How Could the Jews Go to Sleep on That Night? - Likkutei Sichos Shavuos

the yeshiva.net I want to welcome everybody who's joining us. Thank you for coming. Those of you who are on Zoom and those of you who are on the yeshiva.net In other words, those of you whom I can see and those of you whom I can't see, but hopefully you could see me and hear me. And those of you who are on the telephone, so I can't see you and you can't see me, but we can uh connect through shmia. B'chol am ro'im es ha'kailus, ro'im es ha'nira, b'shemona es ha'nishmo, ro'im es ha'nishmo b'shemona es ha'nira. So, welcome everybody. And again, if you want to follow inside, we're going to be learning inside, you could go to the yeshiva.net and the first video with the picture of a child sleeping, you'll see a PDF on below the video or a source sheet on top of the video, and you can open it up and you will see the text. You could print it out or you could just follow it on the screen. What we're going to be learning today is a sicha of the Lubavitcher Rebbe which he presented on Shavuos in the year taf shin chaf bais. Shavuos taf shin chaf bais is 1962. It's published in Likutei Sichos chelek daled. Likutei Sichos volume four on Shavuos. Likutei Sichos chelek daled page 1024, 1024. And uh thank you chevra for posting it on the yeshiva.net so everybody could uh follow inside. It was said and written and published in Yiddish, the language in which the Rebbe would speak, so that's how we'll read it, but I'll of course translate for those who may not have a uh yet in the beautiful Yiddish language. So, let's begin. You see Chagas Shavuos sit aleph, ice aleph, sit aleph. As stated in Medrish, the the Lubavitcher Rebbe here is going to address a very very well-known story, a very well-known custom and tradition today in all Jewish communities on Shavuos. It has actually in recent years become so popular that even communities who are not so careful on uh some fundamentals, but nonetheless this custom and tradition has taken very uh has taken root into the Jewish psyche and to Jewish communities, and it's very interesting how that happened and why that happened. But uh it's certainly a fascinating custom, which we're going to be addressing. It's well-known, very well-known. However, when you really study it, it seems very very enigmatic, extremely difficult to understand. And this is the issue the Rebbe is going to tackle with and really reveal a whole new depth and dimension to this tradition, to this story, and to this custom. And of course, we're talking about that great custom of not going to sleep on the night of Shavuos. And I do have to tell you that for me personally, I mean for all of us, but I'll talk about me personally, this Shavuos is certainly different than any other Shavuos. HaShavuos hazeh mikol Shavuos. What makes this Shavuos different than all the other Shavuos? For me personally, usually the night of Shavuos I speak from around 12:00 a.m. till around 4:30 a.m. almost non-stop with the K'nai Hora, very large crowd, around 500, 1,000 people. And this Shavuos due to coronavirus, I will sit at my table and say Tikkun Leil Shavuos, and I may even fall asleep. I may even fall asleep. We may have to steal a little bit of the cheesecake and coffee in order to keep us up. Okay, but every every situation has its unique blessings and its unique opportunities. Even even a challenge and a crisis it always has its unique opportunities to be able to learn more about ourselves and about reality and about God. And it's all really one. So, this is the tradition we're going to be addressing here. Let's look inside. Aleph. Stated Medrish. It says in Medrish, where is this Medrish? The Medrish is, as you see in footnote what one Shir Hashirim Rabbah, Perek Aleph, Parsha Aleph, Yud Bais, Bais. It's in Medrish Rabbah on Shir Hashirim. Over there, the Medrish tells the story. As the Yidden English love in the Gan Ze Nacht was far matan Torah. The night before the giving of the Torah, the Jewish people slept through the whole night. And now he quotes the Medrish. L'fi she shina shel atzeres areiva ba'al leil Torah. V'al de shlaf un atzeres Shavuos is angenehm un de nacht is kurz. Afilu a portana, a beis a flieg, hot zei nit gebiten. Um ven der Eibishter is farig tzu far tagen, kumen geben zei der Torah, un er hot zei gefunen shlofen, den hot er zei gedacht zu wecken. Un dos is vos der Eibishter fregt, madua bossei So the fascinating words of the madrishas that the sleep of the night of Shavuos was areva. Areva means he says on good name. Areva is it was sweet. It was delightful. It was delicious. It was gishmack. You know what we call a good shlaf, right? Sometimes you sleep but it's not it's not a good deep comfortable sleep. Either something is bothering you. You waking up every hour. You having anxiety. You having dreams. It's not a it's not a wholesome sleep. But the madrishas no, the shina shala tseras is areva. The sleep that night of Shavuos was gishmack. It was beautiful. It was amazing. It was also a short night because it's summer time. So the days are longer and therefore it was a shorter night. And the madrish says that even a flea did not bite them. Remember they in a desert. You ever went you remember when you went to in camp? You went on a bar you went on a overnight? You remember the the mosquitoes? You remember the bees? You remember the fleas? Kind of a sugar machen. Sometimes you get so many bites you become miserable. Some of us were so miserable they would people would come stacked up with the sprays with the off sprays and other sprays to be able to protect themselves. But you're out in the open in these places, especially when there's a dryness and humidity and all of these fleas parushim they're called paratan in Hebrew they're called parushim. There are 2,500 species of fleas. And they live off mammals. They live off humans and mammals. Right? Living off our blood. They live for 2 months, 3 months, whatever their lifespan, a very short lifespan. But there's two what we know about 2,500 species of fleas. So the Midrash says, you're sleeping out in the desert in the wilderness. This is the most conducive place for the fleas to bite you. But he says, "No. Even a flea did not bite them during their sleep. Of course it was a comfortable sleep. Nobody woke them up. Nobody was itching themselves during the night." Says the Midrash, "Hashem came at dawn for Torah at dawn." Says "Vayosha ba'yit." He came at dawn before sunrise to give the Torah. We slept. Everybody's sleeping. The kallah slept. The kallah is sleeping. You want to go to the chuppah? Where's the kallah? Is she slept? She went to sleep. You can't wake her up. And that's the meaning the Midrash says of the words not that Yeshayahu Navi says in perek nun, chapter 50 of Isaiah, you see footnote two. "Madua bosiv ein ish, korasi ve'ein oineh." He cries. He laments. "I came and there was nobody present. I called out and there was no response." It's a painful experience. You show up. Nobody else shows up. You call out. You reach out. But there's no feedback. There's no response. That's what Hashem says about that morning of Matan Torah. And this is the reason for the tradition that on the night of Shavuot we are up all night and we learn to repair the fact that the Jewish people slept during the night before Matan Torah. So now, for thousands of years later, 3,333 years later, we don't do that. We're up all night, and what do we do during the night? We're not just up. We learn Torah to repair that experience the night of Matan Torah. This doesn't say in the Medrash. The Medrash just tells the story of the Jews sleeping. This, as you see footnote three, is Magen Avraham Resh Siman Tov Tzadik Daled. In Shulchan Aruch, the great commentator on Shulchan Aruch, the great Halachic authority from Poland, Rebbe the Magg known as the Magen Avraham, Rebbe Avraham Avli, in his commentary in Hilchos Shvuos Siman Tov Tzadik Daled, he says this is the source of the tradition that we stay up to be mesaken, to repair what they did. This is the origin of that famous famous story and tradition that every Jewish child that learns in the Yeshiva, Jewish schools ingrained with, you remember as a child children why we stay up the night of Shavuos. And as I said, this custom has really taken root in Jewish communities in recent decades much more than before. It was not so popular in all communities. Today, everyone, I mean, this year is obviously different. This year there's pre-Shavuos learning here. But uh it's really taken root in very interesting places where there's usually, you know, could be even a weakness in some of the basics. But Shavuos night, they come to learn and they come learn. Okay. This is This is the Medrash. This is the Magen Avraham. This is the background to begin to build up the the issue. Al aser putim for Torah and Rob Avoda Semel. Bifrat as I see put was the same the need good and I have a fun eating. For them Torah made might also lay down a full of big news behind me to me. If the Hava day for now in them simple as they are with the Torah for celebrity is Kadai given to the children a full of them simple. There's a principle, and by the Rebbe, this was a fundamental principle, that every story in Torah is not just a story for entertainment or because it happened. It's a lesson in life. It's a blueprint for life because the word Torah the Zohar says the word Torah means hora'ah, like like a mora, a teacher. It's here to teach. It's not just here to share information. It's a blueprint for life. So, if it's a story in Torah, it's a lesson in life, especially if the story has a negative undertone. Or not only undertone, the story is negative. It brings out something that was undesirable or not positive. Because we have a principle that the Torah says in Baba Basra kuf kuf gimmel, as you see in footnote four, it's also the beginning of Pesachim in different words, that even an unclean animal the Torah is sensitive not to speak about it in disparaging language. That's why in Parshas Noach it says beheima asher einena tahora, he won't use the word beheima teme'ah, the contaminated animal. The animal that is not in a state of of of absolute kosher purity. That's even an animal. An animal who's not reading the Bible, who's not coming to shiurim, still we're sensitive about how we discuss it. Certainly when you're talking about people, and you're talking about the Jewish people. This means that there is such a vital lesson here that Torah Medrash feels compelled that the story must be told, not just as a piece of history. They went to sleep. Okay, they went to sleep. But there's an important