My Zayde Rav Zalman Vilnkin told me that he was once by a farbrengen or mesibah that the Rebbe's father was there in קאטרינאסלאוו, and someone asked him peshat in this Midrash Peli'ah, and this is what he answered. The Midrash Peli'ah says like this: One tanna said to the other, \"מה שמו של הקדוש ברוך הוא? What is the name of Hashem?\" אמר ליה, so he said to him, \"rachmana liba ba'ei.\" It's an expression in Gemara that the Torah, the Eibershter, wants the heart. That's what he answered him. אמר ליה, so he said to him, \"מפני מה כולם סדורות וזו הפוכה? Why are they all straight and this one is upside down, backwards?\" אמר ליה, so he said to him, \"חותמו של הקדוש ברוך הוא אמת. The seal of Hashem is emet.\" Then he added, \"הדא דכתיב,\" this is what it says, a pasuk in Kohelet ד' ח', \"יש אחד ואין שני גם בן ואח אין לו.\" There is one and not a second, and a son and a sister and a brother he doesn't have, a son and a brother he doesn't have. So this seemingly doesn't make any sense, the question and the answer. What's the question? What's the answer? So he said the peshat is like this: The tanna who asked him what the name of Hashem, he answered him, \"Rachmana liba ba'ei.\"

Rachmana liba ba'ei is ראשי תיבות ר' ל' ב'. ר' ל' ב' is 232. Now we know in Kabbalah it says that there are four names to Hashem: שם מ\"ה, מ' ה', which is 45; שם ב\"ן, ב' נ', which is 52; שם ס\"ג, ס' ג', which is 63; and שם ע' ג', and שם ע\"ב, I mean ע' ב', which is 72. And this is all based on שם הויה. שם הויה is יו\"ד ק\"ה וא\"ו ק\"ה, בגימטריא 26. But each letter has a milui, has a filling that you fill up, and there are different ways to make the milui, and depending on which way, that's how you come out. One way to make the milui is comes up to 45, one comes to 52, one comes to 63, one comes to 72. So when he asked him, \"מה שמו של הקדוש ברוך הוא, what's Hashem's name?\" what he really answered him was these four names. These four names, 45, and 52, and 63, and 72, add up to 232. So really what he wrote, what he answered him was ר' ל' ב', all these four names, and the way he said it was רחמנא ליבא בעי, the roshei teivot is ר' ל'

ב'. אמר ליה, so then he answered him, \"מפני מה כולם סדורות וזו הפוכה? Why are they all straight, and this one is backwards or upside down?\" He meant to ask, we see by the מ\"ה, מ' ה', 45, the four is before the five, the big number, the 40 is before the small number, the five. By ס' ג', 63, is also ס', ג', first the 60, then the three. By ע' ב' is also ע', the 70, and ב' is two, first the big number, then the small one. How come when it comes to the second שם, which is ב\"ן, we say ב' נ', first the ב' and then the נ', first the small number, then the נ', the 50? That's what he asked him. אמר ליה, so he answered him, the reason is because חותמו של הקדוש ברוך הוא אמת, the seal of Hashem is אמת. And the peshat is, that's not the peshat, it says in sefarim that we see takeh that אמת in מספר קטן is a gematria nine. Mispar katan means when you count the big numbers as one, like 40 would be four, 400 would be again four, you count them as four. So if you count אלף מם תף, אלף is one, מם is 40, תף is 400. So really, b'mispar katan it's one, and four, and four is nine. The number nine represents the truth, because the truth is something that never changes from all sides. That's why emes is made up of three letters, אלף, מם, תף. אלף is the first letter of the אלף בית, מם the middle one, and תף the last one, that means that it goes through and through, from beginning to end. And that's connected to the number nine, because nine is the same way, however you're going to multiply nine, it'll come up to nine. Three times nine is 27, so two and seven is nine. Seven times nine is 63, six and three is nine. Whichever number you're going to say, twice times nine is 18, one and eight is nine. That's how you go on. So nine represents the emes, and that's what he answered him: \"You know why this one is mixed up, that first the ב', then the נ'? Because the seal of HaKadosh Baruch Hu is emes, and we want them all to add up to nine.\" So 45, מ\"ה, adds up to nine, four and five is nine. ס' ג', 63, ס' is 60, but ס' is six, and three is nine. ע' ב', 72, the seven and two is nine. Adds up to nine. But if we'd make the second one נ\"ב, נ' ב', that would be seven. נ' is 50, which is five, and ב' is two, so it's seven. But in order to that that also should add up to nine, we changed it to בן, בית נון. Why? Because we know that even though the numbers, the gematria of the numbers goes like this: go all the way up to תף, תף is 400. שין is 300, ריש is 200, and תף is the last letter, that's 400. Now

usually nowadays what we do when we want to write 500, 600, we would write תף קוף, 400 and קוף which is 100, is 500. תף ריש is 400 and 200 is 600. But really there's another way. It says in sefarim that after you finish with the תף being 400, you go to the additional letters. There is an additional letter to the כף, the לאנגער כף. There's additional letters, letter to the מם, לאנגער מם, there סתומה מם I mean, the end מם. Then you have additional letter to the נון, the long נון, the לאנגער נון, and then you go out to the other letters that you have. So it comes out that תף is 400. Now לאנגער כף is 500, and and the מם is 600, and נון, the לאנגער נון, is 700. So if you write בית נון, you have two and then 700, which is מספר קטן seven, so it comes out to nine. And that's what he answered him. When he asked him why the בן is first the בית then the נון, so he said, because the seal of Hashem is emes. Emes is nine, so we wanted this also to add up to nine, so by changing it to בית and a לאנגער נון, it also adds up to nine. And then he

said, this is the remez in the pasuk where it says, יש אחד ואין שני, there is one, that goes on the Aibershter, there is one, there is no other one like him, and that's hinted in the fact that his seal is emes. Emes is one, from all sides it's emes, so it's one. But then the pasuk continues, גם בן, what about בן? בן is בית לאנגער נון. Why do we count it, why do we write it as a בית לאנגער נון, why don't you write it נון בית? It's as if the pasuk is asking, גם בן, and the answer is, ואח אין לו, it doesn't have אח. אלף, אח is אלף חית, which is nine. So the answer why בן is בית נון, not נון בית, because if you'd make it בית נון, if you'd make it נון בית, it wouldn't have the nine. So that's what the pasuk says, יש אחד ואין שני, גם בן, בן, בן, why is the second one בן not נב? The answer is, ואח אין לו, because it doesn't have the nine. אלף חית is nine, so it doesn't have the nine. אח אין לו, it doesn't have the nine, that's why we changed it to בן, and then that has the בית and the לאנגער נון which is 700, is together nine.