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The Yanuka’s own words in this shiur, translated into English by Lehallel · 6,819 words · 31:25. Press a time to hear it said.
0:00 Do you know the story of 'Fire in Amram's house'? Rabbi Amram — he was Rabbi Amram Chasida, the Gemara tells his story, that he was inside the house and suddenly shouted 'Fire in Amram's house! Fire in Amram's house!', and the whole city came, the whole neighborhood, everyone — he is shouting, there's a fire, there's — they see there is no fire. He actually shamed himself, because it was a very shameful thing, that there was, so to speak, a test [unclear] in the matter of fear of Heaven, and he actually shouted to everyone that there was a fire. Now, everyone — after all, he is the great one of the generation, there's a fire in his house — everyone comes to the house, to his house, they go in, they break down the door and see there is no fire and no blaze at all, so they said to him, what do you mean?
0:42 So they understood that in fact he had put himself at risk, so to speak; he explained to them that his fear of Heaven was in danger, that is to say, there was a test here, Heaven forbid, of something that could have caused some kind of bad thing. So I will ask you a question. Did he have fear of Heaven? Why — but did he have fear of Heaven? Because if he shouted 'Fire in Amram's house!', that means he wanted to make people come, that means he would be afraid of them, and he would not commit a sin.
1:17 So did he have fear of Heaven? I'll explain something. In the story of Rav Amram, where he said 'Fire in Amram's house!', and in fact everyone came and went into his house, so seemingly, I can look at this from two sides. On one side I say that he had no fear of Heaven. Because he is afraid of people, so he calls them to come save him. If there were no one now — if he were in the middle of the desert, seemingly, he would not shout 'Fire in Amram's house!' and no one would come — so what, would he sin?
1:45 Right or not? Probably yes. Probably yes. Seemingly, [unclear]. Can't one say of him that he doesn't rely on himself [unclear]? No, I'll explain it to you simply, I'll resolve it for you in a simple way. On one side I can say it this way; on the other side I can say that his fear of Heaven was the greatest there is. Why was his fear of Heaven the greatest there is? Because he shouted 'Fire in Amram's house!' so that everyone would in fact learn from him for generations, that if you have some test, then shout to people, so they come and see you, and don't shame yourselves, learn it from me.
2:19 But he had no test at all. That is to say, he taught us, like King David, to teach repentance to the individual. You understand? That is to say, it could be — that's how I explain it — I can explain it in two ways. If I say it this way, then seemingly he has no fear of Heaven, like, dependent on created beings, but it can't be that one says that. He comes to teach us that a person, if he has a test, should not be ashamed to shout, so as not to lose his World to Come, because in the World to Come — he explained to them that the shame is much greater for a person to be ashamed. Better for me to be ashamed in this world and not be ashamed in the World to Come,
2:46 because in the World to Come the fear is much greater and the shame is much greater. That is to say, true fear of Heaven is [unclear] by the measure of the person. It's simple: fear of Heaven is a person who knows there is a grave, and there is an end, and there is death, and a person will die and they will put him in his grave, and he will have to give an accounting for all his deeds in this world. That is fear of Heaven, period.
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3:11 There is nothing else here. A person who understands that at some point his heart can stop working and they will wrap him in shrouds and put him under the ground, as everyone has seen the end, how people leave this world. And he will simply picture it. Akavia ben Mahalalel: 'Look at three things and you will not come to sin.' And then a person will take note of himself, he will understand before Whom he is destined to give an accounting, and that is the measure of fear of Heaven. So there is one who thinks he will die in another 300 years, so he allows himself to travel around, to do whatever he likes, because he says, no way, I won't die.
3:42 I'll live 500 years, 600 years, 700 years, so the measure of his fear of Heaven is very far off. And there is one who knows that something could happen, but he lives. His fear of Heaven is even lower, also low, but a little more than that one. And there is one who every day feels that he could go, every day, like the Yismach Moshe, the one whose hillula it is, may his merit protect us, who would say vidui, the confession, even on Shabbos.
4:06 That is, a person who says vidui even on Shabbos, he held that just as a person who goes up to bed, Heaven forbid, it could be as if, Heaven forbid, he departs from the world. So in fact he held by Yoreh De'ah, siman [unclear], se'if 2, the Sages say, that a person says vidui as one who is dying — about a person who confesses before he passes away, they have him say vidui. He went up to bed — Heaven forbid, who knows if I'll get up.
