Know someone who would love this shiur?
The shiur in English
The Yanuka’s own words in this shiur, translated into English by Lehallel · 1,875 words · 10:18. Press a time to hear it said.
0:00 Yes, from the age of 14 even... from the age that he already... he tells you things that happened before - - That you went through before? - That I went through when I was little. Before he was born! One day I sat next to him. So you see, he's sitting next to me. Suddenly he started talking about my life. - He started telling you? - Yes. And you see the way he speaks... - What do you mean, about your life? - What I used to do... - Things that no one knows, only you? - Yes. - Suddenly he tells you? - Suddenly he tells you... gently. And then I said: this is a tzaddik. - What, like what? - No, personal things. Personal: what I did before, where I went, all kinds of things, I don't know... - At what age was this? At what age was the Yanuka?
0:33 At the age of 15, 16 he tells you. Yes, from the age of 14 even... from the age that he already... he tells you things that happened before. - That you went through before? - That I went through when I was little. Before he was born! Before he was born, yes! - From what age do you know the Rav? About 13-14. And even then, we felt that this was something special. Even then it was clear that he was already great in Torah, even then.
1:03 - You could see it on him, that he knew everything? - Yes, because also, if you add one plus one, a person who is well guarded, then there is no problem for the Torah to enter him. A person who has true humility, then there is no problem for the Torah to be within him. It's like today. There is such a concept, that he is pure. His four cubits are pure. Someone who has a bit of sensitivity, then he feels it and he sees it.
1:30 - Tell me, is it true, the stories that say he knew things? From a very young age? - Of course. Ruach hakodesh in the literal sense. - You would see it? - Yes. - Do you remember something like that about you personally? Many things, yes. It's not simple to stand next to a person like that, like, when you are... you are 30 years old and he is 15, and he knows everything, and he reads you. - Reads you. He was already full and overflowing even then, but... he was full and overflowing even then with Torah, fear of Heaven and piety and all the best things, as they say.
2:03 But it was... as if it was covered over. Because you see a young man, what... how could it be? One time he was holding the book of the holy Arizal, one of the Eight Gates of the holy Arizal. So Aryeh took it from him and says to him: What? You need to learn Gemara. So even then, you understand, he was already learning the writings of the Arizal back then, at the age of 14.
2:32 He was also well versed in that. I knew the Rav when he was 16, 15. And I remember my first meeting with him. At the first meeting there was an older man here, outside the synagogue. And he came to me and said to me: Listen, this boy sees with ruach hakodesh. Ruach hakodesh truly rests upon him. We knew the Rav from the age of 14; he would come here.
Read the whole shiur in English (15 more parts)
2:56 We would learn; he would write tefillos for us. At first we saw him as strange; after that we saw his greatness. But all the time we looked at him in such a way - that there is something special about this person. - Love of the Jewish people, eh? He had love of the Jewish people. - Yes, he had love of the Jewish people. He truly had it... he loved every Jew, each and every one, every single Jew. Even my children, when they were small - he would speak mussar with them, he would try to strengthen them, in all kinds of, you know... if they went a bit... you know... did not go on the right path, he would try to talk to them, he would strengthen them.
3:36 - From what age do you know the Rav? I believe at the age of 14. He had a love for the tzaddikim; he always went around with two albums with pictures of the tzaddikim, and all the time he would come to me and say to me: Rabbi Yehuda, this is the Maggid of Mezritch, this is the Baal Shem Tov. He had a very great love for the Sages.
4:03 I knew the Rav at the age of 14-15, when he came there from Sinai over there, and he would come and see the pictures there, at Aryeh's there, the gabbai there - he has pictures there of tzaddikim. He would see them, look at them, and afterwards he would read their books - that's what he would say. Each and every picture he saw individually: one tzaddik - he would read his books.
4:29 After a few years he published a book, 'Toldos HaAdam' - he published such a book, all of it... he knew it by heart. All the pictures of the tzaddikim, yes. And afterwards he would light candles - candles for the elevation of the soul of this tzaddik... And on Motza'ei Shabbos he would tell about the Baal Shem Tov - stories of the Baal Shem Tov.
