Siyum Masechta and Torah convention on the laws of the Beis Habechirah – Tel Aviv

00:42 Speaker 1 His name, his name. You said his name. All right. That’s fine. I just wanted to know if it was all right. Well, with the permission of Rabbi Galitzky, the rabbi of the shul, our honored guests, and this entire holy congregation: As we do every year, we hold a Torah gathering that brings together the congregants of the Geulas Yisroel shul and the students of the Tiferes Zekeinim Levi Yitzchak kollel, which is housed in the shul. People also come to us from all over the city. Every year, and this year too, with Hashem’s help, the Rishon LeTzion, Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu shlita, takes part in this gathering. We have the honor of his participation year after year. On this occasion, I have the honor of greeting this entire holy congregation, and I will personally offer a few words of Torah and blessing, as befits this distinguished event. In Vayikra, Parshas Emor, chapter 23, verse 5, it says: “In the first month, on the fourteenth of the month, between the evenings, is the Pesach offering to Hashem.” Then, in verse 6, the Torah says: “And on the fifteenth day of this month is the Festival of Matzos to Hashem; for seven days you shall eat matzos.” Rashi pauses to explain the words in verse 5: “In the first month, on the fourteenth of the month, between the evenings.” What does “between the evenings” mean? The verse ends, “the Pesach offering to Hashem.” When do we offer the Pesach sacrifice? Between the evenings. So the question is: What does “between the evenings” mean? Rashi says: “Between the evenings”—from the sixth hour onward. Ladies and gentlemen, tell me, what does “from the sixth hour onward” mean? That is what the Torah says, and we need to explain it. What time of year are we talking about? The month of Nissan. When does Pesach fall? In the month of Nissan. Nissan has one advantage: day and night are equal. There are times when the night is long and the day is short. There are times when the day is long—no, I mean the opposite, when the day is short and the night is long. The advantage of Nissan is that day and night are equal. Now let’s do the math. If I say

05:55 Speaker 1 that day and night are equal, how many hours are there in a full day? Twenty-four hours. Divide those twenty-four hours, and you have twelve hours of daylight and twelve hours of night. And when do we start counting? It says “between the evenings.” What does “between the evenings” mean? If day and night are equal, then the day begins at twelve. And if I say “between the evenings,” when is that? Around three to four o’clock. So they would offer the Pesach sacrifice between three and four o’clock on the fourteenth. That is why the Torah says: “In the first month, on the fourteenth of the month, between the evenings, is the Pesach offering to Hashem.” That was when they offered the Pesach sacrifice. All right, now we know when the Pesach sacrifice was offered. And why is it called the Pesach sacrifice? The word “Pesach” has another meaning as well, as the Torah tells us. The Pesach sacrifice is named for Hashem’s passing over the houses of the Jewish people, so that the destroyer would not enter them. From this we learn that the festival is called Pesach. That is what the first verse indicates: “the Pesach offering to Hashem.” It is also called the Festival of Matzos, as in the second verse: “And on the fifteenth day of this month is the Festival of Matzos to Hashem.” In other words, Pesach has two names. Those two names refer to the two mitzvos we were commanded to observe on this festival. First, as we discussed, slaughtering, offering, and eating the Pesach sacrifice. It is not enough to slaughter the Pesach sacrifice. We must eat all of it; nothing may be left over. The second mitzvah is eating matzos for seven days. That is what the second verse says: “And on the fifteenth day of this month is the Festival of Matzos to Hashem; for seven days you shall eat matzos.” So we know that the festival of Pesach includes two mitzvos. And when do we offer the sacrifice, and when do we eat the matzos? The sacrifice is offered on the fourteenth, and the mitzvah of eating matzos

09:49 Speaker 1 begins on the fifteenth. That sums up the verses in Parshas Emor. Now let’s see what it says in the Book of Yehoshua, the first book about Yehoshua bringing the Jewish people into Eretz Yisroel. Look, I’ll read you what it says there: “The Children of Israel camped at Gilgal”—on the bank of the Jordan—“and they performed the Pesach offering on the fourteenth day of the month, in the evening.” Look at what Yehoshua writes: “They performed the Pesach offering on the fourteenth day of the month.” When? It explicitly says “in the evening.” “On the plains of Yericho.” The passage in Yehoshua continues: “They ate from the produce of the land.” What does “the produce of the land” mean? The good things of the land. “On the day after Pesach.” What did they eat? “Matzos and roasted grain on that very day.” So it says “on the day after Pesach.” When is the day after Pesach? The fifteenth. When did they offer the Pesach sacrifice? On the fourteenth. “And the manna ceased the next day.” Until then, they had still been sustained by the manna that had fallen in the wilderness. But once they reached Eretz Yisroel, “the manna ceased the next day, when they ate from the produce of the land. The Children of Israel had manna no more, and they ate from the grain of the land of Canaan that year.” So if we sum up these verses, this is what becomes clear: the verse in the Book of Yehoshua tells us that after the Jewish people offered the Omer—as it says, “on the day after Pesach”; what does “on the day after Pesach” mean? The next day—after they offered the Omer, they ate from the new grain. So here “Pesach” refers to the fifteenth. That is how it comes out. Now Tosafos, in the well-known Gemara in Rosh Hashanah, page 14, addresses this. Tosafos says: “They offered the Omer and then ate.” First they offered the Omer. As we said before, until the Omer is offered, it is forbidden to eat from the produce of the land. “And then ate”—afterward they ate. That is Tosafos’s wording. But it says “on the day after Pesach,” right? So “on the day after Pesach” means the fifteenth of Nissan, the day after the Pesach sacrifice was slaughtered on the fourteenth.

13:49 Speaker 1 That is what we discussed. How do we know that is how it happened? There is another passage in the Torah, in Parshas Masei. We read Mattos-Masei in the Torah this past Shabbos. In Parshas Masei, it speaks of the fifteenth of Nissan, as it says: “They traveled from Ramses in the first month, on the fifteenth of the first month, on the day after the Pesach offering.” That is what the verse says. “The Children of Israel went out with an upraised hand before the eyes of all Egypt.” When was that? On the fifteenth of Nissan. So when we work through all the verses I have quoted, there is also some confusion about when matzah is associated with the fourteenth or the fifteenth of Nissan. Does “Pesach” refer to offering the Pesach sacrifice, or does it refer to eating matzah? In any case, the commentators grapple with this question. There is a book called HaMikneh—that is the name of the book—on Tractate Kiddushin. In his commentary on the Gemara in Kiddushin, page 37b, the author of HaMikneh tries to explain—or rather, makes an effort to explain—how to avoid a misunderstanding of the verses in the Torah and the Prophets. He says the following. Please listen, because this is a very subtle explanation. He wants to explain the apparent contradiction between “the day after Pesach” in Parshas Masei and “the day after Pesach” in the Book of Yehoshua. This is how he explains it. HaMikneh says: The rule is that the day follows the night. What does it mean that the day follows the night? As we say, “And there was evening, and there was morning.” The day—or, more precisely, the full twenty-four-hour period—begins in the evening and ends the following evening. How do I know this was the practice? Because it was established in the Torah at Matan Torah. How do I know? As I just mentioned, it says: “And there was evening, and there was morning, one day.” And so on—the second day, the third day, and so forth. That was before Matan Torah. This—sorry, this is after

17:56 Speaker 1 The giving of the Torah. But before the giving of the Torah—before the Torah was given—how was it reckoned? Night followed day, as it says in Parshas Noach: “Day and night shall not cease.” It says “day” first and then “night.” Day first, and then night. So, says the Makneh, there is no contradiction between these passages. There is no contradiction between the wording in Parshas Masei and the wording in the Book of Yehoshua. In one case, day followed night; in the other, night followed day. Now I want to conclude with something said in the name of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev. He said this: Why does the Torah call the entire festival Chag Hamatzos, while the Sages call it Chag HaPesach? What do we call the tractate—Chag Pesachim? We don’t call it Tractate Matzos; we call it Pesachim. Right? Why does the Torah call the entire festival Chag Hamatzos, while the Sages call it Chag HaPesach? Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev explains it this way. Just as we find with tefillin: we put on tefillin, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu also puts on tefillin. The question is, what is written in our tefillin, and what is written in Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s tefillin? I’ll explain that in a moment. I’ll tell you what is written in Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s tefillin. In tefillin, then, Hakadosh Boruch Hu praises the Jewish people, and the Jewish people praise Hakadosh Boruch Hu. How? What is written in the Jewish people’s tefillin? “Hear, O Israel.” That is how the passage begins: “Hear, O Israel, Hashem is our G-d, Hashem is One.” And what is written in Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s tefillin? “Who is like Your people Israel, one nation on earth?” So too here, in Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s Torah. As we said earlier, it says Chag Hamatzos, not Chag HaPesach. Hakadosh Boruch Hu, in His Torah, called the festival

21:35 Speaker 1 Chag Hamatzos. That is what it says in the Torah. The Torah does not say Chag HaPesach; it says Chag Hamatzos, praising the Jewish people for leaving with such haste that our ancestors’ dough did not have time to rise. That is why we mark Chag Hamatzos. And the Jewish people call the festival Chag HaPesach. Why? Because the Jewish people recall the praise of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, Who passed over the homes of the Jewish people in Egypt. Thank you very much, gentlemen. With that, I conclude my remarks.

