הגאון הינוקא - מעלת המסכן • סוד מיתת רבי עקיבא - שיעור מיוחד שנמסר לפני מספר שנים | The Yanuka

4:28 Let's say something, since we already spoke about Kedushah, let's say something nice about Kedushah, maybe it will be understood better. Who brought this note?

4:54 One needs to bring a few things, some requests, [unclear] May the Holy One, blessed be He, send him a complete recovery, that no one of the Jewish people should have suffering, amen.

5:32 May the Holy One, blessed be He, send a complete recovery from Heaven. They say there was once a story about Rabbi Pinchas of Koritz, may his merit protect us. Rabbi Pinchas of Koritz was one of the greatest disciples of the holy Baal Shem Tov.

6:00 And he was... Where is my album? My album is here too. There is an album there, pictures, a very big collection of ours, from the bar mitzvah, a little before, until today, a collection of pictures. There are over two thousand pictures there. You can find rare pictures there that are not.. a primary place, you won't see them..

6:24 Some came from abroad, some came from all kinds of photographs from museums abroad that people obtained for me. There are pictures there of rabbis, of very, very great tzaddikim. HaRav Hershtik, the tzaddik. We spoke about the album, the album of the tzaddikim.

6:48 So there are very, very rare pictures there, very, very rare, really, really special. So everyone will be invited to look. There are Kabbalists, Lithuanians, Chassidim there, Geonim, poskim, everything, full, full of rare pictures, truly rare. Holiness of the eyes. So maybe after everyone is seated in a way.. like this, one by one, and then they can pass them around a bit. Put the pictures down.

7:28 "Great is Hashem and much praised, great is Hashem", great, great. This - I love the old books. I have the old Midrash Rabbah of Rabbi Yisrael of Husiatyn, if you have heard of him, a grandson of Rabbi Yisrael of Ruzhin. I have his Midrash Rabbah, adorned with gold decorations, very old.

7:53 I learned a bit from it on Shabbos. Learning from old books is a different kind of contemplation. You look at the book, you see only the old book, you think you're learning like in the old days, rather than learning with all the new ones. Rabbi Pinchas of Koritz was one of the greatest disciples of the holy Baal Shem Tov.

8:18 The holy Baal Shem Tov, before he passed away, said: I have left you a wise man, Pinchas, and a Dov, a bear, in the forest. That is how the holy Baal Shem Tov spoke of him: that Rabbi Pinchas of Koritz was a great wise man - wise Pinchas, and a Dov, a bear, in the forest. Rabbi Pinchas of Koritz knew the writings of the Rambam. He learned them more than a thousand times, he learned the Rambam, more than a thousand times he learned the Rambam. Once his wife gave away his books as a gift to some poor man who came to ask for charity.

8:48 So he said to her: What did you give him? So she said: I gave him the books of the Rambam. So he said: It won't help him, because one does not sell the Rambam, because a house that has a Rambam has fear of Heaven. If there is no Rambam in the house - there is no fear of Heaven. Now he has taken our fear of Heaven from us, he won't have any benefit from it, from it. And so it really was, until that man returned the Rambam, and Rabbi Pinchas of Koritz gave him some coins instead.

9:16 So once they tell about him that they traveled to him, to Rabbi Pinchas of Koritz they traveled - some of his disciples traveled to him in the winter. It was very hard: rain and a storm wind, and snow coming down on the wagon, and it was very hard to travel. And on the way they are traveling, and there was very great difficulty, and they said: Should we travel, should we not travel? What is this - we must travel to Rabbi Pinchas, we don't have to.

9:40 They didn't know whether to travel or not to travel. In the end they decided that they would travel, and it was hard for them, and the whole way their hands froze, and they were very cold, and their wheels broke, and then they put on wheels again, and they had very great suffering on the way. Rabbi Pinchas of Koritz said to them: In reward for this journey that you made with self-sacrifice, you rectified souls that for two hundred years had no rectification.

10:04 Two hundred years they have been without rectification, and you rectified them with your self-sacrifice on the way to me. When one travels to the great ones, to such great and awesome tzaddikim, then in fact one rectifies great fallen souls through this, from earlier generations, which there is no way to act on and rectify except through steps alone, only through steps. And then, in fact, there is revealed in that person who stepped - then all his light begins to come out of him, it comes out and is revealed in him.

10:39 Why? Why? Because there are the first steps. Adam HaRishon, the first man, who was created - Adam HaRishon, in fact - the Holy One, blessed be He, created him. Adam HaRishon was created at the place of the Beis HaMikdash, the Holy Temple, and that is the place that the whole world must step toward. To the place of the Temple - that is the purpose of all the steps: to step to the Temple. And where was Adam HaRishon created? At the place of the altar, so that his atonement would be there, and he was created there.

11:09 That is to say, all the first steps did not exist, he was created in that very place, and all the created beings, all of them, will step. Where will all the created beings step? To the same place where Adam HaRishon was, which is the Beis HaMikdash. It turns out that when one travels to such great tzaddikim who rectify the sin of Adam HaRishon, then a person rectifies with his steps even the rectification of the grandfather of the father..

11:44 So one goes up and up until a great rectification is made, up to Adam HaRishon. That is why there is a virtue in going to the graves of tzaddikim, to go and prostrate oneself on the graves of tzaddikim, and especially if they were engaged in great and awesome rectifications like these and those - that is an even greater virtue, very great. These are very, very great levels that many people don't know how to understand at all, what these levels are.

12:08 These are levels.. holy ones.. Great is our Master, the Creator, blessed be He, great, great, great, His greatness is unsearchable, there is no - None. It is impossible to speak of Him, impossible.

12:41 When will He already redeem us? That is the most important thing there can be: that the Holy One, blessed be He, will already redeem His people Israel, and we will already leave this exile. That is the most important thing. The Jewish people have no more strength. Soon it will be Tammuz, the Three Weeks..

13:09 May the Holy One, blessed be He, have mercy on us, redeem us. We want now to think about Kedushah, as we said, which is a new insight, there is a new insight.

14:10 I'm not speaking because I love the silence more than my own voice. Silence is better than any voice in the world. One doesn't need to hear anything. Right or not? One needs silence, one doesn't need to hear anything at all, nothing. Not to hear anything. All the people - the voices of people, it is all just noise.

14:36 Silence. But niggunim are good - to sing, to sing praise to Hashem, that is good. Right, that's good. What holds a Jew back..

15:03 After all, you know.. let's speak simply. I want to speak simply, I want to explain something like this, from heart to heart, so that it will be more.. to tell you something. After all, truly, all the sermons there are in the world today, all the talks, the sermons - there is no difference between the one who sits on the stage and the one who sits over there.

15:36 Of course, if there are Torah scholars - I'm not talking about a difference between them - but every one of us, every one of the Jewish people, all of them, without exception, each one, no matter who he is, the Holy One, blessed be He, rejoices in him and loves him, because he is His son. It doesn't matter who you are, that is clear.

16:02 And all that is required of someone who right now is far from Hashem is to sit and listen to someone who will teach him what truly is his way to come close to Hashem. That is the role for which every generation went to the rabbis, to the great ones: so that they would reveal to them how close Hashem is to them and is found with them.

16:28 Hashem, blessed be He, loves all of the Jewish people. But there are a few things - we'll focus on only two, which it seems to me are the only ones that hold every person back from bringing out the power that is in him. Everyone has power. A Jewish soul is something that can never be described, can never be explained, and no answer at all can be given for it.

16:57 One can answer questions, but to answer what the souls of the Jewish people are - it can never be explained, what the souls of Israel are, it is impossible to explain what it is. It is something above the intellect, one cannot speak of it at all. One can only strengthen them, speak around it, but to explain what the virtue of a Jew is - anyone, no matter who, I'm not talking about his levels, I'm talking about all of the Jewish people, all of them.

17:26 There are only two things that keep a person from coming out and breaking through and bringing out all that is in him. After all, in every one here there is surely - I don't know.. there are so many rabbis here and Torah scholars - in each one there is something immense, but no one knows how to bring the immense something that is in him from potential into action.

17:53 He doesn't know. He doesn't know. There is something in him, but he doesn't know how to bring it out, and he doesn't know what to do with it either. In practice it stays where it stays, nothing happens with it. Have you thought about this? I think that these things are only the evil inclination.

18:25 And the second thing is suffering. Look, for example, just the simple notes that people hand in today: it is either about coming close to Hashem or about suffering. There is nothing else. It's either this or this - have you ever seen anything else? Either coming close to Hashem, or problems in spirituality, or suffering, that's it. That is what holds a person back. The moment a person's suffering is removed from him, the suffering is removed, the evil inclination is removed, right away he rises and blossoms up, up, straight up.

18:59 Straight up. That is to say, if a person's suffering is removed from him, if a person's evil inclination is removed from him, we will be able to know who the person is. As long as his suffering imprisons him, and as long as his evil inclination imprisons him, we don't see him.

19:26 Right? It is hard to see the person, to see who he is, because on one side he is troubled by the evil inclination, and after he frees himself from the evil inclination, then he is troubled by the suffering, the suffering grabs him, and after the suffering grabs him and he frees himself from it, then the evil inclination grabs him. And so they pull him, this one from here and that one from there, until they turn him around like this from right to left and from left to right, until he loses himself, or loses his world, or he leaves everything..

19:57 Each one with his own reasons. But these are the precious things that keep a person from revealing what is in him. I'm not talking about coming close to Hashem - coming close to Hashem is something else. I'm not talking about coming close to Hashem, I'm talking about coming close to oneself: that the person should discover who he is, what is in you. After all, in every one of us there is something immense and special. One doesn't need to speak to the Jewish people at all, one only needs to show them what is in them.

20:25 That is what the Torah teaches. The Torah teaches us what is found in each and every one of us, and what our virtue is, and what our way is to reveal it, so that we will know what our strength is, and with this strength perhaps we will bring the redemption. Maybe yes, maybe no. It could be. Either we will win or we will win.

