Rising Like a Lion - How We Can Respond to the War With Iran

2:43 A missile fell literally a stone's throw away from my brother's house. And just the size of these missiles are absolutely enormous. It was shot down by the Iron Dome. The video that he showed, I think it was a third of the missile and the third of it was enormous. You're talking about missiles that are coming in that are the size of 18-wheeler trucks. Shammi rah from Hakadosh Baruch Hu It could die for us to take a couple of moments and to examine what our response should be, what we're designed, what we're meant to do in moments like this. I'm not one to ascribe meaning to things. I don't know what happens in Shammai Yim. But like Rav Tzadok HaKoan Meleblin says, while we don't know Hakadosh Baruch's plan before things happen, we definitely can know Haqqadosh Baruch Hu's plan after something happens. The moment anything happens, we now know that it was part of Haqqadosh Baruch Hu's plan.

4:11 I don't think it's an accident that the people that chose the name for this operation against Iran chose the name Rising Lion. And even though I don't know what their intention was, I do know that it's clearly a message for us, especially because they took the name of the operation from a Pasuchan Tyra. The Pasak is Karah Shachav K'ariu k'lavi mi'i k'imenu Mevarachach Barach lo'erechah ora He who crouches and lies like a lion and like a lioness, who will dare rouse him? Those who bless you shall be blessed and those who curse you shall be cursed. It is phenomenally fascinating that Hakadosh Baruch Hu saw fit that the name of this operation should be named after this Pasak. And I'd like today to examine a couple of different aspects of what the notion of a lion is in Hashgah for throughout Tyra. Rashi on this Pasach tells us what does it mean karaa shachav kahri that he who crouches and lies like a lion.

5:18 Rashi says, kittargumo like Targum unkolos explains Yis yashvul ba'arzam b'kohach ugvurah. He settles the land with might and with power, with kohach and gvura. So we're going to take a look at a couple of things today. Number one, what does it mean to crouch and lie like a lion? And then, hopefully by the end of this year, we will also have an insight into what Rashi means, that we settle our land with kohach and gvura. So a couple of key Yisraelos. This first question that we're going to deal with is why must it be that the divine plan is that Klal Yisrael goes into Golis? Why is that critical that we have to go into Golis and then eventually go to Gula? We've lost the opportunity to perform so many mitzvos throughout our history. In fact, most mitzvos cannot be fulfilled today. So it's very interesting The Rebbe Nachlam's plan is to take us away in a certain sense from his service.

6:20 Is there no other way that we could bring the world to its ultimate rectification while having a Beis Hamik Dush while living in times of redemption? Why must we pull back before going forward? And we see that this concept is obviously throughout, you find it throughout, you know, tons of HaShkaf Esfahrem, the notion of Yeridol Etzor HaChalia that a Jew has to go down before Before He Goes Up Shavu Yippel at Tzadik V'kom That the Tzadik falls down seven times before he gets up. What's the idea here? So the Baal Shem Tov explains a lion crouches before it attacks its prey. That what we perceive as pulling back is actually like a spring, like the coil of a spring pulling back to shoot forward. And what we're learning here is that it's not possible for us to achieve a closeness to Hakadosh Baruch Hu in this world without first going down, without first pulling back, even if it means that there are certain mitzvos that we will not be able to perform through in history.

7:27 What we can look at in Klal Yisrael, we could look at it the wrong way and the right way, we could look at it the wrong way and we could see that we're heading in a downward We could look at all those Jews that are not yet Shammretor or Mitzvos. And a person could look at the state of Klal Yisrael and think to themselves of all the assimilation that's going on. A person might Chas Beshalom come to think that we're on a downward trend. When in reality the nature of the lion is that we were crouching in order to attack its prey. And the Aliyah that we see that comes after the Yeridah is absolutely enormous. The Chuval movements that are happening throughout Israel right now are unbelievable to watch. I'm sure so many of you have seen, if not all of you have seen, that amazing video of that left-wing Jew on the news who's a news reporter here and he puts on a yarmulke, anidavins.

