Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
“The Fire of the Aish Kodesh: Remembering the Piaseczner Rebbe with Rav Shlomo Katz” is a moving collection of shiurim honoring the holy Aish Kodesh — Rav Kalonymus Kalman Shapira of Piaseczno, may Hashem avenge his blood (הי״ד).
From within the darkness of the Warsaw Ghetto, the Rebbe’s Torah burned with unimaginable light, teaching how faith, courage, and love of Hashem can endure even in the shadow of destruction.
Each year on his yahrzeit, Rav Shlomo Katz guides us into the Rebbe’s writings and spirit, bridging his words to the challenges and hopes of our own generation.
שבוע טוב, בוקר טוב. As we all know, today is a very special day and it's always a special time to learn. It's always special to learn together, but when it's בפרט the יארצייט of someone who has given our community and so many others so much hope, strength, and and love, it makes it even that much more meaningful. That of course means today is the יארצייט of the פיאסצנא רבי of the אש קודש.
רבי קלונימוס קלמן שפירא, השם יקום דמו, זכותו תגן עלינו ועל כל עם ישראל, אמן. 78th יארצייט, I believe. And he's his him being a secret, his mysterious story uh continues to be for us a torch of light and of hope and of faith and most importantly, I feel of direction. I feel like of of direction.
The פיאסצנא רבי, the אש קודש provides for us הדרכה. Where are we, where are we heading? Kind of like what we were just spoke about what was said yesterday in shul. Where are we heading towards in our spiritual עבודת השם, in our collective communal עבודת השם? And we've learned so much from him over the last few years with the men. I was very excited to begin last week uh one of his ספרים called הכשרת האברכים.
Perhaps maybe the women will will will do that also, uh this year or next year, a one a a very special ספר which we're going to be seeing a piece of today.But I wanted to start off with understanding the ייחודיות, the uniqueness of what happened, what's available to us on a יארצייט? We make such big deals about it, but what is it exactly that happens on a יארצייט, and we're so blessed to learn from the צדיק himself, let's see what he says about what's available to us on יארצייטס. So if you see in front of you, the first page, the first quote is from the last ספר that we have from the from the פיאסצנא רבי called אש קודש, which is what he's mainly known for. That ספר, אש קודש. Remember אש קודש was a collection of דברי תורה that the Rebbe had written, he said in the Warsaw Ghetto from 1939 til 1942, 1943.
He would say it at שלוש סעודות and then he would write it מוצאי שבת, he would write it, he would sit down and write what he said שלוש סעודות. The imagery is really powerful when you think about it like that. And then you all know the story how these these pieces of Torah were then hidden in a jug that was collected by this whole group called עונג שבת, I think. Did it make it into a movie? There there is, yeah.
And then it was it was found after the war. Incredible stuff. That's the אש קודש, but there's other books that were published before the war. But this one אש קודש, this is a quote from אש קודש, פרשת החודש, תש"א, 1940.
Probably April, March, April, 1940.וגם זהו עניין היארצייט, כי הצדיק, כל זמן שהוא בעולם הזה בין הישראלים. As long as a צדיק is alive amongst עם ישראל, כל עבודתו ותפילותיו הם בשביל כבוד שמיים. When a צדיק is amongst, when he's literally in this world, his davening, his עבודה, everything he's doing is for the כבוד שמיים. We're down here looking up towards כבוד שמיים.
ומי שנסתלק למרום ועומד ומשמש במרום ומתפלל את תפילותיו הקדושות, He goes up there and he's now looking at the world kind of from that angle, from up there towards here.
אז כיוון שנתעלה כבר מעולם הזה ומישראל שבעולם הזה ונתקרב יותר להשם, לכן גם בקשתו ותפילותיו הם כבקשת השם בשביל ישראל. The אש קודש is saying something really amazing. When the צדיק is in this world as much as he's heavenly and as much as of course, he's more in tune with infinity than the normal folk, he's still davening from this angle, right? He's still here praying for what seems to be a lack of כבוד שמיים in the world.
But when the צדיק passes away, he's still working, the נשמה is still working very hard, but he's working very hard from that angle now. And his בקשה, like he says over here, his בקשה now what he's davening for is literally like like what השם is wants to bring down into the world. Because that's what he's that's where he's at. That's the bird's eye whatever, for the sake of not finding the right terminology.
It's like a bird's eye view. It's a different view. His field of vision, it's not even vision, his his field of. feeling, his field of התקשרות is a completely different one.
It's complete Sorry? Perspective? Better. Thank you. It's different. It has to be.
So his davening for עם ישראל is different.
תפילותיו אלו יותר פועלות. His davening on on days like today are are even more effective than when he was in this world. Like the גמרא says, וגדולים צדיקים במיתתן יותר מבחייהן.
ופועלים יותר להשפיע על ישראל מאשר בחייהם בעולם הזה.
