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The pasuk in this week's parsha says Va'asulim mikdash v'shachanti b'sayichem. As opposed to in parsha's Bereishis Where it only takes thirty-seven psukim for Hakadosh Baruch Hu to tell us about the creation of the world, when it comes to the building of the Mishkan there's a tremendous amount of detail. There's a basic shaila. What was the main function of the Mishkan of the Beis Hamikdash? So it's machlokas rishonim. The Rambam in Hilchos Beis HaBechira says mitzvah ase. It's a positive commandment lassoz bayis laHashem to make a house for Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Muhan lios makarivim men akarbanus, and it has to be capable of being a place where we could bring karbanos. What does the Rambam say? The Rambam says the ikir tachlis of the Beis Hamikdash was being able to bring karbanos.
The Ramban argues. The Ramban says, "V'hineh ikir a chefetz b'mishkon." What is the ikir object in the Beis Hamikdash? Humakum menuchas hashchina. It should be a dwelling place where Hakadosh Baruch Hu could rest. Shehu ha'aruch. And he identifies that with the Aaron. So we have machlokas. What was the tachlis of the Beis Hamikdash? Was the tachlis of the Beis Hamikdash like the Rambam says, to be makriv karbanos to build a mizbeach, or like the Ramban says That the tachlis of the Mishkan was for the Shechinah Hakadosh Baruch Hu to rest, and that somehow, as we're going to have to explain, is explored through the Aaron that was in the Kodesh Hakadosh. The Bavitch Rebbe says an unbelievable hezbra machlokas. But before we get into the hezbra machlokas, I need to explain just a very basic yisod. Whenever we have a machlokas rishonim, we have to understand that it is not an argument. Very often, this word is mistranslated. People say there was an argument between the Rambam and the Ramban. The Hebrew word for argument is vikuach. Machlokas is not the same word as vikuach. What's the difference? In a machlokas, the way we do it in Yiddishkeit is it's each side presenting their position.
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And through their positions, we could see the larger corpus of the truth. In other words, if we would only have the Rambam Shita, if we would only have the Ramban Shita, we wouldn't be able to see the actual entirety of the truth of what the real essence of the Beis Hamikdash was. It's only through each one's chelak—that's what Machlokas says—each one's chelak that we can actually see the truth of the base of mikdash. So we have to be masber the machlokas means we have to get to a level of analysis where we can understand how the Rambam and the Ramban Even though they seem to say the opposite things, really what they're saying is one. Really, it all goes together, and each one is expressing a different aspect, a different attribute of the base of mikdash. So listen to the Labavishu Rebbe's explanation, unbelievable explanation of this machlokas. We'll start with the Rambam.
Everybody knows that the Rambam was not the most esoteric of thinkers. The Rambam was very rational, influenced by Aristotle, and he wrote a halachic sefer, Mishnah Torah. So the Rambam's vision of the Beis Hamikdash was going to be a halachic vision, a purely rational halachic vision. What is halacha? Halacha is very simple. It's how we walk our day to day life. That's what halacha is. What do we do day by day? How are we supposed to participate in the relationship? That's what halacha is. Being in a relationship doesn't just mean feeling like you're in the relationship. Being in the relationship means I need to know what are the parameters of how the relationship is supposed to look. This very famous speaker, His name is Rabbi Manus Friedman. I'm sure many of you have heard of him. Rabbi Friedman tells a story that he was sitting with a couple.
And the husband said to Rabbi Friedman, "He said, I don't know what this woman wants from me. She won't tell me what she wants me to do." So Rabbi Friedman turns to the wife and he says to her, "Sonu, what do you want him to do?" She says, "I want him to stop making fun of my sister." So the husband looks at Rabbi Friedman and says, 'You see, I told you can't get her to tell you what she wants you to do.' Rabbi Friedman said, 'She just told you what she wants you to do. She wants you to stop making fun of her sister.' The guy says, 'That can't be true.' Her sister is an idiot. Everybody knows her sister is an idiot. Obviously, that can't be what she wants. If you participate in the relationship, you need to tell me what she wants. Problem is, very often we're not paying attention. So somebody comes to us and says, 'This is the halacha,' and we go, 'That can't be the halacha. I never heard of that before.' No, the halacha is telling us exactly how to participate in the relationship.
