The Yanuka Rav Shlomo Yehuda-＂האם צדיקים יכולים לטעות？ שו＂ת עם הגאון הינוקא במוצ＂ש בסעודה שלישית מול חומות ירושלים

2:58 One has to judge, hear the case, know what happened, what the reason was, whether there was some arousal of suspicion, whether he behaved improperly with people, whether he himself spoke lashon hara — these are things that need to be checked. These are things that [unclear], yes. - The Rav wrote that each one is like a solo musician, so if our mission, according to what the Rav says, is like Avraham Avinu, 'Lech Lecha', to spread your light to others, then how is that a solo musician? A solo musician means he needs to make his own voice heard, to work on himself, [unclear] himself.

3:32 What does the Rav mean here? - I didn't understand the question. - The Rav made it: everyone needs to be like Avraham Avinu, who did 'Lech Lecha', you said 'go', he needs to light the light for others, right. Not to worry about himself, about his own sanctification. On the other hand, the Rav brought an example, like a musician. That's what the Midrash says, a parable of balsam, oil, that goes and drips in all kinds of places. Yes. Right after that the Rav writes there that he should not be like a musician of others, that of his own music he should be the musician.

3:59 What... yes, what's within him, yes. Yes. So, like, how does that fit? We find not to work on himself, but like a musician for others? No. So why do they need to play their own music? One needs to play for others. - Look, I'll explain. Every person needs, on one side, to shine his light outward. Each one of us has a light that he needs to reveal. Our purpose here in the world in which we live is to try to reveal the light of Hashem, blessed be He, and to reveal the role, the unique one, for which we came into the world.

4:28 Each one of us has a purpose, and we did not come into the world in order to wander around here and travel and go and come back. It's not for that. We came here in order to reveal the kingship of Hashem. One needs to change the reality there is here in the world. There are goals here, there are roles here, there is a purpose here, right? One needs to change here the... Each one needs to change and turn over the whole world until His G-dliness is revealed in all the worlds, all of them. That all will testify that Hashem is One. That is the true purpose.

4:59 But for that, the Satan lies in wait on the way and doesn't let anything happen. And especially, he prevents a person from coming close to a sage and a true tzaddik. And why? Because only a sage and a true tzaddik can reveal in a person his true role and purpose, and bring out of him the hidden good. I once gave a parable for this: it's like when we go to the great sea.

5:24 Inside the great sea there is a chest, and inside this chest there are keys, and these keys that are inside the chest in the great sea open another chest that is inside the great sea, and inside that chest there is a key that opens another chest that is inside the great sea, and there is found the true revelation of the person. How hard is it to find the first chest?

5:50 Right? It's impossible to find a chest, and find inside that chest, find among all the keys, find one key that opens another chest, and inside that chest you'll find another key that will open another chest, and there you'll find the key. This is, as it were, to illustrate to you how almost impossible it is to open the heart. The heart is very sealed; we pray the same prayer for 70-80 years, perhaps we'll pray once with intention of the heart before the Holy One, blessed be He.

6:17 And when one truly comes close to the true Rebbe, to the true tzaddik, it's in order to light up for me the way to find the keys and the treasures hidden in me. The difference between a true Rebbe and a Rebbe who isn't true: a true Rebbe tries to light me up and lift me up and make me grow, while a Rebbe who isn't true tries to make himself grow at my expense, and to darken me and make me fall. - So all those who are not true are [unclear]?

6:43 - It's not truth, it's not the right way. That is, the true purpose is to light up Jewish souls, and that's what I explained in the morning, after Shacharis prayer, if you were there, about the difference between the kingship of Shaul and the kingship of David, Rechavam, Yeravam, King David, King Shlomo, about the difference between them, between the kingship David received and the kingship Shaul received, and you can already understand the differences from that yourself. And this is also what I said, the difference, the distinction regarding the blessing 'Who has apportioned of His glory to flesh and blood', over a king who can kill, and has the kingship and the leadership and authority, as opposed to leaders who don't have the kingship and the leadership; they only have authority.

7:26 So one can't say over them the blessing 'Who has apportioned of His glory to flesh and blood'. Only over such a king, such as the President of the United States, and such truly great ones who have the ability. That's the distinction. So that's what I explained at Shacharis prayer; if you pay attention, you can understand it from that. - Thank you very much. They said of great tzaddikim like Rabbi Nachman and such, that they were — they knew people's thoughts and knew everything, what was, what will be, etc., etc. On the other hand I saw that Rabbi Yechezkel of Shinova writes, he says that whoever thinks that a tzaddik can never err, [unclear], yes.

7:58 So how does that fit? And it is also written, 'according to all that they instruct you' — that is, even if he tells you left, that right is left, So they ask him to go, like, with eyes closed after someone who can err? So how do they ask such a thing? - No, I didn't manage to understand, like. - They say, they say that one needs to [unclear] a tzaddik. - If only you would err once in your life like a tzaddik, if only. - Rav, I'm asking. - No, I'm saying, if only we would err, like, if only we would err like tzaddikim, yes? No, not your question. What — wait, a question: what is Tractate Horayos?

8:28 What is it? Horayos of the beis din. It's the tractate where, as it were, the beis din ruled in error, inadvertently; they ruled, an error, a matter deliberately, inadvertently. What's the problem? Like — no, I'm asking also, why are you going to Rabbi Yechezkel of Shinova? Go to Tractate Horayos. - But does the Rav, like, agree with this thing, that, like, tzaddikim too can make the biggest [unclear] in the world? - Once again, once again, it's not a matter of tzaddikim... who need more subtlety — it's not on our level. Today, today Rav [unclear] asked after the prayer, at the Kiddush, he asked about Avraham Avinu going down to Egypt, and seemingly it was a mistake, as it were, yes?

