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0:00 How is it written? "Shall a mortal be more righteous than G-d? Shall a man be purer than his Maker?" You understand, when Bildad the Shuchite and Tzofar the Naamasite and Elifaz the Teimanite came to Iyov, they said to him: "Shall a mortal be more righteous than G-d? Shall a man be purer than his Maker?" Do you think you are purer than G-d? Are you more righteous than the One who created man? You are not - you are not the Creator, you are not the Maker, you are not purer than Him. If the Holy One, blessed be He, did it and decided it, with that, it is finished.
0:32 You know, the resurrection of the dead - with Hashem's help, there will be the resurrection of the dead. There is no doubt about it, yes? Whoever does not believe has no share and no belonging in the holy Torah. You know, I'll give you an example, a question. A person - I'll give you - it is connected to this. There is a vessel that became impure. How do you purify it? By immersion, right? You take the vessel, you immerse it, and the vessel becomes pure.
0:58 What happens with food that became impure? What do you do? Now, say there is an onion that became impure. How does the onion end its impurity? What do you do with it? You plant it in the ground, it grows roots, it has the status of a vegetable, of a plant.
1:26 It does not have the status of food. The moment it has the status of a plant, it has turned from food into a plant. The impurity has ceased from it - Tractate Pesachim, page 34. There the Sages learn: the impurity has ceased from it, finished, it does not have the status of impurity. Now it has become a plant, it is a plant now, it is new, it is a new face, it is something else. Roots grew in it, the impurity ceased from it.
1:54 Pay attention to what can be learned from here. "For man is a tree of the field." A person, as long as he is alive, becomes impure, he is impure. When he dies, he grows roots. He departs, and he begins to have an influence. You see it, like the roots that were grown by the Baal Shem Tov, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, the holy Arizal - they departed, and they grew a great many roots.
2:21 Look at their Torah, which has spread throughout the whole world, look at their power, which has spread throughout the whole world. I ask you: does it seem to anyone here that all these tzaddikim who put down all those roots - that no tree will grow from it? That we will not see them alive and standing? One must know with certainty: the resurrection of the dead will be, one hundred percent. The Holy One, blessed be He, will redeem us, Mashiach will come, and this is not a legend.
Read the whole shiur in English (48 more parts)
2:48 It is not a legend. How? When? "Today - if you will listen to His voice." Come - let everyone await Mashiach, let everyone pray for the geulah, let everyone ask for the Beis HaMikdash, the Holy Temple, let everyone want the revelation of Hashem's kingship. But it is impossible to ask when we are not asking for the kingship of the King and are awaiting Mashiach. It does not work that way. We need to understand what we want, what we are waiting for.
3:14 We want the kingship of the Creator - then the Holy One, blessed be He, will reign over us. But if we are not seeking the King - this King is a humble King, you understand? The Holy One, blessed be He - everything He created, everything He created here, is so that the world should enjoy, that the creatures should enjoy the works of His hands. He sees people being arrogant, sinning, transgressing, doing whatever they want. He does not come now and rebuke them and go and change things for them, yes?
3:40 You understand? He does not meddle with anyone, He does not disturb anyone. He gives to the creatures, to all of them: take, do whatever you want. But He will bring everything to judgment. He will bring everything to judgment. And if you are waiting for My kingship and My way and what I want, come, ask for Me. If the whole world asks, He will come, He will be revealed. But there are many [unclear], to our heart's sorrow.
4:06 - What is it? How can it be ensured that most of them will ask for His kingship, blessed be He? - Look, I'll tell you something. To my sorrow, yes? We have gotten used to the exile. We have gotten used to the exile. How pleasant it is to come on the eve of a festival, to put on nice clothes, to walk with the stroller, with the baby, to the synagogue, to hear a drashah, to hear the chazzanim, to go back.
4:32 We have gotten used to the exile, it is nice. We make Kiddush, we eat, we are happy, we go back. We do not understand how much is missing when we do not have the King. How much is missing when we do not have the Temple. When in fact we are lacking, we are not protected. The habit - that we got used to the exile - and also that they forgot the way of Hashem. And instead of rabbis getting busy and uniting the Jewish people, they are busy with disputes and divisions, and all day long look for new disputes - what to quarrel about, what to argue about.
5:05 These things create a great many things that cause the delay of the geulah. You understand? How much we do not love one another, how much we try to oppose one another, try to disqualify one another. You try to label a person by his appearance. If he decided to go with this kind of hat or that kind of shirt, then already - a tzaddik he is not, a Torah scholar he is not. We label the person. And what if I reveal to you now that there is some hidden tzaddik sitting in the corner, and he is dressed - maybe it is Eliyahu HaNavi, remembered for good, and you do not know. Man, by his nature, is coarse in what he sees.
