Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Rav Shlomo Katz explores the teachings of Rav Shlomo Carlebach zt"l on the Parsha with the sefer Even Shlomo
באתי לגני אחותי כלה.
באתי לגני אחותי כלה. achosi kallah.
באתי לגני אחותי כלה.
באתי לגני אחותי כלה. achosi kallah. Oy, yai yai yai, באתי לגני אחותי כלה.
באתי לגני אחותי כלה.
achosi kallah. Yai yai yai, באתי לגני אחותי כלה.
באתי לגני אחותי כלה. achosi kallah.
באתי לגני אחותי כלה.
באתי לגני אחותי כלה. achosi kallah.
באתי לגני אחותי כלה.
באתי לגני אחותי כלה. achosi kallah. Yai yai yai, באתי לגני אחותי כלה. Oy, באתי לגני אחותי כלה.
achosi kallah. Yai yai yai, באתי לגני אחותי כלה.
באתי לגני אחותי כלה. achosi kallah.
Ai, lai lai lai, lai lai lai lai lai, lai lai lai lai lai. Lai lai lai lai lai. Lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai. Yai ya ma ma.
Ma ma ma ma ma ma ma, ma ma ma ma ma. Ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma. Ai yoy yoy yoy.Yasher Koach. The learning today this month Cheshvan is sponsored by the Silvers, l'iluy nishmas בתיה פייגא בת ישראל, and by the Iron family l'iluy nishmas Levi ben Yosef, and anonymously for the refuah shleima of אליזה חנה בת נעמי, שושנה יונה בת אידל, and Hila bas Ilana.
The week is sponsored by the Berg family, Dani and Daniela Berg, in honor of their new home, b'ezras Hashem yisbarach. Amen. Oy, chevre. Today we're learning a special piece.
I'm dafka I'm dafka using the word special, because that's the title of the shiur today, Meyuchadus, specialness. I'm going to give these out, but while I'm giving it out, I want to ask you all a question. Is there a word, was there a word that was said today in davening that you say that you could you could you could remember right now we just got out of shachris. Is there a word that you could say that was special for you during davening this morning? One word.
You don't have to tell me, just to think about it. Is there is there a word? One word. I'm not going to say a whole a whole bracha or even like a whole mizmor tehilim or psukei d'zimra, but if there's if there's one word that was special. So unfortunately, most of the time when I ask questions like this, everyone feels really guilty and bad, but it's not the point.
It's not the point at all. It's just it's an awakening the the whole purpose of davening. Now, there's something that we say, supposed to say before davening, which is parshas ha'akeida. Right? Parshas ha'akeida.
In fact, the whole story how the Rav HaNazir fell in love with Rav Kook had to do with the Rav HaNazir hearing Rav Kook getting ready for davening and leining and saying parshas ha'akeida. It's a whole story. It's a beautiful story. Rav Dovid Weinberg has a whole niggun just on the the description of the meeting between our Rav HaNazir and our Rav Kook, and it's all based on the Rav HaNazir hearing Rav Kook saying parshas ha'akeida before davening.
And I want to say like this, this is very important. Parshas Chayei Sarah can came have its own like title. I mean it has the name Chayei Sarah. But Parshas Chayei Sarah is the world after the Akeida.
The world, humanity after the Akeida and Am Yisrael after the Akeida. What does the world look like after the Akeida? What what was it like for Avram and Yitzchak after, what did the world look like after the Akeida? Now we know something heartbreaking, that Sarah Imeinu didn't have a world after the Akeida. How the way the Midrash explains to us, Sarah Imeinu basically at the moment of the Akeida, parcha nishmasa. Her soul blossomed up and she left the world because the angel showed her a vision of her son lying on the altar with her husband with the with the ma'achelet, with the knife over him and she saw that.
The whole Torah, we've learned many times in Eish Kodesh, one of the first, I think almost in the beginning of the war, of what that's like to feel a life of of of of seeing children being killed in front of us, or about to be killed in front of us. But for us, for for Avram and Yitzchak and for us, like it is in davening in the morning, we first say Parshas HaAkeida. Remember that when Yitzchak was lying on the Akeida last Shabbos and Avraham Avinu over him, what they went through paved the way for all of us to get through any nisayon we ever have to get through in life and to look at the world much differently, much, much differently. Something changed after the Akeida.
And today Reb Shlomo was going to explain through the deepest depths what exactly changed after Parshas HaAkeida. And that has to do with the concept of special, specialty, specialness. Meyuchadus. So let's look inside.
This is a wonderful piece. It's a beautiful piece. I think it'll give us a lot of strength to search for that word that makes us feel special, or that connects us during davening, Shacharis, by Mincha, or by Ma'ariv, or really by tomorrow's Shacharis. And maybe if anyone if no one ever said Parshas HaAkeida before they started davening, it's in every single siddur.
It's right there. So it's a it's a big, these he'oros, it's should be a big awakening for everyone. Okay, so meyuchadus. Yishkoyach, am ki.
Amen. You have to say amen to these brachos. Meyuchadus. Specialness.
עד יצחק אבינו אנשים חשבו שכדי להתחתן הם צריכים למצוא אישה טובה.
ואם יש התאמה מתחתנים.
אבל אחרי העקידה יצחק אבינו הגיע למדרגה הרבה יותר גבוהה והוליד לעולם משהו הרבה יותר עמוק. Reb Shlomo says that until this story of Yitzchak, this is the parsha of zivugim also.
We don't know how Avram and Sarah met. We meet them as a zivug more or less. Yitzchak Avinu, the Torah goes in depth describing to us a love story, how they, how they met, metzias ha'zivug. So Reb Shlomo is saying that until Yitzchak Avinu came into the world, all that people thought that in order to get married, it meant she likes bagels and lox, I like bagels and lox.
