Tisha B'av 2025/5785 - Rabbi Moshe Hauer

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He was the most often cited and said there's such a thing as of there's such a thing as a meeting a term hearkens that term but there's such a thing as a special day of coming and special day of The meeting with and the way that was when the coin and when people realize exactly where they stand. When illusions are shattered. When the imagination that all is well is pierced, penetrated and we come to the realization, hey, one second, we understand exactly exactly how far away we are. We sad we understand exactly exactly where we stand in the parliament of today. We could call it the shattering of the confessment. You know if you've heard of that terminology one which was used in Israel in in the secular in the vein of security thinking that All is well. All we need is whatever it is, a small smart army. Our our enemies are held at bay. They're going to be too afraid. And then suddenly suddenly something happens that shatters to realize that you're living with an illusion. But it's not at all. that it's not at all accurate or correct. The shattering of the concept of the way that you viewed it, it's difficult. It's shatter shattering not just of the concept. It's shattering of the self that has that concept. But then it it's a recognition of the understanding. Oh, now I know. Now I get it. Now I understand where we are. revolvable. You know this uh this essay is found in in the second section the second of the short where he writes about this but it's also if you just look a little bit you find that that this same idea essay more or less not Exactly. But the same concept was a talk which he gave in in on tishabove of 1978 and it was the launch of El and Tish of 1978. Raula didn't uh believe in a quick hit here. I'm going to tell you an idea fine think you know and dump it. Everything with him was a process of thinking of development of growth. Life itself was just a process of constant Islam of con he had an approach. Every he had a specific specific focus instead of spending the month with its many perhaps dozens of opportunities for teaching and learning and growth and talk about chuva instead of talking about different things. And we understand we understand that the way constructed the year and so writes Raa in this in one of these essays. The way constructed our year is that you know we came the second half of the year Pesak redemption and delivering us to hari to the highest point. And then we come after after shus 40 days after shuis we come to shivasamus and the lus are shattered. When the Jewish people turn away from Hashem, when we turned away from Hashem with the Ael and three weeks later, we read about what happened really a year and three weeks later with the Maraglin, the sin of the spies. Those two averos, those two failings together, the Hegel and the Moraglin, the two signal events that caused the Jewish people our fall and our fall away from. And today we sit on the ground with the ultimate sense of the ultimate sense of distance. If every morning by this time we have found ourselves wrapped in our fillin that fillin wrapped around ourselves describing the bond the betroal wrapped even men we wrap them even around our finger like a like like like a symbolism of the bond of a marriage. We do that every day. Today not today is distance and then we go through this day and we come and shabas seven weeks of comfort of consolation. Seven ha seven weeks that land us where they land us at rashashana. It's not that there's like an overlap. There wasn't enough room on the calendar. So we have seven weeks of consolation and they overlap with four weeks of ll leading up to rashana. It's a process and the way he framed this season in that year was okay tishabove we recognize the distance and what's the period of well we're going to read the haft this afternoon seek Hashem when he's accessible when he's available call out to him when he is close. There's no time when we are closer. When the closeness to Hashem is as tangible, when our when our prayers feel like they have a direct path like on rash, like and he framed the whole season as going from this dish above to that. And you can't get to the closeness if you don't first recognize the distance. If you don't recognize the distance said you know it's a famous messiah I say a person who comes to purify himself before Hashem we help him who helps person wants to purify themselves wants to come close to Hashem Hashem props him up. Hashem pushes him forward. Hashem helps us when we try, when we want to come close. We all get that. But also say a person who comes to impurify, a person who comes to fail, the door is opened for him. And we understand certainly that's way better than Hashem helping him go in that direction. But how do you even understand the how do we understand the loving God that opens the door that the tuma that the whatever the violation the failure that it should be open to us. Let us have to push the door open. Why does open the door for us to tuma to failure? And Roba said that sometimes the worst place for us in the world to be is to be failing without realizing it. To be failing without recognizing it. to be living in a conceptsia in a false illusion that it's really it's really pretty much okay. The greatest distance isn't the one who's fallen who's felt the thud of the rock bottom. The greatest is the doesn't even realize. The nation that doesn't even realize, that has a false sense that all is well. We're doing great. Look, our shoes are full. That's the hardest place to be. On Tishabove, we mourn. Tishabove, we remind ourselves we're in Gulos. Tishabove, we remind ourselves that with everything we have, with all of the quote unquote thriving, with all of the renaissance and redevelopment, rebirth and strengthening of all that the Jewish people have, of all that Kalisrael have, all that we have right here in the golus, we don't we Don't that false sense of being there, that false sense of security. It's very hard to mourn on Raulba acknowledged it. It's hard hard to mourn over a B mikdash that we never saw. It's hard sometimes, yes, to mourn when we see rebirth and strength and a thriving of the Jewish people. We need the moyade of confrontation. We need the mode of recognizing deeply what is missing, what we still lack. Puncture the illusion. So in what way what are we missing? What are we missing? Now we speak often in Jewish life aboutos. We look back on the great and the greatness of previous generations. We speak about generations of how we fallen. And kazal when our khazal expressed it they spoke of it in a very specific used a very specific terminology. They spoke about the hearts of the early ones. They were open as wide as the entrance to the ulam to the cavernous opening to the mikdash. later ones were like the normalsiz doorway of the the and our hearts are open kimole makkis like a pinhole they described the descent in terms of the lathe in terms of the heartba writes about this he writes about it again he's following in many ways in the pathway of the maharal who focused on this on the idea that the wisdom you know wisdom of studying things on paper studying mathematics and studying science and studying things out there of course advances over time and the drop in ours isn't just as Maral explained it isn't just because you know we're farther away from Senai so therefore our masura is clouded No, the difference is in the hearts of people. The room in the hearts of people for understanding, for focus, for really really recognizing what is what. To move from actions which are outside to a truly felt understanding which is inside. those who encountered Raulba. I did not have the privilege I I I saw him I heard Ashmuz part of a talk from him once. uh I was in Erit Israel decades ago and he used to give a talk in yeshiva cultra at the end of Shabas before Marav and I was in a completely different neighborhood and right after Shabas I ran uh so to speak and cut part of it but like many of us here I merited to learn from him from his swaren from his from his his outstanding outstanding written word. But to prepare for today, I I uh was given some time in conversation by people who who knew him. people who knew him, members of his family, members of uh the Lehman family who were so instrumental in saving his life and and allowing him to move forward and talid and students of his and everyone speaks about how authentic he was. You know that's a word which is like tired like nowadays how authentic he was. He was a person who didn't not that he was just you know clear in what he said. There was no notion of fooling himself. It was all about really really getting it. when he had his yeshiva in beerov for decades he would encourage the talidim the students he didn't like the fact that as a student in a in a in an out of town institution where everybody's living away from home so they're always with everybody they live in a dormatory with dozens of people and they eat in dining rooms with dozens of people and they sit in a basement with dozens of people and he urged the boys, the students that they should go on walks by themselves. So they should learn to be by themselves. They should learn themselves. they should think. He said once like a as a as a uh as a quip that he once sent a bakr to go out for a walk and he came back like shaken up and he said you know like Biryakov was a small town. There was there was a there was an insane asylum in the town and he said what happened? Did you did you bump into someone who maybe ran out from there? Gas prison said no. There was also a dog kennel where they raised and sold dogs. He said did a dog escape did you encounter that? Said no just wouldn't explain to him why he was shaken up and revolving about the person. He said what frightened him was he went for a walk and he met himself. He met himself. spent his whole life trying to avoid himself and he met himself. Part of that encounter, that moade, that puncturing of the sense of security is that we so often not only take comfort but define our identity by all kinds of things that we do, actions and and directions of which in a certain sense generally they're they look world. There are things that we could be uh be be proud of, but we have to look in ourselves. He has I I mentioned this just because it's so striking, such a striking thing in his which we'll talk about later. He goes through all of the so to speak uh shifts and compromises where we have tak of kazal where kazal made sort of uh they instituted certain things which seem to be you know like lowering the standard whether it's the pbull of schmita whether it's whether it's the fact that we tell people if a situation comes up they shouldn't do yum they should do khalita and he explained he pointed out that every one of those is because of something in the lathe of people the tyra worries that the person will like your heart shouldn't feel bad when you give to him because you're worried worried about the loan being cancelled. It was that battle that the Tyra that kazal almost to a certain degree said okay this is the sadoros and we have to some degree to compensate for that a person would have a mitzvah to assume his brother's marriage just to be there for the sake of his brother if he would be thinking anything about himself it doesn't work we can't we don't do that anymore you know if you missed the first you didn't think during the first is you're supposed to repeat the go back to the beginning and start again. But the says, well, now we don't do that because we think that people will likely not think properly the second time either. So, in a certain sense, there's a recognition that the heart is down, but we can't surrender to that recognition. And the whole avod of building and rebuilding of the making of the person is to try to some degree to overcome that the false sense comes from not not being aware of that. I heard from one of his talid I heard from one of his students. He said a uh a remarkable thing. I hear this from from uh from Ravenian Kokus. He said that you know Raoba would spend some time he he Raoba was very focused and we'll talk about it later on bringing people close to Tyra was a an immense passion of his and he was once talking to a a student in one of the yeshivas in varim yeshiva for people who had returned to Yiddishkite and the student said to him he says I don't understand. I put on fillain every day. For me, I'm like, I'm so excited about it. It's like, wow, it's fillain. And I put it on with such excitement. And I look around and I see people like from people who have been doing this all their life and they're like they're just they're just doing it. And Raoba said to him, you were a shba, you were like a child who was captive amongst the nations. Right? You know that term. It's a term which is found in the Gmorrah to explain that there could be somebody who years of aus are all just one failure because they just they didn't know. They were raised without knowledge with ignorance. So you came from not being you were captive amongst against amongst the um amongst the nations. You had no knowledge. It says they are leitzada. They are youth who were taken captive amongst habit performance of mitzvah. Right? The Nvi decries that your fear of me was just habitual habitual behavior. And he says they're trapped in habit. You broke habits. So you're alive and you're awake. They are trapped in the ritual. They are trapped in just the regular and doing it over and over again. such a concise and powerful formulation of where the heart is gone and in that funk of of business as usual. So there is the greatest remoteness. He said we don't make it that the person just makes little mistakes. If they make little mistakes they may never wake up. They may be in that false conceptsia will open the way that the person heaven forbid could have a terrible fall and from the terrible fall they will wake up from the thud when they hit the bottom and then we will be aware and then we will recognize and that's one piece of the awareness of tishov The second and the one which will lead us in to the first ka which was actually the one kina that Raoba focused on in that in his writing is the one which has as the refrain the word po here. What does Akaresh Baru have here down here? His Rebi Ravim had a a uh a saying which he always repeated as he was busy creating Talmid students who were so serious and so reflective and striving to become great Torah scholars and striving to davin with authenticity and to grow themselves in their midos. He always said to them, just don't try to climb up to heaven. Don't try to climb and make yourselves up to heaven. You have to be way we would say it down to earth. You have to realize that we're living in a world and in that world your that Torah of yours has to be reflected. We know it. Of course, we know that Mosh Rabain went up to heaven and the Malim said, "Why are you giving the Torah to him?" And the answer was because we have to give the Torah to people who are down on this earth. Ravula said it when he spoke about what a human needs to be. What's an adam? We'll see. That was for him that was the the definition of success for a person to realize what Adam is supposed to be. And he spoke at length and in varied ways about Adam. One of the ways which he did was pointing to the Gmorra where the Gmorrah says two things about where a person is not quite an Adam and one is where the person is alone and the second is where the person has no ka has no property has no real estate and regarding the first he said because a human being isn't created ated for themselves. You're not a human if it's just you. You're not a human if in your sphere of who you see and what you notice and how you live and what you live for, it's just about your growth. You're becoming a bigger scholar. You're becoming a better der. You are becoming you have to be living with an awareness of others who gives as the charge and the ideal and we dav and we dav in sincerely that everyone should have the opportunity to live this ideal of not living alone of being with someone so that life could be defined around not myself but around being there for that other person. And whether we are amongst those who merit to have that someone in our home with us or not, we all have the opportunity to live with others in mind. Others who need our hand, others who need our friendship, others who need whatever great gift and skill brought us in the world, others who need simply our smile and our strength. That's one piece of what it means to be an Adam. And another and together with that, it's really that and the same is that you have to be grounded. An adam is not a mala. If you're levitating, if you're up in the clouds, then you're an angel. You're not a human being. A human being is to be down here and recognizing. I want to tell you something which I heard from a student of his who who shared this with me privately. He gave me permission to tell the story without any identifier. This student of his arrived in Raoba yeshiva in Rashkuresh in the 60s. He came from Europe like many Telmid came at that time from Western Europe and on the 17th of Eleno his father died back home. I did I didn't ask him if it was sudden if it was expected. He was he went to yeshiva two and a half weeks later his father died and he went back home of course he went back home for the funeral he went back home for the shiva and he was he stayed home for rashashana and yum kipper and sukus and after sukus he came back to the yeshiva and the first Friday afterwards ravulba said I'm inviting you to come eat with us eat with with with with with with my family on Friday night which was unusual for like a very new student. But obviously Ravula recognized what this person had just become orphaned and he said I was walking with Ravula from the yeshiva to his home and he said to me how do what do they call you? So he said and I'll I'll change the name. He said I'm so he said I know your name. I want to know what does your what does your family call you? What they call you at home? How do they refer to you? And uh you know the boy you know like flushed a little bit. He said, "Johnny." They said, "Okay." Okay. Johnny. This man had a relationship