Shifra and Puah Dinner 5753

00:10 Speaker 1 One, two. And... I have the honor of opening the annual evening of the Shifra and Puah organization. Good week, good month, and welcome. We open this evening with mixed feelings. On the one hand, it is such a festive occasion. We have all gathered, full of appreciation and gratitude for the wonderful Shifra and Puah organization, and we wish it continued success in its blessed work from the bottom of our hearts. Our hearts are full of joy. We are also full of faith, confidence, and joy that, with Hashem’s help, our redeemer will be here any moment now. But on the other hand, sadness fills our hearts. Many long months have passed since we heard our master, teacher, and Rebbe shlita speak to us, and we are all praying from the depths of our hearts for the Rebbe shlita’s swift, complete, and absolute recovery, and for the revelation of our righteous redeemer, literally right now. We will open the evening with a prayer. Let us all say chapter 91 of Tehillim together, and may it be Hashem’s will that Hakadosh Boruch Hu, the Father of Mercy, hear our prayer today. “One who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of Hashem: He is my refuge and my fortress, my G-d in Whom I trust. For He will save you from the hunter’s trap, from the destructive plague. He will shelter you with His pinions, and beneath His wings you will find refuge; His truth is a shield and armor. You will not fear the terror of the night, or the arrow that flies by day; the plague that walks in darkness, or the destruction that ravages at noon. A thousand may fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not reach you. You will only look with your eyes and see the retribution of the wicked. For You, Hashem, are my refuge; you have made the Most High your dwelling place. No evil will befall you, and no plague will approach your tent. For He will command His angels concerning you, to guard you in all your ways. They will carry you in their hands, lest you strike your foot against a stone. You will tread upon the lion and the viper; you will trample the young lion and the serpent. Because he desires Me, I will rescue him; I will raise him high, for he knows My name. He will call upon Me and I will answer him; I am with him in distress. I will deliver him and honor him. I will satisfy him with long life and show him My salvation.”

07:11 Speaker 2 Amen. Long live our master, teacher, and Rebbe, King Moshiach, forever and ever. By Divine Providence, Shifra and Puah have merited that your evening—an evening for all of us—falls on a very special date. On this very night, exactly 180 years ago, the Alter Rebbe, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, passed away: on 23 Teves, the night leading into 24 Teves, at eleven o’clock at night, after Shabbos Parshas Shemos, in the village of Piena in Russia. It is well known that the Alter Rebbe passed away while in exile. The Alter Rebbe lived in Liadi, and that year, 5572, war broke out between France and Russia. Napoleon, who was then gaining control over all of Europe, was advancing toward Russia as well. The Alter Rebbe’s unequivocal position is well known: he fought Napoleon with every spiritual means at his disposal. The Alter Rebbe held that if Napoleon won, there might be some improvement in the material circumstances of the Jewish people, but he was certain it could, G-d forbid, lead to a weakening of their spiritual state, of their relationship with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. He was forced to flee Liadi, and for many long months—from Menachem Av 5572 until nearly 19 Kislev—the Alter Rebbe and his entire household wandered through the Russian winter across the expanses of White Russia and Ukraine. On the eve of Shabbos Parshas Vayishlach, he arrived in the village of Piena, where he remained until his passing on 23 Teves, the night leading into 24 Teves. In his writings, the Tzemach Tzedek, when recording the passing of his great-grandfather, the Alter Rebbe, notes every detail of the date precisely. He writes that it was after Shabbos Parshas Shemos, that it was at eleven o’clock, and that it was on 23 Teves, the night leading into 24 Teves. In one of his sichos, the Rebbe shlita discusses this at length. Based on the Alter Rebbe’s principle that we must “live with the times”—meaning, live with the weekly parsha—the Rebbe shows us that there is a connection between Parshas Shemos

10:37 Speaker 2 which we read today and are just now leaving, and the Alter Rebbe’s passing. Especially since the Alter Rebbe passed away at eleven o’clock. Eleven o’clock is still an hour connected to the preceding Shabbos. We know that we do not say Tachanun until midnight. In other words, it is still connected to Parshas Shemos. So the question is: What do we find in Parshas Shemos? What do we find embodied in the essence of the Alter Rebbe’s life? How are these two subjects connected? If we look at the content of Parshas Shemos from beginning to end, we will see that if we had to give the parsha a title, it would be “Enslavement and Exile.” Parshas Vayigash and Vayechi tell of the arrival in Egypt. In Parshas Va’eira, the plagues begin; the first signs of the Geulah are already appearing. But Parshas Shemos, from beginning to end, is filled with a succession of events centered on enslavement and exile. It reaches the point where, at the end of the parsha, Moshe Rabbeinu turns to Hakadosh Boruch Hu and says, “Why have You brought harm upon this people? Why did You send me?” That is where Parshas Shemos ends. Now, regarding the day of the Alter Rebbe’s passing: What is a day of histalkus, of passing, in the first place? The Alter Rebbe writes in Tanya, chapter 27, that on the day of a tzaddik’s histalkus—histalkus comes from an Aramaic word meaning “ascent”—all the tzaddik’s deeds, Torah, and service ascend to heaven. Everything he did in this world—his Torah, his deeds, his service. In other words, his entire personality, his entire essence, everything he accomplished, all ascends to heaven on that day, and afterward it shines down below in revelations of light. So on this very day, at the very moments we are sitting here—for tonight is the night of the yahrzeit, and this year it falls on exactly the same day of the week—all the Alter Rebbe’s Torah, service, and deeds ascend on high. And if the Alter Rebbe passed away, as we described earlier, in exile—not in Liadi, the city where he lived—he passed away

