The Secret of the Heel: The Path to Illuminating All the Souls of Israel

Lesson No. 34 | Tuesday Morning, Parashas Masei, 27 Tammuz 5755 in the Yeshiva.

A person is required to make every effort and endeavor in serving Hashem, just as Queen Esther did. However, the main thing is to reach a recognition of true lowliness, to be in the aspect of...

When a person faces a spiritual test or danger, he must use every "tatzdaki" (tactic and effort) to push away the evil, even for a single second. Just as Aharon HaKohen had to cast the sorcery to the ground to nullify it, so too a person is required to act in every possible way to be saved.

The Self-Sacrifice of Queen Esther

The Vilna Gaon, in his novellae on Megillas Esther, explains the verse:

"And when the turn of Esther, the daughter of Avichayil, the uncle of Mordechai, who had taken her as a daughter, came to go in to the king..." (Esther 2:15)

The Gaon points out that there is a multiplicity of descriptions and terms here. Why? Because Esther made every possible effort to avoid going to Achashverosh. She lay on the ground, rolled on the stairs, claimed she was in pain, threw herself down, and bruised herself. She tried every possible tactic, hoping that perhaps at the last moment, they would take pity on her and leave her alone.

Whoever has a soul does not need to be told anything—the soul already teaches him what to do. A person's entire purpose in this world is to merit receiving a soul. In the merit of Esther's mesirus nefesh (self-sacrifice), doing everything in her power to be saved, Hashem helped her, and she succeeded in expelling all the evil influences and demons from within herself.

To Be Despicable in One's Own Eyes

The true tzaddik is like a spiritual "vacuum" that can draw out and extract all the demons and kelipos (impure spiritual husks) from a person. When a person draws close to tzaddikim who are truly humble, who are at the pinnacle of lowliness, he merits to be purified.

Regarding this, Rabbi Yisroel of Ruzhin zy"a said in his commentary on the verse:

"The stone that the builders despised has become the chief cornerstone." (Psalms 118:22)

What is this "stone that the builders despised"? This refers to a state where a person is despicable in his own eyes. When a person truly understands and sees his own lowliness, to the point that he becomes despicable in his own eyes—specifically then, before Hashem, he becomes the "chief cornerstone."

The Secret of the Heel: Illuminating the Lowest Souls

The Ruzhiner continues and explains the verse, "And it shall come to pass, because (ekev) you listen..." (Deuteronomy 7:12). The Noam Elimelech expounds on this using the verse from Psalms: "I have inclined my heart to perform Your statutes forever, to the very end (ekev)"—meaning, I always hold myself in the aspect of the "heel" (ekev), the lowest limb.

The Ruzhiner asks: How will the souls in the heels hear? After all, we want to bring all of the Jewish people back in teshuvah (repentance), and indeed, we could accomplish this if only we acted properly. The answer lies in the word "heel" (ekev). If you know that you are a heel, that you are the heel of the entire Jewish people—only then can you draw down illumination to the souls that are in the heels.

In order to influence the souls of the generation that are in the lowest places, in the aspect of the "heels of Esav," everything depends on a person knowing that he himself is the heel, that he is the lowest in the world.

Honoring All Who Fear Hashem

A person's central spiritual work is described in the verse:

"In his eyes, a vile person is despised, but he honors those who fear Hashem." (Psalms 15:4)

When a person is "despised in his own eyes," he merits to fulfill the continuation of the verse—to honor all who fear Hashem in the world. A person's great test is not to settle for honoring only his personal Rav, but to truly honor all those who fear Hashem.

Rebbe Nachman of Breslov (Likutey Moharan, Torah 22) teaches that when a person honors all the tzaddikim of the generation, the true renowned leaders, he can be included with all the souls of Israel. Since it is very difficult to love each and every Jew individually, the advice is to recognize and honor the true tzaddikim, through whom one is included in the entirety of the Jewish people.

The Conditions for Recognizing the Tzaddikim of the Generation

In Torah 282, it is explained that every tzaddik has souls that belong to him, in the aspect of "infants," to whom he imparts the "breath of the mouth that contains no sin." Every tzaddik in the generation is in the aspect of a shepherd, as it is stated: "And pasture your kids beside the shepherds' tents." The infants receive the holiness of speech from the tzaddikim of the generation, and every tzaddik builds a Mishkan (Tabernacle) from those spiritual infants.

But how can a person merit to recognize who the true tzaddikim are? To achieve this, he must be clean of three severe matters, which correspond to the three cardinal sins:

First, he must be clean of "idolatry"—meaning, he must have perfect emunah (faith), having no fear of anything in the world other than Hashem.

Second, he must be clean of "immorality"—to guard his personal holiness and immediately do teshuvah (repentance) for any blemish or forbidden sight.

And third, he must be clean of "bloodshed." **Spiritual bloodshed means...**

Part 2 of 3 — Lesson No. 34

→ Previous Part | Next Part ←

All Parts: Part 1 | Part 2 (Current) | Part 3