Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Rav Shlomo Katz brings Lag Ba'Omer to life with a soulful compilation of Torah teachings on Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai (Rashbi). Through niggunim and Chassidic wisdom, he explores Rashbi’s divine light, the joy of Torah revelation, and Am Yisrael’s unity. This series offers a transformative journey, celebrating Lag Ba'Omer’s bonfires and the eternal flame of Rashbi’s legacy.
Okay, boker tov everyone. Thank you to uh, to the משפחת Kram for hosting. Thank you so much. We're learning today is Chana Sara's brother's יאָרצײַט, פטר יעקב בן חיים בערל.
נשמה should have an עלייה, בעזרת ה׳. Today, we're focusing on learning a very, it's a beautiful how the way it worked out today that this Thursday morning is ערב ל״ג בעומר. And, even if it wasn't ערב ל״ג בעומר, the week of ל״ג בעומר, when a שיעור of רבי נחמן's teachings, you cannot not learn the connection between the נשמות of רבי נחמן and רבי שמעון בר יוחאי.So, there's a lot of things to say. I'm trying to, I'm going to try to give a setting.
I'm going to try to just give a little bit of a setting to explain when the teaching we're going to be learning right now came down, because that'll help us very much. As we mentioned, I think two weeks ago, that רבי נחמן, maybe this is a little bit of a connection to the סוד of ארץ ישראל. You see by the תורה of רבי נחמן, there's a connection to ארץ ישראל that seems to be stronger than anywhere else in all the ספרים קדושים of חסידות. רבי נחמן's התקשרות to ארץ ישראל is something wondrous that it was ה׳ באייר that he arrived in אומן, I think, that he traveled.
ה׳ באייר is יום העצמאות. So, the story was, as you all know very, very well, that on רבי נחמן's last year in this world, boker tov, in 1810, חול המועד פסח, רבי נחמן's living in ברסלב now for eight years, and רבי נחמן is already sick with tuberculosis, and he's seeking treatment in the town called Lemberg, לבוב. And on חול המועד פסח, in the year 1810, רבי נחמן's house goes up in flames, right? His house burns to the ground.And they didn't know what to do, the family didn't know what to do. And word got, רבי נחמן received word right right after פסח that his place is waiting for him in אומן.
And he only lives in אומן the last six months of his life. Now, this is the עדות we have from רבי נתן. רבי נתן who was traveled with him from ברסלב to אומן, and he said it was worth it for me to be in this world just to hear what the רבי revealed on that ride from ברסלב to אומן. One of the teachings that רבי נחמן revealed on the ride to from ברסלב to אומן is the following teaching, which became the הקדמה to ליקוטי מוהר״ן.
Now, ליקוטי מוהר״ן was already printed two years prior. So the first editions of ליקוטי מוהר״ן, I've never, I've never seen it before. It doesn't have this teaching over here. But from like every ליקוטי מוהר״ן that we have today, you'll see in the beginning of ליקוטי מוהר״ן, this is the teaching that was put over there.
And it's not סתם because in it, we have a, we have a very deep, deep revelation and a very beautiful understanding of the סוד ההתקשרות, the secret of the התקשרות between רבי נחמן and רבי שמעון בר יוחאי. The story was, and Reb Noson Maimon shared it with us earlier this week at the Rosens, one time a ברסלב חסיד was traveling, and he was traveling somewhere far from, you know, ברסלב headquarters, and he sees that there's a ליקוטי מוהר״ן in this person's house. So it must have been like ממש around this time.And the, the ברסלבר says, why, what, what you know, you have this book? What, what do you, why do you have this book up here? So the בעל הבית in whose house this took place, he said, what, you know about this ספר? He's like, of course I do. This is my רבי, רבי נחמן.
So right away the guy said to him, so you must know what the קשר is between רבי נחמן and רבי שמעון בר יוחאי. Right? Because it's the הקדמה of the ספר. So whenever someone says that, that means they want to say a דבר תורה, right? When they say to you, oh, so you must know what the, right? You ever happened to you that someone says to you, oh, so you must know what the, what, what, what the, what the obvious connection is. Obviously it's just a prep for them saying, and I will tell you what it is.
So the חסיד said, okay, so tell me. He said very clear. רבי נחמן בן שמחה is the same גימטריה as רבי שמעון בן יוחאי. So that's a very, very big, big, big thing.
Anyone that's learned תורת הסוד, anyone that's learned the secrets of פנימיות התורה, if, if an equivalent, the value of a name is very, very strong. The גימטריה of our names is very, very strong. When it's exactly the same value of another person's name, it alludes to many different things, but one of them is that they probably share the same שורש נשמה. In the, so in the world of רבי שמעון בר יוחאי, in the world of רבי נחמן, in the world of ברסלב, רבי נחמן is this, is the same שורש נשמה of רבי שמעון בר יוחאי.רבי נחמן had said on a different occasion that from the time of משה רבינו until רבי שמעון בר יוחאי, there were no real חידושים in the world.
רבי שמעון בר יוחאי comes down and brings down a world of חידושים. Same thing happened from the time of רבי שמעון בר יוחאי until the האר״י ז״ל, there was no real חידושים. Then again, between, between the האר״י ז״ל and the בעל שם טוב הקדוש. And then afterwards again, from the בעל שם טוב הקדוש until רבי נחמן.
