The Yanuka Rav Shlomo Yehuda-הינוקא הרב שלמה יהודה - סוד המלח - The Yanuka - Rabbi Shlomo Yehuda

6:07 Only a healing is needed, that's all I had a bit of... Before this I didn't even know if I would be able to come like this but baruch Hashem, I am better How is it possible to speak before the Jewish people like this so many Torah scholars, so many...

6:31 How did you come like this to such an ignoramus, wow Wow, How did you do such a thing This is the footsteps of Mashiach, a sign that we are close to the geulah Master of the world, may it be Your will that what we learn be for the sake of Heaven to give You, blessed be He, satisfaction, learning for its own sake that through this, abundance be drawn down to the whole house of Israel and miracles and wonders for good, seen and revealed Amen.

7:09 complete mercy before You, blessed be He Great is Hashem, great, great, great, great, great, 'and His greatness is unsearchable' In 'Refa'einu' we say: 'and bring a cure and healing for all our ailments' Everyone wants healing In every generation the Holy One, blessed be He, gives tzaddikim and gives sages and gives in every generation...

7:54 but healing the Holy One, blessed be He, gives when one asks Therefore we ask before Hashem, 'Heal us' After that come the tzaddikim, the tzaddikim are after that And one must always ask for healing, for life.. to always ask for healing, that healing be drawn down We, baruch Hashem, always, all the time, pray for healing On Shabbos, in the morning prayer, at the opening of the Ark we make a Mi Shebeirach for all the Torah scholars and the rabbis and the tzaddikim of the generation, all of them We mention all the Torah scholars, all who are occupied with Torah and its mitzvos That is what we do every time, to strengthen the hands of the Torah If one loves the Torah, one must pray for the Torah and that there be healing, that there be health

8:46 then the Holy One, blessed be He, arouses mercy in Heaven for this One must pray for this, to want it to feel it.. how important it is to pray for this People don't know how important it is Think sometime about earlier generations that we were once in and there were holy and awesome tzaddikim After all, a person who does not believe that in every generation there are holy and awesome tzaddikim as in earlier generations his law is that he is a heretic and an apikores, a real heretic a heretic in the Torah and in Moshe and in everything In each and every generation the Holy One, blessed be He, gives sages and tzaddikim And one must pray for all the Jewish people, for all of them, for all of them The thing that is so important to pray for is healing

9:41 How many things there are about a poor, miserable man The Divrei Chaim of Sanz said that he is not afraid of anything in the world not of an angel, not of a seraph, and not of anything He is afraid only of the sigh of the poor man that if there is some poor man who comes to him and he sighs and wants to ask for something, and someone did not give to this poor man and he is left with his sigh of that he is very, very, very afraid, in Heaven So said the Divrei Chaim of Sanz The Divrei Yatziv, the responsa Divrei Yatziv, Rabbi Yekusiel Halberstam, was his grandson who also went in this way He married off all the grandchildren, everything, only with Torah scholars, in his family He did not make matches by lineage among Rebbes and...

10:28 only Torah scholars, to look for where there is Torah, Torah scholars And so he was very, very strict about this Where there is Torah, that is how one must look Where there is Torah, to pray, only Torah To pray for a complete healing is the most important thing Rabbi Shmuel Huminer says in Olas Tamid Shmuel in his book, a commentary on the prayer - Eved HaMelech (on the mitzvos) What?

10:56 Your neighbor. Rabbi Shmuel Huminer What tzaddikim - here they mention their generation So all the great ones here... you saw them all, baruch Hashem You merited. He once said, in his book he writes: "Master of the world, turn the bitter into sweet" And he explains there that to pray to Hashem over all suffering to turn them, the bitter into sweet each time to ask Hashem to turn the bitter into sweet everything one does, to take the bitter so that it becomes sweet That is the reason that at a meal, when we come and take the bread and dip it in salt three times to have in mind by this that all the gevuros be sweetened and all the judgments be sweetened - (Question from the audience) Where is that written?

11:57 - Where is what written? - (Question from the audience) Where is it written that it sweetens all the judgments - Where is it written that all the judgments are sweetened? Ah, salt sweetens all the judgments? - (Question from the audience) It is written that salt sweetens meat (Question from the audience) The Gemara says: just as salt sweetens meat so suffering sweetens the sins - Rabbi Meir Poppers, in Or Tzaddikim in siman 29, paragraph 16, 'Or Tzaddikim' - Tikkun Seudah and 'Yesod VeShoresh HaAvodah', chapter seven in Sha'ar HaBechoros, chapter 5, also writes to dip in the salt three times And also in 'Kol Yaakov' on the siddur of our master the Arizal, it is there too.

13:00 It is there too. Come, maybe there is a song. Why do you want to know where it is written?

13:35 - I just wanted to know a source Not that I don't believe, I just wanted to understand... - Yes. It is also in 'Tziporen Shamir', in siman 4, os 64 'Tziporen Shamir' of Maran the Chida, siman 4, os 64 He says to have in mind three times to have in mind that the Sitra Achra depart from the table When one has in mind three times, The salt is gevuros, salt Salt is a Havayah in gevuros, and the bread is three Havayahs of chesed And one must have in mind, after all, the judgments are salty One must have in mind with the bread, three times in the dipping so that all the gevuros be sweetened, that is how one must have in mind There is also Rabbi David Rabbi David son of Rabbi Moshe HaKohen was a rabbi in Algeria

14:41 He has responsa, Kiryat Chana David Kiryat Chana David, named after the verse It is written in Yeshayahu, chapter 29, verse 1: "Woe, Ariel, Ariel, the city where David camped" So in the responsa Kiryat Chana David he says in part 2, siman 49 he writes that at the time one does the dipping in salt one should have in mind 'Hashem is King, Hashem was King, Hashem will reign forever and ever' Three times one should have this in mind, and so that all the judgments be sweetened That is how to have in mind the..

