What does it say? אמרו רז\"ל, the חכמים say, שימי בין המצרים, the days of בין המצרים, which means the days of the three weeks that we have, which is between שבעה עשר בתמוז and תשעה באב, נרמזו במה שנאמר בנבואת ירמיה, it's hinted in the where it says in the pesukim, in the נבואה of ירמיה, אודות חורבן בית בית ראשון וגלות בבל, concerning the חורבן of the first בית המקדש and when they went to גלות בבל. So by the נבואה of Yirmiyah in connection to the חורבן, it says like this: The Aibershter asked Yirmiyah, \"What do you see?\" And he answered, \"מקל שקד אני רואה. I see a stick of almonds, a stick like a tree, a stick of a tree that grows almonds.\" So the Yerushalmi says, Chazal say like this: השקד הזה, just like these almonds, משעת חנטתו עד גמר בישולו, from when it starts blossoming till it finishes, ripens the fruit, עשרים ואחד יום, is 21 days, כמנין ימים שבין שבעה עשר בתמוז, ש- like the days between שבעה עשר בתמוז, שבו הובקעה העיר, when the city was broken, in other words the the walls were cracked, לתשעה באב, to תשעה באב, שבו נשרף הבית, that the בית המקדש was destroyed. So we have the בין המצרים, which is three weeks, 21 days. It's hinted in this pasuk that the Aibershter showed Yirmiyah the שקד, which takes 21 days to grow. ראש השנה ראש השנה למה? הא? Rosh Hashanah. זה ש- זה מביא על פי חסידות. We're talking the simple peshat. בפשטות משמע, בפשטות it comes out like this: שזה שזמן גידול השקדים רומז על זמן בין המצרים, the fact that the growth the time it takes to grow the almonds, that's a remez for the בין המצרים, הוא רק מפני ששניהם שווים במספר. Only because What's the What's the connection? They're both equal in number. כ\"א means 21. 21. 21. They're both the same, that's all. אבל על פי הידוע שכל עניני התורה הם בתכלית הדיוק, knowing that everything in the Torah is exact, מסתבר לומר, and it makes sense to say, שיש גם קשר פנימי ביניהם. There must be something deeper, there must be some connection between This is not just because they happen to be 21 days. ויש לבאר זה, we can explain this, על פי דברי המשנה, based on on the Mishnah where it says, שיש שני מיני שקדים. The Mishnah says

there are two types of almonds: שקדים מרים ושקדים מתוקים. We have bitter almonds and sweet ones. שקדים מרים הם מתוקים בקטנותם, the ones that are bitter are sweet when they're small, ונעשים מרים בגדלותם, and they become bitter when they grow, when they become bigger. ושקדים מתוקים, and the sweet ones, is the היפך the opposite, שבקטנותם הם מרים, when they're small, that's when they're bitter, ואחר כך בגמר בישולם נעשים מתוקים, when they finish ripening, then they become sweet. ומבואר Tzafnat Paneach, like the Rogatchover, said the Rogatchover explains, שעיקר שם שקדים הוא על הגדלים המתוקים. The main name שקדים refers to the second kind, the ones that are sweet when they're big. ואלו שבקטנותם הם מתוקים, those that are sweet when they're small, נקראים לוזים, different name. ונמצא, so it comes out, שתכונת השקד, that a שקדים which are the real almonds, the ones that become sweet, ופעולת כ\"א ימי בישול שלו, and the 21 days it takes to ripen, היא להפוך ממר למתוק. So

what takes 21 days? From when it's small to when it becomes ripe, 21 days to become from sweet from from bitter to sweet. That's what שקדים are. ויש לומר שמטעם זה נרמזו ימי בין המצרים במקל שקד. This explains why there's a remez to the בין המצרים in a מקל שקד, not only because of the number 21. כי תוכן עבודת ימים אלו, because what's the תוכן of the avodah during these days, הוא לא רק לבטל את הענין השלילי, המרירות שבהם, it's not only to be mevatel the the negative part of the בין המצרים, the the the bitter part of בין המצרים, אלא עוד זאת, it's more than that. And what he's going to say is it's to change it, to make it sweet. But it's from Shivah Asar B'Tammuz to Tisha B'Av. Right. Tisha B'Av it increases. No, no, the kavanah is, yeah, the he says the kavanah is bringing, על דרך לשון Rambam בנוגע לימי הצומות לעתיד לבוא, like the Rambam says, what's the purpose of all the fast days? להופכם לימים טובים ולימי ששון ושמחה, to change it for ימים טובים and days of happiness. That means שתמורת מרירותם, that instead of them being bitter, יהפכו הימים למתוקים ושמחים, they should change to sweet and happy. So that's what there's a remez to teach you, what is the inyan of the of of the three weeks? The inyan of the three weeks is to change from the bitterness to sweetness. So על פי זה יומתק היעוד בירמיה, this will sweeten, explain, by Yirmiyahu when the Torah, the Eibershter promised him, what did he say? והיה כאשר שקדתי עליהם לנתוש, the Eibershter says, \"Just like I was fast in breaking, כן אשקוד עליהם לבנות.\" so too will I be fast to build. What do we see here? He uses the same lashon by the breaking and by the building. The idea is to take the same thing and change it over to sweetness. שעינין השקד עצמו, the shaked itself, הוא להיפך מן הקצה אל הקצה, is opposite from one extreme to the other. שתמורת השקידה להיפך הטוב, that instead of the shekidah in the opposite of good, which is בתחלת נבואת ירמיהו, which is in the beginning of ירמיהו'ס נבואה, נעשית השקידה לטוב, it changes that the shekidah becomes good. So here we see the two inyanim. One, the connection between the shkedim is that it takes 21 days, but the tochen is that it's like shkedim. The inyan of shkedim is first they're bitter, then they become sweet. So the tochen is also that we have to change the bitterness of the three weeks into sweetness. על פי זה יש לבאר עוד פרט בנבואה זו. This could explain another detail in this nevuah. הרמז על ימי בין המצרים שבמקל שקד, the remez that we said in the for the ימי בין המצרים in this tree, the makel, the stick of שקדים, הוא מתכונת המהירות בגידול הפירות. Pshat pshat, it's because it takes 30 days, 30, 21 days for the peirot to grow. Very quick, it's the quickest of all, that's why it says by the stick of Aharon. Capers was faster. Huh? Capers is faster. What are capers? Capers aren't a real fruit. Capers is a that fruit that grows three times a year or Oh, lox. Little green ones. I'm not sure what