As you just heard, the topic tonight is the closest we could get to today's day. Today is the second day of the month of Sivan, and I just didn't pick a date out of the calendar because we had to figure something out for the class tonight, but the second day of Sivan is a special day. Actually, the title that it says in sefarim for the second day of Sivan is יום המיוחס, the מיוחס'דיקע day, the special day, that's really what it is. ב' Sivan, out of all the days of the year, is the only day of the year which has a title called יום המיוחס, and today is that day. Now the truth is in some sefarim it's called not יום המיוחס, but יום יחוס. But in most of the places it's called יום המיוחס. What it means is מיוחס, maybe someone could help me out with the English, מיוחס means special, but it's pedigree? That's יחוס. Really יחוס is used when somebody has a great lineage of That's pedigree, okay. So, but the word it's used usually the word יחוס is used for something, you know, somebody who's special, you say, \"Oh, he's a מיוחס. He's a special guy.\" So, today's day is called יום המיוחס or, as I said, יום יחוס. The difference between the expression יום יחוס and יום המיוחס: יום יחוס means a day of specialty. That means it's a day where special things happen. יום המיוחס means the special day. That means that whatever the specialty is actually transformed the day into a special day, that the day itself is called יום המיוחס, not the day in which there is יחוס, but the day which is a מיוחס, which stresses even more the idea of the specialty of this day. Why is the second day of Sivan called the יום המיוחס in the sefarim? One place it says that because the day before was Rosh Chodesh, the day after starts שלושת ימי הגבלה, starts the three days when Hashem said that they should separate, they should surround the mountain. When Hashem gave the Torah, He said that they should make sure to surround the mountain that no one should be able to come up to the mountain, and He said that if anybody will come up to the mountain at that time will die. Too holy, people should not go up. So the שלושת ימי הגבלה, the three days of הגבלה started from the third day of Sivan. There were three days, so it's the third day of Sivan, the fourth day of Sivan, and the fifth day of Sivan, and the sixth day of Sivan was the Matan Torah when Hashem came down and said the עשרת הדברות, the Ten Commandments. So these three days are called שלושת ימי הגבלה. I just want to mention, which is going to be important for what we're going to discuss later, that the fourth day of Sivan, that's when Hashem told the Yidden the mitzvah of פרישה. פרישה means separation, that they had to separate themselves from their wives, which basically means they had to separate themselves from indulging in physical pleasures. That started the fourth day of Sivan, so that lasted for two days, the fourth and the fifth. But before that, on the third day of Sivan, Hashem told them to surround the mountain, which was another level, a first level of preparation to מתן תורה. So because the second day of Sivan is in between Rosh Chodesh, which is a special day, and the beginning of שלושת ימי הגבלה, which is a special day, so the day that's caught in between also turns into a special day. It's all based on the Gemara. The Gemara says in Ta'anit concerning a certain special day, that why was it special, so the Gemara says because on one day the day before was a Yom Tov and the day after was a Yom Tov, so already this turns into a Yom Tov, too. So therefore, the second day of Sivan is called the יום המיוחס, the special day. But according to this, when we call the second of Sivan the special day, it's not because it has any specialty. On the contrary, what we're trying to say, there's nothing special on this day. It became special because you know, it has a neighbor on one side which is special and the other side which is special, so it rubbed off and became special. But really what you're trying to say, there's nothing else. Every other Yom Tov has a name which shows the specialty of the day. On this day, we have nothing to say because there is nothing special. So we just call it the special day because of the day before and the day after. But that's one reason given in some sefarim. But the main accepted reason why it's called יום המיוחס, the special day, is because this day Hashem said said to the Jews, when they were ready to receive the Torah, which was the second day of Sivan, he said to them, ואתם תהיו לי ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש. And the details are: the Jews left Egypt on Pesach. They traveled, they traveled and they made stops and traveled. Finally, they came on ראש חודש סיון, the first day of the month of Sivan, they came to Har Sinai. On that day, the Gemara says Hashem did not and told Moshe Rabbeinu did not to tell them anything. He did not tell them to do anything or tell them anything bichlal in in preparation to Har Sinai, and the reason the Gemara gives is because they were too weak, they were too tired. Since they just finished their trip, they were too tired. So on the first day of Sivan, Hashem didn't say anything. When did the preparations to מתן תורה start? On the second day of Sivan. That's when the whole procedure, the whole process started. And what happened on the second day of Sivan? First, Hashem said to Moshe