and it is written (Iyov 36:32): “on the palms of his hands he covered light, and he commanded it to shine forth when requested” in prayer.
In Toras Chayim, the Mittler Rebbe explains: As the maamar will continue to say, Pharoh was a poweful king of unholiness, and his level was opposite the “powerful king” of Holiness, which is Malchus of Atzilus. This level of Malchus, Hashem’s Kingship, is the source of all revelation in the worlds.
The palms of the hands are used to hold a cup of wine. There are two functions of the cup: One is to drink, and is to pour it out for other people to drink. Both functions are accomplished through the hand, that holds the cup in the palm. Similarly, if the souls of the Jewish People are the “grapes” that produce the “wine” of love and fear of Hashem, then it needs to be elevated through the letters of prayer, the “cup” and placed on the “palm of the hand of the king,” the aspect of Malchus that takes our heartfelt prayers and takes them into Atzilus, like the king who takes the wine and drinks it.
Then, the “king” pours out “the cup of blessed wine” to all those present, meaning, that through Malchus, Hashem “pours out” divine revelation to us through the letters of Torah study that come after the heartfelt prayers.
Thus, the idea that Hashem “engraved us on His palms” means that He accepted our heartfelt prayers into his level of Malchus, as they he took them in with His hands, as it were. The idea of “He covered the palms of His hands with Light,” is how Hashem fills His Malchus with Light to pour down onto us, and “He commands it” shine upon our Torah study “when we request it” from Him in prayer.
Because, the aspect of “Pharoh” in holiness, in the opposite corresponding aspect to unholiness:
Just as Pharoh in unholiness was a powerful force of unholiness, so too, in the opposite corresponding aspect of Pharoh of holiness is a very power revelation of Hashem, since
LESSONS IN TORAH OR
פְּרִּ יעָּה וְהִּתְ גַּלּוּת דְּ בַר ה', the word “פַּרְ עֹה-Pharoh” comes from the word “פ ְרִ יעָּהַׁ-uncovering” and revelation of the “word of Hashem,” i.e., Malchus, referred to as “the Speech of Hashem,”
this process is accomplished through the “officer of serving drinks,” which is the aspect referred to as “the windpipe,” since “the sound of the voice awakens the persons concentration,” enabling him to rejoice in Hashem during prayer.
Since the sound of a person’s voice when reciting his prayers helps him concentrate on his prayers, the source of the voice, which is the windpipe that blows the air into the vocal cords, is also called “the officer of serving drinks,” since it helps facilitate the “flow” of understanding into the heart, to make it rejoice, and helps the connect the mind and the heart.
This is the meaning of what the officer of serving drinks said: “I placed the cup [onto the palm of Pharoh],” since the windpipe, the part of the body that is the “officer of serving drinks,” is what brings the awakening of love of Hashem, the “cup” of spiritual “wine,” above and beyond the limitations of a person’s understanding, to such a passionate level that it ascends to Malchus of Atzilus, to the “palm” of “the King” of holiness.
Chapter 3
However, this level of “wine that causes joy” described above, not everyone merits to experience it, only the “upright of heart,” as it is written (Tehillim 97:11): “and for the upright of heart - there is joy,” meaning, someone who walked in the straight path of Torah and Mitzvos his entire life.
However, someone who perverted his ways, and became defiled with the “sins of the youth,” i.e., immoral acts, as explained above, it is impossible for him to rejoice in Hashem in his prayers, because of the many unholy thoughts that bother him.
Therefore, for this person this will be the proper advice:
There is another type of “wine,” which is called “wine that intoxicates.”
As it is written (Mishlei 31:6-7): “Give strong drink to the one who is perishing and wine to those of bitter soul, let him drink and forget his poverty...”
As our Sages say (Sanhedrin 43a) regarding those condemned to capital punishment by the Beis Din (Jewish Court): They would give him a cup of strong wine before execution, so that he would lose his mind, i.e., become intoxicated, so that he could handle the pain of death.
Therefore, a similar concept applies to the recital of Shema before going to bed,
in regards to one who wishes to take upon himself the four manners of execution of the Beis Din, as it is written in the text of the above prayer according to the version of the Arizal,
where we say: “[May it be Your will before you Hashem, that] if I have [sinned before You and] caused a blemish in the letter י'ַׁ [of Your great Name י -ה-ו -ה by neglecting to recite Shema, and thereby also caused a blemish in the letter א' of Your Name אדני ,] and I have thereby become liable to the punishment of stoning [or a similar punishment in Your righteous Beis Din, then I hereby accept myself the punishment of stoning, and it should be considered as though I was stoned through the letter א' of the Name אדני in the Great Beis Din in Yerushalayim, for the sake of the glory of Your Name.]"
According to the teachings of the Kabbalah, when a person sins, he causes a blemish in the letters of Hashem’s Name. This is because the letters of these Names correspond to the Sefiros of Atzilus. Since our Divine soul is rooted in the Sefiros of Atzilus, by causing a blemish in our Divine soul through sin, this blemishes the source of the soul in the Sefiros of Atzilus, the “letters of Hashem’s Names.”
