The Yanuka Rav Shlomo Yehuda-＂המבנה הפנימי של הנפש – שורש המידות ואיך מתקנים אותם＂ הגאון הינוקא ערב שביעי של פסח בירושלים עיה＂ק

3:08 So indeed the Beis Yosef, in the name of the Shibbolei HaLeket, and Megillah, page 11: 'My handiwork is drowning in the sea, and you sing a song?' So the Holy One, blessed be He, does not want to hear such a song - 'My handiwork is drowning in the sea.' That is, it is a very great sorrow. 'My handiwork is drowning in the sea - I cannot rejoice with a great joy, I have no satisfaction before Me, because I created this whole world, and I want the whole world to come to its Tikkun, that there be wholeness and unity and the revelation of G-dliness in the whole world, that none be cast away from Him.'

3:39 Only the One who created this world, and only the One who formed it and made it, can have compassion on the work of His hands. Whereas the others - among the nations of the world, who force their idol worship on a person, whoever will not be in this idol worship, they slaughter him; whoever will not be in this worship, they kill him, they crucify him. With us, a person just wants to convert - they push him away, [unclear] him, they don't want it at all, they don't want to give him anything to hear, 'You have no connection - what do you have to do with Judaism? Explain which mitzvah - you cannot at all, you cannot reach these levels, it is not -' They push this person away.

4:15 And among the nations of the world they come and say, 'Come - and if not, [unclear], if they do not convert to Islam,' and so on - all these things that one hears today, what they do in the world to whoever goes against their religion and does not join - they force the religion on him. With us there is no such thing. And this comes precisely to hint to us and to show all the nations of the world and all created beings that only the One who created this world - He alone, He is the One and Only, Master of heaven and earth, who created this world, and only He has compassion on and cares for all the work of His hands.

4:51 He does not want the destruction of the world. And behold, you see the honor and the greatness - whoever will contemplate and look and see that the greatest wonders, both from the side of Kabbalah and from the side of halachah - the most stringent night, with the kezayis measures and the amounts, and the halachic stringency, and the Torah prohibition of eating chametz, and the miracles and wonders, and according to the words of our master the Rashash in Nahar Shalom, page 32, in the words of Kabbalah about the days of the Counting of the Omer, and all the days that begin from this Pesach - this is the highest level in the whole year.

5:29 It is full of mitzvos, it is full of kedushah, prohibitions - its stringency is very severe, there is nothing above it. And the One who did the wonders and did all the awesome acts - such an overturning of the order of nature we never had at any time - does not want Hallel with a blessing. Compared to Chanukah, where the miracles were covered, hidden and concealed, and there were no open miracles - oil remained in the jug - there is Hallel with a blessing, and every day we make a celebration.

6:02 This is one thing that you need to think about, to contemplate, to see how great the compassion of Hashem, blessed be He, is, and how great He is, and how He has compassion on the work of His hands. And this is the proof to all created beings that the G-d of Israel - Hashem is the G-d, Hashem is the G-d, there is none besides Him. From all that is written in the Torah, and all that He gave us - the faith, the wisdom, the Torah, the Prophets, the Writings, the Mishnah, the Talmud, the Zohar, the halachah, Chassidus, kedushah, all the Sages - He gave us so that we would return to Him, blessed be He, that we would want Him, blessed be He, that we would contemplate the true and eternal purpose, this awesome kedushah of these holy days.

6:46 And then we look and contemplate, and we see that it is something like this - now we are learning something new together with you; let us contemplate here together, let us look and see that there is something very interesting about Pesach: the great element that is revealed - at each time we have elements, as we know: the four letters of the Name of the Holy One, blessed be He - four letters, and we have on Pesach four cups - we drink four cups.

7:21 And we have fire, wind, water, earth, and at each time a certain element is revealed. That is, what does it mean? As you know - may it not happen to us or to anyone of the Jewish people - when a person is ill, then he has a fever, right? What is fever? The element of fire rises and settles in the person, and that is a sign that there are gevuros, harsh forces, in him, and then one needs to sweeten the gevuros for him, so they bring down the fire, and then chassadim, kindnesses - and in this way blessing and sweetening of the judgments is brought about, for the sick, all the acts that holy tzaddikim know, and knew, how to direct with intention, and how to do these things, in order [unclear] the person.

8:01 And then we see a wondrous, very interesting thing. We see, for example, let's say a person has some sadness, laziness - he is not sick, but he is lazy, he is sad, it is hard for him, he has difficulties, sufferings, judgments, many problems pass over him. This is from the earth - the pull of the earth drags him down, that he is [unclear], that he has no strength, he is all the time weak and poor - earth. There is a person who has nothing in him, but he goes around boasting and boasting over other people that he is rich, that he is wise, that he is great, that he is successful, that he can do this and can do that, and, thank G-d, he has a lot of wind in him, yes, but they go along with this air; this wind keeps settling in, and he regards himself as [unclear] - 'A fool lets out all his wind' - but really there is nothing.

8:52 It is all the haughtiness of heart he has over other people. But truly, if you look: at each particular time what belongs to that time appears in it. On Sukkos, which element is revealed? 'A sukkah that cannot stand in the wind.' What is this wind? The sukkah - because it blows away the s'chach, blows away the sukkah - he has not fulfilled the mitzvah at all. It cannot stand.

9:17 So that is to say, the wind is revealed on Sukkos. We have the element of fire - when is it revealed? Don't we have - four, three festivals - on Shavuos: 'Is not My word like fire?' And we have the element of water - when is the element of water revealed? How does chametz become leavened? Where did the leader who took Israel out of Egypt come from?

9:46 From the water - 'from the water I drew him.' What is the Exodus from Egypt - to where do the Jewish people go out? To the water, the Red Sea. We see that there is a revelation of the element of water at this time. That is to say, you look and you will see that these elements keep revealing themselves - when? when, at each particular time, a particular element is revealed and shines.

10:11 And so from this it flows - like this also in Sefer Yetzirah, where it is known that the four - fire, wind, water, earth - keep dividing, and this shines. In every person, every person has fire, wind, water, earth. In every person. There is a balance - it is like in a melody. You know, in music one needs - there are many instruments. There needs to be a bit more violin, a touch of piano.

10:37 Do you know how to do it? It is a certain tuning so that it will be heard. Well, if you turn them all up, in the end you hear neither this, nor this, nor this - nothing. You make such a balance, so that there will be a settled mind, so that a person can enjoy everything. Now, when a person is ill, there is a problem in the elements. When a person is healthy, thank G-d, the elements are equal. When a person has fallen ill in bed, [unclear] in the elements.

11:03 Now, at each time that we pass through, when the festivals come, we are in fact rectifying the elements. This is in fact what actually happens at the root of our soul. When we bring the three festivals - 'Three times in the year you shall celebrate for Me' - that the Holy One, blessed be He, wants us to come to His house, blessed be He, and to reveal His G-dliness, blessed be He, it is so that it will be revealed, and we will rectify all our elements before Hashem, blessed be He.

11:27 As you see, in the Beis HaMikdash, the Holy Temple, itself there were also the four elements: surely the water, from the water libation, and the wind, which did not move the smoke from above the altar, and the earth - that was the ash and the cinders on top of the altar, and the fire that would break forth up to the heavens on the altar - 'A perpetual fire shall burn upon the altar, it shall not go out.' We find that the fire and the wind and the water and the earth were all in the Beis HaMikdash.

11:52 But there is still a very, very tremendous thing for you to contemplate: that one element is missing in all these times of the festivals. Because water - we said it is on Pesach, and on Sukkos we have the wind, and on Shavuos we have the fire. That is - how? - [unclear]. - Ah, [unclear]. Well, that is already the nullifying. It doesn't matter. That is what he does not need.

12:19 That is already something else. But the element of earth, the element of earth is not in these times. There is no element of earth. That is, there is one element that is not found. Now, I will explain to you what this means. When Moshe Rabbeinu comes to redeem Israel, the first thing, when he comes there to Egypt, after he grew up in Pharaoh's house and was there - Moshe Rabbeinu contemplates and looks and sees that the people are in the hardship of a very great servitude.

12:54 None go out and none come in - it is impossible to leave, there is no possibility at all of leaving, and more than that, the head of the Jewish people could not even turn to the heavens; it was impossible even to see and look up from the low place where they were. 'She has come down astonishingly, with none to comfort her' - they could not lift their eyes on high. From the darkness and the terror they were in down there, they could not lift their eyes to the heavens.

13:19 And then it is written: 'And their outcry went up to G-d.' They could not even pray. There is a very beautiful essay by the Be'er Mayim Chaim - he has a sefer, Be'er Mayim Chaim, the Rav of Tchernovitz - and one is also his Sidduro shel Shabbos, and Sha'ar HaTefillah. So he writes in chapter eight of Sha'ar HaTefillah - you know that there are several levels of prayer. There are several levels - we pray, we want to pray now, we want to pray with joy, we want to pray with more intention, we want to pray with a broken heart. Each particular time that we pray has a special significance for prayer at that particular time. Where can one also learn this?

14:01 Berachos, page [unclear], like with the Patriarchs, in chapter 4, halachah 1, in the Yerushalmi, in Berachos. [unclear] needs to say: 'I thank You that You have brought me out of darkness to light,' 'Bring me out of darkness to a great light' - every day, when the day ends, to say it at sunrise, to say it at sunset, to say this - its source is in the Yerushalmi - this prayer that is said at the end of the prayer, to say it, it is said before the Holy One, blessed be He. Well, what is the novelty?

