Ki Setze

The sicha for parshas Ki Setze is in Vol. II of Likkutei Sichos.

The parsha begins with the words, “ when you will go out to battle against your enemy, and you will be victorious - G-d will give them into your hands – and you will take captives”. What does all of this mean in the spiritual? Your enemies are referring to the body and the animal soul, as the Alter Rebbe says in Likkutei Torah. These are the true enemies of a person, and we have go to out to do battle with them.

And although it is true that there is no kavana, no benefit, in crushing the animal soul or in harming the body at all, but rather the goal is to elevate, purify, and raise it up to a higher level, still it is a battle, because when we try to do that, it puts up a resistance, and there is a difficult battle before we finally prevail on the animal soul, that it should submit to the will of G-d and the mitzvas, because the animal soul claims that it is older and it got there first, since the animal soul comes into the body earlier before the
G-dly soul.

So for this we are told, that when you go out to do battle, in order to do the battle with the animal soul, we have to go out, we have to step out of ourselves, and then G-d will hand it over to us, G-d will hand our enemies over to us, rather than be captured by the enemy, the enemy is given over to us, meaning that we elevated and bring it up to a higher level.

When we elevate the animal soul, when the heart is the animal soul, and it agrees finally to do mitzvas and to serve the G-dly soul, then we have the great advantage, we have gained the greater strength that the animal soul has, that the G-dly soul does not have. Just as the animal is stronger than human being physically, the same is true also that there is an intensity of feeling in the animal soul that G-dly soul does not have. So when the animal soul is also involved in the performance of a mitzvas, then the mitzva is done with a greatly increased energy, with a greatly increased enthusiasm.

There is also commandment in this week's parsha concerning making a fence around your roof.  So the Rebbe says, that someone asked me in a letter the question of the reason for making a fence around the roof because of the danger of people falling off the roof.  As the Torah itself says, make a fence around your roof, so that there will be no blood shed when the person falls from the roof.  And the Rambam rules that when you do a mitzva in order to prevent danger, you don't make up a bracha. But in the same perek in the Rambam, the Rambam says that when you make a fence around the roof, you have to make a bracha, l’aasot mata.

So there is a contradiction here- if the purpose and the reason for making the fence around the roof is because it is a danger to leave it unfenced, then the mitzva is a mitzva to prevent danger and the Rambam says that those kind of mitzvas you don’t make a bracha, but on the mitzva making a fence, the Rambam clearly states that there is a bracha to be made.

Now the danger of a person falling off the roof can be avoided in other ways as well as, not only through making a fence. The fence around the roof is necessary only when the roof of the house is at least ten tefochim off the ground. So a person has the choice of building a house that is not that tall, he can make a house with the roof that is only nine tefochim from the ground, and then there wouldn’t be the danger, and he wouldn't have to make the fence.  Or another possibility is that he makes a slanted roof instead of a flat roof so that they would be nobody walking on his roof in the first place and then he wouldn't have to make the fence. That's why if it turns out that he did make a house that is higher than 10 tefochim off the ground, and it is a flat roof so that he does have to make a fence around the roof, then it is a special mitzva, not only that it is preventing a danger but that it is the mitzva way of preventing the danger even when there are other ways of preventing it.

But this would not be a sufficient explanation because in the final analysis, if in fact the purpose of the fence is to prevent the danger then again the question comes back why then do we make a bracha.

So even if the danger could've been avoided in other ways, putting the fence up is still because of danger.  Why in this case, would you make a bracha on a mitzva that is there for safety purposes?

The truth is, the Rebbe says, that making a fence around the roof and not allowing people to fall off the roof are really two separate commandments.  And not letting people fall off the roof is not a reason and an explanation for making a fence around the roof.  The proof for this is from the Rambam himself. Because the Rambam says that the reason given for a mitzva should not be counted as one of the mitzvas -the reason for the mitzva is not itself a separate mitzva.  And yet, we find that the Rambam in the positive mitzvas, mentions the mitzva of making a fence around the roof as a positive mitzva and then when he enumerates the negative commandments he counts the mitzva of not allowing people to get hurt in your home as a negative commandment.

So we see that not allowing danger in your home is not a reason and not an explanation for making the fence but is itself a separate mitzva. And the Rambam's source for this is in the Sifrei, in the Midrash, where it says, you should make a fence around your roof, this is a positive mitzva, you should not allow danger in your house, this is a negative mitzva.  So not allowing danger in your house is a commandment in general, that says you should not have anything dangerous in your home.  But making fence around your roof, that is a separate mitzva, that's why you make a bracha.

How is this in the spiritual?

