2 of Iyar - Birthday of Rebbe Maharash - ב אייר יום הולדת אדמו"ר מהר"ש תקצד

00:00 Speaker 1 Now, the second, uh, the, um, uh, Yemei Chabad for the second day of Iyar, Beis Iyar. Uh, this is the birthday of the Rebbe Mahrash. And this took place in the year kuf tes tzadik daled, that is five hundred and ninety-four. Second day of Iyar, five ninety-four equals... Okay, so that's May 11, 1834. Now, you know, it's, it's interesting, people are born on, on various days, and we just usually use the day of the month as identifying what's your birthday. But especially during the Sefirah days... By the way, happy birthday, Yochanan. Yesterday was your birthday. Today is your birthday. Today is, today is my birthday. Today is your birthday. I didn't bring anything to it because I will bring it tomorrow. Okay. 'Cause I like the real chametz. Okay. So anyway-

00:50 Speaker 2 What? There's not re-- There's real and non-real?

00:55 Speaker 1 Okay. So anyways, uh- Bagels and everything. Okay. Anyways, so, um, usually people identify also when it comes to a Sefirah days, when we count the Sefirah, there's another way of identifying. Because as you know, during the seven weeks of the, uh, Seferat HaOmer, every day we sort of mention a certain attribute, a certain emotional attribute. So like the first week, we deal with Chesed, that is kindness. Within kindness, we go through the seven different... within kindness. So you have Chesed, Shebchesed, you have Gevura Shebchesed. Just to give you an idea. I mean, there's a lot to discuss. I don't want to get involved in the whole discussion now. But as for example, um, you say kindness. Now, kindness is the general attribute, but kindness has various different manifestation. It expresses itself in different ways. Kindness can express itself by giving something. That would be called Chesed Shebchesed. It's a kind act, which is a kindness which is expressed in kindness. But sometimes a kindness is expressed in re- not giving, is taking away. If you, for example, take away a damaging, uh, toy from a child, it may be an act of Gevura, of taking away, of strength, but it's really a kindness. Sometimes when you need to discipline a child, it's expresses itself in a Gevura, in a stringent way, but it's really a kindness. As it says, as for example, a person will discipline his own children, it's because he loves his children. Why doesn't he discipline somebody else's children is because he

02:44 Speaker 1 couldn't care less about somebody else's... I mean, he should care about somebody else's child too. But so there you have an expression of your kindness through Gevura, and so on through the different attributes. So every... The first week after Pesach, when we start counting the first Sefirah, we deal with the emotion of kindness, with all of its details as it expresses itself in all details. The second, uh, emotion would be the emotion of Gevura, of, uh, stringency. Now, Gevura means an act of strength, uh, it may be an act of rejection or an act of seriousness.

03:23 Speaker 2 Gibor.

03:23 Speaker 1 But... So Gibor. But sometimes you can be through, your strength can be through a way of giving, sometimes it's denial. That's why we also have it in various different, uh, manifestations. Gevura Shebigevura, Che-chesed Shebichesev, Gevura Shebegevura, Tiferes and so on. The third one, third week, is Tiferes. Tiferes is considered the beautiful, the beauty. Tiferes usually really means, also usually means the combination of Chesed and Gevura together, the combination of kindness and stringency sort of mixed together. While a person who's kind doesn't see, uh, you know, any bad at all, he just gives. So sometimes of Chesed, you can end up giving people who are undeserving, and then you're gonna cause trouble. You know, if you allow, uh, for a criminal to go free, you may be kind to him, but you're gonna be doing harm to the people. So a person who's a kind person, who's a softie, who just gives to everybody, isn't always the beautiful way. On the other hand, you have the level of Gevura, which is rejection. Anybody who doesn't deserve, nobody gets a break. You know, it's justice is going to prevail. That strict looking at the thing, the law is the law, and that's it. And that is also sometimes, as you read now, you're reading in the, uh, some of the blogs, that they're trying to change some of the laws. Somebody who was caught with a little crack or something like that can get like fifteen years in jail. You know, they have no record, they're no

05:00 Speaker 1 criminal. They're just, you know, whatever. They gave into their, I guess, to their habit, and then they, they lock them up for fifteen years. So that's also not... So, but Gevura doesn't distinguish. Tiferes is basically a combination between Chesed and Gevura, which basically Tiferes says that, "Okay, you know what? We need to take into consideration, you know, the person may not deserve." So Gevura would say, "Doesn't deserve? Out. You're out." Tiferes says, "You know what? He may not deserve, but let's still be kind with him. We're still going to go beyond." That's it. So it's not just giving everybody, but it's just being able to mesh together a little stringency, a little bit kindness, and together, that's why it's called Tiferes. It's called beauty because it's a beautiful way.

