Had a lot of lamdanim and they came and they started talking. Not only that, he knew all Maharsha's in Shas baal peh. And they had this, they had a argument over where Maharsha says, and he was right every time and... and he won. So they asked him later, no one knew you could know how to learn always, you know, so he said, what's the mitzvah to like, to notify everybody I know how to learn? What do I have to be a baal gaavah? It's for me, between me and the Eibershter, I have to tell everybody? So they said, no, how come now you did it? So he said, ער האט געהאט פון רבין, פונעם צמח צדק, אז א חסידישע שוחט דארף מען געבן אויף מסירת נפש. Mimela his mesirat nefesh was to show that he can, that he know how to learn. Do you know that, Rabbi, in Cleveland, in Cleveland there was a melamed for the sixth grade, Hildesheimer, Hildesheimer. Moshe. You know of him? Sure, I knew him. Sure, I knew him. He was a, he was an unbelievable, and he was teaching sixth grade and he... Yeah, but, but everyone knew that he was a talmid chacham, everyone knew that. But he didn't conduct himself, and, you know, I mean, he wasn't, he really, I don't know why he wasn't giving shiur in, in, in Telz. He was really... No, because he wasn't from that group. You know, he wasn't from from the family, and most of the people there were in the family. He's Rabbi Chaim Stein's שוואגער. He's Rabbi Chaim Stein's brother-in-law, you remember? Yes. He had a son, a Lubavitcher in Crown Heights. I think I heard about him. What's his name? What's his first name? I remember, sure, I mean, he used to daven in the same shul I davened, where my family gedavened, in the Tz hiterman shul, you remember the Tz hiterman shul? Tz hiterman's, ah... Yeah. So I remember what a kind of... Berger, Rabbi Berger you mean? Rabbi Berger, yeah. But I remember what kind of talmid chacham he was, he was a sixth grade teacher, it was unbelievable. Yeah, yeah. But he wasn't a Lubavitcher. No, he was a talmid chacham, he was a פוילישער. He spoke actually פוילישע Yiddish. He was a פוילישער. Yeah, yeah.

ואמר רבי אלעזר, now רבי אלעזר said, מאי דכתיב, what's it try to, the pasuk where it says, לחייו כערוגת הבשם. לחייו, the לחיים, לחי are the the cheeks, should be like כערוגת הבשם. And the taitch of ערוגת הבשם means like a row of plants, בשם means of of of spices. So it means like this: אם משים אדם עצמו כערוגה זו, if a person makes himself like an ערוגה, what's an ערוגה? שהכל דשין בו, that everyone steps on, that means that he is בטל, he's an עניו. And כבשם הזה, on the other hand, it's like this spice that gives smell, שהכל מתבשמין ממנו, everyone gets this smell. It means he teaches Torah to others. So side he is an anav, side he teaches Torah, then תלמודו מתקיים, then the Talmud, his learning will be. ואם לאו, if not, אין תלמודו מתקיים, his learning will not stay with him. I think, I'm not even sure, but I think the peshat in this, the deeper peshat in these two Gemarot and all this, it's not the actual learning. You learn, why if you're a baal gaavah this this Torah won't stay with you? I mean, if you have a good head and you have a good memory, you'll remember. I mean, what's it got to do with with... What he means is a little deeper. It says that in order to take the קדושת התורה, which it should stay inside you, for that you have to have bitul. That's why the end of Shemoneh Esreh we say, ונפשי כעפר לכל תהיה פתח לבי בתורתך, ונפשי כעפר לכל תהיה פתח לבי בתורתך, what's the connection? Means, my I will be like like dust to everybody, everyone should step on me, and open my heart to Torah. What

