ליקויי מאורות ואסטרולוגיה

00:01 This is Igris. Today, we're looking at a number of letters about eclipses and about mazales, about things going on in the sky, whether they affect our lives, and how seriously we should be taking them. I guess the main letter we're probably looking at today-- Not probably, we're definitely gonna look at it, but the main one of the list is probably Heh Taf Kuf Ayin Tes, which is in Tav Shin Yod Zayen, where the Rebbe addresses eclipses directly. But before we look at that letter, I just wanna go back to the Gemara that talks about eclipses and look at it quickly together because it's gonna be necessary to understand some of these letters. This is Gemara in Sukkah, Chaf Tes Amalek. We have a solar eclipse coming up, uh, in a few hours, so I'm sure everybody's very familiar with these Gemaras. They've been circulating-- uh, at least parts of them have been circulating. The whole thing together is a lot more fun. On Chaf Tes Amalek, there are three shitas given on what we should think when we see an eclipse in the sky. The first one is, "Tanna Rabbanan bizman shechamaleika," when we see that the sun gets hit. Sun leika would be a solar eclipse. That's the one that we have coming up. "Siman ra lechol olam kulam." That's a bad sign for everybody. Terrible news for what's happening in the next few hours. Bad sign for everybody. "Mashal lama deve dema?" What is this a mashal like? What's this just like? "L'melech

00:59 basra v'dam she'asa suda-- she'asa suda lavadav v'nihach panis lifneiam." This is like a king. He decides he's going to make a meal for all of his servants, and he puts a big lamp on the table so everybody can see what they're eating. Then, "Kas halam." But then somebody upsets him. He gets angry. "Vamidla avdai," and he says to one of his servants, "Tell panis lifneiam v'eshivun b'cheshech," take that light away from them and leave them in the dark. So when a solar eclipse happens, God put a sun in the sky that's supposed to be lighting up the entire world. He takes it away because He's angry at us. That's that first Parashat in the Gemara. So if the sun suddenly gets blotted out in the middle of the day, that is a bad sign. That's a siman ra lechol olam kulam, chas v'shalom. The next one is the Baraita Rabbi Meir ame. He says, "Kol zman shemes leichen," whenever you see a solar or lunar eclipse, regardless of the kind of eclipse, "Siman ra l'shem Yisrael." This is a bad sign for the Jewish people specifically, that we're the only ones who need to notice eclipses. And whether it's solar or whether it's lunar, it's a bad day for the Yidden. "L'nei sheh em unladim b'machaseihem," because we are used to getting smacked around. We usually get smacked. We see something in the sky go, go wrong, we assume we're next. Mashal. There's a mashal for this one too. "L'sevis chaval l'bes ha'sefer tzu di

01:59 yaldim." A teacher comes to school, and he has a whip in his hand. "Mi dayag?" Who starts freaking out? "Mi shirug al kulam kais v'chol yom amuday." The guy who gets hit every day starts freaking out. The bad kid, the kid who's always getting in trouble, starts freaking out. So we see God come out with His whip and blot out the sun. We go, "We are in trouble. He's coming for us next." Second one is a bad sign for the Yidden. Now, the third one seems to be the psak mekubal insofar as you can have a psak hagazit, which is, "Tanna Rabbanan bizman shechamaleika," when the sun is smacked down, that's when there's a solar eclipse. "Siman ra legoyim." When there's a solar eclipse, that's a bad sign for the nations of the world. "Levanaleika," when there's a lunar eclipse, that's when the moon gets blocked out. "Siman ra l'shem Yisrael." That's a bad sign for the Jewish people. "V'nei Yisrael min levanah v'goyim lecham," because Yidden count their calendars according to the moon, so we are associated with the moon. And therefore, when the moon gets blotted out, that's a bad day for us. And "goyim lecham," and non-Jews, they count their calendars according to the sun, so when the sun gets blotted out, it's a bad day for them. But then there is one important point down here at the bottom of the Gemara, which is, "Bizman sheYisrael--" Oh, every time I double-click, it doesn't highlight. There we go. "Bizman sheYisrael asin et

