ארבעה ראשי שנים הם. Tonight is Chamishah Asar b'Shvat, that's why we chose this שיחה. We're getting a שיחה of Rosh Hashanah. There are four ראשי שנים. באחד בניסן ראש השנה למלכים ולרגלים. The first day of Nisan is the Rosh Hashanah for the kings and for the ימים טובים, because you have the first Yom Tov, which is Pesach, in Nisan, and for kings also, they would count the years for the kings, they would start from Nisan. In other words, if let's say a person became a king Erev Rosh Chodesh Nisan, from the from Rosh Chodesh Nisan on, it's already called the second year. So they didn't count every king according to, let's say, when his year came up. He became, let's say, in כ' Shvat he became, so next year כ' Shvat is a year, no. Nisan was the date. Anyway, this was even in Tanach? Huh? This was used even in in Tanach? Yeah, when it says in Tanach the different years for the kings, it all, yeah. Jewish kings. Says בפירוש in Gemara, מלכי ישראל. They only called years already. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sometimes it's, yeah, you look it's already not full three years, it's half. As far as years, you know, like by humans. Exactly. And then the

Mishnah finished, the last one is באחד בשבט ראש השנה לאילן. First day of Shvat is the Rosh Hashanah for the trees, that's כדברי בית שמאי, that's Beit Shammai's opinion, ובית הלל אומרים בחמשה עשר בו. Beit Hillel says the fifteenth day of Shvat, that's when is Rosh Hashanah for the trees. What's that, Rosh Hashanah for the trees? Mai nafka mina in הלכה? The Pshat is that when you when you take off מעשר, you're not allowed to mix the two years. You can't take off מן החדש על הישן, the old for the new. So when is the point? Cut off. The cut-off date? That's according to בית שמאי, ראש חודש שבט, and according to Beit Hillel, it's the fifteenth day of Shvat, which is tonight, Chamishah Asar b'Shvat. No Remez to י\"ט כסלו? Huh? No remez... Does he talk about why that why it's דברי בית שמאי instead of בית שמאי אומרים? Two years ago Rabbi Wolff was here and he spoke about it and he said a very geshmaka pshat. Very geshmaka pshat he said. What's What is it? So it's not like he said it so long, but he said a very... There is an answer. There is an answer. I mean, obviously there is an answer, but for this for this on this pshat he had very good pshat. Okay.

והנה, מלבד השייכות הכללית בין כל ד' ראשי שנים, besides the connection, the general connection between all the four ראשי שנים, there's a general connection. What's the general connection? דכיון שכולם נשנו במשנה אחת, they're all in one משנה, ונקראים בשם ראש השנה, they're all called Rosh Hashanah. So muvan, from that we understand, שיש שייכות ביניהם גם בתוכן ענינם. So obviously, if they're all in the same category, it must have a connection. But besides that, there must be a connection he's going to say between the first and the last. See, what he said till now, there are four ראשי שנים, they're all connected. But הרי על פי הכלל הידוע, since we know the well-known סופן בתחלתן ותחלתן בסופן, that the beginning is connected to the end and the end to the beginning, muvan, from that we understand, שתוכן הראש השנה שנשנה בתחלת המשנה, that the meaning of the first Rosh Hashanah, which is א' בניסן ראש השנה למלכים ולרגלים, the first day of Nisan, which is the Rosh Hashanah for the kings and for the ימים טובים, שייך במיוחד לראש השנה לאילן, has a special connection to the Rosh Hashanah of the trees שנשנה בסוף המשנה, because that's the end of the Mishnah. Because the end and the beginning are connected. So Rosh Hashanah to the kings and Rosh Hashanah of the trees are shayach, connected. Now, the question he doesn't make make it בלשון question, but the she'eilah is what's the connection between Rosh Hashanah to the kings and Rosh Hashanah of the trees? זאת ועוד, more, כיון שראש השנה למלכים וראש השנה לרגלים חלים באותו יום בא' b'Nisan, we

see the Rosh Hashanah for the kings and the Rosh Hashanah for the Yom Tovim come on the same day, they're both the first day of ניסן, מסתבר שיש שייכות מיוחדת ביניהם. So it makes sense that there's a connection between the two. So there must be a connection between these three: the Rosh Hashanah to the kings with the Rosh Hashanah to the Yom Tovim with the Rosh Hashanah to the trees. All these three have some kind of connection. And what about the fourth Rosh Hashanah? No, we only have we only counted two divides. Rosh Hashanah to the kings and to the tree and to the ימים טובים is the same day. Aha. And then and then there's Rosh Hashanah on א' Tishrei. א' Tishrei for people. Then we have Rosh Hashanah for מעשר בהמה. And א' Tishrei is connected at all, or not? Yeah, because they're all they're all the same, but that's not the point. The point of the sicha is the connection between the first and the last. Oh, the first and the last. And the first is Rosh Chodesh Nisan, which is connected to the kings and the ימים טובים, which they two come together obviously, and the Rosh Hashanah for the trees. ויובן זה בהקדם מה שכתב רבינו בחיי, this will be understood based on what the Rabbeinu Bachya says, ועוד מפרשים, other מפרשים say this, שג' רגלים נקבעו על התבואה, three ימים טובים were established for the תבואה. פסח הוא בזמן האביב, פסח is when it starts blossoming, שבועות חג הקציר, שבועות is when you cut it, קציר חטים, when you cut the wheat, וחג הסוכות זמן האסיף, and Sukkos is when you gather it. So they're all connected to תבואה. וטעם