Probably sounds good. Her father is not in minus in the bank account, my father isn't either. Yesh hatama. It works.
She doesn't mind sleeping only half an hour Shabbos afternoon, me too. That's amazing. It's a great thing. That's what it was until the zivug of Yitzchak and Rivka.
After once Yitzchak comes into the world, after going through the Akeida, in order to find the right person for Yitzchak, it has to be something special. It can't just be stam we have similarities. By the way, Reb Shlomo has this theme throughout Sefer Bereishis. So too, now we're talking about Yitzchak's zivug.
In let's go, let's go backwards. Until Yitzchak was born, how did babies come into the world Reb Shlomo says? Whatever, people got married and they had kids because that's what people do. But for a neshama like, we learned this last week, for a neshama like Yitzchak to come into the world, a hundred years. A hundred years of what? Of working on ourselves, of davening.
Yitzchak was davened out into the world. That's how, that's how us Yidden bring a change on on these two fronts. On the one hand, for a baby to be born, the first Jewish baby to be born had to be davened over for 100 years to come out. And a zivug here, it can't just be anymore, ah, that's nice, you like that, you like that.
And this is not a tangent on shidduch resumes, chas v'shalom. It is important to have shared values. But you know what? There are a lot of girls, many of us think about it that that that before we got married, there are plenty of girls that had, we, that there were shared values. But the specialness, what makes it special, is what's the the besorah of Yitzchak and Rivka coming into the world and he's going to show it how from the psukim.
Eliezer omer. This is amazing. Eliezer omer, שהנערה צריכה שיתקיים בה אותה הוכחת לעבדך ליצחק. Eliezer says that the woman, she has to have otah, something special.
אותה הוכחת לעבדך ליצחק. There's got to be something special about her. Listen, if Eliezer was just looking for a sheina meidela, like a nice, good, right, sheina meidela. Huh? I love it.
Baruch Hashem, sheina, sheina boyla, sheina meidela. Shprintza. Huh? Shprintza. Shprintza is usually the name for the sheina meidela in Reb Shlomo's terminology, shprintzela.
If he was just looking for a nice sheina meidela, then it would be just be enough for Eliezer to say, hey, is there a girl here that welcomes guests? Zeh hu. Nice midah, hachnasas orchim.The test with Eliezer and Rivka has to do with what's what's special about her hachnasas orchim. Because it wasn't just a test of, does she acknowledge me? Will she welcome me into the house? What was the whole test about? In what format is she going to be asking and offering water not just to me, but to my camels? And and the diyuk in the leshonos, look at Rashi. Rashi takes us on a field trip there in terms of exactly how things were said and how they were answered.
So that's what Eliezer is saying. It's got to be someone special that has a something special about them.
היא צריכה להיות ממש מיוחדת, second line.
והמיוחדות שלה צריכה להתאים למיוחדות של יצחק.
And what makes her special has to be mat'im to what makes Yitzchak special. And then כשהמיוחדות של שניהם תתאחד, when the specialty of both of them comes together, יוכלו להוליד את יעקב. Then this type of zivug, bless you, can bring Yaakov Avinu into the world. Now I know what you're probably asking or thinking if you're following right now.
What else did this specialness bring into the world? Eisav. We'll get to that. Right, you were all thinking that?
Right.אצל כל זוג, אצל כל זוג, מה שמיוחד אצל האיש צריך להתחבר עם מה שמיוחד אצל האישה. So really, a zivug coming into the world is that everything that's special about me has to connect to what's special about my spouse.
רק כך אפשר להקים בית נאמן בישראל, only like this is it possible to have a house, a bayis ne'eman b'Yisrael.
זה ענין עמוק מאד. Now, here we're going to get, I'm going to share something personal.Reb Shlomo's yahrzeit ripped my heart open in ways that I wasn't prepared for. I be'emet wasn't prepared for this.
Because the hunger from the Israeli chevra, especially those that never, ever tasted anything special about Yiddishkeit, they're finding something through Reb Shlomo's Torah that I cannot explain to you in words. I could show you text messages, even that won't be close. Yossi and I were speaking about this a little bit, speaking with I think with Danny, I don't know, some of the chevra about this. There's something going on that I've never, I've never, I I I couldn't even dream of because it's too big for me.
There is a hunger by chevra that never had anyone bring them to what's special about them and mat'im it, and and uh connected suit like mat'im it, I don't know. Relate it. Connect. No, like like and and mirror it.
Mat'im it and mirror it with Torah. For this dor, like Reb Shlomo and this is the beginning because it's still nothing. It's still like a a tipa min ha'yam, but I'm seeing it over here. And look at the next and that's why look at the next paragraph.
וזה עניין עמוק מאד.
ראו למשל את הצעירים שבימינו. Look at the Shulem, Jerry, can you guys come, this this is like a shiur about closeness. Come.
Please, and also have rachmanus on my voice. Just come, come much closer.וזה זה עניין עמוק מאד. This is something very special.
ראו למשל את הצעירים שבימינו.
Look at our young, look at the youngsters in our generation.
מדוע הם עוזבים את היהדות? Why do they check out of Yiddishkeit?
מפני שלא הצלחנו לחבר את היהדות לנקודה המיוחדת שיש בתוכם. Because we weren't successful in connecting Yiddishkeit to the specialness, that special nekudah, what that which makes them special. We weren't able to connect Yiddishkeit to that which makes them special.
So where do they find specialness? Where do they find a connection to what makes them special? External? India, the East. You know, the East, like you know, chevra that have come back from, I was just watching a clip of a friend of mine in, where's that place, Dharm, Dharmasla, one of these, one of these places up in some gorgeous, exotic place in the in the in the mountains in India. Wow, they feel so, they feel so connected, they feel so, and they feel it's so shayach to them. Ah, I mean, I know I'm Jewish, but maybe like, you know, this is my nekudah.
