13. Stories Of Reb Elimelech Of Lizensk

00:16 Speaker 1 Okay, here is a story about the great Tzadik, Rebbe Elimelech of Lizhensk. Rebbe Elimelech of Lizhensk was the brother of Reb Zusya of Hanipoli. Now, Rebbe Elimelech was a very great Tzadik. One of the special things about Rebbe Elimelech was that he was extremely humble. Though he was such a great Tzadik, a heilige Tzadik, he always would speak about himself as someone who's not worthy of anything. One, that he's not worthy of anything, that he doesn't deserve anything because he's not good. He doesn't deserve Hashem enough. He always felt his, his, his... All his Avodas Hashem, all the things that he does for Hashem is nothing, because Hashem deserves a lot more. One day, the Alter Rebbe met a very famous Misnagdi Rav. And the Misnagdi Rav had a sefer under his bench on the floor. When the Alter Rebbe entered, the Misnagdi Rav said to the Alter Rebbe, "Do you know the author of this sefer?" The one who wrote the sefer. The sefer was none other than the heilige sefer Noam Elimelech of Rebbe Elimelech of Lizhensk. So the Alter Rebbe said, "Sure, I know the author." So the Misnagdi Rav asked, "Can you tell me about him? What is he like?" The Alter Rebbe said, "If you took him, the author himself, and you put him under your bench on the floor, he wouldn't care either. That's the kind of author he is." Now, the Misnagdi Rav understood what the Alter Rebbe meant. Now, Rebbe Elimelech had many talmidim, but one of

02:31 Speaker 1 his main talmidim was the famous Rebbe Yaakov Yitzchak of Lublin, also known, probably more known by the name the Choize of Lublin. The Choize of Lublin was a very heilige Tzadik, and he got the name Choize from the word choizeseen. He was the seer of Lublin. Why did they call him the Choize, the seer of Lublin? Because he was so famous for his Ruach Hakodesh. He would see things that normal people can't see. He could see things across the world, right? And he could see things across time, like in the future. He would know what was gonna happen in the future, and he would tell it to people, and he would guide people based on that information. But the Choize of Lublin was first young. When he was a talmid of Rebbe Elimelech, he was not yet living in the city of Lublin. He was known as Rebbe Yaakov Yitzchak of Lanzut. Lanzut is another city in Poland, and he would come very often to Lizhensk, to his rebbe, Rebbe Elimelech, to spend Yom Tov or Shabbos with his rebbe. But a strange thing happened. Every time the Choize of Lublin, who at that time was Rebbe Yaakov Yitzchak of Lanzut, every time he would come to Lizhensk, Rebbe Elimelech would jump up from his seat, run to the door to greet the Choize and say to him, "Shalom Aleichem Lubliner Rebbe. Shalom Aleichem, the Rebbe of Lublin." At that time, nobody knew that the Choize was going to be one day the famous Rebbe

04:33 Speaker 1 of Lublin many years later. At that time, he was known as the Lanzuter Rav. But Rebbe Elimelech would greet him already as the Lubliner Rebbe because Rebbe Elimelech also had Ruach Hakodesh, and he saw into the future that this will... this man will be the famous Choize of Lublin one day. One day, the Choize of Lublin was traveling to his rebbe, to Lizhensk, and on the way he stopped over in a city. He stopped over in a city where there was a rav, and the Choize had to daven Shacharis. It's time to daven Shacharis. He still had a way to go to Lizhensk, so he's not gonna daven on the wagon, so he stopped over in the shul in that town to daven Shacharis. In that shul there was a rav, as I mentioned before, and that rav davened with great kavana and with great hislahavus. You know what hislahavus is? With great excitement. And the Choize was very impressed with the davening of that rav, the rav of that city. He couldn't stop himself and wait, so immediately after the rav finished Shemoneh Esreh, his very excited Shemoneh Esreh, he went over to the rav and said to him, "Tell me, are you going to some Tzadik that can teach you how to serve Hashem?" So this rav said, "No." So he said, "I think you should go to a Tzadik because I see the way you daven- And I'm impressed with your davening, and I think if you were to go to a

06:10 Speaker 1 great tzadik, he could guide you how to serve Hashem even better. Because sometimes there are neshamas that very much want to serve Hashem, and they have a great excitement in davening, but they need some guidance. And only the great tzadik, the nasi of the generation, can really guide those neshamas to really accomplish great things in their avodas Hashem. So this Rav says, "I don't go to any tzadik. Where would you suggest that I go to?" The Chozeh said, "I'm going to the great tzadik, Reb Elimelech of Lizhensk. In Poland, he was one of the greatest tzadikim, and I think that he could guide you in how to serve Hashem better because I see your neshama thirsts for greater, uh, levels of avodas Hashem." So the Rav says, "Listen, I would love to go, but today I'm very busy in the city. I'm the Rav of the city. I got a whole bunch, a whole schedule ahead of me with many busy things for the community. I can't actually leave today." So the Chozeh said, "Listen, I really love you. I really have, you know, gotten to like you, and I am happy to wait for a few days until you're not busy so we can travel together to the great Rebbe of Lizhensk, and I will introduce you to him." So the Rav was very excited, and he told him, "Well, thank you very much." He gave the Chozeh a place to stay, and he waited for a few days, and when he got free,

