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A new learning series with Rav Shlomo Katz on the sefer יין ישן by Rav Nissan.
Rav Shlomo returns to the inner foundations of Jewish life through a sefer that brings the world of Chassidus into clear, living language.
These shiurim are about the basics in the deepest sense: Emunah, closeness to Hashem, the Jewish soul, and the foundations that help a person live with more depth, simplicity, and truth.
בוקר טוב לכולם, חודש חשון, sponsored by Dina Tobin for a complete רפואה שלמה of מלכה אליזבה בת מזל, by the Finns for the רפואה שלמה of יהודית בת שרה, anonymously for a זיווג הגון for Esther bas Rachel, Nechama Miriam bas Tzena Perl, Ya'alah Aviah bas Chana Devorah, Galia bas Yehudis. The week is sponsored by the Berkow family for the רפואה שלמה of Rachah Berachah bas Peninah Ruth, and by the Binyamin and Cheryl Brieger in honor of our daughter Shoshana making aliyah this week of Parshat Lech Lecha, mazal tov. May she have much hatzlachah and berachah in Eretz Yisrael, and in her zechut may we make aliyah this week as well, amen. Okay, חברים יקרים, איזה כיף, thank you thank you thank you to the all the chevra that were from, I don't know, Five Towns to Ra'anana, that got the Efrat, the sefer that we now have.
It's very exciting, יין ישן in front of us. There's nothing more, bless you, nothing more geshmak than holding a new sefer. It's unbelievable. Okay.
So, chevra, open up please on דף י״ב. We're on פרק ב׳ right now.
פרק פרק ב׳, עבודת השם. The first perek that we did with some יסודות of emunah.
And wait, Zevi, I need the other one. Can you give me that other one? Put that at the end. Thank you so much. We're starting today, עבודת השם לדעת את השם יתברך.
So, a little bit of a hakdamah for this: We have a famous pasuk. It says, ״בכל דרכיך דעהו.״ In all your ways know Him. In all your ways know Hakadosh Baruch Hu. What what does this mean, in all your ways know Hakadosh Baruch Hu? And בכלל, as we mentioned a few weeks ago, when Cliff challenged the kollel chevra, the last thing we say when we put on our tefillin in the morning is, ״וידעת את השם.״ So, if I'd ask you, how do you know Hashem? The answer we would probably give is I can only know Hashem based on what He said His ratzon was, which means I have to learn Torah.
There's no It seems that that's the only way of of gaining da'at in in Hashem. And ב׳, is it even possible to know Hashem? Obviously not. So, how do we deal with this? What does it mean לדעת את השם? We barely know ourselves. We barely know people.
I mean, to know something, to mamash know people? But to mamash know Hashem, ״וידעת את השם,״ seems like a very It's as if like, okay, only if I'm learning. If I'm not learning Torah, then it means I'm not, am I not knowing Hashem? But then what do we do with, ״בכל דרכיך דעהו,״ in all your ways know Him? So, we're going to try to, with the Yayin Yashan, today build up something really beautiful and, I feel, much less intimidating than the normal mahalach usually is about these kinds of concepts. So, let's go and start. We start right away with the Chernobler, דף י״ב.
לדעת את השם יתברך, כותב Me'or Einayim The holy Rabbi Menachem Nachum of Chernobyl says in פרשת בראשית, ״שהבריאה היה בשביל התורה ובשביל ישראל,״ that's what Rashi says, all of the creation, the world, was created for the sake of the Torah and for the sake of Am Yisrael. What does that mean?
״דהיינו לגלות אלקותו יתברך לישראל שיכירו וידעו מציאותו,״ to reveal Godliness to Am Yisrael that they should know Hashem's reality. That we were given the Torah in order so that we, Am Yisrael, reveal Godliness in the world.
״שכשיראו שיש אלוקה מצוי, יעשו כל מעשיהם לשם שמים,״ that when they see, when they know the one living God, that He's here, then everything we end up doing will actually be l'shem shamayim.
״לקיים בכל דרכיך דעהו, ולייחד את עצמו אליו כי אין זולתו ואפס בלתו ולית אתר פנוי מיניה.״ Was there any chiddush in what the Yayin Yashan said so far? Any any chiddush in this paragraph? What do you guys think? What stands out for you guys in this paragraph? Anything?
מה זה? So, what does that mean, לייחד את עצמו אליו?
