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The Yanuka’s own words in this shiur, translated into English by Lehallel · 2,343 words · 12:38. Press a time to hear it said.
0:56 May Hashem, blessed be He, bless each and every one of you, all the honored rabbis, all the holy and honored congregation. May Hashem, blessed be He, [unclear] everyone, with [unclear], with children and with wonders. 'This is the day Hashem has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.' Siman tov and mazal tov - another Sefer Torah in the world. In honor of Hashem, blessed be He, so that the Torah will not be forgotten from the Jewish people. We know that Hashem, blessed be He, gave us the Torah with thunder, with thunder, with lightning. Each and every utterance that came out of the mouth of the Holy One, blessed be He, the souls of the Jewish people [unclear].
1:32 That was at the first utterance. Hashem, blessed be He, gave them the revival of the dead - that He gave them the dew of Torah that [unclear] them. That is why they merited to hear the second utterance. As we see in Tractate Shabbos, page 88. And the very idea that the Jewish people merited to receive the Torah - 'my soul [unclear] when He spoke.'
1:57 Self-sacrifice - that Hashem, blessed be He, gave us the whole Torah is self-sacrifice. The whole essence of the Torah is self-sacrifice. The Pesikta Zutarta writes: Why were the Ten Commandments given in the singular? 'I am Hashem your G-d who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.' 'You shall have no other gods before Me.' Onkelos translates: 'You shall have no other god besides Me.'
2:25 Hashem, blessed be He, says to the Jewish people, in the Pesikta Zutarta: 'So that you should not say: the Torah will be kept through others.' The Torah is in the singular, so that each and every one must take upon himself the yoke of the Torah, keep Hashem's mitzvos, fear Hashem, tremble at the word of Hashem, keep the Torah. What is engraved here in the world - the joy of the [unclear] of the Torah is that the will of Hashem, blessed be He, is engraved here in the world.
2:54 Without this revelation of G-dliness - this physical book that is entirely spiritual - could we merit to know what to do in this world? There is, baruch Hashem, much Torah in the world, many Torah scholars, many ways in the world, but the more a person merits to nullify his own will, and merits to open the higher eyes, he merits to reveal and attain the true light in the Torah. There are three levels in this light.
3:25 The Kaf HaChaim also writes about this, in siman [unclear], small paragraph 10. There is a light revealed at the Ark; there is a light revealed at the raising of the Sefer Torah; and there is the light revealed at the time of the Torah reading - a light, an immense light, at the time of the Torah reading. An immense light is revealed, with none above it, when we read the Torah; this light comes to be revealed through our hearing the Torah. How these levels of lights rise and are revealed from moment to moment! Whether when the Ark is opened, whether when the Sefer Torah is raised, or when the Torah is read, Hashem, blessed be He, gives us the light and the strength and the abundance to reveal His will and His word.
Read the whole shiur in English (16 more parts)
4:08 When we want to fulfill Hashem's will and we actually fulfill it, then we can draw upon ourselves this holy and awesome light, into our lives - 'for they are our life and the length of our days.' The more we truly value the word of Hashem and tremble to fulfill His will, the light of Hashem, blessed be He, will shine upon a person. And, Heaven forbid, the opposite: that we do not guard the Torah, and we think, Heaven forbid, that it will be kept by others, and we do not understand that this book is for each and every one of us, and no one is allowed to transgress a single mark of what is written in this Sefer Torah before us.
4:49 We must be in fear and trembling before the King of the kings of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He, to do His will, to be in awe of Him, blessed be He; to be G-d-fearing and wholehearted, and to guard the holy path that Hashem, blessed be He, gave us in this world. To pass this path on to us is only when we [unclear] in the Torah. You know that we can actually learn the opposite from the [unclear] of the Torah; then we know that this [unclear] - but if you look and see the pain and the sorrow that the Shulchan Aruch writes in siman 580, paragraph 3, that they were accustomed to fasts.
5:26 We think that Monday and Thursday, when there are the fasts, it is in memory of the destruction of the Beis HaMikdash, the Holy Temple - but it is also for the burning of the Torah. The Magen Avraham brings that on the 28th of Kislev they are accustomed to fast on Parshas Chukas, when there were twenty wagons full of Torah scrolls that were burned; and also on the 28th of Kislev, at the time that Yehoyakim burned the scroll that Baruch ben Neriyah wrote from the mouth of Yirmiyahu.
5:50 So we make the remembrance with this fast, to see what was done, in our many sins: that the Torah was burned. For the Torah is the thing through which the will of Hashem, blessed be He, is revealed in the world. Therefore one must be in fear and trembling over the word of Hashem, blessed be He. When the Torah is burned, it is as if the way to come close to Hashem was burned for us. Every Sefer that is written here in this world is another path engraved here in this world, so that the Torah will not be forgotten.
6:19 The Divrei Chaim points this out in Yoreh De'ah, siman [unclear]. [unclear] what the source is for the custom of fasting when a Sefer Torah falls - from where did they learn this, from which tractate, from which place? He brought that it is in Taanis, page 16. He brings: 'We had a modest vessel, and it was disgraced' [unclear] because of the sins of the public - that disgrace was done to the Torah. He learned from this that this is the source for fasting over a Sefer Torah that fell.
