Likutei Moharan

Torah 31.6: What Will You Do With the Thought?

In this continuation of Torah 31, we confront a startling possibility: What if a sudden thought of teshuvah, inspiration, or even temptation did not begin with you? Rabbeinu develops the idea of גלגולי נפשות through the power of kisufin and dibbur. A yearning begins as potential, but once it is articulated, it enters the world as living spiritual energy. That energy does not simply disappear. It can travel, be received by another person, and become the beginning of an entirely new movement in avodah.

This creates both tremendous opportunity and tremendous responsibility. A person may suddenly receive an awakening that he did not generate himself, and his task is to decide whether to lean into it or let it pass. Conversely, an unwanted negative thought does not necessarily define the person who experiences it. The avodah begins with what we do next. Do we actualize the thought, redirect it, or allow an unexpected moment of inspiration to change us? Even a word spoken today may eventually become part of another person’s spiritual awakening.

The shiur then returns to the balance between lamdan and tzadik and asks a deeply practical question: What should a person hold onto when he falls from his madreigah? Earlier, the path upward began with learning רצון ה׳ clearly and building from halacha toward deeper attachment. But once a person has already reached that place and experiences a yeridah, simply retreating into Torah as an intellectual subject can reinforce the very distance he is trying to overcome. Instead, Rabbeinu points back toward emunah, even when all that remains is a faint reshimu of the closeness a person once felt.

Life in avodah is not a flat line. There are times when the wind is at our back and times when every step feels heavy. The shiur suggests that those moments may reveal something deeper: a person can sometimes grow most precisely when he feels the least. The question is not whether inspiration is always present, but whether, in the absence of feeling, we can remain attached to Hashem and choose what to do with whatever thought, opportunity, or challenge has been placed before us.

Torah 31.5: The Torah Is Given. What Will You Make of It?

In this deep continuation of Torah 31, we confront a striking reality: different people can encounter the same Torah, the same tzadik, even the same spiritual revelation, and emerge completely differently. Rabbi Akiva entered the Pardes and emerged בשלום. Others were overwhelmed, distorted by what they encountered, or, in the case of Acher, severed themselves from the Source. The difference was not necessarily in what they saw, but in the kli through which they received it.

This becomes a fundamental principle of avodah: the tzadik can give us the Torah, but the avodah remains ours. Spiritual growth cannot simply be downloaded. A person must be capable of receiving, integrating, and growing into what he encounters. Too much light for the kli can overwhelm or distort it, while preexisting bias can reshape even truth itself. The shiur therefore asks us to examine not only what we are learning, but the lenses, desires, and inner assumptions through which we receive it.

Rabbeinu develops this further through the balance of lamdan and tzadik. Torah cannot remain an intellectual system detached from Hashem, but neither can spiritual passion exist without the grounding of halacha. Lamdanus teaches us what רצון ה׳ actually demands; chassidus and tzidkus then carry us beyond the minimum toward deeper attachment. You cannot go the extra mile if you do not know what the mile is. Yet when knowledge is severed from its Source, even Torah can become a system that takes on a life of its own.

The shiur then returns to the deepest mechanism running through Torah 31: kisufin, yearning, brings life into the raw material. Just as nekudos animate letters and allow them to combine into meaningful words, holy desire gives direction and life to the letters of Torah. The yearning of the recipient awakens a corresponding desire from the mashpia, creating the spiritual zivug through which new shefa can enter the world. Ultimately, the question becomes deeply personal: Are we passively waiting for inspiration to come from Above, or are we becoming the kli, taking the first step, and awakening the relationship ourselves?

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Torah 31.4: What Gives the World Its Life?

In this pivotal shiur of Torah 31, we step back and ask the larger question driving the entire Torah: How does shefa enter the world, and what role do we play in bringing it down? Rabbeinu begins with tzedakah, but tzedakah is only the visible act. Its power depends on something deeper: emunah, שמירת הברית, and the yearnings that connect a person back to the Source.

The shiur develops a striking model for how spiritual life enters creation. The letters are the raw material, but the nekudos give them movement, sound, and meaning. In the same way, the world contains the building blocks, but our kisufin, our longing and desire, introduce the nefesh that animates them. The direction of that yearning matters. Holy desire can bring holy life into the world; distorted desire can animate the same raw material in the opposite direction. In this sense, our avodah is not merely to live inside Hashem’s world, but to participate in how that world takes form.

This gives new meaning to bechirah. Hashem gives us the letters. We help determine how they will be read. The Torah is the blueprint of creation, yet the nekudos are left for us to bring through our yearning, intention, and ultimately our speech. We are given a world that is “perfectly imperfect,” leaving room for us to reconnect what appears separate, align ourselves with רצון ה׳, and become genuine partners in creation.

