The Dot In The Middle

In honor of the yima geulah of the month and connected to the parsha. 

Gemarah Berachot (8a)

כתיב פדה בשלום נפשי מקרב לי וגו' אמר הקב"ה כל העוסק בתורה ובגמילות חסדים ומתפלל עם הצבור מעלה אני עליו כאילו פדאני לי ולבני מבין אומות העולם.  

How are these things as if one is redeemed?  The Maharal explains (Netzach Ch. 10, Or Chadash 4:16) that golus means separation as Haman said מפוזר ומפורד, a state of division, a lack of cohesiveness.  On the national level that means that Klal Yisrael is not together but is scattered among various nations.  There is a lack of a concentration of everyone being together in the same land.  On an individual level it means פיזור הנפש where one is not able to put all of one's efforts concentrated into a task but instead one is always distracted by other nags and worries.  As the Chovot HaLevavot writes (into. to Shaar Habitachon) the pious one prays הרחמן יצילני מפיזור הנפש for that is the biggest distraction from being able to live properly in the present.  The antidote to golus, the פדיון, is joining together.  That is the tefillah bitzibbur, when a congregation can come together in prayer that is the opposite of golus.  Gemilas chasadim as well is an act of joining together with another individual to help them out.  Learning Torah is the antidote to פיזור הנפש, throwing one's self into the study of Torah purifies man's mind and allows him to see things in a clearer light (see Maharal himself who explains gemilas chasadim and Torah differently.)      

The root of all division and separation comes from the very forming of the world itself.  The Midrash (2:4) relates the words תהו ובהו חושך על פני תהום as a reference to the 4 גליות.  This means that the root of all the separations of golus stem from the very creation and concealment that exists from the very fact that the world is in existence. The existence of separation from one's source is an outgrowth of  the world's apparent separation from Hashem.  The world was created with a ה.  That is the 4 directions plus a middle point.  The 4 directions are the points of separation from the middle which was the point connected to Hashem and from there the world expands into the 4 directions of concealment to cover over the middle point. 

Esau's essence was to be lost in the world of the concealment.  Esau is Edom.  He sees red and that is taken in by it.  He is taken in by what meets the eye.  Yaakov's face was similar to that of Adam's.  His essence was compared to the essence of Adam, the צלם אלוקים reflected in man.  Esau takes the בגדי חמודות, he is taken in by the external glory of man, he doesn't grasp there is an internal beauty underneath.   

This is why Esau took along 400 men with him in order to combat Yaakov.  He wishes to bring the full power (4*10) of degrees of separation from the midpoint, the extreme of expansion, to drown Yaakov in being מפוזר ומפורד.  This is the קש of Esau (קש = 400.)  He is enthralled by the קד, the externality, the expansion of the physical world.  

The gematria of the word נשים is 400.  Woman take the seed of man and expand it.  They are given the creative capability of expansion.  That is why there are 4 אמהות to properly harness this power of expansion and tie it back to its source. 

The antidote to the number 4 of separation is the connection to the middle point, the number 5.  The ה inside עולם הזה.  The number 5 corresponds to the 5 levels of the neshama.  The greatest level is that of יחידה, the point of unification.  The yechida is the driving force behind action of mesiras nefesh.  To give own's self over totally to Hashem comes from the point of the soul that retains a connection despite all the concealments and that is the yechida.  When one uses mesiras nefesh then not only is the yechida accessed but all the levels of the neshama and the person himself throughout any great state of פיזור one may be in become illuminated by the light of the yechida.  The Gemarah cites the possuk of פדה בשלום.  Shalom is the point of unification of warring factors when they become united as one.  When the acts of Torah, chesed, tefillah bitzubbur are done, it elevates a person beyond the golus and then one is able to unite the concealment of the 4 directions of the world with their middle point. And the Rebbe adds in a maamer (Padah Beshalom 5741) every act of service of Hashem is also connected to mesiras nefesh and the yechida, 

ועפ"ז יובן הקשר דפדי' שבדרך מלחמה [העבודה שמצד חי', ולמטה יותר העבודה שמצד נר"נ] לפדה בשלום נפשי (יחידה), כי בכל עבודה ועבודה יש בה (בהעלם) המס"נ שמצד יחידה. וכדאיתא בתניא דעסק התורה והמצוות והתפלה הוא ענין מס"נ ממש. דכיון שאמיתית הענין דמס"נ (מס"נ ממש) הוא המס"נ שמצד יחידה, הרי נמצא, שבכל ענין דתורה ומצוות [אפילו הענינים הפשוטים דתומ"צ שאלמלא ניתנה תורה (ח"ו) היו למדים אותם מבהמת הארץ] יש כח המס"נ דיחידה.