Kabbalah explains how to prepare for Shavuot to receive the Torah again - Rabbi Alon Anava

So b'ezrat Hashem less than 2 weeks we're going to celebrate Shavuot. Shavuot is one of the festivals that we celebrate that we learn from the Torah. It's the only holiday that doesn't really have a 7-day celebration. Sukkot has 7 days. Pesach has 7 days. Then even the the holiday from our sages, Hanukkah, have 8 days. Shavuot seems like it's a little quick. One night and it's over. But really Shavuot is a very important holiday that if we know how to prepare for it the right way, then what we can benefit from it is is extremely valuable for the rest of the year. Now, there's a lot more to learn about Shavuot, but today we want to learn very briefly what happens on Shavuot, how do I prepare for that, and what do I need to do? Now, nothing happens by chance. Everything is 100% precise. And Shavuot is celebrated on the third month from Nissan. Nissan is considered the first month. Even though we take to consideration that Tishrei is the first month, but Tishrei is not really the first month. Nissan is the first month, which makes Sivan the third month, third in line. So, we already see a connection because if the Torah was given on the third month, then it comes to teach us that the Torah operates in three levels, three lines. It says that the Torah is called Torah M'shuleshet, a triangled Torah. Because we have and we see that there are three in everything. There are three fathers. There are three festivals. This number three constantly repeats itself in many different occasions. And we know based on the teaching of the Kabbalah that the world is standing on three lines, and Gimel Kavim. These three lines, if you look at the structure of the Sefirot, has a right side, a left side, and a middle side. And it's called in in Lashon Kodesh a Kav. Kav is a line. But you have Kav Hayemin, Kav Hasmol, and Kav Ha'emtza. These are the three Kavim. You'll run into the term in Hasidut or in Kabbalah, Gimel Kavim, it's referring to the three lines that the entire world, so to say, is standing on. Our sages say, "Al Shlosha Amudim Ha'olam Omed." On three pillars the world is supported. On Torah, Avodah, and Gemilut Hasadim. On Torah, learning Torah, Avodah is praying, and charitable acts, Gemilut Hasadim. So we constantly see this structure of three. As Kabbalah is talking about three Kavim, three lines. Now we know that the first one is called Kav Hayemin. Okay, Kav Hayemin, this is called Hesed. You have Kav Hasmol that is called Gevurah, which is Din. And then you have the Kav Ha'emtza that is called Tiferet. Now, Kav Hasmol that is called Kav Din, the Gevurah, we know that the world was created with the attribute of Din, of Gevurah. Later on, the world Hashem saw that the world is not going to sustain on the on just on Din, so he created Chesed. He brought started putting into Chesed into the world. Cuz in the beginning, if the world was just be based on Din, then a person would light a cigarette on Shabbat, die on the spot. A person would just say a lie, on the spot he dies. Cuz it's Din, right away. He did something wrong. Hashem saw that the world will not sustain just with Din. And he had to allow the Middah of Chesed to start intervening. And the Middah of Rachamim, of Chesed, it allows a person to to to sin and to still stay alive. Because all along we sin. Really, if you go by the book, but we're still alive. It doesn't affect us. That's only was the allowed with the Chesed, mainly from Tiferet, from Middah of Rachamim. That's there's Rachamim from the Kadosh Baruchu. Allows us later to do Teshuvah. In the in the future, in the near future, very soon Mashiach is going to come. And only Middah of Din is going to rule. It's not going to be any Middah of Chesed anymore. And we learn that when it says the Kadosh Baruchu Medakdek im Tzadikim kechut hase'arah. The Kadosh Baruchu is very particular with Tzadikim like the width of a hair. Very soon when Mashiach is going to come, there's only going to be Din. Din is a good thing, by the way. People think that Din, that Gevurah is a is a bad thing. Hashem created the world with Gevurah. In order for Hashem to create the world and to do a Tzimtzum, to what do what's called Siluk Or, to remove the light, that was done with Gevurah, with Din. Or the world would not be able to to sustain. In order for Hashem to create the world, he had to remove the light. He had to hide himself, so to say. So, in the very future, very very near future, we're going to go back to the level that it's only done with midat hadin. Now, the night of Shavuot is the night that is decided what's going to be the connection of each and every one of us with the Torah for the rest of the year. That's the night. Which means whatever investment I do that night, that will define how much will be my connection to the Torah throughout the year. Will I'm going to be totally immersed in the Torah or I'm going to be totally away from the Torah. That's the night it decides. Which means that I need to prepare myself the right way for that night because I have 24 hours or 48 hours if you live outside of Israel that these hours, that period, will define how much connection I will have for the Torah. So, I have to invest my time throughout that day. That's one of the many reasons why we stay up all night because why should I go to sleep? This is the night that is define defining how much connection I will have for the Torah. What I'm going to go to sleep now? It's almost like once a year the government will come and say, "Today how you conduct yourself will define how much you're going to pay taxes or how much you're not going to pay taxes and how much benefit, financial benefits you're going to get." You would stay up all night or you will be on your best behavior that day. You'll be like, "Hey, if I'm going to get a tax break, I'm going to get benefits." Same thing was with the Torah. Now, this is why it's called Hag Matan Torah. It's not called in the in the Torah Hag Shavuot. It's called It's called Hag Matan Torah. Now, A, what does it mean? The holiday that the Torah was given. But you have to look very carefully in the words. And it says Matan. Matan comes from the word Matana. Present. Sham gives me a present. And not only that it's Matana, it's Matan from the word Latet. It's given. I don't take. I don't demand. I'm given. But I'm given exactly what I'm worthy of. I will get the Torah that night based on how much I'm prepared and what would be my capacity to receive the Torah that night. If you want papers, uh you want papers? No, I'm saying if you if you open some paper, there'll be a class. Sorry. So, the holiday is called Matan Torah because on that night the Torah was given to to us. And it's still going to be given to me. But in order for me to receive something, has to be a vessel to receive it. Now, in the world, in the physical world, in the level of Gashmiut, in order for it to be giving, must be a receiving. If I want to give you now a present, if you don't take the present, there's no giving here. I'm holding the present still. If I want to give you money, if I want to give you a ride, whatever it is, if you're not accepting, then there's no there's no motion of giving here. In the spiritual world, it works different. The give the giving is given whether you're taking or not. If Hashem wants to give me something, he's going to give it to me. He's not asking me if to take it or not. And even if I take it or not, it doesn't matter. It's still be given to me. Whether I receive it, that already depends on me. The receiving already depends on what's called the mekabel, the receiver. I can choose if I want to get it or not. But Hashem is giving it. It's almost like a very kind parent that puts money aside in a in a savings account to the kid. Kid is not taking it right now. The parent is just putting money in the savings account every month. 