The Yanuka Rav Shlomo Yehuda-＂סופו נעוץ בתחילתו - סוד ההתחלה שבכל סוף＂ הגאון הינוקא שליט＂א במעמד סיום הש＂ס

4:27 And in fact the Maharsha brings a novel insight at the end of Bava Kamma, he brings a novel insight on Rashi, on the 'amas ha-machsiya', that this was a place of animals, a place for grazing animals. So Rashi - the Maharsha explains there - that Rashi indeed wrote that it is 'for good pasture', 'a place for good pasture'. And seemingly it should have said 'a place for pasture'. There is no need to add the word 'good' to it, because it is a place for pasture.

4:52 What is there to emphasize so much here about the 'machsiya'? So indeed the Maharsha points out that the word 'good' that he added was really superfluous. But he added the word 'good' in order to end so that, Heaven forbid, 'le-mir'eh' (for pasture) would not be, so to speak, Heaven forbid, 'le-ra'ah' (for evil). So he added the word 'good' so that this would end with good, to show a sign that always, always this matter will be for the good.

5:22 And therefore from here we also always see that the Jewish people had the custom to always end and begin with a verse [unclear] of something good, to end with, so therefore they always had the custom to mention this, so that there will always be a good beginning, that a person always comes and goes up to the Torah with a good beginning, as the Rambam brings in Hilchos Tefillah, chapter 13, halachah 5, that they had a custom about this, that one should always end with a good verse and a good thing; and the Rema, in siman 138.

5:48 So we see that each one who goes up to the Torah, he goes up, he puts his blessing - he says the blessing over the Torah, he reads verses that end and begin with a matter that has blessing in it, and will not end, Heaven forbid, with something that carries a sign that, Heaven forbid, will be not for the good, Heaven forbid. And many times we see that as time passes, the great sign is that we - the exile that has [unclear] for us, that we, with Hashem's help, await the footsteps of the redemption, but we are still in exile, and this exile - not only does it continue, we see as a sign that we, each one of us, are holy souls that came and were reincarnated here, that it is all against our will that we came to this world, each and every one of us,

6:47 but each one - in fact, this light reached him so that he would come here to the world to change something and to awaken something; and perhaps even if we came down to the world at some verse that is not good, or at a time that is not good, we must always end with something good. And therefore we always make the siyum of the Shas exactly as the Maharsha - always to end with something that will be a beginning: "Tanna d'vei Eliyahu: whoever learns halachos every day is assured that he is destined for the World to Come."

7:18 And as the Meiri explained, that this is in order to begin [unclear] according to the halachah, in order to attain the true and complete learning from the study of Torah - that we end and begin the learning. This is in fact the greatest and most exalted thing; everyone always thinks - as much as one can think, one still cannot comprehend what the world can attain from the fact that we end and always begin with the beginning of the redemption, and with something that has benefit in it, something that has eternity in it, like the holy Torah.

7:52 And you know that in all the time Hashem, blessed be He, gave, we have the set times. And within the combinations of the hours of each day, every time has its own quality, in all the proportional hours. Therefore we see that we are precise about the times of prayer in those proportional hours, and every time has a combination, every time has an awakening and a combination, and a day and a festival and a month.

8:20 And a person's mazal is the hour in which he was born, and not as people mistakenly think, that the mazal is the month in which a person was born; for a person being born in that month is in fact for the benefit of that time of his month. A person being born in that hour - being born at that time - is divided according to the hours, according to the proportional hours we make, and according to the minutes and the moment, for each mazal shines in that second; every time and moment has combinations of His Name, blessed be He. And this mazal that shines at that moment is the mazal that was [unclear], and about Yosef and about the brothers - everything that was said in each generation is that same time of this mazal that shone in them.

8:58 But there are these times of Mondays and Wednesdays; on these days, as [unclear] the Beis Yosef in siman [unclear], in se'if 4, as is known, that we said [unclear], that the custom is not to begin and end on Mondays and Wednesdays, as is known, we do not make a beginning and an end on them. And in fact they bring from the Responsa of the Rashba attributed to the Ramban, siman 283, that in fact they had the custom to be careful not to do on them, at this time - to begin or end on Mondays and Wednesdays at this time - because, Heaven forbid, there is something in it: that the luminaries were struck. These are brought, in fact, from the Zohar, for this is written in the Zohar [unclear], page 273, and in Zohar Pinchas, page 274, and in Zohar Ki Seitzei, page 281.

