The meaning of asking to “not be embarrassed forever,” is:
Now, it is written, “for no man can see Me [Hashem] and live” (Shemos 33:20). Regarding this, our Sages said, “In a person’s life he cannot see Hashem, but when he dies, he can see Hashem” (Kallah Rabasi 3 and other places), because, in a person’s lifetime, his soul is invested in his body, which covers over and conceals it, and causes this world to appear as though it has its own existence independent of Hashem.
However, when the soul leaves the body, then he sees that, in truth, the real existence of the world was really nothing other than Hashem’s Very Being and Essence. This is because Hashem existed before the word was created, exists now, and will exist forever, without any change whatsoever.
The creation of the world made no change in Hashem at all. Before the world was created, He was the only existence. So too now that we see a world, Hashem is the only true existence. Otherwise, there would be a change in Hashem’s Oneness, G-d forbid, by the creation of the world. The fact that there is no change in His Oneness despite the creation of the world is because it is not separate from Him at all, and since it has no independent existence whatsoever, even now Hashem is still the only true existence.
And nothing can clothe and conceal Hashem at all, when viewed from His perspective, Above. Even though we see the world as concealing Hashem, it doesn’t hide anything from Hashem at all, and Hashem sees that there is nothing besides for Himself.
It was completely “false advertising” that he bought into, to look at the world as though it has its own existence, independent of Hashem. The world is lying to us by making itself look as though it is separate from Hashem. Since we see this lie all day, every day, we buy into it.
Then, when a person dies, his embarrassment will be very great, since almost all of his thoughts and pursuits were regarding the vanities of this world and its matters, instead of being primarily focused on Torah and Mitzvos, as though he and the world are totally disconnected from Hashem, and this is extreme brazenness and disrespect to Hashem.
When someone is in the presence of a king, and he is focused on his own petty matters instead of on the king, this is a great disrespect. Similarly, we are always in Hashem’s presence, and “There is no place where He is not.” Hence, it is disrespectful to Hashem to be involved in material matters with no intention of how it will help him serve Hashem. This subtly implies that that place is separate from Hashem, G-d forbid, and that is why he isn’t focused on Hashem while he is there.
As the maamar explained before, this doesn’t mean that no one should have any material pursuits at all. Instead, he should make the Torah and Mitzvos his main purpose in life, and all his material matters are only secondary, in order to enable him to learn Torah and fulfill Mitzvos. When his thoughts are constantly on serving Hashem, then even in his material pursuits, he is aware of Hashem and not disrespectful, since his purpose in those matters is also to serve Hashem ultimately.
Therefore, we ask Hashem, “In Your great mercies, have mercy on us, and place in our heart understanding.” Meaning, we ask for help to understand things the way they really are, so that while our soul is invested in our body, we should understand and perceive how, in truth, everything has no independent existence other than Hashem, just like before the world was created, with no change whatsoever, as explained above.
The verse asking for mercy concludes, “And we will not be embarrassed... forever,” we are asking for this insight into reality so that we should not be embarrassed “forever,” even after we die.
This is the meaning of “Yaakov (Hashem’s mercy) who has redeemed Avraham (love of Hashem).”
According to Chassidus (see Tanya chapter 45), the meaning of this verse is that through the attribute of Yaakov, which is awakening mercy from Hashem on our Divine soul, we redeem our hidden love of Hashem, the aspect of Avraham.