03:00 nitzanot shlomo kam ein misah mikaleilu." If the Yidden do what Hashem wants them to do, they don't have to worry about any of these things. A Yid who's keeping Torah and mitzvahs will not have to worry about the eclipses. Now, with that in mind, I wanna show you this letter. This letter is Hey Taf Kuf Ayin Tes from the year Tav Shin Yod Zayen. Uh, and the Rebbe writes, "Shalom u-bracha. Lafzeh lach lehefsek aruch nisgav michtav mechaf Zayen sivun avei sheh lase." This is, as far as I know, the only letter from the Rebbe in published Igris that mention eclipses by name. Everything else that we're gonna look at today is about mazales, and there's an English letter that discusses eclipses. But this is, as far as I know, the only one in Igris that is explicitly eclipse-oriented. This person asks the Rebbe, "Alef. Im mevarach hamaliki levanaleika chamad?" Do you make a bracha when you see a lunar or solar eclipse? Halacha l'maaseh. People are going to be looking up in the sky and seeing an eclipse in a few hours. Do they make a bracha on it or not? The Rebbe says, "Yeduah klalah sheein lechadesh bracha sh'lo hiye skur b'Shas." There's a general rule that's well-known that we do not make up new brachas that are not mentioned in Shas. This is the Beit Yosef, Sanhedrin, Chaim siman mem vav, that we don't make up new brachas. "V'ish lemeyratam de'im mevarach hamalzeh," so, uh, that, that's the Rebbe's answer. The Rebbe's answer

03:59 is we don't make up new brachas. There is no established bracha that you make on an eclipse, and therefore, we don't say one. Now, the Rebbe's gonna give a reason. "V'ish lemeyratam," let's say maybe the reason is, "De'im mevarach hamalzeh," the reason why we don't make a bracha on this, "Mneishu siman l'pranas haba," because it's a bad sign of things that are going to come, as is indicated from Sukkah Chaf Tes that we just read together. It's a bad sign. According to everybody, it's a bad sign. One opinion is it's bad for the whole world. The other one, it's only bad for the Yidden. And the other one, it's bad for the Goyim or the Yidden, depending on what kind of eclipse. But everybody agrees it's a sign that something bad is about to happen. You don't make brachas when something bad is about to happen, when you see that. "V'ad rabba," to the contrary, says the Rebbe. "Tzricha tefila levatalah, uh, v'tsaka v'lo bracha." This says that the eclipse, the Rebbe says, ad rabba is a time for tefila, for prayer, to get rid of any negative decrees, and tsaka, and to cry out to God for, uh, in teshuvah, for mercy, v'lo bracha, and not to make a bracha. So a-an eclipse, the Rebbe says, is not a time for blessing God. What it is a time for is it's a time for davening. It's a time for doing teshuvah. It's a time for crying out to God and asking that any negative

04:54 decrees be averted. This is the Rebbe's, uh-- It's, it's a small line in one letter, but this is, as far as I can tell, the only straight answer we have from the Rebbe on what to do when you see an eclipse in the sky. And the Rebbe's answer is it's a time for teshuvah. Uh, solar eclipse is a day for tachnun. It's a, it's a day for tachnun. Uh, beis. The second one is interesting because as we're about to see, the Rebbe has a sicha where he gives a different answer than what he gives here. This person asks, "Im yeduah chazal et iz dinin likol manal im zeh im yin tvayi." Now, if you look back at this Gemara, it sounds like Chazal think that solar and lunar eclipses are entirely unpredictable phenomena, and when God puts one in the sky, that's a sign for me that something bad is going to happen to me or to the Goyim, chas v'shalom. However- Uh, we know that that's not the case. A lunar cl-eclipse and a solar eclipse, they're predictable. They're predictable. NASA can now predict them out to like a thousand years. And even in the ancient world, they knew how to predict them. So, uh, the writer writes to the Rebbe saying, "Is it true that people always knew how to predict eclipses? Did, uh, did Chazal know that eclipses were predictable when they wrote in the Gemara that eclipses were signs of bad things happening? Did they-- were they superstitious? Did they think

