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What if your darkness wasn’t a detour — but the design? In this shiur on Tzidkas HaTzaddik 11, we uncover Rav Tzadok’s foundational principle: choshech (darkness) doesn’t just come before or (light) — it makes the light possible. From the opening lines of creation to the inner cycles of your own avodah, the Torah reveals a pattern: absence before presence, void before revelation, klipah before pri. Rav Tzadok reframes how we encounter difficulty, delay, or silence — not as breakdowns, but as the exact conditions that allow something higher to emerge. We explore:Why the Torah begins with nightHow your own setbacks might be the first step of giluyAnd why Torah and Kodshim are the rare places where light comes first A shiur about beginnings, but even more — about how to begin again.

This shiur explores the inner mechanics of teshuvah in Torah 29:2 (para 4-5) not as fragmented efforts of repentance, but as systemic repair through the structure of the sefiros, the power of speech, and Shmiras HaBris. Rav Nachman explains that aveiros disrupt the spiritual relationship between mashpia and mekabel - between Yesod and Malchus. Trying to fix each failure individually is not only overwhelming, it’s ultimately ineffective. Instead, we’re taught the concept of Tikkun Klali: a root-level realignment that restores order above and below. We examine how this root repair, through praising tzadikim, guarding the bris, and drawing down lavnunit (purity) from Chochmah, transforms disconnection (dam niddah) into nurturing flow. The result is more than personal healing—it reopens the channel for shefa and parnassah to enter the world. At its core, the shiur reveals a spiritual architecture for teshuvah that connects the mystical system to lived avodah.

This shiur explores the depth of simcha not as emotion alone, but as a state of shlemus, where opposites join and a person becomes exactly who and where they are meant to be. We trace how this plays out in Torah itself: the harmony of Torah–Nevi’im–Kesuvim forming a single binyan, the meaning of the eish from Sinai, and why Chazal say the words of Torah themselves are b’simcha. At the center is a surprising and powerful idea from Chazal: the same inner force that becomes the yetzer hara can, when sweetened become the very energy of joy in learning. Through this, simcha emerges as a lived experience of hisachdus, where a person becomes truly connected to Torah and to HaShem.

In this final VAD on simcha in Alishur. we explore Rav Yisroel Salanter’s three madregos in avodah. awakening emotion. conquering the yetzer. and finally transforming it. Instead of seeing Musser as fire and brimstone that leads to atzvus. the shiur reframes it as avodah that uncovers the root kochos of a person and redirects them toward kedusha. until the yetzer itself begins to thirst for avodas Hashem. We also clarify the difference between kvishas hayetzer and tikkun hayetzer. why simcha is both the starting point and the tachlis of avodah. and what it really means to be oseik baTorah in the middle of a full life.

Para 6Spotify Notes . Torah 30:3 (Paragraph Vav) Big idea: Hashem created the world so we can attain השגת אלקות (hasagas Elokus) and live in relationship with Him. But because He is אין סוף (Ein Sof) and we are בעלי גבול (ba’alei gvul), the gap seems unbridgeable. The answer is צמצומים (tzimtzumim). Not for concealment, and ultimately transmission and gilui. Malchus has two functions. It contains and defines, and it also enables expression. When Malchus is pure הִתְבַּטְלוּת (hisbatlus), לית לה מגרמה כלום (leis lah m’garmah klum), it reflects like the moon reflecting the sun. That is מלכות דקדושה (Malchus d’kedusha). When the vessel takes on “identity,” and perceived intependence the whole transmission becomes warped. That is Malchus in גלות (galus), and the same “pieces” that are potentially kedusha become reoriented as מלכות דסטרא אחרא (Malchus d’sitra achra). The sharp example is secular “wisdom” like science. It can be a כלי to reveal Hashem, but when it becomes a closed framework that claims independence from the Creator, the greatest potential for gilui becomes the greatest concealment. Arba Malchuyos and the rescue mission: How it gets repaired: Chesed cuts Malchus away from the ארבע מלכויות and returns it to its source. Avraham Avinu embodies this repair. He is סונא בצע (sonei betza). He rejects spoils. He pursues the ארבע מלכים and restores Malchus to kedusha. He is the עמוד האמונה (amud ha’emunah) because he can see unity inside the world’s pieces. From Avraham flows the “four sons” framework, and a major teshuvah theme emerges. True teshuvah includes asking forgiveness even for what you do not know you did wrong. Otherwise teshuvah is still confined within your own דעת (daas) and your own box. Shalosh Regalim, simcha, and restoring Ohr Panim: The life-force of Malchus d’kedusha is אור הפנים (ohr hapanim), accessed through the שלוש רגלים (shalosh regalim) and שמחת המצוות (simchas hamitzvos). Amalek represents the center of purposelessness and ליצנות (leitzanus). Shmuel “cuts” Agag, symbolically slicing the כוח of the four distorted malchuyos and reattaching Malchus to kedusha. The regalim restore alignment, rebuild the vessel, and reopen the channel so sechel elyon can once again enter sechel tachton with integrity.

para 7-8 Some of the ideas discussed: How can a finite person work toward a meainful relationship with The Infinite? Malchus as the kli has two jobs at once. It limits to create definition, and it creates a mechanism from revelation/giluy. The same kli that “contains” becomes the very channel that reveals. Malchus d’kedusha is pure hisbatlus. Like the moon to the sun, it adds nothing of its own, it only reflects the source. Introducing anything from itself creates a distortion and detracts from its mission, to be megaleh and bring Hashem into the world, kvyachol. When resources become ends in themselves, the kli breaks. Taavas mamon (money being representative of a resource) turns “means” into “ends,” and what should be an engine of giluy becomes distortion and galus. By treating wisdoms and other avenues for connection Hashem gives us as independent, the greatest opportunity for revelation becomes the greatest concealment and pirud. Galus of malchus is framed as falling into the arba malchiyos. The same “pieces” exist, but now they serve a foreign center of gravity instead of reflecting upward to Ratzon Hashem. The path back is chesed as tochacha. Not harshness, but clarifying separation, “lehavdel,” cutting malchus free from the pull of the sitra achra and restoring it to malchus d’kedusha. A sharp practical lens. Do not confuse the delivery with the message. Sometimes tochacha arrives with bizayon. The tzadik feels the tzaar of the generation (think about pain of chisaron felt at the level of the CEO responsible for the mission as opposed to the individual who introduced the fialure into the system; or a parent watching a childs failed potential rather than the child himself), and the pain colors the tone, even when the content is true and necessary.