On the Essence of Chasidus #2 - Two reasons why the Besht introduced Chasidism - Beyond a checklist

so we're gonna actually start good morning everybody uh good afternoon uh the contras uh on the essence of siddhis uh uh page 20 is the first the paragraph the first chapter first chapter one thing i didn't mention yesterday it's worth mentioning before we begin is that when this countries was brought to the attention of rabbi rabbi salavaitchik the rev he sat and learned the the the story that i heard from someone who you know says he heard it from rabbi lichtenstein it was already oliver shalom lichtenstein yes i have to just say i was about to say this and you just when you were mentioning rabbi salavedrik sunday night we were at akhasana my wife and i one of the verbatim was in the gushitsyo and one of the rabbanus called up to read the suva i think wizard of mosha lichtenstein who i i think if i'm not mistaken is the son of the person you're about the russian you're about to speak and because of because of what we've been discussing it over the years and this year about rubbish i looked at his face and you could see his he he's a grandson of i assume of yeshua bear correct yeah the person i'm speaking about yes so i wanted to tell you i wanted to tell you you could see the rubs i could recognize the rob's face on this this on his grandson so i wanted to tell you because it's because of our sheer that you you've mentioned her of salvation all the time it made me sensitive to look for this right later i'm gonna look forward to you later a clip i came across of his mother tova lichtenstein who i believe is alive she was interviewed by rabbi dr zev leff and i think it's fascinating i mean she's you know she in her calm way she just talks about her childhood than growing up in the refs house i mean i wish i would have had that before i wrote my book um i didn't i guess it wasn't done yet you know this is at causa covent he was able to to do it there and and she really says some very important things about a father um that's that's crucial i mean you're hearing it from from the daughter i mean you can't get any better than that you know so i'll share that later but let's what i wanted to say is what i wanted to say is so robert lichtenstein robert lichtenstein um brought the somehow got a hold of the countries this is in the 70s when it came out and said it's 1970 71 and he uh he asked they showed it to the rev and and the ralph said yeah let's let's learn together the contras well learn together means they were up all night friday night learning the countries these two geniuses that robert lichtenstein was a genius himself and of course representative and they were up all night learning salvation was so impressed by the meticulousness and depth you know everything he was a brisker everything is deep of this contrast that he told rabbi lichtenstein as soon as shabbos is over call 770 and tell the secretaries to tell the remember in my name that he must produce more such type of works on hassanus because this really speaks spoke to him this the as you'll see the ana the the approach the analysis the depth the the the splitting of hairs bringing together a halacha and kabbalah um you know it really touched him and and you should know it was very difficult to impress from zelda and he was a genius and and i'm telling you very few people uh with their swarm impressed him in fact he was pretty critical about manny's forum which i also told you once in the past how somebody was in someone's house and he happened to see the bookshelf and he took out a book and he said what do you have this garbage for here you know so he he was very out and he talked about you know a safer and of a safer or in english or in hebrew but you know uh safer of tyra book of torah he was he was a very you know he was a he was the pedagogue so you know so for him to make such a statement about this countries and by the way he would not make the same statement about lukuthi sikhs and about my muram i he made it about this because this whole style is very much the way a brisker thinks in the way he thought going from the beginning through the middle to the end so he was aware of the rebels lakota circus they would come out every weekly but this was different so it was this that that he said to rabbi lichtenstein go tell 770 that i that i i i want to see more of the rebels these type of country sim because this is really with with torah real terrorism this okay so now let's look what is this what is it let's learn what it is the idea the s again the english translation is the essence of siddhis but i'm telling you the word in yana does not mean essence it means topic the inyan the concept and so much yesterday i just said that could be that's why the english translators call this countries on the essence of hasidis in other words because the word indian doesn't mean essence but yet it it it talks about the essence so the way to compensate for the the the lack of the english language uh expressing really the hebrew language and this of this name of the safer so they added the word on the that's that's my own that's my own interpretation i might be right i might be wrong because otherwise i i don't i don't see you know so you know on the essence of citizens is a very weird and strange name for a book have you ever heard amber i mean do you guys know i mean you're all learned and scholarly and educated that you ever heard of a book called anza hillel anything come true i don't hear you hillel he will mute yourself sort of what um that's a common literary device yeah you know on the nature of this on the nature of that and uh and and there's books like that their names are books yeah yeah okay okay you guys know better than i anyway but again uh in yonder does not mean on the essence but let's go on so it