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In this compilation series, Rav Shlomo Katz explores the unique spiritual energy, historical significance, and soul-stirring lessons embedded in the Jewish months. From the deep transitions of Adar to the holy introspection of Elul, these episodes offer timeless Torah wisdom, beautiful stories, and practical insights to help you align your personal spiritual growth with the divine cycles of the year.
Good morning everyone, last day of Chodesh Sivan, we're learning, sponsored by the Silvers lezecher nishmas בתיה פיגא בת ישראל, by the Vizels for the refuah shleima of אתל שרה בת חנה, יעקב שלום בן ביילא, and for the zivug hagun of אסתר בת רחל, by the Miller family in memory of Ya'el's Abba, Rabbi Avy Warhaftig, by the friends for the refuah shleima, דוד נתנאל בן איילה חובא, אליהו בן חוה רחל, חיים מאיר אברהם בן זאב, and for אברהם יעקב בן דבורה פייגא. We have today something very special to learn לכבוד ראש חודש תמוז. Rosh Chodesh Tammuz is a very very very special month. Every month is very very special, but we all know that when you hear the words Rosh Chodesh Tammuz, obviously everyone's starting to do a calculations, okay so the fast is, right? And then oh Tisha B'Av, and then oh I can't I have to stop doing that then and I want to obviously makdim trefuah l'maka, רק מקדים רפואה למכה, and go into the pnimiyus of this month with a very simple piece by Rav Ginsburgh.
Now why am I saying simple? Because this piece was given to children. It was given to kids actually. I was looking at a bunch of pieces, I'm like no, זה יצא לי מדי מסובך. That's why I'm so happy you're here today, bochur habar mitzvah.
Very simple piece, I edited out the back and forth asking kids questions, but basically kept the basar of what this month is all about. And it's going into something very mamash very simple and I believe that this piece is very very very shayach to the times that we're living in. So let's go right into it.
ראובן וחוש הראיה לראות בכל יהודי בן להשם.
תמוז הוא החודש של ראובן. What does this mean? We all know, every month on the calendar has a shevet, v'os it has a fixing of one of the senses, it has a letter, it has a bunch of different things. All based on Sefer Yetzirah and this is mainly drawn down in the works of the Bnei Yissaschar, Rav Tzvi Elimelech of Dinov. Anyone that's learned Bnei Yissaschar knows you see this in the Bnei Yissaschar's writings.
So the month of Tammuz is shayach to the shevet of Reuven.
לפי הנשיאים ולפי החנייה במדבר, Reuven hu harevi'i, even though he's first born, he's fourth when it comes to the counting of the nesiyim and in accordance to the encampment in the midbar, he's the fourth one in the row.
ותמוז הוא החודש הרביעי מניסן. Now the chush, that means the sense, החוש שצריך לעבוד עליו ולתקן אותו בחודש תמוז הוא חוש what chush? Re'iya.
What sense am I working on in the month of Tammuz? Sight. Re'iya. Why?
כי ראובן הוא מלשון ראיה, right? Reuven. Just to jump ahead, what's next month? Av.
Which tribe? Shimon. Shmiya. It happens like this with Reuven and Shimon. And it's a very in the Sfarim in the Beis Yaakov in Izhbitzer how he what he does with this concept of Reuven is the tikkun of Tammuz re'iya, and Av is the chodesh of the tikkun of shmiya, he does a fascinating thing.
So the month of Tammuz belongs to shevet Reuven and the chush that we're working on is chush hare'iya, the sense of how do I see, how do I look.
כשאני מסתכל על יהודי מה אני צריך לראות?
שאתה בן של השם. That's what I have to do when I look at another Jew. You're a son of Hashem.
הרי כל יהודי הוא בן של הקדוש ברוך הוא, בנים אתם להשם אלקיכם, each yid is a son of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. You're all like the passuk says, you're all children of Hashem.
לכן צריך לראות בכל יהודי שהוא בן. You have to look at every single yid that he's a son of Hashem.
Very much goes with what we've been saying on Shabbos and a bunch of the recent shiurim that it's very very easy and it would make life much more easy much less complicated if I could take a whole group of people that I don't look at them when I look at them I don't see that they're children of Hashem and just say ah they're Erev Rav or they're out or they're done. It could make life much more easier.
אבל אין מה לעשות בנים אתם להשם אלקיכם.
גם כשיהודי לא מתנהג הכי יפה, when a yid doesn't act so properly, אם אני מסתכל עליו ורואה שהוא בן של השם, עצם הדבר שאני רואה כבר משפיע עליו.
