What Did Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai Say on the Last Day of His Life — and What Does That Mean for You Today?

00:00 The Gemara in Bava Kama tells us: Whoever wants to be a chossid should study Pirkei Avos—it teaches matters of piety. Pirkei Avos comes to teach us how to be a chossid: a person who wants to serve Hashem not only according to the letter of the law, but beyond it. That is really the essence of every mishnah in Pirkei Avos. When we come to the first mishnah of chapter four, it begins: Ben Zoma says, “Who is wise? One who learns from every person.” And it brings a verse to support that. “Who is strong? One who masters his inclination.” It brings a verse for that too. “Who is rich? One who is happy with his lot.” There is a verse for that as well. “And who is honored? One who honors others.” It describes four qualities, four important virtues that every person aspires to. Who doesn’t want to be wise? Who doesn’t want to be strong? Who doesn’t want to be rich? Who doesn’t want to be honored? We all want these four qualities, which encompass all the finest human virtues. We want to know what they mean, and the mishnah explains them to us. The question is: What exactly does this mishnah have to do with Pirkei Avos? Where is the lesson in piety here? Where is the conduct of a chossid, the special way of behaving that the mishnah comes to teach us? Granted, this is a good, important, distinctive question. A person should want to know what it means to be wise, rich, strong and honored, but that doesn’t necessarily make it a lesson for Pirkei Avos. What message does the mishnah want to convey? If we look at Rabbi Ovadiah of Bartenura’s commentary on the mishnah, he says: Who is the wise person who may take pride in his wisdom? Who is the strong person who may take pride in his strength? Who is the rich person who may take pride in his wealth? And who is the honored person who may take pride in his honor? The mishnah answers: Who truly deserves to take pride in the wisdom, wealth, strength and honor

02:09 he has? But that makes the question even stronger. What does it mean that a person should take pride? Who says he should? There is an explicit verse in Yirmiyahu: “Let not the wise man take pride in his wisdom; let not the strong man take pride in his strength; let not the rich man take pride in his wealth.” So why does the mishnah now want to know who does deserve to take pride—to praise himself, elevate himself and boast? A person should be humble, especially someone who aspires to be a chossid. So what exactly is the message this mishnah comes to give us in Pirkei Avos, as a lesson in piety, in the conduct of a chossid? As we said, we always read Pirkei Avos between Pesach and Shavuos, and chapter four comes out near Lag BaOmer. Sometimes it is before Lag BaOmer, sometimes shortly afterward, but chapter four is always around Lag BaOmer. So we will study this mishnah in the spirit of Lag BaOmer as well. Today we will study the first mishnah of chapter four of Pirkei Avos and try to understand it in the special light of Chassidus, based on explanations we had the privilege of hearing from the Rebbe. At his summer Shabbos farbrengens, the Rebbe would explain one of the mishnayos, offering a wonderful explanation of its deeper meaning—especially the lesson in piety. How do we learn this mishnah? And since we are close to Lag BaOmer, we will also look at it through the eyes of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, through the teachings of the Torah’s hidden dimension and its inner dimension. That will give us an entirely different, profoundly deep and wonderful understanding of what this mishnah comes to teach us. The Arizal says something about this mishnah. He says that when a person studies this mishnah, the first mishnah of chapter four, he should have in mind that the four qualities and virtues listed here—wise, strong, rich and honored—correspond to the four letters of Yud-Kei-Vav-Kei. The yud is chochmah: “Who is wise?” The hei is