23:05 Speaker 2 Yasher koach. And from Pesach, we move to the Nine Days. We thank the chairman of the shul for his words of Torah. With Hashem’s help, may Hashem grant him many years in his position and success in leading and keeping the shul active for many good years, in good health. The world stands on three things: on Torah, on prayer, on service, and on acts of kindness. We opened the gathering with prayer, Minchah. With Hashem’s help, we will conclude the gathering with Maariv in the Beis Hamikdash. And now, as we sit here, we have in mind: “Devise a plan, and it will be thwarted; speak a word, and it will not stand.” For at this very hour, far from here, two heads of state are sitting and discussing how to strangle, divide, and destroy Eretz Yisroel. Ours is the voice, the voice of Yaakov. Our strength lies in our voice alone. Before we continue this evening, we will say together as a congregation a chapter of Tehillim, Chapter 102, the Rebbe’s chapter. Afterward we will also give tzedakah together, bearing in mind that this truly is “a time of trouble for Yaakov, but from it he will be saved.” They are preparing to carve up Eretz Yisroel and bring great trouble upon it. We need to pray to Hakadosh Boruch Hu that it will be: “Devise a plan, and it will be thwarted; speak a word, and it will not stand, for G-d is with us.” We ask the mashpia of Anash in Tel Aviv, Rabbi Shalom Dovber Butman, to come forward. We will recite the chapter of Tehillim, all of us together, verse by verse. And so that we feel its meaning, the entire congregation will say it together standing up. “A prayer of the afflicted man when he is overwhelmed and pours out his plea before Hashem. Hashem, hear my prayer, and let my cry reach You. Do not hide Your face from me on the day of my distress. Incline Your ear to me; on the day I call, answer me quickly. For my days have vanished like smoke, and my bones are scorched like a hearth. My heart is stricken like grass and has withered, for I have forgotten to eat my bread. From the sound of my groaning, my bones cling to my flesh. I am like a pelican of the wilderness; I have become like an owl among the ruins. I lie awake and am

26:52 Speaker 2 like a solitary bird upon a roof. All day my enemies taunt me; those who rage against me swear by my name. For I have eaten ashes like bread and mingled my drink with tears, because of Your indignation and Your wrath, for You lifted me up and cast me down. My days are like a lengthening shadow, and I wither like grass. But You, Hashem, endure forever, and Your remembrance from generation to generation. You will arise and have mercy on Tziyon, for it is time to favor her; the appointed time has come. For Your servants cherish her stones and favor her dust. Nations will fear the name of Hashem, and all the kings of the earth Your glory. For Hashem has built Tziyon; He has appeared in His glory. He has turned to the prayer of the destitute and has not despised their prayer. Let this be written for a later generation, so that a people yet to be created will praise Hashem. For He looked down from His holy height; Hashem gazed from heaven upon the earth, to hear the groaning of the prisoner, to release those condemned to death; to proclaim the name of Hashem in Tziyon and His praise in Jerusalem, when peoples gather together, and kingdoms, to serve Hashem. He weakened my strength along the way; He shortened my days. I say: My G-d, do not take me away in the midst of my days; Your years endure through all generations. Long ago You founded the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands. They will perish, but You will endure; all of them will wear out like a garment. Like clothing, You will change them, and they will pass away. But You remain the same, and Your years will never end. The children of Your servants will dwell securely, and their descendants will be established before You.” Yasher koach. As everyone can see from the sheet they received, how fitting is this powerful prayer concerning the people in exile. Anyone can say this psalm as a prayer in times of trouble. Every word of its verses illuminates the difficult situation we spoke about earlier. “Tziyon will be redeemed through justice, and those who return to her through tzedakah.” The tzedakah box is now being passed from row to row. Tzedakah together, prayer together, and Torah together—the three pillars on which the world stands—will certainly help us bring about: “Devise a plan, and it will be thwarted.” “Devise a plan, and it will be thwarted; speak a word, and it will not stand. Devise a plan, and it will be thwarted; speak a word, and it will not stand, for G-d is with us. Devise a plan, and it will be thwarted; speak a word, and it will not stand, for G-d is with us. Devise a plan, and it will be thwarted;

32:03 Speaker 2 speak a word, and it will not stand. Devise a plan, and it will be thwarted; speak a word, and it will not stand, for G-d is with us. Ah, devise a plan, and it will be thwarted; speak a word, and it will not stand, for G-d is with us. Oy, devise a plan, and it will be thwarted; speak a word, and it will not stand. Devise a plan, and it will be thwarted; speak a word, and it will not stand, for G-d is with us. Devise a plan, and it will be thwarted; speak a word, and it will not stand, for G-d is with us. Ah, devise a plan, and it will be thwarted; speak a word, and it will not stand, for G-d is with us. Oy, devise a plan, and it will be thwarted; speak a word, and it will not stand. Devise a plan... G-d is with us. Devise a plan, and it will be thwarted; speak a word, and it will not stand, for G-d is with us.”

33:45 Speaker 3 The tzedakah box is being passed around. We are all giving tzedakah together. As we said, we have gathered here to study and engage in the laws of the Beis Hamikdash. And as we noted, by doing so we are actually building the Beis Hamikdash in our day. Maariv will also take place after the gathering. The Rambam opens Hilchos Beis Habechirah: “It is a positive mitzvah to make a house for Hashem, prepared for offering sacrifices in it and celebrating there three times a year, as it says, ‘They shall make Me a sanctuary.’ The Mishkan that Moshe Rabbeinu made, which was temporary, has already been described in the Torah, as it says, ‘For you have not yet come,’” and so on, as the verse says, “to the resting place and to the inheritance.” So in our day, this is a positive mitzvah for all generations: in every generation, at every moment, every Jew is obligated to build the Beis Hamikdash. How do we build it now, in our day? The Rebbe gave us the recipe: by studying the laws of the Beis Hamikdash, which explain how the Beis Hamikdash was built, what it looked like, and what the future Beis Hamikdash will look like, with its additional changes. In this very moment, then, we are building the Beis Hamikdash. So at every moment that we do not yet have the physical Beis Hamikdash, the Beis Hamikdash itself visible to our eyes, we build it through the actions we are taking right now. This is what Hakadosh Boruch Hu said to the prophet Yechezkel: “Tell them the form of the House.” When they engage in studying the teachings about the House, they are building the House. We now invite the mara d’asra, the Rebbe’s shliach to the city of Tel Aviv–Yafo and rabbi of central Tel Aviv, Rabbi Gerlitzky, to offer his greetings and words of Torah on matters of the day. Rabbi Gerlitzky, please.

37:06 Speaker 4 Good evening, distinguished guests. Rabbi Butman; Rabbi Ben Shachar, chairman of the synagogue; Rabbi Pinchas Halevi; and our guest, Mr. Moshe Leshem, chairman of the organization “Gamla Shall Not Fall Again.” Moshe, I hope it’s not only Gamla that won’t fall. Moshe [unclear]. I hope it’s not only Gamla that won’t fall. Ladies and gentlemen, we have gathered, in accordance with the Rebbe’s directive, to study the laws of the Beis Hamikdash and the Geulah during these days, to make a siyum on a tractate, and to add joy during the Nine Days in ways that are, of course, permitted by the Torah—until, very soon, these days are transformed into days of gladness and joy. But I’ve heard people ask: What does “in accordance with the Rebbe’s directive” mean? Torah study is a positive commandment from the Torah. And it isn’t only here. People also say, “We’re going to put on tefillin at the Rebbe’s request.” The mitzvah of tefillin, the mitzvah of mezuzah—why the Rebbe? Putting on tefillin and affixing a mezuzah are commandments from the Torah. What is the point of saying “in accordance with the Rebbe’s directive,” “at the Rebbe’s request”? Recently, on Gimmel Tammuz, I visited the Rebbe’s Ohel in New York. I met a veteran shliach from Texas there, and he told me that a well-known rosh yeshiva had visited his city, Houston—Rabbi Lazaroff told me. The visitor appreciated the minyan, the mikveh, and the kosher food in Houston. There are famous hospitals there; he had come for medical reasons. And he said, “All credit to Chabad, to the Chabad chassidim. But why do you keep mentioning the Rebbe all the time? We have Hakadosh Boruch Hu.” The shliach answered him on the spot by quoting the Rambam. I’ll quote from Hilchos Chametz Umatzah, chapter 7, halachah 2, if I’m not mistaken. The Rambam is discussing the commandment of “You shall tell your son,” the mitzvah of telling your son about the Exodus from Egypt: “It is a mitzvah to inform one’s children even if they do not ask, as it says, ‘You shall tell your son.’ A father teaches him according to the son’s understanding.”

