The Yanuka Rav Shlomo Yehuda-מתי יהיה שלום בעולם？ שאלות ותשובות עם הגאון הינוקא במוצ＂ש חנוכה לאחר סעודה שלישית

3:24 for everything that he went through. And this is also, apparently, about the martyrs killed by the kingdom, because that too came about in its wake. So this is our hint, and we need always to unite, and to do teshuvah and to pray, and then the Holy One, blessed be He, forgives us all the sins. - Any Torah scholar who does not take revenge and bear a grudge.

3:53 I don't know, maybe this is more [unclear] - why is that? I know that I let everything go, but I think that I [unclear]. - First of all, I understand what you are saying. - But I was... but it is [unclear] in my heart. - I understand, but come, see a very beautiful thing. Yosef HaTzaddik, after all - think of a very beautiful thing that the Torah does not tell us about him. And this, in fact, is written by Rabbi Yaakov Culi, author of the Me'am Lo'ez. He writes a very beautiful thing.

4:19 After all, you find, in fact, that from the day Yaakov Avinu discovered that Yosef was alive - immediately, what question would come to Yaakov's mind to ask? How did you get here? What are you doing here? What do you have to do with this place? And indeed Yosef HaTzaddik never was alone with Yaakov by himself, so that he would not be asked - he would have to tell everything about the brothers.

4:44 So from here you see that he did not want to take revenge on them and did not want to hate them, rather, what he did was apparently to bring them to teshuvah, to see what they would do, and also not to hurt Yaakov his father, to bring them to some situation, as if a certain incident had happened, and now it would become clear that they had not, as it were, kidnapped him, and then, as it were, they would go up and come, and there would be some chance meeting, without there being, Heaven forbid, some disaster; and also to see whether they would do teshuvah.

5:27 Look, in any case, it is a very hard thing. Look, the brothers, in the sale of Yosef, included the Shechinah with them. That is to say, the Shechinah joined them in the sale of Yosef. You understand? It is as if he... That is to say, Yosef HaTzaddik could not do so very much, because it was already beyond his power.

5:54 But apparently the Holy One, blessed be He, did not [unclear]. And of course the Holy One, blessed be He, did not like it, but Yosef HaTzaddik, on his own part, understood that all of this was in order to raise him to greatness. In the end he saved the Jewish people. [unclear] - your words are interesting, right. So it may be that this is because of the greatness he rose to.

6:19 He did not in fact want to come and seek a throne or honor. He did not try to be a king. The Holy One, blessed be He, made him king, because he withstood all the tests. But sometimes we see that the Holy One, blessed be He, turns causes and twists like these in people's lives. And try to imagine for yourselves the level that Yosef HaTzaddik was at, on the side of his holiness, and on the other side, he is also handsome of form and handsome of appearance, and he is at the age of his youth, at the height of his strength and his might and his beauty and his holiness - and he finds himself in a pit.

6:56 Think how much he could have felt that he hates his brothers the most, and is most resentful toward them, and also most, as it were, Heaven forbid, kicks against the sufferings and hurls words upward. Seemingly, that is what should have been, because Yosef says to himself: what am I doing here, when I did nothing, nothing at all? As it were, he of all people should have come to heresy. And Yosef HaTzaddik understands with complete faith that it is not them at all, and it is all from Hashem - because you see it by his situation, by his test: he accepted everything with love, and he understood that this is the will of the Creator. And therefore the Torah also says: 'And Hashem was with Yosef, and he was a successful man, and he was in the house of his Egyptian master.'

7:35 We all always picture a successful person as a person who has wealth, a person who has a livelihood. Say of a person that he is successful - it is a person who has 200 buildings and has this; everyone says, what a successful man. And the Torah teaches us that the successful one is someone in prison, but Hashem is with him. 'And Hashem was with Yosef, and he was a successful man.' But where was he? 'And he was in the house of his Egyptian master.'

7:59 Seemingly, the Torah teaches us all the things that contradict our imaginary success of today. Today, say of a person who is in prison - can anyone say of him that Hashem is with him and he is successful? He will say: now, you have one in prison, and you have one who has 200 apartments in the United States, in Brooklyn, and he is very rich, and he sits on great wealth, and he is married with children. Who is called successful?

8:24 This one or that one? Everyone will say, everyone will point: this is the successful one. Would anyone imagine in his mind that the successful one is the one who, in the house of his Egyptian master, is in some pit? Who would imagine so? And the Torah says, and the Torah testifies: 'And Hashem was with Yosef,' 'and he was a successful man.' There is no such expression about anyone in all of the Torah, the Prophets and the Writings - that he merited to withstand the test, and the Holy One, blessed be He, loves him and called him a man so successful, as if the secret and root of success is someone like this - as if it was said of him that he is in prison and he is called a successful man.

