שיחות השיכים לספר המדות

(15.) After he said the Torah "nine precious tikunim" mentioned above — and it speaks at length there about the greatness of the Land of Israel, that this is the very essence of the victory of the battle, when one merits to come to the Land of Israel etc. — and especially at the time of saying the Torah he elaborated on the matter more, for he began from the very beginning of the Torah to speak of the Land of Israel immediately. And he said in these words: Whoever wishes to be a Jew, that is, to go from level to level, it is impossible except through the Land of Israel. And when one is victorious in the battle, then one is called a "man of war," because before one is victorious in the battle, "let not he who girds on [his armor] boast himself as he who takes it off" [Kings I 20:11] — only when one is victorious in the battle is one a man of war.

And afterwards he began to speak of the soul, and became very inflamed, and raised his voice and said: There is a soul etc., as is printed in the book in the aforementioned siman — except that in his writing he begins immediately from the soul, but in his saying it he began from the Land of Israel as mentioned above. And after he completed the Torah, afterwards at the time of conversation I asked him: What is your intention in what you said, that the Land of Israel is so great and that this is the very essence of the victory of the battle? And he rebuked me and answered and said: My intention is the Land of Israel in its plain sense — with those very houses and those very dwellings. And he said in Yiddish in these words: "Ich mayn takeh dos Eretz Yisroel mit di shtiber mit di haizer" — meaning to say, that all his intention in what he elaborated on the greatness of the Land of Israel, his intention is simply for the literal Land of Israel to which the Children of Israel travel, that he desires that every single man of Israel — all who wish to be a true man of Israel — should travel to the Land of Israel, and even though he has many impediments to this, he should break all the impediments and go there, for this is the very essence of the victory of the battle when one merits to come to the Land of Israel etc. And this is what roused my heart most and strengthened me greatly — to overcome all the many impediments I had beyond measure, to break them all and come to the Land of Israel. Blessed be Hashem Yisburach who was with me to break such impediments and confusions and delays, and to come there in peace and to return in peace. When he began the Torah "nine precious tikunim" mentioned above, at Rosh Hashana at dusk as his constant custom — that is, close to the beginning of the night belonging to the second day of Rosh Hashana, a nd the day had already darkened — I sat very close to him and looked at him, and I saw that he said the words "tisha tikunin yakirin ismasrin l'dikna" ("nine precious tikunim are entrusted to the beard") with exceedingly great strength to the very exhaustion of his being, and with awe and fear and trembling and shaking which is impossible to gauge, and he grasped his beard a number of times with great strength. And it is impossible to depict this in writing. And it is already explained elsewhere (below #361) that he said, that before he utters from his mouth the first word of the Torah it seems to him that his soul will depart, and the same with the first word of the Kiddush. And concerning this Torah I saw with my own eyes the extremity of his messeeras nefesh which is impossible to gauge. (This pertains to the above matter explained there, that before one comes to the Land of Israel one should not boast as he who takes off [his armor] etc. — meaning to say, that many sufferings and impediments etc. must be traversed before one comes there. One time when Rabbainu o.b.m. told of the enormity of the impediments and dangers that were upon him in Istanbul, and how he had been in great danger before he came to the Land of Israel etc., he then answered and said to us that we can come to the Land of Israel with ease — as if to say, that such impediments and dangers as befell him will not overcome us, and if we desire, we can come to the Land of Israel with ease.