40:32 Speaker 4 And the Rambam says: “How so? If he is young or lacks understanding, one says to him: ‘My son, we were all slaves, and on this night Hakadosh Boruch Hu redeemed us and brought us to freedom.’” That is what you say to a young child or one who lacks understanding. “But if the son is older and wise, one tells him what happened to us in Egypt”—listen closely—“and the miracles that were performed for us through Moshe Rabbeinu.” The Rambam says that if the son is wise and older, you don’t simply tell him that we were in Egypt and Hakadosh Boruch Hu redeemed us. You tell that wise son that Hakadosh Boruch Hu took us out and performed miracles for us through Moshe Rabbeinu. And it says in Tikkunei Zohar, “The extension of Moshe is present in every generation”—Moshe Rabbeinu’s extension in every generation. So, the shliach told him, when the son is older and wise, you tell him: Listen, the miracles Hakadosh Boruch Hu performed all came through Moshe Rabbeinu. And today, too, we are following the Rebbe’s directive, the Rebbe’s initiative, to study the laws of the Beis Hamikdash during these days. As the Midrash says, Scripture considers it as though one were engaged in building it, because one is studying the laws of the Beis Hamikdash. There is something very puzzling about the building of the Beis Hamikdash. We know that the main thing in the Beis Hamikdash is the Aron Kodesh, with the Tablets of the Covenant—a testimony that Hakadosh Boruch Hu dwells among the Jewish people: “They shall make Me a sanctuary, and I shall dwell among them.” That is the Aron Kodesh. But when you look at the Rambam’s enumeration of the mitzvos, he does not count making the Aron Kodesh as a mitzvah. Remarkable. Not only does he not count the Aron Kodesh as a mitzvah, but in chapter 3, when he discusses the menorah, the table, and the altar, giving every last detail of these vessels, he does not mention the Aron Kodesh at all. Nor does he mention making the Aron in the following chapters—its dimensions or how it was made. He goes into minute detail about the menorah, the altar, and the table. But the Aron Kodesh? Silence. He does not mention it, does not count it as a mitzvah, and does not explain how it was made.

43:22 Speaker 4 Where does the Rambam mention the Aron Kodesh? I’ll quote chapter 4, halachah 1: “There was a stone in the western part of the Holy of Holies, the Foundation Stone, on which the Aron rested, and before it was the jar of manna.” That is all he says about the Aron: there was a stone in the Holy of Holies, and the Aron rested on it. What does the Rambam discuss at length? Listen closely. “When Shlomo built the House and knew that it would ultimately be destroyed, he built within it a place to conceal the Aron below, in deep and winding chambers. King Yoshiyahu ordered that it be concealed in the place Shlomo had built, as it says,” and so on. He mentions the Aron itself in a single phrase—that it rested on the Foundation Stone. But King Shlomo knew that the Beis Hamikdash might be destroyed, so from the outset he built a place within the Beis Hamikdash, below in deep and winding chambers, where the Aron Kodesh would be concealed. The Minchas Chinuch asks this very question in section 95: Why does the Rambam not count the Aron Kodesh as a mitzvah or discuss its construction at all? He challenges the Rambam and tries to answer that Moshe Rabbeinu made the Aron Kodesh, and no one has touched it since. King Yoshiyahu concealed it, and in the future, with the true and complete Geulah, the Aron Kodesh—the Aron Habris with the Tablets—will be brought out and revealed. So there is no reason for the Rambam to tell us how to make it, because we have no need to make one. Moshe Rabbeinu made it once, and it remained through all the generations until it was concealed. When Moshiach is revealed, the Aron Kodesh with the Tablets will be brought out from the chambers where it was concealed. So there is no need to tell us how to make

46:29 Speaker 4 it. That is how the Minchas Chinuch tries to answer the question, but he does not accept the answer. He says: We have a rule that we do not rely on miracles. The Aron Kodesh lasting for thousands of years is a great miracle. It is made of wood and could break. If it breaks, we have a mitzvah to “make an Aron Kodesh.” Even in the future it could be damaged—not necessarily the whole thing, perhaps just a small part—and there would be a mitzvah to rebuild it. So why does the Rambam not count making the Aron as a mitzvah? And why does he not spell out all the details of its construction? The Minchas Chinuch leaves the question unresolved; he does not answer it. I saw a note by the Rebbe in the addenda to Likkutei Sichos, volume 4, where the Rebbe answers this question wonderfully. But first: How could King Yoshiyahu come and conceal the Aron Kodesh? After all, the Aron Kodesh is part of the Beis Hamikdash, and he was not commanded to conceal it. How could he simply go ahead and hide it in the chambers King Shlomo had built long before the destruction? The answer might be that he was afraid the Aron Kodesh would be exiled to Babylon. They knew exile was at the door. Today we say the Geulah is at the door—with one foot already inside—but then they knew exile was at the door, and they were afraid. King Yoshiyahu was afraid, and that is why he concealed the Aron Kodesh. But if the Aron Kodesh is part of the Beis Hamikdash, what gave him the right to change its location without a command from Hakadosh Boruch Hu? Where did that authority come from? The Rebbe answers: The very fact that King Yoshiyahu concealed the Aron Kodesh shows us that the Aron Kodesh is not an entity unto itself. In simple terms, “They shall make Me a sanctuary, and I shall dwell among them.” Through what? Primarily through the Aron Kodesh. When the Aron Kodesh with the Tablets is in its place in the Holy of Holies, that has an effect

49:09 Speaker 4 An eternal effect that is never nullified. What does it accomplish? The resting of the Shechinah within the Beis Hamikdash. Once the Shechinah rests there, that effect is never nullified. Whether the Aron Kodesh is inside or not, whatever happens afterward does not change that. The moment the Aron Kodesh is in the Holy of Holies, it has already brought about the resting of the Shechinah and fulfilled “I will meet with you there.” It has already accomplished its purpose. Whatever happens to the Aron Kodesh afterward, its purpose has been fulfilled. Therefore, since the Aron Kodesh does not have to remain in the Beis Hamikdash at all times, but rather has to bring about an effect—and that effect is accomplished in an instant—King Yoshiyahu, concerned that it might be taken to Babylon in exile, decided to place it in a deep, hidden chamber. It was not something that had to remain in the Holy of Holies at all times. More than that, the Rebbe explains in Likkutei Sichos on Parshas Terumah: there is another point. There is the Beis Hamikdash, and there are the vessels of the Beis Hamikdash. The vessels include, for example, the menorah, the table, and the altar. However lofty and important they are, they are still vessels of the Beis Hamikdash, nothing more. The Aron Kodesh is not a vessel. The Aron Kodesh is part of the structure of the Beis Hamikdash. It is part of the Holy of Holies—not as a vessel, but as part of the building itself. That is why, in chapter three, when the Rambam discusses all the vessels, he does not mention the Aron Kodesh. When he reaches chapter four, where he discusses the structure, the building of the First Beis Hamikdash and so on, that is where he mentions the Aron Kodesh. He is saying that it is not merely a part, but an essential part of the structure of the Beis Hamikdash. What is that essential part? The Aron Kodesh. And what

51:46 Speaker 4 does the Rambam begin by explaining about the Aron Kodesh? The first thing he says is that Shlomo knew the Beis Hamikdash would eventually be destroyed, so he built a place in which to conceal the Aron. There is something remarkable here. As we said, whether the Aron Kodesh is in the Beis Hamikdash or not, it has accomplished its purpose: the resting of the Shechinah. But from the outset, King Shlomo took a step to ensure that the Beis Hamikdash would never be without this thing called the Aron Kodesh, that the Tablets would not be absent but would remain there at all times. There is a rule in halachah: a place must be sanctified when it is built. If you do not sanctify the place during construction, it is not sanctified. King Shlomo foresaw that the Beis Hamikdash would eventually be destroyed, so from the outset he sanctified two places. He sanctified the place for the Aron Kodesh in the Holy of Holies, where it stood on the Foundation Stone, and he sanctified a place in the deep, hidden chambers. A sanctified place was thus prepared there for the Aron Kodesh, concealed below in those deep chambers, so that even the Second Beis Hamikdash would not be without the Aron Kodesh and the Tablets. What does this tell us? First, it explains why the Rambam does not count this as a mitzvah. How could he count the Aron Kodesh as a mitzvah in its own right? Its purpose is the purpose of the entire Beis Hamikdash. The purpose of the whole Beis Hamikdash is the resting of the Shechinah. That is the role of the Aron Kodesh with the Tablets. The words of the holy Shelah are well known: “They shall make Me a sanctuary, and I will dwell among them.” It does not say “within it,” but “among them”—within each and every person. We have learned something remarkable here. Even though, outwardly, the Beis Hamikdash was destroyed, its essence, its very core—the Aron Kodesh—is not missing. It is there, either on the Foundation Stone or below in a hidden chamber. So it is with every Jew, wherever he may be. No matter what state he is in, even if his holiness appears to be in ruins, we say: deep, deep within the hidden chambers, everything is

54:31 Speaker 4 intact. Deep within, the Aron Kodesh is present in every Jew. It is concealed, but it is there, waiting for the moment when the “actual part of G-d above” is revealed, when the Aron Kodesh within each and every Jew is revealed. In Hayom Yom for 21 Tammuz, the Rebbe discusses this at length. He says there that the desolation is only in the building. The destruction is only in the building; the foundations are not destroyed. So it is with every Jew. Outwardly, in the structure, there may be destruction. But in the foundation, in the inner essence, there is no destruction. And the Rebbe explains the unusual wording we see here in the Rambam: “deep and winding hidden chambers.” We know that when someone is said to have taken a winding path, he has strayed from the straight path and gone down a bad road. The Rebbe says that the “winding path” associated with something negative is transformed into a winding path through which we reveal the G-dly soul, the inner essence, the Aron Kodesh within each and every Jew. As we said, there is a booklet here now with the words, “A prayer of the poor man when he is overwhelmed, and he pours out his plea before Hashem.” “A prayer of the poor man when he is overwhelmed”—this is the chapter the Rebbe recites, Psalm 102. I once heard the Rebbe give an interpretation from the Baal Shem Tov. “A prayer of the poor man when he is overwhelmed.” When a person is poor and destitute—imagine someone entering the king’s palace. He is impressed by the minister of the treasury and everything the minister has, by the minister of war, by the weapons, and so on, and he stays there. He is so awed and amazed that nothing else interests him. But the Baal Shem Tov says: “A prayer of the poor man when he is overwhelmed.” What does a poor, destitute man, who has nothing at all, ask for? “He pours out his plea before Hashem.” He wants to pour out his heart before Hashem, Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That is his entire request, and that is our request today. There is also an interpretation of “a prayer of the poor man”: the “poor man” is the one who is “poor and riding on a donkey,” referring to Moshiach Tzidkeinu. “When he is overwhelmed” can mean

57:05 Speaker 4 that he is delayed. “A prayer of the poor man when he is overwhelmed, and he pours out his plea before Hashem”—may he stand before Hashem at the outset; may Moshiach Tzidkeinu already be revealed. That is our wish, our request, our prayer, our hope: that “he pours out his plea before Hashem,” and that we may see the true and complete Geulah in the plainest sense, before Hashem, with the revelation of Moshiach Tzidkeinu speedily in our days, all of us together, with our king at our head.

