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La.
You won't be sad. You won't be sad. La.
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I'm not a bad guy. I'm a closet. I'm a closet. La. La, hey la, la.
La, Lala, la. I see you guys. Come on!
Come on! We need to get. We need to get. You guys are really good. Febru. Get in there, Yondu. Get in there, Yondu. Febru. Let's get started.
Sit down, eat your cholin. Don't worry, there's more food coming. Say la'chaim. We're gonna get started. Thank you so much, Yasher koach gadol to the two dolamichin in his own area. Thank you to Robert for coming out. He's gonna be leading us in some zivrei serus and some seders. And thank you, Josh, for coming out. The dynamic duo from the Masers. Tonight, tomorrow, really, Chasidim really, essentially, people ask me if I get to ask Kislav. So why are we Fabring? Chasidim, Chasidim Fabring all week long. We're celebrating what is called Rosh Hashanah Chasidus.
The liberation of the Alter Rebbe, the first Chabad Lubavitcher Rebbe, from prison, and we're gonna have an insight or two as to what that means, and what that means to us, and how that's noged to us in our avodas Hashem, and why all of this matters, and why are we getting together on a Thursday night to Fabrang to speak. Open up your hearts. Thank you so much once again to Rabbi Berg. Shalom. Couldn't have shabbis. So good to be back in Shalvim. Big Ashikaiach, to refresh for putting this together. This is the third year in a row. Now it's a Chazaka.
And Shabbos is the yard site of the Mezricher Magid. The Magid of Mezrich was one of the prime disciples of the HaLevi of Balshemtuzchosiyagan Aleinu. And on his yard site, right before his pitiro, the Maggid Miezasz said to the Alter Rebbe, "This is our day." Many years later, the Alter Rebbe found himself imprisoned. He had been taken by the Tsarist government in Russia because
Some well-intentioned Jews, in an effort to slander the Alter Rebbe, told the Tsarist government that the Alter Rebbe was siding with the Turkish government by opening up Kollel Chabad in Eshelayim, which still exists today. He told all the Hasidim that it was their obligation to support the kotel chabad in Yerushalayim. So they told the Czarist government that the Alter Rebbe was siding with the Turks, and not only that, but they accused the Alter Rebbe of fomenting rebellion against the Czar himself, a crime that was punishable by death, and they took the Alter Rebbe.
To Petersburg, they put him on a jail. The jail was actually not on the mainland. The jail was on an island where they tried those that were being accused of capital crimes. The Hasidim, of course, were terrified for their Rabbi because people didn't usually leave this jail alive. Some of you may have seen a very famous picture of the Alter Rebbe. You put up the sign in yeshiva that you showed me. So that picture that you saw of the Alter Rebbe on the sign in yeshiva, that picture is actually a portrait. They didn't have cameras in those days, and the portrait was taken in the jail in Petersburg. That's where it comes from. Building. That building.
And for fifty-three days, the Alter Rebbe was in jail. A fascinating thing happened when he was in jail. The Alter Rebbe's interrogators kept asking him different concepts in Chassidus, and so he actually wrote answers. He wrote out the answers in Lashon Kodesh. They would have them taken back to the mainland where they would be translated. And after the fall of the Russian government, we got those original letters of the Alter Rebbe, answering all the different questions that they had in Chassidus on some of the most basic concepts. A treasure trove of letters from the Alter Rebbe. They had been kept by the government all those years, but the Alter Rebbe understood that it's a strange thing to be interrogated.
On concepts in Chasidus, while a person is in jail, and he understood whatever this means, to us we can't understand these things. But the Alter Rebbe understood that in Shamayim there was a great rash going on, because the Alter Rebbe had been involved in spreading the teachings of Chasidus. He understood that there was a khitrug against him in Shamayim, and that there was a din Torah, so to speak, happening in Shamayim. Should the teachings of Chassidus be allowed to be spread, or must they be contained? Because of course, Chassidus contains some of the most important kabbalistic ideas that are mitzumtammed down into a language that we can understand. The Alter Rebbe had some sort of vision where he spoke to the Mezritchim Maggid and he spoke to the Balshemtov, and they said that this is what's happening in Shamayim. That it's a big to do in Shamayim, whether or not you're going to be freed or whether or not you're going to be killed in the jail. And after fifty three days, keherefayin, in a very unexpected fashion, the Alter Rebbe was miraculously released from jail. And the Chassidim rejoice.
But Yud Tez Kislev became the birthday of Chasidus, because from that moment on the Alter Rebbe understood that in being freed from the Czarist jail in a miraculous fashion, he understood that he had an obligation to give over Chasidus in a way that it had never been given over before, and after that the Alter Rebbe wrote arguably the greatest Hasidic work of all time. Certainly, the first work that ever codified the teachings of Chassidus. He wrote the Sefer Tanya. A Sefer that today has gone through tens of thousands of printings, that's been taught all over the world. From the most Hasidush yeshivas to the most Litvish yeshivas, today you can't find a yeshiva that doesn't have.
That people there that are learning Tanya. In fact, a number of years ago, a family came to our yeshiva to check out the yeshiva. One of the twelfth graders is coming to visit, and apparently the father was a man of some means, and when men of means come to Eretz Yisrael, you can always tell because the rosh kollel they go around with them wherever they go. So in Mevaseret, I won't say the name of this rosh kollel, but in Mevaseret, one of the most choshev rosh kollel in Yerushalayim came to visit the yeshiva. When the kid showed up with his father, I was prepared to say shalom aleichem. When this major gadol b'torah showed up with them, I didn't know what to say. But somebody in the yeshiva told me that this rosh kollel.
He learns Tanya, so I asked him. I had the opportunity to sit down with him and talk to him a little bit, and I asked him. I said, 'You're known as a litvish gadol b'tayra, but I'm told that you study Tanya.' So I'll never forget what he said to me. He was an elderly man, and he said, 'We don't mess with the Alter Epo.' I remember thinking it was a funny thing to hear from a tzaddik. Like, we don't mess with the outdoor rabbis. I asked him, 'What do you mean?' So he said, 'Nefshachayim was written as a response to the Sefer Tanya. It was written by Rav Chaim Volozhiner. At the time, this was going to be a big mach like as everybody was waiting to see what are the teachings of the Hasidim, how do they differ from the teachings of the Lithuanian yeshiva world, and it turned out.
In the entirety of the Sefer, there were very few points of disagreement on things. Some were a little bit more major, some were a little bit less major. But overall, I think they say there were five machleksim between the Nevsachayim and the Tanya. Baal Shem Tov said in a letter that he wrote to his brother-in-law that he visited the Hechal of Mashiach. Again, we don't know what these things mean. And he asked, 'When will you come?' Mashiach said, 'Ksheyafutsu mayanosecha hachutzah, when the well springs of your Torah will boil over, will bubble over, will be spread with the entire world, over the entire world. Everybody's going to know the teachings of Chasidus. And it's such a funny thing because twenty years ago. Thirty years ago, forty years ago, people were not studying chassidus like they're studying chassidus today, and Uman was just a town in Ukraine that a handful of balabatim would go to, that the brestlavers would go to, but the notion of having a hundred thousand people go to Uman, the notion of people being connected to chassidus the way that people are connected today, it's not part of the normal teva of this world.