Rabbeinu to tell the Jews, והייתם לי סגולה מכל העמים, you will be to Me a treasure amongst all the nations, ואתם תהיו לי ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש, and you will be to Me a ממלכת, a nation, a kingdom of כהנים וגוי קדוש, and a holy nation. And because Hashem said these words to the Jews on this day, that's why this day is called the יום המיוחס. This is the day that our yichus, our specialty started. Now, we know it started much before. It started all the way from Avraham Avinu, then it started from later when Yaakov went to Mitzrayim, and then by Yetzias Mitzrayim, true, but nothing is like מתן תורה. מתן תורה was the real time when Hashem chose us and made us into His nation. And the preparation to מתן תורה, or let's say the process of מתן תורה, started from today, from ב' Sivan, and it started with Hashem telling the Jews, \"You will be a treasure to Me, and you will be a ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש to Me.\" And that's why this is called the יום המיוחס. It also says a third reason why it's called יום המיוחס, because this is the day that started with the preparation to מתן תורה, because why did Hashem give us the Torah? Because we were great מיוחסים, we were special people. So today, when the preparations to מתן תורה started, our yichus became more b prominent, stood out more. But the main reason that's given, I must say, is the second reason, that's because today Hashem said to the Yidden, \"You will be a to You will be to Me a nation, a kingship kingdom of כהנים וגוי קדוש, and a holy nation.\" And because of that, this day became so special that not only is it called a יום יחוס, a day in which there was a special thing that took place, but the day itself is a יום המיוחס, is a special day. Now, the Rebbe said once that he looked through all of חסידות, and he couldn't find that in חסידות Chabad there should be a discussion and a fuss made of the יום המיוחס. Says, in the other מאמרים he doesn't find that the second day of Sivan should be made a fuss. We find in other ספרים, but in Chabad חסידות he didn't find it, and he said he worked hard to look, that's what he said. Nevertheless, he said he is he didn't use these words, but what I'm saying is, he is going to start and make a special fuss of this day. And the Rebbe takeh different times explained what is so special about this day based on this pasuk that took place that Hashem said on this day, ואתם תהיו לי ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש. Basically, what it is is that this is the beginning of the preparations to מתן תורה. And being that this is the first day of the preparations, therefore it's very special. So the all the days, the second, third, fourth, and fifth day of Sivan are all special days because of preparation to מתן תורה. And just like it happened then when Hashem gave us the Torah these four days were special because they were days of preparation, every year when the thing repeats itself, as we know that every year the same thing that happened once repeats itself, so every year on Shavuos we get the Torah again, so the four days of preparations are special starting with ב' Sivan, and being that this is the beginning, so obviously this is something very special.

But there are two things here in the specialty of the preparations to the days before Matan Torah. We know Matan Torah there are two things: there is Matan Torah and Kabalat haTorah, there is the giving of the Torah and there is the receiving of the Torah. The giving of the Torah took place on the sixth day of Sivan. Now we know that usually when you receive something it comes after the person gives it. First you give, and when the person who gives gives it to you, then you are able to receive it. So we would assume that Kabalat haTorah, receiving the Torah, comes after Matan Torah, after the Torah was given. But that's not true, because you are supposed to receive it, you have to prepare yourself to be able to receive it. So Kabalat haTorah, which includes the preparation to Kabalat haTorah, really starts before Matan Torah. So the days before Matan Torah, we have already the concept of Kabalat haTorah, the preparation to Kabalat haTorah. And therefore these four days, starting from ב' Sivan, have two special aspects in it. Number one, because on the sixth day of Sivan Hashem gave us the Torah, the great revelation and great spiritual godliness that took godliness that came down to this world on Matan Torah, it has an effect, even from Hashem's side, from the giving of the Torah, it has an effect and influences even days before. We know that Friday is called Erev Shabbat, and there are special halachot on Friday because it's Erev Shabbat, it's the day before Shabbos. Certainly Erev Shabbat after chatzot, after noon, there are certain halachot, and even in the morning. Friday morning is called Erev Shabbat. What does that mean? Why is it called Erev Shabbat? Because the kedushah of Shabbos, the holiness of Shabbos is so great, that it's able to travel and goes before, that it even has an influence on a day before. Erev Yom Tov, why is it called Erev Yom Tov, with special halachot on Erev Yom Tov? Because the kedushah of Yom Tov goes back even to a day before. In this case, the kedushah of Matan Torah was so great, and I'm talking now about Matan Torah, the fact that Hashem gave us the Torah, but