, after the fact, and not lechatchilah, the ideal way. Understood? That means: now you are wrapping yourself in tzitzis, you need to have in mind 'to fulfill all His mitzvos' that Hashem, blessed be He, commanded us.

34:32 And if you did not have that in mind when you wrapped yourself in tzitzis, you fulfilled the obligation bedi'eved, not lechatchilah. By saying the Leshem Yichud you merit to state all the kavanos that need to be fulfilled at the time of doing the mitzvah, and then in mitzvos like these, too, you will fulfill your obligation. You have stated your intent explicitly. Rabbeinu the Noda BiYehudah disagreed with saying the Leshem Yichud; he says it is a new thing and is not needed. He held that the very doing of the mitzvah accomplishes its effect, and this whole Leshem Yichud is a new thing — he came out against it.

34:59 Rabbeinu the Chida, in his sefer Simchas HaRegel, wrote there that there is indeed virtue in saying the Leshem Yichud. And of course, certainly in our days, it is an obligation to say the Leshem Yichud — even to shorten it a little, to mention the statements. Why? What is the reason? So that we can keep our head in the kavanah of fulfilling the mitzvah. For if I now come to fulfill the mitzvah of tzitzis, and I need 'to fulfill all His mitzvos' that Hashem, blessed be He, commanded us, then it will help me.

35:25 Because I had in mind to fulfill my obligation. Now, if I come to fulfill mitzvos and — I don't know, I don't remember, I didn't have it in mind — the Leshem Yichud will explain to me what I need to fulfill in doing the mitzvos. And the sefer Ohr HaShanim — he wrote on all the mitzvos, each and every mitzvah: the roof railing, sending away the mother bird, anything you want. 160 years ago, 150 years — this sefer is more than 100 years old — by Rav Aryeh, the author of Ohr HaShanim; he composed it.

35:54 It was a truly wonderful work: a Leshem Yichud for each and every thing, that one can say. You can open to any mitzvah — you have it there in the sefer, and it can help a person. So yes, there is great virtue. I am not disputing the Noda BiYehudah — that is already the Chida, in Simchas HaRegel. And of course, one who does not want to, like the Noda BiYehudah — there is no prohibition; but plainly, yes, today in our days there is virtue in it.

36:23 In any case, in these formulas you discover that there are a great many purposes in fulfilling the mitzvah. Like the Lashon Chachamim of Rabbeinu Yosef Chaim — he too revealed the virtues there are in this. And so it is very worthwhile for a person to spell it out before fulfilling the mitzvah: that it is both for the sake of the unification of the Holy One, blessed be He, and His Shechinah, and also with the aim of working to bring the geulah closer, and that the holy Shechinah should come out of the exile. This holy Shechinah, Imma Rachel — I recommend once again: whoever wants to understand more of these concepts, of Leshem Yichud and Tikkun Rachel and Leah and all these things — the responsa Rav Pe'alim, part 1, siman 1: Rabbeinu Yosef Chaim gave a wonderful responsum and explanation

37:02 to which I have nothing to add in my own words, only to tell you: look into it there and you will understand it, and that will be the answer to your question and to everything you asked. There is value in having in mind the Name of the yichud of Havayah and Adnus: Yud, Alef, Kei, Daled, Vav, Nun, Kei, Yud. The Name Havayah-Adnus, in each and every thing that you have in mind in Shema Yisrael.

37:28 With Adnus, it is always good to have in mind the Name Havayah — the yichud of Havayah and Adnus, the unification of the Holy One, blessed be He, and His Shechinah. May we merit through this the complete geulah, speedily in our days. Good tidings, a good life, safekeeping and protection, salvations and all the blessings. I love you. Be strong and courageous!