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Join Rav Shlomo Katz in uncovering מעלת תפילת נשים—the unique spiritual power of a Jewish woman’s tefillah.
Drawing from Chazal, halacha, and pnimiyut, and learning deeply from the Biala Rebbe’s "Zechut Nashim Tzidkaniyot", we explore why women’s hearts, rooted in רגש טהור (innate emotional purity) and holy bitul, move heaven and earth.
Together we’ll clarify classic questions (time-bound mitzvot, obligation vs. essence), learn the siddur through the eyes of our sages, and translate inspiration into avodah that nourishes real life, especially as we enter Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur.
This series is both a celebration and a strengthening of the women who daven with fire, carry Am Yisrael with love, and teach us how to speak to Hashem with truth.
Hey, good morning, everybody. We are learning, thank you for coming. We are learning לעילוי נשמת בתיה פייגא בת ישראל, לוי בן יוסף and for the רפואה of אליזה חנה בת נעמי, הילה בת אילנה, and שושנה יונה בת איידל. So we have here, we have a very sweet, very אמא רחל type of שיעור today where we are, we've been spending a lot of time discussing.
Last שיעור we had, here I'm gonna give these pages out. Last שיעור we had from this תורות of the ביאלע רבי, tell you something amazing. This is, this is all תורות from the, from the ביאלע רבי, from the מבשר טוב. And about, I think yesterday or two days ago, someone called me and said, "Listen, there's a son of a big צדיק that he, I think he's coming, he may be coming to צפת, and some of the חברה thought maybe it's שייך if you feel some קשר that he should come to the שול and meet, meet with you and your חברה and give a שיעור here, but only if there's any שייכות." I said, "Who is he?" He said, "Well, there was once a big רבי and his name was the ביאלע רבי, the מבשר טוב and it's his son, his son." I said, "You're not going to believe this, but I'm not, I can't make this stuff up, but this year we started a new, a new, a new series, a new ספר from the son of, from, from the מבשר טוב from the ביאלע רבי himself.
I think it would be שייך. I think it's a good idea." So it's very special. He's, I don't know if it's, I don't know what the deal is with with women. It would be weird if, whatever, I'm not going to say anything.
Is he from Ramat Eshkol? I don't know. I don't know. Was it somebody from Ramat Eshkol? Well, there are a lot, there are a lot of ביאלע רבי's from a different line. This was the, this is this line was from לוגאנו, right from Switzerland.
So, it was just very special, a little wink, a little wink from above. The last thing we learned was a very important נקודה, what we spoke about חכמת נשים. Is this on? Is it going? The last thing we learned about was a very fascinating topic that we spoke about regarding a woman's, the word I think was כח ההבחנה. Do you remember that?
כח ההבחנה.
The ability to be, then we had a hard time... Discerning is one of the... Discernment you said. To discern.
The ability to, to really like, like analyze and אבחון, that was the word we were using when doctors use that word all the time. The אבחון. That a woman's ability to know what's important versus what's not important is a תכונה within the בריאה of the נוקבא. That's what we were discussing last time.
And we gave a lot of examples for the חכמה of women that they're able to to see because it's coming from the world of בינה which is higher than חכמה. So in the world of בינה, without getting too into it, in קבלה, בינה is always אם, חכמה is אב, and בינה is אם, always the mother. The mother's ability, a woman's ability to be able to just look right into something and say, "This is what something's about," or "This isn't שייך," or all of the above. And therefore, we said, "Okay, and therefore, when we plug that in to the כח התפילה, it, it, זה עוקר הרים.
It moves mountains because quite often when we come and we finally were like, we know in our hearts, okay, I gotta דאווען, I gotta pour out my heart before השם." And then we finally show up and start דאווענען, so in a man's world, it's more like, it's more כללי, it's more just like, okay, דאווענען and this and that. A woman's ענין of being taking that כח ההבחנה and putting it into תפילה is what we were saying last week, which is such a beautiful and important thing. So I don't want to, I'm not tooting your your horns, it's something that the רבונו של עולם gave you. You know what I mean? Like I have, with with some of my friends that are like famous artists, and I'm always like, "I'm so in love with what השם decided to put in you and never, I can't believe what you're doing." It's a big ענין, you know? And they always like chuckle and like, they get the point.
So over here too, this כח ההבחנה, this is something that is, that is given. And this is what we were discussing last time. But now, in מאמר ב, now we're going much more תכלס into תפילת נשים. Up until now, it was describing a lot of different תכונות, a lot of different characteristic traits and the whole picture.
But today, and feeling like learning this the week of of רחל אמנו's יארצייט, sitting a few minutes from אמא רחל, but also... sitting a few minutes from שרה and רבקה and לאה, it's not like they're too far. It's all around here, and we'll see a few different things. Where's חנה buried? Does anyone know? Is it? There's a קבר חנה? Anyone ever been? I guess not such a not so much.