5:42 These things cause a person to be clouded, corrupted, with a crooked mind, to grow distant from the Creator. And also, the moment everyone does this, Mashiach does not come. For "to this one I will look: to the poor and broken in spirit." "Man sees what is before the eyes," and Hashem, blessed be He - what does He see? "The heart." When the prophet Shmuel came to anoint the sons of Yishai, he looks at Eliav, he sees his height, his appearance.
6:10 Look: "Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature." The Holy One, blessed be He: "I have rejected him." I did not choose him as king - you are choosing him as king. You, with your sight, look at him and you say: this is perfection for a king. So the prophet Shmuel asks: "Are these all the boys?" What, is there no one else? No one thinks that it is David, because David was this kind of despised one, someone [unclear] would send him every day to the forest, he says: come on, maybe he will go, and some lion or tiger will come and devour him, and nothing will be left of him.
6:41 He did not think at all that the geulah would come from David, and suddenly, King David arrived. There, in Tractate Pesachim, page 119, the Gemara says: "The stone the builders rejected" - there the Gemara brings the Hallel, how each one said it, together: King David, the brothers of David and Yishai. "This came from Hashem; it is wondrous in our eyes" - said the brothers of King David. "This is the day Hashem has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." Everyone rejoiced on that day, when suddenly they see King David reigning over the Jewish people - here he is, he was chosen.
7:11 You suddenly look, and you see what the Torah teaches us. Precisely the one you do not expect it from, and precisely from where you do not think - from there Mashiach comes, when the mind is turned elsewhere. The Holy One, blessed be He, comes and brings things the opposite way, the salvation the opposite way. Therefore one must always know to look at the souls of the Jewish people, not to label anyone. These are things that will bring Mashiach. If everyone has this outlook, this unity, this respect, this joy, suddenly you will see - Mashiach comes.
7:38 - Rav, how does one spread this message, what the Rav is saying? In practice, how can a person go to someone else and tell him: you need to see good, you need to understand that someone else... - "As water reflects face to face": you love him, and he will love you. - Right, exactly. Did you hear what Rabbi Zev said? You love him - you, it starts from you. You love him, and he will love you. Look today at how many chassidic courts, how many streams, how many opinions, how many kinds of dress, how many of this - this kind of dress, that kind of dress.
8:03 Each one goes in some path - there is no problem with that. Let them dress so; let each one go by his own custom, by his rabbis, by his customs, and so on, women, men, each one according to his own way. But what? You can disagree with someone, but you cannot disqualify his opinion. You understand? You cannot come to someone and tell him - and from here baseless hatred begins. When we begin - if we begin to love this one and to love everyone, we will be able to reach a state where we are joined in our hearts, and the heart will be one, there will be one people.
8:33 These are the things that will bring about the revelation of Hashem's kingship. What - the Holy One, blessed be He, now? We are all a portion of G-d above, a holy soul that dwells within each one of us. The Holy One, blessed be He, judges us, and - may it not come upon anyone of the Jewish people - when each one departs after 120 years, they go to Heaven with the same clothes, shrouds, each one goes the same way, to the same earth and to the same dress, from the greatest tzaddik to the simple man.
9:01 Everyone goes the same way. Therefore it is forbidden for there to be haughtiness of heart. No one can say: I am the truth and I am the way, and you - One must respect and love the Jewish people. "Love your fellow as yourself" - to stop the baseless hatred. Baseless hatred must be done away with in this people. No - nothing will help. The baseless hatred, the divisions, the disputes - these things must be done away with. It is impossible, impossible. These are the things that hold back the revelation of Hashem's kingship.
9:28 There is one who wants to learn Kabbalah, and the other shouts at him: do not touch the sefer! Do not... - we do not interfere with one another. Among us, each one has his own Rav, his own custom, his own way. "A custom of Israel is Torah." When now they want to come - some chacham arrives at a certain community, he arrives at some city, a certain town, and he wants to be their Rav, and he wants to rule halachah for them. The first thing, when the Rav of a city sits on the seat, the first thing is that he begins to look into the customs of the country, before he wants to rule on the law - to know what your customs are.
10:02 Suddenly they come: we have this custom, and this custom, and this custom, and this custom - and you see that they have customs. It is tradition. "A custom of Israel is Torah." You cannot abolish a custom. They have a custom. And so, for all the Jewish people, one must respect the customs, the communities, the circles. These things will bring about unity. - What about converts? - Converts are holy souls. Righteous converts - there are righteous converts, holy souls.
