Heaven Dances with You: The Gift of Moshe, David and the Baal Shem Tov

Okay, today's class is dedicated by Noam Casper in memory of Daniela Shayna bas Reb Yehoshua Falk who loved listening to your classes. Thank you very much. So Reb Chaim and uh may her memory serve as an eternal source of light and blessing and inspiration to the whole family and to all of the Jewish people. I also want to dedicate the class to my son whose birthday is today. Gershon Dovid ben Esther Avigail wishing you uh with a lot of love an amazing year in all aspects. So, today we will discuss Shavuos the holiday that's coming upon us in a few days. And I'll also begin by just inviting everybody. Shavuos is uh Motzei Shabbos this coming Motzei Shabbos, of course. So, uh Shabbos morning we have our regular class here 9:00 but then honor of Shavuos, so there will be two shiurim, two lectures here in the tent both for men and women and youth with a mechitza. That's going to be the first one 1:00 in the morning till 2:30 and the second class will be 2:45 till 4:15 a.m. Don't get too jealous of me. So, that's Shavuos night this year Motzei Shabbos 1:00 to 2:30 and the second one 2:45 till 4:15. The topic of the first class is David and Bathsheba in a way you never heard it. And the topic of the second shiur, the second lecture is which derech in Judaism will prevail in 100 years. The second day of Shavuos is uh Mon- uh Shavuos is Sunday and Monday. The second day of Shavuos in the afternoon 6:30 p.m. There will also be a lecture here for men and women and the topic is if I only would have known the rest of the story. That's Monday afternoon, the second day of Shavuos 6:30 p.m. So, everybody is invited to either or all of the lectures and classes. So, again the night of Shavuos begins 1:00 a.m. till 4:15 two classes and the second day of Shavuos 6:30 p.m. Please share it also with friends or family or husbands, etc. Everybody is invited. So, I'm going to begin today's class with a story that I heard from a Jewish tycoon. Uh very affluent and wealthy person who shared this with me a number of years ago. And he said that uh he once had a meeting with uh the Prime Minister of Great Britain Margaret Thatcher. Remember Mrs. Thatcher? She was a strong personality. She came to be known as the Iron Lady. I think she served as the longest and firmest Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the 20th century. And she shared this once with this person who told me the story. He asked her "During your long and distinguished career as the leader of England what was uh your most amusing moment?" And she immediately said without skipping a heartbeat, she said, "Oh, it's very obvious." And she shared with him that the Prime Minister of Britain and the Queen of England meet once a week. That's I guess the tradition in the United Kingdom Tuesday 6:30 in Buckingham Palace. And that's when the leader, the Prime Minister shares with the Queen I guess the most important developments within Great within Great Britain over the last week. So, Margaret Thatcher says every week 6:30 I would go to the palace to meet Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth. Anyway, one week I come in and I give the traditional bow. You give a traditional bow to the Queen. And we're about to sit down and uh a very uncomfortable awkward uh scene emerges. It's good I'm not talking to men cuz they wouldn't understand it but I think everybody in this room will understand it. To my dismay, what's the worst thing that can happen? We're wearing exactly the same outfit. But not not similar. [laughter] You know, different designers No, no, no. Mamesh mamesh identical. The men would look at me, "What's the problem? We all wear the same outfit." But uh you know what I'm talking about. Of course we're It's in Britain, so you don't talk about these things. It's not America. So, I made believe I didn't see and uh we just had a very awkward conversation and meeting but when I left I felt really horrible. So, I wrote a note apologizing and the next morning I sent in a note to the Queen and I apologized for any form of disrespect. And I also So, I added that uh I told my people that henceforth every week before I come you ascertain and make sure that we know what the Queen is planning to don so that another awkward situation does not uh occur again. And she tells this Jew and she says, "I sent in my note and a few hours later the Queen sends back a note." And the Queen writes as follows "No need to apologize. Her Her Majesty never notices what commoners wear." This Margaret Thatcher said was her most amusing moment. Now, I like the story first of all, maybe it tells you something about uh [laughter] royalty in Britain today. But uh the Baal Shem Tov once said that everything in life is also a lesson. I think there's a profound lesson that that can be gleaned from this story albeit in a different context. The holiday of Shavuos is connected to three personalities. The first of course is Moshe Rabbeinu because Moshe Rabbeinu is the one who gave Moshe kibbel Torah miSinai, who's the who's the one who gave the Jewish people the Torah on Shavuos. Just uh in parentheses, it's interesting to note that Shavuos is also the day that Moshe Rabbeinu got a second lease on life. You know, one of the many reasons that's given why we eat milchigs, why we eat dairy products on Shavuos, dairy we have a dairy meal on Shavuos there's many reasons for it. But one of the very interesting reasons that I saw is because Moshe Rabbeinu, according to our tradition, was born on the seventh day of Adar, Zayin Adar. It doesn't say it clearly in Chumash but we deduce it from the psukim because Moshe Rabbeinu passed away and after he passed away it says they grieved for 30 days and then Yehoshua his successor said in three days we're going to go into Eretz Yisrael and that was the 10th of Nissan which was 33 days after his passing, which means he passed away on the seventh day of Adar. Before his passing, Moshe Rabbeinu says, "Today today, the day that he's going to die, is the day that I became 120 years old exactly." Hayom malyu yamav shnasav. Cuz the Gemara says that special people that birthday on the day of passing is the same day. Kodesh Boruch Hu maley shnayim shanim shel tzaddikim miyom l'yom. So, he was born on the same day he passed away, which is the seventh of Adar. The Torah says in parshas Shmos that after his mother gave birth to him, after Yocheved gave birth to Moshe she hid him. Va titzpeneyhu shlosha yerachim. She hid him for three months so that the Egyptians would not fetch him and grab him and plunge him into the Nile. After three months, lo yachla od, that's finished. She couldn't hide him anymore. Rashi explains because it was a premature birth before seven months. So, after three months she was he was born not full seven months but very little, six plus so he survived but uh she could hide him for three months but not more than that. After three months, of course, she creates a basket, she puts him in the basket and places him in the Nile hoping that maybe maybe somebody will have compassion and save this boy. If she would have left him in the home she would have he would have just been taken and murdered. Here she hoped, of course, the basket could capsize, an Egyptian could come and throw the baby into the river, baby could die from starvation or dehydration. But she hoped maybe maybe there's a chance, maybe who knows he'll be saved. And of course Miriam stands there to see what's going to happen. She was all of six years old. And then we all know the rest of the story, the rest of the story. The daughter of Pharaoh, Basya, comes down to bathe in the Nile, she sees the basket. Va tishlach es amasa va tikachehu. She fetches the basket, she opens it up. She sees and hears a baby crying. She assumes and knows miyaldei haIvrim hu, so Jewish child. And instead of killing the kid or just ignoring the child, what does she do? Va tachmol alav. She she feels compassion. And that's when Miriam seizes the moment. Miriam hiding in the bushes runs over and says, "Should I find for you a Jewish wet nurse to nurse the baby?" And the daughter of Pharaoh says, "Absolutely." And of course Miriam knows who's the right wet nurse. She goes and brings the mother of the baby and the arrangement is a fabulous one because Moshe is raised by Paro's daughter in the palace, and yet he's nursed by his own mother, Yocheved, who was hired, so to speak, by Batya as the wet nurse of this baby. So, Moshe gets his milk. Now, which day did this happen? If he was born on the 7th day of Adar, 3 months she hid him. After 3 months, she can't hide him anymore. So, the next day she puts him in the Nile. Or that day she puts him in the Nile. Which day is that? Shavuot. That's the holiday of Shavuot. Of course, there was no holiday of Shavuot at the time, but that