The Yanuka Rav Shlomo Yehuda-הגאון הינוקא - לבטל את הדינים • שיחה מרתקת שנמסרה לפני כ-3 שנים Yanuka - English subs

2:59 And with Hashem's help they will have good lives, and everything will work out, and there will be good abundance and joy. So first of all, I want you to understand some important principles that will be of benefit to you, regarding everything a person goes through, everything a person goes through. I have explained to you that there is the difference between our master the Rambam and the Ramban.

3:31 After all, there is a dispute about what is called the World to Come: whether it is the time to come, the resurrection of the dead, or the world of souls. The Ramban explains in his book Sha'ar HaGemul that we see from here that this world is not the world of reward and punishment. This, first of all, one must know. This, everyone must know: that this world is not the world of reward and punishment.

3:58 When you see a person who has it good, or see a person who has it bad, one should not think that this one received his reward, one should not think that this is his good, that this is his punishment. This is this world - not the world of reward and punishment. "There is no reward for a mitzvah in this world." It is impossible to give a person reward in this world for a small mitzvah that he does, even for a good thought, even for a good wish to do something.

4:28 It is impossible that the Holy One, blessed be He, should give a person reward for this in this world, for a mitzvah or a good wish. This is a little, in order to understand about the punishment, Heaven forbid, that a person gets for one sin: certainly, how many will be created, without end... what Hashem will give a person, what will be collected from him in the time to come, in the World to Come, what he will go through - I do not know Heaven's reckonings on this, that is what Hashem, blessed be He, decides, but certainly a person will give an account for this, for every sin, for everything he did.

4:59 So it is impossible to say that a person who gave himself over all the days of his life to keep the mitzvah and the holiness, and departed to his eternal home in suffering, and people will say: how is it like this and like this in the world? And from here begin all the questions of the world. And one must know this principle, that we should have taught it to children even as they are born, that they would reflect - a principle.

5:24 I also explained it even to the little child: when he was a baby, I would read into his ears, as soon as he was born, the Iggeres HaRamban, every day until the bris milah, reading the Iggeres HaRamban into his ears. I would explain to him, even though he has no understanding yet, but the soul understands. I explain even to children. Yesterday there were - on Shabbos there were many children, so I took the little children, I told them to gather in one place, and I made a prayer with them, that...

5:55 Where is Rabbi Nissim Chaim? Where is he? Right - you were the chazzan, and I told them that they should sing and praise, and I spoke with them about the purpose, little children. Why it is important that we talk with children, why one need not be afraid to talk with children, but of course with understanding, to explain to them from the start, as they grow and look at this world, that a person should not think this is the world of reward or punishment, because the whole way of looking at the world is not correct.

6:26 Think how far we have gone down - "She came down wondrously, she has no comforter" - how far down we have gone, that we are in the decline of the generations, we are far from the Beis HaMikdash, the Holy Temple. The farther we are from the place where there was a revelation of the Shechinah, where Hashem, blessed be He, was revealed, that they moved even farther from Mount Sinai, a moving even farther from the Beis HaMikdash, from the Mishkan of Shiloh, from everything we went through when we had closeness to Hashem - and we grew distant, and distant, and distant.

6:56 So too the distance is from the truth, so too the distance is from closeness to Hashem, from right knowledge, from straight thinking, from the right path, from the thing that Hashem, blessed be He, wants. And Hashem, blessed be He, wants our heart. "The Merciful One wants the heart." Hashem, blessed be He, wants the heart of each one of us. Hashem, blessed be He, wants our heart. He wants our heart to be before Him, blessed be He.

7:22 Our heart is something that is very important to direct before Hashem, because the whole world is busy with all the matters of the outside. And the very fact that a person thinks that this world - here is the reward, here is the punishment - this is denial, heresy and apikorsus - to think this, Heaven forbid, Heaven forbid. And what will the world say, that a person who toiled and toiled seventy, eighty years...

7:46 And indeed the Yerushalmi in Tractate Pe'ah explains at the start, in the first chapter, that the difference between the nations of the world, the non-Jews, and the Jewish people is that the non-Jews, in fact, think a bad thought and the Holy One, blessed be He, joins it to the deed, and we, the holy Jewish people, think a good thought and the Holy One, blessed be He, joins it to the deed, even though we did not do a deed, but the thought will be joined to the deed just from the thought itself.

8:15 That is to say, before the Holy One, blessed be He, our thought is important to Him. One must, in order to know closeness to Hashem, one must understand the greatness of the Creator. David HaMelech said, "For I know that Hashem is great, and our Lord is above all powers." The break in cleaving to Hashem: when a person takes his mind off Hashem, that is already a distancing.

8:40 To come close to the truest truth, to Hashem, there must be striving after striving, at every time and moment, that a person not take his mind off Hashem even for a brief moment. Every person must think after Hashem and cleave to Him, and not take his mind off Him, and think what He really wants from me, what His will, blessed be He, is from me, what Hashem, blessed be He, wants from me, and to see that a person's will, his own will, does not contradict His will, blessed be He.

9:08 It can be that a person wants and wants, and all his desire and will is something that is not His will, blessed be He, because everything he wants, and everything he thinks is needed, or everything he wants with his own will, what he thinks has to be, and he insists on it, and he prays for it - but who said that this is His will, blessed be He? Who said it is for his good? Who said that Hashem, blessed be He, wants this, that he should have it?

