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Yat Kislev 5768 Farbrengen with Harav Ginsburgh

Today marks the 208th anniversary of the redemption of the Alter Rebbe, Rabbi Shne’ur Zalman of Liadi. The verse that the Alter Rebbe himself said described his redemption was “[He has] Redeemed my soul in peace,” which was in the Psalms reading of the day that he was released from prison [the word “prison” in Hebrew, מאסר , is related to the word for “prohibition,” איסור ]. Today’s Torah reading (the fifth portion of Vayeishev) begins with the verse: “And Joseph was taken down to Egypt; Potiphar, Pharaoh’s minister… purchased him” ויוסף הורד מצרימה ויקנהו פוטיפר סריס פרעה... .
The final letters of the first three words, ויוסף הורד מצרימה (“And Joseph was taken down to Egypt”), spell the word פדה , meaning “redeemed,” the first word of the verse from Psalms that we just mentioned. What does this mean? It shows us that even as Joseph was being taken down to Egypt, and seemingly all hope was lost, already God was planting the seeds of his future redemption. The continuation of the verse in Psalms is “for the many have stood with me.” The sages tell us that with these words King David is telling us that the very same people who joined together to oppose him, these same people prayed for his victory. In Joseph’s generation this verse applies to his brothers who initially hated him and wanted to kill him but later regretted their ways and reunited with him, thus planting the seeds for redemption. And so in our generation, we must hope and pray that the very people who stand against Joseph, against the leader of the generation, will do teshuvah (repent, return to God) and stand as one to help him fulfill his mission.
In addition, the average value of these three words (ויוסף הורד מצרימה ), whose final letters spell פדה “redeemed,” is exactly equal to עוד יוסף חי , meaning “Joseph still lives!” These are the words that his father, Jacob will exclaim twenty-two years later, when he hears that Joseph is still alive in Egypt. But already, from the moment that he enters Egypt (exile and slavery) the Torah exclaims (an exclamation concealed in the garb of gematria): “Joseph still lives, Joseph still lives, Joseph still lives!”
Another point to learn from Joseph is based on the fact that beginning with today's Torah reading and concluding with tomorrow's (chaf Kislev, the continuation and conclusion of the Alter Rebbe's redemption on yud tet Kislev), he is described as “successful” three times. Indeed, the third time is when he is thrown into prison. We see that each time that he succeeds he is thrown further down. He loses more altitude. Success seems to be his ruin until he reaches rock bottom in the prison. From this we learn that often the Divinely inspired success of a tzadik (Joseph is the archetypal tzadik of the Torah) begins a process of “descent for the sake of ascent.” The success itself (paradoxically) brings with it descent (for the sake of refining the characteristics of the tzadik), but ultimately the ascent will be so great that it could never have been imagined. We, the Jewish people in our generation, have already passed the stages of descent and are now ready for the wondrous ascent that is beyond our dreams, the true and complete redemption with the coming of the Mashiach. This is especially true today, yud tet Kislev, the holiday of redemption. Now is the time to bless the Almighty, “Blessed is He who frees prisoners.”
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About the Torah of the Mashiach, the Midrash says: “A new Torah will come out of Me.” The Torah of Mashiach began with the teachings of the Ba’al Shem Tov and with the teachings of the Alter Rebbe. The wellsprings are flowing outward in order to reveal this new Torah, the apex of which will be with the coming of the Mashiach.
There is a strong connection between the revelation of the Torah of Mashiach, the inner secrets of the Torah, i.e., the new Torah that will be revealed by the Mashiach—as it has begun to be revealed by the Ba’al Shem Tov, the Magid of Mezritch, whose yahrzeit is today, and the Alter Rebbe—and the renewal of Jewish kingship in our times, here in our Holy Land. This is going to be our topic of contemplation tonight. We will be talking about this inextricable link between the two: without the revelation of the inner aspect of the Torah, the Torah of Mashiach, we cannot realize the hopes and dreams of so many generations (and, we certainly cannot merit the greatness that lies even beyond our power to dream!). The ultimate goal, for which God created the universe, is that the kingdom of the Mashiach be the final stepping stone for revealing the dominion of God over the entire world, as the verse says: “And God will be King over the entire earth. On that day God will be one and His Name will be one.”
But, we have to be aware that the opposite is also true. From this week’s parshah we learn that if something is empty of water, and water is a symbol for Torah, then it becomes filled with snakes and scorpions. That is the description that Rashi gives to the pit that Joseph was thrown into. The Torah says that “the pit was empty, it had no water.” Rashi says: “There is no water in it—but there are snakes and scorpions.” This is exactly the situation that we are in. When there is a vacuum, when there is a lack of the Torah of Mashiach, false Messiah’s fill it up. False Messiah’s that as we will see propose false visions of peace and harmony in the world.
Let’s take this one step further. The word “empty” (“the pit was empty”) in Hebrew is the root form for the word “bachelor,” a person who is not yet married. There are three relationships that are likened to a marital relationship: 1) the relationship between the Jewish people and their king, and 2) the relationship between the entire people together with the king and God, and 3) the relationship between the Jewish people and the Land of Israel. The only difference is the role that we play in each relationship. In our relationship with our king, the tzadik of the generation, the leader of our people, we are like his wife and he is like our husband. In relation to God, all of us (together with the king) are the wife, and God is the husband. But, in relation to the Holy Land, the Land of Israel, we are likened to the husband, while the land is likened to our wife. The verse says, “For your children will be your husbands.” Of course, God forbid that a husband should ever disclaim, disown, or abandon his wife to another.
Our relationship as the bride and God as our husband is the topic of the Song of Songs. In regard to the king, as the Torah commands us to appoint a king over us, he is the husband and we are the wife. So in this regard, when it says that the pit—a feminine symbol in Kabbalah—was empty, an allusion is being made to the mentality of a single woman. Her emptiness is a spiritual emptiness; she is empty of Torah content. This is a state of mind, a mentality. What is your mentality? If your mentality is not a Torah mentality then you are not married (any way of life or philosophy other than the Torah will ultimately betray you; you may think that you are married, but it is no more than an illusion). Without Torah you cannot form a real relationship with anything (for your own ego will get into the way). If you do not have a Torah mentality, then something else will fill your mentality. You will have a false mentality that will prevent you from forging the real relationships in your life. Instead you will be connected to various things that are not good for you and out of which you will see no lasting results.
