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Rav Shlomo Katz explores the teachings of Rav Shlomo Carlebach zt"l on the Parsha with the sefer Even Shlomo
Okay, chaveirim, boker tov. I am I'm so I'm so elated right now. I'm so happy. Sunday was a false alarm, but my brother's wife just gave birth like a few minutes ago to to a baby girl.
A baby girl, baby child number nine in his family, Baruch Hashem. Such a simcha, I'm just flying right now. This is wiping out Amalek with more Yiddishe kinder. Amen.
סימן טוב ומזל טוב יהא לנו סימן טוב ומזל טוב יהא לנו סימן טוב ומזל טוב יהא לנו סימן טוב ומזל טוב יהא לנו סימן טוב ומזל טוב יהא לנו סימן טוב ומזל טוב יהא לנו סימן טוב ומזל טוב יהא לנו סימן טוב ומזל טוב יהא לנו יהא לנו ולכל ישראל יהא לנו ולכל ישראל אמן יהא לנו ולכל ישראל יהא לנו ולכל ישראל אמן סימן טוב ומזל טוב יהא לנו סימן טוב ומזל טוב יהא לנו סימן טוב ומזל טוב יהא לנו סימן טוב ומזל טוב יהא לנו סימן טוב ומזל טוב יהא לנו סימן טוב ומזל טוב יהא לנו סימן טוב ומזל טוב יהא לנו סימן טוב ומזל טוב יהא לנו יהא לנו ולכל ישראל יהא לנו ולכל ישראל אמן יהא לנו ולכל ישראל יהא לנו ולכל ישראל אמן. Mazel tov, mazel tov, mazel tov. Simchas for my parents, for Klal Yisrael, for the cousins, it should flow over to everyone ad bli dai b'ezrat Hashem. Amen.
It should flow, tizrom, it should flow to everyone. Chaveirim, we have a very important shiur today, a very important learning, and as always, when it comes closer to Purim, you feel the intensity and opportunity and obligation of the mitzvah that comes before Purim. Every year before Purim, what do we read before Purim comes on Shabbos? We read Parshat Zachor. This week b'ezrat Hashem, we'll hear, we have a bar mitzvah boy here, Weglein has a bar mitzvah and Yosef will be doing it in nusach, what would you say this, nusach Yerushalmi? So we have to make sure we hear it, everyone has to make sure they hear it.
I remember when when that whole whatever that thing was called, Corona was happening, the beginning of it, at least here in Eretz Yisrael, was right around now. And there were all these shailos that came up then saying how what happens if you don't hear it, can you do tashlumin for it because people couldn't go to shul? There was already all this meshugas. It was such a it was such a confusing time which no one had any idea what they were doing. Because now it's not a confusing time and everyone knows exactly what they're doing, right? It's like a big tikkun for that.
Now everything's totally clear. Then we had then mah shum davar. Yossi walked to the Dagan on Rosh Hashanah thinking that his that he may have to move to a new like world because they messed up everyone in their brains in such shtuyot and no one knew what was, the whole thing was was insane. But like we said, now Baruch Hashem everything is back to normal and we're acting like smart healthy Yidden, right? And what we're going to be seeing today is how usually the greatest the hardest thing in the world is not to start something, is not to take it on.
The hardest thing in the world is following through עד הסוף ולהחזיק מעמד. Think about it, how many things did you take on in life? Many, many different things. But how many things did you not follow through ad hasof? And as we're saying this, we took on a war two and a half years ago and we gave, Am Yisrael brought to Hashem on the mizbeach, I don't know the exact number of korbanot, lo zocher, I don't know if anyone, someone knows you could tell me. Many, many, many, many, many.
Many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many korbanot. And the the goal, remember the goal, what was the goal? The goal was complete and total victory. And not only have we not followed through with it, the exact opposite is taking place as we're speaking right now in in that cursed place which is really a blessed place because it's Eretz Yisrael but what has been done with it is a cursed entity. And as we're speaking right now there are thousands of people again gearing up with all their ammunition and weapon, but this time they're being protected by Indonesian and Turkish and other soldiers that are going to make sure that everyone stays in their lane.
Where's this happening? On the place that we gave our lives. So we started something and again Amalek comes Amalek doesn't let you Amalek lets you start a bunch of different things. Actually it's good for him to start, because you'll remember how many times you didn't follow through. That's on a national level.
Ken.
וזה אשר קרך בדרך. Baderech. Atah kvar baderech.
You're already on the way. How many Chavrusas did we start? How many diets did we start? How many jobs did we start? How many projects did we start? How many therapy sessions did we begin? All these things, to begin is not such a big Chochma. You need you need courage to begin but to follow through baderech. This is where this is where Amalek shows up.
So in this epic piece which over the years we've learned variations of this but not the way it's going to be Be'ezrat Hashem learned today. This puts us in the place of okay I'm showing up to shul Shabbos Zachor. And there's such a Kpeidah there's such a Mitzvah to hear זכור את אשר עשה לך עמלק. Everyone knows it's such a everyone takes this Mitzvah more seriously than any other Krias vechulu.
