It's often the case that to gain the perspective on a sefer, we need to know something about the mechaber of the sefer. In the annals of Gedolei Yisrael, Chachmei HaMesora, so for our present purposes we can identify two classes of Gedolei Chachmei HaMesora. The first, which is the more inclusive of the two classes, Gedolei Chachmei HaMesora, people whose greatness was reflected in their piety, in their wisdom, in their actions, and in their contributions. But there's a second more elite class of Gedolim who change the course of history, that they share all the other those other features that we mentioned, but their greatness also expresses itself in that they were seminal figures in terms of the course of history. Chazal basically give us this category. In Bava Basra, it says that אמר רב יהודה אמר רב דכר דכור אותו האיש לטוב ויהושע בן גמלא שמו.
Yehoshua Ben Gamla was one of the Kohanim Gedolim in the Bayis Sheini. And Chazal say that זכור אותו האיש לטוב that אלמלא הוא נשתכחה תורה מישראל. If not for Yehoshua Ben Gamla, so then Torah would have been forgotten. Yehoshua Ben Gamla was the one who introduced an educational system that it shouldn't only be that מי שיש לו אב, so then the father would teach him, and Rachmana Litzlan, the person didn't have a father or the father wasn't in a position to teach, so then the person would be lost. The whole cheder system, the whole school system is based on the תקנת יהושע בן גמלא. And Chazal say about him the lashon that אלמלא הוא נשתכחה תורה מישראל. Rabbeinu HaKadosh kibeitz haMishna, the Rambam in Matan Hakdama הוא קיבץ כל השמועות וכל הדינים וכל הפירושים ששמעו ממשה רבינו ושלהם למדו בית דין שבכל דור ודור בכל התורה כולה וקיבץ מהכל ספר המשנה ושיננה לחכמים ברבים ונגלה לכל ישראל וכתבוהו כולם והפיצו בכל מקום כדי שלא תשתכח תורה שבעל פה מישראל.
Velama asah Rabbeinu? לפי שראה שהתלמידים מתמעטים והולכים והצרות מתחדשות ובאות ומלכות רומי פושטת בעולם ומתגברת וישראל מתגלגלים והולכים לקצוות חיבר חיבר את חיבר חיבור אחד להיות ביד כולם כדי שילמדו במהרה ולא ישכח.
सो the Rambam doesn't quote the lashon hagemara in Bava Batra or Eruvin but it's clear that the Rambam is saying that Rabbeinu Hakadosh was such a figure also and in his composition of Mishnah he was also such a person. The Rambam writes in Iggeret Teiman, he writes about Rav Saadia Gaon, that Rav Saadia Gaon was mechashiv kitzin, so how can it be Rav Saadia Gaon mechashiv kitzin? So the Rambam says it's a mitzvah to be meyashev what Rav Saadia Gaon did. ואנו דנים את רב סעדיה לכף זכות ונאמר שמא מה שהביאו לעניין זה לפי שהיו בני דורו בעלי סברות רבות נשחתות וכמעט ומעט שתאבד תורת השם לולא הוא עליו השלום לפי שהוא גילה מן התורה מה שהיה נעלם וחיזק ממנה מה שנדלדל.