Who is supposed to fill the pit, i.e., the feminine aspect in us that needs to be filled in order to create a lasting relationship? Well, it is Joseph himself. In a deeper interpretation of the Torah, Joseph was cast into the pit to teach us that that is what should ideally happen, except that it should happen with joy and with happiness that Joseph has finally arrived to fill our mentality. As the sages describe, the moment that Joseph entered the pit all the snakes and scorpions—all the false mentalities, the false Messiah’s—they all backed off and disappeared, because the true master had arrived. Joseph is the masculine light, the light of the king and the new Torah that emanates from the king that fills the feminine aspect of every Jew and of our people as a whole.
Our entire generation is an empty pit today. We are filled with false mentalities and false ideas about our lives. We have to rethink things and let new water, new Torah, come in and fill our mentality; we have to fill ourselves with Joseph. The new Torah comes out of Jerusalem. There is a verse that describes the “living waters from Jerusalem,” “the word of God comes from Jerusalem.” These are waters that we have not yet experienced, meaning that these are not the waters of the revealed aspects of the Torah. Only these new waters, the new Torah, can both quench our thirst and fill our nation’s empty pit with a healthy mentality.
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The Midrash says that there cannot be a king without a people. Usually, the reason given for king Solomon taking a thousand wives (and thus transgressing the word of God that forbids this) is that each one was from a different nation and Solomon wanted to elevate the fallen sparks of each nation to holiness. But, the more simple reason was that he wanted to teach the people that they have to be like his wife; that is the way we explained above that the relationship between the king and the people is likened to the relationship between a husband and wife. The thousand wives were only meant as an example of the type of relationship that the king wanted to have with every one of his subjects. Let us try to understand this more deeply.
In Hebrew, the phrase “the people of the king” is written עם המלך , and is pronounced “am hamelech.” But, with a small change in the pronunciation it becomes “im hamelech,” which means “with the king.” What is the significance of this alternate reading? This is how these words appear in the Book of Chronicles in the verse: “They were the artisans who lived in Neta’im and Gederah, they sat with the king when he was working” (1 Chronicles 4:23). This verse is the basis of one of the most astounding and important teachings by the sages. The sages explain that it describes that before doing His work, that is, before God created the universe, there were artisans sitting with Him from whom he took consul on whether or not to create the world. The sages say that these artisans were the souls of the Jewish people who advised God to indeed create the world for in the end that is His deepest yearning. In the terminology of Kabbalah this occurred before the initial contraction of God’s infinite light, the first tzimtzum.
What do we learn from this in regard to the relationship between the people and the king? We said that the people should be “with the king,” the greatness of the Jewish people is that our source, our connection with the Creator goes way back, further back than even God’s decision to create the world. To be with the King for us means to be with the King before He created the world, before the first contraction. To be with Him means to be married to Him, to be the “wife who gives wise consul to build the house” (חכמות נשים בנתה ביתה ). Our tradition is to call the Jewish king a “nasi,” which literally means a ruler. But, this word, nasi, נשיא , comes from the same verb meaning “to marry,” indicating the nature of the proper relationship between the people and the king. So to be “with the king” means to be married to him. And like any husband, everything that he does, the king asks his people. As God commanded Abraham: “Everything that Sarah tells you, listen to her” (it is even brought down that Abraham is considered the first king of Israel).
Now, it should be known that this type of relationship between the people and the king never fully happened, not even by King David. King David’s rule is only considered to be a hint at what possibly might come to fruition in a relationship between the people and the king, but the full extent of the inner meaning of the Torah’s commandment that we appoint upon us a king, has never completely happened. This is explained by the Rogochover, one of the greatest masters of the revealed tradition in the past century, both in regard to the mitzvah of appointing a king as well as with regard to the mitzvah of building the Temple. He argues that even the first and second Temples did not exactly fit the requirements of the Torah (which is also why they could be destroyed). Both were not what God desired in commanding us to build for Him a Temple. In the Torah it first says: “The Temple of God, Your hands have founded,” and then comes the next verse: “God will be King forever and ever” י־הוה ימלך לעלם ועד , whose numerical value is 376, the value of “peace,” שלום . This refers to the eternal state of peace that will follow the building of the third Temple, the Temple which God’s hands, as it were, have to lay the foundation for. In addition, this verse has an intrinsic connection to the Mashiach, to the full-fledged king, with the full marital relationship with the people that we are yet destined to have, because in this verse is the 358th appearance of God’s essential Name, Havayah in the Torah; and 358 is the numerical value of Mashiach, משיח . The Mashiach is the king who rebuilds the Temple and who brings true and everlasting peace to the entire world.
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In any event, the future kingdom that we hope for has to be one where the people are ”with the king,” and together with the king we are all in a state that is before the contraction of God’s infinite light. How can we rejoin the King, to be with Him before the first contraction [and what does this mean for our purposes, before and after the contraction?].
Before the first contraction, in the state where God takes consul from the souls of the tzadikim, in that state the kingship is entirely God’s. In other words, as long as we do not ascend, with our physical king to that level, the kingship is not truly God’s, we cannot truly say: “reveal the majesty of Your sovereignty over us.” This is the type of kingship that we want; without it nothing will ever change in the direction that we are hoping for. Just as we need and seek a “new” Torah so the notion of kingship is not at all what most Jews think it is, not even what frum, orthodox, religious Jews think a king would be like according to the Torah. Those notions are very distant from what we have in mind, because we are talking about a king, and a people that are “with the king,” and together they are the ones who give the Almighty consul, together they are the souls of the tzadikim. And this picture of kingship in its entirety is what the verse is talking about when it says: “And my servant David will rule [will be a nasi] over them forever.” This is so much higher than what people think of when they entertain the notion of a king.
The Lubavitcher Rebbe would frequently quote what is brought down in Kabbalah that the acronym hidden in the word “nasi” נשיא is “a spark from our father Jacob,” ניצוצו של יעקב אבינו , and Jacob’s bed was whole, meaning that none of his procreative energy ever went to waste. In Chassidut it is explained that a wife and children cannot be like subjects to their husband and father. Someone who is so close cannot be subservient, because you have to have some distance. So we have to ask: can we really be “with the king?” The answer that we give is on the contrary we have to be both with the king—as close as can be, like a wife and children—and yet be subjects—maintain a distance. This is only possible when a person has learnt how to carry opposites, the general inner mentality of all Chassidic teachings, as explained elsewhere. Indeed, there will be a king and there will be a people, and at the same time the people will be “with the king.” For everyone to be able to attain this ability and understanding of how to carry opposites, how to be near the king and yet far from him at the same time, for this we need new Torah.  
