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Guarding Simple Faith: Life for the Soul

Mishlei 3:21–22

בְּנִי אַל יָלֻזוּ מֵעֵינֶיךָ נְצֹר תֻּשִׁיָּה וּמְזִמָּה. וְיִהְיוּ חַיִּים לְנַפְשֶׁךָ וְחֵן לְגַרְגְּרֹתֶיךָ

My son, let them not depart from your eyes; guard sound wisdom and discretion. And they will be life to your soul and grace to your neck.

19The verse tells the son not to let them depart from before his eyes, to guard tushiyah and mezimah, sound wisdom and discretion, and that they will be life to his soul.¹ We know that the unification of the Name in the head tefillin [worn between the eyes] is אהי״ה הוי״ה אהי״ה, Ehyeh, Havayah (the Four-Letter Name), Ehyeh, whose numerical value (21 + 26 + 21 = 68) is that of chaim (חיים), “life,” as in “years of life and peace they will add to you.”² And as is known, “life” is the mochin, the powers of the mind. That is the meaning of “guard tushiyah and mezimah.” Mezimah means discretion, but Chazal read it as mi-zimah, guarding “from a matter of zimah,” lewdness:³ guard yourself from thinking foreign thoughts, and from the new inquiries, “new ones that came of late.”⁴ Only believe with simple, complete faith, and “they will be life to your soul”: you will draw vitality to the soul from the Source of life.

[ז] בְּנִי אַל יָלוּזוּ מִנֶּגֶד עֵינֶיךָ נְצוֹר תּוּשִׁיָּ' וּמְזִימָּה וִיהִי' חַיִּים לְנַפְשֶׁךָ וְגוֹ' (משלי ג') הִנֵּה נוֹדַע יִחוּד הַשֵּׁם מִתְּפִילִּין שֶׁל רֹאשׁ הוּא אַהֵי' הוֹי' אַהֵי' גֵּימַטְרְיָא "חַיִּים. ע"ד שְׁנוֹת "חַיִּים וְשָׁלוֹם יוֹסִיפוּ לָךְ. וְחַיִּים הוּא מוֹחִין כַּנּוֹדָע. וְזֶה נְצוֹר תּוּשִׁיָּ' וּמְזִימָּה כמאחז"ל (ע"ז י"ז) מִדְּבַר מִזִּימָּה. מִלַּחְשׁוֹב מַחֲשָׁבוֹת זָרוֹת. וּבְהַחֲקִירוֹת חֲדָשׁוֹת שֶׁמִּקָּרוֹב בָּאוּ. רַק לְהַאֲמִין בֶּאֱמוּנָה פְּשׁוּטָה וּשְׁלֵימָה וִיהִי' חַיִּים לְנַפְשֶׁךָ שֶׁיַּמְשִׁיךְ חַיּוּת לַנֶּפֶשׁ מִמְּקוֹר הַחַיּוּת:

There the wording is “from your eyes” (me'einecha); the Rebbe gives it as “from before your eyes” (mineged einecha). ↩
Mishlei 3:2. ↩
Avodah Zarah 17b, on “Mezimah will guard you” (Mishlei 2:11). ↩
Devarim 32:17. ↩

In shortThe tefillin's Names equal chaim, life; guarding the mind from foreign thoughts and new philosophies, in simple faith, draws life to the soul from its Source.

Takeaway

Guard your mind from stray thoughts and from fashionable inquiries that unsettle faith. Simple, complete faith is not a lesser path: it is what draws life into the soul from the Source of life.

Learn this in the merit of Rav Yerachmiel Yisroel Yitzchok Danziger of Alexander. His yahrzeit and life ›

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