הדבר שנקבעו מועדי השנה על צמיחת ה- תבואה. The reason why the ימים טובים of the year were connected, were established according to connection to something to the תבואה, al derech hachasidus, not in פשט, al derech hachasidus is like this. ובני ישראל נקראים תבואת ה'. We know that Yidden are called Hashem's תבואה, כמו שכתוב, like it says, קודש ישראל לה' ראשית תבואתו, that the Yidden are holy to Hashem, the beginning of Hashem's, the first of Hashem's תבואה. So the Yidden are called תבואה, we're called grains, we are called the the grain of Hashem. Vekatav, there's another pasuk that says, וזרעתיה לי בארץ, that I'm gonna plant her in the ground. What is this talking about? Talking about the neshamah. Just like you plant things to grow, the Eibershter planted us also. How did he plant us? כי ירידת נשמת ישראל בארץ הלזו, because the fact that the neshamot came down to this world, היא כמו זריעה בארץ. It's like you plant in the ground, in the earth, so we are planted, our neshamah really is from up there, and it's planted inside this earth, in this world. What's the purpose of planting? Should grow. והנה אמרו חז\"ל, חז\"ל say: כלום אדם זורע כור אלא להכניס כמה כורים? When a person plants a kor, he doesn't expect to get a kor back. A person plants a pound of seeds, he expects to have a pound of seed a pound grow? What did he gain? You plant a pound of seeds and you're gonna have, I don't know, 1,000 lbs. שתכלית הזריעה ריבוי הצמיחה, the purpose of planting is you have a lot of growth, שמחיטה אחת צומחות חיטים רבות, from one wheat grows many wheat. כן הוא בבני ישראל, so since we compare the Yidden to the planting of the tevuah, planting of the wheat, so by Yidden must be the same thing. שתכלית, שתכלית זריעתם בארץ, the purpose of why we were planted in the earth, meaning in this world, שהיא ירידה עצומה, couldn't say, a big kashya, why did the Eibershter send down a neshamah to this world which is such a big descent, me'igra rama רמא לבירא עמיקתא, from the highest heights to lowest lows. Why did he bring us down? In other words, why did he plant us here? היא צמיחת וגידול הנשמה, because that will make the neshamah grow, שעל ידי ירידה זו, that's by coming down, by the fact that we came down here, it grows more. כמאמר הידוע, it's known, ירידה זו צורך עלייה, that this come descent of the neshamah to this world is in order to go higher. It was by Yosef, no? Huh? Yosef HaTzaddik. He planted and he got a thousand times more, no? No, that's Yitzchak. That was in, that was in Yosef. No, Yitzchak. Yosef bought the whole world back. Yitzchak. Yeah, it's, yeah. שעל ידי ירידת הנשמה למטה, through the neshamah coming down here, הרי מתעלת למדרגה עליונה ביותר, the neshamah reaches a higher מדרגה, גבוהה ביותר מדרגת הנשמה כפי שהיתה קודם ירידתה למטה, it reaches a higher level than the neshamah before it came down. Just like when you plant whatever you plant, you get more, the neshamah was planted down here also to get more, that we get more, we grow. ועד זה, more, go further, מצמיחת התבואה יש ללמוד גם אופן עבודת השם בבני ישראל. Till now, we just learned not what a Yid should do. The mashal we had from the growth is a fact. It's just telling us you should know, just like when things are planted it makes it grow more, you should know when your neshamah came down it will get to a higher madregah. But it doesn't have anything to do with what we have to do. Now the

Rebbe says if you learn you can learn from the way תבואה grows, we can even learn how we have to behave, what our avodah has to be. And a few things: number one, צמיחת התבואה, התבואה אינה מהחיטה עצמה הנזרעת בארץ. When you plant a seed in the ground and more תבואה grows, it doesn't grow from the seed itself, אלא על ידי ריקוב החיטה הנזרעת. What happens is first that seed that's planted rots, and becomes oys. שעל ידי שהזרע נרקב ובטל לגבי כוח הצומח שבארץ, what happens, it rots. When it rots, it becomes part of the ground. In the ground you have the כוח הצומח, you have the power of growth, הרי זה מעורר את כוח הצומח שבארץ, when it rots and becomes batel, nullified to the ground, it מעורר, it awakens the koach of the ground to grow, להצמיח שיבולים של חיטים, to make wheat grow. ומזה מובן עוד עניין, there's another thing we see here, שההוספה הנעשית על ידי הצמיחה, when by growing it gets more, we said you plant one seed and you get a lot, אינה תוספת של כמות לחוד, it's not only that you get more in quantity, you planted one, now you get 100, so it's more in quantity, it's more than that, שמחיטה אחת נעשה ריבוי גדול, from one wheat becomes a lot, אלא יש לומר שהיא כמו התהוות חדשה, איכות אחרת, it's like a new thing. If the same seed would just multiply, could say, the same thing became more. We said before the seed went oys, the seed becomes batel. So there's a new thing that happens here. There is a concept of growth which comes almost like yesh me'ayin. And it takeh says in Chassidus that as a mashal for yesh me'ayin in this world, as a mashal only, is planting a seed and becomes nothing, it becomes נרקב, it becomes rotten, and then all of a sudden from nothing starts growing out. Another thing that comes out here which goes according to Chassidus, which I don't know how science says about this, that it's not that the seed grows, the כח הצומח, there is a koach of growth in the ground, and that koach of growth has nothing to do with the seed, it's there בעצם. That's the ground is. In theory, wherever you are, wherever there's