The Yanuka Rav Shlomo Yehuda-למה האדם עצוב？ הסוד לשבירת הגאווה והפיכת החושך לאור 🕯️ שיעור מהגאון הינוקא בליקוטי מוהר＂ן

2:48 Something... let's look for something short. Everything is long. The shortest Torah in Likutei Moharan is the longest Torah. Yud-dalet, yud-dalet. "Head of the children of Israel"; "the wicked are silenced in darkness." The shortest Torah, but the longest. This whole exile is because of this Torah.

3:15 "Rabbi." "Rabbi." Fine — let's say we'll take Torah... Torah... Torah yud... Torah yud-dalet, 14. It's a little connected to the days that are soon coming — they are drawing near — so let's learn something that will be connected.

3:49 Torah 13 is about... it's about... returning the honor to its root. And it connects together — 13, 14. One can find all kinds of connections: the drawing down of Hashgachah pratis, the breaking of the desire for money. But one can connect it, because the breaking of the desire for money of Torah 13 — it connects to Torah 14.

4:15 "Blow the shofar at the new moon, at the appointed time, for the day of our festival." In order to draw down — when we want to draw down peace, to draw peace into the world, one must raise the honor of the Holy One, blessed be He, to its root — that is, to awe, as it is written, "to be in awe of the honored Name." If we want to raise the honor of Hashem, blessed be He — we want to raise it to its root — because each one of us in this world has an aspect of honor.

4:41 This one has an aspect of honor, and that one has an aspect of honor. One manages twenty people, and one is a manager of fifty, one of a hundred thousand, one of two hundred thousand, one of... Each one has people under him. One is a mayor, one is this, one is that — each one with his people. Yes.

5:06 Rabbi Nachman says that one must raise the honor of the Holy One, blessed be He, to the root — that a person should not attribute that honor to himself and take it for himself. When a person takes the honor for himself, he is in fact damaging the honor of the Holy One, blessed be He. A person is forbidden to take the honor for himself, because honor belongs only to the Holy One, blessed be He. Honor is a spiritual thing, and very, very, very high, and its root belongs to the Holy One, blessed be He.

5:34 And so, this work of honor — only the Holy One, blessed be He, knows who truly returns it and who truly takes it. No one can know. We human beings can see with our eyes: a person will come now and act proud, and speak words of pride, and stand in a great robe, and stand with a crown and everything. We may see him as if he is being proud and as if he wants honor. It could be that he is the humblest man in the world; he actually takes it and raises it to its root.

6:02 We ourselves do not know who truly falls into honor — only the Holy One, blessed be He, alone. So from here — this is also for the many people who think to pass judgment, as if they were the Holy One, blessed be He, and knew who falls into honor and who doesn't: no one knows who falls into honor and who doesn't. Now, like this — Rabbi Nachman says — I am purposely also mentioning the Torah of the Likutei Moharan, because I think there is nothing greater than to raise up with it, now, his soul, of Rabbi Binyamin ben Zilpah, to raise him to the hidden treasuries on high — through the Torah of the Rebbe whom he loved so much, and gave his very soul in order to come to his holy resting place and pray by him; and he was bound to him.

6:51 The greatness of that love cannot be measured, truly cannot be measured — his money that he put into that city, the city of Uman, his connection and his love for that place. So he says here a very beautiful thing: "And it is impossible to raise the honor except through a Torah of kindness." Now he brings us a proof here. "And a Torah of kindness — our Sages, of blessed memory, said, in Tractate Sukkah, page 49b — is one who learns Torah in order to teach it."

7:23 What is a Torah of kindness? When you learn Torah in order to teach it — our Sages expounded: that is a Torah of kindness. There is Torah a person learns for himself, and there is Torah a person learns for others. I want the other person to know what I know. I teach Torah to others — that is called a Torah of kindness: that I do kindness with my knowledge, with what I learned, bestowing it on another. So he says here: "for this is the essence of His honor" — this is the essence of the honor of the Holy One, blessed be He.

7:52 Why is this the essence of the honor of the Holy One, blessed be He? Rabbi Nachman explains that the essence of the honor of the Holy One, blessed be He, is that I make known to others the knowledge of the revelation of His G-dliness, blessed be He. The moment the other person also knows of the revelation of His G-dliness, blessed be He, in this way I too merit to be raised higher. Why? Because I am doing kindness with my Torah, so that it increases — it is fruitful and multiplies. "As is brought in the Zohar" — a proof is brought here from the Zohar, Yisro, page 69a: "At the time when the other nations come and acknowledge the Holy One, blessed be He" — when all the nations come and acknowledge the Holy One, blessed be He —

8:28 "then the Name of the Holy One, blessed be He, is raised up and honored above and below." What happens when they come? All the nations of the world have to praise, to tell the Holy One, blessed be He — the honor of the Holy One, blessed be He, is raised higher in heaven. This is the essence — the honor of the Holy One, blessed be He, is praised among those above and those below when they come and praise Him. This is the essence, the essence of His honor, blessed be He. Where do we find this proof? "As with Yisro" — what we see with Yisro.

8:52 "At the time that Yisro said, 'Now I know that Hashem is greater than all the gods'" — what happened here? There was a very great revelation of G-dliness here, which was made known to the whole world — a revelation of the kingship of Hashem. So Yisro arrives, and he too sees for himself the greatness of the Holy One, blessed be He. And then there comes an elevation and honor to the Name of Hashem, blessed be He, in the world. "It turns out, this is His honor: when people who are outside of kedushah bring themselves close, inside the kedushah — whether converts who convert, or baalei teshuvah, who were also outside — when they are brought close and brought inside, this is His honor." That is to say, we take people who are...

9:33 we bring them back in teshuvah — baalei teshuvah, we return them in teshuvah to Hashem; converts who were very far from Hashem, blessed be He — we bring them back to Hashem, blessed be He. This is the essence of His honor, blessed be He. "And now the honor is in exile" — you see where the honor is found: "the main honor is with the idolaters." There is, in the Torah — Likutei Moharan, in Torah 1, by Rabbi Nachman — "...whose way is wholehearted, who walk in the Torah of Hashem" — in Likutei Moharan... "whose way is wholehearted, who walk in the Torah of Hashem." Ah, right — the Torah of grace; there too he speaks about this.

10:07 "The Torah, which bestows grace on those who learn it" — right? So here, notice, here too he uses the same wording: that the main importance and grace is now with them; and here he says that the main honor today is with the idolaters. We have a novel point here — to compare this Torah to that Torah: in Torah 1 he says that the main grace and importance is with them — the main grace and importance; he doesn't speak of honor.

10:32 He says that the grace and importance is with them. And here he says one more thing that is with them: the honor. The honor is with the idolaters, "and we, the Jewish people" — that is the Jewish people — "we are lowly and despised." How do we look today? Everyone sees us as lowly, despised, contemptible; they belittle us; they don't understand the worth of the Jewish people.

10:58 "And in the time to come, when His honor is revealed from amid the darkness — as it is written, 'And the honor of Hashem will be revealed' — for then all will turn to serve Him shoulder to shoulder; then they will say among the nations, 'Come, let us walk in the light of Hashem.' And honor is called light." Here he expounds that honor is in fact an aspect of light. Now, why is honor an aspect of light?

11:23 Notice that light is something... one of the reasons that we light the Shabbos candle on Erev Shabbos — what is the reason for these candles? There are Tikkunim, for instance, for the sin of Adam HaRishon, Chavah, and so on. One of the plain, simple reasons for lighting the candle: so that he can also see the meal — that is oneg Shabbos. He is sitting now inside his home at the meal; he doesn't see the food, he doesn't see the members of his household.