9:04 Where do we find anyone else like this, who is called a successful man and is in prison? No one. And therefore we see from here that the Torah teaches us that sometimes we think - we always think that this one is the successful one - and suddenly we see that specifically the one in his master's house is the successful one in the eyes of the Torah. And this is what Yosef HaTzaddik did: he knew that even though no one was with him, even though everyone was against him, and also the Holy One, blessed be He - that the Shechinah joined the brothers for the sale of Yosef, and they included it with them, and everyone was against him, and he was alone, and he knows that he did not do anything, and he is like this, inside the pit,

9:47 this is what testified for him, in fact, that he... Seemingly, we can find the same connection with one more person - who was it? There was a bit of a difference there between them - it is Iyov. Iyov also suffered afflictions. After all, Yosef - who can imagine in his mind what it is to be in a pit that has snakes and scorpions and darkness, that he turned green from fear. See how much, as it were, he had already turned yellow from the terror.

10:14 And anyone who imagines in his mind and says: seemingly, what should Yosef do? Hurl words upward, and no longer withstand the test - for what? When Bildad the Shuchite and Eliphaz the Temanite and Tzofar the Naamathite came before Iyov, they came to him and began to comfort him, and they said to him: 'Can a mortal be more righteous than G-d? Can a man be purer than his Maker?' Are you more righteous than the Holy One, blessed be He?

10:42 And with all that they tried to appease his mind, and tried to give him peace of mind, tried to give him encouragement and words, Iyov refuses to be comforted. And here, Yosef HaTzaddik, inside the pit - no one strengthens him, no one encourages him, and he alone reaches these insights, and he strengthens others, and even solves things for them, and all the time asks that the Holy One, blessed be He, save him, and he guards his holiness and withstands the tests.

11:11 He could have managed to say to himself: what tests? Here, Hashem has abandoned me, that's it. The opposite. Yosef HaTzaddik says: that has nothing to do with it, I am faithful to my Creator. And therefore he said: 'How can I do this evil and sin against G-d?' Seemingly, the non-Jews are also commanded in the seven mitzvos, in the mitzvos of the sons of Noach - in Tractate Sanhedrin, page 58 - they too must be careful about it, and they too must keep this. So how is it, in fact - he should have said: 'How shall we do this evil, and we will sin', in the plural - why did he not include her together with him?

11:39 Why not in the plural? He did not want to tie her to himself, even in what he said. 'How can I do this evil and sin against G-d?' What is 'and we will sin' versus 'and I will sin'? He separated her from himself; he did not want to even say it. Seemingly it should have been written: 'How shall we do it together, and we will sin.' What is 'How can I do... and I will sin'? What, is she not commanded? Seemingly one could learn from this, as it were, that they do not have the seven mitzvos of the sons of Noach, and that they are, Heaven forbid, permitted in forbidden things.

12:07 Rather, from here you learn that Yosef HaTzaddik did not want to tie himself with her, even together in speech. He said 'How can I do... and I will sin' - as if to say: I do not even tie you to me in speech - so faithful was he to his Creator. This is the faithfulness of Yosef HaTzaddik. And therefore one can see the novel insight that I once told you, last year, if you remember: when we light the candles - 'My lord asked his servants, saying: Do you have a father or a brother?'

12:35 So, on the first day, do you light eight candles, or do you light on the first day [unclear] - 'a father or a brother'? Aleph, Beis - or 'Ach': on the eighth day one lights eight. So this is exactly Yosef HaTzaddik. We light according to Aleph, Beis - we have a father, not a brother. If we see that we have a brother, then, as it were, one would need to light all the candles on the first day. But we have an old father - an old father keeps adding.

12:59 Therefore we light. What is this secret of this father? It is Yosef HaTzaddik, who revealed the compassion of the Holy One, blessed be He, who is the Father of mercy and forgiveness. So therefore, each time, one keeps adding, in order to reveal each day more mercy, and more mercy, and more mercy, and more mercy. And so writes Rabbi Tzvi Elimelech of Dinov, on the month of Kislev, in Maamar 2, in the second maamar - he writes that Zos Chanukah, in which all the lights are completed, so in fact it is the time even to remember the barren women, like Rosh Hashanah.

13:31 'And Hashem remembered Sarah' - all the barren men and barren women who were remembered on Rosh Hashanah - on Zos Chanukah too it is possible to remember all the barren men and barren women; everyone can. Why is that? Because on Rosh Hashanah, what is revealed? The attribute of mercy is revealed. There is harsh judgment and soft judgment. And if we could not pray by virtue of the attribute of mercy, no one at all could come out acquitted in judgment. So Yosef HaTzaddik revealed them - because when Yosef stood in the tests before Hashem and revealed - after all, all this contemplation of his, that he does not kick against the sufferings and does not hurl words upward, he understands that he is withstanding this whole test, so he reveals the mercy of Hashem to the very end.

14:06 Like King David - all his tests and his difficulties, things that could not be grasped by the mind - in Iyov, what he went through. So all the difficulties that we go through in life, we need to know that in the end they reveal upon us and upon the whole Jewish people endless mercy. The Holy One, blessed be He, weeps - in Tractate Chagigah, page [unclear], side b - over a bachelor who is in the marketplace. The Holy One, blessed be He - why does He weep over him? He reveals the mercy of Hashem, with all his tests and with all his difficulties.