Now let’s get back to the question of what the contraction has to do with kingship. It is well known that the Arizal identifies our Torah (i.e., our understanding of the Torah) as that of Creation. Now, the Arizal does not mean the World of Creation, which is what it seems that he is saying on first reading. The Arizal is referring to Creation in the sense of ”Adam of Creation.” This is a very important topic in the study of Kabbalah. In short, ”Adam of Creation” together with ”Adam of Emanation,” ”Adam of Formation,” and ”Adam of Action” is a Kabbalistic model that distinguishes between different levels in the creative process. As expained in Chassidut, ”Adam of Creation” is what in parallel Kabbalistic terminology is called Adam Kadmon (or, Primordial Man), the first emanation emanated after the initial contraction of God's infinite light, the first tzimtzum. To say that our (understanding of the) Torah is a Torah of Creation means that its scope begins after the contraction. This is one of the reasons that the Arizal himself only spoke openly about the stages that follow the contraction and not earlier. All of the revealed tradition of interpreting the Torah that we have in our hands today begins from a Kabbalistic perspective with Adam Kadmon, the ”Adam of Creation,” i.e., immediately after the first contraction.
But, the new (interpretation and understanding of the) Torah, the Torah of the Mashiach, it is the Torah of Emanation (Atzilut). Not the World of Emanation, but ”Adam of Emanation,” which refers to the infinite light before the contraction, the time described in the Zohar as “when it entered into His mind to want to create the world.” This is the state in which it is relevant to seek consul about whether or not to create the world from the souls of the tzadikim; the King seeks consul from his loyal people, from his subjects that are with him, his “wife.” They advise him to follow His yearning. They say: “It’s not going to be easy,” at first Joseph was taken down to Egypt, and the more he was successful, the lower he fell. But in the end, there will be a redemption with peace,” and it will be announced that “Joseph is still alive,” three times!
So far for our introduction this evening.

Now we need to understand what it means for us to join with our king and rise to a state that is above the first contraction from where we can draw down the new Torah, the Torah of the Mashiach; there we can become one with God in such a way that we come to the experience of the essence of God’s sovereignty. It is explained in Chassidut that everything that exists after the first contraction can be likened to a pit, similar to Joseph’s pit that we talked about earlier. God contracted, meaning He hid His infinite light, and as a result He created an empty space (חלל הפנוי ), like an empty pit. If the pit is not quickly filled up with a ray of infinite light, with Worlds and Worlds of holiness, it immediately draws into it scorpions and snakes. The ray of light entering the pit, the empty space, fills it with water. But in the meantime, since this pit is after the first contraction, all the water that it is filled with, the only water that is available is the water of this world. The water that comes out of this ray represents our current understanding of Torah, because the ray begins after the contraction, as explained in length in Chassidut. It reflects the state of the infinite light only after the contraction. It does not contain the future “word of God from Jerusalem” that will be heard in the times of the Mashiach, words/waters that spring out of the Holy of Holies, which represents God’s infinite light as it is before the contraction.
This is also reflected in Joseph’s descent to Egypt, which is likened to one great pit in the ground. Joseph represents the entire Jewish people who are now in a pit, the pit of Egypt, which literally means “straits” (like a tight place which pushes against you). This is the reason that all of our exiles are named after Egypt.
A very important cornerstone of the Torah is that anything that in the Torah appears as something profane and unholy has a holy counterpart. This is true of Egypt too. Just as there is the Egypt that is full of idolatry and promiscuity, there is also an Egypt that is full of holiness and Torah. We have just said that this is the pit into which the Torah of our present reality was brought by the ray of infinite light.
Who lives in this pit, in this Egypt of holiness which is just as tight and just as constricting as the other Egypt? In Chassidut it is explained that this is the person who lives only with the revealed aspects of the Torah, who hears only the frequency of the physical performance of the commandments; this person can never break the limiting “rules of engagement” that have been imposed upon him and is always constricted within holiness (he develops the false picture of holiness as being something that tightens and constricts you). Such a person cannot leap over; he does not have the power to jump, as we shall explain shortly, over the constricting tightness of the contraction, so he always remains within the confines of the Egypt of holiness. Therefore, Chassidic writings explain, that most of the Jewish people who are orthodox, who are anxious (this is the literal meaning of the word “Chareidi,” a common colloquialism describing orthodox Jews) for the word of God, who are careful with a light commandment as with a heavy one, those who are meticulous in keeping the holy Shulchan Aruch, they are all in an Egypt of holiness.
As long as we remain within the straits of this Egypt of holiness, God keeps us going, on and on, but there is no way to get out. There is no way to break the limitations and arrive at the endpoint of the Mashiach. This can never happen without us getting out of Egypt—not only the promiscuous Egypt (the need to be break out of this Egypt is common sense), but even the Egypt of holiness. Because, without being able to leap and jump over the barrier of the contraction and the empty vacuum into the light of the infinite before the contraction, the Torah of Emanation, the Torah of ”Adam of Emanation,” we will not be able to be one with the king, in the place where God takes consul from us.
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Breaking out of Egypt is referred to in the blessing: “Blessed is He who frees prisoners!”
The word “free” [which, in the language of the sages, also means to make something permissible] appears only once in the entire Bible, in the verse: “God frees prisoners.” This is the essence of Yud Tet Kislev, the day of freedom of the Alter Rebbe. On this day the nasi, the leader, came out of jail, and because “the nasi is everything,” we are with the nasi in his bondage and with him when he is freed. Thanks to him, we too can escape from our own bondage, from our own limitations within the Egypt of holiness.
The Alter Rebbe’s son, the Mittler Rebbe exclaimed once that his father gave his life in order to explain to every single one of the people connected to him the meaning of the higher union (יחודא עילאה ), the meaning and essence of his own worship of God. This is what we have been talking about. This is the state of being with God before the contraction. And the Alter Rebbe devoted his entire life, all of his power to make sure that anyone that was connected to him could understand it, taste it, and experience it. This is the taste of the “Adam of Emanation.” By explaining this concept of the higher union, the Alter Rebbe, as it were, turned his follower into his spouse. By doing so, it is as if he sanctified his chassid with a wedding ring.
