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Redemption restores us to the greatest and healthiest version of us. We seem to be on the way, but what still seems to be getting in the way? Based on the teachings of Rav Ruvain Sasson, we begin to explore these questions.
Alrighty, שבוע טוב. Thank you for coming everybody. We are continuing the month of אייר learning לעילוי נשמת Basya Feiga bas Yisroel. לוי בן יוסף, פרידה סלם בת יצחק, נחום שלום בן יצחק אריה.
And by the Millers sponsoring in honor of Sammy completing the cycle of learning the entire Torah. Today the שיעור is sponsored by our dearest friend Judy Brot לעילוי נשמת Judy's precious sister Ettel Sara bas Yehuda Leib v'Neita on her 31st יארצייט. We love you Judy. Love you so much.
Okay. Here are the pages for those that need. And in the ספר we're on page 208. We continue בעזרת השם to open our hearts, to learn, to learn about משיח, to learn about the גאולה, to learn about all that we're דאווענען for and the learning should bring that day closer and closer and closer and closer.And the question is, is it much, do you feel that it's already much closer or not? This is like the whole ענין that we're in right now.
That many people have this שאלה. And I've had this conversation so many times, I'm sure you have as well, that when someone says, well we want משיח now, and then someone says משיח's here already. And then what's your gut reaction to that statement? משיח's here already. What's the gut reaction? Well, if משיח is here already, this is not what I've been דאווענען for if משיח's here already.
What we began learning last week was the question, what will change and what won't change when משיח's gonna be here? What will actually be different? And we spent, it was a very strong and and not the easiest שיעור to swallow I would say, to really like take in because a lot of those things that we thought were going to be when משיח comes, we have a hard time with the certain statement where it says עולם כמנהגו נוהג. That the truth is משיח, the world of גאולה will be a world where it'll be like it is. עולם כמנהגו נוהג, the world will be like the way you and I woke up, someone's drinking some coffee now, I'm going to have a שלוק of my coffee. משיח comes, that's it, there's no there's no coffee? There's no usage of fingers the way we use our fingers? What what what is that what does that mean exactly? I mean we've discussed that that's not what we're speaking about.
It's not that it's not that suddenly all of us will be waking up in the morning and there'll be this magic carpet that leads us to go do נטילת ידים and then our children will actually be have woken up an hour before, gotten dressed on their own, serving us breakfast in bed. משיח. משיח. And the children will say please please don't don't drive us to school.
It'll it's good for our exercise if we walk. Right? We're we're we're clearly not we're not explaining that. That's not the world we're speaking about. However, however, obviously something will change.
Now the word in Hebrew that we're going to be discussing today to understand the change is the word מהות. מהות. מהות means it could mean essence, it could mean inner meaning. Sometimes it can mean context.
Like some in Ivy League campuses in America have used that word in Congress. It depends on the context. השם ישמור עלינו.There's a story here we're going to begin today that I used to hear from רב שלמה saying it in a certain way. Here it's going to be a little bit different but the point is the same.
And I actually saw someone do this and I'll tell you about it right after we learn this story. I saw someone actually do what we are about to read right now. So on page 208 מסופר על רבי מנחם מענדל מויטבסק. רבי מנחם מענדל דה ויטבסקער רבי, the first רבי to come here to ארץ ישראל and basically make עלייה, him and his dear friend רבי אברהם מקאליסק.
מסופר על רבי מנחם מענדל מויטבסק שפעם אחת נכנס אדם אל ביתו נרעש כולו ובשר שיש שמועה שהמשיח בא. So someone walked in and said רבי there's a rumor משיח came. ניגש הצדיק לחלון he goes to the window פתחו והריח את האוויר שבחוץ. רבי מנחם מענדל מויטבסק goes to the window, opens the window.
He takes a whiff. ולאחר מכן אמר לו אין באוויר ריח של משיח. No, sorry to break it to you. In the air, there's no there's no there's no sign here that there's a smell of משיח coming.
ותלמידיו הסבירו כי היה עליו לפתוח את החלון. His students explained he had to open up the window. שכן בתוך חדרו היה תמיד ריח של משיח. Like the question is why did he have to go and open the window and smell outside? Does the רבי smell inside outside מה זה משנה? Is because inside his room there was always a fragrance of משיח in the room.So when I I told you I saw someone do this once.
רב שלמה would say over this story, you know obviously he would say it in his style where it was more like you know the חסידים were sitting and they were dancing and it was such גוואלד גן עדן and and then the רבי stopped in the middle and he went outside and took a whiff and he came back inside and he looked a little bit downhearted. And the חסידים asked him what happened רבי? He said in here the ריח was that משיח was here already and I went outside to go see what's going on outside there in the world and I saw no, it's just happening in this room. It wasn't outside. What's the story? Back in the day about 25, close to maybe 27, 28 years ago, if there was one place where the דאווענען was fireballs every Friday night, like fire was on the מושב, מושב מבוא מודיעין.
