Parshas Shemos - What's Your Name? The Power Of Doing Shnayim Mikra Viechad Targum

2:40 He turns and sees that the bush is on fire. It's a thorn bush. It's on fire. But the bush is not consumed by the fire. And this is where Moshe Rabbeinu is sent on his shlichus to be the goyel, to be the redeemer of Klal Yisrael. So what's going on with this thorn bush? It's on fire. But it's not consumed. Why is this the place that the nevuah to come redeem klal yisro from Eretz Yisro? Why is it dafka here from this bush? So the Alter Rebbe says, and perhaps I'm putting my own spin on it. I don't want Aiden to get nervous that I'm misquoting the Alter Rebbe over here. The Alter Rebbe says there are different types of people. Some yidden are big trees. Blossoming flowers Very tall, throwing off massive amounts of shade. Some yidden are bushes Smaller Still quite pretty And some yidden are thorn bushes.

3:55 There are times in our lives when we might feel like the biggest tree in the world. Ki yodametsa saw that we're all compared to trees. There's a time when we might feel like everything is going so well. Things are good in our home life. In our families, with our spouses, with our children In yeshiva. You're clicking, you're sticking. The davening is going well. You're doing well in shir. You had a good svara. You were mokapal on yourself. Something you finished it. There are times in your life when things are mamish going well. There are times in your life where things are okay. It's not great. It's not bad. Ups and downs, the regular vicissitudes of life. Those times were compared to bushes. Surviving, even thriving a little bit. And then there are times in our lives. We were maimed compared to thorn bushes. We were in terrible pain.

4:58 It's hard to get out of bed in the morning. Perhaps we feel alone and afraid. Anxious about the future Perseverating thoughts in our heads Going on and on. I'm stuck. I can't get out of this. I'm not going to be okay. These very real feelings are exceptionally painful. In such a moment A person is described as being a thornbush on fire. It's a thornbush on fire. It's mamish like. It's everything in his life. I have nowhere to turn. I'm surrounded by the inferno of life. There's a funny thing about Yidden in such a situation. Something we know about ourselves, and something that we need to teach the world. In the moments that we ought to be destroyed That we're in the matzev of the snet Of the thorn bush that's on fire. The fire does not consume. Adraba Not only does the fire not consume.

6:23 But the fire itself becomes that thing that grabs the attention of Moshe Rabbeinu. It becomes the makar of nevuah. It becomes the makar of geula. That there's a truth to each and every one of us. That as everything is burning down in our lives And when you're mamish at rock bottom And you think it's over. You discover the irreducible point of the essence of who we are—the godly soul that lives within every one of us. Which cannot be extinguished It cannot be consumed—and then an amazing thing happens: the part of you that looked like it was about to be destroyed It explodes not into this inferno of destruction But into this exceptional passion. This exceptional drive to have a kesher with the Rebbeinu And it doesn't make any sense Because moments ago you were mamish in the pits. There was nothing left to do. You were on the verge of destruction.

7:37 And a moment later you're already in a whole new modality of redemption. How does that happen? It happens because a person needs to go down to the bare essence of who they are. To discover their inner truth And from that point of inner truth is where growth really occurs. Sometimes the greatest gift that we have in life is going into exile. That's why already by the Bris Ben Ab Sarem Hakadosh Baruch Hu told Avram Avinu, "I'm going to send your children into exile." You would not imagine that the covenant between Avram Avinu and Hakadosh Baruch Hu includes galus. That doesn't make no sense. Imagine you're proposing to your wife, and you get down on one knee and you say to her Mamush, want to go into exile together? You want to destroy each other's lives? You manage like you want to just go after each other for the next 50 years?

8:37 Who's gonna say yes to that proposal? Unless you have significant psychological issues, I don't know anyone that would. Maybe today we're living in a generation of people. I would say yes to that. I hope not. It must be something different. It must be that galus is not a punishment. As the Rebbe says in many places. It could be that the chay was the goyrim of that particular galus. That's what started the process. But galus is where revelation occurs. Galus is not where destruction occurs. It appears that destruction is occurring. But it's really the opposite. It's soicer al minas livnayis. It's destruction in order to build And that's why this fire—that's a consuming fire—it doesn't consume. That's what grabs the attention of Moshe Rabbeinu. Because Moshe Rabbeinu has a kasha. It's a kasha that every single one of us in this room has about ourselves. Moshe Rabbeinu has a kasha. How is Klal Yisrael still going?

