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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.
חברה, good morning. The breakfast is sponsored by the Wisels in memory of Danny's grandfather, חנוך זונדל בן יעקב, זכרונו לברכה, זכותו יגן עלינו, תהא נשמתו צרורה בצרור החיים, and he should have continued the נשמה receives infinite נחת, he should have continued נחת from his אייניקלאך from everywhere, all over the world. Happens to be also that it's also the יארצייט of someone who he was very close to. That's the ריבניצער רבי, whose יארצייט רב חיים זנוויל בן משה, בן הרב משה, which is today also.
So I don't know, this is like a perk for כהנים and לויים, but when I go to wash, when בנצי and I and my father, we go to wash, this is the real בעל תפילה. And רב אליהו, of course, huh? Ah, so let's sing the ריבניצער's ניגון that we always כמעט always.
חובה. חובה.
חנוך זונדל was ממש like a שריד of the יידן. You don't really see it in, it happened to be, they're not, they're not born the same way. He lost his whole family, Second World War. He was born around 1908, and he went back to his hometown, which was Beregszász, and he met my grandmother, and they had a whole another family.
And he was very, he was very close to the ריבניצער רבי, and every year he would go visit him and he would ask for permission to make עליה. And it was his dream. It was his dream to come to ארץ ישראל, his dream. And every year it was denied, until 1971 the רבי gave him a ברכה, he said, "This is, this is the year." And he made it to ארץ ישראל, he's buried in רחובות.
And every, every סוכות, when they were still in Russia, my grandfather was able to sneak a לולב and אתרוג, and he made sure everybody shook that לולב and אתרוג. Everybody shook that לולב and אתרוג.
שמחת תורה he would come home, lunch, and my uncle told me that he would be able to fill of tears, bowls of tears. He would just cry.
Like, what's that fountain with monkeys here? Just cried over the over the יידן, his children. And it's just like, maybe he built, he built something for me here and I can build on his dreams.
כן יהי רצון. That's a that's a picture of him? That's his picture.
Wow. Wow. Wow, אשריכם, יישר כח, Danny.
זכותו יגן עלינו ועל כל עם ישראל, בעזרת השם.
Okay. The the month of תשרי is sponsored by the Reinetzes, לעילוי נשמת רב משה בן רב מנחם, לעילוי נשמת my uncle שמואל בן רב שלמה הכהן, anonymously for a זיווג הגון for אסתר בת שרחה, נחמה מרים בת צינה פערל, יואל אביה בת חנה דבורה, and גליה בת יהודית. And like we said, today's the sponsorships for Danny's אבא, his grandfather, חנוך זונדל בן יעקב, and the week is sponsored by my in-laws, בנימין and ברברה סלסקי in honor of the בת מצוה of their granddaughter, my niece, אמונה בת טניה מלכה האנעקמאן. So שמחות all around, בעזרת השם.
Okay.
חברים, first of all, a good winter.
חורף בריא, חורף עמוק, חורף פנימי, חורף שמח. This is now ויעקב הלך לדרכו.
Now we're going on the way, packing the bags, we put it all in, and now it's now it's game time. Now it's really game time. So I'm just first of all, a word of thanks to everyone for really giving their all, and we should be געבענטשט to be for many more years with our with our families to to bask in the light of the צדיקים, and the words of the מחזור and the words of our heart should continue to illuminate and bring us a רצון to want to be alive and to be alive as עבדי השם, כל ימי חיינו. About I think half a year ago, I was you know, I have like my my חברה in Toronto's like one of my favorite חברות in the world.
You know many of them, they've been here. A few of them were here הושענא רבה. Yeah, the the best חברה, they become part of our משפחה. So the last time I was there, I got in late Thursday night.
It was a whole שבת, and I was so tired, but when I got there, they have a שיחת חברים חבורה on Thursday nights, late Thursday night in alternating homes. So one of the, where I was staying is where the חבורה was that night, and they pulled out a ספר that Rav Weinberg had told them to start learning. I looked at the ספר, I ליבי נשבה בקרבו. Not נשבע with an ע, with a ה.
It was taken into captivity. Because I'm looking at this ספר, I'm like this is like every everything. It's just you'll see, you'll see. I won't have to explain too much, you'll see.
