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Join Rav Shlomo Katz in uncovering מעלת תפילת נשים—the unique spiritual power of a Jewish woman’s tefillah.
Drawing from Chazal, halacha, and pnimiyut, and learning deeply from the Biala Rebbe’s "Zechut Nashim Tzidkaniyot", we explore why women’s hearts, rooted in רגש טהור (innate emotional purity) and holy bitul, move heaven and earth.
Together we’ll clarify classic questions (time-bound mitzvot, obligation vs. essence), learn the siddur through the eyes of our sages, and translate inspiration into avodah that nourishes real life, especially as we enter Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur.
This series is both a celebration and a strengthening of the women who daven with fire, carry Am Yisrael with love, and teach us how to speak to Hashem with truth.
ישר כוח everyone for coming, good morning. We are learning לעילוי נשמת בת יפה גבר בת ישראל, לעילוי נשמת לוי בן יוסף, לרפואה שלמה of שרה בת רחל פייגא, and for the לרפואה שלמה of לאה שושנה בת מלכה.I want to address one thing before we start learning because what we're learning about is the holiness of the the holiness and the גדולה, the greatness of of of the and the power of נשים צדקניות בישראל, of a of a mother, of a wife, of a sister, of a daughter. And we're basically, we're basically tuning ourselves strongly into the קדושה of a of a home, literally of a Jewish home, of a healthy home. And obviously, everyone's very shaken up by the assassination yesterday of Charlie Kirk.
And Charlie knew about the the the שבת we had with the ambassador. Charlie was supposed to be in the שול later this year for a שבת. And he was someone that was very, very clear on a lot of things that have become completely confusing and messed up in this world regarding basics, just basic things like a family. Very, very simple things that to us are very just very, you know, דברים.
What sorry? מובן מאליו, like things that are just very, very clear.So, it's a very, for us very, very difficult. My daughter is devastated because she was she she was basically she she was listening to him every single day for a very, very long time. And coming home last night, I was I was in the רובע, I had an event, came home to tell your daughter that someone that she listens to, receives from and and seeks a lot of, you know, sees that there's someone in the world that's just saying things that are מובן מאליו and has no problem about it. It's very, very, very shaky.
It's very I obviously forbid her from watching any footage of anything. השם ירחם עלינו that can you imagine if social media existed in the time of Martin Luther King or or or President Kennedy, Robert of like. So these things, we have to really נשמרתם מאוד לנפשותיכם. I would highly recommend that if you haven't seen, you know, any footage, to ממש stay as far away as you can from it.And this should be whatever wake-up call the world needs in order to replug in and re re-align with basics, basics, that the the time should be right now.
Because when we're learning תורה, we're not just thinking about the protection of עם ישראל, although we've been definitely focused on that, rightfully so, the last two years more than ever. But that really we're learning בשם כל ישראל, בשם כל העם, בשם כל העולם כולו, for the sanity of of of the whole world. So I just it's very important for me to to to address this as he heard about our שול, and he was very excited to be here. And it would have been, I I believe, just like it was with the ambassador, a tremendous קידוש השם, it would have been a tremendous קידוש השם also to have him here.
And he's a person that spoke about שבת that actually he actually really took on certain elements of of of of what שבת does to the נשמה, as you all know that he, for a person like that to put away his phone every single שבת is a very, very, very big deal. You can go online, you can find him speaking about what שבת. You can go online and see not just what what what שבת was to him, but you see what it did to their home. His wife, his אלמנה, would speak about this as well, how it's completely transformed the rhythm of what was going on in their home as a family.And his his wife and his precious two children should should have a נחמה.
And הלוואי, בעזרת השם, that our משוגענע וועלט, this should this should be the last thing that is so insane that flips things over. Somehow, you know, since הקדוש ברוך הוא runs the world, so we believe הקדוש ברוך הוא can do anything, as we see every single day of our lives. And that's why it's very, very, very important for for I felt very important for me to to address this. And I'll just say I also, I myself, found myself in the last I would say six months, when looking at what's going on in America, or looking at what's going on in the world, quite often as a I think yesterday or the day before, I also found myself listening to the way that he conducted the most basic, basic, basic element of of civil communication, which is actually called communication.
And it's a very, very, very heavy thing. It's a very, very strong thing, it's a very heavy thing. And `הלוואי` `בעזרת השם יתברך`, all over the world will only know of `שלום ושלוה`, and this shouldn't `חלילה` spiral into `מום שהגאשו מום שרגנו זקן`, `בעזרת השם יתברך`.So we're back and I, we're back in this wonderful, beautiful `מהלך` that we began. I just want you to know the women that are coming here to the `שיעורים`, that there have been rebetzins of different communities that have contacted me since we put out last week's `שיעור` that are that have been that have basically said we've been waiting for a group of `חבר'ה` to learn like this, to learn about the `קדושה` of a mother, to learn about the `קדושה` of a Jewish woman through `תפילה` like the way that we're doing.
