Maamar Lo Tiye Mishakela 1952 #5- Narration is highest form of Torah, Rebbetzin's Yahrtzeit- RCD

So good day, good week. We're learning the maka 1952 said parish which is this week's para. We're on chapter three. If you have the lessons in my m it's page 121 but and briefly to recap, we're at the point where the rabbi asked a very simple and important question is what's the purpose of serving God? Does God really get a high and does it make a difference to him? Seemingly it doesn't. And he, you know, logically it doesn't and according to Medrashim it doesn't. So how do you reconcile that? So he brought the says that it depends on what level you're talking about. A lower level it makes a difference in a higher level it doesn't. That's that's the a summary of what we learned. So now let's start and pay a gimble where the rebba rejects this reason of the nom. However, still must understand the fact that the verse says you serve your God it refers to not only on level lower levels. As we said earlier there the idea of service is relevant. The verse refers to everything even those levels that are beyond the lower levels. So the Reb's simple rejection is it's a very nice shot that gives but it it doesn't it doesn't lie in the words in the says that means you are to serve God and if you serve God it'll impact God the highest level at all levels of God. very simple uh reputation. So the Reba says to understand this we must preface the following. In this verse itself there seems to be a contradiction between the beginning and the end. First the verse says you should serve God your God and I will bless your water and bless your bread. As a narrative means concealed, right? It doesn't say who. We also call this like a third person is telling a story. It's narration that's being told by a third party. But yet the last part of the same verse says that I will remove this illness from amongst you. This is said in a term that's direct. I God will remove it. Like God is speaking about himself. So make up your mind. Is it a is it a is it being told as a narration or is it um the idea is based on what the Ramban says. in inter safer here's the explanation of in the introduction before he begins his commentary ones he has an introduction and he says there the following did not record the as though He himself is is is is writing it, speaking it, but rather the is written is recorded as a narration, as a third person telling over a story. This is from the Ramban. It's as though the Tit written the first four in the first four books are written as though it's not Mosha who's telling the story and it's not God who's telling the story. It's a third a third party who's narrating. For example, let's take the and God spoke to saying this is not Mosha's words because if they were Mosha's words, it should have said that Hashem may lie and God spoke to me. Right? If I'm telling you a story about God wanting something from you, what would you say? You would say, "God said to me, you should do this and this." It doesn't say that. And so too, it doesn't imply that it's the it's God's words. Why not? Because if they were God's words, the first should have said, not is I and I spoke to Moshe. It doesn't say and I spoke to Moshe. It says as though someone is telling over a story. We call this narration or a third individual who's relating a story. It's like a third party not God page 123. It's a third party that's relating. He's saying and he's relating ABOUT A CONVERSATION THAT GOD HAD WITH MOSHE. Is that clear to you guys? Okay. says that this is explained in this is this third person or third party or third voice is above and beyond the other two beyond and beyond God. What does that mean? It's above the level OF and also above the the conditioned name. How can you say that? Because the name of God the holiest name of the fourletter name although what does havaya mean? Minasha that God is the creator meaning past, present and and future are all incorporated in God Almighty. Nevertheless, it still has an association with creation. Why? Because it's the name of God that transcends creation. When you say that the name of God transcends creation, that means there's an association to to creation, but it just transcends creation. Next page, conversely, this third level that's above both both this is the essence of God. He speaks and he relates in he relates what took place and say the in the progressive descent of THE WORLDS HE'S TELLING YOU A STORY WHAT happened he tells you about the speak the speech of the shame of the name of what's So what the Reb is saying here is a fascinating idea that when we talk about what that what the way the Reb sees it what the Ramban means by the Torah the first four books are written in in in the form of as a narration is not that it's lower but it's actually higher. Why is it actually higher? because it it has no association in a sense to the lower levels. Misha is already defined v is defined. The yud is this and the k is this and the v is this and the ksk is this. In other words, they all are defined and here we're talking about he says this refers to the essence. Now the question is why is it calledishi? So now the Reb addresses that specifically it's called the third similar to what's written quote he has granted us life for two days but on the third day he