The Persecutions and False Accusations Suffered by the Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh | The Gaon Yanuka on ...

2:58 He was careful to immerse himself even if he passed just a little water, a little. Why? It may be that a person can become impure even through passing water. He can become impure. The holy Ohr HaChaim was concerned about this, and he would go to the mikveh to immerse. Even for something like that. He would take off his robe and immerse. He was very holy. And when he prayed, he would hover above the ground.

3:23 They once saw him, when he was praying with the bnei aliyah, the men of stature, with the holy ones, not otherwise. Why when praying with the bnei aliyah? Because they see him lift off only with his holy ones, with his tzaddikim. In the year 5468, Rabbi Chaim the Elder returned with his son, the pious Rabbi Moshe, and his grandson Rabbi Chaim, to the city of Salé, and after the death of Rabbi Chaim the Elder's brother, he went back to Meknes. There...

3:56 There the grandson, Rabbeinu Chaim, got married; he took as his wife the lady Patzonia. The things I told you about her, that the Ohr HaChaim's wife used to put on tefillin; they say that his wife used to put on tefillin. True or not true, it remains in need of study, but they say there is an opinion that she put on tefillin, the wife of the Ohr HaChaim. Because it cannot be that this makes sense, on the one hand, since women are exempt from time-bound positive mitzvos; but on the other hand, regarding the holiness of the woman, regarding her level...

4:33 this is the righteousness of Michal, daughter of Shaul, and it is mentioned in Tractate Eruvin, page 96, where the Gemara speaks of that woman's righteousness. It remains in need of study: was it so or not? The daughter of Rabbi Chaim Mordechai of Nadvorna also used to wrap herself in tzitzis, and many more; there were stories like these. In his father-in-law's house dwelt our holy Rabbi, Rabbi Chaim ben Attar. However, his days of tranquility did not last long, for the false accusations against him multiplied then, against the Ohr HaChaim and also against Rabbi Moshe, his father-in-law; and he was seized and imprisoned, and it was imposed on him to pay a large sum, so that at his death, in the year 5481, in all his life he had not managed to pay the first sum they had imposed on him.

5:23 That is, see what persecutions the holy Ohr HaChaim went through. And the government confiscated his courtyard and his house, and then quarrels began among his family members, which lasted about seven years, and the members of his household turned into his enemies. And so Rabbeinu, of blessed memory, wrote in the introduction to his book Chefetz Hashem, which he composed in the year 5492; and he wrote: "It is now seven years that all my strength and vigor have been stripped from me, since the passing of my master, my father-in-law, a man of valor, and so on, the noble Rabbi Moshe ben Attar, his soul is in Eden, who left behind him," and so on. And there he writes: "full of the venom of serpents and the poison of asps, and of these they made me drink; so that if I said I would tell how many ordeals passed over me" —

6:07 I would tell you how many ordeals — "from them and their multitudes and their households," and so on, "and my relatives and acquaintances; were the seas ink," and so on, "I would not be able to measure all that passed over me" — of the persecutions and quarrels that he went through. Besides the troubles Rabbeinu had from his family members, he was also trampled under the feet of worthless men who persecuted him and informed against him.

6:32 It was also a heavy burden on him: they laid taxes on him; the oppressive regime imposed them on him in those days, on all the Jews. And then he sets out to leave the land of his birth and wander to distant lands, and he went from city to city until he reached the country of Italy, and he came to the distinguished city, and they received him and great honor was done him. And see what he wrote in the introduction, what he wrote in the introduction: "And I found men, select individuals — may Hashem remember them for good — who from their very soul desired to do good, with a generous spirit, with a supporting spirit, and they chose chaim, life." They chose chaim. "And they chose chaim."

7:09 He wants to convey a double meaning, to convey several things: also "they chose chaim" — Chaim. You chose life, you chose Chaim. "One to help and one to be of use; and in whatever I wished to do, they stood firm, until they said: 'Ask, what shall I give you.'" So much did they do my will: "Ask, what shall I give you." And this gave him a little of a good feeling against all those persecutions and ordeals that pursued him all the days of his life.