9:43 Mamish in the depths of the tumah of Mitzrayim. For hundreds of years We cannot fathom what Galus Mitzrayim was. To think about Galus Mitzrayim, we hear about the Holocaust. Could it be when you were growing up, they brought it to your schools? The sheiros haPlata, those final people who survived the Holocaust, and maybe you saw their arms, heard their stories, or read the books. Today, there are no Holocaust survivors left to see Holocaust survivors, like an incredible thing. How are you still alive? How are you still. We can't even begin to imagine. A Holocaust is nothing compared to the Gollas of Mitzrayim. They baked our children into bricks. They drowned our children. They did everything they could to wipe us out—not for five years or six years or seven years, for hundreds of years. And not only that But even in the depths of Mitzrayim, where we wouldn't physically die, we wouldn't spiritually die either.

10:39 They couldn't take away our amuna. A lot of things they took away from us. We were idolaters in Mitzrayim. There is no question about it. But Anachnu Maminim Bnei Maminim. We never let go of our Amuna. We never let go of who we are. We didn't change our names. We didn't change our dress. We didn't change our language. We were still Yidden. Meir Shabino had a kasha. Meir Shabino, who grew up in the house of Paro, had a kasha. How could you survive such a thing? The Teretz is, and this is what Hakadosh Baruch Hu was telling him. The secret of the eternity of Klal Yisroel is the Goulas doesn't kill us. Other rabbis make us stronger. It wipes away its mevarer all of the klipot, all of the things that separate us from Hakadosh Baruch Hu. It destroys those things, and then what's left is all you are as a yid. And from that place comes exceptional growth.

11:30 Malshem Tov Hakadosh, Soso Yagan Alenu said that when a person is in a coma If you want to wake them up out of the coma. If a person is sleeping very deeply, you want to wake them up. All you have to do is say their name. You come into someone's room when they're sleeping in a very deep sleep. You don't even have to put your hand on their back. All you have to do is whisper their name into their ear. Because the name of a person is their essence. And when you tell someone who they are, you say their name. They wake up. They wake up. My essence is being called out. They say I'm here. I'm awake. What do you want? How can I help you? Shemayis is the story of Klal Yisrael's exile and redemption. In exile and gullus, we learn our names.

12:33 We learn our essence. We learn Ich bin a Yid. I'm a Jew. That's what I am. Can't take that away from me. Throughout history Every single time they put us in gullets Yidden who did not live for Hakadosh Baruch Hu were willing to die for Hakadosh Baruch Hu. What's the pshat? Because if you call the godly soul into question If you put its back up against the wall It says its name. I will not be extinguished. I think it's appropriate to suggest that this is the relationship between. Shmays and Shnayim Mikra ve'Echat Targum. What is the name of a Jew With all the fancy svarim With all of Mishnayos, with all of Gemara With all of the Rishayim and with all of the Achrayim With all the Sifrei Kabbalah and Sifrei Chassidus, with all of Medrash, with everything. The end of the day. There's Torah.

13:39 And there's the simple words. Of the Torah And their basic explanation. Everything else is just to get back to the simple understanding of Torah. That's what it is. When a yid opens up a chumash and he reads the simple words of Torah, he's saying, "This is me." This is me. Anoichi is on a nafshik savis Yehovas, Hakadosh Baruch Hu said, 'I wrote my essence into the Torah.' And when a yid reads the Torah He's connecting to the Rebbeinu Shalom, which means he's connecting to himself. Because a yid and a Kadosh Baruch Hu are one. To read the Torah is to know how Kadosh Baruch Hu is to know yourself. So What could be a greater connection for us? As we enter into these parshiyos of Galus Mitzrayim Then for Chazal to come and point out Shneiim Mikra Ve'Echad Taryum, and it's a lesson to us in these final moments of Galus When you're in the dark days of winter in yeshiva And you're looking around and wondering to yourself Efo Ani Va'olam Where am I holding in this world?

