The Burning Bush, the Spark of Life (Shemot)

In this episode we discuss Moshe's vision of the burning bush that was not consumed. Why did God give him this vision? How does it serve to kick off the reception process? And what does it have to do with the spark of life in each and every one of us? We explore all this and more.

If you want to follow along in the text, it is Nesiovs Shalom on Shemot page lamed aleph (31). You can find a pdf of the piece here.

This episode is sponsored anonymously by an OU-JLIC Queens College alumnus "with hakarat hatov to Rabbi Charnoff for the tremendous impact he has had on me. One of Rabbi Charnoff's first shiurim on campus was a Nesivos Shalom shiur and it opened me up to new ways of looking at Torah and the world of chassidus, for which I am forever grateful. I'm so glad to see Rabbi Charnoff's teaching of Nesivos Shalom continue to develop and flourish. May our learning together bring us closer to the final redemption bimheirah b'yameinu!"

If you would like to sponsor an episode of the podcast, please email Rabbi Charnoff at rabbicharnoff@gmail.com.

Transcript

Rabbi Charnoff: 0:00

Hello everyone. This is Rabbi Robbie Charnoff, and you are listening to the Chassidus for Life podcast. It's the podcast where we learn a deep Hasidic insight on the Parsha every single week, usually from the Sefer Nesivo Shalom, and not only gain a new understanding of an aspect of the Parsha, but explore how it can lead us to a more meaningful, vibrant, and spiritually uplifted life. In this, our first podcast episode, we're going to dive into the beginning of Sefer Shemot, specifically the wondrous and perplexing vision of the burning bush where God first reveals himself to Moshe. Why was it a burning bush? And why wasn't it consumed? Why is this the kickoff of the Jewish people's redemption from Egypt? And what does all that mean for us in our lives? We'll get into all that and more today. If you want to follow along inside, you can open up a Nesivo to page Lamed Aleph and the piece entitled V'hinei Hasnei Boer Ba'esh. Or, simply go to the show notes for a link to a PDF. Feel free to just sit back, listen, and enjoy the ride. That's what most people do. This episode, our first episode, is very generously sponsored by one of my OUJLIC Queens College alumni. I read the following at his request. It is sponsored with Hakara Satov to Rabbi Robbie Charnoff. for the tremendous impact he has had on me. One of Rabbi Charnoff's first shirim on campus was a Nesivo Shalom shir, and it opened me up to new ways of looking at Torah and the world of Chassidus, for which I am forever grateful. I'm so glad to see Rabbi Charnoff's teaching of Nesivo Shalom continue to develop and flourish, and may our learning together bring us closer to the final redemption. Bimhera b'Amenu Amein. Thank you so much to this week's anonymous sponsor. Your sponsorships are what make this podcast happen. If you would like to sponsor an episode of the podcast, please email rabbicharnoff at gmail. com or see the show notes for more details. Alright, with that, let's jump into our first episode on Parsha Tshemot. We are in a Sivo Shalom on Parsha at Schmoat. We are in Sefer Schmoat on page Lamed Aleph. V'hinei hasnei bo'er b'eish, v'hasnei enenu ukau. The sneh, the bush, was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. when he came and he saw the burning bush, he saw the bush, was burning in fire, but the bush was not being consumed. Vayomer Moshe, so Moshe said, Asura na ve'ereh et ha'mareh ha'gadol hazeh. Mado alo yivar a sneh? let me go and see what this tremendous site is. why is the bush not burning? Vayar Hashem. Kisar Lirot, God saw that Moshe turned to see what was going on. Va'yikra chasneh. And so God called out to him from within the bush. Va'yomer, Al tzikrav halom, shal na'alecha mi'al raglecha ki ha'makom asher ata kodeshu. HaKadosh Baruch Hu said to Moshe Rabbeinu, Don't come close, first take your shoes off from your feet. Because the ground that you're standing on is holy ground. So now that we finished quo, the P, we have to understand what is this great vision that God give to before sending him off de, because the implication is, is that hidden within this vision is the secret. of Moshe Rabbeinu being sent itself. Meaning if this is where Hakadosh Baruch Hu is telling Moshe Rabbeinu, he's saying to Moshe Rabbeinu, I want you to go and take the people out of Egypt. If that's the case, then within this vision, specifically this vision of this burning bush and this conversation that transpires between God and Moshe, that must be the secret of the sending of Moshe itself. How do we understand that? It's always good when the piece just jumps right into it. We don't have a long paragraph of questions. We're already there. How do we understand this? Al pi mah We can explain this based on how this explain a separate pasuk you left E very quickly. Di because Israel very famously Israel in, had sunken down to the 49th level of spiritual impurity to the, the 49th level of spiritual impurity. And had they fallen down to the 50th level, they would've been totally gone. Chas v'shon, there would have been no way back. Why is that in parentheses? Just to explain a little bit what he's trying to say here. These are often yinyanim that come up around Sfiras HaOmer time. When we talk about numbers, numbers have deep significance. Everything in Judaism has significance. But numbers also have deep significance. One of the most famous people to unpack the meaning of numbers is the Maharal Nipragan is far and all over the place. You find the meaning of different numbers. But this is a very famous understanding of these particular numbers. The number seven classically is related to the physical world. The world was created in seven days. G d is the one who creates the world in seven