it is. You put it on lox. That's mentioned in Berachot a lot, capers. Put on lox with cracker and with coffee, yes. Slaw, slaw I think. It's not a real fruit, maybe it's not a chashuv fruit. Anyway, it's מאכל בהמה, no? I'll tell you why shkedim, I'll tell you why. Excuse me? Oh, I'm sorry. Shkedim are bitter when they start and they're bitter when they're finished. No, sweet shkedim That's another vort. capers you have to put vinegar But he's saying here that the first part, the first part of this is the time. Yes, the time. What's wrong with capers? Capers you have to process a little bit. They have to be soaked in vinegar, marinated. You can't just eat raw capers. Capers is part of a bitter taste, you can't eat raw capers. Capers is not, it doesn't grow on its own. Almonds you can eat raw right off right off the tree, crack the shell Capers is part of a dish too. What is it? I say the almonds you can eat them raw right off the tree. Capers you have to process, you have to marinate them. Oh yeah, you can't eat it like this? Oh, so live and learn. Anyway, so that's the she'eilah here. According to the pshat pshat that the connection between מקל שקד and the ימי בין המצרים is the time, the time of what? The time of how long it takes for it to grow. Im ken, sort of stays this biur, need some extra explanation. מדוע היתה

הנבואה במקל שקד? So why was the נבואה בנוגע the stick? שראה מטה מאילן שמגדל שקדים, he saw a stick, a branch of a tree that grows שקדים, היינו שהמקל עצמו היה בלא עלים ובלא פרחים, it wasn't a tree with fruit, now it didn't have flowers, didn't have leaves, it was just a stick. ולא הראה לו ענף שיש עליו שקדים, if he showed him, and the whole purpose is to show the time it takes to grow the fruit, he should've showed him a stick with fruit, and you would say, aha, so this fruit is 21 days, a cheshbon? So that's a remez for the 21 days. לכאורה יש לומר שבזה נרמז ענין אחר. You could say another teirutz, that this is a remez for something else. מקל מורה על הכאה, stick shows for hitting. העונש והפורענות שיביא הקדוש ברוך הוא על ישראל בימים אלו. So לכאורה he wants to show that this ענין of the 21 days are days of punishment. That's why he didn't show him the fruit, he showed him a stick, a stick is punishment. And we find it a lot of places. This, like I used them by by says by by the by Sanhedrin or this they had to have a stick, and the purpose of the stick is that this was by a beis din, they would show that you get punished if you don't. Stick always shows punishment. So he wanted to show that. אבל לכאורה אין זה ביאור מספיק, that's not enough. שהרי עיקר הנבואה כאן על ענין השקידה, 'cause here the nevuah is mainly on the fastness. שוקד אני על דברי לעשותו, the Oibershter says I'm going to do it fast, soon. ואף שבכתוב זה לא נזכר בפירוש ענין הפורענות, it doesn't even say the pasuk what he's going to do, doesn't say I'm going to punish you. So the עיקר קוועטש is not the punishment. ואם כן עדיף היה לו לרמוז ענין השקידה באופן ברור וגלוי, since the whole purpose is the fastness, so he should have made it very clear through how would he make the fastness clear? על ידי ראיית פירות, by seeing the fruit, al kol panim פרח, at least the flower of the שקדים, ולא להעלים רמז זה על ידי ראיית מקל שקד, not to show the remez of how the fruit grows fast by showing him the stick. עד שירמיהו היה צריך להתבונן במקל, עד שהכיר שהוא מעץ שקד. It says, he had to look at the stick and look and see, and figure out that this stick is a stick of a tree that gives almonds. And the whole purpose was the almonds, so he should have shown him like the almonds, a tree with almonds. Huh? How can you tell? Yeah, I'm sure that people who know this this agriculture would tell. I'm sure. No, it's special. Maple wood or oak wood. Almond tree. Huh? For sure. Maybe you could see the grain, you know? You could know what it is. Maybe the other luz is not shkeidim. מקל לוז, isn't it a luz? Luz, it might be another kind, it's shkeidim, it's not... The Oibershter had to tell him \"you saw very well.\" Stam azoy, if it's something that anybody could tell by looking at it, why would the Oibershter say, \"Oh, you saw very well\"? Because you have to look very hard, you could tell. You look hard, no, he saw well that mimeila he knew the remez. You could tell by the grain on the wood that it was an almond tree. I'm sure you could, but but you can't just look at it stam azoy, you have to misbonen. But the shaila of the Rebbe is, now we're back to the question, since this could not be a good teirutz, so why didn't he not show him the fruit? Why did he show him the tree, the stick? על פי מה שנתבאר לעיל בתוכן ענין השוקד, by explaining before that it's not only the time that he wants to show him. He wanted to show him the concept of שוקד, which means changing over from bitterness to sweetness, yesh lomar, you could say, שהטעם שראה מקל דווקא, the reason why he saw a stick, הוא משום שהרמז הנ״ל שבשקדים, because this remez that we find in שקדים, הפיכת מר למתוק, the change in bitterness to sweetness, שייך למקל, שייך in the stick. Even though it's the fruit that becomes from from from bitter to sweet, but the the remez we'll see, like he'll explain it soon, is from the tree itself. Why? הסברת הענין, the explanation is like this: מובא בכמה מקומות, it says in many places, בענין שני השמות שבהם נקראו ישראל, שבטים ומטות, concerning the two names that Yidden are called: sometimes they are called שבטים, sometimes called מטות. How do they ever get called מטות? I never heard that. This week's parashah, אלה Yeah, מטות! This parashah is מטות, it's called on the שבטים. Yeah, yeah, it says ראשי המטות, in other words the ראשים of this of the He spoke to the נשיאים. וידבר משה אל ראשי המטות. One is fresh, one is not fresh. Right. Exactly, when it's cut off, one is hard, and one is still, yes, he says. ההפרש בין שבט למטה בפשטות, the difference between the word שבט and the word מטה, even though they're both branches, the word שבט is a branch, and a מטה is a stick, which is also a branch.