would be the holiday of Shavuot. And what happens on that day? Many things happened. Number one, Moshe Rabbeinu was saved from death. Number two, equally important is, he gets to be nursed by his own mother. So, to commemorate that, we eat milk. We drink milk on Shavuot. Especially as Rashi says, she tried giving Moshe to many women, but he would not nurse from the Egyptian women. And it was only his mother who he nursed from. So, this is a unique day. Not only is he nursed by his mother, but he's nursed at all cuz he wasn't nursing from other women, from the Egyptian women. And as a result of that, the custom is that we eat milk on Shavuot, whether you drink milk or a coffee, or eat products that ultimately come from milk. Whether it's a cheesecake or a lasagna, or a pasta with cheese, or all the other healthy dairy products that uh you will eat on Shavuot, or some of us will eat on Shavuot. Some more than others, unfortunately. There is this connection with the milk of Moshe Rabbeinu on that day. So, Moshe on Shavuot is not just the day he gives the Torah, but it's also a day where he got a second lease on life. It wasn't his birthday, but it was his rebirth in the sense that his life was saved, and he would be raised in the palace, which would allow him to ultimately redeem the Jewish people from Egypt and give them the Torah, and would also allow his mother to raise him, at least until he was ready to completely move into the palace, and the daughter of Paro treated him as a son and also gave him the name Moshe. So, Moshe Rabbeinu is the first personality obviously associated with the holiday of Shavuot. Moshe kibbel Torah mi Sinai. The second person is David Hamelech. David Hamelech, it says in Talmud Yerushalmi, David mace ba'atzaret. David Hamelech passed away on Shavuot. And David's yahrzeit on Shavuot is extremely significant because David because that's one of the reasons that we read Megillat Ruth on Shavuot. There's different reasons why we read Ruth on Shavuot. Some communities read it during davening, others say it the night before in the Tikkun Shavuot. But Ruth is learned and or read on the holiday of Shavuot. Why Ruth? What's the connection? So, there's different reasons given. One of the reasons is because Ruth was the great-grandmother of David Hamelech. Because Ruth married Boaz. She was a Moabite princess, but she married Boaz, and she mothered a boy named Oved, who became the father of Yishai, who was of course the father of David. So, Ruth was the great-grandmother of David. David's father was Yishai. Yishai's father was Oved, and Oved's mother was Ruth. And the end of Ruth indeed traces the genealogy from Ruth to David, and tells the dramatic story of how Ruth came to the Jewish people and came to Bethlehem, and ultimately ended up marrying Boaz under the influence of the influence of her mother-in-law, Naomi. And as a result of that, ultimately, she creates the dynasty which would produce David Hamelech and then Hamelech all the way till Mashiach. And that's one of the reasons we read Ruth on on Shavuot because it's the yahrzeit of her great-grandson, David Hamelech, and this book traces the genealogy of David Hamelech. So, he's the second personality associated with Shavuot, David. The Gemara also says that it was Shabbat. David mace ba'atzaret, and there's a whole Gemara that it was how David Hamelech passed away, Maseches Shabbat, the whole explanation a whole story of exactly how it happened, but Chazal tell us that it was uh it was on the holiday of Shavuot, which means there's a connection also to David Hamelech. The third personality connected to Shavuot is many generations later known as the Baal Shem Tov. Rabbi Yisrael Baal Shem Tov also passed away on Shavuot. This is of course many, many years later. The Baal Shem Tov was born in 1698. They called it Shnas Nachas, Nachas, cuz in Hebrew it's Hey Aleph Mem Tav Nun Ches, which in the English calendar, secular calendar, would be 1698. It's hot, huh? Uh you're comfortable. Okay. I sweat even when it's cold, but when it's hot, I'm going to sweat a little more. You'll forgive me. And the Baal Shem Tov passed away at the age of 62 in the city of Mezhibozh in a little city, a little town in Ukraine. And that happened on Shavuot. The Hebrew year was Tav Kuf Ches, which in English would be 17 60. He was born 1698, and he passed away in the year 1760. Now, Rabbi Yitzchak Hutner was the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivas Rabbeinu Chaim Berlin, and he once said something very interesting, a very classic comment. Rabbi Hutner said that you would think providence would have it that the Vilna Gaon would pass away on Shavuot, and the Baal Shem Tov would pass away on Sukkot, cuz the Vilna Gaon [clears throat] was a great giant of learning, and the Baal Shem Tov was the founder of the Chassidic movement that emphasized joy. So, he said the Vilna the Vilna Gaon would pass away on Shavuot, the Baal Shem Tov passed passed You would think would pass away on Sukkot. But he said, "But the Hashgacha had it differently. The Vilna Gaon passed away on Sukkot, and the Baal Shem Tov passed away on Shavuot, which is Matan Torah Shelanu." The Baal Shem Tov revealed through his movement, through Chassidus, he revealed really the whole nistar, the whole inner core, the inner dimension, the inner soul of Torah, which is known as pnimiyus haTorah, which till then was revealed as was known as Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism, Jewish spirituality. And the Baal Shem Tov in his teachings, through his students especially, articulated this dimension in a more accessible and revealed manner to this very day. And his yahrzeit is also on Shavuot. What's the common denominator of these three people? Of course, all of them were leaders and great leaders and great holy leaders and great tzaddikim. But there's something specific and unique about their contributions to Judaism and to Jewish history and to Jewish life, and the connection to Shavuot. Cuz everything is with Hashgacha. Everything is by divine providence. Even small details in the world. Certainly, personalities that play such a central role in Jewish consciousness and Jewish history. Certainly, the day that they complete their mission in the world, which is why we commemorate a yahrzeit because it's the day that somebody really completes the mission in the world. So, it's connected to their shlichus, to their mission in the world. What is unique about their mission, about their uh their personality? And the answer to that is one word, malchus. Malchus means kingship or aristocracy or royalty. Each one of these three people embodied and introduced into the Jewish world malchus, royalty. The truth is that when the Jewish people come to Har Sinai, so the Ribbono shel Olam gives Moshe a message, and he says, "I'm summoning you into a relationship." And the relationship is defined as a relationship of malchus. Va'atem tihiyu li mamleches kohanim ve kadosh. And that's the krias That's what we read on Shavuot. When the Jewish people come to Har Sinai, which was today, Rosh Chodesh Sivan, the first day of Sivan, the second day is called Yom Hamiyuchas, the day of of of of yichus, of lineage, the day of prominence, because it's the day Hashem told Moshe to give a message to the Jewish people, "Va'atem tihiyu li mamleches kohanim ve kadosh." You will be for me a kingdom of princes and a holy nation. What does it mean to be mamleches kohanim? A kingdom of kohanim. Kohanim are translated as priests, but not everybody is a kohen. Most Jews are not kohanim. This was a message to all of them. The Baal HaTurim even writes mamleches kohanim means kohanim gedolim. Great kohen gadol, which was very few Jews. So, there's a message here. You're going to be for me or you could be for me a holy nation and a mamleches kohanim. Each Jew is called a melech or a malka, a king or a queen, part of a family of kings, of royals. Now, what does that mean? And on a humorous level, they say that Ben-Gurion once met President Eisenhower. And Eisenhower says, "You look very depressed. What's the problem?" He says, "Listen, I have a nation, 3 million Jews living in Israel, and it's not easy. It's not easy." So, Eisenhower says, "You're complaining? I have 200 million citizens in the United States of America. You have 3 million Jews. What are you comparing?" He says, "No, no, no. You have 200 million citizens. I have 3 million prime ministers. It's very different. To be a prime minister of 3 million prime ministers is different than to be a president over 200 million citizens." America has changed a little since the days of Eisenhower, but you get the point. But the truth is, on a much deeper level, or more genuine level, what is this idea of mamleches kohanim? You'll be for me a kingdom of princesses. What does it mean? But here immediately