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The shiur in English
The Yanuka’s own words in this shiur, translated into English by Lehallel · 6,482 words · 37:08. Press a time to hear it said.
0:00 I saw in... on Shabbos, at the start of Shabbos, ...that learning without understanding is not... not learning. Not learning. That's already a point about Tehillim, at least regarding these Tehillim, it's... The one from Buczacz too, what we spoke about. the Buczaczer - the whole siman... that it does count as learning. I also said to him, it was good - that if the Holy One, blessed be He, as it were, didn't refuse, then He has listened to him.
0:33 The Holy One, blessed be He, doesn't answer, like, yes or no. He doesn't... it's not possible that, as it were, He doesn't answer. - Right, right. Afterwards, another time, I heard the Rav on the reason for the break in the middle of the verse. After what happened with Bas-Sheva, and Nosson the prophet came to him. Yes. Yes. So with the parable... the verse, when he told him, "You are the man," and so on, then David said, "I have sinned to Hashem."
1:03 There - a break in the middle of the verse. So he asks: why is there a break in the middle of the verse? David... Nosson the prophet doesn't know what to say. He thought he would do as Shaul did - he'd say this and that, he'd find excuses, he'd find... But no - straight away: "I have sinned." "I have sinned" - immediately. So right away, "Hashem too has removed your sin; you shall not die." He had to receive instruction from Heaven: what to tell him? What to tell King David? The teshuvah that a person does immediately.
1:30 When the Rav spoke about King David, he would cry. So many times in his talks: "Our master David, our master David." He would cry. The master of teshuvah... That is the greatness of teshuvah. Adam HaRishon did not do teshuvah immediately.
1:56 The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him, "Ayekah" - where are you? - Yes. He was silent. That's why it's written about Kayin, "And Hashem set a sign for Kayin." Kayin understood the secret of teshuvah. Now He had already given him the chance to return. If Adam HaRishon had known the secret of teshuvah... - Ah, which he heard from him afterwards, when he asked him how his judgment came out? - Yes, and then Shabbos... there the Midrash says, and Shabbos came and protected him. "Shabbos" is the language of teshuvah. Shabbos is "And you shall return to Hashem your G-d" - that's teshuvah.
2:23 Only then did he understand the secret of teshuvah. When Shabbos arrived, he understood the secret of teshuvah. Had he understood it back then, everything would already have been rectified. He didn't understand the secret of teshuvah. King David rectified the seventy - the "eyes" - of Adam HaRishon; all his life he was engaged in teshuvah. To rectify what was Adam HaRishon's - to rectify the teshuvah. To rectify the eyes. As it's written about David: "with beautiful eyes and goodly to look upon." "Goodly to look upon" - that is the secret of the eyes. Ayin - which is seventy. To rectify Adam HaRishon, who did not see what King David saw.
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2:52 To rectify the eyes. "That it was good for food," "pleasant to the sight." Yes. That is Adam HaRishon. By the way, truly - the first time we spoke, I said to his honor: where is the source that King David became the fourth leg of the Throne, of the Throne of Glory, at the time he said, "Hashem told him: curse," about what Shimi ben Gera said to him. It's said that... he is now the fourth leg. - Right. - But that this is what caused it, "Hashem told him: curse" - that he accepted it, that this is what brought it about for him. I did truly see in the Chafetz Chaim - he writes it in Shemiras HaLashon, I think, he writes this: that at that very moment King David became the fourth leg.
3:35 But he doesn't bring a source. - Doesn't bring a source. But it rests on the Zohar. The Zohar does say it outright: the fourth leg. There are several places where it's written about the fourth leg. But there it means the Chariot. But presumably it's because of the humiliation. And the humiliation put him in that place - when he accepted it with love... Tractate Chullin, page 89, where the Gemara says: the world endures only for the one who holds his mouth shut in a quarrel, as it says, "He suspends the earth on nothingness." So too King David held himself back, and became the fourth leg.
4:03 and... merited to be the fourth leg of the Chariot, that he became the missing leg. And afterwards, when he came to ask his forgiveness - not much time had passed, right? - he came to ask his forgiveness, and he went on to say - I don't know - he swore that he would not put him to death. That's the amazing thing - what a thing, what greatness King David had! King David was Malchus, "which has nothing of its own" - he took nothing for himself.