what are the two things? The peshat is that in order to open your mind to Torah, to understand, then you just have to learn, that's all. If you learn and you have a good head, you'll remember. But in order to have a feeling of the heart, the קדושת התורה, and to the Godliness that's in Torah, for that you have to have bitul. And the reason is very pashut, because the Aibershter that's in the Torah is בלי גבול. Now how is it possible for a person with his הגבלות to grasp and to contain the בלי גבול of the Aibershter? So if you unclothe yourself of your הגבלות, of your מציאות, you're nothing, then the Aibershter could be שורה on you. You have the Aibershter in you, but if you have your gaavah, that means your מציאות, and your מציאות is is מוגבל, is a גשמי, then you can't take it. So when it says here also, that's I think it means when everyone steps on you, that means that you're mevatel yourself, then you could have תלמודו מתקיים, it stays with you, it means the kedushah of the Torah stays with you. Is that why it says starts with a bet, something? That's why it starts with, the Chumash starts with a bet, that's because the alef... Before you start learning, you have to have the bitul, you have to have the anivus. Is it also the part of yiras Hashem, if someone is...? Yeah, yeah, yeah. To have the yiras Hashem to the, to the, before you learn Torah, yeah. That

did you know ברכת התורה, when it says in the גמרא, על מה אבדה הארץ? Why Eretz Yisrael destroyed? על שלא ברכו בתורה תחילה, because they didn't say the bracha of Torah. So the meforshim ask, why didn't they say the bracha of Torah? I mean, big deal, what what... What's so hard about it, yeah. So yeah, so the Rabbeinu Yonah says, it doesn't mean they didn't say the bracha, the תלמידי Rabbeinu Yonah they write that למדו תורה הרבה. Time of the churban they learned a lot of Torah. But what they didn't remember, they didn't think, was the קדושת התורה. קדושת התורה, that that's the taytsh ברכת התורה tells you ברוך אתה ה' אלקינו מלך העולם אשר קדשנו במצותיו וצונו ונתן לנו את תורתו, His Torah. To remember that, that they didn't. They they didn't have that bitul that you're supposed to have to Torah, to feel the קדושת התורה. So they learned Torah with their mind, thinking smart. The Bach in Tur on the Tur has a big shtikel on this inyan, which you can learn it, you think it's taken straight out of a מאמר חסידות. Yes. אין תורה מתקיימת like תורה שלא לשמה? Because in the Gemara That's a derech, that's on that. All right, you've done shelo lishmah, there's shelo lishmah is one problem. Where it says lishmah is שייך אין תורה מתקיימת אלא לשמה? No, because this is If you learn lishmah, you have to have bitul, you have to you can't be an Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's because you learn shelo lishmah. But if you learn this, lishmah means that you know that it's from the Oybershter, so it's not me. And not only that, if I understand the Torah, it's a big chiddush. They

say why there were some צדיקים that wrote sefarim, chiddushim, and there were some צדיקים, great גאונים, but they didn't write any sefarim. Rabbi Nathan Adler? Rabbi Nathan Adler is a good example. Rabbi Nathan Adler was a גאון עולם, they call him the Chasam Sofer's rebbe, and unbelievable, you can't even imagine, but he didn't write any sefarim. Some people think there's a sefer called Mishnah LaGer by Rabbi Nathan Adler, but it's not him. It's a different Rabbi Nathan Adler. A different Rabbi Nathan Adler. Rabbi Nathan Adler lived in the time of the Shach, of the time That was a different Rabbi Nathan Adler. This is a different one. This was Rabbi Nathan Adler was in England, London, a different one. Anyway, it's a good example. So they once asked somebody, they said the difference is like this: How do you write a sefer with chiddushim? You sit and you learn. You have a kushya, a good kushya. You look into it, you have a kushya, you write down the kushya. Then you think about it and you happen to have a good teirutz. You write down the teirutz. Then you have another kushya and a teirutz. And then time it adds up to א גאנצע ספר, and you print a sefer. So he said like this, 'What's the pshat? I sit down