The Majesty of Torah

2:16 Amar L'fun of Rebbeinu Shalom, Torah Sh'Ata Noisily Maksevbe. Moshe Rabbeinu says to Hashem, "This Torah that you've given to me, What does it say inside of it?" I am the Lord your God who took you out of the land of Egypt. And then he turns to the malachim and he says, Amr lahem leMitzrayim yaradatem. You malachim, Did you ever go down to Mitzrayim? Leparo hishnabtem. Did you ever enslaved in Egypt? Torah lematheilachem. Why is Torah relevant to you? And he continues on. And he says, it says in the Torah you shouldn't have other gods. You the Malachim, have you ever lived amongst the nations of the world that you need to be concerned about assimilation? He says Shuv Makziveh. What else is written in the Torah? Zacher es Yom Shabbos lekadsho. Says you have to keep Shabbos. But klim atem oisim Malachas atem sirichim shvus. You don't do any work that you need to rest.

3:18 Shuv Makziveh. What else is written in it? Losisa Masu Umatan. He says you shouldn't cheat in business. Do you do business? It says you shouldn't steal. It says you shouldn't kill. It says you shouldn't be jealous of another person's wife. But you don't have any of these things. And finally, the Gemara ends up and it says, 'Yitzahara yesh be nechem? Do you malachim even have a yitzahara that you need the Torah?' 'Miad haydu loyakadosh baruch hu.' Immediately, Hakadosh Baruch Hu acquiesces to their argument, the argument of Moshe Rabenu. And he gives the Torah to Moshe Rabbeinu. The Gemara finishes off. The Malachim were so impressed with Moshe Rabbeinu's argument that the Malachim started giving brachos to Moshe Rabbeinu, and they even gave him the secret of death. And that's how later on Moshe Rabbeinu was able to stop the plague that was happening to Klal Yisrael. There's a number of questions when you think deeply about this Gemara.

4:15 Moshe Rabbeinu comes up to get the Torah. The Malachim say, 'Who is this Yelud Isha?' Isn't that a funny language? Who is this child of a woman? Why don't they say, 'Who is this person?' They call him a Yelud Isha. And when Hakadosh Baruch Hu says, 'I'm giving him the Torah,' what's their question? They say, 'The Torah was created 974 generations before the creation of the world. Why is the Gemara telling us the time that the Torah was created? And what does that even mean? 974 generations.' Then Hakadosh Baruch Hu, it's even stranger. Hakadosh Baruch Hu doesn't answer the question. You would think Hakadosh Baruch Hu knows the question. He's omnipotent. He's omniscient. He's omnipresent. He's omnipotent. He's omniv everything. So why in the world does Hakadosh Baruch Hu turn to Moshe Rabbeinu and say, 'You answer the question'? And then furthermore, Moshe Rabbeinu is afraid to answer the question. Hakadosh Baruch Hu says, 'Answer the question. Just answer the question.' He says, 'No.' He says, 'I'm afraid of the halachim.' You're afraid of the halachim. Hakadosh Baruch Hu just told you to answer the question.

5:18 You should be more afraid of Hashem. And Hashem's answer is so strange. Do you remember growing up a game called Freeze Tag? What's the halachas in Freeze Tag? Base. Everybody knows. Don't leave base, Right? If you're holding on to the base, they can't get you. So this must be the source of Freeze Tag. I never thought of it before. This is a strange thing. If you're holding on to my kisei akavod, They can't catch you. What does that mean? Is there some sort of special power that the kisei akavod has that the malachim can't get to you when you're holding on to the kisei akavod? What's the depth of what's going on? And then the strangest question of all: Moshe Rabbeinu, What does he proceed to do? He quotes psukim from the Torah. The malachim seems they knew about the Torah for the last 974 generations.

