Why It Says 3 Times ‘Zman Simchaseinu’

Historic Treasures — Episode 324: "Why It Says 3 Times 'Zman Simchaseinu'"

Welcome to our weekly program.

Tonight is Motzaei [Simchas Torah]. We usually have the program on Shabbos, but of course we couldn't this week. From next week on, we're going to have the program again on Shabbos.

I hope we all had a happy [Yom Tov], and we should have that the entire year. Now, it is not easy — it's not easy, everybody has their issues, everybody has their inyonim.

That's why it says by Sukkos — and I'm sure everybody has learned why it says three times "Zman Simchaseinu." It should say [that] by Pesach, [where] there were miracles, to be happy; by Sukkos, where we're sitting in a hut, what's the [reason for such joy]? There are many, many answers, but one of the things I saw — why it says it three times — is because this is the last of all the Yomim Tovim, so we have to continue to always stress that we have to be b'simcha. Simcha breaks all boundaries. So when a person is b'simcha, he can do anything, everything he wants. So it says that the reason it says this three times is because when a person is b'simcha, it brings all good things.

There is a custom tonight, this evening, to also sing a niggun. It's called the niggun Kazak. The Kozak was very much involved in battle, and he did a lot of [victories/nisim]. Since tonight is also [connected to] the victory, we sing the niggun Kazak — the Frierdiker Rebbe used to sing it, many times. It goes like this: "Ai dai dai, kazak bum, kazak bum, kazak chai bum" — [celebrating] the victory from the Kazak.

So this is a minhag that we sing [this niggun].

There is also a custom to say [the possuk] "V'Yaakov halach l'darko" — Yaakov went on his way — because now, after Yom Tov, everybody goes home. So, like Yaakov, everybody goes back to their regular work. So we have to take with us whatever we absorbed [over Yom Tov].

The ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the four days between Yom Kippur and Sukkos, and all these [days] — now we have to go out into the world. It says a person should not depart from his friend except with a devar halacha — in other words, a word of Torah — because through that he'll remember him.

Why does it say this? It comes from the word halicha — walking — meaning, when a person continues in this, then they'll be together, because they were together, so then they'll always remember each other. And the nekudah of Sukkos, the nekudah of the Ushpizin, the nekudah of all the Yomim Tovim, is to unite, to be together. So when people depart, they want to remember — you shouldn't feel bad that he goes here, he goes there — so always part with a word of Torah.

I once heard there was a [chossid] — his name was [Ninov?] — and he had a [chaver]; I forgot who it was. They felt bad [to part]. I think [one of them] was in Germany, so he had to go to France. In those days it's not like now, where you can travel 12 hours and go to America or to France, or even less. In those days, if you traveled far, you didn't know if you'd see each other again. So one said to the other, "You know what — you're going away, I'm going away — let's make up something: whatever I do, you do. I wake up at 6:00, you wake up at 6:00. I'll go to mikvah at 6:30, you go to mikvah at 6:30. I'm going to learn this Mishnah, you're going to learn this Mishnah." Whatever one does, the other will do. He said, "If that's how we're going to live, then we will be together. We'll do [the same], we'll be together."

Anyways, I want to say a vort today. You can see the program is not in the same room as always, but I want to say a vort, since we're starting again from the beginning [of the Torah] this week. I wanted to say something else, but that we'll leave for next week.

I want to say what I heard — something about when the Rebbe was a little child.

First of all, the Torah begins with a big Bet. The Aleph, which comes before Bet, complained [to Hashem]: "You should start the Torah with me first — I'm an Aleph, not a Bet." Hashem said, "Okay — when it comes to the Ten Commandments, I'll start with an Aleph" [Anochi].

There are reasons why [the Torah begins with] Bet — of course, everybody knows this reason too, that the world was created because of Yidden and because of Torah, and there are many, many reasons why the Torah begins with Bet. But I want to tell you this: when the Rebbe was a little child — that's what I heard — when the Rebbe was a child, learning, maybe nine or ten years old, he was asked why does the Torah begin with a Bet and not with an Aleph. The Rebbe says he doesn't know.