מה זה אומר? What does it mean to מייחד yourself to Hashem? To unify yourself to Hashem? What do these words mean? We talk about these We say this word yichud all the time, וכולי. What does that mean? That everything you do is l'shem shamayim. Why would Why does that cause everything you do to be l'shem shamayim? When your ratzon is my ratzon, then you're living with that flow. It's It's It's yichud.
It's oneness. Everything everyone is saying is true, I'm just trying to understand how that relates to my life. But also that we have this image of, a lot of people have this image that you have to live a certain way to be to be acting like like proper Yidden. Not doing this, everyone has their own ייחודיות.
You could be some guy that's off the off the beaten path, and you could be that could that could be living with Hashem. We have our own It's a beautiful chiddushei Algeria over here right now, mamash. No, because that's a change of the way we usually understand the word yichud. Yichud usually means unification, oneness.
He's saying yichud means ייחודיות, unique. That the way that I serve the Ribbono Shel Olam, even if it doesn't look like anyone else's, which it's not supposed to be, counts. Why is that a setirah, though? It's not a setirah. It's not a setirah.
Yeah, yeah, not at all. A farkert. Some Algerian chidush. Just an Algerian chidush, man.
But it's not a setirah at all. It's it's mashlim. Well, he's going to he's going to explain much better.
לפי עניות דעתי, המילה ייחוד יוצאת מהמילה המילה הגדולה אחד.
אז באותו שנייה שאתה יודע שאלוקים הוא אחד, אז הכל מסתדר.
זאת אומרת, אתה יודע שהוא אחד ויחיד בעולם, ואתה ממשיך כל יום.
כל יום אתה ממשיך בה בה בה בהכוונה הזאת אחד.
זה הכל כי אחד, אחד זה 13, כן?
ו-13 פעמיים זה 26.
ושלוש עשרה פעם אחד זה אהבה. Ahavah. Right?
הכל מסודר. Okay, נמצא שלא נברא האדם כי אם לדעת ולהכיר ולהתקשר להשם יתברך בכח התורה הקדושה.
So this means, man, you and I were created for one thing. And this one thing, when we grew up in yeshivot, traumatized us. And that's why we have to change the narrative. Because I'm going to tell you something right now that if you were in yeshivah in high school or yeshivah gedolah, whatever, and you had a weird experience or a bit more more a comparative experience, because you're comparing yourself to someone else that heard these words, were you're burned, you're traumatized.
But I'm going to say it again, hopefully all you hear is sweetness and not anything else. Man was created to know and to recognize and to connect to Hashem through the koach of the Torah, of the holy Torah. So again, that means what? Does that mean I can only know God through learning? No? Why not? Why not?
כח התורה הקדושה. How do you do this? He says כח התורה הקדושה.
It's the maybe that's the ikarei way, but It's the purpose of creation. You can't do it without Torah. You can't do it without Torah, but why doesn't this mean only by learning Torah?
דרכי תורה.
בדרכי תורה.
Ah, so that's already a that's opening up a lot of things here.
דרכי תורה. Why does the word Torah have to be this abstract, ethereal thing? No, no we're not. I'm talking about learning.
I'm I'm challenging it with the word learning Torah. Well, I mean, what's in the Torah is the retzon Hashem. The retzon Hashem is happening in all parts of my life, no matter what. Right.
So, it it's a little bit more on the, like, whether it's more בשבתך בביתך ובלכתך בדרך, it's still retzon Hashem. So if we just say like a Shas, full stop, we're not meaning the Torah, we're not meaning the whole expression of retzon Hashem. Can you learn ratzon Hashem without learning Torah? No. No.
Yes. Guys, I'm bichvanah pressing a lot of like I want I want you to see. It says b'koach haTorah, huh? It says b'koach haTorah. Right.
He says he doesn't say over here לימוד התורה, he says b'koach haTorah, which is very It's a big I think it's a big distinction. I'm going to ask it again. Is it possible to know to to to do what you're supposed to be in this world, because he said to be in this world is to is to recognize the oneness of Hashem without learning, and I'm going to add now, keeping what you learned? Yes. Has to be.
You could have you could have this, what seems like the most simple yid that never picked up a sefer in his life who's who's a more who's a more Torahdike yid than some guy that's sitting with a with a Because somehow he falls under what you said, that somehow דרכי התורה I like that. I I I'll explain to you something. I had this she'eilah about like 23 years ago. I don't know what got into I mean, I think I do know what got into me, but I didn't understand the timing of my question to my Rosh Yeshiva.