15:27 Basically, May it be His will that the Master of the world give some new insight We always have wondrous new insights on these things What? What? - (Question from the audience) Is there anyone to rely on to say between 'HaMotzi' and eating 'Hashem is King, Hashem was King'... with regard to an interruption? - No, no, not to say it, no, certainly not to say it There are those who had the custom in Morocco to say 'Hashem is King, Hashem was King' between HaMotzi and eating Yes, that's right, but not to say it According to halachah, not to say it, certainly not Let us perhaps explain the matters a bit, perhaps Since we already spoke about this, let us try to think of something May it be His will that there be help from Heaven and that some new insight be bestowed, that it be Torah from Heaven

16:12 that the Holy One, blessed be He, grant us to understand the matters better Let us try to learn this thing more and then we will try to connect the matters The source is in Tractate Berachos, page 40a: A person may not break bread until he can dip in salt; first one must dip in salt and until he has dipped in salt because of the honor of the blessing.

16:45 Tosafos says, on page 40a in Berachos, that the reason we bring the salt to the table is because there is an accusation that we, at this time of washing the hands, between washing the hands and 'HaMotzi' the Satan sits and accuses that we are without Torah Now, What?

17:11 Right, it is in the name of a Midrash; this Midrash does not exist this Midrash has no source it is in the name of Rabbi Menachem, there Tosafos says There is no source for this Midrash. Basically, in the 'Beis Yosef' in siman 167, paragraph 9, he also brought it in the name of the 'Shibbolei HaLeket' in siman 141 he brought from the Geonim that there is a reason why we bring the salt because now a person's table atones for him in place of the altar as we learned in Tractate Berachos, page 55a and in Tractate Chagigah, page 27a and also in Tractate Menachos, page 97a in the name of Rabbi Yochanan and Rabbi Elazar, who both said: When the Beis HaMikdash stands, the altar atones and now a person's table atones for him Now that there is no Beis HaMikdash, the table atones

18:14 Let us explain this matter After all, we know that now that the Beis HaMikdash does not stand and our Temple and our glory was destroyed In Tractate Bava Basra, at the end of the chapter 'Chezkas HaBatim', page 60b and also in the Tosefta, Sotah chapter 15, at the end of the Tosefta in Sotah it is written that they instituted that a person leave over a small thing from the meal A remembrance of the Destruction is needed for anything that has joy in it they instituted that a person leave over a small thing at the meal What is the measure of a small thing?

19:05 "Rav Papa said: 'kasa d'arsana'" Rashi explains that it is a dish of fish fried in their own fat It is a simple dish In Tractate Shabbos, page 112a it is mentioned there that kasa d'arsana is a cheap food In Tractate Pesachim, page 112a, and in Sukkah, page 54b and more...

19:36 And more, that kasa d'arsana is a simple dish the measure of one cooked dish that one must leave over so that there be a sign when one makes a meal of joy So it is brought in 'Bava Basra' regarding the measure of a dish that one makes (leaves over) Our master the Rambam, in 'Hilchos Ta'aniyos', chapter 5, halachah 13 the Rambam brought also that they instituted that at a meal one leaves over a small dish from the meal so that there be a sign, and an empty place So the Rambam brings in Hilchos Ta'aniyos that there is an empty place that one must leave and also to make a sign by this, that there is both an empty place and a dish The Shulchan Aruch also brought this, in siman 560, paragraph 2 it brought the wording of the Rambam

20:46 And the Levush also wrote that what is left over should be a sign and also the Magen Avraham brought it, to leave a dish... But here one has to think: after all, the Taz, our master the Taz, explains the words of the Rambam, and does not hold like the Rambam and also the Tur did not hold so The Taz says that one does not need to leave an empty place at the meal so that there be a sign and a remembrance of the Destruction 'If one makes a meal for guests' From the wording of the Rambam, it is a meal for guests When there is a meal for guests then one must leave a place - so that there be a remembrance of the Destruction but if it is not a meal for guests - one need not leave a place

21:26 One need not make a sign in the dish if a person dines with his household only a meal that is one of joy where one may come to distraction and they can forget the Destruction The Taz explains that if there is one dish from which something is left out a dish that people usually make at every meal and they leave out from this dish, then there will be a sign and then that is already a remembrance of the Destruction The Rambam requires both leaving out a dish and leaving out a place that there be a sign in the place so they can know that this is a sign, 'a remembrance of the Destruction' both the place and the dish The Taz explains that leaving out the dish alone is enough, and a place is not needed

22:18 and so the Tur brought The Yaavetz, in Mor U'Ketziah, at the end of siman 695 the Yaavetz brings that on Purim, and at a mitzvah meal that is like Purim and Shabbos, when we do not practice mourning in public and also on Purim, at a mitzvah meal, on Rosh Chodesh, on Yom Tov one need not do anything regarding making a sign in honor of the meal in remembrance of the Destruction of our Temple and our glory, which was destroyed because of our sins Let us just explain The Mekor Chaim, Rabbi Yair Bacharach, also brought he did not understand why today people do not practice this He says that there is not much of a sign in delicacies to tell the dishes apart, so that people could know whether it was there, or they left this dish out

23:28 or they made some sign or did not make a sign But what, then? One must make some sign at every meal of joy that there be some sign, something by which they will know 'a remembrance of the Destruction' It cannot be that there is a place of joy where they forget the Destruction Today, in our days, many people do not know also the order of the table that they used to have once the order of their meals, the order of their reclining, the order of the tables together they don't really know how they used to sit they don't really know how to leave an empty place they don't really know how to leave something over So anyone - whatever occurs to him whether it is putting up some big sign over his meal whether it is putting a place on each and every seat

24:12 to give people some remembrance so that they think in their minds and remember the Destruction that is a very, very, very great and tremendous thing The holy Shelah, our master the Shelah, in Sha'ar HaOsiyos at the letter Kuf, Kedushas Achilah, at os 170 the holy Shelah writes that at the time of the meal a person should mention..