07:40 Speaker 1 both he and the Chozeh, the Rav and, of the town and the Chozeh, hopped onto a wagon and they went to Lizhensk. As soon as they got to Lizhensk, the Chozeh took the Rav and said, "Listen, I'm gonna go... I'm gonna introduce you to my great holy Rebbe, Reb Elimelech of Lizhensk." And they walked to the room of Reb Elimelech, and they knocked on the door, and they entered. Now, as I said before, normally Reb Elimelech, even before the Chozeh would open the door, Reb Elimelech already felt that the Chozeh is coming. He would jump up from his seat and run to the door and say, "Shalom aleichem," the Lubliner Rebbe. But this time, to the Chozeh's surprise and disappointment, Reb Elimelech turned his face to the window and looked outside through the window. And when the Chozeh and the Rav walked in, all they saw is the back of Reb Elimelech. Reb Elimelech didn't even turn around to say hello, shalom aleichem. So the Chozeh thought the, the, um... The Chozeh thought it was just an accident. So they waited. They waited for a few hours for Reb Elimelech to turn his face around so they could talk to him, and the Chozeh could introduce his Rav to Reb Elimelech. But Reb Elimelech did none of that. He stayed there for a few hours, and they waited, and waited, and waited. Finally, the Chozeh thought, "Okay, maybe this is not a good time to talk to the Rebbe. Let's go out. We'll come back

09:24 Speaker 1 a little later." They go out. A few hours later, they go back, and the Chozeh knocks on the door and opens the door. And again, Reb Elimelech has turned his face to the window, standing by the window the other way, the other direction, with his back to them, looking outside, and does not turn around even for a second. They waited, and they waited, they waited. Nothing. Now the Chozeh thought, "There's something here. This is not just an accident. This is not just, you know, incidental. There's something really going on. Why is my Rebbe not turning around? I know usually, even before I open the door, he knows I'm coming, and he jumps up and runs to greet me. Now, he doesn't even turn around when I'm in the room. It doesn't make sense. Maybe it's something about me. Maybe the Rebbe feels I did some avera and he can't look at my face." You know, great tzadikim, when they see somebody does even a tiny avera, they're very uncomfortable looking at the face of a rasha, right? And I remember when I was a yeshiva bachur in Bnai Brak, uh, we had a great mashpia. His name was Reb Nissen. And once by a chavrunga, Reb Nissen would say that when he sits by the Rebbe's chavrunga, he feels very uncomfortable because we can see when the Rebbe, between sichas, looks around the whole seven seventy, looks at everybody and says l'chaim. He said, "How embarrassing it is when the Rebbe looks at your face

11:00 Speaker 1 and knows everything you did." And I remember that the few year- And I remember, I remember a few years later... I remember a few years later, Reb Nissen was in seven seventy by a chavrunga, and I looked at Reb Nissen's face. Reb Nissen was a very, very great chassid who worked on himself day and night. He was an avod Hashem. And I remember when I looked at his face, when the Rebbe stopped talking and started looking around everybody in the face, he would lower his face, and his face would turn red like an embarrassment. 'Cause he would really feel like, "How, how can I show my face to the Rebbe? The Rebbe can see right through me. How embarrassing it is that I have to show my face to the Rebbe." So great tzadikim can see through the face everything that goes on in your life. So the Chozeh thought that, "Listen, I mean, Reb Elimelech sees something in me, and that's why he can't look at my face." You see, here you see the great tzidkus of the Chozeh too. He didn't think it was somebody else's fault. He thought, "It must be my problem. Maybe I have something wrong with me, and that's why the Rebbe can't look at my face." So he started doing teshuva, and he searched, and searched, and searched. And he couldn't find anything really wrong with himself. And you have to understand, a tzaddik like the Chozeh wasn't looking for real averus, because real averus was out of