ובפרט ביום הסתלקותם ועליתם למרום. So he's saying in general, the גמרא, you know the גמרא tells us that צדיק is more alive in his death than he is in his life. So that's a very weird statement because you're either alive or you're dead, נכון? That's just for people that are caught up with the with the definition of life being what we're doing right now, breathing, alive, moving our limbs, וכולי.
But people that are more in tune with what it means to be spiritually alive, understand that understand that piece of גמרא. Yeah, צדיק is more alive in his life, in his death, than he is when he's alive. And one of the one of the explanations is what we just did right now, because his perspective is so much more broader. And his davening for עם ישראל is so much more in tune with the way השם hopes for us and wants us wants good things for us.
And that light shines brightest on the day of the יארצייט itself because it was the day where this new type of davening, the perspective, shifted and began to take place.Now look at this next piece. This is from one of his earlier ספרים we quoted Friday night in שול, called דרך המלך. The path of the king, and that's mainly on פרשה and holidays. It was written 19 this year here 1925.
תרפ"ה.
והנה הסתלקות צדיק מעולם הזה היא עניין עליית הנשמה כנודע. When a צדיק leaves, we begin to enter this world of עליית נשמה. You know, in in certain communities when there's יארצייטס, so whenever someone has a יארצייט, the whole קהילה goes up to the person and just says נשמה שתהיה לה עליה, נשמה שתהיה לה עליה, right? It's more an American thing or it's not so much here.
You don't really go up to I haven't seen it so much that on יארצייטס, people everyone goes up to the person and says נשמה שתהיה לה עליה. It's more of a I don't know. It's a different language. But I was just in last week in Toronto, and I was there for a יארצייט of a father of a very dear friend of mine.
And it was amazing how many times, how many people came up to him and basically just put up their hand and said נשמה שתהיה לה עליה. It was almost like a given that like that's what you say.
נשמה שתהיה לה עליה, נשמה שתהיה לה עליה. So what does this mean that when a יארצייט, there's a business called נשמה She's got this chair is a problem.
נשמה Yeah, yeah. What's that? Every time you say Kaddish. Absolutely.
יתגדל ויתקדש שמיה רבא.
Of course. So I mean, some of you are already in this פרשה that you've you've been in, you've had you have יארצייטס for beloved ones. So you know what it's like when someone comes to you and says to you נשמה שתהיה לה עליה. When does that when does that whole language begin?
נשמה שתהיה לה עליה, of course, on the יארצייט.
So bottom paragraph.
והנה הסתלקות צדיק מעולם הזה היא עניין עליית הנשמה כנודע.
וכיוון שחלק מרצון שלנו וחלק נשמתנו נכנסו בו ונדבקו בו ובנשמתו, part of our this is beautiful, part of our רצון and part of our own נשמה has entered and has נדבק, has glued together with the נשמה of the person that just died. Then just what happens?
אז גם נשמתנו הקשורים בו הוא מעלה.
So then part of our נשמה, which is now, I've already, you know, it's clung to the person that's נפטר, so every year on the יארצייט, what happens when we say the נשמה שתהיה לה עליה? Part of us also, not חלילה has an עליה and away from the body, God forbid. We're still, we're not wishing anything bad upon ourselves. But what the Rebbe is saying here is that when you say the נשמה שתהיה לה עליה of someone who you are on a soul level completely connected to, what happens? Basically, you're having, you're experiencing an עליה as well.
אז גם את נשמתנו הקשורים בו הוא מעלה.
ובכל יארצייט שנשמתו של הצדיק עולה, like the זוהר הקדוש says, where the נשמה of the צדיק goes up.
עלה. אז צריכים להרגיש גם אנו עילוי בנשמתנו. Then we also have to feel an ascent in our souls that is taking place.
ולאו דווקא, now now he’s very makes it easier because none of us spent time as far as I know. The closest קשר we have here to physical experience with the פיעסצנא רבי is probably Miriam Deutsch. You want to, and yeah? Bailey Brocha. She's a granddaughter.
You're a granddaughter of the same, of the same person? Yeah, this is my niece. Oh, okay. Do you want to explain? Do you want to explain the קשר? You could say it. Miriam, you could say it, you could share.
When, okay, this is my mother-in-law, my husband's mother, who was in Warsaw, and at the time that she was born, there were two prior siblings that had been born to her parents who had passed away. And the פיעסצנא רבי was my husband's family's רבי, and they went, her father went to the רבי when she was born and said, please give me a ברכה that this child should live. And he had said to add בת ציון to her name. So her name was שרה רצה בת ציון.
And now Bailey’s daughter’s name is בת ציון. So it’s it needless, she lived and survived the war together with her sister, who were the only survivors. So needless to say, it's very, very, it's special that everyone's here, but you know, that you're here today is a very, very special thing. Very special thing.
Like your mother-in-law was basically, her name was בזכות the פיעסצנא רבי. That's, that's, that's, that's out of this world. That's unbelievable. I I get the, and I know this story for years, but every time I'm like, no, no, this really happened, you know? I have to pinch myself.
