Rabbi Moshe Weiberger
Purim, Parshas Tetzaveh

Rav Weinberger gives over a discourse of the Rebbe Rayatz of Lubavitch. It's hard to do this justice.

There are two levels of emunah; the first level is called an "inner light", which means Hashem fills all worlds. The second level of faith is called "surrounding light", which means Hashem surrounds all worlds. We can understand the emunah of "surrounding light" through a Gemara in Brachos which refers to a theif who prays to Hashem before he steals that he should not get caught. This is a lower level of faith because it only surrounds him, it does not penetrate him. He believes in Hashem but that does not stop him from contradicting that belief.

The difference between the "inner light" and the "surrounding light" is the discrepancy between what we believe and what we actually do. We need our emunah to fill our life to be healthy and strong. When our emunah is malnourished what can we do? One way of feeding our faith is through our connection to Tzaddikim. Tetzaveh means binding. Moshe binds himself to the Jewish people. He is called the shephard of faithfulness, he leads us to the nourishment that we need. Moshe, and the Tzadikim of every generation, can nurture and awaken our emunah.

Another way of shining from within is by awakening the child within us. Children have a simple emunah in Hashem and this simplicity is a source of great strength. Every Jew has within himself the potential to achieve purity and clarity by tapping into the inner light that is so accessible to children. Purim is the time to strengthen the inner child. The silliness and immaturity of Purim have the power to reawaken the healthy faith that is natural to every Jew.

This is a great talk by Rav Weinberger; he gives over important chizuk for the month of Adar and teaches some fundamental insights about our struggle with prayer. This talk is relevant all year long but in Adar it takes on special significance as the long winter comes to an end. 

The Sfas Emes points out that Chazal do not say "when Adar arrives" or "when we reach the time of Adar", rather "when Adar enters", when it enters into a person. We want Adar to penetrate our consciousness and the result will be an increase of happiness, immeasurable joy. Adar means strength; this month has a unique power to strengthen. It is the perfect time to confront the Haman inside of us.

How does Haman conspire to destroy us? The essence of the Amalekite threat is "karcha baderech", he cools you off on the way. It's the attempt to take away our clarity and the pure joy of being a servant of Hashem. Haman succeeds when our Yiddishkeit resembles a long cold winter. The antidote Hashem provides against Haman is the "fiery coin" of the half-shekel.  The fiery coin is prayer.

The lashon hara of Haman is "yeshno am echad"; Hashem is old and sleeping, chalila. This is the source of all coldness in davening. We are "ayeif veyageia", we think that our prayer does not help, that there is no point to praying.  This is the worst form of Haman's presence in our life.

Hashem sends tzadikim to strengthen our emunah in the reality and power of tefilah. Even though we do not see immediate results, every singe word makes a difference. Hashem listens to our prayers, even in the house of Achashverosh.

The Sod Yesharim (Reb Chanoch Henech Leiner of Radzin, the grandson of the Mei HaShiloach) says that Purim (פורים) is connected to "peyrurim" (פירורים) crumbs.  The foundation of Purim is that Hashem reveals to every Jew how precious every "crumb" of prayer is, every tiny "crumb" of learning, improvement, any avodah is so precious.  "Ad de lo yada", you will never know how much your "crumbs" mean to Hashem. 10000 "kikar kesef", Hamen says to us that all God cares about is when someone comes with a big big big davening, that is all that makes a difference. But the secret of Purim is that evey tiny crumb counts; Hashem counts every half-shekel and that little bit is a fiery coin.

from Jan 29, 2004
by Rabbi Moshe Weinberger
part 3 of 3

Seeng that we are ending Shovavim this Shabbos, I thought that it was appropriate to post this. Rav Weinberger is going over the end of the discourse of Tzvi Meir on Shovavim. Unlike the previous talks, which focused on Shovavim specifically, here he talks about Yiras Hashem; what is the inner meaning of Yiras Hashem? How can we acquire it and strengthen ourselves in it? So this shiur is actually not "off subject"; what else is the purpose of Shovavim if not to feel a closness with our Creator? That awareness is the beginning of all purity and holiness.

Avoiding the negative associations that many of us have with the feelings of fear, Tvi Meir explains how Yiras Hashem and Ahavas Hashem are connected.  The same One who is so close to us and loves us so much, He is the One who is watching us and he sees everything. Yiras Hashem is the awarness of His Presense and this immediately leads to an overwhelming feeling of love. Knowing and living the Truth that we are never alone is the foundation of Yiras Hashem.

Tzvi Meir ends with a beautiful teaching about the mezuzah. When you are in your house, you could think that you are all by yourself; outside I am being watched by others but inside I am alone. So we have on our doorways a mezuzah to teach us that Hashem is with us even when we are by ourselves. But its strange then, why is the mezuzah rolled up?  You would think that the mezuzah should be on the wall, opened up so you can always see the words and remember Hashem's presence. But that's not the case. Rather, a mezuzah is rolled up tight because a Yid has to know, that even when a he cannot see the name of God, he has know that it's really there. That's the whole avodah, knowing HaKadosh Baruch Hu is here with me, even when I am cannot see Him.

This is a talk that Rav Moshe Weinberger gave on the third lesson of Rebbe Nachman in Likutei Mohoran. Its about the power of music. Rebbe Nachman has a very stringent position regarding listening to music: listen only to music created by a holy source because the danger of impure music is that it prevents and obstructs the ability to connect to spirituality.

I can't do this justice in a few lines but simply put, Rebbe Nachman talks about the two birds that are brought as an offering for tzora'as.The birds are a manifestation of binah, the ability to contemplate, and malchus, the ability to speak. The potential to communicate and express the depths of something that is understood, and thereby influence others, is the combination of binah and malchus. Rebbe Nachman teaches that the power of song actually comes from the birds since they have the power of perfected "speech" (perfected binah and malchus). Following the general rule that for every type of energy that exists on the side of holiness there exists the opposite on the side of unholiness, there exists holy music and unholy music, it all depends on the singer.

This lesson of Rebbe Nachman's is certainly a challenging one and I think it's important to listen to. I am not posting this shiur to convince anyone to stop listening to their favorite music, rather, I think that it's important to live with the dissonance of our choices. So even if you don't live by the teaching, know that it exists.

In defense of my listening habits, I heard in the name of Rav Koenig from Tzfat, that modern music is the aspect of the red heifer.  It will make holy the one who is impure and it will defile the one who is holy. I did hear directly from the Biala Rebbe that listening to non-jewish music is acceptable with a warning to be careful about offensive language. (I specifically asked about classical music, which he had never heard, but i did hear from others that he has said the same thing about modern music. Don't take this as psak halachah, ask him yourself - or another competent authority).

So if your music inspires, listen and channel the inspiration to the service of Hashem.  Bottom line is: respect your level.

Rav Weinberger ended the shiur with a story. Once the Baal HaTanya went to Minsk, a place where most people were opposed to Chassidus. Despite the opposition, he was respected because he was an accomplished scholar. The entire town made a reception for him and they brought him to the biggest shul and sat him on a big chair at the head of a table with the greatest scholars of Minsk. The Baal HaTanya looked at them and, despite the respect that some had for him, he saw that they really wanted to disgrace him with questions that they thought that he could not answer. He said to them, "Gentlemen, before you ask any questions, lets sing a song together." He began a melody which they sang and sang; when they finally finished, their "questions" had disappeared.