20:52 Rabbi Moshe of Kobrin, author of Imros Moshe, may his merit protect us, the holy Gaon, author of Imros Moshe - he says: I am ashamed of one thing: that the Beis HaMikdash was not built in my days. And he passed from the world. Those are the last words he said before he passed away. The Yismach Moshe, may his merit protect us, Rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum, the Yismach Moshe, used to say: Master of the world, if I had known that I would have such a white beard, I would have died of grief, because I could not have borne it - to understand that this long exile would go on to such an extent.

21:26 Out of great grief over this long exile he wept over this very, very much. There is something that HaRav Ben Zion Yadler once said, son of Rabbi Yitzchak Zev, the Maggid of Jerusalem. He was in Jerusalem, many have heard of him, the Maggid of Jerusalem. HaRav Ben Zion Yadler - his father was Rabbi Yitzchak Zev.

21:51 He was a holy Gaon, he clung to the way of the Gra. His father used to learn the writings of the Gra, teaching the way of the Gaon - Rabbi Yitzchak Zev. How? He is the grandfather. Are you a grandson of Rav Ben Zion Yadler? Nice - the Maggid of Jerusalem. Oh, Nice. - The one sitting here is a grandson of the Rebbe. - Yes, right, it's permanent. [unclear] Now, so is it in this place? He needs to sit.

22:31 So this is a place that takes in people of fine lineage. Nice. He sat down, nice. We, HaRav Ben Zion Yadler - already at about age 15 I found a very beautiful picture of him, and since then I look at it almost every day.

22:56 We have a very great love for Rav Ben Zion Yadler, son of Rabbi Yitzchak Zev, a tzaddik, holy of holies, something immense. Good, a great joy. There is Rav [unclear], right? Who is this rabbi? Is there also another grandson of his? Will there be anyone else? How many... ah, he knows him?

23:23 Who is it? Maybe [unclear], he also... he was his grandson. Ah, nice. Oh, shalom aleichem. Wow, wow, what a privilege to be able to see you. Does it sound bad? Ah, to hear me? There is nothing to hear from me. You give sermons every day, right?

23:53 - Yes, all the styles, not on the level of the Rav, but No. - Which style? - All the styles, from the Charedim to the wounded.

24:20 - They said that you bring many people back from sin, take them out.. - Yes, a great deal from technology. - What a privilege, what a great thing you are doing. - I have heard the Rav. "The face of Moshe is like the face of the sun, the face of Yehoshua is like the face of the moon" - I am not even a candle compared to the Rav. - The Baal Shem Tov says: "A person sees all blemishes except his own blemishes."

24:48 That, like, so the reverse.. a good trait. Like, you see this idea. That, you, it's not... And you bring them back in teshuvah, so that they stop everything. - Yes, we speak about the subject strongly. There are those who get up and take action. - What a privilege. May the Holy One, blessed be He, give you much strength and much help from Heaven, that you truly continue to bring all of the Jewish people back in teshuvah, and may the Holy One, blessed be He, give you all your heart's wishes, may your hands be strengthened, truly a great, great yasher koach for all your work in this matter, what you are doing for Hashem, blessed be He, to see His children like this, this, one who has such compassion, there are no words, it's moving.

25:12 May the Holy One, blessed be He, give you much strength and much help from Heaven, that you truly continue to bring all of the Jewish people back in teshuvah, and may the Holy One, blessed be He, give you all your heart's wishes, may your hands be strengthened, truly a great, great yasher koach for all your work in this matter, what you are doing for Hashem, blessed be He, to see His children like this. This.. one who has such compassion.. there are no words, it's moving.

25:40 This is like what they used to do once. Once, Rabbi Aharon of Karlin entered a synagogue, entered a community where everyone had sinned and was far from Hashem. He didn't know how to bring them back in teshuvah. He went to the Holy Ark, opened the Ark, rolled the Torah scroll to Parshas Kedoshim, read all of Parshas Kedoshim, closed the scroll - everyone wept - got on the wagon and left.

26:04 That's it. As they used to do once.. that is how to do it, to bring the Jewish people close. Now I spoke about HaRav Ben Zion Yadler, the Maggid of Jerusalem. A Jew is like a bottle of perfume: he is full of perfume inside. If it has no cork, all the scent escapes; you put a cork on it, and then the scent stays.

26:30 If it has no cork, all the scent escapes. That is why a Jew's head must be covered, so that he will not have.. If he does not have the cork, then all the perfume will evaporate. So the head must be covered, because it is full of perfume. So tell a Jew: first of all, put on a head covering, so that your perfume does not escape.

26:58 Okay. In general, a head covering, covering the head, as you know, the source of this is in Tractate Sofrim, chapter 14, halachah 15, that it is forbidden to mention Hashem's Name, it is forbidden to mention the Name of Heaven with an uncovered head.

27:22 This is the source that is cited. It appears several times, it also appears in the Talmud, but I will explain something about it now, that it is very, very important to cover the heads of the Jewish people as quickly as possible, and this will be the best way to bring them back from sin, that they take a head covering upon themselves.

27:48 And now you will understand why. Afterwards, remind me to go back to where we were. No, that was this Rabbi [unclear]. Okay, I'll get by somehow. All right, we'll go back to the evil inclination and suffering. Let's go for a moment to the head covering. It's important that you speak about it and bring merit to the many, with Hashem's help.

28:13 It is written in Tractate Sofrim, chapter 14, halachah 15: 'A person must cover his head and not mention the Name of Heaven with an uncovered head.' It is forbidden to mention the Name of Heaven with an uncovered head. So Rabbeinu Yerucham brought it, and so the Shulchan Aruch brought it, in Orach Chaim, siman 91, se'if 3, on the matter of the head covering. At the time a person covers the head, one must cover the head.

28:39 So the Shulchan Aruch brought two things: one is the head covering, not to mention the Name of Heaven with an uncovered head; and the second thing, that if a person enters a synagogue, we tell him to cover his head. One must cover the head also when a person enters a synagogue, one must tell him to cover his head at the time he enters the synagogue. Rabbeinu Peretz brought that if a person enters a synagogue without a head covering, one must rebuke him for it and tell him, 'Cover your head,' and not let him stay like that, bareheaded.

29:08 The Sha'arei Teshuvah brought it in practice: that if one sees a person who is bareheaded, some important person came, an honored minister, he came to the synagogue, and he wants to sit and expound something, a non-Jew, or some mourner - he takes off his hat, then one must speak with him nicely and pleasantly so that he puts his hat back on his head, that he not stay like that; out of the awe of Hashem in this place, it is forbidden for you.

29:34 He says: if he accepts, he accepts; if he does not accept, there is no need. In any case, this is what one must do, how to act with them, to explain this matter to them. And so the Shulchan Aruch; this is in the Gemara, in Tractate Kiddushin, page 31a, in the name of Rav Huna, the son of Rabbi Yehoshua, and in Tractate Shabbos, page 118b, a few lines from the bottom: Rav Huna, the son of Rabbi Yehoshua, said: 'May it be credited to me that I did not walk four cubits with an uncovered head.'

30:11 That whole page, at the end, is 'May it be credited to me, may it be credited', each one says, each one says that he should merit much good because he did some good deed. So he said: may good come to me for not walking four cubits bareheaded. In Tractate Shabbos, page 156b, about Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak, that the Chaldean astrologers said that when he grows up he will be, Heaven forbid, a bandit, he could come to stealing.

30:37 So they said to cover his head: 'Cover your head, so that the fear of Heaven will be upon you.' Cover your head so that you will have awe of Heaven, so that you do not, Heaven forbid, do something forbidden. The head covering will cause a person to be humble, so that he will not, Heaven forbid, do something that is not good. The Pesach HaDevir also writes this, the great Gaon Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld, author of responsa, also brings it, and the Taz brings, in siman 8, se'if 3, the Taz brings an interesting opinion.

31:08 He brings the Maharshal, that they used to go, the Maharshal says that the non-Jews were accustomed to go about in an unrestrained way, going about frivolously, they don't put a head covering on themselves, they take the hat and remove it, and so they go about frivolously and distract their minds. And so he says: whoever goes in this way, not covering his head, transgresses 'And in their statutes you shall not walk', for he goes like that, truly a severe prohibition, of the non-Jews.

31:35 The Magen Avraham also brings that one must be careful about this and cover the heads of the children, to cover their heads. And so the Alter Rebbe also brought what the Shulchan Aruch ruled in siman 2, se'if 6; and so the Alter Rebbe brought it, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, in the Shulchan Aruch HaRav, in siman 2, se'if 6. The Ran also brought it, he brought a new insight: why really a person who walks bareheaded, what is so severe about walking bareheaded? So he says: a person who walks bareheaded is like one who has no master.

32:03 He walks around like that with his forelock, without a head covering; he is like one who has no master, this person is as if he has no master. The Levush writes: he looks like one who has no G-d over his head. That is because he walks bareheaded, because he walks like that. In Tractate Kiddushin, page 33a, so Rabbi Yirmiyah says: 'How brazen is this man who does not cover his head!' What a brazen man he is, he has very great nerve.

32:29 Where did they learn this matter from? In Tractate Kiddushin, page 33b, there: if a person is traveling on the road, then this too has the law that he must cover his head, because he is walking; because a person traveling in a car is also considered as walking. There the Gemara says: if a person is now traveling on the road and he wants to take off his hat or his cap to rest, then this too is the law of walking four cubits without a head covering. So in the car too, put on a small kippah, take off the hat and travel on the road, and be careful that the kippah does not slip off, because we see that Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak, in Tractate Shabbos, page 156b, at the moment his head covering slipped off him,

33:05 he had a desire to steal; just his cloth slipped off him, and he had a desire to be drawn after the bad way. Where really did they learn this thing, to cover the head? Where is it from? It is written in the Meiri on Tractate Shabbos, page 12b, and also in the Gemara, in Tractate Shabbos, page 12b, about the seriousness and importance of coming to visit the sick; also in Tractate Nedarim, page 40a; the Rambam also brought it, in the Laws of Mourning, chapter 14, halachah 6; the Rambam brings it, and also the She'iltos of Rav Acha.