is talking about hasidis so let's see but again this regarding the concept of siddhis is that's within hasidis in over in addition to all other parts of the theta that were revealed before siddhis because it started with the belgentov many explanations have been given in other words what's why don't we need an explanation by a very simple question why why all of a sudden considers what was wrong with 500 years ago when gemara and halakha what why hasidis so there have been different explanations given that ever says for the need for hasidis or mayhem and among them aleph one is during the time of death the world was in a situation of faint he saw foot the world was faint i'll explain a moment the world arose it woke up from its faint state okay yeah is it is it referring to the the the revelation of uh robbie shimon no daily you're talking here about 200 years ago 250 250 to 300 years ago that's it you're talking about 2 000 years ago no no i understand like wait wait wait let me let me explain good attempt the answer is no to your question what is referring to is the helminitsky pogroms of 1648 and 49. the bashemto lived if after that you know and the pogodon the terror including terrorizing jews in padalia in that sec area of of europe and he even got to the carpathian mountains and the the border of romania the romanian carpathian mountains i'm writing about that now so i read a little bit about that the point is that he left massive not only physical destruction spiritual destruction where jews were murdered uh massacred plunged and uh purged and they were very depressed you know like where's god and how can we continue we have nothing to eat and they they've killed relatives it was very bad devastation that's one reference to the hisal foot the faint state of judaism at the time number two the false mashiachs the false messiahs chapter and pesa frank which was also around that time before the laughter in various parts of europe especially with chapter three the community was devastated the rabbis leading rabbis and scholars and rabbani believed that chaplaincy was the messiah and and then when they saw what he became and became a convert to islam and everything else you could just figure how how they felt they were fooled so badly and and the average jew said how can we believe in in in rabbis anymore if rabbis are so dubbed and so foolish you know i don't want to say it's the same we're not the same no political statement but we discussed it briefly when someone in urchin swell you know came out to be an abuser and um basically the repercussions is that you can't trust anybody so you can you can't trust anybody i mean here is a person who was so popular and known and you can't trust him so it leaves a very bad stain well that's that's what happened then so judaism jews were in a state of faith they said why believe that we can't believe anymore yeah you're a religious man you put on phil and you go to shul and then you do all these things and you claim your mashiach and then you convert to to islam so this is a second reference this is what the rabbit means here that at the time of the balshemptav the world was in a situation of faith i want to show you the reference now go to the english side please um and that is where is it yeah look in the note number three this explanation is found in an old hasidic manuscript whose author is unknown so the first explanation of why the bashamtive came along and introduced qasidis to bring back faith in god faith and tata with simcha and everything else and that's why he established hasidic judaism this is comes from a source we don't know whose author it is but it's found in a manuscript now the the translators ex say the following it has since been printed in seifer have my marim 5 six six three when the balchemter is initiated his movement the material situation of eastern european jewelry bottom of 21 of the footnotes economic and political was precurious and the religious state was hardly better the pogroms of 1648 and the false messiahs were critical blows that the people barely survived their condition was virtually comatose that's pretty heavy see also contest you trot when a person faints there is a tradition of whispering his name in his ear in order to revive him because a person's hebrew name has an essential connection to his general life force the soul of the balshemptiv was the general soul of all the yitan as indicated in his own name israel which he shared with all the eden an israel's general so a yeast's general soul of which the particular soul of every individual was a component detailed the bolshev's purpose and mission was to revive with all jews survive all jews even the lowliest from their unconsciousness and to connect even the lowliest jew with the essence of hashem [Music] so let me let me let me point something out to you something else that he says elsewhere that's important to know the rebbe's wording here is look at the paragraph in the text [Music] now why does it say how you hold them why don't you say hi shouldn't say how you throw him who was fate who became despondent who was comatose we just read the jews the eden of the time the language of the ebb and the text is the world was faint so that ever made a note it's printed in the hebrew version i don't see it here right here and that ebb explains very beautifully and very importantly that's why i mentioned it for who did god create the world of for who did hashem create the world for the eden to make a an abode for god on earth by including the non-jews as well but it's our responsibility to give direction so if we are faint guess what the world is faint because we are the inner essence of the world if we don't exist or if we are weak the world is weak so the oh so that in in writing and and uh his sentence over here says that that that