Hoshana Rabbah - Finding Life in the Shade of Hashem

2:53 V'tama na'asim le'lakein le'kevda. Masay avirayin ne'leikein. Kei ayam tahar, kalafikemayim. Kei ayam tahar, kalafikemayim. Keinashi zahar, elakaladikim. Ke'ayom taro galaki ke'mayi. Ei nashis taro nashverai ke. Itzamatzak.

4:20 Kabonashim ledayik lekelcha. Aye, imasei Imasei, imasei avay mira, ledayikim imasei. Tzamatzamatzamana sheirakim, lekhem ta'ira. Ina'saima'saima'sayavu li'ira, bine'elokin. Yada y. Ya.

6:06 Ya. Tri ya. Tri ya. Yaya. Yi da. Ya.

8:00 Yah Y. It's an amazing thing to think about that two years ago we were here in Yeshiva Hakotel and we had no idea. How could we have possibly known? We had no idea what was coming. Literally the next day The worst day in the history of Klal Yisrael since the Holocaust And here we are. Two years later The pain that Klal Yisrael has lived through for the last two years has been immeasurable. The losses that we've taken—those that were murdered al Kiddush Hashem Those Chayalim that heroically Stood to protect our country. Those that we've lost.

9:36 Those that we haven't lost, but in a different way, we've lost. The challenges of Shalom Bayis. The challenges of people that Aleinu Rachmanu Litzlan have lost limbs in this war. Over twenty thousand soldiers, over twenty thousand Chayalim, are amputees. On the one hand. The last two years have been unimaginably difficult. And yet If somebody had come to me on Oshana Rabba night two years ago and they had said that on Oshana Rabba two years from now Hamas will have been more or less decimated and Beis Hashem more Hezbullah will have more or less been decimated and Beis Hashem more. Assad will be removed from Syria. Iran's nuclear capabilities will have been decimated. What would we have said two years ago? We would have said It must be that Mashiach is coming. We could not imagine the reality two years ago that we're living in right now.

10:49 And so I sit here on Hoshana Rabbah night, together with some friends. Feeling very conflicted. Every yom tif needs to be celebrated within the time period that it exists. And that's on two levels. One, we know the kaiach of that time comes from the yom tovim, but also the time has to frame the yom tif that we're in. We can't sit in the same sukkah, we can't have the same simchas torah that we had two years ago. We can't even have the same simchas torah that we had last year. We have to have changed fundamentally from everything that we've gone through. How can we approach Hoshanah Rabbah night two years later Knowing that two years ago those Rishayim Arurim Yemach Shemam were planning the final details of what would happen on Simchas Torah And here we are Two years later Basically to the day. And we're about to have all the chatufim returned.

11:58 And Beis Hashem Who knows what great things are coming in store for us? What can Oshana Raba mean to us tonight? I want to begin tonight's shiur by asking many, many questions. And hopefully, just to give one answer that'll answer all of them. There are a lot of questions, so you'll have to hold cup with me for a couple of minutes. It's a strange halacha that a sukkah is not a kosher sukkah unless there's more tzel than there is sun. It's a strange halacha. Normally in Yiddishkeit we think about the sun as illumination. In the times of Mashiach, the sun will come out of its pouch. The sun represents clarity. That's generally the way that we look at things. We want to live in the presence of revealed good from the Rebbe Nachum. And yet we enter in. To this dear Sarei Which is the home of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, so to speak And there has to be more shade than sun. There has to be, in some way, a diminishment of the sun.

12:59 Shaila, what does that mean? Bifratan Hoshan Raba does a Zayir Hakadosh. This Zayir Hakadosh is not so well known, but it should be because even if you don't learn Zayir, you have to learn Halacha. This Zayir is quoted to Halacha. Zayir Hakadosh says as follows. We know in America there's a movie called Groundhog Day. If the groundhog sees its shadow, then there'll be six more weeks of winter. It's Yiddishkeit. But such a musel exists like that in Yiddishkeit. Zayra Kodesh says that tonight If a person is walking in the streets of Yerushalayim, Mirak Kodesh, Zayra doesn't say Yerushalayim, but for us who are zayecha to be living in a time where we can walk in the streets of Yerushalayim Zayra Kodesh says that if you see your shadow from the light of the moon. So then you're going to live this year And if you don't chas v'shalom, then the other thing.

