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What type of rest do we yearn for on Shabbat? How do we frame our mindset during the week to prepare for Shabbat and how can we transform our Shabbat experience? Using the teachings of Rabbi Yaakov Meir Shechter, a leading Breslov Rabbi, in his sefer Yom Machmadim, we build tools towards enhancing our ability to connect to the day of rest.
Okay guys, I have a nigun I want to teach you. It's a beautiful nigun. Yeah. I just wrote it with my brother a few weeks ago.
נפשי חמדה בצל ידך לדעת כל רז סודך.
נפשי חמדה בצל ידך לדעת כל רז סודך.
נפשי חמדה בצל ידך לדעת כל רז סודך.
נפשי חמדה בצל ידך לדעת כל רז סודך.
נפשי חמדה בצל ידך לדעת כל רז סודך.
אוי מדי דברי בכבודך המה לבי אל דודך.
אוי מדי דברי בכבודך המה לבי אל דודך.
אוי מדי דברי בכבודך המה לבי אל דודך.
אוי מדי דברי בכבודך המה לבי אל דודך.
נפשי חמדה בצל ידך לדעת כל רז סודך.
נפשי חמדה בצל ידך לדעת כל רז סודך.
אוי מדי דברי בכבודך המה לבי אל דודך.
אוי מדי דברי בכבודך המה לבי אל דודך.
נפשי חמדה בצל ידך לדעת כל רז סודך.
נפשי חמדה בצל ידך לדעת כל רז סודך. Shkoyach, shkoyach.
Chazak. We got the kashrus from Rav Avichai. Wow. Yeah.
Nice. Nafshi chamda betzel what else do we want?
נפשי חמדה בצל ידך לדעת כל רז סודך. Okay, it's going to Lecha Dodi or whatever it is, put it in the rotation. Guess who's chazening tonight? I'm not going to say.
Guess who's chazening tonight? I'm not going to say either. Next. Now you are. Yeah.
Alright, Chodesh Shevat, Chodesh Shevat sponsored by the Aaron family l'ilui nishmas Levi ben Yosef, by the Sobers l'ilui nishmas בתיה פייגא בת ישראל anonymously, for whoever we need a lot of tefillos, a lot of people really need strong tefillos for a refuah, for the refuah shleima שרה בת רחל פייגא, מלכא אלקא בת פרל, שושנה יונה בת אידל, Gila bat Ilana, Yisrael ben Adina. By the Pollacks, l'ilui nishmas Shimon ben Moshe, Tzvi ben Mordechai, שירה רחמה בת רב אלתר נתן נטע. The week is sponsored by Kevin and Sharon Ross in memory of זלמן בן אברהם דוד, בערי בן אברהם דוד, ג'רי בן אברהם דוד, פיטר בן אברהם דוד. By Sarah and Baruch Gold, l'ilui nishmas Techia Shira Shimona for the refuah פעשא מלכא בת בלימא.
The Deitch family in memory of Miriam's Abba, מנחם בן שמואל אליעזר on his twelfth yahrtzeit. Okay, thank you everybody for the sponsorships, it helps things, it helps the engine going, it definitely helps the engine going. Okay, so if you have the sefer which you all should have, it's Daf Taf-Tzadik-Gimel. Taf-Tzadik-Gimel.
Look inside. Last week we began discussing benching with Shir HaMa'alos.
ברוך אתה ה' אלהינו מלך העולם שהכל נהיה בדברו. Amen.
Does everyone have a sefer? Does anyone need a sefer? There's one one or two more up here. Whoever needs this Taf-Tzadik-Gimel. Last week we began discussing benching in the context of Shir HaMa'alos. How that's what we say on Shabbos.
Very chazak what we learned, הגדיל ה' לעשות עמנו היינו שמחים, that we're still able to be b'simcha throughout whatever we go and therefore the yeshua will be הגדיל ה' לעשות עמנו because of our ability to maintain our state of happiness, an inner simcha no matter what's going on in our lives, no matter what mishugas I have to go through. I am still able to maintain some level of simcha no matter what, and that's been the story for Yidden for centuries. That's what we were speaking about last week. Now the reason I mean here this kiveyachol has nothing to do with Shabbos, but the truth is is that since Shabbos is techila lemikra'ei kodesh, that anything holy that happens during the week, its origins, its headquarters is on Shabbos, that means that the way that you mityaches to certain mitzvos on Shabbos will be the way that it'll sprout forth for the rest of the week.
