Shavuot: Torah gives us the greatest freedom. A New Kabbalah class by Rabbi Yitzchok Minkowicz

Welcome to our special class on Shavuot and honor of the holiday of Shavuot. This class is based on a beautiful Chassidic discourse of the Rebbe. The Rebbe said on Shavuot in the year tough shin chof tes, 51 years ago, it was certified and edited by the Rebbe in tough shin nun, 30 years ago, and it's a beautiful class on Kabbalah about about Shavuot where the Rebbe speaks about the power that the relationship that we have with Hashem through Torah, and through learning Torah we can experience real freedom in this world. So, the Rebbe begins the the Chassidic discourse based on the opening verse of the 10 Commandments where God says "Vayedaber Elokim es kol hadvarim ha'eleh lemor." God speaks all these words. And there's an opinion all these words was the actually the whole Torah was in in that first verse. How we can speak We whatever word we say, we say. Hashem could be within one verse has the whole Torah in there in a magical way. Later on, he had to spell it out so we can comprehend it. But, the last word in the verse says "lemor". So, the question is asked a simple question. At Mount Sinai, all the Jewish people were there. People of that generation, future generations until Moshiach comes. Every soul was there. "Lemor" means to tell them. Tell who? If everybody's there, you don't have to "lemor" tell them. So, what does "lemor" mean? So, the Rebbe brings three understandings on "lemor". The first understanding of "lemor" is Hashem is saying is "lemor". Meaning to say is anytime in the future after Matan Torah, when you sit down to learn Torah, whether it's the Chumash, whether it's the Prophets, whether it's the Writings, whether it's Medrash, Kabbalah, Zohar, whatever you're learning, "Lemor" Hashem says I'm going to sit and learn with you. That means a Jew is never learning on its own. You always have a study partner. "Lemor" Hashem is learning with you. Sit sit and learn, Hashem is learning with you. Wherever you are and whenever you are. That's the first understanding of Lemaar. The second understanding Lemaar is that Lemaar, just like at Mount Sinai was all the great revelation and all the great light and energy of Hashem, every time you study Torah, you draw in that power of revelation of the initial revelation of Mount of Mount Torah. And the third understanding of Lemaar is that just like when Hashem gave the 10 Commandments, it changed the world. How did it change the world? Because the 10 Commandments went into the 10 utterances that Hashem used to create the world and the whole world was elevated. Became a whole new spiritual godly world based on the 10 Commandments going into the 10 utterances. So the the so when Lemaar Hashem is saying is that every single time we learn Torah, our Torah, our godly energy that we're creating by learning Torah goes into the world and we actually elevate and transform the world. So to recap, what are the three understandings of Lemaar? One is that we learn Torah, Hashem is going to learn with us. Number two is that when we learn Torah, we're drawing in the initial energy. And number three is that when we learn Torah, we can affect and change the world just like Hashem changed the world at Mount Torah. The Rebbe brings from a Hasidic discourse from the Rebbe Maharash, the fourth Chabad Rebbe, and the Rebbe Maharash brings a Yalkut, which is a Medrash, that says that at Mount Sinai, every single person that was there felt like Hashem was talking to him personally. It wasn't just a a speech and either applied to it didn't apply to you, everyone was able to resonate in a personal way what Hashem was saying to them. That's what the Yalkut says. Then the Rebbe Maharash brings a Medrash that says not only did everyone feel like Hashem was talking to them personally, but he was actually talking to them specifically based on who they are, based on their age. So, the the Rebbi explains what's the difference. So, the Yalkut is saying is everyone everyone felt like Hashem was talking to them. That's every soul felt like they Hashem was there for them. The Medrash is adding not only the soul felt, but the body felt it. Because the difference of age, old or young, that's a that's a physical thing, not a spiritual thing. A spiritual thing there's no age. It the soul doesn't get older. The soul is a soul. It's part of God. So, on every single level, it was personalized. So, the question is how is it that it was so personalized that everyone felt that Hashem was talking to them and based on their