It's a ספר that plugs in the יסודות, the foundations of all the things we're speaking about in a very מסודרדיק way, and it covers every צדיק, every רבי, and every רב that any of us have learned, but in a מסודר way.
פשוט, I don't have any other words for it, just דבש, honey. Over the summer, when I was meeting with Rav Weinberg, we spoke about this ספר, and he was teaching it on שבת afternoons up in the mountains. And you'll see, it's just דברים המשיבים לכל נפש.
I am working on getting copies. When I told my brother about this, he says, "The מחבר was my חברותא." Rav Nissan, he lived in Far Rockaway, I think he's somewhere in the Five Towns area now, I'm not sure. He's the grandson of Reb Shlomo Twerski from Denver. His mother is the daughter, if I got it right, his mother is the daughter of Reb Shlomo Twerski, which means his uncle, his mother's brother is ביה אנא רחיץ, it's that family.
It's that family. There's a few ספרים he has. This one is just פשוט משהו כל כך יפה, and I want to jump right into it. I am working I'm working on getting copies.
I spoke to someone early this morning even to try to work on it. And כסדר, I believe this is a journey. This is a beautiful, wonderful, wonderful journey of לימוד, of יסודות, of foundations, of basics that'll this is like ויעקב הלך לדרכו, packing the bags: ראש השנה, יום כיפור, סוכות, שמיני עצרת, שמחת תורה, יאללה, how are you how are you getting there? Cuz really, there is no other way to hold on to what what what the experiences of תשרי were unless we unless we learn. Unless we speak unless we learn.
So we're learning, בעזרת השם. As you see, you're all going to be enticed to start reading ahead because it's not the hardest Hebrew. What I always ask in our שיעורים, not to read ahead because I want us to learn. Each each everyone is going to have something to share, you'll see, as we go along.
It's דברים המשיבים לכל נפש, and I want it to be in a way that everyone's in this, we're learning this together. Where do we start off with? A Yid has to start with אמונה.
אין עוד משהו.
השם יתברך וישראל, פרק א', אמונה, השם יתברך וישראל.
ויהי נועם ה' אלוקינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו.
ויהי נועם ה' אלוקינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו.
ויהי נועם ה' אלוקינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו.
השם יתברך וישראל: ראשית והתחלת עבודת השם יתברך היא אמונה.
It starts from there. An עבד השם begins his journey with faith.
לא רק להאמין במציאות השם יתברך ואמיתת תורתו הקדושה, not only to believe in the existence of הקדוש ברוך הוא and the authenticity, the true authenticity of the holy Torah, אלא להאמין בעוצם רוממותו וגדולתו יתברך, to also believe in the exalted greatness of השם, how great השם is. Now here's the kicker, here's the kicker: ואיך שיחד עם כל רוממותו, הוא אוהב כל אחד מישראל וקרוב אליו תמיד.
And together with Him being so exalted, He loves every single person from עם ישראל and is always close to him. Now I could prove to everyone right now that you actually believe in what he said, at least a שטיקל. Why? Why? Because, well, we're here, but I'm saying, but like כאילו בדרך מאוד מכוון, you know, everyone the whole the whole פסוקי דזמרה is הללו שמי השמים והמים אשר מעל השמים, it's all about the world, God's great, ויושע השם ביום ההוא, הקדוש ברוך הוא so big, he's so great. But then what happens in שמונה עשרה? I go under my טלית, and it's just me and the ריבונו של עולם.
And that contrast between השם is מלוא כל הארץ כבודו, ואני הקטן בתוכם, is an עיקר of אמונה, as he's going to explain to us, starting off with the הייליגע סניגורן של ישראל, קדושת לוי.
כמו שכתב בקדושת לוי שאנו בני ישראל צריכים להאמין בשני בחינות.
אמונה is believing in two different aspects.
האחד שהבורא ברוך הוא רחוק, והשני שהוא קרוב.
On the one hand, sounds funny, right? I have to believe השם is so far, and on the other hand, that the ריבונו של עולם is so close. How does that work?
בחינת רחוק, what does it mean that God is so far?
