The Baal Shem Tov – his cup and his people

AyinBase with R' Paltiel 12/21/2010 Tuesday 14 Tevet 5771

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Page 40 – above the middle of the page (line starts “ha-utzmit...”)

An etzem sees everything through its own principles. It sees things in its own terms. Hence the nefesh elokis wants to rule the whole body and so too the nefesh habahamit.

An etzem is not mispashet. It recognizes only itself. The sun sees a place of darkness only as a place for light.

Sun cannot co-operate with darkness.

From the etzem is drawn a ha-arah. A reflection of the essence that stands for the same principle. It transforms the distant area into what the essence stands for. It says this is a universal principle, not my own.



The essence of the sun is not the body of the star itself – if it was it would burn up – the essence is the G-dly command that there should be a sun. This is the command that there should be light. So in this sense it is everywhere.

The Baal Shem used to let the simple people drink from his cup. The members of his inner circle wondered about this. He sensed their question and during Seudah Shlishis he had them place their hands on each others' shoulders – and the members of the inner circle were astounded by the beauty of the tehillim/psalms that were at that time being said by the simple guys.

The point is that the neshamah in the body can only comprehend that to which the body is partner. But the essence is that the neshamah reaches a much higher level by virtue of its work in the body.