Rabbi Kalman Flaks: The History and Deeper Meaning Behind Baruch Sheamar’

Heat. [music] Heat. [singing] [music] [singing] >> [music and singing] [music and singing] >> Okay, welcome everyone. Such a pleasure to see everyone. Let's start with a niggan to open up our hearts so that the Torah will go in a little bit stronger. for [singing] Oh, [singing] [applause] hello. Hello. [singing] >> [singing] >> God. [applause] I love my [singing] I [singing] Okay, so tonight's class of course dedicated to the protection of the whole Jewish people especially brothers in the battlefield to protect all the we're going to continue our explorations of the beautiful sitter and we are going to be learning about the shamar about the history and the origins and many of the fascinating background and customs of the baruk shamar the words themselves I most likely we're going to wait till next class but there's a lot of magic and mystery in Shamar. But before that, I just want to start with an amazing story. Um there is a few rabbis who named their books the Baroo Shamar. One of them uh Rav Epstein the author of the Torah Tima happens to be one of my favorite uh authors when I was in yeshiva because he brings every single Puk the Tammudic sources and tries to explain the connection between the Gumar and the Kish and he writes an fantastic safer on the sitter. I love learning about the sitter. So that's an amazing safer we should all know about. But there's another safer a little bit less well-known also known as the Baroo Shamar. And why did he name his safer? So writes Elazar the following. Thank the Lord Almighty. Basically loose translation who got me through all these hard times. I'm a quoting my father and my mother have abandoned me. He writes that his father and mother died when he was eight years old. >> And he had no no mom, no dad. And God led me to the path. Every morning I would go to sh and I would scream out. would come early to shul and he'd say he would say with a loud voice with a sweet voice and eventually people knew me as the Shamar boy. Ah, it's Baruk Shamar. It's that guy. I tell you the truth, when I was a kid, people to this day probably still know me as the Anams Miros boy because from age I don't know 8 till 14 in my sh we didn't have that many little kids. So I was the Yanims Miros boy until finally somebody took my place and uh that's how people still sometimes people meet me down the street and say ah you're the mirror boy. So this is the Baruk Shamar boy because imamish started off his day singing strong and he took this as the greatest compliment and so he wrote his safer named it the Sha Amar. just a little interesting uh hakd to the beautiful prayer. Okay. So let's start with the following. On that note of sayingar with a sweet voice brings down the tour. Of course, the 13th century great rabbi from Spain lived 1270 17 1340 and he's really the precursor to the and codified all and he writes you have to say you got to say it with a nice tune. You have to say it purely and beautifully. Don't just run through it in the beginning. So you could do it with Shar. There's even a shabas niggan. You can make up your own niggan. It's okay. But you should do it nicely. All of all of we said last week has to be said slowly and sweetly and beautifully. But at least at least the beginning. Okay. Everything goes after the beginning. That's a that's what the tour brings down. Okay. Not only that, but the or writes that this has to be said while you stand up, right? You get up and you stand for why? Why do we stand for Barak Shamar? So he says something wild. The words was a little bit of a cabalist. And this is what he says. He says because when we're standing, you know who else is standing? The angels. And we're standing to emulate the angels. When we say the barak shamar because they're also standing and they're praying with us and they're praying the you know what I'm saying and you're supposed to say that every day who actually says that you don't raise your hand some for some reason the customs develop only on chabists as far. Some people say it, but after I learned this, that's the best part of this year. I get to prepare this year. I said, "Oh gosh, I got to start saying this because the only reason we're standing bar is because the angels are standing and singing in the heavens and the and there's 87 words in their praise to God." 87 words as we'll talk about and shamar and shamar is an acronym for bish to say it together. So this is a catalystic idea that just when we say shamar we're standing together with the angels we're also singing to god. So next time you're standing up to sayar you can think about that. Think about all of the angels standing up and singing the de in the heavens while we stand up to say bar shamar. And that's why the orzer brings down we stand to say barak shamar. Pretty cool. Again the angels stand. Okay. Now I want to talk a little bit about the heated controversial background behind the bar shamar. We always try to give the background before we just jump into the words. So there's a really fascinating