14:26 The novelty is that a person comes to a state where a day passes and a day enters, he prays: 'Hashem, this day has passed, now it enters, a new day enters, I thank You, Hashem; this day passes' - again, day and night, every day. Avraham Avinu - it is not - the meaning is not that Avraham instituted the Shacharis prayer; he simply prayed the Shacharis prayer, but he did not really institute this prayer - yes, that is not the meaning. It was the Men of the Great Assembly who instituted the times of prayer.

14:55 Avraham Avinu prayed the Shacharis prayer, Yitzchak Avinu 'went out to converse in the field,' and that was for Mincha; Yaakov Avinu - this is the Ma'ariv prayer. That is to say, you look at the times. Our master the Arizal learned from this: 'In the evening weeping may lodge, and in the morning - joy.' 'In the evening weeping may lodge' - one should pray in sadness, with a broken heart. 'And in the morning - joy': in the morning, pray with joy. That is to say, the way to pray, to bring about salvation before Hashem: in the morning one prays with joy - more help for the prayer to be accepted.

15:24 In the evening it is good to pray with a broken heart, in order to arouse the mercy of Hashem. 'In the evening weeping, and in the morning joy' - these are particular times. Here you also see that there are times for prayer. Our master the Rambam, in chapter 1 of the Laws of Prayer - the Rambam, our master, taught that the laws of prayer are from the Torah - that we pray; it is a privilege to pray to the Holy One, blessed be He, right? Our master the Rambam, Rabbi Moshe ben [unclear], in Sefer HaMitzvos, on section 5, wrote that what our master the Rambam says - that this is now called a Torah mitzvah to pray - does not mean that; rather, the privilege at all of praying to Hashem, our privilege at all to turn to Heaven. The kindness

16:03 that the Holy One, blessed be He, gave you at all, to lift your eyes on high - that is the privilege, that you merited at all to be of the seed of Israel, and you merit to lift your eyes to the heavens. That is your privilege. It doesn't matter, because according to the Rambam, every language, every prayer, is the fulfillment of some mitzvah from the Torah. And if a person is in distress at all, that is even greater. A person in distress, or in a certain [unclear] - it is greater; the level of the prayer is greater, it is even more from the Torah, it is even more kedushah, more levels, because he also prays more from the depths of his heart, and he also fulfills with this [unclear] prayer.

16:33 But the thought - look at what is here: when I come to explain that prayer in fact has levels - one can still somehow pray; there is a trouble, it is really hard, so everyone sounds the trumpets and cries out to Heaven, shofars, that they should already redeem us, and they feel the pain outwardly. The Jewish people in Egypt - pay attention - it is not written that they prayed.

17:00 There is not this term of prayer. It is written: 'And their outcry went up to G-d.' It is not written 'and their prayer was accepted,' 'and their prayer went up,' 'and they prayed,' 'and they prayed,' 'and Yocheved prayed,' 'and Miriam prayed,' 'and Aharon prayed.' The term prayer is not written. What is this? Or - Now I [unclear].

17:28 It says 'shav'ah', an outcry. What is this outcry? What is this outcry? The outcry, in fact - pay attention - is when there are already troubles, and there are already so many hardships that it is impossible even to describe them with the mouth, then the outcry comes. The outcry comes - the cry that is from within, that does not even come out.

17:54 Crying out... prayer is what you murmur. Crying out is when you are heard crying out, or something is heard. The outcry is no longer heard. It is already an inner sound of sighing that breaks and comes out. The outcry of the Jewish people - it says, 'And their outcry rose up to G-d.' 'And the Children of Israel sighed from the labor.'

18:19 The labor was so hard that in Egypt they were - they came out of Egypt, they came out maimed, lame, crippled, blind. They camped the first Shabbos in Alush, and then the manna began to fall for them, and it healed their limbs. Why is it called 'lechem abirim', bread of the mighty? Lechem eivarim - bread that is absorbed into the limbs, and for each one, hands grew back. 'And they said each man to his brother, “What is it?” for they did not know what it was.' And then they said each man to his brother, 'What is it?' for they did not know what it was.

18:43 And one - remember Yosef, who came out of Egypt - they threw a brick on him from above, and his hand was cut off, so he was without a hand. So what does the Egyptian say to him? 'Keep working' - beating him, beating him, beating him, so he would keep working like that - 'Let the labor be heavy.' And he is without a hand, and he beats him so he will keep working, after he is without limbs, and blood is coming out of him, and his hand is cut off. They came out of Egypt - everyone came out of Egypt - they did not come out whole people: one without a hand, one without a leg, one is carried on donkeys, one is dragged along - there is no... they come out maimed.

19:17 Now, what did Hashem, blessed be He, do? So that they would not say that maimed people are receiving the Torah - 'Fine, this Torah - it is for maimed people.' He showed them the manna, when they camped on the first Shabbos in Alush, and it began to go down into their limbs, and immediately their limbs grew back. This one hands, this one legs, this one eyes, the one who had gone blind suddenly sees - everyone, everyone. 'And they said each man to his brother, “What is it?” for they did not know what it was.' So Yosef - yesterday he was without a hand, now the manna came down for them on the first Shabbos - here is Yosef - what is this? Is this Yosef? No, he looks like him, it's someone else, it can't be Yosef, because yesterday Yosef was without a hand, yesterday Yosef was without a leg, now -

19:50 Ah, and then they understood that the manna was growing their limbs for them, because yesterday this one was without a hand, now he has hands, now this one has legs - everyone was healed, so there are no sick people. So they understood that this manna coming down for them, for the Jewish people, heals the Jewish people, it saves them - everything became salvations for them, everyone is healed, all the limbs, all their elements, everything is made whole. There is no problem, no lack at all. And then, in fact, the Holy One, blessed be He, gives us the Torah, and the Jewish people receive everything. That is, from here we see that the manna grew limbs for the Jewish people.

20:22 The manna came to them through their faith in Hashem, blessed be He, and so that there would not be maimed people receiving the Torah. Even though that is something else, being maimed - but we had the greatest leader who remained with a defect: Moshe Rabbeinu. He remained with a defect, he remained a stutterer, it was hard for him to speak, speaking was an effort for him, but even so, Moshe Rabbeinu remained a stutterer; the Holy One, blessed be He, did not heal him of his stuttering, so that we would not come and say that specifically a good preacher, or someone who can expound beautifully, is the one worthy that the Torah be given through him.

20:54 And also, as we said, Moshe Rabbeinu was also forgetful - whatever Moshe Rabbeinu would learn, he would forget, so that we would not come and say that a leader also needs a good memory, or should have a good mind. Moshe Rabbeinu was also forgetful, yes. Moshe Rabbeinu - the Holy One, blessed be He, would teach him, and he would forget. Teaching and forgetting, teaching and forgetting. Why? Now you would come and say he needs a good memory. No. What is needed is good middos and preparation for the holy Torah.

21:18 The middos must be there. Only, there should not be one element that should not be in a person. There is one element that it is not good for it to be there. There is no need for it at all. What is this element? Dust. The element of earth is the element that is the least good there is. Pay attention to what is written about Moshe Rabbeinu: 'And the man Moshe was very humble, more than any man who is upon the face of the ground.'

21:46 And the dust is found beneath the ground. Dust is what you cover with; dust is what is found beneath; what is above - that was Moshe Rabbeinu. Moshe Rabbeinu did not have the element of earth in him. Because Moshe Rabbeinu did not have the element of earth in him, at the times and festivals that the Holy One, blessed be He, gave us we can come out of the element of earth. What is the element of earth?

22:10 Sadness, laziness. What is there on the festivals? And we say, 'And you shall rejoice in your festival.' The joy of the festival itself is what takes a person out of the dust. Why? Because there is no dust at these times. At these times there are higher levels, so that a person can come out of all sorrow and all pain and every hardship, and [unclear] from it. But listen to what happened.

22:35 The Jewish people begin to pray to the Holy One, blessed be He - 'And their outcry rose up to G-d' - they begin to cry out, and they call out to Hashem, blessed be He, from the depths of the heart. He saves them. I told you that I once saw, in a very old book by an archaeologist who researched all kinds of things in Egypt - a book by some professor, a non-Jewish professor too, I don't know, academic things, whatever he studied - he did some research on Egypt, and he brought a picture. It is a very old book, it is in black and white.

23:12 He brought a picture of a cave in the area of Egypt, a cave engraved in an ancient script, hieroglyphs, Egyptian writing which, by the reckoning, he says is between three thousand and four thousand years old - that is what he writes there. Around that time - more - the time of Egypt. He didn't give - he gave a rough estimate that it is some thousands of years, over three thousand years; roughly so, the writing says, which needs checking. And it is written there, in this writing, this is what it says: 'G-d, rescue me from the hardship and the labor.'

23:48 That is what is written there. I was - I am trying, I am trying to get hold of this picture. And it is a wondrous thing that someone says to Hashem, turns to Hashem: 'El,' that is how he said it, meaning Hashem, 'Rescue me from the bondage and the hardship.' He engraved it on the stones, he engraved it on the rocks, he engraved it.

24:16 Yes? Someone was there in the middle of the labor, and from the hard labor he simply, apparently, had a break, so he engraved it on the rock. And I am sure there were many more things like this - that is certain. He engraved it on the rocks, and this engraving was there, and it exists to this day. Surely if people were there in Egypt they would see things we do not see from here. But certainly it was the bondage and the hardship that brought the Jewish people to the outcry. What was the outcry?

