Bo (5786) Who Was the Sfas Emes? L’Kovod His Yartzheit ה׳ שבט

Shalom and welcome back to our par this week on Thursday night Friday will be the yard site of the saddak we've been ready to learn from for a few years now every single week to go out and to delve into the deep waters of the and I felt that maybe it was this week instead of learning a piece of to learn a little bit about who this was. something that we've never had the chance to discuss to give a little bit of the context a little bit of the history to who exactly this fas was and although we do not have a lot written about him there are no biographies in written about this but we do have bits and pieces of information and I thought that maybe it was kadai to go out and discuss a little bit about who this gadic was to give us some of the context necessary to be able to understand the depth of the we've been learning and to continue to go out and be masha ourselves to this to allow us to continue for many many years to come learn the and the of the to begin the story of the begins really with his grandfather. Those who have been hearing these shar and learning the works of this know that this is called time and time again multiple times generally throughout a para quote his grandfather ali is a rash that you'll see time and time again throughout the works of this quoting his grandfather the one who began the world of g the one who began the gar was the kadushim tragically had 13 children in his life and all 13 of his children were nif Nifar during the khadushim's lifetime. A terrible terrible tragedy. Something that's unfathomable to imagine what that's like to have 13 children and all of them were nif only one of his children ended up living long enough to go out and to bring children into the world. And obviously that was the father the son of the who was beloved to his father not just because of the fact that he was the only one that survived but he was a very very special child. They say that the said to his he said you're jealous of the of you're jealous of the son of the that he has a father like the he said I'm jealous of the he has a son like that's how much he was this the father of this who was known to be a tremendous somebody who was careful about every word that came out of his mouth which was obviously a mid that his son who's obviously the safer is is is appropriately called because the words of this contained with a tremendous truth. And his father was the same way. Every word that the said was weighed. He sat, he thought. He didn't just speak freely. He sat and he thought, and he contemplated what he was going to say. This was a tremendous tremendous saddic. And as we said, the lone surviving son of the unfortunately this sad got sick as well. He was married once. He had a daughter. His wife was at a young age. She remarried and had three daughters but yet was still not to bring a son to the world and was lying on his deathbed at the age of 30 at the young age of 30 the final the 13th son of the was lying on his deathbed terrible terribly sad for the parents of terrible tragedy to now be thinking that they may lose their 13th child their final child that survived and the comes into the room of and tells him the following thing he says you have to go out and to choose life and he says you to go ahead and be to fulfill this and to be able to get back up to become completely healed and to bring a son into this world and this this command from his father the aim that he had to be able to listen to his father and a short while later miraculously he was capable of getting up completely getting completely healed and eventually to bring the son the fame into the world. He named his son when his son was born he named his son Yehuda naming him Yehuda because of a hashem thanking thee for the tremendous miracle that he had that was capable of surviving when he was already lying on his deathbed and that was what his name was called at his birth as we'll see shortly his name changed to be but at the beginning when he was born his name was Yehuda and they called him Leela that's what they called him Leela and he was a beloved beloved child by his parents and a beloved child by his hazel grandfather the kadushim unfortunately at from the time he was young, his father was very, very ill. His father was constantly, even though he had healed enough to be able to get back up and to be able to have a child, but he was an ill person. He was somebody who wasn't really capable of going ahead and fully taking care of his child. And his grandfather took tremendous care of him from the time he was young. At the age of eight, the Helas Fas's father was nif. His mother was nifter while when he was even younger than eight, but at the age of eight, he became orphaned from both of his parents, left with absolutely nothing. had lost all 13 of his children the only child that was to bring able to bring daughters and his son is into the world was as well and moves in to live from the time that he's 8 years old to live with his grandfather and this way he's brought up by his grandfather physically spiritually he's brought up and raised by his grandfather and he's the apple obviously of his grandfather's eye here's the one lone surviving child who's capable of bringing a son into the world his only grandson the and he's tremendously beloved by his grandfather. But from the time that he was young, it was clear that he wasn't just his