Kuntres Eitz Hachayim: What’s in it?

drinking tea. Okay. Anyways, welcome to everybody. Um, it's a big day. Today is or today was the Shabas was and 30 years ago to the day the Reb uh distributed the countress of the Reb. the uh Rabbi Ashab's birthday is uh today and uh in in honor of that occasion in Tinunf which has a connection to this year by the way we should just we should just mention the connection between Toshin Alf and Tshin Alf course the Reb spoke that year tinf and tavis about the Roshavis for that year, the Floyen that we will uh the year that we will will be shown wonders. And the Reb connected that to the idea of Pereno, which is pay olive, which is the inversion of a meaning the opposite of anger when Hashem will reverse all of the negativity and turn it into all revealed positivity. And uh so therefore based on that uh what the Reb said hey many are seeing a connection to pay ic did connect the idea of to the idea of payenu which has the same meaning wonders at any rate so it was in tenon on distributed this. So in honor of that, we're reliving it. And not just we're reliving it, but uh we're uh actually delving into the countress the way the Reba wanted. The Reb said the Shabas after the uh the distribution the distribution of the the countress was on Thursday night was a Thursday and then Shabas was so on Shabas that which was Shabas the spoke about how we have distributed this and obviously it goes without saying it is superfluous to say that the distribution of the countress was not just as momento or a keepsake although obviously those who received an actual contras from the Reb's holy hand that is something that people treasure uh has no it has no uh price tag on it. It's something that is priceless but uh the Reb said it's not just a momento it's meant to to learn. We're supposed to open it up and learn it. So um those who are holding on to it for for their children for a yusha uh the best uh the best gift you can give your children is a is a well-used countress. So I invite everybody if you have such a countress um use it. This is this is the way that it was meant to be used. It's not something you you know leave lying around. Obviously, it's kept very very carefully, but once in a while on a on a day like this on to to actually do what the Reb wanted us to do with the countress, it's it's a good time to bring it out and um to remember that it's not just 30 years ago that the Reb gave us this gift, but the Reb is giving us this gift now. right now if if we if we choose to see it that way. Okay. So, um let's talk a little bit about the book itself, the content, the the background, the history. The rebab released four contra and often these contra are spoken about in connection with one another almost like a genre within the rebab's writings and uh those four contrail and contraates Uh in fact inimab explicitly mentions the countress and directs the reader to go look again in that countress and uh relearn some of the parts there that direct people how to how to properly davin. Kuntas by the way means a a pamphlet or a booklet. It's not a full book. It's not as thick as a book. It's a it's a pamphlet or a booklet. contraim however um is specifically connected to uh theastas of Tim. One of the great accomplishments of the rebab historically speaking was that he started a yeshiva named and was meant to direct the bahim the uh the students of this yeshiva and to to tell them what the yeshiva was all about. And we'll talk a little bit about uh the history, the background. The yeshivaim was actually officially founded during the shabas of the fed that uh that was on the 16th of alph that would have been uh 1897 and in fact the yeshiva did not even have a name for the first year, a little bit more than the first year. It wasn't until a year and about uh a month later, more than a month later, a year like about a year and a month uh of uh Tes, which would have been 1898, the last few months of 1898, not yet 1899. So said that the name of the yeshiva is one of the the uh phrases that we say in the uh in the so the rabbi announced that the yeshiv is called and that the students who learn there are called means a uh a whole or integrated person. Um, integrated is a good word. It mean it means to have integrity in the true sense of um, not being fragmented. It's not like you have different values than you have behaviors and you have different feelings than you have thought. So everything is aligned in alignment. I'll just mention a story very briefly. uh medas was once fabi in in uh inabad and uh was it was late shabas afternoon there was a bakar who had been uh dabbing ding at length and was joining the fabangan later shabas day and he was like sort of looming around looking and and finally looked the he says what are you looking for and he didn't want to say you know like you're walking around like what are you looking for? So he said he said means you know has to be from from a solem means a two full loaves but say it fast especially with the Ashkanazic pronunciation. So uh he says [Laughter] student is looking for schlamos means perfection. You're looking to to be a muslim. You're looking to perfect yourself. No we don't look for perfection. We look for timos integrity wholeness to be an integrated being that everything is in alignment. Okay. Maybe you call it sincerity. That's another way you could call it. But uh means a real person or another way to put it is a pimi. You know always stresses the need to be a pimi. It means uh integrated sincere for real. At any rate, so that that was the name of the yeshiva that the the gaveim and uh contraim was first printed in of so we're actually talking about if the yeshiva was founded officially in Zion. So we're talking about how many years is that? 7 years. That's 7 years after the uh the yeshiva was founded. And in fact in the countress which we'll learn some of it inside in in a little bit uh bezos hashem the rebab actually explicitly addresses the fact that the reason the countress was written was because a change had occurred in the yeshiva that I guess just in seven years uh what happened is a lot of Baham started coming to Tim because it earned a reputation as a really good place to learn. You know it was a very tumultuous time. You're talking about Russia at right before the turn of the century and there were winds of change modernization and people who were not labaturkin says success is a terrible thing is that the quote Benjiman will will text me and tell me if I'm getting the quote right so my friend Misha Bashkin says success is a terrible thing. Anyone who finds who can text me and tell me where Misha Bashkin said that will win uh free copy of uh the Ammy letters 52. Anyways, success is a terrible thing. What happened? A lot of people started coming to Tim who were not really on board with the purpose of the yeshiva's founding. They just they came there because it it was a good good yeshiva was a good place to learn. They didn't understand is different. It was founded for a very specific purpose with a specific goal and that everyone there was supposed to be on board with that goal and and and coming they didn't they they didn't even understand what the yeshiva was there for what what made it special and different and why are you learning here as opposed to another yeshiva. So in order to clarify sort of like to realign the yeshiva with its mission statement or to realign the the bum of the yeshiva with the mission statement and to remind them hey this is why we exist. This is what we're all about seven years after the founding of the yeshiva that put out this to say this is what we are. This is what makes us different. This is why we're here. Now it's interesting that the Reb put out the countress or wrote and and published seven years after the founding of Tim to address this issue that we just described. The Fredbe reprinted in tinv in 1946. So you know that the fa came to America in tough tasin