So he says like this and I'm going to ask you the question, which Rabbi So he says like this and I'm gonna ask you the question, which Rebbe does this sound like? If I look at a Jew and I see that he's a son of Hashem, just looking at him like that already influences him. The Shpola Zeide? No. It's Rebbe Nachman. I mean, of course the Rebbe and Rav Shloime lived like that, but the teaching is azmra.
This is 282, that where Rebbe Nachman dives deeply into the notion of when I look at a Yid with eyes of love and eyes of nekudos tovos, I actually, it's not just that I did something good for myself and oh wow, I did something so nice, look at me, I looked at him, I actually am mashpia on another person through the way that I look at them. Why? How? Ma kavana?
הוא הבנאדם שאתה מסתכל עליו הוא מרגיש בלב שהנה מישהו מסתכל עלי ורואה שאני בן של השם כנראה שאני באמת בן של השם וכך צריך להתנהג. If someone notices that I'm looking at them with eyes of oh, he's a he's a kid of a he's a son of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, then the person may actually only start to get his act together based on the way that you looked at him. Mad'im! And it's baduk umenuseh.
These are things that have been tried, tested, and it works. V'kach tzarich l'hitnaheg and then he's like well I better start acting like a ben of Hashem.
אם היהודי עושה דבר טוב מצוה רואים ודאי שהוא בן של השם. So when I look at another Jew and they're doing something good, like we all came out of shul right now, it's not so complicated to look around shul, people that come to daven together in the morning, and say they're children of Hashem.
That's not the test.
אבל כשיהודי לפעמים עושה משהו לא טוב צריך להיות שבעצם בפנימיות הוא בן של השם ואם תסתכל עליו כך הוא יתחיל להתנהג כך. If you look at him like that, they'll start acting like that. Now he does something that only Rav Ginsburg can do.
יש עוד שבט שבשמו יש את המילה בן בנימין. So you understand? Reuven has the letters ben in the name Reuven. The only other tribe that has the letters ben in it is Binyamin. So first of all, what's the first thing we think about Reuven and Binyamin? First and last.
Bookends. Let's see what he does.
בנימין נולד לבסוף הוא הבן האחרון וראובן נולד ראשון מה רואים כאן שיש משהו שדווקא לראשון יש בן וגם לאחרון יש בן. It's interesting that the first and the last dafka both share this common denominator.
They don't come from the same mother. Obviously they come from the same father, Yaakov. But who does Reuven come from? Leah. And Binyamin? Rachel.
So what's the kesher between the two? That they both have the name ben, child, in their name.
אני ראשון ואני אחרון. B'chassidus korim l'kach: נעוץ סופן בתחילתן שהסוף וההתחלה קשורים. It's interesting, one of Rav Ginsburg's talmidim came to my daughter Tiferet's simchat bat, Rabbi Avram Aryeh Trugman, and we were passing around a, what was it called? Though it was like, everyone thought it was so cool, it was like a tiny portable camera.
A GoPro? No, it was a Flip. Do you remember that? Why was it such a big metziah back then? It was like ten seconds. Yeah, but why, but everyone was, do you remember what this was, the Flip? You guys don't remember. The cameras on our phones back then were like, or they very rarely existed even, seventeen years ago.
A Flip phone, and we felt so cool, you go around and you could just hey, say something. Wasn't that the first one that would turn around on you? Maybe that's why it's called Flip, could be. So ben comes at the end of Reuven's name and the beginning of Binyamin's name. One second, let me just not lose the train of thought, so the talmid of Rav Trugman, I remember this because we were looking recently, I found the Flip, this thingy.
I'll find it when we were doing, we were moving some boxes. I pulled it out, you have to put it into a USB, it's a USB, you have to plug it in right? And then it uploads whatever video, I'm like thinking, there's no way this thing still works. It did. And it uploaded all these videos of Tiferet's simchat bat.
It was very, very special. Rabbi Raz Hartman was there and he wrote a new song there and for, in honor of Tiferet. It was in the Israel Center, I don't think the Israel Center is there anymore, the OU Center in Rechov Keren Hayesod, is it still? No, they moved, they moved somewhere else. So in any event, Rabbi Trugman gets on the camera and he says na'utz sofan bitchilatan, exactly what it said here.
