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The Yanuka’s own words in this shiur, translated into English by Lehallel · 2,769 words · 14:26. Press a time to hear it said.
0:00 We remember the Shabbos day every day. So the Sefas Emes of Gur writes: what is the reason for remembering every day, in the Song of the Day, in order to mention the Shabbos day? After all, it is all 'the first day of the Shabbos week, the second of the Shabbos week.' Remembering the Shabbos day - what is the connection? So he writes in Parshas Vayeitzei - look at a very beautiful thing. He writes: 'And Yaakov went out from Be'er Sheva and went toward Charan.' That is to say: 'And Yaakov went out from Be'er Sheva.' So he writes: 'And Yaakov went out from Be'er Sheva' - 'Yaakov went out' is the abundance, that is the whole Jewish people, that is all the flow of blessing and all the good things; that is Knesses Yisrael, the Congregation of Israel.
0:33 You want to know from where Yaakov goes out, from where all the blessings of Yaakov go out, all the abundance of Yaakov - from where do they go out? From Be'er Sheva - from the seventh day. If you remember Shabbos, you have help and assistance for the whole week to rise, to be elevated. And Rabbi Baruch of Mezhibuzh writes in Botzina D'Nehora that all week the gates are closed; on Shabbos the gates are open, as in the Ne'ilah prayer. On Shabbos one can reach all the levels and attainments of the rungs.
0:59 So he writes in Hisorerus Teshuvah, part 4, siman 25, and then he says: if so, seemingly we see that there is the first day, the second day, the third day, the fourth day, the fifth day, and on the Shabbos day there is no Song of the Day. 'Uva L'Tzion' is said at Mincha because of the burden on the congregation; we do not say 'Uva L'Tzion' - pardon? How? Also [unclear] - we say it at Mincha and at Maariv, but we do not say 'Uva L'Tzion' in the Shacharis prayer.
1:28 Why? That is because of the burden on the congregation. Because we burden the congregation. It seems to me I am making too much of a burden in the [unclear]. But that's fine, it is Torah learning; we need it. So If so, we do not say it. But we left out one more thing. We left out 'Uva L'Tzion', but there is one more thing we left out. The Song of the Day. The Song of the Day. If we are particular about it - so that is what he asks there. And what answer does he give? What is the answer? Does anyone know?
1:53 He says: therefore they established Psalm 111, 'Halleluyah, I will thank Hashem with all my heart, in the council of the upright and the congregation,' to say it at the Shabbos Mincha, [unclear] 'Uva L'Tzion' at Mincha because of the burden on the congregation, so 'Halleluyah' was also set for that same time, and it corresponds to the Song of the Day that is said in the Beis HaMikdash, the Holy Temple: 'Halleluyah, I will thank Hashem with all my heart, in the council of the upright.' How does he write? 'And this is the reason that we say' - how?
2:18 Can't you hear? That is what he says. Psalm 111 corresponds to the thanksgiving on Shabbos. Why? Why? You don't know? Why? Because - why is that? Because Shabbos is the world of Tikkun. There is only praise. 'I will thank Hashem with all my heart, in the council of the upright and the congregation. Great are the works of Hashem, sought out by all who desire them.' There is no request, no supplication. And this psalm is entirely praise. And also Rav Hai Gaon wrote in Shimush Tehillim that this psalm has the power to increase a person's friends.
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2:46 That it brings a person friends. If a person has enemies at his workplace, or wherever he is, he has people who trouble him and accuse him, let him say Psalm 111, and he will have many, many friends, and then it could be that he will advance at his workplace until he becomes the manager. Now we will come to Pirkei Avos. 'Make for yourself a rav and acquire for yourself a friend.' Seemingly it should be the opposite: acquire for yourself a rav and make for yourself a friend, because it is easier for me to make the friend. A rav is hard to make, right?
3:25 It is not such an understood thing, right? What is 'make for yourself a rav and acquire for yourself a friend'? One can see the measure by which a person is measured, as it says in Tractate Pesachim, page 112: a person is measured by three things that the Holy One, blessed be He, loves, And one can see a person, of course, by his cup and by his pocket - how a person [unclear] and all - one can measure him by these things. So one can acquire a friend this way: to know how he conducts himself and how to speak with him and how to see his attachment to things.
