In this sichah, Rebbe Nachman reveals the immeasurable importance of studying the Shulchan Aruch every day. There are only a couple places in all Breslov sefarim that Rebbe Nachman warns us to do something. Thus, we see from the opening statement of this sichah that this is a practice that we all must fulfill – each person according to his capabilities. We will discuss the details of this study later on, but first, we will explain some of the incredible tikkunim that we make by learning halachah.
The sefarim hakedoshim reveal that before Adam and Chava sinned, there was a clear distinction between good and evil. The difference between them was as apparent as the difference between night and day. However, after Adam and Chava ate from the Tree of Knowledge, the aspects of good in evil in the higher and lower worlds became mixed together. The aspect of evil formed the exterior shell (klipah) of each creation, while the aspect of good was hidden inside of that shell.
The tikkun for this sin was Kabbalas HaTorah. The Sages tell us that at Har Sinai, the stench from the sin of Adam and Chava was removed from the Jewish people. The reason for this is that the Torah tells us very clearly what is right and what is wrong. The Torah itself makes the distinction between good and evil. Thus, by receiving the Torah, we fixed the mistake of Adam and Chava.
However, just forty days after Kabbalas HaTorah, the Jewish people committed the grievous sin of worshipping the Golden Calf. Because of this, the stench of the sin of Adam and Chava returned – in other words, we once again lost the clarity of distinction between good and evil. Nonetheless, the situation after the sin of the Golden Calf was very different than before Kabbalas HaTorah, since now, we had the Torah as our guide to correct our mistakes and clarify the good from the bad.
So too, today, every time that we sin, G-d forbid, we damage the higher and lower worlds by causing the aspects of good and evil to be mixed together, with the goodness hidden and covered by a shell of evil. On the other hand, through the Torah it is always possible for us to do teshuvah and fix what we’ve done, since the Torah clarifies exactly what is good and what is evil.
The Tremendous Impact of our Thoughts
Rebbe Nachman explains (Likutei Mohoran I, 8) that this process of teshuvah for our sins starts with feeling regret and sighing over what we’ve done. When we take a new breath with a yearning to change and we express our remorse in a sigh to Hashem, we break ourselves free from our past mistakes and breathe new life into our souls. Of course, if we’re also able to express our feelings in words, this is an even higher level of teshuvah.
However, at the end of the day, the ultimate tikkun for our sins comes through fixing our seichel. The Zohar HaKadosh says that the source of all the birurim (clarifications of good and evil) comes from our thoughts. In other words, the way that we see the world, other people, and ourselves has a tremendous effect in all the spiritual and material realms. For example, if we think that a piece of fruit is just a product of the laws of nature which caused a tree to collect water, sprout a bud, and eventually form a fruit, then we give power to the exterior “shell” – physical reality – of that fruit to hide the goodness of the sparks of kedushah that are contained within it. On the other hand, when we say a brachah with kavanah and we remind ourselves that this piece of fruit was created solely by the Master of the Universe, we “peel off” the “shell” of the darkness of the material world, so to speak, and we reveal the amazing light of goodness that is concealed inside the fruit.
The same thing is true about every other aspect of creation. When we focus on the inner spiritual reality of something, our thoughts clarify and separate out the good from the bad. Our minds elevate the kedushah back to its source and discard the material shell of contamination.
As we mentioned above, this is essentially the entire purpose of the Torah, which teaches us the difference between good and evil. By studying and following the laws of the Torah, we clarify every aspect of the universe – what is permitted and what is prohibited, what is pure and what is contaminated, and so on.