He said because Tiferet... starts with a Tav and ends with a Tav. Like that's how a student of Rav Ginsburgh thinks normally when he, when he, that's what he said, na'utz sofam bit'chillatan, that she'asof veha'hatchala kshurim, that the end and the beginning are connected. Now I'm thinking that this really connects to the name of our youngest child because her name is Chava Geula because Chava is the beginning and Geula is, right? So it's also there you see something going on.
Right. Should I read what you're saying? The end of Reuven and the beginning of Binyamin is the end of Reuven is ben and the beginning of Binyamin is ben. It's another hint the end being connected to the beginning because the end of Reuven is ben. Yeah.
But he's the so he's the first. The end is na'utz starts with ben. Right. Very good.
That's the pshat of Rabbi Levi's statement. The Reu and Yamin. Well, he has as a side. No, no.
We're going to get there in a second. You guys are whoo! It's a good sign. It means the brain is already trained to think in the way of the Mashpia and so on.
מה מקשרת ההתחלה של היהודי והסוף של היהודי? So what connects the beginning of a Yid to an end of a Yid? Ben.
Meaning ראובן אומר שתמיד צריך לראות שכל יהודי הוא בן של הקדוש ברוך הוא. The reason that the name, the common denominator between the first shevet and the last shevet is the letters Bet-Nun, ben, is because שבטי יה יחד שבטי ישראל, the avoda of all the shevatim is to be able to bring about the awareness that every single Yid is a ben. And it's very hard these days to remember that and to feel that and we have no choice. Ein ma la'asot.
Ein ma la'asot. It'd be easier if it wasn't like this, but it is like this. Now this is a very interesting thing. Don't read ahead.
Let me ask you. Why why do you think did you ever stop and wonder why Hashem created us with two ears? Well, not you. You think about these things like maybe we're supposed to listen twice as much as we speak. Right.
That's a nice drasha. But without the drashas, like why why did you think? The balance. Everything's in the So why why aren't there two mouths? Two sets of teeth. How much trouble we'd get into with two mouths.
Two noses. Oh, so you'll see there's two nostrils. But you could you could ask just about anything, you know? Two heads. Two chins.
Two perspectives. Two perspectives. So that's so that's very good but why so why is that not like that with everything? Meaning certain things in our face are two but not everything. You hear something and maybe think in two perspectives? Yafeh me'od.
Now I'm going to ask you the question about the eyes. So why are there two eyes? Same thing I guess. Two perspectives of how I see things? How you see things. Very good.
Very good. I could sense the person that named you had a strong kavana when I named him Baruch Hashem. Okay.
השם ברא את האדם עם שתי עיניים לראות את החבר בעין ימין.
God created man with two eyes to look at your friend with the right eye. You're supposed to Look that's what you use to look at people. Now not obviously you're not going to start walking around like when you see people be like I see you, you know, or just try to look with your right eye. But obviously it has a deeper meaning over here.
Ma ha'kavana?
לראות את המעלות שלו. With the right eye.
ימין השם רוממה ימין השם עושה חיל. With the right eye I'm looking at a person.
לכל אדם בעולם יש גם מעלות וגם חסרונות. Each person in this world has maylos, has good things about them and not so good things about them.
אבל כשמסתכלים על יהודי כדי לראות שהוא בן, but with the right eye I'm looking at a person to see that they're they're in the parsha of mishpacha, צריך לראות רק את המעלות. I have to just see the good things about people.
לשם כך יש את עין ימין. And that's why you have the right eye. Kashur le'Binyamin. That this has to do with Binyamin, right? Ben Yamin.
I'm using the right eye to see the ben with Binyamin.
בעין ימין צריך לראות שכל אחד הוא בן.
אבל כשאני מסתכל על עצמי צריך לראות גם את החסרונות שלי כדי לתקן את עצמי. But when I'm looking at myself, I actually can't just be Ben Yamin.
I have to look at the things I have to work on כדי לתקן את עצמי.
לשם כך צריכים את עין שמאל. That's why I need the left eye for. I was thinking about this.
What do we know about Reuven? Reuven is the grandfather, great-great-grandfather of... of the Navi Hoshea, and Hoshea was the one that said Shuva Yisroel, right? He's the baal teshuva. Shuva... what's the posuk?
קחו עמכם דברים ושובו אל השם.
And Reuven we see in the Torah as well, like we don't know that much about him, but one thing we know, the parsha of Mechiras Yosef is that Reuven already from the beginning realizes he has to... Yehuda becomes the master baal teshuva but Reuven from the get-go is already in this thing of I need to do a cheshbon nefesh. What just happened over here? I'm the bechor, how in the world did I let this happen with my brother, right? So teshuva like doing a cheshbon nefesh with ayin smol, that's for me the second eye. The right eye, Binyamin, Ben Yamin, I look at everyone with the ayin tova.
