When the ancient one had reached this point he paused, and the two rabbis prostrated themselves before him, wept and said: "Had we come into this world only in order to hear these thy words from thy mouth it were sufficient." Said he: "Associates, I did not begin to speak to you merely in order to tell you what I have told you up till now, for surely an old man like myself would not limit himself to one saying, making a noise like a single coin in a jug. How many human beings live in confusion of mind, beholding not the way of truth whose dwelling is in the Torah, the Torah which calls them day by day to herself in love, but alas, they do not even turn their heads."It is indeed as I have said, that the Torah lets out a word, and emerges for a little from her sheath, and then hides herself again. But she does this only for those who understand and obey her.She is like unto a beautiful and stately damsel, who is hidden in a secluded chamber of a palace and who has a lover of whom no one knows but she. Out of his love for her he constantly passes by her gate, turning his eyes towards all sides to find her. She, knowing that he is always haunting the palace, what does she do? She opens a little door in her hidden palace, discloses for a moment her face to her lover, then swiftly hides it again. None but he notices it; but his heart and soul and all that is in him are drawn to her, knowing as he does that she has revealed herself to him for a moment because she loves him.It is the same with the Torah, which reveals her hidden secrets only to those who love her. She knows that he who is wise of heart daily haunts the gates of her house. What does she do? She shows her face to him from her palace, making a sign of love to him, and straightway returns to her hiding place again. No one understands her message save he alone, and he is drawn to her with heart and soul and all his being. Thus the Torah reveals herself mo­mentarily in love to her lovers in order to awaken fresh…

With regard to character in the study of Chabad, mention that for Chabad – or sublimation – is a major element based upon their metaphysical conception of evil. In other words, evil is really the divine paradoxically transforming itself through – through the catastrophalistic idea of Luria – into something physical; therefore, the way to approach evil is by reversing the process and going back to the divine. However, this idea of the interchangeability of good and evil leads to a kind of fudging of the boundaries in the view of R. Hayyim, who, therefore, in an important gloss to the parashah, insists that the primal sin of the eating of the etz was the interspersal and interpenetration of good and evil. The moral conduct of man therefore requires their separation rather than the transformation from one to the other. Question: does this mitnagdic and halakhic and pluralistic view of R. Hayyim find reflection in the views of the Rambam – as opposed to the views of Hasidism?

Jud. St. 41 should remain essentially as it is. Jud. St. 75, "Introduction to Hasidic Literature," requires prerequisites of Jud. St. 41 and a working knowledge of Hebrew. The course aims to acquaint students with primary sources of Hasidic literature, progressing from simpler to more complex passages filled with biblical and rabbinic allusions, Kabbalistic terms, Hasidic exegesis, and wordplays. Students should be able to translate and annotate texts. Selected works include: Tzava'at Ha-Rivash and Keter Shem Tov (Besht), Likkutei Moharan and Sippurei Ma'asiyot (R. Nahman of Bratslav), Degel Mahaneh Ephraim (R. Moshe Hayyim Ephraim), Noam Elimelekh (R. Elimelekh of Lizhensk), Kedushat Levi (R. Levi Yitzhak of Berditchev), Toledot Yaakov Yosef, Tzofnat Pa'aneach, and Ketonet Passim (R. Yaakov Yosef of Polnoye), Tzidkat Ha-Tzaddik (R. Zadok of Lublin), Benei Yissaschar (R. Zevi Elimelech of Dinov), Tanya, Derekh Mitzvotekha, and contemporary ma'amarim (HaBaD), Maggid Devarav le-Yaakov and Likkutim Yekarim (R. Dov Ber). Standard biblical, Talmudic, midrashic, and kabbalistic reference works are expected. A graduate-level course, "Major Ideas of Hasidism" (Jud. St. 700-level), requires Jud. St. 75 and knowledge of Hebrew. It explores core Hasidic themes through original sources and contemporary scholarship, comparing Hasidic and Mitnagdic thought, Kabbalah, and Sabbateanism. Topics include immanence and transcendence, devekut, avodah begashmiyut, gadlut and katnut, zaddikism, yeridah and aliyah, sweetening of judgments, prayer, thoughts and emotions, Torah lishmah, mystical themes, love and fear of God, evil and the yetzer, and eschatology. Primary sources: Tzava’at Ha-Rivash, Keter Shem Tov, letters of the Besht, Darkei Yesharim (R. Menahem Mendel of Peremyslyany), writings of R. Pinhas of Koretz, Toledot Yaakov Yosef, Ketonet Passim, Tzofnat Pa’aneach, Porat Yosef (R. Yaakov Yosef), Maggid Devarav le-Yaakov and Likkutim Yekarim (R. Dov Ber), Pri Ha-Aretz (R. Menahem…

