The Yanuka Rav Shlomo Yehuda-מיוחד! שאלות ותשובות עם הגאון הינוקא בסוכה במוצאי יו＂ט מול חומות ירושלים

2:56 On Simchas Torah, it is lest they repair musical instruments. It's not a matter of simply... He doesn't distinguish in this between a mitzvah and not a mitzvah. He doesn't distinguish between a mitzvah and not a mitzvah. Because this is in fact the words of the Tosafos in Beitzah, on page 36. He is only copying them, the words of the Tosafos. He isn't now coming to say on his own that he tells you to forbid dancing. The whole concern is lest one repair a musical instrument. If I come to make dancing on Shabbos, he wants to dance in honor of the Torah.

3:31 Yes, but in practice he means clapping. Dancing, dancing, clapping on Shabbos. I want to dance and rejoice. On Simchas Torah it is evident, everyone sees that the dancing and the clapping are in honor of the Torah; the thing does not cause [unclear]. And that is the reason it is permitted. - What did we talk about earlier, regarding the subject of danger? - Yes. - [unclear], how is it permitted for people to travel to Uman in a country surrounded by war, with [unclear] flying all the time, and even if they say it doesn't fall - but sometimes it does fall, and it could fall in another area.

4:10 - No, no. It's not in the same area, but it's not considered... This whole place, [unclear], this whole place is a place he is a Litvak, so he... Litvaks. Here too we have [unclear], here too it's expected. Right, so here too. - Truly, the question, truly, the question: if it is a place of danger, then truly people [unclear] to come, to get up and leave. - Look, right. Right.

4:37 Look, this is a subject... Yes, right. Right. Look, this is a very sensitive subject. You understand? These are students who cleave to their Rebbe, and they have a tradition of traveling, already 200 years.

5:03 To travel to a holy place. This is a great tzaddik, very, very awesome. There is a virtue and [unclear]. And through all the years there were in Chassidus many holy people who gave themselves over with self-sacrifice for this journey. And they travel, and the Jewish people travel, and thank Hashem, it draws down good things for all the Jewish people. I don't know if now to come and say that everything is presumed dangerous today - all roads are presumed dangerous.

5:28 And here too there are missiles coming down, and here too it is a dangerous place, and also from city to city you - how do we travel from city to city when there are sirens in the whole country? So there too, actually, I heard that it is in a very distant area, like a whole country. The distance from where the war is being fought, very far. - How? - 600 kilometers. 600 kilometers - that's like from here to where? - More than from here to Eilat. That's a lot, much, much more, yes, it's much, much more.

5:58 But we see, a person, for the sake of his livelihood, is permitted to enter a possible danger. All the roads, seafarers, haulers - it is a possible danger. The question is whether it also counts - a person's needs that are around him, if it is a spiritual need, truly a spiritual need, it could be that this too counts within this livelihood. After all, otherwise, all the inhabitants of the land - we are here surrounded by enemies, and they throw at us and want to destroy us, and all the time - we saw last year.

6:28 How is it permitted to be here at all? Maybe we should tell everyone, this is a place of danger, let's go. If it is danger, then there is no permission to be here, to stay here at all. - About what? About the Land of Israel? - Yes. - How did you come to such a 'place of danger'? I didn't understand. - We saw what they did last year. We know what they want all the time, they send missiles all the time, they want to destroy us. If it is a place of danger, then maybe we'll go to the United States, it will be quieter there; we'll go to Uganda, there are no [unclear]. Another place - a place of danger [unclear]. Another place will be a place of danger, if it counts...

7:00 it counts... - Did you hear? Nice. You know, Rabbi Avraham Hamoui, in the book Yemalet Nafsho - you know it - he says, to say - Rabbi Avraham Hamoui, [unclear]. He was a rav, a posek, a Torah scholar, an immense genius, 120 years ago.

7:25 In the time of Rabbi Eliyahu Suliman Mani, the author of Karnos Tzaddik, the rabbi of Hebron, he was a sage from Iraq, he was an immense genius. - In Hebron now? - Yes. - The Reishis Chochmah is there too, right? - Yes.

