Likutei Moharan Lesson 2 Shiur by Rav Yoeli Klein at Scheiner's Shul in Monsey

Yeah. So, yeah, there was a little confusion with that, but we're going to start the new tire today. We'll do at least an introduction, an introduction and get our feet wet in terra base and we'll see what what happens from there. That's why we said that we mentioned this in the first year that the Maran is very unique and all of Turas in that you have a lot of background information from RaNas came close to the Reb so he decided to record almost everything which at that time was was more rare you don't have that by a lot of otherwise has a whole very unique and interesting story background. First of all, it says in the beginning which means that it was handwritten by others that are not written like that are dictated or were heard by and then looked it over. But these were handwritten by and this one is unique because it was before even came close to the Reb. A lot of the terrors from afar of mass were were not lost but they weren't recorded well. So over here um the Reb himself said that when came close to him he said if it wasn't for Abnas not one page in my writings would would would uh would exist. Nassan was the one that recorded almost everything. So over here that's why I brought the English version here for for this intro and for a lot of the historical information. Um the ty over here this ty bay was given in 1801 which is before even moved to to breast. He was living in Zlatipole. Rabbn Nassen came close I think in 1802 1803. So before even came close and the whole story is that there was a um a follower of Nakman. Nakman had already followers from when he was 13. As far as we know from the days of his bar mitzvah, he uh he went out to the forests and he uh he would speak to people and they would be very enthused and get very inspired and they were very were very dic to him. And uh so one of his followers over here um was Isaac and Rashel Isaac he had a very uh interesting dream and this dream was disturbed them so much that he actually ran to Zapia to speak to the Reb to his reb to see what what what's going on with this dream and so he he he would give over this dream and he said that he saw himself in a very very thick forest and he came up with this person. He saw this person that was carrying a huge sword that was double-edged, meaning you could have a sword that's, you know, sharp on one edge and dull on the other side. It was two edges were sharp. It was a It was a unique sword. And he was frightened, but he started to follow this man. Eventually, they came to some house and the old the man told him that there are many other swords over here and you could take one, but you have to know how to use the sword. You have to know how to do it. So he came inside and he was uh he was a little scared at first and this old man was there and he said that you have to be totally clean of immorality in order to take and know how to and you have to know how to handle the sword. So all of a sudden Isaac found himself like filled with clouds dark dark clouds and he said look you're still surrounded by all these clouds which means that you know you're still not clean and you're not ready for the sword yet. So, you'll come to a a place soon in the forest that you'll be able to get a proper master craftsman. He sharpens these swords. If you get there, maybe maybe you'll be able to to wield the sword properly. And he said, "But who knows if they'll open the door for you." So, Isaac woke and from this dream and he ran straight to Zia. I don't know how far it was. And he went there in the winter and uh part of the way he he actually walked there and Nakman just moved to Loly Hamish a few months earlier and Isaac is never there yet. So he was like looking for Abnakman. Finally he got there and they said like don't you know there's a whole opposition after he said don't worry I I need to go there. So that's when he realized that in the dream they told him who knows you know if you'll even make it to this house and who knows if they'll open up for you. So he finally found Rabnak's house and he knocked and knocked and knocked and there was no answer. So he kept knocking and knocking and knocking and finally he heard the Reb say behind the door it's impossible to open the door for you now. I can't I can't open the door. So he was broken and he started to cry and cry. He stood by the Reb's door for an hour at least just crying that here he came all the way to the Reb and he was told that I can't open the door for you. And finally after a long time not going to open the door and he says but weren't you already told even before setting out that you might have not be let in. He says very good you cried a lot and you know the sh of the dees are open but there's so much clouds and when he heard that he realized that even though he was coming to tell the rebba about a dream the rebba already knew the entire dream and he was just he couldn't even talk so that he stayed that shabas and then on that shabas the rebba taught this now this whole is an explanation of the dream so here he was he had this dream he ranted the rebba