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The death of the Talmidim of Rebbe Kiva, the twenty-four thousand. I was with Noam Konigsberg. You know of Noam Konigsberg? No. I was with him on Shabbos And we were talking about Lag B'Omer. Obviously, Lag B'Omer last year was not the Lag B'Omer we were hoping for. We had obviously lost the Talmud for Noam. For us in the yeshiva. So. Five boys in the yeshiva were best friends. With Danny Mars, Zecher Nolubrachet, and they were. People that grew up with him like their entire life: nursery school, elementary school, middle school, high school. This was the first time they had ever been separated. Not only that, but Two boys were in the pileup. Meaning the two boys were moments away from death. In fact, one of them is confident that he had fallen on top of somebody who was nifter, and he was lying on top of a dead body.
He was pulled out by his shoes, meaning his shoes were left behind. There's a picture of all of the pairs of shoes, because a lot of people were pulled out by their shoes. He had yellow high tops on. You could see the yellow high tops in the shoes. His shoes were different. And there's a lot of trauma around this, but especially in Israel right now, there's a lot of talk. Used to be we were looking forward to Lag Bomer. It's a new world. I don't know if you know. What are the yeshivas doing? It's a very beautiful thing. We're all going to Shalvim. All the yeshivas together are going to Shalvim to celebrate Lag Bomer. They think a whole bunch of organizations got together. Their sponsors, some chaliner is going to sing. It's going to be like a big madura over there. So I was talking to Noam over Shabbos And he said he's looking forward to a healing Lag Baomer.
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He's looking forward to reframing because right now Lag Baomer is like a shrek. Some of the Shana Pet Boys who were there last year are mamish holding by PTSD. One of the boys said to me, "He said, Rebbe, I just can't learn. I haven't been able to learn since we started counting Sfiras Haomer." I said, "What do you mean?" He said, "Rebbe, we're counting Tulach Haomer." Every day is another day closer to. I was moments away from dying. We can't be massive what these things mean for a person to be there. We took the boys back to Meron. The boys went back to Meron. We didn't tell them what to do. We said, do whatever feels comfortable for you. And they went naturally. It was an interesting thing. They all went back to the places that they were on that night. They stood there in that place to revisit that experience.
Usually, Lag B'Omer has the exact opposite. Usually, Lag B'Omer is the end. Now we're moving into it. Lag B'Omer is the switch where we move from Kavod to Chai. The first thirty-two days of the Omer are bigamatria Kavod, the last eighteen are bigamatria Chai. So we move away from the. As we'll express soon, the shalom nago kaved zebze into the world of Chaim. By us last year, Lag BaOmer was a world of Misa, wasn't a world of Chaim. So it was so like there have been tragedies in Klal Yisrael before, but that was so low normali. We couldn't understand what does that mean that in a man when everything is supposed to start getting better, it was the worst possible thing it could be. So we didn't know what to do with it. Bezer Hashem, like R' Naaman was saying, we can go back to a normal Like a tikkun of whatever Lag Baomer was last year And to move on.
All of the talmidim of Rav Kiva died. All twenty four thousand, and not only the twenty four thousand, but even the five talmidim that Rav Kiva built All of Tyrewith Those talmidim also died in this month. Most of us don't know that. Most of us think twenty four thousand talmidim of Rav Kiva died in these thirty two days. It was every talmud that Rav Kiva had died in these thirty two days, every one of them. Even Rishon Baruch Hashem, everybody died in this tefufa. What's the pshat in that? What's the pshat that they all died in this tefufa? And of course, the famous question we should ask Aside from that question, which is also a famous question Shalom Nagu covered zebizeh is not something you're chayev misafur Could you imagine if a person wasn't speaking nicely to another person? Maybe they said something like, 'Every time you talk, it makes me feel anxious.'
No joke. Because she has been. That was very. Is a good mitzvah. It's certainly not a good mitzvah to say that in a shir. So don't worry. I'm with you. Listen. The But we're not chayiv misa. Nobody dropped dead right now. There we go. It's early still. It's only ten to five, right? That's for sure. Yikes. I'm trying to help you feel better. Thank you. I really appreciate it. I shall know how to cover it. Is that not something you're chayv misa for? That's another question. Is there a third question? And a fourth question. The third and fourth questions go together. The Megala Muhos Famous mekubal Megala Muhos says And this already is a chiddush. I don't know that most of us will know this. The twenty-four thousand Talmidim of Rav Akiva are keneged another twenty-four thousand. Anyone know where we see another twenty four thousand in the tower? Two places we see twenty four thousand in the tower, aside from the twenty four thousand coming in the river Kibbutz.
I didn't know this either, so don't feel bad. The twenty four thousand people from Shevet Shimon that died in the Magaifa in the plague After Bilam tried to curse Klal Yisrael and was unsuccessful, he gave advice to Balak. Said make sure that Klal Yisrael is right there by the Benais Ma'av So that Klal Yisrael will be mezana with the Benais Ma'av And we know that they ended up worshiping Bapar. And twenty four thousand people died in that Magefa before Pinchas killed Cosbi and Zemri. So the twenty four thousand from Shevet Shimon are connected in some way. The twenty four thousand Talmidim of Ravakiva. Question is, it's an obvious question. Here's twenty four thousand. There's twenty four thousand. But those two stories seem to be very disparate stories. They both included a plague. They both included twenty four thousand. But one was worshiping Baal Peor and being mezana with Benos Moav, and the other was Shalom Nagu covered Zebusas. What's the connection?
