The Yanuka Rav Shlomo Yehuda-לצאת מאפילה לאורה • שו״ת מרתק בעניין הגאולה בסעודה שלישית עם הגאון הינוקא (צולם לאחר צאת השבת)

2:46 When a person isn't studying, nothing, he's explaining to someone, wants to explain to him something he doesn't know, there is no turning to Heaven, there is no Torah learning, there is nothing clear - say 'Hashem'. And how to have intention? Always, certainly. One must always have intention: And His Name, blessed be He - Master of all, is and will be, etc. In hisbodedus, to call to Heaven like that? No. Unless you have a text that the Sages established, a psalm of Tehillim, a prayer that is from ancient times, something, a text of some sage who instituted saying it. To just say His Name, blessed be He, like that, for nothing?

3:16 What, to turn to Him? [unclear] is like that? To turn to Him like that? It is forbidden. Unless you are calling to Him with some verse, with some appeal, 'May it be Your will before You', in the form of a request. Yes, it is possible. Any prayer a person wants - only that a person should not say His Name and have no basis before or after it. And in this there is no problem. King Shaul forced the time for his kingship, and it was not his time.

4:03 In the end the time was pushed away from him, and the one who merited the kingship was King David, who did not force the time, and so the time was not pushed away from him. Forcing the time is when a person wants something beyond his strengths, beyond his vessels, and he wants them now. He doesn't try to prepare a vessel for his reality. When a person has no vessels for his level and he wants the thing now, that is called forcing the time. And many times people are not careful when they demand this thing. Heaven forbid, I don't want to pressure anyone, but many times there are people who have no children, and they push very, very hard for children, they want it really with pleading, with very great pressure, for children, and sometimes it does much greater harm, because they are forcing the time,

4:48 and this is 'hope deferred makes the heart sick', and in the end this itself holds them back, that they are too pressured by it, and it holds back the woman and holds back the man, and it puts fears into them. One must pray in a relaxed way. When a person prays, he must pray with a settled mind. One must settle the mind, pray with intention, calmly, not to get pressured, not to panic, not to force the time, to feel that now, now, now, I need this now.

5:17 And if a person doesn't get it now, then he is full of bitterness and sorrow and sadness. That is forcing the time. But when a person knows that sometimes things go hard for him and go out of order, and he doesn't panic from it, he makes room, he lowers his head, he prays to Hashem, he submits. He tries to understand what Hashem, blessed be He, wants from me, in the difficulty I am going through, in the troubles, in the hardships, in the sufferings. He makes room for the time and says to Hashem, 'Do good with me, have mercy on me, I have sinned before You.'

5:43 This request appeases Him, blessed be He, and gives room to the time. He knows that his time will come. But a person who forces the time and wants it now, and if it's not now he starts to blaspheme and starts to be distressed and starts this and that - it may be that in the end he will get what he wants, but in the end he will lose a great deal of good, and that is dangerous. With Chana, it was prevailing. With Chana, it was prevailing.

6:08 Chana prevailed over Heaven. Chana gave a justification and a reason. This is also a possibility that a person does; it is not forcing the time, it is prevailing. If a person brings a justification to the Holy One, blessed be He, it is as Rabbi Elazar said: [unclear] If a person asks the Holy One, blessed be He - a reason and a justification - and he brings the justification: what is the reason he wants this successful hour? She asked - she gave many reasons why she asked that the Holy One, blessed be He, give her, so that she could use it for the sake of her son, that Hashem would give her.

6:41 But if a person has no reason and he only pushes, that is something else. Prevailing is when a person brings a justification for why he wants what he wants. A person wants wealth, wants a livelihood, wants a wife, wants children. And he brings a reason before Heaven: also, what is the reason for it? Then he is trying to [unclear] the Name of Heaven in his suffering; on the contrary, it may be that it will benefit him. But when a person presses without a reason, he has no reason for this justification, that is sometimes forcing the time.

7:10 And therefore this is the difference between Chana and plain forcing of the time. Chana had prevailing. This prevailing is prayer: 'My children have prevailed over Me, they have prevailed over Me.' The Holy One, blessed be He, wants them to prevail over Him. Always, when a person wants to pray to Hashem, he should also give the explanation and the reason, that it will be of benefit to him, so that it will help him. But forcing the time is when a person panics about the time every time and wants the thing here and now. - And... what, the [unclear] of Mashiach can come today?

7:37 Mashiach can come today? If it's possible to improve something today - not [unclear] the time, but if it's possible to [unclear]. - I understand what you are saying. In principle it is possible, it is not forcing the time. With the redemption, we are no longer forcing the time by asking for the redemption, because it already has to come. But the point is that we need to be much more with vessels in order to contain - what are these concepts?

8:07 When we speak about redemption and speak about Mashiach, we are speaking about the highest and most exalted concepts in the creation of the world. These are things - when we speak about Mashiach, we are not speaking about some flesh and blood who is to come to us from somewhere. We are speaking about knowledge that is supposed to spread, about knowledge that is supposed to be revealed, about the light of Hashem that will be revealed, and about straight thinking that will spread, and about all this crookedness that will be nullified. Today all of us see things that are distorted and broken, right?

8:39 A person goes out, suddenly sees something broken, sees something corrupt, sees crime and wickedness, sees the things that are what should truly be in holiness there. We see falsehood and chaos and 'darkness upon the face of the deep', a very great confusion. When we speak about redemption and Mashiach, we mean the light that will spread and straighten out all this crookedness.

9:04 That is to say, this is altogether [unclear]. I once said this as a witticism. So I said - once someone asked me whether it is certain that in this generation the redemption will come. So I said to him, this is what the Sages said in Sotah, on page 49: 'In the footsteps of Mashiach, chutzpah will increase.' That the generation of Mashiach will be the most brazen - that they will feel that Mashiach will come in their generation. That is their chutzpah, that they will have such a notion, that they will feel that Mashiach will come in their generation.