24:43 The outcry was that they cried out from within; they could no longer even express with their lips the prayer or the request, 'Hashem, save us, rescue us, redeem us, lift us up' - because they were so much in the element of earth, it was so heavy on them, they were so deep in the dust that they could not shake themselves free of it, it was so hard, to the point that they could not even bring out a prayer with their mouths.

25:10 And then notice that Moshe Rabbeinu comes entirely from water: 'from the water I drew him' - the element of water, that Moshe Rabbeinu comes from. He comes to the land of Egypt, which was steeped in lewdness, in filth, in every sin there is. And then the Holy One, blessed be He, begins to show us - you see - Detzach, Adash, B'achav. Why are the names divided like this in the Haggadah? They correspond to the elements.

25:36 You see that at first the Holy One, blessed be He, made all four elements: fire, wind, water, earth. The plagues are [unclear] Four elements, fire, wind, water, earth - each plague corresponds to a certain element. This is the wind and the locusts; and the fire, the hail from heaven; and the lice are the earth; and the blood is the water. You see that it goes around and around, that the Holy One, blessed be He, went around and multiplied the elements for them again, and everything turns around and goes around the plagues. Everything the Holy One, blessed be He, does in Egypt - always, whatever is connected to this world has to touch the elements. These four elements - the moment they change and something becomes like this, then everything gets tangled up, and there is chaos and damage. And the reverse:

26:14 it is also possible to save. For example, there is an angel appointed over fire. So if one directs one's intention to him, and there is an angel over water - then one can cause a fire in some city. There is a city, the community of Sdeh Lavan, near Sarkov; once the holy Baal Shem Tov prayed there, once he erred with some angel that he directed his intention to, and the city there was burned. A fire happened there in the city - he made some kavanah on some Name, and the angel of fire came down there and burned part of the city.

26:44 Of the town - no people were burned or anything, only part of the field burned there. Sometimes, as it were, things like this can happen too - even with tzaddikim, sometimes, from the intention something like this comes out, by the hand of Heaven - it is an indirect cause. It was not done willingly - something caused it - so it is exempt. Now, basically, if you contemplate and you look at these elements - Moshe Rabbeinu comes to the Jewish people and says, now they are so deep in the dust, they are so deep in it - how do I revive them? I need to bring them to life. So what does the Holy One, blessed be He, do?

27:24 Hashem, blessed be He, in His mercy and His kindness, in the hope that He gave the Jewish people, He revealed Himself to Moshe Rabbeinu. In what did He reveal Himself to him? Within what? The element of fire. Look how this whole matter - I simply want to explain it to you, to make these things vivid for you. Now contemplate the depth in Sefer Yetzirah - why it speaks about [unclear], about fire, wind, water, earth - how much wisdom there is in these hidden things, in these wondrous things, which now there is a mitzvah to learn and to say, to explain them with illustrations, in clear words, so that even the children listening to us here - Baruch Hashem, there are also children; I see them listening and enjoying, so I want them to understand these things.

28:09 This child is listening - [unclear] - well done, you tzaddik. He has been listening from the beginning, I see him. So from here you see: fire, wind, water, earth - these are elements that we [unclear]. And then the Holy One, blessed be He, revealed Himself to Moshe Rabbeinu in the burning bush. And there were seven kinds of fire, as Rabbi Yaakov writes in the Me'am Lo'ez. Seven kinds of fire: there is purple, there is green, yellow, as you see, when you light a fire you really see its color, a sort of orange-ish shade.

28:41 And sometimes, when they light the fire, you see a fire that is purple, in a lighter. Purple fire, really blue. You see that on the fire there are several kinds of purple color. How? [unclear], yes. It is found below, yes, right. He writes something there, in the Me'am Lo'ez, very nicely - yes - the Rambam writes in Sha'ar Gehinnom, also Rabbi Shimon Lavi in Kesem Paz, his commentary on the Zohar, [unclear], and also in the Me'am Lo'ez on Shemos.

29:12 He also writes about it there: a green line, and [unclear]. This is the renewal of creation. There are several more things in this as well, depending on which edition you have. Okay, now one more thing to contemplate: we had the burning bush. Moshe Rabbeinu comes to the burning bush, the Holy One, blessed be He, reveals Himself to him in seven kinds of fire that consumes, that burns, and then he sees a revelation of G-dliness that is most tremendous.

29:41 Moshe Rabbeinu, when he wants to go out to the land of Egypt - he has a mission - he sees that the Holy One, blessed be He, Himself, in His glory, reveals Himself to him. After all, before this the Midrash says that he saw a mountain - it was Mount Sinai. That is, he was in the desert, he saw Mount Sinai, he passed by Mount Sinai, and then he saw lots of birds on a certain mountain. Lots of birds. This puzzled him. What are these birds that are drawing him there?

30:08 He saw lots and lots of birds, he went toward this mountain, he reaches the birds - all the birds left there, until he goes up before the mountain, and on this mountain where he is standing he sees the tree, the bush. It exists to this day; if you want to go see the tree that was the bush - I researched this, I went to several places to see it. It is found in the forests, on the edges, where it is always found; it grows among the rocks.

30:36 Whenever you walk in the forests there are rocks, and all kinds of thorny shrub with twigs come out of them - that is a thornbush. It has thorns like these, it has leaves, lots and lots and lots of thorns, and it is always found among the rocks. That is a thornbush. I once tried to research, to see what this bush is. I went through all kinds of plants, I [unclear] with someone who understands plants, and some gardener, and someone else, to know what this bush is, to research this bush.

31:08 So I found that it is a kind of plant that is found among the rocks, always at the side of the road; there is a very thorny bush there that has to come out of a rocky area. Where there are rocks you will see twigs like these; it has thorns and leaves like this, lots and lots of tiny, tiny, tiny thorns - that is the bush. Now, the wonder is also that it is a tree that catches fire easily, and Moshe Rabbeinu sees the bush and sees that it is not consumed - he sees that the fire does not burn it.

31:41 So there is a contemplation here: Moshe Rabbeinu understands that something very great is happening here - of course, the hint about the Jewish people, about the exile, and so on. But 'the bush was burning with fire, and it was not consumed.' And then we see that the Holy One, blessed be He, shows Moshe Rabbeinu that He rules over the elements. He shows Moshe Rabbeinu: you are now going to the Jewish people, 'and if they ask me, What is His name? what shall I say to them?' What is Your name? 'Ehyeh has sent me to you' - the Name Ehyeh, which corresponds to the heavens, corresponds to Keser, which is the great mercy of Hashem, blessed be He, that flows down, that we hope for - that it be aroused upon us, His mercy and His kindness upon us,

32:18 so that you see this mercy, the great mercy for the Jewish people. Moshe Rabbeinu says to... the Holy One, blessed be He, says to him: 'Moshe Rabbeinu, go tell them' - in the simple meaning of the words - 'tell the Jewish people that My great mercy has been aroused before Me; I have heard the pain of the Jewish people, I have heard everything they are going through, and I am going to arouse My very greatest mercy, and I am taking you out with signs and wonders.'

32:44 The moment - the moment there is an illumination revealed from the very greatest mercy, then there is a salvation, a rescue, that can be miraculous, wondrous and heavenly. One who holds onto the mercy of Hashem, blessed be He, can accomplish without limit; as opposed to, for example, times when there were some judgments and severities - then the miracles were hidden. Like on Chanukah - on Chanukah the miracles were not openly heavenly; if there are miracles from Heaven, they are hidden; and so too on Purim, hidden.

33:13 That is the difference between Pesach and hidden miracles. The miracles were so open and so plain that there was no one who could try to attribute things to the way of nature at all, to say so. There are the responsa of the Chacham Tzvi, in siman 8. He writes that there is no such thing as 'the way of nature' - since I already mentioned it. He says there is no such thing as 'the way of nature'; it is an invention that the researchers invented, and the Holy One, blessed be He, can make the sun itself produce snow, and that when there is snow it will be hot - the reverse: that now, when the sun comes out in the morning, everyone will freeze and be cold, and when they want warmth, snow will fall and they will warm themselves by the snow. That is what He wants - if Hashem, blessed be He, wants it so. That is what the Chacham Tzvi writes. See, this is truly a very beautiful thing; it strengthens a person in emunah, that there is no such thing as nature,

34:04 such a thing. [unclear] that there is nature, that it rules - there is no such thing as nature. There are the elements that the Holy One, blessed be He, stamped into the world - 'teva', nature. It is not 'nature' in the sense of a reality that exists separately. That is denial, heresy, apikorsus and ignorance, to say that. It is forbidden - be careful of it. One must say: the meaning of 'nature' is that Hashem stamped into the world the conduct of His will through these things. That is, He decided that He wants it to be hot, so He strengthens the sun.

34:32 When He wants it to be cold, He lowers it, because that is how He wants it, in His wisdom, blessed be He. If tomorrow Hashem, blessed be He, wants, the sun will shine on us and everything will be frost from the sun. And then when we want warmth, we will pray for snow, snow will fall, and then suddenly we will be warm from the snow. A wonder. These are the words of the Chacham Tzvi. But here, look - see that Moshe Rabbeinu comes to the Jewish people and begins to reveal to them the mercy of Hashem.

