Yeah. Is anybody? Yeah, yeah. It's true. Where were we up to? Here, במערבא מתנו, this goes back, the middle of נ\"ז, close to the end, I mean not close, the middle here, on this page, a page above here. So we're talking here about the pasuk where it says, ויקראו לפניו, that says here that Ezra HaSofer read the ספר ויברך עזרא את ה' אלקים הגדול. That Ezra benched the Eibershter, so it says Hashem' אלקים הגדול. What's the peshat הגדול? So we had different peshatim in הגדול. So, one peshat is, he said before, הגדול means that he said the שם המפורש. שגידלו בשם המפורש, he made Him big. So it says here במערבא מתנו, in Eretz Yisrael they learned, כהא. And Rav Gidal אמר, Rav Gidal said, גדול means שגידלו בשם המפורש. He made the Eibershter big by saying the שם המפורש. ורב Rav Matana, Rav Matana said, this is what he said: האל הגדול הגבור והנורא, that Ezra said האל הגדול הגבור והנורא. So by saying, since he said these three words, the Eibershter, that's why we call Him קל הגדול.

והא דרב מתנה, אתיא כרבי יהושע בן לוי, what Rav Matana said fits to Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi. דאמר רבי יהושע בן לוי, רבי יהושע בן לוי said, למה נקרא שמם אנשי כנסת הגדולה? Why are these people starting from Ezra, Ezra, Nechemiah, all these people of the all the way up to Shimon Hatzadik, why were they called אנשי כנסת הגדולה? In other words, that's such a great title. כנסת the great כנסת הגדולה means the the great gathering, the great assembly. Such great What's so great about them? שהחזירו עטרה ליושנה, they brought back the crown to the way it was. There was something that changed, and they brought it back, and that's their גדלות. What's the story? אתא משה, משה said, האל הגדול הגבור והנורא. Eibershter which is big, strong, and awesome, fearful. אתא ירמיה, ירמיה said, אמר, he said like this: עכו\"ם מרקדים בהיכלו, איה נוראותיו? How could we say הנורא? הנורא means that people are afraid of Him. Look, the גוים, Nevuchadnetzar with his people are dancing in the בית המקדש, screaming in the בית המקדש. They're not afraid of the Eibershter. So, איה נוראותיו? How could you say the Eibershter is fearful? לא אמר נורא. So Yirmiyahu did not say. So we find Pesukim where Yirmiyahu did not say נורא. Rashi says in פרשת חנמאל, it says עשה חסד לאלפים ומשלם עון אבות אל חיק בניהם... האל הגדול הגבור. ה' צב-אות, he didn't say. אתא דניאל, Daniel came, ואמר, he said, עכו\"ם משתעבדים בבניו, the גוים are making the Yidden work, איה גבורותיו? Where is the Eibershter so strong? לא אמר גבור. He didn't say גבור. So there's another Pasuk where it says, in the תפלה that Daniel said, and he didn't say the word גבור. אתו אינהו, came the אנשי כנסת הגדולה... Ah? עובדי כוכבים ומזלות? Oh, I said, I almost say עולם עכו\"ם... the

first thing is this all this עכו\"ם, עובדי כוכבים ומזלות, עובדי כוכבים ומזלות is all from the censor, it's not the real word. The real word is גוים or or or עובדי עבודה זרה, but they didn't want to, so what they had to, when they printed the Shas, they printed this, they had to change it, so they printed that always עכו\"ם, עובדי כוכבים ומזלות. אפילו in Tanya, so you look in, and it says עכו\"ם, and it says in the back also say ערל or גוי. So in the Rambam, the old Rambam תאקע says עכו\"ם, the new Rambam it says גוי, that גוי did this and this, they couldn't do it those days. So that's how when you read it, I always read it עובדי עבודה זרה, עכו\"ם. Anyway, so he said that where's the גבורה, לא אמר גבור. אתו אינהו, came the אנשי כנסת הגדולה, ואמרו, and they said, אדרבה, זו היא גבורתו! The strength of the great strength of the Eibershter is שכבש את כעסו! The goyim are star- in in His היכל, really, what should a person have done if someone is coming into my palace and does kick him out! He holds himself back, ונותן ארך אפים לרשעים, even to the reshaim he holds back from punishing them. That's the that's the gevurah of the Eibershter! ואלו הן נוראותיו, and what's the נוראות of the Eibershter that people are afraid? שאלמלי נוראותיו, if not that people are afraid of the אייבערשטער, אומה אחת, היכי יכלה למיקם לבין שבעים אומות? How could one nation be among the seventy, one sheep among seventy wolves? So the fact that we're existing is in shows that these people are afraid. Memeila they brought it back. Since they brought it back, so they were called אנשי כנסת הגדולה, החזירו עטרה ליושנה. I