Well yeah, but I don't know, is it is she buried there by שמואל הנביא? I don't know. Were from בית לחם? Regardless of where they were from, I just don't know where, whatever.
צריכים עיון. Anyone that knows I would love to, I would love to know about that.
Yeah, ask. That's true about everything but also about קברים as well.So, the example that he's going to start off with will דוקא probably be a surprising one. Because in פרשת תולדות, which is in two weeks, which is in a week and and and a half, is it two weeks? No, a week and a half, right? No, two weeks, sorry. Two weeks from this שבת, the famous story, beginning of the פרשה about יצחק and רבקה davening to have children, we know that from the פשט of the פסוקים it's you would think, what do you mean? Why are you saying that women's davening is higher than men's? Because the פסוק says there that they were both davening.
Who did השם answer?
יצחק. So look what he says here. This is really beautiful. Maybe you've heard this in a different variation.
This is very beautiful.
תפילת רבקה אמנו עליה השלום.
ברוך אתה ה' אלקינו מלך העולם שהכל נהיה בדברו.
אמן.Really beautiful.
נתבאר כי תפילת נשים קרובה להתקבל לפני השם יתברך. We've discussed already that the davening of women is closer to be מתקבל, to be received before הקדוש ברוך הוא.
ועתה נבוא לבאר בעזרת השם סוד מעלת תפילתן. What's the secret of the high level of women's davening?
שהיא נחשבת ורצויה לפני השם יתברך יותר מתפילת האנשים.
That it seems to be more accepted and wanted more than men's davening.
ויסוד זה מצינו כבר בתפילתה של רבקה אמנו עליה השלום.
שנאמר ויעתר יצחק להשם לנוכח אשתו כי עקרה היא ויעתר לו השם. That יצחק and רבקה were both davening לנוכח אשתו, right, they were both davening, remember this famous רש"י is there and מדרשים, they were both in the same room, one was in one corner, one was in the other corner, and they're both davening, but the פסוק says ויעתר לו השם.
that the answer was given to, in the זכות of יצחק. That's what the that's what the פשט seems.
ומדייק רש"י שם, לו ולא לה.
דוקא it was answered to יצחק but not to her.
Why?
שאין דומה תפילת צדיק בן צדיק לתפילת צדיק בן רשע. That he's saying they're both צדיקים, but one of them is a צדיק בן צדיק, יצחק אבינו בן אברהם. And רבקה's אבא wasn't exactly a צדיק to say the least, and רבקה falls into the category of צדיק בן רשע, צדקת בת רשע.
ומשמע, so the ביאלע רבי says, so what does this mean?
כי אילו היו שווים במעלה, if they were both צדיקים בני צדיקים, היה השם יתברך נעתר לתפילתה של רבקה תחילה.
Then השם would have answered רבקה's davening first, רק שכאן נעתר לתפילת יצחק אבינו ולא לה, כיוון שהיה צדיק בן צדיק. Now how does he prove that? That really if רבקה was the daughter of a צדיק and they were both in the room and both davening that it was רבקה אמנו's תפילה that would have been מתקבל first? Based on what is the ביאלע רבי saying that this proves the point? Because רש"י is telling us the reason why the תפילה worked the way it worked. If you understand, this is like you have to have a little bit of a גמרא קאפ for this. If, even if רבקה was a צדקת בת צדיק and יצחק is a צדיק בן צדיק, השם still would have answered יצחק because he's holier, there wouldn't have been a need for any of this רש"י.
So the רש"י is explaining to us, he's saying don't think for a second that's because she wasn't the holiest. If she was like, if she had this lineage that was holy, then and they were both davening, even though her father wouldn't have been אברהם אבינו, it would have been a צדיק, her תפילה would have been answered before. Yeah. I I heard once that that what was he saying? He was saying give my wife a baby, יצחק.
He was saying give my wife a baby because look she's so צדקת and look where she came from. And that's the idea צדיק. So therefore he answers יצחק. In the זכות of יצחק, because he's pointing out so amazing.
Very good. Very, very good. Here, here the the חאפ here is different. because we're trying to understand here on under מצד השם, like what is the מעלה, what is the, what is the level going on over here.
So if we plug what in what you said right now, then we could say like this, that יצחק אבינו knew the secret of צדיק בן צדיק and versus צדיק בן רשע, and he was trying to like go from the side and say it's true that because your father is not a צדיק, I'll probably be answered first, but you and I both know השם if her father was a צדיק, she would have been answered first.
אלא מאי, even so, look, look how far she came, and then השם says, yeah, that תפילה of focusing on רבקה the way you did, that's opening the gates.Yeah. Devil's advocate. Two צדיקים, okay, are דאווענען and they get two kids, and her kid was the צדיק of the two boys because יצחק אהב את עשו.
Right, יפה מאוד. Thank you. Meaning so יצחק produces, I hate to say this, a רשע בן צדיק, and רבקה produces a צדיק בן צדיק. That's very, why is it devil's advocate? Because we're talking about something else and I'm just putting it out.
