"יעקב ויוסף - סוד הגלות האחרונה" הגאון הינוקא במעמד האלפים בהקבלת פני רבו חוה"מ פסח תשפ"ה

4:59 This means that captivity is the hardest of all, because at any given moment a person can go through all these ordeals in a brief moment. And the reflection on it is much harder and more severe. And in the psalm in Tehillim, chapter 116, it is written: "I will lift the cup of salvations, and call upon the name of Hashem." This means that a person who comes out of distress and had salvation, rests his salvation on the cup.

5:31 That is, the salvation came about through the cup. "I will lift the cup of salvations, and call upon the name of Hashem." And when we were in Egypt, we were given over to death, to the sword, to famine and to captivity, when we were captives in Egypt. And then, when we left Egypt, and we came out corresponding to those four expressions that Yirmiyahu said, and we had salvations, for that we do "I will lift the cup of salvations", and this is the reason for these four cups that we make every year on Seder night, and this is a reason that settles the mind, which is the most correct on reflection, when we see that we are coming out of Egypt, from the house of slavery, and on this Hashem, blessed be He, rests His salvation and His redemption for His children.

6:22 And Hashem, blessed be He, gave us at every time the revelation of His kingship, for all the seasons, throughout the whole year, in the Torah, at every time and at every festival that Hashem, blessed be He, shone upon Israel and gave us the Torah, and especially now, at this time of Pesach, which is the remembrance of the Exodus from Egypt, and we reveal His light, blessed be He - there is a level of revelation of the light, and there is the vessel to receive the light.

7:01 The higher the vessel, so His light, blessed be He, and the revelation of His kingship and the perceptions rise and are raised up to an awesome level, "no eye has seen". That is, everything depends on the ones who receive. That we have Yom Tov and we have the festival, and that we have Pesach and Shavuos - in the future to come, all the days of the Counting of the Omer will be days of Chol HaMoed.

7:28 It turns out that Pesach and these days of Chol HaMoed, and Bein HaMetzarim, which will be turned into days of Chol HaMoed and Yamim Tovim - these times, which at this time are in smallness, in the future, with the help of Hashem, blessed be He, they will be greatness of greatness, and Hashem, blessed be He, will redeem us and save us with the complete redemption, and we will merit to see these signs and wonders and the revelation of His light, blessed be He. And on this Hashem, blessed be He, hinted to us that the frame for the revelation of His kingship and His light comes about through faith in the Sages.

8:03 That there is a complete and absolute faith in the Sages, that a person believes in the Sages and knows that the Torah is the most supreme and highest thing, with nothing above it, and he has faith in Hashem, blessed be He, and complete and absolute faith in the Sages - only then can he merit to grasp His light, blessed be He. And Rabbi Abba bar Memel said that if a few more had been with him who could go along, to annul the whole matter of work - he did not mean to annul work throughout the Moed, but [unclear] here - to annul things in which they would not do work of real substance, but only for what is needed, for what is necessary - in Moed Katan, chapter 2, halachah 3 - he would have done this,

8:45 and so people would be careful, and the matter would not stay suspended and pending, for it is a dispute of the Sages whether it is permitted to do work on Chol HaMoed, or forbidden to do work on Chol HaMoed, and this matter always remained, and what they permitted for a matter of loss needs great study, what the Mishnah [unclear] - he also brought it in siman 530, in siman 553, but the insight and the thought that our master the Ritva writes on page 12a, he brings that the reason and the prohibition of the prohibition of work on Chol HaMoed is so that a person can sit and engage in Torah and learn the Torah, and not be busy with his work, and he will have more peace of mind and free time to engage in Torah.

9:32 And the wording of the Yerushalmi, where Rabbi Abba bar Memel says there: it is known that they wanted them to sit and engage in Torah, and now, as it were, Heaven forbid, they are busy being frivolous, Heaven forbid - as if instead of sitting and engaging in Torah and learning Torah, they sit, Heaven forbid, idle, and this is disgracing the festivals, that they do not engage in Torah at this time of the festivals, because these days are holy days, and they permitted only a matter of loss.

9:59 And so too our master the Raavyah wrote, in siman [unclear], that if a person has distress, then he will do only the thing for a need, that he eats food, or for things he needs, in which there is a matter of loss - then they permitted him to do work so that he would not be distracted in his learning, so that he can sit and engage and learn the holy Torah, with added dignity and added strength, with wisdom, with holiness and with purity. And so too our master the Maharil wrote this reason, that this is the reason they permitted doing work, but it turns out that the whole reason regarding doing work is so that he can sit and engage in Torah, especially on the days of the festivals.

