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Rebbe Nachman didn’t come to make us “more religious.” He came to make us more real.
Rav Shlomo Katz opens the “treasure chest” of Rebbe Nachman’s Torah — teachings that heal the inner storm, settle the mind (yishuv hadaas), and draw down peace and truth into our homes, our relationships, and our own hearts.
Good morning everyone. Chodesh Sivan we're learning l'ilui nishmas בתיה פיגא בת ישראל le'refuah sheleimah of עטל שרה בת חנה יעקב שלמה בן ביילא a zivug hagun for Esther bas Rochela also in memory of Rabbi Abie Warhaftig on his twenty-first yahrtzeit sponsored by his children, the Miller family. The Finns dedicated the learning for a tefilah for nitzachon for Am Yisrael and for refuah sheleimah of דוד נתנאל בן איילה אהובה Eliyahu ben Chava רועי חיים בן מירב David ben Ziv and אברהם בן יעקב דבורה. The week is sponsored by the Katzenreitz families in memory of my precious aunt חוה יטא בת חיים זעליג יצחק הכהן on her second yahrtzeit which was two days ago.
And tomorrow we'll have a nice dedication for someone's birthday. Does he know? I tried to do it in a way that he wouldn't know. Right, I mean, only teachers that teach. He saw on the bulletin board.
Oh, they put it on the bulletin board. Okay. That's fine. Right, that was when he got surprised.
When he saw it. Okay, everybody, let's learn. You can pass these pages around. I think that it would be a nice thing to learn straight out from Rebbe Nachman about shalom, about peace, in a way that only the Rebbe could speak about it.
I'm not talking about peace between nations right now, that's very, very, very far from that, although Hashem can do anything in any second, but obviously we're speaking more about peace בינינו ובין אחינו ואחיותינו and even more deeply beinenu l'vein atzmenu, having shalom inside. One of the biggest blockages between a person's reaching a place of shalvat hanefesh, of serenity of the soul, is that he feels, she feels, that there's an inner battle between two koachot that are happening simultaneously inside, and it's not only necessarily bad versus evil, like it's more in the Tanya. Now we're speaking about good versus good, also, which one of the good that I'm feeling is really me? So having shalom, and then when you can't find shalom between those two places inside of you, that can even be nice ideas and good places, it can start to stir up machloket. It's crazy.
Even from two good options. Whether it can, think about it, whether it's which community should I move to, this is good, this is good, oh, I don't have yishuv hadaat, poof. Which school should this... this is a good school, this is a good school.
Obviously, when it comes people looking for their zivug, these things come up even more, frontal, by figuring out between two good options what the right inyan should be. But this inyan of the tension between something that seems to be hafachim going on inside prevents a person from really getting to the place of yishuv hadaat and shalvas hanefesh and serenity of the soul. So first of all, let's acknowledge something. It's a Thursday morning in the heat of June, after a few years of war, and we're sitting and we're learning Rebbe Nachman of Breslov's Torah.
Let's just call certain things out as just pure good. We have to keep on doing that. This is just good. These shoes I'm wearing really, I got new shoes a few weeks ago and I made an avodah of every single day being going like this a few times a day, this is just good.
This is like this shtender, we have to start from sometimes that's mamash the way to do it. About things that there's no mach... I don't have any machloket right now about this shtender, this little shtender over here, I don't have any right. The chevra from the content team do because they think it doesn't look good.
I don't care about, obviously everyone has their inyan, for me this is really nice, I think I got this on my family got this for me on one of my birthdays. It's nice. Start with those things that are nice. But I just mentioned the birthday present that I got a few years ago, this shtender that I just, that's nice.
What's that? The family got this one for me. Is there an extra page? So we have these things in life that we can't just say about them, they're just good, they're just good, because the things that are mevalbel osanu, even if they're both good, we're not able somehow to just say, wow, this is a lot of good, because the... Because I need always hachlatiyut. The word in Hebrew is hachlatiyut.
Hachlatiyut, hachlatiyut, hachlatatiyut, hachlatatiyut even, which in in English means complete like decisiveness, like like total and utter decisiveness in order for there to be Shalom. In order for there to be Shalom. Decisiveness of what? Whatever it is, whatever it like like whatever it is that I find myself in, yeah, that it's good. Now, the piece you have in front of you is from Likutey Etzos, which is basically summaries of pieces that are brought down in Likutey Moharan, it's usually the source of it where it is in Likutey Moharan is found at the end of the piece, like you'll see on the two pieces we have in front of us.
