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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.
Good morning everybody, thank you for coming.
בוקר טוב. We're learning in the month of אלול לעילוי נשמת בתיה פייגא בת ישראל, לוי בן יוסף, לרפואה of שושנה בת מלכה, for the רפואה of שרה בת רחל פייגא. This week is sponsored by Sophia Bina Kushner for the רפואה שלמה of her אבא יידל בן רחל.
And today, Thursday is sponsored by Zev Sternberg in honor of his wife Jody's birthday. May she see השם's blessing in everything.Okay. We have a really, really special שיעור today and something I'm very happy about, very excited about. And before we go inside, before we go inside the actual text, because now we're going, now we're already starting after the introduction that we had for two weeks.
Now we're really going inside. And what we're going to be learning about today is the understanding one of the things we say every Friday night in אשת חיל, לא תירא לביתה משלג כי כל ביתה לבוש שנים. And we're going to get to that in a few minutes. Before we go into that, we are reiterating a very important point that the ביאלע רבי has been stressing from the beginning.
And that is that a person must, every person must know their own value, ערך עצמי. The, without having an understanding of your own value, of ערך עצמי, it's very, very difficult to do anything in this world with, with, well definitely with confidence. But also what we end up doing in this world, if we don't have ערך עצמי, there's no taste to it afterwards. You could be engaged in a very holy act, you could be engaged in דאווענען or learning or mothering without הבנה of ערך עצמי, of your own value, there's no, there's no, there's no smell, there's no aroma, there's no fragrance, not only in the world, but especially to yourself, which is key.
And the רב has brought a few different examples, as we saw before, how important this is and how this is a place that people fall in quite often.Now, one more thing that is very important to to to mention over here that he brings in a little bit of a, the beginning of this פרק but it's not in front of you, is a very beautiful teaching from רב צדוק הכהן מלובלין. We spent time with רב צדוק about two years ago, I think two or three years ago.
רב צדוק explains that the יצר הרע has two main ways how it fails people, how it places stumbling blocks before people that prevent them from from really being, from really being able to shine. And רב צדוק says that the first way that the יצר הרע comes and fails people is that it, it seduces people on a very basic level and tells them, it's not כדאי to do what you're doing.
It really would be much more תכלית if you were not following what the Torah says, the Torah is primitive, the Torah is not for today. It was maybe once upon a time it was very שייך.
זה לא הסיפור שלנו היום. That's not שייך for today and many people when they, when they try to begin to seduce you to go against the Torah, they will sound very תרבותי and נאור, which means very cultural and very enlightened, and they'll use that kind of language.
And many people that with, with with a שווך level of ערך עצמי will fall into this trap very fast. But the other, the second, the second level that we're, that we're going to be speaking about today that רב צדוק says, is that the יצר הרע doesn't seduce people to go against השם. He says you can do it, go for it.
הכל בסדר, keep שבת, teach Torah, learn Torah, say ברכות.
That that that that's fine, like do it. But the יצר הרע and this is something that we see everywhere, is that it works in a place of self-persecution, it works from the place of saying, just know there's not really a lot of value to what you're doing, but if it makes you feel good, do it. That's a, that's a demonic עמלק vibe. And that place causes a person to become cold, to become sad, and to begin to להתרשל, to begin to to begin to become negligent in small stuff that end up growing to bigger stuff when it comes to the עבודת השם יתברך.
This level of cooling us, cooling us, cooling us... is how ר׳ צדוק is saying the יצר הרע is really working in our דור, more than in other דורות. And for this, this second level of what the יצר הרע does to us sounds different for every single person. But what it boils down to is the concept of זלזול בערך העצמי, which means, we had this word yesterday, and when she has זלזול.
What did we say it was?
זלזול in English?
לזלזל. To degrade. Thank you, yeah. To degrade and belittle your own עבודה, your own עבודה.You know, the רב'ס, what they wanted most from their חסידים, what they want most, the real רב'ס, what they want most for the חסידים is not for the חסידים to realize how lucky they are to be in the רב'ס presence.
A real רב dreams, dreams for their תלמידים and חסידים to get a glimpse and a taste of their own נשמות, and how big their own נשמות are. How how how grand they are, how big they are. That's a real, in my humble opinion, that's a real teacher, that's a real רב. Again, not to make, not to make sure you know how amazing it is to be in their presence, but how awesome it is to be in their own presence, their ערך עצמי, their own value.This מהלך is brought through צדקת הצדיק, through ר׳ צדוק הכהן's teachings.
And today we're going to pick up, we're going to focus on one main point that comes from the אשת חיל like we said. So אשת חיל, I'm sure you all, if I, if I had to tell you, complete the sentence.
לא תירא לביתה משלג?
משלג. כי כל ביתה לבוש?