24:39 He brings the Zohar, in Zohar Terumah, page 157b There Rabbi Shimon brings: 'Whoever delights at the table...' Rabbi Shimon says, ...on the holy Shelah The holy Shelah explains that at the time when a person, during his eating so it is also very good to practice this, so too we practice that when a person has washed his hands and made HaMotzi, and eaten, he should not continue his meal he should eat thus with a settled mind, as much as he can eat and before he tastes again a piece of the bread or of anything else he is eating in those few seconds, if it is a weekday, he should say Psalm 137 and remember the destruction of Jerusalem, and if it is holy Shabbos, he should mention Psalm 126, 'A song of ascents: when Hashem returns the captives of Zion, we were like dreamers' -

25:48 if it is Shabbos, because it is a psalm that speaks about the geulah, and there is in it a remembrance of Jerusalem. But if it is a weekday, then he should say Psalm 137. So Rabbi Shimon says that whoever is pained - in the Zohar, Terumah, page 157b - that whoever is pained during his eating and his meal, that he must be pained about this, then 'because he grieved' - because he is saddened - then the Holy One, blessed be He, considers it as if he built His house, as if he built the Beis HaMikdash.

26:21 Because he is saddened during his meal, at the time he sits at the meal and thinks about the House of Hashem while he eats, the Holy One, blessed be He, considers it as if he built His house, blessed be He, because he sat at the table and pondered and thought about the house of Hashem, blessed be He, because he sat and thought. So this truly explains what this reason is for dipping the bread in salt.

26:54 Because dipping the bread in salt, as we know, is because of what the Shulchan Aruch brings in section 167, paragraph 5, 'because of the importance of the bread'. So today people are not accustomed to bring the salt to the bread to give it importance; today the bread is already fine in itself, and it already has all kinds of flavors in it, so salt is not needed. So bringing the salt to the table - that is according to the Kabbalah, as the Alter Rebbe explains in section 167, paragraph 8 of the Shulchan Aruch HaRav; he brings the importance.

27:26 And as we explained earlier at length from the Chida and from the Yesod V'Shoresh HaAvodah, and from our master the Arizal, of blessed memory, and from Rabbi Meir Paprish in Or Tzaddikim, that there is a very great matter and Tikkun in dipping in salt, or in the salt just being kept on the table, just by the salt being there. And what is the importance in this? When a person sits and eats a meal, there are two aspects and levels: there is a level of before the meal and there is a level of after the meal.

28:01 And about the level of before the meal it says, 'and you shall be holy', because 'and you shall sanctify yourselves' - this is the first waters, and the final waters are washed because of Sodomite salt which blinds the eyes - in Chullin, page 105a, and in Berachos, page 53b. 'And you shall sanctify yourselves' - this is the first waters, that we do the washing of the hands. And the Shulchan Aruch writes in section 181, paragraph 1, that the final waters are an obligation.

28:28 And in paragraph 2 it writes: 'One should be careful not to wash the final waters onto the ground, because of an evil spirit that rests on them' - that there is an evil spirit in them. He should not give the evil spirit to the ground, because there is an evil spirit in them. Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai explains - Rabbi Shimon explains in the Zohar, Terumah, page 154a.

28:58 Rabbi Shimon says that in the final waters, 'that side has no share in blessing, because that side has no blessing at all'. On this side, of the final waters, no blessing rests at all. And this is the reason Rabbi Shimon gives that we do not say a blessing on the final waters.

29:22 On the first waters we make a blessing, and on the final waters we do not make a blessing. And why? Because in order to give to the Sitra Achra, the other side, we give that side its share, that very thing that side needs to receive; we give it its share, and we do not give it more than this share, we only give it its share, to this side. But with the first waters, we, at the beginning, with a blessing, draw down the blessing, and with the final waters we give that side its share, so there is no blessing.

29:54 So it is understood even more that one must bring up the remembrance of Jerusalem at the beginning of the meal, because the beginning of the meal - that is the blessing, which is not so at the end of the meal, which is for its share. So therefore one must bring up the remembrance of Jerusalem at the beginning of the blessing. When I say the remembrance of Jerusalem, what I mean is to remember Jerusalem at the beginning. And then we do it after the blessing of washing the hands, after HaMotzi, when sitting at the table; sitting together and mentioning the destruction of Jerusalem, whether it is a weekday or whether it is holy Shabbos, so that is the time to mention it.

30:29 To mention Jerusalem at the end of its time is no longer the thing that is important; the importance is to mention Jerusalem specifically at this time, which is at the end after everything, then to mention Jerusalem. And then it is understood more why it is written 'bread with salt'.

30:54 'Eat bread with salt, drink water in small measure, and sleep on the ground.' 'Bread with salt' - it is written in the Zohar, in Zohar Pinchas, page 244a: 'Whoever throws away crumbs of bread, poverty pursues him.'