11:48 Right? It isn't... it isn't... one cannot survive like that, in the dark. Give a person the dish he finds most delicious, in the dark — will he enjoy it? He won't enjoy it. Why? He doesn't enjoy it; he doesn't see; the eating isn't even noticeable; there is no honor to the table; everything could be messy, dirty, out of order. Light is a revelation of honor; when there is light, the honor is seen.

12:15 That is to say, the main great illumination — that the Holy One, blessed be He, gives us the true light — is revealed in honor. And now, here is where the person's aspect is tested. That is why a person who falls into the aspect of honor — that is in darkness; he is on the side of death. He falls into the desire for money — that is "a darkened face." He wants honor, which he buys with money. He pays with money — that is honor that is entirely from the Sitra Achra. All those who strain for honor, and run after honor, and pay for that honor — woe and alas.

12:43 That is not honor; that is truly the side of death. So from here — "then all will turn to serve Him shoulder to shoulder; then they will say among the nations, 'Come, let us walk in the light of Hashem.' And honor is called light, as it is written, 'And the earth shone with His honor.'" And from here we see — notice that he takes every verse, and every word has to come from the other aspect that he states. You see, in Likutei Moharan there are many "aspects."

13:09 What does "many aspects" mean? Every place where there is an "aspect," one could have expanded and innovated and explained many times over, without measure — far more than we are able to understand. That is "aspects": one thing that is bound up with another. Rabbi ... Katz — every conclusion of a Gemara continues the Gemara. Right. But here, with an "aspect," there is something different. He is not trying to draw a gezeirah shavah or things like that.

13:38 He is trying to come and tell you: in every such aspect there is a very great novel insight that I am revealing, and I am not revealing more than this. I revealed a little; I had a great deal, I revealed a little; I had a great deal, I revealed a little — each time. That is why he says "aspects, aspects, aspects." That is to say, if we follow it and go to the root, we will understand that everything here is something deep that cannot be fathomed at all. So notice that he constantly ties in the word. He says what he wants, and then he brings a proof. Now, when he says some thing, he will bring a verse that is very similar — this is the way throughout Likutei Moharan — in the verse it will be very similar to what he said. For example,

14:19 when he said — just now he said that in the time to come His honor will be revealed from amid the darkness, as it is written, "And the honor of Hashem will be revealed." So here he says "the honor of Hashem will be revealed," and so he says, "And the honor of Hashem will be revealed." After that he wants to come and say that honor is called light, so he brings a proof from Yechezkel, chapter 43: "And the earth shone with His honor." Yechezkel, chapter 43 — it speaks there of the Third Beis HaMikdash. Truly, the Third Beis HaMikdash is the essence of the honor of the Holy One, blessed be He.

14:44 When will the essence of the honor of the Holy One, blessed be He, shine? When the Beis HaMikdash is built. That is the main building of the honor of the Holy One, blessed be He. Because now, there, at the Third Beis HaMikdash — it is theirs, and the Beis HaMikdash has still not been built, so we look lacking. We are still disgraced — both the Jewish people and the Holy One, blessed be He. When, so to speak, everyone comes and looks at this: "What? Where? You said — the Jewish people said... look at how you look: you have no Beis HaMikdash." And we await that day when we will be redeemed, and they will see the building of Jerusalem and His honor, blessed be He — of Hashem, blessed be He — and the Beis HaMikdash and all of this.

15:15 Then suddenly everyone will see the light of Hashem, blessed be He, in the world, and then the earth will shine with His honor. And so notice: where was this verse said? In Yechezkel, chapter 43. What does Yechezkel chapter 43 speak about? About the Third Beis HaMikdash. With the Third Beis HaMikdash — here he hints to us that this is the essence of the honor of the Holy One, blessed be He: that is, that the Beis HaMikdash be built. For this verse was said about the Third Beis HaMikdash, for there, then, the complete geulah will come.

15:43 And then here he speaks, and begins to speak, about the converts. Notice: "And it is impossible to bring the converts close, along with the baalei teshuvah..." There are converts, there are baalei teshuvah. You know there is this and there is that — let's explain, and understand why as well. "...except" — we have several aspects here that need to be understood. I'll explain what is meant. There are the baalei teshuvah and there are the converts.

16:09 The baalei teshuvah and the converts are very far away; each one is drawn from a different aspect, and we have to bring them close in practice, through the Torah. The Torah has to be very pure, so that it will shine in a dark place. And what is this like? It is like a bow and arrow. I now want to shoot the arrow and hit a distant target. The more I draw the bow back — what will happen?

16:37 Farther. The arrow will fly farther. Now, if I want to reach the place where the converts are, I need to shoot the arrow very, very far, because I am meant to pierce hearts — of the uncircumcised, of non-Jews; to reach a situation where a convert is right now in a place where he is unaware of the reality of Hashem — he sees idol worship. What brings him to any awakening at all, that he even returns... even wants to hear at all?

17:05 After that, it has to go very, very far, for me to strike the heart of a convert — that is, of a non-Jew who wants to convert. That is why it is called "a convert who converted." It is not called "a non-Jew who converted"; it is "a convert who converted." Notice, there is a distinction here in the wording of the Likutei Moharan, which I want to divide into several aspects, in order to understand that there are several things here that can be learned. On the one hand I can read it as a single aspect; on the other hand I want to split it up in order to explain to you what is meant.

17:31 We have the baalei teshuvah. Now, baalei teshuvah are found close to the Jewish people. That is, they are within kedushah — going, coming back, going — but their hearts can still be pierced. Why? They hear, they know, they see, they come back, they repeat, they fall, they awaken, until they are compelled and brought to kedushah. It takes a little time, but it is possible. That is to say, the arrow can be near or far — somehow it will arrive.

17:55 But to reach the state of a convert — that is a very distant arrow. But this must be through the holy Torah. And so here he says: "And it is impossible to bring the converts close, along with the baalei teshuvah, except through Torah, as it is written, 'Let your springs spread outward.'" Yes — this verse was said about the holy Torah. "For one must give drink to those who are outside" — including those far-off ones — "to make known to them the way in which they should walk.

18:23 And this is what our Sages, of blessed memory, said: 'There is no honor except Torah.'" What is called honor? The Torah. "And this is: 'If you bring forth the precious from the worthless.' And our Sages, of blessed memory, said — Bava Metzia, page 85a — these are the ones who bring people close to the service of Hashem, blessed be He. For this is called 'bringing forth the precious' — that is, honor." "Yekar" is an expression of honor, as Mordechai had — "joy and honor" — in royal robes of honor. He had abundance, he had royalty, he had wealth.

18:53 Mordechai the Jew — even though he had been in disgrace, with everything Haman did to him, he nevertheless rose to greatness; he was a king. So "Mordechai went out from before the king in royal robes." So "yekar" is honor, it is greatness, it is royalty. So "yekar" is honor. "From the worthless" — from the degradation of the exile, from the lowliness of the exile. "Bring forth the precious from the worthless" — from that degradation of the exile. "And this is: 'Hashem is high above all nations' — that is, when the idolaters acknowledge and praise the Holy One, blessed be He" — Hashem, blessed be He — "then 'His honor is above the heavens.'" What happens? "Then the honor is raised up from the darkness." Notice what a beautiful thing.

19:31 It is raised up from... remember that earlier we learned there is an aspect of light, an aspect of darkness, and we need to raise the honor to its root. The honor rises to its root — what is that called? An aspect of light. When the honor does not rise to its root, what does it become? Darkness. "And it is impossible to come to an awakening of teshuvah — whether for the wicked of Israel or for converts — except through the Torah, by which one shines to them, to the place where they are, as it is written, 'Let them spread...'" When we say, "Let your springs spread outward" — that the springs of the Torah should reach the farthest places.

