ילדי הפלא של ירושלים

00:00 Okay, let's go. This is the Igrot Shir. We are looking at a letter from Tov Shin Lamed Gimel. This is Shabbos Mevorachim, Erev Shabbos, Erev Shabbos Kodesh Mevorachim Chet Ches Menachem Av. I've never seen that designator before. That is the Friday before Shabbos Mevorachim Menachem Av, so right around our time of year. If this is going into the nine days, we're going into the three weeks, uh, into the year is Tov Shin Lamed Gimel. Today is Shiv'at HaB'tamuz, so it seems an appropriate time to look at some of the Rebbe's letters that are specifically shayach to the destruction of the temple and the, um, the three weeks and the nine days. This is letter Yud Tav Tav Mem Ches, and the Rebbe writes it to all of the students, the male students and the female students, Sh'daynu Gilul-- Gilul mitzvahs. Anybody under bar mitzvah or bas mitzvah age, that's the rule. This letter is to anybody under bar or bat mitzvah age. Do we have anybody here like that? No? Not today? Okay, so it's not for you. Achem, uh, who are in various camps and the like in any particular place. The Rebbe's writing-- You know, you used to get letters from your grandma when you were in camp. The Rebbe writes to the children in camp, and he writes the following letter, Hashem Aleichem Yichyu Shalom U'brochah. Pemshich lemichtav betes Bet Tammuz amadeinu lifnei Reish Chet Menachem Av tishya yom et eshen cheder zeh. Since we are in-- as in a continuation from

01:12 the letter that I sent on the fifteenth of Tammuz, and as we stand now, quite, uh, right before Reish Chet Menachem Av and the nine days of the first nine days of this month. Pem budkash biyes in miyuchad sh'chal shalosh shvuos d'bei mitzarim. Now is the time to emphasize a specific, a special inyan that is-- that has to do with all three of those weeks of bei mitzarim, and specifically the nine days. Shebne chateinu galenu me'artzenu v'charah Beis Hamikdash einu. Why are we in this mess in the first place? Because of our sins, we were kicked out of our land, and our Beis Hamikdash was destroyed. Shezeh gam muvan she'al yedei teshuva al chatayim. Therefore, it is understood that the way to fix it is by repenting for our sins. V'al yedei limud hateira v'kiyam mitzvotah. And when we learn Torah and do mitzvahs. Tav miyad gemulus amitis v'hashlema al yedei Mashiach tzidkeinu. And when we learn Torah and do mitzvahs, we will be able to come immediately to the complete and true redemption via Mashiach tzidkeinu. That's sort of the boilerplate. Let's look at the part we wanna talk about today. Aveiza el hapam lechas divar gishos chos miyuchad sh'b'chal zera sheyesh li-- l'yeila d'Yisrael. I want to now emphasize the incredible merit and the incredible importance that small children have in helping to accomplish this goal of getting us out of exile through Torah and mitzvahs. Gam muvan gam bedivrei chachamim, as all is understood from the chachamim. Teka b'techilas Midrash Eicha, which

02:23 you'll find at the beginning of Midrash Eicha. B'gedom ayeles yushvim sheayisah rabasi bagoyim. In Eicha, we say rabasi bagoyim. Rabasi bagoyim means that it was the greatest among the nations. We're talking about-- We're lamenting what we lost when we lost Yerushalayim. We lost a city that was the greatest among the-- among the nations. Ayedeshe ayisah rabasi. So when the Midrash talks about what it means rabasi, what does it mean great among the nations? Al says rabasi badeyas. Rabasi badeyas is that they were great in their knowledge base, the chachmah, in their wisdom. U'mevia dogma lezeh, and it brings several examples to this. U'vah, and in that list of examples in the Midrash of the great wisdom of the inhabitants of Yerushalayim prior to the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash. U'vah shiva sipurim, it has seven stories. Al derech chachmas shel tinoket shel tinukis. Seven stories about the great wisdom of children who were living in Yerushalayim. Ushnei sipurim al eis chachmasam talmidie beis sefer. And two other stories about the great wisdom of children who were learning in schools. So we have in Midrash Eicha seven stories about wise children and two stories about wise schoolchildren. Ach sh'ha Midrash k'v'chol-- k'v'chol chelkei hateira ein bai yesei chasam shalom. Now, we need to understand that in the Midrash, there is nothing extra. There's no extra stories in the Midrash. The Midrash isn't bringing multiple examples to make a point. V'chol sifer venina filu teiva achas meduyakim heim betachlis hakodesh. Every single word and every single letter