4:33 So he does teshuvah, he began to cry, doing teshuvah even on Shabbos. That is how he would conduct himself, because he would think that every night he could pass away. Every night he could leave the world, no matter when. That's how he felt. Now, only a person who feels that way does this. As halachah, one does not say vidui on Shabbos or things like that; one does not do vidui. But the level of the Yismach Moshe was so great — for him, he could pass away at any moment. So what did he do every year on his birthday?
4:59 He would go and buy his shrouds, lie down in his grave that he had bought for himself, say Tehillim there and wrap himself in shrouds, he would wind the shrouds around himself a little, lie there and get up. That's what he did every year on his birthday, to remind himself what his end is. That's the Yismach Moshe. So you see from here that fear of Heaven — whenever people come to say fear of Heaven, what is fear of Heaven? That a person knows there is judgment and there is a Judge, and this world is not ownerless.
5:25 A person can leave the world, and therefore he needs to do good deeds, he needs to do teshuvah; it is forbidden to do evil, forbidden to commit sins, forbidden to commit transgressions, because you can make one mistake with the Holy One, blessed be He, and you overfilled the measure too much, and suddenly He will exact payment from a person. Why does a person always need to do teshuvah? Because the sins, Heaven forbid, that a person sins are like a thin rope that he stretches. A person stretches a rope. Now, he doesn't know how far he is stretching it.
5:51 None of us knows how great his distance from Hashem is. We always feel — a person always feels that the Holy One, blessed be He, is such a — Heaven forbid — forgiving One, [unclear], but people say — they stretch the string, the rope too much, stretch, stretch, stretch, they say it's not so bad, for this He forgives, for this He pardons, for this — not so bad, and we allow ourselves to permit all kinds of things, he transgressed and repeated it — it became permitted to him, Heaven forbid; a person stretches the rope, stretches, stretches, and he doesn't know that he is pressing it too much.
6:25 No one knows whether this sin, this small one — that perhaps he did not say the after-blessing on the wine, the after-blessing he should have said — perhaps that will tip him to the scale of guilt, and something, Heaven forbid, will happen to him because of it. If we said that Iyov was tested with his sufferings because he was not careful about mayim acharonim — where did he end up? And that was part of his sufferings that came — such a small and simple thing. So pay attention that a person can sometimes cause some thing from a very small thing.
6:55 Therefore no one knows, and one must always do teshuvah, and not stretch the rope too much, because you don't know what a person will do. A person who lives, he wants to do teshuvah, because he knows, he says, Heaven forbid, maybe this time it's this, maybe this little theft, maybe this little thing, maybe it's not so bad, it's not so bad. A person permits himself many things. He says, I'm like this, I'm unfortunate, I haven't married yet. He permits himself all kinds of leniencies, to pity himself, his situation or his life situation, and permits himself all kinds of dangerous leniencies.
7:25 It could be that he stretches the rope so far that, Heaven forbid, this rope suddenly tears. The moment the rope tears, his whole life, Heaven forbid, can be turned upside down. Therefore a person must always do teshuvah, so that there will not be upon him from Above, Heaven forbid, a sharp sword that will cause him, Heaven forbid, many bad things. Therefore this is the definition of fear of Heaven. Fear of Heaven is a person who lives with the end in view, who knows there is judgment and there is a Judge.
7:52 And therefore everything is in the hands of Heaven. [unclear], but except for fear of Heaven — that a person builds for himself. A person builds for himself this boundary and this level, according to how much he reflects. That is exactly this definition, because there is one who reflected once a week, once a year, once in 20 years and once in 300 years. There are people who live here — look at them, rich, flying from here to there, from here to there — look at him, he makes plans, builds buildings, buys land on which they are going to build in another 700 years, and now he is busy only with that, as if there is nothing else in the world.
8:24 Go explain that. There are people who feel they are going to live here 700-800 years. That's how they feel, as in the time to come. It could be, with Hashem's help — [unclear] that we merit that, with Hashem's help, that they will live, with Hashem's help, forever. Therefore that is the definition of fear of Heaven. Yes. - Not only — every one, [unclear] Israel, a heart for Hashem, he loves Hashem, he wants to serve Hashem, he wants love of fellow Jews.