What is a carbon? Carbon has three stages to it: the blood, the fat, and the meat. Carbon means drawing close to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. That's what it means to be makriv something, to bring something close. So the Rambam is saying, what was the tachlis of the Beis Hamikdash? The tachlis of the Beis Hamikdash was for a person to draw close to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. It's very simple. We sprinkle the blood. We'll talk about what that means in a second. We sprinkle the blood on the mezbeach. We burn the fats, and we eat the meat in a state of tahara. In a state of ritual purity. What does each one of these things mean? Everybody knows, or should know, The Balatanya expresses this at length. If you haven't learned Tanya before, it should be on your list of things to learn in your life, sooner rather than later. Balatanya for the first twenty-four prakim basically spends a tremendous amount of time explaining what is the difference between the nefesh abahamis and the nefesh leikis. So we're going to explain just very briefly. The nefesh leikis is the part of us that's godly, called the nefesh hashenas. We only get it. Girls get it when they're twelve. Boys get it when they're thirteen.
It's what allows us to do uniquely godly things in the world. Whenever you have a godly impulse, that comes from your nefesh luchos. I want to be clear. When I say a godly impulse, I don't mean a good impulse. The desire to walk old ladies across the street is not uniquely godly. Gentiles know how to walk old ladies across the street also. Godly means I'm doing it because it's what Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants for me to do. So if I have something that I am driven to do, it's because God tells me this is what I want you to do. That's coming from your nefesh l'kis. But most of our life is lived through the lens of our nefesh abahamis. What is the nefesh abahamis? The nefesh abahamis is not bad. The yechzur hora in some cases is a tool of the nefesh abahamis. Explain what I mean.
Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants us to have a nefesh of Bahamut. Why? Because the tachlis of creation, as we've said many times before, the Medrash in Parshas Naso says, 'What was the purpose of creation? Nisave Hakadosh Baruch Hu lios lo yisbarach dira betachtainim.' What does God desire? To have a dwelling place in the world down below. If God desires for us to have a dwelling place in the world down below, then what do we need to have? A world down below. If a man or a woman is an oylam katan, if a person is an oylam katan, then what does that mean? Just like the world has a neshama, and the physical reality of the world, so too a person has a physical reality, and we also have a neshama, a nefesh lekis with its godly impulses. But the nefesh abahamis is where the fight is. People make a mistake. They think in Yiddishkeit that the greatest avoda is to be removed from your nefesh abahamis, and it's not true. If a Jew doesn't know how to engage the world, then they've missed the tachlis of Judaism. This doesn't mean that we should be embracing the outside world.
Because when we embrace the outside world, we understand that there's going to be certain negative things that come in. But we have to negotiate with the outside world because it's our job. Kisif seikayin yishmerudas. We are the kaihanim. We are mamleches kaiyan on the G-dy Kadosh. We have the das, where the keepers of the great wisdom of Hakadosh Baruch Hu in this world, and that wisdom is meant to be shared with the rest of the world. So we have to engage the nefesh abahamis both without and within. How does a person engage the nefesh abahamis from within? If you think of your nefesh abahamis as evil, there is no way to engage with the nefesh abahamis. I'm going to say it again. I want to make sure everyone gets this. If you think of your nefesh abahamis as evil, there's no way to deal with it. The teacher, if any of you have had any experience teaching, in every single class, there's going to be five kids. Those five kids, you know those five kids. Those five kids, you know where they sit. They sit together. The teacher always breaks them up. They sit in the back. You want to know your success or failure as a teacher?
How do you talk about those five kids? If you talk about those five kids and you're spending a bulk of your time talking about how terrible those five kids are, I guarantee you, you're not going to be matsliach. Because any time you have this negative worldview and the words coming out of your mouth are constantly bashing, bashing, bashing. You're never going to be able to teach. You're never going to be able to have an influence. The nefesh abahamis is not evil. The nefesh abahamis wants one thing and one thing only: self-preservation. The nefesh abahamis lives with the impoverished mentality that it knows it's going to die and it's going to die soon. Everybody dies. The nefesh of Bahamut knows my time is short in this world. So what's the perspective of the nefesh of Bahamut? It's very simple. The nefesh of Bahamut will do anything it can to feel alive.
Even things that are pashut absurd. Like for example, The nefesh of Bahamut is an absurd animal. It doesn't have any rational thought. For example, I don't know if any of you girls are like this. Personally, I was never able to be soivl going to great adventure when I was a kid. I wait. Why do you go to Great Adventure when you're a kid? Because that's where people go on Pesach. That's where you go, right? And see, that's why. Take a trip. Had the bus ride up with my friends. Saw all my friends there. I did not go on a single ride. I literally paid to go to Great Adventure just to hang out with my friends. Some friends that loved to go on roller coasters. I never understood this. What's the geshmack of going on a roller coaster? So what do people say? But it makes you feel so alive. The rush is incredible. Personally, I was like, I don't need to almost feel like I'm dead in order to feel like I'm alive. That was when I was a kid. Today I have told them to go skydiving.