ground, things should grow. The question is what should grow? An apple, an orange, wheat, what should grow? It has a כח הצומח, grows everywhere, nothing grows. When you put in the seed, and the seed rots, that pinpoints, what that's if you put in a seed of wheat, that pinpoints wheat, and is מעורר the koach in the ground that's able to grow wheat, it's able to grow anything, but it pinpoints the wheat and it makes it grow. So really what grows is the כח הצומח. It's not the seed that make As like I said, I don't know how in agriculture That means you'll take a seed, you'll put it in water, in your kitchen, kids always do it, so you see how it swells up in the water, it broke it breaks in half and then from that starts starts growing a stem. Yeah, but what what we're saying here is So it comes what you're saying is looks like from the seed, but it's not, it's the כח הצומח. אי water doesn't is not ground? Water has עפר. Yeah, it says actually in today's Rambam. All the יסודות are mixed up, all the יסודות. You can see something, yeah, but the water has all the other יסודות, has אש, רוח, מים, עפר, it has sand. The re'iyah that Chassidut brings to this is when you boil water a long, long time, you get little pebbles on the in the tchaynik. Why? Because there is little עפר, and what you're doing is separating. Anyway, so what comes out from here is that it grows from the כח הצומח. But how does it grow? That Really, distilling the water What what it looks like, yeah, but the שפלות is it's not making more, it's just getting it's getting more of a when you put it in the ground and it'll grow. Eh, but what it is is who grow what grows? The כח הצומח. The bottom line he's trying to say, the point he's trying to make here is that it only grows through bitul. If the seed wouldn't rot and become batel, it won't grow. Now from here we Huh? Disintegrates, but but from okay, as a כפי טבע, it disintegrates and causes from the Yeah, but from but the disintegrates seed, that means the seed is is batel, and the bitul of the seed is what makes it grow. So what is that He said that from growth we could see עבודת השם, דכך הוא גם בירידת ועלית נשמה. Same thing as when we say that the נשמה came down and goes up, right? The נשמה comes down, that's the planting. And then from that grows more, then the נשמה goes higher. שלדרך להגיע לצמיחת הנשמה ע״י ירידתה, so what is it that we have to do in order that a נשמה coming down should have this power of growing and going higher? היא על ידי שהאדם הוא בתנועה של ביטול. That's if the person is בטל, על דרך ענין הריקבון just like by the seed, it rots, which is batel, the way a yid could make his נשמה reach a higher level down here is by having bitul. ונפשי כעפר לכל תהיה. That says I person we say in שמונה עשרה, my נפש I am like dust, sand to everybody. דהיינו עבודה בדרך קבלת עול. What's bitul? Bitul is kabbalat ol. You could do things because you understand it. So essentially, why are you doing it? Because of yourself. I think this is a good idea. So I'm doing it because I think it's a good idea. I'm serving satisfying myself. Sometimes I don't do it because I understand, but I feel. I feel this is good, so I'm satisfying my feeling. Kabbalat ol means I don't understand and I don't know and I don't feel, and I'm just doing it, why? Because Eibershter said so. So I'm mevatel myself to the Eibershter. Because I'm taking away myself. If you do it for sechel and midot, then you're doing it for yourself. I think it's a good idea to have kabbalat ol. It's a good idea to have kabbalat ol. Yeah. שהיא ראשית העבודה ועיקרה ושרשה כמו שכתוב בתניא קדישא, which is in Tanya it says that the inyan of kabbalat ol is the beginning of every avodah, that the ikar of every avodah, and the root of every avodah. This is the the three words that the Rebbe, the Frierdiker Rebbe brings as an example. He says that the Alter Rebbe, every letter in Tanya is meduyak. Ad kedei kach he says on one ו he once spent six weeks to decide whether write the ו. And he doesn't say this is it, but it seems like it says, al derech for instance, he could have written ראשית העבודה עיקרה ושרשה. Lefo'al the Alter Rebbe writes ראשית העבודה ועיקרה ושרשה. So there was a whole debate in his mind, should he write ועיקרה ושרשה or עיקרה ושרשה, and that ו he spent six weeks deciding whether he should write this ו. Anyway, so the kabalat ol that's the bottom line, just accepting the yoke of Hashem. What's the difference in understanding this? I don't know. Okay. שעל ידי זה עליית הנשמה הנשמה וצמיחתה, by having the bitul, then when the neshamah goes up and grows, היא עלייה שלא בערך כלל, then it grows in such a what madregah no comparison to the way it was before, שנעשית כמו מציאות חדשה ממש like a new metziut. This is all parallel to the gashmiyut, just like in gashmiyut, first of all, in order to grow you have to have bitul. The the seed has to become, same thing by us, in order for our our neshamah to grow by being planted here, we have to have bitul. Then he said a second thing, that it's not just that it grows. There's like something new that happens, yesh me'ayin. So by neshamah also, when a neshamah grows down here through bitul, it's not just, okay, until now it was one madregah, now it's a higher madregah. It's a התהוות חדשה, it's complete new madregah, that the the madregah of the neshamah down here legabei up there is completely different. So that's one thing we learn out from the growth.