in the spring of of 1940 and um the last 10 years of the fedab's life in this world were spent here in America in New York in 770 and uh if the change from Russia to Poland was a massive cultural shift which it was and and that and that's a subject for a whole other time how the rebba the fba was was successful in transporting which was you know Russian he transported it into into Poland in invad and how he um basically uh took took a whole new culture of boys who were not from the original, you know, Kabad stock and he uh he taught them not just the you know the the the official you know Sephogim uh but the the you know the the stories the heroes the lore and that by the way one of the main uh purposes if not the main purpose of the publication Hatim which was during that the the Polish years of Tim. It was for that purpose. Like all those great stories about like our heroes like Rashbat and how he came to and that was for indoctrinating to use maybe too harsh of a word but acculturating these Polish boys so that they could uh you know have the the the full advantage of uh what what Timim really originally was back in uh back in Russia. Okay. But what That's not the point here. As I was saying, if it was a big deal to transplant from Russia to Poland, well, how much more so to transplantim from Europe to America? And yet took American boys and um was very proud of his American boys and how they became real to Mimi. But that wasn't you know without a lot of work and without a lot of guidance. The fir was very very on top of the development of these bahim. So it wasn't just all the activities the fikbas started in America which we know about you know the organizations of of measus and machnis and kohos which were flourishing of course after the rebba arrived in 1941 the the rebba was was in many ways very quietly uh a lot of the's activities were done uh let's say as much as we know about what the was doing doing during that tufa much more is not known um as far as Deb's contribution to the growth of Labavich in America but as much as the Fidic was doing with with you know let's call it outreach and with American jewelry at large there was a great focus on specifically American jewelry within the walls of the yeshiva with the the tim themselves. So it was sort of like history repeating itself the same way that the the came to a point where he said listen we need a refresher course you know we got to we got to have a reminder what is all about why we're here and what what makes us special so the did the same thing and six years after coming to America the FBA republished uh and in fact the the the the version that the Rebba gave out in Taliv is exactly the same as the version that the put out in uh in Tinv in 1946 in the beginning of the count if you have it you can you can look here um there's a there's a letter there's a letter from the fir here on this side of the page there's a letter you see it's on letter head writes a letter uh regarding the the publication of the countress and uh in this letter the the says the you know the the slogan which is by now is is famous we all know it uh America's nishand that there are those who say that uh whatever could be expected in the in the alim that was one thing but now we're in America we have to manage our expectations it's not the same anymore so basically the fab is saying no America's not basically say I mean right right here the fab says there are people who say America is and I'm saying America's nishand and uh part of That statement is the printing of this contress to to remind us that the same ideals that the fidic's father that founded the yeshiva with back in Russia those same ideals are still in full force still in full force. Now after that after that letter there's a mo which is actually another letter of the fidic but not a letter he wrote at the time of the publication was actually an older letter that uh that the fidba had written uh before and uh it's reprinted here it's actually a letter from tesadic base from uh 19 [Music] and in this letter why is it included as part of if it was written you know in 1932 what's what's the connection to ketim So in that letter the writes about a problem and and you have to assume I mean the reason that this letter is is printed as for is saying that this problem is sort of the the problem that countress is addressing or reprinting the countress is addressing this problem. What's the problem? Fred GB writes in this letter that once upon a time it was very clear who was who. It's an interesting thing because I think it it it may not be so politically correct. It may rub us the wrong way, but I'm going to tell you what it says here. um vic uses the term um histavos. I don't know how you want to translate and it doesn't mean histavos like midhistavos in a where you know equinimity where you you know have so certain stoicism you know that you don't react you're not a spoil from things no here the uses in the in the social context what does it mean for society to haveos it means um I mean maybe you translate as equality Um, but basically it's homogyny. Everyone's the same. I think homogyny would probably be the better uh translation. Everyone's the same. And why is that a problem? Because once upon a time the the people who were immersed in they knew they were different. Not better. It doesn't necessarily mean better. Okay, that is you know and I'm not just saying that to be politically correct but different and what was the difference is they understood and and and and the bal appreciated this the working man appreciated that the one who was immersed in especially a bak in yeshiva whose entire life is they understood who's the mashia and who's the mabo It was understood that somebody who was learning was a mashia period and he was not malo from anyone and the fed decries this is back in in the 30s he decries the fact that now you don't see that anymore. It's interesting. I mean one of the things that Ebba said uh we mentioned that Reba spoke in Paris the Shabas after the the giving out of the countress. The Reb said that everything that that was in the countress was in full force. So it still applies today. It's still relevant today. So this isn't a history lesson. Clearly it's not meant to be a history lesson. So the fact that the was saying seven years after the the founding of the yeshiva, we've got a problem guys. Our success has led to, you know, certain issues. We got to get back to mission. We got to get back on on on our uh original charter. Okay? And the fact that the fidba was saying in 1946, look, America's nishand and we have to make sure that it shouldn't be. Um and and and and to reprint this letter and say, you know what the big problem today is? is that the people who are supposed to be mashim are not mashim. I think we have to realize that those are not history lessons. That those are as relevant as they were then at the time of writing. They're they are equally as relevant now right now. And if we can take the moment to do a little uh sadic you know let let's think about this idea of how much are we metab from velt you know it's enough that velt puts pressure that from velt you see all of this noise and this static trying to pull our attention but that even within the Jewish world that that should have become something normalized. In other words, the people who are pure should be the influencers. Those are the ones who should be setting the tone. And the ones who are unfortunately influenced by Velt, okay, fine. No one no one's condemning them for that. But they should understand that their role within the community is to be mabble from those who are immersed all the time in to but instead what do we have not only do we have the pressure of being mabo from the world around us but even in our own community there's the pressure that yes themselves are looking at other from look now they're looking at their own neighbors and family members and thinking that maybe