So if benching is more geshmak on Shabbos and more focused, you sit with it more on Shabbos, therefore the when you bench during the week, it'll have ashpa'a from the way you benched on Shabbos. And the emes is is that on Shabbos there's one thing that we gives us an easier way to have kavana with benching, and that's that we're not around any gadgets and therefore there's there's more of an opening to just there's more of a zman to just be like I don't really have to run anywhere. I'm going to be with the with the benching. Sit with the benching, sing sit with the Birchas HaMazon.
Very important also something we we learned a few years ago what I want to repeat is, benching is the story of Am Yisrael, it's the history and the future of Am Yisrael. Benching, the mahn comes down, Moshe Rabbeinu is misakein the bracha of Hazan es hakol. We go into Eretz Yisrael, Yehoshua is the one that's misakein על הארץ ועל המזון. We come to Eretz Yisrael, Dovid HaMelech is koveia his place in Yerushalayim, so then he adds there ועל ירושלים עירך ועל ציון משכן כבודך.
And then Shlomo HaMelech built the Beis HaMikdash and there he adds ועל הבית הגדול והקדוש שנקרא שמך עליו. Then we get thrown out of Eretz Yisrael so we have to start dreaming again ובנה ירושלים עיר הקדש במהרה בימינו. We see the galus is taking too long so Chazal were misakein Hatov vehamaitiv which is right after, tov u'maitiv lakol, to give a chizuk in the emuna that will still things will still be good one day even though we can't see it now. And then finally later in benching הרחמן הוא ישלח לנו את אליהו הנביא זכור לטוב ויבשר לנו בשורות טובות ישועות ונחמות.
So when you're plugged into benching benachas, you experience everything that any Yid ever went through and anything that any any Yid will ever go through. A lot of the sefarim, the it's not just sifrei mussar, sifrei chasidus, they they and Rav Kook speaks about this beautifully that a person if they really want to be an Eved Hashem it's all about Birchas HaMazon actually. It's all about benching. So a Yid will say well what about me I don't eat any bread? So figure out a way to bench like you do some kind of, I don't know, I don't know what the answer is.
So to keep that in mind with today's learning is very important. This is a short piece, but mamash devash from Reb Meilech.
לקיים מצות עשה של ברכת המזון, the bottom of Taf Tzade Gimel, Mah meod.
מה מאוד צריך להשגיח לברך ברכת המזון בכוונה מתוך כובד ראש באימה ויראה.
I feel so guilty as I'm reading these words because it's like I have to work on this so badly. Benching should be like mamash benching, you know, benching.
מה מאוד צריך להשגיח לברך ברכת המזון בכוונה מתוך כובד ראש באימה ויראה.
כמו שהביא הרב הקדוש בערבי נחל בפרשת שופטים עלה בו המגיד הגדול ממעזריטש, in the name of Reb Dov Ber, שהזהיר מאוד לכוון בברכת המזון יותר מבבתפילה.
Have to have more kavana in benching more than even davening. Why?
כי תפילה דרבנן וברכת המזון דאורייתא. So, oh, yeah, that's right, but it somehow hasn't made it to the system yet. Like we, it's like a thing, oh yeah, but you know, we knock off benching.
If we remember to bench, you know, we knock it off. A Rav of ours was saying once that you can count on like just even two hands how many assei d-oraitas you can do. And benching is a daily d-oraita. Maybe one of the few daily d-oraitas.
Kibbud av va-eim also maybe that you can actually do and it's exactly like. Interesting, yeah, when you think of it like that, it's me-orer something very special. I remember someone gave a joke, it's ve-achalta ve-savata u-verachta and u-varachta. Chazak.
וכבר כתב החסיד יעבץ, you know the Chasid Ya-avetz was Reb Yosef Ya-avetz. He was one of the Gedolim from chachmei gerush Sefarad. He was one of the Gedolim back in the 15th, 15th-16th century. The Ya-avetz is a big zach.
Shabbat Shalom. Be-lishono ha-areivah, as he says in his, one of his sfarim, he has a number of sfarim. The sefer Chasdei Hashem he says, derech halatzah, as a joke.
כי יש מצות עשה ומצות לא תעשה שיש להם מזל.
Certain mitzvos made it to the cut. They had mazal. They made it into the pnimiyus ha-devarim, right? Certain mitzvos like mushrash in Am Yisrael, they became the biggies. Some didn't have the mazal.