04:35 binah: “Who is strong?” As it is written, “I am binah; strength is mine.” So strength is associated with the sefirah of binah. Wealth is the letter vav, associated with tiferes, which represents wealth. And the final hei is the quality of malchus, the sefirah of malchus, where honor has its place: “Who is honored?” So these four letters correspond to four sefiros, four worlds, and to the four qualities in the mishnah. The Arizal concludes: When you study this mishnah, have in mind the four letters of Hashem’s name. But here too, what does that mean? A person studying the mishnah wants to understand its plain meaning. The mishnah explains the essential definition of wisdom, and likewise the essential definitions of strength, wealth and honor. And suddenly we are saying it is talking about Yud-Kei-Vav-Kei and the higher sefiros. What does that mean for me? We know that Lag BaOmer is the day of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai’s passing. The Zohar tells us about something that happened on that day. Rabbi Shimon opened and said—as the Zohar relates near its end, in Parshas Haazinu, in the Idra Zuta, which, as is well known, describes what happened on Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai’s last day, the day we now know to be Lag BaOmer—“I am my beloved’s, and his desire is for me.” Rabbi Shimon is on the last day of his life, at the loftiest moments, when his soul is reaching the ultimate closeness to Hashem. And he tells his students, the circle of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai’s companions who surrounded him, that throughout his life, from its very beginning, from the first moment, he had always sought to connect and bind himself to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. “I have bound myself to Hakadosh Boruch Hu with a single bond.” I bound myself to Hakadosh Boruch Hu in one bond. “To Him I clung, for Him I yearned, to Him I attached myself.” I wanted to be one with Him,

06:57 yearning for Him, attached to Him. That is what Rabbi Shimon says. He goes on to speak of all the secrets he revealed that day. And as is well known, he asked that this day become a day of joy, a day of celebration, because on this day his soul would reach the ultimate closeness to Hashem for which he had striven all his life. Now, we are ordinary people celebrating Lag BaOmer. Who doesn’t celebrate Lag BaOmer? It is a celebration throughout the Jewish world. We all want to connect in some way with Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. And that raises the question: When we learn about Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, we see a person on an unimaginably lofty spiritual level. How can we be part of any of that? The Rebbe addressed this more than once. Of course, who could compare to Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai’s greatness? But on the other hand, just as we say about Moshe Rabbeinu that there is something of Moshe Rabbeinu in each and every person, so too here. The Alter Rebbe tells us in Tanya that every Jew has a spark of Moshe Rabbeinu in his soul. That is why every Jew is expected, as explained in the Gemara, to have yiras Shamayim, fear of Heaven; we receive the capacity for that through Moshe Rabbeinu. In other words, on the one hand, we cannot possibly compare ourselves to Moshe Rabbeinu—as the Gemara says, we cannot, we must not compare ourselves to Moshe. Yet every Jew learns from Moshe Rabbeinu, receives from him, and has a spark of Moshe Rabbeinu in his soul. Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, too, was a spark of Moshe Rabbeinu. As is well known, the sefarim say that Lag BaOmer has the same numerical value as Moshe. In other words, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai’s soul is a spark of Moshe Rabbeinu’s soul. Moshe revealed the Torah’s revealed dimension, while Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai merited to reveal its hidden dimension. They are two parts of

09:00 Souls. As is well known, this subject is explained in the books of Kabbalah and Chassidus. So despite the greatness of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and his infinitely exalted stature, every Jew has a spark of this, and everyone can attain it. Of course, on our own simple level, what can we learn from this? From Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai’s words, when he says, “I am bound and connected to Hakadosh Boruch Hu with one bond,” and so on. In everyday life, that means a Jew should look for a G-dly meaning in everything in his life. In the words of the verse—and we also have this in Pirkei Avos, which we read earlier, in chapter two—“Let all your deeds be for the sake of Heaven.” A person’s actions should be directed toward serving Hashem. And the verse in Mishlei says, “Know Him in all your ways.” That tells us something even deeper. “Let all your deeds be for the sake of Heaven” means that when a person eats, sleeps, does business, does things, he should see them as serving a G-dly purpose: so that with his food and sleep, his clothes and home, his business and everything he has, he can fulfill mitzvos, study Torah, and so on. “Know Him in all your ways” means something deeper. A person should look for the G-dly content in everything in his life. “Know Him”—come to know Hakadosh Boruch Hu through everyday things. In everything we have in life, we need to find its true G-dly purpose, its G-dly life-force, its G-dly intent, its G-dly message. “Everything Hakadosh Boruch Hu created in His world, He created only for His glory.” We will learn that too, later in Pirkei Avos. Everything in the world reveals the light of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. So a Jew needs to seek out that “Know Him”—to come to know Hashem through every aspect of the world. And that, essentially, is what this Mishnah is telling us. According to

