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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.
Boker tov, Rabbi, hi, chaveirim yekarim, here, pass these around please. We are learning the month of Iyar leilui nishmas בתיה פייגא בת ישראל, leilui nishmas נחום שמואל בן יצחק אריה, ולזכרון כל החיילים הקדושים that gave their lives and the ones who are working tirelessly to protect us and the land. I also want to learn today for the refuah sheleima of Josh Ganis's brother. What's the full names? Zecharya? Yachmiel?
זכריה יחמיאל בן מלכה פרידא.
I also want to do it for the refuah sheleima of a friend of ours from Cleveland, יעקב שמואל בן מלכה. And today is my grandmother's yahrzeit also, my father's mother. My Bubby, my Bubby that jumped off the train. So I want to learn leilui nishmasa הטהורה חיה בת שמואל.
תהי נשמתה צרורה בצרור החיים. Amen. Listen, I'm really, really excited and very, very nervous in a holy way about tonight.
ברוך אתה ה' אלהינו מלך העולם שהכל נהיה בדברו.
Amen. Not just I'm, even Cardozo is nervous. He called me yesterday. He's like, what's going to...
I'm like, if you're nervous, that's either a great thing or the greatest sign ever. Yeah, so I mean, יש פה משהו גדול.
יש פה משהו גדול מאוד. So I expect to see everyone and to bring everyone that you know.
This is a kavod that we have for our kehillah. Lo muvan me'elav. This is not normal. It's not normal.
These things don't happen. This is Hashem saying, I believe in you guys. I believe in your fire. Come on.
Yalla, yalla. So even if it hasn't been your thing in the past, ein mah la'asot, tonight's a new world and to prepare for the new world we're going to learn a piece from Rav Ginsburg on Lag BaOmer. And we're, I don't think we'll be able to get through the whole thing. I won't get through anything without any flow of ventilation and of air.
That I know for sure, thank you. Ashreicha. Yefi'ach. It's, we have a flow.
It's a flow. Eli, it's okay. I use it sometimes. I'm telling you.
I use... stop. This is not mine. It's the Baal Shem Tov's Penimi.
ברשות הבעל שם טוב. And also Baruch Hashem Naftali is back with us after Baruch Hashem taking care of some physical business. He should have a refuah sheleima legamrei b'ezras Hashem. And Sasha should have a refuah sheleima amen b'ezras Hashem.
Okay, so. This is so deep but yet so pashet at the same time. Lag Ba'Omer. I was saying in the women's shiur yesterday that Lag Ba'Omer every year for me is very overwhelming.
It's a very overwhelming day because once you realize it's much, much deeper than having a medura as a teenager, the first night you had your first cigarette, or all these things that are memories of Lag Ba'Omer, you realize there's something infinitely deeper that's going on over here. It opens the heart to something that is an invitation, an invitation to the world that we call Olam Hasod, the world of secret. Most people think, well, I'm such a bur ve'am ha'aretz, am I going to start learning deeper things now? It actually, there's a greater advantage to the one that thinks that they're not so smart, and I want you to hear me. There's a greater advantage to the person that realizes maybe they're not such a great talmid chacham, davka they're more open to what Lag Ba'Omer is all about, as opposed to the ones that are walking around with, listen, I have da'as, I'm pretty, I'm holding, I'm holding pretty much.
No, this is something else. And what Rav Ginsburgh is going to be focusing on, there's many, many pieces of Rav Ginsburgh's in Lag Ba'Omer. I have no idea what he's going to be saying tonight, but for this morning's shiur, this preparation for Lag Ba'Omer, what Rav Ginsburgh is going to... oh, next sheet, sorry.
Are there more? I have here, I just don't have the staples, but it's fine. If anyone needs more, I have more up here. So, what Rav Ginsburgh is going to be focusing on this morning with us is the midda of the day, is the sephira of the day. The sephira of Lag Ba'Omer, everyone knows, is hod she'be'hod.