שנים.
Okay everyone knows the, the sentence. Now tell me what that means. These things happen all the time. All the time.
That was my pet peeve when I was first teaching in a, my first official teaching gig was in a one of these gap year programs and by one of the ישיבות. And the guys were feeling so שטארק, it was like אלול, and everyone was feeling so strong, וכולי. And then I said to them, you know I'm looking for a new פירוש on והזדים מהרה תעקר ותשבר ותמגר ותכניע במהרה בימינו, something like that. I think I chose that that statement from from שמונה עשרה.
Like, חבר'ה, I need some חידוש, something, give me. What what does it mean to you? We went around the room of 10 guys that, they could complete the sentences, and the שקל was so beautiful. The שקל, was so פרום. It was such a פרום, you know, פרום שקלס, right? You know אלול, you know what I mean?
פרום שקלס.
You know אלול שקלס?
אלול שקלס?
אלול שקלס are like a little bit slower. They are, they're like a little bit more intense. Like during the year the the the פרום שקל is a little bit more side to side.
אלול שקל is more of a forward one, very very very, very very פרום.
It's a very פרום שקל.Obviously what we're, what we are attempting to do in our engagement in all our learning is to begin to understand what on earth we've been saying. Now, the truth is, I don't know what your מנהג is if you say also, if you also say אשת חיל or only the men and the children in the house say אשת חיל, but it's an important פסוק that comes from משלי that we should understand. I mean, maybe you do understand, I don't know. Does anyone want to give it a shot?
לא תירא לביתה משלג, כי כל ביתה לבוש שנים.
I have the book open but... No, no, no, no, no, no. Don't read it. The truth is, you could.
You know what? It doesn't mean anything. Right. Exactly. She fears not snow for her household, for her entire household is clothed with scarlet wool.
מזל טוב. I don't know what to tell you.
בסדר. We can go home now.
We know what that means, right?לא תירא לביתה משלג כי כל ביתה לבוש שנים. I guarantee you that after learning today's teaching, you may even stop your spouses or children before they continue and tell them just make sure you know what you're saying. At least about this.
לא תירא לביתה משלג כי כל ביתה לבוש שנים.So in the bottom of the page that you have in front of you מ"ה, we have a few extra pages in the middle of the table for those who need because I want you all to look at this inside.
לא תירא לביתה משלג כי כל ביתה לבוש שנים. Bottom of מ"ה.
כבר נתבאר. We've already explained כי היצר הרע נלחם בכל כוחו במיוחד להשפיל את כבודן של נשות ישראל הצדקניות.
Earlier in this הקדמה, The Rebbe went into great detail to explain that the יצר הרע that's operating on the second level of being משפיל to humiliate and degrade and make people feel small, works much harder by women. Why does he work much harder by women? Because he goes to where it's really happening. This is not a theory, this is 2,000 years of history, more. I mean, how many thousands...
this is what it's been for thousands of years. And our attempt in this שיעורים is to restore it, to realign, to go back to what it was all about, but to look at what's happening in the world with essentially a תיקון for the Me Too movement, but in a very focused, focused way. To say something big is happening in the world, but first, like with fruit, the קליפה is what you see first. And then the fruit beneath it, we have to remove the קליפה from a fruit to get the taste of the fruit.
We have to remove the shell, that which is מונע, that which prevents us from tasting the actual fruit. Now I know what you're thinking, well, there are fruit that you can eat with the the קליפה too. Not, you don't have to go there. The way Hashem designed fruits, the פירות is like this.
This is the way Hashem designed it.Just like that last night with the רימון. Sorry? The רימון. I learned that last night with the רימון. Yeah.
How it's not really 613, but each one, but on average the study was that it was, and it was all of עם ישראל together could complete the מצוות, like not each person could do all 613, but it was inside the רימון, it's not the outside.So you know, did I ever tell you what Rabbi Riskin did on his first date? We weren't there. On his first date with with Vicky, he told us this on his first date with the Rebbetzin, they sat peeling a רימון and counting, yeah. Really? I don't know, I don't know what they... did he tell us if it was what he got to? I don't know if he...
Doesn't matter. It was just very sweet. That's a very beautiful, it's a very romantic date. Let's unpeel a רימון together, a pomegranate.
That's what they did. That's what he told us. So again, כבר נתבאר כי היצר הרע נלחם בכל כוחו במיוחד. The יצר הרע fights a fierce battle to משפיל, to humiliate and denigrate and disregard the כבוד of נשים ישראל הצדקניות.
Why?
כי לרום מעלתם שהן חשובות למעלה יותר מהאנשים. Because in פנימיות, this is not, like I always say, it's not a man-bashing שיעור, but it's to basically understand in the פנימיות, the world of פנימיות, the levels of of where people are at, that women are coming from a place that the יצר הרע knows this is a higher level than just the rest of the world. So I have to go to them and I have to work hard, very hard on להשפיל את כבודם. Now, in whose eyes does he try to משפיל את כבודם? Their own.
