למה לשנן משניות בעל פה?

00:00 Speaker 1 This is Igres, and today we are looking at a letter from a really long time ago. Anybody wanna do the math for me? This letter is from Tuv Shin Daled. Oh, it's a Daled. That makes things easy 'cause we're in a Daled right now. So what do we have to-- We have to pay Daled. This is, uh-- Is this letter from ninety years ago? Not a hundred years, right? Is it a hundred? Eighty years. Uh, how many? Eighty. Eighty years ago. Eighty years ago. 1944. Right, 1944. So this is an old letter. This is a letter from eighty years ago. It's written to Rabbi Greenglass, who was the, uh, who was mashpia and the teacher of some people who are, are-- who are live on our chat today over in Montreal in Canada, the, uh, the famous Rabbi Nachum Zev Greenglass. Uh, he wrote a very short letter to the Rebbe, and the only thing you really need to know about the background here is that we are continuing something of a three-part series, although it's a loosely s-woven three-part series. Yesterday, we talked about the importance of learning things ba-pe, knowing things by heart, and, uh, memorizing them and then saying them while we're walking in the street. And we noticed that the Rebbe consistently says that there are three things that he wants you to know by heart, three things to learn ba-pe. He always says, "Tanya ba-pe," some perakim of Tanya, some perakim of Mishnayot, and the Maimar ve-hadart panei zaken, which

01:04 Speaker 1 is in this week's Likkutei Toras. That was our-- that was our news peg, if you will, that since this week is-- since, since this week's Likkutei Torah has one of the Maimar that you're supposed to learn ba-pe, which is all about knowing things ba-pe. That's what the whole Maimar is about, the importance of knowing things by heart and how it makes your entire body a piece of Torah and therefore a piece of God, uh, and how it makes your whole life godly. We, we studied all that yesterday, and we learned about the importance of knowing things by heart. Uh, today we're doing a deep dive into Mishnayot specifically. In almost all of the letters that we saw, the Rebbe suggested learning Mishnayot ba-pe in addition to other things ba-pe, but very specifically Mishnayot. That's the strongest tradition by far. We're going to see tomorrow a whole bunch of things about the importance of learning Tanya ba-pe, but definitely the, uh, the big-- the big s-- the big story is Mishnayot ba-pe. And, uh, that has a bit of a historical connection. Uh, the Freydiker Rebbe right in the middle of World War II, created as part of a-- one of the snifim of Machane Israel, created a organization called Chevres Mishnayos Ba-Pe, and everybody met in seven seventy, and there was a-- there was a lottery system. I believe everybody was assigned something like fifty Mishnayos, uh, based on who signed up for the lottery. The Freydiker Rebbe also signed up for the lottery, and

02:06 Speaker 1 everybody was randomly given-- uh, nothing's random in this world, but you know, lottery-style random, given fifty Mishnayos to learn ba-pe over the course of the year. And that way, that entire group together in one year finished the entire Mishnayos and also had a good deal of Mishnayos ba-pe. And the idea was that they would walk around in the streets, and they would purify the air, and they would say Mishnayos by heart. You're probably familiar with more than one chayyimim that talks about the importance of knowing Mishnayos by heart, but this is the magnum opus, what you have in front of you. This letter is letter labeled kuf lamed beis. It's from yud chet of tuv shin daled. The Rebbe writes it before the Nasiyas, and it's one of the Rebbe's super long letters. In the early years, uh, prior to the Nasiyas, people would write the Rebbe these really simple questions, and the Rebbe, instead of writing a letter back, would really write them a-- would write them a keitz back. He would write an essay, or he would write a, uh, write a pamphlet back in response to simple questions from Hasidim, where he would really explore a topic. Uh, we've actually seen part of this letter before. You'll recognize it when you see it. But we're going to do the whole letter today. That's the dream. It's a ten-page letter. How am I gonna do a ten-page letter today? I have highlighted the parts I wanna read inside and everything else we're gonna

03:03 Speaker 1 summarize. So that's our goal is to try to get through a single ten-page letter today. This letter has so much in it, and really, if it doesn't give you a cheshak for Mishnayos ba-pe, then nothing will. This is the-- this is the letter of why we do this. Anyway, uh, Rabbi Greenglass wrote to the Rebbe, bevakasha levare, please explain. gam al pi Nigla, also according to Nigla, not just Hasidus. ha'inyan de chazaras Mishnayos ba-pe. Explain the whole idea of chazaras Mishnayos ba-pe, uh, why we-- why we review Mishnayos by heart. And the Rebbe does not say, "Challenge accepted," but ten pages here do evidence, "Challenge accepted." So the Rebbe says, tevah. Here's my answer. First of all, main ha'al shel izu. In answering this question, kedei le-- oida pam. Al gedei le chazaras Mishnayos ba-pe ve'fenah. Along the way of answering this question, I wanna emphasize the importance of learning Mishnayos ba-pe and how exactly it should be done. Hi nei matik baze. So therefore, I am including here im eizeh esavos, along with some additions. ma shekasavti mikfar le echad mechevre Mishnayos-- mechevre-- Chevres Mishnayos ba-pe asher ei dei Machane Israel. So the Rebbe says, "I wrote this already to some of the members of Chevres Mishnayos ba-pe," this group of people who were, uh, who were participating in the Mishneh lottery. I'm going to send you what I wrote to them, and I'm going to write a whole bunch of additions, and you're going to get sort of the whole picture of why