57:47 Speaker 5 Thank you very much. We mentioned earlier that we are in a time of trouble for Yaakov. At this very moment, through the power of our Torah study and prayer, we are working to nullify those evil thoughts and plans. Two people are sitting down to a meal right now, eating food that may even have a Badatz hechsher—I do not know what hechsher it has. They are sitting and eating together, and as they cut the meat on their plates, they want to cut up Eretz Yisroel. And it will not fall a second time, either. We have with us a Jew who is a former military man, but who has not lost his sound judgment on military matters. Even as a civilian, he has not forgotten what the army is, and he knows the importance and value of every inch of Eretz Yisroel. He is one of the stones of the Choshen: leshem, shevo, and achlamah. We ask you, Colonel (res.) Mr. Moshe Leshem, to clarify for us just how grave the situation is.

59:21 Speaker 6 Distinguished guests, esteemed audience, good evening. Not only am I a former military man, I also serve in the reserves today. And, boruch Hashem, I already have six children serving in the military, in the reserves and in regular service. At this very moment, I have one son in Gaza and another near Chevron. I stand before you as someone who fights, and has fought, for the freedom of Israel. And I did not stop when I left the army. I will speak about the issues of the day, matters that affect our very lives, in the hope that, with Hashem’s help, we will overcome them and merit to witness the coming of Moshiach and the building of the Beis Hamikdash. I will speak here about several things you have been hearing, several things people are using to try to brainwash us. Perhaps at the end of my remarks I will also call on you to take some action. We Jews in Eretz Yisroel like to use words... May I? We Jews in Eretz Yisroel speak Hebrew, but we weave many foreign words into it, whether out of imitation or deference, as well as Arabic words. When we see a friend, instead of saying “shalom,” we say “ahlan.” These days there are two troubling and significant expressions that I assume you hear every day. I am not sure you fully understand what they mean, because our leadership generally hides the truth from us. One is “intifada,” which we have been hearing for many years; the other is a new word that has entered the lexicon: “hudna.” The Arab street and the Arab leadership do not use these words for nothing. To Arabs, they hint at what is to come, while we, in our innocence, translate them into words that reflect what we wish them to mean. The Arab street is proud that Jews call the terrible war forced upon us since Rosh Hashanah almost three years ago the “Al-Aqsa Intifada.” They are pleased that we call it that, because “intifada” means an uprising, and the “Al-Aqsa Intifada” is the uprising named for the Temple Mount, which we were supposed to redeem, and it

1:02:55 Speaker 6 It was in our hands, and now, to our shame, it is merely beside us, not in our hands. We, too, have adopted the term “hudna.” In our newspapers and media, we translate it for ourselves as “ceasefire.” If that is how we translate it, why wouldn’t they use that same word, “ceasefire,” throughout the Western world? After all, the Jews say it is a ceasefire. This week, anyone who read the papers saw the commentators singing the praises of the hudna. One of them, in Yedioth Ahronoth, even called it “Thirty Days of Hudna.” You understand? He is celebrating its thirtieth day. And he gave us a list like a school report card: passed, failed. Some say that because we are so strong, we managed to force a hudna on them. And while the media are delighted with the hudna, the Arabs continue to strike at us, and there are incidents. Yesterday we received the terrible news of the despicable murder of the soldier Oleg Shaichat, may Hashem avenge his blood, as though in the midst of the hudna. He joined the hundreds of murder victims whom Peres once called “victims of peace,” and now they will also be called “victims of the hudna.” As though peace were some mythological god to whom sacrifices must be offered. And I tell you, gentlemen, in plain language, we are the suckers of this hudna. Because what is a hudna? Let me explain a few words from the Muslim tradition. First of all, hudna is an Islamic religious concept dating from the beginnings of Islam. It means that a Muslim leader may, and should, seek a truce in a jihad against infidels when the war is going badly for him and he needs to regroup in order to continue the struggle. A hudna may be broken when the time is right and the enemy has weakened. Only the leader of the Muslim forces can declare a hudna to his own people, because one cannot expect an outsider and an enemy to agree to give the army of Islam time to rest and regroup, along with advance permission to resume the war whenever it suits the jihad fighters. That is what hudna means. They need it to regroup. After the IDF struck them, and struck them and their leaders, today they need

1:06:26 Speaker 6 to regroup and break it on a day that suits them. Distinguished audience, they look to their own history more than our leaders sometimes look to ours. When Muhammad wanted to convert as many people as possible to Islam, he approached the Quraysh tribe of his time and tried to convert them. When they refused, he went to war; when he failed, he declared a hudna for ten years, he told them. Two years later he slaughtered them all. Because that is what a hudna is, while we sell ourselves the illusion that we are in a ceasefire. The State of Israel has the largest pool of scholars in the field of Islam, and the Israeli government can consult them and hear from them the things I am saying to you here. Why didn’t they ask them to use the simple word for “ceasefire” in modern Arabic? Because the Muslims, the Arabs, speak to one another in coded language. And allow me to quote something to you. I don’t know whether you heard or read about it. It was published quietly. I want to read you passages that will send a chill down your spine, from the document Hamas and Islamic Jihad issued concerning this hudna. I quote: “This is to suspend military operations against the Zionist enemy for three months. In the name of Allah, the Merciful and Compassionate, for the sake of strengthening our national position, while emphasizing the right of resistance until the Zionist occupation ends. This is in exchange for the following conditions: the immediate cessation of all forms of Israeli aggression, including incursions, destruction, killing and siege, including the lifting of the siege imposed on President Arafat; assassinations of individuals, massacres of the masses, and all arrests and expulsions. Two: the release of all Palestinian and Arab prisoners, without reservation or condition, and their return to their homes. Should the enemy fail to comply, we will consider ourselves released from this initiative. Allahu Akbar! Victory to our people.” That is what Hamas and Islamic Jihad said about the hudna. I am not sure you heard it, and I am not making it up. I returned from the United States not long ago, and there, too, they use

1:09:20 Speaker 6 “hudna, hudna,” as though it were some magic word. If you pay attention to the fine print in the newspapers and the media, you will see that our statesmen have once again been infected by that same virus on the disk in their brains, a virus like the one we had during Oslo. During Operation Defensive Shield, we said, “Wait, perhaps they’ve finally changed the disk.” Boom! Like a deadly computer virus, the virus returned to their minds. And they tell us that everything I just read aloud is only for internal consumption. You surely know those words: when the Arabs speak plainly, people here explain it away and say, “Leave it alone, it’s for their own audience. Let them talk.” They mean every single word they say. Today there are officers—and every so often this appears in a few lines on page twenty of some newspaper—who warn that they are regrouping, manufacturing thousands of Qassam rockets and mortar shells, moving weapons and reassembling their cells. And every day we hear about another attack that has been thwarted. Those officers, gentlemen, are being kept out of sight now. Instead, the ones beginning to appear are those who say, “These are our buddies—the Dahlans, the Rajoubs.” Suddenly all the leaders of terror have become partners, and with them we will start the whole story over again. Meanwhile, the people dwelling in Zion, who over the last three years have suffered grievous, painful blows at the hands of those murderers, may their names be erased—the people bear these murders. When the woman was murdered in her home in Kfar Ya’avetz, people said, “Thank G-d he went into her house. Luckily he entered her home and murdered her instead of attacking the whole synagogue.” Do you understand how far we have come? At every event where I appear, and in every media outlet where I speak, I ask: When will we understand the true meaning of what the Arabs say, rather than relying on translation, ignorance and self-delusion? What do we do when they attack us and violate every agreement, and even dare to— Has something happened? We welcome the esteemed Rishon LeZion, Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu

1:12:42 Speaker 6 shlita, who has come to join us, as he does every year. One second, just one second. As I was saying, with all the great troubles that have befallen us over the last three years, we have failed to notice that during these thirty days, to which they gave that strange name, supposedly a hudna, there have been so many stabbings, so many attacks thwarted. And when one or two people were murdered, everyone said, “Well, it wasn’t a major attack.” We have learned to live with murder. That is one of the most terrible things. We have learned to live with bloodshed. And instead of striking back, instead of saying, “If someone comes to kill you, rise early and kill him first,” in our great foolishness we are about to release murderers. I tell you that among those being released are murderers. And it makes no difference—do not let them lie to you—whether they have “blood on their hands” or not. Someone who sends, hides or brings a terrorist to kill Jews is a partner in murder just like the murderer himself. And how much blood did IDF soldiers shed to capture those murderers? Have we not learned the lesson? We released murderers, and they returned to murder. Show me one country in the world that would do what we are doing. Did United States President George Bush release a single criminal when he was governor of Texas? I tell you, not only did he not release them, he did not even pardon murderers or rapists in Texas. Yet he asks us to release murderers. Did Russia release Chechens who attacked Russians? Did anyone in Germany release the murderers of Baader-Meinhof, a terrorist gang, as some sort of gesture? But people can make such demands of the Jews. In Egypt, a prisoner, Azzam Azzam, is rotting in jail. Mubarak, who tells us to release prisoners, is unwilling to release one prisoner. George Bush tells us to release prisoners, but he is unwilling to release one precious Jew, Jonathan Pollard. Why? Because Jonathan Pollard harmed Americans, according to him. So what

1:16:24 Speaker 6 Would he release him? Would George Bush release Iraqi prisoners who harmed American soldiers as a gesture of goodwill, to please the Iraqis under the new regime? I doubt it. I’m telling you, it won’t happen. But demands can be made of Jews. George Bush, who declared war on global terror, left one small people out of that picture: the Jews. We may be attacked. The terrorism here is—there is political terrorism and there is military terrorism, and Sheikh Yassin is only political. So don’t touch them, and release them. We saw how the Americans fight terror. They heard about Saddam’s two sons and leveled the house. Did they check who was inside—children or no children—as our pilots do? They leveled everything, because that is how you fight people who come to murder you. Except when they come to murder Jews. I could go on about this, and these matters are a question of our very lives. And I tell you, dear and honored audience, you too can take action. If you ask me what can be done, look: these days, mothers without husbands—what they call single-parent families—are taking up a flag and marching because they weren’t given their money and their allowance. If people can take up a flag and march to Jerusalem over their economic situation, then why shouldn’t we march to Jerusalem over matters of our blood and our lives? Every person here, young and old, can do these things and try to shake the system. I am convinced, and I have always had faith in the Rock of Israel, that in the end we will prevail. But how much more blood will be spilled before we do? I want to close with my personal prayer that we see no more blood, even though we know that tomorrow we will see blood, and with the hope that this evening, devoted here to the building of the Beis Hamikdash, will be another evening of calling for Moshiach to appear. And when he appears, the Beis Hamikdash will be built speedily

1:19:22 Speaker 6 in our days. Amen.

1:19:33 Speaker 7 Words that come from the heart—those are the words that must enter the heart. And much is needed to break through and heal, to break the hearts of those who do not want to listen. Thank you very much to retired Colonel Mr. Moshe Leshem. We all hope that, in the end, “Devise a plan, and it will be thwarted.” We are pleased to welcome the honored Maran, the Rishon LeZion, who has come to join us, along with Rabbi Zaafrani shlita, and Rabbi Alfasi, who has come from Tel Aviv. And as is customary, in addition to studying the teachings concerning the Beis Hamikdash, we are now at the point when “with the arrival of Av, we reduce joy.” As the Rebbe said, how do we reduce the days of Av? Through joy—through the joy of Torah. The members of the kollel, who study here every day, have had the privilege of learning throughout the year. Now the head of the kollel, Rabbi Uri Ben Shachar, will make a siyum on Tractate Berachos, so that during these days—the Three Weeks and the Nine Days—we can hear a siyum and rejoice in the joy of Torah. Rabbi Uri Ben Shachar, please.

1:21:27 Speaker 8 The Gemara at the end of Tractate Berachos concludes with several passages about Torah study. Rabbi Levi bar Chiya said: One who leaves the synagogue, enters the study hall, and occupies himself with Torah merits to receive the Divine Presence, as it says, “They go from strength to strength; each appears before G-d in Zion.” This is a Jew who leaves the synagogue, the place of prayer, and goes to the study hall, the place of Torah. Of him it says, “They go from strength to strength.” The Gemara continues: Rabbi Chiya bar Ashi said in the name of Rav: Torah scholars have no rest, neither in this world nor in the World to Come, as it says—again, the same verse—“They go from strength to strength; each appears before G-d in Zion.” The Gemara concludes: Rabbi Elazar said in the name of Rabbi Chanina: Torah scholars increase peace in the world, as it says, “And all your children shall be taught by Hashem, and great shall be the peace of your children.” Do not read “your children,” but “your builders.” In other words, Torah scholars build the world and bring peace. “Great peace have those who love Your Torah, and they have no stumbling block. May there be peace within your walls, tranquility within your palaces. For the sake of my brothers and friends, let me say: Peace be within you. For the sake of the House of Hashem our G-d, I will seek your good. Hashem will give strength to His people; Hashem will bless His people with peace.” We shall return to you, chapter Haroeh, and Tractate Berachos is completed. We shall return to you, Tractate Berachos, and you shall return to us. Our thoughts are on you, Tractate Berachos, and your thoughts are on us. We shall not forget you, Tractate Berachos, and you shall not forget us, neither in this world nor in the World to Come. May it be Your will, Hashem our G-d and G-d of our fathers, that Your Torah be our occupation in this world and remain with us in the World to Come. Chanina bar Pappa, Rami bar Pappa, Nachman bar Pappa, Achai bar Pappa, Abba Mari bar Pappa, Rafram bar Pappa, Rachish bar Pappa, Surchav bar Pappa, Ada bar Pappa, and Daru bar Pappa. Please make the words of Your Torah sweet in our mouths, Hashem our G-d, and in the mouths of Your people,

1:24:28 Speaker 8 the House of Israel. May we all—ourselves, our descendants, and the descendants of Your people, the House of Israel—know Your name and study Your Torah. “Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me. May my heart be wholehearted in Your statutes, so that I will not be ashamed. I will never forget Your precepts, for through them You have given me life. Blessed are You, Hashem; teach me Your statutes.” Amen, amen, amen. Selah and amen. We thank You, Hashem our G-d and G-d of our fathers, for placing our lot among those who sit in the study hall and not among those who sit on street corners. We rise early and they rise early: we rise early for words of Torah, and they rise early for idle matters. We toil and they toil: we toil and receive reward, while they toil and receive no reward. We run and they run: we run toward life in the World to Come, while they run toward the pit of destruction, as it says, “And You, G-d, will bring them down to the pit of destruction; men of bloodshed and deceit shall not live out half their days, but I will trust in You.” May it be Your will, Hashem my G-d, that just as You helped me complete Tractate Berachos, so You help me begin other tractates and books—other books—and complete them; to learn and to teach, to observe, to do, and to fulfill all the words of the study of Your Torah with love. May the merit of all the Tannaim, Amoraim, and Torah scholars stand by me and my descendants, so that the Torah shall never depart from my mouth, the mouths of my descendants, or the mouths of my descendants’ descendants, forever. And may these verses be fulfilled: “When you walk, it will guide you; when you lie down, it will watch over you; and when you awaken, it will speak with you. For through me your days will be multiplied, and years of life will be added to you. Length of days is in its right hand; in its left hand are wealth and honor.” Hashem will give strength to His people; Hashem will bless His people with peace. The recitation of Kaddish. May His great name be exalted and sanctified in the world He created according to His will. May His great name be blessed forever and for all eternity. Blessed, exalted, raised high, glorified, exalted, uplifted, and raised high be He, beyond all blessings, songs, praises, and consolations uttered in the world; and say, amen. For Israel, for the rabbis, for all their students, for all their students’ students, and for all who engage in Torah in this place and in every place,

1:27:11 Speaker 8 may there be for them and for you abundant peace, favor, kindness, mercy, long life, ample sustenance, and deliverance from their Father in Heaven; and say, amen. May there be abundant peace from Heaven and a good life for us and for all Israel; and say, amen. May He who makes peace in His heavens make peace for us and for all Israel; and say, amen. As is customary among the Jewish people, I’ll say a few words as a hadran on the tractate we have just studied. I won’t speak at length—just a few words. Tractate Berachos is the first tractate of the Shas, the Babylonian Talmud. Why do we begin the Shas specifically with Tractate Berachos? Because this tractate opens with the Mishnah, “From when may one recite the Shema in the evening?” It begins with the subject of Shema Yisroel, which is about kabbolas ol. By reciting Shema, every Jew accepts upon himself the yoke of Heaven and the yoke of the mitzvos. So when a Jew begins to learn, his learning comes from kabbolas ol. And this tractate, which begins with kabbolas ol, continues until its conclusion, where we end with the words about—at the conclusion, with Torah scholars. Torah scholars are no longer a matter of kabbolas ol alone, but of analysis, intellect, and study. This shows us that kabbolas ol has permeated everything and reached all the way to understanding in Torah study, encompassing everything we have learned up to now. At the end we said that Torah scholars—one who leaves—excuse me—one who leaves the synagogue, enters the study hall, and occupies himself with Torah merits to receive the Divine Presence, as it says, “They go from strength to strength; each appears before G-d in Zion.” “Strength” here has the sense of many people, a large gathering. When we are in the synagogue, we are part of a congregation. Prayer with a congregation is always accepted. So we engaged in communal prayer in the synagogue. Then we went to the study hall and learned Torah. And of Torah it is said that Torah is accepted only in a group; Torah is acquired only in a group.

