The Yanuka Rav Shlomo Yehuda-＂מהי הסגולה הגדולה של מלח העומר？＂ שו＂ת מרתק עם הגאון הינוקא במוצאי יו＂ט ראשון של פסח תשפ＂ה

2:43 Look what this is: there is Tohu and there is Bohu. Souls of Tohu - it is not the world of Tohu, it is souls of Tohu - these are souls that have an abundance of light without vessels, as if the light is higher than the vessels, so they have the power to bring about bittul to the Holy One, blessed be He. - Chaim wrote, 'Hashem's Mashiach, his name is Chaim' - did he mean himself? - Yes, Rabbi Shalom Shabazi wrote, 'Hashem's Mashiach, his name is Shalom'. You see: Chaim, Shalom, Menachem ben Ammiel, Nechemiah ben Chushiel.

3:12 He meant himself, he meant himself. - But those holy ones, it was in their power to be revealed, if the generation had been worthy? - If the generation would be worthy. That is certain; it depends only on the generation. - What is the purpose, really? Is there some effect you can give? - I don't know; one needs to ask people on such levels.

3:40 I don't know; [unclear] ask such people. - A person who connects less to learning Gemara, how much point is there for him to learn specifically that, since it is preferable to learn something that the person [unclear] most? - Look, one needs to learn all the areas of learning. Learning Gemara is one of the important studies of the Jewish people; it is the Babylonian Talmud, which is blended from everything. It is important to learn, and if it is hard for a person to learn all of Shas, then to know certain tractates, parts of Shas - to learn a part that belongs to him, to learn, let's say, only Taanis.

4:16 There are young men who are strengthening themselves, learning Taanis, to learn Taanis, strengthening themselves and wanting to return in teshuvah to Hashem, to learn perhaps Bava Kamma, perhaps Berachos, Shabbos, and the harder tractates - let them not learn those. [unclear] now. Let them finish, become fluent, know the language of the Gemara, let them advance - but it is impossible to drop the learning of Gemara. Learning Gemara is one of the most important studies and the most important foundations; it is an obligation to learn it every single day, like putting on tefillin, like keeping Shabbos.

4:48 At least to learn a page of Gemara a day, two pages a day, three, but it is impossible to drop learning Gemara for a day - impossible. The Babylonian Talmud must be with a person, fluent on his tongue, until his last day in the world. All his days, not to leave Shas, not to leave Shas. To learn a page a day, a side of a page a day, half a page - but to learn Gemara every day, and halachah. Of course the importance of learning halachah is higher than learning Gemara.

5:14 They say at the end of Tractate Niddah, and it is explained, 'to bring the teaching out according to the halachah' - that now, that Shas is finished and you have completed all of Shas, and you said, 'Hadran alach Niddah, Hadran alach all of Shas' - that is so that you now start to go over it, and come, start to see what you learned, what came out of it. That is why there is the commentary of the Rif, that our master the Rif came - the Halachos of Rav Alfas - and extracted from the Talmud, so that we fulfill this, so that we know in practice what you are learning, what you managed to conclude from the learning.

5:42 And the Rambam came, and after that made this collection out of the Rif. So the importance of learning the Rambam, of the Rambam - just as the Raavad did not really disagree with the Rambam in order to contradict him and to belittle him, even though he disagreed with him many times, rather because the Rambam was the Mishneh Torah, and it was one of the most important books there was then, and there was a fear that people would learn only it and the Talmud would be neglected, and people would not delve in and would not think and would not use their minds - so he disagreed with him.

6:08 That is one of the reasons - he truly revealed his view - that this is the reason for the Raavad's dispute with the Rambam. Not in order to cancel the Rambam. What, did he not treat him with respect? [unclear] expressions - the Pri Chadash also spoke this way about Maran the Beis Yosef: 'a chick that has not hatched from...' etc. That is not language that is proper to say. The Pri Chadash expresses himself this way, about Maran the Beis Yosef. But these are expressions like this because they wanted a person to delve in, and not come and draw conclusions by himself and say, 'Fine, from now on...'

6:37 In the time of [unclear], they would learn; they would hide the Rambam; the Rambam was like a book of explanations, like a summary of Shas, of the Talmud. They wanted a person to try to reach the conclusion of the Gemara by himself, to reach... They would learn the Rambam and know the whole Torah. You learn Rambam, you know everything. The Rambam made such a work - there is no one who made such a work like the Rambam; only before him there was the Rif. The Rif did it.

7:01 After the Rif, it is the Rambam. The Rambam is a very great summary, but learning the Rif has been forgotten today. Who learns the Rif today? The Rif - people hardly learn the Rif, but it is important to learn the Rif and to finish it at least once a year, twice in three years, but yes, to learn the view of the Rif. I, for example, am always learning the Rif as well, learning the Rif. It is one of the studies, the important foundations of learning.