4:54 All the guys would sit there and listen, truly everything by heart. In fact, I would only see him in the morning, and it's possible that the gabbai there would see him in the late hours of the night. He would come at night and we would learn there until 3-4 in the morning, there above the synagogue, on the roof there, by the wall there. We would learn Gemara... He took some book of Kabbalah, of the holy Arizal, and began to learn in it.
5:25 So the gabbai says: Listen, what are you doing? This is Kabbalah... He told him: Whatever you want - open the book, I will tell you every single thing, where it is and what it says there. Just like that, indeed, we saw that he was so great in Torah. - Any book they opened? - Any book they opened, truly... This was already later, already at the age of 16-17, about 22 years ago, something like that.
5:51 Even then I saw that the Rav was cleaving to Hashem - something wondrous, something unusual. A tzaddik - he would sit and learn, immerse in the mikveh. A holy of holies Rav; you could see that he was something above nature, that he was an angel of Hashem. From a young age I understood that he was a genius, that he was something unusual. - You would see him sitting and learning like this? - Yes... all the old books, with the pictures of rabbis, all kinds...
6:17 He would do tikkunim, he would say tefillos. This - he and I did together. I still have it... Show him this... - Twenty years ago, twenty-five years? Before he got married - how much time has passed... Yes... I have all kinds of his things, all kinds of writings... - What, he has manuscripts of his, that he would write? - Yes. He would write Torah teachings, he brought down Torah teachings. He would bring them down - I don't know how he would do it, I didn't understand it. He was speaking Kabbalah from the age of 14, 15. - And his shiurim, how were the shiurim?
6:48 The shiurim were upstairs. - Where? In the women's section he would do them? - Yes. - Ah, not down here. What would he give over to you? - Upstairs... people would come from Netanya; they would come to him from Netanya too. - Ah, from Netanya... - Is this his handwriting? - A tefillah that a person should be master in the home: 'Master of the world, my merciful Father.' This is his handwriting, this is his! - What? A person comes in - he already knows what he... - Did you see such stories, that he would know in advance? - Of course, all the time... All the time... This is the man...
7:16 It remains the same, don't worry, no... This is the mikveh. You could say the mikveh is still there... It's still rainwater; soon it will fill up. It's fresh water. We experienced many stories with him, many things that are above nature.
7:44 And he is a great tzaddik; he would always be learning, sitting... - You would see him here at age 15, sitting and learning here in the synagogue? - Regularly. Regularly. He would sit in the corner alone with his old books, he would look for hours at candles, he would sit with his books, sitting and learning. And we saw many miracles with the Rav. Listen, even when he was young we saw... open miracles, open... truly open... that cannot be explained; these are things above nature.
8:09 - Above nature, already at the age of 15-16. - Above nature. He would come every night; every Motza'ei Shabbos he would come and give us a story from the Baal Shem Tov. The story he would give us of the Baal Shem Tov - we would feel as if we were there. It's a story that cannot be understood. And not only that - also when he would come, just as we are finishing Havdalah and everything... we always, after Havdalah, have a five-minute shiur, so that we begin the week like that, with Torah.
8:35 I remember him with that lamp of the... - The yellow light? - That yellow light. I came to his home, I see him sitting, learning Tanya. Back then I didn't even know what Tanya was at all - I was a baal teshuvah, you know... - In Holon? - In Holon, yes, in Holon, at his mother's, where he was. So he told me about his family, that they came from Spain or something... So he told me, for example, about the Tanya: one who learns Tanya does not leave this world without doing teshuvah.
9:01 And he loved traveling to Jerusalem a lot. I would drive him to Jerusalem with the car, to Shmuel HaTzaddik, all kinds of graves of tzaddikim - Shimon HaTzaddik, Shmuel HaNavi... Shmuel HaNavi, sorry. Yes, and... that was when he was still a young man, yes. Now, when we were coming down, for example, from Jerusalem, he would say to me: Go down, turn right here. All of a sudden we go in, in the dark - I'm telling you, we were driving at night - Turn here, this... he knew where there is a...
9:26 uh, you know - a mikveh. Darkness, terrible cold; the man goes down, immerses... immerses, immerses, immerses. A boy, immersing like that... I didn't have the courage to immerse in that cold. At Shmuel HaNavi too there was also a mikveh; he would also immerse there.
Get the week’s best, by email
One email a week — a handful of shiurim and music. No account needed.
Know a family who would use this? Give a Lehallel membership.