Chayei Sarah | Likkutei Sichos Vol. 1

Sunday morning 10:30, well 10:35, but close enough. Uh, from the Sward's house, half a block from the aisle. We want to thank our guests in person from New Jersey and from California and uh, from anywhere else. Come on in. You're just in time. We're just starting. And where are you coming from today? >> Queens. You're locals. Okay. All right. Yeah. Yeah. Come on. Come on. Come on. We We have like the ladies section over here and the men over here. Okay. Um help yourself to some coffee. Get some bagels and locks in the back. A whole nice setup over here. And uh we never know who's showing up. It's a different crowd every time. Really, mom? It's a different crowd every time. So, we might need more chairs in the in the ladies section. We'll take care of that. Okay. So, my son is the manages the house. That's his side hustle. His real thing is he manages the Schlookham office building on uh Eastern Parkway, but he also helps his father with Sward's house. Okay. Um we have a very long Sikha or Sikhas today just to put it in perspective. I'm looking at the table of contents and like um Veracious was like three pages, Nyak was 11 pages, L was eight pages, Va was eight pages, is a whopping 14 pages, but that's nothing because next week is 15 pages. And JFYI, next week is also the Kinesis banquet. And they now do the Kin banquet. Why does this say like this? Why did I Did we just lose uh the feed? What's going on? What happened there? What happened? [clears throat] Do you know what happened? Okay, the next week is the kines banquet and they now do the kines in the middle of the day instead of uh dinner. It's a lunch. So, I'll try to hurry next week and uh finish in time to head to uh the banquet. Okay, you got it all fixed. Could you tell me what the problem was? You're not sure what happened because it's because you got up and walked away. You pressed the button. Oh, you pressed the button. Okay, fine. Okay, let's do it. Okay, this first is you know how you know how you know when the was actually said? You go to the end of it and you look in the little Can you pull up the thing? Can you go to like page? Yeah. Can you put up pull up the actual and go to like the end of the first? Go to page 34. Yeah, right there. Right there. Okay. No, you had it. You had it. Okay. So, if you look at the top of the page, like right after that first top paragraph, by first I mean the first column meaning the right column because we're reading right to left because it's Yiddish. Uh [snorts] yeah, exactly where is using the cursor to uh circle around. That's how you know when the is actually said. Um that means we're talking about um the year of uh of you know we're talking about the the [snorts] so we're talking about in that first year um after the is passing before the is officially accepting the leadership that's when the Sikh is from okay and it's a very very very fundamental concept in this in general it's a it's a one of the radical uh but foundational concepts of Tusv and especially of um of the seventh generation of the of the rabbis teachings okay and you'll see what it is well I'll just tell you what it is spoiler alert it's about the importance of physicality and the body which is a mashia concept okay In the state in the this week's para it says in the beginning of that s passed away in cirius arba that's a name of a town curious arba uh which is also called wherean in the land ofan of desire. It says, you know, that every story in Kish has a literal level like it's telling us actually what happened. These are not, god forbid, mythological uh characters. This this is an actual story of our ancestors. And then also there are multiple other levels that these narratives are describing. For instance, the spiritual goings on in spiritual realms which are simultaneously being described by the very same stories. So the zire which is on the level of sid the secrets of the to the most spiritual and abstract level says that this story it's an actual story of lost his wife Soda and he buried her and he went to cry for her but also it's describing the relationship between the body and the soul and ahim represents the the soul and soda represents the body. Come on in. We need more. Uh we got we're going to have to kick the the men out of the main section. Put the women in there cuz cuz we have more women than men. Can I scooch over to the left? Two inches. Good. And my mic. Okay. Fine. Galdic. All right. We have a big crowd today. This is We never know. It's like uh you know Thursday night we had here at the soulwards house two different campus groups and uh because it's the pagisha this weekend pagisha is the college uh campuses bring uh students to crown heights for shabas anyways I felt like campus uh shak uh today went yeah you know what I'm going to say cuz they never know how many people to cook for college students never RSVP so you sort of ask me about the bagel order. I don't know. We never know. We could have a full house. We could have nobody. We could have nobody. Okay. We never know. Okay. But if if you guys show up, that means I eat less bagels afterwards, which is less carbs for me, which is actually healthier for me. So, if you care about my health, you'll show up here and eat the bagels, please. Okay. Anyways, is the body. [snorts and sighs] A is the soul. Yeah. And uh that's that's what desire says. So uh what happens is this is what it means passed away. The body passes away dies where curious arba curious a body or any physical thing is a composition of four elements. The four elements that make up the physical world. going to learn about it in the USA. He tells tells us about how the world works. The fire, air, water, earth. The rabbi actually in a letter, an English letter I saw once explains that there actually four states of matter because somebody said, "I saw the periodic chart of elements. There's way more than four elements." The says they're not the same elements. Just because we translate you say this is elements, it's not the same terminology. He actually says it's more it's closer to the four states of matter which uh [sighs] so ash would be plasma and air would be um gas and water would be liquid and earth would be solid. At any rate so the four but you hear a drip turn off my the water bill was really high. Turn I I'm not it's like China's water torture. I can't uh concentrate. So the four yoides break apart. So not chevron gas stations but is the word. So there's curious which means the four elements that were stuck together literally disintegrate like the decomposition of uh of the body. But as long as she was alive or anyone was alive, the four elements are together. But upon physical passing is so then which represents the comes to the body to eulogize S and cry for her. The vint is crying over the the body. Because even after passing, the soul is still connected to the body and it grieves the loss of the body. Light them. So, and there's a lot more to be said about this. A lot of what we know about mourning in Jewish ritual has to do with this story and how Aram represents the soul grieving the loss of uh Sod who represents the body. But that's not what we're going to focus on here. According to this paradigm that Abraham is soul, Sarah is body. We can now no longer easily understand what it means when it says not this para, not even last para. I think I think it was part anything Hashem tells anything that your wife S tells you listen to her voice I'm going to explain the question is okay but at any rate um how can the soul be told to listen to the body you would think that that's where all the problems start is The soul comes down for a mission and it knows intuitively what to do and the body is the one with all of the temptations and the desires and it and and and it uh impedes the soul doing its mission. Okay. face from it's known there's a explanation from the on the [snorts] when you see the enemy when you see the donkey of your enemy when you see the rest of the verses you see the donkey of your enemy crouching beneath its load and you may refrain you may your first impulse may be to refrain from helping it but you should surely help it so the bump broke it down like this when you see is donkey. When you look at your means physicality, you look at your own physicality. So is donkey, but it's also physicality. You look at your own physicality. You see it as your enemy. Not your not your don not your enemy's donkey, but rather you see your corporeality as your enemy. He's your enemy. Why? Why would you even think that? Because at the beginning of your service of Hashem, in the beginning of your life, indeed, soul and body are antagonists to each other. They have different agendas and they are at odds with each other. And so what happens? He's crouching beneath his load. He's being crushed by his load. What is the mass? What is the load? It means the yoke, the obligations. So a person assesses that his body is being overwhelmed, overburdened by the obligations of Jewish law [snorts] is setting aside for a second that this is its burden. Meaning it's not a random burden. It's this is its burden to carry which is specifically why mitzvah were given to souls and bodies. Meaning it's not again it's not random that the body has these tasks to perform. It's because this is the only way the soul can do it is in the body is to because the point is to refine the body is but nevertheless let's set aside the fact that we all know it's for a purpose. It's for it's by design. But nevertheless, let's be real about it. The body feels that it's a burden to have to carry out all these obligations. and he doesn't want to do it. That's why we describe it as crouching under its load. Okay. So, you following this? We have a question. We know that is the S is the body and yet we which is fine, but then we have this we're trying to reconcile with this statement where Hashem tells AV listen to anything S tells you, which would mean that the soul should listen to the body. So we're going to try to answer that which doesn't seem normal to us. The soul should listen to the body. The body should listen to the soul. Okay. So we're beginning to answer that by saying a fundamental concept that the BMP taught regarding the body that the soul will see the body as an enemy. You should not see it as an enemy. Now another concept in addition to the fact that the mitzvah were specifically given to souls and bodies there's another concept which is the mitzvah require for the most part physical things and that doesn't just mean physical action mitzvah. Well what what else what other kind of mitzvah do you have? But all you know is only name of a cafer duties of the heart even mitzvah which are emotional obligations which you would say okay I understand something like putting on you need physical it's a physical object giving is a physical thing um but emotional