No, it's great. It's great. That's give, it's it's an amazing, it's actually an amazing thing what you just said. It's an amazing thing what you just said.
Doesn't work with איז'ביץ, but it's, but it's an amazing thing. Okay, that's very good. Okay, so the first thing we have is the תפילה of רבקה אמנו. Now the next one, מהמרי רוכל, תפילת רחל אמנו עליה השלום.
Look at this, look at this fascinating מדרש איכה.
וכמו שמבואר במדרש איכה, כי בעת חורבן בית המקדש באו האבות הקדושים, אברהם יצחק ויעקב ומשה רבנו עליו השלום לפני השם יתברך. While the בית המקדש was being destroyed, our אבותינו הקדושים and משה רבנו came before השם.
והאריכו בתחינתם על בני ישראל, and they were דאווענען so hard on עם ישראל.
Like, now what were they, and then it says אך לא נענו בתפילתם, but they weren't answered. What was their, what were their תפילות on עם ישראל? They were basically saying, רבונו של עולם, it seems that there's a גזרת שמד, that there's a decree to wipe out all of עם ישראל. It wasn't just the בית המקדש that was about to be destroyed. We know the, we know the, meaning we know the story after what happened.
But אברהם, יצחק ויעקב, משה רבנו are coming and saying, oh my God, it looks like everyone's going to be wiped out over here. And that was the, according to this, that's what probably was going to happen and it didn't help. Then the מדרש says, ולא שמע השם יתברך כי אם לתפילתה של רחל אמנו עליה השלום. But רחל אמנו who was דאווענען over the צאן, that's what saved עם ישראל.
I got to share with you something amazing but is it okay if I'm able to breathe and so look I'll put on the air for a little bit, not. Yeah, not not too cold or anything just to get something flowing in here. I wonder what she is saying that Esav is now it's the opposite. Now it's the opposite.
Yeah.
נכון? This is a different מדרש but I'm saying like I have to share with you something amazing, because when now for me the context of רחל אמנו is a very different context. Last night we get a knock on the door and it's רחל גולדברג and her husband. And they're so, they're so beautiful.
I don't know how they, they are, they are so beautiful. They're so everything. The whole עם ישראל is like in this זיווג, you know. So under the חופה, I remember that he said he was, he gave a whole תורה.
He was, he spoke under the חופה, the husband who was a widower who had three children. His wife Noah passed away from cancer. I think about four years ago, משהו כזה. And she, and he said he was talking about the love that he had and then this song that he fell in love with, ואהבת עולם אהבתיך.
And he thought that was a weird thing that a song starts with the letter ו, and ואהבת עולם אהבתיך. But then he realized that he was, this song came to him at that time for ו החיבור.
ו is always the word and, right? So it's a ו החיבור, the letter came and he says, no no no. And now there's a חיבור of you had love, and now there's ואהבת עולם אהבתיך, there's a letter that's going to bring them both together, and he fell in love with that song.
Now I forgot, but he, בינה remembered that we were having breakfast one morning in the חממה.
עליו השלום. Right. Right.
And someone came up to me and said, and it said to me, I want you to know this song, I just came cross it and it's given me such a tremendous נחמה I can't even explain to you. And he said my wife just passed away. He was sitting with with his daughter. And he told me this when I at the חתן'ס טיש.
I didn't remember. And then Bina remembered totally and he came so they came over last night and it was it was just they just stopped by they were in the area and they wanted to, so sweet, give her like a thank you for the חופה and everything.So under the חופה he said, I didn't know what was going to be in life but then והנה רחל באה עם הצאן. He quoted the פסוק. And here Rochel comes with the flock.
And she came with a גזונט flock. It's eight, eight קינדערלעך and he has three. And they refer to them as אחד עשר כוכביא. We have 11 stars.
was Michael's been asked him he said under the חופה and Bina asked, כמה כמה ילדים יש לכם? And they both said right away, אחד עשר כוכביא. So הנה רחל באה עם הצאן and the תפילה of רחל אימנו. you know, רחל אימנו, it's amazing. Her our our relationship with her is long is this one long life of התבודדות, if you think about it.
From the moment that she comes onto the scene til her פטירה, that she dies in childbirth, like there's so much going on with her, but there's so much of like her going in and out of התבודדות. And her תפילה obviously is something that is has kept has brought us back to ארץ ישראל.She's buried where she's buried because we eventually were able to hear her crying while we went into גלות and it brought us back. And it's still continuing to bring us back.So, he he he continues here and he says, וכן מצינו במדרש, למה נקברה רחל בבית לחם בדרך אפרת?
שגלוי וצפוי לפניו שסוף בית המקדש עתיד להיחרב. It was clear that the בית המקדש would eventually be destroyed ובניו עתידים לצאת בגולה, and השם's children are going to go and be exiled.
והם הולכים אצל אבות ומבקשים מהם שיתפללו עליהם ואינם מועילים להם. And before they get exiled they're going to go and cry by the fathers for the tears, like bring get us back here, save us, and it won't work for them. That's not what's going to be it won't it won't satiate them.