will raise us up is it's so it's known the explanation in that verse refers to the overall progressive levels that's been divided into two quote which toal the level that pervade the energy of Hashem that pervades the worlds and then the encompassing periphery level of God known as also So this is the these two concepts are also included. They also include what we call the levels of lights of energies and the levels of vessels. Another another synonym to these ideas is there is the way God's energy is to himself and then there is the manifestation of his essential light as it is for the other. All this is referred to and alluded to in the ver in the words. I give you life. I give you two days. I grant you life for two days. Yes. Hela, you want to say something? No. Okay. Then come then comes the third. >> I'm sorry. What the question? >> The question I wanted to ask was um where is this from? >> Hosa. Hosa 6. Okay. >> Six. Look at the footnote there. Hosa 62. Okay. Well, then comes the third day. This is this doesn't refer any longer to the lower levels of and you know and but refers to the highest level of that's the so now he goes back to our verse in this in first theory says you shall serve God I will bless your bread and your water. The third person is giving narration and saying that when you will engage in serving God your God then I will bless your your bread and your border. Next page that this level of God that you're worshiping which is the highest level called from there what you will get will bless your bread and your water. And then the verse continues I will remove your illness from amongst you. Is direct. The third party, the narrator is saying he himself will remove illness from you. movement. From this we understand that the concept of serving God is relevant not only to the name of but also to the third the narration the the narrator which is which is the essence of God that when we do serve Hashem it impacts Not only your bread and your water through the name, it also impacts the level where Hashem removes the illness through the essence. Ends this paragraph by asking canal that is asking ON HIMSELF FROM THE medish the medish says that if you do righteous and and good it what have you added to God so in other words the says that I I'm rejecting the interpretation of the aides BUT I STILL GOT A PROBLEM WITH THE medish you understand now wants to interpret it, wants to reconcile the contradiction that it depends which level of God you're talking about. The Reba doesn't accept that the says I'm sorry. He doesn't say these words, but in paraphrasing he's SAYING IT REFERS TO ALL LEVELS OF GOD. So now HE'S ASKING ON HIMSELF. PROB IS ASKING WAIT A MINUTE BUT THE MEDISH says in mat also referring to all levels of god that seemingly does not nega that's where we're at so we're still have not answered the question we have proven according to the reb that it doesn't refer to a levels of god but but it's coming from the essence that and and and the essence is is is of god is saying that all le that is relevant to all levels. So the rebba says that's very nice but I got a problem with a medish. And here you see how the rebba is not shy to ask and and kind of so you know refute his own argument or at least make a very strong case for why his own argument uh doesn't hold water. He's not afraid to do that. And you see how you the the mimer that's why it's such a wonderful moment to learn. It progresses very nicely from step to step. Now I want to take a few minutes and talk about the yard side today of the rabbit Mushka the Reb's wife. It's Kovat and uh tell you just a little bit about her. Um I only saw her once in my life and I didn't even have a clear picture. It was 1980 at the Lagboa parade and I was sitting across the street from 770. We're standing the on the on the service lane. They have benches and I was there and someone pointed out to me. He says, "Look at the window and you'll see the Rebbitson the Reb's wife." So I did and I saw someone from far away standing there. So I can't say that I had a very clear image. I don't maybe I borrowed binoculars. I don't remember. But from from different things I heard is is is the following a few points. One is that she was a modest person. She didn't want to be in the limelight at all. And that's one of the reasons that she did not come to Davin in 770. Surely not weekly. And even on Yim, my understanding is that either they davened upstairs in the previous Reb's apartment which for years there was a minion there after the previous Reb passed away for the Yamashipper they made a minion there and it could be that she and her sister and her mother uh all davened in the kitchen you know while there was teaos and and things like that but I also heard that she daved with her sister at some other shul and kronites and not a kabad shul uh she she that she went there sometimes you know it's um that's what some people have told me so the thing and this morning I just spoke to someone who grew up in crown heights and I remembers her coming she drove a car and I know the person I knew the person who taught her how to drive a car cuz he uh used to ding with me in borrow park in the Alabaturer. Uh his name was um Ysef Goldberg and he he had a um a driving school, you know. And I believe he taught her how to drive. I