And there are a lot of different statements which like I said last week's שיעור, when we continue next week learning, we're going to be learning about רבי נחמן not from the teachings, we're going to be learning it from, from the חסידים. That's the way we're going to have this access to this התקשרות, to this passion that we we learn about so much. We've been learning רבי נחמן's תורה for ברוך ה׳, right? I think three or four years now, and we're going to learn about it differently from next week. I thought that next week we're going to have um, that session with Rut Banai, but that was changed to Tuesday night.
I'll be sending out a flyer about that to those who didn't get it yet. That's Tuesday night in our home.So, what's the connection between רבי נחמן and רבי שמעון בר יוחאי? So on the, on the, on the way that we understand it, and it's still a secret, is that we know that the ספר הזוהר is filled with revelation of secrets. That's what the זוהר is. That's what the teachings of רבי שמעון בר יוחאי are.
And when a person feels that they have access to secrets, it gives them חיות to keep on going. In a marriage, when a couple shares something that no one else in the world knows about, and it's a secret language that no one else can understand or identify, that secret exists between every זיווג. And that keeps the חיות of every single, like, you know what I mean, by the way that you could look at each other, and only you two know what you're talking about. No one else can crack the code of your eyes.
רבי שמעון brings that down between us and הקדוש ברוך הוא. That's the תורה of רבי שמעון בר יוחאי. רבי נחמן does the same exact thing. He keeps the relationship on the level of עין בעין, what you see when you have a relationship with the רבונו של עולם, that you know that you have this like secret wink with ה׳ that no one else can really understand, no one else can can crack.
That's what it is. That's the סוד ההתקשרות. That's probably the סוד of התבודדות as well.But the following teaching we're going to see right now, explains to us why רבי שמעון בר יוחאי, how a little, it's like amazing. How can you encompass into one, look at this, it's just one page, what רבי שמעון בר יוחאי is all about.
I was certain that we learned this before. I guess we did this with the men. This is awesome. It's absolutely awesome.
It's one of my favorite pieces. We went to מירון a few years ago, the חבורה, one morning and we learned this by רבי שמעון בר יוחאי. It was very, very special. So, let's go for it.
Let's go for it.מסוד גדולת התנא האלקי רבי שמעון בן יוחאי. A little bit of the secret of the greatness of the sage, רבי שמעון בן יוחאי. לכו חזו מפעלות ה׳. Go and see the wonders of ה׳.
התגלות נפלאה מסוד גדולת התנא האלקי רבי שמעון בן יוחאי ז״ל. רבי שמעון בן יוחאי הבטיח. רבי שמעון made a promise. שלא תשתכח תורה מישראל.
That the תורה would never be forgotten from עם ישראל. When is רבי שמעון בן יוחאי around? What what era is he alive? Does anyone know? Yeah. רבי שמעון sees, רבי שמעון is alive at the time of absolute חורבן. And a lot of the Jewish leadership, I would say the, the basically כמעט הרוב of Jewish leadership sensed that there was a tremendous, not just sensed, many of them were very certain that it was a nice run.
It was a nice run, אבל זהו. You know, how long was the run, בערך? Does anyone know? How long was the run that they were referring to? תעשו חשבון. Well, from the first, from the time of the first one, including that first גלות and the second בית המקדש. Close to 950, yeah.
Yeah, because it's, remember, 410, 70, 420. So you have a nice run there. But it was a run. And then it's so funny how like we're here for like 70 years and we're sure, oh, it's for sure.
This is here for, you know, it's such an interesting concept that we, this illusion of time that we live with. Back then it was 950 years, and then we went out for 2,000 years. Here we're for 70 years, we can't get it together for one day here, and we're certain that we're here forever and oh, we're back. It's amazing.
It's an amazing, it's a funny thing actually, if you think about it. Okay, so go back inside. רבי שמעון is, רבי שמעון says, he made a promise. He says, it's on me.
And we'll see this is basically the שיעור is titled, it's on me. That would have been a better שיעור title. Okay. רבי שמעון בן יוחאי הבטיח שלא תשתכח תורה מישראל על ידו.
He promises that through him, תורה won't be forgotten. It's not just that he says, don't worry, I have a sense that we'll be okay. He takes ממש, he takes ערבות. How do you say ערבות? He, he's a guarantor.
He says through me, I'm telling you, the תורה will never ever be forgotten. And back then there was this literal חשש, there was this thing of like, it could be that it's going to be, it's going to be done. It's going to be toast.כמובא בדברי רבותינו זכרונם לברכה, like it's brought down in the גמרא in שבת, כשנכנסו רבותינו לכרם ביבנה. It's not just the name of the ישיבה, you know that, right? כרם ביבנה.
This is a play, a כרם, a vineyard in the town of יבנה. אמרו, they said there, עתידה תורה שתשתכח מישראל. They're freaking out. They're saying the תורה is going to be forgotten.
It's amazing how they weren't worried so much about like other things like the fact that they're all exiled, their עניין was the love letter will be forgotten. The sense of ה׳ telling us what he wants from us will be forgotten. Remember how in the תניא, we've learned so many times that every מצווה is a ביטוי of the רצון ה׳, is an expression of what ה׳ wants. Their fear here is that they're going to stop knowing, they're going, it's going to stop being clear to them what ה׳ wants.
They're going to stop hearing what God wants. That's the concept of being freaked out that the תורה is going to be forgotten. That's a very scary thing.ואמר רבי שמעון בן יוחאי. And רבי שמעון gets up and he says, שלא תשתכח.
It's, it won't be forgotten. Now you have to understand that for רבי שמעון בר יוחאי to get up and say that, he needs to come with some kind of backup. You can't just dish out statements like that and say like, because they probably looked at him and said, oh, cute little שמעון is saying his שטויות again. Like, that could be how they looked at him, right? It's so awesome.