9:05 So he asked how that can be, and I explained it: that all the meaning of the stories with David and with Bas Sheva, and all the stories that we see, as it were, in our eyes, about things where the Sages erred or made mistakes, one must know and understand that the mistake is with us. The Sages and the holy tzaddikim, who served Hashem in purity and in perfection — we cannot investigate and probe after them. You need to understand this.

9:32 Because all of Judaism is built and founded on emunas chachamim, faith in the Sages, on the receiving of the Torah. And the moment we start to raise in our thoughts Sages who err, or such a mistake, then you, as it were, come and try to generalize and invalidate the whole Torah. Because you can come from this and say, wait, who said that... And this is how many begin, who start giving all kinds of interpretations of certain books: who said he wrote it, who said that he said the truth.

10:03 Now you can ask this about Maran the Beis Yosef. You go according to Maran the Beis Yosef? Maybe go according to the Rema? And who said the Rema is right? And who said that maybe he erred? Heaven forbid. No, I'll explain this thing to you. - About Moshe Rabbeinu it's written, 'every place that he got angry' — he didn't err? - No. Since you see... King David's child was killed because of the sin of Bas Sheva. - Right. Whoever thinks that with a married woman there was... It was a moral sin. It's a moral sin.

10:28 It's not... But it's still a sin. It's an error, a mistake. - It's not, no, no, no. No, no. Heaven forbid, no. Heaven forbid. I'll explain to you. - Not a sin [unclear], but he made a mistake. This tells him, 'Uriah the Hittite you killed with the sword'. - Yes, yes. These things are called, in our eyes, it's not moral, and it's a sin for the level of David. - Yes, yes. For his level.

10:52 The thing is not a sin, okay? One needs to understand it with a true interpretation. Not a sin like someone who falls with a woman. No. But the very interpretation where you even see in him a sliver of sin, you understand? Some flaw or small defect whatsoever — that is already a way of distortion and twisting, Heaven forbid, of all the words of our Rabbis. You need to understand this. You need to know that with holy ones and tzaddikim and Sages, here one needs to go with eyes closed.

11:20 I said, only when a Sage transgresses the Shulchan Aruch and gives rulings that are against Maran the Shulchan Aruch, and they increase sins among the Jewish people — here we are permitted to rise up and protest and ask and investigate. But as long as they are Sages, we have no permission to challenge them, or to look, or to ask right or left, or such a thing, because they are holy ones of the Most High. One who gave his soul, his whole life, for the service of Hashem, blessed be He, and Moshe Rabbeinu, who went up on high, and was half of him an angel and half of him a man — you can't say that he erred, because then you compare him with Yosef from the grocery store who errs [unclear]. - I don't know, but I think that 'every place that he got angry' — that's the Midrash, it's not me who said it on my own. - This mistake comes to tell you

12:00 you need to learn from this: [unclear], say to yourself, even if you erred a lot, be comforted: Moshe Rabbeinu also erred. He didn't err. But he didn't err. He erred in order, as it were, to show you that you too have hope and a remedy. - That's not a mistake? - It's not a mistake, yes. These holy ones — Avraham Avinu did not err, Avraham Avinu, and King David did not sin. These, the tzaddikim, the Sages, are whole. And what the Gemara says, 'David sinned' — 'is nothing but mistaken' — it is to teach teshuvah to the individual.

12:27 You understand? The Zohar too — the Zohar, for example, elaborates on this. - Why was David's child killed if he didn't sin at all? - Again, it's not... - For 22 years the holy spirit departed, because of the sin of Bas Sheva. - I'm saying again. - So I'm trying to understand. - I'll explain. We are not talking about a sin that is a sin as we interpret it. At David's level, between him and the Creator, it's between him and the Creator, right? - Yes, between him and the Creator. You can't ask, you can't harbor doubts.

12:53 It's between him and Hashem. - Why [unclear] this? Why [unclear] the... [unclear], and killed his child, and this and that. - It's to teach us, to teach teshuvah to the individual, because even King David, as it were — so I have hope and a remedy. Because if now I say, listen, I have no hope and remedy anymore. Listen, I — imagine — here, these are whole: Moshe is whole, David is whole, Avraham is whole, he didn't err when he went down to Egypt, and Moshe Rabbeinu never erred, and he broke the Tablets.

13:17 So they're all whole, everything's fine. So I have no hope and remedy of ever reaching anything — so what do I need my teshuvah for? Rather, they teach you that these holy ones too, at their level, since they came under the attribute of strict judgment with the Holy One, blessed be He, so the Holy One, blessed be He, found in them too something that is not right. So this thing that isn't right is not called a sin, because when you interpret 'sin', you need to understand that sin means disconnection from the Creator.

13:43 That the Holy One, blessed be He, punishes him — He counts it for him as a sin. You understand? The Rambam says that [unclear] — the Rambam, the Rambam writes that a person who [unclear] in piety and people listen to him — there are people who are great and above, for them it is fitting to be more stringent than another person. If he isn't stringent, for him it's, as it were, some kind of certain sin, yes? But for a person on a higher level — the higher a person's level and rank, the more is demanded of him, and the obligation upon him, both in morality and in such things, to conduct himself more so. And it may be that in the eyes of the Creator, this conduct and this slight flaw, in Hashem's eyes is considered a sin.

14:25 But when it's called a sin, it's called that in this kind of meaning. It's not called a sin, it's not called a sin in our interpretation, you understand? For example, I'll give you an example — wait, wait. I'll give you an example, yes? Rebbe Elimelech was with the Chozeh of Lublin on Rosh Hashanah, and they did Tashlich. So the Chozeh wanted to jump into the Tashlich; he said, he wanted to immerse in the sins of Rebbe Elimelech.

14:52 That the sins — these are his sins, yes? And they say that once he fasted from Shabbos to Shabbos because he didn't have proper intention in saying Hodu. He didn't have proper intention in 'Give thanks to Hashem, call upon His name', he cried over it and fasted over it. Each one — stories of tzaddikim that you see about these holy ones, and [unclear] — for him it's a serious thing. And there was a story with one of the holy ones whose name I won't say, I won't say his name, so that it's not a story taken out of its context and such.

