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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.
Good morning everybody. Boker tov. I don't have the regular page with the sponsorships but if I remember correctly, Chodesh Iyar is sponsored by the Kram family le'ilui nishmas their abba whose yahrzeit is coming up, רב נחום שמעון בן לוי יצחק אריה. And also le'ilui nishmas the limmud of the Chodesh of Iyar is sponsored by the Silver family le'ilui nishmas בתיה פיגא בת שרה.
And a dear friend of mine, his abba was just niftar before Shabbos, Mordechai, I want to do le'ilui nishmas מרדכי מאיר בן בנימין תהא נשמתו צרורה בצרור החיים. Yeah. What's up? Done? Is that it? No, that's a different one. Different child.
Okay. Sorry. Sarah, do you mind just closing the door for me? Thank you. Today we're going to do, we're going to do a special shiur this morning that I believe today's shiur is going to give us a lot of light, a lot of koach and a lot, a lot of chizuk be'ezras Hashem Yisborach.
You can pass these around. Today is a shiur hachana for Reb Shimon, for Lag Ba'omer. Tomorrow night is Lag Ba'omer which is tomorrow night, which I can't tell you how excited we are here to have the zchus to be hosting Reb Yitzchak Ginsburgh together with Yosef Karduner for Lag Ba'omer here. It's lo ye'uman and I'm encouraging everyone, everyone, everyone to make it, to come to be part of this big simcha.
And I will share with you personally that every year when it comes to, the older I get, the more when I approach Lag Ba'omer I get more and more overwhelmed because I don't really, if I'm not sitting and learning Zohar and I'm not a kabbalist and let's say I'm not holding in all the sugyos in the Gemara that רבי שמעון בר יוחאי is teaching us Torah, then be'emes do I feel like I'm part of the simcha of Lag Ba'omer or not? It's when we're younger it's nice with bonfires and also ches vakeshes, yeah, bow and arrow vechulu, but we get a little bit older and you want to connect to it deeper. And it is, and sometimes it's very overwhelming. And every year we try to get into the pnimiyus of Lag Ba'omer, into the simcha of Lag Ba'omer because it's such a simcha. This year unfortunately I just read the latest reports, they're really cracking down on Meron.
It's going to be very, very difficult for anyone to try to get there. There are already 20,000 people on the mountain. You just should know that have been there already. But they capped it at 1,500.
So they'll be okay. It was 200. There's already 20,000 that are on the mountain already, they were there for Shabbos, even before. Yeah, yeah.
But 20,000 in comparison to what usually happens is nothing, mashu kaze. So throughout Lag Ba'omer, I think like 400, 500,000 people. Mashu kaze. So anyway, we have our chelek to, how are we going to get inside this day of Lag Ba'omer? And this is really a shiur that helps us understand what it means to have emunas tzaddikim, to believe in the power of the tzaddikim and what they were really all about and to attach our souls to their souls to help us climb out of places that we are chaleshing, that we really are yearning to climb out of.
So this what we're going to see today is a short piece from the Lubavitcher Rebbe that's going to help us understand how to get into this, but first a little story that this teaching is based on. The Arizal had a big talmid named Reb Avraham HaLevi. Reb Avraham HaLevi was a top talmid of the Arizal. And this Reb Avraham HaLevi, he felt churban Beis HaMikdash every single day.
It wasn't this thing that he only felt on Tisha B'Av, the destruction of the holy Temple. He had this inyan that he felt it very deep inside every single day of his life. And we know that there's a special bracha that we say in Mincha of Tisha B'Av in Shmoneh Esrei called Nachem. You know what we're referring to, the Nachem, the bracha of Nachem? Does anyone know, it's that a little bit? Nachem is the bracha that you insert in the tefilla of Boneh Yerushalayim I think it is on Mincha of Tisha B'Av and there it describes just like how everything is in such a state of churban, Yerushalayim is broken and desolate.
desolate and barren and everything, and it's a very dread- it's a very painful tefilla that we say in the bracha Bonei Yerushalayim. So this Rav Avraham, now we say it once a year on Mincha, and even today there are people that are trying to change the nusach of the bracha because Yerushalayim isn't as desolate as the bracha describes. Shomemos- I don't have the lashon in front of me, but it describes that it's like barren from all its children aren't there. I mean, we're living in a different metzius today, their children are there.
I remember that one time we were walking, my wife and I were walking around Yerushalayim the week of Tisha B'Av and we were looking, we were walking from Mamilla and I was looking around and I said to myself, "Uh-oh, I'm going to have a problem this Tisha B'Av because there's going to be that bracha Nachem that I can't say. It just- I can't say it the way that it's written today." You say it in the Amida? Here, I'm going to- I'm going to read for you the- let's see, you got it. Thank you.