Same exact question, but this time on the Arizal. The Arizal says there's another twenty four thousand. The twenty-four thousand people that were killed. By Shimon and Levi in Shchem We all know the story that Dinah was violated by Shchem ben Chamor. Shimon and Levi came into Shchem. They gave everyone a bris milah, and then they wiped out twenty four thousand people from Shchem. So the Arizal says the twenty four thousand Talmidim of Akiva are connected to the twenty four thousand people that Shimon killed. Shimon and Levi killed in Shchem. The same question: What's my like? Twenty four thousand. There's twenty four thousand. Sometimes you see these connections in the Torah, and you're like They're not a coincidence. But it's also like Sometimes you feel. You ever feel like they're just hodgepodgeing things together, like throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks? So what's this idea? There's twenty four thousand Talmidim of Rekiva. There's twenty four thousand people that died in Shebet Shimon. There's twenty four thousand people in Shchem that died.
What's going on over here? So in order to understand this. We need to go back to a yeshait A principle that we have in Yiddishkeit. The principle is as follows: everything in the world that's natural is the number seven. But seven is not the most natural number. If you wanted to say something is natural, you would say it's seven. If you wanted to say that something is the most natural, it's the pinnacle of the expression of natural. The number would be forty-nine, seven squared. Because you're saying it's the natural sheba, natural, the most natural something could be, is going to be seven squared. That's going to be forty nine. In our world, there are two madrigals of forty nine. There are forty nine levels going up, and forty nine levels going down. And a person stands very often somewhere along that path. Am I on this side? Am I on that side?
But the secret in Yiddishkeit is as follows. We often think to ourselves, mistakenly. That I'm meant to be going on the ladder that's going up. I'm meant to be going on the forty-nine levels up. Which is of course a good thing. So what happens when a person goes down? Because it does appear to us that it's significant, really important For a Jew to go down. How do we know that it's important for a Jew to go down? Where do we see it? Everywhere. First of all, Klal Yisrael goes down to Mitzrayim, and what happens in Mitzrayim? We go down to the forty-ninth level of Tumah. So it must be that there is some value in going down. Otherwise, Hakadosh Baruch Hu would not send us down ever. In fact, if we really think about it from a hashkafic perspective, why does Hakadosh Baruch Hu create the notion of an avera to begin with?
It's a fair question. Why is there a mussug of an avera? Person doesn't avera. Maybe Hakadosh Baruch Hu should have just made mitzvot. Why does Hakadosh Baruch Hu need to make an avera? It must be that there's something about an avera. There's something about going down in those forty nine levels that's not just like you're capable, but it's important. It's fundamental. It's part of the mission. So one way of thinking about it is as follows: a person who goes down in those moments of going down has the opportunity to create a birur. A clarity in creation itself. Play this out on a very practical level. The Talmud calls me this week. A wonderful guy. Back from Eretz Yisrael. Officially, when you look at him on the outside He's studying. He's in yeshiva. He's learning seriously. He's in a top school. He's doing college. He's a good guy.
So. He called me this week. He said it's an emergency. I have to speak to you. Was in Connecticut, but I made time. We spoke. He says, Rabbi, I did an avera this week. That not only have I never done this avera before I never thought that I could be a person that would do this avera. Meaning, and he told me what it was, and it was like a whoa, like you know, there's the line. And then there's the line after that, and then there's the line after that. So he was three lines over from that. It was like a serious Like, shocking, a shocking aver. And he was He was destroyed. How did I get here, Rabbi? I made this bad decision, and then this bad decision, and then this bad decision, and somehow I ended up in this place. And I And he's talking. He's like, I'm at ground zero. Everything that I worked for in my life, all the time and the sweat that I put in not to be this person, and I lost it all.
And he's mamish the brachim from this. I kept telling him It's not true what you're saying It's wrong, it's factually wrong. I don't want you to take the wrong message. I was not invalidating his experience. It's okay for him to feel that way, but it's also important in life to push back and say, let's check in, let's get a reality check. Is it over? You did this life, is it over for you? In many ways, he has the opportunity now to clarify for himself who he is. In other words, and this one of the questions I asked him: I say, "You proud of what you did?" He goes, "No, of course I'm not proud of what I did." I said, "Do you enjoy the way you're feeling right now?" He goes, "This the worst feeling I've ever felt." I said, "So what did you just learn about yourself? Right in the moment where you're crashing down and everything is falling apart, it also tells you who you are.
Like kaviyachal a husband and a wife that get into a fight. And the fight is becoming deeper and deeper, and both are getting more entrenched in the argument. And both are miserable. They're miserable being entrenched in that argument. So what have they learned about each other in that moment? How deep their love is for each other. They're so angry at each other, and they're miserable being angry at each other. I want so badly to be connected to you. So when we go down, the reason why Hakadosh Baruch Hu created an avera is because when we go down, we have an opportunity to discover who we are, and that's mevaira the nitzotzos of that madrega that we were on. Chayyim went down to Mitzrayim, just as an example, to learn about ourselves that we don't belong in such an environment. When we left, it was a process. In the midbar, what did Chayyim keep saying to Moshe Avinu?
