R' Levi Yitzchak Berditchever Yahrzeit

[Music] y oh [Music] y y [Music] oh [Music] good evening welcome our faan tonight is in honor of the yard site hula on the 25th day of the month of Tish ofad a great defender passionate defender of the Jewish people and today the yard site as I'm sure everybody is aware is just the day after the day after in fact in theas in the way that it came out this year we're uh just a day after shabas we had 10 days in a row of Y and then going straight into chabas in the year of the's passing was Monday Tuesday and his y was a Thursday and starting already Yim Kipper it became known that his days were numbered the was very mock in not to trouble his community in many ways but particularly when it came to ending the fast after Yim Kipper he would make sure not to burden people by extending the fast so nil would always end on time and this one particular year which was T 1809 the last few months of 1809 the was he was praying for a very very long time and only afterwards did he reveal what had happened that the entire Yim Kipper he was in he was engaged in an intense battle he was always every in Kipper the bich was engaged in an intense battle on on behalf of CLA but this time it was for his own life he said that the Mal had positioned himself the angel of death had positioned himself between him and the the urin and it was clear that it was his time to go and he was able to negotiate so to speak that he should live for a few more days to live through a sucus and the and then the day after is the day after the day after Sim was his passing so suus was a very beloved time for the Risha um we know that he would stay up all night the first night of yam he wouldn't sleep he couldn't sleep um because he was so anxious to bench lulov um and so he was able to leave this world with one more suus with one more it's known that he actually LED some of theas was was he led some of theas even though it was his last days in this world he led some of the the prayers the communal prayers in sh and those were his last days those were his very last days so we're here to celebrate his life and to invoke his Merit it's known that it's a schoa we have here C of the kadous Ley actually the translation in English of kadous Ley from art scroll and we'll talk a little bit more about that because our host today where we're faing tonight in burough Park Misha silk is uh involved in this work and we're going to speak to him about that he's Al also our host here we're in his home um but um it's known that having this safer the Kusa slavy which is the B saer is is a it's a skoa for it protects one who has it in his home and for for sweetening Harsh judgments and in fact the H said that if you don't have the safer then even mentioning the name Le itself will have the same effect of protection in your home and in fact the hel son the went even further and said even mentioning the name of the town BV can have that effect and he learns it from a mishna Yuma in uh the third chapter of the mishna and Yuma which is about Yim Kipper it says that on the morning of Yim Kipper in order to ascertain that day had begun and they could begin the Aida you cannot begin all of the various rituals and sacrifices until uh the day day proper begins which is daylight so they would confirmed that the kin is the Eastern Sky meaning the sun rise uh Illuminating until kin and the question is why did they mention and the says that that we mention because that's the place of where the O where the holy Patriarchs are buried so we mention K on the day of Yim Kipper in order to invoke the Merit that is in conferred upon CLA Isel by mentioning the oice we're not even mentioning the oice we're just mentioning the place where the oice are so the said if you'll even mention the town you'll get secondhand to bring protection and sweetening of judgments I should also mention I'll probably go into this a little bit more in depth later that the town of bichev itself was founded by my ancestor Liber aod Liber was the founder of berv and today is the day of so I won't be M I won't speak at length about my ancestor abber except to mention that he was the founder of the town and the story is that he was in the forest by himself he was being mised in the forest and a poits or A's son came by with his uh Hunting Party he and his friends were hunting and I believe was davening he was in a state of vacas in the forest he didn't even see them and he frightened one of the horses so the P's son was upset that his horse was startled he got off his horse and he started to beat rebber and um Reb Liber was mortally uh wounded he was close to death's door and when the Pit's son came home he actually fell down and became paralyzed and the father knew something was not normal he asked the friends what happened did anything strange happened on your hunting trip the friends didn't want to admit it so they they swore to secrecy they said nothing happened but eventually the father implored and they said yeah that uh the pets's son had beaten this Jew so the pets went to abber and he asked him what can I do that you'll Davin for my son and abber said in the spot where the attack took place in the forest you should build a town should be a place where Jewish people can uh Thrive and build a community so that's how the town of BV came to exist from uh a anyone who uh is related to I believer probably knows this is how we do do Jewish geography uh my mother's mother's maiden name was liberon so if you meet a liberon you ask them do you have a thing with not marrying khanim if they say yes then they're probably from I believe um so bichev I have a connection to the town and uh we should mention that his connection to came later in life maybe we'll start earlier we'll start when he was 20 years old he was drawn Tois his original Reb Inus was in nikolsburg in fact before he went to nickelsburg so was one of the brought to the ways ofus and then eventually sent to the to the Magid in mesich and there in mesich that's where the that's where the B was he became maker he connected himself to the Magid that's where he formed lifelong connections with the many sikim the the we'll talk later on about his connection with the balat with ra zman the first kabad um thein was one of the said every day I thank Hashem for sending the of the to this world it's a quite a statement how many people did they say that about how many people did say that about so he became a he became one of the and he had uh a great deal of grief from this in his early rabinal positions there was a great deal of his of hisus of opposition to the ways of the balv particularly geographically where he was stationed in in bellus in fact he was actually in pinsk which was a real Bastion of opposition to cidis but however being in pinsk had one benefit for the B which was that pinsk is very close to Carin so he was able to have geographical uh proximity to the Carin and they had they enjoyed a great uh a friendship um but at any rate things were not going well for him there was a great deal of disrespect and acrimony and finally he came to the town of bichev and um even when he first came to bich things were not 100% smooth and here's where I'll mention my illustrious ancestor of Liber once once more um when the bicha came to bich before he became the bich um there were a group of rebber loyalists so I believe rebber passed away in 1770 and the bicha came to bich in 1785 and remained there almost till 1810 he passed away in the last few months of 1809 so for 25 years so when the bicha came to bicha it was already 15 years after abra's passing there were some older people who were loyalists of the original R of Reb Liber and they didn't really want a new RV which is interesting ironically enough because after the bitv was passing the community of bitv took it upon themselves to never replace him to never have another RV in his stad but at any rate when the bicha came to BV so there were a group of reber's followers who didn't really want him and the B called them to the the Mikvah of rber which was in disrepair nobody could use it it had become uh overgrown with with shrubs with weed s with mud nobody could could use the Mikvah and uh the himself removed all the obstructions and he cleared out he cleaned out the mikah and he was standing in the mikah and the water was only