Strengthening Our Emunah In Challenging Times: Social Distancing, Drawing Closer

1:49 My father told me that when Rudy Giuliani was the mayor of New York, he had a policy in his office that you were not allowed to say the word problem. When something arose in the office, you were not allowed to say the word problem. What you could say was, 'This is the challenge we're facing,' and 'This is the opportunity.' And so, as we've been seeing the increase in coronavirus, and as we've been seeing that in many places. Unfortunately, it has had to shut down yeshivas and minyanim and shuls and the like, so we're facing an unbelievable challenge, and the question is, what is the opportunity and how do we frame the challenge? These are the things I've been thinking about over the last couple of days, and so I'd like to share with you what I think is a meaningful approach to this issue. The Gemara says that there is an issue when it comes to the carbon Pesach.

2:47 Is the carbon Pesach considered a carbon ayachid or a carbon atzibur? Is it a carbon of an individual, or is it a carbon of the klal? What's the nafgamina? What's the practical halachic difference, if it's a carbon ayachid or a carbon atzibur? Shaila is what happens when the fourteenth of Nissan falls out on Shabbos, if carbon Pesach is a carbon ayachid. So then, you would not be allowed to bring the carbon Pesach on Shabbos. If, however, it's a carbon atzibur, so then you would be allowed to bring the carbon carbon Pesach on Shabbat. The Gemara says that one should not go to the house of the dead. The question is, why do we have this custom in our society, and what does it mean for us today?

3:44 And he said, 'It's really a carbonat zibur. Why would it be a carbonayachid? It would be a carbonayachid because it's bought by private funds, and it's eaten by those people that bought it. At the same time, the pasuk says, 'Kol kahal adas Yisrael, all of Klal Yisrael, the carbon pesach. It's all of Klal Yisrael.' And Hilal came along, and he said, 'Really, it's a carbonated zibur, and therefore a person is obligated to bring the carbon pesach on Shabbos.' As a result, Hillel had just moved from Bnei Brak to Tel Aviv. Hmmm, I think that's it. Okay, so the first thing you need to know is that this is the first time we've ever done this. Right, I think the main point here is that the user wants me to clean up the transcript, but not translate it.

4:41 Hara chlosi Yisrael Eimer baruch cham harazim. If somebody sees a massive gathering of Jews, they make a bracha, baruch cham harazim. Blessed is God who knows secrets. She ain't daitem zayma daimazalazet because every single person has different dots, has different knowledge. The ain't partufeyin daimazalazet, and every single person has a different face. So there's a couple of questions on this Gemara that I'd like to highlight. First of all, when a person sees a massive gathering of Jews, why is it that the bracha we make is Baruch Chochma Harazon, the Knower of Secrets? And the second rule is to remove any sentence that ends with a function word or trails off.

5:39 Baruch Chacham Aratzim, because every single person has different das, every single person has a different face, so when we make the bracha of Chacham Aratzim, somehow we're focusing on the particulars, not on the general klal. We would have thought that there's going to be a bracha on the power of the tzedber, and yet, the Gemara seems to highlight the power of the individual, the uniqueness of the individual. Just before we go on, it seems like a couple of people have just jumped on the call. I just want to remind everybody that if your phone is not muted, we can hear what's going on in the background. And of course, the noise of Kallah Yisrael is the most beautiful noise in the world, and it's such a special thing that so many people have tuned in from home. But just to be sensitive to those listening, perhaps we could all do our best to mute our phones. So we have to sum up.

6:37 We have a machlokas. When it comes to carbon Pesach, is it a carbon ayachid or is it a carbon atzibur? Hillel comes along and says it's a carbon atzibur, but still, it seems that there's an aspect of the carbon ayachid. What was the gaval de gachidash of Hillel that he said it's a carbon atzibur? Why did that make him a leader in Klal Yisrael? And second, we have the bracha of Chacham Ayrosim when you see a massive group of Klal Yisrael. Why is the bracha the Hakadosh Baruch Hu is the knower of secrets? Why is that the special bracha we make when we see a massive group? And specifically, why instead of focusing on the power of the group, does the Gemara seem to focus on the individual? I want to share with you a very beautiful story. It's become a well-known story, but I'd like to highlight it perhaps in a different way than the story is ordinarily used.