remember once a Shavuos the Rebbe spoke on this Gemara. It's so gekacht. הן הן גבורותיו, like this. The Eibershter, the koach of the Eibershter, the koach, there's a כח הגילוי, the כח ההעלם. The כח ההעלם is stronger than the כח הגילוי, the tzimtzum. That's what he spoke. In Shul? It was Shavuos. Shavuos. Why, you remember? I've been there. I mean, we've often, words... That's Shavuos, I think it was תשל\"ח. I forgot already which. What? כ\"ד? כ\"ד or כ\"ה, I mean those those first years, those years. Those I think ר' Avraham Mayorer איז דאן געווען מיט דער רבי. That's the only year that I went steady. I got married in כ\"ז, so till then I went steady. What happened later? I got married. You got married, you had a kallah, you went... You moved you moved to Boro Park? No, I lived I lived in Crown Heights. I know, but then I never missed a farbrengen, I went always, always. So when I moved away, I lived in Boro Park, so It became harder. Okay. I came often after that, especially the but for Shavuos, the Rebbe What he meant to say is after a heart attack. After that, I never missed one, never. Anyway, so the Rebbe spoke then, that Shabbos after that, he explained it באריכות. Protected because the nations are afraid, Hashem' protects them. So, How did He protect them? He makes them afraid. He makes them afraid, simple. Yeah. פרעגט די גמרא: ורבנן, היכי סמכי אדעתייהו? The Rabbanan, meaning the first two that we said, Yirmiyah and Daniel, who took off הגבור and הנורא. How did they think to do this? ועקרו מה דאמר משה? Moshe said הקל הגדול הגבור והנורא, how were they going against that? אמר רבי יצחק בר אלעזר, so the rav said: מתוך שיודעים בהקדוש ברוך הוא שאמיתי הוא, they knew the Eibershter is true, לפיכך לא כיזבו בו, they couldn't lie. If we didn't see the gevurah of the Eibershter, we didn't see the nora of the Eibershter, and we know the Eibershter is emet, how could we lie? The whole Gemara the Rebbe explained on chassidus, cuz this is be'emet, in chassidus it's a deeper inyan. Punkt farkert, the Eibershter is not giving kochot to, that's the greatest gevurah of the Eibershter. Anyway. So, it was hidden. It's just concealed always. Actually. So, the gedlut of them is Yeah. The gedlut of them is that they saw what was hidden. They were in a פרט greater than than Yirmiyah and Daniel. Right. That's what they called gedulah. Yeah.

Going back, it said in the Mishnah בנוגע the Kohen Gadol on Yom Kippur, that he would read the Torah and he would say מברך הוא שמונה ברכות. He would say eight brachot. Which eight brachot? תנו רבנן, the רבנן explain like this, על התורה, a ברכה על התורה, כדרך שמברכים בבית הכנסת, like you make a bracha when you get an aliyah, you make a ברכה על התורה. על העבודה, and על ההודאה. Avodah is we say שמונה עשרה, רצה. And then על ההודאה is מודים. ומחילת העון, and selicha, the Oibershter is מוחל, סלח לנו, כתיקונה, that's like we say in regular. Then they had על המקדש בפני עצמו, a special bracha that the Oibershter should protect the בית המקדש, על הכהנים בפני עצמם, a bracha for the כהנים, על ישראל בפני עצמן, a special bracha for Yisrael, ועל שאר תפלה, and the rest of the tefillah. What's the שאר תפלה? תנו רבנן, שאר תפלה is this is what they said: רנה, תחנה, בקשה, these are different words of davenen, מלפניך, asking the אויבערשטער, על עמך ישראל שצריכין להושע, asking the Oibershter needs to help the Yidden. וחותם, and he finished off, בשומע תפלה, ברוך אתה ד' שומע תפלה. ואחר כך, then,