lesson. Now, the lesson seems obvious. What's the question? The lesson is that we stay up. They went to sleep, so we don't go to sleep. Ostensibly, the lesson is quite simple. We should repair what they did. Yes, there was something undesirable about what they did. So, we repair it. How? We stay up the night of Shavuos and also a whole year. You have to know not to sleep when you're not not to go to sleep when you're supposed to be alert. Got it. But for this lesson, you just need to know the general story. The Jews went to sleep that night and Hashem had to wake them up. The Medrish gives us a lot of details. How they slept. It was a short night. It was a gishmaka delicious sleep. Even a flea did not bite them. What is that for? Is that for drama purposes? There has to be some lesson the Medrish is trying to teach us not just about what they did wrong. But as we shall see, what they did right. The Medrish is teaching us the story because there are some lessons here just beyond the fact they did wrong and let's just fix it. In order to understand this, we have to go to the skeleton of it. Let's go to the core of the story. Sif Beis raises some fundamental questions on this whole story. Says Yeduah, it's known. And what we say it's known, known means that it's an ancient tradition of the Chazal as he says in footnote nine. Shibolei Shibolei Haleket Haruga Hashminis Seder Sheshlam Vov and Rabbeinu Nissim Seif Sachan. This is a tradition that's brought in the Rishonim. The Shibolei Haleket brings it and the Ran in the end of Maseches Pesachim. We all know and again those who have been educated in in Jewish schools, this is like part of the basic curriculum of information. Why do we count Sefirah? Why do we count 49 days between Pesach and Shavuot? We don't do it with other seasons of the year. We don't count the time between Rosh Hashanah and Sukkot, between Sukkot and Pesach, between Shavuot and Rosh Hashanah or Sukkot. Why suddenly after Pesach on the second day we start a count and it goes for 49 days. What's the purpose of it? I mean the days are moving regardless whether you count them or you don't count them. The clock doesn't stop. What's the meaning, the theme behind this mitzvah of counting 49 days? So the Ran and the Shibbolei Haleket quote a tradition with the Ran says it's from Haggadah meaning it's from from Midrashim from Chazal. I guess a tradition that he has uh absorbed or received either orally or which was written somewhere. These are the sources we have today from the Rishonim. And the tradition is that the Jewish people knew that from Egypt they're heading to Mount Sinai. Remember Moshe told this to them already in Egypt. Hashem told Moshe, "When you're leaving Egypt, you're going to the mountain. You're going to Mount Sinai." So there was a tremendous anticipation. There was a tremendous excitement and enthusiasm and yearning because they heard that 50 days after they left Egypt, Tes Vav Nissan, they're going to receive Torah at Mount Sinai. And therefore they started to count the days. You know how it is when children or adults are notified that in 50 days there's going to be a massive trip. You start counting the days. One down, two down, three down, four down. And as you count the days, the excitement and enthusiasm grows. The lack of patience grows because uh-oh, we're coming to it. I wish I could say it about this year. Hopefully the camps will open base of Hashem. But you know, you remember it's not so easy for children in school. And uh I remember in my class there was always the countdown to camp, right? Some people would start counting Rosh Hashanah when camp is going to begin. Some people would start counting Hanukkah. But after Pesach everybody was counting. Everybody was counting, okay. 10 weeks left, seven weeks left, five weeks left, one week left. Wow. You know when there's a grand trip, you go on the grand trip. So you count. A week, five days, four days, three days. And this is why we count Sefirah. We count Sefirah because the Jews on their own instinctively counted. They weren't told to count. They just counted because of the excitement. One day, two days, three days. Wow. 48 days, 49 days. Tomorrow it's going to happen. This is why we count Sefirah. If this is the case, asks the Lubavitcher Rebbe, it's not I don't understand. If seven weeks earlier they couldn't wait till it happens, they were so excited and they were anticipating it so profoundly. So you can only imagine how how excited they were the night before. That's human nature. The closer you get to the destination, the more the enthusiasm, the more the passion, the more the ecstasy. So if seven weeks before they were so enthralled anticipating this great momentous stupendous event to the point that they're counting day after day after day, what would have been their emotion mamesh the night before, not even the day earlier, the night earlier. You can understand how powerful their craving would be. And yet, we say they just want to sleep. Now, we see it sometimes with children especially, the night before, you know. I remember it sometimes they would wake us up in camp 4:00 in the morning, you know, to go on these trips which were called fun. And everybody was up. Everybody, even those who couldn't get out of bed a whole summer, you could not get them out of bed. Reveille meant nothing. Maybe at the end of learning classes for the rest period, they emerged out of their beds cuz they weren't interested. But when there was the great trip, 4:00 in the morning, everybody was out of bed in 3 minutes. Bedside inspection, the bed was made, we were ready to board the buses. And we all know why. The adrenaline is flowing, the excitement is there, the sense of slumber doesn't overtake you because you're excited about life. And some of the kids couldn't even sleep that night. They couldn't sleep. You're waking up constantly because you're so excited. So, the asks how is it that Jews who counting 7 weeks and the night before, they just go to sleep. No matter. The question is even stronger. You didn't talk to my mom even once. And I ate The question becomes even stronger. It's not just they were preparing and anticipating for 7 weeks. How is it the night before they go to sleep? Every day they became more spiritually refined and worthy of Kabbalah Sefirah. The people who left Mitzrayim were not the same people who were there the night before Matan Torah. Because what's the concept of Sefirat HaOmer? When we speak about counting 49 days, it's not just one day, two days, three days. It was a preparation for Kabbalah Sefirah. Like we say in the Rebbe [ __ ] that it was given to us as we were given the Shabbos today to purify us. In order to cleanse the person, to purify the person. That's why we work through all the middos, the 49 middos, chesed shebechesed, gevurah shebechesed, tiferes shebechesed. Last night we tried to work on malchus shebemalchus to have real confidence, real leadership skills, to be able to understand that you're a melech, to be able to know what it means to be a real giver, to be a leader, to be able to discover who you really are, etc. Every night is another So they were preparing themselves. The Gemara says in Rosh Hashanah there's 49 49 gates of understanding, and then there's the 50th, which is always a gift from above. Every day they were acquiring another one. They were entering into another gate of those 49 gates of understanding until the Rebbe [ __ ] gives what's called the Hamish and Shara Hamish the 50th gate. This means if the Jews when they just left Egypt and Egypt they says they were submerged in the 49 gates of impurity. And now when they just left spiritually, there was a very deep connection to Egyptian culture and Egyptian traditions and Egyptian paganisms. Because they were slaves for so many years and still still they were refined enough to be excited about Martin Tyler. You didn't just have to schlepp them begrudgingly. How do we know? Cuz they're counting. One day, two days, three days. They can't wait. So now when they worked on themselves for 49 days and they acquired the 49 gates, they entered into the 49 gates of bidding, you can understand that from a quality spiritual emotional level, they were far more elevated. So certainly the night before the excitement would have reached a crescendo. And yet what do we say? With such a burning desire, what do they do? They go to sleep. From them is for standing. Have any typhus? You understand the question? So when you think about this, the Rebbe says if you really get to the core of the story, you have to realize it's a whole different story. They didn't go to sleep despite Martin Tyler. THEY WENT TO SLEEP BECAUSE OF MARTIN TYLER. They were so excited all of the seven weeks suddenly now let's just go to sleep and Hashem is WAKING THEM UP. SEVEN DAYS. NOW, THE TRUTH IS, we all know about the concept of cold feet. We know the concept of cold feet. Sometimes you prepare yourself. I get I get calls, emails all the time. So, the chassan and kallah, they were excited, excited, excited, yeah? And then at some point during the engagement somebody develops a certain fear and they they want to pull out. There's a concept of cold feet. But, that's not what's happening here. It's not like 2 weeks after the sfiras ha'omer, they're like, you know, this whole shidduch doesn't make sense. No, no, no, no, I'm not going. No! They were counting and counting and looking for The night before, the night before, suddenly boom, garnished. Sorry, got to go to sleep and Hashem says, "Madua boshi benish?" Nobody's here. So, the Rebbe says you have to say that there's a profounder dimension to the story. They didn't go to sleep because they were apathetic, careless, detached. As he says, they were meshu'ach daas, they weren't interested in Matan Torah. No! This was one of their preparations for Matan Torah. Because of the excitement, BECAUSE OF THE ECSTASY, BECAUSE OF THE passion and the gusto and the fire they felt that it was important to go to sleep. Now, the question is, excusez-moi, how was going to sleep a preparation for your chuppah? They wanted to be rested? Is that the issue? What happened here? And here the Lubavitcher Rebbe brings a gevaldige proof. People don't realize this part of the story. The mattress says that not a single flea bit the Jewish people. Now, you know how many Jews you had in the wilderness? You had there close to 3 or 4 million Jews. You have 600,000 men between 20 and 60. Plus you have men under 20 and over 60. So, let's say it's double that amount. So, it's 1.2 million. And then you have women of all ages, from birth all the way till