To look, to learn this inside Rebbe Nachman in Likutey Moharan really would take us a very very long time and we'd have to explain a lot of very complex concepts in order to get to the bottom line of what the how Rebbe Nosson brings it out over here. But it's Rebbe Nachman's words, it's the same it's the same place. Gevalt so. Shetihiyeh zechiyah that there should be a ness amongst Am Yisrael and there should be Shalom beineinu.
Amen. Likutey Etzos, Shalom, Os Dalet.
לפי השלום שבדור כן יכולים למשוך את כל העולם לעבודתו ולעבדו שכם אחד which sounds absolutely dreamy. Rebbe Nachman says like this: In accordance to the Shalom that reigns in the generation, you can draw the whole world to serve Hashem.
I'm going to say that again: in accordance to the Shalom that is found in every generation, you can draw the whole world to serve Hakadosh Baruch Hu. When in davening do we speak about this the clearest during the year? It's really Rosh Hashanah. Rosh Hashanah and and Yom Kippur, right?
ויאתיו כל לעבדך ויברכו שם כבודך. And then there's a one of the words there is ויטו שכם אחד לעבדך.
That that literally means they will all be leaning everyone together towards You. And on Rosh Hashanah when the malchus is in the air and Yom Kippur it's still lingering in the air, we speak about this concept. But the Rebbe is saying in accordance to the Shalom that is found in every generation, you can draw the whole world to serve Hakadosh Baruch Hu all together. Kol ha'olam includes non-Jewish people, right? Just to be clear over here.
Kol ha'olam is the whole world.
כי על ידי השלום שיש בין בני אדם הם מדברים זה עם זה. What does it mean that there's peace that there's Shalom between people? So the Rebbe tells us in the get-go saying Shalom does not mean that everyone agrees with each other, not at all. What did he say over here? What is what does Shalom mean? That people speak to each other.
That's what Shalom means.
כי על ידי השלום שיש בין בני אדם הם מדברים זה עם זה, they're talking to each other.
והם חוקרים זה עם זה מה הוא התכלית מכל העולם כולו ומהבליו. And they investigate and they search and they ask together, what is the purpose of all of this world umehevelov and all the vanities that are placed before us, all the things that are like they just they're here and gone in a second and together people are discussing and wondering together, what is the inyan of this whole thing?
והם מסבירים זה לזה האמת.
And they they explain the truth to each other. What does that mean they explain truth to each other? This could mean that at that moment that one person sees a clarity regarding the shtuyot of the world, they call it out. And then this person calls it out. And more and more emes is bring put to the front, which means that more and more vanity and shtuyot is being called out.
שסוף כל סוף that at the end of the day אין נשאר מהאדם כלום, nothing is left of man after they check out, כי אם מה שהכין לעצמו לאחר מותו לעולם הנצחי, aside from what he set up and prepared for himself after his death in the eternal world.
כי אין מלוין לו לאדם לא כסף ולא זהב because neither gold or silver goes with the person up there to the next world. I've said this before, this is a very important thing to remember: in Breslov this Torah was taken very, very seriously. There are is a common theme amongst hespedim by the great Breslover giants that when people say anything about them at their funeral, the real big giants from the last generation, I've heard this in the name of the Rebetzins, not that they said this in public obviously, but that this was said about them, they would say, this is what you were thinking about every day of your life, not dying, but going into the world of Olam HaEmet, and you lived your whole life anticipating this moment.
So are we sad and broken? Of course we'll miss you. But you lived your whole life of beirur haemet and now you're going to a place called Olam HaEmet. So basically, sei gezunt, have a good time. This is what you were, this is what you were longing for, this is what you were working for every single day of your life.
You see Breslover Chasidim that obviously there was one emet, that was the Rebbe's Torahs emet and the Rebbe's the Rebbe v'chulu. But how to get there was taken very literally through all the etzos that Rabbi Nachman would give about this beirur of what is vanity and what's not vanity and what am I preparing for myself? What am I leaving in this world other than other etzos for people to reach emet while they're alive? Now what happens to a person while they reach more and more emet? How do you know if you're reaching more and more emet in your life? And this is a little bit of a, this is a heavy one, okay? I want you to listen to this really deeply. I want to listen to this very deeply. How does a person know if they're getting closer and closer to emet in their life? If they have more and more shalom with other people and inside their hearts.
