to me, sweetest friends. Just to talk about loving people, loving God,
about healing people, you touch the center of the world, the center of
life. Because, what is the most Godlike thing you can do to another human
being? To give over love.
How does God give us
life? Rabbi Nachman calls it "noam elyon" - high sweetness.
There is nothing sweeter in the world than loving somebody. Rabbi Nachman
says that heavenly sweetness is coming down into this world every second,
every billionth of a second. It's flowing down. The only thing is, you
must have the sense to pick it up.
There are two kinds of
love in the world. Can you imagine, I am walking down the street, don't
feel any love in my heart, not hatred, not love - nothing. Suddenly,
I meet a very beautiful girl and I fall in love with her. That means,
I needed something to touch me, to bring about that I suddenly have
felt love. This is the love after Creation.
The Torah says, in the Psalms, "olam chesed yebaneh"
- God created the world with love. That does not mean that there is
a world, and God loves that world. That is already the love after Creation.
It means, God had so much love in His heart that He had to create the
world.
Let's talk about children.
There are two kinds of love you have for children. There is a love of
after they are born; they're born, they are your children, and you love
them. But, you only created them because you have so much love in your
heart. This is like the love of before creation.
Imagine, some people just
get together without loving each other, and children are born. They
are so angry, because they are missing the most important part - you
only create with love, because God created the world with love.
Now, I want you to know
the deepest depths. Remember, when God made a covenant with our father
Abraham, Abraham circumcised himself, and on the third day, he was really
in pain. The Talmud says that the third day is somewhat dangerous. So,
the sun came out very strong, and there were no guests. Abraham sent
his servants to find him a guest. How can one live without guests in
his house? But, there were no guests. So, three angels came.
Abraham was welcoming
guests all his life, the kind of guest who really needed to eat and
to sleep. The Torah, however, does not record that. The Torah records
that he took in three angels, who really didn't need to eat. The Talmud
says that they just pretended they were eating.
Abraham, after he entered
the Covenant with God, didn't need a poor man to bring out the love
in him, which is the love after Creation. After he entered the Covenant
with God, he was so Godlike, he just had to do good, like God He was
not in a state where, if you see a person you love them, you see a poor
man and want to give him food. He was looking for a poor man. He was
looking to love somebody.
The Talmud says that God
came to heal Abraham; that means that God came to give him the secret
of healing. Because, if you remember, the Covenant with Noah was only
that the world will always exist. Noah was not concerned with how many
people will live and how many will die - as long as there will always
be a world, there will be survivors. The Covenant with Abraham was that
some day the world will be fixed, some day the world will be healed,
the world will be cured. So, after God made the Covenant with Abraham
God came to give him the secret of healing. The secret of healing is
like creating the world
There has to be not the
kind of love there is after Creation. There has to be the kind of love
before Creation.
God has many names. God
has the name "Hashem", and the name "Elokim".
"In the beginning, Elokim created..." This is basically
the name of justice, of sternness. There has to be "Elokim",
there has to be order - day is day, night is night, winter is winter;
there must be order in the universe. When candle lighting is 4:20 on
Friday, there is nothing you can do about it that's when it is. You
cannot say, listen, I will be able to feel Sabbath better if I rest
now and kindle the lights later. You cannot change when Sabbath is.
You cannot say, "I am living by the name of "God", I
am infinite." You are not infinite. Don't kid yourself. God is
infinite. The world is not infinite. You are not infinite.
But again, the other side.
The finite people are so disgusting, oh boy!, are they disgusting. They
are murderers. You can kill somebody. You can say, "This person
is a thief - put him in prison. He did this - shoot him." No mercy.
The deepest secret of life is that you have to keep both together. There
has to be Absolute order, and also the infinite. Both together. When
it comes to educating children, you have to be "Hashem Elokim".
You teach them Day is Day, Night is Night. But, on the other hand, if
that is all you teach them, you cripple them. You kill God's name, "Hashem",
inside of them, that infinite name of God You have to teach them both.
God forbid, if somebody
is sick, he is sick. Have you ever heard people whisper that if somebody
is sick, he probably deserves it?
People have excuses; people
give lectures on why the six million had to be killed. Who are these
people? They are murderers! They may not kill people, but they have
murder in their hearts.
What is their problem?
They are not connected to God's infinite name.
Sometimes, we love somebody
in a measured love. We want to know how much money her family has, how
many degrees she has. This is not love in an infinite way. This is not
the love before Creation. Before Creation there was nothing, except
for God's infinite love. There was nothing else. Only the infinite.