days, and so seven comprises the totality of the created world. We can also relate it obviously to the seven spheros and the seven medos, It's easier, actually, if you use the Midot. In Qabbalistic literature, we have the concept of the seven middot. Chesed, Gvura, Tiferet, Netzach, Chod, Yisod and Malchut. We'll get into them again more over time. But the seven Qabbalistic middot, or character traits, those are the seven fundamental building blocks of reality. But anything that's created must be created of those seven fundamental building blocks. It has to be so. And what that means is, is that chesed, even though it itself is a fundamental building block, it must be comprised of the same seven fundamental building blocks. And so therefore, again, this should hopefully ring in your ears from Svirasa Omer if you follow along in the sides, like on the article, it lists the the Middot as you go through each of the, of the days. There's not just chesed, but there's chesed shebe chesed. There's gvura shebe chesed. There's tiferet shebe chesed. Meaning all of these fundamental building blocks themselves are comprised of the fundamental building blocks, and that continues to go on and on and on. You can have chesed shebe chesed shebe chesed, but once you've already done it once, you've implied the infinite nature of the system. So what's happening is, is that when it says that we went down to the 49th level of spiritual impurity, What that means is, we weren't just impurified on the level of all seven of the middot. We were impurified all the way down to all of the fundamental elements of those seven middot. We then just reached a place where the chesed became impurified. Our chesed shevechesed became shevechesed became impurified, meaning all the way down to the details. That's why when we leave mitzraim, we have to purify ourselves over the course of that process. And we do that over seven weeks, where each week correlates to one of those middot. And similarly, we go through each day of each one of those weeks, which correlates to each one of those unique points of each of those Middot. The first day of those 49 days, the Shirat to Omer, we are purifying. We're taking out of impurity and moving into purity. It's a double move. Chesed Shebe Chesed, and the next one, Chesed Shebe Gvura. Uh, Gvura Shebe Chesed, rather. And so, we were basically, I'll just come back to our point, we were on the lowest place of spiritual impurity. We'd already gone to the 49th level. There was nowhere else to go. And the Sfarim discuss, once you go past that 49th level, right, the same way that we have an understanding that seven is everything that is, and eight is already infinite, eight is beyond. There's a parallel system here. 49 is everything that's the entirety of the system. 50 is beyond that. Sharanon, the 50th gate, is already beyond. And had we moved on to the 50th level of spiritual impurity, there would have been no way back. So we go down all the way down to the 49th level of spiritual impurity in Mitzrayim, and if we don't leave then, and we go one step further, there is no coming back. It's over. There is no coming back. So that's what he says here. Let's go back into the words. V'yamayun Had we gone into the 50th gate, Hayyu chas v'shalam avudim, we would have been totally lost. If you didn't follow all the details of that, the idea is, is that we were as far gone in spiritual impurity, but not just on a conceptual level. Like, if you get down into the details, the nitty gritty details, we were as far down in spiritual impurity as you could possibly be. And had we gone one more step, we would have been totally gone. There would have been no way out. There would have been no way for us to be redeemed. That's why Yetzias Mitzrayim. It had to be. The Exodus had to be. Immediate. It had to be with fervor. It had to be right now. Go! Pen b'hash'ara ma'od ma'at, yiplu chas v'shalom l'shara hanun. Because had they stayed even a little bit longer, chas v'shalom, they would have gone down to the shara hanun. Achein. But says the Nesib O'Shalom, Tzarich be'or, zeh gufa madua sibeva Kadosh Baruch Hu, sheesh'aru b'mitzrayim o'd, ad ha'rega ha'acharon. So the Nesib O'Shalom here asks a beautiful and brilliant question. Others have asked it, over time. But he's asking a fundamental question on this, and so much on Pesach, when we're doing the Seder, we get into this, those who enjoy these types of Torahs or Torahs on this topic, so we get into this topic of the four day level of Tumah, we couldn't have stayed a minute longer, Katzeh Chippa Zohm, we gotta leave quickly, but there's a fundamental question on this. The fundamental question on this is, if you're telling me that had we been there for one second longer, we would have been totally gone. And you're a god, and you know this! I've got a simple answer for you. Take us out at 48 and give us a chance to breathe and let that dough rise a little bit. Like, why wait until we're at 49, and had we waited a second longer, we would have been gone. What was the value of that? HaKadosh Baruch Hu knew what he was doing. What's the meaning of the fact that HaKadosh Baruch Hu waits dafqa until we're on the 49th level and only then takes us out? All the other Torahs being true about the importance of leaving in haste and quickly because of one step further to God, true, but why does God wait that long? HaKadosh Baruch Hu How do we understand that? Why not take us out before we get to the for ninth level that we shouldn't be at risk of being lost entirely? We were one step away. How do we understand that? So he says, so, he says that the depth of this we can understand by way of Michelle. Through an analogy, Ligar'in hazera sh'nizra ba'adama Oh, this is a beautiful analogy. I love this one. Ligar'in hazera sh'nizra ba'adama, that if you take a seed and you