The Yanuka Rav Shlomo Yehuda-הגאון הינוקא - שיעור מיוחד לסוכות והושענא רבה - מעמד שמחת בית השואבה The Yanuka

3:24 A Jew called me today. He couldn't reach me; I was in the middle of prayer, some ten times... He says to me, I hear that the Rav, the Yanuka, is coming to you at the yeshiva. I told him, I'm in the middle right now, I can't talk. He says to me, I must, must, must talk.

3:49 Give me two minutes, I want to meet the Rav. He says he has several children who married - his name cannot be mentioned, because he is here with us - but several children, four children, may it not happen to us, married and could not build a faithful home in Israel, and divorced.

4:13 He has a fifth child, a groom, at home with him, and the wedding is on the date... I won't say the exact date, so they won't say... so they won't figure out who is here, but in the days of Teves. But he dreamed on Yom Kippur morning, he dreamed that the Rav came to him and told him, this is not a good date.

4:42 "Please, arrange a meeting with the Rav for me, to really know whether to change the date." There is a Jew in America - from where we first came to know the Rav. Why am I telling these wonder stories? Only to say, gentlemen: in this hidden generation, in this dark generation, where we know nothing, understand nothing, the Creator of the world brought us the Urim V'Tumim; He brought us an angel, yes, a Yanuka, yes, who will tell us, explain to us and show us the way.

5:31 We thank Hashem for granting us the merit to go and hear his Torah and to walk in his faith and to cleave to the tzaddik. The Creator of the world: in every generation they rise against us to destroy us, but He brought us a tzaddik, so that we can know a little what the Creator of the world is, a little emunah, a little connection to Above.

6:02 There is a Jew - his name also cannot be mentioned, because he is in America, but his name is Yosef Yitzchak ben Basha Shosha. It doesn't matter whether you know him or not. He says to me, a Jew came to me with a book that came... he is a well-off Jew, very wealthy, and the Rav's endorsement was in it.

6:31 He says to him: What?! Where do you have this book from? I've been looking for the Rav for several years already, I can't find him. From where - how did the Rav give you an endorsement for a book? This Jew says to him, listen well: I dreamed not long ago that if a coin from the Rav reaches me, I will become rich with very great wealth.

6:58 How can a coin of the Rav reach me? If you have a connection, do me a favor, bring me a coin. This Jew says to him, listen: a while ago the Rav gave me fifty shekels. He told him, keep it in your pocket; you will not give it away until I tell you whom to give it to. Once this Jew got stuck in the middle of the road, between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, without fuel.

7:25 He had these fifty shekels; he didn't use them. He told me, I had no choice; the Rav told me not to use it. He had to work hard to get fuel for the car. Now I have the fifty shekels with me in my pocket. If the Rav tells me that it's for you, I'll give it to you now. And so it happened. This Jew said, he called Rav Tzemach - Tzemach is here, he is arriving soon, one of the gabbaim, one of the Rav's attendants in holiness, he is here with us and will testify that this is a true story.

8:01 He calls Tzemach, Tzemach calls the Rav, and he says to him, he says to the Rav: This Jew is at Yosef Yitzchak ben Basha Shosha's in America - should he give him the fifty shekels? So he immediately tells him: Yes. Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak ben Basha Shosha - give him the fifty shekels, the coin. There are things that cannot be explained at all, in our generation, that we merited to have an angel of G-d here with us, and we now merit to greet the Rebbe on the festival, we merit to see the tzaddik, and we merit here, now, in the sukkah, together with the tzaddik, the Botzina D'Nehora, the shining lamp, who will sit with us together, holy of holies.

8:58 We welcome with blessing our teacher the Gaon Rav Yitzchak Abba Shaul, who has come to greet our holy Rebbe. The Rav is arriving in a few minutes.

10:02 I don't know what the order of the day here will be, whether we'll be able to pass by and give the Rav our hand or not. Now, in the Time of our Rejoicing, which is the festival of Sukkos - 'zman', time, is 'hazmanah', an invitation, for the whole year. How we rejoice, how we look, and what we do on Sukkos - that is how we will be all year. That's why we must be joyful the whole festival, so that we will be joyful the whole year.

10:28 On the festival of Sukkos, if we see our Rebbe's face, we take the Rav, we take our Rebbe for the whole year. We received him - fortunate are we that we merited. In a few minutes we will merit that the Rav arrives. Today is the hillula of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, holy of holies, may his merit protect us, amen.

10:56 Rabbi Nachman of Breslov says: what is called greeting one's Rebbe on the festival? He says: by merely seeing, they merited. You merited by seeing. He says, greeting one's Rebbe - if you see the Rebbe with your eyes, you have received our Rebbe for the whole year.

11:23 If we want to merit that holiness, purity - everything possible, just to cleave to the tzaddik - then we take him for the whole year. On the hillula of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, who says this, we merit to see the face of the tzaddik; we will take the tzaddik for the whole year, and we will merit to be people who fear Heaven, we will merit to cleave to the Creator of the world, we will merit to live by His faith, we will merit to receive all the abundance, spiritual and material, of the Creator of the world, in the merit of the tzaddik, for the sake of the Creator of the world.

12:01 Now we have the mighty Gaon Rabbi Yitzchak Abba Shaul, who is with us, who will speak a few words to us until the Rav arrives, which is really in just a few minutes. - [unclear] I merited today, thank Hashem, to take part in a great celebration of the Rav who resembles an angel, the Yanuka, who will arrive, with Hashem's help - he will rise and come and arrive - a great joy.