9:35 I have seen this plainly, many, many times, that this is how it was: that there were people, people to whom I explained that going with Hashem's will - to pray also that Hashem, blessed be He, guide me: what do You, blessed be You, want from me? After all, what truly is the drawing close to tzaddikim? Why does one need tzaddikim? Why did they need to draw close, that once they would go... Now we are approaching the Beis HaMikdash - that "the passing of tzaddikim is as hard as the burning of the House of our G-d", that the Beis HaMikdash was destroyed.

10:04 What is the connection between the Beis HaMikdash and tzaddikim? Now we are praying, and the Beis HaMikdash comes - Why this connection? Everything in fact depends on the leaders and the shepherds. The shepherds - it is all on them. When our Beis HaMikdash was destroyed, we had the passing of Moshe Rabbeinu, who had already gone up and been raised to the place where he went up, and the Beis HaMikdash was destroyed, and we were left without a shepherd, and we all went far, far away, from exile to exile, from bad to worse.

10:35 And the opinions multiplied, and the disputes multiplied, and the more there is dispute, and baseless hatred, and division, in fact a multitude of opinions comes about, which causes a distance from the truth, so that one cannot know what the truth is - the truth, what is it? Whether it is to the right or to the left, to go on this path, on this path. There comes to be a multitude of opinions, so that one cannot know how to aim for the straight path, for straight thinking, for what Hashem, blessed be He, wants.

11:05 And this is a free gift - to ask this of Hashem. And for this the Holy One, blessed be He, stood and planted them in every generation: the true tzaddikim. Why are there tzaddikim who are not true? Because certainly, if he is not true, then certainly... The true tzaddikim: this means tzaddikim who have it in their power and in their intent to aim at the straight truth, and no mishaps will come out from under their hand, because they aim at the truest truth before Hashem.

11:32 Among them there are very, very, very many levels. There are holy tzaddikim. It is told about Rabbi Pinchas of Koretz that he would not move even the spoon on the table without an intention or some unification of the Name, without a thought - that he does not take his mind off Hashem even for one moment. So this is already not a mind that is in the world. This mind is not a physical mind, because he does not think about this world, he does not think from this world.

12:02 So the moment there is no thought of the matters of the world, then the mind and the body also do not become part of it, and then one can receive more of His light, blessed be He, from right knowledge, from straight thinking, and then the judgments are already sweetened. So first of all, each person should always think about what I said, and think of Hashem, and long for Hashem, and ask of Hashem. First of all, in every situation a person finds himself in, every place, first of all let him consider - is this His will?

12:30 What does Hashem want? And let him stand and check whether his will... what does he really want - what Hashem wants from him, or perhaps he wants something that is not at all necessarily Hashem's will. Or a person wants to finish the whole Shas - why do you want to finish the whole Shas? Is it in order to say: I finished the whole Shas? Or do you want to learn all the inner depth that is in the Shas, in order to know Hashem more, in order to come closer to Him?

13:01 There are two different aims here. There is one path here, and there is another path here. These are different things. Is my learning truly for His honor, blessed be He? Do I want it in order to reveal more of His honor, blessed be He? Will I want to learn the inner part of the Torah for its own sake, to learn the inner part, so that they will say in the Kollel: he sits and learns the inner part of the Torah?

13:26 Why is it called the Torah of Chen, the Torah of hidden wisdom? Because once, in the past, people would not know at all that someone was learning this wisdom. No one would know. It would be left within his own mind that he knew a little of this wisdom. This is hidden wisdom. It is a wisdom that the tzaddikim would learn among themselves, to the point that Eliyahu, may he be remembered for good, would be revealed to one of them and would teach him things, and he would strip the tzaddik out of his body and teach him things that are not of this world.

13:55 So it is not possible at all... These are not things the world can understand at all. The Ramban, who was the greatest of the Kabbalists - there was no Kabbalist like our master the Ramban - who would go and roam in the upper world, and all the more so, let us not even speak of the Rambam, that the Rambam explained the plain meaning, and that there is a difference between the Ra'avad and the Rambam, that of course there are many disputes and contradictions between them.

14:20 but in one opinion, in one way, regarding the Creator, blessed be He, in the way of Hashem - on this there is no dispute. The dispute is in perception, it is in contemplation, it can be in interpretation, but the dispute will not be found about Hashem, blessed be He, because Hashem, blessed be He, He is the knowledge, and He is the knower, and He is the known. And only He, blessed be He - this is the thing the whole world wants: Him, blessed be He.

14:44 They want Hashem in order to come close to Him. But for what? What is the purpose? Why do we want Hashem? Why do we come and are here in days like these, before the time of the destruction of the Beis HaMikdash, which was destroyed in our days? Because we do not feel our fellow's pain. To save a Jew, one of the things one must know: one must feel his pain.

15:10 Rabbi Yaakov Yosef HaKohen of Polnoye writes, he explains that a person who is pained by his fellow's pain over a certain pain - he will not have that trouble. That is to say, if a person feels pain for his fellow that he has a sick wife, and he is pained by it, that he has a sick wife, and he is pained by it, then he will not have a sick wife. A person who feels pain for his fellow who is without a livelihood and he prays that Hashem will give him a livelihood, or he wants his fellow to have a home because he has no home - then you will have it too, like measure for measure.

15:39 One who prays for his fellow is answered first. It is along the same line. But he explains that the intent is not only that it is along the same line, but because you do not want there to be pain in the world. This is what Rabbi Meir of Apta explains at the end of the Ohr LaShamayim, where he asks a question about such a tzaddik: what would be greater in level - a tzaddik who desires sufferings and goes about himself clothed in sufferings, or a tzaddik who pushes the sufferings away?

