Bereishis | Likkutei Sichos Vol. 1

Baruch Hashem, we have made it to this inaugural event of Likkutei Sichos Chelek Aleph. This is our new class, a weekly class in the Rebbe's Sichos. Um we're going to focus on Likkutei Sichos Chelek Aleph, the first volume. And Hashem, I mean Likkutei Sichos Chelek Aleph covers the books of Bereishis, Shemos, and Vayikra. And God willing, we'll go into Chelek Beis, the second volume, when we are when the weekly parsha is in the books of Bamidbar and Devarim. But the basic idea here is to go through the complete text, the complete original Yiddish text of the Likkutei Sichos for this week's parsha. We're going to do it on Sundays, live at the Soul Words House. The point is to do it early in the week to give people plenty of time to learn the sicha on replay. I mean, some people will join us live in person, some people will watch the live stream uh on on Sunday, but I'm sure many of you will watch on replay or listen on replay throughout the week. So, we're giving you as much time as possible. Now, this week parshas Bereishis is a little bit difficult this year because um tomorrow is already Hoshana Rabbah, and then we have 2 days of Yom Tov Baruch Hashem. And then, you know, it's already Erev Shabbos after that, basically. Um you have Thursday, Friday, and then boom. It's Shabbos Bereishis. So, um we didn't make a live I mean, this is live, but we didn't like open it up to a live audience. But God willing, next week for parshas Noach, we will give you the info to join us live at the Soul Words House. And I heard a rumor, it's just a rumor, there might be even be bagels, maybe. Lavish breakfast. Thank you. And we're looking for sponsors for the lavish breakfast. Okay. Just a little bit of background about Likkutei Sichos. I don't want to go into a whole history, but a very, very brief background is in order. The Rebbe's Torah, the Rebbe's voluminous Torah, the Rebbe's body of work, of teachings can be categorized into a few different genres, let's say. Uh many of you who have been learning with me over the years are no doubt familiar with the Igros, the Igros Kodesh. Those are the Rebbe's letters. Uh we've done many series of classes in the Igros. We did 30 letters in 30 days. We did that several several different times. And Hashem, with God's help, we'll we'll do that again. Um so, those are the Rebbe's letters, and that's where you see in my impoverished, humble, amateur opinion how the Rebbe guides people, how the Rebbe deconstructs a problem, how the Rebbe gives people insight into their personal lives. Uh that's the Igros. Then you have the Ma'amorim. The Ma'amorim are very deep mystical teachings. That's where the Rebbe's taking concepts in Chassidus and um analyzing them on a on a very deep level, on a technical level, that requires a fairly serious background in Chassidic teachings. And then you have the Sichos. And the Sichos specifically the the format of Likkutei Sichos, because you also have other Sichos. And let me distinguish between the unedited and the edited. So, you have the unedited Sichos, which are basically a transcript of a farbrengen. Basically, not not exactly, but uh it's the Rebbe's farbrengen. So, you see the flow of the the farbrengen. I'm talking about the unedited Sichos, which chiefly you would find in Toras Menachem Hisva'aduyos. So, there you see the flow of the farbrengen, how the Rebbe might raise questions and then not answer them until many sichos later. And the sichos are punctuated by by nigunim and by different activities that would go on at the farbrengen. And it's uh and sometimes it would take actually more than one farbrengen. There would be a sicha that the Rebbe would start a concept and then continue it a week later or weeks later. Or or sometimes even a year later. So, that that's the unedited sichos. And you really get to experience the flow of the Rebbe speaking about all the intersection of everything, the the the date and the time and the weekly parsha and whatever the the Chitas and the Rambam of that week and the current events that were going on in the world. Okay. Likkutei Sichos is the edited talks. And that is where, again, in my impoverished, humble, amateur opinion you get the real lomdus, the real scholarship. Um the To categorize Likkutei Sichos as Chassidus is even questionable. Yes, it's chiefly Chassidus, but also it's Nigleh. Um Chassidus itself is a sort of transcendent category, which contains within it much of the of Nigleh, of the revealed or the legalistic aspects of Torah. But especially Likkutei Sichos, depending on the sicha that you're learning, it could be mostly in that area of sort of Talmudic or Halachic analysis or the analysis of the simple meaning of a verse in in Chumash. Or other sichos, which are very, very deep Chassidus, akin to a ma'amar. And it really just depends on on the sicha. Um Likkutei Sichos and you know, if you look in volume one, there's a intro that was written by Tzach the Tzeirei Agudas Chabad or the Lubavitch youth organization where they explain the origins of of this volume. They say that they had a a gathering on Yud Daled Kislev, which is the Rebbe and the Rebbetzin's wedding anniversary. It was actually on the 30th anniversary in Well, question is, would that be would would that be 1950 eight already or still the very end of '57? Probably the very last month of '57. Um but you know, Tavshin Yud Ches. And they made a a decision that they're going to compile the Rebbe's talks, which had already been Yoel Kahn, alav hashalom, had already created a vaad l'hatzolas sichos from the very beginning, from from the Rebbe's first year of even before the Nesi'us, actually. And um but they weren't edited. The point was to receive the Rebbe's edits on the sichos, to have a sort of an official um version of the sichos. And they made that that hachlata, they made that resolution, like I said, the 30th wedding anniversary of the Rebbe and the Rebbetzin. In actuality, it did not come out until a few years later, until Tavshin Yud Beis. Okay. But the point is, why am I telling you this? Because you should know that all of the sichos that we're going to learn from Likkutei Sichos Chelek Aleph are from the yuds, from that decade. Because the project was done in Tavshin Yud Ches. So, they're all from In fact, the sicha we're going to learn today um or the sichos, plural are all from one farbrengen. They're from Shabbos Bereishis Tavshin Tes Zayin. I believe that's correct. From uh Yeah, they're all from Tavshin Tes Zayin. And all of the sichos from this volume are all from from the yuds, from that decade. Um Okay. So, that kind of sets the scene as far as where these sichos come from, when they are, what what era. Um Now, I'll just share with you personally I'm extremely personally passionate about Likkutei Likkutei Sichos, but especially about Chelek Aleph, or maybe I would say Chalakim