10:36 That is, Yamim Tovim and Shabbosos were given only in order to engage in Torah on them, whose meaning is solely in order to reveal His light, blessed be He, that is present at this time, for at this time His light, blessed be He, is being revealed more and more, without measure - these are the vessels - through our engaging in Torah and teaching it to all the Jewish people, to all the creations, especially on these holy days, which are the days of Chol HaMoed.

11:04 And on this, in practice, it was said that it is forbidden to do work, and on this it is written in Maaseh Rav, siman 104, that he was careful also - Heaven forbid - one does not say even 'good morning' or 'tzafra tava', [unclear] 'Moadim l'simchah', 'Chagim u'zmanim l'sasson' - one mentions the festival. In siman [unclear], about the tablecloth that is spread on the table, this is a remembrance of the manna, that is done. And in practice we see that in siman [unclear], the Pri Megadim and the Bikkurei Yaakov wrote that one should spread a tablecloth also on Chol HaMoed, so that there will be a distinction between Chol HaMoed and the weekdays, that there be a difference between them, that it not be the same.

11:40 As our master the Rambam brings in Hilchos Yom Tov, chapter 6, halachah 18, that in practice one must give good gifts, and one gives to women and to small children sweets and so on. We see that the days of Chol HaMoed and the Yamim Tovim were made for closeness - half for Hashem and half for you. This is what our master [unclear] brings. That is, because if not for this need, they would engage all the time only in Torah.

12:04 Therefore our master the Shaagas Aryeh also wrote, in siman 69, that they would sit and engage in Torah, for engaging in Torah is greater in its level than meat and wine - that they were strict to eat the meat of an animal - but its level is beyond measure, and there is nothing above it. For the more we engage in Torah, especially on these holy days, and this is an enactment of the Sages, that the matter always remained pending, that it is forbidden to do it - this is called Chol HaMoed, that is, it is half for Hashem and half for you, but they are all called holy, and this is an enactment of the Sages.

12:37 And we sit and engage and increase His light, blessed be He, through the enactment of the Sages. It turns out that the Sages are the ones who gave us the fences, and the stringencies and the prohibitions and the permissions, for guarding our Torah of Hashem, blessed be He. Faith in the Sages is what increases and shows the light of Hashem, blessed be He, in the whole world. And this is the secret of the moon and the sun. You know that the sun and the moon are the secret of Moshe Rabbeinu and Yehoshua bin Nun, for everything depends on the student and his Rebbe.

13:10 The greatest light flows through the student, because the student can reveal the light of what his Rebbe wanted. As we learned, every holy and pure one who was in the world drew the understanding of his teacher and Rebbe into the whole entire world, and for this one must always receive from the Rebbe and not from the student, like those who listen to the voice of students and do not listen to the voice of their Rebbe, which is the greatest ignorance there is. One must always receive his Rebbe's understanding, to receive from his Rebbe alone, without receiving from anything else, so that nothing will stand in between, and only through their receiving, until Hashem, blessed be He, gives the right understanding, and a person turns himself into the aspect of a student.

13:48 And therefore there is the insight of the sun and the moon: "The face of Moshe was like the face of the sun, and the face of Yehoshua like the face of the moon." Hashem, blessed be He, said: "Bring an atonement for Me, for I diminished the moon" - in Kesubos, page 9a, and Chullin, page 60b - that Hashem, blessed be He, gave us the insight to understand that one must bring an atonement for the diminishing of the moon; and of course, as [unclear] said, the intention is not to understand the words the way people may interpret them, but one can explain the words: that Hashem, blessed be He, wants to reveal to us His light through our always receiving in the way of Rebbe and student, for the Torah is received through faith in the Sages: "And they believed in Hashem

14:32 and in Moshe His servant." The secret of the moon: that Hashem, blessed be He, said, "Bring an atonement for Me, for I diminished the moon", because at first, and so on, page 60b - we learn that the moon and the sun were one light, and it was not supposed to come to a state of separation in the lights. Everything was supposed to be one. The light was supposed to be one. The Rebbe and the student were supposed to be one. That there should not be a student who disputes his Rebbe, Heaven forbid, and quarrels with his Rebbe.

14:57 There must be complete and absolute self-nullification to one's teacher and Rebbe. That there be one intellect, one understanding, one mind. That there be no separations and no differences of opinion. Complete and absolute nullification. And those in every generation who held it back, they are the ones who delay the redemption, who delayed the redemption, who brought from their own minds and added from their own minds, and there was no complete and absolute nullification, and they added the intellect and opinion of the fools that they added.

15:22 And therefore this reason, the secret of the moon - she went and was diminished, for in fact she was supposed - everything was supposed to be one, and she gave this advice: how can kings reign? Someone had to be diminished. Then Hashem, blessed be He, hinted: if she wanted to diminish the other, then Hashem, blessed be He, diminished her herself. But through this, that Hashem, blessed be He, did this, Hashem, blessed be He, made it so that "He made the moon for the seasons."