13:59 Speaker 2 in Piena, in exile, after being driven from place to place. He endured suffering—all the things that characterize exile. He passed away in exile, on 23 Teves, the night leading into 24 Teves. The conclusion is that the Alter Rebbe, his very essence, his Torah, and his deeds are also connected to the idea of exile. What is exile? Exile is a time of concealment and hiddenness. To understand what exile is, let us look at its opposite. When the Jewish people lived in their land, the Beis Hamikdash stood in its place. Jews came to the Beis Hamikdash and saw signs and wonders. There were miracles. Pirkei Avos describes many miracles that took place before the eyes of everyone who came. They saw G-dliness. In exile, there is concealment and hiddenness, as it says in Tehillim: “We have not seen our signs.” We do not see G-dliness openly. As the Rebbe says, it is difficult to serve Hakadosh Boruch Hu with a person’s revealed faculties. A person’s revealed faculties are intellect and emotion. So in exile, a Jew serves Hakadosh Boruch Hu not with those great, revealed faculties, but with the yechidah of the soul, through the power of self-sacrifice that comes from the yechidah. The Alter Rebbe revealed to us that the soul has different levels: nefesh, ruach, neshamah, chayah, and yechidah. That level called yechidah is the deepest point of the soul. It is the soul’s very essence. It is what Yiddish calls the pintele Yid. This comes to expression specifically in exile. Precisely in exile, when one cannot serve—when it is difficult to serve—with the revealed faculties, a Jew can, and does, serve Hakadosh Boruch Hu with the power of the yechidah, the essence of the soul. That is what is unique about serving Hashem in exile. This is something that did not exist even when the Beis Hamikdash stood. What does this have to do with the Alter Rebbe? The Rebbe explains that just as exile reveals the essence of a Jew’s soul, the Alter Rebbe revealed the essence of Torah, the yechidah of Torah. The Torah, too, has different levels. Some levels are more revealed, and some are

17:11 Speaker 2 More hidden. The most hidden part of the Torah, the secrets of secrets, is Chassidus. It is the yechidah, the yechidah of the Torah. And the Alter Rebbe, during the exile, when the Jewish people were in a time of deep, compounded darkness, when the Jewish people were in a state of spiritual faintness, awakened them by revealing the yechidah of the Torah, the very essence of the Torah, which is the teachings of Chassidus. The Baal Shem Tov did reveal the teachings of Chassidus, but as the Alter Rebbe testified about himself in one of his debates with Reb Boruch of Mezhibuzh, the Baal Shem Tov’s biological grandson, the Alter Rebbe answered him: “I am the Baal Shem Tov’s spiritual grandson.” So the Alter Rebbe was the one who revealed the essence, the very core, the yechidah of the Torah. There is a well-known story that once, when the Maggid of Mezritch awoke from his sleep, he saw the Alter Rebbe with several other students and asked them, “Tell me, what happened here while I was asleep?” And the Alter Rebbe told him. One of the Baal Shem Tov’s students was also Rabbi Pinchas of Koritz. Rabbi Pinchas of Koritz came to Mezritch and disagreed with the Maggid. They were both students of the Baal Shem Tov. When he saw two pages of Chassidus lying around—they were apparently handwritten pages of Chassidus—he came to the Alter Rebbe and objected: How could pages of Chassidus be lying around? The Alter Rebbe answered him with the well-known parable of a prince who fell ill. The doctors said that to cure the prince, they had to find a certain exceptional stone, grind it to dust, mix it with water and give the prince some of this potion. Then perhaps he would recover. They could not find the stone. They searched and searched, until a wise man came and said that stones were set in the king’s crown, and one of the stones in the king’s crown, the

19:56 Speaker 2 most precious stone, was the one that might cure the prince. When they told the king, his answer was, of course: Take the stone, grind it up and give it to my son—even though it was only a chance; perhaps he would drink it, and perhaps he would spill it instead. And the meaning of the parable is clear. The stone in the king’s crown is part of something so important. The crown is the king’s glory, and here we are speaking about the stone in the crown. The entire Torah is the King’s crown. The teachings of Chassidus are the yechidah within the crown, its most precious stone. The Alter Rebbe brought it to us, ground it up and gave it to us to drink. Very many have drunk from it, and will drink from it, and be healed. And this is what exile and the Alter Rebbe have in common: both revealed the yechidah. Exile reveals the yechidah in the Jewish soul, and the Alter Rebbe revealed the yechidah in the Torah. In the weekly parsha, Parshas Shemos, the parsha of enslavement and exile, we are told about two women in whom we saw openly how the yechidah of the soul acted. These were women of self-sacrifice who, despite Pharaoh’s decree—“When you see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him, and if it is a daughter,” and so on—feared Hashem and did not obey Pharaoh. We will hear more about the midwives from the distinguished Rabbi Metzger, a rabbi from northern Tel Aviv, who has kindly come especially to speak to us. Please, Rabbi Metzger.