05:48 Speaker 2 It's like being a good parent.

05:50 Speaker 1 Yeah. Well, a good parent is a Tiferes, right? Exactly.

05:52 Speaker 2 You have to be har- not harsh, but you have to say no to your kids sometimes.

05:57 Speaker 1 Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.

05:58 Speaker 2 It's sad, but-

06:00 Speaker 1 But that, that's for their benefit eventually

06:02 Speaker 2 ... it's out of love.

06:03 Speaker 1 Yeah. But in-- So, but the tiferes-

06:05 Speaker 2 I'm not very good at that.

06:06 Speaker 1 Yeah, well. Well, can't say no. Yeah.

06:09 Speaker 2 I can't say no to things.

06:10 Speaker 1 Yeah. Well, you know, there's an expression in the verse that says that :"Chosech shiftei she'ei benoi." I mean, this is not for the current times. This is a passage, it's a verse. It says, "One who withholds his stick hates his child." Which real-really essentially means that if you don't discipline your child, you don't make sure, then you don't love him. You actually hate him because, you know, you don't give him the tools that he needs to be able to deal-

06:38 Speaker 2 Be an adult

06:39 Speaker 1 ...be-- to really. And you're actually not helping him out in his life.

06:43 Speaker 2 You're en-

06:43 Speaker 1 But anyway

06:44 Speaker 2 ...enabling him. Yeah.

06:45 Speaker 1 Yeah. But in any event, the word tiferes means beauty. Now, okay, tiferes also has this beauty sometimes express itself in an act of Chesed. Sometimes it express itself as an act of Gevurah. Chesed would be an extreme, just a giving because of beauty or Gevurah, denial, or tiferes. Which means that would be tiferes of tiferes would sort of be the beauty of the beauty, which means it's a beautiful character, it's a beautiful trait, and it also expresses itself in a very beautiful way. You know, uh, sometimes, you know, we learn, like in the Pirkei Avot, we learn in the ethics of our fathers, which we're gonna start learning. We say, uh, something which is beautiful, meaning it's-- accomplishes what it needs to accomplish. It is also something which people see as a good act. It's all over. It's good for people. It's good for Hashem. It's all over good. It's, it's, it's, it's a beautiful way. You have the beauty expressed in beauty. But when we wanna say somebody who was born on the second day of Iyar, so there's one way of saying it, the second day of Iyar, that is the birthday, as we say it. But it's also called Tiferes Shabbat Tiferes, the beauty of the beauty. That is the day that the Rebbe Maharas, the Rebbe Rab Shmuel, the youngest son, the seventh son of the Tzemach Tzedek. You wanna tell me something?

08:12 Speaker 2 No.

08:12 Speaker 1 The seventh son of the Tzemach Tzedek, the Rebbe Maharas, Rebbe Shmuel, he was born on the second day of Iyar, which is beauty of the beauty.

08:22 Speaker 2 Would be like giving tzedakah would be the beauty of the beauty, wouldn't it?

08:26 Speaker 1 Well, tzedakah, also tzedakah. About tzedakah, you wanna tell me something?

08:30 Speaker 2 No, no, just-

08:30 Speaker 1 Tzedakah of tzedakah, like you're saying, would be like in the... Just to take, you know, an example for what it says in the Pirkei Avot, in the commentators over there. If a person will take all his money and give it away to tzedakah so that he becomes poor-

08:45 Speaker 2 Create

08:45 Speaker 1 ...that's not beauty because that's extreme. Extreme. That's going, it's extreme. What it is, is you have to live a balanced life, which means-

08:55 Speaker 2 Right

08:55 Speaker 1 ...you give tzedakah, but you also make sure that you yourself-

08:59 Speaker 2 That's it

08:59 Speaker 1 ...uh, have enough to, to live on. Isn't the tithing, the giving-

09:02 Speaker 2 Ten percent, up to twenty percent if you're wealthy.

09:04 Speaker 1 Yes. Okay.