And it's something that a Yud Tes Kislev began, and today we're reaping the benefits of that decision of the Alter Rebbe to say, to go out, to go everywhere with this Torah, and to bring it all over the world. So I want to share with you for a moment before we go back to singing. Some of you have heard the story from me already. For those who I was lucky to hang out with in Beit Meir for a couple of summers, but I'll tell you why it's a special day to me. I grew up in a neighborhood in a particular yeshiva that was what we would call a miznagdashi yeshiva. There's such a thing as a Litvish yeshiva, and then there's such a thing as a miznagdashi yeshiva. A Litvish yeshiva today.
You come out, won't find a litvish yeshiva that doesn't have a chassidish influence. But a misnagdish yeshiva is a yeshiva that, b'shitah, they're against the teachings of chassidus. And I grew up in exactly such a yeshiva. And it was a personally very difficult experience for me. Because the Rosh Yeshiva is a god-fearing Jew. Somebody who I grew up with. Not that I grew up with the Rosh Yeshiva. I grew up under him, so to speak. My family was part of his yeshiva, and he was a genius, and an unbelievable lamdan, a real brisker, and he had a particular affinity for knocking the teachings of Chassidus. And on the other hand, my mother, in part, but in a serious part, became from through Labavitch.
And the truth is that the only reason my mother did not become a full-fledged labavicher is because somebody told her that if you become a full-fledged labavicher, you have to go to the rebbe for a bracha before you get engaged. My mother already knew she was going to marry my father, so she said, 'What if the rebbe says no?' They said, 'Well, if the rebbe says no, then you can't get engaged.' So that was the end of my mother being a labavicher. But I used to go to Crown Heights for Shabbos because my mother's first cousin was also Mekurev through Labavitch, and I used to go to Crown Heights for Shabbos. I was young, but I was old enough to understand that there was a tzaddik in Crown Heights, the Labavitcher Rebbe, a tzaddik of ravacha, who was making a tumult in the entire world to bring Yidden back to Yiddishkeit. I used to go. I used to see him standing up on the platform. For those of you, I'm sure you've seen the videos on YouTube. I used to see him clapping away.
And getting everyone into it by the Fabrangiens, my cousin used to stand us right in the path. The Rebbe would walk the same path to go back to his office after the Fabrangiens. And so my cousin would stand us right on the path, so that when the sea split and the Rebbe walked through, you'd be right on the edge of the sea, so you could be right by him. And my father is a person of great humor. And so he thought it was very funny that every time we would go to Crown Heights for Shabbos, he would dress like he wasn't from just to see how many Lubavitchers would come over to him and try to be mikay of him over the course of a Shabbos. So one Shabbos, my father wore a cowboy hat. To Crown Heights, a brown cowboy hat. It was like a nice hat. The irony that many years later, when I would get a hat, he was very upset.
So the Rebbe walked by, and he saw my father wearing a cowboy hat. The Rebbe knew tremendous things, but apparently the Rebbe didn't know that my father was already a religious Jew. And so he walked by, and he stopped right by my father. He started waving his arms, like to get my father into it. My father looked at my cousin. He goes, "What does the Rebbe want from me?" He's just sitting there, waving his arms. It became a family legend that my father used to say that. That was like the umpire throwing him out of the game. That he was like you got to get out of here wearing that stupid hat. But I remember. Maybe I was eight years old. I remember the piercing look that the Rebbe gave. I remember the look in his eyes, and in that look, even though my father was just joking around, I remember that the Rebbe was.
Was so concerned that a Jew who clearly wasn't from Crown Heights was also part of the chevrat. And many years later, when I would make my way back to the teachings of Chassidus, it was only natural for me to return to the teachings of Chabad Chassidus Befrat. And in so doing, I fell in love with the Sefer Tanya. And every single day in yeshiva, I teach that Sefer for two hours a day. And the Yisoidus that can be found in that sefer, like the Kedushas Levi of Levi Yitzchok Meir Ditchev, who said, "How did the Alter Rebbe fit such a big God into such a small book?" And it's unbelievable what's happening. The movement that we're sitting here in Shalvim, and I remember my chaverim that went to Shalvim twenty-two years ago, and I was in Mevaseret twenty-two years ago. And I'm sure that the movement of Chassidus twenty two years ago here in Shalvim, just like it was in Mivaser, was much smaller back then. I think I could say that confidently. Baruch Hashem today, we live in a complex world with many different rebbeim who hold many different things, and I'm sure many have different opinions and have expressed different opinions about tonight's Vabringin.
But we also live in a world, Baruch Hashem, where there was a great tzaddik whose name was Rishaga Feivel Mendelavitch. Rishaga Feivel Mendelavitch was the founder of a yeshiva called Torah Vadas. Rishaga Feivel Mendelavitch, officially he was tremendous talmudachim, but officially he had never gotten smicha. He was a tremendously humble person. He used to go by the name Mr. Mendelavitch. I heard from my Rebbe, Shlita. Should be zaychur rufu shalema. I heard from my rebbe that Rishaga Feivel Mandelavitch was invited to the opening of Nair Yisrael, to the groundbreaking of Nair Yisrael. He was invited there, and he was sitting on the dais, and he was invited to come speak. Rav Ruderman introduced Rishaga Feivel Mandelavitch to come speak, and he said, without further ado, Rishaga Feivel Mandelavitch, and Rishaga Feivel didn't move a muscle. Rav Ruderman said Rishaga Feivel, and Rishaga Feivel didn't move a muscle.
And again, he sat in Rishaga Fivel. Rishaga Fivel didn't move a muscle. And then Rishparnes told me that there was an audible sigh from Rivderman, and he goes, "Mr. Mendelavitch." And then Rishaga Fivel got up and he came to speak. He was a person of tremendous humility. And Torah Vedas set the tone for many of our yeshivas today, including this yeshiva. And in Torah Vidas, they had Chassidish Rabbim and they had Litvish Rabbim, Chassidish Talmidim and Litvish Talmidim. And they asked Rosh Hashanah why he would be miyased such a yeshiva, why he would set the yeshiva up to be confusing, with so many different voices coming from so many different places. You can have Litvish Abakrim hearing shmuzin from Chassidish Mashpim and vice versa. And Rosh Hashanah gave the following mashal.
He said, "Imagine there's a father-in-law who has two daughters, and each daughter marries a person, and the father-in-law commits himself that he's gonna. In the olden days, there was something called kest, where you ate in your father-in-law's house. Yeshiva Bachar would eat in particular homes. It's called kest. So he said, 'I'm gonna give kest. I'm gonna take care of my daughter-in-laws and their husbands that every day they can come and eat by me.'" But one of the sons-in-law only wanted fleishik's, and one of the sons-in-law only wanted milchik's, and so every single day they would come to the father-in-law's house, and there would be three tables: one table in the middle for the mother-in-law and the father-in-law, one table on the side that was the fleishik's table, another table on the other side that was the milchik's table, and this is how they went about for years, until unfortunately the father-in-law fell on very hard times, and he could still afford.
To feed his daughters and his son-in-laws, but he said, "I can't afford anymore to have a fleishik's meal and a milchik's meal. We have to choose. One day will be fleishik's. One day will be milchik's. One day will be fleishik's. One day will be milchik's. It's okay. The son-in-laws had no choice. It wasn't their preference, but this is what it was. So the first day they showed up to the house of the new system." And the son-in-law went to his table, and the other son-in-law went to his table, and the father-in-law said, "Wait a second, this doesn't make any sense. As long as you were eating fleshix and you were eating milchix, it made sense for us to eat at separate tables. But now that we're all eating the same food, we should sit together at the same table." And Rishaga Feivel Mendelavitch said it was the same thing. In Europe, we could afford to have these machleks. In Europe, we could afford to say.