This is my nekudah that I'm, and and and to get someone out of that, you better be offering them something atomic. You better be offering them something so, so special from Yiddishkeit. Because it's so hard. How do these shluchim in these places, how are they able when they open these houses in in these like far-out places, not in a place that's just like there's nothing, but in a place that's that offers a lot of spiritual sustenance.
How do these shluchim, besides obviously the bracha from the Rebbe, but what what are they operating from, right? They're sho'ev, they're they're they're taking from all the Torah that that that the Baal HaTanya and all the Nesi'im are prepared for them, and they're sho'ev from there some nekudah pnimis connecting to the nekudah pnimis of a Yid. And not always, obviously, there's never 100% hatzlacha. But in many cases, they're able to mekasher the nekudah. Like this.
But I want to say, like, if that's true by the shluchim, can you imagine? Can you imagine? Like, I'll tell you a story, a little bit of a tangent, but it's good.Reb Shlomo once showed up at this convention. There was like a three-day convention of some humanitarian cause. I don't know what it was exactly, in Vancouver, '76. And he was there, and he saw some shluchim, some doing mivtzoim outside the, outside the gathering.
And because these shluchim knew that whenever you have any of these type of like conventions, it's packed with Yidden, right? So great. So they show, they put up a stand and Reb Shlomo got there on the third day, I think, and he asked them, nu, chevra, how's it been? Been hatzlacha? So they said, not really, we have, today was pretty shvach, we had three. Three? There's like 5,000 people in here. There's way more than three Yidden.
So how could it be? So Reb Shlomo told them, listen, while you're, when when you're talking, when you're putting tefillin on them, or when you're offering them, you're talking about, don't just say, are you Jewish, did you put on tefillin today? Speak about the, speak about something special. Talk about something special. So they said yes. So at the end of the day, he saw them again.
He said, nu, how was it? He said, wow, four minyanim. Four minyanim.So it's not just enough to tell them there is something special, it's called tefillin. There's something special about you. And then bring the tefillin in.
And then you mekasher, you understand, then you connect what's special in Yiddishkeit to what's special about them. It's got to be a hat'ama. I'm still missing that word. Match.
Sync. It's more sync. I'm not sure what the word is exactly, but there's got to be a fitting, a fitting, a mesh. Huh? Match.
Synergy is probably the closest thing, actually. Yes. There's got to be a synergy. But don't think, I mean the limud here is, don't think that you could do this unless it's clear to you.
Don't think you could do this unless it's clear, crystal clear to you. What's so special about what you're offering. Don't sell someone Shabbos if you have no idea what Shabbos is. Right? You have to, it has to be clear to you what what what what's special.
What is special?Again, זה ענין עמוק מאוד.
ראו למשל את הצעירים שבימינו מדוע הם עוזבים את היהדות? Why are they checking out of Yiddishkeit?
מפני שלא הצלחנו לחבר את היהדות לנקודה המיוחדת שיש בתוכם.
לא חיברנו עדיין את התורה עם עומק המיוחדות שלהם ונשארנו חיצוניים.
ברגע שמצליחים לחבר עליהם את התורה שבעל פה, התורה שהיא עומק העומקים הם ממש נדהמים.
לפתע הם מסוגלים להיות הכי גבוהים בעולם. Once you connect the Torah with what's special with them, once you take Torah Sheb'al Peh, which is the deepest depths in the world, and you show them how it's shayach to them, to what's special about them, hem nidhamim. They can't believe it. You want to tell me I have shayachus to this? I have something to do with this? and they can't believe it.
And then it comes from them, the question of where could I get more of this? But what are they really saying when they say, where could I get more of this? What are they in the pnimius? What what are they really expressing? Where could I discover more specialness about what makes me special? That's the question. That's what comes out of it. And then and then the whole world is open for you and for them and for everything. Because they realize לפתע הם מסוגלים להיות הכי גבוהים בעולם, and then suddenly they can be the biggest in the world.
So the point so far is talking about connecting specialness, specialty. Now, he continues and he says like this: יצחק ורבקה היו מיוחדים מאוד. Yitzchak and Rivka were very special.
והמיוחדות או המיוחדות שלהם היתה גלויה לכולם.
What made them special was clear to everyone. You know, Yitzchak Avinu, after the Akeida, it's very interesting how it says that he came back from somewhere, right? And he started davening v'chulu. Yitzchak Avinu was missing from the picture from after the Akeida until Rivka coming back and seeing Yitzchak, ויצא יצחק לשוח בשדה. A few answers where he was.
Anyone remember? Shem? One says he was learning by Yeshiva Shem v'Ever. Wasn't he like in Shamayim? In Gan Eden, they say as well, nachon? After his mother. And the other place is the actual place where the Torah says he came from. Where did he come from? A place called Be'er Lachai Ro'i.
Now that's a whole other parsha, because a lot of things happened there in Be'er Lachai Ro'i. Who was there in Be'er Lachai Ro'i? Hagar. Remember in the parsha? She goes to Be'er Lachai Ro'i, which explains that Yitzchak, after Sarah died, went to go bring back Hagar to marry Avraham Avinu in the end of the parsha. She has a different name now, Keturah.
But this place, we've we've done a few shiurim on what exactly is this place Be'er Lachai Ro'i? But whatever it is, Yitzchak Avinu, I remember so, I'm going to say it, just it's irking me. There's a there was a Rav, a Rav, whatever you want to call it, who wrote a whole piece on Yitzchak about about about how he had to, you know, trauma, with we don't realize how much we traumatize our children, because really after the Akeida, Avraham Avinu traumatized Yitzchak so much that he couldn't be with people in the world and he had to be of assistance and people take care of him and because he was such a, you know what I'm talking about? What? That's a nice try, I'll research his name. Yeah. Now now he's, Yossi, I'm telling you, he's he's on it like, Yossi's going to find him right away, right? We don't understand these inyanim at all.