8:50 Peace, peace, peace, peace. Simply we, we [unclear], every one — why doesn't he come to the mitzvos? Why doesn't he want Hashem? No, so the question is, how do we actually reach this trust? Everyone knows the truth, his trust to be... - Good, listen, I'll tell you something. Let's speak the absolute truth. What you are saying right now is called a plea of merit, a very beautiful one, on behalf of the Jewish people.
9:16 It is a beautiful plea of merit, a correct one. Truly, at the root, every Jew wants Hashem, blessed be He, and that is very true, and it is a most wonderful plea of merit. But you need to understand that the Geulah does not come because each one doesn't want Hashem, blessed be He. I'll explain to you what I mean. When a person feels that the Holy One, blessed be He — look, one who truly wants Hashem, you are talking about levels of tzaddikim. At the root of the Jewish people, all are tzaddikim, all truly want Hashem, they just don't know how to express it, that it is Hashem, blessed be He.
9:45 But you need to understand that every person who is here in the world in the end goes after his eyes. In Tractate Sotah, page 9b, the Sages teach that Shimshon went after his eyes, therefore the Philistines gouged out his eyes. And every person who sets his eyes on what is not his, in the end even what he has can be taken from him. And this generation — its test, usually, is that people set their eyes on what is not theirs. A person always wants what is not his.
10:11 And no one is happy with his portion. And people want things that are not for their level. And a person always — he never looks at what he has achieved under his hand, neither in spirituality nor in material things. He is not happy with what he merited to reap, what he merited to gather. A person always looks at what he doesn't have; that's how he lives. He gets up, he lives day to day on what he doesn't have. No one looks and gets up from what he has and tries to be happy with it.
10:35 A person has a son and a daughter, he is in sorrow that he doesn't have another two sons and three daughters. One who has one son is in sorrow — why doesn't he have a daughter. One who has a wife is sad — why doesn't he have sons, he has no children — but you at least have a wife. The bachelor doesn't even have a wife, he is in sorrow — you at least have parents, you have that too, that one doesn't have it. Everyone can always look at something good he has, and no one looks at it. That is to say, a person always wants, he isn't content with what he has, only — he's also not happy enough, and Hashem, blessed be He — he always wants what is missing.
11:07 He runs after what is missing, and then he lacks, and then he is in sorrow, and then he is in bitterness. And then he pictures himself, and he doesn't understand what to do in the world. And he grieves until in the end he can even reach a state where he takes his own life. But that's not in spirituality. It's both in spirituality and in material things. A person who truly wants Hashem will rejoice in Hashem. When you want something, what does 'will' mean? Every will of a person in this world should be only the Supreme Will.
11:36 We live here in the world, in all this exile that we see, all the wars that we see, why are there wars at all? Why do these fight with those? Because each one has a certain will. And they want to impose their will over a will that is opposed to it. Why are there quarrels and disputes between spouses? This one wants A, that one wants B. They fight between them over the will. The root of the wars in this world is over will.
12:02 Will is what determines and decides the whole world. Wars are because of will. These hold that their will is right. All the disputes are because of wills. If they didn't want anything, there would be no dispute at all. This one wants this land, and that one wants this land, and they fall into dispute between them. You understand? Every time there is a dispute, always stop, check — there are wills here, very great ones. Jerusalem, the city of wars and disputes and bloodshed, everyone wanted this city.
12:34 The more the will grows stronger, so, against it, there is more dispute. Dispute. But if everyone wanted only the Holy One, blessed be He, seemingly there would be no dispute. There would be peace in the world. Because Hashem, blessed be He, can be given to everyone. Hashem wants to give His light to everyone. And this is in fact the reason that you see that there is no peace and we still haven't reached it.
13:00 Because not everyone truly merits the will for complete self-nullification before the Holy One, blessed be He. May it be His will that we merit this. How many years will we sit at the Kosel, on the floor, and merit? No, no, that's it, enough, Heaven forbid, no, no. Soon the Beis HaMikdash, the Holy Temple — that's it, it's over. Right now, look at what the Sages teach us in Tractate Menachos, page 43: 'What does Hashem your G-d ask of you' — do not read 'mah', what, but 'me'ah', a hundred — be careful about a hundred blessings, and that's it.
