Likutay Moharan - Torah-teaching 42

Likutay Moharan Volume 1: Torah 42

“And He saw their distress when He heard their rinah (cry [musical prayer])” [Psalms 106:44]

[In the language of our master, Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, of blessed memory]

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1. Music and Sweetening Judgments

Through neginah (music [spiritual melody]), the dinim (judgments [divine strictures]) are sweetened, as it is written in the holy Zohar [Pinchas 215a]: The keshes (bow [rainbow, symbolizing Divine Presence]) is the Shechinah (Divine Presence [G-d’s immanent aspect]). And the three gvanim (colors [divine attributes]) of the keshes (bow) are the avos (Patriarchs [Abraham, Isaac, Jacob]), and they are garments of the Shechinah (Divine Presence). And when it [Shechinah (Divine Presence)] is clothed in garments of lights, then: “And I will see it to remember the bris olam (everlasting bris [covenant of spiritual unity])” [Genesis 9:16]. Then “and the wrath of the king subsided” [chamas hamelech shachachah (the king’s anger subsided)]. [Like a parable of a king who was angry at his son, and when the king sees the queen in garments of lights, he has mercy on his son.] And the letters of the tefillah (prayer [liturgical devotion]) are the Shechinah (Divine Presence), as it is written: “Adonai (Lord [divine name]), open my lips” [Psalms 51:17], for dibbur (speech [expression]) is associated with the Name Adonai (Lord). And tefillah (prayer) is called a keshes (bow), as Rashi explained [Genesis 48:22] on the verse: “With my sword and with my keshes (bow)” [Genesis 48:22], meaning the language of tefillah (prayer). And the kol haneginah (voice of the music [melodic expression]) are the three gvanim (colors) of the keshes (bow), for in the kol (voice [sound]) there is aish (fire [divine passion]), mayim (water [divine mercy]), ru’ach (wind [divine spirit]), which are the three avos (Patriarchs). The avos (Patriarchs) are the three gvanim (colors) of lights, in which it is written: “And I will see it to remember” etc. It emerges that one who plays [menagein (articulates [melodically expresses])] the letters of the tefillah (prayer), and the kol haneginah (voice of the music), when they are performed in zechus (merit [righteous intent]) and with great beirus (brightness [spiritual clarity]), then he clothes the Shechinah (Divine Presence), which is the letters, in garments of lights. And the Holy One, blessed be He, sees it, then “and the chamas hamelech (wrath of the king) subsided.” And this is what Rashi explained regarding: “When He heard their rinah (cry)”, meaning in the zechus ha’avos (merit of the Patriarchs [ancestral merit]). [When the neginah (music), which are the three gvanim (colors) of the keshes (bow) as mentioned above, is in beirus (brightness) and great zechus (merit)—for the three gvanim (colors) are the avos (Patriarchs), as mentioned above, and they are garments of the Shechinah (Divine Presence)—and when these garments are lights, in zechus (merit) and beirus (brightness), it is called the zechus ha’avos (merit of the Patriarchs).] Then: “And I will see it to remember the bris olam (everlasting bris)”. Then: “And He relented according to the abundance of His chasadim (kindnesses)” [Psalms 106:45], that is, “and the chamas hamelech (wrath of the king) subsided,” and the dinim (judgments) are sweetened.

2. Faith in Sages and Shofar Blowings

Also, through emunas chachamim (faith in sages [trust in their wisdom]), that he believes that all their diburim (speeches [teachings]) and their ma’asim (deeds [actions]) are not simple, and there are razim (secrets [mystical insights]) in them, through this he clothes the keshes (bow) in garments of lights.

Then: “And I will see it to remember the bris olam (everlasting bris)”, for the tzadik (righteous person) is the aspect of a keshes (bow), as Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai said to Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi [Ketubos 77b]: “Was a keshes (bow) seen in your days?” And it is brought in the holy Zohar [Pinchas 215a]: “One whose uvdoy (deeds [spiritual actions]) are to illuminate in them the Matronisa (Matronita [Aramaic for Shechinah, Divine Presence]) and to strip from her garments of darkness that she had stripped, and to adorn her in garments of gvanim nehirin (colors of lights [secrets of Torah])—what is written about it? ‘And I will see it to remember the bris olam (everlasting bris),’ for ‘light’ is called a raz (secret [mystical insight]). And at that time rugza (anger [divine wrath]) rises from him, and the chamas hamelech (wrath of the king) subsided.” Also, one who makes a fine garment for the tzadik (righteous person), through this the dinim (judgments) are sweetened. Also, this refers to aspects of teki’os (blowings [of the shofar]). For teki’ah (blast [single note]), shevarim (broken notes [three notes]), teru’ah (tremolo [nine short notes]) are the avos (Patriarchs)—Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov. And your sign for this is keshes (bow), that is teki’ah (blast) etc. [Zohar Pinchas 230a]. And this is what is written: “And the Shaddai (Almighty [divine name]) shall be in your distress” [Job 22:27], for the Name Shaddai (Almighty) represents the avos (Patriarchs) [Zohar Pinchas 231a]. For שׁ (shin [first letter of Shaddai, symbolizing three branches]) represents three branches of the tree, which are the avos (Patriarchs). And they are the three Names of the yichud (unity [divine oneness]): Hashem Elokeinu Hashem (Hashem, our G-d, Hashem), which are 14 letters. And they are the 14 of Shaddai (Almighty). Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov, they are the initials of Hashem Elokeinu Hashem (Hashem, our G-d, Hashem) [יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְהֹוָה]. “There is no saying and there are no devarim (words), without their kol (voice) being heard” [Psalms 19:4]. This is the aspect of keshes (bow) and kol (voice), the three gvanim (colors) of the keshes (rainbow).