ההדלקה המרכזית ל"ג בעומר אצל הגאון הינוקא תשפ"ו

5:12 Not three. Not 'the Holy One, blessed be He, his father and his mother.' There is one more partner that people do not reflect on. The partner is the holy soul. After all, the Gemara says that the Holy One, blessed be He, places the soul in him, but still, it is true that 'one who blows, blows from within himself,' but still, when a person says - a person always says, 'I am half Mother, half Father,' but you do not say you are half the Holy One, blessed be He.

5:39 You are not a third Father, a third Mother and a third the Holy One, blessed be He. The Holy One, blessed be He, is holy, holy, holy; He is separate and set apart, and it is also not fitting to relate the Holy One, blessed be He, to flesh and blood, to say that He is together with the partners. The Holy One, blessed be He, all in all gives the soul. His being a partner - He watches over; but the forming, the matter and the creation of the person - what is with him in any case is the soul.

6:06 So there is still a part - they should have said that the soul, That is, the Sages would have said, 'There are four partners in a person: the Holy One, blessed be He, the soul He placed in the person, and his father and mother.' From this comes the composite creation, because the Holy One, blessed be He, is above the soul and above the father and above the mother. So why did they really say, 'There are three partners in a person: the Holy One, blessed be He, his father and his mother'?

6:33 Because in truth we are here in a world where the Holy One, blessed be He - the soul, we do not grasp; we cannot grasp it at all, we cannot at all comprehend the greatness and the level of the soul, because when the soul rises and is completely uplifted, it attains a light so lofty that it is impossible to understand it at all, to give it physical form in the world.

7:01 Because the more one rises in spirituality, then all the perception of this world, which has in it the 'skin of the serpent,' is nullified before the light of Hashem. That is, everything turns into a revelation of light. The more one rises and becomes holy, then the person who becomes holy and purifies himself and rises to high and lofty levels - not only does he become more and more separated from matter and merit holiness, creation too rises and is uplifted through him, and in creation itself one already sees light.

7:38 And so, when they had 'garments of light,' with an aleph, and afterward they came to have 'garments of skin,' with an ayin - from the blemish of the sin, from the damage, from the physicality, we now see the garments of skin. Today we see the garments of skin, with an ayin; we see the distortions and the physicality and everything we see today. But with Hashem's help, when a person merits and becomes holy and purifies himself, and cleaves to the Torah, cleaves to Hashem, then he sees garments of light.

8:05 He already merits to attain the garments of light, which is the high level where one already sees the revelation of G-dliness in everything; one sees spirituality and understands the light and the wisdom in everything, and does not see the existence of evil in the world. Now, the Holy One, blessed be He, who gave the person the soul, gives him holiness, pure, [unclear].

8:31 And the soul, which is clear and pure - and we say every day in prayer, in the morning blessings, 'The soul You placed in me is pure; You created it, You formed it, You breathed it and You will one day take it from me and return it to me in the time to come.' So we praise Hashem, as long as the soul is within us, for our privilege that we even hold something so, so great. So of course the soul - we mention it. So we have the Holy One, blessed be He, and also the soul, and his father and mother - that is four partners, not three partners.

9:07 The Sages should have said, 'Our Rabbis taught: there are four partners in a person.' Now surely everyone has already understood the question. So let me explain to you what the reckoning and the calculation is, and how to resolve it. When we look at the world, the Holy One, blessed be He - we say every time, 'Holy, holy, holy.'

9:34 Holy means separate and set apart, above human intellect. Holy, separate and set apart from the angels. Holy, separate, set apart from all the worlds. There is no grasp at all of the Holy One, blessed be He. 'No thought can grasp Him at all.' We cannot grasp Him or attain anything of Him, for He is the knowledge and He is the knower and He is the known. Everything is Hashem, blessed be He.

9:59 We cannot attain or grasp even the edge of the revelation of the G-dliness of Hashem, blessed be He, in the world. We cannot grasp anything. The only thing we can grasp is a little, a drop, of the revelation of the soul: the more we refine the body, the more we attain the holiness of the soul, so that the soul will rest upon the body. As they tell about the holy Gaon Rabbi Mordechai of Lechovitch, who said, 'If only I had a holy soul like the holy body of the holy Ohr HaChaim.'

10:33 So he said to himself - he said, 'If only I had a soul as holy, just at the level of the body of the Ohr HaChaim' - because his body was so holy - 'that I may merit that my soul be as holy as it.' So much so that, in his eyes, the body of the Ohr HaChaim had reached such a holy level that he claims his own soul had not yet reached such a holy level. So that is why they say that in practice the Holy One, blessed be He, is a partner.

10:58 Why? Because the soul we cannot attain or grasp or cleave to. We cannot attain it. We cannot grasp the holy soul. Of course the Holy One, blessed be He, not at all, but at least, insofar as a person cleaves in the days of his life - that he prays, that he learns, that he keeps Torah and mitzvos, he cleaves to the Torah - then the Holy One, blessed be He, shines in him, the Holy One, blessed be He, reveals Himself to him, He draws him close, he can understand a little, a drop, before Whom he is praying.

11:29 So they said 'three partners' - the three partners are said in a way so that a person will honor his Creator, will honor the Creator, blessed be He, will honor Him. When you honor your father, you have honored your mother, you honor the Holy One, blessed be He, as well. 'I am Hashem your G-d, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me.' Look how I am present and revealed behind the parents who bore you, that I too am a partner, so that a person will honor the Holy One, blessed be He.

12:01 But why is the soul really hidden here? The soul is the revelation of the tzaddikim. The greater the level the tzaddikim reach, the more they illuminate in themselves the greatness of the soul. And when they attain the soul, so that it truly rests upon the body, the soul can speak real attainments and levels. And then there is no difficulty as to why the holy tzaddikim expressed themselves in words of greatness, as Rabbi Shimon said that he can exempt the world from judgment.