05:52 we can't explain this, so it's a superstition? But now, if they knew that we could calculate it, would they not think that anymore?" That was the question that he asked the Rebbe, and the Rebbe answers, "ליכא מאריס מובא בקמ"ק דברי חז"ל," The idea of an eclipse is brought in many places in דברי חז"ל, "ופליג גם בספק בזאת." So I'm shocked that you would even have a doubt that we were able to calculate this. Why? "כי ידוע שאפילו חכמי מצרים ולתנאי שבבל קדמוה חלוכה סלוקין אמורים, וידוע... אמורים." There should probably be a period there. Uh, and it's well known that even the חכמי מצרים, even the scholars of Egypt and even the scholars of Babylon, they already had tablets that were set aside that told them how to figure out when eclipses were going to happen. He's probably referring to the Saros tablets. There's a group of tablets called the Saros tablets that record a lunar and solar cycle that's in Acadian and ancient Babylonian tablets. So the Rebbe says, "Look, the ancient world was well aware that you could predict eclipses." "ידוע בספרי דברי הימים, מובא להבדיל גם בקדשי הקודש." There's also להבדיל brought in holy writings, "שגם ביד חכמי מצרים וחכמי בבל." We know that we were in touch with the wise men of Babel, the wise men of Mitzrayim. We certainly were aware of this. There, there's no way we weren't aware of how to predict eclipses. I'll add that the Rebbe has a sicha on this where he expands this a little

06:53 bit further, mentions a Meiri in Masechet Shabbos that says that a rav needs to be capable of predicting eclipses and when they're going to happen in the future, suggesting that this was something we always knew how to do. There, there's a lot of sources to strength that the Rambam says in Kidush HaChodesh that we used to have a book that was written by the, uh, Shevet Yitzchak about how to calculate eclipses. We used to know how to do this, definitely, and the ancient world knew how to do this too. So the Rebbe says, "First of all, I don't understand your ספק. Obviously, the rabbis always knew that eclipses were predictable." "מעריכא סלוקא סא אמורים," based on these tablets that exist in the ancient world, "מובא בשתי פה אמורה, הינין טבעי." We know that everybody agrees that this is a natural thing. Eclipses happen naturally. "אבל ביחד עם זה," but along with that, "דאיש בזאה גם סימן." It also is a sign. "ומדוגמא עניין הקשת." Like a rainbow. "שכמו הינין טבעי אתא." The rainbow, rainbow is something that is, uh, natural. We know the natural process of making a rainbow. "ביחד עם זה משמש אריס." Nonetheless, a rainbow is a sign. "כך כתוב בארוכה, ואין בזאת סתירה." As is written about-- as has been written about at length, and there is no particular סתירה here. There's no contradiction. Now, just before the Rebbe answers this, let's make sure we're clear on what the contradiction is. The, the problem that's been-- that the Rebbe says is no

07:53 problem, but the problem that people have proposed as a problem is you can't tell me that, uh, the eclip-- that eclipses pop up into the sky whenever God is angry at us or whenever God wants to destroy the world or whenever something negative is about to happen, when I can predict when those moments are going to be for thousands of years in the future. Either, uh, we have no free will and God has decided He's gonna be angry at us at those moments or, uh, or something else. But there, there's no-- it seems to be a סתירה between knowing what's going to happen, kn-knowing that we're going to have eclipses in the future, and the idea that we can predict, uh, and then the idea that those e-eclipses are tied to our behavior. That would appear to be a סתירה. The Rebbe says, "אין זה סתירה." That's not a contradiction at all. Why? "שאני מדבר אמורים." Well, when does an eclipse mean that something negative is going to happen, it's a bad sign for the world? "אשרי לוקה חכמי לי קדמוני ישלמה פירוש חכמי באזל." When would the-- when would a eclipse be a bad sign? "מכשני רעים לקוים בארץ." Only once you can see the eclipse from the ground. "וניראים לזה הידוע דרך פירוש של ליקום." Uh, when we say ליקום, when we say eclipse, that means an eclipse that I can see. "מה שאין כן אם ימיט קסקו השמיים בן אדם בקץ בזאת." But if it is a cloudy day, and I'm actually

08:50 hearing a rumor that it might be a cloudy day in this area, we not-- we, we might not be able to see the eclipse. "הרי אין בז-- אין זה עניין של סימן והרה על אדם שרה על אדמה." It's not a sign for us at all. We live on the ground, and therefore, only things we can see are signs for us. So something's a sign for me if I can see it. It's not a sign for me if I can't see it. Or it happens to be that in the sky, the sun and the moon and the Earth happen to be aligned at this moment. If I don't see it, it's not a סימן for me. It's not a sign for me. "אדרבה, גם בזה נקשת." This also applies to a rainbow, that if there's a rainbow in the sky and nobody can see it, this isn't a sign that God was thinking about destroying the world, as is explained in the Mafasheh Terrorist. The Rebbe's answer here is that, uh, an eclipse is going to happen every couple of years in different places around the world according to the math that is very easy to add up. That's Pasher, is that eclipses happen regardless of our behavior. But it is entirely up to God whether we see the eclipse happening, and if we see the eclipse happening, that's a sign that something, חס ושלום, is negative, is going to happen. And if we don't see something-- if we don't see it, then that is no

