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This is what I got to watch Guys. Because Yusif was described with curly hair. That's all I could write down. I remember that so much. So much. Do I hear him? I know it's the last one. One of the most dramatic moments. Of the entire Torah Yosef Aztadik reveals himself to his brothers every week Every year, in this week's Parshah, my mother-in-law cries. My mother-in-law is a very sensitive person. She reads the Parshiyos. Did my wife tell you? Yeah, it's so funny. I'm like at least once every time. She says she reads the pasuk Ani Yosef Avodah Yichai. And she just breaks down crying. Please.
And a fascinating thing that we all grew up learning, but maybe we missed an interesting point here We know that Yosef sends his brothers back to his father. Tell my father that I'm alive. Yaakov. Doesn't believe them And then it says, "Vayar es ha galos asher shalach Yosef." He sees the chariots, the wagons that Yosef sent. Laseis oso v'tehiruach Yaakov Avinah And this revived the spirit of Yaakov Avinah. So we all knew growing up. What did we learn? We learned what Rashi says that these agalot were a reference to the sukkah, the Eglah Arufa, which was the last sukkah that Yaakov taught Yosef before he went down to Mitzrayim. That's what we all learned growing up. But then, when you look just a couple of sukkim later Fascinating thing. They go down to Mitzrayim.
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Hang on one second. I just want to quote it from the actual pesukim. VaYakom Yaakov miBe'er Shava vaYisu b'nei Yisrael es Yaakov avim veEstapam veEstneshayim baAgalot. Now they go down to Mitzrayim in these chariots. What would we have expected the pesuk to say? Asher shalach that was sent by. Yosef. Very good. Where would you have known that from? Because just a couple of psukim earlier, what do we know? Who sent the agalot? Yosef sent the agalot. But how do we know that they were the same chariots? The Torah tells us asher shalach paral laseis oso. The chariots that they actually went down to Mitzrayim in were not the chariots that Yosef sent. And the Zohar Hakadosh recognizes this And the Zohar says, as we'll see in a moment. That actually Not only did Yosef send agalot Chariots down to Yaakov Paro did as well. Our first question for the night is going to be: What's the significance of both sets of chariots being sent down?
What message was in those chariots, and why did that chariot of Yosef and not the chariot of Paro? Why was that the chariot that inspired Yaakov Avinu? Another question just before we get started. Yaakov Avinu is hesitant to go down to Mitsrayim. And Hakadosh Baruch Hu speaks to him and says a very strange thing. Anochi ereid imcha Mitsrayma V'anochi alcha gamalo, v'yosef yoses yado aleinacha. The Torah tells us, 'I am God, your father. Don't be afraid of going down to Egypt. I'll make you a great nation there. I will go down with you to Mitzrayim, and I will also bring you up out of Mitzrayim.' And Yosef will place his hand on your eyes. What does that mean? Yosef will place his hand on your eyes. Why is that? First of all, what does that mean? And second of all, why is that important? To Yaakov Avinu.
There is an amazing kedushas Levi on this pasuk. Are we missing chairs? Do we have enough chairs? I apologize. There's a chair over here in the front. There's one chair over here in the front. There's an amazing kedushas Levi. The kedushas Levi explains that what Hashem was communicating to Yaakov Avinu is that he should not be worried about going down into Mitzrayim because eventually there will be a geula. And the kedushas Levi says here that what inspired Yaakov Avinu was not the agalot But specifically the igulim. What are the igulim of an agala? The wheels. The igul is what Yaakov saw. Okay, and here the Kedushas Levi says a very strange thing that needs to be understood. The Kedushas Levi says the igul, the circle That Yaakov Avinu saw. That inspired him. Says just like there'll be an exile There will also be a redemption.
There's a circle: exile, redemption. The Kaddushas Levi says something that at first glance doesn't seem to make any sense. He says the cause of something is always circular. The cause of something is always circular. What does that mean? There's two movements in this world. Everybody in this room is aware of these movements, though very often we do not pay attention to them. But everyone in this room is aware of these two movements. There is a movement from the side of kedusha, and there is a movement from the side of tumah. Let's speak about the movement from the side of tumah first. When we look at the natural world. The natural world has a movement. But the movement is the cycle, the circle of nature. And so We can become accustomed in this world to falling for the trap of nature. The trap of nature is no one is running this world.