20:07 The farthest. The holier a person's Torah is — when we learn Torah now, we come very close to the Holy One, blessed be He; we can reveal His G-dliness, blessed be He. The power of the Torah is an immense and amazing power. It is a power that cannot be fathomed. You learn Torah for its own sake, and you learn it in kedushah — the power of your Torah pierces hearts and reaches the heights of heaven. It reaches above. Why?

20:31 Because this Torah is called a Torah of kindness. It does kindness with those who hear it, and it raises the honor to its root. The honor of Hashem, blessed be He, is revealed through this. And the Holy One, blessed be He, says: This is My honor. And so it is written, "Let your springs spread outward" — "outward." He is precise: "outward." Why is he precise specifically about the word "outward"? What is there in its being "outward"?

20:56 Because the Torah — how much is the Torah? It is six hundred thousand — six hundred thousand letters, corresponding to the six hundred thousand souls of Israel, the Jewish people. "And all the souls have a root above, in the thought of the Holy One, blessed be He — for Israel arose first in thought. And through the union of the souls, the souls of the converts are created." Of course — in heaven there is a unification between the souls.

21:21 "And when the souls are awakened by the letters of the Torah that come out of his mouth, they sparkle to one another — and this is an aspect of union, in which this one receives illumination from that one." That is to say, when we learn Torah — which is equivalent to all the letters of the Torah, which is equivalent to the souls of Israel — the Torah learning that we learn awakens the letters, and the letters are the souls of Israel; and so a few more souls of Israel are awakening now. When the souls of Israel awaken, what happens?

21:46 What happens? They return in teshuvah. The honor begins to return to its root. "...in which this one receives illumination from that one. And through the union of the sparkling of the souls in thought" — they are created from the sparkling of the souls in thought. That is to say, from the aspect of the thoughts of teshuvah that are brought about in the Jewish people — from here come the souls of the converts. All the thoughts of teshuvah that are brought about in the Jewish people — so now a Jew has a thought of teshuvah: another convert, and another convert, and another, and another, and another, and another, and another. See how important it is to bring about thoughts of teshuvah in the Jewish people, to bring thoughts of teshuvah back to them.

22:19 Yes, tzaddik. The moment they have the spark — that is the first thing: that Hashem our G-d is the King on high, that everyone will believe. After that, does Binah come to them too — that they understand one thing from another? Or is it like... how does it work? Like... Binah?

22:44 What do you mean, our tzaddik? Teach us. When Binah — look, from your first sparkle, when you understand something, then he begins to learn; Binah begins to build, one thing out of another. And do they go on with that understanding, or do they stop? Go on with that understanding, or do they stop? Good, I'll explain something to you. Here he is speaking... we must hold very closely to the wording. Know that one of the important things when learning a sefer — with every sefer, one must hold closely to the author's wording.

23:16 Why? It is one of the things that will bring a person to a clear and full understanding, and it will also save him from mistakes. It will save him from mistakes. The authors — the Alter Rebbe, the author of the Tanya; the Midrashim; a sefer of Chassidus; Gemara, the Mishnah — that is obvious. The Torah — that is obvious, yes. But sometimes one must be precise even with sefarim like these, sefarim of the Acharonim — one must be precise with them.

23:46 And why? I'll explain to you what he means. You mean about Binah, right? You mean this, about Binah — whether there is here... that "all are clarified in thought" — whether it is done from the side of Binah: they will begin to attain an intellectual understanding that will give birth in them to all their teshuvah and everything. That is what you mean. I understand. That is not exactly it.

24:11 Come, I'll explain to you why. The illumination that they receive — after all, we have thoughts of teshuvah. Our thought of teshuvah now causes, in heaven, that there is now one more person who begins to awaken in teshuvah to Hashem. I have a thought of teshuvah, and it might seem: this thought of teshuvah — what did it accomplish? The thought of teshuvah goes and strikes now in the air — you will see this further on as well — it goes and strikes through the airs until it enters some heart of someone — or a word that I spoke, or Torah that I learned.

24:43 After all, each one of us has branches; each one of us is connected at his root to several other souls. Each one. Now, when a person is connected — just as an example — to a few more souls like these, and this one is connected to several more souls like these — and because you do teshuvah, your whole tree will now be shaken. All the branches and the leaves that you have now receive movement. Right? What happens when you shake a tree?

25:08 I'm giving it to you as a parable of a tree; that is the best. What happens when you shake the tree? All the branches, all the leaves, all of it. When a Jew now learns Torah, he shakes the whole tree. A Jew has a thought of teshuvah — some light breeze, now, moved the branches, moved the leaves. That is exactly the parable, "for man is a tree of the field." When we now have thoughts of teshuvah, learn Torah — this tree is swaying all the time, and then the branches move.

25:34 The tzaddik is called "the foundation of the world." He is like a great tree — his Torah — and what he manages to accomplish in the world is to cause all the trees and the branches and the leaves to move, and to stir things up so that everything moves. So the fruits fall off? The fruits fall right away? Don't worry. ...only if the fruits are ripe. It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter. Knocking down the fruit — it is not in order to knock down the fruit. You shake it on purpose so that they will grow.

26:07 You shake the tree — bring forth, bring forth fruit; shake the tree and it will bring forth fruit. The tree — is that the head? They take the fruit, attach it to... It is found in Be'er Sheva. It is found in Be'er Sheva. "Sheva," seven, is the Shabbos — the tzaddik. Three pass. Let's see. "So too a sinner of Israel — as long as the name 'Israel' is called upon him" — notice: what is he called? "A sinner of Israel."

26:38 "A sinner of Israel," he is called. "It turns out that the name 'Israel' is called upon him; at any rate, the name 'Israel' is still called upon him, since he is called 'a sinner of Israel' — 'even though he sinned'" — the Gemara in Sanhedrin, page 44a — the Gemara says, "Even though he sinned, he is still Israel." That is to say, no matter where he has ended up, he is still an aspect of Israel. Why? The name "Israel" is upon him; nothing will help. You can come and say whatever you want — he is still Israel. Do not speak against him.

27:06 Israel — the name "Israel" is upon him. "And he has a hold in the root, in the supernal thought. And through the sparkling" — this sparkling of the revelation of the souls — "the root of his soul sparkles as well, among the other roots, and then illumination reaches this one who is called 'a sinner of Israel,' from the root of his soul, and through this illumination he returns in teshuvah." Notice, I'll teach you one more thing that is connected to this.

27:31 When you... have you ever said the Tikkun HaKlali? Did you notice that at the beginning one says, "through that One who is hidden and concealed, in the name of all Israel"? What is this, "through that One who is hidden and concealed, in the name of all Israel"? It is exactly this Torah that we have just learned. That is the explanation. When we say, "through that One who is hidden and concealed, in the name of all Israel," it is to draw down exactly this illumination. That is its explanation. It is to draw down this illumination from the sparkling of the souls — that the root of the soul should sparkle in the sinners of Israel too, to awaken in them teshuvah and a thought of teshuvah.

28:03 Through this act that I am now coming to say, the Tikkun HaKlali, such regrets and thoughts of teshuvah will be awakened — "through that One who is hidden and concealed, in the name of all Israel." I am about to shake, now, in the upper worlds, this aspect of the root of the souls of Israel, through the six hundred thousand letters of the Torah, and from this there will be teshuvah for the whole of the Jewish people. That is the plain meaning of these words. Whoever says them in the Tikkun HaKlali and does not know what he is saying — he can learn Likutei Moharan, Torah 14.

28:30 — But what is "that One"? Who is "that One"? Is it important to say these verses? — Yes, certainly. Certainly. Say all of it, this whole text, the "leshem yichud" — all of it. It is very worthwhile to say it beforehand. Who is "that One"? We say, "through that One." Who is "that One"? A tzaddik, or the tzaddik — not the idea? "That One" is the tzaddik; it is the root. Each one... fine. "That One" — you will understand.