the balse during the time of the world was faint and through the belcentive and the revelation of hasidis the world awoke it woke up [Music] again the word hoola not messiah israel why seemingly who woke up from its faint state the jews the bolshev came and he said guys so only our bodies were purged by helminitsky and only our mind was dubbed by the false messiahs but our inside which is the ikar which is the primary aspect of a jew i.e the shama the shama is pure as pure as it is as it was it is it is even during these horrible times so let's reveal the soul let's celebrate within the shama that was the krishna until the belgento you all know depending on how many pages of gambara and mitzvahs you do that's what type of jew you were and that's the way they looked at you comes along the belgentiv and says no a yi there's this in the summer the soul and everything else is an adjunct to the shama so when the baal shem tov introduced this concept to the jews its impact wasn't only on the jews it was on the entire world because the entire world was because of jews and that's why the rebels language here is that the bashar ventura awakened the world not just the jews the world from its faint state i want to make sure you understand what i just said because it's very important so in other words mohammed point hillary i'll just say of hasidis it's not just for ye it's for the world you understand we're not talking now about you know you know teaching the seven mitzvahs that's uh that's that's a method one of the methods of sharing with the world what toyota offers what hashem offers but the concept of hasidis is for the world now this is a hard pill to swallow by many orthodox jews in other words what we don't have enough enough to take care of our own hide that we have to worry about the world and and what's the answer to that question it's a very good question velvet the answer is you can't separate the jew from the world because the jew is the the battery pack of the world so if the jew is sick unconscious comatose the world's comatose and if a jew is happy celebrating god the world has the chance to celebrate god and that's a very very important thought and deep thought that uh we need to think about yes hello i got an answer i just wondered where the hebrew notes were but i found them okay point number two please while we learned this if you have a question you know a comment stop me and ask me so that it's clear okay base number two the second reason why the belcentos the cool the the call of duty okay as the sages say say your fun closet i'll explain when you burn the nails you're a clustered alpha massive although it endangers him okay the gemara says when you cut your nails you shouldn't leave them around you should bury them because if a pregnant woman walks over cut nails she can lose the pregnancy that's what it says i do understand that i don't understand that's a quote from the gomorrah okay comes along the good morning it says say from if not only if not i'm sorry if you if you do more than burn the nails sorry if you do more than bury the nails which holographically you can work like today right you could throw them in the in in the bathroom in the toilet but if you do more than that if certain you burn them the commander calls you a husset the gemara we're not talking about balsham the gemara two thousand years before the belgium although the nails when you cut them and it's part of your body so there's like some kind of he says mazzikloy it damages you meaning to say it's part of your body that you're cutting so not withstanding the fact that you could get away with just burying the nails and rather you don't do that but you actually burn the nail burning part of your own body why so that maybe maybe someone shouldn't come to uncover the nail being buried a pregnant woman whatever and whoever reveals it from the place where it's buried it'll be exposed or someone will walk over a pregnant woman and have a problem what does this concept allude to ever says let's name that you go beyond the letter of the law there is then and there is so so what does he say he says and i want you to look at note number five i'd like to read that together he says like this the mother says the talmud the second paragraph the talmud explains that one who cut his nails should not throw the bearings on the ground lest a pregnant woman pays 22 step on them causing her to miscarry one who does throw away nail pairings in this manner is a russia wicket one he buries them following the letter of the law is exadic righteous and one who burns them thus taking extra precaution against them being uncovered is pious twice this quoting the aruh explains that the burning of any particle of one's body can cause harm to the one from whom the particle originated i i didn't get a chance to look it up i have to i don't understand that i mean once it's cut it's cut but tyson says it can cause damage to the body although one may be harmed nevertheless one who burns his nail bearings is a husset for he goes beyond the requirement of the law and is prepared to suffer for it you hear that that's what it means to go beyond the the the letter of the law he's ready to suffer for it because he's good he's suffering tyson says there's damage to him somehow and he says the law does not require a person to harm himself right and here he does it that's called lethnim so what what's let's now so what is the second reason for learning to see this abraham what's the second reason why the baal the second reason is that it's not enough the balsamic says to be a jew in an orderly fashion according to law a re you know really it's about going beyond yourself with nimes as the gomorrah says so you're right you're right alcantara says you could learn only gemara let's let's talk about it right practically you can