35:02 And immediately, of course, Moshe Rabbeinu looks at his hand, which was leprous. You see that it was - when it was all [unclear], He already hinted to him something very, very deep that is here for the generations. When Moshe Rabbeinu looks at the G-dly revelation, and Hashem, blessed be He, says to him, 'Who has made a mouth for man?' You know that I gave the eyes, I created man, I formed, I engraved it in the world.

35:30 He says, 'You are all the work of My hands.' I am the One who made, I am the One who makes, I am the One who will make all the deeds, I and no other. So Hashem, blessed be He, says to Moshe Rabbeinu. And Moshe Rabbeinu looks and gazes at his hand, and sees that immediately it went back and was healed; there is nothing there. On one side he sees that there was damage; on the other side, after that he sees his staff, the staff that, when he comes to Egypt, this staff turns into a snake that swallows all the staffs of the magicians.

36:02 In Tractate Menachos, page 81, about Yochanan and Mamre, who were very great sorcerers: they came to Moshe Rabbeinu and laughed at him: 'What, you come to teach us sorcery here? You come to a place that is all sorcery, a place whose expertise is sorcery. All day long we know how to transform, to heal a person's flesh; if he had it like this, we can make it like that; we can turn everything around easily. What, how did you come to us to teach us? What, are you making fun of us?'

36:29 They mock him: 'Are you bringing it into Afarayim? You come to teach us such a thing? You... this is an act of madness. Who are you to come and talk to us at all?' They come at him in a way of attacking him. And then you know what happened to them [unclear]. Yunus and Yombrus, Yochanan and Mamre: this is the wording of the Zohar and of [unclear], and all their versions, for they had all kinds of names.

36:54 So at the splitting of the Red Sea they said names and flew up into the sky. Then waves of water came at them. The Holy One, blessed be He, sent tongues of water at them to catch them. Now think: in Egypt, all the warriors went out to catch Israel. So there were, as it were, many who stayed at home. They said: so what did the Holy One, blessed be He, do? At the Red Sea He sent waves of water at them that came in to them, grabbed them and pulled them back.

37:20 From the water they pulled them into into the sea, back. It came, the water reached them, the tsunami, into Egypt, and pulled them, and brought them back in, and swallowed them. With Hashem's help, tomorrow, without a vow, also on Shabbos and the Seventh Day of Pesach we will learn many more interesting things about this, without a vow. We are continuing here. The element of earth, I will explain, the element of earth does exist.

37:59 There is no, as it were, there is no reality in which it does not exist. It exists. It is simply, so to speak, found down below. It is not possible; it is not raised up. It is as if it needs to be below. The moment the earth... There must be earth; with four elements, there must be earth. But simply, the earth should not be raised too high, because the moment there is too much of it above, it can, Heaven forbid, do harm, when a person is ill, when a person...

38:26 That is, if a person has an illness that is really serious, then the earth is up and the fire is up. That is really a dangerously ill person; that is really his element. And if one goes to some 'sage', so to speak, a person who does not understand names, and he gives him a name that is of severity, or something that is not good, he can kill him. Therefore it is a danger. [unclear], from 200 years ago, he writes that when one changes the name of a sick person, it can kill him.

38:53 It is dangerous; it is forbidden to change a name; one must add a name, and one must also know which name to add and which letters to give, for there are letters of severity. For example, Shin is a letter of severity. Look, for example, at 'shemesh', the sun, Shimshon, Shin, which con... fire, fire, it consumes. There is the Shin, severity, for there is the Shin; it is judgments: Shaddai, 'Who said to His world, Enough.'

39:20 So we see that the Shin... Now, there is a sick person, and someone added the Shin for him, let's say. Maybe it is fine; I do not know for whom it is. I simply want to explain this to you, how it works, but if one does not understand this and gives such a name to a person, one can do him some kind of harm. Do you understand? For example, Daniel is a name of severity. Daniel is a name of severity. A name of judgment.

39:46 So what, it is not a good name? An excellent name. So someone went to some rabbi about Daniel, and he changed his Daniel, erased it for him, put another name afterwards; I do not know why he does that. Things that are not correct. One has to know how. There is something that is good and something that is not. What has a tradition from the time of the Geonim, which they were accustomed to give, those are the names that are common. Like how there is no Moshe in the Shas, no Tanna or Amora who had it. And therefore, what is a tradition of the Sages from the time of the Geonim, those are the names we are permitted to give. One cannot invent a name, put a name together, and so invent names; one gives a name that has a tradition behind it.

40:24 What makes a change of name be for the good? What makes a change of name [unclear]? Adding a name that has kindness in it. Like, for example, one always adds Chaim. Chaim, Chaim, not Chaim for nothing. Why? Because in Chaim there is the Mem. Mem is [unclear], like 'living water'; 'living water, flowing from Lebanon'. That is to say, the Mem is kindness, unless, Heaven forbid, there is a Mem that is severity.

40:50 A Mem that is severity is a final Mem, Mitzrayim, why is it called by the name Mitzrayim? Whoever enters at its beginning does not get out at its end: a closed Mem, a closed and sealed Mem; it is impossible to get out. Therefore Mashiach is an open Mem. Moshe Rabbeinu is an open Mem; Moshe begins with it. Mitzrayim, a closed Mem. Moshe is the leader who redeems Israel; it begins with an open Mem, Moshe who redeems Israel, and his last letter is Hei.

41:18 That is, the awareness, the revelation of awareness that Moshe Rabbeinu revealed to the creatures: he restored their awareness to them, because they were so very far from Hashem, blessed be He, that they could not even pray. So Moshe Rabbeinu restored their awareness so that they could pray. 'And it will be, as I go out of the city, I will spread out my hands.' Only when he went out of Egypt did he begin to pray. 'As I go out of the city, I will spread out my hands.' What is 'as I go out'?

41:42 'As I go out of': only when I can go out of the city can I make a prayer and spread out his hands in prayer before the Holy One, blessed be He. Because all the time in Egypt they were barred from prayer; it was [unclear] to pray, because it was full of idols and idol worship, and also they had no [unclear] to pray. Moshe Rabbeinu brought the Jewish people to such a level that they could pray. And what is the proof? When the Jewish people go out of Egypt, they all say the Song.

42:07 Before that they could not pray. Pray, they could not; they could not, they could not open their mouths. 'And their cry went up to G-d.' They cried out from within. After they go out, we find all of them saying the Song. And why is it called by the name 'a new song'? Why is it called a new song? What is a new song? A new song: this was a song unique in the whole world, that six hundred thousand said without anyone making a mistake. Let us try today, with a siddur, to say it here in a congregation together. Amen: you hear Amen here, you hear Amen here; you hear the songs here. We prayed here today, [unclear], everyone sang a song.

42:42 You hear some singing here; these have finished, those are singing there, these sing here. They do not even manage the song together, of the joy, [unclear]. [unclear]. You hear some singing from here, some you hear from there. Why, even when singing a song that everyone knows, there is still that this one is heard from here, that one is heard from here. There is a beautiful responsum in Rav Pe'alim, part 2, siman 2, about whether it is permitted to say Kaddish when everyone wants to say Kaddish and there is no one to answer Amen.

43:12 Is it permitted or forbidden? So he writes there that it is permitted to say it. But he says, it is not required. First, yes, it is good that they say it, that there be someone. But he says there is no problem at all to say it. Why? Because 'and say Amen' is said about the angels, and there is no lie in it. Why? Also at the end of the prayer, when you say 'He Who makes peace in His heights', you say 'and say Amen', but nobody says Amen. To whom are you turning? You are turning to the angels, that the angels say it; 'and say Amen' is said to the angels. So there is no problem to say such a Kaddish too: they say Kaddish here, and then the angels said Amen. So what are you saying here? At the Song of the Sea the Jewish people said the Song,

43:46 they began to praise the Holy One, blessed be He, such a Song that the whole heavenly retinue, all of them, heard this Song before Hashem. And this people, which a short while before, was only little by little healed from its elements, as we explained. Moshe Rabbeinu began to raise up their elements for them, because they were so much in the earth; so he exchanged the earth for them, began to put spirit into them, and gave them hope. And you find all of it with Yaakov Avinu. What is written when he saw Yosef?

44:13 'And it revived,' 'the spirit of Yaakov.' Until then he was [unclear] spirit. You see that these four elements keep going and turning around, and they explain to us that in the Torah we see that this existed; to this day we look at it, how much importance there is in seeing the joy, the good news, the things; how much influence there is on this. And then Moshe Rabbeinu comes to the Jewish people, begins to put hope into them. But where were we before?

44:43 - About the names. - Yes, yes, [unclear]... ah, right, exactly. So, excuse me. I wanted them to ask about this again. Good. So the moment the combination has a meaning, then it is higher than... there is no, as it were, it is nullified to... there is no... it becomes one solid piece, as it were; it is no longer a final Mem, it becomes a reality. You know that Chaim symbolizes life, so one does not look at it as a closed Mem; one looks at it as life.

45:14 But if you were, say, inventing a name, you would call, say, 'Rov', 'Rom', you would make 'Rom'. How? Miriam, no problem. Only, with Miriam it is always worth sometimes sweetening, sweetening; sometimes, at times, it is worth it, sometimes. It depends. There is Miriam. Miriam.

45:43 He is the third, the beloved one. Miriam is a bit from 'bitter'. Yes, but it is not a problem, it is not a problem. As long as a woman called Miriam, or someone called by a certain name, Amram, yes, there is no problem, because the essence is Amram, so the letter is already nullified. When you call by a name that you invent, and that will be the last letter, here the problem begins, because you have no name that has a meaning, there is no reality. And when I say Chaim, the Mem is nullified to the letters; it becomes, as it were, one, one solid piece.