וכיוון שהם הולכים בדרך, but then they're going to be on their way, הם באים ומחבקים קבורת רחל.
They come and they hug the place where רחל אימנו was buried.
והיא עומדת ומבקשת רחמים מן הקדוש ברוך הוא. Look down at footnote ס"ה, ואומרת לפניו, and her words are, ריבונו של עולם, שמע בקול בכייתי. Listen to the voice of my crying.
ורחם על בני, have compassion on my children, או תן לי האוניה שלי. Or give me my מזונות? my my huh? No, because that would be a נון and a דלת, here it's אניה. maybe it's connected, I don't know. Just make sure that my פרנסה is given to me.
Now what's her פרנסה, what's her מזונות? How do you satiate רחל אימנו? By putting some פושקע, like money in a פושקע next? No. Her קינדערלעך have to be taken care of.Back on top, ומיד הקדוש ברוך הוא שומע בקול תפילתה, so the מדרש says השם immediately hears her דאווענען.
מניין? שכן כתוב, it says in ירמיהו, בכי תמרורים, נהי בכי תמרורים, רחל מבכה על בניה, וכתוב ויש תקווה לאחריתך נאם השם ושבו בנים לגבולם. Every חטוף that's come home, every חטוף that will come home, and any ייד that makes עליה right now from America has nothing to do with mom Danni, ימח שמו, or anything else, it has to do with רחל אימנו.
You and I that are here, we came back. It's true, השם facilitated it through many different avenues and ways, but our אמונה is is because she's buried right here and our the beginning of our exit was ממש here also that way. And then that way, and then that way, and then that way and that way and that way, we couldn't ever get rid of the voice of רחל אימנו and the seeing the tears of רחל אימנו. In our subconsciousness, that is actually what has kept us alive and has brought us back as well.
This is why this is what he's saying over here, these מדרשים that רחל אימנו's tears have a way of direct direct access and direct acceptance.Now, the דיוק though in the word is very interesting. If I would say that Rochel is crying over, she cried over her children, so what would be the לשון in Hebrew?
רחל בכתה or בוכה על בניה.
מבכה. It's a very interesting word.
Now, I don't want to start going into אולפן right now with the בניינים and the that triggers all of us, right? This is לא העניין. I'm Israeli and I have no I have no idea how it works, right?
זה ממש. I speak fluent Hebrew since I'm a kid, but then I start I start doubting my Hebrew when I went when I started taking הכנה for בגרויות in לשון. So I'm not gonna go into that, but מבכה, מבכה is a very interesting word.
It's a very interesting word. He's going to he's going to unpack this word מבכה. What's a similar word in Hebrew to מבכה? Like the same kind of לשון, same kind of בניין?
מבקש. מבקש.
It's the same בניין. Yeah? There you go. No, we're not saying that word right now.
מדריך.
Present tense, no. It's ongoing. I'm trying to remember, מביך also, I think.
מה זה?
מביך.
Embarrassing. Oh, מביך. Wow. Is it? Is it the...
It's the same... No, I know, it's the same letters, but is it the same שורש? I don't know.
יכול להיות. No, it actually makes a lot of sense.
יכול להיות.
צריך עיון. A lot of things צריך עיון today. Okay, that's very good.
You could say a lot of תורות on what you just said.
ממש a lot of תורות on what you just said. I was thinking it's embarrassing. It's embarrassing when we say that and about השם, it's it's embarrassing for you that your children are going through...
You went to the top. Wow. No, no, that's the one of the... Did you understand what you just said? Yeah.
Do you understand what you just said? I hope so.
שורש... No, no, no, we've said this in different variations over the years. The שורש of גילוי רחמנות on עם ישראל, the root of it, is not השם, this is embarrassing for us.
It's being able to really say and feel and portray a life of, this is embarrassing for you, why would you do this to you?
משה says that all the time. Well, he was kind of plugged into the שורש, שורש התפילה. Right? And we say in הלל, we do say this references in הלל, actually, who knows where?
למה יאמרו הגויים, איה נא אלוהיהם. Right?
השם, like why would you, why would you do this? It's going to cause you to look like you're not really taking care.
Sorry? We say it in...
אב הרחמן? Which אב הרחמן?
אב הרחמים.
אב הרחמים. On שבת.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
נכון. נכון.
אבינו מלכנו עשה עמנו למען שמך.
It's for you. Yeah. So רחל, let's say if we go with what you're saying, רחל אמנו is crying saying, I know it's painful that that it seems like עם ישראל is going to be suffering now, but השם יתברך, why, למען שמך הגדול והנורא. So this is very, that's very deep.
So look at the bottom here.
ומלשון הכתוב מבכה שנאמר בלשון הווה, Lisa? Bottom, the bottom of the page.
ומלשון הכתוב מבכה שנאמר בלשון הווה, יש לדייק שרחל אמנו עדיין מבכה על בניה, כי מאנה להינחם.