When you want to cure
somebody who is sick, you cannot cure a person with the love of after
Creation. When somebody is in pain, somebody is crying, and you tell
them they are wrong, you think now is the time to educate them? Especially
little children. The adults say: "Why are you crying? Your father
hit you? He was probably right." Sure, he was right. But, if I
talk this way to a child, I can't cure her. I make her sicker. You have
to connect them with God's name that existed before there was anything
in the world. When I want to cure somebody, it has to be on the level
of before Creation. There is nothing there - and there is everything.
I want to talk about healing
with hands. Basically, our hands are finite. How much can you do with
your hands? Everything you can do with them is finite. True? No, it
isn't true. Words are finite. Imagine, I tell a girl I love her very
much. So, I told her, with finite words. But, imagine, if, while I tell
her, I hold her hand. The hands have the power of giving over something
infinite.
The Talmud says that God
created the world with His hands. There are the hands of before Creation.
The hands of before Creation don't know of any limits, don't know of
anything finite. The hands of before Creation don't do anything wrong,
It's impossible. On such a high level, evil doesn't exist.
If I love a girl very
much, and I find out she is not so good, and I decide I won't see her
anymore, the problem is not that she is bad, but that I don't really
love her so much. If whatever she did wrong can destroy my love, then
my love wasn't so strong! But, if I really love her, and someone says;
"Listen, she is a terrible girl", I would say: "I don't
care." It doesn't mean that I don't care for her being wrong, but
that her doing wrong doesn't reach the place where I love her. My love
is so high, that the wrong she did remains lower, and doesn't reach
the love.
So, there are the hands
of before Creation, and there are the hands of after Creation, and there
are the hands of the Messiah "Mikdesh Hashem Koininu Yadecha"
- "The Temple of God, Your hands will fashion." The first
two temples were built by us, by human beings. The third temple, for
which we are waiting, will be rebuilt just by God's hands. Suddenly,
it will appear.
There is a kind of healing
and there is a kind of love, which takes time. God created the world
in six days. In six days! But then, sometimes God's hands heal in one
second. So, there are two kinds of healing. There is the healing of
the six days of Creation. With all the being infinite, it still took
six days. When the Messiah comes, the hands that will rebuild the holy
temple will do so in a second. When you love somebody very much, you
can hold their hand and they will sense if it is the hands of before
Creation, or the hands after Creation, or, are they the hands of Messiah?
Of the third temple? Children are carried in ones' hands; they are so
connected to hands. Some children grow up with the hands of after Creation,
and some grow up with the hand of when Messiah is coming.
Have you ever seen sometimes
when a child is crying, and you pat her head and try to soothe her,
and she still cries? Sometimes, you put your hands on her head, and
she stops crying. It doesn't take any time - she is suddenly smiling.
It is the messiah's hands. It doesn't take any time.
Some people do not have
even a taste of the Infinite. Do you know who are the lonely, broken
people? They don't have a taste of the All.
Some people don't have
the All, but, for once in their lives, they had a taste of the All.
Imagine, I love my wife
very much, and I buy her an apartment in New York one in Paris, one
in Israel. I give her a lot of things. One day, I was praying at the
Holy Wall, and, while I was praying, a little stone fell down from one
of the Holy stones. I picked it up, and I brought my wife that stone.
This is all So much deeper.
Sometimes, I give my child
many things. But, where is the All?
The Talmud says that God's
presence, the glory, is above the head of a sick person. This has millions
of meanings. When a person is sick, what do they need? They don't need
little things. They need the All.
When it comes to words,
you can only utter one word after another. When it comes to hearing,
you can only hear one thing at a time. The Talmud says, "Trei
Kolei Lo Nishmaain" - two voices cannot be heard clearly at
the same time. You can hear only one word after another, one voice after
another. But, when it comes to seeing, you can see many things at once.
Seeing is connected to the All.
When do people cry? When
I miss particulars, I don't cry. When it touches my All, my eyes, then
I cry. When you love somebody very much, you look in their eyes. You
don't look at their ears, only their eyes. Eyes are so deep. With some
people, when you look at their eyes, you see only dollar bills. With
others, when you look in their eyes, you see God's presence.
The "Ishbitzer"
a commentator on the Torah. Says animals eat exactly what they need
- they don't overeat. Why is it that we human beings don't know limits,
not only in food, but in everything? Why is that? Because, spiritually,
I can reach beyond myself. What is so special about this world? In this
world, everything is open. So much so that yesterday, although I was
the lowest person in the world, today I can reach the highest level.
Yesterday I fought with someone. Today we can be great friends. This
world has something that is not finite. If you ever thought that heaven
is infinite, you are mistaken. Heaven has the finiteness of heaven.
Heaven is also finite. You know what really is infinite? This world!
Right here, in the chair we are sitting on - this world is infinite.