The Rebbe says about a person building a new house, this refers to starting a new project.  When a person finds himself entering a new phase in life, or beginning a new project in life, then even though he was able to do well up until that time, because he has good habits, good character, and he could think to himself I am safe, I am on a solid path, and I can continue along the way I have been going into this new project the way I was before the new project and I will there be safe, and I will succeed, the Torah tells us that we should know that every time you build a new house, every time you start a new avodah, there is a whole new danger of the yetzer hara, a whole new test, a nisayon, that is happening, for which you may not all be prepared and so you have to start all over again with guaranteeing the safety of this new project.

For example, when a person leaves the confines of the yeshiva, goes out into the world and starts getting involved in worldly affairs, he has to be sure that he protects himself with a fence around his roof. The same is true every day - every day is the beginning of a new avodah, a new nisayon. So after davening, which is what the day begins with and after  learning that follows the davening, when the person goes to do his work, here also he has to every day rebuild a new fence around his roof and protect himself from the new dangers and challenges that he is going to face.

And that's what it means that you should make a fence around your roof so that the faller will not fall from it. In other words, when you go into world, instead of falling into the world, you have to make a fence around your roof and maintain your standards even this new environment.

And just as building a fence around the roof means you are putting up a wall that is higher than the house, and higher even than the roof itself, the same is true also in the spiritual roof, in the spiritual fence, that you make around the spiritual roof. This also has to be higher than your roof, higher than the highest part of yourself, which means that this protection, this fence around the roof has to come from Above, it has to come from heaven, from G-d. 

That's why, not only can you make a bracha, but you have to make a bracha, at least in the spiritual sense because, how do you bring assistance and help from Above, how do you get a fence to protect you from Above, this is drawn down from Above through a bracha. Because bracha means drawing down – we start with Hashem, Baruch Ata Hashem, and that’s referring to G-d who is totally removed from the world, and then we call that down into Elokeinu, into our G-d, which is a limited expression of G-dliness, that is tailored to our needs, and from there we bring that limited G-dliness down into being King of the world, that G-d should be involved in conducting the world and being Master of the World, and through that, G-d commands us, which means connects us and gives us this fence around the roof. He gives us the strength to go out into world and there make a difference.

More specifically, the Frierdiker Rebbe said, every Rosh Hashanah we have to add in the observance of mitzvas and increase in the caution and avoidance of sin, and also increase in good behavior and good character traits.  And even if until that year, before this Rosh Hashanah, the person was behaving and conducting himself in a totally proper way, yet with each Rosh Hashanah there is a need to increase in these three areas. And that's because every new year brings a new challenge, there is a whole new light that comes into the world as the Alter Rebbe says, and so for this new challenge and this new world, this new house, so to speak, you have to make a fence around your roof, a new fence.

There is a positive mitzva of remembering Amalek and then there is also a negative mitzva not forget Amalek. And because of this, the commandment to remember and not forget Amalek applies to women as well as men. Wherever there is a negative commandment, women are obligated to fulfill all negative commandments. Therefore wherever there is a negative commandment connected to a positive commandment, because of the obligation to fill the negative part, women are also obligated to fulfill the positive part.  So we see from this how central the mitzva of remembering Amalek is that it applies to everyone equally.

Now although in the physical we can’t carry out the mitzva of erasing the memory of Amalek, because we are not in a position to do it, since it is only a mitzva on the king and we don't know who Amalek is, however in the spiritual, this mitzva applies today as much as ever. And also in the spiritual, the mitzva applies to women as well as men even though in the physical, women are not obligated to go out to war to erase the memory of Amalek, in the spiritual war, they are obligated as men are.

This mitzva of remembering Amalek, is not something we do once in our life, or once a year. It is a mitzva that applies to every single day. And this also shows us how crucial and fundamental this mitzva is that it would apply not only to all members of the Jewish people, but it also applies at all times of everyday.

What is the idea of Amalek in the spiritual?

Concerning Amalek it says, korcha ba derech, Amalek attacked the Jews on the road, on their travels from Egypt.  But in the spiritual, korcha ba derech means, he cooled off your travels. This means that Amalek is that instinct in us that makes us indifferent and cools off our enthusiasm for the travel, for the road of Judaism, of mitzvas, derech hamitzvas.  And it is against this coldness that we have to do battle every single day. It's not enough that yesterday we were enthusiastic and warm in our feelings towards Torah and avodah, but we have to everyday remove once again the coldness and indifference, and create a warmth and enthusiasm for this day.

Everyday before we go out into the world, into our worldly affairs, we have to warm ourselves by the fire of Torah and mitzvas, in order to conduct this battle, this war against Amalek. Davening has to be with an enthusiasm, the brachas we say in the morning have to with a warmth and with fire so that Amalek doesn't have a chance to cool our enthusiasm during the rest of the day when we are not involved directly in davening or in learning.