6:07 So now the malachim are coming along, and Moshe Rabbeinu is giving them a lesson. And what does the Torah say? It says, 'I know you are Hashem, The Kehach Hashareitzis, Sochamer meir tzrayim.' It says to keep Shabbos. It says don't kill. It says don't be jealous of another man's wife. It says, 'What's going on over here?' Of course, the malachim know what's going on. Why is Hakadosh Baruch Hu so blown away by Moshe Rabbeinu's answer? This is miad hoydil Hakadosh Baruch Hu. And then the malachim apparently are so nice, spoiled. From Moshe Rabbeinu's teretz, that they give brachos to Moshe Rabbeinu. Even giving him the secret to death. So I want to tell you a pshat that I read 11 years ago. 11 years ago, this was one of the first shiurim I ever gave in Mivaser. 11 years ago, I read this pshat. I don't remember who said it. It was a sefer in the shul that I was davening at the time. I pulled this off the shelves. I saw this var. I was blown away by it. It was the first word I ever shared in Mevaser.

7:06 Is a fundamental question: Is Torah spiritual, or is Torah physical? That's the question. You see, in the world, there's always two movements. There's a movement for transcendence, to be beyond our mortal coil, as Shakespeare might have said. To reach the Shamayim, to be some Buddhist monk sitting in the Tibetan mountains, Shamayim. And then there's a different approach. It's for down here in this world. Those—that's the classic argument: should we be transcending or should we be immanent? Should we be present in the world? And it really impacts the way you see the Torah itself. If you see your role as leaving this world, you're going to have one vision of the Torah. If you see the Torah as something that informs this world, the lens through which you see the world is going to determine what Torah is. This was the machleikus between the Malachim and Moshe Rabbeinu. Let's go through the Gemara again. You'll see the Gemara is telling us something exceptionally deep. Moshe Rabbeinu comes up to Shamayim. Already, this is a pelem to the Malachim. A yelud isha, not just a person. But something that is so animalistic that it was born. We don't understand a malach being born is like it's really gross. It's really like a gross thing.

8:40 Animals give birth to other animals. Spiritual beings are not born. Hakadosh Baruch Hu wasn't born. He was, is, and always will be. The fact that you had a beginning, the fact that you were a yelud isha, it speaks to the physicality of who Moshe Rabbeinu was. So when Hakadosh Baruch Hu said, "I'm giving him the Torah," they said, "Rabbi Yisroel, what in the world does the Torah have to do with a Yehud Ish? The Torah is a spiritual concept." And not just that, they said the Torah is so spiritual that it's disconnected from the world itself because it was created without getting into the meaning of the number. That's a whole different she'er. But 974 generations—we can all agree—it's a long time before the creation of the world. Whatever it means, it's a whole she'er by itself about the gestation of the world and how Torah comes into the world at a particular time. It's not for now. But the point the Malachim are making is the Torah is divorced from the world.

9:45 And the truth of the matter is, The Malachim were right. The Malachim were right, and Moshe Rabbeinu was being charged with answering this question. You know why it had to be Moshe Rabenu? Because God Himself is not positioned, so to speak, to answer this question. If we want Torah to be something that informs our world, it needs to be that Moshe Rabenu brings it down. It can't be that the Malachim are just listening to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. That's their natural position. This has to be wrested away from the Malachim. So Hakadosh Baruch Hu says, "Moshe Rabenu, this is the time. This is the test." Can you prove to us that the Torah is there for the world and it's not just purely spiritual? The Malachim knew that the Torah had physical language, but they said, "Things have physical language. It doesn't mean that they're physical. Love has a physical language, but anyone who thinks love is physical is silly. Music has physical sounds, but everybody knows that music stirs the soul."

10:48 Of course, they knew the Torah had physical language, but it's not physical. And Moshe Rabbeinu agreed, and he said, 'How could I possibly answer them? They'll destroy me.' The spirituality of the Malachim was such that there was no room for Moshe Rabbeinu to answer. Until Hakadosh Baruch Hu Himself gave Moshe Rabbeinu a little bit of a secret, a little bit of a tip, a little bit of a nudge in the right direction, and then Moshe Rabbeinu understood the answer. And the answer was, 'Hold on to my kiseh hakavod.' Hold on to my kiseh hakavod. It wasn't a game of tag." Hold on to my kisei hakavod. Meant, You, a human being, Are in two places at once. No other being in the world is like a human being. Animals are animals and malachim are malachim, But a human being is both. We have a nefesh abahamis. We have to acknowledge that we have an animalistic side to ourselves, But we also have a nefesh lekis. We have a godly side to ourselves. Only a human being could be a yelud isha and also hold on to the kisei hakavod.

