Chasidut sobre Pirkei Avot 6:12

This idea is in accordance with the saying of the Sages z'l in Ethics of our Fathers, "Each day a heavenly voice emerges from mount Horeb and declares..." For it is known that there are six hundred thousand souls in Israel, accordingly the same [number of] letters in the Torah; as is known the the Torah, The Holy One, and Israel are all one, and Israel is the body of/for the Torah, and it is known that through the Torah The Holy One created the world which is letters. And there can be nothing in the world without the letters which bring life to it for they are the speech of The Holy One and if the letters disappeared and weren't perceptible, the speaker prior to his speaking what can be said of his speech(?) - that the letters are in potential and not perceptible - it is a general principle is that the life force of each thing are the letters within it. And if a man sins God Forbid, the letters which are the life-force enter Evil and give power to Evil, and also it doesn't appear in the eyes of the flesh that the truth is known. And thus he gives a confession of [these] things in saying 'I sinned' with bitterness of heart on account of his Awe of God combined with Love of God. And through this the letters which were providing life-force to Evil leave and the Evil is left without the life-force and is consequently nullified.

--- The explanation of that which my teacher asked about that which the Sages, may their memory be blessed, said (Avot 6:2), "Each and every day a heavenly echo goes out from Mount Horeb, and announces, etc.": Either way, it is difficult. If it is impossible for anyone to hear this announcement – if so, why does the echo go out at all? And if it is possible to hear, what is the reason that it is not heard? For if a person were to say that he heard it, he would be condemned as a false prophet! And he explained that 'there is no speech and no words' above; it is only in the realm of thought. If so, the thoughts of repentance that come to a man are from the announcement, etc. And (with relation to this teaching,) the words of the mouth of a sage are a charm. Behold, if one inclines his ear to listen to the call and the announcement, it is possible for anybody to hear it – meaning in his thoughts. Indeed, if one is intelligent enough to understand that this thought is the voice of the announcement and the heavenly echo from God Himself, may He be blessed, by way of His extending Himself throughout the worlds, until it reaches the thought of this man; and he inclines his ear to hear properly 'to listen and to observe' – then God will continue to speak to him, about how he is to behave in the ways of God. As it is written (Psalms 25:8), "Good and upright is the Lord; therefore He shows sinners the way."

And so a person [must] remember [this] and take care during his learning the Torah how he speaks the letters of the Torah, for with them was the world created, and by himself attach the letters to their root letters in the Torah, which was given like this to the world through 'thunder and lightening' in order that 'the fear of God should be upon you and you will be without sin', as explained. In any case, if 'awe' and 'fear' befall a person in 'thunder and lightening', its seems apparent that he would not sing, God forbid. For how could there be the possibility of sin with all that. And this is the idea of the 'heavenly voice which goes forth', they are the letter of the Torah inside every person who recalls and declares them daily. And he who doesn't not hear the heavenly voice [and for whom] it is as if he did not declare, 'woe unto him...for insulting the Torah' which is inside of him. And this is the meaning of 'for anyone who does not involve himself in the Torah' meaning - who is not inscribed in the Torah, "he is called "rebuked"'; for this is the idea of rebuke for a person which changes his 'face to redness'

This idea is alluded to in the wording in Chagigah 3:1. ‎The Mishnah there discussing different degrees of holiness, ‎i.e. that ‎קדשים‎, sacred parts of sacrificial animals, have a higher ‎degree of holiness than t’rumah, the portion of the farmer’s ‎harvest that has to be given to the priest. An example given by ‎the Mishnah illustrating this is that whereas two vessels ‎which require ritual purification through immersion in a ritual ‎bath may be cleansed even when one of them is inside the other, ‎this ruling is not valid when the vessels in question belong to a ‎higher level of holiness known as ‎קדשים‎, vessels used in handling ‎the remains of sacrificial animals, for instance. Apparently, the ‎author of this Mishnah relates the rules pertaining to ‎cleansing vessels that have become ritually impure to their ‎respective origins. In other words: the holier one’s origin, the ‎more stringent the rules for recapturing one’s purity once it had ‎been lost. The wording of the Mishnah, i.e.‎חומר בקודש ‏מבתרומה ‏‎, can be understood allegorically as: “the reason why ‎higher ranking holiness is subject to more stringent steps of ‎purification than lower ranking holy vessels, is because the higher ‎ranking ones had been inside the lower ranking ones.” The word ‎תרומה‎ chosen by the Mishnah, has a double meaning, i.e. it ‎is something in need of being elevated further. Applied to the ‎צדיק‎ in our parable, it means that the tzaddik engaged in ‎‎“outreach,” must be much more on guard against being drawn ‎into the sphere of the sinner than the kind of tzaddik who ‎does not venture to mix with the sinners even in order to bring ‎them closer to G’d. A tzaddik faced with this dilemma will ‎do well to remind himself that the allures of this world are ‎transient, and cannot be compared to the delights in store when ‎the soul rejoins its place in heaven after having successfully ‎discharged its duties while within a mortal body.‎
When our sages in Avot 6,10 stated that everything that ‎G’d created, He created only for the sake of His glory, this is ‎another way of saying that He desires to have satisfaction from ‎the conduct of His creatures.