15:21 But it's written in the Gemara, in Tractate Sotah, page 4, that one who is arrogant is as if he committed all the forbidden relations. He sat and began to cry that, as it were, he had stumbled in things that are not good. He cried and cried and screamed. And then there was a commotion that, as it were, Heaven forbid — they said that he sinned, and he spoke about it in public when he cried. And then when they understood — when they asked his son, the son said, what do you want?

15:46 'One who is arrogant is as if he committed all the forbidden relations' — so he felt, for himself, that the thought of pride he had at the table, for him that was considered as if, Heaven forbid, he sinned. So with tzaddikim, the meaning of sin is not our meaning. With us it's [unclear]; we are not on these levels. We need to know to look at the holy ones as tzaddikim. [unclear] that the Rosh writes that whoever, Heaven forbid, disgraces Torah scholars, his law is [unclear] an apikores, and Rabbeinu [unclear] says [unclear] yayin nesech, and one needs to be very, very careful with this, with the honor of Torah scholars, for one who disgraces a Torah scholar has no healing for his wound.

16:21 And I explained why: because afterwards, when you need salvation from the Sage, he won't save you. You can now disgrace him, you can now mock him. Afterwards you'll need salvation, it's not that — even if he wants to save you and prays for you, you won't be able, because you disgraced his Torah. Therefore — because the Torah is what heals, that his brother was decreed to die, and he received another 22 years, 22 years, because of the letters of the Torah, that he honored Torah scholars; because of his honor for Torah scholars, because of that he received 22 years, but if he had disgraced Torah scholars, then 22 years would have been cut short from him.

16:55 That is, honoring a Torah scholar isn't that you honor a Torah scholar, you honor the Torah that is in the Torah scholar. So to come and say tzaddikim err, or such things — these are very harsh expressions, and these are things that come to tell us that they too — the tzaddikim themselves too — have their own mussar: always, always not to think that they are already tzaddikim and can never err. They always need to be searching, and asking of Hashem, blessed be He, because after that tzaddikim will sit by themselves and say to themselves, how nice, we immersed, we were in the mikveh, we learn, we pray, we are tzaddikim, we can never err.

17:32 Where is it written that we can err? Come look, see, it's not written. But then suddenly they see — maybe David sinned, maybe Moshe Rabbeinu sinned, maybe — and then suddenly everyone understands too; they always grasp everyone with a human grasp, to think that they too are flesh and blood, and 'there is no righteous man on earth who does good and does not sin', and everyone needs Hashem, blessed be He, and in order to make a separation, and the kingship, so that they won't worship them as idolatry, so that everyone will serve Hashem. These are matters of great mussar and are not called a sin; and a twisted and corrupt interpretation, like people will start to say, Yosef from the grocery store, him too — and what's the difference between David, and what's the difference between this. As I often encounter — I often happen to meet — suddenly you see some person who doesn't know Torah or anything, and you see him simply talking here with a chain on, and talking about King David

18:19 as if he's his friend that he worked with and saw for twenty years, and he has questions about David, and look, I don't know, I'm not... All this is caused by the flaw that they taught us and told us through people, or even through rabbis, or even through any person who has such expressions, as you said, of the Divrei Yechezkel of Shinova, who is a holy one of the Most High, but they didn't explain the words... - Does the Rav justify the question? No, I agree, I agree with that — why is it heresy?

18:48 - It's not heresy. Because the interpretation of what he said is what I explained. Because that's what he meant; he didn't mean something else. Be sure that he didn't mean something else. Be sure. - I just don't understand. Don't understand. - To understand the words of the Sages one needs a lot, a lot; 'until a person grasps the mind of his teacher' — forty years. That's fine. Tell me, tzaddikim, did you understand? Let's see what the majority understood.

19:17 Did you understand? I'll answer you, I'll answer you, but wait, I have to go back to him for one second, he simply [unclear] here the matter of the tzaddikim, of this thing. - No, no, no, I didn't manage to understand; to me it sounds exactly — to me it sounds the opposite of what the Rav said. - No, I'll explain something to you, look, the majority here, baruch Hashem, understands, but I'll explain something to you.

19:48 No, he must too. Come, explain to me what you didn't understand, I'll be able to... - Because the Rav said, from our standpoint tzaddikim don't err. - Right. - If tzaddikim erred, it's only so that we understand that even such a tzaddik can err; he didn't really err. What about Yochanan the High Priest, who became a Sadducee? - I don't know. - He doesn't know? I'm asking you too. - But I don't understand. - No, but he was, and he distanced himself. - I don't understand. - I'll explain to you: an error and a sin are called so when there was a disconnection from the Holy One, blessed be He. As long as there's no disconnection from the Holy One, blessed be He, you can't call it a sin or a disconnection.

20:14 If you saw King David, Heaven forbid, going and distancing himself, serving idols — now you can say sin. As long as he didn't disconnect from the Creator, you can't call such a reality a sin. About Yochanan the High Priest, who served in the Holy of Holies, [unclear] a Sadducee, one can say that he sinned. And you can't speak of a reality of sin about such a holy person, blessed be Hashem. - That I understood. I didn't understand why it's heresy. If a tzaddik says — to say that a tzaddik never errs is heresy — that I didn't understand.

20:40 That I understood; what he said explains it excellently. - So look, I'll tell you what: it can be that a person will be a great tzaddik, on a great level, and he will disagree with another tzaddik. - But why is it heresy? - But to say that he doesn't err is heresy. Because you can say, listen, what he says is holy of holies, he need not err. Maybe he errs about that tzaddik, about another Sage. Maybe there's a tzaddik greater than him, and he thinks that he's the greatest, and he thinks that this is the right way. But there were things that could have been reconciled, and they held other views.