background. There were rabbis that didn't think that this prayer was so ancient writes the preadesh the preadeshila a great 17th century rabbi actually is buried at the foot of the mount of olives right next to the orados. tomorrow night's yard site. So many people are going to walk by the holy uh the pre and he's a very bold rabbi. He wasn't scared of even arguing with the at that time. And uh there's an interesting story that's brought down that the he was offered he was such a genius to be the top rabbi in Amsterdam which is like the highest position in those days. But the congreg said on one condition. You do your thing, we'll do our thing. You know what I'm saying? You stand up there on the, you know, the sh you get your pay your paycheck, but don't give us any criticism. We're going to do our, we're going to, you know, talk when we want to talk. We're going to go to our kdish club. We want to do the kdish club. Don't get don't give us any muser. So the r said thanks but no thanks. You know, any rabbi that's not, you know, if he's too beloved by his congregation, it's a problem. Okay? He's got to give a muser every once in a while. Every once in a while, you got to give muser. So, he said, "I'm that I'm that I'm not taking the job." Anyway, he's very sharp and wise rabbi and he has the following Shila. I don't understand how we can say Baruk Shamar because who gave these gaim the rabbis after the Talmud was finished the right to establish the Baruk Shamar? We don't find Baruk Shamar in the Talmud. We find the Shakar we went through. We find the Amida. We don't find Baruk Shamar in the Talmud. So I don't get it. Who gave these rabbis the right for us to say God's name? That's his question. Not only that, but the Minam brings down that if you're saying Barak Shamar and someone wants to say hi to you or even better if you want to say a in the middle of your bak Shamar, you interrupt. Why? Because it's not at the highest level of a bra because it wasn't decreed by the rabbis in Talmud. It's a lower level based on this same concept of the preach. Not only that, but writes that in his time they would only say Shamar on Shabas. He already writes in the 9th century. It wasn't uh yet accepted to say it every single day. So there is a theory out there that it it evolved a little later. It's not based on the Talmud. However, many rabbis and the consensus of the rabbis is not like that and they argue strongly and persuasively that noar goes back to the time of the garra. One of the biggest rabbis on that team is the one of our favorite rabbis of David Aulai and he actually writes that both from first of all from a cabalistic perspect perspective. There are many rabbis from the cabalist who say this prayer goes back to ancient times to talmudic times to the times either of or maybe a little later in the second century but by the as we're going to say see was written by that's in the second century from the time of the garra and this is a cabalistic tradition of course takes a cabalistic tradition like all good sparty rabbis very very seriously But not only that, but he proves it. First of all, he says there's a famous that says if you're talking between and don't go to the Israeli army, go home. If a guy talks, then forget about it. We only want the guys in the army. We don't want someone who talks between and so what? But if the if we had which is the end of the braha then we must have had the beginning. What's the beginning? Well the gumar doesn't say but we know we have barakar. It must be that was that beginning that's the one of the proofs. Not only that but the Abu Dra a 13th century great commentator on the sitter points out in some gear says it says if you talk between and we send them home it's too great of a sin. So we see that barak shamar is in the garra. Not only that but many of the the words used in the baramar are used in the garra in the same time period. For example like we say in the does that sound familiar? Yes. We have a when you see a beautiful thing, you see a rainbow, you say that's the exact same language in the gar. And another proof the says the Rambam counts. There's 100 we have to count every day. One of those is the so goes back to Tamudic times. I don't know if it goes back to but more and more proofs and thus the consensus brought down in the Mishna Burra brought down by many of the modern po is not like the sorry prehad but rather like the tradition that this is an ancient uh prayer written maybe even by the we may not talk we may not interrupt between and it's a very very holy prayer with a lot of mystical powerful Meaning got it so far so good. Part one maybe but definitely ancient. Okay. Where did it come from? Comes the ora. Who is ora again? He is um of Vienna lived between 1180 and 1250. A great cabalist. Actually his works were missing for a long time and it was refound in Amsterdam library later. And he's very important rabbi because he's a student of and his tal is the Mam Mi Rottenberg who is the greatest rabbi right we know he was taken to captivity the greatest rabbi of east of east Europe