If any of you were ever there for שבת a long time ago, the דאווענען, of course when רב שלמה was there, but even after he checked out and most of the people were still there and most of the kids were still there and God knows how many guests would come to the מושב for שבת, the דאווענען, I'd never experienced anything like it before in my life. Took us to places. I was very blessed. The first time I was ever there, בן ציון סלומון was חזן and and it seemed like 35 of his sons were were were surrounding the בימה and the דאווענען was something out of this world.
I saw רב זושא, I saw little, you know, our dear friend זושא. זושא left the דאווענען in the middle and he went outside. I saw him going like that because he knew this story. He came back inside afterwards.
And he didn't get downhearted but he really just was checking to see, wait a second, is it could it be that it happened, you know? Could it be that it happened? I have to say sometimes, sometimes walking home after שול here on Friday night, I mean השם יש לו רחמנות that I live 30 seconds from here because I just want to, I don't want to check and see if משיח came or not because I want to just keep on holding my אמונה, my belief that it did actually happen and that's what's happening and now we're going to home for a שבת סעודה in משיח צייט, in משיח, in the in the times of משיח.So the question is that he asks over here is what is the meaning of this story? מה משמעות הסיפור הזה? What does the story really mean? וכי, now how do you understand that in his room, in רב מנחם מענדל מויטבסק's room, משיח came but in the rest of the world משיח didn't come? Like certain people that will say משיח has come already, right? You just have to have the you have to have the eyes, you know. I I it's a very hard statement. I I I struggle with that a lot. Like one time I was on someone's rooftop in the old city and for me to look over the מקום המקדש from certain places when you're in the old city and you see a bunch of you know ישמעאלים playing soccer there in the place where the כהן would be doing his עבודה, it's not an easy thing to see at all.
And the person said to me, oh if you really have eyes you could see that it's already there. So that's where they're holding. I I'm not I don't I I don't have those eyes, you know. I don't have those eyes.
I see I see what's physically in front of me. But the question we have over here is like what does this mean? Does this story סתם cute? Or בממש כך היה that in the room of רב מנחם מענדל מויטבסק, משיח had already come? What does that actually mean?אך אנו מוצאים עוד דברים מעין זה. We find a lot of things like this. למשל מובא בשם רבנו הזקן, there's a ספר, you see in the footnote on the bottom פלח הרימון.
פלח הרימון was a ספר written by one of the students of the of the אלתר רבי who was also by the מיטעלער רבי and I also believe by the third רבי with the צמח צדק. His name was רב הלל מפאריטש. He has a ספר פלח הרימון. So it's brought down there.
שכן in the name of the אלתר רבי שלפני נשמות הגבוהות כרבי שמעון בר יוחאי וחבריו לא נחרב הבית. In the presence, in the in the in the in the in whatever was happening in the life of רב שמעון בר יוחאי who we know lived in the time of witnessing utmost destruction, but he says לפני הנשמות הגבוהות כרבי שמעון בר יוחאי וחבריו לא נחרב הבית. Like דאווענען on the מושב on Friday night, like I told you years ago. Like the the בית המקדש was not at that moment the בית המקדש was not destroyed.
By them, by רב שמעון בר יוחאי and his students, their מציאות was that they lived in a world where the בית המקדש was not destroyed. And also here the question is גם כן נשאלת אותה שאלה. הלא רבי שמעון בר יוחאי נרדף מפני הרומאים וסבל את כל קושי גזרותיהם. He was persecuted by the Romans.
And boy did רב שמעון בר יוחאי and his son and his תלמידים suffer. How could you say רב שמעון בר יוחאי hiding in a hiding in a cave for all those years with no real food and no דאווענען and like like like he knew it or anything like that. You're going to say לא נחרב הבית? The Romans were running after him. איך אפשר לומר שלגביו לא נחרב הבית? How can you say about him that the בית המקדש wasn't destroyed? How does that is that just cute? Like that's that's the question that I think you know I'm getting from here.
Is that just cute talk? Is that just sweet talk? Is this this משיח this thing that we just say oh if you really feel it he's here already? Or are we looking and דאווענען for something so much more exalted, refined and encompassing? More than just the experience of an individual. It has to be that it's more. I I think. Does anyone want have any other aspirations? I mean, is anyone here okay if משיח is just this phenomena that happens periodically by individuals? Or are we are we all on the same page that it's about much more?Yeah.It's much much more but there is a גאולה פרטית.Which you attribute to the concept of משיח of like the משיח phenomena?I guess.Okay.
Let's see how he explains this.You're looking at all great רביס. They were they were in it.So that's my question. Is that enough to call that משיח or not? Right? Of course we have situations, you have stories in the שואה. And this is very much Viktor Frankl energy.
Like you have people that they were in the שואה, they had everything taken away from them. But because they never left, they never, no one was ever ever able to take away from them their dreams and their אמונה that that that the world that right now השם אחד ושמו אחד and there's no German standing over me with anything that really is controlling me. It's just the רבונו של עולם. Yes, you could say about that that they're living a much higher level of consciousness.