obligations how is that physical he explains he explains for instance love of hem and aem And then also you have uh intellectual obligations like believing in Hashem's oneness. And he says in Yiddish the same thing. Even those mitzvah, [snorts] the mitzvah is that you should feel them in the physical flesh of the heart and the brain. So mitzvah are not only given to souls in bodies, but mitzvah also inherently entail making use of physical objects. And even those mitzvah that don't use physical objects, even those because because they're intellectual or emotional obligations, nevertheless, they're supposed to be felt in the physical body parts, namely the the mind and the and the heart, the brain and the heart. Um, and then he's going to give some illustrations of what that means. And we have some cool stories. There's a lot of stories this week in this uh this week's. Okay. An example a a mitzvah from the love of God in says now we know there's a physical concept and it's alluded to in the verse inv that's proverbs 15:30 and many people probably know these words because it's actually you know how you say at the end of you say a verse that has the first and last letters of your name. So many people also do the verse as the first and last letters of the Reb's name or names because the Reb has two names. So the form starts with a me ends with a me. So uh uh the illumination of the eyes gladdens the heart that means clarity in a good news fattens the bones and there's a whole story about it in gon story about zakai when the Roman emperor who became an emperor at that moment at any rate the point is that fetain good news makes the bones fat itself and that's the story in base from a good news it physically changed him. It's talking about the Roman Emperor. So, so too similarly, what does it mean to sufficiently love Hashem? that that his feeling of closeness to Hashem should be recognizable in its effect on the physical body. What is that? What does that mean? We're going to get to that. We're going to actually give examples. also not just there should be a kivot a squeezing contraction of the brain and the heart when you're feeling awe. Love is expansive. Awe is constriction. It should be recognizable in his physical flesh of his brain and his heart that he is afraid shouldn't just be abstract and all of these things were shown to us by the by the is so in this concept too we find an example in the story time was had to have been one of those two days because that's when that we have these words in davening where it says and therefore we speak to we say therefore give your fear or your dread um and al was feeling the pad so much he couldn't even finish the word and he was rolling around on the floor saying couldn't even get the word out. Because of great dread, he couldn't even finish the word. It took him a while and he was finally able to say the whole word. Okay, so that's an illustration of what it means that it's having a physical effect on you. This is another story and this is from the of his grandson is in the early years of his leadership. He was sitting fabing with kavet kavt by the way is uh I think this is a brand name of I think it's wine not really but this here is like really strong stuff haste he the says today what they call it is ner by the way the call zer you know the everclear okay you guys came from New Jersey you didn't bring any everclear that's the thing when you go to New Jersey to bring everclar because in New York's I don't know. Maybe when I used to know these things, that was the thing. If you're coming from New Jersey, get is that still a thing you saw? You don't know. Okay. So, he took one glass and another glass of this really highowered 180 proof stuff. And he said, "Pour me a third glass. Then he passed his hand before his forehead and there was no trace of the effects of the alcoholic declared. So the saddic later explained that he thought about the greatness of God is of and then he felt fear dread of hem and why would that matter there's a there's a a saying from he says that a real fright can sober you up. Don't try that for DUIs or anything cuz the I don't think it'll change your blood alcohol level like [laughter] but at any rate maybe for a second he gets sobered up when from a from a from a fear the the dread will will nullify the effect that the wine has what what's the point that the this awe had such a physical effect and it was so recognizable even in on his physical body that it nullified the effect of the alcohol again don't try that you know at home [sighs and gasps] so we have an example of the altering And the word ped literally had him rolling around on the floor. We have an example of the sadic drinking enormous copious amounts of high proof alcohol and sobering up just by thinking about Hashem and the awe uh affecting him. The point of these stories is that even the mitzvah that are physical because they're supposed to have an effect on the body. Okay. is let's get some examples here. I'm going to make one second. Okay. also inaves. Okay, remember we said before that a good news, good tidings and fat in the bones. So it says that Chernobyl who was one of the early [snorts] that he became fat from saying I got fat from saying by the way he thought about the greatness of the schmebo the the great name and the greatness of hemish that you know when we say I just finished saying kadesh last week for my father so I said that probably thousands of times means um you know forever and ever but also literally means to the world so is to the world to the world to the world which is actually describing asim in that hashem's great name is getting drawn down through all the worlds is including even the physical plane of in other words from that's world world world okay and that aroused him so much with a love pleasure in keer and that affected him that he actually became physically fat from that. Okay. So the point we're making is the mitzvah um the first of all they're they're assigned to souls in bodies. Second of all even um even the mitzvah which are primarily emotional or intellectual inherently make use of physicality. Okay. So we're we're trying to explain here the role of physicality in Yiddish and you may hesitate refrain your impulse may be to refrain from helping him remember the literal case is you see your enemy's donkey I'm not helping that guy but here we're saying is not donkey it's physicality and enemy means you think of your own physicality your own body as your enemy as an impediment to your spiritual growth. And so you say, "Oh, it's being crushed under the weight of is good. Let it get crushed. I hope it has a collapse." That's what you're thinking because you don't know what the taught. Okay. Is it? So you might think, "Oh, the the the body is collapsing. Let me go focus on the soul." To the contrary, I'm going to break down the body through fasting, through mortification of the flesh, you know, whip myself, roll in the snow, all that fun stuff, put pebbles in my shoes. People used to do this. No, you got to help him. You got to refine the body. Don't hurt the body. Refine the body. Bring them aboard. Interesting thought experiment. If you would have all of the kavanas of the mitzvah, but not actually do the mitzvah. Remember one time I was a baker, we were in the catskills and we went to some camp and it was a camp. It was a Jewish camp and it was like a meditation retreat camp and there were like a lot of spiritual people there. I know what movement they were from but it's not relevant. Um it was a specific group. At any rate, so they had hello my name is tags I guess maybe was their first day there and there was a guy literally his hello my name is tag said pineotalev like hello my name is pineotalev which means like the innerness of the heart. So me and my buddy get out of the car we see this guy. Hello, Panimotv. [laughter] That's what he wanted to be called, you know. So, um, so my friend says to him, "Did you put on fill in today?" We're miffto. We were It was Friday afternoon and we were going from camp to camp putting on film with people. [snorts] So, um, normally we go to like the Russian bungalow colony and put on film with the old Russian guys playing chess. That that was easy. That was like But, uh, this this was this proved to be a little more challenging. Hello, Pino Halev. did you put on film today? He looks at us with all seriousness. He says, "In my heart, [laughter] I should have known. It says pine tale." And then my friend argued with him. I don't think you put on film. Okay. Not in front of us at least. At any rate, so the Reb says you could have all of the mitzvah and then not do the actual mitzvah. Let's say he has the thinks about all the things you're supposed to think about. that it can't fill in but he didn't put on fill in actuality is not only is he lacking the mitzvah he actually did a sin he nullified the commandment of and that's he did all the he thought all of the beautiful things you're supposed to think but he didn't physically do it not only he didn't do a mitzvah he did a sin god forbid but in contrad distinction But let's say he actually physically puts on but he didn't think the why didn't he think the either maybe he doesn't know the kavanas maybe he does know the but for whatever reason he didn't think the kavanas [laughter] an interesting expression he he's going to get punished for that. Meaning a guy who knows the kavanas and he just chooses not to think he's going to get he's going to get uh punished because he's supposed to be mav he's supposed to have the kavanas if he knows them but he did the mitzvah you cannot say he didn't do the mitzvah. So the guy who did the kavanas or thought the kavanas but he didn't do the action is nothing. The guy who did the action, he didn't think the kavanas. It's something. It's something. Okay, he should have thought the kavan is also, but [snorts] they say sometimes it's like the you go to a restaurant, you have the waiter who's like great with like the charisma and the the people skills and learns everybody's names and is making jokes and they get your order all wrong. It's like, dude, I don't I didn't come here to smoo. Like, I didn't come here to make new friends. Get my order right. Right. Or then you have the opposite waiter. No personality, you know, doesn't even smile, nothing, no eye contact, but gets your order right. That's that's 20% tip. No question. Now, the guy smooes and knows everyone's names and makes the jokes and all plus gets the order right. 