We're in the week of hod. Today is netzach she'be'hod, right? And we're going into hod she'be'hod. That's the day of Lag Ba'Omer, and we're going to try to understand how the midda of the day will explain to us what the day is truly all about. There's a famous teaching in Likkutei Moharan that everyone knows, that Rebbe Nachman says that if people have really good ears then they could pay attention and notice that every single conversation that's happening in the world, anything that people talk about during each day of Sefirat HaOmer has to do with the midda of that day.
Rebbe Nachman says this in Likkutei Moharan. So stameit, if our ears were really like in tune with what is emes in the world, we would be able to pay attention and notice that every single conversation, not just that you and I will have today, but if we eavesdropped on anybody, it's connected to the midda of the day. Now these are very deep mystical things, nachon? However, every single siddur that I know of, that I know of, and maybe you know siddurim that don't, I actually Shmuel you tell me also in your nusach, in the siddur that you did, that these are things, the inyan of sephiros, which is not, people don't usually hold, like most people aren't holding by saying oh I hold by sephiros and I live my life according to sephiros, but it made its way, the middos, the sephiros made its way to almost every single siddur in the Sefirat HaOmer. Also in your, nachon? Every siddur has the sephiros.
Not everyone pays attention to it, maybe they don't say that tefilla after Sefirat HaOmer where it says, you know, בזכות ספירת העומר שספרתי היום יתוקן מה שפגמתי בספירה, fill in the blank. However, it made its way into every single siddur. Rav Ginsburgh's going to address this. Rav Ginsburgh's going to give us three explanations to the pnimiyus of the concept of hod, and hope, at least one will hopefully really, really get into.
But today you need, I need everyone to pay extra attention inside. This is very easy Hebrew, but the concept is so, so profound. So let's look inside. And anyone that needs more pages, there's pages up here.
Rav Ginsburgh says like this: ל"ג בעומר הוא היום השלושים ושלושה בספירת העומר.
המקובלים הגדולים ובמיוחד האר"י הקדוש מסבירים את הכוונות המיוחדות של ספירת העומר לפי הקבלה, כוונות שיש בהן הרבה פרטים ומורכבות. These sephiros are complex. There's a lot within every single sephira.
I said I think on the shiur on Friday, you could pull out anything from any sephira, right? What does netzach she'be'hod? So you know a little bit what that word netzach means, what's hod, what's the combination of the two words together? What's the difference between netzach she'be'hod and hod she'be'netzach? There's a lot going on with each and every day.
אך הכוונה הפשוטה מכולן, third line, Rav Ginsburgh says the simple kavanah of them all.
היא זו שהפכה לנחלת הציבור הרחב ממש. This became part of nachalat hatzibur, that means accepted, it's everywhere.
עד שהודפסה בסידורי התפילה השונים. Till it became printed in all the siddurim.
זו הכוונה של שבע מידות לפי סדרן כשהן מתכללות זו בזו. Lag Ba'omer, היום החמישי בשבוע החמישי.
The fifth day in the fifth week. I didn't count. Just saying, the fifth day in the fifth week, הוא כנגד הוד שבהוד. Is keneged the sefirah Hod shebeHod.
Yes, we can't announce what it is for tonight, no? I'd rather not even take a chance of anything, but I didn't count. We're mentioning the sefirah Hod shebeHod. Nitbonen me'at, we're going to take a little bit of a deeper look במשמעות של ספירת ההוד ובקשר שלה לרבי שמעון בר יוחאי וסודות התורה. How does the middah of Hod connect to Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai to the secrets of the Torah?
בהתבוננות הזאת נעזר בהסברים של תורת החסידות.
We're going to take Chasidus, which what does Chasidus do? He says a very beautiful explanation for what Chasidut is.
אשר מתרגמת את מושגי הקבלה. It translates the concepts, Kabbalistic concepts, umasbira otam, and how does it explain the Kabbalistic concepts?
כפי שהם מופיעים בנפש האדם. How it appears in our souls.
