France. Huh? That's what it said. No, it's say גדולי רבנים it says. So anyway, so the guy, one of the shluchim in France got a call from a guy, he says, \"Who is this Lubavitcher Rebbe? Who is this Rabbi Schneerson?\" So told him, he says, \"Why you ask?\" He says like this: he's a גלח, and he's part of a group of astrologers, and they saw, they looked into whatever they did, and they looked into and they saw on a certain day that that day is going to be very terrible problems for the Yidden. And that's the day that there was and in the paper this shliach put in an ad that the Rebbe said to be b'simcha. And he said after that day, the fact that he looked into the stars, things were wiped out. He said, \"Must have been that this person did something. Who is this guy? He was able to affect the stars.\" Anyway, מאי דעתך? The Eibershter said to Avraham Avinu, \"What do you think? What makes the... דקאי צדק במערב?\" Because the מזל צדק, that Avraham Avinu was born under the מזל צדק, and that's in מערב. And if מזל צדק is in מערב, מערב is colder. And if it's cold, it's it's against, that's what that's what the stars showed, that you don't have the heat in order to have a child. That's your problem, that's what you think. I tell you what I'll do: מהדרינא ומוקמינא ליה במזרח. So I'll take it and put it in the מזרח. If that's your problem, the Eibershter said to him. והיינו דכתיב, that's what it says לגבי אברהם: מי העיר ממזרח צדק יקראהו לרגלו. Who's the one that made to shine from מזרח the צדק? He's the one, and which Avraham Avinu was the one that caused with the Eibershter for him caused to change the מזל. Then the Gemara says weiter, ומיד שמואל נמי אין מזל לישראל. We know that שמואל also holds so. And it tells a story:

שמואל ואבלט הוו יתבי, שמואל and אבלט, אבלט was a astrologer, a goy an astrologer, they were sitting. וחזו להנהך אינשי דקאזלי, they saw people walking by going to the אגם, going to the lake, lake, it's swamp, the swamp, that's the word. אמר ליה אבלט לשמואל, so אבלט says to שמואל, \"האי גברא, see this guy who's going there, אזיל ולא אתי, he's going, he's not going to come back. דטריק ליה חיויא ומאית, a snake is going to bite him and he's going to die. I can see it in the stars.\" אמר ליה שמואל, so שמואל said to him, \"אי בר ישראל הוא, if he's a ייד, אזיל ואתי, he'll go and come back.\" אדיתבי, while they were still sitting, אזיל ואתא. Yeah, they saw him come back. קם אבלט, so Avelat was like says, \"How could that be? How could that be?\" He got up, שדייה לטוניה, he took off the guy's package, like he threw it off, and it opened up, and he looked into it. אשכח ביה חיויא דפסיק ושדי בתרתי גובי, he saw inside a snake that was cut into half, which means that the snake was going to bite him. אמר ליה שמואל, so Shmuel said to this guy, \"מאי עבדת, what did you do?\" אמר ליה, so he said like this, \"כל יומא הוה מרמינן ריפתא בחדא סלא, the whole group of us every day everyone takes his bread and puts it together, ואיכלינן, and we eat it. Everyone puts his bread into the basket and then we have a basket and everyone eats. והאידנא הוה איכא חד, and today there was one of us, דלא הוה ליה ריפתא, he didn't have any bread, והוה קא מיכסיף, and he was embarrassed. Everyone is going to put in, he's not going to put in. אמינא להו, so I said to the group, אנא קאימנא ומרימנא, today I'll like every day whoever wants I'll be the one to take care of it, to take the basket and take. כי מטא לגביה, when I came to this guy, שוואי נפשאי כי היכי דשקלי מיניה, I made it look as if I'm taking from him, and I put in, but I didn't put in his, I put in my own extra, but I made it look as if it came from him. The reason was כי היכי דלא ליכסיף, so he shouldn't be embarrassed.\" אמר ליה, so he said to him, \"מצוה עבדת, you did a mitzvah.\" ונפק שמואל ודרש,

Shmuel came out and דרש'd the פסוק, צדקה תציל ממות. The tzedakah, do a guy a favor, it saved you from death. לא ממיתה משונה אלא ממיתה עצמה, cuz sometimes we דרש'ן צדקה saves you if it should be a מיתה משונה, it should be an out death, but an unusual death. So this saves you. He said, \"No, it saves you from death בכלל. This guy was saved, he was supposed to die.\" ומיד רבי עקיבא נמי אין מזל לישראל, we find that Rabbi Akiva also holds אין מזל לישראל. Is your yahrzeit today? Yeah. Tonight? Okay, now. No, if there was a minyan we would daven, but no problem, no problem, no problem whatsoever. Yeah, where do we see that Rabbi Akiva also holds אין מזל לישראל? דרבי עקיבא הואי ליה ברתא, Rabbi Akiva had a daughter. אמרו ליה כלדאי, so the astrologers told him, \"ההוא יומא דעיילא לבי גננתא, the day she is going to go to the חופה, טריק לה חיויא ומיתא, a snake will bite her and she'll die.\" הוה דאיג אמילתא טובא, he was very worried about it, cuz the truth is what they see in the stars is true. ההוא יומא, that day, took the day of the חופה, שקלתא למכבנתא, דצתה בבי גודא, she took off her pin and she stuck it into, it's like in a piece of wood in the wall. איתרמי, it just happened, דאיסתייבא עיניה דחיויא. That that day there was a snake right there, and when she stuck in the pin, it stuck into the eyes of the snake. This was the night of the chasonah, the night before the chasonah. ולצפרא, the next morning, כי קשקלה לה, when she took it out, she pulled it out, הוה קסריך ואתי בתרה. So when she schlepped it out, a snake schlepped out, a dead snake came after it. אמר לה אבוה, so her father said to her, רבי עקיבא said to her, מאי עבדת, what did you do? אמרה ליה, she said to him, בפניא, last night in the evening, אתא עניא, a poor man came to the house, קרא אבבא, knocked on the door, he came in. But הוה טרידי כולי עלמא בסעודתא, everyone was busy preparing for the חתונה, ולית דשמעיה, no one heard him, no one took care of him. קאימנא, so I went, שקלית לסעודתאי דיהבת לי, I took the portion that you gave me, יהבתיה ניהליה, and I gave my portion away to him. אמר לה, so he said to her, מצוה עבדת, you did a mitzvah.

