The Yanuka Rav Shlomo Yehuda-לאהוב את הבורא יותר מכל דבר שבעולם ● הגאון הינוקא בסיום הש＂ס בכנס כולה שלי ערב שבועות תשפ＂ד

3:45 And this is the source of this whole practice and of everything people do in this matter, along the same path and in the same way. We know that the study of Torah is the most exalted, important and pure thing in this world. The Yerushalmi, in Berachos, in the ninth chapter, halachah 5, says in the name of Rav Elazar that when a person learns Torah, it is like an infant nursing from his mother's breast: every single day he needs to nurse.

4:15 So, just as every single hour he needs to nurse, every single Jew needs to engage in Torah every single hour. He can never separate from words of Torah, because the merit of the Torah, the power of the Torah and the bond of the Torah is something that will never be cut off from the root of all Jewish souls. And so they were accustomed to learn in the synagogue, as the Yerushalmi said in chapter 5, halachah 1 of Berachos, in the name of Rabbi Yochanan, that when a person learns Torah and prays in the synagogue, then we have a rule from this, which says it is a sure thing that a person will not forget his learning.

4:49 When a person learns the Torah in the synagogue or in the beis midrash, then he cannot forget his learning, because this is the greatest level - that a person can engage in Torah. Because the Torah study a person learns every day is something remembered for him and credited to his merit, as the Rambam ruled in Hilchos Talmud Torah, in chapter 1 and in chapter 2, or as the Shulchan Aruch brought in siman 241 and 246, and in Sefer HaChinuch, siman 419.

5:17 We see the importance and the occupation of Torah study. The Sages learned in Tractate Kiddushin, page 40b, that our Rabbis sat in the house of Nitzah in Lod. Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Tarfon were reclining there, and they disagreed about what is the greatest thing and what is greater in importance. Rabbi Tarfon says that action is greater, and Rabbi Akiva said that study is greater, and all of them together said that study is greater than everything, since study, in fact, brings one to action.

5:52 When one engages in study and engages in Torah, then this is the most exalted thing, as the Rambam ruled in Hilchos Talmud Torah, chapter 3, halachah 3, and so the Rambam brought it as halachah: that the Torah study one learns is the thing that can bring a person to the greatest levels and heights. And now, as we are close to the giving of the Torah - as the Maharal of Prague explains about the Seder night: why is it called the Seder night?

6:21 Because the stars are arranged, from the work of Creation, as at that same time the Jewish people went out of Egypt. If we could know the secret of the stars in the sky - for the stars are a map and drawings of the whole history of the Jewish people and everything that is to come, and each time they form a picture, the stars in the heavens, exactly in the order they were set, as it was in those events that happened to the Jewish people.

6:45 That is to say, if on the Seder night - it is called the Seder night - then the Maharal of Prague explains that the meaning of the Seder night is that the stars are arranged in the sky in exactly the same order as when the Jewish people went out of Egypt. And at that time, the stars - when the stars are arranged in that same order in the sky - they will be arranged in the future to come exactly when the Jewish people are destined to be redeemed in the final redemption. Hashem, blessed be He, will arrange the stars in exactly the same order as it was when the Jewish people were to be redeemed from Egypt and went out with a high hand, and a redemption came about in practice.

7:19 So this redemption - the stars - they will be so in the future to come. And therefore, this time is revealed at every festival - on Sukkos, on Pesach, on Shavuos, at the receiving of the Torah. We know that in Shemos Rabbah, in section 28, section 29, the Sages teach: Rabbi Yonasan said, Rabbi Yochanan said, that when Hashem, blessed be He, gave the Torah to the Jewish people, a bird did not chirp, and a fowl did not fly, and an ox did not low, and the Ofanim did not fly, and the Seraphim did not say 'Holy', and the sea did not stir, and creatures did not speak to one another; rather, the whole world was still and silent, and a voice went forth that said: 'I am Hashem your G-d, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.'

8:15 'You shall have no other gods before Me.' And Onkelos translated: 'You shall have no other god besides Me' - for Hashem, blessed be He, wants the essence of the unity and the revelation of G-dliness - that they serve Him. And so I once thought: after all, the whole world rejoices on Shavuos over the receiving of the Torah, but on this day of the receiving of the Torah, the symbol of the Jewish people is revealed, the king who won the victories of Israel - that is King David.

