Parshas Matos/Masei - Aharon HaKohen's Connection to the Nine Days

2:38 Ways Some ways are very painful, some ways are not very painful. So the thing called misas neshika is the nicest form of death. Gemara compares it to pulling a feather from milk. It's a very clean process. So here we're told. Only in this week's parsha, Aaron Akayin died al pi Hashem. It doesn't say that when he originally died. So why was Aaron Akayin zayecha to a misas neshika, and why are we only learning about it now? Then the pasuk tells us that Aaron Akayin died on Reish Chodesh Av. Where else in the Torah do we see a yard site? Where else in the Torah do we see that the Torah says a person died on this date? Anyone know the answer? Nowhere. There's nowhere else in the Torah that it records the actual yard signs. We know about when people died because we make calculations. This is the only time that it says that Aaron and Cain died on Rosh Chodesh Av.

3:42 What's the significance of the fact that Aaron and Cain died on Rosh Chodesh Av? Why is that relevant to us? Chaver, do you know there's halachic implications to this? It's brought down in Pesachim. That if you wanted to fast on Rosh Chodesh Av, you could Even though on every other Rosh Chodesh you're not allowed to fast. On Rosh Chodesh Av, you'd be allowed to fast because it's the yard side of Ar Na'aken. So there's some intrinsic connection between Ar Na'aken and Rosh Chodesh Av. Matos Maseh is always read either on Rosh Chodesh Av or on Shabbos Mivarchem or Rosh Chodesh Av. But there's some deep connection between this week's parsha and Rosh Chodesh Av. Then Finally, as if we haven't asked enough questions, ask one more. It says that the Canaanite king heard. What did he hear about? Chazal tell us that the Canaanite king heard that the Ananei Hakavod had departed because of Aaron and Cain's death.

4:48 And this was the reason that he now felt that he had license to attack Klal Yisrael. Why was it that specifically, when the Ananai Hakovered left Klal Yisrael, we felt he had license to attack? When Miriam died, there was no more Be'er Miriam. And we know that the Be'er Miriam was actually a defensive measure that was used to protect Klal Yisrael. There we don't see it. Only when the Ananai Hakovered were gone, now the Kananai King, you heard about it, Darnakaynes died, the Ananai Hakovered are gone, now I can attack. The Arizal says a very interesting thing. The Arizal says, "In Shalagulim" That Aron and Cain shares a neshama with Haran. Who was Haran? Anybody know? Avram's brother. What was the story with Haran? The story with Haran is that Avram Avinu was being tested by Nimrod. They were arguing. They were in a debate.

5:54 Finally, Avram Avinu won the debate. Nimrod got frustrated. So Nimrod threw Avram Avinu into the Kivshanei Sh. And we all know what happened. Medrash says that miraculously, Avram Avinu walked out of the Kivshanei Sh and he was able to survive. Harun was watching the entire time. Nimrod turned to Harun and he said to him, "And by the way, Harun was a big deal." Because Terach was one of Nimrod's chief idolaters So Haran and Avram Avinu were the children of Terach. So Nimrod turns to Haran and he says, "whose side are you on?" You're with me, or you with Avram Avinu? Haran says, "I'm with Avram Avinu." Nimrod says, "Fine, then I'm throwing you into the Kivshanei'esh. Haran goes into the Kivshanei'esh and he dies. The same miracle doesn't occur for him. The miracle that occurred for Avram Avinu just moments before. Why? What did Haran do wrong that he wasn't zayichet to the miracle that Avram Avinu was zayichet to? It would seem to me that it was a tremendous act of courage. Nimrod asked him, "Who do you side with?" He said, "I don't side with you." Why didn't the Rebbeinu Shalom save him?

7:04 So the truth is that Haran had a very deep soul. The Maral explains that the letters Hey, Resh, and Nun. Are what we call middle letters. Hey, is five Hey, is five. So what's that between zero and ten. Reish. What's reish v'gematria? Take nun. Nun v'gematria is fifty. So it's the halfway point between zero and a hundred. And reish is two hundred, the halfway point between zero and four hundred. Four hundred is the highest gematria in the alphabet in the alephs. So these are called middle letters. The maral explains something very deep. A person's name reflects their essence. The name Haran isn't just stam that he had middle letters, that he had gematria letters. It means that Haran had the capacity to see to the essence, to the middle, to the inner essence of all things. That's who Haran had the capacity to be. But Haran, when he looked into the essence of things, he did not connect it back to the Rebbeinu Shalom.