4:29 I was thinking about King David: Avshalom rose up against him, wanted to take the kingship and wanted to kill him. King David, when they went out to fight, told them, "Go gently" - "be careful with the youth, watch over him, so that no..." What is this? He wants to kill him! He lay with his wives, with his concubines! He defiled all his wives. And he - this is what he says: "Watch over the youth for me."
4:54 Just now, something flashes in my mind: because in truth, King David - the Holy One, blessed be He, told him, "Behold, I will raise up evil against you from your own house." What He said to him - to King David. So he attributed it to himself. Didn't he attribute it to himself? He said it was, as it were, because this was his punishment. Since he attributed it to himself, he, as it were, didn't blame Avshalom for it. He said: this is a punishment that is due. This thing befell him because... That itself helps to understand a little. That's the only explanation.
5:30 That's also why the Gemara says, on what he said: "It should have been 'A lament of David'!" For David himself it's a lament - and yet it's "A psalm of David." He truly sang over it. He says: these are my troubles. He was glad that the troubles came from within his own house, from his very own. There are troubles that come to him from inside the home and don't come to him from outside. But this was something the Holy One, blessed be He, had decreed. Beautiful - what you're saying is right. He related to it, as it were, as something personal that... That's why he didn't want it.
5:56 I hadn't looked into it. Here's something beautiful: they said in the name of Maran the Chida that two enemies - in a previous gilgul they were father and son. Again? They say: father and son. Do you know what that means? I didn't follow - what, two enemies? - Two enemies, who are real enemies: in a previous gilgul they were the two closest people. - Ahh, that's interesting.
6:21 Yes? Interesting. What causes that? I don't know. They ought to be the closest; in a previous gilgul they were the closest, and in a previous gilgul... Interesting. That's really interesting. You should know. You know? You know?
6:48 What about it? If that's true, no wonder that in the House of Israel there are such quarrels and grudges. I saw something similar there, but not... but it could simply be so. There's a certain fellow in the kollel who prays with us, and he's... like a Gerrer chassid. He says there were three asheiros - so it's written in the Tosefta to Avodah Zarah - that there are three asheiros, still from the time of Moshe Rabbeinu, and that their mitzvah is to be burned - these asheiros, these three.
7:22 And there was one on the Carmel, and he went to burn it - he and one other person. Each time, cutting from it, cutting from it. A huge tree, six meters wide. Six meters? - Six meters wide, the tree. He hadn't heard of this. He says: this is the asheirah, according to what's written in the Tosefta. But they burned it, eh? He came from there - he's a tour guide, he knows the land well.
7:47 He knows it thoroughly, and they burned it - wow - with one other man. Ever since they did that, they can't... they can't walk on their legs. As if the Sitra Achra took revenge. It's like - he should go with salt. What do you mean? Tosafos in Berachos, page 40, say that the accuser comes each time - when the Jewish people are sitting and waiting, as they say there, for the washing of hands - in that time, when they're sitting there and not engaged in words of Torah, they need salt, and the Satan accuses.
8:19 When one does a great mitzvah, the practice is to have salt with you. That's with biur chametz - when doing the biur, one takes salt. Now too, for Sefiras HaOmer, one takes salt. The salt - Rabbi Chaim Palagi already writes about the salt, and I too keep to it, with the salt. You do the salt too? - Yes. Did Maran also do it? I don't remember the Rav doing it. I remember my father's custom, from when I was just a small child. He always used to bring a big package of salt and hand it out to all the people in the shul. He'd also give a package to the shul, yes.
8:47 And he would hand it out, hand it out to everyone - bringing merit to all, through this. The salt of the Omer. Yes. He writes - Rabbi Chaim Palagi - that it's like an amulet from an expert. You mean, to go around with it all the time? - All the time, all the time. - No... all the time? - I have it with me all the time. - Oh, yes? - I've had this salt for twenty years. Oh, the very same salt? - The same salt. No - I make new each time, and also keep the old. I have both new and old. I have one that's been with me many years. It got lost on me, and I found it again.
9:12 I forgot it somewhere, and I went straight back to look for it. I'm with it all the time. - So do you walk around with it, or is it only to hold it at the time of the blessing? - No, no. All the time. That's during Sefiras HaOmer. After that it receives a power that is very great - truly, truly, truly - something mighty. It's possible: someone who didn't do it from the start can begin now, until it's over. I gave it out a while ago. On the first day we handed it out - we hand it out to everyone. - And do you count with it every day, or only on...
