# Torah 38 - Pharaoh'S Chariots

> מקור: https://rabenu.app/books/kitvey-en/38/torah-38/

a) A person should constantly examine himself to see if he is attached to G-d. The tefillin are the sign of attachment. (See Ch.Ag. Meharsha,B'rachot,6. "The Holy One wears tefillin.")

b) It is impossible to reach this level of tefillin other than by sanctifying one's speech and rectifying it, for it is an aspect of ruling with the mouth, an aspect of 'sea' and of G-d's Name Adonoy, like it says, "Adonoy, open my mouth" (Psalms,51:17). When a person blemishes his speech, which is the spirit of the mouth of the Holy One, then, through this blemish, the spirit of his mouth becomes a raging storm wind. For there are 27 letters in the Hebrew alphabet and each one includes ten, altogether, 270, which is the numerical value of 'ra', evil. Thus, Adonoy, the power of speech, becomes 'Adonoy, ra' (65 and 270), which together have the numerical value of 'sa'ara' (s,60;a,70;r,200;final a,5), meaning storm. This storm wind is the Great Accuser, from whom stem all the accusations and the trials, like it says in the Zohar (Pt.1,119B) about the verse, "After these words", and like it says, "He causes a storm in the body of a person" (Tikkunei Zohar,Tikkun,18). All the accusations and evil spoken against a person stem from this storm wind which is an aspect of "the end of all flesh" (Gen.6,13), for it aims to make an end of and a finish to all flesh.

c) People who judge others harshly and who are always searching for flaws in others, they are from the Other Side, which is an aspect of "the end of all flesh", who always searches to make an end and to destroy people, Heaven forbid, to arouse harsh judgement, and to slander and accuse. The essence of their strength comes from blemishing the power of speech. Therefore, in order to subdue and nullify this, we have to rectify our speech.

d) Every person must see to it that he subdues this aspect of "the end of all flesh", bringing it under the control of holy speech. That's to say, he has to take from it all the speech that fell into the realm of evil by blemishing the faculty of speech and elevate speech to its root and rectify it; then he merits to reach the aspect of tefillin which reflects cleaving to G-d.

e) One must elevate speech to its root which is the arm, which includes five fingers on the left hand; they correspond to the Five Strengths, which are the Five Openings of the mouth that create speech, like it says, "tell of Your acts of strength" (Psalms,145:17). The beginning of the elevation of speech is from its beginning, from the best of the truth in the speech, which is called its beginning. There are several types of truth, as the Sages said, "Truth has become flocks and flocks…" (Sanhedrin, 96). It also says, "The beginning of Your words is truth" (Psalms, 119:160). That's to say, you should speak to the Holy One and express yourself very sincerely with strength and might. For, when the storm wind becomes overwhelming, it is impossible to speak clearly, for the storm wind confuses a person. When this happens, one has to change the way he speaks and when he rectifies this he won't be confused.

f) A person can rectify speech by learning Torah in poverty, hardship and all sorts of darkness and suffering that occur to him, Heaven forbid. When a person strengthens himself then to learn Torah, he draws upon himself a thread of loving-kindness, as the Sages taught us (Chagiga,12) about someone who engages in learning Torah at night, for night is the time when "the end of all flesh" has control. Through this, all the accusing forces that control speech are driven away together with all that person's opponents and all the forces of impurity. Thus, speech is rectified and elevated to its source. Then his power of speech comes out with song, praise and thanksgiving to the Holy One that he has merited to pray and give thanksgiving and praise to G-d and to express himself well before Him, with fervour in the heart.

g) As a result, he will merit to converse with his Maker with mighty enthusiasm, for every person has to train himself to converse with the Holy One with tremendous sincerity. He has to express himself such that he arouses his heart to really serve G-d and speak with G-d with heat in the heart and sincerity, words to arouse himself to repentance until he sees his own worthlessness and the greatness of the Creator; until he really feels great shame before G-d. Previously he had thrown all his sins over his shoulder without thinking about them, but now, when he knows his sins, he feels great shame about the awesomeness of his sins against the Master, King and Source of all the worlds! At first the shame isn't yet visible on his face because the sins stupefy the intellect and the mind by the spirit of foolishness that enters him. Therefore, before meriting to repent completely, a person hasn't enough understanding to feel proper shame in relation to the awesomeness of his sins and the greatness of G-d against whom he sinned. But afterwards, when he repents, and removes all the foolishness this adds intelligence; then he feels the shame much more until the shame is apparent on his face. This shame is an aspect of the light of the tefillin which reflects his attachment to the Creator. This is what it says, "Moshe's face shone". By this shame, all a person's sins are forgiven and he comes to cleave to the Tree of Life.

