Transcript
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Shalom everyone, and Hag Sameach, happy
Lag BaOmer. I hope you are enjoying the
holiday, absorbing the kedusha, and
partying for the honor of Rabbi Shimon.
Yesterday night we had an amazing,
amazing event here in Safed with
hundreds of people and a huge bonfire
and food and dancing and
the energy is just
hard to explain. You have to actually be
here to to understand it.
And very soon we're going to be heading
to Rabbi Shimon to the resting place of
Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai to Meron.
I'm going to try to capture it
with a video,
but
I wanted to share a few words on Lag
BaOmer because I don't think many people
really understand the significance
of this powerful day.
So, I'm going to start with a little
explanation that we have three leaders
in our past that paved the way for us
for redemption.
The first one was Yaakov Avinu when he
had to run away from
where he lived in Eretz Yisrael cuz
Esau, his brother, wanted to kill him.
And he ran away and he went down to a
place called Haran. Haran,
the commentary says, "Haron af shel
makom." The place of the most strongest
impurity and immorality and the place of
filth and disgust.
And Yaakov Avinu had to run there in
order to build the house of Israel, to
marry the matriarchs and to bring to the
world 11 tribes. Well, there's 12
tribes, but the the last tribe,
Benjamin, was not born in Haran.
But nevertheless, the action was to run
down to Haran and with that he paved and
prepared the path of the redemption of
Am Yisrael
by going out of Haran.
And the second one was Moshe Rabbeinu.
Moshe Rabbeinu ran down from Midian down
to Mitzrayim. Same thing, the running
away, the running down. And of course,
he went down to Mitzrayim and prepared
the redemption of the nation of Israel
uh 3,000 plus years ago.
The last uh tzaddik that did that action
is Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, who did the
same action of running away from the
Romans who wanted to kill him.
And
the point of this running away that
tzaddik, specifically in this case
Yaakov Avinu, Moshe Rabbenu, and Rabbi
Shimon bar Yochai, the action of the
running is to cause, so to say, a
diversion that the forces of evil, the
sitra achra, should run after him.
And what the tzaddik does, he he
uh hides in a place called a cave, which
is a spiritual place, and the sitra
achra, the other side of holiness,
cannot penetrate into that realm.
And that's where the tzaddik gathers his
spiritual powers, and when he goes out
of the uh hiding place, the cave, then
he can subdue the sitra achra. The sitra
achra is the evil forces
that intervene in this world.
And the action that Yaakov, Moshe, and
Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai did is pulling
down the sitra achra after them, and
then by that overpowering the sitra
achra and paving, so to say, the path
for the nation of Israel to come closer
to Hashem, and mainly to be redeemed.
So, we saw the first redemption was from
Charan, that Yaakov Avinu took the
matriarchs out of Mitzrayim, out of
Charan, sorry, and the tribes. Second
was Moshe Rabbenu in Mitzrayim, and the
third was Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, even
though he did it over 2,000 years ago,
but the action was done for today, for
our generation.
Therefore, Lag BaOmer has a very
powerful significance
for us as the last generation before the
redemption.
We are very we are familiar with two
parts of the Torah, the Torah she
b'chtav, the the written Torah, and the
Torah she b'al peh, the oral Torah. But,
there's also another aspect of the
Torah, and that's called Torat Hasod,
the the esoteric part of the Torah, the
secret, the Kabbalah.
And without that, we can't really
perform the Torah, because the secrets
of Kabbalah are teaching us the purpose
of the mitzvot, why we do the mitzvot,
how to connect to God, uh how to
bring down shefa, energy, abundance down
to this world. So, really without the
esoteric part of the Torah,
we can't really fully observe the Torah
and come closer to God.
And for many years, the esoteric part of
the Torah, the writing of the Zohar, was
hidden, and very few people had access
to it.
And the reason was that Rabbi Shimon
prepared it for our generation. He
prepared the writing of the Torah
exactly how it says in the book of the
Zohar, "B'zei sefer ha Zohar, with this
book, yifkun b'rachamei migaluta, they
will leave the exile with mercy."
So, no doubt, we need to
um
broaden our knowledge in the esoteric
part of the Torah with the learning of
Kabbalah and Zohar, of course, with the
parts that are
revealed and that we can learn them. Not
everything you can learn.
Each and every one of us has a
connection to this Torah, but with that
said, it's important to understand that
the author, or I would say not even the
author, the the gatekeeper of these
secrets is Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, who
revealed everything to us.
And today is the day of his passing, the
day that the tzaddik, the righteous
individual, passes, that's when he
completes his purpose in this world
and goes up to the heavens to to
continue his work from the spiritual
realm.
In other words, what I'm trying to say,
today is a very powerful day. It's a day
that we can connect to this Sadiq, to
this leader, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai.
It's a day that one can introspect and
really reflect on all their patterns of
behavior
that are good or less good or not good
at all.
And the reason you want to do that
because
that's
your guide where you need to go in order
to be focused on your purpose, on your
life purpose.
And really, after I can tell you after
over 22 years of learning Torah, even
though I feel that I know a drop
in the ocean,
but I can tell you that after 20 years
of learning Torah,
first I started with the written Torah
and the oral Torah together. And years
later, I was
acquainted to the esoteric part and
started more learning and myself I more
relate with the hidden part of the Torah
because it gives me meaning to
everything that I do.
If I put tefillin on, then the teachings
of Kabbalah will explain to me why I put
that tefillin, what happens when I put
that tefillin, why that tefillin has to
be black, why I wrap it seven times
around my arm, and so forth. And like
that with every mitzvah.