9:48 It is written several times in the Zohar. Rabbi Shimon says there that because we know that the luminaries were struck at this time, and also the waters were divided - so both the divisions and the luminaries being struck - therefore they had the custom to end at this time, because we should be careful about this beginning of this matter. And whenever they wanted to begin something, they were always careful that they would always end that whole thing with some good thing.

10:17 Therefore these days were made a safeguard, so that they would always be careful not to begin or end at this time. And there are several more discussions and poskim about this, whether one may begin; of course, as our master the Minchas Elazar of Munkatch, may his merit protect us, who wrote that it is certainly possible - in volume 4, siman 4 - he wrote that it is certainly possible, there is no concern at all in it; of course, when one does a mitzvah matter and mitzvah meals, one need not be concerned about it.

10:44 But in every matter of the mitzvah meal, that they are careful - and there is also the Responsa Yehudah Ya'aleh, when he writes in Choshen Mishpat, siman 24, who also brought this; he learned it from Melachim, chapter 2 and Melachim II, chapter 3, verse 2 - he learned this from it, about King Shlomo, that "he began to build" specifically "in the second month, on the second, in the fourth year of his reign." So in fact it comes out 'the second on the second'; so doesn't it come out - if it is the second on the second, it comes out specifically on a Monday - that it was not. And Rabbeinu Bachya, on Parshas Bereishis, also writes that specifically about Wednesday they did not find a tradition; specifically about Monday they did.

11:18 But it remained as something the Jewish people were careful about over the years: not to begin and end specifically at these times. Except for [unclear] of Torah and a mitzvah matter, where there is no concern at all, and one can always do the things in joy, and that it will be something of benefit, for it is altogether something that is possible, [unclear], and the Maharil brought this in Hilchos Sukkah. There are many more things in this that they were accustomed to be careful about: that the Jewish people read so as to always end - to end the Torah with something good - and also to be careful at such times, on such days, which are dangerous, for there must always also be a beginning, always Bereishis, when Hashem, blessed be He, created the world.

11:56 There is a connection between every day, at every time, and every occasion - and its end is embedded in its beginning, because it is all of one piece: all our Torah and all our days and our times and the exile of the Jewish people - it is all of one piece. And one must always, always be careful about this with very great care. Therefore there is an awesome story that the holy Shelah brought about the matter of learning, that he said - he told about someone who was a scribe who began to write, and he ended exactly at "and goat-demons shall dance there," which is written in Yeshayahu, chapter 13, verse 21.

12:31 "And goat-demons shall dance there," it says. So he stopped writing there, and at night he saw a certain demon that was an angel 'Shomer Dapin' (guardian of the pages), standing over his book. From here they also learned that a person must always close the book when he finishes learning, because there is an angel called 'Shomer Dapin', who makes a person forget his learning when he leaves a book open. So the custom is to close the book and put in a bookmark, unless a person is absorbed in his learning and is writing - then there is no problem leaving the book. And so, in fact, he told him that he could not [unclear] him; [unclear] the Ten Days of Teshuvah - that he has protection from Heaven, and he does not [unclear] him for this, even though he ended on this thing, "and goat-demons shall dance there."

13:10 But nevertheless they are always careful to also end with something good, and always that the beginning will be with something that has in it - so that people will always engrave a good thing and a good reality in the world, and something will always remain that will be a remembrance and a remnant. Each one of us must engrave a remembrance and a remnant here in the world, whether it is mitzvos and good deeds and kedushah and Torah and anticipation and complete emunah in the coming of Mashiach and in the Beis HaMikdash, the Holy Temple, and in all the most exalted and greatest matters that Hashem, blessed be He, gave the Jewish people in His Torah.