And we have a lot of `חבר'ה` that are with us right now, and it's very inspiring and it's very humbling. And it means we have `באמת` we have a we have a big, a beautiful big thing that's on our plate that I hope that with with `ענוה`, with with humility, we walk through this gate and bring Hashem `נחת`. That's really my my my hope and my `כוונה`. And again, for those that that weren't here last week or didn't hear last week, I just want to reiterate a certain thing.
This is not like let's let's do a feel-good women's `שיעור`. This is not, you don't need that. Definitely not from me. You know, that's a `תפקיד` of of `מנהיגות`, of of `משפיעות` that can do that.
We're trying to connect to to something that we believe is will bring `ישועה` to `עם ישראל` and that is the `כח` and the `העצמה` of `תפילת נשים`. And the way that we're going to get there is going to be through through the `ספרים הקדושים` and through, through, through obviously a `מהלך` that has seen we were going to see through `חז"ל`. But I don't want anyone for one second while we're learning to start feeling that this is `כאילו` like women need a women need to feel more included and more important. I'm very proud, very, very proud of the way that we conduct ourselves in the community where the women, `ברוך השם`, all you have to do is walk into the `שול` and see the `מקום` of women.
And that should just give us strength to continue on our `מהלך` in a healthy and holy way, `בעזרת השם`.So before we even get to the, we're still in a in a level of `הקדמה`, before we get to the concept exactly, the concept of the `תפילה` of `נשים` itself, what is different, what is unique, what is the spotlight, what is the importance of it, we there's still a very important thing that we have to we have to cover. And that'll be what we're going to be seeing today as you see on page `ל` in front of you `מעלת אם בישראל`. The `מעלה` of a mother in `עם ישראל`. Don't know how much we'll be able to get through, but hopefully whatever we do should should really be `חזק`.This is a story from the Bialer Rebbe we began speaking about last week.
And when I was a kid in in `כיתה`, I think it was `כיתה ה`, fifth grade, there were certain things we were tested on that we had to learn by heart. One thing was `עשרת הדברות`, and the other thing, I guess this was according to `משרד החינוך`. The other thing we had to learn by heart was `שירת דבורה`. Anyone else have to learn `שירת דבורה` by heart? `שופטים פרק ה`, I think it is.
The song of `דבורה` and `ברק בן אבינעם`. `שירת דבורה`. We're going to see something over here about `דבורה הנביאה`, the `מנהיגה`, that'll help us connect to everything that we're trying to learn over here. And this goes before we go deeper into the `סוגיא` of `תפילת נשים`.
`קודם שנבוא לבאר מעט את מעלת תפלות נשות ישראל, נבאר תחילה מעלת אם בישראל`. What the Bialer Rebbe is very big on, and he began speaking about this last week, is that if a person is not really aware of their `ערך`, of their value, it's very hard for them to be themselves, it's very hard for them to to understand what they're trying what what they're doing in this world. `קודם שנבאר`, `קודם שנבוא לבאר מעט את מעלת תפלות נשות ישראל, נבאר תחילה מעלת אם בישראל על פי היסודות אשר לימדונו חז"ל הקדושים`. What did `חז"ל` say about the `חלק` and `מעלה` of a mother? `כבר נודע כי אם בישראל היא זו המעמידה והמקיימת את בית ישראל בכל הדורות`.
We already know that throughout all generations, the one that's `מעמידה ומקיימת`, `מקיימת` obviously means to to fulfill, to exist. But מעמידה is a very important word. מעמידה means to make something stand up, meaning means to give it to give it קיום. We know that it's the אם בישראל, it's a mother.
כמו שגילתה לנו דבורה הנביאה. דבורה הנביאה was a very, very inspiring figure and a very powerful figure. And she reveals to us at a moment where she could have like, she could have spoken about her strength and her physical strength or her wisdom, her military wisdom, when she goes and tries to explain to עם ישראל what it's all about, she says like this, סוד כוחה היה במה שהייתה אם בישראל. She says, you know why, you know what made me so strong? You know what made עם ישראל so victorious and me in a role of leadership? Is because I'm a mama, because I'm a mother.
כמו שנאמר, עד שקמתי דבורה, שקמתי אם בישראל. This is the לשון in ספר שופטים. The context over here is, in the times of, I believe it was סיסרא, many of the villages and the towns where יהודים were living and they were completely, they became completely destroyed and desolate. דבורה הנביאה explains how did we reconquer and how did we resettle and redwell dwell again in these towns and villages? And it's because you may think, she says, it's because I have like some חכמה regarding in the military.
I have a very strong brain that knows how to act in this manner. She says, no, no, no. עד שקמתי דבורה, שקמתי אם בישראל. That a mother and the wisdom of a mother stood up in the forefront and began to re, to to מחזיר כבוד עם ישראל.
This is how דבורה הנביאה describes how she sees the victory.דהיינו, שתלתה את כוח נבונתה ונבואתה והנהגתה את כלל ישראל בכך שהיא אם בישראל. And אם בישראל, and אם בישראל to say you're an אם בישראל, הוא מלשון גדלות ומנהיגות. אם is always a reference to greatness and leadership. שכל אם בישראל יש לה כוחות מיוחדים.