11:11 the explanation of the Arizal, one of the great Kabbalists, the Mishnah is telling us this: A person needs to know that all the wonderful qualities, all the gifts of perfection that Hakadosh Boruch Hu has given you—to be wise, strong, wealthy, honored—are not there so that I can pursue them for my own fulfillment, to feel good about myself, to boast about myself or show off to others, to say, “Wow, I’m so wise, so strong, so wealthy, so honored.” Quite the opposite: all of this is really the four letters of Yud-Kei-Vav-Kei. In other words, a Jew is in this world, and a Jew has a soul that is “truly a part of G-d above,” for “His people are Hashem’s portion”—Yud-Kei-Vav-Kei. The four letters of Hashem’s Name are what give me all my power to exist and all my vitality. And because within the G-dly light of the higher sefiros there are four stages, four levels, four kinds of sefiros—as we said, the letter yud is chochmah; the letter hei is binah; the letter vav is the middos, tiferes; and the final hei is malchus. So since Hakadosh Boruch Hu, so to speak, is the perfection of everything, and His Name has these four letters, representing four perfections, a person, the crown of creation, who was created “in Our image, after Our likeness,” represents Hakadosh Boruch Hu down here in the world. As the well-known expression says, “Adam—I will resemble the One above.” The Torah says he is called Adam because he came from the adamah, the earth. That reflected Adam Harishon’s humility and lowliness. But the books of Kabbalah tell us that the root of the word Adam is actually in the phrase “I will resemble the One above”—the resemblance between a person and the G-dly light. So just as with Hakadosh Boruch Hu there are four kinds of qualities—chochmah, binah, the middos, and malchus; the yud, the hei, the vav, and the hei, the four letters of Yud-Kei-Vav-Kei—so too, in a Jewish soul, in a Jew’s conduct

13:26 in his world, he must seek out these four things. But he must see to it that these four qualities, these four aspects, are on a G-dly level: that his wisdom be the kind of wisdom in which the infinite wisdom of Hakadosh Boruch Hu can rest, so that it becomes a vessel for the yud of the Name Havayah; that in my binah, in my strength, which is connected with the sefirah of binah, there be a kind of binah in which Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s sefirah of binah shines—the hei of the Name Havayah. And the same applies to wealth: it should be wealth connected with tiferes, with the vav of the Name Havayah; and to honor, connected with the malchus of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Then all these things are connected. A person will use all the qualities, all the things Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives us from His full, open, holy, and generous hand. He will use these four qualities and traits solely for serving Hashem. And now, when we look at the Mishnah, we will see the depth of its words in an entirely different light. We will understand what the Mishnah is saying. This is essentially what the Arizal means when he says: When you learn the Mishnah, have in mind the four letters of Yud-Kei-Vav-Kei. He does not mean merely an intention involving Kabbalah, letters, and mysticism. The inner meaning here is what Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai said about himself on Lag BaOmer: in each and every thing, he sought Hakadosh Boruch Hu. “With one bond I am bound.” I connect and attach myself to G-dliness, and seek it out in each and every thing. That is how a Jew must conduct himself: to look at every quality and ask, “What is there in this? How can I use it to serve Hakadosh Boruch Hu?” And so the Mishnah says, “Who is wise? One who learns from every person.” In other words, if you asked an ordinary person who had never studied the Mishnah what it means to be wise, he would say: someone who has a lot of