It is well known that Shabbat corresponds to the final hay of God’s name, and that it is called, a daughter. And anyone that observes Shabbat ‘merits the inheritance of Yaakov’ – as is well known. And Yaakov is the vav of the name, and is also called, son – as is elucidated in several places. And that is the meaning of that which is sung, “One who keeps the Shabbat” – who merits to raise up the vav and the hay of the name – which is, “a boy and a girl – will be accepted like a meal offering on the griddle.” That is because it is only from the inanimate and from that which grows – which also only correspond to the vav and the hay of the name. Yet the Holy One, blessed be He, accepts it willingly. And in another place, I explained that this song has seven rhyming stanzas which hint to the seven characteristics (see Avot 6:8). ‘And knowledge comes easily to the intelligent man.’

Regarding the verse (Vayikra 25:55) “The Children of Israel are servants to Me; they are my servants…” My claim came before [any other claim]. This is still true today, for according to the level at which one accepts the yoke of Heaven, enslavement to governments is removed, as our sages have taught (Avot 3:5), “One who accepts the yoke of Torah, has the yoke of government removed.” There are also roles of servant and child… [The roles of servant and child] parallel the aspects of Torah and commandments, for one who engages in Torah [as a child of G-d] is free. (Avot 6:2) However, everyone must accept the yoke of Heaven and of commandments upon themselves [as a servant]. This is the meaning of the verse, “They are My servants”, as it is written “Israel, in whom I am glorified.” (Isaiah 49:3) It is glorious for G-d when Israel accepts servitude to Him, despite being His children. It is not only praise of Israel, but it is also true testimony to the Creator… There are always levels of servant and child, servant and child, in that the greater one’s grasp of the secrets of the King [as G-d’s child], the more one lowers one’s self to accept the yoke of Heaven as a servant. Consequently, one merits to see and grasp, as a child, and then one returns to being a servant… In Nisan, we become free and receive the yoke of Heaven. All the days of the Sefirah, we are like servants, doing His will, until we achieve seven complete weeks, which is the oath we swore and in which we have stood since Mount Sinai. We then merit on Shavuot to receive the Torah, like children who search through the vaults of the king. However, we then return to being servants, which is Sukkot, when we return and repent on Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur, and accept the yoke of Heaven anew, which is the glory mentioned above, as the Holy One finds glory in them…Similarly, daily, one accepts the yoke of Heaven [as a servant] in the morning and thereby merits Torah [as a child] according to his level. And at night, one returns to accept the yoke of Heaven. And the level of the “second servant” is greater, as can be understood.

This is the true meaning of what the Mishnah in ‎‎Avot 6,11 tells us when the author states that everything ‎the Lord has created has as its objective the enhancing of His ‎glory. Maimonides in the Moreh Nevuchim when explaining ‎the line in our prayers about G’d being ‎יוצר אור ובורא חושך‎, ‎‎“fashioning light, while having created the element of darkness,” ‎explains the word ‎ברא‎, as related to the word ‎בור‎, as in Genesis ‎‎37,24 ‎והבור רק אין בו מים‎, “the pit was empty and did not contain ‎any water;” in other words, by withdrawing light there remains ‎darkness. This “darkness” would be what is left from the original ‎chaos, ‎תהו ובוהו‎, of which the Torah speaks in the first verse of ‎Genesis prior to G’d creating light.
In spite of this ‎commentary by Maimonides, what the Mishnah meant refers ‎only to the creatures. i.e. man, to whom G’d had given ‎בחירה‎, the ‎ability to make their own decisions as to whether they would live ‎their lives in accordance with the wishes of the Creator or not. ‎When man rises above the temptations offered in this world and ‎chooses to serve his Creator this adds to G’d’s glory.
We know that by carrying out G’d’s will as expressed by the ‎commandments He gave us in the Torah, we establish a “lifeline” ‎to Him, and as the Talmud says in B’rachot 18, the ‎righteous are considered as “great,” because they are called ‎‎“alive” even after their bodies have already been interred. The ‎same is not true for the wicked, who our sages describe as “dead” ‎even while still walking around on earth. The wicked, by choosing ‎a path which eventually results in their forfeiting their afterlife, ‎have already identified themselves with “death,” even while ‎onlookers do not yet realize this. [We hardly need any ‎proof for his after reminding ourselves that Esau declined the ‎benefits of birthright for precisely this consideration (Genesis ‎‎25,32). Ed.]‎