We have no idea. We don't understand these inyanim at all. If the Chazal are telling us he went to Gan Eden, you're going to write a piece on on, this is the time to write about parent-child trauma? Couldn't find any other moment to write about these things? Dafka here? Yitzchak Avinu. Yitzchak Avinu.
So, now I put that bug in your head, I'm going to say like this. After Yitzchak Avinu came down from the Akeida, it was almost impossible to look at him. How do we know that? He looked like Avraham, no? How do we know that it was almost impossible to look at him because he was so kadosh v'nora? Because Rivka fell off, because Rivka fell off the camel when she looked at him. And she has to cover herself because it's it's it's the traumatized kid is, right? Because the shechina is shining, is so bright that she could barely even look at him.
And even he couldn't even really look at the world after what he went through, as we know later in Parshas Toldos, ותכהינה עיניו מראות. That he he led a life where he could see less and less and less because he was so connected to the or elyon, paving the way for Am Yisrael to make it. So, there it was clear to everyone that they were so special.
והמיוחדות שלהם היתה גלויה לכל.
Fourth paragraph, the end of the line. Eliezer, אליעזר יכול היה לראות כמה רבקה קדושה ומיוחדת. Eliezer saw who was in front of him when he met Rivka. He saw clearly this maideleh is kadosh v'nora.
She's unbelievable. Her care is not to be believed. What else did Eliezer saw, see, about what when Rivka came up and he saw her for the first time? Rashi helps us there? The water came up. The water comes up, meaning he saw like even nature was like following her.
She was coming from the mikvah and the waters came up. And to top it all off, just remember how old she was, okay, while we're talking about her. Three.
אליעזר יכול היה לראות כמה רבקה קדושה ומיוחדת וכמה יצחק קדוש ומיוחד ולהבין שהם מתאימים.
Avraham Avinu's eved, eved Avraham anochi, Eliezer was yonek. He got from Avraham Avinu that the way to be a Yid, the way to be a person in this world world is to look with eyes of specialness, like Avraham Avinu did. Eliezer had this trait, he had this quality, and that's why Avraham Avinu chose Eliezer, the master of specialness to go. What do we know about Eliezer? It says Damesek Eliezer, דולה ומשקה מתורת רבו.
What does that mean? That he knew how to drink and then also take what he drank and feed others with the Torah of his rebbe.And Eliezer had this amazing ability to do such a thing. It's, yeah. I'm sorry. Do we have any idea how many years was Eliezer together with Avraham? Long time.
How many years exactly? I don't know when he started. It was definitely after the milchamos, because it's a whole midrash about who Eliezer was during those wars. At least 30, 40 years. M'stama.
I don't, I don't know. Does anyone know the exact number of of of years of shimush, Eliezer by Avraham Avinu? I don't know. That was like a nice ADD moment. It's okay.
No, but it's because they were so together. Nachon. Again.
אצל יעקב לעומת זאת, המיוחדות שלו היתה כל כך עמוקה, שרק הוא ורחל יכלו לעמוד על סודה.
Yaakov Avinu doesn't need a shliach in order to do this inyan of special meets special. In a beautiful shiur that we heard last night by Rabbi Yona Klahr from Baltimore, when we get, when you get it uploaded, I'm going to send it out to everybody. He basically covered kol haTorah kulah in about 45 minutes. He spoke about this inyan of Yitzchak of, how do we know that Rochel was beautiful? Well, because Yaakov Avinu was love at first sight.
He just saw her and right away, it's like boom, boom. Special meets special. G'marnu. Right there, right then and there.
The Torah says so. You don't need Midrashim for this. The pshat of the psukim is that they meet, b'ayin. No, the ayin is this, is this parsha.
The ayin, and and and you just killed the end of the shiur. No, I'm kidding, I'm kidding. It's not, it's not today's teaching. No, no, no, it's not today's teach, that's because you're such a shomer chaver.
It's it's a different teaching. The ayin is this, is this parsha because when Eliezer describes meeting Rifka, it says ואבוא היום אל העין that he came and he saw. Where did he come to? Where did he meet her? At the water, right? Why didn't it says ואבוא היום אל המים or ואבוא היום אל הבאר or ואבוא היום אל המקווה? What does the Torah say? The Eliezer says, ואבוא היום אל העין. Davka using that word to describe water? Because it does it connect to water? Of course, it does.
What do we have in b'ayin? Where do we go to? The ma'ayan. And that's davka the word he chooses to describe, to describe meeting her, because he came and looked into her eyes. It's a long Torah, a few Torahs later in Even Shlomo, describing how Eliezer knew it was her even though she could have been three years old because lies, the eyes don't lie. Eyes don't lie.
He looked into her eyes. Let's say p'shat pshat she was three. He looked into her eyes and she had two functions of the eyes. One is to see and one is כל עין לך תצפה, eyes that long.
So we say in Nishmas, right?
כל עין לך תצפה. And he was able to see through looking into her eyes that this is this this girl, she has, but however you want to say it, it took Eliezer into find that specialness and be the middle person. By Yaakov, and like many people say, I don't want a shadchan maker. I want it to be just how I just want to walk on the street and meet her.
And they say that when they're 25. And then you meet them when they're 32 and they say, I just want to meet, they're still single, I just want to go down the street and meet her. And then when they're 42, nebach, they say the same thing. I just want to walk down the street and meet her.