7:28 But the Rif, the Rambam - it is important. So today it is as if they skipped the Rif and went over to the Rambam, as if there is no need to learn the Rif, understand? And there is some justice in this, as if, as if: 'There is the Rambam, so [unclear] learn the Rif.' But that is not right, because one needs to learn the Rif - what an essence, what fine flour from Shas! It is very important to learn and to go through and to walk in all the rooms, in all the rooms of the Torah. Close to ten times the Rambam disagrees with the Rif in the whole Mishneh Torah.

7:58 But one needs to go through and learn, and there is no such thing as exempting yourself from learning and saying, 'I am exempt from learning Gemara.' One needs to learn Gemara, even a little, what is in his power, and after that to go back and learn the other studies, whether it is a little of the hidden Torah, whether it is learning Chassidus, learning mussar - but the main thing is to cleave to the Torah, not to leave the holy Torah, not to leave the Torah.

8:23 To learn, to look for the part and the gate that you belong to, and to learn it and not leave it. So a person will attain. "If you seek it like silver, and search for it like hidden treasures" - [unclear] "like hidden treasures" - in Mishlei, chapter 2, verse 4, the verse is written. "If you seek it like silver" - seek it like money, when a person looks for money, there will never be a person who says, 'Should I earn money or not?' He wants it; the whole world runs after money. So that is how to feel: seek the Torah "like hidden treasures" - 'Mem-Tes monim', forty-nine counted - a proof for Sefiras HaOmer.

8:53 - If a person has time, for example before Pesach, can he learn part of Tractate [unclear], or learn the whole Rif on it, you know, to... - Tractate Pesachim is called Pesachim because of the first Pesach and the second Pesach. It is called Pesachim. [unclear] Tractate Pesach. Do you understand that it is the first Pesach and the second Pesach, for the impure? That is called Tractate Pesachim. - And the question is whether it is better to learn the whole Rif before Pesach? - No, I don't hear. What did you ask?

9:18 - Perhaps whether it is better to learn the whole Rif before Pesach, ah, [unclear]. It is only half a tractate [unclear]. - Again, one needs to divide it: both this and that. It cannot be only this or only that. One needs both. One needs to have the language of the Gemara and also the Rif. As if to divide, some from this, from this and from that, "do not withhold your hand". There must be this too, there must be that too. There must be both this and that. Not to leave it.

9:45 - Rabbi, what does it mean that Hashem Himself took us out of Egypt? They said, "and not a seraph, and not an angel, and not a messenger." What does it mean? - As you understand it. - I don't understand. - I will explain. When the Holy One, blessed be He, redeemed us - you understand that we were in Egypt; to be in Egypt is to be in the most impure and lowest place there can be.

10:12 When Moshe Rabbeinu took us out of Egypt, he told them, "You will serve G-d on this mountain." That means the Holy One, blessed be He, took them out of Egypt in order to - that is what I explained - were you at the sunrise prayer today? - No. - So I explained that there was a purpose, in order to the giving of the Torah. It is not that the Holy One, blessed be He, took some nation and said, 'Come, let's take it out,' and that's it, and He left, and redeemed someone and took him out.

10:41 He took us out for a certain purpose. The purpose was to bring us the Torah and the statutes and the [unclear] and the judgments. The land of Egypt is a land that is very impure. No one could get along in its impurity. It was very, very, very impure. The impurity there was terrible. And the Holy One, blessed be He, Himself, because He had already gone down at the plague of the firstborn, because only He knew how to distinguish between a drop of a firstborn and the Egyptians were steeped in [unclear], as it is written in the Mechilta, in Parshas Beshalach.

11:12 They were steeped there - it is written there at length, the whole event too, the whole story, what you know. And they came there, every angel and whoever could come there - from the impurity and from the filth he would go down in his level, and it would take him time to rise and return to his level, because every angel has his level and his appointed one, until he reaches the level above him.

11:37 As if an angel is now doing a mission, it takes him time until he goes and returns to his level; he does not return right away to his level, to what he was; it is as if he goes down, he is now - At the plague of the firstborn only the Holy One, blessed be He, knew how to distinguish who is a firstborn and who is not a firstborn. Who can know, from this drop, this is the drop of a firstborn, this is a drop not of a firstborn? Only the Holy One, blessed be He, knows. Since the Holy One, blessed be He, went down at the plague of the firstborn, He was already truly with the Jewish people, and took them out.

12:07 That is why the Mateh Ephraim writes in siman 581 that at the time of the morning watch, at this time when the whole world is asleep - the Me'am Lo'ez also writes this - why is the morning sleep so sweet to a person, and it is hard for a person to get up? Because the Holy One, blessed be He, judges the creations at this time. Every day the Holy One, blessed be He, judges the person at this time, at this time of sleep, at the morning watch. And that is the reason that, according to the hidden teaching, one does the...

12:37 Right, that is what the Me'am Lo'ez writes on Megillas Esther: "On that night the king's sleep was disturbed." So he writes that a person, if it is hard for him to sleep at night, should know that he is being judged. That is true. But on the other hand, when the judgment ends, it is at the morning watch. There is at night at midnight, and there is the morning watch. At the morning watch, sleep is at its strongest, the hardest. Most creations find it hard to keep themselves awake at this time, because the sleep is strong, harder, more pleasant and sweeter.