16:06 And everyone thinks that a tzaddik clothed in sufferings is more of a tzaddik. And he rules there that it is not. He says unequivocally that certainly, most certainly, this will not be of benefit to him, rather the great benefit is the tzaddik who does not desire sufferings. Because why? Because "in all their troubles, He is troubled." And if the tzaddik has pain, then surely it is the pain of the Shechinah. So how can I... what, am I glad that the Shechinah will have pain?

16:30 So for that reason, not to want anyone to have pain, so that the Shechinah will not have pain, so that the holy Shechinah will not be pained. For that we ask of Hashem: Master of the world, let there be no pain for the Shechinah, let no Jew have sorrow, let no Jew have pain, let no one have any lack, let no one have pain, let no one have sorrow, so that Jews will not have sorrow, so that the holy Shechinah will not have sorrow. Because it is all one, it is all one.

16:55 In the world they do not know and do not understand this. When we want to bring about a salvation from Hashem, one must also contemplate this principle, the principle I explained at the beginning, about Hashem's greatness, and the second principle - that is, first of all, to feel that person, to understand what I am asking for, why I am asking. That is a third principle. Because the second principle was about the will - where the will stands, what I want and what His will is, blessed be He.

17:20 And the fourth principle, which one must think about and contemplate, is about thought. Here one must truly focus the thought, so that it is clean, and think about the mercy of Hashem, blessed be He, not think in terms of the Attribute of Judgment. Because many times, when a person is in a time of trouble, he immediately thinks in terms of judgments. He starts thinking hard thoughts, or thinks that this situation is hard and the work grows heavy, and he does not know how he will be able to get out of it.

17:50 So he starts calculating troubles, and thoughts, and hard imaginings. That is forbidden to think about. Immediately think about Hashem's mercy, and also about the friend, or that person one wants to pray for: one must think that the Holy One, blessed be He, will save him, and also tell him good things that will be; appease him, so that he has a settled mind, and tell him, "Surely you will have good," and think good about him, think about him that he will have great good, and also tell him to stop thinking the bad.

18:18 I will explain to you another thing from this. There are many times that a person is already saved. I will give you an example. Say a person comes who is broken and crying, and says that he has no salvation in the matter of a match, and until he finds one, and what will be, and he is broken and in great pain. Say in two more days he will find the match, in two more days. He has two days to wait until he has his livelihood, or his match, or lasting offspring, and he will have the salvation he needs.

18:53 He has only a day or two left to wait, not much. But at that moment he is already saved. But he, on his part, is still broken, and he thinks judgments, and still thinks in that same pain and in that same way of looking at it. But he does not know that the salvation has already come.

19:18 That is to say, he will have the salvation; he lost all that time that he was in pain, and all that time went for nothing - the pain, the sadness, the grief. It is forbidden to think about this, Heaven forbid. That is why I say: think good. First of all, think good, think a good thought about the greatness and the mercy of Hashem. Know that one can get out of any situation.

19:43 From any situation Hashem, blessed be He, can save a person. Always think a good thought about Hashem, blessed be He. Show a shining face to everyone, also to that one... There is someone who is in a state of truly very great pain, for example, the matter of his livelihood, livelihood, and this is something that is truly hard for the world. And I once explained that it is harder...

20:08 What is the meaning of 'a person's livelihood is as hard as the splitting of the Red Sea'? Is there another chair? Bring a chair. Bring a chair. What does it mean that it is hard?

20:40 Seemingly, before Hashem, blessed be He, nothing is hard, not livelihood and not anything. So why say that it is hard? Certainly it is not hard. And what is the matter of the splitting of the Red Sea? There are many, many explanations of the Maharal of Prague and the Rishonim. I thought: after all, Hashem, blessed be He, who created the world - after all, when He created, He said to His world, 'Enough.' That is the matter of the three hundred and fourteen, three point one four - that there is the calculation, that in it is the secret of the calculation.

21:12 Every measure and area, every thing in creation, on every thing His light, blessed be He, rests. Okay. There is the Attribute of Judgment on creation. This is the difference also in the dispute of the Kabbalists, also in the order of the unfolding of the worlds: whether it goes upright, whether it is circles, or corresponding to the form of the... right, left, left and middle, or corresponding to the form of the... right, left, left and middle, that it is circles according to worlds, what they hold about this.

21:40 All these matters that the world knows - that is fine. But where is it drawn from? After all, Hashem, blessed be He, is endless mercy, and Hashem, blessed be He, is endless mercy, so He emanates without limit, an emanation that Hashem, blessed be He, bestows; He bestows without limit. Nothing holds Hashem, blessed be He, back from saving.

22:06 Hashem, blessed be He, can save everyone. He also saves everything. There is nothing holding Hashem, blessed be He, back from saving. Only, the difference is from the side of the receivers: from our side, the farther we move from the sun, then so too, surely, the light that we will receive... the closer one comes to the light... Or like a house that is dark and the light does not shine in it, like all the parables, everyone knows this.

22:31 But if you think that Hashem, blessed be He, who created in the world, then Hashem, blessed be He, imprinted in every thing, and sealed in His creation, that it should have several aspects. One aspect is the aspect of nature, and a second aspect is that nature will do a will that is above nature. That is to say, from the side of nature, Hashem, blessed be He, created the sea; He created the sea for what Hashem, blessed be He, created.

23:00 So His wisdom, blessed be He, decreed, about the color of the sea, the appearance of the sea, about the size of the sea, how big it is, and about the fish and the kinds of fish, and about Yonah the prophet. It is all in the Providence of Hashem, blessed be He, which He already set at the beginning of creation, that so His wisdom, blessed be He, decreed; this is the will of Hashem, blessed be He, on this matter.

