The Yanuka Rav Shlomo Yehuda-מהי המידה הכי חשובה בעולם הזה？ שיעור קצר מהגאון הינוקא בניחום אבלים @TheYanukaRavShlomoYehuda

3:14 Everything starts after that: anger, and hatred comes about, and bad traits come about. All the bad things grow from the flaw in faithfulness. Think about it. And I tell you that the most important thing a person will find in the world - why do they say 'Make for yourself a rav' 'and acquire for yourself a friend'? Seemingly, what should have been written? The Sages should have taught us the opposite thing: 'Acquire for yourself a rav' 'and make for yourself a friend.'

3:41 This is so - this is such a reversed thing, this wording. We know that when a person wants some thing, then we say that an acquisition is something a person desires; a person wants to buy something, so he is much more exacting and precise about what he wants to buy. He calculates much more in an acquisition, much more than something a person wants to do. When a person wants to do something, he does not calculate so much.

4:08 He does it right away. So why about a rav did they say 'make for yourself a rav', and about a friend they said 'acquire' - exactly when it should have been the opposite? Because about a rav one must be the most exacting of all. When a person acquires from whom he will learn Torah - from whom - Torah is compared to water, 'Like streams stretched out, like gardens by a river' - just so, synagogues and study halls raise a person from impurity to purity. What is the difference between them? So, once I thought - there are many answers in the commentators and all, but once I gave an explanation, this is what I thought to say.

4:39 Tell me, you too - these are the things most fitting to speak of for strengthening at such a time of - 'It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting,' for one sees the person who is at the end, and a person understands: when will his day come? He does not know. 'Hashem, let me know my end and the measure of my days.' David asked to know his end, and he did not know. Meaning: 'It is a decree before Me that one does not inform flesh and blood of his end.' A person can never know when he will pass away.

5:06 So we see from here that we are here in this world, and we can see the end. Each time we see the end: that in the end they will escort the person, he will go to his eternal home. Rabbi Nosson of Breslov once said a very frightening thing. He said: Everything I can imagine with the power of imagination. But there is one thing that I cannot imagine: my first night in the grave. The first night that I will lie in the grave - this I cannot imagine.

5:33 This sentence that he once said brought much fear of Heaven into every person, that he should beware of doing sins and have pity on himself, on his true purpose in this world. He said: Everything I can imagine, but my first night - this I cannot imagine. How full he was - he was holy, and he was full of fear of Heaven, and holy, and very awesome he was, great in the fear of Hashem. Now, what is the answer one can give? What can one really think? So I will explain to you a very simple thing.

6:00 Rabbi Tzvi Hirsh of Zidichov says that to find a true tzaddik and a true Rebbe to receive Torah from is harder than finding a marriage match. People find a match, a person [unclear], but to find a true Rebbe so that you receive Torah from him - that is a merit. Why? Because it truly does not depend on the person's side. There was once a story with Rabbi Tzvi Hirsh of Zidichov, the Ateres Tzvi of Zidichov, who was a very great Rebbe.

6:26 Chassidim were on the way to him. One chassid said: If the Rebbe knows what I am thinking, he will be my Rebbe. A second chassid said: If he knows what I am learning, my sugya, he will be my Rebbe. The third chassid said: If my wife, who is having a hard labor - she has been for several weeks - or she has contractions, she has no contractions, she cannot give birth, she has great difficulty in the birth - if he brings it about that she gives birth easily, he will be my Rebbe.

6:56 They got onto the wagon and traveled to Zidichov. They came to Rabbi Tzvi Hirsh of Zidichov. As soon as they enter to Rabbi Tzvi Hirsh of Zidichov, immediately Rabbi Tzvi Hirsh of Zidichov says to him: You are thinking about such-and-such; you - your answer is a Tosafos in Yevamos, page 97; you, go in peace, mazel tov, for your wife - a son has been born to you. And I do not want to be your Rebbe.

7:20 You think that you will decide whether I am your Rebbe? I do not want to be your Rebbe. Who are you that you should decide whether you want to be my students at all? That is what Rabbi Tzvi Hirsh of Zidichov said to them, and he sent the chassidim away. And then they regretted that they had thought that way, they began to plead with him that they wanted him to be their teacher and Rebbe. He said to them: In this incarnation you have already lost me. That is how it was with Rabbi Tzvi Hirsh of Zidichov. That is why they say, 'Make for yourself a rav.'

7:46 'Make for yourself a rav.' What is 'make for yourself a rav'? Make for yourself: like what you are, that will be your rav. If you are a liar and you are a hypocrite, a lying and hypocritical rav will come your way. You will never merit to be close to a true tzaddik. You can imagine that you are his student, but you are never his student. So that is why they say 'make for yourself a rav', but about a friend you cannot say 'make for yourself a friend' - 'acquire for yourself a friend.'

8:14 'Acquire for yourself a friend' is a term of acquisition: you can check out the friends, see by what your friend is measured, and then you can decide whether to be his friend or not to be his friend. But a person who toils and seeks the path of truth, and seeks the Holy One, blessed be He, and exerts himself for Hashem, blessed be He, and seeks Hashem, blessed be He, and he is true with Hashem, blessed be He, and he truly makes his heart for Hashem, blessed be He, then it will truly come his way: 'make for yourself a rav.'

8:38 That is why they say 'make': 'make' is a term of effort. What you exert yourself for, what you toil for, what you labor for, what you long for, what you want - for you, that will be your rav. That is how it will come about for you from Heaven. But about a friend, it is an acquisition. You can buy. You see friends? They do not always influence a person. Sometimes they influence toward a bad path, sometimes they influence toward a good path, but his rav brings him to the life of this world and to the life of the World to Come.