15:48 In Tehillim, chapter 104, verse 19, Hashem, blessed be He, said: "He made the moon for the seasons." The revelation of the moon is so that through the moon we will know the times of the festivals, and the festivals will be kept. And all this will be so that in the whole world, through the moon, everyone will know the times of the festivals, so that every time, and from every place a Jew goes in the world, through the moon everyone will know how to keep and fulfill all the times and festivals of Hashem, blessed be He, which He set and gave in our holy Torah.

16:16 That is, this is only through the festivals. But it turns out that at its root there is a lack, because we were supposed to be all one, and there was not supposed to be a division between the times of the solar count and the lunar count. There would be no difference in the times between 355 and 365, with the difference of 'HaSatan' in the middle, which is one less. But as long as we would count, and there was one light and one voice, then there would be no need to divide the light between the Rebbe and the student; rather the light would flow from the Rebbe all the way to the end, and there would be no need to divide between Rebbe and student.

16:49 There would be no division at all in this light. And therefore the woman was not in the sin of the Golden Calf, and the rectification of the sin of Adam HaRishon began with Adam, and after that it passed to Chavah, and she went and went wrong, and this is from the basis of what the Magen Avraham wrote in the name of the Shelah, at the beginning of siman 426, on the matter of Kiddush Levanah, that women are exempt. It is also hinted in the responsa Rav Pealim, part 4, siman 34, which our master Yosef Chaim brought in the responsa Rav Pealim, that we see in this that there is a very great sign about the moon, that women do not say the blessing of the moon for this reason: how can she, in what she spoiled,

17:25 make the rectification? But this is understood. Why? Because the light of the moon is a high light, and because the moon, in fact - today we set the times of the festivals by the moon, this is "He made the moon for the seasons", so there is a flaw in the aspect of the festivals. And therefore Rashi explained that a person who does work on Chol HaMoed, it is as if he worships idols - Rashi explained it is idol worship - because the flaw on Chol HaMoed is 'one who disgraces the festivals', so it is as if he makes a flaw in the times and the festivals, which Hashem, blessed be He, set to be holy, and therefore one must raise them up to their root, that they be in holiness, rectified for the revelation of the kingship of the Master of heaven and earth.

18:06 That is, these times that the Sages set are holy to Hashem. And if we had merited, there would be one aspect, and there would be no need to rectify several aspects, because there would be one time. This is the secret of "He made the moon for the seasons." And the second insight: as we understand that this time comes when Hashem, blessed be He, gives the festival, then comes the time of the Festival of Matzos, and the Festival of Shavuos comes, and the Festival of Sukkos, then one must come before Hashem, blessed be He.

18:35 And it is forbidden, Heaven forbid, to come empty-handed, because Hashem, blessed be He, wants a person to bring an offering, and to offer up all that he sinned and all that he transgressed before Him, blessed be He. So a person must bring from the essence of his blood, he brings offerings, and the higher his level - a Nasi brings a goat, and a Kohen a bull for an unwitting matter, and so on - as his level rises, so in level also the offering that he must bring because of his level: the more he [unclear], and is closer, and his responsibility is greater, so too the offering he must bring is greater, and his responsibility to Heaven is much greater. But the meaning is that the true unity was supposed to be one, that everyone would merit one revelation and one understanding, and there would be no division, and no opinions at all, and no disputes at all, and there would be a complete intellect, and only the light of Moshe Rabbeinu would shine in Yehoshua.

19:25 And therefore those sages and holy ones in every generation, where the student merited complete and absolute nullification to his teacher and Rebbe, and merited to be a shining lens, merited to be the clean glass in which his teacher and Rebbe shone - these two merited to bring the redemption. And in every generation there were those who could be a shining lens, pure and clean fine flour for their teacher and Rebbe, and they continued and revealed the light of Hashem, blessed be He, and rose to levels, like Eliyahu and Elisha: "Let there be a double portion of your spirit upon me", who merited a double portion and reached great levels, and more, beyond measure.

19:58 And I tell you, this is a great insight: true Ruach HaKodesh is not the Ruach HaKodesh that people today talk about, from what is in the stories, that he knew this and knew food, and knew what he drank, and knew what they eat and what they drink. These are things that are not even levels, these are things that are the greatest disgrace. Every truly holy and pure one can see from one end of the world to the other, and can recognize in a person's face all his thoughts, all that he does, all that he will do and all that passes from him.