25%. Okay. 30% tip. Okay. All right. So, that but the point is there's service and there's service with a smile. Beautiful. But don't do smile with no service. [laughter] Smile with no service. Oh, he thought the kavonas but he didn't put on fillin. That doesn't really help. Put on the fillin. Obviously, it's better to do it with the kavanas. Service with a smile. But if you have to choose one, service or smile, please. Let's start with service and maybe later you could add the smile. Okay. Story time again. One of the grandchildren needed to have a bris and there were two miles that they could have used. Here are the choices. There was one who was an older moy and he knew the writings of the kabalo whether he knew all of or not all of but the point is the the parts of kisariz have to do with brism he knew so he had cababalistic knowledge and then the other choice is given an there was a younger one he was more of a technical guy, but he was more simple than than the older one. So you had the older one who was more like a sage and a cabalist and the younger one who was more of a technician said he instructed take the younger and he actually gave the reason why. option upshiden because you have to make a cut in actual physicality. So when it comes to making a physical cut, you take the person who has the physical advantage. This guy might have more kavanas. It's not really relevant here. It's nice. But obviously if you can have both, you you take both. But if you have to choose one or the other, you take you you take the the physical. Okay. Now we're going back to the answer to our question everything tells you listen to her right we said before it was a little bit funny because the goof what should listen to the goof okay like say is the body is because guess what the main point of everything is the body currently meaning before Mashiach comes that is in a concealed state the primary role of the physical body is concealed we don't see it in the future after Msiah it's become it's going to become revealed [sighs and gasps] to the extent that like it says in that Shab says that the the soul is actually going to receive sustenance from the body. Like right now the body receives it receives its life. It's enlivened by the the soul. But when the body reaches full refinement, this is when takes place where souls that were going higher and higher and higher in heaven for thousands of years are going to make a U-turn because the physical body will be so refined that the only way to have another aliyah and go to a higher level will be ironically paradoxically to come back down into embodiment. That will be the highest level. And that's sort of when the Reb doesn't get into it here, but it's explained in many places said this the ultimate infinity of Hashem is in the physical world. It's where the finite is infinite where the limits are unlimited like that the place of the the holy ark is a place on one hand but it's above place. So the ultimate infinity is not um infinity in the uh infinite but it's actually [laughter] infinity in the finite. If you can wrap your head around that concept. So ultimately when Mashiah comes that's why the Hashem desires a a a um a a home in the physical realm in the lowest realm and the physical body will be so refined the souls will come back to the bodies. Okay. So that's all going to be when Mashia comes very soon but the okay now so what is but hold on a sec this story happened thousands of years ago way before Mashiach. So if you tell me the story happened after Mashiah maybe I get No, no, no. But listen, by the is by the patriarchs and the matriarchs, it's known as it's a gam actually. It's a bas the very end. It's actually the like the last line on the page. No, I'm not a Bucky Bash. I looked it up last night. Um, it's actually the last line on the on the on the page. Um, I can do the pin test if I looked it up last night, which I did. Um, that Hashem gave the patriarchs and matriarchs a foraste of Messiah before it happens. Says, "Even in this world, Hashem gave them a a little pretaste. That's why Hashem told him anything tells you listen to her because he was already at least on one level living in messianic times where the supremacy of the body will be revealed. >> [sighs and gasps] >> Um that's the end of the like I said this is from the first year before the officially uh it was mabas before the officially accepted leadership um but it's a foundational concept like I said it's it's a foundational concept of bash balv came and revolutionized this idea people thought that spirituality was aeticism uh fighting the body uh renouncing physicality the bump came and said, "We're doing away with that. We're going to incorporate the body uh no pun intended, incorporate the corporeality and uh that this is a foretaste of Msiah. I mean, the Reb doesn't say it explicitly here, but the idea of that when Msiah comes, we'll see the refinement of the physical world." So, a lot of what comes to teach us is the refinement of the physical body. And a lot of the stuff people are talking about today, by the way, that is supposedly so cutting edge or so radical, you know, the body keeps the score and all about the the the the body and it's not just the the the abstract the the the emotions, it's about the physical body. Yeah, no kidding. This is the BMP have said this and the repeated this and so important to respect the body, to cherish the body, to understand the body is not an enemy in our spiritual growth. To the contrary, the whole point of spirituality is the body. Okay? And I could forang about this for much longer, but we have a long way still to go. Okay. Um, I'm going to take a 5-second break to clear my head and we're going to start the next. All right. We're back. Hey, in the first uh wedding and engagement, dating, however you want to pronounce uh translate. Um, courtship in is in this week's wedding says that Adam and Eve were married. The medish explains that but it's really it's only in a few words in hinted format. Um it's not explicit but here we have an explicit and long story about courtship and marriage. is when Alazar told them the people there how he was sent there. I mean he was sent on from and how he came there. He said the following I came today is he I arrived today explains. What does it mean I arrived today? Yeah, no kidding. We just saw you pull up. No, no, no. Rash explains I left today and I arrived today. Now if you know anything about geography um you cannot leave where is he where was he leaving from at that time and go to um in one day it's like two weeks journey from here we learn that the uh literally it means that the the way leapt before him sad is an interesting concept. There's actually read papers about how physicists explain how it would be at least in theory. But it's not that you move fast. It's that the road contracts in front of you. There's like a a wrinkle in the time space continuum which contracts the journey. At any rate, that's not the point here. It's a miraculous thing. It's not normal. Okay. So Alazar is telling them uh Rifka's family, I experienced this miraculous quick trip. I left today. I arrived today. It means he experienced this thing that is called okay. Why did he have to have and why did he have to tell them? Okay, two questions. Why did it happen? And why did he tell them? There are two explanations. The second one is aidic explanation. And from that we're going to see the maybe the transcendence and the soulfulness of aida explanation. You know by contrast two explanations and one is the explanation you can sort of by contrast see the advantages of the explanation. Okay v. So alf the first explanation When sent Alazer to Aramar, he signed over all he signed a a contract, a document signing over all of his possessions took to help with the shiddok that when when Elazar would show up and he would show that I the that that the the prospective groom here is not just the son of a rich man. He himself is rich. These possessions belong to him. So it would help with uh closing the deal. What do you do? How do you date the document? Now you could write an earlier date, meaning a date that would be earlier than his arrival. You could write the date [snorts] when he left. Meaning you could write the contract that day, the day of his leaving and date it that day. Write the date as that day. So here I said two weeks. It's ziten. Why? But why should he sign away his his possessions for those extra 17 days in which the the the trip takes two and a half weeks? You understand? If Aram signs over his possessions to Yeitz on the day on that very day and hands the the the contract to Eleazar, what's going to happen is normally naturally it takes 17 days to get there. So for 17 days, you know how much you know you can do business with that? That's uh that why would you make yourself not liquid? He doesn't need it for 17 more days and for 17 days basically all that money is just hanging there. Can't be used by anyone. not like especially what the Mishna says. You're supposed to, it's a spiritual thing. It's not stinginess. You're supposed to treasure your possessions because you're supposed to see how powerful it is as a tool to serve Hashem. So, you shouldn't take it lightly. So, to sign away all your possessions for 17 days needlessly, no, you don't do that. It's understood. Yeah. From the time that Eleazar arrives in the the the possessions have to belong to that that we get but but why an extra 17 days before his arrival? Why would you do that? Okay. So that's if you would date it the date that he left. Now what's the other option? You could post date it post-dated checks, right? You could write a later date. He could sign the document the day Alzar leaves and then put the date later, meaning the date of the arrival is there's a name for it. It's called a head check. Now, it's technically permissible to do such a thing, but it's not the smoothest thing. So just wrote the date of the actual drafting of the document and that's why there had to be uh this miraculous shortening of the way so that he shouldn't lose control of his possessions needlessly for extra time. So when Elazar arrived there he was afraid Rifka's father her brother they were both characters they're going to ask him how is it possible that the that the date of the document is day you you're from you came from 17 days journey away. How is the document dated today? That's a post-dated document. And like we said, technically you could get away with it, but for someone on a level, that seems like falsehood. You're saying something that's not 100% true. So Eleazar preempted that whole thing and he just he told them straight up don't ask me any questions you want to know why I left today I arrived today that's how I have in my hand a document that's dated today even though I came from 17 days away because it took me one day we signed the document today I left today and I arrived today that's why okay that was the first explanation [sighs] I don't know how you would describe that type of explanation but apparently according to the Reb it's not the explanation okay but base the second one is the explanation okay is given says that uh this is from the maj that Rifka in her home by Basul. Bassoul was a gangster. He was a bad guy. Very, very