11:53 You can be in two places at once, just like the Torah can be in two places at once. The Torah has the soul of God, but it's couched in the physical world. So you, Moshe Rabbeinu, you're standing right where you're supposed to be. Hold on to my Kiseh Hakavod and answer them. And what are his answers? His answers, if you think about them, are all the terrible things about a person. He says to the Malachim, "We could covet another man's wife. We could steal. We could cheat in business." We spend our entire week in business. That on Shabbos we need to rest. We went to Mitzrayim. We were enslaved by Paro. What is Bei Shabenu's argument? His argument is all the terrible things. No? Rabbi, stand up. When the tzaddik comes into the room, You stand up. Shalom Rav Levin.

12:53 So Moshe Rabbeinu is saying all the terrible things about a person. You would think this would be the exact opposite of what the Malachim would be looking for. Shouldn't Moshe Rabbeinu come to the Malachim and say, 'Look, we're so spiritual. We're not. We have a nefesh Abahamis. And what's the clinching argument? The clincher here is that it's not just the absence of the word 'but,' but also the presence of the word 'but' in the sentence itself. The clinching argument, the one where it says, 'Miad Hoydulay Hakadosh Baruch Hu,' was, 'Do you have a Yitzhahara? If you have a Yitzhahara, then you need the tirah.' Because we have this animalistic side. How do we transition? How do we shift from being animals to being godly? How do we live in two worlds at once? The teretz is you have a tirah. And by the way, it makes sense now.

13:45 Why is the gift that the malachim give, the bracha that the malachim give to Moshe Rabbeinu? Why is that bracha the bracha of giving him the secret of life and death? Because after all, what is death? Death is when the animal soul no longer gives life to the body. So Moshe Rabbeinu, you're there to be mezachich, to be mitayer of the world. You got to be in the world. You're going to know the secret of physicality because you're going to endow physicality with spirituality. In Chassidus, there's a great line. Physicality is a very spiritual thing. The physical is a spiritual thing. Every year on Simchas Torah, Glanz and I make this mitzvah with the yeshiva. Can you do shnayim mikra ve'echa targum? We're not asking you to learn mesechtas. We're not asking you to spend hundreds of hours extra in the beis medrash. We're asking you to learn chumash with Rashi. Some might say it's a childish request. Push him, let him learn. In the Olim HaYeshivas, sometimes you ask someone where they can find the pasuk.

15:04 And they tell you it's a Beferishah Gemara. It's a Beferishah Gemara. That's the world today. The world is in a place of everything is about Gemara. Everything is about learning deeply. Which is awesome. But Chaver, Rabbi, I want to tell you something very important. When do we spend time learning Hakadosh Baruch Hu's Torah? Reifeld Zeichutzadik Levracha used to say that the book of God, the book of Jews, is the Torah. Again, I'm not being mezal zechas Rosh Hashanah in Gemara. Chas Rosh Hashanah. Gemara is amazing. Gemara is the deeper explanation of everything that was going on in the Torah. But how could it be that Bnei Torah could quote Masechta's and Shabbos? Masechta's and Shabbos—they could tell you a Ktayis. They could tell you a Shemaitza. They could tell you an Aviezeri. I know the Rosh Yeshiva did an Aviezeri and Shair a couple weeks ago. But they can't tell you what happened in that week's parsha. How could it be?

16:08 The targets is that for whatever reason we stopped learning Chumash when we were children. We stopped learning Chumash when it was fifth grade, and it was Hascholas Gemara, or sixth grade, whatever. Whenever you started, or maybe it was this year, but whenever you started You felt that Chumash was something childish, And that's a terrible thing, Because at the end of the day, Everything we're learning, Everything we're doing, it goes back to Chumash, And to learn Chumash with Rashi, Which is the savor that Jews have learned for millennia, That's an unbelievable thing. So we could be mezalsalit and say, "Yeah, in Yeshiva of Glanz and of Berg, they made a mitzvah. They challenged us in Ma'ava Malka. If you finish Chumash with Rashi, save your Bereshis." Could say that. You'd be sadly mistaken. I'm exceptionally proud to say that I'm part of a yeshiva that values talmidim. We'll learn a tremendous amount of Gemara this year. God willing, they'll learn a lot of Musar and Ashkafa this year. Perhaps, and I hope that every one of you has a halacha seder as well.

