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The shiur in English
The Yanuka’s own words in this shiur, translated into English by Lehallel · 2,582 words · 16:31. Press a time to hear it said.
0:00 Let us welcome the Gaon, the tzaddik, who came specially, specially, to honor the family, to comfort us in this great heartbreak, in this great heartbreak. And we thank him for coming and taking the trouble to honor us. We will be honored to hear from him words of strength and comfort.
0:28 The great Gaon, the Gaon, the Yanuka. With the permission of our masters and teachers, the whole public, this whole holy congregation, May the Holy One, blessed be He, give you strength from Heaven.
0:53 'I, I am He Who comforts you.' 'And in Jerusalem you shall be comforted.' 'He will swallow up death forever, and Hashem G-d will wipe the tears from every face.' May Hashem, blessed be He, give you strength, give you strength and hope, and fortitude and comfort from Heaven, and may He strengthen you. And everyone knows that in this world it is impossible to understand what Hashem does in this world.
1:23 And Iyov too, who suffered so much in this world — when Bildad the Shuchite, Tzofar the Naamasite and Elifaz the Teimanite came, they came to Iyov, and they did not know that the Holy One, blessed be He, was testing him from Heaven. All the sufferings that came upon Iyov — everyone looked at him and said: what are these sufferings? You must have done some wrong. Meaning, in Iyov's time, whoever did something that was not good was afflicted at once.
1:54 Bildad the Shuchite comes, and Tzofar, and Elifaz the Teimanite, and they say: What is this? What did you do, Iyov? What happened? There is so much suffering, such afflictions. They say — one of them said to him: 'Can a mortal be more just than G-d? Can a man be purer than his Maker?' They told him: are you saying you are more just than G-d? 'Can a mortal be more just than G-d' — can there be a human being who is more just than G-d?
2:22 'Can a man be purer than his Maker?' Can there be such a thing? And truly, no one understood what the Holy One, blessed be He... but the One Who stood behind Iyov's trial was the Holy One, blessed be He, Himself. And in fact they did not understand that Iyov's trial did not contradict his righteousness, and He tested him. The Holy One, blessed be He, was with him all along. Iyov would just step out under the sky, and the Holy One, blessed be He, especially for him, would cover the sun with clouds.
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2:55 And when he went out, everyone would look up at the sky and see clouds covering the sky; they would see Iyov in the market, Iyov in the field, Iyov walking — and the Holy One, blessed be He, covering over him. The Holy One, blessed be He, honored him — Iyov. Out of everything he did in the world: when he would go to the widows and knock on the door, he would tell them: I owe a debt to your husband. I have to give him the coins; he lent to me, and I want to pay him back.
3:21 So that the widow would not be ashamed. So that she would not be embarrassed, Iyov would come and say to her: I need to pay you for the trouble and the time — I am giving you ten gold coins. That is what Iyov did all his days. And this is the deed that shook the Satan, until the Holy One, blessed be He, put him to the test. 'See if he does not curse You to Your face.' Maybe he has it too good, in everything he does — let us see him under trial.
3:48 And then Iyov is tested with trials and harsh sufferings, until in chapter 38 it says: 'And Hashem answered Iyov out of the storm.' Now the Holy One, blessed be He, speaks to him. Iyov looks up to Heaven and says: how long will it go on like this with Iyov? The suffering that people suffer in the world — how long will the Jewish people suffer? He sees the pain and the suffering of all the Jewish people. We should have been saying 'G-d of Avraham, G-d of Yitzchak, G-d of Yaakov and G-d of Iyov' — mentioning him, because of his high level.
4:22 The very slightest flaw was the thought: is it all from the Holy One, blessed be He? Everything I go through in this world — Hashem stands behind it — or a person begins, Heaven forbid, to waver. We see it: a person comes to his friend and tells him: 'If you had done such and such, such and such, you could have saved the situation' — that is a kind of heresy, Heaven forbid. Everything is with Hashgachah pratis. What the Holy One, blessed be He, does is with exact Hashgachah; no one can change the hour and the time that comes to him. What the Holy One, blessed be He, decides — no one here in this world...