old age. So, you're dealing with perhaps 2.4 million people. Or usually there's more women than men. It could be 3 million people. It could be even more. Depends, we don't know the exact numbers. We just know 600,000 between 20 and 60. So, you're not dealing here with a few people camping out. You're dealing with a few million people sleeping throughout the night. No flea bit them? What what what What happened to all the fleas? They all went to China, to Wuhan, China. What happened to all the fleas? Where were they? The shot, of course, is the mattress is saying that the orchestrated that the Jewish people should be able to sleep. I'm a higher. Ask still about a chair but I don't understand. If the whole idea of going to sleep was a rebellion or a statement of apathy, indifference, to Martin Turner Why would perform such a miracle to let them sleep? What's this great miracle? Let the MOSQUITOES COME AND BITE. LET THE BEES COME AND MAKE ME SHIVER. Let the fleas come and attack. Wake him up. And then I shall complain. Nobody is getting up. Well, you made a miracle. You made the miracle. You let them sleep on a higher. So, what do we see from here? We see from here that on the contrary, their going to sleep was a preparation for Kabbalat Shabbat. It was not a display of apathy and indifference. It was a display of prepara- It was a prep- It was one of the ways they were preparing for Matan Torah. And therefore, after 7 days, after 7 weeks of yearning and searching and waiting and anticipating and longing AND PINING, "TZAMA L'CHA NAFSHI." WHAT DO YOU do the NIGHT BEFORE? STAY UP. STAY UP FOR BRAIN, LEARN, TALK. STAY WITH MOTION. NO, THEY GO to sleep. This was for them the peak. This was for them the takhlis, the ultimate preparation before Matan Torah. Hashem says, "Wow. Ah, the mosquitoes the mis- the fleas are not coming close to them." It's like a shmaka, like a shmaka sleep. Now, you're right away thinking, "Very very nice. So, what why are we trying to fix it?" You just said that their sleeping was a gevaldike thing. First of all, we have to understand why and how. But, why are we trying to repair it if it was such a beautiful thing? Why is there a tikkun? Great question. But, before we get to all of this, let's understand the yesod, how the Rebbe developed this idea from learning the Medrash, asking what is the lesson from the details of the story just beyond the negative, and going into the very understanding of the story. How can they do this, especially when we examine how Chazal viewed Sefiras HaOmer and the miracle of the fleas not biting them? All this brings us to the possibility that we have to view this story with different lenses. Now begins the explanation. Let me just see if there are questions, and I will believe in that and address them. Okay. Reb Moshe asked the following question. You can ask your question either on the Zoom chat or on the Yeshiva.net video. It says on the right, "Ask your question." And you can ask your question there, or you could leave a comment if you want. The So, Reb Moishe says, "The Jews should have been very excited." And so arouses the question, "How could have they slept?" But the possuk says that Avraham Avinu woke up to take Yitzchak to the Akeidah. So, he must have been sleeping. How could have Avraham slept the night before while shechting his beloved son? Reb Moishe, that's a powerful question. It's a powerful question. It's a very interesting question. In fact, I once saw that the Kotzker Rebbe once said that the greatest test of the Akeidah was, we always ask, "What's the great test of the Akeidah?" Obviously, Avraham was ready to do something that was so overwhelming to slaughter his own son. Kotzker Rebbe said, "Hashem told him to do it." The creator of the world who created Avraham and Yitzchak told him to do it. To do it Jews who sacrificed their lives without an explicit commandment generations later. He said the great test of the Akeidah was, it says, "Vayashkem Avraham baboker." Avraham woke up in the morning. This means he went to sleep the night before. How could he go to sleep the night before? There's so much I don't know if you want to call it anxiety or stress or fear or worry or even or even the simcha, the excitement of doing this for Hashem. Whichever way you want to spin it. But how could he go to sleep the night before? He went to sleep the night before. "Vayashkem Avraham baboker." That means he went to sleep. The Kotsker Rebbe said, "Ah, the ability to be able to go to sleep, that was that was the greatness of Avraham Avinu." So, here you actually see a very similar pattern. Avraham Avinu felt he has to go to sleep the night before. He has to go to sleep. You bring up a very, very, very interesting Zera Shavua, very interesting Zera Shavua. And yet, we don't say this is one of Avraham Avinu's sins. It's one of Avraham Avinu's mistakes. And that's why we're going to stay up the night before that kid. We don't say that. Here we do say it. Okay, somebody writes, "As the holiday of Shavuot approaches, one of the things we're to remember and realize is that God has given us his ultimate treasure, the Torah. He has chosen us as his crown people. I was wondering if God was watching the news over these past 2 months and saw how his chosen people have been behaving in public and creating an enormous hillul Hashem during this pandemic while the entire world was observing this audacious behavior. Should this be a holiday or a fast day?" Okay, yes, it's extremely important, always crucial and vital that every person is aware of how they impact not only themselves but others and sanctify the name of Torah and the name of Hashem. Absolutely, 1,000%. So, we're going to go move on to the next shiv. I'm just going to excuse myself for a moment. I just want to get a drink. Okay, just one moment, please. You can hear me? Reb Shalom Derst. Derst of the dude Derst. Derst. Okay. In order to uh, get into the explanation, it's important to give an introduction. I want to share a story. The story I think will serve as a a suitable introduction to the answer. It's a story about the holy Reb Aharon of Karlin. Many of you have heard of the holy Reb Aharon of Karlin. They called him Reb Aharon Hagadol. Reb Aharon of Karlin, Karlin is a city in the Ukraine. And he was one of the greatest students of the Maggid of Mezeritch, who was a successor of the Baal Shem Tov, of course. The Baal Shem Tov's yardzeit is on Shavuos. Baal Shem Tov passed away Shavuos tough kuf kuf 1760. He was succeeded one year later by the holy Maggid of Mezeritch, Reb Dov Ber, Reb Dov Ber, Reb Dov Ber. And Reb Dov Ber was a rebbe for 12 years. He passed away tough kuf lamed gimmel, yud kislev, 1772. When he passed away, the Hasidic movement branched out among many students of the holy Maggid of Mezeritch. The Maggid of Mezeritch had a student, one of the oldest, his name was Reb Aharon, Reb Aharon of Karlin. They called him Reb Aharon Hagadol, Reb Aharon the great one. He was something extraordinary, an extraordinary human being. He passed away unfortunately very young, in his low 30s, one year after the Mezeritcher Maggid on Pesach. I think Pesach tough kuf lamed gimmel, 1773. Just to describe Reb Aharon of Karlin, they once asked the Baal HaTanya, the Alter Rebbe, who Reb Aharon of Karlin was, if he could describe the yiras shamayim, the fear of Hashem that Reb Aharon Hagadol had. So, the Baal HaTanya said, "Imagine somebody who was sentenced to death through a firing squad, and the person, the the the defendant, is standing at the wall where they shoot, they blindfold him, and he can hear the executioners about to pull the trigger. What type of fear is this person who's going to die in a moment? What type of fear grips him? So, he says, "That level of fear was the Yiras Shamayim of Reb Aharon of Karlin when he was in a state of Mochin de Katnus, which means when he was in a lower state of consciousness, in a diminished state of consciousness, that's was the his level of Yiras Shamayim." So, they asked the Baal HaTanya, "What type of Yiras Shamayim did he have when he was in a state of Mochin de Gadlus, when he was in an expansive state?" So, the Baal HaTanya said, "You won't You'll never understand, so I'm not even going to explain Lav Kol Mochin Savlin, though your brains won't understand." Vayehi Hayam, this is the following story. The Baron of Karlin was in Mezritch in the Ukraine. It was Friday afternoon. The Baron had a minhag that Friday afternoon, he would say Shir HaShirim, the Song of Songs of [ __ ] HaMelech, which many Jews and many Jewish communities have a tradition to say either Friday afternoon, Friday evening before Mincha, different customs and traditions, or after Mincha, but he was sitting in the Beis Medrash and he was learning or saying Shir HaShirim. The Maggid of Mezritch calls in the Baal HaTanya, his youngest student, Reb Shneur Zalman, and he says to the Baal HaTanya, "Do me a favor. Ask Reb Aharon to stop saying Shir HaShirim." "Why?" The Maggid had a tradition that Friday afternoon he would go to sleep. This was well known. According to Kabbalah, Friday afternoon is a time of slumber, cuz that's the time when Adam HaRishon was put to sleep in order to reconstruct Chava from Adam. It's called the time of dur vita design cabalistic language. It's the time of slumber. In fact, there were great great tzaddikim who would fall asleep Friday afternoon because as it says it's a zman shina l'maala. It's a there's a certain element of slumber in the heavenly divine energy of the cosmos. So, the Maggid would go to sleep Friday afternoon. And the Maggid tells the Alter Rebbe, the Baal HaTanya, "When the Adam should have shined in, macht a zayl roishim in himmel, ich kann nicht shloffen. Bet dem zu oifern zogen Shir HaShirim." "Reb Adam of Karlin Shir HaShirim make such a commotion in heaven, it's so lebedik, I can't sleep." "I can't sleep." "So, do me a favor. Ask him to stop saying Shir HaShirim, let him say it later." The Baal HaTanya went to the Beis HaMedrash and he asked Reb Adam of Karlin to stop saying Shir HaShirim cuz the Maggid can't sleep. Now, the story tells you a lot of things. First of all, it tells you Reb Adam of Karlin Shir HaShirim, I can also say Shir HaShirim Friday afternoon. Not going to disturb anybody sleeping. Can sit and say Shir HaShirim. Reb Adam of Karlin Shir HaShirim was a Shir HaShirim that somehow was incredibly powerful. Granted, but what else do we see from the story? That the Maggid sleeping had something that was even deeper than the Shir HaShirim of Reb Adam Karlin. To the point that he asked Reb Adam to stop saying Shir HaShirim cuz it's