They they take the Mitzvah of listening to the words of Torah as a Chumra. But the implementation of what the purpose of listening to that Kria that's still very very far. And we have another Chasdei Hashem we're alive those of us in this room and Hashem is giving us another opportunity this Shabbos Zachor before Purim to keep keep my eye on what it needs to be kept on and to Daven to Hashem to understand the Kavana of why He wants me to listen to Parshas Zachor every single year before Purim. What is the Parsha of Zachor? What is it Bichlal? And once and for all to eradicate Amalek from this world.
Now obviously Amalek if it would be so simple if it was just a people. It would be simple but we know already that I mean you could blame the Chassidic masters on this that it's not just an entity. It's obviously something much deeper than that. But we have something on both levels.
We have it as a people as human beings and we also have it as some kind of a some kind of a stopper that exists within us that does not let us proceed. It doesn't let us stay till the end. It doesn't allow us to complete things that we have taken on in every Mishor in every area. Great.
So with saying that let's see how Reb Shlomo takes us on this important journey.
זכור את אשר עשה לך עמלק. Now this the Hebrew here is very very simple but don't let it confuse you because it's giving over the depth of the whole Inyan.
עמלק עמלק הוא האויב הגדול של עם ישראל.
עמלק הוא גם האויב הגדול של כל בן אנוש. The question is איך מזהים אויב כזה? How do you identify such an enemy? It's the greatest enemy of the Yid really he says it's the greatest enemy of humanity but how does one detect Amalek?
איך מזהים אויב כזה? How do you how do you know? Hillel was was it you when you were a kid that you you had a was it you or maybe it was David I don't remember that they called me one year all the kids had a project in school. Do you remember this where your teacher said you all have to ask a Rav if a kid is walking down the street and they have a sign on them says I'm Amalek is there a was it you? No no I think I would remember. Zachor.
I think it was David actually that that so what are you supposed to do if a kid's walking down the street and he has this banner on him says I am Amalek al pi Torah what are you supposed to do? It was such a treat it's like these kids were like I don't know it was like they were like 12 or 13 and they're just doing homework and I'm sitting there with these Shailos. What kind of trick question did the teacher here, you know, do? How do you identify this oyev? So we're not speaking today on a halachic physical entity because, well, two reasons: Aleph, you know exactly what I think, you don't have to tell you for the 800th time, but Beis is that that's not, on a level of avodah of us that aren't in the battlefield, that doesn't help us.
וזה לא זה וזה. Doesn't do anything.
So now we have to do this mamash deep down inside.
זוהי אחת מתורותיו של רבי נחמן. This is one of the teachings of Rebbe Nachman.
דמיינו שיום אחד אני מתעורר ואני אומר, Ribono shel Olam, מעתה ואילך ממש רוצה לשרת אותך.
From today on, I wake up in the morning and say Ribono shel Olam, from today on, I am Yours. I am here to serve mamash. I'm here. Like, I'm...
it's not just Shacharis, I'm here that the whole day's going to be filled with serving You. I wake up in the morning with that feeling. So Amalek shows up ומגיע כקול קטן בתוככם and he comes and it's like a little voice and he says v'omer, אל מי אתה צוחק? Who you laughing at? Ani makir otcha. Ata kishalon.
היית כישלון עד עכשיו ואני יודע שתעשה את זה אולי שלושה ימים ואז הכל נגמר. Let's face it, he says. We've been down this road many, many times, and you've ended up feeling horrible after you took on things and you disappointed yourself, and all those statements that you remember from home or from teachers or from other people, they were all right. You're a lo yutzlach.
Stop taking on things, stop aiming for the sky. Be'emes, you don't follow through, you don't finish things. That voice comes in right away, right after I have this great feeling of I'm going to wake up and I'm waking up and I'm going to be an Eved Hashem. It's not just, it's also Shacharis, Mincha, Maariv, right? It's also that, coming to shul for minyanim for Shacharis, davening b'tzibur, Shacharis, Mincha, Maariv.
But it's saying, let's say we're even going to do more than that. Like, I'm going to be plugged in and be Your servant. Amalek comes to you and says, and he sounds... why does he sound so convincing? Because in what name does Amalek come to tell you maybe it's better if you don't take this on? In what, in the name of what? Realism? Okay, what other word would you, like a...
what other word would you describe the notion of Amalek's wording? What does he have, what does he feel towards you? What does it sound like? Sympathy? Compassion? Listen, I feel bad. I don't want you... I don't want you to get hurt again. Don't set yourself up for failure.
Yeah, don't, exactly. I want you to protect yourself from failure. So don't, don't do it. Chevre, are there any extra pages? No? No, no, no.
Chevre, extra means that you have and there's extra ones. Yasher koach. Okay.
חברים אני יכול להישבע ש...
Now some of the texts you don't have this, but this is a pretty... in some of the texts it is here, this next paragraph, don't ask me why.
חברים אני יכול להישבע שבכל הנוגע לתשעים אחוז מהנישואים שמסתיימים בגירושין משהו ממש קרה בהתחלה.