14:35 In the end, the Holy One, blessed be He, is exalted and glorified specifically through people who have it hard, and they praise His great Name and do not abandon Him, blessed be He. So this we can learn about Yosef HaTzaddik, and from here you learn that he was not [unclear]. - Rav, Rav, we are now in the days of Chanukah, when in fact it is written that [unclear] of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, until the days of Chanukah - so it is written in the Arizal, and that the Rav brings things like these.

15:07 Now, on one hand we see the great lights there are in Chanukah, that there were in the holidays, all the good things that we had. On the other hand, we are still at war. The world is at war, and we are still at war. At one point, they say: this fell, Lebanon fell, Syria fell. On the other hand, we see that Hashem sends us - we have the Yemenites there, we have Iran, we have [unclear], What can we do? What hope can be given to the Jewish people that we will truly get through these times - that this is a time of [unclear], of the sealing of the judgment - and that we will come out [unclear], better than we were, and without all this chaos, without [unclear] all these wars, that it will be good for us?

15:59 - You know, the plague-marks, before they come upon a person, start outside the house, after that they start inside the house, after that they start on the vessels, on the clothes, and in the end on the body. First of all it goes from the outside to the inside. Why does the Holy One, blessed be He, do this? It is Hashem's kindness. First of all, let's see if the person [unclear]. He comes home, suddenly he sees a big stain outside, outside the house.

16:25 After that he sees the stain inside the house, and after that he begins to see it on the vessels, and everything depends on the ruling of the Kohen, on what the Kohen rules. And then he can take out all the vessels, and then, when the Kohen comes and rules that it is a plague-mark, then in effect the whole house becomes impure. You can learn from here a very beautiful thing about what you are asking. We all look and say: it is Lebanon, it is missiles, it is Hamas - it really is not that.

16:51 The Holy One, blessed be He, brings all kinds of plagues, from inside and from outside, from all kinds of places, to see whether we will return to Him, blessed be He. We need to truly do teshuvah, to return to the Holy One, blessed be He, to know that He - He is the One who saves us, He is our strength. When the Jewish people were in the time of the Greeks - you know that the Greeks - what is the difference between the time of the Greeks and Purim? On Purim we are commanded to make a feast with joy; this is the question of the Levush, who asks why on Chanukah we do not also make a feast with joy, since it is the same salvation.

17:21 That is, it was a saving of the souls. The souls: the Greeks did not want to kill us, they wanted to make us change our religion, they wanted, Heaven forbid, to distance the Jewish people. But the joy of the souls is raised to such a high place that it does not need physical matters; that does not interest it. There is no matter of a feast on Chanukah because of the supernal lights, for it is all [unclear], everything rises upward; it is the merging of the soul, which wants to rise and be elevated in its root.

17:51 So it does not need physical matters - that is how the Levush answers. But you see from here, you learn from here, that we are now in a war that is not over the souls - it is over the souls and also over the bodies. On one side, from inside and from outside [unclear]. From here they want to cover us in heresy, and from here they want to cover us in war, and there is nowhere to run. On one side, from here they want - we see so many trials and so many difficulties, that it has become such a mess here in the world, in our generation, that on one side there are wars, missiles being fired, on the other side sufferings, accidents, illnesses, plagues, like, anyway, I also say in general, why are they trying so hard -

18:35 Do you know that here, above our teeth, there is another row of teeth up here? Is there a dentist here who can tell us if it is true? Where is the doctor? There are more teeth here. Do you know why? If we were... Doctor, they say that there are more teeth up above, is that true? Please. - There are more teeth up above. - For whom? - For all of us, for all human beings. Below there are too.

19:01 - Yes, right, there are both above and below, there are more teeth. They say it does not show for us, because we do not manage to reach that time. If we lived longer, here is his grandfather at the age of a hundred, here is his grandfather at the age of a hundred, also Rabbi Ezra's grandfather, also Rabbi Yisrael's grandfather, at the age of 105, began to grow teeth at the age of 105.

19:32 At the age of 105 he began to grow teeth, the upper row, yes. Now, look, it is a bit funny, yes, but look, that at such an age, that is, the teeth grow, that is, here there are more teeth and here there are more teeth. Now, at the age of 105-120, new rows grow, because this is already old. More teeth grow, right?

20:02 A Jew has thirty-two teeth, but a non-Jew has [unclear] Who checked that? Do you have an X-ray [unclear] or something? Now look, the Holy One, blessed be He - as it were, we were supposed to live hundreds more years, for you see that even the body is built in such a way that when it reaches the age of a hundred, everything will begin to renew itself. At a hundred and twenty the body will not stay like this.