ואמר רבי שמעון בן יוחאי שלא תשתכח. Now, why does he say this? He quotes the פסוק that says כי לא תשתכח מפי זרעו. He says, no. הנביאים already told us, it won't be forgotten.
The תורה will not be forgotten through his offspring. זאת אומרת, there will always be מסורה. Now, that's רבי שמעון's statement. כי לא תשתכח מפי זרעו.
There will always be מסורה. A father and a mother will always talk to their children about שבת. A father and a mother will always talk to their children about ציצית, about כשרות, about, you name it, הלכות תפילה. There'll always be a concept of מסורה.
There'll always be someone that's giving over to their child. So yes, it seems that perhaps in on the level of institutionalized establishment, it won't continue, which some would say is a very good thing, right? Because it had to be revamped and it had to be reinvigorated the whole concept of how do we give over תורה to our children. And that still needs to keep on being reinvented even today, right? But רבי שמעון is saying, the פסוק says, כי לא תשתכח מפי זרעו. As long as there are Jewish children in the world, a Jewish mother will always tell her daughters about what it means to be a בת ישראל.
As long as there's a son, there's a Jewish boy being born into the world, there will be a ברית מילה. Maybe they won't have access to learning about it the way that they once did, but there will always be through the concept of giving over to children, the concept of יידישקייט and תורה. Okay, that's, that was רבי שמעון's statement. And please remember this statement.
Specifically this פסוק, כי לא תשתכח מפי זרעו.וכמבואר בזוהר. Now this is a very important statement. Like it's brought down in the זוהר, בהאי חיבורא דיהו ספר הזוהר, יפקון ביה מן גלותא. If you've ever learned or if you ever go to a שיעור about the importance of learning זוהר, the importance of רבי שמעון בר יוחאי, you will see this statement every שיעור you go to.
בהאי חיבורא, right, בהאי חיבורא means in this manuscript, בזה החיבור דיהו ספר הזוהר, which we're referring to, the book of the זוהר, יפקון ביה מן גלותא. Does anyone know what the word יפקון means? You ever hear, huh? Yeah, like נפקא means to come out. This is how you're going to get out of גלות. יפקון ביה מן גלותא.
You can, you can, you will get out of גלות, you will get out of exile through this manuscript, ספר הזוהר. What's interesting is that today, even though there are pockets in the Jewish world that do learn זוהר as a thing, as like as something that's ממש sitting and learning out of the זוהר. And we know that we we lived close to someone that took this on very seriously. רב פיירמן זכרונו לברכה.
This was a, I don't know, did any of you ever go to a שיעור of רב פיירמן? I I I I learned with him a number of times. I had the privilege of going to a שיעור, and he'd sit there, open his זוהר, and just start laughing and learning. ממש. That person was out of גלות while he was learning, while he was learning זוהר.
Not just that, whoever was in his presence was not in גלות while he was learning the זוהר. Not at all. So the question becomes, so why aren't, hey, the זוהר says from this חיבור, you come out of גלות. So the שאלה is, how come we're not going, why aren't we learning זוהר all over the place? Why isn't, don't we just want to end גלות? We have to live in.
What's that? They said they do it. They're out of גלות? Or they learn זוהר? They only learning זוהר that's where he remembers the whole thing. נכון. Now there are, there are a number of answers to this.
The לבובצ'י רבי was asked about this when one of רב, רב אשלג's grandchildren came to the לבובצ'י רבי and quoted to him this, he said to him, you know, remember like בהאי חיבורא יפקון ביה מן גלותא, like through this חיבור you get out of גלות. So can the רבי come out with a קול קורא? Meaning, can the רבי, it's a great video, it's a חב״ד has this on a video. It's like a two minute video. So he says, can the רבי say that, you know, everyone should start learning זוהר because this is a sign of משיח coming and get out of גלות.
So the רבי held that if when you, basically when you learn the תניא, the אלתר רבי has specific pieces from the זוהר that really the whole תניא is based on. And that's how they, you know, in חב״ד, they say that's how they learn the pieces, that's how they're learning extracting the זוהר. In ברסלב, by the way, you'll see also that there's constant quotes from the זוהר itself. רבי נחמן knew זוהר inside out.
He said that every person should be, should finish the זוהר. He said to his תלמידים to finish it once a year. I was once in אומן, ערב, on ראש חודש אלול with חיים קרעמער. I think I told you this.
And we had dinner in BRI, Breslov Research Institute. And at the end of dinner, after he gave a שמועס, he said, one second. And he just, he pulled out a גמרא יבמות, I think, or was בבא מציעא. He said, I got to do a סיום.
So he pulls out a גמרא and he just knocks off a סיום on one of the hardest מסכתות. ממש, right? Then I saw him in מעריב 20 minutes later, he was ready with the, he started already the next מסכת. He did it all quiet. Didn't do a whole scene.
But right after he finished this, this סיום on מסכת, on, I think it was יבמות, he's like, one more thing. And he pulls out a תיקוני זוהר and he did a סיום on all the תיקוני זוהר like that. ממש. How do you have all this time, right? רבי נתן was asked the same thing.
רבי נתן, huh? מעל הזמן. רבי נתן said the same thing. He said, when you, when you look at time from the outside, there's no time. When you're inside, and you, you time is is an absolute illusion.