Another thing, ב', כשם שבזריעה גשמית נאמר, just like when you plant gashmiyut, it says, הזורעים בדמעה ברינה יקצורו. If you plant with tears, you will cut with with with happiness. הלוך ילך ובכה, if you're going and crying, נושא משך הזרע בוא יבוא ברינה נושא אלומותיו. If you're going when you're working, you're crying, then when you'll take the alumot, you'll take the bundles of wheat, you will be happy. That means, שעל ידי שזורעים בדמעה ובכי דווקא, by working through crying and and and tears, דבכי וביטול, what's cry tears? You feel ביטול, הנה ברינה יקצורו, יבוא ברינה נושא אלומותיו, you will have the simcha. That means that the bitul that we spoke about before, not only the bitul will make the growth, it'll make you have simcha, it'll make you happy. על דרך זה בעבודת בני ישראל, the same thing by Yidden, שעל ידי הביטול והזריעה בארץ, by planting, by being batel and being planted in the ground, נעשית מזה השמחה בזמן הצמיחה והגילוי. So when you grow, you have simcha. It makes you, it gives you the the true simcha. ויש לומר, the Rebbe adds, שבעבודה רוחנית, if when we talk about רוחניות, השמחה המתגלית בעת העלייה, that the simcha that happens when you get this higher מדרגה, אינה ענין צדדי לבד. It's not a side matter, she in gashmiyut it's a side matter, the simcha has nothing to do with the growth of the תבואה. It just the the simcha doesn't make it grow. It just that when you come and you see the the the crop, you see, you're happy. But in ruchniyut, it's not a side thing, דכיוון שרואה הצמיחה לכן הוא שמח, since you see it grow, and so you're happy, אלא היא שייכת לעלייה גופה. That is part of the aliyah, the aliyah of the נשמה, שזה גדר צמיחה, this that the neshamah goes higher when it grows, שהיא עלייה שלא בערך, which is called considered going higher completely in a new way, שעד שנעשה מציאות חדשה, becomes a new מציאות, היא על ידי השמחה דווקא. Simcha is part what makes it. In other words, he's saying a new thing here, that what makes a Yid reach a higher madregah? Bitul and simcha. In gashmiyut, it's not like that. In gashmiyut, you have the two things, but in a different way. Bitul makes it grow, and simcha is a side thing happens when you see the results. But in ruchniyut, it's the bitul and the simcha. They say you should talk to your plants, it helps them grow. You know, make them happy, they feel good, just talk to them. Okay. Sing to them. Yeah, sing to them. Okay, ידוע, like we know, שבענין שמחה, ah? בעולם הבא? No, no, no, down here. The neshamah's growth. Growth, yeah, it's down here. We don't see it, but the neshama is there, and it feels it. Like it's known, בענין שמחה, פורצת גדר, פורצת גדר, that simcha breaks through any any blockade, שעל ידי שמחה אמיתית נתבטלים כל הגדרים וההגבלות של אדם. If you have the true simcha, all the limitations, hagbalot of a person are battel. וזהו שהעלייה הנפלאה הנפעלת בנשמה על ידי ירידתה למטה, that's the pshat that the great aliya that happens on the neshama dying being down here, שנעשית כמציאות חדשה, can now it becomes a new מציאות, נעשית על ידי שמחה. Comes through simcha, which is פריצת כל הגדרים. When you have simcha, then you have higher than hagbalot. The neshama beforehand had certain hagbalot, and through down here, you go higher than hagbalot. What makes it happen? שמחה פורצת גדר, שמחה breaks through all hagbalot. You have to have the bitul before the simcha? You have to, you have to. You have to have the bitul before the You can't have the simcha first. No, like a like bigashmiyut. First you cry when you when you work, it's very hard labor and you can't take it anymore and you're upset, and then later you have simcha. So here also, you have to have the bitul and you have the simcha, and then that's the