9:40 Every day? - Yes. You hold it in the right hand? - Yes. - Do you say the psalms? At the blessing, mainly at the blessing. As for the Shir HaMaalos and the other psalms... that I don't say. That's Rabbeinu Yosef Chaim, in Lashon Chachamim. Have you seen it? The Rav isn't familiar with it? Which one? Thank you. Can you bring that over? Michael.
10:09 Let's give this to the Rav - a personal gift for the Rav. Right. The Ben Ish Chai, eh? Right. The way he says it, I... There are very beautiful things in there. Very beautiful, beautiful. This is the destruction of Jerusalem.
10:36 This is the destruction of Jerusalem. The splitting of the Yam Suf? - It's according to the Midrash. Twelve paths. - Yes, twelve... It's not here, not here. You have good eyes - count them. This too - I gave this to one of the designers, to draw according to the Midrash the splitting of the Yam Suf.
11:00 Here, this is the passage that was made for them, all of this is the mosaics, all these arches over them - these are the surges of water that came to seize whoever did not go in, out of fear. These surges rose up and seized them. I tried to depict here, as much as possible, the plagues - and this too went like an arch, as you see here. So that's an arch. I tried to illustrate it here, but it's as if everything was like this. That, I didn't tell them - how to draw their figures.
11:25 Of course, in proportion, the figures are smaller. It wasn't this size. It reached up to the firmament - and here they just represent it, like dots. But what's needed is to bring it to life for them. The Rav will enjoy this very much - he can hang it up. The Rav will enjoy it - it's very beautiful. For the Rav - a gift. Did you see the booklet? A student brought me this. The Rav should take it - they'll bring me another.
11:58 It's mine - the Rav should take it, they'll bring me one. He's giving him a gift. They'll bring me a new one. Please.
13:22 Yes, this one too, with the Hoshanos. The Rav will enjoy it, the Rav will enjoy it very, very much. Here, the Rav will see how it's done: one starts from here, with the salt... it's written here: he holds it, the salt, in his right hand, says these psalms, gets up to here, finishes here, and after that goes on to Sefiras HaOmer. - Wait, this is before? Before the counting? - Yes, this is done before the counting.
13:47 Yes. And then one counts the Omer, and then here one does the... It's also bound together with the Hoshanos. This is left over from last year, What are the Hoshanos doing in here? These are Hoshanos. There are things here that Rabbeinu Yosef Chaim writes - wow - ...he writes a teaching for each number as well.
14:17 Each number, for example: "for the sake of Torah, Neviim and Kesuvim, which number twenty-four," ...which comes to the number twenty-four, ...comes to twenty-four. So now let's say here, for example. You move it from... to here. This is how it looks, and one can count afterwards. One has in mind, for example... So one says "Shema Yisrael"... "for the sake of"... "whose number comes to twenty-five." ...
14:44 The Rav will enjoy this - in his honor. But it's a segulah, Sefiras HaOmer. - Yes. The Rav will enjoy it. The Rav will enjoy it, yes. We've come away with great riches, sir. You're bringing the... I'll go over. "A time, times, and half a time."
15:12 Let them come, let them come. It would be a merit for me... Eh? It would be a merit for me. I need to... I, I don't know. [a blessing] ...good tidings and peace of mind, and that he be free of all burdens. That his honor should lack nothing - not this, not that, nor the other. That he have length of days in goodness and years in pleasantness, and spend them in goodness, going ever higher, with peace of mind and contentment of spirit, without problems, without disturbances and without accusations.
15:42 ...everything as it should be. I see in you a gift that the Holy One, blessed be He, has given us - his honor - to the whole Jewish people. You are our gift. You - you are the gift. Who knows what it means, what is said of the Holy One, blessed be He: "He arose and planted them" - I've said it several times - the Holy One, blessed be He, "arose and planted them in every generation." It's written about the tzaddikim - not "arose and placed them," not "arose and brought them" - but "arose and planted them" - a sapling.
16:10 You transplant something great - that's planting. That is, it's a beautiful act. The sapling in the ground grows new roots. There's also the case where the branch comes out three tefachim above the ground, and from it comes yet another tree - a young tree, as regards orlah. That is a new tree.
16:35 The tree that comes - a great tzaddik - whom the Holy One, blessed be He, arose and planted: He brings forth from his tree, He brings forth more branches from it. These branches that rise from him are the students. Like layering a vine - extending its branches from where the tree put them forth, above the ground, the great tree - it isn't cut off. You see a great tree, and how it comes out of the ground, and its trunks come out of the ground - yet another great tree out of this tree: those are the students.
