LIKUTEI HALAKHOT.Morning.English

(1) A person should strengthen himself like a lion to rise up in the morning for the service of his Creator, so that it is he who awakens the dawn. Gloss: “I set HaShem before me always” (Tehillim 16:8)—this is a major principle in fulfillment of the Torah (Shulchan Arukh, Orach Chaim 1:1).

(2) It is fitting for every person who fears HaShem to be pained and distressed over the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash (ibid. 1:3).

(3) KEY CONCEPTS FROM LIKUTEY MOHARAN
This discourse is based on the lesson Ashrei HaAm—Hashgachah (LM I, 13), in which Rebbe Nachman teaches how one can become the focus of HaShem’s Divine providence.,
To benefit from HaShem’s full hashgachah, a person first has to break his excessive desire for money. When this desire burns inside a person’s heart, it is akin to idolatry. It therefore awakens HaShem’s burning anger and arouses dinim, the agency of suffering and misfortune in the world.
The way to break one’s lust for wealth is through tzedakah. Giving charity generates a ruach of generosity inside a person, a ruach that blows upon his heart and cools his burning desire for money. He should also engage in masa u-matan be-emunah. Happy with his lot and pleased with that which HaShem has favored him, his lust for money disappears.
To the degree that people’s burning desire for wealth is tempered, so too is HaShem’s burning anger. The spiritual origins of that anger, the dinim, are mitigated, and chesed, loving-kindness, flows freely into the world. This proliferation of the elements of chesed leads in turn to the manifestation of daat, internalized knowledge and awareness that HaShem’s Immanence fills all of creation.
Chazal teach that acquiring daat is analogous to building the Beit HaMikdash. Just as the Beit HaMikdash is the abode of the Shekhinah in the world, daat is the abode of the Shekhinah in the mind. Building daat brings to a new revelation of Torah, which in turn draws upon us the caring watchfulness and inflow of HaShem’s full hashgachah. For the Torah itself is the power of vision associated with HaShem’s “seeing eye of compassion,” His hashgachah. Therefore the closer a person is to the Torah, the more fully he is impacted by and benefits from HaShem’s hashgachah.
Rebbe Nachman explains that this is especially true of the new Torah teachings revealed to the world by the true tzaddik and leading sage of the generation. All those who come to this tzaddik-sage bring their aspirations and desires. The tzaddik gathers up their wills, the good as well as the bad, and elevates them together with their souls. This elevation eliminates their desire for money and sparks a yichud, unification, between HaKadosh Barukh Hu and His Shekhinah, thus revealing HaShem’s Oneness. In this way, the tzaddik-sage renews people’s souls, and through the new insights into the Torah that he reveals, he teaches them to fulfill the Torah anew.
ZERIZUT AND EMUNAH
Jewish law requires that we start our day by getting up from sleep promptly and eagerly in order to serve HaShem. Reb Noson will show that this necessitates the trait of zerizut, alacrity, which is associated with emunah, belief in HaShem.

The Shulchan Arukh states, “A person should strengthen himself like a lion to rise up in the morning … so that it is he [who awakens the shachar].” This means that when a person wakes up, he should rise with zerizut, without a trace of sluggishness. This trait of zerizut relates to the element of emunah, as Rebbe Nachman writes elsewhere, that a person’s zerizut in serving HaShem is an indication of his level of emunah.

(4) Kabbalah teaches that at night a diminished emunah descends among the kelipot, the forces of evil. Then in the morning, meaning from midnight until the morning, emunah becomes magnified and awakens. Therefore a person should eagerly awaken from sleep before the dawn in order to strengthen himself with emunah, so that he can build up and magnify the overall presence of emunah in the world.

(5) This is the meaning of “so that it is he who awakens the shachar.” One has to arise early in order to build up, magnify and awaken the shachar, which, in its aspect of Ayelet HaShachar, namely the Shekhinah, corresponds to Malkhut and to emunah.