7:36 And he passed away, to our sorrow, with all these persecutions and ordeals; for even when the holy Ohr HaChaim passed away, they still seized and took from him the courtyard and the house, and he also had not managed to pay all the payments, even though he had passed away and left no offspring behind. With all that, they persecuted him and caused him great anguish: his relatives and the members of his household, among them two worthless men who were close to him, who persecuted him and caused him all these sorrows.

8:06 His book, the holy Ohr HaChaim — see what he wrote in the introduction: "They surrounded me where I dwelt, they hunted me down with arrest, with informing and false accusation, with informing and false accusation, into the hand of a cruel ruler; and when this one falls, that one rises, with no sure rest to calm my life." He wrote the book Ohr HaChaim, he wrote it in exile. Some even say that every page was written in a different town, so much did he compose it in exile, truly within the anguish of the Shechinah, amid persecutions, false accusations and slander beyond measure.

8:41 Once it happened that they put him in a certain place; he came to a certain town, and there too they persecuted him. They heard about the accusations against him, and they put him in a pit. And then the whole sky was covered with clouds, and there was a great noise and great thunder and a great storm, until they came to the Rav of the town and said to him: "Listen, he is a man of G-d. Leave him be; we are in danger." And indeed so it was: when they took him out of the pit, at once everything calmed, everything grew quiet. For there had been a stormy wind and a great tempest, and a fire broke out, and there was total chaos for them; and then they understood that it was because of the Ohr HaChaim. And see what he writes: "And I, in the depths of the sea of troubles,

9:18 over matters of money and matters of life and death, I saved my soul; and in a little time, in moments, I examined two or three kernels in each parashah." Kernels! It takes a whole week just to finish a page of the Ohr HaChaim. Kernels — "two or three kernels in each parashah, and I gathered them and put them in my sack. And the storms of surging seas roared over me, and the pursuers did not turn back. I hoped for peace, and behold: runner after runner, to foe and oppressor" — every moment they went and ran against me with all kinds of false accusations — "trouble upon trouble, each touching the next; it reached up to the neck."

9:52 He reached such a state of persecution that he had to wander from city to city. "From city to city... I wandered from city to city, and it was fulfilled in me: he who escapes the terror shall fall into the pit." How he says it! See what he tells about himself. See what things; these are hair-raising things. And as soon as the holy book Ohr HaChaim came out, it was spread through all Israel.

10:17 I will read you a little of the little — and this is from old books, not from now, when they do all kinds of things; it is all exact, from the mouths of the holy tzaddikim. An old edition. And this is his wording; see what Maran the Chida writes in Shem HaGedolim. Yes, Maran the Chida writes, may his merit protect us, there: "With our own ears we heard that in former times, in Poland, the preachers were accustomed to expound puzzling statements with premises from Tosafos and poskim and sharp pilpul; of late some of them have gone back to expounding the simple, plain meaning; and some of them read every week the book Ohr HaChaim, by the wondrous Rav, the holy pious one, our teacher and Rabbi, the Rav, Rabbi Chaim ben Attar, of blessed memory,

11:02 and they cherish his words, for they follow the plain meaning." Of course, the Ohr HaChaim is one of the commentaries, like Rashi... Rashi and the Ohr HaChaim, that people learn — so important is it. You do not understand how important: they once used to examine for the rabbinate in Jerusalem, a hundred years ago; whoever had no knowledge of the book Ohr HaChaim did not receive semichah. A house where they learn the Ohr HaChaim lights up the whole city.

11:27 Learning the Ohr HaChaim lights up a person's face, lights up the soul. It is a great thing to learn a small piece, a small chiddush from the holy Ohr HaChaim. And even the shiur we are learning now, this too is a merit, even that we are speaking of him and hearing it. It is a merit for us to hear, for the holy Ohr HaChaim protects us and blesses us, because we are mentioning his merit and speaking of the tzaddik, mentioning him, his merit. We are blessed in the merit of the Ohr HaChaim, in the merit of what we are learning now.