31:19 The Chinuch writes in mitzvah 430: 'Thus I have received from my fathers, may G-d protect them, that whoever is careful with Birkas HaMazon, his sustenance is found for him with honor all his days', that he should be careful with Birkas HaMazon. And a person who is careful with Birkas HaMazon surely will take care to put the bread, he will cover it and put it on the table, and he will bless with intention and with very, very great awe, he will bless.

31:45 And so he will draw down a very great blessing also in Birkas HaMazon, and also on the bread, on everything, that some of the blessing should remain in it. And of course he will be careful not to throw away the crumbs 'd'nahama' (of the bread), so that poverty will not pursue him. And then he says, 'eat bread with salt', that one must take the bread and eat it with salt - in the sixth chapter of Tractate Avos, in Mishnah 4: 'Eat bread with salt, drink water in small measure, sleep on the ground, live a life of hardship, and toil in Torah.'

32:26 What is meant by 'eat bread with salt'? There is importance to salt. We know that there is very great importance (to salt). And not for nothing, tzaddik, did you ask this, what you asked, why we dip. I say, not for nothing did you ask this thing - it is from Heaven.

32:52 There is a new insight, a new insight in your merit, there is a new insight. May the Holy One, blessed be He, help that it be correct and that there be no mistake. May it be His will; afterwards we will check, we will see, with Hashem's help, the new insight. Now you need to understand all these things, really understand them very well.

33:26 After all, when we say to eat the bread with salt, it points to sorrow, that a person must pay attention to why he eats bread with salt. When I say to think about and remember Jerusalem and the destruction of Jerusalem - I would like to explain to you something important, so that you understand what the meaning of... just one small thing.

34:01 In Tractate Zevachim, page 95b. We know that there is meat of offerings of lesser holiness, and meat of offerings of the highest holiness. The meat of offerings of lesser holiness is eaten in Jerusalem, and the offerings of the highest holiness are eaten in the Beis HaMikdash. If they took the meat of a sin-offering and cooked it in an earthenware vessel, the way will not be by koshering in boiling water; it is only by burning.

34:34 But a metal vessel is done by koshering in boiling water, and cold water, and so on. Rav Nachman said in the name of Rabbah bar Avuha: 'The oven of the Temple was of metal', and there they would prepare the meat of the offerings. If there was meat of a sin-offering in a metal vessel, they would kosher it in boiling water; if there was meat of a sin-offering in an earthenware vessel - they would burn it.

35:06 On page 96a, the Gemara says, at the beginning of the page, in the first two lines - Ah, ah, what words! So why - because - in the Beis HaMikdash when it stood, they would take the earthenware vessel and throw them into the fire.

35:33 Why did they need to break them, the earthenware vessels? Why did they not throw them into the fire? They would throw them into the fire, the Gemara says, and in this way they would purify the vessels, koshering them this way, throwing all the earthenware vessels into the fire, and they would not need to break them. Rather, Rabbi Zeira said: 'Kilns are not made in Jerusalem.'

35:57 They do not make kilns of fire in Jerusalem. So Rashi explains: because of 'kutra' (smoke), as we say in Bava Kamma, page 82b. That is how Rashi explains it; the meaning is that they do not make them in Jerusalem now because of the walls, in Jerusalem, the holy place, so that there will not be too much smoke in Jerusalem, in the Beis HaMikdash, so that smoke will not rise in Jerusalem and so blacken the walls, and so there would be less honor for Jerusalem.

36:34 And I say, in my own mind, now: if it is for the honor of Jerusalem, that the walls should not be blackened, and not out of its honor - because of 'kutra' (smoke), as Rashi says - what shall we say about the great and terrible fire in which the House of our holiness and our glory was burned? What shall we say about this, that we sit and eat and take pleasure at the table and do not think in our minds about the House of Hashem, about His kingship, about His house, about the fact that He has no house, about the fact that it has not yet been built, about the fact that we are distanced by baseless hatred, about the fact that we sit and do not dip in the salt and think about the poor?

37:15 Another thing one must remember when dipping the bread in salt is also to remember the poor; to remember Sodom, the woman of Sodom who was turned into a pillar of salt, to remember her, to remember to have mercy (on the poor). Every time you dip, remember the poor, have mercy on them, have compassion on them, have compassion. Be merciful, have mercy on every single poor person in the world, that you should have a heart during the meal. When you eat, dipping the bread in salt, remember Sodom, which was overturned because they had no compassion.

37:41 So we think about Jerusalem and say: because of 'kutra', because of the smoke, just so that it should not do damage. And we today are not only with 'kutra', and not smoke, and not fire - we have no house at all, at all. So how much one must pay attention during the meal, when we sit at the meal and think about the House of Hashem.

38:06 What should one think about during the meal, if not about the Beis HaMikdash? What should one think about during the meal if we do not think about the Kingdom of Heaven? In general, not just at a meal - let us say something more that... what you said before, something even older about the salt.

38:37 We know that 'with all your offerings you shall offer salt; and you shall not leave out the salt of the covenant of your G-d from your meal-offering; with all your offerings you shall offer salt' - in the book of Vayikra, at the beginning, chapter 2, verse 13. What is the meaning of 'with all your offerings you shall offer salt'?

39:05 On every offering that had to be offered - a sin-offering, a guilt-offering, a burnt-offering - there was the Chamber of Salt, where they would take the limbs of the offerings; they would put it on the ramp and on top of the altar. On the wine, if there were wine libations, on wood, on blood that they would sprinkle on the altar, on these they did not put salt; only on the meat of the offerings would they take and put salt on them, and so they would offer the salt.