But we're saying that משיח is here is bigger than just saying I I think that someone has a high higher state, elated state of consciousness of the גאולה. Because most people that were in Auschwitz didn't have these moments of of feeling like this.But on the other hand, if it's עולם כמנהגו נוהג and these people feel that, then for them it is משיח. If there's no German standing over me with a gun, okay, if there's no whatever it is, then it's just their regular life. And and if they're not afraid, it's because they personally have משיח.
I don't know. I can't understand it.Okay.I just said it.Okay. I bless you to understand it as well.אמן.Okay. So let's go down.
Does someone mind putting on a little bit of ventilation? Is that okay? Can you can you Miriam can you mind just pressing that? I'm sure it's not going to be too crazy. We're good? Thank you so much. Thank you. Now I'll just say as I'm seeing your your uh what you're wearing Miriam is that for me, I could fly as high as I want in my own life.
If I have 20 live brothers and sisters that are rotting in a צינוק in עזה, I I hate to say but the fact that משיח may be flying in my life doesn't excite me too much. נכון? Like מה? We we we have we have 20 live people and another what is it 30 or 40 of our brothers and sisters that are not alive, that are their bodies, their Jewish יידישע bodies are. So I could have all the משיח moments in the world but but in light of what I'm דאווענען for. So it seems like זה לא מספיק.
זה לא מספיק. צריכים יותר מזה. So he says like this and we're going to understand this and not need to negate this notion. We'll understand it hopefully a little bit clearer.
ההסבר טמון בהבנה מעמיקה יותר של מושג הגאולה. So we need to understand a little bit clearer the concept of גאולה, of redemption. יש הרואים בגאולה מהפכה של כל המציאות. There are those that view גאולה as a complete revolution of all of reality, עולם חדש, whole new world.
בני אדם חדשים, new people. מבחינה מעשית זה נכון. העולם אכן ישתנה לגמרי. On a certain level, in a certain prism, it is true the world will completely change.
But אך מבחינת המהות הפנימית של הדברים אין כאן שום מהפכה. But regarding the inner context and the essence of what we're speaking about there is no revolution here אלא להפך, but on the contrary. בזמן הגאולה תתגלה מהותו האמיתית של העולם. What will be revealed in the time of משיח? What does this mean? This is the עיקר of today's שיעור.
What will be revealed? The inner מהות of the world.What do you think that means? That the inner מהות of the world will be revealed.Regarding what?We'll know what's good and bad is.Uh-uh, there won't be bad. So almost, you know you're you're you're there. You're you're התחלת בכיוון הנכון. נכון.
There will be a clarity. That clarity won't be needed in order to differentiate between good and evil because we already discussed last week, רע לא יהיה בעולם.So We will be conscious of the divinity in everything and everyone.אלוקות, גאדלינעס, מלא כל הארץ כבודו, השם ממיט. השם היה הווה ויהיה. This concept that we say we believe in but למעשה it's a very very sometimes far from our from the way we conduct ourselves.
But that's exactly what it is. Is that this גאדלינעס, המהות הפנימית of what the world is all about which is מלא כל הארץ כבודו will be revealed in its full manner. That's מהות האמיתית.You said, I know he said many times, he said it before he learned the ספר, something about, you know, that levels the קומותיים and he said, I have to say it stuck in my head. And I was thinking to myself like like what you said that it's just going to be, there won't be any reason to do a מצווה because we will understand the purpose of of what השם what השם is and that would be the real depth.
I think that would be maybe the נשמה speaking into the like like the נשמה will be alive. Not alive like like alive like of purpose.Well I just want to, one thing you said I'm not sure I I said. There's one one piece of what you said, something like that, yeah but I I don't know if I said that we will not do מצוות. It'll be because because that's a מחלוקת how we will how we will relate to מצוות.
But yes about the other thing that you said meaning our our understanding of why the world was created will be crystal clear to us. But השם in front of our eyes will be crystal crystal clear to us. Even if we do מצוות it'll be a completely different relationship to them.Like now we're doing it in order to have a closeness to השם but then we'll already know like that's it. We don't even need to do.Right.Not saying, I I'm just maybe misunderstanding.נכון.
That's okay, no it's good you're bringing it up. Also one of the reasons why we do תורה ומצוות is that רבי נחמן has a beautiful משל on this is that you know a מצווה, every מצווה that we do in this world, what does it create that we take with us to the next world? A candle. Every מצווה is a candle. כי נר מצוה ותורה אור is the פסוק.
So I have a candle. And then רבי נחמן says then in the next world in עולם הבא, what happens is I go into a treasure chest and השם says take whatever you could find in here. The room is dark but take whatever you could find with here. The more מצוות I have, the more candles I have to search with, the more I could actually להתענג to have pleasure with the divinity.