13:37 That is what the Holy One, blessed be He, wants from you, He wants from you fear of Heaven, and that you be careful about a hundred blessings, every day. Bless the Holy One, blessed be He — that's what Hashem wants. To start looking for Hashem wanting something else? No, no, no. He wants a person to be G-d-fearing, for 'only to fear Hashem your G-d', and also that the person be reciting a hundred blessings every day. These are the things a person is careful about. Yes, speak. - [unclear] spoke today about this thing, that people today, that everyone wants more and more, and they are not content with what they have, in cars and material things?
14:06 There is some point of balance here; simply, if people were content with what they have, for example a person who expressed himself, let's say, 'I'm content that I have a wife' — he won't have children, the world won't advance at all; a person, let's say, 'in my spirituality I'm content' — he won't advance in spirituality, he won't [unclear], he won't do anything. In the end this lack of satisfaction is the creative force of the world; the whole world has advanced until today, both in spirituality and in material things, it's thanks to the lack of satisfaction. There are points of balance here, of not reaching a state — the Rav mentioned the state of reaching a state where people are sad and want to take their own lives.
14:34 Like, there needs to be a point of balance, but one needs [unclear] lack of satisfaction in order to move further ahead. - I understand what His Honor is saying; you are saying a very nice thing, that is very true, but not precise. And I'll explain to you why. I'll explain to you what it means. When you see that there are people in the world today — truly, as you said — if a person were to feel as if he is satisfied and happy with his portion, then he wouldn't marry and wouldn't have children and all that.
15:02 So I'll explain to you: that a person wants to continue life, that doesn't stem from his having a lack of satisfaction and so he advances, it stems from the trait of victory. Each one of us has a drive to win. The trait of victory corresponds to eternity, corresponding to the sefirah of Netzach. Each one of us has something inside that wants to be the victor in everything. And that is something else entirely, it isn't connected to satisfaction.
15:29 It's true that it's similar, it's true that it is very close, and you are right in what you are saying, but the root of it, where it comes from - it does not come from a lack of satisfaction. When a person now has a wife and wants to have children and wants to progress, it is not because he is not happy with his lot. He can be happy with his lot and be the happiest about something, about everything, but what he does will always come from the trait of victory. Each one of us has the trait of victory.
15:54 And it is by the trait of victory that we keep going. When a person wants to be a winner, successful, wants to be a winner at work, wants to be a winner in medicine. When a person has money, then on the one hand he is happy with the money he has, but he wants more. That is because of the trait of victory, that he wants to be victorious in everything and to strengthen his trait of victory. Has this not been proven by people? And how will I prove this thing to you?
16:20 If I take most of the world, and I were to isolate all the people today, and I put each one on a desert island, each one simply on a desert island. Now come - there are eight billion people in the world, that's eight billion islands. Each one sits on a desert island. I ask: would women run to buy jewelry and clothes? No. Would a person spend the whole day doing things so that he would be seen? Today almost most of the world does things that almost 95% of them are only for the eyes of their friends.
16:55 A person wants a nice apartment, he wants it to be big and spacious for him. 70%, 30%, he thinks about being seen. There are some who buy a good car so that they'll be comfortable, but there are some who will buy a car so that they'll be seen. There are some who dress lavishly because a person wants to be comfortable, while someone else wants to dress so that he'll be seen. Right now I am talking about most of the world. We, the Jewish people, are more modest and dress simply and all that, but let's talk about most of the world. Most of the world today wants to do things for the eyes of the other created beings, and then, so that the world will see what I am doing, and that's how they want it. A person wants wealth
17:34 not, sometimes, for certain goals; he doesn't want it in order to give charity - he thinks about that, fine, he says I'll give - but most of his wealth is because he has some revenge against some friend who got ahead of him and pained him, or because of someone who didn't help him, and now he says: I'll have it, and I'll even show him. It even comes from evil or from revenge, or from a father who was in a quarrel with his son - the father was very rich, and now the son says, I'll outdo my father, and I'll show him how I have more wealth than he does.