04:08 Speaker 1 we do Mishnayos ba-pe. And this is what the Rebbe wrote to the Chevres Mishnayos ba-pe that he is now writing to Rabbi Greenglass. al pi amar azal in the Sifrei in Parashat Naso. ei mizrazin el mizrazin. We don't encourage people who are not already encouraged. So the fact is, I know you're encouraged people, so I'm not writing this to encourage you because I don't think you're into it. I'm making you even more into it. bas if gezela chaskir et ha pam. So I would like to mention again to those who are already enthusiastically doing Mishnayos by heart, ader hishtatfusom be chazaras ba-pe shel shishas sidrei Mishnah. Those who are participating in reviewing by heart these shisha-- sh-- the six orders in the Mishnah by splitting it up together, each of them about fifty. bevina asher al idei kol habura yachad yushlam. The idea is that the entire habura together should complete meshech hashana over the course of one year. limud kol shishas sidur-- kol shishas hasidarim be'achdus and be'chol shais ha'panai. That they should learn all these Mish- all these Mishnayos collectively over the course of the year, and then in their free time, they should review these Mishnayos out loud. Belech vezederech ube'rechei. When they're walking down the street. Uh, beShab- beShabbes bechanut ube'misrad. When they're sitting in their store, when they're sitting in their office, like our Igres here. im raku makom shemutar ledbasham divrei Torah. As long as it's a place where you are allowed to say divrei Torah. So if there

05:11 Speaker 1 is any member of our kehillah who is a garbage collector, this might not work for you. But for most people, their offices are places where it is not dirty, so it is mutar to say over words of Torah. chamesh amar kam tradition mer shlita be'eseh dechevre azuv ezet lashonai. As the Freydiker Rebbe said when he established the Chevres Mishnayos ba-pe, and this is his lashon. hashaai meris. The hour de-- the hour demands. az aman mozeh tara zein dam aver. That we are-- that we are obligated to, uh, begin purifying the air. This is the time in the middle of World War II. taras aver is derech eysehas haTorah. The way of taras aver is via, is, is by way of eysehas haTorah. That's how you purify the air, is through the words of Torah. ez is zer noitik. It's very, very chashuv. Az, uh, az, uh, az Yidden zal learn Mishnayos ba-pe. It's very chashuv that Yidden should learn Mishnayos by heart. ven chazenim Mishnayos bechol eis, bechol makom. They should review these Mishnayos in every single time and in every single place. doesnit ken miflaga zah- Noitik means-- but noitik means more necessary. More necessary than ? Okay. Nothing is, yeah, nothing is, is, is necessary. Got it. This is not a-- this is not a, not a sectarian sort of thing. It's not a sort of thing. This is an . It's a general thing. It's to the entire Jewish people, and it is a protection from all sorts of harm. So the

06:29 Speaker 1 speaks very strongly. Actually, the rest of the is also very strong about the importance of Mishnayos Baal Pe. The Rebbe here copies a couple other things the Rebbe-- the said at various, uh, lotteries where they were dividing up the Mishnayos. We're going to go right into the meat of the letter. Uh, I'm now going to explain in brief what the entire union is, and I'm breaking it up into several sections. So the Rebbe sections are, first, he's going to explain what is in the first place. Why would I need to purify the air? I can breathe just fine. What does it mean to have spiritual air around you? And he's going to defend in both Nigla and Chassidus, the idea of there being a quality of air that changes the quality of-- that, that changes the quality of my life. Then he's going to make the claim. He's going to make the claim that words of Torah can purify the air, and he's going to prove that from Nigla and Chassidus. Then he's going to claim that reviewing Torah by heart is specifically the way to do this. And then he's going to explain why specifically Mishnayos. And finally, he's going to explain why specifically now, and I will give a hint to the end that the why specifically now is because we're coming close to the times of Mashiach, which means that everything we're about to read is significantly more relevant now, eighty years later than it was eighty years ago. Anyway, first of