bad guy. Um, she was like a rose among the thorns. What does that mean? She was the one redeeming righteous person surrounded by a bunch of low lives. That's true. But the metaphor is a lot more precise than that. There among the thorns is where the rose grows. Not by accident. Halton unv and the thorns actually um protect the roses growth. That's what the the thorns are there naturally for it to protect the rose. Now Bul and Loveven were not good people. They were the opposite of good people. So, it's not like they were intentionally or um for the right reasons trying to protect her. But the reality is, I mean, they were crazy, but they were protecting. Ultimately, the most protection she needed was from them. But the point is the thorns around the rose were sort of like keeping anyone else from messing with her as well. You have to have a valid argument to extract the rose from there. Because the thorns won't let why won't they let plots because of the rose the whole area gets watered. You understand spiritually what this means? Because of Rifka, because of her spiritual power, there was incredible spiritual flow of energy to that place, which obviously Love and Bassul were not into the spirituality of it. They were into cashing it in into material prosperity as all wicked people are. But the point is they knew she was the the the goose that lays the golden egg. They had their, you know, it was self- serving, but they were protecting her. They want they wanted to keep her there. So the thorns also live because of the water that the the rose gets. Okay. Technically, legally, 3 years old is the earliest age that a girl can be married. Now, we have to explain what that even means because we know [snorts] that they did not consummate their marriage for another 10 years. But we're talking about is entering into the legal status of being [snorts] a married woman. That hahically happens at three years old. For whatever reason, please don't ask me too many questions, Aram sensed when Rifka was three, there's a wife for Yetszuk for whatever reason before she was three, he couldn't that didn't show up on his radar. He probably knew she existed. She was a relative. Um he probably got the WhatsApp for the kiddish. But um when she was three something shifted meaning Toyota dictates the reality and the truth. when she became three then he knew that she is a possible wife but he didn't know that before that he only knew that at that point there's another dimension to this story as well that doesn't mention here but in medroshim it says that actually um there was another reason for the emergency which was that she was in danger of being abused by Bul school um when she turned three. But the point is none of this really got activated from a again I don't know how these spiritual things work so don't ask me too many questions but spiritually it was the clock didn't start ticking until she turned three that argument the argument that she's marriageable was the necessary argument and for extracting her from the thorns. In other words, you cannot it's not about loving and basul. They're irrelevant. The point is there's a whole debate going on in heaven and you have to justify removing Rifka from these clippers who are siphoning off of her. So the argument is the argument that defeats the clipper is she's marriageable now we're bringing her into marriage to Elazar. So immediately when when a became aware of that status shift, he said to Alazar immediately, "Go to my land, the place where I was born, go get a wife for my son for now, if there wouldn't have been the miraculous shortening of the way, would have remained with love and immul for extra time and it was not a safe place. It was not a it was like I said it was they were very dangerous people. So Aram didn't know it wasn't activated by him this whole idea of her popping up on his radar until she turned three. Okay, go get her. But then she's going to be three and 17 days. When you say 17 days, those 17 days are are precious. Why should she sit in this terrible place for an extra? It was bad enough she had to be there for 3 years, but now she should set sit for an extra 17 days. He couldn't begin the process until she was three. And that's why there had to be the miraculous shortening of the way. So she shouldn't have to remain there any extra time. And when Elazar arrived, he understood. Elazar knew that love and basul were going to argue let her stay a little bit longer which in actuality they did say that let her stay a little bit longer. [snorts] So that's why he said immediately ah he wanted to pre preempt it today and you should know I love that expression. This is an issue of that go that comes to minutes. Don't tell me she's going to stay for for for for a year. We're we're dealing with precious minutes. Every minute she stays here is is a pity. And the greatest proof Elazar says is look, Hashem did a miracle for me. There's this axiom that Hashem doesn't do gratuitous miracles. If Hashem does a miracle, it's for a reason. So the fact that Hashem did a miracle for me is a proof that this is something that cannot wait. She has to but she has to leave now. Okay. Now we're going to make it practical. The open direction or teaching from this to story for us and for future generations is [snorts] what should we learn from this interesting story but what are we supposed to take away? [sighs] There's a concept that the deeds of the fathers are an indication for the children. This is from the Ramban and it's a idea that things that happen in the lives of the patriarchs matrix create templates that are then replicated in a sort of like a a pattern. [snorts] So when you learn about the the obvious things that happened to them um you you learn about what is happening to us in Bul's just like there was a miraculous shortening of the journey for Alazar in order that she shouldn't remain one extra minute in Basul's house. That is also something that exists in our case. What is that? He shouldn't be despondent about the darkness of Hashem is going to hasten the redemption that you shouldn't remain one extra minute in. So is the paradigm or the archetype of every exile. And with it says when they left it was on that very day. Meaning on that very day that you know the basically the the buzzer beater. You guys watch basketball? The buzzer beater. Okay. Um Like the med says, Hashem did not hold them back even for one blink of an eye. However short that amount of time is, it wasn't even one blink of an eye extra longer. So too, Hashem promises us that in the coming redemption, just as in the Exodus from Egypt, I will show you wonders when Msiah comes. And in a similar way in our current exile, we just have to finish up the little jars. It's a reference to but the little details and then boom, we go out without any extra delay. Okay. Okay. And that's from Parasiml. Okay. Going to take a 5second break. We're going to start the next done two so far. What was the first one about? I'm very impressed the ladies didn't say it was about listening to your wife. Very good. [laughter] Yes. Body and soul. Yeah. The supremacy of the body. Listen to your body. Cherish your body. Incorporate the body to your service of Hashem. Second was about what? Yeah. The the how quickly redemption will come. Even if Why does Hashem like suspense? You know why? It's because we always get ready for Shabas no matter how late it is. You know, nowadays the candle lighting is like at 4, whatever, but in the summer and the candle lighting is like 8:00 and still it's like, "Do someone turn on the ch? Someone [laughter] turn on the ch?" I don't know. So 8:00 p.m. but always last minute. So I think Hashem is Hashem is Jewish. Clearly he's waiting till the last second. Okay. Okay. Page 36. [snorts] the office. Um it says about uh the para of Zen that uh more precious ambassador better the the uh speech the talk the conversation of the slaves of the patriarchs is more precious than the Torah of the children. What does that mean? That means we're about to explain, but I'll just say it before I read the Yiddish. Eleazar's story is told twice. When it happens and then when he retells it. A lot of words. So, you have a story that's told by a servant of one of the patriarchs and to gives it tons of words. Then in contrast you have halas that are actually telling us how to live and function and those can be conveyed through one word and you have to unpack it with the methods of the oral tradition to even know what it's talking about. So it's interesting discrepancy. [snorts] Okay. Many laws of tora you learn from like an extra letter like literally an extra letter not even a word that means the of the children is it said short and it's said through hints that's the fundamental difference between the written and the oral Torah The oral law is at length and detailed and uh the written Torah is short and includes hints. And yet in contrast the story of Elazar is told at length. So Elazar's story, not only is it told at length, even if it would be told just one time. The one time it's told, it's told very lengthy with lots of details, but it's told with lots of details twice. First it says it when it happened. Then it says it when then he conveys it, tells them what happened. So the devil says like this. It's interesting. Yeah. There's there's a general concept that this reflects on the preciousness of the speech of the servants of the patriarchs. But let's get real specific because what's the the primary example of this principle? It's in the context of a wedding of a marriage. And that is significant. in a we're talking about we're talking about a wedding logically concludes not only do we learn from this the preciousness of the speech of the servants of the patriarchs we also learn from this the importance of a wedding that where do we see this uncharacteristic lack of economy of language in the Toyota to where the toy is giving So many words to talk to to talk about something. We we see it specifically in relation to a wedding and that conveys to us the absolute importance of marriage. The declaring is gate is a Jew goes to build a Jewish home meaning to start a family and that's a an eternal edifice because he's doing it according to is a everliving Torah given by an everliving God. which causes that those who follow it are also ever living. And then the house is an eternal house which by the way according to only something that is eternal is called truly alive. Okay. Ask an Mishkal. Okay, now let's break down the story. We're talking about building a house on the foundations of Tyra. So Aliazzer gave Rifka, he gave her some gifts. One of the gifts is a nose ring which weighs a Becca. He gave her two what? bracelets that uh they weigh 10. [clears throat] It was in order it was the betroal. The betroal you have to give something of value. The symbolism was that the nose ring which weighs a becka