הוא שאנו מאמינים שהאור אין סוף ברוך הוא הוא קדמון לכל הקדומים. God is the most what's that right word, primordial, right? Of all primordials, זאת אומרת, there's nothing further in our concept of time than the ריבונו של עולם.
ואין שום בריה בעולם יכול להשיגו, בלא שום אופן, ושרף אשר ישיגו, and no, even, no angel, nothing can כאפ the ריבונו של עולם, כי הוא למעלה מן ההשגה, because He's above the concept of grasping.
God is above all these concepts of grasping.
וזה בחינת רחוק, שהוא רחוק מן ההשגה. He is far from the concept of being able to put God into some kind of a like a container, or like this is what God is, וכולי. The truth is, that's why, in the 12 Step Program, the only time I had this like trouble with with with the לשון is cuz they refer to it as the God of of our understanding.
So, צריך שם עיון. Like, that's how they always refer, "God of my understanding," "God of our understanding." Here he's saying, but but a איד always realizes like the second that I understand Him, the פנימיות is that I don't, right? I'm not By the way, I'm the biggest supporter of I'm not trying to חלילה ruin our Monday nights at 7:00 p.m. upstairs, whoever needs it. It's It's been a tremendous קידוש השם what goes on here Mondays at 7:00 p.m. with the program. It's changing We have a 12 Step Program upstairs in the social hall every Monday night, 7:00 p.m. It has transformed full families in the קהילה, and also people that are coming from outside the קהילה.
I'm not, חלילה, downing, I'm just saying that was always something that I was struggling with, because here, what he's saying is end of a cuz if the God אלס פנימיות, there is no such thing as the God of my understanding. There's many ways to philosophically now stretch this and take this to many areas. The point that he's making over here is, the בארדיטשעווער is saying, God is בחינת רחוק. God is far.
Far in the concept not far from me, far in the concept of my ability to comprehend what this concept of the ריבונו של עולם is. That's בחינת רחוק. Now, בחינת קרוב, what does it mean that God is close?
ובחינת קרוב הוא שאנו מאמינים שהבורא ברוך הוא ממלא כל עלמין ובגו כל עלמין ומקיף כל עלמין. That God surrounds all "Lord, You fill all worlds, and surround all worlds, and, Lord, without You, there is no world at all." Like that בחינה of קרוב is that God is in every single detail, every single thing is Godliness.
It's אלוקות everywhere. That's קרוב.
ולית אתר פנוי מיניה, there is no place that's void of Him.
כי מלוא כל הארץ כבודו, וזו בחינת קרוב.
That's what close means. I want to make sure we're all there together, right? What is רחוק?
רחוק from my concept of being able to grasp.
קרוב, that I believe that God is intimately involved in every single thing in the world.
עד כאן דבריו הקדושים, that's the ראשי תיבות you see at the end, right? That is the קדושת לוי.
והיינו שיהיה לאדם הידיעה והאמונה שהשם יתברך ברוך הוא וברוך שמו הוא אין סוף בלי גבול ותכלית, רם ונשא, נורא ונשגב, למעלה מעלה מכל השגה, higher than any comprehension, ואפילו מלאך, המלאך היותר גבוה, the highest angel, ואף נשמת משה רבינו עליו השלום בגן עדן. This sounds חוצפדיק, but he's משה רבינו would be the first person to say this. Even the נשמה right now of משה רבינו עליו השלום that's in גן עדן, אינו תופס ומשיג מהותו יתברך כי לית מחשבה תפיסא ביה כלל. As we know, the תיקוני זוהר says none of the מחשבות can be תופס such a thing.
וכל מה שנגלה לנו מאורו יתברך, whatever is revealed to us, הוא רק זיו כל שהוא, וכעין דמי לעומת אמיתת מהותו שהוא רחוק ממנו בתכלית הריחוק. Every single time we have this moment of aha! So is that true, or is that not true? It's true, but what is it? Well, he uses a certain word, and and anyone that has studied אלטר רבי knows where this wh- what he's referring to. What word did he say over here?
זיו. What's the זיו? If you learn שער היחוד והאמונה, over there the אלטר רבי goes very deep into it, פרק א ו-ב, that whatever השגות we have is כזיו קרני השמש.
It's just a it's like the outer like A ray, a ray, right? What what what's the exact לשון you use? A glimmer, yeah. But where's it where's in its source, like if you go closer and try to get closer and closer to that, what happens to our eyesight?