I was chazzan for Mincha, shaliach tzibbur, on a regular Mincha day in המבתר, and I went up to to Rav Brovender, שליט״א, and I went up to him right after davenen. And I said, Rebbi, is it possible to know Hashem and to be מוצא חן in His eyes if I, like, mamash know nothing of Torah? So he looked, so he, you know, in his דרכו בקודש, guts, you know. But then he's but then but he said, he said, "Well, we know we know obviously if you we know from, like, enough Rav Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev stories that of course it's possible." But he said, "It's not something you can give over to your child, meaning it's not a way of chinuch. A way of chinuch is not you can't explain you cannot give over to a kid the the the art of banking on the pele of ending up in דרכי השם, you know, ending up like what Naftali was saying.
יש כאלו. It's true. But that's not a it's not a derech. Meaning, it happens.
I mean, what Naftali said about meeting yidn that barely know anything v'chulei, and somehow they have something, we've all had those tastes in life. In fact, most the more inspiring times in life where where people have like this, you know, where we've been touched, it's been less from people that are darshening long derashot, and it's more from people that seem to have like that moment of like what Naftali was saying. Am I am I very off with that statement?" Not at all. It's more relatable.
It's it's it's more relatable to maybe some of us, yeah. Yeah. So Okay, so now, let's let's do again.
נמצא שלא נברא האדם כי אם לדעת ולהכיר ולהתקשר להשם יתברך בכוח התורה הקדושה.
ואם כן, בוודאי ראוי שזה יהיה כל מגמתו בכל אשר יעשה ובכל עבודתו. This must mean And if that's the case that this is why I was created, לדעת ולהכיר ולהתקשר להשם, then therefore, everything in my life, the the the m agamah the m agamah, the purpose, in everything that I'm doing, has to be surrounded around this. And then he quotes the Ramchal now.
וכלשון המסילת ישרים, שתהיה כל פנייתו רק לבורא יתברך.
P'niyah, you know what פנייה means? Huh? Like any turning, any direction that I have chevra, there there are more we brought a bunch of books for sale today, so let's let's give out whoever needs.
יש פה גם עוד אחד, there's more up here. Every פנייה that I need in life to be to Hashem.
ושלא יהיה לו שום תכלית אחר בכל מעשה שיעשה, there's no other purpose in any other action that you're doing, אם קטן ואם גדול, whether it's small things or big things, אלא להתקרב אליו יתברך ולשבור כל המחיצות המפסיקות בינו לבין קונו.
To come close to Hashem and to tear down all mechitzot that may be taking me away, that are dividing between me and HaKadosh Baruch Hu, obviously, he's going to say what are we referring to?
אשר הם כל ענייני החומריות והתלוי בהם. When I become dependent on material materialism. Not that I have materialism in my life, but I like the word that he says here very much: התלוי בהם. When I become dependent on these things, then that become then that that's an indicator you got to get rid of this thing, because it formed a mechitzah.
When you I'm not just talking about nu, substances that I become addictive to. That's an easy thing to say that it's a mechitzah. I'm talking about anything חומרי in this world that once I become dependent on it, זה סימן שצריכים להוריד את המחיצה. It's a that thing has got to go.
What What do you think what what could be another thing? What could be another example of דברים חומריים שאני נתלה בהם? If I cannot daven Shacharit before checking to see if LeBron won last night in his game opener against the Garden or in New York, or not, then I shouldn't be watching this stuff. Why, what's wrong with it? What's wrong with this? It's it's What's wrong with watch- Because it's just the dependency thing. It's the dependency thing. What's another example? I took it even too like personal.
I'll say Yaniv, I didn't say anything. I don't talk to you mornings after I didn't check, huh? I feel guilty on that. Again. No, no, no.
I want to make something I want to make a clarification. Yeah. It's when you're dependent on it. To what to check it, I don't think that's a הלוואי שאלו יהיו הצרות שלנו, like halavai that our checking is about checking, you know, a sport a sports It's the תלות.
The תלות that I can't go on in my day unless I first do that, that has no תכלית in this world at all whatsoever, זה הבעיה, when it becomes dependent on these things. What's another example? It could be millions of things right now, where I become dependent on a חומריות. I was gonna say, we we have מקום קבוע or we don't have a מקום קבוע in the shul, and you can you could even take it down to that's material, right? In terms of where you're physically standing, or the chair you're sitting in. And if it's not vacant, then I can't daven here.