which is a half shackle is representative of the half shackle becca golgalis that was collected in the wilderness. mitzvah, which also in turn represents the mitzvah of charity. And is called the general mitzvah, the ultimate. By the way, um yeah, not going to get into a whole lengthy explanation of this, but explains in Tanya that saddula is called ham mitzvah, the mitzvah, meaning the mitzvah par excellence, the quintessential mitzvah, because the whole purpose of mitzvah is to refine physicality. And there's no mitzvah that packs more of a wallup when it comes to transforming physicality than sedoka because you had to put in physical energy to earn it. And then when you have it, you could have procured your own physical needs and then you give it to someone else to procure their physical needs. So it's very very physical. I me I'm mentioning that because it's connected to the first that we learned the importance of physicality. At any rate, so saddula is considered the ultimate mitzvah, the quintessential mitzvah, and that is what's represented by the beus and that is what's represented in turn by the nasim of Becca Mishkal. So he gave her one gift which represents the mitzvah. And then the two uh bracelets which weigh 10 skull represents the two tablets with the ten commandments which represents. So one gift represents mitzvah, one gift represents and Jews received upon themselves at the time of the revelation at at Sinai. They received upon themselves the Torah with Kabala soil with acceptance of the yoke of heaven. They said we will do before we will understand because the foundation of building a Jewish home is accepted with an acceptance of the yoke of heaven with discipline with devotion. Okay. Why did he give two bracelets which represent the two tablets? I know Mel Brook says there were three tablets and on the tablets the ten commandments were not written. They were carved. They were engraved. What's the reason? tint of paramet written tyra in general is ink on parchment like a safer tra is the you have one thing which is the ink you have the other thing which is the parchment and together you put them together and you have words. Interestingly, in the oral law is you also have two different entities, the speech of the person who learns the two different things. So written Torah, you have two different things. You have the ink and the parchment. Oral Torah, you have two different things. You have the speech and the person. But in contrast, the ten commandments on the two tablets they were engraved letters. The letters were not a separate entity from that which the letters were on. Rather, it was all one thing. It's called mina from it itself. What's the concept of engraved letters in terms of our service of God? talk says so good morning actually asks I won't get into the whole lengthy explanation but it asks if a Torah scholar can forego the honor due to him and the argument that he can because one argument is he can't because it's not his honor it's so what right does he have to forgo that honor But the argument that he can forgo that honor is from the first chapter of Psalms. So it says in his he uh he he meditates day and night. So it says means the person's it started off as when he just wanted to learn it. It was Hashem's but after he actually puts in the sweat equity then it becomes the person's. So that's the argument that he could actually forgo the honor due to a Torah scholar. So he and his to become one. The way that we learn it, it become you'll learn ped of Tanya. It talks about it's like food that you eat and you metabolize it and becomes part of your flesh and blood. The you learn isn't separate from you. It actually becomes part of your of your wiring. That's why Elazu specifically gave this gift, the bracelets, the two bracelets which represent the two tablets of because he was making a a statement about how you build a Jewish home that a Jewish home a Jewish home has to be built on the foundations of it's not enough that he's doing with with discipline and yet he and remain two separate entities even though they they they are they fit together. No, he and have to become one thing to make yourself into he becomes this is such a powerful statement here. He the person the individual Jew or she becomes one with that's that's wild that's really that's a radical statement but that's what is required in [snorts] order to build a Jewish home that's going to be eternal like the Torah is eternal like Hashem is eternal like the Jewish people are eternal in other words it means that Tory is not an incidental thing to your home oh how is it a Jewish home oh because we have some Yiddish kite involved no no every single aspect of life is permeated with Yiddish kite to the point where that is the essence of everything even the so-called mundane things there's actually no secular truly secular aspect of the Jewish home it's all holy okay continue this is why we say that the speech of the servants of the patriarchs is more precious even than the of the children and we see this in the context of what story a story of a wedding particularly's wedding is why does it say the servants of the patriarchs because a servant an avid is the concept of accepting the yoke when is also subjugating yourself with kabala soil in the forementioned manner of engraved letters where it becomes one with you and that's the foundation to so we're putting together the two parts of the shall be an avid with and then you'll have you'll have a home that follows and the Reb spells it out. Now, when you have the Kabala and you you when you put down the foundations and a manner of acceptance of the yoke and and it's very clear, it's very detailed. It's not just something you, you know, you gloss over and you have a five minute speech from a teacher before the and you repeat it once and you repeat it another time. Then you can have a a home that follows the following detailed courts and that are hinted to short and and uh and with hints in the talk about we had this in the first and the the Z says Hashem looked into the to create the world and the Reb actually used the English word back there in the braces blueprint. print that hashem used as his blueprint to create the world. Okay. And conversely also says Hashem looks in the creates the world. The person looks in the is the world. He keeps the world going. The world that Hashem created as I mentioned the world subsists because a person is learning is the foundation of the world is and so too in the microcosm. So the macrocosm of the world you know at large exists because of tyra. Also in the microcosm, your world, your little world, your home, your family that you are building when you get married, that also exists because of when he looks into the and he does it with a spirit of acceptance of the yoke and he does it in a manner of an eternal edifice. develop that's how the world his microcosm gets built is an house that he builds is an eternal house and it will not be forgotten from your children your children's children um for forever uh with a upright generation which will be blessed okay so that was a from para no not from para from uh not from a shabas from. Okay. [sighs] All right. So, the first was about >> listen to your wife. Very good. Smart. Okay. Um the the supremacy of the body, the ultimate point of physicality. The body keeps the score. Okay. Second su is about now we already forgot. >> Yeah. the the quickness of gulah the the buzzer beater right that hashem took Rifka out at the last minute he will not leave us in gullus one extra second okay and then the third sik which we just learned Torah foundation of the home to have an eternal home has to be based on Torah and not just a little bit of Torah sprinkled in but kobal soil you have to accept tora with a sense of nas of anishma and of course we learn we understand but after the fact not as a condition to acceptance Okay. And it al should be carved in m oay like like uh carved letters. Okay. Y base [snorts] [sighs] we're doing well over here. Okay. Y base. This is actually the last but it's I think longer than all the other ones. All right. Somebody asked me about next week. uh because I said I have to rush to the kinis and she asked me well do you have to learn all the sifas I said I mean I don't have to do anything I don't have to show up but the point of this project when I started this this year with paras was I wanted to have a dar shalom I wanted to have a complete project where we had the entirety of u first of all so we could all sort of congratulate each other at the end and make a seeum which god willing we'll do uh but also So, you know, in the future, if anyone's learning any of the from, they should be able to look it up and they shouldn't say, "Oh, he didn't do that one. That was the one that he didn't do." So, we're doing all of them. Okay. Page 38. Chapter 12. Okay. In this week's para tells Elazar a slave before he sends him on the mission to go find a wife. He says, "Place your hand under my thigh." [snorts] When he swears an oath, he makes him swear an oath and he says, "Place your hand under my thigh in order to take the oath." The lanterns the you know what is about what are oaths. [snorts] It's a good place to learn about how to take an oath. So in the gores which talks about oaths it says um that when Eleazar swore he swore an oath and he placed his hand under Aram's thigh which as is going to be explained means he took hold of his brisma which sounds very strange to us that when you make an oath you have to hold a holy object says What's a holy object? A Torah scroll. is on is and any judge who administers an oath without somebody holding a Torah scroll has aired and they have to do a redo. However, that's what papa says. The does not conclude in accordance with that concludes. Yeah. In the first case is the preferable choice for the for holding a a holy object at the time of taking an oath. But after the fact second best and also acceptable [snorts] is fillain. You could hold fillain while you swear the oath. That would also be okay. [sighs] And a Torah scholar and with a with a Torah scholar is a special dispensation. He can even in the first case swear on. Now the context if you look there in the is talking about someone who takes an oath because he was a mixand we have two questions. Let me explain before we get to the two questions. Ma means I admit means partially means someone says to you, um, you owe me $200. Say, I do not owe you a hundred. That's called Mixus. A complete denial is one thing. A partial denial is another thing. And to affirm the statement of one who makes a partial deni denial, he needs the person who makes that denial is obligated to take an oath. If he doesn't want to take an oath, then he he loses the the argument. Okay. So two questions. If you look there in the so there's a question tus asks. The original context was not a situation