with Raoba for 40 years, 50 years. He became himself a very significant, a very significant teacher of Tyra. This till the very end always called him Johnny. because he needed a family. That's what you call not being in the heavens. That's what you call being right here and noticing. It was one of the things and again we will come to this over and over again that Ravula admired so incredibly about Ravi and he described it as one of his great paradoxes. A person who was copedic, a person who was so intensely thoughtful, a thinking person, deep, profound. He describes in his biography of Ravim, this for him was like the ultimate picture. Ruram was giving a talk to the brim in the mirror and was again he was deep, he was captivating, he was charismatic. The Brim were gathered around and listening and he was taking them through in this thing of this intensity. And in the middle of the talk, he stopped and he said to a certain boy, "You look very pale. You need to go out and get some fresh air." Now, it's very hard when somebody's speaking to a group of people and certainly when somebody's trying to build something very very thoughtful to actually be noticing that somebody, you know, what somebody is other than like noticing somebody nodding or noticing somebody sleeping. It's very hard to notice if somebody's like like that. That's that was that was what Rol said he was. He was in the heavens and he was on earth. He was aware profoundly profoundly aware of everyone around him. So what does that have to do with this sided? What we grieve about on tishabove is that with whatever we might think that we have of the of Torah of success, whatever we think we have of that, it's not down here. The migdash represents when it's down here. The migdash represents poor said, "I'm coming down to live amongst you to be able to see on this earth that Hashem dwells amongst the Jewish people." And when you see that Hashem dwells amongst the Jewish people, that means everything which is Hashem, everything which is God, everything which is godly, it's all there in the Jewish people, amongst the Jewish people. It's visible in us. His presence is visible and tangible within us. But it's Tishabove. And on tishab we recognize that that spot that piece of real estate we have carved out for to dwell within us he's not there now. It's not occupied by us. It's not occupied by a building that we constructed for hashemisak. And that means that to some degree wherever we are there's a certain level of abstraction. We haven't succeeded in making visible on this earth. We say this in a time When to our anguish and to our humiliation to our humiliation, the respect that is there for the Jewish people right Now that dominates is wow. Do you see what they did in Iran? Do you see the power, the might, the ability to beat back the enemy, the strategy, beepers, all of that stuff. For that we are admired. Maybe grudgingly, maybe, maybe not. But we have failed to be able to be seen as the nation that should show what godliness is. And of course, it's a smear campaign. And we can look and say hypoc hypocrisy. They deny us of the right to defend ourselves. And that's all all correct. And there are false narratives about what's being done and what's not being done. But at the same time, at the same time, what are we left with? We have to ask ourselves if you and I were not sitting here in this room. If we were a Jew from birth and we were from someplace out west and we weren't so hard we were hardly connected to Judaism and to Yiddish, what chance would we have of wanting to become connected to Judaism and Yiddish? right? In these things, you know, PR matters. What it looks like matters. That's part of what the Mishna means in Pavas. When it says when it comes to something which which seems to create an absence of Hashem around us, an absence of godliness, it doesn't matter whether we meant it or we didn't mean it, whether it's true, whether it's not true, doesn't matter. In the end, the result is that we're not in a position to attract. And that's You're not po You're not here. Again, we can claim innocence. I don't blame at all. People sometimes get upset at me. You know, you know, you're you you're repeating the the Israelis talking points and things like that and you so like we we've we've we've we've dug a lot deeper than you know than that. the em the truth is still and at the same time number one on those fronts we're still not perfect and number two we're obviously not perfect if has allowed us to be associated with something that casts such a pi pi pi That's the kina here. We need you here. We need you visibly here. You have to be the presence of Hashem has to be so noticeable amongst the Jewish people. When Schllay built the B mikdash, it wasn't just a vision that there was going to be this magnificent shul this magnificent thing come out of the we're going to have this magnificent place on Arabas which is going to where all the Jews are going to converge. It was that place was the place which would be recognized as the pinnacle of spirit where comes and rests. The whole world will direct its prayers there because it's the place of the place of the Jewish people. Hashem is with the Jewish people po amongst us. That was his cry. So we'll go to rash. We'll go to yam kipper. We'll go to el. We'll say you know I want to work on this. I want to fix that. I want to do a little bit of tweaking here. I want to do a little bit of twe tweaking there. We would suggest in the way of ravulba. Don't start with that. Start on the floor. Start on the rock bottom. Start recognizing that we don't have a ba mikdash. Raasher Weiss was stood here eight days ago and he pointed out to us any generation that the Bikdash is not that it's not built in its time. Right? How does it finish? He asked. And everybody finished it. It was as if it was destroyed in their time. And he said, "It's incorrect." And by the way, I really checked nowhere. It says, everybody quotes it in in in dozens of that is quoted. It's as if it was destroyed in their time. But the what any says is it's as if they destroyed it. It's as if the generation destroyed it. That's a very sobering statement. It's not passive. It's active. It's rock bottom. It's rock bottom. Whatever successes and miracles has blessed us with from last tishabove to this tishabove. Those miracles have been miracles that have done wonders, it would seem, for the physical safety, for the strategic position of the Jewish people. When it comes to the spiritual position of the Jewish people, it's hard to see that that progress is reflected. If anything, it's been a setback. We're going to say with the the first three kinus that we're going to say we're going to say in sequence and each one of them is going to focus around this. The first one is going to be kinyud bay which has that focus of po. The second one is going to be one which is found much later in the book of Kinos. We'll we'll we'll remind of the page right before where we describe the glory we had when we left Mitsim and then we had to unfortunately have the opposite the opposite when we left. Raobula noted and said that the miracle of Mitim, the magnificence of Mitraim was expressed in as we say in the Shiriam that we should come to be able to build the mikdash to lock in the miracles of the greatness to have Hashem's presence amongst us and then but instead we have this day of tishabove the same day of the week as Pes the same day of mit which was a Sunday this year of course is a Sunday and the last which we'll do in the series is which is hopefully the direct confrontation where we say you are justified in what you have done we confront moed of it's good to wake up it's Good to realize to puncture the conceptsia and to realize indeed the failure the mistakes where we are where we have made the first one is going to be kin bay in the Quran on page 301 again it's the 12th kina in virtually all editions of the kinos in the Quran page 301 and the art scroll page 188 this is the one with the refrain of pop we need aes Good to be here. [Music] forto. Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Foreign speech. foreign speech. [Music] We foreign. [Music] We pray forchech. Turn to page kina 31. In the Quran, it's on page 515. the art school. It's page 304 again in virtually all editions. It's kina number 31. The presence of hashem which was with us when we left and the presence of hashem which we lost when we left. mechan Hell no. [Applause] I'll race me. destroy me. for mech. Fore! Foreign! Foreign! [Applause] foreign speech. We of sign [Music] We'll now go back to the to the acceptance of responsibility 19. Hashem, you are worthy. You are the righteous one. It is we who are ashamed. It can be found in the Quran on page 393 and in the art scroll on page 240. And again this is our moy of to not imagine everything is okay to to be ashamed to recognize to recognize that we've fallen so far from that we don't have he is not where we are we are not where he is to be anom you have to have ka you have to bring hashem down to this earth. We have failed to do so. [Applause] Fore! Foreign! Foreign! foreign speech. Fore speech. for The overall title which which we gave for today's discussion of the kin was vishakanti bum is a phrase that you're familiar with from parasuma where after the Jewish people received the Torah after we accepted the Torah Hashem said okay so now I want to live amongst Build for me in the in the metaphor of the medish. Build for me an in-law apartment. I want to live with you. Build for me a home amongst you. And they shall make for me a mdashi. And I will dwell in their midst. Note that it doesn't say and I will dwell in it, but it says I will dwell in them. And they said that real the real residence for Boru is not in the building. The real residence for is in each and every person. So I would like to share with you as you know in the previous ka we talked about your shalahim and the ba mikdash and what its loss represents using the teachings and the insights of rabul. We want now to start teaching you about him directly. And the reason why we do it as we do every year with such a person is because it would be insufficient for us to travel this journey from Tishab to Yum Kipper to reconstruction to Chuva if we didn't talk about what we were supposed to be and what we are supposed to be doing differently. We mourn over and we recognize that the migdash was destroyed because the was already because its home within us was already destroyed before the Romans laid a finger on it. I've shared with you many times on tishabove and I will share with you again today what wrote in peragalid of the first section of the nephe where he writes about a person never underestimating their importance their capacity their power that's the fundamental thesis of the nephah one which Raoba took and ran with in his way following following the altar of Slabka following others who did. But they said remember a human being is created but felim in the image of God and God is almighty. God is all powerful. God makes the world. And when Hashem created man in his image, that means a man, every person, every human being is powerful, is impactful. And a person should recognize that everything from their actions to their words to their thoughts make the world of difference. And this writes, "A wise person who understands this properly, his heart will tremble when he realizes that his actions that aren't good. How far they go to destroy to uproot with way more than what and tus the destroyers of the first and second B mikdash what they did didn't do any damage in the heavenly spheres they have no impact there they don't reach there they couldn't touch that it was us through our faith failings that it was weakened so to speak the strength of Hashem and his presence here. It was we who violated the purity of the migdash the upper mikdash and therefore and tus had the power to destroy the migdash down here. As the kazal sayim, you ground up already ground up flour. And the goes on and he says the main place, the main residence, the main mdash where Hashem's presence rests is inside the personal as your mi said, it is they who are the hall, the the the place of Hashem. And as they said, it's not in it in the building, but it's in them that I will dwell. And he writes as well, as I've shown you today, the structure of the Mishk and its so you should do. And say that means for generations suggests don't think that what I was really after was that building that external visible building everything that I wanted in building the building and its various elements. ments, its various furnishings and utensils. It was just a hint to you. You should see this and you should model yourselves after it. You in your actions, you should see yourselves as building a Mishkan, building a place where Hashem resides with all of its beautiful furnishings, all sacred, worthy to have the presence of Hashem in their midst. Mamesh. Literally, we are here on this earth to beam a human being in the image of God. Not a human being who does a whole number of things, good things, who avoids a whole number of bad things. We're not people with lists of things to do. As you know, as Kazal said, they described the 365 prohibitions of the Tyra and the 248 mitzvah as corresponding to the limbs and the senus, right? The reverse, the mitzvah say, the limbs of the body, the senus that tie them together. Why? The sweet way to remember it. No, because what the mitzvah are, what we do and what we avoid is to create a great structure, a human being. It's not to accomplish things. It's to create something. And that something is the mikdash that's supposed to be the human being, the the person, the whole person, the integrated person. If I may, so to speak, jump to the end. Ravula, I believe this was the last safer that he wrote. It's called hamitzv. Hashk. What does it mean? Hamitzvashk. The mitzvah that are equal. What does it mean? It's shorthand. You know kazal our kazal taught us about certain mitzvah that this mitzvah is equal to the entirety of the tyra. They have it based on certain hints. Okay, easy one. Someone who serves a zora it's as if they violated the entirety of the tyra. The observance of shabas is equal to all of the tyra. You'll see your titsis. You remember all of the mitzvah of Hashem says is like all of the living init like all of the there are seven such mitzvah there are so for years of Raoba's life we're talking about like from like from 80 and on he focused on this this kazal and he wanted to understand what it meant. And he developed a thesis about how these seven mitzvah encapsulate the totality of what a person is supposed to be and their role in the world. and he wrote it and then he continued and he he thought about this he thought about this thesis and wanted to implement it because it's what a pro supposed to be. He thought about it thought about it every morning. Every morning as part of his seda was to think about the mitzvah school. And then he said, you know what? Maybe it's a different approach. Maybe there's a different way to see these seven mitzvah. And he redid the thesis. So this edition which which I have which is the one which is uh was p published after he passed away has in it version one and version two. And I want to I don't want to read to you at this moment from the safer. I'll share with you something from it later. But I want to read to you what his one of his last rebellion rabba was proud that he always had a rebi last he should live and be well. may have shunnus and David who was at least 20 years his junior he was the student he was the son-in-law of Rahutner who was a rebi as well of Ravulba and when Rahutner passed away and Yianus and David took over Rahut Ravula learned with him every week like he learned with Rahutner every week and every time he said a mimer he gave a speech he was there in the front row like a student listening and hanging on to every word. And when he wrote the safer, he asked Roenus and David to write a on the safer and he writes to the glorious honor of of the elder of the educators of generations of students of Yeshivos. and of the veterans of those who do good for the community. May he bear blessing from the hands of Hashem. I received your joyous message the the message which brings joy that you are about to produce your safer mitzvah. I know you worked on it a lot in this last period and you held it with you for some time in the future and now you decided to publish it. You asked me to come with a letter of blessing. I can't refuse a great per person like you. And because I care for you and hold you so precious, I answer with every expression of love and I want to write what's in my heart. Our sage is taught that as they age their minds become more settled. Not more confused but more settled. You who you had the privilege to go through many periods of life bringing and uplifting bringing good and uplifting the community educating and guiding generations for Torah and faith through your talks and your books. Now you wanted to chart a course to understand this suga this issue of the mitzvah which are corresponding to all the mitzvah because everyone knows that having principles the benefit of having principles is known because in principles all of the details come together in a unified picture that is really an expression question of what's we say when they get older their minds settle. What how how do our minds settle? He says when we go from thinking about doing this thing and doing that thing and doing the other thing to try to understand what it's all about to see it as part of a single integrated picture of where we want to be and that's what you've chosen now as you've aged you want to zero in on it like hill that is a clut Like the Gomorrah says at the end of Makos, how each of the generations of Naveim drill down the Torah to principles to fewer and fewer principles till said the many details that come out from a single principle in the end come back to that whole to that principle and they make for the full picture. And so is the story of the lives of Torah scholars. As they get older, they merit greater clarity of the whole picture. Your world you see in your lifetime. You have a chance to see what it's all about. May his life, his days and his