played out the dream by saying you can't even come in here because you're not clean and then he taught the Torah which is all about this dream. Unbelievable like a pelic way that the Reb's lessons would come out. Now as an addition now the dream sorry the dream with all of these ideas is exactly alluded to in the toyra which speaks very much about but he says as we're going to see as an intro to the toy is a sword has to be like a double-edged sword where it has the edge of where you praise and the edge of where you cry out to so it's like a double-edged sword but in order to know how to wield the sword you have to know have to to have mishbat and in order to have mishbat you have to be close to the tadikim and he goes through but but but if you have if you're not worthy you have tons of clouds that are clouding your judgment you're not going to be able to do any of this so that's what the to was about so the amazing addition to the story was that a bunch of years back we to have loser kenn come to the house a lot and had become very close to him um he passed away a few years back and he had a lung transplant by us And we had a very very deep connection throughout the years. Actually the first time that he came was around was around kissave to our house here. And Kaneka that Kaneka was an incredible Kaneka. He was on double oxygen dying from a genetic lung disease. And every night he gave over to for like 20 minutes, half hour, an hour. He could barely breathe. He could barely talk. The doctor said that if you were um you know getting the amount of oxygen that he was getting which is about 7% of the norm normal oxygen levels you would be basically passed out fainted on a bed all day long. That's how most people would be. He would push and push and push and he would do whatever he could and he would teacher. So from then on he had the lung transplant which is a different story tons of miracles tons of stories but I would try to make it my my way to he was the r of the breast of communas every year to be there for a night um to see him light the candles and many years I was to be there it's not just lighting the candles it's preappearing for it and then afterwards they would sing there's like I don't know 20 breastless nigun to sing and some of them are very slow takes a long time and they would sing happy nigun and you would sing over some it was always a beautiful beautiful amazing amazing experience. So one year I don't know how many years ago this was must have been 12 years ago the RV was always very you know he was always battling back and forth even after lung transplant with health and but you know we were the ones that hosted him here in Muny so we had very very special status and we would always get to to to be close to him and come in and us very very much kitser that year he was taka feeling very I made it for there and we we we dire together and I went over afterwards And one of the sons came over to me. I saw you was mamish. Like barely bar really could barely stand. One of the sons came over to me afterwards. He said, "This year, I'm really really sorry. I know you came all the way here. Maybe tomorrow you'll be able to come in, but tonight don't even bother. Don't even come. He's too weak to see anyone. He's going to light the candles and go to sleep. Like don't come. Don't bother coming. Don't bother coming to the door." So I said, you know, I listened to the the words of the Tadikim. He says not to come. I'm not going to come. So I went I lived I sang my my songs then I went around and I had a very close friend that lived mish actually across the street in from the r. I ended up at his house with a friend of mine and we start bringing and we start talking we start smoozing and for some reason or another he brings out this whole story that I was talking to you because I told him that they told me that I shouldn't even come that I shouldn't even knock at the door. He said nash he said come let's learn the story and he he opened up the book and he we learned through this whole story and he said you see was also told go away don't you know and he even knocked and even cried he still told him go away eventually the reb opened the door you have to knock you have to push you have to it's like don't give me these things of yourself person's sick and he says don't come you don't come so the whole time we're fighting and we're going through this story I'm like okay kids Just to add one point that I forgot that's very important to the story is that when I was speaking before that that uh that this toy is about the first line of the we'll see we can start the like this the main weapons of Msiah are that's how the Reb starts off this and he goes on to explain that is the weapon of Msiah right in different places he says that Msiah is going to take over the whole world without one shot being fired there's weapons of mass destructions and all sorts of Armageddon doomsday theories and all sorts of stuff. Reb says Mashiach is going to come. It's going to be one is one puts the whole thing over the over the top and all of a sudden Msiah comes. So, but the Reb uses a very interesting