The Secret of Shame and Silence: How to Merit a Settled Mind and True Lineage

Lesson No. 1 | Wednesday, Parashat Kedoshim, 26th of Nissan, 5755

In-depth study of the Gemara is the only remedy for preserving sanity and the mental faculties (Mochin). The more a person merits true knowledge (Da'at), the more shame spreads over his face. Shame and silence in the face of insult are the distinct signs of a person's pure lineage and the root of his soul at Mount Sinai.

To transform from 'Met' (Dead) to 'Emet' (Truth), a person must include himself within all the souls of Israel. As long as a person believes he is the greatest Tzaddik, the best Chassid, and that there is no one like him in the land—he is in the aspect of 'Met' (Dead). The word 'Emet' (Truth) is formed only when one adds the Aleph—the Master (Aluf) of the World, and inclusion with the collective. This is the intention in the Reading of the Shema: "Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One"—to merge with all the souls of Israel, with all the Tzaddikim of the generation, regardless of whether one is Breslov or not. What does it matter? If a Jew has written a book that strengthens me in faith and trust, that awakens me to the love of God, I must take from him. It is not my role to judge who has a share in the World to Come; my role is to take any book that will help me enter the World to Come.

The Fire of Gevurot in the Heart

Our Holy Rebbe teaches that the root of Gevurot (Judgments/Strengths) is in the heart. The peak of the counting is 'Netzach shebe'Gevurah' (Victory within Strength), and these Gevurot are shame and weeping. As it is stated: "My heart grew hot within me; while I was musing, the fire burned; then I spoke with my tongue" (Psalms 39:4).

When the heart begins to burn from within, the person becomes one who "speaks truth in his heart." He begins to feel his flaws, his distance from holiness. He says to himself: "Where am I and where is the truth? I am the worst of all. Even though I have drawn close to Chassidut, it has not yet helped me even a hair's breadth; I fall every day." This realization, the warmth in the heart and the weeping, are the beginning of the rectification (Tikkun).

Only the Gemara Preserves Sanity

The nature of the world is that a person gradually loses his clarity of mind over the years. From the age of twenty, a person begins to lose percentages of his intellectual power, and when he reaches the age of sixty, if he has not placed the Gemara into his head, he is liable to lose his sanity completely. We have seen elders who lost the image of humanity, spoke nonsense, and cursed, because they did not have the anchor of the Torah.

In contrast, Tzaddikim like Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Bender zt"l and Rabbi Shmuel Shapira zt"l maintained wondrous sanity and clarity until their last day. Only the Gemara can hold the brain so it does not calcify. Even great scientists and composers go mad and lose their minds, because external wisdoms do not build the soul. The true intellect is only the study of Gemara.

How does one build the mind? Not by superficial running. One must take a page of Gemara, read it twice to understand the flow, and then analyze every word in Rashi, Tosafot, and the Poskim (halachic decisors). If it is Shulchan Aruch—to learn with the Shach and the Sma, to delve into every word. "Moch" (Brain) is an aspect of "Running and Returning"—to repeat the same line, the same Mishnah, again and again. This is how Da'at is built.

Shame is the Light of Tefillin

When a person receives "Moch" and true Da'at, he begins to understand where he is holding. Until now, he was in the aspect of "casting his sins behind his shoulders," unaware of his condition. But when the intellect enters, shame enters. He is ashamed of the magnitude of his transgressions, of the filth of sins that stupefy the heart.

Our Rebbe says that the more holy intellect is added to a person, the more shame is added to him. This shame is the very light of Tefillin. When a person rises at midnight and studies until morning in terrible shame, in lowliness, with a feeling of "How did this night pass over me?"—this shame illuminates his face. This is the secret of "And they shall fear (v'yar'u) You"—awe (yirah) and seeing (re'iyah) are one. Moses our Teacher, whose face radiated light, was entirely shame.

"One who commits a transgression and is ashamed of it—is forgiven immediately for all his iniquities." Shame is the true forgiveness, and it is also what restores the Mochin. One cannot receive Mochin merely through travel and wanderings; one needs the internal shame that stems from Torah study.

The Test of Silence and Lineage

How do we know if a person is of high lineage and possesses a pure soul root? The Gemara in Kiddushin teaches us that the test is silence. When people fight and disgrace one another, the one who remains silent—he is the one of lineage.

"A family that another family provokes... and remains silent—this is a sign of lineage."

Rav went to Babylon and checked lineages based on silence. If a person is insulted and remains silent, it is a sign that his ancestors' feet stood at Mount Sinai. Conversely, one who possesses brazenness (Azut Panim) and speaks evil speech (Lashon Hara), this is a sign that there is a "trace of invalidity" in him. It is possible that some foreign gene mixed into the family, some soul that did not stand at Mount Sinai. For the impurity (Zohama) of Israel ceased when they stood at Mount Sinai, and this impurity is the brazenness and bad speech regarding others.

Sometimes one sees two families fighting with each other, and this is a kindness from Heaven to prevent them from marrying one another, for "one is not left to stick to his friend." The Holy One, Blessed be He, protects pure souls by means of the dispute.

We must know that the entire matter of evil speech and looking negatively at others stems from the flaw of Cain. Cain saw debt in everyone—in his father, in his mother, in his brother. He saw the whole world as flawed. The rectification is shame, silence, and humility. A Jew must possess shame, and this is the clearest testimony of his Jewishness and his holiness.

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