disturbing his sleep. This, I think, may be an interesting intro to get into the answer tzir gimmel. The beer bazeh, the beer in them, the explanation in all of this. Then Alter Rebbe says, Alter Rebbe says, footnote seven, Tanya Perek Lamed Zayin, "Az vi hoich es oif nit zayn, der hasaga und dveikus in Elokus fun an neshama zayn di ken goven, kumt es nit tzu di keilim Now, the Rebbe says in Tanya chapter 37 that even a soul in a body which experiences profound devekus, profound intimacy, and oneness, and connection with the Rebono shel Olam it completely cannot compare to the devekus of the soul before it manifested itself in a body. Because the moment the neshama which is a chelek Eloka mimaal, the neshama is divine, the neshama is a ray of infinity. But when the neshama comes into the body, it's now manifested in the vehicle of the body. And even though the body is the vehicle for the soul but nonetheless, everything changes. Because now the all of the experiences, and sensations, and awareness, and consciousness of the soul is filtered through the mechanism of the body. And because of that, it limits the intensity of the experience of the soul. So, the Baal HaTanya says, he says over there in Tanya that even a tzaddik gomur who lives his entire life in this world with devekus, with with oneness, with intimacy, with connection. We're not talking about a person who's distracted and disturbed by the superficiality of this of the world. We're talking about a person who's always in a state of devekus. And every one of us in our own way can always be in a state of devekus. Every person according to their own capacity, according to their own state. You have to know what devekus means in your life. But devekus means I always live with the consciousness of oneness. Says the Baal HaTanya. Yes, that's true. But lo yagiya lema'alas devekus Hashem, that's the words of the Tanya. The d'veikus that the inner soul experiences when it's transcendent from the body before birth is a completely in a different state because the body would not be able to contain that level of consciousness and that level of awareness. The body creates a certain fog. It creates certain filters. Only a trickle of the consciousness pre-birth or after death can be manifested in the physical consciousness of a human being during his or her life on Earth. What happens when a person sleeps? When a person sleeps, the soul is not so enclothed and manifested and affected by the filters of the body. We all know for example that we can dream while we sleep. Those of you who are therapists and psychologists are well aware of this that sometimes during sleep things come out from the subconscious or from the superconscious. They wouldn't come out during the day cuz during the day our conscious brains have a very strong filter and they guard the unconscious very heavily. They don't allow too much to come out. It has to remain concealed. But when we sleep, the guards are down. And because the guards are down, sometimes deeper components that you were not ready to face when you're up come out during sleep. Let's understand this in more spiritual language. The Madrich says, as he says in Bereshit Rabbah, that during sleep the neshama goes up. What do we mean the neshama goes up? The person is still alive. But you can't compare the soul during the day to the soul during sleep. What happens is there's only a kiss to the In 90 says that at night a kiss to the means there's a small measure of life that the soul continues to give the body when we're asleep. Because of this, there's a complete different state. The soul at night, when we're asleep, and the soul during the day is in a different state. During the day, the soul is completely manifested and enclosed and working through the body. During the night, there's an element of the neshama that transcends the body. The soul goes up, so to speak, not geographically, but spiritually, and absorbs a new dosage of life, which it will then bring down to the body. As a result of this, a soul during the sleep is capable of perceiving and absorbing truth and energy which is greater and deeper than the truth that it could perceive when it's completely completely enclosed in the body when the person is awake. And that's why it's brought in Sefarim, very interesting thing, that Jews who learn Torah with dedication and diligence during the day, so sometimes during sleep they experience revelations in Torah that they couldn't have when they were awake. To the point that sometimes there are issues that they worked hard during the day and they went to sleep with a question. And during their sleep, they got the answer for it. How? How do you get an answer? They weren't learning. The answer is because during sleep the soul is again in a Torah lecture. The soul uh is a little bit removed from the finite container of the body and therefore it can perceive horizons that are larger than the horizons that it could perceive when it's completely working within the filter and the mechanism and the finite structures and modalities of the body, as great as the body is. He brings in footnote footnote number 10 the moving may her at bars the safer Migdal David Alshira Shira versus David Shana Shaya Noisa the Noisa by Alacha by Torah Shana. The Radbaz is Rabbeinu David ben Zimra. And in his generation he was one of the greatest Halachic and Jewish authorities at the time. He lived in the 1400s and in the 1500s. He lived for a very long very very long time. Some say 110, some say 95 years old. The Radbaz was my Rebbe Yamin. He was born in Spain and then they have to leave Spain. They were exiled and he ultimately went to Egypt and in Egypt he was there for 40 years. He was one of the greatest rabbinical authorities in Egypt and then he moved to Tzfat for 20 years. He's buried in the old cemetery of Tzfat. This is a generation of the Arizal and the Beit Yosef. Uh in fact, the Radbaz I think was a Rebbe of the Arizal in Egypt. So, Rabbeinu David ben Zimra, who's has his famous commentary on the Rambam, and his Shel Shuvu's through the Radbaz, wrote 10,000 10,000 Shuvu's, 10,000 responses. We have two around We have 2,000 that remained, and they're printed in Shel Shuvu's Radbaz. So, he has a commentary on Shir Hashirim, it's called Migdal David. And over there it's brought that in his sleep, he was noised to the noised by halakha. He would give a sheer in his sleep. So, different things happen to people during their sleep. The common denominator is that deeper elements come out. The question is, what deeper elements? So, by a person who's completely dedicated to Torah and Avodah, what what they experience is new revelations that they couldn't have when they were up. They couldn't. Not because they weren't good, but because simply the soul is working through a physical body, and the physical body is capable of tremendous perception, but the perceptions are are filtered via the 37 trillion cells of the body, via the 100 billion neurons of the brain, via the 100 billion nerve cells. I may be off by a few billion or trillion, but it's in that zip code, as they say. And because of this, the perception of the soul is clouded, it's limited, it's mitzumtzum, it's restricted. We learned many times about the concept of tzimtzum. It has to be restricted, it has to be filtered, so that the keli, the vessel of the body, shouldn't be overwhelmed. Nadab and Abihu experienced an electricity voltage that was beyond what the wire can take, and they burnt up. Bakrivam lifnei Hashem, bikarvosam lifnei Hashem, vayamus. So, the soul's levels of perception must be limited and contained when you're in the body. Sleep, even though a person asleep is not dead, but the Gemara says in Brakhos that sleep is a 60th of death. What does it mean it's a 60th of death? It doesn't mean when a person is asleep, they're dead for sure, but it does mean that there's an element within the shamah is up to talking. There's an element of the soul that is transcendent and because of that, the comprehension levels can be profound. That's why they went to sleep. THEY DIDN'T GO TO sleep because they were running away from Martin Luther. They went to sleep BECAUSE THEY WERE PREPARING FOR MARTIN LUTHER. They wanted and they felt what's the greatest preparation to receive title from the show. The greatest preparation is get out of your body. Get out of your ego. Get out of your sense of self. Get out of YOUR SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS. GET OUT. GET OUT OF IT. HOW DO YOU GET OUT of it? How do you get out of it? You could do it through fake ways. You could do it through fake ways. We all know the fake ways that people do it. They decided they're going to go to sleep. So they went to sleep. So they went to sleep. THEY WENT TO SLEEP. THEY went to sleep. They go to sleep. The soul is elevated. The soul is supplement. There's no self-consciousness. When am I not self-conscious? Me. When am I not self-conscious? Only when I'm asleep. When I'm asleep, when you're awake, you're self-conscious. When we're awake, there's a certain prison. Everything is being filtered through the way I'm perceiving it and the way my body gets it and it's all in the body. The body holds the score. They went to sleep. You go to sleep, the soul is at least somewhat free and then it can open itself up to Hashem which means to great lofty perceptions. And they felt this when they come back, when they wake up, this would be the greatest preparation. The greatest preparation for Matan Torah to be able to experience a much more intense level of spiritual energy, of spiritual perception, to open yourself up to the infinity of reality. This is very deep. This is not just a regular sleep. I'm going to sleep cuz I'm exhausted. I'm not interested in anything. I just need to sleep. No. This was a sleep. It was almost like an induced state of profound meditation and mindfulness. Almost going into a trance. Like a certain Vayikra. We're going to sleep and it's hard for people to relate to even to what this means. We go to sleep cuz we're tired, right? You want to what we call hit the sack. They weren't trying to hit the sack. They were trying to hit the soul. When does the Midrash Shemot Rabbah say about Torah? Now see the beautiful words of the Midrash. Beautiful words. Now we see the mattress says "She national are Ava the highlight Sarah." We understood it was a good smack of sleep. They loved the sleep. It was great. No mosquito no fleas bothered them. No fleas bit them and they just checked out of everything and they just had a beautiful sleep. Why is it relevant that the night is short? That it was so sweet that