You sit at that table and you sit at that table. But Zera Shagafivel already in the early 1900s in America, when he started Torah Vedas, he said, "In America, we can't afford to sit at different tables anymore, and we need to be able to draw from the well springs of all Torah, from those that spend their days crying over a Shver Rambam, from those that are willing to break their teeth over a beautiful Rashba." And for those that are sitting and trying to figure out how to elevate their davening, and to know that these things are not astira, and I know that this is true in Shalvim, because for twenty-two years, since my friends went here to Shalvim, I heard the same thing from all the Shalvim guys. It's not a dual life; it's a broad life.
So I see it's still relevant. It must be that if we're going to say that it's not a dual life, it's a broad life when it comes to Parnasa and college, Yeshiva and Yerushalmiim. It must be that it's also not a dual life when it comes to those that are working on their Tefillah, and to those that are working on Inyaney Ruchnius. And to those that are working on the more intellectual realms in Yiddishkeit, it must be that they go together. And if in any way it seems to us like a dual life, or it seems to us that one of these things has no place with the rest, then it must be that a person thinks that they're living back in Europe where we're living at separate tables, and it's not true, and it's not even good. Hine matovu ma noim shavas achim gam yachar.
It's good for brothers to sit together. It's good and it's sweet. It's very rare for things to be good and sweet. Things that are sweet are generally not good, and things that are good are generally not sweet. I've had a tremendous amount of salads in the last three months. I assure you. For those of you that have ever gone to the Five Towns and decided to get a kale smoothie, which is by itself a Shrek-like thing to do, don't. It's not worth it. Those things that are good are not sweet. Those things that are sweet are not good. But for brothers to sit together, and so Yotzes Kislev is not a yontif for Chabad Hasidim. Yotzes Kislev is a yontif for all of Klal Yisroel. Yotzes Kislev is a yontif for Jews that don't know that there's a yontif called Yotzes Kislev. Yotzes Kislev is a yontif for those.
That when I came upstairs to the beautiful basement just before to see. For those that were standing by the window and saying, 'So according to you this, and according to me that,' and for those that were fighting it out, and it was beautiful to watch. It's a yantah for you, and it's a yantah for those of you that already find yourselves more mechubar to these teachings. Because Mashiach will come when we sit together, and we're drawing from the well springs of all Torah. So we have a long night ahead of us of singing, of dancing, of trying to touch a place that perhaps we don't always get to. It's difficult to come to that place of haskashus to these ideas, and maybe some of you have a little bit of a natural natia towards these things, and maybe you don't have a natural natia towards these things. But there's a special segula. I know. Ruvish pointed out that it's not yet tzitzis life yet.
And Hasidim generally come late to things. We don't generally come early to things. But when it comes to Yotzes Kislev, the hafaza is all over. It could be early. It could be late. It could be Sunday night with NCSY. It could be Thursday night in Shalvim. It's a weekend extravaganza. So tonight, there's already muchim degodless in the world. There's already an expansive consciousness in the world that we can tap into. And if we could take some time tonight, over the course of the next hour of our lives, to be able to touch something a little bit deeper. Bais R Hashem, it should be something that comes with us into the year. It should be something that, if I bring in, is not chas v'shalom bittul taira, but it's something that should infuse more elokus into our taira, which perhaps we'll speak a little bit about later. But tonight should be something that comes not from a place of like, so I left the beis medrash. You didn't leave the beis medrash. This also a beis medrash tonight. This also something that's going to take us to new heights in our rochnis.
In Beizer Hashem, with Josh, his mom Shaila Gabbal Menagen, we should be zeicher to open our hearts a little bit tonight. I will be here for you. O God, remember me. In the hour of my death, I ask that you remember me.
I dekho. Adonai Ad. Ata ve'ayzer, ve'ayka ve'merka ve'bi'ata ve'leka.
Mi ataviydeka, oyeladika, araymi meka. Mi ataviydeka, oyeladika, araymi meka. Ata mei deka, arani mekro, mekiriya. Mei deka.
Oirai, rai, Is a really, really, really unique nigga. Obviously, every nigga is unique. Every nigga has its own.
It's own energy that you're supposed to connect to through it. When I think of nigun, this nigun really strikes out different. It's very core. What I mean by that is that it's just—it's raw. It's a very raw expression. You hear the nigun? You hear the nigun, and you think that, whether consciously or subconsciously. And now that you know that when you sing this nigun, nothing around you matters. Again, that's what it should be like with any nigun. It should be like with all the others. But this nigun is a very, very accurate expression of it.
Oy, tzamar lechana, oy kamal tov mezavori, bi'eretz amei oy. And lay my body.
Ya, la. Samalecha na, oy kamalecha b'samali. Bi'et. Let the avalanche bloom on my body. Yalla.
Da, Oyler, oykein, oyler, chazreisiba, niraesurza, oyderda, oykein, oyler.
Ziga z Yalla Mi ereziyamei, mi kahai.
La. Oydei ma oydei, kazi zicha liru ezufa. Oy ken mekoydes, kazi zizal yaizu tzah ulo necha. Oy ken mekoydes, kazi zizal yaizu tzah ulo necha.
Da, ya ma no imo boy. Aziz, you're my superstar. To enjoy the food. Thank our sponsors. Thank you, Bud Light, for sponsoring this evening. Thank you to all of our sponsors that aren't here, but we're very generous.
One of the main disciples of the Alter Rebbe was a Chassid whose name was Rav Shmuel Munkas, and the story of how Rav Shmuel Munkas met the Alter Rebbe is famous in Hasidic lore. It was three o'clock in the morning. The Alter Rebbe was in his home in a small town in Belarus, Russia, when the Alter Rebbe heard a knock at his door. The Alter Rebbe went to the door, and there was standing a man, R' Shmuel Munkas. R' Shmuel Munkas says, "I've come to stay for the night." And the outer rebbe looks at him and he says, "Rabbi, it's three o'clock in the morning." And Rshmuel Munkas says to the outer rebbe, "I thought by a real rebbe, there's no such thing as night time." And the outer rebbe responds, "Perhaps you would feel more comfortable in a different home. There are other homes that you could go to."
And Rishmuel Munka says, "No, I want to stay in this home." And the Alter Rebbe said, "If you don't leave, I'm going to call my guy. There was a Russian guy whose name was Ivan. There was always an Ivan who lived in the Alter Rebbe's home, and he said, 'If you don't go, I'm going to call Ivan to have you thrown out of the house.'" And R' Shmuel Munkas looked at the Alter Rebbe and he said, "Alter Rebbe, I'm not afraid of your guy. My guy is much stronger than your guy." Which is the Chabad equivalent of, "My daddy can beat up your daddy." But the Alter Rebbe was so moved by this statement of R' Shmuel Munkas that my guy is stronger than your guy.
That he took Rishmuel Munkas into his home, and thus began what would become a famous relationship between the Alter Rebbe and one of his primary disciples. The question is, what was the subtext of this conversation? We all know the Meimar Chazal that La'asid Lavo, the moon, will be restored to the glory that it once had. It used to be that the moon was an illuminating body, just like the sun. And Chazal say that in Yemaisa Mashiach it will be restored to the way that it used to be. But in Chasidus, there's a question. In Chasidus, we never look at something as being restored, and that's good enough.