09:43 sign for us at all. The reason why-- we're not gonna read the rest of this letter 'cause it's about other things. Uh, the reason why this is a really strange point, especially for people who have learned the Rebbe's sicha on eclipses, is that the Rebbe not only, uh, doesn't use this answer in his sicha, he has a, uh, he has a, uh, refutation of it. He raises this possibility and refutes it. I wanna show you that real quick. The Rebbe has a sicha on eclipses, essentially, uh, essentially a whole sicha on eclipses. Uh, it's in volume fifteen of Likutei Sichos. It's the second sicha for Breishes. Um, sorry, somebody sent a message. Um, it's the second sicha in Breishes, and, uh, in there, the Rebbe proposes this idea in the name of the Shlah. He says, "The Shlah, the Shlah said this," that the reason why we can, uh, the reason why we are able to predict eclipses and nonetheless eclipses are a siman for one thing or another is because you don't always see them. And I have this on the screen right now. In this sicha, the Rebbe says that, uh, an answer given by the Shlah is that, uh, "אם תזן אם תליכה." You have to be able to see the eclipse in order for it to count. And then the Rebbe gives, like, five reasons why that doesn't make much sense. So whereas the Rebbe uses this answer in his letter, he's not happy with it in the sicha. He says

10:46 that first of all, that would mean that in certain parts of the world where it's cloudy, like in Mitzrayim-- where, I'm sorry, where it doesn't get a lot of rain, in, like in Mitzrayim, they would never have that, that you would never be able to control whether you see an eclipse or not. There are certain parts of the world where you have, like, no rainfall. So to tell me that God rolls in clouds, uh, naturally every time He doesn't want us to see an eclipse because He's not angry with us wouldn't make much sense in a part of the world where it doesn't rain very often. The Rebbe also adds down here from Lashon Hazal, Kishmeires Lake, and the Lashon Hazal is that the solar-- is that the moon and the sun get struck. That would imply that it actually is them getting blocked out, not a question of whether or not I see it. And then the Rebbe goes on and says that the difference between the sun being blocked out and the moon being blocked out is whether it's a bad sign for the Yidden or the Goyim. That wouldn't seem to be based on what I can see, though. It would seem to be based on the alignment of the stars and the planets. So the Rebbe likes this answer, that, uh, a cloudy day answers our question, um, in the letter, but he doesn't seem to like it in the sicha. And, uh, as to why the Rebbe said this in

11:40 the letter and the sicha explains that it's not such a good answer, I don't know. But, uh, just pointing that out. In any event, the conclusion the Rebbe does give in his Sicha, since the Rebbe doesn't like this cloudy day answer, I have on your screen right now. And the answer the Rebbe gives in the Sicha for what I'm supposed to think when I see an eclipse is that if I see an eclipse, it is always a sign, uh, once, once the eclipse appears, whether I see it or not, l'chera, because he rejected that sh'la in the Sicha. Whether I see an eclipse or not, the advent of an eclipse means that it's a time of natia in a certain direction. Mazel is governed by zaia natia t'gviseh nanhag ohemaisim. This is a natia, a predilection, that when I see an eclipse, uh, when I see a solar eclipse, that means that this is a time where the n- the, uh, non-Jews are going to have a strong yetzer hara to do aveiras, and therefore might get punished. And when we see a lunar eclipse, that's a time when the Yidden have a strong yetzer hara to do aveiras, and therefore might get punished. And the reason why a Yid doesn't have to worry about an eclipse is The reason why a Yid who's doing mitzvahs and following what Hashem wants doesn't have to worry about eclipses is because an eclipse is a sign not that something bad is going to happen, but a sign