במהלך החופה עמדו שם כמה אנשים ואמרו זה לזה בוא נראה כמה זמן זה יימשך.
Yorim. Yorim chitzim.
יורים חיצים של עמלק. He said, I could swear that 90% of marriages that fail, it's because there were people that were standing by the chuppah with that sarcasm and that cynicism that are saying, let's see how long this one lasts.
What does he call that? Shooting arrows, shooting Amalekite arrows at the binyan, at the possible binyan. Now that doesn't just happen when it comes to marriage. He gives that as a clear example that things that start and result in churban. But quite often, think about this, chevre.
At what age does it become weird if someone starts dressing differently because they had a hitorerut for something? At what age does that become like weird? B'erech? Not here. Baruch Hashem, here there isn't, I hope, I think there is an openness that when people take on something that they may look a little bit different, it doesn't shter people that much. I mean, yesterday some guy walked in here and I couldn't recognize him for like the first two minutes. I was looking at him like, I know you, but from where? And it's someone that's going through something, took off his beard and peiyos that he's had for the last probably six, seven, six, seven years and gute Purim, and it's like, yeah, whatever.
That's what he's going through. It is what it is. But at what age in normal in other places does it feel does it become strange if someone would suddenly decide to let's say let's say put on a gartel or put on a hat? Or or put on a what would you call it? Djellaba. At what age does that become in the world that's like this guy's this guy lost his mind.
Be'erech what age? Anytime after Shana Rishona. Like you're expected to be exactly exactly these changes are fine but you're supposed to be established and know exactly what the rest of the path of your life should look like from the age of 19. If it's after 19 yesh po ba'aya, right? Do you realize how ludicrous that is? How crazy is that? This story I've told you so many times. I was giving over this teaching in a concert at what's the where is it was Rabbi Yuden's shul.
Where is that in Jersey? Fair Lawn. It was I was there with Laser and my buddy Shaya Lieber. This is maybe 18 years ago mashehu kazei and I'm giving over this teaching and then after the teaching there's a guy that we start dancing and there's this there's a bunch of sivuvim of dancing and then every time one guy had a beard and peyos would come by me he'd be like this like as if like we know each other. And again I kept on looking at him like okay just wave he's one of the holy hippie-lach one of the chevra and he keeps on every time and every time it was like oh he kept on pointing to me oh look who's here ke'ilu we have common friends and then I was then I was getting confused.
Then the show was over he comes up to me and he gives me a hug and I heard his voice and I looked at him like no way Simon? Simon Jacob. I don't know if you if you know him. Your your family knows him Eli because he's from the same place in that your that your family's from in Jersey. And I was like I couldn't believe it because he was a manifestation of that teaching at the age of probably 50.
I'd have to guess around 50 maybe early fifties. A guy that he felt he he was mis-chazek taking more things on. He had a mustache for many many years. That's how I knew him.
Amazing guy. Amazing guy. One of his sons was one of my roommates at a certain point I did a bunch of the family weddings and I looked at him and I was like you really are a free person because most people even if they have a cheshek let's face it at our ages to start looking differently from a good place not not because they're trying to show off but from a good place or or act even differently. Most of the time what stops us from going there is thoughts that come in from the outside saying how long is this gonna last? How long and then we don't take things on.
Social anxiety. Social anxiety. One of the you think what are other people going to think? And these voices are arrows the arrows that Reb Shlomo just spoke about shooting arrows of Amalek into our mind. And unfortunately I think Haley's right zos omeret after you're like 18 19 20 maybe you don't really again this the chevra here is a lit there's a bunch of facial hair in the room right now that proves the opposite of what I'm saying but that's only because there's an openness to actually follow your heart and not let Amalek take over who you are.
But in other areas perhaps it is there. Ani lo yode'a. Yachol lihiyot. I don't know.
Okay. Now he says like this and this is prophetically scary.
אתם יודעים מה קורה בעולם He said this this is in the eighties okay?
אתם יודעים מה קורה בעולם.
העולם רוצה לומר לנו שכל הסיפור של העם היהודי שחזר לארץ הקודש לא יחזיק מעמד The world says this whole story of Am Yisrael coming back it was a great start shkoyach but you all know this is not gonna last.
That's what the world is saying. It's not gonna last. Lo yachzik ma'amad.
אתם יודעים כמה צעירים רוצים לעשות משהו ואף אחד לא נותן להם את האומץ How many young people want to do something but no one gives them the courage? No one gives them the koach the courage and the dechifa the push to go for it go.
I know it doesn't look like the world is with you and I know the world's gonna say you're crazy but I see how much it's burning in you. Go for it so he's speaking about young people. I'm speaking about like us alte kackers that are also in the same category of like we want to do things we want to do things a little bit differently but the world we hear it in our mind the world is laughing at us saying how long will this last? How long? And we care about you. We don't want, listen, we care about you, be'emet.
Our words, our concern is only because we don't want you to feel like a disappointment and a lo yutzlach and then we'll have to shlep you up again. And I have no koach to pick you up again after you already got yourself together, took on things. That's, that happens at all ages. Now, the most dangerous place, I have to say, is when this happens between spouses.