Aleph, Beis, Gimmel, Daled which to me um you know again, this is a this is my impoverished amateur opinion over here. So, take it for whatever it's whatever it's worth. But there are different eras within Likkutei Sichos, there are different genres, and I'm not here to give a history lesson in the different styles. And they're they're clearly different styles in different sichos in different eras in different volumes. But there's something about the first four volumes of Likkutei Sichos where we get I will I will call it a hachnosah l'cheider. We get brought to school for our first day of schooling. And we become initiated into a worldview. And in some ways, the format of these sichos is actually I would say uh the construction of it or the the the the the the format is somewhat simple compared to other volumes. But to me personally, what is so enriching about these early volumes of Likkutei Sichos is these are the foundations. These are really the main concepts as the Rebbe sees them. And when you put yourself into these sichos and understand them properly and understand try to understand what the Rebbe is doing taking a concept that's a concept that goes all the way back to the beginning of of Toras HaChassidus or even further back a classic concept that goes back to to Chazal and and yet repackaging it and presenting it in a revolutionary radical way. And and I I and I feel like I can say fairly safely pretty much every sicha is that. It's the Rebbe taking something that's classic that's it's it's traditional it's sourced and there's and there's footnotes to show you the sources and you can go thoroughly check the sources and on one hand it's just it's good old time religion and on the other hand the Rebbe brings out a nuance that's entirely original and exciting and fresh and new. Okay. So at any rate without further ado let's jump into Likutei Sichos Chelek Aleph Bereishis as I mentioned this is all from the Rebbe's fabrengen Shabbos Bereishis Tafshin Yud Aleph. It is not the entire fabrengen. If you want to see the entire fabrengen you can look in Lahaq's Toras Menachem Tafshin Yud Aleph. Um there are three sichos basically in this in this edited version. It is it is not again it is not the entirety of the fabrengen. Okay. Let's start. Let me pull up the text. All right. As is bekannt der Wort was die Rebbeim Nesiei Chabad haben gesagt it's known the saying the aphorism that the Rebbeim the leaders of Chabad said and there's a source here to Sefer Maamarim Tafshin Yud Aleph. Obviously the Friediker Rebbe's histalkus was Yud Shvat Tafshin Yud. There was a safer of Maamarim that was prepared even before and it was put out after the histalkus and uh in Sefer Maamarim Tafshin Yud Aleph there is a reshima there is a note of a sicha from uh a fabrengen from it was definitely Chodesh Tishrei. Let me see if I can pull it up here. It was Chodesh Tishrei of Tafshin Yud. Do I have it here? Um yeah. It's from Tishrei of Tafshin Yud. And if you'll look it up interestingly yeah, what does he say? Page 59. Let me just pull it up for myself. I won't be able to share the image but I'm going to look at it for myself. So you can look it up in Sefer Maamarim Tafshin Yud Aleph. So it's sicha Yom Vav Yud Dalet Tishrei. Yeah. So that's um Erev Sukkos. And it it's starts off and it says Erev Chag Chag HaSukkos Tafshin Taf Reshon Gimmel dem ershten cheif Sukkos in alle inyonim Chag via Godol. So the Friediker Rebbe is talking about his first Sukkos as a bar mitzvah. And he relates a teaching that his father told him and that that teaching came to his father from his father who in turn received it from uh from his father all the way back to the Alter Rebbe all the way back in fact not only to the Alter Rebbe but from the Maggid and even further the Maggid got it from the Baal Shem Tov and Friediker Rebbe says specifically that that that Baal Shem Tov received it from the Baal Chai. Who's the Baal Chai? Achiya HaShiloni. Achiya HaShiloni was uh one of the Yidden who came out of Mitzrayim and he lived in the times of David HaMelech as well and he lived a very long time and then he came back and taught the Baal Shem Tov. Baal Shem Tov lived in three sections of his life. First 26 years he was an unknown like a tzaddik nistar. Then 10 years he was learning with Achiya HaShiloni. And that's till he was 36 and then another 26 years he was revealed as a leader of the Jewish people. So that's 26 26 52 plus 10 62 62 years. So during those 10 years the Baal Shem Tov was learning from Achiya HaShiloni. And this is one of these teachings. At any rate the point is this is a teaching it's interesting to note that we're beginning Likutei Sichos with a teaching that goes all the way back not just to the first Rebbe of Chabad to the Alter Rebbe and not even just to the Baal Shem Tov the first Rebbe of Chassidus but to Achiya HaShiloni. And um perhaps you can say the whole style of the Rebbe is to take the teachings of the previous generations and to synth- synthesize them and to to package them and to present them to us. And here is the first teaching in Likutei Sichos Chelek Aleph and the Rebbe is going back to the origins of the teachings of Chassidus all the way back to Achiya HaShiloni. Okay. So back to the sicha. So it's known what the Rebbeim said a Shabbos Bereishis is nega tzum gantzen yor. Shabbos Bereishis uh affects the entire year. Oh that's good you have it nice and big there. All right. Um un azoy vi men shtelt zich avek Shabbos Bereishis azoy firtzig a gantz yor. And however you set yourself up on Shabbos Bereishis that's how the whole year is going to go. By the way JFYI it doesn't say that exact language in the original source in the the sicha of the Friediker Rebbe. Um again perhaps I could say this is similar to other piskei dinim aphorisms of the Rebbeim that the Rebbe makes makes a whole world view out of where like for instance tachlis vetzein gut which the Rebbe spoke about so many times it's attributed to the Tzemach Tzedek. I think it's really one story of one yechidus with one chassid where the Tzemach Tzedek said that. Did he say it more than that? I don't know. Um or like lechatchila a ribber from the Rebbe Maharash. How often did the did the Rebbe Maharash say those words? And yet for the Rebbe that was like that became um the embodiment of the Rebbe Maharash. So here too this this saying which people who learn Likutei Sichos are no doubt familiar with azoy vi men shtelt zich avek Shabbos Bereishis azoy firtzig a gantz yor um the Rebbe attributes it and certainly the concept goes back uh to the through the generations but the aphorism itself the wording the vort it really is the Rebbe's vort but the Rebbe attributes it to um to previous sources. Okay. In flug is nicht farstandik. Far vos eppes Shabbos Bereishis darf ke? So at first glance we don't understand. Why specifically Shabbos Bereishis? Why is it Shabbos Bereishis that sets