22:53 Speaker 3 Chabad women. Esteemed and distinguished audience, the initiators and organizers. This evening is dedicated to the fourteen years of activity of the Shifrah and Puah organization, which began here in Kfar Chabad—you have the distinction of having been first—and from here word of it, and the organization itself, spread to all, or to many, places in Eretz Yisroel. It all began at the initiative of the Rebbe shlita. Now Shifrah and Puah, who appear in our parsha, carried out their work with tireless self-sacrifice. But we have several questions about this part of the parsha concerning Shifrah and Puah. Shifrah was Yocheved, our Sages say; Rashi cites this right there. And Puah was Miriam. Pharaoh summoned Shifrah and Puah to ensure that the Jewish boys born during the king’s decree would not live, and only the girls would survive. One of the striking questions that cries out from this whole account is that Hakadosh Boruch Hu promises something rare in the Torah: immediately after their actions, the Torah states their reward. That is rare. Even though we know that a person is rewarded for his efforts in Gan Eden after a hundred and twenty years, you will not find a single word in the Torah promising a Jew that he will merit Gan Eden. There is not a word about Gan Eden. The reward is spiritual. The Torah does not spell out what Gan Eden is, but immediately after Shifrah and Puah’s actions: “And G-d dealt well with the midwives, and He made them houses.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives them their reward at once: royal houses, and houses of priesthood and Levites. At first glance, the question here is very striking. Let us take ourselves as an example. If, G-d forbid—G-d forbid; I am speaking purely hypothetically—a non-Jewish ruler governed this country and said to one of you sitting here, to the Chabad women: “Look, I want you to kill the babies you attend to as a midwife in the hospital.” Is there a woman here who would agree to his request? Is there a woman here who would not say to herself: After all, the Shulchan

26:40 Speaker 3 Aruch rules that for three things one must be killed rather than transgress: idol worship, murder and forbidden relations. Killing a newborn baby is murder. You are a midwife; as soon as the baby is born, you do something to prevent it from living. Would anyone be willing to do that? It is against the Torah, against Judaism, against every moral principle and value. So what was so extraordinary about what Shifrah and Puah did that they deserved so great a reward? And the Torah immediately specifies what that reward was. They did what any woman, any decent and moral woman, would do. With all due respect to the king of Egypt, despite his tyranny and cruelty as the cruel Pharaoh, what great credit do they deserve? They did the elementary thing: they kept the children of Israel alive. The answer is hinted at in the Torah. If, G-d forbid, this had happened to us, perhaps we would have acted differently. What would we have done? We would have gone to the king and said, “Listen, it’s true you were told I’m the midwife, but I’m not really so experienced in this. I suggest you give this assignment to someone more experienced than I am. I’ve only just given birth myself. My mother isn’t well. My mother is elderly, and I need to care for her. I don’t have time for these things. Give it to someone else.” That is how she would think: I don’t have to commit this sin of murder. If he gives it to someone else, let her deal with it. Normally, a person would find a way out. Shifrah and Puah, Yocheved and Miriam, did not for a moment think of taking the usual way out and evading the assignment. The moment Pharaoh summoned them, they said, “All right, we’re coming.” And they never thought of passing the assignment to someone else, because they said to themselves: We can be responsible for our own actions. Who knows, if we pass the responsibility

29:18 Speaker 3 to someone else, perhaps another woman will obey the king’s command. Perhaps she will, G-d forbid, kill the children of Israel. They took on the entire assignment, but did exactly the opposite: they kept the children alive. But notice that the king speaks to them in two stages. It says: “And the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, the name of one of whom was Shifrah and the name of the second Puah.” Then immediately again: “And he said: When you deliver the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him, and if it is a daughter, she shall live.” Why does it say “and he said” twice? “And the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives”; “And he said: When you deliver the Hebrew women.” Why say it twice? Pharaoh chose these two in particular, Shifrah and Puah, and not for nothing. The Sforno asks there: Surely there could not have been only two midwives for an entire people in Egypt. There were dozens of other midwives; there was not just one birth a day. After all, they bore six children from one womb. Do you know what “six children from one womb” means? The accepted interpretation is that every birth was a set of sextuplets, but that was something that happened miraculously. The straightforward interpretation is that one woman bore six children—not necessarily all at once, but six children came from one womb. According to that interpretation, what is so remarkable, so great or so miraculous about six children? That is a normal average in the chareidi community, where families have more than six. So what was the great miracle of the population growth in Egypt, if we take the straightforward interpretation that there were just six children from one womb in total? Rather, the greatness of the women in Egypt was that there was no maternity leave there, no National Insurance allowance, not a moment’s rest. A woman had to work day and night under the bondage of Egypt, and there was no such thing as pregnancy leave, either before giving birth or afterward. With that bondage of mortar

32:15 Speaker 3 And bricks and backbreaking labor, which our Sages explain as giving a man’s work to a woman, a woman’s work to a man, an old person’s work to a young person, and a young person’s work to an old person. Backbreaking labor, deliberately. Turning everything upside down. A woman who had to do a man’s work, making mortar and bricks, building Pithom and Raamses—and after the building was finished, an order came from the king: Now tear it down. One of the things that frustrates a worker most is when he has built something and can see it completed. He says, “I worked hard, but at least I have the satisfaction of seeing what I made.” Pharaoh came to crush that satisfaction. He said, “After you’ve built it, after you’ve created it, tear it all down and build it again.” For no reason. That was part of the backbreaking labor. Even giving birth to six children—not in one pregnancy, but giving birth again and again—and working under such harsh conditions took mesirus nefesh. Why were Shifrah and Puah chosen specifically? The Sforno explains, and I’ll put it in our own words. If there had been a central hospital in Egypt, Miriam would have been the head nurse in the delivery room, and Yocheved the head nurse in the nursery—or the other way around. Yocheved was in the delivery room: she was the midwife who cared for the baby at birth. And Puah, who attended to a crying baby, was already in the nursery. One was in charge of the delivery room, the other of the nursery, and both were head nurses, in our everyday terms. So he came to them as head nurses and asked them, saying, “I need you to go along with me all the way, because if you misrepresent what I say, you won’t be able to carry out my decree.” Why? What woman would have been willing—after all, we’re talking about Yocheved and Miriam, the most respected women among the Jewish people at the time. Yocheved’s husband was Amram. You see that when our Sages tell us Amram divorced his wife because of the decree, and Miriam persuaded him