9:29 So it is as if [unclear] - why? Because we are speaking about such lofty things. Think that there will no longer be the sorrow, nor the distress, nor the fear, nor the anxiety, nor the falsehood. The whole world will be truth, and everything will be pure, and everything will be the very best, and there is no more lack to struggle with. No more falsehood and competition.

9:54 At that time there will be no jealousy there, no famine, no [unclear], 'for the earth will be full of the knowledge of Hashem as the waters cover the sea' - this is how the Rambam concludes Hilchos Melachim, at the end. He finds nothing better to teach us, to explain to us that for the redemption to come, you need to understand that at that time there will be perfection and a revelation of infinite light, and then they will see the beauty and the preciousness that there is in each one of us.

10:20 When we say the word 'Mashiach', 'Mashiach' comes from the word 'mesiach' - he tells. He tells. He will tell of the greatness of the Jewish souls. Today, what we see is that there is praise for tzaddikim and for Rebbes. The rest of the world doesn't know them. Mashiach will come, suddenly they will see this street cleaner, who used to clean the synagogue and clean the street - suddenly Mashiach will come, will seat him on a splendid chair, and will begin to praise him for the self-sacrifice he did.

10:53 A righteous woman will come who did some self-sacrifice that only the Holy One, blessed be He, knows, and he will tell of her self-sacrifice. Another person will come, a simple one, who did mitzvos of tzedakah and very great devotion, and Mashiach will tell of him. How? As much as he did, we still need to do for all the six hundred thousand, and for all the reincarnations we need to. Simply, when Mashiach comes, whatever will be, he will need to sit and tell about each and every one. Suddenly they will see the preciousness and the glory and the beauty that there is in all of Israel.

11:26 Many times in the world people think that when Mashiach comes, someone will come who will again trample on us and we will have to bow down to him, and again we will be pushed aside. That is not true. When Mashiach comes, he will raise everyone up, and he is the one whom the Holy One, blessed be He, will push aside in the end, that in the end the Holy One, blessed be He, nullifies the Mashiach too, hides him, so that they won't try to worship idols, etc. So, thank G-d.

11:52 - A generation that is entirely guilty. - A generation that is entirely guilty or a generation that is entirely meritorious. There is a beautiful essay in the book Ner Yisrael, part 3, in the name of Rabbi Avraham Yaakov of Sadigura, the son of the Rebbe of Ruzhin. He says that 'a generation entirely meritorious or a generation entirely guilty' - he explains that the meaning is that if the Jewish people, after all, do - after all, everyone, in Shevuos, page 39, 'all of Israel are guarantors for one another', one in another, one in the other. The moment the Jewish people already do the majority, in each one of us there is the root of the whole Jewish people, which depends more. I once made a novel insight on this, on his words.

12:26 I will explain the insight to you, and then you will understand it more simply. When a person goes to the cemetery, he makes a blessing, right? 'Who knows the number of all of you, and will in the future revive you in judgment.' So what is the meaning, 'knows the number of all of you'? The [unclear] writes that each one is equal to several. There is one who is equal to ten, there is one equal to a hundred, and one equal to six hundred thousand, all the Jewish souls.

12:52 So when we say 'and knows the number of all of you', only the Holy One, blessed be He, knows how much each and every one is worth. Each one of the Jewish people - how much he is, against whom he is equal. Who knows this? Only the Holy One, blessed be He. When we say 'and knows the number of all of you', He also knows each one, against how many he is equal. Now, when the Jewish people, thank G-d - in each one there are, several are included in him, that the majority of them will do some good thing, they will tip the whole entire world to the side of merit, in the way of what is said in Tractate Yoma, page 86, in the name of Rabbi Meir, 'For the sake of one individual who repented, they forgive him and the whole entire world,'

13:27 'for My anger has turned away from him' - it does not say 'from them' but 'from him', from an individual. So that is to say, through this, they will see his teshuvah and everything together, in the end everyone will merit complete teshuvah, and then there will be a generation that is entirely meritorious. One can explain it this way. This is a novel insight on the things he said; I made a novel insight on what he said. This is already in Tractate Sanhedrin, on page 94, side b. The Gemara says 'The Holy One, blessed be He, wished to make Chizkiyahu the Mashiach and Sancheriv Gog', but the Holy One, blessed be He, said: 'My secret is Mine, My secret is Mine.'

14:04 This is Hashem's secret about the redemption, what will be - it is Hashem's secret. The Holy One, blessed be He, decides. If the Holy One, blessed be He, decides to do things in a different way, that is for the Holy One, blessed be He, to decide, but the principle is that the kingship of Hashem and the glory of Hashem will be revealed, so that the creations will praise His great Name. We ask for redemption, we ask that each one of us go out of his narrow straits. The Jewish people were in Egypt, they had sorrow, they had difficulty, they had delay, and they wanted to go out from darkness to light.

14:34 Today we are also in Egypt, we are still in Egypt. Once it was Pharaoh, today the difficulty is much greater. There are souls and people who are in 'the tears of the oppressed', their difficulty, their pain, people with sicknesses, people with ailments, people with the worry of livelihood, people with difficulty, people without a match, broken people - there are so many people in brokenness, so many people who were wronged, so many people who went through many ordeals and lots of troubles and lots of sufferings.

15:06 They want redemption, they want something so that their bad and their bitterness will stop and they will have good. This sorrow that they have is the sorrow of the holy Shechinah. The Shechinah lets them know this sorrow, and therefore they are very close to Hashem, blessed be He. [unclear] - these two things [unclear] break a person's body, this sigh and their sorrow, and Torah scholars.

15:31 Rashi explains in Tractate Nedarim, page 49 side a, at the end of the page - Rashi explains that Torah scholars are sick all the time. They are sick, weak. Why? True Torah scholars who learn the Torah are the ones who most long for things to be fulfilled. They have the greatest pain; they want everything to be revealed already. They see the falsehood of the world, they see the false reality of the world, and they want everything to change, they want everything to become clear, and the kingship to be revealed already, because they see how great the kingship of Hashem is and how full the glory of Hashem is, and they go outside into the world and see how the Satan dances and falsehood celebrates.