mosquitoes didn't bite them. He says now we'll understand. What makes the difference between a sleep and a sleep? There's sleep that's an escape of life and there's a sleep that is actually the embodiment of life. It all depends who you are during the day. The more a person is refined during the day, the more a person lives with the Vegas during the day. When you go to sleep, you're sleeping as part of your avoid the session. It's part of your Vegas. You're not just checking out of life. You jump into bed and fall asleep. No, that's not how it works. There's an altar void. We had a mush beer his name was Abdul Raskin. So Abdul Raskin the for brain with the bucker. So he once said a void. I think I sought later in six days maybe or maybe from the hill of Russia there. What's a good addition void? The sugar begins that when you wake up, you should wake up like a lion. You should wake up like a lion. Yeah, he says God be a curry like a lion you should wake up to go serve a sham. Like the mission of says a giver curry. So there are more sugar adds over there and when you go to sleep, there's the minute to say Christmas emitter. Give me a very interesting. One second. I just want to open it up. Sugar the Messiah said begins he is God be curry llama by boy care. Love by the say who might have a shocker. You should prevail. You should be as strong as a lion to wake up in the morning to serve Hashem. Beautiful. The Rama, the Rama in his footnote on Shulchan Aruch says, before whom he's sleeping. And right when he wakes up, he should wake up with swiftness to serve Hashem. So there's this vart, it's the first words of Shulchan Aruch. You open up a Shulchan Aruch Aruch Chaim, what are the first words? You have to be as strong as a lion to wake up in the morning to serve the creator. You should be as strong as a lion. How? How does How does this happen? How does this happen, you wake up like a lion? So I think it was the Kotzker Rebbe, one of the greats, who once said, If you go to sleep like a dog, you can't wake up like a lion. Doesn't work that way. It has to do how you go to sleep. There's the way a person goes to sleep. There was once a Yeshiva bocher in Tomchei Temimim, and he uh he wrote he wrote to the Rebbe that he has sfeikos in emunah. That he has doubts in emunah. So it's interesting, the Rebbe wrote back to him that probably when he's going to sleep, he's reading material that's not good for him. That's probably what it is. When he goes to sleep, going to sleep is a very special time. And it all depends how you live your day. What such cases, when a person is an oisgehaltene person when a person haravest a eidel zu euch, you refine yourself, you live in the veker during the day, when you're in your body, it's a different type of sleep. And it's all commensurate with how you during the day, that's how you sleep. Sleep is just a continuation of the day. We look at it like there's two lives. There's I'm awake, I'm awake, and then I go TO SLEEP. WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I GO to sleep? Let God take care of it. But it's not that way. It's There's one holistic day of 24 hours. Sleep is a continuation. It works together. The day follows the night or the night follows the day. By cutting, the night follows the day. By everything else, the day follows the night. Like Shabbat starts at night, Friday night. Shavuot is going to start tonight. Usually, the day follows the night. In Beit Hamikdash, the day precedes the night. I hear I am. Perhaps you could say based on this home homeletically, when a Jew lives with kedusha, the night follows the day. When you're living by with dvekut during the day, the night is also going to be dvekut. Like, and the deeper the dvekut during the day, the deeper the dvekut during the night. And during the night, you will reach places where you cannot reach during the day. Because during the day, the soul is completely manifested, filtered through the body. During the night, it's not. So, sleeping is a very, very powerful moment. It's a moment when the veils are somewhat removed, when the curtains are open, when the doors of our perception are somewhat cleansed, and we could perceive the infinity of our reality and the world's reality in a profounder way. And what is a better preparation for Kabbalat Torah than cleansing the doors of perception and perceiving reality for what it really is, a manifestation of infinity, says the Medrash. Because the Jews were refining themselves for 7 weeks, they didn't just go to sleep. Schlaf. A pnima is the kishkes of a aiva leschlaf. A oisgehadiveh tischlaf. A vekes the kishkes of This wasn't just hitting the sack via hunt. Das ist gegangen via Leib. Is gab a kari and is is gegangen geschlafen via hunt. Am I going to sleep via hunt came in the stuff then via Leib. It's a different It's a completely different experience. Different experience because they worked for 49 days. The question the beginning of the SICHA HE AND I SAID is that the answer because they worked for 49 days. To prepare themselves, to refine themselves. So now afterwards ah they were ready the night of Atzeres Shavuos. Halaila k'tzara. Ta kish the rebbe what's Halaila k'tzara? The darkness of the world became brief. Laila's darkness, Laila's concealment. Halaila k'tzara. The darkness of the world became much shorter. In other words, the concealments now were very very small. The darkness was diminished. The veils were removed. Halaila, the thicket of the darkness that we live in, uncertainty, confusion, limitedness, insecurities, my skeletons, my traumas they became short. The Laila became k'tzara. The choisech was diminished. Why? Because their avoda was so powerful for 49 days and they're about to experience Matan Torah. When you go to sleep after such a avoda, ooh it's a beautiful sleep. It's a areiva. Areiva doesn't mean it was a schmaka schlaf in terms of brutishness and grobkeit. Areiva means it's a sleep that allows you to touch very very deep levels of perception. Now you understand why the fleas didn't bite them. Of course the fleas didn't bite them. When the Jewish people were sleeping in such a state of consciousness, so the whole world is affected. We affect the whole world. Who you are CHANGES YOUR ENVIRONMENT. THE ANIMALS ARE SENSITIVE. Even fleas are sensitive. Even the animals around them, the Bala Chaim, the fleas, the insects would not bother them. Even the fleas have in the heart. Because you know, they are they they they're programmed to know reality in their own way. Even the Bala Chaim were sensitive. They would not bite them. As he brings in in 10, Shishah Yamim Lifnei Matan Torah K'ilu K'ilu K'ilu Acham, V'Chit'am Yi'al Kol Chayot HaSadeh K'ilu Chayot HaSadeh. Chazal tell us that when a person's image of Hashem is evident, then all the animals in the world fear him. You know, the famous story of the Ra Chaim with the lion. So, therefore, even the fleas were sensitive. Wow. This is why the Jews went to sleep the night before Matan Torah. This explains everything. It explains why the fleas didn't bite them. It explains how it could happen after 7 weeks. It explains that how even after refining themselves, they can go to sleep. This is why they went to sleep. And this is why the Medrash has to speak about these details. Shina Shelosha Yamim Acharei Matan Torah K'ilu K'ilu K'ilu Acham. Let me see the questions, Reb Tzvi. That's also true for Divrei Chulin, people who think about something during the day can find solutions to problems during their sleep. How is this different? I guess it depends what your passion is, what your interest is. Reminds me Reminds one a bit of the idea of lucid lucid dreaming. Yeah. Seif Daled. Now comes the million-dollar question. What's the million-dollar question? Let me just take another question here. There is a safer Shailos Utshuvos Min Hashamayim, Avade, one of the Baalei Tosfos, where a tzaddik received answers to halachic problems during sleep. But Torah is no longer in Shamayim. Can we conduct ourselves according to those answers? It's a great question. There's a very famous safer, it's a skinny book, it's called Shailos Utshuvos Min Hashamayim. Questions and answers from heaven. It was written by Rabbeinu Yaakov, one of the Baalei Tosfos. And basically, he says, before he would go to sleep, he would ask questions, and he got answers in the morning on notes that he put under his pillow or some other ways, and he writes all the answers over there. This is another example of this. This is a little bit different. It's something called Shailos Chalom, or a question that he wrote on a note, but it's a very similar concept. And um And yeah, it's probably very much connected to this thing, like we see by the Radbaz, that the night time could be a time of tremendous tremendous revelation when your soul is not toxic. If my soul is not pure during the day, so the soul is so entangled, all I'll have during the night is dreams or or or other nightmares, which are also important sometimes to study and see. But when the soul is completely refined to the best of our possibility during the day, it affects the whole matzah the whole matzah at night. Shailos Utshuvos Min Hashamayim is a fascinating book. And there's a lot of questions there from heaven. In fact, very very interesting thing, and that is Shailos Utshuvos Min Hashamayim, one of the dates that he asks a question is Yud Tes Kislev. This is one of the Baalei Tosfos. So, it's a thousand years ago or or you know, 800 800 years ago. 800 years ago, one of the Baalei Tosfos. So, it says over there, the answer says uh uh Yud Tes Kislev Yom Psura. Yud Tes Kislev is a day of great news. This is uh this is from the Baal HaTurim and Tosafot Yom Tov Min HaShamayim. Yud Tes Kislev equals Yom Psura. In any case, you're asking a question of Torah Lo BaShamayim, how could you rely on those answers? The idea is it's not that you're getting a psak from Shamayim. You may be getting an insight that helps you explain something or enlighten something, and then you can learn it. Like somebody shares with you an idea, svara, an idea, and then you have to learn it and internalize it when the neshama is down here. That's that's basically that's basically the idea. This will explain It says, for example, in Zohar that Beit Shammai came from Gevurah, and Beit Hillel came from Chesed. And that's why Beit Shammai their verdicts are usually stringent, and Beit Hillel lenient. And because So, it's explained in sefarim that they used to pasken according to their neshamas, to their based on the shoresh of their nesham. The question is, you can't pasken based on that. Lo BaShamayim. The answer is