age appropriate level. So, the Rebbi brings from King David in Psalms, he says a verse, "Adnai Bom Sinai BaKodesh." Which means Adnai the the referring to Hashem a lower level of Hashem is Bom in every single angel. BaKodesh Sinai a Mount Sinai BaKodesh we have a very very higher level of Hashem within us. As we all know, for example, the angels Michael, what's the last two letters of Michael? Aleph Lamed, the name of Hashem, Kel. Raphael, what's the last two letters? Aleph Lamed, the name of Hashem. Gabriel, the last two letters Aleph Lamed. So, on and so forth. Every single one of the angels have Hashem's name embedded with them. And because Hashem's name is embedded within them, they're humbled to Hashem. Hashem is with them. Hashem is in their name in a revealed way. We have Hashem within us. What type of Hashem? Not only Kel Adnai, but BaKodesh Yud Kei Vav Kei within us. So, because Yud Kei Vav Kei is within us, therefore we feel like Hashem is actually talking to us onto the level we are. And if our our humility, our humbleness for Hashem is obviously much greater and much more powerful. And the Rebbi explains that the truth is that because the by the angels it's a lower level of personal involvement, so therefore the humility obviously is much lower. However, with us it says "Anokhi Hashem Elokecha." Anokhi Hashem Elokecha means what's Elokecha? Who's our Hashem? The Yud Kay Vav Kay within us, which is a much higher level of Yud Kay Vav Kay, much higher of Hashem, and therefore obviously we experience what? A greater bittul, a greater humility for Hashem. So because we experience a greater humility for Hashem, therefore we feel like Hashem is talking to us um on a personal level. And now the Rebbe is going to explain beautifully on a spiritual level and a physical level how Hashem is really part of our life. So first the Rebbe starts off from a Kabbalistic level and he says like this. We know "Anokhi Hashem Elokecha." That Elokecha, who's our personal God? Yud Kay Vav Kay. Yud Kay Vav Kay is made up of four letters, Yud, Hay, Vav, and Hay. Yud, the little dot, resembles in the world of the Sefirot, we all are made up of Sefirot, is the Chochmah. Chochmah is a a flash of an idea, a thought, which is connected to Yud. That means when we have flashes of ideas, we have thoughts, we call it Chochmah. Oh, I have an idea. But what's the power behind Chochmah? It's the Yud of God's name. Or for example, once we have an idea and we want to develop it and we think it and we analyze it and we discuss it in our brain, that's all part of Binah. Binah means we understand something, we comprehend "Ha'avah u'teichuvah." The fact that we understand that Hashem is even part of us, that all comes from Binah. That is what that's the Hay of Hashem's name. As you see, the Hay is more expansive. Then you have the Vav, which is the emotions. We all have emotions. Chesed, Gevurah, Tiferet, Netzach, Hod, Yesod, all our emotions that drive us of who we are emotionally, that comes from the Vav of Hashem. And then we have the last Hay, which is Yirah, to be in awe of Hashem, Kabbalat Ol, accepting Hashem's yoke. On this on these Sefirot it's actually called Malchut, and that is who we are. So in other words, our whole spiritual makeup, Hochma, Bina, the intellect, emotions, Malchus, all for Hashem, all comes from the Yud Kay Vav Kay of Hashem, and that's how it plays out in our spiritual psyche. But the Lubavitcher Rebbe goes a step further and he says like this, the Yud Kay Vav Kay is even if you structurally in a physical level. Why? Because the Yud is a little dot that resembles our head. We're going to go back to the Hey in a second. The Vav is our body, the long part of our body. The first Hey is our five fingers on each one of our hands, and you're going to say it's 10. We'll get back to that in one moment. And then our feet is also the last Hey, is another five. But the question is, how do you get to 10? So, in Kabbalah, there's something which is called Milui. That means every word, you have the word, the letter, and then you have the letter the way it's spelled out. Let's take for example, Aleph. Aleph, we all know is the first letter in the alphabet. But if you if you Why is it called Aleph? It should be Ah. But the answer is called Aleph. Why? Because the revealed part is the Ah, the Aleph part, but in there you have concealed the Lamed and the Fay. You don't write every time you write an Aleph, Aleph Lamed Fay. You just write Aleph. But in the Milui, when you fill it out, the energy behind the Aleph is a 30, and there's an 80, and so