7:54 Who is she? The grandmother? So you are a descendant of the Baal HaTanya, the Alter Rebbe. You have merited. One of the protected places in the land, in our view - Hebron. Hebron, yes. Hebron is... There is a holiness there not of this world.

8:18 It is a special light. What was it? Ah, so he says to say - he says to say every day: 'I am a Jew, I am a Jew,' 'I will live a Jew, I will live a Jew, I will live a Jew,' 'I will die a Jew, I will die a Jew, I will die a Jew, a Jew, a Jew, a Jew.' Do you know this? - No. - You bring this from [unclear], no? - Yes. Yes. Did you see? It's in the book Sha'arei HaMoriah, they brought it. It is a book that came out on all kinds of tikkunim from Rabbi Eliyahu Suliman Mani, and they brought this. To say every day, after Birchos HaShachar: 'I am a Jew, I am a Jew, I am a Jew, I will live a Jew, I will live a Jew... I will die a Jew, I will die a Jew, I will die a Jew,'

8:57 'a Jew, a Jew, a Jew.' I don't know, I only saw what is written; he asked me something like that, I said... It is not a place of danger, it is not a place of danger, it is the safest place in the world. The Land of Israel, the place where there are so many Jews, and we have nothing but to be in the four cubits of halachah, here in the Land of Israel, together with all our brothers here, and the Holy One, blessed be He, watches over us, and all the promises of the Torah, precisely this is in the Land of Israel - it is fulfilled in the Land of Israel.

9:29 And see what the Pnei Yehoshua writes on page 110, in Tractate Kesubos, in his novellae, the Pnei Yehoshua: he writes that in order to fulfill the blessings of the Land of Israel and the bounty of the Land of Israel, only one who is in it not as a commandment of men learned by rote. When a person is not there as if, 'now it's comfortable for me to live here, and my father lives here, so it's comfortable for me to be here,' but rather he values and contemplates and understands the power of the holiness of the land, understands where he is, then so too the blessings and the bounty can rest upon him; he can receive more of the force and the holiness of the Land of Israel.

10:07 So also, presumably, all the blessings in the Torah, all of it will rest upon us because of this. - Amen. - Where did you say? Where - one more thing? At the spring of Avraham Avinu in Hebron? - I know that this place is very, very ancient.

10:37 The spring of Avraham Avinu is something, I saw, it also appears in the book Sha'arei Yerushalayim. It also appears there. In principle yes, in principle I... It is a place that, yes, this place is truly a miracle. I immersed there, I definitely believe it. - You mean into such a cave - you go into such a cave, right?

11:07 - Right, such a cave, and you immerse inside a cave. Yes, I immersed there once, it's something, you feel an immense, very awesome light. In general this too is a wonder - where a spring flows from at all in these areas. This is also another very great miracle. So certainly. - Miriam's well - is there something to it? - Miriam's well? - Miriam's well, yes. The question is how would you know, how would it come your way? But is there - for one who does know it - great significance?

11:35 - What is the significance of Miriam's well? Oh, one who does know - it is a great thing. A person who receives one drop from Miriam's well, everything he learns will not be forgotten, he will merit a complete healing, all the limbs. There was once a story with a certain chassid who sent his wife to go bring him water, and he was angry at her for being late. And from the fright, her jug of water spilled, he was sick with tzaraas, and the drops of water that fell from the pot splashed on him on the place of the [unclear], and he was healed.

12:03 Only in the place where it splashed; as if he lost everything - it had come his wife's way, and because of the rebuke he gave her, he lost the effect of Miriam's well. It is a very great thing. If a person merits that it comes his way and he gathers it to himself, it is a great thing. It was Rabbeinu Chaim Vital who said that the holy Arizal knew where it is, and once it came before him and he told him - he took him on a boat ride in the lake of Tiberias, in the Kinneret.