It's an absolute illusion that the truth is the things that we get done are usually never because of our calculations. Like the things that need to get done, it's not because we set up, we had a good schedule, even though it's good to have a schedule, but we don't usually end up getting the real, deep, soul-wrenching things done because of our חשבון of how much time we need for certain things. רבי נתן was asked this all the time, how do you have time to write so much? How could it be? It's a different rhythm. It's like you're, you're connected to a different rhythm.
So, to go back inside over here, בהאי חיבורא דיהו ספר הזוהר, יפקון ביה מן גלותא, from this composition which is a ספר הזוהר, you will leave גלות. This is a very interesting thing, a very interesting statement that in all worlds, if you look, if you open the נתיבות שלום, if you open up other ספרים, first there'll be, it'll say איתא בזוהר הקדוש, there'll be a quote from the זוהר, then three pages trying to understand the quote from the זוהר הקדוש. So the truth is חסידות, of course, really is, you know, taking concepts from the זוהר הקדוש and hopefully bringing it down to us on a level that we could connect to.ועתה רבי נחמן continues, בוא וראה, now come and see, והבן נפלאות נסתרות של תורתנו הקדושה. And now begin to understand the wonders, the wondrous miracles of our holy תורה.
כי על כן, now he's going to show you a secret what רבי שמעון בר יוחאי really meant. It's amazing. סמך רבי שמעון בן יוחאי עצמו על זה הפסוק. רבי שמעון, remember we said before that he took responsibility that the תורה would never be forgotten.
What did we say that he did? He quoted a פסוק. What was the פסוק? כי לא תשתכח מפי זרעו. רבי נחמן says, do you know what רבי שמעון was talking about? Do you know why he quoted that פסוק? It's not just a nice emotional thing. Oh, a father will always have a son and he'll be able to teach him תורה.
A mother will have a daughter. Sounds all beautiful and sweet and it's a very emotional, you know, וואָרט. But רבי נחמן says something much deeper was going on. סמך רבי שמעון בן יוחאי עצמו על זה הפסוק כי לא תשתכח מפי זרעו.
He he he included himself. He basically not included. He put himself as collateral on this פסוק. How? כי באמת בזה הפסוק בעצמו, really, in this actual פסוק, מרומז ונסתר סוד הזה, is alluded and hidden this secret, שעל ידי זרעו של יוחאי, that through the זרע of יוחאי, who's the זרע of יוחאי? שמעון.
That's right. The speaker is saying the offspring of Yochai. Yochai? Yes. We found his kever in a neighborhood going to get when we were up for Pesach, trying to get money and I'm like the parents of Reb Shimon ben Yochai.
And it's like it's a fine. And I'm like, it's like גוש חלב, right there. And I'm like, and it says the parents of Reb Shimon, we went down into it. It's under an Arab house.
It's kind of like Shimon up on that you find under? Really? And right, it's in גוש חלב. It was the craziest thing. It says that all the, it says that they're buried there. It's like under a garage and the craziest thing.
Oh my God. And we went and we, you know. Wow. Wow.
So you should go tonight. I didn't know that was there. Drive over there. So again, so this is crazy.
That's even crazier. שעל ידי זרעו של יוחאי, through the זרע of יוחאי, okay, this is now understand words, the power of words. שהוּא רבי שמעון בן יוחאי, על ידו לא תשתכח התורה מעם ישראל. דייקא through the זרע of יוחאי, the תורה won't be forgotten.
רבי שמעון wasn't saying a blank statement. He was taking responsibility. And he was saying it's, it's going, I promise and it'll be through me. How? כי סופי תיבות, what's סופי תיבות? ראשי תיבות is the first letter of each word.
סופי תיבות is the last letter of each word. סופי תיבות של זה הפסוק כי לא תשתכח מפי זרעו, הם אותיות יוחאי. You see? You see how deep that is? The last letters that spell out the words of the פסוק that it won't be forgotten from his offspring, that those last letters which allude here to meaning at the end, the instead of ראשי תיבות, it's סופי תיבות, right? At the end, what will come out of this פסוק, יוחאי, כי לא תשתכח מפי זרעו. That's what רבי נחמן revealed this on the way from ברסלב moving to אומן.
By the way, there are books in ברסלב written on trying to understand why רבי נחמן waited until that ride, until that journey from ברסלב to אומן to reveal this teaching. Meaning רבי שמעון didn't write this. No. This is all רבי נחמן.
רבי שמעון quoted the פסוק. And he told חכמים in יבנה, that's what he did. He said, no, no, no, no. כי לא תשתכח מפי זרעו.
רבי נחמן comes hundreds and hundreds of years later and he says, do you know why רבי שמעון said that פסוק? Because a leader doesn't look to anybody else to implement the secrets of the תורה, the promises of the תורה. They put it on themselves. מפי זרעו דייקא. היינו מפי זרעו של זה בעצמו שהוא מרומז ונסתר בזה הפסוק.
דייקא through the זרע of the person that is alluded to and embedded within this פסוק, שהוּא התנא יוחאי, כי על ידי זרעו של יוחאי שמרומז בזה הפסוק בסופי תיבות כנ״ל, שהוא רבי שמעון בן יוחאי. Okay. But רבי נחמן continues. He says, that's nice for quoting רבי שמעון בר יוחאי's father and it makes sense.
From the זרע of יוחאי, יידן will come out of גלות, תורה will never be forgotten. That's one thing. What about his name, שמעון? Now I want to say one more statement before we finish this. רבי נחמן journeyed to ארץ ישראל, he made it to מירון.
He was here. רבי נתן also made it to ארץ ישראל. He visited מירון and both their trips are documented. רבי נתן's very literally, very detailed.
