Purim / Hilula of Moshe Rabbeinu - The Secret of Jewish Survival

2:00 On that note, Reb Shimon had a very special idea that I hope you guys will join us for the last mishmar of this man, which is going to be in two weeks. Next week, Beis Hashem will be the ultimate vabringan of Purim, and the week after that will be the last mishmar of this man. So Reb Shimon had a beautiful idea that we should do mishmar unplugged. Beis Hashem, in two weeks from now, there'll be things coming out from Shimon and from Yol Hafman about the upcoming mishmar that Beis Hashem will be very special and a beautiful siyum to what was a very beautiful zman. I want to share with you tonight a very special Torah because we're sitting now by the hilula. Of Moshe Rabenu by the yard side of Moshe Rabenu and by the birth of Moshe Rabenu in Zion Adar And also as we are a week before Purim It makes sense to tie all of these things together.

3:08 Which happens quite naturally. I'm sure all of you, as Hachana for Purim, have been learning Maseches Megillah. So Maseches Megillah, Tafyud Gimel Amid Beis, the Gemara says the following. Hippil poor hurhagoro. The Gemara explains, what does that mean? Tana. Kibin shanafel poor b'chaydesh adar Sameach simcha gedayla. When Hamanar Rasha When the poor, when the lottery fell out, In chaydesh adar He was unbelievably joyful. Amar and he said Nafelipur biyerech shamesh by Moshe. The lottery fell out in the month that Moshe Rabbeinu died. And this was a good siman for Haman that his war on Klal Yisrael would be successful. I'm sorry. And Haman did not know that on the seventh day of Adar, Moshe Rabbeinu died But on Zion Adar, Moshe Rabbeinu was born. So we see that the birthday and the yardside of Moshe Rabbeinu are intrinsically tied to the Yom Tov of Purim.

4:39 Because Haman Arasha was exceptionally joyful over the fact that the yardside of Moshe Rabbeinu was in Adar. But what he did not know was that Moshe Rabbeinu's birth was also an Adar. The Gemara, at first glance, seems to be very easily understandable. But like many Gemaras, when we pay attention just for a couple of more minutes And we spend a little bit of time thinking about these things, there are some obvious questions on this Gemara. First of all, the obvious question: What's the significance of the fact that Moshe Rabbeinu died in Chodesh Adar? Who cares? People die every month. This somehow has some special significance to Haman. That somehow he's going to be matsliach over Klal Yisrael because Moshe Rabbeinu died in this month. That needs to be understood. It also needs to be understood why the birth of Moshe Rabbeinu somehow counteracts the death of Moshe Rabbeinu. If anything, we would think that because death concludes a person's life That death is more powerful than birth.

5:45 There's a third question which many of the mafarshim already ask Which is why Haman knows the yartzeit of Moshe Rabenu But he doesn't know the birthday of Moshe Rabenu? Marshag gives answers to this question. Others make suggestions as well. But it is strange that if Haman Arasha was somehow aware of that which happened in the Jewish calendar, that he would know that Moshe Rabenu was born. I'm sorry that Moshe Rabbeinu died in Adar, but he doesn't know that Moshe Rabbeinu was born in Adar. But perhaps the most powerful question that I was when I was in America this past Shabbos, I heard from Rav Moshe Benowitz. He shared this question in the name of forgive me, it's escaping me. In the name of Rav Yonason Aibushitz is medayek in this Gemara very carefully. I want you to listen to the words. You'll see that this diac is a beautiful diac.

6:42 That Haman did not know that in the seventh of Adar Moshe Rabbeinu died. And in the seventh of Adar Moshe Rabbeinu was born. The Gemara just got done telling us that on the seventh of Adar Moshe Rabbeinu died, and that's why Haman was sameach simcha gedayla. That's why he was so joyful. How could the Gemara then turn around one line later and say that Haman did not know that Moshe Rabbeinu died in this month and was born in this month? We just heard a moment ago that Haman is aware that Moshe Rabbeinu died in this month. And if the Gemara only meant to say that Haman did not know that Moshe Rabbeinu was born in this month, then that's what it should have said. It seems like the Gemara is putting them together. What should the Gemara have said? If we were writing the Gemara, we would have written Kiven shenafel poor b'chaydish adar sameach simcha gadolah. Once the lottery fell out in Adar, he was very much with simcha. Amar and he said nafel he poor b'yerach shemeis b'moshe. The lottery fell out in the month that Moshe Rabbeinu died. But he didn't know that Moshe Rabbeinu was born in this month. That would have been the obvious, easy way of writing this Gemara.