39:34 This is a prohibition that involves an action, therefore one receives lashes for it, in mitzvah 118 of the 613 mitzvos. It is written - the Rambam explains in Hilchos Issurei Mizbe'ach, chapter five, halachah 11, halachah 12 and halachah 13. Our master the Rambam explains what is the meaning of the salting of the offering that is done.

40:03 What is the difference between us and the non-Jews? The non-Jews used to do, once, in their time - when they would slaughter, they would not slaughter like us; they would tear at wild animals and beasts as prey, and they wanted their blood, because they love blood, the non-Jews. They love the blood, so they wanted all the blood to remain, and not a single drop of blood to go to waste, not even one, so they would not use salt.

40:32 But we must show the distinction between us and the non-Jews: we use salt, to show a distinction, that we do not desire this blood, because it is murky blood; we do not need this blood. This is also for halachah; there is the law in Tractate Chullin, page 113a: Shmuel said: meat is not freed of its blood unless one salts it very well and rinses it very well.

41:04 It was taught, Rav Huna said: one salts and rinses, and rinses and salts. This is how one must do the rinsing and the salting. In Yoreh De'ah, in section 69, paragraph 1: we take the meat, wash it, rinse it, clean it, put on the salt. In section 69, paragraph 4, it writes to cover it in salt, not too fine and not too coarse; they put it in good salt, so that it is not fit to eat.

41:32 First of all one must wash all the blood off it, as the Mordechai writes in Chullin, in section 721; the Mordechai writes to wash off the blood, to rinse all the meat of all the murky blood, then put the salt on it, and so on. And so one soaks it for half an hour, ideally, as we soak it, and then one leaves it, after the fact, 18 minutes, which is a time of hisbodedus, prayer to Heaven: that a person should pray to Hashem even 18 minutes, after the fact - that is good.

41:59 They leave it an hour, and so on. And then there is in this a very, very, very great virtue for his service, for his spirituality. It also takes out the murky blood, and so on, and also in practice one can already eat from the meat; only one must do washing and rinsing and washing, and so on. With offerings, the Rambam explains that the removal of the blood, what they do with the blood - we put salt in the offering to show our distinction from the non-Jews, that there should be nothing among us of what is in them, and we are holy and pure and separate from them, and we have no share with them, and we can bring an offering before Hashem that has salt in it, and salt has life in it.

42:41 So the Zohar says - it is written in the Zohar, parashas Vayechi - the reason for this, Zohar Vayechi, page 241a. Rav Acha says, Rav Acha says: 'With all your offerings you shall offer salt.' Why does it say 'with all your offerings you shall offer salt'? What is there in salt that salt must be offered with every offering? He says: because, if there were no salt in the world, the world could not endure because of its bitterness.

43:10 All the bitterness in the world and all the suffering and troubles - only salt can nullify them. So therefore this is another source from the Zohar, another source for this from the holy Zohar, that it can nullify all the bitterness, all the... So this is the reason they put in salt: in order to bring an offering before Hashem, blessed be He, that it be a fine and excellent offering. And so in Tractate Menachos, page 20a, and on page 21a, and in Tractate Sotah, page 15a, and in Tractate Menachos, page 58a, there: the importance of the offering with salt, to bring before Hashem.

43:44 And when they bring the offering before Hashem, blessed be He, it must be clear, clean and pure to bring before Hashem, blessed be He. Then a person's heart breaks within him, and then all the gevuros, the severities, are sweetened; all the gevuros are sweetened. Because salt is gevuros, it must be sweetened completely, so that all the gevuros are nullified and there are no judgments, and there will be no troubles and no suffering in the world, that there will be nothing of sorrow and there will be no judgment, and there will be no suffering.

44:09 And this can only come from the prayer of the Jewish people; it is only from the prayer of Israel. When the Jewish people pray to Hashem, then all the judgments are sweetened and they are redeemed from all troubles, and all the salvations come, and everything comes to them easily and calmly and with joy, for good and for salvation, and everything they need. So this truly explains why... After all, on the side of salt there is both good and bad, that they make from it what we said in Chullin, page 105a, that Sodomite salt blinds the eyes.

44:40 Because the root of this, as the Rambam explains, is that it is not every kind of salt; today we do not know which kind of salt. But salt blinds the eyes - why? Because salt can cause a person not to see the world, from his great thirst for this world, so he will not see the world. But he can also - if it is in measure, then he can, on the contrary, come to a very great enthusiasm for Hashem, blessed be He.

45:04 It all depends on the person's measure. He can take out the murky blood, as we learned, and on one side, 'with all your offerings you shall offer salt', that on this there will be... So Rashi explains - now this will be understood more - what Rashi explains in Vayikra, chapter 2, verse 13. So Rashi explains, Rashi says, that there should be a distinction and difference between the upper waters and the lower waters. The lower waters cried to Hashem: how did the upper waters merit?

45:31 The Holy One, blessed be He, said to them: from you they will pour libations on the altar, if there is salt, that from them an offering will be brought before Hashem, blessed be He. That is to say, the lower waters merited: that at the time of the Creation the upper waters would be raised higher, but the lower waters would be raised onto the altar, the lower waters. That is to say, all that the lower waters were raised is from prayer - which is tears. That is why they cried; the lower waters cried, they cried to Hashem - this is prayer - they only cried to Hashem: 'Master of the world, we too want to be on the altar, we too want to have some Tikkun and ascent, raise us up.'

46:02 They cried before Hashem, blessed be He. This is what Hashem wants, that everyone be like this before Him. And this is truly understood: that when a person sits before Hashem, blessed be He, at a meal, which is a time when he must think about the purpose, that he sits now: what is my purpose in the world? What am I eating for now?