23:25 So His wisdom, blessed be He, decreed. So if I say that so Hashem, blessed be He, decreed, that so nature conducted itself - we see that the whole Torah tells of the opposite of nature. This is also according to what the Rambam explains. Many also did not understand that this also fits the view of the Ra'avad, that if it is something already engraved in nature at the beginning of creation, or a change of nature, that the Holy One, blessed be He, overturns nature.

23:51 And this is also a matter of the books of philosophical inquiry. There is no need to learn this at all - the Kuzari and all these things. One must serve Hashem with wholeheartedness, with simplicity, without getting into all this philosophy. I am only simply explaining this to you in a simple way, so that you understand what they once disagreed about, in a simpler way, without all the opinions and things, so that a person brings into his mind that no dispute, Heaven forbid, should remain, in a straight way.

24:21 And then you will see that in practice there is no dispute at all in practice, because it is all, in practice, one. There is no dispute and no opinions... No one... it is important that they know this: that no one ever denied the existence of the Creator. From time immemorial, all the wicked said Hashem is One. They knew that there is Hashem. Nebuchadnezzar knew that there is Hashem, and Sennacherib knew that there is Hashem, and Titus the wicked knew that there is Hashem, and Pharaoh knew that there is Hashem.

24:49 He said, "Who is Hashem, that I should listen to His voice? I do not know Hashem, and I will also not send out Israel." "I do not know Hashem" - because he had a book of all kinds of idolatry, and the Name of Hashem did not appear there. But he did not know that Hashem, blessed be He, is greater than great, beyond any estimation at all. No one knew the greatness of Hashem, blessed be He, but no one denied it, coming to say that He does not exist, Heaven forbid - there was no such thing.

25:13 Their dispute and their heresy was to say that Hashem, blessed be He, is above, that Hashem, blessed be He, is above and has left His world, not dealing with it in its particulars, in detail, and with individual Providence. That is to say, all that Hashem, blessed be He, oversees is the general conduct, and Hashem, blessed be He, does not oversee in detail - and that, Heaven forbid... It is certain that the Holy One, blessed be He, is exacting in the finest details about each and every one, about everything a person needs, whether in the physical or in the spiritual, and even a small hair on a person's head that is decreed to fall and be plucked out - then it will be plucked out; and what is not decreed - it will stay stuck in place.

25:51 To such an extent, because everything is in individual Providence, even about a small thing that the Holy One, blessed be He, created in the world, every thing. But what is the matter of the splitting of the Red Sea? I want you to understand this: that Hashem, blessed be He, created the world, so He created it without limit, without measure, and that He saw that this mercy keeps growing stronger, and of course, only from the side of the created beings, the sins, the iniquities, the transgressions created the screens, and all the difficulty and the decline of the generations caused that...

26:27 we go down, less and less, also from the side of the decline of the Torah, also from the side of His light, blessed be He, so we go down, and so too the miracles and all things grow fewer. Whoever goes the opposite way, against the decline of the generations, and goes backward for the sake of Hashem, blessed be He, to seek His will, blessed be He... If I want to learn the Torah, to understand what the stories of the Torah are, for what purpose we learn the Torah, I need to know by what I learn Hashem's Providence: whether from the side of the foundation of nature, that the Holy One, blessed be He, engraved nature into creation, that He revealed to us - that is how the Rambam explains: when one contemplates creation, one comes to love Hashem, blessed be He;

27:11 looking at creation, marveling at creation, through this I reach the love of Him, blessed be He. Or is it the will that we not contemplate creation, or that there is nothing to contemplate in creation, and looking into the very body of the Torah itself - from that I will reach the love of Hashem. So if so, then I have no need for nature; I have it in the Torah. And if the Torah is not enough... then why does the Rambam say that one must contemplate creation? So tell me to contemplate the Torah!

27:36 Why do I need to recognize the wonders of the wood or the tree, or the stars, or the heavens? Do you understand the question? This is what I thought. Of course, not to study books of philosophical inquiry and such things. this is something one does not need to learn; to learn Torah, only simple faith, without... Rebbe Nachman, may his merit protect us, who would explain very much about the matter of simple faith and wholeheartedness, and he has his book - Sichos HaRan, where there are many talks and things that he explained on the ways of faith and upright conduct.

28:18 There is a certain talk there - whoever wants to read it - a talk that many have in fact quoted from, many loved it: how much the Rogatchover loved the Rambam, and he was a great genius and everything, but he did not hold with the philosophy of the Moreh Nevuchim, for there are many things there in the Moreh Nevuchim where a person can be left with the question and he will not understand the answer, the wisdom of the Rambam.

28:43 The Ramban explains in the introduction to the book that one must so deeply understand the received tradition of the Torah that whoever received it person from person can understand its intent. That is about matters of Kabbalah and awesome things. Now the Rambam himself - to understand the wisdom of the Rambam: here these are matters of this world, matters of the intellect and things of philosophy; these are things where one must hold one's head very, very firmly by the power of the Torah in order to answer the questions that come from a rational, human mind - not those of the Rambam, but those of the ones who question the Rambam.

29:12 So for this reason it is not good for a person to carry the opinions of the heretics and the opponents. Therefore we will learn it with a settled mind; that is the meaning. If there are strengthening things or sayings, then it is possible. There were many great men who would learn it thousands of times; Rabbi Pinchas of Koretz said that he learned the Moreh Nevuchim a thousand times, but the image of G-d in him was not spoiled by it. So he writes there in his book - whoever wants to look into it, if there is a need for it, in section 217 - and it is not a good thing for a person to go into inquiries, because one must see everything with wholeheartedness and simplicity toward Hashem, blessed be He.

