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Rav Shlomo Katz explores the teachings of Rav Shlomo Carlebach zt"l on the Parsha with the sefer Even Shlomo
Chavre gut chodesh gut chodesh it's so late let's get to it. I want to dedicate today's shiur specifically לעילוי נשמת רב יחיאל צבי בן רב שמעון אריה ליב. That's Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein who was a big was a Yid that came into the world and decided I gotta bring a lot of light and he did a lot of amazing tremendous things that have a lot of peiros, a lot of fruit.
תהא נשמתו צרורה בצרור החיים, u'lemala lemala, and b'ezras Hashem we should all connect to that light.
The month of Adar is sponsored by the Arnold family לעילוי נשמת לוי בן יוסף, by the Silvers Bas Yaffa לעילוי נשמת בת יפה בת ישראל. The month of Adar is also sponsored by Roziel and Leah Herschkovitz in memory of ישעיה שלום בן יצחק אייזיק. Who's that? A good friend of mine's first yahrtzeit's coming up.
תהא נשמתו צרורה בצרור החיים.
By the Fins by Ayalla and Johnny Fin לעילוי נשמת לוי יצחק בן ירוחם חננאל הכהן זלמן and for a shmira for all our tzadikim our chayalim hakadoshim and l'refua shlema for all of them amongst them דוד נתנאל בן איילה אהובה, דב שמואל בן אביה נאוה, אברהם יעקב בן דבורה פיגא בתוך שאר חולי ישראל. The week is sponsored by Sara and Yehoshua Amon in memory of your grandmothers טשארנא בת יעקב בן משה הלוי, Esther bas Raphael, and טייבא זלדא בת זאב. Today we have a one of my one of my one of my favorite pieces of Reb Shlomo in Parshas Terumah. This is something that I think many chavre that at times may feel very small can feel very right, can feel very special, can feel very special, can feel very connected.
As you know chavre when it comes to Parshas Terumah and Tetzaveh when we get into the details of both the Beis Hamikdash, the Mishkan as well as next Shabbos with the Bigadim with the clothes of the Kohen Gadol, first of all, it's filled filled with remazim to Purim it's unbelievable. It's filled with remazim to Chodesh Adar especially Tetzaveh with the clothes of the Kohen Gadol which we'll get to hopefully next week. Parshas Terumah we know that when it comes to the measurements there's so many measurements it's not a fun week for שנים מקרא ואחד תרגום. Last week also Mishpatim, Terumah, Tetzaveh, it's not like it's a avoda שנים מקרא ואחד תרגום.
It's not the smoothest ride but we get to it gets through us, we don't get through any of it, it gets through us. But everyone notices that all the measurements kimat all of them are always these broken numbers, all these chatza'im, all these halves. Not just that we have a concept of כל נדיב לב יביאה, kol nediv lev, nedivus lev. Who was the one to bring something to the Beis Hamikdash? This criteria of nediv lev.
I saw a vort this week, everyone knows it's a famous vort, everyone knows it says v'yikchu li terumah. What should it what should it have said? V'yitnu. V'yitnu li terumah. Pshat.
V'yitnu. That's another vort but v'yitnu li terumah. It seems like that's what it should have said. The vort is and actually someone called me recently and asked me to give them eitzas in fundraising, I said I'm not a good example but I'll tell you what Rabbi Riskin told me when I first met him.
When becoming the Rav here he said: if you don't feel that you're actually giving a person an opportunity to give something then you probably shouldn't do it. And that's a shift and he's a he's obviously Rabbi Riskin sheyihye l'refuah shleimah and he's obviously a gadol in that department. So the posuk says v'yitnu li v'yikchu li terumah that the lekicha should feel like it's netina, right? That that's what it should feel, it should feel like a zchus. That's the nediv lev aspect.
When we look at that and now we have Reb Shlomo in his beautiful lashon. This is a short piece from February 1978 that Reb Shlomo gave over the secret of of how you build a Beis Hamikdash, how you build Am Yisrael. Parshas Terumah.
מה הבדל בין אור קדוש לבין אור שהוא לא קדוש? Pashut me'od.
What's the difference between a holy light and a not so holy light? It's a very simple difference.