20:44 About Moshe Rabbeinu it is written, 'his moisture had not departed.' Where does old age come from? From the moisture leaving the body. And then a person starts to shrivel, like a lemon, or like something that starts to lose its moisture. He becomes like an old man. Now, when reaching the age of a hundred and twenty, Moshe Rabbeinu - 'his moisture had not departed.' He would remain with his moisture, in the body, it remained the same. And the teeth - so the Holy One, blessed be He, renews a person with teeth, with moisture, at every age; at 110-120 life is long, he is renewed, and then from 120 he now lives another 200, 220 - again He renews him, like Mesushelach, now hundreds of years ahead, and Noach - how was it that they lived like that? Here is the proof:

21:28 from where do teeth grow at the age of 110-105? But why is it? We do not merit it and are not worthy, Heaven forbid, because of everything we see, everything that happens in the world, the Holy One, blessed be He, that people disgrace their mouths - a person who disgraces his mouth, Gehinnom is deepened for him, [unclear] and all the troubles that come to the world, and all the forbidden things, and all that happens in this whole world, all the prohibitions and all the envy and all the hatred and all the bad things - Tractate Shabbos, page 32b, everything the Gemara says about baseless hatred and all these things - these are the things that come: plagues and illnesses and bad things.

22:05 But if you look at a very interesting thing: the Holy One, blessed be He, wants to give us long life and everything, but everything depends on our closeness to Him. If we cleave to Him, then 'He will swallow up death forever, and Hashem G-d will wipe away the tears from all faces.' The Holy One, blessed be He, will save us and redeem us; but if we do not follow Him, and do not know that He is the King, and do not know that He is the Healer, then He tells us: fine, you can manage.

22:30 You can fight. You do everything. And in general I also say: why fight so much, and what is there - how long do we live here in the world anyway, to try to threaten us with missiles? And they do not see that there are accidents anyway, plagues, hardships of livelihood, troubles - as if to add to us another war on our heads? As if - I do not understand why fight today, what for, to make wars at all. Let them already enjoy what they have [unclear]. How long can one fight one another? Ukraine and Russia are fighting too.

23:01 What - let everyone just go on living; how much is left now? How long do we live - 70, 80, 100 years? What do people do? They are inside a house, tea and coffee, and they eat something and talk? For that they need to be killed? For that they need to be wiped out of the world? What has become of the world already? The world has reached ruin, the world has reached madness - simply, there is no madness like it. We only need to live together, with a settled mind, in peace, in tranquility, in unity.

23:30 And we will hope, with Hashem's help, that the Holy One, blessed be He, will redeem us, that we continue the miracles; but this will be only when we strengthen ourselves in faith in Him, blessed be He, that we know that Hashem, blessed be He, made, makes and will make all deeds. And as I explained the answer and the question of the Kedushas Levi, who gives a beautiful answer, which all of us need to learn and remember always, always: that we said, 'You delivered the mighty into the hands of the weak, the many into the hands of the few' - all of it we understand, all of it, but one thing we do not understand, says the Kedushas Levi: what is 'the mighty into the hands of the weak'?

24:05 Right? The army of the Greeks were very great mighty men. And on our side, Mattisyahu the Kohen Gadol, the Chashmonai, and his sons were very mighty. So how do you say 'the mighty into the hands of the weak'? Say 'the mighty into the hands of the mighty.' Why 'the mighty into the hands of the weak'? They were not weak; it is not correct to say that. Rather, he says that Mattisyahu and his sons knew that they are not the ones making the war. They knew that by themselves they are weak.

24:30 Only 'He gives strength to the weary, and to the powerless He increases might.' So they said: the strength and the might are in Hashem's hand. Therefore it belongs to Hashem, and we are weak, and we say, 'You delivered the mighty into the hands of the weak.' This is the answer of the Kedushas Levi. And this is something that should strengthen us greatly about what you asked, so that we truly understand that we are weak, for if we truly do not reflect on this, then even after these perish, and those perish, and those perish, then Hashem, blessed be He - if we do not understand the hint, then the plague does not break out outside, it breaks out inside, and if not, on the clothes; and we saw that there were epidemics, and anyway there is the cursed disease in the world,

25:03 which is a plague that one needs to pray that Hashem will wipe out from the world, and all the troubles - and how many people die at a young age, and reach only 40-50; these are disasters, these are troubles we have in our generation that need to be cancelled. We need to strengthen everyone in the trait of faith in Him, blessed be He, and the trait of trust in Him, blessed be He, and to stop all the disputes and the baseless hatred and the multitude of opinions, and to stop disgracing Torah scholars, Heaven forbid, and to increase faith in the Sages, in prayer, in holiness, to follow Hashem. After all, Hashem - if He wants, He makes a person rich; if He wants, He makes a person poor; He lowers, He raises. And all those who look for shortcuts -

25:45 it is because of the root of heresy, and Hashem - when one says 'Hashem will not help me, so I need to do it this way' - Hashem... One needs to know that Hashem does everything. And even if a person does the opposite, against his own salvation, and his salvation needs to come - [unclear]. This is what one needs to know. Even if a person rejects his destined match, it will come. Once someone asked me, a man said to me: 'Could it be - I was in a shidduch, and I spoke not nicely, and I did not get to meet, and right away I already turned it down on the phone' - and he said to me, 'Could it be that I lost my shidduch?'

