Tefillah - 117 The Big Picture & The Details

Klal and P’rat – The General View and The Detailed View

The blessing of על הצדיקים concludes with משען ומבטח לצדיקים– that Hashem is the One whom the tzaddikim can rely on.

In all of Creation, there are always two views on how we can view things – one view is through seeing the klal, the general view, and another way is through seeing the p’rat, the details.

The klal is referred to as Chochmah\Wisdom – “All of them You created with wisdom” - while the understanding from the view of p’rat is called Binah\Contemplation. On the first day of Creation all was created, but it was all in its potential state. The klal was there, but there was no p’rat yet. In man, there are also the perspectives of klal and p’rat. These are two different perspectives, and sometimes they oppose each other.

Sometimes our avodah is to see through klal, sometimes we have to see through p’rat – and sometimes we need to use both at once.

Advantages of Seeing The “Klal”\General Picture

When a person has aspirations, if he doesn’t have see through klal, his aspirations will be limited, because he does not see the bigger picture of things. The more he expands his view on the klal of things, the more his aspirations will widen, because he has expanded his view. So klal is what gives a person aspirations to where he has to get to.

P’rat is when a person focuses on a particular point and he doesn’t veer from it, so that he can fully acquire it. However, the detriment to this is that when a person stays in a particular p’rat and he doesn’t see the klal, he will not get to the desired goal of life, because he never accesses the broader picture of things.

Another example of this concept is as follows. Man has the power of bechirah, to choose between good and evil. The Sages state that when the yetzer hora is present, it overpowers the any mention of the yetzer tov. The yetzer hora shows a person nothing but the act of the sin itself, and the person can’t see past it. If a person would be able to access the view of the klal, he would see the bigger picture - that there is punishment for the sin, and he would be able to ignore the voice of the yetzer hora. This is how the yetzer hora convinces a person to sin: it gets a person to ignore the klal and instead focus on a particular p’rat.

Advantages of Seeing Through P’rat\Focusing On Details

On the other end of the spectrum, the Vilna Gaon writes that when a person is learning, he must not think of anything else other than the page of Gemara he is learning; he should not think about the previous page of Gemara or the future page of Gemara, and he should not think about any worries at all, other than the current page of Gemara in front of him. The concept of this is that he must focus on the present moment and not think about anything else other than the current moment. This is for a person to focus on the p’rat, on the current moment, and not to think about the grand total of things.

Example of When We Need To Use Klal and Then P’rat

Another example: we have a mitzvah to love other Jews. A person has to think of the general soul of the Jewish people and love all Jews in the general sense. This gives you a perspective of klal, and this is the root of Ahavas Yisrael, because it helps you leave your private “I.” Here you leave the p’rat of your private self and you enter into the perspective of klal. But we also find that this is not enough, because if a person just loves the klal but he doesn’t seek to do chessed with individuals, his Ahavas Yisrael is not complete. So we have to leave our p’rat, then enter into klal, and then enter back into p’rat – by loving other Jews individually.

The yetzer hora always tells you to switch your true perspective. If you are supposed to use klal, it tells you to use p’rat. If you are supposed to use p’rat, it shows you the klal. So we have to make sure when and where to use klal and p’rat. Both are valid viewpoints and we just have to know when and where we should use either klal or prat.

Another example of the concept, which is very important, is as follows. A person can have aspirations to acquire all levels, but on the other hand, he must also be able to focus on a particular level and complete it. It is better to have quality than to have quantity. A person has a nature to get more and more, but it is better to be more exacting. We need to learn how to become exacting in our deeds, words and thoughts. P’rat is for a person to isolate each thing in its proper place and focus on each thing. This is how we use p’rat. This increases our power of dikduk (exactness) throughout the entire spectrum of our soul – in deed, word, and thought. So our general aspirations represent klal, and focusrepresents p’rat.

Thinking About The Big Picture of Our Journey Throughout Creation

Now that we have explained klal and p’rat we will return to what we have been discussing, that Hashem is משען ומבטח לצדיקים.

Man has a nature to rely on outer forces in order to feel dependent. The bigger the job, the more a person finds he has to rely on something. But with smaller actions, we don’t feel that we rely on other forces; we tend to feel that we are in control of things. And since most of time we perform actions that are small, we are spending most of the time thinking that we are in charge and that we don’t need to rely on anyone but ourselves.