lion. The weapon the main weapon of Msiah is so we'll speak about that maybe a little bit. But Kitser at a certain point it got to a to a crescendo and I said okay fine for your sake I'm going to go to their house and I'm going to knock like a baby like this and if they don't answer I'm leaving. I said fine at least you did your go do it. So I go over there I'm like shake I'm like they told me not to knock. They told me don't come to the door. So I knock like as if like no one no hopefully no one will hear me. Sure enough of course they opened the door they said come they they honored me. They brought me in with my with my friend and they sat us down talk at that point there was only family members and it was very intimate. But as the night wore on and they were singing and the RV got a little more energy. They let more people more people more people. Eventually there was 20 30 people there. There was a whole whole crew of people and they did all the songs. The Ravi even sent over a short. Everyone was very very excited and very happy and I was like amazed that already like the first half of this story came true that like I wasn't supposed to go to the door but I knocked and they let me in. I was like ahaldic. Then the amazing part comes that there's a bak one of the bak is walking out and I'm sitting there like a few feet away from the r and my friend and all these this guy that pushed me to come and the other friend I was with they're all standing around and this baker comes over to the and he says that I've had enough of dodging the draft you know in air they have a draft to go to the army he said I uh you know I'm not learning so great I don't I don't want to dodge I don't want to do this stuff I just want to go to the army me, get it over with and get a normal job and go on with my life. So the without looking at me or anything, he just goes, "The main weapons of army has their weapons. You have your weapons." And I was just like, me and my all my friends look at each other. Did that just happen? Did we just like experience a parallel story? You know, it was it was quite unbelievable. So, you know, I've been around a lot of breast of people. I've seen so many and I mean the Reb over here when he was telling Isaac straight you know where Reb was on aesh where he would say it and sometimes I've seen from the like that a lot of times I've seen especially from Sadikim that the kind of just comes it's like they're so simply in tune with with Hashem and with the with the with the Reb that everything they say just flows with unbelievable unity. But with that said and done, so the toy of is about all these ideas that were alluded to in this in this dream and in this story. And starts off this is a in the end the end of the is going to be explained more thoroughly how it fits in with the lesson. There's a very deep and esoteric part of the Z. Not that the rest of it is not not esoteric, but this part is like um rich in in secrets simply from the from the holes of the nose. Let's say the breath of life is drawn into Msiah. So now the sides the main weapons of Msiah is prayer. Prayer as a weapon is an element of the nostrils, the nose. And my uh the over there is speaking about the wrath of says but for for my glory and for my praise, I'm going to which is a very strange. It sounds like I'm gonna nostril it. I'm gonna nose it. It means that my wrath that could come through my nostrils, you know, the imagery of people that are angry is through their nose. So I'm gonna stop that wrath. I'm gonna instead give kindness. He's saying over here he's saying that that that's the aspect of praise is my is is connected to the nostrils all the wars and the battles of Msiah are going to be captured all from this place of Msiah which is an aspect of the nostrils. This is an aspect of the that I will breathe like he's connecting the ideas of and the nostrils and breathing is again going to explain on another level how this this relates to weaponry like what shist you know okay things happen you get miracles What? Why does that have to do with war with weapons? Says, "With my sword and with my bow, I won the battles with my brother with my filling to him." Again we see the idea of that with connecting to to toal with praising the idea of connecting to the the nose and the nostrils and breathing and Msiah. So again over here it's interesting to note that the Reb speaks about it in the terms of a weapon. What is a weapon? A weapon is something that you wield. kind of like similar to if we were speaking about mal is something that you have over here it's something that you wield that you use to affect the world right like America there's a big debate about gun control and like many people uh on one side of the debate say you know guns don't kill people kill people a gun is an inanimate object that sits on a table or in a box it just sits there it won't kill anyone for all of eternity if you don't do anything with it a human being that's evil will take it and try to kill people. So then the humans are where you should work on not the guns. So over here too a sword is something that could be used for terrible