plant a seed in the ground when you take a seed and you plant a seed in the ground, a fascinating thing happens. You plant the seed because you want something to grow, but what's actually happening underneath the earth is, is that you take the seed and you put it beneath the earth, and when it's sitting there, it has no life. And the seed sits there and it starts to rot and it starts to decay and it comes to the brink of death. And what's Amazing is, is that Kaczburek would design the world in such a way that it goes there and it comes to the brink of death and only once it's at the brink of death then, at that second, that's when the new life sprouts forth. And that seed turns into a shoot and starts coming out of the ground, and new life comes forth in the form of a plant, or the beginning of a tree, of a sapling, whatever it is. But it has to wait till that moment of being the second before death. It has to go, and this is the key term that he's clearly going to bring out here, it has to get to the point where all that's left is the kusta d'chiyuta, the spark of life. All that's left is that little spark of life, and from that little spark of life Then comes up this whole new life that there never was before. It's not just the seed survives, the seed becomes something else. Hear the words, it's so deep what he's saying. On a literal level and on a metaphorical level, both ways it's so deep. That you can't have a new life sprouting forth unless first you have the sense of loss, unless first you come to the brink of death. That's the necessary prerequisite. We're at the top of the second column for those following along inside on page la. And until the old falls away, until the old rots away, the new cannot begin to sprout. it's not an option. He's saying that's the way it happens. It needs to be so. To move past a previous stage, the previous stage needs to get close to death, to shed. All that's left is the spark of life, and from there, then the new life that you never saw before. When you looked at the seed, you didn't see the plant. When you looked at the seed, you didn't see the sapling. You didn't see it b'chlah. From there, the new life can sprout forth. Om Nam. Im yitrachev l'gamre. He says, but one has to be very careful. if the seed totally decays and the spark of life is snuffed out, then also you can't have, you can't have anything growing. And therefore the new growth is only when the seed is in that moment where it exists between existence and destruction. It's in that last moment, that last gasp of breath, that last gasp of air, that last spark of life. Between existence and total destruction, that's where new life comes forth. Where all is gone, everything is gone, except for the spark of life. That's the mashal. I think the name shal is pretty clear, but let's hear him spell it out, and then we'll unpack it together. This was the reality of when they were in mi. They were on the, like we talked about, if they went one step further, they're gone. So what happened? They're on the 49th level of tma. They're one step away from complete death. All that's left is. All that's left is the spark of life with their one step away. They're only, that's it. We're one step away from the 50th gate, and that's completely gone, and therefore, it's only then be between total destruction and continued existence. That's when they could come out totally fresh and totally new. that HaKadosh Baruch Hu takes them out of Egypt and that's when they can become this new nation the chosen people of HaKadosh Baruch Hu meaning what happened, what were they before? before they weren't a people, there was no nation 70 people go down to Mitzrayim. They're not a nation. 70 individuals. There were 70 tremendous individuals. There were 70 incredibly holy individuals. But they weren't, a nation yet. 70 people go down to Mitzrayim. How do you pull a nation out of Mitzrayim? How do you pull a nation that's the exact opposite? Of everything that it exists within. The exact opposite of Egypt out of Egypt. How do you do that? You bring it to the brink of death. You bring it to the place where all that's left is the Kusta Tichayutah and something totally new can come out. I once heard beautifully from Rav Moshe Sapiro Tzatzal. I was able to go to a shiurim a few times. he asked the fundamental question. We always say everything is Zecher, Lietzias, Mitzrayim. We go into Seder night, and Seder night is Zecher, Lietzias, Zecher, Lietzias, Mitzrayim. He's like, if you want to be Zecher for something, be Zecher l'makos. You could be Zecher for kuyas yamsuv. Like, there were so many tremendous miracles. And we're just like, Zecher, Lietzias, Mitzrayim. We remember that God, you know, he Put a path and we walked the path to leave the place that we had been in for a Like, really? That's the thing that we're celebrating? That's what we always come back to? If you want to talk about, the wondrous miracles, then focus on the miracles. What's so miraculous about literally walking out of some place? So there's a Moshe Shapiro way more eloquently and deeply and with so much more around it than I could possibly say, but a little bit of a A little spark of life from what he said. He said no. He said Yitzhias Mitraim is the biggest nais of all. Yitzhias Mitraim, the Exodus from Egypt, is the biggest miracle of all. Why? Because when a mother, gives birth to a child, by definition, that child gestated within that mother for a certain amount of time. It came from the genetic material of the father and the mother. It gets birthed from that mother and therefore it has the same DNA. As the mother, as the father, the same genetics, it's coming from that source. It's an extension of that reality. Since there are most people, you want to know what the biggest miracle of Yitzhia Spitzrayim was? It's that Achadosh Baruch