8:20 There's something stirring in the heart of Yiddin, not just in Eretz Yisrael, certainly in Eretz Yisrael, not just in Eretz Yisrael, but also throughout the entire world right now. The Gomorrah is a deep identification with what it means to be a Jew right now. So it may have appeared that we were moving backwards but in reality it wasn't true at all. Which brings me to the next point which is the halach and shokhanar. The halach and shokhanar based on the Gomorrah is chamishe minay chayah muaadimitriyasan. There are five animals that they are considered a muaad. You're considered like regular to damage. That's the nature of who they are. If you have for example the Shokhirah says a lion and the lion has lived with you for many many years and you think you've trained a lion for many many years.

9:30 The Halaqah is you have never domesticated a lion. You have to understand the nature of a lion is that it attacks. It cannot be domesticated and therefore if you are a lion trainer, I don't know why anyone would be, but if you are a lion trainer and you think your lion is a domesticated animal, you take your lion out for a walk, know that when your animal does damage, it's because the lion was never truly domesticated. The lion was never truly domesticated The Rebbe Rachab, the Freidig Rebbe reported that the Rebbe Rachab on a platform of a Leningrad train station in the summer of 1927 was about to take the train that would take him into exile because he had stood against the communist regime and continued to teach Tyra, so he was being exiled. As he was on the platform he declared, he said, only our bodies were sent into Golis and Subjugated to Captivity But our Neshamas were never given over into the capacity of the foreign

11:05 leaders. That's something that a Jew has to know, that we have never truly been in Golis. From the time of Yisrael's Mitzrayim, a Jew has never truly been in Golis. There have been times where we've been oppressed, but that's only on the level of our bodies. On the level of our souls, we have never been domesticated. Everything Has Changed. The Jewish soul remains eternally, essentially, intrinsically connected to Hakadosh Baruch Hu and that will never be taken away from us. This explains, as the Altar Rebbe says in Tanya, why when a Jew is faced with the opportunity to be Maisir Nefesh, he is willing to give his life, al-Kiddush Hashem, even if this is a Jew that wouldn't live for Yiddish Chai, he is certainly willing to die for Yiddish Chai as we have seen time of the time in the base of Migdosh were davening and fasting for three days and three nights that Akhil Dushbaruch Hu should remove the Yitzer Ha'araf Rav Adzara. And at the end of three days and

12:33 three nights the form of a fiery lion cub came forth from the Kaidushakadoshom. And when the lion came out, so they caught it by one of its hairs, and it let out a shriek of pain, the Gemara Hakadosh Baruch Hu Chazal g-d The GRAU says in his commentary on Seder Eilom Rabah, the Seder Eilom Rabah tells us about the time that prophecy finished and the time of Alexander the Great. So the GRAU's commentary on Seder Eilom says, Pirush Mish'har gu'yetzahara bat lahanavuwa When did we lose prophecy? Rif Salik HaKoan also says this in many places, but I think it's from the GRAU first. I think really it's from a Sefer HaKassidim before that. But the GRAH explains that when we davened to lose the Ezahara for Avedazara, we also davened, I'm sorry, we also lost the capacity for Nevuah. In other words, our capacity to connect deeply to Akkadosh Baruch Hu in a certain sense was cut off a little bit in order so that we shouldn't have such a strong tayvah for Avedazara.

14:07 But that lion was trapped in that cauldron, the person has to know that even though the The lion was trapped, the lion was never domesticated. So we have right now a state of being where our Nashama which is being compared to a Lion and that Lion was trapped so that we wouldn't, it was let out of the Kaidashakadosh, the Kaidashakadosh was representative of our Nashama. When the Lion goes out of the Kaidashakadosh and now it's trapped, it's caged, it's like being domesticated so to speak. So a person could Khasba Shalom think I've lost that Lion from within me. It's not true. The Lion Can Never Be Domesticated Eventually, in the Mosamah Shiach, we will have a return of Nivuah, we will have a return of prophecy, because that Lion will be restored into the Kedash HaKadoshim. We temporarily took it out of the Kedash HaKadoshim in order that we shouldn't have such a tayvah for Avaid Zara.