Difference between Jew and Gentile according to HaBaD — Gentile has no נפש אלוקית. Identify the five souls according to HaBaD, and describe the lower three. How does RSZ answer the question: How is it possible to command love of God? What are the two definitions of "revelation" according to RSZ? Remember to include questions on my article of The Letter of The Besht. FROM RABBI POLLAK'S LECTURE: 1. Matching: R. Hayyim Halberstam of Sanz -- Divrei Hayyim. 2. Controversies in which above was involved: renting דtore to non-Jew for Shabbat; machine Matzohs. 3. The strongest influences on above: the ”Seer” of Lublin, and R. Naftali of Ropschltz. 4. Above was the source of religiousness zealousness for Hasidim in Galicia and Hungary. For final exam in May 1975 -- responsible for assigned readings in Minken, IN PRAISE, SCHOLEM, my TRADITION article on the letter of the BESHT, the entire B series, all notes, lectures of Fleer, Pollak and Mlndel, I also taught them the concept of בינוני from the Tanya, Chapters I, II, XI, XII. Emphasize that a major difference between Bratzlav and HaBaD is: former is geared to אמונה, latter to ratio; former holds that anyone can become a Zaddik, latter holds that צדיק וטוב לו is one who is born with a propensity to extirpate evil if he tries hard enough, and only that kind of person can become a Zaddik (paradoxically, the more democratic Bratzlav had no successor/good enough to follow R. Nahman, whereas the elitest HaBaD formed a dynasty!) For final — Minkin, Shivhei HaBesht, Wiegel pg. 3-81, my lectures and guest lectures.

הבחינה הזאת עשוייה משני חלקים, וכל חלק עולה מאה נקודות. החלק הראשון הוא על ההרצאות, והשני – הקריאות. חלק ראשון: כתב כל התשובות רק במחברת. 1. הגדר או זהה בקיצור נמרץ. 30 נקודות. א. שיריים ב. אפרים דיינארד ג. טבילת עזרא ד. טלוסט ה. כשאחד הוא לבוש או כסא לשני ו. ר' מנחם מנדך מפרמישלאן ז. צפנת פענח ח. מסירת החשבה אל הרבי ט. ספר הויכוח י. הכת 2. ענה על שתיים משאלות אלה. 30 נקודות. כתב בס"ה לא יותר מעמוד אחד. א. מהו סולם הערכים של החסידות לפי בעל "צמח צדק"?

In his erudite paper, Prof. Brill sketches for us the theological background of RMM: his intellectual predecessors – especially his illustrious forbears, the six “princes” (Nesiim) of the Habad movement and – most importantly, his immediate predecessor and father-in-law known in Habad circles as “the previous Rebbe.” It is clearly a service to those interested in the Lubavitch phenomenon to have this information available to them.One wonders, however, if his statement that RMM’s “philosophy was built upon the thought of his predecessors... almost everything he said (my emphasis) was built on the preceding thinkers, even as he took their ideas further,” is wholly accurate. Each of RMM’s ideas, he avers, “has antecedents in the writings of his predecessors,” then goes on discuss RMM’s “unique development to the modernization of these ideas.” Considering some of these important contributions, Brill appears to be overstating the case. No better proof of this is RMM’s remark, that “Judaism changes.” Taken by itself, that statement would produce disbelief and consternation in Lithuanian Orthodox circles and grist for the mills of all Habad’s conservative critics, albeit that observant Jews exposed to history and philosophy would agreed that certain kinds of changes are inevitable and unexceptional.What is more surprising to the reader unaccustomed to the boldness of early Hasidism is the first example offered by Prof. Brill: “continuous progressive revelation,” which term is often invoked by leaders of the “progressive” trends in modernist Jewish thinking to explain (away) deviations from halakhic belief and practice. Nor is RMM’s allusion to a “new Torah” bound to win converts to Habad from their rightist critics. Of course, RMM is not by any means offering support for such heterodoxy; his intention is to increase observance by abandoning an “all or nothing” approach in introducing Judaism to Jews estranged from the tradition.But overstated or not, Brill is right to poi…