things. You can murder people. In those days there was the gun, the gun of the times with swords and bows and all these ideas. But it could also be used to kill bad people. It could also be used to protect people and to say here I have a weapon. You can't touch me. So over here the Reb is showing us that basically through we have to be able to we wield a tremendous power and this power could be used if it's garnered properly to help us affect other people in a in a powerful way ourselves and other people as the Tor is going to go on is going to say that you have to know how to do this. So over here we have to receive this this weapon of was famous for withstanding the greatest test of all time seemingly with as a young man filled with energy in a land where no one would ever know what he did in a situation where he was being offered the greatest temptations. He withheld that you should g your sword on your loin. is a reflection reference to um this is an aspect referring this this is referring to not going to get too much into the how they all connect but that's the idea of connecting to he's going to explain it a little more though um in a way that's more understandable who did guard his brisk took the inheritance of the firstborn like we see that he got double portion of two of two tribes being say that this idea of is connected very very much to like we said before there's two elements that There is an aspect where you praise and there's an aspect when you beg for stuff which is like we said before in the dream a double-edged sword. It's sharp on both edges. Two mouths so to speak, right? It's that's inalucos. You're saying praises and you're also saying that you want to bring more goodness into the world which very much relates to what we said. Malus is that a um sabris also sabris very uh vaguely spoken about is like stop looking at bad things don't do this stay away from that but sabris really means to guard the covenant to guard something that you hold um close to yourself something that you've forged as being part of you hold to it right it means to basically stay true to what you know is righteous and good. What does that mean? Stay true. Stay true means that when you're experiencing times that obviously when it's flowing and you're feeling it and you have no time, oh, very nice. Stay true. It's not a big deal. Staying true means to stay faithful to that which you know means that you have to really work on it. When it's times that you don't feel like that and you feel miserable and you feel dark and you feel like who cares, nothing makes sense anymore. There stay true. Stay faithful to that which you already know is true. So over here when it comes to chila if and when we look at the world like we said that you know everything is mine and everything I have is mine we look at it from a very superficial aspect so you like our is going to be pretty poor it's just going to be like oh hashem you know sometimes you feel like that thank you for the walls thank you for my hands thank you I don't feel anything you're saying thank you hashem which is nice beautiful but when we really feel it when we recognize you know we have the we have the yatar So you say, "Wow." So it's so nice. You come out of the bathroom and if you're to be amongst the, you know, sigula that says the asher without running and drying your hands and doing 13 things, you actually stop and you say the words. So you feel like you're a million dollars. I said, "Maybe now Hashem is going to, you know, heal me and heal some person." But doesn't need your doesn't need a you recognizing that. Wow. both we just gave you the ability to go to the bathroom and if it comes to a point of humility I had a minor surgery a hernia operation but they give you anesthesia and they put you out in gans I didn't know about the posttop app at all uh which is probably better that way but it was pretty shocking that when you wake up so your body is actually still asleep you can't go to the bathroom cuz your muscles are sleeping and it's a big deal to go to the bathroom for the first like 8 to 10 hours they don't even let you out of the hospital so finally they let me out of the by I remember finally after like 10 12 hours of feeling the need to go to the bathroom but not being able to do it just you can't it's like you're you're in like that long everlasting car ride where your parents are like we're not stopping we're not stop like bus driver say we're not stopping we just took a break you know you're like ah you're exploding you can't go it's it's terrible and finally you able to go so I always try to remind myself and say the fact that you're just able to go to the bathroom is a gift hashem is just allowing you to recognize these gifts of life of the ability to do the most simple things to have a drink of water whatever it is gives you that gift. So when you recognize that gift and you have that praise of that that perspective of like wow hashem I don't have anything you blessed me with water you've blessed me with bathroom you blessed me with with the grape juice for kish you blessed me with with every little then you could start feeling the