Such an amazing assessment from the Rambam of Rav Saadia Gaon. Then take a look in the Ramban's famous Iggeret to the Chachmei Tzarfat when the whole controversy was raging about the Moreh and Sefer Hamada. The Ramban writes with unimaginable bitul and anavah to the Chachmei Tzarfat but also as Rav Itzele describes in the hakdamah to Nefesh Hachaim that that sort of unmitigated anavah in no way interfered or impinged upon what needed to be done leshem shamayim but he also gives them mussar. And you'll read the section there in Shivchei Kisvei HaRamban that beginning from ולא נתתם כבוד להרב הגדול, he said in your pronouncements and your actions, he says you were mezalzel in the kavod of the Rambam. ולא נתתם כבוד להרב הגדול and then he describes אשר בנה בתלמוד מגדל how both Mishneh Torah and Moreh Nevuchim he said he saved, he saved large segments of Klal Yisrael who had no shaychus to Torah and through Mishneh Torah they did and who were being nimshach after philosophy and how he saved them through the Moreh. Rav Chaim Volozhiner had a similar assessment of his place in history. Here in those of you using this edition, the Rav Reuven edition, the Nefesh Hachaim, so one of the things that they print in the beginning is a hesped that one of the leading talmidim of Rav Chaim Volozhiner gave, the Nachlat David on page 16 in this edition. Hadevar yadua line 4 הדבר ידוע ומפורסם כי הפליג בזה מאוד למאוד להעמיד תלמידים למאות ולאלפים אשר לא זכו על זה במקומנו ובכמה דורות שלפנינו עד שראוי לומר על רבנו ברם זכה לתורה שאלמלא הוא נשתכחה תורה מישראל.
And lest you think maybe he's talking... this Nachlat David was... There's also a letter from another one of Rav Chaim Volozhiner's talmidim, a different one. He writes the lashon as follows: אלמלא לא קבע רבנו הקדוש את הישיבה שלו היה נשתכח חס ושלום תורה מישראל.
Mamash the same assessment, almost verbatim as that of the Nachalas David. This is quoted in different places, but one of them is the Kuntres called תולדות רבנו חיים מוולוז'ין from Rav Moshe Shmuel Shapiro, of blessed memory, niftar mid-fifties mid-sixties something in Eretz Yisrael. Rav Moshe Shmuel Shapiro, so he quotes that letter there. I think others have the letter also. When Rav Chaim Volozhiner undertook to establish the Yeshiva Volozhin, so he wrote what subsequently became the famous igeret where he announced and articulated his plan and his and the need for it, the and the goals for the Yeshiva. He talks about how his chaverim, he describes them with presumably a mega dose of humility in that characterization. He says his chaverim had been pushing him that he should do such a thing and finally he said even though he's not ra'uy lekach, he undertook to establish the Yeshiva. And listen to the lashon, listen carefully to the lashon. Rav Chaim Volozhiner writes in that igeret, he says שברבות הימים יהיו אחינו בני ישראל בלא מורה חס ושלום.
He describes how there are fewer and fewer and fewer people learning and there was a real hitchalshus in Talmud Torah. שברבות הימים יהיו אחינו בני ישראל בלא מורה חס ושלום.
Ad k'dei kach that he says there's it's foreseeable, it's foreseeable, not in the very very immediate future, but berovos hayamim, it's foreseeable, rachmana litzlan, the downward spiral that we're on now is that שברבות הימים יהיו אחינו בני ישראל בלא מורה חס ושלום.
Parenthetically, the pshat is what Chazal said that אלף נכנסים למקרא ואחד יוצא לתלמוד. And then אלף נכנסים לתלמוד ואחד יוצא להוראה. You need the elef to get the echad. It's not you can't really recognize, you have to have all elef nichnasim lamikra to identify the one who's going to be yotzei latalmud. And you need the elef who's going to be nichnasim latalmud to recognize and to develop the echad who's going to be yotzei lehora'ah. You can't say, okay, so we'll skip the other nine hundred and ninety nine and just... that's what he's saying, the heyos that it's mismateit veholchein the amount of people who are lomdei Torah, if you're not going to have the elef nichnasim, you're not going to have the echad yotzei. לזאת לא יכולתי להספק עוד, he says. I couldn't hold myself back anymore, and he again he announces, articulates and asks that people should support the venture. But again the lashon is that שברבות הימים יהיו אחינו בני ישראל בלא מורה חס ושלום.