20 years later, the child will receive it. But it's still in the category of the gashmiut that in order to be given has to be receiving. The child will take it at some point. And if the child will not take it, then it's still in the possession of the parent. But that doesn't work like that in the world above, in the spiritual level. Hashem gives whether you are ready for it or not. But the person will receive only what he's capable of getting. Meaning that there must be a preparation, must be a vessel that receives this abundance. If not, he won't receive anything. Now, what is given to our world from above, what is given from Hashem to us, is Hashem is giving us tools in in exactly in the level of what I need to fix. That's how it works. The the the terminology in Kabbalah, it means that orot, lights, are being given from above in order to let akana takilim, to correct the vessels. Which means that Hashem is going to give me exactly what I need in order for me to correct my vessels. If Hashem is giving me X amount of money, whether it's a lot or a little, whether he's giving me health, whether he's giving me a child, spouse, Hashem is giving me tools to use in order to correct what I need to use for my correction. So, now a person only gets No. First, Hashem gives you Okay, I'll repeat it. First, Hashem gives you First, Hashem gives you whether you are ready or not, whether you want it or not. That's first of all. There is the concept of giving, netina. Whether it doesn't matter Hashem is not considering you right now, where you holding. He's giving you. That's where you see that sometimes people get an abundance, they don't know how to deal with it. They don't know how to to to to use it. Sometimes a person will give will get a husband or a wife or a child, they're not a vessel to receive it. They don't know how to deal with it. But they still get it. Can be money, can be many other things. So, Hashem will give you regardless whether you're taking or not. Now, what does Hashem give you? Hashem gives you kelim. Gives you tools. Whether it's wisdom, whether it's comprehension, whether it's common sense, whether it's money, whether it's a big house, Hashem gives you constantly tools. But he gives you the right tools in order to correct the vessel that you need to correct. Which means that if I have to correct a certain vessel that it usually will be damaged by me, then Hashem will give me the right tools to fix it. If I now bring a workman a fixer. The you know, the guy who's now talking and making noise. He's our He's our fix our fixer. He comes here and he fixes things. He's main maintaining the the the building. The deal with it we have with him he comes to fix, I have to bring the tools. I mean, if I want him to paint, I have to buy the paint. I need him to fix the sink, I have to buy the sink and the pipe. That's the deal. So, the same thing with Hashem. He gives me tools to do my work. If I need to work on something, Hashem will give me the right tool, which means that I can look at my talents, at my trades, at my hobbies, at what I like, and put them together and understand what I need to fix. Because Hashem gives me the right tools. It will be a little bit more clearer as I go, but I want to continue that I will only get from Hashem when there is a vessel. If there's no vessel, I can't receive anything. So, what's going to happen right now is that the light that is given to me, if I don't have a vessel to hold it, this will stay in what's called an or makif. It's not going to come in into the vessel. Which means that if Hashem wants to give me $5 million for whatever reason, he wants me to build a yeshiva. He wants me to donate it to poor people. He wants me to feed people. He doesn't want me to buy a Ferrari. He wants me to take this money and invest it in kedusha. But, I don't have a vessel. So, right now, Hashem doesn't write a million-dollar check, a five-million-dollar check. He gives the spiritual light. It will manifest into the world into a check. But, if I don't have the vessel to hold $5 million, this godly light will stay in a very surrounding way. This is called or makif. Or makif means it doesn't penetrate. Or is light, makif is surrounding. It doesn't penetrate into the vessel. So, it's out there in the universe, but I don't have it. That's when I'm not prepared for that. Meaning that each and every one of us, if you would have some type of a spiritual tool to see, to evaluate your spiritual value, you would see that you are a trillionaire in every aspect. You just don't have the tools to receive it. So, on Rosh Hashanah, we get blessed everything that's going to happen this year. How much money I'm going to make, if I'm going to get married, if I'm going to have kids, everything is decided on Rosh Hashanah. Some people come at the end of the year and they say, "I had a very bad year. I only made $50,000." Meaning that I didn't get a good blessing for a lot of money. That's wrong. Could be that that person was blessed to get to do $50 million. He just doesn't have the tools or the vessels to hold that money, so the money stayed in the world above. But you said that even the pain Hashem provides. Hashem provides, no. Hashem pro- provides the light. You have to create the vessel. Hashem doesn't give you the vessel. Hashem gives you the light. You have to prepare the vessel. That's how it works. That's the relations. Now, I can get a vessel and damage it, the light will be removed right away. The light cannot stay in a damaged vessel. That's we we we went through it more thoroughly on Tuesday when we were were learning Shaar HaGilgulim, where I explained that when Adam HaRishon sinned, then all his godly sparks, 288 godly sparks, fell down from his nefesh, ruach, and neshamah, and they fell into the klipah. And I was talking about the godly sparks. Then we answered the question, "What is the sparks?" The sparks are not these flickering things. These are not sparks. The sparks is the vessel. The vessel is the memory that holds the information from the ta'anug, from the pleasure from the mitzvah. Meaning that the mitzvah that I do creates a vessel. The vessel is like a memory card. Like you put in a camera, a memory card, you take pictures, the memory card holds the memory. Now, now Now take the memory card out of the camera, you put it in the computer, and you have the pictures on the memory card. It's not in the camera. The camera is the tool, but the memory, the data is on the card right now. You can transfer it from side to side. So, the memory card holds the memory. I went on a trip, I took a lot of pictures, that's the memory from the trip. The memory card is holding the pictures. That is the sparks. That is the vessel. The memory of the data or the pleasure that was gained or produced by the mitzvah. Now, I can damage it. How would I damage it? With a sin. Now, the vessel breaks. What happens? The light goes out of the vessel. It's very simple. The light will never get damaged. Light can never be damaged. And again, it's not light of the sun, not light of the light bulb. It's light in Hebrew is or. Or comes from the word hey ara and enlightenment. Hashem enlightens us. He He blesses us. He gives us a certain energy that can never be damaged. The The vessel will be damaged. The light will What's happens? You look or the light will be select go away. Like you see a tzaddik that will come to our Shabbat table or to a shul, there's going to be a machlokes, an argument in the shul. The tzaddik gets up and he leaves. He doesn't stay there. So, the light is given by Hashem. And in order for me to hold the light, must be a vessel. If I break the vessel or I damage the vessel, the light will be removed. If I don't have a vessel, the light will stay in the level what's called or makif. Yes. Can we Can we destroy our vessel by doing the kill sign in the morning in the process? Can I damage the vessel? No, in order to destroy a vessel, you have to