12:47 I say the blessing: Blessed is He who has kept us alive, sustained us and brought us to this time. Blessed is Hashem, may His name be praised and His throne of glory be exalted, who granted me to sit in such company, where all the greatest Sages, and who are here, all the Rabbis - We welcome with blessing.

17:30 - Blessed is He who has kept us alive, sustained us and brought us to this time, that we merited to greet our holy Rebbe. And we said earlier that the hillula of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, who is here - that it is his hillula, that this is the holy day - that he looks upon us, that he is here with us; that our Rebbe, our teacher and Rebbe the Yanuka shlita, is connected to Rabbi Nachman of Breslov - he says that greeting one's Rebbe is by seeing.

18:01 We receive the Rav for the whole year. We merit that the Rav is here with us, to take the Rav with us for the whole year. For 'zman', time, is 'hazmanah', an invitation - the Time of our Rejoicing. We - how we look this year, how we look on Sukkos, that is how we look all year. We are here with the holy Rav, taking all the holiness, all the purity, all the emunah, all that our teacher and Rebbe shlita, who guides our way, will guide us in for the whole year: to live with the Creator of the world, to be holy and pure, to be faithful tzaddikim to our Father, to our Father in Heaven.

18:48 Fortunate are we that we merited; how good is our portion and how pleasant our lot, that we merited that the Rav is here with us, that in this merit we will receive all the abundance, spiritual and material, and all the blessings written in the Torah will rest upon us, in the merit that the Rav is with us, and we are here, such a large audience, together with the Rav - we will receive the greatest abundance there is in the Torah, amen.

19:23 - With the permission of our masters and teachers, all the great ones of Torah, the Sages of the generation, the elders of the generation, the eyes of the congregation, with the permission of the Ushpizin, the exalted holy guests, with the permission of the whole holy and honored audience, the holy people.

19:52 May Hashem, blessed be He, grant good abundance to everyone, and blessing and a good life and all the good abundance. Blessed and exalted and magnified and sanctified be the name of the King of kings of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He, the G-d of Israel, the G-d of our fathers, the great, mighty and awesome G-d, who took us out of Egypt and is destined to redeem us with a complete redemption, with an upraised hand.

20:42 At this time, as we draw near to the sealing on Hoshana Rabbah, the Rishonim, Rabbeinu the Rokeach and the Maharil, brought down that they used to stand in the moonlight and look at a person's shadow. Rabbeinu the Rema, in siman 664, writes that a person should be wholehearted and not search after the future, in thought, what will be in the future.

21:23 And in the words of our master Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai in the Zohar, Vayechi, page 220a, Rabbi Shimon explains that the time of the sealing is on Hoshana Rabbah; this is the time when the notes are sent out, for what will be decreed on each and every one, and therefore it is fitting that everyone pray and ask for a good note, until we merit the complete redemption, speedily in our days, amen.

21:55 There are several levels in the festivals. The time of Pesach is the time of remembering how He took us out of Egypt; it is the time when Hashem, blessed be He, brought us out from darkness to light; it is the time when Hashem, blessed be He, did miracles and wonders for us. This is the hint and this is the matter of Pesach: miracles and wonders, to tell of the greatness and kingship of Hashem, blessed be He.

22:28 At the time of Shavuos, His will and His wisdom, blessed be He, are revealed through the Torah, for Hashem, blessed be He, gave us the Torah; His statutes, His wishes, His wisdom are revealed - what Hashem, blessed be He, wanted from His people Israel. And at the time of Sukkos His endless mercy is revealed. After we have prayed and said 'Father of mercy, merciful Father', we enter into the shade of the Shechinah, the Tzila D'Mehemnusa, the shade of faith.

23:06 And it says in Yeshayahu, chapter 49, chapter 51: "In the shadow of My hand I covered you", "in the shadow of His hand He hid me". King David says in Tehillim, chapter 17, verse 8: "Hide me in the shadow of Your wings." In chapter 36: "In the shadow of Your wings they take refuge." "In the shadow of the Almighty he will abide" - in psalm 91. We see time and again the word, the expression that is said: "In the shadow of Your wings, in the shadow..." - this is the matter of the sukkah, that Hashem, blessed be He, spreads His covering over us, and we are within the shadow of His hands, at the highest and most exalted level and place that one can be in during the entire year - in the shade, in the Tzila D'Mehemnusa,

23:55 in the revelation of the kingship and Shechinah of Hashem, blessed be He. And the whole matter of the sukkah is: "As an eagle stirs up its nest, hovering over its young" - how Hashem, blessed be He, spreads His wings over all the Jewish people; He reveals His endless and eternal mercy, how everyone can take shelter in the holy shade, for the honor of Hashem, blessed be He, to come close to Hashem, blessed be He.

24:19 And in those times - in this time that we are in now, the time of Chol HaMoed, the holy time, the time of awe - there is revealed in these days the light of Hashem, blessed be He, at each and every time and in each and every festival. And at this time, when we are in Chol HaMoed, His light, blessed be He, is revealed.

24:43 And therefore at this time, in these days, which are very, very, very holy and awesome days - the Days of Awe end only on Hoshana Rabbah; this whole time they are Days of Awe, very, very holy and wondrous, and one can behold in them perceptions and see a revelation of G-dliness, and attain awesome and exalted things - "no eye has seen, O G-d, besides You."