on and so forth. A Hey. And there's different ways to fill it out. The Hey can be filled out a Hey Hey Hey Aleph. We're going to go for right now Hey Hey. So, a Hey is just one letter Hey. But if you fill it out, it's a Hey Hey. So, when you have Hey Hey filled out, so you have five, one hand, five the other hand. And you have Hey Hey for the feet, so you have five on one foot and five on the other foot. So again, just to recap, the Yud is the head, the Hey filled out, one hand the other hand, that's one Hey. Vav is the body, and the second Hey is the two feet, the two the the the toenails the fingernails on the both feet, and then you have what? The double Hey. But the question is what's the whole idea of this the filling out? If it's hey and we know according to Kabbalah because the re the whole idea of filling out is because there's revealed energy and there's concealed energy. What's more powerful? Revealed or concealed? Obviously the concealed is more powerful cuz if it's so powerful you can't reveal it. So in the letter hey, so you have the revealed part of the hey and you have the concealed part of the hey. There's two components. So in order to get godly energy into every part of our body up until our our our fingers on our hands and our to and our and our fingers and our toenails and our feet, you have to bring out the concealed part. So here you see that not only is Hashem Yud Kay Vav Kay in our as we said before, Hochma, Bina, emotions and and and yours Hashem, but it's also in our physical body, our head, our body, and our hands. But not only is the Yud Kay Vav Kay part of us, but even the concealed part of the Yud Kay is also part of who we are. So this powerful Yud Kay Vav Kay is within us. Now when you think for a moment, when you use your Bina and you think, "Wow, Hashem himself is part of my spiritual psyche as we the first part of these Sefirot, Hashem creates our physical psyche. So then you sit down to learn Torah and what we said before that when you learn Torah, Hashem, the first interpretation, Hashem is learning with you. How does it come from Hashem is learning with you? And the answer is because Hashem said in the Ten Commandments, "Anochi Hashem Elokecha." "I am your God." Not just "I'm your God sitting up in heaven." No, no. "I am your God, your whole physical being, all your Sefirot, your physical body, that is me. That's me giving you energy." And when a person thinks for a moment, the way Anochi Hashem Elokecha, the way Hashem Elokecha, that's who I am. Hashem is the ear that created me. Hashem is whole part of my spiritual being. Hashem is my physical being. And when a person feels that, you go into a state of bittle. You become humbled for Hashem. Think for a moment. If you realize that what Hashem is your God, not Hashem some king out there in some castle far away that we can't sit relate to. No, no, no. Hashem is a personalized God. My chochma, I wouldn't have chochma without the yud. I wouldn't be able to understand things without the hey. I wouldn't have my emotions without the vav. I wouldn't be able to be accepting without the the last hey. My physical hearing wouldn't have without the yud. My body without the vav. I wouldn't have my hands and my feet without the hey and the revealed and concealed hey. So, you go into a state of humility. You come you stop becoming humbled. So, when you sit down and learn Torah with that introduction of Anochi Hashem Elokecha, not this superior God with all the Kabbalistic insights, very practical. That me, Elokecha, my God. What is my God? My whole being is Yud Kay Vav Kay, you're humbled. And then you literally, when you're learning Torah, you're learning Torah in a personal way with Hashem. And because you're learning Torah with a personal way of Hashem, and Hebrew it's actually called the idea of bittle, then Hashem actually responds to you. So, in other words, l'emor, when we say the first understanding of l'emor means that when we sit and learn Torah, Hashem is actually saying what we're saying, that comes because we meditated on Anochi Hashem Elokecha, and we become humbled. And then Hashem naturally responds back to us. And then what happens is the greatest part of Hashem Elokah comes down into the our most physical lowest parts that we have, literally in our fingers, of our hands and our feet. Hashem is literally part of every every part of us. Now, this idea of leimor, which basically is two components, one is our humility when we realize that Hashem is part of us, and B, that the Hashem comes down into this world, is really connected to the