33:40 There are some She'iltos: She'ilta 93, in Parshas Acharei Mos. There he writes at the beginning of the She'ilta: 'One to whom a son is born is obligated to circumcise him on the eighth day', he must circumcise him on the eighth day. And then he analyzes and explains at length; toward the end of the She'ilta he brings that one must circumcise, do the bris, and bring... corresponding to the law that he is sick, and then come before him and cover the head before the sick person, so that the fear of Heaven will be upon him...

34:06 Rashi brings, in Tractate Shabbos, page 12b, that this is a law of 'because of the awe of the Shechinah', etc. of this matter. What happens in practice? The sick person, now, when he is sitting on the ground, one comes before the sick person, he covers his head because of the awe of the Shechinah that rests upon the sick person, and he is humbled before him, he is humbled in his presence; he encourages him and draws him close, and speaks to the heart of the sick person and talks with him, and tries to draw him close and explain to him how serious...

34:41 perhaps a little to bring him to some confession, the confession of one who is gravely ill. In Yoreh De'ah, siman 338, se'if 2, the Shulchan Aruch ruled to do the confession of one who is gravely ill, to say the confession to him in the singular. The Yismach Moshe used to say it even on Shabbos. He said: perhaps I will pass away on Shabbos, who knows. But as halachah, it is not done. But one who reaches such a level that he feels that even on Shabbos he could depart, or on a festival, or on the day itself, can do it whenever he wishes. If you feel you are at such a level.

35:06 But if not - a person should not do it... of course. To reach such a level that one covers the head because of the Shechinah that rests upon the sick person, so they learned to wrap oneself in a cloth, to cover the head, and then this person will have more honor this way, to let the other one see that the Shechinah is opposite him, to understand this level, that the Shechinah is opposite him.

35:30 In the holy Zohar there is an awesome and frightening thing, what the Zohar says, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai in the Zohar, he is very, very, very stringent about this, a tremendous stringency, regarding the head covering. It is written in general in the Zohar, Balak, page 187a, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai says that a person must cover his head because he covers his head since the Shechinah rests on his head.

35:56 So Rabbi Shimon says explicitly that this is the view of the Zohar, that the Shechinah rests on a person's head. This is not even connected to his being sick, rather simply, the Shechinah rests on your head: cover your head. And in the Zohar, Pinchas, in the Ra'aya Mehemna, page 245b, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai says in the Zohar that one must cover the head and it is forbidden to mention the holy Name without a head covering: that a person is obligated to cover his head and not to mention the holy Name with an uncovered head, not to mention the holy Name bareheaded.

36:27 But there is a Zohar in Parshas Naso, page 122b, also the Ra'aya Mehemna: Rabbi Shimon says that a person who walks without a head covering, life departs from him, they take his life from him. That is to say, he comes to a state of danger to life.

36:51 He walks bareheaded, the life, which is the Shechinah, departs from him and does not rest upon this person because he walks bareheaded. So see how important it is to come to a person and tell him: the first thing you should take upon yourself, cover your head, a lid. Why? So that your perfume does not escape, as Rabbi Ben Zion Yadler says: if you are without a lid, all your perfume will escape, and then they will not be able to know your goodness, because all the scent will already have escaped.

37:27 And so we tell a person, and then presumably, even if he is born under a mazal of being a thief or of being a bandit, the head covering will save him, so that he will have more help from Heaven to return to Hashem. So we tell him, first of all: come, let's tell people, as much as possible, to cover the perfume. When all the Jewish people come, then they are all perfume - cover the bottles, let there be a lid, put a lid on their heads, and then, at the time the lid is put on the head, then it is possible this way to bring the Jewish people more...

37:59 Perhaps we'll explain this, let's take it to another thought. As we said, that all of Israel, all are holy, all are pure, all, all of them, and everything we said at the beginning, this is the power that every Jew has, as I explained, that every Jew in the world, no matter who he is, and whatever he may be, and whatever his level, has a very, very great power in him, every single one.

38:36 It's just that this power, we don't know how to bring it out from potential to actual. And we said that there are two things that would hold this back: one is suffering, and the second thing that would hold it back, what is the second thing? The evil inclination; the evil inclination would hold it back. Because we said, if a person, Heaven forbid, has an evil inclination, then it will trouble him; and if, as we said, a person has suffering, it will trouble him, and then he will not be able to bring out from potential to actual what is in him, what is found in him, what is hidden in him.

39:06 And when both the evil inclination and the suffering are removed, then we will be able to know the power that is in him, and then to make it shine and make his light blossom to all the creatures, every one of them, and everyone will be able to enjoy and to know who this Jew is, who this Jew is, what this power is, what this light is that comes out of him, this power of each and every one of us.

39:31 So first of all, here we have now learned something more: that the head covering will give help from Heaven for covering a person's head. First of all, it is to guard the perfume, that's one thing, to guard his perfume, so that his perfume does not go out. But another thing can be explained: that, as I said, the evil inclination and suffering, if the evil inclination pulls a person, then the power of the Jew will not come out, and Hashem wants to see the power of each and every one.

40:05 Let us not be mistaken: no one has superiority over any Jew. In the Jewish people, each one is on a tremendous level. It doesn't matter what your status is, if you have a high financial status, that you are rich, or that you are poor, or that you have suffering, or that you are a great sage, or that you are foolish, or that you think you are foolish in your own eyes, or that you are a fool and an ignoramus, and you are a sinner, or an extortioner, or a robber, I don't know what, each one has something tremendous inside him.

40:36 This thing is called the Jewish soul. This soul has the power to go and conquer the whole entire world alone; it doesn't need anything, only if these two things block it and don't let it come out: the suffering on one side and the evil inclination on the other side, and then through this the person will not be able to bring out from potential to actual what is in him; it will block him because of what he goes through.

41:05 And this can be understood as we said at the beginning: when we come to the House of Hashem, the prayer in the House of Hashem, there are several important things in praying together, when we pray, several important things that are done. One of the holy and awesome levels during prayer, which, understand, in practice we do this in order to engrave in each one of us one clear thing during prayer.

41:39 The meaning of this - it is the Kedushah. The Kedushah is the thing that brings the Jewish people to understand what their power is. When we come to the House of Hashem and pray the whole order of prayer, we have permission to say Kedushah, which the angels and the Seraphim and the Ofanim do not merit to say.

42:04 It is written in Tractate Chullin, page 91b: 'How beloved are Israel, that they have permission to say Kedushah before the Omnipresent, blessed be He.' We can say 'Holy, holy', and remain and continue to say it. In fact, the Kedushah is an enactment of the prophets; it is an ancient custom. So the Geonim bring it, Rav Amram Gaon; they say that it is in fact an enactment of the prophets altogether, and this is a very lofty thing.

42:31 In the view of the holy Arizal, and the Tashbetz writes, that it is a positive commandment; there are many who disagreed. The place of the Kedushah is in siman 125, se'if 2. The Shulchan Aruch writes: at the time we say the order of the Kedushah, we lift our eyes on high, and then we raise our body and move ourselves, and say: 'And one called to the other and said: Holy, holy, holy.'

43:03 This is what is written in the prophet Yeshayahu, chapter 6, verse 3: 'And one called to the other and said: Holy, holy, holy is Hashem of Hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory.' And the Targum Yonasan, in the Targum Yonasan it is written: 'And they receive from one another and say: Holy in the highest heavens on high, the abode of His Shechinah.' This is the Targum Yonasan. And what in fact is the Kedushah? So in practice he brings that we raise the body and lift ourselves up a little.

43:28 This lifting up, the raising of the body, appears in the Shibbolei HaLeket, in siman 20, and in the Sefer HaManhig, Rabbi Avraham bar Nasan writes it in siman 52: that we raise the body and lift ourselves, and then we say the 'Holy'. Then he brings a gloss in the Shulchan Aruch, he brings a gloss in the name of the Rashba: a person who enters the synagogue, he brought a responsum of the Rashba, in siman 249, that a person who entered the synagogue and they began the Kedushah, even though he already answered Kedushah, he answers Kedushah with them.

43:53 So it's as if, in fact, the Levush asks, he says: what is different between this and prayer? Now a person prayed the prayer, he fulfilled his obligation; he reaches Kedushah, he doesn't answer Kedushah: I already fulfilled my obligation, I don't need to go back and say it again. So he says that 'I shall be sanctified among the children of Israel', that at the time Kedushah is said in the heavens on high, Kedushah is said; just as His Name is sanctified in the heavens on high, so we too have the permission to sanctify Him. And then we understand what the Gemara says in Tractate Chullin, page 91b, that 'How beloved are Israel': it means their belovedness before the Omnipresent, that we can sanctify the Name of the Holy One, blessed be He, at any time, whenever we want.

44:27 So the responsum of the Rashba is understood in practice. The Beis Yosef brought it in siman 125, at the end he brought it. The Beis Yosef brought all of the Rashba's responsa, he brings there, according to what he disagrees with Rabbeinu Yehonasan, who says that one need not say it. And then he brings at length the Rashba, in siman 249, he brings in the responsum that one need not listen and so one must answer. And from here until today, as halachah - we do say the Kedushah, etc., as is known, the importance of saying the Kedushah at the time it is said, at the time we are in the House of Hashem.

44:58 We say 'Holy, holy, holy', so in fact a very great influence is made in Heaven, in Heaven above. What is the saying of the order of the Kedushah according to Kabbalah? In the first 'Holy', You arrived exactly at the 'Holy'. This is my album. I'll first tell you briefly about the album, after that we'll go back to the Kedushah. Wow, wow, Oooh, this is the album, Wow, it's heavy.