to his ankles and then he asked the the gab of rber meaning the personal attendant who was closest to rabber and he was I think 100 years old so the bicha asked him are you aware of a story that took place many many years ago and he was the only one who was aware of it because at this point it was it was ancient history in B so the the bicha asked this this senior associate of RBA are you aware of a story that took place many many years ago where there was a death in shul where the shamish the custodian of the schul actually was found hanging in sha was a obviously very horrific thing to have happened and this attendant of rra said actually yes I'm aware of it and he actually gave an explanation of why the shamish did it he said he was misguided he was confused he whatever he gave a certain Narrative of why it happened at this point the water came up to the bit's shoulders and he says to the group of rebber loyalists is it time for the Nish of the shamish of the sh to have his Aliyah and they all of a sudden realized that something actually was happening something was transpiring on high and they instantly they answered as a group yes he said so be it and then the water went back down to ankle level and the Meda exited the Mikvah and that was it that entire group became attached to their new R so we're going to t night tell stories surely will tell stories there are many many stories of the b um stories of his staunch advocacy of Claus stories of his fiery AAS Hashem um and we're also going to share some Melodies actual nunum that were composed by the B which some of them are lesser known and some of them are almost unless you're a real expert in nunim uh you might not know at all or you might not know that it was composed by the um and also the third thing so stories n and then the third thing is we're going to share some of the Tyra of the the stories are well known but not so much the T was AIG Genius of of of renown even his adversaries admitted his his genius and his scholarship and he was also the author we only have one safer the caducous Ley but the caducous Ley is a treasure Trove of P of has a very unique style and it's incredibly compelling it's it's deep deep totas fascinating tots inspiring Titus and we're going to with hashem's help share some of those teachings tonight but what we'd like to do first is uh we'll hear from my dear friend Ellie again Ellie Marcus uh waiting in the wings and um you've prepared some of the Nim of the what are you in the mood for what do you have next for us thank you RAB sh great to be here thank you we'll start with uh it's called the dud because the the main word of the whole song is do and there's a there's a k version with the cantoral and then there's the version so which version are you going to do we're do the version do the version that uh this I heard from from who heard this this n from Neville back in back in Russia and the theme here you're saying the bicha is speaking to Hashem in second person you do you and what's the I mean I'm familiar with the lyrics but I would like to hear your take on what is it that we're saying to Hashem he's bringing out the the idea of image of of the Z but everywhere you turn everywhere you look is where are you where aren't you in fact I think those are find you on those are those are words in the song where where can I find you where can't I find you north south east west in all directions in the good and the bad Everything is Everything is is uh is do everything is you it's all do do so the D [Music] for [Music] for [Music] fore [Music] for good [Music] the [Music] for for [Music] um is with me okay this is actually our host over here um we're in the heart of bur park right now and uh the mission may not know the story of actually how we got here how it even happened that uh the event tonight transpired so um in addition to being our host Tonight you're also responsible for this uh set of translation ofous lady so I'll tell you a little bit about how this book reached me and how the book reached me in a way that ended up bringing me here and then I'd like you to tell us about how you got involved in this book and how you ended up here aside from the fact that you live here okay so I'm going to tell a story the story actually starts with something very sad which is last year SRA as we began to become aware of what was happening obviously it was a very difficult day the greatest Massacre of Jews on one on any one day since the Holocaust it was a day of it was an Indescribable pain obviously and then once yff was over and fortunately or unfortunately because of Technology we became more and more aware of the reality um so the day after yump um I uh was scrambling to sort of find something to try to not make sense of it because senseless but a way to to go on a way to some type of framework for it and I didn't really come up with anything people were actually pressuring me to come out with something public and say something I didn't I didn't feel ready yet so it was actually two days after Sim um I went to the oaba O and I have I actually at that point I had just bought a little house about a half a block from the Ole in Queens um it's now it's under construction the place is completely gutted um mm will get it uh up and running and then we'll do an event over there God willing um but I had just bought it maybe a month before I bought it in ello so I went down there two days after Sim and I don't get mail over there I don't I I don't I don't live there it's it's uh we're going to make video production facilities in the basement but this this didn't happen yet we're going to have offices there we'll have an area for events for faans but none of that had H none of that happened yet now let alone a year ago so there's really nothing at that house I went there and there was a box and I look at the box it's from Misha silk and I'm like I kind of know that name maybe had maybe you emailed me or something did we correspond through email yeah yeah we had previously many years ago okay but not we we didn't meet in person yet no okay fine so I open the box and it's this it's the set of kadua slavy very interesting and then there's a little card there it explains that you were involved in bringing this to publication and you're sharing it with me I'm not sure why you had that address I don't know if you know why you had that address okay so I bring it into the house and at that point Thea Ley is the only safer in that house it's the only safer in fact it's the only safer in that house um people will use it then people will use it people will use it God willing yeah we'll use it up and we'll have to get a replacement you have more of these yeah yeah yeah a couple more couple more okay um so I I put the I had one shelf actually I put it on the one shelf and again I'm trying to figure out something how we're g to move forward how are we gonna find any type of guidance and somebody sends me a from the from right after the Yim Kipper War when was it Wasim okay Kipper war was yipper ladal so this is three days later and in Kipper was a devastating attack it was a surprise it was it was it was a shock and yud gim Tish is the Y site of the Reb maharash the Seventh Son of the and his successor and the Reb would always on that day so the Reb made a and never asks a question somebody sends this to me okay they send this to me after what just happened in only a few days ago because 13th of means is you Al you B we're talking about a few days later theb says how can we how can we have a gathering of Joy when what happened in AR just happened a few days ago and the pain is So Fresh So the RAB says it's Mako we've received a tradition from in the name of the that says action is your Shadow just like a shadow mimics your every movement so to hasem reciprocates whatever we do that's how he responds so the says as much as we're in pain right now we have to have of all times we have to have a gathering of Joy now to project joy to Hashem so it will radiate back to us because Hashem and I looked it's called the transcript of the it's not an edited it's not from but it has footnotes scholarly footnotes so I wanted to see the source because the says we have it's from the name of the so I looked down the footnotes said kadha SL parasi I'm standing in the in the oil house on 228th Street and the only safer I