Hu did the nace of having a nation born, literally born from another nation, the way that the Medrash very graphically puts it. That Achadosh Baruch Hu, when he brought us out, it's like the farmer who puts his hand inside the animal to literally pull out the baby calf, to pull out the child. That a Kodesh Baruch Hu put his hand, Yad Chasgai, he brought his hand inside of Mitzrayim, and he drew out Klal Yisrael, who had never existed before. And the fact that we don't genetically resemble Mitzrayim in any way, shape, or form, that not only that, we're the exact opposite of Mitzrayim. Mitzrayim, which is erva ta'aretz. Mitzrayim, which is a land of impurity. This whole time of the year, it's not for this piece, I'm not going to get into it, but this whole time of Shovavim is about, which we're starting this week, this time of moving away from spiritual impurity in the realm of sexuality, that it starts from this week because Mitzrayim is this It's the place where spiritual impurity lives. Well, I'm sure we'll talk about it more over time. That's where spiritual impurity lives And we produce Klaal Yisrael, which is an Am Kadosh. Va'atem Tziuli Mamlechet Kohanim V'goy Kadosh We're a people of Kiddushah. We're a people of holiness. How do you birth holiness from the deepest depths of impurity? You don't. It's a miracle. how does 70 people come down, go into Mitzrayim, The biggest, most disgusting place of tummah that there ever was. Get pulled down to the 49th level of spiritual impurity. How does a nation come out of that? That's totally different from Yitzhraim. How do you get Am Yitzhrail out of that? They have to get to the 49th level of spiritual impurity. They have to get to the brink of spiritual death. And from the brink of spiritual death sprouts forth a life that you never saw before. That you never knew could be! You get an Av Yisrael, which never was. In the history of the world, there was never a nation like Klal Yisrael. That comes from the Kusa Dechiyuta. HaKadosh Baruch Hu didn't wait because he forgot about Hashef Shalom. He didn't wait because he just wanted to, you know, raise the level of tension in the story of Hashef Shalom. That's not the goal. he waits until all that's left of the Kusa Dechiyuta, because Dechiyuta is what gives brand new life that never was. And Klal Yisrael comes from something that never was before. We come from the brink of death and we sprout new life. And that's what call Israel is this. I'm Kadosh. It's Amani of car. These people who are beloved by a Kurdish Baruch was you looking to make it look to the world that comes from that spark. We have to get there to sprout this whole new thing. That's what he's saying here. First one on the line is Mitzrayim. This is the concept of that we left Israel in such haste, because before that it wasn't possible to take them out like we just explained outside. We're gonna see the words inside. Now, we couldn't have waited a second after. Only from the kuta means you can't get out a second early and you can't go out a second later. You go out too early. The new life's not gonna come forth. You wait a second, too late. There's no life at all. Only when between destruction and existence. That's the potential for sprouting forth the chosen people. And so he's bringing it back now to our question. What does that have to do with the burning bush? How do we see all of this already from what is saying to Moshe at the burning bush as he begins to send Moshe out, as he begins the geula process? Mo sees a vision that gave him of a bush that's burning, but it's not being consumed at Israel. These negative, spiritual forces are going and trying to consume climate on the r Claus. Soul is on fire right now. They're on fire with Tumah! But they're not consumed. Klaal Yisrael is not gone. He's showing Moshe Rabbeinu this vision. This is what he's showing him. It's not stahm. It's not just some random vision that he's giving him. he's showing him the essence of what's happening right now. Yes, Klaal Yisrael's on fire. Yes, Klaal Yisrael looks like they're about to die. But they're not consumed yet. Exactly what's left is the spark of life. That's exactly what's left! And that's why this is exactly the time. That's the vision that he gives Moshe Rabbeinu, to explain to him why this is the moment why it has to be. This is the moment of the Exodus. You gotta go now! V'alzehit palei Moshe And this is what Moshe was so in wonderment about. He said, let me turn and see this tremendous vision. Why is this s Why is this bush not burning? This is beautiful. Here's what he's saying. He's saying that when Mosha says, I have to turn and see this thing. This is wild. How could it be that the bush is burning by not being consumed? How could such a thing be. So says the Nesih O'Shalom, no, what was he in wonderment about? He understood exactly what the vision was. It's Moshe Rabbeinu. He understood exactly the meaning of the Nebuah. He's looking at it and he's saying to himself, says the Nesih O'Shalom, I never understood how powerful the Kusa Dechiyuta was. I never understood how powerful the spark of life itself is. That the whole world can be on fire. That there could be nothing left but that spark. But that spark never gets consumed. That was the wonderment of Moshe Rabbeinu. That's what he's totally taken up by. That's what he can't peel his eyes away from. I never understood. The spark of life is so strong. You could be on the brink of death, but that little spark of life inside is the most powerful thing that there is. how could it be, says Moshe Rabbeinu, that they're so immersed in spiritual impurity. And yet they're still not totally consumed by that tumah. They're able to still continue on. Let's take a minute and just reflect on it. just to internalize that and to think about that for a moment. It may not be true