8:44 King David gave us, all the Jewish people, the gift of his book of Tehillim. In Midrash Shocher Tov, in chapter 1, King David asked that his book be weighed equal to Negaim and Oholos - like Negaim and Oholos, which a person reads and studies, from their level and their influence - so should the study and saying of Tehillim be important before Hashem, blessed be He; that saying these Tehillim should be very, very, very important before Hashem, blessed be He.

9:09 And of course the Gaon Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin explained that they did not answer him, but from Heaven, as we see, everything the tzaddikim asked for, everything the Sages asked for, and everything that was written for us for the generations is our support, that Hashem, blessed be He, answered them, Israel, and accepted their prayers. In the Jerusalem Talmud, in Beitzah, chapter 2, halachah 4, and in Tractate Chagigah, in chapter 2, halachah 3, there Rabbi Yosi said, Rabbi Bun said, that King David passed away on Atzeres.

9:38 This too is a proof for us from the Yerushalmi, that King David passed away at this time of the festival of Shavuos, and [unclear], as Tosafos also learn in Chagigah, on page 17. But the reflection and the thought - that King David, beyond his attainment and his learning, all the time - as it was in Tractate Shabbos, on page 31, the Sages teach that 'his mouth did not cease from study' - King David all the time kept his mouth in study and in learning Torah, and for this reason the Angel of Death could not rule over him and could not make any impression on him.

10:12 And so in Shabbos, page 31a, and in Sanhedrin, page 7a, the Sages teach that in the future a person's judgment will be over words of Torah - the beginning of a person's judgment is over words of Torah. And King David - his whole essence, all his occupation and all his thought was only on this. And Maran the Chida writes in his book Moreh B'Etzba, in siman 8, section 226, he writes an astonishing thing. He writes that at this time of the hilula of King David, which is the festival of Shavuos, the saying of his psalms rises more favorably - that saying the Tehillim of King David, especially on the day of the festival of Shavuos - when people engage in it, it is the day of the hilula of King David - that people engage in the words of his mouth, as the Sages teach in Tractate Yevamos, page 97,

10:56 that every Torah scholar in whose name a teaching is said - his lips move; that David asked to dwell in two worlds: 'I will dwell in Your tent for worlds' - how can a person dwell in two worlds? Rather, because a person leaves his Torah here in the world, and his writings, and his understanding, it keeps growing in the whole world, and the whole world engages in it, and they mention the teaching from his mouth and his Torah. And David - it is written in the Zohar on Terumah, on page 156a, that King David passed away at Minchah of Shabbos, and so did Moshe Rabbeinu, and so did Yosef, and this is the reason we say 'Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, Your judgments are like the great deep' - we say tziduk hadin, the acceptance of the judgment, for them,

11:34 because they passed away - and King David at Minchah of Shabbos. In fact we see that in the distinction Tosafos makes in Chagigah, page 17, there are in fact several practical differences with the Yerushalmi. But the Yalkut Shimoni on Tehillim, remez 735, says that King David passed away on Atzeres, on the holy Shabbos day. That is, it was both Atzeres and Shabbos, and then this fits with the time of Minchah of Shabbos - King David.

11:59 And Maharam Chagiz wrote in the book [unclear] - it was a book of his, which he composed - he writes on page 16, he writes there something that leads to the idea that our master the Arizal confirmed it: after all, King David's burial place - so wrote the Minchas Elazar of Munkatch - comes before all the holy places in the Land of Israel. When it said 'David son of Yishai', 'at the head' - 'who is at the head?' - then he said, the Minchas Elazar learned from here that King David's grave comes before all the holy places in the Land of Israel, where people want [unclear] to pray.

12:30 So Maharam Chagiz wrote, there in [unclear], on page 16, he says that King David's Tomb is his burial place, just as our master the Arizal confirmed that same burial place of David, King of Israel. And from here everyone would know to learn from this - that we see King David, and especially at this time - that David, beyond his simplicity and beyond his wisdom and his psalms and his prayer - King David was a symbol of love and feeling for Hashem, blessed be He.