If you take a look in, if you have the Nefesh HaChaim, take a look in Sha'ar Dalet. To the beginning of Sha'ar Dalet, again, from where we hope to begin bli neder im yirtzeh Hashem with Sha'ar Aleph, but just to touch on one thing here in the beginning of Sha'ar Dalet. It's again, in this edition, it's page reish zayin. אות זאת אמרתי אל לבי ממגילת ספר כתוב בגודל החיוב של עסק התורה לכל איש ישראל יומם ולילה ולהרחיב מעט הדיבור בלשון מדברת גדולות יקר תפארתה ומעלתה של התורה והאדם הישר העוסק והוגה בה בתורת חסד על לשונו לעשות נחת רוח ליוצרו ובוראו יתברך שמו ואיש דעת המאמץ כח ותומך לסעדה ולהחזיק בידוקיה.
To talk about the just just how great the obligation is to be osek ba-Torah. To talk about the incredible glorious ma'alah of Torah, of the person who's osek ba-Torah and those who are machzik Torah as well. Why do I feel the need to explicate these inyanim? אחרי אשר זה ימים כביר לישראל שהושפל עסק התורה הקדושה בכל דור ודור.
There's been a downward spiral. והן עתה בדורות הללו ובעוונותינו הרבים נפלה מאוד מאוד ושוחה עד קצה המדרגה התחתונה רחמנא לצלן. כאשר עינינו הרואות עתה ברבים בני עמנו מגודל סבל המשא על הפרנסה השם ירחם. וגם כמה מאותם אשר קרבת אלהים יחפצון המה בחרו לעצמם לקבוע כל עיקר לימודם מספרי יראה ומוסר כל היום בלא קביעות עיקר העסק בתורה הקדושה.
Then if you turn the page to page reish chet for a moment. והן עתה בדורות הללו. Second to last paragraph. והן עתה בדורות הללו ובעוונותינו הרבים נהפכו הגבוה הושפל. שכמה וכמה שמו כל עיקר קביעות לימודם רוב הימים רק בספרי יראה ומוסר.
Sefarim which were intended to exhort a person, to inspire a person. So people are spending all their time with that. ואומרם כי זה כל האדם בעולמו לעסוק בהם תמיד כי המה שלהבת הלבבות.
And in my eyes, skipping a couple of lines, וראיתי בפלך אחד שכל כך התפשט אצלם זאת עד ברוב בתי מדרשים אין בהן רק ספרי מוסר ואפילו ש"ס ספר שלם אין בהם.
ve-tachzeina einai me-rot, their eyes are plastered over, me-havin u-lehaskil levavotam. Look at the next line coming up soon. אשר לא זו הדרך בחר בה ה' כי לא ירצה ועוד מעט בהמשך הזמן יוכלו להיות חס ושלום בלא כהן מורה.
Same word that he wrote in the iggeres announcing the establishment of his yeshiva. So there is a sort of again, Nefesh Ha-Chaim is more than Nefesh Ha-Chaim than just sha'ar daled, but there certainly is a continuum between Rav Chaim Volozhiner's activities in establishing and sustaining the yeshiva in Volozhin and the sefer Nefesh Ha-Chaim, which combined to make him one of those elite figures of again, not only just giants within history, but giants who steered and charted the course of history. Maybe we'll begin Sha'ar Aleph. ויברא אלהים את האדם בצלמו בצלם אלהים ברא אותו וכן כתיב כי בצלם אלהים עשה את האדם. הנה עומק פנימיות ענין הצלם הוא מהדברים העומדים ברומו של עולם ובלו קבלת סתרי פנימיות הזוהר. אמנם כאן נדבר במילת צלם בדרך הפשטנים הראשונים ז"ל על פסוק נעשה אדם בצלמנו כדמותנו.