There is a Torah from
the holy Jikavor. The Jikavor says, the soul in heaven, before I was
born, when I was dwelling in heaven, was beautiful, but - who needed
me? Nobody needed me, and I didn't need anybody else. In heaven, who
needs friends? Friends can't do anything for you. But, only in this
world can you be a friend to somebody, and somebody can be a friend
to you. Some days, I can walk on the street and hear somebody cry, and
you know where I can reach in one second? Beyond myself. Let's assume
if I work hard, I can reach a certain spiritual height. Let's say I'll
be a million miles high. But then, there can be one moment when I am
eternally high - beyond everything. So, the commentator Ishbitzer says,
every person has an absolute drive to reach beyond, to be infinite.
The only thing is - if I don't know how to handle it, I want more food,
more money, more clothes. You have this drive. The question is, there
is "le-eiteh" - stuffing. What are you stuffing your self
with - to be a better friend, to love people more, or are you stuffing
your self with yet another good time? So, he says, what God did was
to take a Tzaddick, a holy man, and put him in charge of "le-eiteh."
What are holy people doing in the world? To let the world know, don't
put your drive for the infinite in stupid things. You should be searching
for that absolute stuffing yourself, reaching beyond yourself, every
second.
When somebody is sick,
they get in touch with the deepest depths of their life. What are they
missing? If you ask a sick person if he wants to live, he'll say yes.
Why does he want to life? He is crying, why didn't I reach beyond myself?
I had such an opportunity, why didn't I do that? Why wasn't I infinite?
What are friends for?
What does it mean to love somebody? It means that that person puts me
in touch with the Infinite, to reach beyond myself.
A Jewish wedding begins
when the groom covers the face of the bride. That means he is telling
the bride that, because of her, he is becoming infinite. The eyes are
infinite. I can reach even beyond the All; what I thought was All, is
not.
When somebody is sick,
the Torah says, our holy fathers had "Ba kol mikol kol"
- they had the All. You know what Abraham taught the world? Before Abraham,
there were a lot of holy people, but they taught the world that you
can reach beyond yourself. Abraham is "bakol mikol kal",
deeper. If you have the All, you are so full. If you have everything
in the world, but the All is missing, oh boy! are you empty. You are
aching.
I have seen people who
have everything - family, money. But, they are broken. I have seen people
who have nothing, no money, but they have the All, they can reach beyond
themselves.
When Jacob had a dream,
he dreamt that there is a ladder going up to heaven. A ladder is finite
- it has a beginning and an end. Even heaven is finite. But, then he
saw "Vehenei Hashem Nitzav Alav" - God was standing
above him. Do you know what he saw? That you can reach beyond yourself.
You can do one thing, and suddenly, you are something else.
When we see people crying,
at that moment they are open for the All. At that moment, they are ready
to reach beyond themselves. When the Holy Temple was destroyed, it says
"Aynai, Aynai, yorda mayim" - my eyes can't stop crying.
What is the Temple all about? How can God be limited to one place?
There are many people
who say, "I am infinite I cannot limit myself to one religion."
What's their problem? Between Infinite nothing and infinite something,
there is such a thin line. oh boy!, is it thin.
You know, when you love
somebody very much, you sit under a tree for an hour, and you know what
you experience? Not the infiniteness of heaven, but God's infiniteness,
which is only in this world. You can do a favor to one person, just
be close to one person, and see what you experience; God's infiniteness,
which is only in this world. Esau (in the bible) comes to us and says,
let's face it, you know what God is all about? Do this, do that. He
is holding a stick over us. I can't stand God's stick. God makes me
so finite. In order to get out of it, I stuff myself. You know what
to answer him back? You want to be infinite? When you pass by a street,
and see one poor man dying from hunger, give him all the money you have.
Be Infinite - just one person. When you pray to God, don't look at the
clock. Be Infinite.
When you have a chance
to heal one person, you are not healing just one person. It's not finite.
At that moment you can reach beyond yourself, reaching that love of
God, which was before Creation. Infinite. When you walk up to a person
and give them a good word, when someone is heartbroken and you give
them a good word, when you utter some words - sometimes they are your
words, sometimes they are the Messiah's words. In one second, you can
cure that person, you can give him back his self-confidence.
The world understands
today that you cannot cure the body without the soul. What does that
mean? You cannot cure their finite parts if you also cannot cure their
infiniteness.
What is my soul? My soul
has this deep longing, because my soul knows that I am here in this
world to reach beyond myself. I want something so deep, so glorious.
You know friends, sometimes
children are so angry at their parents, because all their parents talk
to them about is the finite part of them - be a doctor, make money,
have two cars. Children feel, how come you never talk to me about something
deep, something holy? Where is the Infinite?