do a sin. And the sin is determined by the Torah, not by me. If the Torah tells me don't steal, that will cause the my vessel to break. If I have to get parnassah, I to get livelihood, Hashem wants to give me a lot of money. If I'm now going to go and cheat in my business, I'm not allowed to cheat in business. If I'm going to steal, I'm not allowed to steal. These are sins. These are the road prohibitions from the Torah. What I do is I break the vessel that will hold my parnassa. Now, I don't get my parnassa, very simple. So, it's not necessarily the netilat yadaim. Netilat yadaim, washing of my hands in the morning, it's not a mitzvah. It's just an action to remove the impurity from your hands. So, I would more call it the tools to help you do the mitzvot. The only time that netilat yadaim is a mitzvah is when you wash for bread. It has a negative effect if you don't do it. 100%. There's many things that will have a negative effect. So, you know, on a very hot day, if you leave the window open, it will do a negative effect. It will make the room very hot, but it's not a sin. It's just will have a negative effect. So, I don't want to sidetrack from our topic. I know I I aroused a very interesting thing regarding to the vessel, the relations between the vessel and the light. But, I don't want to sidetrack. I want to stay on the on the topic of Shavuot. I'm just doing an introduction by explaining that on Shavuot, a special godly light comes down to the world. The same light that came on Matan Torah, the same light that came down on Mount Sinai originally when they got the Torah, it's coming again. This light is just given to me. If I'm ready to receive it, then I'll gain something from it. If I don't do any preparation, or I don't celebrate the night of Shavuot, it comes, it goes, and I'm left with nothing. Which means a person that doesn't observe the holiday, doesn't benefit anything. Which is a great loss. It's almost like missing the fair where they give the free money. Now, Shavuot can come and I can observe the holiday, but if I don't know what to wait for or I'm not preparing a vessel, I will not receive anything. This is a present. It's Matan Torah. I'm receiving this godly light for free. Shem says, "I will give you as much as you are able to hold." So, I can come now and announce that I'm about to give away this special wine that is thousands of dollars worth. Nobody drinks from this wine. This is the best wine in the world. And I'm about to give from it. And whoever is going to come to my Shabbat table will get a little bit of wine. But, the condition is that you have to come with your own cup. So, some people will come with little cups and some people will come with big cups. I can only give you for whatever cup you hand out. If you hand out a big cup, then you're going to get 7 oz of wine. If you're going to give me a small cup, you're going to get oz of wine. And if you're going to give a broken cup, then all the wine will spill over the floor. You're not going to gain anything out of it. So, Shem says, "I'm about to give you the Torah again on this night. I'm going to give you a godly light." What does it mean that light? We'll talk about it maybe at the end of the class or in in the future classes before Shavuot. What is this light? Again, it's not a light coming from a light bulb. Light in Hebrew is called or. Or in Hebrew comes from the word he'ir. He'ir is to enlighten. I can now sit here and teach you some wisdom. I'm giving over to you some of my knowledge. You gain some pleasure. You gain something from me giving you some of my knowledge. I didn't get I didn't make invent this knowledge. I got it from somebody else. The original is Hashem. But, I can now come and it has nothing to do with the Torah. I can teach you now, I don't know, uh graphic design. I can teach you whatever, cooking. I'm taking my knowledge now and I'm giving it to you. Now you're benefiting something out of it. You can benefit knowledge, pleasure, you can make money, anything. Hashem comes and gives me a certain enlightenment. Hey, Adam. He's giving it to me. If I take it, I will gain something out of it. So, I have to prepare a vessel in order to create to to to get this light. If I don't prepare a vessel, this present is not going to go to waste. It's just going to stay in a makif, in a very surrounding level. I'm not going to benefit anything out of it. It's going to be there. It's going to be in a savings account, but I'm not going to get any benefit out of it. That's if I'm not prepared. Now, a side note that is important to know, when Hashem gives me a certain he'ara, certain light, I will never in this world gain any knowledge or benefit from the light. Hashem will come and give me a certain enlightenment. Maybe a tzaddik will benefit from it. I will never benefit anything from it. I cannot relate even to that light. The only thing that I will benefit is the the impression that it leaves on the vessel. In the Kabbalistic term, it's called hitpa'alut hakli. What does it mean? If I'm going to get now, if I'm going to give you this amazing tiramisu, you're going to take one bite. Your your taste buds are going to be melting in your mouth. Unbelievable cake. You're going to be in heaven from one bite. You're now experiencing the benefit what's it's called the hit pal to clay. The vessel is being overwhelmed right now. Your taste buds are being overwhelmed. You're experiencing the pleasure from the taste buds. You don't know what's the recipe. This is the relations. To understand the light, you never under you'll never get it. You what you benefit from, what you derive something out of is the impression that the vessel gets, not the light. You have to understand the difference because people say, somebody asked me not too long ago, "What does it mean? Some people they become about shuva and they say I need getting lights." This is nonsense. You don't get nothing. It's just a a term. You you we don't understand anything when it comes to all. We experience what's called hit pal to clay that the overwhelming of the vessel. Okay? Another way of experiencing it is that when I feel pleasure in any type of way, I experience the pleasure on the organ or the part that's getting the pleasure, not where it's originating from. So, it's extremely important to know that we have no we we cannot grasp the light. A tzaddik can grasp get a hasaga in the light and then he would write it down in a book and that's why when you read some books of Kabbalah, you're not going to understand one word because the tzaddik understands, he writes it down. Same thing with prophecies. Read now the prophecy of Yehezkel, you will not understand one thing. He understands. He has hasaga, grasping in the godly revelation. Now he writes it down. He writes it as a memo. So, he will remember. We can't understand one thing what it means. Same thing, you open sometimes books of Kabbalah, books of Hasidus, you will read the words, you can read the words. You will understand some of the words, but you don't understand one thing what the author means. And it's not that something wrong with you. In order for you to understand that you have to climb to the level of the tzaddik in order to understand what the tzaddik is explaining. That's why some of the the books of Hasidus, for example, are very easy to understand. The real original, real, in-depth Hasidus, it is you don't understand one word. One word. There's some books of Hasidus that are I don't understand what he wants even here. Why? Because the tzaddik has a sagah, he has a hasagah, grasping this knowledge, and he just wrote it down. Very soon Moshiach is going to come, he's going to start unfolding everything and explaining it. But we don't have any type of understanding in the light. We have overwhelming and experience from the klee, which is very important, and this will come to fruition only by the capacity of what I'm able to receive. Which