favorite grandson because he was the only grandson. There was something very unique and very special about this child. At the time that he was 8 years old, the Hadoo Sharim hired a Muhammad. He hired a teacher for his grandson, the he made with him the following three conditions, which if you can understand and think about what these three conditions must mean for an 8-year-old, you're able to understand that the khadushim wasn't asking for things that were unreasonable. But obviously this was an 8-year-old which these three conditions were obviously reasonable for this malama to be able to fulfill with this 8-year-old child. What were the three conditions? Condition number one was that it was necessary to wake up this child before [snorts] dawn break before the before the morning before the morning before to wake up this child early in the morning to begin learning with him. Condition number two was that every day this child needed to go ahead and have a he can't just be and just be learning and just be learning what it says in the but it needs to come up with something on its own. That was number two, a condition that for an eight-year-old child would be unheard of. For a typical eight-year-old child, but clearly this child who was a child prodigy, clearly a tremendously, tremendously gifted child. And the kadushim understood that this was something he was capable of. And third, perhaps even the most shocking out of all three conditions was that he needed to learn a minimum of 18 hours a day. Something that for most adults nowadays is almost impossible and very very hard and very far and few between people that are learning for 18 hours a day. But the kadush understood that this grandson of his this 8-year-old grandson the delay this labelah was capable of learning for 18 hours a day and that was the third condition that he made with this muhammed giving us a little bit of a glimpse into the greatness of the from the time that he was a little child. His grandfather the kadushim was a closeassid of the katskar and he took his grandson on more than one occasion to go see his rebi the katskar and once on one of the trips when he was taking him he was a young child and one somebody stopped and asked why are you taking this little child it's freezing cold outside he's taking him in this wagon shleing him all the way to kat what's the purpose he can't understand the t that the is saying why are you going ahead and bringing him to kat when he's such a young child putting him in such danger especially he's the only grandchild that you have why would you do it and the said it's worthwhile to bring him there so at least once in his life he has the capability to see and we know that the main what focused on tremendously was the MS and as we said the his sons obviously as a safer is appropriately named theas he also had this nuda and the felt that his kadai to shle his grandchild in the freezing cold winter to be able to go out and bring them to at least allow him to get a glimpse of the katskar and the kadush and this really said that that glimpse that he had those few times that was capable of going ahead and seeing the katskar went ahead and had a tremendous impact on his avoid for the rest of his life but that was what he did and that was when he was capable of going ahead and being brought up by his grandfather with this being brought up in a way that he was given the tools and given the capability to be able to rise and to be able to utilize all of his at the time that he was 13 he got married to one of the a daughter of one of of his grandfather and this man that he was that he got that he got engaged to his daughter his name is Yehuda his name is Yehuda and told him that since is from Yehuda said that a father-in-law and a son-in-law should not have the same name he told him to change his name from Yehud to Yehuda is compared to it and therefore the told him change your name from Yehud to Ary and therefore from then on his name became Arib no longer being known as Yehud But now his name became now his name became in the few years after he got married he was capable of sitting and learning he's able to sit and to learn to focus completely on going ahead and involving and immersing himself in a his wife had a story and that's how they would be able to support themselves but he was able to go ahead and immerse himself 100% and going ahead and being involved in a at the age of 19 the next tragedy takes place his grandfather is nif And now he's left with nobody else in the world. His parents have already been nif years ago. His grandfather, the one who brought him up is at 19 he's married, but he's left aside from his wife with nobody else in the world. And there was a tremendous push from the of the to have this even though he was only 19 years old to go ahead and to take over his grandfather and to continue to lead in the G wasn't a small little it was a massive with thousands of and yet nevertheless they were able to look at this young boy this 19-year-old teenager and say he's the one that we want to go ahead and to be the rebel refused to go ahead and become the rabbi he said I'm not worthy I'm not ready I'm not interested and he refused to become a reb Instead he went ahead and made himself into aid of the higan Alexander the Alexander Rebba. He went ahead who was a close close confident to his grandfather and he went ahead along with many of the other and he went ahead was himself. He