46:19 So the whole essence of the name is life. So one does not look at it as a closed Mem. But when you invent a name and say 'Darom', or give some name that is, let's say, whatever it is, then we take the letters apart, because this name is not recognized. There is no tradition of the Sages. - [unclear] Right. [unclear], that is also, as it were, also [unclear].

46:44 I cannot manage to understand [unclear]? Mitzrayim: the Rav proved from Mitzrayim that the Mem is not good, that a final Mem, a [unclear] Mem, is not good. It also starts with a Mem, [unclear]. Yes. Also with an open Mem [unclear]. Maybe also [unclear]. - Good. I will explain. I will explain again. I will explain again.

47:13 There is an open Mem and there is a closed Mem. 'Lemarbeh hamisrah', that is a closed Mem. There is, in Tractate Soferim, chapter 13, chapter 18, in all the chapters there, they bring the wordings of how the tradition of the writing was. There is a tradition of how they wrote: they write the letters, they make a script. Today we were just talking about this, about the Sefer Torah of the Ohev Yisrael of Apta, about the new things there were in that scroll, about its script, about the pictorial script, the curling of the letters, about the Pe that is wound around with all of this curling.

47:56 All kinds of wordings and all kinds of things that were a tradition, sometimes like these, sometimes like those; all kinds of things, of drawings, and things that are heavenly. The moment a person invents something where there is no connection between the content and the form, then there begins to be damage. Now, an open Mem, an open Mem symbolizes a beginning, and symbolizes light and contemplation and strength to continue and to act forward.

48:25 And you find this with Moshe Rabbeinu. Moshe Rabbeinu, the leader who comes: he is not called Moshe for nothing. The letters themselves have in them real light and the life-force of His G-dliness, blessed be He; the Infinite Light shines in them. As letters, this is the secret of the 'Letters of Rabbi Akiva', the secret that Rabbi Akiva expounded: the crowns of the letters, that is the tagin, that is what is above, what is above the letters, that is that is in general. The tagin themselves are yet more, secrets of secrets; just to understand the secret of the tagin at all, because in the tagin themselves there are awesome things that cannot be explained, because the tagin, as it were, are not read. The tagin are not read, and they are in the spreading of the Infinite Light of the parchment of the Sefer Torah.

49:03 Because it goes out above, as it were, it has the law of the Lamed. It is like the Vav that goes out above. For the Lamed is the only one that goes out in a Sefer Torah; no other letter goes out, right or not? How? Only the Lamed goes out above, and this Lamed is the Vav. Because what really sticks out above is a Vav. That is, the secret of the Lamed and the Vav that go out above is 'Fortunate are all who wait for Him', 'lo'.

49:33 That is, as it were, that there are always tzaddikim, etc. Now, the tagin in fact are not read. You cannot name them; you do not name with the tagin. They are like decorations, decorations, those are the crowns of the letters. Now in all these crowns of the letters, in these tagin, there are lofty and awesome secrets, and within these secrets are in fact these hidden, closed and sealed things. There Rabbi Akiva knew to expound all the closed and hidden things that no one could [unclear] and bring out of them, out of the Torah.

50:04 So Rabbi Akiva knew it there, and this is the secret of what Rabbi Akiva expounded; this is the secret of the crowns of the letters that Rabbi Akiva expounded. With this Mem: one enters with an open Mem and goes out with a closed Mem, like in Egypt: whoever entered could not get out. What did the Holy One, blessed be He, do? He gave them a leader who has the open Mem, who brings them out: a Hei at its end, there is a Hei at its end.

50:32 It is like a portico, as the Ramak writes in the first chapter on teshuvah: that there is the Mem, and then there is this Hei; it is like an opening. [unclear] from above, there is an exit below; it depends where the person is, where he looks. That is, we see that there is a relation and a union between the letters themselves, in their connection and their influence also on a person's life, whether he has a name of tradition, or also the name that was given to him.

51:02 What does a person do who has too much earth and less fire? What advice is there for him? Maybe we should add a name too? A name can help. A name can help, if they add one. It can help very much. The question is, one has to check which name, let's say. What can one add? There are names that do not fit together.

51:28 There is a name that does fit. This needs to be weighed very much. What to change? What to add? What this way? What that way? One has to check. One must ask a Torah scholar who understands names and knows what really fits and what does not, and he must decide whether yes or whether no. Sometimes it is worth it, sometimes it is not worth it, sometimes it is dangerous, sometimes it can do harm, sometimes it can truly help. This needs to be checked very, very carefully.

51:52 - What is the matter of [unclear] with the name Shira? [unclear] Shira, so he takes [unclear], and he took the Yud out of it, and Sarah remained; [unclear]. - Right. I will explain, basically. He held... this is also what I spoke about before, that this is also what I tell everyone: if there is no tradition of the Sages on names from the time of the Geonim, it is not a matter of him not liking it.

52:27 A name that has no tradition of the Sages from the time of the Geonim, you cannot give it; it is called a new name. Even though Shira is named after the Song of the Sea and the Song of Devorah, it has a very beautiful meaning. Tractate Sanhedrin, page 94, that Chizkiyahu did not say song, and the Holy One, blessed be He, wanted to bring Mashiach; so He could have made Sancheriv into Gog and Chizkiyahu into Mashiach. And because Chizkiyahu did not say song, he did not merit to be Mashiach.

52:52 You see from here that Shira is a name with meaning, a good name. Here, song: had he said song, he would have been Mashiach. But he held that it is some newly made name, so it had no tradition, so it is not good. Today, in our days, if people ask me about this name, I tell them: from the outset, Sarah is preferable. But a person who already, a woman who is already called by this name, I have no problem at all with leaving it; no need to be afraid, no need to check, no need to add, no need to change; I have no problem with staying with this name.

53:27 One can perhaps add another name alongside, perhaps something that can help, because it is already in our generation; the more a generation passes and a name is given, then it is much less new like that. At the moment it is in its own time, then it is new. Therefore, if now they give some name, and it spreads and spreads and spreads, and there will be a tradition and many are called by it, it could be that it will help.

53:52 But therefore, from the outset, I also [unclear]. Sometimes it also depends on what time; if there is a woman who is above a certain age, then I say not to touch the name. Each one, the parents, it is personal guidance for every person. Torah. 'The new is forbidden by the Torah.' The new is forbidden. Why [unclear]? By the Torah. Take it from the Torah. Ah, good. The new is forbidden. From the Torah, take it. Good. You said it: the new is forbidden by the Torah. The new is forbidden. From the Torah, take it. Good.

54:25 - Rav, I did not understand: why do we need the element of earth? If [unclear], it is not needed. - So, good. Basically, the earth in fact - It is not... we are all earth. I understand what you are saying, but that is not the meaning.

54:53 I will explain to you what he means. He means that seemingly we see that earth is something that is not good. So seemingly, why is earth needed? So I will explain to you what the meaning of earth is. Earth is the thing that holds things up - you understand - it is the thing that endures, the thing that holds a person to the ground, and in the end also what humbles him. In the end, this kind - earth - is the only element that we walk on, on the earth.

55:24 The legs are the only ones that stand on the ground. Unlike the animals, which stand on the front legs too - the hands too - they are, as it were, on all fours, on a base on the ground. Whereas man - only the right leg, the left leg. And this is what the Gemara in Sukkah says, on page 53: 'A person's legs are his guarantors.'

55:50 A person's legs are guarantors. Why are they guarantors? To take him. To take him where? To the earth. Do you understand? - That is to say, what about [unclear]? 'Shake off the dust, arise.' - I can't hear? Right. So I will explain it to him.

56:18 What Rabbi Shlomo HaLevi Alkabetz wrote, 'Shake off the dust, arise,' the meaning is that it was said about the holy Shechinah. All week long the Shechinah is rolling in the dust. The Shechinah is in distress, we weep over her. In the responsa Rav Pe'alim, part 1, siman 1, Rabbeinu Yosef Chaim writes about the Shechinah: when we do Tikkun Leah, do Tikkun Rachel, we say 'for the sake of the unification of the Holy One, blessed be He, and His Shechinah.'

56:43 We see that the Shechinah, in fact, at times such as, for example, Chol HaMoed now, such as Shabbosos, Yamim Tovim, Rosh Chodesh - in them there is an ascent for the Shechinah. The Shechinah, in fact, is not rolling in the dust. When Erev Shabbos comes, you say to the Shechinah, 'Shake off the dust, arise': do not roll in the dust anymore, you have no reason to sit there. You are rising now; there is no more exile when Shabbos and Yom Tov come, sorrow has no hold on the Shechinah.

57:13 For the Shechinah, as it were, it is all whole. So we say to her, 'Shake off the dust, arise,' 'Put on the garments of your glory, my people.' Now you are dressing in a garment, in unification, in the geulah, she tastes a foretaste of the geulah. She has no hold at all in the dust. That is to say, this comes from the time itself. I can't hear? - This is also in the future geulah. - Right, we need Moshe Rabbeinu to take us out of the dust, absolutely, you are right, may he take us out.

57:47 I will explain in a moment - what did you want to ask? - What is really the advice for getting out of the earth? A person who has earth... - I can't hear? - When earth rules over a person, what is his advice? - Look, being happy is not something that... how does the Rambam put it, at the end of Hilchos Lulav: 'Because you did not serve Hashem your G-d with joy and with gladness of heart.'