Because of the great disrespect to Hashem that happens when His “Name” in Atzilus becomes “blemished” through our sins, it is as if we are liable to capital punishment for “blemishing the Name of the King.”
This is not to be taken literally, since most sins do want warrant capital punishment in the physical sense, only for a handful of sins, such as murder and idol worship and incest. The concept here is that a person should realize the seriousness of his actions.
In theory, if someone was in the presence of king and disrespected his name, then he would liable for capital punishment. We are the close servants and children of Hashem, and we represent Hashem in this world. When we behave inappropriately or are lax in His service, this reflects badly on Hashem, as it were, and therefore is considered disrespectful to Hashem.
Now, Hashem does not ask of us to do more than we are capable of, and He created us with a Yetzer Hara, with physical desires and ego etc. that make it difficult to serve Him. Therefore, Hashem will not actually punish us according to His honor, but according to our situation and capabilities. Hashem will generally only punish someone if that person knowingly and intentionally is disrespectful to Him, that the person knows better and nonetheless chooses to go against Hashem out of sheer ego or spite. Even then, Hashem judges each person according to his situation and the causes that brought him to want to sin etc.
But for ourselves, we should consider even our “regular” sins, such as neglecting reciting Shema, or putting on Tefillin etc. as a serious problem. We should imagine as though we were being judged in the Heavenly Court for our actions, and punished for sins.
In that context, the Arizal writes that there are four mitzvos (reciting Shema, putting on Tefillin, wearing Tzitzis, and daily prayer) that correspond to the four letters of Hashem’s Names of Havaya and Adnai. When a Jewish man neglects the observance of one of these mitzvos, he “blemishes” a corresponding letter in those two Names of Hashem. The punishment for blemishing the four letters of these two Names corresponds to the four capital forms of punishment: stoning, burning, beheading, and strangulation. Each “blemished letter” corresponds to one of these four types of punishment as a correction for the “blemish.”
When reciting this prayer before going to sleep, if he “blemished” one of these letters through his mitzvah neglect, he should imagine that he is being judged in the Beis Din for this sin, and sentenced to one of the corresponding forms of capital punishment. Through accepting upon himself this punishment in his mind, and realizing that, theoretically, he should be liable to capital punishment, and imagining it happening to him, this atones and corrects the blemish caused by his neglect.
Now, in this prayer it only mentions four mitzvos, that are only obligatory for men. Nonetheless, the same concept applies to all mitzvos and to all types of sins, that each one corresponds to a specific letter of Hashem’s Name, and therefore the correction for blemishing that letter is connected to a corresponding form of capital punishment. Hence, this concept is essentially equally applicable to Jewish women as to Jewish men, even though they do not recite this particular prayer. The maamar will continue to give a few examples of how this concept could apply in our spiritual service, even if we do not actually recite the words of this prayer, such as on days when Tachanun is not recited, or for women who never recite this prayer. This process is called “accepting upon oneself the four forms of capital punishment during the bedtime recital of Shema.”
In particular: When someone sees in himself that his heart is blocked and covered over from having any feelings for Hashem, and has become like a stone, this is the idea of the spiritual punishment of “stoning,” and the person who experiences this is clearly “liable” in the sense that he brought this spiritual punishment upon himself.
In other places in Chassidus it explains: The idea of being spiritually insensitive, with a heart of stone, corresponds to the physical punishment of stoning. The physical punishment of stoning is for one who physically (or verbally) worships idols, G-d forbid, by bowing down to them or saying that he accepts their “power,” G-d forbid.
Similarly, one who removes his belief in Hashem as the Creator and Director of heaven and earth, and attributes his physical success or the lack thereof to other forces besides for Hashem, is a subtle form of idol worship. When a person attributes his success to his own strength and intelligence instead of Hashem, this is a subtle form of idol worship.
In fact, even when a person is serving Hashem, but he attributes his success in Torah study or the like to his own intelligence and not as a gift from Hashem, this is an even more subtle form of idolatry.
Since this egotistical approach to life, attributing his successes to himself instead of to Hashem, is the spiritual idea of idol worship, the punishment is the spiritual equivalent of stoning. That is, that his heart becomes hard and cold like a stone, and he is unable to awaken any feelings of love or fear of Hashem.
This corresponds to what is described in the above prayer, that one who “blemishes” the letter י' by neglecting to recite Shema is liable to “stoning.” This means that someone (even a woman, who is not obligated to recite Shema at a specific time,) who neglects to listen to the message of Shema, to understand Hashem’s Oneness, and to attribute everything in his life to Hashem and not to himself or other people’s power, he brings upon himself “stoning,” that his or her heart becomes hard and cold like a stone.