of everyone here, but I'm sure it's true of a lot of people here, it's certainly true for me. It's that we have those moments in our own lives, of being at a place where we feel like we're at the end. And it's very, very hard. And it's very, very challenging. And it hurts. there's a sense of hopelessness that builds. If any of you have been through this, yourself, or somebody close to you, that much I can suspect that almost everybody here has been through. You get to a point Where you think there's nowhere to go, you've hit rock bottom, and then somehow you fall further. You think you're at the end, and yet somehow, somehow, you just keep going down, and you keep going down, and you keep going down, and you're just pretty sure that there's no way out. You're sure there's no way out. And what Akadosh Baruch was telling us is, is yes, it's incredibly painful. And he's not denying that, and we're not sugarcoating things, we've never sugarcoated things, and we never will sugarcoat things here. It's incredibly, incredibly painful to be in such a place. To be rock bottom where you think there's nowhere else to go to be rock bottom in a space where you feel like if I go one step further, it's all over, right? When you're at that place where you think you're at the end, and then you go 10 steps lower, you're like, Oh, no, I didn't understand what that was before. Now I get it. I'm mom ish at the end. And it could be in anything in life. it could be going through low Alenu in illness. It could be going through marital strife. It could be going through isolation in Corona in different ways. It could be going through difficulties in the war. Right, if you've been on the battlefield in the last year and a half, in our own lives, it doesn't have to be anything grand either. It could just be a sense, and We live in a world that's in a very, very painful place. A sense of isolation, a sense of desperation, a sense of loneliness, a sense of anxiety, a sense of depression. I'm at the end. There's nowhere else to go. To know that a Kadosh Baruch Hu knows that that's painful. And it is. I'm fighting back tears. Like, I know that it's painful. He's not sugarcoating it, we're not sugarcoating it. But to hold a piece of Torah like this close to our hearts to know, that a kodesh boruch who sometimes pushes us as close to the end as is humanly possible, because he knows that from that space, if we persevere and he believes in us, or he wouldn't bring us there, if we persevere, we can become something that we never could have become before. Not that we can become a better version of ourselves, not that we can improve in some way. We can become someone that we weren't. We can become someone that we couldn't have become at all. And it's only from that place, to understand that pain, to accept that pain, to embrace that pain, and to wait till we get to that space of the Kusta D'Chiyuta, where all that's left is that spark of life. And to believe in ourselves, and to believe in a Kodesh Baruch Hu who believes in us. We see it from the story. A Kodesh Baruch Hu lets them get to the 49th level of Tumah. Mitzrayim, when they were on the 49th level of spiritual impurity, they didn't know there was an out. They probably also thought that it was all over. If they could even think clearly b'k'lal from the years and years. of a tremendous, awful, back breaking servitude that they were going through. The lifeless life that they were being asked to lead. That they somehow found a way to live through that is amazing in and of itself. That they persevered, and they kept their names, and they kept on having children. All the things they managed to do despite that. But did they know there was an end? knew that there was. They had a Muna. But they didn't know when the end was coming. We don't always know when the end is going to come. And because Baruch Hu says I'm teaching you something here. You're going to get to the end of the line. And all that's left is that spark of life. And that spark of life is going to produce something new. And I need you to learn from me. T. S. meets rhyme. I need you to learn from me, says Akadosh Baruch Hu. I need you to understand when you're at that place, believe in yourself. And Akadosh Baruch Hu says, believe in me. We're going somewhere. We're going somewhere. We literally never could have gotten without this. We never could have gotten without it. And to embrace that pain, and to accept that pain, and to work through that pain. And to hold on to that spark and let it bloom something you never ever thought could be. You never in a million years thought could be. It could be from the most mundane thing. It could be, it could be feeling like you're at the end professionally and then suddenly finding out that you're a podcast producer. Didn't see that coming in a million years, That's a, that's a light example, right? It could be, I remember for myself. Dating and dating and dating and thinking that you're totally at the end. And I remember the moment that I was. We're already sharing personal stories. It's the first episode, why not? Right, I remember the moment that was the turning point for me. of dating and dating and dating and dating. I remember when I got to the point where for me, it was a different type of turning point. I'm sure we'll come back to this moment. it's an interesting moment to unpack another time, but I came to a point where I turned to a Akkadash Baruch Hu and I said, I've been wanting to get married. I've been wanting to get married. I've been wanting to get married for a year. I remember sitting on the floor of my dorm in NYU and turning to Akkadash Baruch Hu and saying, Akkadash Baruch Hu, I keep saying I want to get married because I want to get married. And then I turned to I was like, enough already. I want what you want. I want to get married because