Sometimes, parents and
children have those moments that are just infinite.
You know, it is possible
that somebody gives me a million dollars. I like them. But, one person
gave me one handshake, and I love him forever, because, the million
dollars was finite - the handshake was infinite.
You know, sweetest friends,
the closer we get to the Messiah's coming, the stronger the desire gets
to reach beyond ourselves.
Basically, medicine is
the most finite science in the world. Somebody's body is sick you cure
the body. If the feet are sick, you cure the feet. Now, something is
happening to the world. They feel that if the feet are sick, the pain
is felt not just in the feet, but al , over. The whole person must be
cured, not just the feet. I can walk with my feet two blocks, and I
was finite. I can walk with my feet to do somebody a favor and I was
Infinite.
You know, friends, sometimes
a person needs just a finite friendship. Sometimes a person absolutely
needs an infinite friendship. Sometimes children come home from school
and they need just a peanut butter sandwich. Sometimes, they need an
infinite peanut butter sandwich.
The deepest secret of
life is, if you are connected to a person only on the level of after
Creation - you don't get it. If you are connected to them on the level
of before Creation, you have a Covenant with God, you are like Abraham
Before Abraham entered
the Covenant with God, Covenant meaning I am completely given over to
God in an infinite way, to serve God every second - before Abraham entered
the Covenant he knew that if he saw a poor person he had to give them
food, and a place to stay. After the Covenant, he had a different kind
of welcoming guests. He knew that if a person has no home, he needs
more than a place to stay. He knew that a person who has nothing needs
everything. Suddenly, Abraham realized that a person who has no home,
nothing, has vessels to receive everything. And, when the angels who
were greeted by Abraham told him that he will have children, suddenly
Abraham realized that a child needs everything, everything.
When I have Sabbath, I
don't want a little Sabbath, I want the All of Sabbath - "Yom
Shekulo Sabbath" - a day that is All of Sabbath
We don't need friends
just to say hi to. We need friends who are infinite friends. Today we
have a chance. God opens gates to us. We can reach beyond ourselves.
Remember, Rabbi Kook says,
the sign that the Messiah is coming is that our children are so beautiful.
The children coming down from heaven now are so beautiful, so special.
We have to give them All. I want to bless you and me. There are so many
children running around in the world, whose parents don't have the faintest
idea what All is. You and I have to be God's messengers. We say, "Refaeinu
Hashem Venerafeh" - "God, heal me." I want to be
healed on a God level. When something hurts me, I don't want just to
cure my body. I want to cure my life.
A lot of times, we have
these infinite moments. But, we are still living in a finite world.
There is day, there is night, I have to make a living. I have to go
to work. The saddest thing is, we don't incorporate these infinite moments
into our finite lives.
Many people stand by the
Holy Wall and cry their eyes out. At that moment, they are infinitely
Jewish. But, when they come back, they go back to the way they were.
Their "Elokim" and their "Hashem" don't work
together. Because we are finite, God created a finite world. God wants
something more from us, even deeper than the Messiah is coming. God's
name that will be in the world will be "Eheye asher Eheye"
- "I will be what I will be." This means, not finite and not
infinite. It's deeper than that.
I want to bless you and
me and all of us, when we are learning, we learn one page, but let that
page be infinite. But, I want to hold the page in my hands, it's finite,
it's one page, but it's infinite. A love letter is just a page but,
it's really infinite. It's everything.
The world is so broken.
The world has vessels for the unbelievable things that are happening.
If only all the doctors, all the psychiatrists, would have enough sense,
and maybe some day they will, to fix the All, really to fix, to give
people the strength to reach beyond themselves ... Children want to
reach beyond themselves. If you don't tell your children that they are
the most beautiful in the world - don't talk to them. Then you'll tell
me, but, what about my neighbor's child? She is also beautiful. Ah,
on a finite level, it's a contradiction, but on an infinite level, my
child is the most beautiful in the world, your child is the most beautiful
in the world, for God, every human being is the most beautiful in the
world. Maybe one day we shall know that all of us, every single one
of us, is the best in the whole world.
You meet sometimes people
who love each other, and you watch them. Do they make each other whole?
Do they break each other's heart? Ahh, then it's for real. And if they
don't break each other's heart anymore, if their heart doesn't stop
beating in each other's presence, then it's meaningless.
Once a year there was
a collection for the sacrifice of the Holy Temple. And everybody was
giving half a dollar, a broken dollar, and this is what kept the temple
going. You know what we're telling each other. It breaks my heart to
know that I can bring something to the Holy Temple.
Love cannot be taught.
All we can hope for is that we should unlearn all the hatred. Because
hatred is taught. Love is from heaven.