And I ask them "What's the gishmak of going skydiving, Rebbe?" There's nothing like seeing the earth coming at you really fast. This is like the most shocking thing I've ever heard in my entire life. I come out; it was amazing. What's amazing about it? What's amazing is that the nefesh of Hamus needs things to feel like it's alive. You'll say it's the rush culture. It's not just the rush culture; it's the drinking culture. It's the drug culture. It's the food culture. And dare I say, it's infected the Jewish community in a very serious way. Not just the drugs and alcohol. I was talking to somebody recently. I said, 'Tell me one Jewish event that doesn't center around food. Tell me one.' People say Yom Kippur. Other Rebbe Yom Kippur—the whole thing is about food. What are we thinking about the whole time? I have to eat so much before the fast because otherwise I'm going to be starving. And then I spent how many hours until I can eat again? There's nothing that doesn't revolve around food. I won't say where I was, but I was recently at a Shalom Zacher. Recently, last year, I was at a Shalom Zacher. Not in Eretz Yisrael, in America.
Not the Balabas. This is a conjecture. A person who was there told me it was a ten thousand dollars Shalom Zacher. Ten thousand dollars is like high end bar mitzvah in Eretz Yisrael. Ten thousand dollars Shalom Zacher. There was carving stations. There was children mishugah. What's the pshat? The nefesh of Bahamut. It's not bad. It's not evil. The nefesh of Bahamut wants anything to feel like it's alive. It lives with an impoverished mentality. What's our job? Our job with the nefesh abahamis, like with any animal. It is to train the animal. Certain things have to go. Certain things have to stay. For example, the blood of the animal, Kiad dam hu a nefesh. What is blood? Blood is fervor and passion for inappropriate things. So that has to be sacrificed on the mizbeach. That can't be something that lives within our Jewish life. Many years ago, the author of Belvavi Mishkan Evne. You all know that sefer.
So he came here to the five towns. I went to hear him speak. This was when I was still living in America. It was his first time ever in America. He was speaking in Eish Kodesh. I went to hear him speak. The first line out of his mouth, as he said, "The neshama and the guf is a fifty-fifty partnership." It's a fifty-fifty partnership. Whatever the goof gets, the neshama has to get just as much because it's a fifty-fifty partnership. And he looks out, packed audience. This was right after Bavavi had just come out. It was like everybody had it. Everybody was learning it. Everybody was giving shirah, and it was most incredible. Sefer. And he looks at it, The chever, and he says, "This is my first time ever in America. You must have huge neshamas." I remember thinking, you know, heard some harsh mussar before, but he didn't even say it with any yelling.
I was like, Embarrassing. And I was learning in Koyla at the time. I was feeling pretty good about myself. But the truth is, ask yourself what you're passionate about. Ask yourself what are the things you get excited about. There are things that are appropriate to be excited about, and there are things that are ridiculous. Tonight, the whole world. Nobody here is going on a date tonight. I promise you, nobody's going on a date tonight. And I can tell you where everybody's going to be. I was in Gourmet Glot early this morning because I know it's going to be a madhouse. Everyone has to have every single thing for the game, the big game. It's the first time in my life I only know three players that are playing in the game tonight—only three—and one of them I know because he was in a Pesach ad for a Pesach hotel. They didn't advertise any rabbanim. They didn't advertise the kashrus, but they advertised that this football player was coming to this hotel in Las Vegas. If you want to come there for the Pesach Seder, you could spend it with Todd Gurley the third or whatever the guy's name is.
What are we passionate for? We're passionate about massive men smashing into other massive men. This is what we're passionate about. Some of you girls know of Wanglin. Wanglin has a great line. Rav Wengland said, "You never see a guy learning a taisis, and after he gets shot, he like does a touchdown dance in the middle of the basement." Imagine that! Imagine a guy like he did it once in yeshiva. He came to yeshiva and he said this thing, and he said, 'I'm gonna make a bracha now. I want you to say 'I'm main' to this bracha, like I just caught the winning pass at the Super Bowl as time's expiring.' So I don't know if you know much about my yeshiva. But the boys are pretty levadik, baruch Hashem, good boys. So he goes buruchato, he makes a shakol nia b'dvaro, and the place goes, oh man, guys smashing into each other.