and I learn. I learn, I don't understand. What's the pshat I don't understand? I'm stupid. I'm stupid, I don't understand. I have to announce to everybody that I'm stupid? Then I learn, I learn, and I khap the pshat. So I have to write it down and then print it, everyone should know how stupid I was until I reached the pshat?' No, keep it for yourself, but if you're going to say I'm going to notify everybody with I was told that they gave a מפורש'דיקע answer. People asked him and he gave a simple answer. No, I didn't say he said this. This is The answer that I was told, I don't know if it's accurate or not in history, is they said to him, 'Why don't you write down your chiddushim? You have all these wonderful chiddushim.' He said because it's תורה שבעל פה, it's asur to write. He says, 'Yeah, but it's a takanah that it shouldn't be forgotten.' He says, 'But I don't forget it.' It's not shayach, it's not nogea to me. It's assur for me to write it down. Yeah, but other people No, other people Then you have to ask him that, but that was that was the answer. It says that someone who has chiddushim and doesn't write it down doesn't write it down is over on on a certain lav. In sefarim it says that in ruchniyut he's over on that lav. You remember that? Oh. What is the answer? I forgot the answer. Can imagine that maybe the answers came so easily because that they were questions for others, but not really for him. But he didn't print this for others either. Somebody wanted Or the ones who do print. My friend, so he wrote a sefer, א רשימה פון מנהגים. So he gave me a copy. He gave me the sefer. He says, 'I'm giving it to you מתנה על מנת להחזיר.' So I said, 'What do you mean? You want it back?' 'No, no, no. I want your sefer back.' 'I'll give you my sefer, you give me your sefer.' There was another reason not to write it down, because they said they didn't want the halacha like the תקלה בידו, if they if they pasked something that was not the right way, it will be a takalah. First of all, that's by halacha, but some people wrote חידושי ש''ס. שאלות ותשובות? שאלות ותשובות is no, but that's mainly for halacha this. No, it's true, it's true. These people were were afraid of Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a So the maaseh is like this. So

who should write down? Those that are not afraid? You know the maaseh that someone came to the Tzemach Tzedek, a shochet. He said, 'Rabbi, I want to give up shechitah.' He said, 'Why?' 'I'm afraid to, it's a big achrayut.' He said, 'So who should be a shochet, the one that's not afraid?' Yirei shamayim, yirei shamayim. It says, 'לעולם יהא מיראי הוראה.' You should always be one always afraid that you're not paskening right. So you have to have yirat shamayim. The bottom line is that's all it is. It says meforash a pasuk, 'סוף דבר הכל נשמע, את האלקים ירא.' That's what it is. There's another pasuk that says, 'את כל החוקים האלה למען יראת ה' אלקיך.' Everything is to have yirat shamayim. Okay, lomir gein vayter. ואמר רבי אלעזר, רבי אלעזר said, מאי דכתיב? He said, what's the pshat in the pasuk where it says, לוחות אבן? The Aibershter, when He gave the luchot, it's לוחות אבן. So he says like this: אם משים אדם לחייו, לוחות טייטשט מען לחייו, די באקן, cheeks, He makes his cheeks כאבן זו, like this stone, like a stone שאינה נמחקת, that doesn't get erased, doesn't get melted, doesn't, תלמודו מתקיים בידו. His תלמוד מתקיים. What does that mean? So Rashi says that what does It means that if you learn so much and you make it like a stone that it doesn't get tired. Like this a person says, איך לערן, איך לערן, איך קען איך קען שוין נישט רעדן אזוי. If you learn and learn and it becomes like a stone that it doesn't get erase, doesn't then תלמודו מתקיים. You're allowed to be careful you don't lose your voice, but sometimes You have some teachers lose their voice and they can't Today, you know, today you don't learn loud. Yeah. So, we learned before you have to learn loud. So, but you have to not get nispael and continue learning, and then it stays with you. אם לאו, if not, אין תלמודו מתקיים בידו, you won't have it. So, is that the issue with the cheeks? That it should be like stone, is because we are speaking through the mouth? Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. ואמר רב אלעזר, another thing he said: מאי דכתיב, it says, מכתב אלוקים הוא חרות, it says it was the writing of השם carved out. So, he says like this: that the way the luchot were given, it was carved out in stone, meaning אלמלא לא נשתברו לוחות הראשונות, if the first luchot would not be broken, לא נשתכחה תורה מישראל, תורה wouldn't be forgotten. It's to be every word of Torah would be like when words are carved in a stone. Words that are written on a paper could be erased. Words carved in a stone are part of the stone, can't erase it. You could break the stone, but you can't the words themselves can't be erased. So, the Torah would have been so strong, but we would have been so much in us that we wouldn't we wouldn't have forgot. If the ראשונות were not broken. רב אחא בר יעקב אומר, he says another pshat: אין כל אומה ולשון יכולה לשלוט בהן, no nation would ever be able to control the יידן, שנאמר, because it says, חרות על הלוחות, it's carved on the לוחות, אל תקרא חרות אלא חירות, we would be free from all the goyim. It also says mainly it says we would be free from the יצר הרע. Had the Yidden not sinned with the חטא העגל, that would be the end. We would be finished. It says by the חטא עץ הדעת, ירדה זוהמא לעולם, טומאה came into the world. כשעמדו ישראל על הר סיני, פסקה זוהמתן, when they stood, the זוהמא went away. But then, when they חטא העגל, חזרה זוהמתן, came back. So, if not חטא העגל, the זוהמא, the tumah of the עץ הדעת would have been and that would have been the end. It's like a lose-lose for us also. No, but it says b'foal mamash every ירידה is צורך עליה, the Aibershter wouldn't make it, wouldn't allow it to happen. So, there is an aliyah that came from the second לוחות. As it says, if we

would only have the first לוחות, all we would have חמשה חומשי תורה וספר יהושע בלבד. That's all we'd have. Only five חומשים and ספר יהושע. Second לוחות, we have ספרא, ספרי, and we have ששה סדרי משנה, everything came because of the שבירת הלוחות. So, on the other hand, it came a מעלה. So, that's why it says when the Eibershter gave the לוחות, כפלים לתושיה. He gave the כפלים double. Like כפלים does literally, it means double, but that doesn't mean It means manifold. That now we have the Torah so much more. But on the other hand, we wouldn't forget. Now, we forget. The second ones were also carved? Huh? The second ones, weren't they? Some carved into the second ones also. What was the difference in the carving between the first and the second? The מ׳ was still hovering in the air. No, the first ones were מעשה אלוקים also. First one were מעשה אלוקים ומכתב אלוקים. The לוחות were made by Hashem and written by Hashem. And the second was מעשה משה ומכתב אלוקים. So, that's already a different מדרגה, it's a different ענין. Still, it was engraved though. They were still engraved. Still engraved, that's why we're able to, takeh, feel one one with Torah. That's why it says, אם בחוקותי תלכו, so the Alter Rebbe asks in Likutei Torah, why does it says pick חוקים? There's חוקים, משפטים, עדות, why חוקים? The fact it doesn't even mean חוקים, Rashi says it means עמלים בתורה, it means learning. So, he says the word בחוקותי has another meaning, לשון חקיקה, that it has to be carved out in you. When you have Torah, it has to be carved out, it has to be you one with the Torah. It shouldn't be that, 'I am who I am, I'm a מציאות. I happen to be learning Torah.' No, the Torah becomes my whole life, it becomes me. Exactly like it says here. It says חרות, well, that's exactly But was has Lubavitch