03:36 in the Midrash, as in any other part of the Torah, is betachlis adiukim, betachlis hakode-- betachlis v'kich-- v'kich lis mikdoshim. Heim betachlis meduyakim heim betachlis kamah v'kidosh. There we go. They are meduyak, betachlis, and they are completely holy. Uh, just as a side point, I don't think a lot of people think of Midrash this way. The Rebbe obviously feels this way about the whole Torah, but, uh, I don't think a lot of people feel this way about Midrashim. Midrashim seem to be sort of a, a kind of a scatter of all sorts of different stories. The Rebbe says that down to, down to the word, they are partic-- they are completely precise, every single story in the Midrash. And the fact that the Midrash Eicha brings us seven stories about the genius of children and two about the schoolchildren in particular tells us something. Kavanah sipurim ela, what is the kavanah of these sipurim? I'm sorry. Let's skip the line. Mesaprim gam ken asher hayah b'Yerushalayim, um, taf hei bat beis sefer limud mikra. It also says in that Midrash that there were four hundred and eighty schools to learn Chumash, four hundred and eighty schools to learn Mishnah, and four hundred and eighty schools to learn Talmud in Yerushalayim before the destruction of the temple. Vekavanas ha'sipurim ela, what is the purpose in the Midrash telling us all these stories? Ad shekol echad v'echad min'tinokai sh'beYisrael yasah kol hatalmidai liyoseim b'dikduasim, and that is to inspire every single Jewish child to act in their

04:40 manner, to act, uh-- to, to see these children of-- who lived in Yerushalayim as an example for them. Idei af smada v'shkeda belimud hateira v'hetshlimin yaavid b'dei ma'aseh mahagba teira b'chaiyei yom yam. That they should then study with diligence, and that their studies should lead to action and lead them to act appropriately in their daily lives according to Torah every single day. So the Rebbe says this is particularly important in these days when we remember the Horban, and we remember the destruction and its reason, which is our sins, that we need to, in these days in particular, follow the model of these children that are mentioned in Midrash Eicha and increase in our Torah and mitzvahs, and specifically in tzedakah, uh, and specifically-- and, and now specifically including doing this on Tisha B'Av. However, you need to do that in a way that's mutar on Tisha B'Av because there's only certain things you're allowed to learn on Tisha B'Av, but obviously increase in tzedakah and learning Torah and doing mitzvahs that are permissible on Tisha B'Av. Now is the time for children to increase in these things, in the dogma, in the, um, in the fashion of the children who lived in Yerushalayim back then. And the Rebbe says, "Yehi ratzon sh'bekarav yamei hash'nas k'kulah b'seich lah, kiyam atach asher elokim elokei Yisrael ese et niklas lavadei tzim b'mishpat v'teirah, b'mishpat which is Torah, tipada bishvei avei tzedakah." We should soon see the fulfillment of the promise that Zion will be redeemed through Mishpat, which