16:11 So here is the great pain. And when we ask for redemption, we ask for a general redemption, for Torah scholars too, for the Jewish people too, that there will already be preciousness and honor for whoever deserves it. Today we see that a person can go, commit crime and wickedness, can sit on the throne of kingship, and everyone will serve and bow down to him. He is a wicked person. But when Mashiach comes, it will not be so. When Mashiach comes, they will see the simplest of the simple and the farthest of the far who did some good thing, some good work, some good deed.

16:38 Or a person who would cry out, and only Hashem saw him, in the desert, for some cry he made to Hashem, or some prayer he made, or self-sacrifice for tefillin that he made, or self-sacrifice for some mitzvah, or anything at all he did, the smallest, and only Hashem saw him, Mashiach will need to tell of him. Therefore the whole essence of the name Mashiach is 'mesiach' - he tells. It is to tell of the greatness of the Jewish souls.

17:03 That's it, that is the meaning, that is what is to be. With this it ends, no more than this. And if the Holy One, blessed be He, decides to do the things in a way that this will be nullified and that will be nullified and this will be - but we know, 'My secret is Mine, My secret is Mine.' Whatever the Holy One, blessed be He, decides is what He wants. And we need to be His servants, to pray. And as Rashi in Tractate Shabbos, on page 31, says: 'Did you await salvation?' - which says: to fulfill all the words of the prophets - [unclear] to look forward to these words of the prophets, that they be fulfilled. All the prophecies that were prophesied to us, that are to be fulfilled for us. May we merit this, with Hashem's help.

17:37 So, what? Look at Tractate Soferim, look at the Maharal of Prague. There is no such thing.

18:03 There is no such thing - never [unclear]. Faith in the Sages, faith in the Sages will never [unclear] never. There was once a story about the Divrei Chaim of Sanz. The Divrei Chaim of Sanz, who was one of the greatest Sages, of the greatest tzaddikim. And he would tell them, his students, he once told a story about the holy Chozeh of Lublin.

18:30 And once they told many stories about the holy Baal Shem Tov. Everyone knows there were many stories of wonders about the Baal Shem Tov. So the holy Chozeh once said that one must believe all of it, because even what was not true, it was in the tzaddik's power to fulfill it, to make it happen. To fulfill [unclear] - Hashem is with the Sages. And on the contrary, when a person has faith in the Sages, that is the main rectification and the root and everything. When a person has no faith in the Sages - Heaven forbid.

18:57 Faith in the Sages will never harm, never, never, never. It is the greatest thing, and however much we have, we always have little. When we read about Moshe, when we read about David, when we read about Shaul, when we read about Abaye, about Rava, about Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak, about all the great Amoraim, Tannaim, one must know that they are much, much greater. Their body is much holier than our soul. And to understand that they are great and exalted in stature, and as it seems, not even like the donkeys of Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair, Tractate Chullin, page 7, where the Gemara says that it was a wise donkey, that it [unclear] what to eat, what is forbidden and what not.

19:33 So not even like the donkeys - [unclear] ben Yair knew. This is a generation of - the further we go in the decline of the generations, then more - the Gaon of Kutna once said, we see that the further the generations decline - so he said - but on the contrary, by us we see that the geonim have multiplied, and multiplied - the further down we go, precisely the geonim multiplied, multiplied, we don't see a decline of the generations. - There were those who went over afterwards, up to [unclear], or things like that, also the people whose root was good, in the end, as if, it is written [unclear], And people, [unclear] believes, he goes out, said that he is above the [unclear], he said that he did not want it. - No, no. There is no such reality. Nobody tries to say such things, Heaven forbid.

20:17 A person does not mean to say that he is above this. Nobody says such things. He doesn't say it, but this says it. It doesn't explain. I will explain. The Sabbatean movement that there was, the Sabbatean movement, first of all, it is forbidden to say his name. It is forbidden to say his name. It is forbidden to say it. One does not call him by name. Basically, why? Rabbi Pinchas of Koritz writes that when a person says his name, he immediately becomes impure and must immerse.

20:44 But you said it by mistake, that is not terrible. It was by mistake, you didn't know this, it is not terrible. He writes that when a person says the name he immediately becomes impure, so therefore he says one must be careful not to say it, not to utter it. Now, he in practice was not careful about the mikveh. One of the important things is that he was not careful about the mikveh, and he came and changed and overturned the whole order of the prayer, the whole order of the Geonim. He did things that were puzzling, and they knew that they were puzzling, even though people were mistaken about him.

21:12 But he had in fact already declared himself Mashiach, and did things that were puzzling, in mentioning His blessed Name, in disgracing tefillin, and many very severe things that he did, which there is no place to detail. But the things he did are known, some of them are known and some were left out of the books, and they are mentioned only in manuscripts and in all kinds of chronicles of the generations that saw and wrote about them. That is the reason they were also very afraid of the Ramchal.

21:40 Of the Ramchal, Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, who was a giant of the world, and they made him swear to stop writing. Maharam Chagiz went out against him a great deal over his words. But this of course, these are things that are not... these are matters between Sages. Maharam Chagiz and the Ramchal - these are such matters. Maharam Chagiz was a giant of the world, mentioned [unclear]. It is not for now, that he pursued him really to the death, what he did to the Ramchal.

22:07 But still, let us say these were things that were a dispute for the sake of Heaven; of course it was painful for the Ramchal, but still one cannot dismiss the words of Maharam Chagiz, who was a giant of the world, and certainly he meant it for the sake of Heaven and did not mean to cause pain to the Ramchal with his words. This is a matter I do not want to enter at all, I am too small to speak about it, but I am simply saying that the Sages were very afraid of the new thing.

22:32 Now, whenever one sees that there are things that are against the halachah, that are against the Shulchan Aruch, they can never contradict anything for us. If a person, Heaven forbid, comes to add a mitzvah for us, to change a mitzvah - that is already a false prophet, and his death is by strangulation. His death is by strangulation. There are lines in the Torah, there are lines. They cannot be changed. And he did a great many things, including pronouncing the Explicit Name of Hashem.