If we look at life only through p’rat, and we only focus on the present – when this is viewed through just our nefesh hebehaimis, and our Nefesh Elokis isn’t revealed, then we will feel like we are capable of everything. For example, when we cross the street and get to where we have to, we get used to relying on ourselves for everything, and we mostly feel like we are in control of what we do. Most actions we do, which are small actions, make us feel that we don’t have to rely on anyone but ourselves. Only in the big actions, like when we need a job, do we start to feel dependent on others. But most of the time we are doing small things, so we tend to think that we are capable of everything. This is the view p’rat as experienced through our nefesh hebehaimis, which is what most people experience, who haven’t merited to reveal their Nefesh Elokis and therefore their nefesh habehaimis is dominant.

The true perspective is as follows. Think about the following concepts which are written about in our sefarim hakedoshim which will help you see the “big picture” of things:

There will be a new world after the year 6000. Our souls have been around 2000 years before Creation, and each of us will live for 10,000 years [and after that we will integrate with Hashem]. Moshiach will not come until all souls will be used up – people keep coming back down as soul reincarnations, again and again, to continue their centuries-long avodah.  Each soul is different in how much time we spend above and below - but we all live for 10,000 years. We are each given 10,000 years to complete our avodah. We all have gone through many experiences; we all stood at Har Sinai, and we have gone through many exiles and lifetimes, all the way until the current exile, which is the exile of Esav\Yishmael\Erev Rav.

On one hand we have to reflect about our current avodah, which is the view of p’rat, but we also have to reflect on the klal – to realize that we cannot reach the general goal of Creation just through ourselves. We have no one to rely on except for Hashem!

Without being aware of this, a person lives in total mochin d’katnus (immature mind). There is gilgul, there is techiyas hameisim, and we each have 10,000 years of experiences that each of our souls go through - and it’s overwhelming when you think about this grand picture of Creation, which we all have to go through so that our avodah can be complete. It can make you shudder the more you reflect about it: “Will I ever reach the avodah by the time it comes the year 10,000? How will I do it??” It makes us truly realize that we have no one we can rely on except Hashem.

In this way, you reflect on the klal – on the big picture of Creation – and you see where you come in to the big picture, what you have to do, and how much you need Hashem for this!

First we need to have the klal, to realize the path of Creation – and that makes us realize that we cannot reach our goal from our own power, and that we need to rely on Hashem for this. We have 10,000 years to complete our goal. We cannot do it on our own. This helps us leave p’rat and see the klal. This can help even our nefesh habehaimis grow afraid and realize that all we have is Hashem for help. After we see that klal and reflect about it until it is internalized in us as a feeling, we can then have complete emunah in p’rat - in Hashgacha Peratis (Divine Providence), that Hashem controls every last p’rat in Creation.

So the first stage is to see the klal of Creation, and then, to focus on how Hashem controls every p’rat. At first we can should reflect about this intellectually and keep reviewing it in concept until we feel it in our heart (through verbal repetition of this concept. The way to internalize knowledge in our heart is through verbal repetition of a concept, as it is written, “I spoke with my heart.”)

Our nefesh habehaimis can’t accept this mature perspective on life. Therefore, the only way to let it affect our nefesh habehaimis is to first focus on the klal of Creation,then on the p’rat, and by then, it will finally internalize into even our nefesh habehemis.

Perhaps this is the meaning of the statement in our Sages[1] that in the era preceding Moshiach, there will be so much fear in the world that we will realize that we have no one to rely on except Hashem. Once a person reflects on the klal of Creation, he can grow afraid of what the klal implies and come to realize how there is truly no one he can rely on other than Hashem.

We have seen how sometimes we use the view of klal, sometimes we use the view of p’rat, and how we use both. First we must see the klal of Creation, which will show us that we cannot get to the goal of life on our own. We must know this and internalize this by repeating this concept verbally, so that it can penetrate into our heart. And then we can keep reviewing it until it internalizes into even our nefesh habehaimis. Only after that can we can truly realize Hashgacha Peratis – that Hashem is the One who makes every detail happen.

Now we can understand better how Hashem is the משען ומבטח לצדיקים – that “we have no one to rely on except our Father in Heaven.”