05:45 is Torah, and it will be, and it will be, uh, and it's those who are captured will be redeemed through tzedakah. V'yifchu yamim elah lasason simcha, and these days should be turned into joy and in happiness. Bracha u'v'sudas toras. Okay. So this is, um, pretty standard letter. Why did I bring you here? I brought you here specifically for this part. It says here that, uh, that in the Midrash Eichah there are seven stories of children who are very smart, and two stories of school children who are very smart. I thought it might be fun today of all days to look at those seven stories and look at those two school stories, and actually learn a little bit of the Midrash Eichah together because as you might remember from Hayom Yom on the ninth of Av, this is one of the things that we're supposed to learn every Tisha B'Av. Every Tisha B'Av, the Minhag of the Rebbe Rashab, every Tisha B'Av was to learn Midrash Eichah, the entire thing. It is very long, by the way. It is quite long. It's not a short Midrash. Midrash, uh, it would t-take you all day. And also to learn the section Gittin that is shayach to the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash, Rabbi Yechanan. That was the Minhag of the Rebbe Rashab. The Rebbe also introduced the Minhag to learn-- I don't know if he introduced it, but he was the first one to really talk about it in a major way. To learn the Shmas of

06:42 the Tzemach Tzedek on Eichah, which takes every line of Eichah line by line and turns it into a bracha. So just these are, these are the learning materials that we are supposed to be engaged in on Tisha B'Av. And, uh, because of that, I have in prior years learned parts of Midrash Eichah. I had to go looking. The, the Rebbe is correct, of course, that there are seven stories of children and two stories of schoolchildren, but the letter implies that they're all in one place, and that's a little bit deceptive. They are not. I had to dig through the whole first chapter of Midrash Eichah to find them, and the first chapter is something like eighty midrashim long. So I did find them for you. They are here. You can have them. I'll put them in the chat so you can keep them for yourselves. But I do wanna tell you the seven stories. They're all pretty great. Um, to give you an idea of the model of these stories, all of the stories that occur in the first Perek of Midrash Eichah pretty much are trying to explain Rabasi Bagoyim. Now it says that Rabasi Bagoyim is supposed to mean that we were the smartest nation out there. What does it mean that we were so clever? And the Midrash's understanding is we were really good at riddles. That's the bottom line, is that the entire first chapter of Midrash Eichah is something like eighty riddles that we solved that Athenians usually-- Usually we're

07:37 put up-- We're pitted against Athens, that usually Athenians couldn't solve. Uh, one of them that has nothing to do with children is just like the opening riddle of the story, is that a certain, a certain, uh, I guess, citizen of Yerushalayim died, uh, abroad. And when he died somewhere else, he told them, "You can only let my son-- My son's gonna come to get my assets, to pick up my money. How's he going to-- How are you, how are you gonna know it's him? The only way you'll know it's him, that it's really a boy from Jerusalem, is that he'll be smart enough to show you three wise things." So the boy comes to the house, he has to demonstrate three different wise things, and when he passes all the tests, he's able to collect his father's money. This is the way all of the stories in the first chapter go. So I'm going to tell you the seven stories of the seven children. I don't think we're necessarily gonna read them word by word 'cause I don't think we have time, but I have them on the screen in front of you, and I might pick up certain phrases from what you have. I'll send them to you so you can learn them on your own. These are the seven stories of the seven genius children, and the two stories of the two genius groups of schoolchildren. So this first one over here . There was a certain person from Athens who came to

08:31 Yerushalayim. Once upon a time, somebody from Athens came to Yerushalayim, and he found a certain little boy there. He found a child, a boy. And he said-- I'm, I'm saying a boy because a lot of times it's little girls. It goes back and forth. It's little boys and little girls. This is a little boy. And he gave him a-- He gave him some money and he said, "I would like you to bring me dates and, uh, dates and, uh... I'm sorry, figs and grapes. Bring me figs and grapes." And, uh, the boy said, "That's a great deal for me because you'll do the money spending, I'll do the running." Me with my money, uh, that's the lesson here is, uh, . This works great for me. You with the money, me with the feet. I'll do the running. So then he runs off and gets the, uh, he runs off and gets the... What are they? They're figs and grapes. He runs off and gets the figs and grapes, and when he brings them back, there are some good ones and some bad ones, so he decides to divvy them up with the Athenian. He gives the Athenian all of the good ones, and he keeps all the bad ones for himself. The Athenian says, "I see from here that the children of Yerushalayim are very wise because they understand that although he did the legwork, quite literally, he didn't pay for it, so he should-- he doesn't really deserve the good fruits." Nonetheless, the