It's an unbelievable thing. You know, one of the first times that ever I ever heard the story was Avram decided to come and and he had יארצייט. So he came, usually doesn't come, he didn't come to the 8:10 מנין we were doing down here, that morning Rav Weinberger was visiting us. And yeah, and then I told him that's and we told over that story then as well.
So anyway, thank you for thank you very much for sharing. So, so he says here, and ולאו דווקא מי שנסע אליו. So, we're not only talking about people that traveled to be with the רבי, with whoever the צדיק of the יארצייט we're talking about, אלא, and this בעזרת השם puts all of us in this category, אלא כל מי שהולך בדרכיו, דרך הקודש ודרך העבודה, מרגיש עילוי והתקדשות נשמה. Anyone that follows in the path of the עבודה that the certain צדיק has paved for us, feels עילוי and an ascent and התקדשות בנשמה and some kind of a holy flavor in the נשמה.
So therefore, those that have been touched already by the פיעסצנא, can can maybe relate to this a little bit easier, but even those that for them they're learning פיעסצנא for the first time today, it's a wonderful day to begin to walk through a gate that is open on every יארצייט. And that gate means not just are we doing something לעילוי נשמתו, the נשמה should have an עליה, but we have in mind on a יארצייט when you tell someone, the נשמה should have an עליה and we choose to connect to the person of which we're speaking about and the תורה they left for the world, what we're really saying is our נשמה should have an עליה. Like instead of saying the נשמה should have an עליה, it's no, yeah, the נשמה should have an עליה and our נשמה should have an עליה as well. Our, our, our life force, our spiritual עבודת השם, our being in this world should have a little bit of an עליה.
And therefore, it's very hard to choose which piece I wanted to learn today. It's very, very difficult day. We have so much from the פיעסצנא רבי. We really do.
We have דרך המלך, we have חובת התלמידים. We have בני מחשבה טובה, which many of you did. We have צו וזירוז. We have the, we have, That’s such a miracle that we have them.
Total.
ניסי ניסים. Total miracle. We can’t even imagine.
ניסי ניסים. Total miracle. They have so much. So I דווקא wanted to do something that I think, דברים השווים לכל נפש.
Something that’s that's שווה to everyone. You see on the next page where it says מהספרים הקדושים. And what this piece is, this is from the fourth chapter of הכשרת האברכים. Now, you ever get the sense where you, you where you you go through so many highs and lows that the conclusion you've come to in life is, and you really mean it, you say, you know what, I'd rather just be numb.
I'd rather, I'd rather not feel anything. I remember the highs feel nice, but those lows, if that's what it's, if that's what it has to be like, you know, such such radical waves, then I'd rather not, not experience such. highs, if it also means I'll be saved from from being in the gutter. And what happens is the רבי wants us to be aware of that that can be a conscious choice that you can make.
Well, like you could say, I don't want life to be so intense because when it's intense good versus intense bad, I just, it's it's too much for me. And the רבי was so aware. He was so ahead of his, not ahead of his time, but he was so aware of what everyone's speaking about today. When it comes to behavioral patterns and all types of different methodologies regarding anxiety and stress, he says throughout his ספרים, you could find so many really deep, deep wise הדרכות, guidances as to how to live our lives.
In this piece, I found something that I think is very helpful, especially for a post-תשרי world.
Post-תשרי world is basically, like Yossi spoke about it a little bit yesterday during the שיעור, it's that, you know, everyone anticipates the crash. Everyone anticipates ראש השנה, יום כיפור, סוכות. Everyone kind of at a certain point knows, okay, it's coming.
It's coming. When is it coming? No, I'm gonna be in denial. And then when it comes, you're like, maybe I shouldn't have flown so high on ראש השנה and יום כיפור, but on the other hand, we know that there's no other way to live, right? So, how to, how to address these, this נקודה is something that the רבי is going to speak about. And this is going to sound almost word for word like a certain paragraph in אורות התשובה by הרב קוק.
They never met, but there they had a קשר between each other, which is for another time, a very special קשר.
ובספרים הקדושים איתא שיש לפעמים שנפש איש הישראלי מתפעלת בחרטה, תשובה, הכנעה, יראה וכדומה. We see in the ספרים, there are moments where we're plugged in to regret, to תשובה, to feeling like we got to get our acts together, more awe.
והאיש מרגיש בקרבו איזה רחש ואי נעימות בקרבו ולא ידע מה לו.
And meaning on the inner, inner realms of what's going on in a person, that's what's really happening. But he doesn't know how to interpret those moments of feeling regret. And he's like, what's, what's going, he or she, they're like, what's going on with me? I don't know what this is.
ויחשוב שרעב הוא, צמא.
He thinks maybe I'm hungry, maybe I'm thirsty. Maybe I have to, meaning he thinks like maybe I have to fill, maybe I'm going to try to satiate myself with things that aren't really addressing what I'm really looking for.
או צריך למעט יין שרף ורקיקים. Maybe I need to have some schnapps and some crackers.