That's the point. It's not an ענין, we're not talking here they're saying he's making sure that the world doesn't מחשיב women. It doesn't matter.
בעצם it doesn't matter, because the world could praise women and it could be a whole world where it's just about כבוד נשים and the focus is on the holiness of women.
But if in your own eyes, your own ערך is מושפל, who cares what the world thinks? That's true about anything. But specifically here, what we're trying to say here is that look at the energy of what's been happening in the world that's not coming from a place of really ענוה and קדושה when it comes to women's rights. It's about what do you, what do you have to say about me? Where do you put me? Am I at the table yet or not? The פנימיות of it is, have you really tuned in, tapped into how how elated and how even more חשוב than you could ever imagine you are בפני עצמך? Just in your your own place.ולכן נשים צריכות, next page, להחדיר היטב לעצמן, women must make crystal clear to themselves את חשיבותן, their own importance from a place that's not in response to what's been going on in the world for thousands of years. Not in response, but from within.
להחדיר היטב לעצמן את חשיבותן ולהתחזק, to get strong, ולהתעצם בידיעת ערכן בכל כוחן. You have to, we have to, all of us, but obviously this is a שיעור. for women must learn the פנימיות of what your נשמות are really all about and where they already are.
בפרט בשעה שהן ניגשות לעבודת השם.
Specifically when you're approaching anything that has to do with עבודת השם, which we already said is really everything you're busy with anyway. Everything.
כי רק על ידי הכרת החשיבות יש לאדם רצון לעבודת השם.
רבי נחמן says in his ליקוטי מוהר"ן, העיקר תלוי ברצון.
Everything about יידישקייט, everything in life is dependent on how badly you want it, on on your will. So the Rebbe says here, only by recognizing the importance, the real importance of what you are and what you're doing, can then רצון be developed to serve השם that much better. It's like a musician that doesn't really understand how gifted they are won't put that much energy, the drive won't be there to share that gift with the world, because they don't think it's that important. They really don't.
They don't think it's that important. I know so many people like this.So often I'll be sitting with people and they'll and someone will say, I have a, I have a ניגון, right? They'll right, they'll share with me a ניגון, and I was like, and I'm in tears. And they're like, stop, you're just trying to make me feel good. I'm like, listen, you can't fake this.
You can't fake that response. I remember it happened clearly with Rav Weinberg's son-in-law. His son-in-law, Dr. Binyamin Tepfer, is a good friend of mine. He's a beautiful guy.
He's married the eldest child in the Weinberger household. And maybe 20 years ago, one of the חבר'ה from the שול, from איש קודש sent me some audio clips and they said, oh, this is Rebbe's son-in-law. He has some, he has some ניגונים, we asked him to share with us. I I started crying.
And I actually went and recorded one of them, וזכינו לקבל שבתות מתוך רוב שמחה. And he has a, bless you, he has an amazing נחמו נחמו עמי. I'm sure, hopefully by now, it doesn't mean, by the way, it doesn't mean, oh, you have to become a musician. It's not what it means.
אבל תכיר את הערך שלך. Know your value, understand, appreciate. Take in what it is that you have.Because then the רצון will come to use it in the proper way and to develop it, to discover it, to be מסוקרן, to be curious about it.
ועל ידי כן יגבה ליבן לעשות את רצון השם יתברך כראוי.
When I get a taste of what השם placed in me and what I have and what I'm made out of, יגבה ליבן, their their your hearts will יגבה, will not out of not not in a haughty way, but in the most beautiful עבד השם type of way.
יגבה ליבן, their hearts will rise towards עבודת השם. It'll it'll have a completely different smell. It'll it'll look and sound completely different.
But he continues here, and this is crucial.
צריכות הן לדעת היטב את אשר לפניהם. You got to know the enemy.
להכיר את דרכי תחבולות היצר הרע.
You have to know the tricks, all the hacks that the יצר הרע uses דייקא when you choose to be a גוואלד. Now again, this is not the שיעור that's going to tell you how holy it is to fold laundry, how holy it is to mop the floors. No one buys that. Even if it is, that's not going to make someone, oh my God, I need to go to a שיעור that tells me how I I must work on my מידות when I'm exhausted, exhausted, and and and I have to deal with another like sand in one of the bedrooms or I don't know what.
You have that? I don't know if to laugh or cry. Both.This is not what this is about. Even again, even if it is holy, which of course it is, it's not what we're talking about. It's not what we're talking about over here.
You have to know the tricks of the יצר הרע.