10:27 "And you shall love the convert." The Torah says to love the convert, the distant one. Precisely the righteous convert - he must be given honor and a platform. Come to today: you see a person who is a convert - they cancel a shidduch on him. They do not want him for a shidduch. They disqualify him, they ostracize him, they push him away. In the name of the Torah they act against the Torah. Why? Where is this Torah? The Torah says: "And you shall love the convert." If I want to fulfill the Torah, I must bring him close.
10:54 Why do you disqualify him? A person draws close to Hashem, returns in teshuvah to Hashem - and they belittle him because he returned in teshuvah. They do not want him for a shidduch. I met a poor young man, 35 years old, not yet married, and he has already been in teshuvah for 20 years. 35, not yet married, he has no children yet. How's that? No, not a convert. One who returned in teshuvah. 35 years old, not yet married, without children.
11:19 So he had a shidduch and everything, and they disqualified the shidduch on him. Why? I mean - what, where, what is going on here? You understand, this is not the right way of thinking. First of all, one needs to understand something very simple.
11:46 When someone opposes you, it's because he doesn't know what your view is. When someone opposes you, where does the opposition come from? Where does dispute come from, the opposition — where does it come from? From this: that I don't know what your view is, so right away I oppose. I don't know what you're saying — I oppose. Because I'm afraid of you — that your view will come and force me to give up my view.
12:11 That is where opposition comes from. That is the root of dispute: that you — you have views, and you have a way of conduct, and I'm afraid of you, so right away I disagree with you, without knowing what you're saying. If it were explained to them in the right way — someone would need to sit and hear all the claims, all the disputes, all the views, and try to reconcile them. But there are things that are 'all who come to her shall not return.' You understand? Sometimes there are things that can't be answered. There are kinds of people who are not looking for the answer.
12:42 They want to live the question. You understand? And that's a problem. People like that, forever — 'all who come to her shall not return' — they will never succeed. You won't manage to settle it, you understand? Because he doesn't want the answer. Mashiach will come with them too; it doesn't matter. We need to increase love in the world, unity in the world, the revelation of G-dliness. Look at the Holy One, blessed be He, all right? The Holy One, blessed be He — what does He hate?
13:08 Idol worship, right? 'The carved images of their gods you shall burn in fire.' We just read it now. The Holy One, blessed be He, hates idol worship, hates adultery, hates robbery, pride. Look at the whole world that He created. Do you know how much idol worship there is? How many mosques, how many churches, monasteries, how much robbery, how many things. And the Holy One, blessed be He, continues to give life to the created beings and to bestow upon the whole world. What do you learn from this?
13:38 That He is full, full, full, full of mercy. He has a patience that we cannot understand at all. 'Hashem, Hashem, G-d, merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abundant in kindness.' The Holy One, blessed be He, is slow to anger, you understand? You will never understand the mercy of the Holy One, blessed be He. One must contemplate the mercy of the Holy One, blessed be He, you understand? If we contemplate the mercy of Hashem and know the greatness of the Holy One, blessed be He, and reveal His light, these are things that can bring about the geulah for us.
14:09 Look — at the place of the Holy of Holies today, the holy place, the place of the Temple — you come to the place of the Temple, you come to the Kosel, you come to the place of the Temple, you sit and stand and see what mercy the King has — that in the courtyard of His palace He leaves this whole show, and He could, in one brief moment, destroy it all. For the Holy One, blessed be He, is not on that level.
14:35 We are created beings. You see something not good, you want to blow it up; we want something — pride. He doesn't need that, because He has no one to impress. He doesn't need to impress anyone. He is not looking to destroy the work of His hands. He is looking for the world to receive sense and understanding of how to behave. That is what He is looking for. That people should have a heart to love, and the sense to behave. That's it. He doesn't need to blow up mosques now. He is not in that place.
15:00 We are in a mindset of wars. The Holy One, blessed be He — King Shlomo ruled over the whole world. Through the marriages — he married wives. He didn't marry wives out of desire; he married wives in order to establish peace. It's like you travelling to countries today. You go today, you become an ambassador, I do business with the ambassador of France, Macedonia, Belgium, Algeria — I make an agreement with them.
