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The shiur in English
The Yanuka’s own words in this shiur, translated into English by Lehallel · 2,220 words · 9:49. Press a time to hear it said.
0:00 This is our gift, that we received. This is the gift — you'll light on it. Where's your father? He's supposed to be coming. He's already finished Shas, this bachur. And how many times did he review it? Yes, at age 13 — and in depth, too. And the father? Just like you — a talmid chacham, his father. A talmid chacham — the one who worked with him. He's a talmid chacham. — That's right.
0:26 How are you feeling? Baruch Hashem. Yesterday a Yemenite Mori was here, and we spoke about Rabbi Shalom Shabazi. He told me: keep on singing and keep on bringing joy. Stay with the material of Mori Shalom Shabazi. He's already in the car, I understand. Wow, that did something to me. It's hard for me during Sefiras HaOmer — what does one do? Rabbi Shalom Shabazi finished composing all his works on Lag BaOmer. Wow. Wow. You sing songs of the Holy One, blessed be He — Rabbi Shalom Shabazi.
0:52 You can continue. Yes, but it's forbidden to listen, the Rav told me I may listen only with drums, and it gives me joy in Torah. — With Shalom Shabazi you can listen; those are prayers. Even with music? — Yes, yes. These are songs and prayers, right? It gives me joy too — I mean his prayers. Really? This Diwan? — Yes, the Diwan. Are they available? No problem. — What the Rav told me gave me such light and joy, and even melodies and... — Keep on with it, keep on. Song and prayer. No one will stop you.
1:23 Keep on with it. Now, especially since this is such a weak generation, and people are broken, they have no peace of mind, and it's hard for them, and so on — that was not how they practiced. Keep on. The Rav's niggunim too — can't one listen to them during the Sefirah? For someone whose soul truly longs for it, that's better. These are songs, it's less of a problem, because these are songs, calm songs. Fine, those are allowed too. The niggunim — I mean, they don't make you dance. All the dances, the circle-dancing that people used to do.
1:50 This comes for the service of the heart. Dancing and circle-dances — that is what the Magen Avraham wrote about. But this — everyone practiced this way. This is the only thing that revives. No — quiet, calm niggunim, that doesn't make one dance. The whole prohibition is about coming to dance, to forget the... By the law of the Shulchan Aruch and the Rambam, they said that from the day the Beis HaMikdash, the Holy Temple, was destroyed, we do not listen to musical instruments. And Tosafos in Gittin... And the Meiri — he writes it explicitly there. See what the Meiri writes.
2:17 One can rely on the Meiri and everything is fine, and you can also be at ease, and may you be happy, amen, and praise and play and sing to the Holy One, blessed be He. — Amen. — That's live instruments, right? — No, no, no. It's a small tape, only for myself. — Yes. That too is a kli sheni, a second vessel. They said: the tape, the radio and all that — that's not live instruments. — And it's also not my livelihood. — Then fine, that's it. It's not for a livelihood either, it's only for strengthening, for Hashem.
Read the whole shiur in English (16 more parts)
2:41 It's also not live instruments. It's not an orchestra or a choir, with a hall there full of people. You do this only by yourself, quietly. A segulah for shalom bayis — what segulah? A segulah? Shalom bayis? That is to say... it's tried and tested. And there's another wonderful segulah, greater than the first: washing the dishes. How did you merit to finish Shas at age 13? Let's start with that.
3:10 The One who granted it to you granted it to me — the very same One. The Holy One, blessed be He, does, has done and will do all that is done. How did the Maggid of Kozhnitz put it? He said to his son: My son, one can be with Hashem, one can be against Hashem, but one cannot be without Hashem. Because with the Holy One, blessed be He — without the Holy One, blessed be He, you can't get past the threshold of the door; and with the Holy One, blessed be He, you can split the sea.
3:36 “Great is Hashem and greatly praised, and His greatness is beyond searching out.” Rav, my father takes the Rav's weekly sheet and passes it on to me too — the chiddushim, you speak in all the secrets of the Torah. Such lights! — Lights from the chiddushim! — He's at the shiurim of Rav Eliyahu, this bachur. — May we merit to uncover more. — Yes, yes, he attends the shiurim. — A diamond, a great diamond. What should one do on a birthday? Something to recite? — “The birthday of Pharaoh.”
4:01 The Ben Ish Chai writes of the custom in Parshas Re'eh, section 17. He writes that in their time the custom was to make a festive meal on the day of one's bris milah. Words of mercy and prayer over your bris. A birthday — to rejoice. For they went out to battle. In chapter 3 of the Yerushalmi, Rosh Hashanah — Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi: Amalek was a sorcerer. What did he do on a birthday? He would station men on their birthday to fight in the war. The Holy One, blessed be He, said: tomorrow you must fight Amalek — confuse everything for them.
4:26 They would sort the people: whoever has a birthday — you'll be here, you'll be here. All of those they'd place in the front line of battle, going out to win wars, the war of wars. What do you say? “Tomorrow,” He told him — go, confuse them. Tomorrow — mix up all their things for them, confuse them completely, and all the mazalos get mixed up. To be in joy — on a birthday one's mazal is high — to say Tehillim, and to rejoice — the way he would go on his birthday to the grave that he had bought for himself, “in my grave which I dug for myself.” The source for buying a grave is the Kav HaYashar, Rabbi Tzvi Hirsh of Koidanov, may his merit protect us. — A grave? — He is the source. “In my grave which I dug for myself” — he learned it from Yaakov Avinu.