means if I refine myself a lot, then I refine my vessel. Right? This is called tzichtzuch haklee, that I'm cleaning my vessel. According to how my vessel is clean and prepared, that's how much I can receive. That's why if I work on myself and I really I'm very particular with every mitzvah and I make sure that everything that it says in the Torah and Shulchan Aruch I follow, and I refine myself, and I work on my attributes, and I work on myself, and I pray, and I do everything, I'm working on myself. Then when I'm going to come to do a certain mitzvah, I will feel something. I will be inspired. I will learn Torah, I will understand it. A person can come to a shiur Torah, not understand one word. A person can come to a shiur Torah, understand everything, walk out of the door, not remember nothing. That depends how much my vessel is ready to receive. If my vessel is not ready to receive, I will not get anything. I can now go to a meeting with a tzaddik. The tzaddik will tell me do A, B, and C. I will be embarrassed to ask the tzaddik, I don't know what you're talking about. Because I'm not even a vessel to receive it. Even when I'm going to a tzaddik to get a blessing, the blessing will not work if I am not ready to receive it. The tzaddik can give you the blessing. But, if I don't work on myself, the blessing is not going to have any any clay, any vessel to dwell in. Now, I have to build a vessel. Now, to understand the relationship of the capacity of how much my vessel can hold, take for example a baby. Babies don't have vessels. Give now a baby or three years old, or even a six years old, give him a check that says on it a million dollars, it has no value to it. It's a piece of paper. He will throw it out of the window. It's a piece of paper. He has no value in this piece of paper. Give him a 20 cents lollipop, he starts hyperventilating. Cuz the vessel can only contain something pink that has a little bit of taste that costs 20 cents. That's the capacity of his vessel. That he can only relate with something as simple as a 20 cent pink lollipop that tastes good on his tongue. But, give him a 20 million dollar check, give him a diamond ring that is worth a hundred thousand dollars, out of the window. There's no value to it. The value is, you know, kids they play with empty boxes and all sorts of things because the kid doesn't have a vessel. This is the easiest way to explain what does it mean that the capacity of the vessel will be able to contain the light. So, sometimes Hashem wants to give me something, I'm not even in the level of receiving it. That's why many people find themselves single because obviously the vessel is not ready for marriage or kids or the responsibility that comes with that. It doesn't mean the person is bad. It means the person has to prepare the vessel. And Hashem says, "Right now I don't want to give it to you because you're going to throw it out of the window. I don't want you to have it right now. I'm keeping it. Work on yourself. Prepare the vessel. I'll give it to you." Can be a marriage, can be parnassa, can be our livelihood, can be in my studies, it could be in anything. So, I have to understand how to prepare the vessel and to understand also what's the value of the light. If I don't understand the value of the light or the value of the mitzvah, we'll not do it. If I put filling on because I'm scared, not because I know the value of the mitzvah of filling, then I'm a I'm going to put it out of scared out of fear, and when I have the opportunity not to do it, I'm not going to do it. I once gave an example that I was talking about my one of my boys. He's 5 years old. He doesn't want to go to shul with me. He doesn't want to go to synagogue. My other boys, they want to go with me. The 5-year-old does He doesn't know how to read. He doesn't have friends there. He's bored. He doesn't want to go. When I tell him, "You want to go to shul with me?" He tells me no. So, I leave him alone. One time my wife told me, "Why don't you make him go with you? He needs to get educated. He needs to know that he goes to shul." And I told her, "I don't want to take him to shul cuz he doesn't like it. He's bored there. He's going to make noise. He's going to disturb everybody. And you know what's going to happen if I force him to go or if I bribe him to go? He's going to If I force him to grow, he's going to grow hating shul because he was forced to go there. If I bribe him, then he will always do things by bribery. I want him to grow and to learn to love to go to shul and to want to go to shul. And that way, when he's older, he will go to pray because he wants to pray, not because he was threatened by his father 30 years ago. And that's the result with many people in our generation. They go to go to shul because they were born into it. They were forced to go to shul, and then for them, it's just a you know, a routine. They don't go to shul because they want to go to shul. So, I have to understand the value of a mitzvah. If I don't understand the value of a mitzvah, I will never do it with all my heart. I have to understand the value of my wife, or I will never respect her. I have to understand the value of my boss. My boss it might be a mean person. He gives me my parnassah. He gives me my check. He provides a workplace for me. I have to understand the value. So, I have to understand mainly the value in a mitzvah. Now, the sad reality is that a person can come to the night of Shavuot without a vessel and will not benefit anything out of Shavuot. Which means that I have to prepare a vessel for the night of Shavuot. And we know, based on the teachings of Chassidus, that the preparation for the mitzvah is more important than the mitzvah. How I prepare for the mitzvah will design how I will do the mitzvah if and how I will do it at all. Go to a more personal example where you'll understand what I mean. A woman has to go to the mikvah after her cycle. The mikvah takes exactly 30 seconds. The preparation is 4 hours. If she's not preparing herself the right way, she cannot go into the mikvah. Well, she has to clean herself. She can't have anything on her body preventing the water from touching the body. The mikveh will take a minute, two minutes, three minutes, whatever it is, but the preparation is three, four hours. Same thing with Shabbat. You eat a Shabbat meal that takes you exactly an hour, you prepared for 12 hours. And usually you prepare for two It's for 24 hours. Shopping, cooking, baking, cutting, chopping. Takes you an hour to eat and the meal is over. Even in this physical world, people get married, baruch Hashem. The wedding takes about eight hours and it takes about two years to prepare for the wedding. I mean, if it's in a Hasidic or an Orthodox world, it will take two months to to run a wedding, but you have a lot of preparation. Choosing the hall, choosing the caterer, choosing the cake, choosing the DJ, choosing this, choosing that. Eight hours, the whole wedding is over. So, we see that the preparation is extremely important. Means that the preparation for Shavuot is extremely important. Now, what is the preparation? What is the vessel that I need to prepare for this special night? The teachings of the Baal HaSulam, Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag, he says that the vessel, the klee, for the preparation for the night of Shavuot is how much emunah I have in Hashem. How much belief I have in Hashem. This is the vessel that will contain the lights in Matan Torah. It's all emunah. So, how much I believe. The question is you have to ask yourself, how much emunah I have in Hashem? Now, when it comes to simple things, I on my emunah is very strong. When it comes to big things, my emunah starts being already shaken. And the easiest example, I told you that, I'll repeat it myself, that one time a person became observant, he became closer to Hashem, so they decided to test him. They decided to test his belief. And just as a side note, just that you know, that most of the things that you go by is a test by Hashem the level of your emunah. All the rest is bonuses. The mitzvahs that you do are bonuses. All the good things that you do is a bonus. Hashem on a daily base tests how much emunah you have. So, he's going to push you. He's going to push you. He's going to push you. He's going to push you to see where he can grade your emunah. 