15:29 I travel from place to place, I make peace with them. I buy a plot of land from them. I do some business with them. Someone will come from the side and say, 'What are you doing? You're buying so much — what are you doing with them?' So I'll tell him, 'You're a fool. I'm not doing this to buy property; I'm doing it so that I'll have peace with the ambassador, with the president, to establish our peace.' That is what King Shlomo did: he married daughters of kings so that, by the very fact that they are married to him, he rules over 252 countries — twice as many as Achashverosh, who ruled over 127. You learn from this that the Holy One, blessed be He, wants His kingship to be revealed, that the world should know who He is.
16:08 The Holy One, blessed be He, a great King — look: 'The work of My hands is drowning in the sea, and you are saying song?' When the Egyptians went out — the Jewish people went out of Egypt and the Egyptians chased after them, they drowned in the Yam Suf. The Jewish people say song to the Holy One, blessed be He, and the Holy One, blessed be He — the song did not find favor in His eyes. This is what the Beis Yosef writes in the name of the Shibbolei HaLeket: that we don't say the full Hallel on Pesach. And this is the greatest miracle of the Exodus from Egypt — the splitting of the Yam Suf.
16:36 You understand? Think: this is the greatest miracle that there can be. Try to think, you yourself: what is the wonder, the greatest miracle in the Torah, and in all the Torah that was given to us? It is the splitting of the Yam Suf. The great miracle — that the sea, which by nature, water goes and flows, was split into 12 parts, and the water reached up to the sky. You see it and you say, 'What is this power?' And it would have been fitting that the Holy One, blessed be He, should remind us of this, that He should be angry if we don't remember this day, and don't say Hallel, and don't say the greatest song there is, and the Holy One, blessed be He, would be angry over that. And instead — not only is He not angry —
17:13 the halachah was ruled that it is forbidden to say the full Hallel on Pesach. All seven days of Pesach, including Chol HaMoed of Pesach, and including the seventh day of Pesach, which is the very day itself — the miracle of the splitting of the Yam Suf — we don't say Hallel with a blessing on the seventh day of Pesach. Why? Because 'The work of My hands is drowning in the sea, and you are saying song?'
17:39 The Holy One, blessed be He, has pity on the cruel Egyptians and does not want our song. You understand? That is the Torah's view. Have you understood what the Torah's view is? The opposite of the hatred and the disputes that we carry out here in the world. Instead of looking at what is written in the poskim, what is written in the Midrashim, what is written in the Gemara, we simply — it has escaped us — we shout hatred, hatred, in the name of holiness. So disputes arise, hatred arises, camps arise.
18:05 Demonstrations arise, and this is what we look like. That is why I say: we need straight understanding and sense. May the Holy One, blessed be He, give them to us, and we will merit to be redeemed. - First of all, my brother up there and I — more than a year and something in the reserves already — Hashem saved us. I want to glorify and exalt the Name of Hashem.
18:29 'Give thanks to Hashem, for He is good.' Because of 'When I keep Shabbos, G-d will keep me', Hashem saves us — in the reserves, and at the party at Nova, where we were supposed to be on duty, whether in the police or in the army. A small question from me to you, honored Rav. It's known that both the country and every person go through some crisis, like the splitting of the Yam Suf, and in the end you're supposed to cope with crises — on the side of the country too, what is happening to us; a great many friends died, in the police, in the army, and in civilian life too.
19:03 Each person, deep inside himself, has some kind of splitting of the Yam Suf too — crises happen to us, things happen — and sometimes you ask the question... like, again, to begin with: emunah, complete emunah. What the Creator of the world wants is what will be, and we go with that the very, very most that we can. But sometimes the inner crisis, as you try to move forward, is very, very hard. The question is how — besides tefillos and emunah — how can one sometimes move forward?
19:29 Because you see, for example, on the last Memorial Day, when I am at [unclear], you see a great many friends: this one was with me in the course, this one a childhood friend, this one lived next to me, this one from the reserves. You know, you see things sometimes that the mind finds it hard, you know, to accept, and at home too there are all kinds of crises, and you try to carry on like that — it's hard, it's simply hard. - Listen, first of all, it is very painful to hear.
19:57 There is no doubt that it is very hard, it is very painful. You are absolutely right in what you say; I understand the pain and the difficulty. But I'll give you an answer. You know, after the sons of Aharon passed away, it is written, 'And Aharon was silent' — 'was silent.' There are moments in life, times in life, when one simply has to be silent.