14:59 But of course, it goes without saying that eventually this Lion will be restored into the Kedash HaKadoshim. This is the Lion of the Jewish Soul that can never be domesticated. This is the Lion of the Jewish Soul that there's no doubt still resides within every single Jew. It's critical to know this in these times because as we are in the midst of this war, and I don't even know how to count the amount of fronts that this war is taking place on. If you do the math, it's pretty wild to try to do the math. So we have unfortunately, we have the Palestinian Authority, which they're nowhere near the good guys. We have Hamas, we have Hezbollah, we have Syria, we have Iran, we have the Houthis. There's so many fronts to this war and even though Bar-Hesham al-Pidar-Hah, again, it appears that we are winning this war. It appears that we're winning this war on all fronts.

15:58 But a person should not Chazvashalom come to think that just because we're winning this war means that we're in the clear. That's not the way this works. We are certainly in the midst of frightening times, not frightening in the sense that we don't have emunah, just frightening alpider HaTavah, that there's so much going on. It's a funny thing that's happening here in Eretz Yisrael. When a missile is fired into Eretz Yisrael, we're now asking the question, is it an Iranian missile or a Houthi missile? Because the Houthim aren't as good with the missiles. The Iranians are better with them. And even my children are like, ah, it's a Houthi missile. They don't know what they're doing. The notion that we are under attack is absolutely true and when we are under attack that's when we have to access the innermost recesses of our soul, the lion nature of our soul that has perhaps been crouching but is about to pounce. This is the undomesticated part of us that there is no doubt that it is absolutely about to come to the fore and we're waiting for the The Lion nature of our soul that has perhaps been crouching but is about to pounce.

16:56 This is the undomesticated part of us that there is no doubt that it is absolutely about to come to the fore and we're witnessing this happening. And if you're going to say to me, but what about those Jews that we see right now that are very publicly anti-Israel, there are certain left-wing Jews right now in the media that are very publicly anti-Israel, you'll see, by the sasham, with those people too, you'll You'll see that right now it's a very misguided part of them that yearns to be doing the right thing and doing the true thing and unfortunately they're under the influence of foreign influences and therefore they don't understand right now the truth that this war is just and appropriate and Adirabah is a war that's ultimately going to be Hashem, Ravil, Mashiach. They don't know that right now but even what they're attempting to do is they're attempting

18:19 Danyel and the Lions The idea is that Dariavesh Madal was 62 years old when he became king and he appointed 120 officials to help him run his empire in Persia. There were three governors over the 120 officials. Daniel was one of those governors and he excelled in his role so greatly that the king considered appointing him to be prime minister second only to Dariavesh. The other officers didn't like this so as it happened throughout history they conspired against him. They looked at Danyel and said we have no way to bring him down. He has not done anything wrong. He is a faithful and honest servant to the king. So they made a fascinating plot to bring down Danyel. What did they do? They went to the king and said as follows. Let's make a 30 day ban on making any requests of man or God but the king. For 30 days if anyone has any request they can only come to the king.

19:51 And the motivation here for the king was this is going to cement your authority, that you are the one who grants all requests. And they said anyone who violated this law would be thrown into a pit of lions. And Dar Yavash said this is a good idea and he turned it into law. Daniel, of course, had not been consulted about this plan, and when he heard about the new law, so he went home and he davened. Of course, he couldn't daven publicly in a shul because there was a new ban in place. But he continued to daven three times a day in his house, facing Yerushalayim just as before. And this is exactly what the other officers expected him to do, and they caught him while he was davening, and they reported it to the king. The king was at a loss now. He didn't know what to do. Dayash didn't know what to do.

20:36 On the one hand, he was very fond of Danielle and the king wasn't happy to have to throw Danielle to the lions, but ultimately, what was he supposed to do? Especially in those times, we know from the Purim story, the law is considered the law. And he had no choice, but he threw Danielle into a pit with the lions and he encouraged Danielle actually and he said, hopefully, Akkadosh Baruch Hu will save you. They placed a stone over the pit and that sealed, and they sealed the stone with the The Yavish was terribly upset by this entire story. He couldn't eat and he couldn't sleep. He got up before dawn and went to the pit. He began to cry over the pit. He said, Danil, was God able to save you from the lions? And Daniel answered that Hakadosh Baruch Hu sent an angel to close the lion's mouths so they would not harm him.