It's amazing you're holding yourself to be Yaakov Avinu, but maybe you're Yitzchak. Which is not such a, nebach maimed, right? Yitzchak had a shadchan? Yes, Yitzchak had a shadchan. But by Reb Shlomo says by Yaakov Avinu it's even deeper, because Yaakov Avinu see his specialness one on one meets Rochel's specialness and he sees it right away. In the middle of the paragraph, ואצל לאה זה היה עוד יותר מופלג.
By Leah, it was even deeper. It was so deep that it took Yaakov Avinu a long time to realize that really, and the Ramban and the Maharal, like we learned last night, do explain that Yaakov ended up to coming to love Leah very much, even though it wasn't love at first sight because it was even too deep for Yaakov to see how special she was, because what comes out of Yaakov and Leah? Mashiach.
ואצל לאה זה היה עוד יותר מופלג. Why?
מפני שהמיוחדות שלה היתה כל כך עמוקה, שאפילו יעקב אבינו.
לא יכול לזהות אותה.
מלאה אמנו יוצא המשיח.
וזה דבר כל כך עמוק שרק השם יודע אותו ולא שום אדם. because Mashiach could be right in front of you, but unless you cry over it and davven over it, for by Yaakov Avinu's case, at least 14 years, if not more, you won't be able to see it.Now he explains though, because the question is, how do I connect to my nekudah pnimis of what's special about me? Because only when I know what's special about me can I find what that specialness needs in the world.
Hein b'madregas zivug, hein b'madregas Torah. I want to say it like this. Many people are always choleishing, and I asked this shayla to Rav Usher Weiss. You know, when we when we had that, remember during COVID, I did this Q&A with Rav Usher Weiss.
And it was Naftali's idea that I should open up with a with a with a niggun. Remember? I brought the guitar, and all of his chevra, right? Rav Usher's chevra when they saw the Q&A. I never told you this. They took they did memes of me sitting with the guitar during COVID in some freezing beis medrash in Ramot with Rav Usher Weiss and I sitting like, you know, he was very, very machmir with with with COVID, right? He was That's why they had a I by the way, I got a lot of a lot of hate mail that I even was associating myself with him during that tkufah, because during that tkufah Rav Usher took a very clear mahalach regarding precautions regarding COVID.
And it was davka during COVID we met. So we're sitting like that, but the chevra that can't connect at all to singing a niggun before you start learning, they had it in for me. Oh my God, I have to find some of them. They were ripping me.
Thank you, Naftali. After shiur you'll share with everyone the shayla you had for Rav Usher before we started filming. Not on camera. B'seder? Naftali, not on camera.
Wow. You've matured. It's unbelievable.I asked him, I asked him what's your favorite sefer to learn? What's your favorite sefer to learn? I think I said to him, what's your favorite chassidishe sefer to learn? So right away he said to me, I'm I'm shocked you didn't ask me what's my favorite masechta to learn, but I'll answer you what my favorite sefer is to learn. And he spoke about Piaseczna.
He spoke he spoke about, I forget which sefer exactly he said. He started talking about Piaseczna. You could find this stuff online. I have to look at it again.
But he went into a whole thing that a person should learn ma shelibo chafetz. He went into this whole thing of you have to learn, when a person wants to know what should they be learning, so people that aren't in tune with what's special about them will just go off and and talking about, okay, Brisker, you you have to learn this and this is what we learn and if you don't learn this, you're not a Yid. He's he was saying, no, no, no, you have to learn, the Gemara says this, that a person has to learn what their heart desires. But then the shayla of course is, how do I find out what my heart desires? How do I know what my heart wants to learn? How do I figure that out? You have a unique chelek in Torah.
A unique chelek in Torah. Each person. We say it after davening, we say sim chelkeinu, v'sim chelkeinu. But the question is how do you find it? The shayla is still in its place.
Nachon, you're right. The question is still there, but how do I access it?So here he explains here how do we access this, and this is a very l'maaseh piece that I'm I'm so thankful that we found and because it's very rare that he speaks like this.
אם אני חוטא חס ושלום, קורה לי דבר נורא מכל. What happens to me when I become a sinner? What happens to me when I'm when I'm drenched in in in certain sin? Ani adayin Yehudi.
I'm still a Yid.
אבל באותו רגע המיוחדות שלי אינה מחוברת להשם. I'm still a Yid, but Rav Shlomo says something happens to me. My specialness, that's what makes me special, stops shining and it stops being connected to Hashem.
ביום כיפור יש קדושה מיוחדת. What's so special and holy about Yom Kippur? What what's the process of Yom Kippur?
שהשם שב ומחבר את המיוחדות שלי ליהדות. Hashem brings back and reconnects what's special about me that was blemished through aveiros, he comes and he reconnects it to Yiddishkeit, and I once again can discover what is special for me, what's special about me, and what do I need to match that. On Yom Kippur? Because of what happens on Yom Kippur? Because of עצומו של יום מכפר, because of the potency and the power of the maamar of lifnei Hashem titharu, what essentially, like if you I want to know like, what happens after Yom Kippur? What is it that I'm, what's open for me? You could walk out of Yom Kippur and saying, clean, clean slate, right? Or you could say, now I could, now my הנקודה המיוחדת שבי can find its shidech in this world.
Not just on a zivug level, if that's where the parsha where you're holding, but specifically based on how we're developing is, is what we, what we should be learning. Ma shelibi chofetz. This place of discovering what my heart longs. You know, I forget if this happened in Lakewood or in Torah Vodaas.
I think in Lakewood, the Motzaei Yom Kippur, it happens in a lot of yeshivas, but Motzaei Yom Kippur, they learn the whole, throughout the whole night they learn Maseches Sukkah. You ever see this in any of the yeshivas? You ever hear of this bichlal? Yeah. I think he said he saw this in in Lakewood. Because they realized what what what is the thing that my heart desires most? The next opportunity to learn dvar Hashem.
