Shemot

Lichvod Hilulat Rabbi Yaakov Abehssera ZT"VKL . 

It is written in our Parasha:;And these are the names of the children of Yisrael who came to Egypt, along with Yaakov each man and his house came”. The Admor Rabbi Yaakov Abehssera Zy”a
learns a wide-ranging lesson from this Passuk:;Perhaps this hints that the primary purpose of man coming to this world is to complete his Ruach and Neshama.  In other words, a person is made up of Nefesh, Ruach and Neshama, and the reason that we are sent into this world is to do a tikun to our Ruach and Neshama ;And it is completed by engaging in Torah study, adhering to the Mitzvot and praying properly ,  In other words, the only way a person can complete himself is through continuous Torah study, while ensuring to simultaneously fulfil all the Mitzvot and pray sincerely.

How can a Jewish person connect to the Shechina?
Rabbi Yaakov  Abehssera Zy”a says ;When a person merits to correct his Nefesh, Ruach and Neshama, then he will merit to connect to the Shechina; As we all know, everybody is interested in correcting their Nefesh, Ruach and Neshama, and everybody wants to know how to go about it. In each and every generation, the Gedolei Yisrael have addressed this topic at length, offering a variety of detailed approaches on how to connect to the Shechina. It goes without saying that their words are undoubtedly true. However, most important of all is to realize that it is impossible to merit connection with the Shechina without working extremely hard at it. The harder a person works, and the more he tries, the more he will merit to connect to the Shechina. In this way, he will be assisted by Hashem to ultimately become fully united with Him.

There is a notion of : Mashpia (benefactor) and Mushpa (beneficiary), and how this plays out in the Nefesh, Ruach and Neshama .  Rabbi Yaakov  Abehssera Zy”a touches on a further point . He comments on the words of Chazal:;One who is greater than his friend – [When] one’s friend bestows unto him, the superior party who is the benefactor is referred to as a man , and the beneficiary is referred to as a;woman. The explanation of this is as follows. Men were designed to give to their wives, while women were designed to receive from their husbands. Therefore, in every dynamic in which there is a benefactor who gives and a beneficiary who receives, the benefactor is metaphorically called a man while the beneficiary is metaphorically called a woman . 
Rabbi Yaakov Zy”a goes on to explain how this can be applied to the Nefesh, Ruach and Neshama, the three elements from which a Jewish person is built. He writes that each of these three levels are arranged in a hierarchy with each higher level bestowing benefit upon the level beneath it. Therefore, when considering “the Nefesh relative to the Ruach, the Nefesh is referred to as woman and the Ruach is referred to as man”. This is because the Ruach bestows benefits upon the Nefesh. However, in the grand scheme of things, both the Ruach and the Nefesh are called woman”, because both of them receive benefits from the Neshama above them. Therefore, the Neshama is referred to as “man” while the Ruach and Nefesh are referred to as woman.
In other words, each and every Jew is made up of the three ;components : Nefesh, Ruach and Neshama. The Neshama is the benefactor, bestowing upon both the Ruach and the Nefesh. It is therefore referred to as a “man”. The Ruach and the Nefesh are the beneficiaries that receive the benefits bestowed upon them by the Neshama. Therefore, they are referred to as;women . That being said, when considering the position of the Ruach relative to the position of the Nefesh, the Ruach will be called a “man” and only the Nefesh will be called a woman . 

Who came to Egypt – this refers to the Shechina, יעק״ב (Yaakov) alludes to four pathways to connect to it Rabbi Yaakov Zy”a relates the ideas we have just discussed to the first Passuk in our Parasha, the Passuk that opens the Book of Shemot.And these are the names of the children of Yisrael who came to Egypt''. He points out that the numerical value (Gemtariya) of the word מצרימה (to Egypt) is 385. This is the same as the numerical value of the word שכינה (Shechinah). Therefore, the Passuk can be interpreted: Who of the Jewish people deserve to be connected with the Shechina? Who are those who have merited to correct their Nefesh, Ruach and Neshama so that they are deserving to;come to 385 – to connect to the Shechina? Those who are with Yaakov “יעקב”. In other words, those who embody the attributes whose initials are alluded to in the name of יעקב. These are: ייחוד, ענווה, קדושה,ברכה – unification, humility, holiness, and blessing.

What is true unification with Hashem (Yichud) and how is it achieved?
Yichud is that one should properly focus on the oneness of Hashem from the depths of one’s heart . True Yichud is attained when a person is mindful, during every Mitzvah, every activity and every interaction throughout his lifetime, that he is doing this for the sake of Heaven and to honor the name of Hashem. In this light, a person can eat and drink , sleep, and engage in all sorts of activities that superficially seem physical, purposeless and devoid of spirituality. Yet, if a person dedicates those very actions and deeds to Hashem, one’s behavior is instantly transformed into;Ahavat Hashem; and is no longer based on bodily instinct.