20%, 30%, 100%. So, this story with this individual that became religious, they decided to test him from the heavens. So, they made him lose $5. You know what it was his reaction? Hakol letovah. Everything is for the best. Hashem is good. Everything happens as happens from Hashem. It's all good. Kaparah avonot. It's just He had a big smile on his face. $5, it's Hashem is Hashem is the best God. Everything is for the good. So, he got a mark, a good check on his test. A week later, they decided to step it up a little bit. Let's see his level of his emunah. This time, they made him lose $50. Everything is from Hashem. Everything is good. Hakol letovah. A big smile on his face. Everything that Hashem does is does for the best. Everything was great. Okay, so he went in his level of his emunah from 2% to 20%. Now, they decided to step it up. So, they made him lose $50,000. Suddenly, it's not from Hashem. It's not all for the good. Not everything that Hashem does is good. Why is this happening to me? Hashem is mean. I I observant and Hashem is taking my money. Suddenly everything changed. It's not Hakol Letova anymore. Why? Cuz they added three zeros to the amount. Losing $50, everything is for the good. Hashem knows what he's doing. Losing $50,000, suddenly the emunah goes this big and suddenly it's not good. So we are required to to evaluate how much is my emunah. Emunah is my belief, my belief in Hashem. How far am I willing to go? Abraham Avinu proved himself that he has belief in Hashem. So the Satan couldn't stand it. So he told Hashem, "Ask him to sacrifice his son. Let's see if he still believes you." And Abraham Avinu with no questions, right away, put his stuff on the donkey and went out to the road. The Satan didn't want to lose the the bet. The It was a bet in Shamayim. They they put on money if Abraham Avinu is going to fail or not. So the Satan did 10 blocks to stop Abraham Avinu. He created a river. He created a fire. He created all sorts of problems to stop Abraham Avinu from going and doing the mitzvah. The emunah of the Kadosh of the Abraham Avinu was 100%, not 99%. Because a minute before that Hashem told Abraham Avinu, "You're going to have a child and your offsprings are going to be coming from your child, Isaac." A minute later he's telling him, "Okay, go kill him." So a a normal person will be like, "Wait a minute, what's going on here? What are you making a joke?" Moshe Rabbeinu, who was in the level in the Sefirot higher than Abraham Avinu, when Hashem told Moshe Rabbeinu to get the Jews out of Mitzrayim and he didn't, Moshe Rabbeinu was asking Hashem, "Why did you do that? Why why did why? And then Hashem answered him in parashat Vayeira, I appeared to Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov and they didn't ask any questions. How are you there to ask questions? The level of Avraham Avinu of emunah was 100% emunah. So we are requested to constantly see how much emunah I have in Hashem. And the fact that I have a yarmulke doesn't mean that I have emunah in Hashem. I can guarantee to you that many people that don't have a yarmulke, they believe in Hashem. I am requested to evaluate constantly my emunah and I have to build it, of course. And the amount of how much emunah I have, that will be the vessel to receive this godly light that is called Ohr Elyon because on the night of Shavuot, the light that shines comes from Sefirat haKeter. It doesn't happen so often. Very very rare we get a godly light that comes from the Sefirah of Keter. Very rare. Usually doesn't even happen. Sorry. On Pesach, we get a light that is above Keter, comes from above descending chain. But on the night of Shavuot comes a he'arah light from the light from the Sefirah of Keter and the vessel to hold this light is only emunah. Now how do I build my emunah? How do I really build it? First of all, there are many many many ways how to build emunah. We're not going to talk about today how you build emunah. Because emunah, faith, and belief is a component of our neshamah. It comes with my neshamah. It's custom made. Like you buy a a car, they tell you it includes all the extras. When you we get our neshamah, one of the components is called emunah. Because the neshamah sees Hashem before it comes down and it's engraved in the neshama. I told you many times that the Emunah is given to us and it's being damaged and taken away from us as we grow. Because a baby has a 100% Emunah. When a baby is given something to eat, he doesn't ask the mom if it's bad or not. He doesn't ask, "Is this Are you Is it Israel? What are you giving me?" He right away eats. There's no questions. He believes his mom. When the baby is being taken away from the hospital, he doesn't says, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, wait. Let me see your credentials. I don't know if you're a good mom." Let me ask her, "Do you think my mom is good? Or is she worth going home with her?" He believes. Babies believe. Whatever you give the baby, they they they they take. When do they start losing their level of belief is when you start lying to them. And this is the worst thing that a parent can do is lie to their child. Because you are destroying the pillar of Emunah in the child. And parents lie to their child with all sorts of nonsense. "If you're not going to clean your room, you're not going to get your dinner. If you're going to do this, I'm not going to give you your dessert." All sorts of threats. Now, what happens when you don't fulfill the threat? Then the child does one plus one, "Mommy's a liar." That's it. And you shatter the reality of the child. When Mommy and Daddy Daddy lies, the child is devastated. He cannot believe that his own parents lied to him. Then his siblings lied to him. Then his teacher lied to him. Then the kids in the kindergarten lied to him. And before you know it, the child is 5 years old, he doesn't believe anything. Try to tell something to my 5-year-old, you'll see the reaction. I don't believe you. That's the reaction you'll get. Now, what happens? They continue getting lied and lied and lied. By the time they're teenagers, they don't believe nothing. Go now to a yeshiva. I'm not talking to a secular to a public school. go to a Yeshiva. If you can find a a few kids that really really believe, it's going to be a miracle. They just do it because they're in the system. One out of a thousand will actually tell you I believe. You will not even believe how many fathers call me and tell me my son is Bar Mitzvah in 2 weeks, in a month, he doesn't want to put filling on. I'm talking about religious families. In Israel? In everywhere. Seriously? So, teenagers don't believe. It's very hard to arouse this emunah. And it's damaged mainly by the parents and then the teachers and so forth. So, we as adults, we don't have much belief. I My belief is constantly being tested. And that's why Hashem is taking us on a rides, and he takes us to the end of the world cuz he wants us to develop the emunah. He wants us to pull the emunah out of the system so I will start believing him. That I will believe blindly in Hashem with no questions here. Now, there are ways to build the emunah. We're not going to go through them to now because it's less important. I can tell you already off the subject, it's not of the subject, but a side note, saying Birkat Hamazon, benching, builds the emunah, pulls the emunah, the faith, the trust out of its out of its hole that it's been digged dug in. Something so simple. Just wash for a bit, say Birkat Hamazon