If something was broken, it was broken because there needed to be an advancement that wasn't capable of happening before the shvira, before the breaking. L'marshal, the Alter Rebbe makes it clear in Tanya that the neshama itself has no inherent need for rectification. The neshama does not come down into this world to get a tikkun. Rather, the neshama comes down into this world because there's something in this world that must be done. So the coming down into the world, the shvira, so to speak, the breaking, the soul does not want to be down in this world. It comes down not to restore the world to the way that it once was, but to bring the world to a new dimension, one that had never existed before. What is this dimension? So the medrash and pashas Nasso.
Which the outer rebbe popularized in Tanya says that Hakadosh Baruch Hu did not create the world for a reason. For if there was a reason, there would be something that exists outside of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. We do things for a reason. There's something outside of ourselves that compels us to act. And even if it's a reason that wells up from within, it's still a reason. So the Medrash and Pashas Nasso says Hakadosh Baruch Hu did not have a reason for creating the world. Rather, the Medrash says Nisave Hakadosh Baruch Hu Lios Loys Barach Dir BeTachtaynu. God had a desire, a tayva. We could spend hours just on that one word. But Hakadosh Baruch Hu had a tayva to have a dwelling place in the world down below. For unfathomable reasons, this was the Eibaster's desire when he created the world to dwell in a place that was fundamentally other than him. And when we in this world, in the darkness of this world, remain loyal to Hakadosh Baruch Hu.
We make this world a dira b'tachtonim, a place where Hakadosh Baruch Hu feels comfortable. Why doesn't Hakadosh Baruch Hu feel comfortable in our world? Hakadosh Baruch Hu does not feel comfortable in our world because there's a narcissism, there's an ego, there's an arrogance that exists in our world. The arrogance of our world is that we believe that we exist independently from Hakadosh Baruch Hu, when of course that's not true. In Chassidus, the pasuk that says "Ein od melvado" is not referring to polytheism. It's not referring to the fact that all there is one God. Rather, it's a much deeper concept.
Ein od molado means there is nothing else but Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and what appears to us to be existence, from the perspective of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, does not truly exist. When Hakadosh Baruch Hu looks at the world, all that he sees is himself, as the pasuk says, "Ani Hashem lo shinisi." I have not changed, not before the creation of the world, and not after the creation of the world. So where do we make our Kadosh Baruch Hu feel comfortable? How do we make our Kadosh Baruch Hu feel comfortable in our world? It's a common question. One that I'm sure you've asked your rebbeim, and I know the rebbeim get asked every year. Used to be that we had nevuah. Used to be that we had a bais hamikdash.
It used to be that Hakadosh Baruch Hu's presence in this world was clear. In the midbar, they were walking with the Anani Hakavod. They wanted for nothing, and so we ask ourselves, why don't we have it like that today? Why is Hakadosh Baruch Hu, so to speak, missing from our world? Wouldn't it be easier if I could go to Beis Hamikdash? And I could go with Gans Kallah Yisrael, and we could be walking together, and we could be sitting, and we could see all the Kohanim running around and doing their avoda, and we could experience the nisim v'niflos of the Beit Hamikdash. Of course, in such a matziv, we would come running back to the Beit Medrash. But it's so hard for us today. And perhaps in your heart of hearts, in a place that you don't like to talk about, because none of us like to talk about it.
Maybe we even have a little bit of doubt. Maybe we say that the stories that we read chas v'shalom are baba meisas. Maybe it never happened. Maybe there was no such thing as nevuah. Maybe the nisim of the Bei's Hamikdash were not really nisim. Maybe this is all just broken telephone. Maybe these are myths that we tell ourselves to make ourselves feel good. Because if it was true, then it would be true now. So where have the nisim gone? Why aren't we zaycha to see nisim in our lives? So I once heard a very beautiful answer that I want to share with you tonight. All of Klal Yisrael is one entity, and not just all of Klal Yisrael is one entity today, right now in our world, but throughout all of history, it's one organism. To the Rebbeinu Shalom who exists beyond the realm of time.
When Hakadosh Baruch Hu looks at every neshama in Klal Yisrael, it's all one organism. It's all just different expressions of the same Master. And so there was a time in history when it was appropriate for Hakadosh Baruch Hu to speak to us, and the impact of the words that Hakadosh Baruch Hu spoke and the nisim and neflois that existed in the world, it had its time. But in this period, that's called the Amayz Hamashiach, the last two thousand years of creation in this world. The Gemara says it is called the times of Mashiach. Two thousand years of Tov Avvo, two thousand years of Tyra, two thousand years of Mashiach. In this time period, to bring Mashiach, Hakadosh Baruch Hu's voice must not be found. We must live within the silence, and we must live within the darkness. And a Jew who holds on, in these moments, not because there's a rational belief in the Rebbeimishol, but because there's something that stirs inside of a Jewish soul that says, 'I have no idea how I know this, but I know this to be true in ways that words could not possibly articulate.' A couple years ago, a Bachar came to yeshiva to check out Mivaseret.
A Svardi Shabbacher, from a different yeshiva, a Svardi yeshiva, and in his yeshiva, I guess he wasn't feeling so comfortable. He was looking for something else, and so he had some Svardi friends who were in Mavaseret. So he wanted to come because he heard good things about the yeshiva. So he came to the yeshiva, and he said, "I want to try it out for a day." So I said, "Okay, Beseder, we set him up. We put him in a shir in the morning. That was a matim shir for him." At twelve thirty, I asked him how's Shira. He goes, I learnt more in the last three hours than I've learnt the entire year. I said, okay, good, Beseder, enjoy the break. Afternoon, Beseder. He asked me what shirum should I go to. I told him what shirum to go to. At the end of afternoon, Beseder, I asked him how was afternoon, Beseder. He goes, unbelievable, mind blown. I thought of concepts that I had never thought about before.
I said, "Let's see what happens. See how you feel after nights later." He went to nights later, set him up different shirim. After nights later was over, I said to him, "How was nights later?" He goes, "Incredible! Every shir that I heard here today was incredible." So I said, "You think you're gonna switch?" He goes, "No, not no way." So I said, "I'm okay with that, but could you help me understand why not?" Too many Ashkenazim. So I said, 'Come on, our lives matter too.' I was ahead of my time. It wasn't a hashtag back then. He said, 'No, you don't understand.' He said, 'I really have to be careful about the Ashkenaz influence.' I said, 'Help me understand. What's the?' I'm trying not to take offense. You understand? He said, 'Help me understand. What's the Ashkenaz influence?' He said, 'You know, in my yeshiva, guys do averes, and your yeshiva, guys do averes. But the difference is that in your yeshiva, when a guy doesn't avera, he wakes up in the morning and he goes, 'How do I really know that God exists? Why should I go daven? Because he didn't avera. He has to deny the existence of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. He goes, 'I'm a svardi boy. We know that just because we do an avera, Hakadosh Baruch Hu doesn't all of a sudden disappear. And how do we know?'