the kedushah of Matan Torah that takes place on the sixth day of Sivan is so great that it even has an influence on the day before, and not only in this case on a day before, but on two days before, on three days, on four days before! So from the beginning of ב' Sivan we already have the influence of Matan Torah. But besides that, as far as Kabbalat HaTorah is concerned, as far as receiving the Torah, which requires our preparation, certainly these days are special days, where we start preparing ourselves for Matan Torah, starting from the day of ב' Sivan. When we talk about preparation to Matan Torah starting from ב' Sivan, obviously in order to prepare yourself to receive the Torah, we have to see what is Matan Torah, Hashem gave the Torah, and when we see what happened by Matan Torah, we know what to do as far as Kabbalat HaTorah. We know what to do in order to prepare ourselves. So we have to look at Matan Torah and then understand what these three days, these four days of preparation in the level of Kabbalat HaTorah means. Now, the inyan of Matan Torah can be divided into three parts: that there are three things that took place at the time of Matan Torah. Number one, the mere fact that there was the hitgalut haShechinah, the revelation of the Shechinah, as it says, וירד ה׳ על הר סיני, השם came down to Har Sinai and revealed Himself to the Jews, mainly. It had an effect on the whole world too, but mainly to the Jews, to the Yidden. And this was Matan Torah, that Hashem revealed His Shechinah to the Yidden. But then you have the second thing which is the מטרה, the goal, the purpose of Matan Torah. Now, we know that the purpose of Matan Torah is brought out in a לשון, in an expression of the Chazal. The Chazal say that כל התורה כולה לא ניתנה אלא לעשות שלום בעולם, the whole Torah was given only to make peace in the world. Now, what does that mean? Now, some people think it means that the Torah was given, that this is a tool how to make peace between people. That just in case there will be people who would argue, who would fight, who would not like each other, so we have a tool how to make peace between the people. But it's silly to say that this is the whole purpose of Matan Torah, just because in case there will be people who will fight, we need something to be able to use to bring peace between them. This is the whole purpose of Matan Torah? This is not so. This is true too, but this is not what it means that the Torah was given only to make peace in the world. What it really means is that the Torah was given to make peace between the world and Hashem, which is actually written in a different Midrash, where the Chazal say that the reason why Klal Yisrael is called Shulamit, we know Klal Yisrael has many names, one of the names is Shulamit. So the Chazal say that Shulamit comes from the word shalom, peace, and Hashem says, \"I'm calling you Shulamit because you make שלום ביני ובין עולמי, you make shalom between Me and My world,\" that the Yidden through the Torah are able to make peace between the world and Hashem. Now what does that mean? It means like this: that naturally, the way Hashem created the world, the whole creation, it's in a way that there is a conflict, a fight between the world and Hashem. And that is is because, in truth, there is nothing but Hashem, as it says, אין עוד מלבדו. He is the real, true being, and everything comes from Him, which means mainly that everything is only an expression of His will, but doesn't have its own מציאות, it's not really a true being. There is nothing but Hashem. And that is the true being of the world itself, as the pasuk says, ואמת ה׳ לעולם. The truth of the world is Hashem. So the truth is that there is only Hashem, and the world in its own is not a real existence. But the world doesn't admit to that. When you look at the world, there is no way it shows that there is a Creator, and it's only an expression of the Creator, it's only a creation of the Creator. When you look at the world, it seems to be saying that it's a מציאות for itself. So the mere fact that there is an existence of the world, that is a conflict with Hashem, that basically fights the truth of Hashem. That's why in lashon kodesh, in Hebrew, the word world is olam. Olam comes from the word העלם, which means concealment. The world conceals on the truth of Hashem. And that's why in the Zohar, the world is called עולם, עלמא דשקרא, עולם השקר, the world of falsehood. Now some people think it means that in the world we have people who don't say the truth, people are not honest. That's why it's called a world of falseness, because people are false. But that's not the peshat. The peshat is the world in its own existence is false, is a world of sheker, because in the world you don't see the emet, you don't see the truth. And that is fighting Hashem. Hashem gave us the Torah, so we should make peace between the world and Hashem, which means that we should stop the fight, stop the conflict, and make that the world should recognize the truth and not fight Hashem. But in this concept of Hashem giving us the Torah in order to make peace in the world, there are two parts to it itself. Just like the gashmiyut, when you have two people who fight or argue, and you want to make peace between them, there are two parts to it. Number one, to make sure that they don't fight. There's nothing