25:08 And in the time of Chol HaMoed - for that is why this time is called Chol HaMoed - they are also the weekdays that, during the whole year, are days when people do work; these days are great and awesome and exalted beyond measure, and therefore they are called the days of Chol HaMoed. Therefore, in the opinion of Rabbeinu Tam and of Rabbeinu the Rambam, a person who does work on them, on the days of Chol HaMoed - it is a rabbinic prohibition; it is something to think about.

25:40 And in the opinion of the Rif, the opinion of the Rashbam and many other Rishonim, who hold that work on the days of Chol HaMoed is a Torah prohibition - and this is only to explain the level, the importance of the days of Chol HaMoed, that they are awesome. And at the beginning, in siman 530, in the Mishnah Berurah, he lists the five kinds of work that are done on the festival: a layman's work; for the need of repairing roads and mikvaos; and a matter that would be lost; a layman's work that must be done; or a worker who has nothing to eat, and so on.

26:13 All these things are done with awe and fear, because of the matter and the greatness of the festival, which is very, very awesome. And the higher one rises in level, the more one can attain the perception of the festival time. As was once told - they asked the Minchas Elazar of Munkatch what is called Ruach HaKodesh, the holy spirit. He said: Ruach HaKodesh is attainment in Torah; the more one attains in Torah, that is called Ruach HaKodesh.

26:43 And what the world runs after, to know the doings of flesh and blood, is the lowest level of attaining ruach hakodesh. The more a person grasps of the greatness of Hashem, blessed be He, so he will grasp more of His knowledge, His wisdom and His Torah. And the main attainment depends on this, on the greatness of Hashem, blessed be He. And to explain this matter of Chol HaMoed: that as long as we are in the time of Chol HaMoed, the light that is revealed and comes down below, this light we can attain through guarding it.

27:12 And therefore, in the Yerushalmi, in chapter 2, halachah 3, Rabbi Abba bar Mamal explains, he explains that if I were able, I would permit doing work on Chol HaMoed, because people are accustomed to drink and eat, and they are idle and frivolous during Chol HaMoed. And the whole matter of Chol HaMoed is to engage in Torah during it.

27:36 And the Kol Bo writes that this time, the novel point that Rabbi Abba explains there, is to explain to us that there may be a prohibition of levity here much more than of work on Chol HaMoed. So the Kol Bo explains. That is, a person who acts with levity on Chol HaMoed, that is much, much more severe than doing work on Chol HaMoed. So the words of the Kol Bo explain. And Mahari ben Na'im writes in the book Yosef Tehillos, whom our master, Maran the Chida, mentioned, on chapter 75, verse 3: "When I take the appointed time, I will judge with equity" - what does it mean?

28:11 He explains that Hashem, blessed be He, will in the future take all the festivals, this time of the festival, when one can engage in Torah, and He judges and rules on a person for his engagement in Torah. As Ravna and Rabbi Yirmiyah explain in the name of Rabbi Shmuel bar Rav Yitzchak, in Tractate Chagigah, chapter 1, halachah 7, and he explains this, that he said that the Holy One, blessed be He, did not overlook for the Jewish people - He overlooked their idol worship, He overlooked their forbidden relations, He overlooked their bloodshed, but their despising of the Torah He did not overlook.

28:42 As the Sages learned in Tractate Shabbos, page 31, and Tosafos in Tractate Sanhedrin, page 7, in the name of Rav Amnuna, who held about this engagement in Torah that it is the beginning of a person's judgment and his main purpose. As our master, the Great Eagle, ruled in the Laws of Torah Study, chapter 1, halachah 8, and as Maran ruled as law in the Shulchan Aruch, in siman 155, about engaging in the holy Torah, that a person should not interrupt his learning, even, even if he will lose by it, and there will be, Heaven forbid, a great loss of much income - he should sit and engage and learn Torah, and not interrupt himself from his learning - for the sake of engaging in Torah.

29:20 And the whole matter of the festival, and the time, and the festivals, they are only and solely in order to engage in Torah in them, with awe and holiness, which is the main meaning of the festival: in order to receive the light of Hashem, blessed be He, that is found in the festival. Because to receive the light of Hashem, blessed be He, that is found in the festival, that is only through the engagement of learning Torah and its mitzvos, and not like people who gorge and stuff themselves and do not conduct themselves in holiness and purity on the festival.

29:50 As our master the Rambam explained in the Laws of Yom Tov, in chapter 6, in halachah 19 and in halachah 20, our master the Rambam explains that all that people do in folly and drunkenness, that they are used to drinking and getting drunk at this time of Yom Tov, at this time of the festival, of course that is not the essence and the joy of this time, for that is revelry, rather, the joy is in the service of the Creator of all.

30:17 "Because you did not serve Hashem your G-d with joy and with gladness of heart." That is the meaning of awe, and the service of Hashem, and holiness and purity, and contemplating the greatness of Hashem, blessed be He. Through a person serving Hashem with awe at this time, the time of the festival, in holiness, and he eats in holiness, and drinks, and is careful about the holiness of the festival, about the holiness of Yom Tov, and the closer one comes to the festival and to Yom Tov itself, so through this the light flows down from the Yom Tov itself.