17:16 But I'm proud to be part of a yeshiva that knows that every guy here needs to be working on chumash with Rashi. I used to see our minhal from our yeshiva when we were growing up of Yehuda Shmulevitz. I don't know if you ever saw on Friday mornings. Friday mornings, he come to beis medrash. Friday mornings only the really serious guys were still there. A lot of guys would go home for Shabbos Thursday night already. But Friday morning, I was proud to be a guy that was still in yeshiva Friday morning. And Rishmolevitz would come in Friday mornings, even though most boys weren't there. And he would sit by his malkum, and guys would talk to him. But you know what's safer? He had in front of him a chumash, and he was doing Shnayim Mikra VeEchad Targum every single week before Shabbos. Rishmolevitz was chavrusas with Rv Nachum Persovich. Rv Nachum was arguably the greatest maggid shir in the mirror. His derech halimud revolutionized klal yisrael. He was a chavrusha.

18:17 And he was a shir, he was a close talmud. Every word that comes out of Rav Shmuel Leibitz's mouth is Rav Nachum this and Rav Nachum that. If he's not quoting Rav Nachum, he's quoting his uncle Rav Chaim. But everything was Rav Nachum. What was he learning on Friday mornings? What was our menahel learning on Friday mornings? Chumis with Rashi. I heard a maisa. I didn't see this myself, but I heard it from a friend of mine. That Rav Yishev, even in his older days, would sit there and bimisikus with sweetness. He would read Shnayim Mikra VeEchatargum, and he would put his finger on the place like he was taught when he was younger, and bereshes bara lekim es Shamayim es arz. He would mamish read chumish, just read through. Say the Vilna Gaon at the end of his life. What did the Vilna Gaon have to learn? At that point, he had learned everything. He had learned everything under the sun.

19:06 We can't be masig how much the Vilna Gaon knew. I heard Rishsteiners is giving a shiur in Evin Shlema. Everybody in yeshiva should be in that shear. What an unbelievable opportunity to learn the Gaon's Torah from Rishsteiners! They say at the end of the Gaon's life, he would open up a Sefer Torah and he would read a word, not a pasuk, a word, and he would chazar everything in Terez Nigla and Terez Nistar on that word, because Lamais it all comes from the Torah. Shuv makzeve. Look at all the terrible things we could do. We could also be ayches at the Kisei Hakavod. This year, I'm not talking about the years that you're going to spend in Israel. I'm talking about this year in specific. This year, right here, right now. Why does it exist? Couldn't learn in America? There aren't great yeshivas in America. There are.

20:01 I want to tell you what I think is the revolution. Of all the yeshivas in Eretz Yisrael, I'm not talking about just Mevaserah, but of all the yeshivas The revolution is to teach you guys not how to learn. You could learn how to learn anywhere in the world. You come to Eretz Yisrael not to learn how to learn. You come to Eretz Yisrael to learn both sides of a person: the nefesh of a hamis and the nefesh of a kis. Sometimes we get caught up in our outside of Eretz Yisrael life. I was by a bris today. A very good friend of mine made a Bris, and he made a suddah after the Bris for a couple of chavra. A couple of the chavra we got together. His family, her family, lives in America, so the suddah was together. So he spoke. This guy is from Brooklyn. I don't know if any of you know what it means to be from Brooklyn. I don't know if you know what it means to be from Brooklyn. But this is what it means to be from Brooklyn. He was speaking about his family, and he said that his father's side had left, meaning his mother's side, they left. They lived in Brooklyn. And his father's side moved to Eretz Yisrael. But he didn't say they moved to Eretz Yisrael. He said some family lived in Brooklyn and some family lived outside of Brooklyn.