you want me to get married. I want to get married because that's what the Torah wants. And I'm following you. Whatever you want. Whatever you want. You tell me. I'm following you. I'm a vater, not in a way if I'm throwing out my hands and giving up. I accept that you're in charge. You tell me where to go. I'm not saying that this will happen to everybody here, but for me, I met my wife on the next date. you come to a place where you're so low, where you're so down, where you're so depressed, you think you're at the end. And you didn't know the cloth that you had to be somebody you never thought you could be. We all have those spaces, we all have those moments in every different type of aspect of our lives. We need to remember the Kusta D'Chiyuta is always there, and sometimes the whole reason was to get to the Kusta D'Chiyuta. To get to the spark of life. To become someone we never could have been. Let's see how he unpacks it more, and let's go forward in the piece and see where he takes it. It's powerful, it's just beautiful stuff. This is this is what this is all for. This is, this is what we want to share this with the world for. It's not about sharing this. It's not about sharing me. It's not sharing you. It's about sharing what he has to say. I don't know how anybody can live without the Tzivu Shalom. I don't understand. I don't understand how they lived for generations without him. I don't understand how they will live for generations without hearing him. I don't understand how anybody can move on without him. I don't understand. Anyway. So. We're on the top of page Lamed Bet. We're getting to the heart of things. top of the column. Omnam, Inyan ha'kusta d'chiyuta She nimsa ba'hem, huk ma'mar chazal, b'schut ha'emunah niga'alu avoteinu mimitzrayim. He says, so what is this kusta d'chiyuta? What is the spark of life? He says, chazal say that in the schus of emunah, in the merit of faith, of faithfulness, our forefathers call Yisrael. We're redeemed from Mitzrayim. V'haynu she b'mitzrayim lo hayya lehem mi'uma. That in Egypt, they didn't have anything. Sh'ri tumah. They were on the Tumah. They didn't have anything. There was nothing. V'rak shoresh emunah ni'shar abraham. All that was left. Everything else was chipped away. Was whittled away. Was stripped away. All that was left was Emunah. That's the source of the spark of all of life itself. All of life comes from Una. The origin, the source of all life is Una. That, that's the root of the NES of Israel. that's who we are. And that it comes down from the highest space of our souls, all the way down to the lowest part, all the way down into it's a technical term, all the way down into our kishkas. The Una comes all the way deep down to our kishka. That's what we're called. Faithful is the son of Faithfuls, r Omar. This was all a quote from he finished off and says that the foundation of our souls comes from truth. So comments, when a Jew is in the worst basis. When a Jew is in the worst of places, Um, uh, Um, Uh, and a Jew is mamesh in the fourteenth level of tumah. Chai v'kayam koach ha'amunah p'nimyut nafshon. The amunah of my nefesh, the amunah of my soul, is still alive and well and it's still burning bright. Even when I'm on the fourteenth level of tumah. Ve'amunah hi b'chinah takusta d'chiyuta. And our amunah, that's the spark of life. That's where the whole new life is gonna come forth. Before we go on, even just thinking about that, We gave certain examples before. But there's also other types of examples of, of really being in the tma. I mean, maybe they've happened in our lives, maybe in people's lives, so we know, and maybe it's'cause luck for us and maybe it's'cause luck that we can give to them either way. But we can have personal times in our lives when we literally get to Tumah. We talked about other examples of being at the end, of feeling like there's nothing left. But there's also a level of spiritually feeling like there's nothing left. Nebach lo aleinu. Lo aleinu, lo aleinu, lo aleinu. We can get to a point in our lives where we sink to the fourth Netavl of Tumah. We feel like there's nowhere to go. Not that there's nowhere to go, but down. We're as down as we can go. We're sitting on the floor of impurity. There is nowhere to go. And if you've been there, you can remember. If you haven't been there, you can imagine. Put yourselves in the shoes of a person who's been there for a second. When you're down in the dumps like that, you've made one mistake turn into two mistakes. Two mistakes turn into a bad group that you ended up getting involved in. A bad group ended up being going to places you shouldn't have gone to. Going to those places ended up doing things you shouldn't have done. And suddenly the snowball just got so far away, it's rolled down the hill so far. You're just this huge ball of Tumma, and you're looking at the top of the mountain where you came from. And you're like, there's no way back up! Forget about it! There's no way back up! We can get to those spaces. I've had, I've had the Schuss and the challenge of working with people have been in those spaces. Who feel like there's nowhere to go. And if there's nowhere to go, there's no way I can get back to a Kadesh Baruch Hu. Are you kidding me? After who I've become? And it's the other way first. After what I've done. But after what I've done becomes. After who I've become. If I did all these things, this is who I am. I'm a person who is Tame. I have no hope. I have no way back. I'm totally gone. And a Kadesh Baruch Hu says, No! I deny you. You are incorrect. You're wrong. That's false. If you're a Jew, you have a neshamah. You have a neshamah, it's still with you. That's your kusa d'chayuta. And your kusa d'chayuta is your amuna. Your amuna in me, your amuna in yourself. It's the same thing. Because there's a piece of me in you. And