It's an interesting thing the Nefesh Ha-Chaim begins talking about what tzelem Elokim means. And again, as for those who have already learned, it's no mystery why in terms of the... Themes that he's talking about in the sefer, why this is the port of entry for talking about those themes. But maybe just to try to recognize a little bit more of the omek to that. The Rambam actually does the same thing in the Moreh. Rambam also begins the Moreh talking about btzalmenu. So what's the... Let's say you have someone who's trying to figure out what he should do in life, professional. I think they have these tests that they administer that help a person recognize where his kochos lie. And then based on those test results, then you can give hadracha, you can tell him, "Yes, you have kochos that would be good in business, in medicine, in law, in being an Indian chief" or whatever, they steer you along the right course. For a person to know what to do in life, he has to know what his kochos are. For a person to know what to do in life, he has to know who he is. For a person to be oved Hashem properly, with the right focus, with the right motivation, he has to know who he is, he has to know what he is. The essence of a person, the metzius of a person is btzelem elokim. It's not only that this for what the Nefesh Hachaim wants to talk about turns out to be the gateway, the port of entry, and coincidentally for the Rambam. If a person wants to know what to do with his life, a person has to know who he is, what he is, what are his kochos. And then a person can know how those kochos should be used, a person can be motivated and a person can have a sense of direction in using and applying those kochos. והוא כי מלת צלם ודמות כאן אינו כמשמעו כי כתוב מפורש ומה דמות תערכו לו ואין פירושו דמיון מה באיזה דמיון.
Meaning it doesn't mean physical image, it means resemblance. כמו דאיתי כקאת מדבר כי לא נעשו לו כנפים וחרטום,
it's not that he had wings and a beak, ולא נשתנה צורתו לצורת הקאת רק שנדמה אז במקרה פעולתו שהיה נע ונד.
He was wandering kekaas midbar, he felt like that bird. Why? Because the koas is a bird shehu tzipor boded veme'ofef mimakom lemakom, and is always itinerant. כך הוא לפי הפשטנים הראשונים זל. And similarly on this way is the matter of the word tzelem, because they are similar in meaning in some way. For his present purposes, he's not telling us what the difference is between tzelem and dmut. They both mean a resemblance, a resemblance. אמנם להבין עניין אומרו בצלם אלקים דייקא ולא שם אחר.
So if we're going to say that in some way a person there's a point of resemblance to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, so what's the significance of the fact that the Torah uses this shem Hashem? כי שם אלקים ידוע פירושו שהוא מורה, it indicates... שהוא יתברך שמו בעל הכוחות כולם כמו שמבואר בטור אורח חיים סימן ה.
It's a siman in the Tur, the Shulchan Aruch, that in every bracha, whenever a person says a bracha, so he's supposed to be mechaven by the shemos of the bracha, by Hashem and Elokeinu. So according to the Mechaber, every time a person says shem Hashem in a bracha, he should be mechaven both to the keri and to the kesiv. He should be mechaven to the keri that adon hakol, and he should be mechaven to the kesiv hayah hoveh veyihyeh. And the Gra says that in every bracha, it's enough to be mechaven to the keri. It's enough to be mechaven to adon hakol. Only in Krias Shema, pasuk rishon of Krias Shema do you have to be mechaven to the kesiv, and then he says the proper kavanah is not hayah hoveh veyihyeh but the proper kavanah is matzui vekayam because Hakadosh Baruch Hu exists beyond time. So what the proper kavanah then would be matzui vekayam. And what's the kavanah again in brachos and of course in pasuk rishon Shema as well for Elokim, Elokeinu, is תקיף בעל היכול ובעל הכוחות כולם. That's the kavanah the Shulchan Aruch records that a person's supposed to have. Some poskim say, not for pasuk rishon of Shema, but some poskim say that it's effective to be masneh every morning when you wake up, sort of mashal dedamei, anyone who's ever anytime you look at a legal document which bears a faint resemblance to the English language in how they tend to be written, so the way they do it is they'll tell you that Mr. let's say Mr. Rosenberg, subsequently known as the party of the first place, and hereby enters into a contract with Mr. Goldberg, henceforth known as the party of the derivative of the third place, and subsequently don't use any names, you'll always use these terms, but the understanding is in the document that the terms mean the way they were defined at the beginning of the document. So lehavdel, lehavdel, lehavdel, so there's