החילוק הוא, ששבט הוא ענף רך, שבט refers to a a a soft branch, שיש בו עדיין לחלוחית ודביקות באילן, which still has the the the the moisture from that it drew, the chayut that it drew from the tree. ועל אחת כמה וכמה כשהוא עדיין מחובר לאילן, certainly when it's still connected to the tree, it's certainly it's it's called a שבט. But even if it's taken off and it's still fresh, it's called שבט. מה שאין כן מטה, מטה הוא שלאחר שנכרת מן האילן כבר נתייבשה לחלוחיתו מקוצר, after it's cut off and it dried up, and doesn't have the לחלוחית anymore, it doesn't have the moisture anymore. אבל דווקא משום זה הרי השבט נעשה קשה וחזק, מטה. The שבט before לכאורה has a מעלה, it's still fresh, it's still alive, but it's not hard. When do you get this hardness, the stiffness? דווקא when it becomes hard, it goes away, so this שבט, which was originally soft, becomes a מטה. Why is What kind of ביאור is this? Why is this connected to Yidden? Why are Yidden sometimes called שבט, sometimes called מטה? ובדרגות עבודת של האדם, and when you apply this to the to דרגות, it's like this: שבט מרומז על בני ישראל כשהם במצב של חיבור למקורם, שבט represents the Yidden when they're still connected to their source, שבכללות הוא בזמן שבית המקדש עומד על מכונו, is the time when the בית המקדש stood, ובני ישראל יושבים על אדמתם, the Yidden lived in the land, והיו יכולים לעלות ליראות ולהשתחוות לפניו, and we were able to go up to Yerushalayim, to the בית המקדש, to go up and see Him, bow down to Him. אז נרגש בישראל החיבור למקורם, then the Yidden felt their connection to the מקור, and the מקור is called אילנא דלעילא. So, they call the tree The Eibershter is called אילנא דלעילא. מה שאין כן מטה מורה על מעמדם של בני ישראל בגלות, מטה shows when the Yidden are in גלות, שלא ניכר אז בגילוי חיבורם למקורם, that you could not see בגילוי their connection to their מקור, אותותינו לא ראינו, we do not see our signs, and then he somehow quotes in the הערה the Gemara, it doesn't it just it just quotes לשון הפסוק, yeah, Tehillim, but but it says in in in the Gemara, okay not on this פסוק ממש, that's why. The פסוק, לעושה נפלאות לבדו, לעושה נפלאות גדולות לבדו, אין בעל הנס מכיר בנסו, that we live in a point when you don't even recognize the Eibershter's נס. So I mean this whole פסוק is hester panim that we don't see this. Now, it doesn't mean there are no maasim. There are maasim. The Eibershter does, but we don't see it. Why? Because אין ידיעת אלקות. We don't see אלקות. פרט, יש עולם, space, time עבודת ה' יתברך There are עולמות and space of serving the Eibershter and there is עכובים. So, לכאורה this So, this is מטה. So, מטה is when you're cut off. But on the other hand we said a מטה shows that it's harder, stronger. אבל דוקא בעבודה זו מתגלה תקפו של איש ישראל. Davka the avodah is when a galut when we are disconnected from the tree, from the אויבערשטער that shows the strength of the Yid. What is מקל? מקל is a מקל does It's מקל is a branch, but it's a stick. No, no, we're talking about the it being a stick. We don't even mention the fact that it's a branch. מטה and שבט both mean branch, a different type of branch. מקל doesn't mention the word branch at all. It could be any A שטעקן. A שטעקן is a Now, usually a a מקל is from a tree, but you could have a made out of metal, metal can also be a מקל, but it won't be a שבט, it won't be a מטה. But the מטה of Moshe was It was called a מטה and it was made of of of sapphire. But, like you said, מקל שקד אני רואה, He's asking, מטה figuring on. Yeah, maybe explain that's a good she'elah. He says מקל because here he uses So, maybe מקל No, you're saying if if we didn't see the end yet so we don't know exactly what he's bringing up to, but if he means here the fact that it's hard already and it should've said It should've said מטה, not מקל. But could it מקל also has the same meaning? We'll see. It could be I'll I'll say something. Leaving it open for interpretation, so we have to go through the process. I don't see the he'arot. Maybe we'll We'll see the sichah. So, davka in the avodah of galut, when they are not so connected to the מקור, that's when you see the tokef, the strength of the Yid. שמתגבר על כל המניעות ועכובים. And the Yid overcomes all these obstacles. And, לוחם עם המנגדים, and he fights with the with the opposition of and he wins. עד שמגיע לשלימות העבודה. And, you come to the שלימות העבודה. שמהפך את המרירות של גלות למתיקות של גאולה. Yid has the koach of changing the bitterness of galut to the מתיקות. ולפי זה יש לומר, Oh, here he says. In this he's going to say, שהרמז במקל שבנבואת ירמיהו הוא לתוקף שבמקל. But the remez when he saw Why did he see a מקל? Because he meant the strength of it. על דרך מטה So, like he's learning that מקל מקל is a remez similar to מטה. Okay, that's why he said מקל. כי כדי להפוך ממר למתוק, Because