8:11 Avram Avinu was zayecha to a nace because he saw the Rebbeinu Shalom in everything. Haran said, "I'm with Avram." You hear the difference? Avram Avinu was able to survive in the Kishna Eish because everything that he encountered, he found the Rebbeinu Shalom. Haran said, "I'm with Avram." He had the capacity to see into the inner essence of all things. But he didn't connect it back to the Rebbeinu Shalom. But there's a tikkun. There's a soul that comes and rectifies the soul of Haran, and that's the soul of Aharon Acohen. What's the difference between Haran and Aharon? It's the same letters except Aharon has an aleph in the front of his name. Which means, as the Shevi Mishmuel explains, that the Haran, the Hey Reish Nun, the capacity to see to the inner essence, Aharon Acohen. What he did with that is he took it and connected it back to the Aluf Shalolim.

9:04 He connected everything back to the Rebbeinu Shalom, to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, to the Aleph, to the beginning, to the inner essence. Mameila, when we look at the word Aron, Akoin, when we look at Aron, we can understand it on several dimensions. One, we explained Aleph Hey, Resh, Nun, the inner essence of all things. There's another way of seeing it: Aleph Har, Mountain, Nun. What does this mean? The pasuk tells us that when the Torah was given Moshe Rabbeinu went up to the mountain. Hakadosh Baruch Hu came down to the mountain. The point is, it happened on a mountain. What's the significance of the fact that the Torah was given on a mountain? The Medrash says that when Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave the Torah, He broke a gzeira. He broke a decree. The Medrash uses the following mashal: There was a decree that Romans were not allowed to go up to Syria, and Syrians were not allowed to go down to Rome.

10:04 And then they broke the decree, and Syrians were allowed to go to Rome, and Romans were allowed to go to Syria. So the Medrash says it was the same thing before the giving of the Torah. El Yainim was El Yainim; the upper spiritual worlds remained. The upper spiritual worlds were not allowed to come down to Tachtonim, to the lower worlds, to the physical worlds. In contrast, the physical world was not able to be elevated to be brought up to the spiritual world. When the Torah was given, that Xera was broken. Now El Yainim could come down to Tachtonim. And Tachtayim could go up to El Yainim. The spiritual worlds could now be found in the physical world. The physical world could become spiritualized. Where does it happen? On a har, on a mountain. A mountain represents the meeting point between spiritual and physical. Because a mountain, if you think about what a mountain is, it's very physical, but what is it? It's the highest physical. Like Lamashla, if you went up to Everest. It's a spiritual experience to go up to Everest because when you're up at the highest possible point that a man can climb, you've encountered the spiritual, the divine.

11:06 So Aharon is Aleph Har, Nun. What's a Nun? A Nun is a letter that goes below the line. A nun represents the lowest that a Jew could possibly fall. So what was Aaron a Cain? Aaron a Cain was the one who knew how to look. And see the aleph, see the rebbeinu shalom, and connect them to the nun. The nun, meaning the lowest Jew, the Jew that's mamish off the derech, the Jew that's being mechal shabbos parahesia. He knew how to get him to that higher. He knew how to bridge the gap between our kadosh baruch hu and the lowest level Jew. That's why it's brought in sifrei chasidus that Aharon Aleph Hey Resh stands for a haverabba nun. The greatest love of the lowest Jew. That's who Aaron Akayin was, a haverabba of the nun. Mameila, with this in mind, we can understand the very strange Mishnah in Avos. You all know this Mishnah. The Mishnah says that we should be like the Talmidim of Aaron and Cain.