and much of Ashkenazi customs flows through Rottenberg flowing from the or okay and the or brings down there is a tradition you know who wrote the thear was aka it It was a a piece of paper, a letter that fell from the heavens from the from God himself or someone up there in the heavenly chambers. He brought it down for us. And that is the source of the bark shamar. And that tradition is brought down by none other than the Mishna Bura in his commentary to the which is how most people know about that tradition. And it is accepted by the dab and many many other authorities that it is a very holy words and we we needed as I explained last week we needed a way to open up our conversation with Hashem. We didn't know how to start it off. So he gives us the hallmark card which is a bar shamar the powerful words even if we may not understand every word we know that every word is unlocking the gates of heaven. Okay. And that's why the schlaw says don't even think about adding another word or subtracting a word because every word is powerful written by uh ancient written written really by the way how that works exactly with the fact that there was a pitka that fell from heavens and also was written by I don't know I'm not really sure but uh food for thought. That's why we have a break next week so we can think about these deep questions. Okay. I don't know but uh it's an ancient ancient uh custom. Okay. Now I we need to talk about 87. If there's any number that's very important for tonight's shar it's 87. Why is 87 so important? Because can you guess how many words there are in the bar? >> 87. >> You're a very wise man. That's right. 87. 87 words. I even counted. What do I do between cheers? I count the words of the prayers and I counted and Ashkenazi not every is like this but in our modern day sitters at least the ones that I looked in today 87 words why is that so significant because I was born in 1987 okay but no that's not really why because it's brought down by so many great rabbis uh but starting with orua and later by many many authorities that there is a puk rom p the beginning an imprint of p is gimatri 87 p means >> gold right not gas I know there's a gas station p gold pure gold so because of that pk in shirim our beginning has to be gold orar is the beginning of our Demra, it's also an acronym has to start 87 words. Now you ask me that's very cool. So what what is the significance of pies? Why is that important? So I didn't know either. That's why so I did a little research. I came up with four or five theories as to why it's significant pies. You ready? You with me? Hope you guys are writing this all down. There will be a triv a trivia quiz at the end of the year. Okay. Theory number one has gold. Gold has to be purified, right? Anybody here purify gold for a living? Goldman's here. Okay. Not yet. You're your ancestors. Goldstein. So, in order to make gold, you need to purify it. What are we doing in Suka? Remember, we're purifying ourselves. We're taking all of our thoughts which are all over the place and we're purifying ourselves. Taking from theoretical gold and making it pure gold. That's explanation number one given by the rakaf. Who's a rakaf? Me of calman flax. Okay. So maybe you like it. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Next shot number two. Um this is a from Shirim. What's sharim? the love song between the Jewish people and so we're expressing our love of the Ram writes so beautifully that we have this love song between Hashem and we see the beauty of nature and we just we should go out there and just want to sing so that's all of so we're reminding ourselves in the beginning we have this love song again with is a love song between a man and women symbolizing the Jewish people And that's shot number two also by the rakaf. Okay, number three. Um, this is a bit of a cabalistic one. There is a safe air called Rosho Ketmpaz by a Moroccan rabbi in the 16th century of Shiman bin Levy and it's all about how the brilliant 87 pathways of life of light flow from what that means exactly I do not know. Okay, I'm not a cabalist, but apparently 87 pathways of light are flowing as we start saying our bar shamar prayers. Nice. Okay, what else? Um, I had more. All right, that's good. Oh, one more. This one I like maybe the best. What do we say last week? Writes, you have to say your slowly, like you're counting money. But what's the only thing you can do count slower than money? Gold. So the first prayer has you have to count like you have golden coins. Not those chocolate golden coins. You know the real golden coins. So you have to go even slowly. You can count 87. That those are my shots for now. And uh if you have any noob shots, you know how to reach me. Okay. And we'll have more for next year's year. Okay. Now this is very very significant because there's a great controversy over the word at the end of the book a king who was uh raised up through the mouth of his nation or some people say some sitters in Ashkanazim in particular they'll say and some will say and even some Okay. Who here says befet? Who here