21:30 And also you should know, my davening had nothing to do with insubordination to the king. The lions the entire night, they lied there like dogs at his feet, totally docile. The king was totally relieved about this. He understood that it was a miracle. And he ordered Daniel to be taken out of the pit. And then he ordered all of those people that had framed Daniel to be thrown into the pit with their wives and their children. And just to show that the lions hadn't refrained from eating Daniel because they weren't hungry, immediately these ravenous lions, they pounced on their new victims even before they reached the ground and they killed all of these officers and all of their wives and all of their children. Dariavish ultimately wrote a letter to all the people of his empire declaring that the God of Danil should be recognized as the one true living God who is eternal and that God has the ability to work miracles and to save Danil from the pit.

22:28 So this is a fascinating story of Danil's encounter with the lions. And I'd like to just take a couple of minutes to explain the inner nature of what this story is about. In order to do that, let us turn to a completely different parasha. We're going to talk about the inauguration of the Mishkan. Am Yisrael was waiting for the Shechina to return after the Kheta Eiga. So they were inaugurating the Mishkan. They were waiting for the Shechina to return. And at the conclusion of the eight days of the inauguration of the Mishkan, it finally happened that the Shechina returned. Moshe Rabbeinu and Aaron Akowin entered and exited the Mishkan and they blessed Klal Yisrael and they said Vayirach veid Hashem iskol L'amneo, the glory of Hashem became visible to all of Klal Yisrael Vat teitzei Eish millef nei Hashem, vat tochalal mizbeach, asa'olav, asa'olavim, vayar kol ha'am, vayarano vayi'plu ap'neim, a fire descended from heaven and and consumed the burnt offerings and the fat on the Mzbeach and the entire nation saw and rejoiced and bowed down.

23:37 This fire that came down, the fire that is eternally on the Mzbeach, the fire that came down on the eighth day, Chazal Sey, the Gemara Numa 21b says that this fire in the first Beis Hamikdash appeared like a crouching lion. Again we have this imagery of a crouching lion but the Zohar Hakadosh gives us a fascinating, fascinating insight into the nature of this crouching lion that consumes the carbonos on the Mzbeach. The Zohar Hakadosh tells us that this fire is actually the Malach Uriel. It's the Malach Uriel in a fiery form with the appearance of a crouching lion.

24:51 This is the imagery of the lion on the Mzbeach The second description is that it appears as a great lion standing over a carbon. So we have two different imageries here from the zor. One that it's a powerful lion standing over its prey and two that it's a great lion standing over the carbon. The question is, what are the differences between these two descriptions of this lion that really is the Malach Riel in fiery form? The first description represents the Ka'ach of Gvurah, the power of Gvurah. What does that mean? So this is first of all why the lion is described as powerful, right? It's gibor, it's very strong. And the fact that it's standing over its prey, it's like it suggests a certain level of din, a certain level of judgment that's occurring to that animal as the lion is about to pounce on it. Even we know that the Chazal tell us in the Mishnah that we We should be Gebor K'ari, we should be strong like a lion.

25:53 In fact the Gematria of the word Aryeh has the same Gematria as the word Gvurah. So we see that there's a deep connection between a lion and the notion of Gura, the notion of power, the notion of strength. The second description of the Zawar is all about Chassid. That's why the lion is described as great. Think about greatness like largess. It's a lesson of like Chassid, like it has a lot to share. The Carbon is from the last of Kiruv, which means to draw close. So Chesed is like this largess of the lion and it's consuming the carbon. It's drawing Klal Yisrael close. That's why Yechesk L'Anavi in his description of the Merkava describes the lion on the right-hand side of the Merkava. The right-hand side always represents Chesed. That's why Yemim M'Karevas. We always draw something close with the right hand. So we have in front of us now two descriptions from the Zohar al-Qadosh of this lion.

26:53 The first description of the Zohar al-Qadosh is Gvurah, the lion as a gibor, standing over its prey. The second description is the lion as Ghesed, drawing us close. There's an obvious question here. The Babit Reba discusses this in one of his sihahs. There's an obvious question here. Ghesed and Gvurah go together. Ghesed and Gvurah are not two separate things. The Aryeh clearly represents both Chesed and Gvura simultaneously. It's possible to discipline with love. A person could discipline their child without being rough on their children. So you could have Chesed and Gvura go together. Why then does the Zorach Chadosh split these two things? Why does it say one description and then another? It was possible for the Zorach Chadosh to describe this by saying the lion was a powerful A carbon itself has elements of both Gvur and Chassid. On the one hand the carbon is elevated, that's the fire that goes up, that's Gvurah.