22:59 He would stand in prayer and pronounce the Name of Hashem, saying the Name, calling it out with his mouth. Yes, he did very puzzling things so that they... He told them that, as far as they were concerned, the redemption had come, and he took a few people, and there were severe things that are not to be said here; this is known. He did many things of sin with the mitzvos; he held that one must use the mitzvos for the forbidden things.

23:30 - Tell me, about Mashiach, there are other [unclear]. - Only the Holy One, blessed be He, will announce him. Listen. There are two such people who said that they are messiahs. Not that they said. Mashiach - 'My secret is mine, my secret is mine,' in the secret of Hashem. Only the Holy One, blessed be He, knows who Mashiach is, and only the Holy One, blessed be He, will in the future announce Mashiach. Mashiach is the hidden point in the world. Only the Holy One, blessed be He, looks at the creations and knows who has the presumption of Mashiach and who is worthy to be Mashiach.

24:00 And whomever Hashem, blessed be He, decides, you will already see it, and Hashem will decide. But there is no such thing - flesh and blood cannot declare himself, and one cannot say it and use it, because these are things that are not... there is the status of presumption. Yes, there must be a sign from Heaven. When the Holy One, blessed be He, decides, he must gather the dispersed of Israel, build the Beis HaMikdash and fight the wars of Hashem.

24:25 And if he did not do it, the Rambam says explicitly, in Hilchos Melachim, that this is the presumption of Mashiach. The presumption of Mashiach means being worthy to be. Every one of the Jewish people here is worthy to be Mashiach. Everyone is worthy. Yes, everyone. Mashiach is a part of the whole of the Jewish people. Mashiach is a light that is found in each one of us. It is not something that disappeared, it is not something that once was, it is not something imaginary, it is something that is found in each and every one of us.

24:57 Each one of us has a part. Simply, there is one whose part is high, there is one whose part is low, there is one whose part is rectified and one whose part is not rectified. Whoever will be more worthy, his part will be revealed, and the closer they are, then this Mashiach will be revealed, according to how connected they are to the root of his soul, that they will be included in him, of course. These are matters deep in the secrets of the Torah, which the Holy One, blessed be He, will in the future [unclear].

25:26 The Chasam Sofer writes that this is like 'what was is what will be', as Rabbi Shimon says in the Zohar, in Zohar Shemos, about the bush, that Hashem was revealed to Moshe Rabbeinu in the burning bush, He was revealed to him. So this revelation of the bush, as it was then with Moshe, so too the Holy One, blessed be He, will do in the future. He was revealed, and then he knew all the signs and everything. - But always, if the Rav does something, and a Rav does something, and it seems that perhaps he is transgressing the Torah, then the student must, as it were, [unclear] the Rav - many people [unclear] - it doesn't seem right to me to ask [unclear], I'll say [unclear] the Rav, if [unclear] students, I accept the [unclear] - what does one do with this?

26:05 What is meant? - It is written in [unclear] that a person who sees the Rav, and it seems to him that he transgressed [unclear], must ask him, of course; but many people say, what, you are the Rav, I don't ask questions, of course he will have an excellent answer, Right. Anything a person sees, Heaven forbid, a thing that is against the Shulchan Aruch, any matter of sin that a person sees in his Rav. There are many people who have rabbis from whom something in the Shulchan Aruch was hidden, who did not learn the halachah or did not yet grasp it; they can be Torah scholars, but still they erred in some unintentional error, erred in something, erred in a ruling.

26:43 Tractate Horayos is entirely about 'they erred' - the court erred. There was a ruling of the court that was in error, you must bring an offering. So you see that all these things, in practice, one must reprove, one must point it out in a nice way: we learned in such and such a place. The same law as his father, his father and mother who erred - his father erred in a matter of halachah. You cannot come and say to him, 'Father, you erred.' We learned such and such - what is Father's opinion on the matter? Does Father hold otherwise? Did Father learn otherwise? Can Father point it out to us?

27:10 To say such and such in a delicate way; but still, it does not mean a person can come and disqualify his rabbis. One cannot disqualify. To simply disqualify the rabbis and so on - no. In any case, these are Torah scholars who must be honored, each one according to his ability. There are those who did not manage to learn and understand everything, but there are those who did; it depends on the level of each one. But still, not in order to disqualify them from the outset, to despise them and make light of their honor, and so on. 'Be careful with an elder who forgot his learning.'

27:44 So still one must be careful, maybe there is some reason, maybe something. 'If you saw a Torah scholar who sinned at night' - he does teshuvah by day. One must check it. Each case on its own. But of course, when one sees severe things, one must point it out and look and check, and of course, Heaven forbid, if the things happen again and again, it is a mitzvah to publicize his disgrace in public, that he is a sinner, Heaven forbid, yes? But each case on its own.

28:11 - [unclear] of Israel. 'Those who hate You, Hashem, I hate.' - Anyone who causes dispute, when he transgresses [unclear] 'and he shall not be like Korach and his company', who causes disputes and quarrels among the Jewish people, with such a one it is possible. Only when he causes dispute, yes. When he causes hatred and dispute, so that because of him people fight and hate one another among themselves, and disputes and hatred come about, and he increases baseless hatred, yes.

28:40 But if he just commits sins for himself, one cannot hate him, because maybe one day he will return in teshuvah. - Who hates the good? - He thinks to hate, [unclear] what? That is what I said. Not hating him - for himself. What does it mean, hating him? For himself. Still there is no point in hating; there is a point in having mercy on him. But not to hate him; hating is only a person who goes to war against. 'Those who hate You, Hashem, I hate.'

29:11 A person, even when he hates the Torah for himself and does not spread his ways, he does not fight with his hatred, he does not cause disputes, with war, one must have mercy on him, one must make the Torah fit him. Why hate him? 'That none be banished from Him.' Maybe he did not learn correctly, maybe he did not interpret correctly. - I don't understand: one who wants dispute - but [unclear].

