הם לא מאמינים שהשכינה מתלבשת בקליפות? | הרב מנחם מיידנצ'יק, ג' חשוון | אגרות הקודש סימן כ"ה

Today is Gimmel Menachem Av, we are finishing Iggeret HaKodesh. Page 141. We spoke yesterday about a point brought in the name of the Baal Shem Tov in the book called Tzava'at HaRivash (which is not his own testament, but that is the name of the book, written by his students: The Testament of Rabbi Yisrael Baal Shem Tov), which raised a point: that the translation of the concept of Divinity "clothing itself" used the word "shrata "(dwelled), but the translator did not understand the grammatical nuance; it should rather

be "hitlabsha"(clothed itself), because "shrata" refers to the revelation of the Shechinah, whereas here it merely clothed itself in a gentile. They asked about this: How can it be that even in the nations of the world there is an element of Divine " clothing" within them?

So the Admor HaZaken actually writes here: It seems to me that their entire grasp of what the Baal Shem Tov writes......is not due to grammar, but rather they have a fundamental problem with the concept of the Shechinah clothing itself in the* kelipot*—how can it be that there is any matter of the Shechinah in the* kelipot*at all? This means they do not have faith in what the Ari z "l wrote in*Sefer HaGilgulim*, where he writes about the Shechinah clothing itself in the*kelipot*as well. The Admor HaZaken continues

and says that if they wish to distinguish between spiritual*kelipot* and physical idolaters, he says: there is no basis for this. One cannot distinguish by saying it is only in spiritual*kelipot*, because there is nothing as physical as the dust of the earth, yet*Malchut*of*Malchut*of*Asiyah *and within it*Malchut*of*Yetzirah* clothe themselves in it, all as mentioned above.

And if it is difficult for them to say that the Shechinah clothes itself in a gentile because of the impurity of the souls of the nations, the Admor HaZaken says: their souls are the union of the male and female and the*Malchut*of the spiritual *kelipot*, as it is written in the writings of the Ari z" l; the Ari z "l himself writes this. It turns out that the spiritual [entities], the spiritual *kelipot*, are the source of their impurity. This means that the Shechinah actually clothes itself in spirituality , and from spirituality, it essentially reaches physicality. So why can we not say that it is the same regarding the souls of the nations of the world?

The Admor HaZaken says, but in truth, this" clothing "requires explanation. How the Shechinah clothes itself in*kelipot*, both spiritual*kelipot*and how it descends to the nations of the world below. But their complaints are not against us, nor against the revealers of Chassidut—the Baal Shem Tov, the Maggid of Mezritch, the Admor HaZaken —but against the writings of the Ari z" l. It is written there that the Shechinah clothes itself in*kelipot*.

As we said in previous lessons, if a gentile curses someone, or someone does something to someone, then in reality, he cannot do it without Divine power. This means there is a trial for a person here, there is a Divine mission here that has come to test us, and we should not get angry about it. We said there are physical types; if someone annoys them, if someone does something to us—though he will receive his punishment, it is a trial, and therefore we should not actually get angry about it. And whoever gets angry is as if he has committed idolatry.

And we said: only in spirituality is there an aspect of anger, as we discussed in previous lessons. In any case, he says you cannot: you essentially cannot complain about Hasidism for revealing this, because it is already written in the writings of the Ari. And let no listener suspect that I personally understood the words of the Ari as stripping them of their physicality, for I only came to interpret the words of the Baal Shem Tov and his students according to the Kabbalah of the Ari, of blessed

memory. Furthermore, even more than that, the truth is that this matter—that the Holy One, blessed be He, is present everywhere, in every level, even in the lowest places—does not come from the wisdom of Kabbalah and the hidden secrets of the Lord our God, but rather it comes from the revealed, from the revealed Torah, from the things revealed to us and our children, to believe with perfect faith .

After all, what is written? It is written in Jeremiah 23: "Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord," and a verse cannot be divorced from its plain meaning. It is explicitly written that the Holy One, blessed be He, is present everywhere.

So if one says that the Holy One, blessed be He, is not present everywhere, then it is a contradiction. He is also found below, even within the nations of the world. And it is also a simple faith among the entirety of Israel, passed down to them by our holy forefathers who walked in simplicity and perfect faith with God, without investigating with human intellect the Divinity, which is beyond all intellect and end. This is beyond intellect—this understanding that the Holy One, blessed be He, is present everywhere, that everything is Divinity , and that nothing here happens by chance—all this is what is called faith above intellect, to know how He fills all the earth.

It is only that newcomers have recently come to investigate with rational inquiry, wanting to understand this with the intellect, how Divinity fills the world , and it is impossible to bring it to their intellect except through borrowed premises. They study the writings of the Ari, yes, through abstraction, yes. That they strip them of their physicality, as I heard from his students, of blessed memory. The Admor HaZaken says: I heard from the Baal Shem Tov and the Maggid of Mezeritch and his students—is it possible to explain this in a letter?

Because the ear that hears is for the select few and the remnants who call upon the Lord , just as it is written. Please understand this clearly, and from this you can hear—this means that those who do not seek the Lord cannot understand. This means that to understand these matters, one must seek the Lord, yes, to understand the Divinity that was revealed in the inner dimensions of the Torah in general and specifically through the teachings of Hasidism. If a person wants to understand the Divine matter, how it animates and sustains the world and how Divinity is found everywhere, they need to study this subject.

Here you have seen what the Admor HaZaken writes to the opponents of the teachings of Hasidism—an interpretation of one passage from well-known books as an example and a sign, because even for all the confusing passages, all the questions they have, there is a clear interpretation and explanation for a Jew who knows hidden wisdom, but they should not belittle their value. The Admor HaZaken addresses them respectfully: Must I explain everything to them in a letter? For it is a heavy and vast task and impossible in any

way , unless you wish—send one of your own, a special one from your community, and we will speak face-to-face, if God wills, and God will be with my mouth, to find favor with my speech. He says to them: Do you really want to understand the matter?

Bring me someone , a rabbi among you, a genius, a very wise man who can represent you, someone who is accepted by you, let him come and speak with me and I will explain to him the whole concept of Divinity, that Divinity is clothed in every physical thing, even in non-Jews, and that Divinity is everywhere. And to understand this, even a little, of course, one needs to study it. The point is that one must study and understand, and the more we study Chassidut, the more we will live the Divinity and understand that everything is Divinity.