The Secret of the Divine Intellect: From Waking Early in the Morning to the Thirty-Two Paths of Wisdom

Lesson No. 242 | Cassette 242 Lesson A: Motzaei Shabbos Kodesh (Saturday night), Parashas Shmini, 26 Adar II 5760 Lesson B: At the home of the Rav, a lesson for the "Bnei Torah" group, Part 2, Lesson No. 1

An in-depth article explaining how waking up before dawn and finding good points open the gates of spiritual comprehension for a person. Through the secrets of the Name of Havayah (the Tetragrammaton) and the thirty-two paths of wisdom, the difference between Torah study that leads to deveikus (cleaving to Hashem) and superficial study that breeds arrogance is explained, as well as the deep secret behind the selling of Yosef.

The Tur begins his halachic work with the ruling: "Yehuda ben Teima says, be bold as a leopard." However, the Shulchan Aruch opens with the words: "Strengthen yourself like a lion to arise in the morning." Why the difference? The trait of the leopard symbolizes azus (boldness or brazenness). During the time of the Tur, there were still holy and pure people who knew how to use this trait appropriately. Today, however, it is forbidden to use the trait of brazenness; we may only use the gevurah (might and discipline) of the lion. It is highly likely that a person with the trait of brazenness will act insolently toward people who are older and more distinguished than him, mistakenly thinking he is a tzaddik (righteous person) while rebelling against his teachers.

Therefore, the Shulchan Aruch opens with the lion—teaching that a person must be a mighty warrior, avoiding excessive sleep, and rising early in the morning to serve his Creator. "He must wake up before dawn, just as King David said: 'I awaken the dawn'—the dawn does not awaken me."

The one who wakes up before dawn is the one who controls everything that happens on that day. He is the one who navigates and influences the day. In contrast, a person who wakes up after dawn is like someone trying to jump onto a moving train. The train already started traveling before dawn; if he is lucky, he will manage to force his way inside, but he will be battered and bruised in the process. If he is unlucky, he might fall under the wheels, Heaven forbid. This is exactly what happens to a person throughout the day when he fails to wake up during the two hours before dawn—he gets trampled under the wheels of the rat race of life.

The Secret of Melodies and Good Points

A person who is not spiritually connected distracts his mind from Hashem, blessed be He, in a single moment of arrogance. The Sages say to such a person: "The mosquito was created before you, so why are you so prideful?" Rebbe Nachman of Breslov explains in Torah 17 that whoever sees the praiseworthiness and the good point in every single Jew is granted a revelation of all the intricate details of creation—from the lion in the Divine Chariot all the way down to the mosquito.

The lion symbolizes the trait of awe and supernal might, whereas the mosquito (whose numerical value in gematria equals twice the word "nachash" or snake) symbolizes the lowest possible places. By finding the good points, a person learns how to uplift the entire creation. Even a person who has fallen to the level of the primordial snake can be brought back in teshuvah (repentance) and find his tikkun (rectification).

In Torah 282, Rebbe Nachman explains that all melodies are created solely from these good points. "Anyone who sings, but his song does not stem from the good points he finds in every Jew, will ultimately lose his mind." This is what happened to the great composers of the nations of the world. When the Baal Shem Tov zt"l and Rebbe Nachman arrived in the world, they opened all the supernal halls of music. This spiritual abundance descended into the world, and those composers were able to write masterpieces in a single week that today cannot be composed in fifty years. However, because they took these melodies without spiritual awareness and without connecting them to the good points, the music descended into the Sitra Achra (the Other Side, or forces of impurity), and it drove them insane.

The entire essence of serving Hashem must be infused with songs, melodies, and dancing, just as Rabbi Tzvi of Rimanov zt"l used to conduct himself. When a person finds a good point in every Jew, holy melodies begin to awaken within him, and with these points, he constructs the very letters of his prayers and songs of praise.

I Have Set Hashem Before Me Always

There are people whose entire joy stems from feeling superior to others. A person has an "automatic computer" in his head that performs millions of calculations a second, constantly comparing him to everyone he knows, and convincing him: "This person is like this, and that person is like that, so obviously I am the greatest tzaddik, the smartest, and the holiest of them all."