09:05 Speaker 2 Give-

09:05 Speaker 1 Now, that's-- But that's- Sure ...but also that is only, you know, somebody who's a billionaire, and he's gonna say that he's only gonna give up to twenty percent, that's not, that's not good enough. That's not good enough. Everything depends on, really, on the circumstances. Now, we're talking about in the average, but everything we have to know. I, I once gave over the, the word that I heard of my, my teacher used to say when I was in Israel. He told me that in the ethics of our fathers, there's an expression of the vir, that there are various kinds of people. Sometimes people say, "What's mine is mine, and what's mine is yours." Well, he says, you know, that's a righteous person. You know, he gives, you know, everything. Some people say he's a foolish person, but whatever. Uh, then when the person that says, "What mine is mine, and what yours is mine," he's an evil person. You know what I mean? We know a lot of those. Okay. So, all right. But then we have one who says, "What's mine is mine, and what yours is yours." So what is that? So the Mishnah gives two extreme opinions. One opinion says, that's the average. Mine is mine, yours is yours. We're just-- That's the middle way. Midah beInunis. This is the average, middle way. But the other one says, "No, that's the, uh, behavior the way they did in Sodom." If you must have heard, it's the city of Sodom and-

10:30 Speaker 2 Yes

10:30 Speaker 1 ...and Amorah. They were destroyed because they were evil people. So he said he doesn't understand. How could there be such a disparity between one opinion says this is good, the other one doesn't say bad. It says it like Sodom. It means it's terrible. How could there be such a-

10:46 Speaker 2 Discrepancy

10:46 Speaker 1 ...discrepancy between two opinions about the same? What is it? Is it so bad? Why would the other one say it's average? So he said like this. He explained very simply. He says, "Everything depends on the circumstances." If a person who is destitute and the other person is destitute as well, if the two of them, they say, "What's mine is mine, what's yours is yours," that's an average. That's okay because he cannot help himself. How's he gonna help his friend? They can't help. That's, uh, that's okay. On the other hand, if you have an extreme where both of them are very wealthy, nobody has to come out to the other one says, "Mine is mine and yours is yours."

11:26 Speaker 2 That's okay.

11:26 Speaker 1 That's okay too. But what happens-

11:29 Speaker 2 What's-

11:29 Speaker 1 ...if one person has everything he wants, the other one has nothing, and one says, "What's mine is mine, what's yours is yours," that's already like Sodom. So you cannot just use one yardstick to measure everything. Everything has to go by what the circumstance is. So if a person is a billionaire and you're gonna say that he doesn't-- he only has to give twenty percent, he doesn't have what to do with his other eighty percent. You know, even after taxes, he doesn't have what to do with that. So he should take his money and try to distribute it to charity the most he can. And now the Rebbe makes a point in the Tanya to say, even a person who has money that he needs, he says, if a person gives tzedakah- Because he's trying to get atonement for his soul. Let's say a person did-- feels that he did something wrong in his life, and he, he's looking for God, for God's atonement. And the way to atone for himself is by giving tzedakah. So the, the Alter Rebbe writes, "It's no different than medicine." If God forbid, you're looking for a doctor, you're not gonna send, "I'm only gonna spend twenty percent of what I owe for the doctor's bill." You are going to give to the doctor-

12:44 Speaker 2 Whatever

12:44 Speaker 1 ... um, whatever it takes to, to gain your life.

12:46 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

12:47 Speaker 1 So he says your spiritual life is no less important than your physical life. If you're giving tzedakah for a specific purpose, then, you know, you, you do that. And then of course-

12:58 Speaker 2 Is it okay to give tzedakah if you've done a sin or something?

13:02 Speaker 1 Yes. It's not only okay, it says-- There's a verse that says, "The chata'echo betzedakah peroe," that your sin you should redeem through giving charity. You give charity, that's how you compensate for your... Yes, it-- of course, you have to have a feeling, uh, re-remorse as well. But certainly tzedakah is one way of, of, of, of, of, of gaining atonement. Now, this is all said, you know, I also told this story many times. You know, when a person is in need and needs a meal or something, you're not gonna start looking at your, uh-

13:36 Speaker 2 Cash flow

13:36 Speaker 1 ... "Oh, did I give already twenty percent?" No, you can't-- You know, I'm not gonna give you your meal. That's, that's-- That, that would be like sadok, you know. Because I told you the story about, uh, according to the Kabbalah, if you notice, there's a, a tzedakah box, uh, on the table all the time, especially before prayer, when we're going to ask God to, uh, help us, like we said before. We wanna show a good deed, a good act, an act of kindness. By the way, you know the Rebbe used to stand every Sunday for many, many hours and give out people dollar bills as a gift so that they can give it to charity. The Rebbe wanted to make sure that everybody gives charity. So the Rebbe gave them a gift, a dollar, and then use that dollar to give it to charity. Rebbe wanted everybody to have the good deeds. Of course, the Rebbe participated in that itself.