other two interpretations of leimor. In other words, Hashem's energy comes down within us. Why? Because we recognize that he's within us, which he is. And the Torah has an effect on the world because you see it has effects on my whole existence is thanks to Hashem. So, you really see that all the all the three all the three are connected on just on the beginning on on a simple level. So, now we're going to go into and talk about the the most important impact that God created when he gave us a Torah at Mount Sinai, which we see clearly there's three impacts that God made in the world and three things that drastically changed at Mount Mount Sinai when God gave us the Torah. There's three components. We're going to talk first about Hashem as the giver of the Torah. Cuz you know, at Mount Sinai there was the giver. Hashem gave us the Torah. So, what does it say when Hashem gave us the Torah? It says Anochi. Anochi. In other words, Anochi means I, my essence. Anochi, my essence. We all know the Anochi is made up of four letters, aleph, nun, chaf, yud. It stands for Ano, nafshi, ksavtis, yahavtis. That I, myself, gave myself over in the Torah. Not a thought, an idea, the wisdom of Hashem. No, no, no. Hashem himself in the word of Kabbalah it's called the atzmius of Hashem, the essence of Hashem, was giving himself over into the Torah. Or as the Medrash says, Hashem says, "Macharti li chem Torati." "I sold you my Torah." You know what happened when I sold them my Torah? And then "Macharti imi." I got sold with it. Not only I sold you my Torah, I sold you myself. So in other words, the first thing that happened at Mount Sinai was Hashem himself put himself in the Torah. That means Hashem himself is with us. So the Torah, what happened at Matan Torah from Hashem's perspective? Up until Matan Torah, Hashem it was chochmas Hashem. It was a the intellect of Hashem, the wisdom of Hashem. The patriarchs learned Torah, the wisdom of Hashem. Matan Torah it's Hashem himself. That's in terms of the first component. There's a second thing that happened at Matan Torah. We Bnei Yisrael became the recipients of the Torah. What happened when we became the recipients of the Torah? So Hashem said, "I'm giving you the Torah, and now you're to learn the Torah, and you're to decide with your physical intellect. You're supposed to learn the Torah, comprehend the Torah, and you're supposed to come up with rulings that apply in your life." And that's where we have the whole idea of a rabbi and a Beis Din to come up with rulings that we have to know what Hashem really wants. Hashem gave us that power. And we all know the Talmud has many, many stories where two rabbis had a fight, and they wanted to bring in heavenly voices to show they're right. And the answer was, "No, ein mashgichin b'shmaya. You can't use any heavenly, spiritually voices." What does it say in the Torah? How do you comprehend it? You have to prove it logically. Because Hashem wants us to use our mind and become partners with Hashem in the Torah. Or as the famous line in the Torah, Hashem says in it, "Tzav et Bnei Yisrael." Hashem wants us to be successful and to to to learn Torah in a way that we understand it and we participate in its dissemination and applying it in our lives. So, that's the second component of Matan Torah. Hashem gave us the power that we could, God forbid, not change the Torah. The 613 commandments, you can't add, you can't subtract, but we can comprehend how it applies. A lot of things in the Torah we don't know how it applies today. So, we have to sit and study to figure out how it applies. But, God forbid not to add or take off from the Torah. That's not the power that Hashem gave us. He says clearly in the Torah, "Lo Tisifu, don't add." Or, "Lo Tigaru, don't take off." The 613, that stays and you can't add and you can't take off. But, how it applies in modern modern times, that's something which we could and we should do. So, that's the second that's the second component of Torah that happened. Hashem gave us the power and empowered us to learn the Torah and to comprehend the Torah and to transform our lives based on the Torah. And the third the third thing that that that happened in Matan Torah is that the there was a change in the Torah itself. In other words, when Hashem says, for example, in one in the 10 commandments, don't God forbid don't don't kill, don't steal, don't cheat. So, that's a commandment. It's a decree from Hashem, but also it's a promise. And it also affects the world in a real way, that the world should follow the Torah. So, the world becomes