איך הוא מזלזל בכבודן ומשפיל את עבודתן. He belittles the כבוד of women ומשפיל את עבודתן. And this is very important.
משפיל, it says, it humiliates, it it degrades your עבודת השם.
שכן, על ידי כך שיכירו את תחבולות היצר, the more you learn how the יצר הרע works, the more you learn the hacks, יוכלו לגזול את החנית מידו.
מידו. I love this language.
חנית, a sword. You can לגזול את החנית מידו. You can basically stand in front of the יצר הרע, the enemy with the with the sword coming and belittling you and you could say, I'll take that. You take it out of its hands.
להשיב מלחמה שערה ולמחות את זכר עמלק מן העולם. And wipe out עמלק and return in war, כי מלחמה להשם בעמלק מדור דור. Why did he just say עמלק over here? Very clearly.
הנה קליפה זו של עמלק נקראת שלג.
In the ספרים it says.
בדיוק. This קליפה of עמלק is called שלג.
שלג, it's one of the names for the קליפה of עמלק.
שלג על שם שהיא מקררת ומצננת את אש הקדושה והבערה הפנימית שיש באדם אל השם יתברך. Because it cools off, the מצננת, מקררת ומצננת, it cools off the fire of passion, inner passion that a person has towards השם יתברך. Again, the יצר הרע on the second level that רב צדוק explained to us, told us, it doesn't come and say to you, "There's no use in keeping in in in in keeping שבת. There's no real use being מקפיד on כשרות." כמובן it'll it'll come to and it'll sound so כביכול, women's rights and כבוד נשים.
It's not כבודיק for you to have to go the entire טהרת המשפחה, that it's on you. You know, that that that I've heard that, my God, how many times I've heard that in coming up in conversation. It's not on, it's not. That's כבודיק? Well he's nothing and you, that's the טהרת ה? The יצר הרע says, "Do it, but you know that it's not such a big, it's not such a big ענין." Not not such a big deal.
Where does a where does a person have more of a chance of falling? In level one or level two? Level one that the יצר הרע comes and says to you, "Don't do it at all, it's שטויות"? Or level two, where it says, "Yeah, do it, but it's not really such a געוואלד." 100% two. 100% two. Why? Because there's something innately developed with, created, we're born with something that says, "Listen, there's some things I'm going to do לא משנה מה." I would never ever turn on a light on שבת, right? I would never ever start eating חזיר. I would never ever stop keeping שבת and basics.
That a person would say, "I'd never do." And then imagine if you said, "I would never not serve השם from coldness. I would never ever דאווענען just to say that I דאווענען. I would never ever go to a שיעור cold." No one says that. Because that we're already okay with as long as I'm still keeping שבת and going to a שיעור and learning.
That people don't say. But can you imagine if you looked into the eyes of the יצר on the second level and you said, you said to it, "I will never ever pretend that it's okay for me to go through this world without being on fire for רבונו של עולם." For all, I'm talking about men and women. So he's going to say here that for the man to say that is much more difficult than it is for the woman. Meaning, for the man to respond to the יצר הרע in saying, "I will never be cooled off.
I'm only going to do things with fire always," that's much harder for a man to access than it is for a woman to access. And he's going to explain to us. Is that why men are required and their sisters and mothers aren't? It's, it's basically was געוואלד. It's basically one of the main, we're gonna, I think, see much later on, explains one of the reasons behind time-bound versus non-time-bound מצוות, exactly.
The פנימיות of it. We started talking about this, right? I think last week we started talking about this. Oh, about the מצוה of פרו ורבו, but we spoke about it outside. Yeah, נכון.
Second line in this third paragraph.
כמובא בספר פרי צדיק, as as רב צדוק taught us over there.
והאישה בתכונותיה המיוחדות, a woman in her תכונה, how do you say תכונה? Characteristic. Characteristic, probably.
In her quality, yeah, in her in her special what makes her special, עיניה נשואות תמיד אל השם. Her eyes are constantly lifted towards the רבונו של עולם, naturally, even if. you're not so aware of it. Really if you could x-ray your נשמות, you'd see your eyes, the עיניים הפנימיות are always in a state of כי אליך אנחנו מצפות.
We're always there.
וליבך חם ומלא רגש לעבודת השם יתברך. And a woman's heart is warm and always filled with emotion towards the עבודת השם יתברך, much more naturally than a man's is. That's just the way השם designed the world.
It's how the world was created. We'll be learning all this inside.
יש לה כוח מיוחד להתגבר על יצר זה המצנן ומקרר את האדם. Therefore, the woman has a much much stronger כוח and a special כוח to overcome this יצר that generally comes and cools off man, cools off man.
ועליו נאמר בפרק אשת חיל, לא תירא לביתה משלג. Now we understand what it means.