3:54 That one can see. But if you look, one can learn several things from this. When you say to a person 'make' - what is this 'make'? 'Make for yourself a rav.' How? Last year I told you another explanation, if you remember. Do you remember? 'Make for yourself a rav': any rav who brings you closer to fulfilling the positive commandments, the mitzvos 'aseh' - that will be your rav.
4:18 He arouses you to fulfill the positive commandments. Through him you can come close to Hashem - so that is 'aseh'. If there is a rav who brings you to keep the positive commandments, then 'make for yourself a rav.' 'And acquire for yourself a friend' - that is what we spoke about last year. Yes, but let us say today: Today, if we look, we see that money today serves as a vessel for receiving and fulfilling one's will.
4:44 After all, the whole world today runs after money. It is the thing that drives the whole world. And this is called the greatest peak of falsehood. The greatest peak of deception is money. It is really the highest mountain that the whole world wants to climb in order to crash down from it. And everyone wants to climb it only in order to crash down from it.
5:09 It is a wonder. Everyone wants to climb up it as high as possible in order to fall down from it. And money is really like a vessel through which a person fulfills his will, right? When a person wants such and such, such and such, how does he fulfill his will? Through what? Through money.
5:34 Money can translate his will into action. That is, if he wants to give charity, and if he wants to buy a house or anything he wants, money serves the will. It turns out that all the money in the world is really desires. Because money is the root of desires. And now, if you remember, I taught you where wealth is really drawn from.
6:03 You remember that we learned - that I gave you a new insight here that people were a bit surprised at, that I said: today there is no such thing as wealth. There is no such thing as wealth. Even though they will tell you there are rich people and there are rich people, there is no such thing as wealth; that is called a livelihood. That is called a livelihood; today there is no wealth. Now you are all asking what this is, how can I say such a thing, how can it be, no?
6:30 So I will explain to you. Wealth means an abundance that is very, very, very, very high, which is drawn from the Chamber of the Gevuros, from 'the Fear of Yitzchak', which is the supreme awe. That is to say, it is the highest place of awe. If there is awe of Hashem, there is a place above from which all the Gevuros are drawn.
6:55 Right: Esav was ruddy. Money is called 'damim'. Damim - that is red things; that is gold, red. All this is called damim. Their root is really drawn from that chamber. That is to say, if a person seemingly has that wealth, then against that, I must tell him that against that he must have the root of awe, which is 'the Fear of Yitzchak'. That is to say, he must be perfected in the level of fear of Heaven, in the utmost perfection of the level, at the highest and most exalted level, more than the whole generation, in the fear of Hashem, which is His treasure.
7:33 That is the secret of what is said: 'The fear of Hashem is His treasure,' that for Him, fear of Heaven is the treasure that the Holy One, blessed be He, has in His world, the four cubits of halachah, a treasure of fear of Heaven - that is what Hashem has; this means all those souls of the tzaddikim. Now, if you look - a thing that is not at all simple, because this is a very, very great level, and not everyone can merit to contain it. And therefore, what happens? The world - what do they want?
7:59 They want the money, but they do not want what it is drawn from, and from where the money comes, because money comes with awe. It comes together. It is like a person who now goes to milk a cow. Can you get the milk without a cow? Impossible, right? There must be a cow. The milk comes together with the cow. Water comes from the ground - a spring.
8:25 It is impossible for this to come without that. Wealth must come from that same chamber. But what does the world want today? Wealth in order to be a glutton and a drunkard and far from Hashem, and to distance themselves from Him, blessed be He; or they also have, and they are far from Hashem, blessed be He. So this comes to reveal to all of us that wealth was only Yosef's, Rabbi HaKadosh's, King Shlomo's, King David's, our holy teacher Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi's, and all those great ones who lived.