we see that the theme of Malkhus, royalty, is essential to Shavuos. It's essential to Matan Torah, because it's not a holiday when something specific occurred. It's the holiday that conferred and confers upon the Jewish people their identity. Rab Saadia Gaon writes Umaseinu einenu umah ki im b'Toraseha. What makes our nation a nation and a unified nation is the Torah that binds the Jewish people together and really constitutes their raison d'être, their their very purpose, our mission, our our calling in this world. Umaseinu, if you want a definition for the Jewish people, not a geographical definition, because Jews for most of their history have been scattered all around the world. So, if the definition of our being a people is geography, then a Jew in Australia, and a Jew in Russia, and a Jew in America would not be connected. Most of our history, unfortunately, we weren't together in the same piece of land. You can't define Judaism only as a culture, right? For some Jews, gefilte fish is holy. Other Jews don't even know what gefilte fish is. Some Jews, skhug is very important, and some people don't even know what skhug is. Etc., etc. Culture changes from culture to culture, from country to country, different races. You can't even call it a race, because Jews come from many different races, different complexions, different backgrounds, different persuasions, certainly different languages and customs and rituals and so forth. So, Rab Saadia Gaon says, if you want to find the common denominator, what is it? You look. What makes an American an American is we live in the United States of America. I was born in America. I'm an American citizen. But I live in the same land. But for a people that most of their history they lived, unfortunately, outside of their homeland, most of our history we didn't live in our homeland. We lived outside of our homeland. Still half the Jewish people live outside of their homeland. So, the question is, what makes the people tick? So, Rab Saadia Gaon, who lived in the 9th, 10th century in Bavel, Rabbeinu Saadia Gaon in Iraq, wrote to He has a sefer Emunot v'Deot, his philosophical work. He wrote Umaseinu einenu umah ki im b'Toraseha. What makes our nation a nation is ki im b'Toraseha, it's Torah. That identity spans all the countries. It transcends a specific geographical location, or a specific culture, a specific language, or a specific race. Most Jews throughout history didn't know Hebrew. They spoke other languages. Till today many, many Jews don't know Hebrew. There were times they were spoke Aramaic. There were times they spoke uh Ladino, or Yiddish, which was a German dialect. They Many Jews didn't even know Lashon Kodesh. That's why large parts of davening, like Kaddish, were composed actually in Aramaic, not even in Hebrew, so everybody should understand. There's books in Tanakh that are written in Aramaic, parts of Daniel, parts of Ezra and Nehemiah. And there's also the whole Talmud Bavli and Talmud Yerushalmi, a big, huge part of it. The Talmud was written in in Aramaic. The Rambam wrote all of his works in Arabic, besides one, Mishneh Torah. He wrote every single work in Arabic. Why? Because where he lived, most of the Jews spoke that language. They were fluent. He wanted they should understand his works. He wrote a whole commentary to the Mishnah in Arabic. He wrote an encyclopedia of the mitzvot, Sefer Hamitzvot, in Arabic. He wrote his philosophical work, Guide to the Perplexed, Moreh Nevukhim, in Arabic. Certainly [clears throat] all of his books on medicine and and anatomy and pharmacology and herbs, you know, the Rambam wrote books on herbs and a language and linguistics. All of them, every work book besides one, Yad Hachazakah, Mishneh Torah, was written in Arabic. So, Rab Saadia Gaon said, but the one element that united all the Jewish people and unites all the Jewish people and became the definition of what it means to be a Jew, Umaseinu einenu umah ki im b'Toraseha. So, it's a holiday of identity. And that identity is identity of Torah. So, Hashem says, what does it mean to have that identity? v'atem tihiyu li Mamlekhes Kohanim v'Goy Kadosh. It transforms you into a king or into a queen. Now, there's a person who possesses royalty, aristocracy, Malkhus. What does that mean in a person's life? There were kings. There are kings. Today, uh you know, the the mo- monarchy has dissolved. We live in democracies and we're probably very happy about it. The question is, what does it mean v'atem tihiyu li Mamlekhes Kohanim v'Goy Kadosh? And here we see how why these three people are very much connected to Shavuos, because this holiday of Malkhus, these three people embodied it and most importantly bequeathed it. They taught it to the people. What it means when the Ribono shel Olam says to Moshe on the second day of Sivan, v'atem tihiyu li Mamlekhes Kohanim v'Goy Kadosh. Not only a holy nation, but first a kingdom of princesses, Mamlakhas Kohanim. Moshe Rabbeinu was the first Jewish king. Before that you have Jewish fathers, Jewish patriarchs, but not Jewish kings. Moshe is called a melekh. At the end of his life, the famous pasuk says, vayehi b'Yeshurun melekh, b'isasef rashei am yachad shivtei Yisrael. Moshe Rabbeinu was the first Jewish king, even though he wasn't a monarch in the traditional sense of what we call a monarch, wearing a crown and living in a palace. Moshe Rabbeinu was living in a desert, no man's land, and that's where he led the people. But he grew up among a He grew up in the palace of a king. And he overthrew the monarchy of Egypt to liberate the slaves. In fact, the Even Ezra, Rabbeinu Avraham ibn Ezra, asks a fascinating question. Why did Hashem want that the first Jewish leader in history should not grow up among Jews? Do you know that the first Jewish leader in history did not know what herring or kichel look like? May have not been at an upsherinish or a vach nacht or a shalom zachar. Didn't know what chickpeas look like. How could you be Didn't know what sponge cake is. How could you be a Jewish leader if you didn't grow up among Jews? Moshe grew up among non-Jews. Not just among non-Jews, he grew up in Pharaoh's palace. From 3 months old, his mother nursed him, but he was considered Basya's child. So, the Even Ezra asks, why did Hashem do it that way? You would think, you know, in America we have a law that the president has to be born in this country. You have to be a homegrown potato, or a homegrown tomato. Trump and Obama had this out. This was a very controversial story, you may remember, where Obama was born. With Trump and Obama, they had this unique relationship because of Trump's accusations about Obama's birthplace. Why is it important that you're born in the United States? What's wrong if I'm born in Kenya? Born in the Philippines. That's it. We want a homegrown. We want somebody who's uh what's called mishalano, you know, you you know the heartbeat of the people. But Moshe was born in Egypt, but he didn't grow up among the Jews. So, the Even Ezra says, Sod Hashem l'Yireiav. This is one of the secrets of God. But then he says, I'll offer two reasons. Reason number one is famous expression, Ein Navi b'Iro. You can't be a prophet in your own city. Moshe would have been raised among Jews, every Yachna and every Yenta would have what to tell him about himself. Oh, I used to babysit for you. I remember your bris. You didn't stop crying. You were such a little cute baby. When did you become a prophet? When did you become a navi? Oy, were you so difficult when you were a kid. You're so cute You're still cute, Moshe. That's what he says, very fascinating observation. The people you grow up with, it's very hard for them to respect you. You know, they saw they see you differently. Moshe would never be able to command the respect that was necessary for him to really lead the people. That's explanation number one. The Even Ezra gives another explanation. He says, if Moshe would have grown up among Jews, unfortunately, he would have had a slave mentality, because they were slaves. And in order to be able to overthrow Pharaoh, he had to think like a king. His vision had to be broad, expansive. What we call today thinking out of the box. He couldn't have been a product of the education of the melturship, of the pedagogy, of the Egyptian slaves, because then his thought process would have been very, very uh What's the word? Uh parochial, restricted, narrow. For good reason, not their fault, for good reason. But he grew up in a in in a palace. He grew up in aristocracy. So, that was his way of thinking. The Gemara says in Sanhedrin, v'lishadei b'narga, which means the tree gets cut down from an axe which uses wood as its handle. You understand? The the tree gets felled from wood that's taken from the tree. Pharaoh had to be defeated from somebody who who who understood the zeitgeist, who