דמיינו שיש לי כאן אורות פסיכדליים. Imagine I have psychedelic lights. He means like you know in some sukkos they put up some crazy far out lights.
אור גדול ביותר בעולם שמהבהב כמו משוגע and this crazy light is these artificial light is flashing all over the place like like crazy.
ואז אדם אחד מגיע עם פנס קטן and then someone comes with a little flashlight. Flashlight.
אני אומר לו אתה משוגע אני לא צריך את זה.
What are you bringing your little flashlight here? I have such a crazy amount of light that's right in front of me, I don't need this. A whole light show. Yeah, I have a whole light show. You're coming with a flashlight? Chaveirim, אם האור הגדול באמת קדוש, כשמישהו מגיע עם אור קטן, זה מוסיף כל כך הרבה, mikeivan שהאור הגדול גורם לכם להיות מודעים לדברים הקטנים.
This sentence is dynamite. Tatei mashma. I'm gonna read it again. Listen to the words here.
Chaveirim, אם האור הגדול באמת קדוש, if that crazy light show is really holy, then כשמישהו מגיע עם אור קטן, when someone shows up with a little light, זה מוסיף כל כך הרבה, it actually adds so much. Why? Mikeivan shehaor hagadol, because the big light, what does it cause you to be aware of and to see?
גורם לכם להיות מודעים לדברים הקטנים. Because real holy light, big light, causes you to be aware of the small things. You understand what he did over here? Small light.
Anything. Anything. A small light helps the larger light. It's not about helping.
It's not about the... you know that flashlight? That, yeah, that flashlight doesn't really lemaaseh in this world add to the brightness of that crazy big psychedelic light that he's talking about. However, it adds so much to what light is all about because light is there to raise awareness for all the small things. Simple thing.
Obviously when you build a shul, someone's gonna come and drop some massive אמן כן יהי רצון, some massive אמן כן יהי רצון, אמן כן יהי רצון, אמן כן יהי רצון, omein Rosh Chodesh, and a gut Purim, אמן כן יהי רצון, אמן כן יהי רצון. Someone's gonna come and drop down a massive אמן כן יהי רצון. He's gonna bring down some massive gelt, right? Omein. And then you have a guy that lives here, or that doesn't live here, but he feels connected.
She feels connected. If this is really a place of kedusha, then the person that only has eighteen dollars to give right after someone just dropped three hundred and sixty thousand dollars אמן כן יהי רצון to give, what's gonna happen to that person that gave the eighteen dollars? Feel good. What is it gonna feel? Feel significant? Hafoch, meaning if it's a holy, right, right, if it's not, they could feel very insignificant. Stam, מה יש לי להביא? What do I have to give? Broke in.
Huh? Gonna feel broke in. But give it over. Broke, but also broke in. Oh, in, yeah.
You're laughing. You know why you're laughing? Because you have such a chiddush and it's... it's the deepest. I know.
I'm saying that you're gonna feel broke that I'm not that, but I'm also broke in, but I'm also broke in. Yes, yes. And that's what he's saying over here. But now how do you know if a light is not holy? If there's a Rebbe, and the real Rebbes would never be like this, but if there's some kind of prestigious rabbi that he's, you know, he's he needs some big bucks, and this happened with some of the sefarim we put out.
There are chevra that knew that the main sponsor would put down ten thousand dollars and get the name and whatever it is. Then there are people that said I want so badly to be part of this but I don't have enough to put a to get my even like a quarter page in like the third page of dedications. So I hope whoever hears this mochel me, but sometimes when the chevra that barely had anything to put in but wanted so bad leshem being part of the sefer, they sometimes got the front page. That could get me into a lot of trouble right now but it's in my atzmos because the real stuff in the world, the real stuff in the world comes from one place, nediv lev, which is how the parsha opens up with how you give to the Beis Hamikdash.
A holy light makes you notice small light. And it makes your holy light that much more meaningful and deep. Yes, lemaaseh, will eighteen dollars add on change on a metzius level the needs of a shul on a practical level? Probably not. Will it change the needs of the shul on the most emesdik practical level that the place should be built by nedivus lev? One million percent.