That's where Chaviv that I'm mamish holding. What's the next opportunity that's shayach to learn in learning? Sukkah. Sukkah has a lot of dinim. Sukkah has a lot of dinim.
Sukkah is one of the most complicated ones. It's a lot of dinim. It's not pasht. So a Yiddele comes out of Yom Kippur and he's like, well, usually we say שלושים יום קודם החג שואלים ודורשים.
It's usually I have 30 days. We learned that mainly from Pesach. You start Motzaei Purim preparing for Pesach. 30 days before Sukkos.
What's 30 days before Sukkos? Smack in the heart of Elul. Who's thinking about Sukkos? Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur. Alavai, you're just trying to survive the intensity of Elul, right? You're just trying to find that like that how is what's the quickest way you'll get to Uman and the fastest way you're going to leave and still feel geshmak, right? For many people, right? Everyone's busy in different inyanim, but hilchos sukkah. So really, essentially, the the the I would say like this, the height of discovering what's special about me when I'm clean is the next opportunity of the zman of what's happening right now.
And then I'm special and my specialness is aligned, synced, and in, what, Danny, what was the word you used? Synergy. And is in full synergy with the zman itself. That's a beautiful mahalach of a tzura of a Yid. The synergy, I'm fully with the zman.
And whatever's happening that's special in the zman is finding itself with with ma shelibi chofetz. This is what I want right now.V'lachein, you see the second to bottom line in the second to bottom paragraph.
ולכן אחרי יום כיפור אני יושב בסוכה.
הסוכה הרבה יותר מיוחדת מסתם בית.
מפני שהסוכה שלי ממש משקפת את המיוחדות שלי. It's an amazing thing. You know what's special about our sukkah? The way that we designed it. Our homes, we generally don't build.
If you're lucky, you have the z'chus of re-tweaking things. If you're lucky, before the moatza comes and gives you tzaros here. But if you're lucky, right? But sukkah, okay, I have the the basic frame, but I deck, I make it. It's clear to me what's what's shining through the sukkah when someone walks into the to my sukkah, to your sukkah? What I think what I think is special.
And I design it based on what I think is special. Why? Because I'm coming out of Yom Kippur and everything's about reconnecting with the special nekudah in me. And therefore, sukkah is like this now. Where did we get that koach from? From Yom Kippur.
Now he now he goes even deeper.
כשאני יושב בסוכה קורה לי דבר מופלא. Something amazing happens to me when I'm sitting in the sukkah.
האושפיזין הקדושים אברהם יצחק יעקב משה אהרון יוסף ודוד מבקרים אותי רק בסוכה.
Where do the ushpizin come and visit me? I would love to say every Friday night at my Shabbos tish. I never did ushpizin by Leil Shabbos. Where do I bring in, where do I invite in the ushpizin? In my sukkah. The headquarters of a Yid that understands that he's special, surrounded with a world that he made special.
מפני שדווקא שם, cuz davka in the sukkah, המיוחדות שלי מחוברת ליהדות. Cuz davka in the sukkah, after I went through Yom Kippur and what Yom Kippur did through me, davka there, my Yiddish me and what's special about me connects, reconnects to Yiddishkeit again. And that's why Chazal maybe we could say like we could darshan it like this right now. That's why Chazal say ראויין כל ישראל לישב תחת סוכה אחת.
כל האזרח בישראל ישב בסוכות. The shining happens in the sukkah. All of All Yidelach should be sitting in one sukkah together because that, can you imagine if all of us were under one sukkah?
ופרוס עלינו סוכת שלומך? And we'd realize that not just as individuals but as a klal, which is what Rav Kook was always inspiring us to try to meet, to get to. If all of us together felt special by being together in one sukkah, which is the headquarters of specialness, game over.
Or we should say, game on. Then it would start to happen.Then, then, the whole world like Chazal say, the whole world from the koyach of sukkah, all the enemies would just fall, would just, wouldn't have any kiyum.ואחרי סוכות אנחנו ממשיכים מיד לשמחת תורה. After sukkos we continue to Simchas Torah.
אני שמח בתורה מפני שאני מרגיש כמה אנחנו מחוברים.
I get so, why do I start dancing with the Torah even though I'm not learning the Torah? Because I sense that there's something special here even though I am not even learning inside, I know, I'm special and I know in this Torah is all the specialness in the world that's waiting for me, and I'm just dancing in simcha over the fact that it exists. Shavuos is different. Shavuos I open up the Torah and I learn in order to connect to it. Simchas Torah is not like that because it's on the, it's on the, the, how do you say the, the, the coattails, right, of, of, of Sukkos.
Of the headquarters of the specialness, I'm just holding on to this thing that I realize that it makes me feel special.
אני לא יודע מה התורה אומרת, אני אפילו לא פותח את התורה ולומד, next page.
אני פשוט רוקד עם התורה מפני שגוואלד כמה אנחנו מחוברים. It's simply because I know how connected we are.המדרש אומר שבקריעת ים סוף כולם הורו באצבעם ואמרו, zeh keli v'anveihu.
That means that they pointed when we, when we, when we crossed, when we crossed the Yam Suf, I don't know where they pointed to. Everyone thinks it's to Shamayim. I don't know. With such a gilui Elokus, can you imagine if they pointed into themselves, into the nefesh Elokis and said, zeh keli v'anveihu? I don't know.
To us, it seems like such a gaivadike thing, if we would point to us and say zeh keli v'anveihu, you have like, you know, God's, like a, you have a shtickel God complex with that, but the deepest would be if you could say zeh keli v'anveihu and only thinking about your nefesh Elokis at that moment. But it says that they reached such a level where they pointed with such clarity. When you say about something zeh, Chazal say, that is alluding to utmost clarity because you're saying, this is it. Zeh keli v'anveihu, during Krias Yam Suf.