נחם השם אלקינו את אבלי ציון ואת אבלי ירושלים.
Console Hashem, console the- the mourners of Zion and the mourners of Yerushalayim.
והעיר האבילה והחריבה והבזויה והשוממת. That means the- the city that's in mourning, that's destroyed, that's humiliated and that's desolate. Ha-avela mibeli baneha.
That's mourning because it doesn't have any of its children in it. Ve-hachareva mimonoteha. That's the only part that's still true. That's destroyed that doesn't have its maon, its proper structures.
That- that's the only thing that, you know, obviously is very much true. And also the following thing: ve-habzuya mikvoda. The kavod Yerushalayim of what Yerushalayim is really all about is still in a bizayon, it's still in a- in a humiliated state. Ve-hashomema me-ein yoshev.
It's desolate from any dwellers in it.
ויושבת וראשה חפוי כאישה עקרה שלא ילדה. She sits, Yerushalayim sits like a barren woman who hasn't been able to give birth.
ויבלעוה לגיונות ויירשוה עובדי פסילים ויטילו את עמך ישראל לחרב.
ויהרגו בזדון חסידי עליון. It's true that that once happened, that the greats of the- the greats of Am Yisrael were killed in Yerushalayim. But there's never been more Torah in Yerushalayim, there's never been more simcha to a certain extent in Yerushalayim, there's never been more glory to a certain extent in Yerushalayim since Churban Bayis Sheni. And then it continues over here and it says, על כן ציון במר תבכה וירושלים תיתן קולה ליבי ליבי על חלליהם מעי מעי על חלליהם.
כי אתה השם באש הצתה ובאש אתה עתיד לבנותה. Hashem, You destroyed with fire and it'll be rebuilt with fire. Quotes the pasuk: ואני אהיה לה נאום השם חומת אש סביב ולכבוד אהיה בתוכה.
ברוך אתה השם מנחם ציון ובונה ירושלים.
It's a pretty heavy- if you don't go to shul on Mincha on Tisha B'Av, you're not so aware of this bracha, but this is a very- these are very intense words and even to say it once a year is very, very hard. It's very intense. It's very heavy. This Rav Avraham HaLevi, the talmid of the Arizal, would say it every single day.
And he's traveling to Meron with his Rebbe, the Arizal, and he's saying this tefilla also on Lag BaOmer. And the Arizal was makpid on him and said to him, "Ma pitom? You don't say that today. It's not a day you say that, dafke on Lag BaOmer. No other day of the year.
Only on Lag BaOmer he was told, 'You don't say that bracha, you don't say those words.'" And he was very makpid on him. Based- now this story is brought down in a lot of the- a lot of the different, like, Chassidic works on the depth of Lag BaOmer to understand what Lag BaOmer is all about. What? There was no churban on Lag BaOmer? Yerushalayim, the Beis HaMikdash was rebuilt? It's no shaychus to say that bracha on Lag BaOmer? What's the problem? You're saying it every day of the year. The Arizal never went to him during the year and said, "Don't say that bracha, it's not shaychus anymore." But it's almost like there's a day that's plucked out of time and the Arizal says, "Here, on this day, this tefilla is not shaychus.
We don't say this tefilla." Let's understand what this means. You ever- I'm going to ask you a question, but before I do that, I will come to my senses and ask someone to please turn on the- the air, if that's okay. Sorry, it's a little bit- maybe the- these lights that are on. This one.
Before everyone puts their winter coats on, no, it's not going to be too crazy, right? Okay. Okay. Okay, we're good. Let's just- just flow, just some airflow, it's fine.
We're good, we're good. Let's go with the flow. My shayla is like this. I want you to think about this in a very strong way.
Do you have any people in your life that you know of that you feel that they're not really here in this world? Not in a, not in a bad way of like, like we say in, in Hebrew-isms, me'ofef, or we say in, in ancient Hebrew, hu astronat. I'm talking like they're just, they're really in a world where so to speak it's only light and and like we say it's all good, like by them, they somehow live in some kind of atmosphere that it's all good. Do you have anyone like that in your life that you've ever been around and and you don't want to hurt them because it's so irritating sometimes these types of people because there's such a desire from our end to like also have a shaychus to the world that they must be tapped into. So it seems, it seems to me based on what we're going to be learning right now is that this is what the day of Lag BaOmer is all about and this is who רבי שמעון בר יוחאי was.