12:33 It was at Chacham Abulafia's, from whose synagogue they would see Miriam's well, and they knew - it's like a spring that goes and moves around, and one can see it. - Does it run away? - Well, in principle, I'm sure it runs away. It moves around, it moves around in the Kinneret. And it's possible - and the Jewish people had the custom to drink water on Motzaei Shabbos, which the Rema brought, so that perhaps one drop of Miriam's well might come their way in the water. Who knows? Maybe?

13:03 Who knows? - How can one get there? How can one know? - It's something spiritual. - No, it's something physical. It's physical, but it's something physical. It's physical, it's spiritual, yes. It isn't available to every person. - No, certainly, but it is physical. You do see it. If you go to the Kinneret, you will see some well, like a well of water, flowing inside the water itself. - Why doesn't it mix in?

13:28 - Why doesn't it mix in? Yes, why does it move apart from the whole Kinneret? Because it's a well, you see, it's something fenced off, it's a kind of spiritual thing - that's what I'm explaining. It's a very great virtue, and it's a merit. Why do you think everyone can receive from these holy waters? These are very, very holy waters. If I saw it - I'll tell you something. If you're asking, I'll answer you. They say that from the synagogue of Rav Abulafia in Tiberias they would see Miriam's well.

13:56 And I went there once, when I was there for Shabbos with the holy tzaddikim there, many years ago. It was after I got married, right around two months after the wedding, something like that, and I went there to pray on Erev Shabbos. I went there with my wife to pray, and I said, let's see from this synagogue whether you can see Miriam's well.

14:21 And I looked out the window and from the window I truly saw something like a kind of well; I really saw this thing. And I very much wanted to go touch it, because it was a very puzzling thing to me. So I called her too, to come see it, to look together with me, and she also saw that it was a very strange thing. But it wasn't possible to go into the water, because it was already Shabbos, and where would I have managed to go in? It was - it wasn't - it's like right at his synagogue, yes, it was far, and already evening, you see it right in the light of the sunset, and I was in Shabbos clothes and everything, but I don't know if it was also that - but it was something that very

14:58 something I wondered at very much, it was very strange. No, I really saw something like a kind of spring, really like water, like a circle of water, which flows like a fountain into itself, like that, within the water. It was something... - How? Yes, something like that. I don't know if it was that.

15:26 Yes? Look, now I did it by mistake. Now I did it by mistake. They go to the Cave of Machpelah. Once there was a whole story, he says it was some weeks ago, on Erev Shabbos.

15:52 Suddenly they saw that he was looking, looking, What became clear: he had sent [unclear], in the end money for charity to the people of [unclear] the Land of Israel, And what did they do? And he said that he [unclear]. [unclear], it appears in a book called the rabbi in Bnei Brak, this really happened, [unclear].

16:20 It is also in the book [unclear]. Do you know the book? about the Pri HaAretz, about Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk. All his stories are there. It is written that Rabbi Menachem Mendel would rectify souls. Many rectify souls. After they immerse in Miriam's well, they pass to the Cave of Machpelah, and from there all the souls go up to Gan Eden. He would rectify souls. He passed away at the age of 49. He was the teacher and student-colleague of Rabbi Avraham of Kalisk, and of the Alter Rebbe.

16:50 He had a bond of friendship, a very great love, with the Alter Rebbe, the author of the Tanya. It's not so much... I heard that it's — they only say it, but he received from him, but he received from someone else too, you know: Rabbi Avraham HaMalach, 'the Angel'. Rabbi Avraham HaMalach — he learned from him six months.

17:17 For six months he learned Torah from him. Yes, right, his hillula. Rabbi Avraham HaMalach, son of Rabbi Dov Ber, the Maggid of Mezritch. Rabbi Avraham HaMalach passed away at the age of 37, and he was the son of Rabbi Dov Ber, the Maggid of Mezritch, and after the Maggid of Mezritch passed away, the Alter Rebbe was in very great sorrow, so he and Rabbi Yehudah Leib HaKohen of Anipoli, author of Or HaGanuz, sat and went to receive Torah from Rabbi Avraham HaMalach, for six or seven months.

