Likutei Moharan 22:13/ליקוטי מוהר"ן כ״ב:י״ג

113. And this is the explanation of (Bava Kama 59b): {Elazar the Small put on black shoes and went to the market in Nahardea. The servants of the Exilarch saw him. “What’s this, that your wearing black shoes?” they asked. “I am mourning for Jerusalem,” he replied. “Are you so important that you can mourn [in public]?” they que st ioned. They saw this as a public display of haughtiness and had him arre st ed. “But I am an important person,” he prote st ed. “Who says so?” the servants countered. He said, “Either you ask me something [difficult], or I’ll ask you.” “You ask,” they said. He asked them: “Someone who cuts down a budding date tree [belonging to his neighbor], what does he have to pay?” “He pays the price of date buds,” the servants replied. “But the buds would have become full grown dates!” he retorted. “So let him pay for full grown dates.” “But he didn’t take full grown dates!” “Then you tell us,” the servants said. “He should pay a sixtieth,” Elazar replied. }

2Elazar the Small put on black shoes. What’s this? they asked him. I am mourning for Jerusalem, he replied — He was mourning for Jerusalem “a faithful city”—that is, for the degeneration of faith. This is why he put on black shoes, to indicate that the seal of the feet has been damaged. The seal becomes the blood of menstruation.

3This is, “black shoes.” The feet were damaged and became bloodied, for this black is actually red (Niddah 19a). It happens when there is damaging of faith, because faith is primary, as has been explained. {When faith, which is the seal of the hands, is damaged, the seal of the feet is automatically damaged. For the main thing is faith.}

4Are you so important that you can mourn in public? they que st ioned — In other words, they suspected him of haughtiness. Thus [they said to him], “It is your fault that the feet have been damaged,” as in (Psalms 36:12), “Let not the foot of the haughty come to me.” This is because haughtiness damages the feet, as in (Berakhot 43b), “Anyone who is haughty, it is as if he pushes away the feet of the Divine Presence.”

5Therefore, because they suspected him of haughtiness, they had him arrested. For the punishment for haughtiness is imprisonment, as our Sages said (Megillah 13b): “And if he grows haughty, the Holy One knocks him down; as is written (Job 36:8), ‘And if they are bound in chains….’” Thus, the punishment for haughtiness is imprisonment, which is why they had him arrested.

6He said, Either you ask me something difficult, or I’ll ask you — [Elazar reasoned,] “This will be the test to see if I am haughty. [If I am,] then it would be expected that I should not be able to answer you, for ‘anyone who is haughty loses his wisdom,’” (Pesachim 66b).

7He asked them: Someone who cuts down a budding date tree belonging to his neighbor, what does he have to pay? — “Cuts down a budding date tree” alludes to a blemishing of <holy> boldness. KuFRa (a budding date tree) corresponds to boldness, the sounds, as is written (Psalms 104:21), “The KaFiRim (young lions) roar after prey.” He asked: “What does he have to pay?”—someone who blemishes with this boldness. And they answered:

8He pays the price of date buds — <With that which he blemished, he should make amends.> And he asked:

9But the buds would have become full grown dates? — By having blemished the boldness, a damaging of faith becomes possible. This is: “taMRei” (full grown dates), corresponding to (Jeremiah 2:11), “Has a nation heiMiR (exchanged) its gods? But my people has exchanged its glory without benefit.” And they answered:

10So let him pay for full grown dates — As is due for the damaging of faith.

11But he didn’t take full grown dates! — For, even so, he has not as yet come to heresy. And he answered:

12He should pay a sixtieth — Namely, Gehennom: this entire world is one sixtieth of hell (cf. Taanit 10a). For “A brazen-faced person [is destined] for hell.” Our patriarch Avraham, of blessed memory, exchanged all forms of punishment for subjugation under foreign rule. Yet the punishment for brazenness remained exclusively in Gehennom. Hence, the person who blemishes holy boldness through brazenness of the Other Side, pays “a sixtieth”—namely, in hell.