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The Yanuka’s own words in this shiur, translated into English by Lehallel · 1,905 words · 8:03. Press a time to hear it said.
0:00 'In his mind', right, right. But here it says 'in his mind', it doesn't say 'in his heart'. 'An offering is slaughtered for the sake of six things: the offering, the one who offers, Hashem, the fires, the aroma, the pleasing; and a sin-offering and guilt-offering for the sin. Rabbi Yosi said: even one who did not have in his heart any one of all these, it is valid, for it is a stipulation of the court, that the intent follows only the one performing the service.' Why here 'his heart'? Why here 'his mind'? Because here you have a service of drawing close to the Holy One, blessed be He, through the offering. What's the difference between here and there?
0:25 Why 'in his mind'? You say: 'she is betrothed, perhaps he had a thought of teshuvah in his mind.' In his mind, right. Why not in his heart? There may be a distinction here. If you say 'in his heart', that thought of teshuvah brought about the Tikkun, right? Rabbi Elazar ben Dordaya, where did he have his thought? In the heart or in the mind? He cried out, and sat with his head on his knees, and cried out and wept. So the thought was in the heart, seemingly, not in the mind. Not in the mind. Seemingly yes: 'he is destined for the life of the World to Come.' Right.
0:51 Back to what the Gemara says: 'You are betrothed on condition that I am a complete tzaddik', she is betrothed, 'perhaps he had a thought of teshuvah in his mind.' 'In his mind'. You don't say 'perhaps he had a thought of teshuvah in his heart.' There is a distinction whether it is in his mind or in his heart. That is to say, the mind, the intention, has to understand what he means. When he does teshuvah, he has to understand what he means. When he brings a sacrifice or an offering, he has to have the intent in the heart. He is already, like, that is already... he has to be at the stage after that. More than that. That is the next level, after he has directed his intent, after he has directed his intent, after his mind, after his mind, right. Why 'his mind'? Why not 'his heart'?
1:22 Because the most important thing is the mind. If you don't know before Whom you stand and toward Whom you direct your intent... The heart is a service that comes after the mind. The heart is... the mind is the father. After the mind, yes, it's the father, the father. First his mind, to know; after that the heart. Yes. So in Kiddushin, on page 49, where the Gemara says, 'she is betrothed, perhaps he had a thought of teshuvah in his mind', that is as if already enough, that is already the beginning; it's enough that he has already begun to think of it. Exactly.
1:49 That is the distinction in the Mishnah that says such and such. Why 'Heaven'? Why 'Heaven'? One means it... As they say. Right. It is also in Tractate Chullin, it says in the Mishnah, one who slaughters over the sea: so they should not say he is slaughtering to the angel of the sea. Right. It is forbidden to slaughter over the sea, so they should not say he is slaughtering to the angel of the sea. Right. So how is that? Wait, why do we say 'fear of Heaven'? Not 'fear of Hashem'... But it is always likened to looking at the heavens.
2:15 At the heavens, or at the Holy One, blessed be He? When a person sees the heavens, he understands that the heavens see him. When you gaze at the heavens, you understand that it is not you seeing them. You understand that you are being seen. When you are being seen, then a person receives fear of Heaven. You know, the holy Baal Shem Tov once traveled with Alexei, his wagon driver. And Alexei the wagon driver drove in front of him like this, and he sits in the wagon, the Baal Shem Tov. He had this kind of pipe.
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2:39 It's like a long nargila, a lulke like that. Very long. It was so long that he would... He smoked? Yes, he would smoke. Right? We need to tell him to stop the smoking, to join our conference. That's the conference. The conference for quitting smoking. Yes. So what he did with the lulke, great things were bound up with it. It was so long that once he was traveling somewhere, and there was someone, a nobleman, who passed by opposite him and snatched it from him. It was valuable, so someone drove past opposite him, and snatched his lulke, because it was so long, someone passed by opposite him and snatched it. Like when you are driving a car, you are smoking, and someone comes and snatches your cigarette from the other car.
3:10 But it wasn't that, it was really a long pipe like this. Well, the holy Baal Shem Tov. Once, they tell, he was traveling in the wagon with Alexei, and then the Baal Shem Tov entered a state of deveikus and stopped the wagon. Alexei said: Well, the Baal Shem Tov is thinking his thoughts in the meantime, let me go for a moment. He got down, and he went to pick from someone's yard... He could pick a few fruits. The Baal Shem Tov had his eyes closed, and the Baal Shem Tov says to him: Alexei, you are being seen!