7:34 Rabbi Doctor Tzvi Hirsch Weinreb tells the story of the time he was in Maryland. He had already completed his doctorate in psychology, and he was doing two things. On the one hand, he was teaching psychology, and on the other hand, he was giving shiurim in Kamarah, and he was torn. Which way do I go? What's the best way for me to lead my life? Aside from that, he had a number of philosophical questions. And he was going around asking people, 'What should I do? What do you think?' Among the people he asked was a certain Lubavitcher Chassid, and the Lubavitcher Chassid suggested that he call the Lubavitcher Rebbe. Dr. Weinreb, Rabbi Weinreb, when he was younger, he grew up in Crown Heights, and he used to go to Fabergé's every once in a while, but he had no contact with the Lubavitcher Rebbe. But he decided, why not, to call someone like the Lubavitcher Rebbe, to call such a person.

8:32 And so he called. In those days, I guess it was still possible to get through to the rebbe by phone, and the rebbe's secretary was relaying the information that Doctor Weinreb was sharing with the Lubavitcher Rebbe. And he heard over the phone what the rebbe was saying to the secretary that was dictating the information. So what happened was that he asked this question. And the rebbe responded by saying, 'The person is from Maryland. He, Dr. Weinreb, Rabbi Weinreb, had introduced himself as a yid from Maryland, a Jew from Maryland. So the Lubavitcher Rebbe said, 'If he's a Jew from Maryland, let him go speak to Weinreb. Let him go speak to Weinreb.' So he heard this, so he was shocked. He said, 'Please tell the rebbe I am Weinreb.'

9:28 So the Rebbe responded. Sometimes a person needs to ask themselves. Sometimes a person needs to look inside, and ask themselves their own question. Many years later, he saw the Lubavitcher Rebbe, and that Rabbi Weinrib introduced himself as Weinrib from Maryland, and the Rebbe had a very warm smile on his face as he remembered that story. What's the message of that story? Why is it such a powerful story? So there are many lessons that one could take from this story, but I want to share with you the lesson that I took from this story. A lot of times we think that a person goes to a rebbe, he asks a question, the rebbe travels to some hechal in Shamayim, comes down with an answer and delivers that answer, and perhaps there's truth to that. Who knows? But what was so special to me about this story was the rebbe was teaching such a powerful lesson.

10:23 To Rabbi Weinreb, and he was saying, a person has to look inside of themselves. A person has to look inside of themselves to discover their own answers. A person needs to look inside of themselves to figure out who they are, to find their own path. A person needs to look inside of themselves so that they could discover their own individuality. The challenge for so many of us is, as the Rambam says in Hilchas Deis, Perik Vav Halacha Aleph. The way of a person is to follow the thoughts and the actions of their friends, of their neighbors, and to act as they do in their community. The Rambam is not saying that it's neither good nor bad. The Rambam is just stating a sociological fact. We are all impacted.

11:21 By our surroundings, the challenge of being impacted by our surroundings is that we lose our individuality. We lose the capacity, sometimes chas v'shalom, to look within and to discover our own truth. One of the most painful things as a parent is when we watch our children go off to Gan, and initially, when they're young, they're unembarrassed to be themselves. They're sad that their mothers and fathers have left them behind, especially in the beginning, and so they cry. Because that's the emotion that they're feeling, but as they get older, sometimes when they're four or five years old, and you're walking them to Gan and you're holding their hand, there comes a time in every child's life where the child says, "Abba, ima, I don't want to hold your hand. Let's. I don't want to hold your hand. Just drop me over here, and I'll go by myself." Especially in Eretz Israel, where the children are so independent. What's going on? The child has learned that it's important what other people think of them.

12:21 And they don't want to be seen as weak. They've lost a certain sense of their innocence. They've lost a certain sense of their own individuality and uniqueness. They've become more concerned with what other people think, and we're all like this. We're all like this on some level. We're consumed by thinking about what other people think about us, and as a result, we lose our individuality. What I want to share with you tonight is the opportunity that we have. The opportunity that we have in front of us is to take the time, as we've socially distanced ourselves from one another, to discover who it is that we really are, to take the time to figure out what we stand for, what our values are, and what we believe in. Moshe Rabenu wanted to be a leader in Klal Yisrael, and Hakadosh Baruch Hu appointed Yoshua.