He was that person that Chazal say about him, it's as if and he lived after Churban Beis HaMikdash obviously, but it's as if the churban, the destruction and its ramifications and the darkness that came about the Churban Beis HaMikdash didn't touch the life and the light of רבי שמעון בר יוחאי. I think people who live constantly with attributing everything to Hashem, who like that's the first thing that they think, the first thing they say, which is like frustrating at times when you're trying to deal with the real world and the choices. Wait a minute, you said the real world, that's a question now. No, no, no, that's very good.
This is a perfect prep for what we're going to learn. It's good, we're trying to deal with what world?
רבי שמעון בר יוחאי? No. Oh, that's what you were, no, no, trying to make it real to us. We're trying to make Rebbe Shimon's world real to us.
Not that come on, get out of Rebbe Shimon, you have to deal with the real world. Okay, oh, that's not what you were saying. Baruch Hashem, okay, good, good. That's usually, no, that's usually how people relate to these type of topics.
Okay, it's very nice you were dancing and davening and meditating and doing these but come down to the real world. Taxes, that's the real world, right? Arnona, that's the real world. Can I put in a plug for hisbodedus for a sec? No, that is something I'm not into. I don't want to interrupt too much, right? It's so shayach to this world that it's just unbelievable.
It'll change this world, hisbodedus for any person. It'll change this world, it'll make it, it'll make your experience in this world much more connected to the real world. Yes, yes, yes, ah, yeah, betach, betach, yeah. Is it important to not, to just disassociate basically with any of what, there's obviously now like social media and news and the whole thing, right? But if you live in a cave and you can disassociate and not be touched by anything, can we all be that, you know? If working with a, if living in a cave works for you and your family then yes, but it usually doesn't when you're trying to raise a family and live in society.
So you can't, you have to lift up society, you have to lift up what's called the real world but you know, look what I mean, רבי שמעון בר יוחאי is the greatest example. He comes out of the cave the first time and we all know what happens, he starts lighting up the world on a fire that's destructive. So if you're in, while you're in the cave, yeah, רבי שמעון בר יוחאי is 12 years, he's in the cave, you know, he was being nourished, satiated from a carob tree and sitting and learning and the whole miracle of how he got water and clothes, the whole thing, but then he comes out and he says, I can't be in that, you have to, I have to figure out a different way to come back into this world and lift it up. But he still held on to this concept that the churban, this is what we're talking about, like Tefillas Nachem, right? The churban didn't, it didn't touch him.
It didn't, it was not his metzius, it was not his world. His world was just like you were saying, just completely every single thing is under, is under Hashem's direct shlita and we're just here to bring the light of living in that experience. experience. Every single thing.
So I would, you know, to expect people to live like this all year long is a high expectation, but to encourage people to tap into the power of the day of Lag Baomer, which is one day a year, to live a churban-less life is kedai. And that's maybe why Chazal say כדאי לסמוך על ר' שמעון. There's a lot of these interesting languages when we see in Chazal when they speak about ר' שמעון בר יוחאי.
כדאי לסמוך על ר' שמעון means it's worth leaning, trusting on, connecting yourself to Reb Shimon to pull you out of some kind of darkness that you're stuck in.
Kedai. Kedai lismoach. Okay, so now let's learn this little piece from the Lubavitcher Rebbe, which is based on the story that we just said about Rabbi Avraham Levi, who was a talmid of the Arizal in Meron on Lag Baomer.
ל"ג בעומר הוא יום שמחתו של ר' שמעון בר יוחאי.
It's his day of simcha.
ובלשון המובא במשנת חסידים, and the lashon of Chazal is it's even called a simcha gedola. This day is a great celebration.
מכיוון שר' שמעון בר יוחאי תובע שישמחו ביום שמחתו, and the Rebbe says that since ר' שמעון בר יוחאי is demanding of us to rejoice in the day of his simcha.
Now what's funny, what happened to ר' שמעון בר יוחאי on Lag Baomer? He died! Supposed to be the day of his simcha? And it's actually called a hillula, which is called a wedding, right? But by the tzadik, when the tzadik dies, that means that everything he did in this world came to a state of completion, and now greater access is granted to all those to tap into the light of the tzadik, which is more concealed when they're alive, and then when they pass away, their soul suddenly there's this access for everyone, so it's a great simcha that both he passed away on this day, he completed his life on this day, he completed his mission, and the secrets of Torah that he revealed, he began to reveal in his lifetime, are have more access to the whole world. I mean, even though we don't live like, we don't realize this, but all of Chasidus, all of the more the mystical side of the Torah, the pnimiyus haTorah, it's all coming from ר' שמעון בר יוחאי. All of Chasidus, no such thing as Chasidus without ר' שמעון בר יוחאי. There's no such thing as Kabbalah.
All the inner aspects of the Torah are all coming from him and the power that Lag Baomer opens up for us on this day.