45:28 Okay, let's look in it a little. This is the book of the generations of man. There is a collection here; I've had it since before bar mitzvah age. The first pictures. Of the pictures, there are many wonderful pictures here. There are pictures here of hidden tzaddikim, holy and awesome, very, very, very, very rare. Things, rare pictures [unclear].

45:54 Something extraordinary. There are many pictures here of the great leaders of Chassidus, very rare pictures, pictures of all kinds of poskim, really something extraordinary. Afterwards you are invited to sit a little and look. This book is really very, very wonderful. It is a whole book of pictures that we collected, and it rectifies the eyes in a way - whoever wants to sanctify his eyes a little, let's look at this - wow, wow, there's plenty, many things to see.

46:26 At the top of the picture I have a picture of the destruction of the Beis HaMikdash, that the Beis HaMikdash was destroyed - that we put this, that already the Holy One, blessed be He, [unclear] - here, this picture of the Beis HaMikdash, showing the Romans, looking like this, and this - you - maybe afterwards we'll show them. Okay. Truly holy pictures, to look at like this, to see faces, something.

46:52 There are very, very rare pictures there. Maybe many people will find their grandfather here. Rabbi Ben Zion Yadler is here, he's here. He's here. Rabbi Tzion Yadler - the grandfather is here. [unclear], many pictures, and I love him very much. Rabbi Yoel of Satmar - there are lots of pictures of Rabbi Yoel here, lots of special pictures of the holy Steipler, lots of the Chazon Ish, rare pictures. Really beautiful things. Rabbi Itamar the Elder of Nadvorna - this is a very, very rare picture. Rabbi Itamar - now, they said it was his hilula.

47:21 Rabbi Itamar the Elder of Nadvorna. Itamar is the father of Rabbi Chaim Mordechai of Nadvorna, the father of Rabbi Bertzi of Nadvorna - Rabbi Itamar of Bishtina, Rabbi Aharon Leib of Premishlan, [unclear], and Rabbi Meir of Premishlan the Great. The great one, the small one - that's it. All kinds of rare pictures. There are very beautiful pictures here. You'll really want to look.

47:46 Okay, let's go back to - which. Where were we? At Kedushah. In Kedushah, in practice, what we are learning now is about the power of each one. And perhaps now, with Hashem's help, from this shiur everyone will bring out, from potential to actual, all the power that is in each one. In the merit of what we are learning now, the Holy One, blessed be He, will reveal the power that is in each and every one.

48:17 The first 'Kadosh' corresponds to the Infinite Light, Ohr Ein Sof, which in fact nothing can be compared to; it cannot be compared in any imagining, there is nothing to compare, nothing to picture, nothing to receive - nothing at all, nothing, nothing, nothing. This 'Kadosh' is the Infinite Light, which is completely separate and set apart from the created beings. That is the first 'Kadosh'.

48:41 The second 'Kadosh' is the light that desired and worlds were created from it - that is, the creation of the worlds; whatever will be, that is from the second 'Kadosh'. So it too is set apart and separate, so that they should not think that perhaps this 'Kadosh', this light, is also near and close to the created beings. No - it too is set apart and separate. And the third 'Kadosh' is also what the light desired and light came into being in the world, etc. It too is in fact set apart, and not dependent on time and not dependent on place; it has nothing to do with any of the created beings.

49:10 Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi writes, the Alter Rebbe, may his merit protect us, in his book Likutei Torah, at the beginning of Parshas Vayikra - Likutei Torah is on his discourses; he has two discourses, Torah Ohr, and whoever knows this, of the Chabad Rebbes - very... books. The Tzemach Tzedek, Rabbi Menachem Mendel - the Tzemach Tzedek composed sixty thousand pages that he composed.

49:36 The Rebbe Maharash, Rabbi Shmuel of Lubavitch, who was also a tremendous genius, he has many wonderful works. Many, many of the Chabad Rebbes, all who have heard of them, of their holiness. So he writes that in Parshas Vayikra - he writes that when we say Kedushah, then we say 'u'mekablin dein min dein' (and they receive from one another). Then he says that the angels, among themselves - after all, on one side, the one who says 'Kadosh' is the angel Gavriel, he is entirely Gevurah (might), and the angel Michael is Chesed (kindness).

50:05 So how will they say it together? So 'mekablin dein min dein' - they receive from one another. After they have made unity among themselves, only then do they say Kedushah. What I am coming to say: the fact that we need to be together in the House of Hashem, and only when we are together and we go through and 'receive from one another'. So it is as we explained, that the distinction is between right and left, because there is importance in this, because we explained that the source for right and left at the time of saying it is from the Zohar, Noach, Parshas Noach, page 71a, that one turns to the right, that the angels say Kedushah turning to the right, to the south, and then to the north.

50:39 So if I am facing the congregation, then I turn to them first of all to the right and then I turn to the left, which is like facing the congregation, as when we say 'b'chayeichon u'v'yomeichon', when we say 'v'imru amen' - we turn toward the congregation. Then I go from right to left. If I am facing the Shechinah during prayer, then I go from left to right. If I pray a single prayer without a repetition, then I am facing the Shechinah, so when I say 'v'kara zeh el zeh' (and one called to another), I will turn from left to right, because I am facing the Shechinah.

51:06 According to the facing: whether you are before the Shechinah or in the repetition of the prayer. And then we raise our eyes and say 'Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh'. And there is a tremendous thing in Heichalos Rabbasi, in the Midrash of Rabbi Yishmael ben Elisha the Kohen Gadol. It is written in Heichalos Rabbasi, chapter 11, Heichalos Rabbasi: the Holy One, blessed be He, said, 'When you raise your eyes on high' - when the Jewish people raise their eyes to Heaven, at the time of saying Kedushah - 'I desire to redeem you.'

51:40 The Holy One, blessed be He, looks - 'My eyes in your eyes' - and embraces the image of Yaakov; He takes the image of Yaakov that is engraved on the Throne of Glory and embraces it and kisses it, the image of Yaakov Avinu. The Holy One, blessed be He, wants to redeem us from the exile. And then in practice we say it and rise up a little with the body. This rising up that a person is obligated to do, that he rises up - like, similar to the angels, that he rises up; he is as if flying, that he resembles the angels; he is not in the world, because he is sanctified with great holiness.

52:12 And in Midrash Tanchuma they learned, in Parshas Tzav, siman 13, that there, in fact, at the time of saying Kedushah, a person must rise up and separate from the world; he no longer belongs to the world. When he says Kedushah, then he is as if flying now; he spreads wings and soars to the upper worlds, at the time of saying Kedushah. He says Kedushah and raises his eyes to Heaven, and this gives the Holy One, blessed be He, tremendous satisfaction beyond measure. And He says, 'And you shall teach My children.'

52:37 See the Midrash in Heichalos Rabbasi, chapter 11, which says that one must teach the Jewish people to say Kedushah this way: to raise the eyes to Heaven, to look upward, and the Holy One, blessed be He, gazes at us and He wants to redeem us. And it all happens - takes place - at the time of saying Kedushah. And this light that we receive - for the light that flows down after this flows from the light above, it flows from Beriah to Yetzirah and to Asiyah.

53:01 After that the light flows, flows from Beriah, Yetzirah and to Asiyah. And then in fact the whole prayer - that everyone went and prayed to Hashem together - that they did such an awesome thing, that they don't understand what awesome effects took place, but they don't know what is happening beyond this. That is the inner essence that is in each one: that the Holy One, blessed be He, chose you, and chose you, and you are not an angel now, and you are not a seraph, and you can sanctify His Name; that the Holy One, blessed be He, gazed into your eyes and wanted to redeem you now, and embraced and kissed Yaakov Avinu, your father, our grandfather, Yaakov Avinu, and embraces and kisses Israel.

53:39 That is the image of Yaakov Avinu. And then, in fact, the power of a Jew begins to come out, to awaken. But pay attention: two of the things that prevent a person's inner essence from coming out, that don't let it come out, as we said, are suffering and the Baal Davar. And people don't know that if truly a person - in every generation the Holy One, blessed be He, gives awesome ones, in every generation, and especially the lower the generation is. So if we would travel to one great in stature - that people truly travel to the great ones - as we said, that Rabbi Pinchas of Koretz said, when the students came, who traveled to him with self-sacrifice in the cold, then he said to them: 'Know that you have elevated and rectified souls from 200 years ago with your steps,

54:14 because if you had stayed and fallen and not come, and the evil inclination had made you fall into weakness and the pain of the cold and the heaviness, you would not have rectified the souls. And by giving yourselves over with self-sacrifice and coming now, you have elevated and rectified souls of more than 200 years.' Just with the steps - that is what he told them - just with the steps you rectified. But the Baal Davar gnashes his teeth so that they won't come close to those great ones of every generation until they depart from the world.

54:39 And then, when people already go to the grave, on the contrary, it has exactly the opposite effect, because then an accusation is made: 'You had such a one... and you didn't go.' This is an example... 'What did you do?' And then, instead of bringing the End closer and bringing the redemption closer - only when they come close to such souls, only then will the redemption come, only then can Mashiach come, because everyone will receive understanding and the right path, since what this path and this understanding reveal is the inner essence and the good that is in all of the Jewish people.

55:05 After all, the difference is between the darkness and the light, between Esav, who is in the klipah, and Yaakov Avinu, who is in holiness. The fact that Esav wanted to reveal himself and wanted to darken the Jewish people - that is why he fought against us and he had a hand in the Beis HaMikdash. 'Had a hand' - this corresponds to... That is why King Shlomo said in Koheles, chapter 2, verse 14 - King Shlomo says, 'The wise man has his eyes in his head', that he looks to his purpose, and he knows why he thinks, why he does what he does.

55:32 What is the difference between Yirmiyahu and Nevuchadnetzar? Yirmiyahu was small, and he thought about it: that He should just give me the Beis HaMikdash and not destroy it, etc. Now, what the war of the Baal Davar was only so that a person won't think about his purpose, won't think ahead to what can come out of him, to his power. And then, in fact, there is a very, very great difficulty, something that is not understood.