That, that's an amazing just very simple explanation. What is Chasidus? A translation of Kabbalistic concepts and showing how they appear in our nefesh. Pretty, pretty straightforward what we just said until now. What's that? He sneezed.
Labriyut.
וכן למילה הוד שבלשון הקודש יש כמה משמעויות אפשריות. So let's give a few explanations of what the word Hod means. The first one, beauty.
הוד במובן של אור ויופי כמו בפסוק Hod vehadar lavashta או ויתן עליו הוד מלכות, as it says of Shlomo HaMelech. Beauty, just let's start with that one. Hod means beauty. Hod also milashon toda, saying thank you.
להודות למישהו על הטובות שהוא עושה לי, thanking someone for the good that he gave me.
הוד מלשון הודאה באמת או הודאה באשמה.
אני מודה שאתה צודק. What does modeh mean? Admission, self-location, submission.
Yeah, modeh al ha'emet, I, ani modeh, I admit, like, I admit, this is something's bigger than me. I admit that whatever, if I came to a conclusion that I was wrong, ani modeh sheta'iti, or as he says over here, ani modeh, I admit that's the truth. So we have three different explanations for the word Hod: beauty, gratitude, and admission. Let's go with that.
We're going to start with the first one because it's the hardest one. This is the hardest one. Not hard to understand, hard to do, hard to be.
נתחיל במשמעות של הודאה אל האמת.
Let's begin with the meaning of hoda'ah el ha'emet, of admitting the truth.
אם אני מודה על האמת בוויכוח, if I admit when I'm having a vikuach, what's that? Argument. An argument with someone, if I admit on the truth in an argument, what does that mean?
פירושו של דבר שהאמת הזאת אולי לא ממש מובנת לי. It means that the truth, maybe I don't really understand it.
עובדה שקודם חשבתי אחרת. Fact is, I thought differently before.
אבל אני מודה שכנראה הצד השני צודק. But I admit that the other side maybe right.
כנראה אצלו נמצאת האמת לאמיתה. Could be that by that person is the real truth. Do you know how hard it is to, it is so hard to come to this place in life. It's one of the hardest things in the world.
There's so much stoppage, there's so much blockage from being able to admit that you may have had something wrong and that you're modeh al ha'emet, you admit that someone was right. This is what Rabbi Ginsburgh calls zohi hoda'ah merachok. This is from distance, you're modeh.
אני לא נמצא בדרגה שלך, I'm not on your level, אבל אני מבטל את השכל התחתון שלי מול השכל העליון שלך.
But I'm mevatel-ing my lower intellect before your supernal, higher intellect. I'm mevatel-ing it. I think many, this was a big nisayon for people that understood that there's absolutely no place for coexistence between Amalek and Am Yisrael in Eretz Yisrael. So we were all our sechel elyon was waiting for the sechel tachton of the other side to admit, just admit that I was right already after October 7th and it can't, and that energy of I'm waiting for you to admit, that doesn't bring real hoda'ah.
But there were plenty of people from the chevre, from beautiful neshamos that really had this inyan of dreaming of that there could be some kind of a whole peace gesheft with Yishmael here that did come to their senses and realized אנחנו מודים על האמת. Tainu. There's this guy from Be'eri, I don't know if you've seen him on TV, Avyad Bachri. Have you seen this guy? He lost his leg, he lost his wife and a son or a daughter.
Avyad Bachri, have you seen this guy on the news anybody? This guy speaking with such, he's so modeh al ha'emes. The guy was modeh that he said, I couldn't believe what he said, he said I am so thankful that if October 7th had to happen that it happened by us down there and not here in Gush Etzion. He said this. Why? Because he said if it would have happened in Gush Etzion or one of these places, it'd be easy for us to continue our meshugas of saying you see it's because of the hisnachluyos, right? So he comes and says ani modeh.
Ani taiti legamri. Modeh al ha'emes. It seems like it's a very high level to put aside lowercase emes for uppercase emes, for Hashem's emes. That's a very high level.