11:57 After the words of Torah, what we are mentioning of the Ohr HaChaim, we can make a request in the merit of Rabbeinu Chaim ben Attar, ahead of his holy hillula. In the city of Livorno, there he completed the book Ohr HaChaim on the Torah. It was the third of his books. In Venice, in 5502, there he printed it for the first time. Now, our holy Rabbi, the Ohr HaChaim, has several ways. One must understand: the book Ohr HaChaim has several ways.

12:25 It is a book of the revealed Torah and of Kabbalah. He is in the revealed, in the plain meaning; he will go deep into the plain meaning, to sharpen Rashi; but he will also give Kabbalah, the inner dimension of the Torah. That is, he is both the revealed and Kabbalah; he can give us to understand both. And so one has to know how to understand the holy Ohr HaChaim in very great depth. Sometimes he reveals it this way, sometimes that way, but there is Pardes, everything; the Ohr HaChaim, certainly.

12:50 He was precise in it; every expression of his is golden language. See what this is. Rabbeinu Rabbi Pinchas of Koritz writes... he once used to say that there is nothing in which a person can hide himself like the book of the Zohar and the book Ohr HaChaim. A person wants to hide? Let him hide in the Zohar and in the holy book Ohr HaChaim. As if to flee into the book, to understand that our inner self can be known and found only there.

13:21 Once the holy Rav, Rabbi Pinchas of Koritz, was in a certain town, and he said: "I see a town... I see a great light in this town." And he asked: "Is there an Ohr HaChaim here?" "Is there an Ohr HaChaim here? I see here..." Once, when they would come to a town, there was not one in every home or in every beis midrash. The way today there are libraries and abundance, baruch Hashem... Once, you would come in and be shown a library: Torah, Neviim, Kesuvim, Bavli, Yerushalmi, Tosefta, Rambam, that is it.

13:51 A small library, and for him it was a big library. Once, libraries were small libraries. And there are such big libraries. So the Ohr HaChaim, it was... they brought it from Venice, the 5502 edition, which was famous, very precious. They would place it in some house, in some place; in a town they would put one commentary. When they wanted to learn, Torah scholars would come to that place and learn a little, several around one book: this one learns from here, this one from here, this one from here.

14:23 That is how it was when a new book arrived, printed by a great sage. Two hundred years ago, a few Torah scholars would come; the expert ones among them, who knew how to read upside down, sat opposite, the lesser ones sat and learned, or one would speak and explain. But that is how they treasured every corner of the book, how to learn. We have books with explanations, commentaries; how much one must make use of it and learn Torah! It is Gan Eden.

14:50 Gan Eden is not only in Heaven. Gan Eden is here, all of it: to sit with a book with explanations and learn — Gan Eden. You have highlighters, bookmarks, to learn with. Use every moment; this is it. Who said that...? It is from books. Good. May his merit protect us.

15:16 So he said: "I see a great light here. What is this great light? What is this great light?" They told him: "It is the holy Ohr HaChaim." And once there was a certain sick man, and Rabbi Pinchas of Koritz instructed him: "Learn a page every day of the holy Ohr HaChaim; it will do you good." And it strengthened his healing. Rabbi David Moshe of Chortkov said — the author of Divrei David; he was the father of Rabbi Yisrael of Chortkov, the author of Torasecha Sha'ashuai, Ginzei Yisrael, Yismach Yisrael, who was the Rebbe of the Maharam Shapira of Lublin, one of the holy ones; he was the son of Rabbi Yisrael of Ruzhin — he said that the holy Zohar purifies the soul, and learning the Ohr HaChaim also purifies the soul.

15:56 So he said. And the Rebbe of Chortkov says that it was an obligation upon his father to learn the holy Ohr HaChaim every week. It lights up the soul, lights up the city, to learn from the holy Ohr HaChaim. May his merit protect us. Rabbi Avraham of Slonim, may his merit protect us, he said that the holy Ohr HaChaim would light up the soul and the eyes, and they merited to learn it. And every leil shishi, Thursday night, it was the custom of tzaddikim to sit and learn together, and they would learn it. As Rabbi Avraham of Slonim said, it is a very, very great merit.