1:30:28 Speaker 8 When a large group studies Torah, the Torah is better absorbed and acquired. And that is what we do here every day: we study together in the beis midrash. And what do we then merit? “He will appear before G-d in Zion.” When we come to the Beis Hamikdash, we will merit what is written there: “All your males shall appear before Hashem.” The Rashba—sorry, the Maharsha. Sorry, I made a mistake. The Maharsha, Rabbi Shmuel Eliezer Eidels, asks a question about this teaching: Rabbi Elazar said in the name of Rabbi Chanina, “Torah scholars have no rest, neither in this world nor in the World to Come, as it says, ‘They go from strength to strength.’” So he asks: Don’t we know that the World to Come is a day of rest, a day that is entirely Shabbos? That is precisely when there is rest. Why do we say, “They go from strength to strength”? He gives an answer, but I won’t go into it at length. There is another answer, brought in the name of the Arizal, who writes this in Likkutei HaShas. I’ll quote what the Arizal writes: “In the world after death,” which we call the World to Come, yes, “Torah scholars study Torah and ascend from level to level and from yeshivah to yeshivah. Even Moshe Rabbeinu, peace be upon him, ascends and gains greater understanding every day.” Why? “Just as Hashem is without end, so His Torah is without end. And this is the secret of ‘Man goes out to his work.’” In other words, he studies Torah in the World to Come too. He continues the work he did in this world—the work of studying Torah while he was here. After death, when he comes to the World to Come, he studies that same Torah there. But this refers only to the World to Come, meaning Gan Eden. There truly is no rest there: “They go from strength to strength.” But in the world of Resurrection, where the dead will be resurrected,

1:33:19 Speaker 8 that is a day entirely of rest, truly “a day of Shabbos and rest for everlasting life.” There are two versions of this teaching of the Gemara: “Torah scholars have no rest, neither in this world nor in the World to Come.” We explained that Torah has no end, so one can contemplate it endlessly, all the time. That is why we can say of Torah scholars, “They go from strength to strength.” Another version says that the righteous have no rest. Who are the righteous? Those called “masters of good deeds”—people who perform mitzvos. They too continually rise from one level to a still higher level. So the question arises: What is there to discover in mitzvos? They are not like Torah. In Torah, we can rise from one level to another, gaining more and more understanding. But the mitzvos are defined. We may not do something different. So how can we say that those who perform mitzvos will also “go from strength to strength” when they reach the World to Come? There is nothing for them to do there beyond the mitzvos they performed in this world. In particular, in the World to Come there is no place for the practical performance of the mitzvos we performed here. But, as has been said, mitzvos have two levels. There is the level of an individual mitzvah that we perform, and that mitzvah has limits. We cannot perform it constantly, in every place or at every time. Mitzvos have specific conditions under which they can be performed. But there is a higher level of mitzvos: taken as a whole, all the mitzvos are the will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. It makes no difference which mitzvah it is. Because they express the will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu—as we say, “Who has sanctified us with His mitzvos and commanded us”—in that respect all the mitzvos are equal. And therefore we say

1:35:49 Speaker 8 that someone engaged in one mitzvah is exempt from another mitzvah. Why? Because the mitzvah he is performing encompasses all the other mitzvos. And when a person reflects on a mitzvah before performing it—who is the One commanding it?—we reach a higher level. Each person, on their own level, senses the command from Above that Hakadosh Boruch Hu has given us. May Hakadosh Boruch Hu help that these days, the Nine Days, be transformed into joy and gladness, and may we merit the complete Geulah through Moshiach Tzidkeinu soon, this very evening.

1:36:49 Speaker 9 And let us bless the members of the kollel that they go from strength to strength, adding another tractate and another tractate each year. And, Baruch Hashem, may they add students and benches to the beis midrash, and merit to continue studying more and more every year, as they wish and desire. From what I hear, when the members of the Tiferes Zekeinim Levi Yitzchak kollel hear that there is a break between terms, they say, “We don’t understand such a concept. Why do we need a break between terms? There is no break from one term to the next. We need to study. We need to make up what we missed, to add more and more.” And with Hashem’s help, may they continue to go from strength to strength. His name is greater than any title. We won’t go on with titles. Let us invite the honored Rishon LeZion, Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu shlita, to come forward. He honors us every year, and he will bless us and offer us delights with which we can savor words of Torah during the Nine Days. Rabbi Eliyahu, please.

1:38:06 Speaker 10 Honored great Rabbi, a great light, [unclear], the gaon Rabbi Gerlitzky—may Hashem protect him, grant him life, and lengthen his days in goodness and pleasantness. Honored and dear rabbis, with the permission of Rabbi Elshachar [unclear]—may Hashem protect them and grant them life. Honored community leaders, with the permission of the military representative—may Hakadosh Boruch Hu grant him long, good years. Holy and honored audience: In the booklet before you, the first section discusses the verse, “You shall place the cover on the Ark above, and into the Ark you shall put the Testimony that I will give you.” The rabbi presents the disagreement between Rashi and the Rambam about this verse. But taken simply, the verse is difficult. When a person has a cabinet, its door is usually facing the person who comes to open it. The Ark in the Beis Hamikdash was not like that. It was made like a box, with its opening at the top. And what was its cover? The kapores. So you put in the two Tablets and afterward place the kapores on top. When the verse says, “You shall place the cover on the Ark,” that means you have put it on top and closed the Ark. So what does it say next? “And into the Ark you shall put the Testimony that I will give you.” How can you put the Testimony, the two Tablets, into the Ark when the kapores is already in place? True, Rashi and the Ramban clarify this, as mentioned here on the page. But I think we are asking a straightforward, practical question: How do you do it? But before that: It says that they asked the prophets and they asked the sages why the land was lost. They could not give an answer. Then Hakadosh Boruch Hu says, “Because they forsook My Torah.” The Ran asks: If they forsook My Torah, there were no yeshivos and no Torah study—so how did the prophets and sages not know the answer? He explains that “they forsook My Torah” means that they did not recite the blessing over the Torah before studying it. In other words, a person can study

1:41:07 Speaker 10 Torah as a science. That is not Torah study. The blessing “Who has chosen us” does not apply to that. But if we study Torah knowing that it is the Torah of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, it is the Torah of truth. He looked into it and created the world; Torah is the foundation of the entire world. So this is very important. The First Beis Hamikdash was destroyed because “they forsook My Torah.” The Second Beis Hamikdash was destroyed because of baseless hatred. What does Chabad do? It works to remedy the causes of both destructions. For the First Beis Hamikdash, “they forsook My Torah”—so people study Torah now. For the Second, baseless hatred—there is no movement as wonderful as Chabad in its practice of unconditional love, bringing the entire Jewish people together and binding them to one another. Party, gender, community—it makes no difference. The main thing is to unite the Jewish people. So they work to remedy the causes of both the First and Second Beis Hamikdash’s destruction. Now let’s return to the question we asked at the beginning. If you place the kapores on top of the Ark, you cannot put anything inside. Perhaps you could put half the kapores in place and then insert the Tablets? That cannot be, either. Our Sages tell us the length and width of the Tablets, the width of the kapores, and the width of the Ark. The Tablets fit in by sliding them down; you cannot put half the kapores on top first. Rather, the point is this. There is something very important here: When Moshe Rabbeinu ascended to heaven to receive the Torah, the angels began to argue with him. “What is one born of woman doing among us?” What is a human being doing here? Hakadosh Boruch Hu said: He has come to receive the Torah. They argued: Master of the Universe, this precious treasure was hidden away for 974 generations before the creation of the world, and You want to give it to human beings? “What is man that You remember him?” Why are You giving it away? “Set Your glory upon the heavens.” So Hashem said to Moshe Rabbeinu: Give them an answer. Moshe Rabbeinu said: I am afraid

1:43:48 Speaker 10 “Perhaps they will burn me with the breath of their mouths.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu says to him, “Hold on to My Throne of Glory and give them an answer,” as it says, “He holds fast the face of the throne and spreads His cloud over it.” So he says to them: The Torah that Hashem gave—what does it say? “I am Hashem your G-d, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.” Did you go down to Egypt? Were you enslaved to Pharaoh? What else does it say? “You shall not steal.” Do you have money to steal? What else does it say? “Honor your father and your mother.” Do you have a father? Do you have a mother? So they said: If that’s the case, take the Torah. All right, you will receive the Torah. What was the angels’ view? And there’s another way they describe it. The angels say: “A hidden treasure, stored away for 974 generations before the creation of the world.” That’s true. “He commanded a matter for a thousand generations.” So if you subtract from a thousand generations the twenty-six generations from the creation of the world until Moshe Rabbeinu, 974 generations remain. The angels call the Torah a hidden treasure. A museum. A museum! They kiss the Torah, embrace the Torah and put it in a beautiful ark. We call the Torah a precious instrument, something we use. We study Torah, we observe the Torah. And we bring the Torah into every place in the world. Just as Hakadosh Boruch Hu fills the world, so the Torah is found in every place. And the Torah sustains the world. “If not for My covenant by day and by night, I would not have established the laws of heaven and earth.” So when we speak of the First Beis Hamikdash, where there was a lack of Torah, or of the Second Beis Hamikdash, where there was baseless hatred, the very next day we need to make things right. The Rambam says: A person who was stingy and wants to do teshuvah should go and be extravagant. A person who was arrogant should become humble and lowly. Go to the opposite extreme until you reach the middle path. So today, here, we need to increase Torah and increase love for the Jewish people. Today we see parties divided against one another. And within the parties there are factions upon factions. Where is the unity of the Jewish people? Where is