They never really became one of the biggies and an important ones.
שקימו וקבלו היהודים עליהם ועל זרעם לעשותם בשמחה ובטוב לבב. There are mitzvos that somehow they became, you can't explain this. You can't explain the notion of how certain mitzvos assei they made it to the cut and they made it into the pnimiyus of the am, right? Some didn't.
It's some have mazal, some don't have mazal.
ואשר לא כן יעבד מתוך הקהל, and certain ones bi-chlal not, they get lost. Ve-eilu hein ha-mitzvos. These are the mitzvos.
Ke-gon Purim, everyone here, Purim, d-oraisa she-ba-d-oraisa, you can't mess with Purim, chalilah, right? Right, Purim? Purim's d-oraisa? Stam I'm asking. Nah, I'm, you could smell it, Purim's around the corner boys. Ke-gon Purim, listen, bi-ur chametz, yes, bi-ur chametz is definitely one of them that's like yeihareig ve-al ya-avor, people go meshugana. Basar be-chalav, be-ezras Hashem, everyone's holding, ve-chayotzei ba-zeh.
ויש שאין להם מזל. Then there's ones that don't have mazal. Like what? Birchas Hamazon. You're going to compare Birchas Hamazon to Purim or to bi-ur chametz or basar be-chalav?
ואין הכל מקיימים וברכת את ה' אלקיך.
So he says like this, sorry, he says like this: שהכל מקיימים ואכלת ושבעת, ואין הכל מקיימים וברכת את ה' אלקיך. The first part, kpeida, ve-achalta ve-savata mamash.
וברכת את ה' אלקיך, that's already a different zach, that's not so chazak.
ורבו האוכלים למעדנים ובשובה ונחת ויברכו בקול נמוך.
You sit there, you fress like a, like a proud king, but then when it comes to benching, u-be-safah chalushah. And then you forget Ya-aleh ve-yavo. You start going through your whole brain, oh, do I, should I go back? Where is it? Shmoneh esrei? Do I go back? Where do I put it in? Whatever, just I benched. Hashem knows I'm happy.
Be-verachah nechutzah retzutzah. You say it like a, like a nebech.
בלי כוונה ובלי דקדוק באמריה ואין צריך לומר באותיותיה בעודי בכפי יבלעוה. Meaning, you just chuck, just like you chucked that down, you're chucking down the words as well, right? Now look what he says, this is, this is very chazak.
ואשרי הזהיר בברכה זו כי סגולתה רבה מאוד. There's a tremendous segulah that comes out from the person that's very much nizhar from the inyan of Birchas Hamazon. And Chinuch brings down מקובל אני מרבותי ישמרם אל שכל הזהיר בברכת המזון מזונותיו מצויין לו בכבוד כל ימיו. You take care of this one then what you need will be there for you.
Go down to footnote number vov. Os vov.
הנה הרב הקדוש רבי שלמה מקרלין זכותו יגן עלינו אמר לפרש בלשנא דקרא. So the heilige Karliner, you know the Karliner’s sefer, you know what it’s called? Reb Shloime Karliner.
It's a funny story. I was when we were when I was living in Los Angeles we got very close to Yehuda Glantz. You know the singer? Beis HaMikdash. He is very close kesher with him also he is from Buenos Aires like my abba.
He's from South America. Yeah. One of the most talented talented mamash beyond talent. He was actually a talmid he was a chossid by Rav Usher.
And he was the one that turned me onto Rav Usher initially like 25 years ago. He was for a while. So one day when one of the trips he used to come to LA somehow I understood from him that he was under the impression that I was his manager. That didn't end well at all.
And then I’d have to go and sit in offices of Chabad Rabbis that were in the middle of hiring him and didn’t go through. And then I realized I have no I have no idea how I even became this is not... I just asked you if you want to stay in my house but whatever that's another that's another interesting not so funny story but the funny story was that he came to visit one of the trips he came and stayed in my house and he’s like "Shloime, tishma" because that's what he would tell me all the time on the phone. "Shloime, tishma." So he brought me a sefer he’s like "At lo shomeia? Ein ofot.
Tishma." And he brought me a sefer it’s called Shma Shloime. That's the name of Reb Shloime'le Karliner’s sefer, Shma Shloime. So he brought me that sefer that's what I always remember. So the Shma Shloime Reb Shloime’le Karliner says like this.
