The Secret of Self-Nullification: How to Merit Seeing Only Good and Never Being Offended
Lesson No. 60 | Thursday Night, Parashas Chukas, Eve of 4 Tammuz 5756 - Public Shiur at the Yeshiva
A profound discourse explaining how, through the spiritual work of lowliness and the recognition that "everything is an illusion," a person stops hearing insults and disputes. Through the teachings of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov and the secrets of the Mussaf prayer, the path is revealed to transform every humiliation into the honor of Heaven and bring the Geulah (Redemption) closer.
A person must reach a spiritual level where he sees absolutely no evil in the world. He sees only holy and pure souls hovering around him, and the entire world appears clear and pure to him. When one reaches such a level, even when people humiliate him, he tells himself: "These must have been words of honor. Who is even capable of humiliating anyone? People only honor, they only speak words of encouragement. I must have misunderstood; my head is just not working right."
Rebbe Nachman says in Torah 5 (Likutey Moharan), that if you hear tzaddikim speaking against one another, it is a sign that your ear is flawed. Tzaddikim do not speak against each other; your ear is crooked. It is like the Generation of the Dispersion, at the Tower of Babel, where Hashem confused their hearing—one said "hammer" and the other heard "pliers," one said "chisel" and the other heard "axe." They heard everything upside down. The same applies to a person who hears disputes. He must know that there is no such thing; everyone is a tzaddik, everyone is holy, everyone is pure and beloved.
Being Detached from the World
A person needs to reach a completely ethereal state, to be detached from everything and know nothing of what is happening in the world. We have Likutey Moharan, the Gemara, and endless holy books, and there is no need to know anything external.
They tell a story about Rabbi Chaim Ozer zt"l, who was asked why the sons of Rabbi Chaim of Brisk zt"l turned out so holy and pure. He testified that during the First World War, the son of Rabbi Chaim of Brisk knew absolutely nothing about the war. He only knew that they had to flee, so they fled. His face was radiant and clinging to Hashem, blessed be He. He fulfilled the halachah of:
"And you shall guard your souls exceedingly"
He directed his intentions for the sake of the unification of the Holy One, blessed be He, and His Shechinah (Divine Presence), and fled with pure innocence, but aside from Torah and prayer, he knew and heard nothing. A person must reach such a level of deveikus (cleaving) to Hashem that he has no grasp of this world, and then he will also not hear any disputes.
The Four Parsa'os That Bring Mashiach
Rebbe Nachman repeats this fundamental principle in Torah 14 (the Torah of the Trumpets). If you hear arguments between tzaddikim, know that they are showing you where you are holding in the world. How is it possible that you hear arguments between people who are holier and purer than you?
Rebbe Nachman explains there that a person must undergo four types of spiritual work, which correspond to the four parsa'os (parasangs, a Talmudic measure of distance) of Mount Tavor:
The first work is to believe in all the tzaddikim of the generation, to know that there are true tzaddikim who sit and learn Torah and guard their eyes day and night.
The second work is to believe in the intermediate people, that they too are tzaddikim.
The third work is to believe that all the wicked will yet do teshuvah (repentance), and that they desire to do so at every moment.
And the fourth work is to say: "And I am the worst of all the wicked people in the world. A wicked person like me has never been created. No matter how much they explain things to me, nothing has an effect on me."
If a person works on these four parsa'os, Rebbe Nachman says that the Geulah (Redemption) will be today. When will Mashiach come? Today! In the merit of whoever merits these four aspects, who has absolutely no arrogance over his wife, his friends, or other factions in Judaism.
I Am the Biggest Illusion
When a person constantly walks around with the feeling that there is no one worse than him, suddenly he will see that the world does not exist at all. The world is an illusion. And then he will see that no one is insulting him. If they ask him: "But they humiliated you, they cursed you, why aren't you defending yourself?", he will answer: "Me? I don't even exist!"
As Rebbe Nachman says in Torah 55, such a person no longer hears any insults from anyone in the world. If the whole world is an illusion, then I am the biggest illusion of all the illusions. I haven't even begun to come into existence. No one thinks about me, I don't interest anyone, so how can anyone insult me? For "I am not."
The Secret of Kesser: There is Nothing Besides Him
It is possible to reach such spiritual levels where a person understands that there is nothing besides Hashem, may He be blessed.
"You shall know this day and take it to your heart, that Hashem is God in heaven above and on the earth below; there is nothing else."
We declare "Hashem is One" several times a day: during the Korbanos (sacrificial readings), in the reading of the Shema, in the Maariv (evening) prayer, and in the Bedtime Shema. And on Shabbos, during the Mussaf prayer, we cry out once again, "Shema Yisrael, Hashem Elokeinu, Hashem Echad" (Hear O Israel, Hashem is our God, Hashem is One).
The Pri Tzaddik (Rabbi Tzadok HaKohen of Lublin) explains an awesome secret: In Heaven, during the recitation of 'Kesser' (the Crown prayer in Kedushah), the angels cry out, "Shema Yisrael, Hashem Elokeinu, Hashem Echad." The tzaddikim heard this, but they could not suddenly institute a new rule for the Jewish people to cry this out in the middle of the Kedushah of Kesser. Therefore, the Orchestrator of Causes (Hashem) brought about a decree forbidding the recitation of the Shema during the Shacharis (morning) prayer, and then the Sages embedded the verse within the Kedushah of Mussaf. Thus, it was established for all generations that we say 'Kesser' together with the angels and cry out, "Hashem is One."
When a person understands that "Hashem is One" and there is nothing besides Him, he realizes that everything is an illusion, and he himself is the ultimate illusion.
Transforming Humiliations into the Glory of the King
Through this awareness, a person fulfills the verse:
"And in His Sanctuary, all proclaim, 'Glory!'"
We must transform all humiliations into glory. If someone spoke against you, know that he was actually praising you, only your ear is crooked and you didn't hear it properly. One must combine all these statements and form them into glory for the King.
During the Shemoneh Esrei prayer, a person stands in the King's Sanctuary (Heichal). The word "Heichal" (היכל) has a gematria (numerical value) of 65, exactly the same as the Divine Name A-D-N-Y. A person who spends his entire day in the King's Sanctuary must take all humiliations and combine them into expressions of glory for Hashem, may He be blessed.
Part 2 of 3 — Lesson No. 60