20:28 As our master Rabbi Chaim Vital wrote in the introduction to Etz Chaim about his teacher and Rebbe, the Arizal, that all were revealed before him, and he knew every thought of a person, all that he would do; and even if a person immersed in a mikveh, he could recognize in him whether there was still an impression on him, that he was still impure and still not pure; he knew all the time their levels and their thoughts. The holy Baal Shem Tov once expressed himself; he said that he sees all that people go through when they come to him. He says: those who come before me should come pure - let them be careful about the mikveh before they come to me.

20:55 So said the holy Baal Shem Tov, so he expressed it. People are excited by levels and perceptions, but true Ruach HaKodesh is what a person manages to draw up from Heaven, it is what one manages to bring down and reveal - the hidden Torah, [unclear], the Torah that Hashem, blessed be He, reveals and expounds in Heaven, in Heaven - like all the holy and pure ones who, throughout all the generations and all the years, handed down to us the word of Hashem - and one had to draw up and bring out from there the Torah and the new insights that Hashem, blessed be He, reveals and expounds in the Heavenly retinue; for this is the essence of the level, the essence of perception and the essence of self-sacrifice: that a person succeeds in bringing out and drawing up

21:30 from his Rebbe's Torah, and brings it out to others and gives drink to the flocks - as Eliezer the servant of Avraham was; [unclear] what Avraham Avinu left and revealed in the whole world. The insight: one can explain and say that the meaning of the offerings, and that a person comes and must bring himself before Hashem, blessed be He, to the Beis HaMikdash, the Holy Temple - 'Three times shall all your males appear before Hashem your G-d in the place that He will choose: on the Festival of Matzos, on the Festival of Shavuos, and on the Festival of Sukkos; and he shall not appear before Hashem empty-handed.'

22:01 That is, at the time of the festivals, which is a secret that belongs to the festivals, and Rabbi Zeira said - this is a very, very great and tremendous secret. A very, very great and tremendous secret; and reflect on what I will explain to you now. This is an awesome and fearsome thing, and it is written in Berachos, page 33, side b: Rabbi Zeira said: one who says 'Shema, Shema' is like one who says 'Modim, Modim'. And it seems we should reflect on this, for it is a very puzzling thing. What is Rav Zeira saying? Why does Rabbi Zeira say that one who says 'Shema, Shema' is like one who says 'Modim, Modim'? What is the difference here? We know that this is, as it were, Heaven forbid - that one who says 'Shema, Shema' is, as it were, Heaven forbid, two authorities,

22:35 for there must be one Authority, to say only One: 'Hear, O Israel, Hashem is our G-d, Hashem is One' - it is forbidden to say two, that it should sound like 'Modim, Modim', or sound like 'Shema, Shema'. That is, it must be One, as I explained. And if you reflect and look, you will see that at the times when His Oneness, blessed be He, is revealed - the time when His Unity, blessed be He, is revealed in the world is at the time of the festivals. That is, on Pesach, on Sukkos, on Shavuos, when everyone goes up before Him, blessed be He, and brings offerings before Him, burnt-offerings before Hashem, blessed be He, and everyone steps forward and unites toward the true purpose for whose sake they were created, which is the House of Hashem, blessed be He, the Beis HaMikdash,

23:12 the Chosen House, the one and only House of the Master of heaven and earth, the House where He chose to rest His Name and to reveal His Oneness to all creatures, in this House; and toward this House one prays, and for this House Hashem, blessed be He, desires to redeem us with a complete redemption; and for this stood all the prophets, all the holy ones and all the tzaddikim who lived and breathed in this world and gave their souls only for the sake of this House. So it seems one can explain that what I said is in the aspect of what Rabbi Zeira spoke about, that Rabbi Zeira said, 'one who says Shema, Shema is like one who says Modim, Modim'.

23:44 What is this wording that says 'Shema, Shema is like one who says Modim, Modim'? If we take 'Modim, Modim', exactly, it comes to the number 200; it makes the number resh. And when it is 'He made the moon for the appointed times', 'for the appointed times' is in gematria 'Modim' - exactly 'Modim, Modim', twice; that is 'for the appointed times'. That is, Rabbi Zeira is saying: 'He made the moon for the appointed times.' That is, if you say 'Modim, Modim', you are, as it were, disgracing the festivals.

24:11 Which is what Rashi explained: it is like one who serves idols, one who does work on them. And saying 'Shema, Shema' - twice 'Shema, Shema' - comes out exactly to the number of 'and he shall not appear before Hashem'. Exactly, in the verse, it is 820. 820 - it comes out exactly 820: 'and he shall not appear before Hashem' - exactly 820, from that same secret, that he shall not appear before Hashem.