12:05 Listen very carefully. Two questions: Do I need to be like Aaron and Cain to love a Jew? Why shouldn't the Mishnah have just said "Listen very carefully"? Two questions: Do I need to be like Aaron and Cain to love a Jew? Why shouldn't the Mishnah have just said, "Listen very carefully"? And also, what's this lashon of "ayvus abrios"? He loved creations. What does that mean? He loved people. Aaron and Cain didn't love a plant. Aron Kain didn't love kale. Aron Kain, nobody loves kale. Aron Kain Aron Kain loved Jews. What's the mission saying? Ayvus abrios. I heard an unbelievable pshat. A bria means a person who's fallen so low that the only thing you can say about them is that they're a creation. There's no consciousness. There's no godliness. It's not a thinking person. It's not a person who's working on himself. His mamash is a taiva dika person. Everything he does, a nachat taiva. How do I get this in my body? How do I get that in my body?

13:02 That's a bria. All you can say about him is he's protoplasm. But Aron Akayin came to that person and he said to him, "You're a bria." Hakadosh Baruch Hu created you. He knew how to tap into the inner essence of every single Jew. That was the godliness of Aron Akayin. That's why we can't just love people. I want you to know, Rabbi. Say when you look at those liberal people today that have all sorts of cockamamie ideas about the state of Israel and what they think is. They tell you that we're not anti-Semites. They're very loving about it. We just have an obsession with hating Israel. They're very clear. You should know they're very loving people. If you look at what they say, it's all about the plight. It's all about the plight of the unfortunate, of the impoverished. We have to raise everybody up. It appears that they're very loving people. I am betting that on a certain level, it's true.

14:00 It's possible to love another person. It's possible to feel badly for another person. That's not Yiddishkeit. Yiddishkeit is not. I feel bad for you, so let me give to you. It's you are the Rebbeinu Shlom's creation. You have a godly dignity inside of you. My job is to help that godly dignity find expression in the world. You hear people; they speak. They don't mean to say it. But it comes out in such a sick way. They betray themselves when they speak this way, but they don't mean it. This is what it sounds like. I give tzedakah. I just feel so good when I give tzedakah. Thank God there are poor people so that you could feel good. Realize how sick it is. I love giving tzedakah. Who are you giving tzedakah for? Are you giving tzedakah for yourself? Are you giving tzedakah because it makes you feel good? It's good that it makes you feel good. I'm glad it makes you feel good. But we're not motivated by the fact that it makes us feel good. You know why we're motivated to give tzedakah?

15:01 Because there's a Jewish neshama. There's someone who's suffering, and our job is to help them find their godly dignity inside. When you have a Jew who doesn't know how to learn Torah, you don't come over them and say. You're going to be my project. I'm going to figure out how to make you know a blockamara. I'm going to figure out how to make you keep Shabbos. That's abusive. I was once invited to a certain community. I'm not going to say which community. I was invited as a scholar in residence to this community. And there was a balkiruv there. And he was talking about the challenges. He was telling me he has a funny line. His bank account sprouts a leak. He never has enough money. He's so meiser nefesh to be in this town, to be mekare of these people, to do outreach. And he said, as part of his soliloquy, he goes, you know why people donate money to me? You know why they're willing to fund me in this process? Because I got numbers. I got numbers.

15:59 I'm able to show. Do you know how many people have come through my program and are now keeping Shabbos? I had to be very polite, so I was like "Good for you." But in my mouth, I was holding back. You got numbers. You got numbers. That's the way you speak about it. Got numbers. This he said. People donate to me because I can show success. Success is not that I help a Jew keep Shabbos. That's not success. Success is not I got a Jew to learn another block of Mara. I got a Jew to go to another minyan. Success is that there's a Jew in the world that knows that he's Jewish and that cares about it. I don't care about his level of observance, but because you loved him, because you found a way to light him on a fire, you found a way to let him know you're Jewish and it matters. That's what our Kodesh Baruch Hu cares about. Not about whether or not that guy keeps Shabbos.

16:47 I would never donate money to him. I'd much sooner donate money to the rabbi that comes to me. I don't know if anybody by me will keep Shabbos. I don't know if anybody by me will learn a block tomorrow. But if they show up to shul, I give them a hug, and I let them know you're welcome here. That guy can have my money. That was Arna Klein. He looked inside of a Jew, and he said, "I'm not here to keep. I'm not here to get you to keep Shabbos. Ayevim esabrios. I love you. You're a godly creation. You're worthy of love. We made a revolution in the Torah, and it worked. When somebody loves us, when somebody lets us know that we matter, people draw closer. That's who Arnaqayin was. Mele We can start to understand why this is the only place that the Torah repeats somebody's death.