15:30 wisdom. And on the contrary, if we think about it more deeply, the wiser someone is, the more likely he is to notice not only the virtues in everything but also the shortcomings. Wise people are generally more critical. So in everything he sees, he will say, “This isn’t perfect. There’s a flaw here; this isn’t right; that person isn’t perfect.” He will see the flaws and shortcomings in everything. So how can he learn from every person? After all, every person has shortcomings. The Mishnah says the opposite: When you are truly wise, when your wisdom is connected to the wisdom of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, to the yud, to G-dly wisdom, then you will see in every person—even the most lowly person—that there is something to learn from him, because in everyone you will see the G-dly spark within him. “Who is wise? One who learns from every person.” In every individual he sees something G-dly, so he finds something positive in each one. And that is also the meaning of the verse the Mishnah goes on to quote: “From all my teachers I have gained understanding, for Your testimonies are my conversation.” In other words, I look at a Jew as one of “Your testimonies”—a testimony. Everything in the world is, in essence, a testimony to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. “Your testimonies.” If every Jew, whoever he may be, is a testimony to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, then he certainly has something within him, something deep. Sometimes we need to uncover it. We need to work hard to uncover it. But “from all my teachers I have gained understanding.” A Jew who is truly wise can find something in every Jew. True wisdom—after all, “You made them all with wisdom.” There is G-dly wisdom in every created thing and every person in the world. So that is the work of someone who is truly wise. He finds the good and the G-dliness, and so he can learn words of wisdom from each and every person. Who is

17:28 Who is mighty? One who conquers his inclination. Interesting. There is a teaching from the Baal Shem Tov. The Frierdiker Rebbe tells a wonderful story he heard from his father, the Rebbe Rashab. When he was fifteen, he had a dream, and the Rebbe Rashab, his father, called him and asked: What was your dream? It was a long, remarkable dream in which he saw several tzaddikim, each of whom shared a Torah teaching. The Baal Shem Tov was among them, and the teaching he heard from him in that dream was about this Mishnah: “Who is mighty? One who conquers his inclination.” The Baal Shem Tov asks: Why does it say “conquers his inclination” rather than “breaks his inclination”? Because breaking it is no great feat; it is not true might. You have to conquer it. What does “conquer” mean? It means knowing how to take the inclination and bring it over to your side. If you break the inclination, that’s it—you’ve broken it. You don’t need to be especially mighty for that. True might is not being strong enough to break the other side, even when that other side is the inclination. On the contrary, conquering means taking the inclination’s traits, the character traits that come from a negative place, and transforming those very traits so they serve holiness. It means using pride—not just breaking pride, but using it in its proper place, so that it becomes the pride of “his heart was elevated in the ways of Hashem.” Pure pride, healthy pride. It means using traits that seemingly belong to the inclination to serve Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The truly mighty person is one whose might is connected with Hashem’s power of binah, which, as we said, is connected with the letter hei, the supernal binah. Supernal binah gives you breadth; the power of binah is the power to see broadly, to know how to look at things in

19:42 the right way, and then truly know how to control our emotions, control our instincts, control all our impulsiveness through inner self-mastery. That is true might in the world. When you say someone is mighty, you think of a person with strength, who knows how to break things, destroy things, get things done. Might is active. But here it is the opposite: inner might. The strength to control our emotions, to restrain ourselves, and even to use negative forces and transform them into G-dly forces. Then comes the stage of wealth: “Who is wealthy? One who is happy with his portion.” True wealth is not a person having riches in this world, lots of money and gold and all kinds of assets. The Mishnah says the opposite: Who is truly wealthy? One who is happy with his portion. The wealth of tiferes, the wealth of Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s supernal middos, is joy—being happy with one’s portion. So what is the deeper explanation here? It says, “happy with his portion.” You could explain that to mean happy with what he has. Of course, that is true wealth: not having lots of assets and money, but being happy with what he has. Then he is truly wealthy; he feels good and is happy. But there is a deeper explanation. We said that wealth is connected with tiferes, with the middos. True wealth is giving. True wealth is not what you have, but what you give. What a person is able to give is the sign of wealth. And that is the meaning of “happy with his portion”—not happy with what he has, but happy with his portion. His portion is what he has an influence on: his part of the world, his place, his surroundings, his friends, the area where he lives. When a person is happy that he can give, he is truly wealthy. There are people who have plenty, and they also give tzedakah and do good things, but they are not always happy to give.