Welcome to Lag B'Omer, achi, of course. That's what we're talking about. This is a very high level. It's not a simple level.
But it's just as hard to be modeh that your political stances were wrong. It's also very, very hard. But of course the higher you get with this inyan of hoda'ah, like with Me'or Hashem, it's going to get higher and higher and harder and harder. Betach, we're dealing with big league stuff.
But those that are willing to be modeh al ha'emes, they are the ones that are open for, well I'm not going to give it away now, but those that are just keep in mind, when you're ready to be modeh al ha'emes in any area in your life, for instance one of the hardest ones, not to say it because it's lip service, but to actually say honey, you're right. But to really say that. Wow. Ko'ach hanefesh.
And it's docheh everything. To really say that, and you know what's even just as deep, when your kid calls you out on something. Wow. I got that a few months ago.
Oh my God. To be able to say modeh to my child, to be modeh al ha'emes. Whoa. But once a person figures out that that's their ratzon to become that type of a person and they do that, gates that open up for them, we're going to see what what that is.
Hatichuna hazu, we're in the second paragraph in this bottom piece. Hatichuna hazu, this ability to be modeh al ha'emes hi hakdama hechrachit. This is not an option. This is a must לפני שבאים לעסוק בסודות התורה.
Before you want to start learning Chassidus, Kabbalah, Reb Shimon, all these beautiful things what the world has now called Pnimiyus, Pnimiyus HaTorah. Before you dabble into any of those things, is there any place in you that understands there has to be a modeh al ha'emes? Rav Weinberger when he was here he told me during one of the meals when I was when we were eating I ate with the shul, with the chevre and the ohel. So he said to me that recently he changed his mind about something in the shul by his shul. So I said to him how did the people take it? He said well some of them were saying how could it be, you said like this.
And he said yeah, I changed my mind. Happened. Pele. The ability to change your mind coming from, I'm not saying about Rav Weinberger had to do with hoda'ah al ha'emes, but I'm saying the ability to just say I'm changing my mind about something that I held to be so stark, so emes.
this is a prerequisite for sodos hatorah Rav Ginsburgh is saying to us. Ki yesh torah now look how he develops this and there's a few hands up I have to wait with everyone's questions because I want to get to a very important point.
כי יש תורה של שכל והבנה. There is a torah of intellect, of understanding.
ויש תורה שמעל השכל. And there's torah that is above and beyond comprehension and intellect.
הצד הנגלה בתורה הוא בעיקרו עיסוק שכלי אינטלקטואלי ממדרגה ראשונה. There is a level, listen, to learn Gemara you you need a good cup, you need a good head to learn halacha and understand how how the mishna took what it took from the Torah then how the Gemara takes what it took from the mishna, like you actually do need a very good head that's a seichel that has to do with me'al hateva or betoch hateva? Betoch hateva.
100 percent. hatzad hanigleh again הצד הנגלה של התורה נגלה בעיקרו עיסוק שכלי אינטלקטואלי ממדרגה ראשונה אמנם יש הרבה הבדל בין השכל של הגמרא לשכל של המדע באוניברסיטה. It's true, can't compare a blatt gemara to a blatt of biophysics that you're learning in in university.
אבל יש ביניהם מכנה משותף גדול מאוד.
But they do have a common denominator. What's that? Heady. Yeah, literally. Heady stuff.
ומי שבאמת באמת גדול בתורה. Now he says something interesting.
ומי שבאמת באמת גדול בתורה a real giant in nigleh of Torah.
אם יתפנה ללמוד פיזיקה יש סיכוי טוב שהוא יהיה איינשטיין הבא.
Nachon? A person with a really good cup for learning, if he said listen, I'm now dedicating a year to just study physics he could be the next Einstein because the the just the intellectual capacity and the way that his brain is trained to understand things can lead him to then in trained to learn things within Torah he can then take that out to the world and do amazing things. We touched upon this in tikkun hamedina a little bit about the new types of universities that need to come into the world. Aval and this is the aval, this is the shiur of today and this is Lag Ba'omer.