But even still, certainly we too need to be ready to endure suffering and to break impediments before we arrive there, for the Land of Israel is one of the three things that are given through suffering [Brachos 5a], as is also cited there in the aforementioned discourse.) And one time Rabbainu o.b.m. said: There are those who imagine that they wish and long greatly to come to the Land of Israel — if they could travel there in comfort. But not in suffering and hardship. And in truth, this is not a complete desire. For one who truly wishes to come to the Land of Israel must go even on foot, as it was said to Abraham, "Go for yourself" [Genesis 12:1] — "lech" — go, specifically on foot. And see the Yimay Moharnat concerning his journey to the Land of Israel. After Rabbainu o.b.m. said the discourse "nine precious tikunim," he said with a clever quip: "Ich hub haynt gizugt far faiyehr un far vaser" ["I today said for fire and for water"], for there it speaks of the matter of words that are hot as coals of fire, and of the matter of "He split the rock and waters gushed forth" — as is cited there in the Yimay Moharnat mentioned above. (16.) Regarding the matter of the makifim (encompassing lights) explained in the Torah "Atteeka" (Likutay Moharan, Torah 21) — that everyone will attain in the future according to his toil and exertion in the service of G‑d etc. — he said that there are occurrences in this world through which one merits that in the World to Come as well, one will rise from level to level each time and attain new makifim each time. (And what is written there regarding Miriam who blemished the hon or of Moses, and Aaron requested [Numbers 12:12]: "Let her not be, I pray, as one dead, as one who comes out of his mother's womb" — which is the aspect of the punishment of levirate marriage, see there — there are great wonders in this, for he alluded there to his daughter Miriam of blessed memory, who was the daughter-in-law of the rav, the gaon, the tzaddik etc., the rav Leibush of Volitshisk zecher tzaddik livrachah — who traveled to the Land of Israel with all his children, and through this his daughter also traveled to the Land of Israel. And some years after the passing of our master, our teacher and our rabbi zecher tzaddik livrachah, she underwent yibum [levirate marriage] there.) (17.) When he said the matter [Rosh Hashana 27b]: "Regarding one who blows [the shofar] in a pit — those who are standing outside" — see there in Likutay Moharan, Torah 22, regarding the revelation of the secret of the voice of the echo — see there. And then he himself said that there is an apparent question here, because it is explained there that one who is not in the aspect of flesh cannot hear the voice itself, but only the echo, see there. And he elucidated this within the aforementioned Mishnah, which says: "If he heard the voice of a shofar" and "if he heard the echo" — and it is an apparent difficulty: the Mishnah mentions at the beginning those standing outside [who are not in the aspect of flesh], "if he heard the voice of a shofar" — while one who is not in the aspect of flesh cannot hear the voice itself! But he did not explain the matter to resolve this explicitly, only in his holy conversation he said: Is it not so that this matter too is not understood? But from his words it is understood that there is an inner matter here.

And what appears from his words is that even one who has not yet merited to be close to the soul and to the true tzaddik in the aspect of flesh mentioned above — even still, if he forces himself greatly and inclines his ear very well, with great power, to hear the voice of the soul and the voice of the true tzaddikim, there is also hope for him to hear the voice of holiness itself. Only he needs to incline his ear very well. And it is exactly analogous to the law of the Mishnah mentioned above regarding the voice of the shofar in its plain sense, that one who blows [the shofar] in a pit — it is specifically those outside who are in the pit, who groan and cry out over their transgressions, who need the discernment: those standing outside who are not in the aspect of flesh — if they heard the voice of the shofar, they have fulfilled their obligation etc. For even though they are not in the aspect of flesh, if they force themselves and incline their ear very well, they can hear the voice itself as mentioned above. But one who merits to be in the aspect of flesh needs no discernment at all, for certainly he will hear the aspect of the shofar voice, which is the holy voice itself. And thus it appears to my humble understanding. (Regarding the matter explained in the aforementioned discourse, that all voices are aspects of audacity etc. — he said then that even the sound of jingling coins of the giving of charity is also an aspect of holy audacity etc.) (18.) The discourse "Emtzaussa d'alma" (The Middle of the World; Likutay Moharan, Torah 24) was said in the summer of 5563 at the Sabbath-night feast. And he said it with great fear and with extremely lofty and exalted fervor, to such an extent that those who heard were unable to understand at all what he was saying. Only afterwards it was written in his holy handwriting and in his holy language.