Why? Why davka that? Why are we saying that based on what we just learned over here? What do you think? It means that they're talking. Huh? It means that they're talking. So first of all, it means you're actually in dialogue and you're in conversation with people. Nachon.
And what about beini l'vein atzmi? Why is it that we say that a person knows they're closer and closer to emet if they have more shalom in their heart? If they could feel more peaceful inside, that means you're closer to emet. Because in some, I think those things that are blocking us from our clarity, you've cracked through a lot of these dividing screens and klipot. And there's like this, you can't explain this, but it's like, and I bless us all with this, to wake up in the morning and to go to sleep, have one day of our lives that just has shalom, that just has shalom that doesn't have this, this continuous fighting through klipot. And I could, I could spend one whole day of just chucking all the vanity that is not needed into the garbage.
lo tzarich zeh. As the Rebbe continues here and he says in the third paragraph, ועל ידי זה משליך כל איש את שקר אלילי כספו. It's very interesting language. Through this journey that we're speaking about, about searching about the tachlis of this world, about discussing the purpose of this world, what ends up happening is that you chuck your the lie of the gods of your money into the fire.
sheker elilei kaspo. We're not talking, the Rebbe doesn't mean here, once you've figured out a way to live in poverty, now you're ready for shalom. ma pitom. Because that wouldn't work with other teachings of Rabbi Nachman where he specifically says how there's a certain shvil of Torah.
There's a specific shvil, a path of Torah, that you can only learn and grasp unless you're actually rich in this world. The Rebbe wasn't into trying to be poor. There are other people that that have that inyan. Not saying good or bad about it.
That's not Rabbi Nachman's inyan. But you could be the richest, you could be crazy rich after having thrown all the gods, the the gods of the lies of your money into a fire. Because if you've realized that your tafkid in this world is to use all this money leshem u'lechavod u'l'tiferet, you're not living with any vanity yet. So there was actually I saw a clip yesterday.
I don't know if you know who Scooter Braun is. He's like a celebrity, I don't know what his job is. Influencer? Not an influencer. maishpia? No, he's like a producer.
Of music? Entertainment? I think entertainment, yeah. He's a producer. And he's a he's a Yid? Yeah. Oh, cool.
And he was just talking about, but he's I think probably a conservative Jew. was talking about maaser on this podcast business. I'll have to send you the clip, it was really crazy. And he was saying that it's something that was gifted to you and you're given this money to do and he was literally saying between 10 and 20% that you should be giving, that if it's entrusted with you but you're using it, if it's given to you, you're given it so that you can use it in a positive way to give it to others and if it's taken away, then it's taken away for a reason.
And people did the interviewer look at them like you're insane? I only got that little I don't even know who's interviewing him I only saw this little clip but it was just a crazy thing like he wasn't on a Jewish podcast. Oh it wasn't a Jewish podcast? Oh even better. That's wonderful. Do you remember does anyone here remember Evan and Jaron? Yeah of course.
So mamesh one of my best friends in the world one of the edim on our ketubah was their producer their manager when they started. So we were very friendly with them when they were really had a few really hot years that they had that one hit wonder Crazy for this Girl. Never thought that would come up in a shiur but that was their thingy. And he had a lot of hashpa'ah on them back then this is the beginning when they were just really starting and getting up there and they wrote they used to be remember tapes and the CD covers meaning not just the cover but like you'd flip that little booklet that had all the lyrics and the credits so people would take time and read through today people today you want to hear it back then the artist sometimes would send very they would write very clear messages as to who they want to thank the point of the album and all these things I used to love reading those things I would read all of them like any artist I liked I would always read the jacket that's what it's called the jacket.
So they wrote in there I'll never forget this because you see I never have thought about it till you just said this this was a very long time ago they wrote in there they want to thank the greatest partner anyone could ever ask for and it's a partner that only is taking 10%. Now their crowd had no idea what they were talking about like who's this I want a partner like this. Gets you to start thinking in this terminology it's a completely different zach. It's great.
It's great right? So again back we got here because of money right? Money Rebbe Nachman doesn't mean over here that you throw away any money you have. It means the gods of the lies of what money really means in this world. That's what we're throwing away. That money is going to make you happy.