אי אפשר, right? So it's just a glimmer. It's just a glimmer of ray. That that that that's all it is, which many people have to realize like when we do have the aha moment, right? So what what's the problem with it? If I go to the first thing the קדושת לוי says, ah, ובבחינת רחוק, what do I say about my own השגה? Ah, נישט, it's nothing.
But that's not true. It's a it's a it's a revelation, it's a beautiful gift, it's a kiss, השם saying, "I'm going to I'm going to send you a little I'm going to drop you a little heart here. But please, like keep on keep on keep the journey going, like keep on going, it's but don't think you חאפ'ט the whole thing," you know. We we meet people like this quite often.
They had an הארה. They had a הארה. What's the הארה? So you know some ברסלברס will have the הארה and they'll be like, "I have to make sure every single Jew gets to אומן to say the תיקון הכללי on the רבי'ס ציון, and that's the that's the אמת, and that's the only אמת that exists in the world," right? And you have this in other קבוצות as well. Obviously, כמעט everyone in this room has done that, so we we do have התקשרות to this.
But to say that that we חאפ'ט the game, משה רבינו didn't חאפ the game. And משה רבינו in גן עדן right now, as just a soul, hasn't חאפ'ט the game, which comes to show us that our minds need to be rewired when it comes to אמונה.
אמונה has nothing to do with cracking codes.
אמונה has nothing to do with proofs.
אמונה has nothing to do with saying it's almost like חברה that are obsessed with Candy Crush. You ever realize that is it's פשוט לא נגמר, you know, להבדיל אלף אלפי הבדלות, right? And they're sucking money out of you, and you're putting this in, this like all these things זה לא נגמר, זה אין לדבר סוף, להבדיל אלף אלפי הבדלות everything, obviously. So first we're putting the foundations down, רחוק and קרוב. For some Now this is the this is what talked to me so much.
For some people, they're much more bothered by the concept of רחוק, and by others they're much more bothered by the concept of קרוב. You hear what I'm saying?
ארי, you don't understand? By some people, their struggle with being in the in the process, by being part of the the game, is the concept of that השם is so רחוק. If it's so רחוק, then why I'm just setting myself up for disappointment, and and, you know, and Kind of, yeah. Now though, but then you have those that are saying, "No, no," what they struggle with is, "I can't I can't deal with the concept of קרוב, because if God is קרוב, then what does that actually mean?" Right, which he'll say in a second, but what does it mean about למעשה my own life? No, a fool.
If I think I think what נפתלי is saying, if it's if God is so קרוב, then why don't I feel it? Now, another thing could be, I'm not so Right. I'd rather it not be so קרוב, let it be רחוק. My web browser will Right, you know, my finger my thumbs will be feeling much better, my whole body will feel better about certain things. It's and and he's starting off by saying, חברה, listen, you know, David Sachs used to always say the most גוואלדיגע thing.
He said someone that denies the existence of God is like someone is like two, and he has had a conversation about it with someone, it's like two people that go to a restaurant, and one loves his dish that he is served, and one can't stand the dish that he is served, right? So the person that doesn't like the dish that he was served, he basically says, I can't stand this dish so much, I deny the existence of the chef. Sounds so funny, right? But that happens to us so much. Like, I'm so disgusted with my dish, איי, משמע, that must mean that I I deny the existence of the chef. How did I get to there? Because I can't make sense of a God that gave me a dish that I don't like, right? So first of all, אמונה is not saying good, bad.
We're not talking about that yet. Here we're just saying רחוק וקרוב. Like, at a table right now, סעודה'ס, you know, we're having a סעודה, a זיידע, a מסירת נפש'דיגע זיידע, and we're all sitting here, it's noch שמחת תורה, we're all the אורות are still there. Obviously, this this is not a it's maybe right now we would say, is God קרוב? Maybe it's easier for us to say, I feel the בחינה of קרוב.
But is it just as easy for me to say, while He's קרוב, that He's so רחוק?
בטח. Because it's not something that sometimes it's like this and sometimes it's like that. It's constantly both. Constantly both.