28:55 I'll explain. In practice, in heaven, when we come to do any act — you know that there is a dispute between the Noda BiYehudah and Maran the Chida: the Noda BiYehudah says one does not say "leshem yichud." Why does one not say "leshem yichud"? There is no need. The Noda BiYehudah says: you do a mitzvah, you do some act, you do some good thing — it has its effect in heaven anyway.

29:21 There is no need to raise it — what would that raise? It rises now anyway. Everything is fine, everything rises. These are new things, saying "leshem yichud"; there is no need for it. Maran the Chida, in his sefer Simchas HaRegel, writes that, on the contrary, there is indeed a very great virtue in saying "leshem yichud," and it is a very great virtue. Now let's explain it. Why? When you come to fulfill, to do some mitzvah, you come to do an act in kedushah, you come to do anything at all — the very action, that you do something, awakens great things in heaven, even if you do not say "For the sake of the unification of the Holy One, blessed be He, and His Shechinah."

29:56 Now, the Tikkun HaKlali is a very great act; it repairs... at some point there needs to be a shiur on the Tikkun HaKlali. I need to give you a shiur on the Tikkun HaKlali at some point — remind me — when there is a chance, to try to learn and to teach, to explain, to understand — to know, as well, the meaning of the Tehillim in it, and also the power. There is here song, victory, melody, prayer, psalm, thanksgiving, Halleluyah — it is a song that is simple, doubled, tripled, quadrupled.

30:24 It repairs all the aspects of fire, wind, water, earth — all the elements of a person — and it draws down to him a complete Tikkun for his entire stature, and it draws down to him a wondrous illumination, and brings the person to such a level of exaltedness, and repairs the animal nature and the skin of the serpent that is in a person. Sin belongs to the filth of the serpent, to the skin of the serpent. The Tikkun HaKlali removes the filth of the serpent from upon a person, repairs him in his four elements, and brings him to completeness of mind, so that he begins to return in teshuvah.

30:57 And this sparkling of the teshuvah that he does brings this about. Why? What does this sparkling of teshuvah bring about? To bring about — "through that One who is hidden and concealed, in the name of all Israel" — that I cleave to the world of thought; in the upper worlds, in the world of thought, I think thoughts of teshuvah. A great illumination is drawn from the Keser, the supernal Keser — Ehyeh, the Name of mercy — where in fact the supernal Binah is, where all the judgments are sweetened at their root, and there too, in fact, "all are clarified in thought."

31:29 This whole aspect of the souls and the converts and the baalei teshuvah, and all the teshuvah that is drawn down — it is drawn from that same aspect, from the highest aspect — from the thoughts of teshuvah, from the secret of the thoughts of teshuvah, from that high place from which a person has a thought of teshuvah at all. The very thought of teshuvah repairs beyond measure. This great illumination — I say and ask of Hashem, "through that One who is hidden and concealed, in the name of all Israel": I am right now attaching myself, through this great act of the Tikkun HaKlali, to draw down and reveal a great and immense illumination from that awesome place above, which can draw down mercy and good influences for the Jewish people, without any admixture of judgments —

32:08 for illumination and teshuvah and sparkling to be drawn from there, from the root of the souls of the baalei teshuvah and the converts, that it should enter them. And so, through this, suddenly we suddenly find — hop — a person is sitting in the middle of nowhere on some bench, and says to himself — he wants to return to Hashem — "What is the purpose of this world?" Where did the thought of teshuvah come to him from? Someone, apparently, did something — learned Torah with strength, said some tefillah; some Torah of kindness was in his mouth — and hop, this thought of teshuvah arrived.

32:39 Some priest is sitting in some place of his over there, and suddenly he looks at himself and says, "What is this book? There are no miracles here. All the time I am here with this Jesu, and there is no miracle. Nothing happens; there is no miracle. I pray, nothing happens — what will be? There is no miracle, nothing." Suddenly he sees "Give thanks to Hashem, for He is good" — he sees a new world. He says, "Come, I want to be a Jew."

33:04 There was one like this who turned to us — really, there was one like this — and we'll ask him... tell them. Afterwards they will hear about you — I don't know who it is. Someone who was a Catholic Christian, who said to himself: "Listen, I have seen that among you there are many miracles here; I want to be of the Jewish people." He wants to leave Jesu. He received that email — and he wants... the non-Jew says, "What am I doing here in front of Jesu?" "And the earth shone with His honor." Suddenly the non-Jew sits by himself and says, "What is going on here? I want...

33:44 I want to pray to this great G-d of yours, the G-d of Israel. Come, I want to be one of yours." And then suddenly he understands that "they bow to vanity and emptiness, and pray to a god who cannot save." Only the Holy One, blessed be He, can save us. One should pray only to the Creator. And then there come to be thoughts of teshuvah, for all of this awakening. And notice: now, here the work is for the Torah scholar. Here he will explain to us the work more as it concerns the Torah scholar.

34:13 Notice why. "And this is what our Sages, of blessed memory, said in Nedarim, page 81a: 'Why is it that Torah scholars — their sons are not Torah scholars?'" Why is it that you see a Torah scholar — his son is not so much like him; it is not always a copy. He can even be greater; it does not have to follow. In Shaar HaGilgulim, Introductions 21 and 22 — where Rabbeinu the Arizal says: sometimes it is precisely the opposite. There can be a great man with a small soul; sometimes a small man will father a great soul — Terach fathered Avraham Avinu.

34:39 But that doesn't matter so much. In fact you even see it with Yitzchak and Esav. So what — what came out of here? And Yaakov is his brother — and Esav; here you have a great man. Yosef HaTzaddik is Esav's nephew — so what? Sometimes not; it does not have to follow. So here the Gemara really does ask this. Yes — the Gemara says: "Because they did not bless over the Torah first." What is this, "they did not bless over the Torah first"?

35:05 Is that all it is — they did not bless over the Torah first? I once gave a long shiur on this — right, Rabbi Shalom? Do you remember it? It was a very beautiful shiur: what is meant by "they did not bless over the Torah first"? There is a very, very beautiful novel insight on this, something — a whole shiur just on this subject: what this matter is, that "they did not bless over the Torah first." I went into it at length. I'll explain for now, briefly, what is meant.

35:31 When "they did not bless over the Torah first," they felt, so to speak, that they were not permitted to learn Torah. When a person now... gets up at night in the middle of his sleep — he has not washed his hands, so he is forbidden in words of Torah. He says, "I am not learning Torah now." "Why aren't you learning Torah?" "I haven't washed my hands." So if he is forbidden in words of Torah, he is afraid to speak. That is to say, he says: "I'll wash my hands, I'll say the blessings over the Torah, and I'll be permitted to learn Torah." The whole thing is that he feels sort of unworthy. Now, a person who went far away and sinned and fell from the Torah, and did not learn it and distanced himself from it —

36:01 that is, so to speak, an aspect of "they did not bless over the Torah first." Because he does not believe that the illumination of the Torah is found with him as well — even with the farthest of the far and the least of the least — that there, too, His honor, blessed be He, shines. That is to say, you should have azus dikedushah, holy boldness, to draw close to Hashem and to learn the Torah of Hashem, and yes, to bless over the Torah first — for you too are worthy to learn Torah, and you too are worthy that the Torah should shine in you, even though you are very far and have fallen to very low and lowly places.

36:27 With you too the Torah shines, and therefore yes — bless over the Torah first. That is to say, "they did not bless over the Torah first" — as if to say: it doesn't belong with me, I'm not on that level; as if it's the very highest thing — like the way we today don't want to touch Kabbalah. It's the same aspect — as if: don't touch the Torah at all; who are you to touch the Torah? "They did not bless over the Torah first" — as if: don't enter a place that is above your level. And there is much to expand on here — so, so, so much, without measure — but let's try for now to stick to the wording, and not, not — let's try not to wander off.