46:26 When a person is fasting, he thinks about the purpose; he thinks that he is no longer in the world. There is no food for the body, so the body thinks it has already reached Heaven, because he is clean, he thinks he is in the World to Come, he thinks he is in the shrouds, and he lies clean in the grave, that he is passing from the world. As we said, there is no greater cleanliness - whoever has fear of Hashem should think every single day about his purpose, about the last day; he should think how his body will lie one day, and so they will escort him and he will remain alone, and no person will be with him, only Heaven.

47:01 So he says, when a person sits and thinks while he eats by himself, and so says: Master of the world, what am I eating for? And while he eats he sits and thinks before Hashem about the House, about the Beis HaMikdash; he thinks about the purpose. These are two times when one can think about the purpose. Now this will be understood; now you will see the new insight.

47:34 These are new insights, only in the merit of the Jewish people. These are your insights, not mine, it is all yours. It is all yours, tzaddik, in your merit, in your merit it will be built... Listen well. Now you will understand more.

48:05 When a person sits at a meal - it is written about the pure-minded, that they would not sit at a meal unless they knew who was dining with them, in Tractate Sanhedrin, page 23a. Rashi explains: it is a disgrace for a Torah scholar, it is a disgrace for Torah scholars - this is in Rashi - 'that it is a disgrace for Torah scholars to sit beside an unlearned person at a meal'. The Shulchan Aruch brought this as halachah; it brought the wording, only it wrote 'for a Torah scholar' - in section 170 of Orach Chaim, paragraph 20: 'that it is a disgrace for a Torah scholar to sit at a meal beside an unlearned person'.

48:40 What is meant? If a Torah scholar sits beside an unlearned person, the unlearned person, during his meal, will not think about the Beis HaMikdash; he will think about this world, he will speak idle words at the meal, he will speak nonsense, he will speak about far-off things. But a Torah scholar, during his meal, will leave something out, he will make a sign, he will make a mark, he will make known about the Beis HaMikdash, he will pray for it, he will think about it, he will give it his mind, he will speak about it, he will say Torah about it, he will say Grace after Meals.

49:10 So it is a disgrace for a Torah scholar to sit at a meal beside an unlearned person, because he does not want to sit beside him. But here I have a difficulty, here there is a difficulty. After all, it is written in the Mishnah - we said it - in chapter six, Mishnah 4: 'Eat bread with salt, drink water in small measure, and sleep on the ground.'

49:39 What is meant by 'and live a life of hardship'? What, the Holy One, blessed be He, wants people to be in hardship? What? 'Live a life of hardship'? And this altogether contradicts the Rambam. The Rambam in Hilchos Lulav, chapter eight, at the end, the end of Hilchos Lulav, chapter eight, halachah 15: the Rambam says that the joy with which a person rejoices in fulfilling the mitzvos and in the service of G-d is a great service - it is a great service, says the Rambam - and whoever does not serve with joy, he will be called to account for it in the future, as it says - what is written in the book of Devarim, parshas Ki Savo: 'Because you did not serve Hashem your G-d with joy and with gladness of heart.'

50:40 In the book of Devarim, chapter 28, verse 47: chapter 'Because you did not serve Hashem your G-d with joy and with gladness of heart.' You did not serve Hashem with joy, you did not serve Hashem with gladness of heart, from the abundance of everything. If you have no joy at the time of the service, he will be called to account for it in the future.

51:04 So how, on one side, can you tell me 'live a life of hardship'? And how, on the other side, will I be called to account for it that I do not serve Hashem with joy, both from the Torah and from the Rambam? This I do not understand. As is known, disqualified from testimony is a person who eats in the marketplace.

51:30 A person who eats in the marketplace - that is, he eats in the public domain, openly, before everyone's eyes, and so he eats standing, or on the way, in an unbecoming manner; so he eats his meal in a manner that is not proper conduct. The Rambam brings this in Hilchos Edus, chapter 11, halachah 5, and also in Hilchos De'os, chapter 5, halachah 2, the Rambam brings it too, and also the Beis Yosef brings it in Choshen Mishpat, section 34, paragraph 18, about the severity: a person is disqualified from testimony if he eats in the marketplace.

52:14 Today everyone does it unknowingly, so they are not disqualified from testimony; it is by mistake, it is not deliberate, that they go about like this and behave in such a way. But whoever sits in an enclosed place - that is not called eating in the marketplace. Eating in the marketplace is when a person really sits like this in the market, in the public domain, before everyone's eyes, and so they see him dining - that is eating in the marketplace. Eating in the marketplace is not - not what is done today; today it is unknowing - only a person who would take his meal and go walking about.

52:43 But for a woman it is much more severe: in Tractate Gittin, page 89a, at the top, at the beginning of the page, that there is in this an element of promiscuity and immodesty for a woman who eats in the marketplace. But this will be understood - why? Because they cannot sit at the table and think about the Beis HaMikdash, so they are disqualified from testimony, because they cannot say 'Behold, Hashem, we hoped for Him' - that Mashiach will come, that the Beis HaMikdash will be built - they will not be able to come and say 'Behold, Hashem, we waited for Him'; they will not be able to give any testimony, they are disqualified.

53:20 Of course, I say, in halachah they are not disqualified, but this is 'disqualified', because everyone does it unknowingly. But the thought is that one cannot come to testify before Hashem, blessed be He, on such a level. So how can one? Because one must sit at the table, and the table must be fine, and while he sits at the table he should think about the greatness of Hashem, blessed be He, and while he thinks about the greatness of Hashem, blessed be He, so he thinks about the Beis HaMikdash - that is his whole thought: thought about the Beis HaMikdash at the time of prayer, all of this is his thought.