18:03 And most of people's goals and desires come from the trait of victory, that they want to be winners and to reach high. And as for this trait of Netzach - the trait of victory is good, it is good, one simply needs to take it to a good place. - What is it? No one goes to beat little children at a soccer game. Because the victory isn't... The victory - he feels it out of a lack that I want to fill, in the end.
18:28 it still - I don't have enough appreciation in that place. So if I win, I'll get appreciation. Like, only because at the base it connects. I understand what you are saying, I understand, but still I can show you, for instance, an example, another example that will be a bit problematic for us if we look at it. What is this example? I can take all the tzaddikim, the foundations of the world, that we had in history. We had tzaddikim, holy ones of the Most High.
18:55 There is no doubt that they all reached the level of satisfaction and were happy with their lot. Yet there are actually stories - I grew up in the yeshiva world - about rabbis, that they would make lists and all day they would check how much they had progressed since yesterday, and if not, they felt it was missing, things like that. Like, they had - they were satisfied, perhaps partly, but they also had a lack, in that they wanted more. - Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai - what you said about those who were accustomed to make the accounting of the soul - Rabbi Shimon says this in the Zohar, [unclear], page 108, side a.
19:24 This is called 'masters of the reckoning', that a person does teshuvah every night before he goes to sleep, he secludes himself before the Holy One, blessed be He, and does teshuvah before his Maker, he secludes himself and makes an accounting of where he is not right, where he erred, and he makes an accounting of the soul, and this lack that he is in, and that he examines, is his measure of whether he is coming close to my Creator or not. How close am I to the Creator or not - have I distanced myself from Him, am I close to Him.
19:49 This is a connection of teshuvah toward Heaven, so that a person will know whether he is close to Hashem or far from Hashem. This is no longer connected to the category of satisfaction or no satisfaction, it is more connected to the category of 'I erred toward Heaven, I want teshuvah,' I am doing teshuvah. And that is the reason that, in the Beis Yosef, in siman 239, in the Shema at bedtime, we also say the confession. After all, we say - there is 'Blessed... who casts the bonds of sleep upon my eyes', there are the blessings of the bedtime Shema, the blessing before.
20:19 They say it, and then a person goes and does teshuvah, they say Ana B'Koach, according to the Kabbalah, according to the worlds that the soul ascends to, and then in practice we do teshuvah, and a person goes to sleep. That is to say, this teshuvah is a kind of preparation of a person who prepares himself for entrusting the soul that goes up above. It is like a kind of sort of departure, a holy one, where the person prepares himself and does teshuvah toward Heaven.
20:44 But when I come to look and I say about satisfaction, it is a different thing. Because for example, Adam HaRishon, Adam HaRishon, whom the Holy One, blessed be He, created, he was not lacking, he was whole. 'Who formed man with wisdom' - He formed him a whole man. But the Holy One, blessed be He, saw, in fact, that he has no one to pass his giving on to, he wanted to bestow. He saw that in fact this bestowing was lacking, so because of Adam HaRishon's bestowing, Chavah was created for him.
21:14 And after that you see it with Kayin and Hevel. Kayin and Hevel - in fact Kayin was jealous of Hevel over the offerings that were brought and accepted before the Holy One, blessed be He, and then Kayin in fact decides to murder Hevel. Now, if I come and say that Kayin did not have the trait of satisfaction, that is not true, because Kayin in fact had satisfaction, but he had a flaw in victory, because Hevel beat him.
21:40 That is, the offerings - both of them brought offerings. This one offered an offering and that one offered an offering. I cannot say that Kayin was lacking in the bringing of his offering, so that out of this he rose up to murder Hevel, rather I can say that his trait of victory was lost, that he saw how Hevel beat him. When Hevel's offering was accepted before Hashem and he saw that his offering was not accepted, then he rose up to kill Hevel his brother.
22:06 That is, it was not from any matter of satisfaction. And also Noach - Noach went into the Ark, and he saw the whole world lacking, the whole world is going to come to destruction, and he looks at this, he sees that the whole world is lacking, the whole world is about to be wiped out, the whole world is about to be erased, and he tries - he builds the Ark over a long time so that everyone will see: here, there's another year, another two years, slowly, slowly he builds. They will ask, why is there an Ark?