a Torah place. Cuz the Torah could be abstract ideas. The power of Torah is that it became real. And therefore therefore, after the Torah was given, when we sit down and we learn Torah, so we learn, for example, this is kosher. This is not kosher. This you have to give tithing. This you don't have to give tithing. Whatever the rules that we're learning, we're literally taking the world as we know it. The world is mixed up with kedusha holiness and clipot and we're separating. We're saying this is godly energy. This is not necessarily This This is not godly energy. This is in in between. Sometimes we're able to elevate and sometimes not. So, the Torah itself was given in a way that we're able to transform and and and and transform and elevate the world world by learning Torah. Or for example, by doing a mitzvah. Cuz what happens when you do a mitzvah, take for example, you have a piece of hide. A piece of hide is a piece of hide. It's neutral. But what happens if you bring it to a scribe and he works it out and he writes a mezuzah or a tefillin, that becomes a holy object. And we all know that once you make a mezuzah out of something, even if it becomes disqualified, let's say some ink came off, you can't just throw it in the garbage. You have to bury it. So, there's three components that happened in Matan Torah. One is Hashem himself got invested in the Torah. Number two is that we have the power to to to learn and to teach and to apply the Torah. And the three, that the Torah has the power to change the world in a big way. And based on this, the Rebbe explains, we all know the the from from King Solomon, this famous book called The Song of Songs. So, in the beginning of the book Song of Songs, there's a verse there that says like this, "L'reiach shmanacha tovim shemen turak shmecha." Which means that there's the concept of reiach, of fragrance. We refer to the song of We praise the Torah as a fragrance. And then we we talked about the Torah the way it's shemen, that it's oil. So, in other words, the explaining in Chassidus, the Rebbe explains it here, that reiach is represents the way the avos, the patriarchs and the matriarchs observed the Torah till the Torah was given was like fragrance. And once we received the Torah, it goes under the category what of shamin of oil. In other words, like this. So, take for example, we spoke about three ideas. We'll work backwards a little bit. The last idea we spoke about that there's the difference of Torah before God gave us the Torah at Mount Sinai, the way the patriarchs observed the Torah, and then there's the Torah after Mount Sinai, the way we keep it now after God gave us the Torah. What's the difference? Before God gave us the Torah, so it's called a We said before that the patriarchs is like a reah, a fragrance. After Matan Torah, it's like shamin. And we're going to see three different components to that way it relates to the Torah, the Jewish people, and Hashem. So, before Matan Torah, when they study Torah, it was like it was it was like reah. Meaning to say is it didn't really affect the real world in a physical way. They studied them. All right, next thing. They did a mitzvah, and next thing. For example, they can put on tefillin, and afterwards the tefillin you can dispose in the garbage. It didn't permeate into the into it. However, what happened with with with after the Torah was given, the Torah becomes um permeated in the world. And for example, if you do a physical mitzvah, you it adapts the holiness like shamin. So, in other words, reah is just a fragrance. Shamin is the essence itself. So, the Torah the Torah reference to the Torah before the Torah was given, it's just a fragrance. Meaning it doesn't penetrate into the world. Whereas after the Torah is given, it actually affects the world in a real way. That is one example of the idea between fragrance and shamin in relation to the Torah. But then you have the second idea of fragrance and oil in reference to the Jewish people. What's the difference? In other words, when you have a reah, when you smell, let's say a scent, it doesn't take away from its original place. This the the the oil stays there, and you scented it very nice. What happens when you take the oil and you put it into another bottle. It's not in the first place. So, before Martin Torah Before Martin Torah, when the when when when when when the when the patriarchs learned Torah, there was Hashem. It was down here. They couldn't affect anything in the world. What happens after It was like a fragrance. After Martin Torah, the Torah left the heaven and