14:25 Speaker 2 It's not really your dollar.

14:27 Speaker 1 Once you get it, it's yours.

14:28 Speaker 2 How many people-

14:28 Speaker 1 You can do with whatever. Thousands of people would come every Sunday to get a dollar from the Rebbe.

14:33 Speaker 2 Of course. You could buy candy with it if you didn't want.

14:35 Speaker 1 If you didn't wanna give, you could. You-- But it's your... But the Rebbe suggested to you.

14:39 Speaker 2 You-

14:39 Speaker 1 He gave you the opportunity, but most people-

14:41 Speaker 2 Yeah

14:41 Speaker 1 ... would do it. Some people would keep the dollar and exchange it for another one, whatever the case is. But the Rebbe motivated them to do a good deed, to go ahead and give tzedakah. Now, one time in the, the, the... By the davening, in Chabad custom is that you throw in a couple of, uh, coins or whatever, you throw in a dollar, whatever you put into the pushka before Shacharit and before Mincha. But we don't do so before Maariv because nighttime is not a-- In the Kabbalah, nighttime is not a time for, for, for tzedakah, the Kabbalah. And one time, the Rebbe was in, uh, the seven seventy or whatever there, and he put in a, a coin before Maariv. And one of the older Hasidim or somebody attacked the Rebbe, says, "How could you dare put in a coin? It's Maariv, you're not supposed to do that. That's what it says in the Kabbalah." Ba, ba. So the Rebbe says he went into the previous Rebbe, his father-in-law, to ask what he should do to, uh, correct his mistake, what he did. He told the previous Rebbe the whole story, what happened and he, um... And Rebbe said this, he says the previous Rebbe told him, "That person who is so concerned, he's so upset that you gave tzedakah at nighttime-

15:54 Speaker 2 He shouldn't give

15:54 Speaker 1 ... he probably doesn't give it at daytime either."

15:59 Speaker 2 Really?

16:00 Speaker 1 Because he's so... So he says, "Don't." But, you know-- But in any event, I just got sidetracked there. I just wanted it to, um-

16:06 Speaker 2 One, one last thing. If, so if someone's rich-

16:09 Speaker 1 Just gonna get my coat. Yeah.

16:10 Speaker 2 If someone's rich and someone's poor-

16:12 Speaker 1 Right

16:12 Speaker 2 ... so it would be-

16:14 Speaker 1 The rich should give something to the poor.

16:15 Speaker 2 No, so it would be what's-- Some of mine is yours.

16:20 Speaker 1 Yeah, but the truth of the matter is-

16:22 Speaker 2 Right.

16:22 Speaker 1 The truth of the matter-- But the truth of the matter is, as the Rebbe points out in another place also, the Rebbe points out that, uh, really, Hashem, God, is the one that gives everyone. Now, God has given the person that is, uh, more financially, uh, with it, that has the ability to help out the other person, to help him out. So, but when the other person helps him out, he's not giving his. God has basically entrusted him-

16:58 Speaker 2 Oh

16:58 Speaker 1 ... gave him something extra, gave him-

17:00 Speaker 2 He was lucky

17:01 Speaker 1 ... some... Yeah. Now, but the poor person is not fed by the, uh, wealthy person. Neither is the worker fed by the boss that gives him his check. It's Hashem providing for him. But Hashem has different ways of providing. The wealthy person gets it in a direct way. The poor person in this case gets it in an indirect way. But the wealthy person isn't giving away something of his to the poor person. He's only giving away something that was entrusted to him, for him to hold onto it until the time to share it with somebody who is less fortunate than him, to go ahead and make sure that the other one has, too. So now, the Rebbe says like this: So if at the end of the day, everything comes from Hashem, Hashem feeds everything and everybody, as we say, and that's why we say that Ashrei Yoshvei. That's why we say it all the time, three times a day. It has the verse in there. The special verse says, "You open your hand, and you satisfy all living things what they need." Because that's the main verse, that Hashem satisfies. If Hashem does everything, gives to everybody, why does Hashem have to give it- By means of the wealthy person, why doesn't Hashem give it directly to the poor person?