negative going on between them, that they don't fight. And the second thing is that after you make sure that they don't fight, then you try to work that there should be a closeness between them, a kiruv. And that is the true peace. Not only that they don't fight, but they get close. That's why the word shalom, which means peace, also comes from the word shleimut, which means completion. That they become together, they together they complete and they become one entity, whether it's completely one or at least they become closer. And the same is when we say that we have to make peace between the world and Hashem, there are two parts to it. There's number one, to do things that the world should not fight Hashem, should not be negative against Hashem, and also the second thing, that we have to make that the world should, in a positive way, get closer to Hashem. Which basically are included in the two parts of סור מרע ועשה טוב. סור מרע means stay away from evil, from bad, and עשה טוב means do good. סור מרע basically are the mitzvot lo ta'aseh, the negative commandments, the 365, שס״ה לא תעשה'ס, and עשה טוב, the doing good, are the רמ״ח מצוות עשה, the 248 positive mitzvot. When we keep the mitzvot lo ta'aseh and we don't transgress any of the negative commandments, what it means is that we make sure that nothing is done that's against Hashem. So that's the first part, that we make sure that the world doesn't fight Hashem. And then when we do the positive mitzvot, what we're doing is we're making the bringing the world closer to Hashem. And these are the three things that took place at מתן תורה. Number one, that there was the התגלות השכינה, the fact that Hashem came down to us, revealed Himself to us, that's the number one thing of מתן תורה. And then at that time, He gave us the Torah which is made up of these two parts. He gave us the Torah that gave us the koach, the power, that we should be able to make that the world should not fight Hashem, the סור מרע, and also gave us the power that we should be able to make that the world should get closer to Hashem. The world should recognize the truth of Hashem and in itself reveal the truth of Hashem, get closer to Hashem. Which are the two parts in the fact that the Torah was given to make peace. So altogether we have three parts, and this is מתן תורה. Since before מתן תורה, as we said before, we have to prepare ourselves to receive the Torah, for קבלת התורה, starting from ב׳ סיון, that's why in the preparation to מתן תורה, we also have three parts which are parallel to these three parts we mentioned before by מתן תורה. In the days of preparation to מתן תורה, this is what happened: On ב׳ סיון, which was the beginning, Hashem said, as we said before, to the yidden: ואתם תהיו לי ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש. You will be to Me a nation or a kingdom of Kohanim, of priests, and a holy nation. After that, on ג׳ סיון, Hashem gave the Yidden the mitzvah of הגבלה. That's when and the שלושת ימי הגבלה started, three days of הגבלה. What's הגבלה? Hashem gave them a commandment that they should make a limit, a גבול, a border around the mountain, around הר סיני, to make sure that no one goes up to the mountain, but stays back. And that was given on the third day of סיון. On the fourth day of סיון, that's when Hashem gave us the mitzvah of פרישה, which is separation. Hashem said, \"Separate yourself from your wives. אל תגשו אל אשה.\" And basically what it means, stay away from the physical pleasures that you have. If we analyze these three things, we see how these three things fit and are parallel to the same three that we mentioned from the מתן תורה side. By מתן תורה, the first thing was Hashem said, \"I'm coming down to you.\" Hashem came down to us. There was a גילוי השכינה. On this side, we see the same. The first thing that happened was Hashem said, \"ואתם תהיו לי ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש. You will be to Me a holy nation, etc., etc.\" So this is the fact that we are Hashem's nation. Just like the first part of מתן תורה is that Hashem is to us, He came down to us, He revealed Himself to us, so from the other side in קבלת התורה, the פשט is that we are to Him. Hashem said, \"You are My nation.\" And then the other two things, which are the סור מרע ועשה טוב, to stay away from bad and to do good. Now, doing good means, as we said before, to bring the world closer to Hashem. Staying away from bad means to stay away from worldly matters to make sure that we don't get involved too much in גשמיות, which then we will fight Hashem. Those are the two things of the mitzvot of הגבלה and the mitzvah of פרישה. The mitzvah of פרישה, which is separating from the wives, which separating from the גשמיותדיקע pleasures, that is similar to סור מרע, to stay away from things that are going to make you against Hashem, that they're going to make you involved in גשמיות, that you will not be a כלי to רוחניות, you will fight Hashem, that will be negative. So that's פרישה. The mitzvah of הגבלה, the mitzvah of making a border around the mountain and not to go up, means, what Hashem wants is not to go up to the mountain. Going up to the mountain would mean that we're going up to a place which is away from the world, up to the mountain where there is גילוי השכינה, where the שכינה is, separating ourselves from the world and not doing anything to bring Godliness into the world. So Hashem said, \"Don't go up to the mountain. Stay in the world. That means do things within the world.