13:17 Pesuk says, 'Ish asher ruach boy.' And Rashi explains, 'Kasher shalta, Meisharabenu, I gave you what you asked.' Sheyuchal lalay keneged, keneged ruach yishol pol echad ve echad. The godless of Yeshua was that he was able to see each and every individual in Kallah Yisroel. That's what it takes to be a great rebbe. That's what it takes to be a great leader. The challenge for leaders so often is that we have to do what's right for the klal. We have to do what's right for the klal, but we can't lose sight of every individual. And Adarabba, we have to cultivate the unique talents of every single individual. I remember a ma'isa that I read about Roshalom Frayfeld Zechasadik V'Kadosh L'vRacha, that he ran into a Talmud in Yerushalayim, a Talmud himself was Chayzer B'tshuva.

14:13 And the Talmud was proud to show off to his Rebbe, the new way that he thought, which was the Yeshivish way of thinking, and he proudly told his Rebbe his hashgufas, one after another, the standard hashgufas, and R. Freifeld looked at him and he said, 'I love you very much, but I loved it more when you used to think for yourself. Of course, a person needs to be part of the Tzibur.' But chas v'shalom for a person to lose their own individual identity as they're becoming part of that sibur, and that's what Moshe Rabbeinu davened Hakadosh Baruch Hu for. He said Hakadosh Baruch Hu send us not just a strong leader, somebody who can lead the klal, because the klal is just an abstraction. There's an abstraction called the klal, but really, really, a klal is made up of every individual.

15:05 And we need somebody who's going to bring out the talents of every single individual. I heard today an unbelievable var. I just again want to take a brief moment to pause, because it seems that some people have not muted their phone. If you could please mute your phone, just because everyone can hear what's going on in the background, and again, such beautiful Jewish noise as people are calling from home. Perhaps they're in bedud. But again, just to sensitize us for other people, that we should be quiet a little bit so that everyone could hear the phone call uninterrupted. I heard an unbelievable var today, as I was driving home from yeshiva from Rav Mayor Arnold Schlitte, a rebbe in Mavasaret who's a real tzaddik, and Rav Arnold said an unbelievable thing. He said, when it comes to hilchas titzis, so the first third of the titzis needs to be tied together in knots.

15:59 But two thirds of the tzis need to be free flowing, and Rav Arnold explained that the pshat is that there's a part of us that needs to be knotted up. There's a part of us that needs to be connected to the tzibur, the top part, the beginning, connected to the tzibur, and it's very chashuv. But l'maisa, two thirds of our tzis need to be free flowing, and that represents the individuality of a Jew. That represents cultivating our own uniqueness. And being aware of what we contribute to the klal, if we all are the same, if we're all doing the same things in our own ways, so then we've lost out on something exceptionally beautiful. You hear this in yeshiva all the time. People say, 'Rebbe, I don't like to daven. Why should I daven? I'm davening the same words as everybody else. Why should I do a mitzvah? I'm doing the same mitzvah as everybody else. I'm giving the same tzedakah.'

16:56 I'm wrapping the same tefillah. I'm doing the same chesed, and of course, on some level, that's true. As a community, we're engaged in the same actions, but to say that we're all doing the same mitzvahs—that's not true. Each one of us brings our unique talents, and even though it may appear on the outside that you're doing the same peula, the same action, the same physical action, but the meisa, the event, is totally different. We might all be saying the same words of davening. It's true. We might all be making the same brachos, but our kavana, our intent, our lave, our heart, the things that we're bringing to these things, are so very special, so very choshev. We have to make sure to cultivate that uniqueness, to be aware of our own unique talents that the Rebbeinu Shlom endowed within us, and to bring those talents out.

17:51 In order to serve Hakadosh Baruch Hu and in order to be a part of the Klal, I want to read to you very briefly an unbelievable quote from Mesillas Yesharim, and it's a quote that if you pay attention to the words, you'll hear that the way of Chazal was always to speak to the individuality of a person. Listen to the beautiful words of the Mesillas Yesharim. This is in the twenty-sixth chapter of Mesillas Yesharim. It says, "Vezepashot." This is easily understood. Zepashot. This is simple. He called Adam Lefia Umnos Asher Beyadoi VHaEisak Asher Hu Eisak Kachzorach Lo Hayashar VHadracha. Every person needs Hadracha, needs guidance in accordance with who they are, their particular skill, their particular way. Ki Derech Achasidus Haroi Lemisha Teyraso Yumnasei Einai Derech Achasidus Haroi Lemisha Zorach Lahastir Atzma LaMelechus Chaveroi.

