T32 (Tinyana) PNC - Hidden Tzaddikim, Burned Books, and the Spirit of Mashiach

There are hidden tzaddikim who know panim (faces, the inner aspect) in the Torah, but they must conceal their teaching. Like the Baal Shem Tov story with the preacher: even with him there are times he knows a Torah that has panim, and must conceal it — sometimes he doesn't even write it; sometimes he writes it and then burns it. If it had been allowed, it would have become a sefer and entered the world. There are Names in these Torahs (Shmi that is written in holiness), but the world spoils them, and they must be hidden and burned. This concealment is itself a benefit to the world. Many books were already made and then erased — surely the great early Tannaim and Amoraim wrote many, but they were lost. This is good, because if heretical books had not been counterbalanced by the loss of holy ones, we could not draw close to Hashem at all. Yeravam ben Nevat made golden calves and led all Israel — could it be by mere foolishness? No: there were enormous heretical wisdoms involved. If even one page of those books survived now, it would be impossible to come close to Hashem. So it is a benefit that the holy sefarim get concealed and burned (because their concealment somehow drags down the heretical ones with them, as the next sections explain).

The sefer is the form of Shem Hashem — 'migdal oz Shem Hashem, bo yarutz tzaddik ve-nisgav' (Mishlei 18:10; Bereshis Rabbah 37) — Shem Hashem is a sefer because sefer (in gematria) equals Shem (the sefer is the form of 'Shmi that is written in holiness,' which spreads in the world and makes a name). Now know: every person must guard the aspect of Mashiach he has — each according to his holiness and purity carries his own aspect of Mashiach. The principal thing on which this depends is guarding from ni'uf (sexual immorality). Mashiach is the form of chotem (nose), as in 'ru'ach apenu meshi'ach Hashem' (Eichah 4:20), and ni'uf depends on the chotem ('lo tin'af'); the Midrash (Naso 10) reads 'lo tehaneh af' — do not derive pleasure through the nose. One must guard even from the scent of ni'uf, because it damages the aspect of Mashiach within. The aspect of Mashiach rests on anpei oraita — the holy sefarim that reveal panim ba-Torah; there the spirit of Mashiach hovers ('ru'ach Elokim merachefet al pnei ha-mayim' — ru'ach Elokim is the spirit of Mashiach, Zohar Vayechi 240; mayim is Torah, Ta'anis 4, Bava Kamma 17).

The aspect of 'breath of our nostrils, Mashiach Hashem' becomes a ru'ach kin'ah (a spirit of jealousy) that goes out and is jealous wherever it finds ni'uf — it grows holiness and purity by jealousy. Sometimes 'kineh ve-hi nitma'ah, o avar alav ru'ach kin'ah… ve-hi lo nitma'ah' (Bamidbar 5:14): even when she is not actually defiled, the spirit of Mashiach within him is jealous over the mere appearance of contradiction, because to him even that is a blemish against the integrity of his holiness. Through such jealousy, sometimes a get is made — and that is why the get is called 'sefer kerisus' (Devarim 24:1): because it is made through the sefer, the very locus where the spirit of Mashiach (= ru'ach kin'ah) rests. Or he gives her the bitter waters to drink and she is checked; if she is not defiled, the opposite: 've-nikkesah ve-nizra'ah zara' — she is cleared and bears seed. There is a lower yichud in this world that reaches such a level of kashrus, holiness, and purity that the upper yichud literally depends on it. The couple is so kasher — she with no shemetz pesul, he so kasher — that their zivug carries the upper yichud (Shechinah dwells between them, Sotah 17: yud in him, hei in her).

But here, with such a holy couple, what is the ru'ach kin'ah doing? Answer: here it comes for the sake of love. The Zohar (Vayechi 245) says any love that has no kin'ah bound to it is not true love — 'ki azzah ka-mavet ahavah, kashah ki-she'ol kin'ah'; jealousy testifies to love. Out of the greatness of his love he is jealous over her: 'al tisateri,' so that the love not be spoiled. That is what the spirit of jealousy is doing here — protecting love. But because this lower yichud still happens in this world, the peace between them can still be ruined by that very ru'ach kin'ah: jealousy, even for love's sake, can throw down machloches by making him jealous over her, and so on.

Therefore the great tzaddikim must conceal their Torah — burn it, lose it — so that the ru'ach kin'ah will be removed and not damage the peace of the holy couple. Their lower yichud is so precious; ruining the peace between them is a great loss. So those Torahs and sefarim must be lost, in order to remove the spirit of jealousy — because the spirit of jealousy is the spirit of Mashiach, which rests on anpei oraita (the sefarim themselves). When the sefarim burn and are lost, the spirit of jealousy that rested on them is automatically removed. This is the secret of 'Shmi that was written in holiness shall be erased' (Sotah 17): the sefer is the form of Shem Hashem; the Torah said it shall be erased and lost in order to bring peace between a man and his wife — the holy couple. If 'Shmi written in holiness' (the holy sefarim) is erased for peace's sake, all the more so the heretical books that cause hatred and contention among Israel — they must be erased and uprooted, their memory erased from the world. So through the loss of the holy sefarim comes the benefit that the heretical sefarim are uprooted, and then we can come close to Him. Amen.