29:52 Now you have understood what I asked: is the learning needed from the side of nature or from the side of the Torah? Because if not - why does the Rambam explain that one needs to look at nature? For seemingly he should have directed us to the Torah; that is the main foundation of the Torah, and to contemplate by learning the Torah - there is no need for this. Here, nature speaks, its song, As I said, now - there is 17, there is 17.

30:21 [unclear] there is 17. Now, I will explain to you what I mean by the splitting of the Yam Suf. In fact, the will of Hashem, blessed be He, is that we learn the Torah and contemplate the creation. If we learn the Torah without contemplating the creation, and if we contemplate the creation without learning the Torah, then it is as if we did not contemplate the creation.

30:54 So in fact it comes out that there is no dispute between Rabbi Yehudah HaLevi and the Raavad, who disagreed with the Rambam, and what the Rambam says, because it all depends on the contemplation, because one also needs this for that. The Rambam's wish that we contemplate the creation and nature, so that through it we come to know the Creator, blessed be He, is not because he is telling us to neglect the words of Torah, Heaven forbid, but he is saying that your looking at nature or at the greatness of the Creator will bring you to a great fear, so that when you are engaged in the words of the Torah dread and fear will fall upon you, and you will understand before Whom you are standing.

31:40 That is to say, this contemplation is needed for this purpose. And when a person learns the Torah, he will be able to understand from the stories of the Torah how great Hashem is: that if he sees a reality of nature - if he sees the Jordan, and the Jewish people need to reach the Land of Israel, or he sees the sea, and the Jewish people had to get there in order to receive the Torah, then the sea had to split before them - so the sea splits before them, but this is by the power of the Torah.

32:08 That is to say, one needs this in order to contemplate it, and through this one comes closer to the Creator. That is to say, contemplating the Creator comes before everything, for that is why we contemplate and learn and think. So what is the matter of livelihood, that it is as hard as the splitting of the Yam Suf? Why is livelihood as hard as the splitting of the Yam Suf?

32:33 Hashem, blessed be He, when He created, He created everything beyond measure. He creates water, endless waters; He creates a sea - endless drops of sea - endless drops of water, endless fish. Hashem, blessed be He, creates everything: wood, trees, grasses. Nothing is lacking in His world; He left nothing lacking in His world, and all of it for people to enjoy - good creatures, good trees.

32:58 Everything that Hashem, blessed be He, created is all for benefit; all of it is His. Only with us, on the side of the receivers, a difference arises in this contemplation. But what Hashem, blessed be He, wants to explain to us - understand this, what I am saying: that it is harder - I am not saying that it is hard - this is from the wording 'a person's match is hard' or 'his livelihood is hard'; it is the same expression, I am saying: that it is hard for Hashem, blessed be He, to give a person a hundred coins, and easier for Him to give endlessly.

33:33 For Hashem, blessed be He, it is easier - do you understand what I am saying? It is easier for Hashem, blessed be He, to give a person endlessly, and harder for Him to give a person a penny. This is truly hard for Him. That is: 'a person's match is as hard as the splitting of the Yam Suf.' That is: 'a person's livelihood is as hard as the splitting of the Yam Suf,' because from the side of His nature, blessed be He, He bestows everything without end; He gives beyond measure, because that is how He, blessed be He, conducts Himself.

34:06 Therefore the situation is like the splitting of the Yam Suf. Whoever contemplates the creation according to what the Rambam says - then we will understand the greatness of the sea, its greatness, its form and its appearance, of the Great Sea - how great the Great Sea is. I am speaking about the sea, the Mediterranean Sea. One says the blessing 'Who made the Great Sea' according to the Shulchan Aruch; according to the Rema, one says over it 'Who makes the work of creation.'

34:31 Over the Dead Sea one does not say a blessing. Why? Because it is not from the six days of creation. Not to bless over it; one thinks it - 'Who makes the work of creation.' It is permitted to think it, but not to bless, because it is not from the six days of creation. The Dead Sea, for example, was a punishment for Sodom. At first they had - the Sforno explains - such air that blew for them all this time of the days of Nissan, that the air was good and everything was wonderful, and with this reality the people went and sinned, and because of this the Holy One, blessed be He, punished them.

35:02 So therefore, even though Hashem, blessed be He, punishes and brings the attribute of judgment, see what was created - the Dead Sea. And this too is His compassion, blessed be He: that the punishment with which the Holy One, blessed be He, strikes - with it, in fact, He also heals. Because this blow too is also, so to speak, a contemplation of the greatness of Hashem. So not to say over it the blessing 'Who makes the work of creation,' but one can say it without the Name and Kingship: 'Blessed is He Who makes the work of creation,' because it is not from the six days of creation - the Dead Sea - because it is a punishment for that.

35:34 But, say, when one sees the Mediterranean Sea, if it is the great ocean, certainly one says 'Who made the Great Sea.' Contemplation - the more we think, we will see why it is so important to know how to contemplate. Because understand: when they say 'like the splitting of the Yam Suf,' you will see how much, for the Holy One, blessed be He - He, from His side, blessed be He, will shine for you and bestow on you, and give a person endlessly.

35:59 He wants to save him, and that he should have no sorrow. And from here comes the denial and the heresy of the created beings, Heaven forbid: that they think that Hashem, blessed be He, does not save them and does not answer them, but they do not understand that this is only from their side, because they do not contemplate this. And Hashem, blessed be He, bestows through contemplation, through thought, through knowing, that if 'And you shall know this day and take it to your heart' - if this very verse is in fact what they struggled with: where did they learn the matter of inquiry from?

