לתת ברכה ולקבל ברכה

00:00 Speaker 1 We're gonna get started. This is the Igrish year, as usual, fifty years ago. These are letters from fifty years ago, but now I'm all over the place. I'm not-- I don't feel tied to a date at the moment. It's the middle of Sfirat HaOmer. I don't feel that I need to be, uh, tied to a time. So this is from Klaphe Tammuz Tuv Shin Lamed Gimel, and you'll be surprised what we're going to pull out of this letter because it is not what you would expect. Here's the letter. Tell me-- This, this is written to the, uh, Talmidot Kitat Miriam Techiya Balinsky. She's a woman who taught a school. It's in the Beis Sefer Chabad, which is in Tanach. That's, that's a, that's like a region near the West Bank. I don't know exactly where that is, but it's where it's at. So this is written to the students in that class. Hashem writes-- Sorry. The Rebbe writes, Okay. The Rebbe writes, So they wrote to him, um, they wrote to the Rebbe with berakhahs for the Rebbe and also asking for berakhahs from the Rebbe. The Rebbe says, "I was very pleased to receive your letter that had berakhahs for me and also a request of berakhahs from me." And the Rebbe writes, I accept, I, I, um, I agree to the berakhahs. And they should be fulfilled. Uh, I'm sorry. Should be fulfilled through you. And the following should be fulfilled through you. That everybody who gives a berakhah gets a berakhah, they

01:20 Speaker 1 become blessed. That berakhah comes from Hashem, who is the source of all berakhahs. From his full hand, which is always open, which is holy, and which has expansiveness to it. God has no end to the amount of berakhahs he can give, and anybody who gives a berakhah, they get a berakhah from God himself. The Rebbe goes on to say, That, uh, in a proper time, I'm going to go to the, the Tzion, the Rebbe, and I'll mention all of your requests, uh, and all the things that your heart desired for good. He then goes on to say in this last paragraph that since you guys are involved in Chinukh, obviously you know the importance of it. You know that the way that you get berakhahs and all things that are necessary is is the way that you act every single day. That's what gives you berakhahs from Hashem. Kinda cool that, uh, that I, I picked a letter that happened to be in the middle of the other days where he gives that yield, that these days should be turned over to a time of and the Rebbe concludes. So what we have up here is a expression that we see in about a million letters. A million is like a conservative estimate. I did, uh-- You know, whenever I prepare this year, my-- I go into Ohel Chachmon to see if I find things that are interesting. You cannot go on Ohel Chachmon for the phrase . You enter in the works of the

02:42 Speaker 1 Rebbe, and it's literally there's not a single volume of the Igris that doesn't have it. Um, most volume of the Igris, he says it many, many times, and we say it to each other, right? People give you a good berakhah. The, uh, the coined response is . I wanted to spend some time today, since this seems to be the series that we're on right now, where we're going through different expressions the Rebbe uses and why he uses them. I wanted to see what the makhah is for and fortunately or maybe unfortunately, depending on what you enjoy most, unlike our last year, which was on the phrase, um, I believe. Um, that we found there was no makhah for in the Rebbe kind of, uh, the Rebbe kind of insisted on the fact that it was and pulled it from a couple of places where there wasn't that exact phrasing. The idea of changing location to get a berakhah is on the books, but not that phrase. This phrase does exist. However, once again, it doesn't exist exactly where you would expect it. Um, with that introduction, you would think I would go right to the sources and applicability of it all, but I wanted to add one more thing before we go into it, and that is I have a couple of other letters here that we should look at because they have more details. Let's look at more letters with de-the details, then I'll tell you where it comes from. This letter is from

03:44 Speaker 1 Tuv Shin Khaf Tes. This is once again people who sent the Rebbe a berakhah, and he writes . He says, "I received your letters from Yud Dalet Kislev, um, and, uh, thank you very much for the berakhahs." This is for the Rebbe's fortieth year as Rebbe. In the Lashon Chazal, we're gonna see where that comes from, but that which, that which needs to be said to you has already been said. That there's already a berakhah set aside for you from the phrase that anybody who blesses, uh, Avraham Avinu will become blessed. Similarly, anybody who blesses the Jews become blessed. He says, This is the part that I wanted, that whatever blessing you get for blessing a Jew should be in a way of tesefes. It should be an increase. That when God adds things, he always adds an increasing way. This is all brought home in this letter here, and then we'll move on to the sources. This is in Tuv Shin Lamed Tes, which puts everything together nicely. once again, the Rebbe is thanking somebody for blessing him. He says, This is their blessing, and that he'll have a The the Rebbe says, "I'm getting better." I thank Hashem, who's giving me the strength to continue in my avoda. And there, certainly, it's well, it's well known and well said. anybody who blesses gets a blessing. And here's it all put together. And the blessing they get is a It's an additional blessing. This final phrasing that we have in this letter, that phrasing,