9:06 The rav can bring you to the life of the World to Come as well. And so from here one must always remember that the most important thing in this world, most important in this world, is faithfulness. Faithfulness is the most important thing. I will tell you another story about this. You know the holy Rav, the author of Zera Kodesh, Rabbi Tzvi Naftali of Ropshitz. He was one of the greatest tzaddikim in the earlier generations.

9:32 I have some students who are his grandchildren, of Rabbi Tzvi Naftali of Ropshitz. Holy and pure. They tell about him once that he had a custom with the Divrei Chaim of Sanz. The famous Divrei Chaim of Sanz, the Divrei Chaim of Sanz, was the greatest of his students, he was a prime disciple of Rabbi Tzvi Naftali of Ropshitz, the author of Zera Kodesh, of the book called Zera Kodesh.

9:59 He was holy, a man of high spiritual attainment, a worker of wonders, with holy spirit, revealed - something very great. And once there was a story - every time they would know that the Divrei Chaim of Sanz was coming to the town, all the heads of the town gather, everyone comes to him, everyone comes to visit Rabbi Tzvi Naftali of Ropshitz, or the Divrei Chaim of Sanz; they would go together.

10:24 Once the Divrei Chaim of Sanz came to some town, and the people there did not go out to honor him. There were a few people; they did not honor the Divrei Chaim of Sanz. So he went by wagon, traveled, came to some city, taught Torah, went from there, went to this city, went to that city, went among several cities and taught Torah, spread Torah in public, bringing merit to the public. And then some great rich men came, he expounded to them, answered them all their questions, and they did not even bring him a rendel, a single coin, so that he could get on a wagon and return to his city.

10:56 And he walked on foot a whole day, and when he came to his rav, the Rebbe of Ropshitz, he asked him: I have only one question, Rebbe: I toiled so much in order to teach them Torah. Where is their gratitude, of those rich men whose town I came to? They did not even give me a gold coin for the road. The Rebbe of Ropshitz said to him: In Heaven they ask, 'Who is this, and which one is he' who would have the merit to give a gold coin into the holy hands of the Divrei Chaim of Sanz.

11:25 See what the Rav said to his student, how holy his student was, and how great a merit it was at all in his generation to come close to that student, to that tzaddik, the Divrei Chaim of Sanz. So great was the love between them that every year on Simchas Torah, every year, the Divrei Chaim of Sanz, in the middle of the dancing and the hakafos on Simchas Torah, would run to the door, stand at the door, look at the door, wait, and begin to leap with the Sefer Torah.

11:56 And everyone says: What is this thing? Until it became known to them that the Divrei Chaim of Sanz dances with his rav from the World of Truth: Rabbi Tzvi Naftali of Ropshitz reveals himself to him every year on Simchas Torah and dances with him with their Sefer Torah. There was the Sefer Torah of the Rebbe of Ropshitz; he gave it to the Divrei Chaim of Sanz, and every year they would dance with this Sefer Torah, every year, out of the great love that was between them, out of the affection that was between them. Now there was one of the students, whose name I will not say, who was also a student of the Rebbe of Ropshitz, out of respect for him.

12:26 You do not know him, he is not so famous, but I will not say his name in any case. And that same student was disheartened. He said: I too was very faithful to my teacher and Rebbe, the Rebbe of Ropshitz - and what, that student dances with him, and he comes to him from Heaven? He came to the Rebbe, the Divrei Chaim of Sanz, and he said to him: Listen, you, this year, Simchas Torah - you go up to the Rebbe of Ropshitz from Heaven, when he reveals himself to you, and you ask him what the reason is that he reveals himself to you and he does not reveal himself to me.

12:58 What is the reason for this? I want to know. He said to him: No problem, I will ask him. Well, the moment came, everyone waited, the Rebbe, the Divrei Chaim of Sanz, dances, immediately he went outside, he sees from Heaven - they understood that his teacher and Rebbe was revealed to him, and then straight away, dancing. That student came, waiting in the corner impatiently; he looks for this revelation - he does not see him.

13:24 He does not see that he is revealed to him; he does not see him. He is looking, he sees that they are talking, sees as if something is happening with the Divrei Chaim of Sanz, and understood that there is something here. After that there was joy, dancing. He went up to the Divrei Chaim of Sanz: Did you ask the Rebbe of Ropshitz? He told him: I asked. Do you have an answer for me? He said to him: Yes. What is the answer? What is the difference between me and you, with all due respect? You and I both served him, you and I both learned Torah.

13:50 What is the difference between us? Do you know what the Rebbe of Ropshitz said to him? He said to him: You were faithful to me - this is what you should tell him, said the Rebbe of Ropshitz to him - you were faithful to me, everything I would say, you would do. The Divrei Chaim of Sanz was faithful to me in his thought, in his speech and in his deed. Because he was faithful to me with cords of love, in his faithfulness, I will not leave him; I will come to him from the World of Truth, I will reveal myself to him.

14:17 But you, after I passed away, you already thought about how you would be a Rebbe for yourself, and to whom you would go. Me you left. You did not think of me afterwards, you did not follow me to the end, so you no longer - you cannot merit this revelation. That is what we said. That is to say, you see from here that faithfulness is the greatest thing in the world: between a rav and a student, between a person and his wife, between the created being and his Creator, and from here all the good traits begin.