22:30 People will begin to do teshuvah, they began to look at themselves, and then in the end the whole world goes after the Flood, goes in the Flood, and immediately after that, when Noach comes out, he begins to ask for mercy before Hashem, and the Holy One, blessed be He, did not like this. He said to him: now you ask? You should have asked before. It is no wisdom to ask now for My mercy before Me so that I will awaken My mercy in the world. So right away Noach goes out and begins to bring offerings and burnt-offerings to the Holy One, blessed be He. So also in Noach's going out of the Ark, you see that Noach in fact had a kind of victory, because he in fact defeated those heretics who said to him: what's going to happen? What's going to happen? What are you building an Ark for?
23:07 They mock him and disgrace him, and laugh at him and make sport of him, and in the end they see that he won and he carried on his light in the world, and the creatures and everything that was created in the end, all in the merit of the offspring, what Noach revealed from the Ark. And so you find it with Avraham Avinu, and so you find Avraham: there was Yishmael and there was Yitzchak. You see that again there were disputes between them.
23:32 You see Yosef HaTzaddik and you see the brothers. Seemingly I could say that the brothers too did not have such a thing of they were happy with their lot and they had the good. It was not that they were lacking. They were not so lacking; they said, we are not lacking. Today, the lack, where a person is not happy with his lot, is according to level. The more a person is more physical, and then more, then he lacks more. But the more a person is holy and more sanctified, the fuller he is.
24:01 Look at a person who has a settled mind, look how once Rav [unclear] used to say: what is Gan Eden? A Gemara with a shtender. That's what he once said. A very nice question. Look, every thing, every thing that we have here in the world, every difficulty and every fear and every anxiety is in order to bring us close to the Holy One, blessed be He.
24:39 In Midrash Tanchuma it is written on Parshas Beshalach, 'And Pharaoh drew near,' says the Midrash at the beginning of the parshah, 'And Pharaoh drew near' - then it begins to explain there at length what is meant by 'Pharaoh drew near': that specifically the Jewish people go through trials and difficulties, as we have; also, the Jewish people are compared to olives, you crush them, oil comes out; grapes - you squeeze them, wine comes out. That is why the Jewish people are compared to them. In the end the sufferings bring good oil out of them.
25:03 'And Pharaoh drew near' - drew near what? He drew Israel near to their Father in Heaven. In the end, the troubles, the fears, the anxieties lead the Jewish people to a kind of teshuvah, to a kind of drawing close to the Holy One, blessed be He. You find this with Rav Oshry, in the responsa Mi-Ma'amakim, the responsa Mi-Ma'amakim, which was in the Holocaust. He was one of the great rabbis, the halachic deciders, and there he discusses, in Part 1, siman 6, they ask him there whether it is permitted, Heaven forbid, for a person to take his own life when he sees that they are about to kill the members of his household.
25:40 There he was asked - this is a responsum that is very, very hard to read. There they ask him whether a person is permitted to take his own life if he sees that they are about to kill the members of his family, and he is in very great pain and he cannot bear to see it, he is in such great anxiety from this fear, he cannot bear this fear, that they will see what they did to him, like with Tzidkiyahu, whose children they slaughtered before his eyes. So he is in so much pain and so much fear and dread that he says to himself: how can I face such a fear? How?
26:10 Chanah and her seven sons too. So he is in very great pain from this, so he asks whether he is permitted to take his own life because of seeing the evil and the pain of the members of his family and his relatives. And in practice there is a very great halachic debate about this, where he elaborates, and so on. This needs great study, yes? Of course, one needs to know whether it is really possible, Heaven forbid - whether he can be saved, it could be that he will indeed be saved, it could be that they will not do anything to them, if it is only close to the time of their [unclear], because if perhaps in the end they will be saved and nothing will be done, then there is no need to take one's own life; one does not exactly take one's own life like that,
26:46 not in such a way. Only when a person - as with King Shaul, of whom they learned that at once they came to abuse him, and it could also be, Heaven forbid, that he may sense he will fall into a matter of sin, as [unclear] on this, but only in a case truly close and pressed to danger, this is something that still needs to be discussed, yes? As brought in Yoreh De'ah, in siman 345, etc. But I am talking about something else. I am talking about how now the troubles and the hardships and the fear are pressing everyone, right? Everyone is under pressure and in fear, and everyone is very, very frightened.