some poskim who say that a person can be masneh in the morning that whenever he says the shem Havayah in brachos, so he has in mind that it expresses again mechaven kideislei the Gra, mechaven kideislei, and similarly with Elokim and Elokeinu. They quote that it sounds very mechudash, but that's actually an eitzah should work, but they quote that among says Rav Shlomo Zalman that that was a proper eitzah. To again to be masneh so whenever I say it in a bracha, all day long, whenever I make a bracha and I say Hashem, so what I mean is again, let's say the way the Mechaber would say it is I mean I'm being mechaven that what Hashem represents the reality of אדון הכל היה הווה ויהיה. When I say Elokim, Elokeinu, the תקיף בעל היכול ובעל הכוחות כולם. Do you have to do it either one time for your whole life or never at all, why would you do it every single day, you're masneh again. I don't know part of the answer, I'm not sure what the full answer is, but I mean tenai to of it doesn't seem like it doesn't seem like when you're eighty years old that you'd be able to still be living off of the tenai you made after your bar mitzvah, your bar mitzvah parsha. There are contexts in which we sort... I mean ultimately obviously on one level life is measured, this actually comes up here in Perek Vav if we get to it now, life is actually measured in the most the smallest units of time that we can even speak of, but on another level we do measure life in units of days. Whether it's the zechiyah of birkas hatorah every day and maybe the zechiyah of birkas hatorah, maybe the zechiyah of netilas yadayim even if a person didn't sleep. So it is reflected in halacha also. Certainly reflected in aggadic sources that every night when a person... But it doesn't say there's if a person takes a nap that the neshama is giving a din v'cheshbon. So on a certain level the Ohr Hachayim right at the beginning of Parshas Vayechi, ויקרבו ימי ישראל למות, so it's a funny idiom if you think about it. If a person approaches death, right? You would say in English that the person's, he's approaching him, he sees that he's approaching death. But ויקרבו ימי ישראל למות, meaning that his days are approaching death? Funny, funny idiom, the Ohr Hachayim says. He says, no, what it means is like this. He says what it means is that a person is, a person is born, so Hakadosh Baruch Hu, Hakadosh Baruch Hu has a plan of what that person's lifespan is going to be. And he says every day, every day a person is supposed to be mesaken something. And keneged that there's a certain koach, there's a certain part of the neshama that leaves. And at a certain point, so obviously as a person grows older, ten, twenty, thirty, a person feels stronger and stronger. It's not something which is discernable. But towards the very end, it's something which can be discernable. That's what it means, ויקרבו ימי ישראל למות, that his days are leaving because the days correspond to the, if you sort of think, if you visualize metaphorically, the neshama as consisting of these little boxes, and each box corresponds to a day in a person's life. So there too also, the unit of life is a day. This is a theme in mussar, both in halakha and in aggada. So what does it mean that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is Ba'al Hakochos Kulam? So we generally think that what it means is that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is omnipotent. That whereas we're limited in what we can do, we can only lift so much of a weight and we can only run so fast, Hakadosh Baruch Hu is unlimited, Hakadosh Baruch Hu is omnipotent. Says the Nefesh Hachayim, no, it means something much, much deeper, much more fundamental than that. ועניין מה שהוא יתברך נקרא בעל הכוחות כולם כי לא כמידת בשר ודם מידת הקדוש ברוך הוא כי האדם שבונה בניין דרך משל מעץ,
someone's in construction, so he's building a building, a wooden, a wooden building. אין הבונה בורא וממציא אז מכוחו העץ רק שלוקח עצים שכבר נבראו ומסדרם בבניין.
A, B, ואחר שכבר סידרם לפי רצונו אם שכוחו הוסר ונסתלק מהם עם כל זה הבניין קיים.
A, the person in construction, he doesn't create his raw materials. He has his raw materials. He has the beams and everything. He doesn't create them. And B, what's more, after he finishes his work, so then he doesn't have to stand there and hold the building up the entire time. He nails things together and then it endures and outlives him. אבל הוא יתברך שמו כמו בעת בריאת העולמות כולם בראם והמציאם הוא יתברך יש מאין בכוחו הבלתי תכלית כן מאז כל יום וכל רגע ממש כל כוח מציאותם וסידורם וקיומם תלוי רק בהמשך הוא יתברך שמו משפיע בהם ברצונו יתברך כל רגע כוח ושפע חדש. ואילו היה הוא יתברך מסלק מהם כוח השפעתו אף רגע אחד כרגע היו כולם לאפס ותוהו.