they have to be more like them and I understand we have our excuse nowadays we say it's all you know it's an order that we should be able to say when we go when we go on and the people will understand what we're talking about we have to be up on politics so we can make the right political references for our I understand how we're you know how we're you know we're mat the whole thing but Uh, somebody's commenting here. Very gray lines. Who exactly is pure today? Okay. So, you know what? Great. Let's all try to be more pure. It's not that's not that's that's not lo. You're not that to bring that out doesn't give us a ka to say, oh, and since we're all tainted, let's, you know, forget about it. Okay. So, then so then we can all strengthen oursel. It's like the guy the Rebba told him to put fillin on people. The guy says, "EBA, I don't always put on fillin. I'm going to put fillin on with them. They're going to ask me, do you put on fillain?" The said, "Okay, so you could also put on filling." Okay. So those who are supposed to be pure, be pure and be an influencer. Don't be influenced. And the Fedic is decrying this condition, reprinting it in 1946 here in America, but a letter back from from 1932 and and saying that there has to be very clear delineations of who we're makabo from and that the people who represent Yeshiva, who represent learning, who represent to they should set the tone. It's enough that the world around us, you know, has is is distracting us, but at least in our own culture, the the should set the tone. Okay. Anyways, so that's a little bit of uh background. Now let's uh let's come up uh closer to the present day. Actually, you know, maybe I will mention one more thing about the uh the letter from Tish Sadic base. One of the things the the fab says there is that um therefore if somebody reflects on this you know the current situation um he's going to realize how important uh is actually the says that somebody should go and they should learn and if they'll learn it and take it personally, take it to heart, they will actually feel pained. I'm sorry, that's that's the language uses. They will feel pained. How could they have spent all of these years without proper understanding? without the proper understanding that can only be brought through a proper understanding of and that when you learnis it transforms all of to make it a sim and elixir of life and that it leads to the fulfillment of mitzvah uh and and with with the person will be moved to beim to set up times for the learning of of and he will he'll do and Hashem will have mercy. So the bottom line from the from the mo the letter which is the the preface is that you'll learn and you'll say how could I have misspent all the years where I didn't learn or I didn't learn properly and therefore what do I want to do about it? I'm gonna be set up times. It's very important to have a time. Time can mean a couple different things. It can mean an amount of time every day. It could also mean an actual time on the clock. Okay? Speak to your mashia. But to be to set up times for learning of and uh and that that itself is is his cha and hashem will have mercy on him. So if anything emerges from our study of the already already sort of told us that from this from this lim whatever you want to call it you want to know if we all come out of this and we set up you know we make a or we we join a class or maybe even online especially in these co times but whatever it is to to make aus for learning sudis. That should be the the take-home from uh from what we're doing here. Okay. So, I want to catch us up a little bit closer to the to the present day as I was saying to Tin Alf. So as we mentioned it was uh Thursday in uh 1991 Toshalif actually it was still uh 1990 uh and the Reb gave out the countress and then on Shabas which was the Reb explained it how is connected to which is connected. So then the Reb spoke at the end of the Reb spoke at length about um one moment here. Yeah. Okay. So uh one of the things that Eba said was that uh the purpose of the contress was to remind people of what is the purpose of the yeshiva and the reba is mit there meaning in the footnote out to proclaim base and gimml of the which will learn inside in in a moment. Reb also mentions how the purpose of the yeshiva and this is connected very much to what we were saying before from the m about being influencers. I know the word influencer has a social media connotation but maybe they got it from us. Everything all emis is from Tyra right. So to be bal hashbah to be movers and shakers to be influencers. Um that the purpose of the yeshiva was to produce students to be laoya candles for illumination. And as the Reb explains in another place, there could be a N that's just a N. It's just a candle, but it's not functioning to give light means candles that are actually functioning. So it's not enough to just be a candle. You got to actually function as a candle. You have actually have to do what a candle is supposed to do, which is to spread light. And spreading light means to to be to be an influence. And the Reba then interesting says maybe this is the maybe this is what the is saying at the beginning of the it's interesting the beginning of the contress if you want to open up now to the first chapter where at the beginning it says uh says the title. This is the pamphlet called it is maluk compiled and based upon said based upon the words of the previous um and it was it was given to the students ofim intal in 1894. So at the beginning the first words there are and the goes on and explains other things other than this idea of you know the in fact very quickly goes into a discussion of havos. about how the world is created. Is the world created through which is Malus or is it from uh from Hashem's desire which is obviously much higher which is really kasser or is it is it implemented through there's a whole discussion about and surah and how how creation is brought about and then it gets into a discussion of of the purpose of creation But the rabbi mentioned in the of of that perhaps the iss that at the very beginning of at the very beginning of the countress that the reason that the reb starts with that pic and with those words is because the whole purpose of was the idea of says candle that the purpose of the yeshiva is to produce students who are candles to illuminate and and and I think it's interesting that you know everybody in the world today knows about kabad and what do they know about kabad they know about the outreach They know about the global presence houses in every country, right? That's what everybody knows. And perhaps what they don't realize or I'm quite sure that most people do not realize is that what they know of Kabad is actually not Kabad, but it is the result of Kabad. is a school of thought. It is aidis that goes back to the chiefly elucidated in the called as well as in all of the of and when you follow those teachings the result is that you live your life to serve the Jewish community and hence kabad houses in every country. But that's not kabad. That is the that is the manifestation. That's what comes of kabad. So I think just like it's important to understand that the whole the whole worldview of kabad is behind the activism that everyone knows about. I think it's worthwhile to reflect on the fact that this worldview uh has its origin even before the Reb. The Reb perfected it. The Reb took it to a whole new level, but the ideas were already there. And so when the rebashab was was producing students which he wanted to be la candles to illuminate what did that mean? That meant that the whole objective of the yeshiva and we're talking about you know 1890s we're talking about long before uh we're talking about long before uh the revolution even. So we're not even talking about the communist era which obviously there's a rich and also very painful history of of kabad activism in Russia during the Soviet era but we're talking even