Always. I mean, the only time you'd probably feel like it's not is if you're really tapped into התבודדות. Because then the concept of קרוב definitely overrides the feeling of רחוק. Anyone that's ever really been in the program, anyone that has had that that daily, you know, committed relationship with התבודדות knows exactly what we're talking about.
Those moments are קרוב שבקרוב שבקרוב שבקרוב. It is. It's hard. But רחוק I wouldn't say so much at that moment, but the פנימי, the אמת'דיגע Yid would say, 100%, I still don't grasp anything, but I feel the קירבת השם so immensely powerfully in my heart.
Okay, that's so far a קדושת לוי helping us distinguishing between the two בחינות. But now we have Reb Pinchas Koritzer. Look what he says.
ועם כל זה, and with all of this, השם יתברך קרוב לנו מאוד, כי מלוא כל הארץ כבודו ולית אתר פנוי מיניה כלל, והוא משגיח בהשגחה פרטית על כל דבר ותנועה שבבריאה.
God, there is השגחה פרטית on every single thing in creation. Who doesn't hold like this, by the way? Right, so the רמב״ם. This is the famous this is a famous מחלוקת that seems to have a lot of ramifications. We're we're holding here that, you know, it's not the רמב״ם or the or or the בעל שם טוב, but חז״ל were saying, you know, not that they're not part of חז״ל, but you know what I'm saying, even even further back, אין לך כל עשב מלמטה, you know, every single blade of grass, the only reason why it grew, arose, is because there's a מלאך בשמים that says to it at that moment, גדל.
Grow, grow big. But for now, we're talking about the השגחה פרטית.
ועם כל זה השם יתברך קרוב לנו מאוד, כי מלוא כל הארץ כבודו ולית אתר פנוי מיניה, והוא משגיח בהשגחה פרטית על כל דבר ותנועה שבבריאה, מקרני ראמים עד ביצי כינים, עד שלשול קטן שבים. You know what that means?
ביצי כינים, like the egg of lice, not just כינים.
Right. Right, exactly! Like, כאילו the the detail of the detail of the detail of the detail to a flow of a certain wave that happens in the ocean.
ושאפילו, and it says over here, כמו שכתב באמרי פנחס, like Reb Pinchas Koritzer says, שאפילו קש המונח בארץ, wheat, right, that's that's placed in the in the earth, הוא בהשגחה פרטית שיהא מונח לרוח זה ולא לרוח אחרת, עד כאן דברי קדשו. Meaning, the the the כאילו the Movement, the placement of how wind, the wind is going to blow towards the growth of all vegetation is also completely בהשגחה פרטית.
That's אמונה. Does it mean that I have to understand it?
חלילה. It's impossible. We can't understand it, but it is like that.
והוא משגיח על הכל רק בחסד ורחמים, כמו שכתוב, like the גמרא says, everything's השגחה through compassion and mercy, כל מאי דעביד מן שמיא לטב, וכתיב טוב ה' לכל ורחמיו על כל מעשיו.
וכל שכן, so we're very fine with like, oh, that's cool with nature and vegetation, but what about us? And that's the point of this ספר. To say, I believe in God that the rain comes exactly when it needs to, or to say that my mind, you know, that the birds, you know, with they sing at that moment, or the wheat or the barley or all those things grow, and to say, I'm such a הייליגער ייד cuz I believe that that's all בהשגחה פרטית. Then when it comes to your own ד' אמות, the אייבערשטער doesn't need you to come down into this world to be קובע, nature runs by השגחה פרטית.
That's not God doesn't need us to come, you know, that's not, that's a very boring creation, you know, that blueprint of creation is very boring. The ענין is exactly what you know he's going to say right now.
וכל שכן שמשגיח על כל אדם ואדם ומנהיגו ברחמים. And this is the hardest thing in the world.
We were speaking in the סוכה ליל הושענא רבא about בזיונות. Person, people go through בזיונות all the time. To believe that that was השגחה פרטית? Now what would if someone came and insulted me, someone hurt me, someone stole from me, robbed me, I don't know, whatever it is. And then I have this concept of השגחה פרטית, right? So where do I where do I get confused in then? Free will aspect.