1:46:36 Speaker 10 “And they encamped opposite the mountain”—“and Israel encamped there opposite the mountain”? When there is Torah, Torah unites, draws together and connects everyone. What connection did the Lubavitcher Rebbe have with the Rambam? He was in America, he was in Russia, while the Rambam was in Egypt, and the Rambam is buried in Tiberias. What connection did he have with the Rambam? Yet he began spreading the practice of studying several chapters of Rambam every day. And I still remember the great opposition there was to him. Why are you deciding that people should study Rambam? What’s the problem? What’s the danger? What is it? Rambam. They tried to disparage it, and today, boruch Hashem, who doesn’t study Rambam? Everyone studies Rambam; there are daily chapters of Rambam. The Rambam was a unique figure who encompassed the entire Torah. The Rambam says, “I am writing the... the Mishneh Torah so that a person will need nothing else, and will study the... the Mishneh Torah.” It includes everything. A person who thinks of the entire Jewish people includes everything. Sometimes—throughout the whole world, people sing “Lecha Dodi” at Kabbalas Shabbos. Shlomo Alkabetz in Tzfas. What does Tzfas have to do with Jerusalem? What does Tzfas have to do with Russia? With America? Everyone says it together. Who doesn’t say Rabbi Shlomo Alkabetz’s “Lecha Dodi” at Kabbalas Shabbos? Again, his was a soul that belonged to the entire Jewish people. When there is a soul that belongs to the entire Jewish people, everyone connects with it. Then came the Shulchan Aruch. After the Rambam there were the Rif and the Rosh and others—actually, the Rif was before the Rambam. There were the Rosh and other commentators, other halachic authorities. So the Shulchan Aruch was compiled. They took from here, they took from there, and made the Shulchan Aruch. Then came the Rema. Notice the greatness of the Rema. The Rema had composed a Shulchan Aruch. The moment he heard that the Beis Yosef had composed a Shulchan Aruch, he said, “I won’t write a Shulchan Aruch. I’ll spread a tablecloth over the Shulchan Aruch.” And the Rema writes to the author of the Shulchan Aruch, “Anyone who disputes you is like one who disputes the Shechinah.” What a level of—

1:49:42 Speaker 10 You come together. The Rema was from Krakow, and the other was in Tzfas. The Torah unites. “And they came and encamped”—“and Israel encamped there opposite the mountain,” in unity. The Torah unites the entire Jewish people. There may be one custom here and another custom there. There are different customs, but in the secrets of the Torah they are all united. Now, it’s true that Rabbi Akiva began studying at an older age. But our Sages say that when a child begins to speak, he says “Abba,” “Ima.” So today ev-everyone jumps in. He had finished saying “Ima”—“Abba” had finished saying “Ima.” No. He begins to say “Abba,” and they also tell him, “No, don’t just say ‘Abba.’ Say, ‘The Torah that Moshe commanded us is the heritage of the congregation of Yaakov.’ Say, ‘Hear, O Israel, Hashem is our G-d, Hashem is One.’” From his earliest childhood, we instill this in him: “The Torah that Moshe commanded us is the heritage of the congregation of Yaakov.” Our Sages tell of Rabbi Yannai. Rabbi Yannai used to look for a guest to eat with him every day. One day he was walking along, looking for a Jewish guest, and couldn’t find one. He saw a man and asked him, “Are you Jewish?” He said yes. He told him, “Come to my home and eat with me.” The man said, “I don’t need a meal. I have money; I’ll go into a restaurant and eat.” He said, “No, there are no kosher restaurants.” The man said, “I’ll eat a tomato, a cucumber, uncooked things, fruit.” Rabbi Yannai said, “Come to my home, do me a favor.” Rabbi Yannai pleaded with him. “Come.” So he came. Rabbi Yannai washed his hands, and he washed his hands too. Rabbi Yannai raised his hands to say the blessing on washing hands, so he raised his hands too. Rabbi Yannai dried his hands, and he dried his hands too. And the rule is that the host breaks the bread. Rabbi Yannai said the blessing, “Who brings forth bread from the earth,” and shared the bread. Fine. In the middle of the meal, Rabbi Yannai said to his guest, “Say a word of Torah. Say any word of Torah at the table.” He said, “What is a word of Torah?” “Go on,” he said, “from when do we recite the Shema

1:52:27 Speaker 10 in the evening?” “What do you mean, ‘From when do we recite the Shema in the evening?’” “You don’t know? ‘The beginning of Your words is truth.’” He said, “What does ‘The beginning of Your words is truth’ mean?” He said, “Look, the Torah began with ‘I am Hashem your G-d.’ The Mishnah begins, ‘From when,’ and the Gemara begins, ‘Where is the Tanna standing?’ The initial letters spell emes, ‘truth’: Anochi, Me’eimasai, Tanna.” He said, “Why are you telling me all these things? I’m hearing new ideas, I’m listening.” So he said, “Well then, say a saying, a teaching.” “I don’t know one.” “Say Ashrei.” “I don’t know it.” Rabbi Yannai grew angry and said, “Repeat what I say: ‘Eat, dog, dog, bread, bread.’” He said, “Fine. ‘Eat, dog, dog, bread, bread.’” “Yannai—‘Eat, dog, eat, dog, Yannai’s bread.’” The guest grew angry. “Am I a dog? You ran over and asked me to come, you pleaded with me, and now you call me that?” The guest went out and asked whether there was a beis din there. They told him there was. He went to the beis din to bring a claim against Rabbi Yannai. Fine. The clerk told him, “According to the schedule, your date is in a month.” He said, “What do you mean, in a month? I want to go back today. Why are you showing favoritism to Rabbi Yannai?” They saw how things stood. Fine, that day they sent a messenger to Rabbi Yannai. “Come, there’s a summons against you. Come.” And he came. He saw that unlearned man outside and said, “Tell me, what do you want from me?” The man said, “I’ll tell you inside. Why should I discuss it with you here?” Fine, they went inside. The judge said to the plaintiff, “Present your claim.” He said, “Look, I was born after my father passed away. My mother was pregnant with me, and she gave birth to me. I was born without a father, without a mother, and they placed me with Bedouins, with [unclear], non-Jews. Nothing. I don’t know a thing. One day I was walking down the street, and an old man saw me and said, ‘Come complete a minyan.’ I asked him, ‘What’s a minyan?’ ‘A tenth man.’ I”

1:55:09 Speaker 10 He asks him, “What does ‘the tenth’ mean?” “What, you don’t know what a minyan is? What does ‘the tenth’ mean? Come.” He pulled me along and took me into a house. I saw nine people sitting there, and a rabbi was speaking. It was the first time in my life I had entered a synagogue. I heard the rabbi say: “Moshe commanded us the Torah, an inheritance for the congregation of Yaakov.” The Torah was given to Moshe, but not to his sons after him; it was passed on to Yehoshua. Yehoshua passed it to the elders, and the elders to the prophets. “Moshe commanded us the Torah, an inheritance.” The Torah is an inheritance for the entire Jewish people, for everyone. So this unlearned man says, “If the Torah is an inheritance, why does Rabbi Yannai have so much Torah and I have none? An inheritance should be divided so everyone gets his share.” The judges began raising their hands to their mouths to hide their laughter. “What are you talking about? Why are you asking such questions?” But the halachah says the other party has to answer. So they tell Rabbi Yannai, “Answer him.” Rabbi Yannai stands up and says, “I have sinned, I have done wrong, I have transgressed. You’re right: I have your inheritance. Come and receive it.” Fine. The unlearned man goes with him, and he teaches him A, B, C, D. Then “father,” “mother,” “Avraham.” Then he teaches him Torah and Mishnah. Once he had learned, Rabbi Yannai said to him, “Please come to the beis din”—in other words, to confirm that he had received his inheritance so the case could be closed. The unlearned man came and said, “I received my inheritance.” The Torah is an inheritance for the entire Jewish people. Not just for rabbis, not just for scholars, not just for heads of yeshivos, not just for judges. The Torah belongs to everyone. It is an inheritance for the entire Jewish people. Every single person is entitled to a share of that inheritance. But when Moshe Rabbeinu ascends on high, he argues with the angels and says to them, “What about you? Isn’t the Torah meant for you? Go ahead, take it.” In the end they conceded: “Fine, receive the Torah. You deserve the Torah.” He says, “If you call it a hidden treasure, I say it is a treasure to me.” Moshe comes to receive the Torah, and