21:10 So one can't say, this is true and that is true. But this one held so. As in Tractate Eruvin, page 13, the Gemara says, 'These and these are the words of the living G-d', about Beis Shammai and Beis Hillel. That these and these were the words of the living G-d. What does that mean? On one side Beis Shammai say so, on the other side — so what's the truth? This or that? Rather, the interpretation is that this is true and that is true. We can't come and interfere. In the end, there is one halachah.

21:34 Rashi and Rabbeinu Tam: you put on Rashi and Rabbeinu Tam, one of them is the truth. You don't say the blessing 'to put on tefillin' and intend both Rashi and Rabbeinu Tam. You intend for what one needs to fulfill the obligation according to halachah, what was correct according to halachah. We don't know what's correct according to halachah, Rashi or Rabbeinu Tam. The Responsa of Rabbi Yaakov of Marvege, Responsa from Heaven — he says it's Rabbeinu Tam. According to halachah it was ruled that it's Rashi. So let's say we bless over Rashi and Rabbeinu Tam — for both of them one needs to bless.

22:01 You don't intend so; you intend for what is correct according to halachah. You need to intend: I intend to fulfill my obligation with whichever of them is the correct halachah. So seemingly, according to these words, it comes out, as it were, that there is someone here who isn't the correct view; as it were, that's called erring. - No, but 'these and these are the words of the living G-d'. - Yes. There are seventy faces to the Torah, Rav, this one says so, and that one says so, so actually one can understand, because the Holy One, blessed be He, gave the power to the Sages: what they rule this way is ruled from Heaven.

22:29 - Right, they rule from Heaven, but again, it's always to come and tell us — a message to tzaddikim, and a message to Sages, and a message to every person created here in this world — that as long as he is here in the world, he must call out [unclear] 'Teach me, Hashem, Your way', one always needs to ask the Holy One, blessed be He, for the truth. The moment you already feel that you've reached the truth, or the rest and the inheritance, and even you think you'll be the great one of the generation, or you think you're King David, soon a person will enter the fantasy that he's Moshe Rabbeinu and will say, I never err.

23:02 And then the Sages tell him, wait, come see, look at Moshe Rabbeinu, come look at Avraham Avinu. But still, we must look at the Sages as the honored ones of the land, as those of high standing, because the time, and the self-sacrifice, and the Torah, and the spirit of Hashem that stirs within them from serving Hashem — they are not like other people. If only we would be like the donkey of Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair, okay, which knew to tell apart what is tithed and what is not tithed.

23:26 Today we are in the shattering of the generations. You need to understand about the level of holiness. Everything... one shouldn't compare, it's not... that they are a hundred, a million levels above us. Look, say you have, for example, to keep a halachah, yes? There's a halachah that I need to keep. There is, on one side, l'chatchilah, and there is b'dieved. [unclear] — what, is b'dieved a mistake? It's not a mistake. This is halachah and that is halachah. It's the same halachah. This is l'chatchilah, and that is b'dieved — being lenient in a certain case.

23:53 You understand? One can be lenient in a certain case. You understand — think now, it's cold, look how cold it is outside. And now — once they had to, a woman had to go immerse with self-sacrifice. She would go in the cold, in the snow, in the cold, in the ice, she would immerse, and suddenly something would happen to come before her, an animal or something not good, she would go and immerse again, being stringent on herself. Now, she immersed the first time. So what, can't she go like that?

24:19 Why is she stringent on herself to immerse again? Wait, I want to understand what the truth is. Because seemingly, there is here — it's not a mistake. If she seemingly fulfilled it the first time — she could fulfill it — now it's cold, look how cold it is here, we're sitting here in the cold, and she needs to immerse in such cold, not like today, when there are heated mikvaos and everything is warm and everyone immerses [unclear]. It was cold, so she had to immerse in the mikveh, she immerses, and then when she comes out, suddenly some non-Jew or something not good happens to come before her, or a domestic or wild animal; in the censored version it was written 'domestic or wild animal'.

24:49 Because of the censorship, it was written 'domestic or wild animal', yes? It was a domestic or wild animal, and suddenly she goes back to immerse. So you say, wow, that's self-sacrifice. After she came out, after this, in all this great cold, she goes back again to immerse because of the self-sacrifice. Now you ask about that woman: did the first immersion that she immersed not count for her? She fulfilled her obligation. What's this going back for? What's this stringency for?

25:14 But if you hear about tzaddikim, about Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, he was born from such an immersion, and about all kinds of holy ones who immersed, and in the end such a soul was born. Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev was born from this immersion. His mother went to the mikveh and immersed, Sarah Sasha, and came back, and an impure animal happened to come before her, and immediately she went back again and immersed, and then the Kedushas Levi of Berditchev was born. That is, you see that the mother's self-sacrifice gave birth to this great thing. Now, would the Kedushas Levi not have come out the first time?

25:47 This is a very great tzaddik, that you can agree with me that he didn't err, yes? But maybe he erred, maybe he didn't err, I don't know — but a very great tzaddik was born. You see that this [unclear] — his mother decided to fulfill the mitzvah with self-sacrifice. That is, this self-sacrifice is what gives birth to all this influence. These are things one needs to contemplate, yes? Because of the censorship they wrote 'domestic or wild animal', but it happened, you know. Like, it's written 'domestic or wild animal'; I'm saying it this way because now we are being recorded here.

26:16 The Beis Yosef — it's in Yoreh De'ah, siman 198, se'if 48, in the name of the Sha'arei Dura and the Rokeach, there it writes this, that it happened to come, as it were. Now, from the side of self-sacrifice you can say this; from that side you can say that; but can you decide whether it's a mistake, or whether it's seemingly a right thing for her to go back home after she saw such a thing — is it a sin?