17:53 And in the book Chesed LeAvraham, of Rabbi Avraham of Kalisk and Rabbi Avraham HaMalach, in the novellae there, there is a discourse that is really a discourse similar to the Alter Rebbe's in Likkutei Amarim, several things that are similar between them, and he said that much of the Kabbalah he learned from him. Of the teaching of Kabbalah, he received from Rabbi Avraham HaMalach. After a few months he already did not stop receiving, he himself was already what he was, but he received from him for at least six or seven months.

18:24 Right, yes, Yes. There is the song with the golden wheels: 'I would roll after you.' What they wanted together — that there was such love and longing between them, the love that was between them was something beyond measure, the love that was between them. That was the Pri HaAretz. They say he was the only one who resembled the holy Baal Shem Tov. Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk, author of the Pri HaAretz, son of Rabbi Moshe, author of the Pri HaAretz.

18:49 He was very — he had his very likeness, they would see in him the face of the Baal Shem Tov. Like they say that the Rebbe Maharash, the Rebbe Yosef Yitzchak, son of Rabbi Shalom Dov Ber, son of the Rebbe, Rabbi Shmuel, the Rebbe Maharash, that once a chassid came in to the Rebbe Rayatz and fainted, So when they woke him, they asked him: why did you faint? So he said: I saw his grandfather, and he is like drops of water, the very likeness of his grandfather, the Rebbe Maharash.

19:16 The Rebbe — it was an old chassid who came in to the Rebbe Yosef Yitzchak, to a farbrengen, to a private audience, he came in to him for a private audience, and he fainted there. So when they woke him, they asked him: why did you faint? So he said that he remembers being with his grandfather, the Rebbe Maharash, and he was exactly the same as him, the Rebbe Maharash, Rabbi Shmuel of Lubavitch. The Rebbe Maharash. He was like two drops of water with him, he resembled him.

19:43 Yes. From the tomb of Yitzchak Avinu, - At Yitzchak's tomb, yes. I was there too. There is also a real scent of Gan Eden there that you smell. They say no one understands where this breeze comes from. They investigated it from the natural side, and there is really no natural explanation for where the... It's a breeze of the earth; there's a smell of grass there, of — as if, it's like a garden, it's air like that of a garden, it's not air.

20:12 Yes, it's not air from machines or something, because you would feel that it's bad air. It's this cool air, with a smell of grass in the earth, and it's not clear where such a gust of wind, of air, comes from. It is truly a wonder. I was there and I put my head there, and simply Right, and it recalls the whole story [unclear], and it's something These are things that rise from Heaven, [unclear].

20:54 In the introduction to the Mishnah, Tractate Avodah Zarah, the Rambam, in his commentary on Tractate Avodah Zarah in the Mishnah, the Rambam writes explicitly that those, in practice, are not called idol worshippers, only these two: Edom, the Christians. The Muslims are not called idol worshippers. - On the tallis katan you put a techeles thread, and on the tallis gadol you put a regular one?

21:27 - I put it like this: on the tallis katan I have a techeles tallis, and the tallis gadol I put on regular. - What is the source of the techeles? - What do you mean, source? - No, [unclear]. No, it's not in the picture, I mean the source. [unclear]. What they say, that it is the banded dye-murex snail, [unclear], that is all in all a Midrash Rabbah. The Midrash Rabbah says that the techeles will be revealed in the days of Mashiach.

21:53 And, like, who said that we are really in the days of Mashiach? - This Midrash really does say that it is destined to be revealed in the days of Mashiach, like, if it will be revealed, we don't know. And on one hand, the great ones of the generation don't put techeles on the tallis, so I say, one can put it on the tallis katan and not put it on the tallis gadol. It depends — a dispute between the Zohar, the Bavli and the Yerushalmi.

22:23 How long will it be? 40 years? 20 years? It depends which way we go? It depends what will be? It depends whether Mashiach ben Yosef comes first, and after that Mashiach ben David. This is something that very, very, very, very much depends on the order of the unfolding of the Redemption, how the Holy One, blessed be He, will decide to redeem us, in what form, in what way, in what...