Yeah, I can't I can't have a davenen here.
כן, it's תלוי במקום. That's interesting. On the other hand, Chazal say that it is an inyan to have a מקום קבוע, but when it becomes something that I'm dependent on, and if that's not happening, like some guy told me recently, I couldn't believe it.
Someone guy told me that he he feels I mean he wants to have a מקום קבוע in the shul, but the thing is the the guy shows up like an hour and a an hour or two hours after davenen starts, so there's no I mean, you could have a מקום קבוע, but it's probably, you know, somewhere in, you know, where no one But the the תלות of it, the dependency of it, that's where it gets that's where it gets tricky. That's where it gets tricky. We're not talking right now about עבירות. We're talking about things that that you know obviously fall under קליפת נוגה, that it's like it could be good or could be bad, but I become dependent on it.
So for many of us growing up in the States in the '70s, '80s, and '90s, sports definitely is a huge thing. We don't want to pasel it, but we want to pasel the תלות, the dependency of it. I mean I see it with music. I was going to just say, as a as a I see it with music.
I can only play well if I'm on a great guitar. That's like a Oh, I was I was saying I was gonna I was gonna take it way further than that. Okay, I can only play if I have that guitar, right, which is, right? Checking to see every time, because this artist mamash talks to my soul. And I'm dependent on making sure that I check every status update or story that they post, because I But I label it under, listen this person serves as like a spiritual guide for me, but I don't realize I don't realize like underneath the spell, that I've become נתלה, I've become dependent on something that's תכלית, חומרי.
There there are many, many examples. Yeah. I even got addicted to tzadikim. I remember like being by Rabbi Simcha Zisel, you know, in awe, and anytime people from outside came, they like they got what I was saying, this awe.
And you could like, by my Rebbe is by tzadikim, you can get addicted to... There are some people just the whole time around the tzadikim... You can come Monday night at 7:00 PM to the tzadikim Anonymous. TA, tzadikim Anonymous.
Yeah, Steve. Something that many here may not be able to relate to, but I host many overseas students who come over to the serious yeshivot: Brisk, Mir... Whoa! Wait wait wait wait wait. Those Whoa! What a statement.
You got 25 grown men learning Torah on a Wednesday morn- No, no, I know I know you, I know what you mean. I know what you mean. into their Torah, into their hashkafah, and eventually when they get to the, you know, aliyah talk over at our Shabbos table, I am blown away by the number who have said a version of the following: "No way I could have come here. When I make a shidduch, I get a car, I get an apartment, back in..." That's surprising to you? Huh? That's the So so the I mean Usually, I would say to you you're gaslighting, but I actually understand that that can right, that that inyan is תלות in Yeah, it's תלות.
It's dependent maybe ke'ilu the vision of my future and the mother of my children seems to be dependent on חומרי conditions that I set up for me. Yeah. You're you're giving them the benefit of the doubt. You think they're they're thinking about their future wives when they're saying that? I hope so.
I think they're talking about themselves. That's how I I I want to be kaf zechut. I want to I want to lift it up. I want to lift it up.
So, but it's Some of them are my grandsons. We're going to delete that in the weddings, that is more חומרי Right. So again, again, the problem becomes when it's when it's נתלה, when it's dependent on it. I'm going to take it to an extreme example.
Yeah. Somebody saying like somebody who's not secure financially, or is or is lacking, having that feeling of like, well, I can really only serve Hashem' if Oh, yeah! Oh, yeah, definitely. That's a big one. Betach.
Betach. Or I can only like נכון. This this what you're bringing Bringing up is very, very strong. It's like there's a yesod by Reb' Simcha Bunim of Peshischa.
I think it was I think it's his, maybe he got it from the Chozeh of Lublin, I don't know, but this is a very important thing. He says, why is it impossible for people to think that the ריבונו של עולם דוקא it's choosing he needs and doesn't need he wants my avodat Hashem to come from a place of קטנות? From constrictedness, from narrowness, right? That that there's by some people davka the Eibershter wants from them they wants to serve he wants them to serve him not from a place of הרחבת הדעת and עשירות וכולי. Like we can't imagine that in our mind. So we say to ourselves, ריבונו של עולם, if only we had this, then I would מקדיש all my time for you, right? By the way, that's never the case.