think in the 1950s, I think 50s or 60s. Anyway, so she would drive herself to 770 cuz she would want to see her mother and sister almost daily or maybe daily. And um she had a brown Cadillac. This is what this person told me today. And from when she parked the car, she would go downstairs. Not she wouldn't usually she wouldn't go through the front. She didn't want to be seen. So she went downstairs, took the elevator up to the to the second floor. It's clear that she avoided, you know, um contact with people and um the publicity. Some say that one of the reasons for that is also because she didn't want to make her sister, her older sister jealous because her older sister's husband wasn't a rebi. It was a rabbi gorari head of the yeshivas the kabad lab yeshivas and a prominent person but not that ebba and she didn't want to her older sister to feel any animosity or jealousy but I believe that the the main reason is because she simply was uh not interested in publicity and in the limelight and that's a very important thing for us to to think about in our own lives. That's one point. Another another few interesting things being she was from Russia. She enjoys speaking Russian with her few friends or acquaintances that knew Russian. One of them was either a cook or some at the girls balta school Mhana I think on president street and uh my wife was a madria there for 6 months before we met and uh Mrs. Tivven I think was her name or no Mrs. Galprin Mrs. Galpin, I think was her name. She was a good friend of the Rebes and they would talk for hours in Russian. She also had, I understand, every day or several times a week uh two newspapers that she read that were delivered, one in Russian and one in French. She lived with the Reba from 1933 to 1940 pretty much in France and seemed like picked up the language and uh clearly she you know she had a a regal intelligent sophisticated sophistication about herself together with her modesty. She would shop when pe either when her driver she had a people who were her assistants to help as she got older. Um, and she would shop in Saks Fifth Avenue or or Blooming Dales or whatever the uh at the better quality stores for housewear items, etc. How do I know? because my cousin's wife is a granddaughter of this galpin and and for their wedding the family gave them some of the kaim from the rabbits and kayabushka that were given to her grandmother as a present and uh definitely on the I don't know if it was silver but it was definitely uh you know fancier more expensive offensive together with that. I recall when I was Manaka Mo the Reba during the Shiva at that time I was on in Marin County I believe it was a Wednesday Tuesday or Wednesday night my friend called me it was 1:2 in the morning I remember he told me woke me up and he said the rebbitson just passed on and uh subsequent to that I I didn't make the Levaya I don't know if it was before Shabas or after Shabas I came to New York together with thousands and thousands of people to be mba to pass by and say you know the aim in his house and on the way out after you passed the rebba and you said you went through the kitchen and as I'm going through the kitchen I took a look at the refrigerator and the stove and you're talking about she passed away in 1988 right I'm telling you she had a stove and a refrigerator from the 1930s and 40s and I'm not exaggerating on old like I'm the don't ask me why. So it you know I mean the Reb himself the Reba was what you would say not frugal but he he wasn't a spender and he was so against anything you know modern. And so I could see him saying we have a refrigerator. What do we need another refrigerator for? Right? and he moved into their house in 19556 probably that was the refrigerator that was left over there or he you know or he bought it in those days it was probably considered a new refrigerator so he lived with that the rest of his life I mean that that's clear that the reba didn't spend money on himself I mean I told you once that the shoes that he wore which I also saw the the black paint was chipping off the shoes I saw that, you know, um he he just, you know, and and the Rebbitson in over the years tried in different ways, you know, a new hat, a new shoes, and it it was a constant struggle, you know, for her to get her husband to to kind of allow uh himself to have something new. But it seems like that she uh wasn't that way. But together with that um she I guess cooperated with the Reb on certain things and and the refrigerator and and and the stove was what I saw, you know, old uh very very old clean and but old. Reban and Rebbitson lived a a very private life and a beautiful life. You know once a day Dr. twice uh always repeats the story how the Reba told him that he he would go home every day, you know, in the afternoon to have a cup of tea with his wife, half an hour, an hour and he came back to 770 to work and different people are sh have shared and are sharing different things that because they helped out the house, they had an opportunity to speak to her and you could see how loyal she was to to the Reb. Really, she was very loyal. Another thing I remind myself now as I'm speaking that she would stay up till the Reb came home. That means let's say the Reb would fang till 4 in the morning sometimes and then do to 56 or 3 to 5 