based on the shoresh of their neshama, their brains down here perceived reality in a certain way, and based on that they gave the verdict. And we say, "Eilu v'eilu divrei Elokim Chaim." Very good horror. Thank you. Okay, next question. So, after this explanation, why do we stay up? We should all go to sleep. Givaldi, givaldi, good question. Thank you. Let's go to Sif Daled. And why do Why do we say we have to fix anything? What do we have to fix? Tonight, should all go to sleep? Daled. Fun fun sehr schloffen fun kabbalas haTorah. Well, der acharon zu kabbalas haTorah darf sein a fun andere laufen. Here the Lubavitcher Rebbe comes and says, "Now let's go to the even the next step, even the deeper step." Their sleep was profound. It was kosher. It was holy. It was sacred. It was mindful. It was transcendent. It was holistic. Most importantly, it was a preparation for Kabbalat Torah. Why was Hashem not happy? They're sleeping. There's even a miracle. The mosquitoes, the fleas are letting them live. And as we said, it's not even a miracle. The fleas were sensitive to the type of sleep this was, and they too stayed away. They're not going to bother this type of sleep. They're not going to disturb it. Granted. But the Rebbe says, "Hashem was not content not because they did a bad thing, but because the preparation for Kabbalat Torah has to be in a different way. Why?" The net come upon at the midst I say I laying them college. And I got a rubber. Do them that men ask me to. What's the new show my own? This is The ball Need the leg and sleeping. I stand from golf. Not done meeting golf. I got my glasses going for a mountain tiger. The great revolution of Martin Tyler was the ability and the responsibility to transform the physical landscape of Earth and the physical landscape of one's body. Khasal tell us the midrash says that before Martin Tyler there was a zeder, there was a decree that the higher reality and the lower realities can't meet. That's what the midrash raba says in parshas of era. He gives a metaphor that Rome and Syria were at war. If you're in Rome, you can't come to Syria. If you're in Syria, you can't come to Rome. And he says Rome because Rome means Rome, aloof, sublime. That which is above doesn't come down. That which is below doesn't go up. The mitzvahs before Martin Tyler were very different than the mitzvahs after Martin Tyler. The kodesh of Martin Tyler says the midrash says Hashem nullified the decree and he said elyonim lamata vetachtonim ya'alu lamala. The higher reality comes down, the lower reality goes up. I will begin God comes down on the mountain and Moshe goes up. What is this idea? This idea is an illustration of the concept that the entire revolution of Martin Tyler was that the ultimate purpose of reality is to transform the physical world and the physical body. Now that is a transformative idea because is it really possible to take the structure of physicality, which by definition conceals the infinity of it, and really redo it, reshape it? And that was the great kodesh of Martin Tyler. The kodesh of Martin Tyler is that the mitzvahs that a Jew does post Matan Torah really creates a chemical reaction, so to speak. An internal transformation in the physical things with which we do the mitzvah, that they themselves become sacred, they themselves become holy. By the way, that's why Avraham Avinu had to ask his servant when he wanted to take an oath to be able to touch to to hold on to his bris. It's a very strange thing. But that's what he says, sim layadcha yemincha, because it was the only holy object because it was the only thing Hashem told him to do, to do a bris. Today, later, they swear you hold a sefer Torah, but there was no holiness in the physical world. It says Yaakov Avinu put on tefillin through the avodah he did with the sticks, but the sticks didn't remain holy. So, Matan Torah represented a shift in consciousness that from now God says, "I'm empowering you to transform the physical reality, beginning with the physical body, that fundamentally the physical structure should be redefined as a conduit for divine infinity." And furthermore, THE ULTIMATE PURPOSE OF MATAN Torah is to work in the body, with the body, to respect the body, and to appreciate that you have to be able to reveal the infinity within your guf, within your body, and in this way you achieve something that you can't achieve without the body. As he says, only when the soul works in the body can you touch what's called atzmus. Atzmus means the essence of God, the core of God, BECAUSE IT'S THE BODY which holds the score. It's the body which contains essence. It's fascinating because today in cutting edge in cutting edge therapy, they know the limits of therapy through ideas, through cognition. It always used to be CBT or other models, cognitive behavioral therapy. We work with your ideas, we try to explain to you things, but they suddenly realize that it's not helping trauma, because the trauma sits in the body. And you push it, have to work with the body, You have to unleash un un un You have to release it within the body. It's like stuck in the goof. The body holds the score. The body holds the truth that is beyond ideas. And therefore, it didn't come in through ideas. It won't be spit out through ideas. So, spiritually speaking, there is the godliness that the soul can experience. That's godliness. But atzmus, the core of Hashem, you reach through your goof. You reach in your body and through your body. And that's why Hashem tells Beis Din Shel Ma'alah, the Medrash says that Beis Din Shel Ma'alah asks Hashem, "When is Pesach? When is Shavuos? When is Rosh Hashanah? When is Yom Kippur?" And Hashem tells Beis Din Shel Ma'alah, "Let's go down to the Earth and see what Beis Din paskened." Hashem has to know what Beis Din paskened? Yeah. Hashem has to know. Torah lo ba'shamayim. The Gemara says in Bava Metzia, he brings in 13 Bava Metzia nun beis nun tes, that there was a bas kol, a voice that came down from heaven, and it said that the halacha is like Rabbi Eliezer. And Rabbi Yehoshua said, "I'm sorry. Torah lo ba'shamayim." Meaning the Torah is not in heaven, and we can't listen to a bas kol from heaven to tell us what the halacha is. And Rabbi Yosi ben Elazar asked him, "What did Hashem do when Rabbi Yehoshua rejected the voice from heaven?" And Eliyahu Hanavi said, "Hashem started to laugh, and he said, 'Nitzchuni banai, nitzchuni.' My children have triumphed over me. My children have triumphed over me." What does this mean, my children have triumphed over me? It means that down here on Earth, we are capable of perceiving the core of the divine reality even deeper than in the higher worlds. Not because our perception is not clouded here. We just explained the whole sicha that the soul wants to go to sleep in order to open itself up to a higher reality. Of course. In the higher worlds and higher states of consciousness, there's much more revelation. But ultimate truth, the ultimate core of Hashem, the atzmus of Hashem, is in the guf, in the body. Now, this is a fundamental idea in the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov and his students, especially the Baal HaTanya and his students. He's not elaborating here on the details of it, on the nuances of it, but suffice it to bring out the concept that the whole point of matan Torah was not to escape the physical reality, not to run away from the clouded fog and consciousness of this world, not to flee the body. On the contrary, it's to be able to know that our purpose and our power is the ability to reveal the ultimate truth inside the world and inside every single component of our physical organism through our relationship with truth, through our relationship with infinity. And not just we can also reveal it in this world, but when we do it, something is touched. There is a truth that we encounter here we can't encounter anywhere else. The soul cannot experience it in Gan Eden because there's something you can reach only through the physicality. There's something very real, very raw, very naked. What is that? The atzmus, the core itself, beyond godly revelation, the core itself, that you access only in the guf. That's why Hashem says, "My children have triumphed over me." Torah li ba shamayim hi. Something in earth that happens. That's why because the main revolution of matan Torah was what? The avodah of a soul in a body, with the body. So, how do you prepare for matan Torah? You don't go to sleep. You don't go to sleep. The Jewish people thought that what? The greatest preparation for matan Torah is transcendence, sublimation, aloofness, spiritual ecstasy. And you know why they thought so? Because they were pre-Matan Torah. And pre-Matan Torah, they were right. FROM THEIR PERSPECTIVE, THEY WERE RIGHT. BEFORE MATAN TORAH, THE G'ZEIRAH EXISTED. There was a decree, there was a separation. So, their mindset was that the ultimate realization of your dveykus comes only when you're asleep, not when you're awake. As much as you can detach yourself from your body, the better it is. You'll be able to be holier, you'll be able to be more expansive. They were right. From their perspective, THEY WERE RIGHT. THEY WERE BEFORE MATAN TORAH. NONETHELESS, MATAN TORAH IS A DIFFERENT CONCEPT. MATAN TORAH REVOLUTIONIZED THIS. Matan Torah says that the ultimate purpose of creation is what we call dirah betachtonah. The ultimate purpose of creation is to reveal Hashem's truth and presence and oneness within the structure of your body in the world. And over there, YOU WILL TOUCH SOMETHING THAT YOU CAN'T EVEN TOUCH in spiritual reality. It's above the body. There's something about the body that holds the ultimate score of life, the ultimate truth of life. So, how do you prepare for Matan Torah? Preparation for Matan Torah is not to go away from your body, but to remain awake and the be there with the body. Even though it's before Matan Torah and there was the g'zeirah that gashmius can't become fully integrated with ruchnius, that's true. That's true. It's still as a preparation for Matan Torah, this was the inappropriate preparation. Appropriate preparation was to remain there and work with the body. And what this means is you have, for example, uh if you mix, if you put sugar into your coffee or into your tea, the sugar dissolves. Yeah. It gets mixed into the tea. It dissolves into the tea, but they don't become completely one. And that's why if you heat it up with enough heat, ultimately as the water evaporates, you will see the residues of the sugar. So, even though they're mixed in and you can't easily recognize the difference, but ultimately they're not one. But