Every mother in עם ישראל has special כוחות. לבנות את בית ישראל בגשמיות וברוחניות. To build our homes both physically and spiritually. Physically, בגשמיות, שהן תורחות לספק את צרכי ביתה, שכן דרכן להאכיל את בני ביתן, ולגדל את ילדיהן עם כל הכרוך בכך.
It's physically because they are the ones that are constantly supplying and satisfying the needs of the home, because their way is to always feed all those that are in their house. ולגדל את ילדיהן עם כל הכרוך בכך, and to raise their children with all, come to Sunday morning. וברוחניות, שהן בונות את בתיהן על אדני התורה והיראה, כמו שיסובר. But this ספר is not only to give women כוחות to feel that even though you're doing have to do so many mundane things, know that it's so holy to fold the laundry.
It's so holy to put food into the oven. It's so holy to make sure that the kids have what they need on their feet and on their bodies, וכולי. Here, this ספר is taking us to a place of saying, do you understand that all the רוחניות that comes out of the home, it's all because you are מעמיד, מעמיד. That's the word.
מעמיד, you make it stand. You make it be. You make it be a reality. As we will, we will we will מבאר right now.
And this concept of דבר המעמיד is what we're going to be speaking about today.בואו וראו מה גדולה של אם בישראל. Let's see the greatness of a mother in עם ישראל. And this brings us back to the סוגיא that we spoke about last week about the first מצוה is פרו ורבו. However, פרו ורבו is a מצוה on the man.
Why is it on the man? Why is it on the man? I'm sure you've heard many שיעורים on this. Why is it on the man? This should be, it's very strange. A מצוה that seems to be so much more קשור to a mother, to a woman, the מצוה itself, the קיום, the החיוב של המצוה, of the obligation is put on a man. Further, is this a מצות עשה שהזמן גרמא? What do you think? Is it a time-bound מצוה, which would explain to us, okay, so then therefore that's, for some reason, it falls into that category, yes? It is.
It's a מצוות עשה שהזמן גרמא. If you ask me. Huh? Because you've got the חמץ issue. That's a time-bound thing, and then you have an age issue.
I hear what you're saying and some, some ראשונים say this. Anyone thinks different, that it's מצוות עשה שהזמן גרמא? Sorry? It's not a specific day or time. It's not, yeah. When we speak about מצוות עשה שהזמן גרמא, those are very specific time-bound מצוות.
This is a little bit different. He's going to explain it over here, but there's a lot of, there's such a beautiful, deep understanding of this. בוא וראה, מה גדולתם של עם ישראל. Here in the mitzvah of פרו ורבו, הגם שהיא מצוות עשה שלא הזמן גרמא.
At the end of the day it does not count, it doesn't fall into the category of a time-bound mitzvah, which you would say, then therefore, it's on the woman, right? נשים פטורות מקיומה. A woman is פטור from מקייםing this mitzvah on the level of a mitzvah. I'm going to say that again. A woman is פטורה from מקייםing the mitzvah of פרו ורבו on the level of a mitzvah.
Let me try to, let's let's unravel, let's unpack this a little bit. When I have a mitzvah that I have, when when I'm מקיים, when some, when השם says to me, you have to be מקיים a mitzvah. What do we know about the רבונו של עולם? That the רבונו של עולם would never גוזר a גזירה שאין הציבור יכול לעמוד בה. That means that we believe all the מצוות are רחמים, that it's, it's all compassion, it's all love, and the מצוות that are commandments are not things that would never be decreed upon a situation that we can't, we can't מקיים.
That's what we believe. And we also hold that חז"ל then later on say, אין גוזרים גזירה על הציבור שאינם יכולים לעמוד בה. And if you look at the development of הלכה, you see this in many different areas, that חז"ל maybe in, in, in, in previous years, there was a certain גזירה that חז"ל said need to happen, needs to be on the people. But because, an Alter Rebbe speaks about this a lot in, in, in אגרת התשובה regarding fasts.
But over the years, the שינוי of how our nature is and what we are, what we're accustomed to and not accustomed to, so חז"ל would then change. They wouldn't put us through a גזירה שאין הציבור יכול לעמוד בה. What does this have to do with the mitzvah of פרו ורבו and the women's connection to this mitzvah or not? The mitzvah is obviously women are infinitely more connected to the mitzvah of פרו ורבו, but not מצד the fact that they're commanded about it. This is very important.
אלא מצד another word, and that is רצון. The connection to the mitzvah of פרו ורבו is מצד רצון. We'll we'll see this, we'll see this inside. כי מאחר שה, ושמעתי טעם בדבר.
So the בעל התניא says, I heard a reason for this, that women are פטורות from the mitzvah of פרו ורבו. But has any woman ever said, learned תורה? Do you know of anyone that's like learned תורה and their logic to not bring children into the world is because they said, well, it's not a mitzvah that I'm that I'm חייב in. So therefore, השם loves me, it's all good. He didn't מחיב me to bring children into the world.
מה פתאום. That's not how we, that's not how, ברוך השם, our our mothers and sisters and daughters and all of you think. We're coming from a completely different place. כי מאחר שעבודת הנשים בגידול הבנים יש בה מסירות תמידית.