17:41 Really, we knew everything we needed to know in Parsha Shukas. We had it all. We didn't need any more information. There was something we needed in Pashas Matas Masay. When it comes Roish Chodesh Av The Torah needs to wake us up and it needs to say Aaron Akayin died in the beginning of the nine days. The one that represents loving every single Jew, finding the godliness inside of every single Jew, he died on Roish Chodesh Av. Pay attention. And how did he die? Alhar har Not just any mountain But a mountain that's a little mountain and a big mountain connected. That represented Aaron Akayin. That's why he died on that mountain. It was the perfect physical representation of who he was. Ahar, as we said, was literally in his name. Ahar is a place where we meet God. Alhar har, a little mountain and a big mountain together. Connecting both of them, even the people that are just a little bit reaching up to Shamayim, and those people that are big reaching up to Shamayim—that's what Aaron and Cain represented.

18:50 One of the reasons that the Torah of the Bal Shem Tov is spreading today in the world like never before. There's such a hafetz of people today. You can't go into any basic medrash in the world without finding some chassidus of Aron. Why is the Torah of the Bal Shem Tov spreading so quickly? Because the Torah of the Balshemtov was that the biggest Sadik in the world and the biggest Russia in the world are equally beloved to our Kadosh Baruch Hu. You could be the most righteous person in the world. You could be sitting and learning in Bnei Brak Yomim Ailu. And you could be the biggest Russia in the world. You could be eating pork on Yom Kippur. And you should know that to the Rebbeinu Shalom, they're equally beloved. It doesn't mean that the guy who's Russia is doing the right thing. But to know that a Jew who does an avera, it doesn't matter. It doesn't diminish Judaism in any sense of the word. The Gemara says, 'You're still a Jew.' Rabbi said, 'We need to know this about ourselves.'

19:48 This is why there's such a tremendous halfaksa Because we live with so much shame and guilt about the averas that we do. We think to ourselves, 'I'm unworthy of the Rebbeinu Shalom's love.' If God would know what I'm doing, if God would know what's on my phone. If he would know what I look at on incognito mode If he knew what I'm doing, if he knew when I'm swiping Or sliding If he wouldn't, how could it be? How many people have had this question? I had this question. Everybody has this question. How many of us feel like on Yom Kippur? You want me to ask Mechila for something that I know I'm going to do tomorrow? Like you do it when you do tshuva? Don't you feel a little bit silly? You're going to do the avera in a month from now, in a week from now, tomorrow, maybe in five minutes from now. So we think to ourselves, what am I even doing here? This is a joke.

20:37 That's the Eitzahara Legamrei. Aaron Akayin would have said to you if he was here in this room, and you would have said to him. He would have said to you, for one hear her tshuva, it was worth it. For just the thought of maybe I should do something a little bit different, it was worth it. Because for one moment you connected to your godly soul. And you should know, Rabbi Say, in life it's contagious. You see, people. The more you connect them to their godly essence, the less you have to sell them on Shabbos. It's wonderful to have a shirum on how beautiful Shabbos could be. It's wonderful to have a shir on how beautiful tefillah could be. Rabbi said, "You want to know the real kiruv? You want to know what really makes an impact? Just love another Jew and tell them they're worthy of love. You'll see it, mamish works." And you speak to any educator today. The Rebbe that gets up, that gives the shmos, he's going to give the fancy class, and he's going to bring in all the pieces, and they have an amazing source sheet, and he's going to be able to tell you you should know the godless of Shabbos, and he's going to be able to give you all these things. It doesn't even weigh a little bit compared to the Rebbe that invites a guy to his house for Shabbos.