17:04 And without a student there is no Rav. That's why it says "arose and planted them": for a trunk to stand, the trunk must be strong in the ground. If it's strong in the ground, whatever wind comes, it's unharmed. Those are the students. If a man doesn't have a true student, there is no Rebbe. Not for nothing did I mention to his honor Rabbi Nosson - of whom our holy Rebbe, Rabbi Nachman, said that otherwise not even a stray page of sheimos would have remained of him. Rabbi Nachman himself said it. - Yes? - And I saw it just recently.
17:36 "Nothing would have remained of me" - that's what he said. Even when we hear the holy Arizal - it's all the student. He's the one who brought the gift to the Jewish people. There were other students, great ones, not middling ones. They were giants. Right? Who knows of them? It's not... it's the student - the one who put it in order, so that it stayed in writing. It stayed in writing. He had a worthy student, who knew how to preserve it. Either there is a true student, or...
18:04 it is a curse. It matters that there be a student. A true student. Rabbeinu the Arizal - Rabbi Chaim Vital. [names unclear] ...the Rambam and his own, the Vilna Gaon - Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin, Rabbi Nachman - Rabbi Nosson, the Baal Shem Tov and Rabbi [name unclear]. All the holy ones that there were: Rabbi Pinchas of Koretz - Rabbi Refael of Bershad. Holy men they were indeed - but: a student, a student, a student, a student.
18:31 I saw a beautiful thing about the Karliner. Rabbi Shlomo... Rabbi Shlomo - the Mashiach of his generation. Once he said: the geulah isn't coming because people are lax in tefillah... ...with kavanah - he said: I have nullified the accusation. ...they pray their prayers... and without kavanos... That's Rabbi Uri of Strelisk.
18:56 The Saraf. Yes, the holy Saraf... And there was Rabbi Mordechai of Lechovitch, the second student. Rabbi Mordechai ben Adel - the tzaddik who promised that whoever lights a candle for him, he would speak well of him in Heaven. Rabbi Mordechai ben Adel of Lechovitch - is that what he said? And he - he was so deeply attached to Rabbi Shlomo of Karlin that he couldn't believe anything could happen to him - he just couldn't conceive of it.
19:26 There was never so great a love between a student and his Rebbe as Rabbi Mordechai of Lechovitch's for Rabbi Shlomo of Karlin. Something not seen in years - there was nothing like it. Rabbi Mordechai of Lechovitch - oh, such a great love, that there never was such a love, that no student ever had for his Rebbe - what there was there, like Eliyahu and Elisha. ...Rabbi Mordechai of Lechovitch with Rabbi Shlomo of Karlin - it was really something. There are many omissions about this, even in the Chassidic books - many, many omissions; things that can't just be said like that.
19:57 But the Rav should know, there were extraordinary things in what was between them - his attachment to his Rebbe. And after Rabbi Shlomo of Karlin passed away - a Cossack soldier shot him with a bullet, with a rifle - the Rebbetzin, Rabbi Shlomo of Karlin's wife, was in the women's section. She saw that just then a Cossack soldier was arriving, aiming a gun at him, a rifle, and she screamed, she screamed - he was right in the middle - she screamed to him to turn around; and at once he shot him, with the first shot.
20:24 And his name was Armilus - that's the one who shot him. And then he murmured, before he passed away - and these were his last words: "I was Mashiach ben Yosef." "My brother, where are you, Mashiach ben David?" Truly. Rabbi Shlomo of Karlin. Now they said: who will tell Rabbi Mordechai of Lechovitch? The Lechovitcher was so attached to him - it was impossible to tell him. They didn't know what to do. Then they came to him, and he was holding a meal; he was sitting like this, just so, eating and saying words of Torah, with his chassidim.
20:57 And the students - a few students stood there with such faces, not knowing how to tell him - and he looked at them, and they came up to him. They wanted to hint it to him, as if telling a story, but it's like... I don't know. Each time they tried all kinds of parables, as we say - but even that they didn't want to do. They said: right away he'll grasp that something happened; he's bound to... even telling him, even from a story he'll understand. He didn't want to understand anything. And then they saw: they try to talk to him, and - they say - he isn't taking it in, until they gave a parable, and another parable, and another parable, and another...