if you believe that I exist and that's why you're being so hard on yourself, then believe that I'm in you. And if I'm in you, there's a spark of life. And if I'm in you and there's a spark of life, I don't care that you snowballed down that mountain. I don't care how big it is and how far away you are. That spark of life is a fire. It's a fire that's gonna burn that snowball down to the ground. And you're gonna be able to march your way, not to the top of that mountain. You've been on the top of that mountain. You're gonna march the top of a mountain that you never thought you could climb to the top of ever before because you got to a depth that you never thought you could get to before. It's not about returning to where, this is not a chuvash year. This is not about repentance. This is recognizing that it creates something new. You fell down a hill and you climbed Everest. That's the point. It's a whole different reality. It's a whole different understanding. And what is it that allows you to do that? And we mentioned it before, It's coming from Emuna. Emuna in myself and Emuna Which, again, is one and the same in this instance. There's godliness inside of me. I have a muna that a kharashpura hu exists. I have a muna that he guides the world. I have a muna that, that he wants me to succeed. I have a muna that there's always a spark of life. I have a muna that it's not going to end. I have a muna. And where does that muna take me? It takes me to the heights that I've never been before, which is a crazy thing. It's so crazy. I fell so low, and I'm not going to get back to where I was. I'm going to get somewhere that I never could have reached before otherwise. Parentheses, aleinu, you can't therefore go and bring yourself to a low place in order to reach new heights. That's what's referred to as an Avera Lishmah. The first person who many attribute an Avera Lishmah to was, famously, Adam HaRishon, and that didn't work out so well for him, or for Chava, or for humanity. An Avera Lishmah is a very complicated concept. It's a very deep concept. If Adam HaRishon was able to make the mistake, it's obviously deeper than we're presenting now, but an Avera Lishmah is legitimate. It is real, but it also is Incorrect. So you never put yourself in such a situation. But we're saying, okay, Nebah, you fall to such a place. You never intended to. Chas v'sholem, you never intended to. But you can get to the greatest of heights out of that if you just link into the spark of life that's inside of you. If you have emunah rakadash baruch, emunah in yourself, you can bring yourself all the way up to a place that you never were before. Let's take it back inside. You we're around 10, 15 lines in the first word line is deta, first column on page la all the way. At the end of the period, it says, this is what Monu thought. The so rep applies to God, gives him his mission and he says, no, they're not going to have a in me. They're not gonna believe in me, and they're not gonna hear my voice. Why was Mosha nervous to go? Because he thought incorrectly claims the, that even their Una had become imp purified. He was worried that when they were on the for ninth level of spiritual impurity, that even their UNA had become imp purified in beat shrine. That if they were on such a low level of impurity, if they were on the for impurity, then there's no way that their UNA was still completely pure. VAM can, and if so, l then, they didn't have a deta. Then that spark of life didn't exist because even the last spark had become IMP purified. That's thought, and therefore he said, so that's why he says, I have to turn and look at this tremendous side. That's why he was in wonderment. He's adding another layer to it. That's why Mo Shaina was in such wonderment. He says, how can it be that all that's left? Is theta, how can it be that this sna, this bush is birding so brightly, how could it be that the meaning of that is that Al is birding in tma? So completely. How could it be that the SNA is not being consumed? How could it be that the centerpiece, the kuta, how could it be that the Una hasn't yet been imp purified by the tma? How is that possible? Mosha was in wonderment it. The such a thing was inconceivable to him. How could it be? Says back to him. He says, take your shoes from off your feet, Mosha, because the ground that you're standing on is holy ground. Chatal has the understanding system beautifully. He says, what is the land that you're standing upon? Who are you talking about? You're talking about CLA show. You're standing on tro. when God says to Moshe, the ground that you're standing upon, he's hinting to Klaal Yisrael. Klaal Yisrael, this ground that you're standing upon, Klaal Yisrael? What about them? Yisrael hem kodesh kadashim. Admat kodeshu. They're kodesh kadashim. Don't talk like that about Klaal Yisrael. Ve'af beyot yehudim shukabim memtet sharei tumah, kayein bol koach ha'amunah. Even when a Jew is on the four ninth level of Tumah. Even when they've fallen and they made mistake after mistake and they've fallen away and they think there's no way back. The koach of emunah and the kusta d'chayuta, which is one and the same, is always there. Keh ma'mar maran, Milakovich, as the Ram Milakovich says, Sha'al yudila ha'amin sh'hu ma'amin, v'av kish'einu margish k'ein, ya'amin k'i b'pnimiyot nafsho, ma'amin hu, eleh sha'avim mechassim mimenu et or ha'emunah. Ah, so beautiful. He says that it's on a Jew to have Una, that he's a mommy. Even if I don't feel that I'm a mommy right now, if you've ever been in a place where you've been that low, you've been in a place where you feel like you're on the 40th of Tamma, you feel like I'm in a place where there's no way back. Whether you did a thousand things or one thing, it doesn't matter. If you've been in that place and you feel like, I, do I even have