Integral Torah Perspectives

A Dry Etrog is pasul. How should one check to see if the etrog is dry? Push a needle and thread through it and see if the thread is moist when it comes out. [If it is a year old, you can assume it is too dry.] Shulchan Aruch Orach Chayim 648:1 Taz: Um, isn't that a nekev mefulash - a hole going through the etrog that makes it pasul? However, nekev that makes it pasul goes all the way through or reaches the seeds. What it is referring to here is pushing it off to the side. We learn the psul of etrogim from treifot of animals. Just like we find a hole in the limb of an animal on the side can be kasher, so too here. 

When you say Ad-nai sefatai tiftach, you are asking for Hashem to open the door to his palace. (Ad-nai gematria 'heichal'. The lips are the gates, like it says, 'pitchu li sharei tzedek'.-open the gates or righteousness for me.) The malachim then check you to see if you are dressed properly in talit and tefilin (yeladim asher ein bahem kol mum... ve'asher koach bahem la'amod lifnei hamelech - youth who are not blemished and have the wherewithal to stand in front of the king), and if you come bearing gifts (of tzedaka that you gave to poor people).  -Tikun 18

Hashem sends a malach-angel to help a person who falls low. This help is from the highest level. This help is mitlabesh - expresses itself according to the need. When a person falls, if the help does not present itself in fitting with the lowly state they are in, they will not be able to relate or the help will miss its mark. This is like in the story of Esther. When this happens the klipa can correspondingly ascend to the highest level to try and get yenika - sustained. This is why Haman got so high. Really it was a preparation for his downfall as the descent of the divine help allows for the ascent of the klipa, but really it is one mechanism to overcome the downfall and lift one back up to the hights. -Mittler Rebbe

The First seuda Ester made just for the king but invited Haman, Haman was elaveted, but secondary. The second feast for both haman and the king, equating them.  This brought Haman up to the essence of the makif where he would fall from.  It says of Edom, 'Im tagbia ka'nesher, me'sham oridcha - if you lift yourself up high like an eagle, that is where I will bring you down from. In this context, Haman had to be elaveted to the highest level before he could be brought down. In this exalted state Haman really thought he could 'kovesh'  - conquer the queen, even in the presence of the king. It is from this highest hight that was his downfall. -Mittler Rebbe

Shisha chodashim be'shemen ha'mor - six months in Mher oil, mor as in bitterness over being far from Hashem. 6 months in 'besamim', nice smelling spices refers to the divince pleasure  we have in doing mitzovt. 'u'ba'ze ha'na'ara ba el ha'malech - that is how the sould prepares to go present in front of the king. However, lo biksha davar - we do not go into the king with our own agenda, rather, with kabalat ol. -Mittler Rebbe

Hadasim - myrtle is the same concept as the shoshana - rose, only when it is not amongst the thorns. The Rose's scent is specifically amongst/because of the thorns around it. The hadasim do not need the thorns to be fragrant. hadasa is malchut as it is in the higher world of Atz', shoshana amongst the thorns, as malchut descends into the lower worlds of bi''a to mevarer - purify. Hadasim are in a pure state on their own, while the special mission of Rose is to purify others. -Mittler Rebbe

Ve'natati esev be'sadcha is the part of shma that refers  to the mitzvah of tzedaka. -Mittler Rebbe