05:09 Speaker 1 which means that anybody who blesses gets blessed from God with a blessing that is greater than the essential blessing that was given over the first time, is the phrasing you find in most letters. Most letters have this all in one place, that it's and then in addition to that, that whatever blessing you gave the other person, you'll get that blessing, but not just that blessing, but a better blessing. That's the one you get in most letters. Okay. In looking for the sources for this, I didn't have to do my own homework because the Rebbe in one letter tells somebody exactly where to look. He proves his point. So in this letter, which is labeled Gimel Tav Kuf Samekh Lamed, it's from Tuv Shin Tes Lamed, the Rebbe explains where to look. He says, that's a little more timely. the Rebbe says. And how do I know this? 'Cause it says in the and then he gives a makhah in Shas. So I guess I'm just preparing for the Sefer Shas right now. He says there's a, there's a makhah for this in Shas. Furthermore, he says, Kayin Amer Sham Lab Dafka. Um, excuse me, the Alkayim-- Alka-- I don't think that's the Alkayim. Anyway, I don't know what that is. Kayin Sheamer Sham Lab Dafka. He says the Kayin that's mentioned there is Lab Dafka, which we're gonna get into in a second. The Chenu Gama Medrash Hagadol Shami also says to look at the Medrash. The Chen Muka Gamen Yerushalmi, and he gives the

06:16 Speaker 1 Muka Yerushalmi that it can prove Shetesephtes Meru Baalecher. So we have the Mekaret. Let's look at what the Rebbe's trying to tell us. We have in Sayta thirty-eight B. Amer Rabbi Yeshua Ben Levi, thirty-eight B? Well, probably not. It's probably Lamed Aleph where he said it was, and I just wrote the wrong word. I bet you I made a mistake. I'm editing it now. Amer Rabbi Yeshua Ben Levi. Kol Kayin Shemevarech Nisbarech, Shemevarech Ein Nisbarech. Shemevarech HaMevarech HaCha. There's a rule. Any Kayin who goes up to dochen, a Kayin gives out a bracha, he gets a brach. And any Kayin who doesn't give out a bracha, he doesn't wanna go up to the Amit, he doesn't wanna dochen. Ein Nisbarech, he doesn't get a bracha. How do I know? 'Cause this, in the Pasuk it says, HaMevarech HaMevarech HaCha, said by Avraham Avinu. Hashem tells Avraham Avinu, "Anybody who gives you a bracha, I'm gonna give them a bracha." This gets extended to Kayanim. Now, it is not clear at all that this gets extended, uh, beyond Kayanim, right? Sounds like from the Gemara, at least on the surface, that this means that if a Kayin gives me a bracha, that Kayin gets a bracha. How do I know if I give Sruli a bracha, that I get a bracha? I'm not a Kayin. Uh, the Rebbe seems to just understand this to be the case. This Kayin Amer Sham Lab Dafka, that's up here in our letter. But the Kayin that's mentioned in that

07:13 Speaker 1 Gemara is Lab Dafka. So this should apply to any Jew who gives a bracha. As a matter of fact, you'll find in the Toses in Chulin, which I believe the Rebbe's also Matzaya into. Yep, see Toses in Chulin on Mem Tes, that it's quite a tongue twister. That even a non-Jew who gives a bracha to a Jew gets a bracha. So it's not even just-- it's not just for Kayanim, it's not just for Jews, it's even for non-Jews. If a non-Jew gives you a bracha, he'll get a bracha too. And that actually makes a lot of sense because the Pasuk does say to Avraham Avinu, who was the only Jew at the time, that anybody who gives you a bracha is gonna get a bracha. It's clearly referring to non-Jews giving a bracha. And he brings a proof, it says over there, it's, uh, it's in Brachas in Yerushalmi. He says that there was a certain non-Jew who gave a, uh, bracha, who gave Shalom. He said, "Give Shalom," right? "Give Shalom." He gave a bracha to Rabbi Yishmael, and he said to him, Rabbi Yishmael said back to him, what you, uh, what I'm supposed to say back to you has already been said. This is still Toses talking. I don't need to say Shalom back to you. Why do I not need to respond Shalom to somebody who says Shalom to me? 'Cause the Torah already gives you a bracha the moment somebody... I don't know if this will-- I don't know if