have in the house is acious ladyy so I went I opened up Pas n and I found the mucker the original source for this concept this powerful concept of hashem's reciprocity which is invoked through the words Hashem and what does it say I'm sure you know because this is your baby here but I hadn't seen it in the original before so I mentioned earlier we'll talk a little bit about the toyra of the aren't just the stories beautiful beautiful beautiful stories obviously but there's deep toyra I looked up and there the Kad Le is explaining basan and he says regarding what does it mean means thus say th in this way in this way you'll bless so the says that you should know that however you radiate whatever attitude whatever energy you put out Co thus that's what's going to come to you so the secret of ban when the the Priestly blessing when the thean when the priest bless the the community is that what they put out that's what Hashem gives back to them now says what do you mean what they put out the hasm is the one giving the bras he says no first we give to hasem what do mean we give to Hashem what could we give to hasem you can't give anything to hasem this is one of the of that and really that concept of goes back to the who explains that the highest level of serving hem is to serve AEM forem not for ourselves but forem also emphasized this the term the often used was the term to be to give pleasure so the B says a similar thing he says when you DAV you think you're daving for you you're not daving for you you're daving for Hashem Hashem more than the calf wants to nurse from from the mother the mother wants to nurse the calf so when you are daving you're giving to a then the says something galic just never thought of it and but after I read it I couldn't unsee it now I see it multiple times a year he says like this when you want to receive when you want to receive you hold out your hand Palm up when you want to give you put your palm down you put the back of your hand up that's how you give so he says when the when they bless us they I won't SP the hoves because I'm not from the Priestly class but you know the but they hold their hands like this meaning in a giving fashion they not not like this they hold their hands like this why because they're giving and when they give and this is this is the formula when they give and who are they giving to to then gives to them and to so the secrets of the is what you put out that's what Hashem gives back to you incredible concept and this was so inspiring to me two days after Sim and then then I looked and I saw that it was the bite I am ashamed to say and maybe this F is my ti uh that I was not aware that that day was that very day was his so on the day of Ben mayor's yard site I received theous Ley at the house a half a block from the LA Isle on the day when I found the S speaking to me how I felt it was speaking to me invoking the V of the B that we received through the K so I knew something was happening that I couldn't ignore now still not done that was last Tish last giml thas I came back from London I spent the shopas before giml thas in London henden and then I came home for a few hours to Five Towns and then the next day I headed to La for the day of giml Thomas itself to speak for a few hours and then to fly right back and to finish the day of the yard site at the Isle so I get on the flight American Airlines JFK to LAX and who do I find sitting with mea where seatmates flying to La I'm on the rebis yite I said now I really can't ignore this guy there's something really happening over here so then I'm about to close the loop maybe a week ago I don't know was it was it before suus that we decided to do this or was it no right right before yant right before sukus right before yant okay so you said can we do something for the yard site and I was like we got like there's no way I'm ignoring all these signs let's do it let's make it happen and and here we are here we areem so that's how I got here how did you get here how did you get here well um R first of all let me um let me thank you immensely for coming um I can say I'm behalf of myself and on behalf of my wife and our family and I'm sure everybody that's sitting here that we're all extraordinarily uh appreciative and indebted to both you and and Ellie for coming in and the whole crew for for making this happen on the ISS isue of of your tiken so I'm kind of feeling that so far it's going extremely well and I'm also feeling that it's only going to get better throughout the night um and uh but you know we are joined here by some very very respected rabbis and I can see by the looks on their faces that you may need to come back actually again next year and do it again to make sure that we're covered on the tiken okay so maybe we'll make an annual event out of this but let me uh let me get back to should give us the strength we should be in uh let me give you the the quick story uh behind this uh this three volume 2000 page set um it all started uh 30 years ago 1995 was only a year yeah so this is a 30-year story but it's going to be it's going to be quick uh it's a 30-year Journey it started at in the back of a very small red L which is a Soviet car uh for those of you remember who remember a Volkswagen Beetle it's about half the size of that uh I did a little research on the car I think that they put two billion dollar in 1995 or 1990 or 19852 billion doll in the design and Engineering I'm sure that all of it went to the design and Engineering of every place in the car except for the back seat which is where I was sitting for the whole trip from KV to nean to gadit to meibes to bichev to tarip to nadana to deatin to anapole and then later back to KV and I recognize all those names of cities not be or towns or hamlets not because I know Eastern European geography but because those are kees I think there you go and some of them are sikim from from your folks and some of them are from our folks and it was a it was a very Wonder wonderful trip that we took we started with the with the rebas of laich and we covered the the bmov and the kadish and then we went my family is aligned with Thea so we went to our our rebas also in premishlan and it was a very very nice trip um so red L uh the back of a red LA and a flame that's basically uh the root of this journey on the first day we went to nean in gadit we had very nice visits there to the balat to the mitba we spent a lot of time in Meb by the balov and then we finally got to bichev you you may recall that the square rabba sent about 35 years ago a shal to bichev the first Rin bich of R Brer and he was there with his wife uh he received us very nicely served us vegetable lkas they had made uh uh scents out of berries juice and they added some Selzer to it we had a very nice time and then we finally went to the oil of the of the of the vicher and it was like like any other oil that we had been to on on all the previous days some of them were larger some of them were smaller they were basically four cement walls and there was a roof either a flat roof or a pointed roof or a slanted roof I don't remember what kind of roof this was maybe it was four points and in the middle of the uh in the middle of the room there was a there was clearly marked the the Cav of the of the B dit and there was a Shelf with some tah hilum off to the side I believe that there was a chair um and on the back wall which would have been where the head of the the the rebba was was a sh it was a big large glass pot filled with oil there was a wick in it and uh and and what really got me was that um the wick wasn't lit so here on the table we have aluminum we've covered all our BAS we got regular candles we got the wax candles and then my dear friend uh my dear friends veto and and Millie arib who participated in this volume gave him this very nice special glass for the bich site but that glass that n the shama in the oil was not lit and it it bothered me to no extent at the time I was living in Hong Kong I was the gab of the kadisha and uh I expected that there would be a Nish lit in the oil and uh I tried every which way it was it was impossible for two reasons number one it was just physically impossible as a matter of contortion of my body to without stepping on the on the Mata to get access to manipulate the wick it was absolutely impossible I kind of made