The Advice of the Tzitzis

A certain man heard that the Zohar calls the mitzvos six hundred and thirteen pieces of advice or “eitzos,” and couldn’t fathom what this implies. When he asked the Chidushei HaRim, zt”l, about this he explained that this reveals the greatness of every mitzvah. “This teaches that each and every mitzvah teaches us to overcome our natural state of being sunken in materialism. Through every mitzvah it is possible to attain wondrous elevation. This can be understood in light of the gemara in Menachos 44. There we find the story of a man whose tzitzis ‘hit him in the face.’ And eventually he became a true ba’al teshuvah…” In his last will and testament the Sifsei Tzaddik, zt”l, teaches how to access the guidance contained in mitzvos. “Accustom yourselves to approach every mitzvah as a precious commodity which should make you feel joy—much like a man who finds a fortune. Remember your smallness, and that despite this Hashem has chosen you to serve Him through this mitzvah. Even though He has myriads of angels to serve Him, he prefers the service of Yisrael, the people He has drawn close to Him. It is only fitting that you fulfill the verse, ‘One heart mirrors the other like a face is reflected in water,’ and value each opportunity by serving Hashem with your entire heart. “Every time you don your tallis, you should be filled with profound joy. We attain this by recalling the greatness of this mitzvah, which our Torah reveals gives us the ability to recall all the mitzvos. In Menachos we find that the tzitizis hit a man about to sin on the face and this caused him to ascend from the lowest depths to the highest heights. He felt like he was crushing his entire self by resisting his urge to sin, but in the end he merited a great illumination and became a complete tzaddik. “Every person should beg Hashem that the mitzvah of tzitzis should protect him and his offspring from plummeting into the darkness of this world. One who works on this will eventually feel a huge illumination in the mitzvah of tzitzis.”

A Speck of Chometz

The Shulchan Aruch rules that a prayer intoned without kavanah is like a body without a soul. This rule applies equally to how one fulfills the mitzvos. If he uses the mitzvah to connect to Hahsem, they reach the highest spheres. Although fulfilling a mitzvah without thinking is also very precious, when compared to doing a mitzvah with kavanah, it too is like a body without a soul. That is the main element of the mitzvah is lacking. This is one reason why many people say לשם יחוד before fulfilling mitzvos. In this manner, they attempt to recall that one is not only obligated to fulfill the mitzvos. To paraphrase the Shelah Hakadosh, “He must also remember the One who gave the Torah.” But how is one to remember Hashem while involved in the many physical preparations of the chag? Rav Avraham Ladau, Av Beis Din of Zembin, would always send a short message to Rav Shmuel Dovber of Porisov with the wagon driver that would go to that town before Peasach. The message would reveal what the rav was thinking about while involved in all the preparations and mitzvos of Pesach. One year the message was, “Chometz on Pesach is אסור במשהו, even a tiny amount. Emunah—failing to remember Hashem—is also אסור במשהו, even for an instant!” When Rav Shmuel Dov Ber heard this message he said, “This short message can easily be expounded on for a full year!”

Incomplete Angels

. The Arvei Nachal, zt”l, would inspire everyone he came into contact with to do mitzvos with as much kavanah as possible. He would say, “When a Jew learns Torah, davens, or does any mitzvah he creates a defending angel. At night when his neshamah ascends on high, these angels present themselves for inspection from above. If the Torah, mitzvos, or prayer are as they should be, these angels are allowed to join the heavenly host. A sign that the angels one has fashioned are accepted is that he does not focus on what he has achieved. Instead he moves on to new mitzvos, a new topic of study, or another meaningful prayer.
“But if the angel is not complete, it is rejected from the heavenly host. This angel remains with the one who brought it into existence. A sign of this kind of incomplete mitvah is that one focuses on this mitzvah until he is filled with pride. Since he is so full of the mitzvos he has already done, he has trouble moving on to new mitzvos or focusing on moving on in learning or davening. Instead he dwells on this mitzvah which gives him great pleasure but also holds him back from advancing.
“This is a deeper meaning of the statement on Zevachim 87, לינה מועלת. It can also be read as, ‘an angel that remains with one overnight signifies that he has transgressed the prohibition of meilah.’ Since this mitzvah or Torah takes up more than its share of space in one’s head it puffs him up and makes him arrogant, pushing him to fall spiritually.
“The continuation of the statement there, 'בראשו של מזבח', teaches that this problem is especially damaging if it happens to a tzaddik or talmid chacham, the head of the mizbeach. They must be extra vigilant to learn and do mitzvos with real devotion and completion to avoid creating blemished angels.”

The Empty Prayer

We know that a mitzvah that is done without kavanah is like a body without a neshamah—surely an aspect of pigul, as the Tifers Shlomo, zt”l, writes. Yet many people have a hard time directing their thoughts. Rav Wolbe, zt”l, illustrated this failing with a true story,
“Once, a certain avreich was in the grocery, looking for various items required at home. He put aside one item after another. Strangely, just as he was reaching for the eggs, he felt a curious pain in his chest. After a moment he felt another pain and suddenly found himself...in shul davening shemonah esrei. The pains had been nothing more the obligatory rap on the chest during selach lanu!”
Although prayer without kavanah is very precious since it reaches the highest heights as the Nefesh Hachaim explicitly writes, it is also an aspect of pigul, since it lacks a neshamah.
Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, zt"l, along with Rav Aharon of Karlin, zt”l, explain that—unlike actual pigul—such a tefilah is redeemable since it can be imbued with kavanah later. “Even when a person cannot daven with kavanah he must never refrain from davening in whatever way he can. Although for the present the tefillah without kavanah cannot ascend on high, when he will say a tefillah with kavanah he will revive all the ‘empty’ tefillos, enabling them to ascend on high on the ‘coattails’ of the prayer said with kavanah.”

The Body and Soul of Halachah

The Toldos Yaakov Yosef teaches a very inspiring lesson from a statement on today’s daf. “The language the gemara uses for the obligation to learn the laws of Pesach before Pesach, 'שואלין ודורשין', is strangely doubled. This is because every halachah is composed of two different layers which must be studied and applied.
“For example, the mitzvah of prayer has an outer shell and an inner dimension. Saying the words of the prayer is compared to the body of the mitzvah, while the kavanah is its soul. And the same is true regarding all other mitzvos.
“It follows that the halachos of destroying chometz has two dimensions: the physical acts involved in eradicating chometz and their deeper meaning. Destroying chometz hints that we must destroy the evil inclination. When we burn the chometz we focus on incinerating the evil within. And the same is true regarding when we kasher food implements for Pesach. Our sages famously teach, כבולעו כך פולטו—‘removal of whatever has been absorbed is through the exact same process with which it was absorbed.’ If it was absorbed through boiling we must boil the vessel to kasher it, and the same is true regarding other ways that chometz may have been absorbed in the vessel.
“The inner meaning of this is we must concentrate on doing a balanced teshuvah for what we have done, just as the absorbed chometz only comes out if we apply the same heat through which it was absorbed. If we did something apathetically, it is relatively easy to repent this. If a forbidden action was done with enthusiasm it is that much harder to remove its impression.
“The language 'שואלין', teaches that we must ask and delve into the actual halachos of what to do. The word, 'דורשין' implies that we search for the deep mussar these acts teach us. The Torah scholar’s job is to educate people in both the body and soul of these halachos!”