3:38 He looks to the right, he looks to the left, he looks around to see who is there. He looks at him, and went back to the wagon. He could not understand the Baal Shem Tov; he looks at the Baal Shem Tov, and the Baal Shem Tov still has his eyes closed. Now he has fallen asleep, he thought. He was a non-Jewish wagon driver. He went to pick again, and the Baal Shem Tov shouts to him: Alexei, you are being seen! He quickly went back to the wagon again.
4:03 The third time the Baal Shem Tov shouts to him. Who sees me? Your eyes are closed altogether, so who sees me? He said to him: The heavens see you. What? That is 'the heavens'? 'Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak.' They tell this about all the tzaddikim. Also about the Chofetz Chaim, also about the Chofetz Chaim. Rebbe. It is about the mouth of the person who speaks, who brings forth words of Torah. It is that we remember the Rav's Torah. Tzalya of the tribe of Dan killed Bilaam, and his whole body turned into snakes.
4:31 The body is 'mashcha d'chivya', the skin of the snake. The skin of the snake is the father. The offspring is all the iniquities and sins that a person accustoms himself to: to sin and to transgress, to set himself against Hashem. That is because he has a body of the skin of the snake. The skin of the snake is the father. That is the father; the offspring is sins, iniquities, transgressions. So this is what one must do: draw close to Hashem, draw close to the tzaddikim, and follow the bright light. And this is exactly what we see, to accompany and lift up the Jewish people, and to be attached to the tzaddikim.
5:08 So that gives us exactly what we read. 'When a person has on the skin of his flesh': 'be'or', skin, is Bilaam ben Beor. Beor is the father, the offspring is Bilaam, that is the sins. 'On the skin of his flesh': he has a skin that comes from the father, that is Bilaam. 'Se'eis': that he attach himself, go after the tzaddikim, lift them up; 'sapachas or baheres'; 'baheres' is a bright light: that he return to Hashem, blessed be He, and bring down the root of teshuvah before Hashem. 'Sapachas' is attaching; he attached himself. Yes, to be attached to the inheritance of Hashem, to attach oneself to the tzaddikim.
5:36 So, 'when a person has on the skin of his flesh': 'be'or', meaning he has reached a state where his flesh is the skin of the snake. That is Bilaam's father, 'be'or besaro'. Even his body is so, so much the skin of the snake, he is so full of coarseness and materiality, that he is the father, not the offspring, which is Bilaam, but the father. Then his Tikkun is only to be 'se'eis or sapachas or baheres'. Let him choose from all of these. Either 'se'eis': that he lift up the Jewish people, judge the Jewish people favorably, lift them up, raise them high; or 'sapachas': that he go and draw close to tzaddikim and to the Sages. 'Attending to it is greater than learning it', and 'sit in the dust of their feet': that is 'sapachas'; or 'baheres': that he seek the light,
6:12 the bright light, that which is in the Jewish people, the light hidden within him. Something, for surely he is not black, Heaven forbid. 'Do not look upon me that I am swarthy.' There is 'baheres' in him, certainly. And that is what will bring him back to Hashem. Now you have taught us something new here. The Rav, here, a chiddush of the Rav, here and now. It is in your merit, now. The Rav... but it came down from Heaven. Just now, directly. Now, 'And the Kohen shall see him', says the Sforno, that the Kohen has two... Now, the Sforno writes here about the disease.
6:39 The Sforno, here in the parsha, writes about cancer. He writes the word 'sartan', cancer. He writes a discovery: Rabbi Ovadiah Sforno is the first to write about it. He writes the disease exactly, by its name, that these are afflictions inside the body. 'Afflictions', that is how he writes it. 'Sartan', he writes the very name. This is the source for the word for this disease. Rabbi Ovadiah Sforno on the parsha writes an astonishing discovery. Look and see what he writes here. 'And the Kohen shall see him', says the Sforno, that when the person who is afflicted comes to him, he has to pray for himself and do teshuvah. He is given time to do teshuvah and also to pray for himself.
7:16 And also 'the Kohen shall see him': the main role of the Kohen was that he should pray for him. That is to say, the Yisrael too should pray, and the Kohen too should pray for him, and he should do teshuvah. And what he rules, yes or no, that is technical. It depends, yes. It depends, it's technical. It is not only technical; it is by his mouth. Right, of course, of course. He determines it. He decrees it, he determines. Yes, yes, he determines. But the main thing is that he comes, he prays. And I see here, it is really the same here as well: people come, people pray, and the Rav prays.
7:45 Right. So these are the two sides. 'And the Kohen shall see him', that is what the Sforno writes. The main thing is to pray, to pray to Hashem. To crown the Holy One as King, to pray. To Heaven, above. To crown the King of kings of kings. To bring nachas before the King of kings of kings.
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