12:24 Speaker 1 the question. He was a tzaddik. But for a tzaddik, an avera can mean something very, very refined. Maybe a poor man was walking by and he didn't notice him and he forgot to give him a coin of tzedakah, right? Or maybe when he was davening and he had great kavanah, right? For a moment, a thought came into his mind, but he immediately pushed away that thought that was not part of the davening and went back to his davening. Maybe something. But he couldn't even find that kind of avera. But he did teshuva anyway, just in case. But still, the Rebbe wouldn't turn around. So then he decided, "Oh, oh, maybe, maybe, maybe it's not because of me that the Rebbe doesn't turn around. Maybe the Rebbe L'Malach doesn't turn around because of the Rav that came with me." You see? Only after he searched inside himself to see if he did something wrong and do teshuva did he start thinking that maybe somebody else is at fault. See, he always looks first inside himself. And so he thought, "Let me try out an experiment." You know what an experiment means? I'm going to try out a test. I'm going to make a test. Whether it's me or maybe it's the Rav. So he and the Rav walked out and said, "Listen, I guess the Rebbe is not ready to see us today." And a few minutes later, the Chozeh went back himself. As soon as he tried to open the door, Rebbe L'Malach ran to

13:57 Speaker 1 the door and opened the door for him and said, "Shalom aleichem, the Rebbe." So the Chozeh knew by this that the reason Rebbe L'Malach did not turn around before is not because of him, but because of the Rav that was with him. So he was very surprised. He thought the Rav was, was davening with such kavanah, with such excitement, and he's so excited to come to see a great tzaddik that would guide him in avodat Hashem. You could really see that he had the desire to serve Hashem. How come Rebbe L'Malach wouldn't look at his face? So he said to Reb- to his Rebbe, Rebbe L'Malach says, "Rebbe, I had a Rav, a guest with me before, but I wanted to introduce you to him." So Rebbe L'Malach says, "Yes. Who is this rasha, this evil rasha that you brought into my room? I couldn't even look at his face. I had to turn around. You kept him here for hours and, and I was forced to look the other way for hours. Who was this guy?" So Rebbe L'Malach, the, the Chozeh said to his Rebbe, "Oy vey. What do you mean? Did I make a mistake? I was in this town, I was traveling, and I saw him davening with great kavanah, and I saw he really, really loved serving Hashem. But, but, you know, is he really a rasha? Could it really be that he tricked me? Didn't sound like it. It sounded he was very sincere. He really wanted to daven

15:30 Speaker 1 to Hashem and serve Hashem. He came with me because he wanted to see you." So Rebbe L'Malach said, "Let me tell you. He definitely has a desire to serve Hashem. But I want you to know that when he davens, every time, the yetzer hara and the sitra achra..." You know what the sitra achra is? The evil side, the Satan. They give him energy and strength to daven. And all his davening goes to the evil side. Why? Because when he started davening with great kavanah, he did it for kavod as a baal gaavah. He thought people would think he's a great tzaddik, people would respect him, say, "Ooh, he's not just a great Rav who knows how to learn. He also serves Hashem with great kavanah," and people would be very excited of him. And because he started serving Hashem bec- because of baal-- uh, because of gaavah, so he would get kavod, now all his davening comes from evil side and goes to klipa. Klipa means the evil. And he's like a captive of, of the Satan. All his davening gives strength to evil. It doesn't go to Hashem. It goes to the evil side. So the Chozeh was very, very disappointed. So when he left the room of Rebbe L'Malach, he went to the Rav and told him what Rebbe L'Malach had just told him, the shocking thing, that all his davening is, is, is evil, is bad, because he does it with gaavah. He doesn't do it because he's humble to Hashem, because

17:24 Speaker 1 he wants to be close to Hashem. He wants people to respect him. So the Rav started crying bitterly, because deep inside he really wanted to serve Hashem, but he couldn't help it because he had a yetzer hara for gaavah. So he started crying bitterly and said to the Chozeh, "Please go tell your Rebbe that I really want to do teshuva, and he should show me how I can fix my problem of serving Hashem with gaavah, because I really want to serve Hashem in a proper way." And he started crying, crying bitterly. So the Chozeh went back to his Rebbe and said, "Rebbe, please help this Rav. He really wants to do the right thing. Could you help him? Help him fix and change his ways." So Rebbe L'Malach said to the Chozeh- I can't help him. But very soon, my brother Reb Zusha is coming to visit me, and together, I and him will find a way of guiding him away from this service of Hashem which he's doing now, which is not a good way of serving Hashem because it's all gaava and all the service comes to the, to the Yetzer Hara and not to the, to the, to Hashem. And when he comes, Reb Zusha together will be able to help him. What do we learn from this story? That sometimes you can have a lot of kavana and davening and Torah, but it all comes from gaava because you want people to respect you. And true Avodat Hashem, serving Hashem means