in order to change from bitterness to sweetness, שזו היא תכונתם של שקדים, which is the תכונה, the the characteristic of almonds, זקוקים לתקפו של מקל. How could you takke change over from the bitterness to sweetness? If you're bitter, then you have מניעות ועכובים. That's a problem. It's a problem. You have to overcome something. You have to be strong. So, he wanted to show him this nekudah, that you have to change over from sweet from bitterness to sweetness. So, we ask the shailah, so why didn't he show him the שקדים? Because another way to show that פרט was showing him the hard stick, to show him that you have to have a תוקף to do it. ויש לומר שענין התוקף שבמקל שייך גם לענין המהירות שבשקד. He says the fact that we said that a מקל or a מטה has a תוקף, strong, is connected to the fact that it goes fast. שממהר להוציא פרח קודם לכל האילנות. It gives out the the the the growth, the the blossoming before other trees, and he's going to explain how that itself has a shaychus to תוקף. וזהו הפירוש הפשוט בנבואת ירמיהו. This is by by the way He says this is the פשוט פשט in the נבואה, that the מקל שקד הוא רמז שהקב\"ה ממהר לעשות דברו. Why did he say מקל שקד? Because he's doing it very fast. So, the main thing he wanted to show is that he's going to do it fast. So, שקדים have a maalah of being fast. Now we said he showed him a מקל because he wanted to show him the תוקף. So, there were a few things he's showing him here. He's showing him number number one, it's fast. He's showing him also that it's to change from sweet from dark from bitterness to sweetness and he's showing it through a stick. But they're two separate inyanim, showing him the fastness and showing him this תוקף that you need to overcome the bitterness. And now the Rebbe is going to show that they're both connected, that the fact that it shows on the fact that the the the תוקף is connected to the to the speed. What's the connection? So, he'll explain it like this.

ידוע ביאור אדמו\"ר הזקן על הפסוק ויגמל שקדים גבי מטה אהרן הכהן. The Alter Rebbe explained on the pasuk where it says that when they took the sticks into the אהל מועד and Aharon's stick grew שקדים. So, the Alter Rebbe explains, שברכת כהנים פעולתה השפעת חסד למטה בבחינת מרירות. Who? Aharon HaKohen. That's why he says, Aharon HaKohen, because this is the תכונה of Kohanim. And when they give a bracha, the bracha comes down. עד מהרה ירוץ דברו, the bracha comes down fast. כי יש השפעת חסד המעכבת. Because sometimes you have an השפעה of חסד which could be held up. בשהיה עד שנמשכה פה למטה It could wait, it could take time till it comes down here. שהרי בכל השתלשלות מהיכל להיכל, That's the לשון of Alter Rebbe, because when it comes down from the highest level, it goes through השתלשלות from one level to another, עוד דין ומשפט they judge it again, אם ראוי הוא שיומשך השפעה זו למטה. First they judge, should it come down? It comes down to the next עולם, they judge it again, they judge it again, ומעיינים בדיניה. And sometimes it could get held up. Sometimes it doesn't come down at all. איי, they פסקנ׳ד in the first מדרגה it should come down, it'll come down on something else. You need health, it could come down השפעת חסד that you learn

good. That's good Torah, yes, definitely, yeah, that's what he's talking about. דפסוקא פסיקא קרא. The same בית דין של מעלה that is above or is it a different one on each level? It's a different one on each level, yeah. השתא, כן, שכשנמשך החסד על ידי אהרן ובניו בברכת כהנים, but when the chesed comes down through Aharon and his children at ברכת כהנים, אז היה שפע, הנה נמשכת במהירות. Then it goes fast, דרך כל העולמות, באין שום מעכב. That's the maalah of a kohen, that he can bring down without no מניעות ועיכובים. וכמשל, he brings a משל of why takke could it come down and nothing stops it? A משל of a נהר גדול מאוד, a very big river, שהליכת המים הוא בתגבורת גדולה, the water goes very strong, here we get to the strongness. ולא יועיל עליהם שום מניעות ועיכובים. So even if there are sometimes things that block it, but if it goes so strong it's won't matter. כי אם הלוך ילך, if it goes it'll continue, וישטוף העצים ועפר המעכב. If there's sticks, wood, and stones to stop it and dust and sand that stops it, it'll push it because it goes strong. ומובן מזה, and from that we understand, שהמהירות שוקד בא מתגבורת להתגבר בתוקף על כל המניעות, which is the מקל, על כל המניעות ועיכובים. So here we see the connection that in order for it to come down fast, it has to be strong. So here we have this that the Oibershter showed him the stick because the stick is strong, which is as shown showing that you need a koach to change over from מר למתוק, but at the same time it shows also that this could make it come down fast because it has its tokef when it's strong and its tokef when it's being fast.