13:52 It's a very strange desire. The Rama says about desire: don't do it, don't get involved in bad mazel. It's not a good thing to live this way. But lemaisa desire, our Kodesh says it. It's a very strange desire. Obviously, there's something very pnimi that's being conveyed to us that needs to be understood. A third question: Say haracham anu yakem lano esukas daver anayfalas. We don't say it by Pesach. We don't say it by Shavuos. We don't daven for binyan beis hamikdash. What's the pshat that dafka by sukkas? We daven haracham anu yakem lano esukas daver anayfalas that the Rebbeinu Shlom should restore that fallen sukkah of daven malchusa mashiach. It's a third question. A fourth question. The Mishnah Brura brings down from the Shlah Kadosh. The Shlah Kadosh says that a person has to be very careful not to say lashon hara when they're sitting in the sukkah.

14:56 We don't have this halacha by Pesach. We don't find that the Shlah says when it comes to the Pesach Seder that a person needs to be very zahir. A person needs to be very careful not to say lashon hara at the Pesach Seder. Why not? I could conceive of certain lashon hara that could be said by the Pesach Seder. The shlosh says it dafka by sukkah Dafka in the sukkah. A person needs to be very careful. What does that mean? Avada, a person needs to be careful the entire year. There's a special inyan of shmiras Hashem when it comes to sukkah. What's that inyan? Another question. We know that the simchas beis hashoeva was the most unbelievable simcha. We should be zeichet to celebrate the simchas beis hashoeva in its full, most iterated form. Beis Hashem very soon. The simcha that a yid felt in the base hamikdash was unbelievable.

15:47 The Gemara is very specific about the way that it was celebrated. That Rishim ben Gamliel was the nasi of Klal Yisrael Was a descendant of David HaMelech Would juggle Would juggle. It's a very interesting detail for Chazal to tell us. It doesn't necessarily seem to be relevant. Rishim ben Gamliel would juggle. I don't need to know that he juggles. They were all besimcha. The Gemara puts a dogish on the fact that Rishimgamliel juggles, and Taka. It is a strange thing if you think about it a little bit. I don't know the kolkores that would be all over Yerushalayim today if the Gedolei Hadar were juggling in the streets of Yerushalayim. Imagine Rav Asher Weiss getting up and juggle. It's a funny thing to think about. Rishimgamliel was juggling. What's this Indian of juggling? The Gemara is very specific that he was juggling. He was juggling eight. I don't know what is one juggle. Bowling balls, whatever he was juggling eight of them.

16:48 So What's this? What's this Indian that he was juggling eight torches? The Gemara after that has what appears to be a very random tangent. Sometimes the Gemara does this. Sometimes the Gemara, like out of nowhere, tells you something that it's like, while we're on the subject, let me tell you something that's totally not on the subject. This is one of those Gemaras. I don't mean to say it in a not nice way. It feels like a little bit of a kvech. Feels like a little kvech. We have the opportunity to kvech this in there. Let's get this in there. The Gemara says that by the Simchas Beis Hashoeva, they would sing. The Levim would sing on the fifteen steps of the Beis Hamikdash. Connect the fifteen Shir Amalos. And while the Gemara tells us this comes along Rav Chista, and somebody was organizing a gadita in front of Rav Chista. I don't know what organizing a gadita means, but whatever it means, he was doing it.

17:45 So Rav Chista said to him, 'What's the inyan of these fifteen shirah malos? These fifteen shirah malos that were sung on the fifteen steps of the Beis Hamikdash. What is the inyan of these fifteen shirah malos?' So he says, "This person that was organizing the gadita He said to him at the time that David Amelah. He was digging the drain pipes of the Beis Hamikdash. At that moment, when he was digging the drain pipes, he went so deep that the waters of the Tohaim were going to come up and flood the world. And David HaMelech said to shift fifteen Shir Amalos to get the water to descend. Fractur v'chista can't be because then they would not be called Shir Hamalos. They would not be called the fifteen songs of ascent. They would be called the fifteen songs of descent. They would be bringing the water down.