you up for the whole year? Vos vos is mit dem zman fun Matan Torah? What about the time of Matan Torah like Shavuos? That's when the Torah was given. That should set you up for the whole year. Un vos is bechlal mit der alle sedros vos die mitzvos un inyonim welche veren in zei der monat chazn zich nicht iber in der Torah tzvei mol? Or what about other parshas where they have something unique that it's only mentioned in that parsha and it's not repeated again elsewhere? Zainen doch diese sedros oich nega tzum gantzen yor. Those those parshas should also I mean they are um they are pertinent to the whole year. Is vos is der oisnam bei Shabbos Bereishis darf ke is nega tzu der anhoiga fun a gantz yor? Why do we say specifically Shabbos Bereishis is the Shabbos that affects the whole year? Okay. Simple question. What is unique about Shabbos Bereishis? There are many there are many parshas that contain something unique. There are many times of the year that contain something unique. Why do we single out Shabbos Bereishis? Okay. That that that's the end of eis aleph. Eis beis. Der inyon fun Bereishis bara Elokim es haShamayim ve'es ha'aretz. It's the concept of in the beginning Hashem created we're going to translate bara as created but bara has a very specific meaning as we're going to explain. As der Eibishter hot beshaffen die gantze velt ma'ayin ve'efes hamuchlat. Bara means that Hashem created the entire world from absolute nothingness. And you see in the footnote can we look at the footnote footnote two? Yeah. Excellent. The loshon briah meida al yesh me'ayin and that comes from Ramban Al HaTorah, from Nachmanides. He explains there on the possuk Bereishis Borah that the word Borah means Briah Yesh Me'Ayin, something from nothing. And that's going to be an important concept in this sicha, that creation means specifically creation from nothing. Okay, ex nihilo, if you want to use the fancy Latin. All right. Um As the Aibershter Bashafen di gantze velt, mein ve efsher muchlach, is machriach tzu zogen, we must say, we are forced to say, logically it is imperative. By the way, look at footnote number three. It says Zeh Tanya Chelek Beis, perek Beis, see Tanya Chelek Beis, the second volume of Tanya Minei Sh'arim, perek Beis, the second chapter. So, over there it explains the kal v'chomer, the logical argument. If we said ex nihilo, we should also say uh fortiori, using we're using all of our Latin today. Um yeah. The kal v'chomer that the creation of the world must be constant, or like the expression that he uses there in Tanya, although it's not brought here in this sicha, is koach poel b'neefal tamid, the power of the acting force is constantly present in the creation. So, the concept is very briefly that being that creation is something from nothing, the raw materials of every something are nothingness. The default state of nothingness is nonexistence. For nonexistence to be forced into existence is unnatural. It will strain it to revert to its natural state of nonexistence, except for the fact that there's an ongoing force imposing somethingness upon the nothingness. That's the logical explanation in perek Beis of Tanya. Okay. So, being that Bereishis Borah, which as the Ramban says means Borah means Briah Yesh Me'Ayin. And as the Alter Rebbe explains logically, Yesh Me'Ayin means constant, ongoing. It's being re-created even at this second. Okay. Ah, we have to say as der inyan habriah geht onshendig, yede min ut un yede rega, that creation is going on constantly every minute and every second. Okay, interesting. What does it have to do with me? Well, you're going to find out. Dos heist, as di nayes vos hot zich ufgeton in di shesh mevreishis, vos frier is geven in einve efshes, vos frier is geven einve efshes amuchlach, un es is gevoren metzius yesh. This chiddush, this nayes, it's interesting the style in the earlier chollakim, there's a lot of Lashon Kodesh terms that are rendered in in Yiddish. But later, look at the sichas, you wouldn't say the nayes, you'd say the chiddush. The novelty that there is a something where there used to be nothing, and that that novelty began during the six days of creation, vos dos is doch a gevaldige nayes, and that is a wild novelty. That is a pretty amazing thing. Is ot der uftu geht oich on yede min ut shendig is faran a nayes his'alvus. That same novelty, that radical new thing, is just as radically new right now every single second. There is a new bringing into being, his'alvus, bringing into being at every single second. Okay. So, what have we established? That Bereishis is when we when we read Bereishis Borah, Hashem created, created means something from nothing, something from nothing means logically that it's a constant recreation, because if Hashem would not recreate at this second, then every something would just go back to its default of nothingness. Okay, again, what does this have to do with me? Azei der klerter ich varichus in Tanya, in dem perush fun possuk le'eilam Hashem d'vorcha nitzav bashomayim, as be'emes is yede nivereh mitzad atzmei oich itzt an einve efshes, un zain gantze farlankait is noch tzu lieb dem, weil der Eibershter is am shendig mehaveh, is bemeileh zain gantze metzius getlichkait. Wow. It explains at length in Tanya, and he references again Sha'arei Yichud v'Emunah, but this time chapter three, that what does it mean forever, O Lord, your word stands in the firmament? The word that Hashem spoke when he said, "Let there be a firmament." That truly, even now, creation is on its own nothing, and the fact that it does exist is only because Hashem is constantly making it exist, which therefore means that all existence is getlichkait. Now, that's that's a strong statement right there. This is a our second logical imperative. The first logical imperative was that the nature of creation something from nothing means it is inherently ongoing. It wasn't a one-time thing, because somethingness, or created somethingness, is not inherently somethingness, it's inherently nothingness. So, it has to be forced to be in a state of somethingness, or it will revert to nothingness. That's the first logical imperative. The second logical imperative, and it goes hand in hand with the first one, is that if the previous logical imperative is so, then we have to conclude that the somethingness of creation is actually godliness itself. Because without the godliness that's compelling somethingness, created somethingness, to exist at this moment, created somethingness would disappear into not and nothingness as it was for eternity before. And therefore, the only thing that's making it exist and present itself in a created form right now is the godly force that is that is compelling it. And and how much of the the creation is the godly force that's compelling it? 99%? 