greatest, you reach the highest madregot. על פי זה יש לבאר הטעם שג' רגלים נקבעו על זמני תבואת השנה, this explains why the three yamim tovim were established in connection to the time of the in connection to the תבואה, to the growth of the things that grow. שני הענינים הנ''ל, regarding the צמיחה של ענייני נשמה, the two things we said before that causes the neshama to go higher, which is one thing is bitul, which is similar to the רקבון, to the rotting of the תבואה, and the שמחה, ישנם בשלושת הרגלים. You have both of these things, you have in the yamim tovim. That's why it's connected to this, because these two have something in common. Where do we have it? Mechad gisa, on one hand, רגלים הוא לשון רגל. רגלים comes from the word רגל, which is a foot. שלכן קטן שאינו יכול להלך באחיזת ידו של אביו לעלות מירושלים להר הבית, therefore the halacha is, if a child can't walk with his father to the הר הבית, פטור מראיה. Doesn't have to go to Yerushalayim. כי שלוש רגלים כתיב, the Gemara says, it says שלוש רגלים, you have to be able to walk with your feet. וכפירוש Rashi, and Rashi says, הראוי לעלות ברגליו חייב הכתוב. Only if you're able to walk with your feet, you have to go up. So the ענין of רגלים refers to the feet. וכן איתא בגמרא, the Gemara also says, דחיגר ברגלו אחת פטור מן הראיה, שנאמר רגלים. If you're limping on one foot, you don't have to go up. Why? Because The Torah says רגלים, לשון רבים, you have to go with both feet. If you only can walk with one foot, it doesn't count. וידוע שרגל מורה על ענין של קבלת עול מלכות שמים. On one hand, we have the connection of Yom Tov with a foot. Foot always represents קבלת עול מלכות שמים. שאינו עושה רצון השם that you don't do the will of השם בכלל הבנתו והשגתו, because you understand it. אין רגש לבו, or because you have a feeling of אהבת השם ויראתו, you love Hashem and you fear him, and that's why you do the mitzvot. אלא עוסק עמך בקבלת עול, so you do it because the Eibershter said so. זה ענין הרקבון והביטול שבזרע. That's the first thing that we find in the planting has to be bitul. And the word רגל always represents, we know רגל is the bottom of the foot, and the bottom of the foot has the least חיות, has no שכל, has no מדות. So, the bottom of the foot represents maaseh, just doing it. The person goes some place just doing it because that's it. The foot listens to the head. It's that kabbalat ol. So, the רגל part of Yom Tov fits to the first part of bitul. מאידך, on the other hand, הרי הם יועדים לשמחה. We find that ימים טובים have to do with simcha. והשמחה היא מתגלה על ידי הצמיחה והעליה. That's the simcha that happens when you go up, when you have the the aliyah. That's not the real bitul. you see other people bowing down before the king you're going to bow down. Yeah, but it's not like you how do you feel about the king? Ba'adak, which you understand the greatness of the king, and this affects your bitul. You're batel because that's he's a king, that's it. Some people are batel because they're afraid if you are not batel, who knows what's going to happen to them? King who knows what he'll do to them. But in many foreign countries, this is the king, and that's it. No seichel, no middos, but the extra matter You don't have to understand his chochmah to be able to be batel. You see his his chochmah is is radiating out of him that that makes you automatically be batel to him. Yeah. That could be sometimes you understand, you see his chochmah, so you become batel. but by a Melech, it's complete kabbalas ol. No. Now, you don't understand why he's Melech, what is his greatness? If you know he's the king, that's it. That's what I mean. We have to know what you are batel to. Kabbalas ol means you're not you understand seichel this is a King, but you don't understand his greatness, you don't understand why you're batel. He's a king and you're batel. So, here we have the two inyanim of the Yomim Tovim and the two inyanim in the tzemichah of the drop. וזהו גם הנקודה המשותפת בראש השנה לרגלים וראש השנה למלכים.