19:04 Speaker 1 that you serve Hashem because you're humble, because you really want a connection to Hashem. You realize how small you are and how infinitely great Hashem is, and what a privilege it is, what a zechus it is for you to be able to be close to Hashem, and you feel so humble that Hashem even wants you to connect to Him. You don't care about what people think, whether people think good of you or bad of you. Doesn't matter to you. Doesn't bother you at all. The Gerer Rebbe, the first Gerer Rebbe, the Chidushe Harim, once told a story. He told a story about the Chidushe Harim. A, a story about the Chozeh of Lublin, that once on Hanukkah, a group of his Hasidim, of the Chozeh of Lublin's Hasidim, went to visit their Rebbe. And one of the Hasidim brought with him a letter, right? To the Chozeh from one of his friends. One of his friends who couldn't come to the Chozeh, to his Rebbe, sent a letter with his name and his mother's name, right? The way it's the custom to, to write your name to a Rebbe, that the Rebbe should daven for you. And this Hasid brought this letter from his friend. When the Rebbe looked at all the letters and he came to the letter of that friend, he immediately spat. He started spitting like somebody disgusted. So like disgusted, like he couldn't stand it. He didn't want... Because the Chozeh, when he saw the name in a letter, he immediately

20:52 Speaker 1 saw everything about the person, and he saw something very bad and very disgusting about this person. So it caused him to, like, throw up. In the evening-- This was during the day. In the evening, you know, during Hanukkah candle lighting, the Chozeh decided to give the letter again to the Rebbe, so the Rebbe should read it, and maybe now he'll give him a bracha. When the Rebbe took the letter again and looked at it, he said, "Oh, this man, he shines in all the upper worlds and in the lower worlds. He shines everywhere. I see him shining. Not only here in this world, but in the upper world as well." And then the Rebbe added, "The first time when you gave me the letter," he turned to the Hasid who wrote the letter. "The first time you gave me the letter, that person who wrote the letter, that Hasid, a friend of yours, was playing cards, gambling for money." And gambling for money with cards is a big aveira. And because he was involved in an aveira, I saw evil, I saw bad things on him. But the second time you gave it to me, he was in the middle of lighting Hanukkah Menorah in his town, far away. At that moment, his neshamah was shining with such a bright light, a heilige light, that all the higher worlds were shining with that light. What does this story tell us? The story tells us that when you do a mitzvah- I heard it. Now we

22:36 Speaker 1 can tell the- So every aveira you do makes you part of evil, and every mitzvah you do, even if you're a simple person, you're not a great tzadik, but at that moment, when you do a mitzvah, you are now connected to Hashem, and a mitzvah is a light. What does it, what does it say in, in Mishlei from Shlomo HaMelech? Shlomo HaMelech says, "Ner mitzvah." Mitzvah is a light. What is a mitzvah? It's a light from Hashem. The neshamah is a light, and a mitzvah is a light. And when you do a mitzvah, your neshamah begins to shine with Hashem's light, not only in this world, but even the Malachim feel the light, and they get excited by the mitzvah. What an amazing thing a mitzvah is, right? Even if you're a Rasha one minute, but the minute you do a mitzvah, you become a shining light of Hashem. That's the m-message of the story. Now, the next story is about Reb Zusha, Reb Zusha of Anipoli. This story is mentioned in a number of places. Oh. And, uh, the Tzemach Tzedek mentions that story in one of his Ma'amarim as well. Um, the, the Gemara tells us that Reb Pinchas ben Yair... Reb Pinchas ben Yair was a very heilige tzadik. He was one of the Tana'im. We don't have any halachas which he taught, any laws that he taught in the Gemara. All we know about him from the Gemara, right, is that he was a, um, a great tzadik who performed many,

24:37 Speaker 1 many miracles. Many nissim did he perform. And I know probably, but no- So Reb Pinchas ben Yair was once traveling on the road because he was going to save some people who were in a dungeon for no justified reason. As you know, many people, you know, many Jewish people would sometimes be victims of some bad, evil rulers who would take the Jews who couldn't pay their taxes or their rent because they were too poor, and they would throw them into a dungeon. So Rabbi Pinchas Ben Yair was going to help these Jews by raising money so he could pay the ransom to those terrible rulers. A ransom means, uh, the money that the ruler wanted before he would be willing to let the Jew out of the dungeon. So Rabbi Pinchas Ben Yair went and collect-- went to raise money. He went from town to town and went to do the mitzvah of Pidyon Shvuyim. It's one of the very important mitzvahs in the Jewish tradition. You go and raise money to help people who are unfortunately trapped in a prison because of some evil ruler or governor or pirates who, who took the Jew and put him in prison in captivity. And Rabbi Pinchas used to do that very often. Once he was on such a journey and he was crossing, um-- He had to cross a river, and the name of the river was Ginay. Ginay River, they called it. Now, there was no boat, and he needed to rush quickly because it