then you have what's called a chemical compound. When you create a chemical fusion between two different substances and there's a completely new reality. You know, when you have the the hydrogen and the oxygen uh atoms coming together to create a water molecule, now they completely are fused as a water molecule. You can't compare it to the sugar in the tea. Before Matan Torah, godliness was like sugar in the tea. Of course, the two were connected, but not one. The hidush of Matan Torah is the ksayra, the decree that they're fundamentally two different worlds, the finite and the infinite are two different worlds was nullified. A new reality emerged. What's the new reality? Complete fusion. The ability for true true healing. The ability for true transformation. The ability that the real processes of our physical body and our physical environment and our physical world truly are a conduit for infinity. That's the whole power of Matan Torah. Going to sleep demonstrates a misunderstanding of the revolution of MATAN TORAH. FOR PRE-MATAN TORAH, IT WAS AWESOME. IT WAS GAVALDIK. It's beautiful. You really want to go to the peak of the mountain to be able to perceive the glory of God and creation. You want to look through the telescope and see what's happening in heaven. Awesome. But this is a preparation for Matan Torah. Preparation for Matan Turner, it's a completely different concept. Here the idea is integration. And integration is in a way a much deeper challenge, cuz integration is the belief that my physical self is really an expression of infinity, that I can truly, truly heal. And it's in that arena where God wants me to serve him. He doesn't want me to amputate my physical sensation sensations. He doesn't want me to amputate the self that the body manifests. He doesn't want me to ignore my emotions, to ignore my physicality, to ignore my body. That's not Martin Turner. Martin Turner says that ultimately in that space where there is distress and the anxiety and the confusion and the uncertainty and the trauma and the pain and the fog and the cloud and the clouds and the darkness that's the place that's the place that you have to be able to work through. That's the place you have to respect. That's the place that if you can work with it and uncover what's going on you'll be able to touch the core the core of everything the core of Russia. Sifrei the higher order fullness there's a lesson. And the lesson is There are people who say what do I have to have? Why do I have to have a relationship with the darkness of the world? Great people. Why do I want to have any contact with physicality? Equal but He's talking here about a great Jew, a Jew who says, "Let me isolate myself from the world. Let me isolate myself from all toxicity. Let me isolate myself from people who are not on my caliber. Let me just completely enclose myself in Torah and avoid it. What's greater? I work so hard in Torah and mitzvahs. I'm already in a place where my darkness is small, my concealment is small. And in a very genuine way, this person says, 'I am in a much I'm in a good state. I'm in a healthy state. I'm capable of devekus. Let me isolate myself and lock the world out of me, and I will be able to reach a place WHERE NOTHING WILL DISTURB me anymore. Even a flea won't bite me, which represents the fact that I will remain sheltered in a spiritual ivory tower. I will remain isolated in a divine cocoon of Torah and avoid it. What is more beautiful than that?' On this demagoguery is telling us that EVEN BEFORE MATAN TORAH, BUT ON THE DAY OF MATAN TORAH, that night, such behavior of isolation, transcendence, spiritual confinement is beautiful, but it's not the realization of the ultimate divine purpose. What they did then we have to repair even though it was before Matan Torah because it was already the night of Matan Torah. Certainly today after Matan Torah it's so important to appreciate that we have to don't remain in your IVORY TOWER. GO DOWN, lift up the world, lift up people, kindle sparks. As the Rebbe says, dedicate yourself to a another Jew who is in a lower place than you. Somebody who needs a hug, somebody who needs love, somebody who needs TLC, somebody who needs wisdom, clarity, purity, holiness, TRANSCENDENCE. DON'T SAY WHAT DO I HAVE TO DEAL with these people? I don't have to look at them. I don't want to deal with them. They're they're dirty, they're filthy, they're not part of my life, they're not part of my reality. I amputate them from my life. Why? I don't WANT FLEAS TO BITE ME. I want to stay away in absolute dedication and transcendence. The least contact I can have with anything THAT WILL OBSTRUCT ME. I will. And this includes even the fleas inside of me. I don't want to deal with the fleas inside of me that are biting me. I WILL DETACH MYSELF FROM MYSELF. I will detach myself from my body. Some of us do that. Our pain of the body is deep. We detach ourselves. I don't want to feel my emotions. I don't want to deal with my goof. I don't want to look at my Sahara. Now, sometimes you can't do that. It's over it's overwhelming. But here is a Jew who knows how to go to sleep. He knows how to transcend. Great, beautiful, amazing. Says the Rebbe, this is the lesson the mattress is teaching us. Not that the sleep was evil. The sleep was holy. The sleep was sacred. The mosquitoes didn't bite them. THE FLEAS DIDN'T BOTHER THEM. GOD WANTED THE SLEEP TO BE SWEET CUZ IT WAS SLEEP it was sweet. It was amazing. It was beautiful. And yet Hashem says, "Why is nobody awake?" The calling of Martin Tyler is, "I want you not to be afraid of the world. I want you to know that this is the arena where God's essence wants to be revealed. Come down, my dear boy, FROM THE MOUNTAIN. COME DOWN, MY DEAR SADIQ, from the mountain. Reach out, kindle sparks, embrace souls, uplift hearts, dedicate your time to another person who, yes, is in a different state. Connect with the world. Connect with people. Be a leader. Be a mentor. Be a teacher. Be a source of influence of love. Don't run away and retreat for you yourself, too. Don't be afraid of yourself. Don't be afraid of your mosquitoes and your fleas. Don't be afraid of your body. Don't be afraid of your emotions. Ultimately, embrace it all. Make space for it. Make respect for it. Create Have respect for it. You know why? Because it's in this place, in this place of your pain, in this place of your trauma, in this place of your physicality, where you will find God even in a deeper place and in a deeper way than by escapism. When does is the time and and not only this, when this Jew comes down from his ivory tower and dedicates himself to another person, this is not a compromise. You will become much greater. Like the Gamara says, "I have learned a lot from my teachers, more from my friends, but the most I have learned from my students." Tiny is the Zion 15. Tiny is Zion and tomorrow is the Zion Olive. Tiny The Gamara The Gamara says over there in tomorrow in a schnaya bhagaya when you teach somebody else, your eyes are also brightened. From my students, I learn more than everybody. Who needs Why should I go to my students? I have my teachers, I have my friends. Says the Gamorah me talmideha yosef me kulam. It's by restricting your flow and by restricting yourself and by filtering your information and condensing it by tuning into the world to the weltanschauung, to the soul of your student, you become greater. You discover yourself in a much deeper way. You discover your own atzmus, your own essence, the essence of Hashem which we discover only bitachtoinim, only in the physical physical living organisms in this world and our physical reality. And he says in the last paragraph, "Und das ist der tam am minikes in nicht schlafen shvuos bei nacht." By mekabels on the Torah. This is the reason why we have the custom that we don't go to sleep shvuos at night before we receive the Torah. How do we prepare to receive the Torah? Not going to sleep. AND WE'RE NOT TALKING ABOUT SLEEP again in a brute materialistic self-indulgent way. Not going to sleep even in a way where the soul is elevated and it goes up a notch and it detaches itself somewhat from the body so it can open itself up to higher perceptions. That's not how we prepare. How do we prepare to Torah? By being dedicated and working with our bodies, by working with our animal soul. Every one of us has an animal soul, and the animal soul is the source of my insecurity, my anxiety, my stress, my narcissism, my selfishness, my fears, my pettiness. I could give some more adjectives, but everybody could do that on their own. I was just mentioning stuff that I have to deal with. But everybody has an animal soul. I could ignore it. I could amputate it. I could make believe it doesn't it doesn't exist. Let me just go to sleep. That's not how you prepare for Matan Torah. You prepare for Matan Torah by embracing. You have to find Hashem in your body. You have to find Hashem in your nefesh habahamis. I don't worship my nefesh habahamis, but I create space for it, and I appreciate that this is part of my journey. I have to look at it, become aware, study it, confront it, subdue it, transform it. Have a conversation with it, refine it, deal with it, see what's inside. Learn about learn about my guf, understand that Elokus, Godliness, needs to be revealed in my body. Every part of my body can become a conduit for infinity. That's where Matan Torah happens. And I have to work with my part of the world. My part of the world is the people and the environments where I can have influence. Every single person has a chelek ba'olam. Your part of the world that you can change. There's the people who you can influence. There is the money that you deal with. There are your homes, your cars, the environment, your businesses, your relationships, your journeys, your encounters. The Ribono shel Olam gives every soul a part of the world that you and only you could bring light there. That only you can introduce light into that part of the world. SHOULD I RUN FROM THAT? Uh the preparation of Kabbalas haTorah is no, you're fully alert. You're fully awake. Your soul is in your body. And that means your soul is limited by your body, and your soul is experiencing everything that your body is telling you that you're experiencing. But that's how you prepare for Kabbalah Satori, cuz that's the ultimate today is on the edge of Torah. And that's how you can prepare to truly absorb and receive Torah with joy and internalization for the whole year. As he finishes in the parentheses, you see the source of this Messiah's Haggadah Shavuot 1962. This is a excerpt of a talk of the Lubavitcher Rebbe