Because there it hurts the most, that if you feel a certain cheshek to take something on and there's cynic and there's like these cynical eyes towards you, that's the most dangerous battlefield because that's where it's the most sensitive. Now, I just want, have to give a little bit of a hechsher for this. Those big changes that may be taken on because you feel it, if it's mamash mashpia yashar on the home, those things need to be in unison with your spouse. So just I'm not saying over here, go crazy and your real soulmate will simply be with you.
There's all types of shinnuim that we're speaking about. The main ones we're speaking about are the arrows being shot from outside the home into what you feel is a very important thing for you. Is this kitzeira? It's a very counter-intuitive idea to give somebody else courage. Usually an avahmina courage would come from within.
You would think so, but when you have, I believe if you have two friends really, maybe even one, but let's say two. If you have like two really strong friends that are right there next to you and you are and somehow they're your wings, they you feel like you could bounce things off them or whatever it is, but even if you kept on going, if you have a dream and they think you're crazy, then it's a problem, but then if you show them this is really your dream, they'll come and say to you, 'I'm sorry I tried to talk you out of your dream, even though it's not mine, I've got to push you to go and do it.' So they're giving you the courage to believe in your dreams. And that's what Reb Shlomo is emphasizing here, to be that friend for someone else. Halevai, halevai, we should be zocheh.
Yes, Rabbi Goldsmith. I'll just point a personal story. At the tzadikim of the bayit, when I came to some of these questions they always said what the Rav said. Just to ask the Rebetzin, ask the wife, ask the soulmate, that they took the decision off themselves and put it back to my soulmate, my partner.
And not for them to like tell me vechulu vechulu, and that was always the way that it worked, even if there was changes later on from the same soulmate, but it was always that direction, like trust your partner. Halevai, halevai lekulanu. Amen. Halevai aleinu, be'ezrat Hashem.
Okay, so now he goes back to Rabbi Nachman. Now the way he says it here, I haven't found it inside in Likutey Moharan, but I'm sure he saw it, the way that he learned it inside, this is how it came out for him.
רבי נחמן אומר שהאויבים שלנו הם לא האויבים שלנו. Our enemies are not really our enemies.
Right?
האויבים שלנו הם החברים שלנו שאומרים לנו שלא נוכל לעשות את מה שהצבנו לעצמנו לעשות כי הם חושבים שהם מכירים אותנו כל כך טוב. He says a crazy thing. Our real enemies are not easily identified enemies. Our real enemies are friends that say, 'listen, who knows you better than me? We know you.
Who cares about you more than me? Adif shelo.' Right? Those happen to be quite often our real enemies. Yeah. I had that when I first moved, I wanted to start the Maoz haGiborim. I had a ton of people tell me, 'there's so many organizations out there, there's so many people that do these things, what are you doing? What are you going to add? What chiddush? You're trying to be a chiddush? Azov, you're not a chiddush, everyone's doing it already.
It's not going to last, people aren't going to want to give money to them.' Achi, I had the same inner, no one told me this, it was in my head, I had this voice when I moved back here when I was 22. My father had to convince me to bring a guitar with me to Eretz Yisrael. And I remember saying to him, 'אבא כל אחד פה ואחותו מנגנים פה גיטרה כל אחד פה עושה את זה כבר כאילו בשביל מה.' He said to me, 'bechori,' my bechor, 'takshiv le'abba, פשוט תקח את זה, atah lo yodea, atah lo yodea.' And with my abba, שיתן לו אריכות ימים ושנים בעזרת השם, she feel good for many more years and nachas from his baruch Hashem, his new granddaughter who was just born, mazal tov. he was of course he was right but sometimes the sometimes the voices are already plugged in inside.
You have a thought but right away you are the one that puts it out. But he's saying over here like you're saying Yosef sometimes the people that are closest to you say achai everyone's doing it already. What's the chiddush? What could you possibly have to offer? And it's amazing that sometimes it's not about being a chiddush it's just I feel I need to express something. Whether it's a chiddush or not I don't know but how could you tell me that something that I'm feeling I need to do shouldn't be done because of A B and C? So Reb he's saying in the name of Rabbi Nachman that quite often these voices are from the people that are closest to you.
How could that be? It's such a crazy thing. It's the same thing as the earlier idea of compassion. I don't want you to set yourself up for failure. Come on I know you so well man.
In the name of love caring compassion vechulu. It's amazing.
זה מרבה הצער כל כך הרבה מהחברים שיש לנו הם האויבים הגרועים ביותר שיש לנו. Saying sadly enough so many of the friends we have are our greatest enemies.
It's crazy to say such a statement. But on what level of enemy is he speaking of? Who is your enemy based on this? Anyone that tries to clip off your wings. Anyone that tries in the name for whatever it is to... to derail...
lenatek otcha to disconnect you from a machshava tova that you had. To simply delegitimize. To just disconnect you. lenatek otcha.
lenatek otcha. Am Yisrael we went out to this war, a war of ein breira, and there was so much koach at least from the beginning to say tov. The whole derangement we had in our mind for 75 76 years that it could work like this. There was like this matzav where you didn't have to push people to believe that it's possible to wipe out this whole sick concept bechlal that we put to ourselves.