12:40 that I'm going to have a yetzer hara to do something bad. And if I don't listen to my yetzer hara and I don't do anything bad, I'll be fine. And, uh, since I am supernatural by dint of having a supernatural soul, since I have a nefesh elokis, since Yidden have a neshamah that transcends the natural world, even when the natural world declares that you should have a yetzer hara for something, a Yid doesn't need to worry because a Yid can always, uh, can always transcend that and do the will of God even when they have a strong yetzer hara. Now, the Rebbe points out in the Sicha that a non-Jew can do that too. The proof that non-Jews have free will is that they have seven mitzvahs, and we can't say that their seven mitzvahs are not objects of their free will. At the same time, they only have like seven degrees of freedom around their free will. Their free will exists across seven mitzvahs, which means most of the time they're living natural lives, in which case, when the sun-- when there's a solar eclipse, there's a very small chance of them not giving into their yetzer haras. Whereas when it comes to a lunar eclipse, when a Jew sees a lunar eclipse and gets nervous, "Oh, I'm gonna have a big yetzer hara today, I might give into it," we don't have to worry at all because that m-- because, uh, because we have control over our yetzer hara. So that's how the

13:34 Rebbe concludes that Sicha on eclipses. The Rebbe then expands this to all forms of astrology, the entire idea of ein mazal l'Yisrael, and says that the entire idea of us not being subject to the paths of the stars, of not having to worry about astrology and not having to worry about our horoscopes, is because they just indicate a natia. They indicate a, uh, a predilection, a direction. So if I discover that I was born under, I don't know, Mars, and that means that I'm going to be an angry person, I don't need to worry about that because I can always choose to not be an angry person. And in fact, it might be a little bit helpful to be aware that I have that yetzer hara because then I can counteract it. That's the way that Sicha goes. The reason why I'm telling you all of this is because leaving that Sicha, and, uh, maybe-- I, I think a lot of us in the days leading up to this eclipse probably looked at this Sicha in one form or another. Leaving, leaving that Sicha, I would have been under the impression that there is some value to me knowing my horoscope, that there's some value to knowing what star I was born under. Not because it determines my future, but because it's good to know my yetzer hara, right? So if I could discover that from the moment I was born, God decided that I was going to be somebody with taivas to be angry,

14:30 it might be a good idea to be aware of that so that I could go and counteract the anger, right? And it might be a good idea to know when there's an eclipse, so I can be aware that that's going to be a big yetzer hara day, so that I can really, uh, shut down the yetzer hara. Maybe spend that whole day in the Beit Midrash learning so that nothing bad happens. I mean, may- maybe it would make sense to know these things ahead of time. In response to that, we have a lot of letters from the Rebbe where he says that is not his shiur at all. The Rebbe's shiur is not that it makes sense to know what's going on in the stars in order to manage your yetzer hara. We have letters from the Rebbe saying again and again, ein mazal l'Yisrael means ein mazal l'Yisrael, don't look at the sky. Don't worry about eclipses. Don't worry about your horoscope. Don't think about horoscopes. Don't be involved in astrology. We have the Rebbe pushing this in many, many letters. That's what I wanna look at with our remaining time. So this letter is Vav Tav Shin Tes. It's from Dalet Adar Rishon of Tav Shin Yud Tes. And here the Rebbe says, uh, probably February ninth, I think. I'm responding to your letter from that day where you asked me about your mazel. And the Rebbe says somewhat harsh words. It says in the Torah to be, to be, uh, to be

15:26 simple, pure, uh, uh... What's a good-- Tamim is simple and pure. To be straightforward with God, your God. So we have no-- there, there's no inyan to be looking into your mazel, to be looking into asides, trying to figure out the future, horoscopes, astrology. We don't do that. We go with, uh, with trust in the path of the king, the king of the entire world. This is the way of the Torah and mitzvot. That means that what we do is we don't look at the stars. We live our lives according to Shulchan Aruch, and we don't worry about anything else. We keep Jewish law, and that's enough. Once we do that, we are guaranteed that ein mazal l'Yisrael, that there will be no star that's able to control the Jewish people. No, uh, no, uh, celestial advent, no eclipse is able to control the Jewish people. And therefore, God Himself will keep the rules that He laid out in His Torah, that if you follow in my paths, I will give you rain in its proper time, and all of the other berakots that are in the Parshah. So if you wanna know how to make your life good, you don't have to look in the sky to predict whether you're gonna have a good day or a bad day. You can decide whether you have a good day or a bad day. Keep Shulchan Aruch, you're going to have a good day. Don't keep Shulchan Aruch, you're gonna have a bad day, and it's