99.9%? No, no, 100%. Meaning to say, if you were to take away the godly force that's compelling somethingness to exist in its created set state, how much of the creation would would would linger behind? How much of a shell would be left as a remnant? And the answer is zero. Guseg, nothing, nothing, because created somethingness is inherently nothingness, except for the godly force that's compelling it to exist right now. Therefore, logical imperative number two, all somethingness, meaning the world that you see around you, is in actuality getlichkait, it's godly force, it's godly power. Now we're getting to what does this have to do with me. That if I properly understand the words of Bereishis Borah, I understand the nature of created reality in a completely new light. I understand that the nature of everything that I encounter around me is actually godliness. It has to be. Logically, it it doesn't exist on its own, it's not ontologically independent. It doesn't inherently have any existence. Its existence is an expression of God's existence. Okay, gimmel. Dermit vet men farshtein farvos Shabbos Bereishis negiah tzu a gantze yor. Now we're going to answer our original question, why is Shabbos Bereishis pertinent to the whole year? Weil gedenken dem Bereishis Borah, because if you'll remember and you think about Bereishis Borah, is der yesoid fun der avodah fun a gantze yor. That's the foundation for everything you're going to do to serve Hashem all year. We've crystallized it down to one concept. Everything that we need to do all year comes back to this truth, that the nature of created reality is that it is not an independent existence, it is nothing more than godliness itself. Okay. Now we're starting to get to the the practical takeaway from this concept. In other words, you can learn Sha'arei Yichud v'Emunah, and you can understand this concept. You can learn many, many ma'amarim that talk about this concept, how the nature of created reality is that it's utterly dependent on the creative power that compels it into existence. But now that I've just taken that concept and saying, "Yeah, and now if you'll think about that, it will change your subjective experience of life." There's an emotional takeaway here. This is how it's going to affect you as you go through your day for the rest of the year. Okay. Der eitz is handelt zich bei a yeden wegen machen oich zain materielle besheftigung far a klitz alokus. When you're talking about a Jew turning even his material affairs into a vessel for godliness. un em And it appears to him that according to the worldly natural order of things, it's difficult. In other words, he knows what Torah tells him to do. But he looks around in the world and he sees it's not going to be so simple to apply what Torah demands of me. It's not you know, it looks good on paper. It's nice in theory, but look at the real world. You got to be practical, right? Or maybe even even it looks impossible. Not just swear, not just difficult, but it looks impossible. So you understand there's this conflict. I know what in theory in the ideal I'm supposed to be doing. But then in in practice, I look at the world and it's not so hospitable to that. It's not so conducive to that. And and there's this conflict between what Torah wants from you and what the world appears is it's it's going to to to allow you to do. Okay. So this is the whole point here. Is how do we deal with that perceived conflict? When you remind yourself that even now Hashem's creative word, his speech is in the creation and livening it and bringing it into being. And that in truth, this is very strong language here. That the Torah came about. There's there's no world. I mean, what does it mean there's no world? There is a world, but but there's no world as an independent reality. There's no world in the way that we tend to think of it when we don't remember the nature of how it came into being. The fact that there is a world is only because Hashem said let there be light and there was light. And also, you know, let there be light is the first, but actually is the first. But so too all the other 10 utterances. Hashem looked in the Torah and created the world. And we're going to go back to that concept later on in the Sicha. This idea of Hashem looked in the Torah and created the world. It's not like um I think it's the actually from Bais Shvat. Says there are two kinds of laws. There are laws that come from man-made conditions or there are man-made laws that respond to the conditions of the world. And then there are God's laws which create the conditions. In other words, it's not like there was a world and Hashem needed to govern that world. So he made this book called Torah that has great rules for how to live in that world. No, no, no, no, no. Cuz if that were true, yeah, sometimes it would work, sometimes it wouldn't. But this is the exact opposite. Hashem had the Torah already before the world. And created the world only as a forum within which Torah could be expressed in in in a practical way. Therefore, the entire purpose and design of creation is only to lend itself to the expression of the concepts of Torah. So the entire conflict that we thought we were finding in the world doesn't exist. I was translating here the my mother's lawyer. Hashem looked into Torah in the my mother's. He looked The Torah he created the world. When you have this attitude that the entire existence of the world is only from the 10 utterances which are in Torah and there is my sign to again the very end of 11. Now you know that the existence of the world cannot be in conflict with us. In the Torah Torah with all the because the same Torah that created the world is the same Torah that says I'm the Lord your God and all of the other 613 commandments. Should mention that um the 12 came The 12 came you have the gracious. Gracious is from the second group of the that I brought out the 12 into phases. The first was the year. So the first six came is all in limit valve. This is where actually celebrating in a significant anniversary of of this 50 years. Um this year. And then like the other brought out six more so gracious is from the second group of six came. And when the other spoke on about gracious, this was the brought out. The idea that when you teach a child that Hashem created the world. Then the child will understand that there are no conflicts in the world against Torah. Because the entire design of the world was only as a forum within which Torah could be expressed. Important idea for children, important for adults. Okay, let's go back into the the text. So when he remembers and he has this attitude that the entire world It's an interesting expression that that the reality of world of the world leave the text. That the reality of the world is Torah itself. Then even when he walks in the street and even when he tends to his business. Instead of being pulled into material world around him, he'll go about his material affairs. Yeah, he will. But he'll what will