during the farbrengen on the second day of Shavuot 1962. This completes this part of the Shavuot the Kuntres from the Rebbe. Let me take some questions. Reb Tzvi, so why do we still go to sleep after Matan Torah? How come we still need our sleep? You're saying that we should just stay awake forever, huh? Okay, Rebbi, the sleep is amazing and beautiful, but not the purpose of the world. But then doesn't that make sleep something bad after Matan Torah? No, no, not at all. Not at all. It's always about a balance. We call it ratzoi and shuv, right? We learned in so many mymorim there's ratzoi and there's shuv. You have to go to sleep cuz you have to replenish yourself. And if you're in a refined place, the sleep takah allows the soul to be open to greater ideas. The Rebbe is not negating any of that. There's something very holy and beautiful about that. The challenge is not going to sleep. The challenge is when you remain asleep. You have to go to sleep cuz you need to recharge yourself, but then you got to come back. You got to come back to the body. So it's not that sleeping is bad. It's that the preparation for Matan Torah you have to realize what the real preparation for Matan Torah is. And the Rebbe is revealing here that great perspective that was so emphasized by the Baal Shem Tov and his students and was really a cornerstone in Yiddishkeit. Because there were other shittas in Yiddishkeit, you know, right? And there were perspectives in Yiddishkeit that stressed much more isolation and detachment from the physical world. And as much as you can go away from it, the better it is. It's called prishus. And there were many holy Jews who acted on this. And because there's a truth to it, because there's a lot of confusion in our world, because the body can make you tzarus, because the nefesh habahamis has its own agendas. But the Rebbe is saying the ultimate chiddush of Matan Torah So there's an avodah like that, and that's the avodah before Matan Torah. And even after Matan Torah, we all need moments of of separation and transcendence, because you have to be able to replenish yourself. But the ultimate the ultimate avodah of Matan Torah is integration. To believe in the world, to believe in people, to connect to people, and to connect to every part of yourself. To It's It's not I want to ask you to try to internalize this message in your body, not just in your mind. In your body. Okay, let's see if there's any other questions here. It's interesting. A lot of people are asking So how come do we have to stay awake? Okay, these were questions before we got to the end. Okay. Daniel, when the Jewish people heard the first two commandments, their souls left the body. If they had to accept the Torah with their body, how come their souls left the body? Excellent question. But what happened right after that? It says The Mari says in Maseches Shabbos, al kol dibbur v'dibbur parcha nishmasam. Every one of the commandments, their souls left their body. But what happened? It says Hakadosh Baruch Hu hechezirom lehem betal shel chia. God brought their souls back into their bodies with the dew of resurrection. Tchiyas hamaysim, which is going to be the body coming back to life, because the body is the ultimate arena of Yiddishkeit. We we we uh we cherish the body. We see the body as sacred. So, what's the point? The point here is precisely your question becomes your answer. Even when Torah was being given, this was such a great challenge because the body and the animal soul do create a fog. They do obstruct the truth on a superficial level. Sometimes we know psychologically and we know somatic therapy and and other forms of therapy that the body sometimes is causing you a lot of pain, but the source of the pain is not a physical ailment that you will see in a laboratory on with an x-ray. The source of the pain is an emotional pain that's being held by the body. So, when you ask the body, the body just says, "Oh, my back kills. My back kills. My stomach kills. Oh, my neck it hurts. It hurts." Right? You go to every doctor in the world and they don't see anything. There's no herniated disc. They don't see anything happening in your digestive system, and they dismiss it. They say, "You know, whatever. You need more sleep." You need more sleep. Today we know, or at least many believe, I know there's still some dissenting opinions, that it's emotional pain that the body is holding. But the body doesn't tell it to you. The body doesn't say, "I am emotional pain." The body says, "I am physical pain." Cuz the body's language is physicality. So, it's very easy to get confused, and you really have to be able to pierce through the layers of the body and know that the body is telling you it's physical because the body speaks in physical language. The body speaks in very real, raw, physical language where it's really holding on to something much deeper and if you can reveal it and unravel it, you will be able to see the penimius of the guf. I remember once in an As I would say the previous sicha it was tough shin noon, I think 1990 if I'm not mistaken. I was at Yeshiva bocher then. I was I think 14 or 15. How old was I? 16. Probably 16. So I remember that I was saying in Yiddish that he said that initially the body is something that conceals the oneness and infinity of Hashem. But he said as men are but men can guf the guf with men zich some atzmius. It's just a wonderful Yiddish word. The guf with men zich means you excavate. You excavate the quintessential core of your body and then you'll find God immediately. And he said the words that make sorry ex lecha from the Bala that says in Eiyov and Job from my flesh I will perceive Hashem. So the Bala Tanya teaches that the Rebbe says me sorry ex lecha from your flesh when you he said shaiyir in the basar. You have to sand your flesh until ex lecha until it becomes a mirror that reflects God. But I have to sand the flesh meaning I have to discipline, I have to work. If I just follow the instincts and addictions of the body which is basically coming from the mind and it creates a self-indulgence then I won't see in the body what it really is because it becomes even a greater source of concealment. But if you work through the body ex lecha, the body itself will bespeak the truth of Hashem and that's one of the great messages of Matan Torah. Okay, my dearest friends. My love and blessings to all of you. Thank you so much for joining us. I want to wish you a Chag Sameach, a Kabbalas HaTorah b'simcha u'pnimiyus, to receive Torah with joy and with sincerity together with your loved ones. I wish you a most beautiful, amazing, inspiring, uplifting Yom Tov Shavuos time with yourself and Hashem and your neshama and the people who are closest to you. May everybody stay healthy. May Hashem bring healing and recovery to all those who need it. Chizuk, strength, solace, and comfort to all those who need it and to all of the Jewish people here and in Eretz Yisrael and in the whole world and healing to the entire world. And may each and every one of us be able to internalize these ideas in our lives to be able to find that extraordinary gift to be able to touch horizons that are beyond our body and yet to be able to integrate that within our bodies and within our animal souls and within our world and to always remember this message that life must be lived in a way where I have to share my light with other people. Not just keep it for myself, but reach out to go to a place that may even be uncomfortable to reach out to another person, to another Jew, to kindle another heart, to kindle another spark. If people would realize that each and every one of us is an ambassador. That's the message here. You're an ambassador. Don't just take it in and and wallow in your own ecstasy, even if you could. Today, that's also very difficult for many people. But if you really want to touch your ecstasy, it happens when you can reach out and uplift the world and embrace souls and make a difference, and don't think you're too small because every single person has their sphere of influence, those people, those souls, those individuals for whom you can make a difference forever. Of course, people in your own family, your own children, your own spouses, your own communities, relatives, friends, but also strangers, all of the Jewish people, and ultimately, all over the world. So, I love you, and I bless you with a beautiful, beautiful Yom Tov, Kabbalas haTorah b'simcha, Kabbalas haTorah b'pnimiyus, a freilichen Yom Tov, and Chag Sameach. Have a beautiful day, and go easy on the cheesecake. Huh? Unbelievable. Malach? Zei Somebody just wrote here. He says what you mentioned at the beginning of the sheer that you're staying home for and so am I. What are your criteria for leaving quarantine and going back normal Well, my challenge is if I'm going to and giving a sheer in previous years, there were five, six, seven, 800 people there or maybe more. In the tent, outside of the tent, so it would be highly irresponsible. There's know how this virus is developing or hopefully not developing that we just have to be very very cautious. So to go into a situation where where you know you have crowds filled with people, I think would be highly highly irresponsible. So that's why everybody has to stick to the guidelines of the health officials and follow the rules and the truth is they themselves don't know exactly. You think the scientists know what's happening? Nobody knows what's really happening. That's the problem. Only God knows what's happening. But the best we can do is, you know, to try to be sensitive and and extremely sensitive to human life. Remember the and you always want to err on the side of caution. You don't want to err on the other side. So that's very important. I mean we have a minyanim for some outdoor minyanim where there's social distancing, actually very heavy social distancing. Uh which I I'm going to participate in as you're down my block near near next block. But in terms of shul you just have to be careful. You have to know what type of shul it is, how many people will be there. If everybody is following the guidelines of the health officials, great. But it's very important for people to follow it. And when people don't follow it, it's very disturbing. So that's what I think. The exact clarity I have as much as anybody else. We have to hope and pray that uh this uh virus is curbed and it comes to an end and everybody's life is protected and we only have to have time with all of them. Thank you very much everybody. My love and blessings to you and your loved ones and all of our people in the whole world. A good and a good one.