Because you wouldn't. And quite often when people say that, and maybe they even do get the עשירות, they don't end up going to that place. They don't. We know this as a klal.
So that's why it's very hard for people to understand, what, I, Hashem, you really want me to be like this? Like this this is how you want it to be? So it's only hopefully it'll be a a חולף, it'll be a passing תקופה. But if I say while I'm in a מצר that I can only serve Hashem and דאווען כמו שצריך when I don't have constraints, then I made it's a מחיצה. I'm dependent on something חומרי to to know God. To and know God to k-n-o-w, right, לדעת את השם.
That can't be. Now, you can't tell that to someone, cuz you have to daven for them that things get better for them. But מצד עצמי, that's a מהלך in עבודת השם that Korach could not stomach. Korach's whole thing, he's the greatest example.
Korach's whole thing is what? If I can't be the כהן the לוי כהן גדול, whatever it is even though he made up other words, right? Then I can't serve Hashem the way that I want it to be, the way that I think is most ideal. So the most חומרי thing in the world, which is the land, swallows him up. So it's a whole Torah in Peshischa. They have a whole מהלך on this.
It's brought found in all the ספרים, but it's a very good example. It's all forms of avodah zarah. And and they're מחיצות that have to come down. Okay, let's continue.
We're in the the middle of the second paragraph here.
אם קטן ואם גדול אלא להתקרב אליו יתברך ולשבור כל המחיצות המפסיקות בינו לבין קונו אשר הם כל ענייני החומריות והתלוי בהם עד שימשך אחריו יתברך ממש כברזל אחר אבן השואבת. Beautiful imagery here. How would you say this in English? Until you're pulled to him like a Magnet.
Like clinging. Like just like like like magnetism, נכון.
והרבה בני אדם, bottom paragraph, והרבה בני אדם אף שיודעים בדרך כלל I just want to ask, I just want to put it out there cuz I I think it's a beautiful thing. And you don't have to answer yes or no, but did you ever feel that you were ממש משכני אחריך ונרוצה? That like like it was it was a magnet.
Like at a certain point Hashem's like, "Yeah, yeah. Now you're in whether you like it or not." And you're just Hashem just takes you? No. I didn't I Again, I didn't ask to say yes or no because you're that You said no? Yeah. Yeah.
The guy that left the most comfortable place sitting and and and and pulls up with his family and and 81 kids in Efrat. All right, נכון. Yeah, you definitely didn't experience any magnetism. You just ruined the alter chiddush of the ממש, Hashem didn't pull you anywhere.
It's true. Hashem got me somewhere, but it did Aw, Hashem got me somewhere. Chevra, you know what the you know what the illusion is? We're all scared to say yes cuz in our minds, magnet is something כאילו מעל בחירה, pulled, I I it just happens, it happens. We've all tasted it.
We're just too scared we're just too scared to call it out cuz it's too awesome. It's awesome! It's awesome. It doesn't you're out of it. Doesn't feel the same as getting pulled to the buffet.
You're taking the most חומרי example. It's amazing. Okay, but Where we're trying to not That's exactly, Baruch Hashem, it doesn't feel like being pulled to the buffet. It's pull being pulled to somewhere much much more essential and vital for our being in this world.
These things do happen to us. They do. It's just that in our in our minds, the illustration of how it works is different, but it's not true. Remember the vort, what's the first word of the parsha where we experience the first greatest miracle for for a nation.
What parsha is that? Beshalach. What's the first word of the parsha?
ויהי. אין ויהי אלא לשון צער. When the word ויהי comes in, Chazal say it's a word of צער.
How could it be ויהי בשלח פרעה את העם? Why why would it be לשון צער? You're about to experience קריעת ים סוף. Next Shabbos is Matan Torah. Do you have starting having the man falling down here. Why would it open up with the word ויהי? So, it's a a lot of the tzadikim speak about this.
I saw once through Rav Shlomo a מהלך in the Divrei Divrei Binah of Biala, where he says there, because many people have a vision of what a miracle would look like. And then when it happens to them, but not in the way that they imagined it, they get disappointed in the magnitude of the feeling of the miracle. And there's no greater, sadder thing than that. When great things happen to you, but it's not the way that you thought it was going to happen.