53:55 At the meal he thinks about Hashem: when will it be built? He says 'By the rivers of Babylon' after his first eating; he says 'A song of ascents: when Hashem returns' after his eating on Shabbos. He keeps it in his mind. All the tzaddikim, all the awesome ones in all the generations that were, did not take their mind off the Beis HaMikdash for one moment; they did not take their mind off it for one moment. This testifies about the greatest tzaddikim.

54:19 Today it is a generation that is so far, far, far away, that they do not know how to tell between good and evil, between truth and falsehood, between tzaddikim and the wicked, and they go the opposite way, how much... This is the destruction of the Beis HaMikdash - the greatest and the highest. There is no greater madness than this: they weep over what was, while at every time and moment they are burning the Beis HaMikdash.

54:44 The way to build it is only by thinking like this about Hashem, in every single action and in every single movement, that they think. Now it will truly be understood why... After all, in Kabbalah, as is known, when Yesod bestows upon Malchus, then the geulah will come. It is a union, like Malchus and Keser, and there is a bestowal of Yesod to Malchus, Yesod to Malchus - then this is the light of the geulah.

55:16 And when there is no bestowal between Yesod and Malchus, then that is exile. This is exactly the 'footsteps of Mashiach', from the exile and all. So it will be understood why they are called the pure-minded: because they were always thinking in their minds how they could sit beside a Torah scholar at a meal. Why are they pure-minded? They want, with their minds, to direct the bestowal of Yesod to Malchus; if not the bestowal of Yesod to Malchus, then how will the geulah come?

55:43 So these are the pure-minded; they are called the pure-minded. Why are they called the pure-minded? Because they want to think and to calculate how to bring the bestowal of Yesod to Malchus; therefore they are called the pure-minded. They do not want to sit beside an unlearned person - and why? Because everything is in their minds, everything will be in their minds. The pure-minded want to think about whom to sit beside during his meal, for when one sits beside tzaddikim - a person who sits beside a true tzaddik at the table, when he sits beside him, he cancels wars and disasters from the world; only by the sitting, that they sit at a table, only by simple sitting, they cancel wars, troubles, everything...

56:18 a person has only benefit, a person has only benefit from this. So that is to say, we see from here that they are called the pure-minded. Why? Because all their deeds and their thought were in order to draw down the bestowal of Yesod to Malchus. Now, how is this Rambam to be understood with the Mishnah of 'live a life of hardship'? On one side one must be in joy, and he will be called to account for it?

56:44 So it can be explained like this: that he tells you to be in joy - the joy must be all the time, all of life must be joy. As we said, joy does not need a reason, like a person breathes... I once said that a person who is ill - if they tell him to stop breathing, will he then be healthy? He will breathe, because he will say: I must breathe, this is for my health - I will breathe; if I do not breathe - I will not be in the world.

57:11 So he will breathe, because he needs to breathe. But a person who is now not in good health - if they tell him to stop breathing - he will not be in the world; that means he will do an act of madness. But joy does not need a reason. When a person will need something to hang his joy on, and he will have a reason for joy, that only if they give him such and such, only then will he be happy - he will never be happy, because joy never needs a reason.

57:39 The joy must be the very fact that you are - what you have and what you are - that is the joy that must be. So first of all, the joy must be there. But pay attention to what the Mishnah lists: it says 'eat bread with salt'. So perhaps it will be understood that the life of hardship will be about when it is bread with salt, when you are reclining at the table; then here 'live a life of hardship' applies, because these are things that give a person life: that is sleep and eating - the sleep and the eating.

58:05 When you sleep - 'sleep on the ground' - so before you go to sleep, give your mind that Hashem has no House, and how can I sleep? One must do Tikkun Chatzos. So 'live a life of hardship' - that you will not be able to sleep, that you will hold Tikkun Chatzos, that you will pray. And when you come to eat, then 'eat bread with salt', because this is the time of eating. So it will be understood that 'live a life of hardship' is wanted from a person at these times: 'and drink water in small measure' - all the matters of the meal.

58:33 Here they said 'live a life of hardship' about what gives you life. What gives you life? Joy, sleep, everything... But all the rest must be in joy, because it is a complete obligation to be in joy, and he will be called to account. So it will truly be understood what the matter of bringing the salt is, and all of it. That is the new insight. Now it will further be understood what happened with Rav and Shmuel, in Tractate Berachos, page 10b, about Elisha.

59:00 After all, she said that he is a holy man. After all, the bestowal of Yesod to Malchus - that is through sleep, as you know, Yesod - that is not to have a nocturnal emission, and that there is a blemish, Heaven forbid, in having an emission; it is a separation between Yesod and Malchus. And when a person is holy and his sleep is holy, that is the bestowal of Yesod to Malchus. So 'sleep on the ground' - the ground is Malchus - it is the secret of Malchus.

59:24 'Sleep on the ground': think in your sleep about the House of Hashem, about the kingship of Hashem. 'Sleep on the ground'. So he says 'sleep on the ground'; what is meant is what happened with Rav and Shmuel: so she saw that Elisha is a holy man. What did she say? Two things. One said: she never saw a fly on his table, and one said: 'he had no emission on the sheet - she found him a linen sheet'. This is both a sheet and a table - exactly the two aspects I said.

59:50 And then this connects to bread with salt. Do you understand the new insight? It is your insight, it is all in your merit. Did you understand the matter? That he says 'bread with salt, water in small measure' - they also spoke about the table: one said, about the table: she never saw a fly on his table, because that is his meal; and one said: 'I found a linen sheet, and there was no emission on it' - she saw that the sheet was clean.