when Eleazar was swearing. It wasn't because he got himself into a situation where he had to swear in order to clarify a partial admission. That wasn't the context. So Tesus asks is of so then why does the gum learn from that case the law of Mixus? It's not the original context. There are other types of shu like a person makes a statement. He wants to take an oath to to swear that what I'm saying is true. Or a person was watching an object for somebody and he he he lost it and he wants to he say it's not my fault. U depending on the type of watchman that he was. At any rate, there are different cases of oaths. Why doesn't the GT say that it applies to those cases only which wasn't even the case in the the original the original proof text and and the the funny thing is doesn't answer the question it doesn't have an answer. Interesting question. Okay. Base second question. didn't have a he didn't have a different so then where do they get it that it's specifically in other words I get it why a used that was his only mitzvah but then from there you learn and like those two specific things interesting. Okay, [snorts] so those are two questions. One is why does the gamut learn that this is a a law about made a partial admission when that wasn't even the case in the original? And why does the Guma learn that the holy object that one holds when one takes an oath is a seafo or fillin when that wasn't also that wasn't in the the original. Okay. declar [sighs] the concept of an oath is explained in the mimer and even more in at length in detail in the mimer. And it it [clears throat] uh the footnote here the citation 29 is the wrote he wrote commentaries on Tanya summaries of Tanya. So you know so the beginning of Tanya it says we learn in the end of chapter 3 of say they make him take an oath the is is administering an oath before it comes to the world be righteous don't be uh don't be don't be wicked okay so the explains over there what does it mean I say what does that mean they give him an oath mashian is an oath. So he explains there that is so it you know you turn the shin to a sin but it's related to the word satisfied satiated as an oath satiates one. What does it mean? An oath empowers one. When you take an oath, it's not just obligating you. It's actually empowering you to carry out the thing that you took the oath for. A higher power than yourself is infused in you when you take the oath. That's why you're allowed to take an oath to do a mitzvah, which why would that need to even be told to us? Because you already swore to do the mitzvah. Why? Because when you take a on a personal level, you're adding, you're supplementing it, giving yourself even greater empowerment. That's why you're allowed to do it. Is you're not allowed to swear. You're not going to keep to you can't swear against what you already swore at to. But you could double up and you [snorts] could swear to do a mitzvah even though you're already sworn. And that's also what it means in the beginning of Tanya that uh they they give him an oath. It means they empower him. They give him a boost to bead in Russia. and mitten mention the now in order that that power should actually connect down here because you know we talk a lot about like spiritual energies can remain aloof we call it makif doesn't really settle in so it's there but like yeah you have it in your account but you can't make a withdrawal so what good is it to you so in order that it should get absorbed basically You should get that power in a way that you could use it practically. We need a bridge to connect the person with the power. He's getting the extra extra infusion of power but not necessarily is that going to manifest in his actual life. So we need something to help him bring it into physicality. This interesting again the theme of physicality that we have had a couple of times in the sikas this week is a mitzvah the bridge that spans between spiritual and physical is a mitzvah why we said this in the first when we talking about the importance of the body we're giving a little bit different signal and different expression here but it it calls calls the the calls mitzvah Hashem's emissaries. Hashem says, "Honor my mitzvah." And and what does that mean? One's emissary is as oneself. So the mitzvah are like Hashem himself. mitzvah can bring down and connect that spiritual power to the physical person. That's why when you take an oath, you have to grasp a physical object because when you hold a mitzvah object in your in your hand, Then you're drawing down in a physical vessel that spiritual power that extra infusion of empowerment. Now that explains in general the spiritual mechanics behind grasping a holy object when you take an oath. But why specifically? [snorts] by those objects. It says, "Shem did not create anything for not." It's a good shamas. Anywhere a Jew finds himself, therefore he [snorts] must make that place holy, the physical place. And he has to use the which means the oath. But it also means the extra power which comes to him from above. He has to use it in the world. He has to take that power bring it down into the world. is the connection. The specific medium of connection that brings that spiritual power through the person into the world is tora is in this case the intermediary. Uh if you want a nice long Yiddish word that after olive they didn't use words like this anymore. They just use leneshcraft a a connecting power that connects Hashem to the world like it says Hashem looked into the and he made the world. So the mitzvah is the connector between this spiritual power, this abstract lofty spiritual energy and bringing it into the physical world. Now we understand according to this we will understand why we used represents Why is that a famous mimer? Because that's the bar mitzvah mimer. You still remember your bar mitzvah mimer? Well, I'm Yeah, very good. You do remember it. >> Oh, very good. Keep going. >> Yes. So it starts off the mitzvah. Rael Yazer says the Jews say to Hashem, "Master of the world, we want to learn to day and night, but we don't have time." Well, we don't have time. We're we're checking our social media. No, we we're working. We have unfortunately we have obligations in this world that we have to tend to. um we would love to learn to every single moment. So, Hashem says to the Jewish people, okay, I got a solution for you. Perform the mitzvah, which only takes, you know, short amount of time [snorts] relatively, and I will consider it as if you learn to day and night. And by the way, it's interesting you have here the official u Yiddish from the Mugadika version here. I don't know if that matches the Yiddish version the boys use for the we said all this. Okay. Um I'm going to go to the end of the parenthesis. So you understand from this that is the same thing as because we want to learn day and night. Hashem gives us fill in as the way to accomplish that or is tantamount to accomplishing that. So we see that is equin is equivalent to to what's the explanation he speaks about this in the m of is to draw down into mid to draw down intellect into emotion and does the similar does a similar thing when a person down here puts on it causes so to speak puts on like it talks about in the whatever Hashem tells us to do really he does and when we do it it causes him to do it in fill in is thereion So you want to get into the cabalistic mechanics what's talking about here when it says that puts on what it means is that the intellectual energies are brought down to the emotional plane and that's what fillain doesm is and that's why if you hold fill in when you're making an oath that will help you or facilitate drawing down because fillain is subjugating the mind and heart to Hashem. That is what will accomplish the connection between that lofty spiritual power, that infusion of extra spiritual power and the physical world. That is done through or through either way they both accomplish. But to use to do that is only after the fact. Just like the original case where says the Jews wanted initially to learn all day and night, but since they didn't have enough time is all fine after the fact. So then it's also fine. It's also okay for they could use instead to at least at the beginning of the day [snorts] subjugate the mind and hearten and then it remains the effect remains after for the rest of the day via d design in the proper way the way that it needs to be. Okay. So now we understand what Tira and Fillain do. Fillain is sort of like the second best but uh Tyra is the the model of drawing down the spiritual into the physical which is after all the whole concept of the shwa. The shwa is giving him a boost of spiritual energy. But in order that it should be absorbed in a way that he could actually feel it and use it we need that grasping that holy object. And why why not any holy object? Why not? Why? because specifically which represent the drawing down of why is it enough that if he's a he can use fillin even as a first choice because we said fillain is only second best to say for but with the you could use fillain as a first choice as shabas says in that as Torah scholar is called shabas. He's called shabas. It's a story shouldn't be telling extra stories on the day when we have so many sas but the bal once saw somebody breaking shabas and he was very troubled because he taught you don't see something unless you have it in yourself and he was trying to think where did he have even bidas on a subtle level shabas desecration in his own life and then he remembered that the zire says that atm is called shabas he remembers he once allowed somebody to mistreat And that was a shabas in a metaphorical sense. Okay. So are called shabas and of and not only in but you also find in a similar concept. A scholar came as a guest and they fed him a big meal. He said, "Where do you get such a big meal from? You didn't know I was coming." They said, "No, this was the Shabas meal that we had ready." But when you showed up, we gave you the Shabas meal. Similar concept is Shabas. So the meal that you were going to have for Shabas, okay, you have it for the Shabas. Is what's a connection between Torah scholar and Shabas? Shabas is men and Shabas. You are separated from weekly mundane business. Thus, separate from material things. is similar. He's also separate from the material world. That's why also does not need a Torah Torah scroll to make an oath because what is a like we explained is the connector between the spiritual powers and the physical world. But since he is already in a sort of transcendent state where he's removed from the world, He doesn't need to bring it down as low. He doesn't need the full power of the he can manage it with with within. Yeah, he needs something. He needs at least the fill in his heart because subjugates his head in his heart mention and that facilitates the connection of that higher power to the