I don't have to tell you this, the מסירות נפש, the dedication, the commitment is not an hour in the morning and an hour at night. It's all day every single day, מסירות תמידית. וצריכות הן לתת חלק גדול מן החיים שלהם בשביל עצם הריון והולדת הילדים. A chunk of your life is completely invested.
I'm just speaking right now about pregnancy and birth, just that alone. Obviously, this is a nine, בעזרת השם, everyone should have healthy pregnancies. You know, it's, it's the nine months and it doesn't end. The whole ענין of bringing a baby into the world does not stop once you have a child, obviously, it kind of only begins then.
בגידול התינוקת ובטיפולם וחינוכם. In raising the child and all that all that goes into that. וכל הדאגה שדואגות האמהות סביב הילדים ערב ובקר וצהריים. And the worry and the concern that mothers have over their children, which a man can't fathom, and it's okay.
This is not a man-bashing שיעור either, like I said last week. It's just the way that השם designed the world, is that a man of course has concern and worry for their children. Of course they do. But it's a completely different עולם of concern and worry than a woman has.
It is less consuming. It's less consuming because obviously, the way that השם designed it, is that our children that are our life and they are our hearts and souls, I just you just heard me express my my my my dire concern over my older daughter right now after what happened yesterday, meaning we're all concerned over anything that happens to our children. But being consumed by it, this is a תכונה נשית the way that הקדוש ברוך הוא designed the world is that this is the מציאות. This is the reality.
ערב ובוקר וצהריים. Morning, afternoon and evening. Third line. ולכן קשה לצוות עליהן לשאת את כל המשא הזה.
Therefore, it's hard to לצוות, to command you to carry such a burden. You may say it's not a burden. It is a burden. It's a holy burden, but it's a burden.
What burden? של תשעה ירחי לידה, צער הריון וגידול בנים. The burden of nine months of pregnancy, that which goes into the obviously difficulty when it comes to actual birth and then the games that begin, and then raising children, right? ואי אפשר, I love this line what he says here. This is a big הארה for me. ואי אפשר אלא שתעשה זאת מצד רצונה העצמי.
That באמת the only way to do such a thing and take on such a thing has to come just from her own רצון. כי מצד הציווי בלבד, לא תוכל לעמוד בזה. Because if bringing children into the world, if the חיובי was on a woman and that's why she had to bring children into the world that she's חייב in the מצוה, that it's on her, then what is he saying basically? What what would be her what would be the real obligation? Sorry? You can't do it from obligation. You can't do it from obligation.
You can only do it from? From רצון. That's a wondrous חדוש when בכלל, when you look, when you learn about טעמי המצוות, when you learn more about each מצוה and you try to and you begin to understand the חיובי and the פטור on every single מצוה, this opens the gate to something tremendous. I'm trying to think right now, what is a man not מצווה to do because if he was מצווה, it'd be too much of an עול, so it could only happen from his own רצון. Nothing, because we wouldn't end up doing it.
Because we wouldn't, no, because we wouldn't do it, meaning if if there's, you know, again, not a man-bashing שיעור, but just explaining the the the reality, this is a beautiful understanding of the unraveling of פנימיות התורה, פנימיות טעמי המצוות, right? It just we wouldn't we wouldn't do it. הלוואי we had that רצון to do things we're not חייב to do, right? הלוואי. The fact that this is how we go about our relationship with bringing children into the world and the raising and all of that, and that it's not a ציווי on the woman, opens up for us the whole world of רצון, which is directly connected to the פנימיות of דאווענען, of תפילה. Is a woman חייבת in to דאווען? I'm opening up the, I'm opening, I'm already opening it up now because we're going to spend weeks and weeks on this שאלה, but just now based on this, is a woman חייבת to דאווען? I'm just I'm not even answering.
I'm throwing it out there in the air. But I want you to think about this because this will help us understand the whole world of חיובי ופטור in of of מצוות by women versus men. But this נקודה of bringing children into the world is a Yiddish concept, it's a Jewish concept, but it also has its ways of sending rays of light to the whole world, and we'll also see what happens when this when this ענין of bringing children into the world gets thought of in different ways than the way that we think of why we bring children into the world, why we want to bring children into the world. When we did a parenting שיעור back in our former place in בית סטון, this was I don't know, seven, eight years ago, משהו כזה.
We did a short parenting summer based on the a ספר from a highly recommended ספר by Rav Erez Moshe Doron called From Dust to Gold, where he speaks about parenting over there, and he opens up his שיעור by saying, why do Jewish people bring children into the world? If you do it because that's what people do, that's not... That's not a Jewish way of bringing children into the world. That's something else. I don't know what that is.
He says an amazing thing. He quotes רב נתן of ברסלב. Every single child that comes into the world will eventually, if not already at birth, show us a new דרך in עבודת השם. A new way of serving Hashem.
Essentially, in the פנימיות of our נשמות, that is why we bring children into the world. Because all the מהות of a יהודי is to find more and more and more ways to be close to הקדוש ברוך הוא. זהו. Yeah, they're all these perks.
Cute, נחת, big one. Big one. נחת to the parents, big one. וכולי.