26:43 Speaker 1 was very, very late. He had to go save this Jewish life from, from the prison, and he had to get there on time. So Rabbi Pinchas took his staff and pointed it to the river and said to the river, "Ginay River, split for me. I need to cross you so I can get to the other side to save the life of another person." And the river refused. So Rabbi Pinchas now commanded the river and said, "If you don't split for me now, I will make a decree that Hashem will listen to me because I know Hashem listens when I want something. I have experience when I say something, Hashem does what I s- what I say." As it says, great Tzadikim, Hashem listens to their wishes because everything they want, they do it only for Hashem's honor. They don't do it for themselves, for gaava. So Hashem does what they want because they're true servants of Hashem. "So I will tell Hashem that there should never be water flowing through you again, and you'll dry up completely." So the river heard that, the river split. Now, I want you to know that it doesn't mean that the water in the river spoke. Water doesn't have a mouth. But what it means is everything in the physical world has a malach in Shamayim that gives it life. Rabbi Pinchas Ben Yair was such a helek Tzadik that he could speak to the malach which was in charge of that river, and the malach didn't want to

28:40 Speaker 1 split. Why? Because he said, "Hashem created this river and made me in charge of that river for a reason. Who are you to say that I can't, that I can't flow? I should stop flowing. I should split in half. That's not what Hashem wanted me to do." In fact, the Gemara says that when Rabbi Pinchas Ben Yair said, "Split for me," the river said, "Wait a second. This is what Hashem told me to do, is to flow. Now, who should I listen to? To Hashem, who told me that my nature is to flow? This is the nature of water, and Hashem is the one who made nature the way it is. And you, Rabbi Pinchas Ben Yair, tells me not to flow. Should I listen to you or to Hashem? What do you think?" Rabbi Pinchas was a-- Rabbi Pinchas Ben Yair was a great Tzadik. He probably would know the answer to such a question. So Rabbi Pinchas Ben Yair said, "Well, I'm also going to do Hashem's mitzvah. I'm going to save lives. And therefore, you need to split so that I can do my mitzvah to save another life." And so the river split. And then Rabbi Pinchas Ben Yair crossed the river to the other side, and on the way, he came to the town where Rebbe, Rebbe, Rebbe Yehuda Hanasi, Rebbe Yehuda the Prince, who wrote the Mishnah, the famous author of the Mishnah, lived. And Rebbe was very rich. And Rebbe had a huge mansion because he was so

30:22 Speaker 1 rich. But don't forget, Rebbe was a great Tzadik. And you think he had a lot of money and had a lot of fun with that money? No way. Rebbe used every penny he had only for mitzvahs. He didn't enjoy it the way many rich people enjoy their money. They have a lot of fun and buy fancy things. Rebbe used everything he had only for Hashem. In fact, before Rebbe was Nistalak, before Rebbe passed away, the, the Gemara tells us Rebbe raised his hands to Shamayim, to the heavens, like it's a way of saying, "I promise." Right? You raise your hand is a way of making a Shevua or making a promise that what you're saying is true hundred percent without a shadow of a doubt. And Rebbe said, he raised his hands up to the heavens and said, "I want, I want everybody to know that I never enjoyed one little bit of the physical world. I never had pleasure from that. All my pleasure came from Torah and from serving Hashem." But the Rebbe had a lot of money and a big house, and he wanted to use it for a mitzvah, and he heard that the great tzadik, Reb Pinchas Ben Yerah, is about to come to town. So he quickly sent messengers to meet him and to find him and to bring him to his house. They should at least have this chas. Rebbe wanted this chas of having Reb Pinchas Ben Yerah eat in his house. For the last mitzvah, his

31:56 Speaker 1 last mitzvah. Right. He wanted to do the big mitzvah of Hachnasas Orchim, and especially such an oreat, such a guest. So he told the servants in this kitchen to prepare a lavish meal, a great, wonderful meal for such a great tzadik, and he went and sent, and sent messengers, and they found Reb Pinchas Ben Yerah. And Reb Pinchas Ben Yerah heard that the Rebbe wants to talk to him. He came to speak to him. But in the end, Reb Pinchas Ben Yerah told Rebbe that he will not eat in his house. He will not eat in Rebbe's house. Rebbe was very disappointed. And Rebbe said, "Why don't you want to eat in my house? I beg you, please give me the honor, give me the chas of having you in my house." And Reb Pinchas Ben Yerah said, "No." And he said, "Why? Did you make a neder," Rebbe said to Reb Pinchas Ben Yerah, "that you'll never enjoy anything from any other Jewish person in your w- in, in your life?" So Reb Pinchas Ben Yerah said, "No, no, chas v'shalom." He says, "All Jewish people are holy, and all of them love the mitzvah of Hachnasas Orchim." Right? You know that we had a great, great, great, great grandfather, Avraham Avinu, who showed us how to do the mitzvah of Hachnasas Orchim, even to strangers, and we all inherited that gift from Avraham Avinu to do the mitzvah of Hachnasas Orchim. So all Yidden Ha-Kodeshim, he said. All Yidden are holy people. Yes,