The sun goes up. The sun comes down. Winter. Spring, summer, fall—it's a circle, it's a cycle. It repeats itself over and over again. And the challenge of the circle of nature is that it appears to hide Hashem. A person could be very logical and say, "In this world, I deny the existence of God." On the other hand There is the circle of a Jew. The circle of a Jew says, and this is a very deep thing, so please lock in because this idea is a very sophisticated idea. The circle of a Jew says there is no beginning and end. And what we've been trained to think of as a beginning and an end is actually not a beginning and an end; it's a circle. So instead of thinking about exile and redemption as a line This is the way we are taught to think of it, which is wrong.
We think galus leads to geula. Is that not the way you girls grew up with it? We start here by galus And it leads to geula. This is wrong. This is what the kedushas Levi means. Galus and geula is a circle. Galus in the circle is the same exact point as geula. In the circle What appears to be a movement away from Hashem is actually a movement towards Hashem. Which is a fascinating way of thinking about it. In other words, we've thought of it like this our whole lives: Gullus is bad. But don't worry because one day Gullus will be good. That's wrong. Gullus. If you see gullus and geulah as the same exact point in the circle Then is gullus bad? Gullus is a movement towards geulah. The circle of gullus and geulah is one circle. The cause of something—this is what the kedushas Levi means—is always circular.
So we make the mistake of thinking. I'll explain it a little bit clearer in a moment. I know it's not clear yet. Very obvious, perplexed look on your face, which I appreciate and admire. That form of communication. I was. You have certain people whenever you're giving a share, and like you say something, and I go. I sometimes want to look back at them and go, let's just talk like that the entire time. But I do appreciate it. It means a lot. Am I embarrassing you? And it's usser to do that. I apologize. I have a friend who does that. When he's giving shiur, he goes, "Am I embarrassing you?" And I go, "Yes." And he goes, "Okay, good. Now I know what to do for next time." That's the wrong thing. Gollis and Geula could be thought of like this, and I think this is the correct way of thinking about it.
Sometimes In order to arrive at a deeper truth You need to excavate. Through the layers of falsehood But in the process of excavation There's a tremendous amount of pain and suffering. There's often a movement away from the truth. Which is a superficial understanding because it's actually a movement towards the truth. I'll give you an example of what this looks like. Let's say you have a girl who is struggling with her davening. Let's say in high school, she davened. She was a davener in high school. When I say she was a davener in high school, I mean she showed up and said the words. Then she comes to seminary. I don't know if any of you have struggled with this year. I'm assuming yes. At least some of you. Then she comes to seminary, and this is what it sounds like. It's so weird. I literally did not miss davening for all of 11th and 12th grade. I've missed davening for weeks in a row here.
I thought I was supposed to come to Eretz Yisrael. And I thought I was supposed to be more inspired by my davening, not less so. And there's a distance that you feel. So in that moment, how would you understand your movement right there? You would say I'm right now in ghosts But actually, it's not true. That entire piece of yourself that explores your relationship with davening often moves away from davening in order to move towards davening. Let's say you have a guy that comes into my office or a girl that comes and she says, 'Rav, I haven't been davening.' What's that been like for you? I don't really feel good about it. What's next? I think I really want to get back into it, but I want to get back into it in a way that's much more real. I want to get back into it in a way that it doesn't leave me.
So what changed? It turned out that the entire time she wasn't davening, what was really occurring. She was excavating and exploring what it's like to be a person that doesn't daven. And when she got to the bottom of that truth, what did she discover? I really want to daven. Did she know that beforehand? Because beforehand she was davening. So since she was davening She wasn't in the truth of her davening. You understand the problem? We have this all the time in our performance of mitzvot. We do things right, surface level. Sometimes we need to stop doing them to appreciate how much we're actually deeply invested in this. For example Let's say you have Chassou Shalom, a couple that has a huge blow-up fight And they don't know how to recover from that fight. You ever heard of people like this? And they just like at some point, they're strangers living in the same house.
So in that moment, one of two things will happen: either the relationship is over. Or the relationship has just begun. Sometimes the greatest thing that happens to a relationship is the destruction of that relationship. Because when you get to the core and you have two people living in the same house and they're total strangers, totally minutak, totally separated from each other, what do they discover? I hate living like this. The thing that I want most is to be so deeply connected to you. The pain that you caused me is only because of the love that I have for you. If I didn't care about you You couldn't hurt me. So the worst thing that can happen in a marriage is when you just don't care anymore. As long as you're upset, what does that tell you? I'm here. I'm invested in this relationship. So what appears to be a movement away from the relationship actually is a movement towards the relationship. Did I do a decent job of explaining it? Did I get that? Does that make more sense? Yeah.