18:17 Speaker 2 Right.

18:17 Speaker 1 If at the end of the day it's Hashem giving it-

18:19 Speaker 2 Right

18:19 Speaker 1 ... why do you have to go... Yeah, so the Rebbe says something very interesting, a very powerful thought over here. The Rebbe says that Hashem wants there to be kindness in the world. If Hashem would-- everybody would have and would be everybody would see mine is mine and yours is yours, that's not the right way. That's not the way Hashem wants this world to be. Hashem wants the world to should be sharing and giving, and people should become kind people, and people should do things for other people. If everybody had everything, then that would create a society of selfish people, everybody living for themselves. Now, of course, the poor person says-

18:54 Speaker 2 Suffering

18:54 Speaker 1 ... "Why am I the one-

18:56 Speaker 2 Suffering

18:56 Speaker 1 ... to have to get it indirectly, and the wealthy person gets it directly? Why doesn't it be the other way around?" And that's what we say in the Te- in the Tehillim, King, uh, David says in Tehillim, "Tefilah la-oni hi yate." This is the prayer of the poor person when he wraps himself, "Vefine Hashem yishpoch sicho," and he pours out his heart before Hashem. He's, he prays to God. He says, "But why am I-- You know, I know the world needs kindness, but why am I the recipient and the other one is the giver? Couldn't it be the other way around?" But we don't know the mysterious ways of Hashem, you know, and, and, and Hashem does it, uh, in, in, in the way. But the bottom line is that one needs to be kind and giving. Okay, but that's all sidetracked. Can we-- Let's just go back to this, to this, what we did, did, did-

19:42 Speaker 2 It's a good sidetrack.

19:43 Speaker 1 Yeah.

19:43 Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah.

19:45 Speaker 1 Okay.

19:45 Speaker 2 There's that Wall Street movie that said, "Greed is good." But like, I don't think they have-

19:49 Speaker 1 Good for whom? Yeah, no. That's just the an-

19:51 Speaker 2 No, that was-

19:52 Speaker 1 ... antithesis of what the Torah stands for.

19:54 Speaker 2 Right. Right.

19:55 Speaker 1 And you know what? And everything that you call today, your iPod, your iPhone, your i, iTunes, i, i, it's all about your own ego, which stands for exit God out, you know? And that's what it is because the- Yeah.

20:08 Speaker 2 That's beautiful.

20:10 Speaker 1 But the Torah-

20:11 Speaker 2 iWatch.

20:12 Speaker 1 The Torah what?

20:14 Speaker 2 iWatch.

20:14 Speaker 1 iWatch. Now it's watch, and I Google, and I whatever. It does everything i, i. Why? Because they-- everybody tells you that you are the center of the universe, and the whole world was created-

20:26 Speaker 2 Created

20:27 Speaker 1 ... just to make your pleasures and your everything else. And you have to try to grab as much as you can and, and, and grab more and more and more. But the truth of the matter is that Hashem is the center of the universe, and everything revolves about our service to God, to Hashem. And all this other stuff isn't, at the end of the day, going to bring you satisfaction to the complete. Because the more you have, the more you want, the more you need. And as the, uh, Talmud states, a person, by the time he dies, he hasn't even gotten half of what he wanted. Why is that? He ne- you don't die even half of what you... Why is that? 'Cause he says any person that has one hundred wants two hundred. If he has two hundred, he wants four hundred. Person always wants double what he has. So therefore, you're never, you're never gonna get what you want because you alwa- you always want more. So, how are you gonna get? So by the time you die, and guess what? We're all gonna die one day. It doesn't help if you're wealthy, and if you're smart, and if you're successful, if you're talented. We all are destined. We were born, and we're going. Those are some things we don't have any choices. You can't buy, you can't buy your health with money.

21:41 Speaker 2 That's right.

21:42 Speaker 1 You can't buy your life with money. And you gotta-- And that's where we all-

21:46 Speaker 2 It's kinda like

21:46 Speaker 1 ... face a common, uh-

21:48 Speaker 2 People of the world, no matter how much money they have, they want more. Right. Well, Rabbi, if you said the poor person is poor because it gives the world an opportunity to give, that's what the Rebbe said, right?

22:01 Speaker 1 Rebbe brings out that idea, yes.