08:21 Speaker 1 this will pass as an excuse in polite conversation in your workplace. Somebody says, "Uh, I hope you have a great day," and you go, "I'm not telling you to have a great day because the Torah already guarantees you a great day for blessing me," might not make you a lot of friends, but this is exactly what Rabbi Yishmael said. Rabbi Yishmael said that, uh, that somebody said hi to him, and he said, "I don't have to say hi back because the Torah already promises that anybody who's nice to me, people are going to-- God's gonna be nice to them." So we have from this Gemara in Sayta and also from the Toses that this rule of doesn't just apply to Kayanim, and as from the Rebbe's letter, doesn't just apply to Kayanim, also applies to, to Jews, regular Jews, and doesn't just apply to Jews. Doesn't just apply to Yidden, also applies to non-Jews. So it seems like anybody who gives a bracha gets a bracha. Uh, we have a Breishis Rabah, that's what the Rebbe's saying over here, that we have to look in the Medrash Agadol. In other letters, he's Matzayan specifically to this Medrash Rabah. And this is trying to prove because the Rebbe has two rules here. He likes to say which is great. If I give a bracha, I get a bracha. Probably the same bracha. The Rebbe says, "No, not the same bracha. It has to be a, a bracha that is additional to the one that I gave."

09:15 Speaker 1 So if I, I don't know, if I, if I wish that somebody should live ten years, I should live 11 years, right? Uh, hopefully, both of us will live a lot more. I'm just giving an example. That it has to be more than what I, more than what I blessed. That's what the Rebbe's saying where does he get that from? He gets it from Breishis Rabah. So he goes, he says, there you go, that whenever God adds something, he always does more than whatever the Ikar is. And then a bunch of examples are given. I'll throw out some of them without all the Psukim in between. Kayin was the Ikar. Kayin was born first. He was the Ikar. VeHevel Ay Deshu Taysafes. And since Hevel was the Taysafes, the thing that was added onto the bracha, that they got a bracha of Kayin being born. Adam and Chava had a bracha that Kayin was born to them. Afterwards, Hevel is added on as the next bracha, and because it's a Taysafes Lo Elet Is. And therefore, since he is the addition, Neledhu Shetei Tuimim. He gets two twins born with him 'cause he's the Taysafes Al HaIkar. Uh, Yosef was the Ikar. Yosef was born first. Binyamin was the Taysafes that was additional to the Ikar. Tu Mamar Asarah. And, uh, Binyamin ends up having ten kids. Yosef has only two kids. So this goes on and on. There's a lot of examples here. You can read it in the supplement that I sent over,

10:11 Speaker 1 examples of whenever God gives a bracha, he always gives more. It's not always with children. There's also an example with Iyov down here, which is not usually where you go for bracha advice. But anyway, Iyov, we have about Iyov, that he only had, uh, seventy years. God then added on an extra a hundred and forty years to his seventy years. So his original seventy years, when God added more time, he didn't just add another seventy, he gave him double seventy as an additional amount of time. Same thing with, uh, uh, Chizkiyah. Chizkiyah was only supposed to rule for what? for fourteen years. He got an extra fifteen years on top of that, not just an extra fourteen. The Rebbe uses this as a makah that when God gives a bracha, it's always additional. Now that we've proven it, I wanted to go through why it works a little bit. I found two Mekares for why this, why, why this works, what happens spiritually that allows us to get a bracha just for giving a bracha. This is from Sefer HaLikutim, which means it's also from somewhere in our Torah from the Tamach Dec. But I didn't look up the original, I looked at Sefer HaLikutim. By the way, I believe the Tamach Dec put together Sefer HaLikutim, so I guess that's also the original. Just in defense of myself. But he says here is that when somebody gives a bracha to somebody else, I'm sorry, did I jump? When somebody gives a bracha to somebody