13:45 And we know; this way one can also say a novel idea, that in fact, if we know that it is in fact forbidden to end with something that is not good, and likewise we are careful on these days, which are dangerous, not to begin or end on them, because these are days on which the luminaries were struck, and also days on which there was division, so we see from this that one can see a hint: that the end of the week and the beginning of the week - that its end is embedded in its beginning - that is Shabbos, the seventh day.

14:15 So the seventh day is the end, but it is the beginning of all beginnings, because the seventh day in fact stands in the middle. Meaning, the seventh day is the Menorah, like the Menorah in the Beis HaMikdash, for the seventh day stands and receives from the days before it, and it bestows upon the days after it: the first, second, third, and likewise the fourth, fifth, sixth. Which is of course the added illumination of the soul, the Nefesh, Ruach, Neshamah, Chayah and Yechidah that a person has, and so on, everything he receives.

14:43 If a person receives this, then he - everyone knows. So we always do this thing, and receive a further addition of illumination from the side of the Nefesh, Ruach, Neshamah, Chayah, Yechidah, corresponding to our beginning to receive each day an addition from the evening prayer, from Motza'ei Shabbos; we begin to have in mind the Nefesh, Ruach, Neshamah, to receive - always to receive the flow of the addition from Shabbos, so that it continues into all six weekdays. Each time we add, until this illumination remains. That is to say, Shabbos stands in the middle, between these days and those days.

15:15 That is to say, Shabbos is the seventh day, it is the end, [unclear], of everything Hashem, blessed be He, made in the entire world. We unify His Name, blessed be He. But one must always remember that the seventh day, which is the end, its end is embedded in its beginning; everything begins from it. That is to say, the seventh day is in fact the day on which we all engrave the end and the remnant of what we did in the world.

15:42 Therefore it is always important to keep Shabbos, because Shabbos is the engraving of each one of us, what he engraves in this world. It is like the end: if we said that it is forbidden to end with something not good, then likewise, meaning Shabbos - if a person, Heaven forbid, desecrates Shabbos, then he is ending with something that is not good. So one can see this novel idea. And one can also see from this what was learned in the Yerushalmi, Tractate Shabbos, chapter [unclear], halachah 3, that in fact we see that it is forbidden for a person, Heaven forbid, to speak something that is not good on Shabbos, and to do something - to pray for his own needs.

16:20 If a person prays [unclear] on Shabbos - and specifically [unclear], side b, about the pious man who was careful in his thoughts, "from pursuing your affairs and speaking idle words" - which is even more severe, that a person speaks weekday speech on Shabbos; it is written in Yeshayahu, chapter 58, verse 13, "from pursuing your affairs and speaking idle words." From here the Sages learned, in the Beis Yosef, siman 307, that your walking on Shabbos should not be like on a weekday, because walking like on a weekday is as you walk on a weekday, in the same garments, the same clothes, the same speech.

16:48 It should not be the same speech; there should be something noticeable, something different in your speech, in your thought, that it be in honor of Shabbos. You will be on levels and things more exalted than where you were during the six weekdays, so that you also bring the entire world to levels and heights much greater and more awesome than the level it was at. And likewise the Yerushalmi learns, in Tractate Berachos, chapter 5, end of halachah 2, this too is written there, that from here they were careful not to make requests, like when they would make requests - they were careful, that a person should not ask for such material things on Shabbos, asking for things on Shabbos with prayers or requests that people need to make, everyone always comes and asks before Hashem, blessed be He, for all kinds of material matters and things he needs

17:34 from Hashem, blessed be He. But in asking for mercy and forgiveness one must always ask Hashem for [unclear] things, because with the requests and the things of Shabbos day it is as if a person [unclear] and is pained; for we should have prayed on Shabbos day a weekday prayer, only saying Ya'aleh VeYavo on this Shabbos day, and asking such requests. So why really did the Sages make the prayer for us? Because of the burden. And in Berachos, page 51a, the Sages learn that the prayer should in practice not be long, so as not to burden the congregation.

18:05 [unclear] also brings that 'Uva LeTziyon' we do not say on Shabbos day - it is pushed off to Mincha because of the burden on the congregation, so as not to burden the congregation. And our master the Rogatchover, who was very - one of the things he said is that a community rabbi or a town's rabbi, one of the things he must learn is to beware of burdening the congregation, not to burden those praying. This is one of the very important things: that things be done quickly, and the Torah reading - not to weigh on the congregation, so there will be no burden on people, a load on the congregation.