Also a sense of of שלמות הבית, of of the the home being more complete. 100%. וכל זה נכון. But the ענין, the עיקר נקודה inside, deep down inside, if we could just interview our our souls that are in tune with פנימיות רצון השם, the answer would be is because every single child is showing us a completely new avenue as to how to engage in a personal, intimate relationship with the רבונו של עולם.
That's based on רב נתן. I remember I asked that question in the beginning of that first שיעור, right? I said, why, why did any of you have children? Sometimes I ask questions and I know people are going to look at me a little bit weird in the beginning, and no one ever looked weirder than that question that was thrown out into the room. And there are three people that I remember right now what they looked like when I said that question. It's not something we think about.
What do you mean why? Why? Because that's what we do. It's a מצוה. Oh really? On who? When we start to discuss these things, the מעלה of a of a mother, of a of a daughter, a sister, any of the נקבה, of the נוקבא, becomes, starts to illuminate in a very, very profound way, which is very essential for how we're going to be learning this. So therefore, ובזאת, second paragraph, נתעלו נשות ישראל על נשות שאר אומות העולם.
I apologize, this next paragraph may be a little bit not for us it's okay, but it's not really the way that we things we would say or want to admit, but there's an ענין here. ובזאת נתעלו נשות ישראל על נשות שאר אומות העולם, שאצלן להבדיל, מסע גידול הילדים נופל עליהם כאול כבד, במה שצריכות הן לטפל בהם תדיר, להמציא להם מזונות ולהוציא הוצאת הוצאות עבורם. Quite often when people think about bringing children into the world outside of our world, then it's a very it's very much quite often based on a financial a financial calculation. Financial calculation.
And they and they they feel that that's actually being responsible. נכון? And there's a lot to say about that. This is not for this שיעור. But the way that the a lot of the approach to how many kids you have, if you have kids וכולי, has a lot to do with financial considerations is not generally the way that we should be, you know, approaching this topic.
I've heard a lot of different שיטות from big גדולים about this. When couples that already did מקיים the מצוה of פרו ורבו, and the שאלה is, should we have more children? Quite often the answer that I've heard and that I've that I've that I've still learning inside is that if you have enough already right now, providing enough already right now for the home that you have and the children that you have, and you're not sure how you could have more, ווייטער. Bring more bring more קינדערלעך into the world. מצד כאילו דעת תורה.
If already now the kids barely have what to eat, there's no ענין of saying, let's throw another one around this hungry table. Okay? This is not a הלכה what I'm just said right now. This is just a lot of השקפה based on דעת תורה that I've I've spent a lot of time, you know, in trying to understand, because these are שאלות we get all the time. All the time.
But the way their general approach to bringing children into the world is what we're trying to see over here because this will bring us to the גדולה of and the מעלה of אם בישראל, of a mother in עם ישראל. Third line, ולכן ממעטין הן בהבאת ילדים לעולם. אך בעם ישראל הוא ההפך הגמור. שנשים צדקניות מקיימות את שליחותן בעולם בשמחה ובאהבה, כי זכות גדולה היא עבורן לגדל ולהעמיד חיילים להשם ולתורתו.
But our נשים צדקניות, they're מקיים this שליחות in this world, even though it's hard, but it's done with שמחה. שמחה and with love because it's a tremendous זכות to raise and to bring up חיילים להשם ולתורתו, soldiers to Hashem and to his Torah. וכל עבודת השם יתברך של האנשים תלויה ועומדת בזכותן. So this is the ביאלא Rebbe saying these words.
This is not a young Modern Orthodox rabbi from Young Israel of of Holy Bagel, you understand what I'm saying? This is a, this is the ביאלא Rebbe saying these words. All the עבודה, the men going to מניין, all the מצוות, all the לימוד, everything. It's תלויה ועומדת בזכותן. You know, one time רב Weinberger, I heard this thing, I heard him saying this in a שיעור.
It was such a great, it was such a great moment. He said, I don't think I was there. I think I heard it on a שיעור, but I feel like I was there. Sometimes that happens.
You feel so part of the שיעור, you're like, "Was I there or not there?" I don't think I was there but he said like this, he says, "I know, חברה, you're like, you know, you're thinking right now, you woke up so early, you're sitting here, it's גוואלד and you even brought your wife a cup of coffee and whatever it is. Even though, like and you think, 'Wow, if they only knew what they had,' right?" And he he said to them, he ripped them, he said, he said, "You, you שלימזלס, you you you חברה, you think? You actually think that that's what it's about, if they only knew what they had? If you didn't have a wife to, once every three months, bring a cup of coffee to, right? That was there every single morning doing what she's doing, being who she is, you wouldn't be able to figure out how to put a shoelace on." משהו כזה. Like he he he he it was like a moment of בירור, he just, I don't know, I don't know the, I probably wasn't there because I don't know I don't know what the context was, but I remember that line saying because it's the same thing he's saying over here. כל עבודת השם יתברך של האנשים.
אנשים he means here, גברים. Because when it's, it'll say נשים versus אנשים, right? כל עבודת השם יתברך של האנשים תלויה ועומדת בזכותן. שהן עיקר המעמיד של קרן בית ישראל. Yes, the man of course is part of bringing this family to be.