והנה, ידועים דברי השל״ה, we know the Shlah's words, ששלש פרשיות מטות-מסעי-דברים, they're three פרשיות of Matos and Masei and דברים, תמיד חלים בין המצרים, they're always in the three weeks. כי הוא דבר בעתו, why? Because it's something in its time. That means the Shlah goes with this שיטה, he's the one that writes that every פרשה has a שייכות to the time of the year. He writes it here, he writes it also בנוגע... בנוגע חנוכה, as Chanukah is always פרשת מקץ, so he always finds a connection. So he says that the פרשיות have to do with the time of the year. So here also he says the פרשיות of Matos, Masei and Devarim always come out because it's a דבר בעתו, it has to do. ומבאר כמה פרטים בהשייכות והתוכן של פרשיות אלו לימי בין המצרים. And he explains different things how the פרשיות have a connection to בין המצרים. He makes it sound like it's a chiddush that he says so. Huh? He makes it sound like it's a chiddush when he says so, like would we... By us it's not a chiddush anymore. תורה, תורה של בורא, is Torah of Hashem, it's... I know, but it could be a הוראה for the whole year. Why is it בנוגע to this time of the year? Torah of Hashem, every single פרשה... When the Eibershter wrote the Torah, there was no פרשיות made up according to the weeks, and there was no three weeks then either. Not divided into... Good, so ein hachi nami. But this is all, to us it's so pashut because the Alter Rebbe said we have to live with the times, but... No, no, no, the whole idea of the Torah is giving you instructions and give you advice and give you all... For all, for everything. So you could find... No, it doesn't say that. If it's not a peshat of it, you could find in פרשת משפטים what you have to do today. Doesn't it say that every week has... I say, yeah, the Shelah says, I mean that's exactly... I said the Shelah says this, yeah. We know that it's so pashut by us and of all the Yidden it became so pashut, but the Shelah, I don't think there's an earlier מקור for this than the Shelah. He's quoting the Shelah as the מקור. Yeah, yeah, and that's what I'm saying. There's no earlier מקור. I don't think there's an earlier מקור. But to us it's not only that, but we have to live with the parsha. Live with the parsha is not only for the time of the year. See, the Shelah is not the same as Alter Rebbe. The Alter Rebbe, live with the parsha, means if if you have lessons that you want to take. Here, he talks about the time of the year, the the Yomim Tovim that come out, that's something else. What is, in the middle of Cheshvan, what does it have to do with the week? Yeah. Regarding nothing. Right. But we have to live with it, we have to take a lesson, Avraham did this and this, we should do it too. From the Alter Rebbe you can understand, but does it have a... Yeah, but there's ein hachi nami. Ein hachi nami, the Shelah doesn't say that. I mean, he doesn't say not, but he doesn't say that it has to do. He just says that the Yomim Tovim of the week or all the special days of the week have to do with the parsha. ועל פי הנ״ל יש כאן רמז גלוי לענין דבין המצרים,

according to what we said before, there is a clear remez to the ענין of בין המצרים, בשמה של הפרשה הראשונה משלש הפרשיות האלו. The first of the three, which is Matos, they have a clear connection to בין המצרים. שעל פי מנהג ישראל, the Torah, it's called מטות על דרך מקל שקד. See, the parsha is called Matos because of this is בין המצרים whose ענין is מקל. What happens in a leap year like this, when Pinchas is the first? Look, in some years... Right, he says, he says always has to be Matos, Masei and Devarim. At all, it's also Pinchas, but he says the first, he doesn't mean Rashi as the first, the first of the three that he mentions. In other words, you didn't have to say, the word 'the first' is not important here. He said, one of the parshiyos is Matos. We find a remez between Matot and to, and בין המצרים. The way he mentions it, happens to be the first. And this year it's not. This year Pinchas. He said, when did the Rebbe say it? I don't know. Okay. I'm not sure. I don't think so. מ״ט-מ״ח, כ״ה, maybe י״ט. No, it's Matot-Masei, the 20th of the three weeks. Yes, exactly. So the set is Matot-Masei. So it's, that's why he says, שלש פרשיות אלו, from these three that the Shalah mentions. Matot, the parshiyot means שבטים, it doesn't have to be this week. I know, but why do we, we said before, why do we call the שבטים, מטות? Because because, because instead of שבט, because it's a remez, the time when they're in גלות. And it's a remez that they have a tokef. And ממילא the tokef gives you the koach to change over from רע to טוב, ממר למתוק. יש לומר שהתוכן הנ״ל שבמקל שקד ומטה, דער תוכן וואס מיר האבן געזאגט ביי מקל and מטה, which means the koach and the תוקף להפוך ממידת מטה בלתי רצוי לטוב, that you have a koach and a strength to change over from not good to good, מרומז בפרטי פרשה זו. It's not only מרומז in the name of the פרשה, מטות, but if you look in the different details of the parsha, you'll see it. What are the three things in the parsha? פרשת נדרים, מטות has נדרים, מלחמת מדין, the war with Midyan, and סיפור בני גד ובני ראובן, the story of בני גד וראובן how they got they they asked for the land in עבר הירדן, and they got it. So he explains every one of the three things, how it's שייכות to this ענין that we said before. First, in