who who appreciated the energy of aristocracy, of royalty. So, Moshe then could think in a different way. He didn't think as a slave. His He He introduced the vocabulary of freedom, of emancipation, of liberty. He could introduce a new language into the psyche of the Jewish people. And he could stand up to Pharaoh to be able to put an end them to demand that he puts an end to tyranny. This is how the Even Ezra explains the way Moshe grew up. So, Moshe is the first melekh of the Jewish people, vayehi b'Yeshurun melekh, b'isasef rashei am yachad shivtei Yisrael. And he, of course, leads the Jewish people. He's the leader. He's the first manhig, the first melekh of Am Yisrael. When the Jewish people were slaves, they could not be seen as a people. You can't make a nation out of slaves because they're completely subservient and subjugated by their masters. So, they can't even be a nation. That's why the Novi Yechezkel describes Yetzias Mitzrayim "Lakachti l'Goy mikerev Goy." Hashem came and he extracted a nation from among another nation. In fact, Geulas Mitzrayim is compared to compared to birth. When the baby is in the womb, the baby is not an independent person, obviously. Ubar Yerech Imo, it's a part of the mother. Yetzias Mitzrayim is considered that so the Novi Yechezkel says it that God came and he extracted the child and it was a painful extraction. Sometimes the child himself or herself doesn't want to leave. There's a lot of comfort in the womb. Mommy wants him to leave, but he doesn't always want to leave. And that sometimes repeats itself many years later. Doesn't want to leave. Mom's Mom's supper is good. So, Yechezkel says Hashem came and he so to speak extracted the child. Because a slave sometimes, you know, sometimes prisoners, when they're liberated from prison, they don't know what to do with themselves. There's many situations where prisoners for many years they go out and they take their lives. Because they don't know what to do in in in freedom and you have to take care of yourself. You have to make your own money. You have to make for yourself food. You have to have a place to live. You have to Nobody tells you what to do anymore. Sometimes it's extremely difficult. So, Moshe Rabbeinu takes a band of slaves and he turns them into a people. And not just into a people, Am Yisrael, Kayam, Am Yisrael, a royal people. But that journey is not an easy journey. It's a very profound transformation, which you'll see. The Rebbe explains why at every crisis they always say let's just go back to Mitzrayim. It's like almost the battered woman syndrome or the Stockholm syndrome where the the the evil that's familiar is worse than the unfamiliar. At least I know what awaits me. It's terrible, but it's predictable. And if it's predictable, there's a certain comfort zone. It's a tragic comfort zone, but it exists. And Moshe is the one who's constantly instilling the the confidence. The Rambam says that that's the reason that ultimately they couldn't go into Eretz Yisrael. They wanted to go in and he sent the spies and they came back and they dissuaded the people from going in. So, Hashem said stay 40 years in the desert, you'll die here and your children will go in. The Rambam writes it's not a punishment. It was simply reality. He says they had a a a a mindset they did not feel successful. They couldn't feel ready to go in. They didn't have it. And you know, certain things in life, if you don't believe you can do it, you can't do it. There's the famous expression, right? Whether you believe you can or you believe you can't, you're probably right. In fact, if you believe you can't, you're right. You can't. And if you believe you can, you're also right. You can. They They didn't believe they can. It was a natural consequence. They can't. They won't be able to. So, he said 40 years in the desert rough It gave them that identity. And the children who grew up in the desert, you know, they had to You have to rough it out in the desert. It's like living in the outdoors, literally. You know, they have these camps. They take kids for 2 months and you live in the outdoors. And you have to get your own food. You have some sardines but so nobody should starve. You make your own fire without matches. You figure out how to make a fire. You figure out how to protect yourself. It's a very good experience for a lot of young people who grew up in America of the 21st century. So, the Rambam says the desert really it molded them. It crafted them. It allowed them to become people who could be independent and the next generation could go into Eretz Yisrael. So, this was Moshe's kingship, Moshe's Malchus, to be able to take these people and turn them into a nation. Then of course you have David Hamelech. David Hamelech is seen as the greatest king in Jewish history. Not only as the greatest king in Jewish history, but it's only about David Hamelech who we say The Gemara says in Rosh Hashanah we say in Kedushas Levana "David Melech Yisrael Chai Vekayam." That the Malchus of of the presence of David still lives on. David is considered not only the greatest king and one of the greatest warriors, but also one of the greatest or the greatest poet. He is the poet of the poet laureate of the Jewish people. The Novi calls him in Shmuel "Zemiros Yisrael." The sweet voice of the Jewish melody. Every Jew found his or her heart and poetry, deepest soul expression expressed in the Tehillim of David Hamelech, in the Psalms of David Hamelech. But not only was he a great king and a great poet and a great leader, he's also considered the person and not considered, he was chosen by Hashem to begin the dynasty of Malchus. Because the king before him, Shaul, was a king for a short time and the dynasty did not continue with Shaul. The dynasty of Malchus, meaning the world of royalty was given to David Hamelech. And that's why the Novi promises Hashem promises and he says in Tehillim that "Kisacha Nachon L'Olam Vaed" that your throne will endure. And ultimately Malchus will never cease from Bais David. So, David passes away and takes over and Rechavam takes over. And even though there's a split, but Bais David continues. And ultimately Mashiach, it says, one of the qualifications, one of the criteria of Mashiach is that he comes, as the Rambam says, "Mizera David U'Shlomo, Melech Mibais David." He has to be a descendant of David. Why? Why can't he be a descendant of somebody else? Because David was given the gift of Malchus. There could be other kings among the Jewish people. Shaul was not from Yehuda. Shaul was Binyamin. And Moshe was from Shevet Levi and he was also a king. And Yeravam ben Navat was from Shevet Efraim. You had many other kings. The Chashmonaim were Leviim. They were Kohanim. They came from Shevet Levi. But that Malchus doesn't belong to them. The ultimate The Rambam calls it Kesser Malchus, the crown of Malchus. The Kesser Malchus that was given to Yehuda's family, to Shevet Yehuda. "Lo Yasur Shevet MiYehuda" Yaakov told Yehuda on his deathbed, "The scepter will not depart from Yehuda and the ruler from among his feet." So, therefore David Hamelech who was a descendant of Yehuda, Yehuda and Tamar, David is the one who acquires the crown, the Kesser Malchus, the identity of Malchus, and bequeaths it to his family, his children, all the way down to the generations till Mashiach who also comes from David and Hamelech. So, there's something uniquely royal about David Hamelech. And what makes him uniquely royal is that he could bequeath to the Jewish people this gift of Malchus. As we said before by Mattan Torah Hashem tells the Jewish people "Mamleches Kohanim Vegoy Kadosh." Then you have the Baal Shem Tov. The Baal Shem Tov in a very different generation also embodied this type of Malchus. This type of of royalty. He was one of the greatest revolutionaries and leaders and thinkers in [clears throat] Jewish history. The architect of one of the most powerful movements in Judaism, which was essentially a revivalist spiritual creating a spiritual rejuvenation among the Jewish people. And it transformed the landscape of Jewish life. It also transformed in Eastern Europe. And it also transformed the landscape of Machshava, of Machsheves Yisrael, of Jewish scholarship. All of them essentially taught the Jewish people what it means "Veatem Tiyuli Mamleches Kohanim Vegoy Kadosh." But if we take it one step deeper, we realize that these three people lived in completely different times and milieux. And therefore the challenge of Malchus in each of these generations meant something completely different. Which is why it's three different people at three different stages in history representing one truth, but manifested in three different ways. Moshe emancipates the Jewish people from slavery. That's true. He lives with them for 40 years in the desert. Moshe is a king. But their existence