Because my mother told me that there's a rebbe in Shiloh, and her mother told her, and her mother told her. I have to tell you, I was very jealous. I was very jealous of an Ernst the Jew, Mamish. He was being totally honest. He said, "I don't want to have that corrosive influence in my life. That every time something gets dark, and every time I do something that I'm not proud of, that I have to deny that Hakadosh Baruch Hu exists." I live in Ramat Beit Shemesh. In Ramat Echemish, we have a park. It's called Park Ayalon. It's a big park, and sometimes there are teenagers that hang out in the park on Friday night. And unfortunately, some of these teenagers are no longer observant Jews. And so, in the community, Baruch Hashem, there's a couple of people that have gotten together, and they pay some social workers to hang out in the park on Friday night to go around to be able to be there to help. Which is a beautiful thing, but it's also a very poorly kept secret that there's a particular undercover cop who walks up and down the park on Friday night. This undercover cop is also a Sfaridi Jew, and his wife was Choseres B'tshuva. She became a Balas Tshuva. Her husband did not, and he sits in his car on Shabbos.
Going up and down Iolom Park, watching to make sure that everything's okay, that everything is above board, that everything is legal, that everything is safe. And his wife gave him mussar. She said, 'My dear husband, I understand you have a job that requires you to be out on Friday night. I understand you have to be in a car for that job. But why do you have to smoke? Why do you have to smoke your cigarettes on Friday night? That you don't have to do. At least you could choose not to smoke.' And so the husband, who's not an observant Jew, because his wife asked him to, stopped smoking on Shabbos. But for a Jew who's used to smoking on Shabbos, you have to have something that's in your mouth. So Friday night, if you walk by this undercover police officer's car, you will see a mountain of garenim, as high as the car itself, all night long.
He's chewing and spitting. So my good friend is one of the social workers who walks around the park on Friday night, and he told me a maysa. This undercover police officer got out of his car and was walking up and down. There was some kid sitting there, leaning up against the wall, smoking on Friday night. He turns to this undercover police officer, who he knows is an undercover police officer, and as he takes a big drag from his cigarette, he turns to the undercover cop and says, "Shabbat shalom, machi." Before the kid knew what hit him, this undercover police officer grabbed the kid by the shirt, threw him up against the wall and said to him, "Don't pretend that what you and I are doing is the right thing to do."
Don't be a mechutzif about it. We know what we're doing is wrong. At least we should have respect. My good chaver was watching the entire thing. The next morning in shul, he told me this story. He was blown away. What's the depth of this story of Jews that are so deeply connected, even though they're not observant? It's possible you see it, especially here in Eretz Israel. It's such a beautiful thing. You see Jews that are so religious. They're so connected. But not necessarily Shomer Shabbos. What's the pshat in that? The pshat is that there's a time in our history when it's not about logic, but it's about anachnum maminim bene maminim, that there's a Jew inside of us that has this infinite potential, because we could be limited, we could be constrained by our own intellect.
That's why Chazal say, 'Godol haMitzvah veOisa miMisha'ena Mitzvah veOisa,' because when we're not commanded to do it, and we're only doing it because of our own logic, then it's limited to our finite intellect. Misha'ena came when Hakadosh Baruch Hu Himself comes and He says, 'This is a mitzvah, and you do it not because you understand it, but simply because the Eved Shem told you to do it.' Now you're living on an infinite dimension. And there's a part of us that knows. There's a part of us that knows so deeply that this is true, in a way that we can't possibly explain. And when we connect to that part of ourselves, it's so much more powerful. It's so much more profound than the greatest sheer that you could ever give. That's able to express the words of Torah and logic. There's a place where words.
Are not sufficient to express what needs to be expressed, as I mentioned before. My mother is a Balas Tshuva, but my father also is a Bal Tshuva, and my father has a sister who is also, again, a deeply connected Jew, but not an observant Jew. And in my aunt's entire life, she had never come to Eretz Yisrael. She's at a stage in her life now when she travels. You hit a point after you're sixty-five years old. It's the traveling years. So my aunt and my uncle, Uncle Al, they travel all over. And my father was giving Musser to his oldest sister. My father is the baby in the family. My aunt is the oldest in the family. And my father was giving Musser to his sister. He said to her friend.
You're taking cruises all around the world, but you've never been to visit your homeland. You've never been to visit your place in the world. So my aunt and uncle decided they were going to come to Eretz Israel. But they booked a trip that was such a secularized trip that the trip didn't even take them to the Kotel, and my father was so upset at her. He said, 'You're coming all this way. You're traveling six thousand miles. You spent all this money. I see the itinerary. You sent me the itinerary, and I see that in the itinerary it doesn't mention that you're going to the Kotel. They go to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Waxman. Does anyone know how to pronounce those words that are that Jewish? It must be there's. What's it called? Knesset HaKevir. Knesset HaKevir. Be safe there. Exactly. That's how Jews say it.
They managed to. They took her everywhere. They took her to Jordan. They took her. They didn't take her to the Kotel, so my father said, "I'm begging you, extend your ticket. I'll pay for the extension of the ticket, but please allow me to spend a week with you that I could give you a tour of Me'Mishakdaisha." And so my aunt relented, and she said, "Okay, fine. We'll extend our ticket." And they went around to different places, and they went to Kever Rachel, and my father took her around to see different things. And on the very last day of their trip, my father took them to the Kotel. My uncle Al is from a Greek family, a Jewish Greek family, and my uncle Al had never been to Israel before. He had never been to the Kotel before. And they're walking down the steps, and the Kotel comes into view.
And my father notices that my uncle Al is starting to cry. And they're getting closer and closer. And so my father puts his arm around my uncle Al's shoulders. He's rubbing his back. He has no idea what's going on inside of my uncle Al. And by the time they get to the Cotai Plaza, Uncle Al is sobbing. He's bawling his face off. And when they finally get to the kotel, he collapses onto the stones of the kotel, and he's just sobbing and sobbing. And he turns to my father and he says, "Do you think somebody here would be willing to put tefillin on me? I haven't put tefillin on since my bar mitzvah." So my father turned around, and of course there was the chabad of the kotel, and so he quickly called them over.
And my uncle Al put on tefillin. He hadn't put on tefillin. He was in his seventies. He hadn't put on tefillin since he was thirteen years old, and God knows if those tefillin that he put on were kosher. It could be that was the first time in Uncle Al's entire life that he was yotzei the mitzvah of tefillin, and he was sitting there crying, making the bracha. After the Chabad shliach had said whatever tefillahs he said with him, Shema and whatever he said, he took his tefillin off, and Uncle Al said to my father, "We must go buy a pair of tefillin right now. I must own a pair of tefillin." So my father said, "Al, you understand, a good pair of tefillin could run you fifteen, sixteen hundred dollars." Uncle Al said, "I must own a pair of tefillin." So they went to a cipher in Yerushalayim that day, and they bought my Uncle Al a pair of tefillin.
I wish I could tell you that the end of the story is that Uncle Al puts on tefillin every day. But the truth is, I have no idea if he does or he doesn't, and I'm certainly not going to ask. But Rabbi Say, there was a Jew who lived in so much darkness that he probably had never put on tefillin a day in his life. And Biyotzay, a Jew who was so far removed from Eretz Israel that he had never been, and he booked a trip that didn't even take him to the Kotel. And us, we've been coming to Yerushalayim Yerakaydah since we're a fetus. We come here like it's Disney World, like visiting the Kotel is Cinderella's castle, like going to Kever Rachel is it's a small world after all. We come on Machach and Sula and Ncis Yikola. We come on Stechemed. We come for bar mitzvahs and bat mitzvahs. We come for cousins' bar mitzvahs and bat mitzvahs for a second cousin twice removed's wedding. We come to Eretz Yisrael, Baruch Hashem, today like it's nothing. And so, because we live in that state of illumination.