09:26 Athenian said, "Let's draw lots just to see who really deserves what they have in front of them, and if we draw the each other's lots, then we'll switch." Indeed, they drew each other's lots, and the kid ended up going home with all of the good fruits. I'm not sure exactly how this shows the great wisdom of the children, but this is one of the examples given where it says Rabasi Bagoyim. The second story on the list. The second story is a great riddle. There is a person from Athens who comes to Yerushalayim and he finds himself-- He finds a young Jewish boy and he says to him, "Take this money and I want you to bring me . Br- so go out and find and bring to me kind of food," follow this, "that I will eat, I will be satisfied, and I will still have some left over to take on the path with me." And he didn't give him a lot of money, only a couple prutas. So if you had only, I don't know, ten cents, what would you buy somebody that they could eat now, be completely satisfied, and still be happy, and still be able to take on the road and have more of? The kid brings him back salt, milḥa. Brings him back salt. He says, "You'll eat some now, you'll instantly become completely full 'cause no one wants to eat a lot of salt. So you'll eat and you'll be satisfied, and you'll have plenty left to take

10:22 on the road with you." And he said, "Ah, I see that the children of Yerushalayim are particularly intelligent." That's story number two. Story number three. An Athenian says-- He comes to Yerushalayim. He finds a . He finds a young boy and he says to him, "I'll give you some money. I want you to bring me some cheese and some eggs." So the boy brings him some cheese and eggs and the Athenian says to him, "Can you tell me this cheese that you brought, it's goat cheese. This goat cheese that you brought, did it come from a black goat or from a white goat?" And the child says back, "You're an old man. You tell me which chicken the eggs came from, a white chicken or a black chicken." There, there are mefarshim on this story, by the way. It's a it's a clever retort, but there's also mefarshim on this story. There's a really interesting in Aḥronim on this story that, uh, that the Athenian was trying to disprove the Jewish religion u-using this example. He was saying to him-- I find this and I, I don't remember who I saw this from, but I've seen it in a couple places. That the Athenian said to him, uh, "It was true that when we used to be-- When there used to be a big difference between the Greeks and the Jews and how they acted, you could say we were completely different people. But the truth is, we might have come from different places, but

11:17 at this point, we all act completely the same. You come from a, a black goat, I come from a white goat, but the cheese is all the same. Let's just assimilate and become completely one." The Jewish child says back, "We look the same, but we're really eggs, not cheese, and when we hatch, you'll see which mother we came from." So that's, uh, it's a beautiful message in there. But in any case, it shows the wisdom of the Jewish children. This, uh, next one is very famous to Lubavitchers and to basically nobody else. It's also Gemara Massekhet Eruvin, but we know it because it's on the Daf HaShachar of Tanya. It's on the, uh, it's on the front page of Tanya. Uh, once upon a time, Rabbi Yeshua was walking on a path and he came to a path and he saw a child there, and there was a crossroads and he didn't know which way to go. And he asked the child, "Which way do I get-- Which way do I have to go to get to the city?" And the child said to him, "You can go the, uh, long short way or the short long way." You've heard this one before. It's in the front of Tanya. The short long way or the long short way. So Rabbi Yeshua decided to take the the short and long one. When he got there, he found all of these gardens, and he found these, uh... He found orchards, and he found everything was surrounded by