כל אחד ואחד מביא ספר תורה מביתו, then everyone brought a Sefer Torah from his house, וקורא בו, and everyone starts reading, learning the Sefer Torah. Why did everyone bring his own Sefer Torah? כדי להראות חזותו לרבים, to show it to the public, that everyone wrote made a Sefer Torah, and be'emes there's a mitzvas aseh to write a Sefer Torah, and it says, pasuk says, זה קלי ואנוהו, התנאה לפניו במצות, you have to write a nice Sefer Torah, so everyone came to show how he beautifies the Sefer Torah. And they didn't bring it on on Yom Kippur, because they couldn't carry, so they brought it to the בית המקדש ערב יום כיפור. I always think, when it comes to these public things, where did they keep, where did everyone put his Sefer Torah? Where did they hide it? Kept the Sefer Torah from from the day before, so crowded and listen, you can't even go to 770 now. Where did you put your hat in 770 in Erev Shabbos? It's Now the חלבת שרה, where is everybody? Go without a hat. You come without a hat, is this... But if you want to bring a Sefer Torah, what do you do with it? Same with the lulavim, when they came, you can't imagine what went on there. קרבן פסח, what went on there, with the millions of people, you get sick, you get squished. That was a nes. That's what they say, it was a nes. Tefillin were very tiny then. How big were the Sifrei Torah's? עומדים צפופים. אבל עומדים צפופים. But, well, it was packed. It's packed, yeah, good, but how did, how did they bring this stuff? Where did they hold, where did they hide, when they brought this Sefer Torah's? Thousands of Yidden brought a Sefer Torah, each one had a Sefer Torah before Yom Kippur and kept it there. Where did they keep it? Where were they all at? I don't know. Cubbies. For all the thousands of Yidden? No, they didn't. They had cubbies for the, they had cubbies, the לשכות, they had לשכות for the, for all the different things for the בית המקדש. There's no place for, first of all, outside to have a, but yeah, they had a locker there? No locker, I'm not, no lockers. Where did they hold? They didn't, this guy came to sell them. Yankel Lipsker says. I thought it was from 770. Yeah, the כראקע had a locker. You say no so, everyone had a locker? Can you say it again? What did you say? No, I don't want to say it again. It has to be said, that's what he meant. Zog di Gemara vayter. I got it right here. Oh, all good. You got to catch it the first time. I don't have to. You lose. Can you, it didn't pick up. I hope I hope not. הfield הרואה כהן גדול כשהוא קורא, now the Kohen Gadol did all kinds of things. So he read the Torah, but it was in different areas of the בית המקדש. He read the Torah in one area, and the קרבן that he brought, the פרים וסעירים הנשרפים was in a different place. So anybody, and people was there watching, whatever you could see, certain things they couldn't see, but certain things they could see. So some people saw the כהן גדול כשהוא קורא, he saw him reading the Torah. But the person who had a good place to see the תורה אינו רואה פרים וסעירים הנשרפים. Couldn't see when he was מקריב the פרים הנשרפים. הרואה פרים וסעירים הנשרפים, אינו רואה כהן גדול כשהוא קורא, couldn't see it. ולא מפני שאינן רשאין. Not because you're not allowed to see both. It's impossible. If you had a good place here, you couldn't get a good place here. So it was like a mashal of הקפות. By הקפות if you had a place next to the Rebbe, you didn't, you wouldn't have a place in the middle with the Rebbe. You can't have a place there, you couldn't see, you couldn't be there. You can't be in both places at the same time. Not because you're not allowed. So the Gemara peshita, well obviously. The