לא תירא לביתה משלג, לרמוז שאשת חיל יש לה כוח מיוחד, שיהא ליבה מלא רגש של השם יתברך. Women know you have a special כוח, your heart is filled with emotions, warm, hot, fiery emotions towards הקדוש ברוך הוא, towards having a relationship with השם.
ואין לה לירא מיצר הרע של זה של השלג.
לא תירא לביתה משלג. It's basically a plea telling a woman, saying and who wrote this? Where's it from?
משלי. Right? So it's a שייך.
Because we know that who wrote משלי?
שלמה המלך. But when it comes to אשת חיל, who wrote אשת חיל? we just were explaining this to to Ambassador Huckabee and his wife when they were over for dinner because we were basically doing everything half Hebrew, half English, like קידוש was half Hebrew, half English and also אשת חיל. I was, you know, and it was it was it was kind of funny because I was saying, I was you know, explaining all these things and like our kids were also like, you know, really? That's what you know, because it's not things you usually talk about. Not אשת חיל, you know.
We were explaining the אשת חיל also was a eulogy that was written by אברהם אבינו when he buried שרה אמנו. So I don't know exactly if all the פסוקים there are partially, I don't I don't know exactly, I don't want to say anything. But listen, whether it's שלמה המלך or אברהם אבינו, we're in good hands, trustworthy hands, right? So, לא תירא לביתה משלג, he's saying over here that it's basically we're proclaiming the גדולה of a woman, of an אשת חיל, and we're saying they have no reason to fear number two. You will never end up living a life that's cold, cold יידישקייט.
Men fall into this much easier. A woman naturally is more in tune with the מלחמה, with the war against the קליפה which is called שלג, which we explained is a name for עמלק. Like you said, אשר קרך בדרך. That's because, why is it called קליפת שלג? Because the Torah says, what does עמלק do to you? You just left מצרים.
You just were flying with ניסים ונפלאות of השם. You're all on fire. And דוקא then, עמלק comes to cool you off and say, hey, hey, hey, for your own health, don't be on fire too much. Why? Because you won't feel it all the time and then when you fall, it'll hurt you.
So I I care about you. I don't want you to, I don't want the fall to be too painful, but you know, naturally you're going to fall. So therefore, listen, don't be on too much fire. Just keep it, chill it down a little bit, right? Like many parents respond when their kids come back for פסח during שנה א' from America, and the kid flipped out, וכולי, and the parents are like, we, we are, we are very responsible parents.
Do not, like, don't go there. Don't, don't go the whole thing, because we don't want you to, we don't want you to fall too much. Meanwhile, the parent wishes, wish in the in their hearts, they wish they still had that fire in their lives. You know, one one of them, sorry, I'm digressing a little bit, but this this this happened, this happened on one of our first Ukraine trips for the men.
One of the guys on the trip said he was, he expressed he was really flying, established businessman, part, not really part of the חבר'ה, but but he came, a friend of ours. And he was he was really plugged in. it was a very, it was ראש חודש אלול. We went to, we started off the trip.
We had a tiny ספר תורה with us, Shlomo Lazar's ספר תורה that that David Novoseller he brought. With David Novoseller? I think, yeah, your אבא, yeah, your אבא brought it. We, we דאווענט הלל, we, we דאווענט, we דאווענט ראש חודש, the קריאת התורה, הלל in Babi Yar. It was like very, very powerful.
And we went from there to רבי לוי יצחק מברדיצ'ב and, you know, now talking about this I get the שפילקעס to to to to do it again, בעזרת השם. So one, what happens on these trips is that it's only like maybe three days, Mashkezei, right? But because every ounce of the day is filled with fire and דיבוק חברים, you can't believe that you packed so many emotions in such a short time. And quite often I'll be like, חבר'ה, you realize we've only been together for 13 hours? And they're like, are you kidding me? It feels like three weeks. That's just because every moment was fire.
When עמלק comes and cools you off, things feel like they're very slow. Very slow. Time's not moving. When it comes to fire, you can't get enough and therefore time is flying by.
So this person said to me in the middle of the trip, he's like, I have to just tell you something. I haven't felt like this since my שנה א', which was like 25 years before. And I said to him, that's one of the most depressing things I ever heard. And he thought he was telling me a, giving me a compliment.
I said to him, that is not a good thing. That's not a good thing. You know, that's not a good thing. You shouldn't, that shouldn't be your מציאות.
What, that the fire is only at a young stage in life? And אפוך. Exactly אפוך. Absolutely on the contrary. But people that feel like that was just for then, so therefore when they see their kids getting on fire, they think in the name of being responsible, they say, listen, cool it down.
They don't realize they're, עמלק got there. The תחבולה of עמלק got there and saying, it shouldn't, that that should not be the way it is. You should look at, at at שנה א' and be like, oh, that was cute. But now, you know, more and more and more and more.