12:11 walls. He couldn't get in. So he got there very quickly, but he couldn't find his way around. He came back to the child and said, "You told me that was the short way." And the child said back, "I said it's also the long way." And Rabbi Yeshua said that, uh, . So the child says back to him, "Aren't you so smart? I told you the long way." Rabbi Yeshua then said at that moment, "Happy are you Jewish people because even your little children are smart just like your big people." Uh, Rabbi Yeshua continues on the way, and then you might remember this. You remember-- Excuse me. You might remember this Gemara from Ervin, but in Ervin, he doesn't get, uh, slugged up quite as often. In Medrash Eicha, he gets attacked by everybody, the small children, the boys, the girls, even a bunch of widows, uh, best him. He gets bested something like nine times in Medrash Eicha and only like three times in Ervin. So some of these will be familiar to you and some of them not. Another one. So next one, goes from that place . So he finds a little boy who has a jar in his hand, and the jar is covered up. So he says to him, "What's inside that vessel?" And the child says back, "If my mother wanted you to know it was in the vessel, she wouldn't have covered it." Which is just another great, another great retort showing the wisdom of the Jewish people. Okay.

13:14 The, uh, next story, he went from there, and he found another child, and he said to him, "Is there water in your city?" I have no idea what this story means. But he says to him, "Is there water in your city?" And he said back to him, the child says back, "What do you care if there's water? What, what do you care if there's water? We already have very good garlic and onions in our city." I, I don't, I don't know what that means. Um, and there aren't a lot of great commentaries on Medrash Eicha. So that's supposed to be wise, and I don't understand it 'cause I'm not wise enough. And the final of the seven stories is that he meets a little girl. So he comes to the city and meets a little girl, and she's standing by a well. And he says to her, "Would you please give me some water?" And she says, "Sure, I'm gonna give you your water, and I'll also give water to your donkey." So he says back to her after he's drank, he says back to her, "You acted just like Rivka. That's brilliant. You said you wanted to give me water and also my, also my, also my animals." She said back to him, "I did like Rivka, Rivka but you didn't act like Eliezer. So Rivka gave him water, and Eliezer gave her jewelry, gave her a husband. You gave me nothing." She said, "I acted like Rivka, but you didn't like-- like Eliezer."

14:10 So Rabbi Yeshua said at that moment, "The only people who ever really were able to best me were a bunch of children and a bunch of widows." And this demonstrates what it says. There was that there were-- we were many among the nations, means that we were the smartest among the nations. There are then-- So those are the seven stories if you count them. That is the story of... We have the, um, the figs and grapes story with the luts. We have the, uh, salt story. We have the eggs and cheese. We have the . We have the covered vessel, the water quality with the garlic and onions, and the water with the donkey, but she doesn't get a husband. That's seven stories about children that show up in the beginning of Medrash Eicha showing their great wisdom and going back to the Rebbe's letter. Children are supposed to draw from this inspiration in their own studies that they should be particularly smart. We also have two stories about children in schools. The first one is, uh, is a little sad, and the second one is hilarious. So the first one, which is a little sad, is that there was a woman who kept on coming to Rebbe Elazar. This is also a little bit of a rip-off from a Gemara Mesechtas Berachos, but with a different ending. So there's a woman who kept coming to Rebbe Elazar and telling her that she had a recurring dream. She had a recurring dream that a rafter

15:16 in her house kept on breaking. So you remember the Gemara Mesechtas Berachos, right? The way that you interpret dreams is the way they go. So Rebbe Elazar knew this rule, so he was always giving her good interpretations. She would come to him and say, "I dreamt that the rafter broke," and he would say back, "You're gonna have a son," and then she would have a son. She did this again, said, "I dreamt the rafter broke." "You're gonna have a son." She had a son. She comes one day to his Bes Medrash with the same recurring dream that the rafter broke, and he's not there, but his students are there. The kids are there studying in school. So she says to the students, "Are you as smart as your rabbi?" And they say back, "Yeah, we're pretty bright." So she says, "Do you think you can interpret dreams?" And they go, "Yeah, we can." And she says, "My rafter broke." And he-- they-- the children say back, "Your husband's gonna die," and he drops dead. So she goes-- She, she starts wailing, and Rebbe Elazar comes over to her and says, "Why are you so sad?" And she's told him what happened. He runs back to his students, said, "What did you guys do?" They said, "Uh, we just told her what the dream meant. We told her the dream meant that her husband was gonna die." And he said back, "But dreams follow their interpretation. You killed her off." But the implication there is that,

