תשרי, הגאולה ותנורו של עכנאי: רבי אליעזר מול רבי יהושע

00:00 So we're in the love of Chesed Teshre, which the theme of the month is teshuva, even though now we're past Rosh Hashanah and we kept Rosh Hashanah as a month of Hasenu. So now the teshuva is on a higher level. It's a teshuva mei'ava, like the Kedosh Haslavi's beautiful vort on the Midrash, uh, "Vakachtem l'chem bi'yem HaRishon." It says the Midrash, "Rishon l'chesh v'navoinis." First day of, uh, of counting averus. The holy mefarshim ask what that's supposed to mean. Sukkot is the first day when we start doing averus. So explains the Kedosh Haslavi that because till now we've been doing teshuva me'ira, which is deyn is not so likish kogas, okay? So you're not responsible. But comes Sukkot, we do teshuva mei'avas, deyn is not so likish choies. So now we start counting the averus because now the averus became a good thing and a positive thing, and we want them back. In a similar vein, I saw a vort in Pelosh Hasfarim that says, "Misasham tzutzim kochatosim." So he asked the question that, "But why are we throwing it away in the depths of the sea? Shouldn't we get-- Wouldn't it be better to get rid of it totally?" So it explains that actually we don't want to totally get rid of the averus because it comes a time, it comes a point when a person's in a sh- place, in a strong place, and he wants back those past experiences, the past averus, he wants them back because you can-- they, they become

01:12 a positive force, and there you can use them. So f-first we get rid of them, we get-- we put them very far away, but we, uh, we want them s- we want to be able to one day come back to them and, and, and turn them into something good, some, uh, k'zchoies. So the connection between the geulah and teshuva is, um, clear. The Rambam passes, "Ein Yisrael nigalin ela b'teshuva." But actually, machloket is, uh, in the Gemara, there's a machloket about it. Machloket is Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua in Masechet Sanhedrin. Rabbi Eliezer is the opinion that, "Im Yisrael oisin teshuva nigalin, v'ein nigalin." If Yidden don't do teshuva, they will not be redeemed. Plain and simple, that's the opinion of Rabbi Eliezer. Rabbi Yehoshua says, "No, it can't be. If they're not gonna do teshuva, they won't be redeemed." He says, "Whether Yidden on their own do teshuva or not, the Aibishter will redeem them." So there's a maimer of the Tzemach Tzedek where he says a beautiful vort and connects this to another machloket between Rabbi, Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua in the Gemara in Rosh Hashanah about which month asidin ligal. What exactly that means, the beginning of the geulah, the shleimus of the geulah, zachu, lo zachu, we're not gonna get into that. But there's a machloket like that in the Gemara in Rosh Hashanah. Rabbi Eliezer is of the opinion that, "B'Nisan nigalu, ba'Tishrei asidin ligal." It's true that in the past we were redeemed in the month of Nisan,

02:31 that's when we left Mitzrayim, but geulah asidah is gonna be in Tishrei. Rabbi Yehoshua says, "No, b'Nisan nigalu, b'Nisan asidin ligal." What is the source of machloket? The Gemara says they learn it from different pesukim. Rabbi Eliezer learns from the-- makes the exegesis of Shavuot. It says, "Tiqabeich eid ha'shofar," which referring to Tishrei. And it says, "V'imru hi takab esha v'gdol." So from here we see that the geulah will be in Tishrei. Rabbi Eliezer says, it says in the pasuk, "Lil shimmurim," it says about the night of Pesach, "Lil shimmurim ulevnei Yisrael." And he says it's the night, "Mashumarim bam, misheishes m'vadeshes," when the Aibishter is gonna redeem his Yidden, his children from galus. So it says at Tzemach Tzedek that this is the s- this is the geulah she'itaser. Rabbi Eliezer, that is of the opinion that Yidden need to do teshuva to be redeemed, so it's all about the teshuva the Yidden do. He says it's in the month of, month of Tishrei, 'cause the month of Tishrei is the avoda of teshuva. And as it's explained in Chassidus, the difference between Tishrei and Nisan, Tishrei is melamata lamaila, Nisan is melamaila lamata, and it's also merumas in the word Tishrei that starts, starts from the bottom of the alef beis, tof, and it goes up. Shin, resh, it represents the inyan of melamata lamaila, m'she'enken Rabbi Yehoshua. That says that it's not dependent on Yidden doing teshuva. He holds, and it comes from the Aibishter, so he says it's gonna be in