Having said this, we can now understand psalms 145,13: ‎מלכותך מלכות כל עולמים‎, “Your Kingdom is an eternal kingdom.” ‎Why did the psalmist have to repeat the word: ‎מלכות‎ in this ‎verse?‎
With the help of G’d I hope to be able to explain why, if G’d ‎expects us to attain the level of the attribute of ‎אין‎, did He create ‎the evil urge which serves as an almost impenetrable curtain ‎preventing us from attaining our destiny. Especially in view of ‎the fact that all manner of “life” is dependent directly on the ‎Creator at every moment and in every place on earth, why did G’d ‎throw up obstacles to our proceeding smoothly along the right ‎path? The obstacle called “evil urge” is almost bound to cause us ‎to leave this life prematurely, without our having fulfilled our ‎task! Moreover, how can we reconcile the existence and constant ‎activity of the evil urge with the statement at the end of tractate ‎Avot that everything that G’d has created, He created only for the ‎sake of His greater glory? Does not the wording of that ‎‎Mishnah, i.e. ‎כל מה שברא הקדוש ברוך הוא לא ברא אלא לכבודו‎, ‎‎”everything that the Holy One blessed be He has created, He did ‎not create except in order to increase His glory,” suggest that ‎there is also another purpose?
‎[What bothers our author in the text of the ‎‎Mishnah is the word ‎אלא‎, “except,” which suggests that ‎after eliminating other alternatives the one presented here is the ‎only correct choice. In fact the sages of the Talmud debated for ‎two and a half years if it would have been easier (‎נוח לו‎) for man ‎never to have been created at all; after that long debate they took ‎a vote and the consensus was that indeed it would have been ‎‎“easier” for man never to have seen the light of the world, but ‎seeing that G’d in His wisdom had decreed otherwise, it is, of ‎course, our duty to accept the challenges with which He has ‎presented us after we have been born. (Compare Eyruvin ‎‎13) Ed.]‎‎‎

The greatest of the Rabbi Simcha Bunem’s disciples was my grandfather, the holy Rav Mordechai Yosef, may his merit protect us and all of Israel, amen. He was the shining star among the fellowship of Rabbi Simha Bunem, a fellowship of holy sacrificial lambs dedicating every fiber of their being to the holy Torah. His fellowship of students was on the level of the fellowship of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yohai. Rabbi Mordechai Yosef abandoned all worldly affairs, selling his house and family inheritance, even all property his holy father the great Rav Yaakov left him, in order to dedicate himself to the Torah.¹⁵⁸See BT Berachot, 35b, which brings opposing views among the sages towards working for a living. He lived on meager bread, fulfilling the advice of the Mishnah (Avot, 6:4), “eat bread with salt, drink water, and sleep on the floor, for this is the way of the Torah.” He spent nine years living in the study house of Rabbi Simha Bunem of Prshisha, only going back home for a few weeks a year, such as the week Passover. Though he was a weak physically, often ill, suffering from bronchitis, he never took care of his physical well-being. He suffered from cold winters due to a lack of proper clothing, even though he had been pampered as the child of a well-to-do family. His family traced their lineage to Rashi, who connects him with the line of King David, the Messiah of Israel.

(211) And for a person to reach this level at all, of checking themselves, there is one advice. A person is a mixture of good and evil, the body tends to what is physical and to bodily pleasures, and the soul tends to spiritual things, and in order to subdue the physical so the physical will too tend to spiritual things, and so that the physical becomes a shape, a person needs to break their desires of all those physical pleasures, and choose the way of Torah, that is " you shall eat bread with salt, and rationed water shall you drink; you shall sleep on the ground, your life will be one of privation, and in Torah shall you labor. If you do this, “Happy shall you be and it shall be good for you” (Psalms 128:2): “Happy shall you be” in this world, “and it shall be good for you” in the world to come" (Pirkei Avot 6:4). And the commentators already wondered regarding what is happiness in this world? And it seems to me that there is no privation greater than the great and permanent war against the evil inclination, which never stops day or night, as the great sage said "you came from a small war, prepare yourselves for a great war etc" (Duties of the Heart, Fifth Treatise on Devotion 5:6). And behold, the yetzer hara does not arouse itself only in regards to food and drink and physical pleasures, as it says "and Jeshurun got fat and kicked" (Deuteronomy 32:15); and "and you ate, you were satisfied and your heart grew haughty" (Deuteronomy 8:14); however, when a person conducts themselves in the ways of the Torah, the yetzer hara has no entrance to seduce that person, and therefore the person has rest from the great war, and from the sensation of privation of the yetzer hara, and so it is good for that person also in this world, as one is quiet and rests from the great war.