22:02 The truly wealthy person is happy to give. Why? Because this is G-dly giving. It is connected with the vav of the name of Hashem, Yud-Kei-Vav-Kei—the supernal middos, which are the aspect of giving. Chesed—“the kindness of G-d all day long”—is a middah of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. This is the supernal wealth that is always expressed in giving. Then comes the fourth question: “Who is honored?” As we asked, why does a person seek honor? What does he want with it? We learned in Pirkei Avos that honor is among the things that are not good: envy, desire, and the pursuit of honor drive a person out of the world. And suddenly, here, “Who is honored?”—as though we are seeking honor. The inner meaning here, as we said, is that we are speaking about the four letters of Yud-Kei-Vav-Kei, and about the sefirah of malchus. Every Jew is a child of the King. All Jews are children of kings. A child of a king is royalty; even a king’s servant is like a king. Honor must therefore have a place in his life—not honor born of ego, pride, or a sense that “I am great,” but being honored. For we are speaking here about a Jewish soul, “an actual part of G-d above.” He is honored because Hakadosh Boruch Hu is honored. So a Jew, as a child of the King, is connected with the sefirah of malchus, and he is honored. What does it mean to be truly honored? It is like Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s honor. What is His honor? That He honors others. “Those who honor Me, I will honor.” “One who honors others.” The truly honored person is not someone whom others honor. On the contrary, the truly honored person honors everyone, and then he truly is honored. We learn this from the malchus of Hakadosh Boruch Hu: “Those who honor Me, I will honor.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu says, “I honor those who honor Me.” Who are those who honor Him? All of creation. After all, the entire world and every created being—everything in the world—was created to express the honor of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. “Everything Hakadosh Boruch Hu created

24:21 in His world, He created only for His honor.” Everything in the world tells of the honor of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. So, “Those who honor Me, I will honor”—I honor them. Hakadosh Boruch Hu honors all of creation, even the simplest, lowest things. And that is true honor. When a Jew knows how to honor every Jew, even those who are simply “creatures,” as the Alter Rebbe says in Tanya—people who have no lofty qualities to speak of, but are creatures, created by Hakadosh Boruch Hu—that in itself is the most wonderful thing, and for that reason alone he honors them. That is what it means to be honored. That is true honor, because it is the honor of a king. And a Jew is a child of the King, so his honor is an honor to the King of kings, Hakadosh Boruch Hu. This, then, is the deeper meaning of the Mishnah. In the spirit of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and Lag BaOmer, the Mishnah comes to teach us how a Jew should use everything Hakadosh Boruch Hu has given us in the service of Hashem. A Jew has this healthy outlook: “All your actions should be for the sake of Heaven,” and “In all your ways, know Him.” This is essentially what the verse says: “Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom; let not the mighty man boast of his might; let not the wealthy man boast of his wealth”—if he sees these things as his own. “But in this shall one who boasts boast”: when it is not his own, when it is G-dly wisdom and he is only bringing it down here, bringing it into life. His wisdom is G-dly wisdom. His might is G-dly might. His wealth is G-dly wealth. His honor is G-dly honor. Then all these qualities take on meaning, and he becomes a true chossid. This is, in essence, a teaching of Chassidus: how a Jew should use all these things in the service of Hashem. And then he truly receives all the blessings from Hakadosh

26:20 Boruch Hu: to be truly wise, truly wealthy, truly mighty, and truly honored. And the four letters of Yud-Kei-Vav-Kei will be revealed here in the world. Then we will merit to reach that time. For it is known that Lag BaOmer is the day on which Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai revealed the light of the inner dimension of Torah. This is the light of Torah that we will merit to see, speedily in our days, with the revelation of Moshiach. Then the secrets of Torah will be revealed in the fullest and clearest way, and “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of Hashem as the waters cover the sea.” May it be speedily in our days, amen.