ever had those guys, those תלמידי חכמים, who were big תלמידי חכמים, and they went to learn by by Schechter, by the What do you call that, Schechter's Seminary? No. Nobody ever took a job like that? To teach there? Yeah. To to teach conservative Lubavitch teachers? Not in Not in the seminary In the cemetery Seminary, I didn't see. No, but the Lubavitch Schechter took big תלמידי חכמים. Yeah, well He paid them very well. What do you need more than Lieberman? The one that wrote on Tosefta. The one that wrote on Tosefta, what is his name? He's a big gaon. He's even a member of the of the JTS What's his name? Oh. Finkelstein or the He wrote a פירוש on Tosefta. Lieberman, yeah. A געוואלדיגע פירוש, no? Yeah, Saul Lieberman. This this Conservative, the JTS. Theological Seminary. Conservative ישיבה, כביכול. So, he was a He's a big big talmid chacham. He's a big gaon, a big gaon in learning. but he belonged to the Conservative movement. How long ago? He died probably 30 years ago. No, but there were but there were some of them who were שומר תורה ומצוות, and they only taught the Torah because he's... 30 years ago. Oh, that's what I'm saying, but the thing is there were there were a lot of people that went to teach in the Conservative schools. But they were not they were not Conservative. They No, they Again, there were people that asked the Rebbe if they're allowed to teach in Conservative schools. So the Rebbe said, if on one condition if they two conditions: if you teach your sefer, not not theirs, and you could teach whatever you want, then you then adraba, then you should go. Then you should go, because that's the only way you'll be able to teach the kids. But if they tell you to teach the קיצור חומש or whatever they have, or they tell you to teach their way, then you're not allowed. That's, of course, is a... And also, if you don't go into the sanctuary. You don't walk into the sanctuary. That you're not allowed to go. Okay, מפרדין זיך פון אנדערע זאכן. אמר רב מתנה, רב מתנה said, מאי דכתיב, what is the pshat in the pasuk: וממדבר מתנה? There's a pasuk that says: וממדבר מתנה, וממתנה נחליאל, ומנחליאל... But actually, Pirkei Avot, it brings this in טייטשעס. But he asks what does it mean? So he says, very simple. אם משים אדם עצמו כמדבר הזה, If a person makes himself like a מדבר, שהכל דשין בו, a midbar is a place where everyone steps. Midbar steps, people step in our... Everywhere steps. No, but why in a desert? Because here there are places you could step, places you can't step. A midbar is nothing grows, nothing go... Yeah, the whole midbar is made to step. So if you're like that, תלמודו מתקיים בידו. Then, it means if, again, if you're batel, if you have anavah, then the whole Torah will stay with you. ואם לאו, if not, then אין תלמודו מתקיים בידו, it won't stay with you. There's a comment that Torah, a real talmid chacham can't make himself... for כבוד התורה, he can't make himself too low and be stepped on. It's not him, it's תורה הקדושה. That's that's that's 100% right, but it's very hard to judge yourself. When I take on for my kavod, is it because of the Torah or because of me personally? And the best test would be if someone would insult another talmid chacham, would I get so upset like he insulted me? It's the same Torah! א סימן that's not so pashut the 100% the Torah. עפעס א ביסל my עצמי. But, lemaaseh, The Gemara says, the Gemara says שמינית שבשמינית. A talmid chacham should, like the Rambam, an eighth of an eighth. The truth is, in Gemara there's an opinion, the halacha in Gemara: לא מינה ולא מקצתה! Not even a שמינית שבשמינית. It was another גראס פשט: שמינית שבשמינית, the eighth of the eighth. It's the eighth פסוק in the eighth פרשה. Yeah. What is the eighth פסוק in the eighth פרשה? קטנתי מכל החסדים. קטנתי. But lemaaseh the Rogatchover, he's so disguised. He's such a he's so disguised, and the hat that he wore like a porter's