18:50 If a person is Torah so and a person is studying Torah all day, that's unbelievable for him. That's derech achasidus, but that might not be derech achasidus for a person who's working for another person. And it's not the derech achasidus for somebody who works for themselves. And this is true about every single aspect of our lives. A person needs to know who they are, and only when they know who they are can they understand their unique path, their unique chassidus. Every single person has an aspect of piety, but when we're trying to be someone other than ourselves, that's not what the Eibusher wants from us. The Hadush Baruch Hu did not create doubles.

19:47 How Kadosh Baruch Hu created each one of us to be an individual, and that's what the Ramchal is saying. We need to work on ourselves to understand that I have my derech ha'chasidus, and you have your derech ha'chasidus, and these are two different ways. It can't be that every single one of us has the same way. As the Kutzger Rebbe famously said, 'If I am I, because you are you, and you are you, because I am I, then I am not I, and you are not you.' But if I am I because I am I, and you are you because you are you, then I am I and you are you. What was the Katskur Rebbe saying? The Katskur Rebbe was saying, if I am myself because of the way you behave, and you are yourself because of the way that I behave, then I am not myself and you are not yourself. Each one of us is acting inauthentically. Each one of us is not behaving in accordance with the nature of our own godly soul.

20:42 But if I am tapped into my own godly soul, into my own uniqueness, if I am I because I am I, and you are you because you are you, so then we're actually being authentic. And the truth of the matter is that we cannot connect to each other unless we are being authentic. If we're not being authentic, if we're just playing a character, so then how could we possibly connect to each other? Because we're only presenting a version of ourselves. The goal of our lives is intimacy. The goal of our lives is to have true connection, where we become one with each other, and that cannot happen as long as we're not tapping into the uniqueness of our soul to discover who we actually are, and so we present a version of ourselves to the world. But the truth of the matter is that the world will naturally reject us if we're not being authentic, because we can smell it from a mile away, and what we really desperately want.

21:38 Is to know the people that we're actually talking to. We want them to show us who they really are, so that we can deeply connect to them, and vice versa. We wish that we had the courage to be vulnerable, so that we could connect to others, and we get that courage from discovering our godly soul. In coming in contact with our godly soul, we recognize the infinite power of each godly soul, and that gives us the courage to say, 'This is who I am,' and in that way, we introduce ourselves to the world. And when we introduce ourselves to the world, we become magnets of connection, nuclear reactors of connection, because people want to be introduced to the authentic version of ourselves more than anything in the world. That's what people want, and the truth of the matter is that in our heart of hearts, in an honest moment, that's what we want. We want to be able to be ourselves. We want to not be judged. We want to be able to just be out there, and with great vulnerability, to connect to people around us. We want to search inside of ourselves.

22:37 But so often in life we don't have the opportunity to do so, because we don't have social distance between us. So often in life we're focused on what other people think of us because we're so deeply in contact with them. But perhaps there's an amazing opportunity in front of us right now, as we have social distancing, we can come in contact with ourselves. The more in contact we come with ourselves, the more capable we are of being part of the tzibur, to introducing who we really are. And that, I believe, is the ultimate opportunity that we have in this tremendous time of challenge. A couple of days ago, I was walking in yeshiva, and I said to one of the merits kollel guys just offhand, I said, "It's so strange that everybody now is talking about bidud. Everybody is talking about quarantine, and was mamish holding by Purim. Is there a yontif that's more involved in connectivity than Purim?"

23:36 How could it be that Kallah Yisrael is talking about quarantine, separating from each other, in such a time? This young Kallah guy, who's obviously a man of great wisdom, looked at me and he said, 'Adraba, now we're going to have true achdos. The achdos that we've had up until now is just a question of proximity, but it hasn't been true oneness, because we haven't taken the opportunity to really discover who we are, and as a result.' Have we really introduced ourselves to the world? Have we really become the people that we know we're supposed to become? And I was really shaken by what he said. It was such a tremendous mussar, and he said it in such a small, quick way, because it's really true. You see it in yeshiva again at a young age. Baruch Hashem, boys come in and the girls come into seminary, and Baruch Hashem, they do amazing things. What's the pshat? The pshat is somehow they have the capacity at this young age.