Right, because then what happens? Does he not have any responsibility Does he not have any responsibility, meaning if someone came and ממש, really like ממש insulted me, let's say, insulted you, we go through this all the time, בזיונות, this is the world, it's where we're in. So if I say, everything's השגחה פרטית, right? Then what's if I don't understand that properly, what do I what do I end up becoming?
באמת, what what do I end up becoming? A שמאטע. And בדיוק, and the רבונו של עולם doesn't want me to become a שמאטע. That's not the point.
So the plug-in here is to try to figure out, so what does this mean, השם, that everything that you're doing is השגחה פרטית with me as well when it comes to בין אדם לחבירו. When it comes to בין אדם למקום, it's a separate thing, but when it comes to בין אדם לחבירו, that's where the that's where it gets very very testing. Isn't that where isn't that why he's רחוק? Meaning, in those ענינים we don't understand. We try to figure out where the where the רחמים is in all the bad things.
It's an illusion, because when השם's good to me, does that mean He's קרוב? It feels קרוב. It feels, but it's an illusion. That can't be the determining factor between רחוק and קרוב. Some would say that when when you are being attacked A ברסלבר would say when I'm Right, when you when you're actually being insulted, that's when He's more קרוב, because He's giving you the opportunity to No, the way what's happening to you is the קרוב, and the way you relate to the other person is רחוק.
Some people understand I told you the story when they were throwing Right. Remember that story when on סוכות where they were throwing they were throwing those things at me on stage, and you know, and such a it was like, I'm not נפתלי tackled the stage cuz some some drunk kids came and charged me ממש, I was playing. He came and charged them off the stage. So, it was it was wild, but I told you that there was one ייד that was waiting, when he saw this happen, one of the technicians.
So, he came running after me after I walked off stage, and he put his head down right away, asking for a ברכה.
ביזיון ענק מה שנקרא. When did that download? 5 minutes ago. Oh, yeah? I was waiting for the right moment.
השגחה פרטית, that was the right, how perfect. Perfect, perfect moment. So why is the difference between בין אדם למקום, you said that's a different thing. Meaning, we relate to it differently, because if it's בין אדם למקום I say, רבונו של עולם, I got a ביזיון, I believe באמונה שלימה that this is for my best.
It doesn't make me into a שמאטע. When it's someone else, right? And I just walk around as מבוזה, then, and I'm kind of in this place of, I'm not going to tell him anything cuz this was השגחה פרטית, then another person's going to come and dump his his whole thing on me. I'll be מבוזה and מבוזה and מבוזה. At the end of the day, you see, with God, I don't have anything I could actually do.
With another person, there's something I could actually do about it, right?
בית דין, there's all these different things we could do, you could say about it. Yeah. I don't know, maybe it's possible if the person is holding and בין אדם לחבירו something happens to him, and then they're just like they're feeling that it's from השם, even they don't understand it, and they're doing like חשבון הנפש of maybe what they could have done to, you know, and how they're going to prove themselves, maybe maybe it can make them a lot...
הלוואי! Could be, that ideal, that that that that's a beautiful, healthy way to deal with it, right? But, of course, that's a beautiful, healthy way to deal with it.
You know, רבי נחמן writes, I think it's תורה ו', ישמע בזיונו, what does he say then?
ידום וישתוק. Like that שתיקה that comes after a ביזיון is you really have to believe ממש at that moment that קרוב ה' לכל קוראיו לכל אשר יקראוהו באמת. That's a moment of like, okay, I know this looks like מרחוק, I'm going to invite השם מקרוב right now, because I can't get through this any other way. I can't get through I can't get through this any other way.
What to what to what Zev said, that like if a person goes ahead and he's מבזה you, are you going to then go ahead the following day and give him a big hug with that מחשבה that you were saying before? Cuz you're still going to, בעזרת השם, come and give הקדוש ברוך הוא a hug by whatever, coming to דאווען, or whatever it may be. So that that's that's the difference of what רב שלמה was saying, that you can do something about that, but you can not just can't do something about that. So the question then becomes, that person who's מבזה you, are you going to still have a relationship with that with that individual? Right. Meaning, sometimes sometimes it's like, okay, I מודה ועוזב ירוחם, בסדר.
So the person asks for forgiveness, בסדר, you you forgive them. It doesn't mean you have to invite them to your שבת table next week. You know, that's not necessarily the healthiest thing either. Yeah, אלי.