(6) And this corresponds to the idea of breaking the excessive desire for money, through which tzaddikim are able to elevate souls and draw down Torah, as Rebbe Nachman writes in the lesson Ashrei HaAm—Hashgachah. Study there.

(7) For each day we are obligated to receive the Torah anew—either through derivation of new insights or by renewed commitment to its teachings. As Chazal teach on the phrase “‘that I charge you this day’—every day the words of Torah should appear in your eyes like new.”

(8) The way to receive the Torah anew is by elevating the soul and renewing it, as explained there. This is achieved by breaking the excessive desire for money and thereby strengthening emunah. This is analogous to rousing from sleep with zerizut, which is itself an indication of the strength of one’s emunah.

(9) All this is so since lusting for money equates with nonbelief, with night, whose darkness is symbolic of the concealment of emunah. This leads to anpin chashukhin, “darkened countenances” of sadness and sluggishness, corresponding to death— and, by extension, to sleep, which Chazal teach is one-sixtieth of death.,

(10) This is why a person must be mighty like a lion; why he has to be resolute and strong-willed, so that he breaks his desire for sleep, which is comparable to death and the desire for money. Then, with his emunah revived, he is able to renew his soul and elevate his desires, and through this draw down Torah anew.

Reb Noson has drawn a parallel between the desire for sleep and the desire for money, as both signify diminished emunah. Conversely, rising with zerizut and giving tzedakah, which breaks money-lust, both build emunah. Rectified emunah renews one’s soul and one is rewarded with new Torah insights.

(11) SLEEP FOR THE SOUL
Reb Noson next explains that when we break the desire for sleep, sleep itself becomes beneficial, not just for the body and mind but also for the soul.

And when a person breaks his desire for sleep—as when he breaks the desire for money—then, on the contrary, sleep is actually beneficial for him. For through sleep he renews his soul, as in “They are new in the mornings; your emunah is great,” alluding to the emunah of the person himself.

(12) Similarly, through the money a person earns—via masa u-matan be-emunah, which is the concept of sleep—he renews his soul, as explained in the lesson Ashrei HaAm—Zarka. The Rebbe teaches there that a businessman who has emunah suffers no loss as a result of his faith and integrity. On the contrary, by breaking the desire for wealth and transacting his business with emunah, he turns an exceptional profit— namely a renewed soul.

(13) This is the explanation of “Lazy one, how long will you lie down? When will you rise from your sleep?” It means: How long are you going to lie down and sleep lazily? When are you going to break the desire for sleep? For then, when a person breaks this desire, on the contrary, by sleeping he actually strengthens his mind and renews his soul. Thus “When takum from your sleep?” means: When will you have a takumah, revival, such that your soul will arise and be elevated through sleep?

(14) And when a person merits elevating his soul by breaking his desire for sleep, he effects a yichud between HaKadosh Barukh Hu and His Shekhinah. This is the meaning of “so that it is he who awakens the shachar.” By waking up eagerly from sleep to serve HaShem, he awakens Ayelet HaShachar, namely Malkhut / the Shekhinah, for union.

Reb Noson has shown that the nightly suspension of daat we call sleep is representative of diminished faith. This blemish of emunah is mirrored in the nightly diminishing of the Shekhinah and Her descent from the highest spiritual realms. Conversely, zerizut in rising from sleep restores emunah and rectifies the Shekhinah. Going to sleep with the intention of rising with alacrity in order to serve HaShem accomplishes this as well. Sleep is then most beneficial: it renews the soul, and awakening facilitates the awakening of the Shekhinah and leads to a yichud on high.

(15) LIKE A LION
Reb Noson now returns to the first law of the Shulchan Arukh with which he began this discourse. He will show how it alludes to gathering the souls and their diverse wills in order to then merit hashgachah, the opening topic of Rebbe Nachman’s lesson.