24:36 And the continuation, that he said 'Modim, Modim', is 'He made the moon for the appointed times'; 'for the appointed times' comes out exactly to the number 200. That is, as I explained, it is forbidden for there to be two, there must be only One; and so Rabbi Zeira said that 'Shema, Shema' is, as it were, a damage, that one who says 'Shema, Shema' - it is because he damages His Oneness, blessed be He, which is disgracing the festivals; that is why 'He made the moon for the appointed times', which is 'Modim, Modim'. And so this damage, of one who disgraces the festivals, is serving idols; and this is exactly what the Gemara went on to say about it.

25:05 And so one can explain that this is exactly the same secret that Rabbi Zeira meant and intended, to reflect on this wording of the Gemara, which is truly a wonder - why Hashem, blessed be He, said this matter, that He put into the minds of the Sages to say and to write for us; this is how one can explain it as a new insight. But the reflection is, that if you reflect, there is something even more, that is hidden and buried within this thing: that the true revelation is that we return to one root.

25:37 There is one root - that is on Shabbos. On Shabbos - [unclear] - everything you are blessed with comes from it, from the day of Shabbos, and the Zohar on Shemos, page 284, and the Tikkunei Zohar, Tikkun 244, Rabbi Shimon says and reflects on this: that a person understands that the day of Shabbos is one day, a remembrance of the work of Creation, we return [unclear], everything returns to as it was in the beginning, and on the festivals we merit to reveal His Oneness, blessed be He.

26:02 That is to say, this is done in the aspect of teacher and student, that there is a damage on the festivals and a damage on Yom Tov, or a damage to the festivals that the Sages instituted, then in practice it is, as it were, serving idols; this explains what Rashi says, for it is exactly the reverse - that he damaged with 'Shema, Shema' and said 'Modim, Modim'. But this great revelation, and more, came only when there was the reflection of one who goes and reflects, as we know, that if a person goes anywhere at all, then we know that Yaakov Avinu, as he was [unclear], that is Yaakov - 'for you have striven with G-d and with men, and have prevailed.'

26:51 Yaakov, Yisrael - Yaakov Avinu, who is the greatest in stature, and we are called by his name, by the name of Yaakov Avinu. The highest, loftiest and most exalted level - that the Jew is called by his name, and Hashem, blessed be He, rejoices and is glad over all the created beings of the seed of Israel, who mention him - we are all engraved with the name of Yaakov Avinu, with the name Yisrael, 'for you have striven with G-d and with men, and have prevailed.'

27:17 And behold, Yaakov Avinu, who was the one who carried it on and the guide of all the tribes, he chose one, he chose one to reveal his Torah to, to reveal his way to. And he understood, more than all the brothers, that Father is not just another way in the world, Father is not just another thing in the world, Father is something beyond everything I have seen before me; it is more than my grandfather, more than my great-grandfather, it is more than all of them.

27:46 Yosef HaTzaddik understands that Yaakov Avinu is something of the future, something of the ultimate purpose, something eternal. He understands that one cannot live here in this world once again with the multitude, and once again with the falsehood of the world and with everything there is in the world. He understands that there is something here eternal and of the future, something that must be engraved, something that must be changed, and something one must give one's soul for, something that is a completely different way from all the ways of the created beings.

28:12 And for this Yaakov Avinu sought to hear this voice; he searched, Yaakov Avinu, all the time, to hear the voice: who understands that my way is a completely different way from all the created beings? Who understands that the way I come to engrave is something different from everything that was before me - something else? Yaakov Avinu cries out this pain, and cries out, and cries out, and cries out. And he reflects on this, and he sees that only Yosef HaTzaddik knows this thing. Only Yosef HaTzaddik is the only one who knows the secret of Yaakov Avinu.

28:39 And so Yosef went and said, 'He will surely remember.' He revealed this secret. Moshe Rabbeinu, and [unclear], and everything that happened, and the beginning of the redemption came, and [unclear] of Egypt, but everything came about through this thing. And behold, reflect, we see, as we know, that everyone knows that this is something to reflect upon. Blessed and exalted be the Name of the King, the King of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He.

29:18 The reflection that Yaakov Avinu tries to engrave in the world reaches its purpose in that he rejoices in Yosef HaTzaddik, and he understands that Yosef is his way, and this is what will keep him in the world. And then, when he hears that Yosef was taken from him, there is no need to explain to anyone what happened to Yaakov Avinu.

29:46 Everyone understands that the brokenness and the pain that Yaakov had was not a pain like a father has who loses his son. It was a pain that was completely different. It is the pain over his way. It is the pain over his knowledge, it is the pain over everything he wanted to engrave in the world through this child, through Yosef. He said, Yosef is my student; Yosef was the student of Yaakov Avinu.