every day. This is one of the many things that pulls out the emunah out of its source that it's hiding. But, that's not our subject. The subject is is first of all, how can I measure how much emunah I have? If you're telling me that I need to have a lot of emunah, how can I measure it? What, I take a ruler and measure I got 30 cm of emunah? How can I know how much emunah do I have? Cuz I have a very black suit and I have a very long beard and I have a very black yarmulke. Ooh, I can be now rated as 90% Emunah. I can I'm telling I can fool myself and say, "Look how religious I am. Must be that I have a lot of Emunah." Or on the other gender, my dress is till the floor, my hair is covered, my sleeves are to my wrists. I'm very religious. I have Emunah. So my my fashion doesn't represent my Emunah. I can have a very long beard and it doesn't mean I have Emunah. This belief is when I'm pushed to the wall right now. Not when I'm losing $50, when I'm losing $50,000. We have a student that now was unfortunately diagnosed with a very severe disease. That's a test of Emunah. This is a very religious, God-fearing woman that does a lot of activities and learns Torah and a very outgoing woman. Now, she I told her yesterday, "You now Hashem is giving you the test of your life with this diagnose, what the doctor says. Now, you can beat the diagnose the what the doctor says if you raise the level of Emunah. If you believe that it's just a test then you can make it all disappear. The unfortunate reality is then we get this type of news, the level of Emunah goes down. So I create the news as a reality so I can get rid of it. But if I rise to the level of Emunah above then 90% of my problems disappear. I can get now an eviction notice. I can get now a letter from the bank. I can get whatever I can get. And and right away I will fall for the trap of the of the test and fall into my level and then it will become a reality. Or I can completely ignore it and on the other hand feed my emunah oops, it disappears. Sometimes it is a reality. That's why I said 90% of the times it's a test. 10% of the time that is the reality. That a person it's time for him to leave the world and the way to leave the world will be through a certain disease. But and I'm not saying it's a it would exaggerating. 90% of the things that we go through is a test that will disappear like that if I totally go above the test with my emunah. I'll tell you a quick story. It's a little bit off the subject but it shows the level of emunah. I said that story a few times. Some of you probably heard it. If you heard it, fast forward. That there was once a very rich individual that I was a businessman. He's a Frenchman. And unfortunately he couldn't have kids. He wasn't an observant Jew. One time, I mean they went to doctors, they went to specialists, nothing. No kids. One time he visited in New York, somebody told him there is a tzaddik in Brooklyn. Why don't you go and visit him? Ask for a blessing. His reaction was ah, I don't believe in this nonsense. I don't believe a man can give me a blessing. I don't believe in this that don't waste my time. He told him, "Listen, what are you going to lose? A visit to Brooklyn? I'll pay for the cab. That's that's the problem. What are you going to lose? You don't have kids. Go to the ben." Okay, so he decides to listen and he goes to visit the Lubavitcher Rebbe. The Lubavitcher Rebbe gives him a blessing and sure enough a year later he has a baby girl. Wow. It worked. Okay. 16 years later this baby girl grows up to becomes a teenager. One day she comes home and she tells her parents, "I have a headache. A few days later the headache doesn't pass. They take her to the doctor. The doctor says she has a deadly tumor in her head and you have to operate her right away. Operate on an operation. They went out a lot of money. They went to all the specialists all around. Nobody had good news. Everybody said nothing to do. Okay. Somebody came and said listen there's a doctor in Boston that if anybody can help that's the one. Okay. Money was not the issue. They hopped on the plane straight to Boston into the doctor. CT, MRIs. The doctor says right now an operation. If not it's a matter of days. Maybe even a few hours. Now the doctor says listen there's one problem. That there's not a 80 or 90% chance. There's a 100% chance that something will that this operation will affect the child. She will either be crippled or blind or mute or deaf. Something. It's going to affect the the the the tumor is on a very sensitive place. We can take the tumor out but it will affect something we don't know what. They don't know what to do. Their stomachs are inside out. Their their their their world is torn apart. Long story short this man suddenly remembers the old man the tzaddik that gave him a blessing that through that the child came to the world. He hops on a plane from Boston to Brooklyn. He comes to 770 the headquarters of Chabad in Brooklyn. He knocks on the door in the middle of the night starts banging on the door. I need to see this rebbe. They're telling him habibi you know there's a three months waiting line. You can't just walk in. He bangs on the doors. He does he he he raises hell. 2:00 in the morning they're They're him into the room of the Lubavitcher Rebbe. The Rebbe tells him, "Listen, it's the month of Adar. It's a month of miracles. In this month, everything transforms." And he tells him, "Venahafoch and everything is good." And he sends him out of the room. The guy was so overwhelmed, he goes out of the room and then he's like, "Wait a minute. I didn't ask my question. I didn't ask if to do the operation or not." He knocks on the door, bangs on the door, they open up the door, he barges himself in and he says, "I didn't ask the question. Should I do the operation?" The Rebbe tells him, "I answered you the question already." He's like, "You did?" He walks out of the room. Stretches his head, he's like, "He didn't answer me the question. What's going on here?" He turns around, knocks on the door again. This time they tell him, "We're sorry, you can't come in. The Rebbe already answered you. You have to go." He raised hell there. The Rebbe walks out of the room and he tells the person, "What's what's the problem? You you you you want to know if to do the operation or not? Get a third opinion. Get another opinion." Okay. He goes and gets another opinion. Their third opinion says do the operation. They do the operation. They open up the brain, the head, the doctors find nothing there. Completely nothing. They close it up. Now, she's not waking up. A few days pass, she's not waking up. A few weeks pass, she's not waking up. Now, the parents are even in a worse place. Now, we didn't Now, we could have left it and now now she's worse. They don't know what to do. After a couple days, one of the fingers moved a little bit. Anyways, past a few weeks, they're going through hell. It was the last day of Pesach. This individual decided to go again to the Rebbe. He goes to 770. There was in the middle of a fabrengen. And there was what's called a kosher bracha. Everybody's passing in the line. The The Rebbe was pouring wine uh that was blessed into everybody's wine. He takes the opportunity and he walks through the line. He gets to the Rebbe. The Rebbe hands him out two pieces of matzah. And the Rebbe tells him, "Listen, it says in the Zohar that matzah is the bread of emunah, of faith. And it's also said that matzah is the bread of refuah, of health. So you take this piece and you give it to your daughter to have refuah. And you take this piece and that will be for yourself and this will be for you to have emunah because you have zero emunah." And he sends him off. Sure enough, the daughter was miraculously woke up and was a Hollywood production as a end good ending. She was saved, everything was good, she was back to normal up until today she's living, she's alive, well, and healthy. But the