This is the difference between the line and the circle. In the line, there's gullus, and this is terrible. And maybe one day it'll culminate in geula. But what if it doesn't? That's not so good. What is the Kadosh Baruch Hu telling? Or I should say, what is Yosef telling Yaakov by sending down those agalot? He's saying to him This circle is gulas geula together. So what appears to be a descent down to Mitzrayim is not a descent. What is it? It's an ascent. Or a great way of putting this, and this is one of my talmidim said this to me. I love this phrase. You ready for it? You're falling upwards. It's such a cool way of expressing that concept. Sometimes we think to ourselves, Oh man, Rebbe, you can't imagine what I just did. We all have that line. Remember that line that you promised yourself you would never cross?
Remember you were in eighth grade and you said I'm just choosing eighth grade randomly. Just totally randomly. Remember in eighth grade and you said, I will, I'll never do that. And remember the summer after tenth grade when you crossed that line? I'm just choosing summer after tenth grade randomly, right? Remember? When you cross that line for the first time, a little too close to home. Yeah. Don't do this. That first time you cross that line, you think to yourself It's irreparable. I can't come back from that. It's over now, right? The truth is, when you cross that line that you said to yourself you'll never cross, that's when you discover how much this actually means to you. So I think I told this story once before, but it bears repeating. One of my favorite all-time stories in Mevasseret. A guy came to me. And he was devastated, crying, bawling.
He said, "I want so badly to like really get into my Yiddishkeit. I want to daven. I want to learn. I can't." So I said to him, "Why not?" And he goes, "I can't. I'm embarrassed to tell you." I said, "It's okay. I won't judge you. Just tell me what happened." He's like, I'm gonna tell you a secret. It's such an embarrassing secret. In high school I wanted to be a rebbe. I'm like that is a terrible secret. Don't tell that to anyone. That's like the worst thing you could be. He's like no, really, rebbe. In my heart of hearts, I knew I wanted to be a rebbe. And then I won't tell you what Avera was. It doesn't matter. He's like, I crossed the line. That I know, after you cross that line, you can't be a rebbe. You just can't be. I'll tell you what he did. Should I tell you what he did? Yeah.
He ate not kosher food. He went to Burger King. He ate not kosher food. That's a serious abeir. He ate not kosher food. So he said, "I know for a fact that none of my rebbeim ever did that." So I can't become a rebbe. So in the course of that conversation, I said to him First of all, that's wrong. That's just not true. You have no idea who your rebbeim were, and that's okay. You're not supposed to know. I'm not incriminating myself. I'm just saying. You're not. It doesn't matter. The it's like one of my favorite things when I meet them come back from some place in Israel, Modiin, and they go, Rebbe, I met your friend who was your roommate in Vaseret, and he said send Matt my regards It was important for him to let you know that I used to be Matt Berg. And that's okay. I love him dearly. He's an amazing friend. There's some people we have a need. We have to let him know. You should know your Rebbe wasn't always so frum. It's okay. It's to say there.
So first of all, he was wrong. Second of all I think this is the more important point. Do you see how badly you want this? You're devastated by this. And the fact that you're devastated could be exactly what you need in order to get to where you want to go. The problem is that most of us have it completely backwards. We say to ourselves, 'Since I'm devastated by it, I can't recover.' No, the devastation is the recovery. The gullus is the geula. When we speak about going down to Mitzrayim in our lives, that's not a bad thing. That's a good thing. We had to go down to Mitzrayim to discover how real and important this was for us. People that say, 'Well, the bad thing usually is followed by the good thing.' It's not that it just randomly followed it. It comes out from it because it was always it.
Does that make sense? We all have this in our life. By the way, you know this for sure. Avram Avinu, right? He gets the bris banu Sarim. He's making a covenant with God. This is the proposal. You and me forever, right? What does God say in that proposal? I'm going to sell your children down to slaves in Egypt. That's not a great proposal. Imagine if a guy got down on one knee. I love this. Imagine you want to picture your chassl Long peis Thick beard Cholin stains from two weeks beforehand. Everybody's dream. Shlaimy faffle. This is what we're This is the type of guy that has a pastrami on rye in his car. Just waiting. You know. Just in case, Say a ma'aseh refrivel dehatah de'bracha. I don't. It doesn't matter. It's a good p'shatrami on raimaisle. Ask your family about the p'shatrami on raimaisle.