Gemara answers, \"No. מה דתימא, I would think it's Reish Lakish, like Reish Lakish said, דאמר ריש לקיש אין מעבירין על המצות, that you're not allowed to pass over a mitzvah. So, you're not allowed to pass over the mitzvah, so in this case, ומאי מצוה, what mitzvah are we talking about? ברוב עם הדרת מלך, that when you have a lot of people, the more you have people you have, the greater kavod for the Oybershter. So maybe they they weren't allowed to go, we thought he said the reason they didn't see both is because it's not because they weren't allowed, well obviously, why would you think they're not allowed? Why would you think they're not allowed to see both? So he says, \"Because we would have thought that there is a mitzvah of ברוב עם הדרת מלך, u'meila since there is ברוב עם הדרת מלך, so so you should, you should go try to go to both places to be able to, there should be more people in both places. So ka mashma lan that if you're not, see when is ברוב עם הדרת מלך? If you're in a place and you're going to go away, let's say there's a lot of people daveninging, and you leave, you're making it less. But, l'chatchilah it doesn't say there's ברוב עם הדרת מלך, you have to go there. So here also, there was no chiyuv to go, that's why it's not you're not over.\" So is it considered a mitzvah to watch? No. We would think it's a mitzvah to be in every place. But to watch, to watch the כהן גדול To be, yeah, to be Part of the mitzvah. part of the mitzvah, yeah. Seems like it, to watch, part of the mitzvah, yeah. Just by watching. I

remember when the Rebbe quoted this Gemara, I don't know if you remember, it started with מיהו יהודי. So the first Tisha B'Av the Rebbe said that everybody should go to the shul on Tisha B'Av and speak about מיהו יהודי. They should go to the shul and on Tisha B'Av to speak. Then the Rebbe said that whoever is going to go, he'll give a dollar. It's before the dollars, he goes right into ל\"א אלול, I don't think it was a dollar. So, I remember we went, in shul, I remember I went in the morning to a shul, and later to another shul, I went to the ספרדישע שול. We were going to try to get two dollars. No, I didn't. About מיהו יהודי in Ashdod? Yeah. מ'האט געטומלט פון דעם at the, מ'דארף וויסן, the Rebbe wanted to make a טומל. So, I remember I went to this other shul, I came over to the gabbai there, I don't remember who he was, and I asked him if I could speak in davenen, so he said, \"No.\" I spoke anyway. Es hot נישט געטויגט. He wasn't there, I ran over, they finished, the minyan finished, I gave a פאטש in tish, and I said, \"דארף וויסן az a גזירה היום.\" Anyway, so the Rebbe stood during the day, so then yes, so I had a, I came in out here, I came running, it was Tisha B'Av, I spoke, and in the, and in the morning I went to a different shul, so then afternoon, Tisha B'Av afternoon, the Rebbe stood by his door, and people went, he gave everybody two things: a letter, he gave out a letter for Tisha B'Av, and a dollar. He gave everyone who was standing. There were some bachurim who went on מרכז שליחות in the middle of the summer. So when they heard about it, so they went in their places, in the cities where they were, they also went to the shul. When they came back, they wrote to the Rebbe, they also want a dollar. Because they're allowed. So, the Rebbe answered, \"First of all, you guys got dollars, because before you went on מרכז שליחות the Rebbe would send you yes, $2.00, or whatever. And number two,\" he wrote, \"look in the Gemara in Yoma. It says here that you can't be in both places at the same time. If you saw this, you didn't see this.\" Quoted this Gemara. He said, \"הרואה כהן גדול, you're there, he, ולא מפני שאינן רשאין. But because you couldn't, so you have this zechut of being on מרכז שליחות, so you don't have this. You can't have both. You can't.\" So, remember he quoted this לשון of the Gemara, הרואה יומא דף ס\"ט ע\"א. ולא מפני שאינן Not to vote, he wanted the דעת הקהל. He wanted to, they made the people that b'meila they should make a טומל. The Rebbe America, Vadai! The Rebbe even made The Rebbe contacted Rabbi' Moshe Feinstein to make a big אסיפה in Boro Park. It didn't work, but it made a whole tuml. Rabbi' Moshe Feinstein came with all the speakers, made a whole protest. Whatever happened They didn't make protests here against things in Eretz Yisrael? ever happened, it's true, happened because there was a vadai, and the reason why certain things were limited, vadai, it could have been a million times worse. And the Rebbe, I remember, I remember the name of the man who wrote, Fouldy somebody was, Yehuda Fouldy, Yehuda Fouldy. Yehuda Fouldy, you know what his name is? His real name is Feldon. Oh, yeah? א באקאנטער from... What happened, he went to do no more. But ער האט ריינגעלייגט אין דעם. ער האט ריינגעלייגט אין דעם. The