So there isn't really a, so much of a, there doesn't seem to be a complete symmetry here in the, right, when the Nefesh Hachayim sets it up with כי לא כמידת בשר ודם מידת הקדוש ברוך הוא, so we're expecting a symmetry. So he makes two points about midas basar vadam. That a basar vadam when he builds something is A, he's not creating the raw materials; B, after he finishes his work, he withdraws and the work endures. So we're expecting now sort of zeh le'umas zeh, we're expecting two points corresponding. But obviously in terms of the analog of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, it's one point which is nothing has an independent existence, hayos that everything that exists is dependent for its existence upon Hakadosh Baruch Hu, so then obviously the same way that it's not two separate points: A, that He created His raw materials yesh me'ayin, and then B, He's sustaining the work. No, the B is just obvious corollary to A. There's only one point. When a builder is dealing with materials that have an existence that's independent of his, he didn't create them, and B, that's what allows for the possibility for him to withdraw as well. There is no such thing, there is no such thing as an existence which is independent of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Bria yesh me'ayin isn't just sort of a historical fact. It's an ongoing metzius in the sense that nothing exists independently of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. It's not the pshat that ה' ת' ש' ע' ט' years ago Hakadosh Baruch Hu pressed the button and the world came into existence and now it exists based on inertia, now it exists on its own because of inertia. No, there is no such thing as an independent existence. There is no such thing as anything that exists independently of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. So once you make that point, על אחת כמה וכמה you don't have to spell out the second point as an individual point. That's why in the nimshal they conflated, right? That's why the Nefesh HaChaim writes: כל כח מציאותם וסידורם וקיומם, right? Metziusam vesidram, those were the two points he had made by the human contractor. Everything is toleh on Hakadosh Baruch Hu. If the very existence of something is toleh on Hakadosh Baruch Hu, so obviously whether or not the walls meet the ceiling is totally... if the very existence of the wall on an ongoing basis is dependent upon Hakadosh Baruch Hu and the very existence of the ceiling, so you don't have to say and what's more, the fact that the wall meets the ceiling as it does. There's nothing in this yesod. It's a different level, probably impossible to overstate its importance and just how fundamental this is. There's nothing idiosyncratic about this. This isn't Nefesh HaChaim-dik, it's not Kabbalah-dik, it's Yahadus, it's reality. The Rambam begins: יסוד היסודות ועמוד החכמות לידע שיש שם מצוי ראשון וממציא כל נמצא.
So the Rebbe used to underscore how the Rambam writes in the present tense, not that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is himtzi kol nimtza, not that Hakadosh Baruch Hu at the first moment of time, at the beginning of the world, at the beginning of history, at the beginning of time, that Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave existence to what now exists. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is mamtzi kol nimtza. It means that there is no... nothing ever, ever, ever exists, no matter how old the world becomes, nothing ever exists autonomously, nothing ever exists by inertia. Everything always exists ach verak because Hakadosh Baruch Hu is mamtzi, mamtzi kol nimtza, the same yesod. I think there are midrashim like that, but they quote from the Baal Shem Tov also. Baal Shem Tov says that's what it means: לעולם ה' דברך נצב בשמים. כי לעולם ה' דברך נצב בשמים,
that the maamaros which created the world, so those maamaros, as it were, they continue to reverberate like an echo that reverberates throughout time. What does it mean לעולם ה' דברך נצב בשמים? That again... Wasn't a wasn't okay so Hakadosh Baruch Hu said now the world the world exists the world exists Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave us gave the world the present of existence of life so now it exists. No, every every moment Hakadosh Baruch Hu is metzius, every moment we we exist, everything that exists feeds off of Him, through Him, because of Him, from Him. וכמו שיסדו אנשי כנסת הגדולה המחדש בטובו בכל יום תמיד מעשה בראשית היינו תמיד ממש בכל עת ורגע ובאותיות מפורשות כאמרו לעושה אורים גדולים שלא אמר עשה אלא עושה.