The left eye is more klapei pnim, inwards, that I have to do a cheshbon nefesh on myself. Yeah.
כשאני mitbonen al atzmi, bottom paragraph, עושה חשבון נפש ורואה שאיני מושלם.
אף אחד לא מאה אחוז בסדר.
אני רואה את החסרונות מבקש מהשם שיעזור לי לתקן את עצמי.
לכן יש שתי עיניים.
עין ימין להסתכל על מעלות החבר, kol yisrael chaverim, and I have an ayin smol le'avir bikoret chiyuvis. The ayin smol, the left eye, is in order to give over what's bikoret chiyuvis? Constructive criticism.
קוראים לכך ביקורת בונה. In Hebrew constructive criticism is bikoret bona, gam milashon ben, right? Bikoret bona or binyan builds me up, also the same letters as ben, al atzmi, She'etaken et ma'asai, that I should fix my actions.
שגם אם אני בכלל במצב טוב צריך להיות עוד יותר טוב. And even if I'm doing okay, I can always with constructive criticism do better.
You don't look at someone and be like I'm looking at you with an ayin yamin and you could be so much better, like that's not your tafkid. That's maybe a mechanech's tafkid or a parent, but not, you know, regular human beings. Chodesh Tammuz, entering another period where we're starting, you're going to hear all the vorts in the next month about ahavas chinam and all these things. Like is anyone going to be inspired by another vort about ahavas chinam? We hear it every year, the reason of the churban, it's the same dance, it's the same thing going round and round and round.
The avoda, let's nip it in the bud, let's start already now, Rosh Chodesh Tammuz, Lamed Sivan, Rosh Chodesh Tammuz, that already now we're saying I'm not waiting for Shiva Asar B'Tammuz to kick in and start looking at people like this. From now, from now already. I'm davening, my tefillah to Hashem is, רצון לפני הקדוש ברוך הוא that I'm able to look at people and remember that they're banim l'Hashem Elokeichem. And please God, whoever needs to be looked at like this, it should be through my eyes.
That please God, I should have the zechia to look at someone in a certain way that causes them to remember they're part of the, not just they're part of the family, בנים אתם לה' אלקיכם. And just by the way that I'm looking at them, lift them up and also have enough guts, don't wait for Elul for cheshbon nefesh, to do it already now, to do it already now, beginning now Tammuz. They say there's all these rashei teivos already from Tammuz, I forget what it is, but they're all connected to like that Elul's around the corner. Av is easy, it's Elul Ba.
Tammuz was... Oh man, I forget it right now, but I'll get it by next year. But it's already around the corner. Tammuz and Av are just really preparing us so that when we come to do the teshuva we want to do in Elul, we know we spent two months looking at people b'ayin tova.
This is much easier said than done, it's easy to do this in a room with people that more or less look alike, think alike, and choose to live in the same place. It's not a chochma to do it here. I mean it's also important, it's not a chochma to do it here. The chochma is to do it with people that you would write off in a second.
And there are plenty of people like that. All of us have plenty of people that we would write off in a second. Ein ma la'asot, בנים אתם לה' אלקיכם. Reuven, Shimon.
This is what we're going to be working on now, yeah.
תסתכל מימין ויש זכויות. Tammuz. I'm like he wants to start talking in Hebrew, I didn't know.
אין בעיה עכשיו רוצה לדבר עברית? Anachnu ba'aretz.
תסתכל מימין ויש זכויות. Okay, we don't have to find anything.
תמיד מצא ווארט זריז.
תמיד מצא ווארט זריז. Always find a fast word. Who wants to count? One more? Anyone else? I'll leave that for homework b'ezrat Hashem. Okay, it should be a beautiful day, a gut chodesh, nissim v'niflaos, v'nahafochu.
Achashveirosh should finally just be quiet. Just be quiet. And may Binyamin who's the Prime Minister act like Binyamin b'ezrat Hashem. Bonayich, the builders.
Talking about yourself.
רבי חנניה בן עקשיא אומר רצה הקדוש ברוך הוא לזכות את ישראל לפיכך הרבה להם תורה ומצוות שנאמר ה' חפץ למען צדקו יגדיל תורה ויאדיר. Amen. Yasher koach.
Yasher koach.