אבל בצד הנסתר של התורה when it comes to sod, יש כבר שכל מסוג אחר.
This is a different type of intellect.
משהו שמעל כללי ההיגיון המוכרים. This is above and beyond the way that we normally understand things and and logic the way that we know it.
מי שמתעקש לחשוב שהכל נמדד לפי השכל שלו.
One that is persistent and insistent on thinking that everything is measured by his mind.
לא יאמין בסודות התורה. They won't believe in the secrets of the Torah.
וגם אם ינסה לעסוק בהם ייכשל.
And if he tries to delve into them and become a professor of kabbalah he's not going to be holding in it. Or and then he adds here something amazing. Or he'll think he's holding there.
או יתפוס אותם רק בחיצוניות שבזה יש סכנה גדולה.
And there's a great danger for that. Why's that a why's that a great danger? Because that's the danger they said of learning kabbalah. Bediyuk. Bediyuk.
And then leading that keilu giving that over to the next generation and they're sitting there thinking we're students of the secrets of the Torah. We're holding and you have without getting into I don't want any names right now but you have massive schools of thought like this. Massive. The opposite of submission.
Legamrei.
אבל מי שמודה הוד. But someone that admits שיש בתורה משהו סודי that there's some there's a secret and that there's something secretive about the Torah meaning that there's a deeper layer than the peshat that I learn.
שמעבר להלכה הפשוטה והברורה יש עוד רובד.
That above and beyond the simple halacha there's another layer.
ועוד אחד ועוד אחד. And then another layer and another layer. Like Rabbi Nachman writes in Likkutei Moharan what's the real Torah all about? You open a door of the Torah then you see a few more doors then you open each door then there's more doors behind every door that you open there's more and more doors and instead in getting of getting overwhelmed you you you're able to see like wow this is just so much bigger than what I thought it was.
Beautiful, there's so much more.
מי שמודה שיש פלא. Whoever admits that there's a wonder.
שהשכל האנושי מצד עצמו אינו יכול להגיע אליו.
That as much as I could become a chacham, there's a realm of Torah that... that my mind can never grasp on its own, but it exists. Rav Ginsburgh says hu yachol lehipatach, it's that person that can open up velihyot kli and to become the proper vessel מתאים לעסוק בסודות התורה. Now let's not learn this in the wrong way.
What's the wrong way of understanding this concept? If Rav Ginsburgh just said that the only way to become a suitable vessel for secrets of the Torah is to admit that it's a place that my mind can't grasp, then what should I do? I'll do a shortcut. Don't learn anything. Like don't learn anything. Because I learned in a shiur that to be the suitable vessel for secrets of the Torah has nothing to do with how much my mind can intellectually grasp something.
Ah! I'm going to puff all day long, get everything out and fly high. I'm just going to binge-watch whatever I can, be totally I'm not holding. Why are you wasting your I'm not wasting my life, I'm preparing to become a vessel for secrets of the Torah. No, no, no, it doesn't it doesn't work like that either, you understand? Destination thinking.
Sorry? It's destination thinking, cause I can't reach the destination, so there's no point to even go on the journey. So journey thinking is the opposite. Right. Yafe.
I don't think anything he said right now was too much of a chiddush, but there is very definitely an important thing to remember. That my mind and I'm telling you, I have this, I'll just share it with you. I'll share with you something. None of you were there besides maybe Yossi in the back.
Not partaking but observing. Do you remember back in the day when a few heady chevra, not heady heady meaning heady heady, right? A few heady chevra, sometimes they're the same. A few heady chevra, no, no, they really wanted they really be'emet, they really wanted to they had they really had this like inyan, they wanted to understand Chassidus. They wanted to understand it.
Like what is this thing that you guys come to this neighborhood, you're talking all these things, you do these trips to the Ukraine. What is this? Like they just weren't brought up and it came from a mamash sincere and holy place. So for a few weeks, I don't know if do you remember this Yossi, I would sit with them. You weren't part of it, I mean it wasn't for any of our chevra because it was all it was a bunch of other chevra that would come in.
