More on the two levels of לשמה. A) to bring us closer to him. The discussion from the רמב”ם’s introduction to פרק חלק about reward and punishment and serving Hashem for a higher purpose, culminating in לשמה. See also הלכות תשובה פרק י. The idea is that even the לשמה is to connect me with…

Continued Perek 5. More on the advantage of Torah over Mitzvos as Torah is both “food” and a garment. But there are two ideas in this itself: A) as it brings the person closer to Hashem ולשמה היינו לקשר נפשו ודעתו בהוי’ה B) It fulfills the divine purpose לשם התורה עצמה as will be explained…

This class deals with end of perek 5.

Review of last week. The idea of מקיף ומוקף in the שכל of תורה and on a higher level, in the אלקות of תורה. In exploring this we visited the idea of תורה being מזון וגם לבוש. Two ideas in מזון: A)You become (one with) it. B) It (the Torah) becomes one with you, it…

The word Tfisa bothers us. Because having Atzmus through Mitzvos is Him draping us and not the other way around. He introduces the answer by discussing ideas, that they are simultaneously holding the ideas and the ideas are holding them. He will argue that Torah (as opposed to Mitzvos) are “Makif AND Mukaf”.

Chapters 4-6 discuss Yiddishkeit in the time of the Beis Hamikdash vs. the times of Golus. These two disparate worlds can be described as normal vs. extreme. Golus has several advantages. One of them appears to be Teshuva (in the mystical sense at least).

Chapters 4-5. Divine concealment is as G-Dly as His infinite power to create. Two ideas: 1. G-Dly concealment allows the worlds to feel themselves separate from Him (and in a position to serve Him); 2. G-Dly concealment is the essence of G-Dliness. Even the holiest men can’t see through this concealment.

Chapters 4,5. Why a jew (who is G-Dliness) needs Judaism for his (revealed) connection to his Creator.