Imagine this guy. He takes you to the most romantic place in the world. Fifth Avenue and Borough Park. He gets down on one knee in front of I don't know, Koshi the White, whatever. It holds down. It holds down. Another Corona tragedy. And full moon, beautiful. He gets down on one knee and he looks and he says, "Do you want to really suffer with me" For eternity, forever? It's gonna be really hard. Nobody's gonna say yes to that proposal. A kodesh baruch hu comes to Avram Avinu, bris mayim abzarm, and he says, "Your children are going to be slaves in Egypt for 400 years." Who says yes to that? If I'm Avram Avinu, I go, 'Wait, let's slow down a bit.' I'm into the whole giving the Torah thing. I love the Eretz Yisrael thing. I'm with you on that. Just, can we just unpack a little bit? I'll use my therapeutic language. Can we unpack this 400 years of slavery thing? Do you mean like No? And our Kaddish Ratzel clarifies, and the Korah Barzel, like this is going to be the roughest, most intense pain that anyone has ever experienced. Your children will fall to the lowest possible level. And Avram goes Perfect. That's what we're looking for. That's a relationship. Now we're talking. What's the pshat? The Targum says Avram Avinu wasn't scared of gullus.
He knew exactly what gullus was. Gullus is not a punishment. Gulus is not a punishment. What brings on gulus might be because of the sins that we've done, but as a result of gulus and embedded within exile is redemption itself. That's a very deep concept. There are two merkavos in this world. There are two chariots. There's the merkava Shleima, which we will have in the times of Mashiach and Olam Haba, a complete chariot, which is a representation of our Kadosh Baruch Hu in this world. And the gematria of merkava shleima is the same gematria as Avram Yitzchak Yaakov David. Because the tzaddikim, what they do in this world is they reveal the completion of Hashem's name, so that when you look at this world, what do you see? You see the godly circle recognizing that everything is its own starting point. That gullus is geula.
There's also a Merkava Tmeia. There's also an impure merkava. An impure merkava is represented by the forces of Mitzrayim. That's why the Gal Amukos says that the gematria of Merkava Tamea is the same gematria as Kalevra. As a bad dog. And we know that the Malach Hamavos and Makkas Bchoros is referred to as what, girls? As a dog. That the dog will not wet its tongue on any Jewish person, on any Jewish animal. To be able to tell the difference between a Jew and an Egyptian. It's also the same gematria as Batsafon. Which is the Egyptian god, the Sphinx? It's the final deity that they have. That's what they're holding on to. These are the two merkavas in this world. These are the two movements in this world. Yavon We just finished the Yom Tov of Hanukkah, but we all know that we didn't finish it.
Because Chassam Sofer says that why do we have eight days of Hanukkah? We should only have seven because the first night wasn't a miracle. We need to make sure that it goes all the way into Teves. If we only had seven nights of Hanukkah, it would there could be a year where it would stop at Rosh Chodesh. We need to take the lights all the way into Teves. Yovan is the same gematria as Galgal. Yovan is the same gematria as a circle, as a wheel. On a chariot. But Yovan comes and says, "What? Look at nature." There is no God. But what does a Jew say? A Jew says the same gematria as Galgal. The same gematria of Yovan is also Elokecha. We see in the nature of this world We see Hakadosh Baruch Hu. That's the depth of what's going on. So now we understand.
Yosef HaTzaddik sends agalot. What does Paro do? Paro says, if Yosef's sending agalot, then I have to send competing chariots. And Yaakov is inspired by whose chariots? He's inspired by Yosef's chariots. Because what do Yosef's chariots tell him? Yosef's chariots tell him this is good. This is a circle. But which chariots do they go down to? Mitzrayim? Not Yosef's chariots. They go down in the chariots of Paro, because that's the avoda. The avoda is to go into a Paro-oriented place and to maintain the strength of Yosef HaTzaddik. To be able to look at the Igul, to look at the Galgal, to look at the circle of the goyim, and to be able to find Hakadosh Baruch Hu there. This is what it means. I'm going to start to get a little bit deeper now. We only have a couple minutes left. This is what it means that Yaakov is going to have his eyes opened by Yosef.
There's something that Yosef knows that Yaakov doesn't know. What could Yosef possibly know that Yaakov doesn't know? I'll tell you what. What had Yosef just been through? 22 years in Mitsrayim. Yosef had been in Mitsrayim for 22 years. What lesson did he learn when he was there? He learned one amazing lesson. The lesson was: I thought I was in Gullus the entire time, and when he finally got to that initial point, when his brothers came to Metzrayim, and he says to them, 'Ani Yosef, Iodavichai.' What lesson did Yosef learn? The lesson that Yosef needs to teach to Yaakov. It's not a line, Gullus and Geula. It's a circle. So listen to this. Who's Yaakov's Gilgal? Anybody know? Yaakov is a Gilgal. Another person who has the word, he has the name Yaakov in his name, and he also has a Yosef in his name. Anybody know?