37:01 "For every person, and especially a Torah scholar, must bless and shine, through his Torah learning, into the root of the souls, that is, 'first in thought,' for there is our root" — in thought. "So when he brings illumination and blessing into the beginning of thought, and through it the souls sparkle and are blessed, then when he draws down a soul for his son, he surely draws down a bright and pure soul, and through this his son too will be a Torah scholar."

37:27 That is to say, it is a matter of drawing down. That is to say, the drawing down too — here he is speaking of drawing down the child, which depends on thought, for from there, in actual fact, the soul is drawn. All the souls of Israel, in fact — every person who exists — he is drawn from thought. If there had been no thought at that time, at that moment, on that day when there was the union between the father and mother, there would be no person here; no one would be sitting here. Let each one think to himself how old he is, let him think to himself about the time when he was created, and say to himself: if there had been no thought between so-and-so and so-and-so at that time, at that moment, on that day,

38:02 he would not be sitting here. That is to say, every person, at his root — the true root of every one of us is thought. We are all thought. That is to say, if any one of us had not had, at the root — I mean the aspect of the father, not the offspring, for the offspring does not come without a father — so if the father had had no thought, we would have no root of existence.

38:28 That is to say, we all in fact came from thought. That is to say, the very fact that there was a thought — that thought in fact brought an offspring. So here he is saying: the more the thought and its root, which is the father — the first act — is done with a pure and clean thought, so too is the offspring drawn down. And of course it will be with help.

38:55 At length, this is Rabbeinu the Arizal, in Introductions 21 and 22 — Rabbeinu the Arizal says precisely this: that it is not binding. That is to say, sometimes there can come souls that are not connected — with no connection — but these are matters of different gilgulim, things that need to be explained; that is a whole map of its own. People don't really have the ability to understand the secret of the essence of this matter.

39:21 — That is the Divine thought — that we are a portion of G-d. — In essence we are all a thought of the Creator, blessed be He. Very nice, nice. Very nice. "Israel arose first in thought." That is the meaning, that is the line, that is what he means to say. — So what about what is written by the author of Toldos Yaakov Yosef, in Parshas Vayera and Parshas [unclear] — that everyone can — they have the way to bring specifically male children, and that the geulah depends on this, by thinking, at that moment, of the Shechinah and of...

39:56 — At that time, you mean to say? — We see that it is possible to bring about, through thought, that it should be specifically something particular. — It is possible, but again, he is speaking of levels of tzaddikim who truly knew — yes, better. Right. — It's speaking only of tzaddikim, and not of every person? — Every one of us. It's like Tikkun Chatzos: it is meant for every person, but in practice, the ones who hold on to it are the tzaddikim.

40:24 They weep at midnight, they lament at midnight, they make a business of it, they make it a matter; they understand that the service of midnight is the highest and most exalted thing — there is nothing greater than it. But it is the same with this aspect of drawing down. There are tzaddikim who rise and think thoughts, and there are those who fall to a lower aspect. Now, like this: "But when he does not shine and bless the 'first' through his learning, then when he draws down a soul for his son, the soul is in the aspect of 'I am asleep' and does not shine" — and then you see a soul that doesn't shine enough; it doesn't come to illumination, it doesn't come to revelation; you don't see its power, you don't see what is hidden in it, you don't see its strength. Why? Because it is in the aspect of "asleep" —

41:12 it has fallen into a slumber. "And because of this his son will not be a Torah scholar, and this is 'because they did not bless over the Torah first'" — that is how he explained it. "That is, in the root of the souls." "They did not bless over the Torah first" — as if: they did not reach the aspect of the "first." "First" — as if: "they did not bless over the Torah" — they did not draw down the blessing. Blessing — they did not draw down the blessing. Berachah means drawing down, as in mavrich. "They did not bless over the Torah" — they did not draw the blessing down to the "first."

41:43 "First" — what is "first"? "The aspect of 'Israel arose first in thought.'" What a novel insight he is saying — do you understand? "Israel arose first in thought" — for they did not draw it down from the highest aspect. "And a person merits Torah only through lowliness." If you truly want to merit Torah — Eruvin, page 54, as our Sages of blessed memory said: "And from the wilderness — Mattanah, a gift."

42:09 Do you want to merit this? Be in the aspect of "from the wilderness, a gift." A person should break his entire sense of self, all his desire to receive. — I'm connecting this to what you said: "For Hashem is great" — the final letters: anavah, humility. — What's that? — "Now I know that Hashem is great" — the final letters come to 130, and with the kollel, 131: anavah.

42:34 — All right. You don't even need the kollel. According to Rabbeinu the Arizal, in gematria — yes. In gematria, one more or one less — it's the same thing. It doesn't have to be with the kollel. The kollel is, how do you say, an extra. Listen: the Names Kamag, Kasa, Kana — "poras," 686. "Poras" is 686, for it does not come to the number of all the milluyim, the spelled-out Names. All seven, with their milluyim, come to the number of "poras" — 687 — less one; that is "poras."

43:04 That is, "Ben poras Yosef, ben poras alei" — "poras" is the... all seven with their milluyim — Kasa, Kamag, Kana, and Av, Sag, Mah and Ban. That comes to the number of the milluyim, according to Rabbeinu the Arizal. There is one missing here, and it would come out, as it were, to 687. But it isn't really 687 — it is "poras," because you don't have to say "with the kollel" as well. It stays "poras" — as if that one is the Alufo shel Olam, the Master of the world. It doesn't matter — a gematria doesn't have to be with the kollel.

43:29 People are always looking to squeeze in the kollel — "with the kollel," with the egg, with its shell, with the blessings. They add it only so that it will connect again. — Why are Israel considered good — and what about the nations? — What do you mean? That compared to the nations they are considered good out of evil? Yerushalmi Peah, chapter 1, the first halachah. The Yerushalmi says that the difference between us and the nations of the world is that for the nations of the world, the Holy One, blessed be He, counts for them a thought that they have to do evil — it is joined for them to a deed, as if they had done the evil.

44:06 The Jewish people think to do evil — the Holy One, blessed be He, does not join it for them to a deed. The nations of the world, now, think to do something good — the Holy One, blessed be He, does not join it for them to a deed. The Jewish people think to do good — the Holy One, blessed be He, joins it for them to a deed. So from here you see that in relation to us, yes — they are considered evil. According to the Yerushalmi, yes. — When we say that we arose "first in thought" — Adam HaRishon ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil — does that mean it arose first in thought that he would eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil?

44:42 — If you go into that, that is already Rav Dessler. That is Michtav MeEliyahu; he gives an explanation of this. I know where you want to get to — you want to get to the matter of the kelipah. You want to get to the very first thing — I understood. But ask — go on, please. — Israel too "arose" — — Right. — it arose first in thought — that it would be good out of evil? — That it would be good out of good.

45:08 There was no evil yet. That evil — Israel is good out of evil. The evil is in the offspring, in what came after. After all, in practice we say "Who forms light and creates darkness," right? In tefillah we say "Who forms light and creates darkness." What are we really saying? What is really the original? It is "Who forms light and creates evil." "Who forms light and creates evil."

45:34 If you go according to the worlds — you need Asiyah, Yetzirah, Beriah and Atzilus. That is to say, this comes out, so to speak, above Yetzirah. But the evil as we imagine it is an evil that is a revelation of a very high din, a judgment that the world cannot absorb; it cannot understand it.