26:17 I told him: come, listen, even if you meet your destined match, and talk with her, and insult her, and shout, and do the worst things, which would supposedly prove that you are the worst, and she will not want you - you did all these things - but if it is yours, it will so happen that exactly a month later someone will speak up in your favor, and she will be won over, and everything will come back, and suddenly it will come back and you will get married. Nothing will make a difference. What a person is meant to have is what he will have, in the end.

26:46 For nothing can push you away from your salvation. And if a person does all the things that harm his livelihood, that do the greatest damage to his livelihood, and Hashem is meant to give him livelihood - he will receive the livelihood and the wealth from his own damage. So everyone needs to know, needs to be strengthened in this; and the moment all the creatures are strengthened in this, then already there will not be these problems, there will not be wars, there will not be troubles, there will not be problems, and there will not be sufferings, and everything, everything will come to its place in peace.

27:16 - Rav, [unclear] the soul of the tzaddik - it is written [unclear] that our father Yaakov was saved from Lavan by the soul of the tzaddik, which is Avraham and Yitzchak; so it is written in the Zohar. That is, in fact the tzaddik in the generation prevents wars, he [unclear] the abundance, he prevents illnesses. 'Thus says Hashem to the house of Yaakov, who redeemed Avraham.' That is, the tzaddik is in fact the one - the tzaddik in the world is the one who gives the strength, the vitality, to the world.

27:46 What can be given to the Jewish people, when we are, as the Rav described, in a truly difficult situation, at home, in security, in livelihood, in spirituality, in physical matters, in war - what hope can be given now, when this is the end of the days of judgment, this is the mercy, the great light of Chanukah - that something strengthening can be given, with things that Jews can take and truly become better?

28:12 - Faith in the Sages, and not to let up from prayer to the Holy One, blessed be He: to pray to Hashem, and another prayer, and another prayer, and another prayer, and another 'Master of the World', another 'May it be Your will', and more closeness to Hashem, and more lifting the eyes to Heaven. You know, there is a very beautiful saying that was said by Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak, the Rebbe Rayatz.

28:36 He said: 'Shema Yisrael' - that is, someone who fulfills 'Shema Yisrael' - how do we know that he is Yisrael? If he fulfills 'Shemah', We say 'Shemah Yisrael' - we do not say 'Shema Yisrael', we say 'Shemah Yisrael', right? 'Shemah Yisrael' - 'Shemah' is an acronym: 'Lift up your eyes on high.' Someone who is always used to lifting his eyes to Heaven - it is known that he is Yisrael. Whoever is 'Shemah', whoever is 'lift up your eyes on high', he is Yisrael.

29:03 One needs to lift the eyes to Heaven. The greatest gift that Hashem, blessed be He, gave us is our ability to lift our eyes to Heaven, and to raise our eyes to Him, blessed be He. When you lift your eyes to Heaven, it is a great thing. And also the verses I said to say: 'See my affliction and my toil, and forgive all my sins,' 'Hurry to my help, Hashem, my salvation'; 'My eyes are always to Hashem, for He will bring my feet out of the net,' 'For Your salvation I hope, Hashem.' To say these verses - that is fine - all four verses.

29:29 Chapter 25. What? Chapter 25 is also worthwhile, yes. - At first you would say three verses. - Four. No, four. I always said four. I forgot some verse - worthwhile - it could be. Four, four, yes. Always... No, no. I always say these verses. - I think it does not feel like it is something [unclear].

30:10 How [unclear]? - First of all, I very, very much recommend to every person who travels to any grave of a tzaddik, or to any tzaddik, to learn his Torah and to read stories about him. This is something that will very, very much bring your soul close to that holy one you are traveling to. When you travel to Meron, to Rabbi Shimon, learn sayings of Rabbi Shimon, read from the holy Zohar, stories, parables, words of Rabbi Shimon, his words of Torah, Mishnayos, all kinds of things that Rabbi Shimon said; learn from them - it will bring you very, very close to Rabbi Shimon, to Rabbi Meir Baal HaNes. Whenever you want to come close to that tzaddik and receive his salvation, and to really have a different feeling in prayer, and to really feel a very great holiness,

30:51 on the way to him, learn about him a little, read about him, learn about him, say sayings from his words; and also when you arrive at him, read from his Torah, so that his lips will move. In Tractate Yevamos, page 97, it is written: for Rabbi Yochanan said - Rabbi Yochanan said - 'Any Torah scholar whose teaching is said in his name, his lips move in the grave.' Anything you say in the name of the sage, his lips move. And the moment you pray, and you learn from his Torah, and you arrive at him, then you really awaken the vitality and the influence, so that you truly merit to become holy and to reach closeness to Hashem.