One million percent. Back inside.
מה ההבדל בין כסף קדוש? We're like five lines in.
מה ההבדל בין כסף קדוש? Difference between holy money and unholy money.
תארו לעצמכם שמיליונר אחד נותן שני מיליון דולר למשכן ואז משה'לה הגנב נותן רבע דולר אחד. Right some billionaire gives two million dollars to the Mishkan and then Mosheleh the thief gives a quarter. So I'll say you're crazy, we already have two million dollars. What are you adding here?
כי זה לא קדוש.
אבל אם זה קדוש, אתה אומר לא יאמן.
הרבע דולר שלך זה הדבר הכי יקר שקיבלנו. This is the most precious thing we ever, we ever received. We ever received.
Now look how he ties this. This is you need to be a talmid chacham and you need to be creative to do the following.
כאשר שלמה המלך בנה את בית המקדש הוא שלח שליחים לאסוף כסף ותכשיטים לבית המקדש. Shlomo Hamelech is building Bayis Rishon.
He sends messengers, emissaries, to collect money and tachshitim. What's tachshitim? Jewelry for the beis, adornments for the Beit Hamikdash.
השליחים חזרו עם זהב והכסף. Listen to this.
This is amazing. The shluchim come back with gold and silver.
אבל אז שאל המלך שלמה איפה הפרוטות של העניים? But where are the pennies of the paupers? That's what he wanted to know. Az hashlichim amru - and you could see all this in Melachim Aleph - hashlichim amru כשאניים ראו שאנחנו אוספים זהב והכסף הם התביישו לתת את הפרוטות שלהם.
They were embarrassed to give their pennies.
אז שלמה המלך אומר, okay, בואו נעשה עוד פעם התרמה תרומה רק של פרוטות. Now go out again, go on out another campaign, but this time the campaign is only penny campaign. Meaning you're not going to go collect, but this time you're only collecting pennies.
So we should do another campaign for eighteen dollars each for each person? Sure. And you're just put yourself the one in charge to make that campaign happen. He's laughing, he doesn't know how it works here yet. It's shana rishona.
Dov will talk to you after shiur, okay? Kulam yode'im. Now look what he says here.
שלושה קירות בבית המקדש נבנו מזהב ותכשיטים. There are three walls in the Beis Hamikdash that were built from the gold and the silver and all the jewelry.
אבל קיר אחד נבנה בפרוטות. But there was one wall that was built from the pennies. Hakotel hama'aravi.
הכותל שלא ניתן להשמיד אותו.
That wall that can never be destroyed, that was the one that was built from the pennies. Wow. Mic drop. Yeah.
Huh? Yeah, actually. Is it true? You think he made this stuff up? What, I'm not the only one asking. No, no. He could be speaking figuratively or literally.
Yeah. Huh? He could be speaking figuratively or literally. That's what we're all waiting to hear because you're right, the mic dropped and we're waiting to hear but it's still standing. I don't think it necessarily matters.
I think we're just shocked at how that's the point. Also good. The answer is yes. That's the answer.
So before Rabbi Riskin decided to be a rabbi... What's that? What did you say? Gut chodesh. What did you say? Maybe Rabbi Riskin would teach you how to handle these questions. No, no, no.
They're good questions. We all want the mekoros. We want to feel that these Torahs are like, you know, not fairy tales and not just stam hamtza'ot and not buba maises or exaggeration. So it's always good.
But it's also good to like come to what you said is that be'emes, be'emes la'amito, you know... I heard something beautiful once someone said, like, asked the Rebbe, "Are all these stories that you say true? Did they happen?" He's like, "Not all of them happened, but they're all true." So I'll tell you one time I was by my Rebbe, Rav Weinberger, on a Friday night in his home for Shabbos dinner, and he was saying... he was pulling out more... there was like...
there was more stories that... he loved the kids, back and forth. It was when the kids, his kids, were younger and he was saying a story. And maybe like at one point one of the kids went like that, like, you know, "Is that true, Tatka?" So at the end...
and I don't know if he heard it or not. But after bentching he said, "I just want you to know. I believe be'emunah sheleimah in every single one of these stories that I share with you. I believe be'emunah sheleimah in every single one of the stories." But this is a gevalt thing.
and it's not a bad thing to want to have makor at all, chas v'cholila, I'm not, I don't want you to think that I'm downplaying it all, but when you learn more chasidus and it becomes a derech of your life, zeh pachot hainyan. You know what I mean? It's less the inyan. It's more what does this do to my neshama? What is this doing to my neshama? Hearing such words, what does it do to me? What part of me that maybe feels like it's not so important can I start looking at it and be like, wow, even the little bit of me is important. And that's deeper than any makor I could ever find.