We've lost something. We've lost the feeling of distance, and the closeness that comes from the feeling of distance, because absence does indeed make the heart grow fonder. And because of the tremendous chayshch that Uncle Al had been living in his entire life, because he was dafka so removed. So when it came time for him to walk down those steps, the steps that even though you and I have walked down those steps. Dozens and hundreds and maybe even thousands of times, but we don't feel. We don't feel a tenth. We don't feel a hundredth. We don't feel a thousandth of what Uncle Al was feeling. And how many? How many of us have said as we're walking down, I don't know, I don't even know if I feel anything, because by us it's so light outside. There's such illumination that it wouldn't even occur to us to feel something. Because Baruch Hashem, we grew up with it.
In a way that our bubby's and Zaydis didn't grow up with it. My grandparents came to Eretz Yisrael in the 60s. They visited Harabayit again. They didn't know from halacha, so they went to places. But that was a trip that they spoke about for the rest of their lives. And we come to Shalvim. It's such a funny thing. I was talking to somebody today in America. He was talking about Gap Year programs. Gap Year. It's not a gap year program. You're not on a program. You're in a yeshiva. It's not a gap year. It's a year where you've come to immerse yourself in limurat yira and yir shamayim. It's not a gap year. He was talking about it like it's the most obvious thing in the world. Like, of course, everybody comes for a gap year program. How spoiled are we to live in the daytime where these things are dvarim pshutim admaeid, and we complain about the things that people were meiser nefesh to build for us.
We come. I came to Ramat Beit Shemesh thirteen years ago. Thirteen years ago, Ramat Beit Shemesh was a sleepy town. In the next two years, Beit Shemesh is going to be two hundred and fifty thousand people. They're building Ramat Aleph through like Tzvov. Everywhere you turn, there's building. Baruch Hashem, Jews have houses. V'sechazena einenu, Rabbi Yisai. Person has to have eyes to see what's happening around us. You have to have eyes to see that there's something special going on in the world. But we live with so much illumination that we're looking at it and we're mamish not seeing it. But those Jews who live in the dark, they have an added advantage, because when they tap into that spark of kedusha within, it's a different universe.
Al pichasidus. When we say that the light of the moon is restored, we don't just mean that it's the way that it once was. The light of the moon is not meant to be the light of the sun. In Yemaisa Mashiach, there will also be darkness. But the difference between the darkness now and the darkness of Yemaisa Mashiach is that now we get stuck in the darkness, and in Yemaisa Mashiach we'll feel the kirva that comes from the darkness. And in Yemaisa Mashiach, you'll look at the worst moments of your life, the moments of your life where you felt so removed from the Rebbeinu Shalom, because whatever you were taking in your life at that time, whatever was going on for you, you found yourself in that funny place doing that funny thing that you knew you weren't supposed to be doing. You had that tayva. The Rebbeinu Shalom put devices in the world today with anonymity and free, and so we find ourselves doing things that we're mamish not proud of, and we feel so distant from the Rebbeinu Shalom.
In Yemaisa Mashiach, there's also a mitzvah like that, but in those moments, you feel the kirva that comes from the distance. That's why in Chasidus, we're not afraid of the dark. That's why when everybody told the Lubavitcher Rebbe that he was crazy for sending out kids all across the world, kids, go be shluchim, go bring Yiddishkeit everywhere. They said to him, 'What are you crazy? These kids are going to get lost. They themselves are going to become assimilated. They're going to be mushba from the environment.' The Rebbe said, 'We're not afraid of the darkness. You'll see.' You'll see that they'll bring tremendous illumination to that darkness. A little bit of light dispels a tremendous amount of darkness. The kachava, and they thought when the Rebbe died that it was gonna be that was it. It was gonna be closed up shop, and it was exactly the opposite. There's over six thousand shluchim in the world today. They had a kina shluchim that now because it was on Zoom, so you know the bavachers they just had to see like okay so we're gonna set the record for the longest Zoom kina shluchos in the history of like there's never been a Zoom session that long.
They had to set the Guinness Book of World Records, and it didn't happen what everybody predicted. It was just the opposite. The shluchim grew from it. They grew from the darkness, and because they grew from it, more people went and more people went, and in the darkness of the rebbe's petira after the rebbe died. In that darkness, they grew more from it. Because they were trained in the ways of the Alter Rebbe and the Magen Mizrach and the Baal Shem Tov, they were not afraid of the darkness. Ad Rabbah, our task is to engage the darkness, because in those moments where you feel so distant, you should know the greatest Kirvas Elukim Li Tov is Tumun. It's waiting. It's hidden. Waiting to be mined. Waiting to be taken out. You had a bad night.
You should know the next morning shachris could be the most amazing shachris of your life, if you'll allow yourself to not be afraid of the darkness. This was the story, the real story, the depth of what was going on between Rshmul Munkas and the Alter Rebbe. Rshmul Munkas came to the Alter Rebbe at three o'clock in the morning, and he was saying to the Alter Rebbe, "I'm a nighttime Jew. I'm a Jew who lives in that darkness, who lives in that chaos and that confusion of all the craziness and the mishigas that's happening in our world." And the Alter Rebbe understood from him that he was trying to escape the darkness, and he said to him, "Don't you understand that it's dark outside? Don't you understand that it's three o'clock in the morning?" And Rishmuel Monka said, "But I thought that by the real tzaddik, I thought by the real rebbe's, there's no such thing as night time." Meaning he thought that by going to the Alter Rebbe, it was going to be clean, it was going to be glad. You know how some of you felt that way—that you were going to come to Eretz Yisrael and you were never going to have another avera again in your life.
You had that craziness in your head that I just have to wait till I get to Eretz Yisrael, and then after that I'll never do. After that we're going to be tzaddikim like you've never seen before. That we're going to be the perfect Jews. So he said, "I thought by a real rebbe, there's no night." So the Alter Rebbe said, "Maybe you should look for somewhere else to stay, because that's not the way of chassidus. If you're looking for somebody to create an artificial world, where it's just daytime all day, and all night, and you never have another moment of confusion. You never have another avera in your life, you never have a urida, so you're in the wrong place." The Alter Rebbe said, "That's not what we're about." So Shmuel Monka said, "No Rebbe, I want to be here. I'm not going to any other home. This is where I want to be." So the Alter Rebbe said, "You don't understand what's happening in this house. There's a guy that lives in this house. His name is Ivan. There's a nefesh Abahamis. Every single one of us lives in a state of conflict."
There's a nefesh alikis. There's a godly soul, an immortal godly soul that's deeply and forever, eternally connected to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. It's a chelak alakamimal mamish, as the Alter Rebbe said in Tanya. Mamish didn't mean literally; it meant truly. It meant that the nature of the soul's connection to Hakadosh Baruch Hu is like a father to a son. It's inextricably linked. You can't separate them. It's like a ray of the sun, but it's also true. Zel u'maze asa elokim. As the Alter Rebbe writes in the sixth chapter of Tanya, that there's also a nefesh abahamis, and whatever eser sferos of kedusha are on this side, you have eser sferos of tumah on the other, and we've got big goyim that live inside of us. We have a big tayva for this world, and by us, we're not afraid of that tayva. The Alter Rebbe says. When they asked the Alter Rebbe what was the purpose of chassidus, he said lishane es tivaisov.