29:35 - Yes, yes. I understood you, yes. When I said this delicately, 'he shall not be like Korach and his company'. I didn't want you to get to this, but... King David said this, [unclear]. Yes. People who cause a lot of hatred and a lot of this. Today the halachah is to pray that 'sins cease from the earth' - not that sinners cease.

30:01 The thugs who were in the neighborhood of Rabbi Meir, with Beruriah his wife, and Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi, with those who returned in teshuvah - let us learn from Rabbi Meir, from Rabbi Yehoshua, and pray for all of them that they return in teshuvah. - Let us pray first of all that we live.

30:30 - May the Holy One, blessed be He, hear our prayer. I understand what you are saying, but today the way must be only the way of love, only with love, only with mercy. We will not succeed... we need to arouse the mercy of Hashem. With hatred we will not be able to reach the place... - The informers - what is meant? The informers - what is the prayer there? - These are those who... to pray that our portion not be with them, that we have no connection to them.

31:01 Tractate Shabbos, page [unclear], side b, the Gemara says: the son of David comes [unclear] bad judges and officers from Israel. But it is included among the informers and the heretics. Our master the Arizal says that one must be very, very careful with this blessing, for it is the blessing in which there is the rectification of [unclear], and through it one can attain divine inspiration, and one must be careful with it, to ask that we will not have - we are not connected to them. Therefore right after it we say 'On the tzaddikim', 'and place our portion with them.'

31:25 We are not with the informers and not with the heretics; we are not deniers and not heretics, but these are very, very difficult people. Baruch Hashem, most of the public today, these people are a minority - they are not such a minority, and also, they are not so many; and also, where they exist, one must pray to Hashem that they too return [unclear], because all the Jewish people, in the end, at the Jewish root, have something good. One must understand that many people are far from Hashem because the Torah was explained to them in an incorrect way, and because of this they found things that they allowed themselves to [unclear]; sometimes here a person throws off the yoke because he wants to throw off the yoke.

32:07 He is not really looking for the answer. He wants to find an excuse for why he distanced himself from Hashem, and on this excuse he distorts everything. And a person who fears Heaven, he will always want - one who truly seeks an answer - you know that I, you tell me something, if you want to hear my answer, you will hear it.

32:32 But if you don't want to, it won't help however much I explain to you and give you all the reasons for the Torah. You will say, no, I don't want to accept. So what will arguing help a person? 'Know what to answer the heretic.' We - we have the answer to give him. If he wants to accept, he will accept. If he doesn't want to accept, that is his business; it no longer depends on our answer. But the best thing is always to pray. There are many people who went through a great deal of anguish in life, a lot of sorrow, a lot of troubles, and then they come with complaints toward Heaven.

33:04 They say, why did Hashem do this to me? And then they come to hatred toward Heaven, but they do not know many things, many introductions. They do not grasp the Holy One, blessed be He, with this contemplation. And then from here they come to heresy, because they say, why did Hashem do this to me? They say, if He is all-powerful, then He did this to me. And then they come to hate, Heaven forbid. And they do not understand that this is a mistake; these are things that need to be explained, this is divine philosophy.

33:31 It is not like that. We try... as if people think: there is Hashem, it's bad for me, it's good for me, He does bad, He does good. Why does He do bad? No - He gives good, I don't want it. That is how people interpret it, and it is not so. Hashem is infinite mercy, and all the good and the abundance that there is in the world, and all the good a person wishes for himself, Hashem, blessed be He, wants to give him infinitely more. The ways of life and the paths of life cannot be understood in this world.

33:59 It is a secret. All of life, the reality here in the world, a person's age, old age, birth, life, the parents, the family, the reincarnations, the livelihood, everything he goes through in the world, the wife, the children, the ordeals, all these ordeals, these are things a person cannot understand in this world. He cannot understand. One who understands this, even a little, these are tzaddikim.

34:25 It is a little. And among the tzaddikim there are those who understand a lot, and there are those who don't understand at all, and they are still tzaddikim, and they don't understand this at all. So perhaps in a generation you will have two tzaddikim, maybe two, maybe one, in several generations, from whom one can understand the secrets of reincarnation, about life, as it was with the Arizal, and so on. Today the world does not understand this.

34:52 These are very, very hidden things, and they cannot be understood. Our way is to learn simply and to be wholehearted with Hashem. If a person is wholehearted with Hashem, the Holy One, blessed be He, will answer him and He will help him. But if a person is in [unclear] and in inquiries, it will be very hard for him to come to a true answer of what he is really doing in the world. - All the time the Rav says that they are in the bondage of Egypt.

35:21 Truly we see today that their [unclear] Hashem does not [unclear], He holds it and does not [unclear], and Hashem holds it so that we continue, and maybe so that we reach the goal [unclear] - it is really as if [unclear], it is not a [unclear] meeting, now going to stand, and nevertheless he hardens his heart, - Right, look, everything you are saying is a kind of the exile of Egypt.

36:09 Every pain and every sorrow there is in the world for each one, and also what we are going through now, a kind of Egypt, Mordechai, Haman, all these figures exist today in the generation; there is a Mordechai, there is a Haman. In every person, Rabbeinu Manoach writes on the Megillah, [unclear], that in each one there is Mordechai the Jew and Esther the Queen, and there is in him more of the aspect of Mordechai; Haman, Mordechai - distinctions and opposites are always found in each one of us.

36:40 The question is whom we listen to. The main thing is that a person reach a state where he defeats the absolute evil within himself, and he reaches a state where he rules over the animal side, and he is pure, and he serves Hashem, and he knows well what to do in the world, and he shines the light of Hashem. We need to reveal the light of Hashem and the kingship of Hashem. This is your role, his, his, his, mine, each one of us.

37:10 Each one of us cannot keep the mitzvos, the Torah, in secret like a forced convert, going back home. You need to see what you do with what you have, with your tools and with your strength, and what are you doing to make Hashem shine in the world? And he, and he, and he, and I, and that one, and each one of us. Each one must think, 'For my sake the world was created', so that each one think how he changes it.