26:46 You can say it's a mistake, you can say it's not a good thing, because other tzaddikim immersed again with self-sacrifice. So the whole interpretation of calling someone one who erred or sinned, is up to the interpretation of whoever wants to interpret it, but in its true meaning it is not called a sin. So with everything - I gave you an example now of how you can contemplate, and you can go through every part in the way of the Torah and you will be able to receive the true interpretation.

27:13 And therefore I think that... - Some story about the Chozeh of Lublin, [unclear] - he said that for the sake of lashon hara about Jews, he said, the Baal Davar [unclear] a person twenty years, [unclear], only so that I would accept. That is, he succeeded, the Baal Davar, in misleading him, even the Chozeh of Lublin, who was a disciple of [unclear]. - Right, right, right, absolutely. Right, for this one needs to pray all the days of our lives that we never stumble, that we never err, and one must always, always be easy to appease.

27:44 Always. Always, always to be appeased, and to try to make peace and to think well. Only, one must beware of those closed-minded people who think the truth is with them and are never willing to hear the truth. I have said every time: there are many people who are ready to argue and to dispute, but they never know what they are disputing about and what they are arguing about. And this is much worse than baseless hatred. When there is baseless hatred, there is still feeling toward one another. But sadly there is much more than baseless hatred, where people no longer recognize them as living on the face of the earth.

28:14 They simply want to wipe them off the face of the earth. What is the reason? There is no reason. This is no longer baseless hatred. The nations of the world don't hate us - it is no longer called baseless hatred. They simply do not want our existence. It is already far beyond that. Maybe once it was; today we have already come to a level where they simply destroy - they want to destroy from the world. - Rabbi, there was some... you already have... you have [unclear], someone in the government in the United States, he said, 'I am a non-Jew, and I tell you, beware of the non-Jews; even I myself, every time some kind of urge comes up in me as if to slaughter you.' He himself admitted it; he said, 'I don't understand myself' - he even has some Jewish son-in-law or something like that - and he said, 'I am a non-Jew, and every time it comes up in me that I want to kill Jews; I don't understand it; guard yourselves even from me.' There was such an incident in the time of [unclear], that one non-Jew came and announced that he has a lust to murder;

29:04 he told them, 'Guard yourselves.' It's the same story as in his time. - Is that the story, or something from today? - It was two weeks ago. - Ah, I don't know... It's a story from before the... [unclear] Rabbi, how do we [unclear] the closed spirit there is in the world? After all, on one hand we see [unclear]; on the other hand we see the closed spirit, a little academia, a little money, a little work, the world is overflowing, baruch Hashem - abundance, a little internet, people forget the Holy One, blessed be He - how can one overcome, and truly be a good Jew, get over this hurdle and bring Mashiach closer?

29:38 - For this we have 'I have set Hashem before me always,' and 'In all your ways know Him, and He will straighten your paths.' Every time that we can learn Torah, we need to learn and pray and cleave to Hashem. But in every trial we go through here in the world - each time the Holy One, blessed be He, tests us in all kinds of ways. And one needs to hear the voice of the Holy One, blessed be He, from every reality. 'And from there you will seek Hashem your G-d, and you will find Him, when you seek Him with all your heart.'

30:03 The main thing is that we love the Jewish people and do not try to look for evil that does not exist, because this is Hashem's people; in the end we are all the handiwork of the Holy One, blessed be He, and all the creatures are dear to the Holy One, blessed be He. Hashem, blessed be He, does not like it when people speak about His tefillin; it is written in His tefillin, 'Who is like Your people Israel.' It is not for nothing that it is called: 'What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow' - that this is the whole Torah. Because distance from Hashem, blessed be He, is in fact that you speak about His tefillin. The tefillin are a hint of cleaving, they are a sign of a person's cleaving; this is the way, and the drawing close to Hashem, blessed be He, through it.

30:38 Heaven forbid, a person speaks badly about the Jewish people - he is speaking about the letters of the Torah, he is speaking about a Torah scroll. Consequently he has no desire for Torah, consequently he does not cleave to the Torah; and always, always, always, all talebearers are [unclear], they dispute with tzaddikim, they do not cleave to the Torah, they loathe the Torah, and they speak ill of the Jewish people. And the opposite: people who love Israel, and people who speak well of the Jewish people, and love the Torah - their eye is always better too, and their heart is closer to the Holy One, blessed be He. Because when you love the Father, then you also love His children.

31:11 So the Father, [unclear] - it is the same thing. This is truly the only way not to leave the Holy One, blessed be He. Therefore you will always see that the place where you see it - in Tractate Yoma, on page 9b - the place that was the perfection of cleaving in the world is the Beis HaMikdash, and the Beis HaMikdash was destroyed because of this. According to the Yerushalmi, in Taanis, chapter 4, halacha [unclear], it is written that Jerusalem was destroyed because they played ball on Shabbos.

31:37 Today people play ball; maybe they already had a ball then, I don't know, but you see that this was according to the Yerushalmi; but according to the Talmud you see that the true meaning is to separate from this hatred, because this hatred, in the end, is what distances the House of Hashem. The House of Hashem is the perfection and the cleaving to the Holy One, blessed be He. Now we have no Beis HaMikdash - create it yourself. Your Beis HaMikdash will be the Mishkan: the head, the brain, the thoughts, the body, [unclear] Israel - be a good person, be good with your heart, do good deeds of kindness, love, have compassion, be reasonable, be wise, ask for Daas Torah; always say, 'I am mistaken, I always need to receive from a sage,' from a sage, not to bring in your own opinion. Always, a person - the moment a person is full of the desires and lusts of his own opinion,

32:22 it can never aim at the truth. It is hard for him to be directed to the truth. Every person builds himself a truth that is built according to his lust and his will. He has a will, he has a lust, and he builds himself a truth. And then he says, 'This is the truth.' He is not willing to accept from anyone else. And there is a truth that is built on breaking a person's will. The Sages - their truth is not built from their lust and their will. They broke their lust, their will, and built truth.

