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The shiur in English
The Yanuka’s own words in this shiur, translated into English by Lehallel · 1,383 words · 11:55. Press a time to hear it said.
1:42 '...joyous song and salvation in the tents of the tzaddikim.' May the Holy One, blessed be He, bless the Rav with the help of Heaven, with joy, with salvations, with miracles and wonders. Amen. May joyous occasions multiply in your home. Amen. May you, with Hashem's help, merit to see nachas from him, from Rabbi Tzvi Elimelech, son of Rabbi Eliyahu. May the Holy One, blessed be He, bless the grandfather, Rav Elisha, with robust health, with length of days and years — 'Add days to the days of the king.'
2:12 May all the blessings and the good bounty be doubled upon you. With Hashem's help, may you rise and be elevated higher and higher in kedushah and in purity. Rabbi Aharon of Belz used to say — he would say: 'He shall surely come with joyous song, carrying his sheaves.' 'Bo yavo, bo yavo b'rinah.' On this day of joy — 'yavo' is thirteen. 'Bo yavo.' 'Yavo b'rinah' — that on this day you are to be in joy. Our master the Chasam Sofer writes, in a derashah on Vayechi, that this is the first mitzvah the chassan is commanded — the bar mitzvah boy — to be in great joy, and he fulfills the mitzvah. All the mitzvos he will have to fulfill with joy.
2:46 Now you are entering the yoke of Torah, of mitzvos, into joy, into kedushah, into purity, into a good life. This effort of yours to be joyful — that is the first mitzvah you fulfill: to be in joy. Always to see the Holy One, blessed be He, with joy. There is a novel insight of our master the Chida, in Pesach Einayim, and of the Chiddushei HaRim of Gur, on page 2a, that the mitzvah — 'From when do we recite the Shema in the evenings' — of reciting the Shema, is the first mitzvah that the boy becoming bar mitzvah merits.
3:14 So one can really say a novel insight like this: that now, precisely at this time when you are going and entering under the yoke of Torah and mitzvos, and right away you merit to enter the gate of kedushah, to fulfill the 613 mitzvos in completeness, you also merit to fulfill the mitzvah of doing the mitzvos with joy, and also the reciting of the Shema — the Shema of Arvis. Arvis is the night: this time when we find ourselves inside the darkness, inside the gloom, inside the exile, inside all the rest, everything that is found in the world.
3:46 One must know that to get through this world in peace, one must always lift one's eyes to Heaven. That is the greatest virtue and mitzvah. They say of the holy gaon, the Maggid of Zlotchov, that his father, on the first night, before he put on tefillin, soaked the tefillin boxes with tears before he placed the tefillin on Rav Yechiel, the holy Maggid of Zlotchov, so that he would be holy in the covenant, that he would be holy in his eyes, in the covenant.
4:11 And this, with Hashem's help — know that this is the greatest virtue: that now you will merit to return in teshuvah to Hashem, blessed be He, you will merit to fulfill all the mitzvos, all the kedushah, you will merit to fulfill all 613 mitzvos beautifully, with joy, with song, with fervor. It is also written, in part 1 [source unclear], it speaks of those who fulfilled it. They said there is a lengthy discussion there about...
Read the whole shiur in English (9 more parts)
4:42 that is not understood. It is said in the holy Ohr HaChaim, ...for the bar mitzvah. It says that with this he covers all the mitzvos that will come to him all the days of his life, and likewise to wear a new garment, with the Shehecheyanu blessing on the new garment. They say that truly this mitzvah of tefillin is so important — it appears in the Zohar, Mishpatim, page 98, and in the Zohar Chadash, page 27 — they say there about Adam HaRishon, like the fig leaves — tallis and tefillin that Adam HaRishon and Chava put on.
5:12 And also Michal the daughter of Shaul, who used to put on tefillin — in Eruvin, page 96, where the Gemara says that she used to put on tefillin — they say that Rabbeinu Chananel brought out a novel point there, on Eruvin 96: that she put them on at night, so that they should not say — she put on tefillin at night, so as to be clear of the matter of a time-bound positive mitzvah. The whole mitzvah and emunah of the tefillin binds a person to cleave to the Holy One, blessed be He; through it you merit to cleave to and be united with the Holy One, blessed be He.
5:39 The wife of the holy Ohr HaChaim — they say she too used to put on tefillin. He had his first Rebbetzin — Patzonia was her name — who put on tefillin, the wife of the holy Ohr HaChaim; and the second Rebbetzin, Mrs. Esther, also put on tefillin. We see that, on one hand, it is a matter of dispute... it is possible that it is not... Where did he say it — I said — about the tefillin?
6:06 ...the tefillin; it seems that she too put them on. It remains an open question whether it happened or not; but about the holy Ohr HaChaim one does not ask questions. The holy Ohr HaChaim — may his merit protect us. Now you cleave to the mitzvos; you now merit the tefillin. Our holy master, Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, writes in Likutei Moharan, part 1, Torah 38 — he writes that the sign of cleaving to Hashem, blessed be He, is the tefillin. You now merit to cleave to Hashem, blessed be He, with the tefillin — bound in teshuvah to Hashem, blessed be He, to cleave to Hashem in kedushah, in purity.
6:34 This is a great joy. On this day there is a great joy here. Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai already says, in the Zohar, Pinchas, page 219b: all the holy forefathers, all of a person's ancestors — they all come from Heaven to rejoice with him on the day of his joy. This is the greatest joy — as our master the Maharshal writes on Bava Kamma, chapter 7, section 37 — that the bar mitzvah meal surpasses all meals, and so this meal is the greatest joy there is, over the fulfillment of the Torah and the mitzvos. This is the joy of the Torah.
7:00 At a wedding, when a person rejoices, it is the joy of a chassan and kallah; but here, at the bar mitzvah meal, it is the joy of the Torah, of the tefillin, of cleaving to the Holy One, blessed be He. I, the small one, poor and lowly, bless you that you should rise and be elevated higher and higher, to long and good days, in the way of salvations and the way of miracles and wonders. With Hashem's help, may you rise and be elevated in the levels of kedushah and purity, like your father. May you be a gaon and holy like your father, and more than him; like Grandfather who has come — more than Father and more than Grandfather.
7:29 May you be like Rabbi Elimelech — more than Rabbi Elimelech. May you rise and be elevated. And may the Holy One, blessed be He, bless the Rebbetzin — may He give the Rebbetzin the help of Heaven, may He give the Rebbetzin a good life, may He give the Rebbetzin salvations from Heaven. May joyous occasions multiply in your home, all the relief and the joys — this holy and glorious family, 'and the fruit of the land for pride and for splendor.' They are all geonim, dayanim, honored and true, holy, occupied with Torah and mitzvos in kedushah and purity. May we all merit to toil in Torah and be elevated.
7:58 So may Hashem bless the Rav, Rabbi Yehudah — he is all Torah. The 248 and the 365 — it is something wondrous. It is all Rabbi Yehudah. Good, mazel tov, with Hashem's help.
11:50 Good tidings, good tidings. Well done. A pleasure to see the Rav.
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