22:03 Speaker 2 Right. I mean, can you-- how do you-- I know this is too, not a topic, but, like, when people get sick and bad things happen to good people, did the Rebbe ever expl-- You know, what's the purpose of that?

22:14 Speaker 1 There's two things.

22:15 Speaker 2 So people can help the people or?

22:17 Speaker 1 Okay. Well, let me-- that's a good idea. That's one good idea that you're saying there. But in the scheme of things, we have to realize that our ability to comprehend the ways of God are minuscule.

22:28 Speaker 2 Oh.

22:28 Speaker 1 So I, I, I would rather say-

22:31 Speaker 2 I understand

22:31 Speaker 1 ... just, just like when you walk in, you know, you've got an operating room, right? I mean, this is an example that is brought. You walk into an operating room. A person who is uneducated, who is not, uh, in the medical field, if he walked in just and he sees the people, he'd start yelling and screaming and saying, "What are you guys doing? You're ripping the person apart. You're cutting him up. There's blood going all over the place." But they're trying to make him better. But the, the answer to that is, the person is uneducated because he only sees a very small piece of the picture. What Hashem does, even though to us it seems cruel and poss-- we don't know. We don't have the answer to that. You know, of course, in our mind, in our state, we don't understand it. We don't comprehend it. And that's why we, we ask God not just to be good, but He-- we should be visible good. It should be good that we can-- tangible, that we can experience. So we ask Hashem for blessing. Good, whatever Hashem does is good. And, but there's a good which is hidden, there's a good which is beyond, then there's a good which we can experience in our lifetime. And we want to be that it should be good for us in a physical and a very good way.

23:35 Speaker 2 So you're saying you, you can't explain these things.

23:37 Speaker 1 I can't.

23:37 Speaker 2 It is-

23:38 Speaker 1 And the other thing is like this. It's very important to make that, uh, distinction over here. If God forbid something happens to you, like something, whatever happens to you or something in your family or something which is close to you, you as an individual should say to yourself, "Where can I strengthen my spiritual connection to God so that this will have a good effect on the physical?" So whatever, whatever there's a problem, whatever there is something else, you yourself should take everything that happens to you in your life as a sign and as a reason for improvement of your own self. And many times when you strengthen your spiritual, then you are able to also extend it to the physical as well. But for another person to say, "Oh, you know what? Something happened to you." The Rebbe took great, a lot of offense to people that would say, and he quoted even the Nev- Navi Ezekiel, who criticized the Jewish people and said that something negative about them. God was very, very upset with him for saying that. The Rebbe would be very upset when people would say negative about other people, like they deserve what they got. Some, some, there were some rabbis in Israel that justified the Holocaust, and they said, "Oh, because they did this, they did that. That's why a million-

25:04 Speaker 2 They deserve it

25:04 Speaker 1 ... that's why a million Jewish children were, were, were, were, were tortured and killed," and you know. Now, that's a terrible thing for a person to pass judgment on somebody else and say, "You got punished, and you got this because you deserve it." That's something very, very terrible. That's total negative. But for a person themself, when they're looking for ways, they have to increase their merits. They increase tzedakah, increase good deeds, increase their study. That is, uh, a sure way of gaining God's grace, God's grace, and, and, and, and trying to change things around. Sometimes, for whatever unknown reason, there's a decree on the person. A person has the ability to change it around, sometimes through prayer, sometimes through good deeds, and those are things that you, that you do. So that's why it's important.

25:57 Speaker 2 You don't know when that decree is. That's-

25:58 Speaker 1 We don't, we don't know, but we take our best, best step.

26:01 Speaker 2 You remember that, that rebbetzin that died in New York, that right over she died. She had an aneurysm and left a bunch of children.

26:08 Speaker 1 Yeah.

26:08 Speaker 2 In Georgia.

26:09 Speaker 1 Good.

26:10 Speaker 2 Like, you think, "God, she's devoted her whole life to being Jewish and mitzvah and all that," and then this happens, you know.

26:18 Speaker 1 Okay. You're, you're absolutely right. But what we have to say in that case-

26:22 Speaker 2 Okay. Sure

26:22 Speaker 1 ... that we don't know. And you know, the rebbe had an expression sometimes, you know, when, when God wants to give you a slap, he sl- you slap in the face. Which means the people who are up there, they are the one that gets slapped sometimes, you know. I mean, sometimes maybe as a community, uh... I mean, again, with these, there are so many various different components in it.

26:44 Speaker 2 Yeah.