We'll come back to that to those lines next week. ואף שאין חידוש ניכר לעין. So Hakadosh Baruch Hu does this so imperceptibly and so seamlessly that we don't see the hischadshus. A mashal somebody told me, someone explained to me that on a computer screen, so when you look at a computer screen, so you just see whatever whatever page you're looking at on the computer, so we just see the image continuously. Someone said it's really not true, that really every tiny fraction of something, that image is being renewed, is being refreshed. The only thing is it happens so imperceptibly that we see it and we experience it as just that image being there consistently. Talked about Nefesh Hachaim also, what that analogy is doing there, but anyway. ואף שאין חידוש ניכר לעין אומנם הד' יסודות עילאין ואינון השרשין קדמאין.
The four foundations of of everything ואבהן דכולא כנזכר בזוהר שהם שורש כל מעשה בראשית ופנימיות כולם והם ד' אותיות יהוה ברוך הוא.
The osiyos of יהוה. So osiyos are not only the English alphabet, so the letters are phonetic symbols. So when you go like this, so that's again whether a short 'a' or a long 'a', but it's a symbol. And when you learn how to read, so basically you're learning how to what the phonetic what the sound is associated with each of these symbols, the phonetic symbols. And obviously alef-beis is like that also, but on a much more real level, on a deeper level, so the osiyos are a reality, a reality. They represent spiritual kochos. They're also phonetic symbols. They're also phonetic symbols, but that's not all that the osiyos are. והם ד' אותיות יהוה ברוך הוא התמזגותם והרכבתם כל עת ורגע בשורש שורשם אין להם מושג כלל.
It's beyond how our it's not something that we can apprehend והוא יתברך שמו מחדשם כל רגע לפי רצונו. ועניין התמזגותם כל רגע,
the way Hakadosh Baruch Hu mixes them up every moment הם התת"ר צרופי השם ברוך הוא. Right, so when they announce what time the molad is, so they tell you how many chalakim, right, such-and-such, such-and-such and so many so many chalakim. So an hour is divided into one thousand and eighty chalakim. The Nefesh Hachaim says that that system, that division of an hour, so that corresponds into the different combinations that you can have of יהוה within the nekudos. Ve'inyan hismazgusam, if you some siddurim have and you're not supposed to be mechaven to this unless you understand what it means. Some siddurim have... that each month has what the different arrangement of the Osyos of יהוה is with the arrangement of the Nekudos of each month a person is Mechaven what what the right combination is. So there's an Inyan about the the Osyos again and and the reality of the Osyos can be arranged differently and matched up with different vowels. So וענין התמזגותם כל רגע הם התת"פ צירופי השם ברוך הוא על פי השתנות נקודותיהם.