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Let us repeat that everything that is after the contraction, everything that is in the pit of contraction, is imprisoned—it is “forbidden.” So now, do not read the verse: “God frees prisoners,” (הוי' מתיר אסורים ) but rather read it: “God makes the forbidden, permissible” (הוי' מתיר איסורים ).
In our present state of reality in “this World,” we need prohibitions; many things that we encounter in our day to day lives are indeed not permissible. This is because we are still in bondage in the empty vacuum that was created after the initial contraction. The Torah of Creation, while containing 248 positive commandments, is nonetheless in its essence a Torah of prohibitions (of which in particular there are 365, 117 more prohibitions than prescriptions for action; this is not meant to be understood quantitatively but rather qualitatively). The Torah of Creation says: “this is prohibited and that is prohibited.” But the Torah of Mashiach, the new Torah, is a Torah of “Blessed is He who frees prisoners—who makes the prohibited, permissible.” Why is this? Because as long as we are still prisoners ourselves within the contraction, the only way to guard ourselves from the snakes and scorpions that abound here is by creating fence after fence to keep them away—this is the necessity of creating prohibitions in our present reality.
How do we know that the essence of the Torah of Mashiach that leaps over (which in Hebrew stems from the same root that means “to free,” לנתר ) the contraction into the state before the contraction is to make prohibitions permissible? This is actually a very simple reading in the Midrash.
The sages ask, how do we know that the Mashiach will reveal a new Torah—a new understanding of the Torah? They say that a person, who has not taken enjoyment, has not found entertainment in the theatres of the non-Jews, in the future, such a person will be entertained by the Divine theatre that God will produce for the righteous. This theatre will include the wild ox (שור הבר ) and the leviathan (לויתן ). In Hebrew, the numerical value of “leviathan” is the same as the value of “kingdom” (מלכות ), specifically the kingdom of the Mashiach. The leviathan, which is an aquatic creature, symbolizes the reality of the ocean, which in Kabbalah represents the reality before the contraction. This reality for us is now concealed, just as everything that lives in the ocean is concealed from our view. Thus, the kingdom of the Mashiach is the kingdom of the reality before the contraction, as explained above.
Now the sages say that if one has not been entertained by the forms of entertainment produced by the non-Jews in this world, he will merit to be entertained by the battle between the wild ox and the leviathan. The wild ox represents those Jewish souls that are masters of the revealed tradition of the Torah, while the leviathan represents the souls that belong to the concealed tradition of the Torah. Each one will try to dismember the other one. But, say the sages, the leviathan uses a fin to slaughter the wild ox. Is it permissible (is it kosher) to slaughter using a fin? The Midrash says that at the moment that the leviathan slaughters the wild ox in this fashion, the wise (chachamim) say that it is kosher (in another reading of the same Midrash it says that the righteous, the tzadikim say that this form of slaughter is kosher). After that, the Midrash continues: But, this is not the case! Meaning, in our reality, it is forbidden to slaughter with a fin because the fin has many irregularities and does not slice smoothly through the flesh. This is like slaughtering with a sickle, which is forbidden. The flesh of the slaughtered animal would not be kosher in such a case. So what is going on? Says the Midrash: “Torah will come out of Me.” This is a verse in Isaiah, which then the Midrash addends and explicates by saying “A new Torah will come out of Me.” In other words, what in our present reality is forbidden will become kosher in the future (indeed, the tzadikim will sit down to eat from these two animals after they kill each other). From here we clearly see that “a new Torah” refers to making prohibitions permissible. Not just something that is a custom, a minhag, but even something that is halachah, a very harsh prohibition. Even something like this the Torah of Mashiach can make permissible.
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How can we explain this? So first let us repeat the deep-rooted answer that we have been discussing all along. The Torah of Mashiach leaps over the pit created by the contraction into the primordial sea that lies before the contraction. This sea is the source of the living waters that will sprout out of the Holy of Holies in Jerusalem. These waters are what are referred to in the verse: “And the word of God from Jerusalem.”
But, now let us see a beautiful answer given by one of the greatest masters of the revealed tradition (nigleh) of the Torah, the Torat Chaim. On this Midrash that we have just quoted he writes an astounding commentary. In principle, being that he is a master of the revealed tradition, we would have expected him to write something very different. He asks the same question: How is it possible that something that in our present reality is completely and utterly forbidden will suddenly become permissible in the future? The Torah is eternal. It does not change.
Let us stress that we cannot answer that this Midrash is referring to the time after the resurrection of the dead when the commandments will be annulled, as the sages say, because that is a later time. The Midrash is referring to a time when there is Torah, the Torah that we know, but somehow it becomes a “new Torah” and according to this new Torah this manner of slaughter is permissible, as stated by the wise/tzadikim. Note also that the description given by the Midrash for the halachic process is very special. It says that suddenly, the wise or the tzadikim appear and they claim that this slaughter is kosher, halachically kosher. This forces the sages to look into the law and say, “it is not so!” They bring an explicit Mishnah that states that such a manner of slaughtering is not acceptable. Indeed, we cannot even entertain the possibility that there is a Mishnah that the wise/tzadikim who claim that it is kosher do not know. So the question just gets stronger. What is going on here? What is this new Torah that suddenly says that the halachah is that such slaughter is kosher.
So continues the Torat Chaim with his answer. He says that the new Torah is the revelation of the reasoning, the spiritual rationale (טעמי מצות ) behind the laws of the Torah as we know them. In our present reality we cannot correctly understand these reasons. We cannot correctly trace the reasoning that leads to the conclusions of the revealed aspect of the Torah. In our world, the rationale of the Torah belongs to what is described as “the secrets belong to God” and to us God only gave the commandments and we are required to perform them out of simple obligation, without the possibility of knowing what the reasons behind them are.
The corollary of this is that someone who in our present reality searches and tries to exactly define the reasoning behind the mitzvot, the commandments will end up confused and in error. But, the Torah of Mashiach, says the Torat Chaim, the new Torah is based on the correct understanding of the rationale behind the mitzvot.
He goes very far in this case. He says that he knows what the rationale behind the need to slaughter in a kosher way is! He writes that kosher slaughter is meant to release the animal’s life-force in a way that the “other side” (the side of reality that cloaks God’s Presence, and as it were fights against holiness) cannot get a grip on it and pull it down into the abyss of the sitra achra (”the other side”). Kosher slaughter uplifts and elevates the animal’s life-force into the realm of holiness, making it permissible for a human being to eat from it. But, if the animal chokes during the slaughter, which is what happens when you slaughter with a sickle, or a fin, then the slaughter is faulty and ”the other side” indeed captures the animal’s life-force.