21:38 And he doesn't even say any divrei Torah. All he does is he sits there and he says to him, "I'm so happy to have you in my house for Shabbos." And that's why the Torah has to go out of its way. The only time Aranakayin died on Rosh Chodesh Av And as we approach Rosh Chodesh Av, we have to ask ourselves the same question. There's an unbelievable Alshich. The Alshich says, "You know why Aranakayin was the one who brought the Ananei Akvod The clouds of glory that surrounded us Because the clouds, the Ananei Akvod, they were unnecessary," says the Alshich. The man was necessary to survive. The Ber Miriam was necessary to survive. The Alshich says we could have survived in the desert; it would have just been hot. And by the way, it's true. You look at these Bedouins; they're all living. They're fine.

22:28 They're living out in Saudi Arabia. They're walking around. They don't have any clouds protecting them. You can survive. But you know what the Ananie Akavod word says? The Alshich. It was a message from the Rebbe Nachsholom. I just want you to be a little bit more comfortable. Because I love you, and that's what we do when we love people. We want to just help them feel a little bit more comfortable. So of course, the Alshich says the Canaanite Akavo came in the schuss of Aron Hakayin, who just wanted to make Jews feel a little bit more comfortable. He just wanted to let them know that they were loved. And that's what the Canaanite king heard. Aron Hakayin is dead. Who's going to unify Klal Yisrael now? When there's no Ananay Hakover, when a Jew has trouble remembering that he's beloved by Hakadosh Baruch Hu, who's going to protect them? Our power is not in guns. Our power is a little political. Our power is not whether or not Joe Biden decides to walk back the Iran deal and bring it back into. It's not where our power lies. You know where our power lies?

23:25 If we would just stop doing the nonsense that we're doing and just figure out that the things that we have in common are much greater than the things that divide us A guy said to me tonight. I'm Amish. I was crying inside. He went today somewhere in a certain neighborhood in Eretz Yisrael. It doesn't matter where. And he was spit on by a five year old kid. He was spit on. He was spit on, for what? For looking different. He was spit on. How terrible! How tragic is that? So I shared with him. There was a time a five-year-old spit on him. I shared with him there was a time a five-year-old threw a rock at me. A five-year-old. I went to Poland in 1998. And a little kid, a five-year-old kid He came over and threw a rock at me, hitting me right in the knee.

24:17 He looks up at us, the whole chavurah Eighteen-year-old guys. We were on a program called Heritage. Harry, all the all the yeshivas used to go together to Poland. It was an unbelievable display of achtos. Now, Baruch Hashem, every yeshiva has their own program. But it used to be that we all went as a group. So there must have been at least 250 of us, maybe 350 of us. And he looks at. I was the guy that got hit by the rock, a five year old. He looks me goes, Juden. Are you for real? I'm not the biggest guy in the world, but there were bigger guys with me, and you're five. Do you remember what you were like when you were five? You weren't that dumb. When you were five, you were a shy kid. You wouldn't go over to somebody and throw a rock at them and say a racial epithet. What kind of nonsense is that? But that's what came up for me when this guy told me I got spit on. I was like, when a five-year-old How could we be so divided?

25:13 And then we make the mistake that community spits on people. That community throws rocks at people. All of them Every one of them We would never want people speaking that way about our community. Can you imagine if people started? People do it. It's sick. Imagine if people said, "I don't even want to say it. I'm not going to say it. It's words that shouldn't come out of my mouth." In this community They don't really—they're not really meddactic in halacha. Really, all of them in that community, none of them are meddactic in halacha. I have no idea what you're talking about. If you want to point to one community and paint the entire community with a broad brushstroke, and you want to say none of them are madaktik and alacha, we're not having an intelligent conversation. You just want to write off an entire community in Kallah Israel. Could you imagine Iron Okin speaking that way?

26:05 And it doesn't move people. It doesn't move people to talk that way about Jews. Our power is in the fact that we can live here together. I want you to know something about Israelis. They seem very angry. I know they seem very angry. I know that they're yelling at you And it feels to you as an American It feels to you like they're angry. Have you ever gotten in a cab here and the guy starts yelling at you? We're sitting in traffic. You have to pay me more. We agreed on fifty shekel. And no, you have to pay me more. I have a wife and children. It's always like you're sixteen, seventeen years old. He's giving you his whole life story. Do you know that I was in the Six Day War and I was a pilot? Dude, but you're driving the steering wheel with your stomach now. We're in a different world. They get very angry. They get very angry.