is a supernatural existence. They're surrounded by clouds of glory. They witness the infinity and the grace of Hashem. Their daily breakfast, lunch, and dinner is literally bread from heaven. Their water comes from the rolling stone. Be'er Shel Miriam, the well of Miriam. No laundry. No shopping. No mortgage payments. Not even tuition. Not trying to get your girls into a certain school or your boys into a certain school. Everybody was welcome in Moshe Rabbeinu's Yeshiva. He spoke to everybody. He taught everybody. And he didn't ask what's your last name and how much is the check for or how much protection or connections you have. But at that time the Jewish people were on top of the world. And on top of the world, pun intended. Literally. Fed with Manna, surrounded by glory, by clouds of glory, Ananei Hakavod, experiencing intimacy with the divine. So, they could see with their own eyes how the Torah was a source of life and nourishment. Of course they felt like kings. [laughter] You treat somebody like a king, they feel like a king. They were treated like kings. "Va'asa Eschem L'i B'Eretz Mitzrayim." God says I lifted you up on the wings of eagles. "Va'avi Eschem Elai." I brought you to me. And I defined you as my people and I'll be your God. Atam ti'uli ani l'elokim. So, of course, you're mamlacht kohanim. You're a kingdom of princes. You're kodesh. God says, I'm your king. Moshe is my conduit and ultimately I'm the melech. They really they felt like kings. It was hard. It was a conflict because they had this Egyptian the Egyptian voices that still spoke, that still existed in their hearts, which is why there were struggles and conflicts. But we can understand that they felt like kings. David melech, who passes away on Shavuot, lives in a very different milieu. He lives in a different era in history. Jews are living in a natural world. They're living in Eretz Yisrael. They're not eating mana from heaven. They're not surrounded by clouds of glory. David was surrounded by many many mortal enemies who wanted to overthrow his empire. And not only mortal enemies from without, but also mortal enemies from within, including from his father-in-law Shaul and his family and from his own children, his own family, like Avshalom and others. David melech was surrounded by many a foe and he needed to engage in many battles throughout his monarchy in order to protect his people and his land. David melech's reign was anything but tranquil. It was anything but serene. It was rocked by anxiety from within and from without. If you read David melech's book of Tehillim and you see how he speaks about his pain, his anguish, his agony, his suffering. Unfortunately, many people just read Tehillim in Hebrew, so they don't understand the poetry. It's worthwhile to do Tehillim, unless you understand the Hebrew, to at least read the translation in English. Today they have Tehillims where you have both languages. So, you could read in Hebrew and see the English or read in English. But when you read those those those chapters in Tehillim slowly and you breathe in the words and you meditate on the words, it's incredible to see what David went through and how vulnerable he is, how open he is. Somebody asked me the other day, is there a tradition of vulnerability in Judaism? Cuz they didn't believe there was such a tradition. I said, open up a safe at the Tehillim. You will not find any vulnerable book I don't know any vulnerable book in the world as vulnerable as Tehillim. Every chapter is more vulnerable than the other. He speaks there about his depression. He speaks there about his sense of denigration. He speaks there about him being in the abyss, him being in purgatory. At some point he says, I don't even feel like a human being. I'm a worm. Ani shalas v'lo ish. Cherpas adam u'zui am. I'm the shanda of people. My own brothers look at me as a mamzer. Muzar ayisi l'echai. The children of my mother think I'm some alien uh alien creature. I mean, he speaks about uh his challenges and his struggles. But he never ever loses his relationship with Hashem. Gam ki eilech b'gei tzalmavet, lo ira ra. I walk in the valley of the shadow of death and I still don't feel evil. So, David melech's monarchy was anything but just peaceful and restful. Ultimately, his own son Avshalom would rebel against him, try to kill him, overthrow his monarchy, expel him from Jerusalem. And David melech has to leave Yerushalayim. His own life is in danger because of his son Avshalom who rebelled against his father. One can only imagine the torment. It's not just a Philistine enemy or Ammonite enemy or Moabite enemy attacks him. He had plenty of that, too. But his own child attacked him. At the end, Avshalom was killed and David melech came back to Yerushalayim. But he never got over the death of his son Avshalom. And as I spoke last week, was it last week or two weeks ago about Amnon and Tamar, David melech lost another son, Amnon, who his half-brother killed. And his daughter Tamar was violated. And he had a child from Batsheva, the first child of Batsheva who died. More about this in our Shavuot night lecture, David and Batsheva, the way you never heard it before. So, just a sneak preview. What do they call it? A sneak preview. Shavuot 1:00 in the morning. But after everything said and done, you can't compare Moshe's reign to to David melech's reign. That's true. They're not It's not It's not a time of nissim, miracles like in the time of Moshe Rabbeinu. And it's one of the reasons the spies didn't want to go into Eretz Yisrael. The Bal Tanya said the miraglim didn't want to go into Eretz Yisrael not just because they were rabble-rousers. It's much deeper. Because like the Chidushei Rim says, you know what an aidem of kest is? An aidem of kest was the expression in Yiddish when your son-in-law son-in-law lived by the in-laws and he would learn and they supported him. So, the Chidushei Rim says the spies in the midbar were like an aidem of kest. Why should I go work? Such a good shver, such a good shviger. I have mana every day. Why do I have to go to Eretz Yisrael and start becoming a farmer? We have to make a government. We have to build an army. We have to build cities. Red office. The miraglim actually had a good taina. They said, you have paradise here. We have Moshe. You have Aaron. What what else do you need? You got to be crazy to want to leave this cocoon, to leave this paradise. The miraglim were not afraid of their weakness. They were afraid of strength. They were afraid they're going to be successful and go into Eretz Yisrael and that would be their nightmare. Suddenly life will change. And yet it was considered a sin because the objective was not to remain in the desert. The objective is ultimately to sanctify the landscape of planet Earth, to elevate the physical, not just to escape into a heaven within Earth, as tempting and as amazing and as powerful as that is. David melech already lived in that land, a land that was governed by the laws of teva, by the laws of nature, not by nissim. But nonetheless, the Jews were living in their own homeland. They were living in Eretz Yisrael. David melech also prepared all the material to be able to build the Beit Hamikdash. He also for the first time united all the tribes of Israel under one king. For 7 years in Chevron and then another 33 years in Yerushalayim, he bought Yerushalayim. He established Yerushalayim as the He conquered Yerushalayim and he built and established Ir David as the epicenter of the Jewish people spiritually and politically and militarily. And he built Ir David and he designated the mountain that will ultimately become the place of the Shchinah, the Beit Hamikdash, that would be built by his son who continued his father's work. So, David melech already is called Dav- David melech is that king who unifies the Jewish people, whose entire ambition is to settle them, to give them a place where they could be secure physically and therefore secure spiritually and morally and politically and militarily. And David became that visionary. 