07:29 Speaker 1 all, the Rebbe proves at some length, we're gonna actually skip a lot of this, so I'm gonna summarize a lot of it for you. What it means that there can be air that can be impure spiritually and what it would mean to purify air spiritually. So the Rebbe says, the existence of the body and its connection to the soul There are two things that Hashem, who keeps our body alive, needs in order to keep our body alive. I don't know if Hashem needs it. Our body needs these two things to stay alive. that's blood. This is made from the foods and the drinks that we eat and drink. And second, and the, and the air that we breathe. So it's the blood from our food and the air that we breathe. We have a on the group. Uh, this is the reason why the that we in order to kill something, in order to make something stop being alive, is the esophagus and the trachea, because these are the two tubes, one tube connected to our air and one tube connected to our foods. The two things that keep us alive are the food we eat and the air we breathe. Excuse me. Although it's true that we do need, uh, that we do need both food and we need air, there's a difference between food and air in that food is not needed all the time. I mean, you can snack all the time if you want. Actually, the Rebbe says in this paragraph

08:43 Speaker 1 right here, he quotes some Gemara Masach Yoma that says that we used to snack all the time until Moshe came around and gave us sudas and told us, "Don't be like roosters anymore. You don't have to snack all the time. You eat a couple sudas, and you have a life besides that." But in any event, you certainly don't have to eat all the time to stay alive. The Rebbe says in these middle paragraphs here that a, uh, that a person can live seven days according to the Gemara without food. I believe they can actually live a lot longer. Maybe that's the amount without drinking. In any event, people can live quite a while without eating. Eating is not something they have to do all the time. Even so, even though, even though food is not a constant input into our lives, the Rebbe here explains at length, we have seen this part of the letter before actually, the dangers of eating non-kosher food. And here he quotes the story with Elisha's mother that says in the Gemara that Elisha's mother, uh, ate She ate things that had been offered to idolatry and, uh, and the fact that she ate those things was one of the reasons why Elisha ended up being ended up going off the very sincere, very sincerely. I think off the is probably the wrong word to describe, uh, history's biggest He went, he went off in a real major way, and it was because of the non-kosher food his mother ate

09:39 Speaker 1 while she was pregnant with him. And the Rebbe here points out that there's no way that she actually ate this food because it would So it can't be that she ate these foods when they were not allowed to be eaten. It must be she had a and the was that she had to do it for She had to do it to save her life. Nonetheless, it damaged her horribly. And here the Rebbe explains that the punishment that, uh, that the punishment for eating non-kosher food is that it, uh, is that it ruins the mind and the heart, and that it's not a punishment. It's simply nature. That the nature of these foods are they damage us. And if somebody is, uh, if somebody is halakhically obligated to eat foods that will spiritually damage them, then that's sort of like saying that they're halakhically obligated to get an amputation. Uh, it's the right thing to do to get the amputation in that case, but at the same time, don't tell me it's not going to harm you. So the Rebbe here makes out really ex-expansively over two pages, explains how food influences our temperament, influences us spiritually, whether it's on purpose or not, whether it's or not. If the food is not kosher, it's going to cause damage to us, even if it's to eat such food. That's right. Uh, Rebbe Serili points out in the chat that this relates to Daf twelve in Sota. It does with the, with the milk that Meshulammeinu couldn't drink.

10:45 Speaker 1 Of course, Meshulammeinu is a baby. There would have been a to do it, but it would have, uh, it would have damaged him in a way that would have made him unable to be right? Wouldn't have been able to teach, to teach daya to the Jewish people anymore. In any event, the Rebbe says, now remember, all these things are all about food, and food's very serious, but food also, you don't have to have it all the time. We're going to this box here. If is the case. So this is the case with food. Certainly, you have to worry about the quality of the air, right? Because we're worried so much about the quality of food, making sure that it's so kosher, we don't eat it that often. We are constantly breathing, so the air better be kosher. Both in physicality and spirituality. If you have poison air, you're not gonna live very long. And if you have spiritually poisoned air, it's going to cause even more damage than spiritually poisoned food. Which means what the Rebbe is saying here is that, uh, he's, he's, he's implying that there is something worse than eating non-kosher, and it's breathing non-kosher 'cause you breathe non-kosher every second. So what does it mean to breathe non-kosher? It doesn't mean breathing non-kosher food. It means breathing non-kosher, non-kosher spirituality. A person wants to be healthy and complete in physicality and spirituality. They need to make sure that they have good quality air. There are general principles of this in Chazal

11:51 Speaker 1 already. We actually have somebody on this year right now in Eretz Israel who is wiser than all of us because the land of Israel causes people to become wiser. That's in Baba Kamma-- Baba Basra, excuse me. That one people don't know so well, but that one's also fun. That is 'cause peop-- no, 'cause everybody comes from Eretz Israel and say, "Oh, you look wise." And no one comes from the Tower of Babel and says, "I forgot." Uh, but the thing is, if you go near the Tower of Babel, it says in the Gemara in the Masach Sanhedrin, if you go near Migdal Bavel, uh, since that's where people forgot their languages, if you go there to this day, the air around that place makes a person forgetful. So there are certain areas that actually do change the temperament of a person. The air in Eretz Israel can make a person wise. The air near the Tower of Bavel can make a person forget. And here the Rebbe is demonstrating from Nigla that air has a quality that can influence a person profoundly. When it comes to the effects of air on the body and on a person's health, it says in Bereishit Rabah Avira de taman, the air over there, when a baby is born, they, they cover his head and stuff so that mosquitoes won't be able to bite him. This is a, uh, that says that a student of Rabbi Yossi was once sitting in front of him, uh, and he was studying

