The Birchas Hatzadik on Megilas Esther; "Hi'gida Esther" {Maayan Judaica Uptown Pomona}

Okay, welcome everybody to Mayan Uptown. Mayan Uptown, one of the farm that a Mayan Uptown is featuring today is a new release, Berachas HaTzaddik, which is it's a historic publication of originally a three-volume set called Ben La'Shiri, written by Rav Yisrael Yaakov HaKohen Huberman. Rav Yisrael Yaakov HaKohen Huberman was a student of Sochaczew, the Ateres Tzvi, the Kodesh HaGlavar. And he happened to be a chavrusah of my great-grandfather in Sochaczew. The two of them were very close. I recently discovered that my great-grandfather gave the Tzaddik HaRanana all of his manuscripts to protect for him during the war. The Tzaddik HaRanana brought it to Siberia and he gave it back to my grandfather after the war. In any event, Rav Yisrael Yaakov HaKohen Huberman was never blessed with children. He named the sefer after his father, Asher, he called it Ben La'Shiri. And he gives a an amazing segulah that he commits himself to pray every day for anyone who learns his sefer and says it over to others. You may have heard of the great miracle that happened in Eretz Yisrael with Rav Tzvi Koshalevsky. He had a baby at 88 years old. One of the things he attributes it to is daily saying over from the sefer. But that's an old miracle, so I'm on to new miracles. And the new miracle is a friend of mine told me that there was a a bakery in the Lower East Side and customers were not coming into the store. So a friend of mine told the owner, you know, maybe you want to try learning the Ben La'Shiri. She says, "What's the Ben La'Shiri?" He got him the Ben La'Shiri. Within an hour, people started pouring into the store. Now, I'm not into segulos. You could ask my friends over here. I gave a shiur recently on bad segulos. But this is a good segulah. First of all, if you buy the sefer, it's a segulah you might learn the sefer. Also, if you learn the sefer, it's a segulah that you might learn other sefarim. Now, I want to share with you a cheilek of the sefer. In the back of the sefer, there's a section of the sefer called Higidah Esther. Higidah Esther, it's named after his mother. The mother of the Tzaddik HaRanana passed away in the Holocaust. Her name was Esther, Zlata Esther. And he names it Higidah. This is interesting cuz by the way, another sefer they're featuring, if I may, is this Haggadah, which is also a good idea if you get. In this Haggadah, it's brought the question of Rav Chaim Brisker. Rav Chaim wants to know, you know, there's a mitzvah every single day of the year to remember Tzeis Mitzrayim. What's special about the Haggadah the night of the Seder? So one of the answers that we offer is that Rashi in Chumash says the word Haggadah does not mean to speak or to say. Haggadah means to draw. Like good oches, good asik. So Haggadah means you're supposed to draw the child. You see, every other night of the year, you just tell over the story. The night of Pesach you're supposed to elicit, you're supposed to draw the child. So he says, Tzaddik HaRanana says, he named the section of Megillas Esther Higidah Esther cuz his mother Esther, which he says he doesn't even know what day she passed away, drew him to Torah. And one of the things she did was she brought him to a particular tzaddik. This was the son of Rav Naftali of Ropshitz. And he got a bracha that he should be matzliach in learning. And he dedicated this section to his mother. Now, I have to tell you this dvar Torah I'm about to say Rav Schlesinger in Monsey said it over from the Berachas HaTzaddik this week. So whoever got Rav Schlesinger the sefer, shkoyach, you know. Um so he said over the first piece on Megillas Esther. The first piece comments on that which Chazal say Who Achashveirosh, who berishoi, mit'chilah v'ad sofah. Why does it say who Achashveirosh? We know who he is. It says Vayehi bimei Achashveirosh. Why repeat who Achashveirosh? So Chazal say it's to teach he was wicked from beginning to end. So Tzaddik HaRanana brings a question from Yemin Yosef. That what do you mean he was wicked from beginning to end? He became the king. And we know when you're oilah l'gedulah, when you become a king, you get mechilah. So at some point in his life, he wasn't wicked. So why are we saying he was wicked from beginning until end? So he says, "Well, maybe he was wicked from the beginning of his reign until the end of his reign." Says, "It's not so simple. He also got married." He married Vashti. Don't you get mechilah when you get married? Well, he married Vashti before he became the king. But he married Esther. He married Esther after he became the king. So Tzaddik HaRanana says, "You have to say anyway, all of these promises that you get mechilah are only for Jews, not for don't get mechilah when they're oilah l'gedulah or when they get married." By the way, Rav Schlesinger wanted to give a different answer. He himself wanted to give a different answer to this question. Rav Schlesinger wanted to say that only a king that's oilah l'gedulah to be able to give to others gets mechilah. But Achashveirosh, we know he became king to tax the people. He's busy taxing everybody. The whole Megillah, you know, the Megillah even ends Achashveirosh taxed the people. And if you want to know why the Megillah ends Achashveirosh taxed the people, you missed that shiur. That was like that was the last shiur. But anyway, the in a nutshell, he taxed the people cuz he ended up raising the money to rebuild the second Beis HaMikdash. But that's one of the ideas that the Tzaddik HaRanana brings in his sefer, in his kuntres Higidah Esther. And there are a lot of very interesting uh tidbits in this sefer. In fact, the in honor of the upcoming Yom Tov of Purim, the Tzaddik HaRanana brings Rabba had a practice that he would always start a shiur with a joke. And you might want to know, how come Rabba and Abaye don't do that so much? Cuz they're not good at it. They're not good at it. It's the worse than not opening with a joke is opening with a bad joke, you know? So they they're it's it's like a hora'ah what could they do, you know? They they're good at divrei Torah. They're not necessarily good at jokes. But if you are good at jokes, by the way, not only are you supposed to start with a joke, Rav Kluger says you're supposed to end with a joke. Cuz it says s'meichim b'seisom, disosam b'vayam. But anyway, the Tzaddik HaRanana wants to know, where is the remez in the Torah you're supposed to start a shiur with a joke? It says v'haya, ein v'haya ela l'lashon simcha. Eikev. Eikev stands for kodem eisek baTorah. V'haya, you should be b'simcha kodem eisek baTorah. Then b'eikev tishme'u, you'll understand the Torah. So you start with a joke, you end with a joke, and hopefully you have a little bit of content in between your opening and your close. Okay, thank you for coming everyone. And if you came to the shiur, the main objective now is to head over to the sefer Berachas HaTzaddik. You pick it up. You head over to the register. And you uh take care of it. Have a good day everyone. Shkoyach.