it came down here. Heaven doesn't have any more power over the Torah. And it was to learn and to and to to adapt the rules. If you want to know what the halakha is in this world, you can't say, "Oh, let me go ask in heaven. Let me go ask you know, with the the spirits." No, it was handed over to this world. Just like shemen, it doesn't exist there. It exists here. So, the Torah doesn't exist in a high I mean, it exists in a higher level, but not in terms of being able to adapt and understand it in a real way. Only It only happens down here. That's the second idea of reakh and shemen in reference to all to benei Yisrael. The third idea is that in reference to Hashem. In other words, like this. When you take a something and you and you and you sniff it, you have an aroma. What happens after all with the aroma? If you stop sniffing it, it goes away. However, what happens you take shemen and you put it on you? It's going to stay with you. It doesn't go away. In other words, like this. Before Martin Torah, you can the the Hashem was not permeating into the world. They smelled Hashem. They had a relationship with Hashem. It felt good. It felt great. But, Hashem was not transforming into the world in a real way. After Martin Torah, we have Hashem himself in this world. So, we learn Torah and we do a mitzvah, what happens Hashem becomes part of us in this world. So, you see the way the three levels of Hashem, the way he comes in this world and the Torah, the way it changes the world and the way we have the power is all connected to the interesting midrash about the difference between oil and the fragrance of the way it's the way the way it's brought down. in in in Shir Hashirim. But now we're going to go into a deeper understanding of these three levels of Hashem, the Torah, and the Bnei Yisrael what happened in Matan Torah. So what happens like this. When God gave us the Torah, so what did Hashem say? Anochi Hashem Elokecha. That means and we said before Anochi Anochi Hashem Elokecha which means Hashem not Chochma of Hashem, not the light of Hashem, the Atzmus of Hashem was drawn down into this world. The essence of Hashem. And that relates to not only the essence of Hashem is drawn down to the world, but the essence of Hashem is actually in the Torah and in Bnei Yisrael. In other words, like this. Let's start with Hashem first. Anochi Hashem Elokecha. Means they means they is what part of Hashem? Not Hashem Elokecha, Anochi the essence, the Atzmus of Hashem came down to this world. Now, Torah, in order for it to make an impact in the world, you bring Torah into the world. Is Torah impacting the world? It's a book, rules. How does it impact the world? Because in the Torah, it's not just the Torah of Hashem, the Chochma of Hashem, the Atzmus, the essence of Hashem is in the Torah. Now, since the essence of Hashem in the Torah is in the Torah, and what's the essence of the world? Also Hashem. The world that we see is called Olam. Olam means concealment. But what's behind the concealment? Hashem. But the essence of Hashem is in the world. We don't see it. We see concealment. The essence of the Torah is Hashem. So when you learn Torah, the essence of Hashem in the world, you actually have the power to transform the world because the essence of Hashem is in the Torah, that essence in the world and you're able to transform the world. How do we go about doing that? Because Hashem gave us the power through Torah that when we learn Torah, we reveal our essence, which our essence is a part of Hashem, and that's why Hashem says "Nochi Hashem Elokecha." We What do we have within us? As we mentioned already before, Yud Kay Vav Kay is within us. And it not only the reveal the the revealed part of Hashem, the concealed part, the essence of Hashem is within us. And not only that, the Rebbe says that it's possible that the essence of Hashem that's revealed within us is maybe higher than the essence of Hashem that's revealed in the Torah. So, to tie it all together, the essence of Hashem comes down to this world. The essence of Hashem is in the Torah. The essence of Hashem is within us. So, when you take all these three that have the essence of Hashem, means that you have us. When we come to the table with our essence, we're not distracted with with externalities, and we learn Torah. Torah is Hashem that the essence of Hashem is in there. What do we do? We reveal the essence of Hashem himself, and that causes the greatest powerful change in the world. Now, has a change has a cause it How How does it cause How does How do How do we create that