And then slowly slowly as time goes by in the name of compassion on the future all these other things we have enabled a mamash Palestinian state to be founded right now. It's exactly what it is. There's more weapons in there now legitimate weapons now than there probably has been in years. And that matzav down there is...
Hashem can do anything. But al pnei hakarka Amalek got in there so easily. First of all he feels at home there that's just his home base anyway lechatchila he's just feeling home you know. And then you have the people that are saying I'm not letting anyone make me forget what this is all about.
I have it in... I'll share it with... it's okay. I have it in the office I have something right by my computer by my screen.
Erev Shabbos last... this past... is it this past one or a week and a half ago? I think a week and a half ago. Yossi's son, chayal gibbor Yisrael, in and out of Aza.
So he came to me and he brought me... I think I showed some of you... he brought me a picture of Har HaBayis with like... with Arabic writing on the picture in a frame.
He brings it to me and I say... I'm looking at this what is this? He says this took off a wall of a nice beautiful heimishe home in Aza that he was in. This is what's on every single wall. He says I'm not forgetting what the whole thing is really all about.
It's right this. But because the... it's in Arabic handwriting so it wouldn't look good by the Shabbos candles in the Sassoon home it'd be looking a little weird. But Yossi would be fine.
Yossi would put it by his bed. Better than the ashes that we have. Right there. That's another story another story.
Better than the ashes. Yossi will give you commentary after that after shiur or not. But this is right there in front of us right? Amalek has come and said listen azov et zeh I know you guys were all gung-ho at the beginning Hamikdash and everything. achi you had patches everyone felt good right? You had the patches Mashiach Beis Hamikdash.
You came back down to Baruch Hashem you didn't lose your mind you're back down to normalcy to diplomacy to health. We started something boys. Where did it go? And I'm speaking in front of chayalim in this room and I shake before any chayal because if it was up to the chayalim there's no Amalek on the chayal. There's Amalek on the heads, the decision makers.
Every chayal would go ad hasof. There's no Amalek around them. Chayalim would go ad hasof. We are in such a warped reality, it's too painful to look it in the face and realize שאנחנו תקענו את עצמנו in ways that we could have never imagined possible after such a maka that we got.
But it's because Amalek comes when you're baderech. Baderech, you were on the way. That's when it comes. And it comes in the names of your best friends.
What does the prime minister say all the time about his best friends? We've never had such great friendship like we do now with our best friend. Our best friend im kol hakavod is part of the issue of stopping us while we're baderech. Meturaf. I want to continue.
Just two minutes but I want to continue. Pitchu et libchem.
אתם תמיד יכולים להתחיל משהו. You could always start something אבל יותר מכך האם יש לכם גם את הכוח לסיים אותו עד הסוף.
Can you finish it till the end?
צריך הרבה אומץ להתחיל. You do. It's true. You need courage to take on something to begin אבל זה לא האומץ שאנחנו צריכים האומץ העמוק ביותר שאנחנו צריכים היא באמת להחזיק מעמד.
The courage we need is to actually last till the end.
אתם יודעים מה זה להחזיק מעמד?
לא שאני מצליח מההתחלה ועד הסוף. Not that I'm successful from beginning to end, ela she please listen closely, okay? I'm trying to listen to this closely.
אלא שאני אולי כישלון כל יום אבל אני עדיין מחזיק מעמד.
It doesn't mean that I'm successful from A to Z. It could mean that I'm a failure between B and Y. But you know what? I got to Z. And Amalek comes and says to you, if you're a failure from B to Y, why would you do this to yourself? I care for you.
Kevar baderech but maybe choose another road. No. The greatest success is not being successful from A to Z, it perhaps is failing mamash from A to Y. You know, from A or B to Y.
Lo yodea matai. But every day I know nothing, nothing will stop me to reaching the end. That's the courage we need today. Ken Yosef.
Think of sports as an example, but you think about all the famous in baseball, they fail seventy percent of the time. Right? You bat three hundred, you're in the Hall of Fame. Right? It's... you have to fail and still be successful at the end.
Nachon, nachon.
זה הדבר העמוק ביותר. Now he says a statement. Now this following statement should be should be a mantra.
I believe this should be taught to every single child when he starts learning about Hashem, Torah. This to me, he says he used to say this statement in the middle of very deep shiurim. And he said it in a few different contexts and be'emet, I'll tell you the truth, I'm not exactly sure why he said it over here but I could not take this line out. Listen to this: מה שאתה חושב על אנשים זה מה שאתה חושב על אלוקים ומה שאתה חושב על אלוקים זה מה שאתה חושב על אנשים.
Now say it in English. Says truth is, that which you think about people is actually what you think about God and that which you think about God is what you think about people. Does this sting? It's a little cryptic. Well, it makes perfect sense.