years continue with pleasantness. May his fountains bless and spread outside. Many may many benefit from his light with greater greater uplift and greater strength. with admiration and appreciation that uh picture that was the framework of to make a person a great person. I as a general, you know, there's always has to be like some kind of a takeaway. Anyone who has the ability to read for him in Hebrew should read these for him. You could start, so to speak, with the small ones, with the easy ones. You could start with Adam Bakaram. Ravula's writing was exquisite was stunningly stunningly beautiful. He you know a picture is worth a thousand words. When he wrote his words he drew a picture. He didn't just say things. It was all there to draw a picture. And he did it beautifully. His his Hebrew was beautiful. Was magnificent. I heard actually from Rabbi Kokus that he told me that that Ra that after Rabbi Kokus was already back in America, Rav Rav Volula came to America uh in the summertime and he went to Rahutner to the mountains to hear him and to Camp Morris where he was in the summer and Rafner gave a mimmar perhaps Lodo and uh he came back and he said you know Rav Hutner is so outstanding he's able to give over in his words when he speaks like everything the fullness of what he's trying to convey says I can't do that I can't do it when I speak he said I can't do it I can only try to do that when I when I write and his writing is indeed just it's it's magnificent And it draws pictures. It draws pictures. It's not pieces. It draws pictures with many many elements that are there within it. And one of them is again this which is a little book very small cafer very small thin safer. This is it. Um that he wrote about Ravi. He wrote about his rebi and the name of the the title of it is which is a phrase from when we speak about man in his glory what a person is supposed to look like. Raulba himself. Let's tell you just a little bit some quick points of the picture of the story of who this man was and what it meant to him so you can understand what this what this meant to him. Ravoba was born in Berlin in 1914. As a as a parenthetical note, he was born in Sivan. He was he believed he writes about this letter that he was that he had the same birthday asshamo hers and he considered that to be uh meaningful Bengilo you know from many years here about the incredible impact that had on many of the formative personalities which are the result of why we're sitting here today of all sides and Ravula was one of them as you will see who was born in Berlin. His father was was an academic, a very accomplished academic, wrote many many books, spoke many many languages and was a very liberal Berlin. He wasn't a religious he wasn't a religious observant person. Um, a religiously observant person. uh his mother was the grandchild of a uh of a from of a rabbitic family, a Kasha rabbitic family. Uh but she was herself limited in her observance. She was married to to her husband who wasn't observant at all. But she had a real gaffil. She had a real sensitivity and appreciation for tyro mitzvah. Ra re ravulba. Uh I heard this I actually heard not live but I heard on a recording when he was speaking to give guidance to parents as he often you know that was one of his things one of the most widespread teachings of Raoba or his teachings on parenting. And one of the things he said was of course that parents need to behind all these clever tricks and methodologies and pedagogies parents have to pray for their children. They have to daven for their children. And he said he believes that his mother didn't dav for him less than 10 times a day. Okay, that was his that was his mother. And in fact sh Alish shure is gamatrio his mother's name. That's why he he credited his mother uh very very significantly with who he became. Um his mother brought him to a local rabbi Rafaim Cohen who Raoba referred to as Rabi Amuakuna. Rafim Cohen was someone who the whole family could accept because he was he was a a German Rav. He was academically educated. He garnered the respect of his father even if his father wouldn't have invested much in sending him to study with him but he accepted that he should go to study with him and um Ravoba became very attached to Yadus to Judaism at a very young age he went to regular school he went to school on chabas uh at a certain point he didn't write on chabas but he still had to go to school on chabas and after school Rafaim Cohen had a group for kids like a youth group and a youth congregation and they would dav in and one of the boys would speak to the rest and by the time of Schlimova was 12 years old he was the rabbi of the minion right he was he was teaching Tyra every every chabas he was the one who was who was speaking to them uh he was very bright very very bright uh man um and uh and was a a very young student in the University of Berlin. Uh later he um while in Berlin he he spent some time at the Hildeshimmer Seminary which was there in yeshiva. When he was about 18 or 19 years old he went to Frankfurt by the recommendation of his rebi he went to Frankfurt where there was the yeshiva that had been established by Ravuer. Right? that was the seat of Rav Shamshin Rafh and Rav Schlim Ber we talked about him once uh had had established was a student in the pressburg yeshiva the southern law of Rahers he was a student in the yeshiva of Presburg of theam cipher and he came back and he established the yeshiva in Frankfurt which was to a significant degree modeled after the yeshiva in Presburg but in the Frankfurt domain when he was there his rashisha was Ravi Brier who later came to Washington Heights And you know as always there there we we could spend 30 hours here uh you know talking about many things there's going to be a lot which is going to be left on the table but one one of the beautiful essays which we actually cited here the year we talked about Ravier was Ravulba's appreciation he wrote he wrote an essay in appreciation of Ravuer who he also considered to be his rebi and at some point he moved on to to a yeshiva in Montre the yeshiva ravotko in mantra in Switzerland. It was felt that that would be a good step for him. It was also sort of like a western yeshiva was western Europe and it was was influenced by that and while he was there there was a yid whose name was Haravdavid bodnik. Ravit bodnik was a rebi in the nardic yeshiva which was one of the schools of muser as you've heard one of the schools of muser in Europe and he came to Montura apparently for health reasons and when he was there in the yeshiva he gave two talks and it was the first time that ravulba heard a muser tak and he was spellbound and there was a young man who was there who was there for health reasons clearly. His name was David Yakov Cohen and he was friendly with Ravula. David Yakone was a student in the mere yeshiva but he had to go to Switzerland whatever for whatever therapeutic reasons and he said if you liked that you need to go to Mir and learn from Rav because if you love this you'll learn from you love Rav the problem was that like Rav Rava said it's a nice idea but There is no way that my father is going to let me go to study in yeshiva in Poland. My father the academic from Berlin right? So he let me come to a yeshiva in Frankfurt. He let me come to yeshiva invites in Switzerland. He isn't letting me go to Poland. And David Yakokhan said you never know. It's worth it. Ask him. He asked him and virtually inexplicably his father said yes. A family member told me a story. I'm not even going to repeat it publicly as to why as to what came about that he said yes. It's it's just like complete shock that he that he that he said yes. But you know it's it's who put in the mouth of Zak to say some things that would uh that would cost us the Bikdashes who puts in the mouths of other people things that rebuild for us the Bikash. And he said yes. And he went to Mir. I can't use my own words. There's a what I'm reading to you is not from there are passages like this there. I'm going to read to you from the second page of Alish Alf the first volume of the Alishur Alishw the author of this safer which by the way he his name doesn't appear anywhere in the cafer he wrote it anonymously like he wrote almost all of his sur the author of this safer when he was young a storm wind brought him into the into the realm of a person who was a great amongst giants. Our teacher, the one who illuminated our eyes, bringing life to the dead with his words. This author, he's writing about himself. He was small and he remained small. and to be included amongst his talidim sages and greats of the earth. He didn't merit to be included, but he too was transformed into a different person. And from his own self, he saw the due of revival of the Torah of man and the lives of a great man for the one who merits to be in the shadow of such a person. For just two years, he merited to see and to hear him until he, the teacher, ascended to heaven. And then for a couple of more years, he merited to be brought close by the great of his students. And then another storm wind came and caused him to go to a distant land to Sweden, as we will see. And from that day and on, lo nila, he has not desisted from finding ways how he can keep alive within himself those feelings of uplift, the yera, the ah, the simka, the joy, thelavos hapimis, the inner passion in holiness that were awakened while being around the reb. and his students. It is that image that has driven the author to try to describe as he does in the allesure the process of the of the growing in his stages in life building a whole person. In the beginning of the second of the ali he writes when he's writing about what a human is being is supposed to be he says there's only one way to get there and that is to see a living example to see an example of what called if the is like a malik seek Torah from his wealth. A person who had the merit to spend and to serve a Torah scholar who's the whole package who's everything together integrated. So he knows he knows what it's about, what a person can be. And he says in every generation aeshb plants such people seek them out find them in a certain sense. That's what we're here to do this morning and last tishabove and the tishabove before that. If the avoda is to build a migdash to realize that a migdash is destroyed and if we understand and believe that it's not in the outer building but it's in the people in each person and each person just like the mikdash was built this is my god and I will glorify him. I'm going to build for him a mdash and I'm going to do it in the most beautiful way. We know there's such a thing of hedor mitzvah doing making a mitzvah beautiful. And where do we see it more than in the mikdash with its exquisite materials and designs and everything made together perfect? Well, you know what else we learn from za? We learn ani vu. I'm to make myself like God. Just as he has every mid tova, every good character trait so to speak with Hashem. It's all one. It's not a mida. But we speak of it as a measure. So too I will do the same. That's what we have to build. And you know when Mosha Rabenu wanted to build the Ba Mikdash he was niskasha he had difficulty. I I I reading all the words but I don't know how do you do this? I see the description right? I'm sure that like like all of us have had the experience at some stage in our lives of like trying to to build like a model of something, right? And you have all the instructions in the world, but what do you need? You need a picture of what the thing is supposed to look like, right? If somebody throws away the box, that airplane is never going to be constructed. You have to see what the whole thing's supposed to look like. Was this when Hashem gave him all the instructions about the building of the Mishkan? And what say? I'm going to show you what it looks like. and then you'll understand the instructions. Now, Raula says if you want to, you have to see the picture. You have to see a great person. And what we're here this morning is to draw a picture of a great person who could be an example for us about how to build the mig that is us with hedor mitzvah, with glory, with beauty. That's the task. When Masilis Sharim says that one of the pathways for a person to be able to grow in the service of Hashem and to make themselves better is stories of great people. Sasham writes it as one of the pathways. When we tell stories of great people, it's not just that it's entertaining, it's exciting, it's dramatic, it gets people to hold on and to pay attention. That all may be true, but what it also does is it shows you what the finished product is supposed to be. The details are important, but sometimes, as you know, you get a bunch of trees and no forest. You get a bunch of details and you don't get the hole. And that's what we're trying to draw. That's what he tried to do in uh in his forum. Ra Ravulba wrote he wrote as if others said it. He said it said somebody came to the mirror yeshiva and and came and had their first encounter with and the guest was was overtaken by like this is like different and the veteran Talmud the Talmed who had been there already said oh yes he says you know how old I am person said I don't know you 26 28 says Oh, so I'm 2 years old. Two years old. He says, "Yes, I was born when I met Ra." Now, a person who can see what a person could be. I mentioned that uh I was also given time by the Leman family. We'll we'll see later that uh that um when at the onset of the outbreak of the second world war, Ravula who was a German citizen had to leave Poland like you know Poland was at war with Germany at the you know briefly and and they had to and they had to leave uh and he his place of refuge which he was constantly appreciative of them till the end of his life as having saved his life was with the Lehman family in the family of Hans Leman in uh in Sweden in Stockholm and there he there he had a Talmid should be well. Hashem should give him good health. Eric layman who uh who he taught uh every week for several hours. His parents brought him brought Ravula for that purpose because there was no to speak of in Stockholm and he taught him from Olive Bay to Gomorrah Revolva in his 20s and uh he taught him for six years plus and then he sent him to the gates at yeshiva and um and maintained a close connection with the family always. And uh Eric Layman was not up to speaking with me but his his wife should be well wonderful person Mrs. Ursula Layman. So she just she talked she told me the history she told me many many fascinating interesting things and she said you know you spent time we we had the privilege we were friendly with them you know they they welcomed us always and we would go and we'd visit and you spend time with Ravula says when you spend time with him you just wanted to be like him he was such a wonderful person so genuine, so thought out, so measured and so warm and caring for other people. You just wanted to be like him. And Raulba in his teaching about whether he was teaching parents, whether he was teaching teachers, he said, you know, the way you're going to teach is when your children, your students see a new model of what they want to be like. So you understand what this all is? This is all speaking about the creation of magnificent people. It's not a list of things to do, hours to spend, but you got to make it part of a whole. It has to be integrated. It has to make sense. It has to it has to be together. One of his talidim uh told me that he said that when he was a child he was captivated by the heroes of mythology, Greek mythology and others like all these great people. He evidently was a person who always you know had a big a big vision. He said then when he met Ravim and other Gd is he said okay that those are the quoteunquote those are the mythic heroes and all he realized they were they were what uh what what greatness was The man who was great amongst giants, the one of the talidim said to me indeed that he Ravula didn't like the idea of people having shitos. I mean shitos means like opinions like you have like a an opinion like a binary that's got to be this way not that way. He said life isn't about chitos. Life is about developing developing gradual. It's about a process. It's not about a switch that you throw yes or no a ongoing process of growth. And he says and one day one day he said I have a shittita and my shittita is shittita the shittita of the man the human being. And he brought this medish. This person mentioned to me this medish the medish is in where if you're interested and uh it's about the encountering and it goes on the hill and they said it's like Abrau who was called and Raula said you see that Abrau the first Jew His task was to realize what it is to be an Adam, to be a person. And for then the Tyra is given to us. We're supposed to be we have to it's all about learning how to be an Adam. Learning how to be a person. Learning how to be a person. And what did it mean to be a person? to be a person meant to be what he saw in greatness. Again, his model, the picture that he strives was for Ravi and Ravula was very educated. He was educated in psychology as is well known um and uh studied it in his early years and applied parts of it and quoted parts of it and rejected parts of it in his later years. And one of his most withering critiques, regular withering critiques was of Freud. Not because he denied that there was such a thing as a subconscious, but he said Freud decided to live in the subb in the cellar in the deep dank cellar and to say everything resides there and all those desires that are there in the subb of the human being. He says what we do we have a different thing. The PK says for your name for just recalling you that is the desire of the soul says Hashem it is towards you that all of my desire is directed. He says there's a part of a person which desires loftest loftiest things right the rooftop of a skyscraper and we choose to live there that's where our focus is to bring the person to the natural habitat of their desires which is for big things for higher things for greater things instead of sublimation uplift. What's the image of a guttle of a great person? So the words of Rulba absolute self-control. The more a person exercises self-control, the