58:22 that keeping the mitzvos with joy... When the Rambam explains that you can keep the mitzvah - you want to rejoice - if you want to rejoice in a certain mitzvah, or in something you want to fulfill, in tefillah, you can, through contemplation. Contemplation can bring you to joy and to keeping the mitzvos, as the Rambam learns in Hilchos Yesodei HaTorah, chapter 2, halachah 2: that contemplating Creation will bring you to love of Hashem, to love of the Holy One, blessed be He. The love will bring you to joy, naturally.

58:51 Now, the contemplation you need to reach, to get out of this earth, this is the strongest spiritual war: that you tell yourself, 'I will never despair.' No matter what, I will not, Heaven forbid, fall into despair. The very thought and contemplation, that a person understands his difficulty - he will certainly already be healed of it.

59:15 Who has the possibility of being healed? A person who is sick and does not know that he is sick, or a person who is sick and knows that he is sick? The very fact that you know there is a problem - people need to understand that this is already a salvation, because you know exactly what to pray for, what to get out of. It is a kindness from Hashem, blessed be He, that a person has anything at all for which he turns to Heaven - it is a kindness.

59:43 So the very fact that a person has a certain difficulty, or an illness of the soul, or a kind of sadness and earth that overpowers him - he needs to do everything in order to get out of the earth. And the most important things, the most important, for getting out of the earth is only zeal: that a person be quick to act. Because there is sadness, and there is laziness. These are the two things that must be fought.

1:00:09 Laziness, which pulls a person down all the time, to bed, to sleep, to despair, to doing nothing, this is the dangerous thing, this is from the bite of the serpent, the primordial one, who struck Adam HaRishon - from the bite of the serpent, from the counsel, from 'The serpent beguiled me,' from this entered the bitterness and the hardship and the sadness and the laziness.

1:00:34 One must fight this laziness, push it away with all one's strength - and the sadness of course, but the laziness even more. A person is sad, but he works, he goes, he travels. A person - may it not happen to anyone - who has some sorrow, and he is at work all day, so he is sad. But there is laziness. Laziness is harder than sadness. Laziness is the most dangerous. One must pray to Hashem, blessed be He, not to be a lazy person, Heaven forbid. Laziness is very, very dangerous, because laziness brings to sadness and to destruction.

1:01:04 Laziness is very dangerous. A person must be zealous. And if people want something done at home - at home a person says, 'Bring me this water, bring me this book, bring me that' - we should try not even to say it: to get up and do it himself, in order to cancel the laziness, to try to break the laziness. This trait must be cancelled, be removed. A person who removes this trait will have a life completely different, because it is very close to the bite of the primordial serpent, laziness. So already it can... And zeal - the more a person is quick, zeal is life, zeal is a whole life.

1:01:42 A person who does things with zeal can gain. You can gain a whole life. You can live a whole world and all it contains with zeal. Do you know how much time people lose to laziness? There is one who, by the time he immerses, and by the time he comes out, and by the time he goes in, we have already finished the sunrise prayer, and we have already finished a tractate. By the time he goes to the mikveh and comes back - four hours after the mikveh. Why? You go to the mikveh, immerse, pray, leave. Quickly, with zeal.

1:02:07 It doesn't need time - it's a pity on the time. Go out, do the Daf Yomi, learn what is needed, pray. To pray quickly - the chazzanim too, not to lengthen the tefillah. Chazzanim, to pray - about the mikveh: in the responsa of Rabbi Yaakov of Marvege, the 'Responsa from Heaven,' siman 3, what he writes about chazzanim, that they must be careful about Ezra's immersion - the most important thing is that the chazzan be careful about the mikveh. How so? The geulah would come - yes, he writes there - the geulah would come if they did not hold back Ezra's immersion; because they are not careful about Ezra's immersion, the geulah is delayed by it. This is Bava Kamma, page 82, on the enactments of Ezra the Scribe.

1:02:42 But basically, one must think and contemplate about things - that they should spare the time. The Rogatchover, for example, when he would pray in certain places, he would bang a lot on the table so that the chazzan would hurry and not drag out the tefillah. He was very strict that they not pray - this is: to pray clearly, nicely and with zeal. You make niggunim, you make it pleasant, but there are those who pray and stretch out the time of the tefillah, and then 'grab too much and you have grabbed nothing.' Everything must be with taste and with joy, so that people can connect, and not push people away, so that they come and are told the tefillah takes time that never ends - so that people fulfill the obligation of tefillah, fulfilling the obligation to pray before Hashem. These are the important things.

1:03:34 The Rogatchover was very strict about this. He was very strict about the chazzanim, as one of his practices. This was a very, very important practice for him, which he was very strict about; people knew it. - How did we get to this, Rav? What the Rav said, that the Shechinah does not roll in the dust. So what is this request, that the Shechinah rise from the dust? Why are we always saying it?

1:04:01 - What do you mean? - The Rav said the Shechinah does not roll in the dust. - Yes. - So we already have the request that the Holy One, blessed be He, raise [unclear], and we ask for it all the time. - I will explain to you in other words what it means. Hashem, blessed be He - look, first of all, I strongly suggest that you read the responsa Rav Pe'alim, part 1, siman 1, I suggest that all of you read it.

1:04:27 You will have very clear explanations by Rabbeinu Yosef Chaim, he explained it there very beautifully, wondrously, this matter of the Shechinah and all these things - what it is, what it means. And whoever wants can learn it; it is explained there at greater length than I will explain. I will explain it to you briefly, these things - what is the meaning? When we actually keep mitzvos, learn Torah, pray - we become sanctified.

1:04:55 The body, the object, everything you fulfill, that you do now - there is such an object - an object, you see? An object, a cup, here is a cup, a drink, a jug - you put tea here, you put coffee here, you put this here. You use this object. Now you keep this object. You pray all the time, you put it next to you in the shul. You pray, you make a berachah on it.

1:05:19 You know, this thing becomes sanctified - say, in its time it served the holy Ohr HaChaim. It was with the Ohr HaChaim. How much would you want to pay to buy this cup? How much does a cup cost? Ten perutos. Ten coins. If it belonged to the holy Ohr HaChaim - now is it worth something? [unclear] - it will be worth something.

1:05:46 Now, how much will it be worth? Either they will say, 'Listen, this is a cup of the holy Ohr HaChaim,' or they will say, 'Listen, this is a valuable thing.' What do you say, yes? And everyone attaches importance to it - a holy cup. Does holiness take hold on it? Yes. Holiness takes hold - like the Taz, Rabbeinu the Taz, to whom they brought his tallis: people prepared a tallis for him, very expensive and fine, and he prayed with an old, worn-out tallis.

1:06:12 Why? It had absorbed the holiness, it had absorbed its elevation. And there is a question in this too: if a person has hiddur mitzvah, beautifying the mitzvah, does beautifying the mitzvah apply to this? You have a nicer tallis, or I want to go with a tallis that absorbed holiness - so beautifying the mitzvah, according to the Taz, applies precisely to what was used more in holiness. That is beautifying the mitzvah. Beautifying the mitzvah is not necessarily in the appearance of the mitzvah, but in the holiness that this mitzvah absorbed.

1:06:38 That is beautifying the mitzvah - to fulfill the obligation according to all the opinions of the poskim. What is it? Beautifying the mitzvah, yes. Yes. Like with Rabbi Baruch of Mezhibuzh, who said - with him, he had a sukkah without decorations. There was nothing, not a single decoration.

1:07:04 So he said that instead of buying decorations, he preferred to host poor people. He filled his sukkah with poor people, and once they came and told him, 'There is no decoration at all,' so he said, 'Here,' pointing at the decorations that were there in the sukkah, [unclear]. As opposed to tzaddikim who did decide to use these things at one time and those things at another, among tzaddikim. But where were we? So that a person should not be - because of Tractate Shabbos, page 114, where the Gemara says: any Torah scholar on whose garment a stain is found [unclear].

1:07:34 Now, all the Torah scholars and people will start saying, 'Fine, it is all nice, so go with a worn-out tallis, go with a tallis like that' - then people will say... this will create repulsion. That is because of this - that no stain should be found on his garment. So yes, there is beauty in this, that a person should adorn himself, and there are beautiful clothes in this - Rabbi Yochanan called his clothes 'the ones that honor me.' But that is not the meaning, that a person should think that only this is the meaning, that it be nice. No. If you have something that absorbs holiness, and you now have some object of a tzaddik, and you have some book of a tzaddik, or something that received a certain holiness, and you want to pray from this old siddur, and you want to pray with this holy, old tallis, and you pray with it -

1:08:11 this is your beautification. No one can argue with you, because this is my holiness now. What I come to explain: yes, when we keep holiness, we bring into holiness - what, actually? The body. The body - may it not happen to anyone of the Jewish people - after a person passes away - may it not happen to anyone of the Jewish people - in the end the body is buried in the ground, it is laid away.

1:08:37 Why? Because the body is called a tashmish kedushah, an article that served holiness. The soul was inside the body; it has the law of a Sefer Torah, an article that served holiness: it served the soul, this body served the soul. After 120 years, all the created beings are taken and laid away like a Sefer Torah - just as in the cemetery there is a place for a Sefer Torah, for people too there is such a place, because of the holy souls that are in the Jewish people. These holy souls - the body was an article of holiness for the soul, it served it; the body is laid away, and then the body is inside the ground because it is laid away. It is the same thing, because the body served the soul, so it received its holiness. What I come to explain. Right, right, right, right.