30:49 And therefore one must know: the Lechem HaPanim writes in siman 103, he brings a novel point, that people err in this, and also in siman 261, sub-paragraph 19, in the words of the Mishnah Berurah, about accepting the addition on Yom Tov: that just as one accepts the addition to Shabbos, so there is a matter of accepting an addition to Yom Tov too, to accept the holiness, to accept it in time, to accept it before.

31:13 And he writes there, in the Lechem HaPanim, that he warned about this, that as careful as people were about accepting Shabbos, in this people err, that they do not do so on Yom Tov... and one must warn them about this very much, for they err unknowingly and do not know the matter, that one must accept an addition on Yom Tov itself as well, because of the honor of Yom Tov, and so that one accepts the Yom Tov in holiness. And the Shulchan Aruch HaRav explains this in siman 491, that this is regarding resting from work, and not regarding the other matters and practices, only regarding resting from work.

31:45 And the more one rises and rises and rises higher, one understands the light of Hashem, blessed be He, that is revealed in those days, at this time. For the higher one rises in level, the more the light of Hashem, blessed be He, is revealed, which shines on the festival itself, and one receives this light into all the chambers of the soul, until one merits revelation and elevation in Hashem, blessed be He.

32:15 This is what is written, what Yeshayahu said in chapter 1, verse 14: "Your new moons and your appointed festivals My soul hates." And the Malbim explains: that you do not delight properly in Hashem, blessed be He; the eating and drinking is not a delight for the honor of Hashem. When the festival comes, one must rejoice with trembling, to be in trembling, and to rejoice, and to use every moment for the greatest and most awesome levels and heights, which is engaging in the holy Torah, to come close to Hashem, blessed be He, and not to leave the holy Torah, and to engage in it day and night, and to cleave to it, which is the main thing.

32:54 And this is the whole matter of the essence and the time. And therefore we bless, every time the time and the festival arrives, we bless "Who has kept us alive, and sustained us, and brought us to this time." The meaning: what is the matter of that time on which we bless? That time is the light of Hashem, blessed be He, which sparkles and is revealed specifically at that time when that festival arrives, that matter on which we bless.

33:19 And therefore there is a distinction here: that if a person must say Shehecheyanu on a new garment or on a new fruit, that is optional and not an obligation, as is said in Tractate Berachos, page 54a, as the Shulchan Aruch ruled in siman 223, paragraph 3, and as is brought in Eruvin, page 40b, about the Shehecheyanu blessing, that it is optional and not an obligation. The meaning of optional and not an obligation: that I do not need to bring myself into a blessing, I have no obligation to bring myself to a blessing, only when I have become obligated.

33:49 And so the Rema also brought in his gloss, that this is the reason it became customary not to bless on new utensils and a new house; they exempt it through a new garment, in order to fulfill the mitzvah in practice. And this is the meaning of the distinction between this time, when the festival arrives and we bless because of it, and a new garment and a new house, on which there is no obligation to bless, only when abundance flows to a person, he can exempt it through something.

34:15 And this is the meaning of the Shehecheyanu blessing: that in it the light of Hashem, blessed be He, is revealed. And therefore the whole matter of Sukkos - for every time, whether it is Pesach, or whether it is Shavuos and Sukkos, what is revealed is - "In the shadow of My hand I covered you", "In the shadow of Your wings hide me" - that we are under the wings of the Shechinah, that Hashem, blessed be He, shelters over His children, and all receive abundance, and light, and great mercy.

34:42 The whole essence of staying in the sukkah, and this festival time of Sukkos, is the matter of looking at the heavens. Hashem, blessed be He, wants the Jewish people to look at the s'chach, the sukkah's covering, He wants them to look at the heavens, that they see the heavens, that they see the miracle, and the contemplation, and the thought that Hashem, blessed be He, took us out, and to take us out from under the rule of the stars and the constellations.

35:09 And as the Magen Avraham explains this in siman 625, and as our master the Bayis Chadash answered with this the question of the Re'em; and the Eshel Avraham also wrote the same thing in siman 625: to take them out from under the rule of the stars and the constellations and the planets. And this is the matter of the sukkah: to bring them to such a great level of emunah that they will see and behold visions of G-d, that all the miracle that Hashem, blessed be He, did with us, and took us out of Egypt, and did miracles and wonders for us, and sheltered and protected His people Israel, that this is that matter and the purpose for which we are in the sukkah: to awaken this, and to contemplate it, and to understand it, and to know it, and to see it, and to live it -

35:54 the closeness to Hashem, blessed be He. This is the same dispute that was between Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Akiva, in Sukkah, page 11b, that Rabbi Eliezer says these were the clouds of glory, and Rabbi Akiva says these were actual sukkos that they made. Meaning that they were actual sukkos. And with all this attainment, that we see the sukkah, we bring in and bring the soul to the highest level, to the contemplation and the thought of "Lift up your eyes on high and see Who created these", and we rectify the whole matter of seeing.

36:30 For every time we draw near, on Sukkos, we are there and we see that the whole matter of the sukkah, it is all a matter of the eyes, all a matter of seeing, to rectify the eyes and the seeing, so that all will see the glory of Hashem, blessed be He, and the revelation of the kingship of Hashem, blessed be He. And therefore, when the festival and Sukkos arrive, and when we look and contemplate to understand what the matter of seeing is, and what the matter of the sukkah is - which is the dispute at the beginning of Tractate Sukkah, on the first page, the dispute of Rabbi Yehudah and the Sages, that the Sages say that above twenty cubits it is invalid, and Rabbi Yehudah validates it.