30:12 It was not a son of Yaakov Avinu, it was a student of Yaakov Avinu. Yosef is the student of Yaakov Avinu; he was the greatest of Yaakov Avinu's students. 'These are the generations of Yaakov: Yosef' - all the views, all the knowledge, all the wisdom of the Torah, all the secrets of the Torah, everything. That was Yaakov - what he learned in the study hall of Shem and Ever, all the secrets, everything he knew in the world, Yosef HaTzaddik knew it all; he received all this power from his father, Yaakov Avinu.

30:36 And all the secrets of the Torah - the only ones who know them are Achiyah HaShiloni, who came out of Egypt, of those who sat in the house of David, and Eliyahu the Prophet, remembered for good. He is the one of whom Maran the Chida says, 'My heart tells me that they sprinkled the ashes of the Red Heifer on our master the Ari', and all the new insights our master the Ari knew - that he knew them, that he was not present in the world. So all these secrets he knew - which of course Eliyahu, remembered for good, went and taught him, and told him everything - but still, the receiving was that he nullified himself completely and absolutely to Eliyahu, remembered for good, and received; and so Rabbi Chaim nullified his mind to our master the Arizal and received; and so Yosef HaTzaddik nullified his intellect and his soul before Yaakov Avinu, and received all his intellect and his wisdom, and so on.

31:21 And we know that every person who walks here in the world, if he walks - anyone who will look - we know that he knows all the hints that Hashem, blessed be He, reveals. There are all kinds of hints that Hashem, blessed be He, reveals. All kinds of hints that one reflects on in creation, and it all follows the time when it flows down.

31:46 For the Torah is revealed according to the level of [unclear]. The more there is reflection and firmness and thirst for the word of Hashem, so through this more of His wisdom, blessed be He, flows down, and the revelation of the will of Hashem, blessed be He, until He reveals His face in the holy Torah. When Hashem, blessed be He, reveals to us through the Torah - reveals to us His will and His wisdom and His deeds in this world.

32:11 We know that a person who walked along his way and found a lost object, found some find or other, and it has no identifying mark, no mark at all - he went and found it, looked at something, sees there is no mark, nothing - he found it; and if, of course, it is money or some item, and he says, 'Woe for the money' - some loss of money, Heaven forbid - then certainly he acquires it.

32:35 There is the owner's despair in this case. That is Bava Metzia, page 21, in Bava Metzia, page 22 and page 23; this is the dispute of Abaye and Rava on page 22 about despair without awareness. But we know that [unclear] Abaye; that is, certainly despair does not take effect retroactively. As one might think: if there was not yet the owner's despair, he already despairs and relinquishes it, and then one already acquires it. So everyone knows that this is [unclear].

33:02 But in reflection and in thought there is a great and very, very, very awesome secret here. There is a great and very, very awesome secret here. That Mashiach will come and Hashem, blessed be He, will redeem Israel, is through a favorable judgment of the Jewish people being revealed, as much as a favorable judgment can be revealed. One needs a favorable judgment with understanding, for if one reveals a favorable judgment not properly, it arouses harsh judgments, Heaven forbid.

33:31 One must reveal a favorable judgment truly, to truly be the same inside as outside, in order to reveal a favorable judgment. This is a level and this is a degree; but Mashiach will plead in favor of Israel as much as one can truly plead in their favor, from the side of truth and uprightness and intellect and logic, and whatever can be [unclear] before Hashem, blessed be He. I want you to reflect and look at something very, very, very deep in what I will explain to you. Yaakov Avinu was the owner.

34:04 Yosef HaTzaddik was the lost object. Yosef HaTzaddik - 'Yosef was sold as a slave.' 'They afflicted his foot with fetters,' they stole Yosef HaTzaddik; Yaakov Avinu stole the birthright. It all comes one corresponding to the other. Now, we know that with a thief - the Rambam, in the Laws of Theft, chapter 1, halachah 11, halachah 12 - so we know that if there was despair over the theft, then he has what he acquired; so if a lamb was now born to him, more offspring, and he acquired the shearing of the wool, then he returns only the sheep; he acquires the shearing of the wool, he acquires the offspring.

34:42 He does not need to return [unclear]. He keeps it. What he robbed, he returns; what came out of it, the offspring - that he acquired. In the meantime, this is what he acquires for himself, for the meantime. This is the secret of 'He has swallowed riches and shall vomit them up; G-d shall cast them out of his belly.' 'With His arm He gathers the lambs.' This is what they give to Samael - he receives his portion. This is mayim acharonim; this is everything people give, the things that are not good - it stays with him. But in the end, when the redemption comes, he has to return everything he took.