says? Okay. I won't ask that. Who here doins? Okay. Okay. There we go. Very good. It's a good start, you know. So, just joking. Okay. So, some people do this, some people do that. And it's a big controversy. Now, I looked into it a little bit. Grammatically, it seems it would make more sense to say, I asked my grammar friends, my best friend David is really good at grammar, and he said, "Yeah, it's true. it would make more sense one link to another word. Ask your grammar friends. And therefore the the the the classic uh perspective of Ashkanazim who was before is we say however writes the and many other and or many others what's the gamatria of be pay 80 87. So the rabbis changed the word even though it's a little bit grammatically not perfect to be to get this the secret of the suka zimra the secret of 87. Pretty cool. Okay. By the way comes and he said you know what also sometimes grammatically you could say befet he brings a it also uses this language of befet instead of buffy. So it also works grammatically and that's indeed what he believes is a correct and that is the most unless you have a specific masura that you know that your sitter do whatever your sitter says it's okay it's all good but uh but that's that was a big didn't like this was a father-in-law of ravk and he says what because of gamatri I'm going to change the proper grammar of uh of the Oh, I don't care about this little cute cute cute little gamatria. But it's interesting. Gladstein who a lot of these Tories are are taken and inspired from him points out that there are times when we change the the foratria. He points out for example the schlaw writes really it should be notaran butu okay who doesn't make us lack but he points out that even the nikudos have gamatrias according to gamatria and if you do it comes out to and so for these cabalistic reasons says the schlaw we change it from the right grammatically language to the right cabalistic meaning. So it could happen that we that that that could happen and uh that's the great controversy over or now you know you didn't know but every single word has so much debate how much so much significance kavat okay one more ancient custom that we need to talk about before we start getting to the words taking the two tituses out y'all have seen that the men folk they take their titus out and they hold hold it with their right hand and you kiss it and you say it at the bar. You ever wonder why do you do that at Barak Shar? You don't do it at ash. You don't do it at amida. But for some reason we take out our first titus and we hold it in our shamar what's up. Everybody anybody ever wonder that what's you've seen people do this interesting thing because the artic says so. Very good. It even gives a little uh explanation. But let me tell you my explanation. You know the Arizal that's why we do it cuz the holy arisal in 16th century says that's why we should do it. So we do it. But why did the result say you should do it? You'd have to ask him. Okay. But we got to make meaning out of it. So we're going to do our best. So I thought I got four explanations that I uh prepared as to why we take our two cituses out. You ready? Okay, let's do it. Number one, the most famous one is 26. Goes back to the gamatria. Five knots. 1 2 3 4 5 eight strings. Okay. 13. 13. Who's good at math? >> 26. That's right. What does 26 remind us of? The name of God. Yav. The gamatri of the name of God. The whole bar says of Schwab is at least the first half is one big explanation of the manifestation of the yud of the name of God of that aspect of the name of God as we'll talk about and so to remind ourselves of the love of God we slap ourselves in the morning and take out the twois okay explanation number one explanation number two five knots five knots 10. Okay. What's the significance of 10 in the 10 instances of the of the word, etc., etc., trust me. Except not really because there's 13, but some of them are so those don't count, right? And therefore there's 10 bars corresponding to the 10 acts in which God created the world. Right? Corresponding capitalistically to the 10 spheros. In fact if you take the first word of all of the spheros etc etc the first letter not the first word you get 541 the same as baruk shamar. Wow. Unbelievable. So the 10 reminds us of the 10 acts of creation of when God created the world through the 10 cabalistic einations in which God manifests himself into the world. And the schlah has a wholeis on this. But even I don't understand kabala but you'll trust me that every alludes to the different cabalistic connotations. Okay. Next, you should have titis. Can you guess what the gamatri of gadilim are? That's right. 87. Close. That was a good guess. 