16:34 Every day, every Thursday night. Learning the Ohr HaChaim. The Ohr HaChaim. A very great merit. A wondrous merit. He annulled the decree — they say that he annulled the decree, yes. And Rabbi Aharon of Belz said that the Holocaust was already a different decree, because the Rebbe, Reb Elimelech, annulled it; and there are tzaddikim who said it was the holy Ohr HaChaim. Rabbi Shlomke of Zvhil said that he too annulled it.

16:59 Each tzaddik expressed it this way. So let us see. Of course, one of the admirers of the Ohr HaChaim was Rabbi Pinchas of Koritz. He would greatly exalt the holy Ohr HaChaim, and he greatly marveled at the book, and he strongly instructed that it be printed, and he greatly honored the printers who printed this book; he was very happy with them. He had a very great bond with the holy Ohr HaChaim.

17:28 And once, Rabbi Pinchas of Koritz opened the Chumash, when it was Parashas Re'eh, and the verse came up for him: "If there shall be among you a needy person, one of your brothers, in one of your gates, in your land." He opened the... That is the verse that came up for him. Rabbi Pinchas of Koritz would often open a sefer; for him it was like prophecy. He always practiced this. Today not everyone can learn from this, because people may open, and then perhaps some bad meaning comes up for them.

17:54 They may become afraid. So do not panic. Always, you should open and see whether there is something, whether there is a good meaning. So the holy Ohr HaChaim explains the verse by way of remez, allusion. He says the words refer to the King Mashiach, who is "poor and riding on a donkey," and he is "one of your brothers" — he is from your brothers; the Ohr HaChaim writes: the choicest of your brothers, and he longs to be revealed "in your land, which Hashem your G-d gives you" — the revelation itself, in the Land of Israel.

18:22 He concludes with the words: "The Mashiach of Hashem, his name is Chaim." How? What? You are explaining it as Rabbi Chaim Abulafia? I think the Ohr HaChaim told us this most clearly: "The Mashiach of Hashem, his name is Chaim." That is how, that is how he wrote it.

18:51 And Rabbi Pinchas saw that the words "his name is Chaim" had been dropped from the Chumash. They had omitted it. He asked the printer: "Why did you omit these words?" What did he answer him? "Because he meant himself." At once Rabbi Pinchas of Koritz opened the Chumash, exactly at Parashas Naso, at Rashi's commentary: "And the woman shall say: Amen, amen" — "Amen if from this man, amen if from another man."

19:19 And he showed him that an error had fallen into his printing: in place of "acher," another, it was printed "Asher." As if it came out for him, instead of "amen from another man," me'ish acher, "me'ish Asher," from the man Asher. "And the woman shall say: Amen, amen, from another man" — "from the man Asher." And this printer's name was Asher. He said to him: "Here is your seal." As if: you had some... you had something...

19:47 He hinted to him that there had been something with him, and that this is why he disputed — to dispute a tzaddik, because of his adultery. "Who are you to dispute his words, that you decide to take this out? Who are you?" See what a thing! And indeed so it was, that this mistake was there, and so it truly was. Here: "And a volume of these Chumashim, with the name of the printer Asher, with this fault and this mistake, I saw with my own eyes in the house of the grandson of Rabbi Pinchas of Koritz, Rabbi Rabbi Moshe, of blessed memory, in the town of Radvoy, and he told me this account; and they are an inheritance to him from his righteous forefathers."

20:24 And he kept this edition, so that it would stay with him just as it was, for that is how this thing was. See, there is one poem that was dropped from the printings. Here he brings it, that it was dropped from the printings. It is always so: when you bring somewhat old editions, you can see many things in the glosses, things that do not appear for us today. So it may be that today, in the new editions, it is there; I do not know.