28:25 And on the other hand it brings Hashem down into the world and creates more of a relationship. That's Chassid. So we see this paradox is not only true by a lion, it's also true by a carbon itself. Why does the Zohar split it? And there's a very simple answer to this question that's going to have massive ramifications, but the answer is as follows. It really depends on the situation. When the lion is standing above its prey, then Gvura is being expressed. And the Chassid is being hidden. And when the lion stands above the carbon, Chassid is revealed and Gvura is hidden. Which means, of course, the lion is both Chassid and Gvura. It just depends on the situation. Sometimes you see the G'hezid and the G'vurah is hidden. Sometimes you see the G'vurah and the G'hezid is hidden. What's the difference though? Why is this so important?

29:15 So the Zohar K'adosh has an introduction that we skipped, and I want to now move to the introduction. The introduction is as follows. The Zohar, before it gave us this whole imagery of the lioness G'vurah and then the lioness G'hezid, the Zohar said as follows. A person, a servant, a citizen sends a gift to the king. And the king appreciates the gift that's being given. So he tells his servant, go accept the gift from this citizen. The Zara K says in the same way when we bring a carbon, Hakadosh Baruch who sends, Hakadosh Baruch who's obviously the king, instructs Uriel who's his servant to go down as the fiery consumer of carbonos and accept the gift. In other words, Uriel as this great lion, the Lion of Chassid, is going down to accept our carbon where he's accepting our Chassid, so to speak. So there's actually two dimensions to the Malach Uriel. There's the Malach Uriel in his natural state and then there's the Malach Uriel in his expanded state. The natural state of Uriel is Gavurah. So the Malach Uriel is naturally a Malach that tends towards the side of Gavurah, Like a powerful lion standing over its prey.

30:43 But when Hakadosh Baruch Hu instructs Uriel to go down and consume a carbon, and which is of course stimulated by the fact that we brought the carbon, we're bringing a gift to Hashem, Uriel himself converts from Gvurah into Chassid, which is why the Ramaz points out that Uriel, the Gematria, is the same Gematria as Avram. And Avram is of course the Mida of Chassid. So there's the natural uriel, that's the meedah of gvurah, and then there's uriel converted into chassid. Why is this important to know? Let's go back to the eight inauguration days of the Mishkan. For seven days, Moshe Rabbeinu was bringing carbonos in the Mishkan and the shina was not there. The shina wasn't there. Now there's an obvious question. If the Shechina wasn't there, then how could the carbonus be brought during those days? Minimimanov Shach. If the Shechina is there, then the Shechina is already there.

31:46 The Shechina wasn't there on the eighth day. It must have been there on the first seven days. If the Shechina wasn't there on the first seven days, then how could Mashi Rabbeinu have brought a carbon? So the Rebbe says as follows. There's actually multiple levels of Shechina. So there's Shrina that comes from the natural, what's called Seder Hishtasholus, the natural order of creation. And then there's a Shrina, a level of Shrina that's even above that. So I'll try to explain what this means as follows. It's possible through human effort alone to draw down the Shrina into our world. It's possible through the mitzvos that we do to bring Hakadosh Baruch Hu's presence and Tereviel Hakadosh Baruch Hu's presence down here in this world but there is a higher level Than that what's called beyond this day they're histolcialists where Hakadosh Baruch Hu's presence Cannot be brought down by any human endeavor it's a much higher level of shrina it's not Possible for us to reach it even with the neshamas that we have this level of shrina is simply Beyond Our Grasp? That has to come down from Hakadosh Baruch Hu Himself. There is one problem with the second level, and the problem is a problem that's discussed at length in the Mepharshan. The problem is called Nama de Kisufa. Nama de Kisufa literally means the bread of shame. When we get