A woman doesn't, doesn't have that, that the, עמלק, what he's saying over here is that he's strengthening the כח of the אישה. And he's saying, listen, לא תירא לביתה משלג. Now the פשט of what you, not not to ask you what you said before is, לא תירא לביתה משלג, it may be cold outside but don't worry. Why?
כי כל ביתה לבוש שנים.
Because because basically it means because you sat there with a, you know, what is it called when you, weaving. What's that? You were, you basically prepared clothes for all your children, they're warm. It's okay. Right? So that's the, that's the פשט, but on the פנימיות, what does it mean? And when you remember that שלג, לא תירא לביתה משלג, you know who benefits from it?
כי כל ביתה לבוש שנים.
You just warmed up your whole family and your children see what it really means to be an עבד, I don't know how you say, of עבד השם but for a woman, עובדת השם. I don't know how you say it. Yeah, עובדת השם. He's, he's gonna say this in a second.
So again, we're on the third, third to bottom line from this third paragraph, לרמוז שאשת החיל יש לה כח מיוחד שיהא ליבה מלא רגש על השם יתברך, ואין לה לירא מיצר הרע הזה של שלג. This is a, this is an ענין. This is a thing that exists in the world, this יצר הרע called שלג that, don't worry about it. When you remember your own value, you have nothing to worry about this.
When you learn your own value, when you learn the פנימיות, not to make a joke now, but what is a woman, the פנימיות of it, you have nothing to fear when it comes to this קליפה called שלג. Which what?
הבא לזלזל ולהשפיל את עבודתה, that tries to make a mockery and coldness out of your עבודת השם.
ולקררן עבודת השם יתברך, and to cool you off from the whole זאך, from the whole thing.
ולא זו בלבד, but it's not again, it's not just about you.
שאשת חיל יכולה לדעת את ערך עבודתה וחשיבותה. It's not just that a woman, an אשת חיל knows, can know the value of her own עבודה and her importance.
אלא, יכולה היא אף לרומם את כל ביתה. She could lift up the whole home.
שידעו אף הם את רום ערכם. That you can cause not just just the child, but also the husband to start to begin to know their own value. Value is not exactly the word that I like here, even though that is the translation for the word ערך. But really in a more like, nicer, like sweeter terms is like to know how precious you are, to really be tuned in to how precious you are.
ואת חשיבות עבודתם, and how precious every single thing that you're doing is. You know, this morning, I'll just tell you this morning, and I, I have to, remind me later today because I really want to make a point of it. This morning, one of our, I'm not gonna say which daughter, we had, I woke her up, and I was in the middle, I was like in the middle of a ברכה, of a, of a, one of the ברכות in the morning while I was waking her up. So the first thing she, and, the first thing she heard when she opened her eyes was me saying, finishing the ברכה and she went like this: אמן.
Unbelievable. And I was so taken, but also, I had to get ready for סליחות, you know, the house and the house is always, every home is like that, that morning rush, but definitely during סליחות even more. So I didn't have a chance to stop and be like, "Do you, do you realize that that is, you know, a פרומער." Listen, a פרומער will come and say, and it's ממש one of the קליפות before, you wash your hand, you know, before we say מודה אני. She didn't start by saying מודה אני.
That's, if you want to really do חינוך, tell her you don't say אמן first thing when you wake up, you say מודה אני. Shut up. That voice. Come on.
There is that voice. If, you know, that, ערך מעלתן. I would never say this to my son, but I can't imagine like boys waking up in the morning and the first thing that they hear is the end of a ברכה, אמן. This is something innately שייך to the world of נוקבא.
It just is. I didn't decide this. And guess what? You didn't decide it either. It's not a woman's rights thing.
It's סדר הבריאה. It's the way השם designed the world, which is infinitely more deeper and long-lasting than any woman's right, anything coming from the, from that voice of women's rights. It comes from a place of discovering what השם had in mind when he, a זכר ונקבה. And that's, there's nothing more beautiful and holy there, you know.ואת חשיבות עבודתם.
ועל כן נאמר, third line, and therefore it says, לא תירא לביתה משלג.
שכל ביתה לא יהיו יראים מקליפה זו של שלג. She brings into the house the light where the whole family could stop being fearful from this place called ביזוי עצמי, self, self-disgust, self-persecution.
כי בכוחה ינצלו בני ביתה מיצר הרע.
Because through her כח of what makes her who she is, the whole home can be saved from this second level of the יצר הרע. Why?
כי יכירו ערך כל תפילה וכל מצווה ולימוד תורה שלהם. Because then the whole home begins to value, to truly value, and get a more of appreciation, which will lead then to being in awe of your own עבודת השם. Can you imagine if you reach the level that you're in awe of your own עבודת השם? That can only come from a place of taking that sword from עמלק that wants you to do the exact opposite, the exact opposite, and saying, "Sorry, this sword is in my hand.