So what does this mean? Reb Shlomo says.
כשיצאנו ממצרים ידענו שהשם הוא אחד ואין בילתו. We knew it's only Hashem and nothing but Hashem.אבל מתי התחברנו אל המיוחדות שבנו? But when did I connect to what's special about me? See, I could know that השם אחד ושמו אחד. I could believe in God.
I could believe in the Torah. I could believe in the tzadikim. But this beautiful new, this beautiful new map of our, of the shoresh of our neshamos right behind us here. I could believe in the kedusha of all of that and still not align that with anything special about me.
What do you think the Ribono Shel Olam wants? Why did he create you? To know how special everyone else is? Can't be. It has to be that you have to believe that the Ribono Shel Olam has a ratzon for you to discover your own specialness, how special you really, really are.And when you say, do you, and someone asks you, do you believe in God, and you say yes, but in your mind, all you're saying is, I believe there's this special atomic power called God. Then the person says, and what's special about you? And you say, I don't know. Azov oti.
You asked me about God. Reb Shlomo would say you have no idea what you're talking about. That's not, that's a pagan. That's mamish, you would even say that's avodah zarah.
Why? Remember we learned this. What's avodah zarah? Zar. It's foreign to you. It's not you, it's foreign to you.
We always think avodah zarah means idols and statues. Chassidus says, עבודה שהיא זרה לך. You're serving God like a, someone that's specialness is strange to you, it's foreign to you. The tikkun of all this is avodah krova, avodah meyuchades, special.אבל מתי התחברנו אל המיוחדות שבנו? When did we connect to our specialness? Reb Shlomo says.
כשהורינו עם האצבע שלנו when we ourselves took our fingers and we said, zeh Keili. What does Keili mean? My God. Zeh Keili. Zeh Keili v'anveihu.
You laughing? Hakol beseder? Lo, lo. You want to? Yeah. It looks like you wanted to say something, it's fine. I can't hear you, I'm sorry.
I was at a different shul and someone came to me and said to me, my tallit was dirty, like by the head, you know. Uh-huh. It's like, zeh Keili v'anveihu? Don't I care? Like, אם אתה לא רוצה, אני אקח את זה ואני אנקה את זה. Ah, yafeh, okay.
But it's actually special, I mean, that's actually a special thing because when trying to, you probably wanted to knock him out, but I'm saying I think that that you would have covered it. Chas. Because it's a beautiful thing. And I went that day.
Because what what was he saying to you? What what was he, based on this, what was he saying to you? He's saying to you, this thing that you wrap yourself in while you're talking to the Ribono Shel Olam, it's got to be special.
זה קלי ואנוהו מלשון נאוה. Beauty. Ma ma ne'oti lo, to beautify.
Because when something's special to you, it's beautified. And if the shul is special to you, you beautify it. If this shul is special to you, you don't walk past something, see something on the floor and say, "Ah, the new Sri Lankan, that's what he gets paid for." Or on Shabbos, if you see in shul things going on that have nothing to do with special, you don't say, "Oh, I don't want to be that guy that make people feel uncomfortable." If you're operating from special, when you approach someone with special and with beauty, it makes them feel special and invited as well. Huh? I'm not here every week.
Sit at the back of the shul. So zeh Keili, that's like how many times, when was the last time you guys said zeh Keili v'anveihu? This morning? About about 45 minutes ago. Yeah. How'd that feel right now? How'd that feel right now? Nice, right? I'm saying to myself, you think I remember saying zeh Keili v'anveihu? Felt foreign.
Huh? Felt foreign? Felt foreign. We all had an עבודה זרה בקריעת ים סוף this morning, huh. When was the last time you sang it? Huh? Zeh Keili. It's funny, I'm big on that.
Zeh Keili. On Shabbos Shira. Yeah, on Shabbos Shira, we all sing it, right? The Kotzker Rebbe says a beautiful vort, I just remembered it, he says a beautiful vort. He says, if you don't re-experience Krias Yam Suf every morning, don't you dare come to Birkas Krias Shema.
Kotzk. So now I want to say like this. I want to sweeten that a little bit because that's already, you know, let's, let's, right, let's put a little like some some brown sugar in that, or whatever you need to sweeten it, or some honey. I want to say like this, if you didn't experience zeh Keili, that I'm special.
I have a special, it's my God, personal relationship with God. Then what are you busy doing coming with saying brachos about קבלת עול מלכות שמיים in Krias Shema? You'll get the check after davening, but your neshama will spend the rest of the day wondering, ma libi chofetz? What does my heart really want to learn? What do I really want out of this Yiddishkeit? What am I looking for, right? Rabbi once said, he said when you put on tallit katan, for somebody who wears a tallit gadol and is making the bracha, he says you just put it on like it's a like an undershirt? Right. What are you doing? Why are you putting it on if you're not having some kind of idea of being מקבל עול מלכות שמיים? It's the same. Yesterday the chevra from Lev Torah who were here in the morning for the seminar, they had like 45 minutes with Rabbi Yonatan Naftali.
And then I sat with them for a bit. I learned with them three lines from Hachsharas HaAvreichim in perek daled, where the the rebbe says, the Piaseczna, Hashem yikom damo, says there that the whole purpose of a person that wants to fully be serving Hashem, and especially someone that wants to feel shaychus to this world of the Baal Shem and his life and his talmidim, it based, it's based on one shayla. How much are you, are you chalishing to lehisragesh from your avodas Hashem? How much are you, are you longing to be moved, not by other things and other people, but how much are you, how much do you want to be moved by the decisions you make in life based on avodas Hashem? And that was the example I gave. I said, "Chevra, you know how beautiful it is? You're sitting in this room right now and I'm looking at you, all of you have tzitzis on.
