Learning Halachah Cleanses the Intellect

CHIDUSHIM ON PARASHAT SHOFTIM BY THE GAON AND TZADDIK, MOREINU HARAV ELIEZER BERLAND SHLIT"A

“YOU SHALL APPOINT FOR YOURSELF JUDGES AND OFFICERS IN ALL YOUR GATES” (DEVARIM 16:18)

Rabbeinu says in Lesson 286 (Likutey Moharan): “For the essence of the delight of the Garden of Eden is the perception of Godliness – upper wisdom and lower wisdom -- which are the aspect of the Garden of Eden, as explained above. But to merit this is possible only through the gates, because there are gates -- the aspect of the gates of the Garden of Eden -- through which one merits to enter the Garden of Eden… However, these gates are hidden and concealed in the earth, the aspect of ‘Her gates sank into the earth.’ For this, one needs the master of the earth, who rules the earth, who can remove, raise up, and establish the gates that sank into the earth. And know that through the study of poskim (halachic authorities), one merits to be a king and ruler on earth, and then one is able to raise up and establish the gates that sank into the earth.”

 “THROUGH LEARNING POSKIM, ONE MERITS TO RULE OVER THE EARTH”

When we come to the parashah of “Shoftim V’Shotrim (Judges and officers…),” it is possible to merit to enter the Garden of Eden. And the delight of Garden of Eden is the perception of Divine Wisdom, to see Hashem eye to eye, to know that there is nothing besides Him. And one cannot reach any perception of Godliness except through the study of poskim, the study of halakhot. The Rebbe explains in Lesson 286 that one must be persistent in learning poskim. If we want the gates that sank to be revealed, if we want to merit to a perception of Godliness, to enter into the Garden of Eden, then we must be persistent in learning poskim. “Her gates sank into the earth”—one must raise up the gates of halakhah. One must be expert in halakhah with analysis and depth. Through the study of poskim, we merit to rule over the earth, we merit to be “judges and officers.” And this is what is written: “You shall appoint for yourself judges and officers in all your gates”—you must build the gates, you must know the gates of halakhah, you must build the gates by yourself. For there are gates that are the gates of the Garden of Eden, through which one enters the Garden of Eden, into perceptions of Godliness. And after the destruction of the Temple, they were hidden and concealed in the earth. So how do we raise up the gates? The gates are raised up only through a person learning the depths of halakhah, learning poskim, learning Rambam, Tur, Beit Yosef, and all the commentaries.

 “EMUNAH IS WHEN A PERSON HAS KAVANAH IN EVERY WORD OF PRAYER”

The Rebbe says in Lesson 62: When a person does not have kavanah (focused intent) in prayer, it is a sign that he has no emunah (faith) at all – it’s heresy. Every word that a person says quickly, without intention, is heresy. When a person knows with all his heart that “the whole earth is filled with His glory,” and he feels Hashem, and feels that HaKadosh Baruch Hu stands over him and sees him at the time of prayer—this is called emunah. Then he prays calmly, saying the letters slowly. If a person had kavanah in even one word of the Amidah, saying it slowly and calmly, then he is mamash called a tzaddik and deserves all the rewards in the world. But Rabbeinu says: That you had kavanah in one word is very nice, it is very good that you had kavanah, but do not think that you are already a Jew with perfect faith. It is great that you had kavanah, it is wonderful, but it’s still not called emunah. Emunah is only when you have kavanah in every word of prayer. Emunah is when you can speak with Hashem at least in the same way that you speak with a friend.

 “THE WORK IS WITH THE HERESY WITHIN OURSELVES”

A person hates the heretics, he wants to throw stones at them, he is ready to go out against them with sword and spear, with fire and water. Rabbeinu reveals to us in Lesson 62 that our whole avodah (Divine service) is with ourselves—with the heresy within our own hearts, because if a person does not pray with kavanah, it is called heresy. There is enough heresy inside myself—I do not need to fix the heresy of the chofshim (“free thinkers”). If we fix the heresy within ourselves, then there will be no more chofshim in the world – all of them will do teshuvah. It is told of a certain tzaddik who in prayer said, “Give thanks to Hashem, declare His Name, make His acts known among the peoples.” After prayer, he took his bag, all his belongings, everything he had, and said to everyone: “Now I am going to fulfill this verse. Now I am going to shout all over the world, ‘Make His acts known among the peoples.’ I will scream in the streets, ‘Know that there is a God in the world!’ I will fulfill this verse!” He took a few steps and quickly returned. Everyone said to him, “Why did you return?” This tzaddik answered: “I remembered that I have enough heresy within myself. I need to make known to my 248 limbs and 365 sinews that Hashem is God. I have enough work with myself, so how can I make known in the world the essence of emunah when within me the emunah doesn’t burn yet?”

When a person speaks with a friend, he doesn’t just speak into the air—he has intention in every letter, every word. He doesn’t even need intention, because he sees that he is speaking with someone. He can speak for ten hours, because he sees before him a face, hands, and feet. All the more so when he speaks before a king or an important person, he is most careful not to be caught with some error, with something unreasonable that he’s talking about. And Hashem lives and endures and is found in front of us, and we do not feel Him! This shows simply that we have no sechel (intellect), no brain. It shows that we have heresy in our hearts.

The Rebbe revealed that when Mashiach comes, heresy will drip out of the sleeves of the “chasidim.” If a person cannot stand in prayer before HaKadosh Baruch He, it shows that heresy is dripping out of his sleeves. We do not see Hashem because we simply lack sechel. The sechel has been concealed from us; our sechel is undeveloped. If we had intellect, we would not miss a prayer, we would not miss a word, not even a letter. This is what the Rebbe says in Lesson 62: “And know what to respond to a heretic”—to the heresy in your heart. If you want to answer the heretic in your heart, it is only through learning poskim. The Rebbe says that “shalom (peace)” is an acronym for “And know what to respond to a heretic”—because through studying halakhic rulings, which are final decisions and peace, we merit to know how to answer the heresy in the heart. One must learn halakhic rulings every day! A person will see that the moment he studies poskim, the evil inclination in his heart will be nullified, his heresy will be nullified. Through learning halakhah, the gates of the intellect are just opened up. Therefore, Rabbeinu says it is a great mitzvah to sharpen the intellect. Only through learning Gemara and poskim is the intellect sharpened. Only this purifies the mind, only this cleanses the mind. A person cannot reach anything in this world, he cannot reach emunah, prayer with kavanah, except through learning Gemara and poskim. Because the entire reason for sharpening the intellect is only so that we can attain emunah and pray with kavanah.