Not lishana es midaysuf, not to change your midays, but to change your nature. The Alter Rebbe said, "We live at the intersection in the dialectical tension of these two souls, and we're not afraid of the nefesh abahamis." And R' Shmuel Munkas said to the Alter Rebbe, "Don't misunderstand me, Alter Rebbe. My guy is very strong, much stronger than your guy." But I'm not afraid of that guy, and if you'll teach me how to engage it, if you'll teach me how to look at that part of my life that's designed for self-preservation, that's designed just to bring me that next feel-good moment to avoid reality. Rebbe, I want to face that guy. I want to be able to find the nitzotz of kedusha that's hidden within that guy, and I want to be able to grab it and hold on to it and become closer to Hakadosh Baruch Hu from the darkness.
And that's why the Alter Rebbe got excited by Rishmol Munkas, and that's why he invited him into his home at three o'clock in the morning, and that's why he became his primary disciple. Rabbi, say why people are attracted to Chasidus today. Rechunany Berzon tells a story in Yeshiva every year. It's a Litvish story. He says that he heard the story from Mordechai Gifter, Zeichet Zadik Levracha, Rosh Yeshiva of Telz Yeshiva, and tells the minigwas for the Bachrim to get married very late. They wouldn't get married until they were in their thirties, because he had to learn, and it was considered gaiva to get married young. It was considered gaiva because who are you? What do you know? You're not a Talmud Chacham yet that you're capable of getting married.
And Rav Gifter was in the bais medrash, and he heard noise outside of the bais medrash, and he saw a couple of the bachrim dancing. They were dancing around this one bacher who was known not to be the best bacher in yeshiva. And Rav Gifter said to his chevrusa, 'Balgiva, he got engaged. He's young. He's only in his early twenties.' And his chevrusa corrected him. This is the story that Rav Gifter told. His chavrusha corrected him, and he said, 'No. He didn't get engaged. He's dancing because he was working on a shveri rashba, and he just came up with the answer.' And Rav Gifter said over the story, and he said, 'You know what we lost in the Holocaust? We lost a lot more than six million Yidden in the Holocaust. We lost dancing over a shveri rashba. And you know why they would dance over a shveri rashba? Because it was the Rebbeinu Shlomoh's rashba. It wasn't an intellectual rashba.'
It wasn't a rashba that they sat over and they said, 'Let's write a term paper on this rashba.' They weren't professors of rashba. It was kiheim chayenu vaoyrech yameinu. It was the Abister's rashba, and when I understand that rashba, I have a little bit of an inkling of what it means to connect to the Rebbeinu Sholom, who is mitzamtsim his will and his wisdom into the teirak doisha, and the Rebbeinu Sholom gave me a gift of intellect that I should be able to use it. To connect to him in that way, to whatever degree that we can understand the tirak daisha, and they would dance over it. People are excited to learn chassidus today because it reintroduces us to the eibister, because it makes us want to dance over a shveri rashba. That's what I meant before when I was telling you it's not two worlds. Tonight's favebringen cannot be a favebringen where you're sitting here and saying, 'What am I doing in this room till twelve o'clock at night? Don't I know that I have shachris in the morning and I'm going to be tired? What about morning seder tomorrow morning?'
What about sitting and learning? What about my area of Shabbos seder? What about my Shabbos darim? What mesechtes am I going to finish? And why am I not finishing those mesechtes right now? Because loy rav la lechem v'loyt zom la mayim kim l'shmayez devrei Hashem. Because we're not hungry for bread, we're not thirsty for water, and we all know that bread and water are meshalom for tyra. Says the Talmidei Ahavah, in the times of Mashiach, there will be plenty of tyra. I was at the Siyam Hashas last year. There is plenty of Torah in the world, much more Torah than there was before the Holocaust. Many, many more Yeshiva light in Eretz Yisrael. But kiim l'shmayas d'veray Hashem. But we're starving for the word of God. We're starving for a connection to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. We're not satisfied, nor should we be satisfied, with just saying the same words of the siddur over and over again. We're looking for personalized prayer.
We're looking to have a davening where we're not just saying the words, but we're connecting to our Maker. We're looking to not just do the mitzvot, but that we should care. We're looking not just to have the gaiva of saying I finished another mesecta, not to have the gaiva of saying I'm the top guy in shir, but to be able to say I'm zayicha to learn our Kadosh Baruch Hu's Torah. I'm humbled before that Torah. And we intuitively understand that something is missing. It's what brings us out on a night like tonight, because we're not satisfied, because we have not yet found Hakadosh Baruch Hu in the darkness. Even with all the illumination that we have in this unbelievable yeshiva, we know that in our personal lives we're in the darkness. We know that Rav Weinberger is in Woodmere, giving shiram every Sunday morning, an inyanim of Yosef HaTzaddik.
For those of you who understand what that means, for those chaver that come out because they're working on those inyanim of kedusha, and people are coming on mass, and you know why they're coming. They're coming because they're so sick of the shame that they live with, that because of the avera that I did, I'm unworthy of love and connection to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. And Rav Weinberger and Woodmere is turning the entire world on its head by reminding Jews of the teachings of the Balshemtof, that just because you did whatever you did last night doesn't mean that you're less connected to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Afel bishachato Yisraelu, and let's shine a light on what's really going on. Let's have an open conversation, and let's talk about it, and let's work on it, and let's be okay that if we did Naveru, so in the darkness we're going to find unbelievable hskashus. And there's Jews that are doing this in the world today, and more Jews are doing it, and it's an unbelievable thing. And those that are speaking this language.
More and more people are finding these people. They're going to camps just to be around these people because they want to be near those tzaddikim that are speaking this language. And especially in our community, where Baruch Hashem we have such unbelievable voices that are coming out of our community that are speaking the words of the Bal Shem Tov. People that you know. People that are not much older than you. We're not talking about people that are in their sixties and seventies, but people that remember what it was like to be sixteen and seventeen and eighteen years old—the new generation, of talmidim of the Baal Shem Tov—and it's unbelievable. What's going on? Whether it's Rav Joey Rosenfeld, who's turning the world on its head from St. Louis, or whether it's Rav Davidel with his beautiful sefer that he wrote on Tefila, or whether it's anything that Rav Judah says.
And it's all of these Jews collectively that are just speaking this language, and it's an unbelievable thing. People are coming from all over to hear this because people are so thirsty for the word of Hashem. And it's good that it's dark outside, and we're not afraid of it, and we're willing to look inside of ourselves, and we're willing to say, okay, maybe Chassidus has something to offer me. And it's easy. In today's secularized society, it's easy to fall into being a professor of a rashba, and it's kishmak. If I was a real baltayver, you know what I would sit and do all day? I would learn rambam. It's such a great thing. You could mamish sit.
You could learn R. Of Chaim ala Rambam. Rabbi said, "You don't understand pleasure unless you've sat and worked through R. Of Chaim every single step." My Rebbe of Parnas would read R. Of Chaim like a rishon. It's geshmak, but it's also possible to be a professor of the Rambam. The truth is, if I'm being honest, and I may as well be because I'm among friends. That's what happened to me. I became a professor of Rambam. I was sitting in yeshiva. I sat in kaiel for a long time. I sat in kaiel for six years. I learned by my rebbe for eight years, and I woke up one day and I realized, I had become a professor of Rambam. I studied Talmud. And I was very close with Rfarnas, and Rfarnas was the farthest thing from a chassid. I say was because.