18:31 So therefore they made this prayer short in its blessings, all so there will be no burden. And why, in fact, the requests? The requests: if a person prays and prays out of sorrow - he will have, Heaven forbid, some sorrow or pain - and he prays, then it turns out there will be pain here, to Heaven; because a person will pray for material things, he will say 'Heal us,' and then, at the moment he remembers the sick one he has in his home, then he will be pained, and then in fact he cannot rejoice on Shabbos day, he will have sorrow from it, and in fact it will be something that detracts from him; it will not help much.

19:03 And Maran the Chida, in Shiyurei Berachah, siman 188, and in fact, that the custom is to add the 'HaRachaman' requests, 'HaRachaman' we add on Shabbos day, and there is no problem at all in this, because it is the set form of the blessings, as the custom is in the Amidah prayer to add; we only needed to say Ya'aleh VeYavo. Therefore a person who on Shabbos prays a weekday prayer on Shabbos finishes the blessing, except for Musaf, where he stops in the middle, because by the letter of the law we really should have prayed a weekday prayer on Shabbos day, only saying Ya'aleh VeYavo.

19:29 So what really is the reason? As he writes in She'elas Yaavetz, siman [unclear], and we see it also written in Avkas Rochel, siman 11, where we see that the whole thought of the Shabbos prayer is that the Holy One, blessed be He, wants a person to have no sorrow on Shabbos. So if they had now instituted a weekday prayer for us, if we prayed it on Shabbos day, a Jew would have sorrow from all the material matters he needs to mention.

19:55 So now that on Shabbos he refrains from all the material matters and prays only for lofty, high things that stand at the heights of the world, it turns out he has no sorrow at all on Shabbos; he can pray in joy and calm, because he is in the day of redemption; he ends with something good. He begins his whole beginning and his whole ending - for Shabbos day is the end of the whole week, all that he finished in the whole week - he both ends and begins: this is 'its end is embedded in its beginning'. For in fact a person may not make requests until he makes Havdalah, as the Yerushalmi says in chapter 5, halachah 2, in Berachos, that in fact, as long as he has not made Havdalah, a person may not make requests; once you make Havdalah, only then will you be permitted to ask the requests you need

20:37 before Hashem, blessed be He; until you make Havdalah you cannot ask, and before Hashem - so that a person will not come to sorrow on the holy day and on the most exalted day. So from here we can learn a very simple thing: that each one of us, in this time that he is here in the world, in our generation, or in every study and everything we do - everything you do is the greatest and most exalted thing, and we must do all in our power so that we both begin and end always with something of true purpose, that our ending and our beginning are always with something eternal, and that a person should never, Heaven forbid, think of his own honor, and never think of his own seat, but think of the kingship of the G-d of heaven and earth.

21:22 Our Master, the Creator, blessed be He, has not abandoned us and has not forgotten us, and will not forget the covenant of our fathers. He hears us, that we learn pure Torah. He hears that we learn clear Torah, lucid Torah; the Torah is sweet. We must throw away all the honor there is in the world, all the seats and all the crowns there are, and crown the Holy One, blessed be He, and His kingship. We must always care about the honor of Heaven. A person must have the fear of Hashem, and the honor of Hashem, blessed be He, should pain him more than anything.

21:52 And turning to Heaven, lifting the eyes to Heaven - we, the Jewish people, have forgotten what it is to lift the eyes to Heaven. We were in Egypt, "and their cry went up to G-d." The Jewish people prayed to the Creator, who saved them from the Egyptians, and baruch Hashem He saved us. One may not get used to this exile. We need to strive in all that we are going through, and in all the 'yeast in the dough' that holds all of us back, but we must lift our heads up to Heaven and bring out all the strength and might there is in each one of us.

22:19 The Jewish people is the greatest and most exalted thing, and in each and every one of us, in each and every one, there is the light of Hashem, blessed be He, which wants to be revealed and to bring the whole Jewish people out of the low place it is in. And the Torah must light the way for us, how to get out of this darkness. And for this we must always finish only in order to begin. Every true ending is for the sake of a beginning.