So really, the missing spice in Torah is
the teachings of Kabbalah
and the key, the gatekeeper
for this teaching is Rabbi Shimon bar
Yochai.
And today is the day that he completed
his
task, his mission in this world.
So it's a very powerful day. It's a day
that one can really internalize the
kedusha, the holiness
in the merit of Rabbi Shimon.
And and do a very, very deep cleaning to
your soul, to your nefesh, to your mind,
to your spirit, and and and take a
change in your life to to a more
positive path.
And I have
I gave a class right before Lag Baomer.
You can find it on my YouTube. It's the
last lecture that I loaded on YouTube. I
highly recommend to watch this lecture
not only for Lag Baomer but for everyday
your everyday life.
And I'm not going to quote the class.
I'm actually going to recommend you to
go and watch it.
But
the the summary of the class is that all
the obstacles in our life and all the
barriers that stop us from moving
forward to a better level spiritually or
physically,
these barriers are created by our
action.
I would call now our actions in this
respect the sins that we do.
And the way to
move these blockages is to do teshuvah,
is to repent for the actions that you
did.
And today, when one does teshuvah from a
very deep place in the heart,
that causes that person to scream to
Hashem for salvation. Whether it's in
your livelihood, whether it's meeting
your other half, whether it's a sickness
or a disease, or any other issue in your
life, when you scream to Hashem from the
bottom of your heart, that's when you
move things up in the world above.
So,
I didn't want this video to be long. I
just wanted to relay the message that
today is a very very powerful day.
I've prepared on my website at
smola.org/lagbaomer
all the prayers that you need to say
today.
If you go to the page, you'll find in
the bottom a few tabs. One tab is for
the Tehillim that we read today. The
second tab is Tikkune Zohar and the
third is Patach Eliyahu. I know it's
long, but
when you want to get something done, you
need to invest and you need to sacrifice
your time.
I highly recommend to do all these
prayers and more than that,
to do the right teshuvah, to ask Hashem
to clean your heart, and to ask Hashem
to guide you to the path you need to go
on in order to fulfill your life's
purpose.
So, I wanted to A, I wanted to tell you
highly recommend go watch the lecture
that I posted about Lag Baomer, and even
if you watch it after Lag Baomer, it
doesn't matter. It's applied and you can
apply it every day of the year. The
second thing I want to recommend is to
go to atzmu.org/lagbaomer
and read and recite all the prayers that
are there for Lag Baomer. You you will
benefit from it a lot.
Third, I want to recommend that I do it
every time when you pray to Hashem and
you want things to happen, you need to
give some of yourself, do some
uh uh
charity, and to create a vessel for
yourself. Uh highly recommend to do
that. And last but not least, I'm going
to be praying and reciting prayers in
Meron, and I'm going to be there today,
and I'm going to go there tomorrow also.
And and uh if you want to submit names
so I can pray on your behalf, please do.
And also mention if you can, if it's for
refuah, for health, for parnassah, for
whatever you need. And I will
uh
I will gladly and be honored to to pray
on your behalf in this holy place
because I'm going to go to the tzaddik
and pray in this holy place, and bear in
mind, very important, we're praying to
Hashem, we don't pray to a a man. But
the place is so holy, and the presence
of the this holy soul
takes the prayers to completely
different levels, and we ask the tzaddik
to be our representative and our defense
attorney.
So, I will gladly pray on your behalf.
It's a very auspicious time, a very a
powerful opportunity,
and we want to take advantage of that.
Other than that, I want to wish you chag
sameach, Shabbat shalom.
May we all be blessed
with the love of Hashem, that we should
see the blessing in our life in a
revealed way, that And should also
always be humble and thankful to
everything that Hashem does for us. And
we should always seek truth and and and
and a connection to God. And I bless you
to always be happy, to to have true
happiness, and to find true peace in
your life and in your heart. That your
livelihood, your parnassah should be
easy.
And that your learning Torah and your
spiritual growth should should be
amazing.
And you should always be targeted on
your purpose. And you should be a light
to your family, to you, to your
neighbors, to everybody around you. And
Hashem should bless you always with
kindness, a revealed kindness. And that
all your actions should always
uh
bring positive reactions.
And that you should always find true
peace in your heart and true happiness
in your heart.
And that Hashem should just bless you
with everything you need in order to
serve him in the best way possible.
So, please share this video.
And follow the instructions. The links
are under the video.
And take the opportunity.
And bezrat Hashem, next week we're going
to continue learning. We're coming
closer to Shavuot. I will prepare some
videos explaining about the significance
of the time and what we can achieve.
But in the meantime, just focus on this
day.
And Lag BaOmer is going straight into
Shabbat, from one kedusha to another
kedusha. When these things happen, we
just know that Hashem is is just he just
wants to bless us. And we just need to
take it.
So, in order to get Hashem's blessings,
we need vessels. And the vessels are
done with prayer. Our vessels are done
with teshuvah, with repenting and taking
good decisions and changing things in
our life and not just sitting there and
cry- crying and whining about our bad
situation. And of course, by giving
charity, by helping people.
So, bezrat Hashem, I tried to cover all
the options and cater that on my website
for you to be able to uh, benefit from.
So, I wish you hug sameach. I wish you
all the best. Shabbat Shalom. Please
share this video.
And may Hashem bless you with kindness,
health, prosperity, happiness, and an
amazing, amazing Shabbat. All the best.
Sending you best regards from Eretz
Israel.