31:26 Like Kalev, who went to prostrate himself in Chevron on the graves of the Patriarchs. So this is something that will help you very, very, very much, and is very worthwhile. And it may be that sometimes this happened not because you have no heart or because you are very far from Hashem. It may be that you are very close; simply, if you had read about it, you would find that you even cry. So you will read stories about this tzaddik, and you will read a little of his Torah, and then you will come to his holy resting place; you will connect very much, and you will feel the blessings, and you will feel the closeness to Hashem.

31:55 For in any case this place is very, very holy. When a person goes into the four cubits of a tzaddik upon whom the Shechinah rests, one feels that the Shechinah rests there. Even after the passing, the Shechinah rests on the tzaddik's belongings. It rests as in his lifetime, really so. As in his lifetime the Shechinah rests, so too all his belongings, the same. Everything, everything, everything rests on it. - And if one comes and the tzaddik is alive, and the tzaddik is still alive with us, what should one do? What preparation is needed?

32:24 - I don't know, I'm not... What preparation is needed... To keep faithfulness. - I'll finish in one moment; we already need to start the [unclear]. We also have the siyum of the Seder by Rabbi Mordechai the tzaddik, who came to us, and what will you tell us in conclusion? - That is a great virtue. Rabbi Yisrael of Ruzhin said — I said — there is — look in Rabbi Tzvi Elimelech of Dinov, in Maamar 2; he writes about this virtue; you can read it.

33:00 Rabbi Yisrael of Ruzhin wrote that on Zos Chanukah the simplest of the simple can pray and accomplish as the tzaddik of the generation accomplishes at Ne'ilah of Yom Kippur. That is to say, a simple Jew can pray a prayer on Zos Chanukah by the candles, as the tzaddik of the generation accomplishes on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, at a time of favor. In the book Ta'amei HaMinhagim they brought that it was the custom at this time also to make something like a celebration and a festival; but the one who revealed more of the virtue and the power of this prayer is the Maharatza of Dinov, and also his father, Rabbi David of Dinov.

33:45 Rabbi David of Dinov, who was his father, he too wrote about it, and it is a great virtue, a very, very great virtue. I recommend praying, sitting by the candles, to use every moment, to draw in and receive their holiness, to pray with intention, as we saw that Rabbi Yisrael of Ruzhin said that when a simple man prays, it is considered like the tzaddik of the generation on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur; so great is the virtue of this prayer, one can accomplish everything.

34:13 Read the prayer I composed, too — there is a prayer I composed for the days of Chanukah — very important; and to pray simply before the Holy One, blessed be He. You know, to the Holy One, blessed be He, one does not need to come with the intellect; one needs to come with the heart, and with that you will accomplish before Hashem. One does not need to come trying to think, to stand on one leg, to read all the Tehillim forwards and backwards. Hashem loves the intention and the heart; that's it — 'the Merciful One wants the heart.' Do everything simply, by being wholehearted with Hashem, and then one can accomplish before Hashem everything one wants.

34:42 When a person needs a salvation, know this: a person can be saved from Heaven, right? A person now needs a livelihood, a person needs a match, needs healing. At once he imagines for himself a very great labor, right? He says: surely if I do — fly here, travel here, read all of this and do that, and read this, and do that — he imagines to himself that only through this will he have salvation.

35:07 But he does not imagine that if he says the Shir HaMa'alos that comes before Aleinu Leshabe'ach with intention, really with intention, there is a chance that Hashem will save him in its merit. He does not believe in this. This is because of distance from Hashem, blessed be He. But if a person truly believes in Hashem, blessed be He, believes, and He will save — prays to Hashem with intention, from the walls of the heart he says, says 'Fortunate are those who dwell in Your house; they will yet praise You, Selah.' He prays to the Holy One, blessed be He, from the walls of the heart, prays, looks at the meaning, looks at His Name, blessed be He, this is the main thing in his eyes, then suddenly you will see that this person — the Holy One, blessed be He, will save him; he can be saved through simple things.

35:44 'Let the work be heavy upon the people,' 'and let them not pay heed to false words' — that was with Pharaoh. There was hard labor, but now we are with Hashem, blessed be He; we are no longer in the land of Egypt, and one must be joyful in the work, and one must do the work with joy, with vitality, with faith, with hope in Him, blessed be He; and this faith and this hope, with Hashem's help, will give you much strength. And also read in the writings, and also listen to my niggunim; it gives much hope. Niggunim — they make you feel so good.

36:14 With Hashem's help — and be joyful always. Good. We, with Hashem's help — 'I will make known Your faithfulness with my mouth' — with Hashem's help, to merit faith in Him, blessed be He: you need much, much prayer and many words of faith, and to beware of reading, Heaven forbid, words of heresy, or listening to heretics, or listening to people who are not Torah scholars, or listening to false opinions; all these things damage faith.

36:43 Therefore a person must always beware of taking bad advice; when a person takes advice, Heaven forbid, that is not good, Always take good advice, always consult the Torah's view, consult with Torah scholars, go to Sages, hear Torah, read from the Holy Writings, learn the seforim, learn the Torah. These are the holy things which a person does and lives by them. These, with Hashem's help, are the things that will bring a person to faith in Him, blessed be He, and to benefit.