more that is revealed the true power of their soul. They gain control. Even those who observe that person will see the truth. He it's not that he didn't think that a person had to supplementate. He quotes numerous times with great admiration that one of the kabalis of was five times a day to not do something that you want to do something you know casual basic that you want to do stop yourself five times gain selfmastery be thoughtful be thoughtful people ask ravoba questions He paused before he answered. I had heard had heard from uh several people that if you asked Raulba this is figurative but you asked Ravula what time it was it would go like this 11:19 meaning he didn't speak without thinking It didn't matter if it was a complicated question or if it was a simple question. And he and I asked it I asked Tom if if this is true and one of them said absolutely whenever somebody asked him something he paused. He paused so that he would be training himself to make sure that he always thought before he spoke and he paused to show respect for the questioner. Questioner shouldn't think I asked the question. Ah this is simple. He thought before he answered the question, I just want to say one thing. I asked one Talmet. I said, "Is it true like that if you asked him like almost anything that he wouldn't answer right away?" And the Talmet thought for about 20 seconds. He said, "I'm not sure." I mean, he he was always very thoughtful in his answers. That's what he said afterwards. I thought it was like so perfect. He was a Talmet. He was a Talmet. He didn't say, "Yeah." He didn't say no. He said, Let's see. Raoba taught his talidim never to run. Raoba took buses all the time. Okay. He did not he did not like to be chauffeured around. He took buses. You're going to get a bus. We've all had the experience. You're going to catch a bus sometimes, right? You get the bus and sometimes you miss the bus and sometimes it's really close. And what do you do when it's really close, right? You run. Raoba never ran and not because he was older and not because he was ignorant. He taught his teenage talidim. You never run. Running means that you're you have baha. There's like some panic. There's another bus. You'll take the next bus. you're not going to get there. That's so Raula taught them. Remember, he taught them to take walks. He said, "You should always have something to think about, not say he says the amount of my shurim and that I thought about on the bus, right? While other people are busy complaining about the distractions on the bus, I don't we learn how to think. We're just there with our thoughts. Never run." Ravula said that I never I I heard this from someone. I never saw this written from him. He said in Mir if you looked out the window and you saw somebody running you assumed that some building was on fire somewhere because otherwise nobody ran. Ri had it established. People walked. It sounds a little more like Kelm than than than than like me. Whatever this was th this is the image thoughtful careful one of his grandchildren who who who spent who gave me time I appreciate it very much he told me that Ravoba always wrote down after he gave his talks he wrote them down uh as we saw not only in their entirety but beyond and the family has thousands of pages of his talks A fraction of them have been published. A fraction of them are the distilled ideas he wrote in his own. But others they have shish and things which have been published. A fraction of them are published. He said there are thousands of pages. Nothing is ever crossed out. There's never like a little triangle and adding in a word. It's all just written handwritten straight line after line after line after line. Now, you and I of the word processor age, you know that if we write an email, we correct it six times after we like while we're writing. If we're certainly for writing something that matters like a letter, like you don't take one crack. He sat down and every sentence that came out of his pen, he thought what he was going to write and he wrote it and there were no corrections. There were no scratchouts. Um, I asked him, "Could you send me a few pages?" And he sent me a few pages. And it's, first of all, it's incredibly neat. It's true. And he sent me, besides sending me a few pages, he also sent me, he said, "I'm going to send you also the table of contents, which I guess he left open the first page in the notebook, and when he finished the notebook, he wrote the table of contents for all of them. And it was a table of contents I believe from 1970 if I'm not mistaken tashin lammed. And the first schmoo on the face page was with the kazal that the other student had told me about. So I sent it to him said wow look what we just discovered. Right? It was that that talk where where where he said it was right there. But it's an amazing thing. It's a beautiful thing. I I I printed it out, showed it to my family on Shabas, you know, just the the pages, the writing is consistent, neat, no uh no scratches. That's thinking, that's thoughtful. I want to share one more thing before we uh we we uh uh before we uh we go to say aka uh let's let's actually let's say one and a half things. Um this is a an outstanding outstanding insight. It's so fitting for this discussion. The only sarin is it's such a beautiful piece of tyra. I'm not sure if I could share it on tishabuff, but it's it's it's it's outstanding. He writes about I mean the the is written about by the Rambam Ram in the laws of Azor Perak writes about the history of Avodor and he writes about Ara and he says Aram when he was weaned he began he began his mind began to to to wander not in the negative sense but to explore he was a child He thought day and night and he wondered how is this that this whole world all these constellations how does it move like this if it doesn't have somebody moving it can't happen by itself he had nobody teaching him nobody informing him of anything he was mushkazdim he was sunken immersed in or kazdim amongst idol worshippers hatifim the foolish ones and his father and mother and everybody around him. They were all idol worshippers and he was worshiping with them. But his heart was exploring and wondering until he achieved the path of truth and understood the line of just of that which is just from his own wisdom. And he knew that there was a God there, one Godal. And he's the one who causes the world to turn. He created everything. And there's no other force other than him. And he realized everybody else was making mistakes. And the reason why they made these mistakes was because they're worshiping the stars and the images which were there so so to speak as intermediaries to God, but they were confusing them and making them forget about the one God. Sha and at 40 years old Ara recognized his creator when he recognized and knew he began to respond to the people of Orcast. So Astroba, you notice what the Ram said, how old was he when he recognized that there was a God? When he knew, excuse me, that there was a God. Was he 40? No. No, the Ram says he was there a kid with his family asking questions and he knew that there was one God and then it says at 40 heir viod he recognized Anu the Ram is defining two stages. I just I have to tell you I have probably read and taught this Rambam over a hundred times. I never noticed this right here. says yada at its earlier stage and then later yada what is it rabba what does the word heir mean and y we know it means to know heir means to recognize where do you have the term recognize so you know rabba had a big advantage when we think of him sometimes We think this was this person who was a philosopher and a psychologist from Berlin who you know joined the yeshivas and really liked muser. He was also a very big if you read any of his learn he's he cites anything and everything. He actually believed very strongly that he would only be impactful as a mashk if he was a very serious and so he says you know there's a gumor in babashra people learned in the dy not so not so long ago right which says that a uh it's not only in babashra right I think it's also in Sanran that it says that yakir yakir the older one yakir You recognize right when the father has when the man has two wives and the gummor learns from that the the father is believed to testify which one is his firstborn had different children from different families he's believed to testify why yakir so he says yakir is a father testifying about his child right we don't use the term yakir when you describe a regular adus regular adus I testify I saw so and lend so and so money. This is a very intimate testimony. It's I know my child said Raoba. When Ara was very young, he realized the world doesn't turn by itself. There's a God. He didn't recognize the God. He knew that there was a God. And you know, Afino had contemporaries who knew that there was a God. One of them was very famous. What was his name? Nimrod Nimrod wasn't like these people who forgot that there was a god because of idol worship. He knew no he knew his creator and he nevertheless intended to rebel against him. You could know something and it raises all kinds of difficulties within you. Kazim didn't even realize there was a god. They were busy worshiping stars and statues. He was smart and he realized this is ridiculous. There's a God beyond that. But he had no kinship with that God. When he was 40, he recognized. He didn't say that's my child. He said that's my father and I'm in his image. The transformative moment of amuna is not when you see God over there, but when you see that it's that same thing in here to recognize Hashem outside yourself and inside yourself. That's such a glorious idea. That's a Ravenu. That's what it means. When Avarinu knew the Tyra from within himself, he recognized God in himself. Okay. You know, it sounds we hear that, we think that sounds like some kind of a a craziness, a a pathology. No, no, no, no, no. in the goodness that he recognized said in the pestem that built the world. What did he build it for? Okay, so there's a God who created why did he create it? And realized Hashem created it to do kindness, right? That approach that taught us all who wants to give good and recognized that himself. of said this was his teaching. Build a Mishkan not a model could do that too. Raulba when he was teaching Eric Layman in Stockholm they built a model of the Mishka but build this Mishka B in each of us with that exquisite mitzvah an if I build him in him it's because it's in myself in him in myself a human being in the divine divine image. That's the opposite of that's the opposite of actions that we do by wrote because we have a to-do list that our Yiddish kite gives us that we have to do. Fill in check. Anim's new check. I have to be something. I'm going to rise up in the morning and I'm going to remember that when Hashem blew in a noma into he arose, the whole world thought, "Wow, that's God." And that's what's supposed to happen when we stand up. Not because of our power, not because of our greatness, but because of our goodness, because of our wholeness, because that's the picture. That's the whole picture of what a person is supposed to is supposed to look like. Vulba in a few places gets poetic and this is the one that I'm going to stop with before introducing the kinas. And he speak he has his own animy beyond the 13 principles the 13 anim of the Raman and he writes my isim I believe in the greatness of a human being person is so great that he could stand before God and God could speak to him prophecy And he could stand before God and speak to him in prayer. From this greatness, he can make himself find that point of greatness in you, which is the point which for you comes easy and know that that's your excellence and build out on that. You're great at something. Again, it's not just pat on the back. You are. You are. Right. The thing where you look at other people say, "I can't believe that they do that." Because for me it comes so easy. So it means for you that's your point of excellence. So grow it. Grow it in yourself. Build it out to your other parts of yourself. Grow it in others. Everybody believes in God in the greatness of a person. Not everybody believes. And then he says we end every say it's upon us to give praise to Hashem. says to give greatness to the one who made bes. So he says we have to give Hashem greatness. We have to give greatness to the okay so there are different ways to interpret that but what he said was Hashem is great without us. We have to give. Whatever is the greatness within us, we have to give that to Hashem. Whatever is the greatness within us, we have to give in Hashem. We're going to say two kinos. One is kina 27 and the other one is 23. 27 is on page 479 in the Quran and uh 282 in the art scroll. Both of these speak about the catastrophic fall from greatness of people. They moan over the humiliation the loss. The first one is a mushel which is found in the medish of seeing the beautiful uh Jewish people a beautiful beautiful woman but was dirty and and and disgraced. He found and it's a metaphor for what we could be what we could be what the mdash that you and I that every member of Kalisel could be that we were who we came from and it describes in very poetic terms read it if you have the English follow it in the English very rich again page 478 in the in the Quran 479 and 282 in the art scroll the next one which we'll is about the son and daughter of God also and we'll we'll we'll say just 30 seconds before that. So 27 for he Main shift. may Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Foreign speech. for him to can turn back to kina 23ishima. It's in the Quran on page 439 and in the article on page 260. The story that it tells here is uh is the story of the son and daughter of Bishmal Kangut. Bishal Kangut you remember is one of the arug malus that we will mention later and Kangut was such a magnificent person such a beautiful person that the daughter of the Caesar wanted to salvage him uh for his beauty and ended up salvaging so to speak his face. his mask was his face was removed and made into a into a a mask that the Romans used for years thereafter. Obviously the beauty of Rabish Kangut was not simply a matter of physical features. The beauty of Ishmael Kangut was the magnificent person and was in his children. And it tells the story of how those children were taken captive to two different people who decided to make a shak between this one's beautiful servant and this one's beautiful maid servant that they could produce many beautiful children. And the medish tells the story of how they they couldn't bear not their own humiliation. They didn't know who the other one was. They were just put in a cell with somebody else and they couldn't bear the fall of the of those who were realizing the image of God. 23 for flying. for me. Fore! Foreign! Foreign! Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Fore! Foreign! Foreign! Spade raimo yo. Torah Sakino. Ravula did not view his forim as Musers for um Musers for in his mind were were the classics the Shah Chuva where one learns ideas and goals. his foreim he saw he explained what they were he called it share chapters gates of guidance an effort an effort to guide a member of our generation when he enters the world of Torah and the steps the rungs to climb within there. Uh the the the name Allesure besides for whatever hints it has to names of his mother etc. uh is Allesure is climbing the wall, right? It says by Yoseph Fatadic that they climbed on the wall to see him. And the metaphor which he which he draws which he used in other places is that the world of Torah is its own world with its own um unusual atmosphere. Not that that world, as you'll see, is to be cut off, but the world of the of Torah, of the yeshiva that and the values that it nurtures and the way it nurtures it are utterly unique and to some degree foreign to those who have not entered it and um you have to so to speak here's a way to climb over the wall for those who are coming in to get in and this is this is this is how to guide it and the safer is written as a book of guidance. step by step, step by step. And he didn't view it again as something that people should learn during Muser Seder, which they did every day. That was to do Muser. And he had his way of Muser, which we'll have a maybe a couple of moments to speak about. But this was something they should read on Friday afternoon or on Shabas and uh or during Bayman during a time off, something which should help frame for them the pathway in life. And really all his biggest uh is his his impact generally was in that way charting the course. One of the first works from him which which made the rounds very substantially was his madri foranim. He he published a little pamphlet, you know, a very small very very short pamphlet with guidance for people getting married and he walked through it and gave that guidance and explained and guided people. You're going to a new stage of life. Here's guidance. Interestingly, people wanted to translate it. Many people want it translated into English and Ravula said, "No, it's not to be translated into English." I wrote I wrote this specifically for Norra. I wouldn't say the same thing for people who weren't studying in yeshiva. It's not the same. It's different instructions. Different things are going on. The people who I wrote it for can read it in Hebrew. Maybe there's something else to be written for others, but don't translate this. This isn't for them. His guidance was very targeted, very very targeted. Uh he had the yeshiva, he had there were the the main construct again the main thing was very strong learning. The Shiva and his yeshiva was one of the greatest Talmidum of the Brisk Revashm Shapi and there was very high caliber learning which he encouraged and pushed but there was he believed strongly and said repeatedly that if you think that just by learning you think that from that the person's going to be balidos it won't happen it doesn't happen unless there's specific emphasis and effort put on that and that was a feature of the yeshiva and they had vadim what were called which were small groups where to you know to discuss issues of self-development and how a person supposed to work on themselves and grow their character