87. So, it goes back to the old 87. You can never get past 87. So, it's reminding us. So, we have titus. Oh, but why two and not four? Gilium could be Well, gadelium is the minimum. Explanation number four. We start off with two titus. And when what do we go to at the end of our deting? At least us men folk we get to all four. We were all four tituses according to their result. So we're spreading out the name of God in the beginning of just two. But by the time we get to we already have four strings of titus. So the light of God the the titus represents the talis is the spreading out of the light of god in cabalistic literature. And this is another amazing research. So wow, every little nuance of of our minhagim of our has so much meaning and so much power. Okay, one more word of introduction. Okay, two more words of introduction and then it looks like we will at least have a chance to start with the words of Burkshamar number in final introduction. I found this really fascinating. Roshwab writes in the safer yen. What's a safer yen? I looked it up. It's an ancient I think it's 16th century safair. He writes that it used to be when they would appoint a re kaloosa, a new head of the Jewish community, they would get up on Shabas and they would sing a a song. What song would they sing? And this is how it went. Some the congregation would leave the bar and everyone would sing out and you keep going and this song back and forth. We used to do this in Cam Stone. I remember the boys would sing and then then they'd say in a low voice and the other side would say whatever that was the stick when we were little boys anyways that that was what was going on in the gala they would sing this song and that's why we have the pretty cool yeah another explanation that the writes you know why you have to get to 87 words so sometimes you don't understand the nuance in the Torah But there's every word has so much meaning numerology Bible codes and every every word that's why they're called why do we call them? They would count every letter and the tour goes through every single and the cabalistic meaning and the numbers. So it's just a taste of the world of that baba. Okay. Let's Oh, one more thing I forgot to mention. As I mentioned, according to the there's not 10 bars, there's 13 bars. If you count it, there's really 13. What's the significance of 13? Of course, 13 manifestations of God's mercy. And that's what we're describing in the beginning, manifestation of writ good friend. And it's every time we learn it, it's amazing. And he says there's that is the main theme throughout Zimra. There heard 13 different praises in in in in Suka starting with Shamar Ashuk counted up 13 and that is one of the themes of manifesting the mercy of God the yud we once spoke about how parro didn't believe in yud and Moshe and the Torah is here to to demonstrate yud the 13 manifestation of wow so much depth okay One more. I think that's enough for our numer numerologies for today. Let's let's talk at least about uh the first few words of the Shar. So first off following I told you guys it's the beginning of the is and the end is what would we expect if it's a it should start with the following three words. But it's missing who why did when they enacted this leave that great shil right been saying our whole life never thought of that shila I admit butner I used to learn when I was a boy in Berlin in my free time me and my brother would learn there in Brooklyn and we learn so asked that shila and he gives a very mysterious answer he says something very interesting he says you know what happened. What we're describing the creation of speech something from nothing. Okay. The rest of creation we're talking about something from something. When God spoke, the whole world came to be. How did that happen? I can't tell you because the says there's some things better not to talk about. It's the cover of God to to let that be to not talk about it. We don't talk about says we don't talk about how the world was created. Okay, there's a mish that says that certain things you know like like the creation of husband of a child for example. We don't talk about that. That's not so the creation of the universe it's the honor of God to leave it as a hidden matter. So to kind of hint to that, we don't say we just hint to God by saying blessed is the one that spoke and the world came to be. If you understand that, great. You don't understand that that's okay. We'll leave it. We'll leave it as a as a hidden matter. Okay. Another brilliant. Oh, I love this. Barberius the God not who created but as we've said many times but he creates he's creating like writes every single day the world is recreated you know who also says this he says on every shabas on Saturday night God recreates the whole Oh, yesterday I had a foot ache and today I woke up and I still have a foot ache. It's true. God created you yesterday with a footache and God created you today with a foot ache. But really the em is God every day recreates the world. Every day he recreates the world. And he says amazing. If you believe that the world of today is exactly like the day of the world of yesterday. So then nothing really changes. But the more a person mamish believes what I'm telling you that God is recreating the world every moment, the more everything can change. I have to remind myself of this sometimes. You know, I do tours at the Kotel tunnels and I'll tell you the truth, it's kind of the same