35:00 Speaker 3 to take his wife back, everyone else followed his lead. He was a leader, and she was the leader’s wife. Everyone knew who she was. It wasn’t something they could hide—that Pharaoh had summoned Yocheved or Miriam. As soon as they returned home, the neighbors surely asked, “What did he want from you? What’s the new decree?” Imagine if they had said, “He told us to kill every boy whose birth we attend.” What woman would have been willing to come to Yocheved’s hospital? What woman in labor would have gone there, or entrusted her baby to Miriam’s nursery? They wouldn’t have come to give birth. Pharaoh told them, “I want you to carry out my decree cunningly.” How? “You’ll show the Jewish women that you’re compassionate, that you really improve the birth and soothe the babies—Shifrah and Puah—that you make sure the baby suffers and cries as little as possible. You’re compassionate nurses. Earn yourselves the names Shifrah and Puah. After a month, when everyone sees that you’re trustworthy…” Then, the second time, he tells them: “When you deliver the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a boy, kill him.” Only after you’ve won the trust of the mothers themselves. That’s why Pharaoh speaks to them in two stages. First it says, “The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives.” What did he tell them? Understand: I want one of you to earn the name Shifrah, because she improves the condition of the newborns. That’s how you’ll build trust. And the other, Puah—soothe the babies. Be the one who takes care of the nursery. After you’ve won their trust, then “he said to them”: Now I’ll tell you the real decree. “When you deliver the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a boy, kill him.” What did they do? Exactly the opposite. “The midwives feared G-d and did not do as the king

37:38 Speaker 3 had told them.” What didn’t they do? They didn’t do what he told them in the second stage, only in the first. “And they kept the children alive.” They worked to earn the women’s trust, but they kept it for good. And how did Hakadosh Boruch Hu reward them? “He made houses for them.” Houses, our Sages say in Sotah, page 11: three houses. One was the house of the priesthood, the second the house of the Levites, and the third the house of royalty. If our Sages wanted to allude to the three crowns we have—the crown of Torah, the crown of the priesthood, and the crown of royalty—why didn’t Hakadosh Boruch Hu give them all three? Why only the priesthood and royalty? What about the crown of Torah? The priesthood and the Levites descended from them, from Miriam and from Yocheved, Miriam’s mother. Aharon—the priesthood and the Levites. The crown of royalty: our Sages interpret the verse “And there was a king in Yeshurun” as referring to Moshe Rabbeinu. The king in Yeshurun is Moshe. Moshe’s royalty. King David, who descended from Miriam, was also a king of Israel. So why apply royalty to Moshe? They could have applied royalty to King David and given Moshe the crown of Torah. Why mention only royalty and the priesthood or the Levites? What about the crown of Torah? What about a house of Torah? Moshe Rabbeinu represents a house of Torah. The answer is that it was all in the merit of the midwives, Shifrah and Puah. Why? Pharaoh’s cruel aim was to destroy the Jewish people. He reasoned: If there are no more boys among the Jewish people, the Jewish girls will be forced to marry Egyptians. If the Jewish people have no boys, they’ll intermarry with Egyptians, and then, G-d forbid, the Jewish people will disappear. There will be no more Jews. His mistake was that he didn’t know that if a Jewish woman marries a non-Jew, her child is still Jewish. He thought that once they married non-Jews, that would be it—no more Judaism. But he didn’t

40:30 Speaker 3 solve the problem. When he said, “Let the girls live,” he meant, I don’t mind the girls. In his plan, those girls would marry Egyptians. But Jews would continue to exist. Where could Pharaoh have succeeded, G-d forbid? If the midwives had obeyed him, he could have harmed us. True, boys born from such intermarriages would have been Jewish, but none of them could have been a Kohen, because his father would be Egyptian. None could have been a Levi, because his father would be Egyptian. Nor could any of them have become a king later on, because it says, “From among your brothers you shall appoint a king over yourself.” If the father is Egyptian, even if he converts, the son of a convert cannot be king. So if the midwives really had obeyed Pharaoh, Jewish children would still have been born in Egypt and grown up there, but we would not have found Kohanim among them, or Levites, or royalty. That is why Hakadosh Boruch Hu gave them a special blessing: “He made houses for them.” Our Sages say in Sotah, page 11: not just any houses, but specifically the house of the priesthood, the house of the Levites, and the house of royalty. Those specifically. Those are the houses that, G-d forbid, we might have lacked if the midwives had obeyed him. “He made houses for them”—measure for measure. And why not the crown of Torah? Why does it specifically say “houses”? Why doesn’t it say that He gave them crowns—the crown of the priesthood? What are these houses? Notice that in Tehillim—we also say this in Hallel—we say: “House of Israel, bless Hashem. House of Aharon, bless Hashem. House of Levi, bless Hashem. Those who fear Hashem, bless Hashem.” Why doesn’t it say “house of those who fear Hashem”? Why