That bidiuk bidiuk that it's all dependent on if I have that nachon nachon. It could also be from kissufim like the gods of what you yearn for? It could but not here because this term elokei chaspo because it's not a sheker. No kissufim was always only used he'll say their ratzonos ra'im or stuff like that. But when the word when the term if it was kissufim it would be kissufim because here when it says sheker elokei chaspo it literally means that which like Bina was saying this is going to make me if I have this physical thing my simcha will come to this world.
And after that the Rebbe וממשיך ופונה את עצמו להשם יתברך ולתורתו ועבודתו. From there the more that I sifted through this vanity away shalom felt more and more this is another siman that you're connecting more to emes that from there it gives you the time the headspace and the ratzon to serve Hashem to learn Torah to live Torah ומקרב את עצמו אל האמת and you get closer and closer to the truth. Aval now this was all utopia everything we described right now givald it's amazing aval כשאין שלום חס ושלום. When there is no peace God forbid מכל שכן כשיש מחלוקת חס ושלום.
Not only is there no peace but there's actually machlokes. Machlokes means strife, argument, dispute.
אזי אין מתוועדין יחד זה עם זה. Then now we're talking about let's start with two people two individuals then you can't mitvadin means you don't have a hisvadus you don't have a farbren you can't farbren together you can't be together you can't sit with each other which ends up of which ends up.
preventing having important conversations.
ואין מדבר אחד עם חבירו מהתכלית. The Rebbe is saying peace is not only that we could sit together and sing the same songs and talk about the same memories. Peace enables people to sit together to have a crucial and important conversation.
And that conversation is what's the tachlis of this world. Now why did I want to do this piece today? Because I am so broken over what happened last night in Alon Shvut with this חילול השם אין כמוהו of a judge that was attacked in his home by a mob of people that are so misguided. Yes, I'm sure they have a lot of zechuyos, I'm sure they learn a lot of Torah, I'm sure they have a lot of shmiras hamitzvos, but it's like this is insane, this is crazy. You know what I'm talking about? You saw this on the news? I was called on the scene.
Huh? I was called on the scene. What does that mean? Because one of them, they weren't allowed to leave, the police wanted to detain them, and they wanted to get off the bus. So they said that someone fainted, so immediately the ambulance was called, and by the time we got there they were at the—the police took them away. So no one there from this chevra, no one would ever sit and talk with other people about tachlis because they know the tachlis, they have the tachlis, it's clear to them what the purpose is.
And if you don't agree with me about what the tachlis is, we can't sit and talk together. That can't be, it poshut can't be. I was very shaken by a post by Rabbi Moshe Taragin about this and it really, I went to sleep thinking about this, I woke up thinking about this. That certain things are complex, he said.
The drafting of chareidim into the army is a complex issue, no one should think it isn't. The aftermath of—but what happened last night is not complex. It's bizayon, חילול השם אין כמוהו, it's disgusting. And all I'm thinking this morning, Ribbono Shel Olam, can we find a way? Can there be enough people, enough young people in the tzibur hachareidi that are trusting enough in the godly soul that Hashem gave them, that other pieces of other godly souls that don't look like them also have something to say about the tachlis of the emes? And can we find the right people and start talking together about the tachlis of the emes? And may they rebel against their leadership.
Like that's my berachah mamash, like that's my tefillah, may they rebel against this whole silent leadership that is not leading these hundreds of thousands of Yiddishe neshamos to seek peace. To poshut seek peace with Am Yisrael. That's what it is. That's what I'm feeling today.
Because the Rebbe says, look, fourth paragraph, second line, ואפילו כשמתוועדים יחד לפעמים ומדברים יחד, because sometimes when you do end up and figure out a way that, "Okay, let's have a panel." Panels are—panels can be very destructive. Panels are not always what we—panels present themselves as if, like, we're going to bring a bunch of different opinions and show how it's possible to be together. Sometimes the opposite happens. There's a panel and it's just a platform for people to say how much the other person is not looking at the tachlis of this world.
It's a very tricky thing, mamash a tricky thing. One time I was asked to sit on a certain panel that it was clear to me that I was just going to be a korban. Like a—what do you say, like a victim? No, no, like a—scapegoat? Prey, like yeah. I said, "No, no." But we're showing differences of opinion.
No, no, this is not. You have to be—you have to have a lot of siyata d'shmaya to know what to participate in and what not, mamash. Because the Rebbe says it sometimes when it looks like ואפילו כשמתוועדים יחד לפעמים ומדברים יחד, אין נכנסים דבריו בלב חבירו, your words will not enter the heart of your friend machmas hanitzachon because to the other person it can't be that there's no menatzeiach. Like there has to be a winner, there has to be—and what does a winner mean? My way is the right way.
v'hamachlokes v'hasina vehasina vehakina and then just room for machloket sina vekina.