27:19 So the main thing about the anxiety, Heaven forbid, is that first of all a person should not come to madness. Because people - the pressure and the panic and the anxiety - it can happen to a person that in the end, you know what will happen. Heaven forbid. What, lacking in trust? It is not necessarily a kind of lack of faith, because many people are people of faith. Sometimes this pressure and these pincers cause people to lose their minds.
27:43 So first of all, the thing that needs to be done is to be very, very calm. - Yes, but [unclear] puts a person to the test of this [unclear]. a person is put inside the pressure, - Yes, that is certain. One can say all these things intellectually, understand them and rejoice in them, but sometimes it will be very, very hard for a person to cope. You need to understand that we are surrounded by enemies and haters, and they pressure a person and threaten that there will be war from so many fronts.
28:12 Perhaps this is a kind of kindness, that this already began so long ago, so that now people hear the threat and are less afraid. Because it already happened, and again - it's as if people get used to it. It is a kind of kindness, for if such a threat came now all of a sudden, everyone would be terrified. So there is kindness here within the judgment, where one can always see how the Holy One, blessed be He, does a thing for the good. But from here you can learn that you need to look at things in this kind of picture, yes?
28:39 And on the one hand, a person needs to do teshuvah. A person always needs to say to himself: I need to do teshuvah, I ask forgiveness, pardon for my sins, my iniquities and my transgressions; I ask You, Creator, to forgive me - to do teshuvah toward his Maker. Every time there is the attribute of judgment, and there is some threat, Heaven forbid, of trouble or war, we must immediately do teshuvah. No matter what, the teshuvah must be done. That is first of all. And on the other hand, I need to be so attached in trust to my Creator, that He is certainly merciful and gracious, and He will pardon me and forgive me and atone for me, and certainly I will have salvation in the merit of the teshuvah I did.
29:12 And then I depend both on teshuvah and on Hashem's mercy, and from this the Holy One, blessed be He, will pardon me. As the Alter Rebbe explains, that a person who says the blessing 'Gracious One, who forgives abundantly' needs to believe that the Holy One, blessed be He, has pardoned him. Otherwise his blessing will be an unnecessary blessing. Because he says: why did you bless 'Gracious One, who forgives abundantly'? Will the Holy One, blessed be He, not pardon you? Certainly He will pardon you - only believe in it. So a person needs to believe in the Holy One, blessed be He, that He will certainly forgive him and pardon him and atone for him.
29:38 So one needs to look at things in a simple way: that on the one hand there is a reality of difficulty - to do the teshuvah, and on the other hand, to be confident and happy that, from the treasury of free gifts, the Holy One, blessed be He, is so merciful and gracious, He will surely pardon us and forgive us and conclude everything in mercy and kindness and conclude everything for the good and do miracles and wonders with us. And this very thought, as [unclear] writes: that a person who thinks in kindness and thinks in mercy will draw mercy and kindness upon himself.
30:06 A person who thinks in judgments, Heaven forbid, draws judgments. And therefore let us all think in goodness and kindness before Hashem, that the Holy One, blessed be He, will bless everyone. What is it? - Rav, [unclear] that everything happening now is because of [unclear], it's because of a person's thoughts. That one needs to be holy - I didn't mean that more people need to be more holy and pure, to sanctify oneself: thought, speech, action, eyes, the covenant, holiness. - Ah, Rav. I have a question. - Yes. - This parshah is quite a long parshah, the parshah is quite long, but there are fewer [unclear] here.
30:36 - No, yes, but that is not correct. The Chinuch also writes in the introduction, that, after all, from the Torah itself they came out - from every parshah there are positive and negative mitzvos that were learned, but the Torah is looked at as one body. One does not look at the division of the parshiyos as separate mitzvos. It is a mistake to think that, it is not correct. The Chinuch writes this explicitly in the introduction. From every parshah mitzvos come out, but one does not look at the parshiyos as separate positive and negative mitzvos that came out with the parshah, but rather as one whole of the Torah.
31:07 These are mitzvos that came out to us from the Torah. As one whole, and therefore there is no earlier and later in the Torah. Understand? One does not look at the parshiyos in a separate way, as if these are mitzvos that belong here; rather, no - one looks at the whole sum of the mitzvos in general, and not as a particular thing.
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