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The shiur in English
The Yanuka’s own words in this shiur, translated into English by Lehallel · 2,223 words · 11:27. Press a time to hear it said.
0:00 Every time of the year has its own aspect. There is the inanimate, there is the plant, there is the animal, the speaking being. There is the inanimate, Inanimate, plant, animal, speaking being - they correspond to times during the year. For example, the speaking being - Yom Kippur, Rosh Hashanah, these times, which are more about speech, because one needs to increase in talks and supplications and prayers before Hashem, blessed be He, that He accept our prayers.
0:31 So one needs to increase very, very much in speech. And the animal - that is Shavuos, when we receive the Torah, which is a Tikkun for the death there was - of the sleep, which is death. And the plant is now - Tu BiShvat; and the inanimate is Sukkos, when we sit still and do not go out of the entrance of the tent, we do not leave the sukkah, we sit in the sukkah - that is the inanimate.
1:00 That is why on Tu BiShvat the reflection is on the plants. It is a time when a person looks at the plants. Sancheriv, who wanted to conquer Jerusalem, with his brazenness and his pride - the Holy One, blessed be He, did not let him conquer Jerusalem, and He strengthened King Chizkiyahu, and He told him that you will see the downfall of Sancheriv; this is a sign that I will show you from Heaven.
1:35 What was the sign of the downfall of Sancheriv? It is written in Yeshayahu, chapter 37, verse 30; there it is written, "And this shall be the sign for you." The Holy One, blessed be He, said: Yeshayahu, tell Chizkiyahu a prophecy, and He told him, I will give you a sign from Heaven, that you will see that the downfall of Sancheriv will be when you see the greenery, all the produce and the abundance starting to grow and grow, without any sowing at all, the crop will begin to grow for you anew.
2:08 That will be the sign for the first year. After that, all the aftergrowth of the seeds will sprout by themselves without being sown; everything that was will begin to sprout. And in the third year you will see such a miracle and wonder, that very quickly they will grow, the trees and the fruits, everything will grow. And not only will the tree grow quickly, but it will also be ready to eat quickly, it will be very, very, very ripe.
2:32 From here we see that the sign of the blossoming, of the plants, corresponds to the downfall of the wicked; it turns out it is an aspect of the downfall of the wicked. So on Tu BiShvat the wicked are toppled. That is why always, Shabbos Shirah - it always falls out that when Tu BiShvat comes, then Parshas Shirah comes. The Song at the Sea always falls close to Tu BiShvat, because the Song at the Sea was said over the downfall of the wicked.
Read the whole shiur in English (18 more parts)
2:59 Every time we sing to the Holy One, blessed be He, every song - its meaning is about the downfall of the wicked. It is written about King Chizkiyahu in Tractate Sanhedrin, page 94a, it is written that the Holy One, blessed be He, wanted to make Chizkiyahu the King Mashiach. But He did not choose him to make him the King Mashiach. Why? Because he did not say a song to Hashem for being healed of his illness, and for his victory over Sancheriv. When a person says a song to Hashem, then he connects all of the inanimate, plant, animal and speaking being; he raises it all up to the root.
3:35 And the main thing is specifically through the plants, because everything is an aspect of one big Gan Eden. The whole of creation is one big Gan Eden. When we do not praise Hashem, and do not laud Hashem, and do not reflect on the creation, then in effect we give strength to the wicked, a rising to the wicked. And when a person praises and lauds Hashem for everything, through this he topples the wicked. That is why there were ten songs.
4:00 The first song there was is the song of Adam, the first man, who said, "A psalm, a song for the Shabbos day." That is the first song there was. It is written in Shemos Rabbah, chapter 23, at the end of section 11, it is written there: There were ten songs; the first song was of Adam, the first man: "A psalm, a song for the Shabbos day"; after that the Song at the Sea, after that there was the Song of the Well, after that there was the Song of Haazinu, after that the Song of Yehoshua bin Nun, the Song of Devorah, after that the Song of Chanah, the Song of David, Shir HaShirim, and Gog and Magog.
4:35 The Song of Yehoshua is what he said, "moon, in the valley of Ayalon". And so all these songs were said over the downfall of the wicked. So what comes out? That the downfall of the wicked was through song. Because if every time they said a song they toppled the wicked, then the Song at the Sea corresponds to the downfall of Pharaoh. It comes out that through song all the wicked are toppled, and all of the Sitra Achra.
5:01 And when no song is said, it is impossible to topple the wicked. That is why King Chizkiyahu lost his level of being Mashiach. It is written about the virtue of the Song at the Sea: the virtue of the Song at the Sea is something that has nothing above it. Such an immense and lofty thing, to say the Song at the Sea, to say the Song at the Sea every day, each and every day.
5:29 It is forbidden to give up the Song at the Sea. A person who does not say the Song at the Sea, the sins that are on him cannot come off him, only through saying the Song at the Sea. At the moment a person says the Song at the Sea, all his sins come off. The 'Machzor Vitry', the student of the holy Rashi, in siman 265 he writes that we are obligated to say the Song at the Sea each and every day - that is how he writes: that we are obligated to say it, the Song at the Sea, each and every day.