You got nothing here." That only a woman could do. This relates back to דבורה הנביאה, what we learned last week. This was דבורה הנביאה's עבודה.
עד שקמתי דבורה, עד שקמתי אם בישראל.
Only a mama can do this. Only a woman can do this.How far can you go with this, having גאווה? I'm sorry, I can't hear you. How far can you go with this thought and this עבודה without becoming like, very vain and… So he has a, he has a פרק on this, actually, I saw where he explains that it's actually, it's תיקון הגאווה. It's actually the תיקון of גאווה itself.
Because he says, how could it say בדברי המלך, ויגבה לבו? Right? That's, that sounds like, right? So there's a whole, אבל זה שאלה במקומה. I definitely think so, but even that's עמלק. Not you, חס וחלילה, I'm saying that is also עמלק. You know why? 'Cause I've never… ever heard of a woman that goes through this שיטה that ends up with what you said.
But עמלק will say, hey, don't get, don't get too involved in this stuff, you're going to end up being a בעלת גאווה. What a trick, what a thief, what a... Tricky.
כזה מניאק, אשכרה.
ממש like, even there he חאפט you. Not you, I'm saying, חלילה. I know, I was having the same thought also. I feel like if we feel bad about it, then we should think so high of ourself that we should get so good that we could even think of getting to the all that place.
But he, so he wants to stop you even from beginning and saying, don't even start, don't even start. Does he tell us how to get there? This whole ספר is how to get there. This whole ספר is, this whole ספר is about... You're saying it's like in, in our natural DNA state of mind.
Well... No, no, no, no. I'm being מדייק. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, no, no, no. Big deal. Is the state of mind kind of...? The state of mind is opposite. Yes.
Yes. But it's in your natural state of being. Essence. 100%.
Yeah. But it's not in the natural, if it was in the natural state of mind, no you wouldn't show, you wouldn't have to… You have to learn it. Yeah, it's not, yeah. I like how you said that it's the תיקון of גאווה, 'cause I feel like every negative thing, like גאווה or, I don't know, every negative מידה, it just needs to be plugged into the right place.
נכון. And then it's not being used negatively, so that... And גאווה stands at the top of it. He wants you to be proud of yourself.
Like, want them to feel a sense of pride, so there has to be a way to feel proud without being… נכון. Right. I was gonna say it's a fine, it's a fine line between being haughty about it versus I'm proud that I... Mhm.
It's a different level. Yeah. But when you're, when you learn, when you're learning it with the הדרכה of צדיקים, then they give you also they say like, listen, again, לא תירא לביתה משלג. It's a real thing.
Don't be scared that you're going to end up being גאוות'דיק. That's what the יצר הרע wants you to think.
לא תירא לביתה משלג.
שלג, שלג here means that you are going to end up being a בעל גאווה.
That is קליפת עמלק. No one that's learning this stuff ends up, no woman, men, yeah. No, no, no, no, no. I'm saying again, a man's a different עבודה.
It's a different עבודה. No woman ends up learning like this and ends up in the world of גאווה. It doesn't happen. Amen.
It doesn't. Men, yes, it's a different DNA, 100%. So the different approach? The פרום שוקל, like the whole thing we're saying in the beginning, it's a completely different approach, completely different approach when it comes to this ענין, yes.It doesn't say לא ירא לביתו משלג. Okay? It doesn't say that.
לא תירא לביתה משלג. 'Cause a man has to be a little bit חושש, wait a second. So the תיקון of גאווה is not humility but it's self-esteem? Is that what you're saying? Or where's the role of humility in this work? It's interesting. I don't know, I mean, all of us have been watching a lot of these clips, but Charlie Kirk has said that that is one of the greatest downfalls of what happened in, in, in the school system of Western society in the last like 50 years, where, where self-esteem was pushed to the core that created now basically a generation of disgusting self-entitled חולירות like ממש.
Not self-esteem. No, no, no, no, no.
שפלות, humility, doesn't mean to be humiliated. Yeah.
It's not so ברור to everybody. Humility has nothing to do with being humiliated. I mean משה רבינו was the epitome of being the humblest near a great leadership. Yeah, you know, רב שלמה used to say, this is a very important תורה.
Why is it that when we first start saying שמונה עשרה, first we bow down, ברוך אתה, but then when I say השם, I have to stand up. Right? Because הקדוש ברוך הוא is not interested in שלעפערס to show how much they're שלעפערס. It's to show הקדוש ברוך הוא, I'm, I'm your חייל, I'm your חיילת. You have to stand up.