32:50 And this is the truest truth, this is Daas Torah, this is the mind of the Sages. The true mussar and the true Torah outlook. Whereas the truth of the world is built from their lust and their will. When they want such-and-such a thing, and they fall in love with such-and-such a thing, and they say, 'This is the truth.' They tell everyone to go by this truth, and they argue with you that the truth is with them, to the point that they are foolish about hearing the real truth of the Torah and the Sages.

33:15 So therefore every such thing requires of us much, much thought and contemplation. - The Rav said that one needs to be loyal to the Rav, to learn his Torah. What does 'loyal to the Rebbe' mean? - I did not say to be loyal to the Rav, or loyal in his Torah. I said what the Rebbe [unclear] said, that the way of closeness between a chassid and the Rebbe is to learn his Torah and to be loyal to him. That is the way. Loyalty - the meaning is loyalty as you understand it.

33:42 Loyalty means - explain what the trait of loyalty is, and understand how far these matters go, without measure. There are so many levels in loyalty that they divide into a great, great many sections. - If sometimes it is not possible to reach the Rav, can one then ask another Rav and try to [unclear] what the Rav wants? Like, say, it's not always possible to get to the Rav and ask him. - Yes, I understand. Look, that is already something else.

34:06 Every sage and Rav has his own opinion and his own outlook, and sometimes the opinions contradict, or are slanted, or things like that. [unclear] patience, no patience, I don't know; everyone needs to ask for the counsel of the Sages, one must always ask for Daas Torah, to receive; and there are, baruch Hashem, you know, Torah scholars who know what their Rav's opinion is. One can ask Torah scholars who know what their Rav's opinion is. You go to a Torah scholar who learns from their Rav and you ask him - it is as if you are asking the Rav; you ask the disciple, sometimes the disciple can point things out to you and know many more things than the Rav.

34:38 They say that with the holy Maggid of Mezritch, many could not receive from his opinion. They went to Rebbe Elimelech and asked him - asked Rebbe Elimelech - why the Maggid did such-and-such. And they would accept the advice. Sometimes you ask a sage and can know his outlook and his opinion. - A question. Two questions. What is the Rav's guidance on [unclear]? And do you think - I mean the Kuzari, the Moreh Nevuchim, Emunos v'Deos, and so on, and do you think the public lacks this, or does it learn these things enough?

35:09 - Look, he spoke about the book of the Kuzari and the Moreh Nevuchim, and so on. I will explain something. There is one problem in learning these books: that the level of learning of these books - they are very, very hard books to understand, and whoever learns them needs to be a very great sage. These are not books that are easy to understand. These are books where today people need a great, great deal of depth and a great deal of intellect to understand and grasp the wisdom of the Rambam, yes?

35:44 Or to learn the writings of Rav Saadia Gaon. These are things that require a great deal of wisdom. Do you agree with me? You cannot be - not every simple layman who tries to learn these books will be able to understand from them. - Certainly; I meant to hear from the Rav, as a man of truth, like, whether the rabbis pass it on enough, or whether it... - Look, today perhaps - why do they pass it on and why not? I think that today, in the generation we have reached, all the learning, this investigation after Hashem, blessed be He - we need to investigate our deeds more, you understand?

36:15 Instead of investigating the existence of Hashem, we need to investigate the deeds more. We have drifted so far from Hashem, blessed be He, and the deeds very much do not match the reality, and instead of investigating Hashem's existence and trying to learn philosophy about His existence and being, that He is One and that He exists - Look, I learned the Moreh Nevuchim and the Kuzari and Emunos v'Deos many times. I learned it also so that I would know what to answer.

36:42 Because I often had conversations with people who had learned it, and they were not in line with Daas Torah. They used it to attack all kinds of people and to influence them. And I had to learn it in order to know what to answer every person, if I should need to speak with him on this subject. But if you ask me whether I learned the whole Moreh Nevuchim and all of Emunos v'Deos and all of the Kuzari - only once.

37:13 Not more than once, only once. - Enough, the Rav can't hear. Fine, yes, but I did not take this book and learn it many, many, many times and review it and so on; I learned it once. Because Rebbe Pinchas of Koretz expressed that he learned the Moreh Nevuchim a thousand times. A thousand times he learned it, yes? I, compared to him, am not even anything - but as an idea, I'll explain.

37:43 - I want to finish the question first: it is a kind of thing that people shouldn't deal with, you know, [unclear], very great people, the Rambam himself wrote it, and he said it is an important thing, that like... - Right. So how does it, like, fit with our reality? That, like, many people, like - what, one shouldn't deal with it? - No, I'll explain. You are right in what you say. I'll explain something - that there is a problem. Today there are difficulties anyway. Today we are in a situation where we have a great many questions.

38:09 We have a great many difficulties. And to put into people meanwhile - you need to understand that this book was composed in its time for very educated people. There was then, in general, in all the generations, in all the last hundreds of years, there was the Haskalah movement, and people were very educated; they had free time. They didn't have so many troubles - terrorists, accidents, disasters, from here, from here, from here.

38:34 They had more peace of mind. And then the Haskalah movement comes and begins to put into them all kinds of new ways in the world, and methods. People had to deal with it; it suited them more. Today people are very weak, they can barely lift their head to Heaven anymore, and by the time a person lifts his head, he already wants to say Tehillim. Because the Jewish people, in our generation - their level of emunah is tremendous. More than previous generations - it is astonishing. You see our generation today, how a Jew returns to Hashem, blessed be He, and there is teshuvah in this generation; you see how much teshuvah there is. Once there was a hard heart, and today there is a heart of flesh. Everyone is returning to Hashem, and you see teshuvah, and [unclear], and there is a lot.

39:13 And who is like Your people Israel? All over the world you see it: teshuvah, people thirsting for Hashem, blessed be He, and crying, and wanting Tehillim, they want [unclear]. So I think this comes from the nature of the generation: the generation knows Hashem; it is not thirsty to search after Him, whether He exists or not. These books are more suited to knowing the existence of Hashem. There are very, very great pearls and diamonds there. There are very, very great diamonds there, I tell you.

