The Dances that Sweeten the Judgments and the Healings Found in Food • Parshat

How are the judgments and laws sweetened through dancing? And how do all healings enter into food? New insights on Parshat Mishpatim from the Gaon and Tzaddik Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a (may he live long and good days)

"And these are the ordinances (mishpatim)" - To sing and play music:

Through dancing and clapping hands together, the sweetening of judgments is achieved. First and foremost, this is done through song and melodies, as our Rebbe (Rebbe Nachman) says. How do "mishpatim" (judgments/ordinances) turn into song and melodies? Because in truth, the words "V’eileh HaMishpatim" (And these are the ordinances) have the same gematria (numerical value) as "Shirah" (song). Anyone who does the calculation will see that in the words "V’eileh HaMishpatim," if you remove only the 'vav' (the conjunction 'and') and the 'hey' (the definite article 'the'), the words "Eileh Mishpatim" are exactly the gematria of "Shirah."

[Transform] all the ordinances and all the judgments into songs and joys. For "Eileh" is 36 and "Mishpatim" is exactly 479; adding 36 equals exactly 515, which is the gematria of "Shirah" (song). Thus, already in the acronyms and the gematria of the verse "V’eileh HaMishpatim" (without the 'vav' and 'hey'), the concept of song and dancing is hinted at. This is the entire matter of our Rebbe, which the Rebbe revealed—the Baal Shem Tov (Master of the Good Name) revealed it first, and our Rebbe continued it—that one can sweeten the judgments specifically through dancing and songs. Especially now, when we hear of such decrees against the People of Israel, where they want to launch missiles at Israel—missiles with bacteria, they said there are bacteria, Heaven forbid—certainly those who believe in the Tzaddikim (righteous ones) are the only ones who can sweeten this, and specifically through songs and dancing.

For the essence of the greatness of the Holy One, Blessed be He, is that even the nations of the world should know that there is a Ruler and Governor G-d. A person must know that everything is G-d, and that he does nothing in the world on his own. "Without You, no man shall lift his hand or his foot in all the land of Egypt"—without the Tzaddik, it is impossible to lift a hand or a foot. If a person thinks he can move a hand or a foot without the Tzaddik, this is already considered heresy.

"And He shall bless your bread and your water" - In food, there are all the healings, on condition that it is clean from desires:

Hashem can perform miracles and wonders right now and give him everything: "And He shall bless your bread and your water."

Our Rebbe says (Likutey Moharan, Torah 1, Part II) that all blessings are found within the water, but it must be clean of three things. For one may be healed with anything except for three things:

1. Sexual Immorality: One must be clean of sexual immorality. If a person does not have Shmiras Einayim (guarding of the eyes), then he will not have a blessing in the water. In the water, there are all the healings.
2. The Rebbe says, and Idolatry. As we said, why are you throwing yourself upon a found object? Why are you throwing yourself down, why are you performing an action? A person does not need to perform any action! To merit money? The money will come to you on its own! Why are you performing an action, why are you throwing yourself down! That is it, he is no longer called a "rasha" (wicked person). The Tosafot (Talmudic commentary) brings there the case of "a poor man turning a cake"—it refers to him holding the cake, and now he is turning the cake. Now he struck the olives, and olives fell, so why are you taking from him? But here, he stood there, so he already acquired the find, so why are you throwing yourself down again? If he had touched it, it would be something, but he hasn't touched it yet, only thrown himself down. He is breathing, he arrived here, so apparently the Rebbetzin's sister from New Zealand arrived.

Now he knows the entire Torah; he studies alone in New Zealand. We see souls located in New Zealand at the end of the earth; they travel two or three days to arrive. He traveled a week to get here, and they allow [us] to study with him the entire matter of "these are the found objects." The find, the find that people throw themselves upon and that's it—so he says to me, yes, yes, this is an international law. He tells me there is a law in a game of rugby, a game where they go wild, they grab and bring down the ball. I don't know exactly, they throw it there—I have never seen it—but it is the wildest thing in the world. So if a person throws himself on the ball, it can be snatched from him; it is not considered that he has merited it. He says, this is what the Tosafot says, this is the law in the whole world, that is the law. There is a game of rugby; it's not like soccer where you just kick and it goes into the goal. This is running and snatching the ball from one another, and whoever snatched it has already won it. But if he didn't actually catch it, they snatch it from him. So he says, if one just throws himself down, it is permitted to snatch it from him. This is exactly what the Tosafot says: if he just throws himself down, it is permitted to snatch it from him.

This is exactly what the Kotzker Rebbe says: Why are you throwing yourself down? Stand up, it will come to you, it is already in your possession! So the one who takes it from him is not called a "rasha" (wicked person), because if you don't have bitachon (trust) that it will reach you and you still throw yourself down, then why on earth [would you do that]?

The Rebbe says if you will be clean from the blemish of faith, then one may be healed by everything except for idolatry, except for sexual immorality, except for bloodshed.

1. Bloodshed: This means not to whiten the face (shame) of another, and not to speak Lashon Hara (evil speech) about another. He said "Do not murder"—this includes all Lashon Hara, all shaming, it includes all of Nezikin (laws of damages). The Rebbe said "Do not murder" is one [commandment], but it is written, "His hands are (rods of gold) set with beryl (tarshish)." Rashi says "Do not murder" [contained within it] all of Bava Metzia, Bava Kamma, and all of Sanhedrin (tractates of the Talmud).

In "Do not murder" are all the laws, "filled with tarshish"—they saw from one end of the world to the other; they saw everything that would be until the end of all generations; they saw Abaye and Rava (Talmudic sages); they saw everything. During the Ten Commandments, the heavens and the earth were opened to them, and they received such an attainment; they saw in "Do not murder" all the laws; in "Do not commit adultery" they saw Ketubot, Gittin, and Kiddushin (tractates on marriage and divorce), and they saw all the laws. In "Do not steal" they saw the laws of Shomrim (guards) and everything that exists. The moment He says one law—He only said "Do not murder," "Do not steal"—then everyone saw from one end of the world to the other. They saw all the Gemaras, all the Mishnayos, all the Rishonim (early commentators), all the Acharonim (later commentators)—everything was revealed to them. The "Asara Maamarot" (Ten Utterances) says that if they had not sinned, it would have truly been like that; we would have known everything, all the laws in their finest details.

All of this is written in "And He shall bless your bread and your water." One may be healed by everything, provided that you are clean of sexual immorality, that you do not speak Lashon Hara, that you do not shame another, and that you do not have an "ayin ra'ah" (evil eye) toward another. So that is bloodshed, and together with it also the blemish of faith—that you should not have a blemish of faith, that you should not have idolatry. Know that everything will reach you, and everything will come to you, and everything will be given to you—"from your own they shall give to you," everything is from His hand. For Hashem only wants to bestow [goodness]; just as He bestows air, He wants to bestow wealth.

It is written here in the weekly Torah portion, Mishpatim: The Rebbe says one may be healed by everything, provided you are clean of sexual immorality, clean of bloodshed, and clean of idolatry. We see here in Parshat Mishpatim, "And He shall bless your bread and your water," here before the seventh [aliyah], "And I will remove illness from your midst"—only provided that you are clean of bloodshed and sexual immorality. So may it be [His] will that "Hashem shall bless your bread and your water," that all healings shall be in the water, all healings shall be in the bread, all the healings in the world, and "I will remove illness from your midst," and there shall be no illness at all.

The lesson has undergone editing, and if any error has occurred, it should not be attributed, Heaven forbid, to our teacher the Rav shlit"a, but rather to the writer, and "may our error remain with us."

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