22:45 And this is so that we remember what the Tur said, siman 669, that the whole finishing of the Torah - we finish it only in order to begin it, so that the Satan should not come and accuse us. Therefore I, the small one, want to bless you that you continue to make the Torah great, and to light up the Torah of Hashem, blessed be He, and to engrave in this world always only the true and eternal purpose: that all our being here in the world is to engrave good and [unclear] things, and to always remember that this is what we brought out: that if, Heaven forbid, a person passes away and he does not know [unclear] when his time is, if he did not do some deed, something good, then, as it were, he will end with something not good.

23:27 Therefore one must always end with something good, always engage in Torah and its mitzvos, and keep the Shabbos day, that all will light up and awaken the Shabbos day, and reach the most exalted level, that every Jew will love Hashem, blessed be He; that Hashem, blessed be He, will redeem us with a complete redemption, and may we all merit to be redeemed with an upraised hand, and our Master the Creator, blessed be He, our King at our head - may we merit the building of the Beis HaMikdash.

23:54 And may the merit of all the holy ones, all the tzaddikim, all the Tannaim, all the Amoraim, and all that you have learned protect us, that your faith spread outward, and all the good bounty, with visible and revealed good, with joy and gladness of heart. "Length of days is in her right hand; in her left, riches and honor." Baruch Hashem, you have here in your holy city many Torah scholars, many geonim, many tzaddikim. May the Holy One, blessed be He, lengthen their days in goodness, their years in pleasantness. Baruch Hashem, I also merited to know the gaon, the dayan among you, Rabbi Ben Zion Ashkenazi.

24:26 Baruch Hashem - is he here? Baruch Hashem. "Length of days is in her right hand; in her left, riches and honor." "Add days to the days of the king; may his years be as generation upon generation." Baruch Hashem, we have known each other for many years. May the Holy One, blessed be He, give you, with Hashem's help, success with the help of Heaven, and in the Torah of the Rav and of all your rabbis, in joyous occasions and in all that you do; may you all have great salvations, with visible and revealed good, with joy and gladness of heart. Continue to make the Torah great and to light up the Torah, and may the Name of Heaven be made beloved through you, always, always.

24:56 May you all merit length of days and years, good bounty, miracles and wonders, [unclear] that Hashem, blessed be He, redeem us quickly with an upraised hand. - [unclear] We will invite the Rav, the gaon, Rabbi Zion Ashkenazi, to say a few words - the Rav asked.

25:27 - With permission of our teacher and master, the crown of our heads, the great gaon, the tzaddik, Rabbi Shlomo Yehuda, may Hashem lengthen his days in goodness and his years in pleasantness, [unclear] in our days; with Hashem's help may we soon merit the complete redemption, amen. With the permission of all the honored rabbis, the rav of the place, Rav Yishai, Rabbi Yonasan, all the rabbis [unclear] - I noticed who is here - each one in his place and with his honor.

26:01 He [unclear] me; he did not prepare me to speak, but it is impossible to refuse the Rav's command. So I will say one word. "And these are the laws that you shall set before them," only, if possible - it is hard to speak in the noise. "And these are the laws that you shall set before them." The 'and' (the letter vav) connects the previous portion with this portion.

26:27 Rashi explains there: just as the first things were given at Sinai, so the things in the portion of Mishpatim were given at Sinai. The depth of the matter is that what was given at Sinai - we received the holy Torah. The holy Torah did not come only to be decoration and air up above, only things of theory.

26:53 The holy Torah came to teach us how we bring the Torah down into practical life. In the portion of Yisro we learned that the Torah came down from Heaven. This Torah, in its details, is found in the portion of Mishpatim: how we carry the Torah into practice, day to day, toward the Hebrew servant and toward each and every person, toward every simple person; as the Rav taught us earlier, that everything we do, that we learn in holiness, must immediately be brought down into practice too, connected into the deed.