מכיוון שר' שמעון בר יוחאי תובע שישמחו ביום שמחתו, he's as if like demanding us to be happy and rejoice on the day of his simcha.
מובן שהוא נותן כח, it's clear that he's giving koach, he's giving strength מידו המלאה הפתוחה הקדושה והרחבה. The Rebbe is saying this.
The Lubavitcher Rebbe is saying that ר' שמעון בר יוחאי is giving from his outstretched hand, he's giving koach and strength to anyone שיוכלו לעסוק בכל ענייני ל"ג בעומר מתוך שמחה גדולה. That you can connect to any aspect of Lag Baomer from a place of great, great simcha. Perhaps that's also one of the reasons why, you know, couples, it's a big day for weddings, couples get married on Lag Baomer because of this inyan of there's something just opens up and there's an opportunity to take advantage of לעסוק בכל ענייני ל"ג בעומר מתוך שמחה גדולה. Now you can come and tell me, listen, that might work for optimistic happy people.
Maybe they have an easier time connecting to Lag Baomer. But me? Can you give me any reasons why I should be happy? I'll give you, you give me ten reasons why to be happy, I'll give you ten thousand reasons why I shouldn't be happy right now. You know people like that? You know sides of you like that, right? All of us have some kind of nekuda like this that's saying, "Oh, it's great that everyone's just so happy for no reason," I'm sorry, I'm not that kind of person. I'm not that kind of person that's in the middle of, and this is amazing because we're in the middle of a period of mourning throughout the Omer, and we're in the middle of a period of still mourning over our beloved civilians and soldiers that have been killed the last few years.
We're still in this period of mourning. You're going to come and tell me now, you're going to jump into one day, just jump into it and it's all beautiful and it's all simchadik? I'm not fake. I'm authentic. I can't live like that.
That's not me. That's not me.
ר' שמעון בר יוחאי is talking to you, whoever has that voice, and he's saying I know but I'm kind of like this superpower I don't know how to explain it I'm kind of like I have this ability to pull you out of places like this and this is what the Rebbe is saying over here. Second paragraph.
שמחה גדולה זו היא גם כאשר נמצאים בחושך כפול ומכופל דזמן הגלות. This type of simcha of Lag BaOmer is also existent in the time where there is a double amount of darkness of the time of Galus. kemuvon mehasippur hayadua as is taught in the famous story that we just mentioned right now אודות רבי אברהם הלוי שנהג לומר תפילת נחם בכל יום מכיוון שהרגיש ביותר את צער הגלות. What is Rabbi Avraham HaLevi saying to the Arizal without saying it as they're walking up to Meron on Lag BaOmer? Okay it's beautiful it's the Tzadik's Yahrtzeit but there's still destruction in the world the world is still gloomy there's still darkness there's still so much pain and confusion.
What today I'm not going to say what I feel every day I still feel that. So he's see the Rebbe is the Rebbe is saying that Rabbi Shimon is not just addressing people that are nebich stuck in some kind of loop of dark depression. He's talking about even a Tzadik you have to be a Talmid of the Arizal you gotta be holding you gotta be a very high level Rabbi Avraham HaLevi and he's talking even to him and saying I know you're sensitive to the Churban of the world the Churban of the Beis HaMikdash not today not on Lag BaOmer because Rabbi Shimon is something else.
רבי שמעון בר יוחאי even saying that word it's he is something else.
His whole Inyan is something else that only those that are willing to jump into it can taste what it's all about. Trying to understand how these things work never work. They just these things don't work. Jumping into it and being besimcha through a hilula through a wedding on Lag BaOmer through a medura with your children but being besimcha with it.
Jumping into it. Rabbi Shimon is right there waiting for you and say okay now I can do something with you. Is he saying he doesn't want anything to mar the day? He's saying the day can't be marred. Yeah.
Now we're dealing in our generation we're dealing with choshech kaful umuchpal because for many people this day is actually the darkest day of the year for them you know? It's like even more it's such a crazy thing. Like davka this day that we're saying listen this day has nothing to do with Churban in our can you imagine what a nisayon that is for our dor to relate to a teaching like this? That davka on this day forty-five of our brothers were trampled to death on the site of רבי שמעון בר יוחאי's burial spot crazy and yet did Lag BaOmer stop? Did Meron stop? I mean it's stopped only for other reasons but not not because of that. The power of רבי שמעון בר יוחאי that didn't stop it's crazy. It's crazy.
Bottom paragraph.
ואף על פי כן כאשר אמר תפילת נחם בל"ג בעומר אמר לו רבו האריז"ל שרבי שמעון בר יוחאי מקפיד עליו. The Arizal said listen I'm in tune with רבי שמעון בר יוחאי right? The Arizal. Now how many years is between the Arizal and רבי שמעון בר יוחאי? Be'erech? Yeah maybe like a thousand? Yeah I mean רבי שמעון בר יוחאי and the Arizal are not the same time.