12:32 So how did he really say such a thing? The answer is that because he attained the levels of his NaRaNChaY, the lofty ones, which are Nefesh, Ruach, Neshamah, Chayah, Yechidah, and he rectified them to the utmost supreme level. The more we rise and become holy, we rectify the Nefesh of Nefesh, after that the Nefesh of Ruach, the Nefesh of Neshamah, the Nefesh of Chayah, the Nefesh of Yechidah, and then we do the Ruach of Nefesh, the Ruach of Ruach, the Ruach of Neshamah, and so on in this order, until all the structures of the NaRaNChaY are rectified in their inner root; that is, Nefesh corresponding to and so level corresponding to level, until the structure is rectified in completeness.

13:15 Now, when the structure is rectified in completeness and one reaches such a high and supreme level, as Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai merited, then he attains things that are beyond the human intellect to attain, he attains awesome things, so he performed deeds and he cancelled a great many troubles and all the decrees, he could cast off and rebuke the primordial serpent, and he could say that he can exempt the whole world from judgment. Why?

13:42 Because the soul rested upon him in completeness. He merited a real revelation of his soul, of his level. And so he can declare that he can exempt the world from judgment. But a person who does not attain the soul, and he is in a constricted state of mind and is here in the world - then everything he says is haughtiness, it is pride, because the one who speaks - it is his body speaking. When the body speaks, it is haughtiness, it is self-importance, it is the 'skin of the serpent' speaking, it is the serpent speaking, it is pride.

14:12 But when a person has attained the level of Neshamah, the high levels, the great holinesses, then the soul can speak. And this is the reason that Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, who in fact merited to go out of all the aspects of the world, to truly repair the contamination of the serpent, to repair the sin of Adam, the first man, and to engage in repairing the sin of Adam, the first man - which is the greatest level of all the holy ones and tzaddikim who came to this world to repair the stature of the Shechinah, to raise up the Shechinah, to lift - 'to raise up the Shechinah from the dust' - and to repair the sin of Adam, the first man.

14:48 Now, everyone always asks: what is the joy on this day? What do we do on this day, rejoicing and recalling the merit of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai? But one must remember - I always say it - this is the reason for the lighting. Every year I say it before I light. This is the reason for the lighting, and there is no other reason. The whole reason we light the fire is to remember the saying of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai in Tractate Berachos, page 43b, in Sotah, page 10b, in Tractate Bava Metzia, page 59a: 'It is better for a person to throw himself into a fiery furnace than to shame his fellow in public.'

15:27 That is the purpose of the lighting. There is no other purpose for the lighting. A person must always remember this saying, how important it is to keep what Rabbi Shimon said, and to go into the fiery furnace and not shame anyone, to [unclear] in the fire, not to cause pain to any Jew, and not to speak lashon hara, and to strengthen ourselves in this, for this is the highest and most important thing there is: to remember this saying of Rabbi Shimon.

15:56 And if we do not uproot this baseless hatred from among us, Rabbi Shimon says to the whole world, 'What is it to you to come to me? Why do you want to come to me? To come to my grave, when you do not keep my saying at all? What I said is the reason for the lighting.' What, do people think there is a point in lighting bonfires? Is there a point in making a lot of fire? One does not make a lot of fire for nothing. That we recall the fire is in order to recall his Torah [unclear].

16:25 There is, in the responsa Torah Lishmah, siman 520, which our master Rabbi Yosef Chaim brings in the name of Rabbeinu Bachya, in Parshas Terumah, about lighting candles, lit for the elevation of the soul of the departed, that it is a great and supreme merit, and it is a lofty thing to light, in the home of the departed, the candle for the elevation of his soul, and it gives satisfaction and it is good for the soul. We see that it is a great thing. But to light a candle, to light such a holy fire, as high as the heart of the heavens, in every place, on Lag BaOmer everyone lights - it is only to remember the reason, the saying of Rabbi Shimon.

17:00 The Torah of Rabbi Shimon - everyone remembers it through this learning, everyone learns the Zohar and everyone is strengthened, everyone learns and is occupied with Torah, but the saying of Rabbi Shimon - that is the reason for the lighting. And this is the reason that we light: to remember, and to take upon ourselves to increase in baseless love and love of the Jewish people, and to drive out all the lashon hara in the world. Now I want to show you something beautiful, so that you see what Rabbi Shimon says in the Zohar, that there is a very, very great secret in this.

17:34 On that day that he passed away, see what Rabbi Shimon says: he truly hinted at the matter of the geulah. In Tractate Shabbos, page 33b, the Gemara speaks about the kingdom of Rome, all that they did to him, and that he was pursued. I remember that he was inside the cave, but see the whole journey he went through, from the desert - also that he was in the desert of Lod, there he secluded himself. But let us see, and see what Rabbi Shimon says, what the Zohar says - that he condemned the kingdom of Rome and all this, and then they pursued him.

18:06 Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, may his merit protect us. So then, he went and "fled to the desert of Lod." He went to flee to the desert of Lod, there he was, there he stayed, and secluded himself there, "and hid himself away in a cave," he hid himself away there, in that place, and secluded himself there - he would seclude himself a great deal, "he and Rabbi Elazar his son" - he and Rabbi Elazar his son. "A miracle happened for them, and there came out for them one carob tree and one spring of water."

18:36 There grew for them - a miracle was done for them, and a tree and a spring grew for them. So, Rabbi Binyamin also asked us: why specifically was it a carob? Why didn't there grow for him, say, the seven species, apples, maybe something good? Maybe there was some miracle - with the Sefer Yetzirah one would create, on Shabbos, yes - there was something special.

19:05 But maybe some special calf would be created for him, something, manna would come down for him from Heaven, there would be some special [unclear], something that was special for Rabbi Shimon. But truly, this secret of the carobs is the secret of the connections. Charuv, carob, has the letters of chibur, connection. For about Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa it is written that the whole world is sustained for the sake of Chanina My son, and for him a kav of carobs is enough.

19:34 The secret of the carob and the carobs is the secret of joining opposites, that only holy ones and tzaddikim know how to join between the opposites, in all the connections of the world - this is what is done. The carob is the secret of connection, because for Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai there was no difference between a date and a carob and an apple and the seven species. That did not interest him. In his carob were all the tastes.

