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The shiur in English
The Yanuka’s own words in this shiur, translated into English by Lehallel · 2,639 words · 20:27. Press a time to hear it said.
0:03 It is a privilege for us that he is here, sitting with us. A privilege for us I'll hold the microphone for you, Rav, all right? He is holding the microphone for you, all right? He is holding it for you, so that you won't [unclear]. My teachers and gentlemen, In honor of great, immense and abundant for me to sit beside the honored Rav, shlita, and his words strengthened me and my son, that together we are trying to spread Torah, the boys and girls of Israel.
1:04 These lectures are meant for girls too. I'll tell a small story, and right away I'll tell a few things that I merited to see, and I merited in the days of my life, and I am already over 90 years old, so I had the honor of seeing great deeds of the giants of Israel.
1:37 But I want to tell a small story in the lecture that he showed to the girls. Girls who are becoming stronger, girls who come from homes that are far from Torah and mitzvos. And then these girls think, wait, suppose even if I will already pray, suppose I will make a blessing, what is it, what can I contribute anyway?
2:05 So it's a pity for me even to begin, when the level I will reach is almost zero. So he showed this in an audio-visual program, in photographs and drawings, and he showed a small story, that I will tell you about the reactions, a sad story of a family that lived in the United States, and, Heaven forbid, the father and the mother traveled to a celebration, I know, and they were, Heaven forbid, killed in a car accident, and two little girls were left, and a sister nineteen years old, and this sister raised them.
3:06 And here we see in the picture that two girls enter a very luxurious jewelry store in the United States, and they ask about a bracelet. The seller looks at them and says, which bracelet do you want? He showed them a few examples, and then he asks, for whom do you need it? So they told him that our sister [unclear] us, raises us, she has reached nineteen, we want to express our appreciation to her.
3:40 And the seller says, all right, takes out an expensive bracelet and gives it to them, and they took out, they had a small wallet with a little pocket money, and they took out everything they had, and put it on the table, took the bracelet and went on their way. The next day a young woman enters the store, very embarrassed, and she approaches the seller and says, Excuse me, sir, a terrible mistake happened here, the girls who are my sisters took this bracelet that is worth ten thousand dollars, and they thought they had received it, and apparently there was some misunderstanding here.
Read the whole shiur in English (26 more parts)
4:30 Excuse me, sir, I came to return the bracelet. The seller said to them, it has been paid. The young woman opened wide eyes, Definitely, it has been paid, the seller said to her. All those who come to buy from me, the millionaires, when they wrote a check for ten thousand dollars, another million was left in his till.
5:02 They took out everything they had. It has been paid. And then he said to the girls, Look, you don't have much, but if you are giving everything, it was paid by the Creator of the world. And they [unclear] at least. I think that things like these and additional things, to strengthen, and this is what [unclear] does in his lectures, not only giving them information, but giving the students the feeling that they are the torch-bearers.
5:40 Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov are no more, Moshe Rabbeinu is no more, the great Rabbis are no more. If, Heaven forbid, there will be no one to carry the torch in our generation, everything falls. What a responsibility. And students take upon themselves, with all their hearts they take upon themselves resolutions to pray, to influence the younger siblings who will come to learn in Torah schools, but this also influences students in classes of other Chassidic at the highest level, because it is lacking knowledge they get, but the feeling, the enthusiasm, and the Rav, the approbations, that the things really penetrated the heart, hundreds of students sit and listen to every word, it's unbelievable.
6:40 How is it possible to reach this, when a teacher barely has difficulties in a class of 30 children, that 400 boys and girls would sit and hear a lecture accompanied by illustration, this is an amazing thing. The Rav's blessing.
7:06 I ask the Creator of the world that He let me continue as much as I can. And I merited, I merited to see the great ones of the world. I merited, I learned in his yeshiva [unclear], and the yeshiva is not far from the home of the Chazon Ish, and we came to him, and he [unclear], and you, and did not stop creating close contact with young men, and especially young men, who were in danger of falling.