37:09 So Rabbi Zeira says that the s'chach must be for shade, and the shade must come from the s'chach and not from the walls, for above twenty cubits the shade will come from the walls, and then the sukkah will be invalid. But Rabbah explains: as with the beam over an alleyway, that it must be seen, so it is with the s'chach. So he explains that you see the s'chach, that you look and gaze at the s'chach, you gaze at the heavens, you can see that it is s'chach, you can understand that it is a sukkah.

37:39 And the halachah follows him. For the whole matter of what Rabbah teaches is in order to look at the sukkah, to see the s'chach, so that it is not higher than that, and not necessarily for the matter of shade, as Rabbi Zeira explained. And when everyone looks and contemplates and sees the nature of the sukkah, then they can gaze with their eyes and see the s'chach. And this is the matter of one answer that he explained for Rabbah and Rabbi Zeira, who explained according to the view of the Sages, the opposite of what Rabbi Yehudah validates, for the sake of seeing.

38:10 And this can also be explained about the festivals: that all are obligated in re'iyah, appearing, except a deaf-mute, one not of sound mind, and a minor, with the Chagigah peace-offerings, that one brings Chagigah peace-offerings on the first day of Yom Tov, that everyone must bring an offering, and this does not come from the meal-offerings, nor from the birds, it comes from cattle, as our master the Rambam ruled in the Laws of Chagigah, in chapter 1, halachah 1, that one brings the offering of the re'iyah.

38:35 There is a dispute between Beis Shammai and Beis Hillel, of course, whether it is Torah law or Rabbinic, but the coins one must bring, one must bring what is explained: Beis Shammai explain that one must bring an offering worth at least one silver ma'ah, which is a sixth of a dinar, and Beis Hillel say that one must bring two silver ma'os, which is a third of a dinar. And what is this matter of bringing a Chagigah offering on the first day of Yom Tov?

39:03 That it is a matter of re'iyah, of seeing. For what is said in Tractate Chagigah, page 7a, that the re'iyah is said to be for the Most High, that eating is for the ordinary person and the re'iyah for the Most High. As I explained, that the matter of re'iyah corresponds to the Chagigah, it comes on the first day of Yom Tov, which corresponds to the s'chach one gazes at, it corresponds to the sukkah, it corresponds to the festivals, it corresponds to the seeing, that one gazes.

39:33 Therefore everyone is obligated in re'iyah. And therefore, as is brought in Tractate Sukkah, page 27b, that a person is obligated to go and greet his Rebbe, because he must appear before his Rebbe, he must see him. So we see again that this whole matter - it is seeing. And as the Chinuch brings in mitzvah 488 about the Simchas Beis HaShoeivah, what was learned in Tractate Sukkah, page 51, that the Simchas Beis HaShoeivah, that whoever has not seen the Simchas Beis HaShoeivah has never seen joy in his life.

40:04 We see the whole matter of seeing, which is a matter of Sukkos: that with every gaze and look a person casts with his eyes, he sees and he can understand that inside the sukkah we are in the shade of faith, under awesome Divine providence, "the eyes of Hashem your G-d are upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year." And when we look and contemplate, and are inside the sukkah, and are there, and sitting...

40:29 Hashem, blessed be He, gazes and looks upon us. And we see that a person can merit and reach the highest level just from seeing. And therefore, when we are inside the sukkah and reach the level of sitting and engaging in Torah during the festival, inside the sukkos, we rise and are uplifted and elevated beyond measure. And therefore, at this time that we are in, the main reception and abundance of the light that flows is only and solely through a meal.

40:58 For how does one receive the light of Hashem, blessed be He? By the meal we hold on Friday night. In Tractate Gittin, page 38, in the name of Rabbi Abba and Rabbi Yochanan, he brought that there was a wealthy family in Jerusalem who were punished, for they were accustomed to hold a meal every Erev Shabbos, they were punished for this, because the honor of Shabbos is in eating, and the lighting of the candle is for the sake of seeing, because of the honor of Shabbos.

41:26 And therefore holding a meal on Erev Shabbos is a flaw in the seeing, for there will be no delight of Shabbos, and there will be no point to the candle for the meal, for the matter of the candle depends on seeing, and the seeing must be in the place of the meal, in order to bless. That is, this one depends on that, to teach us that the whole matter of the meal depends on seeing. And therefore, when a person eats and is inside the sukkah, then, as our master the Rif and the Rambam explain in the Laws of Lulav, in chapter 6, halachah 12, and so too our master the Rif explains, and so too is the view of the Rashba and the view of the Ritva, and the view of the Ran and many Rishonim:

42:05 that as soon as a person enters the sukkah he must bless, and he blesses immediately upon entering the sukkah, immediately when he enters he must bless. So is the view of the Rif and the Rambam and the Rashba and the Ritva and our master the Ran and other Rishonim. But according to our master the Mordechai and according to the Tur, and so it was ruled as halachah in siman 639, paragraph 8, and so too is the view of the Rosh, and so too the view of the Ra'avyah, that one blesses only at the time of eating, and that is the practice, as the Rema brought, and that is the practice: so we do and so we bless.