21:11 So I went over to Matar as I said, that's the most Brooklyn thing I've ever heard in my entire life. There's Brooklyn and then there's outside of Brooklyn. I know, I think the same thing because I'm from the five towns initially. So to me, even going to New Jersey is the West. The only reason to ever cross the GWB when I was growing up was to play ball. When you're in America, it's a tremendous amount of kedusha wherever you are. But somehow, the air in Eretz Yisrael is different. I remember when Rav Glanz and I went to Tzfat many years ago. And Rav Glanz said to the boys, "Boys, take a moment and smell the air of Tzfat. Smells different. Every city, every holy city has something different about it. The air of Tzfat smells different. Avirah de Eretz Yisrael machkim. This home, where a Jew belongs, the air is different. Avir dar Eretz Yisrael machkim."

22:10 What are we trying to tell you guys? We're trying to tell you guys that wherever you go for the rest of your life, you, of course, will be in the physical world. Of course, that's a human being. But while you are a yeludisha, it's not who you have to be. You could be both at once. You could be immanent and you could be transcendent. You could be part of this world. You could also be above this world, teaching this world of what it means to be a godly person. My bracha to all of you is, Keep learning the word of God. Rav Aaron Lichtenstein zechutalik luvracha, The Rashiv of Gush, The son-in-law of Rav Salavechik. Aaron Lichtenstein was once asked. I don't like Gemara. Gemara is boring. Gemara is irrelevant. So he had a great line. He said, "I'll tell you what. I'll answer all of your questions, but let's replace the word Gemara with the word of God."

23:20 Conversation changes once you change the words. He says, "I'll show you how the word of God is relevant. I'll show you how the word of God is not boring. I'll show you the depth of the word of God." But if you keep calling it Gemara like that, it's a four-letter word for some of us. It's Gemara is a four-letter word. Why are we pushing? Why are we pushing all this? Why are we pushing all this Torah? And yes, obviously Torah should be chsav because la ma'isa it changes a person. La ma'isa a Jew. As the Alter Rebbe said, you have to live with the times. They didn't know what he meant, so they went to his brother. What does it mean? You have to know what's going on in the Parsha Sashavua. You can look into the parsha. You can know what's going on in the world. Rabbi Yisai, we have to live with the times. Every week, a Jew shows up to Shabbos and he knows what happened in the parsha. And because he knows what happened in the parsha, he knows what's going on in the world. That's the mitzvah. You're plugged in if you know what's going on in the parsha. You're not plugged in if you don't know what's going on in the parsha.

24:21 Every one of you deserves a tremendous yasher koach. Every one of you deserves a tremendous yeshivka. You've dedicated yourself, and I hope you're going to continue. That's my bracha to you that you continue. Don't stop. Do you know in my brother's office there are Jews that don't know the names of the hamishir chumshetarim? It's a mitzvah. You guys aren't just going to know the names; you're going to know what it says. I want to call out one person in particular. This is against every chinuch rule in the book. You're not allowed to call out one person in particular. I want to call out one person in particular. I want to call out Rav Glanz. This is Rav Glanz's initiative. I'm just along for the ride. Why am I calling out Rav Glanz? Not just because he hosts. His home is open to everybody. I'll tell you why I want to call out Rav Glanz.

25:14 Most people don't know this. Everybody has their people that they've brought into the yeshiva, people that they've hired, people that they're responsible for. I brought Rav Glanz into our yeshiva. I went to Tzfat to get him. I had to rescue him from Tzfat. I had to hijack him from a mansion. Some of you have visited the mansion. If you've been to the mansion, you know that was the best recruitment I've ever done. I managed to pull him away from the mansion. Come to join me in Mevaser. And within a year, he was the mashgiach of our yeshiva. He wasn't the mashgiach the first year; it was the second year. Within a year, he's mashgiach of our yeshiva. We're both talmidim of Parnas Shlitah. I knew Rav Glanz in Shear. I knew Rav Glanz was a capable lamdan. I knew he'd be a great rebbe. I want to tell you why I. Of course, it was the Rosh Yeshiva that made the move. I can't take credit for that. It was the Rosh Yeshiva that made Rav Glanz the mashgiach. But behind the scenes, I have a small role. I'm a little bird that can chirp in the Rosh Yeshiva's ear. And from time to time, maybe he won't rip on me in a sichah.