40 years he was a king over the Jewish people till his death at the age of 70 on Shavuot. [clears throat] So, there was a certain sense of stability and consistency and a sense of eternity and coming back to El Hamenucha v'El Hanachala, reaching the ultimate destination of the Jewish people in Yerushalayim under David's reign as as the melech that Hashem appointed and Hashem coronated through Shmuel Hanavi after Shaul. Finally, he raised the single flag, a unified flag of the Jewish people high, uniting Klal Yisrael, and bringing a certain a certain amount of stability and pride and peace for the first time in history in a very very long time. Of course, would bring it even to the next level. would really comes from the word shalom. would create alliances with the kings around them and he would become excessively popular and excessively affluent, etc. So, under David melech, once again the Jews could feel like kings. They could look at themselves and say, "V'atem ti'uli mamlacht kohanim v'goy kodesh." Enter the third personality connected to Shavuot, Rabbi Yisrael Baal Shem Tov. When the Baal Shem Tov was born in 1698, everything was very different. Baal Shem Tov was born in the Ukraine near the Carpathian Mountains, a place called Akop. The people the Jewish people were shattered both physically and spiritually. And not just shattered, but shattered into small broken fragmented pieces. The Jewish community was just recovering from the horrific massacres known as Gzeiras Tach v'Tat. Those were the massacres by the Cossacks led by Bogdan Khmelnytsky, whose statue unfortunately still reigns supreme in Kiev, capital of Ukraine. Bogdan Khmelnytsky and his Cossacks slaughtered approximately 300,000 Jews in Poland and Ukraine at the time it was called Ukraine. Today it's called Ukraine. Then it was considered Poland, which was the worst massacre in Jewish history since the destruction of the second Beit Hamikdash and the Bar Kochba revolt until the Holocaust and until the Holocaust, which of course was a was a a darkness all its own. Gzeiras Tach v'Tat were the defining massacres of Jewish history in galus because of the sheer amount of num- the numbers were astronomical. And also the way it was done, when going from city to city, village to village, as described, we have diaries from the time. There was a Jew, Reb Nosson Hanover, who wrote us a book called the Yeven Metzula, describing events that happened during the Gzeiras Tach V'Tat, 1648-1649. Jews were were craving for some solace, for some stability, for some comfort, for some dignity. And then this solace showed up in the man who promised redemption. He was born on Tisha B'Av. And that's why he was named on Tisha B'Av and also Shabbos. It was Shabbos, so they named him Shabsi. And he came to be known as Shabsi Tzvi. And Shabsi Tzvi declared himself as the Mashiach, and he had a spokesman, a man named Nathan from Gaza, Nosson HaAzati, who had the gift of gab, and he was his PR man. You know, a talented person, you need a PR man or a PR woman. And this man was very good at PR. And he really made Shabsi Tzvi a success story, to the point that so many Jews in Europe really believed that this is it. And then in 1666, when he was offered the choice of death or conversion to Islam, Shabsi Tzvi converted to Islam. What that did to the Jewish world, spiritually, morally, after the Gzeiras Tach V'Tat, this is 1666, just two decades later, it was a fateful blow. The morale descended so deeply into the abyss, because the hopes were elevated, they were so high, and yet he proved not just to be a false Messiah, but suddenly their Mashiach was now a Muslim. Of course, there were a group of Jews, some followers, who still believed and they said Mashiach has to convert to Islam to elevate sparks. That became a whole group of Shabsi Tzvi followers and Yakov Frank, which wreaked havoc in that time. So, you can understand the morale, the fallen morale of the Jewish people, physically, spiritually, and morally. Never mind when you speak about the poverty that they lived in. The sheer poverty that most Jews lived in during that time. This is the 17th century. It was it was so bad, it was so difficult. There was like a certain darkness that descended on the Jewish psyche, on the Jewish world. You could say that the demoralization of the Jewish people at that time was so profound, it was almost like they reached their lowest nadir. It was so it was so excruciatingly painful and difficult for so many Jews. And if that was not enough, those years, the end of the 1600s, is when the Enlightenment began, what's known as the Haskalah. And the Enlightenment, which began to in Western Europe, in England and in Germany and in France, it began to take root in Western Europe, and it would prove yet another major challenge to the destiny of the Jewish people, because it would result in mass assimilation and mass conversion of Jews in the 17th and 18th and 19th century in Western Europe and Eastern Europe. The secularization of the Jewish people began to happen at that time, to the point that even before the Second World War, probably more than half of the Jewish people, or half of the Jewish people, I don't know the exact number, have left Judaism. The splits in the Jewish world, what type of Jew you are. There used to be a Jew was a Jew was a Jew, with no differences. Then you had to know, today I reform Jew, you're a conservative Jew, conservative Jew, modern Jew, this type of Jew, that type of Jew. All this happened afterwards, and this was a major major challenge for the Jewish people, and everybody responded in different ways. And millions of Jewish youth were became confused with all of the various movements that sprung up. And it was precisely in that era, literally the same years when the Enlightenment began, and just a few decades after Tach V'Tat and a few decades after Shabsi Tzvi, that the Baal Shem Tov was born. And one of the great masters once gave a beautiful metaphor. He said, "Sometimes when somebody's in a faint, what you do is you whisper their name into their ear, because the name of a person is a channel for their energy. So, when you whisper their name, it sometimes is a powerful tool to wake them up from a deep a deep faint state." So, when the Jewish people found themselves in such a spiritual faint, coma-like state, comatose, the Ribbono shel Olam whispered the name of the Jewish people into their ear. And the name of the Jewish people is Yisrael. So, this little boy was born and his name was Yisrael, the Baal Shem Tov. And his life was about whispering the name of the Jewish people into their ear. In other words, giving a person once again a link to his or her name, identity, vitality, chiyus. To be able to make Jews feel like kings. In that era, that was a tremendous chiddush, that was a tremendous novelty. To be able to confer upon the Jewish people the Kesser Malchus, the crown of royalty, in a bitter and dark galus, when people felt so much poverty and so much demoralization, and experienced such darkness on so many levels, to be able to give the Jewish people that inner sense of of dignity, it was like techiyas hameisim, it was like a resurrection. To be able to feel v'atem tihiyu li mamleches kohanim, to restore and confer upon their heads those two crowns that they received. The Gemara says in Shabbos that they received two crowns, echad k'neged na'aseh v'echad k'neged nishma. How did the Baal Shem Tov do this? What did the Baal Shem Tov do? The Baal Shem Tov started to teach the Jewish people that the definition of a king doesn't begin with outer circumstances. The definition of malchus always begins internally. How you see yourself in the world, understanding who you are, what your identity is, that makes all the difference. And I'm going to share two such teachings. One is a teaching, one is a story that embodies this quality, and really brings home what's the idea of mamleches kohanim. There's a sefer called Likutei Moharan. Likutei Moharan comes from the writings of Reb Nachman of Breslov, who actually passed away Sukkos. Chol HaMoed Sukkos. Reb Nachman of Breslov was a great-grandson of the Baal Shem Tov. His mother's name was Feigele, Feiga, and Feiga's mother's name was Adel. And Adel was a daughter of the Baal Shem Tov. The Baal Shem Tov had a son, Reb Tzvi, and he had a daughter named Adel. Adel is a very beautiful name. It's an adeler name, pun intended. Adel means adeler, very fine, refined. The Baal Shem Tov's daughter was Adel, and he had a very special relationship with his daughter. When he wanted to go to Eretz Yisrael, he took his daughter with him. They never made it. They got stuck on an island, a gan some ice on Pesach. He was saved, but Adel was at her father's side. It's not clear when she passed away, maybe before him or after him, it's not clear, but she had a few children. Reb Boruchl of Mezhiboz, the Degel Machaneh Ephraim. She had a daughter, Feiga, who I believe was the mother of Reb Nachman of Breslov of Breslov. Reb Nachman was a grand a great-grandson of the Baal Shem Tov, and a nephew of Reb Boruchl of Mezhiboz. So, he writes in Likutei Moharan an incredible teaching of his great-grandfather, of the Baal Shem Tov. And it's also connected to Dovid HaMelech. Again, this is more of a more about this on Shavuos in our class on Dovid and Batsheva, but I'm just going to say one point. When Dovid engages in his connection with Batsheva, Batsheva was married to Uriah, and Uriah went to war, and Dovid took Batsheva. And then sent back Uriah to the battle, and Uriah was killed, and then Dovid married Batsheva, and came from that marriage. It's one of the most difficult