או שמין מרה שחורה אחזו. Or, I can't understand what I'm feeling and I interpret it to be מרה שחורה. What's מרה שחורה? Depression, like a, you know, not I'm not talking about clinical depression but depression like a, like a dark wave. A dark wave.
מרה שחורה, bitterness. Literally like, מרה שחורה literally means like black melancholy. It's pretty just figuratively speaking. So something's bubbling inside but because no one ever told them, no, ברוך הבא to the world of תשובה.
They interpret it to be, השם ירחם, I got to get out of here. I'll I'll I got to run away from whatever I'm feeling right now.
וכדי לבדח את עצמו, מסוחח הוא עם בני ביתו בצחוק ושיחת הילדים. So maybe I just gotta humor myself, I gotta start like making jokes.
I got to talk funny to my friends, to my family.
או שהולך עם חברו לסוחח ולבדח את דעתו בלשון הרע וחילול, ליצנות וכדומה. Or, God forbid, I got to change the subject. Oh, you know what happened at the so-and-so's? And then I'm distracted.
Right? I distract myself from really what I'm, what I'm ignoring. What, something's happening inside, and because I don't have words for it, I interpret it to be something that it's completely not.
ולפעמים גם אחר כל אלה המעשים אשר עשה, מרגיש את אי הנעימות בקרבו עוד. But you know what? You can run, but you can't hide.
There's still something there that you can't ignore.
כיוון שבטרופותיו אלו המקולקלות, by your own corrupt self-medication, לא דיי שלא ריפא את פצעי נפשו ולא פייס אותה על מכותיה שהיכה אותה, it's not enough that you didn't really heal your wounds, רק עוד הוסיף לנוקפה ולפצוע אותה. You actually added to your wounds. It’s like a vicious cycle.
Yeah. Right, because you're typically filling it with things that make you feel worse about yourself. Why did I say that? Why did I eat that? Or you get the quick high. even quicker drop.
Absolutely. Absolutely. It goes fades fast. And then you're even more vulnerable and you're more in touch with something that you still don't have words to.
And then the Rebbe continues and he says, אבל יש גם שאחר מעשה תעתועים אלו יפעלו ורוחו בקרבו נשקט מפני שבהכאות, נגיפות ופצעים אשר הוסיף במעשיו אלו לנפשו נתאלפה. Then what ends up happening is sometimes, you know what, you know what does end up happening? The sadness does go away, but you know why it goes away? You understand what he said here? He said the sadness goes away because you became numb. You became comfortably numb or would you say uncomfortably numb? No. Comfortably numb.
But you're, sorry? What's that song? Yeah, נכון? But it's בכלל not, you're not dealing with anything. I think it's amazing. He's not saying this, but obviously substances is what is what is what where we can understand this. He's like, oh, you're like, oh, I I I knocked it out of me.
How? I had to do what I had to do, but I got it out of me. The Rebbe says you may feel that, but you know what's waiting for you when you wake up from the Novocain. Right?
או תלי עפר ואשפה הטיל בזה עליה עד שלגמרי נסתרה ואף נהימה קלה ממנה אליו לא יגיע ונוח לו. And now you find yourself נוח.
You find yourself comfortable because you've been able to somehow, he doesn't describe exactly how, because for each person it's different. And just want to say, it's not only with the usage of substances, you can do this with other escape methods, right? There's plenty of escape methods that we can use. What's that? Robin Williams, who was clinically depressed. We know how his life ended.
נכון, he was a comedian.
נכון. נכון. You know, I saw a documentary about many of that חבר'ה that were making the world laugh, were, were the most broken, broken people in the world.
Needle pushers, like the of the worst kind. Escaping, their whole life escaping. But and they're stuck in a place of, wait a second, this must be a good thing that I'm doing because I'm bringing שמחה to the world. Like I don't I don't think like they were only escaping.
I think there was this battle within of saying, my escape is actually bringing שמחה to people. So, what should I do? So what do you think?
חייך, תורה tells us what to do.
חייך קודמים. Your life comes first.
I once spoke to a very famous musician who knew that they were changing people's lives by the performances that they were doing, and in his own world, there was such a שבר that he couldn't figure out what was going on. And the שאלה was, and he went to big צדיקים and says, what should I do? These people are, I know I'm getting kids to put on תפילין in the morning. I know people are are keeping שבת. I know amazing things are happening.
And ברוך השם שלום בית is okay too, but inside I'm so, there's this gut, this pit in my stomach, and I can't ignore it. So most עצות that he got was, listen, the people still need to get חיזוק, but you need to be more aware and take more better, better care of yourself. It didn't last. The person had to eventually stop everything and then get some help that they needed to get.
And then went back and ברוך השם, it's fine. So in יידישקייט, חייך קודמים is a very important, Where does that come from?
חייך קודמים all throughout הלכה whenever it come, you know where it comes from? Those commercials, not not commercials, but when you're on a plane and they tell you, ממש, the same exact thing. But is there a שורש for it in the הלכה? Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course. Of course, it's it's throughout many different סוגיות.