There was a mysterious student that was escorting רבי נחמן to his trip to ארץ ישראל. It's never, it's never written down clearly who he is, who this student was. It was not רבי נתן. And it wasn't רבי נפתלי and the other, one of the other top תלמידים.
Word has it that, word has it, word on the street is, basically in ברסלב מדרש world, it was רבי שמעון. רבי שמעון was רבי נחמן's first תלמיד. רבי שמעון became רבי נחמן's תלמיד, remember we said last week, remember how old רבי נחמן was when he became a רבי? It was the same night that he got married, 13 years old, right? Jenny? I know. So, it seems, it, it, I've been thinking about this lately.
It seems to me that it's, רבי נחמן perhaps understood his שליחות in the world where his first תלמיד's name was שמעון, because his whole, רבי נחמן's whole life is wrapped around the figure of רבי שמעון בר יוחאי. There are a lot of, there are many, like I said before, there are books written about the קשר between these two נשמות. But it's דייקא this רבי שמעון that plays a very, very big role in רבי נחמן's life. So here, he now he talks about the name שמעון as well.
יוחאי, we had a secret with that name. ודע, third line from the bottom, שסוד רבי שמעון בעצמו, הוּא מרומז בפסוק אחר. And the name of שמעון is also alluded to in a different פסוק. כי דע, כי התנא הקדוש רבי שמעון, הוּא בחינת עיר וקדיש מן שמיא נחית.
ראשי תיבות שמעון. This word, the name שמעון, is the ראשי תיבות of a פסוק from דניאל, עיר וקדיש מן שמיא נחית. Let's go through this פסוק now, because it's ארמית. עיר in ארמית means, we say in Friday night in זמירות, עיר וקדישין ובני אנושא, עיר means a מלאך, angel.
An עיר is מלאך in ארמית. עיר וקדיש, a holy angel, מן שמיא, from heavens, נחית, came down. That's the name שמעון. עיר וקדיש מן שמיא נחית.
So in both the names that we know that are connected to רבי שמעון בן יוחאי, שמעון and יוחאי, רבי נחמן reveals to us what we're basically dealing with. We're dealing with someone that took responsibility for the fact that you and I would still be living today learning the word of God. The one of the, it's amazing that one of the עניינים of the שמחה of ל״ג בעומר is the fact that תורה still exists. That's really, people can't explain what is this עניין of מירון? How many people are actually learning זוהר all day long that brings like 600,000 people to מירון today? How many people are actually in that zone? It's so embedded within the fabric of the, of the, וזה שמרמז ומגלה הפסוק כי לא תשתכח מפי זרעו.
This is what this פסוק reveals to us, that it won't be, the תורה will not be forgotten from his זרע, from his offspring, מפי זרעו דייקא. It's דייקא זרעו, it's דייקא יוחאי that he's speaking about. רבי שמעון wasn't putting the responsibility on anybody else. He doesn't saying, listen, you know, that תנא, that and the future אמוראים, it'll be through them.
המנהיג is the one that says it will be like this and I am taking, I am guarantor that it will be like this. You know what made דוד המלך the מלך that he was, wasn't because he was such a, he probably was a brilliant strategic captain, but what was amazing about דוד המלך is that when they went out to battle, he was the first one on the battlefield. Usually, the way that it is in the world is that kings are kept in the back, they're guarded, and they know how to definitely give out orders and hopefully they will be implemented because there's יראה from the מלך. There's awe, there's fear from the king.
דוד מלך המשיח was the first one on the battlefield. רבי שמעון בר יוחאי is looking at the world, it's a, it's a battlefield is an understatement. And he's saying, no, no, no, no, no. כי לא תשתכח מפי זרעו.
Now, for hundreds of years, people knew that he said that statement because the גמרא says so. רבי נחמן comes and says, do you know why he said that statement? Because a leader doesn't look to anybody else to implement the secrets of the תורה, the promises of the תורה. They put it on themselves. מפי זרעו דייקא.
היינו מפי זרעו של זה בעצמו שהוא מרומז ונסתר בזה הפסוק. דייקא through the זרע of the person that is alluded to and embedded within this פסוק, שהוּא התנא יוחאי, כי על ידי זרעו של יוחאי שמרומז בזה הפסוק בסופי תיבות כנ״ל, שהוא רבי שמעון בן יוחאי. of the עם today that we are celebrating יידישקייט, you could say it's because of that רב of that רב of that רב. It was one person at a certain time in history got up and said it's on me.
My 15 year old grandson in ישיבה in מירון and their תפקיד last week was to go to בני ברק to big factories and make, everything has to be wrapped. No food can be given out. Because of the Corona. Yeah.
So they made 30,000. My grandson. It doesn't exist anywhere in the world. There's no, there's no greater Jewish gathering.
There never has been a bigger Jewish gathering. Till משיח comes, that there won't be. Even, they're limiting it tonight to 10,000, right? Good luck. I thought that, like everyone's leaving really early.
Not a not a chance. Not a not a chance. And they're doing corona was a different ballgame there. So really, you don't think? Not a chance in the world.
There's there may be another reason why it might get messed up, because there's some חבר'ה that are planning a really intense הפגנה between 2:00 and 6:00 p.m. on the on the highway that leads up to מירון. Why? Because they want to make a statement. It's not against מירון. It's not a no, no, no, it's not against מירון, but whenever you want to do something and make noise, so you do it regarding something that.
Oh, so what's their הפגנה for? You said הפגנה? Yeah, הפגנה yeah. I don't I don't even remember what this one was for. So you do a הפגנה where you know people are going to be. Right, right, right, right.