it one time and I lit it but then the wick went out the second reason simple law of physics so since I went to bich you'll be pleased to know that I went to MIT and I got my PhD in astrophysics and I figured out out that every flame requires oxygen in order to burn and this particular Wick had nothing supporting it in the middle of the glass and so it couldn't burn and that was that I got back in the L and I suffered all the way through Western Ukraine Northern Ukraine say it again you weren't able to light it couldn't light it couldn't light it so there was no flame it bothered me to no extent I suffered to tarip to n to delatin to pran to anipo back to K couple more days and then we flew back to Hong Kong and when I got back to Hong Kong I said to myself you know I really must light this flame and I felt that uh if I was not able to light the physical flame at Le at least let me bring some of the flame of the toyra of the bicher to the English-speaking audience so at the time art Scholl you may all recall was was just getting getting rolling they had put out another number of volumes they had actually just published their first first Kish in that year they had a sitter out they had the millas out they had started to work on the gamor but there were there were very few other works by web English translation in terms of there was virtually nothing available other than the great work that kabad had put out lons in tan was already out the saan was out and and various other works a little bit the B the um breast lover had put out a little bit and there was one safer that a friend of mine um who was an iacle of um I I'll think of Theus one of the other rebas it'll come to me in a second they put out a a complete translation of that Reb toas which was printed in very limited edition but there was nothing by way of mainstream Casas that was out very very limited so I decided let me have a go at it and it took 30 years on um and what I found in a word was that it was an extraordinary struggle it was just it was so unbelievably challenging at every step and I'm surprised and amazed how and why it was so challenging and how and why it continues to be challenging so let me explain that in the context of our of our sitting today it took time to identify a group of very serious and Senior Scholars who had a solid command of English who could do the initial translation laser danzinger who was in Toronto did the initial translation after that I was uh very honored and and a great gift to uh become friends with rosha winki um who refined uh the translation and then the third round Rabbi Shalom Weinberg who you may know from Kansas City was was also very involved but at every step of the way whether it was the initial translation or whether it was the refinement of the translation or whether it was the final refinement readying for publication unpacking very difficult Concepts it was just challenge after challenge after challenge so that each stage took no less than two to three years just for the translation when we finished the translation we had to get the volumes ready for for publication so we then had to engage in stages and stages and stages of copy editing Source checking proof reading I had an army of editors that were doing all of this proof reading work over the course of five years and then finally we got to the layout stage so I must say that uh Rabbi Shia brander at at at Art School is an absolute wizard um he put uh a beautiful layout together um that we we merged uh through English and and and Hebrew files and originally our intent was to publish this translation in a similar manner to what you see in the art school Rashi and the Art School Gamora where they do phrase by phrase Hebrew followed by English and so if you can imagine we Reed the volumes thousands and thousands of pages of manuscript we readed it and put it together in this manner it was a very yeah very tedious process I won't go into the details and we finally got it together over about 9 months only to realize that the the translation that we prepared simply did not lend itself to presentation on a phrase by-phrase basis it just did not flow it didn't work because the translation that we did was a readability uh clear concise uh statement expression of what the lushen kides was and so we had to complete take it apart and then completely formulate through Rabbi Brer genius reformulate the presentation so that it now appears on a section by section basis but if you can imagine I was ready to I was ready to to to basically throw in the towel as were a number of members of the team but we finally got there and after we overcame that last hurdle we we printed and uh we we put out these volumes just about a year ago I did a posting on LinkedIn at the time because I felt it was a great professional achievement in that this this these volumes followed me through my whole professional career and it was interesting that I felt I felt it was interesting that we got 60,000 hits just on the LinkedIn posting to show how people in the workplace would be interested in a project like this but the last Challenge and this is really the relevance to this gathering tonight R shase is that I I have felt and I've spent the better part of the last year ding that we could raise the profile um of this work it's it's a it's a great work to begin with it's the most widely studied uhic commentary uh on on Kish and uh I felt that it was just simply going to sell itself um so the volume came out with quite a bit of fan faar sales went pretty well but I felt that the numbers that we were hitting just were not were not in portion um to the to the access and the wide popularity of the safer in in our in our corner of the earth um and every attempt that I made to promote and to push it just didn't seem to work until all of a sudden I met a a wonderful Gentleman on a plane on on my way to Los Angeles for work um and and a couple of other very fine things happened we got some very nice coverage recently in the and in the Mish there was a beautiful review by Ellie Rubin in kab.org just a week ago and of course we have tonight's event and I feel that the B is is is looking out from on high so at very least I I'm I'm thankful and I believe that uh it's not only these flames on the table that are flickering but actually we've we've I have succeeded in starting a a small little flame in the form of these three volumes that I hope will pick up but just remember remember everybody in the room everybody remember that fire requires oxygen so throughout the remainder of this session tonight please breathe okay please breathe um maybe you could share with us I I I it's probably like choosing a favorite child it's not really possible to do it but a line or two from the SPM yeah that you really have fondness for yes so you know I was going to I was going to actually say two things because I I figured you're going to ask me this question a lot of people ask it and I was going to say two things in response one you've just said we bashem have eight kids um and uh it's impossible for me to say which is my favorite I can tell you which one might be slightly getting on my nerves more than the others on a particular day but it's very difficult for me to say which is my favorite impossible and also I am a reforming but not yet reformed lawyer okay so it's very difficult for me to choose you know one let alone 20 uh thoughts from these uh 3,000 pages but I'm going to make a deal with you okay I'm going to give you three but I'm going to do it in in a minute and a half or less how's that so I wna I want to give give three one of them will be very easy because you've already touched on it yeah so I'm going to say three one truth um One Faith and one won the environment around us so the point of truth comes from this week's parasa um there there are a number of beautiful toas and Paras Braes and the seventh one in Braes deals with the Mida of of EMS and the BR brings down a very well-known story it's in medish that the mid of Amis uh had issues with with God when he was creating world and he brought those issues to God and he said that uh it's inappropriate what did God do in response he took the mid of EMS and he threw it down on the earth so that as we now read in in Mishay that the truth should Sprout forth from the earth and what we see from that and what