12:52 Speaker 1 there. And he-- every time Rabbi Yossi explained this thing to him, he couldn't understand what he was explaining to him. So the Rabbi Yossi said to him, "Why are you having trouble understanding the thing I'm explaining?" And he said back, "I'm away from where I usually live, and in where I usually live, I'm much more comfortable. I like where I live." So Rabbi Yossi said, "You must live in a wonderful place. Where do you live?" And he says, "I come from, uh, Gevas Shamai." He said, "Uh, what's it like in Gevas Shamai? It must be lovely." He said, "Oh, it's the best, but it does have a mosquito problem. When babies are born, we have to take some sort of paste and put it on their heads, so mosquitoes shouldn't bite him." And Rabbi Yossi says, "Wow, this is an incredible bracha that Hashem made people like the worst places in the world 'cause the place you live sounds horrible." In any event, what the Rebbe's proving from here is that the avir desaman, the air in that place, has such a quality that it, that it encourages mosquitoes to bite children's heads. There's also a Zohar that says, uh, that there are creations. Um, actually, what's fun about this Zohar, um-- What's fun about this Zohar is that this Zohar is, uh, right before the part that Rebbe quotes. It's the Zohar that says that the earth is a ball and that every-- and that it moves around in a circle. So, uh, the

13:48 Speaker 1 people ask for rise that, that we hold that the earth, the earth is a sphere and that it moves in a circle. It's actually this, uh, this, this Zohar. The Zohar says that, uh, the entire world, everybody on it spins around in a circle like a ball. People at the bottom of the ball and at the top are both able to spin without seeming upside down. It's a Zohar. And it says everything that Hashem makes, whether they live in different parts of the ball or not, they might look different. And the reason why they look different is because the avir is different. So what we have here is, uh, they look different in the way that they look. because of the in the avir, the different qualities of air in different places give rise to different-looking people. that there is in every single place. Uh, none-- And then the Zohar goes on to say that nonetheless, they all walk on two feet. So it's an appearance thing, not a, not a walking thing. Anyway, there is a possibility the Rebbe allows is you could say that in these two places I'm quoting, avir, which is air, doesn't mean air, it means climate. That the climate by Rabbi Yossi's student was conducive to mosquitoes, and the climate in, uh, in Africa is conducive to darker skin. So you could say that they mean climate. But then the Rebbe says, "I don't think so." It means climates. The Rebbe says, "But in Shas, I have not found

14:56 Speaker 1 up until now any case where avir specifically means climate." So given that avir never seems to mean climate in Shas, when we're quoting Gemaras, or we're quoting Midrash, or we're quoting Zohar, we have to assume that avir means avir. So the Rebbe now says, "I've demonstrated according to Nigla de Torah and Pnimiyut ha-Torah that there is a quality to air, that air is able to influence our temperament, able-- air is able to influence our spirituality and physicality, and that it-- that influence can be even stronger than the influence that food and drink will have on our spirituality." So the Rebbe has now established the importance of Taharat ha-Avir. And i just need to mention here before we go any further that this is all a surprise to me. The reason why this is all a surprise to me is when we talk about Taharat ha-Avir, I thought it meant spiritual avir. Like the spiritual-

15:32 Speaker 2 Right

15:33 Speaker 1 ... the, the spiritual, uh, the spiritual air around us. I, uh, I did not realize that when the Rebbe says Taharat ha-Avir, he means the literal air, the oxygen-

15:41 Speaker 2 Yeah

15:41 Speaker 1 ... the taharah of the oxygen. Um, and this is, this is surprising to me, but the Rebbe here is very literally talking about air. As we're about to see even further, he's gonna really double down on this being literally about being metahir the oxygen-nitrogen combination of our atmosphere and, uh, and, and, and not some spiritual, uh, environment. So, uh, next entry is Taharat ha-Avir al idei es is ha-Torah. Now, we said that we need to purify the air. Should i purify the air using words of Torah or with something else? The Rebbe says over here, uh, he says up here just very quickly, that when you influence the world, you influence it with with thought, speech, and action. That's how you influence the world around you. And then he says, "What's special about dibur?" Speech is special. How does-- How do words travel? So the way thought travels through space is, I don't know, through electrical impulses in the brain, and the way actions travel is through my body. But the way words travel, words need air in order to travel. That's why, that's why in space, they can't hear you scream. If you don't have air, then words can't... That's funny. Words can't travel through space if, uh, if you don't have air. So air is what keeps your words going. Move on. Since, uh, air is the, is the vehicle that carries your words through the air, if you say good words, this will have a positive effect on the air, which is