When when גוש קטיף was happening, right? When the expulsion of גוש קטיף was happening, so there were הפגנות that were taking place in junctions of like תל אביב and ירושלים. What's the קשר? Yeah, yeah, that's what it is. So what's going to happen? I don't know. I'm not worried.
Even that I'm not worried. What will happen? Let me tell you. You're saying they're going to get in anyways. I know for sure, listen, I don't know what's going to happen with that הפגנה, but I know without a shadow of a doubt that there will be hundreds of thousands of Jews in מירון tonight.
Not, it's I think that they're already, they're probably already like nearly 100,000 people there right now. Already? For sure. For sure. People go, it's a whole, I was in מוצאי שבת.
I was in, this last מוצאי שבת? Yeah, and I watched them taking all the the benches and chairs out. I swore I would never go, because I'm claustrophobic and I just I can't stand this thing. A little bit להבדיל, but yeah. But he's claustrophobic.
You can't, it's scary. Right. So two years ago I went. I can't believe it.
I went and I couldn't, it was yeah, and what was so amazing, I found myself in a pit, ממש, of the first הדלקה by the ביאנער רבי. It's at 7:30 or 8:00 p.m. the first הדלקה, the first lighting. And you can't, you you you can't move, right? And you get thrown and who did I get bumped into? יוסי. I couldn't believe it.
We went separately. He was he was guiding חבר'ה in טבריה. You know this, right? Yeah, yeah, and I it was יוסי. I couldn't believe it.
Oh my god, we banged, we looked at it, it was like, oh my god, this is this is a little bit too much. This is too much. So it was, so we see over here by by, and remember, this was chosen to be the the הקדמה for ליקוטי מוהר"ן. Again, many, many reasons.
I want to tell you though, a few things that are written afterwards. After ר' נחמן said this teaching, he said also in the carriage, he said, you know, ר' שמעון has a lot of הנאה from this חידוש. ר' שמעון himself is getting a lot of pleasure from this חידוש. And I'm not trying to explain now what he meant.
Just telling you that statement and another statement. What did ר' נחמן do? He took ר' שמעון בר יוחאי's name. What is a person? What's the connection? How do we understand a connection between a person and their name? What are some of the things you've heard before? What's a connection between a person and their name? Their connection to their soul. What else? Why you're named for? Parents have, The parents' רוח הקודש, for sure.
Who you're named for? The זכר of, נכון, connection to the person you're named after. What else about names? What does it help us understand? There's a פסוק for everybody's name. Right, that's also נכון. Everyone has a פסוק.
connected to an essence of a נשמה? A person is connected to the essence of the נשמה, alluding also to a person's מזל and תפקיד in this world. That's why many people at a certain point in life, they change their names because because they it's a very, you know, important ענין. So, a person's name, within a person's name is not just their essence, but you can crack the code of people's names and realize it's filled with secrets. Every person's name is filled with secrets.
Only in Hebrew alphabet it's like, you can't take names like like, I have to be careful. I mean, I have to be careful, but I'm just saying in English. Like Marilyn. That's your name.
Right. I mean, it's a nice thingy, Marilyn, but that it's not your name. Right. I used to have a teacher who said like, when you like, you know, they go through the class list and it wasn't a Jewish name, they'd say like, השם לא, השם בשמיים.
Like, pick a different name, a day school, like, and it was like, You know what? You know why I love my ראש ישיבה, רב ברוונדר? Because there were so many בעלי תשובה that came to the ישיבה, guys that were פרום for like a few months and they come to the ישיבה and they'd say what's your name? חיים יחיאל. And רב ברוונדר would look at him and say, \"What's your name?\" and he never called them by the Hebrew name. He only he only, It's interesting because I put my kids in Montessori for a couple years, a Jewish Montessori, and they like taught the kids how to write, my children how to write their English names in Hebrew. So my son Sammy would write his name סמך מם יוד.
Because he said like that if that's what you go by, then you. Oh, really? And like Orthodox Montessori, goes down. Well, it's interesting because when it comes, we should never know of these things, but everyone knows when it comes to הלכות גיטין, that when you have to sign a גט, you have to be very מקפיד on using a name that you're also called by. Right.
So it does play a certain role, just because in terms of reference, but but obviously in שמיים, the names that were given to us when we're young, within it is the whole context of who we are, what we're here to bring down to the world. And quite often it's the hardest thing in the world for us to do, especially if it's your תפקיד. You know, if it is. If you don't use it, then what happens then? I don't want to say.
Well, I don't know where this came from, but my five-year-old went to school two days ago and told his teacher that he wants to be called ישראל אהרון instead of אזי. So the teacher emailed and texted me and he said, \"Is that okay?\" And I said, \"Of course, that's okay.\" So I come the next day, they switched everything. His his name on his cubby, his name on his bag. I drop him off and he says, בוקר טוב ישראל אהרון.
And I'm like, this is like the most random thing. Like, How old is he? He's five. Just like their daughter. And I'm like, Oh, right, right, right.
In חיים, yeah. And חיים has made the biggest deal, he made announced it to the class. Of course, that we're switching his name, it's like an official thing. You know, he switched his name.
What was his name? I don't know if I should say because he changed it but I didn't like it. Yeah. But it was a different name and he changed it to חיים. Oh, so maybe that's why he was so sensitive.
He's extra sensitive to it, yeah. He was like the biggest thing and That's very interesting. That's very interesting. I know where it came from.