true the the um and then you could start saying he blessed you with so many gifts that you just give to me hashem help me use them. You know, I have more than just water. I have tons of food. I have tons of energy. I have tons of things. You know, tonight I was I was with the kids and we had a layover of four minutes before the food was going to come out of the oven until the food was ready with a bunch of hungry children. So, those four minutes are intense time. I'm fighting, you know, hungry children. Don't always have to stuff them with food. Make sure they're taken care of. They're they're not hungry, not thirsty. But they were starving. the food was going to be ready in four minutes. So, I just started like, you know, just being fun and entertaining and seeing any random thing that came to my mind. So, I was like, "Do you realize how much food we have?" I know that's not going to do it cuz they're like, "Yeah, but we're starving now." I was like, "Wait a minute. We have to take an image right now of all of the food, not after we've eaten it, before we've eaten it, right when it gets served to us that we've eaten our entire life piled on this table. All of the bread, fresh, delicious bread. It would probably be up to the roof already. All of the chicken, all of the eggs, all the steaks, all of the hot dogs and everything. Can you imagine? It would be like an entire room filled with food. This blessings just keeps pouring and pouring and pouring and pouring. One of my kids who only eat cereal and milk. He's like, "Oh, just be boxes of cereal." I was like, "Yeah, you're right. Just boxes of cereal and milk." But okay, either way, it would be a lot of boxes, you know? It's but this is the gift is coming up with it. But Hashem blesses us with tons of gifts. We have so much energy and stuff. We come to a a genuine hak of these things. Then we say to when it comes out like that, thank you and I have and I have money and I have wisdom and I have strength. Hashem, please help me guide me to know what to do to use all of these things that I could be able to do it well with my wife, with my family, with my my siblings, my parents to to use it all for good. The TA comes out like that. It's staying true. I think a an element of also to to to have our recognition when we have the times that we're connected and then when we have other times and we're not feeling it so much to be able to recognize that the the um the connection that we have to our wife or to kaduca to the tora person that you know it's taught very often that person that doesn't yet have a wife everyone should be very very soon they have the toyra the toyra has all of the energy the fire of the tya of women that you could channeling for the Tyra. So we have that energy. We have that place to to grab on to have the the engagement and the connection. So but sometimes we don't feel it. We don't want it. And we go with other things like yeah is nice. It's cute. But right now I'm going to go to something else. We have to stay true to the things that we know is true and recognize that, you know, you can see it very much in a marriage that this is the person that's been giving me and giving to me and giving to me and that we have a deep very intimate relationship with and this is someone that I'm going to stay true to. And the same thing with the Tyra is word. So I'm going to stay true to I'm not going to veer off to other places. Just a couple more minutes. Maybe I'll be to finish another stickle to to tie it in. He says he merits to get this sword. So he said that Messiah is a weapon a weapon of in order to get the weapon of you have to stay true to what you have and what you know is true. So we have a sword now but like we said we have to know how to use it. You have to have gun safety. You have to be able to aim properly. You don't take a gun and start swinging it around wildly. You have to be able to aim it to keep it in the proper place in those days. Arrow or a sword like it says in the over there speaks about being able to aim your your over there speaking about a stone. whatever you're shooting a stone, a arrow, a sword at at a hearer's breath and hit it. You cannot possibly do this only through there's an element of just justice, judgment is an is the uh the middle pole. You're able to aim exactly your weapon where you need to. So you hit the target in the middle to sustain your words with meaning that your words are going to be able to have a powerful proper effect if and when you have what does that mean? It seems uh like again just pretty random like okay mishb what does mishb mean and what does that have to do with my words. So you explain take a little time but it'll explain got this from like we said already in the first but he's going to bring it down a little bit differently is I'm giving it over to you is he's giving it over to he also had which is an element of brisk which we stay at bris receives all this. So he should be able to hold his words in the proper way. Mashiach is the king. He's going to be able to also have this mishbah. So what? How do we get to this mishbah? So we have a sword and it's dangerous and it's