person. We distinguish here that fillain is enough to bring down that spiritual power to connect it to the person. But say for is is is even more powerful that brings that spiritual power down into connection with the world which is even lower. That's outside of the person person's environment physical world itself. The is sort of aloof from the world. So he doesn't need to bring the the the the spiritual power down as low. Okay. when he administered the hotel, he didn't have a safer. He didn't have he only had his famous question. Ino performed all of the mitzvah without being commanded. All of the office did all of the mitzvah without being commanded. Why did he wait for me? Why didn't he do that until he was commanded? of them is but the answer is you have to understand the difference between the mitzvah that exist or the mitzvah the way they exist after mountain and the way the mitzvah existed pre- mountain like the med says metaphorically that before Mount Toya, there was a king who decreed that the residents of Rome won't go down to Syria and the residents of Syria won't go up to Rome. Thus, it's a symbolism that spirituality and physicality are two separate plains. Never the twin shall meet by the mountain was the nullification of that decree. It became possible for spiritual and material to mix. After mata, it became possible that if a Jew uses a physical object to do a mitzvah, that physical object becomes holy. Holiness is a spiritual designation. Before mata, holiness only existed in the spiritual realm. So there's no such thing as a physical thing that's holy. That's that's an oxymoron, physical and holy. Matu is the concept that there could be physical objects and they could also be holy. Now that the obvious did even though yes they did perform them in some physical way but it didn't have any connection to the physicality itself the physical object would remain mundane but after now any Jew does a mitzvah, the physical object that is used in the mitzvah becomes holy. And that's why even after he performs the mitzvah, the the object remains it retains some degree of holiness. What is it? So because the were doing the mitzvah with their own power, which is an illustration of their incredible sensitivity, that they even knew to do the mitzvah without being commanded explicitly to do them. So it's it's it's wonderful that they intuited to do the mitzvah, but the the the limitation was it was coming from their own power. So the mitzvah did not have that effect on the world. after mount to where the mitzvah are being commanded to us. It's coming from Hashem's power. Now any who does a mitzvah, it has a a lasting effect on the physicality which is entailed in doing the mitzvah. Okay. We said earlier this concept of that what the obvious do in their lifetime creates a pattern sort of like fractals and mathematics like repeating patterns in in in our lives. Another thing is it's not just it it sets up a pattern, it empowers us. It gives us the ability to follow in that pattern. The obvious had to have one mitzvah that was similar, not completely identical because they're obviously two different eras of reality. Before mountain tit, after mountain tighter, that was like the watershed event. Reality completely changed. But you might even say the there was more of a change in the world before mountain tighter to after mountain tit than there was a change in the world before creation to after creation. But that's another discussion for another time. [gasps] And yet the obvious had to have one mitzvah because of my simil that that that our forefathers have to have a template for the patterns that we follow. They had to have one mitzvah at least that was similar to mitzvah that are done after mats is the mitzvah. The one mitzvah that the aves had that resembled the mitzvah, all of the mitzvah that we do after Sinai was the mitzvah of circumcision because circumcision really is like the paradigm of making the physical holy. It's part of the physical body, part of the physical body that's normally associated with very physical urges and the whole thing is made holy. is the isn't just at the time the mitzvah is performed remains permanent. And by the way, that's the way all mitzvah are after that's why told place your hand on my because the holiness of that mitzvah remained after and it was there in that in that body part even after he did the mitzvah. So circumcision was different. It was unique among all the mitzvah that the obvious did because it became it came about from a command from Hashem not from their own intuition. That's why waited. Of course, he was intuitively aware of brisma. He knew if he could eat matzan pesa hundreds of years before the exodus, he could know about a brisma. But he waited until he was commanded because it's a oneshot deal. And he wanted to do it as a commandment. He wanted to have that aspect of the physical being affected by a power greater than himself. circumcision was completely different than any of the other mitzvah that did for that [clears throat] he needed a special power from above. Now we can understand why 's oath that he administered to entail the circumcision. Even though today we would use a safer is given in the concept of circumcision then was this concept of bringing down spirituality holiness into the physical. which is the same thing that Mata accomplished and the same thing that our mitzvah do now. Bringing spirituality into the physical demo is clawless because then basically the only mitzvah that they had which embodied the nature of mitzvah post to was was mitzvah. So really what in in that era before mountain Toyota what what was their safer Toyota so to speak what was the ultimate embodiment of Toyota like for us it's the embodiment of the toy is the safer Toyota for them the the only thing they had which was the embodiment of if we're looking at as that power that is brought down into the physical the only thing they had that did that was mitzvah because it was the only thing they were commanded [snorts] us up. Now, this is fun. Remember our first question was how come is [snorts] that our first question or second question. I got to flip back. Uh got to flip back. Where where is where do we have the questions? Uh the first question was dashifas. Yeah. Uh why do we learn? Yeah, that was our first question. Why do we learn made of mitz? Why not other types of shw that are also made? Okay. So where are we? What? Okay. Okay. We're now going to learn I guess you could call this a homalical meaning of maidas. I I explained earlier very quickly maidus means guy says you owe me 200. I don't owe you 200 I owe you 100. So he's ma he admits but mix partially partial admission. So from the story of a gonas learns about the requirements for an oath taken by someone who makes a partial admission. Interesting. Why not other types of oaths? So here's what it means for us in our service of God. And also it we're learning from this how when we get that extra boost which we said a an oath represents getting the extra boost how that has to do with what does it have to do with a partial admission is so what does it mean in spiritual terms like this Shem gave me a pure soul. For what purpose? So it should have an elevation. He sent it down here. you would say to have an elevation like it says it's a from I believe but Hashem prefaces and I pay back Hashem gives every yid the power to do every mitzvah. So when you're doing the mitzvah, you're paying him back with the power that he lended you, loaned you. It's a it's a it's a loan. It's on loan. All the powers that you have are on loan. And Hashem says, "Pay me back in which means use these powers for service of Hashem." Okay? So remember this usually is like a monetary claim. So we're setting up a little scenario here of like a monetary situation between the person and Hashem. Hashem gave you a loan. What's the loan? All of your talents and your powers and your strengths and your uh resources and your connections or whatever it is that you have. That's all on loan. And what and and you're supposed to you have to pay it back. How do you pay it back? When you use those abilities to serve him, that's how you pay him back. So he gave you a certain talent. You use that talent to glorify Hashem. That's called paying back the loan. Okay? Like the said in the names and the name of the previous dancing around is called we actually mentioned this in parishes. Gracious few weeks ago is called the seventh month is also satisfied satiated. It's full of spiritual energy which you draw down during that month and then you use for the rest of the year. So during a person gets a boost of energy which he uses for the rest of the year and that's given means on loan on credit it's on credit you know like you run up a a tab at the store and then you pay you know then they send you a bill at the end of the month here's how much you owe us of means a credit month And you have to like he went back and he retraced his steps on his journey. On his way back, he paid back all of his loans. That's why he went back to the same taverns when he came back from he went to the same taverns that he visited on the way down there because when he went down there, he was poor. When he came back, he was rich. He had to pay all the bills to all the creditors. [snorts] So, so means loans that you're dancing and Hashem is giving you spiritual energy for the year, but now you got to pay it back. How do you pay it back? By using it. Now, even though the reality is this is all given on credit from Hashem and Hashem gave him all this extra spiritual energy, it's possible the is going to come and get the person to start lying and he's going to say, "Yeah, Hashem gave me a boost." But you're going to say, "Everything I have is from Hashem. It's not all from Hashem. Some of it's me. Some of it's me. That his own ability, his own strength brought him what he has a person who completely denies as there's no such thing actually. Interesting psychological insight from a person will not be that in front [snorts] of his creditor psychologically say nobody's going to say what I don't owe you anything he's going to say I don't know if I owed you anything it was probably half of that amount So what's the niml here? A Jew is not going to completely deny Hashem. He's not going to say Hashem had nothing to do with my success. Even when he's sin sinning, the soul is seeing godliness. So it's impossible to completely deny standing in front of the creditor may and we know a person [gasps] will not be so in front of his creditor even a really [snorts] light person you know a morally uh weak morally person who takes morality very lightly. Even that person won't completely lie in front of their creditor. He won't completely deny but rather what he he'll give a partial admission in certain areas. He'll say, "Well, that one I definitely did myself." [laughter] Certain areas