This is amazing.
ואכלת ושבעת וברכת את ה' אלהיך.
שעבודת האדם היא שאחרי ואכלת יקיים ושבעת וברכת. Wait a second.
Shouldn’t it be something else? It should have been vachalta vesavata and then uverachta because we attribute satiation to the food. Shloime Karliner flips it over. He says כלומר שיבוא לידי שביעה מחמת הברכה. What this is this is gevalt.
What satiates a yid? Food now doesn’t satiate a yid. It satiates the palate. But a yid’s satiation is vesavata through uverachta by being able to say a bracha. It's beautiful, right?
וזה יהיה עיקר חיותו של אדם.
This is really what makes you tick. This is really what makes you tick. I thought it was such a beautiful chapp right? Such but but it's it's one of these it's like it's like how could you still be Litvish after a vort like this? You know what I mean? No one of these is like what are you going to fight against? No. Satiation is only food.
Bracha’s a bracha. No. We bracha we bench that's the satiation. That's the satiation.
I think I'm going to make everybody upset. What if it's less than a kezayis? Oh okay go for it go for it go for it. We just learned in Likutey Halachos... You're not chazzan tonight.
Yeah. We just learned in Likutey Halachos that Moshe Rabbeinu we were learning about the bracha being from the from the fruit okay the neimus that comes from the fruit of Eretz Yisrael is about being able to make the bracha on the fruit of Eretz Yisrael and this was the taina that Moshe Rabbeinu had about not being able to come into the land. That he didn't have that zechus. Very good very good.
Nachon. He just wanted to make the bracha. Nachon. That’s why when the Ribbono Shel Olam does certain things for him like go up to the mountain and look at it and he had all these gifts of yanu being connected to Eretz...
not yanu but being connected to Eretz Yisrael. The inyan of actually being able to say the bracha al peiros ha’aretz that he you just can't do if you're if you're not here. Uve’er Heiteiv look at the next page on top.
באר היטב הביא בשם הב"ח.
You know where the Be'er Heiteiv is on the on the daf right? Where’s the Be'er Heiteiv? In the... Right so just to make sure we're talking about in the Mishnah Berurah. In the Be'er Heiteiv he's quoting the Bach. Where's the Bach usually? In the Shulchan Aruch right Tur Shulchan Aruch.
Okay now it looks like this.
בבאר היטב הביא בשם הב"ח מצאתי למה אין אות פ' בברכת המזון. So of course I'm sitting there whenever you learn... So first it was like mevattel yesh, read again, pey sofit.
So that's already a big, but you know how like when you're sitting in shul and the Baal HaTurim has a Gematria and to you it's there's no way it can add up? So you're sitting, the Aliyah is already, the Baal Korei is already by... this happened in Rishon. By Chamishi you realize you missed a number, the Baal HaTurim was right. So we nipped it in the bud over here, we said already in the beginning over here that's not what's happening.
There isn't a pey sofit. Now what would a pey sofit be? The difference between a pey sofit and a pey is that a pey sofit is like saying, "This is the end of something. This is the end of the story." So he's saying there's no end of a story through the letter pey, which we'll understand in a second, לפי שכל מי שיברך ברכת המזון בכוונה אין שולט בו לא אף ולא קצף. Two words, af, anger, ketzef, foam.
So it's amazing that he's quoting this in the name of the Bach. That's pretty out there. The Bach is saying this, right?
ואמר הקדוש רבי שלומקה מזוויל, the Zvhiller Rebbe says המברך תמיד בברכת המזון בכוונה ומתוך הכתב זוכה לבנים ובני בנים עוסקים בתורה ובמצוות. Halevai al kulanu.
You want to make sure your kinderlach are still plugged in to the beauty and glamour of Yiddishkeit, make sure bentching's on. Make sure bentching's on. Now, the following I was debating whether to share the following thing from here or not because sometimes this could shter people up into a negative way, negative approach. But I hope that what we're going to see now won't shter people up in a negative way and we'll just take something chazak, okay? The story was that, you know, let's read it inside.
Os zayin, footnote zayin. This is wild, okay?
כמה שנים טרם פרצה מלחמת העולם השנייה הגיע הגאון הצדיק רבי מאיר שפירא זצ"ל ראש ישיבת חכמי לובלין לבחון ילדים צעירי צאן בתלמוד תורה. Everyone here's holding with Hebrew, right? Do I have to repeat every word? Or we're more or less there, right? Sorry for the chevra online. It's just there's a lot here I want to see.