sharp and if we don't know what we're doing with we could veer off either too much praise. We just say thank you Hashem all day or too much crying and begging and screaming at Hashem. We have to have like this beautiful balance of the two. How do we have this through mishbah through having a a proper um healthy approach to mishbah. But how do we do that? Obviously, if you want to be able to do things properly, you have to know how to judge things. How do we get to that? So, he says through giving, which is a very unique. He says when you give to you are you are literally grabbing the element of and doing it. So now he's going to explain more what that means. Through judgment, God is the judge is the judge is the judger. He decides this guy's going to be rich. This guy is going to be poor. Means that Hashem is the only decider. Who's going to be rich? Who's going to be poor? You work hard. I've seen a lot of people that had talent, went to very good schools, worked pretty hard, and failed at everything. I've seen guys that were schlamasics and and they're like multi multi-millionaires, didn't have charisma, they didn't have like big backgrounds, didn't go to good college. Hashem judges, but the Reb looks a little bit differently. And he has a unique interpretation. He's saying each and every one of us givea I am being I am being godly now in the terms of deciding who will be rich and who will be poor. What does that mean? Cuz right now in my pocket I have a $100 bill. When I have a $100 bill, I'm the judge over where that's going to go. Ah, right now I say that poor guy, this guy that's collecting for some good cause, I'm going to give him $100. I just made a decision like God who decides who was born and who's not to take money away from me and give it to another person. Obviously, if you do it the opposite way, you're perverting judgment in the wrong in the worst of ways. You say, "That guy has $100. He's not looking. I'm going to take that $100." That's obviously taking mishb and m is destroying it because you're judging but the wrong way against here tells us all yes give s to daka I'm telling you to do this hashem says give sak you're like okay I have the ability to now say to judge this person me is going to be a little poorer right now and that person right now is going to be a little richer so the reb says how do you get to this mishbat which we said in order to get to mishbat you need in order to get To properly wield the sword of which is Msiah, you have to have is through giving through giving physically you you exercise mishb and then you bring out this power to wield the sword of that's why there's a big uh brought out I think in to give before ding in it's even in the middle of ding there which is again to be able to have your um your your in order to have your with the proper balance to have this mishb let's just finish off a little bit if we could do it um gave money. He was the king who had all the money and he supported his family in the times of famine. Um during those years that was able to now give over back to his father. Again he's connecting this idea of giving through giving that he was able to exercise. So he's able to have so he gave to who's the element of gave the back to him. So he gave him the obviously also is a reference to of. So over here in these few paragraphs, the Reba basically took all these ideas of of exercising judgment and uh doing you give sodaka and again sodaka now we're in the spir so I've said over recently a lot that sodaka doesn't mean just money. Sedaka can mean many many things can mean smiling. It can mean anything that you give to another person. If you ask a person how he's doing, these are things that you uh that you help another person. I remember once I was in in Mirron for shabas, the only miron shabas that I was there and I was stuck in a bench shabas afternoon between twoy beautiful bakra and we were all dabbling and learning and I open up a takali and I was about to start tikka and I said to myself but I want to give saddaka before saying takal shabas. So sometimes I try to look even if it's job is done say a nice word to a guy say how you doing give a guy a smile it's giving I was sitting there stuck in between two random people there was no one to give nothing to do so I was sitting there thinking what can I do all of a sudden the ber next to me goes I said there's a mistake he goes yeah look in the mistakes you see when we say it in the morning you see I mean there's mistakes in there it's not see who it's he starts showing me all these mistakes So I smiled to him. I said sweet this is from this is from that's from that we say in the morning this is the real text of he goes he says my whole life I never said I was always correcting it say it me right now you know I get to say for the first time in his life I said he could be sitting in the middle of two people stuck with nowhere to go nowhere to speak nothing to do you can do wherever you are so basically is sitting over here whatever taka was to do is element of Mishbah that helps us wield and have a proper balance of where we praise Hashem and ask him and through that