But the עיקר המעמיד, the עיקר of the צורה of the family, the עיקר of the צורה of the future of this dream is the אם, is the mother. Of the vineyard, he calls it so beautifully, של קרן בית ישראל, of the vineyard of בית ישראל. שכל ענפי האילן תמוכים ונשענים עליהם. That all the branches of the tree are leaning and being supported by the main, I guess we would call it in this context, it's not a, it's not a branch.
What is it? The trunk. ואין לאנשים שום קיום בלעדיהן. You have no קיום. And and and the way the world, this is an amazing, I, you know, today is the birthday of the בעל שם טוב הקדוש, right? I heard from רב שלמה that he said that that משיח will come when when, I think I said this last week, from the בעל שם טוב that when women have gotten back to their place again in this world in the right and holy way.
That's why there's been so much energy in this area, but it's been, like I asked you last week, was Me Too is Me Too a holy movement or not? That's why because it's in the air, the energy's in the air, but to put it in the right holy place is obviously because it's so potent and it's so the world is so dependent on this ענין. This is a part of this is a key piece of the גאולה. But to say a line like this, this the ביאלא Rebbe and I again, like Shoshana, going back to your question that I still don't know the answer to of was this written for the חסידים to learn, his the men? Or was it דוקא for the women? There's sometimes you have ספרים that say לגברים בלבד או לנשים בלבד, but that's not the situation here. And I'm actually not going to ask because I don't want to know the answer.
Because I feel like if it showed up on the shelf, this is תורה היא וצריכים אנו ללמוד אותה. But to say a line like this, כל ענפי האילן תמוכים ונשענים עליהם ואין לאנשים שום קיום בלעדיהן. I was זוכה, listen, באמת, I'll share this with you. My siblings and I were זוכה to live in a house that this was very, very clear to us that our father made it clear to us, not once a year on ראש השנה.
Those of you that know my אבא, he's he's he's Argentinian, he's he's a romantic, you know, he's he's He's European. It's different. It's a different, it was very different than the way most of my friends and their parents. My father made it clear to us almost every single שבת, ילדים, אני בלי אמא, שום דבר.
All the time. He said this all the time. He still does. All the time.
And we have a joke amongst the siblings. My father would say, אמא קמה בבוקר כל כך מוקדם. And then he would start listing all the things that we weren't aware of that our mother does all the time. My mom's like, ugh, stop.
But we grew up, this was around our table all the time, all the time. It's probably the greatest, great, that and bringing us to ארץ ישראל, the two greatest gifts that we got from home.Yeah. It reminds me of Rav Menachem Froman. Just a little louder, please.
Rav Menachem Froman. His מנהג, which I'm sure you know, is that he kisses his wife's feet at every חופה of his child. Mm. Oh, I thought you were going to talk about the other thing he does under the חופה.
What's that? He says there's קידושין על פי הלכה and there's קידושין על פי הזוהר. And על פי הזוהר, the קידושין is that you say הרי את, right? וכל השאר הנשים שבעולם הם כמו קוף בשבילי. Which means, and all, I saw this the first time and I was like, how come people aren't freaking out? But it was at his חופה, and then I saw him do it again and again. And all other women in the world are like a monkey in my eyes.
Yeah, but that thing of kissing, kissing the toes, kissing.אין לאנשים שום קיום בלעדיהם. We don't have a קיום outside of them, שכן הן מביאות את התינוקות הללו לעולם. Which basically means they do something that we, forget about what's going on in the משוגענע world, but that we men, if it was even possible for us because of the way that we're created, and the way that our mind and heart are aligned, we would never come to the conclusion that this is something that we would do out of our own רצון. We would never do it.
שכן הן מביאות את התינוקות הללו לעולם, מטפלות בהם, מאכילות אותם, מגדלות אותם, ונותנות בהם את הכוחות הנפשיים ללמוד תורה. And they also, besides all these important גשמי things, they also, like he says over here, they give their children כוחות הנפש ללמוד תורה. The אבא maybe gives the child maybe a צד of wisdom, of חכמה, of the wisdom of the Torah, but the כוחות הנפש, and even that's not exactly, now it's everyone, but כוחות הנפש. כוחות הנפש, a mother's word of, "You have this.
You can do this," is, that's the, this is, אל תטוש תורת אמך. Don't ever let go of your mother's voice saying, "You got this." That's something that comes from the mother.ולפיכך יש להם זכות גדולה לא רק על עצם גידולם אלא אף על כל עתידם. So they have a tremendous זכות not just on raising them, but on anything that happens to them later on. Which obviously connects to a פסוק that we learn quite often in חינוך.
חנוך לנער על פי דרכו גם כי יזקין לא יסור ממנה, which we said last week in שיעור. That you have to realize if you're in tune with the specialty of what makes your child tick, and your kid is aware that I have a mother that sees that, then גם כי יזקין לא יסור ממנו, that even when they get older, that never leaves them. That never leaves them.כאשר יגדלו, so this stays with them for the future, כאשר יגדלו ויעסקו בתורה. And when the kids grow older, and let's say if we're speaking more about boys that grow older, become ראשי ישיבות, become, whatever they do, הכל יהיה נזקף לכוח האם אשר חלקה גדול בשכר תורתם.