story to take from that is that this individual didn't have emunah. If you have emunah, then what the tzaddik tells you will happen. It because the tzaddik says there's nothing there. It's a test. Have belief and it will disappear. So we are constantly being tested with our emunah on a daily base, not on a bi-weekly base or once a year. Every day there's a test in emunah. Don't think that your test right now is if to do the mitzvah or not. If you did the aveira or not. This is not the name of the game. The game here is your emunah. And Hashem is going to test you one day on a low scale, one day on a big scale, one day on a low scale, and it's every day. Don't don't think that one day Hashem leaves you. On Shabbat you get rest. But every day there's going to be a test in some way or another to see if you believe in Hakadosh Baruch Hu and believe that it's just a test and then that's why I said 90% disappears, 10% is real. So how do I measure the level of my emunah? There's no ruler, there's no device that will tell you you have 50% emunah. One of the ways to evaluate how many emunah I have is how much time I invest in Torah. Because if I'm going to go now to my boss, and my boss will tell me, "Listen, if you work 8 hours, you're going to get $200. If you work 5 hours, you'll get $150. If you work 2 days, you'll get X amount." Why do I work? Cuz I believe my boss will give me money. Very simple. 99% of the people in the world that work, they get their paycheck after 2 weeks. They don't get their paycheck now. Even people that come as as a as a as a contractor or somebody, they come into the house, I want to paint the walls. Okay, it costs X amount of money. You can paint the walls. I'll pay you when you're done. Cuz you believe you're going to get paid. Now you invest a certain amount of time, and you get paid, so to say, according to the amount that you paid. That you're invested the time. So, why do I do that? Because I believe that the my boss will pay me. He told me I'm going to get $10 an hour, $20 an hour. So, I believe that if I work 80 8 hours, I'll get $80. Same thing with the Torah. Shem tells you, you invest in the Torah, I'll give you. I'm the most trustworthy boss in the universe. Whatever you do, I will give you. So, many people say, "I don't want to invest right now. I need to invest in my business cuz I need to make money. They're not going to come and say, 'Okay, let me invest 2 hours in learning Torah. That's what's going to give me the bracha in the Torah.'" That's usually the physical mind. Men will tell me, "I can't learn." We have a men's program. They tell me, "No, I can't. I have to work in the morning." You don't have to work, you have to learn Torah. You learn 2 hours of Torah in the morning, your business will go like that. You'll get your parnassa. So, to learn or to evaluate what's the level of emunah is how much I'm willing to invest time in Torah. You will go now to an average lady and tell her, "You know you have to pray?" "No, I don't have time. I have kids. I have to work. I have to do this. I have to do that." But you have to pray. "No, no, no, no. Women are exempt." No, women are not exempt. You have to pray. "No, I have kids. I have this." Why don't you want to pray? Takes you 20 minutes, 10 minutes, whatever prayer you choose. A woman is obligated in praying at least once a day. She's obligated. She's not obligated. She's not bound to time. But she's obligated at least once a day. You can choose. You want to do shacharis, you want to do mincha. And many ladies say, "No, I don't have time. I don't want to. I have kids. Whatever." You're not willing to invest 20 minutes in praying? That can give you an evaluation how many emunah you have because you don't believe that the praying will actually make your life much easier. It will make parnassa come better. It will make shalom bayit better. It will make everything function much better. You have all sorts of obstacles in your life. You have to deal with the Ministry of Interior Ministry, whatever it is. You have constantly problems that you deal with. Sometimes you take 20 minutes out of your time. You pray a little bit. You learn tehillim. You read tehillim. You learn a a shiur Torah. When I had a business many years ago, many years ago I had a business cuz I needed to I needed to support my family. More than that, we needed to support the the organization. I was refusing to fundraise and to get take donations. So, I had a business. And the business supported everything that I did. And there were periods that I was more involved in the business, but there were mainly periods that I would just sit and learn Torah. And I would come home at 2:00 or 3:00 in the afternoon after learning 7 hours Torah. I didn't go to the yeshiva with a phone. I didn't care. And you know what? What I I do it or 4 hours usually would take me 12 hours. I would come home at 2:00 or 3:00, work for 3-4 hours, and the job would get done. And I had time in the evening to go out to lectures. I invested maybe 3-4 hours a day in the business. And the bracha came, the more I learned, the more I went out on lectures, the more bracha I had in the business. And when I gave more attention to the business, the business went down. So, the way to evaluate how many emunah I have is how much time I'm willing to invest in the Torah. I keep telling you over and over, say Krias Shema al Hamitah. People start working out their neck. Why? It takes you 10 minutes. No, I'm tired. No, it's the end of the day. Invest 10 minutes in the Krias Shema al Hamitah, you'll sleep better, you'll wake up better, you'll feel better. It's such an unbelievable thing. You're not willing to invest 10 minutes to say Krias Shema al Hamitah? That is your wrath, how much emunah you have. Because if you go now to the doctor, and the doctor will tell you, "Take this pill." You believe the doctor, and you take the pill. Even though it's proven already that 50% of the pills they're giving you it's placebo, there's nothing there. But you believe the doctor because he has a white robe, and he has a diploma on the wall. Why do you believe? Did you ever ask the doctor, "What's in this pill that you're giving me?" Did you ever say, "Can you show me the research that shows what this pill does?" Zero people in the world will come to the doctor and tell him, "Why are you giving me this pill? What is in this pill? How was it created? Is there chemicals in there? Is there something that can affect me or give me side effects?" The doctor says, "Here's the prescription." You take it, you go to the pharmacy, you take it, and you eat it. No problems with believing there. Nobody comes to the doctor and says, "I don't believe you." Here's a pill, here's an antibiotic. I don't believe you. Who does that? So, why do you believe the doctor, and you don't believe Hashem? You go to a dietitian, the dietitian will tell you eat fruit, it will make you have good energy, you believe the dietitian. People will willing to invest 2 hours of their day into exercise because they believe and they're right that they will have be in good shape. So, they're willing to invest an hour, half an hour, 2 hours in exercising cuz they know there's going to be a result. They believe. Most people are not willing to invest 2 hours a day to to learn mitzvot. So, means they don't believe that Hashem will give them what they need in that 2 hours of investment. So, you can evaluate the level of your emunah, how much you're willing to invest in the Torah. Very simple. Now, this is one way of preparing the vessel for Shavuot because Shavuot will come if I'm prepared, I will receive this godly light. One way is to preparing is to work on my emunah. Just sit. To work on on my belief. A a a way to work on my belief is to as much as I can in the next 2 weeks not to to to feed myself from the physical world. It's to concentrate on the spiritual, not on the physical. There is a a concept in the