37:40 If we think that it is only the great tzaddikim, and it is only them and not us - and the woman too, 'In the merit of righteous women they are destined to be redeemed,' the woman too. They did not come to the world to chatter away. They have a very great role, they have a very great responsibility, and they are righteous, and their souls are rectified and very high. They too have a role and a very important path in the world.

38:05 And therefore each one must reveal the light within him and crown Hashem and do what is good and right in His eyes. This is the role of all of us. All of us. Not to seek to build myself some Garden of Eden or some World to Come in Heaven for These are our fantasies. One can create it and [unclear], and he thinks that it is cool.

38:33 No. Surely there is no limit. The main thing is that things be done with understanding, that they be heard, that they be accepted. You know, 'from pursuing your affairs and speaking idle words'. That a person knows, after all, on Shabbos, that a person - after all, on Shabbos we are inside a holy day, inside the day that is the highest of the week, and on one hand we are inside a physical body, inside a material body and inside material life, and we are commanded, in order to delight in the Shabbos and to keep it, to occupy ourselves with physical matters, to occupy ourselves with physical matters, and on the other hand we must guard ourselves and be the most elevated and the holiest, and learn and pray; but one must make three meals and four meals - Rabbi Chidka says four meals, in Shabbos, page 117,

39:32 he agrees to making four meals, but it doesn't matter, we make a fourth meal. But one must make three meals on Shabbos, and delight, and not speak mundane talk - to be careful. Now you have brought me into the highest time, and you expect that I - where are the lines? [unclear], eat, drink, rest, 'From pursuing your affairs and speaking a word.' Don't speak a word that is not speech of a mitzvah.

40:00 If you want to do - how do they say - in the synagogue they make donations, they announce there is a groom and bride, there is the mitzvah of redeeming captives - on Shabbos it is permitted to speak about this. There is no problem in it: 'from pursuing your affairs and speaking a word' - this is speech of a mitzvah. It is permitted, as in Tractate Shabbos, page 113, the Rambam in Hilchos Shabbos, chapter 24, halachah 1: this is speech of a mitzvah, it is permitted. 'From pursuing your affairs, speaking a word' - this is permitted.

40:26 But when a person speaks mundane talk, he brings forbidden things out of his mouth, Heaven forbid, then he desecrates the Shabbos. He says forbidden things; he reveals, on this holy day, he takes his speech, his responsibility, outside the boundary. And then he in fact reveals, Heaven forbid, that there is a thing - there is a thing, a reality of the mundane, and not a reality of Shabbos, and then he blemishes the holiness of Shabbos.

40:53 This is what Rashi says in Tractate Shabbos, page 116, side b; this is in the Shulchan Aruch, in the Beis Yosef, siman 307. This is the reason about speech on Shabbos. Like - a person sees where he is, so he knows the boundaries. If I am now on Shabbos, being like this - if a person is in... a person knows the lines, he knows. Just as on Shabbos I know what is permitted and what is forbidden, in order to receive my [unclear].

41:21 so too a person needs to know, in his learning and in his [unclear] toward people, what is permitted, what is forbidden, what is the level, what is less, what is more. Because [unclear] - 'a fool lets out all his spirit' - and in the end he will come to teach too many people who don't want to hear his words at all. So one must always reveal in measure, within the line, step by step. To guard the speech, to guard the level, and things that will bring benefit.

41:51 - By the way: thought is G-dliness - what is the explanation of this? - It seems to me this is the continuation of Shacharis. After four hours he wants another explanation. Do you think it is already eight in the morning, [unclear]? - When we hear the Rav, there is no time. It is written that even Krias Shema they barely say today, because of the mitzvah of receiving the Torah - the feeling that is here - this wonderful one.

42:22 We were here to hear, to receive the great light of [unclear]. May the Holy One, blessed be He, watch over you. Yes. May you have salvations and miracles and wonders. - And the main thing - what we'll say briefly, yes? A little briefly. Thought is the essence of a person's stature. It is the essence of a person's stature. Basically, this needs to be explained - if you want, it is only by learning Pasach Eliyahu.

42:47 One needs to explain thought, [unclear], and the whole connection of Pasach Eliyahu with the sefiros, and what the connection is - without a vow, remind me, without a vow, another time, so that it gets learned, because this is at least a few hours. Thought is the essence of a person; it is all the responsibility and the stature of a person. Do you remember that we explained in the morning, at the prayer, in the morning at the prayer, when we learned that the Yerushalmi distinguishes, in chapter 1, halachah 1, between the thought of an idol-worshipper who wants to do a sin and the thought of a Jew who wants to do a mitzvah and did not do it. Here: if he planned to do a mitzvah - he did it.

43:28 The idol-worshipper planned to do a sin - he did it. It is counted for him as if he did it. That is the distinction, wise ones. With a good thought, for us, the Holy One, blessed be He, joins it to the deed; for the idol-worshipper, a good thought He does not join for him, a bad thought He joins for him. That is the distinction; this is what happens in [unclear]. That is to say, thought, for us, is the root of holiness. And the more a person purifies it and refines it, he can rectify his soul and his whole life.

43:54 And all the troubles and the ordeals and the sufferings and all that the world goes through - everything will be clarified through thought. It is possible, through holy and correct thought, and by thinking about Hashem. When a person thinks Torah and thinks about Hashem, blessed be He, he cancels decrees and troubles from upon himself, and from upon his whole city, and from upon all the Jewish people. Thought has the power to purify a person at once.

44:19 So therefore, when a person thinks - the more careful he is in his thought, in holiness, in purity, in good thought, these things benefit him, for they will purify him and refine him and bring him to... The Shechinah - why is this the purest part? It is the Keser (the Crown). Thought - it reaches the Keser. The more a person, so to speak, sanctifies himself, he draws more from the Keser - and it corresponds to the Name Ehyeh.