7:54 My cousin who came from the United States, and my father wanted him to come learn in yeshiva, because he actually wanted to register him at the university in Jerusalem, but it was the War of Independence and it was impossible to get there. So he was a friend of Rav Shulman, who was the rosh yeshiva then, so he that is, that my son will need [unclear] in the yeshiva, And they told the Chazon Ish that a young man had arrived from the United States.
8:29 He doesn't know much, but he looks like a serious young man. The Rav, call him, and he called him, and [unclear] and married him off, and he became one of the truly great ones of the generation, Rabbi Aryeh [unclear], [unclear] in Bnei Brak, was truly, that Rabbi Landau wrote about him, and he says, one of the greatest toilers in Torah in the generation.
8:57 That's how it was, that's how the greats of Israel behaved, [unclear]. I don't want to go on at length, you came to hear the Rav [unclear], but I just want you to understand. Just so you understand, there was a young man who caused many difficulties in the yeshiva. The rosh yeshiva felt that he could not continue with him. He said The Chazon Ish said to that rosh yeshiva, I understand your difficulties, you must send him to another place, but there is a condition that at least once a week you go out to him to learn with him in chavrusa.
9:41 That's how they behaved, and also I went to hear Rav Dessler, of blessed memory, great ones of the world. But one thing, I must tell something that my granddaughter [unclear] made a short video on this topic. I grew up in Ramat Gan, may I have two more minutes?
10:10 I'll tell you an amazing story. What do the great ones of the world do to bring a Jewish child closer? I grew up in Ramat Gan. In Ramat Gan in those years there was no religious school. The public was traditional, and I don't want to elaborate.
10:35 And my mother, of blessed memory, who was very, in these conditions she wanted her son to grow up to be a Jew who observes the mitzvos, and if more than that, she would be very happy. She was a neighbor, that is, already in her childhood in Lithuania, her family had some relatives and also good friends of the family of Rav Har Kohen, of blessed memory, the well-known tzaddik, the rosh yeshiva of Chevron, and they were neighbors and she was friendly with his sister, who was older than he.
11:24 And we lived in Ramat Gan, I did not merit to see any Torah figure at all, and she turned to Rav Kohen, who was a man known to be ill, and he passed away in the early sixties of his life. It is impossible to describe what condition he was in, and also in his young years he was not especially healthy.
11:53 So she turned through the sister and said, perhaps the Rav will come to speak with my son, who will soon be bar mitzvah, so that he will know something; I took him a private teacher, but he was in any case not a radiant figure if the Rav is willing to come speak to his heart, to bring him closer, so that he will have some interest in coming closer to the world of Torah.
12:23 And here I remember as a child, I am sitting at home, the door opens and Rav Kohen arrives. To come from Jerusalem, I am talking about a story of more than 70 years ago, close to 80 years, to come from Jerusalem to Ramat Gan with four buses, it would take at least three hours for a man known to be ill.
12:57 And he came and spoke with me about my grandfather, of blessed memory, who was a member of their family and very close to them, and he said to me, I bless you that you will be a yeshiva student and you will come visit me, to exchange words of Torah with me. It sounded like a dream that cannot be described, so far from reality.
13:30 Nevertheless, he took a chance of one thousandth of a percent, he took the trouble to make this effort. Perhaps he could save a Jewish child. And years passed, and thank Hashem, truly with Heavenly help, extraordinary, all the things came together. And I moved from institution to institution, an educational institution, in the end I arrived at the Ponevezh yeshiva and the Rav's sister was, another sister of his was, she lived in Bnei Brak and the Rav would come to them for a vacation and always when he came he let me know to come, and he would always remind me Do you remember what I told you then?
14:17 But if I blessed you so much that the Holy One, blessed be He, could not act otherwise could not act otherwise, there will be obstacles, whatever they may be. You will get to the yeshiva. I was engaged for many years in education, and I tried to pass on some of the things I absorbed, but one can learn from the greats of Israel.