Let's go back to let's go. We have to go back. We have to go back to Mitzrayim. Every time it was unsafe, we have to go back. Why could you imagine a Holocaust survivor saying, "Let's go back to Auschwitz?" Nobody would say that, and Eretz Yisrael was a million times worse. The pshat is they were so deeply entrenched in there that there had to be a birur to come out of it, and that generation couldn't do it. That's why that generation couldn't enter into Eretz Yisrael. They were so enmeshed in that toxic environment that for them to be mevarech those nitzotzos wasn't going to be possible. It had to be intergenerational tikkun. We have intergenerational trauma, and we also have intergenerational tikkun. I heard from R. Daniel Kalish. I'm sure you all know who R. Daniel Kalish is. Is this like an obsession we have? So he, we grew up together. He grew up right down the block from me.
He's tremendous. It's interesting. He's a tremendous talmud cham. Today, it's like everyone knows him for the work that he does. He's an extraordinary talmud cham. Because when he was in Bais Medrash, he was looked up to as a flourishing talmud chacham, which he is. He did a podcast. I'm sure you've heard of it, and if you haven't, it's worth the time. Spend the time going to this. It's like, I rarely tell you to listen to something. But there was a phenomenal podcast that he did, and the podcast he spoke about these kids And the things that they're doing, and the reality that they're expressing in the world, he said it's not just their trauma; it's our trauma as a community, as a nation. They're expressing this intergenerational trauma that's been building up for years. But just like there's intergenerational trauma, there's an intergenerational tikkun. We have the capacity to look back and to rectify what was. We're still reeling from the Holocaust.
We're not the generation that grew up with our parents, like Rav Weinberger speaks about all the time, that he grew up waking up in the middle of the night hearing the night terror that his parents had. We didn't grow up like that. Maybe we grew up at an assembly where they brought in a Holocaust survivor to speak. Our children will not have that b'chol. There'll be no Holocaust survivors left. I remember Mr. Lukowicz. Zecher nolavracha. He was a Holocaust survivor. He came to Beit Shemesh to speak. I took my daughters. I said, 'Girls, these are the last Holocaust survivors in the world. You have to hear this because your kids will not know Holocaust survivors.' We still don't understand the intergenerational trauma of the way that our parents were raised. Think about it. Imagine being a Jew who grew up in the fifties. And let's say your family didn't lose anyone in the Holocaust.
But that was the maduber. That's what everyone was speaking about all the time. It dominated the entire realm of education. In fact, the Babush Rebbe Zichronsai Kavrach was very against the Holocaust education that was happening. Because he said you're teaching Yidden like to be shakura to be like, and not that we shouldn't have. Chasam he wasn't saying we should ignore it, but he was saying we're giving it to kids at such an early age, and the Rebbe was concerned about the psychology of children. And it's certainly true now, looking back on it, that he was right. The Holocaust education had to really be rethought over the years. How do we tell people what happened in a safe and in a healthy way? When a person goes down It's an opportunity for birur. That's a beautiful thing. So this young man who did that terrible avera He has an opportunity now. He could choose to say that's it, and he could be pyrakol, and he could say I did a terrible thing, or he could say this isn't working.
This is not me. And it will become the greatest catalyst for his growth. That's what Chazal mean when they say "b'malchum shabali tshuva ma'imdem" and "tsadikim gemur ma'imdem." There is something more advantageous about being a b'al tshuva than there is about being a tsadik. We have no has saga who Rav Chaim Kaniewski's a tsadik of Bracha was. We can't understand it. It's not a normal thing. If any of you see him, or meet Reb Zin Kaniewski, Reb Zin Kalodetsky in your life Kadai, if you go to Bnei Brak to meet Reb Zin Kalodetsky, his daughter, she's a very special person. Rav Chaim was not from this world. He didn't behave in a way that indicated he was from this world. It's not a normal thing. The amount of Torah that he knew, the it was. And by the way, he was hysterical. He goes, "Know that?" Do you not hear the stories? Rav Chaim was so funny.
A boy from Mevaseret came. He had very long hair. He came to Rav Chaim to get a bracha, and Rav Chaim looked at him and he goes, 'He looked at his gavay and he goes, 'Zayish oishah.' He was very playful. He was like a very funny person, but he was not from this world. But the guy who's one of Rav Chaim's talmidim Who knows? Shas cold and warm. One of those types of guys. He's the most incredible talmudchachem. He lives on my block. He goes with a long frock and a up hat, and he's a serious talmudchachem. So I'm in the neighborhood. I know him. He's on my block, and we're friendly. He's a massive talmudchachem. My wife told me she knows him from when he was a bacher. When he was first becoming a baal tshuva, he was in a motorcycle gang. He was a motorcycle gang, and he married a geulah.
And like this guy is probably one of the most chashev to tell me the chacham and all of Rama Pechemish. And I'm trying to picture him, he has a frak and he has a long beard and he has an up hat. And I'm just trying to picture him with a leather jacket. I'm sitting in shul next to him. Like trying to like feel out like. I don't know. Maybe I've never seen him in mitzvah. I don't know if he has tattoos. I don't know where he's holding. We had once a guy in shul. This guy was enormous. He was an enormous human being. You know what I mean when I say like a. Because there are some people that are just like tall or what. This person had girth to him. He came to here. And so he would wear these white shirts on Shabbos. But they don't make white shirts for people that size. They make yeshiva shirts for skinny yeshiva bachem or fat yeshiva bachem. They don't make for girth people. They don't make like that's not when they're what when Charles Taywood is making their shirts for Yidden, they're not doing it for this guy. So he would come to shul, and his arms would be like pushing the fabric out.