before then uh when the the chief threat was modernization enlightenment and and the rebab had his mind on students who were influencers. So that was that was the design from the very beginning. So I'm just saying that this the kabad as we know you know the the people who who go out and turn over a whole city you know the the rebloim that has its you can trace that back sort of to a a a a an earlier iteration of that in the original as founded by the the idea of a yeshiva that produces students who are called nus candles to illuminate and to the extent where the reb says that the first words of the kfas here which is you know about the purpose of the yeshiva so the the the rabbis says that in the very first line it's hinting to already that idea you know with that with that word with that word n Okay, now I'm going to go to the end. How you like that? Start from the beginning. We'll go to the end and then that everyone could say what do we do tonight? We learn from the beginning to the end. Not going to say what you did in between, but let's let's let's go to the end. Okay. And then I want to go back and we'll learn a couple of chapters uh word for word. But let le let's go to the end at the there there are 32 chapters of uh so if you go to the end of chapter 32. It's not the end of the count and not the end of the booklet because there are there are appendices. There are actually three appendices. There is a um the first the first appendix is from Vital from the Talmet of the AR very interesting uh piece there. It is uh the hakdoma of vital to shahak dod to shahakis. Um and over there very interesting Vital who is the the Talmid Muhok and the scribe of the Arizal basically says that the main problem today is selfishness and not selfishness that draws people away from mitzvah but selfishness within mitzvah and that the point of yideskite is not you it's not for you it's for Hashem and he speaks about being selfless in the service of Hashem so it's interesting Interesting that this um I mean that's interesting. The writings of not the writings of the writings of but it's interesting this is included as as an appendix here because it's it's the same idea. The idea again is it's not for you. What do you think this is yeshiva so you can come and you can become a Muslim right from the story I told you at the beginning but you think you're here to perfect yourself you're here to give back to the world you're here for you're here for a greater purpose a purpose greater than yourself so interesting that the uh that one of the appendices here. The first one is from uh the Ariza or from uh K Vital who's writing the teachings of the Ariza. Then and then there are two more appendices. There's uh and they're both letters of the Reb which uh the will reference in one of the texts that we're going to read. At any rate, I just want to show you the end, the very end, which uh is page 60. See here, page 60. It's uh very end. So, uh, the rabb says the end of chapter 32. Yeah. Yeah, actually this is Yeah. Okay. After this is actually 33. Sorry. Yeah. This is chapter 33. It's the end of chapter 33. After all of the things that we've discussed in the foregoing 32 chapters, this is chapter 33. I request, I beseech you. Place your heart upon these statements from this. Meaning, pay attention. Apply apply these words to your heart and the words shall be upon your heart at all times. It is very difficult for me to tell these things and to go over them and tell them again. Apparently there was a need for the to continue repeating these ideas. So the says I put it here in writing. I cannot continue to repeat it all the time. Now with the this the publication of this these words shall be before you at all times and you won't forget it anymore and it shall be the length of your days. It should be your life and the length of your days and it will indeed bring you to eternal life. Now here after the beseeches us it's a very you know personal speaking to us the readers making a personal request I mean who can read such lines and not be moved that the holy author himself is is making a request of us and uh you know lest you say you know uh well that shab wasn't writing to me by the way I just I want to tell you something before I continue here. It's just a personal story and I don't know how much people will relate to it or not but one time I was doing something terrible for me terrible shameful. Uh I told the story before and people were saying what's shameful about it and I told them if you don't understand what's shameful about it then congratulations. I needed to say avo I was rushing off somewhere to speak and it was paras and so I grabbed the tim off the right you understand that's not how this photo meant to be used oh you need a good vort right that's what it's for so I grab it and I'm like oh let me look for a good v and they they you know they they say that a bal dash can never really become because anytime he hears something that could move him he says oh got to remember that that's a good v right including this v itself. So I I took the off the shelf and I'm looking for a good v, you know, something good to say, something and I open it up and the Reb says that the reader of the letter, this is what told Pinas when Pinas said, "Isn't it the we got to, you know, do something about this uh this guy?" So the uh so Misha says to him, "Yeah, well whoever read the letter should carry it out, right?" Yeah, good point. Now you do it anyway. So the Reb says there, what does it mean that the reader of the letter, he becomes the one who is uh responsible to carry it out. So the says that any one who reads a letter or a or a mimer of the whatever it may be. There's no such thing as just reading it casually. If you read anything that the wrote and now you're reading it once you're the reader once you're the once you're the once you're reading it automatically tag your it even if you weren't looking for that responsibility now you become the one charged with carrying out whatever it says in the letter and it hit me like a ton of bricks like oh my goodness I'm like pilfering the find and the is saying right here there's no such thing there's no such thing as just casually reading and taking it and repeating it and saying it as a vote. If you read a word from the you are being charged personally with the responsibility to carry it out. So I'm saying how much more so that is speaking is writing and speaking to us and saying I'm asking you to do something here. Please remember what I wrote here. Reread it because I cannot continue to repeat this over and over again. And if you will take this seriously and put it upon your heart, then it will lengthen your life and your days and bring you into eternal life. Okay, which is a pretty good promise. Okay, is giving us a field and as you're going to see, I don't want to give it away, but this is a contract that signed a contract with us. Okay, but don't let don't let me give it away. Right, and we get to that in a minute. So then the continues. Okay. See, see we're here. I lift up my hands to Hashem in prayer and supplication. Okay. Now may it be Hashem's will. Aiden, may it be Hashem's will that the light of the true that was revealed to us through the let it be absorbed in you. Let it be absorbed. Take it in. You know about the who wondered he said he saw a horse tied up outside and it was standing underneath the drops coming from the from the downspout and he said I don't understand saw drips of water made a hole in a stone and a horse is much softer than a stone. Why doesn't it why doesn't the water put a hole in the horse? And then he looked closer and he realized because the horse every time the drip falls on him, he shuckles. He shakes. He realized it only penetrates if you don't shake it off. So the says that the words of the holy should be absorbed in us. the and that it should shine then in our hearts. It should illuminate our souls and bring happiness to