It's such a beautiful thing. I'm so misragesh because I know boys like you, the high schools you grew up in, the fact that you've chosen to live a life wearing tzitzis, that's a, zeh meragesh oti. Zeh zeh. Zeh meragesh otchem? Does it does it move you that you're wearing tzitzis? It was a beautiful moment.
That's the ikker of Yiddishkeit, zeh keli ve'anveihu. How do I make God more beautiful? Not אלקי אבי וארוממנהו. That's my abba's God. When it's zeh keli ve'anveihu.
When I know what's special about me and I find it in the Ribono Shel Olam, I make this whole thing of Yiddishkeit beautiful. I beautify it. That's why it's beautiful what you said, Yosef. It was beautiful that he said that to you.
It's very chazak. Very shayach. He says here אני מחובר לא רק במדרגה של אלקי אבותי, אלא קודם כל אלקי.
אני עצמי מחובר עד לעומק העומקים שבי, שמתבטא במיוחדות שיש בי, which gets expressed in what's special about me, what's special in me.So he ends off here and he says, and we go back to zivugim because this is the parsha of zivugim.
And there's a beautiful vort here. I forgot this vort. It would be a great vort to say on the chuppas.
מתחת לחופה הכלה מצביעה לעבר בן זוגה.
What's what's happening under a chuppah? Who's pointing at who? You're thinking who's no one's pointing at anybody. What are you talking about? No. She's pointing. She's pointing.
What is she basically saying? Zeh zivugi ve'anveihu. She doesn't say anything, it's too deep for her to say anything, but she's pointing. And she says, this is special for me, and I'm going to make this home so beautiful. So what do you do at that moment?
מתחת לחופה הכלה מצביעה לעבר בן זוגה והוא עונד לה את הטבעת, and he puts the ring on her.
מה אומרת בכך הכלה לחתן? But really what is the kallah saying to the chassan?
היא אומרת לו שרק כאשר אדם מוצא את נשמתו התאומה, that only it's so deep. I can't even say this in English. I can't even say it in Hebrew. I can't even say this.
What is she saying? Only when a person finds, when we say soulmate, forget right now about your 90210 upbringing that's embedded in so much of our girsa d'yankusa. It's soulmate here means, maybe this is the best word for what I was trying to find before. Mate? Well, mate. Yeah.
Hat'amah. That's synergy. It is synergy. I'm just saying that it's coming out here now even stronger.
He's saying only when a person finds their their soulmate, הוא מחובר להשם דרך המיוחדות שלו. Then what's special about you is able to really come out into the world. Yitzchak's specialty, when he before he was with Rivka, couldn't come out into the world. He had to go to Gan Eden.
And that's why Avraham Avinu says to Eliezer, listen, this boy is so special, in order for his specialness to come out into the world and have a kiyum in the world, it's got to be mated, right, it's got to be together with someone that brings out that specialness. Hakallah matzbia l'chatan. So she points at the chassan. Umavticha lo b'zeh, and she promises him שהיא תחבר אותו למקום המיוחד שבתוכו שבתוכה.
The kallah doesn't say a word, but with those eyes and the finger, because it says אסור לאדם לקדש אשה. What does the Gemara say there? Ad sheyir'enah. That a person can't mekadesh a woman until he sees her, until he sees what? Her specialness. What's special about her.
I always am very makpid. Every chuppah I'm zocheh to do. Eli, I did this by your by your nephew as well. You know, all the chassanim are very makpid that they don't mumble the words or get it wrong of the harei at.
Because if you at that moment, if you mess that up, it's not fun. Yeah, the crowd laughs and everything, but it doesn't feel so gishmak, right? So I always say like, harei at, when you say harei at mekudeshes, you have to make sure, I want you to look at her right now for a full minute. It gets a little awkward, because people what's the bizarreness?
אסור לאדם לקדש אשה עד שיראנה. I know you went on dates and you know each other.
And in some cases with like non-religious couples, I'll say, I know you've been, you know, you've been living together for three years. But now, the point of seeing each other is to see what's so special about each other. Make sure you look at her right now. But what so so you don't say anything, but what's the motion? She's going like this while they're looking at each other.
She has her finger up. She's matzbia, zeh keli v'anveihu, zeh chassani v'anveihu, zeh beisi v'anveihu. This. clarity is so special.
I'm going to make this more beautiful. So Rav Shlomo says הכלה מצביעה על החתן, she's pointing at him, and she promises by him that she's going to connect him to what's really special about him through her. That's the purpose of the home. How many different subjects did we cover in one Rav Shlomo said this over in maybe, maybe four minutes.
Maybe. I'll go back to the original recording. I have to find it. Maybe he said this over in four minutes.
There's a yam, yam of chochmah, there's a yam of depth in each one of these pieces, and that's why I started off with what I said in the beginning of shiur about what's happening right now in these Israeli circles. Something, something really big is happening because Israelis really want to be Jewish. Sounds funny, right? But what does that mean in the pnimius of what we learned? Is that Israelis want to find the נקודה מיוחדת שבהם within Hakadosh Baruch Hu again, within the Torah. I see it.
I believe it. I know it. And I want our chevra to continue to be beacons of light for those worlds that are searching, that are learning, and we should find opportunities to just as a as a tzibbur, as a chevra, to to lead the way. However Hashem opens the gates for us to lead the way, that when someone is has anything to do with us, it should it shouldn't be anything other than we're working on discovering what's special about us with the eyes of the Ribono Shel Olam.
Come join the chevrusa. Mission statement. Done. Mic mic drop.
That's it. Okay, yishar koach.