43:00 Speaker 3 It says, “House of Aharon, House of Levi, House of Israel”—but those who fear Hashem have no “house”? Why don’t Jews who fear Hashem deserve a house? They tell a story about Rabbi Yoshe Ber Soloveitchik, who once said to a friend, “Give my regards in Brisk to those who have no house.” The man looked at him: “What do you mean, those who have no house? Homeless people? Poor people sitting out on the street?” “By ‘those who have no house,’ I mean this: the House of Aharon and the House of Levi have a house. Give my regards to those who fear Hashem in Brisk, who aren’t called a ‘house.’” They have no “house” in their title. But why, really, don’t those who fear Hashem have a house? The answer is that a house alludes to permanence. A house is passed down as an inheritance. When a Jew builds a house, it isn’t for a month or a year; it’s for generations. It isn’t just any house. It’s a house with stones, with foundations. You build it to last forever. A house is more fitting for the priesthood. A house is more fitting for the Levites, but a house doesn’t fit those who fear Hashem. Why? Because permanence can be inherited. A kohen is born a kohen automatically. He doesn’t have to work hard for it. Whether he knows it or not, he’s a kohen. Once, a Jew from Russia came into one of the shuls in Tel Aviv. It was the first time he had been in a shul in years—so many years that he couldn’t remember ever being in one. And in the shuls in Tel Aviv, there’s a picture of a Jew holding his two hands in the position kohanim use for the priestly blessing. Suddenly, he wrung his hands. “Oh, what’s that?” He became emotional and began to... He didn’t quite know how to put it into words. So one of the gabbaim went over to him and asked, “What’s so astonishing about it?” He said, “You know, my father passed away seventy years ago, sixty

45:23 Speaker 3 -five years ago, and before he passed away, he told me this: ‘If anyone asks you who you are, do this, and they’ll know who you are.’ I didn’t know what it meant. Now, for the first time, I’ve come to Eretz Yisroel, and I see that sign in the shul. Tell me who I am.” They told him, “You’re a kohen, you’re a kohen.” He barely knew he was Jewish. He certainly didn’t know he was a kohen. But his father had told him, “Remember, if anyone asks who you are, do this.” He thought it was some kind of sign to use against the Communists.

00:00 Speaker 1 He was called a kohen. He did not have to work hard for that; it was enough to be born a kohen. The same is true of a Levi. A king, too, is born to be king. He begins as a prince and later becomes king. A “house” is fitting for what is inherited, for what endures. But fear of Heaven, the crown of Torah—our Sages tell us in Pirkei Avos: “Prepare yourself to study Torah, for it is not yours by inheritance.” Every Jew must study Torah for himself. It does not come by inheritance. Fear of Heaven and Torah are not acquired at birth. You have to work hard, to toil in Torah, and then you can become Torah scholars. That is what is hinted at here: “House of Aharon, bless Hashem”—a house is something you are born into. You were born a kohen, a descendant of Aharon. “House of Levi”—you were born into a house of Levi’im. But those who fear Hashem have no “house.” A person must attain that himself. That is why Heaven hinted to the midwives, “And He made houses for them.” Not Torah; He gave them the three things that truly endure as hereditary institutions: the kehunah, the Levi’im, and kingship. I say these things because you read Dvar Malchus every week, and I am sure you read it closely. We all know that the kingship endures, and, with Hashem’s help, we will yet merit to see that kingship come to Eretz Yisroel in good health, with the Rebbe shlita’s permission. But beyond that, we know that our parsha contains both great ingratitude and great gratitude. The ingratitude is Pharaoh’s: he forgot everything Yosef had done. “A new king arose who did not know Yosef”—an ingrate. As for gratitude, there are many indications that Moshe Rabbeinu was grateful to the Nile and would not strike it to bring the plague of blood, because the Nile had saved him. He would not strike the earth to bring the plague of lice, because the earth had saved him when he buried the Egyptian in the sand. He showed gratitude. And gratitude

02:47 Speaker 1 for your wonderful work is something everyone knows about. The Chabad women of Kfar Chabad have spent fourteen years on this wonderful work and marvelous initiative of Shifra and Puah. Each and every one of you has had a strong hand in it: making the atmosphere in a new mother’s home better and seeing to everything she needs, in every area of life, both spiritual and material. You know better than I do about the wonderful work in which you all take part. And I must tell you that each of you becomes a source of strength. Do you know how the Hebrew word for “friend,” yedid, is written? Yad and another yad—“hand” and another “hand.” Why? Because friends usually clasp hands. Hand to hand makes a friend: yad and another yad. The Hebrew word for a hand is yad because each hand has fourteen joints in its fingers, and the numerical value of yad is fourteen. When one Jew clasps another’s hand, fourteen plus fourteen is twenty-eight—the numerical value of koach, “strength.” Because friendship gives us strength for so many things in life. And when more than five hundred women sit together at an evening like this, at least once a year, and join hands in support of an organization as important as Shifra and Puah—hand in hand after fourteen years of activity—I have no doubt that you add strength, energy, fresh momentum, and further encouragement to the esteemed and admired work being done here among you and reaching other places through you. I wish the women who initiated this work, and all those engaged in the holy work of Shifra and Puah, that Hakadosh Boruch Hu will be good to you and give you homes. May you merit, with Hashem’s help, joy, nachas, and prosperity in your homes. And may Hakadosh Boruch Hu send His blessing to every woman who cares for another: good health, success, livelihood, and nachas. And may you have homes. Amen.

05:44 Speaker 1 May it be His will.