So the בערדיטשעווער, it's known, you know, it's ידוע, so to speak, he, that's right, he was able to מלמד זכות for כלל ישראל in the biggest way. I know, but I just want to say I בדווקא didn't mention his name now because those stories about him messed me up so much. Because the spitting in the face, because I felt so low after hearing those stories about like people spitting in his face and בזיונות. And losing a tooth on שבת.
Yeah, all these things, like I I want to bring it down to a place that I could actually do something with it. We know we have צדיקים that lived like this, it's, of course. It's an implied version of everything we learned. To the It's an implied version in the most ideal state.
But I wanted to דווקא be in a on a level that we could walk out of here and feel like יש לנו סיכוי להנצל. That we have a chance, you know? That that that's why. That's why It's the only reason why I I I'm I'm nervous to דווקא go to these צדיקים about them, because I don't know, like if someone spat in my face and then I remembered the בערדיטשעווער story, you know, would I be so, you know? You have רב שלמה.
הלוואי.
So I was you and I same I was about to say, רב שלמה?
רב שלמה lived like this.
רב שלמה lived he actually did live like this.
רב שלמה lived like this. People cursed at him, spat at him, ממש.
They did. And only when he saw if someone if if they did it to someone else, then he would say something. But on himself, he never did. Or with the Jews for Jesus.
That was about הקדוש ברוך הוא. That wasn't about him. Yeah, yeah, it wasn't about him.
נכון, נכון.
Okay, one more paragraph, okay? Sorry, we're just going to end the second paragraph. But I just want to say, I have friends who were walking with him in ירושלים, walked to the כותל with him, and and ממש היימישע היימישע חסידים spat at him and cursed him. They one time didn't even let him get close to the כותל.
תשעה באב, the whole story, remember the story?
תשעה באב, they didn't even let him get close to the כותל, they were spitting at him and screaming at him, and they that they he he couldn't get he couldn't get there.
The הייליגע אמשינאווער רבי, the previous רבי, זכותו יגן עלינו, רב מאיר, heard about this, and a few hours later, there's you know, I don't know how that works today, if they let the רבי'ס in on תשעה באב with the car. It wasn't as big as it as it is today. Today it'd probably be impossible. But back then, so they did, and they see the אמשינאווער רבי is coming out of the taxi, and רב שלמה was coming out of the taxi with him.
And he went up to the כותל, and then the רבי said to him, "נו, שלמה, now's a good time for a new ניגון." No? And he wrote the, he wrote that, that beautiful ובירושלים, yeah. Not the one that the, you guys know, the, the one that's less known, ובירושלים ירחם. Because the truth is, when you are able to bring down קרוב at a moment that seems totally רחוק, all שערי שמים open instantly. Now that, that is true, but that's a very, very high level.
When someone insults you, when someone's מבזה you, and to then do that, זה לא פשוט, and I don't want to set people up for, for disappointments. I want to work with, in a, in a, in a level באופן השוה, in a way that we could do something with it. Let's finish this paragraph.
וכל שכן שמשגיח על כל אדם ואדם ומנהיגו ברחמים.
ולא יניחם, ולא יתעלם מהם, ולא יסור מעינו דבר מהם, מקטנם ועד גדולם. God doesn't ignore anybody. This is a basic tenet of faith. The אייבערשטער does not ignore and doesn't hide Himself to the point of not being able to be found on any level to anybody.
ואהבת השם יתברך לכלל ישראל הוא למעלה מכל השגה. You know what's the most רחוק thing in the world on the level of השגה? How much He loves us. Now, a, a burning איד is saying, "Why? Why is that the thing that's the, that I want to be the least thing that's, that's, that's not בר השגה? We need that more than anything. I need, I need to feel that more than anything, that, השם, You love me." And that, that thing, he says, הוא למעלה מכל השגה.
כמו, and he explains, כמו שכתוב בזוהר הקדוש, look what the, look what רב שמעון בר יוחאי says, שאלמלא היו יודעים בני אדם האהבה שאוהב הקדוש ברוך הוא לישראל, היו שואגים. You know what's שואגים? Roaring!
ככפירים, a כפיר, what's a כפיר? Like a lion.
לרדוף אחריו.