6:44 And one can learn from this that the honor of the Torah is to keep what is written in it. True, we are happy that it was written, true, we are happy and dance with it, but the greatest disgrace - not keeping it - is more than burning it. When we speak against the angels of G-d, speak against holy ones, tzaddikim - it is something by which a person is [unclear] from this world; he has no portion and no inheritance, neither in this world nor in the World to Come.
7:11 [unclear] completely. And this is the way of Hashem, blessed be He, who guarded our Torah, so that the Torah will not be forgotten from the mouth of his offspring. He will put before a person all the obstacles in the world, only so that he will not come close to the true path, the right path, [unclear] completely - that is what that Satan, that angel of death, does, so that people will [unclear] as fast as possible, and so with everything that is said in the world.
7:37 When we safeguard the Torah and care for the honor of the Torah and sacrifice ourselves for the Torah, we raise up, praise and glorify the One who spoke and the world came to be. As we see in Tractate Berachos, page 24, page 23, side [unclear], page 24, side a: that a person who wants to put tefillin under his pillow is permitted; a person who wants to go in and put tefillin in the bathroom to guard them from theft is permitted; it is permitted to [unclear] a Sefer Torah, to ride on the donkey's back, [unclear] a Sefer Torah on the donkey because of bandits, to guard it - it is permitted.
8:12 Why? The way of guarding it is the greatest honor - that we [unclear] it from being disgraced; the non-Jews would [unclear] the book and disgrace it, tear it, degrade it. We guard the Torah even through [unclear] it. But this comes precisely to teach us that the main guarding of the Torah is that we care for the honor of the Torah, for if we only lift up and glorify the book and adorn it, and do not try to pay attention, to sacrifice ourselves for each and every word written in this book, and seek the true, clean and pure will - that Hashem, blessed be He, gave us this holy path of the Torah, that we never abandon it.
8:51 And know that Hashem, blessed be He, is testing us with the greatest test in this generation. In this generation there are so many concealments and so much hiding of the Face, that they teach us Torah that is not clean, Torah that is [unclear], Torah that is not for its own sake, Tosafos in Taanis, page 7; in Pesachim, page 50; in Yoma, page [unclear] - that this is called Torah that is to taunt and to show off over one's fellow, Torah that is not clean.
9:16 And when one learns Torah for the sake of Heaven, trying to [unclear] the will of Hashem, blessed be He, one feels the pure will of Hashem, blessed be He, who gave it to us, to guard the Torah. And with Hashem's help, I, the small and lowly one, will bless you, that you should have - for your whole community, for all the sons, the Torah scholars, for everyone - that you should have [unclear] from Heaven, as you continue to write the Torah - 'write them on the tablet of your heart.'
9:41 The main writing of the Torah is that we all take upon ourselves to change and to keep each and every word that is written in this book, to carry on the purpose, and to understand that we ourselves - we are the parchment. Hashem, blessed be He, writes the Torah on us. When we behave and think about the purpose, then we safeguard the Torah. It may be that there are bandits here; they are found in all kinds of places in the world, bandits and robbers, but we are permitted to use the Torah: sometimes it is put on the back of a donkey, sometimes in the bathroom; sometimes people take the Torah to very low and lowly places, but the main thing is that they guard it and do not abandon it.
10:18 Like when the Divrei Yatziv of Sanz-Klausenburg was in the prison where the non-Jews locked him up, and they would throw him the tefillin - every day the chassidim would throw him the tefillin, so that he could put them on. It was a disgrace to the tefillin, but it was permitted for the sake of fulfilling the mitzvah of tefillin. Things are sometimes 'a time to act for Hashem; they have voided Your Torah.' Sometimes there is honor that is not honor, and there is disgrace that is not disgrace. But for this we must always give our true attention: to have care for the Torah, care for the word of Hashem, and seek the path of truth.
10:48 Whoever thinks he knows what Hashem's will is in the world does not know. Whoever thinks he has true knowledge and that the truth is with him - it is certainly not with him. That is why one must be pure and holy and clean and set apart, and know the Torah and learn Torah. 'Turn it over and turn it over, for everything is in it.' And may it be His will that Hashem, blessed be He, will light up our eyes, and we will merit to cleave our hearts to Him, blessed be He, and may the joy of the Torah be true and complete, with the complete redemption, speedily in our days, amen and amen. Chazak, chazak!
11:17 [unclear] mazal tov - that you should have a good life, Rabbi Yosef the tzaddik - may Hashem, blessed be He, guard you, that you should have success, [unclear] the family members - that you continue to make Torah great in your community, everything you do, [unclear] the Torah of Hashem, that the Name of Heaven should become beloved through you, that you continue to make Torah great and to glorify His Name, blessed be He, and all the learning, and that Hashem's will should be successful in your hands, that you should have a complete healing, and strong health and length of days and years.
11:42 Everyone, baruch Hashem, loves you and rejoices in you. That you continue [unclear] the Torah of Hashem, that you should have nachas from the children, from the whole family, from all your [unclear], from all the blessings - and may all the good blessings in the Sefer Torah come to you and overtake you. [unclear] and a good life, all good abundance. Please. - Rabbi Chananya ben Akashya says: the Holy One, blessed be He, wished to grant merit to Israel; therefore He gave them much Torah and mitzvos, as it says: 'Hashem desired, for the sake of His righteousness, to make the Torah great and glorious.' Magnified and sanctified be His great Name in the world which He created according to His will; may He establish His kingship, make His redemption sprout and bring near His Mashiach, in your lifetime and in your days and in the lifetime of all the House of Israel, swiftly and soon; and say amen.
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