ונפק רבי עקיבא ודרש, and רבי עקיבא went out and he דרש'נט, צדקה תציל ממות. Tzedakah saves from death, and the same thing, ולא ממיתה משונה, אלא ממיתה עצמה, even from just a מיתה עצמה. Now there is a girsa here the opposite, huh? Is a מיתה משונה from a snake is considered a מיתה משונה? That's what one girsa here is, that punkt farkert, that it saved you not from regular מיתה, but from מיתה משונה, because here it saved her from the snake. Being bitten by a snake is called a מיתה משונה, that's what it says. But our girsa is not like that. Our girsa is that not only from a מיתה משונה, but even from any מיתה. It could be saying not only מיתה משונה from the snake, but also you're just Right, right, right. But if you get that other way, it says befeirush farkert, that regular מיתה doesn't save you, from מיתה משונה it will save you. Tzedakah being also a regular, favor? Doing, yeah, doing a person a favor. It's tzedakah? Yeah, adraba, it's tzedakah also. Or giving food to a poor man, helping a poor man Okay. Never gonna die? Doesn't mean never. But it means that so many times that you don't know, could have been you could have died, and because of the tzedakah you did, you don't. Doesn't mean only the second you're doing tzedakah. You do tzedakah, it's a zechut, it protects you. The סיפור that it was in the meal, when the chatanah the night of the meal, ani, poor man came here We just said that! We just said that! It was in the middle of the party. In the house. No, that's in the house. The house had the party. It was in the house. It's in the house, yeah. זאגט די גמרא ווייטער, ומידי דרב נחמן בר יצחק נמי אין מזל לישראל. We

see from Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak that he also holds that there is אין מזל לישראל. Where do we know? דאימיה דרב נחמן בר יצחק, the mother of Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak, this is a regular רב נחמן, אמרו לה כלדאי, stargazers, astrologers told her, בריך גנבא הוה, your son will grow up to be a ganav. לא שבקתיה גלויי רישא, she never left him without a head covering, because those days not everyone covered their heads, so she made sure his head is always covered. אמרה ליה, she said to him, כסי רישך, cover your head, כי היכי דתיהוי עלך אימתא דשמיא, so you should have יראת שמים, ובעי רחמי, daven to the Oibershter. לא הוה ידע מאי קאמרה ליה, he didn't understand why is she always telling him specials, \"keep your head covered so you should have יראת שמים\", what is that she יומא חד, one day, יתיב קא גריס תותי דיקלא, one day he was sitting learning under a dekel, under a date tree. נפל גלימא מעילויה רישיה, so the covering of his head fell off. און פונקט דען דלי עיניה, he looked looked picked up his eyes, חזא לדיקלא, he saw the dekel, saw the fruit. Wasn't his tree. אלמיה יצריה, the יצר הרע got of him, strong to him, סליק, he went up, פסקיה לכיבושא בשיניה, he cut off a date, to tear it off with his teeth. As well, I guess he couldn't pull it off with his teeth, and this was geneivah. So the moment his yarmulke fell off, that's what happened. Why? Because בעצם בטבע, he had this teva. But לפועל, she didn't, so a siman, from here we see that אין מזל לישראל, because if the mazal you can't change, then who cares whether the yarmulke, it won't change. The fact that it changed was because אין מזל לישראל.

Funny way to end the masechet. That's, that's an inyan, that's not the end. Gemara. But it shows how much you have to wear a yarmulke, that's why we wear a yarmulke. Some even say why is it called yarmulke? ירא מלכא. You're afraid of the melech, of the of the king. Some say it's it's a different word. No הדרן for the Ein Yaakov? Huh? Hard to imagine that's for all Yidden who did that No, חכמים all wore it, but not the פרומע יידן, פרומע יידן didn't wear it. It was only a חכם. Now now we can't You got the other one to buy him for the other one? Yeah. A piece? A copy? I have every, every volume. Really? Of every volume. One copy of each of these different. That's what he's saying. Comes to יורד עמו לחייו, actually. One is the Bach. Yeah, yeah. One is א׳, one is ב׳, maybe. Not the same as the order. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I could have swore the Taz writes that if you don't wear a yarmulke, don't cover your hair. No, no, no, the words. I hear you can wear a cap with a yarmulke. No. No, it's not a loose bonnet with a yarmulke. What do you mean a loose bonnet? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Loose bonnet, that's what it is. Cap or yarmulke, kippah, is there a difference? Huh? They were all talking about who wrote those books. What would he say?