Crashing into each other, knocking over tables in the basement kitchen. We won! What are we passionate about? We need to be makriv on the mizbeach. The fat represents the excess in our life. Those things need to be burned. The blood could be sprinkled. But the excess things in our life need to be burned, because remember the impoverished mentality of the nefesh abahamis. What's its feeling? I don't have enough. I want to tell you something. I'm doing an experiment now. Today is the fifty-seventh day of the experiment. Fifty seven days. I decided, let's see what happens if I don't eat like a behema gasa for fifty seven days in a row, out of ninety. I'm fifty seven days in. It's an amazing thing. I'm not hungry. I thought I was hungry. I'm not hungry. When you live with a vision of excess, you have to have so much in your life. One car is not enough. Two cars is enough. Three cars isn't enough. It won't be enough. I had a chaver growing up. It was a very wealthy. His father was a very wealthy man.
So they had a three car garage. I thought a three car garage was like a huge garage. We had a two car garage, three car garage. How many cars do you have? Until I walked into his garage, it was a six-car garage. They literally had a lift in the garage. They had a lift, cars that were worth thousands upon thousands of dollars, the most expensive cars. Because when you live with a vision of excess, it's never enough. The house has to be this. I have to redo this. I have to knock down this wing. You'll forgive me for saying this because there really is a tuition crisis. And I am not being mezazel in the tuition crisis. And whenever I speak to all my chaverim that are living in America, by the way, you come to Israel. Tuition is free. I'm just saying. If you know what I'm saying, but I'm not saying. But because we don't want to make anyone uncomfortable.
I hear it. Tuition is ridiculously expensive. It's hard to swallow when the same people you're talking about are going to the Caribbean on a cruise for two weeks and have four cars. And again, most people are not like this. But when you live with a vision of we need so much, so yeah. You know where my daughter's bar mitzvah was? We just made a bar mitzvah over Chanukah. You know where it was? In my house, which is not this big. And we had Baruch Hashem fifty, sixty people crammed in. And there's a studio on the block, which is also not that big, where they put on music and the girls come and dance. And that's the whole bar mitzvah. And you know what's great about it? None of the kids are sitting and thinking, but I didn't have the b'as mitzvah of my dreams. You know why? Because that's the b'as mitzvah of their dreams, because nobody has more. When you live a life of excess, that nefesh abahamis, it will take control of your life. I'll tell you again. This is a beautiful story. A rav in Farakway many years ago.
Many years ago, he said to his talmidim, We should learn half a day and work half a day. We should take jobs where we're not working. Twelve-hour days, because then what's going to be with your learning? Even if it means taking a job that's a little bit more menial, take that job because Lamech, you'll get to sit and learn. You should know that the boys that were in that class—it's been over thirty years since he gave that she'er. This is the neighborhood, the community that I grew up in. It's been over thirty years. These guys are still learning half a day and working half a day. I know it sounds crazy, but they made fundamental decisions in their life. We're going to live with less and we're going to prioritize more our nefesh l'kiss, our godly life. So you got to burn the excess, but at the same time, the nefesh abahamis itself has to be eaten in a state of tahara, because it's not excess. The nefesh abahamis is not usher, and the nefesh abahamis is not trying to kill you. The nefesh abahamis just wants to live. And if you infuse your life with the godliness of the nefesh l'kiss, if you are living in a state of tahara, then the nefesh abahamis is going to do amazing things that the nefesh l'kiss couldn't do on its own.
The nefesh l'kiss in Shamayim. It's great. When the nefesh l'kiss comes into a nefesh of Ahamis, it can reveal godliness down here in the world, down below. That's an incredible thing. So the nefesh of Ahamis and the nefesh l'kiss go together. Sprinkle the blood, we burn the fat, but we eat the meat. So the Rambam is saying what? Let's go back to the Rambam. What's the Rambam sheet? The Rambam sheet is the logical sheet. The Rambam sheet is the perspective of the human side of the equation. The Rambam is saying the halacha. How do we lead our daily lives through the nefesh abahamis? Of course, the nefesh luchos has to be steering the ship. The nefesh abahamis—it's important, it's critical, but it has to be tamed. That is the avoda of karbanos. But on the flip side, we have the Ramban, and the Ramban is exactly the opposite. The Ramban isn't writing a halacha sefer. The Ramban is a peirush and chumash. Not only is the Ramban a peirush and chumash, but we know the Ramban took the exact opposite approach from the Rambam. Because the Rambam's whole thing was logic, the Ramban's whole yoseid was esoteric. That's the way the Ramban saw the world through the lens of Kabbalah. The Rambam doesn't mention Kabbalah. The Ramban mentions Kabbalah all the time. So the Ramban Kamuvan took a more Kabbalistic approach.
