Vayikra 5775 – Tzafona Lifnei Hashem: The Hidden Ra and Tov of Tzafon

Parshas ויקרא,

קרבנות are all meramez to very big inyanim. Some are easier to understand, some harder.

One of the harder inyanim is the specific location of the korbanos.

By the Korban Olah, the passuk says¹

וְשָׁחַט אֹתוֹ עַל יֶרֶךְ הַמִּזְבֵּחַ צָפֹנָה לִפְנֵי יְהוָֹה

Vayikra 1:11

The Olah needs to be shechted in the Tzafon.

This location of Tzafon is reserved for Kodshei Kodshim, and is a differentiator between Kodshei Kodshim and Kodshei Kalim. There are other differentiators, for example:

• Kodshei Kodshim are not given to a zar.
• Kodshei Kodshim have zrika k’neged hakapores.

So these we can understand – since kodshei kodshim have greater kedusha, so they can’t go to a zar, and the get a zrika towards the kapores. But what’s so significant about the Tzafon that is reserved only for kodshei kodshim?

Also, what’s strange is that the passuk only introduces Tzafona lifnei Hashem by the 2nd animal. Meaning, the parsha of Olah started off with bakar, and there’s no mention of tzafona. Afterwards it goes to tzon, and that’s where it mentions tzafona. Why did it wait? All korban olos are nishchat b’tzafon, so why did the passuk wait to mention it by the tzon?

חז"ל in the midrash are noticing this diyuk, and they say this:²

וְשָׁחַט אֶת בֶּן הַבָּקָר וגו' וּבָאַיִל הוּא אוֹמֵר (ויקרא א, יא): צָפֹנָה לִפְנֵי ה', אָמְרוּ בְּשָׁעָה שֶׁעָקַד אַבְרָהָם אָבִינוּ אֶת יִצְחָק בְּנוֹ הִתְקִין הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא שְׁנֵי כְבָשִׂים, אֶחָד שֶׁל שַׁחֲרִית וְאֶחָד שֶׁל עַרְבִית, וְכָל כָּךְ לָמָּה, שֶׁבְּשָׁעָה שֶׁהָיוּ יִשְׂרָאֵל מַקְרִיבִין תָּמִיד עַל גַּבֵּי הַמִּזְבֵּחַ וְקוֹרִין אֶת הַמִּקְרָא הַזֶּה צָפֹנָה לִפְנֵי ה', זוֹכֵר הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא עֲקֵדַת יִצְחָק,

Vayikra Rabbah 2:11

When Avraham brought Yitzchak by the Akeida, HKBH instituted the korban tamid of both the morning and evening. And why? Because when Klal Yisroel brings the t’midim and read “Tzafona Lifnei Hashem” HKBH will remember the Akeida.

I can hear Chazal answering that the question of what’s so special about tzon – and the answer is it’s an allusion to the Akeida. Fine, that makes sense. But Chazal emphasize a point that seems to be totally unrelated to this ענין. What does tzafona lifnei Hashem have to do with the Akeida? Where was the Tzafon? Also, it’s not just tzafona, but it’s also lifnei Hashem. Is the Tzafon more lifnei Hashem than other ruchos? Isn’t the shchina in the ma’arav – l’chora ma’arav seems more lifnei Hashem than tzafon.³

B’chlal, there seems to be a stira about tzafon – is it good? Is it bad?

• One the one hand, we have here, our parsha, where there kodshei kodshim need to be brought tzafona. It sounds like a chashivus and a kedusha to tzafon.
• Also, the Yerushalmi says, that the kerashim in the mishkan would be marked, because the ones that were zoche to be in the Tzafon, shouldn’t be downgraded to the Darom. A form of Ma’alim b’kodesh v’ein moridin. So, apparently Tzafon is a chashivus and a kedusha.
• But, on the other hand we have a passuk that says “Mitzafon Tiftach HaRa’ah.” Ra, bad, begins from the Tzafon.
• Below we’ll see the Pirkei D’Reb Eliezar says sheidim and other negative elements come from the tzafon.
• Also, the general the way the ראשונים explain צפון is that it’s a place of no-Yishuv. The sun is warm and there’s yishuv and plant life, and chiyus. The Tzafos is cold, desolate and forsaken. So there’s a negative element to Tzafon.

So how do you how do you reconcile the סתירה between what צפון is? Is it good? Is it bad?