4:57 Everyone looks at life here in the world; people live by their own calculations. The Chasam Sofer and Rabbi Akiva Eiger: the Chasam Sofer was married to the daughter of Rabbi Akiva Eiger. So when his daughter passed away, he says: what do I do? How will I tell this to Rabbi Akiva, the great one of the generation — how will I tell him? I don't want him to grieve at all, or to enter mourning. And he told him nothing.
5:22 Once — he truly concealed it from him, so that he would not have to sit in mourning, so that he would go on composing all his works. And after some time — a year, two years — Rabbi Akiva Eiger sends him a telegram: in a few days he is coming to visit him; he wants to see his daughter. The Chasam Sofer did not know what to say, and so — what would he answer? Afterward he had married a wife, a second match, and then he said: It seems that here too there is siyata diShmaya, help from Heaven: he doesn't even look — even at his own daughter he does not look.
5:54 He called her: 'Sit here. The Rav will ask you questions; tell him: Yes, Father, No, Father. Yes, Father.' Rabbi Akiva came in and said: 'How are you, my daughter?' 'All is well.' And so Rabbi Akiva, all his life, never knew the pain of his daughter's passing — from his attachment to the Holy One, blessed be He, blessed be His name. Their way of looking at things was altogether different.
6:20 All the troubles and sufferings he went through — he did not understand at all what it means that 'a person must bless for the bad just as he blesses for the good.' When they came to ask him, he was caught up in harsh and bitter sufferings, a sickbed and sorrow. He suffered so very much. In this world — whoever can still hold on — we go through so many trials and hardships and troubles, so much fog — but the strength of this last generation: 'Let this be written for the last generation, and a people yet to be created will praise Hashem.' When we merit to hold ourselves in Torah, in kedushah, at every moment, in every tefillah, every merit, every bit of kedushah, in all holiness of thought, of the eyes, of the covenant —
7:02 one is already sanctified and holds himself firm. These are the merits. And I have heard so much about this righteous woman who has departed from us, Yael bas [name unclear]. I heard things — how important it was that they learn Torah, to raise children to Torah and kedushah with self-sacrifice, so that he could remain in Torah.
7:30 A holy soul, wondrous and awesome, that was in our generation. The holy one, young in years — and the Holy One, blessed be He, took this woman from us. The holy Baal Shem Tov said: 'If my wife were with me' — so he said — 'I would have gone up to Heaven in a storm.' Most of the kedushah he attained was with his Rebbetzin, the wife of his youth — the highest level of all.
7:55 Baruch Hashem, you merited to be a holy family. Your father... You have merited, you have merited — the whole family, the entire family. I bless you — small and lowly as I am — that the Holy One, blessed be He, give you strength in life, and might and hope to carry on, to raise the children in kedushah and purity, to carry on her light in the world, her path in the world.
8:25 We must never forget the righteous women. The women — the whole Torah of the Jewish people stands on righteous women. In Megillas Esther — Mordechai, all his self-sacrifice. In Megillas Esther, the Holy One, blessed be He, from Heaven looks at the women and sees their pain — the women, the women, who had no part in the sin of the Calf. All that the women give with self-sacrifice — they are exempt from time-bound positive mitzvos, they have no connection to the sin, and they are completely clean of the sin.
8:54 This one, who was afflicted and went through so much here in this world — she merited to leave this world in peace, and to carry on, like this, a path of kedushah. You have merited — the holy parents who merited to bring such a soul into the world, and the son-in-law and the whole family. It is a merit that she was in our generation. We see that your father is so great — a gaon of the world, who served for twenty-two years Maran Rav Ovadia — served twenty-two years, to learn, to hear Torah from him.
9:30 What a merit, what a merit — what light and heritage you have in what you drew down for the Jewish people. Everyone shares in the merit of the Rav and the Rabbanit. Everyone needs to understand this merit — that he drew and drew for us from this well, this great well, so wondrous. Baruch Hashem that you merited to help and to reveal this Torah in the world. I bless you that the Holy One, blessed be He, give you great strength from Heaven, and hope and comfort.