For anyone who has any experience and sense in the revealed tradition of the Torah, this is an astounding explanation. But the rest of his commentary is even more surprising. The Torat Chaim says that in the future, in the time of the Mashiach, the prophecy: “And I shall extricate the spirit of impurity from the land” will be fulfilled. The moment that this happens then the wise and the tzadikim of the generation will feel it to be so—this is something that can be felt in the air—and then the need for kosher slaughter will no longer exist, because ”the other side” no longer exists to capture the life-force of the animal!
This is a wonder of wonders that such an explanation can be given by a master of nigleh like the Torat Chaim.
What he is saying is that the true tzadik of the generation, the nasi, the one leader of the generation, the Moshe Rabbeinu of the generation, the one who can say prophecy using the words: “This is what God commanded…,” from this person (and only from such a person) we learn how to make the prohibitions permissible.
From this whole issue we see that the goal of the Torah is to make things permissible. A scholar of Torah can disavow a pledge (a neder); the sages make interest permissible through heter iska (a business contract between the person giving the loan and the one taking it); many great judges went to incredible lengths, to the point of actual self-sacrifice to rule that a woman whose husband has disappeared (an agunah) can remarry (hatart agunot), and on and on and on. There are so many examples in the Torah that the power to make something permissible is greater than the power to make something prohibited (כח דהתירא עדיף ). All this with Rabbis who are 100% God-fearing and will never permit something that is prohibited. But the overall direction of the Torah is to make things permissible, because the Torah seeks to drive us towards the times of the Mashiach.
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There are many meanings to the word “Torah.” One meaning is התרה , which means “freeing.” The three letter root of “freeing” is נתר , which also means to skip, or to jump over. In the language of the Bible, this is also the root of the word neter, which means “soap.” It is a special type of soap that can clean even the blemish of the covenant. Why is the cleansing of a blemish caused by a transgression called skipping? Because it takes the blemish and elevates it to a higher level where it is no longer a blemish! Thus, the soap, the נתר that can clean even blemishes of the covenant is the Torah of the Mashiach. According to the Torat Chaim that we just reviewed, to really be able to free something, you have to know that the hold that the impure spirit has over it, which is what the blemish is, that this hold has been completely freed. Who can say such a thing?
Literally, what we would have to find is that the hold of impurity over the world has completely been released. But, we are here today, over 200 years from the time of the Ba’al Shem Tov when Torah of the Mashiach began to be revealed. Those opponents of Chassidut, who were responsible for putting the Alter Rebbe in jail, they thought that the Alter Rebbe was bringing lights from before the contraction into a place that is after the contraction. They were afraid that the tzimtzum would be destroyed and the rules and regulations of the Torah of this world would become annulled. This was their explicit explanation. They said this very clearly. As explained above, this is the mentality of the Egypt of holiness. God, however, agreed with the Alter Rebbe! The fears of his opponents were not justified. Had they been able to comprehend the essence of the Torah's inner soul, the secret of Jewish soul's ability to carry opposites, and been able to recognize the true nasi of the generation, they would never have waged war against the Ba'al Shem Tov or the Alter Rebbe. In any case, returning to what we said before, it is the tzadik of the generation who knows to what extent the impurity has freed its hold over reality.
There is a beautiful mathematical allusion to the fact that this is all related to Yud Tet Kislev and to the freeing of the Alter Rebbe from prison. The numerical value of the verse “And the spirit of impurity I will extricate from the earth” ואת רוח הטמאה אעביר מן הארץ (1350) is exactly equal to 10 times the value of “Yud Tet Kislev,” יט כסלו (135). The factor of 10 corresponds to the 10 stages that are needed in order to construct the spiritual world of the king, the world of Nukva (this is the inner meaning of the ten days from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kipur).
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Now, let us look at the full wording of the verse that we have been discussing: “And it will come to pass on that day, says God, the Lord of Hosts, that I will uproot the names of the idols from the earth and they will not be remembered, and the prophets and the spirit of impurity I will extricate from the earth.” והיה ביום ההוא נאם הוי' צבאות אכרית את שמות העצבים מן הארץ ולא יזכרו עוד וגם את הנביאים ואת רוח הטמאה אעביר מן הארץ .
The prophets here are the false prophets of course, for the generation before the revelation of the Mashiach is full of false prophets.
What is the “spirit of impurity?” We will see that there are a number of different opinions. Rashi explains that this spirit is the evil inclination, the yetzer hara. It is then up to the tzadik of the generation to sense where we are, and depending on how much evil inclination there is, he can free us from certain prohibitions. Of course, since no one today thinks that there is less evil inclination, we cannot yet free ourselves of prohibitions. Nebech, nebech. As long as we still have an evil inclination, according to Rashi, we cannot make the prohibited permissible.
The second explanation is the Torat Chaim’s which we discussed earlier. He gives the Kabbalistic explanation, that this spirit is the “other side” (סטרא אחרא ). So the tzadik is sensing how much purity there is in the air and how much impurity.
The third explanation is the Malbim’s. He explains that this profane spirit is the spirit that inspires the false prophecies of the false prophets. Every false prophet uses some false spirit that comes down over him. Of course this is a spirit that is in the air, like the “other side” that the Torat Chaim talked about. What is this in our times? We tend to think that there are no prophets around. But the truth is that anyone who has a political system or political beliefs has false prophecy. He has to say what he thinks in a charismatic and inspiring way. The sign then is that we see that there is less and less of a source for the false prophets of the generation. At that time, we can begin to increase more and more the true prophecy and the freeing of the prohibitions by the Torah of the Mashiach.
These are all very delicate issues. We cannot stress how delicate they are and hope that no one leaves with the wrong impression of what we have been explaining. A person needs to have a lot of sensitivity in both his heart and in his mind not to make a mistake in this area.
Let us in passing mention that these three interpretations of “the spirit of impurity” form a submission-separation-sweetening model. The basic characteristic of “the other side” is the lack of bitul, selflessness, the essential characteristic of the holy side, as explained in Tanya. Often “the other side” puts on a façade of humility, but it is false humility, the opposite of true submission to God. The evil inclination channels the otherwise neutral energies of the soul in negative directions, in desire and lust of that which is forbidden. This is the opposite of true separation, the state of the soul when all of one's energies and desires are directed to the good. Finally, the spirit that speaks from the mouth of the false prophets is the antithesis of the truly sweet words spoken by a pure soul that are able to sweeten external reality, as taught by the Ba'al Shem Tov.