05:52 Speaker 2 And one who blesses others is blessed. We wish Rabbi Metzger success in increasing fear of Heaven, fear of Hashem, in Tel Aviv and throughout the country. Thank you very much, Rabbi Metzger. Yasher koach. It is well known among chassidim that telling a story about the Baal Shem Tov on Motzaei Shabbos is a segulah for livelihood. You have surely all heard the three mistakes the Rebbe Maharash pointed out in that statement. The Rebbe Maharash said: It is a segulah not only for livelihood, but for all good things. Telling a story is a segulah not only on Motzaei Shabbos, but every day. And the story need not be only about the Baal Shem Tov, but can be about any of the tzaddikim. So here is a short story about the Alter Rebbe, whose yahrzeit we are marking, that relates to our subject. The Rebbe shlita relates, in the name of the Rebbe Maharash, a most remarkable story about the Alter Rebbe. Once, on Yom Kippur after Shacharis, the Alter Rebbe took off his tallis and kittel, the special Yom Kippur garment, left the shul, and went to the edge of town. He chopped wood, cooked hot soup, and brought it to a woman who had just given birth and lived at the edge of town. Think about whom we are speaking: the Alter Rebbe. And when? On Yom Kippur. The Alter Rebbe saw fit to interrupt the prayers on Yom Kippur to help a new mother. How great is the merit, how great the value and importance, of helping a woman who has given birth. The Alter Rebbe said that where the faculties of intellect can no longer reach, one can accomplish something through song. The Chassidic singer Rabbi Avi Piamenta is here with us. We will ask him to bring us the pleasure of music on Motzaei Shabbos, at the meal of Dovid Malka Meshicha. Please.

14:02 Speaker 5 Thank you very much, Rabbi Avi Piamenta. We will continue with the program. We have an important guest here from the Ministry of Labor and Welfare, Mrs. Miriam Ramot. We will ask Mrs. Miriam Ramot to speak to us about the value of volunteering. Please.

14:28 Speaker 6 Thank you very much. Good evening, honored guests. My name is Miriam Ramot, and I represent the Ministry of Labor and Welfare. The program or invitation you received listed Mrs. Edna Gross. She apologizes for being unable to come because of unforeseen circumstances. I would like to tell you briefly—and of course I will not go on too long on such a full evening—about our approach to volunteering and how it is put into practice within the ministry’s labor and welfare services. The Ministry of Labor and Welfare places great importance on volunteering. The emphasis is so strong that professional staff have been assigned to organize volunteer networks in communities across the country. The person coordinating this work is based in the social services department and is responsible for mobilizing volunteers and this human resource to help people in need. As we know, and unfortunately, government services cannot always provide all the necessary or desired solutions. Gaps remain, or needs are not fully met. This is where volunteers come in: they can help close those gaps by providing both manpower and its equivalent, and offer solutions as far as possible through their invaluable assistance. One important point I want to make is that these volunteers are certainly not there in place of professionals or social workers. Even when volunteers themselves have a professional background, they are not there to replace the professionals or, Heaven forbid, take their jobs. They are there as a supplementary workforce, and that is a very important distinction. At the same time, although volunteers are not seen as replacements for professionals, their contribution is recognized as highly valuable and their work is given its full importance. At every opportunity, we find ways to express our appreciation, acknowledge them, and reward them for what they do.

17:29 Speaker 6 Now I want to set out the ministry’s goals regarding volunteer work. They’re phrased in a few sentences, and I’ll read them. One of the primary goals is to develop the interpersonal, human dimension in the professional care provided by public services. Shh. We’d rather not hear the plates, the forks, and the glasses. It’s hard to hear both things at once. Okay. The second goal is to deepen social interaction, familiarity, and identification between individuals, communities, and different segments of society. We believe that volunteer work, and the value it represents, can deepen social interaction among all segments of society. Third is to work toward and reinforce a positive change in the image of the people receiving care and of the social services. Another important goal is to foster the social and behavioral norm of helping others and helping one another. For you, of course, that goes without saying. A further goal is to establish direct contact between public authorities and the people receiving and providing care, bringing problems and proposed solutions to light and helping people obtain their rights through a direct channel. We know that volunteer work can sometimes shorten the process: through their connections and familiarity, a volunteer can sometimes help solve formal problems informally. Volunteer work takes many forms. We have dozens of tasks carried out by individual volunteers, voluntary organizations, and nonprofits. The volunteers, of course, come from every age group and every sector, from young people to retirees. Some tasks are one-time projects, while others continue throughout the year. The short, one-time projects tend to be holiday events—for example, giving an elderly person a flower, a gift, and a greeting card on Rosh Hashanah, or holding a public Seder on Pesach for people who can’t be guests in someone’s home because they are alone or estranged, and making sure they are cared for.

20:21 Speaker 6 Or during Children’s Week in Israel, taking groups of children with special needs from various residential institutions and other settings and giving them a chance to have experiences they otherwise wouldn’t have. Among other things, they visit army bases, since some of them will never serve in the military; and places made available to them by the Ministry of Tourism, such as the Diaspora Museum, the safari park, or a boat ride on the Kinneret. They get all sorts of opportunities to enjoy positive experiences alongside other people. The ongoing tasks are very, very varied, and I won’t list them all, but I’ll give you a few examples. It might be a welcoming home for a soldier. Another example is play centers for children, and another is volunteer dentists. It could be what we call a “kindergarten grandpa”—a grandfather or grandmother who comes to a kindergarten and helps the teacher, while also doing various other helpful tasks. There are different kinds of counseling services, home visits, and assistance for people with disabilities, whether physical or mental. A great deal of volunteer effort and resources are devoted to helping new immigrants settle in. Since this has been such a pressing issue over the last two years, many volunteers have sincerely wanted to come and help, and they’ve been welcomed with open arms. So as not to go on too long, I just want to mention that the volunteer coordinator for the Emek Lod Regional Council is here. Her name is Dalia, and she is the person responsible for this on behalf of the ministry here. If you, or anyone you would like to refer to her, can help—and this is an opportunity to help her recruit volunteers—there are many tasks. Right now, on the twentieth of this month, as you’ll surely hear in the media, we want to launch a project for the elderly, a “Warmth for the Elderly” project. Donations of many different kinds

22:48 Speaker 6 —many different possibilities, to be precise—will be organized, and Dalia will coordinate it. But throughout the year as well, if you have ideas or goodwill to offer, this is your opportunity to bring them forward. I want to wish you a good week, fruitful activity, and a pleasant evening. Thank you.