It would also take away from the point of limud if we said this is the makor, I mean they're always going back and referencing a sefer, some chidush. So is it any less... no no but it's a good thing, listen, it's a good thing to see things trace back, it's, it is a good thing. You should know that many, many times when and I wrote this in the intro to this sefer that he says so and so says, right? And not just me, other scholars I used, I would send it around to different scholars, big rabbanim to help me find the makor in that certain sefer where so and so says so and so.
And quite often it's not found the way that he's saying it. But so I wrote, it became clear that when he learned and when he heard a certain teaching, that's how he, that's mamash how he heard it. That's mamash how he heard it. Then you could say the makor of how he heard this is in his lashon, nachon, nachon.
It seems to be a combination of sources from Shir HaShirim Rabba and Eicha Rabba. Thank you, ashreicha. shkoach. Now, back inside into the point of why we're learning this.
B'Rosh Hashanah katuv ובשופר גדול יתקע וקול דממה דקה ישמע. One of my favorite, favorite moments of ראש השנה יום כיפור. One of my favorite, favorite... I hear my father has a certain nusach that I hear even though I don't do that line while I'm doing a different line I actually hear my father's nusach.
Right? With a great trumpet will be blown, as well as a kol demama daka. That means, it means bi'sfaisa? Like a demama daka is like even like a silent whisper will be heard too, right?
אנחנו נשמע את הקול הכי פנימי שאפילו אי אפשר להקליט אותו. We'll be hearing such an inner voice that you probably can't even record it, record meaning you can't even grasp it, you can't pick it up, what's that? You can't pick it up. Yeah, you can't pick, you can't put it into anything.
It's so, right? Kol demama daka.
תקשיבו עד כמה זה עמוק. Listen how deep this is.
הייתי אומר שזה הפוך.
I would say the opposite.
כאשר תוקעים בשופר הגדול יש כל כך הרבה רעש אתה לא יכול לשמוע כלום. You're blasting the great trumpet, right? So you should say the volume is deafening. That's what it should be like.
Aval, hashofar hakadosh זה כשאתה שומע את התקיעה של השופר הגדול, when you hear, when you hear the great trumpet... might as well be the last. Who's holding? Shmuel, besides you. Tzvi? No? Mordy? Three.
Aval, right? V'hashofar hakadosh זה כשאתה שומע את התקיעה של השופר הגדול. When you hear the blowing of the great trumpet פתאום אתה מודע לכל הקולות שיש לקול העמוק ביותר שבתוכך. Suddenly you become aware of all the voices that your inner, inner, inner voice has within you. Oh man, this is so therapeutic.
Even though it's Adar and simcha dik, I have to tell you something. A second before I walk into the shiur, I got a message that there's a very, very special woman, her name was Slotana and she put out the book lamed-vav, you know that book lamed-vav, the big red book? She just passed away before shiur. And she was a big, big neshama. And she is Rav Aaron Leibowitz's, if you know Rav Aaron Leibowitz's mother-in-law.
And she helped me a lot with with these sefarim. And there's something that she was able to capture, the way that she put Reb Shlomo's Torahs and stories out there in the world where minor details that don't necessarily, if you just read any other storybook, you wouldn't pay attention to them, the way that she was able to highlight minor details with The way that, the way that this happens over here, the way that it happens over here is that this is a, this is a chevre, this is a subconscious autobiography piece that he's giving about his own life. How was he able to notice and pay attention to all the schleppers and homeless people? I ever tell you the story that like a two years after he died or three years after he died, I was walking, I was walking on like Broadway and maybe like 82nd or 83rd and the shul is 79th, right? Yeah. So I'm like a few blocks away and some homeless brother, an African American brother came up to me in the late at night asked for something and I, and this, the inyan here is not to tell you what kind of tzaddik I am, it's to tell you who this person we're learning from is.