Now, what does “the names of the idols” in the verse refer to? Let us ask a little differently, why does that verse not refer simply to the idols themselves? It is very common today for people to import all kinds of practices from the East and to think that by adding the word Jewish to it, they make it kosher. For example, kosher Yoga, or Jewish Yoga. So first of all the name of this idolatrous practice has to be cast away.
If we take the numerical value of these three things: שמות העצבים נביאים רוח הטמאה = ואת רוח הטמאה אעביר מן הארץ .
The whole verse = 7 . 768 (= תשסח  = 2 . משיח י־הוה ) = דוד . משיח י־הוה .

One of the greatest masters of Chassidut, Rabbi Mordechai Yosef of Izhbitz, has a theme that runs throughout all of his teachings: in the end it will be revealed that everything that a Jew has ever done, even when he followed his evil inclination, everything has been elevated to a state of holiness. The Izhbitzer is not unique in this theme. There is a discourse from the Lubavitcher Rebbe that explains the same principle in the language of Chabad.
The Izhbitzer does have special terminology. When a person does what he feels like, without thinking about anyone else, not even the Almighty, he calls this an act of extension or certitude. The best example of this type of person is Esau himself. He does whatever he wants without feeling accountable to anyone. But, whereas we may normally think that this is a negative state, in the Izhbitzer’s teachings this is considered an ideal state; it is the state that we will reach in the times of Mashiach. We call this state natural consciousness.
What is natural consciousness? It is when that which was forbidden becomes permissible, that which is permissible becomes a mitzvah, and the mitzvah becomes a necessity. So far this evening we have only talked about the first of these transformations, when that which was negative becomes positive, when something that until now was considered to be forbidden becomes permissible. This is the no-yes axis.
There is a verse that says: לא כן עבדי משה . The meaning of these words is, “not so my servant Moshe.” But, in Hebrew the first two words are really: “no, yes,” implying that the “no” for Moshe Rabbeinu is a “yes” (or naturally transforms into a yes)! How can a no be a yes? This is what the sages say regarding the Ten Commandments. Some of the commandments are positive and some are negative. After each commandment, we voiced our acceptance. According to Rabbi Yishma’el after a positive commandment the reply was “Yes!” After a negative commandment the reply was “No!” in the sense of we also negate such and such an action. But, Rabbi Akiva says that even when we heard a negative commandment, such as “Do not murder,” the reply was “Yes!” in the affirmative. In Chassidic terminology, Rabbi Yishma’el is describing the state of living after the contraction of God’s infinite light, where there is a difference between yes and no. But, Rabbi Akiva is describing a state of living before the contraction.
Let’s give an example so that the idea is clear. If you live after the contraction then you say: “In our Holy Land, I don’t buy from Arabs, because the Torah forbids it.” If you live before the contraction you say: “I buy only from Jews, because I enjoy spending more money on my brothers.” In short, to say that what was forbidden becomes permissible is does not mean that you the go and act in what used to be a forbidden way. Rather, it means that a person relates to the positive side of that which was forbidden. For instance if you have a black and white photograph where the black represents the prohibited and the white the permitted then a person who has natural consciousness does not see the black, but rather feels free to act in the white!
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We mentioned that there are four levels of reference. Something is forbidden (אסור ), or permissible (מותר ), or a mitzvah (מצוה ), or a necessity (חובה ). Let’s give an example of how something that is forbidden turns into something that is permissible and then into something that is a mitzvah. Lying is a very serious grievance against another person and is of course prohibited. There are 13 different teachings learnt from the verse that appears in the Torah: “From speaking a lying word, keep your distance” (the source of prohibition of lying is thus related to the 13 Principles of Mercy). But, in the Talmud (Yevamot 65b) there is a question about altering what we say from the exact truth in order to bring peace. Rabbi Ila’a says that it is permissible, while Rabbi Natan says that it is a mitzvah to do so. We see that the Rif (Rabbi Isaac of Fez, one of the greatest legal sources of the Middle Ages) and the Alter Rebbe rule that indeed not only is it permissible to alter what one says in order to attain peace, to add peace in the world, but it is necessary to do so. Thus it becomes a mitzvah.
But, what is an example of something that not only becomes a mitzvah, it even reaches the highest level: it becomes a necessity (חובה ). The example is what the sages call a “necessary war” (מלחמת חובה ), one that must be fought, as, for example to defend the Jewish people from attack by enemies. Another example is the war conducted by Shimon and Levi against the people of Shechem; it was not a mitzvah. How do we know? Because, Jacob their father not only did not command them to do what they did but actually opposed it! And yet, we find in the Midrash that God praised them for their actions. In a discourse (Likutei Sichot v. 5) the Lubavitcher Rebbe explains that for Shimon and Levi, to kill all the men of Shechem for what they did to their sister Dinah was not a mitzvah, it was a duty, a necessity (חובה ). We might have thought that a necessity, a duty (חובה ) is just a very strong mitzvah, one that you really have to do. But, here we see that what is a necessity may not always be a mitzvah; that these two categories can even contradict. Something can be a necessity, yet not be a mitzvah. The duty, or necessity is something that goes back to a person’s soul root, it originates in the level of the “singular one“ (yechidah), the highest aspect of the soul. In the end, Jacob acknowledged their actions, understanding that for them it was a duty.
In any event, what we have just explained is that there is a progression in a person’s psyche and consciousness of his actions. The progression goes from something that is forbidden, to permissible, to mitzvah, and finally to duty. And, when something reaches the level of being a necessity, it becomes part of our natural consciousness.
Further, the two categories of permissible and forbidden (אסור מותר ) are possible only when a person has self consciousness, only when a person is aware of himself and involved with himself, because it is either permissible for me or forbidden to me. It’s all about me! This is what the Zohar means when it says that the source of permissible and forbidden as categories is found in the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, which is really the source of self-consciousness and self-involvement. The mitzvah category is already a Divine consciousness, because it is God that is commanding me to do a mitzvah. The source of the mitzvah category is in the Tree of Life. But, once something becomes a necessity, a duty, its origin is in the yechidah of the soul (above the two primordial Trees, as explained in Chassidut) and it has attained the state of natural consciousness.