Reb Meir Shapiro was the head of the Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin, the meyased of the Daf Yomi, and he used to come and test children. This is a few years before World War II. Test children in schools.
המנהג היה מקובל בימים ההם שאם היו הילדים משיבים כהוגן היה הבוחן מעניק להם מתנה.
The minhag was, if the tester comes, tests the kids, and they answer properly, the minhag was he gives them a gift. What's the problem?
אלא שהגאון רבי מאיר שפירא לא הביא איתו מאומה לכן אמר להם שבמקום מתנה יאמר לפניהם דבר נפלא מאוד. Instead of a matanah, he'll tell them a gevaldigge vort. By the way, stam, just for information, was Reb Meir Shapiro Chassidish? Yes.
Chortkover. What's Chortkov? What line is that from? Ruzhin. I know, mishpachto. This is Rizhin, Chortkov, Reb Yisrael Chortkover, the Ginzei Yisrael.
The first one was רבי דוד משה מטשורטקוב, and then Reb Yisrael Chortkover, and then on the bottom it was Reb Meir Shapiro is a talmid, he's a chassid of the Chortkover Rebbe, he was. He just didn't open up a chatzer like a Chassidishe Rebbe, he opened up one of the most prestigious yeshivas that ever existed. By the way, you know the second greatest yeshiva in Poland was? The Piaseczner's, Daas Moshe. It's less known.
Daas Moshe, the Piaseczner was a rebbe and the yeshiva was in Warsaw. Big yeshiva. It was just a little bit smaller than Chachmei Lublin, so it didn't get that much hakara, but the Piaseczner had a yeshiva. Okay.
So he doesn't bring anything with him to test the kids, so he said, "I'll tell you a geshmakke vort." ובזה חזר על לשונו של הבאר היטב. He quoted to them the Be'er Heitev שלכן אין אות פ בברכת המזון. There's no pey sofit in Birchas HaMazon, why?
לפי שכל מי שבירך ברכת המזון בכוונה אין שולט בו לא אף ולא קצף ומזונותיו מצויין לו ברווח ובכבוד כל ימיו. He tells them what the Be'er Heitev says, when you bentch with kavanah, there's no anger or foam and wrath that comes upon you and what you need comes to you be-chavod in a kavod'icke way.
בין המקשיבים היה תלמיד אחד שהדברים נכנסו בעומק לבו. There was one person that the words really got into the depth of their heart. One talmid.
ובאותה שעה קיבל על עצמו לברך תמיד.
Something really touched him and he said from that moment on this kid said he always benched out of a out of an actual bencher which is a big inyan, it's one of the things that the Friediker Rebbe told Reb Shlomo and his twin brother when they were little kids when he came to their house in Austria when he was traveling and he stayed in the Carlebach home, that was one of the things that he told Reb Shlomo to and his brother to always do to bench out of a bencher, to actually bench out of you know not just by heart and to do it with kavana. This guy took it on. This is a few years before the war, World War Two.
כעבור כמה שנים והנה הגיעו הרשעים הארורים כבשו את אדמת אירופה ימח שמם והוליכו את היהודים אל עבר המחנות, the Yidden starting to be sent to the concentration camps, u-veineihem ha-bochur ha-nal, and amongst them was this bochur that was sitting in and heard what he said.
דרכם הייתה להפריד את הגיבורים בעלי הכוח לשלחם לעבודה ואילו את הנשים והילדים והחלשים שלחו לעלות על מוקדה על קידוש שמו יתברך. What does this call? Selektzia, selection. You to work, the finger, right? Yimach shemam.
היהודי בעל העובדה היה אז בחור צעיר לימים, this kid that we're speaking about was very very young.
I don't know exactly what age.
ובעמדו בתור עשה עצמו כגבוה יותר בעמדו על קצות אצבעותיו, he's standing on his tippy toes while he's on the line to make himself look bigger and older than he really was.
וריחש בשפתיו כל העת, and the whole time he's mumbling to himself, אבי שבשמיים קיימתי את דברי הב"ח. I was mekabel what the Bach said וברכתי בכוונה מרובה, קיים אף אתה את ההבטחה האמורה שלא ישלוט בי לא שצף ולא קצף ולא חרון אף.