Akiva, Rav Akiva ben Yosef. Rav Akiva is the Gilgal Neshama, the Arizal cells. That Rav Akiva is the Gilgal Neshama of Yaakov Avinu. They had very interesting parallel lives. First of all, they were both shepherds for their father-in-law. They both had two wives. Yaakov was married to Rachel. Rav Akiva was married to Rachel. Then, after Rachel passed away, Rav Kiva got married to the wife of Tarnas Rufus, which correlates to Leah. There are many correlations. We know that who was the one who instituted Kriyashma? Yaakov instituted Kriyashma. What does Rav Kiva die with? He dies with the word Shema Israel, Shamal Keno Hashem Echad. There are many parallels. We can't get into it right now. There are many parallels between Rav Kiva and Yaakov Avinu. But there's one distinction. If Rav Kiva is the Gilgal Neshama of Yaakov Avinu, I would have expected. That Rivkah's son would be named Yosef.
Instead, Rivkah's father is named Yosef Which means that in this scenario, who's the teacher and who's the student? Yosef is the teacher, and Yaakov is the student. So listen to what Rivkah is. Perhaps we can suggest that Rivkah is the Gilgal Neshama of Yaakov Avinu after he learns this lesson from Yosef Atzavik. Look at Rivkah's life. What's the one thing we all know about Rivkah? Any time there's tragedy, what's Rav Kiva's response to tragedy? He laughs Like the famous Gemara in Makos when everyone's crying and seeing the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash. What does Rav Kiva say? It'll be rebuilt. But right now it's not rebuilt. Imagine you go to somebody's levaya and you start cracking up because you're like, what do you mean? Tchias Amesim? How? That's awful, no? The teretz is Rav Kiva. Having learned the lesson of Yosef Tzaddik, understand that in the moment of gullus, it's already the moment of geula.
You're already there. That's why we all know the famous Gemara. What happened? The Gemara in Brachos. The Rivakiva. He tried to go to an inn. They didn't have any room for him in an inn, so he had to stay in the forest. And what did he have in the forest? He had a candle. A donkey, and a rooster. What happened? The wind blew out the candle. The rooster got eaten by a cat. A lion ate the donkey. And what was the Rikiva saying the entire time? Famous words: Kol man da Avid Rachmanu le Tav Avid. Everything that God does is for the best. And then it was a whole story that afterwards the army came into the town and they ended up being saved. What's the simple way of understanding it? The simple way of understanding it, and most of the girls, all we all learned it this way, and it's wrong. The simple way of understanding is It was good because in the end it turned out good. That's wrong.
Rav Kiva said, "Call man to Avod Rachmano le'Tavod." When, not when it was good. Later, he said, "Call man to Avod Rachmano le'Tavod." It's good right now. That's what Rav Kiva means. Rav Kiva says, "I can live in the future because the future is the present. Everything that will be in the future is embedded in this present moment." I want to tell you something very beautiful. Last night I went to a levaya Levaya of Gitel Baszlev Halevi. When I was in high school I had a dear friend whose name was Danny Israff. Danny Israff's mother worked in our high school; she was a teacher in our high school. Danny's dad was a really good guy; he was a podiatrist. Helped my wife when we were still living in America. She had a bad podiatrist, and Doctor Israff helped her. And Duddy's grandfather Mr. Israf He worked in our school. He was a teacher in our school.
And he loved the boys. The most gentle man, perhaps I ever met. He set up breakfast every morning for us. It was real. It wasn't an institution. It wasn't yet like a built-up organization. It was just like a couple of families running a school, and the Israf family was one of the big families of our school. Mr. Israff passed away a number of years ago. And his wife passed away on Zos Chanuka. And the Levaya was last night in Eretz Yisrael, in Eretz Chayim, in Beit Shemesh. And Danny is an old friend. The Israffs were an important family for us growing up. And I wanted to pay my respects. It's hard, especially today. You are coming from Eretz Yisrael. The family is not able to come in to bury a grandmother. That's a very painful thing. I myself missed my grandmother's levaya because of Corona.