33:51 Speaker 1 he says, there are differences. Some Jewish people love to invite guests to their house, but they unfortunately don't have food on the table to give. They wish they can do the mitzvah, but sometimes they can't do it because they don't have any money, they don't have any food to give, so they can't do it. Then there are Jewish people who have money, and they have lots of food. They're rich, but they're very, very stingy. They don't like to share their money with others, so they really don't enjoy having a guest and giving for free some of their food to others. So there are some that have, but don't want to give. But they're all heilig. They're all tzadikim. They're all heilig. But since there are some that don't like to give, even though they're also heilig, they're also kodeshim, I don't want to eat because sometimes it's not good to eat in, in a house where you're not sure the person really wants to give it to you. In the end, Reb Pinchas Ben Yerah, to make a long story short, did not eat in Rebbe's house. Rebbe was very disappointed, and Re-Reb Pinchas Ben Yerah left. The, the Gemara adds that Reb Pinchas Ben Yerah never, from the time he was a young child, never, never ate a piece of bread which wasn't his. Some tzadikim had this kind of derech, this kind of way of serving Hashem, that they never ate anything from someone else. They only ate something which was theirs. This

35:35 Speaker 1 may have to do with the fact that great tzadikim, whenever they ate something, they only ate it l'shem Shamayim, for Hashem. They knew that ev- why did Hashem make us hungry? Because every piece of food has a spark of kedusha, a spark of Hashem in it, and when a Yid, who has a neshamah, eats that food, and he eats the food so he can daven better with that energy, then that spark of kedusha, of heiligkeit, of, of Hashem, which is in that food, is revealed. It comes out of that physical food and rises up to Hashem and makes the physical food also more heilig. So certain tzadikim only wanted to eat when they felt that certain sparks they must elevate, they must get involved with. If it was food which wasn't theirs, they felt that means it's not connected to their neshamah, so they don't want to eat it. But that's a side note. Now, the story goes that Reb Zusha once learned this Gemara, and he was very disturbed. He couldn't understand what Reb Pinchas Ben Yerah was telling Rebbe. Reb Pinchas Ben Yerah is telling Rebbe, "Listen, chas v'shalom, all Yidden are heilig. I'm not judgmental. I don't mean to say that some Jews I don't want to eat from. Every Yid is very good." Yes, there are differences. Sometimes there are Jewish people that don't have, but they really want to do the mitzvah. Unfortunately, they can't do it. And then there are Jewish people who have, but they have a yetzer

37:26 Speaker 1 hara that makes them being miserly and not give to others, and even they are ленного. So Reb Zusha couldn't understand. Why are those people ленного? He could not understand. Why does Reb Pinchas ben Yair say everybody's ленного? But then he says that there are some Jews who have a lot of money and don't want to give it. Now, this is a question that many commentaries had, including Tosfos. You know what Tosfos is? No. Tosfos is on the... is a, is a, is a commentary on the Gemara written a, a little bit after Rashi's time. What's commentary? It's, it's... Commentary means a pirush, somebody who explains, chachamim who explain the Gemara. Now, Rashi wrote a commentary on Chumash, an explanation of the Chumash. Rashi wrote a commentary on the Gemara. Now, Rashi's grandchildren had a number of grandchildren who wrote also commentary, like Rabbeinu Tam, Rabbeinu Yitzchak, right? So Rashi had a number of grandchildren who were also great chachamim, and they wrote some of the Tosfos. Tosfos is another explanation of the Gemara. In Tosfos, which... well, that Tosfos was written by Rabbi Yitzchak, right? And he asked a question which Reb Zusha also had. How come Reb Pinchas ben Yair calls all Jewish people ленного, even those that have but don't want to give? So Tosfos, what does Tosfos say? Well, the reason why they're ленного is because they still do it, but they don't like it. All Jewish people do achas lasocher. When you go to a city, every house will have guests

39:25 Speaker 1 for Shabbos, but some people do it because they love having a guest. They love the mitzvah so much that they can't wait to have a guest in the house. And then there are others who have a lot of money, and their really inside their yetzer hara makes them feel very, very unhappy about giving their food, but they do it anyways because they're embarrassed. You know, everybody goes, "What, you don't take any guests into your house? You have so much money." So they feel embarrassed, so they do it anyways, but they do it with a grudge, begrudgingly. You know what begrudgingly means? No. They really don't like to do it, but they do it anyways. But inside, they're not happy doing it. That's why they're ленного, because they're doing it anyways. So Zusha's still- It's not the same. The two what do you mean? Two and three. What's the first one? No. They're evil. Inside, their yetzer hara makes them feel very stingy. So why are they ленного? They do a mitzvah, but why are they ленного? And when Reb Zusha didn't understand something, you know what he would do? He would be so upset because he loved the Torah so much, and he felt that he didn't understand something in the Torah, that means there's something wrong with him. How come his neshamah cannot understand the Torah? That means there's something wrong with him. So he started crying, davening to Hashem, "Please open up the Torah for me. Open up your Torah, which is for