ונמצא. Yeah. I know, I know the, he said אנשים is like the גברים, but you actually can translate it as as people, and the paragraph still makes sense, meaning... What what what line are you on? I'm sorry? First line of that paragraph.
Okay, וכל, yeah. Right? שכל האנשים תלויה ועומדת בזכותם. Right, we said it's like the husband, the father, or whatever, but also really it's the kids. Right? So it's really all the, you could read, you could translate that אנשים as like really the קיום of all of עם ישראל is, right? You could.
No, no, you could and you could... in in דרש it, but I don't want us to do that because you'll see later on that he doesn't say it's דווקא אנשים versus נשים in this ספר. But it's it's true, it's meaning, of course, but I don't want to דרש the words of the ביאור over here. To keep it, yeah.
You know in that famous גמרא where the questions are asked what people are going to live at the end of their life, and it's נשאת ונתת באמונה... The questions that they're asked. The questions that השם is going to ask you, right? And one of them is עסקת בפריה ורביה. And I always wonder like why that פסוק and it's less...
it's דברי תורה. The same language. עסקת. It's a really beautiful idea.
עסקת. That's beautiful. נכון. עסקת.
There could be any other language. Right, it could be למדת, דרשת, עסקת is more something else. Because it's full time. Because it never ends.
Just like תלמוד תורה and what we're trying to give over פריה ורביה. יומם ולילה. ערב בוקר בצהריים. Morning, afternoon, and evening.
כל היום, תמיד. Yeah. Yeah, oh sorry, sorry, yeah, yeah. Sorry.
Okay, what about what if you're, I have adult kids and what if they're very busy, they're I feel like I give them כח נפש, like they're very self-assured and strong. ברוך השם, yeah. But they're not necessarily very close to תורה. They grew up in a house with תורה and I made עלייה with them and they were close to maybe השם and being Jewish, not not necessarily very busy in תורה.
So does that mean I failed? I'm not saying it's like I don't think I'm a failure, but I'm absolutely... you failed. חס ושלום. You know, like no, because I think it's a real challenge of the generation.
And I have to say they're very smart, and I can't fight a lot of their philosophical arguments. They're very ממולח. So it's not like that. Right, so but you're basically asking me the question if you failed or not.
Yeah. I'm not... if they have to be, no, they have to be very busy in תורה and living a תורה life and חיים of תורה, their חיילים. I I can't necessarily promise the תורה.
Everyone else here could promise that. Everyone here, everyone's children here are are... Perfectly שונה. No, I'm saying, I'm saying, but I...
צדיקים גמורים, ממש. It's just how you look at the at the word תורה. Of course they're... Yeah, yeah, but this is opening up a window I'm absolutely not going into right now, בשום פנים ואופן.
And you know how much I love your children, so I'm בכלל not going in there. ונמצא שנשות ישראל הן המעמידות את עולם התורה. If anyone could find a better word for להעמיד, let me know, I'd really appreciate it, but... להשריש.
No, in in English. Oh. להעמיד. להעמיד.
Hold up. To hold up. Hold up. To hold up.
Sustain. Yeah, 100%. נמצא שנשות ישראל הן המעמידות את עולם התורה. שכן כנודע בכל מקום התורה, we know, throughout anything, a דבר מעמיד, this is a this is a הלכה concept as well, שהדבר המעמיד את המצוה נחשב כמצוה עצמה.
That which holds up a מצוה is considered like the מצוה itself. And there's some examples. כדוגמא, שותפות יששכר וזבולון. You've heard of this concept before? יששכר וזבולון.
יששכר, what do we know about יששכר? What was he? He was a יודעי בינה, בני יששכר יודעי בינה לעתים. They were learners. What do we know about זבולון? זבולון לחוף ימים ישכון. They were businessmen.
So the partnership that we have today when people are trying to, you know, say, listen, I'm a businessman, you're a שטייגער, I'm going to be the זבולון, you're going to be יששכר, there's a שותפות. And the learning, right, is כאילו goes on both of them. שזבולון נחשב כמו יששכר, משום שהוא נותן ליששכר את האפשרות לעסוק בתורה. וכן מצאנו.
So who's the מעמיד over there? זבולון or יששכר? זבולון. Right, זבולון is. Yes. זבולון is.
זבולון is the מעמיד of the of whatever is happening with that מצוה of תלמוד תורה. וכן מצאנו גם דין מעמיד בסוכה. I can't, there's no time to get into this as well, but also the the beams that hold up the סוכה are considered part of the מצוה as well, even though they're not the עיקר of the מצוה, but they give it their מעמיד, right? But he says over here a beautiful thing, you think זבולון's a גוואלד? אכן זכות נשים צדקניות גדולה עוד יותר משל זבולון. Take it higher now when it comes to the the role of a mother.
משום שזבולון מסייע ליששכר רק בממונו. What makes זבולן the מעמיד? One thing. Money. מולה.