Again with playing around with the with the vowels also. תת"פ רגע שעה and that's what the 1080 Chalakim of of an hour correspond to. וכן משתנים עוד כל שעה לצירופים אחרים. So there's two variables here, right? One variable is all the different combinations that you can make from the Osyos יהוה with the Nekudos. You can match up you can have you can put the Yud in the first position. You can put the Yud in the first position with this Nekudah or that Nekudah. You put the Yud in the second position with this Nekudah or that Nekudah. So one variable is the different combinations. Then a second variable is once you have all those combinations is the sequence of in how you sequence those different combinations. Right, so so you can one your first list the תת"פ is going to be the list of the different combinations that you can generate through matching up differently what the order within the Shem Havayah is of the יהוה and what Nekudos are matched up with. Then once you have all those, so then if you want to then sort of write those down on a piece of paper so you can you can write them also in in so many so many different ways. Oh it's a mathematical formula. What's the what's the mathematical formula called? For for for let's say if you have in the tic-tac-toe with the O's and X's? No? So how many different possible permutations can there be? That would be nine to the that would be two to the ninth power. This would be different. This is also the the ordering would be 1080 factorial. Factorial. Yeah, that would be that would be a very large number. Right, so so that's what the so the first list the so the maybe to be continued in the Shiur. So that's what the Nefesh HaChaim says that based on all this is something again the it something that whatever the Nistar she-bo means but but it's clear what what the tip of the iceberg what the Nigleh she-bo means. וכן משתנים עוד כל שעה לצירופים אחרים. Again so you have the 1080 and you can you have 1080 different combinations. And now you can you can arrange so every hour is going to have each of these 1080 are going to be for the first Chelek of this hour so this arrangement of יהוה is what animates is what gives life to the Briyah for this second. But you can then take those 1080 and you can there's so many different permutations actually there's so many different permutations of of how you can how you can organize that. So the Nefesh HaChaim says וכן משתנים עוד כל שעה לצירופים אחרים וגם אם מדת יום שלא מדת לילה לא כל יום דומה לחברו שלפניו ואחריו כלל זה שאמר המחדש מעשה בראשית בכל יום תמיד.
You hear what the Nefesh HaChaim says? He says Mechadesh doesn't just translate to renew. To renew means like for instance you renew your lease. Means that that you lived in a certain apartment for a year and now the landlord he renews the lease so now you have the same lease for the same for the same apartment for another year. So that's what we think of Mechadesh b'tuvo, HaKadosh Baruch Hu renews the our lease on existence, our lease on existence. Nefesh HaChaim says no that's not what Mechadesh means. Mechadesh means it's new, it's not the same because every moment HaKadosh Baruch Hu is Mechadesh is Mechadesh with different every day every hour is with different. different sequencing of of the different and different tzirufim. What what the one of the striking things that again that you've seen already and as we nechazor a little bit בעזרת השם בלי נדר hopefully we'll see again. One of the just very striking things in Nefesh Hachaim is again obviously he he draws so so heavily from from Kabbalah. That's the רובא דרובא דרובא of of what he's quoting is. And yet he shows so often how simple peshat, simple perush hamilot you don't have be'ofen meduyak umedukdak without what he's talking about. And this is maybe the first example that we're seeing of it when he says you know mechadesh doesn't mean to renew, it means to make new. That doesn't that's not the correct translation. We generally translate it as to to renew, but he says that's not really what it means. המחדש בטובו בכל יום תמיד מעשה בראשית. So it means that basically the nigleh shebo is is two things. The nigleh shebo is that every word every moment there's a hitchadshut of the beriah, which lichora means that a person has a koach hitchadshut as well. And number two that every moment is unique. And again according to Nefesh Hachaim that's mamash true in the most ultimate sense of of of the whole yesodot of of of life and the beriah. That that every every moment is unique with all of its implications for for making the most and and capitalizing on every moment. וזהו שנקרא הוא יתברך שמו האלוקים בעל הכוחות כולם. When we refer to Hakadosh Baruch Hu as Baal Hakochos Kulam, it doesn't mean only that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is omnipotent in contrast to everyone and everything else who's limited. No. What it means is that Hakadosh Baruch Hu has a monopoly in all the kochos. That Hakadosh Baruch Hu is the only Baal Koach. Every koach, every force, every force of nature, every law, every energy, every source of energy, everything is is is from Hakadosh Baruch Hu. He has a monopoly on it. That's what it means. Not that he's omnipotent and and others and everything else is is is finite in its in its potency. No. It's that he has a monopoly and and everything else is just exists, feeds off of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. שכל כוח פרטי הנמצא בכל העולמות הכל הוא יתברך שמו הבעל כוח שלהם. שמשפיע בהם הכוח וגבורה כל רגע.
There's no there's no independent force of of gravity. There's a force of gravity. There's a force of gravity because every moment Hakadosh Baruch Hu is mashpia that koach. ותלויים בידו תמיד לשנותם ולסדרם כרצונו יתברך. And maybe we'll get into the next level of haderech.