\" So these three things, the ב׳ סיון when Hashem said, \"ואתם תהיו לי ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש,\" and then we have the two mitzvot, the mitzvah of הגבלה and the mitzvah of פרישה, represent the same three as Hashem gave us by מתן תורה, which these are the three things that we had to do to prepare ourselves in the ענין of קבלת התורה. The truth is that being that ב׳ סיון is the beginning of the preparation, so it would make sense that what happened on ב׳ סיון when Hashem said, \"ואתם תהיו לי ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש,\" is not only one of the three stages or parts, aspects of preparation to מתן תורה in the form of קבלת התורה, but in what happened on ב׳ סיון we have a hint to all three, because this is the beginning, and usually in the beginning there is the foundation of what's going to happen later. So in the beginning of ב׳ סיון, we assume that there we would have there all three. And the truth is, yes, in that statement of Hashem, \"ואתם תהיו לי ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש,\" that Hashem said on ב׳ סיון, we have all three parts. The first few words are ואתם תהיו לי, \"you will be to Me.\" That is similar to the first thing, that you will be to Me, you are My nation. Like Hashem came down to us, He said, \"You will be to Me.\" So that's the first thing of קבלת התורה, we prepare ourselves to become His. Then the second thing is ממלכת כהנים, a kingdom of kohanim. What are kohanim? Kohanim are priests. What's the concept of a priest? A priest is somebody who is a holy man. He serves Hashem. Lehavdil lehavdil, even in other religions, a priest is a person that according to their understanding, which is obviously false, but according to their understanding, that is something special and holy. So a priest is a person who is closer to that religion, closer to their god, and is able to serve god more. So a priest is somebody who is away from גשמיות, further away from גשמיות and closer to רוחניות. Now, in their understanding, in their eyes, it's their רוחניות, which is false, but that's what they think. But what we know a real kohen is, who is close to Hashem, closer to ruchniyus. As the Rambam actually explains what a kohen is, generally שבט לוי in general, but mainly a kohen, that he separates himself from the world and he gets closer to serving Hashem. So when Hashem said, \"You will be to Me a mamlechet kohanim, a nation or a kingdom of kohanim,\" those are people who are separated from the world. And then he says The גוי קדוש, a holy nation, that hints to the statement, this expression that we have, that the Yidden are called גוי אחד בארץ, as we say every Shabbos in davenen, it's based on the פסוק, גוי אחד בארץ, we are one nation in the world. And chasidus explains that what it means is not only that we are one nation, we are one nation that are able to bring Godliness into the world. גוי, a nation, אחד בארץ, that's able to bring the אחד. אחד represents השם, אחד is one. השם אחד, השם is one. גוי, a nation that אחד בארץ, that is able to bring the oneness of Hashem into the world. So when it says that we are a גוי קדוש, that comes to hint this point that we are able to bring Godliness into the world. So here, just in this pasuk that was said on ב׳ סיון, ואתם תהיו לי ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש, we have a hint to all three aspects. ואתם תהיו לי, you will be to Me. Mamlechet kohanim, a nation of priests, which means this other part which we stay away from the world, more of all the ruchniyus, and staying away from gashmiyus. So that is that there is no conflict between gashmiyus and ruchniyus. And then we have גוי קדוש, that we also have the other part, the עשה טוב, we're able to bring Godliness into the world. This is one way the Rebbe explains the preparation to מתן תורה based on ב׳ סיון.

But in a different place the Rebbe explains it in a different way, based on first an introduction of what is the true meaning of the words ממלכת כהנים, a nation of kohanim. Here we have an argument between Rashi and the Ramban. The Ramban says that the word kohanim here, ממלכת כהנים means a nation of kohanim, like we know כהנים, priests, which fits to what it says in the Mekhilta, at the time of מתן תורה, all the יידן were on the level of כהנים. And if not for what happened later, we would all be like the כהנים. So the word כהנים means כהנים. Actually the Ba'al Haturim says even more, at the time of מתן תורה, every ייד was in the level of a כהן גדול, like a high priest. Anyway, the Ramban says that this is the meaning of כהנים. Rashi says that in this פסוק the word ממלכת כהנים doesn't mean כהן, a priest, but it means שרים. שרים means officers, princes. Now, why Rashi learns that way, the Rebbe explains, even though Rashi himself writes in a different place that wherever the Torah uses the word כהן, it means a priest, whether it's כהן בנוגע the בית המקדש, means priests in the בית המקדש, or even when it uses the word כהן concerning עבודה זרה, idols, like it says that Yitro was כהן מדין, he was the כהן of מדין. So Rashi says it means he was the priest of מדין. כהן און means the priest of און. And Rashi says wherever it says כהן, it means somebody who serves a god. But