emunah in the Kodesh Baruch Hu? Do I even have emunah in myself? I don't feel anything right now. I feel numb in the place that I'm in. I'm in such a place to whom I feel numb. Great, you have to have emunah that you have emunah. That's what he says. A Jew has a hiuv to at the very least have emunah that he has emunah. And even if you don't feel it, Have to have in your deepest insides, in your ishka, in your, that you're a except what? When you go outside and it's a cloudy day. When you look outside and we look at those clouds, we know the sun's behind the clouds. We can't see it. I can't prove it to you at this particular moment. There's clouds in front of it, but the sun's obviously there! He says that's what it's like being in that place. There are times when clouds can cover up our emunah. They can cover it up. But the same way that none of us would be crazy enough to walk outside and look up at the clouds and say, Oh, I can't see the sun. The sun must have ceased to exist. What does that even mean? If I ever look inside And there's clouds covering up the light of my emunah. I may not be able to see it, but I have emunah in my emunah. I know that the clouds will part, and the light will shine forth, and that emunah will come through. And I'm a ma'min that I'm a ma'min. I have emunah in my emunah. Ha'emunah mu'shreshet b'pnimyut nafshol sh'l Yehudi, me'avot avoteinu. Ha'emunah is rooted in the inner world of a Jew, in the inner reality of the soul of a Jew. All the way back from our Avos and Imaus. Kema'amara Kaddosh Baruch Hu. L'moshe, as Kaddosh Baruch Hu says to Moshe. B'nai ma'aminim b'nei ma'aminim heim. Where ma'aminim, the son of ma'aminim, it It's who we are, going all the way back to Avram and Tzarimenu. Going all the way back that's where the emunah comes from. in a world where there was no recognition of a Kadesh Baruch Hu, in a world that only saw polytheism, in a world that only saw Sheker, Avram looked at that world and said, I defy you. Because I know that there's a greater truth. Because I know that there's something bigger. And I can't see it yet. And I haven't spoken to this being yet. And I haven't had the Nivuah yet. we meet Avram 75 years later. We only get the rest of his life from Medrash. Kodesh Baruch only speaks to him, I mean, decades. Decades later, he's in isolation. He's alone, fighting against the entire world. He's willing to jump into a furnace with no proof other than his emunah. That's who we come from. Our genes go back to Avram. Our genes go back to Sarah, Yitzchak, Rivka, Racha, Leah, Yaakov. Our genes go back to the ma'minin That's who we are. That's who we are. And that emunah is mushrash in us. It's rooted in us. The afshasneh bo'er ba'esh. And even though The sneh, even though the bush is on fire, Hasneh aneinu ukal, it's not consumed. She bechol matzav shehu lo nichbeh kohach ha'emunah b'tyut nasham Because you can never snuff out the spark of emunah, that is the spark of life. V'yesh pahem et ha'kusta d'chiyuta, She mikolcha yukhul lehigael mimitzrayim And there is within us, within them. This spark of life, God's saying to Moshe Rabbeinu, the spark of life through which they can be taken out of Mitzrayim. we'll wrap up here. It's a beautiful way of reading what's happening in the burning bush, and why is it specifically a burning bush, and what is Moshe so astonished by? That he's looking at the Kusa D'chiyuta, that he's basically gazing at the Kusa D'chiyuta. he's gazing at a situation where all hope is lost, and he's seeing that the spark proves that all hope is never lost. And not only is all hope never lost, and not only do we hold on to the fact that we are never lost, not nationally, not individually. We are never lost. But that sometimes a Karesh Baruch who brings us all the way to the end, like that seed, where all you could see was a little dot of a seed, and there's no ah nothing else that you can see on the outside. My whole life I thought I was this vibrant person, And a Karesh Baruch who takes me to the point where I'm close to death. Spiritually, emotionally, psychologically, physically, whatever the matzah is in my life, whatever the situation is for me, he brings me to the brink because I never knew this gorgeous flower, this beautiful sapling, this tremendous tree. I never knew that this was inside of me all along. And that's how it comes out. Qadosh Baruch Hu should bless us that we should be able to recognize in the challenging times that a Qadosh Baruch Hu is bringing us there, that we should never, ever, ever forget. That the spark of life is always within us. And if we have trouble remembering it or seeing it, that we're a ma'min, that we're a ma'min. That we have a munah, that we have a munah. That we have a munah, that the kuseh d'chiuta is there. That we have a munah, that the spark of life is there. That we have a munah, and our own a munah. That the munah is still there, that the spark of life is still there. To allow that process to play out, painful as it may be, and to embrace the fact that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is bringing us To a whole new me, to a whole new nation, to a whole new self, to a whole new identity, to a whole new me. Heights of Avodah Hashem. Heights of what I can accomplish in this world. Kvod Machut Shemayim that I could bring on this world that I never could have otherwise. And I'm going to go through that process and I'm going to hold on to that spark and watch the beauty of what it sprouts forth. Because the spark of Shabbos is able to hold on to that, to live through that, and to bring out of ourselves what we need to bring out in order that we can bring the Gula ourselves. B'tzroth Thank you so much for tuning into this week's episode. Join us every Wednesday for a new episode on the Parsha. 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