03:46 Nisan. Nisan is the avoda of mel-melamaila lamata, avodas ha'tsaddikim. So that is the, the two machloket in which the Tzemach Tzedek explains. There's another machloket that, uh, Rabbi Yosef Engel connects to this inyan also in his sefer, "Beis Ha'otzer." Rabbi Yosef Engel, besides for his amazing sefarim in, in, in, in lamdus and in, uh, in pilpul, he also, in Beis Ha'otzer, he also, he has a lot of Chassidisha and rayyot from primis ha'Torah. So he says that there's a ma- he-- there's a machloket in Maseches Ta'anit between Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua about where rain comes from. Rabbi Eliezer says that it starts from the oceans, the ma- the mayim, the, the waters in the, on the earth, and it turns into vapor. "Ei de'alam min ha'aretz," turn-- that forms clouds, and then it falls down. Gemara says, "I, so why is it not salty? The r- the rainwater is salty." So okay, Gemara answers because the, "Ha'onim hamatak ton," the, they become sweetened in the clouds. Rabbi Yehoshua says, "No, it comes from an otzer in Shamayim that have all the geshamise, and it comes and falls down from on heaven, from above." Says Rabbi Yosef Engel, this is the same machloket. Rabbi Yil- Rabbi Eliezer says that it comes melamata lamaila. It has to be, it has to start from the, um, from the mata, avodas of Avrohom, "Ei de'alam min, min ha'aretz." Then that eres ruz l'asa ta, causes ruz l'eila, m'she'enken. Rabbi Yehoshua says, "No, it comes melamaila. It's not dependent

05:19 on the avodas hamata. The, the brachas which come from on heaven, the geshamin, come v'sarus v'leila." He also connects it there to the fact that Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua, Rabbi Eliezer was a chacham of the Beis Shamai, Shamuti, and Rabbi Yehoshua was from the ta- from Beis Hillel. So he says, "Beis Shamai, Beis Hillel are chesed and g'vurah. Chesed is in from asham ba'alamaila lamata, and g'vurah is in from halam lamata lama'ila." I don't think I saw this anywhere, but I th- uli Yerushalayim, it's also merumas in their names. The name Eliezer and Yehoshua mean something very similar, means, uh, help from above. But there's a difference between Ezer and Yish- and Yish- and Yehoshua. What's the difference? Ezer means assistance. It means- I'm assisting you do something. You're doing, you're doing it, and I'm helping you do this task that you're doing. Yeshua means when the person is not-- You're not helping him do something. He's helpless, and you're doing it for him. You're saving him. Salvation. You're, you're-- He has no-- He's helpless. He can't, he can't do anything. And you come and save him. So maybe that's also the same-- connected to this machloket. But Eliezer says that, yes, the-- the HaShem will redeem Yidden, you know, take them out of golus, but they need to do something. He's gonna help them. He will-- But they have to do teshuvah. Yeshua says no, even if they don't do teshuvah, the HaShem will save them. That's the inyan from Yehoshua. So let's

06:44 explain the Nusach HaTefilah. We say, "Melech ozer uMeshiah mogen," that it's, it's, it's a, it's a lo za'at. HaShem assists, he helps us. He even saves us when we can't do anything. And mogen, he's-- l'chatchilah, makdim, he, he-- that we shouldn't even need, um, eizer in yeshua. Al kol panim, it is interesting that there's another machloket, says Reb Elazar and Reb Yehoshua, which seems to be a chlif uduchta. There's a famous story in the Gemara in Bava Metzia about Tanna Shel Achnai. If it was-- If it's mekabel tuma or not, there was gonna be arguments in Reb Elazar and Reb Yehoshua. And Reb Elazar said that, "Min haShamayim yichichu," they should prove from on heaven that the halacha is like me, and there was a baskel and all types of miracles happened. And Reb Yehoshua was unimpressed. He said, "Torah li baShamayim hi." It's given lamata, and it's up to Chachmei Yisrael the way they understand the din. That's the-- the halacha follows. So seemingly, this is the opposite. Reb Elazar's saying we have to go according to the Elyon, what the baskel says. And Yehoshua says, "No, it's nitba lamata." But upon a deeper look, it actually-- it's not a ster. It actually fits very well because the concept of melamata, lamai, as explained in Chassidus, is that the tachat has to be mevatal himself to the Elyon. Ma she'en ken, melamai lelamata, the, the tachat and the matzias of the tachat is not a threat. Navah da, ve'tzadik, he's able to be mahapach