That's it. ואילו הנשים הן המעמיד הגדול ביותר אשר נוסעות הן את עול הבית על שכמן וטורחות הן בגופן להביא את ילדיהן לעולם, להאכילם, לגדלם, לחנכם בתורה וחופה, ולכל הנצרך להם. What would you say makes a woman a מעמידה of the home? You can't actually put it on one thing. It's everything.
By זבולן, it's one ענין. It's that he has the financial means to create a situation that יששכר can learn, and that makes him a מעמיד. By a woman, what makes a woman a מעמידה, the one that holds everything up? Everything. The whole מהות, you know connecting to what you're saying, but a פסוק, like the whole עסק, like the whole זאך, the whole thing is what's מעמיד the home.
It's not one thing. So therefore, if זבולן gets not just brownie points, but if by זבולן, the מצווה of תלמוד תורה that יששכר is doing is שייך to זבולן like it's happening to him, and that's only because of one element that enables learning. Can now, now think about anything that comes out of the house, anything that comes out of the house. All of it is in the זכות of the מעמידה, which is the אם.
ומשום כך חשובות הן אצל הקדוש ברוך הוא ביותר. This is not a pep talk for women because later on in this ספר, he is gonna show us exactly what he means when he says that there's this world of importance that is a היכל that it's just שייך לנוקבא. It's just שייך to the world of of of of the woman. ונשים צדקניות, bottom paragraph.
נשים צדקניות שבכל דור הן גם המעמידות של כלל ישראל כולו. It's not just the home that they are מעמיד, they are מעמיד עם ישראל. כפי שמצאנו בחז"ל שגאולת מצרים הייתה בזכות נשים צדקניות. You know, we know that as like a very nice thing to say about מצוות or birthdays or a nice thing to say about women.
You ever stop and think for a second? That's a pretty bold statement חז"ל said. How come, why weren't we in the, did you ever as a woman think maybe a man will get insulted that חז"ל said בזכות נשים צדקניות נגאלנו ממצרים? I know you didn't. Why not? Now I'm a little bit, right? Because it's true. I'm just trying to point out that it's a very big statement.
It's a very, יציאת מצרים was a big thing. It was a big thing. We say it all day long, זכר ליציאת מצרים, every day זכר ליציאת מצרים. It was a big thing.
And this big thing is credited to the מעמידות of בית ישראל.Just to go back to one, the first שיחה I ever learned from the Rebbe, we've said it many times. Why is it that בזכות נשים צדקניות נגאלנו ממצרים? פשט of the פסוקים that speak about how difficult things were, speaks more about the עבודה קשה, בחומר ובלבנים, the hard labor, the hard work. חז"ל say it was the men that were out there in the field. They didn't make the women דוקא do those things.
Why? Because they actually wanted certain things to get built and a man is physically stronger than a woman. Sorry, but that's just the מציאות. I didn't decide this, השם decided this. It's part of this fixing of this insanity of what's going on in the world.
So the Rebbe says, so so why is it בזכות נשים צדקניות? He says because as hard as the labor was for the man every single day, the sweat, the blood, God knows what was going on, חומר ובלבנים, the mind games that was going on, and they still held on to their אמונה, doesn't compare in anything to the אמונה of a Jewish woman that just gave birth and that baby was taken and placed into a wall or thrown into water, and that they still have אמונה. You can't, it's a completely different world of אמונה. You can't, אין שום, the Rebbe says you can't, זה לא שווה, it's a different world. That to me is very much helps me with this statement of חז"ל, בזכות נשים צדקניות נגאלנו ממצרים.
ובכך גם זכות נשים צדקניות היא זו שעומדת לעם ישראל בכל הדורות, להתקיים בכל הגלויות מעל דרך הטבע. It is the זכות of righteous women that also have helped create the fact that עם ישראל could still be מתקיים in all generations to exist in any גלות, מעל דרך הטבע, which in ways that we can't understand, it doesn't make any sense. You have to understand. and everything that we learned today is only a הכנה for the הכרת ערך עצמי of of every person needing to know what they're made out of.
Because if you know what you're made out of and then you approach דאווענען, your דאווענען is a completely different דאווענען. It's just like a man. If a man, the same thing with the man, but this is we have to do a men's ערך עצמי דאווענען שיעור. It's a whole other thing else.
But if you come before הקדוש ברוך הוא without understanding who you are, what you've been doing and your ערך and then you come and you דאווען before the ריבונו של עולם, you know, חסידות they say the ריבונו של עולם is not interested in you showing up to the ריבונו של עולם like like like a confused נבך. Especially since תפילת נשים צדקניות is so much more, is so much of a thing that the גאולה is dependent on, women must understand the פנימיות of who they are. And not, I'm sorry to say this, not what's been going on in the world the last 10 years, which is just basically a focus on the חיצוניות of who they are. We're trying here to delve into the ערך הפנימי.
ערך הפנימי of the מעלה of a woman. For the sake of the תפילות to finally crack open the gates that are still closed before the for the greeting of מלך המשיח. That's the, that's that's what we're doing here. So בעזרת השם we're going to continue next week with taking this whole notion to the to the next level בעזרת השם.