It's not so well known, but the truth is, the last couple of years Rapparness started studying Rabbi Nachman, which is interesting by itself. And I shared with Rapparness my existential angst that I had lost the Ebister in my life, and this is what it means to be a great rebbe. Rapparness said to me, Mordechai, I think it's time for you to start learning Chassidus. My Litvisher Rosh Yeshiva told me it's time to start learning Chasidus, and I said, Rebbe, where should I start? And he said, I heard in Woodmere there's a tumult going on. There's this person out there. He started a shul Eish Kodesh of Moshe Weinberger. You should probably go hear him. And there's another Jew in Muncie whose name is Rav Fraym Waxman. He's a big speaker. You should probably go and hear him.
And that day, my chavrusha, Rav Aryeh Kohn, said to me, 'You know, you should come with me tonight because there's a guy, Rav Ephraim Waxman, who's speaking in Shai Stern's house in the Five Towns. And says, 'Wild Rav Parnas just mentioned him to me.' And so I started going, and it woke me up. Like the Balshemtov says, when somebody's sleeping, you have to whisper their name in their ear, and you can just whisper their name, and they wake up. And it reminded me. It reminded me why those years before why I had decided to start the journey. I didn't start the journey to become a professor of Rambam. I started the journey because I wanted kivusal ukim li toif. I wanted va'atim advekim ba'sham ulechim chayim kucham ayim. I wanted that to be my life, and I had forgotten. And the truth is that I know that chassidus won't move all of you. It's not for everybody, and that's okay.
We don't have to be so dogmatic that we have to say it's for everybody. Whatever moves you, if you're moved by Maral, if you're moved by Ramchal, if you're moved by the teachings of Ruv Kook, if you're moved by the teachings of Rassalevich, it's all good. It's whatever wakes us up to the truth of our really being an Eved Hashem. But for me, it was Chassidus, and for so many of us, it's interesting. For so many of us, it's Chassidus. The hour is late. Even though the Amshinavir Rebbe said that a person always needs to wear two watches, one that says it's getting late and the other that says, 'But there's still time.' So I'll leave you tonight with one last word before. Josh, you make such beautiful music. Halavai that you know, like the Gemara says, Halavai sheispal cholyamkulo Halavai that we should be able to make music the entire day together. And thank you so much, because when you sing, I see the way you play, and it does stir my heart. I'm being very honest. But I'll leave you with one last thing before Josh takes us home for the evening. The Marshal of the Magen Mizrach, Marshal of the Bais Shemtov, really. As to why Chassidus works, there was a prince who fell ill, and nothing could cure the prince.
And all the doctors in the land said your son is going to die. Until one old Jew, because every chesed shemaisa has one old Jew, until one old Jew came along and told the king, "I know the antidote, but you're not going to be happy with me." The antidote is that you have to take your crown jewel, and you have to grind it up into a fine paste, into a fine powder, and you have to give it to your son to drink. A king is only powerful because of his crown jewel. That's what makes him powerful. The one who wears the crown, that's the king. But the king said, "What's it worth if my son is going to die?" So they ground up the crown jewel. But by that point, the king's son had fallen so ill that he was barely able to swallow, which meant that some of the crown jewel was going to get wasted. As he was trying to swallow, some of it would dribble over the side of his lips and would fall to the ground.
And they asked the king. They said, "King, we're about to pour this crown jewel into your son's mouth, but how much is going to get in? Just a fraction." And the king said, "If it's enough to save my son's life, then it's worth it." And that's what they did, and that's how the son's life was saved. Chassidus took the most fundamental kabbalistic concepts and ground it up into a fine powder. It took those concepts of who Hakadosh Baruch Hu is. And it said, 'I'm going to give it to a prince that's sick, that's passing out because he's so exhausted.' Our generation, like my chavrusa said to me many years ago, when he started learning chassidus, he said, 'I got so tired of hearing about how every idea was about the nature of man. I wanted to hear something about the nature of Hashem. That's why I started learning chassidus.' But when you take these deep kabbalistic concepts, a lot is going to get lost. The pure form of those concepts is not available to us in Chassidus, and sometimes things will be misconstrued, and sometimes things will fall to the side. But the Baal Shem Tov said it's worth it if it's going to save the prince, and Rabbi Sa'it, it's saving our generation. There's a reason why you go to Uman, and you see Jews.
Who are not observant to our modern Orthodox, who are Charedi and Hasidish, and from every walk of life, you find Jews coming to Rabbi Nachman. There's a reason why they go to the aisle to win an election. There's a reason why NBA players today are going to the aisle. What are people so attracted to? Kim l'shma'ya esdevrei Hashem, and that's what we're here for. We didn't come to shalvim. Just to finish Masechetos, we came to Shalvim to learn the Eibushter's Torah, and that's why we're here tonight, and that's why this is not Bittel Torah tonight. It's a Hechsher Mitzvah. We fabring so that tomorrow, Erev Shabbos, when you're sitting down with whatever your pre-Shabbos Sefer is, and you open it up, you remind yourself in an Imuchu Muzum and the Kaim Mitzvahs. Talmud Torah. This is the Eibushter's Torah. And if you walk out of here tonight and you have that, dayenu, it was enough. And if you walk out of here tonight and it's not chassidus and it's derech Hashem or some other sefer that turns you on, dayenu, it was enough. Yiratam of ne'avinu shabashamayin that we should be zaycheh to the relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu that we've mamish been craving all of these years.
I know it's getting late. There's still time. I can't say it any better than Reb Burg just said it. Arba Bavais is the niggun of the Alter Reb. The Alter Reb said his entire Torah is within this niggun. Malhar Tanya, experienced arba lovers. That's Tanya.
Ya. Drida. Yama. Da
I. Ay la.
Ra. Dri na. Da.
La.
You fought for Palestine, Palestine. You fought for Palestine, Palestine. You fought for Palestine, Palestine. Ayo, para sa mga nega. Ayo, para sa yaman kita. Ayo, para sa mga nega. Ayo, ayo para sa yaman mga kita sa mga nega yaman mga kita sa mga nega hey yaman mga kita sa mga. Ayoo, parasta, yama vakayma. Ayoo, parasta, yama vakayma. Ayoo, parasta, yama vakayma.
Yah! Uparasa! Yah! Uparasa! Yah! Uparasa! Paracetamol. Yamabakemasa. Savarna vaneka, yama vachika, savarna vaneka. Aye, uparasa. Yama vachika, savarna vaneka, yama vachika, savarna vaneka. Yama vachika, savarna vaneka, yama vachika, savarna vaneka. Uparasa.
Parasa. Yamaka, kibaa, zamana, malaika. Ayo, parasa, yamaka, kibaa. Ayo, parasa, zamana, malaika. Ayo, parasa, yamaka, kibaa. Ayo, parasa, zamana, malaika. Aha, ya. Oh, parasa. Yamaka, kibaa, zamana, malaika. Yamaka, kibaa, zamana. Yamaa ba keema safina ba neko. Ahaa, ay, uparasta. Yamaa ba keema safina ba neko. Hey, Yamaa ba keema safina ba neko. Uparasta.
Parasau. Yamabakema, zafana valiga. Ayo, parasaiyabakema. Ayo, paraszafana valiga. Ayo, parasaiyabakema. Ayo, paraszafana valiga. U parasau, parasau. Yamabakema, zafana valiga. Yamabakema, zafana valiga. Yama vakyam saphoina vaneka Yama vakyam saphoina vaneka. Aye, uparasta, yamaba kenma zafina vanekwa, aye, uparasta, yamaba kenma zafina. Yama va gema, zafina va meka. Hey, yama va gema, zafina va meka. Yama va gema.
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