כי מחלוקת ונצחון אינו סובל אמת the Rebbe says. What does that mean, eino sovel? It can't tolerate truth. Machloket and the need for there to be a winner can't stomach, they can't tolerate truth.
They can't. Nimtza, so we find from this, שעיקר ההתרחקות מהשם יתברך של רוב בני אדם הוא על ידי המחלוקת. So we see here that really distancing people from Hashem, most people, the distancing that happens from Hashem, meaning that a person feels, is really through machloket שנתרבה עכשיו בעוונותינו הרבים המקום ירחם. What is he saying over here? The end here is very, very important.
Everything here is very, very important but listen to this and try really work with your hearts here, less with your head, 'cause it's not about understanding a language here, it's about hearing something of the neshama. The Rebbe's speaking this whole time about machloket between people, about not being able to fabreng together, to hear each other, but he ends up saying that the real thing that causes people to be far from Hashem is machloket. What do you mean? You should have ended off here saying נמצא שעיקר ההתרחקות של רוב בני אדם מבני אדם הוא על ידי המחלוקת. Right? You should say the ikkar of people feeling far from each other is because of machlokes.
But Rebbe Nachman says over here, it's we see here that people, the real reason people are far from Hashem is because of machloket they have with other people. Why is he saying that it's about Hashem? It should be that the machloket that's be... you understand the question? This is very, very important. This is the point of the shiur today.
Read again the last paragraph here.
נמצא שעיקר ההתרחקות מהשם יתברך של רוב בני אדם הוא על ידי המחלוקת שנתרבה עכשיו בעוונותינו הרבים המקום ירחם. What are we saying should have been written here?
נמצא שעיקר ההתרחקות בין בני אדם הוא על ידי המחלוקת. That really the feeling of feeling far by most people from each other is because there's machlokes.
But Rebbe Nachman says no, feeling far from Hashem is really because of machloket between people. 'Cause they're doing it in the name of Hashem. I mean what happened last night, what is our reaction besides the fact that we're horrified for the family is that these people are doing chillul Hashem because in the name of Torah mitzvot and Hashem they're doing such a non-religious thing. Nachon.
So many people have I just want step by step 'cause there's a lot here but this is a very important thing. Most people that have this nitzotz of emet in their heart that grew up in those circles at a certain point get a whiff of the sheker of this. So what do they have to do in order to keep their sanity when they wake up? They have to check out completely from anything that even resembles Hashem. Because that world resembled Hashem.
Nachon, that's one thing, yeah. But I think it's more than that. I think once a person is so in their head of machloket, then there is no room for emet, like we said. So that's why we can't get close to, that's why that's what keeps us away from because we're not making room for that.
Nachon. There's no space anymore. Nachon. So there's one more element here that I want you all to listen to.
This I think is the nekudah hapnimit po. What's the purpose of people getting together? Why should people get together? Why should we find common ground? Just 'cause we love each other? That's not why Hashem created the world and created people. Hashem's light. How do you bring Hashem's light? By talking about what? Hashem, emet.
Talking about what the Rebbe said in the beginning over here. Look back in the second paragraph.
כי על ידי השלום שיש בין בני אדם הם מדברים זה עם זה והם חוקרים זה עם זה מהו התכלית מכל העולם כולו ומהבליו והם מסבירים זה לזה האמת. But when there's machloket, what can't happen? Harmony.
Discussions between people of sharing, bouncing ideas off each other that all are trying to lead people to the tachlit of emet. And when those conversations can't happen, so what's the result of that machloket? Less clarity about what Hashem wants from this world. So it's such a focus on what separates you, like most of the time 98% of what we think is with the other person is really the same. And all we focus on is that 2% and it becomes so much bigger than the 98%.
Which is so crazy because really you could have people that have, let's say like this, they have like bememet lifestyle-wise, let's say lifestyle-wise they have like 80% differences between each other. Let's just say, veyesh hamon, plenty of people like that, right? But forget about the percentages, if they sit down and discuss not why they chose their life opinions, but if they discuss let's talk about what is havel in this world, they could bring down such shalom that makes the differences be completely meaningless. So there's two things going on, there's shalom and there's more of a clarity of דע מה ה' אלקיך שואל מעמך, finding out having a better clarity about what Hashem is asking of us. And that brings the Shechinah when two people are speaking in a way of shalom with each other.