speech, same jokes every time. And I've been saying for eight years now, but every time it's the first time, every time I have to imagine like, oh, I gave you a tour yesterday. It doesn't matter. It's a new tour. new people, new energy, you know, so we have to believe that my problems yesterday, yesterday I had this problem, I had that issue, I had that uh problem with my Buddhist, doesn't matter. That was yesterday. Today is a new day. What a what a beautiful idea behind says says the hunter. Okay. Now, God spoke and the world came to be. How does the Barak Shamar, the author of the Bshamar know that God spoke and the world came to be? What's his makur for that? It's called the Torah. If you open the Torah, it says or God said, "Let there be light and there was light and so on and so forth." And there are 10 acts of God speaking and the world comes to be. I'll tell you the truth there's only nine that are explicit but the 10th and the bishious and then that's when the came into the world and then everything was the the pashas of that original creation that's explains the matters but in any case it all only came through speaking not through speech but God decided I need to speak and then when God spoke the world came to be Okay. So that's how God tr decided to create the world. Now let me ask you guys a question. Why isn't God smart enough to just, you know, think the world into existence, right? Nowadays, you could type into AI something and it'll spit out all these brilliant answers. Isn't God smart enough to just think the world into existence? Why do he have to waste his time speaking the world into his ex existence? What's up, Chad? Now you're going to tell me I don't know. He's God. You got to ask him. But let's nonetheless we have to learn lessons from the Torah. The Torah is teaching us lessons. It's here for us to derive lessons. So why does God describe in this creation of the world that he creates the world through speech? What do you think? says to teach us that we also create worlds and destroy worlds through the power of speech. If the way God creates the world is through speech, so that's also the way we create life is through speech. That's why explains that what is the definition of a living soul creature? Someone who speaks. When you speak, you're manifesting your soul. You're emulating. That's why you have to speak out. It's not good enough to think it. You're not if you don't speak it out. Speaking is a dober. A dor is a do. When you speak, it's real. When you think it's it's nice. It's not meaningless. Thoughts count, but it doesn't compare to speech, right? It's And we're lucky in a way. If if God action. >> Speech is an action. If God would have spoke the world into being, some rabbis explained, if it would have thought the world into being, then we'd be culpable for our thoughts, you know, for any random thought that comes through our heads. So now that he just spoke the world into being, it's about speech, which really makes the most difference. And when we speak, we really create worlds. You don't know how often it is that I feel, you know, I I I give a shir or I I I make a shabas meal and everyone thinks in their head, "Wow, it was a great meal. It was great. It was amazing. Great tour." But they don't speak it to me. They don't tell me. And so, I don't know. Maybe they liked it. Maybe they didn't like it. And I walk away. I don't know. It was okay. My wife asked me how was the meal. I was like, "I don't know. I I think it was okay. Nobody Nobody threw tomatoes at me, but I don't really know." But then sometimes it happened to me this Friday night. I was asked to be the kazin at the shul the local sh aa 24 may it be blessed and you know I did my thing dancing and singing. It was Gishmak but uh I I ded everybody left and I went home. I didn't know if I did a good job or not. Then on the way home one guy comes up to me and he says oh rabbi thank you so much. It was really you did a great job. It was really enjoyable and it made it made all the difference in the world. I was like, "Okay, I'll come I'll come back to Shul next week." There there you go. One one compliment. That's all it is. This is not a plug that you don't do not come over to me after this year because now it's fake. Now I know now I know where it's coming from. But the point is that you never know that the zor says that you're culpable for every compliment you wanted to say, you didn't say because it only really matters when you when you verbalize it. You know, when you verbalize My wife is very good that when she has something good to say, she says it. I'm not always so good. He knows, you know. Or even you could say something, but but you could say it with all your heart. You could say does a good job. You could say it's good. It's better than nothing. You said you could say, "Wow, I really love that Kadon song hit the spot." The more we're the more detailed we go, the more hah we bring other people. And that's really the whole point of life, right? You get a lot more han from a compliment than you get from uh you know a good steak