נדרים: ידוע, ידוע הפירוש במאמר חז״ל בענין הנדרים, we know the pshat in the מאמר חז״ל by נדרים, שנראים כסותרים זה את זה, that there's two ma'amarei Chazal that seem to contradict by Nedarim: שבמקום אחד אמרו, in one place they say נדרים סייג לפרישות. In Pirkei Avot it says that it's very good to make Nedarim. If a person wants to be parush from olam hazeh, wants to be parush from aveirot, you make Nedarim, make a neder you won't do this, you won't do this. ובירושלמי אמרו, on the other hand it's said in ירושלמי, לא דייך מה שאסרה תורה? It said in the Yerushalmi, don't make Nedarim. What the Torah asked, isn't that enough? As a matter of fact, afilu in the Gemara it says that why does a nazir bring a chatat after he finishes his nezirut? Bring the chatat, what what's the chatat for? Sin. He said like this: he sinned, what did he sin? He added to the words of Torah, he wanted to be מפריש himself from yayin, which Torah said you should drink wine. And the Yerushalmi actually says that a person will be have to give a din vecheshbon for everything in olam hazeh that he was able to have hana'ah from and he didn't. How does this work with people that practice to live like that? Well, we'll see. That's exactly what he's going to explain. Wait, he mentioned earlier about מדבר and all of the That's exactly what he's going to say. But look, that's that's the other piece. So the she'elah is, is it good, that's what he explained, is it good to make Nedarim? וכולי, itkafya, means make a neder and make a and probably itkafya. And then you say, no, לא דייך מה שאסרה תורה. Darff zogn bli neder. That's, why you have to keep, that's itkafya. Darff zogn bli neder. Darff zogn bli neder. Yeah, cuz no, not because chas veshalom to make a neder. But מן הדין If I force myself to eat these crackers, is that itkafya? I don't really want to, but if I force myself I once told you the, someone once asked Rav Shach if nowadays there's still iskafya in food. Shluchim used to mourn חסידים מדת אתכפיא, now. So he said not to eat, not to eat something that you like nowadays is, who could hold to that iskafya? But to eat something that you don't like, that's iskafya. In other words, if someone serves you food and you don't like it, eat it anyway. To hold yourself back from eating something that they served you and it tastes good, like chicken that tastes good, not to taste it, that's not for our gigantic size. But not, but if, but even if it's not so good, still eat it. In אין אונגארישע Shulchan Aruch, אין אונגארישע Shulchan Aruch שטייט אין Shulchan Aruch: עס און טרינק און לאז זיך וואוילגיין. וואוילגיין? עס, עס, no, the Shulchan Aruch is, עס און טרינק און לאז זיך וואוילגיין. לאז זיך וואוילגיין means, and enjoy it. Have have a good time. So farbrengen, you eat the herring, you eat the crackers, because it's iskafya. But mashkeh is seldomly iskafya. Anyway, so the setirah here, in one place it says that nedarim is good, nedarim is a seyag, is a is a fence for perishut. And there it says not to make nedarim. So the answer is, שמדובר כאן בשתי מדרגות שונות בעבודת האדם. We're talking about two madregot, two different types of people or two levels of a person: בתחילת עבודה צריך להיות זהירות יתירה. In the beginning, when you start, you have to be very careful שעניני העולם לא יורידו את האדם, that if you you shouldn't allow the things of the world to make you fall, שיהיה שקוע בגשמיות וחומריות, that you should be, that puts into gashmiyut vechomeriyut. So therefore, since you have to be careful, לכן צריך להיות הפרישות מעניני העולם. You have to be separate. And you're ordering נדרים סייג לפרישות, make nedarim, you have to do it in order to make sure that you don't get sunk into gashmiyut. אבל אחר שהאדם מתעלה בעבודתו, but after a person goes higher in עבודה, ומאיר בו אור הקדושה, and the אור הקדושה shines, עד שביכולתו לברר ולזכך גשמיות העולם, until you are able to mevarer the gashmiyut of the world ולעלותו לקדושה, to bring it up to קדושה, הרי אדרבה, then now, להפך, עבודתו היא סדר הבירורים וזכוך החלקים, you should be mevarer. So as long as we're afraid that you're not going to be mevarer, not only you're not going to be mevarer, you lower yourself, not only you lower yourself, you lower the nitzotzot like the famous story with the Frierdiker Rebbe with a cup of tea, that one day there was an asifah and they served a cup of tea and one person drank half and the The guy next to him said, why you only drink half? Isn't this half jealous of the other half? Meant to say the other half you were mevarer, this this half iz geblibn. So the frierdiker overheard him, the frierdiker said, I wonder which half is jealous of which half. Could be that farkert, that the one that you drank is jealous, because if you were not mevarer it, you didn't leave it the way it is, you lowered it. So a person in the beginning which is not doesn't know if he could be mevarer it, he's takeh befeirish should stay away. Like when you're able, the high madreigah, then you should be mevarer. Huh? עם הארץ אסור לאכול בשר. Asur, yeah. After the sichah we can have a cake. Because we're in a high madreigah. Yeah. ומזה מובן, from that we understand, שפרשת נדרים מכוונת דוקא לאדם, so the פרשת נדרים mainly is said to a person שהוא בתחלת ובאמצע עבודתו, a person who is starting out, or in the middle, שלכן זקוק לפרישות מן העולם. When the Torah tells us all the דינים of the נדרים, which tells us that you when you make a נדר, this and this is the din, because it talks about a person who is not in the high madreigah. אבל התכלית שבדבר הוא, the תכלית is הפרת הנדר. What does the Torah say? That you can nullify the נדר. The אב or the בעל, whether the father or the husband, וכן התרת הנדר על ידי חכם. You could be mefer, you could matir a נדר. From here we learn out that a chacham or a Beis Din could be מתיר נדר. From the first words. Why did Moshe speak to ראשי המטות to the נשיאים, which were the chachamim? So Rashi says: to teach you that you could be מתיר נדר. So it comes out that even though the Torah is talking about נדרים, which is a lower madreigah, the תכלית of it is hatarat nedarim. שהאב והבעל והחכם בכחם לפעול, that a father or the husband or the chacham has the power to cause שגם אדם כזה, even a person like this, שמצד עצמו ומצבו, מצד his מצב himself, שזקוק לנדרים, he needs נדרים להפריש מעניני העולם, to separate him, יוכל להעלות את עניני העולם לקדושה. So they could cause the chacham could cause that you should reach a higher madreigah to be מעלה לקדושה. איז כח. ס'איז כח. הם מבטלים את הנדר, מהפכים מאיסור להיתר. They change over the איסור להיתר. That's פשוט בירור. דאס איז נישט פאראן נדרים. היינטיגע צייטן שרייבט ער אז מ'זאל נישט מאכן, פשוט נישט מאכן קיין נדרים because if you're chas v'shalom over on a neder is the