So too, when a person’s heart is burning with desire for forbidden things, this is the spiritual idea of the punishment of “burning,”
how much more so if one knows about himself that has become spiritually defiled through immoral actions or thoughts, referred to as “the sins of the youth,”
As explained in the maamarim quoted above, the spiritual punishment of “burning” corresponds to the physical punishment of burning. The physical punishment of burning was for the sin of incestual relations with relatives. The spiritual punishment of “burning” desires for things that are forbidden are a usually a result of immoral thoughts, or looking at immoral things, or acting immorally.
The spiritual punishment for this subtle type of improper relationship is to be spiritually burned by forbidden desires, that constantly are bothering him, even when he wants to serve Hashem in Torah study and prayer. This is the idea of the second part of the prayer that “if I have sinned, and blemished the letter ה' of Your Name by neglecting the mitzvah of Tefillin, then I accept upon myself the punishment of burning.”
The idea of Tefillin is to think about the fact that Hashem is One, and He took us out of Egypt, showing that He is All-Powerful. He commanded us to put on Tefillin on the head over the brain and on the arm next to the heart, so that we dedicate our mind and heart to Hashem, and thereby restrict our physical pleasure seeking.
In other words, besides for believing that Hashem is in charge and everything we have comes from Him, we also need to contemplate on His Power and Greatness, and fill our mind with the awareness of Hashem’s Presence in our life. When our mind is filled with the awareness of Hashem, and the knowledge that He is standing over us watching us, there will be no place for immoral thoughts, or immoral gazing or immoral actions. The fact that someone is involved in these immoral activities is because his head is empty from thinking about Hashem. This neglect of the idea of Tefillin is what brought about the possibility of his sinful behavior, which resulted in his being spiritually burned by desires for forbidden things. (Again, this concept of Tefillin is applicable to women, even though they do not physically put on Tefillin.)
In this maamar it does not explain the meaning of the other two forms of capital punishment, beheading and strangulation, which are punishments for blemishing the final two letters of Hashem’s Name, the ו' and the second letter ה'. In the maamar from the Mittler Rebbe (Maamarei Admur Haemtzei, Devarim, vol. 3, page 1,085, (quoted in short in the Rebbe’s maamar Shuva Yisroel 5716)):
The letter ו' corresponds to the six emotions. Blemishing the emotions means that he is allows the emotions of the animal soul to go unrestrained. This means that he gives in to his physical desires, even permissible desires, without any self-restraint. Similarly, he fights with people out of sheer ego without considering the other person’s situation or feelings. The punishment for this blemishing of emotions is the separation of the head from the heart. This means that his understanding of Hashem is unable to come into his heart on an emotional level.
The letter second letter ה' corresponds to action. This blemish of action is that the person is not careful that his actions should all be according to Halacha. In addition, it means that he does not go out of his way to do good things for other people, or give charity. The punishment for this blemishing of action is “strangulation.” This is because a person who is gasping for air is unable to do anything, even though all the parts of the body are there, but since he is lacking oxygen, he doesn’t have the power to do anything. This corresponds to the person making himself as though he is unable to do what Hashem wants in action.
In all the above types of spiritual blemishes, by regretting his action or attitude and accepting upon himself to improve, and imagining the physical capital punishment to him, he can remove the spiritual version of that type of punishment. (See Toras Shmuel 5631 vol. 1, p. 239.)
and so too, each person according to his measure, that each person knows himself, what type of spiritual “punishment” he is suffering in his service of Hashem, resulting from his own personal improper behavior, this is the correct advice to follow so he can wholeheartedly “accept upon himself the four capital punishments of the Beis Din” – he should “drink the up of wine” that intoxicates, i.e., the contemplation that leads to bitterness, mentioned above, as will be further explained:
Now, the idea will be understood based on what it says in the Holy Zohar (I, 220a):
“The truly pure (righteous people), look at themselves every day as though that day they are going to leave this world (i.e., pass away).”
Seemingly, this is not understood: The “pure” refers to Tzadikim (righteous people), and “truly pure” are on an even higher level, so why would the Zohar praise them that they only achieved the level of fear of punishment?
The assumption for this question: It would seem that the reason for looking at oneself as though he will pass away that day is so he will do teshuva for his past sins and refrain from sin today, so that when he passes away and comes to judgement he will not be punished. Even though a person should have a positive attitude about life, and hope that Hashem will continue to give him life (even in dangerous situations), nonetheless, remembering that he will be judged for his actions and punished accordingly, is a method for a person to control his Yetzer Hara, his unholy desires, since he will be afraid of sinning knowing the consequences.
This is in fact an approach mentioned in the Gemara Brachos, that a person who has a hard time controlling his Yetzer Hara, should remind himself that he will one day die and will be judged for all his actions.
But a righteous person, a Tzadik, and especially a truly righteous person, a true Tzadik, is on a very high level that surely has no problem from his Yetzer Hara in the first place. As is explained in the beginning of the Tanya, that a Tzadik has no temptations from the Yetzer Hara at all, and only a Beinoni has that struggle. Thus, why would a Tzadik need to remind himself of death?
However, the idea is as follows:
Since, even a complete Tzadik, when he leaves this world and goes to Gan