the heart of that means Hashem. Hashem is called again connected to the idea of from the from this is to make Hashem happy. You know it's about Hashem's happiness. Don't don't ask what for you. What can you do for the sh called which um a lot of this is based on this idea doing divine service not because of the reward that it brings us not even the spiritual reward but for that it causes la that it causes hemog. So when allow the words of the to penetrate us, this will bring joy to the toe and it will bring good fruit to our toil and to your toil. uh which is the toil of what does that mean? It is a toil that is above the sun. This is from the zire. The melik says that there's nothing new under the and then the zah says what does it mean there's nothing new under the sun under the sun mundane stuff there's nothing new right so you're going to say oh I never tasted that cake before let me get that cake let me see and then you taste it you're like it's pretty much like every right nothing new under the sun but um above the sun meaning spiritual stuff there's new there's new stuff all the time so some a new frontier in understanding ing and in learning is is fresh and new. So uh when he when says there's no toiling for because you know there's nothing new under the sun. Ah but if you toil in says then then you can achieve new things. um to a join to unify the sun and the moon that's this the masculine and the feminine or or Zo and Mus meaning that's the effect that when we'll internalize these teachings and we learn as we are directed so we create these unifications we bring healing to the world hastess you know we're we're doing something for for for the for the macrocosm not just for ourselves which is the whole theme here again being being there for the world. These are the words of your true friend who truly loves you who wants your life. who wants you to live. And then you see the rebab does something which is unusual that he does not do at the end of the other he signs his holy name shame dub and I'm pronouncing it that way specifically as I will explain not be but one name dub Sham Dub his name. So what is the significance that signed a contract that this request and this promise and this not if it weren't enough that a rebba is speaking directly to us. He signs his name, his holy name at the end. So you could take this to the bank than any check from any gir that you could ever collect. Is this contress right here signed by by the reb? Now let's talk a little bit more. Not just the fact that he signs his name but what is his name? So I spoke about this at the uh as mentioned the what's significance of the name the significance of the name the two names one name is a lashen kadesh name shale and then dub which is a of which is lashen kadesh and be which is giddish which is not a holy language. It's a Jews use it but it's not it's not the holy language. So what is the idea? The idea is shal the whole was given for the purpose of shale wholeness completeness call it integrity in the universe that that should be drawn down to the bear what's a bear so the go tells us that that a bear is msurbasa he's draped with flesh He's got like hanging like he's abundant abundantly fleshy. He's got lots of lots of fat. So he represents real gashmas, the real material. So the schol shouldn't just be in theory shouldn't just be abstract in the spiritual sense but the shaim should be drawn down to physicality to the material. By the way, speaking of materiality, people can give to themech charity.comy. Okay? charity.com. Charity with a D slashy. And you will be giving to the continuation of the yeshiva that the Reb started. And uh that's how you draw down the spiritual into the physical. At least that's that's that's one one really good way. So uh we're encouraging everyone again uh to contribute to the own charity.comuly. And uh for those who are we have charity.comulyfootagers. That's a little inside baseball. As long as we're mentioning footages, we should mention baseno.com. This uh program tonight is a program of baso.com where uh it's not for me to say what basana.com is, but let's just say that um it's like its name. It is it's the Nebus. So go go go virtually and uh visit the Reb's house beso.com. Um so shalom means peace and the sham is not just abstract but it's drawn down into the bear which is fleshy which is material and it's not just which is it's be which is uh a secular language even though Jews use it but it's you know it's not holy language right and it's not just be like do and be two separate names but It's the holy fused to the mundane. So what happens is that the the the the the spirituality of schol is being totally brought down and penetrates the the uh the mundane the physical. Okay, which is the whole idea here of not allowing these things in theory but making it very very very very very practical in our day-to-day lives. Okay. Um let's look at a couple of chapters. Let's see if we can do that. Let's see if we can manage to do that. Um I mentioned earlier that in the of the Reb is Mitsai to chapters 22 and 23 of the of the countress. So let's do that. Let's go to 22 to 22. All right. So we've learned from beginning to end. We learned from the word n which is uh to the signature the holy shalom and so now you could tell everyone you learn from beginning to end. All right but now so that we actually learn some of the insides let's go to just chapters 2 and 23. We'll try to learn those with hashem's help. Um now uh a lot of states is very cababalistic. It's a there are a lot of section from zy and from kisal and they're they're very challenging. There are some sections that are very challenging. I'm going to read to you though two chapters which are not so challenging to understand intellectually but they're very challenging to implement because they're really speaking to us in a very demanding way. Uh but this is where the rebab is really speaking very directly in front of the countress. Okay. So, we're going to ask you to turn to uh page 50. You can see this here. Okay. We're gonna turn to page 50 and we're going to uh chapter 22. Okay. All good. All right. Okay. It is now incumbent upon me to let you know the purpose for the establishment of our association. We have this auda. We have this association. Doesn't call it the yeshiva. He means the yeshiva. But it's not just the yeshiva. It's a movement. This whole movement. What was the purpose we established this for? In case you don't know, this happens to every successful organization that at after a while, you know, people don't know why it started in the first place. So, we're we're here to realign ourselves with our mission statement. And I'm just thinking, you know, out loud, but it was applicable when the Reba put it out in the 1890s, and it was when the Reb distributed it in the 1990s. and it's for sure applicable now in 2020. Um, we need to reign ourselves with the statement. You know, I mentioned before people, what do people know of Kabad? They think of it as this outreach organization. They don't understand it's it's aid. They don't understand it's a worldview. It under it's a way of understanding reality. And uh I'm afraid to say that maybe in our own circles we need a little reminder as well. You know if the Rebab felt that they themselves needed a reminder. Okay. So far be it from us to think that we don't need a reminder as well. We need to get back to basics. We need to get back to basics. Why? What is this movement about that we're a part of? Okay. It can't just be a culture. It can't just be borcelenos and smeov. There has to be more than that. So what is what is the purpose for the establishment of our association? You should know that the establishment of our association isn't only to strengthen learning. It's not to exclude that. Obviously, it's very important that are learning and not just they're learning as the is going to say explicitly. Of course, that's important, but it can't be the only