39:39 Many times you can speak from certain points for the sake of emunah, to give strengthening, but to come and learn and analyze, to draw from it some fixed study and all that - I don't know. I think, you know, the Chazon Ish used to say a very beautiful thing. He said once about mussar, when they asked him how to learn mussar, so he said: mussar does not need to be learned every day for a set amount of time. One learns it when one needs it.

40:09 That is, if now you have come to a certain situation - there is a situation in life where you see that you are not jealous. You work alone, you are the boss, you are not jealous. You have no jealousy. And then you say - for four months already - someone speaks with you about jealousy, you say, 'Baruch Hashem, I don't have this trait, I am not jealous.' A week later, a boss greater than you comes to work, does more than you, they are about to fire you, and he is more talented than you and wiser than you, and suddenly you see that you are really jealous.

40:35 That is, suddenly the trait of jealousy that was hidden was revealed. At that moment, says the Chazon Ish, you need to learn about the trait. When a trait comes up, one needs to learn about it. That is according to his approach. That is, he was in favor of learning Torah all the time, and the merit of the Torah will cleanse you, and everything. This is also Rebbe Chaim Chaikel of Amdur, the author of Chaim VaChesed - he said in the introduction that a little Gemara learned in depth will give you a lot of mussar. But it is always worthwhile to learn about character traits - Orchos Tzaddikim I very much recommend learning, because it truly goes by traits. But always, when you reach a certain time, you will be able to see that learning about a trait goes by the season and the time,

41:11 and the time, in its measure. If you came across, saw, that you are sad, then learn the Gate of Joy. And if you see that you are becoming proud, then learn about pride. That is, don't learn about a trait you are not in at the moment. And then in fact this is also what will accompany you, this is also what will strengthen you, this is also what will build you. You understand? And if you truly need investigation, philosophy, and you feel that you are in some kind of wondering and crisis and some difficulty, and this will strengthen you - learn.

41:42 But it would be more right to pray to the Holy One, blessed be He, that He remove the concealments from you, and so that we will not need to come to this investigation. Because you agree with me that the Rambam did not compose this for... Right? - On that we agree; in his introduction, he writes it. We uphold the words of the Rambam, because we will not learn from it. - There is, say, the Kuzari, it does not necessarily only answer the philosophical questions.

42:07 In the fifth essay it is concerned with philosophy, but the first essay and more - it deals with philosophy, but doesn't give it the... it is divine philosophy. That is, he does not only present his answers to the philosophers, but also presents, let's call it, a whole fabric on which Judaism is built, and what it says. - Right. - This is something that in my opinion is really important. - Right, I agree with you. That is, the point of the Jewish people, the Land of Israel, the Torah of Israel. - Absolutely. That is what I said. There are very great diamonds and excellent and wonderful things that one can learn and teach, but I simply explained that sometimes - you understand the whole of the things I mean. - Yes, no. - On one hand, [unclear], not everyone is fit to learn it now, and it doesn't suit everyone either. - Right. - Because there are those who still have simple faith. And there are those for whom it will also be very hard. - Right. I learned in a Religious-Zionist yeshiva for four years; they very much love

42:58 [unclear], as basic books. - I'll tell you a simple thing, though, about emunah, the philosophy of emunah: get to know tzaddikim, read books of stories of tzaddikim, be around tzaddikim - you will see the Holy One, blessed be He, with your own eyes. But you won't need the questions about whether He exists or doesn't exist, because you will see miracles and things above nature with your own eyes. - It doesn't need to speak from an experience of 22 years; it is not necessarily to stress the intellectual point that I must investigate [unclear], - Right, right. - Why the first cause? - Right, I understood you. There are things here that are, like, much deeper. - Right, right. Much deeper, you are right. It is not purely intellectual investigation. - Right, right. It's all the... what Judaism is built on, where everything begins, where everything is going, what the purpose of Israel is. - You agree with me, but that one needs to be both wise and strong - agree with me on that. - Yes.

43:47 You understand that the generation is weak and not wise. - Rabbi, [unclear] - will it be the same, or will it change? - There will be a purer world, better, cleaner and holier, that will be full of cleaving to the Holy One, blessed be He. - You spoke about, like, 'Hashem will help me' and so on, but where is the matter of livelihood? Sitting in the middle, between emunah and...

44:13 It's like... It's something a bit more than emunah, I know it's there in the books you spoke about, but where does livelihood sit? Like, day by day a person [unclear] also even if he earns a living, he remembers it, he says the truth. - Listen, [unclear] for... Not that it is in the middle, between emunah and what you said.

44:41 Okay. For this, read and learn Rabbeinu Bachya: the Gate of Trust - learn it, with Hashem's help, and you will have very great trust in the Holy One, blessed be He. How do they say? You read it, you don't want to work anymore. I'm already convincing you to sit, and the manna will come down to you into [unclear]. You need to understand: trust in Hashem, blessed be He - this too is [unclear].

45:08 this too one needs to trust in Hashem, blessed be He - that He will give you trust in Hashem, blessed be He. One needs merit and one needs prayer, and we need to draw close to the Creator; and the closer you draw to the King, the more you too will feel His closeness, the faith in Him - but Hashem, blessed be He, exists, and He is with the Jewish people, and He does not leave the Jewish people, and He will never leave us, and you see all the hope and strengthening the Jewish people can receive, and this is the greatest thing possible. - Read the Yerushalmi, chapter nine, [unclear] Berachos.