That's in a world where before משיח comes, right? That seems to be this this situation. But again for most people unfortunately this doesn't excite them too much that you say to them in the time of גאולה תתגלה מהותו האמיתית של העולם and you're sitting there saying that's what I've been דאווענען for? That's the whole משוגעת? That there'll be a גילוי of of of מהות. I thought it was I thought it was so much more than that. I thought it was something so much more uh I would say beneficial from that.
But anyone that learns a שטיקל חסידות understands that there is no there is nothing more beneficial than what we just said right now. Nothing. There's nothing in the world more beneficial. You know, I have to share with you, this is a little bit harping on not me personal and I'm דייקא not saying any names.
But in one of the שיעורים I asked the men to do a certain תרגיל regarding ספירת העומר. How many of you were here? I don't think anybody, maybe just you Lori. Maybe חנה שרה, I don't remember. But I have a very dear friend, his name is Cliff.
Do any of you remember him? I've mentioned him. Cliff's a very very close friend of mine from Los Angeles. He's uh for many years he was uh I would call uh OBGYN for the star for Hollywood. So he's delivering all these you know these babies of like a baby that's born and already has an immediate ירושה of like 30 million dollars.
You know that that that kind of. And he's an amazing amazing individual and he has really been he's given me a lot and put a lot of things into perspective. And uh he came we we brought him here about six or seven years ago to do a workshop one day for the men, one day for the women, really based on ספירת העומר around this time right now. And it's a long story but to to really just get to the point of it is that the time of the עומר is an amazing root work to try to find out and see where am I still stuck in מצרים and if I'm ready for קבלת התורה which is what ספירת העומר is all about.
Now you have to, now paraphrase the word מצרים with victim consciousness. Identifying victim consciousness which is also known as פרעה. Leaving יציאת מצרים in order to be someone that could really stand at הר סיני to receive what השם wants to give you. And that is basically the עבודה of ספירת העומר.
And he gave some some exercises and guidelines and it was very special. And I asked the חברה please read this, please go over because I printed it out, it was all printed out, please go over this and get ready for it. And one of the חברה I saw that he was just skimming through it while I was beginning the שיעור the following time. And I had said that if if you're just skimming through this now uh it means I'm a bad teacher.
And I wasn't saying it as uh humility, it was just really I I meant it meaning if by now after all the time we're learning together that I I I present to you something that's למעשה practical exercise based on תלמוד תורה, but you don't look at it like that and you just think I'll skim through it so I can understand a few of the context, that means I'm not really giving over what the whole purpose I believe we're learning here is all about, right? And one of the one of the topic one of the things that was said back to me was listen I have all these things I have to take care of in my life and I don't have time right now to like go through this I don't even see victim consciousness in my life. I don't have time right now to go through all this משוגעת and and everything. And I said and and and I said to him, do you think there's anything more valuable in your life right now than identifying victim consciousness in order to prepare yourself for שבועות? There is nothing more valuable. It's true the bills the bills will be there.
Reading a piece that takes three minutes, exercising for five minutes. Clearing out, clearing out, clearing out essential things in order to live a redemptive state of being. What could be more beneficial than that? Tell me, I'll buy it. I'll buy it.
I'll promote it. I'll sell it. We'll open up a visitor center in the lobby of שירת דוד with a secretary that's selling whatever you could tell me is more beneficial than that type of a work. So we need to do a better job in explaining, internalizing and understanding the concept that in the time of the גאולה the real essence of the world will be revealed because that's what it is.
The real essence of the world will be revealed. Not, listen, לא ישא גוי אל גוי חרב ולא ילמדו עוד מלחמה is something we could dream of, comprehend, maybe not believe that we'll see it in our lifetime. However, that's something that I could uh understand very literally. But that the גאדלינעס will be revealed, the real essence of why this world was even created will be revealed to us.
We need to build the כלים to understand what that is. How does someone build the vessels to understand what we just said? And this is just follow me and open your hearts. This is very important. How does someone build the vessels in order to understand what we're דאווענען for when we say משיח will come and the essence of גאדלינעס will be revealed to all? Do you know why I'm so in love with the בעל שם טוב הקדוש for that exact reason? חסידות, learning פנימיות התורה, learning חסידות, learning the inner dimensions of the תורה are is the building blocks of the כלים in order to have vessels to live like that as to the best of our ability before it actually happens.
The גילוי of what השם of what the reason behind this world being created is all about as we're going to see in a second over here. So back into the second to bottom paragraph. בזמן הגאולה תתגלה מהותו האמיתית של העולם. Second to bottom line.
הגאולה לא תיצור שום אמת חדשה. The גאולה, the redemption is not going to create any new truth. אלא רק תסיר את המסווה. You know what a מסווה is? A mask.
Where do we have that word in the תורה? משה רבינו coming down from the mountain. It said we had to put a מסווה, a mask on his face כי קרן אור פניו because his his skin was beaming with such גאדלי heavenly light that people couldn't look at him. So he comes down with the mask. So he says that the גאולה it won't create any new truth, it'll just remove the mask שמפריע לנו לראות את האמת של העולם הקיימת גם עכשיו.