Oh, now we understand the connection between the first two, the Rosh Hashanah of the Yomim Tovim and the Rosh Hashanah of the kings, because they are the same. תפקידו של מלך ישראל, the whole purpose of a king by Yidden, שהכוונה בראש השנה למלכים אלא מלכי ישראל, when we say Rosh Hashanah, Rosh Hashanah of the kings, that means Yiddishe kings. What is the purpose? הוא לפעול בכל עם ישראל את ענין הביטול להשם. The whole purpose of a king is to cause by a Yid bitul to Hashem. That's the זורעים בדמעה, like we said, when you plant, you cry, you're בטל ברקבון. שעל ידי זה הוא מעלה את בני ישראל לעליה גדולה ביותר. The king makes the Yidden go up to a higher madreigah because he's makes the Yid become batel. כי ידוע הביאור כפי שרבנו הצמח צדק, like Tzemach Tzedek explains in Derech Mitzvosecha, שענינו של מלך ישראל, what the inyan of a Melech Yisrael? Why did the Aibershter give a mitzvah to appoint a king? And the pasuk says, שום תשים עליך מלך, you should put a king on you. And what does it say, put a king on your head? עליך, שתהא אימתו עליך, the Gemara says, you should be afraid of him. In other words, the Aibershter gave a mitzvah that we should be batel to the king. What does that mean? Lichora, the Aibershter should have said, \"Be batel to me. Batel to a human being?\" So, it says the purpose of a king is, שענינו של מלך ישראל הוא להמשיך בקרב בני ישראל את הביטול למלך מלכי המלכים הקדוש ברוך הוא. The job of a king is to make the Yidden batel to the Aibershter. And he explains, הנה אף שמלך ישראל צריך להיות בתכלית השלמות של הביטול להשם, the king himself has to be completely batel to the Aibershter, כמו שאמרו רבותינו זכרונם לברכה, it says, אין על גביו אלא השם אלוקיו. A king is a person that nobody's on top of him but the Aibershter. In other words, he has no fear from anybody else. Who does he have fear from? Who is he batel to? To the Aibershter. ומשום כך, and therefore, by a king, there is a דין, שכיון שכרע שוב אינו זוקף. It's said by Shemoneh Esrei, normally you bow down at the beginning in Magen Avraham. By a king, it says, he starts off the Shemoneh Esrei by saying Baruch, bowed down, and the whole Shemoneh Esrei, he stays bowed down. That means, שאין זה ענין של זהירות, and that's not only to make him careful, שלא יגבה לבו מאחיו, To make him know that since he might think, no, he might become a בעל גאווה, after all he's a king, so we have to push him to bow down. No, אלא זה גופא עניינו של מלך. This is what a king is, להביא עצמו לביטול בתכלית, to bring himself to complete ביטול, עד שאינו יכול לזקוף עצמו לפני השם. Not only there's a halacha he has to bend down, he just can't pick himself up. He's so batel, that's how it's supposed to be, that he stays batel. ועל ידי שהעם מתבטלין ונתפסין אל המלך, by the people being batel to the king, וכמו שכתוב, like it says, שום תשים עליך מלך, you should put a king... שתהא אימתו עליך, his fear should be on you, so if you're batel to the king, נמשך בהם הביטול של המלך אל מלך מלכי המלכים הקדוש ברוך הוא. So the bitul of the מלך that he has to the Aibershter, he passes on to us, that's what connected him. That's why the Derech Tzaddik actually answers the famous kushya with Shmuel HaNavi. When the Yidden asked for a king, Shmuel HaNavi was upset, and he came to the Eibershter, the Eibershter was also upset, and the Eibershter said, \"Don't feel bad, לא אותך מאסו כי אותי.\" What does that mean? Isn't there a mitzvah to appoint a king? So when the Yidden asked, \"Let's appoint a king,\" they were mekayem a mitzvah! The answer that he gives there is there are two ways to make a king. You can make a king like all the goyim, a leader, need somebody to run the country. That's not what the Eibershter meant. The Eibershter meant make a king, it should be battel. When the Yidden asked for a king, they didn't ask for the right reasons. So the Eibershter was upset, because this is what the inyan of a king is. ויש לומר, the Rebbe adds here, שעל ידי ביטול זה שהעם אל המלך, that's why the am, the people are battel to the king, הרי מגביה ומעלה אותם למדריגה עליונה יותר. Not only it makes them battel to the Eibershter, that itself picks them up to a higher madreigah. והיות שהמלך בתכלית ההתנשאות והרוממות, since the Melech himself is very high, וכמו שכתוב, like it says by שאול המלך, משכמו ומעלה גבוה מכל העם, his shoulder was higher than everybody's head, so since he is such a high מדריגה, לכן ביכולתו להגביה ולרומם את בני ישראל לעלייה נעלית כזו, so he has the power to reach to make Yidden elevated such a high מדריגה, שלמעלה מזה שמצד עצמו, higher than what they have on their own, כדוגמת עניין הצמיחה שיתהווה דבר חדש כנ״ל, just like when you plant, you make this thing come up much not only more in quantity, but more in quality, a higher level, the king does the same thing. So here we have right away comparison between the king and the way that things grow, which is like things grow is through bittul, by the king it's also bittul, which is connected to ימים טובים, because we said the Yom Tov also has bittul, because Yom Tov is regel and regel is bittul. Now we have to see how it's connected to the second thing. What is the second thing? The simcha. והנה, בעניין שמחה של ימים, when it comes to simcha on יום טוב, יש חילוקים בין שלושת הרגלים עצמם. Every Yom Tov is a mitzvah to have simcha, but in the three ימים טובים there is difference. כמו שכתוב בילקוט, it says in Midrash Yalkut like this, אתה מוצא שלוש שמחות, we find three simchot.