Nachon? Shechinah is right there. The Shechinah resides. The Shechinah's right there. But the point I feel like of this teaching over here is that we have to understand machloket is not the the destruction of machloket is not just that people don't like each other, but that it robs people away from an important conversation and what's that conversation? What is this world really about? I'm very lucky because of many reasons, but one main reason that in this context is that because I hung out for so many years and still do sometimes with musicians that are very different from each other.
But we have that thing called the harmony of music and there we know we're hakol beseder. So there's a safety to have very important conversations about the tachlit emet. I'm thinking about one person specifically that's very close to my family who looks and acts probably nothing like any of our minhagim of the house. But he has such a such a special place in our hearts, such a special place in our hearts.
Every single time we're together we have sichot that mamash are described in the second paragraph. We have shalom between us so we speak to each other ואנחנו חוקרים זה עם זה מה תכלית מכל העולם כולו הבלו. Unfortunately there's a brainwashed society within Am Yisrael that says you can't have conversations like this with people that aren't holding. Right? It's so not my derech.
Or Rabbi Nachman. Nachon. Meaning, to have conversations with people that I agree with and that look like me and act like me about what the tachlit of this world is I don't know how far I don't know how much tachlit we could get to. Nothing chidush would come from that.
Nothing would, right, it'd be like, yeah, let's just yeah, let's just be stronger in what we already agree with and make each other feel good about it. Nachon. Echo chamber. Yes, it's not no chidush in that Beit Midrash and we have to the Mishna in Pirkei Avot tells us, you know, about the danger about a Beit Midrash without a chidush is not a good thing.
This this this brainwashed way of thinking that it's assur to talk to people, listen Mira, you know we have a lot of common friends from worlds that don't look like our chevra. What I get from certain sometimes conversations with that kind of chevra, you know, Zalman's chevra, I can't it's not that it doesn't make me think for one second I'm you know, I think they have the truth and probably I should change my ideology. That's bichlal not what happens. There's a there's an appreciation for those conversations because it just you feel like there's shalom between us, we're choker et ha'emet.
I don't know. It's important that choker et ha'emet doesn't mean like question the emet. Chas veshalom. Chas veshalom.
God forbid. Betach. Search, yeah. Yeah, no, but it's important what you're saying because in in in modern Hebrew, not Rabbi Nachman's Hebrew, in modern probably if he was around today he wouldn't use the word because modern Hebrew chakira means investigation which means questioning.
No, no, no. It means searching deep. That that that's really what it means so it's a good diyuk what you're saying. Nachon.
Nachon. So then the question would obviously be so... So why don't you have people that don't keep Torah and mitzvot come on a panel here to, because then someone will say how could you have the how could you have that person saying their voice in public? I don't know, I haven't really thought about these things too much but these are not things that scare me at all. L'efeich, it scares me to keep on bringing the same type of person to come and share Torah and think, that definitely scares me.
The same thing, just more of it, like I was saying yesterday to the chevra in the mensch here, all these Alonay Shabbat, Baruch Hashem, here we're not we don't have this epidemic of all these pamphlets that get spread out before davening and then basically people are just reading these Alonay Shabbat instead of talking to Hashem. But if you did open up a bunch of them, kimat all of them sound the same. I could mashlim, I could I could open up a lot of these pamphlets of the same types of ideas, I could finish every paragraph. Be'emet, it's all it's just more of the same.
It's just more of the same. We're going to go to elections soon, it's more of the same thing again and again and again. More of the same thing. But could you imagine if there was a miflagah that was called Miflaget Hashalom Beineinu, right? And this was the platform.
The matsa was this. Better. Yishtabach Shemo. Only women could start a miflagah like that, not men.
Marriage is like that. Every marriage is a pina of, right, two worlds that are completely opposite choosing to put in the effort to come together and make shalom bayis. So I was at my nephew's engagement party last night. Mazel tov, mazel tov.
So I just feel like maybe that's what opens our hearts so much, one of the things that opens our hearts so much at chuppahs, right? Or at l'chaims, like it's these two worlds coming together at the beginning of and looking to find the common ground and to build from that. Amen. It should always be inspired it should. Yeah.