the B tells us about that whole very interesting Dynamic is that nothing in the world can exist without truth we cannot exist without truth our business relationships cannot exist without truth our friendships our professional relationships nothing in the world international relations cannot exist without without truth the second and that's in that's in this week's para we move forward a little bit into Bidar not far away from where where you were in Nas and there's a very interesting vot from the B about war there are two toas in kadous slavy about war one of them is very simple simple thought and the simple thought as follows the biter points out that there are two types of War one type of war is simply a conflict between two countries they might be brawling about land they might be brawling about resources they might be brawling about a border might be a social issue it's a it's a conflict of any other type of bilateral conflict multilateral conflict that we might witness in the form of a war a stupid War as we see so many in so many places around the world another type of war the cadus Ley points out very simply is a war that the ibish himself creates and he creates it for no other reason than simply to arouse our amuna our faith that we should that we should show more of a connection and more faith in the ibistro when we're conducted when we are confronted with any form of conflict let alone the type of conflict that we've witnessed over the past year and finally our environment so I I very much did want to refer to the the great video that that you made the short clip a year ago which you just uh you just uh set over Ras um on the B's uh comment um or his view on on what Hashem means and I want to give it very very simply we have a there there are a number of really extraordinary features in in this uh in this set um there's some very great front material an introduction that goes through many of the stories actually that you just told in the biters biography at the back there are some excellent indices there's a subject index and then there's an index of all of the sources 30 40 pages triple columns and if we were to look up the PK into hilum 1215 that you quoted we'll see that the bdit actually refers to this pic about seven times I think at least seven times and my simple take and this is the take that I I inscribe when I typically when I give out the set is that the iester is our mirror and we should project well which means to say that under any given circumstances we are the owner of the environment that we create around ourselves so simply put as relevant to today's circumstances the the thought on truth I used when I was at the table negotiating against the Chinese in our trade one phase one trade agreement when I told them that the numbers don't lie the truth is the truth but the reality is that in this day and age where misinformation prevails about the circumstances nus role and even much closer to the home on the circumstances on universities and even just on the streets we must rely on on the basis of truth and the truth will always Prevail the second point on the Muna simply that conflict as we have today and we've seen since October 8th there has not been in recent history a showing of how clausal has come together in such an extraordinary fashion I can cite you examples from October 8th all the way until H shaba where you had hundreds and hundreds of people from all walks of life that went to the site of the music festival to DAV hush Raba together no matter what affiliation what what spectrum they were from and finally how we process and how we project particularly in such challenging circumstances that we have in the world today and particularly in the United States with a with an election coming on and and all sorts of very interesting Behavior how we process and how we project that space basically going to determine and Define our environment so basically we're in the driver's seat so those are my those are my three thoughts I I was going to I was gonna pick 20 I was GNA pick 20 but I wanted to go easy on you very gmach and uh obviously for people who want to experience the full uh The Full Experience they have to learn the K and it's original and it's translation the trans translation by the way everyone should know you have on every page the original actual text KES and as you mentioned paragraph by paragraph and incredible footnotes it's one of the things I enjoyed particularly with footnotes which gives it a great ease of cross referencing it's a very enjoyable liod and and very deep and very inspiring so and and plus as I mentioned earlier um even if you don't learn it everyone should learn it but we mentioned having the safer is a SCH for and so the very least it's just good to have it arounda I really appreciate the the story and being part of the story andem we should continue to see it unfold and of may we should see yes amen um rebelli what do you got up your uh for us anything uh anything on your mind right now abely what do you got there are there's approximately uh so mayus put together can there the style so one of them is kades kades of Y where he is preparing for uh he's preparing for M I think that he mention that in fact I I mentions it in the introduction to the slave set here he was and um it's known as dor Milo that's in that tune with the uh opening [Music] word of course in the in in the style of of the it's a mix of yish andish talking like having a conversation with uh with Hashem yeah sorry [Music] spee [Music] for [Music] for [Music] for fore [Music] emotion behind appeal that is begging hasem to only see the good in one of the things that the is renowned for as we mentioned there's a c ear I saw meaning to say he continues not just historically he was but he continues to actively be a defense attorney you mention you recovering as a lawyer so um was also a lawyer he was a defense attorney to CL and there are many stories where we see his incredible a and his incredible genius at lius finding a silver lining in every Jew some of the stories are almost humorous in a way uh there's the the well-known story that the B was once entering sh and his his attendant shamash pointed out that somebody had run outside from the minion who was in the middle of shakas the middle of the morning pray Phill and I guess he had forgotten to grease the wagon wheels I'm not sure if we any of us can relate to that chore but greasing the wagon wheels is like it's a thing you got to take care of this guy remembered it while he was in the middle of daving or at least he had already uh you know began to pray and he came outside and he was greasing the wagon wheels in tal saying and the shamish the the attendant was horrified and the B said to look at your children that even while they Grease the wagon wheels they Proclaim your Oneness so instead of saying look at this guy how could he grease wagon wheels in the middle of shma no I to the contrary he's saying shma in the middle of greasing the wagon wheels you can imagine today if some guy comes into sh and all of a sudden remembers in the middle of daving he's in the middle of a minion oh he he has to deposit a check on his Bank app and he's opening up his Chase app on his smartphone and he's making a deposit you know you can imagine how people would look at this guy and uh it's very easy to dismiss it's very easy to criticize it's very easy to judge but the like was always looking for a positive spin a similar story um he saw a Jew smoking on chabas monolit someone he's openly smoking and you should know bit was in many ways um ahead of its time in a negative way as far as the inroads of Enlightenment Eastern Europe was more protected from it for quite some time but bitv did have a certain segment of freethinkers of uh certain modern influence ascola and uh so there was somebody openly smoking on chabas and the bicha asked him perhaps you didn't realize it was shabas he says no I know it's chabas brazenly know chabas perhaps you forgot that you're not allowed to smoke on chabis says no no I know I know you're not allowed to smoke I just want to do it and again the B looks Heaven word and says you see even when your children aren't keeping chabas they won't tell a lie so again always looking for the positive always trying to bring out something productive instead of knocking down it's