33:13 something from Hakadosh Baruch Hu that we did not earn, it's disempowering for us. It's like, You gave me something but I didn't do anything to deserve it so like what does it mean for us? So, in order to avoid this namadikisufa, even though we on our own, through no human endeavor, can bring down this level of shrina, Hakadosh Baruch Hu creates an avodah that we can do that will be the motivator, so to speak, for Hakadosh Baruch Hu to reveal this level of shrina. And that's the avodah of the eighth day. In other words, for seven days within the Mishkan, we did everything humanly possible to bring down the Shrina and we were of course successful to bring down the Shrina. Otherwise, we couldn't have brought the Karbanos. What eluded us after those seven days? What was still missing that Klal Yisrael was nervous? Is the Shrina going to come down?

34:09 There was the ultimate level of the shtina that's beyond any human endeavor. That level of shtina had not yet been revealed until the eighth day. What changed on the eighth day? What was the difference between the first seven days and the avodah of the first seven days versus the avodah of the eighth day? So it goes as follows. Aaron Akkon is trying to atone, he's trying to bring a kapara for the chayta'egah. So for the first seven days of the inauguration of the Mishkan, he brought a bull. He brought a bull offering, a par offering to the Mishkan to atone for the chayta'egah. But on the eighth day he brought a calf. He brought a calf. Okay? And on the eighth day, Akkadosh Baruch Hu says, now you know that I have forgiven you. Now you know that I have forgiven you. What changed over here? Why was another carbon required on the 8th day?

35:09 You see the Loshan is now you know that I forgave you. On the first 7 days, Hakadosh Baruch Hu had already forgiven Aaron Cohen. On the 8th day he says now you know that I forgave you. But what level of kapara is being added? In other words, in the first 7 days, Aaron Cohen was forgiven. So what was the Chiddish of the 8th date? Now you know that you were forgiven. So it goes as follows. There's two levels of kapara. One is called Kaparas Naftsho. We have no more liability. We were forgiven for the Aveira that we did. That is within, say, their hishtalshos. That's within a person's capacity to do, within human endeavor. We can cleanse ourselves of any liability that we have when we do an Avera. It's like we can restore ourselves to health. But there's a higher level of kapara that needs to come from Hashem.

36:03 That's the eighth day. What is that? And this is such a powerful idea. I can still bring nachas to Hashem. You know, you can repair a relationship and everything could be good, but there's no more love. Imagine like for example a husband and a wife that go through an exceptionally hard time for a very long period of time. You know after like 20 years of hurting each other so they could like finally apologize and they could like recognize all of the mistakes that they've made, they could even forgive each other but it could be Chasvashallam that the relationship is just beyond repair at that I forgive you but I just don't love you anymore like there's no yachas between us For seven days, arne cohen did everything that needed to be done in order to take responsibility for the chaita egel and to apologize to the Rebbe nesha'im and the Rebbe nesha'im forgave him But there was a dimension that Klal Yisrael felt they said you forgave us do we still have a yachas? Do we still bring nachas to you?

37:13 Do you have nachas from us? Do you want to be here? Do you want to be here with us? That was the level of shrina that Klal Yisrael felt was missing in the first seven days of the inauguration of the Mishkan. So Aaron Akoyn on the eighth day, he says, I'm going to bring a calf. I want to, so to speak, come to Hakadosh Baruch on the eighth day beyond seven, beyond natural, beyond the Seder Hishtashalos, beyond the natural order of creation. And I want to bring a gift to the king. And what happens when we bring a gift to the king? It spurs Hakadosh Baruch Hu to send the Malach Uriel down and receive our gift. What is that adding? When Hakadosh Baruch Hu sends the Malach Uriel down, and now we're talking of the Malach Uriel as Chesed, it shows that Arne Cohen loves Hashem and Hashem loves Arne Cohen.

38:04 He cherishes Arne Cohen. The relationship is not only still intact, it's still beautiful. It's still delicious, it still gives nachas to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. This is what happened on the eighth day. For seven days we were forgiven. On the eighth day, Arne Koein came like a citizen to the king and brought a gift and said, I know I've been forgiven. The question is, do you still love me? Do you still cherish me? This was the chassid of the eighth day that Hakadosh Baruch Hu came down to the Mishkan. He sent Malachur Yal to consume the carbon. An expression of the cherished nature of the relationship between Klal Yisrael and Hakadosh Baruch Hu, even after the terrible Aveira of the Eigel Azav. Why is this important? It's important because we have to understand that within the Seder Hishtasholos, that's Gvurah, beyond the Seder Hishtasholos is Chassid.