environment? What do we just learn? When we sit down, we, our essence, comes to the table, and we take out the essence of the Torah, and we reveal the essence of Hashem, we change the world in a very powerful way. So, how do we go about doing that? And the Rebbe says the key to changing the world by learning Torah and doing mitzvot is obviously by connecting to the essence, but how do you connect to the essence? And here's the key. I'll say it in Hebrew and I'll translate. It's called bitul. When a person is able to put himself, the self part, out of the way, we will draw down the essence of Hashem in everything that we're doing. Now, the Rebbe says that the fact is, one second, we all know that the patriarchs also had had bittul, had humility. So, how come they weren't able to draw down the essence of Hashem? And the Rebbe explains very, very simple. Cuz it's true, the patriarchs had bittul. And we all know Abraham's famous statement. What did Abraham say? "Va'anohi afar va'efer." "I am but dust and ashes. I'm nobody." Which is true, a very high level of humility. But because he's a human being, so what kind of level of of humility can he reach to? Wherever wherever a human can reach. And therefore, when he said "Va'anohi afar va'efer." So, he said "I'm like dust and ashes." But is dust and ashes a something? A hundred times a something. It's obviously it's a very, very low level it's a very level of it's a high level of humility, but afar is still something. There's still something that exists. He didn't say "I'm not here." Va'anohi, I am afar I'm something. Close to nothing. A tree, take a big tree, you burn it down, but you still have something. However, when we learn Torah, it's not va'anohi afar va'efer. We're connecting to the essence of Hashem. Or for example, as the Rebbe used the term, like Moshe Rabbenu said. What did Moshe Rabbenu say? Moshe Rabbenu said "Venachnu we are ma." Ma means nothing. Now, how do you get to the level of venachnu ma? What's our connection to venachnu ma? So, the Rebbe explains that um ma is if you count the the ma's made up of two letters. Mem is 40 and hey is five. Mem and hey is five 40 so it's 45. Now, what did Hashem say when he gave us the Torah? "Anohi Hashem Elokecha." "I am God your God. Now, Yud Key Vov Key is made up of Yud, which is 10, Hey, which is five, Vov, which is six, and Hey, which is another five, which is total of 26. But we already mentioned before, there's something which is called a Milui, where every letter is filled out. Now, there is different ways you can fill out a letter. There's a letter you can fill out with an Aleph, you can fill it out with a Hey, with a Yud, and so on and so forth. But we're going to take what's the smallest letter? What's the most humble letter? Which represents Hashem? Aleph. So if you take Yud, Hey Vov Hey, and wherever we can fill it out, we're going to use an Aleph as a Milui, let's watch and see what number we get to. So Yud is one way to spell fill it out. There's Yud is 10, Vov is six, and Dalet is four. So the letter Yud, 10, six, four, you have 20. Now, Hey, before we filled it out with a Hey, but we're using now a lower number cuz you want to have humility. We're going to use one. So Hey and Aleph is how much? Is five and one is six. So we have a 20 and we have a six. Vov, if you fill it out, so it's Vov is six, and we're going to put a Aleph, and we're going to put a Vov. So six six is 12, and Aleph is one is 13. So we have 20, we have six, and we have 13. And then we have the last Hey, which we're going to fill out with an Aleph also. So we have Hey and Aleph is six. So let's take the numbers. 20, six, 13, and six. What do we get? We get 45. So the Yud Key Vov Key, Anokhi Hashem, Yud Key Vov Key with the Aleph is 45. So when you listen to the 10 Commandments when Hashem says, "Anochi Hashem." And we connect to what? To the Yud Kay Vav Kay. The way it's filled out with an olive, you have ma, you have bittle. And when you have bittle, when you have humility, then you're able to connect to the atzmus, the essence of Hashem, and then your essence comes out, and then the essence of the Torah comes out, and then you can go ahead and transform and change the world. So again, here's key. Because the key to bring out atzmus within yourself is by being bottle, by being humbled. The key The key to connecting to Hashem, to the atzmus, is also by being humble. And to connect to the atzmus of the Torah, you need to have the humility. So we need not the humility of Abraham, "Anochi afar va'efer." We need the ability of Moshe Rabbeinu, "V'anachnu