Turn every act into an act of holiness :
It is known that the great Baba Sali Zy”a would not eat his dinner without first finding out whose Hilula fell on that day. Then, he would dedicate his meal in honor of the Tzaddik whose Hilula it was, and they would relate the good qualities of the Tzaddik throughout the meal. Here is an example of how an act of;Yichud;, dedicating one’s meal to honor aTzaddik upgrades eating — an activity that superficially seems completely material— into a spiritual activity that increases one’s level of Kedusha. Even we who do not reach the ankles of Tzaddikim such as the holy Baba Sali Zy”a can still turn our eating into an activity that promotes holiness, by dedicating our eating to the service of Hashem: to be strong and healthy to learn Torah, and to have the peace of mind to focus in our Tefillot and become fully invested in our Avodat Hashem.

What is humility and how is it acquired?
The letter עין (Ayin) in the name of Yaakov alludes to humility. Rabbi Yaakov Zy”a comments on this:In everything they do, they should be humble and not promote themselves in any regard. We have the natural tendency, every time we learn and fully grasp a new Halacha or Sugya, to feel superior. We may even approach our Chavruta and ask him with a hint of condescension:;Well, how did you learn it? How did you understand this issue? How did you summarize this Halacha?; In so doing, we become swept away, plunging deep into the abyss of pride and conceit. We are at risk of losing all the value and all the Kedusha we have acquired through our efforts to master that Halacha or that Sugya. Whether one is small of stature and feels full of oneself after having mastered a single Halacha, whether one is a litter bigger and only feels full of oneself after having mastered several Simanim, and whether one only feels full of oneself upon having mastered entire subjects, all are at risk of losing everything by falling into this abyss, that strips off all the Kedusha that one had accumulated up until then. The take-away from this is that humility is a fundamental prerequisite for connecting to the Shechina.

What is the definition of holiness (Kedusha) and how is it acquired? Rabbeinu Yaakov Zy”a defines Kedusha as follows: "Kedusha is to sanctify it properly, amidst holiness and purity, and to be engaged in studying the holy Torah." We learn from his words that there are two defining elements to Kedusha, the first of which is to sanctify it amidst holiness and purity. This is especially challenging in today’s day and age, even in Torah communities. The world has become more;open than in times gone by, and unfortunately negative forces have the upper hand. Today, it is easy to be exposed to contents that were simply unfathomable to previous generations. Worst of all, all this content is readily accessible. is that there is more accessibility to all those things. In previous eras, people used to live and go about their lives in their place of residence, be it a village or a town. They would not leave the village all year round. Traveling out of town required extensive preparations and complex planning. A suitable cart for a long and exhausting trip had to be found, food that would last for the duration of the journey had to be prepared and packed, and so forth. Yet nowadays, it is possible to travel from one end of the country to the other with ease and without any special planning! One can even cross the globe in a few hours of air travel... Therefore, it is much more difficult for us to understand what it means to abstain and disconnect from the outside world, and what straightforward Kedusha and Tahara look like.
Sometimes we even become confused and fail to look into the true purpose of what we do; we misunderstand the essence of studying the Torah and Avodat Hashem as a whole.
Sometimes we even make a most serious mistake, and convert our Torah study into an academic exercise of;expanding our general knowledge.. How many times do we find ourselves familiarizing ourselves with a Halacha only in order to debate it around the Shabbat table and impress the people present with us . Sometimes we forget to internalize the essence and the purpose, why we are studying Torah and investing in Avodat Hashem. We may fail to take note of fundamental changes in our attitudes. Each of us must realize that the remedy for it is ;Kedusha . To avoid this we must push ourselves beyond what we have already achieved, we must strive to continually grow and develop, one step after another.
For example, to bring this point home, a person sits down to learn Torah and knows that he may be easily distracted. If he says to himself: “Today – I must spend at least one hour learning in Taanit Dibbur, I commit not to utter any word besides for Torah!”, this is true ;Kedushah ! This shows that the person’s behavior is motivated by true spiritual values!
We also need to know what (Tahara) purity is. Tahara is to be alert and vigilant in areas that require extra caution, such as to avoid saying Lashon Hara, and to ensure that one speaks in a dignified manner.
When it is time for Tefilla, be mindful that our duty is now to pray! How many times does one enter a Beit Knesset only to see people chatting among themselves in the middle of the Tefilla. Sometimes, it is even humiliating to pray in the vicinity of people who identify as “Bnei Torah” who have somehow justified themselves not to take the Tefilla seriously. They begin to converse and even  joke around, oblivious to the fact that they are in a Beit Knesset – in the King’s palace! When you have Tefillin on your head, ;Bind your glory upon you ;! Resolutely commit never to talk while wearing Tefillin! It is incumbent upon us to change the essence of all the Mitzvot that we do! We should say to ourselves, “We’re anyway praying, we’re anyway reciting the Birkat HaMazon – a Mitzva d’Orayta, we may as well add the special;spice of Kedusha!”. Do so and you will see that everything begins to look different! Your essence will change! Everything that you do will be invested with new found energy.

May we be zocheh to a speedy Geula , the release of the hostages , refuah shelema to all the injured and a divine protection and success to our dear Chayalim . Amen 

Rabbi Gad Bouskila