he do in the meantime? He'll say a saying of our sages. He'll say a chapter of Psalms. He'll say a chapter of chapter of Tanya. And with every good thing that he does he tips the balance, the scales. This is also one of the signature ideas. That the world is always evenly weighed. You should you should envision the world as evenly weighed. And you should realize that with every good act you do, you are bringing merit to the entire world. It's interesting here that the matter of him if you look in a number nine that it doesn't say that it's true. Which probably is hundreds of times in the Sicha. If anyone has any insight into that, please let me know. Okay. Um does he say This means that his recognition of and his deep meditation upon the inner meaning of but only came accomplishes This Jews understanding of the nature of reality based on the proper understanding of the words but only came affects finish the rest of the verse the entire heavens and the earth. Because his perception of the heavens and the earth in their proper context actually will change how he experiences everything in his life. The meaning here that affects the whole year. It's interesting the footnote on the number 10. The word comes from or is related to the word which means change. And in Yiddish a whole year means all the changes. We're still in the days of so one of the things that that the asterisk symbolizes is that it creates the the fruit that dwells on the tree for the whole year. Actually two years. But the point is it goes through all the changes, all the four seasons. So the point is a number we said that the way you set yourself up British that affects the whole year. So now we're using the word which is for year. And doesn't just mean year. It means all of the changes. Meaning the ups and downs, the vicissitudes of life, all of the different things that you could experience. The whole gamut of human experience will all be informed by this one concept of recognizing the true nature of created existence. Okay. So, when we're going through all the different changes of life, this is what stands us in good in good stead. So, this one concept of understanding Berishis Bora properly will affect how we go through everything spiritually and materially, everything that the whole gamut of human experience. and I can the knowledge and the recognition forever oh Lord your word stands in the heaven It doesn't just affect our spiritual lives. It's spiritual concept, but it doesn't just affect our spiritual lives. It also affects our material lives that we shouldn't worry about material things. This that a person worries that he's lacking in these three big categories of blessing of family and health and finances He only has anxiety about his lack in these areas cuz he forgot he forgot for a short while that it all comes from Hashem. Like it says in Tanya, and where does it say it in Tanya? Auto number 11. We'll give you a minute to guess while we're pulling up the text. No, not in Shaar Yichud v'Emunah. But not in Liku- chelek aleph either. A skill chabina. A short but very powerful and very demanding siman in Iggeres HaKodesh where basically says that if a person feels any type of dissatisfaction with his material situation no matter how serious the the lack may be, but the feeling of dissatisfaction comes from being disconnected from the truth that it's all Hashem. So, the Rebbe refers to that concept here. But now let's frame it in the positive. However, when always remember as all comes from Hashem Everything comes from Hashem. They arise from Hashem. No bad comes from need slacks. nor blaze type only good apply that to his mind That is then I by any bus I here's the punchline. Then he'll also see it with his fleshly eyes. We does is good I but they when you niggle how it's also good in revealed terms. In other words, first you have to do it conceptually. You have to understand that logically this must be good because it it must be good cuz it must be God cuz everything's God because the world has no existence other than God. That's conceptually. But then after you embrace that then you'll also see it with your fleshly eyes and what we call toive v'nirveh nigleh, revealed and apparent and obvious good, which is really you know, the Rebbe's whole style is to give brachos wherever possible and not just encouragement and hope, but to to let us know it's all going to be good. Now, also to give us tools and to tell us what our part of the work is to do. And here we have our work cut out for us to remember the nature of created reality is that it's actually just an expression of godliness at all times. Okay, but when we do that, then the upshot of that is that we will see the goodness in our lives. Okay, so that is the first sicha. All right. Now, let's go to You see the little asterisks or little stars? That means end of that sicha. Now, I mentioned to you earlier all of the sichas, there are three sichas from this um section in in Likkutei Sichos. They are all from the same fabrengen from Shabbos Berishis Tafshin Tes Zion. There was another sicha after this that didn't for whatever reason was not included in the edited version. But it also draws upon this concept of the effect of Shabbos Berishis on the whole year. And all of the sichas that are here are about this idea of Shabbos Berishis affecting the whole year. Okay, hey. There's a There's a custom that Shabbos Berishis we sell the honors in shul, the aliyahs for the whole year. And at this juncture, by the way if you look in the unedited sicha, when you can the Torah Menachem, it says at this point the Rebbe spoke to the gabbai and told him to auction off the the honors in 770 for the year. And then after that the Rebbe then explained the the deeper significance. Okay. Now, in the edited version that's not there. You don't have that. What is the concept of an aliyah? Having an aliyah being called up to the Torah. It's like the Friediker Rebbe said that when you get called up to the Torah it's called an aliyah, an elevation. You elevate. Now, that expression there in quotes is a loshon of posuk from Parshas Noach. Um I think it's Berishis perek vov posuk uh tazayin. Why don't I just Google that and see? Genesis 6:16, I believe. It's uh speaking about the Noah's Ark. It's speaking about the structure of the Ark that you had the bottom floor, the second floor, and the third floor. Yeah? Genesis 6:16 talks about the construction of the Ark with the different floors. Yeah? Correct? Yeah, keep keep keep going. I I may be wrong about uh 6:16. I think it's 6:16. Yeah. Anyways, you'll find it, you know. You'll find the verse. It's uh describing the composition of of the Ark. Let me see. I'm pulling it up here. Uh oh, it's six Yeah, it's 6:16, exactly. It's the same verse as tsiyarah tayvah. You should make a tsiyarah. You should make a tsiyarah. You look in Likkutei Sichos chelek yud Parshas Noach what