13:04 And therefore we do teshuvah - in the Zohar [unclear], page 158, side a - we do teshuvah, which is called being 'a master of the reckoning'. Because if, Heaven forbid, there is some strict judgment on a person, then teshuvah will tip the scale to merit, he will be able to be saved from strict judgment; he will go on living and he will go on getting up, and the Holy One, blessed be He, will wake him. So that there will be a scale of merit to speak up for a person, that he should get up - for every night the Satan accuses and says, 'Look at so-and-so: yesterday he was like this, today he is like this.'

13:29 Why give him back his soul? He accuses him; so we do teshuvah before going to bed, we do teshuvah, we search in all our ways in order to return to the Holy One, blessed be He. And then a person does teshuvah, and immediately he is [unclear] to the Holy One, blessed be He. But at these times when the Holy One, blessed be He, is present - at the time when people are asleep and everything - He roams in the world; and therefore the Mateh Ephraim writes that this is the choicest and best time for saying Selichos, to come before the Holy One, blessed be He, to do teshuvah, to arouse the mercy of Hashem, to confess, to do teshuvah, to call out to the Merciful and Gracious One, to do teshuvah. "Man, why are you asleep?" This is the best time, because the Holy One, blessed be He, roams

14:04 in [unclear] thousand worlds above, and then He comes down and passes through this world. You see that the Holy One, blessed be He, does not take His Hashgachah away from this world; so He, at the plague of the firstborn, and when He took them out of Egypt, He went down Himself and took them out, so that we should not think in our minds, Heaven forbid, that there is some other savior who could save them. And that is why it is "G-d who brings them out of Egypt." The Holy One, blessed be He, in His glory, He Himself - He and not a seraph, He and not an angel - He Himself came down and revealed His great awe.

14:35 "Great awe" - that is the revelation of the Shechinah. He was a pillar of fire at night, in a pillar of cloud to lead them on the way, to lead the Jewish people. And of course, after He had already given us the Torah and everything, after that it already became more contracted, and we had Moshe, and Moshe gave us the Torah. But from the moment the Jewish people were - from the plague of the firstborn - as the plagues rose slowly, slowly, slowly, until, from the plague of the firstborn, to the Exodus from Egypt, to the receiving of the Torah, and after that this illumination stopped. That means it was He Himself, He, in His glory and Himself, the King of the kings of kings - He is the one who broke through and cleared the way and brought them out,

15:10 because it is impossible to get out of Egypt, so great is its impurity. But I just want you to understand, tzaddik: the Holy One, blessed be He, who came down here to the world - more than a billion angels of destruction came down with Him.

15:37 Angels of destruction came down together with Him. Angels of destruction came down. That the King Himself came down - He did not go in on His own. It is He Himself - it is He Himself, yes, but I want to explain something to you that has to be made understandable to the ear, yes? We, as it were, turn to the Holy One, blessed be He, and say 'He Himself', so it seems as if everything is Hashem, blessed be He - Egypt too, and everything that happened, and this whole world - all of it is a revelation of Hashem, blessed be He. But the King of the kings of kings has a retinue.

16:08 There are retinues above, of angels and appointed ones; when Moshe Rabbeinu only went up to receive the Torah, he met the angel Kemuel, who is appointed over ten myriads, and more; after that, as he goes on, the angel Hadarniel [unclear] - in Pesikta Rabbati there is the whole story: he went up to heaven only to receive the Torah, and the angels wanted to burn him. You see what angels - and over them one appointed, and over him one appointed - just to receive the Torah. Now, does it seem to you that when the Holy One, blessed be He, came to redeem Israel from Egypt, He just opened the heavens like that, came down, struck, and went back up?

16:37 It was not like that. He came down - of course He came down, those signs were there - but with Him came down many, many, many angels of destruction, who came down and struck throughout all of Egypt. And more blows - there is Midrash VaYizhir, which covers the parshiyos; it is written there, in Midrash VaYizhir, in section 44 - it is written there - Midrash VaYizhir, it is written; there are wonderful things there.

17:02 It is written there that at the plague of the firstborn, every Egyptian in effect had, let's say, some close person he had lost, a firstborn who had died in Egypt, so he made a statue of him, he made a picture of him and put it in his house. So at the plague of the firstborn, suddenly he looks at the picture, he sees the picture has been erased - at the plague of the firstborn. For example, say he had a statue of his son, who was dear to him: at the plague of the firstborn - boom, the statue, the statue broke.

17:29 The Holy One, blessed be He, shattered the statue on them. That is, at the plague of the firstborn it was not only the firstborn who physically died; also whoever had a statue of a firstborn, or whoever had a picture of his firstborn who had died 80 years earlier - that too was shattered at the plague of the firstborn. That is what is written there in the Midrash. So you see there was also 'a band of evil angels' who came from above to this world, and they visited and carried out the deeds. Who did it, what was done, how it was done.