08:08 the tachat, and the tachat actually could, um-- doesn't-- is not a ster. The, there's-- The, the tachat could become a matzias of kedusha. So Reb Elazar, which is inyan from lamata lamai lo, he says that if there's a baskel that's saying the halacha should be a certain way, avada, we have to be mevatal our daas and we, uh, we have to follow what the baskel says. What type of do we-- What type of thing is, is not disregarding what the baskel, with, with all the nissim that are happening? Ma she'en ken, Reb Yehoshua says that, no, Torah was nitna lamata. Torah was given melamai lamata. And now that it's lamata, means the Ta-- the HaShem wasn't-- was, was made the mata into a matzias of kedusha that's able to decide matters of, of Torah. He says, "No, we have to take a follow, um, what Chachmei Yisrael say and, um, not necessarily what the baskel say." There's an interesting Yerushalmi in the beginning of Pe'as where there's another machloket, Reb Elazar and Reb Yehoshua, about when do we start meimas hamaskirin u'gurus geshem. The machloket is there of Reb Elazar and Reb Yehoshua if we start the first day of, um, Sukkos, or do we start on Shemini Atzeres? Um, tevel achron sh'chag, I'm sorry. Um, the last day of Sukkos. So-- And the Yerushalmi says in the beginning of, of, of Masechet Pe'as, it says that this is the, the opposite, mechafah shetaseh, the Reb Elazar and Reb Yehoshua. And it brings the machloket

09:39 of, uh, Reb Elazar and Reb Yehoshua, and Sanhedrin, if teshuvah is a prerequisite to the geulah. So what, what does one thing have to do with the other? Why is the argument in Masechet Pe'as about when we meimas hamaskirin u'gurus geshem the opposite machloket there? It's not, not very, uh, very, um, hard to understand. So all the Sifrei Drush and, uh, even the Shevus Yaakov has a teshuvah explaining it all derech hashatah. Yes, Machmisha and, uh, in, uh, Pashma Midbar has a pirsha derech hashatah, derech drush. A lot of Darshanim have different things to say, but there's actually a Arugat HaMeimra, I believe, where the Rebbe doesn't explain the, the-- he doesn't explain the pshat in Yerushalmi, but he says how, how the Yerushalmi fakart, how the machloket in the beginning of Yerushalmi is lashitaseh, the Reb Elazar and Reb Yehoshua, about if we start gush, uh, gurus geshem in the beginning, like in Reb Elazar, or we start it later. And the Rebbe explains it has to do with the difference between tal and geshem, that geshem is-- represents Avot and Avotaynu as when it-- when, when compared with tal, which Gemara says about tal, tal u'mi yatze, tal was never withheld, represents, uh, inyan which comes melamai lo. So that's another machloket the Rebbe connects with this, uh, lashitaseh of Reb Elazar and Reb Yehoshua. I'll just finish off with one story. It's said that Reb Elazar learns the machloket-- that, that, uh, the geulah will come a Teshuvah from Tekiah ve'Chri the

11:02 shofar. That's what Chazal says 'cause that's the inyan from shofar, is the inyan from teshuvah, as we explained earlier. So there's a var-- a story they say about one of the peylish of the tzadikim was in shul on Rosh Hashanah, and he came to the HaShem with a ta'inah. He says that today we blew in shul, we brought a hundred koilas, at least a hundred koilas. And, um, how do we get to a hundred koilas? There's a Safek, so we do all the shitahs, and then there's-- we get some Umot, we get some Yishuv. A hundred koilas, and not just in this shul, but all shuls, all, all the shul and all around the world, and not just this Rosh Hashanah, but all the Rosh Hashanah throughout all the days we've been blowing hundreds, millions and millions of koilas. And why? All because you only read Torah a few words. "Yom teruah yu lechem." So he says, "Now look, let's look at the other way around." Every, every day, every weekday at least, we daven tekiah beShofar, galuchit u'seinu. We've done that once a day, three times a day, not just in this shul, all around the world, not just this year, but all the years and all the generations, we've been davening millions and millions of tefilot tekiah beShofar, galuchit u'seinu. What are we asking for? All we're asking for is one tekiah. So, uh, HaShem, please, God, give us this one tekiah, and we should be zocheh, take them yad mamesh to, to

12:19 do teshuvah shlemah. And, uh, Rebbe said we're in the chain of teshuvah, Moshiach is ready to come, but take-- just have the geulah take us yad mamesh.