35:11 And after that there will be a negotiation also over all these small things, which seemingly he is permitted from the value of the theft, what he earned; but this too, in the Time to Come, they will take from him as well. This is 'He has swallowed riches and shall vomit them up; G-d shall cast them out of his belly' - to spit out of him everything he took, all the lost things, all the souls, everything; this too they will take out of him. Yaakov Avinu, who took the birthright - and of course this was for a great need and for benefit, and for everything he did and everything he accomplished; it was certainly for something higher than which there is nothing, and it is for the final purpose of the redemption, and for the blessings and all the rectifications; and what [unclear] wrote, that this was on Erev Pesach, in order to rectify all the blessings - and this is the... 'an accuser does not become a defender' - in order to arouse mercy upon the Jewish people,

35:54 but it was on Erev Pesach. Now, the reflection is that Yosef HaTzaddik went to Egypt, and for the Time to Come, we do not understand that Yaakov Avinu - in fact Yaakov never gave up hope on Yosef, and therefore Egypt and Pharaoh never merited to acquire Yosef, for there was no true loss with Yosef HaTzaddik, because Yaakov Avinu was always thinking about Yosef HaTzaddik. See, this is a great, awesome and fearsome secret that Hashem, blessed be He, illuminates for us in the holy Torah; this is certainly true. If there is, Heaven forbid, a mistake - I did not check, you will need to check - but I believe that what Hashem, blessed be He, lights up my eyes with in His holy Torah, and things from Him, blessed be He, from Heaven, only from Heaven,

36:39 this is from Hashem, blessed be He. Thank G-d, I also often have dreams of words of Torah - only when one sits and puts Torah in here. Thank G-d, everyone can learn, and that will be all the thoughts and the new insights. Like those who invent patents - they have patents in their head, and their head is full of the matters of this world - so for a person who learns Torah, he will have many new insights and closeness to Hashem, blessed be He, so that he will despise all the matters of this world; then he will see and reveal the Torah of Hashem, blessed be He, and he will see the secrets and the things that are in the Torah, how the Torah is the ultimate purpose and eternal, with nothing above it, and the whole will of Hashem, blessed be He, is to give us the redemption with an uplifted hand.

37:17 Yosef HaTzaddik is with Yaakov Avinu, and after they take him and steal him and [unclear] him, they take him to Egypt - 'Yosef was sold as a slave,' 'they afflicted his foot with fetters, his soul came into iron.' Yaakov Avinu is in pain, but Yaakov Avinu, whether he gives up hope or does not give up hope - he does not give up hope on Yosef HaTzaddik; he always remains [unclear] over Yosef HaTzaddik, that perhaps Yosef HaTzaddik is still somewhere.

37:42 He does not give up hope on him; all the time he tries and says, where is he? He is not here. But Yosef is already gone; he is not a lost object - this is not a lost object; a very great thing. And then we see that Yosef HaTzaddik hints at this through the goblet being found in Binyamin's sack, for after this Yosef HaTzaddik made all kinds of ploys and all kinds of such acts that seemingly have a kind of theft in them, that seemingly Binyamin, Heaven forbid, there was some act of robbery or theft, that the goblet was found in Binyamin's sack.

38:12 And then in fact - 'if I am lost, I am lost' - this is what Queen Esther said, for she understood that, Heaven forbid, there is suffering and [unclear] on the whole Jewish people the moment they do not go in the way of Hashem. And only Mordechai HaYehudi and Queen Esther were the ones who sacrificed themselves for the Jewish people. She said, 'My G-d, my G-d, why have You forsaken me, far from my salvation?' Queen Esther understood that her prayer is the rescue of the Jewish people, and without her prayer no one would be able to be saved. That is to say, Queen Esther gave over her soul so that the Jewish people would be saved.

38:39 And Mordechai HaYehudi sacrificed himself for the Jewish people, that they be saved. And Yosef HaTzaddik sacrificed himself, for he endangered himself, endangered all his brothers, all of them. And it could have developed, as in the Midrash Tanchuma and the Yalkut Shimoni, etc., that there was supposed to be a great war, and Yehudah came to fight against Egypt, against Pharaoh, etc., and there would be bloodshed. But of course Hashem, blessed be He, saved all this, and this thing did not happen.

39:04 Meaning, there was a very great rescue from Heaven, and he was saved in the end, and there was not such [unclear], so great, that could have been from Heaven, had all this unfolded. But in the end Hashem, blessed be He, brought matters around so that this did not happen, because Yosef HaTzaddik fought and gave his soul and revealed the light of Hashem, blessed be He. But the reflection is that the learning Yosef HaTzaddik learned, as is known, was about the secret of the eglah arufah, the eglah arufah that he learned with Yaakov Avinu.