56:01 In Tractate Menachos, page 29a: Moshe Rabbeinu asked to know the reward of Rabbi Akiva. See what a thing - not understood at all. And here there is a tremendous secret that will resolve everything now. Now it will resolve everything. This is shocking. Moshe Rabbeinu wanted to see the reward that Rabbi Akiva would receive, and they showed him that they were weighing Rabbi Akiva's flesh in the meat market and at the butcher's.

56:35 One sees - here, pieces of flesh. Pay attention to the question. Moshe Rabbeinu asks to know; he sees and hears Rabbi Akiva's Torah and he is amazed; he thinks that his reward is beyond measure, and he wants to see. He asks the Holy One, blessed be He, to show him his Gan Eden; he wants to see his reward. And from Heaven they show him how they are weighing Rabbi Akiva's flesh at the butcher's.

57:03 So Moshe Rabbeinu asks Him, 'This is Torah, and this is its reward?' The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him, 'Be silent, so it arose in thought.' What is going on here? Why are they telling us this, on one hand, and on the other hand, what is going on there? After all, it can't be that they teach us this for nothing. And also, seemingly, why would the Holy One, blessed be He, do such a thing? After all, Moshe Rabbeinu turned to You, and You know what Moshe Rabbeinu wants to hear, and You also know what the request was - so how would the Holy One, blessed be He, show him something that is the farthest from what Moshe Rabbeinu asked of Him?

57:32 Rather, when a person has suffering, a person who is in difficulty and in suffering, this shows his level. A person who is lowly, a person who is ugly, a person who is poor, a person who is despised, a person who is persecuted, a person whom others distress, a person who has it hard, a person whose livelihood is hard for him, a person whose life is hard, a person who went through troubles, a person who went through persecutions, a person who went through hardships - however hard it is for you, know that your reward is entirely beyond measure, beyond what a human eye can picture.

58:05 This is what Ben Hei Hei says: 'According to the pain is the reward.' As great as your pain was, so great is your reward. Now, when Moshe Rabbeinu sees Rabbi Akiva and what is being done to Rabbi Akiva, so what does the Holy One, blessed be He, say to him? 'Be silent, so it arose in thought.' That is, the Holy One, blessed be He, shows him Rabbi Akiva's suffering so that he will understand that if he cannot bear to see the greatness of his suffering, the greatness of his reward is beyond measure - you will not be able to see it at all.

58:33 That is, the Holy One, blessed be He, deliberately showed him the suffering; He did not show him the reward he would receive. He showed him, meaning: 'See how much he suffers. Do you see what he receives? This is what he received, this is his reward' - because in fact he did not let the suffering keep him away from Hashem. As we said, there is suffering that keeps a person away from the Holy One, blessed be He, and there is suffering that does not keep a person from drawing close to Hashem. The Maharal of Prague, Rabbi Yehudah Loew ben Rabbi Betzalel, the Maharal of Prague, in the book Tiferes Yisrael, that only through suffering can one remove the filth of the primordial serpent.

59:04 The primordial serpent swallowed the world; since the sin of Adam, the first man, this filth is on all the created beings. Suffering, in fact, causes our separation from the evil inclination, from this 'mishcha d'chivya', the serpent's skin. And so many great holy ones, like Rabbeinu HaKadosh, Rebbi (Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi), in Tractate Bava Metzia, page 85a, who endured terrible, harsh suffering: the seafarers would hear his suffering; all the seafarers would hear Rebbi's screams from the suffering he endured.

59:34 'And the world did not need rain' - the world did not even need rain at all; rain did not need to fall because of Rebbi's cries and his suffering. And when they would pull up a radish, they would see water in the garden bed, as if it were wet now, as if rain had just fallen. The Talmud Yerushalmi, in Tractate Kilayim, in the name of Rabbi Yosi and Rabbi Bun, Rabbi Yosi and Rabbi Bun, in the Talmud Yerushalmi, Tractate Kilayim, chapter nine, halachah 3, the Talmud Yerushalmi says, it says that what the Holy One, blessed be He, brought about from Heaven - that for thirteen years Rebbi suffered - this caused that no woman miscarried for thirteen years, and no person departed from the world, in the merit of the suffering that Rebbi endured.

1:00:16 That means his suffering caused that there would be no pain and troubles in the world. For the tzaddikim in fact take the suffering upon themselves; they cancel the suffering from upon the whole entire world, they cancel all the suffering from upon the whole entire world. So Rabbi Akiva took all the suffering, he took upon himself all of the suffering, all of it. And then, when Moshe Rabbeinu asks to know his reward, he wants to know, 'Master of the World, what is his reward?'

1:00:40 And likewise in Tractate Bava Metzia, page 84b, about Rabbi Elazar the son of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, that they would take sixty changes of sheets and put them under him, at his feet, they put them under his bed; all clean - all of it, the next day they take it all out: white with pus, all blood, all pain. That is the body of Rabbi Elazar, who would invite the suffering upon himself. Now, what is the secret of suffering?

1:01:04 After all, we said that it is impossible to come close, to reveal your inner essence, with suffering. So how did they take the suffering upon themselves? It doesn't fit. And also Moshe Rabbeinu's question - it still doesn't fit. We said that suffering prevents a person from coming close to Hashem; it won't let you come close to Hashem. And it is also written in Tractate Berachos, page 5a, in the name of Rabbi Shimon, that the Land of Israel is acquired through suffering, etc., and the World to Come. And it is also written specifically that suffering scours a person's entire body; they learned it from 'tooth and eye' - all the more so: if with only a tooth and an eye a slave goes free...

1:01:34 Also in Tractate Kiddushin, page 24b, in Tosafos. What this comes to say is: how can it be that after a person - his suffering is cancelled from him, and all his troubles are cancelled, and everything he goes through, and his troubles and his suffering, all of it - 'scours his entire body', and suffering has so many wonderful virtues, and he suffers, and everyone suffers, etc. - how can it be that from Heaven this is something that greatly prevents?

1:01:58 For in reality we see that people who suffer do not succeed - not in praying, not in coming close to Hashem, and they have many problems, and they are people of very, very great suffering. It cannot be at all that they would have closeness to Hashem, because of their suffering, which would stop them and not let their power be revealed, because we said that the Baal Davar won't allow it, and suffering won't let you; suffering will stop you, it won't let you come out, it won't let you reveal what is in you.

1:02:24 It won't allow it. Now comes the answer. Tractate Berachos, page 17a: Rav and Shmuel, Rabbi Elazar and Rabbi Yochanan, this one against that one. 'Alufeinu mesubalim' - 'our chiefs are laden': 'alufeinu' - in Torah, and 'mesubalim' - in mitzvos. And some say: 'alufeinu mesubalim' - 'alufeinu' - in Torah and in mitzvos, and 'mesubalim' - in suffering.

1:02:50 This implies: Torah and mitzvos are against the evil inclination, that they subdue it, and 'mesubalim', which the Gemara says, means laden with suffering. So now the Gemara will be understood. We go according to the view of 'some say', that 'alufeinu mesubalim' - in Torah and in mitzvos, and 'mesubalim' in suffering. That means the way to come close to Hashem is precisely through the difficulty of the evil inclination and precisely through suffering.

1:03:15 And now, in fact, you will be able to understand why the Holy One, blessed be He, arranged so much around Rabbi Akiva, who said Shema Yisrael. And Moshe Rabbeinu marveled at his wisdom and asks before the Holy One, blessed be He, to show him the reward of a man - Rabbi Akiva was not a person at all, but he hears his teaching, and he is so moved in Heaven by Rabbi Akiva's teaching, and then he wants to know what power came out of him.

1:03:43 After all, Moshe's question to Hashem, blessed be He, is not what Rabbi Akiva's reward is; it is what power is hidden in Rabbi Akiva, what Rabbi Akiva's inner being is, what is hidden in Rabbi Akiva. And then we will in fact be able to understand that there are only two things that can free a person from sorrow. So I am going back for a moment; I want to explain something around it to you for a moment, and then from here maybe you will understand it. I will explain something else now: what can free a person from afflictions.

1:04:12 We said before that going to the synagogue is being included in the whole Jewish people. Now, there are people who love the tzaddikim but hate the Jewish people; they do not connect to the Jewish people, they love only tzaddikim. And there are people who love the Jewish people but hate the tzaddikim; they do not love tzaddikim, they have hatred. They judge all the sinners favorably, but as soon as it comes to tzaddikim: 'No, this is impurity, this one is from this side, that one is from that side.'

1:04:37 But this transgressor and this sinner that you know - he is a great tzaddik. How is he a great tzaddik? 'I don't know, there are things that maybe we will not understand, it is greater than us, we will not understand it.' They do exactly the opposite, what is good is bad... like Korach, who loved the Jewish people but suspected Moshe Rabbeinu. Everything is backwards. Everything is backwards. Note that cleaving to the Sages in general is a mitzvah, a mitzvah from the Torah.

1:05:02 The Chinuch brings it as mitzvah 434; the Chinuch brings it from what is written in the book of Devarim, in chapter 10, verse 20: 'You shall fear Hashem your G-d, Him you shall serve, and to Him you shall cleave, and by His Name you shall swear.' So the Sefer Mitzvos Katan brings it, in siman 45; Rabbi Yitzchak of Corbeil brings it. So our master the Rambam brings it, in Hilchos De'os, in chapter 6, halachah 1 and halachah 3. In these two halachos the Rambam speaks about this, about cleaving to Torah scholars.

1:05:28 It will be understood according to what I said about the importance of this cleaving to a Torah scholar with complete self-nullification. There you will understand what I mean, that there is cleaving and there is cleaving. But what is meant by cleaving is a cleaving that is complete self-nullification, which is not like the cleaving where a person attaches himself. Complete nullification is when you have no mind of your own; that is complete nullification. And then, when a person truly draws close to the Sages and has whole and complete nullification, then the afflictions are cancelled from him.