24:31 To be able to reinvent themselves, to be able to say, this is my excuse to show the world who I really am, and I'm always inspired. Harbe l'amadatim erabayisa. I learned so much from my rabbayim. Me tamiday yosemikulim, but I learned the most from my talmidim. When the boys and the girls come to seminary and yeshiva every single year, and they're able to look inside of themselves, to be distanced a little bit from the life that they had in America or in England, and to be able to come to Eretz Yisrael to discover. Their true self, the best version of themselves, is such an inspiring thing to be around. My Rebbe, who should be Zeicher or Rofu or Shleima, my Rebbe always told me, Mordechai, don't daven in shuls, daven in yeshivas. If you stay with young people, you'll continue to be inspired. I wish I could tell you that I fulfilled the dictum of my Rebbe. I do daven in shuls, but I'm Zeicher to live my life in yeshivas and in seminaries and to constantly be inspired.

25:27 And with that, I'd like to turn back to the questions that we asked in the beginning of the year. Why is it that we make a bracha of chacham arazim when we see a tremendous group of people getting together, a tremendous group of Jews getting together? And the answer is because in Yiddishkeit, the emphasis on the universal, on the ultimate oneness, for us is an emphasis on particularity. When we see Jews getting together, we're not just looking at the tzibur. Of course, there's a tzibur, but there's individuals that make up that tzibur, and Hakadosh Baruch Hu knows the secret of what's lying inside of every single Jew. He understands the essence of what's lying inside of every single Jew, and Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants us to see that as well. And so, what does the Gemara say? They don't have the same thoughts. They don't have the same faces. A person, when they look at a group of Jews, they could just look and say

26:23 Look at that group of Jews, and it could label them a community. Look at these modern Orthodox. Look at these Hasidim. Look at these Litvaks. Look at these Yeshivish. You could look at the community, but if you're looking at the community, you haven't made the bracha of Chacham Aratzim. You haven't looked at the secret of every single Jew. The secret of every single Jew is that even though we are all one, we are all different, because that's true oneness. In Yiddishkeit, when we look at oneness, we see the differences, the particularities. Hakadosh Baruch Hu didn't make one of us. He made one giant picture, and each one of us represents a piece of that picture. That's the secret that we need to look beneath the surface to be able to understand that secret. And I believe that was what was going on with Hillel. When Hillel came, he was looking at the carbon pesach, as all of Sanhedrin were looking at the carbon pesach, and they were deciding what to do. The carbon pesach represents the birth of a nation.

27:19 This is Klal Yisrael. Pesach is Klal Yisrael. We became Klal Yisrael on Pesach, and so how do we look at Klal Yisrael? Do we look at the abstract Klal Yisrael, or do we look at the individuals? And that was represented by the carbon Pesach. The carbon Pesach, on the one hand, it's all about the individual, bought by the individual, eaten by the individuals that bought it. But on the other hand, it's Kol Kehal Adas Yisrael. It represents the entire Klal. And that's what Hillel came to say. Hillel came to say, "Of course, we're all individuals. Of course, but ultimately, the goal of the individual is not to remain alone. The goal of the individual is to become a part of this unbelievable picture called the Tzibura, the Kallah of Klal Yisrael, Kol Kahal Adas Yisrael. That's the goal of what we're trying to do here. It's not just to be an individual, but to be part of something larger than ourselves."

28:14 And perhaps that was the dialectical tension that Hillel expressed: "If I'm not for myself, who will be for me? But if I'm only for myself, then what am I for?" And this is the tension: on the one hand, we're individuals, but on the other hand, we're part of a tzibur. And so Hillel says, "We are all individuals, but in Yiddishkeit, we're not individuals for the sake of being individuals." In Yiddishkeit, we're individuals. Individuals for being a part of a tzibur, and right now, our tzibur is not the same, because we can't sit next to each other in shul, we have to wear masks, and we have to socially distance, but we need to find a way to keep the community together. We can do it. We can do it. Let's make it work. We can do it. Let's make it happen. Okay, let's go.