39:32 As is known, in the eglah arufah the elders say, 'Our hands did not shed the blood' - Tractate Sotah, chapter 9, mishnah 6, and on page [unclear], side b, in Tractate Sotah, for behold, the elders come and say, 'Our hands did not shed the blood.' That is to say, what is the emphasis they stress in the eglah arufah, that it comes in place of this, that there was here a miraculous act, above nature, in order to know who the murderer is, and they say, 'Our hands did not shed the blood.'

39:59 We have no connection to this blood that was shed. And this is exactly what the brothers did to Yosef, that they dipped the coat in blood, and they said, 'Recognize, please' - like, do you recognize this coat? Do you have some... They did the same thing; they said, 'Our hands did not shed the blood,' 'a wild beast has devoured him' - we have nothing to do with this thing. They did an act of eglah arufah; and the way they behaved - they did an act of eglah arufah. And then in fact Yaakov Avinu, who saw what they did, and he had learned eglah arufah with him - he understood that in fact Yosef HaTzaddik... from here he knew that Yosef HaTzaddik was alive.

40:33 This is the new insight: and he did not give up hope on him, he never gave up hope on him, for he knew that what they did is the secret of eglah arufah. And so it is written, 'And Yaakov saw the wagons that Yosef had sent.' He saw the wagons that Yosef HaTzaddik sent him, then he remembered - he knows that they learned the law of eglah arufah, for everything they learned together was the law of eglah arufah. And so Yaakov Avinu, in fact, hinted to Yosef HaTzaddik about the redemption, and about the redemption in the final generation, that in fact they will need to see the strength of the merit in the Jewish people, for the identifying marks of the Jewish people - that the Holy One, blessed be He, Himself - we are in fact the lost object.

41:12 The Jewish people is the lost object, and the Holy One, blessed be He, is the owner. And it is true that with the Holy One, blessed be He, there is no loss of money, so there is no owner's despair with the Holy One, blessed be He; and therefore one needs - the Torah and the mitzvos that we keep are the identifying marks, to remind the owner of the lost object that we are found by the mark. And so it is written, 'And it shall be on that day' - in the book of Yeshayahu, chapter 27, verse 13, it is written: 'And it shall be on that day, and those lost in the land of Ashur shall come, and those cast away in the land of Egypt.' What is 'and those lost shall come'? 'Ovdim' is a term of loss; the Jewish people are called 'ovdim', because the Jewish people is a term of loss,

41:47 meaning that we, the Jewish people, are the lost ones, we ourselves are the lost object; and Mashiach will come, he will plead in favor of the Jewish people, he will find the identifying marks in the Jewish people. And so, [unclear] page 79, side a, the Gemara says that all these identifying marks of the nation, among Israel - the marks they have are: merciful, bashful and doers of kindness - these are marks, that the Gemara says. The meaning of marks: that Mashiach will find in Israel that these are kept in them. If they will not have Torah and the merits will not be found in them, then he will search them for the marks.

42:18 That is, these marks - in order to come and find in the Jewish people [unclear] and tip the scale before the King. That is to say, Mashiach will come and he will search for the lost object; he will come to the owner of the lost object, to Hashem, blessed be He, and he will search for all the marks, and he will show Hashem, blessed be He, that the lost object still exists: here it is, it is found, here I have found the lost object, and here are the marks - these are the marks by which it must be returned. And then, as a matter of course, the owner of the lost object Himself is Hashem, blessed be He, and with Hashem, blessed be He, there is no owner's despair, for with Hashem, blessed be He, one cannot speak of a loss of money - the 'woe for the loss of money' that the Gemara speaks of - so presumably, certainly there is - therefore

42:53 Look - a very, very, very, very great wonder: that 'owner's despair' is in gematria exactly - it is 469 - 'owner's despair', and 'eglah arufah' is gematria 469, exactly. It comes out exactly the same thing: that what Yosef HaTzaddik did - and Yaakov Avinu saw the wagon, and he sent him the wagons - he knew from this about owner's despair, and Yosef HaTzaddik knows that his father does not give up hope on him, and so he hinted to him about this for the final generation, which is the foundation of eglah arufah, that he sent him all these wagons, and he knew in fact that through this, and in the merit of this, the Jewish people will [unclear] with an uplifted hand.

43:26 May it be His will that Hashem, blessed be He, redeem us, that we merit to uncover all the lost objects, every one. And Hashem, blessed be He - 'And it shall be on that day, a great shofar shall be blown, and those lost in the land of Ashur shall come.' All the lost ones, all the lost ones and the cast away will come to Hashem, blessed be He, for He comes to the lost object, in fact. He will lift up this lost object, He will acquire this lost object back and return it, for it has all the marks and all the good and wonderful things.

43:50 May it be His will that Hashem, blessed be He, redeem us with a complete redemption, and that we merit freedom and to be redeemed with an uplifted hand. Amen and amen.