Duty and necessity are thus the ideal holy “extension” of the singular level of one’s soul that the Izhbitzer is referring to. But, as long as something has not reached such a mature level where it is a necessity, a holy duty, then it is still just the extension התפשטות of Esau. Nonetheless, the sages teach us that even when a Jew sins he is still a Jew, which means that even those things which are extending from a lower level, not from holiness, in the end their source is somehow in the highest level and in the future it will be revealed that they extended out of the highest level of the Jewish soul. In the end you will do teshuvah, and you will get a great profit from the transgression, from this seemingly lower-source extension, which you would not have gotten if you would have followed only the legal ruling of the Torah and refrained from it. Without a doubt, this is a very heavy thing to say, but this is the idea that the Izhbitzer teaches and which was repeated by the Lubavitcher Rebbe using Chabad terminology.
Nonetheless, it should be very clear, that until you get to the times of the Mashiach, when the source of all your actions that were done out of what was lower extension will be revealed, until that time you will suffer awfully, you will experience tremendous pain and hardship for your transgression, because in this world, in our present reality, the source is still hidden and therefore you are judged guilty for these actions. This is what the end of the verse in Ecclesiastes is saying: “But, know that for all these [acts where you followed your heart and eyes] God will bring you to judgment.” And yet, the beginning of the verse says that you should follow your heart and your eyes and the sages do not say that the two halves of the verse are one thing, so just go to the end to learn that you will be judged for doing this. Rather, these are two different rulings given at two different epochs. What seems like a lack of justice and a Judge refers to the times of Mashiach, when even acting upon the inclination of one’s heart and eyes will be shown to have originated in the yechidah of the soul. But, in the meantime, there is definitely a Judge, there is definitely justice, and don’t think for a moment that the lash has been slackened! In the meantime such actions carry difficult consequences. So, there is still justice and the Book of Ecclesiastes is still in the Bible.
Again, the value of the first half of the verse, which is related to the times of the Mashiach is exactly 768 תשס"ח , our present year!
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The second appearance of the idiom “the lash has been slackened” is in the Yerushalmi, which parallels a similar passage in the Babylonian Talmud. The context of the discussion is the verse: “The concealed [transgressions] are the interest of Havayah our God, and the revealed are for us and our children forever.” This verse describes the collective responsibility that we have as a nation for the sins of individuals. It states that if the sin was concealed, i.e., it was done in private and no one knows about it, then it is God’s responsibility to punish the person and we will not suffer for the sins of the individual. However, if the sin was revealed, i.e., it was done in public, and no one stopped the person or rebuked him, then we all share responsibility for the action.
The classic example that the Talmud brings for this is Achan who stole from the loot of Jericho even though Joshua sanctified all of it to God. In the Book of Joshua, this act is described as “Israel has sinned,” indicating that the entire nation is collectively responsible. The mutual responsibility that we have for one another started on the 11th day of Nisan (the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s birthday), a day after Joshua crossed the Jordan with the Jewish people. On that day they traveled to Shechem and there took vows that included accepting this mutual responsibility. From there, they traveled to Jericho and conquered it. Indeed, because collective responsibility was in place already, the result of Achan’s act was that that 36 people (the majority of a Sanhedrin of 71) were killed in the next war with the city of Ai.
Regarding the scope of collective responsibility the Talmud brings a dispute between Rabbi Yehudah and Rabbi Nechemia (in Hebrew “Rabbi Yehudah” plus “Rabbi Nechemiah” equals “Shne’ur” רבי יהודה רבי נחמיה = שניאור , meaning “two lights,“ two Torah perspectives, the Alter Rebbe’s first name), two students of Rabbi Akiva.
Rabbi Yehudah says that collective responsibility includes acts done in private! Otherwise, he says, how can it be that everyone was punished for Achan’s act? Achan stole the loot in secrecy. No one knew!
But Rabbi Nechemiah holds that collective responsibility does not include acts done in private, only revealed transgressions—sins performed in public. (Rashi in the Chumash writes like Rabbi Nechemiah, but most other commentaries write like Rabbi Yehudah. As an aside, we of course have to ask, how does Rabbi Nechmiah explain the event with Achan. According to Rabbi Nechmiah, it was not a hidden transgression, for his wife and children knew about it, which is enough to make it a public sin.)
The basis for their dispute focuses on how to interpret the 11 dots that are written over the words “And the revealed [transgression] are for us and our children forever” והנגלת ד עולם . Now collective punishment is also a lash. According to Rabbi Nechamiah, the lash only strikes in retaliation to revealed transgression, but according to Rabbi Yehudah, it also strikes us for hidden ones.
In any case, according to Rashi in his commentary to the Talmud, both Rabbi Yehudah and Rabbi Nechemia hold that the collective responsibility has no time limitation. From the moment the oath of the Jewish people to God was taken in Shechem, it applies forever. But, in the Jerusalem Talmud we find something different:
Said Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish: While in the Jordan River they accepted responsibility for the concealed transgressions. Joshua told them that if they do not do so, the waters will come and drown them. Said Rabbi Zavda, know that this is so, because Achan sinned and the majority of a Sanhedrin [36 people] were killed in the battle with the Ai. Said Rabbi Levi: In Yavneh, the lash was slackened. A voice from Heaven was heard stating: “You no longer have to deal with the concealed.”
Keren Orah, a commentary on the Babylonian Talmud, refers to this passage in the Jerusalem Talmud and says that the reasoning there is that in order for us to have collective responsibility over the private lives of individuals, their transgressions carried out in private, we have to be living in peace in our land. But, in the time of exile, and when the Sanhedrin arrived in Yavneh, as mentioned in the Jerusalem Talmud, the lengthy exile that we are still in, had already begun. When we are in exile, not living peacefully in the Land of Israel, the lash is slackened. This is the lash as defined by Rabbi Yehudah that we saw, the lash that strikes also for private sins of individuals. So once the exile begins, the voice from Heaven says, you no longer can deal with concealed acts, with the private realm of other individuals.
The Keren Orah’s explanation is a very logical one. It is saying that God demands collective responsibility for the private acts of others only when the Temple exists and we are living peacefully and in harmony with one another. Since in exile we are not in a pacified state (and the very reason for the destruction of the Temple and the lengthy exile that we still suffer is due to hatred amongst our people), He does not want to punish us in this way. It is hard for us to understand how collective responsibility for private sins works even when there is a Temple, but all the more so when we do not have one. So, this is a type of leniency on the part of God—God is allowing acts that at another time would be punished, to slide by Him, as it were.
