T59 (Tinyana) PNC - Zariz VeNiskar / VeNifsad — Bechinah Bein HaMitzvos

There is one who is zealous and gains, and one who is zealous and loses (Pesachim 50b). 'Mitzvah goreres mitzvah' (Avos 4) — one mitzvah drags another. There must be some bechinah between mitzvos that connects one mitzvah to its neighbor, by which they are dragged one after the other. And in truth this very bechinah — what is between the mitzvos — is itself extremely precious. Therefore one who is a tzaddik mi-ne'urav and walks the straight path from his days, going from level to level — like Avraham, 'and Avraham was old, ba ba-yamim' (Genesis 24:1), Avraham coming to his level through the days (Zohar Chayei Sarah 129a; ben shalosh shanim hikir es Bor'o, Nedarim 32a) — such a person, in this bechinah, loses through zealousness. When he is greatly zealous and runs ze-rizus from mitzvah to mitzvah, he forfeits the kedushah-bechinah between mitzvos: he passes over and skips it. The mitzvah itself is dragging him toward it through the previous mitzvah; if he too runs zealously into the mitzvah, he may skip and pass the in-between bechinah. He is zariz ve-nifsad. But when he tarries a little, he can in the meantime attain the bechinah bein ha-mitzvos. All this for one who walks be-darchei Hashem ke-seder mi-ne'urav. But a baal teshuvah must specifically be very, very zariz — to hasten and run, le-malet al nafsho — forbidden to tarry, to stand and settle. The baal teshuvah does not go from level to level at all; there is no bechinah-bein-ha-mitzvos between him and kedushah. He must begin anew, leap over what must be leapt over, and jump into kedushah be-zerizus gedolah. Such a person is zariz ve-niskar.

And the bechinah-bein-ha-mitzvos is, for example, 'va-yedaber Hashem el Moshe lemor — ve-asisa' (Exodus 25:1 and elsewhere). Surely there is avodah also in those words that come before the mitzvah itself. The essence of the mitzvah is stated in the Torah only afterward, after 'va-asisa.' But in truth there is avodah even in the verses that fall between mitzvah and mitzvah — and that is the bechinah being discussed: what stands between mitzvah and mitzvah. (See Likutey Moharan I:22 — there is avodah even in 'va-yedaber.')