8:06 Instead, the Gemara writes it in a very confusing way That Haman did not know that Moshe Rabbeinu died in this month and was born in this month. It's almost like the Gemara is tying together Moshe Rabbeinu's death and Moshe Rabbeinu's birth. So we have four questions in front of us. Question number one is what's the significance of the fact that Moshe Rabbeinu died in this month? Question number two, what's the significance of the fact that Moshe Rabbeinu was born in this month? Question number three, it seems very strange to us that Haman Arasha is aware of Moshe Rabbeinu's yartzeit but is not aware of Moshe Rabbeinu's birth. And question number four is: Why did the Gemara say it in such a strange way that Haman didn't know that Moshe Rabbeinu died in this month and was born in this month? The Gemara should have simply written that Haman did not know that Moshe Rabbeinu was born in this month.

8:56 There's a beautiful medrash in Shir Hashirim Raba. Il medrash racconta la storia del Rabbi Yehuda Anasi. Whose talmidim were falling asleep during shir? Even in the times of Rav Yudanassi, there were boys that did not go to sleep on time and were falling asleep in shir. If you can imagine such a thing So to wake them up Rav Yudanassi said a shtickle riddle. He said, "In there was one woman in Mitzrayim who gave birth to six hundred thousand children in a single birth" And who was that woman? So the medrash says that Rabbi Yehuda Nasi said that woman was Yochaveh Because Yochaveh gave birth to Moshe Rabbeinu And from Moshe Rabbeinu six hundred thousand Jews by Har Sinai came to be. It's a strange medrash. What does it mean that the Talmidim of Rabbi Yehuda Nasi were falling asleep? What does it mean that this statement woke them up somehow? What's the inner meaning of what's going on? Blessed Hashem will answer those questions soon.

10:05 But what's obvious from this medrash is that every single Jew is deeply connected to Moshe Rabbeinu. Six hundred thousand Jews by Har Sinai are considered by the medrash to be the children of Moshe Rabbeinu. And since Yochaveh is the mother of Moshe Rabbeinu and she gave birth to Moshe Rabbeinu, she is somehow responsible for the birth of six hundred thousand children. So Yochaveh gave birth to six hundred thousand children. In Tanya, the Alter Rebbe writes that every single yid has a spark, has a nitzotz of Moshe Rabbeinu inside of ourselves. Every single Jew is carrying the spark of Moshe Rabbeinu. That's why after the Chet HaEgel Hakadosh Baruch Hu said to Moshe Rabbeinu, "I'll wipe out Klal Yisrael and I'll start again with you" Because within the neshama of Moshe Rabbeinu is the neshama of every single yid, and within the neshama of every single yid is the neshama of Moshe Rabbeinu.

11:00 It's Moshe Rabbeinu that connects us. Tirsinai. That's why it's called Tiras Moshe. Moshe Rabbeinu is the one that gives us our connection, our relationship to Tiras Hashem. A Malik Who Haman is a descendant of A Malik attacks Klal Yisrael for the first time in a place called Refidim. And Chazal say that the reason they attacked us in Refidim is Sherufu Yedehem B'Tyira. This is a time when we were weak in our limit atayra. We were rougher yudei and b'tayra. We weren't holding the Torah in a strong way, and therefore we were subject to attack by Amalek. In other words, Amalek understands that a yid's connection to eternity, to Nitzchias, is only through Torah as Moshe And when a yid is chas v'shalom disconnected from a state of Moshe Rabbeinu connected to the state, disconnected from the state of Tyre So that he shayach to the world of Amalek.

12:05 Mameila, we can understand the very deep thing. Why was Haman so besimcha over the fact that the lottery fell out to destroy Klal Yisrael in the month of Adar? Because what Haman understood was not just that this was the date of Moshe Rabbeinu's death. Haman was an expert in all things Judaic. As many anti-Semites throughout history have been. They spend time studying our literature. You see online all the anti-Semites today quoting from Amare Chazal, quoting from Gemaras, sometimes quoting from Gemaras that don't even exist, often misquoting Gemaras. But you see that an anti-Semite wants to know what Klal Yisrael is all about A molek. Haman knew very well the date of Moshe Rabbeinu's birth and the date of Moshe Rabbeinu's death. What excited Haman Arasha was that this is a time where a yid is disconnected from Teyras Moshe, and just like his ancestors attacked Klal Yisrael by inrefidim when we were disconnected from Teyras Moshe So too. Haman said, "I have the opportunity to attack Klal Yisrael because when Klal Yisrael is connected to Nitzchias, when they're connected to eternity, nobody can touch them."