Where do we find? Three times it says in the תורה שמחה: כתיב בחג, no, בחג, in Sukkos we find three times שמחה, אבל בפסח אין אתה מוצא שכתוב בו אפילו שמחה אחת. Pesach, it doesn't mention in the Torah once simcha. We do learn out that you're חייב שמחה on Pesach from from Sukkos, but in Torah it doesn't say. למה? אתה מוצא שבפסח התבואה נידונת, why? Because Pesach the תבואה is judged, ואין אדם יודע אם עושה השנה תבואה אם אינה עושה, and Pesach you still don't know if you're going to get the תבואה, if you're going to be successful or not, לפיכך אין כתיב בו שם שמחה, it doesn't written simcha. וכן אתה מוצא שאין כתיב בעצרת אלא שמחה אחת. Sukkos, Shavuos it's also once only. Pesach nothing, no times simcha, Shavuos once. ולמה כתוב בו שמחה אחת? מפני שהתבואה נכנסת בפנים, why does it does say once? Because a shtikel simcha you have, because already you brought it in. Brought it in not into the house, but you brought it in. ומה טעם אין כתיב שם שתי שמחות? מפני שפירות האילן נידונין, why doesn't it say two simchot? Because Shavuos the fruit of the tree are judged. אבל בחג, but Sukkos, לפי שהתבואה ופירות האילן מבפנים, everything is inside already, even the fruit of the tree, לפיכך כתיב בו שלוש שמחות, that's why it says three simchot. You'd think that would be by ט״ו בשבט. No, Rosh Hashanah. The new year for the trees, that's when the judgment would be for. No, it says actually judged. Specifically with the fruit trees we're talking about here. Shavuos? Shavuos. Why why then And and Sukkos They judge the water, which the water goes for the תבואה. Right. But תבואה and fruit and פירות are different. Yeah. Grain and fruit trees are two different things, so Yeah. How does that how does that connect? Connected they are, but exactly I don't know. ונמצא, so it comes out, שגודל השמחה דחג הסוכות, so according to this Midrash it comes out, what's so great the simcha of סוכות, לפי שאז פירות האילן מבפנים, because even the fruit of the tree is inside, ולא רק התבואה שנכנסה בפנים מעצרת, not only the תבואה that's inside all from Shavuos already. ויש לומר הטעם הפנימי לזה בהמשך להנ״ל, so you could explain the deeper meaning, this is a המשך to before. התנועות הנ״ל שבענין הזריעה, what we said before concerning planting, has to be bitul and שמחה, הרי הן ביתר שאת וביתר עז באילנות. By trees, we see it even more. How do we see it? שהרי אין צמיחת התבואה בגדר מציאות חדשה ממש בגלוי. When you plant תבואה, you do not see really a new thing. Why? כי גם הזרע הנזרע חיטה או שעורה, the seed that you planted was wheat or barley, שיש בו טעם, the seed that you planted had a taste, וראוי לאכילה, you could have eaten it. What happens is, from this one seed grows more. מה שאין כן בנטיעת אילנות, when you plant a tree, הרי הגרעין הנזרע אין בו טעם, the seed that you plant for the tree has no taste, והפירות הצומחים מהאילן הם איכות אחרת לגמרי מהגרעין הנזרע. What comes out is complete something different than what you planted. So,

what we said before, that you see the growth and you see the change to greater aliyah, you see it more by trees. ומטעם זה יש חילוק בין זריעה ונטיעה גם לגבי זמן הצמיחה. That's why there's a difference between planting a tree or planting a תבואה לגבי how long it takes. דבזריעה אין צורך שהות כל כך, planting seed doesn't take so long, ועיכוב and holding back מזמן הזריעה עד הצמיחה, from when you plant till it grows. מה שאין כן בנטיעה, you plant a tree, יש שהות ועיכוב רב בזמן צמיחתו. It takes a long time. You plant a seed till it grows a tree is a very long time. והיינו מצד ריחוק הערך שבין הגרעין הנזרע והפירות הצומחים. Because what you plant compared to what comes out so far apart. So, where do you see that something completely new and much better comes out? You see it more by the tree. So, that's what we see one thing. ולאידך, יש מעלה גדולה בצמיחת פירות האילן לגבי צמיחת תבואה. There's a big maalah in the trees that grow with the fruit than תבואה. Why? שפירות האילן ראויים לאכילה מיד. Whatever grows on the tree, as soon as it grows, you can eat it. Also you have to keep planting the תבואה, the seed. More work. Whereas by the tree, you have Yeah. More work. No, every every year. Every year you got to do it again and here it doesn't. Right. Yeah. But here he is saying you can eat it right away. דלא כבתבואה שהחיטה נצמחת, not like תבואה that the seed that grows אינה ראויה לאכילה כמו שהיא, as is you can't eat it. צריכה כמה מלאכות שנעשה ראוי לאכילה. You need many מלאכות, you have to grind it and you have to cook, bake it, all kinds of things. So, where is there more simcha? וזהו הטעם לגודל השמחה דחג הסוכות דווקא. That's why there's a greater simcha Sukkos. דכיוון שאז הוא לא רק אסיפת התבואה אלא גם דפירות האילן, and then, right, not only do you gather the תבואה, but also you have the fruit of the tree, which fruit of the tree