stories in Tanach. The Navi, Nosson HaNavi, came to speak to Dovid and give him what you would call mussar. By the Jews, the prophet could speak to the king. In other cultures, the prophet didn't speak to the king like this, cuz he went out with a head shorter. But Nosson challenged Dovid. What did he tell Dovid? He tells Dovid a story. The story is that there was a rich man who had a lot a lot of sheep, and there was a poor man who had only one sheep. It's all he had. And a guest came to the rich man, and he wanted a meal. The rich man didn't want his own sheep, so he stole the sheep from the poor man, and he slaughtered it to give it to the rich man. And he asked Dovid, "What's the verdict for this man?" Dovid says, "He should be killed. Ben mavess, he should be killed." So, the Nosson HaNavi says, "That's you." Dovid didn't realize where he's going with this. "That's you." "You're a king, you have whatever you want. Uriah had one little sheep, and you stole the sheep, his wife, Batsheva, for you, when you have everything, you're the king of the Jewish people." And when Dovid heard that, Dovid said two words, "Chatasi LaShem." "I sinned." Which is why Dovid became the paradigm of the Baal Teshuvah. The Gemara says, "Dovid heikeem oil shel teshuvah." He erected the yoke of teshuvah. No my gever who come out he come oileshal teshuvah. The Gamara says David David on his own would not be worthy would not be capable of this story. But the Hashgacha wanted this to happen leetran pishkin palibali teshuvah. So that David would become an example of anybody who made terrible mistakes in life that there's no such a thing the situation is hopeless. Asks Reb Nachman in the name of the Baal Shem Tov he says, "I don't understand." Why did Nasan have to go start telling him stories about sheep and which people and just tell him David Hamelech, "You're a criminal. It's so horrible what you did." Just tell him a story with a sheep, with a poor person, with a wealthy person. Just confront him and tell him the truth. So he says the answer is based on the teaching of his grandfather the Baal Shem Tov. And listen to the answer. It says in Pirkei Avos dalif nameia to osid litin din v'cheshbon. You should always know before whom you're going to give a din and a cheshbon. What does din mean? A verdict. What does cheshbon mean? Calculation. What comes first? The verdict or the calculation? What do you do first? First you make a cheshbon. And then there's the din, right? Cheshbon means you survey all the facts and checks and the balances and THEN THERE'S A DIN. DIN IS A PSAK, A VERDICT, HALACHA. So lifnei mia TO OSID LITIN CHESHBON V'DIN not din v'cheshbon. Baal Shem Tov's question. Then he asks another question. Says in Pirkei Avos nifroin min ha adam midaito v'shelo midaito. You exact payment from a person consciously and unconsciously. Midaito means with his consent, with his daas. V'SHELO MIDAITO WITHOUT HIS DAAS. WHICH ONE IS IT? So the commentators struggle. What does it mean? So the Baal Shem Tov said as follows. The Reb Nachman writes it brings Likutei Maharan from the Baal Shem Tov. The Baal Shem Tov said that the way people are judged is not directly. When a comes the time to judge a person the person is asked is shown the life of somebody else. And the person is asked to give a verdict on the life of the other person. It's coming together. Not a trick. You'll soon see it's not a trick. And then afterwards they say, "Ah, that's the verdict. Now let's see your life." And suddenly you realize that my judgment wasn't about you. It was about me. Because the life I was showing or the details I was showing were reflective of aspects of my own life. I thought I was judging you. I was judging myself. So the Baal Shem Tov said, "Be careful before you judge people." God brings different situations into your life every day, every month, every year. There's certain people I meet. There's certain people I don't meet. Certain people I hear stories about them. Certain people I don't hear stories about them. Why? It's not by mistake. Every situation I'm judging he said realize you're not judging another person's life. You're judging your own life. What do they say when you point a finger at somebody you're pointing three fingers at yourself? Right? Have you noticed? Only one finger at you. Three of my fingers are pointing at me. And the Baal Shem Tov says that's how it also works in Olam Haba. Google Google and the Beis Din Shel Ma'alah whatever their name is print out. You know Google knows everything. Somebody asked me that they were a mitzvah boy. He said, "You think it's I learned in Pirkei Avos that God sees everything and hears everything. It's mamesh true? He really knows everything I do?" I said, "Google knows. You think Hashem has a problem knowing?" [laughter] I'll call pardon me. So he says in Olam Haba also they show a person a life. What do you think about this? What do you think about this? What do you think about this? Person judges. This is what should happen. So the Baal Shem Tov says din v'cheshbon. First is a verdict. I give a verdict ON SOMEBODY ELSE. NOW IS A CHESHBON. NOW THEY MAKE a calculation and say, "Ah, you just defined your own story." That's nifroin min ha adam midaito v'shelo midaito. Everybody is the one who decides their own destiny. CONSCIOUSLY OR UNCONSCIOUSLY? BOTH. CONSCIOUSLY ABOUT somebody else. Unconsciously about me. I didn't know I was talking about me. I thought I was talking about you. So the Baal Shem Tov Reb NACHMAN SAYS NASAN HANAVI COULDN'T GIVE David Hamelech the verdict. David Hamelech had to give the verdict for David Hamelech. NASAN HANAVI COULD TELL HIM A STORY ABOUT A SHEEP AND A POOR PERSON. DAVID HAMELECH GAVE THE VERDICT. After that Nasan Hanavi said, "Ata ish. You're the person." THE PERSON YOU SPOKE ABOUT IS YOU. AND DAVID SAYS, "You're right. Chatasi." He came oileshal teshuvah. What's behind this insight? Just a trick? I'll I'll chap you. [panting] That's the verdict. Cuz somebody else you don't care about. So I'll give you the worst VERDICT IN THE WORLD. AH, CHAPT. IT'S THE EXACT OPPOSITE. WHAT THE BAAL SHEM Tov is trying to say is nobody not even Beis Din Shel Ma'alah could tell a Jew where to go. Because if you're a chelek elokah mimaal, if you're a piece of Hashem if your soul and your body are essentially and manifestations of Hashem in this world so you're completely one with the divine creator so nobody can tell you where to go. You could never ever be a victim even of a great angel's verdict. The only one who can tell you where to go in life is who? Yourself. Once you say where you COULD GO NOW WE COULD GO YOU COULD GO THERE. WHAT HE WAS TRYING TO BRING out is what what it's pshat va'atem ti'u li mamleches kohanim. Malchut real kingship is not just the kingship when I'm circumstances I'm in the clouds of glory. Obviously that's amazing or even David Hamelech's malchus. But in the times of the Baal Shem Tov when at the surface the Jews were pitiful pitiful victims of pitiful and horrible circumstances to ignite the inner glory of the soul to realize your own inner light your own powerful light that ultimately I'm the only one who can decide my own story my own verdict. I'm the author of my own biography. To be able to give that to a person. Why? Because mamleches kohanim. Because malchus is not something you acquire from outer validation. Malchus is your inherent state. Malchus doesn't mean your ability to control people your ability to be a dictator. That's emotional. Malchus means the fact that you're internally free. You're not defined by any limits you might think were imposed upon you by circumstances or even by genetics or by upbringing by nature and nurture or by events in life. Of course I'm a victim. Am I not a victim? Says the Baal Shem Tov and says only you could give the verdict. Only you could tell yourself where to go. Why? Because your soul essentially is rooted in a place of infinity. And if it's rooted in a place of infinity no shackles can confine it. Circumstances don't define you. You define your circumstances. Because if you're a piece of Hashem he's not defined by the circumstances. He sent you into these circumstances in order to be able to bring light into that space. Once the Baal Shem Tov Friday night made kiddush and he had his students around him. They were called the Chevraya Kadisha the holy group. As he was making kiddush he finished kiddush. He drank. He gave the wine to the people around the table and he started to laugh. This was very uncharacteristic. He was like kvelling and laughing. Nobody made a joke. They didn't understand why he's laughing. They finished the fish. They washed hamotzi the fish. Finished the fish and he started to laugh again. Just laughing. It was very strange. They served the yoich the soup and then the chicken whatever they had there. The chicken and he