acted as a to Alexanderb. The problem was that a short while later at the age of 23 the Alexander reb was nif. And this time the were not going to go ahead and let him get away so easily. This time after four years of waiting already for him to become the rebid started to push and push and they really did everything they could to go ahead and to force him and to get him to go ahead and to accept being reb as much as he pushed back and as much as he said he doesn't want to be the Reb nevertheless made it clear that they had chosen him at the young tender age of 23 to be the Reb and ultimately this was the time in tough that he went ahead and he became the Reb that year ready there were thousands of people that came ahead to be able to go ahead to act by him as to treat him like a reb. He understood that he was no longer capable of holding off the masses. He was no longer of capable capable of going ahead and just being a he understood that now his avoid and now his job was to go ahead and to become a reb therefore in the year alf that's what he did he became a rabbi somebody was given over to his 100% somebody who cared for his he would set aside time to sit and to listen to his and although in the way of g everything was short everything was sharp everything was done in a very very short amount of words without lengthy conversations nevertheless the understood that they had a reb who cared about them that had a reb who loved them And they had a reb who wanted to go ahead and help them in any way he could. The fas said once he said you don't need to be a rebel to be able to go ahead and to and to help somebody who's often people would come to the like to do to other rabbis and ask them to go ahead and to give them a to gohead to d into their should get better. And when they would get better would say it's not because of the fact that I'm a reb that I'm capable of going ahead and dominating for them. He said any yid that's able to feel the tar able to really feel the pain of another yid in the of his in the depths of his heart has the ability to be able to go ahead and help somebody else is sick. He said maybe I'm capable of feeling it in a better way but it doesn't mean I'm a reb. It's just I'm somebody who's capable of really feeling the depth of the pain of the person who's sick and that's why I'm capable of going ahead and answering them. But he was capable of going ahead and again as we said thousands and thousands of coming to him for all different types of invoid in pranes with people that were sick going ahead and asking him and learning from him and gaining from him tremendously. Yet even though he had thousands of coming to him in a regular basis had hours and hours a day where he would spend learning. One of the high one of the hallmarks of the world of G one of the things that began and was continued with this and continues till today is the idea of learning. the idea of going ahead and putting in hours and hours of and as said how can I go ahead and answer any of the shalists that are coming to me if I don't know all of the all of the but I don't know all of by heart how can I go ahead and answer somebody they ask me maybe there's some that is to sh and if I don't know all of that then I'm not capable of answering the spend hours and hours a day sitting and learning and sitting and being involved in Yet even though he was a rebel and even though he had thousands of and he could have gone ahead and supported himself the same way many other rebbas at his time did either by having the go out and give him money or at least to be that when people came with they would give money and that would help support the rebus refused to take money from anybody refused his whole life to take money from anybody and he as well went ahead and gave advice to his that if they became if they became into positions of power never to take money to go ahead and not to utilize the Torah as a way to make prasa but to go ahead and to have things on the side to be able to have ways to be able to make prenasa. That's what this fas did. He had a store at one point different stores at one point the tabac store selling tobacco but he had a store that his wife would run and he would ensure that he was not reliant on anybody for his money that allowed him to be able to go ahead and to treat all of his equally. There were no that were treated better because they had a lot of money in G. It didn't make a difference whether he had money or didn't have money. The people that were were able to be treated in one way. The people that weren't were able to be treated in another way. It was based on how much you put in based on how much understood. You wanted to attach yourself to the world of G to the world of it was not based on money. And the was capable of doing that because of the fact that he was not tied down and not going ahead and being supported by anybody. He was able to go ahead and to take care of himself and refuse to take a penny from anybody else. It goes so far that the said to some of his who had stores when the rebbitson would go ahead and shop in the stores, they would want to give the rebbitson a discount. If she's not going to take it for free, Ali's going to give the rebbitson a discount. This is the reb. And the rebbitson who's buying stuff for their house, they want to go ahead and to give things at a discount. And these would say absolutely not. He would say, "You think that you're doing