18:39 Says Rav Chista, "I'll tell you what was really going on" Which is funny because why did he ask the question to begin with? If he knew, he asked the question to begin with. Says Rav Chista as follows: He dug these drain pipes. The waters of the Tuhaim were coming up. And there was a conversation that happened. The whole world is about to be flooded. And David Amelech says, 'Is it mutter to write shame Hashem on a shard of pottery and throw it into the waters, which will make the waters recind?' " Does anyone know if this is mutter? And everyone is silent. And David Amelech said, "If you stay quiet and you don't tell us you're chayiv chenek" You're going to be strangled to death. Which is stand very interesting because if everybody's on the verge of dying. So then, everybody would be dead. I don't know when they would have time to do the chenek. He says you're chay of chenek.

19:33 Achi Toivel stands up, says I have a kal v'chomer. You see, when it comes to esha soita, that you're allowed to be meichek shem Hashem for shalom bias. So too here And then Achi Toivel paskins its mutter. That's what they do. David Hamelech takes the shard of pottery and puts shame on Hashem and throws it into the tahaim, and the water goes down sixteen thousand cubits. This is too deep. Sixteen thousand cubits is too deep. So David Hamelech, they say the Shir Amalos, he composes these fifteen Shir Amalos and the waters come up. And there are a thousand cubits below ground, says the Gemara. But sometimes we dig and we find water. That's different water. That's the water from the Euphrates. That's not the water from the time. That's the end of the Gemara. There are so many questions to ask on this Gemara. Try to hammer them out real quickly. The emissary. There's probably even more questions than I'm asking. But just a couple of questions. First of all, it seems like a real kvech. Why are we bringing in this Aggadah now? What does it have to do with anything?

20:42 What does it mean that David Amelech dug these drain pipes, and all of a sudden the waters of the Tihom are coming up? That's like something that happens. I imagine David Hamelech was a very good builder. That's like something you see, like in Ramah Pechemesh when they're building Ramah Pechemesh Ted Zion, they have to turn off all the water in the entire country because they dug too deep, and now the entire Ramah Pechemesh is going to be flooded by the sewage of whatever. David Hamelech, what does that mean? That the waters of the Tihom are threatening to flood the entire world? What are these waters at the time? But there's a big kasha. All those are small kashes. There's a much bigger kasha. The entire world is about to be flooded. David Melech has a kasha. What's the halacha? Melech to be meyuchek shem Hashem.

21:31 Tatzalus nefashos. Everybody's gonna die. Everybody's gonna die. Chaver, do you know what we do for saknas nefashos? If chas v'shalom somebody is going to die, do you know what we do for sakonis nivushes? David Amelek had a shayla. What's the shayla b'cholal? And if David Amelek had a shayla, then we certainly don't understand what's happening. You can imagine they're sitting in the palace of David Amelek and they're having a lundus conversation. They're sitting there, figuring out the lundus of if it's muter. Achitoyfels as a kal v'chaymer. What are you saying a kal v'chaymer for? If you know the halacha, say it's muter. We don't need to know the lundus right now. We need to throw the shard of pottery in so that nobody dies. But this is not what happens. It's a raya that David HaMelech must have been a brisker. They had to have a lamdisha conversation first.

22:18 What's going on? And then finally they throw it in. The waters go too deep. What does that mean? If the waters are about to flood the world, I would say the deeper the better. Let's not make the same mistake twice. David Amlach says, "No. We have to shear Amalos. We got to get these waters up. They have to be precisely in this place, not lower and not high." What's going on over here? So I want to share with you a little bit. It might be a little esoteric, but it's worth it to come along for the ride. A neshama is made up of five parts. I'm going to go through them very quickly, but you only really need to know the fifth one. The neshesh, which is the lowest part of our neshama, is how we interact with the world. It's how we physically do things in this world. The ruach is how we relate emotionally to the world. The neshama is how we relate intellectually to the world. The ruach is how we connect to life itself.