21:40 Our master Rabbi Chaim Vital - how bound he was, with cords of love, to Rabbeinu the Ari! He prevented the Ari's burial - when they brought Rabbeinu the Ari to be buried; because he didn't believe he had passed away.
22:10 So he kept them from putting him into the grave. They had to push him away. They pushed Rabbi Chaim Vital away - he simply held them back, wouldn't let them lower Rabbeinu. I thought that when they did his taharah and immersed him - they asked his pardon, and he immersed on his own. Immersed on his own, yes. After that - eh? - yes, yes. They set him down and he immersed on his own. And the second thing is that he - when Rabbi Chaim Vital walked with him, as they lowered him, he simply grabbed hold of him, and everyone was crying, and he pulled at him and argued with the gravediggers.
22:44 He told them: He's alive! He isn't dead, he isn't dead! Leave him! They had to push him away - he held them up for a long time. For a long time. They simply had to pull Rabbi Chaim Vital away and bury Rabbeinu the Ari. They just pushed him off by force. He prevented the burial of Rabbeinu the Ari. He wouldn't let them bury him - so much did he not believe that anything could happen to him. He didn't believe he would depart from him. It was - when they pressed him to tell all kinds of secrets - that's what brought it upon him, Hashem protect us.
23:12 Rabbeinu the Ari told him: I came for your sake. Yes. So he said to him, I know everything. Rabbeinu Chaim Vital writes about him in the introduction to Etz Chaim - he sets it out in what he writes there. What didn't he know! Secrets of healing, and more like that. What did Rabbeinu the Ari not know? There's nothing. All the great ones knew of his greatness. Yes, it's beyond anything. Ah. You know that it's... Why, too? Yes. Rabbeinu the Ari.
23:41 The fact that Rabbi Yosef Karo and he became related by marriage - through the match between them. I once told his honor that they asked the Rav, and he said: it could be. I told him - I even asked him, when I heard there was such a thing, the tena'im document - he said: yes, it's possible. That is to say... They married their children to one another. Rabbi Yosef Karo - his mother's name was Buena. Did you know that? - No. His mother... his father was Ephraim.
24:05 Ephraim, yes. And his mother's name was Buena. And he had two sons: one son Shlomo, the second son Yehudah. Ah, what? - Yes, he had two sons. One son Shlomo and one son Yehudah. One Shlomo and one Yehudah; his father Ephraim, his mother's name was Buena. And he was sitting there in holy Tzfas, sitting with the members of the group there: Maran the Beis Yosef, and Rabbeinu the Mabit, and all the holy ones - of course Alkabetz and the Ramak, Rabbi Moshe Cordovero - all those great ones.
24:39 I once saw it brought in the name of the Mabit - the Mekor Chaim writes it - Rabbi Chaim David HaLevi, of the Mekor Chaim, he writes it - that when they prayed, and the Mabit was the chazzan there, and did the repetition - did the repetition - there were Maran the Beis Yosef, Rabbeinu the Ari and the Ramak, and Rabbi Shlomo HaLevi Alkabetz, and the great ones of the world - there was no minyan like it.
25:07 So he said... they asked him: why did you do that? And he said: I'm concerned that perhaps I won't have nine who are listening. He won't have what? - "That I won't have nine who are listening," during the chazzan's repetition. He was concerned - look at that! About those great ones? - Yes, about those great ones. Look at that - it's a great chiddush, what he writes. The Mabit was concerned that he wouldn't have them. He said to me: today we always make sure to tell the chazzan to make the condition of a nedavah, a voluntary prayer, so that there's never any concern at all.
25:35 Because in the Beis Yosef, siman 124, he brings in the name of the Geonim that this prayer that we say - what really is the rule of the repetition of the tefillah? The whole point of the repetition is to discharge someone who doesn't know - and everyone here knows how to pray. - Yes. But Rabbeinu the Ari said that the tefillah of the repetition is greater than the first. But it comes back and is granted from Heaven, and it's a great thing - levels, and so on.
26:01 To see it that way... and Rabbeinu the Rambam too says that it's a mistaken custom, that they repeat this tefillah; the Chasam Sofer also speaks of it. But it's interesting that he was, as it were, prepared to say such a thing about great ones like those. Well, yes - astounding. It's really interesting, what Maran had from the Maggid. All the time he told him he would merit to die sanctifying Hashem's Name; he asked to die sanctifying the Name. He asked for it, for kiddush Hashem - Maran.