The shiur closes by extending this principle from Torah shebichsav to Torah shebaal peh. If our encounter with Torah must leave room for real avodah, then even our relationship with the rav cannot eliminate bechirah. The rav gives over Torah and connects us to the mesorah, but the talmid must still choose how to receive it. Ultimately, the question becomes: What are our deepest yearnings bringing to life, and are we using the raw material Hashem gives us to reveal His רצון in the world?

031.3 Is Lan BIrah

Paragraph 9 - End of Lashon Rabbeinu Z"L (Zos Toras)

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030.5 Meishra d'sakina 5 of 5

para 7-8

Some of the ideas discussed:

How can a finite person work toward a meainful relationship with The Infinite?

Malchus as the kli has two jobs at once. It limits to create definition, and it creates a mechanism from revelation/giluy. The same kli that “contains” becomes the very channel that reveals.

Malchus d’kedusha is pure hisbatlus. Like the moon to the sun, it adds nothing of its own, it only reflects the source. Introducing anything from itself creates a distortion and detracts from its mission, to be megaleh and bring Hashem into the world, kvyachol.

When resources become ends in themselves, the kli breaks. Taavas mamon (money being representative of a resource) turns “means” into “ends,” and what should be an engine of giluy becomes distortion and galus.

By treating wisdoms and other avenues for connection Hashem gives us as independent, the greatest opportunity for revelation becomes the greatest concealment and pirud.

Galus of malchus is framed as falling into the arba malchiyos. The same “pieces” exist, but now they serve a foreign center of gravity instead of reflecting upward to Ratzon Hashem.

The path back is chesed as tochacha. Not harshness, but clarifying separation, “lehavdel,” cutting malchus free from the pull of the sitra achra and restoring it to malchus d’kedusha.

A sharp practical lens. Do not confuse the delivery with the message. Sometimes tochacha arrives with bizayon.

The tzadik feels the tzaar of the generation (think about pain of chisaron felt at the level of the CEO responsible for the mission as opposed to the individual who introduced the fialure into the system; or a parent watching a childs failed potential rather than the child himself), and the pain colors the tone, even when the content is true and necessary.

Para 6

Big idea: Hashem created the world so we can attain השגת אלקות (hasagas Elokus) and live in relationship with Him. But because He is אין סוף (Ein Sof) and we are בעלי גבול (ba’alei gvul), the gap seems unbridgeable. The answer is צמצומים (tzimtzumim). Not for concealment, and ultimately transmission and gilui.

Malchus has two functions. It contains and defines, and it also enables expression. When Malchus is pure הִתְבַּטְלוּת (hisbatlus), לית לה מגרמה כלום (leis lah m’garmah klum), it reflects like the moon reflecting the sun. That is מלכות דקדושה (Malchus d’kedusha). When the vessel takes on “identity,” and perceived intependence the whole transmission becomes warped. That is Malchus in גלות (galus), and the same “pieces” that are potentially kedusha become reoriented as מלכות דסטרא אחרא (Malchus d’sitra achra). The sharp example is secular “wisdom” like science. It can be a כלי to reveal Hashem, but when it becomes a closed framework that claims independence from the Creator, the greatest potential for gilui becomes the greatest concealment.

Arba Malchuyos and the rescue mission:

How it gets repaired: Chesed cuts Malchus away from the ארבע מלכויות and returns it to its source. Avraham Avinu embodies this repair. He is סונא בצע (sonei betza). He rejects spoils. He pursues the ארבע מלכים and restores Malchus to kedusha. He is the עמוד האמונה (amud ha’emunah) because he can see unity inside the world’s pieces. From Avraham flows the “four sons” framework, and a major teshuvah theme emerges. True teshuvah includes asking forgiveness even for what you do not know you did wrong. Otherwise teshuvah is still confined within your own דעת (daas) and your own box.

Shalosh Regalim, simcha, and restoring Ohr Panim: The life-force of Malchus d’kedusha is אור הפנים (ohr hapanim), accessed through the שלוש רגלים (shalosh regalim) and שמחת המצוות (simchas hamitzvos). Amalek represents the center of purposelessness and ליצנות (leitzanus). Shmuel “cuts” Agag, symbolically slicing the כוח of the four distorted malchuyos and reattaching Malchus to kedusha. The regalim restore alignment, rebuild the vessel, and reopen the channel so sechel elyon can once again enter sechel tachton with integrity.

030.2 Meishra d'sakina Para 4 and 5