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The Yanuka’s own words in this shiur, translated into English by Lehallel · 2,148 words · 11:44. Press a time to hear it said.
0:00 What can one... In Chazal it is written that when the Satan came after [unclear], then it was said: it is with the deep. The deep says, 'It is not,' and after that the sea. [unclear] brings it from Iyov more explicitly. - Yes. - He said that it is with the deep, with the sea, explicitly. So what does he say?
0:28 It's not. Is it yes or is it no? What does the Rav mean? What did you think? - I thought that certainly in the deep, too, there is the Torah. Two meanings: also because [unclear] - one who is busy bringing out pearls, and in the sea [unclear], there is also the Torah, but that is not all. Like, as in 'And from there you shall seek Hashem your G-d, and you will find.' Yes, but still, the true Torah is found, is found - whoever sits and learns all the time - with Moshe.
1:02 And Moshe Rabbeinu says that it is still a 'hidden treasure.' One can also explain this as the Pnei Yehoshua brings in Tractate Shabbos, page 30: when Rava would say a 'milsa d'bedichusa' - something humorous - so he says, the meaning is not that he said a milsa d'bedichusa. Milsa d'bedichusa - that he would say jokes - he did not tell a milsa d'bedichusa, and he explains: he would say words of Aggadah.
1:27 And the words of Aggadah, for their level, were as it were a milsa d'bedichusa. Milsa d'bedichusa is not what we, the world, take it to mean today: words of a joke or laughter. Milsa d'bedichusa is words that gladden the mind and cause the mind to be joyful and to broaden. And 'If you wish to know the One who spoke and the world came into being, learn Aggadah, for through it you come to recognize the Holy One, blessed be He, and love Him.'
1:55 And when one learns the Torah, then one learns the things expounded about the Holy One, blessed be He, and then a person comes to love of Hashem. The Rambam says, Hilchos Yesodei HaTorah, chapter 4, that when a person contemplates the greatness of creation, [unclear] creation, he sees the beauty of the trees, the beauty of creation, he sees - suddenly he discovers G-dliness. Then he succeeds in revealing G-dliness, he succeeds in seeing the Holy One, blessed be He, in revealing the Torah that is found even in the lowest and most humble places, and he can reveal it from there; he sees the Torah there. After all, the Torah gives life to and sustains all the creatures.
2:29 Even in the lowest place and in the farthest place, there is the Torah. That is why in Iyov, what is mentioned is in chapter 38: 'And Hashem answered Iyov out of the storm, and said.' Now the Holy One, blessed be He, began to come to Iyov with a complaint: 'You look and judge about the heavens, you have questions about Me, but you cannot know what I do in the world. For you look at creation, at the world - you look from this moment.
Read the whole shiur in English (18 more parts)
2:54 I look with My own view.' That is what the Holy One, blessed be He, says: from the beginning to the end, Hashem sees everything as one whole existence. Like, with the Holy One, blessed be He, there is no lack; He sees everything now, whole. And the Torah that He gives - after all, the Torah that He gives at first - we do not have the Torah that was given to the angels. There is also an explanation there from the Sfas Emes of Ger, who details this: that the Torah was given to the angels at first, and after that we merited the Torah of human beings.
3:24 Two kinds of Torah. - Yes, two kinds of the Torah, for they learned from it for the firstborn and for the offerings, the practical difference being what came after: afterwards it was given to the Kohanim. At first it was for the firstborn; now it is for the Kohanim. That is the answer - the Sfas Emes of Ger. So one can explain it as an interpretation, that the Holy One, blessed be He, says, 'sons of G-d, all of you, nevertheless you shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes,' that at first, when they received the Torah, they were on high levels.
3:53 They were, as it were, at the greatest level. We would merit to reveal the inner dimension of the Torah, to reveal it - for after all, the Torah is the will of Hashem, it is the will and the wisdom of Hashem, blessed be He. And when we learn the Torah, we understand it and grasp it, in practice, through what we attain and understand. After all, a person can never grasp the Torah with the mind of Hashem, blessed be He. After all, the world today grasps the Torah only at the point of understanding that they understand, but that is not the point of understanding with which Hashem, blessed be He, and Moshe Rabbeinu understood it and handed them the Torah.
4:27 And therefore, in relation to them, in relation to them it is, as it were, like the deep - or in relation to this, that it is as if... for however much a person rises and learns and is elevated, the question is where he understands the Torah: with his own mind, with the mind of Hashem? For after all, His will and His wisdom, blessed be He, are that we fulfill the Torah and recognize the Creator. When a person learns but does not recognize Hashem, blessed be He, then he has never yet tasted the Torah. That is why the Torah is 'perfect' - no one has touched it yet. - Yes, it has not been touched yet; this is the explanation of the Rebbe of the Maharam Shapiro of Lublin, Rabbi Yisrael of Chortkov, on 'Your Torah is my delight.'