26:30 Yes, but he didn't - yes, right. He didn't... he lived in sanctification of the Name. He lived in sanctification of the Name. He truly prayed for it - to die sanctifying Hashem's Name. I once saw a version that said he did die sanctifying the Name - that in Heaven it was truly counted so. He was elderly then - not just... he was quite old. But I once saw it said that yes, it was truly accepted in Heaven. And Rabbeinu the Rashash - they said that the Arabs, when he died, at the funeral - they attacked, and threw him to the ground.
26:56 Do you know - did you know this? In the will of the Rashash, Rabbi Shalom Sharabi - in his own will too, the Rashash wrote that they should carry out on him the four death penalties of the beis din - that's in his will - that they should cast him down. And no one agreed to do it. They didn't do it. A disgrace. In Jerusalem they once used to do it. For those who asked for it.
27:20 Yes, the chevrah. They said: it's degrading him - no... not to do it. So no one agreed to do it for him. And just then Ishmaelite rioters arrived, and everyone fled - they drove everyone off - and they seized him and threw him to the ground and did it to him; they threw stones at him and everything. As if they fulfilled the four deaths. - They fulfilled the four deaths, yes - as teshuvah. How is it I'm only hearing of this? You know, with his son, Rabbi... Chizkiyah, there was also something similar.
27:47 There was also something similar. Similar, that is, to what's known, but... Here - my mother is from the Maimon family, [unclear] of blessed memory, from Morocco, from Tunis. That's the Rambam. Yes. The Rambam. Connected to Rabbi Shlomo Ibn Danan? Rabbi Shlomo Ibn Danan of Fez. I've heard about this a lot, but I don't know. - He's a descendant of the Rambam.
28:15 Oh, he's certainly a descendant of the Rambam. Yes, he's certainly a descendant of the Rambam. Rabbi Shlomo Ibn Danan. And as is known, Maimon - the Maimon family - there's a tradition that it... ...that the Maimon lineage is, like, one hundred percent. My mother is a Maimon. So that means descendants of the Rambam. Maimon means descendants of the Rambam. That's what's known, as far as I know.
28:40 There is no... there was no other Maimon. There was no other Maimon, yes. The name Maimon passed down by tradition from Rabbi Avraham ben Maimon. That's how it was. So it is, from what I know. That's what I know. The son - Rabbi Avraham, the Rambam's son, the HaMaspik L'Ovdei Hashem. Yes. After that, from his name - Maimon - they used "Maimon" a great deal. The Maimonis - Maimon, Maimon - they used the name Maimon all the time.
29:07 The name Maimon - they reserved it only for the Rambam's family, because it was the royal line. ...every Maimon... is of Ben Maimon. Descendants of the Rambam. The royal line... No one would carry his name, something like that, if he weren't of the family. So that's how I know that Maimon is the holy seed of the Rambam.
29:33 So his honor is also of the Rambam's seed. Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon. Ah - to know such a thing, to be bound to such a tree? Certainly. - Eh? There never was such a tree. There was nothing like it. I'm always amazed by the order. I have a set schedule for learning the Rambam - to finish learning it within the year, to go through the Rambam.
29:59 And every time I'm amazed at the order of things. How he gathered from the Gemaras - from the Bavli, the Yerushalmi. He wrote to his son, he wrote to his son: "With me, here, you have everything." "You need not occupy yourself with anything else." He arranged it in such a way - the whole Torah is blended into the Rambam. What a thing, it's something... truly, it's a wonder. He said: occupy yourself with this work - beyond this work, nothing is needed.
30:24 He told his son: put aside even the Talmud, he told him - it will burden you, it will confuse you. Once, in the time of the Rogatchover, they engaged even less in learning the Rambam. Mostly it was like commentaries. He would distill the Torah. At the Brisker Rav's - Rabbi Chaim of Brisk and the Rogatchover, the Rogatchover - when they were young, they would hide the Rambam from them and have them learn, to try to work the sugya through to its halachic conclusion as Rabbeinu the Rambam would, without the...
30:56 and then learn the Rambam, to see whether they were right - like a game. There's something a little funny - the Rav used to tell it. It goes, that in... in this generation of ours, of the Ashkenazim, the outstanding scholars - he says: in time to come, they'll go up, as it were, on high, to Heaven, and sit and debate among themselves, and get stuck on some point - and sitting there is someone who looks, well, dressed like one of our Sephardim. Who's that?