and grow their fear of heaven and so on and those vadim were very uh segmented according to the age and stage of the boys because different levels require different things. In fact, Raulba struggled when he gave his when he gave his public lecture to the whole his public lecture to the whole yeshiva. So he saidim Omar Omar woe if I say it well if I don't say it. He knew that some of the things he would say would be over the heads of some and if he would choose not to say them then he would be undershooting for others. And there was even a period of time where he gave quote unquote the same talk twice. Once for the older boys, once for the younger boys and and and did it differently uh you know based on on levels but it was about seeing the person in front of you and that was what Rula was constantly constantly aware of and trying to do and the impact of that. Probably the most popularly studied work of Raulba in one form or another is Zarya Ubin right here that wrote a little tiny book called planting and building in which is a guide book on parenting was written for parents and the thesis is found in the title which is that there's two ways that you get something to develop. One way is organic. You plant seeds in the ground and they have an energy within themselves and they just grow and develop. And the other is construction, right? You can't plant a brick in the ground and water it. Nothing will happen. It'll nothing will happen unless you put another brick on top and you put mortar in between and another and another and another. So the question he says is, so what are we supposed to be doing when we're educating our children? Are we planting or are we building? If we just plant, if we just quote unquote water our children, let them grow, just develop outside of themselves, they'll grow wild. We have to give them structure. But if all we do is give them structure, then they'll be dry and lifeless. You have to find a way to blend giving them expression to their own their own thriving and development and at the same time with the right guidance and guard rails to help grow and to help build. And that thesis that awareness of both sides was a was the benchmark through the work. Understand the students, understand what they want, understand your children, understand who they are. Binyan would have individuality. He was would would Binan would excuse me erase individuality. He was adamant about the importance of the individual development, the individual development of the person of the of the personality. And one of his students said to me that he said if somebody came to ask him advice, somebody came to ask him advice and Rava would talk to him and the person would nod and say thank you very much. Revol would say excuse me this is I'm saying what the student said his name. He said if he stays like this nothing is going to come of him. Nothing's going to become of him. says the student who came in and asked advice and when revolva said something he said I I don't understand like why why do you think that way and questioned and challenged and wanted to understand ravulba writes in the allayur he says people go to ask advice he says just like they go when they learn a garrah I'm learning a garra and I'm learning a comment in tis and something bothers me in the tus. So, so what do I do? So, I immediately turn to the back and I want to see does the marsh ask the question? Maybe I'll pull out a whatever a safer Yeshua that's something. I'm going to look to see who asked the question. So, he says if you do that, you're not going to become a great. What you do is you have a question on the say I have a question. What could it be? And you think about it and you say maybe this. Nah, that doesn't make sense. Maybe that. Say yeah, I have an idea. You come up with an idea. Then you say, now let me see if anybody discusses this. And then I see did the Marshall ask this question. What did the Marshall say? Oh, he says like that way that I reject it. But one second. He addresses it. You think first. He says when a person goes to ask advice, they say, I have a question. What should I do? I'm going to go to ask advice. This is a person who does that. May never will he become a bardas. Now bardas means a person with uh with a mind. We refer to a bar mitzvah as a bardas, right? Then you become a bard. He says a person doesn't become a bard if all they do is turn to others to answer their questions for them. What you have to do is you have to think through the question. Think about this side. Think about that side. Think about the other side. And then when you've come to a tentative conclusion, you want to check with somebody who's older than wiser. And you would say, "Here's my question." And the person will say, "So what do you think?" And do it that way. Right? It's not bign. It's not saying, "Do this." It's listening. listening listening to what the other person has to say for him was a lifetime. He said aart from which is priceless priceless. He said most famous verse about in Mish proverb educate the child according to his way so that even when he gets older he won't deviate from it. So there are all kinds of interpretations of these which Raulba knew and cited and included like famously the Goya Vilna who's who he cites in this context who says that if you're just going to try to control a child and get them to do what you want. So then when he gets older and he's not under your control anymore, he's going to do something else. You want to find a way that speaks to Darko that speaks to their character their way and then you give them something that's forever right in in Ravula's parliament which was also brilliant and informed by being he said is the aod of kit is not about making your children look holy now it's about making educating your children so that years after they've they've left your house that they have that holiness. It's great to have a trophy, you know, that you can carry around. Look how good my child is right now. That's not the And he said, and he lived, educate the child, educate the child according to his way. So even when he gets older, he'll still be he'll still be educating himself. When you educate someone properly and they realize the difference between the before and after, they want the next stage of the before and after. They want to keep growing. Raulba took great pride in the fact that all his life he went always with a rebi. When this one passed, he took another one. He took another one. And he always learned from people as we saw. older, younger, it didn't matter because he was always trying to grow himself to grow himself, to develop himself. And that's what he taught people. That was the way his work was written. Think you're building what's the next step? when he wrote the second volume of the allesure he said you know people now want to work on muser they've moved to the stage that they're ready to do the real work of muser and the real work of muser means thinking about a specific character trait studying it and working on it and working on it together week after week sitting and discussing it and this is what Raula did in the vadim and he published the second volume which not completely but largely is comprised of these exercises on mida after mida working on it developing yourself a road map towards growth is is this process of growth and building and growth and building there's a beautiful safer I don't I think I saw once maybe someone translated into English the safer is called to know in the land your ways. What's the subtitle of the book? It's called chapters of guidance for people who did chuva. So Raulba as we said was very embraced Balichua. He was himself a balchuva and he embraced Balichuva of all kinds and he realized and recognized the difficulties and the transitions. He had a Talmud a student who became a fine Talmet and he sat with Raoba he said I've come up with a list of they're really he said to he said really you know there needs to be a safer you have to write a safer to guide people who are who have become religious observant people with the various things they have to navigate in in you know as a result of that journey. Sirulba said okay so tell me I want you to make for me a list of the issues and the person worked for some time and he comprised a list of the questions that needed to be addressed everything from how do you relate to your parents and to your siblings to to you know how do you manage trying to integrate your children into the system how do you navigate how do you deal with arguments which exist in the world of Torah like you know you're coming in and you think everybody how do you deal with it not getting stale when people around you, you know, like all of these questions. And Raobas looked at them and studied the list. And he said, "Excellent." He says, "Now you write the answers. You write the answers." And he said, "I can." He says, "You write the answers." And he said, "I'll I'll I'll be there with you." And he wrote the answers. And Ravula, you know, read and proved, you know, proof the safer and so on and so forth. But he I don't have to do it for you. You can do it and you can do it in a particular way that's going to uh that's that's going to to do it. um his grandson. Um first of all I should say this that his his son who I had one of his sons who I had the privilege to speak to and his grand and grandson um you know like this is all like nice you know famous Mashki who goes and gives talks uh his son I said okay please tell me about your father my father was the most fun and warm person. That was the first word was fun. Okay. Now, did anybody have that impression of Revolva? Right. He was fun. He was fun. And this child will be the first one to tell you that this son of the Mashki of Berakov, the one carrying the banner of Muser in the Yeshiva Bakr is says by the time he was 18, he said yeshiva wasn't for me. And his father supported him finding the way that was for him to go away. and and his father had the greatest respect for him, the greatest love for him. He said he himself ended up you know in a career in counseling and said you want real wisdom you should speak to my son and uh same just beautiful stories of sensitivity and warmth um you know with family uh with with family uh his grandson son sent me a uh a contress a a pamphlet that um is it's in very raw typed form somebody typed up which was the guidance he gave for mashkim and mashkim here does not mean people who are certifying a factory or a restaurant it's talking about a mashk and a yeshiva the mashiach was the position that ravulba himself occupied mashki d The term itself means like the supervisor. They refer it as the mashi, the spiritual supervisor whose task it was really to make sure that everybody was okay and everybody was developing properly according to their way. And um and uh so he Ravoba took very seriously the task of trying to build a cadre of Mashkim who will do the job well. And he participated, convened and participated in gatherings for, you know, continuing professional education for Mashgim, you know, to continue to to grow and to and to master the the trait. And uh it's the the the the pamphlet is very very rich and very very beautiful. Um it starts off with just like a priceless notion. He says everybody knows about a mace mitzvah. Right? What's a mace mitzvah? Mace mitzvah is a person you find you come across a corpse person dies has nobody to bury them. So we consider that you know abrios dignity of a human being you have to make sure that they're taken care of. So he said Raoba said there's also such a thing as a kai mitzvah. a person who's alive who also has nobody taking care of them, who also has to make sure you have to make sure that their dignity is intact and restored. And he would say that that the altar of Slabka said that the job of uh of the yeshiva is to bring to life spirits that would otherwise be lowly and and humble to lift people up. Is not discipline. Punishment is the last resort. The last resort. Raoba was famous in uh being opposed uh today absolutely to corporeal punishment. Create an atmosphere of pleasantness of warmth. Have a pleasant face where the teacher loves the students and is interested in their lives. He tells a story in this contras for the mashkim. It's in Hebrew. I just translating myself from my own notes but he tells a story that that uh that Shamsh in his school in Frankfurt okay so this is in Frankfurt Sham was a German was a yak okay so what do you expect so a student a girl was sent to hers in a discipline issue and she came to hers's office and he opened up his drawer. He said, "Do you like dolls?" She said, "I like dolls." So he said, "I have one for you." And he gave her a doll. And he said, "I hope you enjoy it." That was the discipline. She didn't get out. I got a dollar and I'm going to go back and misbehave. He said in in the in the school in Frankfurt if a child got a soccer ball for a kaneka present he brought it to hers to show him to see what he thinks of it. He says that's the atmosphere that's the atmosphere of you have to be approachable you know that they love you. Now I'm saying to you these things to some it's like familiar because he planted this he he again you could say it's pop psychology or whatever else it is. He brought it with the mix of being extremely extremely extremely aspirational. Again remember not living in the cellar but living on the top floor of the skyscraper. Incredibly aspirational and you know expecting high high things from people. And at the same time being able to do it to being able to do it. He said 40 years ago he said when he wrote this contress the role of the mash perhaps was to rebuke and to challenge. Today he said this to the kazish and the khaz agreed with him. A talmid needs two mashikim one to walk on either side and hold them up and encourage them and strengthen them to move forward. He wanted to be encouraging. He took people. He built institutions. He wanted his buryak of Talmid to look distinct and unique. He created a inim. It's called kavos das. Somebody came over to me on Shabas and said Ravoba. He created Kavos Das, right? I have two grandchildren in Kavos Das. Right. and and uh it wasn't just a it was a it's a regular school elementary school but the whole approach of kinuk was to be designed after this and ravulba said we will have done it right if the student of kavostas looks different it doesn't mean a different uniform it doesn't mean something weird or strange it means that they're working on themselves that midos is part of who they are along with outstanding outstanding accomplish lishment on the other side. One of the things which he gave over to the mashkin, he quoted Rabenu and Sharia aoda and this is also quoted in the allay shore. The first doorway through which a person develops is that a person has awareness of their own strengths of their own val of their own value. We could call it self-esteem, self-confidence. He call it self-nowledge. Know what's in you. Know your ability and then be able to go. Uh I mentioned to you before that he was very mindful and warned Mashkim about the concern that students who are spending all of their time in a dormatory and in a dining room and in a base medish with dozens of other people can become like sheep who are part of a flock and you need to have time for yourself to think to develop yourself. It's a responsibility to make sure that people do that and develop themselves in these in these ways. Want to mention just a couple of other things as well. First was I I have to say it because I heard it from four or five different people the same thing and that was that he would wake people up. He would wake people up was uh part of the task of a mashk to make sure that the trains run on time. He um how did he wake people up? He said he learned it from who was a became one of his rebay. It was a tal of the alter of Kelm. He uh he would first of all he he daved very long so he was already wearing his talis and fillain. He went to the dormatory respectfully and pleasantly. He was saying suk de zimra and someone was sleeping. He would dangle his titus in his ear. And I heard this from a few different talim. And then I heard from his grandson that when he visited he said only if you ask to be woken up because he came when it was a time. If you asked to be woken up, so he would wake you up and the way he'd wake you up was he would dangle the sitsus playfully in in your ear. Fun, warm. We said that this morning. We say it every time we read the Hashem who chose good right not badim good and and he wanted their words that were said in truth what does that mean they're good they're not liars they they tell the truth you know wow so whether this is what the braha means he said this is what this is way he understood You can say something and you cannot live by that something. You can preach and you cannot practice. And he said a person should preach what they themselves believe. They don't have to necessarily be finished, be accomplished, but they they're presenting strivings which are their own strivings. Ravula said that he was broken. I think maybe he was saying this over from Revelia or someone and he said he was brokenhearted. He said, "I I can't do this. I I don't live up to this." And they said, "No, you do. You must and you have to say your words." But this was the thing. The reason why he had such respect was because he was genuine. The reason why he had such respect was because he was authentic. And again, that doesn't mean the way we bandandy around those terms, you know, where we just like, you know, tell people what our problem is without without hiding it. It means I believe this is something it's important. It's dear to me and that's why I'm sharing it with you and I want to work on it and I bring it to you to work on it. And as he said and as he said to parents and as he said to Mashki and as he said and knew to himself and as was observed by Mrs. is layman as we quoted before in the end it doesn't really matter what you say when that following around and serving a great person is greater than the texts that you learn from them it's because you learn from the picture you learn from the person and if theorim are nemorimal if the words are just an idea that you said, "I sat down. Let me look at