13:04 King David's bond with Hashem, and the emotion he had from the love of Hashem, and the bond to the Creator - this was something without equal, King David's bond with Hashem. After all, the holy Torah - the Torah is the purest and holiest thing in the world, and since Hashem, blessed be He, gave us the Torah, He wants us to fulfill the Torah in the heart, that we illuminate it and reveal it in practice. The Torah is all light, and we need to reveal it among us, to increase love of it in the world, to increase knowledge of it in the world, to reveal it in the world, to illuminate it in the world, because this is what will bring about the kingship of Hashem, blessed be He, the revelation of the light of Hashem, blessed be He, and the kingship of Hashem, blessed be He.

13:53 And the more we engage in Torah and illuminate it and learn it - and this is our gift - then we can shine this light with all the more dignity and strength, because the whole world is in fact vessels. As is known, the more vessels the world acquires, they use these vessels, each for his own self-love, the love of his offspring, each one for what belongs to him.

14:21 But the Torah - Hashem, blessed be He, teaches us that through the Torah one must love the whole Jewish people, and love each and every single one of the Jewish people, which in fact is loving Hashem; for the true love of Hashem and the most important thing in the bond with Hashem is: the more the Jewish people learn the Torah and receive the love of Hashem, there, in fact, they will reach the most exalted and highest level.

14:49 As the Rambam explains in Hilchos Yesodei HaTorah, chapter 2, halachah 2 - the Rambam explains that the more they contemplate the created beings, and contemplate the greatness of Hashem, blessed be He, and the greatness of His creation, the wondrous trees and all the beauty of creation, this will bring a person to love of his Maker; he will come to love of Hashem, blessed be He. And it is interesting that in Sefer HaMitzvos, in mitzvah 3, the Rambam in fact revealed his view that contemplating the mitzvos and fulfilling the will of Hashem will bring us to love.

15:22 And in Hilchos Teshuvah, chapter 10, halachah 3, the Rambam in fact writes that the love that should bring a person to love of Hashem is a love in which a person is truly like one lovesick, that he loves Hashem, blessed be He, so much, more than any love in the world, that he has no foreign love at all, and he loves Hashem more than everything. And this is the important thing that we can merit, especially at the receiving of the Torah, and through all the good deeds that you do, and we all made the siyum for the love of Hashem - that Hashem, blessed be He, grant us merit as much as possible to merit to come to His love, blessed be He, and to love Him.

16:00 There are several practical consequences of this - that prayer is the most exalted and highest thing in the world, that a person prays before his Maker. The Sages teach in Tractate Berachos, page 10b, about the prohibition: 'And Me you have cast behind your back' - this is one who prays when a person eats before the prayer, that this is the most severe thing - that a person should not eat before his prayer. But truly, in practice, there is a dispute about this among our Rishonim, between Rabbeinu Peretz and the Ra'avyah, and we see from here how much importance there is in these things - learning the Torah and engaging in the Torah and its mitzvos - and [unclear] before the prayer, as the Shulchan Aruch HaRav explained, what they are accustomed to do in Chabad -

16:43 it is so that a person reaches contemplation of the greatness of Hashem, and so that so that - as Rabbeinu Peretz explains - a person does not show his Maker that there is something more important than Him. So this is the reason for the prohibition of eating and drinking. In practice, the Ra'avyah permits drinking water, and in practice the Rambam - what he ruled as halachah in Hilchos Tefillah, chapter 6, halachah 4, in chapter [unclear], halachah 2, which was brought in the Shulchan Aruch, siman 89, se'if 3 and 4: that the prohibition of drinking and eating before the prayer is so that a person reaches the level where he sees that all his strength and life is only Hashem, blessed be He; that all our life and all our hope is only Hashem, blessed be He - which is what will bring us to cleaving to Hashem and to love of Hashem, to love Him, that He be the most precious thing to us,

17:32 and that we increase love without cause among us and among all creatures, that they all come to recognize the greatness of Hashem, blessed be He, in practice, to love of Him, blessed be He. [unclear] Rabbi Yehoshua, in the Mechilta, in the parshah, siman 20, and in the Tanchuma, in parshas Beshalach, siman 2: it is written there, in the name of Rabbi Yehoshua, that whoever learns halachos - which is the Talmud, Tractate Niddah, the end of Tractate Niddah, page 73, where the Gemara concludes: 'Whoever learns halachos every day is promised that he is one of the World to Come.'

18:02 'Do not read halichos (ways) but halachos' - with this they conclude, the Talmud concludes on the matter of halachah. And the Meiri writes about this, on the page, at the end, that the main point of learning halachah is [unclear], that when a person gets up and has finished the learning, and finished the tractate, and finished the Shas - now the main practical point is how he succeeds in drawing out of everything he learned practical halachah, in order to come closer to Hashem.

