The Yanuka Rav Shlomo Yehuda-הגאון הינוקא מסביר מה המשמעות של ＂בשבילי נברא העולם＂

The shiur in English

The Yanuka’s own words in this shiur, translated into English by Lehallel · 744 words · 3:27. Press a time to hear it said.

0:00 You are now saying the blessing over the trees, Birkas HaIlanos — the blessing... "Who... trees and good creatures, to give enjoyment to people." It doesn't say "to give enjoyment to the Jewish people"! Why? Why do you say "to give enjoyment to the whole Jewish people"? It is for us, "The world was created for me." Tractate Sanhedrin, page 37. So what should it have said in the blessing: "Who created good creatures and good trees, to give enjoyment" — to the Jewish people? "To His people Israel." You say, "The world was created for me." So why do you say "to give enjoyment to people"?

0:24 It is like at the splitting of the Yam Suf: Hashem did not want them to sing a song. Right! Tractate Megillah, page 11: "The works of My hands are drowning in the sea, and you are singing a song?" How can you want to sing a song when "the works of My hands are drowning in the sea"? The Holy One, blessed be He, has mercy on all the creatures. He wants to do good to all the creatures. Only the One who created this world, truly, and He is the Creator, and He is the merciful G-d, and He is the King of kings of kings. He is the One who will not pressure and will not push anyone. The way it is with them, with the nations, who say: "With us, if you will not... convert to Islam, if you will not convert to Christianity..."

0:58 they come, they threaten the person. There is no such thing in Judaism. The opposite: they push the person away from converting. A convert wants to come, to convert — they push him away. They don't let him convert. They show him: this will be a yoke for you, and it will be hard for you, and you won't keep the mitzvos. It is a lot of details. With them, through the generations, there was a threat: if you won't be this or that, or you won't be this or that, we will slaughter you and kill you. Now, a person is passing by, suddenly he sees, in the river — he sees a non-Jew drowning.

1:25 What does he do right away? He runs — right away — to save him. He runs to save him. Right away. We know that "His mercies... ...are upon all His works." We have to save this non-Jew. Do you understand? They go, they save him, they rescue him from there, they save him. With them, they even say: "Go and kill — because of his being a Jew, kill him." Why? After all, the One who created the world has pity on His creatures.

1:50 With us, in the Torah, one must save every soul. It is even forbidden to kill mosquitoes. Rabbeinu the Arizal was careful not to kill a mosquito. The She'elas Yaavetz, part 2, siman 110, writes that there is nothing in it. As halachah, with creeping and crawling things, there is no "causing pain to living creatures" in it. Look, and think about it: how many, many Sages dealt with... with compassion for every thing in creation — even little ants, little mosquitoes.

2:20 Rabbeinu Chaim Vital was careful — from the Arizal — not to kill, Heaven forbid, any... any little worm. Why? What are they teaching you here? Every thing in creation has... in this creation there is life. Every thing has life, every thing has to go on. The Creator runs the world. You are forbidden to touch anything that He decided. He decided on life for His creatures. You are forbidden to kill a soul, Heaven forbid — "You shall not murder."

All of the Yanuka’s shiurim in English