17:55 Of course that sign was for us, for the Jewish people, to be distinguished, to bring them to teshuvah and so on, but it was more a teshuvah for the Jewish people - to put a sign on the doorway and to be different from the Egyptians - more than it was for the angels. Do you understand? - But since the whole prayer is built as a direct relation to the Holy One, blessed be He - if there are so many angels who bring the prayer to the Holy One, blessed be He, why shouldn't the wording of the prayer be in some way where we pray, as it were, and speak to the angels who pass on the prayer? If it is written in the Gemara that the ministering angels bring up our prayer, why shouldn't the whole prayer itself, the way it is built,

18:34 be in some form where we pass from angel to angel, and understand more of what happens in the heavenly retinue, understand more of what happens there? - There is a Yerushalmi, as I said - Yerushalmi, chapter nine, halacha 1 of Berachos: 'When a person has trouble, let him not cry out to Gavriel, nor to Michael, nor to Refael, but to Me let him cry out, and I will answer him immediately.' An explicit Yerushalmi - it says otherwise. How can one turn to the angels? No. - [unclear], do we say it there?

19:00 - I don't say that. I always ask in their merit - not to turn to the angels. Never turn to the angels. - There is a prayer attributed to Rabbeinu Tam: 'I beg of you,' 'Gavriel, Michael.' - Fine. If there are such wordings that are wordings of prayer that already existed, and there is a tradition that these are prayers that existed - it is possible. The prayer of Rabbi Yishmael the Kohen Gadol - one may pray it, say it [unclear], but one does not turn to the angels.

19:25 The angels - I will explain to you why. The prayer has to be to the Holy One, blessed be He. Simply, what happens is that because our prayer is soiled, it comes with stray thoughts and many unclean things, so it takes it time to reach above, it takes it a long time. Angels above immerse in the Nehar Dinur, 365 immersions, and after they touch our prayer in this world, they go up still higher and immerse another 365 immersions, and pass it on to those angels, and they again immerse another 365 immersions - and all this in the Nehar Dinur.

20:00 The Nehar Dinur is a river of fire that comes out from [unclear]. for the sun, which goes up to the firmament, immerses every day in the Nehar Dinur, and then it comes out and lights up the world - the sun. The sun has close to 16 million degrees. Heat at which the hand recoils is 43, according to Rav Feinstein, right? That is already heat at which the hand recoils, right? 45 degrees, right? 43, 45, 42 and a half.

20:26 Let's say 50 - nobody can put his hand in, right? Who can put it in? 50 degrees - is it possible at all to dip your hand in? 50 degrees - possible? Possible - and what will happen afterwards? The question is what will happen afterwards. 50 degrees - very hard, right? Sixty degrees, a hundred degrees - hard; five hundred degrees, a thousand degrees, a hundred thousand degrees, a million, fifteen million degrees.

20:51 Close to sixteen million degrees - that is the heart of the sun. Do you understand how hot the sun is? Now, it immerses in the Nehar Dinur every day in order to burn. It passes through the Nehar Dinur, immerses in the Nehar Dinur, and then it comes out and lights up this world for us. And what is the Nehar Dinur? It is the sweat of the holy Chayos, who say 'Holy, holy, holy'; sweat comes out of them - the Nehar Dinur comes out. That is, the sweat of the holy Chayos, who say Kedushah, is more burning, so that the sun, as it were, immerses in it in order to be lit.

21:23 It is like the match that ignites the sun. The sweat of the holy Chayos. These are the angels who say Kedushah. What is it? 'A sun of righteousness, with healing in its wings.' Do you understand? So what happens is, these angels receive our prayer, bring it up above, immerse in the Nehar Dinur, and then - because until they bring it to the Holy One, blessed be He... The Holy One, blessed be He, hears all the prayers.

21:51 Why do you conclude in the prayer 'for You hear the prayer of every mouth'? You don't conclude 'for You hear the prayer of every heart'; 'You hear the prayer of every mouth' - even a prayer said with the mouth without concentration. Even whatever you just utter with your mouth, Hashem hears. Every prayer - He hears you. It is simply that before it is brought into the King's palace, it has to be cleaned, refined, purified. One can bring thoughts of lewdness here. A person thinks lewdness, thinks bad things, thinks sins, thinks business deals, thinks about his livelihood while he is praying, and he wants his prayer to be fulfilled.

22:22 You know, the Komarna, Rabbi Yitzchak Eizik, said - I saw something beautiful - it can be learned from the Gemara in Shabbos, page 150b, about that pious man who had a fence on Shabbos, and he thought about it and did not want to fix it. So the Rama MiPano says that this was Tzelofchad - a single caper, 'tzelaf echad', grew for him. If a single caper grew for him - it was a single caper that grew for him - that was Tzelofchad, whom he came to rectify in a gilgul. So you will see a beautiful thing: that when a person prays - just as that pious man did not want to fix the fence, and it grew for him - so too at the time of prayer, the Komarna explains - Rabbi Yitzchak Eizik Yehudah Yechiel Safrin - that one who prays and, during the prayer, thinks about the work he has to do, will have no blessing in that work.