purpose. In other words, The purpose of our association being founded was not to grow and to magnify the the revealed to it's a very nice thing. It's an even even it's even essential but you could find that elsewhere. That's not why we started our movement but rather this is the this is the goal for our association that those are learning of course they're learning that means they're learning and they're learning They shouldn't just be learners who are smart. They should be Jews who are God-fearing and whole in their in and whole with Hashem and and in Torah. So, this isn't just about a a college for for Talmudic study. This isn't studying Judaism as a subject. This is about creating people. The goal is to create a a certain type of a student and the way to create that says is through learning sidus. The students have to learn and when they learn then they will become the kind of student that we created the yeshiva the yeshiva in order to create. We've already clearly explicitly explained this elsewhere. He says, and if you look in the asterisk, it says that's actually the base. That's the second append. So I mentioned to you that the first is from Val and then there are two more. There's a and they're both from the reb. So here the mentions the letter that starts that's the uh the second appendix in in the kris. Okay, we've already spoken about this clearly. Get a sack of the reason that brought us to to start the yeshiva. We saw that the tra was wearing sackcloth. That's it's a lotion from the san the mourning. The t was grieving. Why that? Because people were learning but they were learning. They were learning for their own purposes for their own ulterior motive. Many of the young people who were learning didn't have any and and they and their were sunken into a place of death. May the merciful protect us. It wasn't bad enough that they were involved in this evil of learning for their own purposes, but they compounded the evil. They became teachers. They became the the leaders. And they left many bodies in their wake. May the merciful protect us from them. May the merciful protect us from them. People interested in for the wrong reasons that that's bad enough. By the way, as a of it's very difficult to speak these words. The Reb didn't speak this way, but I'm reading straight from and I'm I'm going to I'm not going to change what he says. It was it wasn't bad enough that they were learning to for the long for the wrong reasons, but they became the leaders and they left many bodies in their wake. By the way, that language, that very, you know, vivid and frightening language is actually from the Rambam. Um, in in Mishna, the Rambam speaks about people who are not for who are not ready to be teachers and they teach anyway or they give judgments. They give rabbitical judgments and he says they leave corpses in their wake. So, it's a serious thing. It's a serious thing when somebody teaches Tada not for the sake of getting closer to Hashem that it's it's it's not enough that they're doing damage to themselves, but when they get that way and they become leaders, they're causing damage. It's causing real damage. And again, if the Reb felt that that his own needed a refresher course, I think it would be uh arrogant of us to think that we don't also need a refresher course and to think that these things don't apply today. They do apply today. And it's not to cast blame on anyone. We just have to be aware that when we are not aligned with the mission statement, we're not just hurting ourselves, we'd be hurting others. God forbid. God forbid. But let's get positive. Let's say through this learning we will realign with our mission statement and how much healing can come about. Okay, let's let's continue here. For this purpose we we were we were roused to create this association. [Music] Wow. That we got together, we made this association for what purpose? So we would have brim who occupy themselves in Tyra to protect from the harmful forces and to endeavor to the fullest extent possible to implant within them with Hashem's help an inner feeling for the awe of God and the love of him that they should know what they're studying. What are they learning by the way? What are they learning? So even that the tells us explicitly in the parenthesis you're learning blessed wisdom. It's not just a subject. It's not just calculus. It's Hashem's blessed wisdom which Hashem was kind enough to be his infinite wisdom and put it in a form where our finite finite minds could interface with it. So we wanted students who who appreciate what it is that you're learning infinity. And again, we have to make a saddic. Do our understand they're learning that they're learning the wisdom of God. Do they have a feeling or the the called it a herish panimi? You know what a heresim? Ages pimi means something that nobody else told you to feel. A herish panimi means how you really feel. Tell us how you really feel. that when they're learning, not just it's more important when they're learning miglet that they feel when they learn a black is do they have that feeling that was the purpose for the and not only they should know why what they're learning they should know why why are we learning you ever hear bakamas why this I don't own a donkey why am I learning this and so then you know what's the answer? Well, it applies to cars too, right? You're learning. Why should I care about that? Well, there's the real problem. So, we got to stop for a second. We got to put the goat aside and we have to explain to a 15-year-old why it is such an amazing wonderful thing that his finite mind is able to grasp the infinite through the page of this gum. They but they they have to know why we learn not just what you're learning but why we learn it. What a beautiful relationship that is an impossible relationship really except that the makes it possible. Consequently, the says then they will live. They will live in their learning. They will have a in their learning or perhaps it even means their learning will give them life. that our children will leave the day and will walk out of yeshiva shining and full of vitality, feeling invigorated. And again, we have to ask ourselves to what extent is that happening. And if it's not, we don't have to complain and we don't have to be afraid. Have to do what it says in this book and it'll happen because the Reb signed his holy name to this contract. Let's continue. Guys, the path that brings us that should learn and understand what he's learning and why he's learning it is learning That's why we set it up that every individual should study every day for an appropriate amount of time. Even though we study nigla for more time of the day and that's the way it ought to be. You don't have to learn this all day. I know it's funny my friends they think that we learn they think that in we learn all day. They were shocked. You learn? I said, "Yeah, most of the day we learn gam, but you're learning the the the he's going to talk about the proportion, how much versus how much nigla, but the amount that you're spending on the has an effect on that the niglas learn differently. It's all dead if this is a more about a balabos than a bak and yeshiva, but it's you can definitely compare the two." The balabos calls up the to him, I have five minutes a day I'm going to learn, but I I I have to pick. Should I learn or should I learn? So the tells him uh you should learn because if you learn five minutes, you'll come to realize you have more than five minutes a day to learn. Okay? that when you learn sidis that will bring you to limit or if you're already learning it'll bring proper study of was told there's interference it might be from this okay hopefully It's better now. All right, let's continue here. We we we're on top of them. We supervise them. They should learn a lot of ge. You know what gus is? Goris mean which is the you know pre-minent commentary on Tesus is the commentary on the commentary or this