8:53 Even Ben Tzitzis HaKeses and Nakdimon ben Gurion and Kalba Savua, who were among the wealthy men of Jerusalem - still, that was wealth within the bounds of livelihood. It still was not great wealth like Shlomo's and like David's, such great and tremendous wealth, because such wealth must be accompanied by the most awesome fear of Heaven, and there is no such thing. And whenever a person tries to covet money to fulfill his physical lusts and desires, he is never on the right path and in the right direction. And therefore, this is just for general knowledge, so that the world [unclear] should not be weakened by it and also not be sad about it - to be happy, baruch Hashem, that we have a good livelihood. And what we see in the world today - yes, there is, as we see, perhaps excessive wealth - that is not called wealth, because true wealth is when a person can give someone
9:42 such a level of money that the one he gave it to could make several others rich. Do you understand? That is to say, I can give such a sum that I give it to someone, and that one will give and make another rich. Do you understand what wealth is? And therefore King David, King Shlomo - that is the wealth that once was in the world. Today, a rich man who has so much capital and does not make others rich, who cannot make another rich, does not have the status of a rich man; he has the status of one who lusts for money.
10:16 Let us call it... I just simply want to explain the concepts to you in a simple way, so that you understand the things in terms of what is said, yes? That is his awe in the Ra'aya Meheimna: Rabbi Shimon means awe - meaning that through it a person merits to enter the chamber of prayer and to pray to the Holy One, blessed be He, but this wealth I am speaking about, this awe, is really the very highest place in awe, as if there is nothing above it.
10:59 Nothing above it. Because of this you can see in the world today even Saudi sheikhs, and even non-Jews, who have very, very excessive capital. And seemingly, still, this great capital - so shall we say that they have the root of the Gevuros or awe? It is not from this place at all. The root of the Gevuros - this place is sealed and closed, and even Korach, with all his wealth, still did not receive it from there.
11:26 Did not receive from there. It was only Yosef's, only Antoninus had a little - he took a drop of it, which he gave to Rebbe, because it was for the sake of Rabbi HaKadosh. And the last is only Mashiach, who will reveal this treasure. So we can wait and wait; we do not need treasures, we need to learn Torah, we need to pray, to serve Hashem. Money is only the vessel to bring a person to fulfill his mitzvos and his service, but it is not the purpose.
11:55 And it is forbidden to think about money, Heaven forbid - that is idol worship. The one who went out against this with sword and spear was the author of Amud HaEmes, Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk. His chassidim were very poor. And once some rich woman came who put a sack of gold in his beis midrash. He said to his students: whoever takes a coin from the sack is no longer my student. If he takes a gold coin from this woman, he is no longer my student. And there was someone who took the coin and left.
12:22 And he sent him away, and afterwards it became clear that he [unclear], and all that. Wealth of holiness - it is like when you say Ruach HaKodesh, like when you say a spirit of prophecy, like when you say the holiness of the covenant. Wealth of holiness is that a person - his wealth brings him to holiness, just as when he fulfills mitzvos.
12:49 That is to say, this wealth brings him - today, what does wealth do? It makes the created beings sin. This wealth will bring him to holiness; that is to say, he will be sanctified with all kinds of holiness and purity through this wealth. That is spiritual wealth. Spiritual wealth is of course spiritual, but it is also physical. Do you understand? What do you see? Yes.
13:14 - But [unclear] - the rich man is the one who is happy with his portion, the other rich man. - The one who is happy with his portion is the other rich man. Yes. There is something in Pirkei Avos: 'Who is rich? The one who is happy with his portion.' Yes, right. And also Rabbi Yose, Rabbi Meir, Rabbi Akiva: if he has a bathroom near his table; he has fields, vineyards - another kind of wealth. That is what the Sages - in Tractate Shabbos he says it.
13:39 There are many people who come to the Rav and say: may the Rav bless us with wealth of holiness. I bless everyone - and wealth of holiness - that everyone should have wealth of holiness, and it is fitting for all the Jewish people - wealth of holiness - and that all of you here should have the wealth, and also whoever is not here with us - that you should have supernal abundance and the gates of Heaven should open for you. And now it is also the seventh day of Pesach - we are close to the seventh day of Pesach - all the abundance comes down; it is auspicious for single people in particular, for single people, for salvations, whatever is needed, and for abundant livelihood, because the splitting of the Red Sea is livelihood, the splitting of the Red Sea is one's match. With Hashem's help, may Hashem give all of us abundance without end, gifts of abundance and livelihood, and a good life to everyone.
14:18 Amen. May there be good tidings for everyone, a good life, [unclear]
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