20:01 The Holy One, blessed be He, can give a person the taste of dust in the greatest delicacy there is in the world. He will eat the greatest delicacy in the world and have the taste of dust in it. "And the serpent - dust shall be its bread." He will not enjoy anything from his eating. And the opposite: He can give Rabbi Shimon that in this carob he had all the delicacies in the world. For the manna that came down to the Jewish people had all the delicacies in it, and these delicacies were because the Jewish people joined heaven and earth, through their all being holy, spiritual.

20:32 The manna is a kind of carobs. That is what gave them all the cleaving to the Holy One, blessed be He, and lifting the eyes to Heaven. For their eyes were not elsewhere - "only to Hashem are our eyes." All their looking and their seeing and their thinking was only to Heaven, without looking at this world at all. So the manna had to come down to them every day, because if it came down to them once a year, then they would lift their eyes once a year.

21:04 If it came down to them once a month, they would lift their eyes once a month. If it came down to them once a week, they would lift their eyes once a week. It had to come down to them every day so that every day they would lift their eyes to Heaven. Every day they need to lift up their eyes and see how the manna comes down to each one by personal Hashgachah. So the manna is the secret of the carobs, because it is the joining of the physical and the spiritual, and of this world with the World to Come, and the holiness, and the miracles, and the holiness of the Land of Israel - everything flows down through the carobs, which are the connections that connect everything, bind and connect everything together.

21:48 It becomes the unification of all the letters and the unification of physical and spiritual. This is the secret of the holy Shabbos, that on the holy Shabbos we unite the physical with the spiritual, together. It is kelipas nogah that rules, but of course evil has no hold, but it is nogah, which has good and evil mixed, but still there is no blemish in it, it cannot spoil, it cannot blemish, from the greatness of the holiness and the level of Shabbos, which brings a person to a very, very high level.

22:17 But still, Shabbos is the secret of carobs, because carobs are the thing that joins the physical and the spiritual. The matzah that we eat on Pesach is bread of poverty, matzah is a kind of carobs. It is hard to [unclear] and so on, it is hard to eat the matzos, and it is a very great difficulty, but matzah is the secret of the carobs, because also the matzah, in fact, that we eat - "This is the bread of poverty that our fathers ate" - all the matzos that our fathers ate - this is the secret of the carobs, that we join what was done for our fathers with what is done for us - miracles, that we hope the Holy One, blessed be He, will do for us the miracles and the wonders, all the holiness, all the blessing,

23:02 everything that we ask of Hashem, and the remembrance of the Exodus from Egypt, that we continue what was done for our fathers, and also the miracles and the wonders. And then we ask: what, so many miracles? That is the same question as with Rabbi Shimon, what the Rav asked: why specifically did a pomegranate not come out for them, not the seven species? What about our fathers? Ten miracles they had in Egypt.

23:27 Ten plagues that the Holy One, blessed be He, brought upon the Egyptians. Every plague that the Holy One, blessed be He, brought on Egypt was a miracle for the Jewish people. Blood was made for the Egyptians, water was made for the Jewish people. This one drinks from it - the same straw - and that one, that is why it says "the plague of blood." Why doesn't it say "the plague of bloods"? It was in the singular, the plague of blood, why - it was blood only for the Egyptians. For the Jewish people it was water, the same blood. They would take a cup of blood, this one would put the straw in, this one would drink water, but for that one it would stay blood.

23:57 It was not "bloods", that is to say, the bloods did not multiply. It was the plague of blood alone, blood only for the Egyptians. That is to say, the Holy One, blessed be He - in one cup of water that one would drink with an Egyptian - he would want to buy it, and that is why the Jewish people grew rich from the plague of blood. Because immediately the Holy One, blessed be He - that the Jewish people - when He came to [unclear] the Egyptians, immediately He struck them with the plague of blood, and then, after so many miracles and wonders, that He can, in the same cup, bring out blood for this one and bring out water for that one - this was called the plague of blood and not the plague of bloods.

24:31 What is it for the Holy One, blessed be He, to make that from one flour it should turn for them into bread, into challah, into something heavenly, into the manna that was meant to be theirs at that moment - and after that He goes on bringing it down for them, when they were camped, on the first Shabbos, in Alush, when they camped there. So why did they need this? They could have done the same thing. It is the same thing. So truly, the reason is, again, that the matzah that came is the secret of the carobs.

24:59 Now certainly Hashem could have given them there bread from Heaven, and milk, and everything, but on purpose He gave them matzah. The matzah is like the carob that was created for Rabbi Shimon. That is the reason that specifically the carob was created for Rabbi Shimon, and nothing else was created for him from the secret of the seven species. A carob was created for him, and for the Jewish people there came out matzah. It is the same thing, this corresponds to that, it is the same thing. For when the Jewish people came out of Egypt, and when Rabbi Shimon went into the cave, and was meant to come out and reveal all the secrets of the geulah - this is the secret of the Exodus from Egypt, this is the complete purpose; it was - "with this composition of yours"

25:37 All the secrets and all the miracles and wonders were revealed to the Jewish people in the merit of the composition of Rabbi Shimon, in the merit of the miracles and wonders of Rabbi Shimon, the things, great and awesome, that Rabbi Shimon revealed to us - these are the things that bring the Jewish people to the highest level, that they will merit to join and unite and to see the revelation of G-dliness, how everything is revealed and becomes one together. Therefore see what Rabbi Shimon says: "They ate from that carob and drank from that water.

26:11 And Eliyahu, remembered for good, would come to them every day, twice." Eliyahu the prophet would be revealed to him twice a day. He would sit with him, teach him, reveal secrets to him, teach him the most hidden and concealed things. Torah from the mouth of Eliyahu is the highest and most awesome Torah. Of course, Maran the Chida writes, "my heart tells me", about our master the holy Arizal, that Eliyahu, remembered for good, sprinkled on him the ashes of the red heifer, and that this is the reason he merited all these levels that he merited.