The truth of the world, the truth of השם, the truth of השגחה, the truth of every reason why anything had to happen is here right now as well. But what is the problem is that there's a mask that's over us. And it's not our fault, we didn't create this mask either. It's not right now the job of each of us to feel so נבוך in that.
Distraught about their low state of being. This is the game. This is the game. This is what makes this world so on the one hand complicated, on the other hand interesting.
And if we had a third hand it would be worthwhile to invest in. הגאולה דומה להפצעת השחר. גאולה is like the moment that dawn breaks. העולם נשאר בדיוק כפי שהיה בלילה.
The world is the same world it was when it was completely dark. אלא מה? שבבוקר רואים הכל בבהירות. But in the morning you see everything clearly. ואילו בלילה גיששנו באפלה.
It's just that at night we were just moving around trying to feel things while it was completely dark. But the world is the same world. כל כך חומרי הגאולה כבר נמצאים עכשיו אלא שאיננו רואים אותו בבהירות. When you say גאולה is here already, what does that mean? What's here already?The consciousness.The opportunity for consciousness, 100%.
I wish the consciousness was here already. But how could someone like the רבי, the לובאוויטשער רבי נשמתו עדן speak so much about it's אוט אוט, it's here, it's here, it's here already. And then for us to be in a state of but I don't, um was he wrong? It didn't happen. That's not that's not how we look at this.It's always here.
It's just like we have a hand in front of ourselves so we don't see it and we just have to remove the hand, that's all.Right, we just have to remove the hand. We just have to remove the hands. Do you want to just remove people's hands?But that that's But that's the whole thing. So therefore next time someone tells you that גאולה is here already, you say to them and don't you dare and say that it's another person again unless you can help them remove the hand from their face.
Because otherwise it's too painful and I don't want to hear it. It's too painful, it's too confusing, it's disheartening and it's not fair. It's not fair. You want to go to a שיבע הויז, a mother just lost her son in the army and tell her you know גאולה is here.
חס ושלום. You want to talk like this? Man up. Sorry. I say man up but meaning yeah it's big talk.
Don't tell someone גאולה is here without teaching them how to remove it remove the remove the cover from your eyes. And if and if you don't know how to do that, שב בשקט. Sorry, that's how I feel. The world doesn't need more proclamations.
לא צריך. I'm not interested in it. You want to tell somebody that the redemption is here already and that all it is is a matter of removing the the mask, then you better know what you're talking about. You better know what you're talking about.
כשתבוא next page כשתבוא הגאולה ויאיר האור when redemption will come and this light will shine נראה ונבין את האמת בפשטות. We will understand and see truth in the most simple way. ועד שלא נוכל כלל להבין איך יכולנו לחשוב אחרת. So much that we won't even understand how we could have thought differently.
You know what I feel like that's like? So many things in our יידישקייט. So many things in our יידישקייט. Obviously, I always go to examples of people come to coming to שול just because the פרשה that I'm in, right? We won't even understand how we thought that we could really be one with what דאווענען is all about by making sure we show up to שול on time or only 10 or 15 minutes late. We'll be like, what in the world were we expecting other than checkbox.
I did it. We won't understand how on earth we we wonder what spell, under what spell were we living that we actually thought that that is what it's about. And it's and it's like this in many, many different areas of our life where we'll go back and when the אמת is so clear in front of us, we'll be like, what, but you know what השם going to say, my my child don't I'm not judging you. I'm not judging you.
I know that the world that you were born into with the craziness around you, the fact that you even went to שול in שמים the מלאכים were shaking. Even if you went for five minutes. But we will go back inside and be like, but what were we, did we really think that that's really what it's all about? באמת? This is what we thought it was all about? Like was שבועות really about cheesecake? On any level of of of of our hearts, was שבועות. And then and then they'll come and say to us, oh, you knew about the ענין of מילכיגס and שבועות and that's how you got excited for this.
Wow, you thousands of years after הר סיני and you're still caring about cheesecake? That it's even a consciousness? Do you know how many millions of Jewish homes cheesecake has nothing to do with שבועות has nothing to do with cheese or cake? So there's even a remnant, you understand? This and it's it gets tricky, but then the ones that are like, okay, so they'll tell me that from שמים. But if I know that this is already, I'm tapping into what it's going to be about, I can't compromise and just like be יוצא the fact that they'll say I'm so cute and holy that I still thought about cheesecake after thousands of years of גלות. I want more. I want more.
And that's that that's definitely the place that we're trying to build here. I want more. Even though, even though they understand, even though they'll be a whole world of cheerleaders, uh, in שמים saying, wow, you even remembered it שבת. I know that I know it'll be like that.
But I want more. And השם wants me to want more. More than that. Not just to get out of jail free card.
We want more than that. We'll see the אמת, he says here ניר אבן, תבין את האמת בפשטות. We we will see the top line of it, we will see and understand the אמת in such simple simple way that we won't even be able to fathom a world like how why did we think that that was or like I I'll say even something further. In שמים, like when this אמת comes out into the world, and we'll start to think about what we did with different denominations in יידישקייט, and the categories we put certain people that don't keep תורה ומצוות like us.