And but it comes from the same root of who are you going to help if you yourself are drowning, right? Makes logical sense. Total. Yeah, yeah, it's inside. I'll I'll find it.
Sure, yeah. So again, the Rebbe is saying over here, you have people that have completely figured out ways to shut up those voices. Some are legal, some are not legal, but whatever, they're happening. It's out of you for you think, ונוח לו.
Next paragraph. The only thing is, ולא רק את יללות וגניחות הנפש בלבד האיש מזניח מלשמוע או שומע אותן מפוחמות ומעוקלות ולא יודע מה שמע. What have you been able to do? You've been able to quiet the voices. Which voices? Inside.
The but the voices that sound like pain, right? But you know what happens at the same moment that you do that?
רק גם את צהלותיה ושמחותיה אשר שמחה היא בהשם לא ירגיש. You know what else you turned off? You turned off the שמחה button. You turned off the button, you turned off the access to when the נשמה feels a blossoming, a growth, a התקרבות להשם. Now Rav Kook speaks about this in another תשובה, and he doesn't say this exactly because I don't know how advanced chemotherapy was back then or radiation was, but Rav Kook speaks about the one of the dangers of doing תשובה is going through this process because you may be very happy that you've been able to knock out certain bad elements of your life.
But there's a, when it comes to radiation and shock treatment and with a, with a chemo, we know that chemo doesn't just kill bad cells, chemo kills good cells as well. So Rav Kook had said, and and in שיעור when we learned this many years ago, we referred to it to people who were once like the, let's say, just for imagery, the jock in college, the guy that was so on top of his game with everything, sports and and obviously with women and everything and then he and he has an איש תורה flip out or something, right? I didn't mean איש תורה. I mean any בעל תשובה ישיבה. Doesn't matter, ממש.
סתם I thought about that because I have so much love for איש, באמת. Any place. And then you meet him a few weeks a few years later and he gives you a געפילטע פיש handshake. You know what געפילטע פיש handshakes are? I got one a few, I was in over סוכות someone gave, I got ממש exactly that, a געפילטע פיש handshake.
A געפילטע פיש handshake, שלום עליכם. It's like one of these, like you could barely feel if the guy's actually holding your hand or not. It's more like, why? Everything about the person, all the חיות, everything, all the vitality, all the כח of life, it it left on the חשבון of, listen, the יצר was that strong, the יצר הרע was that strong. I had to I had to make changes in my life.
So instead of going to the root of it, I just said, forget the whole, you know, it's not worth fighting the יצר so much. I'll lose part of that, you know, that that that snap in my, you know, the bounce in my, in my walking. I I just got to get rid of rid of all of it. So Rav Kook and the פיאסצ'נה are saying, you may have gotten written, rid of your יצר הרע, meaning, you may have gotten rid of that of that dark sound, of those places that brought you really sad.
But you you don't know what it sounds like anymore to be on high, to to דאווענען a געוואלד, to be on fire with your תפילה. Now some people will still say, it's okay. I'm willing to be מוותר. Right? Some people will say, you know what? That's fine.
That's okay. The pain was too deep in order for me to justify holding onto it so that I could I could have high moments in תפילה. Right? You understand? Some people will say that. But what is the חסידות? What what is our world of תורה? What is our approach? Our approach says that can't be the truth.
It cannot be the truth. Because it cannot be that there should be a goal of completely detaching yourself from your, it cannot be the truth. It can't be the אמת. So again, second line where it's where it's underlined: רק גם את צהלתה ושמחותיה אשר שמחה היא בהשם לא ירגיש.
או ירגיש איזה התרגשות ולא ידע מה הוא מרגיש. Or you might start to feel good things, but the good things are going to start to feel foreign to you as well. And you're like, what's this?
כי לו הרגיש האיש את שמחתה בהשם ואת נועם עליותה באהבה ויראה בשעה שהוא מתקרב אליו יתברך בתורה, תפילה ועשיית המצוות, ובפרט בשבתות וימים טובים. Had a person been conscious and be in tune and felt the שמחה that, the שמחה and sweetness that comes with getting close to הקדוש ברוך הוא while you're doing the עבודת השם.
If you would feel it what it's like while it's happening, כי אז לא בקל היה עולה ליצרו להרחיקו אחר כך מנועם עליון הזה ולהחטיאו חס ושלום אף לגשמו. You know what would happen? I'm just gonna try to say this in my own words.
השם יתברך, please help us to understand the depth of this because I think this is so deep. We're so worried of the lows.
We're so worried of the lows. But the רבי is saying, but you know what happens to you when you allow yourself to not be fully numb? And you allow yourself to be in tune with what's happening to you while you spiritually grow? You you attain so much שמחה and a desire to want to be there that when the יצר comes afterwards and tries to knock you off, you have such power within you right now. because you know, this is where I want to be. I identify myself with this feeling, with this emotion.
