Tzvi Moshe On Revealing Your True Self

There is a fascinating Gemara in Masseches Shabbos 147b. The Gemara explains that there was this type of wine that superior to all wines. It was the tastiest. It was the most potent and it was the most addictive, and it was only available in the north. R’ Elazar the son of Arach decided to go up north to try it out. He drank it and forgot all of his learning but returned to the Beis HaMidrash. When he got there he started reading Psukim with his new (drunken) perspective of Torah. The Gemara records one Passuk that he approached. “HaChodesh HaZaeh Lacehm.” Our Passuk! This month shall be for you. How did he read it? He changed a few letters around. (The Daled became a Resh, the Zayin became a Yud and the Chuf became a Beis.) He read the Passuk to say “Cheresh Haya Libam: There hearts were deaf.

This does seem like a far out understanding, but we can systematically break it down. We need to analyze what is a ‘deaf’ and what is ‘heart.’ If we understand the interplay then we will understand what “There hearts were deaf” mean. If we really pick it apart maybe we can come away with a really beautiful, new understanding. I’m excited and you should be too.

What does it mean to be deaf? If I’m deaf it means that I’m cut off from sound (Chas V’Shalom). The deaf person is cut off from the voice of other people. Okay. Then what is a voice? A voice is thought that starts inside your head and air starting inside your lungs. The beginnings of voice are totally internal. Speaking is a revelation of this previously covered up potential. Thus deaf really means that the deaf person is cut off from the expression of internals; he is cut off from the things giving off sound to him. He is not privy to the revelation of the inner forces of the projector. Next - what is a heart? A heart is also internal. A heart is the inner driving force of my whole body. My heart in the central station of all of my interior workings.

So what does it mean that their hearts were deaf? It means that their internals were cut off from the internals of others. When my insides are deaf it means that that my internals don’t relate to the internals of others. The deaf heart means that the essence of the receiver and perceiver (his heart…) is not responsive to the revelation of interiors of those around it (it’s deaf).

So why past tense? Perhaps the answer is as follows. Cheresh Haya Libam - their hearts were deaf - is when the Jews are in Galus. When the power of the Chiddush (in our way of understanding it) is taken away, the Jews perceive the world through Cheresh Haya Libam. In exile, the power to see the inner unrevealed potentials it taken away. The hearts are deaf. That’s the way it used to be. But when the transition is made into Geula then the switch that comes with it is moving into the perspective of HaChodesh - or should we say - HaChiddush HaZheh Lachem. I can look at the moon and see that even though it is the same moon, it brings with it a new month, it reveals new potentials and therefore it is totally, completely new.

Going into Galus means that I’m shut down to seeing inner potential. Things are the way they are and if they were to change it would have to come with a near-impossible overhaul. Geula means that I see the inner force contained within, and having the inner strength to draw that out and become totally new based on my discovery of what is really at heart.

Everyone wants to be bigger than themselves. Everyone wants to transform into a being of utmost maximization of potential. They are just afraid to grow the way that they should because they fear that they can’t. “I’d have to be someone totally different to accomplish all the those things. Someone better. Someone more powerful…” NO! There is beast-version, version 2.0, colossal version of you waiting inside of you just waiting to be revealed. Waiting to transform you, refresh, empower and most importantly RENEW your entire life. And if you can; just for a few moments, move out of the Galus mind-state and progress into Geula, into Chiddush then your life will begin being totally new.