37:10 As for whether there is free choice or there is no free choice — may Mashiach come, and with Hashem's help we will merit to know the answer. But about this I say: Rabbi Tzadok HaKohen of Lublin settled these matters. According to the Rambam, one sees that there is free choice; according to the verse 'And Yours, my Lord, is kindness, for You repay each man according to his deed,' it emerges from this verse that there is no free choice, and the matter needs a very great settling: 'And Yours, Hashem, is kindness, for You repay each man according to his deed' — this is a contradiction: as if, so to speak, the Holy One, blessed be He, gives a person a reward that, so to speak, he does not deserve.

37:42 What is this? 'The righteous, their heart is in their power; the wicked are in the power of their heart.' It looks as if there is none here. Look, with Hashem's help, with Hashem's help, these are matters that can be expanded into many branches. We, with Hashem's help, will come to this too. We have spoken about it several times already; we gave shiurim on it.

38:07 But meanwhile we will believe in Him, blessed be He, wholeheartedly and simply, and know that there is free choice, in Him, blessed be He, and a person must give himself with self-sacrifice, and fulfill and do everything. Of course, there are things that are not in a person's power, and that a person can no longer do, yes? There are things that are not in our control. You want to marry a wife, you want to get married. You make all the efforts, but from Heaven they direct you this way, they direct you that way. Whatever is in your power and you can do, do it, and make an effort to do it. Beyond your strength — do you understand?

38:36 How does the Rebbe, the Rayatz, put it? First of all one must do, and after one does, Hashem helps. But one must do; one must show Hashem that we are doing. This is our tzaddik here, this holy Mordechai, the tzaddik, a Torah scholar, Seder Nezikin by heart, knows much Torah, a Torah scholar, with his father, a holy descendant of the Sfas Emes of Gur, the Chiddushei HaRim of Gur, and also the Admor HaZaken, the Baal HaTanya.

39:05 'We will return to you, Seder Nezikin, and you will return to us; our mind is' 'on you, Seder Nezikin, and your mind is on us; we will not forget you, Seder Nezikin, and you will not forget us, not in this world and not in the World to Come.' 'Hashem will give strength to His people; Hashem will bless His people with peace.' Rabbi...

40:03 Yisrael, wait — never mind. - With the Rav's permission, excuse me. To understand what the virtue is of being here this holy Shabbos with our teacher and Rav: today was the hilula of the Be'er Mayim Chaim, the Siduro Shel Shabbos, the prince of prayer, Rabbi Chaim of Czernowitz. He writes in the introduction to the Siduro Shel Shabbos; he brings the holy Zohar, which says that every Jew, every Jew has the privilege to see the greatness of the Holy One, blessed be He.

40:38 That means the greatness of the Holy One, blessed be He, that a person should see not only what is here in this world, because what is here in this world is the waste of the greatness of the Holy One, blessed be He; and the virtue of every Jew is that he can merit to see the greatness of the Holy One, blessed be He, in the upper worlds. And he says: through what can one merit to see the greatness of the Holy One, blessed be He? Through two things: through the holy Torah and through holy Shabbos.

41:08 And then he says that the Sages said that Shabbos is one-sixtieth of the World to Come; then he brings there what 'one-sixtieth of the World to Come' means: that if we take something like a mixture of forbidden and permitted, we know that when we have sixty against the forbidden thing, the thing is already nullified. So that means that through Shabbos one can taste the very last edge, which is a little of the little; one can taste through Shabbos what the taste of the World to Come is; it is one-sixtieth of the World to Come; it is not that it is the world, or the World to Come, but it is really just a little more; only this little can one taste.

41:41 The Rav spoke — about fifteen years ago the Rav gave a shiur on Chanukah, I think. The Rav spoke of how the Greeks — the aim of the Greeks was not, as Haman the wicked wanted, to cut off the bodies, 'to destroy, to kill and to annihilate all the Jews.' The Greeks wanted to cut off the Jewish people from their connection with the Holy One, blessed be He. As the Rav spoke, he said that they wanted to cut off three things from the Jewish people, whose initials spell 'shevach', praise: Shabbos, Bris and Chodesh.

42:11 And what is the praise of the Jewish people in Shabbos, Bris and Chodesh? I will say it in just one sentence; the Rav will expand on it in the shiur with all the treasures of the Torah. The root of the praise of the Jewish people: that a Jew knows that he does a mitzvah here, that a person says a word here — as the holy Zohar says, that the Holy One, blessed be He, takes every word of Torah and kisses it. That is what the Rav spoke about: that the Greeks wanted to cut off from the Jewish people their root of their faith in the Holy One, blessed be He: that what they do here — above, all the upper worlds tremble from every saying that comes out of the mouth of the simplest Jew. This they wanted to cut off from the Jewish people, and to cancel for them this praise of the connection with the Holy One, blessed be He.