But it makes sense. No, but a person's name, so what we're trying to like what what what ר' נחמן just showed about ר' שמעון בר יוחאי is that look, look what look at him, look at his name to understand who he is. But then ר' נחמן turned to his students, and this is why like I I'll be very honest. I'm always reluctant to share the following statements because they're so easily misunderstood.
But I, ברוך השם, I don't care anymore. Let me tell you, I don't care anymore because we we understand that there's something so much more important than us judging a statement of a צדיק יסוד עולם that died 200 years ago and we think we can make statements based on our limited understanding of it. ר' נחמן then turned, after he gave over this whole teaching, יוחאי, שמעון. Um, and it's amazing like Bina, you're holding נחמן right there, right? And then ר' נחמן turned to his students and he says, אבל עכשיו יש נחל נובע מקור חכמה.
Which is the ראשי תיבות of נחמן. What's a נחל נובע מקור חכמה? It's like the name, what's that? a stream flows from all wisdom. A stream flowing from the source of wisdom. It's a פסוק.
נחל נובע מקור חכמה. That's how the the רב is referred to, ר' נחמן, for many years before there was this whole, you know, big building on the רבי's grave, there was just one thing written on it. It said, ציון הננמ"ח. If you look at the old pictures of the רבי's grave, it says the the spot of the נחל נובע מקור חכמה.
The the wellspring streaming from the the source of wisdom. That's what ר' נחמן told his students. We say every morning in תפילה. That's the תפילה of רבינו ר' נחמן, נחל נובע מקור חכמה.
What did his parents name him when he was born? נחמן. Yeah. They they named him נחמן? Yeah. And where did they get that name from? No, no, נחמן is a נחמן is an older name, although it's very interesting that you're bringing this up because רב ויינברגר in his הקדמה to the teachings of ר' נחמן, he explains that name.
That name is really originated from נח. It was supposed to be one of the names of נח, because it says about נח when he was born, זה ינחמנו ממעשינו. He will console us from our actions. So נחמן is rooted already back into the savior of humanity, for lack of, I know that word is very weird, but you understand what I'm saying.
Now, according to ר' שמואל הורביץ, ר' שמואל הורביץ was one of the the elderly ברסלבער חסידים that from it was also close to רב קוק, passed away in the beginning of like the 1930s I think in ירושלים. He came from a חב"ד, illustrious חב"ד family, became a ברסלבער. So he brought down that it's known that ר' שמעון בר יוחאי himself came to ר' נחמן's mother, to פייגא, the night before she got married, and told her, \"I'm pleading in שמיים, I'm begging in שמיים, that you should be able to have a son that can carry on everything that's happening.\" This is brought down through מסורת that ר' שמעון is directly involved in ר' נחמן's coming into the world. So, when you look at the teachings of ר' נחמן, you say, it's a very interesting statement, נחל נובע מקור חכמה.
if you've ever gone through a whole teaching, one teaching of ר' נחמן, one teaching in ליקוטי מוהר"ן, there is תורה, נביאים, כתובים, there's פסוקים from the תורה, נביאים, כתובים, from the תנאים and the אמוראים, from everywhere in גמרא in ש"ס, from מדרשים, the שולחן ערוך, sometimes the רמב"ם, פסוקים from the זוהר הקדוש as well, and he'll start off by saying a far-out statement, דע, right? Know. For instance, I'm right now learning the teaching number four, and you know this from a קרדונר song, שאדם יודע שכל מאורותיו הן לטובתו, זאת הבחינה מעין עולם הבא. When a person knows that every single thing they go through in the world is for their benefit, they taste, this is this is an aspect of living in עולם הבא, in the world of אמת, where there you know that everything you went through in this world is for your benefit, anything and everything. So that's a very powerful statement.
Usually people will start off by saying it says here this, it says here this, then it says here this, then it says here this, which must mean that this is what it means. ר' נחמן starts off הפוך. He'll catch you, he'll catch you strong with a sharp statement and say, boom. Then he'll say, now let's go on a stroll through all of our מסורת.
And I'm going to show you how I got to what I got to through every צדיק that ever lived. That's a נחל נובע מקור חכמה. But the נחל נובע מקור חכמה was only to be able to share what he shared because of החיבורא דנפקין ביה מן גלותא, because of the composition through which we can come out of גלות. Now, what's one of the not turn turn the page, why is one of the reasons that ר' נחמן says that that it's brought down that you can come out of גלות through the זוהר? and it just take take five minutes.
This is something that we saw about a year and a half ago, and it's good to repeat this again from שיחות הר"ן. Like what is it about the זוהר הקדוש, the learning, that literally can take you out of גלות? Not just eventually, but like we said before, that while you're learning the זוהר, while you're learning it, you're out. You're out of, גלות doesn't exist. ידוע, שלימוד הזוהר מסוגל מאוד מאוד.
Now this is a very interesting statement. ר' נחמן says it's known that learning the זוהר is very, very מסוגל. Now, מסוגל usually means can, right? That's what מסוגל means. Well, here we're understanding that it means it has a סגולה, a very strong סגולה.
Don't try to explain that in English, to translate that word in English because it doesn't exist. If you tried, what would it be? I say catalyst. Catalyst? It causes something else to happen. So that's what מסוגל means, like can.
No, but like it it brings you to a place where you can do something. Like it causes a reaction. That's probably the closest I ever heard. You have the ability.
The same, yeah, cause. Yeah. מסוגל. מסוגל.
ודע, שעל ידי לימוד הזוהר, so what does it cause? What is it a catalyst for? Now I'm gonna use it. נעשה חשק לכל מיני לימודים של התורה הקדושה. You know what it makes you feel? You know what it's a catalyst for? ויטער. What's ויטער? יאללה.