worst thing. So stay away, that's why it says in in Likkutei Torah, לכן אומרים תמיד בלי נדר. I thought you don't make, you don't have to talk to chachamim. No, you can have a בית דין. Now, the בית דין, so like a chacham, so the בית דין is like a מומחה, so you can break the nedarim. But the interessante vort he says here that not only that if you make if you מבטל the neder, so then you're now going back to eating the food, let's say you made a neder not to eat the food, now you're going back, you're doing, you know what, he has a לשון here, you're changing something that was asur to mutar. It's another word. You made a neder, so you made it asur. Now, if you would eat that, you would do an aveirah, it would be קליפה, and now by מבטל נדר, you're changing over דבר אסור to mutar. Where can we change a דבר אסור to mutar? There's no place, no such thing as changing דבר אסור. Baal teshuvah, which you're not allowed to become, you're not allowed to do aveirot to become a baal teshuvah. If it happens, it happens. And here, lechatchilah there's such a thing as making a neder and then he's matir. By התרת נדרים ערב ראש השנה, ערב ראש השנה, does that give us all the same koach to...? Yeah, yeah. Chametz chametz

from Pesach, when you sell it, and then... That's not changing, it was never asur. Neder. You change, you sell it before Pesach to a goy, it's mutar. Chametz was never asur. And also it's not something that you're doing. You can say בכלל חמץ on Pesach is asur, after Pesach it's mutar. Nothing that you did. Also break your neder, that's not... Especially the in nigleh there's a whole chakirah from the Avnei Nezer. Is the איסור לכתחילה חמץ בפסח or is the איסור חמץ בפסח? Is it the gavra or the cheftza? No, not the gavra. Even if the cheftza, is it chametz, the object of chametz is אסור בפסח? So Pesach is the zman when the object is asur. Or the object of איסור לכתחילה is the combination of chametz with the zman? So when Pesach goes away, it's not the pshat that the same object became mutar. Now it's a new object. A מעמד like basar b'chalav. You'll say like this, basar is asur. You know when basar is asur? If it mixes with chalav. It makes no sense. So here... בשר בחלב is... Oh, lechatchila, when it's the combination. So you want to say there's a sevara that chametz together with the zman of Pesach, together they're asur. The עיקר לגבי, he taytsh, there's a machloket the Rambam and the Mordechai whether chametz is called דבר שיש לו מתירין. We know the din is that if you have something that's asur, and it falls into shishim or whatever, it's batal. If you have something that's דבר שיש לו מתירין, today it's asur, but another time it'll later it'll become mutar, דבר שיש לו מתירין is אפילו באלף לא בטל. Now, חמץ בפסח, the Rambam says, is דבר שיש לו מתירין. Why is חמץ במשהו? Why is chametz not become batal? Because it's not yours. No, if it's chametz No, if a piece of chametz, yours or somebody else's, falls into into kasher food, why is it not בטל בששים? חמץ במשהו. Why is חמץ במשהו? אזוי שטייט אין ספר. וואו שטייט דאס אין תורה? אזוי שטייט דאס אין ספר. So the Rambam says the reason, because it's a דבר שיש לו מתירים. דבר שיש לו מתירים is not batal. And the Mordechai says that's not the reason, because it's not a דבר שיש לו מתירים. And the reason why it's אסור במשהו, the chachamim made it אסור במשהו because of חומרא דחמץ. Since chametz is so chamur that it is בל יראה ובל ימצא, so the chachamim made it אסור במשהו. So there's a machloket here whether chametz is called דבר שיש לו מתירים or not. Lichora, it's definitely דבר שיש לו מתירים. So pshat in the machloket is, why does the Mordechai hold it's not a דבר שיש לו מתירים? But next year it will become mutar again. See, every other davar, for example, ביצה שנולדה ביום טוב is not batel. Why? Because tomorrow after Yom Tov it's mutar, but it'll never become asur again. But chametz is אסור פסח, comes next year it will become asur again, so it's not a real דבר שיש לו מתירים. But the Avnei Nezer says a pshat, that the Rambam learns that the איסור is chametz. When is חמץ אסור? Pesach. So the same object is asur today, and tomorrow it's mutar, so it's a דבר שיש לו מתירים. The Mordechai says the איסור is the combination of chametz and Pesach. After Pesach, you know why it's going to be mutar? Because it'll change the the object will change. Chametz there's no such thing, חמץ בפסח is always asur, chametz is never mutar, ela mai? It's not Pesach anymore. It's chametz! It's chametz, but it's not חמץ בפסח. You were saying, why would you say that you couldn't call it even chametz because What can't you call chametz? It's chametz! Today it's chametz. Why not? It's chametz. It's not חמץ בפסח. Okay. וזהו השייכות דפרשת נדרים למטות, that's the connection between nedarim and מטות, כי תכליתן של נדרים הפרתם. Because the tachlit of nedarim is to destroy it, to nullify it. And that is על ידי נתינת תוקף התקיף when you have the strength of the chacham or the ba'al or the av, which is the מטה, להפך מבהירות חשך לאור ומר למתוק, that you can change right away, fast, from מר למתוק, from bitter to sweet, and that's the inyan of what the nedarim is. So that's the first thing in the מטה שייכות to what we said before in the inyan of mateh. The second inyan in the parashah is מלחמת מדין. עיקר אריכות הפרשה שם אינו על דבר המלחמה ומחניהם של בני ישראל. The main part of the parashah, the אריכות, is not on the war. Doesn't say how they went to war and how they fought it, and how many people went to war, et cetera. It doesn't say all the peratim. The main thing is על דבר השלל והמלקוח של מדין. Main thing is about the loot, spoils. טהרתם והכשרתם של כלים, how you kasher the kelim. וחלוקת השלל ותרומת המכס לה׳, and how much and how you divide it, and how you gave it, and what you did to it. So it's all benoge'a the loot. Now, what is this loot, the spoils? דהיינו, כי תכלית שלימות העבודה במלחמת מדין היא, because the main avodah in מלחמת מדין, which is milchamah with קליפה, הוא לא רק ביטול קליפות, it's not just to fight with them and win over them, אלא הפיכת המר למתוק, the main thing is changing over from bad to good, from sour, from bitter to sweet, לטהר ולהעלות השלל של מדין לקדושה, to elevate it to קדושה, עד שחלק הורם נהיה תרומת ה׳, and part of it not only became kasher and became belonging to iden, which is already an hafichah, it