sandwich in my opinion but I'm also vegetarian so I'm not the right not the right guy to ask but from you know your smoothie whatever whatever whatever floats your boat. Anyways, that was just a commercial break about complimenting people. The importance of speech, the importance of speak that is the the last thing and maybe maybe we'll conclude here and we'll end with a story. You know, stories are good. Yeah, I'll tell a story. Okay, this is one of my favorite stories. It's a rash story, but it's it's an every day of our lives story. So once upon a time there was a of the and this name was and the highlight of his year of course was going to d by the for the high holidays. He would go early two weeks early he get he was raised with all the to the highest level and then the Reb would give him a and it was just so high and this whole year it's a simple man he looked forward to just getting to the his holy reb who could see from one end of the world to the next that's why he was called the seer of Lublin and one year one year one year here he comes on his wagon for weeks and weeks and he finally gets to the rabbit and he's so excited to get with the rabbi and he's so many years the rabbi gives him a big hug and says and he walks into the rabbi and says you got to go you got to go I just got here rabbi mah I love you but you got to go right now and he's devastated but the rebba says you don't argue with the rebba right so he's [snorts] heartbroken but he you know takes the donkey whatever takes the horses get takes his aala and he says says, "I got to go." The Reb says, "I got to go. I got to go." And he the Reb looks at him and says, "Go as fast as you can. Go home." And he goes and he goes and he wants to make it. And he and he's going as fast as he can. And he's traveling, but at a certain point, he slows down because he's so brokenhearted and he's just crying and he's been looking forward to this moment, his whole year, and he just can't take it anymore. Besides, you know what? I can't travel anymore. so close to home, but I need to before I go home, I'm going to cheer myself. I'm going to go to the to the bar to the bar. And in those days, you know, the Jews, the only thing they could they were allowed to run were the the local Kretchma, the local bar and give out. He walks in to a place where everybody knows your name, you know, not not to the Kdish, to the to the bar back in those days. And uh and he walks in there and he sees his old friend says, "Good to see you. I haven't seen you forever and he has a little takes a little wine." And then there's another friend Yankee. And then you know what's another good Yiddish name. And the whole all the singing and dancing and more and more. It's getting mishmak. And for hours they're dancing and singing and he's so cheered up. It's mamish like uh that scene in Fiddler's on the roof. And everyone's having the best time until someone knocks on the door. And who is it? It's the messenger for the holy says messenger says wants to see you right away. Come back and mah says okay takes the stuff gets on the horse and they they head all the way back to Lublin and he has the highest rash of his life. It's so beautiful so sweet. And at the end of it all after kipper he's about to go home and he says rebi it was beautiful but what's the what's going on here you send me this and back and says normally I don't tell these secrets but one day one day there'll be a common out there that's going to want to tell this story so I'm going to tell you the story I'll tell you the truth I saw that you didn't have many days life of life left in you very few days and I knew if you stayed here, you would end up passing away with me. I needed you to spend your final days with your wife, with your children. So I said, "Michael, I can't explain. You got to go home right away." And I sent you out of there. And the truth is on that night when you went to the bar, that was your last night. And the angel of death came to the tavern and was about to take your life. And then he heard a fellow Yed say to life. And then another Yed, the angel of death was about to get up there. And then knocks him down. And the angel of death gets back up. Another [snorts] ah of another Jew, a of another Jew. And eventually the angel of death just gave up and said, "All right, I don't have the cough to resist." And it was decreed in the heavens many more years. the of the bra the heartfelt brahas of these holy and so the lesson is not that you have to make every day pur the lesson is that yes but in a certain way yes every day we have to not be afraid to use our to bless another and every day we have a reminder of the of when we start off and say God created the world through speech and we create the spiritual world when we dive in our connection to and remind ourselves of how we can recreate our friends lives when we simply speak with love and uh brotherhood and compassion towards one another. So we'll end with a song as is our Shalom. I love I [singing] N MK. [music and singing] [singing] [music] [singing] >> [music and singing] [music]