The⁴

גמרא in Bava Basra says: ר''א אומר עולם לאכסדרה הוא דומה ורוח צפונית אינה מסובבת

Bava Basra 25a–b

The world is surrounded on three sides, but the 4th side, the Tzafonis, is not enclosed.

There's a similar מדרש in Pirkei D’Reb Eliezar, and he adds a kneitch to it:⁵

רוּחַ פִּנַּת הַצָּפוֹן – בָּרָא וְלֹא גְמָרוֹ. אָמַר שֶׁכָּל מִי שֶׁיֹּאמַר שֶׁהוּא אֱלוֹהַּ יָבוֹא וְיִגְמֹר אֶת הַפִּנָּה הַזֹּאת שֶׁהִנַּחְתִּי וְיֵדְעוּ הַכֹּל שֶׁהוּא אֱלוֹהַּ.

Pirkei d’Rebbi Eliezer 3:3

HKBH created the Tzafon but he didn’t finish it. As if to say, “whoever feels they are a g-d, let them come and finish this 4th side and we’ll know they are a g-d.

The פרקי דרבי אליעזר and the גמרא both saying the same thing – that there's a place left unfinished, undone, and this is the tzafon.

So let’s be מתעמק a little bit.

The מקור for what I'm telling you is the רמח״ל's in אדיר במרום, a very deep and difficult ספר, not an easy ספר at all, and he discusses this עניין over there. And says the following:⁶

HKBH designed the world, where in every facet of the briya, the elyonim are mislabesh in the tachtonim. However, in רוח צפונית he says the elyonim are NOT mislabesh in the tachtonim.

Meaning, HKBH is mashpiya from eloynim into the tachtonim. And when He’s mashpi’a, the hashpa’a flows seamlessly, and achieves it’s intended results in a noticeable, Havana-dik way. It’s mislabesh b’tachtonim. However, any hashpa’a that flows thru the tzafon, does not get mislabesh b’tachtonim, meaning, it doesn’t come thru in a noticeable, Havana- way. The word צפון means hidden because it's something which is not manifest in the tachtonim.

Because it’s not manifest, there’s a lack of havanas and tfisas Adam. The גמרא בבא בתרא that speaks about all the others sides, all the ruchos are surrounded and defined. If I can define something, it means I can grasp it. Something undefined means it’s beyond the grasp of Adam.

The Tzafon is a form of הסתר . From what we can tell, there’s no hashpa’a coming m’l’malaeh. It’s the מקום for the רע and for the שדים and the רוחות and all those negative things because there doesn’t seem to be any mehalech there. It's like when the cat goes away the mice begin to play. It's a form of לית דין ולית דיין חס ושלום. That’s the tzad ha’Ra in the Tzafon.

However, there’s a tzad ha’Tov. There’s a rule that אין ברכה מצויה בדבר הסמוי מן העין. Having things revealed has a chissaron – Whatever is מגולה in this world is limited. Whenever I have a דבר מסוים , it's locked in – it doesn’t become less or more. If I lock money away in a vault, I don't lose money, I don't gain money, it is what it is. But that which is hidden is, for us, אין סוף.

In every other direction you have השפעות, tremendous amount of השפעות, but they are limited. The fourth direction has hashpa’os, but it appears as no השפעה because the earthly keilim are not מחובר to למעלה and so seemingly you have nothing – it’s not noticeable – but behind that hiddenness is a בלי גבול.

מה רב טובך אשר צפנת ליראיך. the רב טוב can only be שייך where it’s tzafun.

עולם הבא is a עולם הצפון – not only because הקדוש ברוך הוא did not reveal it to us, but because it doesn't have the ability to reveal itself in this world.

So in the צד צפון you have an extraordinary dichotomy between what is and what could be. What is, is nothing. What could be, is infinite.

Let's go back to our ענין and let's be עומד on the סוד of the צפונה לפני ה'.

In all עבודת אדם there's a מהלך in שכל and in דעת . When Adam’s sechel can be tofes something במילא I'm a בעל הבית on it.

למשל צדקה. צדקה is something that everybody has a feeling for it. A person understands it. Yes, it’s true that a person gives tzedakah because HKBH was metzaveh. But we also feel we’re helping others and becoming better people ourselves. There's a יד אדם in it. It's מוגדר and מוגבל and I have a תפיסה in it. That belongs to that חלק of עבודה that HKBH gave us a gilu’i in.