very easy to to dismiss people but to find something uh positive to say and it wasn't it wasn't just let's look at it with a positive spin again as I mentioned earlier a story earlier about when the B first came to B and he was able to find a way of elevating the soul of the shamish of the sh of Reber there are things trans you have to understand we're talking about such a sadic who's privy to the ongoings in thez sh and when he was seeing positive things in Jews it wasn't just he wanted to have a cheerful disposition a happy go-lucky attitude he was actually accomplishing things he was actually being a Mia in an active way and and winning court cases for the Jewish people whether for individuals or for uh or for clus as a collective and this was part of his his mission is to uh to find the good in every Jew so I'll share with you um I'll share with you a Tyra from theous Ley so yesterday was yesterday we we had with shabas so today already we're starting n okay so if you look in like this these are The Offspring of night that's the first uh verse he points out something at first not necessarily Earth shattering um why does but it doesn't say these are The Offspring of but it never says these are The Offspring of a so then he goes and points out the difference between and he says we have a concept that call somebody who teaches somebody else's child in a way he becomes a father to that person aam had many children many CH spiritual children in fact this this is what it says about he and S that they made G they brought people before M to it wasn't but it was the idea of bringing people to manism that they brought people under the they brought people to the belief in the one true God so in that sense aam and SAR had many children they were prolific in having a a generation of children spiritual children look at no didn't make any you didn't have a following you didn't have you didn't affect anybody so the says these are The Offspring you want to know who affected shame y his kids that's it all he had were biological children he didn't have spiritual children and this and this we see from that verse now goes on he says like this there's two types of tadik there's aad that is that means he's good to Heaven he's good to the people then there's a that's just he's only good to Heaven um there's an expression I saw it in also talking about by the way a sadic in pelts a sadic in a fur coat so what does that mean it means let's imagine it's it's uh cold in the house and uh you want it to warm up so what do you do put on your F coat oh now it's not so cold well for you for you it's not cold but for everybody else it's still cold so if you want to warm up the house for every for anyone beside yourself you can you light a fire you light up the stove so there's a sad who lights up the stove and he makes the house warmer for everybody objectively then there's a tadic impels he puts on a fur coat okay so he won't freeze but the guy sitting right next to him is freezing so the calls it that sadic who's only he's not and and he's Med he says this is what it means that went with hasem he only went with hasem he didn't go with people he was very from he was very from he had a great relationship with but he didn't go with the people and therefore they lost out and then he goes even deeper he says what is this that it says that was so the simple translation he found favor in hashem's eyes Hashem liked him very deep concept here the Bish explains that the the generation of the flood people that was supposed to Fact one of their evaders was Gile was immorality immoral relationships so the B says the reality is that that AA comes from a misidentification of that there's a concept of laa of charm of beauty of Attraction that's pure and it's holy and they took that and they slept it down and they made it animalistic no's job says the was to find those people and have them rechannel that mistake that they were making and be able to find beauty in a Hashem but he didn't and that's why it says but not says that what was now supposed to do he was supposed to go deal with these people who are sunken into very UNH wholesome things and get them to see that the beauty that you're running after is not the real Beauty you want there's a greater beauty of elus and he didn't do it he dropped the ball okay so then the vi says from this we can understand what Rashi says Rashi says that a even no was one of those who had didn't have faith who had little faith little he of little faith okay simple question we just got through saying that is a he a he has little faith I don't know's whole thing is he's got a lot of amuna he's got tons of amuna maybe you could say he lacks in the he lacks in the social skills he lacks in being a people person but amuna amuna is the one thing that he does have he has a good CER with with a and this is such a bombshell says what what do you think I mean little faith I'm talking about faith in himself n's whole disaster was a lack of self-confidence that he didn't understand his power that he should have known like the says that even more than that that even that has the power to stand up and tell hm no no I don't want it I refuse but didn't believe he had that so the whole generation suffered I'm learning this Ley is writing this and it's almost impossible not to I we can't go into the minds of these greats but here is the m the great rigorous defense attorney who went to bat for people who seemingly objectively had no case they had no defense and he defended the indefensible that the the holy B was defending the indefensible to AEM with a with and he's writing about what was n's big failing he lacked that Schultz that confidence to be able to stand up and say no Hashem I won't allow it no no I will not allow you to condemn these people and if he would have believed in himself and would have known the that he possessed then everything would have been completely different it's an incredible concept then furthermore the B says not in the same M there are multiple m in every para think this is the first MIM in I think M later on in the para so the says in the name of the Z that had to come back back is mha M and M made a TI he rectified how when where the worst most indefensible sin idolatry after the giving of the Torah at sin how could you go and do such a thing indefensible and mha stands up and he says to Hashem no I won't let it I will not stand for it and if you try to get rid of the Sinners you you know what then get rid of [Music] me means the water of Noah the flood is called the water of Noah because it was his fault ultimately because if he would have been M of all the the Sinners they they would have become they would he would stopped the flood so the flood becomes his name his problem so erase me he told the if you don't if you don't accept them you can get rid of me so that word eras me that's that was the for's inability to stand up for Sinners and I don't think it's a big stretch I don't think we have to be that creative to understand the application in our day and age was very to put it mildly he had AEM and a but he also and he was mtic mitz and we know this stories about his incredible love of Mitzvah about his fite about his care his meticulousness and every but when it came to yeden he was able to stand up and not just say in third person positive things about them but to go straight to Hashem and say he went straight to Hashem straight to the top and he defended what was seemingly the indefensible it's not har hard to be a Critic it's not hard to find fault it's not hard to threaten people and scare them and to tell people what they're doing wrong but what takes courage is to be like the r and to find something what's right about a Jew to find something that's good the also he famous famously said to Hashem he went right to has he said how is it possible that you could judge yiden how are you GNA judge yiden look what you did you took and you made them subjects in Dusty old books a person has to actually apply himself he has to go read a book in order to find out about these things and then all the Temptations of this world he can't walk down the street before he gets hit with all these things that he's not supposed to do I got an idea for you why don't you reverse it why don't you make it that to find out what a Neva is you'd have to go read a Dusty old