the para and see if I have something to say." And they don't flow from what you're thinking about and from what you're working on and for what you're trying to develop within yourself. It won't work. It won't get through. It won't teach. And when you do, it will. And this is not just a lesson to rabbis and to Mashkim and to teachers. It's for all of us. It's for all of us to genuinely seek to not be demonstrative to not put on a show but to this matters to draw a real not a fictional not a curated not a suited for social media picture of ourselves but a real acha linko in our home in our heart of hearts picture of ourselves to see it in others to seek to bring it out in ourselves. This is it. The picture that he had of Raviham, the picture that he had of the great human being wasn't just this person with incredible personal aspirations. Was a person who saw others completely. We're going to see that as we go in to the next chapter which is of his remarkable work during the second world war his work of saving lives. But it was about it's about that in everything in every bit of seeing the other person communicating to them where they are right we could speak about developing oneself his a pathway of building a mishkan teaching people how to see the mishkan in front of them and to build them the two kinos which we're going to recite now are both also related. The first one is of the most tragic of kinos of deals not it's not of the of a modern day but of imperium the the siege of which caused women who valued their ch their children so much to instead find themselves resorting tragically to have to partake of them due to the incredible famine. of the of the of that time. And I I think that that uh it's a tragic you know, it's a thud. It's a m of um but it's um if Raoba taught us something here, it's that he taught us how we should be measuring like they did in the good times valuing immensely immensely immensely and showing and demonstrating that value of every child of every student of every member of Kalisra. It's a line to remember to be o in mitzvah to be in mitzvah. Nobody no living breathing person should be neglected should be forgotten should not have someone caring taking care of them. Ka in the Quran on page 375 in the art scroll on page 232. foreign speech. foreign speech. for Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Foreign speech. for Let's recite kina 35. in the Quran on page 549 in the art scroll on page 324. Uh this this one speaks as well of the it's a brief brief of the on the loss of the children of Kalisra. I want to just add a note that uh as uh Rabbi Rose said last night um you know we we've we are speak we spoke here today in terms of uh Ravula and and and his looming over us in all of our discussions uh is the the huge number of of losses of neai of of young people of Kalist Israel, people of all ages, but especially the young and the shining people of Kalist Israel who died whether they died on Shminyatas. Um whether the many soldiers, the beautiful beautiful uh soldiers who gave their lives and give their lives with idealism for for Kali Israel. And as we cry nephesh of the destroyed gateways into Israel and the souls of our young ones seal of kapayak uh we we we give specific thought and uh and mourning on them as well. foreign mayhe Vocal Fore! Foreign! Foreign! Ultra Father know I love you. Are you in your mio? Mio mourned over Yoshi as you know that and that's a kina we don't say that literal kina every year but the idea that you have to mention and mourn over was something which was established by one of the is over and we have this kina as well over yosh was a righteous king who came at a very difficult time read in the safer that was found in the B Hashem cursed is the one who won't uphold the words of the Tyra and Yo tore his garments and he saidim it's my responsibility to do so there are two pieces to what's remarkable about yesah the first was that He read what everybody else read, but he understood that it was speaking to him. It was speaking to him and he had to act upon it. It wasn't uh speech so to speak for Yenim, right? For the Yanommites, right, for somebody else. It was speaking to him and he had to stand up and he had to do something. It wasn't it wasn't anybody else. And the second was that he understood that everybody has a purview in which they can function. Ramban writes about this heard Yeshu had a very wide circle of influence. He was a king of the Jewish people. The impact which he could have in upholding the Tyra and doing for the Jewish people was vast. But everybody has a circle. Everybody has an area in where they can make a difference. And everybody has the obligation to do to stand up to do their part when they can and where they can. I think that um we could read this in the Tyra and we can also read this when we read about events which happen. We read about what's going on in Erit Israel over the past two years and we could read about it as spectators as people are reading something from the sidelines and like it has to speak to us. What are we? What can we do? And you can say and you know, what can I do? I can't I'm here. I'm not there. I'm not uh you know, not signing up to be a lone soldier. Um, okay. But it has to hit us that there are other people today and every day who are making themselves beyond uncomfortable and risking themselves because they view it as their responsibility. They view it as their responsibility. They hear it, they read it and they view it as their responsibility. And uh there's so much which is complex about this suga and that has been made complex about it. Um we certainly do recognize there's plenty that they can still do spiritually and materially. And how seriously we take that, right? The alamat, right? The thousand that prayed for the thousand that went to the front. Do we d differently? Do we learn differently today than we did two years ago? Because today, like for almost the past two years, you have people every day literally literally not sleeping, not eating, risking their lives, families left behind, jobs left behind. So again, we're here. Listen to it. You've heard that. We've talked about it. and we should take it to heart. I'm going to continue to help us hopefully hopefully to take it to heart by telling the next chapter in the story of okay so we spoke about building himself what he learned from we took a detour in time to talk about the which he did throughout his life not even getting a chance to talk about the base hamus which was the the laboratory for that but then he left Mir, as we alluded to briefly before, he had to leave Mir in in when when when Germany went to war with Poland and as a German citizen, he and a few other Bram and the yeshiva who were from Germany or German citizens needed to leave. Some were able to arrange some kind of allowance to stay. Um and you know whether in the end they ended up many of them going into exile with the Mirisha otherwise having to run away when the Nazis actually invaded uh Poland and the yeshiva had to go into exile as a whole but Raulba left early because he didn't have a permit to be in Poland as a German national and friend in the Mirhiva from The Layman family, the Layman family. Hans Layman built a business in Stockholm and at a certain point uh when his family was still quite young, he moved from Stockholm because Stockholm was not a community. It was a very liberal Jewish community formed Jewish community and there was no structure atmosphere for him to be able to raise his children. He had a malamede for a period of time, Rabbi Zber. Um but then he moved to Hamburg where um he was able to enroll his actually run by Ravis Carlbach who we spoke about last Tishabove and there's there's more of a story there but that's not and he sent children 1933 uh he felt he had to leave Germany and move and move he moved back to Stockholm and um again he had a mamid for his kids for a He sent them to learn elsewhere. He sent them to learn and he went there to take this job of teaching this child Eric Eric layman. Um there were other attempts to go different places. Whatever it was, this is where this is where he came and he viewed it of course as something which saved his life and it was also something which the storm winds had positioned him to be able to do. Now what would he do? You've met him now. of vulba. He's a person who came into into Yadus with great passion metam working on himself trying to develop himself into a great person become a Torah scholar at the same time enraptured with the idea of muser and self-development that taught sent away from his yeshiva he doesn't know for how long still yearns for them still connected to them um and he comes here. So the first thing he did was he he had an apartment and he put on the door of the apartment base ham muser de Stockholm. This was the house of Muser of Stockholm. There was like hardly yiddish kite in Stockholm but he establishes Ba Muser Israel Salanter who was of course as you know the father of the Muser movement. He said every town should have place where people come to learn Muser and make themselves better. And even the people who don't come in, they'll walk by, they'll say, "Ah, there's a place here where people work on making themselves better." And uh Raoba's one of his later in life significant projects when he left Bayyaka was creating a baser in Shalai which still exists to this day. I just I was in your slime a couple of weeks ago and I stopped in for a few seconds just to I to to see it. So he established the baser of Stockholm. uh Ravula who is exceptionally private writes in the mitzvah hashoul in the in the second half of the mitz hashkules he writes that the author of this work found himself taken by the storm winds of war to a place where even the most dedicated people fell away from observance. There were a lot of people who came to Stockholm and were just taken in by the by the liberal nature of the country and the liberal nature of the Jewish community. He says the only way I survived was because every single day for all the years that I was there, six years, eight years, I don't remember, I learned muser. I learned muser. That's the only thing which kept me alive. He writes it. It's very unusual. Rabbi Kokus told me that he was once with Ravula. He said, "I can't believe I wrote that." Like he never wrote about himself. He didn't like to write about himself. He was very private. He said he regretted that he wrote that he wrote that about himself. That was the great uh self uh divulging that he did. But that's what he did. He established himself there. And he taught this boy. He taught him olive bay. He taught him. He made a model of the Mishka with him and so on and so on and so forth. Um but all was not well in the rest of the world. Very significant story that one might say based on what you heard about Rulba. Certainly what I heard about Rulba. When I learned this story, I was very surprised. Positively, not negatively, but just very surprised. And what's the story? Ravula became the Vadhhat Solah office in Sweden. The committee for saving Jews, the Orthodox Committee for Saving Jews, he became their representative, the key a key person in Sweden. He spent days and nights, days and nights, weeks and months doing the work, storied work. I'm sure many of you have heard the story for example of the Mirria when in fact they had to leave Poland and they went to Lithuania for a brief window of time which was neither Russian nor German and was a place where they could go and then from Lithuania they had to find some place to escape and there was need for passports there was a need for visas and there was a need for for transit transit visas like all this whole complicated scheme that was necessary and it had to be patched together and pieced together. And Ravula was there in Sweden befriending uh a Dutch honorary council who on weekends and nights and all the time would be there creating uh transit visas to Kurasau uh for Yeshiva Bakra. This is not legend. Um this I also I I was received courtesy of a family member. This is the testimony that Raulba gave to Yadvashm in 1966, December 1966. uh as part of their amassing testimony. This is before videos and and and show foundations and things like that. This was literally gathering information. Information about a big focus of this was not Ravula. The focus was Dong who was the who was the consul. And he provided critical information. And he said, for example, that contrary to somebody else who testified who suspected that he was doing it for profit motives, he says he didn't see he thought he was doing it sincerely because he did it day and night. He took the equivalent of less than a dollar for each visa when he could have taken you know the numbers that people were going then even in those days of dollars they were doing it for much more. He was an independently wealthy person who it was an honorary position for him and he came nights and he came Sundays. He says he was motivated to do it but Ravula was there doing it. Rava had was was paid what he was paid. He gave up his money. He spent it on these things. uh Rulba again endless stories but the Rulba didn't eat meat for all the years that he was there in in in in uh Sweden because the shita in Sweden included stunning the animal before shita many famous chuvas about it and the community was given a byer but uh he didn't uh he himself didn't eat meat for all of those years uh but again back to this this was what he undertook to do. And we have here not only the pages of his testimony. And I just want to mention because it's so uh so um uh interesting. I'm going to read just the introduction of the person who interviewed him who has like an introduction to it. The inter interview is a person whose name is Yoseph Litvak. Says Harav Schlomma Valba serves today as the spiritual director of Yeshiva Spirakov. He was born in Berlin in 1914. His general education he received in Berlin. He studied in the yeshiva in Frankfurt in the yeshiva in Montur in Switzerland and from there he went to Mir in Poland. As a German citizen, he was sent away from Poland in 1938 and he was able to get a visa to settle in Stockholm. He believes that this privilege was given to him in the hands of heaven because as a result of that a thousand people were their lives were saved by the by the by the visas which he gained for them. uh and it happened through a project which he did where he 1940 and 1941 the rabbi has the pleasant appearance of a kakam who blends together a certain elevated Jewish Torah personality venimus maravis together with an intellectual and uh and a demeanor of the Western European high society together, the two of them. That was the demeanor. And by the way, it wasn't just this person who uh just so interesting that when they write about education in the summary uh of his person, it says that he went to University of Berlin. It skips all the other places. Um but the the the um the um the uh this this description of how he appeared of how he appeared and his thing was is one which you hear across the board a certain uh that certain mix of refinement. So this is what he did and the stories he tell and it's again it's not it's not just you know the words which he said you have here re a whole bunch of letters terrible letters like the kind of letters you read from people who are writing to him desperate for visas get me a visa for myself get me a visa for this family member who's there who's left behind and this was what this was his life and what he was doing uh separate from this which is not recorded here in this um in this testimony but is found in many works of history of the of the varata's work in the second world war and we have as well many uh there are many telegrams which show this is that because Sweden was a neutral country it served as a critical channel to keep things going to keep for example the mir yeshiva alive the mir yeshiva was in Japan controlled Shanghai and um Japan was at war with the United States and they were there they didn't have they didn't have government support the support would come cash coming from the United States which you could not send to Japan you couldn't even communicate technically speaking to Japan so there were channels in Switzerland in South America and in Sweden and Very often the channels were used separately. With one channel they sent message with the other channel they sent money right so that there wouldn't be anything which would be figured out that they wouldn't put the lines together. Uh but he was a critical channel constantly involved the the messages are sent in code to speak about what's happening. uh Ravula went together with I think it was with with Rabbi Yakobson who was who we'll learn a little bit more about shortly. They went together to the crown prince of Sweden because there was a time when the yeshiva wanted to leave Shanghai. They were worried about the, you know, the Japanese and the war and the Japanese gave them permission to leave if they had a place and they went and they got a collective visa for the 500 students of the Mirisha to come to Sweden. It didn't happen because they needed transport and the Russians refused transport on the Trans Siberian railway at that time. They had other plans which they were working on as they were expanding their own war effort. But pause for a second and think. So here's this man. How old is he? He's 25 26 years old. He's a yeshiva bakar that got displaced and finds himself in Sweden where he has a tutoring job. And what's he doing? He's acting as if there's nobody else in the world who can save these people cuz that's what you do. And Raoba said that he never would have done anything of it if not for the the education and the example which he had from that said that a person doesn't live for themselves and Adam a human being in the image of God. God isn't self-serving. God is there to do and to give and a human being isn't self-s serving and you have to be aware and as Ravim noticed the bakr fainting in the middle of his intense druss and said hey one second you need some fresh air and as your asba described him people think and by the way it's we do think that because there's one famous picture of and he has a very long face in that picture. But Ravi Rrookim was a smiley man and