1:57:43 Speaker 10 Hakadosh Boruch Hu says to him, “You settled matters with the angels. Now give Me guarantors. If you are to receive the Torah, give Me guarantors.” Ah, Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants guarantors. Certainly—here, I have Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov. Hashem says to him, “No.” Moshe Rabbeinu thinks perhaps Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants it in the merit of the righteous women, Sarah, Rivkah, Rachel and Leah. He says to him, “No.” Whatever Moshe Rabbeinu suggests, He says no. Nadav and Avihu? Aharon? The elders? The Sanhedrin? No, he has no guarantors. Moshe Rabbeinu says, “Fine, our children will be guarantors.” Ah, they are the guarantors. As it is written, “From the mouths of infants and nursing babies You established strength”—and “strength” means the Torah. That is the point. As someone once said jokingly about the verse, “This is my G-d, and I will glorify Him; my father’s G-d, and I will exalt Him”: If a person says, “This is my G-d”—Hakadosh Boruch Hu is my G-d, I serve and bow to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and I keep His mitzvos too—then “I will glorify Him.” That is beautiful. But someone else says, “My father was a scholar. My father was a tzaddik, and my grandfather was this. My grandfather was that.” And what about you? “My father’s G-d”—while you yourself are worth nothing. On the contrary: if your father and grandfather were something, you need to be even more. Moshe Rabbeinu comes, receives the Torah, places it in the Aron and puts the kapores over it. On top of the kapores were two keruvim, spreading their wings over the kapores, facing one another. Our Sages—and Rashi—say the keruvim had the faces of children. Inside the Aron are the two Tablets of the Covenant. Above them are children, with children’s faces. This tells us: if you educate children, if you teach them Torah, then there is Torah inside. If children are not learning Torah, there is nothing. The Aron remains just a box. “You shall place the kapores on the Aron from above.” So

2:00:25 Speaker 10 there is a cover; it is covered. How, then, can it say afterward, “And into the Aron you shall place the testimony that I will give you”? The answer is this: “You shall place the kapores on the Aron.” Pay attention: you put the Torah inside, and you hold on to the kapores—to those children. You tell them, “You are important to the Jewish people.” Our Sages say that when King Ptolemy asked for the Torah to be translated, he took seventy-two elders. The nations call it the Septuagint, the translation of the seventy, getting even that wrong: there were seventy-two elders. He put each one in a separate room and told them, “Translate the Torah.” They translated it into Greek, and darkness descended. They made changes in the Torah, and all of them made the same changes. Where it says, “He sent the youths of the Children of Israel” to bring burnt offerings and peace offerings after the giving of the Torah, they wrote, “He sent the little ones of the Children of Israel.” Why? If they wrote “He sent the youths of the Children of Israel,” King Ptolemy and the non-Jews would say, “You sent your least important people to receive the Torah?” Among the nations, children are the least important. For us, “He sent the youths of the Children of Israel” means the finest among the Jewish people. They are the important ones. “And our toil”—these are the children. That is their importance. When Pharaoh says to Moshe Rabbeinu, “I will let you go. Let the men go now and serve Hashem, for that is what you seek,” Moshe Rabbeinu says to him, “What do you mean, ‘Let the men go now’? You want to separate the older generation from the younger one?” The men can go—“go now,” as a request—go study Torah, but the children will stay with Pharaoh. Moshe Rabbeinu says to him, “We will go with our young and with our old”—and our young come before our old. “And our toil”—these are the children. We have to toil so that our children learn Torah, to toil so that our children keep mitzvos. They are our guarantors. They will grow up, and the Jewish people will continue. That is what the kapores represents. There are two children above, on top of the Aron of the Testimony. If there is no kapores, if there are no children, then there is no Aron, no testimony and no Torah. Blessed

2:03:25 Speaker 10 be Hashem, He has not left us without someone to carry on. Whenever I come to this area, I always try to come here. If Rabbi Gertzer[?] invites us, then we have to come. But I am struck by how, in these neighborhoods, I see emptiness, emptiness, emptiness, emptiness, emptiness. Suddenly I see a house full of light. You come to this place—a house full of light. This is so important. But we must remember what the holy Or Hachayim says about the verse, “For to you and your descendants I will give all these lands.” The Or Hachayim says: “‘To you and your descendants’—because ‘through Yitzchak shall your descendants be called.’” Through Yitzchak, but not all of Yitzchak’s descendants—not Esav. To Yaakov, Hakadosh Boruch Hu says, “The land on which you are lying, I will give to you and your descendants.” When Hakadosh Boruch Hu creates the world, He chooses the Jewish people from among all the peoples of the world. He creates the world, and from the whole world He chooses Eretz Yisroel. Eretz Yisroel, down to every grain of its soil and every stone, belongs to the Jewish people alone—not to Esav or Yishmael, not to Putin or Bush, not to Arafat or anyone like them. We may not give away our ancestral inheritance. What Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives us, we should give to others? How could anyone even imagine it? How could anyone even imagine it? I used to say of Yiftach that he was an empty man. Later I regretted it and repented, and I said, “I have sinned, I have done wrong, I have transgressed by saying that about Yiftach.” It says, “Worthless men gathered around Yiftach.” And earlier, when they tell him, “Look, Ammon has come against us; they are fighting us, and we cannot manage,” he says, “Make me your commander, make me your leader.” Is that how one speaks? You see? Yiftach was in the wrong. How can you say that? Is that how one speaks? The Jewish people are in trouble. Run, run to save them! No—“Make me your leader, swear before Hashem.” That is not how one acts. I said, “He is an empty man.” Later, whenever I study that passage, I say every year, “I have sinned, I have done wrong, I have transgressed against Yiftach.” Where

2:05:58 Speaker 10 What should our leaders learn? What does Yiftach say? The king of Ammon tells him: The people of Israel came and conquered those lands. Give them back to me peacefully. Let’s make a peace agreement—return the territories. Yiftach says to the king of Ammon: What is this idea that returning territories brings peace? “What Chemosh your deity gives you to possess, you may possess; and what Hashem our G-d has given us to possess is ours.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu performed miracles and wonders for us when we entered and conquered the land. Did He perform those miracles and wonders for you, or for us? What do you want here? So I say: Yiftach—this will open the eyes and minds of the public. What is a road map? There is no road map. I don’t know what a road map is. There is one path, the path of Hakadosh Boruch Hu: “Hashem is good and upright; therefore He guides sinners on the path.” The path of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. What are all these road maps? All these things are empty talk. [unclear] Because Hakadosh Boruch Hu promised us. But we need to hold on to the Land of Israel; we need to take hold of the Land of Israel. How does it go in the chapter of Tehillim they wrote down here today? I want the Tehillim. Ah, it’s here. It says: “A prayer of the afflicted man when he is overwhelmed, and pours out his plea before Hashem.” All right. “You will arise and have mercy on Zion, for it is time to favor her; the appointed time has come.” “You” means Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The time has come, Master of the Universe, the time has come to redeem us. Hakadosh Boruch Hu says: “For Your servants cherish her stones and favor her dust.” We want every single stone of the Land of Israel; we want every grain of its dust. “The nations will fear the name of Hashem, and all the kings of the earth Your glory.” Master of the Universe, redeem us. Save us from enemies within and enemies without, and let the whole

2:08:36 Speaker 10 world see the glory of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. How will His glory be revealed? “For Hashem has built Zion; He has appeared in His glory.” When Hakadosh Boruch Hu brings us back to the Land of Israel, to Zion, and we have control over it—all of Jerusalem, all of Zion—then He will appear in His glory. It then says: “He turned to the prayer of the destitute and did not despise their prayer.” And earlier it says: “A prayer of the afflicted man when he is overwhelmed.” One of the rabbis once said: A rich man stands there praying. Master of the Universe, he has a million dollars. Master of the Universe, I want another million dollars. I want this and I want that, I want a villa, I want this—he prays. The angels up there say: A hundred million dollars, two hundred million—what nonsense are you talking? A poor man stands there and says: Master of the Universe, this morning I ate bread and cheese, and bread and margarine. I’d like to have bread and butter to eat. So the angels say: You want bread and butter? Come on, give it to him. Let him have it. Here, take it. The poor man comes to the rich man and says: Look, if you support me, if you help me, I’ll wrap up that prayer of yours for a million dollars and carry it upward. What does it say? “A prayer of the afflicted man when he is overwhelmed.” He wraps the rich man’s prayer in his own. So now the rich man has to give to the poor man; he has to provide for him. Why? Because I’m the one who carried your prayer upward to be accepted. But that’s not all: “They will perish, but You will endure; all of them will wear out like a garment. Like clothing, You will change them and they will pass away. But You remain the same, and Your years will not end. The children of Your servants will dwell securely, and their descendants will be established before You.” Gentlemen, that is the purpose of learning Torah. That is why the Rebbe, with his extraordinary vision, seeing far ahead to these times, told us to study the subjects of the Geulah. In the past, people would say “Moshiach,” but the word hardly came to our lips. Today we know that Moshiach must come. We know about Moshiach,

2:11:18 Speaker 10 [unclear], and we ask for all three: Eliyahu, Moshiach, and the Beis Hamikdash, which should be built speedily and in our days. And let us say amen. Thank you to the Chief Rabbi, the Rishon LeZion. “And He, being merciful, forgives iniquity and does not destroy.” Maariv. And with Hashem’s help, after Maariv, all of us here will travel to Jerusalem, to the Third Beis Hamikdash. “And He, being merciful, forgives iniquity and does not destroy.”