23:18 Speaker 7 Thank you very much. Thank you very much to Mrs. Miriam Ramot. We, too, heard so many ideas about how we can learn from one another. Volunteer work is the hallmark of Jewish women, and of Chabad women in particular. Shifra and Puah, this organization, is built on volunteer work. Which of us hasn’t benefited from Shifra and Puah? An expectant mother, before or after giving birth, calls Shoshana Rothenberg: “Shoshana, I need someone to help.” “Of course. When? When is convenient for you? Sunday? Monday? Tuesday?” Hot meals? Of course. Everything is provided with a smile, from the soup kitchen at cost—next to nothing. How many portions do you need? Three, five, eight? No problem. You’re weak after giving birth and want to rest? Shifra and Puah. You can go to the mother-and-child center at a subsidized price. And what about the gift for the new mother? And the help and support throughout this difficult and wonderful period? In addition, I want to mention that Shifra and Puah has also opened a gemach, an interest-free loan fund, in memory of Zhenya, zichronah livrachah. So if someone needs a loan for a bris or for other happy occasions, turn to Shifra and Puah. I spoke today with Shifra and Puah’s treasurer, Mrs. Rachel Green, who showed me the enormous sums Shifra and Puah spends over the course of a year, without the evil eye, on all these wonderful things. But the Jewish people are built on give and take. Sometimes we receive, and sometimes we give. We wish one another that we should always be able to give, and to give with joy, and to receive from Shifra and Puah only for good and happy occasions. Shifra and Puah asks everyone whose heart moves her, anyone who is able—we all want to help, which is why I say anyone who is able—to take part in meeting its considerable expenses. Without the evil eye, the village is growing, more babies are being born, and expenses are multiplying. Boruch Hashem, Hashem will help. Shifra and Puah has never withheld help from a mother because it didn’t have the money. No mother has ever been told over the phone, “Oh, I can’t help you

26:33 Speaker 7 because the monthly budget has run out.” At the same time, as we gather here and consider together this extensive, blessed, wonderful work, we all understand that without flour, there is no Torah. So Shifra and Puah asks anyone whose heart moves her, anyone who is able, to use the envelope she received at the entrance and, if she can, make one of three suggested contributions: 125 shekels, 150 shekels, or 180 shekels. You can give postdated checks; you can divide it into several payments—each according to her ability. And as a keepsake, Shifra and Puah will give you a gift right away. You can choose one of two gifts: this lovely clock, which is also a tzedakah box—“Tithe so that you will become wealthy”—with appreciation from Shifra and Puah to everyone who gives one of the three suggested amounts; or a chart of Shabbos preparations: “A person must say three things in his home as Shabbos approaches: Have you tithed? Have you prepared the eruv? Light the candle.” That is from the Mishnah in Tractate Shabbos. So, please. Chabad women know that it isn’t enough to give; you also have to know how to give. Earlier we said that telling a story on Motzaei Shabbos is a segulah. We already corrected that: it’s not only on Motzaei Shabbos; it’s a segulah for many good things. Since we’re collecting segulos, I’ll tell you another story, this time connected with giving tzedakah. This story, too, comes from the Rebbe shlita. One of the Alter Rebbe’s chassidim—all the stories we tell today are connected with the one whose yahrzeit we are marking, the Alter Rebbe—was named Reb Gavriel. He was one of the prominent householders in Vitebsk. But he had one sorrow. He and his wife had been married for twenty-five years, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu had still not blessed them with a child. On top of that, troubles began to come upon him one after another, and he lost his wealth. And then he returns

29:28 Speaker 7 He returned from Liadi, from the Alter Rebbe, and his face was not as it had been before. His wife, Chana Rivka, asked him, “Why do you look so sad?” He told her that the Rebbe was involved in redeeming captives and had assigned a certain amount to each of those present. He, too, had been assigned an amount. But what could he do? This time, despite his desire to give it, he could see that there was simply no way he could come up with the sum requested. What did Chana Rivka do? She sold her jewelry and her pearls, obtained the necessary sum, and polished the coins—actually polished them. She wrapped them, gave them to her husband, and said, “Go to the Alter Rebbe and give him this. Here is the full amount.” Reb Gavriel arrived in Liadi and came before the Alter Rebbe. The Rebbe told him, “Put the package on the table,” and motioned for him to open it. He opened it, and the coins gleamed; they positively sparkled. The Alter Rebbe looked at him, looked at the coins, and said, “Of all the contributions to the Mishkan, only the washbasin and its stand, made from the copper mirrors that the women donated to the Mishkan with self-sacrifice, shone like this. Tell me, Reb Gavriel, where did you get these coins?” Reb Gavriel then had to tell the Rebbe the whole story behind the coins: how he had not had the money, and how his wife had sold her possessions and polished the coins. The Rebbe lowered his head for a moment, then raised his eyes and blessed Reb Gavriel with long life, wealth, and favor in people’s eyes. He also instructed him to change his line of business and begin trading in precious stones and pearls. And indeed, his fortunes turned around. Sons and daughters were born to him, he became very wealthy, and he passed away at the ripe old age of 110. His wife lived another two years after him. When the Rebbe told this story, he added the lesson: “Take note: everyone gave the same amount. It is not

32:45 Speaker 7 enough to give the amount. The question is how you give it. When you give with joy, when you give with self-sacrifice, you merit blessings in this world, and certainly in the World to Come.” We Chabad women will certainly give with joy, with self-sacrifice, and generously, from a position of abundance. And now we invite one of our distinguished guests, a representative of the Ministry of Health, Mrs. Tirtza Ben-Tzvi, to address us. Please, Mrs. Tirtza Ben-Tzvi. We would all like to hear you.