I don't know a thousand. I don't know the cheshbon exactly. But hundreds of years are between the two of them right? And the Arizal is saying listen Rabbi Shimon I'm telling you he's telling his Talmid Rabbi Avraham Rabbi Shimon is makpid on you. You should not be doing this right now it means that you don't really have kavod and you don't understand what the whole Inyan of Lag BaOmer is all about.
If you're able to tap into the mourning of what you're usually tapped into on a day like today it means you're not really connected to what this day's all about. Again from the beginning of this paragraph.
ואף על פי כן כאשר אמר תפילת נחם בל"ג בעומר אמר לו רבו האריז"ל שרבי שמעון בר יוחאי מקפיד עליו שאמר נחם ביום שמחתו וכתוצאה מכך מת לו בנו הגדול. This part of the story we didn't say it.
As a result of Rabbi Avraham HaLevi saying Tefilas Nachem on Tisha B'Av his older son died. This is what we're dealing with: big, big neshamas, wild stuff, Talmidei ha-Arizal, things they had to go, we don't understand any of these things.
ואף שבוודאי לא רצה רבי שמעון בר יוחאי שיעדר ילד יהודי רחמנא לצלן ובלשון הכתוב אנוש לצדיק לא טוב הרי עניין זה היה באופן דסיבה ומסובב. And the Rebbe is saying, of course, רבי שמעון בר יוחאי, it's not that רבי שמעון בר יוחאי caused a gezeira that this tzaddik's son should die, but there's a concept called siba umesovev with certain high, high neshamas that the higher they are and the more that they're not careful with certain things, it boomerangs back to them.
I'll tell you a beautiful vort I learned last week on the parsha. This is such a sweet, a beautiful Torah from the Noam Elimelech. The Noam Elimelech says in the beginning of the parshas Emor, it says Rashi tells us that the reason why it says a double lashon of Emor Ve'amarta, right?
וידבר ה' אל משה אמור אל הכהנים בני אהרן ואמרת להם. Everyone has the shailah: why are you saying speak to them twice? Rashi says over there להזהיר גדולים על הקטנים, that it's in order to make sure that you warn—the pshat is that you warn the older kohanim that the younger, that they have to let the younger kohanim know that they come from a different stock and from a young age already they have to be more in tune with who they are.
When did we have this with Nakhi where we weren't sure if we were able to go to a certain place? You were at a levaya somewhere with Nachman and he was already—he was mamash like a little, little kid, but then you realized you couldn't go because we were—he was like a few month old kohen that couldn't go into an area that's assur to kohanim. Do you remember this? Mashu kaze, I remember this, and it was like such a powerful thing of mamash this inyan of kehunah from a young age. The Noam Elimelech says like this: he says the greater a person is, the more that they have to be really concerned and warned more about small things. For a person that's not so big, no one's really looking so much to see how he treats small things.
להזהיר גדולים על הקטנים, to warn people that are gedolim on small things in life, on small matters. So Rabbi Avram Halevi, such a big tzaddik, Talmidei ha-Arizal, for anyone else that would say Tefillas Nachem on Tisha B'Av, I don't think the result would be that their son would die. On Lag Ba'Omer, slicha, thank you. On Lag Ba'Omer, anyone else wouldn't—that's not—but we're talking about a big, big neshama like him.
So the Rebbe says that's why when these big neshamas kind of mess up with things that are so, so sensitive, there's a result, there's a siba umesovev that results sometimes in tragedy. Klomar, so now let's understand this whole story.
ואף שמדובר אודות יהודי שהרגיש את צער הגלות ביותר עד שהיה אומר תפילת נחם בכל יום. We're speaking about such a holy Jew, Rabbi Avram Halevi, who felt the pain of galus every day, he said Tefillas Nachem every day.
ומפשטות הלשון משמע שהיה אומרה גם בימים טובים ובשבתות. Right? From what we see over here from the way the story goes, this Rabbi Avram Halevi said the Tefilla of Nachem every day. Every day includes Shabbos and Yom Tov. Can you imagine? The Arizal didn't have any kapada on him for saying Nachem on Shabbos or on Yom Tov.
He said it every day. He probably felt it more then. Yeah, probably, nachon. It was probably even more for him, for the level that he was on, nachon.
But Lag Ba'Omer, no, couldn't—the Arizal couldn't have him do it.