23:01 Therefore it is forbidden ever to make calculations during prayer about matters of this world. There are those who calculate all their accounts here during prayer. That is not proper. So a person - afterwards, this prayer like that - the Holy One, blessed be He, hears it directly; but what do the angels above do? They need to be purified from our impurity here in this world; they take hold of the prayer, immerse, clean it, and pass it on to the angels above them. And they immerse and pass it to an angel, and they immerse and pass it to an angel, until it becomes fine, clean flour, and it is accepted before the Holy One, blessed be He.

23:29 But it is not because the Holy One, blessed be He, does not hear, and it is not because there is a need to turn to them directly. It is so that they simply clean the prayer and bring it before the holy King. That's it. There is nothing else here. - How can the prayer go up without needing cleaning? How can one pray so that it won't need to go through the whole route, this process of immersion and cleaning? - First of all, the Tur, in siman 90, writes that when a person has a stray thought during prayer, he should be silent.

24:01 If, Heaven forbid, there is a stray thought - be silent at once. And then you no longer create work for the angels. So this is very good advice of the Tur: the moment there is a stray thought, you are silent, and continue the prayer. Again a thought - you are silent. That is, over time, as a person gets used to it, then he - not to be silent now so as to stop the prayer [unclear]; he would have had to pray again - but to pray - suddenly a thought - he stops, and then continues; stops, and puts his finger on the letters.

24:29 And so, this is a segulah for the prayer to be clean, yes? To pray before Hashem, to go through, to look for the meaning of the words, to understand before Whom are we praying? We are praying before the King of the kings of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He. It is our privilege at all that we can pray before the King of the kings of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He. And this, with Hashem's help, is what can bring a person's prayer to be settled and to be accepted before the holy King.

24:55 And then the Holy One, blessed be He, accepts the prayers. One must pray with concentration, with a broken heart, with mercy, with supplications, reflecting on everything a person lacks. When a person prays, he should reflect on all his lacks. From here we learned, from 'A prayer of the poor man when he is faint, and pours out his speech before Hashem' - from the fact that he was poor - King David, as it were - he regards himself, as it were, as lacking, poor and lowly. So from here you learn, in Midrash Shocher Tov, that he would always regard himself through the things he lacked, and then he would approach to pray. From here we too must learn: When you come to prayer - a person who is single should reflect on being single, that he is to be pitied.

25:31 A person who is poor should reflect on his poverty, and then begin to pray the Amidah. A person who has no children should reflect on having no children, and begin the Amidah. A person who has a hard court case should reflect on the hard case and begin to pray. A person who has a daughter in distress, someone in need - should reflect on the hardship and begin to pray. And then this is 'a prayer of the poor man when he is faint', and then this prayer can pass through faster. Reflect on all the pain, on everything you lack, on all the lacks that, as it were, a person sees in himself - whether it is little livelihood, lack of livelihood, illness, hardship, healing - these things.

26:11 And another thing: there is also the verse that one says at the end of the prayer, you know - there is the verse. Rashi learned this from Michah, chapter 6, verse 9; there Rashi explains it, about saying it; the holy Shelah also brings it - that one says the verse of the name, at 'Yihyu leratzon' one says the person's name - let's say a person called by the name Avraham: Avraham: 'And Avraham was old, well along in days, and Hashem blessed Avraham in everything', right?

26:36 Or Yehudah: 'And she said, This time I will thank Hashem; therefore she called his name Yehudah.' So I don't say that - to say, for example, the Yehudah one - I don't say it. It says: 'Hear, Hashem, the voice of Yehudah, and bring him to his people; his hands shall contend for him, and You shall be a help against his adversaries.' Why? To say a verse that is a plea for mercy. Not to say a verse in which your name is mentioned; say a verse that has a plea for mercy in it. Why do you say your verse that is a mere description? It is not right to say that.

27:01 Say a verse that is a plea for mercy - not a verse in which the name is mentioned; say a verse in which the name is mentioned and it is a plea for mercy. Look for a verse that is an outpouring of the soul, that helps for a plea for mercy, and not a verse where your name appears, as if you are now Moshe Rabbeinu who needs only the verse. So therefore, be precise: whoever until today said a verse that is a mere description like that, on its own, should change it and look for a verse that is of the way of Hashem's mercy, like Yehudah.

27:33 That is: 'Hear, Hashem, the voice of Yehudah, and bring him to his people; his hands shall contend for him, and You shall be a help against his adversaries.' A plea for mercy. Now mention your verse as a plea for mercy. Not to mention your verse 'And she said, This time' - 'therefore she called his name Yehudah'. That is not the one to say. Do you understand? So, to make one request: always 'the poor man speaks with supplications'. All the time, ask the King of the kings of kings with supplications. When we understand the greatness of the Creator, understand how great is the One who created this world, and how tremendous He is, a G-d awesome in deeds - and what a privilege it is at all; sometimes I say, it is like a dream that we are inside a world

28:09 where we have the ability to turn to the One who created it. It is a privilege, it is incredible - I think about it, I say: we see the Haggadah, we understand that we are the chosen people, that He did all this for us - what a privilege! So believe in it, reflect on it, appreciate it - then prayer will look different, Torah will look different, the purpose will look different, everything will look different, thought will look different - everything, everything will be different.