So when the יצר comes afterwards and says, come on, let's go back to who you were. It's like, no, no, no, מה פתאום. I know what it's like. I've tasted life.
I've tasted שבת. I've tasted יום טוב. You can't come to me and bring me something now to knock me down like you used to. But now that I've tasted it, I have so much more כח which enables me to really stand חזק מול היצר הרע.
And that's why the רבי says, you we cannot afford to be detached from those emotions because it'll be a cycle which just brings us down more and more and more. You have to believe that when you really taste שבת, when you really taste יום טוב, when you really taste your own soul, your own soul's experience while it's drawing closer to השם. And I really give a lot of, a lot of הכרת הטוב for רב Bravender for the following ענין.
רב Bravender, ראש ישיבה, always believed that if you bring a person to the תורה and you you ממש bring the תלמוד תורה to a person and you engage a Jewish נשמה with learning תורה, they will fall in love with who they're becoming.
And then when you have that strength of witnessing that, life is different. The יצר, the the the games you have with the יצר הרע, they're simply different. It's not that it goes away. Don't expect now, no tests, but the ability to call it out for what it is and laugh at it is much easier.
And that's what the רבי is so nervous of about those that choose to be comfortably numb, because even though moment in the moment they are preventing themselves from pain. But in the big picture, they're not building any בנין which enables them to get a taste of who they are when they're getting closer to השם. And the רבי believed that each person would fall in love with what they're experiencing if they're aware of what's happening to their soul while they're getting closer to השם.And he says בפרט שבת and יום טוב. Second to bottom line.
ובאם שמע האיש את שירת, this is so beautiful.
ובאם שמע האיש את שירת נפשו להשם בשעה שהוא אומר שירות ותשבחות. If a person would hear their own soul while they're דאווענען, that sounds pretty weird, right? But if you could get a taste of hear your own שירת הנפש while you're דאווענען, ועת שירת רוחו ונשמתו חיה ויחידה שלו. This is all aspects of the soul: נפש, רוח, נשמה, חיה, יחידה.
If you were if you were basically sensitive and really listened to what all levels of your soul sounded like לקול נפשו לשיר כאחת למלך הכבוד הבוחר בשירי זמרה, while you find yourself singing to the king of honor who chose שירה וזמרה. This is what השם chose. How do we know this? Because this is what השם chose.
השם chooses Songs of David.
Was that? Songs of David. We say it, we say it every single day.
הבוחר בשירי זמרה מלך יחיד אל חי העולמים. We say this.
It's what the ריבונו של עולם chooses to listen to, to hear.
ויחד נכללות בלהב אהבה והצהלה של כל נשמות ישראל אשר בעולם הזה ואשר בגן עדן. You know what would happen to you? You would, yeah, the ניגון starts on your own. It's your song.
You get a taste of your own ניגון of what it sounds like to sing. But then you realize you are part of a very big מקהלה, מקהלה, a choir. You're part of a big choir and then you start hearing, you start hearing myriads and you start hearing the symphony, an orchestra called נשמת עם ישראל. You start hearing the, I don't know if any of you were in a cappellas or in choirs in high school or college, but not that I was, I'm just, I could just imagine it, about oh, there's that voice.
I mean, I grew up in a lot of, I did, I grew up with a lot of choirs because my father was always conducting choirs in the home and in schools. And there was something so amazing when my when whenever my father would show how, you know what, you guys are singing over there that part, look how it fits perfectly with this part. But first you have to hear your own song, you have to hear your own voice to hear it and then to see how it blends with everything else. So the פיאסצנא רבי is saying over here, when you allow yourself to feel, at the risk, yes, at the risk of what this world is all about, which is highs and lows, it's true.
But when you allow yourself to hear what you sound like when you're in your zone, you will you will be so happy that you chose to feel. And not only that, you will get a sense of of you're part of a much larger symphony and a much larger group of a much larger group of a body of music. I have never, I never.
ברוך השם, ברוך השם.
ברוך השם.
אשרינו. ועל ידם מלאכי מרום משוררי אל עם כל בריאה אשר בשמים ואשר מתחת לארץ כולם יחד משוררים. Every creation is singing together.
כולם יחד מזמרים וכולם יחד מעריצים ומקדישים את שם הקדוש הגדול הגיבור והנורא. Everyone together in harmony and in unison is praising the living God, including you, which is the point of this piece.Doesn't help me that you found out that מלאכים are singing to God. I learned that in רש"י when he's fighting with the שרו של עשו, when יעקב was fighting with the שרו של עשו and he says, listen, שלחני כי עלה השחר. You got to send me now, dawn has come.
And רש"י says, עלי לומר שירה. I got to start my משמרת of singing. It doesn't help me that I know that angels sing to God. That doesn't change anything for me.
What is this piece telling me? It's that you are part of their symphony, that you're singing with them. That's the beauty of this piece.לו שמע האיש אף רחש לחש מזה. You know what that language is?
