Likutay Moharan - Volume 2 - Torah-teaching 47

Likutay Moharan II, Torah 47: It Is a Great Danger to Say Torah

It is a great sakanah [danger] to say Torah [Torah teaching], and it requires great effort and exceptional skill to weigh one’s words with a scale so that each and every one of the listeners hears only what he needs, no more. And even though everyone hears the entire Torah that he says, even so, each one hears only what he needs alone. And as brought regarding the verse: “And Yitro heard” (Exodus 18:1): Did not the whole world hear? But Yitro heard, and so forth (Zohar, Yitro 68). For only Yitro’s hearing was considered hearing, that it entered his ears, and the hearing of the whole world is not considered hearing at all. And one who cannot say Torah in this aspect, it is forbidden for him to say Torah. For each and every one who comes to the tzadik [righteous one] to hear Torah brings with him also his evil, that is, the kelipos [husks, forces of evil] created through sins, heaven forbid. And they press the world and cause great confusion and pressure at the time of saying the Torah. For the evil mentioned above of each one wants to confuse. And this is what our Sages, of blessed memory, said (Berachos 6): “This pressure at the bride’s [gathering] is from them”, that is, from the evil of each and every one, which are the kelipos, as mentioned above. And these kelipos also want to draw sustenance from the Torah, and their sustenance is only from the excesses, that is, from what one hears more and above his mind and understanding, this is the aspect of excesses, and from there is their sustenance. And this is the aspect of the secrets of the Torah that are given to the external forces, for their sustenance is only from the aspect of the secrets of the Torah, that is, from what is above the mind of the person, each according to his understanding. Therefore, the wise one who says Torah must have the skill mentioned above, that no one of the listeners hears what is not according to his mind and understanding that does not pertain to him, as mentioned above, so as not to give them sustenance, heaven forbid. And know that there is a fine kelipah, which is close to holiness, that this fine kelipah can draw sustenance even from the body of the Torah itself, even if there are no excesses. And the rectification for this is when they speak of the salvation of Israel, then that fine kelipah flees. And this is the aspect of what our Sages, of blessed memory, said (Zevachim 116), that Yitro came and went before the giving of the Torah, for Yitro is the aspect of the fine kelipah that flees when it hears the salvations of Israel. And the true tzadik has great fear when he says Torah, more than the fear of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.