Can you imagine? This is what this boy is thinking on the line while he's about to possibly be sent to the gas chamber. He's remembering the Bach, he's remembering Reb Meir Shapiro's vort, and that he's mekabel it on himself and he and he held Ribono Shel Olam to the test. Unbelievable. Ve-achen be-hagia toro, his turn comes.
הראה הרשע באצבעו לפנות לצד ימין. He says and send him to the right.
למקום אשר לעת עתה אין נשלחים למיתה כי אם לעבודה. The right was to go and work and not to death, at least not at that moment.
לאחר מכן העמידו שוב בתור לפני אחד מהרשעים כדי לבחון כל אחד לאיזה מלאכה הוא מתאים. Then you go into another line to figure out what work are you suitable for?
והוא שעדיין צעיר לימים היה עמד נרתע ונפחד, בידעו שאינו מתאים לשום עבודה המפרכת את הגוף, his body won't be able to take any type of work that they put him into and then the whole story will be over.
ובכך שוב בכה לפני צורו, continuing to cry before Hashem, שבזכות שהקפיד על ברכת המזון בכוונה יזכר לו את ההבטחה הכתובה בחינוך. So he's saying, Ribono Shel Olam, now I'm going to the Chinuch what the Chinuch said, that one that's mekabel birkas ha-mazon said that what he needs will come to him be-kovod kol yamav.
So as he's saying that havtacha, mumbling that havtacha, בתוך כך פנה אליו יהודי שעמד סמוך אליו ואמר לו. A Yid came up to him and saw he was freaking out and he said to him, אמור נא שהנך בקי במלאכת הבישול והאפייה, tell them you're a gevaldt cook, baker, ורצונך להיות מעושי המלאכה במטבח המחנה, that you want to work in the kitchen, ואני כמו כן אגיד ששם רצוני לעבוד, I'll say that that's what I want to do also, ובכך אהיה אני לעזרך. I'll be there to help you. Ve-chach havah.
And this is what happened.
שניהם נתקבלו לעבודת המטבח.
וכך היה לבחור היהודי מאכל ומשקה כדי מחסורו וסיפוקו בהרחבה בהיותו בבית המבשלים, because he's in the kitchen and he's working in there he has whatever he needs. It came to him mamash like the Be'er Heitev, the name of the Bach, and the Chinuch was speaking about.
Be-achad ha-yamim, one of the days, נכנס אחד מקציני הרשעים אל המטבח, one of the SS officers comes into the kitchen, ובראותו את הבחור היהודי עובד במטבח, he sees this boy in there, לכן לא חסר לו דבר חרה לו הדבר, because he saw this boy has everything he needs, that ticked off this officer. Pana elav be-rishuto, he turns to him with his evil, u-veyado patish katan. He hands him a little tiny hammer and and says to him, הנה אם תוך שלוש שעות תצליח לחפור בור עמוק, אזי תוכל להמשיך לעבוד בעבודתך הזאת. The cruelty, no end.
He hands him a little hammer and he says if you're able to dig a massive hole, you know, a bor in the ground, you could stay alive and come back here. If not, you're out of here. With the hammer, with a tiny hammer, not a shovel, a tiny hammer. The torture.
ובאם לאו תשלח לעבוד עבודת פרך עם שאר היהודים. If not, you're out of here and you're going to go into some hell of labor. Habochur yatza hachutza, this boy walks out with the little hammer and he knows בידו בבירור שאפילו אם יעבוד כמה ימים ברציפות ועמל ויזע רב לא יצליח לחפור את הבור. Even if he works non-stop for three days, he won't even get close to what he needs to do.
כיוון שאין בידו כי אם פטיש קטן שאין בכוחו לפצץ סלע, all he has is this tiny little hammer.
ולכן פנה שוב אל בוראו בתחינה. He goes back to the Ribbono Shel Olam באומרו אבא כך כתוב בתורה שמזונותיי צריכים להיות לי מצויים ברווח גדול. That my mezonos, based on what I learned, I kept the Torah that I learned, what's going on over here? Toch kedei tefilaso, as he's davening, עבר שם כלי רכב עם חיילים רשעים, some Nazis drove by him and they wanted to torture him, so they started chucking at him potatoes and apples.
שהחלו לזרוק על ראשו תפוחים ושאר ירקות כדי לענותו to torture him and they kept on driving.
וכך משנסעו משם נשארה לידו ערימה גדולה של פירות וירקות. Before you know it, he has a mass of fruits and vegetables. That doesn't help him though.