38:58 We want to transform Gvurah into Chesed. We want to get to the inner nature of all things, which is Hakadosh Baruch, who is a Baal Chesed. Using this idea, this unbelievable idea, that the lion that consumes the carbonos is Gvurah for the first seven days, but ultimately it's Chesed. Ultimately the lion is a representation of Hakadosh Baruch who is saying our relationship is still cherished. That's why the Zora Kaldosh has it, one and then two. First Uriel is Gvura and then he becomes Chassid. This will help us explain that unbelievable story of Daniel with the lions in the pit. The king in Persia throws Daniel into the pit. The lions naturally are Gvura. The lions naturally are ravenous. They're naturally meant to destroy Daniel. But miraculously these animals that were Gvurah Ternzinte Chassid Miraculously they didn't consume Daniel at all. Why? What happened? Stamm it's a miracle? There's an unbelievable Medrash that sheds light on this story. Now I want to be honest, I didn't see the Medrash inside. I have not yet found the Medrash inside, but I've seen this Medrash quoted.

40:16 The Medrash is an unbelievable Medrash. The Medrash tells us that Chabakuk Hanavi in Eretz Yisrael, one day a Maloch comes to him and tells Chabakuk Hanavi to bring the food that Chabakuk was bringing to his laborers in the field, bring that food to Daniel. So Chabakuk turns to the Maloch and he says, how am I supposed to bring it all the way from Eretz Yisrael, all the way to Persia to Daniel? And a minute later he's seized by his hair and all of a sudden he finds himself by Daniele in the pit. And they have a meal together. Chabakuk Anavi has a meal together with Daniele in the pit surrounded by these lions who are of course absolutely docile and not hurting Daniele at all. They dine together and then the Maloch transported Chabakuk back to Eretz Yisrael. It's a fascinating mejor. What is the point of this miracle that Chabakuk travels from Eretz They are not the only ones who want to be sent to Israel, to Persia. Why does Chabachuk need to bring him food? That's the ultimate Jewish experience.

41:21 Somebody stuck somewhere and our first question is does he have anything to eat. That's why it's so funny, the war broke out and the first question we all asked ourselves was did the soldiers have enough food? Can we get them beef jerky? Can we get them tuna? Can we get them whatever? Like all the cakes and cookies that were sent. These soldiers have to fight. They don't need to become fat right now. But the notion of a Jew stuck at the first, does they have anything to eat? So what's the shadow over here that Chavaquk had to bring him a meal? Is another unbelievable Medrash. When I saw this Medrash, I was just like my mind was blown how everything in Torah fits together, the unity of all of Torah. Listen to this, the Torah says the night of Pesach is called Lel Shemurim. Why is it the night of Lel Shemurim? The Medrash and Shmosh Raba says, On this night, Hakadosh Baruch who saved Chisqui'o from San Gedav and his armies.

42:10 On this night, he saved Chananya, Misho, and Azaria. And on this night, he saved Daniel from the Lion's Den. That's an unbelievable insight. What night was Daniel saved? He was saved on the first night of Pesach. Why was it so important that Chabakuk bring him a meal? What meal was he bringing him? He was bringing him his Pesach Seder. In other words, on the night of G'ula, what happened to those lions? They transformed from G'vurah into G'ezed. That's what happens on the night of G'ula. The ultimate G'ula is that we're going to see that the lion that represents strength ultimately becomes the lion that establishes the love, the cherished nature of our relationship between Klal Yisrael and Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Let's return back to that original Rashi. Kara Shachav Kari Why is the lion that Bilaam curses Klal Yisrael but ultimately it's a blessing. He's attempting to curse Klal Yisrael and it's a blessing. Why does he describe us as a crouching lion?

