Rabbi Daniel Glatstein – Lag BaOmer: The Fire and The Soul

[Music] Welcome to inside Oscar where the books that we read and the people that write them come to life. It's aus and a pleasure to welcome once again Rabb Daniel Gladstein to the arts studios. Mr. We have the opportunity to discuss a really amazing book, a safer kadesh, the book, the fire and the soul. Um, Rabbi Glast, you're a drop younger than me, so maybe you didn't have this when it came to, but I'm going to tell you the experience of most people when I was growing up for Lagr. So they would give us these inedible carobs, buxer, which probably you're not eat anyways because they have tal. But they would give us that in a little white bag and then we would go to the park and we would play baseball and we didn't say t like that was the whole kid in kaboodle. Yeah. As the generations have evolved and as people got more into different things today is larger than life. Whether it's the half a million people that go to to Miron to or just the knowledge and understanding that so many people have of the depth of the day somehow it's it's almost taken on a life of its own. It's the one day a year that the really hardcore core you know Gamarra Litera people have no issue learning about Cabala. So it's so fascinating what has happened a how it's evolved and this book really um encapsulates and incorporates so so many deep concepts so many so many so many things that I don't know that we all year are so comfortable with so explain to me I guess the first thing I wanted to ask you was why you wrote a book on lob um it's a great book and it's a great read and if anyone wants to have a really hype in a day and elevate a day they should read it why' you write it and number two what happened to us like in the in the few decades from me being their child to being now is a totally different Yantiff. Maybe you have some insight into that. Okay. So, uh in terms of why we wrote a book on the subject of laga, first of all, to help people overcome the trauma that they had eating those buxer, it didn't help. You know, to me, I always wonder like what's the difference between the buxer and eating your desk in the yeshiva? It's you know but has as you said there's a momentum that we see that has generated that how could we ignore it nor should we ignore it you know there's an idea meaning if the Jewish people are doing something there's meaning to it you know we find in let's say in the cifasar he says if Jewish children have an expression it's rooted in something uh in kadusha so if there Is this movement in Israel of this attraction to meron and we have to try to understand it? What is it rooted in? What is the meaning of it? What is the symbolism of it? As you mentioned, you know, we could just highlight the phenomenon. Look, when when we were a kid, you know, what do you learn? You know, you learn you know the meat and potatoes and in in the in the hallowed halls of the yeshivas there certain mystical ideas were people were not exposed to them. I mean maybe you learn who quoted zars or you learned that's but that's or even those you said was only the guys were fringe right the typical guy you stopped at maybe yeah but nowadays there are so many um modern of for example you have the ken that opens up worlds from the ramal I mean wrote a m explained the ram's exposition on and all the cifray maral's ramkal and of course he's one of the greatest experts in the world of the gr the gr is you know kadesh it's it's very uh elevated then you have raosha shapiro who liberally quotes from mystical sources the swarm of uh rapas freedman who has an amazing array of cababalistic and cababalistic ideas and is translated into English in such an easy way to understand are still and and as are appears although some people attempted but the he comes up with a weekly thing it's not so hard to understand it but he's not speaking about light stuff no he's not speaking about uh what we call you know and this is not just cis terra this is uh gulim you know And people are reading it. I remember somebody even once came to me to they were preparing a hespid for a parent and you know whatever level background they were on they came they needed paper they were holding the pin sheets and on the back they were writing you know they they needed help with something. So how do we explain this phenomenon? This was material that 40 years ago if somebody would have come into a regular traditional yeshiva maybe they would have been shunned and nowadays it's standard uh you know a regular guy in shul Bengava he's reading this stuff and he's being elevated by this stuff and he he connects with it and and it resonates look throughout history people were always attracted to the mysticism but now even so to speak in what we call you know mainstream [Music] arenas it has definitely entered in a way that we've never seen before. So this is something we have to understand and study and in in the introduction to this uh humble offering bring a really amazing idea from the pesha a student of a student of the who says that the limitations of when says that the secrets of the are limited to only that was only referring to past generations not in our times. Now again I want this to be understood in the proper context. Even so even if that's the case that maybe we're not as restricted still somebody needs to do this under with under the toutelage and the guidance of the rabbim and the raonim and at the appropriate time and what's appropriate for someone who's already learned in kyo for many years may not be appropriate for someone who's yeshiva bakar but the observation is true. This has entered the normative study of of Benhiva. So the the rabbis is says the limitations don't necessarily apply to our generation. He said he says back in the day when people were so steeped in kaduca they didn't need this type of material and therefore it was limited but we desperately need it. We're living in a generation of an onslaught against our shayim and our amuna and we need something to really