עד כדי כך שהרגיש את צער הגלות עד שהיה מותר לו לומר תפילת נחם בשבת ויום טוב. He felt the pain of galus so much so that he was permitted, it was permissible for him to say that tefilla on Shabbos and Yom Tov. Can you imagine if someone today started saying that tefilla? They only say it Mincha on Tisha B'Av.
On Shabbos or on Yom Tov, or any day of the year, any day of the year, no one would—we're talking about a heiligen neshama, a very, very big soul.
דלא ככל בני ישראל. He's different, this guy was different from everyone else.
שגם הם מרגישים את צער הגלות.
Yes, we all feel the pain of galus, כפי שאומרים בתפילה את צמח דוד עבדך מהרה תצמיח וv'sechezena.
ותחזינה עינינו בשובך לציון ברחמים ואפילו בתפילת יום טוב מועדים לשמחה אומרים ומפני חטאינו גלינו מארצנו ואף על פי כן איננו אומרים תפילת נחם בכל יום. The Rebbe is saying we all are attuned, we're in our davening it's filled with the awareness that there's still galus, there's still a churban in the world. However, we don't say Nachem every day.
אף על פי כן, so you would say about this guy, "Wow, he must be the holiest person in the world! This Rabbi Avraham Halevi, he must be so holy because he feels the chisaron of Beis Hamikdash literally every second of his life." Every second of his life, he feels that there's no Beis Hamikdash and it causes us pain. We feel, how much are we in pain that there's no Beis Hamikdash? Let's face it. Halevai, halevai we'd feel it a bit more than we feel it now, right? Halevai. He felt it, he lived it every single day.
So you would say about a person like that, "Whew! They are, they're the highest, the holiest, they... they're just from another world." And he was, they were from another world, but they weren't from Rashbi's world.
אף על פי כן הקפיד עליו רבי שמעון בר יוחאי על שאמר תפילת נחם ביום שמחתו. But רבי שמעון בר יוחאי got agitated by the fact that this tzaddik didn't understand.
What does it mean that רבי שמעון בר יוחאי was makpid that he said Tefillas Nachem on Lag Ba'Omer? What does that mean in the inside of things? It means like this, I think, that רבי שמעון בר יוחאי is sitting up there in Shomayim and he's saying, "You're a talmid of the Arizal," he's talking to this Rabbi Avraham Halevi. "You're a student of the Arizal. The Arizal is the one that took my Torahs." Now, Rabbi Weinberger once gave a very clear explanation like this about the three worlds of revelation of pnimiyus hatorah for us. It was רבי שמעון בר יוחאי, the Ari, and then the Baal Shem Tov.
So listen to this, I'm going to say as clear as possible. You want to know what pnimiyus hatorah is? I'm going to tell you in 90 seconds.
רבי שמעון בר יוחאי let us know that there's a whole other world going on, right? The Arizal gave us a map of that other world with the Sefiros. And the Baal Shem Tov says, "Okay, come, can I take you there?" That's it, in a nutshell.
That's the whole thing. So רבי שמעון בר יוחאי is saying, "My talmid," meaning hundreds of years later, "My talmid the Ari took my inyan of understanding that there's a whole another world going on of pnimiyus, and as much as you feel connected to it in a deep way, there's a... there's something missing." There's something missing, because what I'm all about, my day, Rashbi is saying, Lag Ba'Omer, there's no churban Beis Hamikdash. It doesn't exist.
It's just a simcha. It's just my world. A churban didn't touch my life, my existence. It's just simcha.
Right, רבי שמעון בר יוחאי? The story is when he came out of the cave, so his son-in-law came to greet him, and when the son-in-law, Rabbi Pinchas, saw the state of רבי שמעון בר יוחאי skin, it says that his skin was so... it became so... flaky? Dry? Like dry and filled with all these wounds because of... eczema? Whatever it was.
And he started crying when he saw his father-in-law's skin. But the thing is is that his tears went into the holes in Rashbi's skin and he made him even... gave him even more pain, physical pain. But Rashbi looked at him and said, "Tsk, tsk, tsk." He said, "You don't get it.
This, what you're seeing over here, the result of living like this, actually enabled thousands and thousands and thousands of generations in the future to still believe that Hashem loves them." He's from the world that's not... it's not from our world, right? And that's why there was this kpeida on Rabbi Avraham Halevi. It was to try and teach us like the higher you get, it's not that the more pain you feel, but it's you also have to know the higher you get, the more that you have to take advantage of moments where it's just simcha in the air, whether you feel it or not. And the Rebbe's going to tell us right now that this is really how we received the Torah as well, because what did we say in order to receive the Torah? Na'aseh v'nishma, nishma v'na'aseh, nita'am.
Nagil v'na'aseh? No. Nishma v'na'aseh? No. Nitam v'na'aseh? No. Lag Ba'omer is the same exact thing.