And what is the most Kabbalistic place? What is the most mystical place? What is the most intimate place in the Beis Hamikdash? It is the Kodesh Hakodashim. And what is the icher chifetz? What's the main object in the Kodesh Hakadosh? It is the Aaron Kodesh. And what does the Aaron contain? The Aaron contains the luchos, the shivrei luchos, and the Torah itself, a Torah scroll. What's the difference between the Rambam and the Ramban? The difference is as follows: If the Rambam was talking about the perspective of man, the Ramban is speaking about the perspective of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. You see, we live in a world today where not enough is spoken about the Rebbein side of the equation. Baruch Hashem, there is a correction going on. But I'll tell you why I started learning Chassidus. At some point, I got so bored of learning the psychology of Torah.
Ever hear the words of the psychology of Torah? They ask, why does it have to say like this? What's the answer? Because the nature of man is this. The nature of man. At some point, I got bored of hearing the nature of man. How many times could I hear? Ahava is from a lashon of have, which means to give. Love is to give. It's not that it's not true. It's just that there's only a finite amount of times that you can hear so much about a person. The reason why it's so critical for us to learn Ramban al Torah is because the Ramban is not just giving us the perspective of man. He's giving us the perspective of God. And where does Hakadosh Baruch Hu speak to us from? From right above the Aron in the Kodesh Hakadosh. So if the Rambam is speaking about how we connect with Hakadosh Baruch Hu, the Ramban is speaking about how Hakadosh Baruch Hu connects with us. We may have our human limitations, and as a result, we have to be makriv karbanos. But Hakadosh Baruch Hu also has a challenge. Obviously, that doesn't mean Hakadosh Baruch Hu has a challenge because God doesn't have any challenges.
But I'm going to explain to you a very deep thing now. We have to be very careful when we say that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is infinite. Because if we say Hakadosh Baruch Hu is infinite, we might be limiting Him. If we mean the wrong thing, we might be limiting Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Infinite means not only that Hakadosh Baruch Hu surrounds the entire world, but infinite means that He is also immanent. He is also present within the entire world. God is not in the table. To say that God is in the table is kifira. God is not limited to any one place, but godliness is infused within this table. This table only exists because the Ratzon Hashem is for this table to exist. When we see this table, what does a Jew see? A Jew sees the godly way in which I am supposed to use this table. Why? Because Hakadosh Baruch Hu is infinite. If Hakadosh Baruch Hu is truly infinite, it means that this finite world also includes Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Now you got to be careful because if you start saying it too much the wrong way, what's going to happen? You're going to start to say Hakadosh Baruch Hu is present in a defined way in the finite world, which is obviously not true. But Hakadosh Baruch Hu is contained.
So to speak, within the finite world. Now how could that be? And the answer is through the Torah. If you think about what the Torah is, let's take a couple of minutes to discuss this now. What's the big deal learning Torah? Many years ago, the New York Times in the '90s already wrote an article that learning for the sake of learning had gone out the window. Because in college today, what's the entire focus of a college? I got to prepare them for the workforce. It wasn't always like this. Colleges used to be a place where people would think about ideas for the sake of thinking about ideas. That's what it was supposed to be. By the way, that's why college was so dangerous back then. A person would go to college and they would become corrupted by some of the ideas that were being taught in college. Today, what is a person going to college for? A person's going to college for depending on where they're going to college or why they're going to college. Maybe they're going to a drinking school with a college problem, as Richard Joel once said. Not saying about which colleges said it, but it happened to be in Maryland. But the point is.
Most people today are going to college to get a job. Why do we go to college? Because we want a job. If at the end of college you don't get a job, what do you say? Stupid college! I shouldn't have gone to that college because I want to get a job. So the New York Times wrote an article: "What happened to learning for the sake of learning?" They found a select group of institutions that still learned for the sake of learning. One of the places was Torah Vadas in Brooklyn. The New York Times went down to interview Bachrim in Torah Vidas in Brooklyn. Why? Because they said they found the place. When they asked the boys, "Why are you learning these things?" They said, "Because it's a mitzvah to learn them." We have a vision of learning for the sake of learning. How could that be?