26:27 I have a shnickle influence. I want to tell you why Glanz is mashkiach of our yeshiva. Because mashkiach is different than mashpia. Mashpia means to influence. Mashkiach means Hashgacha. Glanz always tells the story about your grandmother. This is grandmother. When he told her he became the mashkiach of the yeshiva, she thought he got a demotion. She thought he was watching the kashrus in the kitchen of the yeshiva. Had to explain to her, mashgiach means the hashkafa of the yeshiva, Zahar ma Hashgacha. Because when we were in Landers together, there were different types of guys. There were guys that were phenomenal learners, and there's no question that our mashgiach was a phenomenal learner. That's not why I wanted him to be mashgiach. There's a lot of people that could be phenomenal learners and phenomenal rebbeim. There were less guys devoted to God. You see, as you get older in life, it's possible. I know this sounds crazy to some of you. It's possible to intellectualize your Judaism and to lose Hakadosh Baruch Hu in the process. It's possible to learn a tremendous amount of Torah and to remain a human being seeped in the humanity of the world.

27:40 And why I looked up to Glands because he was the older Bach. He was married already. I can't say it was the older Bachar. You were the older Bachar first when I met you, but then he was young Kaidel guy. Why I looked up to him is because it was apparent that he wasn't. It was apparent that he wasn't just learning Torah. He was serving God. There's a difference, Rabbi Sayyid. You could learn a lot of Gemara this year. You could work on your skills. You could know how to analyze. You could be mazber machleikus between the Rambam and the Rashba. You could shvitz over a shver Rambam, but it doesn't mean you're serving Hakadosh Baruch Hu. But when you sit down to do shnayim mikra every week, and you read psukim in the Torah and Rashi, which is the simplest pshat, you're serving the ebe'shter. That's why it was Rav Glanz, not any other Rebbe in this yeshiva, who thought the boy should be learning chumash and not an in-depth shir and nach and net. I'm not talking about analyzing a radak right now. Talking about pasuk. Serving Hakadosh Baruch Hu by reading His words.

28:45 The purpose of this year is not to learn Torah. The purpose of this year is a fundamental transformation, not just of us, not just of our entire community, but of the entire world. That's the Yisoy. That's the Yisoy of the whole year. It starts with Chumash with Rashi. No matter where you go, don't ever stop learning Chumash with Rashi. I'll finish with this Ma'aseh. It was a boy in our yeshiva a couple of years ago. I would say he was beyond average intelligence. I can't tell you he was brilliant, But he was beyond average intelligence. Not going to tell you his name or anything else about him, But I'll tell you if glance knows for sure who I'm talking about by the end of the story. He was in the Rosh Yeshiva Sheir. I would argue he was the top guy in the Rosh Yeshiva Sheir intellectually.

29:35 He could get everything the Rosh Yeshiva said, all the sefaras. He could argue with the Rosh Yeshiva. It was amazing. But it was all cerebral. Didn't touch his heart. Didn't get there. Not because it couldn't, but because he didn't allow it to get there. Mrs. Mahus. He was interested in other things. He was interested in As one person put it, The pajama party. He was interested in going off and having a good time. His father's a frum guy. He came to yeshiva and he asked, "Why won't my son allow it to get to him? He's so smart. He's learning so well. Torah has an amazing capacity to change a person, but only if you're focused on it. Only if it's lishma. Has to start off lishma. Afterwards, it can be mitoch shalol lishma balishma, but it has to start off lishma. You learn chumash with Rashi. I know you're lishma. You learn chumash with Rashi. It means you're serving the Ebrestein.

30:40 Habel amadti mei Abayi say. I learned a lot from my rebbeim, Yisim Echaverim. More from my friends, Metamidah Yisim Ekulim. We learn the most from our Talmidim. It's inspirational to watch you guys on a Motzei Shabbos in the holy city of Mevaseret, not in the less than holy part of certain aspects of Yerushalayim Irakaydesh. What are we celebrating? We finished Sefer Bereshis Chumis with Rashi. We should be zaycha to be here for Shemais. Rav Glantz, we should make mekabel on herself. Would do it for Shmoyz. I'll tell you like this: Rav Katz asked me. He says you should do it for everyone. I have mixed thoughts. On the one hand, yes, why not? Shmoyz for your girl, whatever. On the other hand, we did it once. We gave you a little what we call shaloy lishma, something on the table. My go, a good salesman. If he sells something, right? Eventually, once you buy it, because you see the benefits.