16:34 very simple. We, we, we act according to Jewish law, and we trust Hashem to fulfill His end of the deal, that if we, we keep our-- we, we keep His rules, He will give us a good day. There's a letter in English that's from Nissan Mendel's files that has been released relatively recently. This was on the third of Nissan of twa-- that's Chaf Zayin. So that would be what? Uh, '67? Yes, 1967. T- in Chicago, Illinois. And the Rebbe writes, "Blessing and greeting." I received your letter where you asked about the Jewish attitu-attitude toward-- to horoscopes, et cetera. Generally, astrology and the like play no part in Jewish life. There's the-- There's your answer. Generally, astrology and the like play no part in Jewish life. I might have thought from the Sikha that it does play a part in Jewish life. It makes sense to know what a natia is. The Rebbe says in many letters, "No, I don't care about my natias." As is also written in the holy scriptures, "Of the signs of heaven, you shall have no fear." That's in Jeremiah. Yermiyo. On the contrary, we have the commandment, "Thou shalt be wholehearted with God, your God." There's a good translation of Tamim. That was the line we were trying to translate earlier, which is also quoted in Shulchan Aruch Yoreh De'ah one seventy-nine. This means that the Jew has to have a complete and wholehearted faith in God and in His benevolent providence, which extends to each and every one individually.

17:36 As for taking interest in horoscopes, et cetera, purely as a curiosity and the likes, on one hand, the Rebbe's answered, you definitely can't rely on a horoscope. What if it's your hobby? What if you just wanna have fun? Figure out-- You know, read the-- flip to the back-- Do people have newspapers anymore? Flip to the back page of the newspaper where it says the horoscopes. What if I just wanna do it for fun or for curiosity and the like, as you mentioned? The Rebbe says here, "This would amount to a waste of interest which should be channeled in a more productive way." No, you're not allowed to have fun. This is a waste of your time. Four, it is explained in Chassidus that God has not given man an excess of capabilities. We don't have any extra energy or ability, nor a deficiency of it, and we also aren't missing anything we need. In other words, every person and every-- and especially a Jew, has been a certain amount, uh, has been a certain amount of capacities and powers of concentration, et cetera, all of which must be utilized in the fulfillment of his purpose in life on this earth, namely to live in accordance with the Torah and mitzvahs and to disseminate justice and righteousness, et cetera. So the Rebbe is saying here, if you're going to tell me you're interested in horoscopes as a hobby, you have exactly as much energy as you need to be successful in this world, not a mote

18:28 more. And if you waste it on something else, you're wasting what should be channeled toward Torah and mitzvahs. It follows from the above that if a person should divert any of his capacities, thoughts, and concentration on a useless thing, even if it be harmless, it is nevertheless harmful in the sense that he would thereby create a deficiency in the area which is important and necessary for him. This is a cloud goggle. I mean, we can really pull a lot out of this. What the Rebbe's saying here is that anything useless is-- anything useless and harmless is also harmful, uh, by definition, because it creates a deficiency in the area that I sh-- it creates, it creates a deficiency in my koach, in my, uh, strength, in my abilities, time that could be better spent elsewhere. Yeah, apparently, a woman had written this to the Rebbe, and the Rebbe says it's particularly important for women to stay away from astrology. Um, as above is even more important in the case of a Jewish woman and a housewife who is called a keddas ibayis, the foundation and essential factor of a Jewish home. Since the entire conduct of the home largely depends on her, it is her great responsibility as well as privilege to make the home a sanctuary and abode for God's presence. It's certainly unnecessary to enlarge upon this to you. I also never know how to translate that phrase, so I'm glad that Nissim Mendel didn't either. In any event, with you know what

