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The shiur in English
The Yanuka’s own words in this shiur, translated into English by Lehallel · 2,276 words · 22:17. Press a time to hear it said.
0:00 Let the Rav come in. [singing] [singing] Shimon Menashe!
0:39 [singing] Don't come up on the stage. Nobody come up. We now come to one of the moments of splendor and uplift of this mighty gathering. We are privileged to host a tzaddik and a holy man, whose name goes before him from one end of the world to the other, for his immense genius in every part of the Torah.
1:04 With the highest honor, and with emotion, we welcome the Gaon, Rav Shlomo Yehuda Be'eri, the Yanuka. At these moments, when 220 tractates of schoolchildren and their fathers rise like a pleasing fragrance before the Throne of Glory, we are moved to merit hearing his holy words, which flow like an ever-strengthening spring, and to receive his great blessing, which will accompany the students of the Talmud Torah, the dear parents, and the Talmud Torah, for long years of flourishing in Torah and fear of Heaven.
1:49 A few days ago, when I went in to the Gaon to invite him to this event, he was so impressed and so happy about a gathering so exalted, of 220 students completing tractates while the whole Jewish people is at war with Iran, when all the children in the world aren't learning, or learn a few minutes over the phone. But the students of Shiras Yosef sat and toiled in Torah and completed tractates, each one with his father, with a chavrusa, with an older brother.
2:20 At these holy moments we want to invite the great Gaon, the Rav, the Yanuka. With the permission of our masters and teachers, the honored rabbis, with the permission of the Rav of this place, and with the permission of all the holy congregation, all your holy community: may the Holy One, blessed be He, give you help from Heaven, kedushah and purity, a good life, salvations, miracles and wonders, and to shine the light of Hashem, blessed be He, in the world.
2:57 The purpose here in this world is that we merit to grab, here in the world, more kedushah, more Torah, more fear of Heaven. We have nothing here in this world, only what we merit, every day, to come closer and closer still to Hashem, blessed be He, and to return in teshuvah before the holy King. In Tractate Sanhedrin, page 90, in the Mishnah, it says: "All Israel have a share in the World to Come."
Read the whole shiur in English (16 more parts)
3:27 All the Jewish people have a share. One can ask: in Tractate Taanis, page 22a, the Gemara tells of Rav Beroka Choza'ah, that he came to ask Eliyahu, remembered for good, about who are the sons of the World to Come: who merits to be a son of the World to Come here in this world? Who merits to live here in the world and be a son of the World to Come? So he pointed out to him those jesters.
3:52 One can ask: after all, I assume that in the marketplace there were a great many holy people and tzaddikim. Why didn't Eliyahu tell him, "All Israel have a share in the World to Come" - they are all sons of the World to Come, the whole marketplace? What is the difference? Why did he single out specifically them? Can one say the rest are not sons of the World to Come? Why does he single out specifically them? So in truth, Rabbeinu Yosef Chaim, in the Ben Yehoyada on Tractate Shabbos, page 153a, brings a very beautiful thing: there is a difference between "a share" and what we call "a son of the World to Come". A son of the World to Come is one who merits the World to Come by the merit that Heaven grants him. He doesn't need the merit of any tzaddik; he can enter on his own,
4:40 whenever he wishes; he is a son of the World to Come. He enters the heights at once. He has no obstacles, no delays, no barriers. But one who has "a share" - for that share he will need a lot of merit; he will still need many holy ones, he needs tzaddikim to help him. He has a share. It is like a right that entitles him, but he will have a lot of toil to acquire it in the World to Come. So "a share in the World to Come" means much toil and effort, and "a son of the World to Come" is one who is truly destined for it. It is like what Tosafos bring in Kesubos, page 103, about Rebbi: a Heavenly voice went out, that whoever was present at his hilula merits the World to Come. So Tosafos indeed ask: how can that be? What -
5:16 are there no other sons of the World to Come? Only they merit it? Don't all the Jewish people merit to reach the World to Come? Clearly all the Jewish people merit the World to Come. So in truth it is about the merit, what the person is entitled to: whether it is by way of the share, what he merits to acquire here in the world, or by way of the sufferings, everything he will go through. But one who merits to be "destined for the life of the World to Come" - the door is open before him. He has no obstacles, no barriers, no delays. The purpose, with the World to Come, is that we merit to learn Torah here in this world; we merit to be among those who merit to receive the kedushah, the purity and the purpose:
5:49 to live here in this world already in the World to Come. For one who merits to live the World to Come in this world - for whom this world counts as nothing at all in his eyes, who lives within this world only in cleaving to Hashem, blessed be He, and knows that the One standing behind everything that happens here in this world is only Hashem, blessed be He - that is the true purpose. That is already called the level of "a taste of the World to Come". As in Tractate Pesachim, page 113a, we hear what the merit really is, to be among the inheritors of the World to Come. The merit of being among the inheritors of the World to Come is that a person leaves himself wine for Motza'ei Shabbos.