22:51 They say that Rabbi Aharon of Belz was once asked this question that your honor is asking, and Rabbi Aharon of Belz said that Gog and Magog already happened, and Rebbe Elimelech already annulled all the troubles that were to come, and Mashiach will come through one person conversing with his fellow, and that is how Mashiach will come. There will be no more Gog and Magog and no wars, it's already Rebbe Elimelech annulled it.

23:18 Yes, they say it's a new decree. He said that the Holocaust is a new decree, Rabbi Aharon of Belz. - Who knows. We will always await it. - Okay, but you also — you know that there were also tzaddikim who would annul them, in the wars. Yes? You don't rely on the tzaddikim? - Of course I rely on the tzaddikim. - So rely on them. Rely on the tzaddikim. - In the heart. I rely on the tzaddikim. - It's a novelty — a Litvak [unclear] relying on tzaddikim.

23:45 That's progress. In the Sifra DiTzniusa, in the Gra's commentary, at the end of the Sifra DiTzniusa, he gives there several principles for people, for whoever understood his intent. The question is whether a person can understand the Gra on this and calculate the correct interpretation, which in fact is what will bring about the interpretation of the Redemption.

24:11 The words are sealed and hidden, and no one explains them. - No, there's a date in the Ramban, and among the great ones of the world there's a date. I mean, I understand. It's not something fixed, it's something dynamic, it moves. - You're right. As Rabbi Yochanan said: 'May the spirit of those who calculate the end be blasted.' Look, Ah, these things are things that are auspicious. At all these times, according to all the opinions and according to all the Sages, these are things that are auspicious.

24:39 Auspicious means that according to this time calculation we can merit some awakening or a glimmer of the Redemption, but can this thing actually happen? That is something that very, very, very, very, very much depends on how the Holy One, blessed be He, will decide. The whole matter of a segulah, like there are segulos — they say there are segulos: a person will do this or that, and he will have a segulah.

25:06 And a segulah means that this thing can cause it, and it is capable of bringing it about. Rav Hai Gaon, in Shimush Tehillim, writes that chapter 8 is auspicious for finding favor and kindness in people's eyes. Now, a person will behave not nicely and speak not nicely to people, and recite Psalm 8 in Tehillim — will he find favor in people's eyes? He won't find favor. Why? His conduct is not nice, not proper; he doesn't behave with derech eretz, so he won't find favor.

25:32 But if he behaves nicely, speaks nicely, and deals honestly in business, and helps people, strengthens people, and recites Psalm 8 in Tehillim, which has a segulah, then it will help him [unclear]. This time is auspicious. The whole matter of segulos. Also the matters of calculating the Redemption — these are auspicious times. Also what we learned before, that I explained to you about the... about the explanations — that I just did it now by mistake, yes?

25:57 not on purpose — about what he asked, about the interlacing of the hands. So I explained to you that, Heaven forbid, a person — if it was decreed on him in Heaven, there is something not good upon him, if he does this, it is capable of causing that, Heaven forbid, a judgment be passed on him, Heaven forbid. It's as if — it is capable, but that doesn't mean that... it can cause it, but it doesn't mean that, Heaven forbid, it will happen, Heaven forbid. It is something that is, so to speak, capable; it is something that a person who puts his hands in such a way — it's better not to do it. I said: the Zohar, Vayikra, page 24a, and our master the Arizal, in Shaar [unclear], Our master the Arizal writes not to interlace the hands. If a person did it,

26:44 but it is something that can cause a person it can cause, Heaven forbid — so it is better not to do it. But that doesn't mean that if a person does it afterwards, something bad will happen, Heaven forbid. So one must always, every time, know: these are things that are capable. So also... - Why don't we say, 'one who is not concerned, there is no concern for him'? - It's a matter of piety, it's not from the basic law, it's not written in the Shulchan Aruch.

27:10 - Right. So why don't we say, something one is not concerned about is no concern for him? - So for that reason it is not in the category of halachah, it is in the category of practices, of things that a person would do well to be concerned about. To be concerned — we need to be concerned for the words of our master the Ari. Good, tzaddikim, yes, yes. In principle, according to the Chasam Sofer, there was once a story that he was walking in the street and saw about someone that he was an Amalekite, and he killed him.