46:00 Evil — even complete evil is a reality of immense light in all the world, only because we don't have the da'as and the vessels — the ability to absorb and understand what it is. Therefore, in the time to come, they will bless even over the bad "HaTov VeHaMeitiv, Who is good and does good" — over all tidings, "HaTov VeHaMeitiv." Today we bless "Dayan HaEmes, the true Judge," but in the time to come it will all be the aspect of "HaTov VeHaMeitiv." That is, there will be a revelation of such good that even the aspect of evil — we will look and say: there is no evil at all.

46:34 There will be a revelation of good. Even evil itself — we have a lack of knowledge with which to grasp the greatness of Hashem. So we see all the hardships, all the suffering, and all the judgments and all the disasters and all that we go through, everything in which we want salvation from Hashem and don't have it — we imagine it as evil. We see it as evil. Why is it evil? Because it does not come down into our intellect and our vessels, and it stays high.

47:04 Because it stays high, it is bad and bitter for us — it is something real that we cannot grasp; it is above da'as. And therefore only in the time to come, only in the geulah, when there will no longer be limited intellects, mistaken intellects. In Torah 30, Rabbi Nachman says: "Perceptions of G-dliness can be attained only through many tzimtzumim, many contractions." After all, when you contract the thing, you grasp it more, right?

47:31 Now, say I come to explain something to you. I want to explain it to you — what do I do? I'll tell you a parable. You don't understand — I'll tell you another parable. You don't understand — I'll tell it to you with pictures. Until you understand. The more I contract the thing, the greater your ability to understand it. Now, evil — in fact, we cannot contract it. We cannot — no one can contract a reality of evil.

47:56 Because a reality of evil is evil; we see evil in it. Our intellect is too small to contain the root of the intentions of the Holy One, blessed be He — what He does, His actions, His doing. Why do things happen? Why? There is no answer. The intellect cannot understand it. Why did he pass away? He died. Why is that? A person does not grasp it with the intellect. You cannot explain it to him, bring it down for him intellectually. You cannot. Now, what is it you cannot bring down for him?

48:21 You cannot explain to him why. That is, if you explained to a person the reality of evil — why is there evil? — if you explained it to him, it would no longer be evil. For it would be good to him, because he would understand the reality. Now, today we are in exile; we are not in the time to come. So that is why there is an absence of that good, and all of us today are in a state where we are silent — we don't understand.

48:49 If we were on such a level — in the time to come, it will be an aspect of "all is good" — it will all be "HaTov VeHaMeitiv"; there will be no reality or materialization of evil at all. That is why it says "Who forms light and creates evil." "Who forms light" — in tefillah you say "Who forms light and creates darkness." You mention a reality of darkness. Why is it "Who forms light and creates darkness"? Why not "Who forms light and creates evil"? Why don't we say it as it is written? The Gemara says this.

49:15 Rather, "Who forms light and creates darkness" — that is of course a more refined expression. But darkness is a term of fog, of concealment. In fact it should be "evil." Evil is an aspect of darkness. Darkness is something you do not see. You don't grasp it, you don't understand it. But deep within, at the root, the Holy One, blessed be He, created everything good. Even the Satan himself, even the Samech-Mem — see Moed Katan, the Gemara in...

49:42 in the chapter "Elu Megalchin" — listen, the Gemara tells of Rav Bibi, the son of Abaye: he speaks with the Samech-Mem, he talks with him. He tells him to come — he won't come. A dialogue with the Satan — they talk with him. Talk with him... — What are you coming to explain? Rav, that song today, "I'll have it even better" — so is that song a mistake? So every moment you'd say "I'll have it even better"?

50:06 At the true root, at the true root — that's right, it isn't correct. Because when you say "I'll have even more," it is as if, in its meaning, you are casting aspersions on what came before. As if: why do you say "I'll have it even better"? What — it's not good for me now? But people — they don't come to go down to such fine resolution, to that precision.

50:34 A person means to say: now it is good for me, but I will have even more good; just as now it is good for me and I am happy, so I will have even more joy, and I'll attain more perceptions of G-dliness, and I'll attain more perceptions of G-dliness. That is what they meant, it seems to me; that is the intent. But in fact, right now too, every reality is good. But we don't see that revelation, and it is hidden from our eyes. That is, as to what truly is, at the root, one must understand that there is no reality of evil.

51:06 It is all the Hashgachah of Hashem, and all that Hashem does and decides. The reality of evil and good is like light and darkness. Right now you are in the dark. You feel frightened, you feel uneasy — it's dark. I am walking now at night and I say: it's dark. Fine — in a few hours there is sun. What are you worried about? Not worried. That is how a person should look at evil. Evil should not cause a person to go backward and be alarmed.

51:32 It is like a person walking at night in the desert, in the dark. Have you ever seen a person suddenly stand still: "Oh no, it's dark, what will happen to me? I'm about to die. How do I get out of this? I'm not getting out of this — will the sun ever rise here?" He isn't afraid of it. He says: fine, it's dark. He keeps going; he isn't afraid of the dark at all. He says — he doesn't look at that reality. And in a few hours the sun will rise; there is a sunrise. He is certain that the day will come — "Then your light will break forth like the dawn." He knows that this day, the light will come.

51:57 He believes in it with complete emunah. That is how one must look at evil too: when you go through a hardship, you go through such a hiding of the Face, and a reality of darkness and confusion and hardship and evil, and everything is bad — you don't need to take it to a place where you panic over it and say: "Wow, what will become of me?" You take it to the place that yes, it exists, but we will get through it, we will get through; let us look at a reality in which one can come out of anything — and truly in the blink of an eye.

52:26 Truly. They said that Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev — traveled — may his merit protect us — he traveled to the Maggid of Mezritch. Now, he was a Litvak; he would sit and learn; he was a very great Torah scholar; he would not travel to Rebbes and sages — he would sit and learn. So his father-in-law said to him: "What business do you have traveling to the Maggid of Mezritch? What are you traveling for?

52:51 What do you have to travel to him for?" So he said — so he said — he said: "In Mezritch they make it known that there is Hashem in the world, that there is the Holy One, blessed be He." He said: "Fine — I'll call my maid, the cleaner; she too will tell you that. She too will tell you. Ask her what there is in the world, and she'll tell you: there is Hashem." He said: "She says — and I know." That is to say, we can say all these sayings that are written here and written here and written there, and in Likutei Moharan — but the most important thing is to live it, to know it, for a person to reach such contemplation and a state in which he truly contemplates and reaches that reality where he sees the revelation of the light without interruption —

53:39 an actual revelation of G-dliness, that goes on and on without end. A person's light, in fact, only pushes the darkness aside. It does not nullify the darkness. How can one do that — nullify the darkness? So for this, Rabbi Nachman explains here a very beautiful thing: that a person must nullify his pride, because the darkness comes from pride. The trait of pride — a person with pride wants for himself; all the time the person thinks that he is worthy of it, it's coming to him, it belongs to him; he ties many things to himself.

54:12 But if a person knew that nothing is coming to him and he is not worthy of anything, he would never be in distress; he would not be sad. Why is a person sad? Why is a person in distress? Why is a person whatever else? Because he wants for himself. He says: it's coming to me, I need, it belongs to me, if not to me... — all the time he holds on to his own substance. If a person had no substance of his own, no will of his own, he would get along with all of us; everything would be fine. Where is the pride, and where is the distress, and where is the... Even when you are sad — why are you sad? Who are you, that you are sad?

54:42 Be happy! After all, you live by the kindness that Hashem, blessed be He, does with you. And so, notice what he says here. "And he should break his pride through four aspects of lowliness. For a person must make himself small before those greater than he" — that is conduct which is an obligation — "and before people of his own standing" — a person must always make himself small — "and before those smaller than he" — before the small ones too; there too you must make yourself small. "And sometimes, when he himself is the smallest of the small, he must make himself small relative to his own level" — even relative to yourself, make yourself small — "and imagine in his own eyes that he is below his level."

