חלק ב — תורה 77

2. This that eating in holiness mitigates the suffering—know! this relates to the devolved suffering being greater for someone with daat, as in “he who increases daat increases anguish,” as mentioned above. On the face of it, this is perplexing: Why should it be so, that whoever increases daat increases suffering, God forbid? But know! this is the concept of the maabarta (passageway) of the tefilin, because “Fear of God is the beginning of wisdom” (Psalms 111:10), and where there is no fear of God, there is no wisdom (Avot 3:17). Therefore, whoever merits some wisdom and daat, also has fear of God pass over him, because each one depends on the other.

This is the concept of the maabarta of tefilin. Tefilin signifies mochin (mentalities). The retzuah (strap) signifies fear of God. For an evil strap is fallen fear (Zohar, Introduction, p.11b), and holy fear is likewise a strap, [but] of holiness. Thus this is the concept of the strap which passes through the maabarta of tefilin—i.e., the strap/fear of God passes through the mentalities and the tefilin, because “Fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.”

Therefore, every Jew who merits mochin /tefilin each day also has fear of God pass over him—the concept of the strap which passes through the passageway of tefilin. And from this some suffering devolves and comes to each person every day. And so whoever has greater daat experiences greater suffering. This is because the suffering devolves from fear of God, and fear of God is commensurate with the intellect and daat .

Thus although suffering is due to holy fear, its devolution, God forbid, results in the suffering being from the concept of fallen fears, the evil strap. Even a Jew, when he is lacking merit, God forbid, suffers from the evil strap, God forbid.

But by eating in holiness—that he eats in holiness and as he eats draws upon himself holy fear which approaches him and makes itself accessible then—through this he mitigates the suffering and judgment which stem from the evil strap, God forbid. This is because he draws upon himself holy fear, through which the fallen fears—which are the concept of the evil strap, God forbid—ascend and are mitigated.

3. This is the meaning of the teaching of our Sages, of blessed memory.

A retzuah (st rip) extended from the portion of Yehudah into the portion of Binyamin. That tzaddik anguished over it each day, and hoped to swallow it up. He was thus privileged to become ushpizkhan (ho st) to the Shekhinah (Megillah 26a) .

Binyamin represents daat, the concept of mochin /tefilin. This is because the Holy Temple was in the portion of Binyamin (Sifri, Vezot HaBerakhah 11, and Rashi there), and the Holy Temple corresponds to daat , as our Sages, of blessed memory, taught: For someone with daat, it is as if the Holy Temple was built in his day (Berakhot 33a). For daat and the Holy Temple are each positioned between two Divine Names.

Yehudah represents Malkhut, the concept of fear of God. This is:

retzuah (strip) — This alludes to the aforementioned retzuah (strap), which corresponds to fear of God, the strap of the tefilin.

it extends from the portion of Yehudah into the portion of Binyamin— That is, the retzuah (strip) comes from the concept of Yehudah’s portion, the concept of fear, and enters into Binyamin’s portion, i.e., into the tefilin/ mochin. This is the concept of the retzuah (strap) which passes through the maabarta of the tefilin, as mentioned above. And this is:

That tzaddik was anguished over it each day— For from this strap suffering comes to each Jew every day, especially to the tzaddik, who has greater daat, as mentioned above. And this is:

and hoped to swallow it up— That is, through eating he constantly hoped and sought to remedy and mitigate the suffering that comes from the aforementioned retzuah, as mentioned above.

He was thus privileged to become ushpizkhan to the Shekhinah— In other words, he merited mitigating the suffering by eating in holiness and with fear of Heaven, as mentioned above. Through this he became host to the Shekhinah—i.e., the mouth assumed human status.

This is the meaning of ushpiza (“host”). For when Rabbi Yose bar Assyan would speak wittily, he would refer to an ushpiza (innkeeper) as a “man of this mouth” (Eruvin 53b)—i.e., ish pi zeh, as Rashi explains there. This is the concept of “Who makes a mouth into a man?”—that the mouth assumes human status, i.e., the concept of ish pi zeh; that the mouth becomes the concept of a man, of human status.

This is the meaning of “become ushpizkhan to the Shekhinah.” Through the aforementioned mitigation which results from eating in holiness, through which one merits making the mouth human, one afterwards merits the aspect of Supernal Man, the concept of the Shekhinah speaks from within his throat. This is the meaning of “become host to the Shekhinah”—he merited the concept of the Shekhinah speaks from within his throat, as mentioned above.