26:53 It's a funny thing. They're not angry. They sound angry, but they're not angry. But I want you to know that what you think is anger is actually love. Israelis are exceptionally passionate people. Exceptionally passionate people. And when you give us a common enemy. You'll see the most amazing acts happen. It's a transformative experience in this country. Seven years ago There was a war here in Israel. Suketan. Anybody here know about this? Operation Protective Edge. They call them in English. I was in the hospital for a month. Unfortunately, my appendix ruptured, and I almost died. You know those stories of like He waited and waited. I waited seventy-two hours from the time my stomach started hurting me to the time I actually went to the hospital. Baruch Hashem, I made it just in the nick of time. My appendix ruptured in Hadassah in Kiram, so I spent a month in Hadassah in Kiram during Sukkot time. What was amazing?

28:05 You have so many different types of people in Hadassah Hospital because the great equalizer is when people get sick. So we had Hasidim, we had Misnagdim, we had Lubavitchers, we had Satmar, we had everybody. We had people that were religious, people that weren't religious. And we all sat the same Shabbos table. It's a beautiful thing. I hope you never have to be in a Dasai and Kerem for Shabbos for a bad thing. If you go for the birth of a child, it's a good thing. But they have the most beautiful Shabbos because you didn't just sit at tables together. I'm sitting at the Shabbos table. I couldn't eat because I was not allowed to eat, but I'm sitting at the Shabbos table. Listening to these Israelis Mamish, passionate. We have to do whatever we can do. Chareidim, isn't it? We have to do whatever we can do. Like anything you need from us, and biker cholim. And it was amazing the achdos at that table.

28:57 And one of them at the table, I'll never forget this. One of these guys at the table, some chassid. He said, "You know what's sad?" In a couple of weeks from now, when this war is over, are we still going to feel this way about each other? " I mamish wanted to cry. Are we still going to feel this way? Not that long before you guys came, rockets were falling on this country. Can you imagine if a rocket fell on Tinnik? What would the American response be if a rocket fell on Tinnik? We have to be kind. We have to understand why Canadians are firing rockets into Tinnik. They're the oppressed. The oppressed Canadians with their Mounties. They don't have everything we have. They're jealous. There would be no Canada if that happened. I'm not clear that there should be a Canada to begin with.

29:46 I don't really understand the value of it. Only half joking, by the way. Rockets were falling on this country. And in the aftermath of Meron It was unbelievable to see. It's unbelievable to see. Nothing brings Jews together like a common enemy. Chaval. So sad that that's what it takes. You know why Aaron Akain was zeicher to die with a misas neshika, the sweetest death of all. And you know why we're only told about it now. Because the body only experiences pain and death when it's disconnected from Hashem. Aaron Akayin had the nicest, sweetest death possible because his body was so connected to Hashem. His body was so connected to Hashem because he loved every single Jew. The secret of being the most spiritual person in the world is not having a shacharis where you're davening 45 minutes shemaynaseyrs, and nobody cares if you're shuckling like you're having a seizure.

30:51 First of all, it doesn't look normal. Just letting you know, in case you're that guy, it doesn't look normal. Nobody's ever spoken to another person. You imagine I'm speaking to you, and I'm like, I really just want to let you know how much I care about you. That's not normal. Nobody would ever do that. It's not a normal posture. Please don't do that. There's a shtickle thing. It's brought down in halacha that a person should be standing in front of our Sinai a little bit of a shake, but not like a. It's not a normal thing. You don't have to do that. That's not called frumkait. Frumkait is not how hard you shuckled And frumkait is also not about how many blockamari you turned. That's also not called frumkeit. Frumkeit is how much did you see the Rebbeinu Shalom in every single person? That's frumkeit. That's what makes us special.