10:01 May there be comfort for the parents. May He give them strength and hope. May joyous occasions multiply in your home. May you have strength and salvations from Heaven. For the sons and the daughters — and may we merit soon to be redeemed with a high hand and to merit the complete geulah, and the building of our Beis HaMikdash, our Holy Temple, our glory, with our King at our head. Amen and amen. To be a help and support to the orphans, and to strengthen this holy family.
10:27 I call blessing upon you. May you rise ever higher in holiness. May the Holy One, blessed be He, give you salvations and a good life. May you carry on in holiness, this whole holy and glorious family. She has a birthday tomorrow — at her mother's grave.
10:59 Tomorrow, a tenth birthday — at her mother's grave. Her mother was a partner in... In all my life I never knew... She said exactly that: in all my life I never knew.
11:24 Her mother too — as if she were here somehow, from the grave. I had the chance to see you, and yours, seeing you, only rabbis...
12:06 Rabbis. And to the sons, as I said, you know, Also, Rav — she never raises her voice. She never once raised her voice at home. And the kindergarten teacher said: six years right beside her, and she never raised her voice at anyone. She never raised her voice — never — never raised her voice at them. They were amazed — they said, what a tzadekes she is, truly.
12:53 Truly, she also merited a great funeral, a great funeral. So many people, too — a great funeral, truly many, rabbis, great ones. She deserved it. As they said: how can it be — she was so quiet here, and so many came? He said that this is the reason. I tell you, tzaddikim, the world does not know — truly, I say — this is not the time, not the place and not the moment, but it cannot be hidden.
13:45 In our generation — Maran Rav Ovadia, a giant of the world — all his works and his sefarim and his Torah in the world. But let us remember the hand — this hand, this holy one — twenty-two years of self-sacrifice that this home gave to all the Jewish people. This home, for twenty-two years — to sit with devotion — days, nights, vacations, vacations, while people are out on trips — he sits, night after night, he and the Rabbanit, raising these children who have nothing but the four cubits of halachah.
14:33 And what I merited, just a little, to taste of the great sea — Rabbi Eliyahu, he is a very great sea. A very great sea, Rabbi Eliyahu — a sea of Torah, Torah in that mind of his, Rabbi Eliyahu. Remember how we merited to sit together like that? A sea of Torah, Rabbi Eliyahu — something very great and awesome. 'Let a double portion of your spirit be upon me' — what the disciple merited to receive from his rebbe.
15:01 That is a double portion. And he, baruch Hashem, went on to make the Torah great and glorious — 'Let your springs spread outward, streams of water in the broad places' — and he went on to do mightily. Along with all this, he also learned the Daf Yomi every day, so that everyone would complete the whole Shas. He would also give a shiur in Daf Yomi, and went through the whole Shas — between the Daf and the writing of the sefarim and serving in holiness, days and nights.
15:31 It is impossible to imagine what self-sacrifice, to be beside such a great tree — one who gave himself, his soul, his everything, for Rav Ovadia and the Jewish people. And let us remember the shadow that stood at his right hand, and gave light, and supported, strengthened and encouraged — that is both the Rav and the Rabbanit. And I say it all the time — about the righteous Rabbanit as well, the tzadekes. May the Holy One, blessed be He, lengthen her days in goodness and her years in pleasantness — and the Rav, may Hashem lengthen the Rav's days in goodness, lengthen his days in goodness and pleasantness.
16:02 'Length of days is in her right hand; in her left, riches and honor.' 'Add days to the days of the king.' May she have much nachas and joy from all the offspring. 'Blessed are you to Hashem, Maker of heaven and earth.' 'And say: So may it be for life! Peace to you, peace to your house, and peace to all that is yours.' May Hashem bless you and give you mercy and good bounty, in goodness that is seen and revealed, amid joy and gladness of heart. May we merit to see all your joyous occasions. Your joyous occasions.
16:27 Joyous occasions.
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