ignite it and this was given in so to speak to the Jewish people in the end of days to add fuel to the fire that that and it's something that we need. Likewise the kadushim writes that the limitations of studying the mystical aspects of the Torah are different today than they were in earlier generations. He even says you know saw what didn't see you know I think they learned from the is 50 knew the even said how's that possible so he says didn't need that let's call it that type of giloy because lived in super miraculous times lived in the times of the says and therefore more was needed. Now that has to be understood and not just repeated but the nugget that we're gleaning from there is that what's appropriate in at one in one generation is not appropriate in another generation. the bales who is one of the greatest alltime rebashu's grandfather he writes what was prohibited yesterday is permitted today so he also observes this this reality okay now again it has to be in the proper in the proper guidance and the gdylum of our generation whether it's David Kay and Ram Shapiro and Pinas They're they're providing us the ideas and the concepts with the proper background and the proper framework. That's a certain level of guidance that it provides us. So we're not doing it on our own. We're not, you know, on our own venturing off into the deep. We're doing it under the toutelage of Israel. Now let's bring it back to because I think that's where a that's the book and b that's where I think it really comes to to a front. So, so, so the Rashbi, he's the one who brought to the world the secrets of the Tyra. Moreover, and this is a very important point, the Raji writes and in the future the Jewish people will taste from the tree of life. What is that tree of life? They will be redeemed. That's what the Zia writes. Then the end of days the Jewish people and I stress will taste will taste from the tree of life. They'll be redeemed. Now that doesn't necessarily mean you know they're going to be learning a three sedar a day or even one sedar a day. A taste I always like to say a taste is a taste. You know in someone tastes fleshik it's not pushet they have to wait six hours. In the nine days if you make accidentally a brah on meat there are pkim that you'll eat it to avoid maybe you won't swallow it maybe but you'll take there's a concept of tima now I bring in the book grad um yakov hil wrote a book about called where he says well well how's this ever going to happen how are the Jewish people ever going to taste from the zarak so he suggested And I actually wrote a letter to him about this that because so many of the that we observe are based on the z or the so by fulfilling those that is a kim of tasting from the so I actually wrote and I I brought over here that not everybody agrees that to follow that course of we're following the zar versus the the traditional That may be the approach of that's the approach maybe of um and the approach of held absolutely not we follow the piskim versus the and held we follow the against there's a amazing uh where whether to say the it's not in the garra So where did it come from? It came from the So the writes that even though the doesn't say to say the but if he would have known that the says to say it he would have been a he would have been mas because of course the is greater than the b right and says how do you know he would have who says he's greater. So this is an age-old. So you know if you're going to take the side that in Jewish practice you'll follow as opposed to how are we going to taste from the zoy but I think a lot of what is being learned today as opposed to 100 years ago as opposed to 50 years ago as opposed to 20 and 10 years ago. Put it this way the pot is is almost ready and there's a lot more tasting going on. You know, I don't know. We're not going to say, you know, do people understand it to its fullest? Sure not. You know, the I don't know the level of consumption, but there's tasting happening and it's being done by and professional chefs are serving it. Okay. Very nice. So, in terms of the so says in the end of days, people are going to taste this information and will bring the gula. We can't ignore the draw that Clai has to rashi in the end of days. If there is such a powerful draw a to the rashi and b to this type of material that's a very hopeful phenomenon. It's a beautiful phenomenon. It has to be again you need a professional chef to to guide what's the how much you know if you taste shabas it's but unfortunately there's a phenomenon today that the has developed into you know before the time so you don't want to make it that uh this tasting is becoming excessive then you lose the appetite but I would like to consider this offering again a little bit of a a taste in a controlled environment of of some of the of the wonder of the Tyra and indeed it is I think it's interesting to note and I'd love you to chime in on this that they're really two separate things happening on Lagimer number one is it's the yard site of and by the way not so clear that that actually is his yard site and fascinating fascinating read to see who buys into that and that it's almost it's not so many people that actually That's one thing. And then we also have this concept that Rabbi Akas Tamidum died and then Rabbi Alakim stopped dying on and for some reason that's a a source of celebration. Is there a keshar between these two different themes or are they just two things that kind of came together so therefore we turned it into a yontiff? the continuity of Torah and the yard sight of look they seem to be distinct concepts you know it's yard site but if you if you see the book there's an idea that's brought that you know why would we celebrate a yard site when did a yard site become a happy occasion you should fast right we suber and others say you should fast you need to fast so how did it become a happy day there's an idea that on the day of sadic's departure the tora that he taught becomes ingrained in the hearts of a student. So there has to be a