23:14 Those are the four lower parts of the soul. But what makes you? This is a big question. What makes you into you? Because you are not your thoughts, and you are not your feelings, and you are not your actions. Everybody should know that. Because today we can act one way, and tomorrow we can act a different way, and that's very often the case. Tomorrow we can feel one way; today we feel very differently. I used to think this; now I think that. Who am I? Who's the quintessential you? The quintessential you is something called the yichidus of nefesh. The yichidusha b'nefesh is the part of you that is intrinsically tied to the rebbeinu shalom. It's the place where you and Hashem meet, so to speak. That's why it's called the yichidu. It's the place of complete achdus with Hashem. The yichidusha b'nefesh is also the place where you're connected to every other yid in this world.

24:08 Because if I'm connected to the rebbeinu shalom, then we are all fruit of the same tree. Every one of us is connected in terms of the yichidusha b'nefesh. The yichidusha b'nefesh has never done an aveira in its life. Even when your nefesh was involved in an avera, your yichida wasn't. It remains pure. Halokay neshama shanasata bi'tahirehi. This part of you forever remains unsullied. This is the reason why you can do tshuva. Because of the yichida shabenefesh. The yichida shabenefesh is always steady. The yichida shabenefesh never moves. It's not like every other one of our emotions. It's the quintessential point that is you. There is only one time in the entire year where we see the yichidush of a nefesh. The chol ta'vo in all of its glory And that is on Yom Kippur. Bear in mind this is the fifth dimension of the soul. Where do we see the yichidush of a nefesh? There's a concept in Chassidus called olem shana nefesh Space Time, and soul.

25:12 The space of the yichidush of a nefesh is the beis hamikdash. More specifically, the space of the yichidush of a nefesh is the kodesh Hakadosh. That's why the kodesh Hakadosh is both within space and beyond space at once. We know that the kodesh Hakadosh has very specific measurements. We know that the aron is larger than those measurements, and yet the aron somehow manages to fit inside of the beis hamikdash, fit inside of the kodesh Hakadosh. Because the yichidus of a nefesh, as much as it's within space, it's also beyond space. Paradoxically, simultaneously, it's both within and beyond at the same time. Where do we find the yichidus of a nefesh in time? The yichidus of a nefesh in time is found specifically on Yom Kippur. More specifically, it's found in the fifth tefila of Yom Kippur, which is Neilah. That's why on Neilah, by Neilah, we scream. We finish Neilah by screaming, 'Shema Yisrael, Hashem Alkenu, Hashem Echad.' It's a remez to the Yichidah Shav Nevesh. We know that Yom Kippur is the chasna between us and Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Neila is when we go into the Yichud room.

26:11 The space of the Yichidah is the Kodesh Hakadosh. The time of the Yichidah Shav Nevesh is Yom Kippur, and the person The soul of the Yichidah Shav Nevesh is of course the Kohen Gadol. Which is why, when the Cohen Gadol walks into the Kodesh Hakodashim on Yom Kippur, he's able to atone. He's able to be mechaper for all of Klal Yisrael because he's reached into the recesses of our soul. He's tapped into the point of ourselves that's quintessentially us, and from that place of innocence, of purity, from that steady place where we've never made a mistake in our life. That's the place where he's able to bring a kaparah from. The bottom line is this: there's only one time. In the entire year, where the Yichidus of Neves shines What happens immediately after Yom Kippur? That's what I want to talk about right now. What happens immediately after Yom Kippur? We move from the realm of five into the realm of four.

27:09 Normally, we don't daven five times a day. We daven three times a day. Only on Yom Kippur, we daven five times a day. I remember many years ago There was an Israel fair. I probably shouldn't tell this story, but I'm already started. There was an Israel fair. And somebody got up. He was very passionate. He was talking about why you should send your kids to Israel for the year. And he was talking about how if you send your kid to Israel for the year, they're going to be advocates in their college for the state of Israel. This is what we've been davening for five times a day. And one of the abanim who was there gets up and goes, "Wrong religion." Everybody was in pandemonium. I was thinking maybe that's what he's holding. He's a yom kippur Jew. He holds by yom kippur every single day. Five times a day. We move from the realm of five into the realm of four. We have four days in between Yom Kippur and Sukkot.