16:53 Speaker 1 what the words are passing through. Sound waves pass through air. And Hashem, somebody speaks negative talk, that's going to create a negative impact. The sound waves of negativity will create a negative impact on the air that is around those sound waves. The Rambam has already explained in his that the more you talk, the more sins you do. And along that way, he explains as we see explicitly that generally speaking, people say nice things in shul. They don't say such nasty things in shul. He doesn't say they don't say any nas-nasty things in shul. He says most of the time, most of the dibur in shul is positive. Most of the speech in the streets and the marketplace is not positive. What comes out of that is that would mean that if I'm going to fix the air quality that is caused by negative speech, it's going to need to be done in the area that needs it most. So what area needs to be fixed most? Not the shul. The shul gets plenty of positive dibur. Needs to be the street, needs to be the shop. The Rebbe does allow that at times certain shuls, some shuls do-- and some batei midrash, they probably need Taharat ha-Avir and a little bit of fixing of their air too. Generally speaking, the biggest area of concern is outside of the shul and outside of the beit midrash because that's a place where people say negative things all the time. So the air there is constantly tainted by

18:13 Speaker 1 the negativity of people saying negative things. So you need to speak in order to fix that because the only way that you can influence the air around you is to pass more sound waves through it, this case, positive sound waves. When you say, when you say good things, nice things, dibur tov, he's still not saying Torah. Dibur tov, good things, that will create a resham in the avir, that will create an impact on the air, on the air around the good words that you're saying. So this is just, you know, telling somebody, "Hey, have a nice day. Hope you're feeling okay." And, uh, one breath causes another breath. But now the Rebbe says specifically the best way to purify the air is not just to say nice things to each other. give a great shiur today. Somebody's gotta say it. This is by saying the words of Torah. About them it says that Chazal says, brought in Rambam, that the words of Torah cannot accept impurity. They stand pure forever. Because all the words of Torah are like fire The fire-- The same way the To-- The same way that fire cannot become impure, so too the words of Torah cannot become impure. So if you're going to fix this impure air, you want something that can't become impure, and Torah seems to be a good candidate. The Rebbe does mention here a Gemara in Masache Sanhedrin that says that actually, in theory, we should all be teiveling in fire. Uh, the pasuk says that

19:31 Speaker 1 you only teivel in water because you can't teivel in fire. So actually, the best way to be metarah something is with fire, not with water. And since the words of Torah are fire, not only can they not become impure, they also are the best vehicle for purity. The best way to purify something is with fire, and we have fire in our Torah. So we can say words of Torah, and this will give a fiery mikvah-style purification. You know, blowtorch the air around you with words of Torah. My words, not the Rebbe's on that one, but, uh, but, but, but, uh, but evocative, yes? Okay, entry number three. The third point. Chazar es is a Torah baal peh davka. Why specifically the words of Torah, and why specifically baal peh? Here the Rebbe says that in shuls they have books, and so if you wanna learn in shul, all you gotta do is sit down with a sefer and open your mouth and start talking. He says, of course, you should say the words, but at the same time there's a safer. The problem is, ma she'ein b'chutze v'recheves, when you're out there in the streets, al pi red gam b'es ha'mes echav yadei v'ze, and also most of the time in your workplace, uh, I get this has changed really. Nowadays, most people in their workplace, I think, do have sefarim. But at the time, the Rebbe's saying that in the streets, certainly not, and maybe even in the workplace also, generally speaking, you don't

20:26 Speaker 1 have a lot of sefarim at work. Ach shasham davka n'chutza tares hav b'yes, and that these are the places that need tares haver the most. These are the places that really need the purification of the air, and these are places where you don't have sefarim. So how are you supposed to learn Torah and purify the air on the street and in work where you don't have a full collection of your books, unless you have an Eitz HaChayim subscription? Ein ze makom menucha, u'makom svirab, u'makom sfardim, lemadim b'teichech kasav. The Rebbe here says, even if you do have sefarim, it's not a makom menucha, and that certainly is still true. It's just not a relaxed place to learn. You know? You, you try to get some learning done at work, it's not the same as being able to sit in a Beit Midrash or at home. V'chen tzadik li yismenuchah n'etzel kol ech v'ech es is a Torah baal peh. Therefore, everybody needs to have ready some words of Torah that they know by heart. Lach sehar lam to review them. V'chol es v'chol makom sh'mutah d'davasham b'divrei Torah, so that they can say them and review them every place where they are allowed to say over words of Torah. Here the Rebbe has a brief discussion where he says, "I'm not completely sure that we're allowed to say words of Torah by heart." This is probably a question brewing in the backs of some of your minds, that there is a halakha, that you're not