But the truth is, the moment a person breaks free from all his worldly desires, from the blemishes of the eyes and the blemishes of the mind, he emerges from all the kelipos (spiritual husks of impurity) and his mind becomes a Divine intellect. Then he attains immense wisdom, about which the Tanna'im (Mishnaic Sages) said:

"If all the lakes were ink, and all men were scribes, and the heavens were parchment, and the trees were quills—it would be impossible to write even a fraction of the wisdom that the Tanna would grasp in every single second."

The third halacha in the Shulchan Aruch is: "I have set Hashem before me always." This was the simple, everyday conduct of every Jerusalemite Jew of the past—never to distract one's mind from the Name of Havayah for even a single second. A person studies and concentrates on his learning, and during his study, he is forbidden to distract his mind from the Tosafos, the Rashi, and the Rishonim (early commentators). But the real question is what happens when he lifts his head from the book.

"The moment you lift your head from the Gemara, you must see the Name of Havayah right in front of your eyes. This is the sign that you studied in holiness. If not, you could study for a million years and only end up nourishing the Sitra Achra."

The Thirty-Two Paths of Wisdom

In the book 'Shaar HaArazim', the secret of visualizing the Name of Havayah before one's eyes is explained. When one visualizes the Name of Havayah spelled out with the letter Yud (known as the Name of A"V, numerically 72) with the letter Aleph in the middle, this Aleph, which originates from the supernal mother (the Sefirah of Binah, representing understanding), splits the letter Vav in two. According to Kabbalistic secrets, this division creates the thirty-two paths of wisdom.

What are these paths of wisdom? They are thirty-two types of intellect that a person can merit to attain. Among them are: wondrous intellect, radiant intellect, sanctified intellect, transcendent intellect, pure intellect, and sparkling intellect. If a person sees the Name of Havayah sparkling, he merits the 'sparkling intellect'. There is also the 'intellect of will'—a person who becomes entirely nothing but a will for Hashem, which shares the same numerical value as "the will of Moshe."

The highest intellect of all is the 'constant intellect'—a Divine awareness that never ceases to illuminate for even a single second.

The Secret of the Shoes of the Shechinah and the Sale of Yosef

Unfortunately, sometimes a person studies for many hours, but immediately afterward he begins to speak badly about others: "So-and-so is wicked, so-and-so is foolish, because of so-and-so I cannot learn." Commensurate with the number of hours he studied, so too does he have the strength to speak lashon hara (derogatory speech) about another person.

Rebbe Nachman explains in Torah 12 that this happens because the Torah cannot tolerate him. Since he lacks the proper holiness and purity, the Torah causes him to "vomit" it out in the form of evil speech. However, the true tzaddikim (righteous ones) know how to take those "vomits" of Torah, clarify them, and rebuild from them the stature of the Shechinah (Divine Presence). Through this, they merit wondrous spiritual attainments that never existed before.

This is connected to a deep secret regarding the sale of Yosef. The Torah relates that the brothers sold Yosef "for shoes." The question arises: Does someone sell his brother for a pair of shoes? The book Pelach HaRimon explains that the intention here is the "shoes of the Shechinah (Divine Presence)"—the angels Metatron and Sandalphon, through whom the Shechinah is enclothed during the weekdays.

Yosef the Tzaddik was in the aspect of a "youth" (na'ar), and he merited to have the angel Metatron spiritually enter him (in the Kabbalistic secret of ibur). The brothers, who were the greatest of the world and had studied Torah with Yaakov Avinu (our Patriarch) for many years, saw that the young Yosef was achieving immense spiritual attainments and taking all the "shoes of the Shechinah." They felt that he was taking their spiritual place.

"They said: We, the elders, have been learning with our father for so many years, and suddenly he is born and takes our place, and our father reveals everything to Yosef."

Just as Yishmael shot arrows at Yitzchak—not out of simple madness, but because he saw that Yitzchak was attaining all the secrets of the Divine Chariot (Merkavah) and the "bow of the covenant," and he felt that Yitzchak was taking his spiritual place. So too, the brothers judged Yosef as a spiritual "pursuer" (rodef), and they sold him in order to win back those supernal "shoes."

In order to truly merit all those wondrous intellects and the thirty-two paths of wisdom that are drawn down from the Name Havayah (the Tetragrammaton), a person must purify himself. This is exactly what the Rambam expands upon in his introduction to the chapter of Chelek in Tractate Sanhedrin, where he explains the principles and beliefs that will bring a person to the attainment of the complete Divine intellect.

Lesson No. 242