26:41 So he did not say this out of knowledge that it had been so, or that someone had said it. "My heart tells me" that so it was with our master the Arizal. And so too we see it was the same with Rabbi Shimon, that Eliyahu the prophet was revealed to him, came to him twice a day, and spoke with him. So certainly there were there things much, much higher and more hidden than what we are able to receive and hear, to understand.

27:08 "And taught them" - he learned with them all kinds of new insights and secrets of the Torah. Secrets of the Torah means that a person, with knowledge of the Torah, also knows what is bound up and connected with the Torah. That is to say, learning the Torah is one thing, but knowing what the Torah connects to is a second thing, it is a much higher thing - this is called the secrets of the Torah. The secrets of the Torah are knowing all the connections of the Torah, what is linked to this, what connects to this.

27:34 That is why our master the Arizal knew all the reincarnations, and down to the finest details of everything in Creation, what it connects to. The light of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai is the power of the Torah, it is the revelation of the Torah, that is the meaning. To rejoice on the day of Rabbi Shimon, on Lag BaOmer - there are those who hold on to the outer side of the Torah, and there are those who hold on to the inner side of the Torah. Those occupied with the outer side look to touch the grave, they look to drag themselves around and travel all the time, they are occupied with the outside, with the clothes - "and she caught him by his garment."

28:04 Those occupied with the inner side do not look now to travel overseas. They sit and learn the understanding of the sage, the understanding of the tzaddik, the understanding of Rabbi Shimon. They try to connect to his inner self, to his wisdom, to his understanding, which is the highest and most correct thing. There were many holy ones and tzaddikim in all the generations who sit and learn the Torah of the Sages, and they were bound to them much more than a person now who all day long - I'll go to the sage, to the grave of a tzaddik - and the tzaddik asks him: what is there between me and you? What do you know about me?

28:38 You don't even know what my name is? Do you know what my mother's name is? Why are you coming to my resting place? You don't know me at all. Many people go to sages and holy ones; it would be better for them to sit and learn their Torah. That gives a very, very great pleasure to the tzaddik. In Yevamos, page 97: "For Rabbi Chiya said, Rabbi Yochanan said: every Torah scholar from whose mouth a teaching is said, his lips move." They keep the [unclear] of Rabbi Shimon, and mention the sayings of Rabbi Shimon, and mention the words of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai - that is the action, that is the holiness, that is the blessing, that is the outpouring, and our joy needs to be on such a great level that I mention Rabbi Shimon on this day,

29:18 and then Rabbi Shimon himself is with us, and does not leave us, and rejoices with us in his joy. Because the sages and the holy ones - their joy is that their sayings are mentioned, that they mention their understanding, their contemplation, their will, their revelation in the world. That is what the sage wanted: that they speak of him, and not that they abandon his Torah and his way and all that he said, and hold on all the time - holding on to the stones and touching him. True, that is a great level and very high, and there is great virtue in it, but what is above that is his Torah, above everything.

29:56 Above everything is the Torah of the sage, the Torah of the holy one, the Torah of the Sages, the Torah of the tzaddik is higher than everything. After that one touches the body. First of all the soul, after that the body. So this is "and she caught him by his garment." Those who hold only to the outside, they love that sage and that tzaddik, but they transgress everything he says to do, everything he says, everything he spoke, all of it. And if a person still transgresses with lashon hara and forbidden things, what does it help him at all that he travels to Meron, or that he lights the fire and mentions the merit of Rabbi Shimon, if they transgress this? And therefore we need to uproot from among us the root of idolatry and heresy within, for we are full of evil within.

30:39 We need to uproot it. Every person knows what he is stricken with, what he is bound by, what he does that is not good. He needs to say to himself: I do not do this evil, and I separate from it, and I cleave to Hashem, blessed be He, for that is the will of Hashem, blessed be He. Therefore on this day it is very, very important to strengthen oneself, for this is the time that... That's it: the dying stopped and the joy began, and therefore in these weeks we increase in learning mussar, in Pirkei Avos, and in doing teshuvah, for these days are holy and pure, and every day is an awesome and fearsome day.

31:15 Yes? And pay attention to what it says: "And taught them, and no person knew of them" - no person knew where they were hiding, where they were learning, what they were learning, how much they were learning - nothing. They knew nothing. "One day the sages were in the study hall, asking" - one day the sages in the study hall asked a very great question. They asked: the curses in Toras Kohanim - in Parashas Bechukosai there are the curses.

31:40 They asked about the curses. "Those correspond to the First Temple." These curses corresponded to the First Temple. The curses in Mishneh Torah, which is in Parashas Ki Savo, were corresponding to the Second Temple and the final exile. Those are the curses there. So there was a question: in the curses in Toras Kohanim there are promises, and the affection of praise for Israel. There are in them promises and praise, of what the Holy One, blessed be He, will do with the Jewish people.

32:05 As it is written: 'And I will remember My covenant with Yaakov.' When the Holy One, blessed be He, says, 'And I will remember My covenant with Yaakov, and also My covenant with Yitzchak, and also My covenant with Avraham I will remember,' 'and the Land I will remember.' when the Holy One, blessed be He, also remembers the merit of the Land, the merit of the holiness of the Land of Israel, which is beyond any measure, that we are in this holy Land at all. And it is written: 'And yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies,' 'I will not reject them, nor abhor them, to destroy them, to break My covenant with them, for I am Hashem their G-d.'

32:38 But the curses in Mishneh Torah — pay attention to the question — 'have no promises in them.' In Mishneh Torah there are no promises in them; that is, it is a bit discouraging. [unclear] there are no promises, and here there are already no promises, so seemingly, Heaven forbid, 'and there is no consolation in them at all' — as if there is no consolation in it at all, so so to speak, in a euphemism, it is not pleasant to say, but as if: what will be with the Jewish people?