20:50 It may be so. I always love the old editions. So let us see. See what he composed, the poem; it is a poem that other printings omitted. This is the poem: "I explain the holy Torah that Moshe Rabbeinu received from Sinai. O man, look, gather your thoughts; set your understanding upon my commentary; turn your eyes to the place cited, and my words will be seen in the Ohr HaChaim, the light of life.

21:16 And then you will receive good tidings from the G-d of Heaven, with great wealth and years of life; and blessings will rest upon your head, just as your soul desires." Simply... I see a promise here, altogether. I see here an outright promise from the Ohr HaChaim, that we find... we have not found such expressions, promising just like this. They say that Rabbi Nachman promised that when people learn, then even if a person has... he will have a heart of flesh, and it will also help his mind, that he have mochin d'gadlus, an expanded mind, a mind clear and bright, so that he can understand the Torah.

21:49 Rabbi Tzvi Hirsh of Koidanov promised, about the great merit of learning his book — he said it would help — that one should sell even his pillow and buy the book Kav HaYashar. They say that they promised. But see, the Ohr HaChaim actually promises: "If you learn my books, then you will receive good tidings from the G-d of Heaven, with great wealth and years of life; blessings will rest upon your head, just as your soul desires" — whatever you want.

22:13 It is amazing, this wording. These are truly great and wondrous things about the books of the holy Ohr HaChaim. Of course, this is all the books: Chefetz Hashem, Pri Toar on halachah, everything; all the books of the Ohr HaChaim, everything. So... Who is that? Who promised children to whoever learns his books? One more.

22:40 Ben Beisi. Rabbi Eliezer Tzvi of Komarna. That is the tradition, that the book Ben Beisi is a segulah. There is also Rav Nachmani. Rav Shimshon Chaim Nachmani? Zera Shimshon too. Zera Shimshon. That is Rav Shimshon Chaim Nachmani. Yes, yes. Also the book Ben Beisi, also the book Ben Beisi, a segulah for children, by Rabbi Eliezer Tzvi of Komarna.

23:09 Rishon LeTzion. What? Yes, Pri Toar. He has Pri Toar; Rishon LeTzion, on tractates of the Shas; Chefetz Hashem, on various ones: Berachos, on Shabbos, on Horayos, Chullin, and all kinds of pilpulim, all kinds of things like that. Have you learned Chefetz Hashem? Do you know it?

23:33 Chefetz Hashem, is that on Yoreh De'ah? No. It is on Berachos, Horayos, Chullin, all kinds of pilpulim. It is only Berachos, Shabbos, Horayos and so on, all kinds of pilpulim like that on Rashi, Tosafos, and all kinds of things. So, good. There are more stories of all kinds here about the holy Ohr HaChaim, may his merit protect us.

24:03 May we merit, with Hashem's help, to... One can learn the Ohr HaChaim, and also the Rishon LeTzion, whatever one learns; whatever people have to learn, they can learn. Every book of the holy Ohr HaChaim is a path of its own. What is that? Ohr HaChaim on the parashah... The parashah, yes. He also has the Rishon LeTzion on Tehillim, on Mishlei, on the Megillos, Neviim.

24:31 He has it on Berachos, Beitzah, Sukkah, Moed Katan, Chagigah. That is Rishon LeTzion; it is all kinds of things. The Pri Toar, he made that on Yoreh De'ah. Well, many books. But also stories about him — to learn stories about him, and also chiddushim, whatever you want; wherever you learn, it is a blessing. If you come to the tziyun, the gravesite — Tractate Yevamos, page 97a: Rabbi Yochanan said, any Torah scholar in whose name a teaching is said, his lips move in the grave. So if you come to his grave and learn from his Torah, you have merited something great.

25:12 Those who came from the homeland? ...of Avraham Chaim? Well done. Not for nothing did you turn out this way; you came out an Ohr HaChaim. A tzaddik, holy, a special Torah scholar. No, of course not.