14:59 Am I doing what I'm meant to be doing? Am I studying like I'm meant to be studying in yeshiva? Am I living up to my dreams? Am I living up to my hopes, to my aspirations? Is this year everything I thought it would be? Perhaps I'm feeling down. Perhaps I'm feeling broken. Maybe there were times when I was feeling like a tree. Maybe there were times I'm feeling like a bush, and maybe there are times that I'm almost feeling like a thorn bush. Alone in the world Disconnected. It's hard in these times. It gets dark early. Turn around, it's four thirty. It's midnight. To sit and push through. Chevra always says, "Afternoons later is the hardest." I understand. At some point, you turn around in the middle of the afternoon. It's pitch black outside. It's getting colder. It's starting to schlepp on. You're starting to think to yourself, "How many others are there this year?"

15:53 It's like you always see in yeshiva every year. The beginning of the year is like the first half of the summer. Then the next month is the second half of the summer. By the time November got, I've never been away from my family for this long. By the time December rolls around, it's like, am I ever going home? You see, guys start to get antsy. Guys start to almost like, you forgive me for saying it, like this mashgech. They start to like fantasize about their home and their bed, and what it would be like to Like not to have roommates and not to wonder Like, the hot of showers. There gonna be hot water. Is there gonna be mold in my room? Like, you start to feel a little bit like. How long is this going to schlep on? And then guys are starting to think about, I am going to do this for a second year. I am going to do this for a third year. How?

16:43 And it starts to weigh on a person. So we need to remind Jews to call each other by their name. To say, this is you. Rabbi Sa It's not a small thing. To every week. Show up and read the simple words of Chumash with the simple explanation. To say this is my story. It's an inspiring thing. It's a massively inspiring thing. We've had guys that call us up at the end of the year and they say I finished Chumash shnayim mikra veechatarg. We have guys that write divrei Torah on the parsha every single week. Because if they're already doing shnayim mikra vecha targum, they say "What do I have to say? Where's my chelik in Torah?" And they send these divrei Torah to Glanz Beautiful divrei Torah Inspiring divrei Torah Because we also have a voice that we need to share with the world. So Rabbi Say We had a sirus simchas Torah. The mashgiach got up and he announced. Shnai Miker VeEchatargem. Who's with me?

18:03 Lots of guys stood up. Baruch Hashem, we have a big olim here tonight, and I know that there's more chevr that did it, but they can't be here on Shabbos because it's an out Shabbos. But we are the ones that know our book. We know our names. We know our Maker. You need to be accountable to yourself this minute. This minute, you need to be accountable on yourself. If I've already gone barishis Shmeis. Worry about Vayikra when we get to Vayikra. We'll make another siddur for them. Yehsavi? Why not? Mekabel on yourself this minute, Shmoyis. Because if you've done nothing this year except Shnayim Mikra VeEchatargum, Dayenu. Because you learned your book But you have to go further. I'll finish with a story. When I was in Kailo So Rav Shmulevitz was makbid that every guy in the Kailo had to say a chabura to every other guy in the Kailo.

18:58 I had never given a chabura before. So I worked like crazy for a month because there was a guy in the kai who was very smart And he liked to make everyone feel less smart. He spoke very quickly, so it made him seem even smarter. So you had no idea what he was talking about. Remember this guy? I really wanted to be on top of my game. So I was in total lambdas mode for a month Just working out the sugya that I knew it berachu bichatana that there was no teretz that this guy was going to be able to catch me on no kasha that he was going to be able to ask me on that I wasn't going to be able to answer. And came the day of the chabura, was my first chabura ever, and I think I did pretty good. And I walked out of there, I was feeling like I made it through. I won't say unscathed but unharmed.

19:50 I made it through okay. Rishmolevitz comes over to me afterwards. He pulls me over to the side and he goes, "Go learn right now, go learn." So I said, "What does Rabbi mean? So he gave me a mussar. He said, "After you have a tremendous achievement, there's a tremendous yetsi hora." The yetsi hora is to walk around and go, 'Pshh, look what I did.' "So a person could have a chalishos in that moment; they could get a little weaker. They get a little weaker. They take a couple of days of seder off. Said you have to go start a new project, a new Zach. I never forgot that. Right away went back to the beis medrash because there's a certain feeling now of even though there's a tremendous pride, tremendous accomplishment to sit here with 45 guys on a matzah shabbos. There's a tremendous feeling of pride. I did it Rebbe. I got there. Right. I did all the safe preparations. Unbelievable accomplishment. But tomorrow begins shemitz maybe today already by minchum. Tomorrow it begins. You have to be capable of yourself right now. Don't let up even for a minute. Because Rabbi says in the final moments of exile, the most important thing in the world is to remember our name.