It'll be shocking to our core that this is what we needed to do in order to survive and to have a self of a sense of self identity. We're going to go back and say like, I cannot believe that that's what I needed to do to compartmentalize different people and say I'm not like that, I'm not like that, I'm most like this, but even amongst this, I'm not exactly like this. And then שמים they'll say, listen, when you're stranded out there in the world, it seems helpless and you're trying to get a sense of what your דרך is, nature is to say first, it's not that. It's not that for the sense of survival.
So I know that that's what they'll tell me. But if I know that that's not really the מהות of the אמת, while I'm still here, why wouldn't I go for more? I want more than that. That's the אמת that that's going that that that they will be revealing to me. So why not tap into that much more now already? I I shared with you one time I was in a I was leaving uh I was I used to go quite often to Chicago for for weekends for שבת for doing different events there.
There's a lot of beautiful חברה there. I was just there a few months ago and I have a lot of friends there and I really I really love the people there and and and that community does so much חסד. If you know the Chicago community, it's really incredible. It's really inspiring.
So I was leaving uh always I had the same flight, going through Austria air, and I remember exactly what time I would leave Sunday morning after דאווענען, they would take me to this uh this cafe or something and have some buy something for the plane that I'd have with me kosher food. And I'm online and some uh some uh שליח there, a young שליח לובאוויטשער came up to me. I was, oh, שלמה the concert was so great last night. I said, oh, that's so sweet.
Where are you from? So I'm from Milwaukee. I said to him, Milwaukee, you know, I was there a few years ago. I did a concert with my father in a reformed temple. And he's like, Don't say that.
I said, what? He's like, it's like his face changed from being excited to have seen me to then remembering he lives with the רבי'ס תורה. Why? He said the רבי said you can't say those words. I said, what words? He said, labeling Jews reformed. It's like, you know, that's not how we talk.
You sang before אידן in in Milwaukee. Wow. That was amazing. That was an amazing moment.
So humbling. You see a איד that lives with his רבי'ס תורה, like it changed for one second of him coming and getting excited and complimenting, that I said a word that then triggered something that he knew to be an אמת לאמיתו for him, and the whole thing flipped over. And I went, I had a very deep flight back home. ממש יש שם.
I wish I could meet him again one day. Hopefully I will. Hopefully his wife is watching right now and she'll go home and tell him. I don't I don't remember his name.
I don't remember his name. I remember what he looked like. But that was a very beautiful moment. The אמת will be revealed.
So the רב ברוך continues and he says in the second paragraph here, האמת היא שהקדוש ברוך הוא נמצא כאן גם עכשיו. The truth is השם is here right now. What do you mean משיח comes then השם will be here? If God is God, God is Godding now too. התורה והמצוות הן אמת מוחלטת גם עכשיו.
תורה ומצוות are absolute truths also right now. היותו של עם ישראל ממלכת כהנים נכונה גם עכשיו. עם ישראל being a kingdom of priests is true also right now. ההכרח באחדות והנחיצות בצדק וביושר עומד במלוא תוקפו גם עכשיו.
What will be essential when משיח will be here, it'll just happen more naturally, is the same thing that's essential for right now. We must figure out a way to cry to השם to enlighten us how to love each other. How to have complete unity with each other. אלא שבזמן הגלות, what's the difference? In the time of of of גלות which we're still in, and I'm sorry to burst Zionist bubbles, but we're still in a state of גלות.
כל האמיתות הללו שרויות בהעלם. All these truths are in a state of hiddenness, העלם. והמציאות הנראית לעינינו יכולה להיראות אחרת. But the reality that we see in front of us right now could look different.
It could. Even though it looks to us to be the absolute truth. לנו נדמה לפעמים שהקדוש ברוך הוא אולי אינו כאן. It's true, sometimes it seems to us that God is not here.
שאולי אפשר ללכת בדרך שונה מדרך התורה. That maybe it's possible to not live a תורה life. שאולי יהודי דומה לגוי. You know, many people have this.
When they grew up with a very חיצוני taste of יידישקייט, they want they have they want to go out into the world and for them it's not rebelling, it's just like there's got to be more to this. And they meet very, very sweet and nice non-Jewish people, they get very anti the whole concept of chosenness, of being עם סגולה, הבוחר בעמו ישראל. They can't stomach that. Because it looks to them that wait a second, I'm very nice and uh and and and Watson here is or whatever name you want to, right? Or or I'm thinking of like a real היימישע Christian name.
Christina, yeah, or Christian is is a גישמאק. That's beautiful people. That's and is that not true that they're beautiful? Of course it's true. Of course it's true.
One of my best friends in the world that I feel a very deep soul connection to, is not Jewish. And I've taught my my children have wondered this for you know, and I've I've because it's not the יידישקייט that they get from school, but from who I'm telling them, guys, you know, I'm not going to say his name. He's one of the most beautiful people. אבא'ס מאמע'ס soul friend.