27:59 On Yom Kippur, on Sukkot, we take the dal and minim. On Sukkot, we live in sukkahs that are made of four walls. However, those walls are made, but they're made of four walls. What's the pshat that we move from five to four? So some people mistakenly think They think that now Yom Kippur is over. And all the history of Yom Kippur, everything that I felt when I was screaming by Neilish Shema Yisrael, Hashem Elkeinu, Hashem Echad, when I was living in that Yichud room with the Rebbe Nachum, when I said to myself, 'everything is going to be Gavaldik.' They make a mistake, and now they think Yom Kippur is over. Now I am holding by Sukkis. I don't have my Yom Kippur feeling anymore. It's a very big mistake. The Yichidus of a nefesh of Sukkis is the same Yichidus of a nefesh. Of Yom Kippur, where is it?

28:46 The Teretz is on Yom Kippur; it's shining for everyone to see. And on Sukkot, it's there, but it's embedded within. That's why, on Sukkot, we wait four days till we have Sukkot. But then Sukkot is really the fifth. It's true we take Dalad Minim, but what do we do with those Dalad Minim? We take those Dalad Minim and put them together. We create a whole new Chaftzah. If you want to be a Lamedan about it, there's a whole new keftza called Dalad Minim. It's not just four. There's a fifth. Even the halacha of not speaking lashon hara. You remember that shloak kadosh that you're not supposed to speak lashon hara in the sukkah. Even that halacha represents the fifth dimension. The Vilna Gaon, the Gra, says that there are five different parts of your mouth. There's the lips, the teeth, the tongue, the palate, and the throat. Each one of those parts of your throat, parts of your mouth makes a different sound. All the different letters of the aleph base come from one of those five parts of the mouth.

29:47 The samach from sukkah comes from the teeth. The vav from sukkah comes from the lips. The hay from sukkah comes from the palate, and the hay from sukkah comes from the throat. Says the Vilna Gaon, and nothing comes from the tongue. The sukkah itself has four walls. What's inside of the sukkah? The yichidush of benefesh. That's why the sukkah is able to expand. Kol yisrael ruulim leishav b'sukkah achas. All of kol yisrael is able to fit into the sukkah, which becomes like the kodesh kadashim. That's why we have to be so careful with shmiras haloshem. Because shmiras haloshem is the essence. The tongue is the essence of our mouth. We have to be so careful to give honor to the yichidush of benefesh, which is not gone. It's merely embedded within the sukkah. With this aside, we can understand what Roshim and Amleah were doing.

30:39 There's something called Ratzav Ashov. Ratzav Ashov means that we're constantly going up and down. Constantly going up and down. We feel Aliyahs, we feel Eridas. Sometimes we're going up, it's Gvaledik. Sometimes we're coming down. We have to do the Rebbeinu Shalom's work down here in this world. Rishim and Gamliel comes along. How many torches does he juggle? He juggles eight torches. Rabbi said, "You should know he was not stam making bediches. He was not stam having a good time." He was saying a very deep Torah. He was saying on the level of nefesh, ruach, neshama, and chaya. A yid goes up and a yid goes down. Four of those torches were up. Four of those torches were down. We're constantly going up and down. Rashim and Gamliel was juggling the four, but everyone who was there understood what they were watching. There was a ninth torch that he didn't juggle. There's something that remains constant, something that remains pure that's there and it's embedded. It's the ninth torch that wasn't juggled. That's the Echidus of a Netish. Every part of us goes up and down.

31:37 But you should know you are steady, you are strong, you have never lost your strength. You are okay. It's a very strange thing when somebody tells us that we're okay. Who are you to tell me I'm okay? I'm not okay. My life is falling apart. You are okay. Everything that's falling apart around you is not okay. But you are none of those things. You are okay. We can now understand what Rav Chista was doing over here. After the Gemara about Rishim and Gamliel juggling those torches comes Rav Chista and he says we have to bring out this Yosef. What was happening when David HaMelech was digging those drain pipes in the Beis Hamikdash? These were not storm drain pipes. What David HaMelech was doing is he was accessing the essence of all things, because that's what the Beis Hamikdash would become. That's what the Kodesh Hakodashim would become. It became the Yichida of the entire world.