33:04 Here we have no promise; we do not know what will be. As is written in the first curses — that was in the first curses, in Toras Kohanim. 'And they did not know what to reply' — and they did not know what to answer. Pay attention. See what it tells us. Rabbi Yehudah bar Ilai stood up and said: 'Alas for the absence of Bar Yochai!' We are missing Rabbi Shimon, for if Rabbi Shimon were here, we would ask him.

33:30 We would ask him, in other words: What is the hope of the Jewish people? Where is the hope of the Jewish people, Rabbi Shimon? What will be? What will be with this long exile? When will it end? When — as if, where? The Torah needs to give us hope. So the First Temple was destroyed, the Second Temple was destroyed too. So we understand the curses that were. But where are the promises? Where are words of consolation? Where is the hope for a Third Temple? Where is something that will give us the strength and the consolation?

33:57 Well, pay attention. Rabbi Yosef, said Rabbi Yehudah, 'got up one day in the morning.' One day he got up in the morning and he sees — 'He saw all those birds that were flying.' just all kinds of birds, like sometimes we see lots of birds flying in the sky; always, a person sometimes walks along like this, looks and sees lots and lots of birds, a great number of birds flying and hovering in the sky.

34:24 'And one dove was going behind them' — and then he saw one dove, a 'shafnina' — which in the Zohar, in Aramaic, is a dove — that goes along and passes behind them, and goes after all of them, [unclear] birds, He saw one dove going along like this at the back, looking at it. 'He stood on his feet and said:' 'Dove, dove,' 'faithful one, [unclear].'

34:52 He said to her: Do you have faithfulness? Already from the time of the Flood, Noach relied on you. He said: whatever she does, I rely only on the dove. He took the dove, knowing that she has faithfulness. The dove has faithfulness. I am looking for faithfulness. He looked specifically for this trait. Faithfulness was important to him. Where is it? So he said, [unclear], 'Dove, dove.' 'You, etc., there is [unclear] in you.'

35:18 You have faithfulness in you. I want to take you so that you will carry out a mission for me. Pay attention, and Rabbi Shimon also says, 'the image of the holy nation' — the form of the Jewish people; the dove, which is compared to the Congregation of Israel, in Berachos page 53, which the Gemara brings, which is called 'my perfect one'; in Berachos page 53, side b, the Gemara says that she is considered a sign for the Congregation of Israel, etc.

35:53 So he says, 'Go and carry out one mission to Bar Yochai,' 'in the place where he is.' I want to send you — go look for where Rabbi Shimon is; I want to write you a question; go find Rabbi Shimon, wherever you roam, wherever you are, bring Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai this question.

36:21 'That dove turned around and stood before him.' That dove came back, 'and he wrote one note' — he wrote a note; he wrote the whole question, about everything that was in the study hall, everything the Sages asked, everything they wanted to know about this subject of the curses — what will be. In other words, he asked; here there was a story that touched on the geulah altogether. This question touched on the whole geulah. What will be with the Jewish people?

36:46 What will be? Pay attention. 'And he said what he said' — he said something, some very great secret; 'he said what he said' — they do not say what he said; so he said some secret thing, some very great thing, lofty — some holy Name, some very awesome intention. 'And the dove rose and took it in her mouth' — the dove took the note and flew away from the place 'and went to Rabbi Shimon,' 'and placed it in his bosom.'

37:17 She put this note in his garment; she reached Rabbi Shimon, landed, of course; surely it was by Hashgachah pratis, how she found him, etc., but I am cutting it short. She took the note and put it by him. Rabbi Shimon looks, 'and saw the note' — Rabbi Shimon looks at the note, sees the note, sees the question, 'and he and Rabbi Elazar his son wept' — he and his son, Rabbi Elazar, wept; they began to cry, they cried and cried, they began to cry, and he said: 'I weep over the separation from the companions.'

37:56 I am crying because we are far apart, I and the companions, that we cannot sit together and I could explain to them that there is really no question here; that I cannot learn with them and explain the matters to them. That is what pains me. 'And I weep over these words, which are not revealed to them.' I am crying also that there is no one to reveal to them such lofty things. These are awesome things; this is an awesome question that you are asking — what they asked there.

38:22 'What will the last generations do if they look into this?' What will all these last generations do? What will they lean on? What will give them hope? What will give them strength? How will they cope in the end, in the last generation, with so much confusion and hardship? What will they do? 'What will the last generations do?' What will they do? Pay attention to who suddenly arrived. 'Meanwhile,' 'Eliyahu, remembered for good, came' — Eliyahu arrived 'and saw that he was crying' — he saw Rabbi Shimon crying, Rabbi Shimon crying, crying.

38:55 He said: 'I was assigned to another mission now,' He said: I was set — there is a mission; everyone has his own mission to do. [unclear] — and the Holy One, blessed be He, sent me to calm you from your tears. I have many missions to do; everyone surely understands that Eliyahu HaNavi has lots of things to do in the world. Every day he acts in the world, every day he carries out missions, every day.

39:20 But in any case, they sent me to calm you over your tears. You are crying; I want to calm you. 'O Rabbi, O Rabbi,' 'it is not needed now to reveal these words to the tzaddikim.' You cannot reveal these things yet; there are things here that still cannot be revealed. But thus said the Holy One, blessed be He: that I should come to give you the answer to the question. Pay attention: even Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, who truly reached the goal and also knew the answer from Heaven, surely had the attainment to say it, still, even he himself began to cry, that even to him this was sealed and closed — with all that he revealed to us, all the explanations, all his secrets — this thing was still sealed and closed for him, which made him cry.

40:08 True, he knew an answer, but the very fact that he cried — that too was something he lacked. He needed Eliyahu HaNavi, remembered for good, that Eliyahu himself should come and tell him the answer; because otherwise, why would Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai want at all Eliyahu's answer? He would accept it, write something, say something, and with that it would be over — as the whole Zohar is full of answers about the whole length of this exile and all that he can do.