42:43 And when a person will contemplate and understand that this is as we explained, and so too in practice it was ruled as halachah... but the time of the meal is the time when the greatest light flows, and the time in which the greatest light flows is the time to bless, for the main fulfillment of the mitzvah is in the meal, and on that we bless.

43:09 And therefore, when we are inside the sukkah and holding a meal, then in practice the eyes of the supreme providence are revealed and raised at the time of the meal, while we are inside the sukkah. For when we eat and hold the meal before Hashem, blessed be He, there is, within each and every thing, that we fulfill every mitzvah, and every deed and thing in holiness that we fulfill, the light of Hashem, blessed be He, is revealed.

43:43 And at the time of the meal we draw down, of course, as with the Ushpizin, or we draw down for each one whatever he desires before Hashem, blessed be He, and the essence and honor of Shabbos, or the honor of Yom Tov, or the honor of the festival, is revealed. And for this we mention it at the times of Birkas HaMazon, or at the time of prayer, for the sake of this time of the festival. And when a person reflects, and looks, and sees - if we consider and see that this whole matter of the meal and of the sukkah, that we are inside for those seven days in the sukkah, corresponds to the Hashgachah from Above, so that we do not go outside the sukkah.

44:28 For eating outside the sukkah and drinking outside the sukkah is a flaw, for one must dine inside the sukkah and drink inside the sukkah. And this is the same matter as 'meat that was hidden from the eye.' If they consider what the matter of meat hidden from the eye is: there is a law of meat that was hidden from the eye, which is a dispute between Rav and Levi in Tractate Chullin, page 95a.

44:57 There Rav and Levi disagree on the law of meat that was hidden from the eye. In the view of Rashi and Rabbeinu Tam, they rule like Levi, that this meat is kosher even though it was hidden from the eye. But in the view of Rabbeinu the Rif and in the view of Rabbeinu the Rambam, their view, in practice, as halachah, is to forbid it. So too ruled Maran the Shulchan Aruch in Yoreh De'ah, in Siman 63, se'if 1, se'if 2, that this is the view of Rav, to forbid it, the opposite of Levi.

45:26 Whereas Levi holds that it is indeed permitted, Rav holds to forbid it, because it has the law of meat that was hidden from the eye. And this is as I explained: when we go out of the sukkah, we have the law of meat that was hidden from the eye, because we are no longer under the 'shade of faith', under the Hashgachah. And therefore it is forbidden to eat outside the sukkah.

45:51 And this is the reason the Rosh explains: that even if it were one whole animal, since the Sages already decreed it, their enactment cannot be overturned, so that even so it would be forbidden. And so the reason is that there is a concern that even though the majority there are Jews and Jewish slaughterers, ravens may come and carry over an animal that is a carcass and swap one for the other - that is the reason for the prohibition.

46:18 So the Rosh explains that even if it is a whole animal, we are still concerned about this prohibition, and one cannot treat it lightly, because that is what the Sages established, and one cannot argue against it. And the same reason is the law of the sukkah: for the moment we are outside the sukkah, we have the law of meat that was hidden from the eye - meat that was hidden from the eye of the Hashgachah from Above. When a person is inside the sukkah, then Hashem, blessed be He, watches over him.

46:45 And therefore one can also learn from this about the prohibition of a ben pekuah, for the ben pekuah, we learn in Tractate Chullin, page 74, that an offspring of eight months or nine months found alive or dead - this is a dispute between Rabbi Meir and the Sages - whether it is permitted to eat it without shechitah, as Maran the Shulchan Aruch ruled in Yoreh De'ah, in Siman 13. And in practice, if we reflect and see: a ben pekuah that was found inside its mother's womb is permitted because it was covered from the eyes, that is, within the eye - within this covering that we are in, one can permit all the prohibitions, all the tereifos, all the impurities, every one of them.

47:28 This is only through the covering: a person is under the s'chach, and then he has already left the category of meat hidden from the eye. And when we are inside the sukkah, we rise and are elevated to the highest place, to the most awesome place and level, which no person can grasp or reckon. And this is the same secret: that Yosef the tzaddik brought the report to Yaakov their father, he brought the report about the brothers to Yaakov.

47:58 So there is an opinion in Midrash Tanchuma, on Parshas Vayeshev, and also in the Yerushalmi, chapter 1, halachah 1, in Pe'ah, where it says what that report was that Yosef brought to Yaakov: so he told them, 'They ate a limb from a living animal,' and in fact it was a ben pekuah. That is, they were within what is permitted and not within a prohibition, and Yosef brought this report as a prohibition, that is, about something that was the opposite of the eye, that was covered.

48:26 And therefore it is said about Yosef, 'Yosef is a fruitful son, a fruitful son above the eye.' For Yosef tried to reckon this and to understand it only by the eye of his own Hashgachah, only by what he could grasp, and therefore the halachah is like him; but they held that the halachah is like them, and therefore it was permitted - and this is what we explained, that the Yerushalmi explains. But this reason will be understood because they rose up, and they actually ate the ben pekuah, which was permitted and not forbidden.

48:57 Yosef the tzaddik was punished for this: 'How can you - you who are above the eye - how can you suspect your brothers in a matter that is above the eye?' So this is the ben pekuah, which is covered, which is in its mother's womb, which cannot be grasped and cannot be seen. And so, the same reason: when we are inside the sukkah, and we are there for the whole Jewish people, and we pray and engage in Torah and its mitzvos, in every holy thing, in everything that is the greatness and honor of Hashem, blessed be He - in this and through this are revealed and elevated the glory and honor of Hashem, blessed be He, in the whole world.