18:27 So we see from here the importance: Rabbi Yehoshua reveals a great new insight, that whoever learns and reviews every day - he says 'whoever learns' - so Rabbi Yehoshua is precise in the Mechilta and in the Tanchuma. He says, 'whoever learns halachos every day' - [unclear], he says that whoever learns two halachos every day, morning and evening, it is as if he fulfilled the entire Torah. See what importance this thing has, that whoever engages in this, it is as if he fulfilled the entire Torah.

18:52 May it be His will that we all merit together to fulfill the entire Torah, and to love all the Jewish people, and to see the light that bursts forth from each and every one of the Jewish people, for each one is precious and beloved and dear and precious before Hashem, blessed be He. When we are so precious and loving before Hashem, blessed be He - may Hashem, blessed be He, make us worthy of the complete redemption and of the building of our Beis HaMikdash, the Holy Temple, and our glory, of the complete redemption, of good tidings and salvations, and of all good, and from all good.

19:23 We will return to you, Tractate Niddah, and you will return to us, Tractate Niddah; our mind is on you, Tractate Niddah. We will not forget you, and you will not forget us - not in this world and not in the World to Come. We will return to you, Tractate Niddah and the whole Shas. We will return to you, Tractate Niddah and the whole Shas. Our mind is on you, Tractate Niddah; and you will not forget us - not in this world and not in the World to Come. May it be Your will, Hashem our G-d and G-d of our fathers, that Your Torah be our occupation in this world, and be with us in the World to Come.

19:49 Chanina bar Papa, Rami bar Papa, Nachman bar Papa, Achai bar Papa, Abba Mari bar Papa, Rafram bar Papa, Rachish bar Papa, Surchav bar Papa, Adda bar Papa, Daru bar Papa. Please, Hashem our G-d, make the words of Your Torah sweet in our mouths and in the mouths of Your people, the House of Israel, and may we all - we and our descendants and the descendants of Your people, the House of Israel - all know Your Name and learn Your Torah. '[unclear] Your commandments make me wise, for they are ever with me.' 'May my heart be whole in Your statutes, so that I not be ashamed.' 'I will never forget Your precepts, for through them You have given me life.'

20:15 'Blessed are You, Hashem; teach me Your statutes.' Amen, Amen, Amen, Selah, forever. We give thanks before You, Hashem our G-d and G-d of our fathers, that You set our portion among those who sit in the study hall, and did not set our portion among those who sit on street corners; for we rise early and they rise early: we rise early for words of Torah, and they rise early for idle matters; we toil and they toil; we toil and receive reward, and they toil and do not receive reward; we run and they run; we run to the life of the World to Come, and they run to the pit of destruction, as it is said: 'And You, G-d, will bring them down to the pit of destruction; men of bloodshed and deceit will not live out half their days, but I will trust in You.'

20:46 May it be Your will, Hashem our G-d and G-d of our fathers, that just as You helped all the holy congregation and all the Jewish people to complete the whole Shas together as a group, so may You help us to begin other tractates and holy books and to complete them, and to learn and to teach, and to safeguard and to do and to fulfill all the words of the study of Your Torah with love. And may the merit of all the Tannaim and Amoraim and Torah scholars, that each and every one taught and read and learned, stand for us and for our descendants and for each and every one and for all Your people Israel, [unclear].

21:20 Guard and save Your people Israel, those who love You, from all evil. And guard [unclear] all the Jewish people, and bring all the hostages back to their homes speedily. Guard all who are [unclear], all the [unclear], who are in all the places, and guard all the [unclear] who are in every place in the world, and save them from every trouble, and from every harm, and from every illness. And forgive us, as for the sin of the Golden Calf - 'and Hashem said: I have forgiven, according to your word.' Master of the world, have mercy on us and [unclear], that this Torah not depart from our mouths and from the mouths of our descendants and our descendants' descendants, forever.

21:45 May it be fulfilled in us: 'When you walk, it will lead you; when you lie down, it will guard you; and when you awaken, it will converse with you.' 'For through me your days will be increased, and years of life will be added to you.' 'Length of days is in its right hand; in its left, riches and honor.' 'Hashem will give strength to His people; Hashem will bless His people with peace.'