What is the Torah? The Zayar Hakadosh says, "A yiraisa v'kudsha brichu v'yisra el chadhu the Torah." Klal Yisrael and Hakadosh Baruch Hu are all one. Let's just focus on Hakadosh Baruch Hu in the Torah right now. That means that what is the Torah? The Torah is the will and wisdom of Hakadosh Baruch Hu in a sefer. So I don't know how many girls have ever heard this before. But very often you'll hear boys complain about the following when they're learning Gemara. Rabbi, I don't have oxen Let alone oxen that are goring other oxen. That I need to spend an entire year learning what happens if my supposed ox will gore another person's ox. You ever hear boys speak like this? Why? What are they saying? They're saying the Torah is not relevant. The Torah is not relevant if you look at the book and you say this practical example is not relevant to my life because I don't have it. So if somebody came to me and they said, "Burg, I want you to learn real estate law," And I said, "I don't ever plan on being a real estate lawyer."
That's irrelevant. I wouldn't learn it. But what happens when you switch it, from a practical to a relationship example? Look how it switches. If you tell your husband, "I want to share with you something about me," and his response to you is, "I don't really see how this knowledge is going to impact me in my life. I don't really see how it's going to be practical." What are you going to say then? Who said it's about practical? So you can imagine the wife that sits down with her husband and she says, "I'd like to tell you about my day." I hear you, but I don't really know how it's going to benefit me. All of a sudden, you see how narcissistic it sounds. It went from being something practical to being something absurd. When somebody you love shares with you something about themselves, the answer is, "That's awesome." I want to learn. So when Hakadosh Baruch Hu gives us the Torah, what's the response that we ought to have? Not, is this content relevant to me? If you're relevant to me, then the content is relevant to me. That's why what these boys are really asking is not about oxen. They're not asking if my ox gored another ox. They want to know where's the avisher. Because I understand religion is about connecting to Hakadosh Baruch Hu.
How does this do that? That's a good question. So when we say Hakadosh Baruch Hu took His will and wisdom and put it in the Sefer, it means it for real. That's why the word Anoichi. What does the word Anoichi stand for? On a Nafshik Savis Yehovis. God says, "I wrote my essence into the Torah." On a Nafshik Savis Yehovis. So when Hakadosh Baruch Hu puts the Torah and He contains it, so to speak, in an Aron, He's saying, "Me, I am present here, Finite world. I am here also." Don't run to the spiritual universe to try to find me because I'm just as present in the finite world. This explains a fascinating Gemara in Yuma. You all know this Gemara. The Gemara in Yuma discusses at length many different miracles that occurred in the Beis Hamikdash. One of the miracles that occurred was Makom Aaron ena min Amida, that the Aaron itself didn't fit in the Kodesh Hakadosh. The Kodesh Hakadosh was one size, and the Aaron was larger than the Kodesh Hakadosh. So how did it fit?
The answer is that this reflects the duality of Hakadosh Baruch Hu in this world. It's infinite and finite at the same exact time. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is infinite, and yet He can be found in the finite world. That is the Aaron in the Mikdash, in the Kodesh Hakadoshim. Does it fit? What's the answer? Of course not. But is it fitting? Of course it is. The infinite and the finite meet. Transcendent is present in day to day life, so the Ramban is saying. Which way are we looking at it? From the perspective of Hakadosh Baruch Hu is saying you can't limit me to the infinite world. I'm just as present in the finite world because the finite world is part of the infinite world. So who's right? The Rambam or the Ramban? Of course, both are right. Both are expressing a particular dimension of how we relate to Hakadosh Baruch Hu.
But I want to bring this down in a very practical way. The most common question I am getting from the guys and from the girls back in America is one of two things. I've lost the passion. Slash Hakadosh Baruch Hu doesn't care about me. One of two things: I lost the passion or where's the Eibister? I don't know. When I was in Eretz Yisrael, I felt it so much. When I was in Eretz Yisrael, it was palpable. It was tangible. I felt like the growth was there. I felt like it was pushed to me that Hakadosh Baruch Hu cared about me. But now that I'm back. And by the way, it's not a din in America versus Israel. It's real life. L'maisa, the seminary bubble is over. As it should be. It's time to go out, and it's time to build our kadosh baruch hu diri betachtaina. But now that I'm out in the world, do you really care about me? Do you really think about me?