49:39 For then, through this, we are covered from all those who incite against us and from all those prosecutors, for the eyes that are spread as a covering over the Jewish people are the eye of the Hashgachah from Above. And then it will be understood, in fact, why the s'chach and the sukkah are all about seeing, and this is the matter of the festival peace offerings that one must bring, which is the matter of seeing; and 'a person is obligated to greet his teacher', which is the matter of seeing.

50:05 And this whole festival time of Sukkos is a time of seeing. This is what is written, what Yeshayahu said, for it is written, 'For eye to eye they will see...' in chapter 52, verse 8. It is written, 'For eye to eye they will see when Hashem returns to Zion.' That 'eye to eye they will see' - that the Jewish people will gaze with their eyes at this time, when they look and gaze toward the thing that is above understanding, above the intellect, that they long for the honor of Hashem, blessed be He.

50:38 We are in such a long exile, and in our thoughts it is beyond measure - for however much one thinks about the distance from Hashem, blessed be He, about the long exile, and does not await and desire the building of His Beis HaMikdash - that is the essence of the exile. And the more we await and hope for 'eye to eye they will see when Hashem returns to Zion', through this Hashem, blessed be He, will desire to redeem us.

51:02 And if you think it over - each one should think it over in his mind and turn it into this thought of seeing - 'eye to eye' is as we explained, that we are 'an eye under an eye': when you go out of the sukkah, you have the law of meat hidden from the eye. Therefore all one's obligation and eating must be inside the sukkah, as we explained. And this, in fact, can be explained in the inner dimension: that this was the intention of our early Rabbis, the Rishonim, in what they disagreed about among themselves on the matter.

51:31 But 'eye to eye they will see when Hashem returns to Zion' - this is what everyone desires. Therefore, 'when Hashem returns to Zion': 'B'shuv' is three hundred and ten, 'b'shuv Hashem' - Hashem is another twenty-six, and 'Tziyon' is another one hundred fifty-six. One hundred fifty-six plus twenty-six plus three hundred and ten comes to exactly the number of: samech, that is sixty, plus vav, that is six, plus twenty, plus four hundred - that is four hundred ninety-two.

51:58 Sukkos comes to the number four hundred ninety-two; 'when Hashem returns to Zion' comes to four hundred ninety-two. The beginning of the verse is 'eye to eye they will see', that is, as I explained, that 'eye to eye' corresponds to the s'chach, corresponds to the festival peace offerings, corresponds to - 'a person is obligated to greet his teacher on the festival', to see him, which is the whole matter of seeing. And therefore, when the Jewish people raise their eyes to Heaven and lift their eyes on high - which is 'eye to eye they will see when Hashem returns to Zion' - then the light of Sukkos will be revealed.

52:28 For the whole matter of Sukkos is the matter of the beginning of the geulah; it is the complete geulah, it is the longing for the geulah, it is the light of Hashem, blessed be He, it is all that the Jewish people hope for and await, and it is the hope of the generations. And therefore it is the festival of joy: 'And you shall draw water with joy from the wellsprings of salvation.' And this is the whole matter of our joy and the whole matter of our hope, and the whole matter of the will of the Jewish people: that Hashem, blessed be He, will desire to redeem us.

52:53 For one who does not await and does not ask Hashem, blessed be He, for the complete geulah, and does not desire the complete geulah, and does not await and hope for when the words of the prophets will be fulfilled - as Rashi explained in Shabbos, page 31, that a person will be asked about this: whether he upheld and awaited the words of the prophets. So Rashi explains. This is so that a person will understand how one must truly live the greatness of Hashem, blessed be He.

53:20 Time passes, and time will go by, and what one can seize in this world is to be truthful and to be a man of truth, and not to be afraid or fear anything. 'Do not fear any man' - the judges are commanded this, that they judge the case in everything that comes before them. But to fear Hashem, blessed be He, the honored and awesome, the G-d of our fathers, who saved us from Egypt, and we were in Egypt, in the house of bondage, and we called out to Hashem, blessed be He, and He took us out.

53:50 And the exile that grows longer and is so long - perhaps people forgot, and thought: for what are we in this world, and for what is the purpose in this world, since the whole world is so full of hiddenness, and 'darkness on the face of the deep.' And one only needs to ask for the kingship of Hashem, for the greatness of Hashem. For Hashem, blessed be He, is so humble, and when they do not ask for Him and do not seek Him - 'In the place of His greatness, there you find His humility.'

54:16 But let them ask for the Master, Hashem, blessed be He, for the Master of the world, that He reign; let them ask for the kingship of Hashem, and await, and yearn, and want, and desire His kingship. And when His Name is mentioned, let it be with awe and trembling, with recoil, with dread and with shuddering. Then everyone will be able to see 'eye to eye', they will feel... and it will be revealed more and more - the kingship of Hashem, blessed be He.

54:43 May it be His will that Hashem, blessed be He, desire to redeem us, that everyone have all the good bounty, that everyone have miracles and wonders, that everyone have a good life, that the complete geulah come. Amen. I want to say one more important thing.

55:08 I do not know what people know and do not know about this, but there is something very important that the world needs to know. Holiness of the eyes, and of thought, and matters of kedushah are the most important and exalted things in closeness to Hashem, blessed be He - 'and you shall be holy.'