And you could see all of the tattoos that he had all over his arm: dragons, green and yellow and orange. Get there, and it was like this. So I'm curious. I asked one of my chaverim, "What's his story?" They said he was in Hell's Angels. He's like a guy sitting and learning, serious dude. I guess he lifted so much weight at some point in his life that he just expanded as a human being. It's not a normal thing. Like this. But at some point he was in Hell's Angels. I can't imagine having gone through that, coming out on the other end. He must have such unbelievable clarity. It's a clarity that some of us yearn for. You ever hear guys or girls say something like, "I wish I would have messed up more in high school" Because then I would know for sure? Like those people that got messed up in high school and they left that life behind. They have a clarity that I don't have. You have guys in yeshiva come to me all the time, 'I really blew it, Rebbe. I should have parted my brains up in high school.'
" I'm like, "You didn't. You didn't blow it as badly as you think you did. It's. You know But I understand. I understand the guys I used to walk around. When I was younger, I would come back to Eretz Yisrael. And I was still a bachelor, and I would walk into Mir Yeshiva to see some of my friends. And I would be walking down in the basement, and I would look over there and I'd be like, okay, that guy was thrown out of high school, and that guy was the captain of MTA hockey, and they're all psychotic, like the biggest lunatics in the world. And like crazy people. But the Malcham Shavali Chuvimayim them. There was a clear bier of this is not the person that I am. If you hear the story of Weinberger, this is one of my favorite Weinberger stories. You know the story with the mirror. When he was a rebbe in Ezra Academy So he said he drove. He had a large family, so he drove one of those big yeshiva jeeps. You know I'm talking about. It's like driving a bus. And they have the mirrors on the side are like those rectangular mirrors, like stick off. So Weinberger said he goes My wife wasn't the best driver. Very often she would drive around and knock into something, and the mirror would get knocked off.
So one day he's in Ezra Academy, he drives in, mirror had been knocked off And this thug Ezra Academy comes in, kid comes in, he comes into Rav Weinberger's here and he goes Rabbi, I replaced the mirror on your van. So Rav Weinberger looked at this guy and he goes, Where'd you get the mirror from? He knew he was a ganef, where'd you get the mirror from, Rabbi? Don't worry about it, I took care of you. So he said, "Okay." He starts teaching. Halfway through the class, the principal walks into the room. She throws open the door. She looks at the kid. She goes, "What'd you do with my mirror?" She had the same van as Erv Weinberger. Kid looked at it. So he sat there. He goes, "Listen, due respect, you're the principal, but he's the rebbe." He needed the mirror. If Weinberger says that guy today is learning in Lakewood And he's still the same guy, he's still a ganef.
But Weinberger said, "One second, this is not the end of the story." Weinberger said he doesn't steal things now, but the same midah, the same like, gotta chop something. It's the same midah, but now it's to chapa chiddush, to chapa another half an hour of learning, to chapa chesed. The same midah is there. It's just there was a beer in that place, and that's what expanded it. What's the lowest level? What's the forty ninth level? Obviously, it's going to have to do with the realm of intimacy, because the most human thing that we do is within the realm of intimacy, and the most despicable act that a person can do within the realm of intimacy is the act of incest. That's the single most disgusting thing And that's what Loth did. Loth. Anyone know what the word Loth means? I didn't know this. I never knew. What does Loth mean? Certain words. I never knew what Loth means. Claw. Loth was the fort. Loth was the bechina of the forty ninth level of tuma. That's who he was.
That's why Avraham Avinu said to me, "Parid nami elai." We have to separate. I'm kedusha. You're klala. We can't mix. There's nothing here for us. We have to separate from each. It makes sense then that Lote was mezane with his own child. Anyone here working in education? What grade? Pre one A. Perfect. Do you have cubbies? Mhm. I want to tell you. I think we need to bring back cubbies. Cubbies, I don't know why only pre one A people get to have cubbies. Wouldn't you want to have cubbies in seminary? I'm thinking of starting a movement to bring cubbies to Mevaser. That every guy should have a hook. Put on his jacket and a knapsack and a cup. It's a very special thing. Can you imagine what it was like for Lotz kid to go to Gan? Say you come in, Lotz kid comes in. What's your name, Sarahla? What's your name, Avramala? What's your name, Moav?
Really, Moav? Moav means meav. It means my grandfather is my father. That's a despicable name. What's your name? I'm the child of incest. That's a terrible name. Yosef Eshtatek is also a bad name. Why? Racheli Menu has him, and she goes, "I want another one. Give me another one." That's also a hard one, knowing that you're not enough for your parents. But Moav is certainly a worse name. What's the pshat that Lot named his own child Moav? It's a terrible name to give a child. It's almost like he's celebrating the fact that this is the product of incest. How could that possibly be? And. We know who comes from Moav Ultimately Rus comes from Moav, David Melech comes from Moav, Melcham Shichah comes from Moav. So how could it be that the lowest, most despicable act that a person could do becomes the highest point? The answer is exactly that.