44:44 This is thought; the refinement and purity of thought are found there. When a person reaches levels, ascents and heights, he can strip off the form and reach a level the most awesome there is - only through thought. Many things - where a person thinks, there he is. This is in the sefer Degel Machaneh Ephraim; Rabbi Moshe Chaim Ephraim of Sudilkov writes it in the name of 'my master, my grandfather'. This is how he learned it from the holy Baal Shem Tov. It appears many times in Chassidus. The Baal Shem Tov explained it, but in the saying that where a person thinks - meaning, where he wants to be, in his will and in his longing, in his thought - there in fact it reveals his essence.

45:25 A person who is now at work, would very much like to learn Torah, but it is hard, since he is busy with his livelihood. He thinks about learning Torah, so the Holy One, blessed be He, according to the Yerushalmi we learned, joins him to an elevation and a very great level, because it is joined for him as a deed. And however many difficulties a person sometimes goes through, and he did want Hashem, then it always enters somehow - this mercy of Hashem - that they take him; they judge a person more by his thought.

45:58 A person is in the house of Hashem, or in the synagogue or in the beis midrash, and he prays two hours a day, but within the two hours that he prays, he is thinking about being outside the beis midrash. But the prayer is not of quality. He does not pray from the depth of the heart. When the prayer is as it should be - that at the time he prays he is entirely within the... - How can one direct the thought to the right thought? A person is [unclear], full of foreign thoughts, especially at holy times.

46:25 - What is it? [unclear] The Tur writes: he should be silent. Silence helps. Why? Because when a person is silent, the thought rests. You see that a person is much more focused when he is silent. When a person is silent, he thinks. When a person speaks and thinks, it is harder for him. And so when you say it - he gives the wisdom.

46:51 If a person has a thought, a bad thing, during the prayer - he should be silent. The silence itself will settle his mind; he will understand before Whom he stands; he will be able to return and pray. Therefore it is always important that a person all the time be cleaving to Hashem [unclear], to reveal G-dliness. - Right.

47:20 - Speech helps, yes. Speech helps thought. But if, for example, a person is now only thinking, and he is only reading something in his thought, many times he will have more help and support in thought alone, and speech can distract him. Sometimes speech pulls a person in all sorts of directions. This is what we see: most of the world, when they speak more, it confuses them.

47:46 But in thought everything is clarified, it is all clear to a person, he suddenly... is cleaner in thought. Sometimes there are prayers in thought that can be accepted more than prayers with the mouth. Why prayers in thought, not the mouth? It is higher. There are tzaddikim who testified about themselves that they pray in thought and they bring about results.

48:12 There were such - the Baal HaTanya - many tzaddikim would bring about results through thought alone. But these are levels; we need to bring out the words, so that there will be a channel, that there will be a vessel for prayer, and the prayer. That's why I explained this in the Zohar, Vayeitzei, page 159b; Rabbi Shimon says this - about the words of the prayer that ascend, about precision, as I spoke.

48:42 One needs the prayer, to be precise in the letters, so that the prayer will ascend on high. Yes, one needs this. Because if not - so that there will be a vessel, the prayer in fact reveals the thought, and this helps more to ascend. But when a person thinks holiness - thinks - it does more for him in the end. - Can one set a learning session before prayer, so that his thought will already be continuous holiness? - Basically, the main thing is that a person reads the text of our prayer; that is enough.

49:15 If a person reads the korbanos and the ketores and the Akeidah, [unclear] the whole original order of prayer, and with this we also fulfill the way of the early pious ones - one hour before, and one hour after the prayer. [unclear] one hour is one moment. So the prayer is in the middle. You have before and you have after. With this one fulfills the obligation. One does not now need to wait another hour beyond this hour.

49:40 It is not needed. If a person wants to, may a blessing come upon him. But the main thing is that he be careful to read the prayer from beginning to end, and with this he already fulfills the 'one hour before' and 'one hour after'. - [unclear] - What? Pasach Eliyahu - the Alter Rebbe, the Shulchan Aruch HaRav, writes to say it on Erev Shabbos, to say it at a bris milah.

50:08 At a bris milah it is good to say it; it is good to say it at Tikkun Chatzos. There are very many virtues in it. Pasach Eliyahu. Yes, one can say it. There is no problem learning it, and it is for this purpose. Without a vow, with the help of Hashem, blessed be He, when Hashem [unclear] us. With the help of Hashem. I also have a commentary on Pasach Eliyahu; I hope they will pass it on, without a vow. There are many things, but without a vow, I will try to teach you by heart, and you will also ask questions, and it will be easier for us, because through questions one always learns best. When you ask - without a vow, remind me - we will expand on it, because there is very, very much depth in it

50:50 in Pasach Eliyahu, and very many vessels and secrets and [unclear] and very, very great things, without a vow. May we merit - we will learn new things. - Rav, [unclear] in a hotel [unclear]. - Yes. - Especially if the hotel owner is strict about them. Now I'm a person - afterwards, all the laws of [unclear] the hands, [unclear] of the morning?

51:19 - No. No. If a person washes his hands - the question is what? I didn't understand you. Obligates. - Siman siman [unclear], yes, [unclear], yes. - Of course - [unclear] a person having a barrier: ink, dirt or things like that, yes? Also a woman - the nail polish, the rings, this polish that a woman puts on - it is a problem for washing the hands.

51:48 - He is asking, Rav - he is asking whether this is also relevant to the morning washing, after sleep. - Yes. One must be careful that the hands be - that there be nothing on them, that a person have no rings or things like that that bind the hands, or things that form a barrier on them. The hands must always be clean. There should be on them neither dirt nor anything that forms a barrier. Yes, yes, I think that...

52:13 - Rav, [unclear] and not learn Torah, when does the dveikus of thought take priority? - There is no such thing as dveikus coming before Torah. The dveikus is the Torah itself. The meaning is that a person should keep away from matters that will take him away - that can take him away. Many times a person is dragged, Heaven forbid, to things that are not good, and he is drawn after them, and that is what pulls him.