1:09:37 [unclear] - yes, they once asked the Pri HaAretz for a segulah for joy, so he told him: say 'simchah.' He did not say a segulah for joy - he said to say 'simchah'; saying 'simchah' is a segulah for joy. He was very careful about 'a covenant is made with the lips': not to say a bad word, not to say a bad combination, not to say it, because it might, Heaven forbid, come true. This is very dangerous, [unclear]. Because with joy - with joy one comes out of all the troubles.

1:10:01 - Rav, about earth there are also nice quotes: 'And let my soul be like dust to all.' [unclear] says we must learn from this, that also what they walk on... - That is what I said earlier, if you heard: that earth is a thing that holds things up, it is the element that endures, on which all the elements lean. It holds you up, it sustains you. Of course, if there is too much of it, it is dangerous. You need it in order to exist. But unfortunately, we do not live here 700-800 years, you know.

1:10:43 In the end he is carried to the grave, and his soul mourns over him. Earth is something of the essence of a person. We are made up of it. All the created beings here are walking dust. All the human beings that you see, everything you see here - there is only Hashem in the world, there is nothing. If we could stop now and contemplate and think, you would hear a still, small voice - there is nothing. There is nothing at all. It is all one big illusion.

1:11:07 Making a person imagine all kinds of imaginings, but it is only deceptions and visions and things that try to confuse a person, to drive him mad. The element of earth is the deceptions. But once you know that earth is earth, it sits in its place and becomes the thing that holds things up. You can put things on it, you can hang things on it, put the fire on it, you can put water, air - it holds; it will be below. Once there is too much earth there will be chaos, but without earth there is nothing.

1:11:37 This is the essence of a person, this is the foundation. If a person is not earth, he will think all day that he is also, I don't know, Moshe Rabbeinu. Yes, earth is a kind of something, a little, so that he will always be 'to know Your way on the earth,' so that he will not be drawn up to the heavens. This is like the responsa Halachos Ketanos, siman 223, of Rabbi Yaakov Chagiz. He writes: why was man not created with wings, to be like the bird? Why must he always be idle, lying on the floor?

1:12:07 Why shouldn't he have wings? Think - now, yes, he would rush to commit a sin. He brings Rabbi Shimon, this is in the first chapter of Berachos, who says: why was man not created with two mouths? 'Created with two mouths: one to engage in Torah and one for his needs' - [unclear]. That is, if with one mouth people speak lashon hara, what about two mouths - how much lashon hara they would speak! The world would be destroyed today. Yes.

1:12:34 So he wants wings. He speaks of the reward for steps, but he says - he attributes it to the Holy One, blessed be He: that the creatures can run to do a sin - as they say, if a person runs to a matter of sin, all the more so he would fly to a matter of sin. So he said [unclear] make him wings. That is the matter, that is what he writes. - The mem of Moshe is open, in Mitzrayim it is closed. - Yes, so I will explain. First of all, this is the hint that whoever enters Mitzrayim does not leave it; if a person enters Mitzrayim, he can never leave Mitzrayim, because the mem is open and the mem is closed, and the whole essence of Mitzrayim - pay attention what it is.

1:13:15 Mitzrayim - you remember that we explained earlier that once there are letters and the name is a certain essence, it is very hard - once there is a name with a mem at its end, a mem at its beginning, and it is closed, and the name is also Mitzrayim, there is no going out. It is like a curse, it is a bad name. They had to be taken to a completely different place. So Moshe Rabbeinu came and split the mem, this closed one.

1:13:40 The breaking of the closed mem - it is the final closed mem that he split. Therefore, when it is written that Mitzrayim turned into 'Mitzraymah' - why does it sometimes say 'Mitzraymah'? Mitzraymah, Mitzraymah - that is already after we left there; it is no longer called Mitzrayim, it is already Mitzraymah. Mitzrayim is that there is no... Yes, this is Moshe Rabbeinu, he did this. Moshe Rabbeinu turned over the mem.

1:14:17 I didn't see you, it's not... - A question: where [unclear]? - I didn't understand. - Two open mems at the beginning. - In 'Mitzrayim'? - 'MiMitzrayim' - from Egypt. - Ah, 'MiMitzrayim'. - In 'Mitzrayim', two open mems. - Yes. - That already opens it. - No, it's not like that, that is [unclear]. Yes, yes, it's not like that. This is what Rabbeinu did: Moshe Rabbeinu split the closed mem.

1:14:43 'L'marbeh ha-misrah' - this closed mem, which begins from the beginning of [unclear], this closed mem is for Mashiach. This closed mem is for Mashiach. He needs to [unclear] the closed mem. - What about laziness - that laziness is connected to earth, and comes from the bite of the serpent? - Laziness and sadness together are from the bite of the primordial serpent.

1:15:08 Both laziness and sadness are the serpent's bite. These are [unclear] parts. Even before the bite of the serpent, in man, the element of earth was not [unclear]. No, it did not harm him. I said again: the element of earth did not harm. To this day the element of earth does not harm. It is the thing that holds you up, you can be sustained by it, you can it can be used for things. You can... for example, a person - I'll give you an example, yes?

1:15:35 Take an example of something that comes from the element of earth: that you actually sit and learn for several hours - which element is that from? Just as an example: now you sit four hours in the synagogue, you hear the Torah reading, you pray - which element is that from? - Earth. - Earth. Sitting still, you have the ability and the strength to persevere in something.

1:16:00 That is from the element of earth. But once there are the combinations of the other elements, it needs, as it were, always to prevail - but once there is too much earth, then a person won't even come to the synagogue, he won't have the strength to get up from home and come in. That is to say, once the element [unclear], a person can be... There are things here that need a great deal of balance. And when a person goes to a Sage, the Sage, the tzaddik - it is written, 'and he who wins souls is wise' - he knows exactly how to give a person his elements, to arrange his elements for him.

1:16:32 Why is it that when people go to Sages a person becomes joyful, a person is renewed; a person goes to the grave of a tzaddik, he was there and he is happy, he feels it. Well, why does he feel this? Because that Sage, that tzaddik - a person goes to a Sage - the soul of the tzaddik, the soul of that one, acts upon the souls of those who come to him. It is a process that takes place in the binding together of souls. This soul - and then the light of this soul illuminates that soul, and from this illumination the elements fall into place.

1:17:03 And then right away the person has joy, salvation, merit, he feels light, joy from it, because the light illuminates the soul. And if there is, let's say, like, let's say just for example, yes, let's say like this, let's say just an example, as if a shape where this is too high - this, this, this, this - you go to a Sage, and this is the light he shines on the soul - hop! - everything falls into place on the soul. Yes, if you go, of course - again, you know, I won't go into the inner part of it with you now - we are talking about souls very, very, very great, you need to understand.

1:17:44 Those who deal with such things are very [unclear] souls. - The Rav thought about 'and their cry went up', afterwards he spoke of what one cannot bring out of the mouth. The Rav always says to raise the eyes to Heaven. To raise the eyes to Heaven. Why? When the eyes are lifted to Heaven, one does not need to overcome - 'va-ta'al', initials: raise your eyes to Heaven. 'Va-ta'al' as initials - 'and their cry went up.'

1:18:11 'Ta'al' - initials: raise your eyes to Heaven. That is what Yeshayahu said: 'Lift up your eyes on high and see who created these.' But this is already 'lift up'. It's as if: go [unclear], raise up. [unclear] Hashem our G-d. This already [unclear] the three pilgrimage festivals. Because this is what I explained earlier, that the purpose of the festivals is to lift a person up, to rejoice.

1:18:37 You have joy, elevation, so there is no need for it. [unclear] the earth. What you have is what exists, there is no need - that is what is good. In these times there is nothing at all from the element of earth; therefore there is joy on Yom Tov, there is joy, a feeling of elevation, there is holiness, cleaving to Hashem, there is freedom, because earth has no hold at all. Earth, we said. Fire corresponds to Shavuos - 'Is not My word like fire, says Hashem' - that is the element of fire. Shavuos corresponds to the element of fire.

1:19:08 [unclear] fire [unclear]. Water corresponds to Pesach: there must be no chametz; water leavens the matzah. And Moshe Rabbeinu came from the water - 'I drew him out' - the splitting of the Red Sea. The element of water is [unclear] - In the sukkah. - Right, but we are talking about the elements, about what the actions are, about what the joy is - what is the main joy, what is the main essence. No, this is about what the essence of the sukkah is, what the essence of the festival of Sukkos is.

1:19:36 A remembrance of the Clouds of Glory. On the clouds - on the wind, the element of wind. What is the matter of Pesach? Being careful with chametz. Leavening the chametz. Water leavens the chametz. You go by the main thing that is done. [unclear] wind, right? And also [unclear] that is high, then you don't see it, they already do the thing. Ah, very nice! Look, very nice - Rabbi Nesanel says Pharaoh is the letters of 'the earth'.

1:20:07 Nice. Pharaoh - 'ha-oref', the letters of 'ha-oref', the back of the neck. That is the being of earth. Very nice, Rabbi Netanya. - What does it mean that Pesach is water? What is it for? - I'll explain. In these times, when the element is revealed, you can repair and raise up this element that is lacking in him.

1:20:34 Every time you come to the Beis HaMikdash, when the day of the festivals comes - in our times, when we do not merit to have the Beis HaMikdash - then we can receive and gather from these holinesses. Do you understand? Now, let's say a person lacks joy, a person lacks something - hope, spirit, something in the elements - you gain and receive all these lacks, and they repair you. That is to say, now we are in the joy of Pesach, the joy of Chol HaMoed.