a tsiyarah is. Okay. Um Yeah, so there it says you should make tachtim shni'im ushlishim. A bottom floor, second floor, and a third floor. Okay, so if you look See, pull up the the Madrich Kormus here. Does it say No, it doesn't say ah. Okay, so I got it from the LaHaK. So, over there it's matayin to By the way, if you ever want to learn a sicha in depth, definitely it's not only recommended, but um to properly learn it you should look in any of the the footnotes. It just completely changes your whole understanding of the sicha. But then if you're if you can't get enough, if you want even more, you can go look in the Torah Menachem, the LaHaK version, and they'll often have even in the in the sections that were already edited for Likkutei Sichos, they'll have all the footnotes that were in the Likkutei Sichos and even more, plus even more. Um so yeah, that's that's where I saw That's where I found I found it in the LaHaK. It sent me to Likkutei Dibburim. Um from the first volume Likkutei Dibburim. I think it was Yud Tes Kislev sicha from the Friediker Rebbe. But over there he explains this idea of ground floor, second floor, third floor, and in fact fourth floor, fifth floor uh corresponding to nefesh, ruach, neshamah, chayah, yechidah. And that when you have an aliyah you go up a floor. And the Friediker Rebbe there explains that sometimes you uh have an experience on a higher level than you're conscious of. Like for instance, he says this specifically. Like an am ha'aretz who doesn't know how to learn, but is exposed to the holy words of Torah and it has an effect on him you know, on a higher floor, and then that trickles down so to speak and affects him. Okay. So, like the video guy was saying, there's the the the the the different floors. Yeah. That touch their phone is as does is an Aliyah in that when you have an Aliyah to Torah, you get called up to the Torah, you're having an Aliyah, having an elevation to another floor. until the highest level where you're connecting the essence of the soul to the essence of Hashem himself. It's also the reason why when you learn the oral law, you cannot make Birkas haTorah if you do not understand what you're learning because the implication of learning is understanding part and parcel of learning is understanding it. But if you get called up to an Aliyah to the Torah to read even someone who doesn't even know what the words are, he doesn't understand a word of it, he still makes a bracha. He doesn't know what's being said. But even if down here he doesn't understand is in the Aliyah but when he on the higher levels he does understand. It's from the Aliyah and then that gets drawn down here. We call we call micro. The written Torah, scripture. Also means to call to summon to elicit. In other words, that his connection to up to a reading from a safer Torah it it lifts him up and then that whatever transpires on higher planes then sort of rebounds and affects him down here even if down here he didn't understand what was going on. Okay, so that's the idea of an Aliyah to Torah and that's what again that I was explaining why people are auctioning off, why they're bidding on Aliyahs for the year. That I was explaining the the value of an Aliyah. Okay. Now, follow this. The world is now we explained earlier that the world is connected to Torah. In fact, we said before that the world is only here as a forum within which to express Torah. Remember explain that whole idea of it means that the world was created from the blueprint of Torah which that I was actually going to use the word blueprint momentarily. Okay. Saying from the Zohar again that Hashem looked into Torah and he created the world. As I read the Torah and then and now here comes some nice Greek Aramaic which I looked up in the Marcus Jastrow dictionary yesterday. You have the No one's going to really be able to call me out if I pronounce it wrong, but the diphthongs. Okay, that's one thing. Now here it translates it as the planner and blueprints in English like the boy master bite the debate. I actually looked it up in the Jastrow. This by the way, the wording here is from this um from um from this from this rabba. From the very very beginning of rabba. So, you have two things. You have the Zohar which says you also have the can you just show the footnote by the way the footnote 16. But I just want to write down the very beginning of of rabba. Also has the same concept of So anyways, the are like planks, like tablets, wooden tablets that people would write on. No, I'm sorry. Sheets, leather sheets like um but not a safer. Not like a scroll, but like like loose loose leaf sheets, leather sheets and the are the um tablets, wooden wooden tablets. Okay. At any rate, so Torah is like the architect's in English we say blueprints and the Rebbe said blueprints that he's consulting and looking at while he is creating. And I had a thought. And when I make stuff up, I admit it. So, this is just Chase Taub's made up thought. But I was thinking, what is this is? Is this is the Rebbe's scholarship? Is it uh the Rebbe's teaching? Yeah, it's all of that. But also you might say that is taco but I so bought a llama that everything that the Rebbe did and continues to do as a Nazi that this is the blueprint. Is there is there the original sketch of it all. And that when we learn we're looking at the original concepts of all the things that we're familiar with that we know and unfortunately sometimes even take for granted because the Rebbe already accomplished these things and we we we live in a world already where the Rebbe created a revolution, but where do you find the the blueprint for that revolution? The pages of just my own little thought, take it or leave it. Okay. Is them is that that as so when a Jew gets an Aliyah and gets called up to a reading of the Torah, he makes on the Torah. So, he's connecting to that level of the blueprints and then that will affect his physical life because again, this this is the same theme as from the first year. The world is an expression of Torah. Torah is not something came after the world to give us guidance how to deal with life. Torah preexisted life as we know it and creates life. So, when you connect to Torah then of course it will affect your your life in a very practical way. And this is a very important concept. I mean we spoke about it in the first as well that a person might think that there's a conflict between Torah and the world. And then in truth, there there can be so much no no such conflict. Okay, and here we're talking about when you connect to Torah through an Aliyah, it's not just a spiritual thing, it's inevitably also a material thing, it's a physical thing. This is one of the I I say again, my impoverished amateur opinion um one of the signatures of the Rebbe's world view. Others might say, you know, let's let's create a conflict. If I'm going to work on Shabbos, I'll get