28:33 - The people from abroad here: can we pray with you here and do our own Amidah? Or... - You need to make a prayer of your own. You're not a resident of Israel? What is this - you're not residents here? - No, I've kept everything here, but I don't know whether I need to do it or not; that's the question. - You need to keep the second day of Yom Tov of the exiles, yes. You need to keep the second day of Yom Tov of the exiles. There's a minyan here at the end of the street.

29:02 There's a minyan here, yes, there's a minyan there. Make a minyan there together, make yourselves the celebration and everything, and don't pray in our prayer. Make your own prayer, with the songs, with the joy, everything - pray, with Hashem's help. And also abroad, when we come to you, we need to respect your second day of Yom Tov, and [unclear] The Komarna writes - the Komarna - that if we keep, here in the Land of Israel, a second day of Yom Tov, Mashiach will come - the Komarna writes. Interesting.

29:36 The segulah, yes. - You say it over the salt that is at home? - Yes, no problem, the same thing, yes. On all the days - many times it has happened to me that I had the salt, I forgot it, or I had put it away, I say - I say the verses over the salt that is at home. Let me just explain to you what the salt is. Rabbeinu Chaim Palagi wrote - he was the Rav of Izmir, he was one of the greatest of the sages - he wrote that there is a very great segulah to take salt - the Omer - to take salt and count the Omer with it, holding it in the right hand, and say the counting of the Omer. We say the verses, the psalm of Tehillim, or whenever we do it,

30:18 and count the counting of the Omer. That is, afterwards, after the fifty days, when we say it, then this amulet becomes a proven amulet. There is such a segulah. What is a proven amulet? A proven amulet is one whose name has already spread in the whole world, that it - this amulet healed people. They gave it to one person - he was healed. They gave it to a second person - he was healed. It doesn't need to heal 200 people; three people and up - that is already a proven amulet, whose name has gone out, that it heals - [unclear].

30:52 That is called an amulet whose name has spread; that is an expert who can make an amulet. So this Omer salt - the salt itself becomes an amulet, yes. We count with the right hand. First of all, salt itself has many virtues: Tosafos in Berachos, page 40 - that it is brought because of the accusation, from the Satan. So of course, over a precious mitzvah like counting the Omer, there is a great virtue in it, as you know - the importance and the protection and so on; it is a very important thing, to number and to count in counting the Omer.

31:23 So if we do it in this way, with concentration, simply, with the prayers and everything, it is like a proven amulet; you put it in your pocket. I already have my salt - it's 18 years, the same salt. I had miracles [unclear] with it; many times it got lost, [unclear], - What is it? Salt? - Salt, yes. This is my salt from before my wedding.

31:52 It doesn't matter — coarse salt. You take coarse salt, put it in the right hand, I hold it, and I keep it for many, many years. I don't know, it was here, I believe with complete faith. What Rabbi Chaim Palagi writes, may his merit protect us, it is an amulet whose name has spread, I — its name has spread. - And you use it every year? - Every year I use the same salt. One can keep the same salt every year, or one can make new salt every year.

32:17 Basically, I took... how? - All year? - All year, yes. All year I have it with me. There is a very great virtue in it — not just a virtue, it is a very, very great virtue, a very, very great virtue. I, without making a vow — I told you — I also took a very large amount of salt every year, every year I did this, with an extra amount, so that whoever doesn't have any and wants mine, I can give him.

32:41 So don't worry, I thought of you, also of someone like you, and someone who will come and want it, so I have some to give you, I'll give you, I'll hand it out to you now, there isn't a lot, we won't be able to hand it out to everyone, whoever needs it, take, and we'll prepare for you. - How? - Make fine salt, coarse salt, no problem. It's just that it is really good to guard it, and I'll bring it to you; hold it in the right hand, this salt, guard it, don't put it on the floor, keep it with you, and it is like a proven amulet, really, really that works.

33:14 What is it? Ah, right. There was a story of — here, do you want to [unclear] them the miracle? Tell them the miracle. It is a story of a very great miracle that happened with him, with this salt. - With the Rav's permission, two years ago we were here in this place, [unclear] of Pesach, and after the Rav finished with the Omer salt, with the whole amount, some two kilos of salt, so usually, all the years, the Rav's custom was to take the salt with him, and after that he counts the Omer [unclear] there, at Minchah-Maariv.

33:51 That year we stood here and the Rav says to me, 'Take the salt, bring it to me tomorrow.' So, fine, I took the salt and said, I'll bring it to the Rav tomorrow at Minchah-Maariv. I set out on the road toward Bnei Brak, and there was a stretch of on Highway 1 there was a stretch of road where there was hail on the road for a kilometer.

34:19 So I began to slow the car down a little, and someone behind me was driving at around 120 km/h, he crashed into me with very, very great force, so that I spun around in place, with the family, and to get the child out, they really had to saw open the door to get him out. And in accidents much simpler than this, people would leave the world.