1:00:18 That is to say, with Elisha there was bestowal between Yesod and Malchus; there was no blemish - that is the level of Elisha. Why is all this... It is only because whoever is occupied with thinking all the time about the Beis HaMikdash... and that is why they are called the pure-minded. 'A G-d of knowledge is Hashem' - yes.

1:00:42 (A question from the audience) It is written in the Mishnah, 'and toil in Torah'. - Yes. Fortunate are you, tzaddik. You know the niggunim that I play, you know that we have the music, and, blessed be Hashem, our niggunim - I already do not hear well, with all the niggunim we have heard; I do not hear so well. One has to shout to me, like the Alter Rebbe, to whom they would shout several times until he heard.

1:01:16 Can't hear. (A question from the audience) It is written in the Mishnah, 'and toil in Torah'. - Yes. - Is there a connection also with the aspect of the destruction? - So I will explain - very nice. May the Holy One, blessed be He, grant you success, that you publish all the works, holy and wonderful books. He did truly wonderful things in the work; we were very, very impressed by his books.

1:01:45 He did an extraordinary work on the laws of Shabbos, and a summary of all the Rishonim - truly wonderful things. May it be His will that the Holy One, blessed be He, give you abundant livelihood, that it be published in the best possible way, with joy and gladness of heart, to continue to make the Torah great and glorious. Yasher koach. Amen. So we will explain. We said, pay attention - another new insight.

1:02:15 I like to try. I will explain in a moment, tzaddik, we are explaining.

1:02:43 Like this, there is something new here; now listen, this is something awesome. It is awesome. Do you hear? So, like this. We said 'eat bread with salt' - at the time of the meal; 'drink water in small measure' - drinking in measure; 'sleep on the ground' - that is sleep - thinking about the House of Hashem.

1:03:12 These are the two things that give you life. 'And toil in Torah' - what is the meaning of 'toil in Torah'? That a person must take all his pain and all his toil and all his difficulty and put it solely and only into the Torah. That is, as we see, that a person who has some pain, or something he needs to solve, or to deal with some matter he has - that his whole essence and his toil should be how, through the Torah he toils in, he will derive from it a halachah that will bring the geulah closer.

1:03:46 That is 'toil in Torah'. Because you can toil in Torah but in practice not bring out of it the matter that is important, as we learned in Tractate Pesachim, page 50, and in Yoma, page 72, and in Ta'anis, page 7, in Tosafos, about learning not for its own sake, etc. - the importance of the learning. So from this, 'toil in Torah': that you toil in Torah in order to bring out of it that matter which will bring about the nearing of the geulah and unity among the Jewish people.

1:04:14 Now what we said will be understood even more: that when a person sits and eats before Hashem, while eating he must think about the geulah, right? Think about the geulah, and about the Beis HaMikdash, and about our righteous Mashiach, etc. There is a verse written in the Torah that we read just now, so it is easy to remember it.

1:04:41 How - the verse, how, what is it, it is written in parshas Balak, which was just now, a verse that speaks about the geulah; about this they erred in this verse - Rabbi Akiva: 'A star shall go forth from Yaakov' - in chapter 24, in Balak, Bamidbar, verse 17: 'A star shall go forth from Yaakov'.

1:05:19 'A star shall go forth from Yaakov' - this is a sign of the geulah. This is a sign of the geulah, like there was 'He will surely remember'. 'A star shall go forth from Yaakov' is the sign of the geulah. And this is what they erred about with Bar Koziva, Bar Kochba, etc.; the whole mistake was 'A star shall go forth from Yaakov' - he misled them, with the star. So see how beautiful this is. Oho, shalom aleichem!

1:05:46 If we do 'bread with salt' - take the bread and dip it in salt - in the full spelling of 'b'melach' - b-melach, b-melach - in the full spelling of 'melach' (salt): 'Mem' - what is the full spelling of 'Mem'? Another 'Mem'. Lamed - that is 'Mem' and 'Dalet'.

1:06:11 Ches - that is 'Yud' and 'Tav'. That is 'Mem' - 'Mem' - 'Dalet' - 'Yud' - and 'Tav'. In gematria this comes out to four hundred and ninety-four, the gematria of 'A star shall go forth from Yaakov'. So that when you dip the bread in salt, and you think that you are dipping the bread in salt, you must think about the geulah, you must think about this... This is the main thing. And then the whole meaning of why salt is needed on the table will be understood.

1:06:36 This is our reason. Guys, close, a little more, two more. [singing] 'Better for me, better for me is the Torah of Your mouth than thousands of gold and silver!'

1:08:14 'Blessed are You, Hashem our G-d, King of the universe, Who has given of His wisdom to those who fear Him.' May the Holy One, blessed be He, bless everyone and give everyone siyata dishmaya, help from Heaven; may He give everyone blessing, that everyone have miracles and wonders from Heaven; that the Holy One, blessed be He, hear the voice of your prayers, and that there be salvations and miracles and mercy from Heaven for each and every one; that he see salvations and miracles and wonders, in visible and revealed good, with joy and gladness of heart. Yasher koach.

1:09:39 May it be His will that we help one another, that we help everyone, that we love one another, that we love all our people, that we unite everyone, unite them. This is what Hashem, blessed be He, wants, especially in these days: that we all be united, and help one another, and love one another, and assist one another, and to respect each one, and for each one to love everyone, all of the Jewish people, wherever they are. May the Holy One, blessed be He, bless them and give protection and defense and salvations and miracles and wonders in the best possible way.

1:10:08 So may it be His will, and let us say Amen!