But אבא he's הוא לא יהודי. And they're saying that because of a lot of things, the way that יידישקייט giving over to them in school, and it's a big it's a hard thing. It's a very hard thing. Now, but most people go out into the world and they say, there's no difference between us.
And I tell my children, there's a big difference between me and him, but that doesn't touch upon the fact that we love each other, and we'd do anything for each other, anything. So when a person goes out into the world confused and very has goes out with a very bad taste of how יידישקייט was portrayed to them and they're thinking to themselves, a איד we look we're just like them. Like good people, bad people, there's no difference. שאולי אפשר להפיק תועלת ממחלוקת ומהפך השלום.
Actually, maybe we could learn a lot of things about מחלוקת and from the opposite of of of of peace. We could we could build on it. אבל זה דמיון והשליה, but that is all imagination and illusion. זה לא המציאות האמיתית, that's not the real truth.
כשמבינים נקודה זו, when you understand this concept, מתבהר גם הקשר בין הגאולה לבין גילוי תורת החסידות. Now, like I told you before, I mentioned this before, when we understand what we're saying right now, we also see clearly the connection between redemption, between משיח, and between the revelation of the תורה of חסידות. Now, before he explains, why do you think it's so linked together? Why is learning חסידות, the revelation of תורת החסידות so strongly linked to משיח other than it's really חסידים that are ones that are pushing the משיח campaign. But on a in a deeper level, based on whatever you know, why would you say, why would you say the link is so close to each other? It helps us change our lenses and we see it better.
It helps us, gives, it gives us corrective lens. Yes. רב צעידי gave such an amazing hour שיעור yesterday in שול, שבת afternoon explaining the נקודה of רב שמעון בר יוחאי and the corrective lens that that he and משה רבינו give to any person that engage in the inner realms of תורה. It gives us corrective lens.
Let's face it. For many people, the more תורה they learn, the more תורה they absorb, without it being from the inner realm and the inner consciousness, the further they feel from other Jewish people. And that is חורבן. That's destruction.
You understand what I'm saying? No? You don't understand what I'm saying? For many people, that's because all you know is learning חסידות. That's why you're saying, I don't understand what you're talking about. Some people still don't learn פנימיות התורה. יש עדיין כמה.
What? Some don't have access to it. Everyone has access to it. Some your Huh? I think it also has to do with where you are. What do you mean? That in certain lands we may have more access than in other lands.
I'm talking about internet. Oh. Oh, oh. No, I'm just saying about like access is everywhere, the right teachers.
So he's going to explain what this direct linkage is all about, but I think this this is already very clear to all of you, I think. ידוע שהתנוצצות, second line, ידוע שהתנוצצות אור הגאולה החלה בימי הבעל שם טוב. We know that the beginning of the sparkling of the the the sparks of the light of גאולה began in the time of the בעל שם טוב. אנו גם יודעים שהפצת החסידות קשורה קשר ישיר לגאולה, כפי שאמר המלך המשיח לבעל שם טוב שהוא יבוא לכשיפוצו מעיינותיך, מעיינות החסידות, חוצה.
This is that we should learn this one time, we never did it properly. I'm going to be learning this with the כולל next year. But but what we have is the famous how do you say it, epistle? Silent T? Silent T, epistle that the בעל שם טוב uh wrote after his experience on ראש השנה that he had in the higher chambers meeting מלך המשיח, asking him when are you going to come? And he said, when you spread your wellsprings חוצה, when you. So there's all of חסידות is based on a a a a משיח'דיקע calling and instruction.
That's what all of תורת החסידות is based on. Like why are חסידים, unfortunately not as much as they used to be or in my opinion should be, we used to be so much out there reaching the masses. Only really חב"ד and ברסלב are the ones that are carrying this today in a real strong way is because the בעל שם טוב was told by משיח, you're I'm going to show up, I'm going to arrive on the scene when you take what you're discovering and spread it to the world. So משיח and חסידות is linked in its core, in its origins.
It's כדאי, you could find this online anywhere. כדאי to read that whole letter. He it's a letter that the בעל שם טוב wrote to his brother-in-law, רב גרשון מקיטוב, describing the whole in the whole exchange between the two. והן גילוי החסידות והגאולה האמיתית והשלמה הן מהות אחת.
So we see the revelation of חסידות and the full true גאולה is one unit. You know, there's this one cute ווארט, I love this. We had a very holy איד that lived on the block here. He passed away last last year, בועז רוז'וצקי.
How many of you remember בועז? איי בועז. בועז was a holy. Many of you actually met him. You just didn't realize it's him.
If you've been living here the last few years, you would see him walking on the street with a caretaker for the last few years. He was he would be walking up and down the streets and he wasn't able to be verbal anymore and he suffered from uh it was a dementia that just basically was השם ירחם. השם ירחם. בועז was a brilliant, brilliant תלמיד חכם.