h) Through this we can understand if a person has fear of G-d, that's to say, shame, as Chazal say in Nedarim (20A). After rectifying the sin, when we look at his face, fear and shame falls upon us. That means we draw upon ourselves understanding of the greatness of the Holy One. This is what the verse says, "Then you will understand the fear of G-d" (Proverbs, 2:5). You will be able to understand if he has fear of G-d. "And find the knowledge of G-d." That's to say, that when you will also find within yourself knowledge of the greatness of the Holy One, which is shame and fear, this is an aspect of "And all the nations of the earth shall see that you are called by the Name of the Lord" (Deut.28:10), 'these are tefillin' (B'rachot,6). "And they will fear you" (ibid); there will be drawn upon them also fear and shame which is an aspect of tefillin which are called "glory" (B'rachot,11) which alludes to the generality of all the colours, like it says, "Israel in whom I will be glorified" (Isaiah,49,3). Israel contain the Sublime Colours. That is what we see that when a person feels shame, his face turns to several colours.

i) Therefore, the Sages said that someone who sins but then feels ashamed, he is forgiven immediately (B'rachot,12). This is because the sin instills a spirit of folly in a person, but when he feels ashamed this returns his intellect, as we saw, "Then you will understand the fear of G-d", which is a form of shame; that is the essence of repentance. Through this one merits to the light of tefillin which is an aspect of light shining from his face. On the other hand, someone who has arrogance shows by this that his ancestors weren't present at Mt. Sinai (Nedarim, 20) and we can be certain that he transgressed the prohibition of adultery (Ta'anit,7). He is attached to the venom of the Serpent from which Cain came, who took the twin sister (the wife) of Hevel, his brother. Any Jew who stood at Mt. Sinai had this venom extracted, but this wasn't the case with the other nations. That is what the Sages alluded to when they stressed that his ancestors' feet stood at Mt. Sinai, for the Serpent had no legs, as it says, "On your belly you will go" (Gen.3:14). Such a person is attached to the tree of death and descends into Hell. For Adam blemished the Tree of Life which is like tefillin, as it says, "G-d decreed that all the dead will be resurrected" (Isaiah, 38:16). When a person attaches himself to the Tree of Death, "he is driven out of the Garden of Eden"(Gen.3:24), for it says, "The arrogant go to Hell" (P.Avot,Ch.5). When Adam repented it says, "G-d made them coats of skin" (Gen.3,21) and this alludes to tefillin (Tikkunei Zohar, pg. 105), light shining from his face. It turns out that by shame, an aspect of the light of tefillin, he is forgiven for all his iniquities and merits to attach himself to the Tree of Life. But, someone who is not ashamed of tzaddikim and pious Jews who fear G-d, they have evil arrogance and descend into Hell. And when a person repents, and feels ashamed of his sins, he is forgiven and drives out the spirit of folly from within him and thus merits to the light of tefillin which is an aspect of the Tree of Life.

j) This is what the Tana said, "A pine fell in our place" (Bechorot,57) for it is known that the true tzaddik is called "a pine in Lebanon" for he serves G-d with great attachment and wonderful intellect. When he falls to a lower level than he is at now, even though this is a high level in relation to other tzaddikim, that is what it says, "he fell in our place", meaning he fell in his perception of G-d, who is called "the Place of the world", to "our place", our level of perception. Even though it is a high level, in relation to himself it is a fall. The Tana praised the tzaddik of the generation who felt ashamed of this level as if he had sinned. It is considered as if he had fallen and he repents on this as if he had sinned. By this he comes to such great shame that it is like the light of the tefillin; his intellect and brain are renewed much more such that he gains greater knowledge and recognition of the greatness of G-d… So it is with each person, by renewing his intellect in Torah, he gains greater recognition of G-d's greatness and feels more shame about his sins and that is the essence of repentance; then he merits to the light of tefillin and attachment to the Tree of Life.

k) Each person must draw upon himself the holiness of Shabbat, an aspect of shame, (B'reishit, yira boshet- fear and shame- an aspect of yira Shabbat) which is an aspect of fear of G-d, the light of tefillin, and by this to sanctify the days of the week, as it says in the Mechilta, "remember the day of Shabbat" –' remember it from the first day of the week.' The degree to which he sanctifies the days of the week, so he drives out the venom of the Serpent, the end of all flesh and the storm wind, as explained previously. Through this he raises the speech to its source. By sanctifying the days of the week from the 39 types of work, the 39 curses, which the Serpent caused, one can imagine that the mundane days of the week are like 'My holy day' (Shabbat).