11:15 Speaker 1 else, what I'm doing is, I am being Mevarech and I'm being Mamshich. I'm dragging down a Giluy of God's name. So I'm taking God's brachas and I'm dragging them down and giving them to somebody else, and I drag God's name down into this world and give it to somebody else, which is what it means to give somebody a bracha. That means the explanation is that if I'm the one, if I'm the one directing the fire hose at somebody else, I'm probably gonna get wet too, and as a matter of fact, I'll get wet first. So if I'm the one channeling bracha into the world, I'm going to end up being the person who gets the bracha first. That explains . It doesn't explain why I should get more. In Terias Menachem, this is on the Chaf Tes Chat of Tov Shin Mem Ches. Uh, this is right after the, um, end of-- I think right after the end of Kaddish. It was related to that. I don't remember exactly. Anyway, the Rebbe says, why is when you have a bracha? Why is there an addition on top of the Ikar? when the real brachas He says the reason why is because the, the calculation here is what's the Ikar? We said earlier that the rule is that God always adds on to the Ikar. So what's the Ikar? The Rebbe describes how the Ikar is the Beracha. So if I give a Beracha to somebody, that's an Ikar, and now he's going to give me

12:31 Speaker 1 a Beracha that is additional to what I gave. If I give a Beracha to Sruli, now I sh-- I'm supposed to get a Beracha. Since I'm supposed to get a Beracha, that's gonna be the Tzeus Apis, and the rule from the Midrash is that a Tzeus Apis is always by HaKadosh, Baruch Hu, Merubal Ikar, so I should get more Beracha. This is the Rebbe explaining. To go through everything we've gone through so far before we get into some of the interesting implications, then call it a day, is that we were looking for a source for Kol Mevorach Es Baruch. The Rebbe actually told us the source. We went looking to find out exactly what he means. We have it from a Second Setu that says it applies to a Kohen. We have from the Rebbe's letter that that applies to a Jew, too. We have in the Teseus in Hulan that it applies even to a non-Jew, and we have from Breishes Rabba that, uh, that it's a-- that's an additional Beracha. That, that whatever Beracha I give, I won't just get what I gave back, I'll get more than it. Then I found some really fun implications to the rule Kol Mevorach Es Baruch that's on Derech HaDrush that I wanted to share with you, and then I think we're done for the day. One of them is in Avod-- Avodraham on Siddur. I mean, this is one-- maybe the most classic question in all of Davening. It's the, it's the Chabad house question

13:21 Speaker 1 is why am I saying, "Blessed are you, God? God doesn't need my blessings." An answer given in a lot of places is that I'm not saying that I'm blessing God, I'm saying that God is the source of all blessing. That's the-- that's like the go-to art scroll answer, is that the blessing, "Blessed are you, God," doesn't mean I'm declaring God blessed or giving Him a blessing. I'm just declaring that He's the place blessings come from. Obviously, another answer that's given in the Siddur in a lot of places is that when I make a Beracha, I'm dragging down something into the world. Beracha is from Alushnav Amshacha. This is an answer that I had not seen before. It's in the Avodraham. Look at this. It says, "Im Teimer, Mayel El Ab-- Ab Beracha." I, I think I, I think it copied over wrong. What-- uh, Kadosh Baruch Hu. Yeah, it's missing a Kuf. Sometimes when you copy the words over, they lose letters. "Im Teimer, Mayel El Ab Kadosh Baruch Hu B'richasenu." Why does God need our Berachas? Yesh El Aimar. "Ein B'richasenu eli k'delei zechus b'richasav." Gam uzal Kol Mevorach Es Baruch. We give God Berachas just so we can get them back. There's a rule, Kol Mevorach Es Baruch, and there's a rule of Tzeus Apis Merubal Ikar. So when I give God a Beracha, I say, "Baruch ata Hashem," that guarantees me a Beracha. So an answer given in Avodraham about why we do Berachas in the first place is that if we

14:19 Speaker 1 bless God, we get blessed because there is a rule, Kol Mevorach Es Baruch. Here's another interesting implication. This is in the Mekuteh Torah, Torah Shemu. From that year, with that itself, I have, I have all the Mekutes up there, so you can look them up on your own. But he says that when we say, "Kol Mevorach Es Baruch," that one of the implications of this is that the Kadosh, Baruch Hu, Mevorach es amo Yisrael v'Shalom. Why does God bless us with peace? And the answer is that God does that also because Kol Mevorach Es Baruch, he wants a Beracha. Watch this. Says, "Why does the Kadosh Baruch Hu give us peace, Mevorach es amo Yisrael v'Shalom?" Because God's, I don't know, will, if you will. Obviously, this is a, a little bit, uh, literally going to be speaking, uh, in mashalim a little bit. I don't know exactly what God wants in that respect. God can do whatever He wants, but you understand what I mean. That God's will is that there should be a connection between his Yud Kei and his Vav Kei. So he wants Shalom Lamaila, that he wants his name to be completely one at peace with itself. He doesn't want there to be opposites in the spheres. He wants them to all work together in a way of Shalom. That's the connection of his name, Yud Kei, with his name above Kei, the front and back letter of his name. So it says in, uh, that the Rab Marash says