רחש לחש. If a person only heard a whisper of a whisper of this ניגון taking place, כי אז את כל עצמו עם כל רצונותיו, מחשבותיו, דיבוריו ומעשיו בפועל ממש רק בלתי להשם לבדו היה מקדש.
If only a person can hear this, then everything about his thoughts, his actions, his words, his רצונות would בפועל ממש, would all be sanctified before השם.
אבל מלפניו הכל סגור וממנו נסתר. So we just drew a beautiful picture, right? But what's the only problem? What's the only issue we have over here? You can't even see it. You're too, I like that language, right? I like what you said.
You're too caught up with whatever, you know, you're going through right now to think that that's even possible and to not hear your own voice.And the truth is in שולן, you know, בעזרת השם in our שול, it should always be like this. When I kind of מבטל myself to being part of a כלל, that's my gate, that's my entry into being able to hear to hear all this. But when I walk into שול and it's my, I come in with my baggage and my trip and I won't let go of it and I came to שול cause I'm going to put it, I'm going to stick it to God, right? They could have the best amazing ניגונים happening. And what ends up happening to you? Nothing.I'm only going to say this because this person said it בפרהסיא to teach us a beautiful שיעור.
רב אלי מיכל shared exactly this experience that he went through with us on the first day ראש השנה. And he was very aware of the fact that he was in, he was caught up by, rightfully so, this very special איד, a good friend of mine, left a very beautiful and comfortable situation and brought his family on עלייה right now with all the, with all of that entails, that he said he doesn't understand. He was looking around, people are flying, jumping off the walls in שירת דוד first day ראש השנה and he was wondering, איפה הם ואיפה אני. So it can, it can all be happening around you, but as long as the, as long as that's not, there's no opening for you to feel it, then it won't change anything.
That's true physically and that's true also spiritually.Okay, so he ends off here and he says like this, ומעתה, אתה בחור ואברך. Now he's saying you, בחור, אברך. You know what אברך means? An אברך? You know what אברך stands for, actually? Does anyone know? It's רש"י. It's because יוסף הצדיק was called an אברך.
אב בחוכמה, רך בשנים.
אב means, אב בחוכמה, but רך בשנים, young. Immature? Not necessarily. An old soul.
An old soul, yeah. An old wise soul, yeah. Yeah. So this book is called הכשרת האברכים, but we know that this is referring to any of us.
כל החפץ בעבודת השם ובעליית החסידות. Anyone that really wants to get close to השם and actually wants to experience all the world that חסידות has to offer, היה שמח במה שאמרנו לך בזה. Be happy with what we just shared with you.
כיוון שלא התרגשויות חדשות הולך לבקש.
ולא התפעלות מן השמים. We're not asking you to ask Hashem to bring down miracles for you.
בראשונה ובראשית עבודתך ממך דורשים כי הכל בך. In the beginning and the beginning of your work, all we are demanding of you is to come to an understanding.
You already have everything that you need. You just don't necessarily have access to it. I heard recently that there was a, a not a בחינה, but basically to get into the school of the המגיד ממזריטש. I think it was the בעל התניא that said it is that first, the first entry into there that they, only and only through this realization were we allowed to continue to be there, was when it became clear to us that every single thing that we could ever look for is already inside of us and now you can come and start learning.
It's very similar to here.
הכל בך, the Rebbe says, and he's telling us today, also the פיאשצנה Rebbe is saying to us today.
הכל בך. It's all in you.
התעקשות בך וגם אתה איש מתרגש. You are a sensitive, enlightened, and living, you are an enlivened person, you are.
ועליך להשתדל רק להכיר אותך ואת אשר בך מתרחש. All you have to work on is getting to know yourself and all that's expiring, all that's happening already right now in you.
Like for instance, how many of us right now are in touch with our breath right now? Until I said it, no one. Right? If אריאלה גאנז was here, maybe she would say me, I don't know. Could be, but most of us are not. Do you know what would happen to us if we were more in touch, more aware of that right now? I just gave myself life right now.
I just gave myself life. The Rebbe is saying this is happening to us on so many different levels through so many different elements. And I think this is so beautiful. The Rebbe is saying all we're asking from you, and he he's saying it to us.
All we're asking from you is to get to know yourself. It's already, it's all happening already. It's all happening inside of you. And once you get to know yourself, you'll realize that that's the real way to join the collective עם ישראל as it stands with שירות ותשבחות before the בורא עולם, putting yourself in that choir.
Even if everyone told you you're tone deaf your whole life, even if that's what you thought about yourself, there's no room for me in any choir. When it comes to this kind of choir, there's no such thing as tone deaf. There is a thing called soul deaf, that's something else, and that's what he's talking about. You know, you're you're you're just not, like he says, אבל מלפניו הכל סגור וממנו נסתר.
Everything is just, you're soul deaf. You have a soul but it's deaf. You have no התקשרות to it.
נפשך מלאה התפעלויות, צעקות ותחנונים.