14:45 I merited to see Rav Kahaneman, who built the yeshiva. In his plan, this I heard from Rav [unclear] that I needed also to come with him together for a period, and afterwards to hear words from his own mouth, that the Rav built the yeshiva for exactly 518 places, when there were not then in all the Land of Israel a thousand yeshiva students, in all the yeshivos that existed then, few as they were.
15:16 It's unbelievable. And great ones of the world, I merited to know his honor, his holiness, the Rav, who belongs to this breed of true greats, I merited to see the Chazon Ish, I merited to see [unclear] Kahaneman, I merited to see [unclear] whose conclusion in life is that if there is reality and there is a vision, so what is reality?
15:52 What is reality? So we will change reality. And perhaps in a closing word, that Rav Kahaneman, of blessed memory, came, to Rav Matzovin, and told him about the plan, I want you to understand what we are talking about, a plan to build a yeshiva in the year that the Nazi oppressor stood at the gates of the Land of Israel, in the year it was in 1943, when the English had already left the country because they were sure that within a week the Germans would conquer the country, but there was a promise of the Chofetz Chaim that there would not be a third destruction, and therefore he quoted then the verse, "And on Mount Zion there shall be a remnant, and it shall be holy."
16:45 And this verse appears on the Ponevezh yeshiva, "And on Mount Zion there shall be a remnant." "And it shall be holy." He came to Rav Matzovin and told him about the great vision to build the world for 15 more 18 [unclear] and additional institutions, he wanted to build 18 more yeshivos throughout the country, and the vision did not stop.
17:16 Rav Matzovin said to him, Rav, you are dreaming. So he says, it may be that I am dreaming, but I am not sleeping. I am not sleeping. So I will continue to dream. And thank Hashem, the Torah world is flourishing, and to the greats of the world who transformed the world, all of you here have the great privilege and the great honor and the great excitement to sit here before our teacher, who is truly of that same breed, for whom reality is not what appears to us as something solid, but the will of the Holy One, blessed be He and if I estimated a little, sorry, but but I have the honor and I have the pleasure to sit here All the best Complete blessings, in robust health, with long days and years, all the blessings stated in the Torah, in Scripture, in the Mishnah,
18:32 shall rest upon the Rav, length of days in her right hand, in her left [unclear] with honor, [unclear] in the place of your tent, health your dwellings. May the Rav, with Hashem's help, bring out all his writings, with Hashem's help may they be for the benefit of all the Jewish people, what the Rav did on Bava Metzia, Bava Kamma, Bava Basra, he did awesome things that will be for the benefit and improvement of the learning of all the Jewish people and clarification of the Gemara, in the way of learning, in the order of learning, in the order of the Gemara, and this, with Hashem's help, will be for the benefit of all the Jewish people, with Hashem's help. What the Rav does himself, he exerts and toils to do it himself, this work, and also the sons, thank Hashem, who help,
19:08 now he is doing Kiddushin. With Hashem's help may the Rav have Heavenly help, may the Rav continue to succeed in toiling in Torah, length of days in her right hand, in her left riches and honor. All the blessings stated in the Torah shall rest upon you, and a complete recovery, Heavenly help, length of days in your right hand, from your left [unclear], We merited to see your holy faces. Happy are the eyes that saw the eyes, just so you understand, to merit to see the eyes that saw the eyes, of the Chazon Ish, of all the greats of the earlier generations whom he merited and served, and his holy and pure body touched them, and his holy eyes saw and beheld visions of G-d, saw such holy and awesome sights, and we merit to see his holy face, to see the holy eyes,
19:51 and to touch his holy body, which served in holiness by the greats of the world. We bless the Rav with health, with good life, and all the blessings with which He has privileged us, Hashem, blessed be He, to see the radiance of your holy and [unclear] faces and to receive from your wisdom, your fear of Heaven, that it may be for the benefit of all the Jewish people and all the holy congregation, for everyone, and may the Rav have all the blessings stated in the Torah, a merit and an honor for us.
20:16 "For length of days and years of life," "length of days and years of life," ...
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