I was like on Sunday mornings and it was it was torturous because I'm obviously you know I'm on my way be'ezrat Hashem to becoming a real teacher, even today. This is like ten years ago and I was trying to give over to them what pierces my soul with Torat haChassidus. And I remember we were learning a piece of Noam Elimelech. And they couldn't get past the question of how does he know this? Like that was the whole it stopped there.
But how does he know this? I'm like how does he know this? So based on Rav Ginsburgh, how does how does Rebbe Elimelech know what he just said? Because he's a the tzaddik refined himself so much with his da'at being modeh al ha'emet to become a kli for secrets of the Torah. Can you explain that to anybody? You can't explain that. Eventually that shiur stopped. It was like three or four meetings and every week got worse and worse.
It was awful, it was awful. But this, if I went back in time or I invited them for another try, I'd probably learn this with them first and then start learning Chassidus with them. But Rav Ginsburgh is saying here to become a kli for Rashbi, for secrets of the Torah, I have to use the mida of hod in the context of אני מודה על האמת. I'm modeh on the emes.
Lachen, bottom paragraph.
לכן פעמים רבות דוקא ליהודים הפשוטים יש אמונה רב יותר בסודות התורה. This is what I said in the beginning of the shiur. That's why quite often for simple Yidelach, they have yesh emuna rav, that means they're more prone for the secrets of the Torah.
Why? Because they're not coming with their head lechat'chila. They're saying I'm mina pashute Yid, I'm a simple Yid, I know a little bit, there's so much more I don't know. So hineni muchan umezuman. I'm here.
לעומתם הרבה אנשים חכמים ונבונים לכאורה חכמים בעיני עצמם ובעיני אחרים נותרים. Listen to this concept.
כלואים בתוך גבולות השכל. You know what that means?
כלואים בתוך גבולות השכל.
Kilayim? Nah, no, no. Kluim, like keleh. Jail. Imprisoned.
Where, now where are they imprisoned? In what? In their own head. But it's - it could be a beautiful - but they're imprisoned in their own limitations.
שממאן להודות במשהו שגדול על מידתו. They can't admit there's something greater than what they know.
אך באמת אין זו חכמה אמיתית. That's not really real wisdom. Hachacham HaAmiti, the real wise person, הוא זה שיודע גם להתנהג בתמימות ולהקשיב למה שמופלא ממנו. The real wise person, wise, not - he's not saying here the tzadik, the kadosh, the wise person, hachacham, real wise, real wisdom, is that he knows also to act with tmimus and to listen to things that are wondrous from him, ויודע כי תכלית הידיעה שלא נדע.
And he knows that the purpose is to reach this place of I'll never ever know. Now, I'm just gonna end the - this first par- this first thing and then I'm gonna tell you the rest outside. Kemuvun.
מי שמודה על האמת, now someone that's able to modeh al ha'emes, Yodeia lomar viduy, he says this is also connected to the same word of hod.
You can actually really do viduy, confession, בהודאה מלאה על חטאיו, fully confessing your sins, ומקיים בעצמו וחטאתי נגדי תמיד. Who said that? Vechatasi negdi samid? Dovid HaMelech. That it's that my sin is always in front of me. Haviduy, confession, Hakara bematzavo hamurachak, recognizing how distant I am.
Bless you.
הוא הכלי המתאים לגילוי הסוד, is the suitable vessel for revelation of sod to appear in your life, Kemo sheomrim Chazal, like Chazal say, אין מוסרין סתרי תורה אלא למי שלבו דואג בקרבו, Shelibo nishbar be'emes. Chazal say who is one that receives or that's given to him secrets of Torah?
מי שלבו דואג בקרבו, which means someone whose heart is really broken. Not sadness necessarily, huh? Broken open.
Broken open. Not sadness bikhlal. Afuch from sadness because Reb Shimon's whole thing is simcha. But this is what Ellie just popped up to share with us right now is exactly that inyan.