Let’s return to the Torat Chaim. He writes that the lash or strip of leather of the idiom “the lash has been slackened“ alludes to the knot of the head tefilin that God showed Moshe Rabbeinu when He revealed Himself to Him. Slackening, or releasing the strip of leather means that the head tefilin of the Almighty have been undone. The knot in the head tefilin symbolizes the connection between the souls of the Jewish people and the Almighty. When the Temple stood, this knot was very strong and the bond between the Jewish souls themselves and between all the souls and God was very strong. When the Temple was destroyed, this knot lost its tightness, it slackened. As long as the knot/bond is strong, we can bear the burden of hidden transgressions as a collective. It is as if we have a common inner frequency that allows us to sense each other intimately—a type of telepathy. Each of us feels the hidden thoughts and feelings of the other.
We see from the discussion in the Babylonian Talmud that Rabbi Yehudah is living with the consciousness of the kingship and the Temple, because he understands all about this inner frequency and feels that it is possible for us to have collective responsibility over one another. This is not something new, as we have talked about this aspect of Rabbi Yehudah’s teachings before.
Maimonides is the first to write that the “concealed things” referred to in the verse analyzed in the Talmud refers specifically to the concealed/hidden aspects of the Torah, which are the rationales, the reasons behind the commandments of the Torah. He writes that a person, like himself (as he discusses in length in the third part of his Guide to the Perplexed), who feels that he has a good grasp of the rationale behind the commandments, nonetheless should not feel free of the revealed aspects of the commandments, i.e., with their legal aspects—Halachah. Maimonides writes that this was the mistake of one of the religions that came out of Judaism, Islam. Its founders thought in their perverse minds that the true rationale behind the commandments had been revealed and that their simple meaning does not apply. But, says Maimonides, even if you have indeed grasped a bit of the rationale behind the mitzvot, you are still, always fully obligated by the revealed aspect, the Halachah. Rabbeinu Bechayei writes that Maimonides’ interpretation does not follow the literal directive of the verses in the Torah regarding the concealed and the revealed, but there are other, later commentaries, that argue that it does.
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Once more: we said that the rationales of the Torah reflect the Torah as it exists before the contraction of God’s infinite light, they are the new Torah that the Mashiach will reveal and they have the power to make the forbidden permissible, or at least to make it possible for us to understand the positive, necessary aspect of the prohibitions allowing us to experience the fun and joy that exist in the positive and negative together. It is the Torah of Mashiach that does away with Amalek, the source of all doubt that perhaps the prohibitions are not so great, not so fun (in Hebrew, “Amalek” equals “doubt,” עמלק = ספק ).
Let’s recap the last teaching about the idiom “the lash has been slackened.” Our first reading would have told us that the slackening of the lash after the destruction of the Temple is a good thing, because we are free of collective responsibility for private transgressions, something that we cannot be responsible in our present state of exile. But, the Midrash about the Book of Ecclesiastes means to say that slackening the lash is a very negative thing; if it were indeed the case, then the Book of Ecclesiastes would be taken out of the Bible, because the verse from it quoted above would be heresy.
But, now, what we are saying is that thanks to the Torah of Mashiach we understand that the exact opposite is the case. That in our exile we cannot take collective responsibility for the iniquities of individuals is a sad situation, and in this regard the slackening of the lash is a negative thing because it illustrates that we no longer have a direct connection between our souls. That God could hold us accountable as a collective is a great ideal according to Rabbi Yehudah; it is the result of the ideal state of connection with Hashem and with one another. The goal of Jewish kingship, Malchut Yisra’el, is to reach this state once more, when we are all as one, as we are truly before the contraction of God’s infinite light. With the knot of the tefilin, we are with the King and with one another. We wish that it were so, that God could punish us for each other’s hidden transgressions.
And, in regard to the Midrash about the verse in Ecclesiastes, the slackening of the lash represents natural consciousness, the consciousness we will attain in the days of the Mashiach. It refers to the holy and rectified state of extension and expansion of the highest aspect of our souls when we will dutifully perform whatever we feel to be right, all out of natural and perfect awe of the Almighty. This is the final goal of inserting the tremendously many and chaotic lights of Esau—who represents the ability to extend and expand one’s dominion over the world—into the strong, rectified vessels of Jacob, allowing you to “…follow the paths of your heart and what your eyes see….” When this happens, indeed there is still judgment, but because your heart is 100% with God, you will always come out fine from the judgment, because everything you did will be revealed as fulfilling the sages dictum: “Make your will as His will, in order that He make His will like yours.” This should be our goal. That our will be 100% aligned with God’s will. If I achieve such alignment, then I can act like a young man, following my heart. The time to achieve this is the present year, 5768 (2007-8) the year when “I will extricate the spirit of impurity from the land” (from the verse whose numerical value equals 7 · 768!)
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We conclude by expressing our hope that the Mashiach appear immediately in order to redeem us. We say that we are ready to be wed to the Almighty and to be “with the King in His work.” We are ready to become full partners in the new creation that the King will create, through the new Torah, the Torah of the power of permissibility (כח דהתירא ), the Torah that does not threaten people with a lash.
When can our words be heard by Esau? Only when we no longer understand him as the lash that is poised to strike us! Why have we frum Jews felt for so long that it so taboo for us to speak to the representatives of Esau in the world about cultural issues, about things of common interest like the seven Noachide Laws? Because, for a frum Jew, even to speak to these people was like talking to the lash—the punishment for our transgressions! Until now, Esau (Christianity) was the embodiment of the whip, it was the punishment itself (as mentioned, “Esau” equals “lash” הרצועה = עשו ). But the moment that the world has changed and Esau has changed, the leader of the generation picks up on the change in the atmosphere of the world. That is why the Lubavitcher Rebbe told us that Esau is no longer the whip over our heads; he is no longer coming with 400 men to kill us. The lash has been freed from Esau, he is no longer the lash, and therefore for us it has also been freed. Now it is time to bring together the many lights of “I have plenty” of Esau into the rectified vessels of “I have everything” of Jacob. Then we will merit to worship God, “out of joy and a good heart with plenty of everything,” with the coming of the redeemer to Zion with the true and complete redemption, immediately.