6:25 Through the whole Shabbos he did not finish the wine; he leaves a little of the wine. He lives in the Land of Israel, he is in the Land of Israel, where the kedushah is; he raises his sons to Torah study. But the portion of wine for Motza'ei Shabbos that he leaves over from this wine, to sanctify with it, to make Havdalah - because we do not make Havdalah on bread - in any case, he leaves some of this wine for Motza'ei Shabbos, and so he merits to be among the inheritors of the World to Come. Because the World to Come is the true purpose: that a person merits that his whole life here in this world he dedicates himself to the World to Come, which is the great purpose above all, above everything, the final purpose, which is
7:00 above everything. In Tractate Yoma, page 77a, the Gemara says in the name of Rabbi Yitzchak, "So He gives sleep to His beloved" - about those righteous women who drive sleep from their eyes, and so the husbands merit even more kedushah and even more elevation, and the children merit to learn Torah. So this merit of the World to Come also depends on the women, on their merit. And another beautiful thing about the merit of the World to Come: in Tractate Yoma, page 88a, the Gemara says that, in fact, Rabbi Yishmael says about one who sees an emission on Yom Kippur: he should worry all year, and if he merits and the year passes for him, then he is assured that he is a son of the World to Come.
7:37 He merits to acquire, and to enter the innermost place, within the partition on high, because he turned his whole essence and his whole life here in the world toward the purpose, which is the World to Come. And in Tractate Shekalim, page 9b, it says in the name of Rabbi Meir that whoever eats his fruits in purity - the fruits, in purity and in kedushah - and is settled in the Land of Israel, then he too is promised that he is a son of the World to Come. He has this merit; he is destined, he is given the good news that he is a son of the World to Come. He has the merit, the acquisition and the partnership in the World to Come. And the greatest merit is when one learns a tractate: all the focus
8:11 with which a person puts his whole self, within his life, into completing one tractate - he knows that the whole purpose, when he is now learning one tractate, is that he lives only in the eternal purpose for which he came into the world, and he keeps earning himself the merit to be in kedushah, in purity. So that is the greatest virtue there is. And I, the small one, can merit to share in the merit of this siyum, which counts for all of us as one great siyum. The merit of a siyum - that is in Tractate Shabbos, page 118b, about its importance, where he said he makes a festive day for the Rabbis, about the merit. And the Yerushalmi, Pesachim, chapter 10, halachah 5, on the virtue and importance of finishing: "One who begins a mitzvah is told: finish it."
8:50 On this importance of completing a mitzvah that one does - how great the thing is, and how it gives pleasure Above. In the Tikkunei Zohar, in the introduction, page 14b, Rabbi Shimon says how great a virtue and importance there is for anyone who makes a siyum on one tractate. As when a person merits to complete "Sixty are the queens" - that is the completion of the entire Shas, one who merits to complete the Shas. Each single tractate on its own gives the Holy One, blessed be He, great, great pleasure.
9:16 He acquires his place in the World to Come, the eternal purpose, just through one great siyum that he merits to complete, giving pleasure to the Holy One, blessed be He. And this is very, very, very important, and it gives very great pleasure to the Holy One, blessed be He. Not for nothing does the Rema bring, in siman 246, se'if 26, that we make a festive meal in honor of the completion of the Torah. We finish the Torah and make a siyum; we complete a tractate and give great pleasure to the Holy One, blessed be He, and we make a meal, because we are showing the Holy One, blessed be He, that this is our life. When we make a meal after completing a tractate, one should drink of the wine, as the firstborns do on Erev Pesach.
9:52 One should taste of the wine, one should eat something, a meal, so that the siyum rests on something. We don't make a siyum and eat nothing. One should drink wine, eat mezonos, so that the blessing rests on something, and also take part in the siyum itself, so that it brings the person blessing, and so he will have the merit and the partnership in this siyum. So I, the small one, bless you that you succeed in making many, many more siyumim, and that Hashem's desire succeed in your hands, and that there be in this city more kedushah, more purity, more miracles and wonders and holiness, and that everyone here return in complete teshuvah before the holy King; that everyone praise the great Name of the King of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He, and give Hashem, blessed be He, pleasure -
10:35 which is the true purpose, above everything: to seek and run after the honor of Heaven, His honor, blessed be He, and to pray for the Beis HaMikdash, the Holy Temple, to pray for the kingdom of the House of David, to pray for the important things; that we want the Holy One, blessed be He, to protect the Jewish people; and to give the honor, the greatness and the praise only to the One who spoke and the world came to be - which is the great purpose, above all the purposes there are here in the world. And, baruch Hashem, you merit - holy children and holy families - to complete the Torah, and to begin, and learn, and complete still other holy books.
11:07 To complete them and to learn them gives the Holy One, blessed be He, great pleasure. And may it be His will that all your wellsprings spread outward, and that your borders grow with many students, and that this whole place of yours here blossom and rise, and that you have salvations, miracles and wonders, that we merit swiftly, speedily, the complete geulah, speedily in our days, amen, amen and amen. Amen. The Rav is so happy that our students are completing tractates, and the Rav will do a few niggunim with us - the Yanuka's niggunim.
11:49 What a great privilege! Everyone together, join in the singing and the niggunim of the Rav. Everyone, loud! [singing] [singing] Gentlemen, we are continuing with the siyum ceremony.
21:25 The next classes should be ready to come up for the siyum ceremony.
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