And that prepares the world for a time, with the coming of Moshiach when even in the physical, there will be no Amalek, there will be no discouragement and no indifference towards holiness.  And it is important that we make this known that the war against Amalek is every generation and everyday, and we cannot be content with what was yesterday, with how good it was yesterday.  We can't be content certainly with past generations, we cannot be satisfied with the knowledge, with the comfort in knowing that our grandparents were great Jews, that our parents are great Jews or that we ourselves have done great things and we have been good Jews in the past.

We have to constantly remove more and more layers of this coldness and indifference and increase everyday the enthusiasm and the warmth of our Yiddishkeit.

Concerning Chai Ellul, the Frierdiker Rebbe said in the name of older chassidim, that Chai Ellul means the life, the chayis of Ellul, of the avodah of Ellul. The job, the mission of Ellul can be performed out of habit or even if it is done with intention and presence of mind, it can be done without enthusiasm, without great energy. Chai Ellul means bringing life, liveliness into the avodah of Ellul. And of course the job of Ellul is the job of tshuva.  So it means bringing life, energy, chiyus into the tshuva.

Chai Ellul is the birthday of the Baal Shem Tov. And as the Frierdiker Rebbe said, it is not only the birthday of his body, his physical birthday, but is also the birthday, the anniversary of his neshama. It is also the day in which years later, the Baal Shem Tov revealed himself and became the founder of the teachings of Chassidus in general, which was followed by the Alter Rebbe who was also born on Chai Ellul. The Alter Rebbe took the teachings of Chassidus and brought them down into the philosophy of Chabad, into understanding and human comprehension.

So Chai Ellul is the energy of Ellul, that is introduced by Chassidus in general, and by Chassidus Chabad in particular and that's what gives Ellul its energy and enthusiasm, which is also related to simcha, to joy. Now, although the avodah of Ellul is tshuva, regret on the past and a strong resolution for the future, and we generally associate tshuva not with joy, not with simcha, but with the regret, and with bitter feelings about the past, how can we do it the simcha?

The explanation is, as the Rambam says, that first of all every mitzva has to be performed with simcha. The very fact that we are fulfilling G-d’s will, that we are doing something that G-d asked us to do, that should be done with simcha. But then the joy is coming not from the tshuva but from the mitzva to do tshuva.  Chassidus explains, and through Chai Ellul this is actually accomplished, not only do we do tshuva with simcha, because it is a mitzva, but we actually have joy in the tshuva itself. The Alter Rebbe explains in Tanya that a person can feel both joy and sadness at the same time.  You could have laughter in one part of the heart and crying in another part at the same time.  And as he goes on to say there, that the bitterness, the negative feelings and the regret that comes because of the animal soul, we are very disappointed concerning our animal soul.

But there is also a G-dly soul, and the G-dly soul is confident that no Jew will be lost, no Jew can be lost and in the fact that he is doing tshuva, he feels a great joy.  Because the fact that in the tshuva, or through the tshuva his G-dly soul is getting closer to G-dliness, getting closer to its source, getting closer to its real self, that gives the G-dly soul a great joy.

The twelve days from Chai Ellul until Rosh Hashanah, the Frierdiker Rebbe said, corresponds to the twelve months of the year, a day for every month of the past year. On each of these days, we make an account of the month that corresponds to that day in the past year, to judge it and see how we did.

In holiness there are many levels, represented by the ladder that stands on earth and reaches into the heavens. There are many rungs on that ladder, all of them rungs of holiness. For example, the difference between davening during the weekday and davening on Shabbos. Davening during the weekday we ask G-d for our needs, and on Shabbos, we praise G-d.

The same is true also with Torah. There are different levels of the holiness in the Torah itself. There is the revealed part of the Torah, in which exists a mixture of good and evil, because it deals with physical objects and physical subjects; whereas pnimiyus HaTorah, the inner part of Torah, speaks only about G-dliness.

So when it comes to Chai Ellul and the twelve days from Chai Ellul to Rosh Hashanah, they should be spent considering not only our revealed avodah, how we behave - that should have been taking care of before Chai Ellul, up until Chai Ellul, where we have to make sure that all of our mitzvas are done properly, with all of their details, the deed being the main thing, but that's not enough, we have to start making an account of how we behaved in our inner being, in our inner G-dliness. We have to make an account of whether we have gone beyond the letter, and how we did in our study of Chassidus, and in that too, the study of Chassidus is meant to bring to action.

But then there is a Chai Ellul, there is a new energy, a new enthusiasm and the new inspiration it all the mitzvas and in all of our behavior, in all our performance, our avodah, until the teachings of Chassidus, which is the wellspring of Torah, will spread to the outside and through that will bring Moshiach immediately in our days.

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