55:40 To repair this sin, or this matter, or in any way and in any form, it is through teshuvah, true teshuvah from the depth of the heart, that a person pray and cry out to Hashem, blessed be He, from the depths of his heart. A little more than two hundred years ago there was a very, very great Rebbe, a chassid - a chassid - and this has nothing to do with Chassidim and Litvaks or anything else - who lost his children in order to reveal a Tikkun to the world, that by reciting it a person would be able to repair that affair and that matter.

56:41 And the holy Rav, Rabbeinu Aharon Roth, brought this in Shomrei Emunim, and however many doubts and thoughts he had about it, he says that he did not find a solution, and however much one reads eighteen chapters of Mishnayos and more... it is one of the tikkunim that a person must make. And he went through a great many humiliations, a great many disputes, a great many disputes, a great deal of bloodshed.

57:08 And on the night before his passing, on the 18th of Tishrei - now, at this time, on the 18th of Tishrei - he was alone on his bed, dying, and only one or two of his students were next to him, and barely, at the time his soul departed, was there a minyan. And afterward the great crowd came and escorted him to his eternal home.

57:32 And he revealed this Tikkun to the world. And I ask: how is it possible in the world that someone to whom an incident, or something impure, happened - how is it possible not to recite these ten psalms? And it is very important that a person have a connection with these ten kinds of song, in order to recite them, and so that the prayer will be accepted.

57:58 And this is very, very important. I will tell you a story that happened once with the holy Rav, Rabbi Mordechai of Chernobyl, author of the Likutei Torah. He was the Rebbe of the Sheiris Yisrael of Vilednik. He was the son of Rabbi Menachem Nachum of Chernobyl, author of the Me'or Einayim, son of Rabbi Tzvi, the nephew of Rabbi Nachum Shustik, one of the greatest tzaddikim of the generation and the greatest of the generation; he was a towering genius, he has a work, Yismach Lev, on the Shas, and he was an extremely, extremely, extremely wondrous genius, beyond measure.

58:29 And Rabbi Mordechai of Chernobyl arrived at a certain town, and at the time that he arrived in the town, he wanted to preach before the whole town; he went out to greet him - the whole town went out to greet him, all of them; they honored him and gave him great honor. And Rabbi Mordechai said to them: I do not want any honor from you, and I do not want anything from you.

58:55 'Those who are insulted and do not insult, who hear their disgrace and do not answer back' - you have here in your town someone who spreads and illuminates the Torah of his Rebbe. This was the holy gaon, Moharnat, who composed all the books and writings of the Likutei Halachos, which are a deep commentary, of study and depth, according to the Zohar and the Etz Chaim, on the entire Shulchan Aruch.

59:21 And he wrote there about this affair, and he said: I want to take a coin and buy, so that I will have the merit to be included with him and counted with him, and to be part of him, that the merit stand for me of everything that is done to him while he stays silent. And at that time a very great uproar arose in the town, for suddenly they reflected: what are we arguing about?

59:46 Arguing, and shaming, and causing pain throughout all the generations - this was always the road that led us into exile. One must know how to receive the light that Hashem, blessed be He, gave. In every generation He gave tzaddikim, and each tzaddik revealed of his wisdom, of his will and of his way, and it is forbidden ever to disqualify, to reject or to dismiss - whether such a Chassidus or such a Rebbe, or the Litvaks, one another, or these toward the Chassidim, that they shame the Chassidim, or these that shame the members of the others' community, or these that shame those.

1:00:26 And Heaven forbid to see a flaw or a blemish in this community or in that community, or in this Rebbe or in another Rebbe, or in anything else in the world. This is what brought the Jewish people to the whole root of the depths of the great abyss throughout all the generations. And if we hold together, so that we see the good of the Jewish people, that we reflect and see tzaddikim who spat up blood, and gave their blood and their souls, their whole lives, in Torah and in fear of Heaven, for us - that we are here today is in the merit of our forefathers' forefathers, in the merit of all the holy ones who prayed for us, who prayed for the Jewish people, who wept for the Jewish people, to protect the Jewish people.

1:01:14 For this all the holy ones prayed, for this all the tzaddikim prayed. And it is forbidden ever to look with any evil eye, Heaven forbid, at any tzaddik, any Rebbe, any chassid, anyone who fears Hashem, or any Jew in the world; rather, to know that Hashem, blessed be He, He is our Master, our Father, He is our King, and one must reveal the kingship of Hashem, and see the honor of each and every one in this world as a tremendous light that bursts forth from each and every Jew, as a tremendous light that bursts forth, and it is very wondrous, and everyone is special; and it is forbidden ever, Heaven forbid, to extinguish anyone, or to break someone, Heaven forbid.

1:01:56 And this way and this reflection... is what will bring the geulah closer; it is what will bring us to reflection on the greatness of Hashem, blessed be He, to closeness to Hashem, to reflection on Hashem. But the beginning is only that we be united. May it be His will that Hashem, blessed be He, bless all of you, that you have miracles and wonders and a good life, and all the good bounty; that Hashem, blessed be He, bless all the sages of our generation, all the great ones of our generation, all the Torah scholars; that Hashem, blessed be He, give them length of days and years, 'length of days is in her right hand, in her left are wealth and honor,' all the good bounty, in good that is seen and revealed, with joy and gladness of heart,

1:02:37 miracles and wonders and all good, and from all good.