book and when you walk down the street you see light and you see truth you see godliness then you'd see no one would do an AA but until you reverse it how can you judge so you you think that the H was trying to excuse sins or encourage laxity in that he wasn't that he wasn't taking a stand for T buta understood that there's a path there's a process and that when we bring yeden closer ultimately the Nish does what the Nish knows how to do when you write somebody off that's it then you stop the process but when you're M then knows how to find its way back then the sh knows how to do the right thing so in every possible opportunity we find a way to be a mea to be a defense attorney to say something positive never to knock somebody down whether it's a yid that you read about in the newspaper or it's your neighbor or it's your own kid we don't have to say negative to the contrary be like the bit find something positive even if it seems wildly in appropriate even if it seems completely absurd and and and and be like the say it to Hashem you don't think Hashem also wants to find good in his children which Ellie do you have do you have the the song okay queue it up this is this is my my cue to you the famous story queue up the song you get the song Ready edav Yim Kipper announced that he's taking PES is taking petitions for prayer but he's charging a rubble ahead if you write a name you have to pay a Ruble so people Hadar families you know 10 12 kids they had to come up it was a tidy sum come up with uh that much money but he he told the Gaba only except if it has the has that price usually with a pond you could give whatever you want it's a you know recommended donation but he said with this it's a Ruble ahead every name you write on the pond has to be another Rubble so um an almana a widow came and she didn't have any money and she tried to get in with her pan with her name p means a PID neish it's a paper it's more than a paper it's a it's a letter from the heart and soul that one gives to a rabbit to a tadic and she comes the the Almon of the Widow comes with her name and her son's name on the paper and the bicha tells the Gabby no exception she doesn't have the money no tell her to leave so she's ad of kipper she's walking around ditch of trying she's begging trying to find money finally very very close to kidre already she comes to the the bit's house and she hands the the pond and she's got one rubble and he looks at it and he says there's one Ruble here you wrote two names on the paper so she says please Reb after yum I mean it's almost yum after yum I I'll get another Ruble he says rules are rules this is the rule that we made this year we have a special rule so he says I'll tell you what your son is B before Bar Mitzvah so mama you know you know he's not really let's just take him off and you probably need it we'll leave your name on the pond she doesn't miss a beat she says no no I lived my life already my son needs you leave my son's name take my name name off and the looks Heavenly says look at what this mother is ready to do for her child she's ready to give away everything as long as her child can live what are you ready to do that your children should live and with that he said we're ready to go to k so this isn't just a story that we should tell to admire the B and then we should tell the story and we should all be inspired this is the way the taught us how to live how we were taught to live to stand in staunch defense of a yid even when the SE can't come up with the with the with a narrative don't worry about it Aid is Aid you defend your fellow Jew and the Nish will find its way back that's it it's a child to a parent a child is an extension of a parent the Nish will find its way back to the father anyways you know this song that's a heavy one yeah it is a heavy one this is written and composed by y yeah and made famous probably more famous by your your uncle AO put it on the Yiddish gems right but uh here's Ellie's rendition it's too much pressure you good you ready never never sang the song what's it called it's called a heart a heart for this is your your p is your first time publicly yeah okay so everybody listen to Ellie's rendition with the kindness of [Music] but [Music] fore [Music] for [Music] for [Music] fore [Music] for for [Music] light foree [Music] for [Music] for chicken [Music] fors [Music] for [Music] for for FK is [Music] thank youell wow it's uh you can follow the words the story it's incredible Ian it's the story that I just told but it's to hear it sng that way is very powerful um I have sitting with me uh a dear friend Rabbi Zan dman from kabad which uh should I say your tagline for you the oldest uh charity AC of Charity in there is that correct what's the yeah that's my that's our tagline founded in the 17 yeah 70s 1780s 1788 but already it started from before I think that's part of this conversation tonight right okay so you have an angle in the story of the gusa slavy for us that is is also not so well known but a fascinating part of his life and his connection to one of the other T actually fores shed it earlier I mentioned about the different sikim that he became connected to as Rich so for uh the discussing of course it would be this only right to discuss the connection slavy to the balat so my son said that how could you do that without discussing the great when the the grandson with the granddaughter of the bat very famous a lot of and other tadim were there um so my son said there can't be a me an event without that mention but to a hammer everything's a nail um and to me what I what I you know research and read up a lot is the involvement that Kad had with the founding of kabad for and how much the was active already from before from from when and his and his and his students went Isel the first allegation of the uh of the students of the of the headed out to where the B himself wanted to participate and already from that point um you find it very active um in the correspondence and the letters from the uh from the uh balat to the um it's something that uh I don't see it known it's not very known at the of this fact now even uh um soon as going to be when the AL was free the B was free from prison part of the accusation was also against his name is mentioned in the ACT we have the documents in the court in the documents from then um even by the second arrest conspirator co-conspirator um even even he was brought to uh to to petburg to to to to to to to Petersburg the second arrest in um he was actually brought the um brought himself so part of there was 22 there was 21 other people part of the conspiracy to overthrow the Zar by supporting uh um what was then uh the uh so those who don't know the background maybe we should just explain that they were sending funds to the yes in in and in order to sort of come up with a uh a uh a liel so those who had it had it in for the the AL accused him of funding the Ottoman Empire because was under the Ottomans so he's sending money to the Ottomans and the Ottomans were adversaries of the Russian Empire and that was the the basis of the of the liel correct part of it um but but the balat writes in the letter to the B the opposite that that was the basis of the release but that we'll get there in a moment but let's let's get us there but by by the arrest that was actually was was the was the initial um arrest of the yest it would have been yesterday so the uh balat sent a pan and who did he send a p to that's you know that's a good question and who did he send and who did he send it with who did he send the pond with with Rak rakan was the called the director of the uh the the uh was called he was the trustee of the Alba to handle the funds and was he traveled there in the past from uh from uh he was he traveled quite a bit in fundraising for this cause and he was the one that um the balat sent the p with um he said later that um there the pan and the balat told him that he should read the Pan actually you know sometimes there we have stories that they were told not to and they did but a year he was told to and he lost the so when he came to the K SL when he came to to to he he he lost it and so he gave over um audibly what he remembered but he asked him what was the uh the Reb what's the the Reb's mother's name um as his customary as his customary on a p and he couldn't remember he