Beshalach

 The Nesivos Shalom is accessible, that part of the appeal for me. I like words that I can understand. A poet I like, Billy Collins, stands at odds with other poets who feel that a poem must be cryptic to be sophisticated poetry. Collins argues that if that's true than poetry is a synonym for poor communication.

I may ruffle some feathers, but I come in peace stating what works for me: When it comes to Torah, particularly Chasidus, I want good communication. What I love about the way Nesivos Shalom is written (and I have inside information that it was not written by the Rebbe, but collected from his lectures. The first two volumes were seen and approved by him. The five books on the Parshiot and certain holidays were given his blessing and not seen by him) is that you don't have to pause and parse out what he's saying, it is all laid out for you clearly, like a set table.

Last week in Beshalach he spoke about emunah. This week in Yitro, he does so again. He speaks about faith often.

In Yitro he explains how Yitro found G-d before meeting Moshe, but he had faith on a rational level. He connected with the Jewish People in order to go to the next level, which is to have faith that is inherent inside you, not because you figured it out but because G-d put it there. That's a connection of Yitro to the first dibrah: when G-d said "Anochi..." that truth being embedded inside of every Jew. He gives the metaphor of a sun covered by clouds. The sun is not gone, just not visible. Elsewhere he says that when you feel that you can't have faith, you need to have faith that you have faith. These idea are not his own but are built about the legacy of the Slonimer tradition*.

In Beshalach he puts forward the idea that at there's faith of the head and faith of the heart. Above that is faith of our bones. That's the level we reached at Kriat Yam Suf. When we left Egypt we got faith of head and heart, and we sang a song, but the faith and the song were lacking. When the sea split we got faith of our bones, and the song was the highest song possible.

Wishing everyone a good Shabbos and praying for each of us to have faith in faith, and eventually faith of the highest level.

One more note about NS, is that I enjoy the fact that it is rare sefer that I have learned only in Hebrew, and have done at least one piece on every parsha and every holiday, and have come to appreciate through his words and my eyes without the interpretation of a translation.

* Rabbi Sholom Noach Berezovsky wrote transcribed and edited several books of Slonimer Torah of previous Rebbes, thus preserving their traditions. These sefarim are often cited in the book Nesivos Shalom, without mention of the fact that he is the one who put pen to paper to preserve the thoughts in books.