31:39 That's what rebuilds the Beis Hamikdash. But we are a stiff-neck nation. We have a hard time learning our lessons. So it could be thousands of years since the Beis Hamikdash was destroyed. And we still don't get it. We still created these artificial labels: Orthodox, Conservative, Reformed, Reconstructionist, Underconstructionist. We have all these labels. Modern Orthodox, Dati Lumi, Chardal, Hasidish, Satmer, Labavitch, Breslov, Belz. We made all the labels in the world. We have figured out. We are like scientists. We have figured out how to categorize and subdivide every single type of Jew. Congratulations! You know the famous Musser Written by Rabbi Emanuel Feldman anonymously many years ago. Mashiach wants to come, but he doesn't know what yarmulka to wear. If he wears a kippa surga This chevr is not going to come. If he wears a kippa shchora, this chevr is not going to come. If he wears a velvet, this chevr is not going to come. If he wears one of these, the other chevr is not going to come. He wears a shrimel. What type of shrimel? He wears a black hat. Is it pinched? Of course, it's pinched. We all know who the Mashiach is. I'm just saying. It's fine. That's for me. It's not for you.

33:00 Mashiach wants to come, but he doesn't know what hat to wear. Mashiach wants to come, but he doesn't know what yarmulka to wear. Give me a break. This is what's important. Rabbi Yisai. This chevrah in this room tonight. This chevrah in this room tonight feels different. They feel different. And you're sitting in the same beis medrash as them. They feel different for whatever reason. Maybe it's because they're not from Tinek or the Five Towns So maybe they're not part of the Yeshiva League, or maybe they are part of the Yeshiva League. But for whatever reason, they feel different. We're walking around this summer in Ramot Shapira, here on the southern campus of NCSY Kollel. Oblivious to the fact that there are people sitting right in front of us looking for a chavurah. We are dancing. And we're holding our hands really tight. And wouldn't it be amazing if instead of holding our hands so tight We let go of each other's hands so we could seek out the next person who's standing on the sidelines.

34:10 The guy that's standing by the sidelines wants to be brought into dance. He wants to be brought into dance. He's reluctant. You look at him. You know in his face, he's a little reluctant. But when you grab that guy and bring him in, he dances with all of his might. People want to be brought in. So you're sitting here thinking, maybe I want to be brought in. Who's bringing me in? So we all have to run after each other and figure out how to bring each other in. Because just tonight Just tonight, In the couple of hours that I've been here, three guys have come over to me. Three guys have come over to me. Each in their own way to tell me they feel a little bit alienated. They feel a little bit like they don't have a chaver. And they love it here in Nitzsya Yikola. But they would love to be invited in to be part of the chaver. That's your responsibility.

34:57 I'll leave you with this vort, the most powerful vort in the world. Rabbi Sherevi said, when Gullah started When Yosef HaTzaddik was sitting in a pit. You know why? Because Reuven, who was supposed to be the leader, was the oldest brother. Ruvain was doing tshuva for an avera that he had done over twenty years beforehand. Says the Lebavitcher Rebbe When gullis starts When you care about your own personal frumkeit more than you care about your brother who's languishing in the pit That's the harshest mussar you'll ever hear in the entire world. Chaver, really, what are we doing here? What are we doing? Learning another blot menachos? That's what we're doing. Another sugyot and tefillin—that's what we're doing. That's not what we're doing. That is a prat. That is a piece. Just one piece of the puzzle. The title of the puzzle is a haverabu. The title of the puzzle is ayev mesabrios umikarven l'tayru.

36:02 If you can't be bothered to look right next to you and see that there's a guy in your dorm who's suffering because you're running back to the beis medrash or because that's not me—I'm not that guy. Then I question what we're doing here But I'm also confident Extremely confident That's not the chinuch that you've been getting here in NCSY Kollel. I know for sure that every one of you has been told from day one this is a family. In a family, we look out for each other. I'm proud to be a part of NCSY Kollel because I love being part of that family. But Rabbi said we need to start getting each other's backs. We're already a week and a half into the summer. A week and a half into this, it's crazy. We're going to be gone soon. I don't know what Tishah B'av is going to look like. I don't know if we're going to be allowed to go to the kotel and do the kumsis of the world. I don't know what's going to be allowed.

36:53 But one thing for sure: if over the course of the next nine days, starting on the yard side of Aaron Cohen, we will commit ourselves to make sure that you do every single day at least one act of chesed, going over and sitting in the cheder ocho with somebody that you don't ordinarily sit with. That's a good start in rebuilding the Beit Hamikdash. We should be zeicher to do it b'meiru. I said wonderful Shabbos.