Within the worst thing that we do, within the lowest level that we're on, what's tumen, what's buried, what's hidden inside of there, the not just an opportunity for greatness, the greatest possibility that you have to achieve greatness in your life can only come after you fall into levels that you could not possibly imagine. It's just it's clear as day. This is why When Russ was told by Nami Said, "Don't you want to be a Jew? You're going to be persecuted. You don't want to be here. This is not a place to be." What did Russ say to her? The only thing that will separate us is death. Why did Rus say it like that? The only thing that will separate us is death. Why is she using a language of separation? The answer is because Rus was well aware of her lineage. She understood that she was the child of Moav. She was the great granddaughter of Moav.
Avram Avinu said to Lot, Heparei Nami Elai. We have to split from each other. We can't be here together anymore. You're tuma. I'm tahara. Tuma and tahara don't mix. You need to go your way, and I'll go my way. You're a ganav. I'm not interested in being with a ganav. Avraham Vino is completely in the realm of giving, not in the realm of taking. Rus understands the nature of her soul. She understands that she is the Netzots in the worst moment of Lote. In Lote's lowest moment, Rus understood that kedusha of her soul was there in that moment. So she says to Tanami, No, we're not separating. I belong to you. This is the part that you've been looking for. I'm that part. So it doesn't matter. I'm with you. That was the tikkun that Rus brought to Ma'af. Mameila, we can understand something exceptional.
What does Bilam do? Bilam comes and he says, "I'm going to curse Klal Yisrael." What does the Gemara say? We can understand every single thing that Bilam wanted to say. We can understand what he wanted to say based on what he said. For example We know that Bilam said, "Matovu Alecha Yaakov," right? So what was he trying to say? If he said how wonderful are the tents of Klal Yisrael, referring to the Batei Medrash, referring to the Batek Nesios, the Shuls and the Yeshivas, so what did he want to say? He wanted to curse that Klal Yisrael should not have Shuls or Yeshivas. Mishkanay Secha Yisrael That Klal Yisrael is going to have the indwelling of God's presence. What did he want to say? That Klal Yisrael should not have the Shechina. So we can understand what Bilaam wanted to say. Based on what he said.
So when Bilam comes to curse Klal Yisrael, he gives brachos. But the Gemara says that every single one of his curses actually came true, except for one. The only one that wasn't undone was Matovu Alecha Yaakov. Bilam figured out how to turn all of Matovu Alecha Yaakov, except for that first couple of words, back into a curse. How did he do it? Because he said as follows: Moav is the gematria of forty-nine. Moav, in its essence, is the lowest level of tuma. It's the most natural tuma that exists in the world. If I can't curse Klal Yisrael because Klal Yisrael won't, because Hakadosh Baruch Hu won't let me curse Klal Yisrael, what will I do? I'll attach them to Klala itself. So when they were mezana with the Benos Moav, it wasn't just stamiznos. This was Klal Yisrael attaching themselves to the forty ninth level of tuma.
And what did they do in that forty ninth level of tuma? They acted in the most despicable way that a person could act. What they do, they worship balpar. How does a person serve balpar? Girls, know that would be a good one. Defecation. That's really what the gemara says. They would go to the bathroom. And the more public, the more. Use lashemakhi. You can figure out for yourself. How do we say this nicely? The more one defecated in an improper way in front of Bal Pahar, the more embarrassing the act, the greater the service. Meaning, when Klal Yisrael went down to Benos Moav and they attached themselves to the forty ninth level of Tuma, it wasn't just that they attached themselves to the forty ninth level of Tuma. They started worshiping an idol that denigrates the very nature, the dignity of a human being. That's the way they were behaving. Mameila, if you are holding on the forty ninth level of tuma, there is no purpose for your existence. Mameila, Hakadosh Baruch Hu brought a magefa and started killing everybody.
Where did that come from? What was the intergenerational trauma that led to that? That already started by Shimon himself. Because we know that Shem violates dina. What does Shimon and Levi do? We'll focus specifically on Shimon. What do they do? They get all the people in Shem to get a bris mila. And certainly, Shem needed to be punished. He made our sister into a zina. That's what Shem and Levi said to Yaakov. What was Yaakov's taina? He said, "But you did it with no dignity. War should be fought with dignity. There are rules. There is a Geneva Convention, right? As we understand it, there is a time and a place for war. Human beings understand there is such a thing as drawing a line in the sand and saying 'Thou shall not pass.' And if you do, if we're threatened, if you are coming and you are coming to take us over, we understand habala hargacha kaidem lahargo. There is such a thing."
But there's dignity in war. That's today. It's a disease the world that we live in. That today, you can't tell the difference. We say all the lines are blurred. We don't know who's a boy and who's a girl. We don't know what marriage is anymore. We're losing all sense of blurred lines. We don't even know what terrorism is anymore. Used to be we knew what terrorism was. Today terrorism is heroism. When a Palestinian Yimachshemo, when that guy goes and he takes an innocent Jewish life, a man walking down the street in Israeli life, and he stabs him with an axe. He murders him with an axe. They give out candies in Gaza, and the world doesn't say boo. You don't even hear about it here in America. The world doesn't say boo. Why? This is freedom fighting. This is beautiful. It's not. This is a despicable thing. These aren't people with a uniform. You're not going to a battlefield. You're just murdering innocent people on the streets.