34:50 And I'm sure — there was an accident there with maybe some thirty cars, a chain-reaction accident, and everyone there came out unharmed, this whole accident was without harm, no one was hurt. There was such an amount of salt there. - [unclear] salvations, with Hashem's help. May the Holy One, blessed be He, show you wonders and show you salvations, Amen. [unclear] protection and safeguarding, Amen.

35:17 May you have all the blessings and good bounty, in good that is visible and revealed. - [unclear] Why do we do the Song at the Sea on the seventh day of Pesach and not on the first day, of the Exodus from Egypt? When they left Egypt they should have said song; [unclear] they are leaving Egypt, and seemingly it was a miracle in every way [unclear] when they left Egypt, that was a sign to give thanks.

35:46 They were slaves then, and [unclear]. A good question. Why not do it right away at Pesach, eh? On the first night. What do you say, Rabbi Eliyahu? The sea split, no? Eh? Nice. I'll tell you what I think.

36:41 Basically, because the Song at the Sea — it is one of the great miracles and wonders, that at the sea alone the Egyptians took fifty plagues, and in Tractate Megillah, page 11, that the Holy One, blessed be He, said to them, 'My handiwork is drowning in the sea, and you are saying song?' as the Beis Yosef brought in the name of the Shibbolei HaLeket, that we don't say the Hallel this whole week because of the seventh day of Pesach. That all these days — tomorrow, in practice, we don't say Hallel with a blessing. On Chanukah we say the Hallel with a blessing.

37:13 On Chanukah. Which is rabbinic; here it is from the Torah, tomorrow there is no Hallel with a blessing. The day after tomorrow, no Hallel with a blessing; the whole week, no Hallel with a blessing. The seventh day of Pesach, the sea split, no Hallel with a blessing. Why? Because 'My handiwork is drowning in the sea, and you are saying song?' So they did not do Hallel this whole week. So I thought, because it is as if — so that it should not take away from the first day.

37:39 On the first day you do say Hallel with a blessing. So how will you come and do the Hallel with a blessing on the first day, at a time when you can't do Hallel with a blessing? The seventh day of Pesach — it is pushed off to the seventh day. You didn't understand? That's you. According to the Shibbolei HaLeket, that's what I think. Like, understand? [unclear], yes, like on Sukkos. Yes, the same thing; this is different from Sukkos.

38:05 Corresponding to each [unclear], corresponding to [unclear]. [unclear] to say [unclear] on the first day. No. No. No. But you say the Haggadah. You say the Haggadah. You say the Haggadah, Hallel. That's the Haggadah. That's what the Gemara says. No, that's the Haggadah. No, it's what Rav Nachman said; that's what we talked about regarding the miracle.

38:31 That's the view of Rav Nachman. He was not pleased with it, because only He is the King of the kings of kings, He created these creatures, He has pity on them, He has pity on the work of His hands, He is the true G-d, who has mercy on the work of His hands. That is why He said, 'My handiwork is drowning in the sea, and you are saying song?' What, you come to praise Me? I — 'His mercies are upon all His works.'

38:58 But because it is still such a great miracle, wondrous beyond wonder, we set aside for it the seventh day, the seventh of Pesach, whereas on the first day, which is all the wondrous miracles in general that were in Egypt, that is the Haggadah; we have to set it apart from this, because if not, this would be swallowed up in that. And besides that, there is also the dispute — whether it is, the Magen Avraham and the Chasam Sofer and so on, whether it is, the Machzor Vitry, which says it is a remembrance of the Exodus from Egypt — whether it is a remembrance of the Exodus from Egypt or not.

39:29 Why? Why did you say song? [unclear] They need to say song. In Tractate Sanhedrin, page 94, the Gemara says, The Holy One, blessed be He, wished to make Chizkiyahu Mashiach and Sancheriv Gog. He did not make Chizkiyahu Mashiach because Chizkiyahu did not say song. If he had said song, he would have been Mashiach. This means that the Holy One, blessed be He, does want song to be said before Him. But with Hashem, blessed be He, it was not complete. Not that He had sorrow from it.

39:54 He certainly wanted us to rejoice, and give thanks, and recognize it. After all, the wonders at the Song of the Sea were far above everything in the whole Exodus from Egypt — the great plagues at the sea itself, everything He did to them, the miracles and wonders, what happened at the sea. But this comes to show us, the Jewish people, the fondness and the truth of the Holy One, blessed be He, with us, that He did not abandon us. And He wants us to have a distinction between this time and this miracle and wonder, so that one does not mix with the other.

40:20 This is a distinction in itself: the Haggadah, and the miracles and the wonders: blood, frogs, lice, and at first our fathers were [unclear] — idol worshippers they were, and all of it. And after you are amazed by this, after you appreciate it and understand what happened in Egypt and why we came to Egypt, and one must be careful and reflect on all the miracles the Holy One, blessed be He, did for us, and the appreciation of how precious the mitzvos are — after that you go back, and then you reach the seventh day of Pesach, and then we begin to make something only of the Song at the Sea, and to understand how the Holy One, blessed be He, split the sea for us; and, without making a vow, there are to be many new insights on it to give you about the Song at the Sea — wait, there are many more wonderful things.