So the boy says, "I do know — my father told me — because Bet is brachah; also Bet is number two, Aleph is one. Bet is two, and number one is [haughtiness]. The Torah begins with a Bet because Bet is two." So this comes to teach that respect comes before [learning]. If you learn, you can be the biggest lamdan, but if you don't have respect for people, then that's not the way of the Torah.

Also, even if you open up a Chumash, how does it start? It starts on page Bet. Why is the [first] page Aleph [left as it is]? Because Aleph — that's number one — comes before learning. This is why — that's what he tells the Rebbe — [and the Rebbe] says, "I think I know too."

That's how the story goes. That's what I heard about why the Torah begins with a Bet and not with an Aleph.

Then he says this: the number nine is a very lucky number, because nine is Emes — Aleph is one, Mem is forty, Tav is four hundred — one, four, four — four plus four plus one is nine. So nine is Emes. That's why whenever you multiply by nine, the answer [reduces] to nine. 9 times 1 is 9. 9 times 2 is 18 — 8 and 1 is 9. 9 times 3 is 27 — 7 and 2 is 9. [This continues] all the way to millions, because since nine is Emes, truth always has to come back to truth.

Which numbers look the same? If you put 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, they all look different. The only numbers that look the same are a six and a nine. You take a nine and put it upside down, it becomes a six. Take a six, upside down it becomes a nine — because six is the opposite of nine. Six is Sheker — false — the opposite of Emes. Shin is three [hundred], Kuf is one [hundred], Reish is two [hundred] — that's six, that's Sheker. So six is the opposite of Emes. Where is the head of a nine? On top. Where is the head of a six? At the bottom. When you look at a child — a tinok — his head is more on top, more inclined toward holy things, things that belong to heaven — that's Emes, that's true. But when his head is on the bottom, in gashmius, in worldly things — that's Sheker, that's a six — the opposite.

Then he said, "Now let's get to why the Torah begins with a Bet, not with an Aleph." He says three is significant — whenever something happens three times, it's always established. Let's start counting the Aleph Bet. If the Torah had begun with an Aleph: Aleph, Bet, Gimel — one, two, three — is six, is Sheker. What comes after Gimel? Dalet [four], Hei [five] — five and one is six — that's Sheker. Then it continues the same way till the end of the Aleph-Bet. If you count by threes starting from Aleph, it's Sheker — false.

Now let's start counting the Aleph Bet from Bet: Bet, Gimel, Dalet — is nine [2+3+4=9]. Nine is [the result]. [The next group] again is nine [5+6+7=18, 1+8=9] — eighteen, eight and one is nine. And every group of three you count comes to nine. Nine is Emes — that's why the Torah begins with a Bet, to show the Emes.

And that's — I heard — that the reason it is Bet is: besides Bet being Brachah, Bet is also Bayis — house — so his whole house, his whole build, is different.

And that's the Bet in the beginning of the Torah. Now we start learning from the beginning of the Torah — we learn that we have to live, we have to walk, we have to take from all the Yomim Tovim — we have to take that everything comes down to believing in Hashem. It says Emunah is great — Aleph is Emunah, it's Aleph, Emunah, which is important. But Bet is higher than Emunah. It says, "HaKol mi she'yesh lo Emunah" — not everybody who has [intellect] has Emunah, but whoever has bitachon, we know that he believes in Hashem.

So that's why there is a Bet — that a person, right away, this morning we [completed the Torah reading] and then we read right away Bereishis — to show that this, we should take with us from all the Yomim Tovim. And with all this, as we said, this should be — and then we'll have a good year, a happy year, and a healthy year. We should have nachas from our children, and we should merit that from this — from the real [geulah] we have — a [geulah] should come.

Amen. Thank you.