מאנה להינחם is a word we also find ביעקב אבינו when he's told about יוסף.
I just heard on the radio on the way to שול this morning that there was a חייל that one of the חטופים, the last חייל חטוף, איתי חן, his the family refused to sit שבעה when things came back probably close to two years ago, alluding to the fact that the son was killed. And there was proof that he was killed and the הלכות were they have to sit שבעה right away. They said as a statement, we refused. No, listen, until our son's body is back, we're not.
This is like this וימאן. So she's still crying because she refuses to be consoled until all the יידן come back, and based on what we're saying right now, until there's no reason for there should be that there should be an embarrassment to הקדוש ברוך הוא in this world.
כי מאז ועד אתה, אינה פוסקת לשפוך תחינותיה בבכי ובדמעות עבור כלל ישראל.
כמו שכתב בספר הקדוש תפארת שלמה, מבכה על בניה.
What does the רדומסק רבי say over here, the תפארת שלמה?
מבכה תמיד ואיננה רוצה לעלות על מקומה, ורק היא עם בני ישראל. You know, this is like a classic story of of basically saying, I'm not willing to have good things happen to me. unless they're also happening to you. Because it just won't mean so much, it won't mean anything to me.
I think I told you this before, but it's obviously in the air. Tonight is Reb Shlomo's 31st יארצייט and he was only in ארץ ישראל for ראש השנה one time, the beginning of the מושב, so mid to late 70s. And they he did something there, I don't know if he did it every year, but I speak about this all the time. I never did it and I never told anyone to do it because it's really it's a very, very high level and also it could danger שלום בית when the wives and children are waiting to eat on ליל ראש השנה.
And that's that after דאווענען, you know, the מחזור says at the end of ראש השנה דאווענען at night, מעריב, so what does it say in the מחזור? It says now everyone should turn to the person next to them and say לשנה טובה תכתב ותחתם, right? If I need a מחזור, if I understand, if I need a מחזור to come and tell me, "oh, now is the time that I wish something to someone else," how deep could it be? Right? Oh, okay.
שמע ישראל ה' אלקינו ה' אחד.
לשנה טובה תכתב ותחתם. It has to come from from, right? So the מנהג, he did this and he said it took, maybe it took an hour, that everyone in the מושב blessed each other with the good, all the ברכות you could imagine how, you know, fresh hippies off the boat would want to bless each other.
But he ended off, it was always ended off by saying, "And if you're not in sealed in the book of life, I don't want to be written in it either." So you could hear that and be like, what a חצפה, what a what a חצפה'דיק way of talking. But sorry, this is what the Radomsker Rebbe says מבכה means. This is רחל אמנו's ווארט. And רחל אמנו is not stopping to cry, even though a lot of good things have happened to her and her קינדערלאך until everyone is back home, she's still crying.
And Rachel's whole thing is that until the צאן, רחל באה עם הצאן, until the צאן are taken care of, מאנה להנחם על בניה כי איננו. She's refusing to be consoled.
ורחל אמנו, next paragraph, is it too cold in here? I can't tell already. I'm an iceberg all day long in the, right? It is too cold.
You can lower it a little bit. Sorry to drive you crazy. If you want, yes ask.
חכו, another another two weeks or so it'll be, it'll start to be naturally more cold, בעזרת השם.
Thank you.
ורחל אמנו עליה השלום בתפילותיה ותחנוניה הרבים ובדמעותיה הרבות, אשר היא שופכת תמיד לפני כסא הכבוד, with all her tears that she's constantly pouring before the throne of glory, נטעה.
נטעה, she planted את ענין התפילה בנשמת בנות ישראל לדורות עולם. She planted the seed in the souls of בנות ישראל for forever, for forever.
שימסרו את נפשם בתפילה על עם ישראל בכל עת, that they will give over their lives, not not literally, figuratively, the תפילה is like a מסירות נפש when עם ישראל is in trouble, ועל קיומם בעת הגלות that we should still exist while there is גלות taking place.
ופעלה אף זאת, שתפילותיהן ודמעותיהן יתקבלו לרצון בעזרת השם יתברך. What's the greatest example of this in the in Jewish history after this? The greatest example of... The greatest example for כלל ישראל? Esther.
אסתר המלכה.
אסתר המלכה, without a shadow of a doubt. In terms of כלל ישראל, גזירת שמד on everyone, אסתר המלכה is plugged into this ענין of, you know, אני ונערותי, me and my girls, we're going to get it together. Where where where did this come from? It's because רחל אמנו planted within the נשמת בני ישראל, צאן is צאן.
The flock is the flock, and they need their shepherd or shepherdess, I don't know how you say that, the shepherdess, to be to be the ones that access the thing that has no מחסום, that has no barrier.