41:01 Speaker 1 sure infinitely true, but my neshamah can't understand it. Please make me understand the Torah." And what would happen usually is that if he had a question about a certain rav in the Gemara, a tanna or an amora or a Rashi or a Tosfos, he would cry and fall asleep from crying so much, and then that rav would come to him in the dream and explain the answer. And in this case, this is exactly what happened. He cried and cried and cried till he fell asleep from exhaustion, and Rabbeinu Yitzchak, the one who wrote this explanation in Tosfos, came to him in a dream and said to him, "Don't cry. Don't cry, my child. Zusha, don't cry. I'll tell you what I meant when I wrote this." And he explained to him like this. "You should know every mitzvah you do, you create a malach. Any mitzvah anybody does creates a malach. Now, a malach has two parts to him. A malach has a body and a neshamah, just like people have a body and a neshamah, except that for a malach, the body's not like our body, which you can feel with your hands." Yeah. "A, a body of a malach is more refined. We can't see it with our eyes. We can't feel it with our hands. The Rambam says that the body of a malach is made out of very abstract things." You know what abstract means? No. Very refined things, like the element of fire and the element of air. We don't

42:44 Speaker 1 know exactly what that means, but it's like something very refined that we can't see or feel. But a, the malach also has a neshamah, which is ruchniyus. It's spiritual. Okay? Now, when you do a mitzvah, you create a malach, a good malach, a ленного malach in the heavens that sings to Hashem. When you do the act of a mitzvah, every mitzvah has an act. You light a Shabbos candle. You take your hand with a match, and you light a candle. If you put on tefillin, then you take tefillin, put it on your arm. You give tzedakah, you take your hand, you, you grab a coin, you put it in the tzedakah box. Every act is a physical act with your hand. You do something physical. And what happens, you create the body of the malach through the physical act. But there's another part to every mitzvah which every Jew must keep in mind. It's not enough to just do a mitzvah. What Hashem really wants us to do is that when we do a mitzvah, we also serve Him with our heart, with our feelings, and with our thoughts. He doesn't just want us to do something with our hands and feet. He wants us to have kavanah, a love for Him while we do the mitzvah. Be excited about the mitzvah and understand how wonderful this mitzvah is. Learning everything we can learn about the mitzvah of tzedakah, why tzedakah is so important, and why lighting Shabbos candles is so important, and why keeping

44:12 Speaker 1 Shabbos is so important. And when we do those mitzvahs with understanding, then we begin to feel a love for Hashem, and we're excited about doing a mitzvah. We do it with simcha. Now, that kavanah, that feeling in the heart which we do, wh- which we feel when we do the mitzvah, that creates the neshamah, the ruchnius of the malach, because that ruchnius, it's kavanah, it's feelings. Not like the physical act. There's the act of the mitzvah, which is physical with your hands, and then there's the feeling. Now, the Rabbeinu Yitzchak said to Rabbe Zusha, "What happens when a Jew wants to do a mitzvah of hachnasas orchim? He doesn't have money, he's poor, he wishes, and he's so upset." So he has the kavanah. He's excited about doing hachnasas orchim, but he can't do it physically. He can't actually go out and buy bread and feed a guest. So what happens now? He creates the neshamah of a malach. Well, what good is it to have a neshamah of a malach without the body of a malach? So what does Hashem do? Hashem finds another Jew who is the opposite. He has plenty of money and can give bread to a guest, but he doesn't do it because he is not excited about it. In fact, he wishes he doesn't have to do it. But he's embarrassed from the neighbors and his friends, so they would say, "Ah, you're a stingy. You don't want to do a mitzvah." So he does it anyways. So he

45:56 Speaker 1 does the act of the mitzvah feeding, but he doesn't have the kavanah, he doesn't have the simcha, he doesn't have the excitement and the joy. So he creates the body of a malach without the neshamah of the malach. So what good is it to have a, a body without a neshamah of a malach? So what does Hashem do? He takes the neshamah which the Jew created, the other Jew, the Jew that wants so badly to do the mitzvah, but can't do it, and he creates a neshamah with his kavanah, and takes the body of the other Jew, and pours and pairs them together, and now you have a living malach with a neshamah and a guf. So between the two Jewish people, you have a complete malach. Because it says that all Jewish people are really connected to each other. We can't see it. There could be a Jew living in Russia and a Jew living in, in, in, in Brooklyn or in Ithaca, New York, but our neshamahs are interconnected. So when a Jew does a mitzvah in Russia, it has a connection to the mitzvah the Jew does in New York City. And imagine in Russia before the communists went away. Remember there was a time in Russia where the Jewish people couldn't do mitzvahs because the Russian government didn't let Jews be Jewish? And, and there were Jewish people, and there were Jewish people who-

47:22 Speaker 2 Did they hide?