25:48 We learn for the elevation of the souls of all the holy ones. They say that the Rogatchover would go and learn Torah in the cemetery. Well, that is the Rogatchover, all right. There are kollels that I know are held at the Ohr HaChaim; they learn there. Now I am saying, right... At the tziyun, yes. The Rogatchover would learn... In Berachos, page 18a, regarding tzitzis, on account of "mocking the poor" — they learned that.

26:17 But the Rogatchover really was careful... was not careful; he would learn Torah even in the cemetery. So they said to him: "How can you do this?" So he said: "In their lifetime they knew nothing; all the more so in their death they know nothing." That is the Rogatchover for you, may his merit protect us. Well, so may the merit of the holy Ohr HaChaim protect us, and may it be for our benefit; for he was one of the pillars of the world, and he revealed to us such wondrous Torah.

26:54 And in how many years did he manage this? What do I mean? In how many years did he manage to bring us the holy Torah to the world? The holy Ohr HaChaim, who was between forty and fifty, he brought us so many gifts to the world. His holy Ohr HaChaim is a most wondrous book, wondrous. It is a book on the parashah, in the plain meaning.

27:21 The Pri Toar, where he raised objections on the Rambam, on the Rif, on the Rashba; he raised awesome objections there, disputes and answers and analyses and things that he brought as a gift to the world: to raise objections, and all of it according to their own reasoning. It was always according to the view of the Rif, the Rambam and the Rashba. The whole Pri Toar... to learn it is unbelievable. But that is the holy Ohr HaChaim. His greatness and his merit and his holiness are beyond measure. He brought so, so many gifts to the world.

27:51 May it be His will that his merit protect us, and may it be for us of benefit, that we may merit, with Hashem's help, salvations and good tidings and the complete geulah. Amen. What is that? Can't hear?

28:31 Mashiach would have come, yes. The Komarna writes this, and Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Rimanov. He attained the secret of netilas yadayim; the Baal Shem Tov received it, and only one in a generation knows it. And then he said that the Western Lamp had gone out, because the secret had passed to him. He attained this secret suddenly. He merited to attain the level that, in every place in the world to which he would ascend, he had already ascended there. The Ohr HaChaim was rising and being exalted.

29:01 That was the holy Ohr HaChaim. He attained levels and heights like nothing else. Truly, he was one of the luminaries and pillars of the Jewish people. May his merit protect us. So it is worth learning it. The Pri Toar too he wrote as objections against the Pri Chadash, as he had them. He then went to his grave and asked his forgiveness for everything in which he had disputed him, as is the way of Torah.

29:27 He asked his forgiveness, as Maran mentions in Shem HaGedolim, that he was murmuring, his lips murmuring at the grave of the Pri Chadash. But this... May their merit protect us, and may it be for our benefit and for holiness, for merit. And what compassion — see, truly, what a gift the holy Ohr HaChaim was, and how much he suffered in his lifetime. It is simply unbelievable that he went through such things, so much, until he passed from the world; and even then they seized his courtyard and his house, what he had.

30:03 It was not enough that he left no holy offspring behind him; even the little that he had, he did not manage to pay off all the days of his life, and the government took that from him too. That is the greatest pain: that such holy ones left us, and departed amid persecutions and anguish and pain. What? Jerusalem; he is buried in Jerusalem, on the Mount of Olives. What do you have, a synagogue?

30:28 What do you have, a synagogue? What happened? Yes, there is no need. Have you not been at the Ohr HaChaim? Where is the house? I am asking about the house and the synagogue. The house and the synagogue — I was there. Where is it? It is in the Old City. That is the synagogue of the holy Ohr HaChaim. Ah, whether that is the house — the house and the courtyard — I do not know if that is it. But there is the house of the holy Ohr HaChaim, which is his synagogue, which is the house where the holy Arizal was also born.

30:59 There is an ancient synagogue there, where the holy Arizal was born. The holy Ohr HaChaim — that is his house and his synagogue; he would pray there, in the Old City. It is there to this day. You do not know it? You have not been there? Once we prayed Maariv there together, I think, or some tefillah; in the Old City, we went in there, yes, we were together. A very special place, and very, very holy. Do you know what a tamim, a wholehearted person, really is?