וכל אשה מישראל העומדת בתפילה ברגש ובדמעות, any woman in עם ישראל who is standing and דאווענען with emotions and tears, מתפללת היא בכוחה של רחל אמנו עליה השלום. He's saying over here something very important. You always have the opportunity to open your heart the moment you just invite the person that's holding your hand while you're דאווענען.
And who's always holding your hand?
רחל אמנו is always holding your hand during תפילה וממנה.
וממנה מקבלת את הכח הנשגב לפעול תמיד אצל השם יתברך. And you ask yourself, how do I have the כח to keep on דאווענען? How do I have the כח to keep on דאווענען? To read my whole תהילים? Where does this come from? Because מאמע רחל is מאמע רחל. It's not סתם.
She מאמע רחל is basically the one that pushes you when you think you got nothing left in the tank. I remember after one of the trips we did to Ukraine, one of the women's trips, I don't remember which one, someone came up to, I think someone, either I don't remember this, I either I overheard it or someone came up to me and said, it was like the first, the end of the first day and there was like two more days or whatever it was, and someone said, "Is there more דאווענען on this trip?" I'm like, "Well, yeah, there's a lot more דאווענען." That's what this trip basically is. And she said, "I don't know what to do. I'm דאווענט out.
There's, I've never, in this day I דאווענט more I did in my life. I'm דאווענט out." That wasn't the story.
דאווענען, but this happens to us quite often as well. How much more could I דאווענען over something? Where does it come from? He's saying over here because רחל אמנו planted this in you that you could never stop.
You could never stop. Now, just to go back to a teaching from רב שלמה, he once said, what's the definition of holy? Holy means, you know you're doing something holy if you could do what you're doing forever.These weren't his חידושים. This is basically the פנימיות of חסידות just, just like, given to us in a manner that we could maybe relate to more. And if what you were doing, you couldn't do always, you'd be okay if it happened once in a while.
It's nice, but you wouldn't say it's holy. All of us in this room know, when we're plugged into דאווענען, you could do it forever. If if someone, if a מלאך came and told you, "Hey, the רבונו של עולם said he's going to take care of everything. All you gotta do is keep on doing this," we would all do it.
We have moments like this when it becomes more revealed to us, like on יום כיפור or other other other times during the year, right? This is real, this is, this is holiness, this is קדושה. This is the קדושה of רחל אמנו that gives it to every בת ישראל. Always did, always will. The following is a very clear very, you know, a strong example that we all know.
That when it came to leaving מצרים, obviously נשים צדקניות.
ונראה לבאר בכן על דרך רמז דברי חז"ל, בזכות נשים צדקניות נגאלו אבותינו ממצרים.
היינו, שנגאלו בזכות תפילתן הנעלות של נשים צדקניות, שהרי מצינו במדרש שגאולת מצרים היתה בזכות התפילה. Remember that the beginning of גאולה from מצרים was from the פסוקים, not after the מכות started.
It was when they were in the height of עבדות and then פרעה dies, that פרעה dies before the another next פרעה comes on the scene, ויזעקו, ותעל שועתם אל האלקים. That initial scream and cry where it came from, that is, that is the beginning of the גאולה שייך, of the גאולה march. And if you look down in סמ"ו, כלשון המדרש, אמר להם השם, השם said to עם ישראל: בכו והתפללו לפני ואני מקבל.
אבותיכם כשנשתעבדו במצרים, לא בתפילה פדיתי אותם?
שנאמר ויאנחו בני ישראל מן העבודה.
We know that דאווענען is what broke open the gates of גלות, of שעבוד, and eventually got us out of there. But we know that חז"ל also say it was the זכות of נשים צדקניות. It was in the merit of righteous women. So which one was it? Was it the merit of דאווענען that just everyone started דאווענען that the גאולה came? Or was it really in the merit of righteous women? What's going on over here?
אם כן, back on the top over here, אם כן מסתבר שתפילת נשים היא זו שהביאה את הגאולה לעולם.
Meaning if you're going to say that it was דאווענען that broke open everything for people to come out of מצרים, but you also, חז"ל say it was the merit of righteous women, again, this is more of a למד'ישע קאפ.
האי משמע, then this means, it must mean that it was the דאווענען of women that brought about the גאולה.
וכיון שגאולת מצרים היא שורש כל הגאולות, since the redemption from Egypt is the root of all redemptions, נמצא כי בכח תפילתן של נשות ישראל במצרים נגאלים ישראל לדורותיהם, ומחזיקים מעמד תחת עול הגלות הכבד. Again, this is like a no pressure paragraph on all of you, but basically, if you wanted there to be a chance that all the אידעלעך come home and the גלות is finally over and that we get out of גלות here in ארץ ישראל, you know how limited we are, men.
You know how limited we are, the men, right? You know it. You know it. There's a התעוררות of תפילת נשים that's happening in our days more than ever. It's very clear.
It's very, very, very powerful. And it should be very, very encouraged. And to see a ספר written by a big חסידישע רבי, a whole ספר just on this thing is a big סימן of understanding the shift of time, the changing of times and what we really need today. Because we're still stuck in a very big thick cloud of גלות.