19:29 I'm talking about. The l-the, the, the, um, di-dilamise or something. The Rebbe used a phrase in Hebrew that just doesn't translate well into English. Anyway, with blessing, the Rebbe's signature. So again, here, the Rebbe is saying there is no value to a horoscope. It is a, it is a useless and harmless thing which automatically becomes harmful once you waste your time on it. We have a letter vav shin chaf daled from the year-- from chaf alef seven of tuf shin yud Ches. Here, somebody wrote to the Rebbe saying, "B'kesf shel fi datei nematzlich mischadol k'deshen im echtev ez ei same'es bli mazal." A person says he's not being successful in his work, he's having trouble in business, and he wrote in this letter to the Rebbe, he seems to have no luck. He has bad luck. Bli mazal. He has no luck. "Heni yadu am haMedazal." The Rebbe jumps on that phrasing, says, "You should know what Chazal say." "Ein mazal liYisrael." That there is no mazal for the Jewish people. We don't have luck, and we certainly don't have stars. "Ki kadosh Baruch Hu baolam man higuie hu hamashgiach al kol tachas v'rachas miYisrael." Hashem, who is the creator of the world and the one who conducts it, is the mashgiach, who watches over every single Jewish person. "Tachumutz tach leh avnei beiseh," for everything that he needs and for everything that his children need and every member of his house-- all the members of his house. "Umezam muven sh'alav lahesiv b'inyanei Torah mitzvah."

20:30 So he should understand that if he wants better luck in business, there's no such thing as luck. It's a simple one-to-one relationship between him and the supplier of all the luck, of all the goodness, God. So what he needs to do is increase in his Torah and mitzvahs, very much like what the Rebbe said in the letter two letters ago, where he said, "You keep Shulchan Aruch, you get good days." It's not about astrology. "Kein sh'chov avnei beiseh yasakin." Also, all of your family members should do this as well, increase in their Torah and mitzvahs, and they'll get good things. "Shai dei zeh yitesev b'racha Hashem yisborach mitz tach bachol inyanei b'nanu prats and prat." They will have success in all things that he needs, specifically when it comes to inyanei parnasa. So the Rebbe here once again telling somebody that, uh, predicting the future is ridiculous for a Jew. What makes a lot more sense is understanding that God runs the world, and if you do what God says, you're going to get what you want. One more letter I wanna show you, or maybe one or two more letters. It's okay. This letter is vav kuf tzadik beis. It's from chaf daled nissim of tuf shin yud Ches. And, uh, we're gonna scroll down the letter. "Ad erev zeh gam ma sh'keise." Based on what you wrote, "Ki nirash zeh mazli v'geirali." This person wrote that he has a, uh, that he has a certain lot in life. It's his mazal, it's his

21:28 geiral. He was complaining about his situation. The Rebbe says, and this is a Hasid talking, so the Rebbe is, is a little harsher with him. "Ashar lepelah gadol al anash b'chalal v'yechid al hatemimim leharbes devarim keil ukeistam." The Rebbe says, "I'm shocked that anash in general, and especially temimim, could write so many times in their letter, uh, 'mazli v'geirali,' as if, as if things are out of your control." My luck, my mazal. "Ba b'shashah bar peru sh'chazal as a de-- b-b-b'sinos de sh'chazal." When it is well understood what our rabbis said about the Drash of Chazal, "Ein mazli Yisrael," that we are not controlled at all by the stars. "Ein mazli Yisrael," I keep on saying, but I realize I haven't translated it even once, so just real quickly. That means there is no constellation for the Jewish people. There is no luck for the Jewish people. We are not reliant on the stars. There's a constellation for every nation, but not for us. "V'nigela mazal k'pshutei." When it comes to luck itself, uh, ayin k'pshutei. This means-- ein k'pshutei, excuse me. Ein k'pshutei. It is not there. "She'eino b'mitzius." There is no mazal for us. We have no constellation. We have no astrological sign. It's not that we don't need to worry about it, it's that it literally doesn't exist for us. "She'eino b'mitzius." It's not there. "V'nigela mazal hamiti." And when it comes to our actual mazal, "haperish ein mazli Yisrael," if you really want to know what it means, "ein mazli Yisrael,"