starts laughing again. Nobody felt uh you know audacious enough I guess to ask him. So nobody said anything. But Tzoi Shabbos one of his closer students went over after maariv after havdalah and he said, "Rebbe can I ask a question?" He said, "You were laughing three times after kiddush, after the fish, after the chicken. What was the laughter all about?" So the Baal Shem Tov said "Go to the end of the city and ask Shapsi the bookbinder if he could come over." So he goes to Shapsi the bookbinder. And he says the Reb Baal Shem Tov asked if he could come over to the Beis Medrash to the shul in Mezhibuzh. So he comes over. So the Baal Shem Tov himself tells him "Shapsi can you share with everybody what happened Friday night in your house?" He says, "Rebbe don't embarrass me. I won't do it again." He says, "No no no it's not embarrassing. I want everybody to know what happened if you don't mind sharing what happened Friday night in your house." So he says, "Okay I'll share." "You know Rebbe he says for me and my wife Shabbos is an amazing day and I always saved up money for my bookbinding business to have a little extra to be able to buy wonderful delicious food and delicacies to celebrate Shabbos as we should. But you know, the last few weeks there's been heavy snows here in this part of the Ukraine and Mezhbuzh and nobody came to bind their books. He was a bookbinder. Bookbinding was a parnossa, it was a meager income, but it was an income. Nobody came. And I didn't have any savings. So came before Shabbos and it was Thursday night and I tell my wife not one customer came. I don't even have a cupke. Cupke would be like a penny or a ruble would be like a dollar, Russian currency Polish at the time called a ruble. Today a ruble is also like a penny. Thanks to Putin. But in any case, I didn't have even a ruble for Shabbos. So my wife says, "So what do you want to do Shabbos?" I said, "There's nothing. I can't even afford a candle. You should be able to buy candles. Never mind a piece of fish, never mind wine." That's what happened. So Thursday night we spoke and we realized this is a situation and I shed a tear and my wife shed a tear and we went to bed hungry. Friday morning, I realized for me to stay in the house it's going to be very depressing. So after Shachris, I decided I'll just stay in shul and I'll learn. And I learned the parsha of the week and I was myvid the sedra and I said Shir Hashirim and I went to the mikvah and I prepared for Shabbos. And I knew that I'm coming home and as I say Shabbos I start I'm coming home not to a regular Shabbos. But that's it. There's nothing to do. So he says, "After Maariv, I came home and as I come close to my house, I see there's light coming from our windows, beautiful light. I see candles glowing. I open the door and I smell such a smell of I walk into the house and I see a tablecloth set up with foods and delicacies we never even dreamt of. My wife prepared a Shabbos meal. So I look at her and I say, "Where did you get all of this?" So she said, "I saw your pain Thursday night, how pained you were. So after you went to shul Friday morning, I decided let me search. Maybe I have some old clothes that maybe have something expensive and I found that old coat that I haven't used many years. It had golden buttons. So I went immediately, I took off the buttons and I went to the man who deals with gold and I got a wonderful sum of money and I bought candles and I bought the best food for Shabbos so we'll have a beautiful Shabbos." So here we have he says, "I can't thank you enough." And we did shalom aleichem together and together and when I said I certainly knew who I was talking about. Rabbis I made kiddush. We were so happy. I finished my kiddush and I turned to my wife and I said, "You know, I could not thank you enough for what you have done. And I can't thank Hashem enough for giving me a wife like you and for giving us the gift of Shabbos." So he says, "Let me again let's dance." So she says, "Sure." And he said, "Me and my wife like a choo-choo train then they didn't have choo-choo trains yet. But we we joined we joined arms and energies and we danced around the table. We ate the fish, we made the fish and after the fish I was so inspired. I looked at her and I said, "How did I get so lucky to have been married to a person like you? And how did we get so lucky to have a gift like Shabbos? And how could we express thanks that this Shabbos we could still celebrate with so much ecstasy and delight. Let me again let's dance. We have to dance a second time." She said, "I'm game." And we danced again around the table for a long time with tremendous joy. We sat down. I ate the chicken after the chicken. I told my wife, "My heart is swelling with joy and ecstasy. We have to dance again." She said, "Let's go for it." And we danced and danced and danced. THAT'S WHAT HAPPENED IN MY HOUSE FRIDAY NIGHT. SO THE BAAL SHEM Tov is listening and he says, "Shapsi, I want you to know something. When you and your wife danced after kiddush and after the fish and after the chicken you should know you weren't the only ones dancing. Heaven was dancing with you. The Hashem himself was dancing with you and all the angels were dancing with you. And I too was celebrating with you." And then he turned to him and he said, "Is there anything you need?" So he said, "The one thing we would love is a child. We were never blessed with a child." They didn't have They didn't have children. So the Baal Shem Tov gave him a blessing that the next year his wife should give birth and they had a baby and she named him Yisrael. The same name like the Baal Shem Tov and he became the Kozhnitzer Maggid. The Kozhnitzer Maggid's name was Rabbi Yisrael of Kozhnitz. He wrote a sefer called Avodas Yisrael. Kozhnitz is a city in Poland. He became one of the luminaries of the Chassidic the world in Poland. He's known as the Kozhnitzer Maggid, Rabbi Yisrael. He was a son of Reb Shapsi who was the bookbinder of Mezhbuzh. This is the malchus, the kingship that he wanted every Jew to feel. Person is sitting alone Friday night. They don't even have children. Poor people. They have some candles to get filter fish and they're dancing. He said, "Heaven is dancing with you. And I also danced with you." The unique recognition of a person's indispensable non-negotiable value and the fact that each person is an indispensable note in the cosmic symphony and that heaven dances with you. That's the malchus that Torah can afford upon the Jew. And in each generation, Moshe bequeathed it in his unique way. David bequeathed it in his unique way and the Baal Shem Tov bequeathed it in his unique way. That ability for a person to realize what real royalty means. Royalty doesn't mean that all my circumstances are perfect, that I'm living in an ivory tower, that I have no challenge in the world, I have no struggle in the world. I'm eating mana from heaven in the clouds of glory. There's those moments too and we're very grateful for those moments. The real royalty means that the person realizes that wherever you are, wherever I am, I'm never stuck. There's meaning, there's purpose, there's light, there's infinity, there's a mission here. I'm a shliach, I'm an ambassador of the Hashem in this world. I'm an ambassador of the in these very circumstances. And therefore there's an internal sense of confidence, of empowerment. Person stands tall with an inner joy, not a tallness of vanity or egotism or or narcissism or or hollow pride. But a a a pride that comes from a person's inner relationship and connection with the Hashem. A the servant of a king Rashi says in is a king which was why the Baal Shem Tov taught that and are a state of consciousness. Exile is a state of consciousness and redemption is also a state of consciousness. Everybody have a wonderful week. I'll remind you again next Tuesday there's no class. Next Tuesday there's no class. This Tuesday after there is. The night of Shavuos which is Motzei Shabbos with the help of Hashem so there'll be two midnight Shavuos classes, 1:00 to 2:30 a.m. and 2:45 to 4:15 a.m. 1:00 to 2:30 a.m. 2:00 2:45 to 4:15 a.m. Each one is an hour and a half right here in Tent Gimel for men and for women there'll be a mechitza and also for youth for children or teenagers or whoever wants to come. The topic of the first one is David and Bathsheba the way you never heard it before and the second class which is 2:45 will be what of Judaism will prevail in 100 years. And the second day of Shavuos, Monday afternoon, 6:30 p.m. That's the second day of Shavuos, not the first day, the second day of Shavuos. 6:30 there will also be a lecture here a sheer here for men and women. The title will be if I only would have known the rest of the story. Wishing you all a beautiful week, a good a with simcha and all the blessings to you and your loved ones. Thank you.