5:06 - It is written in Kotzk too. Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk brings it too, yes. This is actually in the name of the holy Baal Shem Tov. - Yes? - Yes, yes. The holy Baal Shem Tov, he once said this: that 'the Torah of Hashem is perfect' - that it was never touched. For this is once in the name - in the book Doresh Tov, in the name of the holy Baal Shem Tov: that the holy Baal Shem Tov once said that 'the Torah of Hashem is perfect,' that it was never touched.
5:32 For the connection to the Torah has to be with such and such an outlook, that we do not know who Hashem is and do not grasp the Torah. And today the world comes to the Torah with an outlook that they already know who the Torah is, what the Torah is; they think that they have touched it and already understood it, and they already know who Hashem is too - there is a G-d in heaven. They come with the outlook that they already grasp everything.
5:59 But with the tzaddikim - the Torah, once, how was it? They understood that they had never yet learned; they had not even begun. And now one has to begin anew - this is the secret of 'they shall be in your eyes as new': that a person should understand that he has not yet merited to grasp anything; each time he has to begin the Torah anew. And then, as it were, one can also understand why [unclear] - 'they mount up to the heavens, they go down to the depths' - for those who attain this level, for them it is a sin, and for the tzaddikim this level is nothing, and not an attainment, as it once was, that they say the fear of Heaven among the tzaddikim - that there is a difference among them, a difference between tzaddikim. The Maharal of Prague also explains that just as there is a Jew and a non-Jew, a difference between them, so too between tzaddikim:
6:45 that this tzaddik has such great levels of holiness that this tzaddik is not considered anything before him, for he is far beyond him in his levels of holiness. So it is exactly the same thing. Say, with that tzaddik, what he attains on Yom Kippur, when he is in levels of holiness and elevation, at the most exalted level there is - there is a tzaddik much greater than him, for whom this is in the middle of the year, at Minchah time, when he goes to sleep.
7:16 That same fear of Heaven that he attains at such a time, for the other one it is only on Yom Kippur, at that level. I think that for this one, it is a mountain of elevation, that he is at such a level; for the other one, it is the depths. Like, this is above and this is below. The question is: how does one receive the Torah? Like, you can receive the Torah below, you can receive the Torah above. But the level is that the person should draw himself close to the Torah.
7:41 That is why today they are mistaken. Today, in explaining, what do they do? They want to bring some person close, so they start leaving out the Torah so that he will understand it. They start twisting and distorting and changing, and they try to tell the person, 'Come, draw close' - but that is not right. For one has to take the person and bring him close to the Torah, like Aharon: 'Loves the creatures and brings them close to the Torah.' Aharon does not take the Torah and bring it close to them, for if you bring it close to them, then you bring the Torah down to the depths.
8:09 But the Torah was given [unclear] - it was given in the heavens. Perhaps one can explain it this way. That is what his honor says. I don't... On Shavuos we have the hilula of the Imrei Emes. - Oh, the Imrei Emes of Ger! Ah, this is a picture of the Imrei Emes of Ger. Wow, wow, wow, what a merit. Wow, wow, wow... what work! Is this for me? - Yes.
8:37 Wow, what a merit, what a merit. Such a thing you made for me - this is something. What a merit to receive such a thing from you. What a merit. [unclear] - there is the Imrei Emes, the Beis Yisrael, the Lev Simchah, the [unclear]. Wow, wow. There is a picture that was taken on Shabbos, something like that, and a non-Jew photographed him, and he goes like this to the shtreimel, right?
9:06 I don't know if that one is here. Wow, what a thing this is. No. How beautiful - these are rare pictures; I don't have these pictures at all.
9:32 That is, I do have some rare pictures, but like this, this I don't have at all. Wow, wow, what pictures - wonder of wonders. I also have a picture that is on a ship [unclear]. Do you know it?
10:01 Wow, what a wonder of wonders, what a merit. Thank you very much, thank you, thank you. This is a very great merit for me; this is very rare - I have not seen these pictures. - Thank you very much to the Rav, thank you. I was very, very happy to see you. Thank you very much to the Rav, thank you very much to the Rav, [unclear]. A happy holiday, and receiving of the Torah [unclear].
10:37 This is the tradition of Ger. Do you keep this custom today? - Yes. This is from the Maggid of Kozhnitz. I knew that the Chiddushei HaRim - I saw in Likutei HaRim, when he was particular about the apple, he said, 'The apple shall not move from his table on Friday night.' That is how the Chiddushei HaRim used to do it, and he said that he received it from the Maggid of Kozhnitz, after he went over to the Rebbe of Kozhnitz; and the apple would not move from it.
11:05 That is, this - the apple - I don't stop [unclear]. Why are the Jewish people compared to an apple? To the apple [unclear]. There is a great, crazy crush of people here. There is also the Zohar, Acharei Mos, page [unclear], and the Zohar, Acharei Mos... And the Zohar [unclear] why I... Show me the matters there. 'Let not the foot of pride come upon me' - this [unclear] said before his passing.
11:35 After he [unclear], he said, 'Let not the foot of pride come upon me,' [unclear] [unclear], 'Let not the foot of pride come upon me,' and then [unclear].
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