52:43 The thing one needs to aim for: a person should always draw himself after things that will bring him to dveikus - only things of kindness and things that are good. In the Shulchan Aruch, siman 90, se'if 15, it is about a person left behind in the synagogue - just as there is the repetition, the blessing Me'ein Sheva - to wait for a person who is afraid to walk in the field, right? so that he does not walk [unclear] wild beasts - so they instituted the blessing Me'ein Sheva, that it be like a prayer, so that a person lingers a little, that they stay [unclear], that they stay, that he not walk alone.

53:14 I see that there is compassion on the part of halachah; thought - wisdom is also to contemplate how much the Holy One, blessed be He, wants there to be kindness with His creatures. Doing kindness with a person - also watching over him, over my prayer. I have prayed, but maybe there is someone still praying - I need to wait for him, to wait for him. All these things are entirely dveikus. This is dveikus with the Holy One, blessed be He. When I do my part in helping a friend, I remain in dveikus.

53:39 Dveikus - this is a person who goes to idleness. Seemingly there is idleness here, because a person sits and waits for someone to finish the prayer. It is like bitul - a waste of time, or of Torah, or of prayer. But when a person sits and prays and waits for his friend, there is no waste in it, because the Shulchan Aruch rules one must wait for him. So you see that in this there is nothing - one can say there is nothing that does not have in it what he intends - that there is no interruption of dveikus.

54:05 - The early pious ones would wait an hour, [unclear] Kabbalists who would [unclear] a very long time, and not doing kavanos. Like, [unclear]. [unclear] was mostly in Torah, and he would want, yes, [unclear]. I understand - I know, like - [unclear] a tzaddik doing the kavanos and the kavanah, for him it was simply counted as Torah. - Rabbi Chaim Shaul Dweck HaKohen, the G-dly Kabbalist, would pray all the kavanos in a few minutes.

54:33 In a few minutes he would pray. There were many great Torah leaders who prayed with alacrity, and some prayed quickly, and some - the time does not matter. The main thing is what they have in the heart; 'the Merciful One wants the heart'. What they do in a brief moment - there is one who has an expanded mind, he can do it in a brief moment, fast; one who has less, it takes him time. But each one according to his strength and his level - that is enough.

55:34 The [unclear] Kabbalists, who do kavanos for hours and so on - this is service of Hashem, this is Torah. Service of Hashem - 'it is not Torah learning'. It is Torah learning. Why would it not be Torah learning? It is Torah learning - it is learning the Torah of the Holy One, blessed be He. Fine, I understand what you are saying. I understand, fine - we too... I don't do kavanos for hours. I pray simply, the meaning of the words. I am a simple man. I am a simple man, I am a simple man. We learn - I am a simple man.

56:02 But I say: also when you see those who do kavanos, know that they are learning Torah, and we need to respect them, and know that this is Torah learning too - their kavanos - and it is holy to Hashem. - Modim d'Rabbanan. Also Modim d'Rabbanan. It was like Modim d'Rabbanan.

56:27 We say thanks to the Holy One, blessed be He, but one needs to tell him. Thank you very much - and also when he [unclear] like this, [unclear]? - I didn't understand. You mean to say not directly? - No, directly. In hisbodedus. No, no, no. One can say, [unclear] the good doctor. Thank you very much. And the doctor - it's impossible together. - Ah, you mean that you see him face to face? Yes.

56:54 One can say thank you to him like that, no problem. There is no problem in it, [unclear]. There is no problem at all. Tell him thank you and everything is fine. Of course a person needs to increase his thanks to the Holy One, blessed be He, not in his presence. Before he said to him, one can say to him 'thank you, doctor' and so on. When a person knows that he is speaking with a reality - there is no reality apart from the Creator, blessed be He, at all. Rav Elyashiv, [unclear], once it was very important to him to say some thanks to a doctor who [unclear] him, and he wanted them to bring him, and it was very important to him to say the...

57:23 You know - so they said: why were you so particular? So he said that 'Modim d'Rabbanan', the Modim of the Sages. It was just a story like that, maybe. He said this - he wanted to learn the language in order to say about it that it would be... When we say Modim d'Rabbanan - why is it 'Modim d'Rabbanan'? It is in the chazzan's repetition; only Sages knew how to say Modim d'Rabbanan. Not everyone knew how to say Modim d'Rabbanan. We say 'Modim anachnu Lach' when we hear it from the chazzan.

57:51 Modim d'Rabbanan - only the Sages knew how to say the text of Modim d'Rabbanan. That is why it is called Modim d'Rabbanan to this day. This name remained: Modim d'Rabbanan. Once they would do 'Modim anachnu Lach'; once they fulfilled the obligation with the chazzan's repetition - in the Beis Yosef, siman 127. One fulfills the obligation with the chazzan's repetition. But Modim d'Rabbanan - only Sages knew how to say the text: 'We thank You' 'for the abundance of thanksgivings'.

58:15 Only Modim d'Rabbanan they knew how to say. So they kept Modim d'Rabbanan, and it remained, and... Good, tzaddikim - Good, tzaddikim, I enjoyed being with you. May you have a Shabbos - a good week, good tidings.

59:43 Amen. With joy - all the blessings stated in the Torah, in the Scripture and in the Mishnah be fulfilled in you; fortunate are you, tzaddikim. Thank G-d, it is truly a great merit to see you. Be careful - be careful with the honor of each one. There are here, thank G-d, so many Torah scholars, tzaddikim, geonim. Truly, I see here really people of high stature. This is something - bnei aliyah (people of ascent). May the Holy One, blessed be He, save you, and give all of you all the blessings and the good bounty.

1:00:11 [unclear] wonders, 'Length of days in her right hand, in her left riches and honor.' [unclear] you all the good bounty and all the blessings; 'only goodness and kindness shall pursue you all the days of your life'. [unclear] you salvations and [unclear] from Heaven, for living and lasting offspring - that there be living and lasting offspring. a complete recovery, abundant livelihood, [unclear], marriage matches, salvations, miracles, wonders - all the blessings stated in the Torah, in the Scripture, in the Mishnah be fulfilled in you and your offspring until the end of all generations.

1:00:42 Protection and shielding, [unclear], all the blessings and the bounty. All the staff, all the listeners, everyone, with joy.