So ויהי בשלח פרעה, why? Because maybe Yidden had this image of what it would look like when they finally leave Mitzrayim, but for most of them it didn't exactly end up manifesting in the way that they envisioned it. You know, there's another word for like everything we just said right now. I'm not being cynical, I'm just I'm being real. Shalom bayit.
One second, there's another word. What's the word? What what concept am I am I referring to? Marriage. No, I'm not being cynical. I gave the הקדמה that I'm not being cynical.
I wasn't ready for it. It's okay. No, but do you hear it? Do you Listen, he did out loud what you all would have done had I not said, באמת.
באמת.
I'm not embarrassed by laughing here. No, no, it's No, no, no, I'm I'm saying I'm saying like למען האמת, had I not said I'm not being cynical and I would have said marriage is the same thing, but באמת, because we have these visions, you have these images and, oh, it's going to be like this, right? At what point in שנה ראשונה does that, do you have a ויהי? Sheva Berachot. Sheva Berachot. I said שנה, you said Sheva Berachot, שבוע ראשון.
Anyway, oh, wait a second. There's another word, there's another term that falls under this category, for sure. For sure, aliyah. Aliyah.
No one told anybody about משרד הפנים when they were when you were thinking about aliyah, right? No one It wasn't part of the thing. Rav Bravender once said it was in we went to he had an evening with Rabbi Riskin, maybe like 10 years ago in the Dan What was it called? Is it the Dan Panorama on on Keren Hayesod? Were you there with me? You came with me? Yeah. Remember that night? It was a very, very special night. Rabbi Riskin and Rav Bravender together.
I think it was moderated by Rabbi Jeffrey Saks, right? So Rav Bravender said that he grew up, you know, he was very influenced by Bnei Akiva growing up in Brooklyn and back in the day. He said there's just the one thing they never told them about when they talk about aliyah and coming to Eretz Yisrael, was that not everyone is Jewish. That they're also Arabs. No one told them that.
That that part was missing from the, you know, "Let's make aliyah," the flyer. That part was missing. So these things happen to us all the time, but the emet is is that we've all been pulled with this magnetism that he's speaking about. It's just that Hashem does it in the most צניעותדיקע way, and he makes us feel that we're the בעלים of this magnetism.
That's his humility. Hashem is the humble of all humbles. But we have, we have gone there, and as long as I think that I am waiting to be pulled to the buffet the way that you spoke, then we're doomed and we're living in a world of eternal מחיצות that will never come down. Shkoyach.
Well, just to try to redeem Naftali here for a second. If I may. Please. I'm going to try.
Pidyon shevuyim. Pidyon shevuyim. No, Naftali said before that yes, somebody who is not like learning Torah actively is able to be connected to Hashem and have live a Torah lifestyle. And I think that the two are connected.
I think that I mean, from from a personal from personal experience, I had a tekufah in my life when I was not living Torah and connected that way, and tekufot. We're we're friends for 25 years. It's okay. Yeah.
Correct. And yeah, I think that I had a moment where I was not in the world of Torah at all, and then I had a very, very strong pull, and that certainly was part of the stepping stones to get me here. So is that what he is that, like he said, כי ברזל אחר אבן השואבת? Yeah, it's it's mag- earth magnets. It is, u'v'emet it is, and you've had it, we've all had these moments in life, and the and the the wonderment of of this sefer is that it's possible to realize this and then daven and work hard to have more and more of it.
And it's fine, and it doesn't mean we're all going to start looking different, although there's nothing wrong with that if that's what your if that's what your kishkes are telling you. Only Amalek kind of friends are the ones that are standing in your way of any form of growth. And and and they prevent you from growing, because you're thinking, "Well, if I if I if I go more with the magnet, what am I going to look like?" Okay, I I want to go Oh, sorry, sorry, Steve, I I stopped you, yeah. I just wanted to draw again a parallel.
It's not, you know, the Torah is is teaching us things that are forever.
ויהי בשלח, to my an understanding, what was the tza'ar? Pharaoh ended up sent chasing them out. They were waiting for this miraculous being lifted up כנפי נשרים. How many people tell me, perhaps you when you've encountered in chutz la'aretz, are waiting for that miracle not to be chased out, but some And and that's the tza'ar, and we we wait for it.
We almost demand it, and that's that's a sad sad reflection. Nachon. Okay, let's go weiter, bottom of יב, just a little bit more.