13:28 But now in Adar, I see they're disconnected from Nitzchias, so perhaps I have a chance to be victorious. So where was Haman's mistake? Haman's mistake was that he did not understand, and this is the mussar for tonight. That in Yiddishkeit Death is an opportunity for birth. Lema'ashu. The Gemara in Temura tells us that after Moshe Rabbeinu died, seventeen hundred halachos were forgotten. And a man whose name was Asnil ben Kanaz came along, and through different methods of pilpulim, he was able to reconstruct seventeen hundred halachos. That's not b'di'eved. That's lichat chila. The Torah has to undergo a gestational process A sort of evolution. It begins with the Torah of Moshe Rabbeinu And when Moshe Rabbeinu dies, the Torah of Moshe Rabbeinu begins to evolve. And in step one, there is a certain death—not just a physical death of Moshe Rabbeinu, but a death in a certain sense. I obviously don't mean it this way.

14:44 But there's a death in Torah itself. Seventeen hundred halachas are forgotten. But a yid steps up and through his own mind He reconstructs seventeen hundred halachas. He looks deeply inside himself and he finds the kalim that he has to bring Torah back up. And in that sense, the Torah is elevated to a place it's never been before. A yid takes a step back only to take two steps forward. The first luchos were broken. Chazal tell us that the second luchos had much more on them than the first luchos did. What appears to be death is not really death. It's one step backwards, but it's two steps forwards. This is the secret of a yartzeit in Yiddishkeit. By us, a yartzeit is celebrated because a yartzeit is an opportunity for birth. That what appears to be dead is only just beginning to flourish, like a seed underground that's being broken open, only for something unbelievable to take root and sprout forth.

15:49 This is the inner meaning of the Medrash in Shir Ashirim. And boys, listen well; this is important. Klal Yisrael is sitting in the times of Rabbi Judah Nasi. What was happening in the times of Rabbi Judah Nasi? He had to write down Torah Sheba'al Peh. Why did he have to write down Torah Sheba'al Peh? Because it was being forgotten. This was a low point in Klal Yisrael's history. We had the ability to transmit the Torah Sheba'al Peh for generations, father to son. And it was memorized and known. And it was beautiful to give over the tradition to your son. Imagine yourselves as fathers sitting with your little children. Sharing with them. I heard from my father, who heard from his father, who heard from his father. This is the halacha. What a beautiful time! And now, Klal Yisrael is in a state where the Torah needs to be written down.

16:42 That's a tragedy. Torah Shabbat is not meant to be written down. The Talmidim were falling asleep. What does it mean? They were tired. They were tired. What would Rabbi Saffir say? You're tired? You don't know what tired is. They weren't tired, Rabbi Saffir. There was a chalishus. They were looking at the world and they were saying What's going to be with us? And Rabbi Yehuda Hanassi, in that moment, brilliantly woke them up. He inspired them by telling them, "Chevra" In the worst of times, when there was a xayra against Klal Yisrael that all boys should be killed. There was a woman who came along and she said, "I'm going to have a child" And that child was Moshe Rabbeinu And six hundred thousand children came from Moshe Rabenu. What appeared to them to be death was actually the most unbelievable birth. Klal Yisrael in Galus is being destroyed only to reach Har Sinai.

17:47 Every time we go through something tragic, there's an unbelievable rebirth afterwards. It's not an accident that after the Holocaust we were eager to come back to Eretz Yisrael. That's always been the way it is throughout history. And it's the secret to our survival. When everybody else sees death, when everybody else predicts that's the end For a Yid we know that's only the beginning. The seed is being destroyed because the oak tree is about to grow. So we're not afraid of death. We celebrate death. We have yard sites because we understand that what comes next is magnificent, incredible. It's better than it was before. This was the message that Rav Yudanassi was sending to his talmidim. And definitely a message that we need to be hearing in our times. We are living, Rabbi Say, in the strangest of times. On the one hand The tragedy of the last year and a half has been enormous.

18:49 But on the other hand, if you're paying attention Not only in this country but worldwide We're seeing an unbelievable rebirth. How many people are putting on tefillin? How many people are keeping Shabbos? How many people are doing mitzvos? We're hearing unbelievable stories about Mr. Bibas, who in captivity was offered the opportunity to convert to Islam, and they would treat him more nicely. And a man who, as far as I understand, is not an observant Jew. Said, "I was born a Jew, and I will die a Jew." These are not one-off stories. We're hearing them time and time again. I saw—I didn't see the whole video, so I could be saying it wrong. I think in New York this past week there was something like we want to break the record of people putting on tefillin. Over a thousand people who don't generally put on tefillin came and put on tefillin.