21:20 Speaker 1 allowed to say anything that was written down. Written down Torah, you're not allowed to say baal peh, unless it's something that most people know very, very well. The Rebbe goes back and forth in it a little bit. The part that we need is down here, of Halachot Chabad Chaim, Siman Mem Tes, Pelek. The final din in Shulchan Aruch is, Shehasid leim baal peh im lei shu davar shoga b'ficol, that it is asur to say any words of Torah that people do not know very well if it's written down Torah. V'lachen ki shlomim baal peh devarim sh'b'terech sh'baal peh. Therefore, it would make most sense to learn terech sh'baal peh while you're walking. Eim zeh pikvach l'chol ha'deus, everybody would agree that that's mutar. So here what the Rebbe is saying is two points. Point number one, we need to know things by heart because a lot of times it's not easy to just open up a book and walk down, you know, Fifth Avenue with, uh, with your face in a book. You'll bump into somebody, or it's just not conducive to the menucha, to learning the way that you would with a safer. And second of all, when we're trying to choose what to learn specifically, terech sh'baal peh is going to be a strong candidate because although there are shitas that the Rebbe brings up here, that even terech sh'biksav can be said by heart, you do have an issue in Shulchan Aruch. It, it's not clear that we'd be allowed to do

22:12 Speaker 1 it. So the Rebbe says that the best thing to do would be to learn things by heart, and specifically terech sh'baal peh, where you won't run in-- where you won't run into any of the problems of not being able to say things by heart that are written down. Uh, it is the case that the Rebbe is very careful about this. Uh, in sichas, the Rebbe would either, uh, would either say a pasuk short, he would say only a few of the words of the pasuk, or he would change a word in the pasuk in order to not violate the rule of not saying things in the written Torah by heart. We're on to entry four now. And entry four, the Rebbe explains why specifically Mishnayot and nothing else. And we are going to go over a little bit today, so if you're in a hurry, this is the, uh, this is a bad day for it. But in any event, uh, give me two seconds just to... Sorry, just a moment. I'm also telling my next meeting that I'll be five minutes late. So see, we're all in this together, guys. Okay. Great. Dalet. Chazar is Mishnayot tavka baal peh. Why specifically Mishnayot? Now, we already said it should be the oral Torah, but why specifically should it be Mishnayot? I don't know how much of this we literally need to read inside because we are running out of time a little bit, so I'm gonna summarize a lot of what's in this section, but

23:15 Speaker 1 it is on the screen in front of you. And the Rebbe here says that there is a value to knowing the literal words of a Mishnah and lav davka anything that came after Mishnayot. Because everything that came after Mishnayot, including Gemara and onward, was essentially there in order to explain the Mishnah. And they weren't always, uh, they weren't always as careful about the wording, and they were much more careful about making sure the ideas came through properly. Whereas Mishnah is, uh, something of a secret code to the Torah sh'baal peh, where every single word is bedi'uk. Now, the truth is every single word of Gemara and Midrash and Kabbalah is also bedi'uk, but not in the same way that a Mishnah is. That the Mishnah is, uh, uh, by Mishnah, you need to, uh, you, you need to know the specific words of the Mishnah. So the Rebbe says there's a real value in knowing Mishnayot specifically by heart. Uh, I just, derech agav, not that we have time for those, this is almost certainly the difference between, between, uh, learning Tanya baal peh and a Maimon baal peh. We're gonna see that a bit tomorrow, that a Tanya is the Torah sh'biksav of Chassidut, and Maimon were meant to really unpack and explain Tanya. It's not so important to know a Maimon word for word by heart, whereas it's very important to know Tanya by heart. Uh, in any event, do I have anything in here that I need to show you inside? I

24:15 Speaker 1 don't think so. There's a cool story from Ilfa, from Tainas, that says that, uh, everything that's in Abrisa, everything that's in Abrisa is Mishukais v'Mishnah. He has many proofs here from Nigled et-Terra that when it, uh, that the best, that the best choice would be Mishnayot because there's a specific value to knowing this by heart. Let's just read the last section. L'chein muvan. A sh'gam chazar is baal peh. It should be understood that when reviewing things by heart, Sheyanya kanal, tares avir al deh, amiras tibur, es es etera, sheyachis es Mishnah v'Gemara. It would make more sense to do this in Mishnah than Gemara. So he's making the argument for why we should learn Mishnayot baal peh and not Gemara baal peh. Sheyachiluk ben ech l'chaver hu amiras es es eyavan es enyan sh'bishnam tzadik li es amira v'avana. The truth is that in both cases, you need to understand what you're saying and say what you're saying, but Gemara is mostly about understanding, and Mishnah is mostly about saying. So it makes sense if we're going to be saying something by heart, that would be Mishnayot, which brings us to our final section. Our final section is why specifically now is it so important to be involved in Mishnayot baal peh? And the Rebbe gives many reasons why, and we're going to go through some of them. First of all, Hineh b'deres dikvisim b'dikvisim d'Meshicha. In these final generations on the heels of Meshiah, kasha kard oaf keitz galusenu, that the end, that the