To you. Your name's Raziel. Exactly. Because if we're talking about how it's your friends who are the ones that are telling you that you can't do this, but in reality what you're...
what that person is saying is that God can't do it. So when you're telling someone they can't do it, you're actually saying God can't do it, but when you're saying that God can do anything, then you can do anything. So that's it's kind of just like showing the full spectrum. So how does it affect the way that I think about Hashem? Right.
What what does it do to me? What's my vision of God after I say such a thing? Which one, that you can't do anything? If I think like this, if for instance like this: what you think about people is what you think about God or what you think about God is actually what you think about people. That puts me into a shock. Why? Because I know that my thoughts about people are not so ai ai ai maybe. Kind of.
But you know what I mean. But what does that actually say about Hashem? That He doesn't believe in you. No. What what does it say about Hashem if I say about people they're not so ai ai ai.
Right, then same thing. Then what am I saying... Whatever I think about people is actually what I think about Hashem. Whatever I think about Hashem is what I actually think about people.
So if I believe that Hashem is הכול יכול וכל עולם יחד like we say in ve-khol ma-aminim then I wouldn't actually be an Amalekite friend to anybody because the second someone says I could do something, I'll believe in them. Shows the level of Rav Shalom's emuna which we saw through his relations with people. Bedyuk. Bedyuk.
Honestly chevre if we actually took this for a second and checked in with this statement we'd be we would actually not be so certain that we believe in Hashem. We'd actually be it would come to a place where we'd think more that we believe in an idol. I know that sounds scary but it's true based on this statement which I believe with all my heart and soul. Whatever you think about God is what you think about people.
There's no such thing I think God is geshmak but people are off. That means it's one of the two. It's one of the two. For most people it's not.
That's great. Like who was like that? Noach. Noach. Avraham Avinu was the exact opposite.
Avraham Avinu is a manifestation of this statement. Noach is saying it's no, there are people, they need to be wiped out but God is God. And the Torah says, well the world won't really be yours, but you know what, you're a tzaddik. That's what the Torah says.
You could be a tzaddik thinking like this but you're not going to be בני אברהם יצחק ויעקב, you're not the father of Av Hamon Goyim, you're not bringing real Hashem into the world. This is heavy stuff but this last statement should shake the system a little bit. Lo laheros but I'm saying Amalek is also people. But Hashem said to wipe them out.
Also referred to as pere adam right? No that's Yishmael. Let's continue. Okay so by me it's the next page.
אתם יודעים מה עמלק אומר לנו?
אתם באמת חושבים שיום אחד העולם יהיה גן עדן?
העולם יהיה טוב?
תראה.
אלוקים מנסה במשך אלפי שנים וזה לא עובד.
תשכח מזה.
אל תבזבז את הזמן שלך.
זה לא יקרה.
You know that you know like you know the statement you know the word YOLO? YOLO. You only live once. What kind of a heretical statement is that? It's such a heretical statement. It's a statement filled with kfira.
Meaning, you only live once. Look how many people try to connect themselves and do good and do good in the world. Thousands of years God is trying to create this beautiful world ve-ze lo olekh. After thousands of years of humanity.
Look where the state of humanity is in. How much beauty when you look at the world how much beauty do you see? Now there is beauty it's just that our eyes are clogged and we're blocked from seeing it. But this is what Amalek is saying. He's saying you're trying to be such a tzaddik? God has been trying to recreate the world and beautify the world over and over again for so many years.
Look how far He's come. You're gonna come and be a geshmak and think that you could get your life together? Just YOLO. Go out. You only live once.
Ma ze? We think like that? No. Now there is one day a year that we're out of that thought process.
בפורים אנחנו חוגגים שזה יקרה. On Purim because I wiped out the voice that says in the name of whatever it's not gonna happen I wipe that out before Purim on Shabbos Parshas Zachor.
So on Purim we're celebrating that wow it'll actually happen אבל לא רק זה בפורים אנחנו חיים ברמה שזה כבר קרה. That's the highest. Purim is not just celebrating it oh one day Amalek will be erased וליהודים הייתה אורה ושמחה וששון ויקר. Purim is it already happened.
I'm in it. I'm living in it. That reality of Purim is a very real place because it's hard for us to understand this because we're always living in a state of in the future yibaneh beis hamikdash. It will be rebuilt.
And so much of our tenants of faith are built upon future transactions which will happen right like what the Rambam's Yud Gimmel Ikarim also you know I believe there will be tchiyas hamaysim there will be all these things. On Purim I'm not just celebrating I really believe... It'll happen, but the place I get to on Purim is that, wait a second, ze kvar kara, it happened right now, right here, in this moment. Gan Eden kvar kan.
Be-Purim ein Haman.
בפורים אנחנו ממש חיים בעולם אחר. Now he says this is a wild train of thought.
הזוהר הקדוש אומר שיום כיפור הוא קצת כמו פורים אבל לא באמת.
Like we know, Yom Kippurim, Yom Ke-Purim, labriyus.
ביום כיפור אני עומד לפני אלוקים ואני מספר לאלוקים את כל הכישלונות שלי ומבקש סליחה. That's what I'm doing, bless you, on Yom Kippur. I stand before the Ribono Shel Olam.