I feel like it's like a puzzle, if we're all the same piece, the picture wouldn't be able to be seen, but because we're all different pieces, it comes together. Right, the sha'ila is, the Ishbitz says, but the Ishbitz says in B'shlach in Bamidbar but what happens are you okay with a few pieces of the puzzle being lost? So there are people that are like it's okay as long as you could see the ikkar picture. You can't. That you're right.
Every single piece has to be in that puzzle. The Ishbitz says the further you stand from a puzzle, the less you notice if something's missing. The closer you get to the puzzle, the more you realize that if pieces are missing, the piece is not complete. Not the shalom, the chelek.
So I want to first of all this is the first piece. We have time for one more yeah what is this next piece. This is the first thing that B'ezrat Hashem we will be determined to find people that are not like us that we have shalom with them in order not just to be kumbaya. It's not just about let's be b'shalom.
That's not a Jewish thing, let's just sit together. The Jewish thing is let's be together to investigate now I'm nervous to use the word lechapes et ha'emet together. It's not peace for the sake of peace. It's peace for the sake of coming closer to you, which is the tikun of the end over here because that's the opposite of hitrachakut.
That's hitkarvut to Hashem Yitbarach. You have to mochal me. Your husband's an exception. Your husband's an exception.
Why are you saying that? Because obviously I probably align much more with that channel than other channels, but they really have to get this Torah on because yesh adayin it's too rough for me. Like I have friends that are Breslovers and they can't watch it because they just like אולי זה אמת אבל זה לא מביא עוד אמת לעולם. You understand what I'm saying, right? So I'm sorry maybe I shouldn't have said that but no no and I'm and your husband's a kohen so therefore it's a different he has a different way of saying his emet but obviously those shows that are on late at night זה לא זה עדיין זה לא מביא את האור עדיין. A lot of people are saying that.
Yeah. And it has it has the opportunity though. Because it doesn't invite enough of the different opinions? On the contrary, no, they they bring it. Is it to highlight the differences or is it to highlight the two percent? Yeah.
Bidiuk. Like what's the purpose? It's like pull into extremes. pulling to the other side. Nachon.
But it's not and it's such a natural reaction. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's totally natural. But it's a process, it's not.
Be'ezrat Hashem, they'll have a lot of hatzlacha for many more years. They'll get there eventually. They will. There's a famous story that after October 7th, there was a tank going to Gaza as part of our first strike there.
And in the tank there was a charedi, chiloni kibbutznik, and the dati leumi. And they were for weeks and weeks in the tank and of course they were bored and had all the time in the world and when they once they came out for the first time one of them wrote this post in Facebook and he said after talking for literally hours and hours and hours and hours the three of them they came to the conclusion that an eighty percent of the topics they agree but the twenty percent that they don't wow I remember that wow won't let them move forward and agree on how to run the country, the world, whatever. But eighty percent they agreed on. Maybe there should be a new channel of chayalim.
Can you imagine chayalim that serve together should open the channel to open up a new that would be fascinating, no? Yeah. Like this, this kind of talk. Okay, so now the Rebbe says over here it's very connected to what Shoshanna was saying about zivugim.
עיקר השלום הוא לחבר שני הפכים.
Shalom really is about connecting two opposites. Therefore the Rebbe says אל כן אל יבהלוך רעיונך אם אתה רואה איש אחד שהוא בהיפוך גמור מדעתך. Don't freak out if you see someone that completely disagrees with you.
וידמה לך שאי אפשר בשום אופן להחזיק בשלום עמו.
And it seems to you that there's no way to have peace with them. Don't don't freak out from it. Usually the response is I can't believe they think like this. Why? Do you ever look at someone that looks completely different from you and be like I can't believe they look like this? But when it comes to thoughts, we're b'pele, how could someone not think like me? Don't freak out.
Al yevahalucha. Bahala. That really means to freak out, fear. Okay, וכן כשאתה רואה שני אנשים שהם שני הפכים ממש.
When you see two people that are mamash opposites אל תאמר שאי אפשר לעשות שלום ביניהם כי אדרבה זהו עיקר שלמות השלום להשתדל שיהיה שלום בין שני הפכים כמו השם יתברך שעושה שלום במרומיו בין אש ומים שהם שני הפכים. What's the Rebbe saying here? This is beautiful. He's saying that Shalom does not mean that you have two people that are more or less the same and know how to get along with each other. That's not called Shalom.