27:40 He said that he was fulfilling the mitzvah of Amalek — that if a person knows of someone that he is of the seed of Amalek, it is some kind of mitzvah to kill him. But they say that this story was not true. I saw many of the Acharonim who wrote about this story that it was not true, and in the name of Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach I saw, in several more, who said that this story is forged and that in truth he did not kill anyone, but on the other hand I saw in other books that he did catch someone and did kill him; in old editions I did see it written; on the one hand I saw that it isn't.

28:10 They say that he was very strong, the Chasam Sofer, and he would crack nuts with two fingers, and once a non-Jew happened before him and he saw — he knew that he was an Amalekite, and he called out the mitzvah of wiping out Amalek and he killed him. That is to say, you see the last story — this is the last story I saw about someone who truly identified Amalek, and it was in our times, that is the Chasam Sofer — how? That he knew about someone being an Amalekite? There is someone — the Jew killed a non-Jew in a car accident, unintentionally, and then he came to Rav [unclear], [unclear] told him: Amalek.

28:43 And then it became clear — they sold this non-Jew's house, and whoever bought it, I think — he went to see — it was a Jew, and he saw there pictures of this non-Jew: he had been in the German army — this was in the United States — he had been in the German army, he was [unclear]. [unclear] said: this is Amalek. In principle, it's impossible to know this so much; it's impossible to know the lineage of Amalek.

29:14 It's something very difficult; we have only the signs of the Amalekites: their cruelty toward Israel, their bloodshed toward Israel. They have, yes, right, right, that is the root of Amalek. It's possible, but you know, we still must always look according to the Torah and according to the halachah, and not rule things from our own mind, only what we see, but according to the commentary we see that their deeds and their behavior truly mark them as being Amalek.

29:52 [unclear] it doesn't matter. The whole aim of Amalek was always, Heaven forbid, to harm Israel. It doesn't matter in what way the harm is carried out, whether it is in the soul, whether it is the body, it is the same way. What the Germans did — people have perhaps forgotten a little, but you understand that it was a tremendous number of Jews, to kill them in crematoria, by suffocation, to destroy, Heaven forbid, a whole people in such a cruel and terrible way — these are signs of Amalek.

30:24 These are signs of the Erev Rav, but Amalek itself, as we see, is very, very, very severe. In the Mechilta, in Parashas Yisro, there are their signs, both of the Erev Rav and of Amalek. You can go in the middle of the week. You can go whenever you want. Look, you can keep going to search for Miriam's well, but it is better that you pray to the Holy One, blessed be He, that He already give you all the virtues that are there, and pray to the Creator — only prayer to the Creator, blessed be He. The only way, the way a person who wants to bring about something from before Hashem — it is only prayer.

31:03 - So if he wants the Rav to come to Tiberias, he needs to pray. - I need to come to Tiberias now? - No, he wants the Rav to take him to Tiberias. - So you search for it first, and afterwards, if you tell me you found it, tell us: 'Let's go!' Tell Rabbi Yosef 'Let's go!' and together we'll all go together. But afterwards he will argue whether it is permitted — this, and [unclear] — it is forbidden to immerse, and afterwards it is permitted to immerse, [unclear] I enjoyed being with you. May you have good tidings, a good life, the complete Redemption, Chag sameach, festivals for joy, holidays and seasons for gladness, all the blessings and the good bounty. And always remember that the main thing, the main of the main things, is to always be in joy, and not to be afraid,

31:52 and not to be broken by anything. May you have strength and hope and joy and salvations and blessings and much good, and may Hashem, blessed be He, have mercy on us and save us, [unclear] I am Hashem your G-d. May there be good tidings, a good life, and all the good bounty. Amen. - I'll say, step after step — I'm glad I came, not only did I fulfill on the Torah level — you bring diamonds out of us every time. - I don't bring them out; it's hunger, it's the hunger, it's only the hunger, it's only the hunger,