1:05:59 Only when there is complete, complete, complete, total nullification to the view of the Torah and to true Sages, then the afflictions are cancelled entirely; the afflictions are entirely void, they cannot exist. So when Moshe Rabbeinu asked Hashem, blessed be He, 'Show me his reward,' then the Holy One, blessed be He, shows him Rabbi Akiva as he is being afflicted.

1:06:23 So seemingly - what, did Rabbi Akiva not nullify himself to the Sages? For all afflictions come to a person only because of (the disgrace of) tzaddikim, because of the Torah that lies cast in a corner. In Tractate Sotah, page 11a, it is written about Iyov that he saw and heard and kept silent: he saw Pharaoh's decree, stood aside and kept silent. Many afflictions come to people who see such a thing and do not care; they see that person suffering, it does not interest them, they stand aside, they do not get involved.

1:06:51 People like this, who are used to standing aside, who do not want to help - this, Heaven save us, brings terrible afflictions, that they stand aside and do nothing. For there are those who see a situation, but it does not touch them, they do not want to act. And Iyov, when he heard and kept silent, he was afflicted, he was afflicted so much. But in the Yalkut Shimoni it is written, in the Yalkut Shimoni about Iyov, in remez 908, it is written about Iyov that if we had - if Iyov had not kicked against his afflictions, we would say in the prayer, 'G-d of Avraham, G-d of Yitzchak and G-d of Yaakov, and G-d of Iyov'; we would include him in the prayer, because of his importance and because of his righteousness and because of his holiness and because of his level.

1:07:34 For the Holy One, blessed be He, would make clouds just for his honor when Iyov would go outside under the sky; the sun never once struck him. He would go outside - look there, the Yalkut Shimoni speaks about Iyov - he would go outside, clouds would spread out before him; he would go to the garden, plant, walk around, go back to his house, the clouds would break apart, the sun would shine; again he goes outside, again he walks around... everything. The Holy One, blessed be He, would make it so that he would have shade, pleasant weather, so that all the time Iyov would have peace of mind.

1:08:02 'You shall have no sorrow, nothing shall hurt you; you are Iyov, nothing may hurt you.' The Holy One, blessed be He, looked after him. Why? When some man passed away from the world, would leave the world, Iyov would come to her (to his wife), he said to her, 'You know, I owe you money.' And in truth he owed her nothing. He would say to her, 'Your husband left such-and-such with me, I have to give it to you; I am sorry that I held on to it for a while, maybe you need it now.' And then, like, 'Wow, what are you saying?' 'Now, yes, yes, take this - how many children are there? - I will pay back, give me a little, a day or two.'

1:08:32 As if he is putting on an act. And then the Holy One, blessed be He, was moved in Heaven by this deed of Iyov: what a heart he has! This is how he did charity, with such a heart. See what a tzaddik he was. And so he would go from cemetery to cemetery, to wherever there were people who had died... so much would he support and help people, so that they would not know; and so he would arrange it in a roundabout way, so that they would not think he was anything special for it; and so it would be kept that no one would have sorrow.

1:08:58 See his greatness. And with all this, Iyov kicked against the afflictions, and because of this they did not say 'G-d of Iyov' in the prayer. From here we see that the afflictions kept from him the revealing of his power, that he was meant to be part of the prayer, that we would say 'G-d of Iyov'. And then we come back to Rabbi Akiva. Rabbi Akiva, we said, Rabbi Akiva prays, and he was a tremendous master of prayer, for he was in Shema Yisrael; there was no master of prayer like Rabbi Akiva.

1:09:22 Rabbi Akiva is complete nullification of the intellect; there was no such level. He attained what no one could attain; it is impossible to explain it. His self-sacrifice rectified thousands and tens of thousands of souls, beyond measure; it brought the Tikkun of creation, the upper unification, the lower unification, all the tikkunim, everything, through Rabbi Akiva's self-sacrifice. And then Moshe Rabbeinu comes before Hashem and says, 'Master of the World, show me his reward, I want to know his reward.'

1:09:48 And then the Holy One, blessed be He, shows him the pieces of Rabbi Akiva's flesh being sold like that, in the butcher shop. And as I say once again, this thing is very, very, very puzzling to us: why would the Holy One, blessed be He, ask him, and why would he answer the Holy One, blessed be He, like this? And now I will explain. As I told you before about cleaving to the Sages, that only truly cleaving to the Sages is what will save a person from afflictions: if a person is truly baked into the heart of tzaddikim, he can know that he will have a good life, in peace; and if a person does not get into their heart, it is a sign that the Attribute of Judgment is accusing him and will not let him get into the heart;

1:10:22 or if they took him out of the heart of tzaddikim, it is a sign that the Attribute of Judgment is upon him. Whoever gets into such a heart, the Attribute of Mercy is upon him; whoever leaves such a heart, the Attribute of Judgment is upon him. It is written in the holy Zohar, Tikkunei Zohar, in Tikkun 63: Rabbi Shimon said: whoever holds afflictions dear, through this it is turned for them from judgment to mercy. Whoever is happy and holds the afflictions dear, for him the Attribute of Judgment is turned into the Attribute of Mercy.

1:10:47 Whoever holds the afflictions dear, holds dear... Now, the tzaddikim always hold the afflictions dear; they do not kick against anything. The Ohr LaShamayim, Rabbi Meir of Apta, he was the greatest of the students of the Chozeh of Lublin. He composed the prayer of Rabbi Shlomo HaKohen of Radomsk, the Tiferes Shlomo, who brought: 'Master of the worlds, here I am in Your hand like clay in the hand of the potter.' He said that reading it morning and evening is a segulah for success. They brought it in the book Chelkas Yehoshua of the Biala Rebbe, at the end. There are all kinds of versions of it; there is also Rabbi Elimelech's, this version, that version.

1:11:13 So the Ohr LaShamayim, Rabbi Meir of Apta, at the end of the book Ohr LaShamayim of the Apter Rebbe he has novel insights; there he brings, at the end, he brings a question to ask: which is greater in virtue, a tzaddik who wants to suffer afflictions, or a tzaddik who wants to rejoice and not suffer afflictions? And he decides there that the tzaddik greater in virtue is a tzaddik who does not desire afflictions, neither them nor their reward. He says that 'in all their affliction He is afflicted'; so certainly, if a tzaddik has sorrow, then Heaven also has sorrow; so he does not want the afflictions.

1:11:39 He says that he is greater than a tzaddik who wants afflictions. That is to say, there are two kinds of tzaddikim: one who suffers afflictions and poverty and sorrow, and that... and there is a tzaddik who is not in poverty and not in sorrow and does not want it and does not desire it, and he says that he is greater than that one. Why? He says that the tzaddik who does not want it - because he says, 'in all their affliction He is afflicted,' and the Shechinah suffers with him, so he does not want the Shechinah to have sorrow; because of that he does not want to be in such a place. That is the reason he is greater: because if I am now in this hardship and in this sorrow, then Hashem will also have sorrow,

1:12:07 so I do not want to be here, so that Hashem will not be in this sorrow. Now, the afflictions - the moment Rabbi Akiva is afflicted, what sorrow the Holy One, blessed be He, will have! 'In all their affliction He is afflicted.' And Rabbi Akiva certainly does not want the Holy One, blessed be He, to have 'in all their affliction He is afflicted'; he does not want Him to have anything. How would Rabbi Akiva want there to be 'in all their affliction'... He does not want the Holy One, blessed be He, to suffer; he does not want there to be sorrow for the Holy One, blessed be He. He is afflicted. Maybe we will understand it better - another explanation I want to give you, around it; maybe you will understand on your own.

1:12:48 It is written in Bava Kamma, page 79b. It is written in the Torah, 'If a man steals an ox or a sheep, he shall pay five cattle for the ox and four sheep for the sheep' - in the book of Shemos, chapter 21, verse 37. So in Tractate Bava Kamma, page 79b, Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai says what the difference really is between the five cattle and the four sheep: here, in fact, he has disgrace, for he holds it and takes it on his shoulder; that is to say, he suffers from it, that it is on his shoulder.

1:13:25 He has disgrace here, so the Torah reduces it: they give him one less. The ox walks on its own feet, so it is five; there is no disgrace here - five. But this one, who takes the sheep upon himself, has disgrace here, because he suffers; he drags it on himself, it is hard for him, he drags it on himself, and an ox cannot be dragged. So the Torah will have pity, it will reduce it for him from five; he will get four in his punishment, which he has to pay. So he shall pay four for the sheep.

1:13:51 So because of this, because of the pity on him, it will go down for him and be reduced, and go to four instead of five. The Torah will have pity on someone like this. This is what Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai says. [unclear], this is Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai. So what is meant by what happened here with Rabbi Akiva and Moshe Rabbeinu? Moshe Rabbeinu in fact asked to know what is the inner power of this creation that I see in Heaven. Moshe Rabbeinu was amazed by Rabbi Akiva beyond all measure.

1:14:17 Let us understand it like this: Moshe Rabbeinu is amazed by Rabbi Akiva in Heaven beyond all measure. He says, 'You have such a soul, Master of the World? Give him the Torah, let him take it.' And then he asks to know Rabbi Akiva's reward; he wants to know what the reward is. And what is the meaning of 'reward'? Reward is to see whether a person was not punished, or did not commit some sin. For the moment Moshe asks to know the reward, Moshe Rabbeinu is interested to know also whether he has some sin on his hands.

1:14:46 The Tomer Devorah, Rabbi Moshe Cordovero, writes in the Tomer Devorah at the beginning, in the first pages, in the first two pages, in the first chapter; he says that if one did half mitzvos and half sins, ten and ten are not gathered together: what you did - you will receive reward; what not - you will receive punishment. Ten mitzvos are not cancelled out for ten sins; it is not cleared away, Heaven forbid; this goes here and this goes here. So Moshe Rabbeinu asked to know Rabbi Akiva's reward.