connection between the rashi who is a student to Rabi and he's giving over he said the rashi says learn my teachings his his teachings are like the finest of his rabbi. So that means on the day the rashi passed away the teachings of rashbi are ingrained in the hearts of klis. So does that may have seared into the day the opportunity to so to speak start a new but fascinating very interesting let's go back to Rabbi aka for a moment interesting interview Rottenberg who literally just put up a beautiful book on rabi aka so the way they taught us when we were children it was that rabbi had 24,000 men and they died between pes and between shuis and then they stopped dying and that's a source for celebration and anyone who thinks to drop deeper it's kind of like the AC's question that we addressed when we did the Kaneka interview like what he had no tamidum left is that a cause for celebration the analogy is always like some losses his whole family in the holocaust he's like ah let me make a party cuz there's no one left to die so you address that uh quite extensively share with us perhaps a nugget something that we could take home with us so you know a beautiful nugget maybe this will be somewhat of a teaser for the audience without with will be you know uh so regarding this question you know why are we celebrating this this is a famous Question of the precades. So someone very dear to both of us uh Rab Ichi Pinter once showed me from the writings of the Rami Pano I think in the safer May Ganim and I bring it in the safer that the Rami Pano has a Giloy and that is the gazer was on an additional individual and he was saved. So who is that? He had 24,000 students. They all died. It was on Rabbi Aka also. So, so lag b is a celebration that Rabbi Aka survived. It's celebrating Rabbi Akiva and all that he brought to Claram. So, that's an interesting take on Lagimar. You know, that's fascinating. Yeah. Um, we can't talk about Lagimar without mentioning obviously what happened to me and the terrible terrible tragedy that happened in Mirron. You know, just to give context on October 7th when the news was flitting in Tulu. So, someone came over to me and said there's been a terrible tragedy in much worse than me. So we look at meron as our until at least October 7th as as a there has to I don't know listen only knows knows knows all this and now coach thing but can you give us a at least from your perspective some type of such a terrible tragedy of so many innocent in a moment of such elevation and such such depth shed some light on the concept okay look I just want to make an observation This is a fundamental aspect of it appears throughout the book. It's worthwhile for the audience to know. It's it's a mystical concept. It's a beautiful idea. It's worthwhile to to know this. Okay. It comes from in many places primarily the is right for the audience um has different names that he's known by the represents represents God's attribute of strict justice alf The Ariza reveals there's something called letters that precede the letters that precede eloim are they sweeten the miden. There's a concept in mystical thought of there's a mid and sadikim are always working to be to sweeten the sweetening. How are we mounting uh by taking so let's let's apply that to okay before an alf by the way you know the benes wrote a on called which the introduction is predicated on this principle of the letter before alf there is no letter before alf so alf remains alf lammed becomes he becomes dalid Yud becomes tess and a final mem an endame a me sis becomes a regular mem because they're final letters and regular letters. So alf followed by yud followed by me becomes al if followed by followed by dal followed by tess followed by regular me. Now el kim is 86. The letters before elimals says 74 is in other words a way to be is trust in Hashem and that that itself is a lesson. So this is an example. It's a mystical teaching. But the the the lesson to learn is that if a person is undergoing difficulties, the way to sweeten the difficulty is have faith in Hashem that the root of it is Hashem's. Okay. And also is 74 plus one. Okay. So that's now saysal the main transformation of is happening in the three middle letters of Hashem's name the themed becomes becomes but the alf remains an alf and the end of memory remains a regular me. So the the outside letters are not really changing in the main is becomes 45 becomes 33. Wow. Now says the reason why is a day of is because the pinnacle of raim is when the core of den which is 45 is transformed into rahim on 33. Therefore the 33rd day of the is the pinnacle of rahman. That's so just observe the fact that is the transformation of the core of mid which is 45 to the core of which is 33. Everybody wants to know how could such a thing happen on well can we ignore the fact how many neb were killed on b 2021 there are 45 Jews. That means when midas haden is not transformed into 33 what number does it remain at? 45. 45. So without explaining why what we're we're we're seeing what we're seeing what and this is a basic teaching again nobody uh very seldom would somebody have exposure to but the benes and all the discuss are predicated that's why wrote a safer 74 hagal that's the name of the safer you know so it sounds like this far out idea But the experts have served it to us, you know. Wonderful. Rabbi Gladstein, you are a Michelin five-star chef. the way that you put together this book and the way that you gave us an understanding and a depth to the beauty and the magnitude of this day and just this whole shift of us going maybe from Gumar Rashi Typhus a whole year to at least one day a year of Nimia Satyra is very special and I think that anyone who picks up the safer and takes some time to study it will really it'll probably open new vistas to them and maybe they'll start learning and maybe they'll start learning or maybe they'll just buy the rest of but whatever they do, it'll definitely be an uplifting experience. You should have continued a and amen. Thank you. Thank you. [Music]