That doesn't help him. It's not that he didn't need to eat. He needed to dig that hole.
לא עבר זמן מועט ועבר שם רכב אחר ועליו חיילים רוסים ששועבדו על ידי הנאצים ימח שמם.
Russian soldiers that were imprisoned by the Germans also passed by there and they had to do what they had to do.
ואף להם לא הביאו הרשעים מאכלם כדי שביעה כי אם קומץ קטן. Not that we have so much rachmanus on the Russian soldiers, they weren't exactly chasidi umos ha'olam, but they also suffered from the Germans and they barely got any food, so they're starving. They come up, they see this little yid'l with all this food around him.
ובראותם את כל השפע הרב לצד הבחור פנו אליו וביקשו מימו מעט מכל אלה. They asked him for a little bit of what was next to him. Amar lahem habochur, he says to them מי שיטה ידו לחפור לי כאן בור עמוק יקבל מהפירות. Whoever comes and digs a huge hole here will receive some of the fruit that I have.
החיילים האלו בעלי כוח, big strong Russian soldiers.
ואף להם היו כלים המתאימים לכך, they had the shovels.
נעמדו ברוב אונים ואמיץ כוח והחלו לחפור במהרה בור עמוק. They start digging away, they're starving.
They're digging away, they create this bor because they needed to כי היו צריכים להזין נפשם מהפירות והירקות. They needed to satiate their soul from the fruits and vegetables.
וכך בתוך שעה קלה כבר היה הבור חפור. In one hour this massive bor was dug.
נתן להם הבחור את הפירות ושילחם לנפשם. He gives them the fruits and he sends them away.
כעבור זמן מה בא הרשע לבדוק אם הצליח לחפור הבאר. The officer, the German officer comes back, he says let's see.
Imagine his face.
והנה נוכח לדעת שבפחות מג' שעות סיים הבחור את המלאכה. He's like this is nuts.
נענה אותו רשע ואמר, now this is like this is far out.
This is the mesorah of the story.
ידעתי גם ידעתי שאלוקיכם שומר עליכם ומגן בעדכם. I always knew somehow your God has kept you alive all these years, He has something with you that watches over you.
אך לא ידעתי עד כמה.
I just didn't realize to what extent.
ובזה הסכים לו להחזירו לעבודתו במטבח.
אחר גמר המלחמה עלה היהודי להתיישב בארץ ישראל.
ואף גם שם מזונותיו היו מצויים לו תדיר בהרחבה גדולה.
This yid'l had mazel in this world because the Birkas HaMazon made its mazel into his avodas Hashem, which u'bediavad it wasn't such a simple thing, which is even like well, but it's after Hakamas HaMedina. I know, but it's the beginning of the early years. Right, right. Nachon, 100%.
And he had betadir b'archava gedola והשיא את כל צאצאיו בנקל וברווח, meaning benakel u'berevach, he was also able to marry off all his children relatively comfortably.
והכל מכוח הזהירות בברכת המזון. So you understand why I had to give that warning at the beginning because we know tons of stories that didn't end like this. Like all my like my great-grandparents and my great-aunts and uncles, bestimt, we know plenty of stories that didn't end like this.
So the reason, so what do we do with this is that we have a story that comes out like this. We hold on to each story. Leman tesaper. Says this is the Shabbos of leman tesaper, Parshas Bo.
למען תספר באזני בנך ובאזני בן בנך. We have to have these stories. We have to tell them over. They have to go deep deep deep down inside of us because you never know which mitzvah is going to make its mazel into your life and then be a zechus for your for your family lenetzach netzachim.
So the best way to approach this is already the first time you're going to bench, which maybe for some people it'll be tonight, maybe it'll be this afternoon, lo yodea mosay, but to plug into this chazak and it should be a zechus for us and our children for many years to have this kevia vekayama. One more thing I just want to say about Shabbos, there's so much going on this Shabbos. I heard Rabbi Eli was making announcements before about it. I want to mechazek it.
There's so much going on and to take part of, take part. Like, this is a Shabbos to everyone, everyone to show up like like never before and be'ezras Hashem it should be a big zechus for the kehillah, for all of Efrat. Just a lot going on here and a lot of different moments of guest speakers throughout Shabbos. So show up, chevre.
Besimcha uve'ahava. Yasher koach, chevre. Yasher koach.