29:12 The challenges we feel lonely. The challenges we feel removed. It was a beautiful thing to listen to Jews speak this week about the challenges of not being able to go to Minyan. I got a phone call from one of the boys in America, one of the alumni of the yeshiva, one of the very special Bachrim, and he said, 'Rebbe, how can I continue to serve Hashem Baruch Hu without the consistency of Minyan? How can I daven when yet without a Minyan? When a person is with a Minyan, so it's certain pace. You're able to concentrate. What's going to be without my Minyan? It's so hard for us not to take time to think about it. Right? Like, yeah, right? So, like, I'm trying to say that, you know, I mean, if I have to do something, I would just want to make sure that it's clear. But maybe I should try to rephrase this part. So, you know, I don't know what the problem is here. Anyway, let me just read it again. Okay, but the main point is that...'

30:09 Everybody speaks about the year in Israel, or the years in Israel, depending on how you see it. But everybody speaks about the year in Israel as a year to be selfish, and of course they don't mean that. Of course, when they say a year to be selfish, they don't mean a year to be selfish. They mean a year to be introspective, a year to be focused on what it is that you bring to the table. But how tragic it is that we call it a year to be selfish. What type of horrific chenuch is that? That we teach children that discovering yourself is a selfish pursuit. The other Abba. We have to teach children: this the year to be self-focused. This the year to be introspective. This the year to take the opportunity to discover who you are, so that you can be a part of something bigger than yourself. Otherwise, we breed narcissistic children who are only focused on themselves. I was zaychah to grow up in a yeshiva where the rashi yeshiva was Rabbi Yaakov Bender Shlitah.

31:07 Rav Bender is world famous for how he taught his bachurim in Yeshiva Darkei Torah many years ago, and I remember the shmuzin that our Rashi Yeshiva gave to us. He said, 'If you learn with a bachur that's weaker than yourself, now you're not just learning Torah, but you have Torah's chesed.' And he gave us a havtachah, and I'll never forget him screaming at us. He said, 'Rabbeisai, if you learn with a bachur who's weaker than yourself. You'll see that you'll have siyada d'shmei. You'll learn than you more than you ever could have learned on by your own, and I have to tell you it's true. It's not about our own individual learning; it's about what we bring to the zibor. But there's a tension. We can't bring something to the zibor if we're not our own unique, authentic, individual selves, and we have an opportunity to cultivate that person right now. It's very sad for me personally right now.

32:03 I'm spending my days and my nights talking to parents, talking to Bachrim, talking to Talmidot. What should I do? Should I go back to America? Should I stay in Eretz Israel? And of course, there are no simple answers to these things, and it happens to be exceptionally painful. But I want to share with you a tremendous inspiration that I was given over the last couple of days. In the course of these conversations, the theme is always the same. Rebbe, what's the right thing to do? What's the right thing to do? What's the safe thing to do? I don't want to go back to America because I'm going to be in an airport, and then perhaps I'm going to be around elderly people, and I don't want to. I don't want to hurt others. If I go back to America and I leave the confines of the yeshiva, have I really become the person that I want to become? And what I'm sensing in these conversations is exceptionally beautiful.

32:58 People who want to bring their own unique talents with them. People who are focused on others, and that's really what this is all about. Because Baruch Hashem, the younger people do not seem to be in any danger. That's at least the reports that we're having right now, that Corona doesn't hurt the younger people. But the very fact that we're sensitive to the needs of our elders, the very fact that we're sensitive to the needs of the Klal, this is something that's going to be a massive shift for us. That we take our own individual talents, but we focus it on the needs of the Klal. Yiratam of the avinu shabash shamayim, may it be Hakadosh Baruch Hu's will that this magefa ends swiftly, that it ends in a way not just goes away because of the summer, but it ends in a way that's absolutely total, and the only way for that to happen is for Mashiach to come. Sometimes we daven and impoverish davening, and we say, "Hakadosh Baruch Hu, please remove this illness, please heal this sick person." What we want is for so much more. We want that all illness.

33:56 Should be removed from the world, that we should be zeiha to bask in the glow of Hakadosh Baruch Hu that comes with living in Eilam Haba, that comes with ushering in the days of Mashiach Zedekenu. May we be zeiha to see those days, especially as we're coming on the Chag of Pesach, the Chag of Geula, and we've left the Chag of Purim, which also is the Chag of Geula. So in between Geula and Geula, we may be zeiha to the ultimate Geula. B'meirah bi'amenu amen.