31:25 A tamim is a person who, if they put him in Gehinnom and tell him, "Listen, this is Gan Eden," he will be content there. A tamim is a wholehearted person; a tamim is a person who can see the good in every situation, and he is happy with everything; he knows that whatever Hashem, blessed be He, wants is the best, the best, the very best in the world; and he finds no evil, and he searches for the Holy One, blessed be He, and finds the Holy One, blessed be He, in everything. That is true temimus. Tamim — tamim means whole.

32:04 To reach wholeness, that is temimus, wholeness of heart. If he is a tamim, does he know that he is a tamim? That is like asking a wise man whether he knows that he is wise. It is the same thing. A tamim is not measured by whether he knows that he is a tamim or not. The question is how he copes with reality. If he goes through many certain chapters in life, and sees that he acted in them with a certain simplicity, because he had not yet completed his intellect to the end, then he will understand that he is a tamim, and from then on he will be careful.

32:40 You look like a tamim to me, yes. Honored Rav, the last line in Sippurei Maasiyos, in the Chacham and the Tam, is not understood at all. Can the Rav explain the last line in Sippurei Maasiyos, of the tale of the Chacham and the Tam, the Wise Man and the Simple Man? I am not going into the Sippurei Maasiyos.

33:08 With Hashem's help, bli neder, we will set aside time for it and explain it the way I like, clearly — although I do also have a commentary on the tale of the Chacham and the Tam. I have a commentary on all the Sippurei Maasiyos except for the Betlers, the Beggars. For the last one I have no commentary; I did not explain the thirteenth, the Betlers, the thirteenth, the Beggars.

33:36 We were left without a commentary. But there is one on the first, second, third, fourth, and on. The Chacham and the Tam — there are many beautiful things there, interesting things. I have this written down too, I see. The Chacham and the Tam is written down too. A tamim is a person who is happy with his lot. He is a person who does not look to see the bad and does not deal with it. He does not enter into negotiations with his intellect.

34:01 He casts aside his intellect and goes forward. True temimus, you know: "You shall be wholehearted with Hashem your G-d." Inside the letter tav there is a dagesh. The Holy One, blessed be He, said: "Walk before Me and be wholehearted." It is so important to the Holy One, blessed be He, that a person not bring his intellect into anything connected to Him, blessed be He; that a person always remain wholehearted with the Holy One, blessed be He; that he not try each time to mix in his intellect: "I will do this, and then I will bring about that."

34:34 There are people who give the Holy One, blessed be He, advice on how to rectify them and how to reach... great levels. Do you know those who go to the graves of the tzaddikim and "rectify" the tzaddikim? That is what Rabbeinu says, not to do that: making tikkunim at the tzaddik. You came to the tzaddik? Cast your own intellect aside. Let the place make you feel the holiness; appreciate the place, feel the holiness of the place, learn the Torah of the sage.

35:00 Believe in the holiness of the place where you are. This is called receiving the holiness at the tzaddik. That is temimus. That is a tamim. Do you understand? There are differences in temimus. A tamim is a person who appreciates the highest level of the place he is in, and does not try to ask questions about the Holy One, blessed be He: "Why did He put me like this, and why did He make me like this, and why did He put me here?"

35:27 The King did this. But in this generation — one can really find merit for this generation. It is a generation like before they left Egypt. They have a certain confusion. I understand; but to our sorrow, today the generation has become very, very hard.

35:53 Captive children. There is a hint about this generation in the tale of the Baal Tefillah, the Master of Prayer, in Sippurei Maasiyos. The tale of the Baal Tefillah, where there was a sect of the mighty, a sect of money magnates, "eilei hon," tycoons, whose whole essence was... and anyone who had a great deal of money, they would call him a god. That is exactly today. They are called "elei hon," gods of wealth; that is today, in our generation, when they are called "elei hon."