here Rashi says that כהנים means שרים, officers. So why does Rashi do that? So the Rebbe explains, because if here כהנים would mean priests, then really the פסוק repeats itself, because it says you will be ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש, and a holy nation. What does a holy nation mean? Now the word holiness we know means separation. In Hebrew, Rashi explains, kedushah means perishut. Kadosh means parush, separated. And that's really what it means. When we say something is holy, how do we translate or describe holiness? Something that's more spiritual, something that's separated from the physical world, something that's more Godly. And therefore, if the pasuk would mean ממלכת כהנים, priests, then it's exactly the same as וגוי קדוש, a holy nation. ממלכת כהנים means a nation, a kingdom of people who are separated from the world, the priests, and then we say וגוי קדוש, a holy nation, which again means the same thing. So therefore Rashi learns that ממלכת כהנים here means שרים, meaning officers, princes. And according to the way Rashi learns, it comes out that the order of the pasuk is, first the pasuk says ואתם תהיו לי, you shall be to Me, which is a continuation basically to what it says in the beginning of the pasuk, previous one, והייתם לי סגולה מכל העמים, you shall be to Me a treasure out of all the nations, and then the pasuk says you will be ממלכת כהנים, which is a nation, a kingdom of officers, and then וגוי קדוש, a holy nation. And the order of these three is as follows. When it says you shall be to Me, which means you will be special to Me, it means you will be a nation among nations, but you will be chosen by Me. והייתם לי סגולה means I will choose you. And when you say choosing, it is not because the one that was chosen did anything, because the real meaning of choice is that the two that you're choosing from are both equal. If one deserves it more than the other, then that's not free choice, then you have no choice. you're taking the one that deserves. So when we say that you're choosing, it means that the person, the two who are being chosen from are equal. And the one that chooses, it's only his decision. So when Hashem says I'm choosing you from the nations, it's as if saying that you and all the nations are equal. I'm just choosing you. So that's the point where we do not see the specialty of our avodah, of what we do. And this is actually what Rashi says on the פסוק, והייתם לי קדושים, והייתם לי סגולה, so Rashi says that don't think that אתם לבדכם, you're the only ones שלי that are mine, ואין לי אחרים, I have no others. Hashem says I have others too, but I nevertheless chose you. That means that this is a level where there are still others, and we are equal as far as our side is concerned, it's only that Hashem took us. And then after that, we have the other two parts, ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש, which do describe how special we are from our side. And the specialty is as follows: We know that when it comes to have an effect on the world, to influence the world, that a Yid, through behaving properly, through serving Hashem, can influence the world, there are two things, generally speaking: There is Torah u'mitzvot, learning Torah and doing mitzvot, and then there is serving Hashem while we are involved in our own matters. We have the avodah of serving Hashem by learning Torah and doing mitzvot, and we have it by serving Hashem through our own things, while we're involved in our own physical needs, which falls under the category of בכל דרכיך דעהו and כל מעשיך יהיו לשם שמים. בכל דרכיך דעהו means in all your ways you shall know Him. That means when we are involved in our own ways, not in the ways of Hashem, not while we're involved in doing mitzvot, learning Torah and doing mitzvot, but when we're doing our own things, we're eating, and sleeping, and doing business, we shall there too know Hashem. And כל מעשיך לשם שמים also means that you shall do all your things, your own things, when you're involved in your own actions, that it should be l'shem shamayim, for the sake of Hashem. So this is also a way of serving Hashem, but that is serving Hashem within the world. So basically, we have three things: We have a level that we are similar, equal to the whole world, and we are chosen by Hashem, but that's His thing, but we, as far as we're concerned, we are a nation amongst nations. And then we have a level that we are able to, while we're involved in the world, serve Hashem with the world, which basically would mean we take worldly, materialistic matters and use it in the right way, which means we control the gashmiyut. And then we have the third level, which when we do mitzvot, these are things which are completely beyond the world. Mitzvot are not part of nature. When we serve Hashem through our own things, we're involved in nature. When a person eats, he eats because naturally he is hungry and he has to eat. He needs to eat in order to to survive, in order to live. That's natural. But he uses this nature in order to serve Hashem. Mitzvot is not something that a person has to do naturally. There is no reason naturally for a person to wake up in the morning and take a box, a leather box with leather straps, and put them around his hand and on his head. That's not a natural thing at all. This is purely beyond anything that has to do