me a favor?" He says, "You're putting me in tremendous, tremendous harm's way. Me and my children are going to be in harm's way if you go ahead and give us money. We don't want to receive anything from anybody. So much so that this said at one point where one of his children got sick and he asked the rebbit did you take money from anybody and she thought about it and she said yes there was there was recently somebody gave me a discount on something he said go give the money back. It's because of this that our son is sick. He understood that the ability to be able to go ahead and be totally independent to live on his own is ultimately what allowed him to go ahead and to be able to survive and to be able to thrive in the way that he did. This is the world a little bit the background of the it's we can talk for many many more hours about who this was and what is but this is the world of it's maybe important to speak at as well that if you look at this of the you find that there's two different sets of is the regular which is generally where the are taken from the regular and then the of the areas are words of the he wrote prior to going ahead and becoming the rebel in the years after he got married in the years that he was sitting and learning those are and lutim they're generally much more shorthand than even though is generally written in a very short way but the one on the ones in lutim are written even more shorthand they're maybe a little bit more esoteric they're written on zerak on midrashim that maybe are more harder to understand but that was a that he's writing for himself prior to becoming a reb prior to giving overra that was a that he wrote by himself and that's the other from the year going through 35 years that he was the rebba those are that he said by the by the tish that's those that he said by the sudis those are the ter that he said over on shabas now it's clear if you look at you'll see that didn't write down these terries he didn't prepare these ter prior to shabas but it was all written down after shabas often you'll see in the he'll say he'll write something down and says I don't remember everything else that I said I wrote down as much as I remember I don't remember everything else or things are a little bit confused from what I wrote it down it sounds like he wrote it down perhaps a few days after but that's the regular we have in tough and it's worthwhile to know that this will generally have four or five themes that he takes and goes with them from the beginning of the par all the way from the beginning of all the way through 35 years. And if a person really wants to see and to recognize and to understand how the process of this has developed over the years that he was a reb which is the first year take a piece from the how he understands the medish and then go ahead and go see where else throughout that par discusses that med and it will give you the full gamut the full picture of understanding how this is understood understood a medish which is often something that he focuses on. This is the world of the swarm of this just to speak out at the end of his life he got sick and he went ahead and he wanted to add on a name. So when he was thinking about what name to add on, he said, "Let me take back on the name that I had when I was young." And he brought back on the name of Yehuda. At this point, his father-in-law was already nifer. His first wife was already and he was already remarried and he gave back himself that name of Yehuda. And that's why we know him now as Yehuda Ben the he was nif on at the young age of 57 very heavily burdened by what was taking place in the war that was taking place the Russian and the Japanese war that was taking place where many many were affected by being drafted by being a part of the war and he felt spiritually very much affected by the tsar that his were going through as we said before he was very much connected to every one of his in a way of he felt that sar and unfortunately was nif at the age of 56 7 having his son obviously named after his father go ahead and continue the dynasty of the helus which began at the continue with this and ultimately with the ims continuing on after that with his children as well this is a little bit a little bit of a glimpse into the world of the and just to mention maybe one last fact that I forgot to mention before it's worthwhile noting that the names was not given by the fas wrote these down but it was not printed until after he was nifter and the only reason Why they chose the names was because the last that he said contains within it the words. Obviously it wasn't just the last that he said last that he wrote down but it was also as we said the hallmark of the world of theas to live in that world of to live at the truth the truth of to be able to see things in a pimistic way something that we've learned about so often throughout these that we learned in is the ability has and gives us over to see things in a stick way to see to see not to see as a b not as an to see the not this This is something that the world of this is very much revolved in. Tremendous amount of his revolves around this idea of MS but not just saying the truth as opposed to falsehood but being able to see the world and a way of truth. This is a little bit of the Hashem should help that by continuing to go ahead and to learn his shouldem to continue learning and growing from his from his to have a great chabas.