undergo and muster and all that and you're a fine jew they'll give you slicing after your shoe and if not you're complaining to my shirt right he's up a couple of dick a drew sits up front at mizrah he comes in he expects everyone to rise he's the tom mcclurkin right well guess what guess what you might get it anyway because otherwise they'll stone you in sure they'll maybe fire you as the gabai or have tightness but between you know ourselves we know it's the left shoulder the person that goes beyond the letter of the law that's really the special one and the one that you look to and respect because if this person is willing to harm himself for a maybe or maybe someone will come and un uncover undig take out the nail pairings it's it which is like ridiculous this this man really cares about someone else so the balsamic comes along and says it's not enough to serve hashem in a legalistic way check right what what's the word khan lift now you have to cry start crying come on here you have to laugh here you have to stand here you have to sit you know you know the many about to shove us when in the beginning they don't they didn't learn so when they start learning stand up and sit down and that's the beginning of learning that's important but once you reach a certain point you don't need anyone to tell you to stand up and sit down because you learn it you know you know when to stand when to sit and uh you know of course if it's necessary whether it be you know young israel and brs and you know they still they they don't announce it but they have a board with page numbers and i'm looking there like it seems like most people are are you shiva guys they're modern you know but um you know whatever it's good it's good because there are people that come in for sure but the point is that the idea of going beyond the letter of the law and looking for something greater is the now i i again i'm using the word you'll say wait a minute it has its source let's say in chanukah of course it has that's the point basham i says 8761 but still it says one two three four and we rule like base hill by chanukah and when my heart dreams manhattan that everyone should have their own monoida which by the way that's what i heard last night from robertson tova whisnerstein it blew me away she said her father of his elevation taught the girls to like their own menira that's what i that's what she says and i'm saying wow here is this lit this miss nugget this blisker you know and he taught his girls to light their own maneuver and to be involved in every aspect sitting in the in the sukkah he says we always sat in the circle what do you mean we didn't sit in the sukkah it wasn't like maybe his the rabbit salafatrik wanted his daughters he had two daughters to sit in the sukkah and i was thinking about it in that it's again we're not talking about i'm not going to maybe maybe he had a source for allegedly i don't know i'm saying the concept of educating your daughters that you know you're like boys in a way you know come on you know suka's there i know i have it here sometimes you know i don't have i say to my wife i says no i want to be in the sukkot with the girls the suckers make the sukkah big enough for everyone to be there understandably when guys come to fabrega or have a kid they shall come there's no room the women go out but but what what i'm saying is that there's yiddish so again well when i say when i say the baal shem tov the rabbit says here introduced it it as as a general teaching for the world of tita not that individual is like a rebel salvation if he did that with his girls or others but the overall idea of introducing siddhis to the world was this idea so yes you don't need a you don't need a full beard you don't need a beard hello quickly and if you want to have a beard have a dream beard have a cool beard have a yuppie beard a williamsburg a north williamsburg beard you know baseball players still have their wearing beards i mean take a look at some baseball players you don't know if they're jewish or not they got entire beards it's like right says the beard that i've talked to you about you'll know that that and this beard of of dolphins ain't a north williamsburg beard it's not kept it's it's it's wild it's the way it is there's a certain kind of yiddish guy that's that's a only an example in so many other agartal what do you need a garden for if we have a pair of pants and a shirt and according to you this you you there's a separation between the upper part and the lower part what are you going to put on a dart before constable shampoo says no he can't prepare yourself and not only like some of the lit to wear the gargle inside what some do on the outside since it's sticking out versus sticking in all these examples happening with a slot davening with a certain type of focus and say slavis this is about shrimp said you're right it's not necessary but listen and you want to show that yeah i love the amish dude i love god so much and i'm connecting with that aspect of my neshama that i go beyond the letter of the lord that is the second reason why the baal shem tov introduced hasidis at the time that he introduced hasidis there was learning and there was darkening and there were tommy and there was a healthy yiddish kite but according to the second reason it was din it was like tit-for-tat a checklist while chanting says go beyond the checklist drop your checklist any questions okay good stuff yeah good job good stuff good stuff okay yeah i don't know if i'll be here tomorrow because i'm going i have to pick up someone from the airport okay okay okay try to connect online if you can with your phone but whatever listen to the ever i put it on youtube so you can always listen to the showroom have a great day everyone see you on tomorrow zag isn't right bye-bye take care [Music] you