Lag Ba'omer is the same exact thing. Na'aseh v'nishma. I'm gonna be in the simcha. I'm gonna be at at the hilula.
I'm gonna go to a place where they're rejoicing in the light of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai whether I've ever learned one thing of Zohar, whether I've ever learned one story of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, whether I know any sugyos in the Gemorra or his halachic status regarding k'li shemelachto l'isur. It's a famous sugya in the Gemorra in Shabbos about how Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai holds because he paskens halacha first throughout throughout the Torah, throughout the the Gemorra as well. Whether I understand any of it or not, I'm a na'aseh v'nishma Yid on on Lag Ba'omer. I'm jumping into it.
I'm gonna feel something. I trust the tzaddik.
כדאי לסמוך על רבי שמעון. Look how the Rebbe ends this piece.
ומזה מובן גודל השמחה דלג בעומר אפילו בזמן הגלות שאפילו כאשר יהודי מרגיש את צער הגלות עד כדי כך שמותר לו לומר נחם אפילו בשבת ויום טוב אף על פי כן אסור לו לומר נחם בלג בעומר יום שמחתו של רבי שמעון בר יוחאי as we as we just saw.
וגם כאשר אינו מבין זאת לאשורו and even when you don't really understand what this day is all about יש לו שאלות הדורשות ביאור והסבר you have all these questions that demand an explanation הרי סדר העבודה צריך להיות באופן דהקדמת נעשה לנשמה. This is how it works with the Jewish people. For the real things we received you don't get your questions answered and you feel that now you're intellectually more settled thus enabling you to now engage in action.
That's not how we received the Torah. That's not how we received the Torah. No one understood what Mattan Torah was or what the Torah was and therefore we got the Torah. There was a p'nimius halev saying I trust na'aseh v'nishma.
So that's what the Rebbe says over here שלכל ראש מקיים הוא את הדבר במעשה בפועל first there's a na'aseh on Lag Ba'omer. Be part of something. Engage in something.
לשמוח בשמחתו של רבי שמעון בר יוחאי ואחר כך and afterwards ימצא זמן פנוי שבו יוכל לעסוק בהבנת העניין לאשורו and afterwards you could find time to delve into the sugya that you just like trying to understand okay what was that? What was that? That's amazing.
What was that exactly? What did I just experience?
וכאשר ילמד זאת באופן דיגעתא בוודאי יקויים בו ומצאת. Beautiful. He says if you put in the effort to push yourself to be part of light and simcha even if you're not feeling it that's called yegata. That means toiled.
I worked on it. It didn't mean I understood it. It means I put in effort. Yegata umatzata Chazal tell us ta'amin.
If you if you if you pushed yourself to go to something to be part of some kind of light some kind of simcha I should I just want to be very like clear I'm totally talking to myself right now. Just don't I'm not this is not a like I'm totally talking to myself right now in public. B'emes. This is one of the hardest things in the world.
To push ourselves to be part of something that's filled with light even if I don't understand it. That's the yegia. Matzata means you've found yourself in this simcha without understanding exactly what's going on. Still Chazal say ta'amin.
Believe that you'll understand what you experienced. It'll make sense to you. It'll make you feel more at home.
אבל מובן שהבנת העניין אינה תנאי לקיום הדבר בפועל.
Understanding the matter that you're taking on is not a pre is not a condition to keep something. I'll give you an example. Does anyone here understand b'emes understand the halacha of borer on Shabbos? You know what the halacha of borer is? We do it. We're not supposed to.
Of refraining from yeah but okay the halacha stam as a halacha right? The halacha of borer. So do I only Okay, even a greater example. A couple gets married. Do you have to understand the inyan of bringing children into the world in order to bring a child into the world? How many people like their children that they're now great-grandparents, they still don't understand like what it means to bring a child into the world? And yet they discover after they bring a child into the world because they know that's the right thing to do even though they don't understand it fully.
This is the same thing about the pnimiy, the real, real things in life. Like the Rebbe says here, מובן שהבנת העניין אינה תנאי לקיום הדבר בפועל, לא רק בכללותו אלא גם בכל הפרטים שבו.
ומכיוון ששמחה פורצת גדר, and since we have the concept of course, we spoke about this in shul I think a few months ago, right? Bechodesh Adar we were speaking about this. And when I walked into Rav Ginsburgh's home on Thursday for preparation for Lag Ba'omer, I said to him, I said to him, רבי, אנחנו כל כך מתרגשים שהרב בא ונהיה ביחד בשמחה של רב שמעון.
He said, העיקר שהשמחה תפרוץ גדר. I thought about it right away because of this Sicha. Says the ikker though that the simcha that we have should be poretz geder. How would you, break through frontiers.