However, anything that is beyond t’fisas Adam, like mesiras nefesh, where a person gives everything up, there's no מקום תפיסת אדם in it. This is the nekuda of .עקידת יצחק

אברהם אבינו was כולו חסד and he came into a world that was steeped in עבודה זרה. And he brought into the world the תפיסה and הבנה of being a מיטיב. But to be מקריב his own son had no שייכות to this world or to Avraham’s tfisa. There was no התלבשות of that ענין into any שכל nor did anything in this world could correspond to it. And that's why it belongs to the חלק עבודה that's called צפון.

The חלק עבודה and the תיקון of the עבודה of צפון was a מעשה of אברהם when he gave up everything for something that had absolutely no תפיסה in his world. As a result, he became shayich to something that's אין סוף. That is צפונה לפני ה' ! When it's definable and understandable, I have a תפיסת. But when I have no tfisa in it, that’s the only place a person has real לפני ה' is the מקום that's צפון.

This is the inyan of the Korbon Olah. Which is koolo l’Hashem, and it’s also the חילוק between קדשי קדשים and וקדשים קלים By קדשים קלים there is a תפיסת אדם in it. The בעלים eats and has a חלק in it. That means it's a השפעה that has שייכות and tfisa in this world.

קדשי קדשים is only כהנים ומזבח, so that means that the world as a whole has no שייכות to it and certainly עולה which is כולו לה' this world has no אחיזה, no תפיסה in it. ובמילא that belongs to צפונה לפני ה'

I want to apply this to a few special עניינים.

One is there's a ייחוד in עבודה when עבודה is done not בפרהסיא. צניעות and הסתר are מעלה in עבודת השם. Not just because, stam, a person shouldn't show off, but because, in a much deeper אופן, those עבודות of a person that are בפרהסיאare always limited.

A person who's conscious of what's around him, so his עבודה is within a framework. It's גדר, it's מסובב. And it could be a very very big framework. But למעשה at the end of the day, that's all there is to it. You're encouraged by it, but you're limited by it.

A person who's עובד בהסתר is בעצם limitless. The אלתר of סלובודקה who למעשה is probably responsible for תורה in כלל ישראל today – the all the great מרביצי תורה, all the yeshivos, came from his בית מדרש, it's incredible. Yet no one knew anything about him. Everything about the person was mysterious. No one knew where he came from, no one knew much about him. He had a little notebook of private Kabbalos. They've tried to decipher it, but they couldn't. Everything was written in code. His initials that he wrote for himself were נתן צבי פינקל, הצפן. That was his code for himself and everything else was code. Everything was בהסתר. And הא דא בדא תליא.

There's another חלק, and that is wherever we have a מצב of הסתר פנים, we see it as troublesome, it's difficult, it's bothersome. we slog along, we slush along, we don't get any place. Things are just difficult. And in terms of practical accomplishment, we're so limited.

But if a person were to דהער that wherever there's צפון, his Avoda is coming from a deeper place. The place that I don't understand is the place where I’m tzafona lifnei Hashem. That’s the makom of the most chashuva Avoda!

אדרבה, Anything that's visible is good, but it's limited to that. But in those places where we really have a very rough time and on the visible level there doesn't seem to be any progress or going any place. That's a person’s own makom מוסר נפש, the person is tapping into something that's far beyond him.

There’s a very beautiful letter from the הברסלבר. Someone had written him that they had very difficult צרות and he says they're absolutely unfathomable, absolutely impossible to understand.

The Breslever wrote back to him that you're fortunate because if you would understand it, you would only have the צרות. Now that it's unfathomable, you have הקדוש ברוך הוא there. There's extraordinary depth to that נקודה. Wherever things are beyond שכל, that's דווקא where we have the a bli gvul of הקדוש ברוך הוא.

A third application: We have a Bein Hazmanim. During zman we have clearly defined sedarim. The gvulos have been drawn and defined for us. And that’s good. But there’s a chissaron to that, too. These are the gvulos and that’s it.

Bein Hazmanim is the 4th ru’ach in the briya where it’s open. There’s no framework. During z’man you have the external framework keeping you in check. But bein Hazmanim? What’s keeping you in check? It’s only you and Hashem. That’s mamash Tzafona Lifnei Hashem! When the framework was there, it wasn’t you and Hashem – it was you and the framework. But when there’s nothing external keeping you in check – that is the m’ula of Avodos.

In all these applications, if a person can remember that behind the undefined ru’ach tzafonis lies the bli g’vul hashpa’a of HKBH, then you can darher the מה רב טובך אשר צפנת ליראיך.

Good Shabbos!