55:16 A person should not hold himself to be something. And that's it. And here he brings a proof — again he brings us a proof from the verse: "in the aspect of 'Sit, each man, beneath himself'" — that a person should bring himself down, down below. — Rav, the Holy One, blessed be He, gave us talents and abilities; every person has talents and abilities, but what percentage of the population actually manage to fulfill them?

55:42 Many of these talents of these Jews — it is very hard to get to them. — That is our war here in the world. Our war here in the world is to fight and overcome all the hardships. Not to break from everything we go through. We must be strong and overcome all the hardships we have in the world. If you don't break through this and don't say to yourself, "I am getting up and fighting," it won't happen.

56:07 And you fight and attain and fall, and attain again and fall — and that is how He gave it to you. The main thing is that a person should never despair; that is the main thing. The yetzer hara, in the end, wants a person's despair. His goal is that a person should despair and say to himself: "That's it, I'm not worth anything anymore." That is the goal. That is his real war. He doesn't come to fight you over... Now, what he wants from the Jew is that a man of Israel should fall into despair and destroy himself — that he should not exist.

56:34 In the end, when a person gives himself over and reveals G-dliness and says: "I have hope," and "though I have fallen, I have risen" — then he engraves himself in the Torah; he says: "I exist in the Torah; I too have hope, I too have a remedy." That is the true victory. — And then he reveals it in himself? How — and then he discovers those talents, those abilities? — Certainly. What a Tikkun in the world! If you don't despair, you will discover far more. Despair brings a person to fall to the lowest places. Why do you despair?

57:03 You can get there and overcome everything, but you must be strong and believe and trust and look forward and hope. — What is very important is that the person understands, at night when it is dark, that in a few hours there will be light. That is his thought, okay? His thought, as it were, works toward that — with understanding. And the Baal Shem Tov, there — "Make me understand, to understand Your wonders, Hashem."

57:27 In all the bad — it is as if all of it is wonders. As in "make me understand" — the understanding here, all that thought, as you say, the primal thought. At the root everything is good — that is what was explained. That is: "make me understand" — to understand Your wonders, and always to understand what there is here, within the supposedly bad thing — it only, so to speak, appears so... "On a day of good, be in good; and on a day of bad, see" — — All right, dear tzaddikim: with Hashem's help, may you be in joy.

58:01 Amen. May the merit of these words that we learned — there is much more to expand on and to learn; there is here... there are things here, still to continue here, about Rabbah bar bar Chanah — "I myself saw" — I saw it myself — "a day-old urzila" — he saw a certain re'em, one day old, "that was like Mount Tavor" — it was as tall as Mount Tavor; look what a height! Of course, there are things here that are too heavenly for us to understand, yes?

58:26 "And Mount Tavor — how big is it?" How tall was it? There are awesome secrets here. There is a commentary by the Rav of Greiditz, Rav Guttmacher; there is a commentary by the Gaon of Vilna, on the sayings of Rabbah bar bar Chanah. And to Rabbi Nachman there appeared Rabbah bar bar Chanah, and he brought him all these explanations. So he told him: how tall is it? Four parsaos. Understand the size — it's insane.

58:51 "And the length of its neck was three parsaos" — the length of the re'em's neck, just the length of its neck, is three parsaos. We're talking about the length of the neck — in parsaos. — Those are the dinosaurs, the big ones. — Yes, those are the dinosaurs. Those are the dinosaurs that existed, it's... What do you want? Yes, it's... What are you laughing at? This is Tractate Bava Basra, page 74; the Rashbam writes about that Leviathan, about those things that are...

59:19 — But because of that He sent it a lion, and in the end it bowed down like... — What? — A lion. — Yes. — Rav, but weren't these visions of prophecy, all these things? — Right. In all the commentaries, yes — some say visions of prophecy, some say otherwise. They explain it this way or that way or that way, but meanwhile it also answers the dinosaurs for us. What's that? What do we learn from this? That we are small.

59:48 That is what it says: it comes to show us how small we are. "This Leviathan, You formed to sport with" — what is the Radak's explanation? See the commentators: "This Leviathan, You formed to sport with" — it's not that He plays with it; "to sport with it" — at us. When you see the size of the Leviathan, you understand our smallness, how small we are. So: "This Leviathan, You formed to sport with." — One could say the same about the Rav.

1:00:13 That's how it is: we come close to the Rav, and we see how small we are — like nothing. It is simply discouraging to come close to the Rav, to come to the Rav's shiurim. — The opposite! You need to be strengthened; you should rejoice. — What is most amazing is that you let us feel as if you are part of us. — Right, because I am part of you. What do I look like to you? What, am I from outer space? Am I from outer space?

1:00:37 — Like you... you... like a rav with his community. — He is ours. — We — we are friends, tzaddikim; we are friends. — We'd have run a kilometer away. — You have nothing to run from. — Rav, you give us the best feeling in the world. — You be in joy, and we are good friends, and we, with Hashem's help — — And what does the Leviathan say in Perek Shirah, the song of creation?

1:01:07 — "Give thanks to Hashem." "Give thanks to Hashem, for He is good." So there is a connection between the Leviathan and saying that to Hashem. It is all hinted at here. — You're carrying on with the craziness. Come, occupy yourself with Torah instead of all the secrets you want. Notice — so the Gemara says here: "And the resting place of its head was a parsah and a half." What is "the resting place of its head, a parsah and a half"?

1:01:32 The size of the spot where its head lies — when it just sits and crouches — is a parsah and a half. — No, I'll explain to you what the problem is. That is not the meaning. They are right and not right. When the Holy One, blessed be He, created — they are right and not right — when the Holy One, blessed be He, created — when He created man and He created the world, He created everything at its biggest.

1:02:07 Now, He created a lion, created a crocodile, created a dinosaur, He created an animal — He created them at an enormous size. Say, now, He created a lion — did He create it as a baby? He created it already of great dimensions — the lion of Bei Ila'i, in Tractate Chullin, page 59, where the Gemara speaks of the lion of Bei Ila'i. So what? Right or not? That is a huge lion — those were still remnants. Now, He created them big. So now, when they research in science — he researches, and suddenly he sees a bone of some lion from an era before the lion we have. Now he says: to reach a size of such dimension, of such a bone, means it must be a descendant of one that was here ten thousand years before, to have brought it to the size of such a bone.

1:02:50 And its grandfather, to have brought it to such a size — if the lion now is from here to here — there must pass another, another hundred thousand years or so, and so they arrive at a million years. Suddenly he comes to you with this bone, and tells you: five million, six hundred and thirty-two. That is already nonsense; it isn't really true. That he counts even the small years — it cannot be that he would arrive at such fine calculations of years. It could be that it's close — but the reality is that this comes to show a person: listen, there is, here — when suddenly they see a fossil.

1:03:23 Now, there was also the Flood; there were boiling waters; and after that, the Sforno says, there came the seasons. The seasons — the Sforno writes, the Gaon Rabbi Ovadiah Sforno — were there to dry the earth. There is summer, heat; it evaporates the water. How, now — such quantities of water came down from the sky — how do you dry the earth? What do you do? You freeze part of it in Antarctica. So there came to be snowy mountains.

1:03:47 He gathers the water up high, up high; up high it becomes snow. In order to dry the water — there were such quantities of water. From the Flood came the seasons afterward. Because of that. And then, when they research it, they say: to reach such a size and to reach such a fossil — which came about as a result of the climate, as a result of what happened — so indeed the measures and the numbers of years reach those numbers, because in practice, by the test, it really does come out to millions of years.