25:14 Speaker 1 end of our exile is coming close. "Elech miyuchad v'nines of Mishnah p'im im hazal." There's an, there's an additional value to learning Mishnayos because, "Ein kol hagoyos ei lo miskan ses elav bizchus Mishnayos," that the exiles will not be gathered together except in the zechus of Mishnayos. It's in the mid-- it's in the merit of Mishnayos that we will have kibbutz galuyos. "Oid amru chazal," furthermore, Chazal say, it's brought in the AriZal, it's also brought in the Midrash Talpiyos, that-- This is just really cool. I never heard this before. "Ki sh'dinav es es adam l'Gehennom," when a person is judged in Gehennom, uh, when they're judged in Gehennom, "koreh l'chol shev v'shevet sh'atz li ami sham." They call out-- He, he, he calls out the name of every one of the shvatim and says, "Save me from Gehennom." "Ve'ein ko'u vein ein," and nobody answered. "Reuven, can you help?" Not a word. "Shimon, how about you?" Not a word. "Ki sh'koreh l'Asher," but then he calls out, "Asher. Asher, please help me." "Meishiv l'ei Asher." Asher does answer, but he doesn't answer, "I'll save you." He answers a conditional answer. "Kar asa mimecha Mishnah?" Asher says back, "Did you, did you, did you learn a lot of Mishnah in your time? Did you learn Mishnah while you were alive?" "Im ever lei hein." If he says to Asher, "Yeah, I learned a lot of Mishnah," "Miad metzeh semichah Gehennom." Then he gets taken out of Gehennom. "Bizchus HaMishnah," in the merit of the Mishnah. And

26:13 Speaker 1 I guess if not, not, "Ad kan l'shehneh." The Rebbe says that Gehennom and Golus are more or less the same word. I mean, Av-Avraham Avinu, he says here, was offered the opportunity to either give his children Gehennom or to give them Golus, and he chose Golus. The Rebbe says anything that is a cure for Gehennom is also a cure for Golus. Anything that's a cure for hell is also a cure for, uh, exile. And therefore, if Mishnayos are a cure for Gehennom, that means they're also a cure for our exile and will help us bring Mashiach. The Rebbe says, "I'd also like to explain this according to Nigla." I'm going to summarize most of this. Uh, the Rebbe says that, "Churban Bayis Rishon," why was the, why was the First Beis Hamikdash destroyed? It was because they didn't make birkas HaTorah, it says in the Gemara. Because they didn't make a bracha on the Torah, and they didn't testify that the Torah was God's Torah. They learned a lot of Torah, but they devalued it, and they also didn't see it as being God's Torah. They saw it as being a really, really smart book, k'viyachol. The second, uh, the second geulah was incomplete. We were redeemed, but not completely. And the reason why is because we never fully atoned for this. So point one the Rebbe makes is we are still trying to atone for that particular sin of, uh, of not, of not taking Torah seriously and recognizing it that it's Hashem's Torah.

27:10 Speaker 1 Meanwhile, we acquired a new sin, which was by Churban Bayis Sheni. The Second Beis Hamikdash was destroyed because of sinas chinam, because we didn't love our neighbors. So the Rebbe says that we are going into exile with two big averas hanging over our heads that we need to fix in order to bring Mashiach. Averah number one that we need to fix in order to bring Mashiach is not saying birkas HaTorah, which really means not recognizing the Godliness in the Torah. And second of all, Jewish unity. That if we were to solve Jewish unity and seeing God in the Torah and learning Torah with bitter, that would be the recipe to bringing Mashiach. So the Rebbe says that in this letter, those are the two things we need to fix in order to bring Mashiach. And then he goes through the possibilities. He says, "Well, if we learn Chumash, that will not necessarily help us with that." There's no chiddush to unity in Chumash. You can't argue with somebody over what it says in a pasuk. The pasuk is the pasuk, and there aren't multiple opinions. And as for people learning Chumash and not seeing the hand of God in the Torah, they're making a pretty serious mistake, because how can you miss the hand of God in the Torah? The Torah literally says, "Vayidaber Hashem omeisha v'ya'aseh Hashem omeisha." There's just no chiddush to the unity of people or the unity of God in Mikra, in the, in the, in the written Torah. And the

28:05 Speaker 1 Rebbe says that Gemara, it also really won't work to solve this problem, because the whole point of Gemara is to fight with your chavrusa. You're supposed to have a difference of opinion. You're supposed to argue. You're supposed to start out as enemies and end up as friends. Gemara is not conducive to Jewish unity. It's conducive to Jewish fighting. But, uh, a-and understanding is important, and everybody can understand it differently, and they-- and it matters that you understand it differently. That whereas, we'll read this part inside 'cause it's the very end. "She'eina Mishnah halakomei hu hi haMishnah." The Mishnah is different than both of those and is the recipe for geulah. "Haseh kaspiske halacha lamaysa," it deals with practical halacha. "V'tzarich lavinam," it needs to be understood. "Gam l'fi darasha soverim, and Rama mechula," even according to those who say other things. "B'chol zeh hakol medibechola amar bazeh," everybody agrees. "Ein bezeh halukidei'as," there is no disagreement in the Mishnah. So the point here that the Rebbe is saying is that although it is about havanah and hasaga, and you really do need to understand the Mishnah that you're reading, there are no disagreements or differences of opinion in the Mishnah, so you need to understand it, and we're all going to understand it the same way. That's very unique. The only piece of Torah the Rebbe says that, uh, that we will be able to-- that we must understand, and we will all understand it the same way, is a Mishnah. "Shelachein, kol ha'tevidah ve'Mishnah