40:35 Pay attention to what Eliyahu said: 'In the first curses there are thirty-two verses,' In the curses in Toras Kohanim there are lamed-beis, thirty-two — the secret of the thirty-two verses — 'and all of them correspond to the paths of the Torah.' All this corresponds to the paths of the Torah, the thirty-two paths of wisdom that they attain. 'And in the last curses there are fifty-three verses.' They have fifty-three verses, corresponding to the fifty-three verses.

41:02 'corresponding to the portions and ways of the Torah' — corresponding to the fifty-three parashiyos of the Torah. The fifty-three parashiyos 'A great voice that did not cease.' A train. This world is like a train; everything passes quickly in the end. Everything passes quickly.

41:32 The fifty-three parashiyos — these parashiyos too correspond to the paths and the ways to show a person how to show, and what to do in this world. The Torah itself too — the word 'Torah' — comes from 'it will instruct you' what to do in the world. It instructs you in the purpose; it instructs you — Torah. Everyone says Torah, Torah, Torah, Torah, 'rejoice and be glad in the joy of the Torah', Torah, 'give honor to the Torah.'

41:58 The Torah comes from the word 'hora'ah', instruction: it instructs a person and shows him what is the right thing, what is the purpose, what to do here in the world, and how to reveal the kingship of Hashem. We have a King whom we want to crown and whose will we want to do, and to listen to what the Torah says — the Torah. Pay attention: 'corresponding to the portions and ways of the Torah' — corresponding to these fifty-three parashiyos.

42:22 'In the first exile, of the First Temple' — when the Jewish people went into exile from the First Temple — 'Israel transgressed those hidden paths [unclear]' they transgressed all those paths. Their punishment was great, but not as much as... There was still some hope, there was some remedy; therefore it was built for them again — the Second Temple; that is, they had a secret of something of purpose. Of course the baseless hatred was great and burning, and there was very great sorrow, but still, as I explained, what happened with Gedaliah, who reigned 52 days — Gedaliah, when we keep the Fast of Gedaliah — who reigned only 52 days; and then in effect, the moment he was killed — murdered, with all of them, [unclear] who stabbed him with a sword, at the time that [unclear]

43:13 who was — who commanded that they kill him; and this whole kingdom in effect already came to an end, and then the exile already began — the official one — throughout the dispersion of Israel, which in effect was destroyed, and the Jewish people set out on a long road into exile, which in effect only when the Second Temple was built did they manage better to recover from [unclear] that the Jewish people went through, but still, it was not something that destroyed them completely.

43:43 There was still not an exile with a blow from which it was impossible to rise, because we see that in any case the Second Temple was built; they managed to rise from it. Israel still went through it, but they managed; it was a very hard blow, of course it was a terrible blow, but here they managed; here there was some revival, something that rose. 'Their sin was revealed,' 'and their end-time was revealed.' They had their end — 'and their consolations and promises' — their consolation, their promises — everything, everything was revealed to them, and also fulfilled for them.

44:15 But 'in the last exile', of the Second Temple — in the exile when the Jewish people were exiled from the Second Temple — 'Israel transgressed the fifty-three portions and ways that are revealed.' they already transgressed the fifty-three parashiyos in the Torah, all the ways, and the punishment is already greater, because this already — they transgressed the fifty-three parashiyos, 'and their sin was sealed' — and their sin was sealed. As if, because it had already reached such great flaws, it was sealed.

44:40 The sin had already reached a state where it is sealed. When one says of something that it is 'sasum', sealed — today people say 'sasum' and use it as an insult. But 'sasum' is the greatest praise there is, you should know. 'Sasum' is a very great praise. It appears even in the prayers of the early sages as praise. As praise. 'Sasum' — is a thing that cannot be explained, to grasp it, to attain it, to contain it, to enter in order to contemplate it. That is, even understanding cannot enter into this thing, because it is sealed.

45:14 'Sasum' is as if there is no grasp of this thing; it is above intellect and knowledge; you have no attainment, and you cannot grasp it at all — that is called 'sasum'. This thing is sealed and completely hidden. That is, there is no connection to this thing; it is impossible to connect to it at all. This thing was: 'their sin was sealed.' So because 'their sin was sealed', 'their end was sealed.' That is, because their sins caused such a thing, their end too was sealed, and they did not know the time of their end.

45:46 'And there are not written in them promises and consolations.' The promises and consolations too are not found in this time. Also in Tractate Yoma, page 9, side b, about baseless hatred, which destroyed the Beis HaMikdash; but still there is in this also some of the same hint as what Rabbi Shimon says there, what the Gemara says. 'Meanwhile,' 'meanwhile,' 'a wind passed and separated them' — a wind came that separated them. 'And Eliyahu went up in a wheel of fire,' 'and Eliyahu went in' — inside a wheel of fire, he went inside a wheel of fire.

46:18 'And Rabbi Shimon remained weeping' — Rabbi Shimon remained in sorrow, so that he begins to cry, that Eliyahu HaNavi did not finish revealing to him; he did not reveal the end to him, did not explain to him; as if — I understood that the sin was sealed, and because the sin was sealed, so too their end was sealed. Of course there are also things here that strengthen, because the moment the Jewish people do teshuvah, they break through the curtain that prevents them from attaining the highest level, because they break through it completely.

46:44 They can rise to a much higher place, because they break through it, so they can also reveal the end. 'And he fell asleep at the entrance of the cave' — and he fell asleep at the entrance of the cave. And pay attention to what happened there: 'Meanwhile, Eliyahu, remembered for good, came' — once more Eliyahu, remembered for good, came to him and said: Arise, Rabbi Shimon, awaken from your sleep. Arise, Rabbi Shimon, awaken from your sleep. He said to him: arise, get up, wake from your sleep.

47:11 Fortunate is your portion, that the Holy One, blessed be He, desires your honor. Fortunate are you, that the Holy One, blessed be He, wants to honor you. See what words he says to him: the Holy One, blessed be He, desires your honor, He wants to honor you. See what words he says to him. And all the promises and consolations of Israel are written in those very curses. He tells him: the reverse, look at the curses in the Book of Devarim, in the curses themselves, in the curses themselves, there are found the promises and the consolations and the blessings; all the consolations of the Jewish people are hinted there.