And today, that's justified. That's sick. I understand. Person goes to war, that makes sense. People die in wars. But to target innocent people, that's terrorism. So now, what do they do? They turn it around. They go, Israel is state-sponsored terrorism. You ever hear that shprach that they use? Israel is state-sponsored terrorism. It's not. It's a government trying to protect its citizenry. That's called war. This is what Yaakovinu said to Shemuel Nevi. He said, "The fact that you wanted to avenge your sister, that's understandable. But you did it in a despicable way." You tricked them into getting a bris mila. They were acting in a way that you thought like we're friends, like we're coming along with you. And then in their weakest moment, when they had no capacity to fight back, you slaughtered them. You created Yaakov Vino and set a separation between me and the world. They're going to come after me now. The world. Why would the world come after Yaakov Vino? Couldn't they understand that Yaakov Vino's daughter was violated? Of course, the world could understand that. But how was the world talking about Klali Yisro in that moment? How are they talking about Shimon and Levi? Did you hear what they did? They managed this. They tricked them and then they slaughtered them.
This is not the way Yidden fight a war. That was Yaakov Avinu's time. So Shchem, of course, they deserved it. But there's no dignity in that. There's no comfort in that. You created an unhealthy separation. So years later, it comes back. The same Shimon that behaved in that way, that didn't act with dignity in war, his great grandchildren also fell prey to Bal P'ar. They fell prey to the Benos Ma'av. They went down to that place of no cover, of no dignity whatsoever. All except for one thing was lost. Mishkan Aysecha Yisrael was lost. All of Matova was lost. Except for Matova Alach Yaqov, except for the schools and yeshivas. That's an amazing thing that Klal Yisrael has. No matter where we've been, you go to anyone here ever go to Poland? Do you ever go on one of those trips? If you ever go on one of those trips, don't go on the ones where they only take you to the concentration camps. It was a beautiful, beautiful life. For hundreds and hundreds of years in Eastern Europe, We built magnificent shuls and yeshivas. The places of chesed—it was unbelievable. We've always had shuls and yeshivas. We've always had them. You could say a lot of things about Klal Yisrael, but we've never given up on shuls and yeshivas.
Was the only one that lasted. Why was that the only one that lasted? So listen to what Rav Moshe Shapir says. This is mamish beautiful. Who's going to be the tikkun? Who's going to be the ones that restore dignity to Klal Yisrael? If Shimon lost dignity by the way that he fought the war against Shem And if Shevet Shimon lost dignity, and again twenty four thousand of Shevet Shimon were lost, can we say the twenty four thousand people in Shem that they killed? They acted with no dignity in the beginning. They lost their dignity at the end. But there needs to be a tikkun. There needs to be an intergenerational tikkun. Where will that tikkun come from? The tikkun must come from schools and yeshivas. That's why it was left. It was the only thing that Hakadosh Baruch Hu didn't take away. If you want to restore a cover to Klal Yisrael, it has to come from yeshivas. It has to come from schools and yeshivas.
Mameila, we can understand why the twenty four thousand Talmidim of Revi'kiva were punished so intensely. Because, as we said in the very beginning of the year, these thirty two days are connected covered. These are the thirty-two days of Kabbat. This month of the year, when we're building up the forty-nine levels going up to Matan Torah, this is supposed to undo that forty-ninth level of Moav. This is supposed to bring in David Malchus and Meshichu. We're supposed to get to Shvuas. Shvuas is the fiftieth level. Who was born on Shvuas? David Melech was born on Shvuas. In other words, if we go through the process of Sfira S'omer, what are we doing? We're undoing all the forty-nine levels, finding that Netzotz of Kedusha, transforming the forty-nine levels of tuma into the forty-nine levels of kedusha, which brings us up to David Malkhesh and Mashiach. That's what we're supposed to be doing. The first thirty-two days of that process are dignity.
The last eighteen are chay. A person who has no dignity has no life. That's a formula you must know. I don't know how it happened. It's a very strange thing that happened in Klal Yisrael today. There's a skewed notion of dignity on both sides. Some say dignity means wealth. And you should know wealth and dignity have nothing to do with each other. There are people that are chasing wealth; it becomes their life's ambition. It's a very scary thing. You ask an eighteen-year-old kid today, 'What do you want to be?' 'I want to be wealthy.' A very interesting thing. That's not a normal thing. On the flip side, and I don't know how this happened because there's no dignity in poverty. There's also like a thing, I'm poor And the celebrating poverty is not something to be celebrated either. A person who doesn't have the capacity to be able to be secure in life, that's there's no dignity in that either. Somehow on both sides of the aisle, it's like I'm poor, I have nothing in my life, all I do is X, whatever X is. I don't want to say it, doesn't matter. There's no dignity in poverty and there's no dignity in wealth. Where's dignity is in I'm a mensh. What does it mean? Let's say in the realm of money. So Rabbi Doctor Abraham J Twersky said it the best. He said imagine.
A client comes to my office. Sits down. Rabbi Twersky says he wants to join with the client. So he says, "What are you doing here?" So the client says I don't really know. I don't really think I need to be here. Rabbi Twersky smiles. Says, So if you don't think you need to be here, what are you doing here? My mother made me come. Your mother made you come. Tell me, what does your mother think you need to be here? He goes. I think my mother's ridiculous. I was okay, but obviously there's a reason. He goes. My mother doesn't like the fact that I like pancakes. She wants me to go to therapy because I like pancakes. Tursky says he's taken aback. What do you mean? You don't need to go to therapy because you like pancakes. I like pancakes too. So the guy goes. His eyes go wide. He goes. You like pancakes? You should come to my house. I have suitcases and suitcases full of pancakes.