1:21:07 There are workings that Hashem, blessed be He, shines into us - the very fact of your being within this time of the festival of Pesach, this joy, the elevation and cleaving to Hashem, the simplicity that you pray and you fulfill - this already repairs your elements by itself and raises you; it simply [unclear] you. If a person has, for example, a lack - for example, let's say a person has an attraction to idle things, an attraction to desires, to things that are not good, then he is repaired, it can be nullified - he can nullify it in himself.

1:21:37 If a person, for example, needs love of Hashem, or more burning for Hashem - [unclear] on Shavuos, the Giving of the Torah, fire - it gives him more warmth and love for the Torah, it gives him longing for Hashem, yearning for Hashem, blessed be He. The elements need to be repaired at their root, for Hashem. Once your elements have arrived, they are settled, you are called a tzaddik. And if you can change other people's elements too, then you are called 'a tzaddik, the foundation of the world' - this is already 'foundation of the world', this is already as if you understand - it's as if you need to understand what elements are. What we say, a person's elements: every person who is here in the world suffers from four elements.

1:22:20 Your whole day, the whole day it is four elements, the whole day, it is four elements. In the morning a person was sad, in the morning he was weak, he was tired, he fell into bed, he was lazy - that's from the elements; all day they rise, a person's four - fire, wind, water, earth - all day they go up and down. All day it's like a graph like this: up, down, up, down, all the time. It is never settled. In these times you have an uplift that raises them and settles them, and then [unclear] for a person to fall.

1:22:52 Every person feels that Pesach, Shavuos - the Giving of the Torah - Sukkos, Shabbos... Shabbos comes - what joy there is! We feel that Shabbos is Shabbos. It's impossible to say - there is no one who doesn't feel it; whoever has not tasted Shabbos, but Shabbos comes, it is Shabbos, we feel completeness. What light! Shabbos, Yom Tov has come, we feel that the Shabbos table doesn't look like the table. On that day, stand - on that day of Shabbos - in a certain place at the table.

1:23:24 The next day, after Shabbos, stand in the same place - it is not this feeling. I'm not talking about a feeling - everyone will testify. Are you right or not? that we feel Shabbos coming, Yom Tov coming - there is a different illumination. Not the same face, right? They would change in this, yes. Rabbi Chaim of Czernowitz, the Kabbalist, would [unclear], yes. Yes, he Erev Shabbos would come - it is written in the introduction to 'Sidduro shel Shabbos'.

1:23:51 - Rav, [unclear], didn't you say that if one loves a tzaddik, that because they are a tzaddik, there is a tzaddik who... is there a difference between one tzaddik and another, and does one feel... - There is a difference between tzaddik and tzaddik like between a Jew and a non-Jew. Did you hear? A difference between the tzaddikim, and a difference of heaven and earth. There is a difference, but in levels. You need to understand that there are levels beyond measure.

1:24:16 I gave you an example: there is a tzaddik who, let's say now, on Yom Kippur, in the Ne'ilah prayer, reaches such contemplations and holiness that with another tzaddik, in the middle of the year, in the month of Teves, at Minchah time, in the afternoon, at the hour when he is playing with the clock, he is above that one at Ne'ilah on Yom Kippur - what he reaches then is found there.

1:24:44 So how do you want to compare between them? There is again - I'll explain - each one according to how much that Sage grasped the greatness of the Holy One, blessed be He, in his wisdom, so he surpassed everyone. If you grasp the greatness of Hashem, you will... we will come to you for Rosh Hashanah, [unclear], everyone will travel to you. 'Rabbi Nachman will come to me' - [unclear] - everyone.

1:25:17 You need to understand, this is not a competition. There is no competition in this, it is not some competition or anything, of course. Whoever grasps the greatness of Hashem, blessed be He - that you know the greatness of the Creator, 'for I know that Hashem is great, and our Lord is above all gods' - from this very knowledge of the greatness of Hashem, these are already other things that happen, you need to understand.

1:25:42 These are things that take place from the very revelation of the soul. [unclear] and holy ones - not to see - [unclear] and holy ones, but not only [unclear] - there are others who do. There is a flocking to certain [unclear], there is a flocking. One need not go so much to [unclear]. One should pray and learn the Torah of the Sages, receive their spirit and seek their understanding; it is much more important to the Sage that you learn his Torah than that you run to his grave a lot. Come from time to time.

1:26:13 Yes, yes, yes, yes - it counts. The Komarner writes this - Rabbi Mordechai of Chernobyl, Rabbi Menachem Nachum of Chernobyl, yes. What are you saying? - Sometimes there are awesome things that one reads and doesn't feel anything, no? And others do [unclear] - so why is it like this, [unclear]? - When we grasp the greatness of Hashem - you remember I told you that the Name of Hashem is not found in the correct order - you remember we learned that the Name Ayin-Beis is not joined in the correct order: 'Vayisa,' 'Vayavo,' 'Vayet' - the Explicit Name.

1:26:56 The table of the names - threes, right? Three, three, three, three, three: seventy-two names, in multiples - seventy-two times three is 216. 216 letters of the Name Ayin-Beis are not arranged in the correct order. Right? Only Mashiach alone knows how to arrange the table in the correct order, and about this it is written, 'I will set him on high' - why?

1:27:22 'Because he knows My Name.' What is it? 'I will set him on high, because he knows My Name.' If, [unclear], you knew the Name, then we would already be in the Redemption, everything here. So you are asking too many questions - why did he call, why would you say - these are things that we... these are things that are the secret of Hashem. You understand, this is the meaning: 'I will set him on high because he knows My Name; he will call upon Me and I will answer him' - because of the knowledge, that he knows the Name of Hashem, he knows the order: this name belongs to this name, this name belongs to this name, this, this.

1:27:58 So the Holy One, blessed be He, [unclear] him because of this, because of the knowledge. That is to say, what decides, and what the great power is, is the knowledge - the knowledge of the greatness of Hashem, the knowledge of the Names, the knowledge of the Name. This knowledge is what raises the powers to such completely different powers that cannot be compared.

1:28:22 And today, today we are in a very weak generation, in that we compare straight away, as if we think yes - but that's it, it's as if it is the way of the world. It's not because we are not aware - because today we are weak and not aware enough to understand the value of the levels. We are not in those places, but whoever is truly wise - 'his eyes are in his head' - can understand that there are differences of heaven and earth between this Sage and that Sage, in levels; and these are things that are known.

1:28:54 [unclear] cannot be without song; there will be no Mashiach. That is, even if he knew - all those who [unclear], when they [unclear] about Mashiach, if they had known about Shirah... Perek Shirah in gematria is 'the light of Mashiach' - exactly. Perek Shirah in gematria: 'the light of Mashiach'. A hint to this: that in the song of Creation that we say, [unclear] what shines in the world, because song is actually what reveals the light of Hashem, that there is no lack at all and everything is complete. Therefore the Jewish people - what I explained earlier - when they were in Egypt, they could not pray, and when they left Egypt, they already sang.

1:29:38 Look at the place they were in: here they were in 'and their cry went up', and here they were in song. And they said the Song of the Sea - six hundred thousand as one, all together. Try to imagine it, it is something that how do you say - all of them, song, without anyone being heard after another, in one second. They all opened their mouths and said the song: 'Then Moshe and the Children of Israel sang.' That is 'Then Moshe and the Children of Israel sang' - together, this song to Hashem, the song to Hashem: 'for He is highly exalted; horse and its rider He cast into the sea.'

1:30:08 You know, tzaddikim, I don't want us to go on long and be held up, even though we have not finished the elements; we have not finished the festivals and the holidays yet. But it already seems late. We actually wanted to do this only to stop by for a blessing; in the end it turned into a shiur. But it turned out for the good, because, Baruch Hashem, [unclear]. May everyone have a fruitful life, good tidings, success and protection, salvations, and all the blessings in the Torah. I am happy to see you; there was very great joy [unclear]. We will miss you all.

1:30:36 Baruch Hashem, we have been here together for a week already, with shiurim every day, with moments of Torah, with [unclear], joy. Now [unclear] - may it be fixed for us. It is not known who its author is. Like the Kol Bo - the Kol Bo too, it is not known who the author of the Kol Bo is; there is a view that a woman even wrote it, but from the author one understands that he was one of the [unclear]. Once, in their time, there was not so much - there were many great ones whom people did not know, they were not famous and not well-known names.

1:31:15 They were tremendous and great - like Orchos Tzaddikim. It is a sefer by one of the great ones whose author is not known. He was one of the great ones - like the Kol Bo, where they also say a woman wrote it, and they also did not know who the author was. One of the sefarim relied upon for halachah, like the Kol Bo, yes? whose authors are not known. I see, [unclear]. Why?

1:31:40 - Who wrote it? She... It's not... I asked a question... - There is logic in [unclear] the question. - She was a student, [unclear]. There were many questions. - In the introduction to the Kol Bo, there he says that he did not... There the... Yes, right. - No, no, it's not...

1:32:06 It is not this writing, not the rulings, not all kinds of things. But look, there are things that are sealed and hidden, and no one explains them, and with the help of Hashem, we need to learn from what they left us, and not let it concern us. Yes, Orchos Tzaddikim - a wonderful sefer, This is a very, very lofty sefer, of Sages and great ones and [unclear].

1:32:39 Good, we need to do a niggun, and then [unclear].