with the world, it's purely connected to Hashem. So we are able to serve Hashem while we're involved in the world and controlling, basically, the way the world is run, the way things of the nature is done, and then we have another level which is beyond that completely. And these are the two things here of ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש. The way Rashi learns, כהנים means שרים. That means officers. An officer is in control of others. He's a בעל הבית, he's a boss. So when we say we are a nature of כהנים, that means we are a nature of we are a nation of שרים, a nation of people who are the boss of the world. That means that we are involved in worldly matters, but we just control it. And then we say we are a גוי קדוש, we are a holy nation. A holy nation means, as we said before, separated from the world, that's what kedushah, as we said before, means. That is when we're involved in תורה ומצוות. So basically, this pasuk, which was said on ב׳ סיון, which is the beginning of preparation to קבלת התורה, מתן תורה, this pasuk describes all the things that happen with Yidden: One is that Hashem chose us, so that's Hashem's part, and from our side, there is nothing, we are a nation amongst nations, we are part of the world. Then we have a second thing, that not only we are chosen by Hashem as being part of the world, but we are ממלכת כהנים, we have the power of controlling the world, being involved in the world, controlling it through doing the things of nature in a way Hashem wants, so then it's controlled, that's ממלכת כהנים. And then we have the גוי קדוש, that we are a nation which could be separated from the world by doing mitzvot. we do things which are completely beyond nature, which is a different peshat than we said before that גוי קדוש comes to hint to the expression גוי אחד בארץ that we Yidden are a nation that are able to bring אחד, השם אחד, the unity of Hashem into the world. But now we're saying the simple meaning of a goy kadosh, a different peshat, that it's a nation that is separate from the world, we are involved in things which are not part of nature, we are able to be completely beyond nature. Now the truth is that even this third level of being completely beyond nature, it is not completely beyond nature because after all the mitzvot that we do are all part of this physical world, we do mitzvot with physical objects, tefillin is a physical object, tzedakah is done with a physical object, with physical money, and so too are most of the mitzvot with physical objects. It's just that within the involvement with the physical world, we have these two levels, the level of to begin with it is a natural thing that we do, we just use it leshem Shamayim or we know Hashem through this act, but it is because we're doing something natural, or we're involved in the physical world by doing something beyond nature, those are mitzvot. And basically this idea of bringing godliness into the world, whether it is through mitzvot in the form that we take worldly matters and we elevate ourselves to beyond the world or we do it through actually being involved in nature בכל דרכיך דעהו, כל מעשיך לשם שמים, but the point of having an effect on the physical world, this is the whole purpose of מתן Torah, this is why Hashem gave us the Torah, because otherwise it is hard to understand what was the big deal of מתן תורה. We know that when Hashem gave us the Torah he made a big fuss over it and there was thunder and lightning and smoke and everything, and all the things that came before it and after it and at the time of מתן תורה, it must be such a special event that Hashem made such a great fuss over it. In truth it's not understood.

We know that Torah was learned before. It says Noach learned Torah, it says Avraham studied Torah, had a yeshivah, and Yitzchak, and Yaakov, and all the time when the Yidden were in Mitzrayim they had Torah, they learned Torah. So they knew the Torah anyway, so what's the big deal when Hashem gave us the Torah? Mitzvot, even the fact that he gave us the mitzvot, they knew the mitzvot, it says קיימו האבות כל התורה כולה עד שלא ניתנה, the Avot did the whole Torah before it was even given, so they knew the mitzvot. The only thing is that before that they were not commanded to do it, they just did it voluntarily, and by מתן תורה they were commanded and from then on they had to do it. But is this enough reason to make a big fuss and something that we know anyway? Just Hashem could have just said, \"Everything that you know, just start doing it. You must do it, not like before where you were had an option whether to do it or not, now you must do it.