19:47 It's an unbelievable rebirth that's happening. It's happening to us on a national level, and Rabbi Yisai It's happening right here in yeshiva too. There's a big machlokas between the Rosh Yeshiva and myself. Every year we have this machlokas. Every year the Rosh Yeshiva maintains that he's correct, and every year I maintain that I'm correct. And you have every right to go over to the Rosh Yeshiva and say, "Rav Berg shared with us the machlokas." I'm privileged to work with Rav Isaacson. It's an unbelievable thing to work with one of your closest friends, who also happens to be a rebbe of mine. And I'm machnia myself to him in every single. In every single way, except for this one This is the machleikus. You wanted to hear a machleikus and mevaseret. You won't find any between me and the rosh except for this. The rosh says You got to end the zman strong.

20:41 You have to use every minute of the zman. Time is running out. The sand is—I'll be like the rosh. The sand is dripping through the hourglass." And I I niakatan. I have a mesorah from my rebbeim. Zmanim don't end; they peter out. At the end of the zman There's weakness. One guy said to me today: 'He said, Rebbe, I'm already on chutz laaretz.' My head. I'm already back in. I'm already back on some Pesach program. Sitting by the pool Sipping a diet coke. Kosher for Pesach, of course. It's hard And guys are already feeling it, and guys are coming in and saying I feel like I'm having a yurida A vice side. A yurida in Yiddishkeit is a beautiful thing. It's the opportunity for rebirth. The Rosh Yeshiva is 100 correct. Our attitude ought to be that the sand is slipping through the hourglass, and we ought to grab every single moment. He's 100% right.

22:12 But my rabbis were also right. At the end of the zman, it's hard. At the end of the zman, maybe we're not being as makhpit as we were during the zman. It doesn't feel like it felt during Asmadu week, or it doesn't feel like it felt before Chanukah, where I was really pushing myself. It's hard at the end of the zman. And maybe I feel like I've had a yirida. And if you have, Rabbi, say you're a lucky man. Because a yirida is the opportunity for an aliyah. Because you have to know that the process of life is breaking and growing, and breaking and growing, and ups and downs. That's the cycle of life, and it's natural, and it's normal, and it's healthy, and it's good. Because where you were is awesome But if you want to get higher, you have to go through a process of yirida first. The acorn has to break open in order to become the oak.

23:01 What Haman doesn't understand about Klal Yisrael, listen to the lashon of the Gemara Rabbeinu. Rabbi Yonason Aibush says it's diac is unbelievable. What did Haman not know? Did Haman not know the birthday of Moshe Rabbeinu? Avada Haman knew the birthday of Moshe Rabbeinu, just like he knew the yard site. But listen to the lashon. He didn't know the secret that on the seventh day Moshe Rabbeinu died. And on the seventh day Moshe Rabbeinu was born. He didn't know that life comes after death. For Amalek, for Esav All there is death. Death is the end. That's the whole life of Esav. Hinei anochi hailech lamus. I'm going to die. Once the seed cracks, that's all there is. He doesn't know the secret of Klal Yisrael. We're sitting here by the hilulah of Meisher Abenu, by the yard side of Meisher Abenu, and I'm watching. I'm watching that the death of Meisher Abenu is also the birth of six hundred thousand children. Rabbi, take a moment.

24:09 Take a moment and look at the year that you've had. Look how you grew since Elul. Look how you grew. Are you so proud of yourself? Aye, but Rabbi, I didn't maximize. I had yiridus. I did things that I'm not proud of. I came into the year with certain goals and ambitions, and I didn't reach all those goals and ambitions. So you're a work in progress. Kol hakavod to you. But look at the birth. You're only looking at the death. That's a malach. You're only looking at the things you didn't accomplish. It's awesome that you have ambition. But do you realize that every down you went through in your life. Gave birth to something unbelievable. That when Moshe Rabbeinu dies, Asniel Ben Kenaz comes along and he says, "I can figure this out. I can draw that Torah from within myself." When the Lebabitz Rebbe died, they said that was the end. It was the end. There's no more shluchim. Who in the world, without the Rebbe to inspire them, will you see thousands of Jews going out all over the globe to be makariv klal yisrael to find a Jew and do a mitzvah with him?