has a big מעלה, נמצא שאז הוא מודגש השלימות בענין הצמיחה. So, what the growth, which the growth brings it to simcha is the greatest there. So, we see the connection here that we have in the inyan of of the trees have much more in both inyanim, in seeing the great aliyah that you get from the planting, the great difference that you have because by the תבואה the difference is not so big. Because even though we say it rots and everything, but after all you planted a seed and the same seeds come out, a lot. Here you plant a seed and a tree comes out and fruit come out. That's different. And the simcha is greater. Takes longer, it's more it's harder work to plant a tree and Harder work. It's harder work and more risk. But but you get more, but you get more at the end. More דמעה and more רנה. More רנה. Yeah. על

פי כל הנ״ל, based on all this, מובנת השייכות מראש השנה למלכים ורגלים, we'll understand the connection between the ראש השנה for the kings and for Yom Tovim, which is תחילת המשנה, the beginning of the משנה, לראש השנה לאילן, to the ראש השנה of the tree, which is סוף המשנה, the end of the Mishnah. Because know תחילתן בסופן, the beginning and the end are connected. שהעילוי הנרמז בתחילת המשנה, the great maalah that we find in the first things of the Mishnah, which is the Rosh Hashanah to the מלכים and רגלים, to the kings and the יום טובים, הצמיחה והעליה שלא בערך, which expresses by מלכים and by רגלים we see the great aliyah you get. Side by the מלך we said, the מלך brings the great aliyah by the people, and side by the inyan of רגלים, that the kabbalat ol brings the great aliyah, the ביטול, שנוגע בסופה, that's connected to the end, ראש השנה לאילן, by the tree, שבו מודגש השלימות בענין הצמיחה. Where do we really see the growth, what that happens there, is by the tree, not by the תבואה, שהוא באילנות דווקא, this is דווקא in trees, כנ״ל. ובעבודת האדם יש לומר, and when you apply that to what a person is supposed to do, you can say על פי מה שכתוב, פסוק says כי האדם עץ השדה, a man is like the tree. ואיתא בגמרא, the Gemara says it calls talmidei chachamim, this man is like a tree goes on talmidei chachamim. על פי זה, based on what we said before, המעלה דצמיחה שבאילן, the great maalah of the growth of the tree, היא מצד המעלה דתורה. Since the Gemara connects it to talmid chacham which is Torah, where do we get this great aliyah that you get by the neshamah being planted down here? And you have the great aliyah has to do with Torah. Why? דהיינו לפי שבתורה מודגש שההצלחה בה תלויה בענין היגיעה דווקא. Where do we see that it takes work work, and bitul. What is work? Work is bitul! Where do we see that bitul is the one that you need, more by Torah? שתהיו עמלים בתורה. Torah it says dehareven, which is bitul. כמאמר, like it says, יגעת ומצאת. By Torah it says you gotta hareve, you gotta work hard, toil. שעל ידי עמל ויגיעה בתורה, by working hard in תורה, הקשורים בביטול האדם, which working hard is connected to ביטול, זוכה לצמיחה והצלחה שלא בערך ליגיעה, we're zocheh to growth, much more than before, המביא לשמחה אמיתית, this brings a real simchah, הזורעים בדמעה ברינה יקצורו. Amen. As we learned, we have to have, if you learn Torah, you have to have yirat shamayim. Yirat shamayim is the inner part. Like it said before the chet, the bark of the tree, before the earth was cursed, tasted like, tasted like the fruit. So a talmid chacham has to have inside, yeah, inside the bark. The Rebbe takes this to the whole inyan. Two pages. Huh? Two pages. Yeah. Yeah. To start with. The

first thing when you come to the Rebbe is the bitul. Then you get... They used to say in Lubavitch, the train only ran to Rudnia. That's the last station. And then from there there was, you had to take a בעל עגלה to go to to the Rebbe. So there was the famous בעל עגלה, his name was Peyshe. Peyshe. A פשוטער איד, he didn't know anything, בין פסח לפסח. So people, the Chassidim used to say, when a guy came, a חשובער רב, came to the Rebbe, so he came off the train, and Fayshe בעל עגלה was standing and waiting for his pick. So the first thing he would say to the guy: הע, רעבעל, רעבעל! נעם דעם פעקל, קום ארויף! So that was the first bitul, that's the first... Already going to the Rebbe, first thing is מבטל זיך. Fayshe didn't mean that, he פשוט was a פרוסטער איד, he didn't know anything. He said, הע, רעבעל! רעבעל, they say, a Rav for nothing. רעבעל, yeah. הע, רעבעל! נעם דעם פעקל, קריך ארויף אויפן וואגן! Get the פעקל... He made him, he made him, he made him bitul. Yeah, that's the beginning! Then came bitul later on, with pushing, with everything. Then you became a keli, to absorb the kedushah. How do we have that here? How do we... Pushing! Yeah, that's it! Pushing. Good. The Rebbe could take this inyan as well, and make it... Yishar koach.