the super commentary. So we make sure that they learn like it's explained later you know what that means. Nevertheless, but even though quantitatively they learn much more nigl but the foundation the main thing the ekar and the of everything is uh isidism that they should know hashem not just know about hashem they should know hashem like it's explained at length uh already that when they will have knowledge of Hashem obviously that will bring them to the proper love and awe of Hashem. So the uh the amount that we came up with is that every individual in the yeshiva should learn no less than four hours a day of of four hours a day. Four hours a day is about a third of the total hours of learning. Of the I heard this from my father from the on a weekday you should learn 2/3 oneird. So in the case of the would be 4 hours of the purpose of our association. What is the purpose of our association is to learn with a sincere feeling of love and awe of God. And how do you attain that? The way to that is through learning. We we the time that that is required for everyone to learn and on a weekday the proportion is 2/3. Okay, we're going to do okay. I know this uh broadcast was set to go for 90 minutes till 10:30. So we uh if you have to run home to a babysitter, they'll have to leave at 10:30. Okay. But uh we're going to continue and we'll just do one more chapter here. Uh we'll do chapter. Okay. The he with me at the bottom of page 50. We're going to do chapter 23. Yeah. Good. Okay. the original, our first class, the ones when we started the yeshiva yodu esatus, they they knew the purpose why we created this association. So it's it it didn't even need to be stated why we were doing what we're doing because the original they all knew. Now we're talking about what how many years we said six years, seven years, right? So the the kras came out seven years after they started to okay seven years and the world was much slower back then. I mean today with technology and innovations things go very rapidly and back then things changed much more slowly but in seven years can you imagine that they had in and I mean they had the there had the there and you had there didn't really understand the the point again and I want to say this again it would be arrogant of us to think that we don't have the same problem and it's it's not an insurmountable Hence the kuntas the kunf is here this to fix the issue for us or to show us how to fix the issue. So if they had this problem in labav with the and the standing there and and they had people who lost touch with the mission. So obviously it's possible for that but I don't think that you know it's it's there's nothing depressing about saying that we need to recalibrate from time to time and and and and the Reb gave out this contress in 1990 and we're relearning it 30 years later in 2020 and let's take it to heart and let's recalibrate. Okay, we don't have to it's not it's not a doomsday proclamation. We're just saying we need to recalibrate. They were in the yeshiva who didn't know why they were there. They didn't understand what it was about. Okay, guys, we have to realign what's it all about. Okay, not a not a terrible thing to ask once in a while. All right, so the original they all knew why we were here. Um, they actually they chose it. They chose this like they knew what was special about us and that's what they chose. So that's interesting. No, they were all laborers by choice. They chose this way of life. They they knew what we stood for and that's hunted. You see, when something becomes a culture rather than a an ideology, it's always there's always a danger of just sort of they're part of it because there, you know, you go with the social flow and so this is what we do and this is where we go and this is, you know, the life the path of and set out for me is this is this is what we do. And from time to time we have to say no this is not just because this is what everyone else is doing. There's a purpose behind this a very deep purpose. You see somebody commented um they put a smile because they were joking not really meaning it but they were saying that I was mhadesh my own vort. So, I don't remember what vort I was mad, but I'll tell you a vort that I was mhadish, meaning I made up and it's worth exactly what you paid for, which is nothing. Okay? But I'll just tell you a vort that I made up and and feel free to use it. And you don't even have to say it in my name because I made it up. So, I'd rather you not say it in my name. Although, I say on closed WhatsApp groups, I'd rather you not forward this and everybody does. So, let's see how well that works. There are three sadras in that have in the name of the sad. Um, and are in order in that order uh three levels of of of the of why and they go from the highest level of to the lowest and you could tell what kind of it is by who who are the in each of these. So now who's the who are the the so who whom says the first of is he goes because he's bottle in g to the complete surrender he's going because he's connected to the to the next one who whom H the people what's that level that's the people the people are going you look at mates and you say what what am I supposed to do become a lawyer I'll be af that's what we do that's our culture right so it's sort of like societal uh you know it's peer pressure in a good way in a good way you know but he's doing because you know that's it you know that's uh that's what we do so obviously it's not as high as the first level which is you're going because of a of a sense of a commitment in relationship with the but the second one is I'm doing because you know I'm a this is my culture this is what we do you know then the third one the lowest level is anos that means to be a person for yourself that he realized that the could end up being a decent career path for him you know maybe it could work out well for me make myself an ish so uh that's the lowest level. But the question is, if you're a level three, can you become a level two? And if you're a level two, can you become a level one? And even if you're a level three, can you be level one eventually? And the answer is obviously, of course. And it doesn't matter what your kavana was when you went out. It matters what your kavana is right now. So you ask yourself, what am I here for? Who sent me? Why am I in the why does the schlikus exist? And maybe your answer right now is a schlak level or a bishak level. But you can wait to have aishlak level and do it as a malik. Do it because the the the highest level reason. Okay. Anyways, point is that even in the there were who didn't get it. Didn't get it. Okay. So he wrote the and he gave it out. So the original they understood what we were all about and they chose this. They chose this and they willingly accept it upon themselves to learn at the times that we just explained or for the amount of time that we just explained. And they learned well and thank God they did very well. They were very successful in their learning of meaning that did what it was supposed to do. It gave them gave them made them the kindle that this is supposed to make you the even now. Even now the says take a look still like this. Thank God they're still doing the appropriate thing. They're they're living according to the kavana the real kavana. Okay. However, this really this is this is for us. This is our day. There are a lot of guys for some reason they lost the plot. The real purpose is is concealed from them. They don't get it. The main reason is new guys. It's always the you know that right new guys came they didn't know anything about learning they weren't against they just they didn't know about it they didn't know any better it was out of ignorance they were only coming to for the nigla because they heard it was a good yeshiva is a good yeshiva I don't know if that's we can translate that exactly to 2020 you know they showed up for the nigla but just translate it whatever I'm I'm not