It's like there's a story. There's a story with a rabbi, A third grade rabbi. Brought down by Rabbi Pesach Kron There was a boy in the class whose father had left him. He never heard from his father. And the boy didn't speak up much in class. One of those quiet kids who'd been hurt so much in his life that he didn't have enough strength to speak up in class. If the boy would ever raise his hand or indicate on any level that he was interested in anything, the Rebbe would immediately call on him. The Rebbe asked the question: Why does Yosef Hatzadik say, "Ani Yosef Hayedavichai"? Why does he say that? Doesn't he know his father is still alive? Haven't they been talking about it for the entire parsha? Yaakov Avinu is—he so he can't lose Binyamin. It's such a sad thing. Of course, he knew his father was alive. Anybody have any answers?
A timid hand in the back of the class goes up. The Rebbe sees it's this boy and he immediately calls on him. And the boy says, 'Maybe it means. He hasn't seen his father in so long. Does he still think about me? Am I still important in his life?' That's what he was asking. I know my father is alive. But are we alive together? It's a powerful story. It's a powerful story because at least a third grader had the capacity to verbalize it. But how many of us feel the same way? How many of us feel like we're going through our mundane lives and maybe we're even following every aspect of halacha? Maybe we are. Maybe we aren't. But does the Rebbeinu Shlom really care? Am I really focused? Bishlema, when I am focused and I am into it, and I feel like it's amazing, so of course I can feel that presence back in my life. But now, do I really feel that?
That's on one side of the equation. On the other side of the equation, how many of us can really say we're doing what we're meant to be doing? How many of us used to really be focused in davening? La ma'isa, it's hard when you have to get out in the morning, you have places to go, and to really daven. And how much am I really focused? I used to hear shiram all day long, and now can I really hear those shiram? And even if I do come on a Sunday morning, which Baruch Hashem is a beautiful thing, I feel like it's just, and so many people. I feel like it's a drop in the bucket. I feel like it's like just hopping on another share. But there's no real ma'arechet like there once was. So I feel like I'm coming up short. And even with all the things that I am doing, I'm Baruch Hashem, I'm doing a lot. But is it really enough? There's a feeling on both sides. Am I connecting to Hakadosh Baruch Hu? Is Hakadosh Baruch Hu connecting to me? Lameisa, we don't have a bais hamikdash.
I went with Rav Weinberger. It was last year, maybe two years ago, when Rvweinberger came to Eretz Yisrael. They made a fabregen on the roof of Yeshiva Rakaota. And I remember the pain, the palpable pain that you could see in Rvweinberger's face as he was looking over the kaisel and he was looking on to the Harabayas and he was looking at the Dome of the Rock. And I remember he was like, "It's so like, we've become satisfied with table scraps." Like it's such an amazing thing to go to the Kotel in Daven. It really is an amazing thing. Also, the Kotel is a supporting wall. Don't think of it like that. We have such an impoverished mentality. We've been ingnulus for so long that if you give us even the tiniest little bit, we're like, savata. That's great. That's enough. We can't be satisfied. And you. The reason we're in the state that we're in is because there's no Beis Hamikdash. This is not an academic conversation to understand a Rambam versus a Ramban and how we're going to be masper the machlokes. That's not what this is about. It's to highlight these are the two things that are missing in our life. They're missing in our life because we don't have a base of mikdash.
This is the place where Hakadosh Baruch Hu said, "I'm going to build it with two hands." That's what the pasuk says. Kohenu yadecha two hands. What's two hands? Used to be that there was shamayim and aretz. There was the spiritual world and the physical world. But when Hakadosh Baruch Hu built the base of Mikdash, that meant Hakadosh Baruch Hu built the base of Mikdash. There is no more two hand. There is no more right hand, left hand. There is two hands. This is the place where everything merges. This is the place where everything meets. So what's the tachlis if we don't have a base of megdosh? One of the things that's deeply disturbing. I hesitate to say it, but it needs to be said. Somehow, Mashiach became a thing for labavichers. Because of the mishach system, people can't talk about Mashiach now unless it's the last line of a shir, so that the girls can say Amein and so that we'll know the shir is over. But other than that, we can't talk about Mashiach because we don't want to come off as if.