couldn't remember so uh smoke the pipe and so he took out his pipe and he said with my pipe I could burn the entire petor in a way indicating that I could achieve what the AL wants what the balat wants in miraculous ways so says he didn't call him RAB he said he says that the RAB referring to the balat is is AER he's fromus that referring to the bat this is that he wants it to become in in natural means Miracle so so looks at him he says if said said you should know the U but what is he supposed to do so into the mik when he came came out of the M he [Music] said is and with this it was the the he Al his name and this was the pan and um uh then this was all before daving it says DAV then after daving he turned to he said that that there's hope [Music] that um a year later or not a year later 59 53 days later after the balat sent a letter to uh to the and he writes this that we are doing this is the that means not that this was the cause of the arrest but this was the the Merit of the uh of the uh of the release of the Gula there was two letters identical letters one sent to thead the other one sent to with an identical very identical identical also to the language of of con there's some of the same language but this uh this point I think this is a very important aspect the second AR rest thead himself was called the pburg and we find in a lot of the letters and correspondence between the balat and the B about these things it's so an interesting with also connected to that so um so this is on this day of the earth site and that to be as the for all generations till our generation you mentioned that the the balat chose to send his pond to which is a great I don't want to call it a trivia question because nothing is Trivial about about a tadic but it's a very interesting question to whom one sends a p to a reab to one's Reb so it's a it's a a very uh unique thing that the the balatan sent upon to the the b in such a way but I think also what's interesting is you so you mentioned that when Al was arrested he sent a pond to the B to be missp to pray for him he mentioned that as soon as he was released the balat wrote a letter to the to tell him about about the Good Tidings um which also you could learn a lesson that when you ask AB from he should follow up let him know about the good news but also when the when the balat wrote the he sent the copy of the manuscript to the kadas Ley and famously after looking over the the said that such a wonder that he took such a big abish there and put him into such a small safer the rebba want to explain what does it mean a small safer it means to do it that he took the depths of and he translated it into he translated into practical action into life so the B was was NP was impressed from this um so also you mention the story of the of the pon there's another detail which I it's a very interesting detail oh when he asked how the AL how the B how he took how he looked by the new Zug they asked him if he was like was he Disturbed so I think he said outwardly yes inwardly no beus yes not but not how so so his pant his his slipper I think it was one slipper not both his slipper he forgot he left but his Fillin when they rested him when they took his Fillin he didn't forget so he even in the time when he was taught you what good took cooking something expression how to observe exactly yeah yeah you should translate it repeat for I mention ear I didn't hear that idea that it's for 15 years but he said every day the who is one of the said every day I thank hem that he sent such a of to the world it's a unique thing to to be said of anyone um Ellie you surprised me today about a nigan which I actually know well because I heard it probably five six times over the past few days because it's a it's a popular Haka nigan at least uh in kabad actually in your your hakas album is this on your hakas album it's not okay it should be okay you have to put out a sequel of your hakas part two everyone knows Ellie has a hakas album everyone should buy hakus album um so I was very surprised once we're doing advertisements I should give a shout out we're collaborating with Ellie an Nai coming upli so uh I was very surprised when you told me that a particular nigun is attributed to you want to share with us uh yeah sure oh the knows it saying it in the beginning some we sing it that's not the same n sure it is you have to you have to show that to me because that my I'm not so musical you see it here [Music] sorry instead of [Music] someone yes that's how it starts [Music] my for [Music] there's another Nan which is they sing it everywhere every all over the world which in line with some more slower n but what you were talking about the now it makes sense that it's the bad song now it makes sense [Music] that he would go out in the street tell everyone it's chabas tell the whole world don't keep it for yourself make sense perfectly in line with [Music] the i [Music] sh for [Music] sh I sh sh I [Music] for sh sh sh sh [Music] I just wanted to uh propose a quick um for those of you who are not uh with us in person I would like to assure you that the table is set with uh a not not bad spread uh and I'm going to propose that we make AI personally poured for everybody and I would like to prove to all it's not plastic stick so everybody could make a wanted to propose a to is that um as I mentioned earlier our family is aligned with the that's where my grandfather was from very happy to have our the son and his brother with us and many friends from SCH his yite falls on the first day of sius every year on Sim it's my grandmother my maternal grandmother's yite and of course now we are we are celebrating the bite as well and uh I would like to propose to everybody after which you can make a br on all of the food if you like to that they should be they should be get the betters they should be good uh interceder on behalf of uh everything that's going on in the world in behalf of the conflicts and everything that we all struggle with individ ually we have a small event on the second level of our country we have a small event coming up in a couple of days that hopefully will bring settle hopefully will settle uh the The Strife that we have going on in the country and of course of of great importance to all of us is uh the events in in a c we should hope that all three of them plus all others should be get the betters and we should we should drink to shul thank you for opening your home to us and personally thank you for being the to make sure that this year would not pass unnoticed by me and I thank you for the the of being able to be involved in the to of the B and I'll just say one one last thing which is there's a famous letter of the balat which is printed in thees it's actually chapter 28 and it's a letter actually it's very deep it's cabalistic but it's a letter of comfort the bicha lost a Sonu lost his son mayor uh who passed away a few years before the B and and the balat who asman mentioned was a m of the K and they were dear friends from their times in MZ um he wrote a letter of comfort and in this letter of comfort there's actually two letters one is regarding the passing of men was the one who led Al in the 1770s and then the subsequent letter after that which is the letter of comfort for the passing of the B mayor but the point of these letters is that the sikim are very much with us they are very much alive and they are very much active these are not historical figures this not laul like President's Day George Washington Abraham Lincoln aradim even those who have been in for hundreds of years are continuing to be active and we continue to invoke by mentioning their mere name as we mentioned earlier in the name of the S just mentioning even the town of is is brings Merit upon us and so through the connection to these uh sikim it should bring out an active part of us to live this way and to behave this way and especially in the Cav of a Isel to love each other in in this way and through our love and our Unity uh there's there's really nothing that we can't achieve and what we need is the biggest Yeshua right now we need mhia and through AK and a surely in a in a manner of Li and radical Acceptance in in the manner of the we can Demand with that enough is enough the should send us miach amen play [Music] spe foree [Music] my fore [Music] my [Music] y [Music]