43:13 Kittargumah like Targum unkla says Yis yashvu ba'arzam b'kahyachugur. How will we conquer the land? We will conquer the land using the meedah of Guru. We will use our strength and our might in order to conquer the land. But that's always only stage one. The gvurah that a Yid has to have in this world, the strength to retain our identity, to live authentically from the place of our nashama, that's how we conquer Eretz Yisrael. But a person has to know that the lion has two dimensions, not one. Rashi is describing here the first dimension where we act like a lion in the sense that we are Geborim, we are Gebor K'ari There's tremendous strength in that. But there's a higher dimension where that gvurah ultimately turns into chassid. We conquer the land. We do whatever we can. We do whatever we can in order to bring our Kadosh Baruch Hu down into this world. We have the seven days of kamassan Mishram. We do whatever we can. But ultimately we have to come to our Kadosh Baruch Hu even beyond the gvurah and we have to say to our Kadosh Baruch Hu, here's our gift. Do you love us?

44:25 Do you love us? Chabbakuk coming to Persia represents the unity of Chutzla'aretz and Eretz Yisrael at once It no matter how far a Jew is away from Hakadosh Baruch who's thrown into a lion's pit in Persia We are still intrinsically connected to the kedusha of Eretz Yisrael I don't think it's an accident that we are at war with literally once again the king of Persia and And the imagery once again, I mean, it's just absolutely astounding. I thought this was planned the message I don't know what message I thought this was trying to send but I know what message I'm trying to take away from this That even in the lions then Persia even when we are surrounded by lions Yemen syria lebanon gaza the palestinian authority even when we're and and not not to mention some of our other enemies within other governments and And that doesn't need to be explained. Even when we're surrounded by so many lions, we are watching miracles unfold. They're docile. They're not able to hit us. It's an unbelievable thing. Even the things that they're doing are miniscule compared to what they should be able to do. It's unbelievable. It's open miracles. This is the Chesed, Hakadosh Baruch, who's turning to us and saying, our relationship The love of our relationship is still there.

45:49 The cherished nature of our relationship is still there. And that ought to inspire every one of us who has been crouching like a lion, maybe not yet ready to pounce forth and reveal our true nature because we cannot be domesticated. The true nature of a Jew remains intact no matter what. We've come to Hakadosh Baruch who successfully, and we've brought him that gift, that eighth-day You would have destroyed so many missile launchers that they're having difficulty attacking us and they had an enormous armament of missiles that we destroyed. If you would have told us that we would have drone facilities set up within Iran itself. The miracles are just astounding. Can there be any greater expression that Hakadosh Baruch Hu loves us? I don't think there can be.

47:08 And when our God is Baruch comes and He says He loves us in this eighth-day level we can feel we can sense the Sheena on the highest of levels is being restored to the world. That's what's happening. We have to pay attention. It's what's happening right in front of us. We will bez Hashem tell our great great grandchildren we were there as Mashiach was coming as the process was unfolding. We saw it happening. We were watching it in the news. We were watching it in the news. Bez Hashem we should bezach to see the Gulesh Shlema, we're not yet at Gulesh Shlema, we should bezach to see Gulesh Shlema, but Gulesh Shlema means that we still have work to do. We have to come to Hakadosh Baruch Hu and we have to say to Hakadosh Baruch Hu we cherish this relationship. How do we do that? How do we bring that carbon, that 8th day carbon to Hakadosh Baruch Hu? We want to treat Hakadosh Baruch Hu like a father. If we're going to treat Hakadosh Baruch Hu, then we're going to treat Hakadosh Baruch Hu like a father.

48:08 Hakadosh Baruch Hu like a father then we have to be his children Revealing the Panimias of our soul which by definition means that every other Jew is my brother and sister left-wing right-wing Whatever community they come from those that are observant those that are not yet observant We are deeply connected to every other Jew when we come to Hakadosh Baruch Hu like a child and says Hashem We're your children. We love each other. Do you love us? What choice will Hakadosh Baruch Hu have but to say of course, I love you. You're my family

49:32 That will bezasham finish this process. The process is cannot complete. But we have to finish this last part. We have to get up and say, Hineini Hakadosh Baruch Hu, this is me. We love you like a father, please love us back like children. And bezasham we should be zachah b'mhera b'yameinu mamish to see the ultimate completion of the G-U-L.