42:54 We see in this week's parashah a small thing that seemingly we have repeated since we were small; we learn it, repeat it and hear it, but there is great depth in it, a very great inner meaning, which we merited to hear from the Rav. What is the matter of the seven years of famine, the seven years of plenty? The Torah, Heaven forbid, does not go on at length with stories, as is known, the holy Zohar says. All the stories of the Torah are the greatest secrets.

43:19 What is the matter, that Yosef HaTzaddik comes, Pharaoh only hears that he interprets for him the dream about the plenty and about the famine, he appoints him king over Egypt, and Yosef HaTzaddik begins to equip Egypt with storehouses. Rather, it is known that this world — 'olam' is from the word 'ne'elam', hidden — and the hiding of the Face. This world is concealment, and this is the main test of a person who comes here to this world: within the concealment, to reveal that the Holy One, blessed be He — so says Rabbi Chaim of Czernowitz too, in the introduction to the Siduro Shel Shabbos — that the praise of the Jewish people over the angels, that we have a virtue above the angels, is that we do not know the Holy One, blessed be He, as they know Him.

44:01 They see the praise, the greatness, the Throne of Glory, they see the River of Fire, they see all the things that happen above; therefore they tremble from this and say song to the Holy One, blessed be He. But we, from whom all these things are hidden, were sent here, to the most turbid place of matter, where the bad is fuller than the good, mostly bad and a little good, for the small part of the hidden light is revealed here, so our test is much greater.

44:30 The angels have no evil inclination. What do they have to do? Only to praise the Holy One, blessed be He. Therefore we, out of all this darkness, still praise the Holy One, blessed be He — that is the praise, as it says, 'the desire for praise from clods of earth and from those formed of clay,' that the lower the place in which the splendor of the Holy One, blessed be He, is revealed, that is the greatest praise. So now, every Jew goes through in life, goes through a shining of the Face, a hiding of the Face.

44:56 In general this world is a hiding of the Face. But also within this concealment, every Jew sometimes goes through a shining of the Face, a hiding of the Face, a shining of the Face, a hiding of the Face. So Yosef HaTzaddik teaches us that a person who has a shining of the Face — what do you have, what do you do with this shining of the Face? With this shining of the Face that you have, know that there are many people now — anyone you will meet, perhaps he has no shining of the Face.

45:22 Perhaps now he is in a hiding of the Face; difficulties pass over them in finances, in livelihood, in peace at home, with the children, with health, with all kinds of things that are a hiding of the Face. If you now — your role is to go and shine a face to him, to reveal to him that Hashem, blessed be He, is here and exists; shine to him from the light that is with you. And this is the virtue of our coming to the tzaddik, to our teacher and Rav, for Shabbos, because with him one always sees the shining of the Face of the Holy One, blessed be He; he always reveals to every Jew, in whatever situation he is, in everything, he reveals to a person that the Holy One, blessed be He, is with him, and that he is like a precious and beloved son to the Holy One, blessed be He. And for this we truly need to thank the Holy One, blessed be He, who gave us this gift, [unclear], in this dark generation, whose self-sacrifice does not stop. And truly whoever knows — the Rav [unclear] days like nights; it does not matter what time it is, an hour before Shabbos comes in, an hour after Shabbos goes out, with all the pressure

46:19 that they press on him from inside and from outside, he is entirely for the sake of the Jewish people, to save the souls of the Jewish people, that they remember that we are a part of G-d above and beloved to the Holy One, blessed be He, and we are the ones who need to bring the geulah, with Hashem's help. May it be His will that the Holy One, blessed be He, give our teacher and Rav a complete healing, Amen; [unclear], Amen; may we merit length of days over his kingdom, Amen; with Hashem's help, that the whole world shine from the hidden light that is in him, with Hashem's help; that always all the tzaddikim and the Shechinah accompany him to every place.

46:49 May they all, with Hashem's help, be helping and assisting him, with Hashem's help. I merited to come from Neve Yaakov on foot, I'll tell you; these are really my legs — 'his heart carried his legs', no? I could not stay at home and not come; it is our privilege to come and be here with our teacher and Rav on Shabbos. With Hashem's help, may we merit — the Rav has a wish, with Hashem's help, that all the Jewish people enjoy this light. So everything we received here on Shabbos — to keep going and shine it to people; not to tell them 'it was just a fun Shabbos, it was nice, enjoy' — what you merited, what feeling you came in with before, and what you left with after.

47:24 And shine this light to all the Jewish people, with Hashem's help. Rabbi Chananya ben Akashya says: The Holy One, blessed be He, wanted to give merit to Israel; therefore He gave them much Torah and mitzvos, as it says. Blessed are You, Hashem our G-d, King of the universe, Who has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us to kindle Amen! Amen!

47:51 Blessed are You, Hashem our G-d, King of the universe, Who performed miracles for our forefathers in those days at this time. Amen! Amen! For the miracles, for the miracles, and for the wonders, of our forefathers in those days, in those days, in those days, at this time.

48:56 in those days [unclear] These candles [unclear]