Torah that it says "Kol man alav". A person should uh sorry, "Kol man alav kol rekhusho veyikne man alav man alav l'raglav". A person should sell everything that he has if he's poor but don't sell your shoes. Or have enough money to buy shoes. What's the what's the wisdom behind it? You're telling a poor person sell everything that you have but don't sell your shoes or have money enough to buy shoes? The Arizal explains that the reason why we wear shoes and by the way the result explains cuz I see many people do it it's very not good to walk barefoot. To what? To walk barefoot. Oh. I mean if you go to the beach and you want to enjoy a little bit the sand, fine. But to walk in the house or in the street the plan it's not good to walk barefoot. Why? Because the energy in the ground if there's no separation, the energy pulls you down. The land the earth has a very strong energy. And the energy is pulling down. And if I don't have a separation, the energy in the earth pulls my energy into the ground. So it will make me much heavier. People fall into sadness, depression, laziness, all these things because their energy is being sucked away from them in many different ways. So I can produce energy. I can now go and help you carry your bag. Just an act of kindness. I now produce I'm a nuclear reactor of energy. I produce good energy. I will be all hyped up. But now if I don't hold this energy, it will be taken away. So that's why I have a lot of mix what the mix what is to guard my energy. And that's why I don't have I'm not allowed to do all these prohibitions cuz it sucks away my energy. So one of the ways that the energy can be sucked is that I'm attaching the ground. That's why one of the signs for kosher animals is the split hoof because they're separated from the ground. They're not feeding energy to the ground. So the result says it's not good to walk barefoot. But the reason why the the place in the old Torah is talking about that a person should sell anything he has but not his shoes because constantly you want to make a separation from the gashmiut from the earthiness. And this week this next two weeks to prepare for Shavuot that I have to work on my emunah, is as much as I can not concentrate on the spiritual, concentrate on the physical, concentrate on the spiritual. If you don't have the habit of praying, then pray this 2 weeks every day. If you don't have the habit of reading something in every day, then this 2 3 weeks go out of your way. Take 20 minutes out of your time to read the lim. If you have a issue with the bakeries where you buy every day four big chocolate cakes, then then this week go on a diet. Don't buy the chocolate cakes. Don't feed your animal soul too much. Concentrate in the next 2 weeks on feeding your spirit, your soul, than your body. This will it will cause it will cause a separation from the earthiness. The more that I feed my body with this physical pleasures, the more it wants more, the more it separates me from my spiritual source. So, there's nothing wrong with eating, but there's nothing good with eating five cakes, ice cream every day. Eat it on Shabbat when it's allowed to. I love coffee. I drink two cups a day, not 17 cups a day. Once I used to drink 15 cups a day, not because I was addicted, because I love coffee. So, now I hold myself. I have one coffee in the morning, one coffee in the afternoon. Don't need to feed my animal soul too much. Don't need to pleasure my body too much. Give the body what it needs, and feed your soul. So, for the next 2 weeks, you want to emphasize and give that to your soul. What will what will be the result is you you pumping the emunah into your neshama. The more emunah you're going to have, the more greater the vessel you will build, which means that on Shavuot, you are going to be more receiving a much greater capacity of this light. Cuz the klee, the vessel to receive the light on Shavuot, is the the vessel of emunah. It's believing in the Kadosh Baruch Hu. The Jews, when before they got the Torah, can imagine somebody coming now and telling you listen in in 7 weeks let's meet in that mountain and you're going to see Hashem. Oh, I know, come on. Somebody come and tell you that right now you'd be like, yeah, yeah, right. Can you show me proof? They didn't ask questions. They built their emunah. They went into the desert. Can you imagine now somebody coming telling you leave your house, leave your clothes, leave your internet, you leave your phone, don't you can't take your phone with you. Now, if you tell now to any individual leave your phone for 7 weeks, you're going to get the Torah. I can I guarantee to you that very few people would leave the phone. They'll be like, can't I take it with me? What, am I going to have WhatsApp with me in the desert? So, they went blindly into the desert. They had emunah. Cuz Moshe Rabbenu told them, you're going to get the Torah. So, we have to build this emunah. This is the vessel that will allow me to get this godly light on Shavuot. And I have to remember that whatever I prepare and however I'm ready to receive on Shavuot, that will last me for the entire year and will determine what connection I'm going to have with the Torah. You can continue coming here for the next coming year and what will determine how much you understand from the classes is on the night of Shavuot. Because that's the night that designs and prepares everything. So, b'ezrat Hashem, we should concentrate on that. The night of Shavuot is a very special night. The Zohar says and the Arizal guarantees that and whoever's up in the night of Shavuot learning Torah, muvtach lo sheyashlim shanato, he's guaranteed that he's going to finish this year in his life. He's not going to die. This is a pretty serious uh promise from the Arizal based on the teachings of the Zohar. And the thing is a lot of people died before their time. They do certain sins and they have a decree from the heavens, and they have a shalom car accident, a disease, something. The result says, based on the Zohar, that whoever stays up all night on Shavuot and learns Torah, guaranteed that he's going to finish his this year alive. Unless, of course, it's in his uh due date that that's when he has to leave. I'm talking about somebody that can cause death. More than that, this is a very special night because the dinim the lot that's coming from the sphere of the lot, they all funnel down into mouth. They it all funnels down into to the sphere of mouth. And and the dinim the judgments are in the mouth. Which is technically not good. But on the night of Shavuot is the night that you can remove all the dinim from the mouth. Just by staying up, learning, and doing what you need to do. So, besides, it's known that on the time of it was a wedding between the Jews and a sham. And the Zohar calls the night of the of Shavuot the layla the the the kala the night of the bride. And the more you learn Torah and work on yourself on the night of Shavuot, you basically decorating the crown the bride. It's a very special night. So, A, we want to have the right preparation. We want the preparation to be the right way to Shavuot, which I just told you a few things. We're going to have more classes with a sham. But you want to work on your you want to as much as possible minimize physical things, physical pleasures, and work on the spiritual. And to prepare yourself that that night you are a vessel to receive this light. And you're not obligated in staying up all night, but the benefits from it is is great. And you want to make sure that the preparation preparation is done right and with a sham. This will allow us to receive this godly light on Shavuot and needless to say we'll we'll bring after that the ultimate receiving of the light which is going to come with the other sham very soon when Messiah comes. With the other sham should have a easy and good preparation and a beautiful if I don't see you a beautiful happy Hag Shavuot.