This is the explanation of “A person should strengthen himself like an ari, lion.” The word ari suggests a gathering, and so the Shulchan Arukh’s statement alludes to gathering the souls in order to elevate them. As Rebbe Nachman writes in the lesson Ashrei HaAm, gathering souls and all the wills that issue from them is the concept of “Ariti my myrrh with my spice.” The tzaddik gathers people’s diverse wills, all their wants and aspirations—these as bitter as myrrh and those as fragrant as spice—and then elevates them in order to renew their souls.

(16) And by elevating the souls and wills we draw new Torah insights. This in turn elicits full hashgachah. For it is through the Torah that we are brought into HaShem’s sight.

(17) This is why Rama’s gloss on the law “A person should strengthen himself like a lion to rise up in the morning” cites the verse “I set HaShem before me always.” In other words, when zerizut in serving HaShem breaks the desire for sleep, elevation of the soul elicits a new revelation of Torah. By setting ourselves close to the Torah we come into His direct line of sight, so that His hashgachah is upon us always.

When a person who strengthens himself and serves HaShem with zerizut comes to the tzaddik, the tzaddik gathers all his wills, the base and the lofty, and raises them up. This renews his soul and he receives the Torah anew. Then, through his closeness to Torah, he becomes the focus of HaShem’s “seeing eye” of hashgachah.

(18) MITIGATING DIN
Having explained that rising from sleep with zerizut strengthens emunah, mitigates din, and builds daat, Reb Noson now shows how this parallels rising each night to “rebuild” the Beit HaMikdash by reciting Tikkun Chatzot.

This matter is related to what is written in the Shulchan Arukh (Orach Chaim 1:3), “It is fitting for every person who fears HaShem to be pained and distressed over the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash,” for “whoever mourns over Yerushalayim will merit witnessing its rejoicing,” as Chazal teach.

(19) It follows that being pained and distressed over the destruction and absence of the Beit HaMikdash correlates to its rebuilding and the subsequent rejoicing. Furthermore, the building of the Beit HaMikdash is synonymous with building up daat, through which it is possible to elevate souls, as explained above and brought in LM I, 13. Study Rebbe Nachman’s words there.

(20) And that is the reason for rising at midnight to recite Tikkun Chatzot. By breaking the desire for sleep—namely the desire for money—and mourning over Yerushalayim and the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash, we spiritually rebuild it. Through this aspect of building the Beit HaMikdash and meriting daat it becomes possible to gather up the Jewish souls, elevating and renewing them, and rendering them worthy of a new revelation of Torah.

(21) Therefore rising at midnight mitigates dinim, because by rising at that time we have effectively broken the grip of sleep—in particular, sleep in its association with death and nonbelief. Sleep as it relates to death and nonbelief is accompanied by dinim, for “as long as there is nonbelief and idol worship in the world, [there is burning anger in the world].” But by rising at midnight, we raise up emunah and strengthen it. HaShem’s wrath and the dinim are thus mitigated, and we draw chasadim, the elements of kindness and love, into the world.

(22) To conclude, Reb Noson relates to one last concept from Rebbe Nachman’s lesson: the power of tzedakah to mitigate din.

This also relates to what the Rebbe writes elsewhere, that rising at midnight and lamenting the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash is as efficacious as giving a pidyon., The analogy to a pidyon is precise, because the pidyon is a form of tzedakah, and we have already seen that giving tzedakah breaks the desire for money and so mitigates the dinim. The same is true of rising at midnight; it is like giving a pidyon. By rising at midnight one breaks the desire for sleep, which corresponds to breaking the desire for money, through which we mitigate dinim, as explained above.

Reb Noson has shown that three Rosh HaShanah themes—strengthening emunah, mitigating din, and meriting hashgachah—have practical applications for us throughout the year. The sleep that overtakes us each night is representative of diminished emunah. But if we break the grip of sleep and wake up with zerizut, we strengthen our emunah. This mitigates the dinim, the concealment of Godliness. The resultant increase of daat elevates our souls, and with the new revelation of Torah that this brings, we become the focus of the seeing eye of HaShem.