Derech Mitzvosecha - Ahavas Yisroel

Mitzvas Ahavas Yisroel (page chof ches)
Source: Vayikra 19:17 & 18
2 separate mitzvahs- issur sinas yisroel & mitzvah ahavas yisroel
What if someone did something very bad to you? How could you love them and not hate them?
You’re not hating the person, you’re hating the act.

The Tzemach Tzedek’s Questions:
1. Hillel: Don’t do to someone what you hate. Hillel was chesed, why doesn’t he say it in the positive?
2. Before davening we say hareini. Why before davening, not earlier in the morning? What is the relevance to davening?
3. Why is ahavas yisroel kol hatorah kulah?
“If you do righteous what are you doing to Hashem?” (iyov) Bein adam lmakom doesn’t matter- Hashem doesn’t gain from you doing a mitzvah- only because He wants you to do it. once someone asks you, you become beloved in their eyes- example, parent asking you for a glass of water
So why is the mitzvah of ahavas yisroel more important than that?
4. Why is everything else only an explanation?

Gemara: if someone looses money and a poor person finds it and buys food with it, you fulfilled the mitzvah of tzedakah- even though you didn’t want them to find it- but still ahavas yisroel is even more important that that. Why?

INTRO:
Our neshamas come from adam harishon- every single Jew. Tzaddikim from the head, different people from different limbs & organs. When one neshama is in pain the others have to help out.
Al chet- the Rebbe says it for himself- for the part of himself that is connected to the yid that sinned.

Alef: Kol yisroel sod guf echad- we’re all included in the neshama of adam harishon, every jew is an individual limb. One person can be a guarantor for another, one person is responsible for another, that’s why the arizal would say the individual al chet on yom kippur- for his connection to the other Jews. That’s why a person is called Adam- adameh l’elyon- compared to Above.
• Hashem –includes everything
• Adam Harishon-people & rebbeim
• Rebbe-includes the whole generation
• People

the name yud kay vov kay
4 names of Hashem equal: mem hey=yud kay vov kay=45
yud=yud vov daled=20 hey=hey alef=6 vov=vov alef cov=13 hey=hey alef=hey alef=6 add it up and get 45-mem hey- mispar katan=9 (however many times you multiply it, the mispar katan will always be 9) 4+5=9-midas haemes (441)
beis nun (ban)=52- how does it equal 9? In kabbala sometimes final letters continue after tof- final chof=500 etc. so ban=702=9
samach gimmel (sag)=63
ayin beis (ag)=72
each name refers to a different way things are drawn down into this world in the aspect of havaya.
Miluy-when you spell out how to spell the letters
Chochma=koach mah=the strength of what= flash of an idea
When Hashem wants to be mamshich something of chochma it will come down through mah
Ban=bina-
Chochma is more giving, coming down from above, bina is more internalizing, processing

2 ways to view the sefiros:
1. things combined in each other – example, gevura shebchesed (dominant is chesed, but there’s gvura because they have chesed)
2. each sefira on its own
difference between olam hatikun & olam hatohu
tohu: chaos – higher shoresh
when malchus came to tohu, shviras hakeilim because it couldn’t handle it all- all the ohr falls all over the place-malchus tried to take it all over because malchus needs all the other sefiros. Tohu is where all the sefiros are separate.
Rebbe-malchus- has all the midos of everyone
make a bracha on food- because theres kedusha from ohr hatohu that came into our food- elevate it to kedusha
olam hatikkun- everything included in each other

adam dleila=mah of olam hatikkun (chochma from tikkun)
child comes from brain of the father- the highest level- chochma- adam
zayin tof zayin: zeh tachas zeh
comes from the metzcha- forehead- the highest part of the head, includes everything

how to do middos connect? You have to have a higher force to connect them. Chesed & gevurah- fire & water- they won’t go together on your own.
“I can’t believe you did that” a person is following one midda over the other-usually follows one- not really him
The higher force is shem mah of metzach
Hishtalselus- chain- shake it down here up there also does-
One midda comes and is connected with the world above it and the world below it-
Shem mah includes everything in seder hishtalshelus- also every detail
Something that is higher is more refined and less understandable to us
The lower links are more physical – but the top includes everything
Hashem controls everything- even gashmius details- it’s all included in the top
At the bottom you might not see the top but it’s there (too refined)
Once it comes out it’s still affected by where it came from
Says in tinnunei zohar (pasach eliyahu) that the shem mah is the path of atzilus. Road-connects 2 separate places
With this we can understand the neshamos of yidden. We are all one big body- the neshama of adam harishon. Includes every single neshama. Like the limbs are all included in the other.
For example- in one body. Even though the person is separated into many different limbs, every limb is connected and receives something form the other limbs. If some limb was damaged, they might take blood from another part – they’re all connected. Because there’s general life in the whole body- that shines in the brain. Sometimes a brain can feel more pain from something that’s wrong with a nail than a hand (even though the hand is more important). The source of adam harishon was chochma ilaah from adam ha’elyon

why don’t we feel the love?
from adam harishon branches out all different bodies- like different parts of a body – just like one hand wouldn’t hurt a foot, etc.
Why do we need a rebbe?
Like a tree- every leaf is connected to the roots- but first it goes through the individual branch – so everyone has their own rebbe but ultimately it connects to the Rebbe- rosh bnei yisroel.
There never was a separation between neshamos. And therefore a spiritual wound could be more painful than a physical wound.