47:22 Speaker 1 Well, they hide. They hid many times, and many times they had to hide to make Shabbos in a basement, in a cellar. And the KGB, the secret police, would come and arrest them. Sometimes they couldn't eat matzah on Pesach because they didn't-- couldn't find flour because the government wouldn't let them bake matzah. They would put them in prison. But they wanted so badly to do a mitzvah. And many times the Rebbe would mention in a fabranken how he got a letter from a Russian Jew who couldn't do the mitzvah of matzah, and he was crying in prison because he couldn't do the mitzvah. And the Rebbe would cry, "Look, what a special Jew. The Jew wants to do the mitzvah, but he can't." Now, what happens now? Hashem takes the kavanah of this Jew, and unfortunately, there are a lot of Jews who do the mitzvah of matzah, and they have the opportunity, they have the chance to do it, but they don't have a lot of kavanah. And together we create a holy malach. That's what Rabbeinu Yitzchak said to Rabbe Zusha. He said, "What I meant to say is all Yidden together create holy things, kedoshim. Together they create holy things." Between the Jew that has kavanah and the Jew that does the mitzvah without kavanah, you create complete malachim. And he also said to him, "I want you to know that in the Gemara it says that sometimes Hashem takes a good thought and pairs it up with an action." What does

49:05 Speaker 1 that mean? The Gemara is talking about someone who really would love to do a mitzvah but can't do it. So the Gemara says, it says, "If he did it." Hashem takes a good thought if you really would like to do something, but you can't. It's as if you did it. But Rabbeinu Yitzchak said, "But that's not exactly what it says." This is the way everybody understands this Gemara. But really, the, the, the language, the words of the Gemara is Hashem pairs it up with an action. It doesn't say it says if he did it. Why does it say that? Because it's exactly for what he explained before, that this thought, the kavanah, is paired up with an action of another person, and together they create a malach. And Rabbeinu Yitzchak concluded, he said, "I want you to know, Zusha, that the same is true for a bracha." When a Jew makes a bracha, the Jew should make it loud so somebody else can say Amen, because every bracha creates the body of a malach. And when somebody says Amen,he adds the neshamah to the malach. So what happens when a Jew is alone in a room? He would love someone to say amen, but there's no one there to say amen, to hear the bracha. So he says, "You know what the answer is? The solution is let him have a lot of kavannah. Let him get excited about the bracha." And when he gets excited about the bracha, the kavannah creates the neshamah

50:39 Speaker 1 of the malach. So even if there's no one say- there saying amen, his kavannah will add the neshamah to the malach, which is created by the bracha. Rabbeinu Yitzchak also added one more thing. He said, "In Rosh Hashanah Machzor, when we daven in the Chazarat Hashatz, in the repetition of the Shemoneh Esrei, we say a whole bunch of lines which complete, which conclude with the word kodesh." Right? Heilig. Holy. And one of the last verses, sentences of that poem, um, is, goes like this, "Vahu be-echad," talks about Hashem. Hashem is one. "Umi yishivenu?" And who can answer him or who can turn to him? "Venafsho yiftzo vayoas." And whatever he desires, Hashem desires, he does. No one can stop Hashem from doing what he wants. "Noerv kodesh." He's awesome and he's heilig, he's holy. Now, everything in the davening and the Chumash can have many, many interpretations, many meanings. And he said there's another meaning to this line. I guess this is the way they read it in Gan Eden. You know, everything we learn here on Earth, they also learn in Gan Eden. And sometimes in Gan Eden, it has a whole different meaning than the way it means here on Earth. Says, "Vahu be-echad does not refer to Hashem, but refers to a person, a Yid, a Jew." A Jew is echad. Imagine a Jew is alone in a room. "Umi yishivenu?" Who can answer him? There's no one there to answer amen to his bracha. So what should he do? He doesn't

52:41 Speaker 1 want to create a half a malach, a lifeless malach, a malach without a neshamah. So the answer is, "Venafsho yiftzo vayoas," that he should have a desire. His neshamah should want, should desire to do the mitzvah, to do the bracha. And from this kavannah and this excitement of saying the bracha is vayoas. He's gonna make, create a malach. And noerv kodesh, he's gonna create a, an awesome holy malach because he said a bracha with kavannah. And that was the end of the dream that Reb Zusha heard. And when he woke up, he was very happy because he understood what the Gemara means. It shows us how many things in the Gemara or Rashi or Tosfos, these were very heilike hakhamim who sometimes said things that to us don't seem clear, don't seem understandable, but in essence, they are very deep, and there's a lot of, um, meaning that we don't understand yet. And Reb Zusha, because he wanted so badly to understand the depth of the Torah, Hashem gave him the gift that when he cried, the author, the Tanna, the Amorai, or the Ba'al Tosfos who wrote that pirush, that explanation, would come to him himself and give him the deeper meaning of what he said.