I'm telling him about all my failures and I'm saying I'm sorry. Ze nechmad me'od. It's really nice.
אבל זה לא הדבר הכי גבוה שיש.
That's not the greatest thing.
כי מי נתן לך את הזכות להגיד משהו רע על עצמך? Who gave you permission to say bad things about yourself? Remember the famous story of the Chofetz Chaim on the train when he was traveling somewhere? A Yid was traveling with him and the Chofetz Chaim didn't... back then with no like you know people didn't know what great people looked like, but they knew about the name. So this guy's traveling with the Chofetz Chaim and he asked him, "Where you going?" "I'm going to somewhere." And the Chofetz Chaim asked, "Where are you going?" "I'm going to Radin, I'm going to see the heilige Chofetz Chaim." "What's such a big deal about the Chofetz Chaim?" And he was saying it like he really felt like that and the guy starts berating him, "How could you talk like that about the Chofetz Chaim? Who gave you reshus to...
who do you think you are?" They get there and the guy realizes that it was the Chofetz Chaim and the Chofetz Chaim said to him, he was like, "That was what I did, what I said was... there was nothing holy about that. There was nothing holy about that. That's absolutely not right." It's not exactly a Novardok shita, but be'emes, that's not the inyan either.
So Reb Shlomo is saying as high as Yom Kippur is, you think God's dream for humanity would be that people feel bad? That's not the ultimate dream. Who gives you permission to really say bad things about yourself? Something we have to work through on Yom Kippur, but the ultimate is not that.
בצורה עמוקה ומוזרה שקשה להגיד. In a weird, strange way, Amalek adayan mistovev sham.
You heard what he just said about Yom Kippur? As cleansing as it is, if there's a voice that's telling you that it's... that you should really be in tune with the bad things that you've done and the bad person you've become, there's still something that smells a little bit like Amalek shooting arrows. The only thing is, there's no other way to get to that place that Yom Kippur needs you to get to, unless you do it like that. But on Purim, אחרי שמחקתי את עמלק בפורים אני לא אומר שום דבר רע על עצמי.
I never saw someone get up at a Purim suda when he was mamash in Purim and he felt the need to tell Hashem how filthy he really was, if it's mamash kehilchaso, because the whole inyan of Purim is taking you out of the cheshbon, of the ad d'lo yada, of the cheshboning how good or bad I am.
עמלק כבר לא שמה. You wiped it out in Parshas Zachor.
אתה נמצא בתוך האירוע.
You're inside, you're feeling, you're inside, you're explaining your experience... something so powerful and deep that is absolutely beyond the cheshbonos of these types of things. So he ends off here and he says like this, "אז איך נלחמים ברשע?" "How do I fight evil?" דבר ראשון עלינו לזכור שלפני פורים יש רע בעולם חייבים לזכור את זה. What did Reb Shlomo just say? What's Parshas Zachor reminding us? There is evil in the world.
Evil is a real thing. There is an... there are entities that are evil. It's a real thing.
There are machshavos that are evil. So on the front lines of a battle, I have to wipe out evil from the face of the earth. If our chayalim's hands were untied, they would do it. They would do the job.
They would do it. But since we're sitting around holy tables with holy sefarim and holy words, what does this say to me? I have to acknowledge those voices that still exist in me that tell me I'm a lo yutzlach, that tell me I'm not successful, or that tell me, "Don't take that on, you're just going to disappoint yourself." Call it what it is. That is evil. It exists in the world.
And I have to wipe that out before Purim, not on Purim. Before Purim already I have to wipe it out. I have to do my best to wipe it out. That's what I have to do.
And lemaise for us, think of the last time you even took something... something on and realize, God, it's been so long. Why's it been so long? Maybe it's 'cause someone was shooting Amalek arrows into my consciousness, and maybe that someone was me but I disguised it in the name of my mother's voice when I was a kid, or my teacher, or that friend that told me that at a certain age, whatever it is, doesn't matter. It prevented you from going veiter.
That's what it ended up doing. It prevented you from going veiter in life. Acknowledge it. That evil is real.
It exists. It's right in front of us most of the time. We just got so used to that soundtrack that we don't even realize that it's Amalek. We actually sometimes think it's holy.
Asher korcha baderech. So I have to acknowledge it. That's the first thing he says.
תאמינו אתמול הייתי רע ועכשיו אני מבטיח לעצמי שיהיה טוב.
Again, yesterday I was bad, today I promise myself I'll be good.
אבל אתם יודעים מה קורה עד למחרת בבוקר זה כבר נשכח. By the time you wake up the next morning, that which you took upon yourself or that which you chose to identify yourself as is already forgotten. I forgot my promise to myself.
Shachachti et hahavtacha.
שכחתי כמה רע הרגשתי כשעשיתי טעות אילו רק הייתי זוכר קצת. If only I'd remember how bad I feel after doing mistakes, I'd remember to not make the same mistake again. What mistake are we speaking about here? Holding ourselves back from real growth.