33:43 Speaker 8 Good evening. I was very happy to be invited to join you here tonight. I don’t need to tell you what the Ministry of Health is. And you are surely all familiar with the family health clinic, and with Levana, Gila, and Vered. “You shall take great care of your lives” is a mitzvah, and we, the family health nurses, are partners in that mitzvah. How? We help by offering guidance to promote health and prevent problems. We promote health through guidance on a healthy lifestyle and proper nutrition, by providing iron and vitamins, vaccinations against infectious diseases, and more. And we help prevent problems through developmental checks, hearing tests, and vision tests, so that any difficulty can be detected before it develops into a serious health problem. I would like to use this opportunity to tell you about the improvements we have recently made to the service provided at the Tipat Chalav clinic. Specialist doctors from the hospital visit the medical team, sparing women—mothers—the need to travel to distant places to receive good, appropriate care. We have also introduced communication assessments for toddlers aged two years and three months. Why communication assessments? What are they for? The human body is made with great wisdom. Each organ and each sense develops at a particular age, during a particular stage of development. But at that stage it also needs as much practice as possible to reach its full potential. Language develops between the ages of two and two and a half, and at that point it is very important to repeat the hearing test. That is in addition to the hearing test already done at seven to nine months, which showed that everything was fine, because in the meantime the child may have had ear infections or other problems. It is important to know that the child’s hearing has not been impaired. It is important to know that language is developing as expected, and if it is not, to identify the problem immediately and treat it, so that we do not miss the critical age and allow a problem to develop that cannot be corrected later.

36:32 Speaker 8 So when you receive invitations to bring your children for communication assessments, please understand that age is a very important factor here, and it is important to come at the scheduled time. Have a good week, and see you again.

36:54 Speaker 9 Thank you very much, Mrs. Tirtza. Tirtza, you know, your name is the name of one of Tzelofchad’s daughters. And Rashi says of Tzelofchad’s daughters, “This teaches that they were wise.” We have heard wise words. We would like to ask... Since we have mentioned Mrs. Tirtza from the Ministry of Health, we would all like to thank Nurse Lika, who never forgets us—and we do not forget you. We would also like to thank you, Levana. Usually we only come and bother you; today you are our guest, and we want to honor you and express our appreciation to you and to Nurse Gila, right? Truly, thank you both very much. It is a pleasure for us to come to the Tipat Chalav clinic. May you continue and succeed, and may Chabad’s Tipat Chalav clinic truly be a pleasant place to visit. Thank you very much. We will ask for a few melodies to entertain us. On behalf of all the grandmothers, let’s give Lika a round of applause and hear a few words from her.

39:10 Speaker 10 On behalf of all the grandmothers—to a grandmother, that’s fine. We have grown older together, and every time I am moved all over again, and delighted to see the whole group, including the younger women. Perhaps I had some small part in that too. We have heard so many wise things tonight that anything I add would only detract from them. I just want to wish you a good week, fruitful activities, and that we meet again on happy occasions and learn more together. Thank you very much. Goodbye, goodbye.

40:09 Speaker 9 Thank you very much, Lika. And now we’ll ask Mrs. Ilanit Tzivon—Ilanit, I’m asking for your help. I see a platform here, a table full of all sorts of good things. Please.

40:36 Speaker 11 Good evening. We would like to hold a raffle. We have here a selection of products donated to the Shifra and Puah organization in honor of this evening. There are towels, an iron, a humidifier, and so on. We’ll see the rest of the items as we go. Okay. The first prize is a sort of gift set—I’m not quite sure what to call it. You can all see it: there are products here from Sofker, from the Neka company. I’d like Tova to draw a slip from the box. Let’s mix them up really well. Good. Okay. This prize has been won by a woman from Kfar Chabad Bet whose ticket number is zero seven six zero. You can check, and her name is Michal Kaplan. Mrs. Michal Kaplan, please come up and collect your prize. Let’s give her a round of applause. Here’s a bag for you, Michal; you have a bag. The second prize is a kettle donated by Springer’s store. Let’s see who wins it. Sorry, the previous prize was donated by Shaul Beit[unclear]’s grocery store. Go ahead, draw a slip. Okay. The kettle donated by Springer has been won by Mrs. Chava Rabinowitz from the Chabad neighborhood in Lod. Is she here? Please come up. Okay, now we have a cosmetic product from the Jeunesse company—I hope I’ve said that correctly—donated by Rachel Bolton. Let’s see who has won this prize. Also from the Chabad neighborhood in Lod, Mrs. Ahuva Friedman. Ahuva Friedman, please.

44:38 Speaker 3 Okay, we have a recording of Chabad chassidic melodies donated by Rabbi Meni Wolf. Okay, let’s draw the slip. Shoshana Gutman from Kfar Chabad. We’ll take a short break and then continue with the program.

45:06 Speaker 4 All right, we’ll all wait patiently. We’ll continue with the raffle later. I want to read you a short letter from the Alter Rebbe to Rebbetzin Sterna.