became chelek, part of a תרומה לה׳, so it's even a higher madregah. The third part was בנוגע בני גד ובני ראובן. What's the story there? חשש של משה היה, why did Moshe לכתחילה not agree for them to get the chelek? How did they use that for the תרומה לה׳? How did they use that for the kohen? The בית המקדש, the Mishkan. All of it went? Not all. Some went to the Yidden, some went to the Leviim. Because in the Chumash it says, it's all תרומה לה׳. Not everything was terumah. Some of it. What was Moshe's חשש? ״האחיכם יבואו למלחמה ואתם תשבו פה?״ Your brothers will go to fight, and you'll sit here. היינו, שאינם רוצים להלחם עם כנען. What was he afraid? They don't want to fight with Canaan. מאידך, ברוחניות, what does that mean ברוחניות? שהטעם שבני גד וראובן רצו לישב בעבר הירדן, and the reason they wanted to stay in עבר הירדן, which was ארץ מקנה, a place where you could feed your cattle, מפני שבחרו להיות להיות רעי צאן. They chose to become shepherds. איז דאך באקאנט שטענדיג די מעלה של התבודדות, what's the idea of shepherds, says Chassidus? That you don't get disturbed by the velt. You sit outside in the field and you could be have התבודדות and אלוקות. It's a שדה, הרחק מטרדות ושאון של עיר, far from the טרדות and the tumult of the city, כדי שיוכלו להיות בדביקות תמידית בהקב״ה. They wanted to be there so they should be constantly דבוק. וזהו טענת משה רבינו בתשובתו להם. That's what Moshe made טענה to them when he answered them. ״האחיכם יבאו למלחמה ואתם תשבו פה?״ They're going to go fight, and you're going to sit here. He didn't So בגשמיות he meant פשוט, it's not fair. You're going to get your share, and they're going to fight, and you're not going to fight. וברוחניות it means, זאת אומרת, שעיקר עבודה שאדם יבוא וילחם עם חומריות העולם. The main thing he said, you cannot not fight. The Oibershter wants you to fight the מלחמה, כדי לבער ולזכך, fight with klipah. ולכן התנו עמו, and that's they made a condition, ״אם תעשון את הדבר הזה״, if you'll do it, ״אם תחלצו לפני ה׳ למלחמה״, if you'll go to fight, ״עד שנכבשה הארץ לפני ה׳״, till you'll conquer it, then you're right, then you then you can do it. But you've got to fight and conquer it. So that again fits to what we're saying till now, that the kavanah is to fight with the velt and conquer it and turn it over into kedushah. ובזהו גם סיום הפרשה, that's actually the real end of the פרשה, הסיפור אודות בנין ערי סיחון ועוג על ידי בני גד ובני ראובן. What happened at the end of the parashah? They said yeah, and they takeh build. They built up cities in ארץ סיחון, ובאיפה של מוסבות שם, what did they do? They gave these cities names, they took the names of the avodah zarah, and they turned it around. Did they go on and fight? You know, they they the offer to Say what you want. Sure. שהערים האלו היו שייכים לעבודה זרה, these cities were connected to עבודה זרה, ובני ראובן הסבו שמן, we'll see if it they change their names, which is אתהפכא חשוכא לנהורא ומרירו למיתקא, it's going to change over good, darkness to light and bitterness to sweetness.

ולכן קורין פרשה זו בבין המצרים, that's why we read this פרשת מטות בבין המצרים, להורות, to show, שתכלית ענינם של ימים אלו, the main tachlit of these days, לאהפכם ממרירו למיתקא, is to change from bitterness to sweet, שיהפכו לימים טובים ולששון ולשמחה, בגאולה האמיתית והשלימה על ידי משיח צדקנו במהרה בימינו ממש. Amen. Yeah, very geshmak. Happy to clear it up. Beautiful. Geshmaka shiur, sehr geshmaka shiur. Okay, so picture, now that I see that that it's not straight, I understand. So, it's business, and the peshat is on top, don't you see? What did he What did What did you mean? What are you saying? Not a right angle, it's on a, it's Doesn't mean It means that going this way, al kol panim, on top, it went a little bit further because the mizbeach was like this. Okay. Now, figure out the length of it, on the ramp, that's the that's the trick. No, it's not. No, we're saying it's not, and what's the new peshat? There's got to be No, no. Can that, you had, that's what your kushya, how could the ramp be 32? Yeah, because it is 32, because it's it's Because on top you got a little Because it's This, if it was out here, This was 32? No. You read the Rambam? No, but the לשון הרמב״ם seems to be like that, but the way it seems to, the cheshbon fits, they called it a little a little bit further. Yeah. He says it's 15, but then the peshat is, cuz I asked you, I said, it doesn't fit the lashon. If it's nine high, it's less than 32. So The 32 continues and it's further on, it's more than 32. So it fits with 32. Yeah. Okay. I don't think it does. I don't know, I gotta look at the picture. I don't think that's true. That would be pretty That's a That's a That's a miracle. You'll Google it. We gotta clear up that situation. You're saying the angle the the length of the actual ramp and the fact that it takes up the same 32 on the floor? Just look at this. Look at this. Look at this. I'm not good with visuals. Just give me the numbers. You're going to tell me that the same thing I always use numbers. Happy to clear it up. This here from here to here is 32. From here to this point, No, it's not. straight on the ground. No, on What is it? I can do it like I can do it like this. If you take this line from here to here, If If this would be straight. Right. It would be 32. Yeah. From this point to this point, a straight Why is it Go right up here, a straight line is 32. From here To get free parking. from this end Till here is 32. Which means over here, it's only 30 because of this little had this been straight, it would be 32. So is it possible that when it's 32 this way, it won't be 32. It wouldn't be 32 also. The most it Yes, it would. No, it would be a right Yeah, like this one. No, it's a right You can't have this