Hard to burst the בני עקיבא zionist bubble that many of us, many of us, I include myself, grew up with, that once you make עליה, גלות is over. That's not true. It's a very dangerous statement in my opinion that brought a lot of confusion to a lot of different people. Who cares if it's like the beginning of the גאולה, the middle of לא אכפת לי.
גלות is not over yet. We're in the land of גאולה, but the concept of גלות is not over yet. And therefore all the Mama Rochel's tears and רבקה אמנו's tears and the נשים צדקניות of מצרים's tears are needed now more than ever. So obviously it was was referenced before, but we have to also end off for today with חנה.
Because without חנה, this picture wouldn't, without תפילת חנה this picture wouldn't be שלם. I think I shared this on שבת at a certain point, maybe in שיעור, maybe at a meal. But you know I saw a, a real frightening מדרש that said, oh, I learned this from Rav Asher Weiss. He gave this over recently.
Rav Asher's שיעורים are just they're, they're fat. You're standing next to a walking, just ש"ס. You know, he's just, he's just unbelievable. So, I actually, sorry, I'm a little bit of a tangent, but last night when Rachel came over, I don't know why this came up, but she shared that she had met with Rav Asher Weiss after, after her husband Rav Avi was killed two days after שמחת תורה.
On שמחת תורה, they had a שאלה, they didn't know what to do. They didn't have a ספר תורה with them. This is what they're thinking about while they're in Lebanon, you know, fighting the enemy. And the question was, what do we dance with? There's no תורה.
Do you dance? So everyone just, I think they were told, or he said, I think Rav Avi said, everyone should just take whatever ספר they have and just that's their ספר תורה and dance around with it. And he had, there was a special edition of מנחת אשר, Rav Asher, Rav Asher Weiss's תורות that were like, I don't know if it was pocket size or it was like the size that was מתאים for חיילים in the שטח, and he was dancing with the מנחת אשר. He was dancing with Rav Asher's תורות. That's שמחת תורה, two days before, two, two or three days before.
So Rav Asher Weiss shared a frightening מדרש that said that when חנה, each one of her sons, right, before they were taken and killed, so, she asked to say something, to give a hug to the last one before it was taken. And the מדרש says that she whispered into אברהם אבינו's ear, into her son's ear, tell אברהם אבינו, he only had to do this once. I have to do this seven times. So the question is the מדרש, what does that mean? Was that being חצפדיק? What is she saying to אברהם אבינו? Like what what what is that statement? So Rav Asher taught it like this, he said, it doesn't mean that she was being חצפדיק saying, אברהם אבינו, look, you think you had it hard? And you're the outcome of your נסיון wasn't what I'm experiencing.
I have to do this seven times. She said, because of the זכות, because of the merit, מעשה אבות יצירה לבנים, סימן לבנים, because of what you did, the מסירות נפש that you did in our פרשה וירא, I had the כח right now to go through this right now. And if you didn't do that, I would have never had the כח to last a second here. Because the כח of the מסירות נפש that you, you created, מעשה אבות יצירה, you created for the בנים, a world to tap into of מסירות נפש.
That's what חנה was telling her child to tell אברהם אבינו. Now let's look inside, inside, this is like a, this is just an amazing thing.
בוא וראה מה פעלה תפילתה של חנה אמא של שמואל הנביא עליו השלום.
שבכוח תפילתה המשיכה את נשמת שמואל הנביא שהיה שקול כמשה ואהרן.
Now we're talking about חנה, the mother of שמואל. That in the כח of her תפילה, she was able to draw down the נשמה of שמואל, that is, his soul is שקול. What was, what's the right word in English? Equivalent. To the soul of משה and אהרון.
Now, this shouldn't be a חידוש to anybody because you say it every Friday night.
משה ואהרון בכהניו ושמואל בקוראי שמו. Why do we say that? Isn't that interesting?
משה ואהרון בכהניו ושמואל בקוראי שמו. And then we say קוראים אל השם והוא יענם.
They call out to השם and then they'll be answered. Because the נשמה of שמואל was drawn down from such a place, such a high and exalted place.כמו שאמרו חז"ל, חנה שטעמה טעם תפילה, לפיכך זכתה ויצא ממנה בן שהיה זיווג למשה ואהרון שהיו מאירים לישראל.
חנה tasted the taste of of what דאווענען is. What do you mean she tasted the taste? She was תפילה.
She understood this. She was the בחינה of like דוד המלך, ואני תפילה. This was her reality. And because this was her reality, she draw down a נשמה, she was able to draw down a נשמה from such a high and exalted place.
Someone that became equivalent, again, it's just hard to understand this because most kids, if you say, "Tell us something about משה," they'll have stories. "Tell me something about אהרון," they'll have stories. "Tell us something about שמואל הנביא." "It's behind רמות?" you know. But those that are understanding the need to connect more to the נביאים understand that we need to plug ourselves into נביאים now more than ever.וכדי שקיימנו שאמרו בגמרא בברכות, כי מתפילתה של חנה למדנו את יסודות התפילה.