36:20 A kind of very great flaw has come about: a person today has money, and he needs, say, a livelihood; so he does not pray with the feeling that he has nothing. He prays with the feeling: "I have money, and I am praying." He buys the "pesichah for parnassah," and he relies on what he has in the bank. People have lost the trait of bitachon, trust, in its fullness. King David, the only one who, with all his wealth, held himself to be a poor man: "A prayer of the poor man, when he is faint."

36:49 And these prayers envelop. Why "ya'atof"? Because "I envelop all the prayers," raising them to Heaven. That is, the way for a person to reach the Holy One, blessed be He, is that he holds nothing for himself; he always feels in himself that he is truly poor. "I have nothing. Nothing belongs to me." Today they drive them crazy.

37:21 Today a person sees in the media that he is dead; he cries over being dead; he thinks he is dead. So much do they believe what... He has to check through the media whether he is alive. They say about a person that he is dead, already buried; so he mourns, because he is dead. So much do they fail to understand that it is all one big illusion.

37:47 Perhaps we can find merit for them; with Hashem's help, the merit is that they... Everything is full of falsehood and confusion and nonsense and vanities; this whole world is one great falsehood. And the rule for a person in this world: not to be alarmed and not to be afraid, and to pay no heed, no heed, no heed at all, to go forward. So that is how the children need to be educated: "Child, get up, move forward, do not look back."

38:12 That is what the children need to do. That in emunah one throws away the intellect, and in what...? It is tremendous; it takes the whole intellect. Of course. Otherwise... do not be mistaken. When you come to understand it, you need to understand it with all your intellect; and once you have acquired it, in living it, throw away the intellect.

38:42 Good. There was that Gibbor there, the Mighty One, where really there were those who were the gods, and there were the poor, who were considered birds. Right. They were considered birds. The Baal Tefillah would whisper to people to come, to go out from the settled place, outside, no? It was the same with the Baal Tefillah. To each one he seemed like this or like that, and they took them outside the settlement.

39:09 Yes, he would take them out, and they would become people who serve Hashem. And there was that Gibbor, and this Gibbor would conquer countries, and all would submit to him. And the Land of Wealth understood that he was going to reach them too, and they said: "Buy him off with money." But money, for him, was not... It was impossible to buy him with money, because...

39:34 because he sought only submission. What...? He sought only submission. Who is that? What is that? What do you want, the whole Torah on one foot? Ah, like that — it cannot be. It is impossible. Sippurei Maasiyos is a book... Who thinks it is shallow? The book Sippurei Maasiyos — you have to understand, you are talking about stories that are not stories; they are a road map.

40:05 You are talking about the highest thing in creation. There are awesome secrets there, and the whole Torah is folded into this book. ...but it is like the Zohar, which I read and do not understand, and still I read. With Hashem's help, the institute is now working, bli neder, to begin bringing out my commentaries on it; bli neder, they are working on bringing out the commentary on Tale One.

40:33 Tale One will come out, with Hashem's help. I already have seven commentaries that address Tale One alone. There is one on Two, after that Three, Four — things I found over the last two years. This past year too there were all kinds of commentaries that we gave over — whoever was with us in all kinds of places where I spoke about the Sippurei Maasiyos, in the last two years, a year ago, half a year ago.

40:58 We spoke, they gathered all kinds of things, and with Hashem's help may it come out properly explained, so that all can understand and learn and advance; because these are things for which one must explain their concepts. There are a great many things of Kabbalah there in the Sippurei Maasiyos; these are far-reaching things. May Hashem grant you that all your Torah go out to the world. Amen. ...in the land, and that you have no difficulty in this.

41:25 Amen. Learn from his Torah, and learn for the elevation of his soul. This will truly, truly bring very, very great nachas to the holy Ohr HaChaim, may his merit protect us. The merit of the holy Ohr HaChaim, Rabbeinu Chaim son of Rabbi Moshe Attar, may his merit protect us.

41:55 No problem, yes, there is no problem going. Yes, no problem; it does not have to be at the time. If you want to come and you have the peace of mind, you will pray; you can go, no problem. May his merit protect us and all Israel, our brothers, amen.