You know, the way he said, the way to bow down deepest, like lowest before God is to stand as tall as you can. You know? So these... we're doing a lot of, we're we're touching upon a lot of things that got lost in translation over the years. I think in the beginning it must have stemmed from from a very what people thought was a good place.
Like I remember I one of the books that I had next to my bed many years of teenager was called Teen Esteem. Teen Esteem. I don't know if you've ever any of you have ever heard of it. Teen Esteem, you know, picked, but that's not what, but זה לא זה.
This is not it.
גאווה. The יצר הרע wants us to be scared of גאווה, wants you to be scared of גאווה. You all know that's not your פרשה over here.
That's not your פרשה. It's not what it's gonna get to.Who has to be scared of גאווה? Even in the world of women, who has to be scared of גאווה? If עמלק already got to you and you look at this and you don't call it a שיעור תורה, you call it like, oh, שירת הוידוי, voodoo therapy. Then you gotta be very careful. You gotta be very scared.
What do you mean? There's no there's not 15 sources here that does mental gymnastics and then you feel like you learned something. Sorry, a little bit of a. Anyway, yeah. Can I just say something? Sorry, when I read this, it just comes into my mind לא אירא רע כי אתה עמדי.
Yeah. And when I think of the scarlet, I just think of royalty and השם's our מלך. Uh huh. So I don't know, that kept popping up, but maybe that's woman's ability to see השם in everything as well.He's said that in the beginning of the year, he said, naturally, עיניה תמיד נשואות מעלה.
Yes, your eyes are naturally more gazing more naturally upwards. Yes.So you're not scared of the snow and things that are happening because you know השם's with you.Because if you're constantly under the consciousness and the awareness that you're a שלוחה of הקדוש ברוך הוא, and you're always operating from that place, then עמלק coming and tell you, listen, don't get too much on fire because you might start thinking that you're God. Right? You're saying, sorry, the snake tried that already once and he got the best of us, even then, right? Like why did the, why, whatever, we can go very deep into this, why did the נחש first go to, first go to חווה? Because he knew that that was the way to begin. And yet, that's the way השם designed the world.
That's the way, that's the way השם designed the world.So can I ask? So basically, from what I'm understanding is that our יצר הרע is actually one that's more protective to a woman to say, okay, like simmer, simmer a little bit, because we can be fiery naturally. We can go as far as too fiery.But maybe the יצר הרע is… Not in עבודת, not in עבודת השם. No, not in the service of God. No.
You can get too fiery on on things that don't fall under the category of the service of השם, like politics, you know. You see these figures coming out politically, female figures, what in the, מה זה? Where is this coming from, you know? Or other places that are not, they're not coming from the, from the לב. We're talking about the heart of a woman, the רגש, the world of emotion is naturally more in this place of accessing the the fire and reminding yourself that's what I'm always coming from and therefore, עמלק, you have nothing on me. Okay?The fire of the נפש?The fire of… נכון.
נכון.
נכון. Okay, so bottom, bottom paragraph here.
וכבר נתבאר.
And we already said, and we're gonna end with this, כי ידיעת ערך עצמו, knowing what you are made out of. Again, he's, he's like like in ליקוטי מוהר"ן, רבי נחמן will start off with something. He'll say it again a few times in the middle of the teaching, and it sounds very repetitive, and then he'll end off saying the same thing sometimes because sometimes things need to be drilled home, even though we think we read it once. But he goes back again and he says, where is all this תורה coming from? Because you have to know ידיעת ערך עצמו.
You have to know the preciousness of your own being. Every person does, but בפרט here is the כח הנשי, knowing your own value הוא יסוד כל עבודת השם יתברך. This is the foundation, this is the infrastructure of this whole world called service of God, being godly servants.
ומחיית זכרו של עמלק אשר עשה לך בזמנינו.
And this is the wiping out, this is the קיום המצווה of עמלק today, in our times, in our times.
ויעזור השם יתברך, השם should help us, שנזכה כבר לימות המשיח ולמחיית זכר עמלק, בביאת גואל צדק במהרה בימינו אמן.
אמן. Obviously, what comes to light here is that we may be living in ארץ ישראל, but we have כמעט no idea what our real ערך is.
Because if we did, we would have never allowed seeds of עמלק to be planted all over this country. So, when we're doing this on ourselves, it should be בשם כל ישראל, the beginning of the awakening for all of כלל ישראל to להבין ערך עצמם. Because there's no way in the world we would have gotten to the mess we're in, not a chance, not a chance, if we actually had this הבנה of ערך עצמי. There's no way.
אין סיכוי.
אין סיכוי. Okay. We will continue this שיעור in a while.
ראש השנה. So, oh wait a second. Next week, צום גדליה, סליחה.
סליחה, no, no, we're going to learn on צום גדליה.
The following week probably not.