going to spell everything out for you 2020 they showed up for the fill in the blank okay and now the eb is saying well that's nice we're we're glad you showed up we're not telling you to leave but we would like you to know what you really showed up to we would like you to know why we created this association. We want you to know why we have this group here now that you showed up. These new guys brought a new spirit, a foreign spirit into the into the main thing was niggling. They saw it as a you know a side dish. Okay. And again plug it in 20. They thought that such and such is the main thing and they they knew about this. They just they thought it was a side thing. So that's how they conducted themselves. the you know the main thing for them was the but you know just you know to prefunctil just to to discharge a duty. And so it is consequently understood they and their and their learning is totally not uh according to what it ought to be. It's not even fitting for who they are. And that's something themselves short. It's not just they're not in keeping with what we want from them. They're not living up to what they could be doing. That's why we're letting you know this time. That's not what we meant. We did not create this so you could come and learn Nigla. That's not what we created it for. Again, touch this up however you need to for 2020. And you're looking around, you're saying, "Guys, we're we're happy you're here, but the reason you think you're here, the thing that you think you came to for, that's not the purpose that we created it for." Not at all. But rather the purpose of our establishing this association was to learn that is the main point of our lives. And through learning you're going to come to life also in your learning. Then your learning is going to be acceptable before he is the giver of the don't forget the has like we said before here's the the and we'll just finish up here are people who are uh wrong about the purpose of therefore a very simple response let them know what's so difficult about that there are people who are under a mistaken idea of what kabad is about okay so let's let them know okay and especially you know in so in ini the waso to be a leader a giver selfless Jew in it's the same idea just the rabb took it even you know even farther. So it's about, you know, that that's how in that's how we put it is bring Msiah, right? So we're here to bring Msiah. So a lot of people think they look around. They came to Kabad for that. I don't know, for whatever it is, okay? I'm not I'm not going to spell it out for you. But we have to just remind them very nicely, guys, there's a reason this group was started, and we're happy to have you. We want to tell you here and we want you to be in line with with the charter with the mission statement. By the way, the Reb gave a mission statement. The first official of the set a mission statement. You can go look it up. The said what we're here for. Okay. But the bottom line is that we're going to bring Msiah Msiah. We the goal is nothing less than the utopia that our ancestors waited for and the ones who are going to do it is us nobody else. Okay. So there's so much that we can apply from this to ourselves. I just want to say one more thing. One more thing in the of of so the Reb said that the countress was distributed to Anoshim Noshim men women received the countress and that the ideas in the contress are applicable even to little children. I have a dear friend Shimmy Winebomb from Hashem and one of the things that he and I started doing together in partnership is every Sunday night we have a the base commanders because he believes as I believe that without the is like you're missing the plot. has to be about ideas. The Rebba's ideas and the Reb went to the trouble of framing the deepest ideas in in language for children. The Reb spoke. Did you ever hear of the leader of world jewelry speaking regularly groups of children? The Reb took time and he and spoke to children and we have these the we can learn them. We must learn them. Okay. So this is not just for grown-ups. This is even for children. So the Reb said the handing out of the it's like a very high level right is like you know very sophisticated level. So the the Reb said no it's actually for uh men, women and children and we can see that it's applicable to even small children from the himself because remember after all the was handed out on which is the birthday of the and there's a story about the on his birthday often falls in paraso He came home from and he was either four or five years old. According to the story, he had to have been four or five because the story has speaking to the his and his was nostalic after he was uh five after the was five. So he could only have been five or or four of the oldest. So the came home from and he was crying and said why are you crying? He says, "I'm crying because we learn in that va that Hashem revealed himself to why am I crying? Because if Hashem can reveal himself to why does Hashem not reveal himself to me?" So the Reb said that that is not just a story about the look at and that we should say oh that was so holy that he cried as a child to see. No, no, no. You have to understand that and a story about a is a story about us. And if the was crying because he wanted to see hem even as a small child that means that every child has the ability to cry and we confuse them with raffle tickets. Now I'm giving you my own interpretation. Okay? I'm not a I'm just telling you. And we confuse them with raffle tickets and with bribery. And obviously you make a shab. There's a difference between a sudas mitzvah and bribery. You celebrate. You do a mitzvah and you celebrate of course and you celebrate and you bring it even down to the gash like that. You bring it down to materiality. Of course you celebrate with some but what we do is we turn the intrinsic motivation of wanting to serve Hashem as I want you. Or like the from is talking about serving hem for his own sake or like who talks about let's say that you serve hashem for hashem not for us even children are tuned into the intrinsic reward the organic reward not a superficial reward but the actual the pleasure that Hashem has in our doing mitzvah. And therefore said the rabb that the contents of this are applicable even to little children. Okay, we have our work cut out for us. So each one of us who is a parent or an educator can now think about this. We spoke about many of the ideas that are contained therein and we can think about how to translate this to the that we are giving our children and our students. Most importantly starts with ourselves. We have to think about the that we are giving ourselves. It is 2020. Um it is time to reflect. We showed up. Where did we show up? What what's it all about? Why are we doing this? and realigning ourselves to our mission statement. The Reb gave us and is giving us in the present tense, the Reb is giving us the tools to get back on task with the mission. The Reb told us with no uncertain terms, our mission is to bring Msiah. Let's not get confused. Let's not get confused with anything else. We're here for one job. We have one job to bring the here and we have the tools. The Reb is giving us the tools. Blessings to you, to me, to all of us. Let's get the job done. Thank you. Oh, we want to mention before we leave. I'm sorry. I just have to do a couple orders of business. We have to mention that the event tonight is uh for sorry where's the name I want to say the name so we can all shalom like we mentioned before Benma Rafua and Uh yeah, I see some questions were sent in in connection with this. I'm going to invite everybody that we can do a poll. Um I want to thank uh baserbeno.com for uh organizing this event and maybe we'll have a followup. We'll have a part two. Okay. Anything else? I want to ask my producer here. We need anything else? Can we sign off? Okay, we're going to sign off. Thank you to one and all. [Music]