hat, that when they when they tried to find out whose ספר it was, and he was going around peddling the ספר, he sold it himself, yeah. Nobody believed, nobody would believe that he's the guy who wrote it! Yeah, yeah, yeah. It took them years to figure out who wrote the ספר. That's why when the Frierdiker Rebbe told him to go and meet the Rebbe by the ship, no, it was the boat. When the Rebbe came, the Frierdiker Rebbe came to America in ט״ו אדר ת״ש. The Rebbe came year over a year later, כ״ח סיון. So when the Rebbe came Naval school? Naval? Naval. So when the Rebbe came, the Frierdiker Rebbe

called in the אלטע חסידים: Rabbi Shmuel Levitin, Rabbi Simpson, Rabbi Jacobson, and and and Kazarnovsky. And he said to them, \"מיין איידעם קומט today. I would really have liked to go to greet him, but I can't. I'm sick here. Anyway, I'm sending you as שלוחי. But I want you to know who you're going to greet.\" So this is what he said. You go I heard it from Kazarnovsky himself, that the Frierdiker told him, \"You're going to greet a person who is בקי אין גאנץ ש״ס בבלי, וירושלמי, and he's בקי in all ספרי קבלה.\" And then he said, these are words he said he said, \"און ער גייט מיט א גארטל, א גארטל א גאנצן טאג.\" The Rebbe would wear a gartel under his סירטוק, א גאנצן טאג a gartel. And then the last thing is, \"און אן הוט אזוי.\" And all that is with a און אן הוט אזוי. So that's the peshat. Like this. Yeah, like not with a not with a רבנישע היטל and making so you know, חשוב'ער רב, און אן הוט and he made on his head, און אן הוט אזוי. He also lived with a hat. Yeah. Okay, let's just do a few more lines if we'll make it. רבא

בריה דרב יוסף בר חמא, the son of רב יוסף בר חמא, הוה ליה מילתא לדרב יוסף בהדיה. He had a a סכסוך, a dispute with רב יוסף. כי מטא מעלי יומא דכיפורי, when ערב יום כיפור came, אמר, he said, איזיל אפייסיה. Let me go appease him, let me what's מפייס in English? Appease him. So appease him. Appease him, whatever. The same word. No, no, no, ah? No, no, no, no, no. בר חמא, it's a different רב יוסף. אזל אשכחיה לשמעיה דקא מזג ליה כסא, he came and he noticed that the shamash of this רב יוסף is preparing to pour him wine. But those days, he didn't just have to take it from the bottle, pour it into the cup, he had to mix it with water. אמר ליה, so he said to him, הב לי דאימזג ליה אנא. You know what, let me do me a, I want to pour it. רב יוסף was blind blind, רב יוסף couldn't see. So he said, \"I want to pour it.\" יהב ליה, he gave it to him. מזג ליה, he poured it. כד טעמיה, when רב יוסף tasted it, אמר, he said, \"דמי האי מזיגא למזיגא דרבא בריה דרב יוסף בר חמא. This just tastes like the רב יוסף בר חמא, that's the kind of wine that he used to do it like that.\" אמר ליה, \"אנא הוא.\" That's me. Because he couldn't see him, didn't. אמר ליה, he said, \"ליתיב מר אכרעך ופרוש לן הני קראי.\" Don't sit down. In other words, you wanted to show him how he's happy with him, \"I want to hear a peshat from you. Don't even sit down till you tell me the peshat in this pasuk. מאי דכתיב, what's the פשט, וממדבר מתנה ומתנה נחליאל ומנחליאל במות ומבמות הגיא?\"

אמר ליה, like this, אם משים אדם עצמו כמדבר הזה שהכל דשין בו, so first if you make yourself like a מדבר, תורה ניתנה לו במתנה, you get the תורה במתנה. וכיוון שניתנה במתנה, you get it בתור מתנה, נוחלו, נוחלו קל. So השם inherits you, שנאמר מתנה נחליאל. נחליאל is נוחלו קל. וכיוון שנוחלו קל, when the אויבערשטער inherits you, עולה לגדולה, you become big, שנאמר ומנחליאל במות. במות, you make, stay there, but then if you become a בעל גאווה, הקדוש ברוך הוא משפילו, the אויבערשטער will lower you, שנאמר, it says, not in the yeah, and then the פסוק connect ומבמות הגיא. From the במות you go down all the way. ואם חוזר בו, but if you do תשובה afterwards, הקדוש ברוך הוא מגביהו, השם picks you up again, שנאמר, there's another פסוק, כל גיא ינשא, anybody is down could be picked up. Yashar koach. To be continued. Where