36:33 What is the Rambam's explanation for the Moreh Nevuchim? He writes explicitly: 'And you shall know this day and take...' that there is a matter of inquiry and searching, that a person should inquire and search and delve much into philosophy: here there is an explicit verse from the Torah that commands you to inquire and search - 'And you shall know this day and take it to your heart.' But in fact the meaning is what Rebbe Nachman explains; he says that 'And you shall know' is not in the sense of knowledge, but that the knowing of Him, blessed be He, will not be in doubt for you; it will be like knowing in the sense of settled awareness - something fixed, whole and absolute, not for the sake of inquiry and searching.

37:08 And this was certainly clear to the Rambam, because the Rambam certainly knew this. But no one managed to reach even the tip of the Rambam in order to understand his interpretation and his contemplation against the questions, so that he could give them the answers. That is to say, the Rambam's answer we will understand, but the questions of the mistaken and crooked minds - a person can remain with something that will not help him.

37:36 That is to say, one needs very great wisdom to understand the ways, for what His will, blessed be He, is in this. And it is few who knew how to contemplate and to focus on this thought, in this contemplation. That is to say, the very thought - that a person knows that Hashem, blessed be He, wants to do good for him, and he thinks about His compassion - then this compassion flows and is drawn down to the person; it flows and is drawn down, when a person knows and understands that Hashem, blessed be He, wants to do good for him.

38:07 He understands. That is why the contemplation of the splitting of the Yam Suf: because the sea that was split - Hashem, blessed be He, did it as kindness beyond measure, because 'Why do you cry out to Me? Speak to the people and let them journey forth.' So again we come back to the beginning: if it was already revealed, then why did Hashem, blessed be He, make the sea for them that was closed before them? For they saw it in front of them, that it was closed; they saw that it was, so to speak, their death; they have nowhere to go.

38:35 So how do You say 'Why do you cry out to Me? Speak to the people and let them journey forth'? Rather, the contemplation of Hashem, blessed be He, was that this is the contemplation that Moshe had when Moshe was at the splitting of the Yam Suf, in order to explain this to them; that this is what the leaders and the tzaddikim had to teach the Jewish people: they need to give them this awareness, that everything is open before them, and even though the reality they see is that everything is closed, yet this reliance of the Jewish people on the leader, on Moshe Rabbeinu, is what caused the Yam Suf to open.

39:07 So that is why 'a person's livelihood is as hard as the splitting of the Yam Suf,' 'a person's match is as hard as the splitting of the Yam Suf' - and not specifically in this matter of the splitting of the sea, but to explain to you that the sea was already open from the start, that He held it back for its condition, the condition the Holy One, blessed be He, made with it already in the six days of creation, that everything is already open before them. So that is to say, if we understand that what is hard for us, in fact, is not that it is hard for Hashem, blessed be He, to save, but that it is hard for us to understand that the match or the livelihood is already open from of old -

39:44 that is the meaning of 'his match is hard, his livelihood is hard.' Let us not think, Heaven forbid, that something is hard before Hashem, blessed be He, Who bestowed all this creation; rather, the difficulty is to reach the insight of the deep contemplation that he explained to them, so as to understand from the outset that already from the six days of creation He made the condition with the sea that it would be open before them, that they would come to the insight and the awareness of 'Why do you cry out to Me? Speak to the people and let them journey forth': that from His side, blessed be He, everything is open before them.

40:15 So for now let us take this principle. There are many more things, but let us think for now in these principles. Think about this, with Hashem's help, and this can already sweeten many judgments and nullify troubles, and blessed be Hashem, you will see many miracles and wonders from this. This truly brings about miracles, because there is Torah study that one learns, and the essence of Torah study is 'to learn and to teach, to keep and to do,' so that each one will also be able to act and to pray, and his prayer will be accepted and will help before Hashem.

40:49 That is the purpose of the learning. That is the purpose - so that we pray, that we ask of Hashem. And this very thought and this thing - may it be His will that all of you, everyone, and all the Jewish people, that the Holy One, blessed be He, save you, and that everyone have miracles and wonders, that everyone have a good life, amen, that everyone have good bounty, that you have length of days and years of life in health, miracles and wonders and good bounty, and all good and from all good, and peace to you and peace to your household.

41:14 - Rabbi, what is the meaning of what is written in the Mishnah in Avos, that whoever walks along and interrupts his learning and says, 'How beautiful is this tree'... - Do you want to hear my explanation? We once went walking and were amazed - we had learned exactly this Mishnah with the students, and we saw a beautiful tree - it was exactly like that. The thought is that a person suddenly sees a beautiful tree, and he gazes at this tree, and he looks and contemplates the tree, and he says, 'How great is Hashem, blessed be He, who created this species of tree, this kind, and its colors, and its fruits, and everything about it' - and every form and every contemplation - he reaches so, so much contemplation on the personal Hashgachah with which Hashem, blessed be He, watches over,

41:55 and he wants to expire out of love of Hashem in the creation. So he 'forfeits his life', because he could die; he could die, because he forfeits his life from the fear that falls upon him when he sees such a beautiful tree, and he looks and he says, 'How Hashem, blessed be He, watches over every thing and detail in His creation!' He could expire out of the cleaving to Hashem, blessed be He - how He watches over each and every thing in His creation.