I had the privilege of being close to him and I miss him dearly and he he one time told me a great ווארט. He said, because he was also very ארץ ישראל, very ארץ ישראל, בועז. So he said, he said ר' שלמה, מה באיזה שפה הבעל שם טוב שאל את המשיח מתי הוא מגיע? Right? In what language? So he asked him in Aramaic. Because the language is אימתי.
There's a great ניגון, אימתי אימתי אימתי כאתי מר. When are you going to come? אימתי כאתי מר. When will מר אתי means to come. ובאיזה שפה הבעל שם טוב ענה לו? עברית.
כשיפוצו מעינותיך חוצה, is what he answered him. He answered him back in Hebrew. So בועז said, מכאן לומדים שפשוט צריכים לעזוב ולהיפטר מהגלות, שזה ארמית, ולדבר ולחיות בשפת הקודש. So after he said it to me, I was wondering if he was giving me some kind of a backhand שטאָך for talking in English to the שול or not.
I don't know. But it was a beautiful, trust me, I would do today, I would do anything in the world to receive any שטאָך from בועז. I would. And he didn't, he didn't.
He was only giving love and compliments. תורת החסידות, second to bottom paragraph, we're finishing up. תורת החסידות היא גילוי של האמת האלוקית. is a revelation of the godly truth.
החסידות מגלה שהקדוש ברוך הוא נמצא בכל דבר. God, חסידות reveals that God is in everything. החסידות מבהירה את מהותן של התורה והמצוות ואת עומק נשמתו של יהודי. What what חסידות explains and really gives over to us is the true essence of the תורה and the מצוות and the depth of the soul of each and every Jew.
החסידות מחיה עקרונות יסוד, it enlivens basic foundational concepts, כמו אהבת ישראל ושמחה של מצווה. Things that were taken for granted, lost, not having any focus on for thousands of years. ואם זה, החסידות לא חידשה דבר. But together with all this, חסידות didn't innovate or renew anything.
כי הכל כבר היה קיים בתורה עוד לפני הופעת החסידות. Everything was already in the תורה before חסידות came along. That's why so often people have this question, what was the חידוש of the בעל שם טוב? Huh? And how did he get to it? But but if we if we explain that he actually didn't really מחדש anything, he just reminded us of things that were שלוך, were sleeping, it's a better way of of approaching it. Now there are there are schools of thought that explain and they have a lot of works on this, academic works and not just even within the חסידישע world of of of ספרים on this, what was the חידוש of the בעל שם טוב.
But really he was just restoring things that were lost, that were gone. But so he's saying over here, that's also the similarity between חסידות and the גאולה. What's going to be the חידוש with the גאולה? So with our lens that we're wearing today, nothing. With corrective lens, everything.
כזאת היא גם הגאולה, היא חידוש שאינו חידוש. היא אינה אלא בבחינת פקיחת עיניים. All it is is basically opening your eyes. אנו נזכה לפקיחה זו של העיניים רק בזמן הגאולה ממש.
This this type of opening of the eyes will only merit in the time of the actual גאולה. אבל, go back to the beginning of what we learned like רב שמעון בר יוחאי, like רב מנחם מענדל מויטבסק, אבל נשמות גבוהות ומיוחדות, supreme and exalted souls that are living a completely different life than many of us are living in this world, רואות גם בתקופת הגלות את האמת האלוקית. They see even in the period of גלות, they see the godly truth. כזה היה רבי שמעון בר יוחאי וכמותו צדיקים גדולים בדורות הבאים.
And now he says just the last line which I I realized I didn't print for you. Just listen to this one more sentence. לכן נזקק רבי מנחם מענדל מויטבסק לפתוח את החלון. That's why the ויטבסקער had to open the the window just to check to see basically if the world caught up to him.
You understand? כי בחדרו האירה תמיד האמת של הגאולה. Because in his room, משיח was there. I've I've I'll share with you, I I was privileged to be in a room like that twice in my life. And that is the room of רב יעקב מאיר שכטר of ברסלב.
I can't explain it to you because you can't transmit a non-tangible feeling, really. רב יעקב מאיר שכטר is a big צדיק in ברסלב. It's one of the elders, elders. He looks like he's 70.
He's he's I think he's like 95 by now. There's something about him, about his תורה, which is the sweetest, deepest תורה, that by the men's חברה we've been learning his תורה for many years. There's something about it in his room where you feel like you're touching גן עדן. And what is it really? It's אמת.
And it's so inviting, and it's so beautiful and it's not frightening. It's not frightening. Um, it's just wondrous. הלוואי that that should be the framework for whatever we try to build communally, personally, in every every interaction we have with people, this אמת אלוקית and jump on this wagon that's already started to travel hundreds of years ago from from מז'יבוז' and and and before that from צפת, from the אריז"ל, and before that in the cave with רב שמעון בר יוחאי.
So that um for for some of us maybe we won't have to have such a large change of prescription of our of our corrective lens, okay? It should be a week of משיח