29:04 Speaker 1 cheiza," this is a din that's also brought in Shulchan Aruch. The Rebbe brings it from Sanhedrin, that a dayan who makes a mistake over a dover Mishnah, over something so fundamental that it's a Mishnah, has to return the money that he, that he incorrectly paskened about because there is no difference of opinion. He d-- If you're wrong about a Mishnah, you're wrong. Whereas if you're wrong about, uh, d- if you're wrong about other things, you're wrong about a Gemara, you're wrong about, uh, multiple shitas in something, there's, uh, there's room to say that you were right according to somebody. If you're wrong in a Mishnah, you're wrong according to everybody. So the Rebbe's point here is that everybody has their own havanah and hasaga for sure, but not in Mishnayos. In Mishnayos, there is one correct way to understand a Mishnah. "V'adeize gufa shekol maskim l'din hachan," since everybody agrees, "ach she'eindeis she'am shavas," even though people might have different perspectives, they all will agree about the Mishnah. "Marhem ha'Shem Hashem hu sh'nas lanu Torah Torah sehmes shelisro gol yachad." This demonstrates that God gave us the one true Torah to the one true, to the one, to the one true nation. "V'rada asher chaklei haMishnah iquer piske halacha shalam lo haya al pi hachras sechel hamrak ma shekimlu ish m'pi ish ad meisha." And furthermore, the Mishnah specifically says about the Mishnah, uh, the Alter Rebbe says this in Toras Kohanim Maschei LeShmois, that the Mishnah was written by people who essentially got it

30:02 Speaker 1 from Har Sinai. That it really-- That these iquer piske halachas, most of the piske halachas and their final hachras sechel, their final decisions, were things that they received person from person all the way back to Moshe M'Sinai. So the Rebbe says here the Mishnayos are very special in that they promote Jewish unity, because although everybody needs to have a havanah and hasaga and understanding of the Mishnah, at the same time, they can't have different understandings, so we're not going to argue about it because a different understanding of the Mishnah is simply wrong. And second of all, the unity of God is very, uh, is very apparent in Mishnayos because the Mishnah reflects what was said ish m'pi ish m'Sinai. So for all of these reasons, learning Mishnayos by heart is not just something that will be mattir the other and not just something that will make our own lives better and the world around us better by fixing air quality and ensuring that we are not spiritually harmed by negative air quality. There's also the fact that it seems to be one of the main, one of the main recipes in bringing the geulah, a great way to bring Mashiach. Uh, first of all, because the Gemara its-- excuse me, the Gemara, the other Gemara. The Gemara itself says that kibbutz galuyos is in the zechus of Mishnayos. Second of all, because we have a Midrash from the AriZal that, uh, Asher saves you from Gehennom if you learn Mishnayos, and if you are saved

30:58 Speaker 1 from Gehennom by Mishnayos, certainly you w-w-will, you'll be saved from exile by Mishnayos. And finally, because the two major problems that caused us to go into exile in the first place, uh, lack of recogniz-recognition of God in the Torah and a lack of Jewish unity are two things that are solved by Mishnayos. It makes a lot of sense to learn Mishnayos to bring Mashiach as well. And the Rebbe ends off, "Hashem yitbarach yis'ku-- yis'kanu l'rais b'imehera b'imeinu b'kibas galuyusenu." Uh, God sh-- It should be God's will that we should merit very speedily to see speedily in our days the collection of all of the exiles of the Jewish people. "Yom Mashiach tzedekenu sh'na'ah b'venachah lav ruach, ruach havayah, ruach chakmah v'binah v'geveh, v'arich b'yiras Hashem l'melech v'dayin." About Mashiach, we constantly hear things having to do with the quality of air. Says that God will give him a spirit, a ruach Hashem, a ruach chakmah v'binah. These are all air words. "V'arich b'yiras Hashem," and he's going to smell out fear of God. Again, an air theme. "L'melech v'dayin," and he's going to smell, and by smelling alone, he'll be able to judge. So this is the Rebbe ending off by saying that actually the entire idea of Mashiach in the Haftarah of Mashiach from Achrei Mos Pesach is largely about air quality. Uh, once again emphasizing the importance of us, of us purifying the air, specifically through the recitation, the memorization of Mishnayos Baal Peh, and the recitation of these Mishnayos, specifically in places

32:04 Speaker 1 that need it most, in the street and in our workplace. Okay, thank you all very much.