1:04:14 But it isn't really millions of years; it is, all in all, a few thousand years. It simply appears to them as millions, because in practice, to reach such a measure and such a size — man, for example, man: in the womb, from a drop of seed, over nine months — in nine months, from such a drop, there comes to be four kilos, something like that.

1:04:39 That is to say, in nine months, from a tiny point, from a drop, there comes to be such a person. That is to say, if I take that rate of growth, of a drop over nine months becoming a thing like this, and I want — from when the person is born, that is to say, within nine months — that is to say, at the age of two he should be from here to the far end of the hall. Five meters, by the ratio. Now: "How tall was Moshe? Ten amos.

1:05:05 He took an axe ten amos long, leaped ten amos, and struck him on his ankle." The Gemara says this about Og, king of Bashan. He took ten amos, he jumped — "leaped ten amos." That is to say, he didn't come up to the heel of Og, king of Bashan. Now, he himself was five meters. Ten amos — Moshe Rabbeinu, ten amos. His height. So it makes sense that once, in their measures over the years, they were different from us. If you do the calculation: from a drop, nine months, there is a thing like this; so now he is born, he is a year old, all right?

1:05:34 From one year to the next year — if he grows at the rate of from a drop to such a size, then from such a size, after another year — how big is he in a year? The ratio — that is to say, that is to say, a person at the age of twenty would be the size of Everest. Yes, by the calculation. A drop is a gram, and he works it out on the spot — it comes to the answer.

1:06:01 — Yes, but these people too... — So from here you see that a person would reach such dimensions. So who stopped it? Who did that? So now, when they research, they will say: look, to reach such a size — they calculate the years it takes to get from a drop to such a size. By the calculation it comes out that indeed, logically, the ratio of the growth has to be several million years — and here they are mistaken. Because there is no nature at all. Baruch Hashem that we have the Torah and such... Responsa Chacham Tzvi, siman 18 — the Chacham Tzvi writes that there really is no nature.

1:06:34 It is all with a precise Hashgachah pratis. For the Holy One, blessed be He, can take the sun and right now turn the entire globe into ice. He can take the ice, the snow, so that we would cover ourselves with it as if it were a blanket in the winter when we are cold. Can Hashem do that if He wants? He can — turn the snow warm and pleasant, and make it icy cold, frozen, when the sun comes out. If He wants, He can do it.

1:07:02 Tomorrow morning: frozen, cold from the sun. So writes the Chacham Tzvi, siman 18 — Responsa Chacham Tzvi, siman 18. A wonder. Therefore there is nothing to worry about from global warming. Nothing to worry about — for that comes from their having broken open the hole in the ozone. When the hole in the ozone was breached by all the missiles and the launchers — entries into and exits from the earth — that caused the sun, and the sun's ultraviolet rays that came in, to produce a great warming on the earth, and they have no — they have nowhere to clear it out. That layer protected the earth, so that the sun's rays would pass on a pleasant warmth and the radiation would be filtered.

1:07:42 This breach — that people came and destroyed, and did a great deal of damage. The sun's rays reach a heat of 16 million degrees Celsius. A diameter — a radius of 696,000. You arrive at dimensions that are roughly astronomical, on the sun's side. At 45 degrees Celsius you cannot touch, because that is a heat from which the hand recoils, and according to Rav Feinstein that is 42 degrees. So think: 16 million degrees — man, the earth turns into an ember. If it moved on its axis by a tiny millimeter, the earth would turn into a ball of fire; if it went backward on its axis, the earth would turn into a ball of ice.

1:08:23 In short. — It was said there is an idea that all of nature will be overturned. Could it be that in the time to come we will reach the state of Adam before the sin — or will that never be, even in the time to come? — That is truly a question. You know, you have asked a question that we'll leave — how do you say — with a question mark. As "needs further study." Do you know why?

1:08:49 It depends very much on how the geulah will come. — Wow. — That's good. Whether the Holy One, blessed be He, will decide to bring the geulah with mercy, or with judgment, or slowly, or quickly — "in its time" or "I will hasten it" — whether the Holy One, blessed be He, will decide to take the Mashiach, or to leave the Mashiach — the Mashiach, in the end, will die — for the Holy One, blessed be He, would not want that after he does all these things there should again be some such reality, and so on.

1:09:17 Rabbi Nachman once said: Mashiach — he himself will die too. Mashiach too. "And he said this in public," it is written. Mashiach ben Yosef — they say he will not die. That Mashiach will die — Armilus; in the end, they say that Rabbeinu Yosef Chaim wrote that he will not die. That he will die. These contradictions are not really contradictions. People don't understand this. It depends on how the geulah will come, in what form the Holy One, blessed be He, decided to bring the geulah.

1:09:42 And then the Holy One, blessed be He, decides — whether we will live here 500 years — seemingly there is no skin of the serpent. We say: to live 500 years, 600 years. The youngest person is 500. Now let's say a person becomes ill, chas veshalom. So whether he will die — "the world follows its usual course" — or there will be no death. There will no longer be tumah. That is something here. Whether there will be the skin of the serpent, or there will not be the skin of the serpent — we go along the line that there will be no skin of the serpent either: "He will swallow up death forever, and Hashem G-d will wipe away tears from all faces" — and there will be no death and they will not die, and the geulah will be such that everything works out.

1:10:21 — That the moment he eats from the Tree of Knowledge he will die — or that death came to the world? "A thousand years in Your eyes..." What is the pshat? Death came to the world — not that he would die on the spot. — Rabbeinu the Arizal says that he was cut off from the upper Gan Eden. That is what I said. For Rabbeinu the Arizal in Etz Chaim, explaining "the man whom He had formed" — what is "whom He had formed"? He formed the man in Gan Eden, in the upper Gan Eden.

1:10:45 Now, when he sinned — He had told him, "you shall surely die" — it is as if it is still Eden, but it is less. That is, he went down below, to the lower Gan Eden. Now, from the lower Gan Eden he went down further and was cast to "her feet go down to death" — that is already it. What can we do? — The skin of the serpent — tzaddikim? — But the only one in whom it truly never was — that is Eliyahu HaNavi. Over Eliyahu HaNavi the skin of the serpent had no hold.

1:11:11 Eliyahu HaNavi, and also Chanoch ben Yered — Metat. And Chanoch — "and he was no more, for G-d took him." — What's that? — Chanoch ben Yered. "He was no more." It is in Heichalos Rabbasi. Until he disappeared — how long? Three hundred — you say five hundred. Five hundred... Three hundred and sixty. Five. Five hundred... three hundred and sixty-five thousand — three hundred and sixty-five — eyes.

1:11:40 — Eyes? — Yes. It is brought in Kav HaYashar — something from Heichalos Rabbasi — his description, what he merited. He merited to be an angel with none above him — in his measure, in his stature, in his level, with wings — thirty-six wings on this side and thirty-six wings on that side.

1:12:05 So Rabbi Tzvi Hirsh of Koidanov, in Kav HaYashar, brings Heichalos Rabbasi, in chapter 24 — he brings there his whole story, all that happened with him and all that he merited, and so on; he brings it from Heichalos Rabbasi — everything that he attained and was able to attain, and so on. That is to say, from here you see all the greatness and all the power and the kedushah of one who walks in the way of Hashem.

1:12:31 In the end, he says to him — "How did you merit this?" — Rabbi Shimon — "what are you?" In the end, he says that he was very clean before the Holy One, blessed be He — before the Holy One, blessed be He, in his deeds — and He took him. The more a person is truly pure before the Creator, the more he can reach his greatest levels and heights. Therefore one needs wholeheartedness and cleanness, to be upright, to do what is good in the eyes of Hashem. May you merit mitzvos! I love you. Be strong, be strong. Let's pray Arvis.

1:12:57 Thank you very much, thank you very much.