When you hear your own נשמה, you'll hear, you'll hear the screaming to get close.
ועליך רק לתן לה מצע בקרבך שעליה תתגלה ותתחזק. All you have to do is provide for it a מצע. How do you say that in English? Platform.
A platform. Thank you. Like we unfortunately know that word from politics, המצע של המפלגה, the platform of the מפלגה. All you have to provide for your soul is the platform, upon which you will strengthen yourself and get strong.
ואז תדע ותרגיש את התרגשויותיה כמו שהן בלא התלבשות עצמך וצרכיותך. Then you will know and you will get a sense of what it really, really is, the raw you, the organic you, the one that was really doesn't need to hide behind anything.
ובלא הסק המקדיר את שאיפותיה הטהורות. And you enable yourself to be okay with pure and lofty aspirations, as opposed to all those times where you put a שק המקדיר, a a, a שק literally is a שק ואפר, you know like a sack.
I guess so, yeah, a sack. that covers over that place. Why? Because, and the Rebbe is not saying you've been an idiot for doing this. He's saying, I understand the world.
Without knowing the soul language, without knowing spiritual language, it's terrifying to let yourself be in this world, because there's no platform for the real you to to show up and exist. And I think that that all of the Rebbe's ספרים, All the ספרים of this צדיק are basically one large platform for everything he said in this piece. That really, הכל בך, everything is already inside of you. And all you need to know is to figure out a way, to figure out this connection between hearing it, doing something with it, and being okay with it, being שלם with the fact that you really dream big.
And never, never, never fall into the trap of the words, 'it's not worth dreaming big because of that fall that may come from it.' That definitely is not, is never worth it. So in the זכות of the צדיק of today who may have been been murdered by by a, you know, I found in testimony last night that I couldn't believe it, and we'll end with this, I never saw this before. Found a testimony of how the Rebbe worked in the famous Schultz factory in the Warsaw ghetto. The Schultz factory was a factory for shoes and boots, run by the Germans, and certain צדיקים would would, uh, somehow score jobs there.
I have a picture of this factory. And the owner of the factory, a German, even he was taken by the Rebbe, by the Piaseczner. This is like the end of his time in this world. And one day, and basically, every few days, the Germans would come and just round up a huge amount of חברה and just send them off to the camps.
Generally they would be sent to Treblinka. And one day, the owner of the Schultz factory comes back to the factory, and he sees the Rebbe's not there. He was able somehow each time the Germans would come and round them up to keep him, to save him, but this time he saw the Rebbe wasn't there. So, what I read last night was that this owner of the factory asked, you know, figured out, found out where they sent this last group of Jews, and it was to a a camp called Tarniki.
It's not one of the famous ones. And there's no זכר of it today over there. There's nothing, actually, where the where the Rebbe was killed and that all those אידן were killed, there's nothing there today.So, this, this German, shoe, the owner of this factory went to the camp. He found out where they were, he went to the camp, and he found a group of of אידן already completely undressed on their way to being killed.
And he asked them, have you seen, have any of you seen the Rebbe? He means the Rebbe, the גוטער איד he called him. That's what he was known as, the גוטער איד, the good Jew. And they couldn't even talk to him, they couldn't look at him, but no one said this is what's, and he said he looked at all the bodies too. No one saw him.
No one saw his body. And this was a little bit of a נחמה, a tiny bit that I at least I felt last night because they interpreted it to be that perhaps הוא עלה בסערה השמימה כמו אליהו הנביא. That he just, he just went up to the high heavens. Because really this נשמה is not from this world.
The Piaseczner Rebbe comes from from all sides, from the מגיד of Kozhnitz, the חוזה of Lublin, the מאור ושמש, and the נועם אלימלך. We're dealing with a different, different type of of soul. It's not from this world, the Piaseczner Rebbe. Shoshana just sent me a picture a few days ago, she's in Poland and she sent me a picture, really startled me because it was the first stop they had on this trip that she's doing of tour guiding, of a a guider's course in Poland, and she sent me a picture of being in front of the Rebbe's son's קבר in the Warsaw cemetery, the famous Warsaw cemetery.
It says here, פה נטמן הבחור מלא בכי וצער.
רבי אלימלך, right?
בן אדמו"ר מפיאסצנה שליט"א. Because the Rebbe had buried him. He was, he died when the Rebbe was still alive, he was killed.
And I then I said to her, you realize you're standing exactly where the Rebbe stood, because he buried him.So, even though that's like an amazing thing, we're standing where the Rebbe dreamed of. We're sitting where the Rebbe dreamed of. We're sitting here learning תורה where in a place where the Rebbe dreamed of. It should be a זכות for all of us and our families to give over to our קינדערלאך what which the Rebbe was more, he was the Rebbe of children like we know.
He had children sitting around his טיש. We should be זוכה to give over to our children, הכל בכם. Everything is in you already. May we be privileged to be the platform to provide for them the smoothest way for them to to discover the authenticity and the אמת of that statement.
אמן.
יישר כח.