Likutay Moharan - Torah-teaching 26

Torah 26: A Chick That Dies in Its Egg

The language of our rabbi, of blessed memory

A retzitzah [chick] that dies in its be’usah [egg, root b’ay], where does its ruach [spirit] go out? And he said to them: Where it enters [ol, root ‘a.l.h]. [Rashi: retzitzah [chick] that died – chick that died inside its shell.]

This retzitzah [chick] – this is the aspect of tzadik [righteous one], the aspect of “May the tzadik flourish in his days” [Psalms 72:7]. That they asked him: The tzadik who kills himself [spiritually, exerting himself to the point of self-sacrifice] and gives his soul in his tzlosah [prayer] and in his ba’usah [supplicatory prayer, root b’ay], in which of the places from the tzlosah does he need to give his soul more? And he replied to them: Where it enters [ol, root ‘a.l.h] – that is, [where the machshavos zaros enters, there he must exert self-sacrifice to lihaalos them (elevate, root ‘a.l.h)] – how he has to lihaalos [elevate, root ‘a.l.h] nitzotzos hakdushah [sparks of holiness, divine fragments trapped in the mundane] – that is, how machshavos zaros [foreign thoughts, distracting or impure thoughts] enters [ol, root ‘a.l.h] in him, and he needs to lihaalos [elevate, root ‘a.l.h] them, as is known – there he needs to give his soul.