Weekly Dvar Torah: Splurging the Treasures – The Impetus to Fear G-d
On Yud Shvat, in the Maamar Basi L’Gani, we learned about the war to eradicate Klipa, the negative forces that oppose G-d and G-dliness.
The Rebbe teaches that like in war when there is a strong opposing enemy, it evokes by the king the attribute of Netzach, the endless desire of victory, and he will spare no effort to win this war. And towards this goal he squanders all the treasures that he and his forebears before him had accumulated, treasures that were hidden away, never used and not even seen, are used for the purpose of winning the war.
Since G-d created the world that kingship down below is similar to His kingship above in the spiritual worlds, we learn that when there is an opponent to G-d, He will invoke His attribute of Netzach, the desire of victory, in order to defeat this opponent, and for that purpose of winning the war G-d resorts to releasing freely the treasures.
This is called Bizbuz Haotzros = The splurging and squandering of the treasures.
G-d takes His treasures and shares it with his soldiers, to weaponize them, and to empower them, to be able to succeed and overcome this enemy.
Who is the enemy? Those who reject G-d and don’t fear Him and don’t acknowledge His superiority, and therefore will not subjugate themselves to His will.
How do you combat it? By instilling the fear and awe of G-d in your own heart.
To be able to acquire such feelings for G-d is no simple feat for us people in this physical world, where G-d’s presence is concealed. Why would one be fearful of a G-d that he does not see, it takes hard work and lots of meditation to reach a level of feeling G-d’s presence.
The Talmud (Brachos 33,2) says, הכל בידי שמים חוץ מיראת שמים = everything is in the hands of heaven besides for the fear of heaven, as the pasuk says, מה ה’ אלהיך שואל מעמך כי אם ליראה = the only thing that Hashem wants [to come] from you is to fear Him, and this is no small achievement, because יראת שמים = fear of G-d, is a prized treasure secured in G-d’s treasure chambers.
The Rebbe teaches that in order to win this last and final war, G-d splurges His treasures, and He releases this hidden treasure of the fear of G-d and gives it to His soldiers, even if it’s not coming from them, and this weaponizes the soldiers to win this war.
By Divine Providence we learn this part of Basi L’Gani this year, 5783, the year of Hakhel.
The event of Hakhel is about instilling the fear of G-d in the hearts of the Jewish people.
How was this done? By gathering men, women and children, and the strangers that just joined the Jewish people, to listen to the king read selections of the Torah, and this instilled in the attendees the fear of G-d.
This happened as a result of just being present, otherwise how would the babes be inspired to fear G-d if they don’t understand anything that the king read? But this was a gift of G-d, that when the king reads the Torah at this particular time, all present will be imbued with the ability to fear G-d.
We are living in times that are nearing the end of the war, G-dliness is ready to be fully revealed through Moshiach. All that’s missing is to fight the final battle and win the war.
For this we are being granted special doses of יראת שמים = fear of heaven. And that’s why we see today an explosion of fear of G-d in young children and uneducated adults, who cling to Hashem, and they try their best to be part of the army of Hashem, by keeping Torah and Mitzvos, even if they have no reason to do so other than the fear and love of hashem.
We feel it in the air, it’s not just in the books, it’s real and it’s now. Watch the sea of Galus split from the powerful force of the storming G-d fearing soldiers.
Have a G-d fearing Shabbos,
Gut Shabbos
Rabbi Yosef Katzman