We learn from חנה's דאווענען the foundations of דאווענען.
כמבואר, אמר רב המנונא, כמה הלכתא גברבתא איכא למשמע מהני קראי דחנה. How many הלכות we learn from the פסוקים that come out from the תפילה of חנה.
כמו שכתב רבינו בחיי, ועוד תמצא עיקרים גדולים שבתורה מפורשים על ידי נשים.
You'll find many other principles that play a very big role in הלכות תפילה with all the world of the הלכות of תפילה, not just the meaning of תפילה. This is very important. We're not just saying by חנה, oh, what a beautiful פרוש her תפילה must have been.
חז"ל looked at that and said, okay, we're going to have to, we have to, we have to now present to עם ישראל the world of דאווענען with through הלכה.
And he's saying what the גמרא is saying, דווקא through חנה, and he's going to bring other examples now, there's יסודות של תפילה that now have been instituted in כל בית בישראל in terms of how to דאווענען. Not what to say necessarily, but how to דאווענען. We spoke about this two years ago, second day ראש השנה. I don't expect anyone to remember but I, whatever, I I remember this is like very חזק things because that's when we speak about him.So רבינו בחיי says we find a lot of עיקרים, big עיקרים בתורה, דווקא מפורש by women.
כי ענין העולם הבא הנקרא צרור החיים על ידי אביגיל. This is beautiful. When out, we should all live long, תהא נשמתה צרורה בצרור החיים. Where did that phrase come from? That came from אביגיל.
She used it.
וענין תחיית המתים וסדרי תחנה על ידי חנה. The principle of faith that the רמב"ם speaks about that if you don't have this, you're not really a ייד. The whole concept of the resurrection of the dead, where did that come from?
חנה founded it.
And סדרי תחנה, the order of how to דאווענען to השם, through חנה.
הרי לנו, so the בעל ה... is saying here now like this: כי הרבה גופי תורה של הלכות תפילה נמשכים ונלמדים דווקא מתפילת נשים. What ended up being the laws, the rules, the guide book, the manual of how Jewish people דאווענען, were learned out from the way חנה דאווענען.
ובוודאי סיבת הדבר. The reason for this must be, מפאת שישנה חשיבות מיוחדת ומעלה יתירה לתפילתן של נשות ובנות ישראל. And this, from all this we see the point of this ספר. If חז"ל created a world of דאווענען and based the הלכות, so many of the הלכות, on the way that חנה דאווענען, we have to pay closer attention to the ענין of תפילת נשים that we see throughout the תורה, throughout חז"ל, throughout everywhere.
Now one more important thing, and we're going to see this, I don't know about next. week, maybe the week after.
לא יודע מתי בדיוק. But and this is for me a breakthrough, breakthrough חידוש through the through the תורות of the ביאלער רבי.
If this is all true, then why is it that in most real, real פרום places, women aren't in שול? Didn't want to even ask that question sometimes. Sometimes. So if that's the case, then why why is it like this, right?So, it's a good question, נכון? And he's going to debunk it. Meaning he's going to say, יש פה בעיה.
And he's going to show us how the real צדיקים from back in the day understood that if women were not present in the שול while they were דאווענען, they knew something was lacking. Which, I saw this inside, I couldn't believe he's saying such words. Like, because it has to be, meaning if you're going to learn these תורות right now, and then you'll come to the מסקנה and this just means that when you're at home in between feeding kids, make sure that you know רחל אמנו is holding your hand. Is that going to work today? Is there anyone here that that that that'll do it for them?
מה פתאום.
Not just here, in the world. But for us, it's important to see the building of how he built this whole picture. And therefore, I just want to encourage you all. I'm not saying God forbid a word of מוסר, חלילה, להפך.
Just empowerment.This quiet that we're experiencing right now is a total illusion. A total illusion. The prep for the next massacre is happening while we're sitting here right now. And the reason that any second it's not taking place, I believe, is the same reason, the same way we got out of מצרים.
בזכות נשים צדקניות. It has to be. No pressure. No pressure.
I believe this with all my heart and soul. You see that there are people like the woman that walked into my house last night that are, and they're they're, no one's like each other, חלילה, everyone has their own ענין, but you see that this light that's emanating from the world in the last two years, this light is we see where it's coming from. And therefore we have to just make sure that's tuned up and given over to our daughters and to invite them to realize רחל אמנו is with them, רבקה אמנו is with them, every woman that ever lived in Egypt is with them, חנה is with them, אביגיל is with them, דבורה הנביאה is with them. These things need to be turned up, the volume on these things.
That's the reason we're learning this this year. For now, for probably going to do for for for six months, we've already did two months of it. Because this is ממש, I believe the עת רצון for this right now. So I want to give you all a יישר כוח and let's continue.
בעזרת השם we should hear ישועות and נחמות. And the eventual