And Ellie, this is like - I want you to hear how Rav Ginsburgh says it. He explains in the next piece that the mida of hod is actually the lowest of midos and sometimes the most dangerous of midos. Why? Because a person that comes to the realization that they mamash know nothing, the danger between being besimcha over that and being sad and depressed over that is a very thin line. Very thin line.
You understand? Reb Shimon's whole thing is simcha. So much so, I'll tell you a quick story I shared yesterday. A woman shared - famous story. Lubavitcher Rebbe used to share this story.
The Arizal had a talmid, his name was Rabbi Avraham HaLevi. It's a famous story. And this Rabbi Avraham HaLevi had such a kesher to churban habayis, he felt it so much that he said Tefilas Nachem every single day of the year. You know what Tefilas Nachem is? Tisha B'Av in the mincha one, right? Which we say, which is a horrible description of churban habayis, Beis Hamikdash, Yerushalayim being barren and really painful, painful thing.
He said it every single day. And there was no kpeida on him to - he said it on Shabbos and Yom Tov. He felt it so badly, the churban habait, he said it on Shabbos and on Yom Tov. He goes with the Arizal to Meron for Lag Ba'omer.
In the Wellsprings? Rabbi Itamar brought it? Yeah, in the Wellsprings? It's a fam- a bunch of the sefarim bring this. It's a famous story. It's a famous maiseh. And he's by Reb Shimon on Lag Ba'omer in Meron and he's with the Arizal and he says Tefilas Nachem and the Arizal rips him bless you - the Arizal gives it to him.
Says, no, no, no, no, no. Not today, not here.
רב שמעון מקפיד עליך. Reb Shimon's makpid on you.
This is not the place or the time to say Tefilas Nachem, which brings about sadness, because Reb Shimon's whole world is a world where churban habayis doesn't exist. Like yesterday's shiur. Churban habayis doesn't exist on Lag Ba'omer. In Reb Shimon's world, in sodos hatorah, churban doesn't exist.
It's only light. It's only simcha. So that's where Rav Ginsburg says you have to be careful with this middah of Hod because if it takes you to a place of mamash איי שכל אם זו לא אם זו לא, it can easily lead you to a place of feeling like you're an idiot. Feeling like you're a lo yutzlach.
That's not what we want at all. We want to reach the place, and only through a secret of Torah can you be besimcha over feeling that you're not that smart. I told this to my wife yesterday. I never told her before.
Reb Sholom Brodt was, you know, he was like my best friend. He was my best friend, mamash my best friend. And I think about him every single day. One night late at night, I said this at one of his yahrzeits.
One night late at night we were sitting outside his, if you remember, if the chevra that know where Simchas Shlomo is, there was a bench right there and Zev was there many times. I don't know if other, Ari were you ever there? Sure you were there. Yeah, of course. You've spent many, many times there.
So, one night we're sitting late at night and we're talking and it's so special and precious. And then he says to me, "You know Shlomo?" He says, "None of the real smart ones ever come and sit and talk with me." And I'm sitting there and I'm like, I said what just happened over here right now? What is this? Right? But no, but I'll tell you on Lag BaOmer, like I'm thinking about it now. Wow, that means it's all secrets with us, you know? But in Olam HaZeh, it's like, what did you just say? You know? What did you just, what am I supposed to do with that right now? You know? Mah la'asot? But the way we're learning it now is that if I can mekabel what he said, and of course he was right. Meaning, I don't know if he was right about other people.
Like I'm not, I know that many of the more smarter ones thought, oh, it's cute, Sholom Brodt, Simchas Shlomo. Sholom was dealing with the real, real, real pain of people's lives and building people up together. He was doing things that we'll never know he did. We'll never know.
We'll never know. He was mesader kiddushin. But when he said that, it was almost like I'll be the non-smart person with you my whole life. I'll go with you anywhere as the non-smart person.