1:15:13 What does he want to see here? He wants to know what is due to this mighty one, to the power that is in him, in Rabbi Akiva, that he makes the Torah grow like this in the Jewish people. For Rabbi Akiva raised up the soul of the Jewish people; he took care that the Torah would not be forgotten. If not for Rabbi Akiva - may Hashem have mercy, as we learned in Tractate Yevamos, page 62b, until the Torah was forgotten. And Rabbi Akiva is the one who taught Rabbi Shimon and Rabbi Meir; he is the great one among the Sages who took care that the Torah would not be forgotten from the Jewish people: that is Rabbi Akiva.

1:15:44 In the merit of his self-sacrifice and his learning and his devotion to the Torah, the Torah was not forgotten from the Jewish people, in the merit of Rabbi Akiva's devotion. Now, when Rabbi Akiva asks - when Moshe Rabbeinu wants to know the reward, Moshe Rabbeinu asks, 'Show me Rabbi Akiva's reward; I want to see whether there is perhaps also some half of sins here, maybe there are also things in him that are not good.'

1:16:08 'I want to know his reward for the Torah, but by his reward I will truly know whether he will rectify the End or not.' For Moshe Rabbeinu's question is really to know what will come out of this reward. For that is not what interests Moshe Rabbeinu, to know in which place Rabbi Akiva will sit in Gan Eden. Moshe Rabbeinu asks: what is the reward of one who holds on to the Torah that I toiled over day and night, forty days?

1:16:32 I sat over the Torah to give it to the Jewish people; I want to know what the reward is of one who holds on to my Torah and passes it on to the Jewish people. It does not interest Moshe Rabbeinu to know in which palace Rabbi Akiva sits and is now taking pleasure and delighting in Gan Eden; that does not interest me at all, it does not interest him. Does it seem to you that this would interest Moshe Rabbeinu, now, in which place Rabbi Akiva will sit in Gan Eden? Is that what should interest him? It would not interest him.

1:16:56 What would interest Moshe Rabbeinu is to know, in practice, what reward they will give him in Heaven, in order to know what the Holy One, blessed be He, ruled about the Torah of Rabbi Akiva, and to which place it went, and what came out of it, what its offspring is. So the Holy One, blessed be He, said to him, 'Come and see.' The Holy One, blessed be He, took him and showed Moshe Rabbeinu the butcher shop with Rabbi Akiva's flesh being weighed in the market stalls, in the butcher shop.

1:17:25 What is this flesh of Rabbi Akiva? That Rabbi Akiva was afflicted with such great afflictions, and the Holy One, blessed be He, shows him: 'You see these afflictions? This is his reward.' With Rabbi Akiva, all the afflictions in the world, that they made him into pieces of flesh, did not distance him from the Holy One, blessed be He. And if Rabbi Akiva took all these afflictions upon himself, afflictions will never distance a Jew from the Holy One, blessed be He.

1:17:50 Do you understand? That is to say, because of Rabbi Akiva, who took all these afflictions upon himself, and they made of his flesh... so you, Moshe Rabbeinu, if you care about your Torah, you care about your Torah - know: this one took all the afflictions upon himself, and so no Jew will grow distant from the Holy One, blessed be He, because of afflictions. Here, you have one like this; here, his flesh is weighed in the market stalls.

1:18:14 He did not show him this in the butcher shop for nothing; He showed him: 'Here, you cared about your Torah - where is it? Here, this one took it all, and this one will make sure that the Torah - no one will grow distant because of the afflictions.' That is the afflictions, on one side. That is to say that Rabbi Akiva, who is the sum of all self-sacrifice, that we say the Shema Yisrael, that we say it in the prayer, to show each one of us: know that no afflictions you have ever gone through - they did not cut your flesh in the butcher shop or in the market stalls, right?

1:18:43 No one went through the butcher shop and had his flesh put in the market stalls and sold. Heaven forbid, not on anyone of the Jewish people, no one. So know that no afflictions that pass over you in the world, no afflictions - you cannot excuse yourself with any excuse in the world that this can distance you from Hashem, because Rabbi Akiva went through this and only came closer to Hashem. And Moshe wanted to know his reward, and the Holy One, blessed be He, took pride that this is his reward.

1:19:10 So you would come and say that you have something more than this? That is the meaning. That is what happened. Now, that is about the sufferings. So it will never distance you, Heaven forbid. So on one side, you push away the sufferings; on one side, this grows the soul on this side. Now, on the other side, the yetzer hara. And who took the side of the yetzer hara?

1:19:34 One must take the yetzer hara too. Where does the yetzer hara come from? So come and see what the yetzer hara is. The yetzer hara is actually blood that spreads through the whole body. It is murky blood, it is the mishcha d'chivya, the serpent's skin. In the future to come, Moshe Rabbeinu received a body which is the secret of the upper Chashmal; it is the Chamber of the Sapphire Brick of the World of Beriah, the secret of the Tree of Knowledge of good of Atzilus; it is a holy body that came to him from Gan Eden.

1:19:58 It is a body over which no filth of the serpent has any hold. This body, in fact - no serpent's skin at all is found in this body. It is not a person whom the serpent swallowed. And Moshe Rabbeinu is not a person, so the serpent did not swallow him. There was no serpent's skin at all on his body. He said to him, "Remove your shoes." So he removed the serpent's skin, and he was not tied to anything of the physicality and coarseness of this world.

1:20:22 Nothing had any hold on Moshe Rabbeinu. He was completely nullified, so that no physicality touched him, and no filth of the serpent touched Moshe Rabbeinu. And Moshe Rabbeinu, in fact, from his holiness and from his level, and all that he rose and was elevated, and so on, purified his blood, and he had no murky blood. He draws down to the whole Jewish people the guarding and the protection from the murky blood and from the yetzer hara.

1:20:47 Now, there are two kinds of blood in a person. There is the good blood, the clean blood, which is blood that is somewhat more refined, and there is blood that corresponds to the animal side; that is the bad blood, which is full of murky blood. Now, what is an example? In Tractate Zevachim, you have the distinction. In Tractate Zevachim, page 78b, in the eighth chapter, there is a dispute about the blood of the soul and the draining blood that got mixed.

1:21:19 The bowl of the Kohen Gadol: when the slaughter is done on the animal, one must take the bowl and receive the blood of the soul into it. It is forbidden to take the draining blood; that is blood that comes after the first blood that comes out. One must take the blood of the soul; that first blood goes into the bowl, and then this can be offered. And the draining blood is blood that is invalid. Now, in a case where the draining blood gets mixed with a little of the blood of the soul, it is nullified.

1:21:45 A few drops got mixed in; seemingly there is no problem with that. But there is a problem with it, and it is invalid. And why is it invalid? Because the blood of the soul and the draining blood: if one day Kohanim come and do not know which blood got mixed, how much of it got mixed, they could think, "Ah, it is nullified, it is a little blood, so it can be offered." And they will always know that it is forbidden. If a little got mixed between the draining blood and the blood of the soul, a little mixture formed between them: invalid.

1:22:10 It must all be the blood of the soul. We will not say, "Maybe it got mixed." What are the blood of the soul and the draining blood? The draining blood is the blood that comes after that. The blood of the soul is the blood that comes from the moment of the slaughter. The blood of the soul is what is hard for the one who suffers. Whoever finds it hard - the blood that is hard for you, everything that is hard for you, every difficulty you have, every sorrow you have, every pain you have, from everything that you do, in every move you make in this world, in every turn you take, know that this is the blood that the Holy One, blessed be He, wants: in your difficulty, in your pain, in what is hard for you, in your self-sacrifice.

1:22:51 The Holy One, blessed be He, wants this: your toil, your difficulty, the place that is hard for you, the place where it is hard for you to manage, what is hard for you to offer up. Give that to Hashem. Give that with all your intention, because that is the blood of the soul. The draining blood is devotion; it is blood that comes out afterward. But what is hard for you, cling to that, and that is the way. And if there are people for whom it is hard to nullify themselves and draw close to the Sages, that is their greatest devotion.

1:23:15 For them, that is the blood of the soul, because for them, that is the devotion. Whatever is hardest for you, let it be that. And Moshe Rabbeinu, when he looks at Rabbi Akiva and he sees that Rabbi Akiva took the sufferings, and Moshe Rabbeinu purified all the blood, because when He said to him, "Remove your shoes from your feet," then Moshe Rabbeinu cast off the serpent's skin. And all the souls of Israel are included in Moshe Rabbeinu. In the Zohar, in the introduction to the Zohar on Shemos, in the introduction: that they were all included in Moshe Rabbeinu.

1:23:39 All the souls of Israel are included in Moshe Rabbeinu. And Moshe Rabbeinu in fact took upon himself the life force of all the creations, every one. And then there is a distinction between the blood of the soul and the draining blood, between the blood of the serpent's skin, of the yetzer hara, of the physicality a person has, and his connection to the tzaddikim, whose blood is pure. Then he has a part that is the blood of the soul, because with the tzaddikim, it is blood that is entirely holy. It is spiritual blood, for what is attached to the pure is pure.

1:24:03 Now, there is a distinction between this blood and that blood. In Tractate Zevachim, page 82, there is a dispute there. In fact, an offering that was slaughtered, now they brought its blood. If they brought its blood now, some of the blood remained in the Beis HaMikdash, they took the blood out of the Beis HaMikdash: the offering is valid. If some of the blood is in the Beis HaMikdash, they took some of the blood, they took the blood outside, the blood remained in the Beis HaMikdash, the offering is valid. A sin-offering: they took a sin-offering, slaughtered it, some remained in the Beis HaMikdash, they took some outside the Beis HaMikdash: the offering is valid.

1:24:36 They took some of the remaining blood and brought it into the Heichal, the Sanctuary: the offering became invalid. What is the difference? And here, on one side, if the blood went outside the Beis HaMikdash, you tell me that the sin-offering is valid. On the other side, you tell me that if we take some of the blood of the offering and they brought it into the Heichal, then the offering is invalid. So how can that be? So the answer is what is written in the Torah.