45:39 It is written there, the blessing that Rabbi Meir says, and it doesn't appear in any other [unclear]. One of the three blessings we say in the morning is 'Blessed... who did not make'... today it is 'Blessed... who did not make me a non-Jew,' 'Blessed... who did not make me a woman,' 'Blessed... who did not make me a slave.' There Rabbi Meir says a blessing, 'Blessed... who made me Israel.' In our days the concept 'Israel', to our great sorrow, in personal identity, is considered negative. Even though we understand that the Holy One, blessed be He, chose us as the people of Israel - as Israel and not as Jews.

46:05 'Jews' is a part, so to speak, separate from this. It is something, so to speak, of a lower level. Israel - the Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh writes that the whole world was created for the sake of Israel. This is the spiritual Yaakov, who was victorious, until the Holy One, blessed be He, Himself in His glory, set it upon Yaakov. The question is a shiur. A question. Why in our days - one - do we also call our Torah by the term 'Judaism'? Why don't we take this - 'whoever says a thing in the name of the one who said it brings redemption to the world.'

46:30 Our Torah, according to David HaMelech, is the Torah of Moshe. We are robbing Moshe of the honor due to him. Why in our days do we relate - 'Judaism', 'Israel' - 'I am a Jew' - the basic concepts that the Holy One, blessed be He, Himself in His glory chose for us, Who has no mistakes before Him, never ever - today we belittle this. Why do we also already know - if someone here is asked, 'What is your [unclear]?' - 'I am a Jew.' And what about 'Israel'? After all, the whole blessing, the whole blessing, with the Name and Kingship and with the word 'Israel' - [unclear] in the Torah, and the blessings.

46:58 - Right. A very nice question. By the way - okay, I'll answer; listen a few more minutes, I'll explain about his question, and we'll point it out. A very, very nice question. You should know that [unclear], he would bless every morning, without Hashem's Name and Kingship, 'Blessed... who did not make me [unclear].' This was his custom, to bless 'who did not make me [unclear].' Look, we bless 'who did not make me a non-Jew,' but to bless 'who made me Israel' we cannot, because to be a Jew we need to work on it.

47:34 To reach the level of Israel takes much, much work, much doing. Baruch Hashem, we have merited to bless 'who did not make me a non-Jew,' but from here to reaching the level of Israel - even Yaakov Avinu would need to struggle until he received this level, 'for you have striven with G-d and with men, and have prevailed.' To reach such a level - that is a very great level. And all of us need to understand in practice that today the Torah is the holiest thing, the purest and the sweetest there is in the world.

48:04 And sadly, they do not teach the Torah correctly today. They do not teach its sweetness. They do not teach its outlook correctly. And people do not feel the unity among the Jewish people. They do not feel the unity among the Sages. They do not feel the unity among the factions; they feel that the whole Torah is really, really disputes and fragments and splits, and each one feels that the Holy One, blessed be He, is only with him, and his, He is in his own four cubits, and He is [unclear].

48:36 That's it. And you - if you are not in my line, or my Chassidus, or my way, you are some kind of heretic and apikores and possibly a non-Jew. And so - and let us not speak about racism and about things that are certainly not the Torah of Israel; and not for nothing the Holy One, blessed be He, does not redeem us. And when Moshe Rabbeinu already saw that there were informers among them, with Dasan and Aviram, he already understood why the Holy One, blessed be He, was not redeeming the Jewish people from the land of Egypt.

49:02 The Holy One, blessed be He, does not like this. The Torah is the one thing. The Torah, the Holy One, blessed be He, [unclear] - we are still called Israel. When they were united, we see even with the Greeks that the Greeks, in the time of Greece, told them at Chanukah, told them, 'Write, write' - it is not enough that you tell me you are Hellenizing. I'll explain, I'll explain.

49:28 If only we were like previous generations, if only. If you cannot understand the distance and the difference between previous generations, when we were only the Jewish people, and today, when we are a people, a people, a people... the Jewish people. There are so many peoples scattered among us: American Jews, Sephardi Jews, Ashkenazi Jews, leftists, Chareidim, Chassidim, Chabad, Breslov, unity, splits, different teachings, different opinions, different disputes, and Torah learning - there are those who learn the Torah, Heaven forbid, in a way Tosafos in Taanis, on page 7, calls learning that is a 'potion of death': to provoke and to be haughty - who searches all day in your Torah for where you are wrong and where you are not okay, and how one can be against you, and how much you are not good, and how much you are not okay,

50:23 and in this holy and pure thing they search for the bad in the Jewish people. They use it to degrade the Jewish people. This is not the Torah of Hashem, this is not a Torah of life. The Torah is one; if the Jewish people would learn the truly sweet Torah, no one would leave the Torah. The Torah is meant to awaken the whole Jewish people, to awaken all the souls of Israel. Everyone should feel its sweetness, its goodness, but sadly the factions and the leaders who did not take authority and leadership and responsibility - and instead of increasing peace - Torah scholars increase peace in the world - instead of that we saw that there are no Torah scholars, because they only increase disputes in the world.

51:05 So from here is the proof of what you understand: that we are scattered in exile. And we dispute, and we hate, and there is baseless hatred that is spread around, and there is what is not good, and lashon hara that people speak, and then this sweet Torah - we only preach it from the lips outward, and we do not feel it. And then the Holy One, blessed be He, does not hear us, and then there are troubles, and then there are questions whether He exists or doesn't exist.

51:29 And this whole cycle repeats and reawakens, repeats and reawakens, from generation to generation. In our generation this will increase much more, because there is no truth. I try all the time to pray to the Holy One, blessed be He, that I will not err and not lead others astray, and I try to pass on to whomever I can, to whoever turns to me, the true outlook and the true knowledge, what the Sages taught us and what the Torah truly teaches us.

51:54 And for this one needs to work, to be Israel. Because Israel is a level of unity. 'Hear, O Israel, Hashem is our G-d, Hashem is One.' When we are at the level of what you asked, we need to be one. Now we are still not one, and that is why there is still no 'Hear, O Israel.' May it be His will that we merit to be 'Hear, O Israel.' May everyone have [unclear], may you have [unclear], a good life,