25:12 Everybody predicted that it was the end, and everybody was wrong. The number of shluchim since the Lubavitcher Rebbe died has more than doubled. Because people found the message of the Rebbe inside of themselves. The Rebbe said, "Search out every Jew in love," and as long as the Rebbe was alive, we had his voice. When the Rebbe died, now we need to find it within ourselves to search out every single Jew in love. Rabbi, say if you've had a yirida this year, you're a lucky man. Because it means you had the opportunity to become more authentic. Not just to live off of inspiration, but to find that voice deep within yourself, which may be the truest form of inspiration. Maybe it's the only real form of inspiration. We're heading now towards Bein Azmanim. We have to prepare ourselves. Guys, how am I going to stay strong over Bein Azmanim?

26:04 It's the wrong question. The question is not how I am going to stay strong. That anybody can answer. Hey, you'll have your starim, make a chavrusa, pick a mesecta, have a special project. You're going to get a million etzos. Rabbi said, "There's a much better question to ask: Am I cultivating within myself the courage to be able to get up after I fall? Because I surely will fall. Because that's what life is about." Life is not about staying on top of the mountain. It's about constantly rediscovering new peaks that I never knew existed. Am I cultivating a belief system within myself that if I fall, it's just an opportunity to get up? That's the secret of the Nitzchis of Klal Yisrael. Haman thought he could defeat us because he knew the date that Moshe Rabbeinu died. Haman didn't know he picked the worst possible month.

26:55 That's when we get up off the mat. That's when we discover new dimensions of ourselves. Rabbi, I think to yourself Think to yourself what's happened in Klal Yisrael in the last eighty years. I know you're eighteen years old, but let's learn a little bit of history. They predicted after the Holocaust that all of this would be gone. It would be nothing. They did not predict that shuls would be beautiful and built all over the world. They didn't predict the Beis Yakov explosion, the seminary explosion, the yeshiva explosion. They didn't predict any of it. They certainly didn't predict that a place like Mevaseret would have hundreds of guys coming to yeshiva every year and guys staying in for mishmar on a Thursday night because they just want to get close to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Nobody predicted that Except for the leaders of Klal Yisrael, who said, 'Wait and see what happens next.'

27:45 It's an unbelievable thing that we're building And you guys are the next link in the chain. And having the fortitude, having the grit, having the resilience to get up off the mat means I have a belief system that just because I took one step backward doesn't mean that I'm not about to explode and take five steps forward. You see, guys I'm 17 years in Mevaseret as a rebbe. You see, guys, from 17 years ago, and you want to know the difference between who makes it and who doesn't. You want to know the difference between the guys that you really see? Hashem is still at the center of their lives. They're the guys that knew that just because you fell doesn't mean you're not going to get back up. Ravelberger was my first Talmud in Mevaseret. He was in that first year. And I've watched him grow over 17 years.

28:39 And he's a gem. He's a tachshit. Anybody who has the opportunity to hear Torah from Ravelberger is seeing somebody very special. And I want you to know it was obvious to everybody in the yeshiva back then that Ravelberger was going to become Ravelberger Because he had unbelievable she'ifas for growth. He came into yeshiva and he said, "I want it." And he became the leader of the yeshiva in many ways, in the beis medrash and out of the beis medrash. But something I've learned from Ravelberg over the last 17 years—something I didn't know about him when he was shnayalof—doesn't matter what came to him It doesn't matter what things happened in his life. He was How shall I say this? He was not to be denied greatness. No matter how many things, no matter how many trials and tribulations we all have. He was not to be denied greatness, and he pushed himself until he became a rebbe in yeshiva.

29:37 And you know what's wild? There are people in this room. Right now That are like that. Guys that have been sticking like crazy this year. Guys that are awesome. I'm inspired every day to be in this yeshiva and see how the guys are pushing themselves. But the biggest bracha that I can give you is not that you're ambitious when you're shana oliv and shana bet. In a certain sense, it's easy. You're in yeshiva. What could be hard? You have rebbeim all around you. You have a beautiful kumsitz. You have a beautiful fabregen. You guys are going to have an unbelievable Shabbos with Rosteiners this week. Rosteiners is a Mayan of Torah. You have an unbelievable opportunity to sit at the base of that pot that's overflowing with Torah and just be yonik it in. It's easy to be ambitious now. But be the guy that in twenty years from now says "Life had its ups and downs, but I stayed the course and I saw death as an opportunity for rebirth." That's the single biggest bracha that I can give you guys, and I hope that you'll bless me back. That we should be zoicha together, BeEzrus Hashem Just as we see Chalal Yisrael is doing it on a national level, we should be doing it on our own, Avodas Hashem. One step forward, one step backwards. Two steps forward, one step backwards. Three steps forwards until BeEzrus Hashem, we grow into the people that we're meant to become.