4:59 He said it is a great segulah and all — but leave it, people shouldn't busy themselves with that. People need to understand: if the Holy One, blessed be He, redeems us and in our days Mashiach comes and the geulah comes, there will be no death, they will not die. If Mashiach is revealed now, in our generation, then everyone for whom Mashiach is revealed — whoever is alive when Mashiach is revealed — think what a merit he has. Who are you, that you merited that the geulah comes in your days and you see it? That is why it says “chutzpah will increase” — “in the footsteps of Mashiach, chutzpah.” Why is it a generation of chutzpah?
5:26 Because how will you merit the revelation of Mashiach? I once said — I once expounded it this way — in Tractate Sotah, page 49b, in the Gemara: “In the footsteps of Mashiach, chutzpah will increase.” Why, with Mashiach, will chutzpah increase? Because it is a generation of brazen people: how will you merit to see the coming of Mashiach in your generation? People say: there was Mashiach, they saw Mashiach, this one is Mashiach. As if — what, you have already merited such a revelation of Mashiach? Earlier generations did not merit it. But it truly will be from the treasury of free gifts. But when we merit it — how will we merit it? The coming of Mashiach — one must pray for it.
5:52 When we merit it — one must hope for it, await it. The moment we merit it in our generation, anyone who merits that it is in his generation, the coming of Mashiach, and sees the geulah and sees this tremendous revelation, will not die. Of course, after that there is a kind of death that is called sleep. That is the secret of the dormita, the “slumber”, on Rosh Hashanah — that's something else entirely. It is something whose bounds you do not know, nor its lightning flashes.
6:21 It is “As in the days of your going out of the land of Egypt, I will show him wonders.” Not “you will see wonders”, and not “you haven't seen wonders” — “As in the days of your going out” — like from the land of Egypt — “I will show him wonders.” You will yet see miracles and wonders. Where is page 43 here? What is this, the Gemara? You see? The whole Gemara isn't here. — No, this is volume 2. This one is with all the kavanos.
6:46 With all the kavanos of the mekubalim. “I am hereby a nazir on the day that the son of David comes” — in Tractate Eruvin, page 43: “on the day that the son of David comes” — he is forbidden to drink wine every day. Why? Except on Shabbos — there you may drink, for one can be at ease: he won't come. A nazir who forbade wine to himself — every day he is forbidden to drink. “Today, if you will listen to His voice.” “On the day that the son of David comes.” Why? Because the day that the son of David comes — every day is fit for it.
7:13 Any day Mashiach can come. Read it — what awe! Any day Mashiach can come. The moment we merit it, there are no sick people — the story is over. And Eliyahu... This is the revelation of Hashem. Now think what will happen when we merit it: there will be no more death, that's it. The generation that merits this will merit the most tremendous thing. How much one must await the coming of Mashiach. There will be no more of this evil, there will be no more of this fear. No more fear, no more anxieties, no more social classes.
7:37 No “this one is on top, this one is below, this one is rich” — falsehood. All the falsehood, everything upside down: the wicked one is loved, up on top — the schemer like this, the one who did evil, the one who... There will be truth, and “righteousness looks down from heaven.” We so await this — that Hashem redeem us and have mercy on us. My cousin, Avraham, at 45, had a cardiac arrest, he's in critical condition, still sedated there... for Avraham.
8:11 Avraham — may He send him a complete recovery from Heaven, grant him a complete recovery, health, a good life. You know, I'll tell you something very important about this matter, about cardiac arrest. It was here in the shul — one of the first things when we came here to the shul: I changed the lamps here, so that it would be “Honor Hashem with lights” — not those white fluorescents, which are not light. They put those in nowadays — that is not light. “Honor Hashem with lights.” The light has to be yellow.
8:36 Light — “Honor Hashem with lights.” A warm light, a hot light. Hot, like fire. “Honor Hashem with lights” — like this, this light. The second thing: I put in here a system of... A defibrillator. — A defibrillator. It saves lives. If someone suddenly has a heart attack, boom — they give the shock. It's here, on the left side over there, you can see it. That was the first thing: we put in the light here, and right away I put in this device.
9:01 That was the first. Heaven forbid — may it never be needed — but it is really important. — On this side? It saves lives. It saves lives. Because it's right here — you see what's written — it takes time until they do resuscitation, it takes a few minutes until they do it. It is truly a lifesaving measure. So it is very important that every place have one of these. These things save lives right away. Very important. — It is very important, Rav, for the Rav is both the light of this generation and also the defibrillator of this generation.
9:25 Someone next to the Rav says: he's both together. — It gives the electric shocks, and brings them back to this world. The responsum of the Divrei Yechezkel of Shinova — whether one may travel to a sage on Shabbos — harnessing a horse and wagon — to give him a kvittel. Only because they say that someone is in a time of trouble or something — it was permitted to do this — the Divrei Yechezkel of Shinova. Simply a responsum on this — it is a shvus, a rabbinic restriction. And that is for great people, as in earlier times, who bring about salvations. I don't do anything.
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