16:05 is that they were wise enough to interpret a dream in a way that it would actually happen. If a normal person says it, it doesn't work. He says the example there is, uh, is from And therefore, when a person who knows what they're doing interprets a dream, they can interpret negatively and kill somebody. This is supposed to show the wisdom of his students, that they were wise enough to interpret dreams negatively. And, uh, and, uh, the lashon here is very, very harsh. He says, uh... Where is this? Um, He said back to them, "You killed a person through your dream interpretation." They were that smart. This last one's great. Uh, An Athenian one time came to Yerushalayim. He came to a school with-- that was full of small children. was full of children, and their rabbi was not there. The teacher wasn't there, you know. So the children were going wild, right? Throwing paper airplanes. Not exactly, but they are going to have fun with this Athenian. He asked them, um... They, they came up with-- They, they came up with a deal, this group, uh, is that they, they talked back and forth, and the conclusion was they were going to have a riddle contest, the students versus the Athenian. And the Athenian said to them, "You go first." They said to the Athenian, "No, you go first 'cause you're, 'cause you're a guest here." And, uh, they, they agreed that the Athenian would go first, and he would answer a riddle. And the

17:13 deal was that whoever-- that if they-- whoever asks the question, if the person who answers it gets it wrong, that guy loses all of his clothes. So they said to the Athenian, "We're gonna ask you a riddle. If you can't answer the riddle, we're taking all your clothes." So they asked the Athenian the following riddle. They asked him, "Nine things come out, eight things come in, two things pour, one thing drinks, and twenty-four things serve. What is it?" You, you, you want a minute to work through it? Nine exit, eight enter, two pour, one drink, twenty-four serve. If you're a listener on the recording, you can pause it and try it yourself at home. See if you would have lost your clothes. The Athenian has no idea, and he loses all of his clothes. So he goes to their teacher, who I think was Rabbi Yechanan, wasn't it? What's it say down here? Was it Rabbi Yechanan? Go to the teacher, Rabbi Yechanan. Yeah, Rabbi Yechanan. He says to them, "You have really rotten kids here. I'm a guest in your town. They took my clothes." Rabbi Yechanan said back, "Ah, did you agree to a riddle competition with them? They do this all the time." And he said, "Yeah, I did." And he said, "Well, tell me the riddle. I'll, I'll get you the answer." So he told him the riddle, and Rabbi Yechanan said back, "No, I know that one." That is nine exit is the nine months it takes for a child

18:13 to come out of the womb. Uh, eight enter is eight days that the child has to go through before he can enter into the bris. Two pour is two of the, uh, of the mother's breasts that feed the child. One drinks is the one child who feeds from two. And twenty-four serve is that she does this for twenty-four months because that was the amount of time it took back then before a child was weaned. So the Athenian, the presumably naked Athenian, goes back to the school and tells the children, "I want my clothes back. I know the answer." He tells them the answer, and they say back to him the same lashon that Shimshon said when his riddle was given away. "If you hadn't plowed with my, with my, uh, with my calf, you wouldn't have found the answer to my riddle. I know you cheated. I know you talked to Rabbi Yechanan." So we have here our seven stories of children, two stories of school children. Of course, all with the intention of inspiring children nowadays. Why would the Medrash tell us all these stories of the great wi-- and wisdom of the children of Yerushalayim? To tell our children nowadays that, uh, that they have something to look up to. You know, um, role models matter, and some of the role models are in the Medrash. We, uh-- These are role models for our children. I don't know if they're role models for our children and how they talk to adults. They're not

19:11 the most respectful little kids in the entire world. At the same time, uh, for our children to look up to or our children to aspire to be the kind of children who are clever enough to best an Athenian is definitely the Rebbe's message in this letter, is that children should be aspiring to be smart and, um, and that that should make-- give them extra hasmad in their studies, help them refocus on Torah study. And through the merit of the ch- of Torah learning of children, we should be able to turn these days from, from days of sadness into days of simcha. And that's it.