והרבה בני אדם, אף שיודעים בדרך כלל שעיקר התכלית להתקרב להשם יתברך, many people that know, they know the purpose of of life is to get close to השם, אולם מיום ליום אינם חיים עם זה, but they don't live with that knowledge on a day-to-day level, כי אינם חושבים רק מה הוא טוב שיעשו ומה הוא רע להתרחק ממנו, because their minds are basically designed to think about what's something good that I should do and what are the bad things that I should stay away from, ומסיחים דעת מהתכלית שבכל זה.
This is so deep. This is so deep. It sounds so simple, it's so deep. What's the mechaber saying? There are people that are they know and they actually act in very good ways, which is what? They do what they're supposed to be doing, and they don't do what they're what they're not supposed to be doing.
אלא מאי חסר? Why are you doing the good that you're doing, and why are you doing why are you refraining from the bad that you're not doing? What did you end up worship worshipping? The Shulchan Aruch. Not my words. R'' Shlomo turned around in the last Ne'ilah of his life, he died a few weeks later, right? And he talked about avodah zarah right before Ne'ilah, he says you could you could make avodah zarah out of anything, chaverah, you could even make avodah zarah out of the Shulchan Aruch, he said. And then he said you could even make avodah zarah out of the רבונו של עולם.
This is I feel exactly what this what this line is. There's a hesach hada'at, you're distracted from the purpose of why you're doing all of this.
כמו שכתב במלכות שלמה. Okay, this is really what I wanted to get to.
The Malchut Shlomo, I don't know if you've seen the ספר, it's I have it I think I I have it in the מקום on Shabbos, the Malchus Shlomo is a ספר that he, this מחבר, put together of the תורות of his grandfather. His grandfather was Nate Davidovitch's Rebbe. Who was the Malchus Shlomo? Rabbi' Shlomo Twersky. Rabbi' Shlomo Twersky is the father of the ביה אנא רחיץ.
You understand?
ביה אנא רחיץ. Also, he also wrote da da da da da di and others. That's Rabbi' Motl Twersky, who's now in Brooklyn, but used to be in Denver. Rabbi' Motl Twersky is the son of the Malchus Shlomo, his sister is the mother of this מחבר.
The Yid that the video we sent out last week talking about challah is the brother of the מחבר, he's also a grandson of the Malchus Shlomo. So the Malchus Shlomo, Rabbi' Shlomo Twersky, he quotes him here in this ספר for the first time, and he's going to keep on coming back to his zeide. Okay? Malchus Shlomo is a gevaldige ספר. Rav Weinberger, I saw him teach he was teaching it last week, and over the summer he showed me the new מהדורא that had come out and how beautiful I have it up here, it's a beautiful, beautiful Anyone here know him? Did anyone meet him? Did you ever meet him? Rabbi' Shlomo Twersky? No, no, that's Oh, Abraham Reb Abraham Twerski was his brother.
Yeah. Naftali, this is a good קישור.
באמת. AJ.
Rabbi Twersky, AJ, right? He's the brother, he was the brother of the Malchus Shlomo, of this Yid's grandfather, and then there was some and there was a, he's I think he's, right, there Rav Michal Twersky in in Milwaukee is another brother. I was zoche one time, I couldn't believe this, I played a wedding somewhere in in in in in a in a hotel in New Jersey, close to the stadium where they did the מונדיאל. They're close, huh? MetLife, yeah, I think mamash right there. And for some reason, the bro- not Rav Shlomo, because he was already נפטר, but the remaining siblings, the Twerskys, were were still alive, and they did their own rikud for the chatan and the kallah.
It was so gorgeous. And all I wanted to do was take a picture, but my hands were busy with the with with the guitar. Huh? You got the best picture. I got it, it was an amazing picture.
Okay, כמו שכתב מלכות שלמה, שהרבה בני אדם אין משתמשים בתורה אלא כמהלך החיים. There are people that for them Torah is a shiur. It's not about the מהלך, דרך חיים. It's a shiur.
It's when I daven, it's a shiur. I got the good points. I learned a little Torah.
ואינם מבקשים השם, but they don't ask Hashem to follow them outside of the Beis Medrash when they leave.
Actually, they're like, "Okay, we're good. You stay here. Check. I'll do my thing, and we'll meet again tomorrow, and this is the right thing to do." ממילא אין מגיעים אליו יתברך.