47:47 Notice, this is also according to the Alter Rebbe; he too brought this explanation, based on this Zohar. He brought it as if on his own, that these are the greatest blessings, but it is based on - this is the source for it. It was already said from here, from Eliyahu to Rabbi Shimon. Notice, go out and see: a king who loves his son, such a great, beloved king, like the Holy One, blessed be He, who loves His son, and even though he cursed him and struck him - even though he cursed him and struck him, his love is upon him; he loves him very much, and he has a love and a bond with him that cannot be explained, there is nothing like it.

48:24 When he shows him an angry face, his compassion is upon him; even at the time he is angry with him, he shows an angry face, but still he always has compassion on him, because it is a father to a son; true, he is angry, but he has compassion on him. So the Holy One, blessed be He, even though He curses, even though He cursed, His words are with love; His words are always in the revelation of the greatest compassion there is. And they appear openly as curses, but they are very good. True, it appears to us openly as a long exile, true, it appears to us openly as curses, and the length of the exile is very great, but know that these are the greatest blessings.

49:04 Notice what he says. Because these curses are out of love, that these curses came from Hashem's love, that He turns to us so that we not go on the distant path, not go in the way of the non-Jews, not act against His will, that we keep the Torah, that we fulfill the mitzvos, that we do what He commanded, and His Torah, that we do what He commanded us. He asked this of us, and the curses are not in order to punish.

49:29 It is not as people say now, 'Well, a person committed a sin' - it is not for revenge or anything, rather it is simply so: the Holy One, blessed be He, wished in His wisdom and decreed in the world that a person who does the opposite of His will cannot connect, cannot join to this world. It is against nature, like water and oil do not mix. It is the same thing: when a person fulfills the will of Hashem, blessed be He, then he connects to the root of all the souls, he awakens all the Jewish people and the whole world, all of creation comes to its rectification; that is the purpose.

49:57 But people who uproot themselves from Hashem and from the Torah and enter into lusts and pride and 'my strength and the might of my hand,' not only do they lengthen the exile now, they continue the exile and the curse from the destruction of the first and second Beis HaMikdash. That is to say, they go backward even more. For the Holy One, blessed be He, already had so many who did damage and sinned and did teshuvah, learned.

50:22 But that a person, Heaven forbid, already in the footsteps of Mashiach, continues in such a coarse way, and he is full of coarseness and physicality, and he does not refine the material - then he is likened to an actual animal, since he does not refine himself. And though all of them are in harsh judgment - each one was a harsh judgment that the Holy One, blessed be He, made - in these there is judgment and love.

50:47 In the curses of the Book of Devarim, there are in them - there is judgment in them, but within this judgment there is also compassion and love and a revelation of the Holy One, blessed be He. Like a father who has compassion on his son, like a father who has compassion on his son and holds the strap of lashes in his hand - like one who holds the strap - and great voices: he shouts with loud voices, and the lashes are bound up with compassion, but the blows are light, with compassion. That is to say, he makes some great noise, as if right now, but in fact he caresses, he caresses, he caresses, he caresses. See what compassion Hashem has, that with all this, and all this length of the exile, which is long and seemingly hard - if we make an accounting and reflect:

51:33 what remains of Babylon? What remains of the kingdom of Rome? Nothing. There is no nation today descended from the Romans that says, 'We continue the kingdom of the Romans, and these are the customs from the house of Rome,' and so on. The Roman nation, all that they did in the world, the Babylonians, [unclear], all those who were, no one remembers them.

52:00 They were, there was once - that's it. Even the Egyptians, the Egyptians, who ruled over the whole world - nothing remains of them, no trace, no remnant, nothing. But of the Jewish people, despite all they went through, that all the nations of the world tried to destroy them, and all we went through in all the exiles, we are the only nation in the world whose entire tradition was preserved complete. Take a Sefer Torah from Algeria, from Yemen, from Persia, from Morocco, from every country, from every land in the world.

52:31 And you say - today, seat... today, if they seat a person and tell him, 'Listen, write,' ten people, put them in a room, then let's say, to this one: 'Write,' 'make something up, you write like this, you like this, you like this,' each one will write something different; they will not manage to put something together. Here, and even if they give them a computer, and even give them [unclear], and to erase and to write - they will not manage to be in sync together, not one of them; they would not be of one mind, there needs to be some bit of connection with one another.

53:04 Here, a Sefer Torah, from 200 years ago, 300 years, 400, 500, 600, 700, 900. Who can write such precision, such details, without computers, without computer proofreading, without advanced technology, nothing at all, to write the same Sefer Torah all over the world? Think about it: this one in one country - you just see it - how this book was written in this country, and this one in this land, and this one in this place, and this one in this place.

53:32 And here they came to the Land, and all the books are the same. How can there be such a wonder? There should have been a million corruptions and mistakes, and verses, and missing and extra letters, and simply something beyond measure. And Tractate Soferim would have had to be multiplied - 200 volumes, Tractate Soferim alone, for all that would have had to come in corrections and emendations that the Sages brought there.

54:02 So how can it be at all that one does not see this by oneself, that these are the greatest miracles and blessings, that the Holy One, blessed be He, with all this, always caresses us, that He lets us remain, and lets us be preserved, and watches over us, and draws us close, and loves us, even though we are in exile. Even though we are like this, He does not, Heaven forbid, annihilate, Heaven forbid, and does not become, Heaven forbid, harmful to the Jewish people.

54:26 Good, with Hashem's help we will need... we'll continue further, but it's time. But fine, I will just finish this, and that's it. We'll finish this passage, and that's it, and it's sort of still long. So I'll tell you this. And harsher than all those curses, as it is written: Harder than this: 'Also every illness and every plague that is not written in the book of this Torah, Hashem will bring them up - ya'lem - upon you until you are destroyed,' Heaven forbid, right?