More. Give me more. I want to learn more. It opens the gates of passion to learn more Torah.
that could also be like a very again, one of these like nice statements. Well, it's a beautiful thing. You learn something powerful in the זוהר הקדוש and you feel like you want to learn more Torah, but let's understand where do we see that. So he gives an example.
הלשון הקודש של הזוהר מעורר מאוד לעבודת השם יתברך. The לשון of the זוהר, the way that the words that the זוהר uses, it it arouses you very much to serve the ריבונו של עולם and to keep on learning. דהיינו, השבח שמשבח ומפאר את העובד השם. Who is the עובד השם? Hopefully any of any each and every one of us, a servant of God.
The לשון of the זוהר, the זוהר takes its time לשבח ולפאר to praise and glorify a person that decided in this world, I'm an עבד השם. The זוהר takes its time to emphasize the greatness and the beauty, and it's always like kind of patting on the back and saying שכויח. שכויח. Be conscious of your choices.
You chose to be עבד השם. It's rocky here. Oh my God, is it rocky in this world called עבודת השם. שכויח.
That's what the זוהר does. Now, how? From the also very nice statement. Let's bring it down. דהיינו, הלשון הרגיל בזוהר לומר זכאה על כל מצווה ועבודה.
What does זכאה mean? What do you think זכאה means? in a trial, or זכאי in a trial. Close, close, נכון, זכאי means worthy or innocent. here it means more worthy, meaning זכאי, זכות, what a זכות. על כל מצווה ועבודה.
The זוהר הקדוש emphasizes, every time a מצווה comes your way, wow. What a זכות you have. You must be worthy of this because if not, you wouldn't have the privilege of doing it. When was the last time you thought about that, you know, that that that way of thinking before you perform...
What's the last מצווה any of you performed? Say it fast. What's the last thing you can think of? Sitting and learning Torah. Very good. You're sitting and learning Torah.
What are you and what are you, is there any זכאה in the air? If we were learning right now the זוהר or the זוהר הקדוש was teaching us, there'd be a spiritual pat on your back and keep on saying, זכאה זכאה, wow. Wow, wow, wow, what a privilege. What a privilege this is. Remind yourself.
What a good thing you're doing for yourself. Give yourself a little bit of credit. Not in a way to boast you, but in a way that reminds you of how privileged you are. Yes, Jenny.
So he meets the person where they're at and then builds from there from the strengths, the most positive strengths. Well, where you're at is we're usually unconscious of the fact that we're actually doing תורה and מצוות. Right. Just completely.
Yes, empowering. And self-esteem and confidence. לגמרי, in תורה. ר' נחמן says, look at what the זוהר is saying.
This is ר' נחמן saying ר' שמעון בר יוחאי, look what ר' שמעון בר יוחאי did. Look what he's trying to do till today. He wants you to be conscious of what you've chosen to dedicate your life to. There's no greater thing.
And then he says, ולהיפך. And he also wants you to be aware and conscious of when you check out. הצעקה שצועק, ווי, ווי לנשמתיהון על הסר מעבודת השם. The זוהר הקדוש uses the word again quite often, ווי.
ווי is a play on the word ווינפש, that once שבת comes out, ווי אבד הנפש. Your soul kind of leaves you. Which soul? The נשמה יתירה. ווי is this is this crest of the נשמה.
ווי. It's the use of language. Meaning, the זוהר is pointing out, be aware of your soul, be aware of how you feel when you've also said עבודת השם is not for me in the moment. Whether you realize it or not, it works both ways.
But what ר' נחמן is pointing out is that if you learn ר' שמעון בר יוחאי's Torah, you cannot go through this world spiritually sleeping. There's no way. What a זכות that is. That's what ר' שמעון בר יוחאי is doing to us.
אלו הלשונות, these are the languages, מעוררים מאוד את האדם לעבודתו יתברך. This usage of words awakens people very much to serve the ריבונו של עולם. This can be one of the explanations of understanding the what the זוהר says in פרשת נשא, בהאי חיבורא יפקון ביה מן גלותא, that in this composition, a person comes out of their own גלות. So therefore, so I'm really want to end with a strong תפילה.
יהי רצון מלפניך השם אלוקינו ואלוקי אבותינו, that we should merit for many, many more years to be connected to the Torah of all the צדיקים and צדקות that ever existed ever. The secrets that were given to us through the ספר הזוהר should become more and more revealed. Our connection to the נשמות of these צדיקים should play more and more a role in our lives, and that we should be privileged to give over to our children the awareness of how worthy they must be if they when they choose and as they choose to continue to live a life of עבודת השם, how how beautiful it is that they should hear the words of the זוהר, זכאה, זכאה, every time that they are engaged in a מצווה, any מצווה in the world, and at the risk of moment of momentary pain, they should also be attuned with their souls and the pain that it may cause them when there's hopefully brief momentary moments of checking out of תורה and יידישקייט. All for the sake of being aware and being conscious, not because of guilt, not because of anything else other than what ר' שמעון בר יוחאי wanted to give to all of us.
The תורה should never be forgotten. We should also be privileged on this realm to be to be תלמידים of ר' שמעון בר יוחאי, that when we see that something's going to be lost, or it seems to us that something, some chain, some piece of the chain may become lost, that we when we say it won't be lost, it's not just statements that we're saying, but that we are we are becoming גערענטורס for that statement as well, like ר' שמעון בר יוחאי became a גערענטור for that statement. אמן. שכויח.