32:32 So when he does it, the waters of the Tzei'ahim start to rise. What are these waters? These are not life-threatening waters. If they were life-threatening waters, then there would be no conversation about whether it was mutter or whether it was us. It would simply be saknas the pasul. But the pasuk in Yeshaya says, 'Kimala arz dayas Hashem, kmayim liam mechasim.' The Rambam says that in the times of Mashiach, the waters of knowledge are going to cover the entire world like the ocean. These are the waters of the depths. These are the mayim of the tohaim. It's the echida knowledge that comes up and spreads itself over the entire world. David Melech has a question. He says, "I know I'm building the beis hamikdash, but I know this beis hamikdash won't last. This is not binyan bayislishi. This is only the first one." But if all of the waters come up and they flood the world right now, then the world is over. Mashiach is here, and the world is not ready for Mashiach. This is its kashal.

33:30 The world is not ready for Mashiach. Do I have the right to be moichek shem Hashem to delay the coming of Mashiach? Because the world needs to be ready for Mashiach. We don't want Mashiach to come and put his imprint on the world. We want the world clamoring for Mashiach to come, thirsty for Mashiach to come, and we're not yet there. Says Achitofel for shalom bayis ben ish leisha. For shalom bayis, you could be moichek shem Hashem certainly for the shalom of the entire world. So David Hamelech throws in that shard of pottery And the waters recede, but they recede too deep. What does that mean? It means, Rabbi, I listen very carefully. That if the yichidush of nefesh is too low, you can't access it. If it's too high, it's too present. We'll lose all sense of bechira. The yichidush of nefesh needs to be right there within us.

34:20 We need to access it. We need to live from it. But it's work to get to it. It can't be too high, and it can't be too low. Too low, and we won't have access to the yichidush of nefesh. We'll lose all sense of our humanity. We need to bring Hashem into the lowest aspects of ourselves. David Hamelech sets it firmly at one thousand cubits beneath the earth. We're running short on time, and we have a big privilege to hear it from Rav Horin in a couple of minutes. So I just want to say this, and we'll finish with this. But I think it's an important insight. We sit in a sukkah by the side. And we sit in the shade, and a person makes a mistake and thinks that shade is darkness. Rabbi, said darkness is darkness. Shade is not darkness. Shade is what happens when the sun is shining on something, and the opposite side of that is shade.

35:13 And we confuse shade and darkness. On Sukkis, a Yid has to live in what appears to be darkness until he thinks about it a little bit more, and he says, 'No, there's something very pleasant about sitting in the shade.' There's something very beautiful about living in the darkness. There's something profound about living through unimaginable tragedy that none of us ever want to invite upon ourselves. It is the natural condition of the world. There's something unbelievable about sitting in that shade with faith. But sell it to mehamnusa. We can enter into the sukkah itself, and in the sukkah, there's a sense of shade. That shade is the echidus of a nefesh. That shade tells us that when things appear to be dark, it's not dark. It's just shade. It's not dark. It's just shade. I, but it looks dark and it feels dark And every bone in my body tells me this is the worst thing to ever happen.

36:17 And it is And it is. We can't possibly, we can't possibly Try to make any sense of it. And it would be an act of cruelty to try to explain why any of this happened. But I know this. I know that in the shiva houses that I went to over the last two years. I know from looking at those mothers and from looking at those fathers who lost children in this war. And anyone who was there knows exactly what I'm talking about. There was not darkness in those homes. There was an unbelievable amount of shade, but those homes were not dark. Despite the fact that those mothers and those fathers lost the most precious commodity they will ever have. But I went to Eli Moshe Zimbalist, Hashem Yikom Domo. I went to his home to pay a shiv'ukal because he was my mother's son and he lived in my parents' house for twelve straight years.