The statement of Hillel, "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor" (Shabbat 31a), requires explanation: why did he formulate the commandment "Love thy neighbor as thyself" negatively, instead of in the positive way that it appears in Scripture (Leviticus 19:18) – and as Onkelos translates it? The answer is that Hillel's words are a deeper explanation of the mitzvah to love one’s neighbor. The principle that a person does not see his own faults does not mean that he is totally unaware of them. On the contrary, a man can see and understand the depths of his inferiority better than anyone else, for another person can view him only with his eyes (i.e., from without), whereas he sees into his own heart. What it means, rather, is that his failing does not occupy his attention to any great extent, and it is as if it did not exist at all, because of the great love with which he loves himself. “Love covers all transgressions” (Proverbs 10:12). This self-love covers all the faults of which he is aware, thus not permitting his knowledge to exercise him emotionally. That is why his knowledge of his own faults does not occupy a place of prominence in his mind – he is insensitive to his own faults because they are overwhelmed and suppressed by this great (self-)love which “covers all transgressions” and encloses him. When another person sees and understands his fault, this angers him greatly, even though he knows that it is true... because the friend acknowledges this weakness as substantial and worthy of note, whereas what he himself recognizes in himself is covered up by his (self-)love. His ire is directed at his friend for exposing his fault, ignoring the love which covered it up thus making it virtually invisible, and now it appears real and significant.That is what is meant by "what is hateful to you" — this exposure which is hateful to you, do not do to your friend. Do not "see" his faults and transgressions, whether social in nature or between man and God, an…

מתורת המגיד. א. מהו המשל שהמגיד (תמיד) משתמש בו להסביר את ענין הצמצום, כלומר, צמצום השכל? ב. לפי המגיד, צמצום הוא בין העלם בין התגלות. באר. ג. איך מפרש המגיד את הפסוק, "אברהם הוליד את יצחק" בנדון זה? מספר "דגל מחנה אפרים". א. מדוע מהסם המחבר בבואו לבאר ענין ה"חטא"? ב. אל מה מתכוון המחבר בהשתמשו במונחים "חיים״ ו"מות" לגני הקב״ה? מהקדמת ה״ר שלמה מלוצק לספר "מגיד דבריו ליעקב". ג. איך מבאר המחבר את המונח "עולם"? ד. איך מבאר המחבר את המונח "מדות"?מספר "קדושת לוי". א. מהו ההסבר החסידי על פריקת המשכן? ב. מהו ההסבר החסידי על קימת המשכן? כתב מסה על "מחשבות זרוח". זהה את המחשבות האלה; את מקורן בעולמות העליונים; את הגישות השונות אליהן בתורת החסידות. מהי ההתפתחות ההיסטורית של השיטות האלה? מהו היחס בין גישות אלה למונחים "אתכפיא" ו״אתהפכא"? מהי הבעיה היסודית בטיב הצדיק אשר ה״ר אלימלך מליז׳נסק דן בה? מהי הטיפולוגיה של המחבר ב"נועם אלימלך"? איך מיישר הוא את ההידורים? בתשובתך לאחת או לכל השאלות הנ״ל, צטט מאחת מדרשותיו בספר "נועם אלימלך" כראיה לדבריך.

1. אחרי שהסביר המחבר את ענין ב' הנפשות – נה"ב ונהא – ומסר לנו בנה"א שלש השכבות: נר"נ, ושבכל א' מהן אינטרנילזציה של ע"ס: 2. ע"ס האלה של הנרן (כלומר: הממד הרוחני של האדם) בא לידי ביטוי במציאות הפסיכולוגית של האדם בג' לבושים – מצו"מ, שצורתן היא בתרי"ג מצוות (כלו': התאמה בין התורה והממד הרוחני של היהודי). 2. החב"ד שבנרן מתלבש במחשבה = השגת פרד"ס. 4. המצות שאדם מתלבש בדו"מ המידות האלה נחשבות בתניא כאהבה ויראה (במקום חו"ג) וענפיהן (נצח והוד) ותולדותיהן (ת"ת יסוד ומלכות)