15:15 Speaker 1 that when, uh, Kadosh Baruch Hu gives us a Beracha of Shalom, this causes him, Kol Mevorach Es Baruch, to get a Beracha of Shalom, that his name gets united over that. There's a maimer over here where the Rebbe says that the same advantage that you get from Kol Mevorach Es Baruch also applies to one who says Amen to a Beracha. That the Amen to the Beracha is an additional step above that. You'll find that in maimer that is Derah Maskal Gadol Ha'eynah, which is just s-- I never knew about this maimer. I've gotta learn this maimer. Gadol Ha'eynah Amen. It's all about saying Amen, a Beracha that you'll find in Tafshin, meh, Tafshin Chaf Beis. And then the Rebbe says that it's just, it, it, it scales. So if I give a Beracha to-- If I give a Beracha to Sruli, and then Mendy says Amen, what happens is that I give a Beracha to Sruli, so Sruli's gonna get the base Beracha. He gets the worst deal in this entire thing, can't you? You wouldn't think that, right? I give a Beracha to Sruli, and Mendy says Amen. You would think that, uh, that Sruli got the good deal. The thing is that Mendy got the best deal of all. So what the Rebbe is saying in this maimer here is that I give a Beracha to Sruli, so now I'm gonna get a better Beracha than the one I gave to Sruli, and the guy who says Amen strengthens my Beracha, so he

16:08 Speaker 1 gets even more Beracha than me in the first place. So if you can't be the one giving the Beracha, at least be the one who says Amen. One more fun implication down here, and then that's it for us for today. This is also one I had never even kind of heard before. It's in our Torah, um, on the Siddur. It's also in the Siddur of the Maharid. Not a lot of people have that. I have an old copy of it in my house. It says there, "Why do we say Teyesh Kam L'Shalom to the Malachim?" So there's a lot of answers to this question. Why do we tell Malachim to leave on Shabbos? Teyesh Kam L'Shalom. An answer given in the Siddur is that Teyesh Kam L'Shalom is a Beracha to the angels. Why are we giving the angels a Beracha? Well, the Beracha for them is Teyesh Kam L'Shalom, first of all. What's our Beracha? Why are we giving them a Beracha to leave? It's Teyesh Kam L'Kayfes Em. That we're giving the angels a Beracha that since it's Shabbos, they should ascend beyond their capabilities. They should leave, Teyesh Kam L'Shalom. They should leave peacefully beyond their own capabilities, and we tell the Malachim, "You should rise to a level that you've never been able to reach before." That's our blessing to the angels when we say Teyesh Kam L'Shalom. And since Kol Mevorach Es Baruch, this is part of the beginning of Shabbos because we are trying to leave our Hugbalas behind,

17:01 Speaker 1 and one of the best ways to leave our Hugbalas behind is to wish someone else or something else, a Malach, that it should leave its Hugbalas behind. So another fun implication, K-Kol Mevorach Es Baruch. There are many others out there. Um, the key point being that we should be giving each other Berachas, and we should get Berachas. Kol Mevorach Es Baruch. And at the very least, or maybe at the very most, saying Amen to each other's Berachas. The power of Chassidus Shafan Brangit, maybe that's the point today. Okay, that's it.

17:23 Speaker 2 Amen.

17:25 Speaker 1 Amen.

17:27 Speaker 2 Um, the only, only thought I have is just, um, in this first letter that you have up on the screen right now, um, the Kukas Arboim Shana is not the Rebbe's forty years, 'cause the Rebbe became Rebbe in Taf Shin Yod or Yod Alef, and this-

17:38 Speaker 1 You are right.

17:39 Speaker 2 So if anything is forty years, it might be forty years of the Mosed Siragud HaChabad. Maybe it was founded forty years be-- forty years ago. I don't know who was measid. If it was measid by the Rebbe, then it would make sense that it was forty years old at the time. So that it might be, um, it might be a reference to that being forty years.

17:56 Speaker 1 You're totally right. Didn't even look at the year. Good call.

17:59 Speaker 2 But other than that, it's, uh, this, this is fantastic stuff 'cause these are things that you say and, and never could really maybe understand the, uh, full implications of, um, you know. So yeah, very interesting.