\" Obviously, there must be something more to it. So, just in short, it says in Chassidut that the whole thing was that before that godliness was not able to penetrate into the physical world. And this explained many times in different shiurim based on Chassidut, and based on what it says in the sichot of the Rebbe, that till then there was no such thing as godliness penetrating into the physical world because godliness and physicality, materialism, are two opposites, they just don't mix. Just like it's impossible for a person to bring שכל into a physical object, as much as you'll explain an idea to a piece of wood and you'll explain it with all kinds of ways, all kinds of explanations, the piece of wood will never understand that it won't go through because they're two different worlds, so too godliness and the physical world cannot mix. So it was impossible for godliness to be in the world. But by Matan Torah Hashem came down and gave us this power that now we are able to bring godliness into the world. This explains when it says by Avraham Avinu that he wanted Eliezer to swear, and later Yaakov Avinu wanted Yosef to swear, he told him, שים נא ידך תחת ירכי, hold your hand under my thigh, and the reason was because when you swear you have to hold an object that has kedushah, that has holiness, whether it's a ספר תורה or tefillin. At that time they had no objects of kedushah. The only kedushah that they had, the only object was the mitzvah of milah which they were commanded by Hashem. That's why he said, \"Put your hand תחת ירכי,\" so this should be connected to the mitzvah of milah. But the question is if they kept all the mitzvot, so they had tefillin, they had a ספר תורה. So why couldn't Avraham tell Eliezer, \"Hold my tefillin\"? And the answer is he did have tefillin, but the tefillin were not holy because there was no such thing as holiness penetrating into גשמיות, which is all based on the Midrash where it says that a mashal of a king who had two countries, one was called Romi and one was called Suria and he made a decree that the people from Romi should not come down to Suria, people from Suria should not go up to Romi. And one day he got up and he said takes away the decree, from now on people from Romi could travel to Suria, people from Suria could travel to Romi. The same is before Matan Torah, it says a פסוק, השמים שמים לה' והארץ נתן לבני אדם. And according to this Midrash, this refers to before Matan Torah. The heaven is for Hashem, the skies are for Hashem, and the earth is for people, meaning heavenly matters Spiritual matters are for Hashem and physical matters are for human beings. But you can't mix, you can't have spiritual matters mixed with physical things. But at the time of Matan Torah, Hashem took away the decree and he said, now it's able to mix. Till then, as the midrash says, he said, העליונים לא ירדו לתחתונים, the ones from above should not come down, והתחתונים לא יעלו לעליונים, the ones from below should not go up, so they couldn't mix. And at the day of Matan Torah, Hashem nullified the decree and he said now עליונים ירדו לתחתונים ותחתונים יעלו לעליונים, the ones from above could come down, and the ones from down could go up, that means ruchniyut and gashmiyut could mix. So the whole purpose of Matan Torah is the fact that Hashem gave us the power to bring kedushah into a physical object. So now when we have a pair of tefillin, the pair of tefillin is holy, there is Godliness in the tefillin, or any other object that's used for a mitzvah has Godliness in it. And to a certain degree the same is when we use our physical objects, even if we use it for natural needs like eating and drinking, which is not a mitzvah, but if we do it l'shem shamayim, there is also a certain level of kedushah that comes into that object. And that is the whole chidush, the specialty, the thing that happened by Matan Torah. And therefore, when the pasuk says what Hashem said to Moshe to tell the Yidden on ב' Sivan to prepare them to Matan Torah, he said, ואתם תהיו לי ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש, which, as we said before, ואתם תהיו לי is the general idea that Hashem is choosing us, but from our part it's ממלכת כהנים, which means we are serving, we are the baalei batim, the boss over the nature, over the world, which is בכל דרכיך דעהו, and גוי קדוש, we are separated from the world, but in which way? Through doing mitzvot with physical matters, because this is what Matan Torah was and therefore this is the preparation to Matan Torah. Now the truth is now even when we do bring Godliness into the world, we do not see it. We can't see it with our physical eyes. But when Mashiach will come, all this will be revealed, as it says that when Mashiach will come, ונגלה כבוד השם, the glory, the honor of השם will be revealed, וראו כל בשר יחדיו, and all eyes will see כי פי השם דיבר, and the mouth of השם spoke, which means we will all see how השם created the world, but more than that, any object that was used for a mitzvah, we will see a greater level of gilui Elokus, of Godly revelation in that object, which will happen when Moshiach will come, bimheirah v'yameinu. But we have to remember that today is ב' Sivan, so today starts the preparation to Matan Torah and to Kabbalat HaTorah. And just like then the Yidden had to do things in order to be ready for Matan Torah, we too now have to do things to be ready for Shavuos, for Matan Torah, and it starts with ב' Sivan, and the statement that Hashem made on ב' Sivan gave us the foundation of what we have to prepare ourselves to, and that is to realizing that Hashem chose us, that's והייתם לי, and then to be ready to be ממלכת כהנים, to do things to control the world, meaning take the physical things that we need and use it l'shem Shamayim, and to be a גוי קדוש, a holy nation, to do things beyond the nature of the world. But while we're in the world, with the worldly matters, we will do things beyond nature, and by doing that we fulfill the wish of Hashem by giving us the Torah, and this will help us come hasten the coming of Moshiach, bimheirah v'yameinu.