You know how many smart people stopped hanging out with Reb Sholom? The smart ones. Right? And then you know the ones that barely knew aleph beis, these hippies? Didn't know anything, but they never thought they knew anything. They were the ones that received secrets and secrets of Torah. Secrets of Torah.
This is Reb Shimon's middah. This is Hod shebeHod. So the second thing Rav Ginsburg brought about here is that you also have to be modeh al da'as. Every time you do receive something, you have to be modeh, you have to be thankful to Hashem for the da'as.
Now you know that's such a contradictory thing because usually when I attain knowledge, who do I attribute it to? My koach. So this is the opposite. You're saying every time you attain more knowledge, you're modeh on whatever knowledge Hashem brought down to you. Yes, Yaakov? Everything we've spoken about till now is the vanquishing of your yetzer hara, your ego.
Betach. And once you vanquish your ego, you can open up yourself to new thoughts, you can admit to yourself that I need more knowledge and you can admit that you're wrong. So these are methods of truly bittul hayesh beshorsho, which means what the world calls like ridding yourself of your ego but in a real deep pnimiyut'dike way. Right? Pnimiyut'dike way.
Now the last thing that he says over here that is so beautiful over here, ממש זה לא יאומן how he brings this all. He says that when a person is able to be with someone on the level of bittul hayesh, of this bittul of the light, then there's Hod shebeHod. You understand? Then there's Hod shebeHod. Then there's a glow that's a glow, that's a fire, there's a receiving, there's giving, receiving, and it flows.
There flows the giving and receiving, the light back and forth. This is why it's called Hod shebeHod, that your nothingness k'ilu is me'ir into my nothingness and then we created a bigger keli to receive secrets and light from Hashem. This is the simcha of רב שמעון בר יוחאי brings to the world. This is the pnimi.
pnimiut of pnimiut of Lag Ba'Omer and I'll and I'll end with with just davka about the tzaddik that we're going to see tonight. You have to you have to realize something and you have to take my word for it. I can I can just give you like first testimony stuff, you have to take my word for this, okay? I have been zocha to be by him so many I can't believe it. Like this is one of the things that I just can't understand it, I be'emet, I don't want to try to understand it.
It's got to be for some kind of reason that that tonight I'm supposed to like have a meeting with him after everything to discuss how to, what, a few things of spreading more light. I don't even know, I don't even know what that means. Be'emet, in his presence, I I shake in a way that I don't shake by anybody else. It's something thunderous in my soul, I don't know what it is.
But I'm telling you something, what I've always noticed is that הוא לא מחזיק בעצמו בגרוש. I don't know how to say that in English. Zero ego, he doesn't puff himself up. He's not.
Period. I'm telling you, he is not. He's not really there. It's a bizarre thing.
I've seen him at at three in the morning speak to a a crowd of hundreds of people who 80% are sleeping, 10% are nodding off, and maybe 10% are listening, and he's channeling sodos haTorah as if there's 600,000 people in the room. I mamash, I've seen this with my own eyes a number of times. Those moments I look at that and I'm like he is really defying all concepts of ke'ilu pirsum. This is a different world.
And I always wonder to myself like does he realize that most people don't understand anything that he's saying? I I always think about this. And then I'm always reminded of he's, first of all it's not him. There's something flowing through him and he's operating on the level of dorei dorot ahead. Hundreds and thousands of years ahead, he's channeling on the level of Netzach.
So if you're thinking on the level of Netzach, what does it matter what's happening right now? And I've always felt that. So that's why I'm I'm encouraging you all, shlep another person you think wouldn't come because to them they just don't understand this whole thing. That's what this whole thing's about. That's what the whole thing is about.
And we should be privileged to have hakara and hakarat hatov from Hashem that it's in our in our building tonight, we're going to have Rebbe Shimon's light shine in our building like never before, be'ezras Hashem yisborach. Amen. And then you take the musician that's coming with him, he's the same exact bechina of nothing, okay? Carduner is is nothing. That's why he's everything.
Yalla, yasher koach, boys.