If we're going to get lema'aseh, okay? How many people in this room had machshavas at a certain point of the last year or two years to take on minyan three times a day? I'm sure it popped up at a certain point. What stops us? One thing, and it's not laziness. It's not laziness. It's Amalek.
Because anything that you're baderech el hakodesh, anything that stops you while you're on your way to kedusha, harei, when a person takes upon themselves something that means they're already baderech el mashehu. This happens all the time with holy things. Acknowledge the voice, it's evil. And we don't want to be part of it because it's not who we are at all.
So Reb Shlomo says if only I could remember a little bit the things I took on. That's why it says zakhor. Remember. You once had a, you once had a really strong cheshek to remove the obstacles.
Remember. They came and they tried to take you down. Ask one small question? One, in one more line because we're at the last sentence. And I've never heard a small question from you either.
פורים הוא החג הגדול של האנשים שזוכרים. Purim is the great holiday of people that remember. Ki ha'anashim shezochrim ma otam menuvalim, those bastards did to Am Yisrael on October 7th, those that remember, הם אלה שמנצחים במלחמה הגדולה הזאת נגד הרשע. The ones that remember.
You know what's amazing is what was the reverberations of all the Holocaust museums? Never forget. Never forget. It just became a slogan. Never forget.
It didn't work because the world not only forgot, the world is saying it didn't even really happen. That's when the first name turned into something else. I was just learning this. Originally it was from Rabbi Kahane.
So he meant it that Jews shouldn't go unarmed. That Jews should... I know, but the words 'never forget' are based on what? Like what's the kavana of 'never forget'? Never forget what? I believe it was 'never again'. No, his thing was 'never again', not 'never forget'.
Rav Kahane was 'never again'. We have a whole teaching on this because Reb Shlomo quoted that statement once in a concert. And he said the only difference between me and Rabbi Kahane is that he says 'never again' and I say 'like never before'. That was his Torah.
So the 'never forget' was coming from the world of trying to sound diplomatic, trying to sound, I don't know what the right word is, k'ilu, we're not here to revenge, but we're not going to forget what happened to us. Right, we're not going to forget what happened to us. After this is like the point. You saw the Tucker, Tucker-Viddy interview, and and actually just before that the International Criminal Court, the ICC.
One of the central points of the paper is that Israel is complicit in genocide because it's actually biblically mandated and that's what their Prime Minister goes ahead and espouses and and and they bring in, it's like really interesting, they actually bring in like halacha of this is what it means, every man, woman, and child across the board, so like this is a key nekuda of our times, ironically. Ironically. Remember what else they brought into the, they brought Chana into the, they brought a video... They brought a video of Hanan into the in the Hague in Amsterdam.
Right, right, right. No, it was just Ninkom at the beginning when everyone was like you could say these things, he was down in a base down south and he was on a microphone and he's like and the words were just like very simple words like our wives and children just got raped and killed and mutilated and 250 something were taken hostage. But he so he gets up and he says נקום נקמת כפר עזה, we'll revenge the revenge of Kfar Aza. Ay ay ay, right? That one.
They brought that into the courthouse in Amsterdam. Right. This is what these things are about. Do you remember or not remember? It's a very simple thing.
Do you remember what Amalek has done in this world or not? Now that's unfortunately not that it's easy because look what's happening to us in the world. The question is do you remember how many times Amalek stopped you on your way from becoming a gevaldig Mashpiah? That's, this is, this is the personal avodah that needs to be addressed and to detect these voices because he says those that remember, they end up winning. Those that forget cycle after cycle after cycle after cycle, but those that actually remember Be'emet Le'amito, they become victorious. Yes.
All I could think of when you were talking about Amalek restraining and harming you, you need to have support outside of yourself to support you, the same way Moshe Rabbeinu needed somebody to lift his arms to defeat Amalek, so do we need some good support to be able to... Individually or as a nation? The what? Individually or as a people? So as a people, ain't gonna happen.
הן עם לבדד ישכון, that's the prophecy of Bilaam already. These are the people, Reb Shlomo used to scream this, Israel has one friend in the world, the holy land, the holy people of Israel are all alone, הן עם לבדד ישכון.
But you know what we have? We have prophecy. We have Hashem the best friend, Israel has the best friend in the world, just Hashem. As a people, you're not gonna find it from other nations. And because that's the situation, the other side of what you're saying is a million percent true, that as people we must go much deeper with areivut, with being guarantors for each other and by supporting and loving and pushing, that's 100%.
That's what Rabbi Kahane said, you can't depend on anybody but ourselves. The Torah says this. The nevuah that came out of Bilaam's mouth, Chazal were even in safek if it should be included in Krias Shema because they were that potent, exact, and direct and perfect. Well, that's what you just said from Shlomo, it goes well with the way you think about Hashem is the way you think about people.
If you think of Hashem as the one, then you'll succeed. If you're the one who's thinking that I need people's support and things to do, but it's really Hashem, Nachon, Nachon. Very good. Yalla, well let's march.
Let's march towards this Purim with such simcha and bitachon.