So I decided I wanted to go to the funeral to be there for the family. But it turned out that I went not for the wrong reasons, Chassid Shalom, but I went not knowing that I was going to be at one of the most inspiring funerals I have ever gone to, and I'll share with you the story that was told last night by her son, Doctor Israf. Gitel Baszov Halevi was born pre-war. Satmar Chassid. Family. It was a very close family. There were six children. She was the oldest of six children. She was a little mother herself. Dr. Israff described her youth as an idyllic time. No TV. No radio. Life was centered around Yomim Tovim, family, Shabbos. And unfortunately, the Nazis Yemach Shemam VeZichrom came, and she was taken away with her family to Auschwitz. And in Auschwitz, she met the butcher Mangala Yemach Shemam VeZichrom And Mangala looked at her father and said, "To the right." He's going to labor.
He looked at the mother to the left, and we all know what the left meant. He looked at the oldest daughter, Gitel Bazevalevi. To the right with your father. The rest of the family was sent to the left. This young girl did not want to be separated from her family. She didn't know what it meant to the left to the right. Nobody told them. So she jumps out of the line. She tries to be on the other side. And Mengela himself grabs her. He says, "You go where I tell you to go." And her mother starts saying, 'You don't understand. She's a sick girl. She's anemic. She has headaches.' And Mengela literally didn't listen to a word the mother said and miraculously threw her back on the other side of the line. When she got to Auschwitz, she was told. From the people that were there, everybody that wasn't there in the labor camp was being burned in the crematorium.
She refused to believe it until she was separating out the clothing from all of the yidden that were burned in the crematorium, and she found the clothing that her mother had made for her siblings, for Yamtiv. And then she realized it was just her and her dad. And she pushed through. In Auschwitz She pushed through because she said, "I have to live. I have a father. I have to take care of my father." At some point, they were separated. And somehow she made it through Auschwitz. She goes back to her hometown. Dr. Israff described it as Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the atom bomb. There was nothing left of their old lives. It was like, did we really grow up here? And in that point, she found out that her father didn't make it through the Holocaust. She's a 14-year-old girl. Alone in the world. She made it to America.
She married Mr. Israf. Who was an amazing husband. The relationship that they had was exceptionally special. She had two children. They had children. Grandchildren. Great grandchildren. Dr. Isseroff said in the Levaya last night As a 14-year-old girl How did you How did you survive? How did you make it? We can't even imagine what that means. To lose one loved one is tragic. To lose several is Beyond anything we could imagine, to be 14 and alone in the world because the Nazis took everything from you. We have no idea what that means. Doctor Israel said, "Where did you get the strength to continue? How do you have the strength to carry on?" And she said, "In the cattle cars" Her father davened, and he said Rabbanu Shalom, please spare at least one of my children so that we can continue. And I was the answer to his prayer.
So I carried that with me in my entire life, and I said, "I have to be the answer to my father's tefila." At her ninetieth birthday party two years ago, one of Dunny's sisters asked her grandmother What's your answer to Hitler? And she smiled and she said This is my answer. My beautiful children Grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. This is my answer to Hitler. But what struck me most And the reason I was so deeply inspired Was Doctor Israff said about his mother. She was the happiest Most besimchadik person that you could ever imagine. And even as we were walking her to the final resting place, and I was walking next to Doctor Israff I said, Doctor Israff, that was one of the most exceptional hespedim I've ever heard. She didn't have depression. She didn't have post-traumatic stress disorder. She didn't live like that. She lived with exceptional simcha.
And so I thought about it. I was like, how does that work? How does a person live like that? How does a person know To find the strength to carry on? Where does that come from? I think I think I would give up. I think probably most people would. And yet that generation didn't. And I think perhaps they knew the secret of the agalot that Yosef sent to Yaakov. That they understood that mashbir, that terrible place of destruction, was also a mashbir, a birthing stone. It was also a place of rebirth. And we owe everything we have here today to that generation. That generation of Jews that refused to give up on themselves, that generation of Jews that said, we can feel exceptional amounts of pain, but we're emotionally mature. And we know how to be besimcha, and we know how to rebuild. And Adar Aba The destruction is the rebirth.
I think that's what Mrs. Israf knew. Chasam Soifer says that the Agalot stand for Ayin Gullus The Gullus among the seventy nations of the world. We were always going to go into exile. The question is, will you see exile as a place of rebirth? Or will you see exile as exile? And the secret. To the Jewish longevity that we've had Is that we know that what appears to be destruction to everybody else is actually just the unfolding of Mashiach, which Beisr Hashem will come very soon.
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