time he used to walk with the שטעקן, like a הינק, remember, he used to limp? He came up for a bracha once, and the Rebbe told him to throw away the stick. Throw the, really? At the star... I remember when I was there. \"Throw away the stick.\" I heard about this. And he walked away, he started laughing like a joke. The Rebbe doesn't like like a joke, and he walked away. ער האט געקריגט to throw away, he said, \"I laugh, you throw away the stick.\" He laughed and threw away the stick. He swept away the stick from him, and from then on he started walking. He didn't walk perfectly, but he walked. Really? That hap- I heard about that story. Postman. Down on 777 West West West 7th. Yeah. He went into the Rebbe, into the previous Rebbe, after the war. He also had these crutches, and the Rebbe told him, \"Throw away the sticks.\" Yeah. And he became a postman. Became a postman, had to walk a lot. Yeah, he he could not. I I heard about the story, but I didn't know what it was who it was, him. Really? Yeah. That's amazing. But the but the Rebbe made a whole tuml out of מיהו יהודי, and it and it helped so much, in so many ways. Otherwise, Not only, it helped here, also. See, the the Rebbe's tuml of מיהו יהודי was not against the Israeli government only. No, no, right. It was against the whole Reform because Reform Reform geirut. Right, the geirut, right, the geirut. They were they were kashering people who Sure, making them Now they had, remember the Rebbe spoke pointedly at the beginning that they had people coming out of Russia, and so in Vienna they would stop, and all these goyim, they would give them a certificate of this, and the Rebbe made such a whole, such a tuml, and it stopped. The Rebbe took, the Rebbe then they got people to write letters, they they they hundreds of thousands. Rav Tov was involved with that, in in in in in Vienna, in Austria. Oh, yeah? Yeah, they they did a great mission there, yeah. I remember the Rebbe they made they they got petitions of people signing in Eretz Yisrael. I think they got over a million signatures. And the Rebbe spoke then that the reason there are people dying in Eretz Yisrael by terrorist attacks is because of they're not fixing מיהו יהודי. So, people wrote to Golda Meir then, she was the Prime Minister. And she was so angry. She told somebody, I remember I heard then that she told somebody that, \"I'm getting letters, thousands, hundreds of thousands of letters blaming me for everything that's happening here. If the Lubavitcher Rebbe would come to Eretz Yisrael, I'd arrest him.\" That's how the Rebbe showed how much it took on. It's a dictator, that. Yeah, well, that is. The leftist mentality. That is. Meanwhile, she was an American girl. Well, yeah, yeah, right, right. See half of the See half of the carbs is what half of what he does, and then you go to a pair of the of the of carbs, whatever. Whatever you have, you have, I guess. What is it considered that you fulfill both mitzvot? Part of a mitzvah. You're participating in that mitzvah. So, if you take part in what that is, you have a חלק. from one thing to the next. You can't make it. You won't be able to get there. There's a crowd. People are there. People chap places from 6:00 in the morning. What do you think, people didn't, people So, it depends. Some people had a feeling to hear the Torah, and some people had a feeling to see the korbanot. The same, some people would stand only by maftir, to hear the Rebbe say maftir, to hear the And some people want to hear the Rebbe dancing. It's different it's different inyanim. Maybe every year they went to a different spot. Yeah, yeah, this is a part, I don't know, maybe have מקום קבוע. Like in 770. No, but that's the way you

picture it. Yeah. And how do you think big the azarah was? Wasn't bigger than 770. Then the Beit Hamikdash was, how big was it? What? I mean and the עזרת נשים? I'm saying there's there's נשים. Then ישראלים, they didn't go. And there's נשים. But this, you had to be in the azarah. How could you see as far as he did the avodah? So, how many people had a chance to see it? So, געשטעלט. had a steady place, right? I had a steady place. In the farbrengen, yeah, yeah, yeah. By the table. Well, the all the years I was, yeah, right in the front, mamash the first one by the table. The Rebbe's table was here, Right. so Rav Yoel stood here, I stood next to him. Right, I saw pictures, yeah.