37:47 And I couldn't bring myself to stay by the levaya because the pain was too great. I stayed for as long as I could, and then I had to leave. And I'm telling you that the zimbalists are tzaddikim gemurim. That home was not filled with darkness; it was filled with shade. All the yidden that came, and all the chizuk that the zimbalists were giving Despite everything that they were going through. And I sat by Mrs. Nohl My wife's very, very good friend. Her son Moshiyeh Hashem Yikom Damo, who was killed not that long ago in Gaza. And she was being mechazik every single person that came to visit. We were there to be menachem her, and she was being menachem us. Rabbi Sa'ad, I tell you right now, there was no darkness in those homes. There was an unbelievable amount of tzel But there was no darkness. Not one iota of darkness.

38:45 These are people who know that darkness is really light, just a little concealed, so it becomes shade. And that's why Anoishan Rabbanait Zayra Kodesh says that if you look at your shadow You'll be zeichet to chayim And if you don't see your shadow, if all you see, as you're walking in the night of Yerushalayim Yerakodesh, and all you see is pain. All you see is darkness, that is Misa. That means you fell for the greatest trick. The greatest trick is darkness. There is no darkness; all there is shade. On Oshana, Rabbah night says the Zayra Kodesh. Even though the Rama says don't do it and you shouldn't do it, because we follow the Rama, but Lameisa we have to know that a Yid who walks in Yerushalayim Yerakodesh and he sees his shadow tonight, a Yid who's willing to look at the darkness but doesn't see the darkness, they see the shadow from the light of the moon. That's a Yid who's living with Gavald Gachayim.

39:41 How can we make sense of the last two years? We can't make sense, and there's no reason to even try to make sense. But it's two years later. It's two years later. And we're dancing in the streets of Yerushalayim. How many of you it took you time to get here, real time, to walk down to Yeshiva Akhoto? Why? Because tens of thousands of Yidden are thronging the streets of Yerushalayim And nobody could get through. The singing, the dancing, the simcha in the air. Because the chaturim are coming home tomorrow. They sang like this last year too. What right do we have to be joyous? Because on Sukkot we're living with the yichidus of a nefesh. On Sukkot we know that Klal Yisrael is okay, and we've always been okay despite everything that we've gone through. I'll finish with one last word. I was zayichet to hear this word over twenty years ago from Avram Fried, the singer. It happens to be. You should know he's a tremendous person. And just now, a couple of moments ago, I was hanging out in a sukkah with Avram Fried, and I said, "Avram, you said a vart twenty plus years ago. I remember this vart, but I can't remember the vart. I remember it was the best vart I ever heard."

40:48 I was at a shiva house, and please, if you could remember the vart. He says, "I know which vart I told you." I said, "Okay, let's go." He must have a vart that he says this is the vart, and he said it. As soon as he said it, I was like, "Raboys machshavoyis believe ish vaatzas Hashem he succa. We have many thoughts. Rabbi is machshavas blevish. We live with a tremendous amount of bilbo A tremendous amount of confusion in our life. Va'atzas Hashem He, what's He? Hamakom yenachem eshem. That when a yid feels held by the rebbe and shulam in their darkest moments, atzas Hashem he succum. That's what gives the ability to rise. We rise because we know there are our darkest moments. We're sitting b'tzela d'mehemnu. So we're sitting in the shade of the Rebbeinu Shalom. We're sitting in the Rebbeinu Shalom Sukkah.

41:38 That's what we've been living with for the next two years. Rabbi says it's just a couple more hours. Tonight's Ma'ariv be'ez Hashem was the last time we'll say Teilim for the Chaturvim. Isn't that an unbelievable thing? We're almost at the end. We're almost at the end. And it's not without irony that it's on Hashanah Raba. We have an opportunity now to sit, but sellad them hemnusa to feel held by the Rebbeinu Sholm's presence and beez Hashem dafka an sukis harachamenu yakam lano esukastavu an nefesh. Rebbeinu Sholm returned to us that feeling that we had in Beis Hamikdash, where the yichidash of a nefesh was revealed, where a yid could walk into the Beis Hamikdash and understand everything with complete clarity. Beez Hashem hirbi amen uaming. I could dive in later at the hotel.