27:28 The portion of Mishpatim is the practice of the portion of Yisro. There is great joy in Heaven, I have no doubt, [unclear], [unclear] your father, Rabbi Zerach, may he rest in peace, whom I knew. Amen. I will finish the Shas, not everyone merits that a siyum is made for him. A siyum of the Shas, in which our teacher and master also takes part here - this is no small thing.

27:55 May it be His will that the words be for the elevation of his holy soul, and may his merit that the honored Rav should know that the father, of blessed memory, would give of himself with self-sacrifice here, Rabbi Zerach, in the city for many years, in spreading the Torah. I knew him a little, not much, but the little that I knew him was a little that is much.

28:20 And may it be His will that you be comforted from Heaven, and may there be many more Shas cycles, and many more siyumim, and in Heaven there is a source for much more room to rise, higher and higher. May we soon merit [unclear]. - I will tell you something important. There was the holy gaon, the Rebbe of Zidichov, Rabbi Yechezkel, [unclear] - Rabbi Yechezkel would always make a practice of eating a fish meal whenever there were siyumim.

28:49 He would make a fish meal, of course [unclear] fish, and the Rebbe of Zidichov, he was always particular to have wine, that there would always be wine, always at the meal. And basically, for we read in Tractate Shabbos, page [unclear], side b, from Abaye, who makes a meal whenever a Torah scholar makes a siyum of some tractate: they do not make a siyum masechta, rather they make a celebration.

29:17 But what really is the source for a siyum masechta - that we make a siyum masechta and make a meal? So really [unclear] one source, from what is written in the Mishnah, in Tractate Taanis, chapter 4, Mishnah 8, that on the fifteenth of Av there were festive days, like the fifteenth of Av and Yom Kippur. Right, Tu B'Av, the fifteenth of Av - this was the greatest joy. And what is the reason for this? Rather, that they would stop cutting wood for the altar, for the Beis HaMikdash.

29:45 So really the Rashbam and the Nimukei Yosef, in Tractate Bava Basra, page 21, side b, in Tractate Taanis, page 31, side b, where they learn what really the reason is: seemingly, what joy can there be in this thing? That their joy was so great because they merited to complete the mitzvah. So because of this joy, this is what brought them to the great and exalted level; from this one can learn that their meriting to finish it all, and then [unclear] for the altar.

30:21 So the completion of the mitzvah - that they merited here to complete the mitzvah - this one can learn from here: that if this - the wood offering - enables the offering; in Midrash Tanchuma, on the portion of Tzav, it is written that the Torah is greater than all the offerings, regarding Menachos, page [unclear]. So we see from here that one can learn: if the Torah is greater than all the offerings, and if they made a celebration in honor of the wood offering, when the wood offering is only what enables - it is, as it were - it is not the offering; it is even now the wood offering, but it is what enables the offering - and they made a celebration over it.

30:57 This is what the Rashbam explains. So from here we see the great virtue and the importance that, baruch Hashem, we merit to finish a tractate, which is above everything. This is the greatest joy one can rejoice. Also our master, the Yam Shel Shlomo, writes on the seventh chapter of Bava Kamma, he writes in siman 30, he writes that it would be fitting to bless 'shehasimchah bim'ono' (in Whose dwelling is joy), so he writes. And at a siyum masechta he says thus: that [unclear] bless 'shehasimchah bim'ono', but of course he said, he does not need to bless; he [unclear] there, out of the importance, that he wanted thus to instruct that they bless 'shehasimchah bim'ono', at a time when there is such great joy - and baruch Hashem you are making such a great celebration here -

31:39 something: a bar mitzvah meal is greater than all the meals; there he also writes that a bar mitzvah meal is greater than all the meals, but especially when there is such a joy, a siyum masechta, which is a great thing, higher and higher, that we too merit to take part in the siyum - we all finish together with you, you have brought merit to the whole congregation, everyone together, that they merit to finish the Shas so many times; and see how much importance, how great a virtue, there is in meriting to finish the Shas and make a siyum of the Shas. Imagine how much - now, in all the tractates - this is already how many offerings; there is no measure for it at all [unclear] - awesome, awesome ...

32:17 One can rejoice in this with great joy. Savri maranan (with your permission, my masters), Blessed are You, Hashem, our G-d, King of the universe, Who creates the fruit of the vine.