20:23 Many times — we will never understand the Creator. You know, the Rebbe, the Amud HaEmes of Kotzk, once said: 'I would not be willing to serve the Holy One, blessed be He, if I understood Him. I would not serve a Creator whose doings I understand.' As if you already understand everything He does, what He will do. This is the Creator, you understand? And one must contemplate this, with the knowledge that we don't understand what is happening here, what is going on here. We have a King above us; the King decides to take this one, to leave that one; this one is decreed to death, that one is decreed to life. He simply judges all the creatures — 'Judge of all the earth, and He will stand it in judgment.'
21:00 'Please, attach life and kindness to a poor people' — that is our request at all times, on the Days of Awe, on Rosh Hashanah, to ask of the Holy One, blessed be He. This contemplation can bring you — the silence, combined with lifting the eyes to Heaven, will bring you to get through all the waves. You know, it's like you are swimming in the sea now, and you went in to immerse and the water is calm, and suddenly waves came.
21:25 Waves came suddenly. Now, to argue with the waves — a person can drown. The only way is to lift the head up, and to lower the head when needed, and lift the head, like this. Every time the waves come, you simply — as the wave arrives, you lower your head — that means, you are silent, you say nothing, and when the wave has passed, you lift your head up to Heaven. The silence of 'And Aharon was silent' and lifting the eyes to Heaven — it gives strength to many people who are having a hard time.
21:56 It's simply — you know, as much as you come to a bereaved father — you know, I meet them, I meet bereaved families, people who are very broken. You know, he says to me, 'You strengthened me, you strengthened me, you gave me strength.' And I say, I know that I didn't do anything. The only thing I gave him is simply true things. When you say something true to someone who is broken, you give him strength.
22:25 That is — you start talking to a person and you tell him things that the mind doesn't accept, it won't comfort him; it will even distress him. So one always has to know how to speak, with whom to speak, what to speak and how much to speak. You understand? So therefore my advice is simple advice, very simple. Silence, with lifting the eyes to Heaven — and you don't understand what a great virtue there is when a Jew lifts his head to Heaven. It is simply something that cannot be explained.
22:57 I said to say the verses: 'For Your salvation I hope, Hashem; hasten to my help, Hashem, my salvation. My eyes are always toward Hashem, for He will bring my feet out of the net. See my affliction and my toil, and forgive all my sins.' These are verses that I simply contemplated, that take in very many of a person's hard moments. When a person asks, as it were, 'For Your salvation I hope, Hashem' — he asks for salvation, lifts his eyes to Heaven — I wanted something easy, that people would also be able to remember, and also — and truly, people see salvations from it.
23:25 I suggest that you say the verses and lift your eyes to Heaven. Less work — I don't want to give you, or anyone, hard work. And also fragrant spices. Fragrant spices restore the soul. On Motza'ei Shabbos — last week was Tishah B'Av. We did not make the blessing over the spices. Spices give life: 'Wine and fragrance made me wise.' Wine, spices — they give understanding, they give a settled mind. Spices give a person serenity, give a person calm.
23:50 Spices can help very, very much the bitter of soul, broken people, and in hardships. And most important: to overcome, to be strengthened, to be in joy, to think good thoughts and to be strong. We need to be strong, to be mighty, not to be afraid of anything, not to fear anything, to fear only the Holy King, and to be strong with all our strength; not to be afraid of any illness, of any disaster, of any... Anything you suddenly hear — calm down. First of all, settle your mind. First of all: not to panic, not to get stressed.
24:24 To think good, to hope, to look forward, to be strong. As I say every time, in the name of the Amud HaEmes: 'Don't tell the Holy One, blessed be He, how great your troubles are. Tell your troubles how great the Holy One, blessed be He, is.' Be strong. May Hashem watch over you. Be strong, be strong. May there be good tidings, joy, salvation, and may we merit to be redeemed with a high hand. May the Beis HaMikdash be rebuilt speedily in our days [unclear]. May everyone have good tidings, a good life. The Jewish people live. The Jewish people live — that stands, and Hashem, blessed be He, is with us; He chose us from all the nations, He desired us, and we have merited — we, the holy people, who gave our blood for the sanctification of His Name, blessed be He — and the Holy One, blessed be He, loves us
25:43 and will not abandon us. 'I have loved you, said Hashem' — He will never, ever abandon us, and He is with us and rejoices in us and loves His people. And may we merit to be redeemed. And the Holy One, blessed be He, [unclear] each and every one as though an only son before Him, blessed be He. So writes the Rebbe Rashab, Rabbi Shalom DovBer — he writes that the Holy One, blessed be He, loves each and every one as though he were an only son before Him, blessed be He. So think good and be full of joy — to be in joy always, good thoughts — and there is no despair in the world at all. Be strong, be strong.
26:12 Thank you very much.
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