And of course, people that believe that the Lubavitcher Rebbe is Mashiach today. That's by itself a crazy thing. But you know why it happened. I mean this in a positive way. You know why it happened because the Rebbe's mission was not to be passive, but to be active in bringing Mashiach. The Rebbe's mission was to see gullus not as a punishment, but to see gullus as an opportunity to reveal Hakadosh Baruch Hu in the lowest places in this world, and through that, Mashiach could come and rebuild the Beis Hamikdash. So we have such a skewed attitude, and it's something we need to shift in a very major way. Our attitude is that we really hope Mashiach is going to come. Of course, we hope Mashiach is going to come. That's the baseline. But there's a fundamental question: What are we doing to bring Mashiach today? What actions are we taking? What is the halacha from the Rambam's perspective? What is the halacha? What is the nefesh Abrahamis engaged in today? What's the pain in the world that we're engaging today to reveal our Kadosh Baruch Hu in that pain? What are the averas in my life that I need to reveal our Kadosh Baruch Hu in those averas by doing tshuva? Because that tachlis brings the base of mikdash. What are the mitzvot that I'm doing? Not because they're good deeds, but because I'm investing Hakadosh Baruch Hu in every single thing that I do.
Simple things. I have a talmud. He's the most generous person I've ever met in my entire life. I'll be by him b'ezr Hashem next week. It's the most generous person. He grew up with a very heavy chabad influence in his life. From a young age, he was taught to blow shofar and he went around rishana. He went around blowing shofar in nursing homes. He said, "Rabbi, I never grew up in like a shul. When he came to yeshiva, he's like, I never really spent this amount of time in davening because I was running from nursing home to nursing home, blowing shofars that elderly people would have shofar blown." And in his house, where he lives in Los Angeles, he has a pushka, he has a tzedakah box, and a mound of change, a massive mound of change. And he was makapil on himself when he got married. Nobody walks through this door either in or out without taking from this pile of change and putting it in the pushka. So when his friends come in, and his friends are not all the most observant Jews, you come into his house. Nobody's asking you to give tzedakah. Nobody's asking you to reach.
He's got a mound of quarters, and when the mound goes lower, he says, 'Got to load up the quarters.' And every time I come into the house, Rabbi, before you come in, don't forget to put a quarter in the pushka. Put a quarter in the pushka. And every time we leave, put a quarter in the pushka. Put a quarter in the pushka. It's an unbelievable thing. What his kids are going to grow up with, because they're growing up with not charity, they're growing up with a sense of a mitzvah. What are we doing to bring Mashiach? But if it's true for us, then it's also true for Hakadosh Baruch Hu from the Rebbein's perspective. Today we have Avaydus at Tefila, Karbanos, Tefila is in place of Karbanos. We're asking Hakadosh Baruch Hu to come down. We're inviting him into our lives. But there has to be another avodah also. That has to be the avodah of opening up our ears and listening to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, Who's saying to us in Galus. The voice is distant, and you may only hear the echo. But you have to be sensitive. As our Frayfal Zeches Tzadik Zvocha said. You have to be someone who grows ears in your life. You have to be able to look around in the world today and see we are not even seconds anywhere.
We're moments away from Mashiach coming. We're mamish moments away, and it's just a question of who could hold on in those last couple of moments through all of the pain, through all the trials, through all the tribulations to be able to hear in a sensitive way that our Kadosh Baruch Hu says, 'I'm here and it's coming.' Can you hold on for a couple of minutes longer? That's all we're asking. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is saying again. We don't have the ears to hear. That's why so many of us have that halishas of like, 'Does the Rebbeinu Shalom really care about me?' I knew Yosef Avi Dvichai. Does the Rebbeinu Shalom really care? Girls, he's homeless. So I'll finish with a ma'ase, a very beautiful ma'ase. Rav Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld was the chief rabbi of Yerushalayim. And a very big person from the British Mandate came to see the head cleric from the Islamic Chevra over there in Yerushalayim. He went to see his beautiful palace of a home. Then he went to Yerigayosof Chaim Zuninfeld's apartment in Yerushalayim that was overlooking the Makam HaMe'udos. I don't know if you've ever been in the homes of tzaddikim. Have you ever had the opportunity to be in Rabbi Zdenkaniaski Zecherne LeBrach's home? Have you ever seen it? Not exactly the lap of luxury.
He came into Yisrael Chaim Zonovel's home, and it was dilapidated. It was like the broken walls, the svarim shelves were barely holding up the books. Like a real tzaddik's home. And this British governor said to Yisrael Chaim Zonovel, he said "You don't have a house that's befitting a person of your position." Yisroel Chaim Zunevold pointed out the window and he says, "When he builds his home, I'll build mine." We have to be sensitive to the fact that the Shechina is in Golus. The Shechina is in Golus, and if the Shechina is in Golus, that has to pain us. And if the Shechina is in Golus, girls, then he wants to be here more than we want him to be here, because that was the whole tachlis of the entire creation to begin with. Nesava Hakadosh Baruch Hu. We should be zeicher to build a diyer betachtayim every moment of our lives.
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