Like I, and I think like maybe this is why this, this movement to have in Lubavitch when it comes to niggunim, this movement, right? What's this movement? Poretz geder. Like poretz geder. It's, it's it breaks through the the this is me. I don't this is who I am.
I'm not really part of that stuff. Poretz geder.
ומכיוון ששמחה פורצת גדר, מובן שעל ידי ההוספה בשמחתו של רשב"י פורצים את גדרי העולם. It's obvious, the Rebbe says, that if you attach the simcha to the day of Rashbi, that means that all all limitations of the world of what's possible or not possible they're all nifratz b’zechus Rashbi.
מלשון העלם והסתר, דפורצים את גדרי הגלות, אמן כן יהי רצון. And it also just ends the limitations of what it looks like to live in a world without Moshiach. It poretz it. Poretz it.
So if this wasn't enough of an enticement to try to get you to come tomorrow night, I don't have anything else in the arsenal. But for me it's very, very important that we give kavod to someone that's one of my greatest mashpi'im and we don't have keilim for him in this world. Only in 300 years there'll be a havana that a person like this actually existed. I shiver in his presence.
I shiver and b'emes I shiver in his presence. And he doesn't I don't know if he notices or not. This is a demus acher. The fact that our binyan has the zechus to host b'emes, I'm going to say something, it's going to sound I'm not trying to be exaggerating, but a mamash embodiment of Rashbi in our dor in our kehilla, lo muvan me'elav.
It doesn't make any sense. But I'm not trying to make sense of it. I'm just going with it and being besimcha because otherwise, you know, otherwise it'll be a bad matzav. Like I I'll tell you I'll end with the story about simcha poretz geder with him.
I think I shared this a few years ago but the first time that I had the zechus to to I guess do something with him was approximately 14 years ago, 13 or 14 years ago where a group of musicians were chosen. There was a band and a bunch of different singers were asked to sing his songs on a special album that came out. And I never spent any one-on-one time with him before but I had learned some of his Torahs and I was I was very intrigued and and didn't realize how what I was getting into. I thought yeah I've already recorded a few albums.
I've sung many times. Mah habaya? You learn a song and you'll sing it in the studio. They didn't tell me that he was going to be there in the booth while I was recording. And it was a a little bit of a complex niggun, Shalom Aleichem, the first one.
It was a little bit of a complex niggun because it changes tempos. And in Lubavitch every, you know what a kneitch is? A kneitch is like a ah-oy. Not not even a word. It's not it's like it's just like a kneitch is like a...
A cry in the middle of the words of a niggun. So everything is exactly in its space, everything exactly in its space. So we're recording in the booth and I can't believe he's sitting there and I'm singing שלום עליכם מלאכי השרת. I go through a whole take and he says od pa'am.
Okay. And then I sing the whole thing again. It's long and we're recording it live with six other instruments in the other booth. I never did it like this before that everyone's playing live simultaneously.
And okay, I go through it again. And then I'm realizing the words are barely coming out. I'm so, when I looked at him, I was in such pachad. And I finished the last, I finish it again and then he basically says, you know, come here, come to the other room.
That was like the, ever get called into the principal's office? This was much worse. Nisht be'emes, this was much much worse. And and he said and he started pointing out to me the kneitches like that I'm not doing it in the right place, u'mashehu kazeh. And that bichlal like the the flow isn't there yet.
And then I realized that I I realized that I could continue to be blowing up with shpilkes inside or I could just try to calm the air and I turned to him and I said to him in English, he's from originally from America, so I said to him, Rebbi, in English, it would it would sound so much better if you weren't here cause my kishkas are exploding knowing that you're in the room with me right now singing this niggun. And and then there was a moment of silence and I was like, oh oh, did I just get myself, and he looked at me and he goes, and he cracked up. And then, no no, I'm telling you, and then there was simcha. That's why I'm telling you this story.
Then there was like a simcha in the room. And then I went in and I nailed it. Mamash. I think I nailed it.
Did he come back in with you or not? What's that? He stayed out or? He stayed there. He stayed in? Yeah yeah, he stayed, he didn't he didn't, right, he didn't listen to me and be like okay, I'll go to the other room. He's like okay, that's your problem. That's your issue, Shlomo, you have to deal with it.
No no, he did and it was so it was so beautiful. So anyway, we should be zocheh to be amongst tzaddikim that connecting to them pull us out of whatever choshech we're in and to believe in the koach of simcha that it's poretz geder. That's the pnimiyus of Lag Ba'omer. That's the inyan רבי שמעון בר יוחאי and it should spread over the whole country, the whole land and all of Am Yisrael.
Amein. Yasher koach.