5:59 Everyone needs to say the Song at the Sea each and every day, not to miss a single day of the Song at the Sea. Because the virtue of the Song at the Sea is the greatest thing for single people, it is the greatest thing for livelihood. It is the greatest thing there is in the world - that is the splitting of the Red Sea, that we say the splitting of the Red Sea; then we connect to Hashem, blessed be He, we merit to be people of emunah.
6:25 Zohar Beshalach, page 54a: Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai says, "It does not say 'sang', but 'will sing' it, in the time to come" - that whoever says the Song at the Sea every day will merit to sing it in the time to come before the Holy One, blessed be He. In the Zohar Terumah, page 132a, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai says that each and every word, as we say the Song at the Sea, the Holy One, blessed be He, takes that word, and He makes it, from Heaven: each and every word of the Song at the Sea, He makes from it a crown of the awesome holy Names, and the Holy One, blessed be He, adorns Himself and clothes Himself in this crown of the Song at the Sea.
7:02 And in the time to come He will give it to the King Mashiach, this crown, from every Song at the Sea that the Jewish people ever said in the world. And whoever says the Song at the Sea every day will merit to see the King Mashiach adorned with his weapons, at the coming of Mashiach. Whoever says the Song at the Sea - from the Song at the Sea there is very, very great satisfaction for the Holy One, blessed be He, because it is the overturning of the order of nature that the Holy One, blessed be He, did.
7:27 Even the wicked Pharaoh - in 'Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer', chapter 42, it says that Pharaoh said a song to the Holy One, blessed be He, in the Egyptian language. He said a song to the Holy One, blessed be He; he began to praise the Holy One, blessed be He, so much, a very great praise, a great and awesome praise. He praised the Holy One, blessed be He, he lauded Him. Pharaoh says a song, and you do not say a song?
7:51 How can you not say a song to Hashem every day? So Tu BiShvat is for saying song, for singing, for singing out with joy, everything that is at all possible in the world, to sing out and to praise the Master of heaven and earth for each and every thing, and everything we eat, and everything we drink, and everything a person looks at, one is obligated to praise and laud the Master of heaven and earth.
8:17 When we do not praise and laud Hashem, then come all the harsh judgments there are in the world, all the troubles, all the things. All the time one needs to sing to Hashem, to sing before Him, and to give thanks before Him. And especially this matter of the Song at the Sea: to strengthen oneself in it - also all the single men, and all the single women, all the people who need a livelihood, to have intention in it, in saying it, very, very well, to have very good intention in saying it. Why?
8:45 It is also written that whoever says the Song at the Sea, all his sins are forgiven him, all his sins are forgiven him. In several places beautiful and interesting things are written about this: in Midrash 'Shocher Tov', chapter 18, in 'Yalkut Shimoni', Parshas Beshalach, siman 254, Sefer 'Charedim', chapter 73; it is also written in 'Tziporen Shamir' by Maran the Chida, siman 2, section 24.
9:15 These are the sources where he speaks about this virtue, that all the sins of a person who says the Song at the Sea are forgiven. And whoever does not say the Song at the Sea, that person carries sin; all that sin goes with him everywhere he goes, and he does not understand how come he cannot break away from any bad, because this bad is chasing him, and going with him, and eating up his bones, because of his sins and his transgressions, because he does not open with song and say a song to Hashem. Rabbi Uri of Strelisk - the 'Seraph', may his merit protect us, who was so immense, the 'Imrei Kodesh', a holy genius who was immense, would pray the Maariv prayer, and from the prayer he would stay in the synagogue until Shacharis; they would find him
9:55 when he was still a small child - he would pray. He had a custom, every time at the Song at the Sea, to go with the students to roll up the legs of their trousers, and to feel the water that was going around them, like this, to the point that they were inside the splitting of the Red Sea, really like this. They felt it, the greatness. So that is why he would say it standing. The 'Ketzos HaShulchan', Rabbi Chaim Na'eh, in his book 'Ketzos HaShulchan', siman 84, also wrote that one needs to say the Song at the Sea standing, that it is important to say the Song at the Sea standing.
10:24 He brought an interesting source for it, in the Zohar Lech Lecha; I brought it in my prayer, in the prayer for the tomb of King David. Zohar Lech Lecha, page 82b: that King David would get up every night at midnight and would engage in songs and praises. So the holy Zohar says, "Song and praise before the Holy One, blessed be He" must be said standing; so one cannot say it sitting. So it implies that King David said them standing. From here he learns from this that one needs to say the Song at the Sea - to say it standing.
10:51 And he also brought, in Tractate Sotah, page 27b, about Moshe Rabbeinu, that he said the Hallel, the song, so all the Jewish people said it like Hallel, word after word: Moshe Rabbeinu says, and they say after him. So he says that this comes under the law of standing; so he learned it from there. From here we learn that one needs to say it standing. Here it is not said standing, but a person who prays, who says it in the middle of the day, and wants to say it for a salvation - say it standing.
11:18 Open a siddur, say the Song at the Sea, reflect on it word by word, be shaken by what you are saying, by the words you are saying.
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