55:10 [unclear]. Here too there is compassion [unclear]. It is not written 'ya'aleh' (will bring up) but 'ya'lem' - a term of hiding. See how beautiful. That is to say, notice: 'that is not written in the book of this Torah' - it is not written 'ya'aleh' but it is written 'ya'lem'.

55:36 So Eliyahu, remembered for good, says to Rabbi Shimon: notice that within this curse there is a great kindness here. Seemingly it should have been written 'ya'aleh' - it is not written 'Hashem will bring up (ya'aleh) upon you,' but it is written 'ya'lem', that the Holy One, blessed be He, will hide it from you. 'Ya'lem' - that is to say, it is a kindness that Hashem does: behold, even in the curse that is the hardest curse, 'also every [unclear]' - it will be hidden, 'ya'lem', from the term 'the Holy One, blessed be He, will hide it', so that it will not be upon you, so that nothing will be upon the Jewish people.

56:06 This is the greatest kindness there is, these are the great miracles; this is the explanation that Eliyahu tells Rabbi Shimon: Come see what a secret you are saying - over this you are crying? Come see that here all the blessings are hinted, for it should have been written 'ya'aleh', and it is written 'ya'lem' so that He will hide, hide it. 'Until you are destroyed' - what will not be, forever and for all eternity: that this thing will not be, forever and ever.

56:31 For the Holy One, blessed be He, [unclear], forever and ever. That the Holy One, blessed be He, swore that He will never wipe out the Jewish people, Heaven forbid. And their remembrance will always endure, and their memory will stand forever, as it is written: 'so shall your seed and your name stand.' And it is written: 'Thus says Hashem: If the heavens above can be measured,' that if the height of the heavens [unclear] above, 'and the foundations of the earth searched out below,' all that they would see below, all this thing, 'I too will reject all of this,' Heaven forbid, right? 'for all their transgressions that they have done.'

57:11 All this - all that the Jewish people will go through, and all that they will contend with, and all their matters, and all that they tried to do to them among all the nations of the world - All that they will go through, all the things, all the troubles, all the ordeals, all that there is in the world, I will always redeem them and save them from it, so that it will not rule over them, and will not, Heaven forbid, destroy them. For it is truly a wonder that after all they tried to do to the Jewish people, and all the diseases and all the disasters, and all the persecutors the Jewish people had throughout all the generations and history, the Jewish people always remained alive and enduring.

57:49 Always, always, the Jewish people is alive and enduring. Tears came down, drops, this young man is moved - what words, what words, simply tears. A beautiful sign for him, a beautiful sign. Moving. that the Holy One, blessed be He, will not harm them, 'what will not be, forever and ever.' Of course, [unclear] - what will not be forever and ever. The end of all of them and their conclusion - this is the end of all the curses and their conclusion: 'And Hashem will bring you back to Egypt in ships,' 'by the way of which I said to you, you shall see it no more,' 'and there you will offer yourselves for sale [unclear] as slaves and maidservants, and there will be no buyer.' These are promises and consolations that the Holy One, blessed be He, is destined to do for Israel at the end of days,

58:40 that the Holy One, blessed be He, will in the future give to the Jewish people. 'And Hashem will bring you back to Egypt in ships' - a promise to do good and to do miracles and wonders. That the Holy One, blessed be He, on the contrary, promises the Jewish people that He will do miracles and wonders with them, as the Holy One, blessed be He, did in Egypt in the days of old - like the days of the Exodus from Egypt, so He will do in the time to come, as it says, as it is said: 'As in the days of your going out from the land of Egypt, I will show him wonders.'

59:10 May we merit, with Hashem's help, miracles and wonders, salvation, compassion, good tidings, and may we merit, with Hashem's help, the complete geulah. Up to here was our explanation, with the commentary 'Matok MiSilan'. Matok MiSilan - there is 'Matok MiDvash', 'Matok MiSilan'. May there be salvations for everyone, good tidings, and let us light the fire that burns, of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, may his merit protect us.

59:37 Salvations and miracles and wonders. - And right, isn't that right? Whoever wants can come to me, [unclear].

1:33:00 I was hospitalized for almost half a year; If not for the prayers the Rav prayed for me, and the [unclear] the Rav [unclear] me, and the miracles that were worked for me, I would not be standing here today. I was on a ventilator, sedated, [unclear]. The doctors said they should already come to say goodbye. And Baruch Hashem, beyond all the odds, from the blessings, [unclear], of the Rav, Baruch Hashem, I am alive and breathing, and I am walking too, Baruch Hashem.

1:33:35 More than all the miracles there are - people do not know how much the Rav cares behind the scenes, which no one knows or hears about, how he made sure to check with my wife what the situation was, every day, every moment. There was not a day that he did not know, several times a day, what was happening, what the situation was, speaking with the doctors and hearing what was happening. This, people do not know. And these are the simple things. everyone who speaks lashon hara, when they make up inventions from under the floor, out of all the jealousy they have, all the false rabbis, who cannot see that there are tzaddikim.

1:34:14 So I am the testimony that there are tzaddikim alive and present in every generation, tzaddikim who have Ruach HaKodesh in every generation, tzaddikim who have complete revelation in every generation, tzaddikim who can bring the geulah in every generation. Whoever does not believe in this is in the category of a heretic and an apikores. So [unclear] of the Rav, all the blessings, Baruch Hashem. Thank you very much. Yasher koach for all the care and all the devotion and concern. Nothing is to be taken for granted. [singing] - This is the same [unclear] whom we all prayed for, days and nights, for his recovery, we worried about him, but the Rav, more than everyone, cared for him, prayed for him, and Baruch Hashem, we see today a miracle [unclear].

1:37:17 - Again, women, women, [unclear], who are standing in the passage to the men's restrooms - the women are asked not to stand in the passageways there. Thank you very much. [singing] - Please come over here.

1:42:34 [singing] - This young man went through water to get to the Rav. Where is your clapping? He went through the sea to get to the Rav. What self-sacrifice. Many waters, [unclear], cannot...

1:46:01 [unclear], [unclear], come over here. David, there is a minyan near the house of [unclear].