I gave it to him and he said, "you're one of Shlomo's aren't you?" He said that to me, "you're one of Shlomo's". Who noticed, obviously the Rebbe, Lubavitcher Rebbe nishmaso eden os mamash every detail, small things, little things, it was all hakol nire, everything was seen. When your light is really big, when your light is really, really holy, it's not that you have to pay extra attention to small things, you notice the small things like you notice the big things, there's no difference between them, everything becomes important. That's how you build the Beis HaMikdash, that's how you build the holy Temple, that's how you really build Am Yisrael as well, you really build Am Yisrael.
פתאום אתה מודע לכל הקולות שיש לקול העמוק ביותר שבתוכך and you know what you also notice, you give space to the little kid in you that's still crying over something that for years the world has told you grow up, get out of your adolescence, time to be a man. There's a little kid in you that's still crying איה למה זה קרה לי, why did this happen to me? When your light is really holy, you give space even to the voice of the inner child that that is not, doesn't go away when you're 18 or when you get married or when you're a grandfather. It's still there. Atem mevinim chaverim, bottom line, אם הלב שלכם באמת קדוש אני בטוח שתוכלו לקבל את הפרוטות הקטנות.
If your heart is really holy, I'm sure that you could receive the small pennies, meaning that you can notice the small pennies and that the small pennies will actually mean something to you.
את הקולות הקטנים שהופכים אותנו מודעים יותר למה שחשוב באמת בחיים. Those small voices that change everything, that change us to be much more conscious to what is really important in life. Many years ago we learned something similar to this and we tied it to shalach manos, mishloach manos, because mishloach manos people lose their mind over it, stress, ideas, themes, all these inyanim and we learned the Torah of the orange peel, that that right, orange peel.
And that Purim it stayed with me forever because there were like five or six chevre that came to my house on Purim and they brought me orange peels as shalach manos. I saved them, I saved them. Because you, because when you, when you create a Purim energy like that, when you create a makom like that, then people and and listen, let's call it spade for spade here, like this is the real, the real emes is that we live in a community where there's a bunch of chevre that Hashem blessed them with kol milei detava, a lot of gelt and they're changing the world with that matana. And there's a bunch of chevre that aren't like that.
And you should just know the greatest thing that anyone ever told me that comes to visit is that they have no idea when they walk into shul from the outside, they have no idea who's on what team. Meaning chalila team, there's no teams, but kilu who's, you know what I mean. They always say that to me because sometimes you walk into a shul you can sniff that guy even if he's sitting like 18 rows in the back, it's just about something about the makom, the ma'amad, I don't know what it is. Just one of the greatest joys and I'll tell you something even whackier which is definitely not political.
Most of the time I don't know either. I actually don't know. And I told over the years whoever was with me in the running of the shul, I don't want to know who drops the the big one. I don't want to know because I don't want to even have that as a hava amina to think differently and act differently towards things.
When I find out it's a beautiful thing that I want to give a hakarat hatov. But I want it to be that not just prutot energy, but muda'ut for prutot energy, a consciousness, an awareness for the small things. And when you have that you build a mishkan, when you have that you build a Beit HaMikdash. When you have that you have a real definition of איש אחד בלב אחד.
You think everyone at Har Sinai was holding on the same level? No. Maybe some families got a bit bit extra when they left Egypt, I don't know. It's usually like that in in most societies. There's always going to be someone with more and less.
But if there's appreciation to the little, then you have then you really know what you have when you have the big stuff as well. Then you really know what you have. It should be from hercheilik to be aware and conscious of the small things. The small things that our children do to point out, make a big deal out of it, not to say oh you're the greatest tzadik in the world, but to point out, to notice those small things so that when they grow up they also carry those eyes of of consciousness and awareness of the small things.
Halevai like that it'll be a march towards Purim like we've never had before in our lives. L'chaim, l'chaim, l'chaim.