42:20 in His creation. May everyone have a good life. I pray for you every day, for each and every one - all of you should know, both those who are here and those who are not here - that you have a complete salvation, amen. May Hashem, blessed be He, bring you salvation, amen. May you have a good life, amen. May no one have suffering, amen. May no one have troubles, amen. May everyone have a good life and good bounty, amen, and miracles and wonders, delicacies and sweets, a good life, and abundant livelihood and wealth, and good bounty, and all good and from all good.

42:52 And may the merit of the Maharash of Ostropoli - So I will tell you something from the Maharash of Ostropoli - [unclear] The Maharash of Ostropoli - Rabbi Shimshon of Ostropoli was a tzaddik, unique and singular and very wondrous in his wisdom in Kabbalah. The book of Rabbi Shimshon of Ostropoli - whoever knows a little of his writings, of his commentaries, his interpretation is very, very deep, and it is not at all possible to reach the depth of his mind on the wisdom and the secrets of the Torah that he attained.

43:26 The Maharash of Ostropoli - the Toldos, Rabbi Yaakov Yosef of Polnoye, was one of his sons-in-law, and so the Halichos Shlomo, Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, was one of the descendants of our master, the holy Shimshon of Ostropoli, who died for the sanctification of Hashem's Name. And he was born in the year 5760, and he was born in the decrees of Tach v'Tat, 'You send forth Your wrath' - this was about the time of the harsh decrees, when they made pogroms against the Jews in all kinds of places, and also in their own place.

43:56 He hinted about himself that he was, of course, from the light of the Arizal, from the soul of the Arizal. And why are we here? Because he writes explicitly in the introduction, in Karnayim, 'that I named the book after myself: "Dan shall judge his people"', which is said about Shimshon. He had a commentary on the Zohar, which is Machaneh Dan; it was destroyed - this book does not exist.

44:20 There was one who wanted it - the grandfather of the Minchas Elazar of Munkatch; he said he would give his whole library for the book - Rabbi Tzvi Elimelech of Dinov. And after they actually brought him the book, Rabbi Tzvi Elimelech had already passed away. Rabbi Dovid remained. So he said: 'Father would have known; I do not know what to do with this book.' So that rich man burned the only copy in the fire, and today this Zohar does not exist. They say that if there were someone who would learn it, he could have brought Mashiach, so much was his commentary on the Zohar very deep - that of the Maharash of Ostropoli.

44:49 So this book, the Machaneh Dan, cannot be obtained today. Perhaps, with Hashem's help, in the future they will suddenly find some copy of Machaneh Dan, and then suddenly Hashem, blessed be He, will have mercy on us. So why did he actually name his books after 'Machaneh Dan', 'Dan shall judge'... So he said: 'I named it after myself, for I am Shimshon, who comes from Dan.' So he hinted by this that he is a reincarnation of Shimshon son of Manoach and Tzelelponis.

45:14 So soon, with Hashem's help, we will also read from the Tikkun that I said we would read a little of; we will read really briefly. And a little of this, [unclear] Let us say something beautiful from the Maharash of Ostropoli. All right, I will tell you the chiddush of the Maharash of Ostropoli, this is told to you every year, right?

45:59 this one - but you love it too. I will say something that... I love this chiddush very much. So the Maharash of Ostropoli says - this one is also short, because everything here is long - this one, let's say, is short. 'And all this is not worth it to me', 'and all this is not worth it to me', 'whenever I see Mordechai the Jew'. 'And all this' is superfluous; it should have written, 'and it is not worth it to me'.

46:23 What is 'and all this'...? And what does he write? What is his intent? 'All the honor that I have' - that is the meaning. What does he mean by 'and all this'? All the honor. So he says, one can explain: that Mordechai and Esther in gematria, in the small number - there are several kinds of gematria: there is the small number, there is the large number, where one takes the letter; there is the milui, the spelled-out letter, there is the milui of the milui, there is the milui with the first letters and the last letters of the words, there are all kinds - there is Atbash, there are all kinds of gematria.

46:56 But let us take the small number. The small number is also mochin de-katnus, the mind of smallness; the large number is mochin de-gadlus, the mind of greatness. But all the kinds of gematria have in them a thousand... It is a very deep wisdom, the wisdom of gematria. That Mordechai in the small number comes to 13: if we take the value of Mordechai, that is Resh-Ayin-Daled, that is two hundred and seventy-four; in the small number it comes out 13. Esther in the small number also comes to 13.

47:23 So together, Mordechai and Esther come to 26 - the Name Havayah, blessed be He. That is the gematria of the Name Havayah. Now Haman and Zeresh in the small number also come to 26, the number of the Name Havayah, blessed be He. That is why there was fear between them, a dispute between Mordechai and Esther and Haman and Zeresh: Haman and Zeresh also come to the number of Havayah, blessed be He. But come, let us understand the inner meaning that he explains.

47:49 Pay attention. He says: why was Haman in distress? Because, he said, Haman on his own, in the small number, was 14, and Zeresh on her own was 12. That means, so he said, 'And all this is not equal to ME' - because they are equal to each other, but she is not equal to me. That is why he said, 'And all this is not equal to me' - because 'zeh', 'this' - how much is that in gematria? Twelve.

48:16 'Zeh' - that this one, Zeresh, is not equal to me; 'and all zeh' - Zeresh - is not equal to me; she is not equal to my number. And from this he was in distress, and from this he understood that it was his downfall. So see from here how much wisdom there is, and this is what the Maharash of Ostropoli explains: 'that this is my small number' - and examine it well. And here he also explains that the small number of the Samech-Mem - its small number also came to 14, and the small number of the Lil...