22:33 to understand how our mazal is really work, take a look in the Zohar on the line, "Hayishba it eitz im ayin." He says, "Look in the Zohar, 'Hayishba it eitz im ayin,' where the spy-- where Moshe tells the spies, 'When you go into Israel, find out whether there are trees in the land or not.'" And if you look there, the Rebbe says in the Zohar, you'll understand on a deeper level what it means that we don't have any constellations associated with us, that we don't need to worry about what we see in the sky. Now, uh, I was curious, so I went looking, uh, and I put that line into Safaria under Zohar to see where it comes up. I found a few candidates. I'm almost certain it's this one. This is Zohar in Shlach six thirty-six. And, uh, the Zohar asks a really fundamental question in understanding the Chumash. Moshe Rabbeinu sends the spies out to check out Eretz Yisrael, and he says to them, "Hayish ba'etz im ayin." Let me know whether there are trees in there. Now, Moshe knew there were gonna be trees there. We, we had a guarantee. It was an eretz zavat chalav udvash. We didn't know what kind of trees there would be there. We didn't know what kind of fruit, but asking them, "Let me know whether there are trees," is kind of a silly thing to ask. So the Zohar jumps on this and says, "Amaleh, amaleh." Here's what Moshe was really telling them. "It tachmunu

23:29 de'iv ha'aretz keshara de'ama." I want you to tell me whether the fruits that grow there are natural or enormous-sized. Interesting. "Yeish ba'etz dilan de-chaya?" Is there trees from the tree of life? "Ve'lo me'asiya almiya d'ata," not from a higher world. That is, if you find normal fruits and normal trees there, that would mean that Eretz Yisrael is nurtured by a Sefirah. I think the way that a lot of commentaries understand this is something like zah. It's, uh, nurtured by a part of the world, by a part of the-- by, by, by piece of ruchniyus. There's the same piece of ruchniyus that nurtures everything in the world. Let me know if Eretz Yisrael keeps the same supernatural rules as everywhere else in the world. "Bi tachmunu de'iv ha'aretz yatu mishnayim ve'kol asah de'ama," but if you will go there, says the Zohar, if you'll go there, as Moshe's telling the, uh, the Yin, if you go there and you see that their fruits are weird, they have giant grapes like what they carried back, tindu, and then you should know. "Da matikah kadisha kanagid," that then-- that, that, that land is nurtured by atikah kadisha, by pnimiyus Keter. That the innermost part of Keter is what is nurturing that land. "Bis meshach ushinu el ha'ala, ila bechalasa de'ama." And that-- and that effect is felt throughout that entire piece of the land. And this is what it means. "Hayish ba'etz im yayin hayesh Hashem be'kirbeinu im ayin." That when the hayesh, hayesh means if something's in

24:34 our midst, means the kirbei neidcha, "oyim ayin, ama al dai, chas keneh lo lakachta ampireh ha'aretz hamit de'shnoyot dilay." Notice whether there are bigger trees over there with bigger fruits, because if you notice bigger fruits over there, you will be able to, uh-- you will understand that the land of Israel is nurtured by atik and not nurtured by the same thing that nurtures the rest of the world. So I think the Rebbe's pointing us to this Zohar to tell us something you might have heard before, but never, uh, seen inside, which is that Ein Maazel Yisrael has a second interpretation, which is not just that there is no constellation following the Jewish people, but that b'chenas ayin, which is the highest level of godliness, atik in the case of the Zohar, is what is guiding the Jewish people, not some lowly star, but ayin itself. If you wanna see this brought in very simple Ishayis, we'll look at our final letter, which is Beis Tav Kuf Nun Tes. It's Alef Nissan of Tav Shin Yud Daled. here the Rebbe writes to-- we probably know who he is. Schneur Zalman Duchman. Schneur Zalman Duchman. He writes to him, "Shalom Uvracha. You're writing to me that you just got a new house. It should be God's will that changing the location you are should change your mazel for good." Now, we actually did a whole Shiur a long time ago just on all the times the Rebbe says this regarding people moving into new houses. But the

25:41 Rebbe here adds a line. He says the expression is that when a person moves, their luck should change for good and for blessing. And here the Rebbe writes, even our mazel which is called Ayin. And, and there what the Rebbe is saying is that even our mazel, which is called Ayin, should change for good and for bracha. And that is a direct hint back to what we were talking about here. which is that the very highest levels of godliness are what control our-- what control us or what determine what's going to happen for us and what give us brachos, not things associated with eclipses. Anyway, because we should finish off with brachos, let's read the rest of the brachos. uh, from this house, you should extend out and all in your entire surrounding in the physic-- in physicality, and also in your surroundings in ruchnius. to because you do this, then spread light and warmth and chayis and gashmius and ruchnius throughout your home. Uh for you and your children and your children's children that they should live long, and he gives a bracha . Okay. That's it