What is that called? It's normal humanity? Coexistence. Gravity. Yeah it's called gravity. Yeah.
More or less. It's not that, right? That's not Shalom. Oh we have such Shalom between us. No you don't.
You just have you just share too much in common and you look alike, I don't know. He's saying over here it says afuch. Ikar shleimus hashalom. Like peace is an active movement towards taking opposites and making them together.
You can't bring them together. You can't have Shalom with something that doesn't have you can't try to make Shalom between two things that don't seem to have anything opposing each other. That's not Shalom. It's like we said, it's gravity, it's just normal.
It's just the way the world works. Just like the way it is with Hashem that Hashem in shamayim Hashem makes peace between heavens and heavens and earth. I once learned a beautiful Torah also from the Mei Hashiloach, Parshas Bereishis. It says that maybe this is now we understand it better, under a chuppah we say the bracha אשר יצר את האדם בצלמו בצלם דמות תבניתו.
So the Mei Hashiloach asks why don't you that means that God created man in his image. So the Mei Hashiloach asks that bracha should be said at a bris or at a simchat bat. Why are you saying this under a chuppah of the creation of man? So the Mei Hashiloach says something so beautiful and a bunch of us were at a wedding last night, we've been to so many weddings this season, she'll be yirbu.
שירבו שמחות בעם ישראל.
Amen. Amen. And all of our children should find their zivugim hagunim. Amen.
So the Mei Shiloach says, what does it mean to be created in the image of God? It's to be Godly. What's Godly? Godly is taking heaven, taking oseh sholom bimromav, taking fire and water and making peace between them. You're not really considered to be in the image of Hashem until you choose to take two opposites and make one out of them. That's why that brocha is said under a chuppah and not at birth.
You hear? How deep this is. Say it again. There's a blessing we talk about being created in God's image, but that blessing should be said at a bris or at a baby naming of a girl. Why are we saying this under a chuppah? Because really, to be in God's image is to act Godly, and the way that God brings peace between opposites - fire and water, heaven and earth.
Man and woman are like fire and water - I'm not saying which one is fire and which one is water, but it's opposites, it's heaven and earth. So therefore that blessing that talks about being created in God's image is said under a chuppah because the Izhbitzer says because really until you get married and you're in this avoda, you're not fully considered to be created in God's image, which is a pretty fanatic statement, but that's the Izhbitzer for you. The bottom we'll end over here - ulizkos l'sholom, okay so now we're wondering, okay this sounds great, this peace train. Alright.
וליזכות לשלום על ידי מסירות נפש על קידוש השם. And this is the sick, sick perversion of this is that these people that are doing things like they did last night on Shavuos would say to you exactly, we're doing this מסירות נפש על קידוש השם. And then the Rebbe says, you know what, you know what the gift, what's the reward that you get from all of this? Look at the end here. Only a real Breslover sees this as like gold and candy.
ועל ידי זה זוכים להתפלל בכוונה. What's the treat that you get? What's the treat of this whole avoda, mesirut nefesh of shalom aphichim? What does Hashem say here? And because you worked so hard, now what do you get? You get to daven with kavana because the truth is is that if you really learn Rabbi Nachman's Torah, you understand that the merit to pray with kavana is the greatest experience man can have in this world, of engaging with Hashem and feeling real, and feeling heard, and feeling expressed, there's no greater satiation to the soul in this world. And that you merit - the person that is an ish shalom, that is not freaked out by other ideas and people that have different opinions, the aftermath of all of that brings a person to have this mesirut nefesh to do this, to go for it, to live like this. And the gift you get is to be able to stand before Hashem with kavana.
For some people that's like the most bizarre ending of a statement, right? Like what would you, what would you think the Rebbe should say here?
ועל ידי זה זוכים ל... Olam HaBa, ashirut, menuchas hanefesh. But it is. Yes.
Menuchas hanefesh. Because when you have inner peace, that's menuchas hanefesh. Anyone knows whenever they've had a gevalt davening, they wouldn't give it up for anything in the world. It is the greatest gift a person gets in this world.
So I bless us to be real anshei sholom, not to be freaked out, and to keep on seeking peace, dirshu sholom, to be dorishei sholom, to always try to see where I can bring more peace, and it starts with the conversations I can have with people that don't think or look like me.
לחקור על האמת לחפש את האמת ולהביא עוד ועוד אור לעולם הזה בעזרת השם יתברך. Amen. Alright.