26:44 Speaker 1 But you know, you know quite well, even in medicine-

26:46 Speaker 2 Yes

26:47 Speaker 1 ... you know, you try, you try what you can do. But you know, even healing, you know, you try. When I say, you know, you don't have any absolute guarantees if you'll take this medicine, this will happen, you know.

26:57 Speaker 2 Yeah.

26:57 Speaker 1 And a lot of time we try-

26:58 Speaker 2 Kids die

26:59 Speaker 1 ... we try different drugs, and we try different things. Okay, so let's just-

27:02 Speaker 2 All right

27:02 Speaker 1 ... uh, let's just go through with the subject at hand. Uh, I do wanna say this. So what happened in the olden days, as you know, all, all the structure, most of the structures were built out of wood, and they were very susceptible to fires. And unfortunately, many times, uh, valuable, invaluable treasures of, of, of writings and, and, and, and, and artifacts and various different kinds of important stone were destroyed in, in fires. Lubavitch also had a very great fire in which, uh, many of the rebbe's, the homes and the, uh, manuscripts and the many of the things were lost in the fire and never to be replaced. So after that great fire, uh, that Tzemach Tzedek, that was the third rebbe of, of, of Lubavitch. He lived in the city of Lubavitch itself. So he decided to purchase a piece of land and to build a large house that's gonna be a-- for, for the family, plus a big bes medrash, a big study hall over there. And the, uh, master, the one who was in charge, and I guess it was, that was divided to different sections of the-- It had-- Each one had their own masters. So over there, the master of the city, his name was Liu Bemirsky. He instructed to the one who took care of the things that they should provide from a forest that he had. They used trees. They used to cut down trees from the forest. He instructed that anything that was necessary for the rebbe's

28:40 Speaker 1 family, to give it for free. He just told them, "Just let them-- Take them all the materials they need for free." Now, what happened was that the Tzemach Tzedek wanted that the house should be ready and to dedicate it during the Pesach festival, during Shavuot. So now you have between Pesach and Shavuot, you have a couple of weeks. You have seven weeks.

29:04 Speaker 2 Seven weeks.

29:04 Speaker 1 Seven weeks. Now we're coming already, uh, two weeks after Pesach already because now we're up to already or, uh, to... I mean, not after, during the Pesach, two weeks after the end of Pesach because, or from the second day of Pesach, we're up to Tu B'Shevat, Tu B'Shevat. So what happens is the rebbetzin, that's the wife of the Tzemach Tzedek, her name was Chaya Mushka. And by the way, as I mentioned to you many times, the rebbe and his wife also shared the same name as the Tzemach Tzedek and his wife. They're both wives named were Chaya Mushka, and the name was Tzemach Tzedek, and the rebbe name was Menachem Mendel. So she wanted very much-- They used to give birth at home over there. There was no such a thing as going to the hospital or... I shouldn't say there wasn't such a thing.

29:48 Speaker 2 No.

29:48 Speaker 1 But there was-- But they, they just gave birth at home. She wanted a new home to give birth in a, I guess in a... It was new and, um, when she, uh, started-- went into labor, and you know, she, she say that she's gonna have the baby. So she went to the new home. She wanted to have the baby over there. She went to the new home, and that home hasn't been used yet at all. And what they kept over there were the Pesach and the kedushas. You know, they probably, to keep it away, store it away, they kept the Pesach and the kedushas. And, um, they had like, uh, those-- they had like a bed, a frame of a bed that-- which had-- which they used to use to sift the flour. You know, everything was, was done. Not like but today, everything goes in the bakery and everything else. Over there, they baked, and they used all this stuff. They did it over there. So it had a, a big net over it, a big sift over it, uh, which they used to sift through the flour for the shmura matzah, for that special matzah that they baked that was over there. So this was after Pesach, so they needed a bed for her into that place. So they brought shlosh, and they brought, uh, uh, coverings. And, uh, that's, that's with the bed. That's what they made a-- That's a bed, was not made with mattresses. It was made with the straw

31:08 Speaker 1 beds. And when they told the Tzemach Tzedek about it, he quickly came there, and he stood in the room, but he faced the wall during the entire, uh, labor. He stood and faced the wall.

31:22 Speaker 3 Because it's new or like what?