fired, you know, I won't be able to support my family. And the Rebbe would say and you'll see letters of just like this in I mentioned earlier in the beginning of this year in the is um No, to the contrary, is the key for us. That when you keep Shabbos, that will create the vessel to have a livelihood. Or I'm also thinking about cuz there's where you see the specific expressions of these ideas. But someone wrote if a says if I'll have a beard, I won't get a good So, that I was to the contrary, if you'll have a beard, you'll get a great So, so anything that you do to be more aligned with Torah, it's not just you get the satisfaction of you did the right thing even though you'll suffer for it. In the Rebbe's world view, no, you don't suffer for doing the right thing. That doesn't even make sense. You prosper for doing the right thing. Now, there may be a delayed reaction cuz it has to trickle down, you know, a little over here. It has to go through the floors, right? But eventually, you know, if you have an upstairs neighbor and and is uh he gets a leak in his plumbing and it comes down, you know, that's not a good thing when you have a leak in your living room that comes through your neighbor's bathtub. But when it's talking about you had an Aliyah to Torah and then it activated something on the levels of of and then it comes down and that's a very good thing. Okay. Love. Yeah, we're on love. Now that I was going to expand the definition. So, just like this is regarding the Aliyahs. Thus men is Shabbos Aliyahs on Shabbos Monday and Thursday was the of them is Shabbos and like we said, the beginning of the new cycle for reading the Torah for the year is Shabbos is is to limit the Now that I was expanding the definition. You can buy Aliyahs. Certainly it's a good thing to buy an off leah. But also you can make a quevious. You can set up an appointment for learning Torah. Shabbos Bereshis can mean a line hop. Shabbos Bereshis you can grab the opportunity and learn inside in nigla and sign cities you can add to your learning in in in both nigla and in cities. In addition to this that everyone certainly obviously we all know this has already taken on a resolution during during the month of Tishrei the new year new resolution you took on a new quevious you took on something you're going to be learning this year but in addition to that Shabbos Bereshis is a great time to add to add another quevious. in a quevious of yeden tog and to set it up for every day a daily appointment sign learning nigla sign of cities both in learning the revealed as well as the inner dimensions of Torah. In them we learn that he was even giving us specific suggestions and in your cities your resolution to add in learning cities should also be connected to the parsha of the week. In you have the text here. In Torah in the altar rebbe's memory and it's interesting by the way footnote 17 just yeah he tells you what Torah and look at the Torah are. They are my modem they're not all based on the weekly Torah portion but most of them are. My modem of the altar rebbe. And it's interesting this is something that I've been said throughout the years and in famously in Kinesa Tofshin and base the rebbe parshas Sarah among other things that I was spoke about was the importance of learning Torah and look at the Torah what we call the cities of parsha to be my said that the cities of parsha of the week here that I was saying to learn a part of it. Okay. Maybe that'll be a lot that people can make a little in addition to look at the cities. That's your lot for Tishrei and then your Shabbos Bereshis a lot that can be to start to learn a little Torah look at the Torah every week. The Rebbe is all good here's a bracha that I was giving us a bracha. Hashem should give us make a resolution according to their true capacity. According to what he really can do and according to his soul root. The fact that you make the resolution on Shabbos Bereshis will give you the power to do it for the rest of the year. Remember again this is again the idea that Shabbos Bereshis what we do affects the whole year. So of course anytime is a good time to make a resolution to add into our learning but especially at Shabbos Bereshis with the special Shabbos Bereshis attitude that we're going to have that nothing in the world can stop us into the contrary everything in the world is there to be to foster our relationship with Hashem. It's only there to foster our relationship with Hashem. So when you do it Shabbos Bereshis we have this extra power. Save yourself a lot of aggravation later if you do it Shabbos Bereshis. Like we said also and this spiritual undertaking of making a new quevious in learning Torah will also have a material effect in the big categories of of bracha family and um and health and wealth. Is there kids are fun does I begin to say that so we've spoken before about the value of kids are fun that I was saying that the faith of it was very into he would write at the end of a chapter in a memory write a kids are a one liner. Okay so here's the kids are here's the summary of what we said. Yeah that ain't so make it very clear hard to pretend you don't understand. Everyone should take on an extra um don't call it a lesson or class but that an extra portion of learning cities and nigla nigla and cities. Okay that's the end of the second sicha. Now we have one more sicha a short one also again from the farbrengen of Shabbos Bereshis Tofshin Tizayin. Okay and again the same theme of how this Shabbos has an effect on the whole year. Okay. This is Shabbos Marheshvan. It's not just it's a busy Shabbos. First of all Shabbos Bereshis which is a long parsha. Okay and not to mention the fact that we just came out of the whole Tishrei we you know starting from Slichos and Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and Sukkos and Shmini Atzeres Simchas Torah and now we have Shabbos Bereshis with a long parsha and then we have the whole Tehillim we got to say cuz it's Shabbos Mevorchim busy busy Shabbos. Yeah okay. Shabbos Shabbos Bereshis. Oh and we had Hoshana Rabbah yeah okay. You don't want to another Oh another Tehillim. Oh yeah okay. Very good point. So we just said the whole Tehillim tonight and then we're going to say the whole Tehillim again this coming Shabbos. Okay. So a busy busy busy Shabbos. All right. Shabbos Marheshvan. All right. The time for we call it Marheshvan. Why do we call it Marheshvan? Mar Some people say cuz we want to be respectful we call him Mr. Harshman Marheshvan. Well that's is is the time of rain. The time of rain. Because it's the time of rain. Time of rain. In cities they declared the difference between dew and rain. Dew and rain. Cities explains the difference between dew and rain. As matter when say in the form of the new rain rain depends on what the created beings do comes as a reward. Gasham baby. The the e-type. Men darf miss power sign