mah." How How do we get to mah? By the Yud Kay Vav Kay with the olive, which is the first letter. So just think of it of as an olive, as it's number one, sticking it into the fact that Yud Kay Vav Kay, that's who we are, as we mentioned before, chachma, bina, emotions, and our yirah, our or our head, our body, our hands, and we fuse the olive within there, we'll experience humility. We'll experience humility, we'll bring out the atzmus of Hashem. And we learn Torah on that level, we'll be able to transform the world in a very, very powerful way. So the Rebbe continues on to say that these three revolutionary ideas, which is the way God revealed himself at Matan Torah, the way the Bnei Yisrael, and the Torah, that's all connected to atzmus. So we'll go through each one. What happened at Matan Torah? Hashem himself, the atzmus of Hashem, was revealed. And when the essence of Hashem is revealed, that means we What means revealed? We feel it. We feel Hashem that he We Who are we? We are Hashem. Hashem's energy causes us to live spiritually and physically, that causes us to be humbled. So, when we're humbled, then what do we do? When we learn Torah, Hashem responds. So, the the the fact that Hashem revealed himself totally that causes us to be humble, that's the first understanding of what? Of lamer that when we learn Torah on the level of humility, Hashem will learn with us. When the second understanding is that when the Bnei Yisrael reach the level where we're connected to the essence of Hashem, so we're able and we give rulings the way it's spoke in line with what Hashem wants, and Hashem says "I want you to want me." So, that's when Hashem repeats what we're saying. Why? Because Hashem is saying what we're saying. "I want you to want me." And then the third level is when um the idea that the Torah is the one that make has an impact in the world, that's the same idea where we say lamer that the 10 Commandments affects what? The 10 utterances. And here the Rebbe finishes off very, very powerfully and very beautifully and he says like this that this is what the meaning when the Talmud says a famous passage in the Talmud says as follows. Ain loch ben chorin ela me sh'oisif b'Torah. You want to be free? Means Free means physically free, spiritually free, emotionally free. You want to experience real chirus, real freedom? Learn Torah. The question is why? Why is Torah so powerful that when you're learning Torah, you feel free freedom? And the Rebbe says very simple, cuz what happens when you learn Torah? When you learn Torah, Hashem is learning with you. You're drawing down the godly light of Hashem. You're behaving in a way of bitter. You're connected to the actions of Hashem, which brings down powerful light into every part of yourself and every part into your world. So, what you're doing is you're changing the world. When you're really learning Torah the way you should learn Torah with all the proper meditations like we gave in this class, you are changing the world. Now, if you're busy changing the world, the world can't affect you. So, based on this Rebbe explains ain loch bon choyrin. You want to be free, be busy changing the world. If you're changing the world, the world can't have an effect on you. And that will give you the greatest freedom. And the Rebbe says, once you experience your freedom by learning Torah, will God willing achieve and merit the global freedom, which is the global redemption of Moshiach very soon in our times. So, this Chassidic discourse is one of the most beautiful Chassidic discourse, which should inspire us as we're getting ready to Shavuos to rededicate ourselves to learn Torah, not only to learn Torah God forbid as an academic, but to learn Torah that's Torahs Hashem, connected to the at the the atzmus of Hashem that's in the Torah, prepare us also in a way of bitter, come with a humility and realize that Hashem gave us the biggest gift, we'll all experience the greatest freedom every time we study Torah, Hashem will be with us whatever we do, and if Hashem is with us, we'll we'll have the greatest happiness and the greatest success in everything that we do. I want to wish you all we should have a Chag Shavuot, we should celebrate Shavuot b'simcha with real joy cuz there's no greater joy than being with Hashem, with pnimiyus, the Torah should be internalized within us and internalized in in the world, and as the Rebbe finished off, when we experience our freedom, God willing Hashem will give us the greatest freedom, we'll all merit the revelation and experiencing Messiah in our times right now.