There's nothing wrong with liking pancakes. But if you're hoarding pancakes, there's a problem. You ever see these seminary girls that don't know where their next meal is going to come from? They're like squirring away anything they can just to make sure that they have food for later. Used to be sukkah in Ner Yisrael was a real problem because the yeshivas and seminaries didn't serve food. You would see kids hanging out at the hotels hoping that some wealthy person would invite them in for a meal. That's the way it was in the '90s. They managed like they gave us nothing, so we were scrounging for food. There's nothing wrong with having wealth, but it shouldn't be a person's ambition. A person's ambition should be to have enough money to feel secure now and for the foreseeable future. But this notion of I'm creating, I just heard now even on the radio as I was driving in, generational wealth. You ever hear that term? I'm creating generational wealth that my grandchildren and their grandchildren will never need because of the work that I'm doing today. Mechitaysh, that's not dignified. Whereas dignity means there's a value, there's cover, there's weight to my life. The first thirty-two days are meant to be. I'm here, and there's value to me.
That's what breeds chayim. That's what breeds life. A person has no dignity; they can't do anything in this world. That's why sometimes you see in yeshiva You see a boy who can't make it in yeshiva. Can't wake up in the morning. He's a brachan man. He can't do anything. Ten years later, you see the same guy, and he's completely successful. What happened? I tell you what happened. He went to college. He was held responsible. You are either going to pass the test or you are not going to pass the test. There is no such thing as a high school where you can sweet talk your way out of it and your parents are going to donate new chairs to the gym, and all of a sudden the principal goes, "I just figure out how to pass them." This college. You are either going to pass or you are going to fail. You are going to get a job. You are either going to perform, or you are not going to perform. A person realizes, hey, what I do matters. They start to step up. They build a cover, and all of a sudden, they come alive.
A guy gets married. You see this all the time. A guy gets married, and all of a sudden, the same lo yitzlach who two years before was barely human, he was walking protoplasm through the base menorah. All of a sudden, he's like a good husband. Where did it come from? He said, "I have a wife. I have responsibilities. I have to take care of things. I have the shilu from girls all the time. I'm getting this phone. I like him. He's a nice guy. I just don't know. Is he capable? Is he going to support my family? Is he capable of putting?" Different cases, obviously, different answers. But in general, yebeseder. Person gets married; they have dignity. There's something to live for. There's a weight to my life. There's gravitas. That's where chaim comes from. The mistake of the talmidim of Rav Kiva was this was the zman of kavod. Shalom nagu kavod zebizem means that they didn't hold themselves in a way that they understood that it was them who had the capacity to heal.
They were the ones sitting in beis medrash. They were the only bracha that was left. If I want to restore my tov or Alech Yaakov, it needs to be that it's restored from these Yeshiva Bachrim. But they didn't know that And we fall for the same thing. What if you knew right now? This is a scary question. What if you knew right now that you were here in this world to rectify something that happened a thousand years ago? What if you knew a Navi came and he looks at you in the face and he says, 'A thousand years ago, this tragedy happened in Klal Yisrael.' And you were born to fix that. What would the feeling that you would have be? You might be afraid. Maybe like that's serious business. But I am guaranteeing you that you would also feel exceptionally empowered.
I could see the whole picture now. I could see the chagadya. I could see how this led to this, and now I am here to rectify all of those things. That's the secret of chagadya. The secret of chagadya is that after a person goes through the tikkun of all of the fifteen steps of the seder, and they arrive at the pinnacle of the seder, and they're able to see, okay, l'shanah babu yishalayim, and there's hope and there's redemption. Then at the end of the story, they're able to see this led to this. So you would know in that moment, my life has gravitas. There's value here. Weinberger once said The reason why people don't wake up in the mornings is because they have no idea that their life matters. Why should I wake up? What am I waking up for? I was talking to somebody over Shabbos And they're in terrible pain.
I'm hurting for this person because I know how much pain they're in. They've been dating for a long time. And this guy, he's sad. He's lonely. He's not sad like pathetic. He's lonely. His chaverim are getting married now, or they're all married already. And he's feeling like What's my life? What's my life if I'm not married? And so, he's starting to act in a way, and I love him very dearly. But he's starting to act in a way that's like He's willing to date girls that are not necessarily holding at a particular level of observance. He just so badly wants to be a part of something. I was trying to tell him in a sweet way, I'm no, you're missing something here. Whether you're married or you're not married, your life has value. Sometimes we fall into this trap. Since I'm not married yet, I'm waiting to get married for my life to begin. Wrong.
Wrong. Every moment of our life, there's value. If you woken up in the morning, it means there's value. Rav Cook said, "What do we say in Yom Kippur davening? Until Rav Shlomo, until you created me, it wasn't worth it for me to be created, and now that I'm created, it's not worth it that I was created because I'm doing nothing with my life." So Rav Cook explained, "That's not what it means. Until you created me" It wasn't my time. And now that it's my time, And I'm standing on stage, and it's my turn to say my line, and I'm here to bring that tikkun. I don't know exactly what tikkun it is, but every moment of our life, we're on the look out. We're like, what would happen? What would be the best way that I could behave today that's going to bring a tikkun in life? That I'm going to do something that it's going to be that after 120, they're going to say, 'Taka, you did it. You had that. That was on you. You were able to be mataka in that piece.'