31:21 Let's ask him what he says. He says: What are you saying? It's an explicit Gemara! What are you arguing about? Ah - this Frenk. What Frenk? That's the Rambam! The Rav used to tell this. They're arguing over the Rambam - and it's the man himself. Rabbeinu the Rambam. There's the story of Rabbi Pinchas of Koretz: he said that having his sefarim in the house is a segulah for fear of Heaven.
31:49 Once he came home - and a poor man had knocked on the door and asked for tzedakah. So the Rebbetzin gave him the Rambam's sefarim - she had nothing else to give. When he came back he said to her: you could have given him everything - but a house without the Rambam's sefarim has no fear of Heaven. "You've taken the fear of Heaven out of the house!" He ordered at once that new sefarim of the Rambam be bought for him. Rabbeinu the Rambam. We await his honor.
32:24 speedily in our days, may we hear good tidings, and always be in joy, and see the rabbis with healing, health and length of days, peace of mind, and nachas and much good... and all that is good. - And the same to you. Thank you very much.
32:52 Yasher koach. Yasher koach to the Rav. Fortunate are you. Thank you. I'll also bring the Rav the sefer - I'll send the sefer here. I already brought it; it just got in among the sefarim. I'll find it and bring it to the Rav. My sefer, the sefer. His honor - that is, last time, it seems it stayed there at the house - my sefer that I made about the Rav, Ovadia, the sefer "Rabbeinu."
33:17 Right. And it seems that when I came to visit, his honor didn't get to read from it, it stayed there in Jerusalem. [unclear] ...I'll see about bringing it as well. I'll bring the Rav the... I'll pass it on to you. - Thank you very much. Thank you, thank you. We know the deep bond you had with Maran, Rav Ovadia. What is the bond you have today with the Rav, with the Yanuka? I, truly - ever since I met him for the first time, that was a year and a few months ago, I felt what's written in Likutei Moharan: the power of attraction.
33:56 Among the tzaddikim there are those who have the power of attraction. You really see in him the power of attraction. A tzaddik. I sometimes... from what I understood - and afterwards he told me it's true - he doesn't sleep in a bed. For many years now he hasn't slept in a bed. And you see his love for the Jewish people, how much of himself he invests in the public, and his greatness in Torah, in every subject, in every field - ben poras Yosef - something amazing.
34:24 That's what... a tzaddik and a Torah scholar. And how much he helps people, and how many salvations people have seen through him. It is simply a great merit to be around him, to be with him. What is your connection with him in words of Torah? You see - we just talk about all kinds of things, and it develops. He says something, I say something, he says something, and things...
34:51 He has knowledge in every field, bli ayin hara. He is so well-versed in them all, truly - I'm embarrassed. He says to me: Do you know so-and-so? I don't. Rav such-and-such, this Rav, that Rav, that Rav... Bli ayin hara - something very special. The wealth of knowledge he has. He is a "ben poras Yosef." From what one sees of him - great siyata d'Shmaya, help from Heaven: what he learns simply goes in. That's it - it stays, and he knows how to draw it out for any matter, for anything.
35:28 Any field you speak with him about, he has something to say. Every subject, every direction in the Pardes of the Torah. Not that I'm well-versed in the Pardes of the Torah, but you see it in his approach to every field and every direction - in every field of the holy Torah, he has it. And you also see how much he invests. And you also see - and this is truly the most important thing - how attached he is to Hashem, blessed be He.
35:56 How attached he is to Hashem, blessed be He - that's the greatest thing about him. You see his deveikus to Hashem, blessed be He, and that is what draws you to him, what's so compelling in him - to see how a person is attached to Hashem, blessed be He. Is there something in him that reminds you of Rav Ovadia? I don't want to diminish either one. I don't want to diminish anyone's honor.
36:21 I saw - that is, after I had been with Rav Ovadia for so long, I was left with a certain limitation. As it were - it's like... Heaven forbid, to belittle - that's not good, that's not right. It's like, after I saw - I was beside the sun - everyone else is some small lamp; it's not... it has no weight, it has no... after being beside the Rav for so long.
36:46 So it's hard to feel able to humble oneself before some Torah scholar or the like. With him it's possible. He, bli ayin hara, has a power of attraction, he has a special power - ben poras Yosef. May Hashem watch over him - healthy and whole, forever and ever, with Hashem's help, "prolonging his days over his kingdom."
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