31:23 Speaker 1 'Cause it's new, yeah. And the Rebbe actually, uh, spoke about this later on because, you know, modern times, they want the husband to be there when they... But it doesn't-

31:33 Speaker 3 You're not allowed to though, right? Are you-

31:35 Speaker 1 Uh, so I'm saying, so the Rebbe actually reinforced that, that the husband should not be. It's not-- It doesn't go with the laws of modesty-

31:42 Speaker 3 Right

31:42 Speaker 1 ... to be at the time-

31:43 Speaker 3 It's dangerous, yeah.

31:43 Speaker 1 I think. Okay, you know, it's not the time of, of, uh, to be there. But he stood with his face to the wall, and he instructed his sons. It's interesting, um, Rebbe Rach Shlita, the Labor of Chayai Shneor Zalman, he told them that in one of the rooms in his house, they should say the following verses of Tillam. He told them to say chapter, which would be a good instruction when sometimes you gotta give advice for women in labor to have an easy labor or a successful labor. He told them to say chapter one, two, three, four, twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four, thirty-three, forty-seven, seventy-two, eighty-six, ninety, ninety-one- ... one hundred and four, one twelve- ... one thirteen till the end of the book. I don't know who recorded all this and remembered all this.

32:26 Speaker 3 Who remembered all that.

32:28 Speaker 1 And actually, he instructed-- And this is something which interesting. Today, they have like they put the... Sometimes they call it a birth. They will do it in a, in water, like a-

32:39 Speaker 3 Yeah

32:39 Speaker 1 ... birth in water.

32:39 Speaker 3 Right.

32:40 Speaker 1 They still do, yeah. Yeah. Uh, uh-

32:42 Speaker 3 In the hospital

32:42 Speaker 1 ... what? Like in a-

32:43 Speaker 3 Wing if they do such a thing.

32:44 Speaker 1 Wing if they, right. Yeah. In the wings. But in this case, it was actually meant as a purification. He told her that she should immerse herself like in a mikvah-

32:54 Speaker 3 Oh, right

32:54 Speaker 1 ... before she's going to, uh, receive the child, which would mean giving-- taking in the child in a, on a holy, on those, uh, uh, in a holy way. And he also gave, a, a, a, a special, uh, bla-- a co- uh, piece of, of linen in which to-

33:12 Speaker 3 Wrap the baby

33:13 Speaker 1 ... uh, wrap the baby. Uh-

33:14 Speaker 3 It's very common for-- in those days for, in childbirth, for the baby or the mother or one or the other or both to die.

33:23 Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah.

33:24 Speaker 3 Because there was no-- There was no-

33:25 Speaker 1 Sanitary conditions.

33:26 Speaker 3 Well, but not so much that, is the complications. They didn't know what to do.

33:30 Speaker 1 Oh, right.

33:31 Speaker 3 And there was-- there were no hospitals to think of in those days. And who was a doctor?

33:35 Speaker 1 Yeah, but they had midwives, like I guess.

33:36 Speaker 3 Midwives.

33:37 Speaker 1 Midwives that help them, yeah.

33:38 Speaker 3 Yeah.

33:39 Speaker 1 Now, the rebbetzin would always say that my son was born on a sift bed. Again, what does it mean? I mean, a sift means a sift, the best of the best.

33:50 Speaker 3 Yeah.

33:51 Speaker 1 You know, you sift it through on a sift bed. On the second day of Iyar, on the counting of , this was one hundred year to date, uh, from the time-- I shouldn't say to date because this was one hundred years from when the Ba'al Shem Tov was revealed, that this was Tav-Kuf-Tzadik-Daled. So, uh, that needed to be Tav-

34:22 Speaker 3 Seventy-four

34:22 Speaker 1 ... Tzadik-Daled. Tav-Tza-Tav-Tzadik-Daled, one hundred years before.

34:25 Speaker 3 Year thirty-four.

34:26 Speaker 1 But if I'm, if I'm not mistaken, that was on eighteenth day of Elul. That's what we learned, that the eighteenth day of Elul was the day that the, that the, uh, Tzemach-- that the Ba'al Shem-- We have to look this up. But she gave birth and, um-

34:39 Speaker 3 You mean he was born? You mean the, the Ba'al Shem Tov was born?

34:42 Speaker 1 No, was revealed.

34:43 Speaker 3 Oh, revealed.

34:45 Speaker 1 The Ba'al Shem Tov was revealed. Um, uh, the Bris Mila took, of course, eight days later on the ninth day of Iyar, and, uh, we'll study it another time. Went a little longer than we had