1:25:02 It is written in the Torah; that is what the Gemara says. That is an answer. In the book of Vayikra, it is written in the Torah, in the book of Vayikra, in chapter 6, verse 23, verse 23 in the book of Vayikra: "And any sin-offering from whose blood is brought into the Tent of Meeting to atone in the Holy shall not be eaten; it shall be burned in fire."

1:25:27 That is what the Torah says. "Any sin-offering from whose blood is brought" - "from whose blood is brought": that means, a little of its blood is brought into the Tent of Meeting. A little of the blood is brought; so if a little of the blood is brought, then "it shall not be eaten; it shall be burned in fire." But what went outside, outside, and a little of the offering remained... Now, what is the connection with this blood? So we see that there is a person whose blood, his devotion, sometimes went outside the Beis HaMikdash.

1:25:57 His sufferings are his blood; it went outside. But there is always something in him, always in holiness. We see that he always has a belonging in the house of Hashem, despite everything he goes through. Always, always, he still has blood in the house of Hashem. His blood will always remain in the Beis HaMikdash, but a little of his blood went outside, outside the holy. He sees that he showed devotion, he sees that he did things, he did many things that are outside of holiness, he saw them outside, and then he says, "Ah, maybe I am invalid."

1:26:27 No, you are not invalid; your offering is valid. And the opposite: one who is already in the Beis HaMikdash and some of his blood was taken into the Heichal: that is invalid, because to Hashem one must bring everything. If you went out of the domain of the Temple, even though you remained inside, if some of the blood remained in the Beis HaMikdash and you went out only from the outside, you went outside, even though it went outside, if you went out, your distance from Hashem will not take you out of Heaven.

1:26:53 But the Heichal is something lofty, because for Hashem, to enter the Heichal is only the Kohen Gadol; that is only your connection to the tzaddik. That is the distinction one can explain, because only one who can enter the holy, the Heichal, is only the tzaddikim. So if you brought a little of the blood, you will not fulfill your obligation, because you cannot come into the connection, in the secret of connection. That is "a little of its blood is brought": it is invalid. It is a little of the blood, it is a little of the self-nullification, it is a little of the soul, it is a little, it is not everything, a little of its blood, a little.

1:27:20 No, so your offering is invalid. But if you are outside, if you are from the outside, if you are outside, even if your blood is broken outside, know that it is valid. Your offering is brought close before Hashem. Hashem is happy with you. The strength of each and every one of us, our strength, of each one of us, is to grow and to bring out what we have inside. Each one of us has something inside, each and every one.

1:27:47 There is no person who does not... There is no person who does not... All are equal before Hashem, blessed be He. All are beloved before Hashem. All are precious before Hashem. And the Holy One, blessed be He, wants to say that the blood of each and every one, and the devotion of each and every one, and the pain of each one, and the sufferings of each one: Hashem looks with tremendous precision at every point, every pain and sorrow that every Jewish heart has, at every sorrow there is for each and every one. And this pain and this sorrow: know that the Holy One, blessed be He, is happy with you, and this blood of yours is close before Him.

1:28:22 And if you have pain and an ache, and if you have sorrow, if you have... everything that you go through, everything you go through, from small to great, whether from the side of the yetzer hara slaughtering you, or from the side of your physicality that distresses you, or from the side of everything you go through, all of it, all of it, all of it, remember that your strength is there and exists, but do not let it go out. And you have two things to take from here.

1:28:46 One: drawing close to the Sages and to true tzaddikim, which will bring about the drawing near and the geulah and everything, that then, in fact, all the troubles and so on are nullified, the sufferings are nullified. And the proof is that Rabbi Akiva and Moshe Rabbeinu took this then. And the second thing is that you should not think in your mind that your sufferings are so much greater than Rabbi Akiva's. Because then, if you say that you suffer so much, and you say, "I cannot do anything, I can't, it is hard for me, I have sufferings," then what are you saying here?

1:29:15 That you are more than Rabbi Akiva? For the Holy One, blessed be He, took pride in Rabbi Akiva's reward, that this is his reward. And you, as it were, say over the few sufferings you have that you cannot. So seemingly you are belittling Rabbi Akiva. So that is why He said to him, "Be silent! This is what arose in My thought." What does "Be silent" mean? The thought is the Name Ehyeh; it corresponds to Kesser, the Crown. So He said to him that what Rabbi Akiva did reached all the way up to Kesser.

1:29:41 It repaired everything... It raised Malchus all the way up to Kesser. It brought the geulah. Rabbi Akiva, he is the one who will bring Mashiach, his self-sacrifice, because he took all the sufferings of everything. So that is why, when Rabbi Akiva is mentioned, he takes the sufferings of all the creations, every one. Only the merit of Rabbi Akiva. Do you understand? That is to say, this is the virtue of the souls of Israel. This is us, the Jewish people. We are the chosen people; the Holy One, blessed be He, chose us, each one of us.

1:30:08 We say this every day: "Who chose us and gave us." To us He gave the Torah, not to the nations of the world: to grow our beauty, to honor the honor of the Torah and the honor of the Torah scholars and the honor of the Rabbis, each one, to honor them, to value them, to raise them up, to strengthen them, to encourage them, to see them as raised above the people, as princes, as the dignitaries of the land, to encourage them.

1:30:32 They are busy bringing pleasure to the Master of heaven and earth. You see the criminals, or all kinds of wicked people, or from the nations of the world, or some dignitary like that from the nations of the world: some non-Jew comes, or some criminal from some government, and what honor they give him, an entourage... You see someone who strengthens the Jewish people, someone who takes action - do you know what it is to see a messenger from Heaven, to see an angel who strengthens the Jewish people?

1:31:01 To see them as angels, as the dignitaries of the land, to see them as great, as awesome, to honor the Torah, to cherish the Torah: that is what the Holy One, blessed be He, wants, that we value the Torah and value what is in us. Suddenly we will be able to see what comes out of each and every one. Each one is... You don't know, it is impossible to know, it is impossible, impossible to know what there is in each one. No one knows. Let no one think that if right now he is not some preacher, or if he does not do something or other, then he is already not...

1:31:30 No, no, no, that is a mistake. Don't look at the world. You don't know what you have in your power to do and to accomplish. You are forbidden to look, not at your sufferings and not at your yetzer hara. And these are the two things you should move to the right and to the left. We are moving forward; we have Torah, we have tefillah, we have all the gates open, no gate is closed, we have hope, we have emunah.

1:31:54 With us, everything can be accomplished. The pitiful thing and the greatest loss a person can have, the greatest that the Holy One, blessed be He, could... And the greatest gift, the greatest loss, is that Hashem brought it about that Korach disputed Moshe Rabbeinu. That is the greatest loss, that is the greatest sorrow: that there were Korach and Moshe, and Korach did not receive from Moshe. And the greatest gift for a person is that he merits to see the light of Moshe.

1:32:18 For it is the very opposite: that what we draw close to Hashem, blessed be He, that we draw close to the Holy One, blessed be He, our closeness to the Holy One, blessed be He, grows the whole Jewish people; it grows each and every one in his inner self. As the Holy One, blessed be He, said, the prophet Yirmiyahu says in chapter 19, verse 21: "For I know the thoughts that I think about you, says Hashem, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope."

1:32:58 So said the Holy One, blessed be He. What the Holy One, blessed be He, thinks for the Jewish people is to give them thoughts of eternity, thoughts to grow them, thoughts to do them good. That is what He thinks about us. If you think that the Holy One, blessed be He, thinks bad thoughts about you and thinks all day how to cause you troubles and harm... And there are people who get into all kinds of fantasies that people put into them, or all kinds of such "oy and woe"; you must run away from them.

1:33:25 Tzaddikim need to strengthen in you how much hope you have. And if you went through sufferings or went through difficulty, Hashem, blessed be He, took an offering from you, took from you, chose you, drew you close, granted you merit - He chose you! But to suspect from this that there are judgments upon you, or some... Heaven forbid to think these troubles. Do not let these things enter, Heaven forbid. Heaven forbid to think...

1:33:49 A person's life is a new path. It is to start anew, to think anew, to be built anew. It is to know that we are chosen, and that Hashem, blessed be He, loves us, that the Holy One, blessed be He, is happy with us. May it be His will that the Holy One, blessed be He, grant us to grow the inner self that is in each one, and may we merit to see the light that breaks forth, as we wrote in the prayer, to merit to see the light that breaks forth from each and every Jew, to see the tremendous light that comes out of each and every one.

1:34:18 And this is surely what will bring about for us the complete geulah, for the Holy One, blessed be He, will not redeem us if the Jewish people are like this, in sorrow, in sadness, and not happy in themselves, and not thinking good thoughts for themselves. One must think good, and know that Hashem, blessed be He, loves us and is happy with us, the chosen people. And all the more so, one who does more good things must all the more enliven himself with so many good thoughts.

1:34:46 And that is our strength. Fortunate are we, only the Jewish people. Only to raise everyone up: that is the purpose. Forgive me for speaking before you. Rabbi Akiva... and Moshe Rabbeinu, that is the yetzer hara. Moshe Rabbeinu, that is the yetzer hara. Good, because he nullified the yetzer hara, Moshe Rabbeinu. He took everything upon himself and nullified the serpent's skin.

1:35:10 The essence of the yetzer hara is the primordial serpent. Moshe Rabbeinu, when He said, "And remove your shoes," then he nullified the serpent's skin, and then he merited a body that is... And may the Holy One, blessed be He, bless everyone. We love you; forgive us for speaking before you, forgiveness from each and every one, before the Torah scholars, from the honored Rabbis. May the Holy One, blessed be He, give everyone Heavenly help, a complete recovery, a good life; that the merit of the Torah we learned and the tzaddikim protected us, when we merit salvation, may we merit miracles and wonders, all the blessings, to be strong, encouraged, full of joy, full of hope, full of light, the strength that each one has, that we bring it out, with Hashem's help, and here we will see how it conquers the world; with Hashem's help we will prevail, with Hashem's help, to bring this light out.