48:47 of his female counterpart also comes to the same as Zeresh. That means they corresponded to Haman and Zeresh, and that is why it came to him to annihilate the Jewish people in this matter - that he was 'mach va-rash', poor and destitute. But Hashem, blessed be He, saved the Jewish people, for Michael, the High Priest, is the prince and guardian of Israel. And this is also what happened in the time of Yirmiyahu with Chananel, who was Yirmiyahu's uncle, and there was a rescue of the Jewish people. And the Holy One, blessed be He, saved us through Michael, the High Priest, the prince and guardian of Israel.

49:14 Blessed is Hashem - the Holy One, blessed be He, is a great and awesome G-d, and He saves the Jews in every generation. And may Hashem, blessed be He, grant us that we too will have rescue. [unclear], amen, amen. On the matter of the letter of the Maharash of Ostropoli - may his merit protect us - that he reveals to us that, with Hashem's help, the same order that there was at the time of the Exodus from Egypt - so we will merit it also in the complete redemption, that the Holy One, blessed be He, redeemed us from there, with these names - [unclear] [unclear] the Holy One, blessed be He, to Israel, that He redeemed us with them.

50:05 And in those plagues with which Egypt was struck, the redemption and the healing of Israel are hinted; [unclear] before the Holy One, blessed be He. with the angels that belong to the redemption. And may the verse that is written be fulfilled in us: 'As in the days when you went out of the land of Egypt, I will show him wonders' - [unclear]. With Hashem's help, this is the interpretation of the Maharash of Ostropoli, which is very good to read and to delve into his holy thought, with Hashem's help.

50:31 Let us mention the merit of our master, Rabbeinu Yitzchak Luria. May the merit of our master, the holy Arizal, protect us. You know, there was a very moving story, that Rabbi Chaim Vital was so bound, with cords of love in his soul, to our master the Arizal, that he writes about him that he knew all the secrets in creation, and all the secrets of the trees and the animals and the palm trees and the birds and the heavens and the angels, and Eliyahu the Prophet, remembered for good, revealed himself to him and spoke with him mouth to mouth, and he merited great and revealed wisdom, and he knew all the created beings, every one, and all their thoughts and what they are going to do.

51:09 See what things he expresses about him, in such awesome language, that he attained the awesome and immense closeness to Hashem - unbelievable, that there was such a thing in the world. And our master the Arizal, when he came down to the world, he connected and revealed, in practice, between the upper worlds and the lower worlds, for until he came, in practice - it was exactly at that same time that the era of the Rishonim also ended.

51:34 That is exactly the time of the Rishonim and the Acharonim. That is the time of the Beis Yosef, the Ramak, and all the holy ones; the Shitah Mekubetzes - that is his uncle, who was Rabbi Betzalel Ashkenazi. And how do we know that also the era of the Rishonim and Acharonim - that the semichah, which was upon Rabbi Yaakov Beirav, had already ceased, who gave semichah to Maran the Beis Yosef, and then, in practice, the semichah already ceased. And this is already the time when we already see that the era of the Rishonim ended, and then the era of the Acharonim begins.

52:04 And then, in fact, they also say: how could Maran the Beis Yosef, who was one of the Acharonim, disagree with the Terumas HaDeshen, who was one of the Rishonim? That is, the simple answer is that he was of his time: the Terumas HaDeshen passed away 17 years before the Beis Yosef was there. That is why he could disagree with him. But this is to explain to us that generation, that time that was there: 'and the sun sets and the sun rises' - their light, the power, the contemplation, the thought, the revelations, the things - that he knew secrets and the reincarnations of souls, and animals, and the created beings, that he could call to a person's soul, tell him 'sit', and call his soul, and speak with his soul, and afterwards return it - these are things with nothing in them that can be explained.

52:52 So they say that the bond Rabbi Chaim Vital had with him was such an eternal love, he was so attached to him, that when Rabbeinu Yitzchak Luria passed away, he could not accept it, and he kept them from burying the Arizal, to the point that when they put our master the Arizal in, he pulled him and took him out, so that not... they actually had to take him out so that there would not be this pain.

53:16 That was the bond - he had such love for Rabbeinu Yitzchak Luria, our master the Arizal. May his merit protect us, amen. And with Hashem's help may we have salvations, good bounty and a good life. You know that we are connected to the Arizal on my mother's side, that I am of the holy seed of Rabbeinu Yitzchak Luria; that it is his merit - any good or any quality is surely only he; nothing of it belongs to me, and I am the nothing of nothing, and I am worth nothing, and nothing, not anything at all.

53:46 It is all only merit from the treasury of free gifts. And mention us, that there be strength and a good life, that we see everyone's joy. I only ask that we see everyone's joy - that is what I ask. That we see everyone's salvation, that everyone who came - salvation for him, [unclear], that no one be in distress, that everyone be happy, that everyone be glad, that everyone have bounty - that is what I ask.

54:18 that everyone have the very best, that everyone have the very best; I do not want any Jew to have [unclear], that there be a good life for all the Jewish people, that there be good bounty for all the Jewish people, amen; may He give all the Jewish people a good life, amen, and miracles and wonders, amen, and good bounty; and may Hashem, blessed be He, have mercy on His people Israel, annul from all His people Israel all kinds of harsh and evil decrees, amen, amen, and bestow good bounty upon us, amen; salvations for everyone, amen, and wonders, and a good life, and may Hashem, blessed be He, fill what everyone lacks. Amen!

54:50 May they be [unclear] and joyful, full of light and vitality and joy. Amen. That the Jews have light and joy. Amen. Amen. Amid joy and [unclear]. Amen.