31:44 You'll just want to keep on buying it again. You shouldn't need more phone calls. I feel on the one hand maybe yeah, but on the other hand I feel like they just did it now. They know what it feels like to finish an entire seder from beginning to end, entire berachas to learn the entire thing. Chumash Rashi. The kishmak of the kishmak isn't the pizza. The kishmak isn't the Malav Malka. The kishmak was the learning. So I'll tell you what, Ervins. Let's make up shari you and I. Makabul what you're saying. So it's not a mitzvah. It's not if they do it they get a malav malcha. It's when they do it, of course, We'll make malav malcha. This is a fair deal. That's coffee station. You're not doing it for the pizza. You're doing it for the. Now you know what learning chumash is. Now do it. You're doing it for Chumash. We have to make a malav malcha anyway. Kogel, can I ask you a question? Lefneam ve'edah.

32:35 This year you were messiah in ganz tanach. I'm sure not all of it you remember. Could even be there were parts of Nevi'im Achrayim that were difficult to get through. What was the sense of accomplishment you felt when you read the whole thing? What was incredible about it? Say it again so that Boy can hear you. This was definitely one of the big things that influenced me to learn Tanakh. It started after a simple story. And they got into it. The advisor also mentioned that if we want to learn, we have to learn the basics first. He was talking about learning gemara to learn sohanar and everything. I took a step further, going back to the basics. All the way up. How could you learn gemara without knowing Tanach? So guys say, Rebbe, let us just learn Tanach. If you give me ten years of your life, we'll start again. We'll start from basics.

33:36 I'm learning gemara now on my own. It's amazing. Know the context and the story. It's an amazing thing. I want to tell you something. My brother, who's now a rebbe in centers, when he came to yeshiva, he was very not yeshiva material. He basically the year started, and he was in a place which is now defunct. It's called Ner Yaakov, it's where Stein was used to teach. It was already like November, December time, and he was just sleeping all day and doing nothing. He decided he came in and he went to a gemar she'er one day. He was listening to Gemara and he said to the rabbi, "Why am I learning this? I don't even know kumish. How could I learn this stuff?" And so you have to know my brother's personality a little bit. He's just when once he gets something in his mind, that's what he does. He used to sit in the bais medrash with headphones on, with a hood over his head, and he would sit for eight to ten hours a day just learning Chumash, Rashi.

34:46 Navi, like straight through. He said, "I'm not stopping until I finish it all. " He finished it in three months. He finished it in three months from beginning to end. That's all he did. Yom Av Lailah. He finished it in three months. Made us see him, and he said it changed his life. Just that. Just changed his life. Everything he did after that was from that. Was from the basis. Learning the Chumash and the Rashi. There's a reason we say after Chumash, 'Finishing Chumash,' we don't say 'by tomorrow.' What do we say? 'Hadran alach.' By Chumash, what do we say? 'Chazak, v'nis chazek.' Why? Because there's something about Chumash. Just the Pashas stories in Chumash. They give you such a chizuk and emuna that even Torah Shabbat can't give you. It's just like, Torah Shavu'Pe is unbelievable, and there's so many Alpietvar Meilu Parati Itchabris to Eretz Yisrael. Hashem made a special connection with us in Torah Shavu'Pe.

35:40 But Torah Shavu'Sab just learning the Pasha. The story is possible, as Rebberg says, that a person can learn Gemara, whatever it is. He might know the stories in Chumash, but they've never been internalized in him. And he might not even fully believe it. Like when you learn Chumash and you read it over and over, you're literally tapping into the basics. You're tapping into the. Fundamentals And that's what gives a person chizuk. That's what gives a person emuna. From that, that's where everything comes. Big Yeshua, kind of a glance for having us here tonight.