41:01 Is that a good answer? Do you like it, Rabbi Eliyahu? The Exodus from Egypt — there was never such a thing in the whole entire world. In the whole entire world, this moment when the Holy One, blessed be He, split the sea — it was a great satisfaction before Him, blessed be He, in the whole entire world it was a great tumult, it was an overturning of nature like no other.

41:31 Think what it is: the sea splits, and 'the water was a wall for them on their right and on their left,' bursting up to the sky. The height of the water — imagine the sea, where you see it like this, the sea like this. You understand? It's not the sea with waves, like people think, thirty meters. The waves went up to the sky on both sides, for all the tribes, how much that is, you know?

41:58 It goes up to the sky above, you can't see it. You look with your eye, you can't see it. It looks like a straight line up to the top. Now, inside each and every one you see that all the tribes passed through their own gate; that is, He split the sea twelve times. [unclear] the non-Jews painted the Splitting of the Red Sea, going out here, going out here. It's a shame, it's a disgrace, it never was at all. It wasn't so, it never was at all.

42:24 The miracle was that there were twelve gates. That is, He split twelve [unclear], all the water into [unclear] parts, and at every moment — the view of Tosafos is that it split each time they came closer. That is, the miracle was many times greater. Every time they took a step, the sea split more and more and more. That is, every moment it opened before them. Every moment they had strong emunah. Every moment they had strong emunah. It was not split, and they saw a kind of trail of light standing for them at the end.

42:48 They walked, 'the water a wall for them on their right and on their left,' and the water goes like this and like this for them, surrounding them. And then they walk, and it splits more. They walk and it splits more, they walk and it splits more. That is why it is written, 'To Him who divided the Red Sea into parts,' because He simply tore it, He cut it, simply the way one cuts; He took the water up to [unclear], and the water was a wall for them on their right and on their left; they look up at the sky, above them they see everything — crystal stones, and all the water frozen on both sides, and they see all the creatures and everything inside the water, and the Holy One, blessed be He, made light for them inside the water, as it lit up all the creatures,

43:22 He lit up the water for them. And now, the sea where they walk — the sea is like this, it is depths, so 'the depths congealed in the heart of the sea.' Now, if the depths congealed, then they walk on level ground, because the sea is like this, it would have to go down like this. So He froze all the depths for them, but if the depths froze, then they can't walk, because why can't they walk? Because it's cold — how will they walk on ice?

43:48 What did the Holy One, blessed be He, do? He made grow for them on the grass — on the ice, grass. And then they stood on grass, and on this grass, so that it would be easy for the animals to eat — for the animals there, which needed to eat a little grass — and for them He made precious, costly stones like a mosaic, that He made for them, so that they would walk on a level path, and they had warmth inside, and they had water — when they wanted to drink, sweet water would come out for them.

44:12 All these — I have already counted for you almost 17-18 miracles. We haven't even started. And after that sweet water, and after that fruit they would want to take. See how many miracles, signs and wonders the Holy One, blessed be He, did for them, and the water keeps splitting before them each time, more and more and more, little by little by little. See what a thing this is, and we... So you want to take it on that same day, Rabbi Cohen, we mark it. Right.

44:37 Hashem's mercy — His mercy, blessed be He, is upon every situation. - Rav, [unclear] That is, the reasoning of the song [unclear] the Holy One, blessed be He, [unclear]. Right. [unclear], my teacher, if one learns song properly, one can already bring the Mashiach. - Right.

45:01 I want — maybe let's make song. Let's sing a little, some song. Gladly. So let us sing too. With the permission of my master and my teachers. Blessed are You, Hashem our G-d, King of the universe, who has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us concerning the counting of the Omer.

46:15 ...restore the service to its place, speedily in our days. Amen. Right. Very clear.

47:29 ...the tribes of G-d, the sons of one man, In the merit of Elkanah the prophet, of whom it is written, 'one man,' In the merit of Your people Israel... [singing] [singing] ...in the merit of 'we will do and we will hear,' which all the people answered as one... [singing] In the merit of the mitzvah of the Menorah, of which it is said 'three'... [singing] In the merit of the mitzvah of the Choshen, of which it is said, 'a row of odem, pitdah and bareket,' 'the first row,' In the merit of the mitzvah of the Mishkan, of which it is written, 'and the Mishkan shall be one,' In the merit of the mitzvah of the Tamid offering, of which it is said... [singing] Oh, save us, please! Oh, save us, please! Oh, save us, please! Oh, save us, please!

48:31 Hashem shall be One, Hashem shall be One, Hashem shall be One, Hashem shall be One, Hashem shall be One. Save us, please! Save us, please! Save us, please! Save us, please!...

49:10 [singing] ...You are our Father... You are our Father! Halleluyah Blessed are You, Hashem... [unclear]