And now I'm not playing. I'm not saying my line. I'm not playing my role. I'm just skating through life. Any kadday. It's like, what am I up on stage for? If I'm not here, if I'm not saying my line, what am I? What am I up here doing? And we fall into that trap. We fall into the trap of just hanging out on stage. People do that all the time, including myself. It's like I'm here. I'm on stage. I'm relaxing on stage. If you're on stage, you're here to do something. The bavche rebbe was relentless. When I was growing up, I always thought of the bavche rebbe as a sweetheart. A gentle Jew who wanted all of Klal Yisrael to be connected to. I would go to seventy. I was very young, but I would go to seventy. The Rebbe was not like an imposing figure in that way. He wasn't like ten feet tall. He was like many of the siddiqim. He was a small man, and obviously he was like the Hasidim worshipped him. Whatever. That's a lot to talk about there. But I got older. I started reading about the Rebbe.
And they came to me and they said, Rebbe, we built a hundred new chabad houses in honor of your birthday this year, and he would go, okay, and next year two hundred. He was relentless. We're not here just to be on stage. We're here to build something. We're here to do something. There's value in that. I'm not against at all. Chas v'sham. I think for those of you that have heard from me before, of course we have to create space for people to feel things. But there's a competing voice that's not in the conversation today. If you're going to be just feeling your stuff and you're just going to be sitting in the wreck of your own sad life and it creates this sort of unanchored. Being here on stage doing nothing But it actually feels good when somebody comes along, puts a hand on our shoulder, and says "I totally hear that you're going through something. I'm with you in that thing. Let's build something together." You should know, a person you see them, they set up a little bit more straight when you tell them that.
It's an amazing thing. So we've done this amazing job of changing the narrative in our conversation today of giving people space to feel their feelings, but we forgot the other side, which was also important. So go do something with them. Go build something. You're supposed to be here to build something. These twenty four thousand talmidim of the kehiva—they were sitting and learning in beis medrash. But shalom nagu kavod zebes—they didn't look at each other and say, 'But what's the weight of you? What's the value of you? Kavod from loshan of kaved. Where's your sense of being? Where's your sense of purpose? That's what they were lacking. As I said in the beginning, it's a big year of tikkun. We're coming off of a tragic Lag BaOmer forty five. Forty-five Nefterim last year. Forty-five B'gematria Adam. We lost a person last year. We lost an entire person.
Whatever that means, a kaima shleima of a person. We lost an entire being of a person. Which I think for anyone who's paying attention means that we have to restore our personhood, restore a sense of mission, restore a sense of value. I think we're doing a good job. I think we are. I'm hopeful for Klal Yisroel. I'm coming off of a Shabbaton, where hundreds and hundreds of people got together in the Stanford Hilton, and I saw these breakout rooms of young men and young women getting together and talking about how they are going to bring Tyre back to Klal Yisrael. There was a sense of mission and a sense of purpose. Shabbos didn't end until ten o'clock at night. It was singing and it was beautiful, and there was a sense of purpose in the room. It was a special thing to be a part of.
There is a reason that girls are coming out at ten o'clock in the morning. Klal Yisroel is beautiful. We have to continue growing. We're not satisfied. We have to keep going. We have to build something. It's beautiful. It's wonderful, and it needs to continue. And if I may And not at all as a criticism or a Musar Chas V'Shalom We need so much more though. We're doing great. Baruch Hashem, we can feel positive and optimistic and hopeful and all those wonderful things. But we need to be sharing what we have. We need to be making sure that those who are not sitting around this table are sitting around another table and inviting them in and bringing them closer, understanding that every chesed that we do and every time that we have the opportunity to say to somebody, 'Come, we're going to share. I am inviting you over.'
The how many girls I get these phone calls. Maisem b'chol yom, Rabbi, I am in terrible pain. I am in terrible pain. This girl that I was friendly with, she's dating somebody seriously, and I feel like she's totally forgotten me. And it makes sense; she's busy with her chassan or her future chassan, and there's a yidden pain over here. And it's an ichnami that girl must pay attention to her chassan. That's the right thing to do. She's building that relationship. She needs to build the foundation. La ma'aser, there's a girl that's in terrible pain. And you know how many stupid things are said to her. Meretzah shem bayu. Thank you for closing your eyes and saying it softly to me. And pitying me, that made me feel so much better. Thank you, Ritzosham. Somebody really suffering there, and you have the capacity to talk to her and build her up and help her, and we have to be doing these things sensitively.
Because people are in terrible pain And I'm in pain for my Talmud, who's in such pain. It really like it was the only thing that stared me all over Shabbos. I'm like, he's so much suffering. He's so lonely. He just needs a voice that says to him, "Like we're with you." It's not for me to tell him who he should or shouldn't date, but just to put an arm around his shoulder and say, 'Thank you for sharing.' We need that. We need so much more of that. Be'ezr Hashem Be'ezr Hashem, the job of the twenty four thousand talmidim of Rukiva has been left to us. That's why every year in the zman we go back into that period of availus and we mourn them. We don't mourn them stam because Jews like to feel bad things. It's to recognize that it's our responsibility to rectify that. Avir Avshalom Nogu covered Zebuzet to take that forty ninth level of Tuma in Beis Roshem to celebrate Lag Baomer to celebrate Shavuos to be Mekabel Matan Torah to celebrate the birth of David HaMelech and ultimately Melech Mashiach. There, girls, have a great rest of your day. Thank you for coming.
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