there are pictures of him with this glorious glorious smile and that was Ravi. Riim felt that you know you you have a responsibility to other people famous salant you know nobody has to suffer because of your intensity because you're working on yourself. It's not your fault. Israel famously said the is a human's face is the public domain. It belongs to everybody and therefore you have to treat it properly for other people and that was and again it wasn't just like a shtick that he walked around and he smiled. It was that life was you want to grow yourself and you want to figure out what you could do for anybody else. And that's twin obsessions, twin focus, right? I'm focused on this. I'm focused on that. And now it was very clear what he had to do. And this Yeshiva Bakr who wanted to learn Tyra and teach Torah. And by the way, he did that too, right? This is it's almost unbelievable. It's almost unbelievable. But in Shanghai, we mentioned this many years ago. We talked about the mirror. in Shanghai, you know, the yeshiva, the mere yeshiva somehow was pounding away. They were learning and thriving. And they published, right? They published like a collection of Torah essays from the Talidum from the students who who had run away from Poland from the Holocaust and were in Shanghai. They also published an article, a serious Torah which they got from a student of the Mirisha in Stockholm. Raoba sent Ashikul to Torah to be published together with the work of the yeshiva. So by himself, not married, an adoptive family who he didn't live in their house, who cared for him and and you know he was working for them and working with them and certainly cared for him magnificently who saved his life but he lived on his own did on his own had his basamus which became ground zero for the vadola in Sweden. He was the official designate. He was in touch with the Reichman's in Switzerland and with Rav Kalmanovich in New York and with Revitz in Shanghai with all these people. He is busy doing telegrams and communication and back and forth. These were the formative years of this man. And it doesn't end there. It doesn't end there. The war ended. Barak Hashem at some point the war ended and Sweden was actually Sweden was a very good country. It's well known that Danish jewelry was saved. Like 9,000 Jews came from Denmark to Sweden and were saved and were saved by the righteous king of Sweden who did not want to see wasn't just neutral in that sense. And as we said, they offered transit. They offered visas for a whole the whole Mirisha to come to to come to Sweden. And after the war they welcomed in many many survivors especially a lot of women and children survivors of concentration camps. Thousands of women came to Sweden. There were people here also came. Many of you remember one of the dear dear members of Arshul who was always ended up being mentioned on Tishab was Reverend Stern. Reverend Stern went to Sweden from I remember what his last I think his last life was Bergen Belzen. He went to he went he went to Sweden and Yakobsum who I'm mentioning here in this was he he owe he felt he owed his life to Yakuzan. came he and others came from Sweden to Baltimore to Ner Israel, you know, he he he he came here from there and um so there were thousands of of people and some of them were from religious backgrounds, not all of them were from religious backgrounds. and um Ravoba and Raviakaban who had who had who had who had moved to Sweden and others they they wanted to know what they could do for them and they went Ravula came to a displaced a rehab camp a displaced person's camp he came in and he came and he as a young as a bucker as a 25-year-old he had a long beard he wore a a a long coat and a hat. He looked very rabbitic. And he walked in and these women had not seen, you know, the women who were from religious backgrounds had not seen a Jew who looked like that in years in I mean, if it wasn't years, it felt like years or decades and worlds apart. And he walked in and like they started like screaming in a positive way like aided and he met with them and he sat with them. He had brought along something for himself to eat. They were eating. There was a big issue with Kashus and he asked them if there was a place where he could wash his hands and he washed until Sad. They all watched him washed until Sadim say the brah. They were like crying. They hadn't seen this. They hadn't seen a Jew acting like a from a Jew. And Rulba knew he had to do something. He knew he had to do something. And he got on the train back to Stockholm and he's thinking, "What am I going to do? What am I going to do?" And on the train, he realized what he has to do. He says we have to build a school, a residence school for the young women who want to come into a religious background. I mean that the camp, the Swedes were wonderful at taking care of them. They provided them with nursing care. They provided them with food, not kosher food. Anybody who just wanted to be taken care of physically and rehabilitated was taken care of. There was no rescue work like that which needed to be bought there, brought there. But there were many many religious women who were part of it who were part of it and would clearly would welcome coming back. And when he realized that that's what he had to do, what did he do? His his grandson told me he got off the train at the first stop and he sent a cable. He sent the cable to his colleagues in Sweden and said, "We have to meet this evening to discuss this." And he did that because he learned from that when you have something that comes up that's important, you don't waste. You don't wait. You at the earliest opportunity, you do something to move it forward. So he got off the train at the early stop. He sent the cable. He got on the next train. And that night they met. He met with Yakob's son. They were in touch with New York and they said, "We're going to do this. We're going to build a school for these kids. What do we have to do?" And they figured out what they had to do. They had to contact the Swedish government, the Department of Education or the Department of the literally within days they got a response saying, "We'd like to come and meet with you to discuss." And they came and Raulba said and again I this is repeated over and over again so it's certainly true. They said how many schools do you want? And they were again like overwhelmed. Wow. The pious of the nations of the world and and they said one one and they said give us a little bit of time. And within days, within a week, I think they came up with a site in a town in the country outside of Stockholm. It's called Lindigo. I think that's the way it's pronounced where they had a beautiful home and grounds and it was made completely available to them. And they created a school, a community for a whole number of girls. I don't want to say the number exactly but it's a large number of girls over the couple years that it was in operation and um it was it was trauma treatment there's a book which um I forget what the title of it is but it's written by a Mrs. Mantel who's whose I believe her mother was there and uh and it basically much of the book is just stories of chapter after chapter of this how this trauma was addressed and this was rehabilitated like these girls had been to a terrible through terrible terrible things. They had lost family. They had every the right to every insecurity possible. who was who lived and breathed the place. There were others but she lived and breathed the place. She was a an exceptional exceptional human being clearly. I mean the the the bottom line is and by one of the teachers there was the woman who would end up being Rabbitzen Vulba. She would end up being Ravula was kept uh was involved but really really from a distance but she was the daughter of Rav Gzenski Hashimo who was the last Mashk of the Slabki yes Shiva and she was capable and she was a survivor and she came and she taught there um but but the the the alumni of Lindigo most of them live in Erit Israel and they're like mothers and grandmothers and great-grandmothers and they remained bonded as a community of people just a remarkable remarkable thing and Ravula was the spark for it and it's written not by Ravula and not by Raulba's wife but by others that Rabbit and Yakob all the issues all the questions of how they should handle things she asked a vulba that she had a great husband her husband was a was an incredible incredible person. She was older than Ravula. She had more of a career in education than him. Ravula was the one who advised and and guided and um in fact he wrote he he wrote about it a little bit uh but as a as a hashem and as again something which he saw as did it for him. wife wrote a book, Rabbits and Vulba, wrote a book. I forget what it's called, but it's a book in English about her war experiences. The first half is about her war experiences, which are dramatic and traumatic, and then the second part is a collection of of writings from students of Lindigo and Rava writes a little essay of introduction there. again just you know so like like does this fit like is this what like what you imagined like like learning this story what does it tell you it tells you that a person who's a great person doesn't decide today what his life is going to look like and then say okay and whatever fits within that that range of vision is what I'm going to do. None of this is what he could have thought to do. But that was what the moment called upon him to do. Yoshio opens up to say for Tyra and he hears that it's talking to him that it's talking to him. Raulba never considered himself as a survivor of the Holocaust because he wasn't there. He left Poland in 1938. He wasn't in Shanghai even. He was in Stockholm. He spent the war outside of its range. Unlike his wife who was in camps and was in the covenant ghetto and their family was killed, right? But he was called upon and he did something and this was his this was his uh this was his peace. He he heard the call himself. He heard the call himself and he saved as many as he could save and he rebuilt what he could rebuild. It's not noteworthy as we mentioned Raoba did not he he visited the school and he taught in the school at times he was not of the main staff of the school present. What was he doing? He spent a lot of his time traveling in Sweden from hospital and convolescent home from hospital and con to hospital and convolescent home because there were there were survivors who were there and he went to visit them to see them to strengthen them. Ravula spent a rashashana I believe it was rashashan of 1945 but I may be incorrect but I believe it was rash of 1945. He said he spent the entire rashash shana going from room to room and building to building in a hospital blowing chaur for women who were there some of whom were alive on the first day of rashash shana and not on the second day of rashash shana. And he said this Mashki who started preparing Muser talks for Russashana on Shiva. Okay. His grandson told me he as we said before he wanted to be so he wanted to think through everything before he gave it to the yeshiva. So he spent the 40 days from Shivasamos till to prepare for the what he would do during the 40 days from Altium Kipper with his students, right? Preparing and talks and Muser and he said the rashashana that he spent hardly davening going roomto room to blow Shaifer for sick people survivors was the most impactful and uplifting Rashashana he ever had in his life. like Ravisrell Salanter who was found after Colidre rocking a baby when he had passed by a house cuz somebody went to Kidra and left the baby and the baby was crying. Rabies thrills Yam Kipper was was quieting the baby. So there's a call there was a crisis then there's a crisis now people heard it hear it they heard it let's say the kina and then we'll say arivan over the martyrs of the holocaust kina 11 is the kina it's in the corin on page 289 and in the art scroll on page 182 too. You're 11. foreign. Fore speech. foreign Fore! Foreign! Foreign! foreign love. nice shi. [Music] kina kina 21 that we do say every year aronine after the harug malus and um of course this is the story of the 10 greatest of the Jewish people who were killed by the Romans in their time and yet who they and their Tyra and what they stood for for the Jewish people carried forward forever. We said before the uh what the pan said by Ben who he was killed as you know they sent him up in flames wrapped in the safer tyra and he uh said when he was asked what he saw he was asked by his children what do you see he said he sees him the parchment is burning but the letters are flying away the pun Vijarv who suffered so much loss. He said that the task of survivors is to find a new place and to lay out a blank parchment and to let those letters have a place to land. And that's what he did initi was certainly what Ravula strived to do. He would often he he many many times said that he was speak would speak to Levvenstein. Levvenstein was the successor of Ravim as the Mashk in the mirror and then in Israel he was the Mashk in Pivision. He was one of those who was Raul. He referred to him as sadik. Everybody referred to him as a sadic. And Evanstein would say how many people died in Europe? What died? Who what died? Tell me what died in Europe. And uh and Ravo would say they say six million. He said no. He said European jewelry died. The whole thing died. Yet it's uh its richness he viewed as his personal legacy of Katkov to replant and to replant in a way which couldn't they couldn't have anticipated. It's uh in any logical way what what what would become what what would grow of it. He had Raoba had the interesting very very unusual task that his father-in-law was gradi was one of the great Muser personalities Grazenski came to Israel when yeska moved to Kvron and then for whatever reason he had to go back so he wasn't there when was slaughtered and he was back in Slabotka and he succeeded the altar Slabatka as in his role. He was a huge personality, significant personality, the great Mashkim and Rava was a person who had done Chuva and came and learned something by by Ravi. And then as fate would have it, he married the daughter of Gazinski. never met Gazinski. when his his daughter survived the war and the Kazish suggested and pushed the shak and they got married and in a sense he was now the successor of two of the great personalities of Muser in Europe before the war and he had two pictures that hung in his dining room his rebi and a razenski his his uh his a father-in-law who became his Rebean and writing and uh he named his two children. One of them he named Aram after his wife's father sorry his two sons. He had multiple daughters and he named his other son David Yakov after that convilelesing mirror student who he met in Montre who said you should really go to learn by ravi and then he was killed in the holocaust and he had no zer so he gave him a name and uh so like that's in a certain sense the circle of the harug malus of laying it And so as we say it, as we say this, we recognize the the shocking level of the and you know as we creep towards we recognize that the story which we told today is a story of a person who didn't let the last tried whatever he could do to prevent it and then did dramatic things to rebuild both the individuals who went through it and rebuild the ideas that would have otherwise not survived 21 4:15 in the Quran 28 uh 248 in the art school forg. for [Applause] So love me. So Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Foreign speech. And for speech. Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Foreign I hope that everything we discussed today was important and worthwhile. Perhaps what we're going to say now in introduction of the last stage, last kinos is what's most important. Perhaps it's certainly very important. So you know a lot of his life, you know his youth, how he quickly became enamored with Yiddishkite, how he went one step after another till he went to the Mirisha, then he had to leave and built himself and managed on his own and saved lives and rebuilt lives in Sweden and then he came to Israel and he went back to learn in the yeshiva. went to learn in the lumi yeshiva and which was then like before the yeshivas that are famous now you know that's where was you know like yeshiva and he learned there and they got married a period of time and then the kazanish told him he needs to start a yeshiva and he started yeshiva and ber yakov which was still a dusty town and uh um he got a campus from a youth movement that had some a campus like a little building. He he lived there. Raviakov Kamineski was his uncle because Ravakov Kamitki was and Ra Gazinski were married to sisters. Ryakov Kamineski went to visit him in Beryakov and he just cried at the poverty in which they lived. They lived like with nothing, nothing, nothing. Um I have there are two volumes of letters of Arvulba. When they started the yeshiva it was him and the cook and the rashisha which was a different rasha and one talmet for a period of time. It was like was not glorious. Was not glorious. And they started and they stayed the course and he built built it into a very significant yeshiva and he was there until the early 80s early 80s he moved to left the yeshiva and he he moved to open opened the base hamus. Interestingly, just an interesting piece of uh information he had written he wrote Alishur Kakalif in 1965 after he was Rashiva for about 10 years I believe then he published it that's when he published it uh 20 years later I think 1965 20 years later a little bit less than 20 years later he published Alik but what happened was he wrote it already about 15 years later and then when he moved from Biryak to us he felt is is a different thing and he rewrote the cafer uh he wrote the cafer and there he established the ba muser and to promulgate the teaching of muser which I have dear friends who who went from America to learn so we're transformed by the opportunity the experience there with Rava and um and many others and and uh and then he started another yeshiva. He didn't stop really. However, I'm not going to talk about those things. What I want to share with you is a different chapter in his life which is represented by this book. This book, this is the modern edition of this book. Somewhere in my house I have the original edition which was known by the title benches loss. Besar is a play on words. We refer to the period of the as between and which is Yamiper which on the 10th of the month. This was between the war of the sixth day war and the user and the Yamipper war. When the six- day war happened, there was an awakening. And Ravula said, "Hey, one second. The Jewish people who have been in a very not religious, many of them have been a very not religious mindset have suddenly seen miracles. They've come back to holy places which have stirred them. the mod the kosel you know having getting back to those places the soul of the Jewish nation was stirred and it was a moment and he said I I have to I have to act on it and he went to he said I can't just sit here said do whatever you can that doesn't compromise your work in the yeshiva and ravulba started traveling and speaking to any and every group who would listen. He traveled to the front in the Mkipra war. There are stories about him traveling giving not stories we have printed some of this. This book is a collection of shurim that he gave. And this one is in kibbut hula which was like the most anti-religious kibbutz in Israel at a time. And and uh this was at an army base and this was for a group of physicians and this was for a faculty of a university someplace. Um he spoke to every group. In fact, Rabbi Kokus told me that one day Rabbi Kokus came to Yakov in 1965. One day like in the like around 1970 Ravula said to him today I spoke to the last group that I could think of that I could find of like uh you know that he could attract he didn't speak to every Jew in Israel but like okay doctors academics like like he did this and he felt that he had to I want to tell you something I heard from talidim from two different students. Two different students because they're different people and because they're very different people. I heard from a person whose name is Rabban Bamburgger who's lives in Mansi. He was a Talmud in Beryakov. He's a distinguished RV. He's a European. He uh he looks like a truly like a a ravash like a dignified man and he's such a wonderful person and so rich. He's a mashki in Rabbi Redinski's or Ruven in in my amongst other things. A big marb's Torah big teacher of Torah and filled with Tyra and a dedicated Talmet of Ra vulba. He said Ravula said listen to this it's priceless. He said every mission and is there to teach us something to teach us. Okay. So you'll call it whatever you want to call it. It's not teaching you shabas. It's not teaching you, right? But it's teaching you every line in is there to teach you something. What's the first line in teach in teaching you to do? First line just says received the from gave it to Yeshua. Yeshua kingdom. So you and I, we've all learned. So what do we say? Okay, this is the background of the Ms of the generations that are going to be taught there. We're trying to say that there's a Msora on this Torah, too. Ravula said, "What the Mishna is teaching you is that if you received some Tyra, you have to give it over. If you received some Tyra, you have to give it over. Rabbi Kokus told me Raoba said if you have a kdish, you have to share it. Now it's interesting because you know sometimes people like the alter of Kelm was famous holding on to a kadesh for 25 years without sharing it with anybody. So that he internalized it. But Raulba said you have it, you have to share it. You have to give it. Rabbi Lee Kelman was also a Talmud of Raa. Rabbi Kelman looks different than Rabbi Benim Bamburgger. He grew up in California. He he went through he had a bach got a bachelor's and a master's degree in one of the campuses of University of California and uh and um he became he became in Los Angeles through yeshiva Los Angeles including including Rabbi Tman he acknowledges Rabet Tikman in his in his in his books as one of the people who helped him Tman from Baltimore and uh and uh and Rab Kelman went to Israel And he sort of like had what Ravula had with Ravim, he had with Ravula. He met Raulba and it transformed his life. But it wasn't simple. So Ra Rafa Kelman, by the way, is one of those people who's most responsible for spreading the Tyra of Rava to a broader audience, right? He can he made Kaburas all over the United States and Canada, right? teaching people how to learn Muser in the way of Raulba he's written books he the planting and building whatever it is very responsible very exceptional person very very dear friend and a real personality of Muser a real personality of Muser very special person and uh Arabic Kelman I have to tell you a couple of stories okay just because before I tell you the story which I started this sentence going to that I was going to say but I just have to tell them to you because they have to be said. They're just dramatically magnificent. Uh Rabbi Kellerman learned of Raulba and he went to Raulba to the Bam Muser on Wednesday night when he gave a shir a schmoo and lots of people came to the schmoo and Kelman came and he came early and he did the you were supposed to learn muser for an hour or whatever is before the schmoo. He came he learned muser for an hour. He got he had a seat in the front and Ravulva spoke and he had many questions and when Rulva finished he wanted to ask the questions but it was like a rush and he said I never got like he he he didn't have sharp elbows not that it was good to have sharp elbows in a baser but you know he he just he just he never got to ask his questions and uh after a while of doing this he uh he asked he said to Boba what am I supposed to So I I I want to ask I can't ask. So at that time Raoba had a shir on Monday nights for some Russia yeshiva who wanted guidance in Muser and he said you can come. R Kelman was number five. There were there were four Russia yeshiva and Rabbi Kellerman and he came and he was able to ask questions afterwards. He said it took him a little while to understand because they were starting steps ahead of him, but eventually he caught on and he was for several years and he was able to ask and then Raoba opened in his 80s he opened a new yeshiva yes which now is called after him and uh and um he said he came in one one night he said I'm sorry guys but this is the last he probably didn't say guys I'm sorry but this is the last Monday night I just I don't have the time to do this anymore. And uh Rav Kellerman was devastated and he said it must have been trauma. He said like the next Monday night he went to the baser and it was dark and he just went inside and he sat there and he cried. He said I lost this opportunity and he says he doesn't know how long he was there. At some point he hears footsteps and Revula walked in and he found him there and he said what are you doing here and he said I don't know what I'm going to do I missed the shear saba said so come Wednesday night so he said I tried that I never got to ask you anything said come Wednesday night so he came Wednesday Okay. And he went early to learn Moser and he sat in the front and he had many questions and the Shir ended and everybody rushed and he was stuck and Ravula was sitting in the front and people started asking questions and Ravula looked looked and he said he found Rabbi Kellerman in the crowd. He said, "Come here." Rabba sat on a bench and he said in the language that Hill used said shaal bin sha askan whatever you want and for years that was Wednesday night in the baner. Relman asked Raoba questions after the shar and other people listened in. So Rafelman here's another rich story. Six years he came to he came here to Israel. He came to learn Baluva six years. So he he he he he he met he he came to learn and he came to this place and some one a leader is asked him said tell me where you coming from he said he said you went to university he said yeah I went to university how long said I six years I had a four years undergraduate two years graduate he says oh it's going to take you at least six years to reverse that he says who are you say came from here I I was you studied in university six years, four years this he says what did you study? He said I studied 17th century Christian literature. Surva said he said with specifically Milton special specialist special focus on Milton. SA said tell me something interesting that you learned. I don't know if you if you appreciate like this is integration wholeness and Rava Kman learned serious seriously seriously seriously day and night day and night day and night not uh didn't just learn muser like week to week Wednesday night he learned like you were supposed to learn mash and he said and at a certain point ravulba said to him um you've taken enough it's time for you to give. And Ra went to his who was a very fine person, a big and he said Ravula said to me, "I've taken enough." But he said, "No, you you should stay." And he went back to Ravula. And Ravula gave him a piece of paper. He took a piece of paper. He wrote down a few makyus, a few sources in Kazal and he said, "You give it to your Kyo." And he gave it to his rush. as Rashel turned over the piece of paper, wrote down a bunch of sources in the opposite direction and sent it back and in the end where it was but that was what he held and this safer is Ravula was giving all the time but there were people who were hungry who were ready for Tyra who weren't getting and Rulba pushed Ravula says there there are quotes here in the cafer where he says Anyone who has a mouth that enables them to be able to give over to somebody else has to. This is what the time requires. This is what the time needs. This is what the time needs. It's not for ourselves. Ruven who is the Yeshiva He learned he was a close helmet of Rava. He said Ravula invested him a lot of time and he would thank Rava and Raulba said, "Excuse me, I wrote it down here to don't thank me. What I'm giving to you, what I'm teaching you is not for you. I'm giving it to you because over time you're going to use them and share them with Kalisrael. Don't thank me. I heard him once speak and he said, you know, I I mentioned didn't write his name. So what does it say? Who who's the author? Sudar arranged and composed of with Hashem's help and in the merit of the commun and Ra said very powerfully it wasn't like oh you know everybody says they give like a little a little assist literally felt that that was whatever he had he had to give. I think it was one of the talmid. I think Rabbi Kokus said no no I think it was I think it was Rabbi Vamager said that he that he one of them said that he spoke to someone who was a contemporary of Ravula in the Mir Yeshiva in Poland and they were jealous. They were upset because this fellow came this fellow came from Berlin for via Frankfurt and Montra and Ravim was spending a lot of time with him and they were jealous why are you spending so much time with him and Ravim said I'm not spending time with a young man I'm spending time with a generation. He understood, he saw that Rava was not taking it for himself. That wasn't going to live for himself. that the lesson and the example of Raim that you don't live for yourself that an Adam doesn't live for himself. The awakening that was then in 1967 and is the awakening that is now. It's the awakening that is now. People understand number one that we're living in a time of miracles and people understanding number two that all the idols are in pieces on the floor. All the others, all the other things, all the other value systems, all the other communities that we thought to be a part of nothing. All we have is a shabbashim and call Israel. And whether it's in the dramatic stories not from one person but from hostage after hostage and hostage family after hostage family that's found God under the ground whether it's just in the receptivity to the fact that Kal Israel sits and cares and davins This is a time when Jews can become Jews in the full meaning of the word. And that means that each of us, you and I, every one of us has to like a shame here. You got Tyra. Why did you get it? You got it. Give it. And whether that means that you teach it to somebody. And I know everyone say, "I can't really do that. I'm not good at that. I'm not one of those people." You know, a lot of the teaching that we do, as we've mentioned 10 or 12 or 15 times this morning, is not by what we say, but by who we are. By who we are and how aware we are of other people and how aware we are of what other people are going through. There are terrible misunderstandings on certain levels of the Jewish people today. The vast majority of Kalisa wants to connect to each other, wants to see the beauty in each other. But there's some holes and some opportunities lost. Now what people do, whether they should go to the army or they shouldn't go to the army, they should argue about this or or or that which position they take. I'm not going near that right now. Amalopy. Nobody should argue about recognition and appreciation of what others are doing to give their lives. Others are doing out of a sense of dedication. Okay? So we see things differently. For some it's a unforgivable you know Raulba in the in his letters he has an exchange with an old friend of his from Germany it seems who wrote a a public article this is going to the 60s or early 70s about who serves and who doesn't serve wrote him privately and nicely and writing about his appreciation and writing about you know how it's absolutely inappropriate for somebody to take to you know to to to to not serve for not good reasons and it's still at the same time trying to teach what the world was behind that wall allesure behind that wall, the world of Torah and why it needed what it needed. Again, the content of it is really not so relevant right now. Just like he went through what we go through just and at a certain point he got like very frustrated in the in the exchange. Like I I I honor you. I want to honor you. I wanted to talk to you. I I you're you're asking me to explain, but you you're you're too pained to listen. And that's a reality. It's a reality which we face. But people are too pain to hear us excuse ourselves. They're not too pained to hear our appreciation. They're not too pain to hear that we realize we're only there because of you. and uh this moment which is a real moment of opportunity engagement with the Jewish people. So we started by saying you know like the Jewish people look terrible to people who are on the outside and we end with saying that for people on the inside Jew to Jew we're also not in a great place and we have to take it upon ourselves right Kelman I said did he speak about this he said he just knows that he took his kids to listen to Raoba before Bayas on it and Raoba used to speak about leim where they would send out people to go visit secular Israelis and bring them some connection and some friendship and some to he said and his kids were shocked because Raoba always spoke almost in a monotone. He spoke very very measured, very very Western European. He said, but as he ended, he screamed always. He said, "You have to, you have to, you have to. There's Mashiach Benf and Mashiach Ben." The real Mashiach as we know is Mashiach Bit not Mashiach Bis is a preparatory stage is the one why because Mashiach Bisfad had a terrible challenge with the wife of Katif and what did he do? He remained at Sadi. He didn't fail. He was Yafatadic. Sadic can't cure the world. He doesn't know what a cure looks like. He only knows what prevention looks like. David sinned with Bachv and he fixed it perfectly. He said so could bring Mashiach because he says you know I was there and I came back and was there and he came back and he said everybody's got to have that chance and everybody who's got gotten the chance to see the light and hear a word of Tyra Kel Tyra has got to give it. And if you can't teach it in words or in a class, you can teach it by who you are and realize that people see who you are and what you stand for. And when they see you, they should say ashim fortunate is the father, is the parent, is the teacher who taught them Tyra. They should say like Mrs. Layman said, you know, you just see this man and you want to be like him. That's what it means to be. That's what it means. Sorry, I went on longer than intended. We'll we'll recite a couple of more kenus and and get up off the floor. Um we'll we'll say mutain rashimoy ka 25. It's a kina for later historical events of destruction of kal Israel. It leads into a kina which is circulated on paper specifically for the recent events of October 7th which is written in the same style which you should have. I actually don't if somebody has an extra one but it's kina 25. It's on on page 455 in the Quran and 270 in the art school. is live. You see friend for my Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Sam, Sam, Sam. Just can I borrow the paper? Sorry, I don't have Okay, we can say as well the one which is on the loose paper which is for the current war. for Fore! Foreign! Foreign! [Applause] foreign. writes for foreign. Fore shal the I'm coming supposed to rise up. We rise up from being knocked down and we rise rise up from putting ourselves down on the ground. recall we uh began with tishabove being the mo of realizing that we're far away. We're far away piercing the conceptsia, the complacency. We're far away hitting the bottom. And then we're supposed to over the day somehow pick ourselves up. And we hope that through this incredible human being who taught us about the shakanti about what a person can be and that it's within the great person that the mishk will be restored that within the great person that the lessons will be taught that they'll be shared that the person who lives life with an awareness of others and a readiness to do for others and to spread Hashem's good name to others that through them indeed we will indeed stand up that from the distance of Tishabove will come to because he is close he cried Yeshua. My salvation is coming close and my righteousness to be revealed. That will be for the will be for us. Ask you to stand up. The last kina elit. We will sing together in the Quran on page 611. in the art school on page 390. Okay. Aldash may foreign laz. Fore the alley of your auth. kiss share is the army. He puts foreign aua. [Music] May God eljo. [Music] I sure this