כתב באוהב ישראל, the אוהב ישראל says, פרשת שמות, דמי יוכל לשער גודל האהבה והתשוקה הנכבדה שיש להבורא כל עולמים לכנסת ישראל.
No one can even fathom the love.
זרע אברהם אוהבו, אשר בשבילם נבראו כל העולמות עליונים ותחתונים. All worlds, above and below, all continents, the whole world, all beauty of the world, everything that exists in the world was created for, and if Raziel clips this and puts this viral, we will get more hate than we've ever gotten, this was all created for His קינדערלעך, for בני בכורי ישראל. Everything.
Everything.
הכל. You ever been, anyone here ever been to Cape Town? Cape Town. Cape Town is one of the most gorgeous places you'll ever see.
When I went there, so I, I ממש that's, I was shocked at the, I never saw such beauty before, physical beauty, in my life. And I was walking with the רב there, who was a תלמיד also of my ראש ישיבה, רב ברוונדר, and he said to me, "Remember the, remember what the רב used to say?" It's like, "You know when משה רבינו was leaving מצרים, really God told him, 'Take a right,' but he heard 'Take a left'?" You know what I mean? Cuz basically it's, it's, it's a stupid, it's not a stupid joke, it's just a funny, whatever.
לא קשיא. You had to be there.
But you have to see it! All that beauty, that beauty, that's how רב שלמה was מפרש like this, אם אשכחך ירושלים תשכח ימיני, he said. He said that real beauty is, is that when you see something beautiful, right away, when you're in love with someone or something, it makes you think of that thing. So anything beautiful that you see in the world, if you really are holding in love with your wife, what do you see at that moment? You see your wife. So all the beauty that exists in the world, כביכול, when השם sees it, what does He think of?
אידן.
He thinks of us. These are things that are למעלה למעלה מהשגות, right? This is what the אוהב ישראל, דמי יוכל לשער גודל האהבה והתשוקה הנכבדת שיש להבורא כל עולמים לכנסת ישראל, זרע אברהם אוהבו, אשר בשבילם נבראו כל העולמות עליונים ותחתונים, ואת הכל פעל השם למען ישראל עם קדשו.
ועבורם נבראו, for them, כל מיני השפעות נבראו טובות ומיני חסדים טובים, all the goodness of the world was created for them, כי הם עיקר ושורש של הבריאה. They are the עיקר and the root of all creation.
These are, this falls under the category of אמונה. If someone says to you, "Do you believe in השם?" So usually We think that means, do I believe God exists? That's not the Jewish question and answer. When someone asks you from a יידישע perspective, do you believe in God, what are they really asking, based on this? God's involved in everything.
א is, do you believe that God is involved with every single thing in the world?
ב, do you believe that all beauty in the world was created just for you, קינדערלאך? That's what it means, that's the question, do you believe in God, in a Jewish way.
In a non-Jewish way, it's more, do you believe in the power of a Creator, or do you believe God created the heavens and the earth? That's not, this is what I wanted to get really end with, that's not our way of understanding אמונה.
אמונה isn't, does God exist or not exist? It's like a it's so cheap. A יידישע way means, do you believe in God? At least for now, it means a few other things we'll see in a second also, it means, do you actually believe that God is א, impossible to fathom, but on the same instant, involved intimately in every detail of your life? And ב, do you believe that whatever you think love is, God's love for you starts from the place that you can't even imagine could be could be real? That you can't even imagine could be real. These are the this is these are principles of faith that we're that we're plugging back into.
We're going to stop here. This ספר will continue בעזרת השם next Monday, and let me just explain, Wednesday we're starting a new ספר as well, which I'm very, very excited about, and I wanted to see if we could do both of them parallel, and that is the ספר אייכה from רב שמואל ששון, which is a another one of these a gift to our generation that at we could finally begin to understand what רב קוק was talking about. That's that's another journey, we'll start that on Wednesday, and I'm working on those. We already have half those ספרים in stock, and I'm ordering now more, so בעזרת השם we should have הצלחה.
And you're going to do a זימון now? Yeah, do a זימון. Okay, יישר כח. The boys saw him, you're going to bench.
רבותי נברך.
יהי שם ה' מבורך מעתה ועד עולם.