very I mean you know doesn't it's very late so you don't start the fab until 8:30 at night. in in in in Brooklyn. She wouldn't go to sleep again. Did she doze off before? I can't tell you. But she was up when her husband came home. And that's um something to you know the respect. When the Reba had his heart attack in 78 they wanted to take him to the hospital but they needed her permission and she said never in my life have I done anything without without his to him without his willingness and permission and I won't do it now either and it was mameish it you're talking about life or death it was life or death cuz he had a second he had a second very severe heart attack later in the evening. In other words during during hakuffus I was there he had a mild heart attack but in the middle of the night he had another one. So they wanted to take him to the hospital in between. You know, you know what I'm saying? And they needed her permission. And she said, "I can't give you permission." Cuz the Reb said, "I don't want to go." He says, he even intimated that if it's my time to go, I'll go here. He didn't say, you know, those words, but that was our understanding. So you know even though she was the daughter a daughter of the previous had her own tremendous pedigree and prestige nevertheless her her dedication to her husband was was very very special and and I and I want to conclude that it's not just because the reba was the she was the daughter It was because she she she the Tyra and this is what I I share with you. The Tyra wants us wants a wife to have respect for a husband and a husband for a wife. Okay? And and it's there's a lot to talk about this but you know I saw this in various homes Khan's home and and in my father-in-law's home. You know, it's not like you put the husband on a pedestal. It's what the TA wants. And it says, "A kosher woman does the will of her husband." The simple meaning is that she does what her husband wants. The the deeper meaning that she creates the will. She creates the husband's will. Okay, that's a you know she she's so powerful the woman that she she makes the man her husband have a a want this and want that. That's a nice that's a true interpretation. But that's A THAT'S NOT THE SIMPLE INTERPRETATION. The simple interpretation is a kosher woman. So we have in the TA a tighter way now to go and flaunt this hey to your wife you have you better listen to me cuz I'm the husband and it says is saying ba and if you don't do what I want you're not a kosher woman such a such such a husband is a excuse me a jerk he's so outrageous and and and if you if you if you could if you understand this, you learn about it, you understand this. There are things that fall into place that I saw growing up, you know, in various homes that I that I that I had had an opportunity to I saw it. I I saw it. You know what I'm saying? So, the Reba's wife was that way too. Um she was very proud of theim and she knew about you know then as the work was continuing you know even though she didn't get to see the the proliferation of from the '9s after her husband passed away and all that but uh she saw plenty before and at times she was a conduit some people would ask her to you know ask the rebba for for a braha for this or and she was more than willing to do that. Um, and she lived pretty much uh 88 years, right? She was born in 1900. I think she was one year older than the Reba or roughly uh she was born 1901. Sorry, 1901. Passed away. So, she was 87. 87. So today is a yard site and we should all have only and good things and you know uh they had the kinl the women uh 5,000 women came for this past weekend to crown heights in the frigid cold. There was five degrees shabas in the morning, 9 degrees Sunday morning and Friday morning they took a picture in front of 770. It's um it's really so interesting, you know, I look at it as a historian. You look at the Jewish world going back a hundred years. It's it's so interesting to see the trajectory of Yiddish kite of Judaism in America and all over the world. I mean, you're talking about women coming from from Paraguay, from Ugandan, not I don't know about Uganda, but the Congo. It's amazing. It really is amazing. And the second and third generations are talking at this kind how my my grandmother you know started this 50 years ago and I want to go in the same way and I came back with my new husband and my baby. It's a very interesting phenomenon really you know. So the rabbits and kayabushka also married it to have many people babies named after her. I have a daughter Kaiama Mushka, thank God, who I want I wanted very much to have a girl named after the Rebbitson. My first two, my first daughter was born before the Rebbitson passed away and the second daughter was born after my wife's grandmother passed away. So it was the third uh well actually no and then my and then my grandma passed away. So it was my fourth girl that uh I waited um and everything's been but uh you know it's it's just to have a name after it it brings you know more positive energy if you're able to accomplish that. So everyone have a great day and may your merit be for all of us and should refine us also her merit on this day of and learn some for her name was her full name and give some put in a pushka to the ghoulish of everyone tomorrow. Byebye.