So they don't end up reach, like getting there.
אלא צריך להיות כל פנייתו בכל עניניו למצוא את השם יתברך ולהתקשר אליו יתברך. You're going to the gym, you say, "ריבונו של עולם, גוף שנתת בי, אני שומר עליה." You're about to eat, you actually think about the berachot. You don't just say them because it's the right thing to do.
All inyanim.
ולכן לא יפסוק מלחתור ולדרוש ולחפש אחר השם יתברך. And and and to add to this, I don't know how many of you were with us on Shavuos, we did a I forget at what point in Shavuos, we did a shiur based on the Pachad Yitzchak, Rabbi Yitzchak Hutner, on the she'eilah, Eli, you remember this shiur? The she'eilah was, why don't we say Birkat HaTorah throughout the day? Why do we only say it one time? Because ideally it's supposed to be like this: Torah is not this thing that I just do in the morning when I say pesukim, or have a shiur in the morning. Ideally, it's it's something that's all day long.
בכל פנייתו, כי השם יתברך And to look, ולכן לא יפסוק, don't stop from look מלחתור ולדרוש ולחפש אחר השם יתברך. But and then you'll say to yourself, "Okay, I'm going to have a day that I'm going to look for You. I'm going to be with You." But then you'll come to this very fast conclusion that the Ribono shel Olam has a favorite game. What's His favorite game? Hide-and-seek.
And that's and once you realize that, Baruch Hashem, then you're really in. Like he says over here, כי השם יתברך נקרא קל מסתתר, שהוא מסתתר בהבריאה. He hides within the beriah so that you look for Him. Do you remember, I've mentioned his name many times, he had such a השפעה on me, and he was friends with my father for many years, Shvartzi? Not Shvartzi from the moshav.
Rav Shlomo Schwartz from LA. Meishe's father. He had such a profound impact on my life from such a young age. He loved my father, he loved my family, he was really like ah, and he suffered a lot.
You know, you wouldn't know, he had that smile. He was married, he had many kids, and his wife was niftarah. And the tzadeket Olivia, it's a whole story, whatever. But the one of the last videos I saw of him was someone with a close-up.
He had a great I loved how he sang Chabad nigunim, because he had the kneitch. He had the the the I'll I'll try to find this what I'm going to tell you right now and send it to you, because it's exactly this these words. There's a nigun, oh, I can't believe there's a song for this, because it should be depressing, right?
אכן אתה, אתה קל מסתתר.
אכן אתה, אתה קל מסתתר.
די דיי דה דה דיי איי איי איי דה דה דיי דה דה. You are hiding, you're a God that's hiding. So a person could say, "This is what You want me to, You actually want to play this, I'm not interested in this game. You're either here, or you're not.
I showed up, you should be here." That's the ga'avah, that's the yeshut. "I showed up, you should be here." That's not how it works.
מסתתר בבריאה, hiding in creation, וביד האדם למצאו ולגלותו, and it's in our hands to find Him and to reveal Him.
כמו שכתב באורחות צדיקים, שאף על פי שהקדוש ברוך הוא נעלם מעיני כל חי, that even though the Ribono Shel Olam is hidden from all man, maybe from the eyes He's hidden, but הוא נמצא בלבבות, He's in our hearts, נגלה במחשבות, He's revealed through thoughts, דהיינו בלבבות ומחשבות של אלו המבקשים אותו.
In whose hearts? And in whose thoughts? He's found in the hearts and the thoughts of those that show up, they chap that it's a game of hide-and-seek, and they're like, "I'm in." Seekers. "I'm seekers. I'm in. I'm in.
My ga'avah is not going to tell me right now, 'Oh, if He doesn't, He's not interested in me,' like I've heard this so many times. It looks like God's not interested in me, 'cause I showed up, and He's not here." It doesn't say the finders, it says the seekers. Seekers.
ישמח לב מבקשי השם, not מוצאי השם.
So, once you realize that this game is called hide-and-seek, now you're in the פרשה of לגלות, להכיר, ולדעת, ולדעת. So, this game, hide-and-seek, has been taking place for many, many, many, many, many years. We're still in the game. It would be nice if you dropped some, if it was more like a scavenger hunt with like lollipops on the way telling, and it is.
It does. It is. Just like, you want what?
ויקם ויהי. Huh?
ויקם ויהי.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, chaverim, take a sefer and