he says, "Look, I'm the balabos. I'm I'm the owner here. I earned this. I built this." And and Hashem doesn't have a say. I get to do my own thing here cuz look, that thing Hashem gave me, I owe him. I owe him. I got to use it his way. But this thing, you [snorts] know, that was my thing. So I I can do how I want to listen to what what the Rev is describing here. Okay. Listen to this guy. Yeah. He dins. He learns. But then after and learning he thinks after showing them I I just paid I paid him in the like but now the rest of the day has to do with my my own power meaning to say he's lying or he's denying about the rest. So he admits there's a certain obligation to to d to learn to but that obligation has its limits. He says like this listen I'm not going to do any of us. I'm not going to break any prohibitions. He's a guy. He's not going to do a He learns does mitzvah. So he thinks to himself, I gave everything he deserves. The rest is his own power, the person's own power. mocked but we tell them no everything you have you're in fact your entire existence it's not from yourself no you have to admit the whole thing is from Hashem you have to pay Hashem everything don't tell me what are you talking about I give Hashem so much every day I learn every day I den He trust me I I'm I'm I'm I'm good with my debts. What are you talking about? If you spent every single second doing nothing but serving Hashem, you would just be breaking even. And it doesn't mean you have to do it and learn all day. It could mean that you work also, but even in the way you're working that that's also a hashem. The point is, don't tell me that you're going to carve out some time for Hashem and think that you're not still indebted. If you use every single thing you have and every moment that you were given to serve Hashem, you you're you're just paying your bills. That's why we need the Okay. So the maid makes a situation here. Hashem gave the person a loan. He gave him everything that that that the person has. Person says, "I admit Hashem gave me a lot. He gave me a lot. I'm definitely indebted to Hashem to to an extent." So he's a mitz. So we say to him, "Dude, you need you know you know what you need right now? You need a you need an oath. You need an oath." Because a person who's a mix has to take an oath. The oath here means like we said it's an extra boost to satiate him with extra spirituality. So he has to [clears throat] give this extra helps him out [laughter] [cough] as Hashem helps him out that he should be convinced that there's nothing that's his own. Therefore, everything that you encounter, you have to make it godly because the whole world is really Hashem's. So, when you take that power that the does and you draw that power into the world, you make which means blessing but it also means like you take a vine and put it into the ground to make a new vine. So it means drawing down. Then Hashem gives the world to the person. Then he does give you a portion for yourself. Okay. Now, just like with the you have to hold either a Torah scroll or same thing spiritually. So, what does it mean to hold a safer? means to toil day and night in like we said before that gives us the power to connect [snorts] the above to the below to connect the godly to the worldly. Like we said before came to give us the ability to connect godliness to the world. >> [snorts and cough] [clears throat] >> And that's also the concept of in the literal sense the word means etmologically means instruction means instruction means instruction in Yiddish instruction [snorts] direction shows us how to use everything in the world according to Hashem's will. If you cannot manage to learn all day. So at least at the beginning of the day you should subjugate [snorts] your mind and heart. You do that through and then that beginning of that shows the way for the rest of the day. that for the rest of the day everything should be built on the foundation of subjugation of the mind and heart to [snorts] Hashem that was done at the beginning of the day through putting on [snorts] and he'll hold the safer or hold the fillin in the way that just described meaning learn as much as you can and if whatever you can't learn at least you put on in the morning that turns him into a someone who makes a complete admission he admits everything belongs to Hashem not just some things everything and now he doesn't have to make any otherw meaning he doesn't need any other infusion of help he needs by learning and putting Antville. And now we understand why the original context for this teaching [snorts] is the marriage of Yeetsk and Rifka. We were asking before like what why is that the context that we learn this all from? Okay. Cababalistic concept. [snorts] Ma and ban are different numbers. 45 52. And you spell Hashem's name with different muyim where you spell out the letters in you spell each letter of Hashem's four-letter name as if it's a word. You know when you play Scrabble and you can get use a you can spell out a letter. You know how to do that? Like you write en for the letter N. Let's say [cough] so y is yud vid. Um you spell out you know yud. So you spell it out. Now there are different ways to spell different letters like hey [snorts] could be hey olive hey yud hey hey [cough] depending [clears throat] how you spell [snorts] the letters you get different permutations different numbers. Ma and ban ma is actually the gumatri of and ban is the gumatri of beah. These are different levels in sedalless and they represent the masculine and the feminine energies and he calls it here basically everything everything is about it's about reunification of energies and the primary uh energies that need to be uni unified are are symbolized by ma and ban. So marriage which is the unification of the masculine and the feminine represents this idea when we talk about uniting like we're talking about uniting Hashem with the world you know uniting the infinite with the finite the spiritual with the physical that's so the whole concept of mitzvah is so the marriage of Rifka represents not just their marriage which obviously you know as their as their descendants we owe a lot to the fact you If our ancestors didn't get married, then we wouldn't be here. But it also represents and Rifka represent the unification of these two fundamental energies [snorts] in in the world. V's and this is a known concept in the cabalistic books. So the Reb says is a very general concept. It's the whole idea of whether or not a person admits that everything is from Hashem or not. And that's related to another very general concept which is the whole concept of which is represented in by the marriage of Rifka. [cough] Okay. Good test the is here's the practical teaching that comes from this whole concept. When you go out into the world, you have to know a general concept. The foundation of serving is you have to bring your safer. What does it mean bring your learn to the maximum amount of time that >> [snorts] >> requires you know the laws of it defines how much not everyone has to learn the same amount of time but whatever your obligation is to learn to learn that max that out and then in any other time [cough] [clears throat] the rest of the time at least you should behave in a way where it's recognizable how your your mind and heart are subjugated to Hashem And that will give you the power that everything you do that's physical, you'll turn it into something godly. Which again is that whole concept of bringing the spiritual into the physical. Okay? And being a to admit that everything everything you encounter in your life has to be turned into some form of service of Hashem. cannot say that there's anything in your life that's secular or mundane and can just remain that way. Hashem doesn't need to have my whole life. What do you mean? He gave you your whole life. Everything you encounter, you give it back to him. Okay, this is there's like three asterisks here which means like it's own but it's actually a continuation. It's from the same from Okay, [snorts] we're almost done. Next week's even longer. In this week's start speaking about redemption in the previous was talking about golas because it said the Canaanites were in the land. Okay. But so was going around trying to conquer up the land. But in this para, we're already in a redemption state. is in this week's para actually bought legally purchased acquired some land in specifically invites and everybody admitted yeah we saw it he purchased it belongs to and and that actually is the beginning of the redemption of all Jews. [snorts] Now although he paid 400 silver coins for this says this did not benefit Ephine actually brought him down. actually lost his which shows a spiritual descent in him like it says in this. Well, the Reb says from the now through the 400 silver coins that paid for the burial site for through that purchase, every Jew became a possessor of a portion of the And this particular is quoting makes a calculation. This is a um an amount of property. It talks it's from paras where it's talking about um valuations of of land that are donated. Um so this is a way of calculating a portion of land. So he he goes according to that calculation. And he says, so he says if you have 600,000 Jews, which is the number of heads of household that left and that's the number of general souls. Obviously speaks about in Kabala how there are tributaries that come off of each of those souls because obviously there's more than 600,000 Jews. But if you divide that amount of land or that purchase price by the 600,000 general souls, then he comes out with a calculation. I I don't I didn't see how he does the math, so you have to just take the word for it here. I maybe someone could maybe we have an accountant. Somebody's like mathematically inclined could pull up Go look it up. >> Yeah, we have an accountant. Who's an accountant? You're an accountant. >> Oh, you're an accountant. >> Oh, I I have a I have a job for you. Okay. >> So, you have to go look up this uh Praza and we have to find out what math he uses. But his he the shashur the bottom line is you have to come up with an amma alama one a square cubit of land for each six of the 600,000 general souls but this is the concept that because of that purchase that every Jew already has a piece of and that's the beginning of gula so redemption started way way back then already. And we just have to remove the concealments, the coverings and we just have to bring the redemption down here. The redemption already exists. We just have to bring it down here through Msiah speedily in our days literally. And that's it. Hashem finished. God willing, we'll be here next week uh for more. We're here every week. Sunday's 10:30 at Soulward's House. Thank you for joining us. I'm kind of exhausted. That was long. It was a marathon. Um so we're going to end the stream. All right. Gonna get up. >> [snorts]