of rain you have to daven for it. But dew is an is a rooster the vacuum from heaven but dew comes from below is a rooster the is the Aramaic cabalistic expression but it means an awakening from below I mean from above I'm sorry from above meaning it comes unilaterally or it comes as a one way street from Hashem you don't have to elicit it you don't have to earn it. When lay me out to like it says in the gomorrah in um in Taanis when it's talking about fasts and fasting cuz it doesn't rain cuz sometimes it doesn't rain and you have to fast to make it rain but dew dew will never be withheld dew is just a constant thing. Is the dew rain when say in the form of the new rain is as the Rebbe said here and since rain depends on what we do it's more difficult. Okay so now why do we call Marheshvan Marheshvan bitter harshman? What's bitter about it is it's it's harder because the summer is the time of dew and dew is always going to come whether you behave the way you're supposed to or not dew always come. But rain rain is going to depend on you so now you got to be on your best behavior so it's a little bit more difficult and that's bitter. And this is the difference between summer and winter we're going into the winter months now. Okay here's the two categories. Summer is dew which comes from above. It's never withheld. Winter is rain rainy season. Which comes from doesn't come from below but it's triggered by what we do down here below. That's that's that's harder. What we do yeah. That's very confusing. Dew is not based on what we do and rain that's so confusing rain is based on what we do. But dew is not based on what we do. Dew dew dew. Okay. Here's another difference between the summer and the winter here's another difference between the summer days and the winter days. In the summer the sun physically the sun the sun is more bright and hot and it's there for longer amounts of the day. Okay but also the sun is Hashem. The revelation of Hashem is embodied or symbolized by the of the sun. The fire shined like in gosh, so it's very interesting again this whole concept of everything that's physical is an expression of the spiritual. The reason that it's there's more light in the summer is because there's more spiritual energy available in the summer on a revealed level. The height of the Thomas especially Thomas Thomas is the release that the intense heat and the sunny days is Thomas. I better winter is not so the demo is mine from the winter it's all the work from below to above everything has to be earned no free lunch. You don't get a boost. You don't get an extra help from above by having the sun shining bright. It's very interesting because some people would say no the summer is the time when it's hard to serve a sham and that's why you have to learn the office in the summer to counteract that and you know, the did say many about people in the summer and they loosen their standards when they go to the country and all that stuff. But here what we're saying is to THE COUNTRY THE SUMMER is the easy time to serve a sham. That's when you have this the sun is shining and the sun is shining as an as a lower level manifestation and expression of the fact that there's more spiritual energy available at that time as well. Okay, and the winter it's going to get colder not just materially but also spiritually. It's going to get colder and darker and it's going to be harder work. That's why it's called my husband bitter cuz it's harder work. The husband had the most as is the way that I am going to get the winter. Figure one said that in summer it's easier to serve a sham than the winter. What do people below the equator do with this? It's a very interesting question. And this we can get into a whole discussion by the way about that everyone said about whether the people in Australia should do switch you know when we switch the same should they switch the same time or do they do the opposite the masconna is they should do the same as what we do up here. Okay, the husband get off the winter showers is the month is the showers the blesses the whole month and the month my husband is the month of rain. That's why it's called my husband. So this showers not only showers which we explain already what that means it's the showers that we set ourselves up for the proper healthy attitude for the year about how we look at reality and we understand that the world cannot be an obstacle to Torah. But this showers is also showers my husband which is my husband which is the showers the rain month. The showers my husband is my husband now showers my husband is still in the days of my husband and my husband is also my husband that my husband my husband my husband my husband my husband is my husband my husband my husband my husband my husband my husband my husband my husband every day in my husband feels like feels like a Friday. The fire from my husband and the month of my husband is powerful my husband month gives us the it preps us to go into the winter gives us our winter prep as does even though in the winter it's going to demand from us some real work the work from below to above is but we get a boost already from from so even when we're going into the time of my husband we were already given my husband my husband my husband my husband my husband my husband my husband my husband my husband my husband and as we go through our service of a sham through the winter we're going to be drawing upon what we brought down on this showers in for the rest of the year in material and spiritual matters together and that is the end. So get to them. Yeah, let's say a kisser kisser is for showers my husband affects the whole year. Why why showers my husband why is that unique? Why because that's when you remember the nature of reality created reality is yesh my iron something from nothing something from nothing means it's constantly being created. If it's constantly being created then really there's nothing here but it's all and therefore nothing can impede a year who is on a mission to do what says he second was about buying a leas and not only when you get in a leah, but also you can set up a to learn title not just get called up to title but you can set up a by the way, you can set up a to learn title for free. You don't even have to pay anything for that. You don't even auction that but the point again is the same is your connecting yourself to title and that will again that trickle down effect have an effect down here in your physical life. And then the third was about my husband the rainy time when it's all about the work from below to above but don't worry because we're prepping ourselves for those winter months in when we're still getting satiated and we're getting that boost from above and we'll bring that with us through the year. Okay, those are the from all of you look at the all of you showers or my husband will see you next week for my husband.