The arizal said every al chet- because it’s a pain in the limb of this jew that is connected to the arizal- the head.
I might not feel the pain of another person, but the head does
That’s why the rebbe can tell you a tikkun for an aveira- the head knows what each part needs when it’s hurt.
The neshama of the arizal (head) includes everything, and it feels the pain of every one of the limbs.
If the rebbe says al chet for me, I can see how it perfects him, but what does it do for me?
When a person wants to do teshuva, it means the neshama heard the bas kol. It might not be affected right now, but eventually it will. Same thing when a tzaddik says al chet, maybe not right now, but at some point you will be aroused to do teshuva.
Since we are all connected, THEREFORE we are commanded to love our fellow jew.
Hareini:
Shema- you want to be moser nefesh- you can’t do that if you have a blemish- if you’re not having ahavas yisroel. Korbanos, we want to be in place of korbanos- a korban couldn’t be brought if it was blemished.
Because my neshama includes everyone, when I go up with m tefilla, you go up with a general light, not a specific light.
Hashem always listens to tefila brabim

when someone hates another jew, he separates from his soul a part of himself. Now there’s something lacking in your soul. Then he’s blemished and can’t be accepted by Hashem.

Beis:
Why did hillel use a negative explanation?
When you do something wrong- you love yourself so much your love covers over your action- you make excuses. When someone else reveals your thoughts you have it because you have to deal with your faults now.
When you don’t reveal your friends fault, then Hashem treats you midda kneged midda and can ‘look away’ when you make a mistake too. When youf friend does something wrong you make a million excuses, benefit of the doubt- like yourself. If you CAN help and guide and encourage a person, then that’s the best you should do.

Its both negative and positive
When a person doesn’t see a fault in himself it doesn’t mean he doesn’t recognize- he can see how low he is more than his friend can (he knows his heart, not just what your eyes can see). Just because he knows he did something wrong doesn’t mean he’s going to do anything about it- as if he doesn’t see it at all. He gets mad when his friend uncovers his fault- his friend took off the love I covered it with.
This applies to worldly things or spiritual things.
Mayyin rabbim lo yuchlu- great waters can’t extinguish a yid’s love for Hashem
Mayyim=problems with parnassa
Lshem yichud- before baruch she’amar

hakadosh baruch hu- Hashem higher than His association with the world
shchina- dwelling in the world
any mitzvah brings a unification from hakadosh baruch hu to shchina. In the level of hakadosh baruch hu
Hashem gave us the opportunity to connect to Him through mitzvos- doing His ratzon
In each mitzvah specifically it unifies one detail of Hashem with shchina, with ahavas yisroel it includes everything- Hashem doesn’t see our faults
This is how hillel can say zehu kol hatorah kulah
Through connecting one Jew with another as if they are one unit, this causes a tremendous thing up there- this is the foundation and the purpose of the entire torah- the concept of yichud hakadosh baruch hu and shchina- basically saying uniting Hakadosh Baruch Hu with the yidden. It says that the image of yaakov was similar to the image of adam haelyon- yaakov was the general of all neshamas- similar to the image of adam haelyon- which showed the image of the glory of Hashem. Because it says ‘a portion of Hashem is his nation.’ When yidden become united as one, through this you make one with One- bnei yisroel with Hashem.
We overlook our faults- so when we are one with Hashem then we share the same faults- so Hashem overlooks them too

you shouldn’t think that I’ll do something wrong and Hashem won’t know what you did- everything is revealed to Hashem.
“he saw sin but he didn’t think about it” (iyov) so he knows but he won’t act on it.
Vayisach elokah b’ado-
Eloka- kel, vov kei – concept of chessed elyon (makif)
But if there’s separation, if you dislike someone, then whenever there’s a blemish he can’t come close.
Barcheinu avinu kulanu kechod- when we are one we get the bracha of Hashem
Were uniting kudsha brichu and shechina, and you reveal the oh rein sof in every Jew’s neshama-
Tamimim tehiyeh im Hashem elokecha- you should be whole with Hashem

to answer our question: vidach perusha- the rest of the torah is only an explanation of this mitzvah. Main thing we want to do is unit hakadosh baruch hu with shechina. Every mitzvah does a similar thing but in a specific details- brings down ohr ein sof in a specific way. Ahavas yisroel is uniting hakadosh baruch hu with shechina, all the other mitzvahs are details of how we can do this specifically. Ahavas yisroel brings down the whole thing and the other mitzvos bring it into specific middos.

When you do a mitzvah, it’s only Hashem being meyached in that individual part- wash your hands, it’s that detail, etc. every mitzvah is associated with another limb – each mitzvah is a prat- the klal is ahavas yisroel that encompasses it all but we need all the pratim as well- like electricity running through the wall- when you plug in a fan it will cool, when you plug in a toaster it will toast etc.

you could express your love through maaseh- you have 248 limbs- evarei dmalka- example: mitzvah of tallis, appoint yourself a king, - ohr makkif- what does this ohr makkif accomplish?
It gives a person the koach to have a feeling that somethings not appropriate, mesiras nefesh, etc.
Yira: 2 types: yira leads to chochma
Chochma- you learn and it brings you to yira (ex. Someone who never knew anything about the Rebbe,
Yira is from close, ahava is from far
Mesiras nefesh is one level
Bittal bmitzius- I don’t exist- you can only get after chochma

arm yourselves to fight midyan- klipa of midyan is sinas chinam- balak hired bilam to curse r”l the yidden- bilam was from midyan – had no reason to hurt them, never battled them-just wanted to be higher

sinas chinam: not just hating people for no reason
pleasure from putting other people down- bragging